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I was a little unsure about how school was going to go this year since, for the first time, I had 2 official homeschoolers!  I couldn't imagine trying to fit it all in.  But I am amazed at how well it is going so far.  Laura has settled into the school routine fairly well.  In the past I had let her "do school" only on her own initiative, so doing school according to my agenda threw her for a loop the first couple of weeks!  I also wasn't sure if she would be into our history read alouds this year, as last year she never seemed the least bit interested.  But surprisingly she is really into it and often begs me for more!  Many times she even takes the book after we are finished reading aloud so that she can read it again on her own!

I think that one reason school is going so well this year as that I have arranged for rides for people to take Katie to Pre-School.  Our next door neighbour takes Katie in the a.m. and her teacher brings her home (she just lives up the street).  Since the teacher needs to stay to the end, Katie doesn't get home until after 12:00, so Jared, Laura and I get a three solid hours of uninterrupted school together 3 mornings a week.  It's working out so well!  It is so much better that getting everyone dressed and doing the pre-school run 6 times a week.  It saves me about an hour of time a day!  I usually end up doing the drive once or twice a week, but doing it that infrequently makes it a pleasure!  A fun break!  Why I didn't do this last year, I'll never know!

Anyway, here is our schedule for Monday, Tuesday and Thursday (the days that Katie is at pre-school)  All times are approximate, I just stuck the times in so that it looks pretty!

8:30 - Circle time with all 3 and Picture Book Read Aloud

9:00 - I get Katie ready to go while J and L do Book Basket or other independent work.    

9:10  - Either States or Piano notes memory work, then history (novel) read aloud

9:30 - I work one on one with Laura (math, phonics, language arts type stuff, Bible etc)

10:00 /10:15ish (whenever I finish with Laura) - same type of 1 X 1 work with Jared.

(While I am with Laura, Jared does independent work - Social Studies on Monday and Health and Science on the other days - then he takes a break.  While I am with Jared, Laura gets a break.  Hopefully I get a break or two sometime in there as well.)

11:00 - History and/or geography - this includes a variety of things: read alouds, websites, notebooking, activities, timeline etc. 

12:00 - break/lunch/clean-up

2:00 - French with all 3 kids and general free-play and/or activities (hopefully educational!)

3:00 - Quiet time for Katie and "homework time" aka independent work for Jared and Laura

And that's our day!

Now, Wednesdays are a little different b/c Katie is home all day.

8:30 - Circle time, read aloud, memory work

9:00 - One on one work with Laura (Jared with Katie)

9:30 - One on one work with Jared (Laura with Katie

10:00 - Manners (these next subjects are with all 3 kids.  I picked curriculum with Katie in mind too.

10:15 - All break together

10:30 - Fine Arts

11:00 - Art

11:30 - History/Geography (again, books, activities, etc)

12:00 - break for lunch

2:00 - read aloud or other (hopefully) educational work

3:00 - quiet and homework time

On Friday's Katie is also home, but we usually have out-of-home activites (ie, co-op 2 times a month) so we don't have a real schedule, just do general schoolwork or educational work (or not - depends on our moods!)

And that's my life right now!!!

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Today Katie was trying to sing "I've got peace like a river" only she was singing it "I've got cheese like a river!"

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Since I am sure that you are all wondering - this is what kind of Mom that I am...

The know-thyself mother (INFJ)
Sensitive and family-focused, the INFJ mother encourages the unique potential of each child. Her aim is to help her kids develop a sense of identity, and she seeks a free exchange of feelings and thoughts to that end. In fact, she may value the mothering experience as a catalyst to her own personal growth. She is conscientious and intense, as well. Probably no one takes child-raising more seriously than the INFJ. She approaches it as a profession requiring her best self.
Stay-sane tip: Make time for yourself, try to live in the moment, and take life a little less seriously. Instead of trying to make life what it "should be," enjoy it for what it is.

Now, may you all breathe easier and sleep better at night!

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Katherine Ann - named "Katie Katrina"

Sees the world like a moto-arena;

Careens here and there

With unbounded flare;

But we love her - so sweet in demeana

Laura Allison - we think "Laura Lovely",

It's a name that will fit her so aptly.

She curls her aunts' hair

And dances with flare,

Abd to grandparents reads so devoutly.

Jared Robert - we'll call "Jared Jobber,"

Does duties not needing a prodder.

Like mother, he's thorough;

Like sisters, he's aglow;

But with football, he's addicted like father.

Gifford Neale- we'll name "Gifford Condor,"

Who flies o'er this planet to wander

On his Multibase chase!

