Week 1, Scheduling Thoughts, and the Sabbath

Ok, I just have to say... our first week FLEW by! I can't believe how fast that went! I've been anticipating this first week for months now and it's hard to believe that it's behind us. It was a great week, with ups and downs, but mostly ups. We learned a lot, got back into a semi routine, and found a few kinks that needed to be worked out. These first three weeks are a bit of a strange thing. We've got our annual big family beach trip coming up at the end of the month and then Elianna will start preschool when we get back home. At that point, more things, like dance classes and Wednesday night church, will be added to our schedule. These first 3 weeks are kind of an easing back in to our school schedule. I'm very glad we did it this way, I think it would be hard to have so many new things thrown back into our lives all at once.

Something I'm thinking about once Elianna starts back to preschool, which is just 8-11:30, is to switch up our schedule. Right now, we do all our core subjects in the morning and then we do our My Father's World (history, science, Bible, art, music) after lunch. That last part, while definitely our favorite, can be hard for Elianna to sit through most of the time. I think we will try flipping things and doing the MFW first thing after she goes to school. It has been taking us about 2 hours to get through it most days (I'm adding a few things to what comes with the curriculum). Once we are done with that, we'll get a snack and then move on to the core stuff. My plan is to let Kaylin and Annlee do their independent work and computer work while I do everything I need to do with Maryella. I've still got to get that girl reading like she needs to be! It's going to be a challenge, but I know she'll get it. She wants to, she just isn't wanting to put forth the effort to get it done. Many days end in tears, unfortunately. Anyway, we can get all that done in the mornings and then go get Elianna from preschool. We can come home and eat, then I can let Maryella work on her seat work and computer work, do English with the big girls, and still be able to work with Elianna a little bit if she doesn't need a nap (naps are becoming fewer and farther between these days). I would love to get through the book Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons with her this year. So, we shall see how that schedule goes when we get back from the beach.

So, if you've made it this far, I know you are ready for a report of our first week with pictures! What an amazing week it was! Everyone did their first chapters in Math U See and did well on their tests. They all seem to enjoy the new Rosetta Stone Spanish they are doing. Annlee does a really good job with it! Spelling went well and they all breezed through that. We're trying a different approach to that this year. They are each working through All About Spelling levels. For their tests each week, I pull words they've learned new rules for in that, plus add in words from our history and science units, as well as words they have had trouble with in the past. I think it will work out really well once we get going in that. They all completed several English lessons in Rod and Staff English. Maryella is even doing it this year. It's a very gentle introduction to grammar, but certainly thorough. They all began working in our new Write Shop curriculum. It's pretty basic right now, but I think it's going to be great and really give them solid foundations in writing. Here is a brainstorm that Maryella had to do one day. The assignment was to come up with all her favorite kinds of animals and we will work with this list in the upcoming lessons. I love the vast array of animals she thought of as her favorites!

One thing I really wanted to do this year was to add in music lessons for the girls. I would love to do piano eventually, but it's just not in the budget right now. So since Jeff knows how to play guitar and already owns three of them (leftover from his youth ministry days!), he said he was willing to give it a try teaching the girls! They were beyond excited to get started! How cute are these pictures of them during their first lesson! Love it! They are in the process of learning to play He's Got the Whole World in His Hands. (I'm learning too so I can help them with practice sessions during the week. I've always wanted to learn how to play!) I'm going to give them a week to practice and then try to video it to include in next week's post. Kaylin almost has it already and Maryella is doing a really good job as well. Annlee is doing well, but she's spending most of her time complaining about her fingers hurting, haha!

In My Father's World, we began at the very beginning of time. Creation. I loved all that we learned this week about that first week! You think you know all there is to know about those first 7 days, but there is so much to really dig into! Maryella and Elianna colored and decorated big numbers with the things God created on the corresponding day. These will decorate our school room for awhile.

The three big girls are creating history notebooks this year that will take us from creation through the ancient Greeks. These are the first pages that they created for those notebooks.

And we also made these pictures to add to the notebooks. I'm using a book called Draw and Write Through History to help us with some fun extra pages this year. And, yes, I had to do one also!

We watched these vidoes this week that went along with our studies. The first dvd of the What's in The Bible With Buck Denver series was so funny, yet very educational. The girls loved it! (It also gave us an opportunity to talk about how even some Christians disagree about certain things!) We watched several sections of God of Wonders. I got that dvd for free at the homeschool convention. What a freebie! That dvd is AWESOME! And the girls are glued to it and beg to watch it all the time - huge plus! We also watched Magic School Bus Gets a Bright Idea to go along with our science studies on light.

To finish our week, we celebrated our first Jewish feast - Sabbath. I can not even begin to describe what a blessing this was. I'll let the pictures tell most of the story...

Annlee made our Sabbath table centerpiece. She cut stars to make candles that would float in oil in a plate. One candle for each person in the family.

Maryella and Elianna decorated spice boxes. I know, you are only supposed to have 1. But we really needed two, haha.

Kaylin made our challah (bread) cover. I was blown away by what a good job she did.

They were each so proud of their special projects and it made the meal that much more special for them.

On Friday, the girls helped me make the challah. It's a braided bread used in the Sabbath meal. Elianna stuck with me from beginning to end.

She loved adding the poppy seeds to symbolize all the stars God created that we can't even count!

And when it was done, the house smelled AH-mazing!

We got the table all ready and the girls couldn't wait to get started. They each got bathed and dressed in nice clothes (their own idea) because we had read about a Jewish family doing that in a book.

Check out that great centerpiece Annlee made for us! It looked so pretty all lit in the middle of the table!

And the challah cover was perfect as well!

We lit the candles, I said the prayer and explained the meaning of the two candles (creation and redemption), then Jeff went around and said a blessing over each one of the girls. That was so precious.

We sang a song together, Jeff blessed the wine (Mots for Tots Grape Juice, haha) and everyone took a sip.

We washed our hands after Jeff said another blessing.

Jeff said the blessing over the bread and explained why there are two loaves (because of the double portion of manna during the exodus) and everyone broke off a piece of bread.

We then enjoyed our dinner, said the grace after the meal, then had a wonderful evening together as a family playing games and reading stories. Saturday was a day we all spent together having fun and laughing and resting from our busy lives. We took a break from all electronics and it was so nice! We enjoyed leftovers of our soup and bread for lunch and then had a light and easy but delicious dinner. We enjoyed the Havdalah, the close of the Sabbath together.

There are some really neat things in this meal also! First of all, I just love the havdalah candle! ( I ordered it from Amazon for less than $2!) The twisted blue and white candles also represent creation and redemption and how they are linked together through Christ.

The wine(juice) is poured until it overflows so we will remember God's overflowing blessings for us as well as the blood that flowed from Christ on the cross.

The Havdalah candle is extinguished in that wine as a symbol of the darkness that came over the world when Jesus died on the cross.

Then the spice box(boxes, haha) is passed around so we will remember the sweetness of the Sabbath.

We ended with a sweet dessert as well, as is the Jewish custom. I'm not sure Jewish tradition involves chocolate pudding cups, but hey, you go with you have!

It was such a sweet, special time for our family. We are definitely going to do this again! I think next time we will start on Saturday night and end on Sunday night. I know that's not Jewish custom, but since our "sabbath" is really Sunday, it just seems to make more sense for us. We also are looking forward to celebrating after the time changes so we can incorporate the finding three stars in the sky to end the Havdalah meal and close Sabbath. We skipped that part since it doesn't get dark until almost 9:00 right now and we've got to get 4 girls up for church in the morning!

So, that was our first week! Whew! It was wonderful and we are all looking forward to another great year of school!