I can't believe I didn't mention her yesterday. She has been such a blessing to our family! I just love this baby girl SO much. She's always making us laugh and smile which is why I want to share this video of her. Watch for her famous cheesy smile at the end.
I don't blame you if you don't. It's been a while. Let's see if I can sum up the past few months in bullet points:
Our pastor and his wife left our church. They were the only reason we were still attending. They could use some prayers for healing in their marriage. We are now attending a home fellowship we sure enjoy.
We've been spending lots of time with some precious friends. We started hanging out with them in July (?). If a week goes by and we haven't done anything with them, we both hear it from our children. We are so thankful for them! We have a ton in common with them and every child has a buddy.
We finished up soccer in the fall and basketball season has begun. I kind of liked our Saturdays being free and not spending the day attending games- I think I enjoy watching my children play soccer more than basketball.
Millie turned 7 today.
The children will be singing in their second Christmas program tonight and have one more to go. Josiah's the youngest one up there. He said a verse he has memorized in front of everyone last time and says he wants to do it again.
Our Christmas tree resembles the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Gabe and Gracie chopped it down in our yard. It's a western red cedar and has about 7 branches, one of which Kenton had to tape back to the trunk. I love it.
My camera is gathering dust.
I still haven't finished Christmas shopping.
I didn't get Christmas cards out this year.
I haven't gotten a picture to use for December on the calendars I'm making as gifts.
We've been on field trips to a fish hatchery, gone on an underground tour of our town, and to a paint-your-own pottery store where the children made some cute mugs. They fire and glaze them. They look really nice!
We are on Christmas break for 3 weeks!
I would like to start blogging more again.
I hang out on Facebook far too much.
And that's all I can think of! Life's been super busy and some weeks it feels like we hardly get a chance to breathe! Most of it is good, fun stuff but sometimes life gets overwhelming too.
Until next time!
And now for the not-so-wordless part- I'm doing better! One post in August, two in September and this is my third this month! How about that!? I hope you all are enjoying your school year! We are!
I haven't done one of these posts in a while! I looked back and it's been about 1.5 years. Oh my! So here are more reasons why we homeschool.
12. You would miss out on your baby sister experimenting with crayons for the first time (and she would miss out on the cheers and encouragement of her siblings).
13. Because bonding moments with your baby sister normally would not occur during school hours.
14. Because you would not be home to see your dad bring home a 26 inch, 6.5 pound salmon before it was filleted if you were sitting in a school room all day.
So I am *finally* getting around to posting our schedule and the curriculum we're using this year. Our schedule looks pretty packed, however, I wanted to be sure we had enough time to get everything done so I overestimated a bit on the times. Most days Gabe, Gracie & Alek are done long before the schedule says they're supposed to be- and sometimes it takes them longer (usually that means it's been a bad day for us all). Millie and Josiah are almost always done before lunch. I do have the baby on our original schedule but really, we have to play what she does by ear. Some days she plays great in her playpen downstairs with us, some days she does fine wandering around the room with us, some days she hangs out with her dad, some days she watches a video (gasp!) upstairs in her Exersaucer (usually for the last 20-30 minutes before lunch).
Oh. And the "personal" time- HA! Just so you know, that was supposed to be a time I set aside for exercising. We are in our 7th week of school and I have yet to get my rear up any earlier than 8:30am. The fact that I'm getting up THAT early is miraculous as it is- earlier to EXERCISE!? What was I thinking. Good try, self.
And I need to add one more important bit of information- we only do a 4 day school schedule. Fridays are co-op days and most of the time, that's all we do for school. So if this seems like a jam-packed schedule, it kind of is- we're squeezing 5 days worth of work into 4 days.
