Black (Saturday) Rite Aid Deals

Here is my stash from Rite Aid this week!

(That's: 4 rolls of Bounty Basic paper towels, 4 bottles Pert Plus, 8 double rolls of Cottonelle, 3 boxes Kleenex, Phillips ear buds, a netipot, Dial hand soap, 2 tubs Cottonelle fresh wipes, 2 boxes Sinex, 1 box NyQuil, Motrin PM, 4 boxes of cereal, and a HAIRDRYER!)

Guess how much?

$2.00. Oh yeah!

Other deals today: 2 free tall brewed coffees at Starbucks, $10 off my birthday breakfast at Mimi's Cafe, 50% off picture frames, Christmas party goods, and a couple of gifts at Hobby Lobby. :)

I love deals. :)

Great Is Thy Faithfulness!

"For it is you who light my lamp; the LORD my God lightens my darkness. For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. This God--his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him." Psalm 18:28-30

This past week my brain unexpectedly started to process through some of the enormity of Seth's graduation in May. Previous reflection on that monumental event has left me with an overwhelming but vague sense of gratitude and relief--hardly interesting material for a blog post. Unsurprisingly, it was music that prompted my unexpected flow of thought.

Last Wednesday evening I was driving home from church, alone in Seth's car while he valiantly manned the minivan full of tired children. Tired of the mediocre music on the radio I fished around in the console for a CD. In the dark I pulled out an unknown disc and slid it into the player. It turned out to be an old rehearsal CD of church choir music.

I remember well the first choir rehearsal of that semester. Our family was in the middle of dissertation season and we had just experienced some difficult setbacks. As we sang through our new repertoire that evening it seemed to me that nearly every song was chosen especially for me. God ministered to my weary and battered soul that night, reminding me that He was faithful, that I had hope in Him, that He loved me, and that He would sustain me.

Returning, last Wednesday night, to dwell on these songs that had already impacted me so deeply was an amazingly joyful experience. I listened to lyrics which I had previously chosen by sheer faith in the truthfulness of God's Word to believe, now experientially knowing them to be true. I can, by God's grace, say:

"God has a plan, it’s not to harm me
But it’s to prosper me and to hear me when I call
He intercedes for me, working all things for my good
Though trials may come I have this hope"

I Have a Hope, Tommy Walker

Here are videos for three of the songs that inspired this post. Please excuse the cheesy media on the first two and the unidentified foreign language subtitles on the third.

SwagBucks

I read recently about a rewards program called Swagbucks, which rewards you simply for searching online. I could write a compelling post elucidating the myriad benefits of this program, but instead I will simply refer you to the post which enticed me to sign up. You can read it here. If you are convinced as I was and want to start earning free money for something you do anyway, you can sign up here. (This is my referral link, which will help me earn more points as well as get you started earning points of your own.) You can also click on the button in my sidebar.

Happy searching!

The BLT

Since the day Leila was born, we have called our kids "the BLT." (Benjamin, Leila, Talia...get it?) So when I saw a family costume idea in a magazine for a BLT, I decided right then and there that's what the kids were going to be for Halloween.

Here is the result:

Funnies

A few cute moments from the last few days...

Thursday night when I put Benjamin to bed I had, of course, turned down his quilt & sheet, but when I checked on him before I went to bed later that evening he was sleeping on top of his neatly-made bed. Smiling and shaking my head I went to bed. In the middle of the night Benjamin woke me up because he had a bad dream. I took him out to the living room and sat with him for awhile. Once he woke up a little bit we started chatting (I trying to distract him from his fright) and one of the things he brought up was how excited he was that his friend Jesse was coming to play in the morning. (This was the play date to which he invited Jesse via invitation, mentioned in a previous post.) After a few minutes he was calmed down sufficiently to venture back to bed. I turned down his sheets (again!) and tucked him into bed. The next morning I heard Leila talking so as usual I slipped in to get her before she could wake up Benjamin and Talia. There was Benjamin, sleeping on his bed, which was AGAIN very neatly made. He slept in later than usual, presumably because he was awake in the middle of the night making his bed! When he finally came to the kitchen around 9:00 and joined us at the breakfast table, I brought it up. "Benj, why did you make your bed in the middle of the night last night?" "Well," he answered in all seriousness, "Jesse is coming today and I didn't want to be making my bed when he comes!"