But home is first base -

So we won't call him Giff the Absconder

Rebecca Lynn - what could we name her?

The one whom we claim as our daughter?

No name is concise,

Only titles suffice:

"Noble Wife," "Earnest Teacher" and "Mother".

Quite the clan, mother, father, we say,

When it all tumbles out in the fray.

So we send our regards

With these poems and cards,

And our prayers for your Valentine's Day.

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Yes, another 6 weeks or so have gone by since I last blogged.  I'm not sure how I'm supposed to get caught up, but I'll give it a try!

School is continuing to go great!  We are into the Revolutionary War time period and have slowed down to milk it for all it's worth.  We spent this whole week just reading and learning about Paul Revere and the battles at Concord and Lexington.  The library has so many books and videos etc relating to this general time period.  I'm so happy that Jared just loves this stuff!  The themes that we have studied for the past few weeks (following the slavery theme) have been:

Joliette and Marquette and Oglethorpe (and Georgia)

The French and Indian War (South Carolina)

Benjamin Franklin (North Carolina)

Daniel Boone

EArly life of GW, Prob's with England, Taxes, Boston Massacre

Boston Tea-Party and the Intollerable Acts

Patrick Henry, Continental Congress, Paul Revere, MinuteMen, The Battles of Concord and Lexington

We've taken a break for a few weeks from doing our weekely state studies just there as been a lot on so we decided to take things a bit lighter for a few week (ie, the flu going through the family, field trips, Valentine's Day, co-op, and of course, my birthday!)  But we are planning to get back into the states again next week - if all goes according to plan, that is!

"On tap" for next week is Bunker Hill, the Continental Armay, more GW, and the D of Independence, and I think Connecticut. 

Here's a cute Katie saying - She had been dressing up and was wearing a shirt and a ballerina skirt.  She left and then came back wearing a pair of pants under her ballerina skirt.  She twirls aound in it, wanting to show me.  I must have said that it looked nice or something and she asks "But is it stunning?"

Jared has been enjoying Upwards basketball.  His last game is this SAturday.  It is a really good program.  And exciting.  At the beginning they "hide"  all the kids in a storage room, turn off all the lights, blast the music and announce their names over the loudspeaker and they come running out into the spotlight amidst cheering and flashlights!  Quite the experience for him! 

Laura has a new little friend from pre-school that she has really connected with.  Her name is Emma and she just lives around the corner from us.  She gets along well with all 3 kids and they all like playing with her. 

Time to go snack-up the kids.

Oh, yes, one more thing - we survived Giff's trip to Europe, barely though, I'm already dreading the next time.  

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We spent this past week sort-of trying to get back into a routine after having about 3 weeks off.  We are getting back into it gradually, not yet back into doing school full-time.  Of course, that made Jared happy!  (more time to play with his Christmas presents!).  And it made me happy because I have had more time to clean and organize.  I'm not sure what I have gotten into but I have been in an organizing frenzy all week!  I think it started with taking down all the Christmas decorations on Monday, and it just went on from there!!!  Of course, I still had some unpacking to do, so that was part of the job as well.

So slavery was our topic for this week - we didn't have any activities to do, just read a few books.  I gave Jared his first assigned reading - a book that I said that he had to read (normally I just have a pile of books in the book basket and let him choose which ones to read).  It was a pretty serious chapter book that is 135 pages long.  It's from the Trailblazer series "Escape from the Slave Traders - David Livingstone".  He wasn't too keen on getting started (since he had just borrowed a bunch of Box Car Children books from the library), but once he got going he really got into it.  He finished it in 2 days and then told me about it. 

I spent last night (Giff had to go into work from 9-11 to solve some crisis) creating my lesson plans for the rest of the month so I am good and ready to get back into school full time on Monday.

A couple of non-school related notes...

For some reason, Laura has developed this sudden desire to have her ears pierced.  I don't know what started it, but a few days ago she started asking about it and asking when she could get her ears pierced.  I told her whenever she wanted and she first thought that she would do it when she was 8, and then it changed to 18 and then it changed to 6.  On Thursday she suddenly decides that she wanted to get them pierced in 9 days, then today she said that she wants them done tomorrow.  She is all gung ho about this which totally surprised me.  She knows it hurts and she wants Giff and I to hold her hands while she gets it done.  I'm not sure if we will be able to swing it by tomorrow, but maybe next weekend.  i don't even know where you go to get ears pierced these days.  I'll have to ask around. 

There was something that I was going to say about Katie, but now I can't remember what it is - guess we'll have to wait for another time.

