I consider it all joy...sometimes

Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. - James 1:2-3

I consider parenting a great joy in my life, but yesterday was one of the less than joyful moments.  Hannah was having some behavior issues, giving me an attitude when she was told to do something.  I said if she didn't straighten up she couldn't play soccer.

Long story short, I caught her slapping her sister and knew I had  to follow through.  I cannot describe how much I hated having to go through with this punishment.  I took no pleasure in it at all.  It was the last game and Hannah has been loving soccer.

At our Strong-Willed Child bible study last Wednesday, a woman in class talked about a friend's teenage daughter who got her car taken away for lying about where she was going to be one night.  This girl knew she would have her car back in less than a week, because her parents never followed through with any prior punishments.   I could have called off the punishment thinking I would go through with it the next time, but  it would no doubt have gotten harder and harder to do.  Before I know it Hannah and Autumn will be teenagers and well aware of the pushover I had become. I emailed her coach, and his wife responded saying she understood and respected my follow-through since so many parents don't do that.  I really appreciated that bit of encouragement.

I told Hannah I let her coach know she would not be at the game, and she acted like a big girl.  I was quite proud of her.  While at the time it was so hard to do, I have absolutely no regrets! I hope I can encourage all parents to follow through and make your statements more than just empty threats.  Your kids may claim to hate you, but they will come to respect you and definitely won't forget having to miss out on that one thing they love.

Week in Review #45: Ii is for Insects and Ice Cream

My star students :)

Even though we did an insect and ice cream theme last week, we had more fall activities than we did during F and H week! I guess the fall spirit is finally hitting me. :) The girls did have some hands-on insect activity (all done on their own :-p) through digging in the dirt in the flower bed.  I didn't mind since everything is starting to die. They are both intrigued by bugs.  Crazy girls. 

Hannah started adding double-digits this week. When I saw it coming up in her book I really dreaded it, but it hasn't been too bad. You just have to break it down little by little--add the tens place and then the ones place. Not so bad.  We finished up Venus in astronomy.  Our next lesson is the moon, which I'm going to wait on because I want it to coincide when we do the letter M. :) Until then we can focus more on other subjects, possibly get a little ahead.

The week's activities:

patterns

prewriting

cutting practice...getting better!!

We made a chain counting down the days
when Ryan comes back.  This is 10 days and
now there is only 4!!! :-D

A pic that wouldn't cooperate :P These are fall trees. The
trunk and branches are hands and forearm and then they
finger painted the foliage using red, yellow, and orange

fall sensory bin

ice cream letter  match

safety first in soccer

puzzles

Insect cutting strips...these can be done simply with
paper, a sharpie, and stickers.  Super easy to include
in any theme, or use your kids' favorite characters! :)

Hannah wanted to have a picnic in the yard for lunch on
Thursday :)

This week we are working on Jj, and so far everything is going very well.  Yesterday was a bit bumpy (more on that later...oy), but Ryan will be home on Saturday so this week can't be anything but good!!


Printables (not all are pictured)

Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop - Insect Activity Pages (these are all black and white which I fully appreciated! I cut all the activities and stapled them together to make little booklets.)
Lanternfish - Letter Ii worksheets
2 Teaching Mommies - Bee worksheets
2 Teaching Mommies - Ice Cream worksheets
Homeschool Creations - Fall Fun Learning Pack

Week in Review #44: Hh is for Halloween and Headstrong

I know it's a bit early for Halloween, but it's still fun. :) We even got Halloween costumes this week.  Hannah will be a "storybook princess" (which is basically a Cinderella knock-off) and Autumn will be a kitty which comes with a little dress, head band, and bloomers (or pantalettes, I guess they're called). And after Halloween they can be dress-up clothes. :)

Still working on the whining thing (more so with Autumn). I'm becoming very patient, and maybe a little amused, when Autumn has a big drag-out fit when she doesn't get her way. She didn't get a snack at Hannah's soccer game on Monday (sometimes there will be extras so siblings will get some), so she wailed and stomped all the way to the car.  When we got to the car she had the gall to ask if she could watch a DVD. Silly girl. On the drive home she continued thrashing and kicking the seat.  She was wearing her Sketchers Twinkle Toes so all you saw were all these lights flashing everywhere. Ha. I think  ignoring her was more of a punishment than a spanking would have been.

