Sunday, September 23, 2012

Meet Viktoria

We are so excited to share that we will be hosting a little girl in our home this Christmas from Ukraine.

Viktoria will be living with our family for four weeks through the hosting program of New Horizon's for Children. NHFC is a ministry that works to bring children to loving, Christian homes and expose them to Jesus and His love for them as their heavenly Father and possibly provide them with a forever family.





It is our hope that you will join us in prayer for Viktoria and for our family as we follow the Lord on this amazing journey. 

Monday, September 10, 2012

Daddy's Home!!!

It's always a race to see who can hug Daddy first when he comes in the door.  
And sometimes...being first isn't always best! :)

Saturday, September 8, 2012

First Day/Week of School

Due to our Family Camping trip, we got a later start to school this year that we would have liked, but we got acclaimated the last week of August and made our first offical day the day after Labor Day, like all the neighbor kids.







Paigey is in first grade this year and our first lesson will be in
 "hair combing" and "How to loose your fake smile!"


Connor is in second grade this year.
He enjoys school, is highly motivated and loves to be the first one done.


Jake is in third grade this year and 
and will learn anything if you relate it to animals or the Galapagos Islands.


Bible Day One: Creation
Their job-to created an animal of their own and name it.




We have a new reward system this year. The kids earn "Kingdom Coins" for 
staying on task, not giving up, working well with others, putting for their best effort, etc. 
On Friday's they can turn their kingdom coins in for treasures (which have a coin value on them) or they can save up their coins for a bigger purchase.  So far, this has been a great way to motivate and help them identify in themselves behavior that needs to be corrected and the value of saving!



Here's a peek at our school room.







There a perks for working at home.
(Although rest assured, she's not always allowed to do this!)



 This is a dark pic, but here is the other side of our room...the teacher's side.




The kids take turn using the computer for different things...


Jake LOVES to read, so he always saves that for last.


We do lots of games and fun.  Paige will engage AS LONG as it's "not too babyish!"



The dinning room has become our new Math Corner this year. 


The boys hanging out in the Library doing journal or devos.




The kids picked out and were anxious to do 
Anatomy & Physiology for Science this year. 
Just like last year we are loving our curriculum.  
The kids are fully engaged and can't wait to dig into their journals and do experiments.


First up-
We mummified an apple.


One apple was our "control apple" and didn't get treated.
The second apple was placed in a baking soda/salt mixture.
One week later...



Jake & Connor learn about "Linking Verbs!"


Another science experiment-
Making and edible cell...



and eating it! 
(the best part, of course!)



For History-
We made our own Cuneiform tablets, after learning about the Sumerians way of writing. 









So school is off to a good start. Lots of fun, lots of learning, lost of opportunities to explore, which is what we love most about being able to dig deep in the areas we love.