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Here's my list of what I am planning to purchase at the homeschooling convention for next year...

1. Math-U-See - Gamma for Jared (teacher and student kits) and Alpha for Laura (student kit only)
2. Winter Promise:  American Story 2 (for Jared and Laura)
3. Winter Promise: 3rd  Grade Language Arts Kit (for Jared)
4. ACE Science - 3rd Grade (for Jared)
5. The Easy French (for all 3) - Jr. or regular version???
6. Discoveries in Music/Melody Lane (for all 3)
7. Calculadder 2 and 3 (for Jared)
8. Singapore Math - Level ??? (for Jared)

And I'm sure a lot of misc items that I "discover" at the convention!  That's the fun part!

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It's January 1st today. 

And no, it's not my New Year's Resolution to blog daily or anything (I've been so busy I haven't even had time to think about any New Year's Resolutions!) it just happens to be January 1st!  I can't promise that I will be making this a regular habit or anything, but you never know!

I think that the only reason I am actually finding some time to update my blog is b/c I stayed up to midnight last night so I didn't think that I would be able to fall asleep at my regular time (which is about 10:30 in case you are interested!).  Everyone else is in bed, the house is quiet, so here I am adding a couple of updates.

My parents are here.  They leave tomorrow which also happens to be my Dad's birthday - oops, I just remembered I forgot to wrap his presents, I'll have to do that in the a.m..  They have been here for the past few days to celebrate a belated Christmas with us.  We've had a lot of fun just hanging out, playing games etc.  And unfortunately, watching Michigan lose the Rose Bowl on our "temporary" big screen.

Before they arrived we spent almost a week in Michigan with all of the rellies.  We had such a great time together.  I love how the kids interact with each other - it's great to have family!  Again this year we took our Nativity Play "on the road" on Christmas Day.  This time to a brand new nursing home in town.  The kids loved dressing up and the older ones had speaking parts (verses) that they had memmorized. 

I can feel myself getting tired, I think that I will be able to fall asleep now, but first one quick Katie story...

We were in a McDonalds restaurant on the way home from Michigan.  I had just told Katie not to touch the toilet seat... 

Katie:  "Is that because it has germs"

Me:  "yes"

Katie:  "Well, who put the germs there?"

Me:  "I don't know."

Katie:  "I know, was it bad guys???

She said it in such an innocent but serious way and it just cracked me up - along with the lady who was standing outside the stall waiting for us!  She's a goofy girl!

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Well, today has been a sad day for the 2 Michigan fans in the house.  For the 3rd year in a row they have lost to their rivals, the Ohio State Buckeyes.  It looks like Giff will once again be forced to wear the Buckeye shirt to work on Monday.  It's really tough when there are only 2 Michigan fans at work and the rest of them are Buckeye fans. 

This past Friday he fully intended to abuse his position at work and play the Michigan fight song over the PA system all day long and stroll around the plant in his Michigan sweatshirt (just to get a rise out of all the guys).  But he ended up with a few "fires" to put out at work and he didn't get the chance.  Maybe that's a good thing because that he is less likely to get razed at work on Monday.

It was interesting watching the game today b/c Giff invited a co-worker over to watch the game with us.  So, it was interesting to have a Buckeye fan in the house during the game!  I just felt bad for him, because he probably didn't feel as comfortable celebrating when he was the lone Buckeye fan in the house - his son actually likes Michigan, and his wife didn't really care. 

Even though I'm not a huge football fan, it was still a pretty exciting game.  Michigan had a few good chances in the 2nd half, but just couldn't pull it off.  So close!

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Yes, believe it or not it was a good day for the van to break down.  It's been a good 3 or 4 years since we have had that happen (and thanks Papa for rescuing us last time!), and of all the days that the van could have chosen to break down, it picked a great day!  We could have been at a rest stop on a nighway in the boonies of New York, we could have been rushing someone to the hospital, I could have been going to pick up a child somewhere, but it was nothing like that!

We were just at K-Mart picking up some washable markers at noon today, and I just got a couple of weak chug, chugs out of it and that was it.  At first, things did not seem to go as smoothy as they could have gone.  My new cell phone didn't work.  (oh, I'm supposed to charge the battery?).  Then we all truck back into K-Mart so that I can call Giff.  I call his cell phone, no answer, try again, no answer (good thing the lady at the customer service counter was so nice), a couple of more tries, no answer.  Finally I look up his work number in the phone book and call and have him paged.  He says to me when I commented on his ignoring my calls "oh, I was in someone else's office and I didn't have my blackberry with me".  Didn't have his blackberry with him???  This is the guy who takes his blackberry on vacation with him, and he doesn't have his blackberry while he is at work!  I'll have to talk to him about that one!

