Category Archives: Paul

Kindergarten A to Z: Weeks G and H

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This has been in draft mode since I posted the last kindergarten update in January.
Bad blogging habit #126: Forget to change status on simple post. 🙁

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G is for granola bars.

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G is for good, even if it’s not picture perfect!

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H is for honey cookies.

We are currently working on “o” and “p.” I don’t want to leave o, as the character trait is obey. 😉 We made a marshmallow dessert for m, but forgot poor n, so we’ll combine a few and catch up. Maybe I’ll even ask Mr. Super-Photographer to take some “real” pictures for us, instead of my poor, shadowy, excuses!

Kindergarten A to Z: Weeks E and F

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We are starting week “m” today, after breaking for Thanksgiving, Christmas and snow fun.

I have a backlog of our letter treats from last fall. Paul looked over this draft yesterday and was happy to see what he had learned and was eager to learn more.
That doesn’t sound right. I’ll try again:
Paul looked over this draft yesterday and was happy to see what he had eaten and was eager to make more. That’s my boy!

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E is for homemade eggnog and F is for fruit salad and of course, our staple letter cookies!

Proverbs 1:7
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Kindergarten A to Z: Weeks A and B

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This year is a first. The first school year without a preschooler. Paul is official now: a kindergartener. We did Sonlight kindergarten for Adam many years ago and unfortunately or fortunately, depending on whether the glass is looking half empty or half full in the mommy guilt department, Luke, Rachel, John and Isaac pretty much unschooled their way through kindergarten. That included lots of reading aloud by me, some messy spur-of-the-moment crafts, playing, playing and more playing. Those were the good times. The down-side was too much chaos brought on by not enough structure.

I wanted to have a fun, good year with Paul and finish my kindergarten teaching years well. I was very pleased to find an alphabet-themed year on Elizabeth Foss’ blog. I won’t be using the bulk of her ideas, as her plans include studying the Catholic saints and fairy stories. I have theological differences with the saints study, as I am not Catholic, and not using the fairy stories is purely personal preference, as I just don’t enjoy them.
However, she completely had me with the apple pie with letter “a” cut-outs for the crusts.

I used a 40% coupon at Hobby Lobby and bought the Wilton alphabet and number bucket last month. It was hard to keep it in the closet!
I gave Paul the “A” last week and the “B” and “P” for Paul this week. He enjoyed them so much that I gave him the whole bucket and he has been carrying it around the house.
He wasn’t particularly interested in making a pie, so we tweaked the star cookie recipe (the first time using it) from Elana’s Pantry and used the “A”s and had applesauce on the side. 🙂
This week I chose brownies, and we again used (and tweaked) one of Elana’s recipes.

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“A” cookies and applesauce at the dinner table.

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“B” is for brownie on the banister. (Stair view).

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Facing into the kitchen. (Enjoy the clutter). 😉

I’ll write more about what we’re doing for kindergarten next week, plus the other five grades in the next few weeks.

1 Corinthians 10:31(ESV)
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

When A Cuddle Is Just What You Need: Out Of The Blue On Thursdays

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I was feeling out of sorts yesterday morning, anxious about an afternoon doctor’s appointment, when Paul asked if we could cuddle. He doesn’t do that as often anymore, he’s almost five and can usually be found tagging along after an older brother or two or chatting with his sister. So, when he asked, I knew that was the ticket.
I needed to quit mindlessly wandering the house going from task to phone to task to iPad, to interrupting the engineer’s work, to worrying.
We cuddled. We read a stack of library books. He enjoys the children’s non-fiction animal books, so our stack included an armadillo, cotton-tail rabbit and buffalo. All short and sweet, like Paul, and full of great photos.
Cuddle time lasted maybe 15 minutes before he was on to an activity with his brother, called out to the bonus room to see some fun invention, but it was just what I needed. A great gift to get my day back on track.

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Telling me a story last week at the park in Glen Allen, (plain old) Virginia (as opposed to West VA) 😉

Matthew 18:1-6 (ESV)

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,[a] it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.