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I don't know why it is so hard for me to keep this site updated... I'm online plenty of time to do it. I love Christmas! Today was a good day. We got up and I went and had my hair done this morning. Then we ate at China Star (yum!) and then we spent a couple hours at the library. When we got home we started a fire and then Chloe and I started the holiday festivities! She had been begging me for a week to work on these ornaments she wanted to make. My sister's sister in law was making some last weekend and ever since we wanted to make them. They were really too difficult for her, but she helped with the gluing and she "served" me ice water. (Her words). We also ate some no bake cookies. After we finished the ornaments she immediately wanted to go give them to people, but the supplies only made 4 ornaments and it was dark and cold. So, we moved on to making sugar cookies. I helped her roll them out and then she cut them out. We sang Christmas music and danced the whole time. It was really fun. Cozi was napping (late I know) . Unfortunately the boys didn't want to help us. After all the cookies were done, we moved on to the small banana bread loaves. We bought these adroable little loaf pans from Michael's and decided we'd give them to neighbors with bread in them. All this baking made us hungry, so we ordered pizza at 7:00. Around 8:30 we realized something was wrong with the order and after calling found out the online order never went through. Thankfully Pizza Hut gave us our meal for free so eventually we got to eat. I was glad it was free as it wasn't very good. The boys and Fred watched Stomp the Yard and Chloe and I made the icing for the sugar cookies. Lewis and his fiancee were here so Chloe made them cookies and served them to them downstairs. Chloe's little servant heart is so cute and heartwarming. She loves doing things for people... crafting... you name it. Everytime I turn around she's got scissors out, paper, glitter, paint. There is always a mess, but she wants to make things to give everyone she knows! We started a new bedtime routine this week. Staggering bedtimes. So, Wednesday night I put Cozi to bed at 8. She was asleep within 5 minutes. At 8:30 I put CHloe to bed. At 9 I left to pick the boys up from the skating rink. When I got home not only was Chloe still awake, but Cozi was screaming her head off too. Apparently Chloe woke her up and when Cozi is upset daddy won't do. So, it ended up being midnight before I got Cozi to sleep! But we tried again Thursday and tonight and it's getting better. One of our biggest problems is multiple trips to the bathroom, drinks, etc. So I ended up standing outside their room and at the slightest word I went in and took care of things. Thursday it took 2 times, tonight 1. Wow, maybe consistency does work! I am determined to be consistent. My biggest problem now is the boys. Not obedience really, but attitudes. I don't know how to punish for that. For example, Nick was mad because Noah was stirring the eggs the other night during dinner prep. He wanted to. I gave him something else to do and he started grumbling. Then when I tell him to stop he starts arguing with me. I just don't know what to do. If he were little, I'd swat his bottom,but he's almost 11. So then, thinking of work is hard for me.
Oh my goodness... it is after midnight and Cozi just walked out asking for a drink! Gotta keep working! I'll write more later!
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Well so far, Nick is doing a better job on his blog than I on mine, but I'll keep trying. I thought I"d try to update this past week. It seemed to be a long week to me. The kids had some unschooling experiences for sure though. Wednesday we went to get the new window that was going to be installed on Thursday. On our way home on the highway a bunch of cars in front of me slowed down suddenly so I did too. Behind me I heard screeching and saw the red truck behind me swerve around me almost off the road. My heart almost stopped of course. We took the next exit and the truck followed me off, came up next to me, rolled down his window and in some not so nice words let me know I had no brake lights. Zero. I apologized up, down and sideways and just thanked God that he didn't hit us. It would have a caused me to hit someone too and would have been a mess. So, the kids watched Justin put in the new window and work on siding Thursday. We then took the van to get the brakes checked. We have looked at the bulbs, the fuses in the recent past and couldn't find a problem. So I took it in and about 45 minutes and $19 later I'm told all the bulbs were indeed burnt out. I was thankful for a cheap fix, but felt stupid that something so simple could have caused a major accident. Friday Chloe had dance and we ran some errands. Then Krystal and Olivia came up to spend the night. We went to dinner at Chili's without Fred as he worked really late. It was fun, but Olivia was getting tired and hungry and was screeching occasionally. She wasn't really being that loud in such a loud restaurant, but the older ladies behind us were giving Krystal glaring looks. I don't understand why people don't understand babies cry and get upset sometimes. That night Krystal and I talked until 4:00 am! We had a great time. It's so fun to chat and everytime we see more and more how alike we are, yet e are very different too. We got up Saturday and for lunch we at at Red Robin. We both ordered the guacamole bacon burger of course. It was good, but I didn't feel well the rest of the day. We went and walked the mall and on the way my tire felt weird and after looking I noticed I had run across a whole row of nails! I'm praying the tire will hold out until Monday so I can go get a used tire. I hate fixing the car all the time! We decided to stay home today from church and just rest and have a family day. I always miss church when we aren't there, but I enjoy the days we spend the whole time together and this will be one. |
