Mar. 5, 2008 - Wordless Wednesday

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Mar. 1, 2008 - The Seven Silly Eaters

I recently read this to my kids:

I LOVED this book. It's the story of a family as it progresses through the years. In time, seven children are welcomed into the family, and each addition is picky about food in some way. One will only drink homemade pink lemonade, another only likes applesauce, etc. In the end, the children's differences bring about a wonderful birthday surprise for their hardworking mother. We enjoyed the illustrations and the beautiful ending to this book, but what I liked most was the fact that this story actually celebrates the joys of having a large family! The mother's love for each of her children is touching. She spends a great deal of time preparing certain foods for each one. In the end we witness how very special and important each child is to the family as a whole and what their mother's love has done to shape them as human beings. We will be borrowing this one from the library again!

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Mar. 1, 2008 - Updates on the pumpkins

Just some updates on the kids:

Jonah is 11 months old now. He'll be one in just a few short weeks! Yikes, I don't know where the past year went! He is standing well on his own for long stretches of time and has even taken a few wobbly steps here and there. He is so proud of himself when he does this. When he gets into a standing position all by himself, he always makes sure his "audience" is paying attention. The kids love to praise and admire him! It is such a beautiful thing to witness :) Jonah says "hi" and waves, but that is his only word so far. He is beginning to understand more and more words, however. For instance, he will find a ball on the floor when I ask him to, and splashes in the tub when I ask him to show me the water. He knows the words "baby" and "puppy" as well. I hope to give him a "Froggy" themed birthday party.

Elijah is my wild, expressive, emotional, funny little boy.  He is rowdy and boisterous one moment, charming and lovable the next! But I wouldn't want him any other way! He finally has the attention span to sit still and listen to stories. In fact, it is hard getting him to bed now because he just wants to keep listening to books! I know it has improved his vocabulary and helped inspire his imagination. I often overhear him acting out different stories he's heard with his toys. He loves to talk about the "gruffalo" from the book by Julia Donaldson. He even remembers and repeats the descriptions from the book (like the sharp, purple prickles). I have started the Letter of the Week preparatory curriculum with him. This past week we read lots of books about cows, did a cow craft, started a number book, learned the letter A (I put up an A poster and also did some fingerpainting with him), and had "cow spot icecream" (chocolate chip, LOL).

I am wondering if Elijah has eczema. When he was a baby, he would sometimes get red, blotchy patches on his face and bumps on his upper arms. This went away for a long time. Occassionally it comes back, however. I honestly don't know much about eczema at all, but I've heard it can be caused by food allergies. I took him off cow's milk for a long time and he never had any break-outs during that time (he was drinking only soy). Recently I tried the cow's milk again and his face was red and blotchy for about a week. So it certainly seems like the milk was the culprit, but I'm going to keep a close eye on his diet and watch his skin for any changes. In the meantime, I'll be doing some research on eczema.

Savannah enjoys helping me teach Elijah. She is a fantastic reader, but also a superb storyteller. She puts more passion and enthusiasm into her reading than most adults! Honestly, she understands that different characters speak differently and seems to enjoy giving them individual voices. She adds emphasis in the right areas and builds suspense when it's called for. 

Savannah turned five in November. She loves her fish and her hermit crabs. I wish I could give her a farm to grow up on! I always dream of owning dogs and cats and other critters. Unfortunately it isn't possible for us right now because we live in the city and are very cramped already. Cats would be OK, but my husband is allergic to them :( I do miss having animals in my life.

Noah is seven now! He is such a big help to me and always looking out for the younger kids. It is nice that I can trust him to keep an eye on the baby while I run downstairs to do the laundry or dash outside to check the mail. And I know it gives him a feeling of accomplishment.

Noah is reading Stuart Little right now. He does about two chapters a day - one out loud during school time, and another on his own before bed. He still gets stuck on words, but is really doing so well with it! He is also enjoying the High Rise Private Eyes series by Cynthia Rylant. 

Noah is finishing up Spelling Workout A. I hope to get him and Savannah started on Book B in a few weeks. I haven't given Savannah any of the work pages from Book A, but she picked up the words anyway (and mastered them!) Spelling is SO much harder for Noah. I don't know why. Savannah just seems to have an intuitive sense of phonetical rules and also seems to have memorized many words just from being an avid reader. Right now I'm concentrating on Noah's trouble words from the first book. I wrote down some funny sentences made up of words with the same letter sounds in them to help him. Like this: "Wow! How did you get down from the brown cow?" That is helping a little :) It's frustrating because he often seems to have mastered a word, but later forgets it. I'm not sure what to do about this, other than constant practice.

