{iPhone Rewind} :: July

Aiden's turban nest. He said, "send that to the president." This kid's got jokes!

We had a long stretch of 100-degree days, and the humidity was stifling. Not our favorite summer days...

4th of July flowers from Mike

Maddie was super excited about the free samples at Trader Joe's :)

A beautiful {double} rainbow after a storm

Lunch and a show {our neighbors were having a tree removed}  :)

Happy 15th Anniversary to us!

I wonder how many days are left of seeing this bear on the stairs...

This little guy spent a lot of time climbing around our living room window, flying into our back door, and hanging out on our patio table. I'm pretty sure he was either a baby learning to fly, or he was hurt and needing to recover. I'm choosing to maintain our Disney backyard aesthetic and believe he eventually gained the strength to fly safely away on his own :)

They're both WAY too big to snuggle on top of Mommy, but where there is a will, there is a way...

 

We ventured into Rainforest Falls for VBS this year! Our Super Sloth, Jumpin' Jaguar, and Amazing Anaconda learned all about the nature of God, and it was a fun week full of praising our all-knowing and faithful Creator!

Aiden accidentally left Pooh Bear at a friend's house...and he took a journey to make it back safely home :)

Our little World Cup junkies haha

One of our missionaries from the Netherlands {same one Mike visited earlier this year} has come back to Virginia for the summer, and he taught a class on the 4 gospels: Four Portraits, One Jesus. I always enjoy learning from him, but was doubly excited for this class, as I prepare for our Luke Bible study this Fall!

After almost 40 years of faithful ministry, Milt and Val said "see you later" to our CBC family. We had a sweet morning hearing Milt's last sermon as our Shepherding Pastor, and then enjoying an all-church picnic with family and friends throughout the years.

These two thought it was hilarious to stuff the Pooh bear costume with blankets and have been carrying it around like an extra person. They have been dancing with it, sleeping with it, and I find it propped up in random places. 

McCullough Schoolhouse :: 3rd Grade + 2nd Grade

Today was our first day back to {home}school! Eli and Maddie are in 3rd Grade, and Aiden started 2nd Grade :)

Eli is ready to kick-off 3rd grade!

I have to brag on this sweet girl...her first day of school dress didn't arrive in time, but she had the best attitude about it. She's maturing so much!

Aiden is ready to crush 2nd grade! {We usually start school the day after his birthday, but because we are starting early this year, he's still 6. Which makes me realize how young he still is! But how proud I am of him for all the work he does}

We had our traditional pigs in a blanket "back to school" breakfast to kick off the year! :)

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Year 4! I am so thankful to be starting another homeschool year. The Lord has certainly done a work over the past 4 years. It's funny how something that I wasn't really wanting to do in the beginning is now something that I can't imagine not doing. 

We made it through Aiden's first year of proof of progress, and I am really thankful for our evaluator. She offers really great resources and has been an immense help to us. While I still don't have all the answers, I do know that we have found a good rhythm, and I am feeling more confident in my kids' learning styles. I look forward to this new year and all that we have planned!

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Here's a look at what we have in store for third and second grade:

Morning Time: This time will remain fairly consistent from last year and consists of multiple elements:

• Daily hymn- a selected hymn each week from Then Sings My Soul by Robert J. Morgan
• Catechism- we use The New City Catechism for Kids from The Gospel Coalition
• Character Cards- we use the Character Matters Cards from September and Co
• World Prayer- we pray for one country or people group a week from the Window on the World: An Operation World Prayer Resource book

Bible: I actually made a last-minute pivot on our Bible curriculum. We have been using the Bible Road Trip curriculum from Thinking Kids Press for the past few years. And it has been great. But I have felt like we needed more of an actual study curriculum that dives more into the historical context of the Bible. I was really excited when I found Foundations of the Bible by Driven by Grace. We will walk through Volume 1: Creation to Moses this year, and I plan to supplement with the Bible Road Trip {since it covers more actual Biblical text}. So it will be a little bit of a combination effort to get us through a broader scope of the Old Testament. But I am looking forward to it, and I think it will be a good shift for the kids.

