'Tis the Season to.... Reevaluate Your Plans

'Tis the season to run craZy... fa la la la la...la la la la!  

'Tis also the season to reevaluate whatever plan one thought might be doable this season.

I had planned on having my kids all do their schooling this week, but I made a decision last night to stop that part of the madness so we can get a little "Christmas spirit" going on around here.  I have to admit all the Christmas festivities that used to get me in the spirit now seem to zap the spirit right out of me.  There is just so much to juggle ...and so much to forget.  I seriously forgot a baby shower Sunday afternoon that was very important to me.  I fully intended to attend it.  I even picked up a portion of the gift on Thursday while we were out attending a Christmas musical production and I picked up the second portion of the gift during a late night run to pick up photos on Friday night.  By Saturday it was all still on my mind.  By Sunday it had totally left my brain.  I was tired and still had a full day ahead and after church I came in, layed down on my couch, and totally forgot I had somewhere to be.  Totally.  

This really bothers me because I know I am going way too much and there is too much going on if I can not remember something like this.  This baby will be my lifelong friend's newest nephew.  His father is the baby we took care of played with in our pre-teen years and was our own personal real life doll.  I had every intention of celebrating this long awaited little one.  The parents have been married for several years before deciding they were ready to start this chapter of their lives.  This for me was something I wanted to be a part of.

Alas, exhaustion took my brain away.  ;)   We have actually been "stepping on toes" with many of the activities we have been declining.  I have declined a lot lately to try to save sanity, but there is only so much you can cut back on.  I am not even going to go through my past week... or the week before, but I will say that by Wednesday I was tired enough to stay home from church while everyone else went.  

Thursday morning I had organized a group to attend a Christmas production at noon about an hour away.  Originally, we were told the date was the previous week, so this now conflicted with and appointment I had scheduled which I had to reschedule later in the day.  So, I got up that morning and drug my kids out the door by 9:30 a.m., made the one hour drive to that town, did a little shopping for an hour in an attempt to find my daughter a warm coat (which is proving to be more difficult that one would expect), arrived at the theater, parked, had a little quick lunch picnic on the lawn, organize my attendees, viewed our showing, took a quick pic (coming soon on another blog post), shuttled my four oldest children off with a friend to take back to another friend's house in our town, and loaded me and my little one in the car for another 2 hour drive to some appointments.  Taking the two year old with me was necessary because my friend could not fit all my kids and her two in her car.  I have got to tell you what I delight it is to stop on the side of a freeway for potty breaks for a potty training little one.  And when I thought I would make a quick stop for gas at a drive thru gas station that little one announced she needed to poop which she was unwillingly to do on her potty in my van (probably a good thing... but I was wanting to hurry), so we had to go in the convenience store, have a potty adventure (because kids love restrooms) and piddle around a bit before getting back on that road.  We proceeded on to our two appointments and headed back home sometime after dark, stopped at a yummy little Mexican restaurant for a dinner for TWO (amazingly weird for me) and got back on the road, Sienna fell asleep around 8:00 p.m., I made phone calls (because it is so weird to be in a quiet car alone), and I arrived home at 9:00 p.m. just in time to say goodnight to my other kiddos.  

I was too tired on Friday and could seriously have cared less what my kids were doing as far as school, so we took the day off... from everything... including a family birthday party out of town that night.  It would have had us getting home at 11:00 p.m..  

