How many talents did the servant who had been given five end up with at the very end of the story? Do you know? It’s Bible time at our house, and it’s neck and neck to climb the rainbow to the cross. Thanks to Uncle Scott and Aunt Kate’s Christmas present, we have been having such fun testing each other’s Bible knowledge. Guess who’s winning? Continue reading “How we do Family Bible Time”
So here we are in a local play area as a special reward for completing several responsibilities, munching on our lunch and anticipating the playtime to come, when in squeals a little one followed by his family. Of course, the little boy’s straight path to the slide was followed by older sister’s yells and mother’s quite colorful language insisting upon his eating first before play. The whole exhibition to follow was mesmerizing to Mommy and AbiNoelle. Continue reading “Never say “No, don’t, stop, or not that way!””
What a wonderful CHRISTmas time we enjoyed this year, BUT…then it was over and it was time for all the decorations to come down. We were working together to put away “Christmas,” but AbiNoelle was determined to salvage what she could before it was packed away. “Can I just keep this one thing in my room, Mommy?” Before long, that one thing became five and Mommy was forced to insist that it all be packed up until another year. With a cry of true anxiety, she bounded off to her room with a sigh that she “just can’t take this anymore!” Oh, the adjustments of life!
So the “Christmas” was down and the snowmen up for January! AbiNoelle has been praying that God will send some fun snow to enjoy soon – afterall, she does want a chance to use those snow toys, but so far it’s just been rainy and too warm.
We were glad to get back to the regular school routine, albeit, AbiNoelle was slightly more enthusiastic than Mommy. We had just started Numbers with Mrs. Pintar. Mommy stepped out of the school room for just a second to put away something, when a scream surged through the house. Mommy rushed to the school room to see AbiNoelle with her hands covering her mouth.
“AbiNoelle! What in the world happened!”
“It’s the new number, Mommy. I just can’t stand it! Mrs. Pintar is about to 
show us what our new number is for today!”
That Numbers Time – I just don’t know how much more fun we can have! She had such a great time making patterns and counting and matching the amount of felt shapes to the number. However, we did have to talk about how to express ourselves in a slightly less dramatic fashion!
WOW! Cursive writing is quite impressive! It’s amazing what AbiNoelle can accomplish when she listens and follows Mrs. Pintar’s exact words! She was so excited to learn how to connect letters and write her very first word all by herself.
And, of course, we had to stop and take time to recognize her 100th DAY OF K4 School! AbiNoelle loves to paint, so it was super special to be able to take an old shirt and spiff it up to mark this day. We wrote 10 – 100 down the side and used paint to make 10 rows of 10 thumb prints. Counting to 100 by 10s was a breeze and a blast!
Now back to Christmas…
What a great heritage and special blessing! Every year, AbiNoelle and PopPop read Luke 2 together. For a couple of years, AbiNoelle has had Luke 2:1-20 memorized, so she enjoys “helping” PopPop with the reading.
Christmas with Grandpa and Grandma also includes the tradition of spending time together as a family and quoting Luke 2.
Without question, a precious memory made this year, was AbiNoelle being “an angel” in the Church Christmas Play with all of her little friends. Of course, Mommy had to throw in a little “funny” when she was listening to the girls practicing “Silent Night, Holy Night, All is Calm…” knowing that everything was all BUT calm with that group! On the serious side…AbiNoelle was given the opportunity to quote Luke 2 in narrator fashion during the play – it was precious, special, and never to be forgotten!
AbiNoelle memorized Luke 2 last year, so this Christmas,
she gave to Jesus a birthday gift of learning Matthew 2:1-23. With each verse learned, she added a candle to the birthday cupcakes on our schoolroom board. Below is a video. We trust you will be blessed!
Not too far from our home in the mountains is the “Christy” mission. As a young girl, “Christy” traveled from her home in Asheville, NC to the backwoods holler stuck just beyond the border into Tennessee, to teach the mountain children. Little Burl was first to introduce himself with a “I’ll swap ya howdys, teacher!” AbiNoelle loves listening to the audio version of this book, and especially likes imitating the holler drawl of Mr. Penland, the mailman, as he sends out his “Hallooo! U-nited States Maaaa-yullll! We did our own little swappin’ this week, and it turned out just as fun as them backwood’s howdys!
