Weekly Wrap-Up: Week 3: The One Full of Blessings and Praises!

The beginning of September always seems to bring an avalanche of activities. Praise God that it starts off with Labor Day- an extra day home from school for Daddy! We all took a break from school that day and just enjoyed being together as a family. I was especially grateful for the extra day of help since I slipped and twisted my ankle over the weekend. Resting with feet elevated can be quite difficult with so many little ones underfoot!

We welcomed a new addition to our family this week…




This hungry, wiggly guy chomped on milkweed for a few days and then slipped into his chrysalis during our afternoon quiet time.



Sorry about the “through the plastic wrap” view, but it’s for his protection, as is the perch high atop the shelves in our kitchen. We have very curious little homeschoolers here at the stream!

My little blessings were extra helpful this week! Grace and Ella took on extra jobs, allowing Momma a chance to rest and heal. Grace was extra particular while sorting the cloth diapers- organizing both the inserts and the pockets by type.





She was also very accommodating with her school setting- relocating to the living room and a makeshift desk so my ankle could stay elevated. Although this injury has been a bit of a trial, I am appreciative of the “trial run”… it gives me hope that our school time will still be productive even if I need to be situated on the couch leading up to and following the arrival of Blessing #4!




Ella also enjoyed the more relaxed setting- and a Momma who is willing to call playing games an important part of our school day! (I am especially willing to do so when they are educational games, anyway!)



Some of you may be wondering, “I thought they had three daughters… where is the other one???” Well, I try to squeeze most of our schooling in during the morning when she is doing this:



But, sometimes we start school earlier in the morning and Lydia gets to learn and practice, too!




Part of Lydia’s morning time is “scheduled” playtime with big sister Ella. It’s such a blessing to see our children developing a loving friendship! Lately they have been playing “school”!




Their playtime also facilitates some mostly uninterrupted direct instructional time with Grace. Here we continue to develop her math skills- counting to 100, counting by 10s, and arranging numbers in order.



We also worked on filling in the missing numbers. She really enjoyed this activity!




We added Spelling to Grace’s coursework this week and we are loving the curriculum! I will probably have to modify the pace of the lessons, as she breezed through this week’s work, but it is nice to ease into additional subjects. I really like the integration of Scripture and writing prompts, too. After all, there should be A Reason for Spelling, right?

Grace really enjoyed using our new letter tiles to practice her list of words.






During our spelling review, Grace noticed two eagles flying around outside! I snapped a quick pic from inside, then we quietly stepped outside to get a better view. Okay, maybe not so quietly… they flew higher and farther away, but we did get to watch them for quite some time!



The Scripture for this week’s Spelling lesson was Psalm 136:1, "Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good." We tied it in to our Bible time and read a story about the same verse from our ABC Bible Verses, Letter O. Then we listened to Forever by Michael W. Smith. We danced, sang, and praised God with full hearts! The girls requested that we play it over and over and over again. It was such a blessing to me- of course I obliged!

Part of me was still (and is still) in awe from the news about God’s newest blessing in our life, and I was able to demonstrate my praise and thanksgiving through this worship time. I truly cherished this time of singing, dancing, and praising our Heavenly Father with my children! I am so grateful for the opportunity and conviction to homeschool our children… I can’t imagine having missed this morning of praise with my beloved blessings!

The girls have also delighted in their time with Daddy, waking up early to at least wave goodbye to him, if not share breakfast before he heads to school, missing him throughout the day, and gleefully welcoming him home as soon as he steps through our door! I am appreciative of the chance to start dinner preparations (or even have 5 minutes to myself) while Daddy practices soccer with the girls outside!








You can check out everyone else’s week over at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers!