What I Say, What They Hear...

Me to Preston: You play in your room quietly while I take a shower (thinking: and get a break from you!).

What Preston hears: Come in the bathroom every two minutes to ask completely random questions.

Me to Callen: Good nite, baby, sleep allllll nite long!

What Callen hears: Wake up every two hours and demand to nurse every time.

Me to Preston: Your brother is sleeping, please play quietly.

What Preston hears: Play as loud as I can, bang and crash every toy I own, sing at the top of my lungs.

Me to Callen: Don't grab the spoon while I'm trying to get the food in your mouth.

What Callen hears: Grab the spoon!  Grab the spoon!  Fling the food off the spoon!

Me to Preston: You have to wait until I'm done feeding Callen to play with your DS, don't ask me again.

What Preston hears: Ask again every two seconds. Now? Now? Now?  Now?

Me to Callen: I'm going to put you down for a minute, don't fuss.

What Callen hears: She's going to put me down and wants me to scream my head off. WAAAAA!

Homeschool Recap, Week 18

We are 18 weeks into Kindergarten?  Already!  Eek!  I've tried to post fun things we've been doing on this blog since we started, but I want to start posting more highlights from school each week. Every day we start with the Jesus Calling Devotional (the one I reviewed) and Scripture, then do 4 or 5 more 'subjects' or activities.  Here are a few of the things we did this week...

Monday:

 - Preston has been struggling with his letters lately, so I had him write his capital and lower case alphabet in his BEST WRITING on his "Biggest Picture Ever!*" and when he really tried, his letters came out perfect!  I knew he had it in him, he was just being lazy.

- It was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, so I read part of his "I Have a Dream" speech to Preston as he colored a picture. And see how nice his letters are here?!?!  SEEEEE!

- We discussed how there are "cool" colors and "warm" colors.  We looked at some painting as examples and I had him paint me something in "cool" colors.  He said he wanted it to be abstract.

Tuesday:

- We worked on syllables and recapped the 7 continents, poles, and directions (N,E,S,W) on the globe.

- Discussed place value, how to read long numbers and where the commas go.  I was VERY impressed with how quickly Preston picked this up!  And, he was able to read a long number (it was a million something!) for Daddy at dinner.  This is BIG because usually at dinner, he says he's forgotten everything and can't recall anything that we did that morning.  Ha!

- Went over different kinds of lines you see in art (straight, curved, zigzag, etc).

Drawing lines in his "Line Book"

Callen gets a little bored during school.

Wednesday & Thursday:

- Worked on place value with a couple of base ten worksheets.

- Looked at a few paintings, discussed lines, colors and mood.

- Preston read "Oh, Bother! Someone's Jealous!"

Friday:

We tend to take it easy on Fridays and not do much - if anything. 
- Preston's only real assignment that day was to draw a picture in his Bible notebook about something we learned or talked about regarding God this week.  He drew a picture of him being led by the Holy Spirit.  Super cute!  There are these little fires on the ground with arrows pointing, like follow this way!  He came up with that on his own!  Love that!

All in all, it was a better week than most.  Only a few instances of defiance or "I don't wanna reaaaadddd."  So, I can't complain too much.  He got to spend the nite with his Grandma Darlene and Grandpa David on Friday nite...I think that's a pretty good reward for having a good week in school.  =)

* Preston's "Biggest Picture Ever!" idea was stolen from Ramona & Beezus (I think that's the only part of the movie he remembers), then implemented when the UPS man delivered a giant box of diapers (woo, deal on Amazon) and inside was a long sheet of brown paper (packing material) - perfect for Preston to draw on!  The first day he drew just a little bit on the paper and declared he was done, and we should hang it up!  I have convinced him that it's something we can add on to as we go - and so far, when I want him to work on something specific (like writing his alphabet, for example), doing it on the "Biggest Picture Ever!" makes it way more exciting.  Also, Daddy promised to hang it up on the wall in the garage when we're done.

