October 17, 2009

Two years ago, God blessed us with Logan Nathanael Holt

Logan Nathanael, just when your daddy and I thought we had the most stubborn child you came into our lives. You gave a new meaning to the words "he's a screamer", "mama's boy", and terrible twos. But son, our house would be far too quiet, too routined, and too predictable if you weren't in it. You have taught us all how to love more, care more and give more. You are such a precious gift from God. We love you, baby boy. Happy Birthday, Monkey (aka Banshee).

Acorn

We will be getting Acorn in just 11 days. I must say that I am rather excited about this little gal. She is really precious. Luk is really excited to be getting her, and dad is starting to warm up to her. He definitely started liking her more when we met her. She is a nuzzler.

Here are some fun facts about our little rabbit from her breeder.


Litter details:

Chloe's Litter
Pick of the litter: Acorn
Best Coat: Acorn
Best color: Avi
Best personality: Acorn
Best eyes: Apache
Biggest: Acorn
Smallest: Apache
Most like daddy: Apache
Most like mommy: Avi
Most outgoing: Apache
Calmest: Acorn
Gets into the most trouble: Apache

Maisey's Litter
Pick of the litter: Charlie
Best Coat: Charlie
Best color: Kilo
Best personality: Paris
Best eyes: Landon
Biggest: Kilo
Smallest: Jax
Most like daddy: Landon
Most like mommy: Kilo
Most outgoing: Jax
Calmest: Gizmo
Gets into the most trouble: Jax

Overall:
Pick of the litter: Acorn
Best Coat: Charlie
Best color: Kilo
Best personality: Acorn 
Best eyes: Landon
Biggest: Acorn
Smallest: Jax
Most outgoing: Jax
Calmest: Acorn
Gets into the most trouble: Jax


We are rather proud! =D Now, here is just a few of her other pictures from the breeder, and what her home will be when she arrives.

Here is her home

Luk's Extras

As homeschooler you know that you want to make sure your child is doing something outside of the home, or they are active in things other than school work. So, for Luk we picked two things that we thought he would really enjoy. The first is that we signed him up for Karate. I had made a post about this in the past, but here is our little guy and his best friend after a night of sparring.

Here is a video of Luk- Yes you hear an audible, "Oh Lord" come from me. We have Luk in Karate to practice his self-control, and I wasn't sure how that was going to go when someone hit him. Thankfully, his instructor made it to were none of the new boys got hit so that they could get used to it. He did great.

The other thing that we have Luk be apart of is 4H. He will be showing this little princess:

The breeder (Mandy) named her "Acorn," and we are going to go with that even though she reassured us we could change it, but why change a good thing. If you know Luk his animal naming skills are  quite... human. He wanted to name the bunny "Fred." I happily told him that SHE had a name, and it was "Acorn." He was okay with that. He was a bit bummed that it was a girl, but today while talking to someone on the  phone about Compassion they asked if I had a daughter. I said, "no, not unless you count Gabriela." Luk says loudly, "Yes, you do now. We have a girl bunny!" So, you are the first to be formally introduced to our new addition, our baby girl, Acorn! The breeder exampled that she is a bit fat, well I guess she is gonna fit right in with her momma, and she's a brunette! I got my brown haired gal after all. And so...

These are Luk and his extras. He does have one more "extra" that he is apart of, and that is a homeschool gorup that teaches history/geography. I wasn't going to do it originally because I didn't want to ad too much on his plate. If he gets overwhelmed I will pull him out, but for now he is enjoying it. All of his friends are in the class, and it is after his library storytime. He hated being the only one not there. So, here they are:

Fold it up

Luk is five. He is messy. He likes to destroy a clean house. He is a five year old. However, he does have two able hands and legs. So, since he was about Logan's age (21 months), I have been having him do clean up sessions. He knew that when I said it was time to clean up he would help me put his toys in the baskets.
Well, Luk usually gets himself dressed, and we have had talks about what things look nice together  and what don't. He came out one morning with a multi-striped shirt and multi-striped tie, and I showed him to different patterns on me. He went back and switched to a solid color tie on his own. I love that even though we have talked about it he still is pretty creative with the way he dresses. Here he is wanting to match his dad:

and just because I like this picture here he is for a canoe trip:

