Another Thompson Family Update

I just noticed that it has been 15 days since I have blogged....like others I use my blog to communicate with family and friends who live a great distance from us and are unable to share in our daily lives. I also use it as a way to keep record of our lives. I plan to print out my entries and make keep them for Edward to share with his children and their children.

We have been very busy this month preparing for the upcoming school year. Edward will be starting Kindergarten in just a few more weeks. Public School officially started here (also in OK and TX) last Thursday. I think that it is just to hot out and still to summery for kids to be cooped up in a class room. We will start our school year the day after Labor Day. Edward is looking forward to school. We will be using Sonlight this year for our curriculum, along with Horizon's Health (K), Math-U-See (primer), Character First (series 1), and A Reason For Handwriting (K). We will also be learning some Spanish this year using Teach Me Spanish CD. Next semester we will be learning some French using the same series. Then I plan for him to learn Hebrew the first semester of 1st grade. We aren't learning to write any of these languages yet, just what they sound like in familiar childrens songs. When Edward gets to 3rd Grade we will use the Rosetta Stone Homeschool Series to learn these languages more in depth. We will also be working on America Sign Langauge this year too. We are also going to be using Tatras to an extent to learn to read, this is also known as Vertical Phonics. I have heard good things about this. Thank you Renee for showing me this program...you are always so kind to share.

Edward starts Kindermusik Young Child 1 tomorrow. He starts Homeschool Bowling League on the 4th of Sept (he rocked during summer league...he bowled a high game scratch of 105, a high series of 196 and his game average was 81...he was 2nd highest in game average and in high series, would have been in high game scratch if he would have just bowled a 107 or better game. Not bad if you ask me). This will be our last year for summer bowling league. Next summer he and I will go bowling once a week together. He will be moving up that fall to the Batnam's League which is sanctioned and doesn't allow bumpers. We will be working during the summer to get use to bowling without bumpers, with out the distractions or pressure of being on a league. Plus there were somethings that I saw during summer league that I just don't want Edward to be around or see. I think a break will do us good and we will see about doing a summer league in 2010.

Our Homeschool Co-op starts on Sept 5th. I will be teaching 2 classes this semester. A Arts and Crafts Class for Pre-K to 2nd grade and an A to Z Animal Science Class (this is a curriculum that is through our local zoo) for K to 2nd grade. My Arts and Craft class is only 6 weeks long. The A to Z Animal Science Class is actually 2 semesters long, so I will teach that class all school year long. I am looking forward to it.

I just have to share what we are having for dinner tonight....stuffed head of tenderloin (as seen on one of Edward's Favorite Food Network Shows; Good Eats), this is stuffed with crumbled blue cheese....Kirk's mouth has been watering ever since he saw the show so I thought I would fix it for him. We will also be having Parsley and Chive Mashed Potatoes, Broccoliflower and Purple Cauliflower (we haven't had either of these so I thought they would be fun to try), butter and egg dinner rolls, and for desert petite strawberry shortcakes. Is your mouth watering yet? I will have to let you know how this dinner turns out. One night I also plan to make Swedish Potato Balls (Kroppkakor) for Kirk. His mom's parents use to make them when she was a kid and he remembers eating them when he would go to visit them. He has been talking about them. I also have Swedish on my side of the family, I think it would be great for Edward to taste some Swedish style foods. There a Swedish Community here in Kansas (Lindsborg....aka Little Sweden) that has a Swedish Festival (Svensk Hyllningsfest) once a year, I am hoping we will be able to go in either 2009 or 2011 (it's only done every uneven year). It is in Mid-October.

It is different with Sebastian gone, we all miss him so much. Thank you all for the well wishes and condolences. It has taken some getting use too. So far Bear and Storm seem to be dealing with it well.

We are off here over Labor Day weekend for a mini family vacation in Nevada. Pray everyone comes home in one piece and no one tries to amputate any of their body parts.

We wanted to wish Happy Birthday to Jim, Mom T (Kirk's Mom), Oma Du (my Grandma), Paige (our beautiful neice), and Charlene, who all have birthdays in August. Also Happy Anniversary to my brother and his wife.

For those praying for us, please remember that Kirk goes at the end of next month to see the Urologist. Will keep you posted.

