HS: February

Where did February go?!!!  Seriously.  It was like a blink and it was gone!

This month we have continued to plug along with school.  In fact, school has been a huge blessing (and distraction) from some of the other things going on in our life right now.

FAMILY STUDY is amazing.  We are loving it so much and I am so grateful for it.  It is the absolute best way to start our day.  This month we have learned about Christ resisting the temptations of Satan and the beginning of Christ's ministry, Jesus turning water into wine, cleansing the temple, Nicodemus, the woman at the well, the Pharisees accusing Jesus of breaking the Sabbath, the calling of the Twelve Apostles, the Beatitudes, and the Sermon on the Mount.  AMAZING. 

LANGUAGE ARTS is going well.  It is Jacob's probably least enjoyed subject but he is learning so much.  This month we have learned about ER and EST words, poetry, OO words, homophones, nonfiction, EW words, compound words, and soft C and G sounds.  

Jacob also narrated a great story called, "Maxie, the Baby Polar Bear".  He was absolutely giddy about coming up with this.  It was adorable.  

We also did some literature studies with The Hero of Haarlem and discussing Parables.  

PRESCHOOL, is going so well for Sarah.  I have kind of been feeling blah about what we have been doing but I have decided that it's a really good segway to learning and even though I know she could handle more, what we have been doing is good too.  

This month, Sarah finished her unit about squirrels, thankfulness, and the color brown.  And today we finished her seventh unit!  This one was all about pandas, politeness, and the color blue.  

In HISTORY, we finished our unit on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance!  We only had one lesson left this month to finish up.  It was about the faithful French Huguenots.  I honestly don't remember ever learning about the Huguenots and that was so interesting to dive into this unit.  

We then started our third history unit which covers the French and Indian War through the Revolutionary War!  We were so excited to dive into a different period in history.  So far we have learned about New France, young George Washington, the French & Indian War, the reasons for a revolution, the Sons of Liberty, and the Boston Tea Party.  We've also started reading a book called, Martha Washington by Jean Brown Wagoner which we are really enjoying so far.  

In SCIENCE, we also finished our unit about Space!  This unit has been so fun and we have really enjoyed it.  To finish it up this month, we spent several days discussing space exploration and then talked about constellations.  We then wrapped up our unit by going on a field trip to the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake.  

We have now started our third science unit of this year, the human body!  Jacob is SO excited about this unit!  Some days he wants to be a doctor ;)  We've only just begun but so far we did an overview about our bodies and have discussed the skeletal system.  

MATH continues to go really well.  Jacob is just finishing up his third unit in math.  He will have his test next week and has done really well.  We are still focusing on numbers up to 20.  Our lessons this month have been about ordinal numbers to 20, reading and writing 11-20. telling time to the hour, odds and evens to 20, counting by twos to 20, a new fact family, counting by tens, counting by tens with dimes, and taking away from ten.  

HANDWRITING continues to go well and Jacob really has beautiful handwriting (when he wants to).  

For our READ ALOUDS this month, we finished Henry and Bessie: What They Did in the Country by Elizabeth Prentiss.  It was such a sweet book and we loved it.  We also just finished today, Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White.  This was such a fun book and we really enjoyed reading it.  

8th Anniversary

On Tuesday, Mark and I were able to celebrate our eighth anniversary!  It is definitely one of those things with time where it feels like it has just flown by but also when I think of all that we have gone through it seems crazy that it's been only eight!  

It's been so great having Mark home the last couple of weeks (I mean it stinks to not be making any money but we are focusing on the positives).  It's going to be a hard adjustment when he leaves for Wyoming.  

Our day was very normal in most ways but Mark did surprise me with flowers and some new music (WOOT!).  That evening, we loaded the kiddos and headed over to Logan for dinner out.  It was great to go out and relax.  

I am so grateful to have Mark by my side every day.  As with every couple, I am sure, we have been through a lot in our eight years but I am so grateful that our relationship just keeps getting deeper and stronger.  We have gone through some hard things but we know we are so much stronger when we go through them together and I am grateful to truly have a partner and best friend to do that with.  

Love you forever. 

Planetarium

We finished up our science unit on SPACE and decided that a field trip was definitely in order!  Mark had to take his Wyoming Law Exam down in Ogden and so he took that and then we headed to the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake.  

The kids had a blast and it was fun to see so many of the things that we have been learning about.  It was a great way to end our unit!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was filled with love...and excitement!  The kids were crazy excited for Valentine's Day this year.  Honestly, we were on like Christmas-level excitement!  The kiddos had been counting down and could not wait for the day to arrive.  

I love how we have made this day not so much about romantic love but about love in all its forms.  My favorite tradition with this holiday BY FAR is our love notes to one another.  The kids had so much fun making giant envelopes for their doors (and for all of their stuffed animal friends).  They made multiple love notes for everyone and they were so special.  

