15 reasons!

      As some of you may know, this week is our VBS! I have to admit that for many reasons I was not ready for this year, and thought many times to give up my teaching position, but every time I was about to do it I backed out feeling guilty. I knew that not teaching would bother me all SUMMER.

 I have finally accepted that this IS my calling and I need to stop trying to run from it. 

       Anyway when Monday morning came around I was ready as usual and things went smoothly until Tuesday Afternoon when I was getting my things together for the next day, our BIG day, the ABC day. I begin doubting myself, wondering if I am really doing what I should be, wondering if I would say the things that needed to be said, to lead these kids to CHRIST. Well Wednesday came, and after a night full of prayers, it went smoothly. I knew the exact things to say, as I always do. I knew and felt God working through me, like I KNEW he would.

     NOTHING happened!

     I began wondering this morning (Thursday)on my way if maybe this year would be like our last year, I know we are just suppose to be happy to “plant the seed” but these are kids (most of) who you see every year, they grow on you, and you want so much to share your happiness with them, you just want to grab them and say listen it is so easy! JUST DO IT!!! But I know that is not the way it is done, you wait until they are ready to accept, when GOD is working in their life. Anyway with all this on my shoulders I pushed my way forward and arrived on time for another day of VBS. 

       Upon arriving one of the other teachers whose daughter is in my class whispered to me  that her daughter, said she thinks she is ready! So I made mention in class  that even though we have the ABC day behind us, that it does not mean that it is too late, today is better than any other day to accept CHRIST if he is knocking on your hearts door. Later in the day our pastor came in the room to speak to the kids about salvation and accepting CHRIST.

     AND WHAT A BLESSING I WOULD HAVE MISSED! After all the doubts, which I knew were redundant, 7, YES you see right, SEVEN!! in my class alone accepted CHRIST as their SAVIOR!!!!! What joy, and this is not even the icing on the cake, we had 15, yes FIFTEEN, in all, of various ages  TODAY to turn their lives over to CHRIST!!! 

some of the 15!

     WHAT MORE COULD ONE ASK FOR, I prayed: God just give us one, and GOD answered with 15. GOD is SO!!! GOOD! And that is why I am THANKFUL for this Thursday!

                            Some other pictures from the week!

Are we starting yet?

      So, my days have been spent planning out our year, I don't want it to be a repeat of the unorganized year we had this year. We had several family emergencies that threw us off course, but we managed to get our 180 days in to make it official.
       So the course of action this summer is plan, plan, PLAN, and laminate and bind an so on and so forth. In the mist of all this action, I had Prince ask very enthusiastic, "Are we starting yet?" Which threw me for a loop, Hey weren't you the kid who was happy to be finished at the beginning of the month? I had to give a very apologetic NO, which was answered with We are bored can't we start back? SOON, I say (too soon for me, I'm not done yet!!) I planned on giving them the whole month of June off, then start back on the 4th of July (we celebrate over the weekend). I am crossing my fingers that they hold off that long. Maybe with VBS next week, they will forget about being bored!
       I know the main reason they want to start back is because of this...


 I am just praying that I get everything done for at least our fist quarter to have a smooth, or as smooth as can hope for , year here at Our Day at CA

P for Princess!

Ok, so if your on this page it means that you are checking out my printables! I am in no way claiming the awesomeness for some of those  creatively blessed moms nor the "seasoned" moms, I simply just know what Lady Jey likes. So using a collection of ideas from COAH, Carisa, and too many more to list, I have come up with a collect that contains Lady Jey's favorite exercises. We are trying, since she will be 5, to do more "school" but I am still trying to make it fun for her. So thinking in these terms, what better way to keep it fun then to use themes she likes, and of course princess had to be first. I know, there are plenty of this theme already created, some from the sites mentioned above, but what better feeling is there to know your child is learning from something you created with him/her in mind, and that is my reward for all the time put into these, "Our collections at CA"

P for princess

(I will blog about this collection as we use it!) If you use it and have a blog, I would like it if you blogged about it and linked back to us here. I hope you and your little princess enjoys these, courtesy of Our days at CA.





                                        COMING SOON.... S for Strawberry Shortcake (fruits)
                                                                         B for Beach

