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Ok, ok... so I'm counting down. *sigh* I have to admit that I'm not really looking forward to school starting yet. It seems the summer has just begun! We've been talking about moving out of state. My husband got a job in another state and it's about 1.5 hr commute one way! EEK! So we're hoping to move as soon as we can. The state that we're looking to move to is SO HOMESCHOOLER FRIENDLY!! I can't tell you how excited I am about that. In the state we're in, they don't allow homeschoolers to participate in school sports, classes or extracurricular activities. You can barely use the playground! But the state we're moving to allows homeschoolers into the schools even for classes you don't feel you can teach at home!!! The kids will definitely be in sports & band... and other curricular activities that they may want to do. I'm super excited about it. Just praying that I can be patient and wait on the Lord's timing for our home to sell. That's the hardest thing for me right now.
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Of Summer Vacation that is... and then we embark on another school year. I realized today that I still haven't sent in my 'letter of intent to homeschool'. Oops. I need to do that ASAP as it was due 7/1. Oh well... a friend of mine didn't send hers in until halfway through the school year last year, so I guess I'm not doing too bad. I'm a little nervous about next school year. Sometimes the thought of schooling a second grader, first grader, kindergartener plus chasing a 2 y/o and having a newborn is overwhelming. It sounds like SO much... especially when I know the first grader isn't going to enjoy it much. He fights pretty much anything we ask him to do lately. I'm hoping it's a phase he's going through and he'll get over it eventually. *sigh* He'll still do it cause I make him, but it's the battle that's tiring. Speaking of chasing a toddler... hes' into my scrapbooking stuff, so I'm off to stop that... |
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We finished school on May 15th!! The kids were so excited to be done and I'm happy to report they completed all the work I wanted them to complete! Yay! Reading was still a struggle w/ James, though. The timer worked, but there was still a battle almost daily, especially w/ sight words. We were using Reading Made Easy, which worked well for Levi, but it was difficult at times. I decided to go a completely different route this year and went with all A Beka. I bought Grade kits 1 & 2. I didn't buy K or the teacher kits. I started the boys on their readers already and expected a fight w/ James as usual, but he LOVES it!! I'm so happy about that. They started about 3 weeks ago. Levi completed his first reader & James is almost done his first reader. He's now reading things like: My name is Mike. I like the cats and dogs God made. I like the hens and ducks and geese He made. But I like the pigs the best. My pet pig is fat and sleek. He likes to lie in the mud. He will not get stuck in the mud. He just has fun in it. He likes to play and play. I like that he can do that w/ no fighting! YAY!! We both now look forward to reading time rather than the battle. We'll officially start school the second week of August or possibly the first week. We'll have the third week off because of family, but I want to start early so we can take a break when the baby is born in Oct. I've already logged the entire school year! Yay! I feel very prepared and am excited to start. |
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I'm so excited and so are the kids. Levi finished up his math book today!! The entire thing: 400+ pages since the end of August! I'm so proud of him! He's done a great job w/ it!! The other stuff we have left is easy and will be done by mid-May. I'M SO EXCITED!!! James' reading has really taken off lately! He still struggles w/ some of his sight words, but he's starting to read so much better. He can read full stories now, not just sentences. And he's finally reading & comprehending. He used to spend so much time concentrating on what the words were that he didn't really comprehend what he was reading, but he doesn't do that anymore. We will continue reading throughout the Summer since I feel reading is something that needs to be done all the time, not just during the school year. Next year... Yes, I'm excited to be done, but I'm already focusing on next year. I had planned to use all Bob Jones w/ the boys. However, something made me look into A Beka and the price is SO much cheaper. I can get enough for the boys & Beth for the entire school year for about $500+ less than I could have spent on the Bob Jones for just the boys. So I think I'm going to go w/ A Beka. They come to the area next month. If you go to their curriculum viewing you get a discount & no shipping charges, so that's my plan. Then all the kids will be covered for next school year and I won't have to piece together curriculum. With a busy toddler and a newborn I just won't have the time for that! As it is we'll probably take a few weeks off when the baby is born.... I know I'll need the time to recooperate. |
