Weekly Homeschool Wrap-Up 2/27

Some new read alouds I'm excited about:

The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney (first published in 1880 as a series in a magazine) (Kindle edition linked)

Times are tough around the little brown house! The widowed Mrs. Pepper has to sew all day long just to earn enough to pay the rent and to feed the five growing Peppers. But she faces poverty and trouble with a stout heart, a smiling face, and the help of her jolly brood: blue-eyed Ben, the eldest and the man of the house at the age of 11; pretty Polly, so eager to cook for the family and make everyone happy and comfortable; and the three littlest Peppers, Joel, Davie, and baby Phronsie.
A favorite of children, parents, and teachers for generations, this heartwarming classic first appeared in 1880. Since then, it has inspired countless young imaginations with its tender tales of the ways in which courage and good cheer can overcome adversity.

I ordered used copies of the Moody Family Series of books by Sarah Maxwell (books 1-5). 

Summer with the Moodys is the first book in the Moody Family Series. This book celebrates the adventures of everyday life in a Christian family. Come along with the Moodys as they help a widowed neighbor, start small businesses for the children, enjoy a family fun night, live normal life, and wrap up the book with two special surprises! Woven throughout the book is the Moodys' love for the Lord and their enjoyment of time together. Children (parents too!) will love Mr. and Mrs. Moody, Max, Mollie, Mitch, and Maddie—they'll come away challenged and encouraged.

The Moody books are wholesome stories about a homeschooled family, authored by the adult daughter of Steve and Terri Maxwell (Manager's of Their Homes authors and Titus2.com creators). We are nearly done with the Miller Family series, which has really blessed us, and I wanted something similar to continue the joy.

FYI: I've mentioned the Miller books a number of times, but I didn't warn you about some content. They were written by a Mennonite author so there are two stories that might raise your eyebrows: one is about pacifism, which the Mennonites are know for. It comes up along with a discussion about Memorial Day. The other is about wearing plain colors so as not to draw attention to yourself. Both stories are just a few pages so very small parts of the whole series. We read these stories anyway and just explained how we differ from these views. 

Don't let that scare you away though--these books are the best devotionals I've used with children by far. My children loved them and began to incorporate the Christian principles into their daily behavior. Most of the stories are based on one of the Proverbs, and many are also missionary stories.

Our Dyslexia Life

When you walk into my girls' room, you would expect to see the horses on their comforters facing as shown in this picture, but Mary consistently faces the horses the other way, so that they look upside down when you walk into the room. I've explained that the picture should look right-side up when you walk into the room, but that isn't enough of a hint for her. I started putting it the right way so she would get used to that perspective, but that hasn't helped. The next morning, I see it upside down again (and not because of defiance).

It's the same with her numbers. Giving her strategies to form the numbers to 9 the correct way hasn't helped much. She reverses them 50% of the time, and she has never once when writing a teen number remembered right away which digit comes first, even though she understands place value. I'm not frustrated with her, but I'm at a loss as to how to help her. I suspect time will be the answer. Dyslexics don't enjoy the same automaticity which the rest of us take for granted. Many things involving a perspective (a certain direction) are difficult for them.

The school secretary at the elementary school I taught at lived fairly close to the school, but when she first began working there she couldn't figure out which way to turn out of the school driveway to drive home (she has dyslexia). Her husband came after work and she followed him home for a couple months until she could do it on her own. Putting signs on her dashboard didn't help because in her mind she could make the sign mean left or right, depending on the perspective she looked at them from. Still, I will try putting a horse picture above Mary's bed showing the way the horse should face when you walk into the room.

Beth has similar problems. This week she made many little paper books, and she kept fastening them to open the wrong way (fastening the pages on the right instead of the left). After correcting her a few times, I got a book and had her compare her homemade paper books with the professional picture book, and she couldn't see the difference right away! By late Thursday though, she got it. I've been reading to her since her early infancy, so it wasn't a lack of experience with books that caused this.

This week I also noticed that when Beth decodes a word, she starts from the right instead of the left about 35% of the time, and doesn't realize the mistake until I point it out.

Miss Beth makes dolls out of everything.

Beth went looking for a sweater because our house is so cold. She found her sister's pink sweater, pictured here. Her sister hugged her and said, "You look just like a librarian!" That thrilled Miss Beth, who really looks up to librarians, so she asked me to take her picture. :)

Prayer time after nighttime devotions. Our house is cold this year! It takes four of us to keep warm together.

Sonlight Science G - DNA and genetics

Sonlight provides questions to review the chapters.

Saxon math

Personal reading time for the girls.

