Last Wednesday, for a variety of reasons, we decided to put Josiah in school.  Mostly because I haven’t had the energy to do a very good job homeschooling this year, and with a new baby on his way in a few weeks, that’s not likely to improve anytime soon.

He’s adapted very well, looks forward to his 2 PE days each week, aced his first spelling test(”the words were SOOO easy, Mommy!”) LOL, and is excited to have his first hot lunch today.  He tells me there ARE healthy things that the “cookers” make there.  It’s not all pizza and burgers apparently.  :)  We’ve enjoyed seeing his new independence, but it’s been kinda’ sad too.  Change is always so hard.

Our lives have been busy to overflowing lately, but it’s not all been bad.  Here’s some of the fun things we’ve been working on.

School started with some fun stuff like finding a surprise gift to start the learning out on the right foot.  :)  Josiah’s was an analog watch to help him practice telling time, and Chloe’s was some PINK(!!!) lotion.

We also hung a birdfeeder outside the kitchen window.  Hopefully we’ll have lots of fun visitors to watch and learn about this winter.  So far we’ve seen a few chickadees, but they’re pretty timid.  The level of seed is going down though, so I know they’re feeding when we’re not around, maybe early in the morning.

Another highlight is my “secret surprise box” on top of the cupboard.  The kids work towards goals that I set and then are awarded with a prize when they reach the goal.  The one we’re working on right now is the books of the New Testament in the correct order.  They’ve almost got it down(thanks to the song!  ).

The kids building a teepee in the field behind our house.  Being busy with “school” for most of the day sure helps them make good use of their free time.

A foster home for critters.  In the last few days we’ve had a garter snake and then a tree frog take up residence temporarily.  They were released back into the wild after displaying a distinct “failure to thrive.”  LOL

Watching the frog.

Another project that’s taken center stage recently.  Under Daddy’s direction, we’ve all had fun getting this set up and choosing fish and plants for it.

One of the bristlenose catfish up close.  These are so fun to watch…they are constantly scrubbing algae off of every surface and they play fight with each other(at least that’s what it looks like).

Daddy and Josiah have also set up this outdoor pond out of the abandoned sand box.  This kinda’ happened by accident when we noticed the sandbox had water sitting in it and lots of mosquito larvae(!!!).  We threw in some white cloud fish that weren’t doing too well in the indoor tank and they’ve since been eating the mosquito larvae and have also started breeding.  At last check there were 40 or 50 baby fish in there.  I didn’t even try to get a picture of them since they are hard to even see with the naked eye - they are so miniscule!  The filter is set up against a rock to create a kind of waterfall effect.  There’s also some water plants thrown in there loose to provide some cover for the fish.

One of my “nesting”(?) projects.  I brought all of our ministry books downstairs to the living room.

And the kids’ books also…and while I was at it, reorganized the furniture.  This is now our “fish couch”…it faces the fish tank.

A quilt in progress for little Shiloh.  BTW: for those of you that think Shiloh is primarily a girl’s name, check out this site (thanks Chatty!) and go to the ratings section for Shiloh.  It’s only become a girl’s name since Angelina Jolie used it for her daughter.

LOL  My ongoing project.  To be completed when we’re at home with the Lord. 

Hmmm…this post is really boring…I need to find some cute kid pictures to finish up with.

Josiah holding a bunny at the fair.

Oh well…they can’t all be good-looking.  This one’s really sweet and charming though…REALLY!!

Sometimes I think homeschooling success is dependent on figuring out what motivates each child(without using gobs and gobs of candy!). For Josiah, it’s competition with himself through timed trials, and recently I discovered a new motivator: getting to choose ANYTHING you want from the local dollar store. You wouldn’t believe how excited he was when I suggested this as motivation for him to read more from his readers. Every time he finishes a reader(126 pages of stories), he gets to count out $1.00 worth of coins from the coin jar(practicing money!) and choose anything he wants from the dollar store(although I told him I have veto power over anything ) Well, Wednesday morning, he got up early and finished the last 20 pages of his reader. Here are the results:

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Josiah with his coin bag.

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The Store.

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After about 1/2 an hour of deliberation, he finally decided on this remote control car. It’s pretty funny because it’s attached to the controller by a wire that’s so short, Josiah has to dash around the house, making sure he’s within 2 feet of the car at all times! The carpet apparently keeps the car under better control by slowing it down!

P.S. The wire got pulled out this morning, so now it’s just a push car. I told him he needs to finish the NEXT reader so we can go buy another one….I’m a shameless manipulator!