Love this kid. Well, he does a great job picking out his clothes, but does an awful job putting them away. I have taught him how to fold his clothes as he sees me doing the laundry. So, yesterday I put him to the test. I had just finished folding two loads of laundry, and as I went to put his stuff away... his drawers were awful. His t-shirts thrown everywhere in the drawer (not folded), and as I looked at the rest of the drawers same thing for the pants, pjs, and underwear. Well, I wasn't about to refold everything when I just gave him a fresh start two weeks prior and given him verbal warnings.

While I was cooking dinner and he was in his room, I told him that he needed to refold all his clothes and make his drawers look nice because he had let them get messy. Logan walks in there, and I begin to wonder how that is going to work out for him. However, nothing extremely loud came out of the room.

After I was finished cooking (about 10m) Luk was playing in the living room, and I was not sure what I would find. Let me show you:

Sure, they aren't perfect, and they don't look like I did them. But he did a great job. He got a big high five and a couple Hershey Kisses to show him how appreciative I was. It probably helps that he knows he gets paid for each chore he completes. My husband and I have told him being home doing his chores and his school work are his job. He usually does a great job, or like times like yesterday he does an excellent job. Did I mention I love this kid?

This is one of the joys of parenthood and homeschool... we even practice our folding clothes skills! =D

Day Two

A day like today is the reason moms would say they don't homeschool... Yep, the day that the kid just twiddles his thumbs and makes two hours of work last four hours... Unfortunately, the bad mom in me came out, and I am not saying this to receive a pity party, but rather show proof that I can't do anything without the grace of God. I got loud, sent my son to his room, and I sat and began reading some of the blogs I follow. One in particular (of course) spoke of how your child's spirit is more important than a schedule, and how one needs to ask their children for forgiveness.

God was speaking to me. The bad mom had to make a choice to accept responsibility for her actions, or ignore them and not show my son my true error. So, I went into his sat on the floor, and ask my son to forgive me for my yelling and attitude. I told him how sorry I was that I got that way, and that sometimes mommy makes mistakes and has to ask God to forgive her. He looked on as I said this to him intently. He first said, "It's okay, Mommy." I told him that, it wasn't. I explained to him that it was not okay that I acted like that. It was important that he know that it was not okay that I let Satan attack me. I was asking him to forgive me like I asked God to forgive me. He did. He replied, "Mommy, I'm sorry that Logan wasn't listening to you. I'm sorry that I wasn't listening to and doing my work. Will you forgive me?" We hugged and loved on each other for a few minutes. It was a beautiful moment with my son. This is why I homeschool, and why days like this can't stop me.

I get to be my disgusting sinful self, and I get to show the grace of God in practice. God allows me to be an example to my son, and I cannot ignore the bad and praise the good. I have to teach my son that our response to sin is repentance and to seek forgiveness from those we hurt. As we finished our hug he told me he had a surprise for me, and he came back wearing this:

He said, "Mom, this is what we have to wear all the time, or we will not be ready for Satan!" The Armour of God! I cried my eyes out, I hug my boy. I leaned in and whispered, "Thank you! You just taught mommy, today!"

Day One

I'm sitting back listening to my son picking up his mess from a game (with Dad) of "real life" Angry Birds that just took place in the hallway. I ask him to bring out his drawings from his Bible time to show daddy. Today was a great day to see how Luk would like our Workbox System. It really works out best for us. Luk is a boy that likes to see his progress, and he was excited to see his boxes being finished. The original place for the boxes were his room, however I can't set the up at night. There is also the fact that we can't do school in his room because Logan went a bit nuts when we tried that. So...

The linen closet has been transformed into a school closest. If you notice there is no "5"... ask Logan. I don't know where it is! So, we just don't have it and we skip it. Luk noticed immediately!

