Well, summer vacation is over at the Harmon house. Monday was our first day back to school, and I will call our first week back a major success. There’s nothing like brand new school supplies to get kids back in the mood for learning. This year, I have three in school. Kyra is in fourth grade, Elijah is in second grade, and Owen is in kindergarten. Abby Jo is the odd man out, so we have been doing some “preschool” activities, too.

We start our day with devotions. I’ve not always been faithful to do this in the past, but I’m going to try really hard to keep this a part of our school day this year. I read a devotion to the kids…something short and sweet with a daily Bible verse from a book of kids’ devotions. After that, we share prayer requests, and then we pray together. The kids each take one of the prayer requests and pray for it. After we pray, we sing a few songs together, and then we get down to business.

For those of you interested in such things, Kyra and Elijah are both using A.C.E. curriculum. This is Elijah’s first year doing PACEs (the name of the workbooks they do…it stands for Packet of Accelerated Christian Education). Kyra is not a huge fan of doing PACEs only, so, as a concession, we are trying something different this year. On Mondays, they do pacework for all five subjects (Math, English, Social Studies, Science, and Word Building…WB is similar to spelling). On Tuesday and Thursday, they do Math, English, and Word Building pacework, and do extra reading. Extra reading is usually a biography, but not always. Kyra is reading about Clara Barton right now, and Elijah is reading about King Tut. On Wednesday and Friday, they do Social Studies and Science pacework, and we do extra things related to these subjects. We are going to be watching the documentary, America: The Story of Us together, and, after that, we will watch other historical documentaries about subjects like US Presidents, the Trail of Tears, etc.  The extra reading and documentaries add a little extra entertainment factor to learning, and it breaks up the monotony of doing only PACEs.

We are pretty relaxed about kindergarten around here. Elijah was my first homeschooled kindergartener, and I feel like I did a pretty good job with him. He tested into third grade Math and Word Building this year, even though he is a second grader. He’s a whiz at addition and subtraction, and he will be learning multiplication this year. He’s also a great reader. I was rather surprised at how much he had improved his reading skills since last school year. The kids are avid readers, and he has been reading all summer. However, he has not read out loud to me. When we started school on Monday, I was shocked at how he was reading right over words I expected to be hard for him (words like “available” and “courageous”) without hesitation. I didn’t use any curriculum for him in kindergarten or first grade. I taught him to read using a book called “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons”. It was hghly recommended to me by several ladies at church. It worked great for us. For first grade, I just printed off math sheets from the internet, spelling words from the internet, used flash cards, and had him read lots of books. Math and Reading were my focus, and it has really paid off.

So, all that said, I am following the same path this year with Owen. We are using the same “Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” book, and he is doing great with it so far. We started on Monday, and he’s already reading some easy words, such as “ram”, “eat”, “me”, etc. I got a workbook from Walmart that has general “kindergarten basics” that he really enjoys doing, and I have flash cards that we are working on numbers and counting. He’s different from Elijah in that Elijah was counting to 400 when he started kindergarten, and Owen struggles to count to 20 without forgetting 12. Each kid is different, though, and I know that. Owen is happy and eager to learn. I have a feeling he will be reading pretty well before Christmas. He’s picking it up pretty effortlessly. Time will tell how he does with math, but I’m hoping he doesn’t take after Kyra. She can do math well when she doesn’t tell herself she can’t. Then we have lots of tears and drama. I much prefer he pattern himself after Elijah in the mathematics department.

So, that is our basic homeschooling plan. Chris is back in school this semester trying to get his M.Div. I am the only Harmon not currently pursuing my education, but I’m already considering cutting my “year off” down to a “semester off”. I’m not sure yet. I’m still deciding on what school to go to for my bachelors degree.

We’re not all work and no play, though. We have already had our first field trip. On Friday, after the kids did their Social Studies and Science, we took off for some more science fun at Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies. I’ll leave you with a few photos from that.

Owen as a deep sea diver.

This was a neat exhibit. The kids had to stick their hands in to feel what was inside, then (I think) they pushed a button to illuminate the box while they peeked through a hole.

In case you have no idea what this picture is about, I am pointing up at the giant turtle skeleton hanging from the ceiling.

Kyra, Owen, and Abby Jo inside of an aquarium.

Elijah cracked me up!

Penguins!

The Penguins were my favorite!

At least my eldest has mastered the art of looking at the camera.

I like to cuddle penguins.

I never said he wasn’t crazy. But, at least he’s cute, too.

