Teacher of Two

Daddy understands better

So says my dd.  Today I stepped out to do some errands, and when I returned the kids were full of what Daddy was letting them do and what he promised them they could do later in the day.  They were having pizza rolls and soda, and had been promised computer time and that they could bring in their toys from the storage shed where they've been staying during the remodel.  I remarked that they probably wished Mommy would go away more often.  C said "Yeah."

Then later, as they were preparing to bring in the toys, I commented that it was a good thing they had asked Daddy, because I would have said not yet.  C remarked, "Yeah, Daddy understands better."

So yes, they are dragging in toys.  I'm trying to convince them to let some go.  Even with separate rooms now, they still have too much stuff to keep clean.  We are slowly getting things put away, too.  A local furniture store is closing, so we went last night hoping to find a bed for K.  No beds left, but we did get a couple of storage towers, one for the new bathroom and one for the office area, a couple of lamps, a nightstand for K and a dining room table and chairs.  It seats 6, but can expand to seat 10.  All for 50% or more off. 

Still a bit of touch-up painting to do in the kids rooms, still need curtains, and still need to outfit the master closet (which will probably wait for a couple of months.)  Other than that, it's just re-organizing.  I put up murals in the kids rooms earlier in the week - a princess castle for C and a dinosaur scene for K.  Hopefully I can post pictures before long. I'm glad it's over and I'm looking forward to getting back to a normal life. 

I spent last week at a mountain retreat, crafting with about 25 other women.  My sister was able to come too and I was able to get quite a few pages done, including last year's trip to South Dakota and some of the photos from our recent trip to Baltimore.  I'm sure that I wouldn't be so far behind if I scrapped more than once a year!  Hopefully I can get a bit more regular with this hobby in the new year.

Thanksgiving found us at my dad's ranch in SE NM.  I grew up there and always like going back.  He and his wife just celebrated their 20 year wedding anniversary, so we treated them to dinner in town.  My sister and her family came too, so the kids enjoyed playing together.  So Christmas we'll go to Santa Fe to be with dh's family and after Christmas, my mother and her husband and my brother and his family plan to come to Albuquerque for a belated celebration.

School has been "school-lite."  I'm not sure it will get better the rest of this semester or not!  Hopefully after the first of the year we'll be more targeted.  C turns 6 in a couple of weeks.  She has really taken off with her reading.  When dh worked at the county or when he traveled, she was always shy about reading to him.  But now that he's been home for a few weeks, she's chosen to read to him instead of me.  She's reading simple chapter books and doing well.  We use Math U See with her.  I find that the curriculum isn't the problem, it's her attitude.  Some days she gives a decent effort and other days, she'd rather just whine that "It's too hard..."  We're finishing up the primer level and will start Alpha soon.

K uses Saxon math.  We haven't drilled as much as we should to make the facts come quickly.  But he understands the processes, which I prefer rather than simply being able to recite the facts.  Speed will come.  He's doing multiplication and I remember not doing multiplication facts until 4th grade.  He's in 2nd, but doing Saxon 3.  Sometimes I still think about getting a packaged curriculum rather than Weaver, because I think it would be so much easier to teach.  But I really feel like Weaver is where God wants us right now, so to change would be disobedient.  I just need to be more diligent in my teaching.  When you think of me, would you pray for diligence on my part?  There's just always so much to do.  Between getting things back in order, helping out with the paperwork for hubby's business, laundry, etc. I seem to find too many things to do and not enough time or energy to complete it all.  Today, in addition to putting furniture back, laundry and doing my bi-monthly editorial project, I'm also stripping my daugher's dresser.  We picked it up at a yard sale a few years ago, and it's black with gold designs.  We plan to paint it either bright pink or bright yellow to coordinate with her room. 

OK, enough whining.  I hadn't posted in a while, so needed to get it all in.  Hope your Thanksgiving was special and that your December will be filled with wonder!

