Field Trip!

Not that anyone but me gets excited about this stuff, but I thought I'd share some pics from our field trip yesterday.  We went to The St. Louis Zoo for the day.  We hadn't been in a few years.  The St. Louis Zoo is world-class, and did you know it is FREE????  That is right.  You can park somewhere in Forest Park and walk on in.  You can pay for extras, like food, the train, some of the shows....but you don't have to.  You can even pay $15 to park, but I wonder why anyone would.  We parked about 1/4 mile away, if that, in the Art Museum parking lot.

As it was getting warm, I did suggest we go to the (air-conditioned!) Art Museum instead, but was loudly voted down.

I did not take many pictures of the kids - actually, only a few of Joe and Henry.  Mainly, I photographed the Zoo residents.

Henry really enjoyed watching the sea lions being fed.

There is a cool insect museum, and a small butterfly house you walk through.  Imagine being in an overgrown garden, with butterflies all around.

Look, it is Capyboppy!

I don't recall this fellows' name, Cotton Top something or other.  He is only about 8" tall.  Joe was fascinated by him.

Seal at lunch

Seal and sea lions at lunch

Hippo

Joe posing by the Childrens' Zoo

Some sort of Lemur

Lion.  Note the females on the rocks to the right.  Usually I don't get to see the lions, they tend to be inside when we are there.

Meerkat showing off.

Probably my favorite is the Penguin Exhibit.  Besides it being very chilly (nice, when it is 92 degrees outside) you can get up close to them.  If no one had been looking, I bet I could have touched a few.

Don't the Zebras sort of look like an optical illusion?

Next week school starts back up here - I wanted one more day of just fun before we got back to our routines.  And I am logging it as science!

Saturday on the Homestead: What Is Your Passion?

This topic came up on a homeschooling forum this week.  One of the moms asked us what our passion is.  There were a lot of responses, many of them in the form of different arts, crafts, scrapbooking, that sort of thing.

I like those things (okay, not scrapbooking).  I enjoy making beaded jewelry, I like to take pictures, I like to make cards and bookmarks, I used to (B.C. - before children) enjoy counted cross stitch.  But these are not passions.

Even reading, believe it or not, is not truly a passion.  It is a relaxation, often it is a resource for my passion, but in and of itself, it is not the passion.

My passion is serving.  Followed closely by home educating.

Now, lest you think I am all holier-than-thou-or-anyone-else, please hear me out.  I don't mean servitude.  I mean serving and being able to minister and be hospitable to those around me.  It starts with my family, and flows to my church and homeschool group and friends from there.  I love to have the kids' friends over, to have other families gather with us, to host a group of ladies for a book discussion or Bible study, or just to hang out.   I look forward to fellowships and bringing food, or taking a meal to a family with a new baby.  This particular season of life has brought the blessing of having a flexible schedule, to be able to take the time to talk to my boys, to spend time with my husband, to be an ear and heart to other women.  My joy is in organizing events for our homeschool group, getting together with the other families, and especially this year, and there is a special love (love, love. love) for our science co-op.

I guess I am passionate about Apologia General Science this year.  Thank you, Dr. Wile!

I love getting to talk to the kids, and to try to help reinforce what their moms are doing, to give them a spot to do the "fun" part of science (ie, mix stuff together and see what happens) with each other.

Yesterday I was at the skating rink with all the homeschoolers.  I think this is our 8th year of monthly skating at the local rink.  The first few years it wasn't hardly worth the owner's time and gas money to open for us - some months only three families showed up!  But now, there is a big crowd most months.  I get out and skate with the kids, and see all ages, from little guys being pushed around in strollers to high schoolers, watch them all interacting and having fun......and I think, "I did this."  And I get such a rush of joy from it.  I am not getting into some wild back-patting, but I organized this years ago, it is my baby.  And now, it is a well-established monthly event.  It did not take much effort, but it took a commitment to be there every.single.month for a few years to help get it going.  I think I have maybe missed one or two in the last eight years.

To have a bunch of little guys high-five you at the skating rink, this is joy.  To sit on the couch in the morning with my husband and sons, and study God's word together, this is joy.  To have four boys have FUN writing crazy stories together, or see them in deep strategic conference as they plan their next air soft war, this is joy.  To gather with a bunch of ladies who know each others' hearts so well that we can laugh and cry together, this is joy.