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This evening I was filled with overwhelming love and affection for my children. We were all snuggled close on the couch, reading stories and I thought over the day as we did that. There were fights and arguements and frustrating moments. There were moments when I just wanted to close myself in my room and not bother to come out again (which I did NOT do, btw). But then... when we are all snuggled together and spending quality time like that I realize I wouldn't change a thing in the world. I love having 4 children. I love having a big family. I would have a gazzillion more kids if I could. Ok... not really, but I just can't imagine life any other way. Now... AFA schooling goes. James is doing AWESOME in his reading. He's even reading books beyond our reading lesson books now. I'm so proud of him. I'm so glad we reached a compromise w/ the "10 minute lessons". If it weren't for that I believe we'd still be fighting over it all. Levi is excelling in his piano. He asked to play in our Friday School talent show this coming Friday evening. I'm not sure he realizes how many people he will be playing in front of, but he is excited. He has chosen "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam". He plays it quite well. Well enough that his teacher plays accompaniment with him during lessons. Levi is also really enjoying the BJ Heritage Studies and Science. Good thinking to switch him to that. He's getting so much out of it!! James is listening in and wants to do it w/ us. :) I like that! I can't believe we're almost in the last quarter of the school year!! Pretty soon I'll be prepping for next school year. It'll be nice to have one year under my belt.... I won't feel so much like a fish floundering out of water. Tho next year is very important as Levi is required to start yearly standardized testing next year. EEK! AND... I'll be schooling 2 full time instead of just 1 full time and 2 1/2 time. *gulp* |
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That's it... I'm done w/ FIAR. I do love it, really I do. I'm just having a difficult time piecing it together & making sure Levi is getting all he needs to get. So I have BJ spelling, Heritage Studies & Science. I have A Beka math & health. That seems to be going a bit easier and more smoothly. Still using some FIAR ideas, but it's not our "main" schooling now. It still only takes a few hours/day, so it's not taking too long. Levi seems to thrive on the structure of it... and I"ll be able to reuse it for James, Beth & Samuel. :) I am leaning towards using all BJ next year, tho I'm not sure I like their math too much... not sure what to do about that. As for my doula stuff... it's coming slowly. I have another birth in July... had one in May and one in August, but they both decided on repeat c/s instead of VBACs and have decided they don't really need me for a repeat c/s. The birth in July is up in the air, but hopefully :) I'd like to get certified! I have to put a plug in for www.motivatedmoms.com I've used it in the past and liked it, but now that we're schooling on a regular basis, I REALLY appreciate it. It's helping me to keep on track w/ the housework & remember all those little things I forget about. I highly recommend it!
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So I talked w/ James about the reading lesson thing and gave him the idea of the timer and he loved it. He chose 10 minutes (more than i was thinking! yay!). Every morning right after breakfast he gets the timer, gets his reading lesson book and waits for me to be ready. Then I sit down, he sets the timer for 10 minutes and we're off. I'm amazed at how much this is helping him to focus!!! Yay!! He's doing so well with it too. My next plan of action is to find & blow up the exercise ball and let him bounce on it while we go over sight words, science & history things. I really think it'll help him. Some kids need to keep moving in order to focus their brains better. My In-laws gave the kids these awesome science kits for Christmas. Levi received one on electricity & James received one on Weather. We do one science experiment per day... they love it!! They've been making weather vanes and simple/parellel circuits and learning about evaporation and all sorts of fun things. They love learning that way and it was a great, thoughtful gift from their grandparents! I'm already starting to plan for next year. I'm going a completely different route this year and will be getting a full curriculum like Bob Jones or A Beka... I just cant decide what to get yet. It's been difficult for me to piece everything together and though I like the idea of FIAR and even unschooling to a certain extent, I've realize I need more structure. My children seem to thrive on it as well, so this is the way we're headed next year. I will, of course, supplement with "unschooling" type stuff, but the core curriculum will be textbooks. It's taken a load off my shoulders just to decide on that... so now for the fun part: picking one!! Any suggestions would be great!! GracefulDoe ~ I will message you w/ the Sear's cookie recipe. It's SO YUMMY!!!!
