Well, it's been some time since I last blogged. We have had ALOT happen these past few weeks. All beginning with the birth of our daughter, Raenah Grace.  Home Schooling was on hold for a couple of weeks as we adjusted to this new life in our family.  Kali and I are now starting to pick things up again..slowly, but surely.  Anyssa, I am noticing, is REALLY wanting to write her name and practices writting letters on her own...without really realizing that she IS writing letters and what letters they are. So I'm going to start to focus progressing her along this line.  We will be working out different schedules to see what works best with the baby...and we are excited to see where God is leading us all on this new journey.  Will keep you posted as much as I can.

Pregnancy hormones: the tragedy-maker....

It's been one of those up and down weeks. Some days were good, others, well not so good. My biggest problem was myself. Being in the last weeks of pregnancy, I have given into the irritable, up/down emotional roller coaster of hormones WAY to much, and found myself on my knees before God and my children on more than one occasion. I also found myself getting easily distracted by the sweeping exhaustion of my body and mind and so I did not stick to the schedule I had planned daily for our lessons. I could see that this was not only affecting my mood, but also the mood of my girls. Now, in spite of these negatives, we did have some really productive moments. We celebrated the first day of Fall on September 22ND by learning more about the season of Autumn, studying leaves and the changing of colors around us. Reading several stories of why these things happen (Kali LOVES the whys of things so this satisfies her appetite of knowing). WE also did a few fall craft projects and the girls got to get into the kitchen, on separate occasions, to make daddy some fall season goodies. Kali made daddy dinner one night, warm chicken potpie with vegetables relating to this season, and Anyssa got to make daddy a delectable desert of apple spice cake. The kitchen is not only a GREAT learning center for math and science...it's also good on the tummy! yummo

I had planned on going to the library at least two times this week, however we did not make even one of these days. Daddy plans on taking the girls today, Saturday the 26Th, while I do a couple of sewing projects with his mom and sister. yay for daddy daughter time!

We were able to get out of the house on Friday (I forced myself and was SO happy to do this. NEVER good to hibernate too long in your home, depression sets in fast, or is that cabin fever??) . I took the kids to a homeschooling function hosted by the Boys and Girls club at NCCS. IT was SO nice to be able to sit and talk with other moms in our area who are homeschooling, AND the kids got to make new friends and play lots of cool games. Snacks and craft projects were provided as well. This was a much needed and nice two hour outing and it REALLY did good to lift ALL our spirits. After this morning, we had a GREAT school afternoon, full of creative ways to learn our math and english. By the grace of God , all by the Grace of God.

Kali Jo working out our math problems on a chalk board...sure beats sitting at a desk working out of a book (although she did have a math sheet later).

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Memory Verse

The first two weeks of school our memory verse was Proverbs 3:5. This week our verse is Mark 10:44.  Tying in last weeks verse, "trusting God" to provide what the degrees of our glory shall be and not in ourselves or the praise of others. For we know that God loves us and will only give us what is ultimately good for us. So we think of others better than ourselves, so that God is glorified to them through us, and our glory will come from Him.

Nia is joing in on all the fun of school too!!

The last few days of school I have been noticing that Nia has went from counting to three to counting to FIVE! This is SO exciting to me. She's been joining in on puzzle fun and projects, and "wants" to be a part of all we do. Anyssa is really blossoming too. Today she did a couple of color pages from her numbers book, which helps her develop her counting and number recognition skills by counting dots and then choosing the correct colors that correspond to those dots. After two pages she wanted to do more..so I took out her Alphabet work book and she did a full page of matching letters. She was so excited! She also put together a geometrical puzzle all by herself! I SO wish I had taken a picture. I took some of Kali doing the puzzle so you can at least see what she did as well, keeping up with her big sis! :)

 

Cultivation in the process....

I'm laughing while posting this latest cartoon because this is SO me on any day with my three girls when I'm trying to read to them at the same time.

It's been a while since my last post. We have had a busy week, productive yes, much more relaxed and enjoyable. I believe we are getting into the swing of things, but still have a few tweaks to make. Kali is moving along nicely in her school work. We had a few talks with her this past week because of the comments she kept making about missing her old school. I was afraid that she was not enjoying this new experience and that she would end up not enjoying learning. Joe had a heart to heart with her and found that she just misses her kindergarten teacher,Mrs. Brown, and her friend Mikaela. So we told her we would go back to her old school and take a visit one of these days. This was a relief for me because I was getting worried that she wouldn't enjoy being schooled at home. I really believe she enjoys the structure of her old classroom. I believe once we get more settled into our system that she'll start to feel like this is more school than she realizes. It's hard for us because I have the other two who are not into that structure and so I try to give that to Kali as much as possible while still trying to keep things free for the other girls.  Not an easy mix.

