Jennifer Lambert

A Sacred Balance

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Daddy School

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June 28, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

Tori and Katie still love Draw Write Now. They’re working on geese this week.

That went well with our nature study and park time this week! We fed the ducks and geese and saw the babies and eggs!

Draw Write Now Notebooking

Katie takes her time drawing on the dry erase board to make sure it’s just right before putting it to paper.

Draw Write Now Practice

I’m impressed with their improvement in both skill and attitude with their handwriting and drawing. In the beginning, they would write only one sentence and that was like pulling teeth. Now they write the whole paragraph and do it independently and cheerfully!

Fun times at the park. This tree smelled so GOOD!

Tori loves the tangrams and she can do the advanced set all by herself now!
Tangram Play
Tangram Practice

I found a critical thinking workbook at a yard sale for only $1! Dad did 3 pages with Tori and Katie as soon as I brought it home! They love it!

Critical Thinking

We pretty much love everything from the Critical Thinking Company! Some great books!

 Then the girls and Dad had some crazy balloon races to test the helium levels or something. It sounded science-y, lol. They had fun anyway. That’s what counts.
Balloon Play

Later, Dad is taking Tori and Katie to get their nails done! I found the cutest nail salon that has little girl pedicure chairs. I will make sure he takes lots of pictures!

Pedicures

We had VBS at church this week. We had dinner there each night and it was nice not having to cook or clean the kitchen. all. week. long.

Since I was working in the preschool VBS, I didn’t get to interact with my girls, but they told me they had loads of fun and learned lots about Jesus! I was pleased that they did so well with the bigger kids! I’m glad I made the decision to place Katie with the elementary kids. I thought she would be super bored in the preschool and I was right: we only had really little kids. She’s kind of in limbo right now, at 5 years old. Her behavior often leaves a bit to be desired, but academically, she is even more advanced than Tori in some areas. I was hoping she would rise to the occasion and be more mature around older kids and it worked out quite well! So proud of her! Of course, Tori was just about perfection. She’s the sweet one.

Tori gave me a card the other day, for no reason. She wrote it all by herself, sounding out the words as best she could. I do love that girl!

We’re taking a little break from school, for the most part. We still have Bible, reading, and science and the girls LOVE their math. (We had to confiscate Tori’s math book the other night: she was in bed under the covers after bedtime, doing her math – how can you really be mad at that?!)

I have some fun and frugal things planned, like the splash pad and science experiments and making yummy treats. We need to find a pool that doesn’t cost a fortune and that will allow Alex in his swim diaper…And we have family coming for a week in July and a fun camping trip (our first!) planned for the last weekend of July!

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Filed Under: Homeschool Tagged With: homeschool

Last Track Meet

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June 16, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert 2 Comments

Tori did great on her last track meet Tuesday. All the kids had the option of competing in 6 events: 50, 100, 200, 400, softball throw, and long jump. Tori did them all. Only 5 out of 15 kids did all 6 events.

Getting ready to run!

Starting Line

Tori has learned well how to pace herself on the longer runs.
Sprinting

Throwing that softball! I keep asking if she wants to try to play softball, but she keeps saying no.

Softball Throw

Jumping like a frog. This was a new event for Tori. She hadn’t even practiced before today. She jumped at a distance of a little over 4 feet.

Jump

Awards. A very lovely medal which we will get engraved with her name and year.

Track Medals

The coach was pretty awesome. Very encouraging. Tori already can’t wait until next season!