Akron Children's Hospital infusion center--works with cancer patients to infuse chem drugs through IV, or in our case, arthritis drugs. Everything is top notch here, including the waiting rooms. This is the playroom located in the waiting room.

Here's the hospital room where the infusion takes place. First they put a numbing patch on her hand for the IV (takes 20 minutes to work), and then they give her benadryl to prevent a reaction. Thirty minutes later, they start the infusion after drawing some blood.

Waiting for the nurses to come in.

Mary's painting

All About Reading time coming up.

Math time for Peter

Sonlight novel time for Paul

All About Reading Level 2 story (Mary's story)

During quick write the three older kids all made up recipes in their journals, and then later tried them out. I did have to help a little bit because each recipe needed a little more liquid, but after that edition they were all delicious. Paul made cookies with chocolate sauce. Mary made chocolate-chip cake, and Peter made apple cake. You can see in this picture what OCD is doing to Peter's hands. Makes me so sad. Sometimes they get so red and raw that they bleed.

Usually it is boring sandwiches for lunch around here, but other times we have leftovers (taco bake).

You can tell by this picture that Paul is a mathematician. He makes a lot of patterned drawings.

Cutting the pieces for an All About Reading game (Beth)

All About Reading Level 1 - practicing reading /th/ words, which are hard for her because she struggles with the /th/ as a speech sound. She had to fry these "eggs" and then take them out with a spatula one by one and read them.

Sonlight novel time for Peter

Mary mixing up the recipe she wrote in her journal.

Peter teaching Mary science. They're preparing for the experiment.

Sonlight's DVD of experiments

Magnet experiments

Math time for Paul. We had a little drama with math because when I returned the faulty PC we ordered, I accidentally left the math CD in the player and sent it off to Amazon. I was sick to my stomach over it, and Amazon, with their excellent customer service, tried to help but it had already gone to a refurbishing center. Eventually I realized that Teaching Textbooks will replace lost (single) CD's from the four-piece set for just $15, which includes shipping. They also have excellent customer service. We had to take a week off math, but now we're back in business.

Paul's check-off sheet for school tasks he does by himself on Thursdays. We have a schedule but I still need to keep them on track this way.

Folding time. Everyone has a basket except for Daddy. Beth changed her clothes three times, and is now pictured in a leotard. Sigh. It does add to the laundry load when you have a little princess who changes clothes more times than you can keep up with.

Here are all the clothes I picked out at the Goodwill this week, plus two pairs of jeans for Paul and two pairs of pajamas and a couple of other shirts for the girls, which aren't pictured. All for $45, and most like new, though I don't know that the pictures do the clothes justice. I haven't been able to find many dresses in several months. I guess they just make fewer dresses for older girls. When the girls wore sizes 5 and below, dresses were always plentiful. Fancy holiday dresses are easy to find, but not others. There were many skirts available, but all too short for Christian girls.

I'm storing shorts for the boys for summer. These look like they would fit my husband, but thankfully everything I'm finding comes with an adjustable waist.

Mary was very happy about the lavender snow bibs because she's been wearing one of the boys' navy blue bibs. Of course it doesn't matter, but I knew these would make her smile.

Thank you for reading. How was your week, friends?

Mother's Journal here

Thankful Thursday

Psalm 118:24 This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Ephesians 5:20 Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

I am thankful...

~ for hot cocoa and the Bible on a below freezing night.

~ for smiles and hugs and giggles and pictures my six year old drew lying on every surface in the house.

~ for easy chairs that fit two little girls and Momma for lots of cuddling

~ for no side effects, so far, from the new arthritis drug

~ for a fulfilling day's work loving my children

~ for a steadfast, loving husband

~ for two boys growing in the Lord and in maturity

~ for beautiful, hard-fought progress in reading for Mary

~ for kids who love to create

~ for a furnace that hasn't malfunctioned all winter (for a change)

~ for the socks and underwear finally ready for the dryer, so I can go to bed

~ for going to Goodwill to use my 35% off coupon before it expires, only to learn that today was 35% off children's clothing day. Now I can save my coupon for another trip before March, in hopes of actually finding size 18 jeans for Peter at another Goodwill. (Why is that size so hard to find?)

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A Love Letter, From God

I am so excited! I wrote Compassion to ask for two more correspondent children to whom we can write. I didn't specify any country or age or gender, leaving it all to God. Compassion answered the next business day and gave me a boy from Colombia, age 10, and a girl from Nicaragua, age 8. They were both just sponsored so it must have been by a large company who doesn't want to write letters. In these cases the children are assigned a correspondent family who will faithfully write to them.

