"I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart"

Yes, you could definetly say that is exactly how I felt yesterday as we were driving down the road and I heard these words coming out of my sweet little boy's mouth yesterday! As my eyes welled up with tears, I smiled and nudged Joey to listen...sure enough, it was Camden and he was singing right along with the cd we were listening to! Coming from a Mom and Dad who longed for him to speak and be able to talk to us, he has made incredibly GREAT strides with words! But to hear him sing a song makes my heart explode, I'm so incredibly thankful that God has answered our prayers and helped Camden be able to express himself through words and song!

Daniel 6:22

This week our Bible story is Daniel and the Lions Den! We started this morning like we always do, learning our bible verse for the week. Instead of Mommy having to read it to her, Kaylee read "most" of it to me! I was so proud of her! She is doing wonderful with reading, it warms my heart when I hear her sounding out letters instead of just assuming that she doesn't know them!!!!

Her verse for the week is:

“My God sent his angel and he shut the mouths of the lions.
They have not hurt me” Daniel 6:22

There are so many of her word wall words in the verse that she was able to recognize those right away and only needed help on a few words! I cannot wait for the moment when she reads an entire book to me!

Kaylee the big kindergartener

Kaylee was reluctant but agreed to do some Kindergarten photos in MOMMY's dress from when she was a little girl =)

I promised her a prize and removed the enourmous white eyelet collar off!! Ha...

Our first week in homeschool

On the other side of the first week of homeschool I can sit back in my chair, take a deep breath and relax! I had just about as much anxiety about the first day of school as if I was to actually send her into a classroom setting! We made it! And boy did we ever have so much fun. The intimate time with Kaylee is irreplaceable. I have probably never been so thankful for an opportunity other than this one, the chance to be the sole influence on my child in her education (with some help from Daddy of course - he stands in when I need a potty break! haha). I found my self praising God and thanking Him many times during the week, I just feel so incredibly fortunate and blessed to be able to homeschool Kaylee.

I've had many people ask questions about homeschooling and I'm okay with that! I expect for friends and family members to be curious about my "method of education".

*First question is how do you homeschool? What does your daily schedule look like?

First and foremost, our classroom is set up very much like a "real" school. She has a desk, I have mine. We have chalkboards, dry eraseboards, bookshelves, art supplies and most importantly text books and workbooks! I even have lesson plans....we are very organized and keep a consitant schedule!

Most mornings, we begin school at 9:00. We have our morning time in our daily center. We're learning the calendar (the date, the months and days of the week) as well as the weather! We have a few songs during this time as well as Kaylee's favorite part - gettting to use the "pointer"

Next we have with Bible. During Bible we do many activites. Each week we have a bible verse, this week we actually have 2! Kaylee has a Bible journal and write her verse each week and draws a picture about the verse. Each day Kaylee is doing activities and art projects centered around the verse and theme that I've chosen from the Bible.

Transitioning into phonics/reading, I've planned each letter to be related to the bible. Along with common words that relate to the letter of the week. For 26 weeks we will focus on 1 letter a week. For example, the first week was A for Ark, we studied Noahs ark. B is for Bible, C is for creation, D is for Daniel, etc. We're focusing on sounds and words for the letter each week. There are very fun songs to learn sounds that Kaylee loves, we do those often! We have a set of 25 books that Kaylee is working on each week. They are first reader books that are simple and fun for Kaylee. The first day of kindergarten, she read the first one to me without any help!

Next, we head into math. We save Math for last because it is Kaylee's favorite subject. She is great at Math and is soaring through the workbooks perfectly. We are using manipulitives and games to learn about numbers and shapes.

At the end of the day we focus on our word wall. Kaylee loves learning word wall words! She started Kindergarten knowing 12 words out of around 30. I tested her this morning and she had already increased that number to 19. She is working on reading the words, using them in sentances as well as recognizing them all day in instructions, bible verses and stories.

Typically our day last about 2 1/2 hours and we're doing school 5 days a week! The best part about it is no homework! We do all of our school work together and have time to be a kid the rest of the day! However, all day is learning for us. Each opportunity that arises I take complete advantage to relating it to school. The advantage of being her teacher is always knowing where she is and what she is working on, I know what she needs to focus on and what she does best. So, weather we are outside and relating something to the weather or at the store buying items that are green, red and orange or an lemon that is a circle. Kaylee is a great learner and loves to learn all of the time, there have already been days when she is sad that school is already over!

We also make trips to the library and take field trips along with playdates with friends to the park!

*Another question: What do you do with your other kids?

Well, anyone who knows me or knows my kids know that they are very independany and self sufficient. They are great at keeping themselves busy, entertaining themselves and playing with their toys. Considering that we do not have a very long day, the other children do not have to do "without me" for very long. I also make it possible for Camden to interact with us if he wants to. I have purchased workbooks for him as well as offer him coloring time if he shows interest. Of course, he is only three so its not time for him to be in school - so, its only if he wants to. Which he has showed interest and last week he colored with us and did a few workbook pages! Kinston still takes a nap and spend a lot of time in his room playing!

*The famous question: What about solicialization?

