Around Here….

I have many pictures on my phone from our DollyWood trip that I want to post and tell about, but time is not on my side these days.  I’m going to try and catch up with the blog just by some random pictures from around here; I hope to blog about DollyWood before the week is over.  As I’m typing this, I am also listening to a homeschool CD on Language Arts, waiting on Ruby to bring me her Math work to check, and realizing I better hurry because lunch time is fast-approaching.

So, here we go….

1-  Molly is a unique child.  Does anyone else’s child have an obsession with all things that have to do with handicaps or doctor’s offices?  Anyone?  Josh took the kids to The Dollar Store last night.  This is what Molly bought with her money:

Notice her finger….she said, “I’ve seen this on people and have always wanted one.”

And then I spotted this contraption this morning.  Really???  These are little white mints in a pill box.  Dear goodness.  She is serious about this stuff, too.  Hopefully, no one will just be here for a visit and see this in her bathroom without some sort of explanation!  I’m very interested to see what Molly is going to be when she grows up.  If anyone is in the medical field and will let her come shadow you for an hour or two one day, let me know!  She would be in heaven!

Molly also saw some “gold sunglasses made of wire” that she wanted.  So, with money she borrowed from Ruby (!), she bought these at Wal-Mart:

I love this little girl!  She keeps me on my toes!!

2.  Ruby bought Legos with her money.  She loves all the little pieces.

She is leading worship for Kidzplace Children Worship this coming Sunday, and we are so proud of her.  She loves music and dancing, so this is right up her alley.  She keeps losing teeth, and she’s still always reading and reading and reading.

3. I’ve been painting again!

Before:

After:

4. I thought we would celebrate summer break by filling the freezer with popsicles!

 

5.  We’ve been to the pool a few times…

 

6. I went to a home school conference and left INSPIRED!!!  I had a friend with me, which made it lots of fun.  We found lots of goodies….

This is my trunk, full of bags that are full of books and curriculum.  I could write pages and pages of what I learned and ideas that challenged me to keep on teaching the kids….what we are doing here is so important!  It takes TIME to train and teach my kids.  Josh and I are trying to aim for the heart of each of our kids, not only behavior.  Admittedly, I fall back into the behavioral modification as a focus instead of realizing there is a heart issue when their behavior is inappropriate or disrespectful.  I told the kids that I learned that in a survey of a group of CEO’s, all of them had one thing in common as a child: THEY ALL DID CHORES!

We also added to our chore chart a line of “honor.”  This is where the kids open up their own eyes (as opposed to just doing what I say to do) and see something that needs to be done and do it!  It should be something that honors another person or group of people.  Ruby can honor Molly by picking up her pajamas that she left on the floor.  Mack can make sure the pillows are on the couch nicely after he has picked up his toys in the living room.  They need to learn to take initiative, and I tend to tell them everything to do.  They may do it, but they won’t do anything else until I tell them what to do.  It will be much better if they learn to look around and do something!

It’s hard work to train kids to be selfless, hard working and diligent.  Just the other day in the grocery store, Molly and Mack had the audacity to poke finger holes in the beef!!!  I was so embarrassed.  They are 7 and 8 years old.  Who does that???  Though I was embarrassed  and wanted to just walk away, I decided to call over the butcher so they could apologize.  The kids were mortified!  I explained to them that someone worked and got that beef ready.  They used supplies and it took someone’s time to do it.  I don’t foresee that they will be poking anymore beef.

Another example of having to follow through when I would rather not happened yesterday.  I had washed and dried their clothes.  The clothes were in the hallway.  I told them to go fold their clothes and put them away.  “Oh, but we just started this game…blah, blah,….can we please wait and do it later?”  they cried out.  I agreed that they could have some more time.  I told them it was 2:55pm and that the clothes must be put away by 4:00pm and that I was not going to remind them or coddle them and there would be consequences if they didn’t follow through.  Wouldn’t you know that at 4:05 I called them in my room and asked them to tell me what time it was.  They realized their irresponsibility.  I made them fold and put away their clothes right then, and they had to go to bed 30 minutes early.  Fun times.

I also learned a ton about subjects that I teach them….just thought I’d share that little tidbit for now.

Ok, off to check on the kids.  They decided to make lunch without me….spaghetti and bread!  I’m not complaining!!  They took initiative.  I love it.