I'm a Christian home-school mom of five children ages 9 and under. I feel very blessed to have a wonderful husband and five beautiful children. For our 3rd and 4th graders I use Rod and Staff, Sequential Spelling, Saxon Math, and Math-U-See. For our Kindergartner we use My Father's World curricula. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Thu, 26 Nov 2009 21:30:00 -0600 Thu, 26 Nov 2009 21:30:00 -0600 Today was Thanksgiving. My husband had the day off and the kids loved having their dad here to play with and talk to. We have a lot to be thankful for. We have the Lord, each other and most of our needs met. Its always good to give thanks and consider the many blessings in this life. I am sure many would agree. I wanted to ask for continued prayer if you think of us. We certainly need it. We have been through a lot in the last month illness wise and felt we were over it 2+ weeks ago but I was mistaken. Times like this I think of Job, he suffered and kept going. He cried out to the Lord and was blessed in the end. It's a hard section of Bible for me to read. I am learning a new appreciation for Job and I've gone through so much less than he did. Yet God still loves me even when I am going through the fire. That is something I need to remember. God's allowance for my sufferings does not reflect his love (or lack of) for me. He is allowing these trials for a reason. Do I trust him to get me through it? This particular trial that we are going through has been and may continue to be long and drawn out and in many ways secludes us from others and wears me down. But again, Job understood this better than any other man in the Bible. He stood the test. I hope to grow through this trial and be thankful. I already am thankful for the small improvement I've seen in our 1 1/2 year old. None of us know what is to come, what the future holds. But I need to purpose to be thankful in the midst of my trials. I admit I failed miserably today and didn't act thankful on this day that we are supposed to be reflecting on the blessings that God has poured upon us. I feel chastened and need to seek the Lord in how to change my attitude at times when I am not handling stress how the Lord would want me to. On that note I'll finish with saying that I'm thankful for a forgiving and loving family. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/747793/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 21:30:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/747793/ Yesterday we went on a mini-field trip near the airport to look at airplanes. Often there are large airplanes landing overhead but there weren't this day. We still were able to see the ones parked outside from a distance. Our 8 year old who seems to have a mind for Science asked all of the questions about how and why airplanes can make it off the ground. I was able to ask a dear friend with a background in this area and she was able to help explain it. Also their dad wrote up an illustration this morning about lift, drag and air molecules...which was interesting but where he lost me. I was making french toast and busy in the kitchen and listened on. We have read a lot about the Wright brothers and their discoveries as well as visited some of the museums that help explain this but I guess something just clicked for our 8 year old and he's starting to see things a little more clearly and is increasing in his understanding as all children will do. Good thing his dad is a physicist because I would have to lean heavily on educational videos and books otherwise! Our one and a half year old decided to play train this morning while the rest of us were sweeping the floor. I thought it was a cute picture and wanted to share. My poor little sweetie has been sick for several weeks now and it's nice to see her playing joyfully despite the coughing fits she still suffers from. I'm giving her bovine colostrum to help her heal and strengthen her immune system. We're also running the vaporizers a lot. Choo-choo http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/745891/ Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/745891/ I completed my jumper which came out very well I think. I have decided to sell it and start new because of my shape and size which is somewhat hard to fit. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/744829/ Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:37:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/744829/ Sewing: Three free hours with our toddler down for a nap and a burst of sunshine coming in the window really motivated me to get sewing. I really don't enjoy sewing but I like the projects I get when I'm done. Don't get me wrong I love to work. I'm strange to some people in that I do like to clean and keep up with laundry though these thing certainly get away from me at times! I'm sure there are other moms out there like that and I am no where near perfect nor wish to appear that I think so! But I think we all have our things we like and don't like. Sewing is something I don't really like as I mentioned but mainly because I don't feel successful at it. It takes a lot of trial and error and there are a lot of trade secrets that just don't come naturally. When I got married and started having children I was convicted about clothing and what the Lord wanted me to wear I realized then I would need to learn to sew. It was and still is very hard to find good clothing especially in our modern culture and especially for girls past size 6! I know some moms find great things at the thrift store and I have found some, it's a lot cheaper this way if you can! I still mainly do buy store bought clothing, as you can see but I like to make some things. Plus my oldest now has an affinity for very old fashioned clothing and to admit so do I. It will be some time before I can make some of the outfits we both would like. But it's fun dreaming. I can make skirts, aprons, pajamas, girl's dresses (with some time) and have tried my hand at a few other things like this handbag and have some experience but am no expert by any far stretch of the word. My daughter helped cut this bag out and I put it together yesterday. It turned out nicely. It's going to be a bag for a friend's daughter at church next month on her birthday. My daughter asked me 6 months ago to make this and I'm finally getting around to it. I've also been working on a jumper the last couple of days. I'm hoping to have it completed within the next 2. The bottom is together. The darts are put in on the back. Dresses are hard only because they RARELY fit like you want! I also evidently have a unique shape to the sewing world and if I ever develop an expertise to sewing I would modify the pattern to fit my figure more nicely. I am hoping that despite all of this my new jumper will fit, even if like a tent, lol. Really it's a maternity jumper. We'll see! It's a light weight cotton but will layer nicely I hope. Like the color? http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/742236/ Thu, 5 Nov 2009 04:08:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/742236/ First child had a fever on Monday. He was better Tuesday morning, no symptoms. Second child got sick on Thursday and the first child followed suit and were both sick from Thursday until Saturday. The a couple of days later our Third and Fourth child got sick. They were better within two days. Now this morning our 17 month old wakes up with a fever and vomiting. Not fun. I'm ready to have this over with. In general our kids don't ALL get sick. I'm the only one who really didn't get it. I wonder...could it be the 5000 I.U.'s of D3 I've been taking? I hope so. What ever the reason, I praise the Lord that I am not sick. I think he miraculously protected me because of my pregnancy. I haven't mentioned it before on my blog so there I said it. My due date is May 14, 2010....Lord willing! I'm 12 weeks and a four days. So I'm ready to get back on schedule next week likely on Tuesday. I wonder if I should start having a plan for when the kids get sick? I do allow the sick children a DVD video in bed that we have from our collection or if we have one from the library. We also read and sometimes do a little school depending on how they're feeling. But if I have a plan when the children get sick things might go more smoothly when we do start back? I mean almost treat it like a vacation. We've done more than half of our school this week but will admit to wanting to take a day off today to rest! I'm tired and my poor little girl is not well. I did take time to try finishing up a gift that I'm sewing for my daughter's friend and then hopefully finish up a jumper that I'm making for myself. