Our Busy Little World
Oct. 28, 2008 - School Days
Oy, I'm terrible at posting lately! And why I'm choosing this moment to begin a blog entry I do not know. I am sitting here listening to my four older children tidy the living room (at least I hope that's what they're doing since I told them to) and my baby flushing the toilet (she's recently learned this skill, and while it is somewhat annoying to hear a thousand flushes a day, it's better than if she was sticking her hands in the toilet!) We're a few weeks into school for this year, and as we've worked out a few bugs and are pretty happy with how school is going, I thought I'd post what we actually ended up doing, at least thus far, for the year.
We have about two or two and a half hours of school each day, four days a week. The first half hour is always circle time, which is kind of our little "Bible School" time. It's always tempting for me to start with phonics or something that feels more "schoolish", but if we live by God's Word, I would prefer to send the message to my girls that it is the most important part of our school day, and therefore we start with that. I actually think circle time is my favorite part in many ways, and we're able to fit quite a lot in thirty minutes. This is when Alyssa is still awake, so she practices sitting nicely on my lap. We start with practicing our chruch liturgy - every other day we practice the songs we sing each week (I love to sing with the girls!), and every other day we practice all of the spoken liturgy. It's been a joy to see the girls learn our liturgy so they can enjoy being more involved during service - and they can memorize it so quickly! Next we read our memory verses - right now we're learning I Cor. 13 and Eph. 6:1-3. Then we read a passage of either Proverbs or Romans and talk a bit about it. We practice the children's catechism - which I think is always the girls' favorite! We look over our Doorposts charts to help them apply Bible truths and they love these colorful charts. Then we finish up with a story from Elsie Egermeier's story Bible. Then baby is off to bed, and we're on to table time.
Table time is usually about an hour. Naomi and Juli sit at the table and play with the toy of the day: play foam (much less messy than play dough!), lacing beads, little chalk boards, or paper and markers - I try to rotate this so they don't get bored. If they aren't quiet at the table, they can go play in the living room, but they prefer to stay at the table with us, so they're usually pretty good. This is when I work on phonics and a bit of math with Isabelle and Hannah. We are trying a new phonics program which we are really enjoying. I print out an alphabet for Hannah to trace each day since she's still learning to write letters, and Isabelle does some copywork from Queen Homeschool Supplies' Copywork For Little Ones series - I really like it! It's a great way for her to learn some grammer principles and practice making beautiful letters. Isabelle and Hannah are very opposite in what kind of students they are, so it's interesting working with their little personalities! We go over letter sounds, reading rules, etc - I usually have each girl review seperately while the other works on writing, so I can make sure they are both learning well. They each get a turn to read aloud to me a bit at their level (Hannah can do Bob Books, Isabelle pretty much anything I give her). I also try to work on some number counting charts with them, so they can learn to recognize large numbers - we count by 2s, 5s, 10s and 1s. After we finish the big girls' work, they take over the little girls toy and the little girls get their "preschool" time. I save this for last because they are so excited that it helps them remember to be good for phonics time. It's funny, we just say the letters of the alpabet, or look at pretty flashcards, or practice colors and such, but they just love "their" time. We also work on speech therapy together. Oh, I must mention table time is when I enjoy my coffee!
