The big week is almost here :)

Well, in just a few short days we will kick it into high gear in school.

Starting Monday, we will add in the last thing...MFW-Creation to the Greeks. This includes art, music, history, and Bible. 

We had lots of fun this week getting ready for next week though.

The kids made a challah (bread) cover. We just used some old fabric we had left over from a different activity my daughter did over the summer and some fabric markers. I drew the Hebrew letters for Shabbat (Sabbath) on the fabric and the kids drew all sorts of pictures of their choice onto the fabric. We got the idea for our challah cover here...although we didn't do our challah cover the same way they did.

One other thing the kids enjoyed doing this week was giving our old doggie, Puddles, a bath. She's been lonely ever since our other dog, Midnight, passed away and they wanted to give her some extra special attention. They played with her, fed her treats, and even watched 101 Dalmations Sing-a-long Songs with her...lol! They called it Puddle-dud's Day :)

They also had fun building a few new things with their legos. They love to build, but rarely ever want to take their creations apart. Needless to say, we are running out of display space in their bedrooms.

We hope you had a great week as well :)

Week 2 and Biblical Feasts Schedule...

Week 2 went by without a glitch!

I am thankful for these 'easy' weeks because I know all too soon things will start to get crazy around here...LOL!

The core subjects are going well and adding in typing and spanish didn't seem to phase the kiddos. 

We are currently working on getting our timeline set up for the coming weeks as well as gathering supplies for a few upcoming CtG crafts and activities set to begin next week.

In case any of you are doing CtG as well, I thought I'd post a schedule of when we will be doing CtG. I wanted to try and line up the Biblical Feasts in the CtG Teacher's Manual as close to the actual dates as I could. For the most part, they lined up well. The only feast that won't quite happen near the actual time is Purim (I think). I'm ok with that though ;)

CtG

Week 1 (Sabbath) - 8/25/12

{Take a week off from CtG}

Week 2 - 9/10/12

Week 3 (Rosh Hashanah) - 9/17/12

Week 4 (Yom Kippur) - 9/24/12  

Week 5 (Sukkot) - 10/1/12

Week 6 (Booths) - 10/8/12

Week 7 - 10/15/12

Week 8 - 10/22/12

Week 9 - 10/29/12

Week 10 - 11/5/12

Week 11 - 11/12/12

{Take a week off from CtG}

Week 12 - 11/26/12

Week 13 - 12/3/12

Week 14 - 12/10/12

Week 15 - 12/17/12

{Take 2 weeks off from CtG}

Week 16 - 1/7/13

Week 17 - 1/14/13

Week 18 - 1/21/13

Week 19 - 1/28/13

Week 20 - 2/4/13

Week 21 - 2/11/13

Week 22 - 2/18/13

Week 23 - 2/25/13

Week 24 - 3/4/13

Week 25 - 3/11/13

Week 26 - 3/18/13

Week 27 (Passover) - 3/25/13

Week 28 - 4/1/13

Week 26 - 4/8/13

Week 30 - 4/15/13

Week 31 - 4/22/13

Week 32 (Purim) - 4/29/13

Week 33 - 5/6/13

Week 34 - 5/13/13

Starting next week, I hope to have a few pictures to spice up these posts a bit :)

Week 1 Down

The first week of school actually went well despite all the extra things that popped up each day... which was great b/c with lots of family coming into town this weekend, a baby shower, an anniversary party, and a birthday that weekend....I needed somewhat of a low-key, good school week.

I don't start the kids back to school full steam. Instead, I ease the kids back into the whole routine. We usually try to start the first full week in August and most weeks are just 4 day school weeks to allow for appointments, field trips, and other things that may surprise us from week to week.

We started with just the basics - math, reading, and language. By the end of the week, we also added in spelling.

The kids LOVE the Math U See we are using now. My son finished all his math for the ENTIRE week in just ONE day. He is loving that! My daughter still likes to take it slow and spread hers out, (a nice way of saying procrastination ;) but she LOVES all the hands on stuff and is doing quite well. She is grasping the multiplication concepts much better that I thought she would.

Language is going well also. My son will read just about anything, but my daughter was not thrilled with her required reading for the first week of school. There really was no way around that though (after all, George Washington was a pretty important person in history - LOL ;). I try to counter this by allowing her to read whatever she wants during her free time and before bedtime and it seems to be working for now.

Next week, we'll add in Spanish and typing as well as get a head-start on a few of our projects in preparation for the Biblical feast of the Sabbath we are going to experience in a few weeks through our MFW-Creation to the Greeks Curriculum.

Have you started back to school yet? If so, how did it go? 

Are you reading?

In light of the Chick-Fil-A craze, I happened upon this short, but ultra-meaningful video.

It was made in 2010 by none other than Dan Cathy - president of Chick-fil-A :)

It is only about 2 1/2 minutes long and so worth every second! The jist of it is "Every Life Has a Story...if we only bother to read it".

How true is that?!?

When we go about our daily lives doing whatever it is we do - do we bother to read others stories? Do we use every opportunity to share the love of Christ with them? A simple smile, encouraging words, a hug? Do we follow where the Spirit is leading us and what God is leading us to do? 

Or do we look the other way and avoid for fear of getting 'off schedule' or behind on what WE have planned?

I am guilty... 

It is a battle of the wills...God's will or my will? God is continually trying to focus my thoughts on Him and His will, but why must I be so hard-headed and want my own way!

This past Sunday's sermon from our pastor, the video above, and a recent need my neighbor told me about really helped me to put things back into perspective. I love how God knows just what to do to get us back on track (and sadly He has to put me back on track ALL the time).   

I was looking only at the covers and not what was on the insides of people I came into contact with every day.

I pray God helps me to stop skimming and start 'reading'...