Anyway, fortunately he was able to come and rescue us, but he did have to be back at work for by 2:00, so hopefully we could get this taken care of quickly.  And also fortunately (for the kids anyway), there is a Burger King, with a playground right next to K-Mart.  So guess where we went for lunch?  And guess who was was pretty happy about that!

Giff arrives at BK just as we were finishing lunch - he had tried the van and it was still pretty dead.  We were just heading out for him to drop us off at home in the process of trying to figure out how to get the van towed to the car-fixing place and how to get the keys to the tow-truck guy, when suddenly I remembered that there was a tow-truck place about 4 businesses to the left of BK.  So we zip down there.  Giff goes right in and they are available to tow our van for us right awa!.  He pays and gives them the keys, drops us off at home, goes to the car-fixing place (which is right on the way to work) to explain to them what is up with our van, and makes it back to work with minutes to spare before the big meeting at 2:00!

Worked out pretty well, didn't it!

I didn't even have to be anywhere this afternoon or tomorrow!

And the guy just called to say that the van would be done tonight so we can go and pick it up right after soccer practice.  And we're getting an oil change done without even having to schedule and plan for it!

What a great day for the van to break down!

But I hope it doesn't happen again for another 3 or 4 years!

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Today all the public school kids went back to school.  Since it was the first summer that we have totally taken off, I decided that it would be a good starting day for us too!  Maybe a little bit of a crazy thing to do since we are leaving town tomorrow to head up to Canada for a wedding.  There is nothing like having one day of school and then taking almost a week off!  Talk about easing into things gradually.  And hey, with no neighbour kids knocking on the door, we might as well be doing school!

I think the day went pretty well.  We got off to a slower start than usual.  I had a headache when I woke up so I slept in until 8:30 when Katie woke up.  Jared and I got started around 10:00 and worked for an hour.  We took a break and then worked for about another hour or so.  After lunch we did some read alouds and then he did his independent work  He knew that he had to get his work done by at least 4:00 so that he and Steven could play when Steven arrived home from school.

This year I haven't really set a schedule as far as what subject to do first.  Today I just let him pick what he wanted to do next.  If it continues to go well, I may just keep doing that all year.  I had bought "The Home Schooler's Journal" a few months ago.  It is set up with 5 days a page and you write in your lesson plans for each subject.  Before we went to Michigan I did about 10 days of lesson planning.  So everything that we need to do for the day is right there where Jared can see it.  He picked the order and then we checked off when we completed each thing.

For all you homeschooling Moms out there, this is what we did today.

We started with history b/c that is his favorite!  (we're studying American history this year mainly using resources from American Story 1 (Winter Promise) and Adventures in My Father's World (My Father's World).  We read the first 19 pages of Wild West which focused on Native Americans.  We did a huge unit on Native Americans this past spring, so a lot of this is review for him.  We checked out a couple of Native American websites and then I started reading the book "Indian Captive" out loud to him.  I just now realized that I forgot to do some timeline stuff with him.  Ooops, I meant to do that later when we were all down in the basement (our timeline is in the basement), but I forgot.  Oh well, another time...

Then we moved on to study "The Pledge of Allegience" and read a book about that.

Then it was math.  We're going to start with time this year, so we just reviewed what we had done last year (telling time to the half and quarter hour).

Language Arts was last - his choice!  We did the spelling pre-test for the first lesson of SpellWell A, then we did a lesson from "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading" (continuing from last year) and we started a new vocabulary book - Wordly Wise.  He didn't seem to overly enjoy that one, maybe it will get better as it goes along!

In the afternoon I read a bit more from "Indian Captive" and also read a few chapters from "Wendy and Brian and the hurt Puppy" to Jared and Laura.  Then Jared did his homework, a spelling page,a couple of phonics pages, a couple of time pages, and a handwriting page (We just started a new handwriting book - A Reason for Handwriting: Transition - it spends the first few months reviewing handwriting and then it moves on to cursive).

I think the girls did pretty well while we did school.  Of course there were a few interruptions and a few fights, but I was the only one who actually got mad!  Not b/c of the fighting, but b/c they trashed the place.  Well it wasn't that bad I guess, but I tell you those 2 can sure make a mess. 

Well, I hope I haven't bored you all too much! 

