Summer...It's Over

Well, it was a wonderful summer...For us though, it is over. We started school yesterday. As much as I love being with the girls, I'm not that typical homeschool mom who looks forward to the structure of school. For me, selfishly, I enjoy our freedom and the ability to do nothing all day or to run to the store or library on a whim. You don't get to do that when you start school back up.

We ended our summer with our only summer vacation. We drove to the other side of the state and enjoyed 5 days in Ludington, Michigan. If you have never been to Ludington, it is beautiful. It is right on Lake Michigan, which is the prettiest of the great lakes. It was a wonderful relaxing time. Here is a photo of the girls just before we were leaving.

This year we will be using My Father's World Creation to the Greeks for our history and bible curriculum. We are swapping our science and using the new Apologia Anatomy and Physiology. We are also using MFW's suggested art appreciation study God and the History of Art.

We are beginning our history study with the literal beginning of time. This week we are focusing on the days of creation. The girls all have learned a fun song from church that they sing the days of creation to but I still thought it would be fun to do a craft to help them remember the days even more. The 3 year old bible teacher at our church did a similar craft with her bible class when the girls were 3, but they didn't remember doing it, so the younger two are doing it at home. Here Sweet Baby is decorating her day number 2. I went to our local school district and used their die cut machines and cut large numbers 1-7 (to represent the different days). The girls are decorating the numbers to represent what God created on those days. Here for day 2, Sweet Baby used cotton balls to represent the sky and blue glitter made to look like waves for the seas. I'll share a photo of all of them when we have finished at the end of the week.

For our history study we are focusing on the history of the Israelite people, Egyptians and Greeks. The exciting part for me is to learn the biblical history that I am unaware of. We are going to be doing a sabbath meal this weekend as we discuss the traditions of the Jewish faith. Here Sissy is trying her hand at cross stitch. We are going to make a very simple challah covering for our bread (yes, I am going to attempt to bake my own bread, no bread maker either. We do fresh bread in our bread maker weekly, but I've never kneaded my own bread.) I took a piece of cross stitch fabric and just simply wrote "Sabbath" across it - the plan is for Sissy to do most of the stitching, but I'll show Peanut a bit as well. When it is done I'll sew it onto a scrap of fabric I have and we'll have our covering for the bread.

Here peanut is doing their first art lesson. The art lessons are meant for those children 10 and older, but Peanut loves drawing and art so I figured she could join in. The girls had to copy a picture using nothing but their mouths! There was a story about a woman who had become paralyzed but later found a love of drawing. Because Peanut can be a perfectionist with somethings (specifically her art) she was not thrilled to do this exercise. But, she needed to get the point of the lesson - first that art can be frustrating and second that we need to be mindful and thankful for all that we have (usually she can use her hands to draw and not have to use her mouth).

Last school year Sissy began using Teaching Textbooks for math. She LOVED it. She loved it so much she would ask to do math. ASK to do math?!? It is a wonderful program. Thankfully they have a 4th grade program so we decided to switch Peanut to it for math this year. Here she is working...She loves it too. She had done the first 3 lessons before we even officially started school!

Here is a photo of the screen. The program teaches your child the lesson and it is done so well. If you go to their website, you can see a sample lesson. The one thing that I had heard about TT before purchasing it was that it tended to run a bit slow in comparison to other math programs. And I have found this to be true. Peanut is actually in 3rd grade but is doing the 4th grade program and Sissy is in 6th grade doing the 7th grade program. So, if you are thinking about TT, be sure to have your child do their placement test.

More from Camp

Peanut has always been relatively fearful. She does not ride many amusement park rides because she is "scared", she did not walk to the top of the lighthouse in Ludington, Michigan when she was 4 because she was "scared", at Disney World she hated the 3-D movies because she was "scared", get the picture? So, as excited as I was for her to experience a week at summer camp, I was thinking that things like the low ropes course and even horseback riding would scare her and she would sit out on several of the activities. The morning of our scheduled low ropes activity I chose not to even tell her what the low ropes course was.

Surprisingly, when we arrived at the course she was excited to jump on and give it a try. She even discovered that she really liked it!

She enjoyed climbing to the top of the net and was the first one to give it a try.

When we made our way through a grove of trees and I saw all of these tires hanging, I thought that this was going to be the course that she would sit out on. More surprises though, because she climbed up the platform and made it all the way across!

Each night we attended chapel (which was held in the woods and was beautiful) where we did fun camp songs and then the kids listened to a lesson about different biblical characters who were once lost but they eventually found the Lord, we headed out to some sort of game with the entire camp. It was fun to be able to see Sissy at meal times, campfire, swimming and game time. Here she is getting ready for the musical beach towel game.

I loved that all of the games were "team" games. Here Peanut is working with her team to get across the "lava" (grass) using only a handful of Frisbees. No one could step on anything but the Frisbees. If their foot came off the Frisbee and touched the grass, they all had to go back and start their quest to reach the pineapples in the middle of the circle all over again.

I'll end with archery for today. This is the one activity that Peanut says she did not like. It was difficult for her to pull the string back and make the arrow actually go anywhere without help from the adult or teen that was helping the kids.