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Good morning!! I'm finally posting again. I can't believe Christmas is only a few days away!! I had planned to do school right up until Christmas, but TBH, it was too difficult with trying to get things ready for Christmas projects & company. So we've been "unschooling". Lots of teaching opportunities throughout the day, but no real sit down and do school days. I've decided to not sweat it with James' reading issues. My plan is to set a timer for 2-5 minutes (let him choose) and when the timer goes off he can choose to be done or we'll continue. That puts him in charge, but still allows for some learning time. He's really good at reading if he applies himself. It's just the applying issue. My Mom suggested letting him read while bouncing on an exercise ball since he's the type of kid who needs to be moving. So I plan to try that once DH can find my exercise ball. It's been hiding away for quite some time. I want it anyway... I need to get back in gear. I have to put a plug in here too for the Dr. Sears books. My friend Rachael says I'm a Sears junkie. I think I am. I've just finished reading The Successful Child and The Healthiest Kid in The Neighborhood. I have The Vaccine Book and The Family Nutrition Book coming any day now (Half.com is a great place to buy books!!) I own and have read The Breastfeeding Book and The Pregnancy Book as well as The Birth Book. SUCH GOOD INFORMATION IN THESE BOOKS!! I cannot stress that more. Everything you need to know to set your kids up for the best start in life... Now we're working on incorporating it into our lives more. I think the biggest change has been eating... lots more whole grains, fish a few times/week, more veggies & fruits... avoiding sugars as much as possible. DH jokes that we're getting "too crunchy", but he loved the cookies I made yesterday that had no sugar (just a bit of honey), were whole wheat and had old-fashioned oats. :) I don't plan to be 100% health nut... just a 90/10 family. *grin* On a more serous note: Please say a prayer for DH's grandma, Shirley. She's not doing well and they don't expect her to live much longer. Also a prayer for MIL's boyfriend, Steve. He has 4 anuerisms in his brain and is in a lot of pain. I don't know much more than that so far... he was just brought to the hospital yesterday and they were still waiting for results when DH talked w/ his Mom last night. Thanks! |
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I'm feeling so frustrated this morning I had to walk away from the table for a minute. I still have that nasty cold, so everything is shrowded by my miserable sinus headache. I should take something, but since I'm still nursing, I'm not sure what I can take. BUT, I'm frustrated w/ James right now. He just doesn't "Get" his reading. There are certain words called "sight words" that we've been working on since August and he STILL doesn't get them. I told him it says "they" and had him repeat it while looking at the word a few times... then went back not a minute later and asked him what it said and he said "I don't remember" Ok... calmed down... ready to move on. I think we'll start over. It doesn't help that from the moment he woke up this morning he was complaining about having to do school. *sigh* He always does this if we take an unexpected day off (yesterday I had to drive DH into work and then piano lessons... it made it so we had no time to do school) I'm dreading starting school again after Christmas Break... maybe we won't take a break except for on Christmas day. I'll have to think on that a bit.... |
He does that w/ most of his sight words... and a lot of letter sounds "sh", "pl", "qu", etc. Maybe I'm expecting too much out of a 5 y/o?? I have an issue where I HATE repeating myself... I've heard introverts hate repeating themselves, so that would probably explain that. So when I have to repeat over and over and over it's like banging my head against a brick wall and it drives me crazy. |
A local public school closed quite a few years ago. Last week they opened up the school so we could go in and take any book, chairs and desks that we may want. I was sooo amazed that the number of books they just left in the basement. We came home w/ armloads of them!! All sorts of biographies, kid fictions, a whole set on the United States, state by state, so 52 books (it included out-lying territories) It's pretty exciting and they kids were so thrilled when they came home & saw them. We didn't get any desks as we have no room for desks in our house, but we may go back for a few chairs. Switching subjects: If I thought homeschooling was hard when the kids were sick, I was totally wrong. Homeschooling is 10 times harder when I'm sick. I don't want to do anything, but I have to. *sigh* Add a teething toddler to that and it's chalking up to bet a tough week. Thankfully it's the holiday season, so we have a break coming up soon. I think I'm going to need it. I went ahead and got the Bob Jones Science for Levi & James. We started this week. Hopefully it'll work out better than the science in FIAR. There just wasn't enough IMO. |
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I've decided to go ahead and change things a little. I just don't feel as though they get enough Science, spelling & history with FIAR. So, I'm now doing Bob Jones & A Beka for those subjects, but also FIAR. It's been very difficult for me to piece the curriculum together. I was speaking with a "seasoned homeschooler" and she said she uses the curriculums like BJ and A Beka and then builds on it depending on the child's interest. She said that was the easiest way for her to be assured that they were getting all the needed to do and then helping the children to enjoy the areas of interest. So I think that's what I want to do next year, but I need to stat saving $$ for it. The curriculum is more expensive than FIAR... School has been great these past weeks. We've learned about Japan, New England, Mining communities, ... they even made their own quilts. Ok, the quilts were small enough for a stuffed animal, but they were pretty excited about it. Levi sewed his whole quilt front, but James & Beth needed my help. It was a little too complicated to remember not to loop the