Hubby's home but he isn't

DH has been home this whole week - something that hasn't happened since August.  But now he's gone for the weekend, to a men's retreat in the mountains, sponsored by our church.  It's taken him a few days to unwind and get back into the groove of being at home, but the past couple of days, he's been well rested and we've gotten a bit of stuff done around here.  We moved our bedroom furniture into our new master bedroom yesterday, so I need to work in the room we vacated to make it ready for dd.  I hope to paint this weekend, as carpet is scheduled to be installed on the 24th.  Earlier in the week I was even able to unpack some Depression Glassware that belonged to my great-great grandmother.  I've never been able to have the full set on display, but can now with the new kitchen.  I'll try to post pictures soon.

My mother was in town the first part of the week.  She and the kids really enjoyed the time together.  She was a bit surprised at everything that goes into schooling for a day (and she caught us on a fairly typical day.)  We finished up our 10 commandment lapbooks and are now starting our history unit on Colonial America.  I've finally had a chance to plan out the topics and days.  I'm still adding resources and activities to round it out, but look forward to getting into this. Anyone have a good resource explaining the similarities and differences between the various religious groups that had a hand in the beginning of America?  Pilgrims, Puritans, Congregationalists, Quakers, Shakers and more!?

While Goggy (kiddos name for grandma) was here, they did their reading to her and played lots of games, including one we got at last weekend's library sale.  What a great sale!  $3 per bag, stuffed as full as you could get it!  I found several Eyewitness books and some that deal with the upcoming history unit.  I thought we had a field trip to a local museum with our co-op on Thursday and arrived there only to find I had missed it.  It was on Wednesday!  So instead, we took a field trip to the mall and helped Goggy shop for a purse.  Yeah, a tough school day. 

I'm not really satisfied with our school time this semester.  We've been so unstructured, missing days here and there.  So I'm thinking about what to do differently next semester.  I'm tempted to withdraw from co-op.  Though it's only a couple of days a month, I really feel like we could use the additional time at home.  Perhaps I'll just wait and see how next semester starts.  We should miss less days due to the remodel since it's almost complete.    We're hoping to have an open house in December as many have expressed an interest in seeing the finished project.

No more pancakes for dinner.

We put dh on a plane to TX today, for his last trip for a while.  When he comes home on Friday, he'll be home the rest of November if his schedule stays as it is currently.  He's traveled most of the last two months, so I didn't do much cooking.  With the kids and I we could get by on snacks, simple things and pancakes.  But that's not hubby's idea of dinner, so I need to spend some time this week planning a few meals for his return.

I'm glad he will get some time at home, and we don't anticipate such a long travel schedule again any time soon.  But I know it will take some adjustment on everyone's part.  Prior to his September travel, he was employed by the county.  Now he will be home with us during the day.  It will be all too easy to let school slide to spend time with him or work on the various projects we can do together.  I will need to be disciplined for both the kids and I to stick with a schedule, even if it's pretty loose.

Our contractor is officially done.  No, the house isn't finished yet, but it's down to what we need to do on our own.  This week we'll have carpet laid in the master bedroom.  Then paint and carpet in the kids rooms and we're done.  Even though that doesn't sound like much, it'll probably take a few weeks to finish it up.  Perhaps we'll be done by Thanksgiving.  DH will be gone one of those weekends to a men's retreat and I'll be gone for one weekend on an extended scrapbook-a-thon.  It's the one thing I do each year that's entirely just for me.  (OK, I'm sure I do things just for myself on a daily basis, but this is the one big thing!)  My sister and I do this together, along with another 30 or so women.  We rent a conference room at a Christian conference center in the mountains and scrap from about 7am to past midnight.  I just returned from Walgreens with over 400 pictures developed.  That should keep me busy for the weekend!

