Quantcast
Channel: courtney's quest
Viewing all 54 articles
Browse latest View live
↧

kiddo kraft of the month - november

November 20, 2012, 12:44 pm
$
0
0
there is so much going on over here that i cannot keep up! so pick your craft of the month!

1) this is where we're at currently with our bug collection:


2) this is what i did with my MOPS group for our craft on friday:


3) this is what we finished up yesterday in preparation for our family ornament exchange:


4) this is what the girls and i did today while learning about Thanksgiving:


so #1 - our bugs. it's going great. my friends who were once disgusted with me, are now intrigued and either want to make them for their kids or they even talked about buying some! so Ladybug is really excited about her upcoming bug business...and we're on the hunt for more bugs to add to her collection/store. we're using famowood glaze for our resin/hardener from Lowe's since i ran out of my Little Windows resin. and, when a bug is too big for my molds, i've used rubbermaid containers - but they do leave some tell-tale indents on the specimen, but i don't mind. go back to my october kiddo kraft to see how it all started.


#2 - our ornaments. we used a salt dough recipe (which i cannot find for the life of me), rolled them out, the girls picked their favorite cookie cutters, we baked them, painted them, and then made a mixture of glitter and modpodge to coat them. all that's left is ribbon for hanging! these are gonna be a great addition to our trees! (fyi, that cornstarch recipe you may have seen on pinterest doesn't work very well...at least, i didn't like it at all - everything cracked when it dried)


#3 - my hubs spent 2.5 hours cutting long pieces of pine into 2" rectangles for my MOPS group. i bought the nativity stickers at hobby lobby and we used sharpie markers to "paint" the blocks or write "CHRISTMAS" on one side and sticker the other. we put a thin layer of modpodge on to seal the stickers (so little fingers can't peel them off), and now everyone's children have their own nativity blocks to play with in preparation for Christmas!


#4 - I LOVE MOMMY-SCHOOL for days like today where we can play and learn together and we all have a blast doing so! i told the story of the first thanksgiving from the book: "The Story of the Pilgrims" by Katharine Ross. and then we made our own Mayflower to recreate the story. i used the top of a cooked rotisserie chicken container for the bottom of the mayflower. i cut out some cardboard the size of the opening and taped some pipe cleaners onto it for the masts. the sails were made out of paper. not fancy, but pretty cool. the girls counted 100 "people" into the boat.


then they packed "beans, cheese, salted meat, and bread" into the boat and set sail!

then they slowly sailed it from "England" our kitchen to "America" our hallway. they built a house before winter came. when spring came we had a funeral and counted out 50 of our "people" and buried them (hence, the praying). then the Indians came and taught them to plant corn and other useful things. and to celebrate their great harvest, the pilgrims had a feast. yada yada yada...you get the picture. ;)


happy thanksgiving - there is so much to be thankful for! God is so good! may He be celebrated with thanksgiving and rejoicing for always! no rock is gonna cry out in my place!!!!
↧
Search

kiddo kraft of the month - december

December 12, 2012, 12:53 pm
$
0
0
ho ho hoLY cow, december's almost 1/2 way gone and christmas is almost here! i guess that's what happens when you go on vacation in december - oh yay! 

the hubs and i had a MARVELOUS time on our cruise, just the two of us, mono y mono, alone, solo, etc. you get the picture. besides not having to plan for, prepare, or clean-up after food for an entire week (that is heaven to me), our favorite things we did were snorkeling with some mondo-jumbo southern stingrays and spelunking/floating through a secret underground cave filled with drippy-wonderful stalactites and stalagmites. 




but, now we're back and december has taken hold of our booties and is shaking us to get ready for what's to come! before we left, i set up an advent activity calendar like we did last year, but with some different or repeat favorite additions. last year's list can be found HERE. so this year's list is:


(1) Go see Santa
(2) Celebrate Daddy’s birthday
(3) Make cookies
(4) Flashlight tag
(5) Watch a Christmas movie w/popcorn
(6) Make a gingerbread house
(7) MOPS bug sale
(8) Make a birthday card for Jesus. Put it under the tree.
(9) Go pick up Mommy & Daddy from the boat
(10) Make rice crispy treat gifts for ministers at church
(11) Mail Christmas cards
(12) Do a random act of kindness
(13) Handprint nativity animals & Santa
(14) Build a fort from blankets & sheets - Read a Christmas book in the fort!
(15) Go look at Christmas lights
(16) Make popcorn garlands for the birds & wrap presents
(17) Family Christmas
(18) Celebrate Mommy’s birthday
(19) Christmas party with friends
(20) Christmas with nana & pawpaw
(21) Eat dinner by candlelight
(22) Christmas with cousins
(23) Pick someone to call and say, “I Love you.”
(24) Read Christmas story from the Bible
(25) Say thank you & keep “wanter” under control

while we were away on our vacation, my mom continued the activities. she made some scrumptious sugar cookies with the kids, and made me some starwars ones, too. so sweet. ;)

but, we've been doing something else fun since i got back from our trip - going on "Christmas Around The World" trips with the girls. we've been "flying" to different countries every day to learn about the country and how they celebrate christmas.

so, this month's kiddo kraft is: Christmas Around The World

all you need is:
world map
passports (make your own play copies)
resource - a book or website ("Merry Christmas Everywhere!" by Arlene Erlbach is the one we found at our local library - or try this website with a printable passport link at Mrs. Nelson's Class.)

i start each travel adventure by telling the girls what country we'll be visiting and have them line up at the airport (the hallway) while i check their passports before boarding the plane (two plastic chairs). 

then i show them on the map with sticky notes where the USA is and where the country we're going to is. then we hold out our arms and "fly" there. 

then they deboard the plane to the country (our learning table) and i read them information about the country and how they celebrate christmas and how they say "Merry Christmas" in their language. 

then we do a craft associated with that country. after we do the craft, i have them glue a flag of the country into their passports. 

then we go back to the "airport" and i stamp their passports (with my return address ink stamp, lol!). and then they board the plane again, and one of them has to go to the map and show us the country where we visited and where our home, USA, is. 

then we fly back home, and i check their passports and ask them if they have brought any fruits, veggies, or plants back with them ;), and then they go play with (or eat) whatever they've created. this has been SOOOO much fun!

for example. the first country we visited was germany. the craft activity we did there was to make an advent calendar out of construction paper and sticky notes. the girls got to practice writing their numbers, too!

yesterday we visited great britain and made paper crowns (see cute picture below). what was cool about that was that several years ago, my grandmother visited england and brought us back those very crowns to us for christmas - so i had pictures to show the girls of our personal experience.

today we're visiting canada and making jello molds on sticks (i don't remember what that has to do with canada right now, but i'll learn about it today!).

and next week, one of the special countries we're visiting is serbia, where my stepmother is from. she is excited that i'm sharing one of her nation's holiday traditions with my girls.

so, it's not too late to do this - and how fun would this be to do with the family (before OR after christmas lunch/dinner) - the cousins would have so much fun together, no?!

merry CHRISTMAS and feliz navidad!

