Field Trip - Green House Garden Center and State Museum

UPDATE: Obviously, this post was one of those "doubting moments" I've had. Thank God that I stayed the course. I think that SOW done "as is" is a wonderful curriclum and I'm sorry for all of the waivering you've gotten through this blog. :0

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I have pictures, but I'm having trouble with my camera (not to mention my computer is a little confused too!)

Anyway, I just wanted to update. We're starting on 1A4 this week. But, we are changing things around a little bit. I really liked when we did SOW a little more "relaxed" before we really began. Keeping the units together is just not working for us. I'm finding myself more concerned about the other subjects and our prayer and bible study time is falling by the wayside. So, we're going to go back to the old style that we did it. And I think Tammy (4himkids.com) does SOW in a similar way. We're basically not matching the bible with the sci/his part. That way we can be faithful to prayer and bible reading every day together. Hard to explain, but when we were sticking to SOW as is I found we were really IN God's word the first few weeks then as we dwindle down and all we have left is sci/history (art projects or what have you...since projects are always put off until the end around here) we weren't even really reading the bible or praying towards the end of the "week."

I guess everybody's home works differently.

So, we'll have a new schedule. As I work it out, I'll post it here. But, basically we're just separating the Bible so that we can be more consistent since we're taking SOW at a little slower pace. So each day we'll be praying & reading then moving on to whatever else we have for the day.

ANYWAY...
We've been having fun in the meantime!

We took a trip to the local nursery to checkout the plants and talk about how greenhouses work. (and how the theory that world in Eden's time could very well have been a greenhouse!) We got lots of fun pictures there - just having a good time.

Then we took a trip to the museum because they have a great display of weapons throughout the ages. Since we were learning about the weapons that we use (spiritually and physically) it went really well with the unit.

I guess that's it. I know there is more. I haven't been doing well keeping up with this, but I think as we get settled (remember we just moved!) I'll be able to update more often.

Have a great day in Jesus!

Yes, we're moved and yes we're doing school...

In fact, not only did our house move but my husband's work and our church also moved - all in the same month. Just maybe God's telling us we got a little too comfortable, eh?

There is something a little familiar about school. So, before I even unpacked the kitchen (ahem, the kitchen is STILL not really unpacked but don't tell anyone) um, anyway we started up school. I mean, right away. I needed some sort of stability during all these changes.

So, I made a list (these are things we've always done, but it's worked well to have a little chart sorta thingy to check off everyday.)

Here's 9yo's list:
Brush Teeth
Get Dressed
Shower -MWFS

Pray
(sometimes prayer letter, but usually he just sits in his closet for awhile)
Read Bible
(he just picks a chapter...if we're starting a new lesson he'll read that, otherwise it's his choice.)
Math
Scripture memory
(which is penmanship/spelling)
Check SOW list - I write a list daily for him.
(this usually includes time with me, a few worksheets, etc. I usually try to keep it less than an hours worth of work truthfully.)

Clean Room
Take Out Trash
Dishes or Pickup living room
Keep Table Cleared

Pickup poop - MWF

I have to mention that he helps out a lot with misc. stuff throughout the day. With 1yo and 3yo he will play with them when I need him to,or get a snack for them or...whatever.

Am I working him too hard?

He does really well with the work work, but with school he tends to space out or get distracted easily. I am an advocate of teaching children to work hard, but I'm not one to push schooling hard. I'd rather have a son who can be quick to do what needs to be done physically, but mentally I guess I allow him to grow as life teaches him. Yikes. But, he is doing much better than I ever think he should be at any given time. I'll scan in (with my new scanner I got for Christmas) his creative writing from yesterday so you can see...

Ooops, yesterday's had all the kids names all over it. Hmm...how about Monday's? Ok, here ya go. Well...that's not working either. It says "internal error" so I'll have to figure that out and get back to ya.

Anyway, we're here and we're having fun. Really, we are having fun. Superkid is learning about weapons. What young man is not happy to learn about weapons??? Ha Ha.

I'll check back in later when I can.

tty'a later..........................

School can happen without ME!

Funny how God seems to put a desire on my son's heart to do something without him even knowing that he's actually learning about something he's supposed to. :0) He went searching for this the other day (I don't think he's used it since he was 5!) It happens to be all about dinosaurs, which just happens to be part of what we are learning about in school. Coincidence? I don't think so!

Hello there.

So, where are we?

We've been working on 1A3 for awhile now & are doing great! We're actually about halfway through already.

My original plan was to take the holiday's off, specifically December actually. I'm going to stick with that plan, even though we aren't where I expected to be. No biggy. We're going to keep working on math & do some writing here and there, but this month is going to be mostly focused on Christmas!

I made a list of all the fun stuff we're planning to do. Wanna see it?

Ok.

Green means we missed it and we'll try again next year...
Red means we're planning to get this done before the 25th!
Fun things we can do this
Christmas!!
Put up Christmas tree
Decorate tree
Decorate house
Take Christmas pictures
Make Salt Dough ornaments
Give ornaments away
Caroling at nursing home
Watch Christmas movies
Drink hot cocoa & play games
pray for Christmas card givers
Drive to look at Christmas lights
family slumber party by the tree
learn about Christmas celebrations around the world
read Christmas books
Make Christmas snowflakes
sing Christmas carols by the tree
ice skate
play in the snow
learn the history of Santa
gingerbread house
take picture of family by the tree
make a paper mache snowman
string popcorn for the tree
have a birthday party for Jesus
Send gifts to troops or foster family
Pick out Christmas gifts for each other
gift wrap extravaganza

Celebrate Christmas here...
...then go visit our family and have Christmas all over again!

Actually there is a lot more, but I've only hand written them in yet so they're not included in this list still. I'm really trying to emphasize what we are DOING for Christmas, instead of what they are GETTING for Christmas.

Oh...I wanted to mention how God is working in our school. Did I tell you we FINISHED Pilgrims Progress??? But, what was really cool was how we walked into Church a week after we were done and our Pastor showed the movie!!! And - he's doing a study off of it about spiritual warfare, which of course is what we are studying in 1A3!!!

Isn't that amazing how the Lord worked all of that out?
I thought so.

Anyway, I'll be back soon and I'll try to include you in all of our projects and outings.
Can you believe it's December 1st already???