100th Day of School Challenge & Giveaway!

As of today, March 2nd, we have been doing the homeschool thing for 100 days!! The girls and I are so excited about our plans for today, and have been looking forward to this "new tradition" in homeschool.

Among other things, we're having 100 cereal pieces in our bowls at breakfast, making bag fulls of 100 things in our house, listing 100 things we've learned in school so far, thinking of 100 people who we are thankful for, and shopping for 100 items to bring to the orphanage in Rwanda this summer!! Kendyll is planning to buy toothpaste, Carlie is buying toothbrushes, and Abby Kate wants to buy paint sets.

We also get to celebrate with our homeschool group from church on Friday, since most all of the families are close to their 100th day as well. We will be doing all kinds of fun activities as a group, which the girls are also excited about.

But, today, the thing that has excited my girls the MOST...is a challenge to all of YOU! To see the video message from the girls, visit our Facebook page.

Or, you can keep reading. :)

At dinner last night, we started talking about 100 pennies and then 100 dollars. We talked about what you could buy with 100 dollars. And, somehow that began the conversation about how MUCH MORE 100 dollars can buy for orphans in Africa. So, THEN...we thought of the greatest idea!!

We began to DREAM BIG about what would happen if everyone we know gave $100 to His Chase today in honor of our 100th day of school! If just the 922 "fans" on Facebook gave, we would have almost $10,000 for the kids at Noel Orphanage in Rwanda this summer. And, that's only the BEGINNING of what could happen!

It was so fun to dream with the girls at what all we could do for this orphanage that literally has NOTHING. They don't have enough food, or enough beds, or toys, or books, or clothes, or shoes. We could do HUGE THINGS, as Kendyll said!

And, we hope to.

With your help.

Will you give $100 for this special day? EVERY SINGLE PENNY will go directly to these little ones at Noel who need so much. There is no better return for your investment than to put a smile on these precious faces.

AND, for our first TWENTY FIVE generous friends, we have a FREE Rwandan paper bead necklace for you, made with love by our sweet friend Jane!

We'd be honored to celebrate with you today, as God does something significant with an insignificant school holiday. :)

Go HERE to donate...and be sure to select "Rwanda Summer 2011" on the funds menu, and let's get this party STARTED!!!!

"Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think!" Ephesians 3:20

A Day Home from School...oh wait.

Snow or no snow...We're always home from school!

Today was a snow/ice day for most everyone we know. So, of course, the girls were excited for a school holiday too. We did sleep in later than usual and shortened a few of the usual subjects like handwriting and spelling.

But, unfortunately for them...ice doesn't really change homeschool much. It's a good thing school usually includes some fun too, because they didn't seem to mind once we got started today. (And, what they don't know is that we're taking a surprise day off on Thursday to take Kendyll shopping for her birthday! So, I had to stay somewhat on track this week!)

So, since we had time to do it, I thought I'd share our "day home from school" in our house. Just for fun. And, because I haven't blogged near enough about school this year.

And, I'll warn you. It's cheesy. That's just how I roll. Especially these days. :)

Since today was the first day of a new month, we began our new memory work and hymn for February. This is one of my favorite parts of school. I try to match our scripture and hymn to whatever the month represents. So, this month it's all about LOVE. {and so was our art}.

Our memory work: John 15:9-13 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands, and remain in His love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends."

And, don't all of you want to hum along to this month's hymn? "Oh how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus, because He first loved me." Makes me think of my great-grandmother, just like almost every other hymn does.

Kendyll learned it on the piano this morning and played along as we learned the words. She is loving the piano and I am loving hearing it! It was another one of those "mommy moments" I just want to store away.

In history, we read about the pioneers on the Ohio River, and Johnny Appleseed's great faith. Check out AK's "appleseed tree". :)

We finished our unit on plant and animal cells in science...

And, they both passed their "test" on drawing and labeling the cells. I was SO proud of Miss Carlie who remembered words like "nucleus" and "organelles"!

I think that's because our awesome curriculum has us make things like this:

Today was actually our last day with our jello cell models (they've been in our fridge for a week)...but they definitely did the trick. They know all about cells because of a ziploc bag, a bowl of jello, grapes, and dried beans. Such a creative way to learn something that can be rather boring otherwise!

