Pages

ShareThis

Monday, February 23, 2015

home school preschool Lent week


I am a little behind. 
as you know from my post last week 
that it was a mess.
the big kids didn't have school all week because of the insane snow storms and extreme cold
and
 when the big kids don't go to school it makes it's nearly impossible for the little ones to take naps.
 But home school preschool this week was all about preparing for the Lent season.
and I needed to learn about it as much as Miss Belle did.
so I made it a point to find time somewhere in the days to do our work.
We read a lot in our Bibles.
We have two children's Bibles.
one that is geared more to Catholic children and one that is just filled with lots of colorful pictures.
 the stories we read:
The Devil tempts Jesus
The washing of the Feet
The rich fool and the widow
I tried to stick with stories leading up to the lent season and the Lessons Jesus was trying to teach us about temptations and almsgiving.
 Technically Miss Belle is underage for the catholic practices of fasting and giving up something during lent.
but we believe if we expect them to participate when they are older they should practice now.
 So we did not eat meat on ash Wednesday or the Fridays during lent.
and when you choose something to give up during lent it is supposed to be a bad habit or something you do that is not seen by God as a way to live a good holy life.
but you don't always have to give up something you can actually take on something instead.
I felt like the taking on something would be a little more on Miss Belle's level.
so we made a list of 10 acts of kindness she can do from now until Easter.
She came up with them all on her own.
I just wrote them down. we will go over this list everyday as a reminder of a way she can help someone she loves.
 While reading the bible she kept asking me "what does that mean?"
or "I don't know that word"
so we made a vocabulary sheet that includes some words associated with Lent.

 We had plans to attend mass on Ash Wednesday but mother nature made that impossible.
so we made self portraits of each of us with our ashes on our foreheads.

 Then we made a countdown to Easter Sunday.
and listed all the important days leading up to it.
when we go over her list of kindness at the beginning of class we will also mark off a day on the countdown.
We worked on the letter Rr 
and she has officially completed her number and basic skills book so I picked up another number work book and we started that with the numbers 1,2,3, and 4.

Easter is extremely important to our catholic faith. it's everything actually.
and I want my children to celebrate the true meaning of the holiday. So the only way for her to know what that is would be to teach her.  I am so glad I didn't let the change in schedules stop me from doing this very important preschool lesson. 

and since I shared what Miss Belle's Lenten promise is I feel like I should also share mine.
it's a little personal but
i wanted to do something with more meaning than giving up chocolate or biting my nails.
I really wanted to do a better job at praying with my husband.
We both have strong religious beliefs 
we pray together as a family before dinner every night and we sit with the girls at bedtime and listen to their prayers. 
but we don't pray together. 
I always hear about how a couple that prays have a more intimate strengthened marriage.
our marriage is strong and great 
no complaints
 but if we can make it better then why not?!
so every night before we go to sleep and after we caught up on all the days happenings 
We ask each other to pray.
it's only been a few days and I can't say that our prayers have been answered yet
 but
it does feel great knowing my husband is praying for something only him, me and God knows about.
what are you doing for Lent?

Friday, February 20, 2015

face paint art


We are still snowed in.
day 5!!
I am running out of ideas to keep these kids happy.
then i decided to do something a little out of the box but fun.
 





 I wanted these pictures to be more serious looking 
almost dark even.
why?
I don't know
it's art lol
I told each kid they were being bad and this is the looks they gave me......





they might not be something Grandma will hang on her wall
but I love them
and it killed as few hours of boredom.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

snowed in.


we are on day 3 of being snowed in our house
day 1 wasn't fun
day 2 was beyond stressful
and day 3 actually seems do able.
but if there is a day 4
I might just run away 
no I will
I will run
to a very warm always sunny place.
like Africa :P 

I just am not a cold loving person
and being stuck in my house is not fun
even though I didn't have any where to go these past few days 
the fact that I CAN'T go somewhere makes me WANT to go somewhere!
The kids were semi behaving so I dug threw the box of gloves to find enough pairs
squeezed on extra socks 
and stuffed the bulky sweaters in to be able to zip up the coats.
then opened the door and let them all run free.
and I figured if I had to be out with them I might as well try to take pictures.





 her snow cloud looks like a heart.



