Time for School

Last year I worked with Harry on improving his penmanship, phonics and math. We had a very loose schedule and it was simply preparing him for beginning school. This year, just last week, we began school in earnest! In our desire to make Scotland as much of our home as possible, I have come to the conclusion that I want his school learning to be close to what kids in schools here would learn. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to incorporate some Scottish/ UK history. After thinking about it a little more, I thought it would be a good idea to use mainly UK textbooks.

My mom homeschooled us for a little bit before we had to attend the German schools (they do not allow home education). When we returned to the States she was able to teach us at home once again. I thought I would go this route and use a familiar curriculum. Although I would still like to use many textbooks that I am familiar with, I believe I will try to use more UK material.

For Harry this means he is not in Kindergarten, he is in Primary 1. This is similar to Kindergarten and a little of 1st grade. In history he'll be learning about Florence Nightingale, the London fire, Guy Fawkes and many other simple historical happenings/figures in the UK. He'll have a bit of science, geography, art and music. We'll use books and also some online resources. I found a website that shows what children might learn in each school year. This has been really helpful to me.

Kathy only joins us 2 days a week. We do a Bible time together every day. Right now I'm just focusing on her knowing her letters and numbers. She is also working on tracing and perfecting her shapes. Drawing is not one of her strengths!! :) She does love making up stories and singing.

It's been really interesting doing all this with a baby crawling around wanting your undivided attention! Much of the time Audrey plays pretty well on her own. Then the other part she is trying to see what they're doing and trying to grab their books or pencils. I'm trying to move her to one nap in the afternoon. So far I always lay her down at 11:30, but it makes her afternoon nap so late. This means she stays up later instead of going to bed with Harry and Kathy. I tried one nap today and it worked very well! She was a little crabby when lunch time arrived, but she ate quickly and was able to lay down right away.

Here are some of the UK sites that I use, as well as the curriculum plan for Scotland:

http://www.crickweb.co.uk
http://www.everyschool.co.uk/

https://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/curriculum/primary

Until next time...

Audrey

One year ago on August 3rd we went to Regional Hospital in St. Paul for a scheduled c-section. I had hoped for an attempt at natural birth but this little lady, just like Kathy, was in a transverse position. She was also past her due date.
Three days later we were hoping to be released. A nurse came and informed me that she was having a doctor listen to her and they were going to do an ultrasound. Soon they returned to tell me that she would be transferred to St Mary's NICU in Rochester to be closer to us. Her condition: coarctation of the aorta, and she would need surgery. Two weeks after she was born we were able to take Audrey home.
At 6 weeks old she got to experience a 13 hour trip to Scotland. She did really well on the flight, even better than the older two :)
Audrey is getting better at standing and loves to follow her brother and sister around. She has 5 teeth. Out of everything that she is able to eat she loves peas!  She will get very excited and start banging on the tray when she sees me get out the peas!!
Harry and Kathy love having Audrey around. They sometimes have the idea that she can do a lot more than she actually is able to! 
I am so glad that we were able to have both grandparents watch her open presents and eat cake.  On Saturday we skyped with them (it was 9 am their time!). It was great for them to share this special FIRST birthday with us!!

Our Spring in Pictures

Don's parents visited us in May. We enjoyed showing them the sights. This is Dunrobin Castle.

 

I've been doing some sewing again. One of my projects was this onesie dress for Audrey.

We've had some beautiful days. The kids love being outside.

Don and Harry attended a men's camp out  right before Father's Day.

The girl's and I had our own fun!

Audrey started crawling the beginning of June. Now she is pulling herself up and standing with support.