I know it has been ages since I "blogged" but things have been crazy busy the last month or so.  I think I am actually going to get a bit of a break once we get back into school.  We have been travelling so much lately that my head is spinning.  It will be nice to be away this weekend, but I sure am looking forward to getting home and not having to go anywhere for a few weeks. 

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Our first official family baseball season has ended.  Jared had his team party yesterday to wrap up 2 months of a life that was pretty much immersed in baseball!  It wasn't just his life that was "immersed" - the whole family got in on it as well.  Giff and the girls went to every single game that Jared played, and I think I only missed one or two (sometimes groceries took priority!)  We even had Uncle Mikey and Aunt Dennie join us for a practice, and Grandma and Grandpa, and Aunt Michelle and Uncle James each got to watch a game or two as well.  Oh yeah, I just remembered that Giff did miss a game the weekend that Giff and I went to the homeschool conference.

Jared really improved over the season, not necessarily in his playing ability, but in his understanding of the game.  I never realized how complicated baseball could be through the eyes of a 7-year old who has never played the game before.  When to tag?  When to throw?  When not to throw?  Who to throw it to?  When to run?  When not to run?  Do we really need to touch 3rd Base?  etc...etc...  I think that learning and playing baseball made a pretty good course in critical thinking!  Should I put that on my notification form?  (Can you guess what I've been doing this afternoon instead of watching World Cup soccer?)

I think my biggest memory of the baseball season was Jared's very first game when he really had no clue what to do (along with most of the players on his team!).  He was playing first base, and standing about 10 feet from the base (which was where he was supposed to be) while waiting for the batter on the other team to make a hit.  The batter bats, the ball is a grounder, the pitcher scoops up the ball to get ready to throw it to Jared, who should have raced over to first base to catch the ball.  But instead, Jared is still standing in the same place, jumping up and down in excitement - because the pitcher caught the ball - totally forgetting that now he had a job to do!  Well, he did get better as the games went on and he started figuring out the game. 

Okay, moving on to the next "B"...

This "B" is for Laura - she got it into her head this week that she wanted her training wheels off of her bike.  So after lunch today we loaded up the van and headed over to the high school parking lot.  Laura was excited to try, but she is still working on understanding that you have to keep pedalling so that you don't fall over.  I think by the very end she started to get it, but we're going to have to keep working on that one!

And now, Katie's "B"...

Before she heads down for her nap she likes to pick 3 books to read.  She'll climb on your lap with her 3 books and then make you choose which one to read first.  (Although she has been known to override parental decisions)  Today when I made my second book she says "Good job picking Mama!"  I guess she thought that I needed a little bit of affirmation or something.  Then, when she had one book left, she holds out that book in one hand and asks "which one?".  I picked the only book left and she says "No, the other one".  It turns out that she is holding an invisible book in the other hand, and I am supposed to be picking that one.  So, I pick the invisible book and she starts reading to me the invisible book, kind of muttering away as she turns the pages.  Then, we could finally move on to the last book - Muncha, Muncha, Muncha!

Goofy girl!

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I know it's been almost 2 weeks since Katie's Birthday, and I've been intending to answer everyone's e-mails about how her birthday went, I just haven't been able to get around to doing it, until now.

The poor child didn't even get an official birthday party since we had one on the weekend while we were in Michigan - so hopefully she won't be too scarred about that.

When she woke up in the morning she remembered right away that it was her birthday and that she was three!  As I came into her room she was holding on to the side of her crib and bouncing "Is it my birthDAY?"  "Am I three?".  Laura took one look at her and said "Mom, look how tall she is!  She grew while she was sleeping!"  (The night before while I was tucking Laura in bed she had been asking how much taller Katie would be in the morning!)

Katie opened presents all day long.  Yes, there were the typical presents from us and from all the rellies, but she was just showered with gifts from Laura.  Laura spent the whole day searching the house for toys of hers that she had decided to give to Katie, and then she would wrap them up for Katie to open.  Some of the things were pieces of other toys or half broken toys or stuff that Katie plays with anyway, but she didn't care, she just had a blast ripping off the wrapping paper.  

I was pretty proud of Laura for doing what she could to make the day special for Katie.  Jared has always done that for Laura, so it was nice that she has picked up on something positive from Jared! 

One gift that was a big hit for Katie was a microphone stand.  Katie is so into it.  Her favorite song to sing into it is "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".  It kinda of booms out loud and you can really hear her "version" of the song.  It's pretty funny! 

And the other big hit is her new tent/barbie house.  She calls it her special room and loves to play in it.  Sometimes all three kids will play in there together.

Happy 3rd Birthday Katie!!!

