Snowing (Again)

We got more snow. This is our snowy season so this was no surprise. The schools were closed again and so far I believe there is up to 9 snow days at some schools. We finished our school in the morning and by lunch time we were all out enjoying the winter.

Jo was less then thrillyh when I dressed her up but as you can see she did have fun outside.
Emma was trying to help Fil shovel the driveway (do not tell Fil but she likes to dump the snow back on the driveway).

And the boys enjoyed jumping into the snow from our rocks.

Can you see some snowflakes on Jo's eyelashes?

We all had a good time. But we were happy to be inside our warm house.

Who is ready to shovel?

I have to tell you that we have several shovels in our garage. Only the kids one is not broken. It is not like we do not have a snowblower but somehow we always manage to brake the shovels on the little jobs around the house :)

Still enjoing skiing (but frozen) and dance

The boys are still enjoying skiing a lot this winter. This is a picture of our small ski place that is right in the city. I guess I did not tell you that this ski slope is only 10 minutes from our house!!! I cannot imagine driving any further for ski lessons with four kids. The girls do not like Mondays afternoons on the ski slopes. Lately is has been cold so I have to bundle everybody up. Emma always wants to go inside the lodge and when I dress the girls and we find a place to sit down she wants to go outside (nice try Emma).

Jo was NOT happy this Monday and she let EVERYBODY on the ski slopes know. She was all bundled up so I knew she was not cold but I had her strapped in the stroller so I would not have to hold her all the time. I had to help the boys with their ski boots and she was so loud that people would come up to me and ask if she was ok. She is also an expert in tears. She can make a river run down her cheeks and everybody feels sorry for her (nice try Jo).

At least the boys had a good time.

Here is Sam coming down the hill.

And Nate (in the yellow helmet). This is his second yellow helmet. I do not complain since he is easily spotted on the run.

What brothers. Even if they are not in the same group they always find each other. Here they are waiting in line to go up. They came inside after an hour (Sam crying) that it was too cold we headed home early that day. I hope it will get a little warmer in this part of the country (SOON).

And here is something the girls enjoy a lot every week.

Emma's dance. She loves it and if it was up to her she would go every day.

She will be in a show in the late spring. Everybody is invited!!!

Jo loves Emma's dance lessons as well. The teacher is so nice and she lets the little girls come up for some parts of their class. Jo knows a few steps already and here she is battling with a hula hoop.

I am sure she will start dance as soon as she will turn three.

(It is much warmer during Emma's dance class then on the ski slopes :)

Sunday Reflections

Grave is totally alien to human psychology. We want to get our house in order and then let God love and accept us. The psychology of works-righteousness and self-certification is foundation to the human psyche and totally at odds with grace. The deep-seated way humans resist divine grace helps us understand something about the fear of love. While some people fear any love, what most of us resist is unconditional love - perfect love. The reason for this is that such love demands surrender. I am willing to accept measured doses of love as long as it doesn't upset the basic framework o my world. That framework is built on the assumption that people get what they deserve. What humans want is to earn the love we seek. The Christians God comes to us as wholly other - so different from the gods of my imagination, so far beyond my control. God invites us to let him rid us of our fears and heal us by his love.

--David Benner, Surrender to Love Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation - but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in hi glory.

Romans 8:12-17

Getting fired

This one was too good not to share it with all of you:

Last week the boys were discussing future potential careers during lunch. We are past the Jedi jobs (from Star Wars) phase and they moved onto more real jobs. They were talking about scientists when Sam froze and looking at me he said:" Mom, when we are done with school at home you will get fired (he said it in a sad voice) and you will have NOTHING to do." Now that was a good one. We laughed so hard with Fil when I told him I will be without a job and he asked if I will get some kind of severance package when I get fired. On another note we had temperatures in the minus twenties last week. It was -22F (that is -30C for all of you outside of US) on Friday morning and I had to go out with all of my four children and we had a ton of stops we had to make. I bundled them up so much but I have to say we did stay warm. As you can see Emma did not make it all the way home. Poor thing got tired on the way home.
Jo learned a new thing from her sister. Bringing a chair so she can help me cook. Lucky me.

Jo has a thing for hats. I have no idea why. Each time we are in any kind of store first she looks for are hats and when she finds some she puts them on her head and wants to take it home. She gets upset that I do not buy her new hats all the time. Anyway this one is a new one but it is mine. Jo had to dig it out of the bag as soon as we got home and she was wearing it that afternoon (the interesting thing is that she doesn't want to wear hats outside).

I hope you are all enjoying much warmer temperatures.

Sunday Reflections

Psalm 96:7-10
Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts.
Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.
Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns!"

Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.

