The week has been full of appointments and surprises (not all good) in the ministry.
Youth group at the nearby public school
A slippery slope after youth group!
This past Monday I spent time putting our house in order after our shipment from the U.S. arrived. Tuesday we visited the local dairy farm and ate dinner with our teammates, whom we try to meet with once a week for fellowship. Wednesday, we began homeschooling again; but even having taken two days off, it felt like we had schooled the whole week.
We are SO glad we shipped this Thomas the Train set! It’s provided hours of creative play and happiness for the boys already!
Taking two days off didn’t effect our math schedule since we are taking time to simply review concepts with Singapore Primary math right now. We were also ahead in spelling, so we took a week to review Level One. I plan to start Level Two next week, now that I have unearthed it from the shipment! It was no problem to finish grammar, writing, history, and science in our three days of school; and in phonics, reading, and handwriting, we just completed a lesson a day.
I was so gratified to find Caleb voluntarily reading a poem by Shel Silverstein to the others this week!
For nature study, Caleb drew a wasp nest he found. In science, we talked about glorifying God in what we eat and drink, which was a great introduction to ABeka’s health reader that Caleb will read this year. Our state requirements are so minimal, I don’t mind having to provide health instruction every year.
We also began discussing the circulatory system. I took a clean pile of clothes from Caleb’s closet to another room. I gave him a clean item of clothing and asked him to put it away neatly and bring me back a dirty item of clothing. I kept him circling several times with these repeated tasks as an introduction to what our circulatory system does for us!
We “crossed the Rubicon” with Julius Caesar this week and made Roman mosaics on this fun website. I enjoyed hearing about the history behind that phrase! I counted the mosaic-making as art, along with a new picture study of one of Edgar Degas’ paintings. Colin has begun joining in to hear the history readings. He enjoys the coloring sheets.
Callie and Carson constantly, but cutely, cut into our class time. This week’s battle has been putting play dough in their mouths, making it mushy, and spreading it all over the table. Callie is picking up how to count a little and the idea that letters say sounds. She and Carson would be happy if I read to them all day.
How can they sit like that for so long?
This weekend a former LBI graduate brought his wife down to visit for the weekend. He is preaching at our church, and we hope to offer a bit of financial support to his family. He has planted a church in a remote area of Zimbabwe, and outwardly his church is doing better than ours. But this is a good opportunity for our church to learn to give consistently to others. We hope to be a blessing to this couple this weekend.
The Lord has been teaching and humbling me in certain areas as I have introspected about ways I need to grow spiritually and use the gifts God has given to me for His church.
I hope you can find the time to read about our new family tradition. We love it so much–I think it would be a great tradition for other families too!
Ita Vita 