SWAP 1! – Technology! Miles were diminished with the touch of a button this week as we chatted with a Missionary friend. What a joy to share conversation with someone else who desires to bring wholesome, godly influences into the lives of their children. We swapped good ideas, beliefs, and resources! With an eagle’s eye, you have to look today for good things to bring into the lives of your children. The world is so full of evil, wickedness, sin…it can be a challenge to find audio, video, books, or educational resources that do not try to subtly or blatantly spread an ungodly agenda into your child’s mind and heart. As we chatted, we noted various “resources” that had to be nixed due to rock-type music, heathen practices, etc. Bad influences abound; yet, as parents, it is advantageous to have a pocket-full of goodly treasures to swap out for those negatives. We also swapped ideas on those things that had brought good, godly, wholesome enjoyment to our homes. AbiNoelle is certainly full of life and fun – nothing sedentary or seclusionary about her; therefore, our pockets had always better be full of some good fun to dish out!
Swap 2! AbiNoelle turned 4 years old! Birthday activities were in true four-year old style – VARIETY!vFrom the Dan’l Boone bow-and-arrow fun to all that glitters and sparkles, we celebrated with much fanfare. What little girl doesn’t like dress-up, the pretty, the fancy, the jewelry, the princess life? Unfortunately, today’s society emphasizes an artificial made-up beauty, entitlement, self-centeredness, even, at times, an evil or sinister path to achieve goals. We took AbiNoelle for a special fun play day,
and while, watching her on some of the play equipment, we overheard a mother tell her son that if he wanted something to drink he was going to have to be “sneaky and get it quick because it was against the rules to have something to drink in the play area.” Wow! – What a way to teach the sinister side of things! On this birthday, we chose to SWAP! AbiNoelle was delighted to dress-up like “Princess Faith” from the Princess Parables, a series of books that we found at our local bookstore. This series was written by a former missionary lady who also preferred to skip the world’s view of a princess while giving her daughters opportunity to play princess in a “daughter’s of the King” atmosphere.
AbiNoelle jumped right in as we opened up her birthday celebration with a reading of “Princess Faith and the Mysterious Garden.” She finished the sentence as Mommy read the first page which introduced Princess Faith and her sisters as “daughters of the King.” (Ever since AbiNoelle accepted Jesus as her Saviour, she is always reminding us that she is a child of the King….so this story was perfect timing.) After reading the princess book, AbiNoelle donned her “Princess Faith” dress that Mommy made, her princess hat, and some sparkly rings and necklaces and with much princess-style jumped into a full day of #4 FUN!
“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” I Cor. 10:31
Here’s a look at her Birthday Week of fun!
So with a couple of swaps we had a GREAT birthday week playing Princess Faith, Dan’l Boone, and a host of other fun times!
In the short, since our last blog, life has consisted of a rusty needle, lots of smiles, pigs that weren’t, books, clubs, and grasshoppers. Sounds like a true homeschooler, right? Got a little chuckle when we recently saw this cartoon: Continue reading “The pig that wasn’t and the needle that was!”
If you have read this blog previously, you know that we exert much effort in developing a love for learning and making each school day fun and interesting. However, as we grow, at some point, we are introduced to certain subject matter that is avoided by most, cringed at by some, and uncomfortable by all. One of those being – Death and dying. It’s not a subject that most of us typically wake up thinking about, much less decide to incorporate into our day’s homeschooling lessons. Nevertheless, it is a real aspect of life that has eternal significance; therefore, shouldn’t it be taught? Much preparation and development had been given to our end-of-life lesson (which we will detail below), but the day came when we finally had to face it – the Death lesson.
Continue reading “The one blog you can’t miss! READ NOW!”
Just the other night, AbiNoelle proclaimed that it was Husband and Wife Night! For some that could be akin to the kindergarten teacher explaining how SHE and her WIFE cook together, spend time together, live together, etc. and then cunningly proposing to the class the question of whether or not THEY were a FAMILY. The books King and King and King, King, and Family further aggrandize the agenda. For AbiNoelle, when Mommy responded: “Yippee!…..what does that mean?”, in her own confident way she said, “Well, it means that…
Continue reading “Definition of Family/ Husband & Wife Night”
Homeschooling with a MISSION 
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