Logical Monday

After being gone almost all day Sunday and all day Monday, today seems like logical Monday!

My grandfather's visitation and funeral were very nice! Everybody from my side of that family was there and it was nice seeing everybody. I didn't get to talk to some people like I wanted to, but I did get to speak to some.  It was amazing to hear of my grandfather's last days and how he eventually passed away.  I loved hearing all the positive comments about my grandfather. Many, many people had so many nice things to say about him!  He will definitely be missed by many!

But now that everything is over, life needs to get back to normal.  I don't feel we are quite in a groove yet since our trip.  Last week, we had our second class at the homeschool learning center and our first official PE class.  We start D6 at church on Wednesday, so one more thing to add into our schedule. I am also starting my piano students back up today. 

Today though, it was back to the books.  I was up until about 10:30 last night planning school for the week (I don't know why I always wait until the last minute!), so things are ready to go.  I had a few things to figure out for the week for the girls plus figure out what I want to do with Christian. I found a new curriculum online that I think will work out great.  I just found the other book we were using was not as planned out as I wanted it to be and I had to look for a lot of activities myself.  I don't have time to do this every day!  I am going to try this new curriculum this week and see how it goes. I can always go back to the other one if I have to.  I just want to give Christian 20-30 minutes of time during the day.

As for the girls, I always think about whether I should get through stuff just to "get through it" or slow down and take our time. Honestly, I always slow down and take our time! Megan is taking a writing class at the learning center and she wants me to proofread it for her and help her out.  We spent some time this morning doing that, so that pushed off some of her other subjects, such as spelling and history.  Because of this, I am going to push off science, which I had originally planned for today, for another day.  I need to be flexible and know that school usually takes longer than I schedule it to! I also want to get to Christian today and read his new material. I will get everything done, eventually. :)

Preschool Activities

Last week as I was planning for some activities for Christian from the book "Before Five in a Row," I got very frustrated. I felt that the lesson plans were not laid out as clearly as I wanted them to be and I found myself going online to find more activities.  I found the lessons they wanted me to teach were a little advanced for Christian and I think these concepts would be hard to teach a four year old.

I want a curriculum that is 4 year old friendly and is easy to teach!! I also want to spend 20-30 minutes with him a day and needed something I could get through in that amount of time.

I found this new website with preschool activities and am going to try it this week.

http://www.abcjesuslovesme.com/curriculum/3-year-curriculum

It has activities all ready to go already! It even has the printables linked right in their website! Yay!!!

Picture of my grandpa

We will miss you!!!

Amazing Rock Formations in Illinois!

I am up a little early today, so I thought I would post more pictures from our trip.

On our way home, we stopped at a state park called Ferne Clyffe State Park in southern Illinois.  We just stopped there because it was along the interstate and was convenient for us to stay there the night. We had no idea that the place had AWESOME rock formations and great hiking trails!! I thought I would share some pictures! This is exactly why we go on vacation, so we can see cool stuff like this!!

We hiked for about a half mile up a hiking trail and found this:

A huge rock shelf

Don't you wonder how many Native Americans seeked shelter under this at one time??

A little further down, were even more rock formations.

Do you see the girls and I on that rock? We look so tiny compared to the rocks!

We even let Christian climb on them!

This may be hard to see in the shadows, but Courtney is on the ground between these monstrous rocks!

This huge rock was amazing too, the girls thought it was one big beehive!

Heading back! Matt doesn't like to put Christian on his shoulders because he always holds onto his head.  This is his solution!

I would definitely camp at this campground again!!

Shopping!

It is that time of year again! It is getting cooler out and my kids have nothing to wear!

I have spent many hours the last two days shopping for my children.  Last night, we went to a consignment store and after about two hours, we walked out with clothes for Megan and Christian. I found Megan a lot of shirts, a couple pairs of jeans, and a pair of pajamas.  I also found Christian a few shirts and one pair of pants.  We will go shopping in the attic for Courtney and then if she needs something, we will go shopping for her too!

Who gave permission for these two children to skip a size?? Megan ended last spring almost in a 12, so I thought we would start there. I was wrong! Every time she put on a pair of twelves, they were too short! They were not REALLY too short, but short enough that I knew they would not make it past the winter! I couldn't believe it, but I had go find size 14! The problem here was that they weren't skinny enough! We found two pairs though, so that should get her started AND should last her through the winter.

I had the same problem with Christian. He ended last spring just starting to get into a size 4 pants. I put them on this fall and again, too short! I tried size 5 and they were too large around his waist! I found one pair for him tough, so again, that should get us started.

Who made these skinny, tall children??? And who gave them permission to grow so much??

We are talking about DNA today in science.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9BZ3zx8b8I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwibgNGe4aY

Kind of a tough topic for elementary kids, but we're going to do it anyway!

Teaching the next generation...

After talking to another mom about 9/11 the other day, I have some thoughts.  She has kids the same age as my kids, one is in 6th grade and the other is in 2nd.  I asked her if they learned about 9/11 in school.  She looked at her older daughter and asked her and her daughter said, "No, it makes my teacher too sad, so he didn't teach us anything about it," I then asked the mom if they talked about it at home and she said no, it also makes her too sad.  So in the end, her daughter (and I am assuming the younger one too), did not learn about 9/11 this year at all.

My questions is...how are we supposed to "never forgot" if we don't teach it on to the next generation???  How are we supposed to learn about the hate in this world and what we can do about it?? How do we learn that the god they were serving is NOT the God that we serve today?? I am very passionate about this and when the mom said that the kids didn't learn about it at all, I honestly felt sad for the kids.

I feel it as a great privilege to be able to teach my kids about 9/11. Is it sad? YES Was it a terrible thing to happen to our country?? YES Was it a day full of hatred? Absolutely! Was it easy to watch a video on the computer and watch Megan's eyes tear up? NO! But she needs to know what happened! We can not let this day go by every year and not teach our kids about it!

We had the great opportunity last year to visit Ground Zero with the kids. I think this year the pictures helped put it all into perspective for the kids, especially after we watched a video of the timeline of the day.  We also watched short videos on how they made the memorial and short videos of how people survived as they escaped the towers. 

May it truly be a day that NOBODY ever forgets!