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Thursday, October 01, 2009

Weekly Wrap-Up



Last week I talked about how we were getting started "home schooling." (At age three I don't know that you can technically call it that. On the other hand, I don't think you can't technically NOT call it that! So for simplicity sake, let's just say we've started some schooling.)

At the ripe old age of three, the thing I am most interested in him getting the hang of are:

1. Motor Skills.
2. Counting to 20. (He counts to 30.)
3. Letter identification.

This week we practiced more coloring and tracing which went pretty well (when we did it). Being that we are at the TAIL END OF THIS NEVER ENDING ADOPTION PROCESS *ah hem* I spent a lot of this week trying to glue the phone to my ear and wishing it to ring. This is a pretty accurate representation of my internal feelings:



Maybe next week?

At any rate, it's hard to focus on much else.

Bookworm is currently in love with these things:



In every attempt to feed his obsession AND get him to practice tracing, I "dotted" out some shapes that vaguely resembled whales, sharks and other ocean animals and had him trace those shapes. He took great delight in that and then shocked the living daylights out of me by grabbing his toy turtle and attempting tracing around the toy. I don't know if he's ever seen us do that, but I figured he's connecting dots, literally, quite well!

We also memorized the following scripture verse:


"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Gen. 1:1

Our "text book" of choice, which we have read multiple times this week, is Melody Carlson's God Made Them All which is offered by Crossway Books.

This book is AWESOME if you want to teach your children that God made the world. We're using Bookworm1's interest in animals to segue into the fact that God made them all. When I saw this book I had hopes it would be everything we could possibly want, from a toddler's perspective, of enforcing the concept that God created the giraffes, the hippos, the rhinos, the snakes, the cows and horses and everything else.

Each page spread hits a different animal grouping. On the first page we discovered that God made the farm animals, the second we learned that he made all of the animals on the African plains and then, lo and behold, we also learned that He created stingray, WHALES, a lobster and SHARKS! The book points out that all animals are different and live in a variety of locations. "But each of them is special, for God has made them all."

I highly, highly, highly recommend God Made Them All as a sturdy board book that is fun to look at and possible to learn from.

This fit in very well with our focus on sea animals (learning Who made them) and our Bible verse (to solidify the idea) and the book is colorful and thorough in its exploration of the animal kingdom that it was requested time and time again.

Lastly, when I was growing up my mom had this CD cassette called "The Creation Sensation" which was a children's musical which focused on the debate of Creation vs. Evolution. I have not been able to find it at all but I DID finally locate the songs on Amazon. You can download the "Days Of Creation song" for less than a $1 on Amazon. Despite the HORRENDOUS cover art on the front of the CD cover (please don't even pay attention to it! It's awful!) the song is very catchy and sings you through the days of creation and what happened on each day. We've sung this song every day as well and I've been rememorizing what happened when (so it's good for mommy also).

I don't know where you are at, personally, with the whole concept of creation or evolution. I've made statements before around here before that I am a Creationist. Not trying to start any debates (not interested) - just sharing what we are doing in the spirit of the "Weekly Wrap Up" carnival (hosted by Kris) and to keep myself accountable in being creative (pardon the pun!) with my kid. I think this song and this book are two excellent resources for people with toddlers who want to present the idea of creation to their children. They are simple, straightforward and capture children's attention in a good way without being too complex.

I understand Creation vs. Evolution has become a "touchy" subject and, again, this blog is not the place for discourse. I'm here to report and that's how I'd like to leave it.

So this is what we've been up to this week. Tracing, singing, reading. I'm pretty happy with that!

As for next week - I'm hoping for a severe disruption in all plans which would indicate that Bookworm2 has made his long awaited and longed for appearance!

13 comments:

Annette W. said...

Congrats!

I think we need to work on tracing too.

You must be very young, or your mom very hip for her to have cd's when you were growing up! (I'm 33...and didn't have them till my last year or two of high school!)

Andrew Wiggins said...

I hope you do have a big interruption next week! After 2 adoptions, I can relate to staring at the phone begging it to ring. It's hard to get anything else done, I'm sure!

Stephanie said...

That book looks cool - my littles would like it! Looking forward to maybe seeing a new baby picture around here next week. :)

Carrie said...

I'm 31 so you don't have me beat by much here! =) However, most people seem to assume I'm early 20's and I'm told I will appreciate this some day. However, it can be quite frusterating....

Carrie said...

Oh. P.S. When I was little, it was a cassette tape. ;D NOW it's a CD.

Amy @ Hope Is the Word said...

A good week all the way around, Carrie!

Can't wait to hear your news next week! :-)

Stephanie Kay said...

Sounds great! Have you been tracing your hands and feet? My 3/4 yr olds love that.

We're doing Apologia science (5th Day, Aquatic Animals) this year so we are ALL about whales, octopus, etc. I'm considering shelling out big bucks for a membership to an aquarium an hour from us. It's very well done, lots of hands on, and has beluga whales.

Praying your phone call comes soon. Will I be able to hear your yell of glee when it does? :)

Momma Knows said...

It sounds like you've got a fantastic start with him! I know what you mean about the loonnnggg adoption process, as we have two of those under our belts and it's amazing how they can stretch things out. Soon it will be your day though, and you can crowd the courtroom and have a big party afterward! =) Enjoy your little guy!!

Cheryl Pitt said...

Wow you're really covering a lot of great skills! I'm slowly starting my 2 year old with "school". Just laying a foundation.

Congrats and good luck with your adoption!! That's exciting!

Stefanie said...

I'm praying that you get that phone call you've been waiting for!! How exciting.

That book looks awesome! I'll have to look into it for my toddler.

Anonymous said...

Wonder how many people, besides me, clicked over to look at the cover art on the CD just because you said not to? ;-)

What a fun week and what a joy to be able to watch our kids make those connections.

Looking forward to hearing more about your adoption phone call.

Anonymous said...

When I was little, I had records. RECORDS. lol (I'm 39)

Best of luck on all things adoption!

Blessings,

Sherry

http://educatingemme.blogspot.com/2009/10/weeks-3-in-review.html

Calina said...

If you are working hands-on with a preschooler, I would say that's homeschooling. In fact our local homeschool group even recognizes it as such.

Have you checked out DLTK's creation stuff? There are lots of cute little songs and poems. www.dltk-bible.com.

BTW, embrace the fact that you look young for your age. People are shocked when I tell them my oldest daughter is 22. They tend to think my 15 yr old daughter and I are sisters. LOL!

Praying for your call this week!

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