Having boys is so much fun - and never EVER boring. Today I hear Ash and Rayman yelling from the other room as they run towards me - as if- the first one to me automatically wins the fight.
Ash: "MOM!!! He won't stop kicking me just because I won't stop touching him!"
Rayman: "That wasn't kicking! that was just a foot touch - they don't count!"
Now really - what can you say to that kind of logic?
Monday, September 21, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Bible Study Time
During our morning Bible study, the children and I have been doing a great little book titled Write Upon My Heart: Obedience, published by Keepers of the Faith. I am enjoying this character study. We also have the Cheerfulness book.
But - I read from Jeanie's Journal about reading through the Bible. She hit home when she talked about children knowing all the Bible stories, and reading lots of PARTS of the Bible, but never actually reading all the way THROUGH the Bible. In her newsletter she sent a great little check list to print off to be able to mark off as you read through the New Testament.
Now I just love checklists!!! So I thought this would be great! I gathered all my children to me, and explained what we were doing and why we were changing. Then I turned to Mathew and started reading the introduction, and cheerfully explaining that these were man's words about God's words.
And my 11 yr old slowly raises her hand and gets that "I have something to say" look on her face. I sigh and wonder what is going to interrupt our Bible study time today. And my little scholar says
"Don't you think we should start in Genesis? That is the beginning. Starting in Mathew is like starting half way through the story."
I love my little angel. She makes an excellent point.
So I backed up - and we started at Genesis. We are only on day three. And I don't have a checklist for the Old Testament. But we are enjoying it. And we have had some really good conversations in the short time we have been doing this.
Pray for us that we can follow through and complete this "Assignment"
But - I read from Jeanie's Journal about reading through the Bible. She hit home when she talked about children knowing all the Bible stories, and reading lots of PARTS of the Bible, but never actually reading all the way THROUGH the Bible. In her newsletter she sent a great little check list to print off to be able to mark off as you read through the New Testament.
Now I just love checklists!!! So I thought this would be great! I gathered all my children to me, and explained what we were doing and why we were changing. Then I turned to Mathew and started reading the introduction, and cheerfully explaining that these were man's words about God's words.
And my 11 yr old slowly raises her hand and gets that "I have something to say" look on her face. I sigh and wonder what is going to interrupt our Bible study time today. And my little scholar says
"Don't you think we should start in Genesis? That is the beginning. Starting in Mathew is like starting half way through the story."
I love my little angel. She makes an excellent point.
So I backed up - and we started at Genesis. We are only on day three. And I don't have a checklist for the Old Testament. But we are enjoying it. And we have had some really good conversations in the short time we have been doing this.
Pray for us that we can follow through and complete this "Assignment"
Monday, September 14, 2009
Resource Review: Exploring Creation with Astronomy
Resource: Exploring Creation through Astronomy by Jeanie Fulbright
We first explored Astronomy with this resource when my children were 3rd grade, 1st grade and preschool. The 3rd grader devoured the material and thoroughly enjoyed all the activities. The younger two listened to the read aloud lessons - then drew pictures or acted out the things they had learned.
My oldest child loved this so much she ask if we could do the whole book again. So we are! This year my students are 6th grade, 4th grade, 1st grade and newborn.
We have planned out two days a week to do this. We may take longer than one semester to complete it. And that's fine with me - because I don't count semesters anyway.
Each lesson is laid out with a section to read, then a "What do you remember?" part with suggestions for discussion questions. It also includes activities and projects and notebooking ideas. There are lots of suggestions, and no way we could do all of them. So I let my children pick the ones that sound exciting to them. We are creating an Astronomy notebook as a family. Each child contributes to it, with the older children having more detailed and elaborate contributions than the younger.
It is set up so that each lesson can be easily done in about two weeks - depending on the age of the students. We tend to spend a little more time on things - and sometimes skip around. So in my house the 6th grader may be reading about and talking to the younger siblings about lesson 10 (Saturn) while I am reading lesson 3 (Mercury) to them. The 1st grader may be making a model of the solar system, while the 4th grader is building a model space ship out of K'nex that will take them all to Pluto.
It is Christian material - teaching in the very first lesson that God created the universe in 6 days. It is very economical, with each book being about $35 at the time of this writing. You need only one book for all of your students, and most of the activities can be done with items you probably have in your home. (There is a list broken down by lesson in the front of the book.)
