Hesed is a Hebrew word that represents God's covenant faithfulness on which our family thrives.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

School Days

We started our school year the same day that our county schools started, which was August 20th. That means we have had 6 weeks of school craziness. It has been a lot of fun-and educational. Amelia is working on 1st grade material and Judah is doing some 4K stuff- and Annalise, well she's doing a little bit of everything!


The source of the sour faces-but why make my children eat a lemon? You will have to read Lentil by Robert McCloskey.

And of course after reading Lentil all children need to pretend to be in a marching band!

Play Dough is a weekly event during school hours.

I included this picture from the Pisgah National Forest because while we were there we collected materials for our Salamnder Room (by Anne Mazer).

Our Salamnder Room

While in the Pisgah Forest, we also found this fun kit. Amelia brought it to show-and-tell at our Mommies Group/Homeschool Co-op. She did a great job explaining an amphibious life cycle.




A little silliness makes the school day fun!


Gross Motor Skill building activities are often favorites-this involved counting, chalk, and water-you can beat an activity that involves water!


Oreo Moon Cycles-yeah-OREOS-and only half a cookie makes it to the paper.

When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant (one of my favorite authors of children's books) tells of life in Appalachia-very conveniently we have a one room school house on display in Gaffney-we had to pay it a visit.



Yes Amelia is holding a scorpion!

We participated in a field trip to meet the Critter Keeper-and he put on a good show. He had several animals and many kids got to be volunteers in the show!


Making Clouds

While studying Storm in the Night by Mary Stolz, we spent time learning about weather-and when you can make clouds with soap and toilet paper you can have fun while getting clean!
Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say is a great book about family connections. You might have guessed by the picture, but it led to a study on Japan.



Sometimes we study the style of the artist who illustrated the book we are studying. Sometimes we study different aspects of the art itself. We looked for shadows in Grandfather's Journey and talked about light sources and shadow casting. We are pointing out the details that enhance a story or a picture at this stage so that as the kids get older they can replicate those elements in their own art/writing, as well as appreciate them in another's work. 






All in all it made for a fun time outside making shadows.
And invariably led to a game of shadow tag-although it was short-lived for multiple reasons!

Amelia made these fun cats with her pattern blocks

And whatever Amelia does-Judah and Annalise do also!


Of course we have an ongoing science project on rabbits! They make great class pets-anybody want one? :) We plan to show them at the Fair next month, so hopefully 3 of our 5 will find new homes!


Amelia has the opportunity to be a part of a lot of extracurricular activities. She attends the Good News Club, attends our Church activities, does Gymnastics, participates in our Mommies Group/Co-op, and has just started Girl Scouts. We are so thankful for all of these opportunities-and for the opportunity to homeschool-we get to live life to the fullest-together! Praise be to God, and thank-you mom and dad for your support, and to all of those who have encouraged us along the way-Thank-You!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Day Trip to the Pisgah National Forest

This Saturday David and I decided to head to the mountains for a little cooler weather. After a two and a half hour car ride (which includes the 40 minute wrong turn detour-that is sadly my fault) in which Annalise was screaming and Judah, who gets carsick, was yelling-"I can't take it anymore," I was ready to pull over at McDonalds and get the kiddos french fries until they hit carb lala-land. However, we stayed the course-the right course after that wrong turn-and ended up at the southern edge of the Pisgah Forest, which is absolutely beautiful. The kids had a great time and so did David and I. We maybe could have pulled over anywhere and would have rejoiced just to be out of the car, but shortly after our arrival and while we ate our picnic lunch- the kids all expressed their gratitude to be there. And we had hours of outdoor adventure fun-with no rules and no carseats!











Yes-grandparents-she is strapped in!


We found bears-thankfully they were stuffed.

We took a fun dip in the river while it rained.

And decided to cross the river to shorten the walk back-David had to help us all across.


Tuesday, August 28, 2012

SUMMER

Well summer came and went and it was full. We have just started our school routine for the year and are having a great time, but before summer becomes to distant of a memory, I thought I'd give it one more post!



4th of July at the O'Neal's new house



Sarah is out-pacing Amelia

A visit from Cathy

We celebrate Amelia and Judah's birthdays together every year because their birthdays are only 8 days apart. This year we had a 2 day celebration which included a pool party at our Y and a party at home with family and out of town friends.
Can you see Judah smiling? If not, just know-this is a picture of Judah with a big grin as he comes down the water slide on daddy's lap!

Pull apart mermaid cake-I get a little bolder every year
Annalise had a blast at the party.

6 year old Amelia-with pierced ears


Patience


So many friends that we love
Two parties means two cakes-mermaid for the pool, mini-excavator for home


Homemade pizza is a birthday tradition



What to get a boy who is turning 4-aquatic frogs of course! Meet Dump Truck and Thomas.

After all those parties it was time for VBS-this year's theme was "The King is Coming."

Our castle room

Lady Kathleen spent her week with us helping out with VBS
 Summer in the South always means more wildlife.
1 of our 3 bunnies born this spring

Cool spider that lives on our back deck-we specifically asked the bug man not to spray him. This guy is big and he eats bees-he's the Mr. T of spiders.
Summer is not complete without a trip to Myrtle Beach

Amelia wanted to dye her hair purple-we thought that would be a fun beach look!

Judah rarely poses for the camera anymore, but he couldn't resist pointing out the cow poop!


While at the beach we visited a very neat Gardens area that had some awesome aviaries and natural zoo.


Judah was loving the camera that day!



We also took in a show at Medieval Times and the kids (and David and I) loved it!

Well, this concludes our summer blog post, but just a few pictures of the youngest, who is changing by the minute:

Yes this is a picture of water bottles in our fridge. I took it because I asked Annalise to put the water bottles in the fridge and she neatly arranged them all-I was impressed with my little 18 month old!

Yum-blackberries

The kids were playing firefighters-I think Annalise was the dalmatian since she has the firefighter hat and the dog headband!


Hi-yo