Saturday came and it was a back-to-back busy day from the start which is why we did not do the party the night before.  We were out the door by 8:30 a.m. for the kids to sing with our homeschool choir in a nearby town at the county Angel Tree event for less fortunate families.  We were there until almost noon and then, headed back to our town for our annual Christmas festival.  We wandered around there for a couple of hours and Cody took the little ones back to the house.  The two older girls and I walked home and stopped in at my neighbor's Open House Christmas party for an hour.  We came home to find everyone feeling quite happy to be home and we all sat around enjoying that... for about 30 minutes before we had to pile back in the car to head to another Open House type Christmas party for our church youth workers.  We hung out there for about an hour and a half and headed home.  Again, we came in the house, got settled in, glued our rear ends to the couches and almost skipped the rest of the evenings events..... BUT we pulled ourselves up off the couches and headed out, AGAIN to attend the lighted Christmas parade.  I confess we did skip driving across town to participate in our own church ministry activity (serving hot choc and cider and handing out Bibles), but we were tired and we stuck to our normal tradition that we have done for as long as I can remember.  We walked the two blocks from our house to the parade and went to the church by our house that ministers in a similar way.  We were partakers and we were blessed.  We were blessed to have lunch and dinner provided for us on this day.  

Sunday came with the same promise of fullness.  This is the day our Children's Ministry has spent the season preparing for.  This is the day that requires all those Christmas songs they were singing back in September.  ;)  Not only did we have our regular church morning activities and had to be out the door by 9:30 a.m. we were picking up a homeless family to take to church.  Of course, this was a blessing to do.  I confess I do not always think ahead when I am tired.  In church I found myself realizing that I should have planned to provide this family a good lunch after church.  Fortunately, there is an amazing couple at our church that has been wanting to take us out to eat for over a year and they ask us ALL to lunch at a local restaurant.  What a blessing that was to me knowing I should have thought to plan.  My nine year old had to stay at the church the entire day for rehearsals, so she missed out on this and I felt sad for her that she was working away and we were eating out.  Anyway, we all went to eat and then we took the family back to the motel room that is being provided for them temporarily.  Getting a table for 14 in a busy restaurant took quite a while, so we left there about 2:00 p.m..  We headed home, chilled for about an hour, and then, my seven year old son had to be taken to the church for his portion of rehearsals for the play (fortunately my husband ran this errand alone).  We stayed home until about 5:15 p.m. before kicking ourselves back into action.  We loaded up, Cody dropped me at the church to do hair-do duty, he ran to pick up the homeless family so they could attend, and met us back at the church in time for the play at 6:00 p.m..  After the play was over we all went for some fast food and took the little family back to their room for the night and we headed home.  Time to fall into bed!!!  Yipppeeee!!! 

And that brings us to today... no real plan here, but I can say this we need some REST.  Everyone is loafing about aimlessly... yes, aimlessly with little direction.  We had breakfast very late (like brunch time) and at 1:30 p.m. we have yet to have lunch.  That is next on the agenda... really... I promise...  I am lacking in motivation.  So, now it is time to get moving a bit, again.  The new plan is to spread some Christmas cheer around here... do some crafty things, make junky Christmas crafts, make some homemade gifts,do some little kid schooling, and skip the bigger kids schooling stuff and let them help me do the little kids' stuff with them.  

School is out and Plan B is in session because we have another busy week coming up.  Tonight is basketball practice for two of my kids (2 hours), Tuesday is singing with our homeschool choir at two nursing homes and having a Christmas party.  Wednesday my seven year old son has a serious dental appointment where they will be drugging him out pretty hard.  That night we have a Happy Birthday Jesus party at the church for the littler ones and a Youth group party for the older ones.  I think the rest of the week is open, but I am probably just being hopeful. 

Getting the Day Off to a Good Start: Sticking to The Plan

Let me just say that having a solid plan works.  It is not always fun, but it does work.  My days with all my crew go so much better when we follow the rules.  So, here is a little peak into how our "little" family does it on the days that we don't bend the rules:

Hubby is up between 6:00-6:30 a.m. and it varies because he is a snooze master.  He is going to hit that snooze button as much as he can get by with.  Ha!

I am sometimes up before him and sometimes I sleep a bit longer, but for the most part I am an early riser.  No alarm or snooze button required. 

After my hubby dresses he awakens the two older ones to get their day started.  This is what they are supposed to do:

• Dress, do hair, etc.
• Feed animals (depending on weather we sometimes do this a little later since we have systems set up to provide constant water and food for the animals)
• Start their schooling

 Hubby goes to work approximately 7:00 a.m..

