My Little School Girl

Most of dd4's math is hands on but once in a while there is a worksheet to do. She prefers to do them outside in the sunshine.

Rules Without Relationship

There's not a much warmer feeling than when your children are willing to open up and talk to you about something they are struggling with. But how do we get them to do that? It takes stepping outside of ourselves and building a relationship with them. Relationships with others take time and energy to build and that is no different with our children.

What is the cost if we don't lay aside our selfishness and pursue their good? It's children who chafe against the rules. And we wonder why they aren't just openly embracing all we are trying to teach them. Put yourself in their shoes. Would you open up to someone who doesn't respect you as an individual? Would you accept what that person has to say if he or she won't take the time to get to know you for who YOU are and not just what he or she wants you to be?

I see this happening in so many church families and it breaks my heart. We are failing our children because of our busyness and our selfishness. The Bible says that it is better for a millstone to be hung around our necks and to be cast into the sea than to offend one of His little ones. (Matthew 18:5-6)

Our children are adults-in-training. They have thoughts and ideas all their own. If we fail to see that, we do them a great disservice. They are not, nor should they be, carbon copies of us. God created them as individuals that we are entrusted to train. Our job is not to MAKE them be Godly. Our job is to lead them to the Cross. How do we do that? We SHOW them how to be Godly. That means loving unconditionally like God loves. That means desiring a relationship with them like God desires with us. Our talk does more harm than good if we aren't going to step outside ourselves and be Jesus in the flesh to them.

One-syllable Word Books

I have been fun finding books to use for history. In that search I came across books written in one-syllable words. I haven't found very many but will definitely be keeping my eyes open for them. They aren't necessarily all words with one-syllable, but if they are longer, they are broken up into syllables for easy reading.

You can find several here.

79 words

Speed test

Special Birthday

I had a really nice birthday yesterday. My oldest 2 girls took extra care to make sure it was special.

Dinner of yummy macaroni and cheese made by dd12.

Dessert of yummy strawberry shortcake made by dd11.
Thanks for the flowers, too!

Pictures

My Reader Girl

Check out all my teeth!

MCITP: Database Developer

I just had to share that I am super proud of my husband. He passed Microsoft Exams 70-441 and 70-442 today which gives him his Microsoft Certified IT Professional Database Developer Certification.

God has really blessed him in his job and opened the doors so he could return to the career field he enjoys and in which he excels.

Back to Explode the Code

My youngest daughter (4yo) started her journey of learning to read with Get Ready for the Code Primer A. She went right through that and moved to Get Set for the Code Primer B. We got about half way through that and her interest tapered off. So we let it go. After a couple months we started working through All About Spelling Level one. She has been doing great at learning the sounds and encoding the words. It also gave her the skills to start reading. But we have kind of hit a wall with AAS. She is ready to continue learning to decode words (read), but she isn't ready to continue on with the spelling rules. So I have been wondering what path I should take. Then today I remembered about Explode the Code. She is definitely past the primers, but ETC 1 looks like what she needs to solidify what she has already learned without it being too easy. So I once again have a plan which is really nice because I have been stressing a bit about where to go next.