Little Hands to Heaven

We've just wrapped up another wonderful week with our Preschool curriculum. Once again it was excellent! We had a great time beginning Unit 2. The poem is another HIT! To be honest with you they seem kind of simple to me and my first impression is that Brother won't like them but he has loved the two we've learned so far! That right there is the reason God did not call me to write this stuff!!!

Here is Brother cutting out two hands for his number notebook. It took us a while before we found some that he liked. He really is a picky little fella! But we finally found some and he did pretty well cutting them out...okay so I'm lying! I drew a circle around the hands so he would have something to follow and he didn't get any where near the circle! But I'm sure with practice he will get better! Hey, those hands are made for Legos, cars, trains and digging in the dirt!! ;) The finished product was nice and he seems pleased...or maybe he's just glad to be done with the scissors?!
Since our number was 2 I pulled out some number sheets that I had printed off a while back to use with him. They are the coolest sheets and he really loves them! The are number pages except the numbers look like roads and he uses his cars to drive them on the road carefully following the shape of the road/number. What a fun way for him to learn the formation of the number! All of these sheets get neatly tucked away in his very own notebook. He was so excited when we made this for him and loves to look through it at all the work that he's done! I can't wait to fill it with more memories of his Little Hands time! He also did some painting today while his sisters did their drawing.
I wrote out a captial 'B' and a small 'b' on a piece of paper for him to paint. He chose two colors: green and blue of course!! This was a fun activity for him as he loves anything that is easily made into a mess...although he was rather neat today! He did get a little carried away with the paint however and when he was finished the page just looked like one big blob of paint so once it dried I went over the letters with a black marker...now that's more like it!

Along with all of this fun stuff we read about Noah building the ark and emphasized how Noah obeyed exactly what God had commanded. It was perfect because during our family Bible time obedience was something that Daddy spent time on as well. Isn't it beautiful when the Lord weaves these lessons throughout many areas of our lives! He is awesome!

We had already read the Bible story and were getting ready to read through our devotion in the ABC Bible Book when Brother got up, went to get the New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes down from it's perch and said, "I want to read this one Mommy, read about Noah again!" I tell you he loves this stuff! My prayer is that he not only loves it but that it's being hidden in his heart and that the Lord will use these little seeds later in his life for the honor and glory of God!

Cookies!!!!!

Our snack!!

A few nights ago the girls got a case of the munchies. I wasn't sure that we had anything in the house to give them...sometimes we run low on things to eat!! ;) But much to their satisfaction we were able to pull together the ingredients for Peanut Butter Cookies. Daddy was none to disappointed!! We all "rolled up our sleeves" and got to work! It was alot of fun and everyone (except me) enjoyed the results! (I don't care for Peanut Butter Cookies).

Working hard and waiting ever so patiently!!!

Rolling, rolling, rolling...

Don't worry, their hands were clean and washed!!!

Enjoying the hard work!!!

Cookies!!!!!

Our snack!!

A few nights ago the girls got a case of the munchies. I wasn't sure that we had anything in the house to give them...sometimes we run low on things to eat!! ;) But much to their satisfaction we were able to pull together the ingredients for Peanut Butter Cookies. Daddy was none to disappointed!! We all "rolled up our sleeves" and got to work! It was alot of fun and everyone (except me) enjoyed the results! (I don't care for Peanut Butter Cookies).

Working hard and waiting ever so patiently!!!

Rolling, rolling, rolling...

Don't worry, their hands were clean and washed!!!

Enjoying the hard work!!!

Art

I have been lamenting over buying an "art course" for the girls for a couple of years now. They have always loved to draw and do pretty well for their ages so I wanted to try and work on their skills. I've not yet been led to one by the Lord so we have not done anything serious when it comes to art. I did however find two Usborne drawing books at our local thrift shop (for .25 mind you!) and the girls have truly enjoyed going through them. Well, not just the girls!! I have really enjoyed them as well.