_______________________________________

Talia asked me for juice at breakfast one day. We had already been sitting there for an hour and I was ready to be done so I told her "no, not today." "If I finish aaaaaaall my cereal and aaaaaaall my milk?," she persisted. "No, sorry, not today." Evidently she didn't get the message. A few minutes later she finished the last gulp of milk and I excused her from the table. "But Mom!," she protested, "what about our juice deal?"
 

Deals!

I've been hard at work, stocking up our cupboards with great deals the past few weeks. I have been AMAZED by two things since I have started couponing:
1) How "worth it" it really can be to take the time to clip coupons and do the match-ups with sale items. I am saving TONS of money! I am way under budget this month, while not only feeding and caring for my family's needs for this month, but doing some major stocking up.
2) How much time it takes to care about how much you spend! I won't pretend it has been easy to get the savings I have listed below. I am truly "earning" my savings. Even though it takes time, however, I have estimated that I'm "making" about $6-7 for every hour I spend, and my hourly rate is improving as I increase my knowledge of my environment and tools. I'm refining my process every week as I learn what works for me and what doesn't. For example, last week I learned I'm not willing to do a huge "stock up" trip every single week because of the huge time investment in preparing my list.

Couponing, for me, has been VERY worth it so far. I have more to say on that subject, but I think it will have to wait for a separate post. In the mean time, part of the fun is getting to share some of my super deals, so here goes...

Rite Aid Deals

Last Week:
1 - Claratin (24 ct.) = $5.99 (orig. $22.99)
2 - Oral B Cross Action Toothbrush, Huggies Snug & Dry Diapers (96 ct.), Right Guard Total Defense Deodorant x2, Kendall Antimicrobial Non-Stick pads = $11.75 total (saved 67%) This was a great deal, considering my box of diapers, alone, was valued at $19.99!

This Week:
1- Mabelline Great Lash Mascara, Playtex Gentle Glide (18 ct.), GE Soft White Long Life Light Bulbs x4, Trident Gum (18 ct.) x3, Nivea Lip Care x2, Suave Lotion x2, Edge Shave Gel, Dryel Refill (6ct.), Febreeze Luminary Starter Kit, Bounce Dryer Sheets (102 ct.) = $10.56, used $5 UP reward from last week = $5.56 out of pocket + earned $9 in UP rewards and a $3 rebate (Original prices add up to approx. $55.)
2- Johnson's Baby Products (shampoo, wash, lotion) x5, Reach Toothbrush x3, Listerine Pocket Pals (72 ct.) = $13.92, used $9 UP reward from prev. transaction = $4.92 out of pocket + earned $26 in UP rewards. (Original prices add up to approx. $40.)
3- Pampers Big Pack (96 ct.), Oral B Toothbrushes x4, Butterfinger (a treat for Seth to boost my total up a few cents so I could use my UP rewards) = $20.85, used $20 UP reward from prev. transaction = $.85 out of pocket + earned $19.50 UP rewards and a $2 rebate. (Original prices add up to approx. $33.)

 Bottom line: For all pictured I spent $11.33 out of pocket, and walked away with $30.50 in UP rewards (not counting the UP rewards I spent in transactions #2 & #3). In other words, I MADE $19.17 shopping at Rite Aid this week, stocking up on over $100 in merchandise. (Anyone need a toothbrush?)