For writing I have been using ideas from About the Authors: Writing Workshop with our youngest writers by Lisa Cleaveland and Katie Wood Ray. Basically I use children's books to teach the kids about punctuation, capitalization, sentence structure, descriptive words, story structure, etc. Then the kids go off to make their own books! It has been a lot of fun. They are beginning to pick up on lots of the clever things they see "real authors" doing in their books, like using repeating lines and so many other things. They are trying different types of punctuation and different patterns for their own books. Noah and Savannah also do copywork and lessons from A Reason for Handwriting.

Noah is almost done with the first grade half of First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind. So we'll be doing lots of review and refresher lessons for the rest of the year. I think I'll have him spend more time perfecting the poetry memorization so he becomes good at reciting them. And maybe I'll come up with some lessons of my own here and there.

Math and Science are going well. Math has always been a breeze for Noah, which is a relief to me! I'm still very happy with Saxon, although I haven't found it necessary to review as much as the book requires.

I'm enjoying Story of the World so much and Noah is getting better and better at doing narrations. We just finished learning about Athens and Sparta. On Friday we read about the Trojan Horse. Noah really loved hearing Homer's story about Odysseus and the Cyclops a few weeks ago, and was excited to learn that Odysseus also came up with the idea of the wooden horse. So we did the Greek paper dolls from the book and Noah decided that one of his would be Odysseus. Savannah made hers into Helen of Troy :)

Well, those are my updates. Hope it won't be so long between posts next time!

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Feb. 29, 2008 - A conversation between brothers

A few mornings ago I overheard this conversation between Noah (7) and Elijah (2).

Elijah: I'm a big boy now.

Noah: I know, Elijah.

Elijah: We're both big boys, Noah. We're two big men!

Noah: Yup.

There was a slight pause during which Elijah seemed to be pondering something. He then continued.

Elijah: But, Noah, we don't have facial hair yet. We're two big men...but we don't have facial hair!

Oh, my goodness, I laughed so hard. Now before you give me credit for actually teaching my two-year-old what facial hair is, let me explain. Or maybe I don't have to. If any of you have kids who have seen the SpongeBob Squarepants movie, then you probably already undestand what I'm talking about. There is a scene in which SpongeBob and Patrick (the starfish) sing a song about becoming "men" and "growing facial hair."

Anyway, that reminds me of another story...

A few summers ago, after my older two had seen the SpongeBob movie for the first time, they remembered the name David Hasselhoff and insisted on repeating it to each other all the time (guess they just thought it was a funny name). I remember being at the playground and getting strange looks from people because my kids were running around saying "David Hasselhoff" over and over again. I'm pretty sure the other parents thought I was an obsessed fan or something.

T.V. sure makes us all a little wacky sometimes.

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Oct. 5, 2007 - My poor Elijah

 This is what happened to my Elijah on Thursday :(

I was in the kitchen when I heard a loud whack. I rushed into the living room to find him face down on the floor, screaming. Apparently he tripped over something and hit his forehead on our rolling office chair. My poor baby boy  He ended up needing a couple of stitches. He's doing OK now, but I have a feeling this was only the first of many trips to the ER for my little warrior. I'm sure he'll be comparing scars with his brothers in a few years while I'm busy pulling gray hairs off my head...

We actually had just finished up our morning session of school when it happened, so we only missed Science on Thursday afternoon. Today I let the kids do "school" in the living room with lots of pillows and blankets piled up on the floor :) Elijah just made puzzles and played with his cars while I worked with the older kids. So it was very cozy and laid-back...I love doing school that way! 

Noah and Savannah really liked History today; we learned about Egyptian pyramids and the Great Sphinx. They both did great concentrating and seemed to absorb everything I read to them. I asked them why they thought the Egyptians built dead-end paths in the pyramid (to confuse would-be thieves) and Savannah suggested this right away! I was so proud of her for figuring that out...I think Noah was a little resentful, lol :) But maybe it will motivate him to listen as well as she does. Next week we'll be making a sugar-cube pyramid. I just know they'll love this project.

Here's a happy picture to make up for the first one. It's my smallest pumpkin, Jonah, laughing his head off over something silly that Savannah did.

• 7 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Oct. 2, 2007 - Time to Blog?

I haven't blogged in almost a week. I've been trying to get a lot of random stuff done around the house. I honestly don't know how you all find the time to blog at all, especially those of you who have more little ones than me! At least five times a day I'll think of something interesting or otherwise worthwhile that I want to blog about, but when 8:00 rolls around and everyone's in bed, what do I do? I sit on my butt and read other people's blogs instead :)

So here's a list of some of the projects I've managed to complete in the past week:

1. Finally printed a lot of family pictures and put them up in frames. Jonah is 6 months old now and I didn't even have any photos of him up around the house yet!

