If you read my last post...we love going down to Missouri. We always have a good time and we were fortunate enough to have perfect weather! Sometimes it is rainy and cold when we are there...but this time it was just perfect! Here are a few pictures from our wonderful weekend! I wish I would have taken pictures from all of the weekends events...shopping with one of my favorite sister-in-laws--all day--at the Tanger Outlet in Branson-- Awesome!!--, fish fry, kids birthday parties, watching the kids play with their cousins and riding horses, and going to church with family--- even though we had to watch the worst performance of "Better than a Hallelujah"....
Easton's very first horse ride!
Such a busy day for this little guy!
Nathan doing flips
Katelyn playing outside
That is my girl...always wanting me to take a picture...
He was just in awe listening to the guitar and singing...so cute!
Part of my husband's family lives in South Central Missouri. We love it down there and if it wasn't for my husband's job, my parents, and church we would move down there in a heartbeat. We always enjoy visiting everyone and watching the kids play with their cousins. Because it is becoming a bit harder to travel with 4 little ones we don't go as often, but when we do, we always enjoy our time visiting. Sean's family planned a combo birthday party for all four of our kids. The kids all had a good time and of course enjoyed the cake and presents! (thank you for doing this...you know who you are:))
The cake--isn't it just about the cutest thing?
Jocelyn and her cousin
All of the cousins age 9 and under
All smiles!
Blowing out the candles
Opening presents
One of my favorite sister-in-laws with the babies of the family
This week was our first official week of school. I was a little hesitant at starting because we are going to be traveling, but then realized we won't have a normal week until late September...so we started full swing. I will try to break this post up into an organized fashion...try to.
After their morning chores were complete, the kids started off by making signs and had their first day of school pictures taken.
Bible:
We then did our devotional for the week. This week we studied the story about the wise and the foolish man. We talked about how the wise man built his house up on the rock and the foolish man on the sand. We discussed how this related back to the Bible...that those who do not use the Bible as a guide for their life...are pretty foolish...so we talked about how we can be like the wise man and use the Bible as the foundation in which we build our lives with Christ. Good discussion. We read through Matthew 7 in the Bible.
The kids played with moon sand. I hate sand at our house...love to be at the beach and play in the sand...but hate it at our house. They played on the porch, but some how it got into our house. I did a little demonstration relating it back to our discussion about the wise and foolish man.
Memory Verse:
Psalm 128:1 Blessed are all who fear the Lord who walk in his ways.
We are still using Seeds Family Worship as a guide. Love this music. You can check out their online store below...and listen online!
Here is a lovely video of the kiddos saying their memory verse.
Getting into the nitty gritty:
We then spend an hour-hour and half (varies depending on the day) on the regular studies. I am trying a new workbox system with Jocelyn. The intent (one of these days) will be for her to be independent and just work through each box on her own...with little help from me. But since this is all new stuff like states, grammer, etc...she still needs guidance. So I put all of her assignments for the day in each little tray. I then put a post it note with each assignment written on it. Some are fun activities and some are just pencil/paper activities.
Here are a few of the books that we are going through for Jocelyn.
She does those and then in the afternoon, while the three other kids are napping we work on spelling and reading.
I record myself saying Jocelyn's spelling words on an ap on my Ipad. So when she feels that she is ready, she can take the test. If she passes she is ready to move on. Works pretty well!
Each week my goal will be to have an extra activity to focus on: These next few weeks are going to be shorter school weeks, but typically we will do: Music Mondays, Art Tuesdays, Science Wednesdays, Kids in the kitchen (post)- Thursdays. We actually won't be around much on Thursdays and Fridays, so Thursday will just be reading and spelling in the afternoon with Jocelyn and Friday's will be free day and we will be out and about in the community.
Here are a few extra activities that we worked on:
Music Time:
The kids and I worked on beats, rhythms, and learned a few new songs.
Art:
Their choice for this week was to make their cousins sun catchers.
and then they made some napkin art...anyone want to buy either of these two works of art...I am trying to sell junk art for lots of money like others do... you can dig them out of the trash if you want:)
Science:
Lots of walks and gathering things in nature....we will start our dragon fly unit in a few weeks.
Kids in the Kitchen:
View yesterday's post
So what does Katelyn do?
Katelyn is in her 2nd year of preschool. I am just doing a review with her on writing her letters and she is slowly learning how to write her numbers. She is starting the hooked on phonics reading unit and has made it through the first two lessons and her first two books. Love seeing her face light up with excitement when she learns new things! Here is Katelyn working away at her desk and then practicing spelling some of her new reading words.
and what does Easton do...he does as much as he can with us...or just plays....the baby plays as well...and takes a little nap in the mornings.
If you have been following my kids in the kitchen posts for the past few weeks, you are probably sick of hearing about our apples. We have a lot of apples here...and I am kind of sick of them too. I have been trying to pass them out to friends, family, and neighbors...but we still have a ton left for us.
This week we ended up making more strawberry applesauce and froze them in ice cube trays (prefect for hot oatmeal) and apple crisp. You can find the recipe for the crisp here. The girls LOVED it. LOVED it. They both had 3 servings. Here are few pictures from our time together in the kitchen...and our final results.
We enjoyed another breakfast cooked by Jocelyn and enjoyed our apple butter from last week!