I let my littles wake up on their own since they do not have heavy work loads and I think little kids need rest.  Usually, I have some early risers and some that sleep late.

When everyone is awake we have breakfast together.

After that each person has there own order.  The older girls do their schooling and come to me as needed for assistance.  My little play and we randomly gather for school.  Sienna tags along and plays or colors mostly during the littles (K and 1st grade) school time. 

Usually I have some laundry going and I clean at things all day long.... all day... never ending.  ;)

Mostly school should be done by lunch, but is not always.  Lunch is usually at noon.

The afternoon continues with completing what needs to be completed (school or whatever).

Dinner is sometime between 5:00-7:00 p.m. and I like it to be on the early side of that, but as life has changed I have had to realize that some rules have to bend or I will stress out over dinner. 

This is just our basic schedule.  I know it lacks detail, but it is a glimpse of how our days go.

Getting the Day Off to a Good Start: Bending My Own Rules

This post should be about my strict schedule because really that is what works best for getting the day off to a good start around here.  And then there are days like today.....

I have been up since long before dawn because I have been having some insomnia lately.  This morning every one has slept in and I needed the quiet.  And as I have sat here in the quiet a steady rain has come and gone and now I am watching out the windows as a squirrel runs about my deck and stops to nibble on some found treasure.

The past few days have been busy and I have been a bit tired.  Friday we took a little field trip to a local fire station and that night my two oldest had birthday parties to attend in two separate towns at the same time (sigh).  Saturday night was a church Youth group hayride party and the whole family attended.  Of course, Sunday morning was church and after church one of my kids had church play practice while the rest of us were upstairs for a Youth Group Worker Meeting.  Later my husband went back for a Youth drama class he is teaching and later than that he went out with some men from church.  It was a full weekend.

So, now I sit and even at 8:17 a.m. I still have four kids sleeping.  My radical 5 year old has been awake for about 10 minutes and as usual she is demanding things and complaining.  She is so not a morning person!  But nonetheless I am starting this morning out with a good start and relaxing in spite of her trying to disrupt the quiet.  It is great training for her that momma does not give in to her tantrums.  ;) 

Sometimes you just need the quiet to start a day... without rigid schedules and all the rules.  We need time to wind down... time to relax... time to ponder our thoughts... time to think straight.  So, that is how I am starting my morning. 

Letting Go of Church Attendance Guilt

Sierra (8... just days before her 9th birthday)

Letting go of guilt has been something that I have had to do since having a larger than average family.  This especially applies to church.  Of all the things we should not be beating ourselves up about it is keeping tally of how many services we attend at church.  God knows our heart! 

I love to attend church.  I desire to be there.  I treasure my time their amongst other believers worshiping God.  But sometimes we make church complicated.  The Bible says to "remember the Sabbath".  That is God's Word and that is good enough for me.  I want to be clear... this is not a post about how you should not feel guilty about not attending church.  It is about not feeling guilty if you can not attend every church event that goes on. 

I really had to come to terms with this when I was pregnant with my third child and my husband was working by day and attending his college Masters program by night.  We used to attend church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and special events when we could.  Sadly, we even kind of thought we were extra special because we made it back to church on Sunday nights to fill our pew.  I actually remember feeling a kind of pride that we attend Sunday nights when most people did not.  Being prideful is not a good quality.  

