Our baby turns 2!!

Oh Happy Day

Well, I think so anyway-it is always bittersweet on the baby's first birthday at home, and it was no different yesterday when we celebrated with our little man, Isaac.

Despite chronic ear infections, 5 rounds of antibiotics, 2-yr molars trying to come in, and ear tubes going in on Wednesday, we had a great day with our son for his 2nd birthday.

Kendell baked cupcakes, and he sat on a chair and watched her frost them, and I just thought his view of the cakes was adorable-they were JUST out of reach, and did he try to get to them-it was quite the sight.!

Here he is, just can't wait to get his hands on them, but not too sure what to do with it when he does finally get one on his tray!!

Such a look-do you mean I get all of those???

He was the calmest he has been in days-didn't even try to touch them, in fact, didn't even want to touch one when it was finally time to eat them

everyone gets into the act of blowing out the candles

so cute, so tentative, we could not believe he did not just devour it-but he had to play with it first, and make a total mess of crumbs, then try to pick up the crumbs to eat it!

it is amazing how much better his fingers work now that he has been crawling on all 4's for a couple months-although that will be changing soon as he is starting to "stand" unassisted for a few seconds at a time-and no, this momma is NOT ready for that

finally, presenttime!!

OK Daddy, let's get this show on the road, it has to come out of that box NOW, and I will show you how to do it

what a great musical toy from Grandma and Grandpa-and he loves it too, but big brother Zaya has claimed it for the interim, as he can pull it all over the house and listen to it singing to him!!

They all got in on the action with his new Fisher Price Little People garage-we were all impressed with how Isaac actually played with it-all afternoon, and all evening-it was quite cute watching the 3 little boys playing together after supper last night-and a first for Isaac, he actually stayed with a task for more than a minute!!




everyone had to get into the act with the little people garage

We are so blessed to have such wonderful children, and to be able to celebrate Isaac's2nd birthday with him-he is definitely our motor man, and does he make noise when he wants to, and he will be walking soon, we are sure of that-he has come SOOOO far since coming home last June-it is hard to imagine the changes in him from our first view of him as that little rag doll in the orphanage, to the perpetual motion he is now.

How great is our God!!

Thanks for stopping by

Blessings

Chris

A look inside our science notebooks

While finishing up our co-op work, I thought it would be kind of nice to show some of the actual work my children do for their notebooks. Instead of workbooks, we have folders and notebook pages we use to review our facts and retention of the info is so much better for us this way than with fill-in-the-blanks, and t&f questions. They love to show off their notebooks to friends and family, and explain most of the info while they look through their books.

We glue the folders onto cardstock with glue sticks, and then put the pages into page protectors. Page protectors are not necessary, because they do slow down the review and looking through the actual folders, but they preserve the folders-we never lose anything since we started using page protectors, and some of their work requires lots of little, bitty pieces.

We also print off lots of pics off the internet for them to use for collage pages or for their title page for each chapter. Then, we also print all sorts of photos we take at co-op, and they scrapbook them and add them to the appropriate lessons, so all their memories are preserved, and in one place.

As I read the lessons to the children, we have vocab pages I create for writing down the definitions of the countless vocab words in the lesson. They also work on coloring pages while I read, and it is amazing how much they absorb while they are listening and coloring. Sometimes I have a high-quality coloring book to use, often I just print some coloring page off the internet. While searching the internet takes time, I can find very specific pages when I want them, and it adds to their fun and helps cement the facts if they are coloring pictures of the comet or meteorite while we read about it.

I will buy some special scrapbook pages, and stickers if I can find them, and they really enjoy putting it all together to showcase their semester of study.

We have done 4 books of science this way, and look forward to doing Anatomy next year with a different approach-the Notebooking journals. We still plan to do folders at co-op time, and lots of diagramming and notebooking, along with lots of our own photos, and we will add those to a separate binder. We had the notebook journals for this year, but decided to just use a few pages out of them, and save them for the next time we do Astronomy.

Enjoy your tour through Kendell and Nick's binders, and see you next time

Thanks for stopping by

Blessings

Chris

Some homeschool co-op fun

Our home school science co-op is finished for this school year.We used Jeannie Fulbright's Exploring Creation with Astronomy book, which is an excellent science book, suitable for any age up to high school.

