For our Bible/character lessons, we are using a book called “The Original 21 Rules of this House” by Gregg, Sono, & Josh Harris. It has a list of 21 rules to be learned and followed, and a coloring page to illustrate each rule. The first rule is “We obey our Lord Jesus Christ.” We talked about the fact that obeying God is the basis for everything we do, and for all the other rules that we will learn. Some of the other rules in the book are: we tell the truth; we speak quietly and respectfully with one another; when we have work to do, we do it without complaining; when we take something out, we put it away; when someone is sorry, we forgive him; when we make a mess, we clean it up; and we do not hurt one another with unkind words or deeds. We are talking about each rule and reading Bible verses and/or stories that relate to that rule. We also talk about examples and situations in which the rule would apply. The idea for the parents is to then remind the kids of the rules throughout the day, particularly when the rules are being violated! The book suggests doing one rule per week, but we are learning them more quickly; this week we are doing 3 rules. I just don’t want to wait 21 weeks to get through them all . Learning the rules and the principles is the easy part…it’s the application that is hard!

We had our first day of school today! Jacob is 5, so it is time for kindergarten. Skylar is 3, so she is ready for preschool. Dad got a picture of each of them:

And he got a picture of each of them with the teacher :

Everything went smoothly this morning; I hope it continues, though I’m sure we will hit some bumps along the way! I will be posting more about the materials that we are using as we go along. In general, Jacob’s daily subjects are reading, math, Bible/character development, writing, and Spanish. We will be alternating music, art, and science, for a total of 6 subjects each day. Lest you think I am working him to death, we finished everything today in less than 2 hours, and that included breaks for bathroom, changing the baby’s diaper, and having our pictures taken! And, the music lesson was doing the Hokey Pokey to reinforce learning left and right, so that can hardly be considered work!

Skylar is doing the Bible/character development and art and music with us. I also bought her a preschool workbook to use, and I helped her do some activities in it while Jacob did his writing practice. I can easily go back and forth helping them that way. Fortunately she enjoys playing by herself some, so when she was finished with her table work, she just went and played for a while. She also played with JonDavid some, which helped a lot.

Whatever kind of schooling you do, I hope you and your kids have a great year!

My husband and I do not hold to the belief that “real men wear pink.” I have seen this slogan before, but around here pink is for girls! Skylar, as most 3-year-olds do, takes things very literally. She apparently now thinks that anything that is pink is just for girls. In her mind, this principle applies not only to her pink purse and hat, but also to Strawberry Mini-Wheats, Benadryl cream, and gallon sized storage bags (the box is pink). Anytime she sees something with pink on it, she says, “That’s girls’!” So now I am trying to explain the difference between pink items that are for girls and the ones that are for anybody. I’m sure she will come to understand the difference: her brothers can eat strawberry cereal, but the pink fairy costume…that’s girls’.

I took Skylar to Hobby Lobby to choose a cake pan…a bit of an overwhelming decision for a girl just turning 3. Of course, I thought she would choose Elmo, or Dora, or the castle, or the teddy bear…but after much deliberation, she chose a train! This cake is actually made up of cupcakes. Wilton has “puzzle cake” sets, which include little silicone cupcake pans of different shapes. You put the cupcakes together to make different designs. The set we got can be made into a train, a rocket, or a dump truck. It is really neat, and it was fun to make. The train design did not require all 24 cupcakes, and I had just the right number left to spell out her name. She was very happy with it, and we have enjoyed eating it, too!

Skylar just turned 3 years old! We’ve done a lot of celebrating ! While we were in Alabama, she was able to join in the birthday party for my dad and my cousin Emily, who were both born on August 2. Then on Sunday morning, we gave her the new Bible we got her. She had seen us picking it out at my mom’s bookstore and had been asking about it. As you can see she was very pleased to finally get her new Bible and purple case! Jacob bought her a DVD, which she also liked very much.

After church, we went out for pizza. Later that evening, we took her shopping for some new clothes. Yes, she is only 3 and she already likes shopping. We found some good buys at Kohl’s. We topped it off with burgers and milkshakes. Skylar didn’t eat much of her cheeseburger, but she sure did enjoy the milkshake. We continued the celebration over to today because I did not get the cake decorated until this morning. So today we had our cake and ice cream. She has gotten presents from several other people, too, and I think there are a few more to come. All in all we have had fun and we are thankful for our 3 year old little girl!

Cake pictures coming soon…

We finished summer reading at the library the last week of July with a costume party. My niece Paley was visiting us (along with her mommy and daddy, of course ), so she went along with us, too. We had fun coming up with a pirate costume for Jacob. He had a hat already, but we needed some things to go with it. He had seen a man dressed as a pirate who had shredded sleeves on his shirt, and Jacob wanted to have that. So I took one of my husband’s old t-shirts and cut it up to his liking! A quick trip to the dollar store provided an eye patch, vest, and toy dagger (all for $1.00). He also had boots, black pants, a belt, and a red bandana. His Aunt Alecia finished it off with a mustache and beard drawn with eyeliner. Skylar had a fairy costume that our friend Machella had recently given her. She called it a butterfly costume, and she really liked it. Paley dressed up with a hat, some beads, and a purse. At the library, they had stories, songs, games, and snacks. Here is a picture of all 3 of them, and then one of just Skylar where you can see her wings.