Summer Camp

The summer is quickly speeding by. One of the big events of this summer for us has been waiting for summer camp. Last year Sissy went away to church camp for 6 days - the longest she had ever been away from the family - and she just loved it. This year, Peanut was old enough to attend; however, I was not really ready to drop my 8 year old off for nearly a week (and I'm quite sure she would not have lasted that long away from home on her own either). A friend suggested her and I counsel together at camp. Honsestly this was not my idea of a great way to spend a week of my summer! A bunch of cranky kids in HOT cabins with no air conditioning anywhere, getting up at 7 am and not getting to bed till 11 or 11:30 every night - does that sound like fun to you? Well, I am SO glad I went! What a blessing! The first night and day was hot but everyday after that, the weather was perfect. The children in our cabin were wonderfully well behaved and I watched as my Peanut strengthened Christian friendships, learned new skills and conqured fears.

By the middle of the first day I told my friend that I could not wait for next year!

Here Peanut is at the archery range learning how to shoot at targets. She really enjoyed this activity.

Christian sister pictures!! I love these!

I'll share more pictures of things like horseback riding, arts and crafts, and camp songs another day.

Summer Fun - Strawberry Picking

3 weeks ago we decided to go strawberry picking. It was the end of the season here in Michigan (for U-Pick farms) and we happened to go the very last day. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, not to hot at all and a beautiful breeze.

In all honesty I don't believe I've ever been strawberry picking. We have taken the kids blueberry picking before but never strawberries. The first thing I noticed was the smell of the breeze as we rode the wagon out to the field. YUMMM! I told the girls it must be what Strawberry Shortcake Land smells like. The other thing I noticed was how much the kids enjoyed it. Of course it could have been the fact that they knew they would get to eat yummy strawberries at the end of the day!

Hair Donation at Relay for Life

As our first girl, I had big plans for Sissy the moment I found out she was a girl. Those plans included Disney Princesses, fairies, dresses, long hair with bows and braids...you get the idea. Then she was born. At about 2 years old she made it very clear that she did not want long hair, she hated the color pink, she adored her Buzz Lightyear pj's and socks and very much disliked dresses. She kept her hair at a bob length from about age 2 to the end of 2nd grade she she declared that she wanted to grow her hair longer. In about 3rd grade she decided she wanted to grow her hair to donate it to make wigs for cancer patients. So, here we are the summer after 5th grade and she had plenty of hair to give.

She has felt compelled to donate her hair not only because we have a few family and friends who have fought the battle of cancer but because it is only hair right? Well, as she was ready to go on stage to get the ponytail cut she was getting nervous. The long hair had really become a part of

her.

After the cutting of the ponytail, she was grinning from ear to ear and said, "It is still plenty long mom, lets go get it trimmed up."

When we got to the chair to get it trimmed by the stylists, there was someone getting her hair cut pretty short, but it was really cute. It was stacked in the back with the top layer being the shortest and then graduating down to the bottom layer. Sissy asked if they could do that to her hair but keep it at her shoulders. As the stylist was cutting, it kept getting a bit shorter and shorter. When it was all said and done, she felt it was a bit to short. She said she really misses her long hair. At least she was able to donate with a friend who cut about as many inches off as Sissy had removed.

Today, after living 24 hours with the new hair-do, she is really starting to like it!

Enjoying Watercoloring

All of the girls have celebrated birthdays over the last 3 months. I had such fun surprising Peanuts with gifts she did not ask for, but I thought she would like. She is our little artist. She loves anything creative. Give her a pencil and paper and she may be found writing a story. BUT, she doesn't stop at writing, she also insists on illustrating. Or, she may be found drawing her own coloring book, making stick puppets, etc.

One of her gifts was real watercolor paints in tubes, a painters palette and nice paint brushes. Dear friends of ours have a son who loves drawing and painting. So, we spent a few hours at their house yesterday while he showed her how to paint with watercolors. She just LOVED it!

The next art project we'll work on is making clay animals with the clay and book she received as one of her other gifts. I'm not sure which she will enjoy more - painting or sculpting.

Beautiful Morning Watching Things Grow

Just a quick picture and some thoughts....one of the biggest reasons I started this blog is so that I have a place to record thoughts I have about raising our girls and share pictures. Especially for those days that are "bad" days when I feel like I have no idea what I am doing being a parent. I needed a place to record things that make my heart sing. This is one of those moments.


It is a beautiful Michigan early summer morning - the sun is shining, slight breeze, nearly no humidity, the garden is in full shade early in the morning - so, I decided to do some weeding for my husband. (The garden is his baby, I'm not much of a fan of getting dirt under my fingernails - I know, I'm a priss.) We are doing 2 different Summer Reading Programs and Sweet Baby is constantly wanting to read to me, since she is just finishing up kindergarten she really needs to read aloud to get help on the words she does not know. It was sweet to be sitting there working while she sat in her chair reading Biscuit and Strawberry Shortcake books to me. I love listening to her read to me, it has been amazing watching her grow and listening to her reading skills improve. Again, I remain in awe of what the Lord has given me.