School Days

Another school year is upon us.  Dropped my 5th, 3rd, and 1st grader off this morning and gawked at how grown up they look.

Ahhh, just love 'em.  Good luck today boys

Moses bomb.

Thanks for the cute shirts Queenie.  They love them.  Ashton kept talking about how soft they are.

My five boys

Hunter enters his last year of elementary school.  He has a 4 period day now and rotates teachers.  He still has the same kids in his class for Math and ELA but gets to rotate around with the other kids now which I am happy about.

Hunter- 5th

Ashton also tested into GT this year so he will have the next two years with basically the exact same kids.  He also gets to bring his iPad home this year which he is excited about.

Ashton 3rd

Shepherd also got a really good teacher.  It was one of two that he was hoping for.  She is young, single, pretty, and sweet so Shepherd should do just fine. :)  (Nolan, do you want a meet up?!?!)

Shepherd 1st

Bennett is home with me for one more year before he hits pre-k and I probably head back to work in some capacity.  This year though, I am going to be much more structured with him.  We will have "school" every day using the same curriculum I used for the other three.  I cant say enough about this preschool curriculum.  It is wonderful!!!  It would make a great Sunday School curriculum too.

The material I am using with Bennett... about mid year, I will probably add in Handwriting without Tears as well.

Also, at the beginning of summer, I posted "Books for Boys" which also listed some goals we had for summer reading.  I am pretty pleased with what they accomplished.  Hunter and Ashton read two chapter books a piece and did a comprehension unit on one of them using "Drawn Into the Heart of Reading."  I then read a couple books to them at night as well. Shepherd read one chapter book on his own and then we read 4 of the Stick Dog chapter books together.  More detailed descriptions in the caption below.

1- Stick Dog - Shepherd and I have read the first four books of this series and he we LOVES it.  These were a great find.

2- Bridge to Terabithia- Ashton read this for his first book and Hunter read for his second book.  Ashton used this book to do his comprehension unit on.  I wanted to challenge Ashton a bit and this book was just enough of a challenge without being frustrating.  Though it a bit of stretch for Ashton, it was leveled just right for Hunter to read by himself.
We all watched the movie last week too- it was a pretty good reflection of the book... I recommend.  Shepherd loved the movie too, though now the book will not surprise him.  Warning- if you havent read it, it deals with death so be warned.

3- In Search of Honor- Hunter did his comprehension unit on this Christian Historical Fiction book.  Again, it was probably a step above his comfort reading level but he read a lot of it out loud to me so we could discuss and break it down.

4- The Adventure of Tom Sawyer- This was Ashton's second book.  These readers are great as they take the classics and make them a bit easier.  It was the perfect level for him to read independently.  We have a couple more, Call of the Wild and The Story of Kind Arthur, that the boys will read throughout the school year

5-The Magician's Nephew-  Hunter and I read this one together at the end of the school/ beginning of the summer.  We are anxious to finish the series but we have to finish other things we have started... haha)

6- The Mysterious Mr Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (book 2).  Hunter, Ashton, and I read this at night over the summer.  Again, we love these books.  We will hopefully start book 3 this winter.

7- City of Orphans-  This is the book H and A and I are reading at night now. This is a new one for me as I knew nothing about it but it is about Newsies and since my family loves the movie, Newsies then I thought we would give it a try.  So far, it is wonderful.  Hunt and Ash both look forward to reading it and always want me to read more.  Hope to finish it in 2 weeks or so and then I am reading Seraphina and the Black Cloak to at least the older 3.

8- Imagination Station- Voyage of the Vikings- Forgot to add this book with the others but Shepherd read this to me for his chapter book.  He did such a good job.  This is a great beginner's chapter book series.  It is Christian based and historically accurate.  We have one more at the house that Shep will read this fall.

And that pretty much wraps up our summer and pushes us into fall.  Chad's football season kicks off Friday night and we are hopeful that things are looking up this season.

To sum it up, I look above and pray....
Jesus, Protect them.  Claim them. Use them.

Books for Boys

I LOVE books and thankfully my boys really like to read as well.  With summer break just a couple days away, I thought I would mention a few good books that my boys have really enjoyed.  The book recommendations go from Bennett's favorites all the way to Hunters.  Though I titled this, Books for Boys, I enjoyed them as well. So, if you have girls, I think they could probably get lost in these stories as well.

