Our Family of Flowers

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www.blessedfamilyofflowers.wordpress.com 

Kailey getting ready for her first tea party

Kiersè excited about her first tea party- Valentine Tea Party none the less

My girls and me

Everyone having a good time

Kailey

Kiersè

Kiersten and Kailey’s Girl Scout troop writing their pen pals in Indiana.

Kiersten

Emma

Kiersten

Steven

Emma

Kailey and Steven

I went to the store and bought the materials needed to make this pipe- I also put a washer in the mount piece, so no fuzzies slip through and choke the user. The fuzzies get loaded into the pipe and then they are blown out.

Emma taking her first run with the blowing of the fuzzies

Big Brother, Steven blowing the fuzzies at Emma

Steven and Emma loading the pipe

Awe, my little Emma : )

This is soooo fun Mom!

Emma reloading so she can shoot them at Steven

Matching Colors for Recognition- I went to a local home supply store and picked up paint color samples, (2 of each sample), so Emma could work on her color recognition.  She basically played it like a memory game, so she received lessons in both memorization practice and color sorting and recognition.

Emma started with red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple

Then we added brown, black, pink, and grey

Then we added the varying shades of each color

I came downstairs and found Steven had made his Teddy Bear and himself a afternoon snack. He loves his Teddy very much (if you cannot tell from the picture Teddy is very worn). In fact, Steven will not go to sleep at night unless Teddy is by his side. I of course had to run and get my camera before asking him what he was doing : ) What an imagination my little boy has.

The presents are all under the tree except the ones that arrive on Christmas Eve.  On Christmas morning the kids will find one very special gift under the tree for each of them wrapped in gold paper, which is the one Santa delivers on Christmas Eve.  Tonight is our traditional cookie baking night.  We bake cookies for Santa, which of course we enjoy too.  The reindeers will get their treat too- we bake Reindeer granola and spread it on the lawn (mixed with glitter, so the reindeer can see it from the sky).   

Today is my little man’s birthday.  We spent a portion of this afternoon making his cake.  He asked for a Vanilla Football cake with chip icing.  I think we did a pretty good job.

Kiersten’s Birthday Cake

Kiersten and her friend celebrating Kiersten’s 10th Birthday

Kiersten helped make her birthday cake from scratch with Mommy. This is a tradition with each of my children. Only the Birthday child gets to help with the cake. We make the cake from scratch (even the frosting) and the Birthday child and I decorate it to their liking.

Emma sorting buttons into the proper color coded container.  She had a blast doing this and asked to do it over and over again.  She even cleaned up after she was done. 

This Sunday is Kiersten’s 10th birthday.  It is hard to realize how much she has grown in the last 10 years.  When she was born she was barely 6 pounds and now she is a young lady- wipe a tear : (

She is becoming a beautiful person

This was Kiersten at age 5. The picture next to it is me (her mommy) when I was 5- see any similarities?

Well this year, Kiersten decided she would like a sleepover/ birthday party (yeah me : ) I told her she can have a few friends over. The night will be filled with giggles, games, and lots of snacking : )
I figure we can order pizza, play twister, have a movie night, and just have F-U-N. Though I am sure she will be swooshing me out of the room (she is getting older and not wanting Mommy to participate in friend time). We are still planning the activities and I understand she is her own person, and declaring that she needs more independence, so I will help her come up with a list of things that SHE and her friends can reference if they need something to do.

This is how we raise our children- to be their own person and to be an independent, self-thinking individual BUT once they start to declare their independence - it is tough to let them go.

So, to Kiersten- Don’t grow up too fast and I promise to always be your “Mommy” : )

I have the kids curriculum all in order with what we have been working on this year (2007) and what we will be working on this coming year (until June 2008).  I made a new page on my site for each child, so I can reference them as needed.  Of course we can detour off course every now and then and we will readjust as we move along our path of education : 0

The Kids

This year Daddy put up the tree and the kids did all the unloading of Christmas items and decorating of the tree.

We had a lot of fun looking through past year memories.  Every Year the kids get a new ornament that represents their year past.

