On Our Book List this Week

Mr. Putter and Tabby Toot the Horn, by Cynthia Rylant

Annie and Snowball and the Dress-up Birthday, by Cynthia Rylant

Little Bear and the Marco Polo, by Else Holmelund Minarik

Fancy Nancy at the Museum, by Jane O'Connor

Usborne First Encyclopedia of the Human Body, by Fiona Chandler

Summer Unschooling

"Boredom, is merely the precursor to creativity." - Kim John Payne

Family Altar

Here is a pic of our family altar that I set up this Lent. I need to post an updated photo of how it looks for Easter. The Children loved arranging and rearranging the statues. I've since added a beautiful, framed picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The thorns have been replaced with flowers. I also removed all the statues except a beautiful Sacred Heart statue. Photo to come!

Science Project

I have been remiss in posting! Life has just been very, very busy. But I wanted to share this photo of a science project Joey made. Instead of a solar mobile, we made a shadowbox of the planets in order!

Another Cool Lent Calendar

A friend sent me a link to http://catholicicing.blogspot.com/ for this great Lent calendar!

Wouldn't you know, I'm out of ink in the printer! So, tonight I have to brave the snow to get more ink and print this out.

Click here to visit Lacy's blog entry to print out her free calendar!
Thank you, Lacy!

New Speller

Joey spelling phonetically is hysterical. Woder.... was water. He just rewrote it correctly in his notebook after he mispelled it the first time. No, we aren't doing school on Sunday. But he was inspired to spell some words after seeing something daddy was watching on tv. Funny kid. I'll have him write my next shopping list and see how he does. :)

November and the Holy Souls

Just a quick little update. Our 5th child arrived a month early. We couldn't be more blessed! He is wonderful! We found out we were having a boy only 2 weeks before he arrived.

November is the month of the Holy Souls. Our family is offering prayers and sacrifices everyday for them. We are also going to visit our family grave and clean it up, sprinkle some holy water, and pray for our relatives.

The last few weeks we've been inundated with lady bugs. The children are having a great time playing with them. We also have a stray bunny that frequents outside our window. We are trying to catch him so we can give him to a shelter. It's never a dull moment around here!

I'm busy making preparations for Christmas so that we can relax and enjoy our Advent. It is right around the corner!

Grade 1 Studies Are Underway!

We are taking a big leap in the number of subjects being taught this year. We completed our first week of first grade, and am happy to report we survived!! Dare I say we thrived? We are still using CHC curriculum, with a different math text. I also added in History from Seton and Geography from Our Lady of Victory.

My son is doing phenomenal and really loves to learn. I couldn't be more proud!

They key to this year is discipline (bedtime hours, meal hours, lots of meal planning, etc.) to help us succeed. Of course there will be bumps and illness, and a new baby (in 29 days!!!), but we have a general rhythm of our days, aided with prayer. Without our eyes on God, we wouldn't be able to do this.

God bless my husband, who is a wonderful teacher and principal of our school. Today is our 7th wedding anniversary. I'm more in love with him today than ever before.

Lent 2009

2010 Update!

Here is the image scanned in and made into a PDF or JPG for you to print.

PDF Version

JPG Version (click the image below)

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Sadly, I haven't been keeping up with this blog as I had hoped. But today, I was inspired by this blog post, to create our own version of a Lent calendar!

I'm out of printer ink, so I had to get crafty. A crafty person, I am not! I'm pretty pleased with the results though. I used this image and sketched it out on heavy card stock, in pencil.

Next, I used this image, to give it the elements to make it look more like the traditional Agnus Dei symbol.

When I was satisfied, I went over it in a large black sharpie. It came out like this:



This was to be the template. Because I have 3 kids that have "me too!" syndrome. They all want a piece of the action. I used regular printer paper, and traced the template, put their names on it, and "Lent 2009" because I know I'll want to save these in their memory box.



There was no room for me to put the Lent calendar directly on the lamb. I decided to make a basic calendar and post it underneath. My 5yo will enjoy coloring each day purple. I marked his favorite devotion on there as well. Divine Mercy! The 5yo is really into reading calendars these days. By the end of Lent, I believe he'll be a pro.



The children will glue one cotton ball each day, on their lambs.

Thank you, to Karen Edmisten for this inspiration!

Charlotte Mason Quote

“What is worth beginning is worth finishing, and what is worth doing is worth doing well.” (Charlotte Mason, "Home Education" Vol. 4, pt. II, p. 172)

School has begun!

What a wonderful start. The children really love to learn. Praying that they continue this passion for the rest of their lives. May their knowledge, and reason lead them to heaven.

”Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don't only give your care, but give your heart as well." – Bl. Mother Teresa

Thank you, dear Mother. I pray to remember this everyday, as we go about our lessons. May my example teach them how to love Christ, and be loving and compassionate toward others. We hope to obtain heaven by your example. Your words always give me a renewed desire for God, hope in the Lord, and motivation to bring Christ to others with humility.

Bl. Mother Teresa, pray for us!

Blessed Mother Teresa, pray for us!

Mother Teresa has been an influential person in my reversion. She is my special patroness in matters pertaining to my vocation. Her spirituality is one I desire to imitate, and hope to instill in my children. Therefore, we have named our homeschool after Mother Teresa.

This blog is an offshoot of my existing Living the Mother's Rule blog.

We needed a separate space to journal our homeschool adventures.

"Let us begin".