Now that we have settled into Fall (to which I am EXTREMELY thankful – its favorite season!) we have settled into more of a weekly routine.  There are a some really exciting things going on in the church and I am so blessed to be a part of them!  I just wanted to give you a little glimpse of what all is going on this fall. 

Women’s Bible Study

I am so blessed once again to help lead a Ladies Bible Study group.  We are doing another Beth Moore study:  Esther, It’s Tough Being a Woman.  We have TWO groups again this semester for a total of 15 ladies participating!  This has been a desire of my heart for some time  and I am just full of joy over it and so thankful to the Lord.  I felt like my heart might burst this past Thursday night at the beautiful picture I got to see – eight amazing women gathered in my living room studying the Word of God together.  It is in those moments in ministry that keep you going!  I thank the Lord for using me and pray that I will always be continually obedient to his leading and willing to be used by Him. 

Growing Kids God’s Way

Aaron and I have the privilege of learning along with three other couples about how to raise our children according to the Word of God.  We are using a series called Growing Kids God’s Way.  It is an eighteen week course (pretty intense) and we are about 4 weeks into it at this point.  I have to say, for us personally as a family, I am SO GLAD that we are  going through this.  We all want our children to be well-behaved and respectful of others, but this course takes things a step further and asks the question, Why do we want our children to behave in such a manner?  Is it so WE look good?  So we won’t be embarrassed out in public?  Instead our answer to the question WHY should be based on Biblical principles, that we want our children to have it in their heart to obey us and ultimately to obey God.  Our children’s obedience should come out of a heart that desires to obey because they know the moral reason why and not just out of fear of punishment.  This course really helps to lay the foundation of reaching the heart of your child for Christ.  These first few weeks we are really laying a foundation for this and learning the extreme importance that the marriage relationship plays in the family.  As we go along, hopefully I will take time to share little nuggets that I have learned from this.

True U:  Does God Exist?

I have been teaching the Youth Sunday School  class again for a few months now.  I have not been real happy with the curriculum we have been using and have felt like they need something with more depth and more foundational in the faith.  I recently came across a series that Focus on the Family and the Truth Project have helped to put out.  I am so excited about this and pray that the Lord will use it to help our youth become deeply rooted in their faith. 

Isaac is 31 months

Miriam is 14 months

We had so much fun playing together this week in Tot School!

Pounding Pasta

I got the idea for this from Mama to 3 Blessings.  I took an empty box, poked holes in it, and put ziti pasta in the holes for Isaac to hammer.  He LOVED it and we played it over and over and over . . . and over!

  I set it up the first time, and then once he pounded the pasta down, he put them back in the holes himself.  Here he is using his fingers to push them down through instead of the hammer and I am telling him to use his hammer.  He thought it was great fun ;)

  Miriam played with this for over half an hour in one sitting! 

She was pushing them in as fast as I could set it back up!  She also liked to hear the noise it made when she shook the box with all the pasta in it.  She would reach in, pull out a couple pieces, inspect them, drop them back in and do it all over again!  She was too cute!

All About Dinosaurs

We used chocolate chips to help us learn to count . . . Yum!

Our new calendar board is working out great! Isaac enjoys putting the dates on the calendar.  I have to help out a little to make sure he puts it in the right square ;-)

A little pom-pom magnet fun.  We were using red magnets to make the letter D since our color of the day was red.

I pulled this game out from our C collection.  He had fun counting the caterpillars and it kept his attention a lot longer than normal!

We are making a D for Dinosaur!!  I got this idea from Totally Tots.  They have a fun craft for each letter of the alphabet!

Dinosaur puzzle

Size Sorting:  We have just started working on the small/little and big/large concept. 

 The Activity Mom featured this fun dinosaur shape sort printable from Yellow Mums. What perfect timing!

Bottlecap matching!

This was our first time doing this activity and Isaac did great!

All other printables this week are from our Letter of the Week Curriculum by Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Fun with Cards

Someone had given us these matching word cards a while back.  I thought they were so cute! I laminated them for durability and right now we use them to match the pictures.

I pulled out six sets at a time.  I put the first half of each picture in our pocket chart and let him find the matching half.

He’s thinking awful hard!

Isaac started off being very neat when he would make a match and making sure it was right side up and so on.  By the time we got done he was . . . well . . . not so neat.