thread. Levi is doing well with his work. He is such a swift learner. He really seems to enjoy it. James is doing well, but I need to keep after him. He gets so discouraged, so easily and then gets very upset with himself. So I have to balance encouragment with gentle nudging. It's interesting. and then there is Beth who wants to be doing everything the boys are doing, but isn't quite there yet. She's learning to read, but gets it all mixed up sometimes. Her persistence is wearing, but she sure enjoys trying to learn what the boys are learning. And then there's Samuel. Matt often calls him "trouble". I told him he's not trouble, he's just curious and learning a lot. He really is learning a lot. Just in the past few days he has learned about 6 new works. (He's 16 months old) And not only that, he puts them together like a 24 month old should. He said "eat cake" last night when he wanted some cake. He's a brilliant little boy who has such a love for music. He really amazes me sometimes. I attribute his happy-go-lucky, brilliant mind to attachment parenting & extended nursing. When Beth was 18 months old I was introduced to attachment parenting and gentle discipline. Before that I was always taught that the parents were in complete control and you had to "beat the will" out of the child. You leave them to cry if it's bed time and they won't sleep. You spank at everything that may be wrong or "a sin" and you teach them that you are in control and they have no choices or opinions in the matter. James was a very violent and angry 3 year old, which is what made me seek out different parenting techniques. I stumbled upon this whole AP/GD lifestyle . I started listening to his feelings instead of dismissing them. I started letting my children have a voice instead of being the "one in charge at all times." I started giving them options, letting them learn to make decisions for themselves. I started babywearing Beth at 18 months and she loved it. I loved it! It was neat to see how much she learned just by riding around w/ me while I cooked or went for walks. When Samuel was born it was just natural to throw him in my sling and school the kids, clean or cook. I'm not perfect at it and I can tell you honestly some days it's much easier to try to control every situation that arises from what clothes they wear to what they'll be playing with. Obviously there are some situations when they are allowed to dislike it, but they still have to do it. Granted, they are kids and misbehave like kids, but I've seen big changes in them. They are happy children who aren't afraid to come to us and talk about anything that is on their minds. They aren't afraid to tell me if they've done something wrong or if they are feeling sad, hurt, lonely or scared. They don't lie and if they start to, they stop and tell the truth. They often think about their actions and how they will affect other people (tho they still have a ways to go in this area. LOL) I don't know how I got on that schpeel.... I've been thinking a lot about child-rearing lately. Some days I feel like the worst mother in the world and I'm always trying to better myself when it comes to my family. They really are my life. |
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What a FULL week!!! Wow. First of all, we're studying A Glorious Flight this week. It's the story of Louis Bleriot who flew across the English Channel in 1909. I decided it'd be fun to make paper airplanes, so I did a google search. I needed something simple and came across this: http://www.easy-paper-airplanes.com/e-newsletter.htm You have to sign up for her newsletter, but it's worth it. I downloaded and printed off the book. Levi and James are having so much fun with it and I even made a few! (I'm no good at paper airplanes, but the intructions are so easy to follow) This week schooling has been difficult. We've managed to do it daily, but it's been watered down. Samuel is sick and sooo miserable with his cold. He literally follows me around the house whining. It's easy when he wants to nurse. At least then I can still school the kids... but when he wants to cry and cry in my arms it makes it more difficult. I feel so bad for him.... Hopefully he'll be better before next week. To top it off, I got the brilliant idea to go apple picking on Sunday. Well, I didn' t know Samuel would be sick this week when we went. We picked 2 bushels of apples. So far this week I've made 16 quarts of applesauce and 4 quarts of apple butter. I still have 1/2 a bushel left. Not easy to can w/ a sick baby and schoolin' either. I'm plum worn out by the end of the day, but you know what? It feels good to be busy, needed and care for my family. I love that I am able to care and provide for them. |
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Right now Samuel is playing drums using a pan & lincoln logs while Levie is playing the baritone. James like to play the trumpet, so I think we're on our way to forming a family band. It's a lot of noise, but I love that they are so interested in music!! Levi's piano lessons are coming along very well. He has a master class coming up... it's a class where all the students come together and play. They critique each others work and encourage each other. I think it's a great idea! Levi's teacher also has him starting to compose. I think I may have mentioned that before... I'm going to recommend the book "Who Owns the Sun?" We read it for school this week. It is such a good book and really opened the door to talk about how we are in control of our thoughts and actions... also introduced my children to slavery in America and how people used to be so intolerant of different races. The kids & I had some good conversations about how God created us all equal and how neat it is that we live in the "melting pot" where all the different cultures seem to merge. Today we're going on a nature walk. I'm trying to talk DH into going to a corn maze, but he says he doesn't really want to. I think it sounds like fun for the kids... and for me. *grin* He says getting lost in a corn field doesn't sound like much fun. I have good memories of running around in corn fields when I was young and I think it will be fun. If we don't go there, we'll go to the woods and hike on some trails there.
