Who? What? Where? When? Why?

We are less than 2 weeks away from a new family adventure. One that we have thought about and prayed about and disagreed about and agreed about and wondered about for years. On Owen's Half-Birthday, he will have his first day of Kindergarten...at HOME. We are both thrilled and anxious about what this year will hold for all five of us, but we are confident that this is where the Lord has led us, and look forward to what He is going to be doing!

As a way to kick off this new adventure, I thought I'd answer a few questions that you may have about this adventure...

Who?
Owen (5 1/2) is starting Kindergarten - 4 days with mommy and 1 special day with daddy. Owen and Matt will get to spend Tuesday mornings together. I will continue to attend our women's Bible study at church while Owen and Matt spend Matt's day off together!



Baxter (3 1/2) will be in preschool 2 days a week and home 3 days a week (1 of those days at home will be at Bible study with me)



Lucy (9 months) will be napping for most of our school day - 9-11am - and hopefully playing peacefully for any other times we need to work on school.



What?
"To know Him and make Him known." I read that in a book recently and it has become our focus as we think about doing school at home with our boys. That is our goal. As we learn and as we teach - to love learning in order to know God more. And to use what we learn to reach the world with His gospel.

We are basing a lot of our thinking and planning off of a great book called "The Well Trained Mind" by Susan Wise Bauer. She recommends keeping it fairly simple for the Kindergarten year. I am thankful for that - it's helped me to say no to a lot of ideas and just stick with the basics. We can always add to it as we go!

Math - Saxon Kindergarten
Phonics - Explode the Code
Spelling - Words Their Way
Handwriting/Writing - a journal for free writing/drawing and a "heart notebook" to keep verses on specific areas of struggle for Owen.
READING - lots and lots of reading - silent reading, mommy reading aloud and Owen reading aloud.
Bible/Church History - we'll be reading through Genesis and John as well as reading about various men from church history (including John Owen!)

Where?
Right here in our home!






When?
For 34 weeks of this next year, starting on September 6th, from 9am-11:30am.

Why?
A number of reasons, most of which are hard to express. First and foremost I clearly see that this is where the Lord has led us. That is the main reason. We have been discussing this since Owen was 2 years old. We really feel strongly about having our kids be at home for the majority of their time while they are young. For us to be the main influence and main teachers of character and the main ones to walk them through their sin and God's redeeming of them through the cross. I have seen a slight increase of brotherly love - and love towards Lucy - that has come out of more time at home together this summer and I look forward to them developing that relationship more and more this year. I also know that there are going to be hard days - more fighting - less mommy time- lots to balance - less peer interaction. We are seeking to trust the Lord with all of those things and watch to see Him provide abundantly for all of our needs according to His glorious riches!

I am thankful that this is where we are at this fall and expectant for the Lord to be at work.

GAP Beach Trip 2011

My brother Brett realized this week that our "Gillan And Purdy" beach trip should have been sponsored by GAP (Gillan And Purdy!). So clever! We had a really great week at the beach - I keep telling people that it was even slightly relaxing! Go figure! A beach trip with three kids can be relaxing. The key to that was our sweet Lucy. She napped pretty well on the beach every morning for her morning nap. When she was napping in her little tent and the boys were playing in the ocean or on the sand with cousins and daddy and aunts and uncles and gramma and grampa, I could site near Lu and read a book! Crazy I know! I even finished the book I brought with me (Left Neglected by Lisa Genova...neat book!).

We were very thankful for our time as a family at the beach as well as time with family. It's neat to see the cousins continue to develop friendship with one another and for us to get some time with my brothers and their wives and my parents.

After our week in Corolla with the GAP clan, we headed south to Kill Devil Hills (I think) to spend a few more days with Matt's family. We were thankful that the weeks overlapped so well. We got to take the kids to ice cream and we went to "the dunes" at Jockey's Ridge.

I think that pictures tell the story the best, so here you go...a LOT of pictures of a great week and a half!