Now, we're on to learning about the classifications of animals. To make it more fun, Kendyll got to teach "the class" about reptiles. She had fun writing their characteristics on the board and picking out books for us to read. I always love it when Kendyll spends an hour in the floor reading through science books, without realizing she's learning. :) It's the best kind of school there is.

And, speaking of reading for fun. This is what I found when I walked in Chase's room this morning.

While Kendyll and I did math, Carlie had pulled Chase's red rocker to the big window, and was reading a book she found in an antique store in Mineola. It makes this Mommy heart so happy to see reading for fun on a cold, snowy day.

And, of course, school didn't stop us from including the fun of a snow day too.

Daddy even took a very short work break to experience the ice and {very small} snowflakes.

We all laughed at his dramatic gasping over the cold wind. He didn't last long before he escaped back to his little office. :)

The girls, however, slid down the hill, skated down the hill, ran down the hill...and had the best time ever.

Mommy officially called the fun off when their noses were redder than little cherries.

We headed inside to popcorn, coke, and Pollyanna. Oh my goodness, I love these kind of afternoons. Naps, old movies, snuggling.

Mark is now promising a re-entry to the cold icy yard when he finishes work for the day. And, while they all freeze, I am curling up with my fuzzy blanket and a book.

I love our days "home from school". Icy or not. :)

We Heart San Fran!

Wow, did we have a fun week in California!! On our last day, Mark said "How in the world will you ever blog about this?" I said, "I'm not even thinking about that yet!" There is just too much! As you can tell, we were full of excitement from the FIRST minute, as the plane took off. Carlie's birthday trip was finally here!

Every day in San Fran held a similar routine: Daddy went to work. Meanwhile, Mommy and the girls had "school" in the hotel room for an hour. We would read books about San Francisco, the history of California, or something more specific like redwood trees or the cable car, and they would update their travel journals (where they glued tickets, stickers, etc. and drew pictures of what they learned the day before.

Then the girls watched Sesame Street (still a hit after all these years) while I got packed for the day, and we left the hotel by mid-morning.

We spent every day exploring and learning all we could about San Francisco, its history, boats, oceans, sea life, nature, transportation....the list goes on and on.

We would use some kind of fun form of transportation each day (there are so many to choose from there!),

and would be home around 5:30 to meet Mark for dinner before he would go back to work events for the evening.

Then, we would head to the hotel pool to swim, where the girls made friends from literally all over the world.

We would go back to the hotel room around 8:30 or 9, I would read a few chapters of our read-aloud book (which Abby Kate would sleep through by page 2), and then lights out by 10.

Whew! I was one tired mommy by each night, but it was so worth every minute of fun. The girls were such great ages for this trip, and we felt so blessed to experience SO much in the six days we were there.

But, since we want to remember the fun but not write about it ALL, the girls and I came up with the perfect solution. We're attempting to describe our trip in one or two word phrases, using ABC's and ONE picture for each letter (or maybe two). This is really hard for me...Should be interesting. :)

Our Trip: From A to Z

A is for Alcatraz

B is for Boat Tours

C is for Chinatown

D is for Diablo Mountain Climbing,

Danville, and Daddy's old house

E is for Eating! (our favorite pastime)

F is for Family Time

G is for Golden Gate Bridge

H is for Homeschooling...away from Home!

I is for In-N-Out (Kendyll's first try!)

J is for Jellyfish...and sharks and stingrays!

K is for Keeping us laughing...

L is for Last Night Baseball Fun (cheering AGAINST the Giants!)

M is for Muir Woods

N is for National Park Junior Rangers (three badges in one week!)

O is for On Our Way!

P is for Playgrounds & Parks (the coolest I've ever seen)

Q is for Quarter Collection (18 states and counting!)

R is for Remembering Chase (AK said "hi" to him in the clouds)

S is for Starbucks (daily),

Sisters, (oh come on, you knew I couldn't do ONE sister pic!)

...and Souvenirs

T is for Transportation (of every kind!)

U is for Union Square picnic lunch

V is for Views from the Top

W is for Wildlife (hawks, deer...and penguins)

X is for X-ploring God's Creation

Y is for Yummy Clam Chowder

Z is for Zeum Kids (Dallas needs one...)

And, my favorite picture...

We even found Africa in California. :) We were thinking of you, little one!