Meijer Deals

Last Week:
Condiments
French's Mustard x2 (.$09 ea.)
Canned Goods
Spaghettios x7 ($.10 ea.), Chef Boyardee Pasta x7 ($.61 ea.), Campbell's Condensed Soups x8 ($.38 ea.), Campbell's Select Harvest Soups x4 ($.25 ea.), Campbell's Soup at Hand (FREE)
Household
Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner x4, Lysol Antibacterial Kitchen Cleaner x3, Lysol All Purpose Cleaner with Bleach x3 (total of 10 Lysol products, $.36 ea.), Glade Relaxing Moments Candle x2 ($.17 ea.)
Laundry
Shout Stain Pre-Treatment x2 ($.99 ea.)
Lunch Items for Seth
Thai Kitchen Rice Noodle Bowls x2 ($1 ea., I thought they would be $.29 ea., but still a good deal), Lunchables x2 ($1.87 ea. - ouch! This was supposed to be $.87 ea., but my $2 checkout coupon didn't print)
Refrigerated
Dannon Light N Fit yogurt, 4 pack x 2 ($.89 ea., or $.22 per serving), Stonyfield Soy Yogurt ($.36 ea), Silk Soymilk 1/2 gal. x3 ($2.32 ea.), Olivio Spread ($.79)
Frozen
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast ($1.63/lb, bought 2 4 lb. bags)
Bags, Foil, Storage
Ziploc Slider Bags x8 ($.14 ea.)
Snacks
Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn x4 ($.58 ea.)

Bottom Line: For all pictured I spent $59, saving 66%!

This Week:
Green Giant Boxed Frozen Vegetables x21, yes 21! ($.13 ea.)
Smart Balance Milk 1/2 gal. ($.99)
Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls x2, Grands Biscuits x4 (all FREE)
Bestlife Buttery Spread [Benjamin safe!], 16oz. (FREE)
Johnsonville Smoked Brats, pkg. of 5, x2 ($.95 ea.)
Frank's Redhot Sauce, 8oz. ($.25)
Filippo Berio Olive Oil, 21 oz. ($5.29)
Ziploc Sandwich Bags, 50 ct. x7 ($.24 ea.)

I also bought 2 gallons of milk and 2 cartons of soy milk that were not on sale. No picture this week, but the bottom line was approx. $30 for all of the above ($40 out of pocket, with $10 checkout coupons good toward next purchase), saving approx. 50%.

Many thanks to Crystal at Money Saving Mom, Shannon at For the Mommas (Rite Aid Deals), Briana at Bargain Briana (Meijer Deals), and Bargains to Bounty (Meijer Deals). I would never ever, ever have time to figure out all these match-ups on my own!

 

More School Fun

I haven't had a chance to blog much, but I have a few gems rattling around in my brain that are too precious not to share. Here are a few highlights from our last couple of weeks: 

Last week we memorized Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Our character trait was "Faith: I believe and act on God's promises." I thought that was pretty weighty for preschoolers, but then again, I almost daily underestimate their capacity to catch things I deem way above their heads!

Last week we read lots more stories together and learned (reviewed) the letter Bb. One of the kids' favorite stories of the week, "Uncle Wiggly and the Skates," produced some fun learning activities. In the story a boy goes ice skating, even though he suspects the ice might be too thin, falls in, and is rescued (incognito) by a fine old gentleman who happens to be a rabbit. At the end of the story the boy goes home and has hot lemonade (???) in order to prevent himself from catching cold, which I'm sorry to say, does not work. The activity suggestion was to make lemonade which you may serve either cold or hot. Benj and I opted for the cold, but Talia forged ahead into the unknown realm of hot lemonade. She claims to have enjoyed it. We also had great fun "skating" on the kitchen floor in our socks. :)

 Looking for pictures to complete their Bb sheets

 Benjamin working hard at his cutting

We reviewed the full name of every member of our family and along with that both kids learned what they should do if they ever got lost. Benj knew that he should look for a policeman or a fireman, but we also learned that store employees (identified by the name of the store on their shirt) or another mommy would also be good people to ask for help. Both kids know now what information they should give to someone who is helping them, including Daddy and/or Mommy's first name and our last name. Benj is working this week on memorizing our address.

We did a really fun activity for handwriting on Tuesday. It is meant for a classroom full of students, but we adapted it. I had the kids gather a bunch of their "friends" (stuffed animals & dolls) and line them up on our sofa chairs in the living room. Along with Benj & Talia I had a classroom full of students. I wrote the alphabet along the top of our chalkboard (a few letters at a time) and drew a long line across the bottom of the board. I began to call out each letter and whoever had a name that began with that letter was to come up to the board and draw a vertical line from the letter to the horizontal line across the bottom of the board (to develop control and the ability to stop on a line, which we will need for handwriting). We called this "signing in." In our scenario the kids also had to think about which names began with which letters, since they had to "sign in" on behalf of their inanimate friends.