*** All book titles in post are links that will take you to amazon (in most cases) for deeper description.

The Book with No Pictures by BJ Novak
  Sometimes it is just fun to be silly.  This book is so much fun to sit and read to kids.  From Bennett's age (3) to Hunter (10)- everyone has a smile on their face when reading this fun book.

The Pout Pout Fish by Deborah Dieson
All the kids love or have loved this book (as well as The Pout Pout Fish in the Big Big Dark.)  I think I almost have them memorized.  The expression of being a "pout pout fish" is used often.  The book is funny and has a sing songy style to it that can make pouty little boys happy.

Dazzling Diggers by Tony Mitton and Ant Parker
This currently Bennett's most requested book.  We actually accidentally stole this book from Ashton's 1st grade teacher last year.  How do you accidentally steal?  Well, it gets buried in a backpack and then is not returned for a whole school year.  Once Bennett tires of it (which it has been a year and he still loves it), then I will give it back.... i think.

My Friend the Enemy by Daniel Smith
  Great Book!  I love being surprised by a good book.  We picked this up at the library last summer.  Set it in WWII, this realistic fiction book is about a boy's struggle with " moral dilemmas of war."

My Brother's Secret by Daniel Smith
  Havent read this one yet as it just came out recently, but if it is half as good as "My Friend the Enemy", then I will recommend it.

The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
Hunter was given this box set at Christmas by his cousins.  He (and I) started reading them separately.  Hard to beat anything by CS Lewis and I have no doubt these set will exceed expectations.  He is about half way through book 1 and I am on book 2.
  Side note, I didnt know that the Lion, the Witch, the Wardrobe was actually the 2nd book.

Mr Benedict's Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
  I have sung these books praise before, but seriously... great read.  Hunter. Ashton and I are about 1/2 of the way through Book 2 and we was love it. It has quite a extensive vocabulary, so it is a good group read.
  Since the last "review", I have read the prequel of how Mr Benedict became Mr Benedict and it is just as engaging as the rest of the series.

Amulet Series by Kazu Kibuishi
  My older two loved these books (they read them in 3rd/ 1st grade).  I honestly only read the first one (I will read the rest...eventually.)  They are comic style (thus the reason I havent read them all yet).  Fun read.
  The 7th book just came out and Hunter and Ashton have already flown threw it.  It ended in a cliffhanger so they are excited for Book 8 to come out.

Star Wars Head to Head by Scholastic
All my boys love these books.  The link will take you to the first one but there are others.  Basically, it pits different Star Wars characters against each other to see who would win.  It is not my cup of tea but they read these all the time and will have in depth discussions with eachother as to why they agree or disagree with the books answers.  Hunter just ordered his 4th off of Amazon... Hunter is a tight wad with his money so if he spends money on something, then I know he loves it.

Harry Potter Series by JK Rolwing
  When this series first came out, I thought "when I have kids, I will not let my kids read that.  Witchcraft and magic- no way."
  As I have gotten older, my love for reading has multiplied.  I decided that I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and so I read the HP series a couple years ago.  I loved it.  At the time, Hunter was in 2nd grade and I wanted him to read it but struggled with knowing if the magic was going to be a hindrance for him.  Then, I started thinking about all the super hero and fairy tale world and the magic that goes into that.  I realized that it was my responsibility to help the boys understand pretend from real life.
Anyways, I read the series to Hunter during his 3rd grade year.  After each book, we watched the movie.  We had some really good discussions during this process.  I have promised Ashton that he and I will go through the series next year.

Percy Jackson Series and Heros of Olympus Series by Rick Riordan
  Both of these series are great.  Hunt and I read Percy Jackson (5 books in series) over the summer and then we started the Heros of Olympus series in the fall.  I would go as far to say that it is semi-educational as well as you learn quite a bit about Greek/ Roman life and the mythology.  Hunter has mentioned a couple times, "I learned that in school." or "I told my teacher about that."  We are on the second to last book (book 4) in the Heros of Olympus series.

The Action Bible
This is the Bible for kids .  It is comic style and fun to read.  The pictures are great and the content is spot on.  Both Chad and I have learned things from this Bible.  We have read through it at least 5 times over the past couple years.  Great night time Bible story read.

The New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes by Kenneth N Taylor
Though we love the Action Bible, it is a deep and wordy.  On a normal night, Hunter and Ashton get the Action Bible and Shepherd and Bennett use this one.  Shepherd enjoys the Action Bible too, but since he and Bennett share a room and go to bed at the same time then it is easier to just use this one.  As mentioned, Shepherd can easily read this one to Bennett which makes a mom's heart happy.