Language Arts: 

• Spelling- Eli and Maddie will move to Modern Curriculum Press' Spelling Workout C, and Aiden will start with Spelling Workout B.
• Grammar- We will do grammar twice a week, and we will use First Language Lessons- Level Three from the Well Trained Mind. Aiden is still doing great keeping up with Eli and Maddie!
• Writing- We will continue our daily handwriting practice with Zaner-Bloser Handwriting workbooks. Eli and Maddie will continue practicing cursive, and Aiden will start cursive this year. We will also start Writing with Ease Level 3 for literature and writing skills. This is where Aiden splits off more from Eli and Maddie; I just tailor his writing work differently from theirs, though he is still learning the same literature.
• Reading- Eli and Maddie will continue practicing their reading with the appropriate level readers of their choosing, and continued practice in everyday work. This year, I will start them on more timed reading, instead of just counting books. Aiden will continue his lessons in The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading {OPG}, taking breaks to practice with BOB Books and to use the ABC See Hear Do books. He made some great strides over the summer, so we will continued our work into his 2nd grade year.

Family Read Alouds: Over the summer, we started The Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson, and the kids have really enjoyed it! This year, we have some classics lined up:

• The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
• A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
• Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
• The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• The Railway Children by E. Nesbit
• The Green Ember by S.D. Smith

This may be more than we can read in a year, so it may bleed into next summer too, but we will see what we can get read! I have started getting the audiobooks to play at lunch time {or on the go for soccer practice!}, which helps ensure that we actually get through them. When I have to sit and read them, it's a bit tougher. But I am hoping that we get through them so that we are teed up to read through the Green Ember series next summer :)

Math: We will stick with our tried and true curriculum. Eli will be moving forward with Kate Snow's Third Grade Math with Confidence, and Maddie and Aiden will complete Second Grade Math with Confidence {which they started last spring}, hopefully starting Third Grade Math with Confidence next spring. Slowing them down last year was the right call, so we will just continue on our current schedule.

History: Since the kids love it so much, we will continue with the same spine, The Story of the World. They didn't love the Middle Ages as much as Ancient Times, so we will see what they think of Modern Times :)

This year we will use The Story of the World Volume 3: Early Modern Times, but we will also be using Our Star-Spangled Story from Notgrass History. I wanted a more robust American History covering, so we will be running these two concurrently. 

As always, we will be supplementing with the following:

• Usborne Book of World History
• The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
• The Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World
• Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History
• Relevant library books

We will also have a mixture of read alouds and narration, maps/coloring pages, and activities/crafts. 

Geography: Last year, the kids really wanted to add some geography, so we ended up adding a workbook in the spring semester, and it was perfect! It was a great introduction to reading/learning maps and geography. 

This year, I wanted them to have something more robust {and planned}. So we will be focusing on U.S. Geography {since we will be learning American history}, and we use:

• The Complete Book of Maps and Geography, Grades 3-6 - we will be able to use this beyond this year
• States and Capitals Worksheets from Arrows & Applesauce
• State coloring pages from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

Science: This year we will be learning Chemistry! Which basically means we will be doing a whole bunch of experiments. The experiments will come from Adventures with Atoms and Molecules Book I and Book II. For each experiment, we will have an Experiment Page, where we answer questions like "what did we use?" "what did we do?" "what happened?" and "what did we learn?"

We will also use the following texts to look up and write definitions for relevant definitions for each experiment:

• Usborne First Encyclopedia of Science- more for Aiden
• The Usborne Science Encyclopedia- more for Eli and Maddie

And as always, when applicable, we will check out books at the library, based on the topics we are covering that week. 

This year will require a little more work from the kids {more than just verbally give me some facts about what you learned and draw a picture}, so I will be curious to see how they do with it. But I'm hoping that the fun experiments will outweigh the "work" part of it and motivate them to dig in and learn.

Foreign Language- Latin: So we went from begging for Spanish, having fun with it, to absolutely hating it haha. I think part of it was the curriculum that I chose. It was no longer fun when it was less singing and dancing and more actual book work. But really, the curriculum was not laid out well {in my opinion}. And to actually learn the language, you have to actually speak it, not write words in a book. 

