Peace on Earth- from Alpha Omega Daily Focus

Peace on Earth
Thursday / December 24, 2009


"He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me" (Psalm 55:18a).

The words on the Christmas card and the noise coming from our school room stood in stark contrast to one another. "Peace on Earth," the card read. "My, wouldn't that be nice?" I thought. I guess every homeschooling parent longs for a peaceful home, but hearing the crescendo in my children's voices, I knew that peace wasn't happening today at our house. But Christmas was coming, and I could hope, right?


As I thought more about peace on Earth, I wondered what Christ meant in John 14:27 when He said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." Then, the truth of this verse dawned on me — true peace is not the absence of arguments, violence, or wars. True peace is experiencing God's love instead of His wrath because we receive the forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. That means fighting children, threats of war, and even interruptions to homeschooling days need not change to experience the presence of Christ's peace in my life.

Would you like to find peace this Christmas? Don't look for the absence of problems. Look instead to the peacemaker whose birth made the angels of heaven proclaim, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" (Luke 2:14). Let the power of the Holy Spirit fill you this Christmas and experience the peace of Christ within. Shalom! "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).

Jesus, I praise You for the love, forgiveness, and peace You give to all who trust in You. Please walk with me this Christmas and give me the peace of Your presence in my life. In Your holy name, Amen.

Gabby and Maddy learned to knit....

Gabby's visit with Grandma turned into a knitting lesson. She saw Grandma making some socks for herself (Grandma is quite the knitter). Gabby begged to make some for herself so the next day, we went out and bought yarn and knitting needles. Gabby caught on to kitting quite easily.... of course it's a very, VERY bright rainbow yarn. She now has very bright socks and is working on finishing up a scarf for her dolls. Great job, Gabby! Maddy is learning, too. She is also making a scarf for her dolls and Grandma is making some bright, pink leg warmers for her dance class.

Maddy's and Mine Favorite Christmas Craft....

We made these adorable earrings. My goal was to get charms to make bracelets and the craft store was all out of them, but they had a project sheet for these crystal Christmas tree earrings. We got enough to make three pairs (one for me, Maddy and Grandma). They turned out really cute. I just wish Gabby would wear some. Next year Cheyenne can. She was asking for some, but she's the only one without pierced ears.

Girls Deliver Food to Girl Scout Council for Thanksgiving Meals

In celebration of Furlough Fridays (which we don't participate it) the girls and I delivered totes to the Girl Scout Council filled with food for families of six to eight people. Our troop collected items over the past few weeks for families served by Child and Family Services. These meals will be for Thanksgiving.

This was a great opportunity for the girls to learn about servitude and compassion for others who are in need. It was also fun for the girls to earn a new patch for their uniforms.

Our goal was to fill two totes full of food. We ended up having enough to fill three. What an exciting experience for us!

Our Thanksgiving Craft

We were going to make turkey lanterns for Thanksgiving. I saw them in a magazine and thought they were adorable. Instead, we got this foam Thanksgiving kits int he mail from Grandma and Bubba Lorts. The girls couldn't wait to put them together so I thought that maybe that they could be turned into lanterns. AND, that is what we did. We have a turkey, Pilgrim and cornucopia lantern. They look very cute and I put LED candles in them so the paper won't burn.

The Turkey, Pilgrim and Cornucopia Laterns

Amen!

"Hillary Clinton says it takes a village to raise a child. I've seen the village; and I don't want it raising my child." - unknown

Homeschool Tracker

I finally found an easier way to keep track of our lessons, daily work, time spent on that work, field trips, and grades, etc... Homeschool Tracker Basic that I downloaded from the Internet. Well, duh.... Why didn't I think of this before? It's so much easier and it keeps everything so much more organized. I wish I could just organize my house that easily.
I started using it a few weeks ago and love it. Every week I go back and start putting in old lessons we did before I found this program. I just want to be all up-to-date before the fall ends so I know where we stand with everything.
I will definitely be using this program form now on unless something easier and better (AND FREE) comes along...

Waimea Valley- Gabby and Maddy exploring the compost pile

A posting from my AOP Daily Devotionals

This from the AOP Daily Devotionals. It's so true....