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I was a bit worried this morning when I realized my first quarterly report is due on Friday and I haven't heard anything back about my IHIP (Individualized Homeschool Instruction Plan) Apparently it's ok not to have heard back. Kind of annoying that we hurry to get these things done and then they basically ignore it. I guess it's better than them being TOO picky. I hate NY homeschool laws... I want to move back to VT just so homeschooling is easier. It's very unfair that we pay as much school taxes as everyone else, but are not allowed to participate in anything at the school. No sports, no classes, nothing. In VT you can be on the soccer teams, run track/cross-country, play football, even take some classes while being homeschooled. In NY you can only participate in sports if it's a town sport, not a school sport. That means, once we hit 6th grade, my children will no longer be able to do sports. It really annoys me. But... I won't get started there! My first quarterly is due, so I finished it today. I keep weekly records, so it was easy to go back and write out what we've learned. I must say, I'm amazed at the things we've covered so far... and think it's so neat that they boys are learning so much!! MUCH more than they would have learned in public school so far.... Speaking of public school... in our tiny town we had lock down at our El. school. Someone had escaped across the border. They put lockdown on the school so no one could get in, but still... very scary!! They found the person not far from the school and all went back to normal, but it still made me think of the vulnerability children have in schools today. No longer are they 'safe zones'. It's so sad. |
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So many of us focus on teaching. What are we going to teach this week? What style of teaching are we giong to use? What has struck me is that it doesn't seem to matter how we teach... they learn so differently. So what if we change our approach? Focus more on the child's aspect of it... what they are learning and expand on it. Make it easier for them to learn things. When you see that spark of interest, run with it. Of course there are some things that they don't want to learn that they need to learn, so make it more interesting for them. I'm working on this. There's nothing more enjoyable than seeing a child's eyes light up with understanding. When they grasp that concept of reading it opens up whole new worlds to them. When they can first write their name, they are so excited and have to show everyone. When they grasp addition, subtraction, counting money.... all things they will use for the rest of their lives... they are amazed, thrilled and proud of their accomplishments. When do they loose that wonder of learning? WHY do they/we loose it? At what point does school become a bore or a chore. Something they do because they are forced to rather than because they want to? What can we do to change that? |
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On Saturday afternoon James' butterfly emerged from her chryssalis. Unfortunately she fell before her wings were dried and ripped 2 of them. We tried to save her, but she died the next day. James wanted to put her under the rhododendren bush, so there she lies. Yesterday we saw Levi's about ready to emerge, but she waited until we were at piano lessons. When we arrived home, she was out and ready to fly away. So we let her loose and the kids say she flew all the way to Mexico yesterday. I don't think they realize how long it takes to get there. In our FIAR this week we are reading Mike Mulligan and His Steamshovel. I'm thrilled that he kids can now recognized what makes a classic book classic. They are really enjoying this story and all that we are doing with it. Levi is writing his own story today... he's borrowing Mary Anne from Mike Mulligan and they are going to dig a big cellar for a house in Popperville. *grin* Not quite sure how he's going to do that since she's a furnace now, but he says he can. DH & I both remembered the story as being really sad and didn't care much for it. Now that I've re-read it, I really like it. I'm trying to dwell on the happy ending rather than the sadness of it, so the kids have good memories of the book. DH & I remembered the part where all the steamshovels get scrapped and we both thought that was the end of the story. LOL! Yes, it's been MANY years since we've read it. Levi's piano is coming along so well. He's starting on hymns this week. "God is so Good" is his first hymn. He's pretty excited about it. One thing that his teacher does that I REALLY appreciate is having her students begin composing even at this early stage. I think it's a wonderful way to learn more about music and how it works. So he is composing his first piece in C Major. Well, she wanted him to, but he really wants to do it in a minor chord, so she compromised and said he could do both. :) He loves the sound of songs written in minor. |
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Taken from today's Elisabeth Elliot devotional. The part that stuck out to me the most today is in bold. "Grant, O Lord my God, that I may never fall away in success or in failure; that I may not be prideful in prosperity nor dejected in adversity. Let me rejoice only in what unites us and sorrow only in what separates us. May I strive to please no one or fear to displease anyone except Yourself. May I seek always the things that are eternal and never those that are only temporal. May I shun any joy that is without You and never seek any that is beside You. O Lord, may I delight in any work I do for You and tire of any rest that is apart from You. My God, let me direct my heart towards You, and in my failings, always repent with a purpose of amendment."