↧
↧

kiddo kraft of the month - january

January 22, 2013, 6:22 pm
$
0
0
my laptop was broken but is now fixed!!! whew - so thankful for computer-savvy friends!!! what did we do before computers????

so, for january, since i've been without my computer and my pictures, i'm gonna share some fun stuff we've been doing with mommy school this month.

1. playdough letters

2. letter matching with Up Words tiles

3. letter creation/body decorating with stick-shaped foam
4. spoon people with pipecleaner hair & limbs and felt clothes
5. alphabet pancakes

6. bird cakes and orange-rind bird feeders



the recipe for the BIRD CAKES is as follows:
1.5 cups bird seed
2 Tbsp flour
4 Tbsp water
grease cookie cutters. place foil on cookie sheet. place cookie cutter on cookie sheet and fill with bird seed mixture - compact into mold. using a straw, make a hole for a hanger. gently remove the cookie cutter. bake at 170` for 1 hour. at about 45 minutes, flip the bird cakes. remove from oven and let cool before attaching hanger.
(we used yarn for the hanger, and that's a FROG bird cake...in case you were wondering.)
i hope you're enjoying the winter weather and can do some of these fun, winter-appropriate kid crafts/activities, too. we're going to be gifting our bird cakes to our garden-loving and bird-friendly neighbors! how fun would it be to have heart-shaped bird cake gifts to hand out on valentine's day?!

↧

He LOVES Me!

February 13, 2013, 12:01 pm
$
0
0
I am in love, and he's amazing! He's totally into me, and I'm totally into him.

He thinks about me all the time. He knows me, even the dark, gritty places of my character and my past, but they don't matter to him...not one bit. He cherishes me. He's always there for me - in the good times and the bad. He surprises me with thoughtful gifts. He takes care of me when I don't realize I need help. He lets me be in a bad mood and yell and scream at him, and he doesn't think less of me - but forgives me. He thinks I'm beautiful, one-of-a-kind, and I feel that way when we're together. He listens to me even when I go on and on and on and whine about situations that affected me or my selfish opinions. He knows exactly what I need and responds to me lovingly. He's committed, always speaks the truth, is punctual, and keeps his promises - every single one! He's mysterious and has a sense of humor and he's jealous for me! He is everything I ever hoped for and everything I have ever needed.

My life is not always rosy, but I know I'll never be alone through tough times. With him, I feel like I could do anything and come through anything, as long as we're in it together. He gives wings to my dreams and leads me into experiences that grow me into a better person.

I am in love, and he's amazing! The thing is, as amazing as he is, I don't think I often do a great job of telling everyone else about him. And, I don't want to keep him all to myself. That's right - I want to SHARE HIM - because his love is just too magnificent to keep to myself. His love is so wonderful, so pure, that it has changed me. So why don't I show what a loved girl I am and be the woman that he has helped me become because of his love?!

So I want to take the opportunity right now to tell you, I am loved by God, and he LOVES YOU, too! He is the best, beginning-and-end of love and it is focused on you! He even died to prove it to you and me.

--

I wish everyone could have their hearts tingle full of love electricity at His wondrous, undeserved gifting of LOVE and provision and hope and goodness! He LOVES me, and he LOVES you!
↧

kiddo kraft of the month - february

February 25, 2013, 5:25 pm
$
0
0
so i'm feeling VERY uncreative. i've been soaking all my ideas off of pinterest, and it's sapped my creativity.

so here's a no-brainer, low-energy, fun thing to do with all those mardi gras beads that you have all over the place. ashamedly, this isn't my idea, but my mom's, so i'll take her credit. ;)

this month's kiddo kraft - beaded chandelier.

(yes, i know, only 1 light bulb is on...)

we actually did this at new year's eve to decorate the girls' rooms without having to put up streamers (because they LOVE any occasion to put up streamers - but who doesn't?). i thought this would be particularly fun for my mardi gras parading friends or my dress-up box exploding friends to try this with their kiddos.

all you need is a ceiling fan (turned off, preferably...) and your beaded necklaces. start stringing them up and down the fan blades and hang off the lights if you want for a fun, kid-beautiful chandelier effect.

wha-lah. cheesy, but fun!

the girls haven't taken them down because they like them so much. cheers and happy easy decorating. they livened up our new year, our valentine's day, and every other day in between.
↧
↧

Courtney's Quest: Life with Chicks

April 25, 2013, 1:09 pm
$
0
0
Before I begin, I know that I've been absent from my Quest for a couple months. I think I am going to be stopping or changing my kid kraft posts. We've been homeschooling/mommy-schooling all year, and as we've gotten more into the groove, we've been doing more activities that I find on pinterest. I don't want to steal an idea that I find there, so if I feel up to posting something regarding what we're studying, it won't be a kid kraft, but more like a school day post.

Another reason for the absence of posts, is that I've been fasting from different things since January. My book club read "7:An Experiment in Mutiny Against Excess" by Jen Hatmaker, and we've been doing our own fasting like she modeled. Hence, this month means no social media = no blogging. My family has missed the pictures I took at Easter and a couple of my friends said they miss my Facebook posts (exaggerators!). So, my media fast isn't technically finished yet, but I HAVE TO SHARE our new adventure!!!!! (My 7 fasting friends will absolutely shout with joy that I have broken my fast...go ahead, you can call me a cheater. This is worth it!)

--

Life with Chicks, Day 1

April 25, 2013

I was as giddy as…well, as giddy as Ladybug and Sugar Bee my nearly 5- and 3.5-year olds…as we drove to the feed store to pick up our four new baby chicks. I seriously might be or still am more excited than the girls. I walked in all confident and chicken-knowledgeable (from my library chicken reading and from our 16-year-old friend who has chickens in our neighborhood), and said, “We’re here for chicks!” He didn't even notice that I was bluffing the confidence as I acted like I knew what I was doing! Then again, maybe he wasn't fooled, because the sweet young man had already boxed them up for us (haha-almost like a KFC bucket) because I had called that morning making sure they had arrived. 

I peeked in the box and saw our four new “pets.” One black with a speckled yellow chest (Elphaba, an Australorp), one bigger with a little comb already emerging between its yellow fluff with a dark yellow spot on her head (Ursula, a Leghorn), one beautiful reddish-brown chick all curious and calmly keeping her beady eyes on me (Maleficent, a Rhode Island Red), and the last one was all fluffy yellow with feathery feet and was smaller than the rest (Mother Gothel, a Salmon Faverolle), but I could see her feistiness already in how she pecked at the others and shoved her way in.

My chickens.

Deep breathe of content sigh.