Kailey

Kiersten

Even Scribbles joined in with the Celebrating

Kailey putting the tree topper on

Kailey is All Smiles- Steven got to put the tree topper on last year and Kiersten gets to do it next year and of course Emma will get it the next and so on…

Time to hang everyone’s stockings

The Day has come to an end and all is well : )

Kiersten working on her Christmas ornament. It is a tradition- each year in Girl Scouts we make an ornament to hang on the tree. This year we made them out of puzzle pieces.

Completed ornaments. Kailey made one too but I did not get a picture of her.

Kiersten and her friend responding to their pen pal letters. Our troop has pen pals in Indiana.

My Princesses

What Fun : )

 Clowning Around

A Bike Trick- Steven really enjoyed this.

The Elephants- Emma’s favorite part

The Zebras

The Horses

and Tigers- Oh my!

Mommy’s Favorite Part

and Kiersten’s Favorite

Double couple shooting out of the canon

The End…

A typical school day.  Though this is not all we do- Keep in mind the World is our learning place : )

Kailey is working on her Language Arts.  We are learning her address, phone number, how to spell her complete name.  In addition we are learning about Stranger Danger.

Steven is working on his Language Arts.  He is (re) learning his sounds since he missed something along the way.  We are working on the first grade level but should be able to complete the 2nd grade level by June 2008.  In other words, he should be up-to-date : )

Kiersten working on her Language arts.  This was the book format.  However, we recently switched over to the technological format, which incorportes fun learning into her studies.  Afterall that is my philosophy- Learning should be F-U-N!!

There is my full of life boy : ) Sooooo SWEET!!

Kiersten- what a little lady : )

Kiersten showing Emma some Math- I guess it is never too early to learn.  I have noticed Emma learning a lot from her older siblings.  She figures everyone else is learning, so she wants to learn too.  It is sooo nice to be able to homeschool.  The kids have been breaking the record with getting along with one another and showing how much they care about each other- that is what family is about.

Look how Steven is engaged in what Kiersten and Emma are doing- his mind is working : )

A science experiment with Water Vapor.  That is what clouds are made of and the stuff you see of the bathroom mirror after taking a shower.  After we finished- Steven said, “I want to do another one Mom”.  We boiled the water and then saw what happended when we tossed ice cubes in.  The heat from the burner went to the solid, coldest object instead.  Once the ice was melted the now all liquid form water began to boil again and of course we saw the steam (water vapor).

O’ the Life.  Kailey and Emma taking a break.  Isn’t homeschooling awesome  : )

Kailey and Kiersten within a Girl Scouts meeting. Kiersten is a Junior, and Kailey is a brownie : ) We made Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman) bags on this night.

This is Kiersten and a friend on a previous Girl Scout meeting night.  We made hemp necklaces with the girl’s names spelled out with beads.

Kiersten’s Field Trip to the Old Schoolhouse.

A day on the Field.

“Let it Snow”

Pachelbel Bedtime
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uISuvTiTYJA

Spoiled Bumblebee:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V1gLr5jW7o

The kids and I headed out to do some price comparing.  This served as part of a badge requirement for both of my daughter’s Girl Scout Badges.  The girls were excited to get started.  As we went through the store I asked them various questions about what out of various similar items was the better buy.  I could see their minds working as they carefully considered the solution to the posed questions.  This activity also served as a life skills training- smart shoppers.

Well, after much contemplation we have come up with our homeschool name.  We have decided on, “Inner Light Christian Academy”.  Which represents the light within each of our children, that God is our inner light, that God will lead the way, that each of our children is special in their own way (their inner light). 

Today was Steven’s first cub scout meeting for the 2007 year.  After the meeting after we got in the car Steven said, “I LOVE CUB SCOUTS!”.  The item they choose for tonight’s pack meeting was putting together a wood submarine and painting it.  He did awesome.  He loves putting things together- I did not help him at all.  He had it put together in a blink of an eye. 