So anyway, here's our schedule:
Time
Mom
Alek
Gracie
Gabriel
Emilia
Josiah
8:00am
personal time
reading
sleeping
sleeping
sleeping
sleeping
8:30
shower
reading
sleeping
sleeping
sleeping
sleeping
9:00
take care of baby
breakfast
breakfast
breakfast
breakfast
breakfast
9:30
breakfast
morning chores
morning chores
morning chores
morning chores
morning chores
10:00
family devotions
family devotions
family devotions
family devotions
family devotions
family devotions
10:30
exercise/scripture memory
exercise/scripture memory
exercise/scripture memory
exercise/scripture memory
exercise/scripture memory
exercise/scripture memory
11:00
Read to Josiah and Millie
Personal devotions
Personal devotions
Personal devotions
Mom reads aloud
Mom reads aloud
11:30
Read to Josiah and Millie
Total Language Plus (TLP)
Total Language Plus
Total Language Plus
Mom reads aloud
Mom reads aloud / reading lesson
12:00pm
Work w/ Josiah & Millie
TLP, IEW (writing)
TLP, IEW (writing)
TLP, IEW (writing)
workbooks- phonics, handwriting, math
math and handwriting
12:30
Help whoever needs it
IEW
IEW
IEW
spelling w/ mom, reading and personal devotions
free time, play with baby
1:00
Lunch
Lunch
Lunch
Lunch
Lunch
Lunch
1:30
Prep baby for nap
Latin
flashcards w/ Gabe, math
flashcards w/ Gracie, math
rest / quiet time
nap
2:00
Read aloud to Alek
Mom reads aloud
math
math
rest / quiet time
nap
2:30
Read aloud to Alek
Mom reads aloud
science/history
science/history
rest / quiet time
nap
3:00
Read aloud to Gabe & Gracie
Science
Mom reads aloud
Mom reads aloud
free time
nap
3:30
Read aloud to Gabe & Gracie
Science/Math
Mom reads aloud
Mom reads aloud
free time
free time
4:00
Work w/ Gabe
Math
reading
reading / work w/ mom
free time
free time
4:30
Work w/ Gracie (go over their work & correct w/ them)
History (timeline/map- not every day & doesn't take long)
work w/ mom
free time
free time
free time
And here's another chart that shows what each child is doing this year in each subject.
Read-n-Grow Picture Bible + read correlating story in bible / Right Choices (w/ mom during read-aloud time)
Right Choices (w/ mom during read-aloud time)
I LOVE having a schedule. For example, when the older 3 are doing their personal devotions/scripture memory time, I have them go off to 3 different spots in the house- Gracie to her room, Gabe to his and Alek to the living room upstairs. It's quiet for each of them and quiet for me & the littles as I read to them downstairs. Usually, they're done around the time I'm either done or in the middle of a reading lesson with Josiah.
At first, Alek did NOT like the idea that I was telling him when he could do each subject. Before, I let him pick & choose what he wanted to do and when. While that worked out okay, he didn't have the time accountability. I had a hard time keeping track of how long he was spending on his various subjects. Now if he's taking too long on something, I can see what he's supposed to be doing & help him out if he's stuck. He tends to just sit and stew about his work when he's stuck. Now even Alek will tell you he likes our schedule and is pleased with the way this school year is going. It also helped to see how much time he actually needed to finish up his work. Last year I think I expected a bit too much of him- I now see why he always took so long to get his work done- he had a lot to do! I gave him the option of a longer school day or getting up a bit earlier than everyone else and getting a head start on his work- he chose to get up early. He likes to have the house a bit to himself and having it quiet while he works anyway. He does have a heavy workload but he *is* in 7th grade now.
And so far, we all really like Total Language Plus. I'm pretty sure we'll be using it next year too. SO there you have it! And here's one post for the month!
Yikes. I can't believe I only blogged once in August. It's not that I didn't have anything to say, I just didn't have (or take?) the time to write anything.
We have completed our first week of school. It went well. I used MOTH (Managers of Their Homes) to come up with a pretty tight schedule this year. We all really needed this. I cannot stand getting up early but it's either that or do school till 7pm at night- no thanks. Even Alek, who initially complained about not being able to set the order for his day, admitted that he likes our schedule. Boy, are we busy though.
I will try to be better about updating my blog. I really want to type up what we're using this year (curriculum-wise). Not tonight though. I'm about ready for bed. I do, however, want to post some pics of my children. They are growing way too quickly!
