Inside the Schoolhouse

Here are a few pictures from our school day.                                                 Titus is the most meticulous of all of the kids that are school age.  It has been such a joy to teach him this year.  Kindergarten is always an adventure and with an eager learner it's even better.  Titus loves to color and write.  Not only does he love  to color, he's also quite good at it!  Contrast that to my firstborn who wishes that crayons and other worthless writing utensils were never invented.  He has always hated coloring!  No interest, nada, nill, nuthin'!  Titus brings home perfectly shaded, colored in the lines pictures and often will finish it at home if he doesn't have time in class. Contrasting that to little Caleb, who would bring home blank pages because he would just sit and look at his paper and think about the picture, how it was made, why it was drawn that way, how realistic it was, etc.  So fun to see the differences in each child. Truly, they abound. 

Here you see Ethan encouraging and "helping" Titus as Emily looks on to see what "school" is all about.  She has her own "school work"  that she works on, which consists of coloring, play dough, gluing, and supervised cutting of paper.   In her mind Titus' work is much different, so she is keenly interested.  So much so that she actually sat quietly.  That, in itself is amazing because Emily has two volumes...loud and asleep!! 

In case you're wondering what Titus is working on... I use a variety of materials for Kindergarten.  He's working on one of the ABC Series books from Rod & Staff publishers.  Its a set of books that I purchase for the preschool years and we work through them until we're done.  There are 7 books in the series. 

For teaching reading and phonics, we use the Alpha Phonics curriculum by Samuel Blumenfeld.  Its very simplistic in its style, but I have used it with each of the children and had great success in teaching them to read. This year we also started using Math U See's Primer and Titus is loving it.  Partially because it looks similar to "the big kids" books and he also gets to use some of the manipulatives that they use.

You can see the serious look on Emily's face. You may also notice that she's sitting still (not a blurry pic) and that she's not talking.  You have seen a photograph of a rare, but precious moment.  Cherish this, my friend, savor it, when you next meet Emily reflect on it for you may never see this again.  






Hard working Kindergarten fella and a very "helpful" big brother.  Love that they love to help each other with genuine and sincere concern.  
My kids are great.


Please don't take this the wrong way....  I don't look down on Emily for the vivacious way that she approaches life, truly I don't!  Admittedly, it is challenging, but it is also a great joy.  I am so thankful for each of my precious children.  Differences or not, they are a gift from the Lord and I am  thankful.   Just threw that out there cause someone made mention of my storytelling methods, but alas, I AM INNOCENT!!  (said like Anne in Anne of Avonlea at the play rehearsal at the Ladies college...fyi)