2. Brought down all Fall/Winter clothes and jackets from the attic. Washed them. Even got everything put away in appropriate dressers.

3. Cleaned out back hallway where a lot of junk tends to accumulate. Plenty of room now for the air conditioners when hubby packs them away for the season...hopefully he'll decide to do this sometime before Christmas.

And what I have left to do:

1. Clean out my fridge!

2. Clean/organize entire computer area and THROW STUFF AWAY. I hate clutter! My husband has a hard time throwing away Burger King receipts from 4 years ago. We will never see eye to eye in the clutter department. So I'll be tackling this scary mess all by myself sometime this weekend.

3. Wash the tub.

In other news, it's been about a month since we started the new school year and I'm just now getting back into my groove. We had a few rough spots; I think I'm slowly learning that if I can keep my emotions under control and remain calm, the kids will respond much better. I certainly can't predict or prevent every little interruption, meltdown, or bad mood, but I can control my reaction to these things. I don't want to feel discouraged or impatient everytime my kids misbehave or become distracted. So instead I am trying to pray for wisdom and patience! I want them to enjoy learning. I want this to be a fun experience for all of us. I try to keep that in mind everyday.

Last week I think my hormones were partly to blame for my irritability. I was spotting off and on and I've noticed that this is usually a harbinger to Moody Mama. I'm not sure if my body is trying to bring on AF, but my guess is that I'll spot a little here and there until Jonah is 9 months old. He is still nursing so much that I can't imagine having a full-blown period already. I hope not :(

We made a model of the Nile river last week. This is one of the projects in the Story of the World. The grass is already beginning to grow on the "banks" of our little river. The kids love hands-on activities like this. I need to make it a point to do a lot more of them. I pretty much planned out every week of History already, but I'm going to try to fit in even more of the projects than I originally intended. Noah especially learns better when he's actually doing something, rather than sitting passively and listening. So this week we're learning about hireoglyphs and cuneiform and I think I'll try to bring out the clay at some point to practice some Egyptian or Sumerian writing.

What else? Noah is learning a new poem for Grammar called "Work." Actually, he memorized it already, but there is a lot of review in First Language Lessons. I really like this poem and have found myself repeating it to the kids when they don't want to pitch in at clean-up time! Here it is:

"Work"

Anonymous

Work while you work

Play while you play;

This is the way

To be happy each day.

 All that you do,

Do with your might;

Things done by halves

Are never done right

Noah has been reading a lot of the Oliver Pig books by Jean Van Leeuwen lately. He seems to enjoy them. He also read an Eyewitness Reader Level 3 (grades 2-3) last week. I had to help him quite a bit, but thought it was worth the effort for him to try because it was something that interested him: Beastly Tales: Yeti, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness monster. Here is his illustration for that one!

It's a Yeti, can you tell? And here is the narration he dictated to me:

"This book was about Yetis, Bigfeet, and Loch Ness monsters. People found footprints of the Yeti in the snow. We don't know if it really exists. If it is alive, we don't know anything about it, like what it eats or where it lives."

And here is what he drew for another book called "Cave People" by Linda Hayward:

 

And here is his narration: "The Neanderthals were strong people who lived a long time ago. They made spears and hunted animals for skin and food. Fire was used for warmth and for scaring away animals that might try to eat the Neanderthals at night. Fire was also used for light in the darkness."

Some other good readers that the kids have enjoyed recently: the Cork and Fuzz books by Dori Chaconas; The Fire Cat by Esther Averill; the Poppleton Pig books by Cynthia Rylant;  Mildred and Sam and Mildred and Sam and their Babies, both by Sharleen Collicott.

Well, Jonah is calling. Time to feed him and get ready for bed :)

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 26, 2007 - How to drive Mama nuts

HOW TO DRIVE MAMA NUTS

Step 1: Pull apart your big sister's doll crib and fashion yourself a hobbit-sized ladder. Proceed to climb up big brother and big sister's bunk beds.

 

Step 2: Make sure you nearly fall from the bed at least 6 times. You'll get more of a reaction that way.

 

Step 3: When you get to the top, smile impishly at Mama, who really should not be taking your picture right now. Decide immediately that Mama needs to get you down.

Repeat throughout the day, especially when Mama is sitting down to nurse your little brother.

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 25, 2007 - This, that, and everything else

Today was a stressful day! I'm feeling so discouraged right now. I feel as if my home will never be clean enough, laundry will never be completely done EVER again, I'll never get around to accomplishing my many tasks and goals! I hate that I'm such a perfectionist. I know I need to pray about this. I need to focus on what's most important and let go of everything else. But how? It's so hard to do. Something always needs to be done. Someone always needs my time, love, or attention.

