Road Trip to Chicago...blogging break

We are getting ready to leave for our road trip back to Chicago!!!

I will be taking a break from blogging but will update my Twitter. You can read my "tweets" here (on the sidebar), my Facebook account or subscribe at http://www.twitter.com/elybutuyan

Pray for traveling mercies for us. I'll try to keep sending updates regulalry from my phone. We should be there by Friday morning the latest. Back to blogging after the trip when we start our summer school. ;-)

Funny Bugs

I forgot to share a picture of the funny bugs the boys made during our insect study. We used egg carton pieces, little foam shapes, pipe cleaners.

Summer Educational Projects pt. 1

This summer, just like last year, I organized a Preschool Activities in a Bag Swap, this time around with the fabulous and talented FIAR ladies! I am soooo excited about using these with Noah for his preschool next fall. Everyone did such a great job with their activities and I got 18 new activities to add to our collection.

I started using these with Caleb when he was 3 and for the first 2 years I prepared all the bags myself. Then I realized that it would be better to do it with other ladies and just do 1 type of bag and swap! It always end up being a lot more work than I think it's going to be but my boys LOVE these bags and it has helped both of them build up longer sitting time periods (which can be so difficult to get with 2 very energetic boys!).

Here's the link to the company who prepared the guides. They just came out with Science in a Bag activities and that will probably be my next year project. ;-)

Hiding God's Word Little Hearts

Recently we finished our second reading through "My ABC Bible Verses", by Susan Hunt.

This will remain one of our favorite books for character building. My kids begged me to read them one more story about Missy and Bill (the siblings in the book) every night.

I first saw this book at the Harvest bookstore when Caleb was 2 years old and knew one day we will use but I had no idea how good it was!

There are so many things I like about it. First of all, the book introduces 26 bible verses, one for each letter of the alphabet. The verses are written on King James Version. Ms. Hunt shares at the beginning of the book that this version is very poetic and therefore easy to memorize. I decided to keep most verse in KJV but changed some to ESV (English Standard Version) since it's the version Brad and I use at home and it's very similar to NKJV.

After each verse is introduce we read a story about Missy and Bill. They get in all kinds of situations that are very common to kids (not wanting to share, disobedience, stealing, speaking evil against someone, getting angry, complaining, etc.). But the great thing about the kids in the story is that they have memorized the same verse your child will memorize that day!

The author places a big emphasis that because Missy and Bill had learned these verses, the Holy Spirit convicted them of their sin and they were able to act correctly. Throughout the book we see that we can only change our wrong attitudes with the help of the Holy Spirit in us. This ultimately leads to the truth that this is only possible if we place our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Towards the end of the book, Bill makes a profession of faith.

Another thing I love is that the previous verses are mentioned over and over again in the following stories, including the Bible reference. So children get to see different circumstances where the same verse can be applied.

Each story ends, with ideas for memory verse review, questions and prayer guide. I LOVE what Ms. Hunt says in the introductions: "The ABC's are building blocks to your child's format education. And these are verses are the building block of the soul-the building blocks that can lead to eternal life".

Here's some of the great verses included, that we use the most at home. ;-)

A= A soft answer turns away wrath (Proverbs 15:1)

B= Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God (Matthew 5:9)

D= Do all things without grumbling or disputing (Philippians 2:14)

E= Even a child is known by his deeds. (Proverbs 20:11)

K= Keep your tongue from evil (Psalm 34:13)

O= Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! (Psalm 118:11)

Father's Day '09

I'm Watching You Dad - For All Parents

This video was shown at church today and I couldn't help but praise the Lord for the godly dad he has given to my children.

The Brother-Offended Chart

Speaking of Doorposts...I love their resources for character training!

One of my favorite charts from this company is The Brother Offended Chart. It teaches children (and parents) how to deal with sibling rivalry from a Biblical perspective.

For the past 4 months we have been reading different portions of the chart during quiet time and trying to apply it DAILY! My boys can understand (not always applied perfectly...but neither do we as parents, right?) clearly now how to deal with conflict in a way that pleases God and displays honor and obedience to Him and love for one another.