To see a family come walking through our front door carrying a mixing bowl full of cookie dough, and ask if they can bake the cookies here, that was some joy!

So, it would be nice, I suppose, if I could find some great artistic ability, or political cause, or intellectual pursuit.  And maybe someday I will.  But for now, my passion is here, in my home, in my family, in this community.

And I have found joy.

Field Trip!

 Just a few pictures from our trip to The Magic House this week.  Once a month there is a Homeschool Morning.  The upside is that it is only $3 and it is generally not too crowded.  The downside - only two hours.  Last year I went twice so I could spend time on the younger kid stuff with my little guys, and then the second time to hit all the "big" kid stuff.

My crew, plus a few friends.  Tony is a good sport to get his picture taken in the Magic Tree House area, especially since he was about a foot taller than most people there!

The kids really  had a good time.

And, just to keep me humble..........

A "Periodic Evaluation" For The School Year To Date

In the great state of Missouri (and I do actually think it is great!) we homeschoolers have to do what the law calls "periodic evaluations".  What form this takes is left up to the parents.  How often a "period" occurs is also left up to the parent.  I try to do them twice a year, at the end of the fall "semester" (ie, Christmas!) and at the end of the "school year" (ie, sometime in May or June).

Mine are in the form of a brief paragraph or two on each subject.  I just write down what grade they are getting (though I only grade in science and math), what we are using for each subject, and how they are doing, generally in comparison to last year.

I wrote up the two older boys' a few days ago, and I still need to do the two younger ones.  I have found it helpful to do these evaluations (even though I balk at anybody telling me I HAVE to do anything!) because it gives me time to pause, reflect, and do my own evaluations.

If one of the boys is not progressing - why?  Is it them?  Is it the curriculum?  Or is it me? 

So....what is working, what isn't working, what can we do differently?

Science is going great.  I am doing my first-ever co-op this year.  We are using Apologia's General Science course.  Every Wednesday morning, 14 students ranging in age from 10-15 gather in my breakfast area to review what they read the week before, do the experiments, and hopefully learn something.  We also manage to get in some socialization for those poor homeschool kids who never get to leave the house (yes, that was sarcasm). 

Look at this crew!

Science experiments in the kitchen, how much more traditional can you get?

We do let them out occasionally - this is a field trip the St. Louis University Medical School

Getting ready to dissect a sheep brain.

And how about that socialization, anyway?  One of the moms made a cookie cake to celebrate some birthdays - mine and Britney's.

So, as the pictures demonstrate (!) science is going well.  Having something that we HAVE to do consistently is helping with our other schoolwork as well.  The older boys are doing above-average in most subjects.  We have been lacking, I fear, in language arts this year.  We did a unit on poetry and have done a little grammar.  That is going to be added in and get a little more focus the rest of the year.  Same for the younger boys.  They are harder, though, because they need me for everything, while the older boys can do most of their work on their own. 

It's all this socialization, I'm telling you.  We go-go alot.  Probably too much.  I don't plan to cut back on "real" field trips, chess club, that sort of thing (ie, things I can log hours for).  But....we have been having an awful lot of fun.  Not that having fun is all bad, I am for fun, I promise.  However, as it gets colder and the weather grows yuckier, I think it will be easier to stay hunkered down at home more, and to focus on getting more "book work" done.

Such as grammar. 

It is like this most years, though.  The first half of the year the weather is good, there are holidays and parties.  From January to the end of March, it will be cold and usually wet or overcast.  A good time to do school.  Then in April and May it gets nice, and our focus can go back to more social events. 

We always manage to get in all our hours (1,000 hours that must be logged in Missouri per calendar year).  We don't always manage to finish all our books.  But what doesn't get done this year either a)gets done next year or b)really wasn't all that important, anyway.

And with the short amount of time we have, I'd like to do what is important.  Sometimes we just have to figure out what that is!

It's the most wonderful time of the year.......

Hahaha, and you thought it was Christmas!  NO - it is NOT Christmas!

It is homeschool convention season, and it is gearing up! 



It seems odd, to have them this early in the "school year" - I am going to one in Memphis, TN the first week of March,



local ones are end of March and middle of June (which seems more reasonable).  But, all over the country, March and April are big homeschool convention/conference/expo months.

I know you are wondering (if you don't homeschool), "Why on earth do you need to think about next year, when you are only in the middle of this year?"