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It's just been one adventure after another around here. 

Last weekend Uncle Mikey and Aunt Dennie came down for a visit.  We had sent them airline tickets, but with the stipulation that in order to use them they must wear stripes and plaid together on their plane ride here.  Well, you should have seen them!  They just looked so fine.  They had made a trip to their local Goodwill store and purchased the absolute worst clothing they could find.  Nice job guys.  I'm really not sure which of the two of them looked better!

They said that at the Nashville airport that people would just stop talking when they saw them and stare with their mouths dropped open.  But at our airport, people just looked at them with looks of pure disgust!  One positive note however, they received the "best dressed couple" award on the plane! 

Anyway, we had a great weekend - just played a lot, went on a hike, went to Jared's softball practice etc etc.  Dennie and I had a girls afternoon out at the local tea room and then did some birthday shopping for the kids.  And we stayed up late and played Settlers all 3 nights.   And, of course, we also went out for some ice cream.  Such fun! 

The only unfortunate instance that occured was when Mikey accidently left is dark plaid shorts and pastel striped shirt.  Oh, well.  I suppose we will have to ship it back to them!

Then this past weekend we went back to Michigan for a family birthday weekend.  Tons of family birthdays to celebrate.  Katie, Addison, Papa, Luke, Heather and Giff.  As usual, the kids had a blast playing together    .  We went to an orchard/farm type place and planted squash.  It was so muddy that we had to take off our shoes out in the field.  It was so squishy and muddy and we would sink down halfway up to our knees in places.  Yucky.  I think that was Abigail's first experience with mud!  Probably her last too!  I'm not really sure why, but for some unknown reason our kids seemed to have no problem with the mud. 

Once we all got hosed down the kids went and did some crafts and played in the playground.  Laura made a yellow bird house with her name on it, and she was just so proud of it.  It is now hanging in a tree in our backyard.

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A - Read story below...

The other night Jared weighed himself and he was 51 lbs.  Giff made the comment how big he was getting.  It seemed to take him forever to break that 50 pound mark.  Jared said:  "Actually, I'm getting smaller, I've gone down an ib".

OH, NO!  I've created a gap in his education!!!

I've never taught him that the short form for pound is "lb" and I guess he was reading "lb" on the scale and thought it was "ib".  Ooops, (but it was funny!)

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Laura - T-shirts are called "Little-Sleaved shirts".  How cute is that???!!!

Katie - Bike rider extraordinaire - she has taken up a new hobby and is quite the talented little biker.  Lance Armstrong here we come!!!

Jared - So many bumps and scrapes, I don't know how that boy survives all his falls.  He has also started baseball.  Games don't start until June, but he has been going to practices this month.

Told you it would be a quick update!

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All right Grandpa!  This one is just for you....

I'll start with a Jared comment.  We have a new babysitter who will be starting next week.  She has a younger brother that she will be bringing along to give him some practice babysitting.  Jared was so excied to have a boy babysitter.  He told me after meeting them last week that he has been waiting his WHOLE LIFE for a boy babysitter!  So, I told his Mom to tell Jonah that Jared has been waiting for him for 7 whole years!

Katie has developed a new signature move.  Now this girl gets excited a lot and loves to jump up and down.  But over the last couple of weeks it has kind of transformed into this jumping up and down/jumping jack kind of thing.  She gets excited and starts jumping, then she remembers her new move, puts her hands on her hips and does jumping jacks.  It is really quite cute.  You have to see it. 

We are now just getting comments all of the time about how alike Laura and Katie look.  Now that Katie's hair is finally starting to grow, it is looking a lot like Laura's hair.  We have even had several people ask us if they are twins. Well, I've always wanted twins, so I guess this is the closest that I'll ever get to getting some!

Well, it's now an hour later.  Had a few phone calls in the last few minutes and I've lost my train of thought.  So, that's all for tonight.  Off to bed!

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I don't think that I mentioned this earlier, but a week or so ago, Giff took Katie to the allergist to get tested for a possible peanut and a nut allergy.  Katie had to have a blood test and she did so well - she handled the whole experience much better than I handle giving blood.  They were actually trying to take blood from her one arm and the whole thing exploded or something so they had to go in the other side too and she didn't even care.  She was just excited to get 2 bandaids! 

Anyway, I called the other day to get the results.  She had a 1 for peanut allergy and a zero for the nut allergy (they measure it on a scale from 0 to 4 with 0 being no allergy and 4 being a severe allergy).  So, although that sounds pretty good we still need to avoid peanuts and other nuts b/c there can be fase negatives, plus the allergies can fluctuate and get worse with age.  Especially if they are exposed to more peanuts or nuts.  So basically we know nothing more than we did before the blood test.  As Giff says:  "I't's good to know absolutely nothing more than we already knew!" 