Blessings as you wind up your weekend.  Pray for our country and this election.  Then after the election - pray some more.  Huge challenges face our country, regardless of who the next president is.  Though I have my preferences, God is in charge and will still be on his throne on November 5.  Pray for our nation's morality, or lack thereof, our disregard for God and His standards, for the nation of Israel and that people will not vote solely based upon their pocketbooks, a temporal yardstick at best.  God help us be a nation that honors you through our actions and our lives, not simply through meaningless words that lack commitment and conviction, words that amount to taking your name in vain. We deserve such punishment, but I ask for continued grace and mercy. 

Let's try those photos again

 This is our work in progress after the first day.  We have since added pictures under number 1 and 2. 

 Here are our stamps.

 And a picture of my favorite toothless wonder.  Sister loves it when I call him Snagglepuss.

Need to Up My Average

We seem to be averaging one really good day of school per week.  Now we do "school" most other days as well.  They just aren't as productive and rich as I'd like.  Yesterday was a good day, but I'm thinking I can up the average to at least twice a week.  I don't think it will be today though, because errands are pressing against us - need to do some painting prior to carpets being installed in a few days.  We'll get some school work in this evening, though it won't be as in depth as I would like.

As for yesterday, we started a new unit in Weaver.  Our Bible studies will be about the Law, beginning with the 10 commandments.  At the same time, we will be studying the colonial period in America in depth (or at least in depth for a 2nd and K!)  So we began a lapbook of the 10 commandments.  I think it will be a great way for the kids to really learn them.  And we talked a bit about the Renaissance period which was when so much exploration took place.  We made potato stamps and used them to stamp the words "God" and "Man" on our lapbooks, so we can delineate between the 4 which deal with our relationship with God and the 6 that deal with our relationships with others.  The kids had a blast stamping their letters and making words.  "This is fun!" was an oft repeated phrase.

(I tried to insert photos, but don't seem to have the knack today!) 

We also got in all the other subjects, too.  K is on his last week of spelling with the Horizons grade 2 book.  I'm not planning to get another program, but want to just use words we encounter in our studies.  We're also using the Horizons phonics and reading for him.  The phonics exercises are too easy for him, but we do most of them to make sure I haven't missed anything.  This program also has him reading a 2nd grade level version of Robinson Crusoe.  K seems to be enjoying that. 

Blessings to you today.  We're off yet again to Home Depot.

 Robin

Are there any songs about Thursdays?

I can think of songs about Saturdays, Fridays, Sundays, Mondays, perhaps even something about Wednesdays.  But I have nothing for a Thursday.

We did a full day of school today, kind of a rare thing lately!  Last week when K was so full of questions, he asked how we know what the interior of the earth is like if we can't go there.  I happened upon an experiment which helped us visualize how scientists obtained their information.  (Thank you Janice Van Cleave!)  We did a couple of experiments.  First we dropped a coin into a big empty pot, trying to hit a square of duct tape on the bottom of the pot.  Then we added several inches of water, dropped the coin and saw that it reacted differently when it hit the water, and didn’t always land on the center of the tape.  Finally, we put corn syrup in the bottom of a jar, then added a layer of water.  When we dropped our coins, we observed the really different reaction when the coin hit the syrup.  All of this was to demonstrate how earthquake shocks reverbate in different ways depending on what obstacles they hit, and how scientists study those movements to gain information on the interior of the earth.

  Still too much on the "to-do" list.  I ordered carpet for the master bedroom today, shampooed the carpet in one of our apartments to get it ready to rent again and just finished putting the first coat of sealant on our tile countertops.  (I can't remember if the saying is "No rest for the wicked" or "No rest for the weary."  I'm trying to figure out which category I fall into!)  Tomorrow is full of errands - co-op in the morning, the dump, gravel pit and Home Depot in the afternoon, followed by an evening Bible study and picking up dh from the airport late at night.  Ugh! I'm tired just thinking about it!  So off to bed.  Good night and good dreams!

Robin

A Thing of Beauty

The first fire in our new fireplace - and what makes it even more special is that I started it myself since dh is traveling.

