The past week

What have we been doing?

Let's see we celebrated Easter. I can never come up with the right words to describe how I feel about Easter. It either seems over the top or not quite enough. The older I get the more meaning it has for me. God sent His son to this earth to die for my sins. To die for my sins...It's a hard concept to wrap around my brain that Jesus loved me so much he would pay the ultimate price. I am going to get to enjoy eternal life--free of sins, hurts, illness--I get to live happily ever after!! For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life John 3:16

We did the traditional dying of Easter eggs. I know some folks get worked up about that but we don't. We enjoying dying the Easter eggs. I think this might be our last year though--Bryan is trying his best to grow up on us! I was thankful that he understands what Easter is all about. One of his eggs he wrote 'King of Kings'. I had a happy little parent moment when I saw that one:) Then the next one said 'Tough dudes wear pink'. That one made me crack up. I love seeing his sense of humor shining through more and more each day.

That evening we watched an amazing movie: Faith Like Potatoes
(http://www.christiancinema.com/catalog/article_info.php?articles_id=6109). I get emails from christiancinema.com with recommendations. This was on the week before and it sounded interesting. I think it touched all of us and challenged us to always have faith in God, no matter what the circumstances are. I won't give any details--you'll just have to see it for yourself. I wouldn't recommend it for the very young--10 and up should be able to handle it. There are a couple of very intense scenes.

As far as school goes we are moving right along. At this point I am almost certain we will still be doing some school through the month of June. I believe we will be doing year round homeschooling next year. A lot of veteran homeschoolers agree that this is the way to go and it helps the child retain the most information. I think it will work out nicely with our schedule. Year-round doesn't mean 24/7 365 days a year--at least not in my book ;)

In Math we have just finished up division of decimals. Tomorrow we will start multiplying and dividing fractions. In English, Bryan is working on a research project. He chose to research J.R.R. Tolkien. So far, he has learned how to pick out appropriate sources, take notes and work out an outline. He's doing really well with all the note taking. We finished Belles on Their Toes last night. I don't know I feel about finishing it--I wish it could have gone on forever. It was fun to sit back and peek into the lives of the Gilbreth family. Somedays I wish we had 12 children...most days I'm glad we don't. History has been very interesting as we have concluded our textbook study on WWII. I am however thinking of extending it just a little longer. There are so many aspects to cover and Bryan seems genuinely interested in learning more about the War and the people. We will begin reading Yellow Star next. It is about a little girl that survived the Polish Ghetto. There is also a movie coming on Sunday night that will tie in nicely with the book. I can't remember the name right now but it's about a lady that rescued people from the Polish Ghetto. Yesterday we talked about quite a bit about Oskar Schindler, Corrie Ten Boom and Anne Frank. We were looking at book that Anne and Margot Frank's school pictures in it. Bryan was looking through them and then asked, 'How come the pictures stop in 1942?' I know he has a hard time understanding how one day everything is fine and then all of a sudden you are completely stripped of everything you have ever had or known...The U.S. may be in a mess right now, but thank God we live where we are free! In Science we have moved on to habitats and the food chain. We talked about all the habitats that are just in our backyard--ants, wasps, rabbits, squirrels, the list was endless.

Next week we'll be up at the school doing the SATs. This was Bryan's favorite week when he was in school. He's already looking forward to it! I'm not--but only because I have to be up at the school by 8 everyday...