My "class" all lined up and waiting to sign in

Benjamin signs in for Giraffe

Benjamin's "creative expression" assignment was to write an invitation. I gave him several options for who to invite to do something with him and what activities might be an appropriate choice. He chose to invite his friend Jesse over to play. We wrote out the invitation, focusing on what details Jesse would need to know. We talked about the "5 W's & an H" to make sure we covered all the information. Benj was so proud of his finished invitation and reminded me about a hundred times to remember to deliver it when I saw "Miss Christy" on Friday night. Of course when Talia saw that Benj had written a letter to Jesse (whom she also claims as a best friend), she had to write one too. :)

Benjamin proudly displays his invitation

Finally, I wanted to share a moment of triumph for Benj last week. He has really struggled with learning how to ride his tricycle. It has been a combination of physical ability and emotional willingness to persevere in learning this new skill. He doesn't like to do anything unless he "knows how" to do it and do it "right" (his words)! It has taken a ton of coaxing and (sometimes unwilling) practice, but last week he was finally able to ride his tricycle around in a full circle in our driveway, including the slightly uphill part. I was so proud of him!

Benjamin rides his tricycle!

This week we memorized 2 Corinthians 9:7, "God loves a cheerful giver." Our character trait, as you may guess, was "Generosity: I share my things with a cheerful spirit." I really wanted to incorporate sorting through our toys for the purpose of giving some away this week, but it didn't happen. We were able, however, to bring in the idea of generosity toward each other as we continued in our never-ending instruction on sharing.

Our letter of the week was Mm. The kids had a great time gluing cut out pictures of milk, Mini Wheats, mommies, and makeup to their weekly letter sheets. Later on in the week we did a review of the letters we have learned so far by making a pretend shopping list, which included items such as: books, milk, frog, movie, fish, bracelet, broccoli, meat, fruit, bag, bubble bath, beans, bread, markers, flowers, and money.

One of our Bible lessons this week was about the tower of Babel. I started out school that day telling the kids to pick up toys ... in total gibberish. It was a really fun way to teach the story. Later I heard them in the living room, building a block tower and talking to each other in gobbeldy-gook. :)

We are continuing to learn about the seasons in our science book. This week we learned about summer, which lent itself to a picnic lunch outside one day. An added bonus was that Daddy made an impromptu appearance just before lunchtime. (Unfortunately it was as a result of my need for an urgent and unexpected trip to the doctor for a UTI. Grr.)

One element I added to our school day this week was a shapes workbook for Talia to work through while Benjamin works on a skills development workbook. She is really loving being a big girl with a big, important job to do in her workbook. I might add that she is doing very well tracing and identifying her shapes.

Benjamin & Talia work on a cool morning

One area in which we have already progressed tremendously is art. Several months ago both Benj and Talia wanted nothing to do with art projects I might suggest. Since we have started school they have actually had fun with various creative projects. Hurray!




drawn by Benjamin
This is his first attempt at drawing hands.

drawn by Talia
Her first drawing of a person.
 

Top: "My Rainbow"
watercolor by Benjamin 

Bottom: "My Rainbow"
watercolor by Talia

One final notable element of this school week was that we finally began learning letters in our handwriting book! I was up late (very late!) the night before, putting together a sample alphabet for the wall as well as knock-off versions of some of the materials I needed which I did not purchase from the company. Unfortunately our handwriting program does not have a "font" available for download so I spent several hours modifying the best substitute font I could find so that my model would be consistent with what Benj would be learning. It was a lot of work, but I was pleased with the result. And now I have something to use for other projects, which should be handy. Thursday we started learning our "Frog Jump Capitals." In the Handwriting Without Tears system, the student learns to write capital letters inside a gray box, using the outline of the box as a guideline for the placement of the letters. They first learn letters that start in the "starting corner," which is consistently identified by a smiley face in the upper left-hand corner. The "Frog Jump Capitals" are a group of letters (F, E, D, P, B, R, N & M) which begin in the "starting corner." You make a "big line" down and then "frog jump" back to the "starting corner" to finish the letter. Using this vocabulary consistently helps them remember the steps of forming each letter. Our first "Frog Jump Capital" was F ("big line, ribbit, little line, little line.") Benj is now forming beautiful capital F's. :)