On top of this, I'm trying to be proactive in potty training.   I've been trying to take her to the potty every 15 minutes, so I'm hoping the general idea will click. Hannah was 3 and a half before it completely clicked with her, so I  have six more months before I should really start to panic.  Autumn is actually showing some interest.  Twice she has taken it upon herself to sit on the potty. Sure, she's already wet her pants but it's the thought that counts. She did pee in the potty once though! Go Autumn!

Now for some school-related fun!

 We are learning about Venus, and this is an experiment on what happens after one of its volcanoes erupts. I'll make a separate post about this. Such a simple experiment!

 Autumn is putting pieces of straws on to pipecleaners. Helps with fine motor skills. :) Hannah got into it as well.

 Meagan got Emma and Autumn both Dora puzzles for their birthday.  Each box has three puzzles. They are about 15 pieces each.  Autumn is getting better and better about putting together most of it herself. I'll guide her, saying, "Fill the hole in Dora's face." :)

 "H is for..." cut and paste

 Halloween 3-piece puzzles.  I'm sure  it sucked out a good bit of color ink, but they were too cute. :) These reminded me of those progress puzzles where you move to more pieces little by little, so maybe I can make some 4 and 5-pieces puzzles for next time.

 This was from the same day with the straws and pipecleaners.  Hannah continued making jewelry long after Autumn moved on to something else. :)

 I heard about this as a rainy day activity, but Hannah had found Ryan's tape measure and was already measuring various items around the house. So I gave her a list. She sure enjoyed it. We'll count this as math. :)

Getting down and dirty with the Play Doh Fun Factory :-D

This week definitely had it's moments, and I am so grateful for the weekend. Hannah had a soccer game this morning and almost scored a goal....for the other team.  But she looked adorable doing it, and she has so much fun! "I love soccer and I love Mr. Donald (her coach)!" she proclaimed earlier this week.

Next week will be Ii. The themes will be insects and ice cream (but not combined! Gross!).

This post is linked to the Weekly Wrap-Up

Printables (not all are pictured)

Education.com - H coloring pages
Homeschool Creations - Preschool Alphabet
LAWTEEDAH - Halloween Tot Pack
Do2Learn - Shape Tracing
Coloring Book Fun - Halloween coloring pages
DLTK - Halloween bingo cards

First Soccer Game

Hannah the Swift

This past Saturday was Hannah's first soccer game! It went very well. All the kids got to play in at least two quarters and received a lot of help from their coaches.  This is 6-7 year olds, so it's not quite so hardcore. They didn't keep score which definitely made it more fun. :)  Hannah played goalie for a quarter and stopped a goal! She had a lot of fun! I'm very proud!

Stopping a goal! Woohoo!

getting direction from Mr Donald

giving Mr. Donald a high five

Run Hannah Run!

We have a game tonight, practice on Thursday, and another game on Saturday.  This all will last about a month. Busy, busy. :) My parents will be in town this weekend, so they'll get to see Hannah play.  Hopefully Hannah won't stop mid-field to wave to Grendy and Papaw.  Oh, well, she probably will and that's okay. :)

Week in Review #42: Ff is for Farm and Family Reading

The activity you see above was by far my favorite and the idea just came to me while flipping through my Pinterest boards.  The girls "built" a farm with various printables.  All I did was glue on the "sky" and "grass" on big pieces of cardboard, and then I let the girls creativity take over. :) Autumn was more interested in seeing how much glue she could layer on. Four (!) glue sticks later we were done. Glad I stocked up during all the back to school stuff. :)

The completed works:

All is well on Hannah's side of the pasture...

..unfortunately Hurricane Autumn went through and
mixed everything up a little. :)

More fun from the week:

Building airplanes (this was her doing!
Impressive!)

