Natural Decor

Last weekend we visited Dave's mom and dad. She showed us her wreath that sits outside her house. A bird had been taking the moss out of the wreath and making a nest out of it.

Gingerbread houses in April?

A friend and I have been putting forth a great effort to get together since I was pregnant. Last week we finally got together. She'd been saving a surprise that she'd bought and saved for all the kids -- 2 gingerbread kits. We poured a cup of tea and went into the other room and let the kids have at it. They had fun and then the houses fell down.

Rocket boy

Using CHC's lesson plans for First Communion (which is coming up really fast!), Ds#3 and I talked about how giving yourself to Christ is like sending a wonderful rocket up in space -- then when Christ comes to you in communion, he's sending the rocket back only transformed into a rocket made of gold. It's a nice boy analogy.

Then, I ran an errand when Dave got home. Unknown to me, rocket man chose that day (with no prompting from me or Ds#3) to get out one of their Christmas presents and put together a rocket.

Rocket Boy was loving that!

God makes way better lesson plans than I could!

More baby cereal pics

This is one HAPPY baby!!

Kids Address song and Phone number song

Sing to the ABC tune (We start this in preschool and just work on one verse at a time until they have completely memorized before moving on.)

555-5558 is my phone number, isn’t it great?
5555 4Syllable Drive
City, State is where I’m alive
This is the address for me
and my whole family!

My dad works at 555-
5555 and his friend, too.
Name-of-Business Associates
Is the office where my dad sits.
Daddy's friend Mr. Mike
Works with daddy, that’s what he likes.

I know when my mama drives
555-5555
is the number of her phone
so she can call me at our home
I can call my mom and dad
if I miss them or I’m sad.


Just find rhyming words for location [Drive-hive, Court-sport, Lane-rain] and numbers [1-fun, 2-blue, 3-tree, 4-more, 5-alive, 6-sticks, 7-heaven, 8-great, 9-mine, 10-then] to personalize the songs for your child's information.

The Highland Dove Song

I've discussed our school song here and here - it's a prayer, school song and mission statement all in one

You know it's spring when...

* The kids get stuck in the tree (and get grounded from the tree for going out on a limb too far the first day they get in it).

* Daddy offers to get the bikes pumped up.

* Christmas presents that are outdoor toys start coming out of hiding, like the air rockets.

* Dave starts discussing mulch.

* $4 Goodwill finds like the baby backpack for Daddy to take the kids hiking get a trial run.

*The kids start looking for their gardening gloves to dig in the dirt (skip the growing things, they just want to play in the muddy soil).

*And the most exciting spring indicator this year is...our new Tetherball set we got from Dave's brother and sister-in-law.

US Flash Cards

Well, we've been using these for about a month, now and they're working GREAT! I first told you about this terrific free resource here. Dd#2 is doing so well, that she's moving down the list on the back of the cards to memorize new information about each state. It's been an easy thing for her to add to her school and I just test her at the end of each week with the cards to see what she's learned from them! I'm soo pleased with them and they're holding up great pasting them front and back to a larger piece of cardstock and laminating them. The kid that designed these did a fantastic job!!

Motherhood

This poetry reminded me of the writing of Kahlil Gibran - it's beautiful!

http://www.grandparentagain.com/community/free_path.html