We finish up with couch time, which is when I read aloud to the girls. Some days I let them play with quiet school game toys on the floor, other days we just all snuggle on the couch while I read. I was reading Story Of The World, but after finishing the first volume, I became frustrated with the feeling that the author was trying to make history "neutral". History just isn't neutral - God's Hand works in all of it, and I grew weary of trying to reword the stories so they taught that. So now I have been reserving books at the library which tell different stories throughout history - biographies and stories about important countries or events. I glean ideas from the tanglewood school website for good books for 1st grade. It's been really enjoyable to just enjoy these "living" picture books with the girls - so far we've learned about Abe Lincoln, Pompeii, Gilgamesh, the Great Wall, the tulip craze, and lots of other things. Isabelle usally sneaks the book away to read before we get to it, so she always tries to hold it in and not tell us what's coming. I plan to make a nice long timeline and put on there things the girls would recognize - especially Bible stories - then mark on the timeline each time we read a book like this - so they can see what else was going on and to help tie it together a bit. We also read science stories - we have the StoryBook of Science, which I LOVE, but I will admit the old fashioned language makes it harder for the girls to understand, and also a Christian Liberty science reader. And we read stories and poems - A Child's Garden Of Verses, Now We Are Six, Milly-Molly-Mandy (LOVE these stories!), Elsa Beskow books are some of our favorites. I wish couch time were longer, but it's usually about 30 minutes. We try to read aloud later in the day, too.
After this it's lunch time. The older two girls have some workbook pages they do. Hannah does a Kumon workbook where she traces and reads words, and sometimes a number page. Isabelle does a couple pages of Rod and Staff 1st grade math. One of them works on her pages, while the other plays a computer game like Bella Sara or Quarter Mile Math, then they switch. The little girls usually play or watch a singing movie here.
In theory I have a half hour with just the two older girls before nap to work on music, art, french or math manipulatives, but I don't often get to this to be honest. I don't worry, though, as I am quite happy with what we get done in circle, table and couch time!
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Oct. 25, 2008 - Some Autumn Pictures
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Oct. 10, 2008 - Walkin' and Talkin'
I apologize for the sideways video - didn't remember that it would do that until after I downloaded it! Nonetheless, I had fun making a little movie of Alyssa, who can now walk and talk . . . sort of.
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Oct. 9, 2008 - Conversations and Strange Happenings
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Oct. 7, 2008 - Bows And Arrows
Matt's just finished building a fence in the backyard, and Isabelle is very excited that she can go out and practice archery by herself now. Her little "range" is in the perfect spot for me to watch her while I cook, and she and Hannah can take a few minutes to practice on their own. When Matt was showing Isabelle some archery tips, he made sure to caution her to keep her arrow aimed low, for the target, because if it went high up in the air it might come down and hurt someone. She sagely replied: "Yes, it shall soar down like a raven's wing . . . but it would be a good thing if it hit a burglar." Spoken like a knight's daughter, I suppose, but I'm glad she manages to keep it to the target! Here are a couple of pictures through the kitchen window - the cloak adds nicely to the elfin effect, I think.
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Oct. 1, 2008 - Little Baby Lucy Goose
I'm such a blog slacker! But at the risk of forgetting all sorts of stories I'd rather remember, I'm determined to press on, however rarely I seem to have the chance to write. Here are some thoughts on babies.
I've said before how much I love babies. However, that doesn't mean that I always find them to be easy! Alyssa in particular is a bit of a spit-fire. A very cute spit-fire, I might add, but rather strong-willed nonetheless. Along the way we've come up with some little gimmicks which make our days run more smoothly. She's the first baby I've given regular bottles to. I don't know if she was hungry or merely appreciated the distraction (I tend to think it started with the former as her happiness greatly increased with the bottles), but she has a bottle each time I give her playpen time. At this point, they're mostly water (3/4 water, 1/4 milk or formula), but she still loves them. The best part was accidental - on our trip I picked up a few cheap bottles for her, and didn't realize I had grabbed the slow-flow infant nipples. I was so worried that it would irritate her, but it had the opposite effect - she doesn't mind at all and one bottle keeps her happy for a loooong time thanks to that slow flow!
I've also switched her naps around to help with school. Instead of a long afternoon nap, I put her down after we finish circle time, and she sleeps through the entire rest of our school time - SOOOOO much easier! Then she takes a shorter nap in the afternoon, but all the girls still rest for one hour in common, so I get a bit of quiet.