Here is our Kitchen Cabinet Wall:

Before the boxes we do our "Calendar Time"  followed by Bible time, which is use reading the book of Judges followed by him drawing a picture of what was read.

Here's "What's in the Box"

Box 1: Phonics

 
We have been staying on an easier phonics level because Reson and I decided that we wanted Fluency and Comprehension to be apart of him learning to read. The amazing thing about this is that Luk checked out "Silly Sally" from the library and was able to read it. The AR level is 2.6, and we were very proud that accomplishment.

At the moment we are working on rhythm reading since it is clear that he can read higher levels, but with that we can consistency, and so we practice on, working on...

Box 2: Handwriting

 

After Luk did his Handwriting Without Tears, we did an activity with the white/magnetic board.

Box 3: Science

This is our week of reading the material, which will be followed by a lab.

Box 4: Geography and map learning

Box 5: Math

This was our day. It was followed by Karate that we decided to put Luk in a few months ago, but waited until the school year began. Here he is with some of his church friends.

Kindergarten Begins...

The start of our new normal has begun today as Luk was introduced to his first few pretest so that I could determine exactly where he was, and so that our evaluator could see our starting point. Today, I put in some basic critical thinking tests in math and reading/phonics. It was a care-free testing so that he could just do his thing. They were built so that he could self-administer, really. It turned out pretty pain free. As he did each one, I let him know that when I give him the tests that it would done like this and this.

The first test: Pre-primer Dolch Sight Word List Assessment

Luk scored 35%; he 18/40 words, which was pretty good this we've been focusing more on phonemes and blends. The sight words that he did know were ones that have been seen in his Explode the Code books and readings that we have done on our own. I wanted to make sure that I didn't push him before this year. I have to remind myself everyday that he is only five years old. This can be quite a challenge when he talks like teenager many times!

The next test I put in front of him was one on a critical thinking basis with the alphabet. Each section was covered once he finished the top sections. 

My husband and I really want to make sure that he knows his stuff, not just something that is routine. In that sheet there are above are blanks in random areas, but the third section is completely empty. Sure, Luk can sing his ABCs, but to write them with no help in the correct order proved that sometimes the Y goes before the X... interesting. Luk scored 34/38 so 89%.

The third sheet is a number sheet with blanks. I only made him do half of it, and he will complete the other half for tomorrow. He also did number recognition from a 1-100 chart (random picks).

He did perfect on it.

We also incorporated Mama Jenn's "Read It, Spell It, Write It" page. He really liked it. So, we will keep on keeping on.

After we did these things, there was 30 minutes of quiet/reading time. So, we had a little Star Wars action going because well, we like Star Wars. Luk was in a battle field mode as we began our day reading the book of Judges. He drew a photo on how the Canaanites had chariots and the Israelites struggled with this:

I think he wanted to pretend some fighting scenes. Logan tagged along (waiting to get him his Education Cubes also from Mama Jenn)

As our day came to climax (dinner making time = stress time) Luk pulled out his US President Flashcards (shocked me). I pulled out our $1 Wal-Mart place mat of the Presidents, and we had a nice matching game going on.

Luk's favorite President: Abraham Lincoln. Why? He was such a good one. (nice)
Luk's bad President: Richard Nixon. Why? He did a bad thing. (Watergate, just in case)
Luk's actor President: Ronald Reagan. Why? He was an actor. (DUH!)

However, we learned a bit about Theodore Roosevelt about the "Teddy" Bear story. As Luk would say, "he didn't kill the bear when he went hunting... I don't know why though." In this we also learned about Pres. William McKinley who was President and Teddy was Vice President. What Luk and I really liked about him was the fact that when he was shot before he died he asked the people around him not to hurt the man that shot him. We were really impressed with that response. I am going to look further into his spiritual life especially after reading this I am curious to see where he stood.

How do we end our school day? We end it with a bit of unschooling in the science area with daddy.

I, also, wanted to share one of the many many many reasons why we love our public library. Our wonderful Mrs. Dee who does story time did a theme on cupcakes... did she know this is Logan's favorite little treat... hmmm...

YUM!!!