Scenery Pictures

We arrived safely in Arizona and are having a great time with the Voss family. The kids dug right in and played together like they'd never been apart. They are doing really well and getting along great! Joel and I are also having a nice time "catching up" with our friends. We went to church with them this morning and really enjoyed our time there.

The girls did very well on our LONG trip in the car. We all enjoyed the scenery! The pictures just don't do justice to the beauty of God's wonderful creation, but enjoy anyhow!

We literally passed through many different types of landscape... plains, mountains & desert. We went through busy, heavy populated cities and drove through miles and miles with no civilization!

Here are a few pics. Again, these were much prettier in person. The camera doesn't even come close to capturing the raw beauty of the landscape (especially since I took most of these while Joel was trying to go the speed of light!)

We had a lot of fun today playing at the neighborhood park, in the sand and in the water. We're winding down now after a fun bubble bath with a little movie time.

I'll have more pics to post soon because we have a really fun week planned... a children's museum, a trip to the Grand Canyon, some shopping, sightseeing, a trip to the farm, and the guys are going to a football game! Check back soon :)

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Last weekend we were invited to enjoy a traditional Asian celebration. Our friends from our homeschool co-op have two daughters, Chloe (who is from China) and Naiya (who is from Vietnam). In both of these countries the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is celebrated. We were very honored to celebrate this special occasion with our new friends! We also enjoyed all the delicious Asian food :) Here are some highlights of the evening...

Latern paintingStorytime...Chinese folktales were told to the kidsPin the fairy on the moonGame - this was based on the children's novel "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" by Grace LinWe were having so much fun that this tarantula tried to get inside to play with us! He was on the windowsill right outside the dining room!The whole group with their finished lanternsChopsticks practice with pom-poms :)We ended the night by playing outside on the zip cord! What a great time had by all!!!

Butterflies

Normally we see a lot of butterflies in the spring, but this has been an unusual year when comes to nature. We currently have a family of Monarch butterflies living in our bushes at the front of our house. The day that I took these pictures there were 5 different ones. Such beauty! I hope you enjoy :)




Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:16-18

Fun-schooling :)

Lately, we've just had a lot of learning going on. We are finally getting into a routine which makes for a happier Mommy and happier kids, too!

Lily has now read 13 words! She is just rocking right along with her schoolwork. I originally was worried that I had planned too much work for her to complete, but she is constantly begging me for more! She has been completing her entire week schedule in 3 days. She is doing well learning her letters and her sounds. We have also been studying safety - emergency, fire, stranger danger, traffic, etc. She has also been learning about different kinds of animals with her sissy! They both learned about insects and we had fun making these marshmallow/toothpick insects!
We also made some butterfly paintings and incorporated some math by talking about symmetry!
Below is Lily's butterfly... you kind of have to think abstractly :)
Zora is also doing very well. She is very excited to do her schoolwork every day (except for phonics!) and has a hard time deciding what she wants to do first! She learned about animal classifications in science and tells me constantly that she loves animals so much that she wants to be a vet someday. In history/geography we've completed two units: Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. While she found Mesopotamia very interesting, I know she thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Egyptians. Everything about their way of life and culture was fascinating to her. I must say that I really enjoyed teaching it too! We've also begun a new math curriculum with her. The one I originally purchased for this year was way too easy for her and I could tell she was getting really bored. She loves the new book and actually gets excited about her math work for a change. This week she has been completely immersed in books. She's always been an avid reader, but she has actually read more this week than she has played. She completed a 278 page novel in 3 1/2 days!

Besides our "bookwork" we've been very busy with getting together with our two different homeschooling groups. Our co-op (Shine) just completed it's first session of Psychology, Speech & Computer Programming. Our next session begins next week with Science Lab, Spanish & Art. Zora did very well in these classes, but we are going to have to work on the fact that she is a "Chatty Cathy" or "social butterfly". She loves her new friends so much that she can't quit talking!

Our other homeschool group (TIE) had a fun get-together last week as we learned about animals that hibernate. After the discussion, the kids had an opportunity to create their very own creature. They not only made up the kind of animal, but created a story about it and presented their creations to the group. Lily created a crayon bug...

and Zora created a pumpkin eater...And speaking of artistic things, we had a very artsy, fun day yesterday. We started the day by attending Charlotte's Web at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center with the Jones'. What a fun experience! I must say that no matter how often I hear the story I always cry! Yes, I actually cried at the end of the performance when Wilbur said goodbye to Charlotte. I'm such an emotional cry-baby! Later on that day we attended our second art class with our friend Barbie. This time we discussed color. They experimented with mixing colors to create new ones and discussed primary, warm & cool colors. Another thing Barbie encouraged was being abstract which was really fun because she made them paint some of their pictures blindfolded! Zora (as usual) had to add a little humor to the process...

The girls are both still loving gymnastics... I'm concluding this post with some of their pics and videos of this week. Have a happy weekend!

Warm-ups

Zora on uneven bars

Lily on uneven barsLily on swinging bar

Lily's routine

Zora on balance beam

Zora's routine

Lily Can Read!!!