Okay, I'm ready to publicly admit what this child's nickname is. Hoolie. Yep. Like the first part of her name (Juli)anna pronounced like the Spanish J, which sounds like an H. Hehe.
I'm posting this one for Cathy, if she stops by. Doesn't this remind you a bit of Abigail? Julianna was mad at me for putting my foot in front of the cabinet door. She would have liked to have emptied the whole thing. Mean mom. No, her fingers didn't get pinched.
Kenton repaired and painted an outbuilding the other day. Josiah "helped" with the painting. He even decorated our black lab with his handprint for us. We were so thankful.
Actually, here's Kenton's real helper- Gabe. He was out there working all day. This child is buffed.
And a few days before that, Kenton was up on the roof with the leaf blower and giving the roof an anti-moss treatment. You have to do that around here or your roof turns green. But I call this one, "Kenton with his head in the clouds."
Well, my fun's over. Need sleep. Must go to bed. G'night.
I got the children's ITBS test results back and there are some things I've been thinking about. If you have any thoughts, please share!
Want to share this first- Julianna enjoying a ride on the swing.
So these are my very random thoughts after looking over their test results. Alek's composite score went down a point; Gracie's went up one. While I'm not too terribly upset about Alek's score going down, looking at the specific results for each category has me wondering about a few things.
1. Alek's overall math score went down quite a bit- 10 percentile points, actually. Now there were a couple of things at play here. We knew about these things right after he took the test when we asked him how it went- it wasn't the score that prompted us to ask. First, on one section of his math test, he had written all of his answers in the wrong section and had to erase and transfer them to the right spot. Also, since he's been working so far ahead in math for so long, he said there was one part, estimating of all things, that he hasn't done in a long time & forgot how to do it. He did poorly on that section. (well, for him- he scored in the 70th percentile on that section) Also, he did not finish all of the questions like he normally does. I don't know if having to transfer his answers affected that. Also, I've read so many mixed reviews of Teaching Textbooks that I'm HOPING that using this curriculum is not the reason his score went down. But at the same time, I KNOW he's being challenged and learning a lot in math. So confused.
2. BOTH of the children did poorly in the capitalization section of the test. So hmmm... should I find some material for them to help them learn the rules of capitalization? They both scored above average (Gracie slightly; Alek WAY HIGH) in the language portion of the test. Capitalization was a weak point for both of them though.
3. I'm also concerned, and wondering how concerned I should be, when it comes to Gracie's ability to get the questions answered in a timely manner. In other words, how important do you think it is for a child to be able to finish all questions (or most anyway) in a timed test? At this age (to be in 5th grade)? Should I have her start working on it now? Worry later? Math is not her thing. Never has been, probably won't ever be. On any portion of the test that had math questions, she obviously slowed her pace WAY down. Out of 111 math related questions, she only answered 67 of them. And of course she didn't get all of those right. So I'm thinking of putting Gabe & Gracie together, working as partners, drilling each other on math facts using flash cards. I was having them do Quarter Mile Math but it'd be quicker just to whip out the flash cards. But as far as test taking speed- leave it alone for now? Work on timed test-taking skills?
4. When these types of questions pop up in my head, the first thing I ask myself is, "What do you think GOD wants you to do? Does He care if Gracie can do math problems within a specified time frame? What is His best for these children?" And really, I don't think there is a clear answer. In a way, I think, yes, I think God would like our children to be shining examples of the homeschool movement and to do our best in everything. But then I also think, no, I really don't think God cares about timed math test. I think He cares more about our character and THAT is where we should shine. I flip flop back and forth on this a lot.
5. Another thought. I just looked at Alek's math scores one more time. You know, he got 100% of the questions he answered CORRECT under "Math Computation". But he didn't answer 7 questions, so that brought his score down on that section. And on the "Concepts & Estimation" section, not counting the estimation subsection, he only got 2 problems wrong + didn't answer one question. On the estimation portion, the part he KNEW he didn't do as well on, he only answered 7 out of 10 questions and got 3 of those wrong. So really, I don't think I can blame Teaching Textbooks. He did quite well. He just needs to work on his speed & maybe we need to look over the typical scope & sequence for math for his grade level & see if there are any topics he needs to review at the end of each year so he doens't get stuck like that again. That was frustrating for my perfectionist child.
