Another Rainy Day Full of Learning!

The weather has been a blast here lately. :) Last night it hailed and again this morning. The back yard was so wet and Matthew even had to drain the pool because it was too full. I just love the sound of rain and watching my sweethearts working away, filling their minds with so many wonderful things. :)

Eli only has 20 more lessons and we are moving on! I can't wait to order, should be anyday. I want to get his stuff in so I can make look it all over and see how I want to use it all.

Today he finished his reader about the time Jesus would have grown up in. Said it was the best reader he has had yet. And we moved on to a new book, and his last reader of the "2nd grade". It is FUN! It is all about the animals and really made for Eli. There is even a whole chapter on bunnies and Eli is totally excited about that.

He wrote the cutest story today. I wanted to run and jump and sing out loud! It was great. How far he has come in his creative writing and just writing in general. I wish that it was as easy for him as say math and reading. But we all have our hard thing to overcome. He has worked so hard. He really hates it. We have tried everything. And then today he authors this incredible story. And he is having a blast while doing it. Happy and proud of his creation. And if you could have seen his face when I hugged him and praised him. It was heavenly!

So, I know you want to hear the story. Here it is:

~If all the Clocks Stopped Working~

If all the clocks stopped working, what would you do? Would you count second by second or would you look at a sun clock? But what would happen if you sneezed? What if you could not find a sun clock? Know what I would do? I would make a new clock!

He almost has his Robert L. Stevenson poem "The Land of Story Books" memorized. We have really enjoyed his poems this year.

Remy finally begged me for school this afternoon, and wouldn't stop until I got his work out. Matthew was still home and I wanted him to be with his daddy. But no go! He did 2 days of lessons and begged for a 3rd. *sigh* Says he loves it. His reading is just better each day. I am amazed!

In math today we started on reading clocks. We had started a few weeks back, but nothing more than mentioning them and then letting it go. I have to say that while I am proud of my baby and love that he adores this time in his day, that I am a little sad. His lessons are maturing him so fast. What will I do when he can say what time it is, or read anything on his own? We really need a new baby. A sweet baby to nurse and hold. Someone that is not schooled in my house. Doesn't that sound wonderful?

When I brought out his writing tablet he danced and sang, "This is my favorite thing to do"! What????? Such the opposite of Eli. This kid loves to write. And while I write this Eli is painting after an hour...and Remy has tired of it long ago. So different. I love them so much.

We played a little number game today. And I snapped a few pictures. :)

Tonight the kids painted.

Just another day in the life of 2 little boys, blessed to be schooled in such a sweet and delightful manner. :)

~A Rainy and Windy Day Makes For Cozy School Time~

The rain was delicious this morning and afternoon, it made for a cozy school day. The wind picked up after 1pm and the boys were worried a tree would fall. But the Lord spared us and kept us safe. The lights did flicker and I thought at one point that the power would click out.

Elijah pretty much did his studies all on his own. He is really enjoying the book on the days when Jesus was here on earth. He will snuggle up on the couch and read ahead of what I assign to him. He says it is SO good that he can't help himself. I love that! Makes this mama HAPPY!

Remy did 2 days worth of work... And then begged for a 3rd! I told him NO WAY and made them play before dinner.

I have to share this video of Remy singing his vowel song!

And now for some more BUNNY FUN! :)

Bunny #2

So, Bunny #1 came home with us. And in the morning he was not doing well. He was rushed to the vet by the store and died a few days later. They are saying a mixture of hypoglycemia, epilypsy, and dehydration. But he DRANK and ATE tons of food that day. Maybe he was just OH I don't know diabetic with a reaction of some sort? I am wondering if he just needed more time with his mama. Just like human infants are different and need more time or less time at the breast...I tend to think the same of bunnies too. :( We miss his sweetness...


We were supposed to go and pick out a new bunny. And then a dear friend passed away on the 6th of January. So, I was in no mood to bring bunny #2 home.


Then On Sunday after church we went to see who they had waiting for us at the store. The nice lady Valerie had saved us a little black bunny, she is very sweet. :)


Are you ready to see her? This time bunny is a girl and she as well does not have a name. Anyone want to help? We like people names.







She is very active and I caught her with her tongue out on one photo...although it is blurry.



She is doing well and I think this one is a keeper. But now Remy wants two bunnies. I do believe she is missing her bunny family. She comes straight away when you open the cage. She wants to be rubbed and patted. I LOVE HER! And so do the children...

Mardi Gras

On Saturday Eli and I had some school time while Remy played at whatever little Remy's play at. They both were so excited about the parade that evening. :) Oh gosh, one day the parade will not make them so crazy excited. I just love how they love everything! I am so happy to give them such a beautiful life. *sigh*




While we did school I made a King Cake. They take FOREVER! But YUMMY!