An exciting moment: we finally opened our handwriting book! (You can see the "sample alphabet" I created on the wall in the background. Can you believe THAT took me several hours?)

Benjamin is excited about his F's

We have worked out some of the kinks in our schedule and things are running a little more smoothly. I still daily encounter challenges which I feel totally inadequate to meet (like how to motivate my humming, spaced-out, little day-dreamer to pay attention to his handwriting), but I'm pretty sure that will continue to be the case no matter how much experience I gain. Teaching is definitely not for the faint of heart!

Oh! And just so it is perfectly clear, though I would love to have come up with all these wonderfully creative activities on my own, not a single one of them was my idea. They are all in our curriculum. While I would love to be the creative mastermind behind all this fun, I *am* glad that I found the Sonlight curriculum to help us "love learning!"

Creative Expression

“Bolt Buddies”

by Benjamin Rodriquez

One day in spring a boy and a robot sat on the porch. The robot was happy because he liked the boy. They were best guys. The robot gave the boy a new toy. It was a computer. The boy had never seen a computer before. The robot gave the boy the computer because he loved him so much.

They looked at the clock and it said it was time to go to the store. The robot and the boy went into the boy’s car and went to a store to buy some things. The robot drived the car.

Then they went back to the boy’s home. Then they watched the goldfish on the kitchen table for awhile. Then it was time to eat lunch.

After lunch they saw a lamp. It moved a little bit. Then it moved a little harder. Then it got late and it was time to eat dinner. Then the robot and the boy were asleep.

In the morning they looked out the window to see if everything was fine. The sun was not so bright and it was moving. It was a moving sun. They went outside in the back of the boy’s house. There was toys there. There were two slides and two swings and two outside balls. And there was two muds in the backyard. They pushed the mud with sticks.

I guess they were just best friends!

__________________________________

Benjamin wrote this story based on a single picture. In the picture a boy and a robot sit side by side on a porch, the boy with his arm around the robot. In the boy's hand is a card that says "Robot (heart) U." The "lamp" Benjamin mentioned is the porch light in the corner of the picture, but otherwise he made up all the details himself. He could write a whole series of stories about the boy & the robot, based on the volume of ideas he had for their adventures. I had a hard time getting him to wrap it up!

Obviously we are in the very beginning stages of writing and there are many things he doesn't understand about story form. For example, I tried to get him to follow up with the "moving lamp" idea, but when I asked him why it was moving he just shrugged and said, "I dunno!" :) I also left his little grammatical errors alone, knowing that he will pick up (and has already picked up--notice the shift from "was toys" to "were slides..." in the second to last paragraph) good grammar from our modeling and the example of the literature we are reading to him. Still, I am proud of his great imagination and even his slightly humorous story tone.

Great job, Benj!!

 

I Love Organization!

 Here’s a little project that I forgot to share a couple of weeks ago when I completed it. I’m super excited about my new coupon binder :). By the way, just as a little added bonus I purchased all the supplies on sale with an additional 20% off coupon. That made me super-happy. :)

I remembered having seen a couple of my coupon-queen friends post about their own coupon binders several months ago, but I didn’t pay very close attention then because we were in the middle of dissertation craziness and there was NO WAY I was going to start couponing in the middle of that madness. It’s a good thing I remembered those posts because one thing I found out very quickly when I started couponing was what a pain it was (to me—I’m not trying to offend anyone by insulting her system!) to sift through piles and stacks of coupons in those little accordion dividers. Bleh! It drove me crazy to have to get out each pile and sort through all that mess every time I was looking for a particular brand. I decided I needed to set up a binder system I had heard so many rave about, so I went searching for the details.