We completely love this material, and will move on to the Flying Creatures, Swimming Creatures, and Land Animals soon. It gets four thumbs up from us! (that's one from each child using the material plus Mom.)
We first explored Astronomy with this resource when my children were 3rd grade, 1st grade and preschool. The 3rd grader devoured the material and thoroughly enjoyed all the activities. The younger two listened to the read aloud lessons - then drew pictures or acted out the things they had learned.
My oldest child loved this so much she ask if we could do the whole book again. So we are! This year my students are 6th grade, 4th grade, 1st grade and newborn.
We have planned out two days a week to do this. We may take longer than one semester to complete it. And that's fine with me - because I don't count semesters anyway.
Each lesson is laid out with a section to read, then a "What do you remember?" part with suggestions for discussion questions. It also includes activities and projects and notebooking ideas. There are lots of suggestions, and no way we could do all of them. So I let my children pick the ones that sound exciting to them. We are creating an Astronomy notebook as a family. Each child contributes to it, with the older children having more detailed and elaborate contributions than the younger.
It is set up so that each lesson can be easily done in about two weeks - depending on the age of the students. We tend to spend a little more time on things - and sometimes skip around. So in my house the 6th grader may be reading about and talking to the younger siblings about lesson 10 (Saturn) while I am reading lesson 3 (Mercury) to them. The 1st grader may be making a model of the solar system, while the 4th grader is building a model space ship out of K'nex that will take them all to Pluto.
It is Christian material - teaching in the very first lesson that God created the universe in 6 days. It is very economical, with each book being about $35 at the time of this writing. You need only one book for all of your students, and most of the activities can be done with items you probably have in your home. (There is a list broken down by lesson in the front of the book.)
We completely love this material, and will move on to the Flying Creatures, Swimming Creatures, and Land Animals soon. It gets four thumbs up from us! (that's one from each child using the material plus Mom.)
Sunday, September 6, 2009
My Personal Miracle
I posted this on my "old" blog - but felt I needed to transfer it here.
A Miracle at My House
God is so amazing and has blessed me so much I could never thank Him enough. A few months ago God gave me a miracle. A miracle so great that I will spend the rest of my life each day in prayer thanking Him for it.
April 1st started out just like any other day. My kids were having a blast playing April Fool’s Day jokes on me and each other. They did fun things like change the cereal boxes – so that the Raisin Bran was in the Honey Comb box. They created fake spiders and creepy crawlies and tried to scare Mom with them. They would laugh hearilty at my fake, and sometimes NOT fake, surprise!
God is so amazing and has blessed me so much I could never thank Him enough. A few months ago God gave me a miracle. A miracle so great that I will spend the rest of my life each day in prayer thanking Him for it.
April 1st started out just like any other day. My kids were having a blast playing April Fool’s Day jokes on me and each other. They did fun things like change the cereal boxes – so that the Raisin Bran was in the Honey Comb box. They created fake spiders and creepy crawlies and tried to scare Mom with them. They would laugh hearilty at my fake, and sometimes NOT fake, surprise!
In the afternoon my niece and nephew came over to play. They all went outside. It was a beautiful spring day. The boys decided to toss the football around.
And then it happened. The football landed on top of the patio awning. Jake, my 8 year old, decided he could climb to the top and retrieve it. And the other kids tell me he did fine going up and reaching it, but on the way back down….
On the way back down his foot got caught, and he lost his hold. He fell backwards, his tangled foot causing him to turn upside down so that his head hit the concrete first – 6 feet below.
My daughter came running inside screaming for me. She was talking so fast I could not understand her. When I got to Jake I was scared. He was trying to get up and walk to me, but could not.
I gathered all 6 kids into the van and rushed to the hospital. I have no idea why I didn’t call an ambulance – I was in shock. I couldn’t keep Jake awake while we were driving – he kept slumping over in his seat. The other kids kept talking to him – trying to keep him awake.
And then it happened. The football landed on top of the patio awning. Jake, my 8 year old, decided he could climb to the top and retrieve it. And the other kids tell me he did fine going up and reaching it, but on the way back down….
On the way back down his foot got caught, and he lost his hold. He fell backwards, his tangled foot causing him to turn upside down so that his head hit the concrete first – 6 feet below.
My daughter came running inside screaming for me. She was talking so fast I could not understand her. When I got to Jake I was scared. He was trying to get up and walk to me, but could not.
