from the quiver - issue 1

HAPPENINGS

We ended the summer with a trip to Gnome Cones! Nothing beats the heat like a Sweaty Yeti! 

This week we started our fifth year homeschooling! Joshua is in third grade, Maverick is in Kindergarten, and Anchor is ready for preschool! The boys are so excited and here’s what they have to say:  “I want to make a bottle rocket, I want to learn about the states, and I want to work really hard” said Joshua. Maverick wants to “read many books and do crafts.” Anchor wishes school was just “watching Paw Patrol and riding my scooter.”

Joshua is trying karate this year!  He is part of a homeschool class that meets on Tuesday and Thursday.  He’s had four classes so far. He says the hardest thing is learning the proper form. But he loves running laps and practicing kicking and punching.

For our field trip, we went to see Beat Bugs with the Artisan Children’s Theatre. The Merrimans joined us and it was a great show with lots of songs from The Beatles. Joshua’s favorite character was Mean Mr. Mustard.  Maverick enjoyed Jay, the main character. And Anchor was just happy to eat popcorn. 

To end our first week of school, we went swimming and made peanut butter blossoms!! We still had to finish reading Little House on the Prairie from last year. However, the boys were excited to have a pizza and movie night to watch the pilot episode from the TV series.

WRIGHT LIGHTS

Maverick was very helpful this week by taking Anchor upstairs to play while Joshua did school.  Joshua was a light by telling Maverick he would pick up the laundry that Mav dropped on the way upstairs. 

BOOK CLUB

This week we are studying the Vikings!  We have been reading about Lief Erickson.  He found North America.   We have also been reading Pilgrim Adventures. Joshua loves the story about the pilgrims leaving Great Britain because they didn’t want to go to King James’ church.  He wonders if they will meet Indians like Leif did.

Joshua is reading Viking Adventures by Clyde Robert Bulla. The main character is Sigurd and he went sailing with Gorm to find new land. Sigurd is patient and kind.

Maverick and Anchor learned about the first four days of creation.  They liked making the sun, moon, and stars for the fourth day.

PRAYER BASKET

We have been praying about serving in the high school student ministry at church (aka HUB).  This week we had a HUB meeting and were so encouraged by how Valley Creek views this generation: giving them the term “gen hope!” They are  passionate about equipping students to become leaders and want them at the front of almost everything the church does. We love how life giving the staff is and were amazed by how many students graduate and still come back to serve.

BFIAR: The Big Green Pocketbook

The last book we rowed this summer was The Big Green Pocketbook by Candice Ransom. I had never read this book before and thought it was wonderful! I'm very sentimental and this book reminded me of how things were growing up. I'm sad things aren't still like this for my boys. But I know they'll have other memories of childhood.

We did not have any companion books for this row.  Life is just too busy in the summer, there's a reason we have a school year and a break!

I love that as Maverick is getting older, he wants to join us and  do school too. 

After reading this book, the first thing we wanted to do was make our own green pocketbook! I took Joshua to Hobby Lobby and let him pick out some green fabric.  Unfortunately I realized my sewing machine is not accessible right now (and my mother-in-law's recently broke so I couldn't borrow hers).  So plan B was to make one from felt. Thank the Lord for hot glue guns!

Joshua loved putting his things in there... 2 lollipops (one for now and one for later), the bus tickets, etc. At the beginning of the week, he had to use cut out cards. But as the week went on, we found real items!

Our special treat this week was riding the trolley in uptown Dallas.  We went with our cousins and had such a great time!

Next we went to Highland Park Soda Fountain for lunch. My grandmommy brought me here numerous times as a child and it holds so many dear memories for me.  I look forward to being able to share all about how wonderful my grandmommy was with my boys someday. We had grilled cheese and old-fashioned milkshakes! 

he even bought his own box of crayons to keep in his pocketbook

We learned about money and had fun playing this game. Joshua was really good at rolling the dice, looking up what that number meant, and putting the correct coin in the correct spot. He could play games all day... especially with nana!