Good question.  The best answer I can give it - because hope springs eternal!

Halfway through a school year a homeschool mom knows A)what is working and B)what is not working.  At this point in the year, though, you really don't want to ditch the science program you are halfway through and start something new.  You feel like you should give it your all and finish it.  But....as you are proceeding along, you can start to dream of how it will be different next year.  Of the things that you like and don't like about what you are using, and start refining in your mind what you want to use next year.

Personally, I also think the convention planners schedule the conventions for when most of us are getting our income tax refunds, too, since a HUGE portion of the conventions is the vendor hall/sales.



Anyway, even though I am only a little over halfway through my year (we run our year July 1 - June 30, with breaks as needed) I too, am already dreaming of what I would like to buy.  Fortunately, I don't need much.  And, I am NOT (do you hear me, NOT) buying a bunch of stuff at the conference in March.  I am not buying anything until this summer, closer to when I really need it.  But I do plan to spend a whole lot of time in the vendor hall, looking at all the goodies.

There is an axiom about if you sit in a barber chair long enough you are going to end up getting a haircut, but I am sure that won't happen to me (again) this year.

I mainly need stuff for my oldest, Tony, the middle-schooler, who will be in 8th grade next year.  He has now reached the point in math where I cannot teach all of it to him without having to learn it myself.  Can I help it if I didn't need to take geometry to graduate in 1984?  Why did he end up with it in 5th grade?  We are learning it together, but I think he could use further assistance (ie, someone who doesn't have to do all the assignments herself before teaching it).  So, we are going to move into either Saxon DIVE or Teaching Textbooks, both or which are video-driven.  He needs a new science as well.  I think Apologia General Science would be a good fit for he and Ben (who will be in 6th grade) next year.  And for social studies, I am leaning towards a semester of Notgrass's "Elections" curriculum, followed by economics with "Whatever Happened to Penny Candy", all interspersed with US Geography.  We still have plenty of language arts stuff here.  We go back and forth - we will use Daily Grams for a little bit, then back to BJU for a while.  I tend to jump around with what topics I want to teach, and mix that in with creative writing and journalling.  What that means in English - it takes forever to finish a textbook, so a purchase is good for 2-3 years.  For the younger boys I don't need anything except BJU for Joe (3rd grade).  At their age (1st and 3rd next year) we do reading, handwriting, math and they "tag along" with the older boys for history, Bible and science, and they read their own level books - junior bios and science books, that sort of thing.  Everyone needs the next level math workbook, and that is about it.  This year we are doing a structured Bible curriculum, but I don't think we will next year.  Between daily Bible reading, Bible discussion and videos, AWANA, Sunday School, church, weekly Bible studies and whatever else I toss into the mix, anything else might be an overload.  I don't want it to become burdensome to them, I want it to be their joy. 

As I add in more kids - and look at all the stuff I "over-bought" in years past - I have gotten more relaxed in our schooling structure.  We've never been ones to do pages of workbooks, etc.  For years we were Sonlighters, which means a ton of reading aloud to them and them reading on their own.  As the boys have gotten older, though, they have lost interest in this.  Every year is something different.  That is one of the best things about homeschooling, getting to tailor their learning experience to suit their learning styles, personalities, desires, and our family dynamics. 

It all goes back to the lifestyle of learning I keep trying to promote here - that all of life is learning, it doesn't all take place in the schoolroom, it doesn't all come from the pages of a textbook.  God has so blessed us with this incredible world to explore, so many resources to choose from.......

And a lot of them are free.

Goal #6

Keep the school records current, so I don't have to face a month of stuff to log.

Here in Missouri, homeschoolers have to record or "log" 1,000 hours of instruction per calendar year, broken out into core and electives. 

I have no problem getting plenty of stuff done - as I've said before, we subscribe to a "learning lifestyle" so I look at everything we do as learning - not just those things done with a pencil and paper.  The hard part is not the learning - it is the recording of the learning. 

The things that I have on a "schedule" for them are easy - I plan each week, print a list for them of what we are going to do, and as it gets done I check it off.  Then I just have to mark it complete in the computer and how much time we spent, and the Homeschool Tracker program does the rest.