I am holding fast to the verse "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6 This is a promise from my Father. So, having my children at home training them in the way they should go is what I've been commanded to do.

Socialization was one of the very reasons why we decided to homeschool our children. We are very aware of the times that we are living in and the secular world is nowhere close to what we want our children influenced by. This is no direct reflection on the school system, because I am a firm believer that there are wonderful christian people who are great influences on the children. Our concern lies with the peers that our children would be surrounded by in the school systems, those from different upbringings and those who have different morals and values. Although, in this day in society we do have concerns with some curriculum that is forced to be learned.

Our desire is to raise our children in the light of the Lord and when we feel the appropriate time has come to place our children in the classroom setting in private school or public school we will do that. We know that we have three very different children and they all may be very different scenarios. We are willing to evaluate each child individually and take each step according to their needs, seeking the Lords direction and following His lead.

We feel very blessed to be a part of Colonial Heights Baptist Church, a place where our "socialization problem" is solved! The kids have so many friends and different activities and opportunities that they'll never feel "different" from the other kids! We thank God for such a large church and thank God for the wonderful christian people who are investing their lives for our children daily! We are reaping the blessings from what they sew!

Its been a couponing frenzy

Next thing, couponing....

All of my friends always ask me, "Jennifer what in the world are you going to do next" - I just have to laugh because I love to dabble my hands in anything I can teach myself. So...its been mary kay, its been bracelets, its been bows, tutus and everything cute, its been wreaths and decorating and babysitting kids....and wow, the list goes on! So...here we are learning the "art of couponing" - aka saving major bucks!!!

I've started clipping, organizing and using coupons! I'm excited and ready to go above and beyond the stuffing them in the side of my purse and using them by chance if I see something that I happen to have a coupon for! I'm going to shop for what I've got coupons for...save and stockpile! haha....Definetly have no intentions of becomming an addict like the extreme couponers. Just a few papers a week for me will do!

Kaylee and Camden are thrilled by it too. They have helped clip coupons with Momma and Kaylee likes to take care of the binder when we're in the store! Pretty funny, but hey....teaching kids to save money is never a bad thing!

Camden's 3rd Birthday

We spent the entire day before Cam's birthday at Busch Gardens! He really loved Elmo so we thought what better place to take him to see Elmo for real ;) However....He isn't fond of the "characters" so he wouldn't come anywhere close to them! Haha...Kaylee loved the characters! We rode rides, ate yummy food and played fun games! Most importantly we spent the whole day with family! Camden really loves his family =)

Sunday, the actual day of his birthday we went to church in the morning and then the airport for lunch. Camden loves the airport a whole lot! When we pulled into the parking lot he said "The Airport, yay!!!" After lunch, we went to Gee and Papa's house were his cake and presents were! Then, he got to stay all afternoon and evening playing with Sterling! He loved that!

Camden has had an incredible year. We cannot wait and see what is in store for him until his 4th. We noticed that Camden seemed to be behind in his speach around last fall, so we started getting him evaluated. At this point he could not make more than a two word sentance, tell us needs or wants and wasn't very frustrated when he couldn't communicate with us. Evaluation continued for a couple of months. During this time, he was going to a friend's house for daycare, soley for interaction. There, the teacher said that she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary and that he was just a little behind, whereas the school system was trying to diagnose him with multiple things. I was always willing to accept a disabled child, if I had one, but so many others were telling me that they didn't feel like he had a learning disability. During this time, we did a lot of praying and searching and decided that we were going to homeschool our children, basically the evaluating ended there. We have worked with Camden, things as simple as every day language...he knows his numbers, can say them and recognize them. He knows a lot of colors as well as the alphabet. He has learned songs and can finally carry on a conversation with us. We are persistant about getting him to tell us his needs and wants. Its been a huge learning process for us all but I see God's hand in the entire situation - he puts us exactly where we need to be and teaches us exactly what we need to learn at the perfect time. We are blessed with women at the church who love him unconditionally and are patient with him, we know that God is in control of our little boy and we'll learn right along with him and take as much time as he needs!

As far as fun and play time, Camden absolutely still LOVES his trains. He loves cars 2, also and cannot wait for the new movie to come out! He loves Elmos and Toy Story as well. He will play outside ALL day and loves the sandbox! He loves to play with Kaylee and they communicate and play so well. Kaylee is a perfect big sister, she loves him and takes care of him. Its adorable!

Camden is certainly a light of our lives, we strive hard to avoid that "middle kid" stuff. We love all of our kiddos exactly the same...

On Camden's birthday busch gardens day, Kaylee rode her very first roller coaster!!!! She loved it, shes a little dare devil just like her Daddy!!

Kinston took his first couple of steps with....

Anna!!!!! Too funny! Joey and I took the kids to a squirrels game and Anna and the kids came over to play with Kinston while we were gone. I get this text "Please dont be too upset, Kinston just took three steps" =) I was so incredibly excited, not upset! We have been working with him for weeks trying to teach him how to walk and I guess he just wanted to walk for Anna! =) He took those steps on May 12th and has been doing lots and lots more walking since. Still crawling a lot, he realizes it gets him where he wants to go faster! hehe...