Card Making

Yesterday at our Keepers at Home club meeting, the girls practiced their club song Stepping in the Light. I just love hearing their sweet voices! It is especially cute when the little ones really shout it out.

One of the badges we are working on is the Books of the Old Testament. I have had a few of the girls already recite them all to me. I decided to give the girls a little challenge: they were given signs with various books of the Old Testament on them and they had to line up in order.

I was very impressed with how quickly they accomplished this task, and it was so nice seeing the older ones helping the younger girls.

After working on our Compassion lesson, the girls continued creating more cards as part of their card making badge. They made beautiful Easter cards like this one:

We have a few more cards to make and then we will have earned our card making badge. Coming soon- cross stitching!

OUCH!!!

Yesterday, I had these wonderful plans. It was our first Friday away from co-op and so I thought we would just have a nice day of a bit of school work, and then possibly go somewhere in the early afternoon before our daughter's friend was to come over. A field trip to the hospital was not what I had in mind! I just finished working with my son on his Kindergarten work and was getting ready to take down the large pocket chart we had used to play a game. My little guy came running under the pocket chart and slipped forward, smashing his nose right on the edge of our school table.

Oh my goodness, the blood was everywhere. I started screaming, he was crying, it was crazy! Those who know me know I don't deal very well with "emergency situations" like that. But, I was able to compose myself and get him to the local children's hospital emergency room, where we stayed for a good part of the day. We of course, are no strangers to the emergency room. Why, just my husband alone has been to every emergency room in our city- we have over a dozen hospitals just to clarify how fascinating that fact is.  As far as our children go, there was the "Rotavirus Nasty" (as we all affectionately call that ordeal) our oldest had in 2003 which put her in the hospital for 4 days. Then there was our little girl's fall that took her in the ambulance on a head board and almost sent me into labor with our son.

But our little guy really has not had anything- that is until yesterday. So, I am thankful he is not more injured, and I am thankful he is not in much pain. His poor nose is swollen pretty bad though, and I think the hardest part will be trying to keep him from running around and hurting himself again!

Isn't it funny how plans can just change in the blink of an eye?

It's Almost Here!

As I mentioned in a previous post, our oldest daughter entered the Florida Blue Young Authors Contest and won! The winner of the contest has their story actually made into a book, which is published by the Books By Kids Foundation.

This week, I received an e-mail with an attachment of the "rough final copy" of the book. It took my breath away when I saw it! There on the pages of the book were my daughter's beautiful words along with darling illustrations created by the patients of two local children's hospitals. I just can't even put into words, what it felt like to see the cover of the book with my daughter's name and photograph on it!

So, I just wanted to spread the word for everyone to get ready because Tampa Bay From A to Z is coming! For more information on the Books by Kids Foundation, go to http://www.booksbykids.com/ They are doing an entire series of books, so be on the lookout for a book about your home town!

A Dance Recital, Life Skills, and Some Monkeys

 Friday was the last day of co-op classes for the semester. It was bittersweet because on one hand, now our Fridays will be open and we can do more field trips and go on other adventures. But on the other hand, my children will miss their classes and friends, and they won't be attending the fall semester of co-op because we will be overseas.

My little girl's favorite class this semester at co-op was ballet. This was her first experience with ballet and she loved it! The girls did a short performance for all the parents on Friday. It was really sweet watching them concentrate so much on their steps and giggling throughout the whole show.

My little girl has also been working on her ironing skill award for Keepers at Home. I have to admit I was (and still am!) a bit nervous when she uses the iron. I have received a few minor burns while ironing, and so I always tell her to focus on the job and never let your fingers get in the way of the iron because the iron will win! She actually enjoys this skill and it is too cute watching her work.

Last but not least, we went away this weekend to some springs about 3 hours away from home. The weather was just beautiful and the water was nice and cool.

We saw all sorts of birds, alligators, river otters, and even monkeys! Yes- monkeys. Several years ago, monkeys were brought in and now they have dozens of them! The babies were so cute, clinging to their mothers and observing everything going on.

Here are our own monkeys! We spent the weekend with family and the kids really enjoyed playing with their cousins.

Kindergarten Fun: Part 2

Our 2 girls attended Kindergarten at our local public school. Although I feel they received a great education and had fun, I see Kindergarten in a whole new way, now that my little guy is in it. Boys are, well, different! While my girls thrived in that school setting with academics being the main focus, that just is not the case for my little guy. I am pleased with our day if I can complete up to one hour of academic work with him. The rest of his day is spent playing, exploring, building, digging, and just living life!

It is quite the challenge on most days, getting him to just even start his school work. He wakes up pretty early, and gets right to "work", building something with his Lincoln Logs, Legos, or Trio Blocks. He then will move to the outside world where he will dig and dig, ride his bike, or come up with some really neat imaginary game to play. When I call him to come to the school table, I am not met with enthusiasm, to say the very least.Who likes to stop playing??? But the funny thing is, once I get him past his calendar time activities, he is pretty cooperative and completes all the academics I have for him.

The key is keeping things moving, interesting, and quick. And it's not that he's not smart- quite the opposite. When he WANTS to, he can write me things and read words I have never taught him. And he will impress me with his math skills and other things I have never officially taught him, but he somehow knows. It's just that he is always thinking about what he could be doing instead of school work. I often see a look in his beautiful blue eyes that tells me "C'mon Mom- I have things to discover and things to build!"

I think most moms with little boys will agree that boys just want to have fun and get their feet wet, so to say. Having to stop and do school work is just getting in the way!

But he's quite the little trooper and HE has taught ME so much about slowing down and just enjoying life. I know that too soon, he will grow up and not be my "little guy" anymore. But for now he is my little guy, and he is only in Kindergarten. He has the rest of his life to "do school". For now, I am happy with him "doing life".