14 Days of Homeschool

The Benham-Gifford Family

I think this is the first modern picture of all of us together. From left-right: My mom- Janette Benham, me- Tonya Nelson, my sister- Heather Compton, my sister- Tiffany Harris, and my dad- Richard Gifford.

End of the Year Frenzy

Well, we finally got finished assembling the lesson manual binders, printing the schedule of lessons, class lists, song list for the program, planned the primary activities for the year and the first teacher improvement meeting. We still have to finish getting the Cub Scouts and Activity Days organized. I hope that once everything is organized that we will have less things to worry about for the year. I keep wondering if the Bishop was sure that I was the one that the Lord had in mind for this calling. Maybe he heard wrong. I'm sure it must have been for Sonya:)

Santa Came Through Again!

Merry Christmas 2008!

Thanks for the popcorn set mom and dad! You know exactly what we like.

Our unspoiled tree.

Stocking time. Our kids had a hard time prying their new slippers and pajamas out of their stockings. How did Santa get them in there anyways?

'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

Here is a picture of the girls with their new rocking chairs that my mom made. Jeneva insists that you should sit on the chair backwards, so someone finally turned her around so we could get a picture.

The kids are gathered around to admire the gift our family got. A movie goodie box along with "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and the set of 6 "Star Wars" movies.

My sister, Tiffany, and her husband, Jerome, both have birthdays in December, so they get a double dose of presents.

The Day After...

I think our final tally is about 5-6 inches of snow. The kids are playing in the backyard today now that the mud is frozen. The boys are busy breaking up the river of ice which is really a little drainage area. They all made snow angels and are walking around with either snow or an icicle in their mouths. They think it's great that they can eat popcicles whenever they want. I was able to dig out gloves that barely fit and everyone has a hat now. They will probably be able to play longer today.

More snow pictures

The kids didn't know what to do when they first went on the snow. I did have to tell Levi not to lick the snow off of the car.

Charlotte was excited until she actually got snow on her, then she started crying. I tried to take a picture of her crying, but as soon as she saw the camera she had to smile.

I've never seen Georgiana have so much fun before. She would grab a handful of snow and say she was going to get me. She would laugh hysterically when she threw the tiny snowball and it hit me.
This is Jerry's impressive snowball throwing pose.

SNOW!

Finally, we have snow! The kids have been anxiously awaiting the day that they could play in he snow. It started at about 7 am and it started accumulating enough to go out at about 8:30 am. The last time we had snow was the day that Charlotte was born and the boys missed out on playing in it.

Jeneva has a bad cold and she kept falling so she was freezing. We went in when she started crying. If the snow is still here at naptime, I'll bring the older kids back out.

Gingerbread House, Finally!

We bought a gingerbread house kit this year thinking that it would save me time. Well, we started it on Thursday and just got it done today. If you want to make it look like the picture on the box, it takes awhile. The kids wanted the box look, but didn't want to follow the directions. The icing wasn't too easy to work with either. The red would run and the white was so stiff that it didn't want to stick to the house. I think it turned out okay looking, but I don't know if it was worth not making my own gingerbread. I think it's a toss-up.

Santa. I want...

Jerry III, Levi and Charlotte were super excited to see Santa. Georgiana and Jeneva tolerated sitting on his lap. The older kids are convinced they saw his sleigh coming and going from the party. You could see it's blinking lights as he flew through the sky:)

Picture a Christmas

Tonight was our ward Christmas party and the primary sang "Picture a Christmas." They all did a great job.

Mickey's Christmas Carol

The kids were really excited to see the Mickey version of A Christmas Carol. It's only 24 minutes long and hits most of the main points of the book. I think it will help them while we read. I'm hoping it will make it easier to understand and get the meaning of the story. Even if it doesn't do all of that, it's a great cartoon. I would say that it's almost as good as the Muppet's Christmas Carol.

Primary Activity

Here are some pictures from the first primary activity that I was in charge of. We had a lesson on giving gifts of service, decorated cookies and made ornaments. I think we had about 25 kids show up and I had planned for the activity to last 1 1/2 hours which was about 1/2 hour too long. I'm glad that my 1st counselor had run these before and she helped a great deal with the timing and organization. Most of the kids had fun, except that I think when some of the kids turned nine they started acting like teenagers. I thought I wasn't going to have to deal with that in primary:)

Sliding at Home

The boys were helping Jeneva slide and Jerry III decided to teach her how. So she can pretty much do it by herself now.

Jeneva has a problem getting both legs in the same direction, so sometimes she needs help.
Here, Jerry helped her, but she tends to go sideways and backwards most of the time.

More Pictures from Knott's

Here are some cute picture of the girls. I don't know why I didn't get any of the boys, I think they were too busy trying to get on rides:)

Jeneva's First Ride

Today was our annual trip to Knott's Berry Farm. Everything was decorated for Christmas and the kids loved looking at all of the ornaments. This was Jeneva's first opportunity to do some rides . She is the only child we've had that will actually show enjoyment while riding. All of the other kids just sat wide-eyed during the ride and then would ask to do it again. Jeneva smiles, laughs and jumps. When I took her onto the carousel, she was laughing and jumping on the horse. She looked like she was spurring her horse. We were also all able to go on rides at the same time, we are particularly fond of the log ride.

I've included this semi-blurry picture because she is looking at the camera.

Jeneva loved Charlie Brown Speedway and laughed through the turns.
Jeneva's happiness calmed her sisters who are normally afraid of the School Bus. Everyone wanted to ride it over and over.