A Post Dedicated to All Things Kathy

Well, my big girl is three!  She is definitely all girl! She was not late, but a few days early. I was eager to try a vbac and up until a week before she was born I was very hopeful. Then that week before her due date the midwife informed me that she had turned back around. I was scheduled for a repeat c-section on her birth date, but went into labor the Friday before. My biggest so far, she weighed in at 9  lbs 4 oz!! 
Kathy has had quite the adventurous life for a 3 year old! When she was 5 months old we began deputation. She was a year old when she took her first trip on a plane across the Atlantic to Scotland. Then at 2 1/2 she took that trip again to live in a, to her, foreign land.
We celebrated with a party on Saturday. She had a tea party with just the girls!! :)  Then on her birthday, yesterday, we had cake with just the four of us (Don, me, Harry and Kathy). She, like Harry, opened gifts from the grandparents while skyping with them.  Before lunch I took her to get her hair cut and she sat still very well! They put sparkly hairspray in her hair since it was her birthday. I'd have to say, except for having a cold, she had a pretty good birthday!  I'll be taking pictures this weekend, weather permitting!  Hopefully she'll be feeling better and up to picture-taking then. 

Here's her 3rd Birthday Interview:

What's you're name?  Kathy

How old are you? 3

Favorite food? Pasta with cheese

Favorite color?  Pink and purple

Favorite snack? Cookies/biscuits

Favorite movie? Princess – Cinderella, Rapunzel (Tangled)

Favorite toy? princesses

Favorite animal? monkey

Favorite book?  princess

Favorite song? I don’t really know

Favorite thing to take to bed? A monkey

Favorite place to go? A poke (this is how she says ‘park’)

Favorite restaurant? Applebees (we went here many times while on the road in the states)

What games do you like to play? On my computer (she got a vtech laptop for her birthday)

What do you want to be when you grow up? Four

Another Post dedicated to all things Harry

Harry had a great time at his party on Saturday. We had quite a full house. I attempted an Angry Bird cake and Piggy cupcakes. They didn't turn out too bad, but I am definitely not a cake decorator!  Harry, the awesome son that he is, declared it was the coolest cake ever! The party went great. At the end of the day Don went out to grab some pizza for us...I was tired!
Then since he was all dressed up Sunday, I took some pictures.
He's getting to be so big. Such a handsome guy, just like his dad!!

 

Here's a short and fun questionnaire I did with him Saturday. I plan on trying to do one with them every year and see how their answers change.

What's you're name?  H-A-R-R-Y

How old are you? 5
What's your favorite food? bananas and pasta
What's your favorite color?  red and green and blue and black and grey
What's your favorite snack? bananas
What's your favorite movie? Cars 1 and 2 and my new Thomas movie
What's your favorite toy? red race car I just got today
What's your favorite animal? elephant, hippo and a giraffe and a pig
What's your favorite book?  The Monster at the End of this Book (said repeatedly)
What's your favorite song? uh, I'm not sure, I don't like any (not quite true, he likes "Send the Light" and many children's songs)
What's your favorite thing to take to bed? my stuffed animals
What's your favorite place to go? the zoo
What's your favorite restaurant? Applebees

What games do you like to play? the Batman game, Mario Cart and Mario Brothers

What do you want to be when you grow up? I don't know, uh, I just want to be someone who lives at home with mom and goes wild....I just want to be the dad, sitting around the house being wild and sometimes I do things for her. (I'm assuming from his last statement that the "mom" would be his wife he's referring to, otherwise, nope, you are not living at home with ME the rest of your life)
 

A Post dedicated to All Things Harry

Harry I consider our miracle baby. The year before I became pregnant with him I had 3 miscarriages. The doctors were able to correct the problem that had been found and 5 months later we were expecting Harry. I waited with trepidation for the first three months to pass and they did without any problems at all. I also experienced the added blessing of NO morning sickness!
Harry was born 8 days late on February 27, 2008.  He was a quick learner and was crawling by 6 months and walking by 9 months. He continues to learn things quickly. He loves to think things through and try to do things on his own. He's my affectionate little guy and we love him dearly. We thank God for blessing us with this special guy, our first born.
He's had a fun day today with a gift at breakfast and cake (and more gifts) after lunch. Then he got to Skype with both grandparents and open the gifts from them. Skype is such a great modern technology!! It's so nice that even thousands of miles away we can have them be a part of his special day!
On Saturday we're having an Angry Birds themed birthday party...we'll see how this goes :)  I plan on taking some birthday pictures then and doing a fun birthday questionnaire.
So, Happy 5th Birthday to my little man, Harry!!