But what about the time Ben spent yesterday in the library reading a DK book about WWII?  Or the time Joe, Henry and Dad spent going through an I-Spy book last night?  Some of the tv shows we watch are definitely educational.  Ben has spent several hours this week assembling an approximately 4' tall skeleton out of duct tape (I am not joking) - is that science or art?  So many things - okay, most things - don't involve sitting at a desk, and oftentimes we rabbit trail off to topics that don't seem to have any relation to what we set out to study.  But yet, learning is happening.  Just not the learning that I had on the list for that day!

I have considered giving the boys steno pads to write down what they are doing each day, but that seems like a "joy of learning killer", at least for them.  I think I need to carry a steno pad around and write down everything they do.  Actually, I know that is what I should do.  I guess I could hang it from a chain around my neck or something...

Anyway, we always get in more hours than we need for state requirements, I just tend to stress myself out because I know I am missing so many things that we do.  I guess it would be easier if I just sat them down at a table from 9 - 3 each day (with a break for lunch) and had them do a list of assignments.  But that does not seem like much fun for any of us.

So, a system needs to be in place, but what that system will look like is uncertain.  And as life is always changing, the system will need to change and be re-vamped frequently.  For now, I should probably find myself a really attractive chain for the steno pad I will be wearing!

And here are a few examples of what learning looks like in our house:

Copy pictures of Missouri insects and then coloring and painting them - art/science

Doing a portrait like Picasso would, and a sculpture to match - more art!

Reading for fun!

Enjoying a science video with some friends

Goal #2 from "the list"

Goal #2:
Make getting all the schoolwork done a priority for the boys.

Sometimes this is difficult.  I make a schedule.  Really, I do.  But I have four rambunctious guys, who really have better things to do than sit around with schoolbooks. 

I try to promote a "learning lifestyle" - everything we do is learning.  It doesn't all come from books.  Of course we have books - lots of them.  We also have text books.  We use those and workbooks in conjunction with math and grammar.  We also do a lot of creative writing, reading together, watching videos. finding out stuff on our own, and we go on lots of field trips.  I think so many lessons can't come from books - like how to get along with others, how to work, how to serve, how to create and invent.  So, while we do hit the books in the morning and get that part "out of the way" (and yes, some homeschool kids do really see their schoolwork as something to just.get.done) we usually leave the afternoons open for some fun, or for them to just have time on their own to BE.  To exist.  To be human "beings", as opposed to human "doings".

I will admit that sometimes the drawback to being relaxed in our approach is that sometimes I don't feel like we are doing enough.  I know we are, we get all our hours in every year.  But I keep falling back into the idea that "school" is "bookwork".  And I have to shake myself out of that and remember that "school" is "life".

And there is much more to life than textbooks and workbooks. 

So really, this is an important goal - school needs to be their priority.  But sometimes the definition of "school" needs to get revamped a bit.

And now, just because it is my blog and I can, I would like to share pictures from the spelling bee last week.  Ben and Tony both competed.  It was a very small bee, but we had fun.

Tony - he looked so huge up there on the stage!

Ben is in the back, there, with the other finalists.  The winner from each grade went to the spell-off.  He didn't place there, but I thought we did pretty good, considering we'd never even ATTENDED a spelling bee before!

Tony and Ben with their ribbons.

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Today my family is celebrating St. Nicholas Day.  I want my guys to grow up understanding the historical reasons behind our traditions.  So much of what should be a holy time - the Season of Christmas - has been turned into a secular, commercial, how-much-can-I-buy-how-much-can-I-overindulge-in-food-and-drink season.  I am not against buying gifts, and certainly I am a strong advocate of Christmas cookies!  I am, however, also a lover of history.

One of my main quests over the last few years has been to discover when different Church practices - both doctrine and tradition - came into being.  I love to study Christian history.  I have found that this history is a very true example of "the victor writes the history books".  It constantly amazes me how the same events can have different meanings, depending on who is doing the writing, and from what perspective. 

Anyway, back to St. Nicholas.  An excellent book for children is

Saint Nicholas, The Real Story of the Christmas Legend:

This book was given to my boys several years ago by my friend Anita, and it is one that we have read over and over.

Today we will read this book again, I have printed some excellent coloring pages from a great website The Saint Nicholas Center .  This is a very helpful website, with links to other sites, activities, recipes, etc. 