For this Summer

Drawn Into the Heart of Reading
Last summer we had designated time to read.  I used the workbook, "Drawn Into the Heart of Reading."  I highly recommend this guide.  Click the link above if you are interested in a detailed description of the curriculum (it is technically a homeschooling reading curriculum that I use for a summer program.)

Here are some books that I have on the boys "read list" this summer.  Most of these were books that I read as a kid that made an impact on me.  We will not read all of these this summer- these are just some that made the short list.  And of course, they will have many library visits to pick out books that they want to read that are not on "my list"- I mean, I am not a dictator. haha :)
1- Bridge to Teribithia by Katherine Paterson
2- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
3- In Search of Honor by Donna Lynn Hess
4- A Father's Promise by Donna Lynn Hess
5- Medallion by Dawn L Watkins
6- False Coin, True Coin by Lois Hoadley Dick (if I can find it at mom's house)
7- Chronicles of Narnia Box Set (mentioned above).  There are 7 in the series so we have a lot more to read.

Hunter likes the historical fiction, Ashton will want to read any fiction or non fiction book about sports, Shepherd likes mysterys (with a touch of goofy), and Bennett- well, he likes anything with tractors or Paw Patrol.

Oh, and I am sooo proud of my husband.  He is actually reading a book right now as well!!!  I would like to think my addiction to reading is paying off.  (Anna, he is finally reading the Bonhoeffer book you guys got him a couple years ago and he is telling me random facts about the dude all the time.)  He doesnt read often (besides the Bible, his annual read of "The Art of War", and football books) so this is a major victory.

I would love to know of any books your boys (or girls) are reading that they love... and I will add to "the list."

So, books...

Books
  First, be warned that I enjoy dystopian, fantasy type books.  I try to read a little bit of everything but find that I normally fly through that genre.  I have tried to pull some of favorites from the past 8 months or so.  I also tried to include a little bit of everything.  Yes, I read a lot.
   A couple of these books were recommended by a friend, a couple I had seen on online booklists, while 4 or 5 of them I happened upon (my favorite way to find a good book.)

1- Throne of Glass Series (4 books)
     I just stumbled upon this series when I had nothing else to read. It is about a female assassin in a world of magic.  It is fantasy, so if you struggle with believability (is that a word?) then this may not be the book for you.  But, if you have imagination and can get lost in magic world, it is a good read.  I haven't read the last book of the series but have it on hold from the library and am anxious to get my hands on it.

2- What Alice Forgot-
   Alice wakes up without any  memory of the last 10 years of her life.  This book takes a look at how life can harden and change us.  A bunch of little choices can change your life.

3- Big Little Lies-
   same author as What Alice Forgot.  This book spiderwebs between 3 characters and weaves quite a story that is neatly tied up by the end.

4- I am Pilgrim-
   Loved this.  It was long but really good.  A CIA agent tracks down a terrorist that almost destroys the world as we know it.  Complex but not hard to follow.

5- The Selection Series- (3 book series)
   A dystopian series that I stumbled across.  As many fantasy/ dystopian books, the target audience is much younger than me. haha, hey, I like Percy Jackson, Hunger Games.  I really think it would be fun to compare and contrast the story of Esther to The Selection.  The book is about a prince who has to pick his wife from a group of girls that come to live in the palace. 

6- We Were Liars. 
   Don't want to give too much away on this one.  But, the ending left me shocked. 

7- The Fifth Wave (series)- 
   Cant wait to see the movie.  Basically, this book is about 5 catastrophes that are sent to wipe out the human race.  It is along the same line as Hunger Games and Divergent. 

8- The Rosie Project-
   A funny little book about a man with undiagnosed autism who is searching for a wife.  Laughed out loud many times.

9- The Maze Runner series
   Again, right there with Hunger Games and Divergent.  Easy, fast read.  Like most books, it is much better than the movie.  You also need to read the whole series to fully appreciate it. 

10- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime-
   A quirky book, this time about a boy with autism.  He is on the quest to solve the murder of his neighbor's dog.  It is strangely funny and in depth.

11- The Boys in the Boat- 
   Started reading this one but didn't finish before my kindle copy returned.... currently on hold to get a hard copy of it. But, I cant wait to finish it.  I am not normally a reader of non fiction, ironically, true stuff just doesn't interest me.  haha.  But this book is great- maybe because the content interests me or maybe it is just a really good read.  Anyway, it is about the 1936 America crew team that won the Olympics.