6. Maybe I shouldn't even read the test results.
7. If I do continue to read the test results, maybe I should avoid looking too much into them.
8. I also should avoid blogging in the daytime, when my thoughts are interrupted 4,367 times by young children. Maybe my posts would be more coherent. And the children would have my attention.
9. That is why most of my posts mainly contain photos. I don't have to do a lot of thinking posting a photo.
10. Amen.
I've enjoyed keeping up with my friends here- the back to school posts are exciting yet making me nervous as I am NOT READY to start school back up. We have thoroughly enjoyed this summer and I'm not ready for it to end. Mostly. Some days I AM ready for more structure to our days and getting back into a good routine. See? Flip. Flop. Hmm... flip flops. I want to go to the beach...
I love this picture of my 3 girlies taken at Lapush (or is it La Push or LaPush) beach in Forks, WA. It was my baby girl's first time @ the Pacific Ocean and she was concentrating on walking in that sand much to my older girls' amusement.
My parents had taken my oldest 5 children overnight for a couple of nights, leaving just hubby & I and our sweet baby girl to ourselves. We enjoyed the time we had together but missed the older children lots! As soon as my parents brought the children home we took off for the beach. That was the longest the girls had been away from their baby sister and they sure missed her (and she them!). They made up for lost time hanging out and playing with her on the beach.
We were a little disappointed that we left a warm, sunny home to end up at a cold, foggy beach, but I sure love the ethereal look it gave the photos. (more below)
Be sure to head on over to www.iheartfaces.com to check out all of the beautiful face entries this week!
We are having such a great summer! This last Saturday we spent the day at the Pacific Ocean with both sets of parents. We have so many great beaches around here- but this one is only just over an hour away, I can't believe we haven't spent more time there! I think that will change. This was Julianna's first visit to the *real* ocean. She loved it!
When we left our house, it was warm and sunny and when we got to the beach, it was overcast, cold & foggy. Oh well, we still enjoyed it.
I can't believe July's almost over. Our plan is to start school back up August 31st, but I don't even want to *think* about school yet! I'm so not ready to start. Like I said, we are enjoying our summer! I do plan to (someday) write up a post about what curriculum we're going to be using next year. As school approaches, I'm a little worried about what I'm getting myself into.
Anyway, here are some pics from our day at the beach. Argh! They're in reverse order. Oh well. This first one is my fave. My oldest 5 had just spent two nights with my parents before they arrived home to take off for the beach. They missed Julianna! (and Kenton & I had a great time w/ just one child for a couple of days- my house even STAYED CLEAN... until they got home!)
I realize I'm not a *real* blogger if I don't actually write something every now & then (instead of just posting pictures), but hey. Right now, it's this or nothin'. So for your viewing pleasure, a very cute baby girl and her birthday cake.
What do you get when you have 3 boys (who should be sleeping), a camera with video recording capabilities, a flashlight and a CD player, all in the same room?
Alek (age 12): Kenton Russell **BLEEP** (edited for internet privacy- they all got this right)
Gracie (age 9): Kenton Russell **
Gabriel (age 8): Um, Kenton Russell **
Emilia (age 6): Um, Kenton Russell **. Right?
Josiah (age 4): *shrugs shoulders* <You don’t know what your dad’s name is?> *shakes head* < Is it Fred Flinstone?> *nods head*< next question>
How old is he?
A: Thirty-seven. Well, last time I heard he was 37. Oh, yeah! The last birthday card you gave him had all sorts of 37’s written all over the envelope & I remember you put somewhere on there something about rubbing it in. I even helped you put Latin words... < okay, that’s enough, moving on>
Gr: Thirty-uh-seven.
Ga: Thirty-seven years old.
E: Sixty-two. Right? < me laughing>< Sixty-two!?are you sure?> No. I’m not. Sixty-one?