 We plan to paint the two walls on either side of the fireplace to bring in some of the colors in the rug and fireplace.  But it's not happening in the next few days - maybe in a few weeks.  We're down to most of the work that we need to do ourselves, so it's going slowly.  We're ready to put carpet in the master bedroom, but I should paint the window trim first so I don't make a mess on the carpet.   Once we lay the carpet in our bedroom, we'll finish up the kids rooms with paint and carpet and get them settled in their own rooms.  They've shared a room for almost 6 years now, C's whole life, and the real purpose of the remodel was to get them their own room.  All the other stuff was just gravy!

And one of the things I love about the new kitchen?  Enough space to have the kids cook with me.  Here they are making up a batch of what proved to be delicious chocolate chip muffins.

We have co-op on Friday and this time I'm responsible for a snack from Iran.  I took the easy way this time, and just went and bought something from the Middle Eastern market here in town.  I just wasn't up to experimenting. using up time that I don't really have to spare right now.

School has been good though still relaxed.  Yesterday we did our reading and social studies combined at McDonald's.  While there we read several books about thunder and lightning.  Still need to do a couple of experiments about earthquakes before moving on to our next unit.

Blessings to you

Real Learning

OK, though I've exclaimed over the joy I feel over being able to follow our intended schedule, today I intentionally threw it out the window.  I have neglected science and social studies recently, so today I wanted to focus on that.

We had handwriting practice and wrote in our journals.  K needs the practice, so I hate to let the journaling go.  Then we learned about the three layers of the earth, complete with coloring page.  (Thank you enchantedlearning.com.)  The earth's layers were the springboard into today's actual topic, earthquakes.  We read several books about them, but I made the mistake of mentioning that California has lots of earthquakes.  Dh is traveling in California so K became really concerned about dad's safety.

I've read about how Thomas Edison asked so many questions of his schoolteacher that the schoolteacher became exasperated with him and said he couldn't handle Edison.  At that, Edison's mother promptly took him out of school and facilitated his education herself.  K was like that today.  So many questions!  How do scientists know what the inside of the earth is like if no one has traveled there?  What was the name of the scientist who's dug the deepest into the earth?  I can't remember most of them, but he must have asked 50 questions.  It was fun to be a part of.  We don't get many questions when I focus on math and language!

The other day K asked me "What's the name of the mountain that's the biggest?"  "Mt. Everest," I replied.  "No," he said. "There's another one that's bigger."  Though I tried to set him straight he insisted, finally explaining that it was partly in the ocean, so it was taller than Mt. Everest, it just can't all be seen.  Google proved out what he was telling me.  Mt Kea near Hawaii is the tallest.  He said he learned that at co-op.  And I was concerned that he and C weren't learning anything at co-op!  Our next session is the 24th.  This time I need to bring food with an Iranian flare to it.  Suggestions are always welcome!

Reading time was also good today.  Misc. library books.  The kids played outside quite a bit as it was a gorgeous day.  I'm in the middle of my bi-monthly editorial project, so most everything else is suffering - meals, homemaking, schooling and more.

Dh comes home tomorrow for a couple of days.  The kids have missed him so.  I had hoped to have the house finished and restored before he came back, but it's not to be.  It's in God's timing rather than my own.

What's happening on the homefront

Hoorah for routine!  We're getting closer to sticking with the schedule I had planned out prior to the beginning of the school year.

This week we didn't have any exciting projects, but worked through our non-exciting lessons just the same.  Bible has Moses and the children of Israel at Mt. Sinai with God coming down on the mountain in smoke and fire, with thunder and lightning.  So this week we talked a bit more about mountains and learned about fire - three components needed for a fire, fire safety, benefits of fire to man, etc.  K will be finishing up his 2nd grade spelling workbook soon and then we'll probably not use a formal curriculum but just use words we encounter in our Weaver studies, using them for both spelling and vocabulary studies.  He continues to do well in math, though I haven't really worked with him on speed for various facts.  He understands the concepts, so I'm sure the speed will come in time.  C's "formal" studies consist primarily of phonics worksheets, working through The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, Math U See primer and sitting in our our social studies/science time.

