A Home School Day

Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what our home school days look like. Alot of the day the boys work on their own with just a little guidance from me. On some days, they require a little more help or one on one time with me.

In these pictures, Owen is doing his listening. He reads from a book of classic childrens stories. They are all recorded and posted on the internet by another Coram Deo mom (God bless this woman!!) so I don't have to read them aloud. He sits near the computer and follows along while the story is read to him. He often fills out a short worksheet about the content of the story when he is done. His day is mostly filled with phonics, math and spelling.

You can see that Henry has a favorite spot to do school. He likes to set up this small card table in front of the fireplace and do his work. In this picture, I think he is even enjoying a hot chocolate..... rough life!! He spends alot of time doing math worksheets and learning cursive. He also has bible and history where he is learning about Greece and Rome this year.

Finally, Meghan is painting at the kitchen table while they work. I would like to say that is a regular occurrence but often times she is in front of the TV or playing under our feet. It is great where we have days when I have enough time and patience to start her and help her with something like painting but that is not all that normal.

Pinewood Derby

Today was Henry's first Pinewood Derby race for Cub Scouts. He and Eric worked so hard for the last few weeks perfecting Henry's "Pika Truck" which is a truck modeled after the Pokemon character Pikachu. He won "Most Humorous Car" for his den. His was not the fastest car but it sure was creative and well made....We are so proud of him. It was a great first year and he is excited to try again next year.

Adoption Update

Just a quick update on the adoption. About a week ago, we received our court date. We will travel to Ethiopia on March 4th and be in court on Wednesday the 9th. Eric and I will make this trip on our own. We will visit our daughter's birth city, Gondar, which is in northern Ethiopia. We will be in Gondar for only 1 day/1 night and we will do a little sight seeing and visit Bridge to Hope Orphanage. We will spend the rest of the week in Addis Ababa, the capital city.

Snowed In!

We have had some serious winter weather in Dallas this week. It started with an ice storm (the weather man called it a "thunder snow") on Monday night with temperatures only getting into the high teens on Tuesday and Wednesday. With the temperature so low the roads remained really bad.

Thursday night we added about 5 inches of snow to the ice pack that had not yet melted. The snow that fell on Thursday night and into Friday was alot more fun than the ice storm and so on Friday we actually got out and played for a while. Friday afternoon was so pretty as it was still snowing big flakes but the sun was peeking through the clouds. The pictures are from Friday afternoon. Eric rigged up a "sled" from an old door he has been holding on to in the garage for years. He attached a rope and pulled the kids around the greenbelt behind the house.

Someone forwarded me this verse this week and it really made me think. Job 37: 6-7 "He says to the snow "fall on the earth" and to the rain shower "be a mighty downpour." So that all men He has made may know His work, He stops every man from his labor." That is really what happened this week.... most everyone I know was stopped from their labor and just rested. It felt like God must have looked down at His overworked, overtired, stressed-out children and said "Y'all need a little break!" OK, so "y'all" may not be in His vocabulary but you know what I mean.

We have been out of school all week. We have enjoyed the fireplace alot this week. We have seen alot of each other. Eric has worked from home almost the entire week. I am a big fan of "quality time" but i am honestly not going to be sad when everyone goes to school next tuesday.

Trampoline

In celebration of a great fall semester and as an early Christmas present, we bought a trampoline for the backyard. We surprised the kids with it when we came home on their last day of school before Christmas break. It was (and continues to be 2 months later!) a big hit. It is a great way for all 3 kids to go out and play together in the backyard. It has also been a fun toy to share with our neighbors and friends.

Christmas 2010!

Here are some pictures from Christmas day. We had a nice day here at our house. Nana was here with us and Mimi, Papa, Uncle Chris and Gigi came in bright and early so that the kids would not have to wait too long to open presents. It was a fun family day. Here are some of my favorite pictures....

Christmas Playathon

The boys both played in Mrs. Gustafson's annual Christmas Playathon at a local mall in early December. Both boys played so well and enjoyed it. Mrs. Gustafson asked them play their songs two times each. After that, she dismissed all the students but invited anyone to stay and continue to play if they wanted to. Both Henry and Owen wanted to stay and both continued to play for another 30 minutes. We ended up shutting the place down and being the last to leave. It was fun to see them really want to play in that setting and enjoy performing. They were both so relaxed. Enjoy the pictures from the evening including Meghan all dolled up in her Christmas duds.