12-  Unwrapping the Greatest Gifts
    ***Obviously this was not read in the past 8 months.
     I mentioned this book here last year.  This book is a family Advent to celebrate Christmas.  It is amazing!  The author, Ann VosKamp, also has the book The Greatest Gift which is the adult study.  It is also amazing.  But, if you can only get one of them.  Get the kid one.  It is short and sweet but in depth with thought provoking questions that will only get deeper as your kids age.  It will definitely be an annual study with my kids as we celebrate our King.


Here is what is currently on my hold list or want to read list...
1- Queen of Shadows (as mentioned above.  This is the last book in the Throne of Glass series)
2- Pretty Girls
3- Seraphina and the Black Cloak
4- Son of Neptune (Hunter and I are reading this series together, Heros of Olympus)
5- The Inspired Room - crafty book about decorating on a budget and using our space to serve (at least that is what I think it is about)
6- Simply Tuesday - this is the book that my old Bible Study group just started and I just ordered.  Though I live too far away to attend the Bible study, I always read along with them.  I have also read, "A Million Little Ways", also by this author.  It was good so I have high hopes for this one as well.

Let me know if you have read anything really good... or just plain good recently.  Happy Reading!

All Things Christmas

Christmas is basically here.  As most, we have been running around like chickens with our heads cut off in "celebration."  Oh how we get our priorities all mixed up this time of year. 

One way that I have attempted to realign our family's focus is through reading Ann Voskamps, "The Greatest Gift" (kid edition.)  I have been reading the adult version of The Greatest Gift with a friend.  Let me just say, these books are AMAZING!  It truly pushes you back to the Gift of Christmas linking Christ to the pillars of the Old and New Testament.  The studying of Advent is truly one of the best ways to refocus.  The book suggests doing a Jesse tree and supplies material for the kids to color/ decorate ornaments to hang on the Jesse tree. 

A snapshot of our Jesse tree from a few days ago. 

We just printed the ornaments out through her website and then pasted it on cardstock.

I love looking at this tree as a constant reminder of the sacrifice for me.  We serve such an amazing God.  I think this will become a tradition with our family. 

Onto some of the other Christmas things.  Our church had their children's program last weekend.  It was a Christmas play with speaking part (5 scenes) and really great music.  Hunter had one of the leads and did such a great job.  I was so proud of him with the way he worked to memorize his lines.  Shepherd and Ashton also did a great job singing.  Our church has a ton of kids and it was great to watch them.  They practiced really hard.

The whole group of kids.  Hunter is sitting with the group by the flags.  Shepherd and Ashton are standing behind Joseph (you can barely see Shep)

Close up of Ash and Shep

Close up of Hunter and the other "actors".

Hunter is in 3rd grade choir this year and they had a cute Christmas program as well.


Hunter- the tallest- back left.

Here is a clip.

On the commercial side of Christmas, shopping is done.  Each kid is getting 4 gifts and then they drew names with eachother to buy a gift (with their own money).... trying something new this year. 

I didn't show my Christmas décor because I didn't do a whole lot this year.  I did have a theme though (it actually is courtesy of a friend who made a comment on her blog about why would anyone not get a real tree. haha).  I had been debating as to whether or not I would go fake or real this year anyway.  When I read that I though, well, what is the perk of fake over real?  The my first answer was 1) we already have a fake one so it is free.  The led to my next thought of... I am not going to spend a dime on Christmas decorations this year.  And I am proud to say, for the first year ever- I did not spend anything to decorate my house.  Nada... so thanks for the inspiration Liv. 
Here is the - artificial- tree. Shelves, mantles, and small trees are throughout the house as well... just didn't take pics.

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Perhaps my favorite things this year...  all of our family Christmas cards since we started doing photo cards in 2006.  Back then, there was 1 kid, 1 dog. My what 9 years looks like.

9 years of cards.

 

Have a Merry Christmas.

Fiction Books...

As I have mentioned a couple times in the last few months, I love to read.  Winter months, especially winter months with a baby who likes to limit my projects, have given the opportunity read.  I thought I would break it up into two posts.

First up... fiction books.  Let's just state for the record that I LOVE a good fiction book and I am quite happy that I have read a few good ones recently.... as well as some average ones.

