"Book Land" Sight Word Game

Sick Day 2 at Jacobs School at Home. So I snuck in a little school without them knowing it.

We are big fans of Candy Land in this house so we really enjoyed Book Land! The same concept, but you have to read the sight word in order to move forward. Since Marie is the only reader of the kids, she got to read ALL the cards :) But she did amazing!

I'm cheap so I printed everything out fast draft with my recycled ink and didn't laminate anything, but it still ended up working great. An even cheaper idea I had after I already printed everything is to take the Candy Land game you already have and have a list of sight words ready for the player to read on his/her turn. I might go that route with the "Snakes and Ladders" game and use the Shoots and Ladders game we already have.

I'm a firm believer in phonics and teaching the rules of reading. But sight word practice is definitely important, too! So I found this free website - sightwords.com - super helpful and full of easy and fun ideas! It's super simple to print everything out. The website provides the Dolch and Fry sight word lists, or you can customize the games using whatever words you want!

The games are so easy to download and print. I had the Book Land game set up in no time! I also printed the cards for Go Fish because my kids are also obsessed with that game.

Jack's lips are so chapped he can hardly smile! :(

Now it's time for some leftover Zuppa Tuscana and breadsticks for lunch... YUM! Might need to post these recipes someday ;)

Praise Him, all you twinkling stars!

We are doing the D is for Dinosaur curriculum from Answers in Genesis this semester. We just finished going through each day of creation and are talking about the beautiful garden Adam and Eve got to live in. God led me to this passage…

Psalm 148

A quick online search brought me to this video. I turned off the sound and read the entire chapter while the kids watched the video.

The kids enjoyed it, but I was moved by it (hence why I am sharing!). This passage is so beautiful following a couple weeks of focusing on God's creation.

Amazing to think that even if we don't shout our praises to our worthy Savior,

"…the very stones will cry out."

Now She's Excited to Read!

Got this idea from a super clever fellow homeschool mom. It's definitely blogpost-worthy! It's been working wonderfully!

We have a basket of books that Marie can read mostly by herself. She can read one at any time to anyone.

She gets to put a sticker on her sheet every book she reads. (The sheet below I just found online. We don't do it by the week).

Find HERE

Once she's read 10 books, she gets to pick a reward from the box.

Can you tell she picked them all out? Thank you, Target.

She hasn't earned her first reward yet, but she's working hard on it! It's so cool to hear her gradually get a little faster and use expression. She's starting to recognize more words so she doesn't have to sound them all out. She still has a ways to go ((I suspect slight dyslexia)) but she's well on her way and I am one proud momma!

Revive

Have you heard?? Revival is HERE. 

Friday night we were tasked with giving away this bracelet on Saturday. 

I thought, how am I going to do that? I am going to be home all day until the Tim Hawkins concert at our church. When am I going to see an unsaved person to share this with?

Well...

Last night Derek and I enjoyed a date to see Tim Hawkins.

((BIG thank you to E&R for watching all of our babes, and to my Dadda for nabbing us amazing seats since we were super late as usual!))

We decided to go to Honey's for dessert. Apparently as we were walking in, Derek was wrestling with whether or not to remind me about the bracelet. He decided not to. I didn't even think of it until I saw a couple walk in and smiled at them. Suddenly, God rubbed some "eyesalve" on my eyes and I started to see people. I found a table that was in the midst of the busy little place and sat. 

And waited.

And watched.

The couple I had smiled at earlier sat down at a large table next to mine.

I noticed the table I was sitting at had some ice cream on it so I wiped it up and had to walk to the front of the store to throw the napkin away. In that few seconds, a group of teenagers took my table.

So I sat with this couple. They talked first. They had a blond haired, blue eyed boy named Jack with them. (Coincidence??) Derek came shortly after and asked how we could pray for them. 

In the end, I was able to hand over my bracelet, pray for them, get contact info, and now they are interested in visiting our church.

"Divine appointment" truly is what happened. I had absolutely nothing to do with any of it. The Spirit used me because He could. I wasn't nervous. I wasn't stressed about what to say or how to say it. 

That is supernatural.

These souls are so precious to God, and with the power of the Holy Spirit, I saw those souls as precious to God and they became precious to me.

Oh, and this is just the tip of all that God is doing just in my family! Derek… he is a new man. He is the spiritual leader in this family and is charging ahead with hope, joy, passion! 

And Marie?? {sigh} God is moving in her tiny heart. A few days ago she declared somewhat out of the blue: 

"I BELIEVE IN JESUS"

She has always said she does but this was different. She just felt the need to let me know. So later I shared with her about when I got saved and walked her through the bracelet. At the end of all that she mentioned one of Derek's friends saying, "We need to tell [soandso] about Jesus because he doesn't believe in Jesus." And she couldn't wait to give her bff next door a bracelet and tell her about Jesus! I don't know if she is eternally secure yet, but I have so much peace when I used to feel a desperate urgency. 

What an incredible week we've had. And it's only just begun…

Homeschooling is hard.

And scary. I mean, my kids' educational life wholly depends on me! Oh wait, their whole lives wholly depend on me right now...

But no on both counts. Not really. Because of this -

These tasks that God has entrusted to me - wife, mom, teacher - are literally impossible to do well. Impossible to do at all without my regularly scheduled meltdowns. BUT GOD (who is so rich in mercy and loves me so much! Eph. 2:4), He's got it.

I feel so much pressure as a homeschool mom to make sure that my kids are super smart. Marie is in 1st grade but is still really struggling with reading. And I feel like a complete failure. I just look at her homeschool notebook and cry out to God for help. It's gotten to be automatic.

The last few weeks as I've seriously questioned my call to homeschool these babes, God has almost immediately brought something about to remind me that He has called me to this. He won't leave me short-handed. It's been random things like an article with simple steps to teach anyone how to read, in the midst of being almost in tears from the daunting task. Or the quote above, the morning after an intense desire to throw in the towel. Or this verse when I simply needed it most...

Or hearing Marie say the other day for the first time... "I love to read!"

Homeschooling is hard. But oh so rewarding! The greatest rewards of all? Becoming more and more dependent on my God and Savior each day. Finding rest and peace in Him alone. And thoroughly enjoying His gifts of my babies and getting to raise them in His Word every day.