Making numbers with the new Play Doh set
her daddy got her

Fall Bingo

Flower puzzle

Hannah pointing to something intriguing
in her math

My cool mom moment of the week--licking beaters while
I made snickerdoodles!

Isn't this the cutest coloring page? Capital
and lowercase letters are each a different
color so you can see what the picture is
(in case it wasn't obvious :p)

Hannah is doing great with the Daily Language Review.  Of course the concepts aren't really review for her so we're having to spend a day or so more on each assignment, which is fine. She's understanding what makes a sentence and what doesn't. Everything else is going along just fine as well. She's still very much into astronomy. On Wednesday we talked about how cold Mercury gets when it's not facing the sun.  I asked her to draw in her notebook what Mercury looks like when it's cold. She drew Mercury in an ice cube! I just laughed out loud! How clever is she!

I did not stress myself this week at all. We got back from Clarksville on Tuesday, so we only had a 3-day week.  We still got the basics done--math, language, Bible, and astronomy. Autumn has recently taken to this animal puzzle game on my phone and can put together all of them in mere minutes. I was sneaky and put it at the next level of difficulty and she still did well. :)

 During meals we have picked up again on reading Little House in the Big Woods.  The kids didn't seem very interested after a couple chapter, but then Hannah asked me to read some one day during lunch and we've done it every day. Although Hannah has the tendency to interrupt constantly, just with whatever random thought that pops into her head (Gee, Ryan, I wonder where she gets that from!).  Today I finally had to tell her that if she interrupts then I was going to stop reading and we  would just pick it up again the next time.  She seems unhappy to stop so abruptly, so maybe it'll work.

The weekend is already looking full--soccer game, birthday party, and church! Fun stuff!

Printables

Build-A-Farm: Barnyard Friends by Whimsy Primsy, At the Farm Printables
Flower Puzzle: 2 Teaching Mommies
ABC coloring pages: Hidden Picture Color by Letters
Bingo cards: DLTK's Custom Bingo Cards

This post is linked up to the Weekly Wrap-Up.

Week in Review #40: Ee is for Earth and Eccentric Education

The week started out with an unplanned trip to the zoo! Hannah's lesson in her Bible curriculum was animals of day 5, and Autumn had a file folder game where she had to separate animals into three categories: ocean, farm, and zoo. Feeling like a super cool mom, I said, "You know where we can go and see these animals..."  Both girls immediately cried out, "The zoo!!" So we got dressed, packed the cooler and away we went. The zoo was eerily quiet since school is back in session.  It was actually kind of nice.

Hannah narrates to me in her own words
what she is learning from the latest lesson
and copies it in her astronomy notebook.

I've been reading the astronomy lessons to both the girls while they're eating or working on a craft.  We skipped to lesson 5 for this week, the lesson on Earth to obviously coincide with Autumn doing "E for Earth" stuff.  It's all very interesting.  Either I was never taught this in school or I just did not pay attention to ANYTHING! :)

Hannah got a 94 on this test ;-D

The rest of the week was very productive.  New activities started this week for Wednesday night church.  I was quite pleased with that.  The girls were beyond giddy to go to their own groups.  I think we all were anxious to get away from each other for a couple hours. :)

Other activities from the week:

Earth bingo (Hannah called it Earth-O)

 I printed these bingo cards from DLTK.  You can customize them with different themes and sizes. I think we'll be using these alot! :)

The morning board in action!

Earth craft..super easy! Blue paper circles,
scraps of green paper, pulled apart cotton
for clouds.

No, TV is not part of the curriculum, but they
were sitting so nicely together I had to get
a picture. :)

Autumn working on dry erase pages

animal sorting

Sensory bin...this was a big hit! I should have brought it out
forever ago! I'll be making plenty more of these!

First soccer practice! Hannah loves it!
More on that later I'm sure.

Next week is F which will be a combination of flower, fall, and farm!

This post is linked up to the Weekly Wrap-Up