We went to see the Christian movie FACING THE GIANTS tonight to support their first weekend at the box office.  Please do so if you have a chance.  We took the whole family and it was awesome!!!!  I cried, I laughed and wanted to sit through it all again.  It was so awesome to see the Lord honored in a movie, truly honored.  For more info see the review on Focus on the Family or the movie's website here.

Have a great weekend!!  and go see a movie!!!
Julie

The Wal-mart trip was worth it in some form yesterday.  (scroll down for yesterday's post).  I found this great block set for only 8.44.  It has 10 pieces, shapes and sizes, great colors and the blocks nest.  Baby girl (age 2) loves to stack them and then put the shapes into the appropriate holes.  I found these in the toy section and they are from Kid Connection, Wal-marts less expensive line of toys.  These, however, are wooden and really well made.  Check them out…

Today we were originally going to Congaree National Swamp for our field trip but plans changed and we ended up at the Greenville Zoo.  I got a few really great pictures I'd like to comment on…

First of all…there were more monkeys in our family today than at the zoo

Second, this has got to be one of the best shots ever of my three boys.  They are sitting on a bear (okay, not a real one!).

Third, here's the new baby orangutan at the zoo.  Isn't he/she cute?

Fourth and Fifth….
IF there was such thing as reincarnation (and please know I'm saying a BIG IF….I do not believe in reincarnation) and if I came back as a chicken I would be one of these.  They are way too cool.  I'm sure some of you homesteaders know what they are but I just think if you gotta be a chicken/rooster/hen you ought to be one of these guys.

Check out those hats!!!!!!!


And if ya gotta wear PJs this is the way to go…..love them legs!

Oh, I’m so excited.  I won something….AGAIN.  I never win anything and have done so twice since joining HSB.  Now, if anyone needs to encourage another to participate just tell them you win stuff.  It’s just so cool.  Anyway…..here’s the winning photo that got me $50 worth of homeschool supplies at The Old Schoolhouse Store!
Go check out the store if you haven’t….and guess what?……there’s ALWAYS free shipping!

I remember when I was deciding upon curriculums I came across one that taught spelling with word families.  I remember the example being something like:
a
am
ram
tram
trample
trampled
I remember it built on the root word by adding letters to either side of the word.  Does this sound familiar to anyone? 

I also remember they stressed learning to spell by seeing the word and spelling it correctly the first time, not guessing with the phonetics of the word.

If anyone knows what curriculum this is or if it sounds familiar please let me know!!!!

Thanks
Julie

We stole this idea from Family Fun today and made beanbag balls with numbers on them to help us with math.  I let my son take photos today instead of me so we got “Photography” into homeschooling today too.  We used our balloon beanbags for addition, subtraction and discussing numerical placement.

First we started with Stuffmart's lentils and a balloon we'd inflated for about 30 seconds and then allowed to deflate.

Then we filled the balloon with the beans using a funnel.

Then we cut off the tip of the neck of the balloon.

Then we cut off the entire neck of the 2nd balloon and the 3rd balloon and put them around the 1st balloon.  This makes the finished product nice and thick.

And here's the one of the finished products.

We used 12 inch balloons because we couldn't find 11 inch balloons and they worked just fine.  The larger you inflate the balloon prior to filling the larger your beanbag will be.  I liked the larger ones better.  Practice makes perfect.  The directions from Family Fun are available on their link I included above.  Let me know if you try it.  We used about 3 bags of lentils to make 12 balloons so buy accordingly.

Have fun.
Julie

Well, I'd like to tell you today was one of those perfect homeschool field trip days but alas, I'd be lying.  It was a frustrating day to say the least.  We went to hike but couldn't because of baby girl's stroller.  The trail just wasn't made for strollers.  So, we played in the waterfall instead.  It was amazing how cold the water was on such a hot and muggy day.  It was wonderful.  If only that had satisfied my kids instead of being utterly disappointed that we couldn't hike with the rest of the crowd who accompanied us on the field trip.  But, that's another story.  Here are some pics from today.

Oh, I'm loving homeschooling my two older boys this year already!  It's wonderful to see why God chose for me to keep them at home. 

My wonderful, attractive, helpful studly husband (yes, he reads my blog) took two of the four kids to the Dr's office today and spent most of the morning there.  Baby girl has strep and my oldest boy has something wrong with his eye.  It looks like pink eye but those drops didn't work so now they are thinking of sending him to an opthamologist.  If it's not better by Thursday we'll continue onward to another doctor. 

Homeschooling was interesting today.  It was the first day that we did school seperately with the two boys.  Since my oldest was at the doctor all morning with his dad I got to spend one on one time with my second born. 

Then, this afternoon I got one on one time with my oldest.  My youngest son and I even got some one on one time while my second born was drawing tornados.  He's gotten to be quite the little artist lately.  It's wonderful to seem him running on a football field and then concentrating with a pencil in his hand as he dreams up a new drawing.

I think I have strep too.  My throat's been sore all day and I feel horrible this evening.  I'll probably make it into the dr's office tomorrow for a strep test. 

Until then….
Julie

Well, day 2 of our school year was as wonderful as day one.  We made scrolls to learn about how the bible was originally made.  We used craft paper and unsharpened pencils to make the scroll.  My oldest is journaling in his and my 1st grader is putting his A,B,C's in his. 

My second grader is breezing through his math which is good because he'll be in another book soon and he'll feel as if he's doing something different from his little brother.  I started them both in the same book knowing he'd move through his faster.  We're using Singapore Math. 

My Father's World starts with a review of letter sounds so the my second grader is breezing throught that too.  And God gave me the neat idea to have him journal in his scroll instead of just pasting his letters in there. 

As soon as I get to the store to buy some cornstarch we're going to make jars to put our scrolls in.  That ought to be loads of fun.

So, again God has encouraged me in my journey.  Have you checked out Nancy's blog about her first week?  Wow!!!!
Run on over there and check out her story.

IN HIM,
julie

Today was our first day of school.  God was so gracious to encourage me today and everything went smoothly.  I had us scheduled until 2pm and we were done by 10am.   Wow! 

Now I know everyday won't be that way but I'm so thankful of the days that are.

Our 4 year old (almost 5) is also going to a K4 half day program at a local Christian school.  It gives me time to work one on one with the older boys in the afternoon and my 4 year old feels like such a big boy.

Here are some pictures from today.  Oh, and stay tuned for my updated look from Ronda at Rugby Designs.

Here we are packing up to leave for school……baby girl still in her pj's at noon.  Oh the joys of homeschooling.

Here's one of Luke's teachers MS DONNA.  She's great.  This photo was taken by my oldest son.

Here's the gang after school at 4pm.  Dakota, Kaley and Luke.  The big kids going to school.

Then I asked them to show off their backpacks and this is what I got.  Can you tell Dakota loves horses.  Her satchel looks like a saddle.  Of course my boy's all about trains.

And here's our “america's next top model” child with his best friend Claire.  They are quite a pair.