As our family has grown and there have been more children with more illness or more things that need to be attended to on the weekends I have had to let go of the guilt.  My main goal is to "remember the Sabbath" by attending Sunday School and Worship Service on Sundays.  We no longer attend Sunday nights because we simply run out of energy trying to make it all happen.  We take our children to Wednesday night services for children's choir and classes.  We sometimes attend special Bible studies on those nights, also.  But this is what our Sundays look like now:

• By 9:40 am:  Arise, dress for church, eat breakfast and out the door
•  9:45 am - 12:30 pm:  Sunday School and Worship Service
• 12:30 pm - on:  Home for lunch and time with the family
• 5:00 - 6:00 pm:  My husband goes back to the church to lead a Youth Drama class
• 6:00 pm: Dinner
• 6:00 -8:30:  Family time, bathes, and bedtimes for the kids

Now, this is what our days would look like if we went to Sunday night servie:

• By 9:40 am:  Arise, dress for church, eat breakfast and out the door
•  9:45 am - 12:30 pm:  Sunday School and Worship Service
• 12:30 pm - on:  Home for lunch and time with the family
• 5:00 - 6:00 pm:  My husband goes back to the church to lead a Youth Drama class
• 6:00 - 730 pm:  Evening church
• 7:30 - 8:00 pm: Quick Dinner (and I don't know when I would cook it.  I guess that would be during our afternoon family time)
• 8:00 -8:30:  Family time, bathes, and bedtimes for the kids

 I know that could be done... but I don't want to do all that.  That is a recipe for stress and discord.  We would be just "attending" church because we feel we "should" and I am pretty sure we would lose our joy for it.  I am just being honest.  And again I will say that the Bible says to "remember the Sabbath".  Does that mean we spend 2 hours at church?  5 hours?  What if we just stayed there the whole day?  Would we be "remembering the Sabbath" day more effectively.  I don't think so.  With our current Sunday schedule we are there about 2 hours and 45 minutes.  There was a time that I would have felt guilty, but I just don't anymore. 

And there are different seasons of life.  Right now I am even co-teaching 7-8th grade girls Sunday School for this year.  Cody is doing the Youth Drama.  Sometimes we help out in different children's classes or wherever we are needed.  We have hosted Bible Study in our home.  We go to Youth events and other special activities.  We have less home commitment in some areas this year and have opted out of some other activities allowing us to do this.  Last year we did not have as many church commitments.  This is an ever-changing thing.  We do what we can, when we can.  And I am content with that.

So, that is a little peek into how our "little" family does church attendance.... guilt free.  And I will say that my guilt has been being testing this year.  There are more events that I am being asked to attend or being somewhat pressured to attend.  Maybe I should feel guilty, but... I just don't.  You see I don't answer to the people around me (even though I certainly would not want to be a "stumbling block").  I answer to God.  

So, I wonder... have you let go of church attendance guilt?  

 

Burning the Midnight Oil

... is not a wise choice!  I have got to start getting to bed earlier.  This is a real challenge in our home.  My husband has a hard time "shutting down" and I have a hard time going to bed unless all people are in their beds. 

And this is about all I have to say in this post.  Nothing profound... just thought that there might be someone out there that needs to hear this one statement:

Burning the midnight oil (staying awake) is not a wise choice!

It has very little benefit unless it is a very structured well thought out time that you will be spent accomplishing something important.  And it must have time constraints.  If you are staying up and dawdling about like I do you are better off going to bed right now and sleeping.  Right now!  I simply do not accomplish things well late at night.  In the morning I can hit the floor running, but at night I go into "sit down and dawdle mode".  If you have this problem, then go to bed!  Seriously, we have to realize it is like a domino effect.  Our tomorrows will not go as well as they could if we stay up burning the midnight oil and waste our precious rest.  It is like a downward spiral. 

When our bodies have rest we are more sane!  When we feel overwhelmed with our days rest can do wonders!

Busy Summer... Busy Life!

Wow!  It's been a busy Summer!  I had started to get back into a groove posting on my blog, but as we finished up the homeschool year and headed into Summer I had to prioritize my time a little better.  The result was a little unplanned blog break.  We were so busy we even cancelled vacation.  Ugh!  BUT we got the chicken coop mostly done... still needs finishing touches... and we pulled out the carpet in three rooms of our house and changed that to hard surface flooring.  We did a lot of rearranging, so it was like remodeling three rooms of our house.  Being that we have five kids and life that does not stop for our projects, it took us over a month from start to finish... and in all honesty there are still little details that I am still wrapping up.  And that is just kind of the way with my life... nothing is every truly complete.  There is always some project going on and they usually overlap one another. 