I gathered all 6 kids into the van and rushed to the hospital. I have no idea why I didn’t call an ambulance – I was in shock. I couldn’t keep Jake awake while we were driving – he kept slumping over in his seat. The other kids kept talking to him – trying to keep him awake.
At the Emergency room they did a CAT scan of his head and neck – and then came to me with the bad news. He had two skull fractures of the parietal bone with bleeding on the brain. The emergency room doctor said he needed brain surgery and prepared us to be transferred to IU Medical center 3 hours away.
My mind was racing - would we all go? Would only one parent go and one stay home with the other children? How would we decide which parent would be with him? Selfishly I realized that becuase of the baby - I would probably be left behind while my husband accompanied Jake. My heart was being ripped from my chest. But God answered my first cries by finding a neurosurgeon at a local hospital – only 20 minutes away.
By the time I got to the second hospital Jake was not responding to his neurological checks. They were talking to us about brain surgery and a possible neck fracture. They transferred him to the pediatric ICU. Some things that happened in this time are a little fuzzy to me. All I know is that I called someone to start the pray chain, and everyone I knew was praying for my little boy.
The neuro doctor decided to wait on the brain surgery. It was so hard to sit there looking at my precious child all hooked up to all the monitors and machines. But I knew it would have been even harder to watch them wheel him into surgery to open his head and mess with his brain.
I sat in that chair next to his bed and prayed like I have never prayed for anything before. My poor little child, who taught himself to read at age 4, who sometimes annoys his big sister because he answers her math questions faster than she can, who asks questions like ‘do fish have eyelids?’ and ‘how does the I in soldier make a /j/ sound?’ was vomiting and losing control of his bowels and bladder, and unable to wake up.
The neuro doctor decided to wait on the brain surgery. It was so hard to sit there looking at my precious child all hooked up to all the monitors and machines. But I knew it would have been even harder to watch them wheel him into surgery to open his head and mess with his brain.
I sat in that chair next to his bed and prayed like I have never prayed for anything before. My poor little child, who taught himself to read at age 4, who sometimes annoys his big sister because he answers her math questions faster than she can, who asks questions like ‘do fish have eyelids?’ and ‘how does the I in soldier make a /j/ sound?’ was vomiting and losing control of his bowels and bladder, and unable to wake up.
And I prayed and prayed.
And God heard me – and answered my prayer. God reached down and put his hand on my precious child and healed him. Because the next day…
Jake just woke up. He sat up in the bed and asked if he could play video games.
It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The doctors were amazed. Everyone who was praying was amazed. It was such a great thing – I think some people don’t believe me when I tell them how bad he was.
I know God granted me a miracle that day. And I will spend the rest of my life thanking Him for it.
God has great things planned for my little man. And I will do my very best to prepare him for whatever God has in mind.
And God heard me – and answered my prayer. God reached down and put his hand on my precious child and healed him. Because the next day…
Jake just woke up. He sat up in the bed and asked if he could play video games.
It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The doctors were amazed. Everyone who was praying was amazed. It was such a great thing – I think some people don’t believe me when I tell them how bad he was.
I know God granted me a miracle that day. And I will spend the rest of my life thanking Him for it.
God has great things planned for my little man. And I will do my very best to prepare him for whatever God has in mind.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Adventures in Camping
One of the adventures Mr. Incredible is leading us into this year is camping. We bought a used pop-up, some coolers and folding chairs - and hit the road! We've been to a few camp grounds here in southern Indiana, the latest being Spring Mill Park.
The kids really enjoyed the Gus Grissom Memorial - they have always been interested in Astronomy and Space travel. They were quite excited to learn we had an astronaut from right here in our own "back yard." And Ash made the announcement that he would be attending Purdue University to earn his engineering degree just like Mr Grissom.
How awesome that family vacations can lead to life goals!
I think this was our favorite so far. Of course, I might have said that with every place we have gone. Maybe I do this because each time we go I feel a little more comfortable and am able to relax. Or it might just be that we were with great friends, and this park has a lot to offer.
The playground was really awesome - surrounded by an almost dry creek bed. It made me long for my own childhood when my siblings and I would dig for crawdads and build forts.
We also got to wade in the creek by the mill. Even though it was 90 degrees that weekend - the creek was freezing! Well it does come from the spring
The kids really enjoyed the Gus Grissom Memorial - they have always been interested in Astronomy and Space travel. They were quite excited to learn we had an astronaut from right here in our own "back yard." And Ash made the announcement that he would be attending Purdue University to earn his engineering degree just like Mr Grissom.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)