What we are doing for school - Kindergarten

I have decided to start Esther with My Fathers World Kindergarten.  I decided to start kindergarten because she really just wanted to learn more and more.  She knows her alphabet, sounds and is beginning to read.  She can already print her alphabet quite well and knows all her colors, shapes and numbers.  She is extremely curious and does seems to become quite irritable if we are not doing some sort of constructive learning.  I also realized that I needed some type of structure to go by.  So in comes My Fathers World.

We are using the curriculum at a much slower pace.  Instead of one week per topic, we take two weeks. I also am not using their phonics program, instead we are using "Teach Your Child to Read in One Hundred Lessons".  We are on lesson 42 and she really likes it.  I like it too because everything I need is written right in the book.  I was skeptical at first, but I really do like it alot.  We will see how well she is reading at the end of the book.

Overall, I love the program.  It gives me just enough structure that I'm not frantically trying to pull lessons together, but enough freedom to add in my own activities.  I love how "hands on" it is.  I just ordered ants which should arrive soon to fill our ant farm, plus we have been able to do other things like sew, model with clay and cook. For Esther it seems to be a good mix of worksheets (which she loves) and hands-on activities.  I also use Kumon books, filefolder games as well as puzzles and board games.

I hope to show bi-weekly updates as we work our way through the curriculum.

Time Flies...

I cannot believe how fast time can move on me when I'm not looking.  Of course we have been quite busy.  I had the joy of planning the Easter Egg Hunt at our church this year.

It was lots of fun, especially because my mother came to visit.

It was a last minute trip, and we only had the weekend but it was a lot of fun.

The weekend after the egg hunt I also co directed a childrens puppet show based on the "The Tale of Three Trees"  There were a few techinical difficulties, but was entirely enjoyed by the church. (sadly no pictures were taken)
We then celebrated Easter with my husbands family, and had a great time.  The following day I collapsed in exhaustion.  Ok not really, but I was completely exhausted and took the next week to recuperate.

It was about this time that my husband and I put in our application to get credentials within our church.  My husband has always felt called to be a pastor and has had to overcome many obstacles, but now we are able to start the process to become liscenced ministers.  Long story short, we started bible college just last Tuesday.  Its exciting and overwhelming all at once.



We have been busy with school, I have been in my gardens everyday and I think I may just have a handle on how to feed my soy-allergic son.  Whew! Can't wait to see what happens in the next month!

Allergies

I am not sure if I have ever shared on here about my son's health issues.  He is now 2 years and four months old and I cannot think of a day that he has not had some sort of rash on his body. 

Right about when he turned a year old it got really bad, and it covered most of his body and it was obviously very uncomfortable and itchy.  Our doctor advised us that it was eczema and prescribed a cream.  When that did not help, he prescribed an even higher dosage of cream.   In fact I think we went through 4 or five different prescribed creams, and nothing helped.  At some point I realized that it all seemed to be food related.  I started to keep track of what he ate and guessing what it was he was allergic to.  Then I heard from an acquaintance that we could have him tested for food allergies, something our doctor previously advised us that we could not do.  Long story short, after many doctor visits, stressful nights and me practically begging, we finally were able to go see an allergist, and get the test done.  We now know that he is allergic to peanuts, tree nuts and soy.

I have been going through my cupboards and have quickly realized that soy is in EVERYTHING!  I have come to the realization, that I will be able to buy very few pre-made food products, which means lots of baking!

I am hoping to share some good soy/nut free snack recipes for others who may be in a similar predicament.  I also would love to hear if anyone knows of any good resources for recipes like this.

My first recipe to try...Homemade Fig Newtons....my Father-in-law shared this recipe with us and it was delicious.  When I try it I will probably cut back the sugar though.

First Day of School

We have officially started Kindergarten this year.  I am using My Fathers World Kindergarten curriculum, but taking it very slow since she is still young (more on school later).  To say that Esther is loving it would be an understatement!

Fulfilling a Promise

I've been telling my mother now for about a few months that I was going to start up this blog again.  I've procrastinated enough and thought I would just get on with it.  It feels really good to be back again.  I realized how much I enjoyed sharing with others, but also how writing these posts helped me to stay on track with my schooling plans for my children.  Now I just have to re learn how to do everything in blogger again :)