The last several weeks I have had such an overpowering feeling of love for my family.  This transition time we are in is stressful but I am constantly reminded that our little family is so strong and I am so grateful.  And at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter where we are, because we are together.  As corny as that may sound, it is truly how I feel.  And there is no one I love more than these five (yep, I am including you too, baby sister!).  

Recital

Last Saturday, Jacob had his first formal recital.  They kind of had a laid back one over Christmas at an assisted living place in Montpelier but this was more the real deal!  I grew up going to many recitals and this was unlike ANY recital I have ever been in!  To be honest, I still can't quite decide how I felt about it.  It was pretty theatrical and maybe I just like the good ole' fashioned "stuffy" ones but it was fun to watch Jacob and to see his hard work pay off.  

He played two songs in the recital: 

Mr. Machine

and

Party Cat

Good job, bud.  

BYU Basketball

Several weeks ago Mark and Jacob headed down to Provo for a BYU Basketball game!  Jacob was SO excited!!!  This was his present to Mark for Christmas and he was thrilled to get some one-on-one Daddy time. 

The boys made a pit stop at the Bean Museum, grabbed some dinner and then headed to the game.  They got there a little early...;)  Can you tell they are excited?!

HS: January

Seriously, sometimes I don't know why I make plans.  School in January went well but we did take some time off to prepare the house and get some things organized.  It was unexpected but we just roll with it.  It makes me really glad that we plan on schooling year round so I don't really stress too much about it.  Although, I was hoping to wrap things up before baby sister gets here.  We will see what happens!

The GREATEST thing by far this month has been our FAMILY STUDY.  This is how we are implementing the new Come, Follow Me curriculum in our family.  Mark and I read and study the lesson out the week before.  Then we sit down together and discuss what we want to do as a family.  On Sunday afternoons, while Benji is taking his nap, we go in and do our family study.  Mark leads mostly on Sundays since I do the rest of the week.  It's been so wonderful.  It is rocking our world in ALL the right ways!  

Monday through Friday we continue to meet together to read the Book of Mormon as a family and then do family prayer before Mark leaves for work.  Then as soon as he leaves, we head upstairs and begin our day with our family study.  We then dive deeper into different stories and other activities that reinforce whatever we are learning that week.  It has been amazing.  Seriously amazing.  This month we have talked about the Parable of the Sower, Elisabeth and Zacharias, Mary and Joseph, Jesus' Birth and Childhood, John the Baptism, and the Baptism of Jesus Christ.  

We are still in our third unit in MATH.  We studied three new fact families, Native American patterns, taking away five, the cylinder and cone, pictographs, making ten, the dime, and numbers 11-20.  

In PRESCHOOL, we finished our unit on lions, sharing and the color green and just began our new unit about squirrels, thankfulness, and the color brown.  

We are almost done with our unit about the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in HISTORY.  We only have one more lesson!  This month we learned about William the Conqueror, life in the Middle Ages, the Age of Chivalry, we took a lot of time to talk about Joan of Arc (she is AMAZING!), the Black Death, the Renaissance, and the Scientific Revolution.  We have also been reading Huguenot Garden by Douglas M. Jones III to go along with our unit and just finished it and loved it!

In SCIENCE we are continuing to talk about Space Science.  This month we discussed asteroids, comets, meteors, and meteoroids.  We also finished up talking about the planets, the gas giants: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.  We've also been learning about the history of astronomy and Galileo.  

Jacob continues to do well in LANGUAGE ARTS.  We have been learning about homophones, comas in a series, doing some art appreciation, EA words, discussing the four types of sentences (statements, commands, exclamation, question), AW and AU words, and decoding challenging words.  We also hit our halfway mark in our coursebook!  WOOT!  

Jacob memorized another POEM this month!  We have been really working on his presentation (keeping his hands down, talking in a smooth way, etc).  He is doing a lot better!

The Bird's Nest

By Unknown

Here upon the leaves at rest

A little bird has built her nest.

Two tiny eggs within she's laid,

And many days beside them stayed.

Now she's happy; listen well!

Two baby birds break through the shell.

Don't you hear them? "Peep! Peep! Peep!

We love you, Mother. Cheep! Cheep! Cheep!"

HANDWRITING is also going well.  Jacob also reached his half way point in this book as well.  He is now progressing to more complicated copywriting and is really enjoying it.  

We finished The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum this month.  We all LOVED it!  The kiddos were all excited to watch the movie afterwards to compare.  We all decided we liked the book better but it was fun to compare!  We are now reading Henry and Bessie: What They Did in the Country by Elizabeth Prentiss and it is adorable.  We are all really enjoying it.