My Child Would NEVER.... ummm.. Yes, They Did....

So our whole family got a big life lesson this week in character. On Tuesday, my DH's Grandmother (G.G. To the kids) called to tell me that she was missing two expensive and SENTIMENTAL pieces of jewelry given to her by her late husband ,Bill (not my husbands grandfather, but that side gets complicated... Lol). Well apparently these items had been missing since my girls had spent the night at the end of July. She had looked everywhere, and while she hated to think it, had come to the conclusion that the girls had something to do with the disappearance. At first, my pride got the better of me. "My children would never!" But within about 20 seconds, God was in my ear. How many times a night in the ER am I told this by a parent when I have tell them their child is drunk, high, pregnant, or caused injury to someone? He reminded me; we are all sinners who give birth to sinners. I agreed to talk with the girls that night, still confident in my heart that she was wrong. Well, I was wrong. Before I could get the question out that night , Yang was in tears confessing the whole thing while poor Ying sat there very confused. Turns out Yang had taken them. She admitted to trying to tell us a few times, but either being interrupted or losing her nerve. Then she lost one of the necklaces, and she got even more frightened . She was so scared she stopped trying. In her mind, she couldn't repent if she couldn't "make it right". Since she'd lost it, she couldn't return it.  She did give me the one she still had, and I had to humbly call G.G. She was the picture of Christian forgiveness and compassion for both Yang, as the guilty party, and me, as a very embarrassed mother. Yang was so upset she was unable to talk to G.G. that night, but she called the next day and had a long talk. You know something went right when your kid ends a conversation like that with a genuine smile.

She humbly and patiently accepted her consequences. She was on restriction for 3 days- no TV, no video games or computer, no afternoon with friends. One of those afternoons was spent with my mother and father, so she had to tell them what she had done and what her restrictions were. I must say she handled it with real grace and dignity. No tears or back talk, just a calm acceptance. She managed to read 4 chapter books in 3 days.

Her brother and sister had lessons too. Their challenge was with gossip. I challenged them to not talk about Yang when she wasn't there especially with their friends. It was Yang's story to tell not theirs. They didn't need to explain why Yang was on restriction, and to the best of my knowledge they succeeded.

For my husband and I it was a lesson in not letting our pride get the better of us. First, in allowing the possibility that she could have committed the offense. Recognizing that our child are very well behaved but not perfect. Secondly, was not over reacting out of wounded pride. We had to find a middle road between giving her consequences that would make an impression that this was a sin and unacceptable behavior, and condemning/punishing her till she felt with one mistake she was beyond redemption. I think we accomplished this.

USA

Thank you to everyone who encouraged me through the first 2 weeks of ECC. Week 3 we started the USA and it was sooooooo much smoother. I know this is partly due to it being a review of the geography we learned last year as part of Adventures but it was fun to see what they remembered. Ying remembered 48 of 50. Yang got the coasts but sorry mid- America. We'll work on that. Hulk began learning our home state and neighbors. We've also bee working on a mini-book called "Me on the Map", helping him learn his address and how street, city, state, country, etc all fit together.
We also started in on Hero Tales this week as part of Bible. Hero tales uses different famous Christians stories to teach character. We started by just reading but it was a bit flat  so it has morphed into a " Bible Notebook". I started by  printing out something to go with each trait. It was a pretty easy internet search, Then the kiddos added their touches. I find they listen better when their hands are moving. We will also be putting in our copy work for the memory verses.

Hulk is working his way through Right Start Reading. We get the most done in the 1 hour free period he has during co-op time. He remains much more focused there because the are NO computers or video games calling his name..lol

P.s.....

Here are three pintrest board I have started.....

General MFW ECC: ( or stuff I haven't seperated out yet or stuff that goes all year

http://www.pinterest.com/lettinghimlead/mfw-ecc-general/

Canda and USA - I have included the board I made for Adventures last year as it has lots of good USA material:

http://www.pinterest.com/lettinghimlead/mfw-ecc-usa-canada/

http://www.pinterest.com/lettinghimlead/mfw-adventures-in-us-history/

ECC week 2

 We completed week 2 of our overview of geography this week. I tried to be a bit more relaxed, and stop stressing so much. We enjoyed the overview of the major world religions this week. The girls were impressed by how much most of the world has in common. I like Window on the Worlds simple and positive descriptions. They were very age appropriate for my crew. Our favorite geography lesson was map making using the grid system. We laid a grid out on the carport and the kids mapped our pretend country.  Hulk sitting in the chair was a mountain range, the boogie boards a lake, pool noodles a winding river. I think the blankets got added in as a forest and a military base. I was quite pleased with how the girls did once we got going.

The kids also started back at co-op this week which honestly was a blessed 4 1/2 hours of quiet errand running. I love my pack but quiet is something my mind craves and doesn't get much of right now. It was nice. I had to take a picture of the amount of stuff we have to load up for 3 kids in 5 classes. Its kinda comical. The girls are using their rolling suitcases this year because they have to carry the cellos on their backs all around the church. So each girl has a cello, music stand, suitcase w Science text & notebook, karate uniform,lunch and supplies for either knitting/art or Lego movie making. Hulk lucks out being little and gets his lunch and a pencil.

I am still not enjoying this year as much as last but I am hoping once we start the cultures part, we will find more of a rhythm.