Here are some samples of their art work.

My art work!! ;)

Big Sister's work

Big Sister's work

Big Sister's work

Biggest Sister's work

Maybe we will just take a relaxed approach to drawing until they are a little older? Biggest Sis is 7 and Big Sis is 5. Rachel, if you see this tell me what your artistic mind would do!!! ;)

"Design on a Dime"

We've lived in this house for 5 years and have ,just this summer, been able to redo our poor bathroom. (Shouts of praise to the Lord!!) My hubby worked so hard on it and it turned out great!!

We did find out that these walls are not very sturdy and weren't the best walls to try and attach a pedestal sink to! My poor husband ended up opening up a portion of the wall to reinforce the studs! Lots of work! We added a new toilet, new flooring, baseboard (that is yet to be painted) and repainted the walls. It looks great! There is much more room in there now!

Well that has nothing to do with designing on a dime but I needed to give you some background info!

I wasn't sure exactly what theme I wanted to decorate the bathroom in but I knew what colors I wanted to use. I like bright colors (but I'm slowly learning that paining the walls brightly doesn't always go so well!) so I wanted to use bright yellows, oranges, pinks, blues and greens.

Well on a trip to the dollar store one evening with Big Brother I spotted these plates that matched my decor exactly! They were on sale for $.75 each! I wasn't sure how they'ed look but decided that I could spare the money for them!

Well, once home I hot glued some ribbon on the back for hangers and voila!!! Decorations!!! I think that they look pretty good!! Well, good for dollar store plates anyway!!

I also found these wall stickers that matched as well!! $1 for them all!! I still have some scrapbook paper that I wanted to do something with, like a mural or cutouts or something...I'll post when I get that done!!

We are going to replace that ugly medicine cabinet when we get a chance to!! But for $3.25 the bathroom is coming along nicely!!! I plan on buying an new shower curtain this week...and if it's in the budget making a skirt for the sink!! To be continued...

"Design on a Dime"

We've lived in this house for 5 years and have ,just this summer, been able to redo our poor bathroom. (Shouts of praise to the Lord!!) My hubby worked so hard on it and it turned out great!!

We did find out that these walls are not very sturdy and weren't the best walls to try and attach a pedestal sink to! My poor husband ended up opening up a portion of the wall to reinforce the studs! Lots of work! We added a new toilet, new flooring, baseboard (that is yet to be painted) and repainted the walls. It looks great! There is much more room in there now!

Well that has nothing to do with designing on a dime but I needed to give you some background info!

I wasn't sure exactly what theme I wanted to decorate the bathroom in but I knew what colors I wanted to use. I like bright colors (but I'm slowly learning that paining the walls brightly doesn't always go so well!) so I wanted to use bright yellows, oranges, pinks, blues and greens.

Well on a trip to the dollar store one evening with Big Brother I spotted these plates that matched my decor exactly! They were on sale for $.75 each! I wasn't sure how they'ed look but decided that I could spare the money for them!

Well, once home I hot glued some ribbon on the back for hangers and voila!!! Decorations!!! I think that they look pretty good!! Well, good for dollar store plates anyway!!

I also found these wall stickers that matched as well!! $1 for them all!! I still have some scrapbook paper that I wanted to do something with, like a mural or cutouts or something...I'll post when I get that done!!

We are going to replace that ugly medicine cabinet when we get a chance to!! But for $3.25 the bathroom is coming along nicely!!! I plan on buying an new shower curtain this week...and if it's in the budget making a skirt for the sink!! To be continued...

Table food

I have tried very hard to feed Little Sister the best that I possibly can! I tried with the others as well but with Little One not even Daddy is allowed to give "sweets!" (At least not with me around!)

Well today I gave her some red pepper strips that I had cut up and froze at the beginning of the month. A pack of 3 or 4 were on sale for $1.50, yes, $1.50!!! For red peppers that is excellent! I froze them for a couple of reasons. So they wouldn't go bad and so that they would kind of help with her teething pains.