Noah had a hard time concentrating this morning. Too many noises and distractions. Savannah and Elijah decided to have a meltdown over some chocolate chip cookies :( This was AFTER I'd let all the kids have some for a snack. Savannah informed me half an hour later that she was "starved to death" and that I was being mean by not allowing her to have any more. Elijah didn't waste time calling me mean; he just went right for the plate of cookies and grabbed a handful. Do you notice the difference in tactics here? Savannah is Drama Queen all the way. If you can't get what you want, first go for a guilt trip :) As for Elijah...either he was hoping he could cram some cookies into his mouth really quickly before I had a chance to take them away or (and this is the more likely scenario), he was counting on me to be so busy reprimanding Savannah that I wouldn't notice him sneaking away with his loot.

Anyway, a huge meltdown ensued. So that made things hard for Noah. But we got through it. The afternoon went better. I spent some time working on math and reading with Savannah first, then did our Science lesson afterwards. Savannah seems to feel excluded when I work with Noah first, so I thought it would help if I switched around our schedule once in a while. It did seem to calm her down for the rest of school time. Science was fine. I like the curriculum I chose this year and the kids seem to be enjoying it. Then Noah wanted to learn about Roman Numerals, so we did that for a while.

Here are some updates on what they've all been doing and learning over the past couple of weeks:

Jonah is getting better and better at sitting without support. All my other babies were doing it by 5 months, but he is definitely on his own schedule. I just sit him down a lot everyday and play with him to strengthen his muscles. No signs of teeth yet, either. I love how they are all so different and so special. It is a miracle to witness their little personalities unfold and something I will never tire of.

Elijah is using the big toilet. After living with a potty that constantly leaked pee all over the floor, I finally lost my patience. It'll be sitting on the curb tomorrow when the trash trucks come by. I honestly don't know why I put up with that thing for so long. So now we're using one of those rings that fit on top of the toilet seat so little ones don't fall in. It has Elmo and Ernie on it and Elijah seems to think that's pretty cool. He is also beginning to recognize and name a lot of the colors. He is using more words everyday and making lots of cute sentences. He loves putting puzzles together and helping me cook.

Savannah is such a fantastic reader! I am amazed at how quickly and easily she acquired this skill. I really don't have to "teach" her reading at all. We go over the weekly phonics lesson and I'm there to provide help when she gets stuck on a word, but for the most part, she does it herself. I keep LOTS of readers in the house about things that interest her. She can easily read the books designed for first to third graders.

Noah is reading books at the same level, but is more easily frustrated and does not have the passion for reading that his sister does. I hope someday he will, but I’m trying not to push him. He enjoys math, especially when he figures things out on his own. He will still come up to me from time to time with some random math fact. The other day he announced that 6 times 4 is 24 after examining the rows of water bottles I brought home from the store!

Both the older kids liked memorizing “The Caterpillar” poem from First Language Lessons. They’ve been going around the house reciting it for the past 2 weeks. Even Elijah knows the last two lines! They also like doing the illustrations for Story of the World. Spelling and Grammar have been simple enough. Every week we do two lessons in Spelling Workout. Noah usually has the words memorized by Thursday. Then on Friday I give him a little spelling test. I'm trying to have him work on his writing more. Over the summer we played a lot of writing "games." I helped the kids make mailboxes out of old shoe boxes and we sent each other letters, jokes, grocery store fliers, all sorts of stuff that we wrote. The kids really liked that. This year, in addition to copywork, I'm having him write about different journal topics or I'm giving him the option to write a letter or story. I'm excited to see him make some progress in his writing this year.

I'm reading such a good book right now. It's called The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook by Dr. Raymond and Dorothy Moore. I also read one of their other books, Better Late than Early, which was also fantastic. I have so many good things to say about this book, but it's getting late. But I'll leave you with this:

"Does anyone who knows children believe that the yellow school bus takes children down the road to a constructive, positive sense of society? Or returns them in the afternoon or evening more loving creatures than when they left in the morning? This happens only when the home is worse than the school! There is absolutely no evidence to support the prevailing assumption by parents and educators that the average school is more of a positive socializing agency than a good home - certainly not an altruistic one. And there is powerful evidence that we are schooling our youngsters today to be young narcissists. The ultimate result is recorded in the daily papers - failure, delinquency, drugs, sex, and often even violence. Values are being destroyed."

 

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 23, 2007 - Serendipity books

Does anybody remember Serendipty books? They were stories about cute animals or fantasy creatures with a moral/lesson in each one. I LOVED reading these as a child. I found a bunch of them at the library book store this weekend and paid only a dime each (yeah, the local library seems to price pretty much everything at 10 cents, but I'm not complaining). Anyway, reading these books brought back so many good memories. I remember visiting the library with my younger sister and taking home a whole stack of them! So this weekend I read a couple to Savannah and I think she'll be a fan too. Anybody else with memories of Serendipity?

