The New School Year - 1st Day Pictures

I love taking first day of school pictures. I always take them in the same corner of the kitchen so I can see how they've grown.

Brenna - 2nd grade

Levi - 3rd grade

Jack - Pre-school

A Wise Manager

Reading, c.1865 by Jerry Barrett

For my Cornerstones project this week I decided to work on the chapter A Wise Manager. The first project in every chapter is to study and memorize scripture so I thought I would share a few of the scriptures.

Proverbs 12:24

Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor.

(in my own words....Excellence in your work leads to influence, but laziness leads to dependence on others.)

Ecclesiastes 4:9

Two are better than one, because the have a good return for their work.

(in other words...many hands make light work!)

Another project was to list all of a mother's (my) jobs and highlight the ones that could be delegated (or partially delegated) to children. That was eye opening. With a little training, the kids could be contributing so much more than they are. And not only would our home run more smoothly, it would also keep them out from in front of the TV. Always a plus:)

The New School Year - Our Morning Board

I wanted to try this out for awhile before I bragged on it, just to make sure it worked as well as I thought it would. But now that we've been back to school for a month, I can say it's definitely a hit!

I know I saw the idea somewhere and I wish I could remember exactly where to give credit...

We call it our morning board and it's just one of those wonderful foam project boards that I turned into a calendar with plenty of clear pockets to hold various things we're working on. Everything that isn't in a plastic pocket is laminated with shipping tape.

The pockets are sheet protectors cut to fit or, for the smaller ones, mini photo album pages. They hold cards with our name and address (mostly for Jack to memorize), catechism questions we're memorizing, our Bible card for the week (from Veritas Press - I love these cards and wanted to be able to see them through out the day), the kids' Bible verse for Sunday School, and President flash cards. As we go through the year I'll change things out to reflect new things we want to memorize or read about.

It's so helpful to have the little things that didn't exactly fit in a subject all in one place. And memorizing is so easy when you go over it every day - I'm even remembering things!

My baby girl turned 6!

I'm working my way back from my (unannounced) summer blog hiatus. While I was "gone," Brenna turned six year old. I'm amazed at how grown-up she seems lately and reminded of how fast this time with her is flying by. She's truly lovely and so sweet. I'm so grateful to be her mommy.

A New Project...for me

I stumbled upon this book, Polished Cornerstones, at the homeschool booksale in May. I had seen it online before, but it seemed like something we might use when she's older and it was $48 so I didn't consider buying it right now. For $5 (in NEW condition) at the sale, though, I picked it up just to browse through. After all, I did commit to focusing on raising my young lady this year.
Well, I'm just now getting to really look it over and I love it! It's easily worth the original price. There are literally years of projects in this book for girls from preschool on up. Each chapter (and I think I counted 52) deals with a character trait or skill set and has between 25 and 50 projects to choose from. Everything from "A Patient Woman" or "A Woman Who Handles Money Wisely" to "A Modest Woman" and "A Teaching Woman." Some of the projects will be do-able even for non-readers and some are better suited for young women. All of them are adaptable and it's easy to pick and choose. Brenna and I could easily go through the book over and over again as she grows and, if she were to ever have a little sister (maybe, one day), she could use the book, too.
Actually, reading through it, I was wishing I'd had a book like this growing up. But it's never too late! SO I'm going through and picking out projects for myself as well. I'm hoping to get a project done every week between now and Thanksgiving...and maybe I'll get some batteries for my camera so I can share some pictures!