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These days we always seem to have unexpected change of plans.  And Easter weekend last weekend was no different!

We had plans to leave on Good Friday and head to Michigan for a few days, but plans changed and instead Michgian came to us!  Papa, Heidi, Abigail and Addison arrived Friday evening and we all had such a great weekend together.  As always, the kids had a ton of fun being together.  And we all ate just a little too much I'm sure!

Saturday the dads and all 5 kids went to the local children's zoo and Heidi and I went grocery shopping for the weekend and stuffed eggs etc.  We all went to chuch together on Sunday morning.  It was so fun to show them our church for the first time and to have them meet some of our friends.  Abigail and Katie wore their matching Napalese (sp?) outfits and looked pretty adorable!

And then with a beep of their van horn, they were off and back to Michgian Sunday afternoon.  Maybe next year we will actually make it to Michigan and then we can celebrate with the whole rest of the family.  We're planning a back-up weekend to Michigan in June for Katie's birthday - so we will get our Michigan fix then!

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I have a few kid stories to pass along to all the rellies (anyone else who might be reading can just ignore this entry b/c you'll probably find it boring).  I'm not sure how far I will get b/c it's almost 10 pm and I'm tired, but I'll give it a start for now.

Jared - Jared has been sick most of the week.  He only had a fever for a day or two, but was otherwise lethargic, tired and he hardly ate a thing - for a whole week.  He started feeling better on Thursday, which was good, b/c Friday was co-op.  He was glad to be able to go and enjoy it.

Jared also had his first official wipe out of the season.  The other day he was out front playing soccer.  Somehow he missed a kick and ended up getting beat up by the driveway.  He got a pretty good scrape on his knee and another one beside his eye.  He is looking pretty tough these days!

Today after church I heated up leftovers for lunch.  One of the leftovers was spaghetti and meat sauce (a favorite of Jared) and another one was meatballs (something Jared barely tolerates).  I really don't know what I was thinking (!), but I cut up some of the meatballs and put it in the spaghetti hoping to disguise it a little.  When Jared sees the plate he says "I think I see some meatballs hiding in the spaghetti."  Giff makes a comment something like "Mommy was playing Hide The Meatball."  Without missing a beat, Jared says, "Sometimes she plays Hide The Pear too"  He's right.  Pear is another thing that he doesn't like and I will sometimes cut up fruit and hide the pear in with the apple.  That also doesn't usually work.  Nice try Mom!

Laura - One of the gifts that Laura got for her birthday was a gift certificate from Target.  So the other night we all piled in the car to take a trip to Target to spend her money.  She picked out one of those doll heads that you can do stuff with the hair - curl it and so on.  She also bought some nailpolish, and we had fun doing each others nails.  A usual summer tradition for the 2 of us - the first time we have done it this season though.  She likes me to do her nails and for the last couple of times she wants to do mine.  I let her do my toes and I'm sure you can imagine how beautiful my toes look by the time she is finished!

Anyway, back to the doll head.  She just loves that thing.  You should see her eyes sparkle when she goes to play with it.  She brushes and curls and sprays, and take out the curls, and brushes etc etc etc...She carries it around in a bag.  She wants to take it to Michigan to show Abigail and Jordan.  She is so excited to show them!

Katie - (Yes, I am still awake!)  I have been trying to teach her to say "Can I be excused" after she eats.  She didn't do it for a couple of days, but then she started remembering to say it!  I was shocked.  Well, I suppose chocolate chips are a powerful motivator!  Then the other day she was sitting on the potty and she says "Can I be excused?"  It was hillarious - I think she just wanted chocolate chips though!

Katie likes to play with our T-Ball thing outside.  You put the balls in, press a button, and the thing shoots out balls and you try to hit them.  Katie gets a huge kick out of putting the balls in, pressing the buttons, watching them fly out, running to get them, and then starts the process over again and again and again!  While she is waiting for the balls to fly out, she poses (in the correct b-ball pose) with the bat (often upsidedown) as she waits for the ball.  Of course, she never tries to hit them, just stands there.  One day, a ball flew out and happened to hit the bat.  She was so excited.  she started jumping up and down and running around in circles yelling "Yay!  I did it!"  Just wait until she actually tries to hit the ball.  Now, that should be exciting!