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Filed Under: Homeschool Tagged With: exercise, fitness, PE, track

Tot School 25 Months

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June 11, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert 1 Comment

Playing the iPad with Daddy. They both look like they’re having so much fun! Alex loves the Montessori apps I have and he’s really good at them!
Playing the iPad with Daddy
Cleaning up blocks. Alex is such a sweet little helper and always willing to clean up! We made a game of it and I called out colors and shapes and he found those to put in the bag.
Cleaning up Blocks
Sorting ping pong balls.
We played with these a long time. He asked for more colors to sort them properly.
“Why no pink? I want orange!” ha!
Sorting Ping Pong Balls

Muffin Tin Meal

We haven’t done this in sooo long. Alex loved it. Look at that cheesy mouthful grin!
Muffin Tin Meal
On the phone with Grandpa to brag about his haircut.
He has refused to let me cut his hair for several months now. I’ve snipped the ends a few times with scissors, but he’s been looking scruffy because he decided he was terrified of the clippers. All of a sudden, he demanded a proper haircut, all out of the blue! I rushed up to the bathroom and got ‘er done! He was so proud, he needed to call Grandpa and tell him!
Talking to Grandpa
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Filed Under: Homeschool Tagged With: tot school

4 Days to a Forever Marriage Review

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June 8, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

I reviewed 4 Days to a Forever Marriage by Gary and Norma Smalley.

I’ve read many, many marriage books. (Always seeking advice, eh?) Some more helpful than others. I didn’t have great expectations for this one. I was pleasantly surprised. Turn a marriage around in just four days? Really?

Well, Dr. Smalley and his lovely wife, Norma, squeeze oodles of information into this little book. I guess “condensed” would come to mind.

I do love the format of this book. It reads like a magazine and looks like a scrapbook with Bible verses (some are just Bible references that you have to look up on your own if you don’t have them memorized) and quotes thrown in the margins. I love reading Norma’s views on events and her advice to overcome struggles with a husband. Of course, you’d assume that they must be the perfect couple since Dr. Smalley is such a big name in Christian family and marriage circles. I love reading how they’ve struggled with typical issues in their marriage just like everyone else. I love their humor when writing about it.

This book is a great resource for engaged couples, newly marrieds, happily or unhappily married couples, and remarriage situations. The appendix offers other resources to help everyone achieve a successful marriage.

The four main topics discussed are love, communication, affection, and finding treasures in trials.

It’s great getting both Dr. and Mrs. Smalley’s perspectives on these issues.

I think the title may be misleading. It takes a lifetime of work to keep marriage successful. You can’t turn around a dying marriage in four days. This book is for happily married couples to get better, not for struggling marriages to do a 180.

I received my review copy of 4 Days to a Forever Marriage from New Leaf Press.

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Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: book review, Marriage

Park Nature Walk

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June 7, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

We go to the park about twice a week while Elizabeth has her ASTYM therapy.

I finally remembered to bring my camera and do something other than go to the playground.

We looked for bugs to go with our calendar theme this month.

But first, we watched the ducks.

Baaaaaaaabeeeeee ducks!

Ducks
Mama Duck
Swallows

and a goose

White Goose

Bugs…um…fighting. yeah

Love Bugs

Ladybug!

Ladybug

cute kids.

Cute Kids on a Stone Bench

Another ladybug.

Ladybug on a Leaf

Really cute kids.

Cute Kids with Rocks

Damselfly on a leaf.

Damselfly on a Leaf

Damselfly on Katie. She was super thrilled. It liked her!

Damselfly
We love this pretty little waterfall.
Park Waterfall

We have loads of fun at the park every week!

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Filed Under: Homeschool Tagged With: ducks, homeschool, nature study, park, pond

Confirmation

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June 4, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

Elizabeth got confirmed last Sunday and I wanted to share! This is in the tradition of a Bat Mitzvah. But, she’s only 11! Elizabeth is now an adult in the eyes of the church, and a voting member. I am so proud.

It was a busy weekend: Pentecost Sunday, Memorial Day, and Dad had to work the air show at base so he wasn’t available! And it rained all weekend. I was in charge of our church brunch. Stress!

Look how grow-up she looks! We had to get a new dress since she has recently outgrown EVERYTHING! She had no red!