Lately I've grown weary of our rather loud and squawky (on her end, not mine!) wrestling matches in church, and have realized I often spend more time out in the hallway with her than in church. Things like this always creep up on me until I realize that I could attempt to fix them at home (takes my brain awhile to catch up sometimes!) Anyway, I decided I'd had enough of this, and spent the whole of last week making sure I took twenty minutes each day to have her sit in my lap. I decided to keep her awake during school circle time, even if it meant we didn't get much done for a week except church practice. She got a little swat each time she squawked or squirmed, and amazingly enough it only took a day or two for her to get it. Sometimes I think little ones are just waiting and hoping we will teach them some self control, as they seem so much happier afterward! She loves sitting in my lap now, and I love holding her in my lap. The real test was this past Sunday at church. Matt's been enjoying sitting in the front row, so I was really hoping she'd remember our practice times. Weeeellll, she did, and she was an angel sitting in my lap. However, just to make sure that her mommy stays humble, or simply because God has a sense of humor, she decided to take the "lawful" route to making sure I didn't have it too easy. That girl pooped FIVE times while we were at church on Sunday! These were the diaper-filling, too-smelly-to-ignore sorts of poops - I've no idea what I fed that baby! So not only did I have to troop in and out of church each time, I also had to beg a diaper off of four friends, since I always bring one diaper and wipes to church - she's never needed more than that! Trying to be subtle while carting around an odiferous baby and hunting for friends with diapers was not quite the peaceful church picture I'd had in mind . . . .ah well, there's always next week! Incidentally, to any of the afore-mentioned diaper-loaning friends who might be reading . . . THANK YOU!!!!!
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Sep. 24, 2008 - Computer Woes
Ok, so this is really random, and not at all what I usually post on my blog, but I couldn't resist. My mom sent me this tonight, and being a person who both loves and despises her computer I thoroughly enjoyed reading it! Hope it gives you a chuckle!
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated,
'If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.'
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash........
Twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation' warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?' before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none o f the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn the engine off.
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Sep. 14, 2008 - What A Week!
This past week was very busy! In it we celebrated Isabelle's sixth birthday, and thus I am no longer the mother of five children five and under. Isabelle is a delight, and as a fresh six year old is reading as much as I could imagine. She's turned into a book worm like mommy, and is currently loving Bobbsey Twins books and the like. Hence I am facing a new dilemna. I once had this grand theory that I would pre-read the books my girls read, making sure they were reading good things. But this child goes through a full size book every two days, and I certainly can't keep ahead of that. Soooo, if anyone would care to recommend their favorite books for little ones to read alone, which they don't have any objections to, please feel free to do so!
Daddy took Isabelle to have her ears pierced, which she is quite thrilled about, even though they're still a bit sensitive. And she is (as are we) also thrilled with the gifts she was given, in particular a special one we got for her. She had asked for over a year for a real bow and arrow, and we decided to get her this little archery set along with a set of extra arrows. Since it's not a suction cup toy set, we have to make sure she's shooting only in the proper area (we set up a little range with stacked straw bales for a great target), and only with supervision, or if her little sisters aren't outside at the time, but we're so glad we chose this one. We have been VERY impressed with the quality of this bow and arrows, especially considering the price. It's made by Bear Archery, which is a very respectable archery company, not a toy company, and is made for 3-7 year olds, so the draw weight and length are perfect for her. We must admit, we enjoy it as much as her, and sometimes want to sneak out for some archery practice. It's definitely a sport we enjoy together!
Other exciting news this week is that our horse, Farah has arrived. We couldn't be more pleased with her! She is adorable, but even more than that, her temperment is amazing! This is a yearling Arabian we're talking about, and they can tend to be on the "hotter" side. Not Farah - she is the most level-headed, calm and sweet horse I could have hoped for. She's not dull by any means - she enjoys exploring her new surroundings and such - but she is so very calm that it continues to amaze me. She also seems to be pretty happy with us. Even without a lead, she'll just follow us around the arena if we're in there. I think she will be the perfect family horse as she grows, and we are quite taken with her. I'll get some pictures up when I get a chance!
