1st day of home school!

To say I'm overjoyed would be an understatement. I was just as excited as the kids were for our first day of home school. As the hour approached I had butterflies thinking to myself "The Lord must know what He's doing by asking me to educate our children." and I had to repeat that to myself a few times today. We did have a great time and the curriculum is easy to followed and the girls for the most part enjoy it. I can see Madelyn is very gifted in Math, I have decided to get more material to challenge her a bit, she's a wiz at it so I need to build on what she already knows. My Rachel is so gifted in reading/language arts and she is actully assisting me in teaching Madelyn and Linzhi to read. My baby girl, Linzhi Rose is showing signs of being gifted in coloring in the lines and identifying her shapes, colors, numbers and some letters. First thing this morning, I went over class rules, rewards and corrections. I typed everything in a word doc then went to google translate so everything could be printed in Mandarin too. As I went over everything Madelyn had a copy so she could follow along with us and guess what??? She did! I asked her through the translator if she understood and she grinned and nodded. So because I am (maybe )a little type A, I have the classroom extremly organized and an agenda for our day. I went over everything with the girls and they understand we are sticking to a schedule and whatever they use (paper,markers, crayons) has a place to be returned when finished. I understand I need to be flexible but for certain things they are old enough to understand in our house we cannot learn when it's chaos and a mess...Except for craft and experiment time...Then it's fun to get messy!! I know I will learn as I go along but I have the basics down and I know what the girls need to accomplish so they can learn. I am so humbly grateful to God for blessing me with this opportunity, I never thought I could (or wanted to) home school but it gives me such JOY to see my little girls that have physcial challenges and the other that doesn't learning and exploring at home where they are loved and accepted.

Madelyn has been home a month already! Time is flying!! She's still doing good, we've had a few melt downs with lots o'tears which we were glad to see. I hate that she has to greive but she needs to get through it. I know she will carry loss for a long time, maybe all her life but we need her to feel safe, secure and loved and in our hearts we feel she's getting there. Linzhi goes for her MRI (brain and spine) on the 17th so we're praying questions are answered so we can get a game plan for getting her some additional help. So like always, I'm busy but loving it and happy as can be =) Raising 4 kids come with some challenges but God is with us always and knows everything we need...Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfullness and self control (I think I have them in order). Without knowing that, I would be a mess especially during the part of the day when I feel like I can't take one more little girl arguement or reminding Trevor to TAKE THE TRASH out!!!! LOL... It always seems to be that part of the day right before my helper and hubby walks in the door...PRAISE GOD!!!! HELP!!!!! I cherish these times, good and challenging because I know they will only be little once, they will be 18 before I know it and ready for college just as my son will be in 4 short months. Time does not give us a break adnd I refuse to allow the enemy steal my joy of being a mother while I have them here in my nest. So again, thank you Lord for all your blessings and opportunities to teach me another lesson. I am a grateful servant.



Trevor starting his (gulp) senior year of High School. So proud of this Godly young man!
Miss Madelyn!
Miss Rachel Cate!
Miss Linzhi Rose!


Being silly at breakfast.

Craft for the day (each girl made a set-I think this is Madelyn's)
Drawing a picture of things we do in the daylight (from our bible study)
Rachel and Linzhi working hard on their picture too!
Sharing crayons.
Classroom rules, rewards and corrections in Mandarin for our newest family member.
same as above in English.