How We do Kindergarten

Here's David on his first day of school. We started our homeschool adventure 2 weeks ago and he attends school on Fridays with other homeschool students. He's loving it... at home and at school.

David's been writing his name along with some other words for quite some time. For Language Arts we are making an Alphabet Book. Each week we talk about one of the letters of the alphabet... what sound it makes... what words start with that letter... we practice writing it... we draw pictures and find things around the house that begin with the letter of the week.
Our Language Arts Curriculum just arrived yesterday morning (it was backordered) so we are looking forward to using that as well. It is called "Sing,Spell,Read,Write" and it is Phonic based.

For Social Studies David is making a book all about him. We will be adding to it each week. He will be learning how to spell his middle names, last name... his address and phone number etc.

For Math we have chosen a curriculum called Math-U-See. Here are some examples of types of questions he covered in the first 2 weeks. The first picture is "cross out the wrong answer." The second one is "count and circle the correct answer. The third type of question is "colour the squares to show the correct number."

I will be blogging our homeschool journey weekly or by-weekly as a way to report our teacher and for anyone else who might be interested on how things are going and what we are up to. There are other subject that we cover as well and I am adding things weekly as adjust to our new routine. We are attending Bible Study Fellowship which is an interdenominational bible study and I am using the program for our Christian Studies... it includes a weekly memory verse as well.
http://www.bsfinternational.org/
I am also planning to teach David to speak French so we will be getting started on that in a few weeks.

Qualicum Beach

Here are a few highlights from our trip to Qualicum beach. Had a great time there with Grandpa Brent and Aunty Mandy. Also stopped at Coombs on the way home... though we didn't see any goats on the roof. Would have loved to have spent more time on the sand but the tide came in. We'll have to do it again next year.

Fall Fair

We spent a week on the Island at the beginning of the month. Took the kids to the Fall Fair... their first time at a fair. We weren't sure if David would go on the rides but he did without any hesitation! Angeline was first in line though she ended up being too short for most of the kids rides there. The fish ride was the only one we found that she was actually tall enough for (she enjoyed this one the most anyway) but we did manage to sneak her on a few other rides. Lots of rides, walking, cotton candy, farm animals, and dancing. We all had fun but it was about 34 degrees even though we went after dinner! It was a bit hot but who can complain when fall is about to set in and turn to winder. Great summer memories. Might have to go again next year. Thanks Nana & Papa!

9 Months

Getting Around

Here is the a video of Samara's 1st time crawling forward (taken yesterday morning). I can't believe my baby is crawling (actually yes, I can believe it... I thought she was going to crawl a while ago already). Here she is yesterday morning as well, wearing her amber teething necklace. I am loving it so far and it seems to have minimized her discomfort while teething. I didn't have to give her any advil while her first eye tooth made its appearance this week. We are currently trying to figure out a safe way for her to wear it while sleeping. I tried looping it around her ankle and then putting a sleeper on but our baby houdini somehow managed to get it off her ankle, through her sleeper and into her hot little baby hands.

 Nana spent the week with us and even though she just left yesterday we are missing her already. It was nice to have the company as well as the extra set of arms!

 Angeline is potty trained and somehow manages to stay dry even on 3 hour shopping trips to Ikea and through the night. It is so nice to be down to 1 in diapers... now if I could just get her to behave in the bathroom instead of constantly getting into anything and everything. We currently have to keep the bathroom locked and let her in when she has to go which is not ideal but it save the toilet paper from being unrolled into the toilet (for the 10th time) as well as the floss from being unravelled and the hand soap being used as moisturizer... etc... etc... she turns 2 1/2 in September so hopefully this is a stage she will outgrow soon.

 Here is a silly one of David in his VBS Panda shirt. He spent the last week at VBS (Vacation Bible School) learning a lot, having lots of fun and even memorizing 4 bible verses from Psalm 134. We are still waiting for our main kindergarten curriculum to ship... there have been some issues with it being backordered... but we are looking forward to beginning our homeschool journey in September with Kindergarten!

Jonathan and I are doing well. I think we are starting to find a balance in the business of raising a baby, toddler and big kid. We have accepted the fact that our "to do" list is never going to get done. Instead we are focusing on our "must do" list and spending the rest of the time enjoying our family at this stage we are at. In our "spare" time we are planning for a new kitchen and possibly adding on to our house.

Samara is 8 months old today!

 S.A.M (Samara Anne Marie) is 8 months old. I have not been taking any pictures lately so there are only a few to show sort of what she's been up to... took so many while we were away and then almost none since we have been home. Anyway she's a pro at sitting now and moves to and from a crawling position when sitting. She wiggles around the house and gets up on her hands and knee's but she's not officially crawling yet. She was a bit slow to start solid foods... gaged the most out of my kids so far until I discovered that she just doesn't like baby food. Now she's eating rice, potato, carrot chunks, apple, banana, naan bread, etc! She continues to be my best sleeper though she is cutting her 4th tooth at the moment and so is a bit grumpy about that. We could have easily named her JOY... she is such a happy baby... we all love her to bits. In celebration of her 8 month birthday she decide to start "blowing" today... not zerberts... just blowing air as if she were blowing out a candle... I guess she is getting ready for her 1st birthday which is coming in just 4 months time!

