Life Space

My spirits are being refreshed everyday as this autumn time wears on.  I see some trees full of brilliant colors and others that have been the "victims" of a harsh, dry summer and are "just" brown.  But in all of it, brilliant or brown, I am reminded of God's goodness to us through whatever season we are in-- be it "brilliant" or "brown".

Recently, my family and I went through an interesting experience leaving us with an unexpectedly more freed-up schedule.  What could have been a difficult and thoroughly exhausting semester, though brought on not in a way I would have chosen or desired, has become an absolutely delightful time!  I have readjusted my school schedule and lowered my expectations of me so that I can leave SPACE, some call it "margin", for what really matters...like playing learning games with my kids while they are still into playing games with me! 

These are some pictures of what we did as part of our school day today.  I am choosing to include the "beautiful" ones and the "not-so-beautiful" ones just to show you that behind my lens is the same thing you see behind yours-- squirmy, wormy, some-times distracted, kids that act like they are not listening...but they are.  (And they even declared this book to be their favorite after 20 minutes previously saying, "we read this yesterday!  Why do we need to read it AGAIN today?!"=)

Our book for my Pre-K and Kinder this week (see Five in A Row if you are curious as to why a whole week) was Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown.  The book tells of a little bunny who declares he is going to run away and his momma bunny who won't let him get too far because she'll seek after him in whatever way she needs in order to catch him and love on him.  (Reminded me a bit of our Savior when we "declare" by our actions that we are going to run away from Him.)

Here's my 3rd grader re-reading it for the second time today while the youngers do a hands-on activity created by Homeschool Creations, Jolathe, provided for FREE on her website found here. 

The kids all worked together to put the places in order.  Pre-K had the pictures, Kinder had the ordinal numbers, and 2nd grader had the number words.

Here they are almost in order.  (Until brother flipped up that office mat and the cards went flying everywhere. At which point the next few pictures were taken.)

 (And yes, they are unedited, and yes my WB was not to my suiting-- that goes for playing around while taking pictures.  I just thought you all could benefit from the "not-so-beautiful_ like I said earlier=) (Kudos to the bloggers who choose to use their very best and edited and cropped photos...I don't have that time! ha.)

One of my favorites!  After it was all completed (for the second time) my Pre-K gave a big "YES!" with an arm gesture as he does after he bowls a strike or catches a ball.

 Here, Kinder is working on her tracing printable, part of the unit package by Homeschool Creations. 

And Pre-K was able to be in on the action too. 













Our day went on to include math, history, science, violin lessons, gymnastics, a trip to the library, (Frostys from Wendys=) and basketball practice.  Now, time for dinner prep.  (oh, and I did forget to include a quick visit with our neighbor who currently has my kids at her house...she probably thinks I'm doing something important like cleaning...but this blogging outlet is SO wonderful to have!  Shhh...don't let her in on our secret time.=)

I hope you, too, are learning and growing in what SPACE is needed in your family.  What a joy it is to have a happy wife, happy husband, happy children...happy home.


Post Script:
If you've read my last post, you'll know I've been struggling to get my Kinder the time and attention she's been needing.  This morning said it all as she was ALL SMILES after our "hide the bunny" activity, sequencing, reading a story JUST for her and M. and then writing and reading (while at violin lessons).  When I asked her, "is that what you'd like for Kindergarten?" She nodded eagerly and gave me a ginormous huge.  Gotta love Kindergarten.  (Note, as a rule I do not ask my children what they think they should be doing for school, but she's been the difficult one to "please" so it was worth it for her to be totally into what I was asking of her.)