I was filled with joy and excitement. My girls quickly handed the man their hard-earned quarters to pay for their 2-month-long-awaited little puff balls, worth $2.75 each. Their greedy little fingers kept reaching for the KFC box holding its fragile cargo and I had to fight them off like piranhas. “NOT YET!!!” I sedated their hunger by promising they could move them personally into their new box at home. “YEAH!!!!”

Whereas I was probably speeding on the way to the feed store, I drove significantly slower on the way home. I would creep to a halt at stoplights and tenderly press the accelerator to speed up again. All the while they pecked around in their KFC box for the feed the man dropped in there before we left, or they slept between my fits of stopping and starting again. It was easy to see who the loudest bird peeping was…the smallest one: Mother Gothel. The girls kept asking, “What are they saying? Who is asleep? Are you holding one? Where are they?” I kept cooing at the chicks with a “chickchickchickchick” while they peeped their fear and distress at the bumpy motion.

When we got home, my girls were jumping at my waist for me to lower the KFC box within their grasp. It’s a miracle they didn’t squeal with delight and scare the chicks to death…oh wait they did, but it didn’t kill the chicks. Without a word from me, their little hands dove into the KFC box for their trophies. I hardly had time to get my camera out! They raised them up triumphantly, and perilously (in my eye, at least). And for their credit, they gently put them in their new Pampers-diaper-box home without dropping them. Their hands weren’t empty but a second before they dove back into the KFC box for their second victim, I mean, prize. This time I managed to snap a couple triumphant-kid smiling pictures.

The girls watched me impatiently, asking over and over again if they could help me. “NOT YET!!!” I was trying to get the chicks to drink water first thing (because that’s what all the good books said to do). Well, you can lead a chick to water and even dip its beak into it, but you can’t make her drink. First Ursula, the biggest and oldest (maybe by a day, I think the others are 2-3 days old), got the hang of it and then she quickly found the warmest corner in the box and went to sleep…for a long time. Then I handled Maleficent, whose beady black eyes were always watching me, but she didn’t flee from me, and I helped her take a drink. She took to it quickly, too. My chick, Elphaba, didn’t want anything to do with it, but just wanted to sleep in peace for a while. And the loudest, jitteriest, peckingest little fluff didn’t want anything to do with it either. Both of them finally got the hang of it. Well, Elphaba did….Mother Gothel would quickly dump her face in the water and get some in her beak, but mostly she just kept getting herself wet by jabbing nearly her whole face into the water and then she would shake head like crazy to get dry. She didn’t seem to get the hang of going in SLOWLY. She’s a feisty, ADHD little thing...I hope that isn't her demise!

After water, most of them slept, except Mother Gothel, who wanted to pick on the others’ toes and specks and feathers and in the pine shavings. I finally figured out that she hadn’t figured out where the food was, so I sprinkled some on the floor of her box. Bingo! She went to hog heaven pecking it all up. She even ate some from my fingers. This one is going to be fun to watch or a pain to keep fenced in!

All the while, Ursula slept with her cute little comb gently bobbing up and down with her body’s breath. (I kept checking to see if she was alive.) Elphaba liked watching what Maleficent was doing and then tried to get in on her space and eat or drink where she was. I think she might be a cuddler. She’s cautious, and cute, but I may be biased since she’s my special chick. That Maleficent is a beauty and a thinker, I think, and I can’t wait to see what she looks like grown up. They’re all so tiny and beautiful – I can still see their little egg tooth bump on their beaks!

I like my flock. I am going to enjoy watching them grow! Thank you God for baby chicks, especially for the Four witches of Hillary Circle. Please keep me from accidentally killing them!

Did I mention, it’s only been 3 hours???!!!

---

SugarBee is supposed to be napping right now so she can pet the chicks when she wakes up. Guess who I hear running through the house trying not to get caught peaking in on the chicks? ;)

Top to bottom (above): Maleficent, Ursula, Elphaba, Mother Gothel - all sleeping, for the moment.
↧

Courtney's Quest: Are They Alive?

May 2, 2013, 12:50 pm
$
0
0
"are they alive?"

those are the first thoughts i've had every morning for the past week. and with relief, my husband's answer has been "yes" every time. WHEW! our chicks have been with us (and have survived!) for a week, and what a fun, surprisingly quiet, and exciting week it has been!

i should have said this in my last post, but i forgot...with all the new chick excitement. bluntly, i'm not "an animal person." i like other people's animals and playing with puppies, like most people, but, i like them at other people's houses. sorry! then of all things, why did i pick chickens - you may be asking. well, my family is flabbergasted, as is my vet friend who forbids me from having animals (i say forbid loosely, since she did give me the okay, reluctantly, for chickens).

funny story...it started with us trying to figure out how to use a 30x8' patch of land behind our garage. i had resolved myself to use it for something...so why not a garden? nevermind that i have a brown thumb, but i was inspired by Jen Hatmaker's garden from her book "7," and i wanted to give it another try. however, our property is surrounded by very large trees, so this winter we staked out the sun's movement with popsicle sticks and even cut down some large limbs from our gumball tree that we believed were blocking the sun's light into our back 30'. but i was discouraged, because there wasn't more than 3-4 hours of sunlight shining there. so, we scrapped that idea and saved some seedlings from their impending doom.

then, it just came to me - this would be a perfect area for chickens! one of our church friends who lives in our neighborhood has about 7 chickens in their big backyard. the girls and i have visited them a couple times and the idea of keeping chickens for ourselves sounded like a fun adventure...without the drool and shedding hair of an indoor animal. ;) so i did what any curious person does who loves books - i checked out all the books available from the library about raising chickens in the city, chicken coops, chicken breeds, and raising chickens week by week. the more i read, the more i felt a part of my soul say, "yes! this sounds great!" the authors all spoke to my spirit when they said things like, "a life like simpler times" and "fresh eggs daily."

i personally was excited about this animal adventure for me, because, in my childhood, i had kept hamsters (my mom killed my favorite with a bug bombing and the others had babies and ate them), gerbils (whatever happened to him?), mice (again, don't remember his quick end but i did like holding them gently by their tails), a snake (it died and mom was happy), cats (several more bad deaths), dogs (my sister's), turtles (rescued for the bathtub until mom made us let them go), rabbits (scored from an Easter party, mom was not thrilled but loved the fertilizer), parakeets (sister killed mine trying to get it to sit on her finger), and a hedgehog (totally my fault...but mom wouldn't let me take it to the vet). but i've never had a CHICKEN! a chicken seems different, somehow. i mean - you can eat them, of course, but you can also eat something that comes from their body...cool!! (our intention is to raise them for their eggs, in case you were curious.)

also, the idea of my children raising chickens and having (i mean, enjoying the privilege of getting) to go out to the coop every day to gather eggs and scoop poop - it sounds so Laura Ingalls Wilder cool! it reminds me of a simpler time when people were more self-reliant and lived lives of honor and contentment. i want a piece of that for my kids!

so, after researching and researching and asking my darling husband many times before he realized i was really serious, he said yes. ('cause he's pretty amazingly awesome!) i picked my breeds and went to the feed store with the girls and asked them to order our chicks! and that is how we came about getting chickens for our back 30'.

and, they are still alive and are enjoying their new BIG space today! i moved them out of their standard box into their new indoor temporary 3x3' space that my super awesome husband made for them. they like the space a lot...but still panic and run/fly back to each other when they realize they've ventured out alone!

i love my chicks, as do the girls. they are getting better about holding them, and they are good about not panicking when they get pooped on. the chicks have wing feathers that stretch to their hind ends and have little bitty tail feathers starting to sprout. they are pretty...beautiful, even. i can see God in his design of chickens and their unique wing patters and colors. it's amazing!!!! there is nothing like new life to make you want to worship the Creator!