Confirmation

Her lovely mentors. Pastor joked that Liz is such a handful she needed TWO mentors. haha

Mentors

The confirmation ceremony. Pastor recommended her for youth elder. Awesome. I loved hearing Pastor and her mentors praise her accomplishments and intelligence. Proud mama!

Confirmation Ceremony

Her mentors got Liz a lovely cross necklace.

It was a wonderful morning.

But, I was exhausted when we got home from rushing around and making sure the kids were ready and the food was prepared and laid out pretty. whew!

 
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Filed Under: Faith Tagged With: church, confirmation

Hogle Zoo Field Trip

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June 2, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

Our local zoo had a FREE military day.

Awesome. We were so there. We headed over to Hogle Zoo to see animals!
Alex really enjoyed seeing the animals.
 
Last year, he was a bit too young to understand why he couldn’t pet the animals. He especially loved the elephant and the cavy.
 
Alex loved the cavy so much that we had to drag him away. It wasn’t pretty.
 
Look how this desert cat came over to say “hello”! Alex wanted him.
Desert Cat
The zoo opened a new café, The Beastro (haha),  this spring with gourmet food and it was amazingly good.
 
It was priced equivalently to Subway, which we considered buying and bringing for lunch, but when I looked up their menu and prices, I opted to get some fresh gourmet food and they offered %10 off and free drinks to military! Score!
 
COLD ice cream!
very cold ice cream

They have an awesome playground when you get tired.

Like, who could get bored watching animals? Well, the animals got bored with us and went to sleep about mid-day.
 
Alex loved the snake slide!
Snake Slide
BIG egg
Big Egg
Alex loved the bridge and ran across it, back and forth.
Bridge
I ain’t afraid of no spiders!
Spider
We can’t wait to return for the opening of their new exhibit, Rocky Shores.
 
We already have some events lined up on our calendar since Tori and Katie are studying Apologia Land Animals.
 
Who doesn’t love bears?
 
Visit Hogle Zoo and check out their education programs!

Admission:

SUMMER SEASON ( May 1 – September 30)

Adults$14.95
Seniors (65 and older):$12.95
Children (3 to 12):$10.95
Children 2 and younger:Free

REGULAR ( October 1 – April 30)

Adults$11.95
Seniors (65 and older):$9.95
Children (3 to 12):$8.95
Children 2 and younger:Free

Hours:

Summer Hours

 

March 1 – October 31

Gate:9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Grounds:9 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Winter Hours

 

November 1 – February 28

Gate:9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Grounds:9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
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Filed Under: Utah Tagged With: field trip, Utah, zoo

Top 10 Homeschool Items

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May 30, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert 27 Comments

I used to feel like I had to have every educational toy, every workbook, all the curricula, every new thing I saw – to homeschool my children well.

Kids learn well when left alone, maybe just a little coaching and guidance. We’re pretty laid back these days.

There’s so much available online that we could virtually homeschool for free, anywhere, anytime. We don’t need much at all.

I have minimized to the top ten items we love and need to homeschool our four kids.

Our Top 10 Homeschool Items:

10. Art Supplies. (all that crafty stuff that makes life stressful and messy and fun and beautiful). We love colored pencils and glue sticks and the Back to School aisles still give me butterflies! I try to buy the highest quality supplies that will last and give my kids the effects they desire.

9. Library Cards. (we all have our own cards and we max those suckers out each week!) We love books. While I purchase lots, I always check the library and the Libby, by Overdrive app to borrow eBooks first.

8. Tablets. We each have an iPad Mini. Thank God for technology. Starfall taught Alex his ABCs. We all have one with color-coded cases. (They were gifts from grandparents.) We use them daily for schoolwork and fun. I gave the girls their own shared Kindle account and we download FREE eBooks all the time! We love weather and geography apps. We love Stack the States, Splash Math, and Duolingo! And yes, we watch YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, and cable TV when we have WiFi.