All that to say...we will be taking a break from Spanish. We will come back to it {I hope}. I'm not sure I am making the right move here switching them over to Latin, but I do want the kids to have some language. And since I have no background in French {Maddie's choice}, and everyone is burnt out on Spanish...we're forging ahead on Latin. Do I have background in Latin? Nope. Haha. But it is something I regret not taking in school. A ton of my friends did, and I know there is benefit in knowing the Latin words to understand the roots of English words {and even have a foundation for other languages....ahem, French, my dear Maddie!} So this could be a colossal failure, and I'm pretty sure my kids are going to hate it. But we're going to try it anyway!

So... we will be using Prima Latina from Memoria Press. Wish us luck! :)

Typing: This year, I will start Eli and Maddie on a typing program through Typing.com. They haven't had any exposure to a computer or typing {or really any kind of device}, so it will be a brand new thing for them. They watch movies and shows on our TV/phones, and we zoom with grandparents all the time, but we barely let them use the remote haha. The most exposure to technology they have had is using their Yoto players {which has simple buttons} or using the touchscreen to check out their own library books at the library. So this should be entertaining :)

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Every year that we have homeschooled has been a step of faith. Whether it was the initial step of faith to even start, or the steps of faith to balance homeschooling, work, and ministry, it has been a true walk of surrender to the Lord. This year has been no different.

When I lost my job in January, we weren't sure if we would be able to finish out the school year. But the Lord was faithful to provide, and we closed out the year. But we have been praying since January about this new year, and whether we would be able to continue homeschooling. We have depended on my income, so I wasn't sure if I would need to go back to work full time.

I had hoped that I would find another part time time and that we would continue as is. But that hasn't happened, and all this time, I keep hearing wait and trust Me. Which was easier to do in May, but much harder come July/August when final decisions had to be made. 

So here we are, taking another step of faith, trusting that the Lord is going to provide, just as He always has. And while I know that homeschooling is the right choice for our kids, I am still working on the wait and trust Me part when it comes to a job/income. He has been faithful, and I know He will continue to be faithful. 

From the beginning, we have decided to take our homeschooling journey year by year. Right now, I am just thankful that we are starting another year. It's an immense privilege, one that I don't take for granted. I'm thankful for a supportive husband and family. 

Last Day of School!

Today we wrapped up another great homeschool year, and now we officially have two third graders and a second grader! {queue the Mama tears}

Eli has worked really hard this year, and he has really started to push forward into more independent work. Math continues to be his strongest subject, as he pretty much breezed through his curriculum. The only reason I didn't accelerate him was because I was having to focus so much attention on the other two. Thankfully he wasn't bored, but I will have to watch that. He made great strides in reading and spelling, and even though he said grammar wasn't his favorite, he did really well with it. While Spanish was his least favorite, he really enjoyed history, geography, and earth/space science this year.

Maddie was a little hesitant with having to repeat 1st grade math this year, but once she started understanding the concepts, gaining more confidence in her math skills, and seeing the progress she was making, she actually said out loud, "I LOVE math! Math is my favorite!" I was dumbfounded haha, and I tried not to let the shock show on my face. She worked so hard and was so proud when she got to start her 2nd grade math book in the spring, and I was so proud of her. I also looked up one day and realized how easily she was reading everything. Another subject that was hard fought and came with a lot of tears. We still had hard days, but overall, I found her saying she LOVED varying subjects that she had previously thoroughly disliked, so we had many wins this year. On any given day, she LOVED history, science, math, grammar, geography, Spanish, reading, Bible, spelling, and manners. Writing was consistently not her favorite, but she really does well with it when she can focus enough to actually write :)

Aiden asked every day, "Do we have to do school?" Haha. Sweet kid still just wants to play. School just isn't his thing, and that's ok. Because he still works hard to get his work done, so that he can go play! He also did really well with a refresher on 1st grade math and he still keeps up with his brother and sister on most other subjects. We did have quite a few tears this year over reading and spelling; it reminded me a lot of Maddie, though I am wondering if his struggles are different, so we will be spending some dedicated time this summer to focus on reading. I'm hoping that without all the overwhelm of his other subjects that it will help him feel less pressured and, therefore, less frustrated. He did love history and science and geography this year, so I am hoping to tailor more subjects for him next year.

