homeschool is going GREAT!

Much better than I'd anticipated. David is loving it and flourishing! We're working on second grade material and have been able to branch out and try new things. One of which I have now just fallen all kinds of in love with. Lapbooking. Such a cool idea! Whoever thought of it, I am so thankful for you! We are studying Easter after the holiday because we took some time off when my brother was in town. But David doesn't mind so I don't mind. Today we created his lapbook for his study on the book, "The Legend of The Easter Egg". He loves it! He cut and pasted all the pieces while I read him the instructions. This week we will go through the book and learn about it piece by piece so that by the end of the week he will have learned science, math, language arts, history, reading, spelling, and art from this one little book! So cool. Anyway, here are some pics from today.

OH! By the way, if you would like to get your hands on some free lapbook ideas and printouts click here and you will find everything you could imagine! This is where I got the templates and printables for the Easter lapbook.

Cutting out the pieces....

Gluing the pieces onto the book.

Putting it all together.

The front cover.

The folded sides of the finished piece.

The inside of the finished product. :)

the start of a new adventure

Oh I don't think I'll be sleeping tonight. I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve. There is so much going through my mind right now! I'm excited and scared at the same time. I think God is saying, "enough already with the scared! we can DO this thang Jennifer!" As most of you know we will be starting homeschool tomorrow with David. Daniel is finishing his year of pre-school and then will start in the fall. We thought it might be better to wait with him. He's not quite ready for the transition. But David was more than eager. Tomorrow we will head to the library for reading time to check out some books on our Texas History unit study, then we'll head to the store to get craft supplies (and alittle math lesson!) for his lap book creating, then we'll head back home and study his sea monkies under the microscope. The should be fully viewable tomorrow. Big day, but a fun day. I can't wait! I'll be up early making a special "first day of school" breakfast of scrambled eggs and pancakes. The boys will be thrilled!

Do me a favor and pray for us this week if you think about it. I am anticipating a great week, but am not underestimating the enemy. I know how much satan hates that we are following God's plan, and I know how much he'd love for us not to. Keep us in your prayers my friends.

And please pray for my brother and his family as they are traveling this coming weekend to Abilene!!! Whoohoo! Please pray for safe travels and a great visit!

One more... please pray for a special friend of ours. We have recently found out he and his family are serving the Lord in a restricted country. Please pray for their safety and for their strenth in service to the Lord. They are my heroes.

Love you all, and thank you to everyone who prayed for our sick kiddos this week. We are claiming health from now on and won't take any more of satan's jerky-ness. He needs to get to steppin' before he gets stepped on! Oh yeah, my Jesus already took care of that didn't he? :) Move on satan. Move on.

the last day

Last night I prayed that today would be easier on us than I was anticipating. I knew it was going to be hard pulling away from school for the last time and I was prepared for tears. From me, not David. I asked God for a (another) clear sign that homeschool was the right thing. Lo and behold, he came through in an unforseen way. David woke up with a 103 fever this morning. No going to school. I'm claiming this as my clear sign that the boy should be at home. We did go an formally withdraw him at the school office and went by a few special teachers and said our goodbye's. Then we ventured to his classroom to say goodbye to his fellow students and gather his belongings. In the end it was a sweet half hour of closure for us. We both needed to walk through and say goodbye and also to thank God for ending one season while beginning another. David did not cry the whole time, and to my surprise neither did I. We were able to spend some special time with David's kindergarten teacher as well as the librarian. Both have been instrumental in getting David to this point. David was also able to say goodbye to his friend Ryan, although we will for sure be seeing Ryan again in the future. :) It was the moment we needed. The closure we needed.

Now it's time to enter the crazy adventure of homeschooling and I could not be more excited. David either. Right now we've allready started his first science project. We're growing sea monkies for him to look at under his new microscope on Tuesday. Monday will be spent at the library checking out books on the Alamo, then we'll begin our unit on the Alamo and Texas History. We're going to San Antonio on vacatio in June and so David will be learning about all the places we're going to visit. I can't wait to hear him say, "hey, I read about that in my lesson" when we go. :)

So even though it's been a bittersweet day, I'm praising God for the sweet goodbye and for the clarity. It's exactly what my worrysome heart needed.

more of a y than a v

This has been a funky day for me. Sick kid, high emotions, sadness, second guessing... to much going on to write about. But something happened this morning and I'm just figuring out what God was trying to show me. I think he meant it to happen that way.