I also made a pot of Red Beans and some steamed rice. This is our traditional Mardi Gras meal before the parade.











And of course every post must be graced with a funny Remy face!

Brina came to visit!

Brina and the boys came to visit on Tuesday and left of Thursday around 5pm. It was so very hard to let them go this time. It gets harder and harder. *sigh*

The day before the kids and I got our schoolwork done and we cleaned up the house. When daddy came home that night they were wound up and crazy! So I thought I would share with you some photos of the new FUN thing to do.

We had alot of laughs over this one! We are so blessed that our daddy likes to spend time with us. My kids really don't know how blessed they are. They think it is normal for daddies to be like ours. We tell him how much he means to us all the time. We love you daddy! You are so much fun!

The boys were fooling around and Eli picked up Remy. I had to take a picture!

This is such a sweet little noggin head. :)

On Tuesday night the boys roasted veggie dogs in the fire.

They even made smores, gosh those things are YUM-O! Mikey really liked the marshmallows.

A day with my little Remy...

Well, 15 minutes! Hee hee...He is just to super fast at his 3 R's and does it with such joy. Someone asked me about Remy and what we use for his Phonics, math, and reading. So here it is...for all to see!


He learns and recites a scripture verse. We talk about what it means. He tells me what he gets from it. He even listens in on Eli's verse and bible time. Right now Eli is learning about the time Jesus grew up in and he is enjoying the reading time along with the discussions afterward. This book could make a kicking lapbook. If we get so inclined we will let you know.


After that Eli starts something on his own and Remy and I have our speedy lessons. We start with the letter cards from abeka and he tells me all of the sounds.

I added a new letter on him today, and at the end of the video you can see him realize it and tell his big brother. Hee hee... Since the letter was Ff you will see it throughout todays lessons. It is one thing I love about abeka, how it ties together and they get more work in it in other areas. :)


When I introduce a new letter we play a little fast game. You can see it here! For some reason it will not load so...click to see it if need be.
The game video



After we usually practice his blends and we make some words on the magnet board. Sometimes he just reads what I put down. And other times I put blends on one side and the last consonants on the other side. He then matches them to the blends to make words. You will notice that alot of the busy work that abeka says to do is missing. And we just do the basics.




By this time Remy is begging for a worksheet. *rolling eyes* He has a phonics worksheet 2-3 times in a 5 day period of lesson. Today he did have one. He had to circle the f if the word started with the f and read and match the word to the correct picture. Very easy for this beginning reader and never enough in his opinion. Laugh!



Now for Remy's FAVORITE thing in school. Copy work! Yes, he is odd.

By the way this is day 43 in the K5 series. It is just enough copy work for them to practice but not so much that they burn out. There is one page a day. Remy does this in about 2 minutes with great joy.



We are working on his counting. He is very good at counting with a chart, but he needs to work on his recall when counting from his head. We do both ways each day. At this point they only need to know 1-19 for abeka. But he can count like crazy with the charts, notice I have to just stop. The thing is with abeka is to allow the child to keep growing in his knowledge even if abeka isn't saying it is time. For instance he is doing simple addition and subtraction problems and started this on his own. He loves for Matthew to drill him.




Just for the sake of adding it....again this is something he has down and he plays with by himself now. Counting pennies.




He did not have a worksheet in math today, it was just talking and hands on stuff like I showed above. But here is an example from yesterday.



I don't use the Science/History/Health readers for the K5 series as he does this with his brother. You can buy them, but I feel the money is better spent at this age on a good Science and History that is meaty. You could do lapbooks, experiments, etc. We do Story of the World for history and a variation of stuff for Science. But since this is showing how we use the abeka curriculum for this 3 R's I will just stick to that.


There is a really cute art book you can purchase, but again art is easy with this age.


Now I leave you with my super strong (he is showing me his muscle) mad scientist preparing something in the lab *cough* I mean kitchen!

One of those songs that is so real and awesome for my spirit!

It is time for a mommy moment...




This is one of those songs...when I am driving...the kids in the back...the world zooming by...and it comes on the radio. And I am changed in the spirit. I am no longer in this world. I am singing from the depth of my soul, to the love of my life! The giver of my beautiful family! My body tingles and I weep in the strength of his love! His presence!
Oh how I do love my Lord and Savior. How I wish everyone I love could KNOW what I know. This life is so grand with all of its joys and sorrows. We have so much to learn, to really get, before we can truly understand. And the past few years have been so spiritual for me. So real.
I am so thankful for the time to slow down tonight, to feel and hear my favorite one in all the world! I finally really do love him most of all.
If this song frees you, touches you, or awes you, let me KNOW! :)

The Winter Clean Up Begins!