There were 4 families who gathered every other Friday, with 2 moms doing all the teaching, and I did the weekly vocabulary review, along with devotions each week.

We have such a good time getting together, and the children really retain so much of what we are doing in co-op class, that our home learning time is mostly review. I have to give the gals credit for the wonderful teaching job they did this year. Both moms decided to share each lesson, and even when we combined chapters, it seemed so much more peaceful and the lessons flowed so well with both ladies teaching during the class time.

In the past, we had always split up the lessons with each mom taking a chapter, and then she was pretty much in charge of the entire afternoon's activities. That could get pretty all-consuming, and intense for the planning, so we are really content with how things went this year, and look forward to continuing that way next fall when we do Anatomy.

Another thing we really enjoy with co-op is doing the Live N Learn Press folders for the book we are studying. They are lapbook type folders that we can do in class together, and they are all review of the things we have learned that day. We have found that the hands-on reinforcement of the teaching is a great encourager for memory-recall.

Our 2 hour sessions usually lasted 2 1/2 - 3 hours, and we incorporated a snack and sometimes an oral report at the end of each week's lesson time.

The hands-on experiments this year were simple, and very effective-they really demonstrated the truths of what we were studying, and what child doesn't like doing experiments? Exploding rockets, creating hurricanes, making clouds, causing an eclipse, and creating a crater were just some of the in-class experiments we did.

I have to say, of all the science books we have done so far, Astronomy completely wowed me with the awesomeness of God's creation. Our visit to the planetarium really showed the immensity of our universe, and our limited knowledge of what God has created. It also amazed me with our miniscule-ness, yet God knows us, sees us, hears our thoughts, and counts the hairs on our head. Pretty amazing, and what an awesome God we serve!!!

Our first day of co-op, everyone was getting into the schooling, even Isaac


The children created covers for the binders that would house all the papers they created and finished during our study of Astronomy

Our kitchen table was the class room for our science time, as we had to do it all together, and we need a lot of space to get our pages all done

our first day of class time-sorry for the blurriness-my 17 month old tends to jiggle the camera




Patti loves to teach, and she does an awesome job

Tyler is usually all smiles at co-op, he loves visiting with the other children-he is a very social child and it was his first year of participating in co-op time

Kathy did a great job helping teach-she has such a sweet, helpful spirit, and enjoys the hands-on activities

all lined up to see how a crater is made

such studious boys

learning about the earth revolving around the sun as the moon rotates around the earth

we had 4 extras our first co-op class, and thank goodness, there was a room for them to play in while we taught their older siblings

don't you just love the attentive looks on them?

demonstrating the magnetic force around the earth

showing the effects of the sun, moon, and earth when they are all lined up

Nick giving his oral report

Kendell gives her report on astronauts

Getting ready to create a volcano

yes-it worked!!

mom time helping fill in the folders-there are a lot of big words in Astronomy vocabulary

the vocabulary review board

such intensity-I am so glad they show so much interest and pay attention so well

I love that smile!!

there is a lot of writing for some of the folders, and we moms are kept busy helping our younger ones fill in all the info

helping makes for some great mommy time

little brothers have to get in on the act too

so this is how clouds are made

Nick put a spherical puzzle together-he loves puzzles, and 3-d was a new experience for him

probably the favorite hands-on of them all-MAKING ICE CREAM!!!

I had no idea it was really that simple to make ice cream-and the children LOVED it

Not sure how thisis going to work-but by the end, they were all smiles, and licking their lips with delight-it was sweet, cold, and worth the 6 minutes of coldness to get it made

showing how stars move around our night sky

making their own constellation boxes

we ended the year the week of Kathy's and my birthday, and what a lovely cake the class surprised us with

Our home demonstration of the sun, moon and earth

We have had such a good time with co-op classes. We ended this year on New Year's Eve night with a family night, and the children re-created all the favorite experiments for their dads, they did all their reports, showed off their binders with all their completed projects, and had a great night of food, fun and fellowship!!

Thanks for taking a tour of our co-op afternoons!

Until next time

Blessings in Him

Chris