I have also done the really fun part - last night I stuffed the stockings!  This morning they will find gold coins, to represent St. Nicholas' generosity to the poor, gingerbread cookies (legend has it that he was quite a baker of gingerbread and fruitcakes), a Christmas ornament for the tree, and a couple little candies just for fun.  Hopefully, I can keep this fun, as opposed to taking something fun and turning it into "school"!

So, Happy St. Nicholas Day, and blessings to your family today!

Advent and the Christmas Season

This week we have started Advent.  Well, technically, since I did not have my candles Sunday, we are starting it tonight, but that is okay!  I am not using the traditional colors of pink and purple - I just like white and red, and the meaning is still the same.  Tonight, and then for the next three Sundays before Christmas we will do Bible readings and light the next candle, as we await the birth of the Messiah.
 
We will be using the book Advent Foretold for our devotions this year.  There are 25 devotions, starting on December 1, pertaining to the prophecies of the coming Messiah.  I have had this for a few years, but it was over the younger boys' heads.  I think it will work well for us this year.  You can find a link to this book on my Shelfari bookshelf (look to your right).
 
We are doing old and some new traditions this year.  The last few years I have set up the nativity scene before the rest of the decorations - I don't like to put up our tree until mid-December.  I set the stable and the animals in one place, the shepherds nearby but in another room, Mary and Joseph far away, the angel and the Christ Child are hidden, and the Wise Men are a long way off.  Then, each Sunday, everyone gets a little closer, until Christmas Eve after everyone is in bed I put them all in the stable.  The Wise Men don't show up until Epiphany (January 6).  I think this helps to illustrate the waiting period and lead to more anticipation.  I plan to bake a cake for Epiphany this year.  I did one a few years ago, in the traditional gold, green and purple.  The boys are finally getting old enough that we can learn about these things and have them have some meaning, beyond how much fun it is to eat green, gold and purple icing. 
 
This year I am also planning to celebrate St. Nicholas Day (December 6).  We don't "do" Santa Claus.  The boys know who the character of Santa is, of course, but we have just treated him like a cartoon figure - they don't think of the Jolly Elf as any more real than Thomas the Tank Engine.  They have always known where their gifts really came from.  However, St. Nicholas was a real person, who lived in the 4th century and was well-known for his love and generosity.  The boys have heard this true story from the time they were little.  I have no problem teaching them about and celebrating St. Nicholas Day, just as I would teach them about Washington and Lincoln on President's Day (and maybe have a cherry pie then!).  This year I am going to set up my St. Nicholas decorations (and maybe buy a few more) on December 5, before I set out anything else beside the Advent wreath.  I am also going to hang their stockings,  Then, on December 6 they will have some traditional treats (gold coins, gingerbread, etc.) in their stocking, and we will read the story of St. Nicholas and remember this Christian man. 
 
And you can log that as "history", for you homeschoolers out there!
 
I am considering St. Lucia Day, a Swedish tradition, but I am not quite sure how to do a wreath with candles on my head and not having my AquaNet go up like a fireball, so that one may have to wait until next year....

The Harvest is Plentiful

And in more ways than one this year.  This past year has been one of incredible growth for our family.  We've made changes in our church fellowship, began cementing long-thought-out ideas about what we believe, how God is leading us, what our family should be doing to learn and to serve God.  There have been some hard times, but mostly it has just been a trip through "What has God got in store for us now!" every day. 

I will delve more deeply into spiritual matters at some point, but for today, the harvest I am referring to is.....venison!  Yummy, lean, organic, venison.  You can't get any healthier meat than that which you harvested, cleaned and processed yourself.  This week we had another family over to process.  Nevin and our friend Dakota each got an 8 point buck last Friday.  After hanging for a few days, the meat was ready to processed, packed up and frozen, to await the day it becomes dinner!

It turned into a family shindig, with Dakota's mom and sister, and our boys participating in the fun.  We had some workers, quite a few watchers....and a successful evening.

If you freak out on seeing a butcher at work, don't look at the pictures.  If however, you get excited to see a family working together to provide for themselves, take a gander!



Nevin has this down to a science. He cuts all the meat to "custom order" for the chef (that's me!) - he does a wonderful job on hand-cutting some beautiful steaks for the grill.



Ben is in training here - first time to actually do any butchering.  He got his first deer two years ago.  And remember, I can log this as homeschooling!  Science or home ec????



Ben, Dakota and Nevin cutting up the pieces to be ground into burger.  We grind our own, and mix it with some ground pork.  Venison is so lean that the ground meat doesn't hold together well for burgers or meatloaf, so the pork really helps.