Thankful Thursday

Ok so I know I am a day late for this post, but I have come to accept that I am NEVER on time for anything!
This thankful post is like the snowball effect but I will post about the most recent layer.
I have to say right now I am very thankful for my kids and their relationship with CHRIST. Both of my older children, Prince and Princesa accepted Christ at an early age and have been in church ever since. They have heard since an early age the importance of striving to be like CHRIST and to share (TELL) others about his awesome love. I know that one is not to doubt another's salvation, and I didn't, I just thought, "How can one so young truly understand everything, how can they grasp the importance of telling others." Then I realize I do not understand EVERYTHING, I learn more and more each day, that is how it is meant to be, we grow as Christians each and every day.
As for TELLING others, my son made me realize that it is truly as easy as ABC (Admit, Believe, Confess). I always use to think teaching Sunday school and VBS classes, just how much the children learn. Well I got my answer on Wednesday: Prince (age 11) came in elated, with tears in his eyes; He had led two of his friends to CHRIST! Simply using the ABC,'s and our all time favorite song "HE was thinking of me". This makes me so very thankful for what CHRIST did for me, what he does for my family, and to know that he truly hears and answers my prayers about my children. Life is filled with temptation, so to know that God is leading and guiding my children, I can never be thankful enough! I will continue to pray the prayer that CHRIST leads my children down the right roads, because I realize as they grow life will be filled with more difficult temptations and they will need CHRIST by their side.
So for today, and everyday, I am truly thankful for my children being able to be part of the "church" leading others to CHRIST through their love of HIM. Isn't it wonderful that HE can use the youngest of "members" to win others over?
So our goal now, is not only to strive to be like CHRIST, but to win others over with HIS guidance, at our days at CA~ 

God's simple plan

Sharing

Not that these are so awesome that everyone is going to come running to claim these as their own, it just seemed professional to include a terms of use. So here goes:

These printables are created, for free, for personal use and/ or for use in your classroom. No part of these can be changed or edited in anyway (unless otherwise posted). Please do NOT upload, reproduce, sell, host, or store on any website or retrieval system. Please do not abuse this system of sharing. Printables, pictures, and post or the sole property of CA and are copyrite protected.

Enjoy these printables, courtesy of our days at CA!

Our Studies

Our home-schooling journey began 2 years ago, so we are still going through a trail and error phase. With my children and my teaching style a packaged curriculum did not seem to work for us. So over the past 2 years I have pulled from here and there, seeing what "fit" us and what didn't. So I guess that would make us a eclectic home-schooling family. We also tried a traditional style, but all the worksheets and test seemed mundane. As some of you probably already found, my children were doing better narrating their "test" then doing them by paper and pencil. So I have decided to incorporate more reciting and narrating. So I guess now we would be considered a mix of CM and traditional styles. Whatever one may want to label us as we just call it Our Days At CA.

Our Summer Plans?

     With our year whining down, June 4th our last day, my mind has been focused on what to do about the summer. I have considered all of our needs and have decided on a plan, IF it holds together. I am always planning but am willing to take life as it happens!
   Last year we tried Time 4 Learning; it was a good program and could possibly be used as a total curriculum depending on your state standards. We however enjoy hands on curriculum. I did like that the program helped to reinforce and gave extra practice for my children over the summer. For this reason, I did a lot of searching for a program like Time 4 learning, one that might possibly be, dare I say it, FREE! especially since it will only be used as summer practice and reinforcement. After many long nights searching, I found IT,
   Head of the Class. This site is very comparable to T4L, but it is FREE! And what better word is there after spending lots of money on our "basic" curriculum. Besides it will only be used for a month, which is all my DC can take of this type of curriculum, before we start our Summer Quarter.
    So my main focus is on our summer "Quarter", which is 8 wks from, June through August. (We start our fall "Quarter" in September). So here is my plan:

       Math: We will be doing MUS, Alpha, because my children still use their fingers to add… so to get a firm foundation on their math skills we have decided along with the wonderful staff at MUS that reviewing Alpha will be the best for us. In the fall, or after Christmas, we will start Gamma, only because my DC have their regrouping down, and are able to skip Beta.

Reading: Prince will read Old Yellow and then complete the comprehension worksheets. Then for a family movie night we will enjoy the movie. He will then read the series, The Incredible Worlds of Wally McDoogal.

                    


 Princesa will read the Ramona Series.       
 

Language Arts will be done at Head of the Class.
 

Science: I am excited to say, this will be our first year using the Apologia, Young explorer series. We will start out with Zoology 1. I have been planning out our quarter and I am excited to get it started. We have yet to find a "fit" for us, in Science. Both Prince and Princesa Love Science so I really believe they will enjoy these texts and notebooks. I am aware that we may not finish in 8wks, so since we LOVE science around here we will probably add this in to our Fall Quarter also, which will put us doing two sciences (NO, I am NOT crazy), don't worry they will intermingle in a way because we will be starting MFW 1^st cycle. YES, YES, I know, ECC is about Ecology or habitats, not a focus on the animals, but here at CA we are going to do a spin on the science and focus more on the animal kingdom and where in the world the animal can be found. I got this idea from Erica over at COAH. Once we finish up Zoo 1 we will then start in on Zoo 2 and finish it up the following summer. (Yea, I like to plan for the future!)

    So... Math, Reading, Language Arts, Science, and a week of VBS thrown in, I believe that counts as an academic summer ;)  and if not at least our days at CA will not be spent idol and unfocused. I will not have to hear the all too famous, "I am bored! What can I do!?"