But I want to get back into posting even though this is a crazy busy time for us.  I think I will do some short posts and see how that goes for awhile.  And when I say it is crazy busy I really mean.  Here is a little peek into this homeschooling mother of five and wife... our weekly schedule is quite full:
Sunday -- Regular Sunday School and Worship Service  -- 9:45 - noonish
             -- Special Study at Church: "American Heritage" DVD viewing begins this week -- 5-6:PM
             * The last few years we have not attended Sunday night service, so this is a big deal for us.  We stopped attending when my husband was going through the Master's program in college and being that we have added more children to our family we never have resumed.  Honestly, I am okay with that because I once thought we "had" to be there. 
Monday -- Sierra has soccer practice -- 6-7:PM
Tuesday -- Sierra & Savannah have piano practice -- 5:15 - 6:PM
              -- Special Bible Study in our home ("Visionary Parenting") with a small group -- 6:30 - 8:PM
Wednesday -- Children's Church and Choir Activities  -- 6-7:45 PM
              -- Special Men's Bible Study / Special Women's Bible Study -- 6-7:30 PM
Thursday -- Savannah has soccer practice (with Daddy as Coach) -- 6-7:PM
Friday -- FREE
Saturday -- Four of the kids have soccer games and practices -- 9-11:AM
We also, intend to have park time on Fridays with other homeschoolers or special "field trips" and attend various other unplanned activities. 

Meanwhile, we have the usual homeschooling, laundry, cooking and mealtimes, housecleaning, animal care, kid care, ... that still goes on, too.  It sounds crazy.... and it is crazy... but I am so excited about the things that are going on in my life right now.  I am determined to be a better, more efficient planner, so that the next couple of weeks will go well.  Hmmm... with all this craziness it is quite ironic that I think I will blog more.  We shall see!!!

Weekly Wrap-Up... Hehehe! (Scheduling Our Year & Random)

Okay... well, this is a bit of a joke because we did not have a school week this week.  At the beginning of our school year I sat down with a calendar and wrote in all the details that I already new about.  Then, I sat back and looked at it.  If we had more than one day in week that had outside commitments I put a little "x" out in the margin by that week.  The rest of the weeks got a little week number out by those.  Right away I noticed that this week my husband would be home for Labor Day and I knew that we would have our first week of co-op this Friday (today).  Also, I knew there was a short appointment that would require us to break away on Wednesday morning and I do not like even short disruptions in the day.  This week got one of my little "x" marks.  And that equals no school for us! 

So, what we did do this week was stay busy... sometimes busy doing nothing.  But I guarantee you that busy doing nothing is still busy here.  No matter how lazy you feel there is always someone that needs something done for them or there is a spill or other small disaster going on.  Ahhh.. and I must not forget... someone has to flush the toilets and I seem to be the official toilet flusher.  ;)  But I want tell you too much detail about all that. 

Monday was spent playing with friends that came over (and skipping Sierra's soccer practice because I think spending time with out of town friends is important) and then, spending time with more friends that dropped by.  I think I did laundry or something that morning, but that is all a blur.

Tuesday was spent lazing around and making that Apple/Pear Pie.

