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!