We also did a science experiment about how blue and yellow make green.  This book is really cute too!

Joshua also enjoyed typing his name (first in big letters, then in small letters) on the laptop.  I wish I had a typewriter to show him.  That's another thing from my grandmommy that I loved playing with.

One of the things I enjoy about Before Five in a Row is that it always ties in Scripture.  This week, we read the parable of the lost coin.  We reviewed it several times with Joshua and still bring it up today when the situation applies.

This row was another one of my favorites... most of them have been so special and I'm loving the memories they are making for our family.  They have provided an extra way for Joshua and I to bond. The times are so sweet and I'll always remember them.

BFIAR: Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?

One of my favorite childhood books is Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? by Nancy White Carlstrom.  I can still hear my daddy reading it to me. It was truly a delight to share this with Joshua and we both had fun doing all of the activities!

We did not have any companion books, mainly because we just read about bears with Blueberries for Sal but also because I just couldn't squeeze it all in.

Our first activity was a bear hunt. Joshua wanted to do this over and over again!

I also bought the boys a matching bear card game. Maverick loved this the most, but Joshua still enjoyed it. I know we'll play this for many years!

We talked a lot about healthy vs. unhealthy food this week.  Joshua LOVES food (and that's an understatement) to the point where he eats so much it makes him sick.  I don't know what happened the first two years of his life to cause these issues, but he is getting better.   This was a great opportunity to discuss being grateful for what we have and trusting that mommy/daddy give him the right amount of food.

We made a Jesse Bear lunch! "Carrots and peas, and a little more please, celery crunch and sprouts in a bunch, an apple to bite and a mustache of white, juice from a pear and rice in my hair."  We had ants on a log instead of sprouts. And I had to add some protein.

a mustache of white

We learned how to measure in inches. This was Joshua's first time using a ruler!

We also worked on rhyming words and patterns. These are difficult, but I've seen so much improvement this year!

I think the most fun activity was designing our own kitchen floor to look like Jesse Bear's! We used circles, squares, triangles, and lines.  Joshua is so neat and has such joy on his face when we do things like this.  I'm working on not being so OCD and letting them just be kids... it's incredibly hard for me!!

Another one of the things we discussed was the American flag. It's shown a few times in the book so this was a wonderful introduction.  It was also perfect because the Olympics are coming up! We were able to talk about flags, what they mean, athletes from the all around the world competing, and so on. Joshua became so excited about this we decided to have an Olympics party!! (more on that later)

Another one of the many things I enjoy with homeschooling is knowing exactly what my kids are learning about.  I can see what excites them and feed them more information in that area, igniting the fuel for them to learn all they can! And I get to see it all through their eyes. There is nothing more precious!

BFIAR: Blueberries for Sal

Because we did not finish Before Five in a Row during the school year as planned, I decided to do a few books over the summer and next year as we're feeling stressed and need a change of pace. 

In June we rowed Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey.  This was a childhood favorite of mine and it was such a joy to share it with my boys.  

Our companion books were about blueberries, mountains, and bears:

• Blueberries for the Queen by John and Katherine Paterson (this was a sweet book and true story!)
• Up the Mountain by Charlotte Agell
• The Walkers Go Hiking by Morrell Gipson
• Do Bears Sleep All Winter? by Melvin Berger

To start the week off, we went to pick blueberries at Blase Family Farms in Rockwall!  It was hot, but so much fun!  Joshua loved knowing he was going to use these blueberries to make special treats.  We also listened for the "kuplink kuplank kuplunk" sounds. 

We made blueberry pancakes, smoothies, popsicles, and muffins! 

Our muffins didn't turn out at all, but it was a great opportunity to teach the boys about perseverance and trying again.  Even the second batch wasn't perfect, but that just means we can make more muffins!

We completed a little book about prepositions, putting little bear in various places.

beginning sounds worksheet

Joshua drew a mountain and we added Little Sal and her mother, Little Bear and his mother.  Then he used fingerprints to make blueberry bushes.

This row was a lot of fun... and yummy!! Mommy definitely needs to hit the gym.