Wednesday was spent doing appointments... and that was pretty much it.  I had the one little quick appointment and then, I had to call the pediatrician about a rash that Sahara has had for over a month.  She has been to the doctors three times now for this rash.  It was one of those mystery rashes that just was not going away on her inner thighs.  She saw her actual doctor this time and he diagnosed it completely different... eczema.  And it seems he diagnosed it right because it looks better.  And that is a huge victory!  And I need to remember to send out a praise request to my Sunday School class about this one.  After all that appointment business we rushed home to hurry the kids off to church.   Errrrrkkkk.... (the sound of squealling brakes).... I forgot about half our day and this was the good stuff.  I intended to surprise the kids with lunch out someplace because I have never taken all five of them to eat alone.  I had considered Pizza Hut buffet, Chik-Fil-A, or McDonald's (ughhh McD's) and I was going to even get them kid's meals!!!.  Oh happy day!  See... we do not allow kid's meals.  First of all, we only drink water most of the time, especially when dining out.  Second, I do not like my kids lusting after toys and not eating their food.  Lastly, it is just too expensive and I can feed them way cheaper for about half the cost.  Well, I ended up wasting some of the day away and losing track of time.  That gave us 20 minutes to dine.  That eliminated Pizza Hut.  And I really wanted to take them to CFA... not McD's.  I told them that I would take them to CFA if they were super good and super fast.  And they were... and so I promised to bring them back to play in the playground.  And that is what we did.  It was nice.  I think I could move in there... they played... I sat.... I even ordered ice cream of which they shared with me... and we ordered more for them to eat on the way home.  Then, it was rush home to quickly eat a simple meal and take them to church. 

Thursday was a lot of laundry and a going through the family closet some.  What fun.  Not... When done somewhat we emerged with two boxes of clothes to get rid of.  And those will be going to help fire victims in Bastrop, Texas.  I still need to get that laundry put away....

Friday it was off to the first day of co-op and to the park.  We meet lots of new people and we got to see our old friends.  Yeah!  We came home and chilled... really...to cool off... kids played the Wii and we all sat around and ate ice cream out of the container.  Yes, because we are gross like that and I am a bad influence on my kids.  ;)  After that it was time to get serious in a lighthearted way.  A childhood friend of mine is now a co-worker of my husbands and she is taking chemo for breast cancer.  They caught it early and did a masectomy and now are doing the chemo...and her hair is falling out in clumps.  So, a couple days ago Cody offered to help her shave her head.  And today she decided she wanted to.  They arrived and she looked a little nervous, but good.  I asked her how SHE wanted to do this... behind closed doors or in the open?... her shave it, Cody, or me?... Pics or no pics?.... all those "little" details... And then, we just did it the way she wanted.  And she went home to her husband with the help of a friend.  We ordered pizza and rented a kid movie and that is how the week went..... and now I am going to bed.

Apple Pie!

Well, we made the Apple Pie that we were supposed to make Friday for Expedition Earth to go with the book "How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World".  Actually, we made Pear Pie, since someone shared some local pears with us.  I really turned out yummy.  Unfortunately, my kids don't like Apple/Pear Pie and I knew this, but I was hoping it might be different with the whole book and helping make it thing.  Nope!  Caden ate a little, but not much.  They did enjoy the ice cream.....

Technically, I had scheduled this whole week off, so I am trying to decide still just how much school we will actually do.  I am thinking not too much.  It is early in the year to be taking breaks, but this week Cody was off for Labor Day, we have a short appointment on Wednesday, I really want to do the Spelling since it is a "Review Week", but I am thinking that special projects might be the way we go! 

Birth Posting, Sienna 4 months, Job Changes, & A New School Year.... Oh My!!!

So, my blogging in pretty sad these days.  Time is something I seem to always be short on.  One thing that is driving me a bit crazy is that I wanted to make one last post to the series regarding Sienna's birth.  I wanted to post about Caesarean recovery, but honestly I can't formulate good enough memories to put it down.  There were just too many drugs and too much pain.  I will say that my recovery was one of my hardest and was followed by a series of illnesses and setbacks even after I was back home.  It was a good 6 weeks before the illnesses all passed here and try as I might I just can not put together a decent blog post about it.  So sorry if I left anyone wondering. 

