Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Tiny Talk Tuesday in the School Room



A question asked in the schoolroom, "Who is Sargon the Great?"

And answered by one smarty pants 10 yr old, "I know who that is! Its Willie Roberson's great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather."

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The question asked by the teacher-Momma, "What do we call it when a ruler uses an army to make people obey the laws?"

Chris confidently shouted out, "Dictation!!"

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IMG_8439And this didn't take place in the schoolroom, but the items destroyed were created in there by one tired momma the night before the class:/

The afternoon after the destroying event....

In a forget moment of cuteness, I may have said to my dog, "Jack, you're such a good dog!"

Lydia snuggling Jack responded, "Jack is always good."

Me: "Yeah, like when he ripped up my children's church craft this morning [as we were getting ready for church, where the previously mentioned craft was going to be crafted]."

Sweet Lydia's gentle answer,"Well, everyone makes mistakes!"

Yep! We all do!


What are you all "talking" about today? 

Thursday, September 4, 2014

My Students...

We LOVE starting our school year with our "Back-to-school" pictures! Eagerly the kids decorated their "grade" signs days before we actually started learning;) It's kind of a tradition now for the kids to paint/color them whatever they want:) And it's a physical sign that school is about to start.

This year we did all the prep work but didn't actually get the pictures on that first morning,
or the second,
or the third, fourth, fifth
or not even on the sixth!
Nope... on a random day during the 3rd week, we finally got it together to get the kids dressed nicely and all the smiles on;)

And honestly, I was disappointed that none of us really were ready for pictures during any of those days.... I still saw the need for them. It will be awesome looking back a year from now and being able to see how much they have grown:) Or looking back 20 years from now and seeing them all together... longing for those days to have continued a little longer.

So we did the picture thing.. a little late:)

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This the crew all together (minus Jack-the dog)! They are super busy, loud, insightful, creative, interested. And can be somewhat distracted, whiny and messy! But they are my sweet little class and we have some crazy, fun and productive days, too!

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Anna
The 5th Grader

She's our "time clock"!  Often, she will ask "when are we..." or "how much time before we...."! If I show up anywhere early/on-time/5 minutes late it's because Anna has planned our departure so we can be "on-time".

Often she is also the "guinea pig"... as all first-borns seem to be:) Thankfully she is a hard-worker and sees some of  the material or tasks I give her as a challenge and does her best to complete it.











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Chris
The 3rd Grader

The "artist"! Chris is our resident drawing creator! He loves drawing and often will be sketching away as we read. It's always fun to listen to him explain the drawings from reading time. Often they are a narration of a part of the story.

The "distracted one". Oh Chris, my Chris! There are some days he finishes assignments so efficiently with enthusiasm. And then other days when the math lesson drags on for hours (or at least it seems). If I could just figure how to help make every day the former, we'd be good to go;)








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Lydia
The 2nd/3rd Grader


The "peacemaker". I'm not sure if all 3rd borns are as peacemaking as our Lydia, but I am thankful for her personality. She balances not getting walked over with compromising with her siblings so that everyone gets a little of what they wanted. And I'm praying that this isn't just a stage:)

Lydia also pushes herself to "keep up" with her older two siblings. For her it's motivating to finish work before them or to do the same projects. Or even not get as many wrong on the spelling test. While this is a GREAT quality it's also can cause extra pressure and discouragement, especially in the afternoon following an intensive morning school. And she really is keeping up!





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Nate
The Pre-Ker


The "sponge". It is not unusual to hear this little guy answer a question that was asked of an older sibling. He's heard and been around schooling his whole life. And now we know he was just hanging out to absorb it all:)


The "attention getter". The youngest of 4 has to be loud (just for survival) and Nate fits that description well. Even his normal talking voice is loud. When it's not his words getting him into trouble; it's his antics and mischief made just for some attention!










Let's just say that the school room is NEVER boring... it's lively and full of busy little kids working and playing hard!!


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Yep! Another crazy year!