One more quick one - Katie was supposed to be sleeping.  I hear her jumping in her bed and go to tell her to stop, but before I actually enter the room I can here her yelling.  "Look Dennie.  I'm jumping.  Do you see me Mikey?  Look at me jump!  I'm jumping in my bed Dennie.  I can get out.  I can climb over.  Mikey Look!!!  Ow,  I hurt me toe.  See Dennie."  She is going on and on.  It was hilarious.  I knew I should go in and stop her, but Jared and I were standing outside her door just cracking up!!!  Right at the end she started adding Abigail and Addison into the mix, trying to get them to jump too.  But by then it was time to put an end to it!

Now, I am going.  Bed is calling...

Night  I'll proofread this in the morning.  Too tired now.

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My on-line excitement for the day was going to www.snapshirts.com/custom.php and having them create one of those word clouds from your blog.  I made a few substitutions for some obscure words such as url and add.  It was fun to do, but I don't think that I will buy the T-Shirt.  On the other hand, it might be kind of a fun idea.  I'll think about it!  Mother's Day is coming up, right???

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Since I have been asked many times for a comparison of My Father's World and Winter Promise I have decided to add my comparision to my blog as well.

Here it is:

I am currently using MFW, but have purchased WP with plans to use it when we finish with our current curriculum. So, keep in mind while reading my post, that I have not yet personally used WP, but have looked through it intensively in anticipation of using it in a couple of months.

Overall, I like what I see in both MFW and WP. They are similiar in that they provide a good balance of sit-down work, reading, and hands-on activities. I really like that in a curriculum.

In my opinion the biggest difference between the two is that the heart of MFW is the teacher's manual and the heart of WP is all of the great books and the activities. And where the heart is, so also is the price! MFW's tm is much more pricey than WPs tm!

In WP, as you have probably seen on the website, the bulk of the tm is pages of weekly schedules with page numbers of books to read and activities listed. The reading is all done with books that come with the curriculum. In MFW, the tm is the main teaching tool. You generally need to have the tm with you at all times. You, as Mom, often read aloud directly from the tm. You may be explaining things, listing information, reading historical information, following instructions (for science experiments or activities) or whatever. And then you also go to the books to read.

A few other differences...

The Bible portion of MFW is more integrated with the rest of the unit study and it is a little more in depth.

The most exciting part to me of WP is this huge box of books that arrive at your door! They look so exciting and I can't wait to dive right in. Some are classics and others I have never heard of before, but they all look so interesting. In MFW, the books also are wonderful, but not as many come with the curriculum. However, at the back of the tm, there are lists of library books under various categories (ie science and history) that you will be studying during the year. They also list general read alouds for different age groups.

MFW includes science, art, and art and music appreciation. They are often tied into the unit study.

MFW has LA that they recommend, but they are not related to what you are studying, like it is in WP. I think that the LA included with WP is a little more intense and advanced and would take a little more time. MFW is more Charlotte Mason based.

The timeline for WP is in book form (and you can use the book for many years and can easily add in your own things). I like that they have spaces between pages where you can add extra info. Whereas in MFW they recommend a wall timeline, although you can put it in to book form if you wish.

Both MFW and WP have notebooks that you use throughout the year. WP's notebook does more of the work, so there is less work for the student to do, and in MFW, the student does most of the work in the notebook (narrations etc). Doing the narrations with MFW would actually be included as some of the LA work, which is perhaps why there is less "other" LA resources recommended in MFW.

WP recommends websites and videos and MFW does not.

That's all I can think of for now. Please ask if you have any specific questions.

Once I get actually start WP and get into it a little, I will probably update this with a more accurate review based on my own personal experience.

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This morning at church, during Sunday School time, Giff taught his first creation/evolution class.  He has been working so hard on it for the past few months and it was exciting to finally have it all come together.  I was wondering if it would be over my head, but he did a great job teaching it at a level that my little old non-scientific brain could understand.

The things that I loved about that class was the age range of people who attended.  There were 12 year olds up to great-grandparents that were there.  The class was originally intended for the youth group to counter what they get in the public schools.  But in discussing this with Steve (the youth pastor who is also in charge of adult ministries), they thought it would be good to open it up to parents and other adults as well. 

I was thinking during the class that maybe he should teach it every 5 years or so in order to give all the highschoolers a good grounding before they go off to college or whatever.  Then I was thinking, that maybe somehow some of their friends could come as well.  Then Giff was telling me later that Donna asked him if he would consider doing it as an outreach some time, so who knows how many people this could reach. 

Looking forward to having Giff teach me again next week.  :) 

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