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/741765/ Tue, 3 Nov 2009 12:41:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/741765/ I just ran across a neat resource by "The Discovery Channel" online. They offer how things work videos like how a pencils are made, why fireworks work, how binoculars work, etc. Enjoy! ***I do want to add that a friend said that there is now a video clip on there prior to watching about a scary movie. I am sorry. Please just mute your computer or walk away for a few minutes until the video loads. I didn't see this when I originally posted the link. *** How Stuff Works Videos http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/737435/ Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:22:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/737435/ I've been working hard at involving the younger ones into my daily schedule but admit I could do more. Our (almost) 17 month old loves to help with unloading the dishwasher, sweeping and carrying things around (rearranging) often as most little ones do. Here she is helping me clean up after I made a birthday cake. Not exactly the spot I want her *IN* my dishwasher, but hey she is helping! Never mind the butter cream frosting on her upper lip and the fact that her leggings were already removed probably because the cake was just too good and went everywhere despite a bib. A few years ago I heard the wise saying that "play is practice for the future" which motivates me to involve the children when I can. My goal over the next year is to have the children help me with kitchen prep more. For Kindergarden and preschool we don't spend a lot of time doing seat work, maybe 20 minutes each day. My Kindergardener does a worksheet that we get in "My Father's World" and does some letter recognition, hand's on learning like play-dough letters or other activity, usually suggested by the manual. We also go over a Bible theme that they have suggested and do Bible reading and Bible memory with the older children. For Preschool I really like Rod & Staff preschool books and Kumon workbooks when we have them. We seem to go through those very quickly. A big part of our schooling at this age is reading books which sometimes the older two can do for reading credit. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/736969/ Sat, 17 Oct 2009 15:06:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/736969/ All children enjoy making crafts. It's messy and gets your creative juices flowing. My children especially love to make cards for other people. We haven't always been consistent at having cards available but I really would like to change that. Some of you may know that I used to be a Stampin' Up Demonstrator many years ago so I have ample amount of stamps and supplies in my craft closet. Since the paper is expensive I use the card stock for my cards and my oldest daughter. I give the younger children pieces I have left, computer paper, or have them use construction paper because they don't mind and they like to use up more paper making their own special creation. You press firmly but don't rock it or you'll get a blurry image. Our oldest made these A few of my daughter's and a few of mine on the right http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/735077/ Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:15:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/735077/ We went to a local farm last weekend that processes sorghum. It was a pleasant day outside with a lot of things to see. We were only there for a little over an hour but that seemed to be plenty of time to look around. There were actors dressed in period clothing showing us the various skills each one had. The first one we stopped at was a woodworker's shop. He wrote each of the children's names on a piece of wood and then sliced a shaving off for them to keep. It wrapped nicely around their wrists. I thought that was very creative. Then we moved on to where some workers were cooking beans which they did in an enormous cauldron over an open fire pit. They let the children stir the beans that they slowly cooked this way. We didn't try them but they smelled great. It made me want to try cooking beans over a fire. They had someone shave ice to make icee's that they added a sugar flavoring with color to. The ice (in the 1800's) originally came from the lake (not very hygienic)! There were young ladies churning butter while another woman was showing how to work a telegraph. They even had our two oldest try their hand at sending one. Here they let the children put a stalk of sorghum into their machine that presses the juices. They later boil the juices down to make the finished product which you could buy for $4 a quart which were obviously modern prices. There was an area where they displayed their goods that they made throughout the season. Here there was a cider press that our son is very curiously examining. They gave us a sample of cider as well. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/733102/ Sun, 4 Oct 2009 09:49:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/733102/ I'm noticing a pattern with my children and milestones. They all of course have them but now that I have several children who are over certain ages I can see similarities with specific ages. Our oldest son is going to be 8 in a few days. He has also been reading for a couple of years but wasn't really very captivated by books with much content. The last few days he's been picking up books with more meat to them and I am very happy about that! We had him in Kumon to help him with comprehension. He was in that for almost 6 months until we pulled him out a little over a month ago. I don't know how much that helped it did seem to give him a leg-up. But recently something clicked and I can't help but think it has more to do with his age and development than it did anything else. Our oldest did the same thing with reading. It didn't really click until she was 8. Now she is an avid reader and will read books that many older children would find boring. She will easily devour a book in a day. Joyfully I can say that she also enjoys reading God's Word and has told me that her favorite book is Revelations. So mothers don't be discouraged if you have a late-reader and they are otherwise on-track. Wait until the age of 8 and see how they progress. Chances are they may just surprise you by picking up a book and never putting it down. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/726603/ Sun, 13 Sep 2009 19:41:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/stillearning/726603/