We are correspondents to two other children and sponsor two others, so we've been writing to four and it has been such a joy! Writing to these children makes all my sorrows and worries float away. I just feel so wonderfully blessed by the interaction and by being a messenger of Christ's love.

Last week I read heartbreaking stories of children whose sponsors do not write. It is heartbreaking for these children who already feel insignificant. If you would love to encourage a child but do not have the money to sponsor a child right now, please email here: ciinfo@us.ci.org
If you make this commitment, please write at least monthly.

Below is a sample letter that can be used as an introductory letter. I wrote it to both of our new children, just changing the names. If you write online you can write longer letters and easily upload photos. This letter used all the space available (I couldn't use paragraph breaks, however), allowing me to upload one larger photo and two small ones. Compassion's online letter writing program tells you what percentage of space you have left. It also gives you the option of duplicating the letter to another child. You just change the names and some details to fit that child's life and family and prayer requests.

Here are our new precious ones!

Abdi, age 8, Nicaragua

Miguel, age 10, Columbia

Dearest Abdi,

Oh, Abdi! We are so happy to meet you. We praise God for you. Jesus loves you and we will love you too, Abdi. We asked God for a child to write to and to share our lives with and He gave us you! Your picture is very pretty and I shared it with all of my family. My name is Christine. I am 48 years old. I live in the state of Ohio in the United States. I am married and we have four children named Peter, Paul, Mary and Beth. Peter is the oldest. He is 13. Paul is 11. Mary is 8. Beth is 6. Do you have any brothers or sisters? What are their names and ages?

Peter loves to garden and he loves animals and science. He wants to be a farmer and missionary when he grows up. Timothy loves math and games and basketball and football. He wants to be a teacher or an engineer or a writer when he grows up. Emily loves animals and science and she wants to work with animals when she grows up. Anna loves books and drawing. She wants to be a writer or a singer when she grows up.

What are your dreams, Abdi? What do you want to be when you grow up? God will make it possible. With God all things are possible. My husband is a custodian. I stay home and homeschool my four children. Before I had children I used to be a first grade teacher at a public school. When I had children they needed me so I began to stay home with them. I love homeschooling. We learn about Jesus, the Bible, and we pray together everyday. We read books, we write, and we learn about history, math, grammar, spelling and science.

Do you like school? What is your favorite subject? My favorite things are reading and writing. My favorite colors are purple and pink. My favorite foods are taco soup, strawberries, and chocolate.

Jesus loves you, Abdi! You are precious to him and to me and my family. God has big plans for you. You are wonderfully made by your loving Father. We will be praying for you and your family each day: that you will be blessed by God and do well in school, that you will have good food to eat, that you will be safe, and that you will learn more about Jesus and the Bible.

God wants us to spend time with Him by praying, by reading the Bible, and by singing songs to Him. When you pray to God just talk with him. Tell him you love him, thank him for everything, and ask him for what you and others need. Prayer is just talking to God like he is our best friend.

I want you to remember that you are very special, you are very loved, and you have a Big God who is going to work all things for your good. Romans 8:28 says: For God works all things for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

God is calling you, Abdi. He wants to be your Lord and Savior. He is going to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 says: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Abdi, God wants to love you and help you every day and be your Lord, your King, your loving Father. Please tell him you want all these things from Him. He wants you to say "Yes, Lord. I want you to be my Lord and Savior."

Abdi, we love you. We always will.

Love,
Christine

Some writing tips:

With each letter, I will build upon these concepts and truths, always using the child's name often and saying I love you. I will talk about keeping a blessing list, about gratitude, about forgiveness, about holiness, about making the right choices and obeying parents, about trying hard in school, about the importance of having dreams, about my joys and sorrows, and I will ask for prayer whenever we need it. I will ask questions and talk about our weather and our holidays and our daily practices. I will talk about a personal relationship with God, I will speak life, truth, love, comfort, wisdom, and prayer into the lives of these children, who are a gift.

Here again is the address to ask for a correspondent child:

ciinfo@us.ci.org

You don't have to send any money, ever, but if you do, it will bless these families and could give them more warmth, a roof that doesn't leak, clothes that fit, nutritious food, etc. A little money goes a long way.

You will be sent a packet in the mail with a photo and information about your child and about the Compassion Child Development Center he or she attends, as well as local cultural information and pictures. You will learn a little bit about the child's daily activities and about his or her grade and performance in school, and whether the parents are married and both living in the home.

If you already have a Compassion account, all this information will show up online as soon as they assign you the child, and you can begin writing immediately, before your packet even arrives.

You will enjoy this endeavor of the heart! I promise!