Look What I found

I was on the internet looking for inexpensive lacing beads and I found them at Oriental Trading Company. I didn't know they had educational stuff. I was excited to get them and get started using them. I first ordered the wooden lacing beads and then I saw the letter beads and the Bible cards and I couldn't resist. I plan on using the lacing beads for Mr. Wheels to lace and sort by color and shape. They come in the same colors as the counting bears so I can use the same cups. Mr. Wheels will not use the letter beads too much. The upper case and lower case letters are together on each block, this will be nice for Kit to use for spelling. I plan to put the Bible cards in our church bag to keep them busy during church.

Wooden Lacing Beads

Wooden Alphabet Beads

Bible Lacing Cards

Colors and numbers

Today Mr. Wheels really tried to match the colors. I could see him trying to put the correct bear in the right cup. I also got the idea from another homeschool blog to use the clothes pins with the colors marked on the outside. He clips them on the outside of the corresponding cup. He didn't do it as long as he placed the bears on in he cups and on the cards.

Going to Kenya

Today we leave Europe and head to Africa. We were in Germany. I have been so busy that I didn't get to take the Germany pic today with the Kenya pic.

Baby Danced

I have reading time with Mr. Wheels most week days and back in November  2012 we had been reading Baby Danced the Polka by Karen Beaumont. He was able to finish the end of many of the sentences. We all know that our memory is not good so I decided to video me reading the book to him.  I propped the IPad down the hall from our reading place and turned it on before we started our reading time. If he knew I was recording it would have never even got started, because he would have wanted to see it before we recorded anything. I then thought that it will not mean much if you can see the book, so I edited the video to include the pages. Since I am a busy home school mom and video editing takes a while I am just getting this done. I love it and wanted to share.

Today's Alter

I have been struggling with the idea that I need to do everything right with my kids. I intellectually know that it not possible, but when the day to day things come along I work hard to be and do all things perfect. I also expect my kids to act, dress, and be good all the time. I know I can't do this but I don't want to settle for mediocrity.
I was at church last week and I saw a kid taking up the offering. His hair was a mess and he was acting a bit silly (as all kids do). When he got back to the pew his dad told him good job. I loved it. He needs to feel good about helping. I realized that I need to be more unconditional. The kids went up to children story and Mr. Wheels was driving his car and not listening. I was up front and I felt that lots of people were watching. I wanted him to sit and listen. I took what I learned from what I saw earlier, I let him drive his car. He is only 2 years old and he was not disrupting. He does not need to make me look like a good mom. We then prayed when it was over. Mr. Wheels said amen at the end so some could here. At that moment I prayed, "please Lord help me not take the glory for that. " Then a little voice in my head said, "Then you can't take the blame." I almost felt like crying. Later I made the picture that is posted here. I made it my wallpaper for my phone, because I knew that I would need to be reminded.

Essay

Writing essays is an assignment that can cause tears at our house. Maybe it does at yours too. Well I tried having her record her essay instead of writing it. She was reading her essay that she dictated to me and I wrote down for her. Here is what she did.

Classifying a Sentence

We use Shurley English and for her assignment today Kit was asked to audio record herself classifying a sentence, but we decided to video it instead. As she did this she was a bit nervous doing this in front of a camera. As a result she made some mistakes. She requested that I edit these out. I didn't want her to be embarrassed so I honored her request. It will be clear where I edited. I am very happy of the fact that she can classify these sentences in 3rd grade. I wish I could do this so when I was in 3rd grade.