"Mothers work wonders once they are convinced that wonders are demanded of them." ~Charlotte Mason

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Christmas Carols

Dora's versions:

"Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright.
Round your vermin, mother and child.
Holy infany, tender and mild.
Sleep in heavenly peace. Sleep in heavenly peace."

"O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphal..."

(OK, triumphal could be a word. But it's not.)

Man, I love this kid!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Gingerbread Party!

We recently attended one of our favorite Christmas traditions, our dear friends' annual Gingerbread Party! We are so grateful to our sweet friends for hosting about 100 people every year for a big Gingerbread House competition.
The kids each make their own Gingerbread houses from graham crackers and icing. Each family brings a bag or two of candy, and helps clean up the ensuing mess. We have so much fun watching the kids (teenagers included) use their creativity.
Below are pictures of our houses. The pictures were taken on my cell phone, thus the poor quality.







Erin really loves candy. She took this home with her, she didn't actually eat it.
Angel ate hers, though:

Those of you who know her aren't at all surprised.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Balance


"Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair. Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because He shows us both God and our own wretchedness." - Blaise Pascal


Note: I saw this quote on a friend's blog, and posted it here so I can find it later. Thanks, Queen!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Nastia and Carly!


This is a picture of my girls, along with our sweet friends Hannah and Erin, in Beijing this summer. We had such a great time at the Olympics!

Okay, that's not true. But we did get autographs from Nastia Liukin and Carly Patterson yesterday afternoon. Nastia and Carly train at a gym near us, and they were signing autographs in exchange for unwrapped toys. We got to support a toy drive for local kids, and get some cool autographs! Now I just have to figure out what to do with 10 autographed pictures of gymnasts...

Monday, December 1, 2008

Christmas Break!!!


I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Okay it's not really a secret, but here it is: we don't do "normal school" between Thanksgiving and New Year's. (gasp!)

Instead, we take a break from our regular schoolwork and focus on the birth of Christ for a few weeks. Here are some Christmas links I enjoy: a great Jesse Tree site, another Jesse Tree site with the ornaments, a Christmas unit study, a great Christmas resource list, and some readings for the Twelve Days of Christmas between Dec 24 and the Epiphany (arrival of the wise men).

For math, we will be working on our math facts. Our new girls really need to work on number concepts, and don't have any facts memorized. For the older girls, they are learning new concepts and can certainly brush up on their facts, as well! Baloo will finish up his math book and get ready to move to Alg. II in January.

We will take a break from science & history, but will replace them with more Bible time (which really is history), artists & composers, hymns and Christmas music. There will still be lots of learning taking place, but it will be focused, as much as possible, on the birth of Christ.

We will also be spending lots of time with friends & family, so please stop on by!