We're trying another schedule.

Call us crazy, but we're going to try to wake everyone up at 5am. We'll get up, ready, eat breakfast, and have devotions before Jon leaves for work. Then the kids will clean up from breakfast while I get ready for our school day. When Jon is starting work at 7am, we should be starting school.

We might just have the patience to make this work. Our moms watched the kids last night so we could go on a date. We went to see an ApologetiX concert and enjoyed the time as a couple.

Now I better get to bed so I can get up!

Psalm 150

The kids are doing Y'KNOW (Youth and Kids Night Of Worship) this April in place of their usual spring musical. Kitty Kat has been asked to recite Psalm 150 as a part of the program. One of the methods that helps her remember passages is to draw pictures that represent the passage. Psalm 150 is a very good candidate for this method of memory. I suggested she try this to keep everything in the proper order and she got excited. Kitty Kat loves to draw. Today, she showed me her sketches and I snatched up the paper to scan it in. Her eyes got big and she said, "Maybe I should have made it neater." Her first draft was very good, however, I wanted to give her a chance to draw it to her satisfaction. Here is the result:

Psalm 150 (NIV)

Praise the Lord.

Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing
greatness.
Praise him with the sounding of the
trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
praise him with tambourine and
dancing,
praise him with the strings and
flute,
praise him with the clash of
cymbals,
praise him with resounding
cymbals.

Let everything that has breath praise
the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

Kitty Kat Is Free From The Dishes At Last!

Several months ago, we had a family meeting and divided up the chores. Everyone got to have some say in what chores they would do. Kitty Kat was one of the kids who chose washing dishes as one of her chores.

While emptying the dishwasher one day, Kitty Kat got an attitude and sent Monkey away saying that she didn't need her help. So, Jon and I decided that if Kitty didn't want any help, then she wouldn't get any help. She was required to do the job alone until the dishes were caught up. She soon found out that this wasn't much fun. She left the job unfinished every day. Jon and I about went crazy. Many times Jon or I would step in and catch up the dishes to the point that there were only one or two pans for Kitty to wash. She still walked away leaving the job undone. This was a battle we were not going to back down on. However, we did allow Monkey to help dry and put away dishes for the last few weeks.

I am proud to announce that Kitty Kat finally finished the dishes a couple nights ago. We told her at the time that she was done, but it didn't fully register until last night after supper. I overheard Kitty and Monkey discussing who would wash and who would dry. I asked them to repeat what they said and I was told that Kitty had told Monkey that she could wash now that Kitty was no longer responsible for the washing. I said, "Neither of you are doing dishes. We're switching up the jobs remember?" Jaws dropped and grins spread from ear to ear. I did the dishes.

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In other Kitty Kat news . . .

Kitty Kat got a book in her Easter basket that had all seven of the Chronicles of Narnia in it. As I type this she is on page 647, most of the way through the sixth book.

Win a Rosetta Stone Foreign Language Curriculum

Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE!

This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.

This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking. Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included! For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports.

To win this most excellent program -- in the language of your choice -- copy these (blue) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post -- then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/ and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it. And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it. And good luck! The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg. And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win. Yay for free stuff!