↧

Courtney's Quest: A Coop for Poop

May 15, 2013, 9:24 pm
$
0
0
the chicks are 3 weeks old and look like....well, they look like chickens instead of fluff balls! they're almost all the way covered in feathers, except their fuzzy little baby heads and bellies. and they're all still alive!

they've been living in our house for 3 weeks and haven't made too much noise at all, but, they have been making poop (not too smelly, but chocolate-chippy according to Ladybug). and now that they like to perch on the walls of their inside home, there is POOP on my floor (see bird at left demonstrating pooping-on-the-floor perching).

that poop needs a coop!

not to worry, the hubs and I have been working on it every weekend for a month! the chickees will have a new home by the time the temperature is just right for them to be outside.

our design was inspired by a fancy coop from a home & garden magazine a friend gave me and several build-a-backyard coop books we checked out from the library. my FIL is a designer...(of pipes, and now coops), so he helped us figure out the structure of my mind's masterpiece.

here's our progress so far (i'm just a little proud...cause I've put in some woman-power hours):


the frame
the back side screened 
 

 the side screened & the chicken run door attached

the nesting boxes added above storage area
 
the nesting (EGG) door attached


the roof on 
 
shingles attached (yes, that was all me, thank you thank you very much)


this weekend we're tackling the door for the coop and the chicken run escape door below. I have been loving this construction stuff and am excited to have a new place for chicken poop!
↧
Search

Courtney's Quest: The Trouble with Roosters

June 4, 2013, 12:24 pm
$
0
0
so, a couple weeks ago the inevitable came true. the poultry farm said our chickens' sex is 90% accurate. so, out of the 100 females the feed store ordered, and the four that were specifically for me, it was possible that a chicken other than a female could be in my flock. and - there is! :(

mother gothel (james' chicken, ironically) is really a cockrel. we found out because of the breed (salmon faverolle) - females always have light feathers and males always have dark feathers. guess what color Mordu's feathers were?

1 week old:
 3 weeks old:
 4 weeks old:
 6 weeks old (today):
 
 
first of all, isn't it AMAZING how much they change in so quick a time? when i found out at 4 weeks old, I couldn't sleep - i was devastated. I LOVE Mordu's colors and how he looks after all the chickens and calls for them when they're separated. he is by far the prettiest chicken in my flock (I mean, most handsome). but, we cannot have a rooster. our city allows chickens but definitely not roosters. and, my neighbors are already annoyed that their dogs are barking more and trying to dig under my fence. I called the feedstore to see if they'd take him - no, I e-mailed the poultry farm to see if they could breed him - no, I researched craig's list poutry for sale - no luck.
 
thankfully - a friend of mine mentioned that he would be driving up to his father's farm (in Iowa) and would be happy to bring mordu up there since his father collects chickens. SERIOUSLY?! an answer to prayer. Mordu is moving to Iowa!
 
he'll be leaving this weekend for his new home, and i am sad to see him go. it'll be interesting to see how the girls (chickens and humans) will take it. we will miss him, but we're happy to know that he will be LIVING somewhere.
 
----
 
ODE to MORDU
 
We thought you were a she,
but you really were a he.
I didn't want it to be true,
because we really wanted to keep you.
But now it's time to leave our flock,
[and we won't miss your cantankerous squawk].
We'll take good care of your misses,
and we know you'll deeply miss us.
So hang on tight and don't take flight,
and be careful not to fight.
We'll miss you "Father" Gothel,
and we hope you live to be an old fossil.
 
 
----

i'm praying for no more chicken drama!
↧
↧

Courtney's Quest: The Trouble with Chickens & Me

June 29, 2013, 11:06 am
$
0
0
9 weeks ago, we brought home fluffy little balls of sweet peeps. today we drove them to their new home an hour away - where there are no HOAs or neighbors who report your chickens.

right after we found a new home for our rooster in Iowa, we received a notice from our HOA telling us to get rid of our chickens. one of our neighbors lied to us about their acceptance of our little flock and reported us.

I tried to fight it, but in vain. if you haven't had the pleasure of being around chicks, you don't know that they are super quiet, their poop is easy to remove and great fertilizer, and they can be quiet tame and fun to play with.




my first reaction was anger and hurt. I adore our chickens and look forward to letting them out in the backyard to hunt for bugs every morning; feeding them our breakfast, lunch, and dinner scraps; watching them jump up to the window to watch the girls and I have lessons or do crafts in our glass school room; and having them run up to me the second they hear the back door slam to see us.


I went and confronted each of our neighbors, asking if they had turned us in, but all denied it. the HOA confirmed to me that it was one of them, so we have a good guess who it might be. visions of calls to the HOA and/or City noting their violations swam in my head. hot tears burned my face every time I called to fight the violation.

it's not fair. why do people have to go out of their way to be mean?
it's just a chicken, some might say. what if it was your cat or your dog, I might respond.

those were my questions, and my children's.

and, i'll admit, it took several weeks for me to remember that especially through times such as these is when I am called to rise above and Love.

I was ready to put signs up that said, "mind your own business before you put your nose in mine," or "please talk to your neighbors instead of tattling," or "talk to us next time before you break my kids' hearts." my mind couldn't turn off.

then I began to check myself - because my kids were watching me. they were watching to see how I would react to being hurt and what I would do.

I love it when God uses my children to remind me of Himself. (it's painful, though.)

so, I decided to acquiesce to the demands, and am instead going to write a letter to each of my neighbors - opening a line of communication and asking if we can help rebuild any brokenness that has caused the rift and dishonesty, and perhaps find out if there is another previous reason they felt angered enough to turn us in.

it is not going to be an easy letter to write, because I feel betrayed and violated and brokenhearted. but, I want them to think of our family as Loving and forgiving, and recognize the Father because of it. my heart has already changed and is ready to forgive.

---

goodbye, Elphaba. you are beautiful! thank you for being so easy to handle and gentle. (you were my favorite.)

 
 
goodbye, Maleficent. you are mild and sweet. thank you for always letting my girls squeeze you daily.
 


 goodbye, Ursula. you are so fast and a good jumper. thanks for the laughs and chases.



 goodbye, Bellatrix. you were wicked fast. thanks for falling in line with the other witches and eating up june-bugs. 