I am incorporating more games into Kali's learning. She really likes this, what kid wouldn't right? She's doing great with her math, and I believe we are ready to start on her phonics next week. I just wanted to make sure she knew all her letters and a few sounds before starting her on vertical phonics.  Her writing is great. She normally copies words in this bible color book I got for her at CBS(LOVE these booksColour-bible-book-genesis-2-chronicles). I have also been also printing off the lower-case alphabet for her to practice every day, along with the day of the week, month of the year, and number of the day from Handwriting for kids (another AWESOME site). Anyssa and I are still trying to find what works for her. She really likes matching, counting and coloring. We did a really cool cut, color and paste project for the letter A together at the library. She seemed to enjoy working "with" me on this and she did a GREAT job (although I think it would have went better if we weren't at the library b/c she kept wanting to get up and go play with the books and puzzles, which is a good thing too). I'm going to start doing playdough letters with her next week and some cool counting games that I'm sure she'll enjoy. All fun stuff.

Nia, let me just tell you...this little one amazes me constantly. She is NOW the teacher. She has been "teaching" her sisters lately. She plays the roll very well. All prim and instructional (hmm, sounds like me) with her pencil in her hand gently directing the girls in their school work. It's SO cute to watch.  It's going be great to see where this all leads her. She's going to be one step ahead I believe because she watches and models well her sisters and I.

Full and Furious

Our first week was a success. A few bumps in the road. Some things that needed to be tweaked and we are on our way to our second week! Today is Monday, September 14, 2009 (as I'm getting Kali to write on all her papers). We had a FULL day today. I'm exhausted and all ready to go to bed. Than I realize that I STILL have to make dinner! Don't teachers have cooks? lol Kids are with daddy at Gema's to clean up from the weekend camp out day and expend some energy. I thought I would get on and relax in my blog before going down and folding some more laundry and getting the kids things ready for bed. Here is what our day looked like.

I slept in until 8:30 today, yes I did. Daddy and Nia were up and he had already made her eggs for breakfast. He left for work and the rest of us ate, dressed, brushed teeth, made beds and I then attempted to jump right into school. However, I did get side tracked during "dress time" folding laundry (has to be done sometime right??). Finally got house picked up and we headed up for prayer and bible time (circle time). Great time of prayer and thanksgiving with the kids. Bible memory verse Prov. 3:5 (in short) (still the same as last week). Read Psalm 46: 1-7 and had the kids yelling out and mimicking strength as we recited, "God is our place of safety. He gives us strength. He is always there to help us in times of troubles." They LOVED this. Especially Nia, she had the most fun with it, the other girls were just laughing at her. We than read our story, "Braving the Storm", still demonstrating "trusting in God" and how God takes the things we think are ugly/bad and turns them into blessings. Great story. On to music time!! Nia's favorite today because she got to play the drums. We actually had to give everyone a chance to play drums today. The kids just wanted to beat the heck out of that little drum set..hmm..(wonder what they are thinking while beating that drum)..Anyways we Sang, "He's got the whole world in His hands" again, and a few other bible songs the kids each picked while jamming out on their instruments. Did a few stretch songs/games and than each of the girls got to "lead" the "head, shoulders, knees" song. I was pooped after just this. However, as they say "school MUST go on" (someone said that right??).

At this point I had Nia and Anyssa take a basket down and pick out some toys to play in school while I worked with Kali on the 3 R's (reading, writing and arithmetic). She is doing much better recognizing her alphabet, she knows the basic sounds to the letters, just has a hard remembering the names of a couple of the letters. We then worked on her practicing her writing letter formation and number identification. We used the It's a Match Level 3 math game from Discovery Toys that Gema had gotten for the girls (seemed to be a hit) and than did a few work sheets (Kali loves her math). I'm also working on her writing out her 100's chart. Not her favorite, but I feel she needs this. I took an idea from Elizabeth's Zoo train and we started making an Alphabet train today. We got the engine made and the first three carriages Aa, Bb, Cc. Kali wrote out the letters and tomorrow we will write out all the phonemes of each letter and cut and past pics that represent these sounds in our carriage cars. I figured each day we would get three letter carriages finished. Kali is loving it so far.