By Their Fruits Sunday / September 13, 2009

How long do you need to teach your children at home before you "officially" become a home school family? Like the tests that evaluate a child's academic performance, you can assume homeschooling has arrived at your house when the following are true:

You have more books in your house than groceries. Your children show up for school in their pajamas. Your house décor consists of time lines, maps, assorted craft projects, and half-finished science experiments. Your trips to the library require a laundry basket to hold all the books. Your refrigerator is perpetually covered in art projects and completed assignments. Your children think reading history is best achieved while lying on your bed with the family cats. Your kitchen pantry holds more school supplies than cooking supplies. Your child's favorite classmates are his siblings.

Christians, too, have distinct marks that help us gauge whether we are growing more Christ-like. In Galatians 5:22 we read of fruits that should be displayed if we are truly following the Lord-love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. As these fruits become more evident in our lives, we can trust the Holy Spirit is working to conform us to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). What about your life? Is there fruit that proves you're a follower of Jesus? "Ye shall know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16a).

Lord, thank You for the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Let my actions demonstrate Your love not only to my family, but also to the world. In Jesus' name, Amen.

You can help save a home school! Learn how today by visiting aophomeschooling.com! Share your comments about this devotional online.

How is it going in the land of home schooling? A curriculum review...

It's been about eight weeks since we started our second year of home schooling. First grade is very different than Kindergarten! There's so much more work to do and more focus on everyone's parts. I thought I would write about what I like about our curriculum and what I don't like. I have a lot to say, but I think I will keep the overall review short for now...

What I LOVE!!!! Horizon's First Grade Math!!!! It's so easy for me to follow along in the teacher's guide. The workbook for Gabby is colorful, but not distractingly so. We love the spiral learning, except Gabby does complain a little if it's something that she really is bored with or doesn't like. I have no complaints about it. That's always a very good thing!

What I also LOVE!!!! I have supplemented our "History and Geography" from Lifepac with Abekka's First Grade My America and My World history book. Reason being is that Lifepac is way too babyish for Gabby (or for most 1st graders). Our supplemental book is great! It's colorful, easy to read for Gabby, leaves room for us to explore more into topics and create our own worksheets or projects. I usually like to have things very specific with provided worksheets, etc., but this book really caught my eye and I have really enjoyed it so far.

What I like: Horizons Spelling. It's very typical First Grade work for this topic with Gabby learning ten new words a week along with two "Working Words." Spiral learning is also used in this subject along with a dictionary. We practice spelling words, write sentences and write letters or stories to go along with a picture related to the words.

What I also like: Horizons Penmanship. It seemed kind of slow at the beginning with just writing lines and circles, but I can see why they did that- review. She has moved on to writing basic words that help with proper strokes. We have been struggling with hand writing a bit since she broke her arm. It's been a little uncomfortable for her to sit properly with the right kind of support for her whole body. When she gets the cast off in about eight days, I hope to see improvement.

What I think is okay: Horizons Health. Honestly, we haven't done much with this because the same topics have been covered either in Social Studies or Science. I think I will start to plan everything out a little better to start including the workbook and some extra work from the health curriculum.

Something else I think that is just okay: Horizon's Phonics and Reading. I have to say that I am extremely disappointed with this Phonics program. It's A LOT of work in just one lesson. We have been learning basic vowel sounds, digraphs, blends, compound words, suffixes, abbreviations, etc. and that will all be in one week. There's some spiral learning, but not as much as you would hope for in a program that should be the most important in your child's education. She needs to know all of the above, but more importantly, she needs to retain it. This has been a fight for the past few weeks... she either doesn't care, is bored, or is confused. I am going with the confused because I get that way a bit, too. We have slowed down this program a bit and added in more reading. I have her read from the reader that they have provided and then I read to her a different story from it or from a totally different book. I can't say that she hasn't learned anything, but it's just not the program that I expected it to be. I will be using a different one next year unless things improve before the new year.

What I don't like: Science and Social Studies (Lifepac's History and Geography). Gabby LOVES the workbooks, loves how easy it is to read and follow along in the workbooks and how she knows most of the topics already. KNOWS them already!!! Yeah, she learned about her senses quite some time ago and all about her feelings when she was a toddler. Topics we have covered: I have feelings, warning sounds, warning signs, happy signs, symbols (such as a top sign), our senses, MORE about our senses, God made us special, God made all things special, communication (this is the only topic that I actually enjoyed teaching in eight weeks), and the simpleness goes on. This is why I have supplemented. The same will go with science when we study endangered animals and weather. I thought that we needed to be learning about Columbus, the Pilgrims, and the 13 colonies and not about our feelings. I am very disappointed and will not be using Lifepac again.

