Witty Name Goes Here

Collins Academy: 2012-2013 Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 17:21:00 +0000

5. Come up with a new name for our school. (Any ideas?) 4. Go to the library more. 3. Play outside more. 2. Snuggle up on the couch and read more. 1. Pray more.

Trial and Error

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 17:18:00 +0000

After four full weeks with the curriculum I chose for Audrey, I've realized that it is over her head for now. It's more like a first grade curriculum and will be great for first grade. This is an interesting process. I have to find a way to teach AUDREY, not myself, and not my idea of who she is. I have to know my child and understand who she really is, not who I think she is or who I think she should be. So, I'm doing a ton of read alouds for her kindergarten year. We are reading about world cultures, science, and just for fun! We will be doing formal math and reading instruction, so there is no need to worry about her progress. The really great thing about homeschooling is that there is no behind...you can't really be ahead or behind yourself! I am a capable and conscientious teacher. I have no doubt that Audrey will be right where she needs to be all while we are encouraging her to discover who she is and her interests. I can't wait for "Not Back to School Day" August 27th. We will go out for breakfast and do some other fun stuff (like get a free haircut at JCPenny!).

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 04:09:00 +0000

Spoiled Brat

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 04:09:00 +0000

Lately someone in my home has been throwing fits, whining, kicking the air, yelling, talking back, speaking to others hatefully, and being an all around spoiled brat. Unfortunately, I have to name a name. The spoiled brat at my house is me. I have so many excuses. I'm tired, my stomach hurts, I'm hungry, I didn't get enough "me" time today... Stop the excuses. I need to check my heart. What's my motivation? To have well behaved kids? To get my way? To control my husband? Nope. Today (and hopefully everyday) my motivation is to glorify the One who gives me life and grace. So, I'm gonna stop kicking the air and start preaching the gospel to myself. (And hopefully my 5 year old will stop throwing fits! She's been watching her momma too much! Nothing like having a little walking, talking mirror following me around all day!)

Heart of Dakota

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 20:15:00 +0000

Heart of Dakota, Little Hearts for His Glory...Kindergarten here we come. I am teaching her at "half-speed" which means that we are doing one page in the guide every day instead of two (regular speed). This is helping us ease into homeschooling and also allows us freedom this summer. Each regular (two pages) day is only 90 minutes, so our half day is super duper quick, but packed with spiritual truths and academics.

View From the Office

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 20:12:00 +0000

From Brandon's "shop." The AMAZING sunrise in Flower Mound. God is so gracious to give such a beautiful view every single day.

Unit 2 Little Hearts for His Glory

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 20:07:00 +0000

Today's craft was a hit! She's still making hearts to etch. We (I did it, too!) colored on white paper using bright colors and then colored really dark black on top. Then she etched a heart into the black and decorated the heart. We learned that God knows all of our feelings, and He sees into our hearts just like He saw into Cain's heart. We prayed that God would take anger out of our hearts before it makes us do something wrong.

My Opposites

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 03:34:00 +0000

My children fall asleep in two very opposite ways (much like their personalities).

Audrey, with a smile on her face, relaxes and peacefully drifts to sleep.

Lincoln rolls, kicks, slams his head and feet onto the wall, does the worm, yells jibberish, pinches his face, pokes his eyes, and shakes his head to keep awake. He is like a bug stuck on its back, kicking and kicking...and then without warning he is snoring.

Fun times! :)

Diaper Free Zone

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 03:34:00 +0000

We are all potty trained, days and nights, as of Wednesday, May 30, 2012. YAY!!

Collins Academy...

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Wed, 23 May 2012 03:49:00 +0000

...is open for educating!

I'm not even sure that's a correct phrase, but regardless of my grammar, our home schooling days have officially begun!

I hope to update this blog for memory's sake.

I am using a sweet, thorough, and rigorous curriculum from Heart of Dakota. Lincoln will be doing school with Little Hands to Heaven and Audrey is doing Little Hearts for His Glory.

The collage is representing the collection of stories that is history. The cross is reminding us that Jesus is the center of history. All of history before Jesus and everything after Jesus points to Him.