Anyssa had a fun filled educational day too. We mostly did "learn as we go" today. I had her counting out her toys and books to pick up. We worked on "size" recognition while she helped me find 3 different sizes for the wheels on our train. I had her work on her color match puzzle on her own and name off the colors (which I don't know why I'm having her do this, because she doesn't have a problem with her colors). Than her and I worked on a 48 piece puzzle together (I'm learning this is her favorite mommy/me time thing to do). I did not get to her letters today, but we will have time to do this tomorrow.

All in all, a busy day with all three girls. Nia was my little helper and she got to do a few puzzles as well. Fun times. Tomorrow I am going to try and get them outside for some exploration. We have a busy school week ahead. Wednesdays and Friday's are our library school times. The girls and I are looking forward to this time. Wednesday is also play group. Take a deep breath, pray and GO!

Here are some great sites I found today. 

Mathematics at About.com

A to Z Phonics.com

   Songs for Teaching

Ok..SO it's not all flowers and sunshine!

Anyssa Jayne Smalligan

Where do I begin? Anyssa is my princess, in EVERY sense of the word. She is total girl, total diva. She will steal your heart with her embracive smile. She's total daddy's girl and mommy's girl. Equally balanced I believe. She wants to be the center of attention and when she's not will do what ever it takes, positive and negative, to get it.  She has a BIG heart, is senstive like her momma, and yet tough like her daddy.  Anyssa is 4 years old and we are preschooling her at home. This is a BIG challenge for me because it seems that she's lethargic to any type of instruction at the moment. Disinterested in be a part of anything that has to do with school. Is she rebelling? I dont really know. I was ready to sign her up for preschool today and drop her off tomorrow. It's very taxing TRYING to find the right style for her. Especially when she just doesn't seem to want to do anything. I will say, there were two positives today. She did sit with me and work on her letter A. I had her color a pic of her letter (working on recognizing her name), which she started with exuberance, and than 5 mins into it was ready to be done. I tried to get her to cut it out, but she wasn't having that. So I sat her on my lap and had her pick out all the a's she could find in one of the "easy phonics readers" books that Molly had given me.  She didn't seem to mind doing that, but more enjoyed me reading the book to her when we were finished. She also helped me put together a very advanced puzzle, was VERY interested in helping mommy with this, and did a GREAT job. So now seeing this maybe I am just trying to hard with her? I just need to find a way to incorporate her learning into play with mommy? Even that is still hard because I still have Nia who wants my attention as well. And yes, my Nia Mae's.I'm not so sure what was up with her today. She couldn't leave my side for anything! Maybe it was all the attention her other sisters were getting, that yes, she does normally get. I going to have to work another plan. Just pray Angeal, right?!

A very FULL day indeed. And yet, not really all that enjoyable for me. I really just wanted to cry half the time. I know this is just the first week. Things will get better once we find what works. It's just the process of finding it that is exhausting me right now!

On a positive note, Kali had a GREAT day. Still haven't done an art project with her, which I can tell she's not too happy about and I'm starting to feel bad about. I did let her color the first letter of her name and cut it out b/c she was upset that Anyssa got to do this and she didn't. So I was like, what the heck, it's a small project but will please her. And she did seem happier to do so. However, this girl LOVES math. Every time I brought up another lesson she was like, "math, math, I LOVE math" and then seemed disappointed that we had to do something else. She's not as crazy about working on her letters and sounds and writing, but LOVES her math! lol So... I'll have a math wiz, I'm ok with that, right! *smiles*

So tomorrow is a new day. Daddy just took the kids out to the park to release pent up energy (they are driving me CRAZY with all this noise coming out of their mouths and never ending vivacity) because I just DO NOT have it in me to run around with them outside. I'm looking forward to some quiet. ahh... Thank you Lord for this day. For even in the hard times I know there is good and a lesson to be learned!

...

Our First Offical Day...