 
↧

Courtney's Quest: teaching kindergarten!

August 22, 2013, 4:14 pm
$
0
0
i need some pump-up music! or a big microphone: let's get ready to rumble!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wait, that's not right either...oh well, here we go!

last year i homeschooled the girls (ladybug was 4, and sugarbee was 3). for 26 weeks, we focused on letter of the week activities and reading lessons for ladybug. we used Confessions of a Homeschooler's preschool letter of the week curriculum and supplemented with various things from pinterest. we had a magnificent time and finished the year doing unit studies based on our upcoming (now previous) trip to Arizona and the Grand Canyon (e.g., erosion, Hopi Indians, petrification, deserts, etc.). it makes me happy to walk into our "reading room" and see all the alphabet magnets the girls made last school year that are hanging on the back of our front door.


but - that was preschool. we're up with the big dogs in Kindergarten now! this year we're following more of a schedule and we're not jumping around to JUST whatever meets our fancy. we've joined a local Classical Conversations group that were're uber excited about. the girls each have a mom tutor (not me) introducing new science, history, timeline, geography, english, latin, and math memory work each week. most of it is set to music - so fun! we met yesterday for the first time, and already the girls know 7 major history timeline events, the history sentence describing Charlemagne's coronation, and the 7 major biomes - all by memory! which means - i know it all, too. i'm getting my second education.

the rest of our curriculum is as follows:

Math - Singapore Essentials K, math workbooks - dot-to-dot, shapes, etc.
Reading - How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, Explode the Code, Beyond the Code, All About Spelling, and other phonics readers, etc.
Handwriting - Zaner-Bloser Printing Power and other handwriting workbooks
Bible - Devotions for Little Girls, Preschool Exploring God's Love activity book, The Storybook Bible (the girls are drawing a picture of each Biblical account and will have their own illustrated Bible when we finish!), and We Choose Virtues

so that's that. we're ready for the 2013-2014 school year! of course that list doesn't include the hundreds of books we're checking out from the library. have i mentioned how much i am in love with the library?

now, to address some of the serious stuff about homeschooling...

the question that many people want to ask, but don't is: why homeschool?

i haven't figured out a super intellectually fabulous response yet. every time i think about it, it boils down to this: because i love spending time with my children. their childhood is precious to me, and i want to enjoy it with them more than traditional schooling would allow. also, the spiritual and character development of our daughters is the most important education we want to share with them. the more i've read about it, the more conferences i have attended, the more homeschool families i connected with, the more i realized that this was a path that i wanted to pursue with our family.

it doesn't require more patience than the average parent. we all have a few ounces of it, and we're all tested many times daily (homeschooling or not). i still raise my voice every single day and i loose my cool and have to check myself before i respond to the girls. everybody's a work in progress! 

and "socialization" isn't the issue everyone thinks it is. the crazy weird homeschooler kid idea is outdated, y'all. i know several "normal," precious, generous, intelligent, socially not awkward adults that were homeschooled. i know many more weird, unintelligent, socially awkward traditionally-schooled adults. 

also, we're not trying to isolate ourselves from others, nor do i dislike private Christian schools or public schools. i graduated from public school and i've worked at a private Christian school; they were great. They had their "issues," of course, but so will our homeschool! and nothing's written in stone. we're doing Kinder and will continue to evaluate our family and our girls throughout the process...every school year. 

i'm ready for this family adventure and the new things we get to enjoy together because of it. finished with school by noon? sounds good to me. lunch with dad at his office? cool deal. random weekly vacations during the school year? bring it, baby! not getting that subject? let's spend more time on it until we get 'er done! so many exciting possibilities!

toodles and God's blessing on your school year - wherever it may be!

↧

homeschool room(s)

August 25, 2013, 7:15 pm
$
0
0
we have moved our schooling areas around in the house a couple of times, but i think we're finally all settled (until i get the urge to redo something...which i don't foresee happening anytime soon). our extra glass-walled room now has a working a/c and heater (hallelujah!), so it is so much more inviting and not sweat-provoking or jacket-requiring! and, i've gussied up our front room into an inviting reading place.

here's our school room:
on the shelves are school-related games and necessities, my books, idea magazines, their work boxes, crates holding supplies they cannot use without me and a folding file with items we'll be using for various weeks this school year, and (on the bottom right shelf) are plastic containers containing each of our subject work that we do every day. the world map hanging on the wall is dry-erasable, and on the back side is the united states map, also dry-erasable. 

here are their work tables and dry-erase board (with our timeline event cards already up there for the week's study). i also have a little book shelf back there with just Bible books and phonics readers. that tv is there just because we don't know what to do with it (i have trouble parting with things that work just fine)...maybe i'll show some magic school bus episodes on it. and our CD player is below that, already loaded with our Classical Conversations CDs for review time.

and this is our school tools caddy.
i picked up a lazy-susan from ikea and cleaned out some empty cans.
every tool is in its place! 
the girls just grab the can they need and put it back when they're finished.


and this is OUR reading room:
(i say OUR because i read in here too - my novels, my Bible study time, etc. it's so cozy.)
i've put a brown wicker basket filled with free-time library books next to the book shelf. the girls choose from it for bedtime reading. and when i do read-alouds related to school studies, i've placed some colored pencils and lap desks with paper in them on the floor so they can draw if they can't just sit still and listen 
(ahem, SugarBee).

next to the couch is my blue library book cart. when we finish reading a library book, it goes in the cart. i LOVE that thing. i check out sometimes 25-75 books at a time, so this thing is awesome sauce. 
also, i've been putting up some of the girls' artwork in a hodge-podge way on the wall above the couch. and someday i hope to cover the whole wall above the couch. it makes me happy to look at it. ah, happy place.
that's SugarBee reading her self-made books.

so those are our designated education spaces. of course, we flutter all over the house and outside, too. but, i'm trying to get organized as much as possible, and that means getting these two areas in order. i liked how they've turned out and look forward to all the fun we'll be having in them this year.
↧

Starting on the CC path

September 3, 2013, 3:17 pm
$
0
0
as i mentioned in recent posts, we've joined a Classical Conversations (CC) homeschool group. and the girls (and I) are LOVING it. i love learning things to music. if i had been more self-aware, i would have realized that learning to music would have helped me in my school days. i remember lyrics to songs from when i was a child at day camp when i was a wee-lass, so why didn't i realize that i could remember educational things that way too? doh!

well, hopefully my kids like it as much as i do because now we're learning some really cool stuff and it's set to music. one of our very favorite part of CC is the timeline. it is a giant list of important historical events, starting from creation all the way up to the present, and it is set to music! and we learn hand motions that make it even more solid in our brains. we're only 2 weeks in, but they always ask for me to play the timeline. it's catchy!