Physical Education has been put on the side since Gabby broke her arm. Soccer will be put off until next summer (maybe the spring). Swim lessons may start up again in the spring after all physical therapy is complete.

For extra- curricular activities we have been involved in Girl Scouts, Awana, and dance class (starting next month).

I think that's all I have to say for now. I had planned to keep this short, but it wasn't. Maybe next time I will just write about one subject at a time.

Hard at Work!

We do a lot of school work. All three girls work hard... even our "baby." She loves being with her sisters as they concentrate hard on the basics. Check out how hard they are working....

Science and Social Studies

For Science and Social Studies this year we will be using Alpha Omega's LIFEPAC. It comes highly rated and recommended. There's even some award winnings in there someplace. It looks VERY simple to use and there are plenty of places to stop and evaluate.
HOWEVER, Science and Social Studies (aka History and Geography) look WAY TOO simple for Gabby and even for a First Grader in general. I would think by this point, kids would know all about their colors, their senses, and how we fit into our own families. I have planned out several weeks with both subjects and plan to finish the year with this curriculum, but I will definitely be adding in unit studies and extras throughout the year.
One of the "extras" that I have added starting the first week is a separate Geography curriculum. It is Down to Earth Geography and uses the 18 National Geography Standards for the first grade. It looks like a lot of fun and right up Gabby's alley as far as what she enjoys learning.

Our Extras... Health, Physical Education, Art and Bible

We will be using Alpha Omega's Horizons for Health and Physical Education this year. They were both afterthoughts when I thought that Gabby needed something extra in her daily schedule. When I received the Alpha Omega catalog in the mail, I was thrilled to see that they offered a Health Curriculum for First Grade. I ordered it when they had a sale this past spring along with the Physical Education teacher's handbook which is good for Pre-Kindergarten through Second Grade.
The Health book looks great. It's very simple, to the point and gives you a lot of activities to do such as art projects, reading, songs, etc. The Physical Education book is "thick" and I was a bit confused as to how to implement it into a home school environment that only has three children, two of which are under five years old. I worked through it and found some great ideas that I can adjust to our situation and some great resources to evaluate Gabby in this subject.
For Art class, we are simply making projects to go along with our other subjects. For example, in Math we will be learning a poem about the months of the year so that we remember how many days are in each. For Art, we will be writing the poem out on poster board and decorating it with a different season in each corner, etc. I also found some great ideas for "fun" art in Family Fun Magazine. We can do marble painting with card stock, shaving cream, food coloring and a cookie sheet. How fun does that sound?
For Bible, we picked up a children's devotional journal at our church this past spring. Gabby seemed a bit young to start it at the time, but it was a good thing to have on hand when the time came. Well, that time is here. The journal gives a verse for each day (or week, however you want to do it). You write out the verse, a prayer to go along with it and an example of something you learned or if you saw that your prayer was answered. We will also be learning a new verse every week through Awana (which starts August 19 at our church).
We are very excited about everything that is planned for the year!!!!

Our Math, Phonics, Spelling and Penmanship Curriculums

We will start our First Grade adventure tomorrow. I am glad to get back to work, but not so much about having to get up a lot earlier in the day. We will have a ton of fun on this new adventure filled with school work, field trips, activities, art and craft projects, you name it... So exciting!
We will be using Alpha Omega's Horizons Math, Phonics, Spelling, and Penmanship curriculum's. We used the math for Kindergarten and loved it. It was the best part of the year. Gabby loved learning all about math, I loved the spiral learning, and we both loved how easy it was to follow. As I planned out several weeks for this year, it looked just as appealing and I am happy that I can highly recommend it.
Because we had such a wonderful experience with the math, I was very excited to see that Horizons offered Phonics, Spelling and Penmanship. The Phonics and Spelling look just as easy to follow along yet challenging enough to keep Gabby focused. The Penmanship looks too simple at first. It's a lot of drawing circles and lines... things Gabby learned at the beginning of preschool two years ago. It's good to review, but Horizons doesn't have a Kindergarten level, so they start off like the child doesn't have much experience in writing. When planning for this subject, I combined a lot of lessons at first so Gabby won't become too bored with it. However, she will be getting plenty of writing experience in most other subject areas.
Everything looks great so far. I think I will write a brief review of how things are going in September (maybe over Labor Day weekend). We might take a short break about then because Daddy will be home for some leave before heading to Iraq.