What a great day, short, but still good. I learned a lot from this day and am hoping that the kids learned a lot too.  To start off with the Dahlstroms picked Kali and Anyssa up around 8:15 in their VBus (ha ha, van dressed as a bus). The girls LOVED it! I wish I had pics to post but I could not find our camera and Joe has no idea where it is as well. NOT happy about that...but Mr. Dahlstrom drove the kids over to Heather's and she got some pics of them for me (thank you Heather, Love ya, AND thank you Elizabeth for calling her and asking her to take some pics of the girls) .  Nia was not too happy that she could not ride in the school bus so I took her for a walk while we waited for the VBus to drop Kali and Anyssa back off at home school.  I had not yet eaten so when the girls got back we sat at the table while I ate and discussed why we give thanks to God and read a verse from the bible (psalm 107:1) "give thanks to the Lord for He is good and His love endures forever". We than went around and took turns giving thanks to Him for different things He has done for us, or given us. Our story today during bible time also represented giving thanks to God for even the bad things because He works those bad pieces of ugly material (our bad experiences) in with the beautiful pieces to make a whole beautiful quilt. Something we don't see when we are just always looking at the ugly. 

We then headed upstairs to our classroom and had a great time doing our circle time/bible time. The kids NEED to get to bed earlier though, Anyssa was not enjoying the time as much as Kali, and I believe it had a lot to do with the fact that she did not get as much sleep as she needed. Kali on the other hand LOVED every second of it.  We made it through to about 10:30 - 11:00, ahead of schedule on our subjects, when I could tell Anyssa just couldn't do it anymore. It's not that you had to really pay attention to catch the signs, she was very, visually and verbally displaying her discontent for about an hour. I finally released her and continued to work with Kali on letter recognition and sounds. Then we just had to end the day on that note. Kali wanted to keep going, but I had to gert ready for my appointment at 2:00 in Grand Rapids and Nia was notibally not happy that I wasn't giving her the attention she wanted.  We will continue in Kali's math lesson later tonight with daddy when he get's home.  I have the calendar all set for her and daddy to work on..

I'm thinking that I will work with Kali and Anyssa during different times. We'll still do circle/bible time together, but then I will dismiss Anyssa and work with Kali while Anyssa and Nia play together.  During Nia's nap time I will work with Anyssa while Kali continues in her work.  I have to remind myself that Anyssa and Kali are at different levels and I can't expect Anyssa to do what Kali is doing in matters of time and lessons. So I'm gonna revamp that one.  Need to add more projects in as well. Kali just was not happy that she was not able to do a project. Work in progress is all I can say. All in all though, it was a VERY productive and enjoyable day with the girls. Just some niches to work out.   

Oh and hey, I was able to sweep and mop the kitchen floor and give Nia a bath all before my appointment. That's productive, right?? lol

God Willing What Our First Day Will Look Like

OK, so for the first couple of weeks I'm going to take this litely with the girls. Today especially, since I have an ultrasound appointment in Grand Rapids at 2:00pm. This is what I'm praying/hoping our day will look like.

7am RISE &SHINE (eat breakfast, brush teeth, get dressed, make beds)



8:15 School Bus Ride w/Dahlstroms (Elizabeth made this for her husband to pick the girls up in..SO funny AND SO cute!) The girls are VERY excited for the ride. Kali even made Kendyl a lunch to give her for school today.

8:30 - 9:30 School STARTS with Circle Time (this will be an every morning event to create consistency & bonding time)

• Prayer & childrens prayer request
• Bible verse reading Psalm 37: 3-7 & 37:39-40
• Story to reiterate bible verse (using Keys for Kids Devotionals)
• Reciting of memory verse proverbs 3:5
• song (will let the kids get the instruments out to jam along while we sing) He's Got the Whole World in His Hands
• Action:  If your happy and you know it song with dance
• Application:  Have the kids pick out a "treasure of thiers" to "TRUST" to the other child for the day to care of. (Reiteration of Trust and trusting in God)

9:30 -10:00 READING TIME (all three get to pick books for mom to read) and than if time they will get to read the books on their own
10:-10:30  Work on ABC with Anyssa while Kali "WRITES Out her alphabet & recites as she does
10:30 - 11:00 MATH  Anyssa 123 recognition; Kali writing days out for her calendar (reiterates # recognition) & it's a PROJECT (smiles)
11:00 Closing Prayer & than outside time (if nice)

And no I didn't forget my little Nia...she, during this time, will be coloring, watching a movie of her choice, playing with playdough or her little people playhouse (which she LOVES to do) 
God willing this will all go smoothly...and if not..tomorrow is a new day!