I need to get some sleep, so I shall close for tonight with a very random quote. It is from the movie Sleeping Beauty, and it makes me laugh every time the girls watch that movie. We women can be fickle, even in our cartoon princess version!
Aurora: "Goodbye!"
Prince: "But . . . when will I see you again?"
Aurora, in all her princess-like drama: "Oh, never, never!"
Prince, shocked and disappointed: "Never?"
Aurora: "Well, maybe someday. . . "
Prince: "When, tomorrow?"
Aurora: "Oh no! This evening!"
There you have it, folks: goofy quotes that make Melissa laugh, especially when she's tired!
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Sep. 8, 2008 - Last Vacation Pictures
In answer to a question about my schedule post below, EOW means every other week, SOTW means Story of The World, by Bauer (it's world history in story form. Eventually I would love to get Mystery Of History, but this is a nice overview for us as long as I *discuss* certain things as I read aloud). Rod and Staff refers (this year) to their first grade workbooks. Isabelle and Hannah love workbooks, color pages and the like, so we have Rod & Staff workbook pages for math, penmanship, and music - very simple, good practice for them, and they enjoy it. Milly Molly Mandy rerfers to a group of wonderful little stories we love to read, and a neat little study guide to go with them published by Veritas press, which is just at Isabelle's level. I'll try to make a better post with all of our school books later. But here are the last of our vacation photograph for now.
Isabelle, having made her own "camp fire"
Zebras are so intereresting!
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Sep. 4, 2008 - Autumn Schedule
Now that we're getting ready to start school again, I've made my new *written routine* for this autumn. I try to say that rather than schedule, since I rarely use it as a schedule. These are the things I generally do, but I don't stress if I miss one or more of them on a given day. And some days I switch the whole thing around (like yesterday, for speech therapy). It's just a way to get my thoughts onto paper, and show me what I have time for so I won't try to add a bunch of other projects or activities, and likewise so I won't go through a week feeling like I don't have time to do any projects at all! Writing my routine down always helps me to feel a bit less scattered.
600 I wake, read Bible, Pilates, dress, computer time, school prep,breakfast
820 Wake girls, dress/hair/teeth, morning chores, baby bottle, girls breakfast. While they eat, review calendar & weekly ladylike habit. Tidy and set up school after breakfast. Alyssa back to bed.
1000 School Time: run, hop, dance, etc. between sections to get energy out. Can vary order: One hour table time for phonics, writing, speech therapy (Nao and Juli can sit at table with school games or play quietly in living when not their turn); 30 minutes circle time for Bible & memory verse, church liturgy practice, catechism, prayer, & Bible story; 50 min couch time read alouds for Science stories, picture books, longer story books and History stories if time. *Crafts if time.
*Monday at ranch; Saturday: make bread and cookies/arts and crafts with girls, they choose fun books to read. EOW read SOTW on Saturday so I can grocery shop Thursday at 4.
1230 Wake Alyssa, tidy together with girls while baby plays.
100 Make lunch. Isabelle may play Bella Sara, Hannah Rod&Staff, Baby playpen with bottle, movie or school game/playmobil for Juli and Naomi. Girls help to set table, then may color.
130 Eat lunch, girls clear their dishes, Belle vaccuums,then Rod&Staff or Milly Molly Mandy paper, Hannah may play Bella Sara, little three free play if happy together. Girls may color, too.
200 Juli down for nap, baby plays on floor, laundry and sing with the big three girls.
230 Naomi quiet play/rest on couch, Belle and Hannah school: Math 2 days, French 1 day, Music or drawing 1 day Baby plays on floor or playpen till ready for nap.