J: Seventeen. < yes, I’m robbing the cradle.the only thing right about that is he was 17 when we started dating>
What does your dad do for a living? What do ____ do?
A: He works as a nurse at the hospital and of course he works as our dad. I’m not good at explaining at what nurses do but all I can say is they are similar to doctors. Nurses help the patients and help the doctors. I don’t know. I’ve never actually been with dad when he was working.
Gr: Works. <doing what? is he a mechanic?> Nooooo! He’s a doctor. A nurse. Nurse. <what do nurses do?> He makes sure that they don’t die by watching them. <just by watching them, huh? if it were only that easy hehe>
Ga: He works to get money. <what does he do at work?> He’s a registered nurse. He watches people’s hearts beating on a computer and helps sick people by giving them medicine and gives them food and water every day. < that’s great that he feeds and waters them every day. Sorta sounds like one of your chores…>
E: Hm. A parent? I have no idea. < dad’s in trouble if that’s his job when he leaves you guys…BIG trouble… hehe>
J: I don’t know. < does he work on a ferry boat?> *shakes head* < what does he do?> He works on the minivan. < when he goes to work, that’s what he does? Works on our minivan?> *nods head* At nights he does. < okay….>
What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy?
A: Well, there are a lot of things I like doing with him. I like going on bike rides and fishing trips with him.
Gr: Play softball with him.
Ga: Work outside. < not a surprising answer from Gabe>
E: Go to Disneyland and DisneyWorld and the fair. < side note: we have never been to DisneyWorld. Ever.>
J: Eat chicken nuggets with him. < yeah, that ranks up there in my top 10 , too…>
What is something cool that your dad has taught you about?
A: He taught me how to fish and how to ride my bike.
Gr: How to play softball. He showed me where you should be standing in the outfield.
Ga: How to run fast. He said to just look straight where you’re going.
E: He taught me about animals and platypuses and all that stuff in school.
J: Spikey hair. < okay…earth to Josiah. Come in, Josiah..>
How do you know that your dad loves you?
A: If he didn’t love me, he probably wouldn’t do many fun things with me at all and he probably wouldn’t care very much what happened to us.
Gr: Because he shows it by taking care of us and spending time with us.
Ga: Because of how he teaches me and what he teaches me. Like what? How to catch things and how to work outside.
E: Because he always gives me food like donuts and clothing and he smiles at me and he let’s us go on walks. That’s why. < food + Millie= love. Smiles at us… that made ME smile>
J: Cuz he’s my dad. Cuz he likes me.
When you grow up, do you want to be like your dad? Why?
A: Yes, in quite a few ways. < what ways?>Well, like I said earlier, nurses are kind of like doctors and I want to be a missionary doctor so I’d have to know a lot of the things he knows. And I also want to be like him in how good he actually is. I’ve never seen him do bad things like saying bad words. But instead of staying in one place like he does, I’d like to get out all over the world so I can be a missionary and preach. And I’d like to invent a few things too.
Gr: Maybe. < why “maybe”?>Because I might be a nurse… but he works nights.
Ga: Yes. Because I want to work with him. < yep, Gabe wants to be a nurse just so he can work with his dad. His hero. Love it.>
E: No. Because I want to be… I mean, yes. So I can get some money and so I could get some food for us and if someone else is poor I can give them some food too. That’s why I want to work a lot. So I can get some money.
J: Yeah. Cuz he goes to work. Nothing else.
What makes your dad happy?
A: One thing that would make him happy is if I immediately do the things he asks me to. Another thing that makes him happy is when we buy gifts for him, with our own money especially.
Gr: When we give him gifts like games.
Ga: Julianna. < smile. So true>
E: When I do what he says and when I give him some surprises and then he kind of laughs and that’s how I make him be happy.
J: Me doing chores and stuff like I should do.
What’s your dad’s favorite thing to eat?
A: Well, I don’t know his favorite but I know he likes spaghetti, beef jerky, bacon, blueberries, chili and eggs. < best answer to this question goes to? ALEK!>
Gr: Cheese. < cheese?>
Ga: Probably hamburgers.