Audrey's First Soccer Game

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:52:00 +0000

September 18, 2010

This was so much fun and very entertaining. There are 8 on her team and they played on two smaller fields. The club has the under-4 teams play 3v3. So, they had 3 playing on one field and 3 on the other with 2 sitting and resting/watching. Audrey was supposed to start sitting out but some kids didn't want to play. And to my surprise, she JUMPED right in!! It turns out that only one girl played with her the first game so it was 2v3 and Audrey made three goals (in the right goal!).

Then she switched to the other field and she ended up playing 1v3 for the rest of the time (about 25 minutes with 3 short breaks). She was WORN out, but she LOVED it! I'd say she scored about 10 goals! Once she got the ball she was a goal scoring machine...mostly b/c the other kids had no clue. We've been playing soccer in the backyard for almost a year. Brandon and her play all the time in the house too. I think she yelled, "GOOOOOOAL!" one time.

I think once the other kids figure out how to play, they'll leave her in the dust. But it was nice that for at least one game she could be the "soccer demon."

Random Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 16:11:00 +0000

Lincoln and PopPop Dean.

Audrey swinging with Uncle Bryan. Too high!!!

Daddy and Lincoln watching the Texans win the first game of the season!

Muddy Girl

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:50:00 +0000

When Audrey stays with Mimi, you never know what they are going to do.

My Three Loves

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:27:00 +0000

Soccer Kick Off and 3 Months

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:04:00 +0000

This weekend we went to the Soccer Festival for Audrey. We were supposed to meet the coach, get uniforms, and play some fun games. Her team didn't have a coach so we didn't really meet the team or get a uniform. She was able to play some fun games while we melted in the 100 degree heat. I'm not sure one can be a soccer mom when one loathes the heat. We'll see.

I had an email when I got home saying that our team has a coach and her first practice is Tuesday!

Also, Lincoln was 3 months Sunday! I forgot to take a picture of him all posed as a new 3 month old, but I did get a few of him melting in his stroller on the soccer field.

Painting Veggies and Little F

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 02:32:00 +0000

Thursday's big activity was painting the salt dough veggies we made yesterday. Audrey was so excited to do this today, she didn't even change into her "day clothes."

I'm a mean mommy and I wanted the veggies to be the right color so I only let her paint one color at a time. What good would gray veggies be in our garden? Letting her paint them the RIGHT color also helped her learn about the veggies. We referred to the Gail Gibbons book again to link learning.

Friday we did another project with the letter f. We talked about lowercase f. We decorated our little f with feathers. FUN but very feathery! They floated everywhere.

Well, Audrey got a little more practice writing the letter F...too bad she did it on the wall!

We read some poems from the Flower Fairy poetry book and colored a page about the Foxglove Fairy to go with the poem we read.

We also practiced Little Boy Blue, pointing to each word on the chart with the pointer. She is really understanding that each word stands alone. She's getting that one-to-one correspondence, which is HUGE for reading! I'm so proud of her and amazed at how quickly she picks things up. I usually only have to explain it once. Amazing!

We also had a little art appreciation time using the book Come Look With Me: World of Play. Today we just "noticed" the artwork called "Bull Jumping," but tomorrow we'll discuss it more in depth.

Of course we changed our calendar and weather board, and I think next week we'll start working on saying the Pledge of Allegiance every day.

Sunday we wanted to go to the Farmer's Market, but I couldn't find one that was open. So, the produce department at HEB was good enough. Audrey picked out squash and zucchini to try. We roasted them with potatoes and garlic. She LOVED it all and I think it was because she helped! She told me what she wanted and even how I should cook them.

I also let her try red bell peppers (she didn't like) and cucumbers (she loves!). She's tried all these veggies before (and she really loves veggies actually) but since she actually KNEW what she was eating it was like a whole new experience for her.

My Cuties

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 19:47:00 +0000

Salt Dough Veggies

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 19:39:00 +0000

Today at school, we made salt dough veggies for Audrey's farm. We're learning about vegetables this week. We used Gail Gibbon's book The Vegetables We Eat to guide us as we made the veggies.

I baked them for a few hours at 200 degrees, and we'll paint them tomorrow.

Salt Dough
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 TBSP oil
3/4 cup warm water

And this is what Lincoln was up to today. He's working on that thumb.

First Day of School

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:17:00 +0000

This morning we started school! Audrey is so excited. She's telling everyone she's going to "Mommy's School" or "I'm going to home school." She is so cute!

