Our ABC Books

My oldest daughter (9) made ABC books for my other daughter (4) and my son (3) for Christmas.  Both of my preschoolers are needing to learn their letters.  We started talking one day and realized that everytime we tried to tell my son what a letter said, we were referring it to a super hero.  For example, B says "bbb" as in Batman.  So, this is where the idea for the books was born. 

The books were 8x8 scrapbooks that can be found in any craft or scrapbooking store.  We made one for each child with leftover alphabet stickers.  My nine-year-old put these books together by herself, but my four year old could've done it as well.  For the pictures for the page, I used a variety of things.

This is a Batman sticker I had left over from a scrapbook page I did for my son.

The Wolverine and Tinkerbell pictures are just pictures that I found online and printed off.

This is the insert from our Aladdin movie...you know those annoying inserts that the kids rip up and you find all over your house.

This is actually a 12x12 piece of scrapbook paper that I cut down to 8x8.

My kids are able to look through the books and practice their letter sounds with pictures of characters that they are familiar with and enjoy.  My three year old likes to make up stories to go along with all of his pictures.

Book Review: Sister's Grimm Series

I'm realizing this is turning into a book review page.  Something I didn't intend, but hey, whatever works....

I am a book nut.  I can't remember a time that I wasn't in the middle of a book.  Both my parents and my husband are the same way.  We are constantly reading.  My husband is more of a non-fiction guy...always absorbing information that he will use later.  I, on the other hand, prefer fiction.  I love mysteries, thrillers, who-done-its.  I love trying to figure it out.  If I can figure it out too early in the book, I usually don't read that author again.

So, on to today's book review...or should I say review of a series of books.  This series would be more for older kids.  We actually came across this series by accident.  My daughter picked up one of them on CD (we listen to a lot of books on CD in the van). We loved it so much, we went back, got the first book and have listened to all of them.  Book 8 just came out and we can't wait to start reading it!

The series is called The Sisters Grimm.  Like I said, it might be for older kids, as it has small amounts of fairy tale violence in it (nothing worse than Snow White or Sleeping Beauty).  The books follow Daphne and Sabrina Grimm who find out they are descended from the Brothers Grimm.  They learn that all fairy tales are actually real and that the charcters in these tales are called Everafters.  It is their family's job to write the accounts of all the Everafters' lives. 

It's fun to recognize all the characters.  Snow White is a teacher at the elementary school, Prince Charming is the mayor, the Three Little Pigs are policemen. 

I've posted a link to the first book for you to check out.  Like I said, you might want to read it first before you let younger children listen, but my kids were fine with it.  The quality of the reading on CD is wonderful if you wanted to go through them that way. 

Has Noah's Ark been found?

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/27/noahs-ark-found-turkey-arafat/

Thoughts?  Do you really believe this is Noah's Ark?  And, if it is, why is God allowing it to be found now?

Struggles

Today is one of those day's that homeschooling moms dread.  We all have them, but we very rarely talk about them.  We don't want others to know we are struggling.  We want it to all look perfect. 

Kids aren't listening.  They complain about the smallest amount of schoolwork and/or chores.  You start contemplating is it really all worth it.  Would they get more out of public school??  You know there are reasons you've chosen this path for your family, but those reasons are hard to think about right now. 

I'm thinking I'm going to go sit in my basement and re-read Todd Wilson's books.  If you haven't read these....read them.  Seriously.  They are the best mix of humor and practical applicatioin I've ever seen.  I've heard him speak in person and he's just as funny. 

Lies Homeschooling Moms Believe, Learning to Live the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth

Darien's Rise

We are in the van a lot....dance practice, homeschool PE, guitar practice, grocery store runs....you get the picture.  We have been trying to listen to quality books on CD when we can just to pass the time, but also to learn something.

We just finished a book called Darien's Rise.  It was amazing!  It was put out by the Adventures in Odyssey people so you know it has a good message.  Anyway, check it out.  It was definately worth listening to.

The Snail's Trail

I posted a link to The Snail's Trail on the left side of my page. This page belongs to my friend Kari. Kari and I went to high school together, got in trouble together, well, you can imagine. Note to self: find a picture of Kari from high school and post it here to embarass her.

Anyway, Kari grew up to be this genius when it comes to early elementary education. Her blog is what I'd love my blog to be when I grow up. If you have younger children, please go to her blog. She's super smart and has some wonderful ideas!

Stressful Marriages bad for your Health?

The following is a link that Mark Driscoll posted on his Facebook page. I'm a strong believer that your mental health has a lot to do with your physical health.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/magazine/18marriage-t.html

Title

I've been contemplating (for some reason this word keeps coming up with me today) this for hours. I want to do this, but what do I call it and where do I go for a title to this new thing I want to do.

I want this blog to be a variety of things.

1. I want to talk about homeschooling. I believe in this whole-heartedly and would like to encourage other moms who are contemplating (there it is again) pulling their children from the public schools and teaching them at home.
2. God has placed a desire on my heart to help women. For those of you who don't know me, I'm completing my master's degree in Biblical Counseling. I will be done in December and have already started counseling a little.
3. I have a strong desire (that I also believe has come from God) to do something about Christian marriages. I've found myself very frustrated lately with Christians attacking non-Christians for their marriage practices when we have problems ourselves. I think we need to start concentrating on our own marriages.
4. Other things as they come into my mind (which as many of you know, happens often)

So, obviously this is kind of a hodge-podge of things. How do I fit it into one blog and what would this be called. I've been wandering the house all morning with names swimming through my mind.

Then, I signed onto Facebook and saw that my friend, Dave was online. For those of you that know Dave, you know he is super creative. He can come up with anything about anything with less effort than it takes me to tie my shoes. So, I chickened out and emailed him and he (God bless him) put me out of my misery and came up with "Amy in the Morning."

This actually has a bunch of meanings behind it. Those who know me, know that it's a take-off from my husband's job. Those that don't...well, just trust me....it's funny.

So, first post down....hopefully many to go.