E: Probably that stuff that we had yesterday- those sausages.
J: Cheese-booger. Actually, not a booger. Uh cheese…. What? I don’t know. A double bacon cheeseburger. < I’m glad you clarified that>
What is something your dad always says to you?
A: These are the 3 words I hear him say the most: yes, no and goodbye. < laughing! yes, he’s a man of many words>
Gr: Goodnight.
Ga: Be careful! < especially to you, you little daredevil!>
E: In the mornings when I eat dad says, get to work! < oh my, I think I’m going to have to have a talk with him!>
J: Get to work! < me laughing, because I’m not sure Kenton has ever said this to him> That’s it! That’s all the words!
It's Show & Tell Friday! Be sure to visit Mary's blog for more great Show & Tell's!
I actually have something to share today! Several days ago, I made the girls matching 4th of July jumpers. Well, except Julianna. I purchased a dress for her on Etsy. Since her birthday is on the 4th of July, I wanted something a little extra special. The Etsy seller did an awesome job and I am very pleased. But you'll have to wait till I get pictures of Julianna in it before you get to see her dress. :)
I don't have a sewing room or any kind of room that I can leave things like my sewing machine out and ready to go. It's a bit of a pain to start a sewing project since I have to drag everything out and set it up. And I usually have to get out my manual and figure out how things go since so much time elapses between projects. So Millie's dress took a LONG time to complete. I probably worked 12 hours on her dress. (argh!) I sewed Gracie's the next day and because I had left everything out and I was familiar with the pattern by that time, it only took 6 hours to sew Gracie's. I wish I was the type that could just whip something like this out in an hour or two. But nope.
I also crocheted some beads onto socks for Julianna. Those took about an hour to do.
Here are the girls' dresses. I just loved the fabric but it ended up being tricky to cut the pattern out since it can only go in one direction.
(they've been on my dresser! I should've ironed them before I took these pics!)
And here are Julianna's socks!
Thanks for stopping by!
(added for Mary :) How To Make Beaded Socks
This is the only thing I know how to crochet so my directions may not be super clear. If you don't know how to crochet at all, you don't need to know a whole lot to make these socks. They are super easy! Believe me, if I can make these, you can too! Here's a video on YouTube that explains how to make a chain: http://tinyurl.com/nynmkh Here's what you need:
a pair of socks with a ribbed cuff (obviously :)
crochet thread or a very thin yarn (thin enough to slide beads onto)
beads
crochet hook
hot glue gun (optional)
Here's what to do:
The first thing you need to do is pull a long piece of the yarn or thread from the skein (do not cut it!) and string your beads. You'll need at least 30 beads. I used 33 beads and these socks are size 18 months. You want to err on the side of having too many rather than too few, because you'll have to cut your yarn/thread to add some more if you run out.
Next, make a slip knot onto your crochet hook. (like she does at the beginning of the video above)
Leave your sock the way it would look if you were wearing it, right side out with the cuff folded down. Starting at the back of the sock, slip your crochet needle with the slip knot attached behind the cuff (so that you won't see the knot) & poke your needle through the cuff and away from the sock about 1/8 to 1/4" above the edge of the cuff.
Begin the basic chains from there. I did 2 chains down, slide up a bead, 2 more chains, slide up another bead, two more chains, slide up another bead, two more chains and then repeat the part where you poke the needle through the rib of the sock (from behind the cuff, away from the sock). I counted 3 ribs in between to make it even. You can vary the number of beads per loop, chains, etc.
When you get all the way around the sock, you have to knot it off. I cannot explain how I do this very well and I don't even know if I'm doing it right. But I cut the thread/yarn, poke it through the cuff so that the knot is not visible, slide the yarn through the slip knot and then knot it a couple more times with the tail end of the beginning stitch. Here you can hot glue the knots to make them more secure (we don't want babies pulling off the beads and putting them in their mouths!).
I love this picture of my 3 girlies taken at Lapush (or is it La Push or LaPush) beach in Forks, WA. It was my baby girl's first time @ the Pacific Ocean and she was concentrating on walking in that sand much to my older girls' amusement. 