We are new to homeschooling, so the process of gathering resources and organizing methods is ongoing.  We plan to start up homeschooling by October.  We are a Christian family and feel as if God has led us to homeschooling. 

We have found ourselves leaning towards the eclectic approach to homeschooling, which is an assortment of varying methods.  I basically took the best of numerous methods and techniques and incorporated them into the kid’s curriculum. 

For Kiersten (10 year old) we will use Switched On Schoolhouse for Language Arts, Math-U-See for Math (this is her weakness in studies and she will need to go back to go forward), BackYard Scientist, and Christian Kids Explore for Science (Earth Science), We will be learning about Geography and about the Presidents this year.  We will also use a lot of Supplements, Hands on techniques, and Real Life events in our curriculum. 

For Steven (my 8 year old) we have decided to use LIFEPAC as well as Hands on and Real Life experiences for Language Arts.  I know he is not where he should be in Language Arts, so I am basically going to teach Kailey (my 6 year old and First Grader) and Steven together on in the Language Arts section, once Steven gets whatever he missed along the way we will accelerate his learning in this area of studies.  We also signed up for Pizza Hut’s “Book-It” Program, so this is serving as a great incentive for him to read to me ; ) For Math we will also be using Math-U-See.  Steven’s ultimate subject is Math- this is his strong point.  For Science (another strong point and interest for him) we will be using Unit Studies as well as the same techniques we will be using for Kiersten (Christian Kids Explore and BackYard Scientist).  The same as applies for History- Unit Studies/ Group Studies.  The kids expressed an interest in Egyptian times.  We recently visited the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and saw a real mummy- this of course sparked the kid’s interest.   

For Kailey- I am incorporating kindergarten and first grade into the same year.  She is my smarty, so she can definitely accomplish this goal.  We will use many supplements and make it fun for her.  At this age it is more about laying a foundation for the love of education so that it can be built on.  This is my goal with all of my children- I want them to love gaining new knowledge every day.  We have decided on LIFEPAC for Language Arts, and Math-U-See for her Mathematics.  Kailey will learn Science and History within Unit Studies.  We have various computer games (i.e. Jump Start and Jump Start World), that the kids get to use within their studies as earned time (technology time).  Meaning, they have to do their work to get computer time, which they so not want to miss out on ” ) They love their ”limited” computer time, so this is a great incentive for them.  We also adore the Leap Frog dvd learning aids (letter factory, code word caper, etc…).  In addition, we have found www.starfall.com and their supplement books- which she enjoys very much.  There is a PBS show called “Super Why’s” that we enjoy learning from.  We of course also watch Sesame Street.  Kailey also enjoys the Leap Frog Leap Pad system and we have found a phonics set that goes with it- yipeeee. 

 I have all the kids in extra activities- For instance, Kiersten and Kailey are in Girl Scouts (I am their troop leader- we have 16 girls all together).  Steven is in Cub Scouts.  We are at the library at least 2 to 3 times a week.  The kids are involved in a church program every Tuesday night, which they absolutely L-O-V-E.  We picked up their first bibles yesterday.  Kiersten choose a girl one (all pink).  It also has girl stuff in it and what would you do scenarios.  Steven choose a bible with science experiments, crafts, recipes, etc…. and Kailey chose a bible for young readers, which uses pictures and storylines.  I am sooo excited that GOD is so much a part of our lives.  We also go to the American Girl club once or twice a month- which uses wholesome teachings in their literature.  Of course, we go to church every Saturday night too : ) We enjoy days off at the park, touring the local museum/ planetarium, and aquarium amongst other things.  In November our local Plains and Conservation Center is doing a Laura Ingalls (Little House on the Prairie) scenario and real life experience, so that is definitely on our list of things to do.  They get to learn how pioneers lived during that time era, which is perfect since we are watching the “Little House on the Prairie” from Season one to Season 10.  We reserved the dvds at our local library and just picked them all up the other day- GOTTA LOVE THE LIBRARY : )

Our family of flowers- may they grow up to be strong individuals in Mind, Body, and Spirit.  May God lead us in our journey through life.