ECC week 1

Making a sphere flat..lol.. sharpie does not stay on an orange well

Now what does it feel like to smash a grapefruit? after we decided we didn't like them much.....

Yang's Women of the World

Well let me be honest.. our first week of ECC was overwhelming. My over achieving self lost perspective. I started to make school at home instead of home school. I felt like since we had moved up to 3rd grade we needed to  " bump it up" a few thousand notches. I lost perspective and tried to formalize every subject. I ran myself and the kids ragged to the point that I was really wondering why was I homeschooling? But after a little reflection ( so yeah I am writing this 2 weeks later) I am chilling out. Sorta. Its still gonna take some time. So I loved making the John 3:16 posters. We bought a bunch of old National Geographics from the local thrift store and the kids had at it. I know many people  shy away from National Geographic  sometime because of the lack of attire, but honestly I want my kids to see the world unedited to some degree, especially the bodies of real people. Maybe its my nursing background, maybe its the body issues I see so many young girls with. This is God's creation. We don't have to be gratuitous about it, but nor do we need torun and hide like its to be ashamed of.  

Ying was very impressed by the fire dancers and snake

We also began our new science curriculum via our co-op this week. The girls are taking Earth Science which starts with 9 weeks of Astronomy, and is followed by meteorology and geology. I tried to do the ECC science on top of it this week and decided it was a mistake. we will be very brief in our bioomes studies or maybe very direct when it is really distinctive of a country. Like I plan on doing a lot with the rainforest during brazil, but dusting over deserts in the USA.
Hulk continued with phonics. He will start his version of the girls science class next week at co-op. Here he is working on reading skills with a file folder game I got at a used curriculum sale this summer.

The girls got their karate uniforms and  a re very excited to start classes next week during co-op.

Starting a new... Not back to school!

After two weeks of fun, sun, and family at the beach, we are diving into Exploring Countries and Cultures today as our first "official" days of Kindergarten and 3rd grade. Public school started back here today also which made the transition a little easier to take. I will say that I am a little overwhelmed by the increase in the amount of work going on with adding in Hulk, but once we find our rhythm hopefully it will smooth out.

Hulk

Ying in the tree, Yang dressed up and ready to go

We Survived Jellyfish Season!

Ying and Yang atop the Tybee Island Lighthouse

We had tons of fun finding all kinds and marine life around the island. It was high jellyfish season and unfortunately the kiddos had to have first aid lessons in dealing with a lot of stings, but they are troopers and didn't let it get in the way of their fun. We had a great time on our Sift and Seine Adventure with the Tybee Island Marine Science Center. The kids sifted sand to find lots of little creatures and used a huge seine net to catch some fish and a lot of jellies. It was great to have someone along who could identify and tell us about all we found! We also tried our hands at fishing on the back river, but patience is not a virtue we have developed in enough quantity, yet.




We Also visited the Oatland Island Wildlife Sanctuary on a day we needed a break from the beach. Above in a picture of Yang with the Cow in the Early Georgia Farm exhibit and below are Ying and Hulk on the Marshland Overwalk. I was low tide so we saw hundreds of little fiddler crabs, snails and some bigger blue crab.

I can't say our week was without TV..lol We found this TV and couch on the beach one morning.

















Hulk had an injury prone vacation with the doors in our condo. Sad thing is when your Mama is an ER nurse and your not bleeding to death, you tend to get very little sympathy when you cause your own injuries. That's why God made Great Grandmothers and Great Aunts ;).
 We loved the beach and had an amazing 2 weeks! Its so great to get together with far flung family in such a low key setting. No one felt like they had to be everywhere or do everything. Great cousin bonding time, even if in the end you have to have a chart on the wall to figure your out how your related to everyone...lol... This is the kids with their "1st Cousin once removed" from Virginia..lol

July--- Half School/half crazy summer fun

July has been a crazy mix of doing school "lite"(Reading, English, Language arts, and Math for Ying and Yang, and Phonics, sight words, and math for Hulk.) and crazy summer type stuff. We've been to the lake, exploded stuff in the driveaway, and done cool art. Our favorite art  were theses cool "fireworks" shirts we made with a group at our local library the week of the 4th.

First, a clean white shirt and some permanent markers. Draw on the shirt. All the kids did very different things. Some did Dots like Yang's here, & others drew full deigns with flowers, heart & stars. After you have your design, place a plate underneath the design and then slowly drop/splash/pour 70-90% rubbing alcohol on it and watch the magic.

Depending on your design, and technique in applying the alcohol the color will bleed and make a new pattern. Yang found that small drops of alcohol in the middle of group of dots gave her the best "firework" effect. The more alcohol you add the more bleeding you will get and less is more as the bleeding continues for 10-20 min after application until it fully evaporated. Some of the older girls in the group had down very darkly filled flowers and poured the alcohol on and got a water color type effect. We will definitely be experimenting with this again. After the shirts are dry don't forget run them on high in the dryer for 20 min, and the run a hot dry iron over them to fix the color!

Yang modeling her shirt at the fireworks!

We also did a little crazy science too... It all started as making volcanoes, and progressed to making colored cornstarch to throw like at the color runs. Hence the fancy safety goggles. Hulk just like to put his feet in the powder....

Hulk working on phonics, while Ying and Yang trudge through English.....