Kindergarten

After a year of life change, our family is finally settled again in a new wonderful house, and just in time to start kindergarten! I have been keeping some updates on our family blog, but to quickly summarize, a year ago we moved from North Carolina to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to do a YWAM Fire & Fragrance Discipleship Training School here. We completed three months of lectures and three months of outreach, (which we spent in Nepal as well as quick visits to Dubai and Northern Ireland!) Then we moved into a house across the road from the ministry base in Harrisburg in the inner city. We spent the summer there and began establishing our family here in Harrisburg, as we have felt called to stay and serve in the missions community here. This past month, however, God provided a new opportunity through our amazing church here in Harrisburg, to live in a house belonging to the church (and just next door to it) managing it as a community house for people committed to filling night watch hours at the prayer room. We also had a new baby in August, our first little boy! Norah turned five last week, the week after we moved in to our new house. So we are in a new house, with a new baby, and our lives are full with family, church, YWAM ministry, and lots of amazing friends and amazing things with the Lord. It's been crazy busy but wonderful.

So Norah's pre-K year didn't look very typical, but it included intense spiritual training, traveling to two other continents and three other countries, visiting the White House, meeting SO many people, learning all about worship and the Holy Spirit and prayer, living in the inner city, sharing Jesus and praying for healing, making friends with missionary kids and kids from other cultures, learning about other cultures and languages, becoming close to so many new adopted, godly aunts and uncles, and so much more.  Our traveling has also provided more visits with grandparents which has been such a blessing. Norah also became a big sister again and has been amazing with both her little siblings. Elyse has blossomed as well. She is so verbal, friendly, independent, and spirited. She definitely carries heaven! She is the picture of life and freedom. Norah is full of wisdom, insight, and love for Jesus. They are just amazing little girls. This past year has been intense for them with the moving around, traveling, and lots of new beginnings. But they have been incredible and I'm glad to say they are better little people as a result.

However, we are so excited now to put our feet down in this new, exciting season. Really God's timing is perfect (of course) and we have been able to wait to start kindergarten at just the right time - waiting till after the baby was born and we were settled in the house and she turned five. Our church has a bimonthly co-op that will be a great asset, and most of Norah's little friends are homeschooled too.  We started that about two weeks ago, and today had our official first day of school at home.

I don't yet have all the curriculum I'm planning to use, but I had enough to get started. We had tried to keep up with reading over the past year, and, although she is really getting it, I decided to start again with Kindergarten level Hooked on Phonics and make sure we really nail all the basics. The daily lesson consists of a short DVD lesson on a new sound (today's was -at), then a workbook to practice reading the new words, and finally a short story she can read using the new words she's learned. She already knew the -at words but I knew that would make her feel more excited since she'd feel like it was manageable for her. She loved putting the star sticker at the end of her lesson. Elyse enjoyed watching the video too! I did give Elyse a box of wooden ABC puzzle letters to play with. We sang the ABC song several times with her too.

Norah also started her Handwriting without Tears workbook. I didn't buy the rest of the program, just the workbook. I can tell I'm missing a few of the teacher prompts, but I didn't think I needed the rest because she is already writing all her letters and numbers. I just wanted to get the workbook to make sure she really gets it, as I know there's a few letters she is forming incorrectly. As with reading and math, I'm going a bit beneath her level to ensure she learns it all correctly. We also have a year margin as she is not required to start kindergarten, technically, till next year. So I'm using the space to her benefit. No need to rush her, even though she is so bright and I know she'll move along quickly.

I haven't ordered her math curriculum yet, but I decided we would first finish the kindergarten math workbook I bought at Target last spring. We've been slowly working through it, and she's already worked on writing numbers 1-12, simple addition and subtraction, shapes, and patterns. Today we did a couple pages learning cubes and spheres. Then we found toys that were shaped like cubes and spheres.

We read some library books in place of history curriculum, which I haven't ordered yet. We read one on Picasso, and she learned about "The Girl with a Ponytail." Then she drew her own girl with a ponytail. So fun and so cute!

I'm so excited about this year!