Back to School!

Monday was the day! Back to School! I really thought that this would be the morning that I would have to drag them out of bed and wrestle them into their clothes, but much to my surprise, they were excited! We began the day as a family at the table for a waffle breakfast and then had some family worship time. Joey and I have been planning out how we are going to spend this quality time over the next school year and we have come up with something that will be really good for us so I wanted to share. We have decided to spend time reading through the Bible sharing the Bible stories that really show God's story unfold. We will basically be emphasizing the stories that show his plan of redemption for His people. We are very excited about showing the kids how the unity of the whole Bible reveals--Christ! It's all about Him. We started today in Genesis with the creation. We will be studying zoology in science this year so we made sure to really emphasize the fifth day of creation to show why we are studying zoology. I love it when it all comes together in a pretty package. We are also going to have Missions Moment during our time at the table. We will use Kids of Courage and Bold Believers material published by Voice of the Martyrs to teach our kids to be informed about the world and to pray for other peoples. It is our desire to foster a love in our children for God's people everywhere. This month we will be focused on Burma. Scripture memory will also be key in the a.m. Alora receives a verse to memorize every week from her Sunday School teacher, Ms. Leigh that we will be using. Andrew will be memorizing scripture that is published in our church bulletin each week for memory. Joey and I will be memorizing both!

Alora, Mommy and Daddy's verse this week is: "Jesus said, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Luke 19:10

Andrew, Mommy and Daddy's verse this week is: "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. Psalm 103:8-10

To be prepared each morning, Joey and I are going to be reading a book together at night after the kids go to bed called The Drama of Scripture. It reads like a play and really shows how the Bible comes together to make one, big, long continuous story. Thanks, John, for the book!

After our Bible time we spent some time on our history and then moved into reading. Alora and I will be spending the week in The Complete Adventures of Curious George. She read to me today and I was thrilled to hear her reading so good. She struggled at the end of the year last year with some of the more complicated and confusing special sounds but apparently time off helped everything settle into her mind. She read very well! Also, she read 57 pages! Granted, their are illustrations but a book of this size would normally have turned her off instantly. She really stuck with it and we had a good time together.

Andrew began his new book, Homer Price. After one chapter he was hooked! He is Homer Price--that's why! I found this book on his reading list and read the back--It was soooo Andrew, so I knew it would be a great book to start with. He spent all of lunch, 30 minutes, retelling the chapter to me. I am excited about their books and I have some surprise special projects for us to do on Friday. Shhhh. I will tell you later.

When asked, Andrew said that his greatest accomplishment of the day was the organization of his desk drawer. I personally felt it was his handwriting page but we will go with the desk drawer. He spent this morning before school getting it all ready. I am always proud of him when he goes the extra mile to get things organized.Alora's greatest accomplishment was her cursive handwriting. She loves to write in cursive and loves practicing with her name. We are not in the process of learning cursive so this is pretty good considering it was all on her own with no instruction. Spiffy!

Science was awash--I won't lie. We were so into history, language, reading, bible, handwriting and taking Daddy lunch that it got late! We started to do Science around 3pm and they were laying on their desks like zombies! It really took a lot for me to back down but I am a new woman these days and so I said, "Good job!" and sent them on their way right in the middle of the lesson. I just had too much planned today, but that is my nature. Oh well, science and math we will tackle tomorrow. Oh wait.. we have Co Op! Wednesday is another day : )