7. Desks/Lap Trays. My kids each have a desk from thrift stores. We had four of this little table kind of lap desk. We also have some portable fun ones from lap gear. And I even found a mini one with a cool clipboard on it! They’re also great for travel.

6. Printer. How else would I function and print all the kiddos’ notebooking pages?

5. Pencils and Sharpeners. The kids all love their Staedtler manual pencil sharpeners. I like this big electric pencil sharpener. It’s also a good idea to get good pencils, not those cutesy bargain ones.

4. Science Supplies. We love to do demonstrations and experiments. We have not regretted the expense of a good microscope and telescope.

3. Games. Just Dance and other fun active games. When it’s cold or very wet and windy, the kids love to exercise or wind down with the Wii and Switch.

2. Bookcases. We have lots of books. I have a wall of bookcases in my office. We have bookcases in the kids’ bedrooms. We have bookcases in the basement. I have a basket of our morning reading beside the sofa.

1. Dry Erase Boards. We have a pretty big board in our basement. I also like a small personal board to do small work and have fun.

We continue to purge and downsize our belongings, including our homeschool items, each year. It’s getting even more fun as the kids get older. We need less and less.

What are your must-haves for your homeschool?

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Filed Under: Homeschool Tagged With: back to school, homeschool

Polar Bear Temperature Experiment

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May 21, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert 2 Comments

Ever Heard of a Pizzly Bear?

We learned this week in science that the offspring of a grizzly bear and polar bear is a pizzly bear. Which means there is one somewhere. Like the wholphin in Hawaii. And there is a zedonk which is the baby of a donkey and zebra.

What this means is that animals of the same kind can mate and produce babies. Our Apologia Zoology book teaches us that Noah took 2 or 7 pairs of each kind of animal onto the Ark. Not every species of feline or canine and other genus that we know and love. Natural selection made all the species we see now from those kinds of animals on the Ark. Awesome. I love it.

Our temperature experiment this week

Did you know polar bears have black skin? Their fur is clear.

We learned that dark colors absorb more heat than light colors.

1. Two plastic bags: black and white.

Temperature Science Experiment

2. Reading the experiment to Tori and Katie so that they understand what we’re doing.

Reading the Instructions

3. Two thermometers to read temperature.

Two Thermometers

4. Placing thermometers under bags and securing bags with rocks so they don’t blow away.

Setting Up

5. Waiting. Do you hear the Jeopardy theme too?

Waiting for Results

6. The next morning (we wanted to see the high and low temps) we checked our bags and the black bag had a high of 47 degrees and the white bag had a high temp of 45 degrees. Celsius.

So, after looking up the temp chart on the ‘Net, that means the black bag got really hot, lol. Almost 117 degrees.

Result 2
Result 1

Probably not the most accurate experiment. It was supposed to be done on a sidewalk. I thought there would be a bigger temperature difference.

But the girls loved it and told Dad all about it, so it was worth it, eh?

 
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Filed Under: Homeschool Tagged With: elementary, Science

Fun with Felt and Music

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May 18, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert 1 Comment

I bought some felt sets for Katie for her birthday and everyone loves them! Big Sister has started our school day with felt stories. I bought some nursery rhymes sets and kids’ stories in felt. We’ve had a Bible felt set for a while now, but it hasn’t been used much.

The girls are singing, “Here We Go ’Round the Mulberry Bush.” Aren’t the wings a nice touch?

“This is the way we wash our hands…”

songs with felts

Big Sister told the story of Jesus’ birth with our felts. It went with our Bible studies this week about the angel’s announcements to Zechariah and Mary and how we should trust God.

big sister flannelgraph

Even Bubba joined in on listening to Big Sister!

family song time with felts

So, the felts were obviously a wise purchase and I’m glad everyone likes them.

Anyone have any great storage solutions for felts and felt boards? They’re all over the place and getting mixed up and it’s driving me crazy!

Famous Composers Notebooking Pages
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Filed Under: Homeschool Tagged With: homeschool, Music

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