School Update

School has been plugging right along this year, despite my lack of blogging. Funny how the beginning of the year I am so good about taking pictures and blogging. Then real life sets in and the day to day learning is not always "blog worthy." Luke and Ben are doing a fantastic job this year and growing in their understanding in leaps and bounds. Gracie is desperate to catch up with her big brothers and is incredibly driven to soak up every aspect of learning she can!

Here is another "dump" of school pictures that have been building up!

Gracie and Jacob working on spelling and writing.

Luke and Ben have just about finished their cursive handwriting program for the year. They often request to write their spelling words in cursive!

Water beads!! Aunt Kamie sent us these fantastic sensory water beads awhile ago. We just now got around to playing with them. They were a hug hit for the whole family. Especially fun on the light table!

Isaac, just being cute and playing along while we do school.

Learning about water molecules, using grapes and marshmallows to create our H2O!

Our family has supported 3 children through Food for the Hungry for several years. (Actually one of them was from before we were married!) All of our children have either aged out of the program or their community has become self sufficient. What a huge praise! As a family we decided it would be fun this time to sponsor a child in Ethiopia! Here Luke is searching for the city that nine year old Hana lives in.

Several weeks ago we had an opportunity to visit an old historic mill as a family day. The kids loved it! Jacob in particular has been begging to go back. When I asked him why he liked the Mill so much he said, "I don't know, I just like old stuff!" Our little history lover!!! :)

Ben, our resident engineer, absolutely loved figuring out how the mill worked.

Isaac, once again, being cute and cuddly!

Caleb was a bit scared of the loud sounds from the water, so he would not join in on this photo.

After studying Winslow Homer and Fredric Remington, we worked on perspective with southwest landscapes. Gracie has decided she loves to join in on the art projects too.

Reading time for the little people.

One day a week Gracie has ballet class and Luke and Ben have a home school PE class. Thankfully the PE teacher is very understanding and allows younger brothers and sisters to play in the gym to keep them busy!

 I love this clever notebooking page from Ben. His picture of a giant squid just cracks me up.

Luke and Ben have enjoyed participating in Royal Ambassadors at church. Recently they had their derby car race.

Little brothers are the best cheer leaders for big brothers!

That's all for this school update!