It started out nice enough...all three of my men working hard to clear away the TONS of leaves from all the trees on our property. We loved this house and it's many trees and it was a BIG selling point for us because it gave us a sense of seclusion. Yea...we didn't really think about the winter cleanup to come. And believe me folks the pool has been MORE work now that it is winter, in the summer it is a breeze! We are looking forward to the easier work in the yard during the summer. Hee hee...

Daddy went to getting the light leaf clutter up with the mower and bag. He left us to tackle the really deep areas with a rake and bag. This is what happened in a nut shell.

Eli and Remy jumped around in the piles of leaves that I worked so hard to put together.

Remy found some EGGS! I mean come on...this kid is a scientist 24/7! I love it. He promptly put them in one of his habitats. I sure hope they hatch for him and that they are something REALLY cool!

I got this really COOL picture of my Dewy Doggie! In the winter we stop cutting her hair so she is warmer. I wonder if Reese Bear covets her wooly coat? Hee hee... This photo is just the very essence of my Dewy Dog. I plan to order a good print of it and putting it up somewhere so I will remember my good old doggie when she decides to leave us one day.

So, we had LOTS of fun while we worked. And yes, it will take us MANY days of working and playing together to get our yard back into shape. But when your youngest looks up at you with the sun going down behind him and he tells you that this is the best fun he has ever had...you know it is all worth it! Man! We are teaching our boys to enjoy their work, to do it as if they were doing it unto the Lord! I think our school time this Sunday was well spent.

When it became too cold and we all were very hungry we put away our work and headed inside.

The boys have been promised 25cents a bag! I wonder how much they will save up?

Just Some Random Stuff...

We have been working very hard the past few days and we have gotten alot done. Eli has done 5 days of work in 3 days! He has set a goal of being done with everything by Feb. 1st so we can order new stuff. Both he and I are very excited about brand new books. We look forward to sitting in the floor and smelling them all fresh out of the boxes. Hee hee.. What is funny to me is that this is so normal to most homeschoolers. Ordering and spending that money is a blast. Then the horrible wait. You check the status of your order a million times and then it ships! Oh the day those boxes ship, what joy! Then when you just feel you can't stand it a moment longer the box man is here! He is here! And you rush him and then run inside with a knife or scissors to open the boxes. And KaBoom! The floor is littered with sweet smelling books, the child looks through them all with you, oohing and aahing. What excitement. *sigh* I can't wait!




Packing up that old box of completed stuff is fun too! We always steal a peek at the last day of stuff, me worried that they can't possibly KNOW all that in 170 lessons and the kids thrilled at how big they will be. Fun, fun, fun!




Brina gave Remy some money for slippers on his birthday. And he found these on major clearance at Target.






I was just snapping away at Remy and Mattmos. On one he gave me a shock! I looked at the little screen on the camera and then tickled him to death!

I did manage to get a sweet one...





The kids notebooking...


You can see the difference in each of them. Eli is super relaxed and silly with his mind off in the clouds. Remy is intense, on the edge of his seat, hurry to get out of his mind the things he needs to put to paper! Hee hee...I love them both so darn much!




Again, here is Eli talking, chilling out...





A few blogs back I spoke of the rainbowy coloring of Remy's. Well, here is the newest one. :)



And he has learned the Dd's now...





Remy and I had a finger puppet show of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". This was very funny. :)





Let's see...Elijah has learned to estimate and he feels this is a much better way of doing things with numbers. My little short cutter. His creative writing is improving, slowly, but I do see the creative juices starting to flow more. The journal has helped with this I think. I daily have him close his eyes and picture the scene that he is writing about. It takes alot on my part...but the stories are very cute. And he has a way with words that shocks me with a 9 year old. He sounds so wise.


We have been learning about the time in which Jesus grew up. Eli says this is his favorite read aloud EVER! And I really have to agree. I never knew how smart people of his time were. I am WOW'ed! But now Eli feels he should be able to sleep with a little baby sheep in his room. Hee hee...


Remy's reading is just astounding. Yesterday I gave him the blends go, ge, and gu. He added letters and made the words got, get, and gum. I them gave him a challenge word, silk, and he read it with no problems. I love the Magnet Board that we use, I think it is crucial to new readers. It is just so easy to pull this out and to work with our blends, adding letters to make words, and to even read a sentence on it that we make. I love it!




We have some neat Story of the World and Science stuff to get to in the next few days. They also have some painting to do. :) We are so blessed to have this time together. :)