Friday Favorites

Titus went back to work with Rod this week. If you don't know, my husband works for the pipeline. We used to travel with him, but the past six years we have stayed home. He's been blessed to be on a job for three years that's only four hours from home. He gets to come home on the weekends! He is the assistant superintendent, so he is able to bring a kid with him certain times. Titus got to go this time! I’m glad for the time they’ll get to spend together one-on-one. 

He’s goofing off in the truck with the radio. 

We made a library trip this week, and I bought library bags for Zeke and Zoey. They're in the middle of the summer reading program, and we haven't made a single event yet! Zeke is filling in his reading log quickly, though. 

Isn't this the cutest design?

I've been reading books by Terri Blackstone and am hooked. She's a Christian writer and her books are all full of suspense and clean romance! I have been flying through them! The Newpointe 911 series is the best - and it takes place in Louisiana (as do most of her books, since she's from Mississippi). If you're looking for a good read, look her up. 

We had Children in Action Wednesday night at church, and only three kids showed up (plus Zoey). The summer slump is real, folks! We had a great lesson anyway, and Mercie dressed up like Moses and told the story to the kids. They enjoyed that! I really hope our numbers get back to normal soon, but even if we just have one child show up, I still think it's worth having.

Thursday, Mercie and I took Zeke and Zoey to Monroe where our mall and shopping stores are before his speech therapy session. It’s an hour drive each way to speech each week, and the mall is only about twenty minutes further. We did some shopping and ate in the mall. It was a fun day! It’s always good to spend some with her! 

Considering how busy my month has been so far, we had a nice and easy week this week! How was your week?

Zeke's Kindergarten Year in Review (in pictures!)

It's wild to think that I'm bringing Zeke's kindergarten year to a close. We had such a fun year this year! We used My Father's World God's Creation from A to Z alongside Abeka Math and Rod and Staff workbooks (the ABCDEFG series). I'm not going to write reviews of the curriculum we used. The fact that we stuck with all of it and finished all of it speaks for itself! I just wanted to leave some pictures and a summary of some of the fun activities we did this year. 

Zeke is reading CVC words now and learning some sight words. He can also count to 100 by 1s, 5s, and 10s. He can write and read any number from 1-100. He can add and subtract in 10. I'm really proud of his skills and how much he learned this year!

The Purple Cow - he loved this poem

He used magnetic letters to make words on his blend ladder worksheet each week.

We still use his kangaroo pencil holder!

Sorting by farm animal and zoo animal

He was so proud of his penguin.

Puzzles were a big part of our school year.

We did a lot of hands-on math activities.

He loves pattern blocks, and we incorporated them quite a bit.

He packed shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.

More hands-on math with graphing.

He had a Mario birthday party for his 5th birthday.

Fingerprint insects - these were so cute!

Hands-on science lessons!

His handwriting keeps improving.

I made sure to have some fun fine-motor activities to round out his themes.

He loves to play with our magnet set!

He continued in speech therapy this year, and he loves all of their office decorations.

He enjoyed his math journal!

The worksheets from My Father's World are all great.

The Mailbox is a great source of worksheets, too.

He loved his crayon resist zebra.

He made a map of Africa with African animals.

His Rod and Staff workbooks were a favorite.

We also hatched butterflies from caterpillars, but I can't find that picture!

Lots of recess at the park.

Zeke had a fantastic kindergarten year. It's hard to capture everything he learned and experienced, but I tried! I've already received his first-grade curriculum in the mail, and I'll be sharing that soon!

Our Summer So Far ( Busy! )

So far we have had a busy summer! I can't believe that June is already halfway over. We've had something going on every week since school let out in May! Summer baseball ended the last week of May. Zeke had the best time playing t-ball and learned so much! It was such a good experience for him, and he can't wait until next year. Titus enjoyed playing in the Majors and had some nice hits and field plays. 

The Bandits

The Royals

After school was finished for the year, Silas, Titus, Mercie, and her boyfriend Cole went to Rodeo Bible Camp. This was my kid's third year attending, and they had a blast as usual! Silas and Titus went for the bull-riding event, and Mercie decided to try her hand at break-away roping this year instead of her usual barrel racing event. She learned a lot about roping and wants to start doing that as well as barrel-racing. Silas has really made some improvements with his bull-riding this year. He even rode in the open class division in our tri-state rodeo in May both nights. 

The next week, we had Vacation Bible School at our church. We kicked it off with a waterslide and hamburgers at church on Sunday. Our theme was The Great Jungle Journey. We didn't have a very large crowd of kids, but the ones that came learned so much and had so much fun. It was a tiring week, though! The following Sunday we had our Family Night with a homemade ice cream supper afterwards.

Then Titus and Mercie went to King's Camp for the week - Titus, as a camper, and Mercie, as a work-study. He had such a great week! He placed first in archery and canoe-racing - he was really proud of himself. Mercie had an exhausting week of washing dishes, sweeping, mopping, cleaning bathrooms, and more - but she enjoyed herself.

His ribbons

This week, Silas is at King's Camp and next week, Mercie goes as a camper. Titus also goes to 4H Camp that week. We also started Children in Action at church on Wednesday nights. It's a mission-focused program for kids in 1st through 6th grades. We will be learning about missionaries each month and then doing our own outreach the last Wednesday of the month. 

She can climb up the slide at church.

Zeke is doing a little summer school because I don't want him to have a "summer slide" where he forgets everything he has learned in reading. It takes us around 20 minutes a day, and he really likes doing his worksheets. Each day, he completes a few pages in Explode the Code Book One, a handwriting page in A Reason for Handwriting K, and a few pages in the Complete Book of Math for Grades 1 and 2. We've been reading lots of books each day! I'm also doing A Thoughtful Toddler School for Zoey (I wrote this).

After June, I think our summer will slow down some! Here are a few more random pictures from June!

Checking the corn

Helping daddy 

Working puzzles 

Besties

I got a haircut

How is your summer going so far? I'd love to hear!