So far she's had two little strips today and she LOVES them!!!! And I feel good knowing that she is snacking well!!

She also had some pieces of our whole wheat pancakes this morning. This was the first time that she seriously fed herself and she did quite well! I love to see that little baby index finger trying to pick up whatever is in her sight!!

Check her out!!

Table food

I have tried very hard to feed Little Sister the best that I possibly can! I tried with the others as well but with Little One not even Daddy is allowed to give "sweets!" (At least not with me around!)

Well today I gave her some red pepper strips that I had cut up and froze at the beginning of the month. A pack of 3 or 4 were on sale for $1.50, yes, $1.50!!! For red peppers that is excellent! I froze them for a couple of reasons. So they wouldn't go bad and so that they would kind of help with her teething pains.

So far she's had two little strips today and she LOVES them!!!! And I feel good knowing that she is snacking well!!

She also had some pieces of our whole wheat pancakes this morning. This was the first time that she seriously fed herself and she did quite well! I love to see that little baby index finger trying to pick up whatever is in her sight!!

Check her out!!

Finally done with our first unit!!

So after deciding to start a schedule with the kiddos everything began to happen at once! I won't go into all the gorry details but I'm hoping that I'm not the only one this keeps happening to!! How fitting is it that when you get into a groove things get crazy?! Hmmm....

Anyway we finished up our first unit in Little Hands this week! Yay!!! And let me tell you the boy LOVES it!!! Even his 7 and 5 year old sisters love it!! The day we read about Adam and Eve being sent out of the Garden on Eden for disobeying we also "acted this out" by pretending Daddy's tie was a snake trying to get us to disobey. They had to jump over it every which way to try to keep the "snake" from tricking them into sinning as well. THEY HAD A BLAST!!

When I read that in the manual I thought I'd just skip it cause we were behind already but I'm glad I didn't!! Everything has been great fun for the kiddos!

Reading our devotion for the day.

There is pure elation on that boy's face!!

His first page for the number notebook.

Hunting for 'A'

Pool Time!!

We've actually started rather late with the pool time this year! The kids have waited as patiently as possible though and have more than earned their time in the water!


They LOVE this pool! Even Littlest Sister has had her time in it and she is a natural! Here are some pictures.

Pool Time!!

We've actually started rather late with the pool time this year! The kids have waited as patiently as possible though and have more than earned their time in the water!


They LOVE this pool! Even Littlest Sister has had her time in it and she is a natural! Here are some pictures.

Nature Study

Once again we took to the outdoors to see what we could see. Last week Big Sister had said that she wanted to learn more about ants so that was our main focus for the day.

Sunday night while I should have been sleeping I got on the net and read the sections from the Handbook of Nature Study Book about ants. You know there's a lot to notice about those tiny things!!!

With my questions in mind I prepared Big Sister for our time. We got a basket and filled it with a magnifying glass, a jar (she wanted to collect some ants to keep), a small shovel, a napkin to cover the jar and a rubber band to close it up with.

She was quite excited to be on this little excursion!! (She is definitely the more adventurous of the bunch!) We marched right over to an ant hill (there's plenty to choose from in our yard!) and began to investigate.

With the information from my previous night's reading in my head I tried my best to answer her questions. After checking out the little creatures with the magnifying glass for a while we decided that it was time to collect some and take them inside. That was interesting!! Both Brother and I got bit a few times!!

With some ants succesfully dumped in our jar we took them inside to watch as we worked on our Nature Journal page. She did a great job!! While working on her page she was eating strawberries and decided that it would be a good idea to share some with her ants. Plop! In they went!

Those poor little ants are still in hiding though! I think that their sudden displacement shook them up quite a bit!

Later this week we are scheduling a nature walk to see what we can hear. Outdoor Challenge #2 is "Using Your Words." Check back later to find out what that means!! Oh! I also plan to try to do something with beans!!