Taking a REAL summer break!

Well, I decided last week that come this past Tuesday, June 23rd, we were officially taking a break from any and all school related activities (minus reading). Daddy is home for leave until the 4th of July and then back to training on the Mainland for special duty in Iraq. The girls and I want to spend as much time with him as possible.
For fun we have done a bunch of errands and chores so far, but we have watched a few family movies and plan to go to the beach some time, maybe a ride around the island, and we celebrate Ed's 30th birthday this weekend with a special trip to our favorite restaurant Farrell's. We go there for every birthday we have. It's become our tradition since we moved to Hawaii. The girls also made a store in our living room and Ed was invited to "Gabby's General Store's" Grand Opening! It was cute.
Gabby has been doing some reading to show her daddy how well she's doing. I don't count that as school work because we are trying to instill the love of reading for work and pleasure.
We will be officially starting school July 13th. I know it's early, but if don't do it soon, it will be hard to get back to it. Wish me luck in my continued lesson planning...

We we just started doing for fun and servitude (not to mention leadership)

Gabby had started Brownie Girl Scouts this past January. She has really enjoyed it, but keeps asking to do more with it.
Maddy signed up to be a Daisy Girl Scout about two weeks ago and has gone to one event, Daisy Day at the Urban Garden Center.
I signed up to be an adult Girl Scout abut a moth or so ago so I could take over Gabby's troop since her leader is leaving the island soon.
All of the above led to me starting my own joint Daisy and Brownie troop. We will be starting in August with regular meetings, but for the time being, the girls and I will be getting things cleaned up in or garage for the meetings to take place there, and we are planning out the first several meetings so we have a direction to go with the girls.
We plan to do the first journey books for each level and than some fun earned patches that the groups can work on together. When we do the journey books, we will become leaders by serving our communities and helping them to be a better part of our world. the girls really appreciate serving others and helping those in need.
We are very excited about this opportunity and look forward to the start of this new adventure starting soon.

I would say that we did pretty well with our first attempt at beading. It started off that we were going to make a ring for our friend Ms. Jennifer as a thank-you for watching the girls this morning. Maddy, then, wanted to make a ring for herself, Gabby wanted one for herself, and I needed one for myself... etc. They turned out pretty cute.
Our first attempt at beading some fashionable rings- not too bad!
I learned how to make a memory wire beaded bracelet at a MOPS meeting this past May. It was one of the best crafts we had done at those meetings and I really thought that the girls would enjoy it as well. I think they liked picking and sorting the beads the best, but they didn't mind beading the wire either. It was a great activity to do while Cheyenne napped and as a distraction from wanting to watch the television.
Our next project is an unknown right now. We will eventually make some bracelets and I am sure we will have the watercolors out in the very near future. There are puppets to be made for the start of First Grade, so you know we'll be making more than we need just for fun. That's also something Cheyenne can help with. I am happy that the girls love making art projects.

