Words

Well, I've had quite the disaster with my hair. I was trying to make it work this morning, already quite frustrated and nearly in tears, when Bella said " wow! Your hair looks weird" from her newly toothless mouth. Wow is right. She wasn't intending to be unkind, but I needed support and comfort over my hair (trust me, it's a long story, but you'd understand). I told her "that wasn't a very encouraging thing to say". I thought for a moment she got very embarrassed and sad like she sometimes does when she disappoints us. However, she said "oh" and walked away.
Micah was in the kitchen with Claire who said through closed teeth, as I'd doing this made it an untraceable secret, "did you hear what Bella said to mom about her hair?". Then she grinned and she and Micah had a good chuckle.
Oh, the joys of teaching my children the power behind words.
I suppose I should also teach them that pretty hair is vain, and my hair shouldn't bother me. Seriously, you'd be a little frustrated if it had happened to you. But that's another post.

I never thought my kids were lacking in the social area, until yesterday.
We have kept them involved in awanas, Sunday school, MOPS, gymnastics, tap and ballet, swimming, and basketball- well not all of these at the same time. Usually a church type activity and non- religious activity are going on at the same time. I really thought they were getting enough time in with people. We even visit an assisted living facility twice a month.

Well, yesterday we had a play date with a homeschool group. We loved it for a couple reasons. First, it is an incredible park and therefor makes it difficult not to enjoy yourself. Second, because I think it provided a type of play they don't usually encounter.

They were pretending to find secret passageways, and buried treasure. They played hide and seek, and freeze tag. Of course they have done these things before, but not in such a large group. All I know is that they talked the whole way home about all the wonderful things they did.

I knew the Lord was really leading us to join a homeschool group. However, I was looking for the academic side of a group; field trips, art class, etc. I don't realize we had a need for "recess". I thought we had filled that social area. I guess I was wrong. And in this case that's a good thing.

Mobile! on this first week

Okay, I put Facebook updates on all the time now with this new phone. So I'm really hoping to keep this updated- even instead of Facebook.

So this week we rowed "Madeline" we had a great time making "French" toast, Crepes, we visited Paris through a great video. Poor Madeline has her appendix removed. So we studied the human body. We even created one of our own. The girls were so intrigued by the videos on germs. In fact Bella had to go wash her hands midway through a germ movie. then they had to ask "is there germs on this?' about everything. Symmetry was also a theme we studied as we went through our Madeline book. The girls were able to paint their names and fold them in half. They loved the way their "bug" like paintings turned out. To finish our week, tomorrow I'll have a "measure" hunt ready for them. I've cut out a bunch of worms in different sizes. I'll hide them all over and the girls will hunt for them, then measure their length. This will probably be their favorite learning activity for the week.We've made some changes this year for our school at home. I found the workbox systems on pinterst and really thought they'd work for our school. I put in their boxes, not just their work for the day, but the work for the week. Then we work for a predetermined amount of time in each subject (right now for the first week it's just ten minutes, but we'll increase as we get further into the year). When they finish the boxes work - then they don't have that subject for the remainder of the week. So, we don't have any workbox work to do on our first Friday. they finished all their boxes early. I love this new approach. I needed something to motivate the girls- especially one of them- and I didn't want to use candy or cheep toys. If they are done by Friday then we get to attend the homeschool coops playdate/open gym time. I can't believe how motivated they were to finish early and work hard.

I was talking to the girls aunt Ashlie when she mentiOned helping out in c's awana group. She said she hAd a conversation about John 3:16 c told Ashlie that she hadn't accepted Jesus's salvation yet. I'm glad to know she is aware of her need for Christ. Still praying for when the time will be just right.

It's been a long while to say the least.
E had her first bubble bath today. She loved it. Wanted to get the bubbles, but got so excited she'd kick, and the bubbles would disperse.
The other day she had our recorder in her mouth and just walked back and forth across the family room "playing" the recorder. so proud of each step and whistle.
B has said several funny things lately, but I'm so exhausted I can't remember them. why such a feeble memory???
I need to set a reminder on my phone to make me blog. I also need to see if I can get this blog on my phone so I can post immediately (that way maybe I won't forget)