Lily has learned one letter each week for the past six weeks. She learns the name and sound of each letter, and how to write the capital and lower case. Since she had learned enough letters to put together a few short words I thought we'd give reading a try today... and she read 4 words!

I know I sound absolutely pathetic in the video and that's because I am. I found out on Monday night that I have the flu - type A - and I was informed by my friend, Kristy, that there is a 97% chance that it is H1N1. Lovely. It is no fun. This is the worst I've felt in a very long while! So the rest of you out there need to stay healthy - take your vitamins and wash those hands :)

Random Blessings

We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends in our lives. I truly do not believe in coincidences, but instead I think that God puts people in our paths for certain reasons. One special person we have known for a short while is Barbie. She is a mom that I met at playgroup who is a very sweet soul. We have had so much fun getting to know her and her son in the past year. Little did I know when we met that she has a tremendous gift - art! Not only is she talented at creating things, but she also has a wealth of knowledge in it's history and a love for teaching children. She is also generous enough to volunteer an afternoon of her time each month to teach Zora some art & art history. This past week we went to her house for our first lesson.

First we talked about the who, where & why art was started. Then Zora made a "cave drawing" of her own...

Then, they explored many different aspects of Egyptian art from hieroglyphs (this is Zora's name in hieroglyphs!)...

...to pyramids...

...and finally a clay creation (Zora chose to make a little bowl for her jewelry)...

All in all she learned a lot and had a lot of things reinforced that we've been studying about ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt.

As I mentioned in the last post, Lily is learning by leaps and bounds. She is doing much more right now than I originally intended for her to do, especially in writing. She loves to try to write letters all by herself. Not only does she write her name, but she is writing almost her whole name! I only have to help her with s, u & e in our last name. She also surprised me a couple of days ago when she said, "Mommy, I just wrote your name." I looked at the page not expecting to see anything that actually resembled my name (because she didn't even ask me how to spell it) and I saw...

She actually wrote it, just from right to left instead of left to right. With a little bit of instruction she tried again and got it perfect :)I'm so thrilled that she loves to learn!

Lily also has a fashion statement all her own. I now understand why there are children at Walmart sometimes with the craziest things on... sometimes clothing is just not worth a battle. Anyhow, Lily loves to pick out her clothes every morning. Sometimes she does a pretty good job and sometimes it's hilarious. If we have somewhere important to go I do enforce an outfit change, but if we're not really doing anything I usually let it go. I recently got down some boots from the attic that used to be Zora's that Lily is now old enough to wear. They were an instant hit. She loved them so much that at bedtime while she was getting ready for bed she just couldn't hardly bear to take them off...
That's all my random thoughts for now :)

Back to School!

So we've been "back to school" now for 4 weeks! We have been having a lot of fun so far. Zora's favorite subject is History & Geography. We just finished a unit on ancient Mesopotamia and this week we started a unit on ancient Egypt. She also still loves to read, read, read! She got so many new wonderful books for her birthday and she is very excited about them. The Wingerter family got her some Magic Tree House books which she loves and the Voss family got her several Boxcar Children books. As soon as she finishes one book she picks out another one to start.

Lily has also started school with us this year. In the past we always did school work while Lily napped, but now that she has outgrown her nap we have work for her to do too! Our main goals for her this year are to learn to recognize all the letters of the alphabet, their sounds, and hopefully begin reading some small words. We are also working on our numbers, introducing tiny bits of Spanish, and coloring within the lines. So far she is doing a great job! Her attention span is very short so she does a little work, then plays a little, then comes back for more "homework". She's so cute because every day she gets so excited and begs for "more homework, Mommy". Today she wrote her name completely by herself!!!

We have also started a very exciting new adventure with our homeschooling... we've joined a co-op! Zora is now in classes with 7 other homeschooled children, and the moms are taking turns teaching different extra-curricular subjects. We have completed two weeks so far and Zora is loving it! Right now she is taking Speech, Psychology and Computer Programming. In October the classes with be Spanish, Art and Science Lab.

And speaking of art, I have to brag about Zora just a bit... she has two pieces of artwork on display at Gilcrease Museum! She made this one out of watercolor and sponges...

The Windmill

This one is colored pencil... The Fishing Boat

Her artwork was put on display August 18th and will be there until September 13th.

Another change in our school schedule this year is their extra-curricular activity. As much as they loved ballet and tap dancing, they decided to try something new - gymnastics! They had their first lesson on Monday and did a fantastic job!

Ready to start

Practicing "the big finish" pose

Cartwheels!
Backward on the balance beam

Lily learns "the scoop" on the balance beam

These last two pics aren't school related, but I just have to post them because the girls love it so much! Joel has been slowly building a 4 wheeler and he's got it running. He gave them a few rides on it around the yard, but I wouldn't let him take them in the street or very far until they got helmets. He bought them the cutest pink camo helmet! It makes me laugh to see them in it because it squeezes their chubby little cheeks and makes their heads look huge compared to the rest of their bodies! Their my own personal little bobble-heads :)

Lily rides with Daddy

Zora rides with Daddy

I'll leave you with this thought. My friend Elisabeth got me a little plaque for my birthday that I absolutely love because it says exactly what I feel about our homeschool.

"While we teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about."