My sweet, silly girls chillin’ with the penguin.

He’s still working on boundaries.

This is most of my family (plus three friends) on a recent trip to the Lost Sea in Sweetwater, TN.

A few weeks ago, we took a family trip to Frozen Head State Park. Chris, the kids, Toby (the dog) and I hiked up to two different waterfalls. It was a lot of fun, and great family bonding.

Kyra played the role of photographer at the beginning of our hike, and she took this photo of the rest of us.

Abby Jo enjoyed herself.

I climbed on top of the first waterfall we came to.

We know we are totally awesome on top of the falls.

Abby eats a rock.

Me and my progeny under the second waterfall, Emory Gap Falls.

(Please to notice how that when I take the picture, the waterfall is actually included.)

It was a beautiful day with beautiful scenery.

I couldn’t help but be amazed at God’s wonderful creation.

It’s been a little while since I’ve blogged. I’ve been busy…and sick. I have had a lot of fun over the last few days, though. 

Amy and her kids came for a short visit over the weekend. They got here early (early) in the morning on Thursday, and stayed through about noon yesterday. We didn’t do a whole lot because of how I am 32 weeks pregnant, and that translates to tired, sore, and swollen feet. We watched several movies, spent a lot of time on the couch with my feet up, and broke up a lot of kid fights. Turns out, nearly two years later, our kids still only like each other about half the time  a third of the time  thirty minutes a day. Okay, maybe a little more than that, but not much. We’ve decided that, in the future, we’re going to have to divide the Maxwell kids from the Harmon kids for a portion of each day. They just get too much of each other, and then we all go crazy. Anyway, we did do one fun thing while they were here. On Friday, we skipped Friday school at church, and took the kids on a field trip the Children’s Museum in Oak Ridge. That was a lot of fun. My camera battery was dead, so I didn’t get any pictures. Amy did, though, and I’ll have her send them to me so I can post a link to them later.

It was great to see my friend again, and it’s awesome to think that I’ll see her again in right around forty days…when she comes to be with me when my baby is born! Exciting days these are!

On Sunday morning, Chris had the opportunity to preach at our church. He did really well, and I was extremely proud of him. It’s cool for me to see how he’s evolving as a preacher since he’s been in Seminary. He preached on “Have You Been With Jesus”, and it really ministered to me. It’s exciting to get a little taste of what Chris will be doing as a Chaplain. We also had Awana Sunday night, which is always fun. Chris led a discussion in our Journey class with the teenagers, and it was good to hear them discussing how they could do more for God. We really enjoy working with the young people at our church.

Yesterday, we got to go out and enjoy some of the great weather we’ve had for the last few days. It has been unseasonably warm. We played outside yesterday in short sleeves! Chris had to go to the range yesterday, so, even though he didn’t get the whole day off, he was off by three, so we took the kids and went to the park. His mom met us there, and then ordered pizza for all of us while we played. It was awesome.  A great day with our family. Here’s a link to my Facebook photos from yesterday. I’m still having trouble uploading photos directly to my blog. I’ll get Chris or Amy to help me update my wordpress sometime soon, so that I can do that again. For now, I’ll just have to link you to Facebook.

Kyra just finished taking her last couple of first grade tests, and she is now…drum roll please…a second grader! I’m awfully proud of her. She’s made a lot of progress academically since the beginning of the school year. When we started the school year, she really struggled with reading. She spent half of her school days crying over how her words were too hard and she didn’t like reading. She has made tremendous gains in reading, and does quite well now. It’s been an interesting adjustment for me. I have to make sure she’s not standing behind me while having a private instant message conversation, or it’s not so private anymore.

So, that’s a bit of an update on us, for those who are interested. 

This was Kyra’s last field trip of the year. We went to Frozen Head State Park and had hot dogs and hamburgers. Everyone had a lot of fun.

Elijah played in the creek with our cousin, Punky.

With Brooke’s help, Owen played in the creek, too.

Elijah climbed a tree. (With a little help from Daddy, of course!)

He’s a cute little monkey, isn’t he?

Kyra got to go on a field trip today to the bowling alley. Me, Elijah, and Owen went with her. We all had a good time. Kyra’s future husband (by her accounts, not his) had to keep rescuing her balls. She wasn’t rolling them hard enough, and they would quit half way down the lane. Westley kept walking down to give them a push. She then said, “Thank you, We-e-estley.” She’s so funny. Elijah really enjoyed bowling. It was right up his alley….pun intended.