 The youngest 2 lasted a whole 5 minutes
I brought them back inside and we waited until the others couldn't take the cold any more.
That was 10 more minutes

a half hour getting ready
a total of 15 minutes outside
and now I have more laundry to do.
 I have a hard time thinking it's worth it.

I will be doing a special sun dance tonight that all this melts and school will be a go and life will be back to normal schedule.
 please do one too!!!

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

The White family


The White family welcomed another sweet little boy!
Ace Enoch




so happy for them!

Sunday, February 15, 2015

religious sacraments


These last 2 weekends have been BIG for two of our girls.
last Sunday Julia finally got to receive her first holy communion!
she looked absolutely beautiful!


 and her face after her first taste of the blood of Christ 
hahaha sorry Jesus!

 I always felt like a horrible catholic mother because traditionally you receive your first holy communion in the 2nd grade. 
well with us moving and having kids and other stresses I just kept putting this on the back burner.
Then Julia started to really put the pressure on me this past year to "Please call Deacon Bob and get it set up!"
how can you tell your child to wait when it comes to her faith?
but now looking back I think God had a reason for the delay.
Julia's birth mom has been working on getting her life together and asked if she could be present. 
It meant the world to Julia and seeing her happy is the most important thing to us.
 I had to get a family picture since everyone was dressed so pretty!
 Julia and SOME of her grandmas
 Julia and her God mother.
 Then this past weekend Hazel was baptized!
she wore the same gown that Stella wore 2 years ago.
she was a little fussy. me and Brian were passing her back and forth trying to bounce her to calm her down. but nothing was really working.
then Father Reif baptized her with the holy water and she started cooing and giggling! she loved it!

 The role of a god parent is to assist the baptized person to maintain faith in Jesus and ultimately live with God in heaven throughout eternity. A God parent should be someone who practices their faith and are good role models. When choosing God parents for Hazel we knew based on a lot of reasons My Uncle Jeremy and best friend Ashley were perfect choices!
 

 
 After the baptism we celebrated both girls at our house with pizza and cake. We feel so blessed to have so much love and support form our family and friends. I can not tell you how much it means to me when even members of our family are not catholic and they still came and shared in such a special occasion!
I talked earlier about my grandma being sick and in a hospital. Things are still not looking good for her. and I know she hates missing these moments. 
during my visit she was stressing over the fact that she wasn't able to get Hazel an angel statue.
she's given each of my girls one on their baptism 
she kept squeezing my hand and saying how important it was to her that Hazel had one too with her birth stone.
When things settle down with her health 
we plan on dressing Hazel back up in her gown and picking up the statue 
that way Grandma can give it to her. 
please keep her in your prayers. 
It means the world to her that she is involved in her grandchildren's religious sacraments.
and it will mean the world to me to be able to share in that moment with Hazel and my Grandma.

Friday, February 13, 2015

Home school preschool Valentine's week


St. Valentine's Day
or what Miss Belle likes to call it
LOVE day.


We learned all about the actual made behind the day.
St. Valentine
his story is really fascinating.
I only know the preschool version and I am sure there are things left out to be age appropriate so I am wanting to read more about him on my own time.

we read a few books

Then we worked on our numbers and graphing skills with candy hearts
 we drew dots on one half of a broken heart and the actual number on the other half. 
she had to find the matching hearts
 Next we made a bouquet of coffee filter flowers with watercolor paint


 We were going to surprise my grandma with them this week but she wasn't feeling well and is now in the hospital. Belle isn't allowed to visit her but I took the flowers when I went to see. her. 
if you could keep my grandma in your prayers she really needs them right now!


Lastly we made a Valentine's dessert!
Happy Love day!
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...