How to teach Aa Bb Cc's to the Hands-On learner

Here is a fun way to play with letters! Write the capitol and lowercase of each letter on a ping-pong ball and then play! The games are endless: matching, hide-and-seek, bounce a letter into a basket, etc.

After 3 months of Research

I've decided to do this homeschool curriculum.

Oh. And. It's. Free.

  

http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/RaisingRockStarsPreschool.html

This is not my Official Recap

I haven't posted in a while and whenever I take a break {planned or not} from posting, it always takes me a running start to get back into the momentum. Mental movement. Thoughts made words.

I take myself too seriously. And I really hold myself to what I write here. Even if I'm the only one that reads it.

Discipline is almost always accomplished my accountability and self control.

Well, there are many topics on which I will be bringing to a close for 2011: 100-Day Challenge, family changes, goals completed/continued, books read and reading. But first I'd like to share a fun link:



I've been going between the printables by this site and 1+1+1=1

I hope to post some pictures soon of the kids utilizing these awesome tools. {I'm looking to upgrade my phone, and want one that will take quality photos in order to blog-by-phone: Any suggestions?}

L3 Challenge: Joy & Pain

I cannot seem to get through this book because I am savoring each page, sentence, word...
And I must quote Ann Voskamp to round out this day as I contemplate my priorities, dream for the future of my family, pray for the wisdom in choices, and thank God for his always goodness, always grace, always compassion.

I eat a bit of chocolate, watch the rain drops tap the parched and browning leaves...and I read::

.: Joy is always worth the wait, and fully living worth the believing:.


.: it was God's necessary tool to reshape me, remake me, rename me, and now how could I stop being...full of grace?:.


.: Joy and pain, they are but two arteries of the one heart that pumps through all those who don't numb themselves to really living:.

those who don't numb themselves to really living...

And I pray :: Oh Lord give me the eyes to see you in the daily joys and pains. Open up my heart to feel. If it is goodness Lord, guard me from taking the credit. If it is hardship or suffering, Lord, give me the humility to be full of grace. Bring me low, Lord, and give me the compassion to stay there with you. I thank you Jesus, now and always. Amen.

One Thousand Gifts - A Holy Experience

L3 Challenge: Overcoming Failure

So I fail. And I fall. And there is evidence of things broken.

for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again...

It isn't always sin that causes failure, but disappointment, discouragement, depression. The 3 D's.

I have to face these three anew each day it seems. But it isn't the falls or the failures that define me. It is the rising again. New life promised, and new life lived. New life loved. 

I see the contrast of pain and beauty. Contrast of color in this season. Pastel green grass covered in frost, bright red leaves, pale blue morning sky. It is all the seeing of the difference that makes the difference. 

When I stay fallen, I don't see the beauty of rising. Certainly the rising is difficult. It is a discipline. But it is a grace. A gift. 

A gift received and a gift given. Risen life gives and serves. It shares. 

On this day of the challenge I will look for the contrast. See and believe that there is a gift to be received today, and a gift to give. My whole self for another. 

L3 Challenge Day 39

Today's Challenge = clean out my inbox of all the wonderful homeschooling emails. I absolutely could not create these downloads for myself. I am so grateful to have these resources!

I hope you like them too.

Here are some of my favorites:
Fun Food Friday
Prayer for a Child
"Behind the scenes" -- an awesome explanation
Tot School -- down the page a little & to the left = Goal and Assessments for Tots
I want a calendar like this!
Big Feelings Journal for Kids
Math & Counting -- fun & creative
beautiful wreath: marks advent, lent, and Ascension
Another way to re-purpose a t-shirt into an accessory
Preschool handwriting: very practical uppercase and lowercase practice cards

I needed to end here...this is beautiful

L3 Challenge Day 29

At first I was going to try to reword this, but I can't. And shouldn't.

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2011/10/because-really-theres-a-purpose-in-all-this/

This journal entry, video, and verse have been essential to my thinking today as I muddle through my grief.

I was eight weeks Monday. This was the second baby that I miscarried.

Miscarried.

I wish that word didn't imply that I failed to carry the baby.

It is also a true statement though to say that from now on I will miss carrying that child. I will miss for the future in a way that I may never forget.

Why are you sharing this so publicly if you don't want a response?


Well, honestly, I am sharing this so that the people who choose to read what I blog here know that no matter what I'm writing from my real life. Real life is painful and pain isn't tame. I want my friends to know that I am working through the pain in my life and more importantly I'm desperate to know more of Jesus through my life. And that is what I hope to share here. Whether it is through teaching a child to read, breaking bread with my neighbor, or walking through the valley of death, I want to see Jesus. I want to be like Him.

My challenge for the day? Well, to pray this prayer:

14For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his whole family^a in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.