We started the day off with the calendar (talking about numbers, days of the week, yesterday, today, and tomorrow) and weather (we went outside to check). Next, we read our focus book for the week Tops and Bottoms. We're working on the letter F and we "decorated" a capital F with red, yellow, and orange tissue paper. We called these strips of paper fall leaves, or f is for fall leaves. She loved the project and decided to draw with glue when she was all done with her F. I think she would have used the whole bottle of glue if I would have let her!

After lunch, we used Explore the Code, Book A for some letter/pre-reading practice. We also chanted the first stanza of Little Boy Blue.

I cannot wait for tomorrow!

Back to Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:42:00 +0000

I know I've said this before, but I'm really going to start blogging regularly again. Whoever was following my blog before has probably given up on me. Now, though, I have an interesting topic to blog about. I've started homeschool with Audrey! I found a really great curriculum at www.weefolkart.com. So, throughout the next school year, I'll post regularly about our journey as new homeschoolers!

Audrey Goes to the Dentist

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:04:00 +0000

I took Audrey with me to the dentist today. We've read the Dora Dentist book 100 times, but I wasnt planning on taking her to the dentist anytime soon. My dentist says age 5 is good enough.

I told her that she was going to go to the dentist with me and the doctor would look at her teeth, too. She was excited about the chair that goes up and down! In the car she started to chicken out (oh so typical of her personality, she gets anxious). I told her we weren't talking about it anymore.

At the office, she sat in a chair and waited semi-patiently. She kept asking when it would be her turn!! The hygienists there are SOOOO nice and they were going on and on about her twinkle toe shoes (which she predicted would happen..."Mom the dentist will say, 'OOOH I love your twinkle toe shoes!!' she's such a girl!). They made her feel super comfortable (even the male dentist did).

When the dentist came in, she kind of shut down. He went on and on about her shoes...which she ate up!! He looked at my teeth and then it was her turn. She laid in the chair and wore sunglasses (b/c the light is so bright??). He counted her teeth and she did absolutely perfect!! She even asked him why he didn't brush her teeth.

They scheduled my next appointment and put her on the schedule for a cleaning too! They think she's totally ready for the whole deal! She's soo grown up yall! I was soo proud b/c this is soooooo out of her comfort zone. She's one who will be all ready for something new and then freak out at the last second!

Yes, I'm Still Alive

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Sun, 02 May 2010 03:07:00 +0000

YIKES! It's been almost a year since my last post!

I went back to work in August and that was the end of my blogging. I'm almost done with this school year and I'll be a stay at home mom again!

Brandon, Audrey, and I are moving in a few days and we're expecting a baby boy in June. Lincoln will be here before we know it!

I will post pictures and get back to regular updates soon!

Consistent Parenting

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:45:00 +0000

"The way to keep your child in check has to start at the home. If you want to manage your children well in public you had better be sure to manage them consistently at home. Your kids have to know that your words mean something. If you never follow through with what you say you are going to do then you simply become a liar in their eyes."

HT: http://takeyourvitaminz.blogspot.com/2009/07/children-gone-wild.html

Cute Shirts!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:00:00 +0000

Check out this blog. She is hosting a giveaway for a free initial Tee from Love Lucas Creations. A friend of mine is the owner of Love Lucas Creations and her Tees are just too CUTE. I am a huge fan and highly recommend checking out her website. Love Lucas Creations

If you go to this blog you can earn 6 chances to win a free Tee!! Good luck!

Small Town Famous

Audrey-isms

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:24:00 +0000

It's been soooo hot here the past few days. Today's high was 101 and tomorrow it's supposed to be 103! YIKES!

This afternoon Audrey wanted to play outside in her "house" (a Little Tikes plastic clubhouse we got Sam Malone style FREE!). Brandon went outside with her, and about 20 minutes later she came inside. I asked her why she was coming inside. She replied, "The sun is too shiny. It's hot outside."

I LOVE IT! The sun is too shiny!

Tonight, I could not get Chariots of Fire out of my head. I kept whistling it over and over. Audrey always asks obvious questions. She asked, "Momma, are you "whistle-wing?" I love how she can't quite say the 'L' sound yet. :)