We have our state-required evaluations next week, and then we will be ready for summer! We will take some time off, but will still pick back up a little summer school. We will keep up our reading and math, as well as finish out our history chapters, and we will also be adding an art class. When I was describing our summer to someone the other day, they said it didn't really sound like we took a break haha. I promise that we do! Even with our "summer school schedule," the work itself doesn't take that much time. Reading with Aiden might take the most time, simply because we're trying to bring up his skills. But math is more of a review, and history is just listening to our chapter and completing a coloring page during the summer. And art class is fun! There will still be plenty of time for the pool, hikes, VBS, time with friends, and lazy days of summer  :)

I'm so thankful for another successful homeschool year!

What the Lord Has Taught Me in Motherhood

The Lord has used motherhood to teach me so much- about myself, about what it means to love and sacrifice for others, about Him. It started long before I became a mother, in those long, hard days when my heart ached for nothing more than to become one. In the dark days, when I became one briefly, and then knew too quickly the heartache of saying goodbye too soon. When I carried the title in my heart and womb only, but my arms were still empty and aching for a role that still wasn’t mine. But in that time, I learned to trust the heart of my Savior. While I did not understand His ways or timing, He was teaching me that I could trust His character and heart. He was still good, still working, and still holding me close. 

Then when I finally became a mother, my arms filled with not one but 2 babies, I quickly learned how woefully underprepared I was. I couldn’t rely solely on my type A planner self, because twin babies, who may benefit from that, basically throw all of it out the window. And then when our 3rd baby arrived before the twins were 2 years old, I found myself drowning in the reality that I am not enough. But in that time, I learned, once again, to trust the heart of my Savior. While I like control and self-sufficiency, I had to realize that I am absolutely not enough. But that’s ok, because my Savior is more than enough- for my daily needs, for my babies’ needs, and for us to face whatever the day holds. He is in control, He knows what we need, and I don’t need to worry about any of it.

And today, on this Mother’s Day, I think of my own mom. I think of what an incredible example of love and sacrifice she has been to me over the years. How she has shaped for me the vision of motherhood that I desire for my own children. I am thankful for the legacy of faith and prayer that she passes on. She is the patience, grace, and safe place I pray to be. And even now, I am continuing to learn from her. Because over the last few months, I have watched her and my dad grieve a hurt that no parent should have to. And she has done so still reminding me to trust the heart of my Savior. That while it hurts and we don’t fully understand His plan in all of it, He is still good, still working, still holding us close. 

Today I’m thankful for my mom and the countless ways she has loved me and my brother. And more importantly, how she has always, always, pointed us to Jesus. I’m thankful for the ones who call me mom, who I get to hold in my arms. I hold on just a little bit tighter today, even if it draws a few eye rolls and “you’re squishing me!”s. And I’m thankful that the heart of my Savior can be trusted for every stage of motherhood, whatever comes. That He is always good, always working, always holding me close. 

{iPhone Rewind} :: April

Eli's notes from Pastor Milt's sermon <3

Reading a letter he got in the mail from Granny {with help from his trusty assistant}

Me: What is this on my mirror?

Aiden: It's a rainbow, Mommy

Me: Well, let's not draw on Mommy's mirror anymore, ok?

Beautiful flowers from my love

Wanting to offer Mommy snuggles when she's not feeling her best. I sure do love them!

It's April. And we are still experiencing below freezing temps. It didn't snow, but I am ready for WARM weather, please!

Maddie wrapped up her year of Pioneer Girls! Now I have a ton of badges to sew on to her sash :)

They have loved decorating and setting the table recently. I love how they work together, offer Mike and I pictures of the two of us together to look at, and how Aiden likes to look at pictures of himself LOL

Sharing his science book about "Planets, Dwarf Planets, and Other Things" with Granny and Grumpz :)

He has been super focused on Perler Beads recently...

Behold. Captains Law, Judgment, and Conviction! {From The Mansoul Chronicles}

Maddie and I {finally} got haircuts!

At the park with Daddy :)

Kid art on Daddy's office dry erase board

Tossing the football

"I love you" flowers are the best :)

We're diving into crochet with Maddie! She's actually doing pretty well for a beginner :)