Again, it's not that this chart has cause all fights to cease in our home but it serves a great reminder for them and often they choose the right because we are constantly reinforcing it.

I must say also that all of Doorposts charts are great accountability for me as a mom. I know that if I leave it up to my flesh I would not approach the daily bickering, etc....sometimes it's sooo much easier to ignore it. But this chart is helping me to keep character training at the top of my daily priorities.

Learning about Ants

After our bugs study, the boys wanted to learn more about ants so I surprised them with Ant Tunnel Works from Timberdoodle.

Overall I am very pleased with the purchase. The ants are still alive (except 2 of them) after more than a month now. The lid is sealed very well to prevent the ants to get out. Some of them did attempt to eat the seal, but still was not deep enough. I love the whole 3-D concept of the container and that we didn't need to get food for the ants.

We ordered our ants from Ants Alive. The ants were here in just a few days!! We got 24 Harvest Ants.

The boys enjoyed observing how the ants all did different things, how some slept while others worked, etc.
Homeschoolshare has a neat ants lapbook that I'm planning to print to do together this summer to review what we learned. I used the books recommended on the unit.

As an add-on activity I got the "Go to the Ant Chart" from Doorposts. And every day we talked a little bit about diligence. This was great!! I was surprised at how many areas of laziness and other issues my boys were aware of in their lives (and in mine too!!). We placed this chart next to our other Doorposts charts to review it often.

The ants on day one...

The ants on day 3! Look at all the tunnels they already started to make and look at that hill on top!

Ants on day 8!!

I'm Five Months Old!

Sweet Sarah is five months old. She is definitely a very happy baby. Her latest milestones are discovering her voice, eating rice cereal and rollover all around the floor. We are so blessed to have you baby!

more bug fun...

I also found these cool invertebraes stickers at the Target Dollar section and had the boys work on this special project. I took a white cardstock and had them glue a piece of strip of green paper (they cut little pieces on it) to show "grass". And also glued a strip of brown paper for "soil". Then they drew trees and flowers and sky.

Next I gave them the sheet of stickers and told them to place each insect where they thought they would find them. This was a simple but fun hands-on activity to test how much they know about bugs. They both did very good at placing lady bugs on leafs, and bees flying or flowers, scorpions on the soil, etc.

Fun with slugs and bugs pt 1

A few months ago I stopped by the Target dollar sections (who can resist!!) and found all kinds of fun "bug" related items. I planned a fun and simple week to learn about invertebraes. Got some books from the library and spent less than $5 on these items. Now, this is what I call thrifty homeschooling. :-)


Little pills to dip on warm water to find cute bug sponges inside...

A pack of bugs that I hid around the house for them to find.

Goodbye Spring!

Summer has arrived to southeast Texas. Here are some highlights of our wonderful first Spring in Houston.

Super Hyper and Still

After our Ocean unit, I surprised the boys with their very own beta fish to care for. I asked them to name their fish and they came up with...

Meet "Super Hyper Fish"

Meet "Still Fish"

Wanna guess to whom each fish belongs to? If you know my boys, this will not be hard to determine. Yes, hyper fish is Noah's fishy. ;-) And Still fish is Caleb's.

Ocean Unit lapbook

This past Spring, we enjoyed learning all about oceans. We used this project pack from Hands of a Child. And the boys had a lot of fun putting it together.For their art projects they color clip art of sea creatures and glued them to an ocean with painted seaweed. They also made fishes made of coffee filters, colored with markers and water drops.

Mother's Day '09 (yes, I am still catching up on my blog updates)

Sarah's dedication to the Lord service at church...

....followed by a very yummy lunch at Kuna Grill- Galeria Mall in Houston with the family.

I love my bumbo seat! :)

Soccer Star!

Last Monday was the closing ceremony of Caleb's second soccer season. He has improved so much in the field and this season he scored 5 goals...3 of them in one game!! Well done, Caleb!

We were blessed to have Coach John once again this season. He does a great job and makes sure all kids have a blast. During the trophies ceremony he even wrote a little poem for each kid. Here's what he wrote for Caleb...

I have had him on my team once before,
He has grown so much with even a score.
He always plays the game with a big smile;
He dribbles and laughs with such great style.