we're on cycle 2 and have started this cycle (there are 3 total that rotate each school year) in the medieval period. i haven't taken pictures of everything we've done (we've added pages to our notebook for math, science, handwriting, geography, history, and art, too), but here are a couple of pictures to show what we've been up to.

we made medieval bread - they didn't have forks, and sometimes used these big, hard pieces of bread as plates.

we also made a marshmallow catapult since we were studying knights and castles. when the marshmallows were all expelled (eaten), we used different sized pom-poms to see which we could launch further!


we also made castles with different rooms. i used cereal boxes and spray painted the Cheerios side so the girls could draw different scenes in each room of the castle. they especially enjoyed the dungeon room and drew their own rats.

and of course, we had to make our own knights. flexibility was a plus.

some of the other things we did are totally on the fly. like making a "map" during math time and the girls had to be aware of the instructions i gave them in regards to which colors and which direction to draw paths to.

and of course, Ladybug wanted me to make a Bible-only timeline for her to draw. so i did my best in picking out some key events in our history. she loved it when i explained to her that the story of God's love doesn't stop at the end of the Bible, but it continues on to include Him using my life and her life just like he used Moses, David, Nehemiah, and Mary! She loved that...and started to draw the parts of her life that needed to be included in God's big story.

again, i need to drop kudos to our library. they have so many wonderful books that have made teaching about the medieval times so much fun! pinterest helps too, but the girls love all the books and stories.

↧
↧

CC makes me like history - GASP!

September 13, 2013, 1:03 pm
$
0
0
whoa, that is something! my entire life, history has been my least favorite subject to study. and with my major, i had to take a lot of upper level history courses...which were painful and dull.

but...i have found myself ENJOYING learning history these past 4 weeks with Classical Conversations (CC)! between the songs (that i cannot get out of my head, but aren't annoying...yet) and "The Story of the World" books, i am digging into this history stuff! and i am loving it when the books we check out from the library correlate so well with what we've memorized and expounds on it in a way that the girls and i perk up at. (e.g., King John dying by over-eating at a celebratory feast. [sorry if that's morbid, but it's so ironically painful.])

the pieces are falling into place...at least for medieval history, so far. and we're having fun making stuff that fits along with the time period. Ladybug asked me if we had any chain mail we could dress her Barbies in. :) sounds like a Honey project to me!

so, here are some fun things we've been up to recently:

our FOOD CHAIN study was uber interesting to the girls,
as is anything involving animals, right?!
yesterday we performed a WATER CYCLE experiment.
the girls loved seeing the "cloud" condense inside the jar.
after our experiment, we made our own WATER CYCLE
in our science folder.
each week we've been learning how to skip count.
the girls visualize this on the board by circling the correct #s.
another math lesson: learning to write & create numbers correctly
love these geoboards - although, the curvy numbers are tricky!

we learned about abstract art at CC this week, so we've had
tons of fun making our own. i've even had some fun!
they say my abstract art looks like pigs... 
almost finished product. i had the girls fill in the lines where the
tape was with their names - over and over and over again.
this week we worked on writing Ls. the girls love my sentences
and the subsequent drawings. art and handwriting together is more fun!
ladybug's lion(s)
sugarbee's lion and lollipop
AND - last but not least, the most fun we had this week was learning about Richard the Lion-hearted and the crusades. we've been studying knights and armor, so we had to make our very own shields and the girls designed their own coats-of-arms. they picked their symbols (lion & dragon) and their colors according to the meanings behind them that i researched. it's been WAR at our house, but no casualties (yet).

ladybug the brave!
sugarbee the fierce!
battle! we even acted out the 3rd crusade when
King Richard and Saladin fought.
the outcome may not have been historically accurate...

on to more history (did i say that?!) and homeschool fun!

OH - and a big achievement this week: ladybug finished her 100 lessons of reading book! she was so excited (as am i). now, we're going to be reading more books together and begin All About Spelling.
↧

Courtney's Quest: To the other side of the World

October 11, 2013, 2:39 pm
$
0
0

i'm at it again. my suitcase is packed with a week's worth of clothes and toilet paper, gifts for the new friends i am going to make, and velveeta & rotel for our missionary family (it's the small things, y'all, that make a missionary feel at home again!). i'm getting ready to go to the other side of the world where we will be hugging, hand-stamping, finger-nail painting, preaching the Gospel, feeding, encouraging new mothers, and celebrating birthdays with kids who have never ever had a birthday celebration/gift before! i'm on my way to the Philippines to work with my friends at Lilia's Place, and i couldn't be more excited, and also nervous, at what is to come.

why nervous? because i know that i'm about to be broken. it's a good thing and a hard thing and a necessary thing. it looks different each time it happens, but i know it's gonna rip my heart out while i'm there, and it's gonna be a lasting sting when i get back (after the jet lag has worn off). i couldn't be more honored to go and serve beside such genuine and dedicated people, and i am so grateful for this opportunity and those who have supported me and encouraged me to go. please pray for my team's effectiveness in our time there, that we will be more than our American culture has influenced us to be and that we can circumnavigate the barriers that stand between Christ and these people. let us not be one of those barriers! may we be helpful to the mission efforts that are ongoing there through Lilia's Place.

less of me, more of He!





while i'm away, i've got a fabulous support team who will be taking care of the kiddos and i've got a plan in place for them. they don't get 2 weeks off just because mommy's 1/2 way around the world! seriously, though, they want to come with me, but i told them they need to be a little older (and less picky with their food preferences! lol).

we've been having a great time with our CC homeschool work and have been doing some really fun studies including:










Pollution Experiment - It's hard to clean water after it's been polluted!
Another Pollution Experiment - How the Earth cleans water naturally.

The Renaissance Period & Shakespeare.
The girls read "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and made puppets.
AND the girls wrote their own PLAY - "The Super Ninja" - and performed it for our church small group.


More Renaissance Period & da Vinci.
We read about da Vinci's inventions and tried out his parachute design. 
Astronomy!
We made "telescopes" to view the various constellations.
The girls made their own constellations in their rooms.
AND this is how far we've come in memorizing our CC history timeline (6 weeks worth):

↧
Search

To the Space Station, and Beyond!

November 27, 2013, 12:42 pm
$
0
0
I AM THANKFUL! so blessed!

we are now halfway finished with our very first Classical Conversations cycle. if i were giving a review, it would be two thumbs up and a very big smile. the girls (ages 4 and 5) have LOVED it - and me too! i don't think i'm allowed to post the information that CC gives us to show you what the kids have learned, but it is substantial - and i couldn't be prouder of my girls working hard to learn it all.


we just finished week 12 and the conclusion of our space studies. so, after learning about the US Space Missions (mercury, gemini, apollo, shuttle), we decided to make our own spacecraft and fly it to the international space station (a.k.a. one of the girls) and out to a planet of our choice (a.k.a. me or one of the kids, and the planet was determined by what color shirt we had on (their doing, not mine! smarty-pants)). It was a blasting success. My little engineers and astronauts! (see...it's a good thing i keep trash around for projects like this when one needs an empty 2-liter bottle, toilet rolls, a take-out container, and recycled paper!)