Miss Miriam

Here she is playing with a fun puzzle I got for a few bucks at Wal-Mart.  She is just beginning to start matching them up, it is so fun to see her learn.  And when she gets tired of matching the shapes/colors, the blocks make for a nice snack ;-)

More Bottlecap Fun!!

We have been collecting these for a while and I even got my in-laws in on the collecting.  I had made this can from an oatmeal container, wrapped it in scrapbook paper and cut a whole in the top.  (Original inspiration for this came from Morgan at Psalm 127:3) Miriam loved playing with this and it held her complete attention for over half an over.  She filled up the container, so I had to empty it so she could keep on going!

And of course, snacking on the caps is always an option.

Taking it Outside

This was Miriam’s first time playing with the sidewalk chalk.  I think we can safely say it was a big hit!

Watching brother writing on the sidewalk. 

Isaac is thinking:  “FINALLY! Something mom will let me hit with the bat!”

To see what other moms are doing in Tot School this week, check out the official Tot School site!

Just wanted to share this very fun and incredible video clip!

on two blogs recently!!  I was so excited.  I am a little behind up keeping things up to date on here (except Tot School) so it was a few weeks ago now.  But I thought I would still share the fun news!

About three weeks ago Jolanthe from Totally Tots featured my blog in her Terrific Tot Sites article!

JDaniel4’s Mom has a list she posts weekly of noteworthy posts she has come across.  She featured the color matching game with clothespins and pipe cleaners I had posted a while back!

Isaac is 31 months

Miriam is 13.5 months

I’m beginning to think that there is no such thing as a normal week for us and that every week there is something extra going on.  So maybe the “un-normal” week for us is when we are at home all week with nothing extra planned?  This week was very enjoyable and a special blessing to us.  We had a missionary couple stay with us Wednesday – Friday afternoon.  They had served in Mexico for over 24 years and it was such a wonderful blessing to have them in our home.  We had late night conversations over a cup of coffee learning about their ministry and life in Mexico.  We learned alot about Mexican culture and found out that Mexicans stay up LATE (we’re talking early morning hours) and are out the door by 6 am.  Kay also fixed us an authentic Mexican meal on Thursday evening!  It was absolutely delicious!  We greatly enjoyed our time with them and valued their insight and mentorship. 

We did get two days of Tot School in this week amidst preparing for and having company.

Fun with our new Calendar Board!

Isaac is picking out his "color of the day”.  He did this a few times . . a day ;-)

We are beginning to learn the days of the week by singing a song.  Isaac then gets to put the days on the calendar.

;-)

(My inspiration for the Calendar Board came from Carisa at 1+1+1=1.  Here is the link to her Calendar time post.)

D is for Dinosaur!

This picture was taking after Isaac had colored it.  If you look closely, you can see a few faint scribbles at the far left of the paper.  (Actually, don’t look too closely, I need to repaint the table hehe) After a very short while, he was ready to clean up the crayons.

We also worked on sorting upper and lower case D.  He did really great with this, I was so pleased!

Play-doh is always a big hit.  (I was the one to make the play-doh letter Dd,  Isaac watched.  He had a short attention span that day! ;-)

I found this set of blue dice at the Dollar Tree.  We rolled it on the table and counted how many circles were on the top of the block.

Stickers are a great exercise for those fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination!  We used the Do-A-Dot page in our curriculum and put stickers on the circles. 

Our letter “D” printables come from Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler!

Dominoes!

This was a new one for us!  I showed Isaac how to set them up and we knocked them down, over and over.  By the end I could hardly get any set up before he was knocking them over again!

Miriam wanted to join us, although I’m not sure Isaac was very thrilled with the idea ;-)

Our Tiny Tot

It’s amazing how long a few cups and a couple of laundry baskets will keep her occupied.  She put the cups in and out of the baskets and worked on her stacking skills.

She also really likes playing with cars!  Here she is taking the cars in and out of the barn.

We were also playing with our nesting blocks.

Our Early Learning Box

A few months ago Aaron picked up this learning box for $10 at a local department store.  Isaac and I bring it out about once a week and play.

It has magnetic round stickers, books, flash cards, stickers, and dry erase markers to be used with a few of the books.  It focuses on colors, the alphabet, numbers, animals, etc. 

The kids love playing with the flash cards.  They are also made where you can help learn categories, such as fruit, birds, farm animals, toys, etc.  The whole is color coded and all the contents of the box are built on the same theme. 

Is he going to be a lefty???

To see what other moms are doing in Tot School this week, check out the official Tot School site!