After reading and adapting I purchased the following materials:
-1” binder with a clear sleeve on the front
-2 packages of baseball card holders (10 sheets each package), I should have gotten at least 1 more package.
-4 sets of 8-tab dividers

I set up a divider for each category of items. The 24 dividers I decided to include are:

Baby
Bags, Foil & Storage
Baking
Batteries & Lightbulbs
Beverages
Boxed Mixes
Breads
Breakfast
Canned & Jars
Cleaning Products
Condiments, Sauces & Seasonings
Dairy
Frozen
Laundry
Meat & Fish
Medicine & Vitamins
Office
Paper
Pasta & Rice
Produce & Salad
Refrigerated
Restaurants
Snacks
Toilettries & Cosmetics

I’m considering adding a category for clothing (or personal items, including clothing?) and also possibly sub-dividing the toiletries & cosmetics since I have so many of these types of coupons. I’m also thinking maybe a “expiring in the next 2 weeks” category might be helpful, along with a separate tab for store coupons. I haven’t decided what will be most helpful to me yet. (Feel free to comment & share what works for you!)

After my dividers were all set up I went to work filling a baseball card holder sheet with coupons from a single category. I couldn’t find any specific advice on how other couponers divide their coupons among the pockets, but I have tried to do one brand name per pocket. Once I buy some more sheets I will be able to do this more thoroughly.

Lastly, I went to work designing a fun cover for my binder. It makes me smile.

As I have collected more and more coupons over the past few weeks it has been so helpful to be able to flip through my book and find the coupons I need (or wonder if I have) quickly. The only thing that is slightly annoying about the system is that I usually have to make sure I clip all the edges off the coupons so they will fit in the pocket. It takes a little more time on the front end, but I figure I’m saving time considering what I would have spent sifting through piles later on.

What works for you? What coupon filing system do you use?

First Week of School

Here are a few highlights from our first week of school:

We memorized Proverbs 4:20 "Pay attention, my child, to what I say. Listen carefully." Our character trait was "Attentiveness:  I listen with my eyes, ears, and heart."

We read lots of stories together and learned (reviewed) the letter Ff. We memorized (reviewed) the days of the week and began to learn the months of the year and the "Thirty days hath September..." poem.

"I Spy"...things that begin with the letter Ff. Benjamin found a flower, food, flipping frog, fork, Frank (the toy combine...named after the character in the movie "Cars"), and a fence.

"Jack & Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water." Here they are, coming back down with their pail full of water.

We used the water to "paint" on the porch...and house...and windows. They loved it! They begged to continue for an hour.

Benjamin was fascinated with making broad strokes with his fat paintbrush.

In preparation for handwriting we learned how to shake hands with our right hand through use of lots of different sensory experiences. Benjamin also started learning the names of the manipulatives he will use to learn how to construct his capital letters (read more about our handwriting curriculum here), learned some fun games to promote good posture and discovered a really cool trick to help him with his pencil grip. (Try it! Lay the pencil on a table, pointing away from your body. Using your right hand, pinch the pencil where the paint meets the wood. With your left hand, grasp the eraser and "flip" the pencil around. Voila! Correct pencil grip!) He really loves handwriting! 

Seth is making the "wood pieces" we need for handwriting. I didn't purchase the set from the company (it costs $35!) & planned to make the pieces from cardboard, but Seth decided to make them from wood. What a great daddy!

We've been using our wood pieces in lots of fun games this week in order to get the vocabulary (big line, little line, big curve, little curve) firmly planted in Benjamin's head to make learning to construct letters easier. At the same time we are also working on other vocabulary we will need: top, middle, bottom, vertical, horizontal, diagonal, over, under, behind, between, etc.

Benjamin did his first "copywork" this week, learning to write his name within the guidelines on his manuscript paper (more or less). He really made a lot of improvement throughout the week. He started with letters that were all different sizes with little sense of orientation. By Thursday he was forming letters much more consistently.