 

 

• 2 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 22, 2007 - A peek into our classroom

Here's a peek at our classroom, because I know there's got to be someone out there as nosy as me! Enjoy!

My kitchen/classroom, where the bulk of the teaching is done

Noah's desk (when Mommy manages to clear off her clutter)

Bulletin boards: The top one shows vowels, phonics lessons, and also Noah and Savannah's "helping hands," which are just reminders of their daily chores. The bottom board is to display their work.

A closer look...

Days of the week chart

Alphabet on one side of the room

Cursive writing on the other

Hutch, storage boxes, Pledge of Allegiance

 Inside the hutch (school books, etc)

 

Big book shelf in the living room

 

Some of the kids' books

 

More of the kids' books!

And a separate box for all their library books!

 

Art supplies

 

Hope you enjoyed seeing what our "classroom" looks like. Blessings!

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 20, 2007 - Paper Bag Pumpkins

So the kids have been bugging me all week for a "fun" activity to do related to Fall/Halloween. So yesterday I had them make their own little pumpkins. All we used were brown paper lunch bags, tempera paint, green yarn, and black construction paper. I thought they came out pretty cute for a spur of the moment thing. Here are some pictures:

Noah

Savannah

Elijah (he actually sat still for this one!)

The finished pumpkins! From left to right: Savannah's, Noah's, and Elijah's

Our school week has gone well so far. Today Savannah and Elijah played together while I helped Noah with his school work. When he was finished I was able to spend some time listening to Savannah read and also helped her with some letters she's having trouble forming. So it worked out great that way. Savannah and Elijah LOVE to play with their Little People together. I wish everyday could go as well as today!

I also ended up rearranging my kitchen/classroom today. I did it a few weeks ago in preparation for the new school year, but the new layout just wasn't working for me! I like it so much better now. I made room for Noah's desk, the kids' little school table, our hutch full of school books, and even ended up with more open space for Jonah's walker to cruise through.

We finished Mr. Popper's Penguins a few days ago. Definitely a good one! Even Noah wanted me to read 2 or 3 chapters every night. I need to get on the library website and put a bunch of  books on hold. I brought home 30 books on Saturday (story books and readers) and we've already gone through most of them! This year I'm trying to put a month's worth of things on hold at a time. I think it's really worth the effort to plan everything out in advance.

Well, I should stop now and get the clothes out of the wash. I hope to post more this weekend about what we've done all week.

• 2 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 18, 2007 - Homeschooling with a 2-year-old under foot

I'm beginning to feel that my entire life is one big balancing act. There are so many things that have to be in place for things to run smoothly around here. Morning school work can't start until baby is napping. The kids can't concentrate unless Elijah is quiet. Baby can't stay sleeping unless Elijah is quiet. Elijah won't stay quiet unless I'm constantly keeping him occupied with one activity or another. You get the idea.

So lately I've felt like my life is a balancing act. And there's really nothing like a 2-year-old to throw everything within reach off balance. Want to know what my little guy has done since we started school last week? He learned how to climb his big sister's bunk bed, not by using a ladder (I removed that completely soon after he learned how to walk), but by scrambling to the top like a little orangutan. And what did he find up there? Big sister's ice cream cone shaped lip gloss. YUMMY and just the motivation he needed to climb that bed over and over and over again.

Later in the week he found my long-forgotten case of make-up and decided to find out what liquid foundation tastes like. I'm glad he found a use for the stuff, because I honestly can't remember the last time I applied make-up (I have a hard enough time trying to take a shower these days). Of course, when he did this, he managed to wedge himself in the closet with the closet door half open so that I couldn't open the bathroom door without ramming it into the closet door. So what did I do? Frantic mommy that I was, I told him to get out of the way and rammed the door as hard as I could (there is now a big gouge in the bathroom door, thank you very much). At this point he'd decided that all make-up is not created equal (at least in the taste department) and had already discarded the bottle of foundation. I, on the other hand, was hoping the number for poison control was still on the refrigerator.

My little monster also dropped one ball of clay into a sink full of soapy water, pulled the erasers completely out of half a dozen brand-new pencils, and performed countless other acts of mischief. I'm trying very hard to provide him with activities to do (puzzles, stickers, pasting), which works for a while, but inevitably he gets restless and wanders off to find trouble. I honestly wouldn't mind if he rummaged around in the cupboards, played with the pots and pans, dumped toys all over the floor, that sort of stuff. I even filled up the bathroom sink with water and let him play with his toy boats and fish in there. But this child just won't settle for ordinary messes like that. Nope, he's way beyond that. Basically, he's just not happy unless he's risking his life or going after something valuable (like Daddy's dvd collection).