A Good Week

With my last post I had decided to try and blog every day until the end of February. As you can see that is not happening. Maybe I'll try for March, but I'm not making any promises!

We have had such beautiful weather lately. Every morning is still pretty frigid, but by the afternoon it's a lovely day!  Don has been taking the advantage and washing the car often. I think he's washed it twice in the past week!  The kids love to help out. They've also enjoyed being able to play outside longer. Harry was given a bike last week and he is so excited about learning to ride!  We had to order training wheels/stabilizers so he can get used to the bike first. It would be nice if he learned how to ride without them this summer!

Harry and Kathy are enjoying doing some school work 3 days out of the week. Harry finished his consonants and is almost done with the vowels. He's very good at recognizing the sounds but still gets some of them mixed up. It's my goal to have him reading by the fall. Kathy just works on recognizing the alphabet and her numbers. She can say her alphabet and count to ten, but she can't recognize them very well. Sometimes it can be a lot of fun teaching them and other times...well we won't talk about the other times!

Kathy's first 'person' drawing - Flynn Rider

The kids had a check up last Wednesday. It was nice to find out how tall they are and how much they weigh. They're almost a foot apart in height (Harry - 111 cm/3'8"  Kathy - 90 cm/2'11"), but only 7 lbs difference in weight (Harry - 18kg/40lbs  Kathy - 15kg/33lbs). Audrey has almost doubled her birth weight. I think that's about right for being 6 months old.
Don and Harry made a short trip over to Lossiemouth. This is the town we eventually would like to move to. It's 6 miles from Elgin. Don would like to start a church in this area as God allows. They had a fun day over there and brought back some goodies since it was Valentine's Day.  Harry loved the beach and was very tired by the time they got back home.

I'm beginning to venture out a little more into the color shoe area. I pretty much have owned only brown or black shoes. Occasionally I've had white, but I have found that after a while they begin to look dingy and they get dirty quickly. I don't have very many shoes. Travel on the road for a few years and you pretty much keep to basics. But after finding these, I'm looking forward to trying other colors. Shoes can be fun!

We had Friend Day at church this past Sunday. We had 6 first time visitors and some have said they would like to return. The spaghetti supper afterwards was great. It was a fun time of food and fellowship.
One last thing to mention:  For all the Jane Austen fans:  The Royal Mail is issuing commemorative stamps this year in honor of P&P's 200 year anniversary!  I ordered mine a few weeks ago and received it on the day they issued them. This is a big win for me since I love Jane Austen and I collect stamps. You can order 6 illustrated stamps, first day cover, stamp cards, etc. Check it out! https://shop.royalmail.com/issue-by-issue/jane-austen/icat/janeausten/ 

A Short Drive

(I wrote this yesterday, but wasn't able to upload the pictures. So this post is a day late.:)
Today has been a pretty full day for us. I took Audrey to the doctor this morning. In another month she'll be 7 months and it'll be time to have her see a cardiologist. This was just a consultation to ask about a referral. We'll have to go down to Inverness for her heart check up. The doctor we saw today informed me that there's a team from Edinburgh that comes up to Inverness every few months. He's going to let me know when they come up net. He did say he noticed she seemed to be a little rattly in her chest, so we have a prescription to help clear that up.
After lunch we decided to take a drive up past Dornoch to Gulspie. It was a nice little drive. We saw a playground in Gulspie and stopped to let the kids play a bit. Dunrobin Castle is in Gulspie. It's closed now, but we hope to go up there during the open season and take a tour.
This coming Sunday we are having friend day at Bethel Baptist. I wanted to invite some of the neighbor ladies in our little area, so after we got back to the house I went out to do that. I visited for about an hour with Dusty, an elderly lady that lives across from us. It was a very pleasant visit.
It has been a very good day for us. The weather was nice. Audrey tried some homemade pear sauce today an loved it! She's now been eating cereal, peas, carrots, bananas and pears. I plan on making some applesauce tomorrow, but we'll see what happens. Don will be gone most of the day, so I may not get it done. :)
Here's some pictures from our little excursion today:

a church in Dornoch

A view of Dunrobin Castle

at the playground in Gulspie

Sunday

You may ask, "What do you do on Sunday?" Depending upon which country you're in, it can be very different. Since we are helping out the Cashner family we have the privilege of attending services. They have a small group of people that meet on Sunday. There is another church group that meets there in the morning, so Bethel Baptist Church meets in the afternoon. We have a Sunday School/Bible Study hour beginning at 2:10 followed by the main service. Before, in between and even after the service is fellowship time which means we stand around drinking tea/coffee and munching on biscuits (cookies). :) Here are some pictures to give you a little bit of an idea:

Don teaching during Bible Study hour

Sunday School with Miss Kimmy

Children's corner during the morning service

main service (this one was from our first service in Tain)

We had a small group today. Many were home sick. Most of the time we have a group of about 20 when everyone is there. Next week is Friend Sunday. We're praying we have a lot of visitors.
I am enjoying this time. I know once we move over by Elgin our services will be just us meeting in our living room. In April a group of guys from the church here and a church in Dundee will be going over there for 3 days to letterbox Lossiemouth and most of Elgin. Lossiemouth is a small village of about 7000. It's only 6 miles from Elgin. It's our prayer that we would see some interest in the Bible study offer.
And now I'll leave with a few pictures we took before going to church today.

6 months and other things

6 month photo

Look who turned 6 months this past Sunday.  I can hardly believe this much time has passed. We've been in Scotland 4 1/2 months now. Audrey is getting so big!  She can almost sit up on her own. She loves 'playing' with Harry and Kathy. It's going to be so much fun when she starts crawling. She started baby food. She loves the cereal, but was not really too keen on other things at first. I tried homemade peas and avocado. One time I ran out of cereal and only had a banana and she loved that!  Since trying the other I have made peas again and I believe I did it properly. I mad an ice cube tray full. This time I blended it more and it's so much smoother than the first time I made it. She seems to like it now. I made some carrots last night and got half a tray full. She tried some today and really likes them. I plan on making applesauce and pears still. There isn't a very good choice at the stores here in my opinion, so my decision to go homemade was a good one.

6 month photo with tutu, not edited

cereal for the first time

ready to freeze the peas

all ready to go back in the freezer

 

 

 

 

A few weeks ago I finally found a good deal on a sewing machine and ordered one!  I am so happy to have one and have tons of patterns and ideas that I've pinned to Pinterest! :) So, I have man ideas of recycling some clothes as well as making some new things. Recently I added a button and elastic to the back of one of Kathy's skirts so it would fit her better. That same afternoon I made her a skirt that was so easy. It wound up being a tad long and a tiny bit loose. She'll grow into it though and I thought I did a pretty good job!

My sewing machine, yay!!

 

the skirt I made for Kathy

Kathy in her skirt.

I love the charity shops over here. I'm always finding things for the kids!  I found this cute outfit for Audrey the last time I went out. It gave me an idea. The entire outfit is connected. So underneath is a full bodysuit with a dress attached.  A sewing project??? Then I found this cute shoes for only 1.50. That's pounds. I don't have that symbol on my keyboard. Anyways, these shoes were brand new!  I'm always picking up things for the kids on sale or at the charity shops. They are growing so quickly I might as well have things on hand and be prepared. And God always has something for me to find.

 

The kids are being such great helpers around the house. They don't always do everything willingly. One thing they do enjoy doing for me is clearing out the dishwasher. I'm glad their getting bigger and therefore able to help out more!

Time is going by quickly. The end of this month my first born will be 5. He's a pretty special little guy! I'm looking forward to doing a little questionnaire with him. It'll be interesting to see his answers.