400 Big girls up, tea time, read SOTW, defrost meat, finish laundry or school if needed. Shop EO Thu.
430 Juli up, all play outside, mommy practice guitar, Isabelle empty garbage cans at end of play time.
520 Start dinner, girls’ chair time except dinner helper, Belle/Hannah may do school papers; after dinner prep play outside till dinner.
630 Dinner (manners/dinner games), then girls with Matt for baths, pjs and play while I finish dinner dishes/Matt’s lunch & coffee.
800 Family time: Bible, story, pray, sing. Then four girls to bed; dinner helper stays up late for special time (each girl has a day for this each week).
900 All girls in bed; my time with Matt. We have nights we try to read, play a game, practice guitar, watch a movie, or get to bed early, among other evening things
Bed by 10:30 (in theory - I usually mess up this part of the schedule!)
*Dinner ideas: Saturday tacos; Sunday Rotisserie & mashed potatoes; Monday: chicken & rice (soy sauce chicken, pinto bean, or mushroom); Tuesday Spanish rice; Wednesday chicken,potatoes&carrots, Thursday enchiladas, Friday pork&rice.
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Sep. 2, 2008 - More Holiday Pictures
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Aug. 28, 2008 - For Deanna
This week I turned 29, so I am officially enjoying the last year of my twenties. I promised my mother-in-law that I would show her pictures of my lovely gifts. She, my mother, and my grandma got me a beautiful new quilt set - I think it's the first time I've had new bedding for this bed since we've been married! It's fun- makes the whole room look a bit different, even more quaint and cozy. The girls all picked out very pretty candles for their mommy! And Matt gave me the pillow shams for our bed, as well as a wonderful little pocket knife (I had asked him for one, believe it or not), and the biggest surprise of all (remember, I mentioned we might have horsey news soon). . . . Matt decided to get a horse!!!!!!! I am so very excited - her name is Farah (which is Arabic for joy), and she is a sweet little Egyptian Arabian yearling filly. She comes home to us in two weeks, and we can't wait! We are so looking forward to having a young horse to raise and enjoy, and hopefully in a few years, also breed her to this gorgeous fella! Fun new adventures for our family!
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Aug. 21, 2008 - We're Back!
This time I have a good reason for not having posted lately. We've been on holiday - and a lovely one at that! We just spent two weeks driving, playing at the ocean, visiting our dear family and friends and enjoying some time away together. We all loved our trip, and have come home with many wonderful memories (along with four hundred pictures!) It was a TON of driving - we drove the whole way to the California coast and back, and also quite a bit throughout, but I think the girls did great for so many hours in the car! We spent our first week together at a lovely little Bed & Biscuit in Pescadero, CA - the very first time the girls have seen the ocean! In reading Milly Molly Mandy Goes To The Sea so many times, we often remember how land-locked we are, yet we desire our girls to share our love of the ocean. It was a chilly 57 degrees all week, but we loved it nonetheless. We waded, played in the sand, and explored tide pools together - it really was quite refreshing, as we've never officially taken a family vacation before.
After our seaside week, we spent a bit over another week visiting different friends and family here and there, a couple days at a time. It was such a wonderful experience to share in our friends' homes for a little while - there is something special I have learned from each of them. The girls enjoyed sleeping in everything from "princess beds" in the B & B, to sleeping bags, shared bunks with friends, sisters, or mom and dad, car seats, even big couch cushions! It was a great way to learn some fun flexibility and have different adventures every night! I think we've come home with a more mellow baby, as the trip seemed to help Alyssa learn to "go with the flow" a bit more. We also got to celebrate her first birthday in California, and we did so by taking the girls to our old favorite Ice Cream spot (Leatherby's), and letting them all have banana splits for dinner! They were pretty bouncy that night!
It was also wonderful to return and realize how much we love our little home. We're all settled back in now, and getting ready to start school quite soon. Here are some of the many, many, many California pictures we came home with:
I'll try to post more from the trip when I get a chance . . . .