Nevertheless, I'm proud to say that I'm doing my best to go with the flow. Because if there's anything harder than trying to teach with a wild toddler in the house, it's trying to teach with a wild toddler in the house when your emotions have gotten the best of you. No one learns very well when Mommy is a big, impatient grump :)

So I will continue searching for things to keep Elijah happy. And I would welcome any suggestions! I really never had this problem with the other two; Savannah has always been happy to follow along (or jump ahead) of whatever I've taught Noah. Elijah just seems to have a much higher level of energy and curiosity. And I'm still learning how to divide my time between all 3 of them (or 4 on the days when the baby wakes up!)

Anyway, time to upload some photos. Thanks for reading!

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 17, 2007 - Fall is in the air

Well, there's been a definite chill in the air for the past few days. Today I put an extra quilt on the bed and also broke out the slowcooker this weekend for a pot roast. I love seeing the seasons change! It's even more fun with little ones. The kids are so excited about the approach of Halloween. Savannah has already drawn a pumpkin next to the word October on her Saxon math calendar so she can keep track of which month it falls in! I want to do a little party for them this year. I'm thinking I'll do it on the Friday before Halloween. I know they'll be getting so much candy on Halloween night, so if I do their party on a different day, I can bake treats for them and not worry about them getting sick from too much junk :) So I'm thinking I'll turn it into a fun day with no regular school work. I'll read some good Halloween stories to them, plan some activities and arts and crafts projects, and maybe let them watch a Halloween movie while they eat their treats!

We're still figuring out their Halloween costumes this year. Noah wants to be a LEGO. I think I might try to make it myself using boxes, paint, and some other things. Savannah wants to be a cat. Actually, I think she would really like to be a puppy (like she was last year), but I suppose a cat is the next best thing. The two little ones I'm not sure about yet. I like the idea of doing a matching theme for them, like a pumpkin and a pea pod. We'll see :)

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 17, 2007 - Our Schedule

Monday	Spelling: Spelling Workout, Level A	Grammar: First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind	Reading: We pick out readers from the library, usually focusing on whatever History topic we're discussing at the time	Writing: A Reason for Handwriting	Math: Saxon Math 1 (We started this last year and got about halfway through, so we only have to do math twice a week this year)	History: Story of the World, Ancient Times
Tuesday	Spelling: Spelling Workout, Level A	Grammar: First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind	Reading: Reader from the library, narration, and illustration	Writing: A Reason for Handwriting	Science: Bob Jones University Press, Science 1
Wednesday	Spelling: Spelling Workout, Level A	Grammar: First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind	Reading: Reader from the library	Writing: Copywork (I give him a few sentences from our literature selection to copy down. Later in the year, I will dictate the sentences and he'll have to write them down.)	Math: Saxon Math 1	History: Story of the World, Ancient Times
Thursday	Spelling: Spelling Workout, Level A	Grammar: First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind	Reading: Reader from the library, narration, and illustration	Writing: Journal work (he can pick an idea from our journal jar) OR he may write his own story	Science: Bob Jones University Press, Science 1
Friday	Spelling: Spelling Workout, Level A	Grammar: First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind	Reading: Reader from the library	Writing: Journal work (he can pick an idea from our journal jar) OR he may write his own story	History: Story of the World, Ancient Times

Monday	Reading (anything she wants...usually it's about animals)	Reason for Handwriting K	History with Noah
Tuesday	Reading	Science with Noah	Math
Wednesday	Reading	Explode the Code	History with Noah
Thursday	Reading	Science with Noah	Math
Friday	Reading	Journal Work or narration from Animal Encyclopedia (I read about a type of animal and she tells me about what she learned, adding an illustration)	History w/ Noah

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 15, 2007 - First week of school

Just wanted to share some pictures from our first week of school. Enjoy!

Here's Savannah doing the Pledge of Allegiance on the first day of school.

 

Elijah and his puzzle

 

Savannah helping Elijah paste in his Kumon book

 

Noah working in his spelling book

 

Savannah and her pictograph

 

Science Time! Here are Noah and Savannah using their senses to study leaves we found on our Nature walk.

 

All my pumpkins hanging out together with their pattern blocks :)

 

For History we learned about archaeology and got outside to do a dig!

And finally Savannah found this cool bug outside and took a picture of it!

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 15, 2007 - I'm excited

I love finding a good bargain. Today at the library I actually found two of the books from the Core Knowledge Series: What your 2nd Grader Needs to Know, as well as What your 3rd Grader Needs to Know! I like to read these, even if I don't end up following them precisely. So the great part is that I only paid 50 cents each for them. YAY!