--St. Thomas Aquinas |
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Everytime I introduce something new to James he throws a fit. This morning was no exception. We are reading "A Pair of Red Clogs" this week. For the science part we decided to do weather telling for 2 weeks starting today. I had them start writing the temperature, etc for today and he started in. "This takes too long. I hate this. I don't want to do this." and so on. I have to admit I didn't handle it well. (I should mention we'd been fighting all morning about reading, writing, etc. so by this point I'd had it) So I took it out of his notebook, crumpled it and tossed it. I said "Ok. you don't have to do it." Welll... then it exploded. He was screaming and crying and yelling at me. *sigh* I yelled back at first til I realized it wasn't really going to do any good. Then I got in his face, gently told him to stop yelling, pointed out that 1. he didn't want to do it and 2. he doesn't have to. He didn't like that, but it calmed him down. He went in his room, pouted for a while, then came back out and apologized. Then he asked to do it again, so we sat down and went over the weather for today and he's enjoying it now. *sigh* I wonder if the battles will continue? I need to figure out a good way to handle them when they start too. Thankfully he is only in kindergarten, so other than reading/writing everything else can be skipped for a day if need be. On September 15th I mentioned that the caterpillar was getting ready to turn into his chryssalis. Well, he fooled us... he jumped down and ate some more. He turned on September 17th in the middle of the night. Then Levi's caterpillar started hanging upside down on the morning on September 19th so we watched him ALL day. Not more than an hour went by without us watching him. I went to bed around 10, got up at midnight and peeked at him and sure enough... he waited til we were in bed to form his chryssalis. LOL! I think he did that on purpose. I really wanted to catch it on camera. *sigh* So now we wait... soon they'll be butterflys! James is starting to do better with his reading!! yay! He's into 4 sentence paragraphs now. He seems to be enjoying more now. It was a struggle at first. He doesn't like to sit still and concentrate for very long. Levi is doing well in his math. He has completed 60 pages already!! I've decided that since Beth will be 4 soon she needs to do a little work. I don't make her do much... I'm one of those people who believe they are only kids once so no need to push them. But she's showing such a strong desire to be able to write her name and read a bit, so I'm introducing it to her now. She usually sits with us while we do our FIAR anyway, so I just give her copy work after we're done reading. The kids are doing their journaling now... that's why I have a few minutes here :) For my schooling: I finally got feedback on my paper. It was REALLY good feedback! Yay! I just need to explain a few other things in it and then submit the final. I also had my first birth a little over a week ago! My SIL had a beautiful baby boy... after a long labor. Both mom & baby are doing well. |
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At Friday School (I'll explain that in a moment) the boys were given one caterpillar each. James' is starting to form it's chrysallis right now!! It's attaching the "Web" part to the jar as we speak. So cool!! I'm going to take pictures and hopefully capture some neat pictures. Levi's hasn't started to do anything yet. I did notice that on the way home from Friday School James' caterpillar was eating like crazy. The Very Hungry Caterpillar indeed!! We'll keep you posted on how it goes. During our second week of school we read the book "Lentil" and learned about small town, America. In our third week covered "Madeline" and we learned about Paris, France. We've covered classic stories and illustrations. I am feeling like there isn't enough Science in FIAR , so I'm looking for something to supplement Science for the boys. FIAR seems great for lit, vocab, art & social studies, but it's missing science & math. I noticed the math before school started, so I ordered A Beka grade 1 math. Levi finished page 44 this week! He seems to love math. Now I need to resear science curriculum. I have "A Pocket Full of Pinecones", but I'm not sure if that's what I want to do. We'll see... one nice thing about homeschoolin' is that you can choose new curriculum as you go if what you have isn't working! Friday School... It's a homeschool co-op of about 50 