(1 Chronicles 16:8-11)

Testing

I promised I would let you know about testing. Just remember that every state is different so look into your state laws what is required from you. We registered the boys with the school district at the beginning of the year. You will get a confirmation letter from the district hold on to it. Not only it is a very important document but it also gives you teachers discounts in stores. Books stores give you around 20% off etc. I just learn the other day that Jo-Anns fabrics will give me 10% off of everything.

Last year, since Sam started first grade, we had to register him with the school district. We also had to have him tested by the end of the year. This was a first for me. I did not grow up in United States and I never went through the American school system. After talking to other homeschooling families we knew there were two options for us. First one was go through the public school and have Sam tested there or have one of us get certified and test Sam by ourselves. I do go to our small public school quite often since Nate goes there for Speech therapy. I asked the principal last winter about the testing options. He told me he never did anything like this with homeschooling families and that they do not do much testing of first graders anyway. He told me they would maybe test him in math. After talking with him we decided we would do the testing ourselves. We went with the IOWA test that was recommended to us by another homeschooling family. Fil is the one who is the certified tester since he is the one with an American college degree (and I wanted someone else then me to do it since I am the one teaching the boys all the time).

I really wanted to know what Sam learned this year so I did not prepare him for the test (like they do in public schools for many weeks before testing). We order the test a few weeks after we got back from Ethiopia and Fil gave the test to Sam after a 3 week break from school. They worked on it together every night after Fil got home from work for 5 days. I believe the total was around 4 hours (I do not remember doing that much testing in first grade when I went to school). There was stuff I knew Samuel knew but was not paying attention and then there was stuff we did not cover yet but he logically came to the right answer. I was very proud of him.
Now for those outside of United States this was all new to me. When I went to school and took a test at the end of the year, the test covered only what we learned up to that point. So if you got 100% you got A ...etc. Not here. The test Sam took focuses on what level he is at. So there were questions all the way up to second grade level. It was not expected he would know all the answers. They want to know what level he is at. This is where it got very confusing for me. I didn't care where he placed nationally. I wanted to know if he knows what he is supposed to know. After a few weeks we got his results and it was whole bunch of graphs and numbers. We were very happy with the results and very proud of Sam. I was glad he did not complain that he did not know all the answers but tried his best to logically to answer. We are moving ahead and the boys are learning everyday.

Homeschooling multiple grades

Jen had a good question about how to handle school with all the children in the family. I will try to explain how I do it and what plans I have for next year.

Sam and Nate are only year apart in age and they would normally be in two different grades (Sam second grade and Nate first grade). Emma just turned three so I am not so worried about her. I have always done the same grade with both of my boys. I know families who's children are three grades apart and still they do same curriculum for all of them.

Bible, History, Geography, Read Alouds and Science are same grade (second) for both of my boys. I highly recommend this so you do not get overwhelmed with too much work. Nate has no problems. However, Language arts and Math I keep Nate at his age level. It works out great for them and for me. (Anything extra the boys do they do together at a same level like typing on the PC, or crafts etc.)(This year I put a puzzle piece on the wall for each book we read during our school time.)

For next year I am planing to start with Emma as well. I will keep her at her level (but keep in mind that Jordan will be with Emma in the same grade like Sam and Nate are at some point) The girls are two years apart and again I am planing to separate Language Arts and Math. Anything else they will do the same. Since Sam and Nate are doing great reading I am planing on keeping them involved with the girls. They already read to the girls on their own so the girls reading will become part of Sam and Nate school work (under my watchful eye).

(This is my basket with school stuff for the next day. I get ready for each day after we are done with school work. I do look over the whole curriculum in the beginning of the year to get the idea but I do get ready every day for the next day.)
As for Jordan and Emma during our school time right now it is their free time to play (just remember to close ALL bathroom doors and keep all pens and pencils and crayons and markers out of the reach of little fingers unless you would like to have drawings all over your walls). I do have a basket just for the girls with stuff for them to do. They are allowed to use it only during school time and it is fun for them (mostly for Emma at this age). There are plenty of web sites and blogs with ideas for little children. I have to admit that at this point it just looks too much extra work for me.
I hope this helps some of you. As you can see I am planing on doing two different grades for my kids (boys and girls). Then again the word 'flexible' keeps popping in my head so keep that in mind as well :)
On another note we are in full swing with ski lessons. The boys are doing so great this year. Both Sam and Nate are having fun on the big hill and they cannot wait to go with Dad during the week. Jo is not interested at all and she doesn't like the cold weather. On the other hand Emma keeps shouting every day that she wants to ski as well. She will get a taste later with Fil and then we will see (it has been a long time since I skied. Looks like I will have to wait until Jordan gets interested and then we can all go).



Poor Jordan. It got cold this Monday during ski lessons and her eyes were so watery. She just wanted to stay inside and eat snacks the whole time (and climb up and down the stairs).