Thursday Night

On Thursday night Angeline was climbing from one arm of the couch to the other arm of the other couch and she fell off. Normally when she hurts herself she might complain for 5 seconds and then she is back to doing whatever it was that hurt her to begin with. Thursday was a different story. After she fell she started screaming and grabbed her arm and would not let go. I was upstairs nursing Samara.. about 6:30 pm and Jonathan yelled for me to come and look at Angeline's arm... he thought it might be broken. You couldn't see anything but we could tell that it was hurting more then a typical bump on the arm... Jonathan wrapped it and I held my hand under it but if it moved at all she was back to screaming in pain. She would not move her fingers. We decided to take her to Children's Hospital... (thanks Carolyne for the advice and Grammy for babysitting the other 2) got there at 7:50pm and waited until about 11:30pm for a room... waited probably 45 more minutes before we saw the doctor... then went for xrays and got the cast right after that... leaving the hospital around 1:30am. After stopping at McDonalds we went to pick up the other 2 and got home around 3pm.
After less then 3 hours sleep (and a whole previous week of going to bed late) yesterday was a little challenging. David is wanting more attention... Angeline is still wanting to do things all by herself even with only one functioning arm and Samara is continuing to teeth (turned 7 months old yesterday). All in we are all doing well.
We were supposed to hear more about what type of break after a specialist saw the xrays yesterday but have not received a phone call yet (maybe Monday). The xrays showed damage at her elbow and above her wrist). She will be sporting her lovely pink cast for 4-6 weeks.
Sorry if these pictures come up small... I took them off of facebook. More pictures to follow.

God Keep Our Land!

David's 5th Birthday Party

David celebrated his 5th birthday with 5 friends on June 13th. It was his first "drop off" party as well as his first small party and I have to say I quite enjoyed it. Small and simple... he chose the theme in May... "Mommy... I want to have a Dog party with a chocolate dog cake"... with Aunty Mandy's help I was able to run with his idea. We played "Simon Says"... doggie style (bark, roll over, sit...etc), made dog puppet goodie bags, played "pin the tail on the dog" and decorated the house with paw prints. As you can probably tell from the photographs David had a wonderful day.

"The Dance"

I wasn't quite sure what to title this post and Canuck Fever has long since burned out then I thought to call it "The Dance"... after the song.... "I could have missed the pain, but I'd have had to miss the dance". It wasn't very much fun loosing the Stanley Cup but here are a few pictures taken during the excitement of the playoffs... Jonathan grew a beard for 2 months and Samara almost didn't recognize him when he shaved... we painted out window with a huge Canucks logo and we even ate blue and green jello. It was fun while it lasted. I also couldn't believe that it had been 17 years since our last Stanley Cup finals... I distinctively remember it and I was in Grade 5... it can't have been 17 years since I was in grade 5! It was a good year.

Samara's Dedication, Father's Day

This Year Father's Day was even more special because we also celebrated Samara's Dedication.

(Melissa) Samara, our fourth child and daughter number two I hope you never feel second best or last in line. Even before you were conceived in my womb you were conceived in my heart and my love for you has been growing ever since. As I think back 6 months to the day you were born it seems like just yesterday. You hold the record for most quickly named child (in our household)… only moments after your birth. I looked over to your daddy and said "her name is Samara Anne Marie" and that was that. SAMARA means God-led ; protected by God and our prayer for you is that you would entrust your life to God and seek to do His will.

(Jonathan) On fathers day I am reminded of how blessed I am with the children God has given me.  Samara you are so precious and as you grow and explore the world around you I can't help but wish that time would stand still and that we can enjoy your smiles and innocence forever. You are patient, gentle and fun… adding so much love and joy to our family. The verses we have chosen for your dedication come from Psalm 143 (v. 8-10). We dedicate these verses to you as well as to ourselves as we strive to raise you in a way that brings glory to God.

Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, 
   for I have put my trust in you. 
Show me the way I should go, 
   for to you I entrust my life. 
Rescue me from my enemies, LORD, 
   for I hide myself in you. 
Teach me to do your will, 
   for you are my God; 
may your good Spirit 
   lead me on level ground.

Monkey Bars

Here is a video taken today of David completing the monkey bars. He has never done them before... it only occurred to me as he was doing them that there are no monkey bars at the parks we usually take him too. I know he will be 5 at the end of the month... this just made him seem so much more grown up to me.