The Faith of Ronald Reagan by Mary Beth Brown

The Faith of Ronald Reagan, by Mary Beth Brown, was written because so many other biographies and articles written about the former president leave out a very important part of his life.  You can guess by the title, I'm talking about Reagan's faith.  He was a strong believer in God, Jesus Christ, prayer and the Bible.  Brown's book is chock full of Reagan's own words regarding these subjects - whether they were spoken candidly to his own children, written in letters to friends or spoken clearly in his many great speeches.  Brown also takes the reader through Reagan's history, from childhood to his passing, emphasizing the huge impact his mother's faith had on him all through his life.  Ronald Reagan was a man truly blessed by God in many ways.  He lived through hard times, he rose in fame and power, he loved and lost, but through it all his faith remained firm.  He believe God had a plan for him, and he was willing to let God lead.

I am not big on politics, and thankfully this book does not go down that road... it is a pleasant, interesting read.  I learned facts about the assassination attempt that I never before, I learned about Reagan's first marriage and more about his beautiful relationship with Nancy, but mostly I learned that Reagan was a man of his word and a man of God's word.  He prayed constantly, he allowed God to rule his life and his decisions.  He wasn't a perfect man, by any means... but he did what he thought was right based on Biblical principals.  I really enjoyed this book more than I thought I would... I really found the fact that Reagan's faith such a vital role in his life to be of great comfort and interest.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Overwhelming Inspiration...

I love Google Reader.  I spent a whole day recently organizing my RSS feeds.  Why did it take me a whole day?  Because I'm crazy and subscribe to WAYYYY too many blogs.  That's why.  But, I love reading blogs.  Well, some blogs.  Certain blogs that inspire me, or inform me or entertain me.  I have three different sets of blogs in my feed: Deal Blogs, Homeschool Blogs and Friend Blogs.  

I'm not really subscribed to that many "Friend Blogs" so those are easy to keep on top of.  The Deal Blogs are updated constantly all day long, so they are never-ending.  The Homeschool Blogs are each usually updated once a day or every other day, so there aren't as many filling up my feed, but these are the ones I spend more time on.  These are the ones I have to find time to sit and read through.  They are inspiring.  And completely overwhelming!  I find myself in awe of these moms who are so amazing at doing what they do - y'know, being a mom!  I don't know how they do it.  I have two kids.  These moms average 5 or so.  They keep their house in tip-top shape, they cook amazing meals every day, they school, play and take care of their 5 or so children... and they have time to sit and blog and create things to share with the rest of us.  HOW DO THEY DO IT?!?!?  They have these amazing plans, schedules, ideas, talents and apparently an unending supply of energy and patience.  I am jealous of them.  I rarely have any of those things, let alone any at the same time!

So, I love reading these blogs and gleaning ideas and inspiration from them (and stealing their pre-made worksheets and games), but they also beat me down.  Because they make me look like a bum!  Why can't I think of that stuff?  Why don't I take the time to do that with my kids?  Why am I hoping we can just have Taco Bell for dinner again? Oh, right... because I'm sitting here reading all these blogs instead of actually DOING THINGS!  Duh, Jade!  The only thing that keeps me going is when these Super Moms post blogs admitting that they, too, have off days.  They fail at things.  They don't know what they're doing here and there.  Oh my gosh, they ARE human?  Yay!  What?  Is that mean?  It's just nice to know that I'm not the only one who has to call off school for the day.  The only one who has to call off EVERYTHING for the day!

Isn't it bizarre you can feel so connected to and interested in people you've never met in your life, and probably never will?  You've never met them, but you can totally look into their lives, take from their experiences, get encouragement from their highs (and lows!) and just generally be "friends."  Oh, sweet World Wide Web... what would I do without you? [Answer: I'd probably have a house that is much cleaner, children who have more attention paid to them, more time to figure out a meal plan, etc...]