As the meat is cut up, all of us ladies take it in to rinse it off and wrap it and label it for the freezer.  So nice to have packages perfectly portioned out for our family meals!  While we were working we took breaks to eat chicken and dumplings and just enjoy each others' company and the pleasure of the harvest.

The freezer is filling up - such a satisfying feeling!





Planning, planning, planning

Today I have a "day off" - sort of!  We cleaned the house yesterday for Game Day, so all I really need to do today is laundry.  But I am going to do something I have been neglecting...
planning.

I am a planner.  I like lists.  I have a menu plan for the month.  I make lists each day.  Or let's put it this way - on the days that I DO make lists I get a lot done - on the days that I don't, I tend to wander about the house, doing little bits of stuff, accomplishing...not much.

I used to do all my weeks' school planning on Sunday evenings, but the last few years we've had AWANA.  Then I started doing it on Sunday afternoons, but this summer we started with fellowships after church, and by the time we get home there are only a few hours between that and AWANA, and I really don't feel like doing it then. 

So - today I am going to plan out our school from this Monday through Christmas break.  That way, there is a plan, and we can follow it.  We won't follow it exactly, but we can check things off as we go and adapt a little here and there.  But I need to at least have a framework.

So, as soon as I finish breakfast, I am going to sit at the computer with my Homeschool Tracker (a wonderful tool if you are logging more than two kids!) and a pile of books and get that huge stress off my back!

Another Game Day is in the history books

Today we hosted Board Game Day for our homeschool group.  As usual, the boys were all outside playing, the older girls did a board game, the moms did a board game, and the little kids dumped out all the tubs of toys.  Oh well, I am not changing the name!  It is basically our version of a late-autumn Park Day - only we get to stay inside and be warm!  We had around 40 people, lots of snacks, and a good time was had by all!

To be able to fellowship (socialization!) on a Friday afternoon, and still be home in time to have dinner ready -this is truly a benefit of the flexible lifestyle that comes with homeschooling.  I would not trade it for anything!

School days, school days.....

I have tried being very sctructured.  I have tried being very relaxed.  I think we are finally finding our balance and what works for our family at this stage.

Just make them all go outside.

Okay, that is my first instinct, but it is probably not a real workable plan.

What seems to be working in terms of them actually learning anything, and us enjoying the time together, is to just go with the flow.  For example, this week Tony and Ben looked up King Xerxes and wrote about him.  Today we looked up Ancient Persia and Babylon on maps in the encyclopedia.  Then we read about Esther, up to the point where Mordecai is in mourning over the new law.  So, there you have language arts (looking up and writing) and social studies (geography and history).  I could count it as Bible instead, but we get lots of Bible hours and I always need more "core" (social studies, science, math, language arts) for my logs.

Then we moved onto Thomas Edison.  We have been studying U.S. history chronologically for the last two years.  We are at the Age of Invention.  Last week they read a short bio of Edison.  Today we watched an animated video about him inventing the lightbulb.  Then we looked at a diagram of a light bulb in "How It Works" and compared it to a real light bulb from our home.  More social studies, and science, too.

Then we moved onto Bible (Teaching Hearts, Training Minds, a devotional based on the Westminster Shorter Catechism), grammar, math, handwriting, and our favorite subject - lunch.

See, kids are all the same, no matter where they go to school.  Ask them their favorite subject and the answer you get is "lunch" followed closely by "recess".  I bet teachers like lunch best, too.  I know I sure do!

After lunch...everyone just finishes up their reading and we do chores, and they go play in the yard and I finish up my housework, and I will sit down and record what we did today, and hopefully get everything caught up for the week. Tomorrow I will look at "where we are" in history and plan out some reading for the week - I believe we are in the 1870s-80s, and we will focus on the Plains Indians next week and the conflicts between them and the settlers' westward expansion.


Hopefully, I will get in some time to read before it is time to start dinner.  I have started a self-guided study on baptism that I am enjoying, as well as a new murder mystery that is calling to me.
 
After dinner tonight we are all watching part 10 in a dvd series entitled "The Sovereignty of God".  I will count that as Bible. 

But for now...it sounds like they are done fixing their lunch and getting ready to eat, so now I can get in the kitchen and make my lunch.  I love having kids old enough to make a basic lunch on their own!