The added touch was making little astronauts to ride in the spacecraft and then come out to explore (while still being safely tethered to the spacecraft). Too cute. My mistake was having them only make one spacecraft. oops! they have to share and go explore together!
 we also had some "low-gravity" training at the local sky zone: 

and we studied the moon phases with oreos...mmmm:

we also measured the solar system in toilet paper distances and used tons of books from the library and incorporated other pinterest CC ideas into our homeschool lessons. our history lessons of late have been a little war-intensive and bloody, so i opted for coloring sheets of napoleon, louis XVI, and marie antoinette instead of constructing our own guillotine and battlefield. but, they enjoyed singing about them! ha! i'm so thankful for my kids who make learning fun for us all!
↧

sci-fun & tape-tivities

January 23, 2014, 6:11 pm
$
0
0
school is back in session at our house and we've been delving into the girls' My First Mind Blowing Science kit that they got for christmas. it has fit in perfectly with weeks 13 and 14 of our cc (classical conversations) homeschool work! yay! i had rushed around looking for pH test strips and had no luck...and with this kit, i didn't need them!




so, last week (cycle 2 week 13) we focused on the states of matter and had fun making magic ooze. when we compressed it into our hands it was solid, but when we stopped compressing it, it turned liquidy! (all you need is 1/8 cup of water and 5 Tbsp of cornstarch, mix it together and you've got magic ooze.) the girls liked it...okay...until it turned liquidy and they got a little grossed out. it was pretty cool, though! we also made jello to demonstrate solid (J-E-L-L-O), liquid (watch out, girls, this liquid is HOT), and gas (water vapor above the boiling pan) states. they liked eating that experiment.




this week (cycle 2 week 14) we're learning about acids and bases. citric acid crystals + baking soda + red cabbage powder = fun fizzing and color-changing observations. i had warned the girls that acids and bases could hurt their skin, but i failed to mention that the ones we were dealing with wouldn't...they were a little scared to pick up the cups and experiment. oops! i finally convinced Sugar Bee that it was safe...and she kept wanting to see what would happen if we mixed the red acid with the blue base, etc.


and, artistically speaking, we have been enjoying our fine arts studies. we started learning about some famous artists, and the girls tried their hands at painting Rembrandt-style. then the hubs (picture) and i modeled for them so they could paint our portraits. i'm not gonna lie, the hubs' looks like the abominable snow monster from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (in a cute, a-four-year-old-painted-it way, of course). we all got a good laugh (in a good way, of course) out of it. my precious budding artists. and next week Sugar Bee's class presentation topic is on a great artist - so she chose HER NANA! isn't that sweet?! hopefully the girls will absorb their talent from all of their grandmothers' genes.

cause all i've got is duck tape skillz, apparently! it was DUCK-TAPE DAY at our cc group, so i came up with a duck-tape apron. i taped 2 pieces of wax paper together in the shape of an apron and covered them with duck tape. i made Ladybug's a little too big, but figured it out for the 2nd one. i think it was supposed to be a child project...maybe?...but the girls did help put the little "triangles" on. they were the duck-tape belles of cc this week. (i forgot to snag a picture, so i had to have them modeling in their jammies tonight.) this could totally be a kid craft...if your adult fingers can stay out of it (unlike me). sticking the tape onto a self-healing mat to cut out the squares (with an exacto knife) to make the "triangles" was quite easy. i googled that part, but came up with the apron myself.




↧
↧

courtney's quest: know thyself

April 16, 2014, 7:13 pm
$
0
0
i've had a personal revelation today that shocked me.

while sitting at the playground with some other homeschool moms, one of them asked me what I like to do when i had free time.

and i couldn't answer her straightaway. i didn't know the answer...
it distressed me as i sat there trying to pull things from my mind...but i couldn't think of anything but vacations and reading. i couldn't think of anything i wanted to do in my little free time other than take a quick break and recuperate.

now, i know that it's not because i'm homeschooling that i've lost touch with myself. my kids are under 6 years old, and this is has been very physically intensive season for raising children, and i do not regret my choice to be with them full-time. i am honored and pleased to have had the opportunity to do so.

the mom who asked me this great question has children over 10 years old. she's beyond my parenting stage and into others that i am totally not ready for. but, she's also in a stage where she is free to enjoy more things for herself, and maybe, i too, am entering a place where i can continue to devote myself to my family, but also invest time towards nurturing my interests and passions?

so then that leads me to this - if i could, what would i want to do?! just as my children are entering a new stage (more independence and growth), so am I!!! some day i'll get to have another chance at myself and see what is inside yet to be discovered.

so, i'm going to start a list of things i think i might enjoy doing (even if just once):

-backpacking (this was her idea, and i think i might have agreed to it [no laughing at me, mother])
-annual mission trips (i enjoy these trips so much and hope for more of them)
-pottery
-karate?
-card games
-write book(s)
-scuba dive
-shark cage diving in the ocean
-punch needle
-crafting - what?

whew! there's a list to begin with. hopefully i'll have more time to pursue some/any of these things in the future. but until then, i'm okay with reading books and planning vacations to aquariums in the meantime.

i'm blessed where i'm at, and blessed to have opportunities to grow in the future!
↧

Courtney's Quest: me?

August 18, 2014, 2:06 pm
$
0
0
I've taken a big step out of writing this year. I have been having negative thoughts about the point of me writing or keeping my Quest. There are so many authors and bloggers and free amazon ebooks flooding the world that I have lacked the inner drive to write for myself. Why write thoughts/ideas/stories? Someone else has probably already done it or dreamed it up and posted it on Pinterest, YouTube, Amazon, or it went viral 6 months ago. What could I possibly contribute? What is the point?

I almost deleted this whole Courtney's Quest site (granted, most of it is filled with family-focused posts).
But, for some reason...I didn't. I closed the website and turned my attention elsewhere delaying the "end" of my shared words.
For some reason...

-

I went to a homeschooling convention earlier this month which hosted some amazing and encouraging speakers. At the conclusion, I drove home wondering if they had ever felt like I do: What do I have to offer?

Their eloquence and wisdom and execution and experience was not quickly attained, I know, but it seemed extraordinary, almost like a *fairy-talent level of ability (*something they naturally do best and enjoy with all their hearts [I've been reading too many Tinkerbell tales with my kids!]). Ordinary people with extraordinary experiences and abilities to share.

Ordinary people, like me?

-

Is this what Moses felt like?

"Me? Wait a second, God, you want me....to do what? I am a shepard. Sheep. I lead sheep. I don't have the words, and I wouldn't know what to say. This is CRAZYYYYY! Me?"

Is this what Jonah felt like?

