Sunday, February 26, 2012

Little Miss

I am so proud of my Little Miss.   This year, she has been doing the Keepers of the Faith's program for girls, called Keepers at Home.  The program is for girls age 7-14.  Little Miss does the younger version of the program, called Little Keepers at Home, for girls age 4-6 years old.  We only found out about the younger girls program last year.  Little Miss has one more year until she advances to the older girls program. 

Over the past few months, she has been working harder on the skills.  At the holidays, she made gifts using decoupage and earned the award pin for that.  She also helped in making 3 kinds of cookies to earn a cookie baking award.  In academics, she earned the ABC's badge which includes naming, writing, and knowing the sounds of the letters.  That one was basic, but we did all of the phonetic sounds, including long and short vowels.  One part that she struggled with most was phonetics.  She could tell you the letter sounds, but sounding out a word was totally different.  Now that she is able to do that much better, I am counting it as completed. 

There is so much value to the Keepers program.  It is based on Biblical teachings.  While learning skills, the children are learning character traits at the same time.  Most of the skills or academic achievements are ones that require time to complete.  There are a few that are more quickly earned, such as the decoupage award.  Many however require the children to work on a project for several days or more.  For the older girls, there is a quilting award.  They have to make a small quilt to earn it.  That takes a lot of time and work.  Yet, the lessons in diligence and patience are priceless. 

Little Miss is starting to work on a new academic award.  She has to read 10 books and in her handbook record the titles and what it was about.  She is also learning to make her own note cards using scrapbook and rubber stamping supplies.  It is so much fun to watch her progress.

I am very proud of my Little Miss.  She is an awesome big sister to Little Man.  Having an autistic brother, she often has to be patient and wait her turn.  This is especially true when he is doing his own homeschooling and needing my constant help during the TEACCH sessions.  She is understanding though.  The time spent doing her Little Keepers activities are some of our Momma/Daughter special moments.  She loves our times when it is just her and I.  I love those times too.  It gives us the chance to connect in a way that is special to the two of us. 

Our Little Miss is becoming such a special young lady.  I know the Lord has much planned for her.  She has such a tender heart and is very loving.  She is a joy and a blessing to all who know her.