Here is a recap of my recent fiction reads.  I even gave them a rating for you!  haha. You are Welcome! : )

1-  Catching Fire     and   2-   Mockingjay  by Suzanne Collins
Rate- 9
I love Hunger Games and read it a year or two ago.  I finally got around to reading the sequels and I must say that they did not disappoint.  Often, sequels leave me dissatisfied but I thought both Catching Fire and Mockingjay were great follow ups to the Hunger Games.

I am actually awaiting the release of the DVD tomorrow and will be stalking redbox to try and get it as I never had the time to see it in the theatre.  I know practically everyone has read these books, but if you haven't... read them.  Very good!

3- Divergent  by Veronica Roth
Rate- 7
Along the same lines as The Hunger Game books is Divergent.  It is also a triology and is also what I would call fantasy/ sci fi.  I have not read books 2 and 3 yet.  I would give Hunger Games trilogy 10 stars, Divergent would be somewhere between a 7 and 8.  Not that I find Hunger Games realistic but Divergent left me with too many holes.  However, I did like it and want to see the movie when it comes out later this month if for no other reason than to see how the pictures in my head match the movie.

4- The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks
Rate- 7
I don't swoon over Nicholas Sparks as other woman do however I do think most of his books are pretty good... a little sappy and melodramatic... but good.  The Longest Ride is different than his other books.  It is slower, not necessarily in a bad way but I am glad that I was warned by my mother-in-law before I started reading it.

This book goes back and forth between two different story lines which he did a good job of separating.  It was not hard to keep up with it.  The ending, honestly, was pretty predictable, but it had a nice tidy ending.

5- Downfall  by Terri Blackstock
Rate- 6
I read a handful of this author's books when I was in college.  Last time we went to the library, I was on the quest to find a good book to read during the snow storm.  Enter fussy baby who was not going to let me browse so I grabbed the last of Blackstock's Intervention series.  I had the read the previous two a long time ago. 
This series is about a young woman with a drug problem and her struggle to get free of drugs. Downfall deals with the main character is now drug free but has a killer after her.  This author does Christian fiction so the message is positive and the action is not hard core. 

6- Bleachers by John Grisham
Rate- 4
This was another quick library grab.  I have always loved Grisham's books and when I saw Bleachers, I thought it would be a quick read as it was a bit smaller than some of his other novels.  Turns out, it was not very good.  I told Chad he would probably like it as it about a bunch of ex high school football players remembering their "glory" days while their coach is on his death bed.  Maybe guys would be more inclined to enjoy this than the ladies...

6- The Lego Movie book 
Rate- 8
Like most parents, I want my kids to love books.  So, I bought the junior novel to The Lego Movie and told them once I finished reading it to them then we would go the movies and watch it (thanks Uncle Nolan for the movie tickets for Christmas).  I must admit that the book kept a couple surprises for the audience, but overall the boys (especially Hunter and Ashton) loved reading the book together.  And we all enjoyed comparing the book to the movie afterwards.
***Anna, I have had your boy's birthday presents sitting in my laundry room for over a month now... and we got Owen a copy of this book... I really need to mail you this stuff. : /

7- The Mysterious Benedict Society trilogy by Trenton Lee Stewart
Rate- 10
Here is a gem!  I just recently came across The Mysterious Benedict Society books and I am so glad I did.  Though written for a younger audience (10-13 probably), I adore these books.  I am reading the first one to Hunter now.  I have already the 3 in the series.  There is also a prequel to the series that I will read soon.  The cover is just charming and story is fantastic.

Basically it is about 4 gifted, orphaned kids who are recruited for a secret mission.

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I have read some good devotional books and non fiction recently too.  I will post those soon. 

And if you have read something recently, let me know.  I am always looking for good books.  I know a bunch of people read the blog but never comment, so message on facebook or email me with suggestions if you cant figure out how to comment or don't want to comment.

Have a great Friday.

As I mentioned last post, God has been tugging at me. Last week, I happened onto (in)courage website and saw they do a book club. They are starting a new book in February called "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp. I knew the minute I saw the author's name that I was sold.

A few months ago, my mom sent me an email with a link to Ann's blog . Mom had heard about Ann through a teacher's wife at her school. I automatically fell in love with the depth and delivery of Ann's heart. You definitely should check out her blog and read her bio.

Anyway, starting in February, every Sunday (in)courage will post a video of Ann and one of the (in)courage people going over the chapter of the book for that week. The reviews of the book are awesome... comparing it to "Mere Christianity for women."

If you are desiring to feel closer to Him, I would encourage you to take a look at the book. Dayspring is selling it for only $10 (but that special ends today).

To Him be the glory,