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So I made my own if/then chart for certain behaviors and consequences. We have been dealing with a lot of bad attitudes, laziness and temper tantrums (from our big girl). I made it last night and we discussed it today and they signed it. The boys did fairly well although if I had been more consistent on being on them they probably would have gotten in trouble, but it was Chloe who got to see how the chart works more than once today. I gave her jobs like cleaning the front of the cabinets and the appliances and then dusting the baseboards in a couple rooms. She always had a good attitude by the time she finished it so that was good. I just hope this works! I have a hard time teaching them how to change their attitudes. My oldest Nick has a bad attitude about working in general, but he did a good job today typing in his article for his history class at co-op. Then Noah wanted to do the typing game online so he played with that for awhile. Both did a page of Math. They tried to throw the "no formal" lessons in my face, but I calmly explaind that I was the mom and not them and that their dad wanted to see some formal lessons. I tried to also explain that if they finished it quickly like I know they can they would have the entire rest of the day to play legos, read, study art, whatever! I can see it will be very hard for me to let go though and let them kind of "play" to see where their interests lie and while I wait to hear from God. I'm such a planner, it's going to be difficult, but I won't quit! So, some of the other activities we did today was we ate lunch outside and read a chapter of Johnny Tremain. Then we did some cleaning, made a cake and I taught the kids to make grilled cheese sandwiches on the griddle. All in all, it was a good day. I did find a motivator for my boys in getting their work done though. All I am asking is one math and one english lesson and then we work on other more fun things. It was still a struggle most days. So, if they get those two done in a reasonable amount of time and without a good attitude they earn computer time. They did awesome this week! One morning Nick got up and immediately asked me where his Math was. The next I got up and he was already working on it! Wowee!! |
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This year we began our 4th year homeschooling. Our oldest son attended public school for Kindergarten and 1st grade. Many people ask me why I pulled him out. Was it bad teachers? No. Was it bullies? No. He loved his school and I had no problems with it. Of course I had NO idea what he was doing each day. He could never remember when he got home and I felt left out of so much of his life! And he was only 5 and 6 years old! I started thinking about how God had called me to be home with my children and I thought, "Why did he call me home to send them away all day? " I missed my kids a lot and I didn't like that the majority of their hours and influence was with and from someone I didn't even know! I mean I wouldn't send my 2 year old to stay with someone for 8 hours per day not even knowing them, why do it to an older child? When we first began homeschooling we made the mistake a lot of people make. We tried to duplicate school at home. We bought school desks and I put up school posters. We didn't go as far as doing calendar time and the pledge of Allegiance, but we were close. Not suprisingly it didn't work. Then we switched curriculums at the end of that year and went to Unit Studies. I really liked this style, but it required so much prep work and we had a new baby coming. It wasn't working either. So for 3 years we've curriculum jumped and tried all kinds of things and never really been happy. I wanted my kids to enjoy learning and actually retain the information. I too went to public school and I enjoyed it a lot, but I don't remember hardly anything. I did very well, aced the tests, but I haven't retained any of it because it wasn't fun learning it and it wasn't my talents. So then when I graduated I went to college because I just knew that's what I was supposed to do. But after two years of not doing well in college due to a lack of interest I dropped out realizing I wanted to be a mom. I wish I would have known that that was a wonderful career choice before I wasted two years and a lot of money in school. I want to raise my sons to be providers for their future families, how to be daddy's to their children. I want my girls to grow up knowing how to care for the house and for their future husbands and children. And I want them to know it's ok if they want to be a mom, that that is a career and that it is the hardest, most rewarding and most important job their is. Sorry, I got off on a tangent. So, back to our schooling woes. I have really been reading and praying about unschooling. Not the radical idea of letting the kids totally do whatever they want all the time and no bedtimes and all. I do believe structure is important. But I do believe the scripture to "Train our child in the way they should go..." I believe that doesn't mean train them my way, but to train them God's way. I believe he has already instilled them with talents, skills and interests because he has not created us to be cookie cutter people or carbon copies of one another. So why would I think a cookie cutter education would work for them? Nick, my oldest is 10 1/2. He is a wonderful, sensitive, caring boy. We do have a lot of anger and attitude issues with him, but I think part of the problem is I've been too busy trying to get him to finish his lesson than to work with him on character. Which is more important to God? That he knows his multiplication tables? Or that he knows how to be compassionate? Obviously I realize he can know more, but my point is that the latter is more important than the first and that if I spent more time with him learning than throwing information at him for the sake of a checklist, he would learn much more and things that are truly important to who he will be as a man. So, some of my goals for Nick are:
Noah, my almost 9 year old is a sweet, sweet soul. He is growing up, but is still my baby boy. He loves being with his family and his brother, no matter what he says. If his brother spends the night with a friend, he wants to stay with mom and Dad. If his big brother sits with us in church he decides to sit with us too. Noah, has a tic disorder. More than likely Tourette's, but we don't know for sure. We don't medicate him, but he is on a high dosage of special vitamins that have been proven to help with Tics, OCD, ADHD disorders. He takes his doses like a champ. These are my goals for Noah:
Chloe, my 5 year old daughter is a sweet, stubborn, talkative in one volume (loud) little girl. Chloe is our nurse, waitress, server. When Daddy is sick, she is by his side caring for him the entire time. She likes helping momma most of the time. She is a great sisi to her little sister. She was a huge part of why her baby sister was potty trained as early as she was! My goals for Chloe are:
Cozette, my 2 year old baby girl. Lovely, beautiful, funny Cozi. She is her sister's shadow and loves her big brothers. My goals for Cozi:
So I've said I want to unschool. I've titled my blog GLOW which stands for God Leads Our Way. That is my heartfelt desire, is for us to follow God's plan each day. I have so many ideas, it will be hard. I will have to try very hard to listen to God's voice so I will know the direction for each day. Because my husband wants some "regular schooling" at this point, my plan for the day is like this:
I hope to update my blog daily with entries and pictures so that I can share with family and friends. Also I want to be able to see in another way what they are learning each day. |