"You want me to do what? Those people? You do know who they are, right? And why me? Nothing I could ever say or do would ever make a difference to them!"

Is this what Mary felt like?

"Me? I'm nobody special, Lord."


Three ordinary people, three people like me. Each responded and moved forward differently, but still the question below the surface of their response was - ME?

-

I know God used/uses ordinary people, but for some reason, I didn't feel like that applied to me.

I don't want greatness or wealth or Rowling's success, but I do want to know that what I contribute will make a difference and matter. And I haven't felt as though what I could produce would matter.

Nothing kills creative juices like not having confidence in the fulfillment of your purpose.

-
-

One of the fabulous speakers at the convention gave a workshop on not being a dream-killer. He focused on not killing your husband's or your kids' dreams, but I had a slap-my-face revelation while sitting there laughing with the audience that I've been killing my own dreams. The speaker went on to say that if a dream is dumb enough, God can kill it (citing the fact that, yes, we can even encourage our husband's let's-build-a-roller-coaster-in-our-backyard dream because, yes, it will more than likely not come to fruition), but I couldn't help but thinking that I'm killing my own dreams without anyone's dream-killing help.

-

I made a new friend this summer who was excited to hear that I enjoy[ed] writing. But then she went on a rampage to encourage me after I told her that I had lost my desire. She told me that she writes a lot, sends her work to publishers frequently, and has gotten many many rejection letters - but, she hasn't stopped.

I felt like a poor, wet masquerader. She's living her dream and not discouraged when her work is not accepted. And there she was encouraging me when I had wingless dreams and excuses to pardon my lack of pursuit.

Me, Lord? Me?

-

I don't want to have "what ifs" and "you should haves" buzzing me reproachfully at my "it's-too-late" date. I don't want to be my own dream killer. I don't want to ignore the opportunities and ideas that God has entrusted to me.

I need courage. I need to destroy this false notion that I have nothing to offer and that I'm not worthy/capable of doing something meaningful. I need practice. I need to be comfortable in knowing that, yes, even me, I can do something!

Me, Lord.

↧

2014-15 Homeschool Curriculum: BIBLE

August 21, 2014, 12:36 pm
$
0
0
I've been asked a handful of times about what curriculum I've been using, so I remembered that I needed to write it down so I can share that information better.

Ladybug (age 6) is studying 1st grade (and some above) this year, and SugarBee's (almost 5) is studying along with her, except for reading, language, and spelling lists.

I have more resources for Bible than anything else, so I'll post about it today and the rest another time.

We start every day with prayer and then do Bible study. We have a four-day school week (not including the fifth day we spend with our homeschool group learning), so we do a different Bible-directed study a day.

For prayer, I have them sometimes write in Gratitude Journals so they'll have something special to pray about. Also, we prayed for a different country every day last school year, but this year, I am going to do more than just help them find the country on the globe. I ordered "Operation World: The Definitive Prayer Guide to Every Nation" by Jason Mandryk, and we'll use it to read up on what each country's specific needs are - so we can be more effective in our prayer time.

Then we jump into our studies, beginning with the Bible.

BIBLE

1. Pearl S. Buck's "The Story of the Bible"
2."God and Me! - Devotions for Girls (Ages 6-9)"
3. We Choose Virtues& a) Child Training Bible & Virtue Training Bible & b) "Kids of Character Bible Study" by Marilyn Boyer
4.  Positive Action Bible Curriculum's "Exploring God's Love"& "Then Sings My Soul: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories" by Robert J. Morgan



1. We're continuing to read Pearl S. Buck's "The Story of the Bible." We finished 225 pages, almost half, of the book last school year by reading one story a week. After I read a story, the girls draw the story and then narrate the story to me. I write their words on their picture and file it away in their "Bible" story book. I plan to have a finished Bible that each of them has helped to illustrate and write. How fun! They are so stinking adorable already! And I plan to do this activity on a day that we have more time...because it usually takes 30-45 minutes.

2. We graduated from "God and Me!" for ages 2-5, and we will begin the ages 6-9 version this year. I love doing a devotion with the girls. There is a different topic every week with a corresponding story that illustrates the topic. After I read the story, I read the questions related to the story for the girls to answer. Then there is a prayer that we repeat together. There is also a mini-activity that follows (sometimes I do it, sometimes I don't). Getting the kids to think and apply the principle to themselves is my goal. And they love hearing stories about other kids (made-up or not).

3. We loved using the We Choose Virtues curriculum last year. They memorized the 12 character virtues, their fun character, and what that virtue means. NOW, I'm going to take it a step further. I'm going to spend 2 weeks on each virtue.

The first week we're going to review the virtue to make sure they have it memorized, and then we're going to look up the verses about or relating to that virtue in our Child Training/Virtue Training Bible. All the verses are already marked for me and color-coded, so I'm gonna use this resource since I spent the time and effort to make it! And the girls will help me read the verses that go along with the virtue.

The second week we'll review the virtue again, and then I'm going to use the "Kids of Character..." book to continue to dig deeper and think about what it means, from a Biblical perspective, to have that virtue. We'll read a couple verses and answer questions about them, and then, we'll do the application section together. I'm really excited about trying this out. It's the "IFs" questions that my kids will love and really get them thinking. For example, "If xx happened, what would you do?" The questions are very specific and applicable to the virtue we're studying. This should be fun & helpful!!!!

4. We use the "Exploring God's Love" (EGL) book in correlation with Pearl S. Buck's "The Story of the Bible." If the EGL book has activity pages that go along with the story we read that week, then we'll do those pages. They are cut and paste or coloring activities, usually. The kids loved this book last year. I use it on days where we have a lot of other things that will take a lot of time, since it's a quick activity. They treat it like a reward - "Do we get to do the EGL book this week?!"

When we don't have an EGL page to correspond for that week's Bible story, or if I just feel like it, I'm going to use the "...Greatest Hymn Stories" to teach the girls a hymn and the story behind the hymn. Have you ever heard any? A couple months ago, the worship minister told the story behind the hymn "It is Well With My Soul," and I will ever more sing that song differently - with more heart. I want the girls to connect with some of the old songs AND have a heart connection AND be ready for when we sing them in church. I want them to feel like a part of the worship experience and be excited when they can sing a song they know.

--

So that's our BIBLE curriculum! On top of that, we've given Ladybug her own NIrV Bible and have encouraged her to start reading on her own daily. And I'm trying to get back in the habit, too. Last school year, our first with Classical Conversations, left me running like crazy, but I don't want that to be repeated this year. I need Thee every hour - and I need to be in His Word.

MY Bible curriculum is as follows:

"The Names of God Bible" (I want to be more familiar with the names of God. It was important to Him and the people to know His names, so I want to know them, too.)
"Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes" by Kenneth E. Bailey
"Celebrating Jesus in the Biblical Feasts" by Dr. Richard Booker
"Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus" by Lois Tverberg
↧
Viewing all 54 articles
Browse latest View live
Search