One of the things I really love about the Language Arts component of our curriculum is their philosophy on creative writing. I borrowed the instructor's guide from a friend of mine and this portion of the introduction sold me! "Another dream we hold dear to our hearts is to help you train your children to be exceptional communicators. Sonlight's goal is that your children would be both fond of and talented in written and spoken expression. We believe that if children are provided with time to practice [creative] writing every day, it will cease to be a chore and soon become second nature. Therefore, we have designed our programs to give your children something to 'write' every day." Daily "writing" in this program doesn't always have to involve "putting pencil to paper." We will practice writing this year by means of copywork, brainstorming/idea generation, creative expression assignments (which will produce some type of written work), and editing/revision. I am so proud of Benjamin for the excellent "writing" he produced this week. In particular, a "finish the story" assignment in which I read him a beginning scenario and he made up the end. We are laying the groundwork for successful writing! So exciting!

One of the highlights of our week, especially for Talia, was learning to cut. They expected to cut something everyday. (We worked it in 3 days out of 5.) On Thursday we made a paper chain (snake), which Seth used that night in our reenactment of the story of "the fall" in Genesis. The kids were shocked when, at the end, he stomped on the snake's head!

I couldn't get a picture, but Talia cuts with her tongue sticking out in concentration. So cute!

Benj loved taping his strips together to make a chain. He really got the hang of it!

Finally, Benjamin is loving his science time! I mentioned in my previous post that he loves the Berenstain Bears book we are using. First we are learning about the seasons. The week we learned about winter.

On Thursday we pretended it was winter and dressed up in all our winter clothes. Benjamin got really into this role-play, throwing dozens of imaginary snowballs at Talia and me. We had to abandon this game pretty quickly since we were all sweating profusely in our jackets, hats, and wool socks. 

There were definitely some challenges this week. I mentioned, for example, that Talia and I had conflicting assumptions about the level of her participation. One of the specific challenges has been that she, as the verbal one, is prone to jump right in with every answer. And Benjamin is very happy to let her do it. I tweaked the schedule this week in various ways (no two days were even remotely the same), trying to come to some kind of happy medium. I think we are getting there. :) Another challenge has been juggling all my regular responsibilities. Although school activities really only take up about 2 hours, start to finish, it seems like the whole day revolves around school! I'm going to have to be very disciplined about using my spare moments to their fullest. I'm sure as some of the "newness" wears off we will settle into a better routine. (I hope!)

We really did have a fun and rewarding week, though. I'm excited to continue our learning adventure!

Finally! Our First Day of School!

Our life has been in a bit of upheaval lately. Suffice it to say, we were planning to move this past Saturday and had been planning toward that end for a couple of weeks when, about a week before the move, we found out that things were on hold with the house we planned to rent.

Buried somewhere in the mountains of boxes were 5 small boxes containing all the books and supplies I have been carefully collecting all summer to start homeschooling Benjamin this fall. Originally I planned to start school on the 16th of August, giving us plenty of room in our school schedule for trips, holidays, and other family events. When we made plans to move at the end of August I planned to postpone our start date. With our move now tentatively scheduled for the end of September/beginning of October, I knew we should go ahead and get started with school, but that was easier planned than executed.

First, we HAD to get our life back to some semblance of normality. We couldn't even move with all those towers of boxes taking up significant portions of our already minuscule living room and bedroom, not to mention the general atmosphere of upheaval that was cluttering our minds as much as our home. So Seth and I spent yesterday afternoon moving all our packed boxes along with a couple of empty bookshelves to a storage unit. Seth stripped down our family mini-van and converted it into a cargo vehicle deluxe. While he drove loads of boxes to storage I went to work filling our empty shelves and closets with packing materials and empty boxes. The result of this effort was a delightfully clean and clear living space after a month of mess. Ahh!

Moving one of the empty bookshelves in the living room and some of the kids' "living room toys" to their bedroom allowed us the space to construct the little table and chairs we purchased a couple of weeks ago to become Benjamin's desk. Seth went to work expertly constructing tiny furniture, while I unpacked the boxes I had set aside during our earlier purge. (Fortunately I had marked all the school boxes with "Open First" stickers, so they were easily identifiable.) After a couple of hours, this was the result of our efforts:

Everything was ready for Benjamin's first day of school.

