Cultivating Childhood

September.  The beginning of school.  The start of fall.  And we are finally officially homeschooling because this kid...   is officially in Kindergarten. And this kid...   is in preschool!   Both home-preschool and at Westgate Chapel with the same teachers his brother had last year. So our September looked a lot like this:   With the obligatory making the first applesauce of the season.   And doing school in our PJs   And going on fun excursions like the Bird Fest in Edmonds....   Of course, we can see falcons in our own backyard too!  (You should have seen how many young robins this guy upset as he flew up on that fence).   We did a family scavenger hunt at the UW Botanical Gardens     We also started Homezone and swim lessons at the YMCA     We started taking a stroller apart to make a "car", but we haven't gotten very fa...

So August.... After our crazy July, I had hoped that August would be a bit more quieter.  However, with Phil ending up having to go out of town on business, Z turning 4, and having our church's family camp, it was less than relaxing, but a whole lot of fun. We did a few fun things at the beginning of the month like... Go to the Zoo Learn how to use power tools Do some preliminary schooling (only because they wanted to!) And we discovered Garden Tots at Kruckeberg Gardens which became our Friday tradition through the end of September.  Every week there would be a different nature theme (grasses, ferns, seeds, etc.) where they would do a scavenger hunt in the garden and finish up with a craft. Z also had his birthday - the big 4.  We decided to go to the Seattle Children's Museum for his birthday in lieu of a party, and we had a great time with his two grandmas and one of his grandpas. On his actual birthday (the museum was over the w...

So this kid started Kindergarten over a month ago! Educating at home has been a learning curve for sure.  I started out with a plan, then changed it up a week before school began, and have been tweaking it ever since.  I think we've finally figured out what we are doing for the year.  The curriculums ( AO or SCM ) that I'm hoping to use in the future don't start until 1st grade so I've been kind of on my own trying to find something to do with him during this transitional year. N is very much a self-learner.  He already reads a lot  so that has made my life a lot easier in terms of what I can do with him.  Here is what our curriculum looks like now that we are in our 6th week of school. Bible We've been alternating between reading a selection from Leading Little Ones to God and The Jesus Storybook Bible .  We do LLTG on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday when we can do it with Z as well.  On Tuesday and Thursday Z is at preschool, and ...

Our Colorado trip in July was a lot of fun. We met up with grandparents in the airport in Seattle and then met them again on the other side.  The boys had to wear their Penang shirts. This was a sort of working vacation for Phil, so the boys and I did a lot of excursions around Colorado Springs on our own or with Grandma.  One of the places we went to go visit was the headquarters for Compassion International.  We've been supporting a little boy in Bangladesh through them for a couple of years who is N's age, and since we've been home, we've started supporting a boy from Haiti that is Z's age.  We just absolutely love this organization. The headquarters had a lot of fun things to see including their welcome center that had a larger than life sculpture of Jesus that the kids could climb up on. We saw what a typical home looks like in a Third World culture. Finally, we got to join a group that was skyping with a class in Columbia.  It was fun to ha...