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Aug. 1, 2008 - Observation
Tonight I find myself amused at the pronunciation differences of my three smallest girls. They can say the same thing in such different little ways:
Example: Mommy asks, "Would you like a drink?"
Alyssa: "bla, maa maa mi, bla, goo, goo" (or some variation of this - you get the idea)
Naomi: "Yah, I nee a wink of my wawer"
Juliette: "Ooh, yet (how she says yes), I need a beek of my beek!"
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Jul. 31, 2008 - Idiosyncrasies
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Jul. 25, 2008 - Contest Winner and Random little pictures
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Jul. 23, 2008 - Belle's Hair
Isabelle loves to have me do pretty things with her hair! I was gone the other morning, and daddy is admittedly not the expert in doing little girls' hair. Yet Isabelle decided she wanted a Gibson tuck, so she looked it up in the hairstyle book. After gaining daddy's help for a high ponytail (step one of the Gibson Tuck), she set up her own little hair station, read the instructions in the Klutz Hair book, and managed to create her own lovely style!
PS: Don't forget to enter the contest to win some lovely bath and household goodies from Young Living Oils!
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Jul. 18, 2008 - Contest Time
I'm in the mood to host a fun contest, and tell you about my new venture, so I thought I'd share some products with you that I have come to love! A few months ago, some friends of ours' introduced us to Young Living Essential Oils. I have to admit, we weren't too sure what to think about them at first, having never used essential oils before, but in a moment I shall tell you why we've come to love them so much!
So, here's the contest: The winner will receive a goody-bag of Young Living products - such as a bottle of one of our favorite oils, as well as some fun personal care products like lovely smelling shampoos, baby diaper ointment, toothpaste, mouthwash, foaming hand cleaner, hand sanitizer, home cleaning solution, and more! Just leave me a comment if you'd like to be entered, and I will randomly choose a winner in one week.
If you aren't the winner, you can still enjoy some Young Living products by visiting my new little website, Honeybee Garden - the link is on the button to the right. I am SO thankful for these oils (read on to see why) that I decided to help make them available to others! I hope they are a blessing to your family as they have been to ours. While we love using the personal care products when we’re able to, we feel the best treasures from Young Living are their pure therapeutic grade essential oils. We have been amazed to see the results of using some of these oils – particularly by using a diffuser. Our favorite example is that of RC and Raven oils. Our daughter has struggled for years with a whooping-type cough nearly every time she gets sick. It keeps her and us up all night, and makes it very difficult for her to breathe when she has it. We’ve tried just about every over-the-counter or doctor-given medicine we could, when our friends loaned us a diffuser with some RC and Raven oil. Though we were a bit skeptical at first, we were very pleasantly surprised! Literally ten minutes after we started diffusing the oil, her cough stopped – it didn’t just get better, it stopped completely! She has yet to struggle with it again when she’s been sick (we keep that diffuser on!), for which we are so very thankful! We have some other favorite oils which we’d love to share with you, but this is what got us hooked! We wanted to let our friends know about Young Living Essential Oils, and invite you to peruse our website or get in touch with us if you have any questions or you’d like to try out some of the lovely oils!
Again, all you have to do is leave a comment if you'd like to be entered to win some Young Living Essential Oils goodies!
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Jul. 11, 2008 - Some July Pictures
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Jul. 9, 2008 - Quotes Of The Day
From Isabelle, who was simultaneously eating Winnie The Pooh animal crackers and practicing memory verses:
"Once upon a time, in the land of Uz, there lived a man named Tigger."
From Hannah, who was attempting to dress herself in a unicorn costume which is far too small for her. It should be noted this was frantically shrieked at the top of her lungs, in between cries of fright, and of course in utter panic:
"AAAAAhhhhhh, mommy, mommy!!! I couldn't find you, mommy, I didn't know where you were (I was in the next room) - I was afraid because this unicorn is so tight on my neck that it will cut off my head and I will die!"