This morning the kids woke up and immediately remembered that today was an exciting day. As I've said before, they normally read books until I come to get them up, but this morning they both emerged, tousle-headed and sleepy-eyed with a look of anticipation reminiscent of Christmas morning. They explored their new tot sized space, standing anxiously near their pretty new table, but not daring to sit down. They opened the pencil box filled with new crayons, scissors, glue sticks, pencils, and miscellaneous other thrilling treasures. They examined the slate and chalk. I pointed out that there was an envelope on the table. "What does it say?," I asked as Benjamin looked down at it. A big grin spread over his still-sleepy face, "It says Benjamin Riley!" He opened the card from his Daddy and Mama with all the pride of a very big boy. Hungry to take on the new-felt mantle of responsibility, he raced off to his room to get dressed, his sister following close behind him.

Throughout the morning Benj remained aware that he had crossed over some imaginary threshold into a weightier realm. When I asked him to help me put the milk away instead of grunting and groaning over how heavy the (2/3 empty) milk cartons were he bore his burden with dignity and declared happily, "I'm a big school boy helper!"

I should have realized that gorgeous new table and all those pristine supplies were begging to be used, but I blindly started out by introducing our Bible verse and character trait for the week, next settling the kids both on my lap for an educational look at a few classic nursery rhymes. When I laid the book aside and announced that we were going to take a little break to do our morning chores Benj collapsed in a dramatic swoon. "But I wanted to do schoooool!" I realized the next thing better be sitting at that table and using those brand new scissors or I was going to lose him forever. :)

We did have a little incident with those scissors.... Today was essentially the first time Benj had ever used scissors. For one thing he doesn't have a lot of strength in his hands and previous attempts have been frustrating for both of us. Another factor has been that Talia, while feeling like she can do everything Benj can do, truthfully sometimes lacks the maturity necessary to accomplish certain tasks (like weilding a pair of scissors--yikes!) So we sat down to do our first "real" (in Benj's opinion) school activity, making an "F" sheet to kick off our introduction to the letter of the week. In retrospect I'm not sure why, but I expected Talia to get bored fairly quickly and scamper off to play. She sat down, just as attentive as Benj, fully expecting to participate in this highly exciting activity. I quickly hunted down an extra pair of safety scissors and a spare glue stick (which, thankfully, weren't packed) and we commenced cutting and gluing magazine clippings of faces, frogs, fruit, and flowers to blank sheets of white paper. Somewhere in the middle of all the cutting and helping and "oh no! I put the glue on the wrong side!," Benjamin managed to cut 3 small but prominent holes in the tummy area of his polo shirt. Oops! Note to self: further instruction in cutting is clearly needed (preferably while Talia is napping).

I did take advantage of the quiet afternoon hours while the girls were napping/resting to cover some material I thought Benjamin would enjoy in a more one-on-one special time with just Mama. One of the books he has been most excited to start reading is the Berenstain Bears Science and Nature Super Treasury. As soon as the girls were down he brought it to me with an air of great expectancy. We opened to the first page, page 4, where we learned that a year is made up of 4 seasons or can also be identified as 12 months. On pages 6 and 7 we learned that January 1st, the first day of the first month, is called "New Year's Day" and that on this special day you wake up your parents by ringing a bell and shouting "Happy New Year!" (Let's hope that illustration didn't sink in deeply enough to be remembered 4 months from now.) Having completed the first reading assignment I closed the book. Benj was mortified. "But Mom! We only read 3 pages!" I explained that the assignment for today was to read through page 7. Tomorrow we would read the next section. He continued to sag with hearty disappointment. "We can keep going if you want," I offered. "But we won't have anything to read tomorrow." "YEAH! Let's keep going!" He perked up. "It's ok if we read the part for tomorrow." So we did. And he was satisfied.

It is so fun to see Benj (and Talia) giddy with the excitement of the prospect of learning. And so extremely satisfying that I get to be the one to see it all happening. I hope our school year continues on with as much fun and energy as it has started. :)