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 14, 2007 - Reviving my blog!

So I've basically done nothing with my blog for the past year and a half! But I'm currently trying to breathe some life into this thing. I've had another baby since I last blogged on here. Anyway, look back soon for lots of updates on what the kids are doing for school and all that good stuff!

• 2 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Apr. 26, 2006 - Lots of updates

It's been SO long! I don't know if anyone even reads this blog, outside of a few family members and friends, but sorry to those of you who do. There's been so much going on, namely in the sickness department. It's honestly been one illness after another for the past two months, including two trips to the emergency room. First the kids were sick with an awful virus - fever, cough, cold, etc. Elijah got it the worst, poor thing. For two weeks he was coughing so hard he would vomit constantly. It did get so bad that one day I brought him to the ER, only to be given a medication that I later learned was totally the wrong thing for him. I had no choice but to bring him to the hospital because it was a Saturday. My pediatrician's office was closed and he no longer has an on-call doctor to answer questions (too many frivilous law-suits). First I tried two different walk-in clinics. The first one was closed. The second one wouldn't accept kids and according to them, most clinics don't, which seems really screwed up to me, but whatever. So anyway, the ER doctor gave Elijah tylenol with codeine, which I later found out (from his ped) was a dangerous thing to give him. Because it's a sedative, it supresses breathing, so why would you give that to a baby who's already having trouble breathing???!!! Not that it helped much anyway. He would fall asleep and wake up 20 minutes later having a coughing/vomitting fit. This went on for 3 nights before it got any better. He barely got any sleep at all. Elijah ended up losing almost 2 pounds in 2 weeks. I'm so thankful he was a healthy, chubby baby to begin with.

 

The second trip to the ER was for Savannah, who woke up from a nap screaming that her ear and head hurt. So I immediately thought, ear infection. It ended up just being pressure from mucus build-up (GROSS!) and she never got any worse.

 

About a week after this the stomach virus hit. Elijah started with diarrhea first, then the other two started with the pukies. Then Elijah got the throw-up part and the other two got the diarrhea. So that was fun. There's nothing like staying up for 2 or 3 nights in  a row with puking kids, a baby with explosive diarrhea, and non-stop laundry. And of course you know it's gonna hit you next...which it did...two days before Easter.

 

I will be having surgery on May 23...I have a mass on my thyroid gland. I had the mass removed last year, but it has grown back. Fortunately, my doctor does not suspect cancer. Everything was benign last time, so hopefully I'll be lucky again. This time I will be having half my thyroid gland removed along with the mass. This is to prevent anything from growing back again. I'm nervous about the surgery and recovery. When I had the needle biopsy done last year, I bled a lot inside and was in a lot of pain for about a week, unable to turn my neck or swallow properly.

 

Now for some updates on the kids...

 

Noah ~ has a loose tooth!  I can't believe how fast he is growing up, too fast for my liking :) Lately he's into Legos and Battleship. He continues to impress me with his understanding of math concepts. A few days ago he told me that 8 plus 8 equals 16. So I told him, "Yes, and another way to say that is 8 times 2 equals 16, meaning the number 8 two times." He very confidently said, oh I get it, and took out our multiplication toy - a times table with buttons you push down to get the answers. Now this is not something I bought in order to teach him his times tables; it's just something that was given to me that I put in their math drawer for future use. He played with this for about 5 minutes, then announced that 9 x 9 is 81. Then he did something that blew me away. He took a marker and started writing on our dry-erase board. He made nine rows of dots with nine dots in each row...adding up to 81! Now I understand why he goes through the lessons in Saxon K in about 2 minutes.

 

Savannah ~ Continues to show a great love for and interest in animals. I would like to get her involved in some kind of 4H type thing as soon as she's old enough. All she talks about these days are puppies, kittens, goats, and sheep! The other day she sat in the yard looking for bugs. When she found a centipede, she made me catch it for her and put it in their bug jar. Now it's a testament to my love for her that I actually let this thing in my house. Most insects don't bother me too much (i used to catch them and keep them as pets when i was a kid), but something about centipedes really grosses me out  Anyway, Savannah spent the rest of the day watching the centipede make circles around her bug jar. And for all her efforts searching in the brush, she ended up with poison ivy. Well, one thing's for sure, life is always an adventure with my little ones.

 

Elijah ~ signed for the first time today! I haven't spent as much time as I'd like working on signs with him, but I do try to incorporate a few into everyday life. So today at lunch I was letting him take sips from my water bottle. Everytime I would put it down, he would look at it and protest loudly, wanting it back. So a couple of times I asked, "Do you want more, Elijah? Would you like more water? Say MORE with your hands, Elijah." And I did the sign for MORE a couple of times. Then something seemed to click in his mind, and he brought his hands together, not perfectly, but a very good imitation of the sign. He did this a couple of times. It was so great, especially since he doesn't have any verbal words yet. So I hope to keep up with the signs now that I have a little more motivation.