Just Attended My First Homeschool Convention

Wooooo whoooo!! I went to my first homeschool convention this past weekend. I was unable to attend any of the workshops but that is okay because I was able to buy them on CD to listen to at my convenience. I can not wait to get started on that...I have 21 of them to listen 2 plus to others that I bought at a speakers booth on some subjects not covered at the convention. I was able to see so many products and pick the things that look right for us to use this year. Edward is now officially signed up to use the Sonlight K curriculum. Just purchased it. We are also going to be using Math U See (Edward is already begging to start this and I think we will), Character First, A Reason for Handwriting and A Reason for Spelling. I bought the newcomer on the Sonlight so the items I don't intend to use, I will be selling next year at the used book fair that our co-op puts on. I just had to share. Next year I plan to go both days and attend the workshops, Edward will be old enough to attend Adventures In Character that they have for 6 to 12 yr olds at the convention.
A Side note, Edward just started up his Summer Bowling League today. He is doing awesome. He got a 69 and a 74 today, that included 1 spare and a couple of very close other ones.

By George He's Getting

Today during school like every day for the past 5 1/2 weeks we have been working our way through the alphabet. We are up to Ff now. Everyday we begin with saying the letters and their sounds. Today like every day I ask Edward the sounds that the letters make to see if he knows them before I begin reviewing them with him. He successfully made the A B C and D sounds with no help or reviewing of them. I am so proud of him. He is also working very hard on writing his name all by his self. It is just amazing to watch his learning grow every day.

Edward's Curriculum For This Week

This week's curriculum is pretty interesting. Edward is learning about Helen Keller and the Braille system. We have learned what his name looks like in Braille and will be learning what Braille looks like. We are reading a biography about Helen Keller. We have also been learning the letters Cc, Dd and Ee. We have been working on A through E (including the sounds that each letter makes). We are learning the colors BLACK and WHITE and Circle is our shape. We also have a new Memory Verse, Genesis 1:3 (NIV) And the Lord Said "let there be light" and there was light. He pretty much has our first Memory verse, Genesis 1:1 (NIV) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, memorized now. Beginning in October we will start having a weekly theme. We are going to be doing Apples the first week of Oct, for the 2nd week Fire Saftey(that week is Nation Fire Safety Week...we'll be covering some other safety issues during this week too), Farm Animals will be the 3rd week, then Popcorn for the 4th week (did you know that October is National Popcorn Month?) and the last week of October we will focus on Autumn, Leaves and Harvest time. 3 is our number this week. Edward is also now writing the first 2 letters of his 1st name by himself. I had been holding the pencil to steady it and guide it for him in the past as we talk about the way the letters go. I am so proud of him. He does tend to make his E huge, jetting way. We've also started incorporating computer learning programs into our curriculum. We've joined both the Preschool Playhouse Disney online program and the myNOGGIN online preschool program, not to mention we utilize alot of the free kids sites like pbs.org and dailynoggin.com too. We also have 3 computer program that are Christian based that came with the Horizon Preschool Curriculum that we are using this year, as a part of it's media program. We also are using Jumpstart Preschool Programs, and other learning programs like Blue's Clues. It is amazing to watch Edward grasping concept after concept. Tomorrow we have Co-op class. Still no Monart or bowling due to the thumb. We are still working on the first pre-reader book. I will not let him move on until he can actually read the words in the book. I have made flashcards with the words on them so that he doesn't use the pictures in the book to help him know what words I want him to say. I want him to see the words and know what it says. I got the rest of his Scholastic Phonics Program in the mail today. We will begin that program in January. I am excited, he'll be able to read by himself before we know it. Which I know he wants to do so bad, he is always looking at books and making up stories about the pictures because he wants to read. Speaking of books, Edward wrote on this week for Kindermusik class. It is cute. Well, that is about it in a nutshell for this week.

Oh WHAT a week it has been

Hello! Sorry I haven't written this week. It has been HELL around here. Last Saturday (the 29th of July) Edward was washing his hands and he slipped and fell, hitting his mouth on our sink. He ended up shoving one of this front teeth up into his gum. So we have spent this week seeing a dentist (after our ER visit on Saturday night), and an oral surgeon. He has a surgery to remove the tooth from his gum on Wednesday the 9th of August. We (edward and I) leave the very next morning for WA state and a 20 day vacation there. I am spending today cleaning the house, will have to run to the Post Office here shortly to mail somethings off, but 85% of my day will be spent cleaning house....ohhhhh what fun!!!!!!! We have decided to supplement Edwards Preschool Homeschool Program we are putting him in Kindermusik again this year and he will also be joining a Bowling League for 3-6 yr olds called Bouncing Bumpers. He gets a free bowling ball at the end of the League which is 22 weeks long. Next year he can join the Homeschool League. I was going to also put him in a Monart program but I don't think this program is a fit for us right now. So we will hold off for another year maybe. They also have programs for Homeschoolers. In 2 years when he starts Kindergarten we can join the local homeschool organization here in Newton. Kinda stinks though that we have to wait until then to start it. I am thinking about trying to find some local moms who homeschool kids Edwards age so we can do things together. I will have to find them. Well thats the long and the short of it here.