Our Kindergarten Review

For Kindergarten we used Sonlight. http://www.sonlight.com/ When I was searching the web last year for the "perfect" way to teach my oldest, I was so frustrated because nothing seemed well "illustrated" for me. This meant that I couldn't really view much or read much about how things were planned out. I wanted to see pictures of the plans. I wanted to read about what was expected for the day, week, and/ or even the year. I wanted see a day's worth of work. Many websites don't show you those things. They write a brief blurb about the authors or a synopsis of the general plan for the year, but nothing about the basics for your day. I even tried to look for used book stores to see some curriculum guides and that was a hard find in Hawaii. That's when I ran across Sonlight which is founded on Christian principles. YEA!
I loved Sonlight as soon as I went to their website. Everything was written out for you... the day, the week, and the year AND they showed examples of the lesson plans on the web. It was all in a binder with suggestions for extra practice in each subject area. You could choose from a few different math programs to go along with your History/ Geography and Language Arts programs. It was wonderful.... and, the best part, you didn't have to go hunt down all of the books that went with it. They sent all the books in your order as well.
Gabby and I were so excited when our boxes arrived and we went right to work putting everything together. It was a lot of work since nothing came assembled, but I got to organize it the way I liked it.
When we started last July, I was shocked at what they thought I should be teaching a Kindergartner... Martin Luther. Who the heck was this guy? I knew who he was, but not until Junior High School. Why should Gabby know him? However, we talked about him and she remembers, so it wasn't a waste of breath.
How are rainbows made? Well, this was basic and fun. It seemed age appropriate.
The letter "A." In my personal opinion, she should have known this in Pre-Kindergarten a year prior. She did and half the year we spent in phonics seemed almost a waste. When we started reading Fun Tales she started to enjoy things a bit more. Also, Gabby did really enjoy our first read aloud The Boxcar Children and one we read later on called The Hundred Dresses.
We loved the math program we picked, Horizons K.
Throughout the year I threw in some added activities such as a unit on Thanksgiving, Advent, President's Day, and Easter. Even though it was a Christian curriculum, there weren't any special studies on these things other than some read alouds in which the story took place around the holidays, but nothing was about the holidays themselves.
After a Christmas break, I slacked off in the science and "social studies" departments. They weren't really necessary at this point and some of the things were just either too boring or too advanced. We did do the unit on insects and butterflies in science, but didn't concentrate on most of the other things. The read alouds got boring and the handwriting we picked Gabby just didn't get.
I am not using Sonlight again. I would recommend it for those who like to do a lot of reading (as in listening for the early years) and whose children really enjoy history. It just didn't captivate us as much as I anticipated it would.
Here's my over- all review (for Kindergarten):
History/ Geography: Some was too advanced and some was very boring.
Mother Goose Book that is considered a "Resource": Too babyish for a 6 year old.
Read Alouds: Highly recommend the individual books The Boxcar Children and The Hundred Dresses; some stories were "old" and didn't capture any one's attention, including mine, and some were way too long and the girls wanted to just get to the end which never seemed to come.
Handwriting: We used Handwriting Without Tears, which I don't recommend. They use a two- lined format instead of the traditional three- lines and it made things very confusing when doing extra "fun" workbook pages which all had three lines. Gabby's handwriting went from bad to worse so we are starting from scratch this coming year (with some practice this summer).
Language Arts: BORING.... They learned one letter per week (and made a whole page about it)... yikes! However, the Fun Tales readers are a complete treasure. Gabby love them, Maddy and Cheyenne carry them around all the time. They are great first readers and are progressive. I do highly recommend these, but do not recommend waiting over 20 weeks to start them like the curriculum tells you to do.
Science: It was alright. Gabby liked learning about insects and butterflies. We also enjoyed some of the experiments and the DVD with explanations.
Math: LOVED IT! We used Alpha Omega's Horizons K. We will be using Horizons 1 next year.
So, all-in-all, Sonlight was alright for our first time in home education. I have learned a lot in one year and think that I have really discovered what is best for Gabby. Who knows, maybe Maddy will be different and we might go back to Sonlight. For now, next year is all about Alpha Omega. Thank you, Sonlight, for a good start on our path in our home schooling adventure.

Gotta do work to keep the mnd going...

After walking three miles (p.e.- right?) and a good lunch, I had Gabby sit down and do some writing, site word reading, and coloring. She was a little reluctant because she would rather start 1st grade then do some review before 1st grade.
We did do some activities this morning before our "p.e." Each of the girls (Cheyenne included) made a lovely picture for Daddy for Father's Day. They took their fingers and dipped them in water colors to make finger print butterflies and flowers. Cheyenne really enjoyed this and seemed to like the color red the best. Of coarse she was wearing a light pink dress... gee, I wonder how that went. The pictures are very cute and I will post them once Daddy returns them on his trip back. We already packed them up and have them ready to be sent to Texas where he is training with the Army.

Our homeschool blog has arrived!

You knew it was coming, and it's finally here. I decided to start a blog about our adventures in home education. I think that this will not only be a great way to keep track of our activities and have a fun version of our record keeping, but also because we use so many different avenues in this adventure and it is nice to be able to share them with others who may be struggling for ideas and/ or don't know where to look for them. I would like to say that I am creative in my teaching abilities, but that is far from the truth. However, I do have my moments of genius and I will be posting those here as soon as they hit... as long as I am not in the midst of teaching it!
Right now we are on a break... summer break I guess we can call it. However, we have been done with the school year since the first week of May. We have done some random work in there, but not much. We started the Summer Bridge program, but that's about an every four day event. I hope to get back into it and finish it up by July 6th so we can start school the following week. As I plan for this coming school year, I will write my big thoughts and ideas down here and hopefully someone can give me some feedback or just some encouragement... which is always a welcome in this "business"... ha!!!