Co-op was better this time.  K was healthy and the Russian snacks didn't give me nearly as much trouble as last session's Nepal snacks.  I made potato-zucchini fritters.  I'm still not sure the kids are learning as much in co-op as I had hoped, but we'll see how it plays out over the year.  Then in Keepers/Contenders we learned about trees and as a group planted a tree on our church campus.  This week we have a field trip scheduled to the Bosque (area along the Rio Grande) to see the trees and enjoy nature.  We've been sorely lacking in our home studies for Keepers badges so hopefully we can work on that this week before the field trip.

Dh is still traveling - in Sacramento and Stockton, CA these weeks.  I so appreciate the work God has given to him that allows me to be home with the kids.  Though we all miss each other, it still works reasonably well for our family.  We've had a couple of tight weeks waiting on receivables, but praise God, some came through this week.  One group that usually takes 45-90 days to pay paid within 2 weeks.  (I think that almost qualifies as a miracle!)

This week we finish up the current unit, taking a look at earthquakes, thunder and lighning as we continue to focus on Moses on the mountain.  Then the next unit focuses on the ten commandments, Tabernacle and books of law during Bible time.  Then during our social studies/history time we will be focusing on the beginning of our nation and the colonies.  This unit will take us at least 50 days to get through and possibly more.  This seems like such an important unit in our studies that I am praying to get it together and make it fun and memorable for the kids.  Any suggestions are welcome!

I pray you've found rest in this day of the Lord and that He is your strength and shield.

Not an intellectually stimulating post

I'd like to write one of those some day, but right now, time and attention limits steer me toward just posting an update of our family happenings.

Thank you to those who expressed concern about K's sick day.  Fortunately, it passed quickly.  Since then, we've continued to look like an unschooling family.  Hubby was home for a couple of days this week and we've continued to visit Home Depot and Lowe's regularly and I've been applying stain to the windows and doors in the new addition, so our schedule is still pretty lame.  But the plan is to get back on schedule tomorrow.  Our contractor is out of town this week on a cruise (pretty sure our remodel has helped make that possible!).  When he returns though, he only has a couple of days of work left doing detail work like door trim, patching a few drywall holes, installing door knobs, etc.  After he's finished we'll still have a few things to do on our own, but we're waiting on some of dh's business receivables to come through before we finish up.  Hopefully soon, but it's in God's hands.  I am able to start putting the house back in order, though and am looking forward to some much needed organization.

Once all is complete, I will post photos.

Dh is in Sacramento for the next couple of weeks.  The kids and I went to spend the afternoon with dh's family to celebrate his father's birthday.  It was draining - so much of the time was spent on politics, which for me leads to religion.  I vowed to keep my tongue today, and did a pretty good job of it.  There is a time to speak and a time to be silent and today was my day to be silent.  And the key verse on my mind is "In the multitude of words there is sin" or something like that.

K had his first flag football game yesterday.  He's playing in an Upward league http://www.upward.org/ which I had never heard of before this year.  Their emphasis is on character development rather than a "win at all costs" mentality.  I haven't researched thoroughly, but they appear to operate through churches and are high on parental involvement.  K will have memory verses to learn each week and they even gathered all the parents and players mid-field to pray together.  K doesn't really understand football yet, but he's learning as he goes.  They gave out stickers yesterday recognizing best offense, best defense, best effort, etc. yesterday and K received a sticker for Christ-likeness.  I had to call Dad and fill him in.  If our homeschooling has contributed in any way to that moment, then every bit of it is worth it.  Please don't look at me unfavorably for mentioning this recognition.  I know bragging is a sin (along with lots of other things I do) but there are so few people I can share this moment with that I thought I'd post it here.  Most friends and family just want to know who won or lost and did K get to hit anyone!

 Blessings to you and I pray your day of worship was a blessed one.