This morning I sat out on the patio watching the day wake up. There was a group of birds trying desperately to get across the blustering cloudy sky. What struck me as odd about this group, is that their "v" shaped flying pattern was all out of whack. Out front in a single line flew 4, sometimes 5, lone birds. The back of the "v" was in shambles. One side was straight and ready, the other was quite crooked and pretty much what that guy from Project Runway would call a "hot mess". (without the 'hot' perhaps). I tried my best to figure out what on earth was wrong with those birds. Then it hit me. They didn't know who to follow. The line of birds out front showed an uprising of those who wanted to lead the pack. The lines to the back showed an utter confusion of whom to follow. Their "v" was very much a "y". I wondered if some of them were actually wondering "y" they were following leaders who seemed to want to argue over who was going to be out front than keeping their flock together. And now tonight after the day I've had emotionally, God's giving me a clue as to what on earth I was witnessing this morning. Crazy pack of birds maybe, lesson from God for sure. You see, I've been arguing with God over who was going to lead my life. My pretty "v" is very much a "y" sometimes. And I get my sides all in a hot mess while I'm blinded by all the junk in front of me. In trying to steal the lead from God, I create quite a mess in my wake. Why am I not content to follow God's lead and let him keep the "v" going. I'm terrified of incredible leaps of faith. I'm so afraid I'll make the wrong choice that often times I make God push me before I'll leap. And too often I don't see the mess I've created until it's too late. But how awesome is God that he still comes and straightens my messes up for me? So Lord tonight with all that's on my heart and mind, even as the tears come down, I'm praying for a V in my life. I don't want a tail of fighting for leadership in my life. I want the courage to follow you wherever you take me. I want the courage to live in a V patterned life, rather than the fear of living in a Y life. Help me to step back and follow you more. And help me to stop second guessing my life. Because you are in the lead.

loving the lapbooks

Okay, I've found a new love. :) Well, new to me. I love the lapbook idea for homeschooling! And I've found a couple of great places to find some free lapbook lessons and ideas! Too cool not to share. Keep looking cause I'll be updating this post as I find more freebies!

Free Presidential Election LapBook - click here to get it!

LOADS of free LapBook ideas/unit studies - click here to get it! *this will take you to the level 3 studies, to find other age ranges click on Unit Studies.

I'll send you more when I find them! Happy Hunting!

yay!

We finally got in the last big of curriculum for Homeschool! We are still waiting on David's telescope and microscope set but we can start without them. I don't think we'll need to, but we can if shipping is delayed for whatever reason. :) Oh I am so excited! What we're going to do to start out is work on unit studies with David for the rest of the year, and then at some point in August/Sept begin both boys on their full curriculum. Daniel is not to keen on the whole process so we're going to let him finish out the year in Pre-K. David is over the mood excited about starting ASAP. So this is his last week in public school. I'm a bit sad, but more excited to see what God has in store for us. I have been planning out these next few weeks with David. We'll be studying about the Alamo, Zoo Animals, Whales, and Bats to prepare for our trip to San Antonio in June. We're also going to do a few studies on the missionaries that are visiting our church this month and the countries they are serving in. And then we'll do a study on Baseball since that is what he's into right now. I also have a unit study on US Currency because he wants to learn about money. I really think these next few weeks are going to help me learn how he learns. We're going to have a great time exploring and learning from God's world!

Just an aside - while Satan hasn't attacked us yet, I'm not naive enough to think it won't happen. Please keep us in your prayers! You have been so encouraging with your e-mails and letters! Thank you SO much for the support!

taking the plunge...

*drumroll please...*

We are taking the plunge friends. Into what you ask? Into the vastly scary, wildly exciting, fun filled world of Homeschooling! Yep, that's right, homeschool here we come! I'm so excited about this decision. We've been praying for years about it until a few weeks ago when I realized I was praying more to keep God's will at bay than I was to get a clear decision from him. I allready knew what he wanted me to do, but I was hiding from it. So after hours upon hours, and weeks upon weeks, of researching state laws and the billions of curricula out there, we finally settled on Alpha Omega LifePac for David, and AO Horizons for Daniel. I am in love with both of them and I think each worktext will be good for each child. Several things have happened that have confirmed in my mind that this is God's plan. It's been an interesting week of God proving to me that all I needed to do was listen to him and he would work it out. In our Bible study this morning of Esther, Beth Moore was talking about timing. It really hit me when she said many times we just know when it's time. We won't be led by our emtions, but we'll just know and then we'll go. Two weeks ago I just knew. It wasn't an emotional decision, or a decision out of fear or anything else. I just knew it was time to stop putting God off. And much of that day was spent researching, talking with others who are currently homeschooling, and praying that I would have the strength to carry out God's plan. Last night I was talking some friends of mine and one asked why I had decided to homeschool and the only answer I had was that it was just time. I laughed to myself this morning about how fitting our lesson was with what's happened in the last few weeks. God is always there. He's there, and he's on time. Now it's up to us to be! Are you sitting on the fence waiting for it to be time? What's holding you back? Take advice from a fellow fence sitter. Jump down. If it's just time to get up and go, get up and go. God has worked everything out to where I have not needed to stress out about any part of this decision. Everything has fallen into my lap, including the curriculum and supplements my heart craved for. God has taken every question, every need, and every desire of my heart and fulfilled it. So if it's time, Go. Don't put God off or wait around for a better answer from him. You'll find your watch showing half past some blessings if you do.

PS - if you'd like to find out more about Alpha Omega Homeschooling products you can click here and it will take you to their site. You can also sign up for daily devotions in your e-mail! Check it out. :)