 

Okay, that's about all I have time for tonight. Oh, the other reason I haven't been on as much is because I started another page on Myspace. It's so addictive! So go check that out if you want. The link is on the sidebar. G'night :)

• 4 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Mar. 23, 2006 - Funny things

Just some funny stuff to share. I've been reading The Wizard of Oz to the kids - we just finished it tonight. Well, I usually try to ask them lots of questions while we're reading to improve their comprehension and memory skills - what do you think will happen next? Why did so and so do that? Do you remember what happened last time? Things like that. So tonight I asked Savannah to repeat back to me what each character wanted the wizard to give him or her. She did great until we got to the lion...

 

Mommy: "What did the scarecrow ask the wizard for?"

 

Savannah: "a brain"

 

Mommy: "What did the tin woodsman want?"

 

Savannah: "a heart"

 

Mommy: "And what did the cowardly lion want from the wizard?"

 

Savannah: "Um, he wanted some porridge."

 

 I guess porridge sounds a lot like courage to a 3 year old, or maybe she's a little confused because Noah read us Goldilocks and the 3 bears the other day!

 

I am always amazed at what a thinker Savannah is. She watches me breastfeed the baby and sometimes she will ask if she can do it. I try to explain to her that someday, if she marries and decides to have a baby, her body will make milk for her baby, but first she has to grow big and healthy, so she will be ready to do this. Up until today, this explanation has been okay for her, but today she had a meltdown over it. She said she did not want to feed any other baby, she wanted to feed Elijah, and then she started crying. I felt so bad. I told her she could give him his juice in a bottle, and then she was fine. But I still can't believe how strongly she felt about it. I know it is impossible for her to understand now that someday she will have a little baby of her own that she will love even more than her baby brother...

 

Anyway, "school" is going well. I've found myself focusing a lot more on teaching the kids different tasks around the house. I bring them downstairs when I do laundry so I can show them how it's done, let them help me out with housework, and things like that.

 

Darn, Elijah's waking up. He has a cold and keeps coughing and gagging and then throwing up from it. So I have to go! Good night.

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Mar. 22, 2006 - Sorry I've been MIA

This is getting to become a habit, sorry! It's been a crazy few weeks. DH and I basically replaced all the furniture in our living room - well, the entertainment center (which the DirecTV guy broke a year and a half ago) and our computer desk (we were using the same one I had as a kid!). So now we have a nice new computer desk with doors, a TV stand, and also a new storage unit with a glass door. The best part, they were all really inexpensive. We bought them from IKEA and put them together ourselves (great quality time, I might add). So to make a long story short, my computer's been disconnected and the living room has been trashed off and on for the past few weeks. The worst thing is that during this whole mess, DH managed to erase everything I had saved in WORD, so I lost my lesson plans for the rest of the year, along with Elijah's birth story and a bunch of other stuff! So now I have to go back and figure out what I want to do for the kids' science lessons, books I want to read for each unit, etc etc. That'll teach me to back my stuff up on discs from now on.

 

Savannah has been bugging us for a dog lately. When I say bugging, I really mean crying her eyes out, begging and pleading, and pretty much breaking my heart. I didn't know it was possible for a 3 year old to show so much passion. She's been wanting a dog for a while, but over the weekend she got to visit with some real live puppies, and now she's got puppy fever. After a few days of hysterical crying, I think she's finally making some progress with DH, lol. No one has to convince me! I probably love animals as much as she does, and somehow I will find the time to clean up the puppy poop and settle the little one down when it whines during the night (heck, I'm up with the baby anyway). So now we just need to decide if we want to go with a shelter dog or puppy or buy one from a breeder. I like the idea of rescuing a shelter dog because I know how badly they need homes. I did a lot of volunteer work at our local shelter as a teenager and wanted to take them all home! But it would probably take a while to find one that meets our criteria: small, not too old or sickly, good with children. So we'll see.

 

What else is new...I guess not too much. The cold weather continues. I tried taking the kids to the playground today. They had fun for about half-an-hour, then it got too cold for the younger two. I think Noah would have stayed all day. He really has missed being able to run around and ride his bike all winter. I put Elijah on the swing for the first time and he LOVED it. It was just so cute to see his big smile and watch him reach for his feet. He is cruising around everywhere now and still loves to push his truck. He also likes to turn lights on and off when I hold him up. It usually takes a few tries, but his reaction when he finally does it is just priceless - a big beaming smile!

 

Well, American Idol is coming on, so I'll have to continue this later...I hope!

 

 

 

 

 

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link