Another week?

I can hardly believe it has been another week since I have last blogged.  Fall is one of the busiest times for me.  I really wanted to post about what we have been learning in school and find I haven't done much of that.  So that is where I will start today. 

MFW-K is going so well for Leah.  She wants to read so bad and is sounding out words from all over the place.  She would do so well if those vowels wouldn't have so many different sounds to them.  She had already learned her sounds last year in MFW-Preschool so K is easy for her.  But that's okay.  She is a bit of a perfectionist and finds the printing a little difficult.  Though she could do the reading I wouldn't want her to be in first grade as the writing would be too much for her.  We are enjoying the projects and fun things we get to do in her school and she is learning great spiritual truths that are interwoven in the curriculum.

We are on lesson three.  Each lesson is 6 days.  So we don't always start a new lesson on Mondays which was a little difficult for me at first.  Lesson one was S-s-sun.  Lesson two was M-m-moon.  Lesson three is L-l-leaf. 

We have been reading fiction books about trees and leaves that have good information in them.  Our words to remember are "I will live and grow in Jesus."  On day one of this lesson we were to look at one of our house plants and discuss how plants need water to live.  Then I told her that one of the leaves didn't want to stay on the plant anymore and went its own way.  I took the leaf off the plant and asked her what she thought would happen to it.  She guessed correctly.  I explained that the plant is like Jesus and we are the leaves.  If we stay on the plant we get nourished.  If we go our own way we shrivel up.

The next day we went out and gathered some leaves from different trees.  She sorted and counted them when we got inside.  Then we put them between paper towels and are pressing them.  We will be using the pressed leaves tomorrow.

Another day we took leaves, put them under white paper, and colored over the paper with crayons.  The result was very lovely.  On Friday we again took some leaves, put them on top of white paper this time, and painted off the edges onto the paper and had a nice painted outline of our leaves. 

I'm so glad MFW has these activities scheduled as I would never come up with them on my own.  Leah is enjoying her school.  I love the Charlotte Mason approach as it is so gentle.  She hardly knows she is learning yet learns so much.

Each day we have different alphabet, phonics, and math activities that she enjoys doing.  One of her favorite is the blend ladder where she makes different words with her Lauri Letters.

Daniel is doing well in his school, CTG, as well.  In history we started at Genesis 1:1.  He has read through creation, the fall, Cain and Abel, Noah and the floods, and the tower of Babel.  Looking ahead to this week he will start studying about ancient Egypt and the pyramids.  I looked in his Pyramids book and saw that he will get to do a neat activity with straws that will demonstrate how a pyramid shape is stronger than a cube shape.

Last week Daniel started learning the books of the Old Testament.  He has learned up to II Chronicles so far.  Then we do an individual sword drill where he looks up a verse and reads it from some of the books of the Bible he has learned so far.  He is so pleased that he can find them.

Another neat thing is that we are studying about the Feasts of the Lord.  It was extra special this week as we built a booth or tabernacle to help celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles.  This Feast of the Lord is one of the most joyous occasions for His people as they celebrate His goodness to them at the end of their harvest and is a week long celebration.  It so happened this year that according to the Creator's calendar it coincided with our Harvest of Thanks celebration at church this past Sabbath.

His people are commanded to build a booth (Sukkot or tabernacle) out of wood and branches and live in it for a week.  We won't be living in ours as it would be too cold (and small).  But we plan to have some meals in there.  I will take some pictures and post them.

Once I start writing about school I feel I could go on and on.  But I want to share a few other things as well.

We had such a blessed time with our special services at church.  It started Thursday night.  We had a pastor from Arkansas share about the Resurrection.  On Thursday night he spoke about the God of Abraham, Friday night the God of Isaac, and Sabbath the God of Jacob.  Each message was so convicting.  After sharing a noon meal on Sabbath we got to listen to many musical blessings in the afternoon.  Then there was another meal and an evening of fellowship at the old Alfred schoolhouse.

A few years back my cousin, Karol and her husband, Brad from South Dakota bought the old school house and have been renovating it.  I remember looking at it last year at this time when they were just starting.  They have done such a great job. They invited the whole church over for a "fun night" of games, bonn-fire, fellowship, and food, and fun it was!

But today was a work day.  I like to get as much done as I can on Sundays as I don't want to stress myself out on school days.  I washed, dried, and ironed clothes.  I made a batch each of whole wheat bread and Carla's Grandma's white buns.  I processed 5 gallons of tomatoes into tomato sauce.  Daniel helped me by vacuuming and sweeping.  We all went out into the garden and pulled up the tomato plants.  I picked off 4 more 5 gallon buckets of tomatoes.  The rest went into the compost pile with the plants. 

I had so many tomatoes that were eaten on by worms.  The ones I picked today were completely hole free.  I've got 30 gallons of tomatoes yet to process into sauce which will cook down into about 30 quarts of sauce.  I use 3 quarts of sauce and 1 quart of tomatoes when I make spaghetti sauce.  So that's 10 spaghetti meals.  Just a little Kimberly trivia there.

Tonight I am so tired and sore.  I can hardly wait to go to bed.  But I do want to go out and look at the beautiful orange moon again tonight as it just comes up over the eastern horizon.  I got to see it last night right after it came up.  It was big and shining on the Alfred lake, what a sight!  I missed seeing it rise.  So I had best get this posted and check the moon rise time.

A Good Find

The curriculum MFW that we use for our home school "Combine the best of Charlotte Mason, classical education, and unit studies with a Biblical worldview and international focus."  The Charlotte Mason method of teaching uses what is called "living books" to teach rather than textbooks.  I have tried to do this in our home school even before I knew about Charlotte Mason. 

The deluxe package that I order from MFW includes some of these "living books."  In the back of my teacher's manual is a list of additional books organized by week of study that I can get from my local library.  This is what we call "book basket."  The children can look through them.  They are not required to read them all.  They might just read part of some or look at the pictures.  They are like the icing on a cake.

Karen Andreola has much to say about living books on her website if you are interested.  In our family we love the library.  Now it is so much easier to find the books.  I can go online, find out what books my library has, look for others not on the list, save the ones I want to a list, and then print out a list of the books I want which makes my actual trip to the library much easier.

One thing that is not easy is carrying all those books, and we check out a lot at a time, to and from my van.  On the message board on MFW's website I read that some parents have bought a portable cart from Staples to make this job easier.  I checked online and found they don't have a Staples in Fargo.  But they did have an Office Max which also carries the cart.

So I consider this my "good find."

The cart holds more books than the plastic crate I have been using that I got at WalMart for $5.  And it is sturdier than the cardboard box I used before that.  There are handholds on the side that I can use to lift into the back of the van.  It is easy to fold out and back in.  Daniel and I found it works good to transport grocery bags from the van to the house as well.  You can fit quite a few in there at a time.

The sales people at Office Max were so helpful as well.  I was looking for the cart when a salesman came up and asked if I needed help.  He led the way to the spot where the carts were.  He took one out of the package and showed me how it works.  That is so different than a lot of other stores where I search for help only to have them tell me, "It's over there" as they point in a vague direction.  Many stores need to train their employees better.

While at Office Max I remembered that I needed a box for 4 x 6 note cards.  Daniel will be using English From the Roots Up this year as well as next that requires these cards and a box to store them.  I had already looked at WalMart and couldn't find one there.  Another sales lady showed me where I could find the boxes as well as the cards.

Hopefully the cart will hold up to all the use it will get.