students. The parents teach different classes and the students can take classes of their choice. My children are in Animal Round Box, Lego Club, Arts/Crafts/Painting, & Science Experiments. We had our first day yesterday and the children enjoyed it. DH even came... he had to take the day off of work to fly to KY for his grandfather's funeral. He came to Friday school with us since he flight didn't leave til the evening. The last class of the day was bowling, so we went as a family. It was fun! DH & I took a lane and played against each other, while helping the kids & their cousins on 2 other lanes. I won the first game & DH won the second game. The kids were so funny to watch. It took a LONG time for their ball to get down the lane. My studies are going well. Still no contact from my trainer about my communications paper. It is supposed to take 2 weeks and it has taken 6. Hmmmm... I am going to write to the people in charge and see what's up. All that is left now is that paper, 2 births and a class evaluation. My first client is due any day!!! I'm so excited!! Nervous about the kids though. I need to find a "grandmotherly" type of sitter who can be on call 24/7 when I have a client due. Someone who can come into my home instead of having to disrupt the kids by dragging them out of the house at all hours of the night. I'm praying to find someone. So that completes week 3 of this years school. Next week "A Pair of Red Clogs" and stuff about Japan! |
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Today is our last school day this week. We're going on a field trip to the fair tomorrow... fun field trip, huh? This week went well. I'm struck more and more how my boys learn in completely different ways. I'm again amazed that my Mom has done this for 19 years with 8+ different children, different learners, different styles of teaching for each. I wasn't sure how Samuel and Beth would do while I was preoccupied w/ the boys all week, but they did well. I incorperated them into as much as I could. Samuel even colored a few times... he really liked that!! I think it made him feel like a big boy. Levi amazed me again with his reading. He took Magic Tree House #2 to bed for their quiet reading time the other night. He said he read it, but he wasn't reading aloud, so I wasn't sure how much he understood. So I had him tell me the story and he got it!! So not only is he reading, but he's reading to himself and comprehending it. *sigh* Makes him sound SO OLD! He also did great with his math this week. He completed 25 pages!! I had to make him stop every day cause he wanted to keep going. It's just simple addition & subtraction right now... an intro to $$ as well. It's easy and he grasps the concepts so quickly. James is hard for me to patiently teach. I'll be doing a bit of praying over the next 12 years over how to handle his schooling. Each day at the end of the school day we journal. I let them journal what they want, but do keep it within some paramaters. Today they had to journal about things they like. Another day it was something they learned that day.... just things like that. I also journal by writing what they learned that day. It helps me to keep a log of it all... and I'm sure it'll help when it's time to report to the state! The one thing I'm finding difficult with homeschooling is that now I have NO TIME to myself at all. I thought I had no time before, but this is bad. Instead of cleaning in the mornings now I have to do it in the afternoons, which is so dificult for me. By the time it's time to cook dinner I don't want to do anything because I'm just too tired. I've been getting up between 5:30 and 6 to do my doula studying, then the kids are up at 7, we start school between 7:30-8. We finish around 11. Chores for the kids (which is really more work for me) Then lunch... then naps for the younger 2, quiet time for the olders. I start my chores and studies. This continues until everyone is up for snack, then dinner time, then soccer twice/week or outside play time til bed time. Then up at 5:30 the next morning to start it over. |
DH took the day off so we can go, so I'm pretty excited!! Not to mention we get in FOR FREE because of the homeschool group we are a part of! 
Beth learned quite a bit just by listening. She told me today that our state park is on the yangtze river and Ping wants us to come see him. he he he. I think she wants to go to the park. 
Do you see any time I can have a second to myself in there? *sigh* No time to scrapbook or read for pleasure anymore. EEK. Maybe it'll get easier....