Next thought is that my tiny baby girl is no longer so tiny.  She is already four months old and I have been loving every ounce of her!!  My kids adore her, too.  I love watching all of them interact with her.  Caden is a bit rough, but she smiles about it (when she is not frightened... sometimes he startles her).  Savannah gets to hold her walking around some (with caution) and she has changed some diapers and clothing.  Sierra is jealous... not jealous of the baby, but that Savannah is allowed to do more.  Savannah is 3 years and 3 months older than Sierra.  Sierra is allowed to hold Sienna, but is not supposed to walk around with her or get her out of her highchair, etc..  She does it sometimes, anyway... and gets scolded.  Sahara loves to crawl in the baby bed and lay beside Sienna and play with her.  Caden does this some, also.  And yes, I let them.  Call me crazy, but I let my kids love on the baby as long as it is being monitored for safety and such. 

Our Summer has not been what I wanted.  Chaos has kind of been the mood around here this Summer.  I do not like chaos.  Goals have not been achieved and I am pretty sure I am the only one that cares.  LOL!  Only it really is not that funny to me.  ;)  But our Summer is coming to a close.  Normally, my husband would go back to his normal teaching job about a week before the students would.  That date would have been August 16th and that would leave us with almost a full month of Summer left.  That will not be the case this year because quite unexpectedly Cody got an Assistant Principal job at a local elementary school (Pre-K thru 1st grade).  It is very exciting!  His first official day of work will be August, BUT unofficially he is already working.  He interviewed on July 11th (Monday) and was supposed to find out the next day; however, within a few hours he got the call.  He signed the contract two days later on my birthday (Wednesday).  Then, he had a teacher workshop to attend the next day and went to work on Friday.  That was last week.  This week he will be working four days.  Next week he is supposed to work on Monday and be off the rest of the week, but we will see.  Other than the possibility of being off some next week our Summer has come to a close.  That's okay with me, though.  I am reading to get back to a routine!!  And it is pretty exciting that what we have wiated for has finally happened.  We could not ask for anything better!  ... and honestly we are having a hard time processing that this is reality because it is so stinking perfect!  God is good!

My closing thought is that I am prepping to get out schooling underway.  For the most part when Cody is at work we are at work/school.  It is just easier to follow his schedule because when he is home our schedule goes out the window.  And as I type this I wonder if that is the case for other homeschoolers out there.  Are you able to get school done when Daddy is home or does it just get too crazy?

Summer is....

Everyone is talking about Summer.  School is out for public schoolers and many homeschoolers.  Everyone is talking about plans... plans for vacations... plans for their schooling during Summer and in the Fall.  It seems there is so much to think about.  For us Summer is....

Going to be a time of slowing down a bit in some areas.  Our regular school plan will change.

My husband will be off work after next Tuesday, since he is a public school teacher. 

We are not planning a vacation this year; however, you never know when that might change.

My brother, his wife, and their daughter are moving bake to Texas this Summer.

I might rip out all the carpet in this house (my big fantasy).  The problem with this little fantasy is that there is only plywood underneath and since we want to try to pay off our mortgage within one year we don't want to spend money on flooring.  So, we have to decide if we can hold off until the mortgage is paid off or if we can find a cheap or temporary flooring solution.  I despise carpeted floors.  Upstairs we have some painted floors, but it looks "right" because it is a board floor.  If I had a faux flooring solution for plywood that would look nice I could live with that for a year.  That would allow us freedom to be messy with our artsy craftsy time.  After the mortgage is all gone bye-bye we could change if we wanted to hardwood floors. 

We will do some special schooling...  I am planning to use "Consider God's Creation" (Science) some.  I would also like to do some art curriculum that we have not been faithful to complete (or really even begin).  We will continue to keep math "fresh" for Sierra and read a lot.  Savannah will actually finish up her Grade 4 math and possibly begin her Grade 5 math.  She does not know it yet, but I have decided to detour that plan a bit, though.  I am awaiting the arrival of the first book in the Life of Fred series.  This Summer I am going to let her try that.  I originally thought it was just a supplemental thing for math, but have recently learned it can be a complete math curriculum.  I also hear that the kids who put up a fight to do math actually beg to do this... It's worth a try!  Sewing is top on the list to do with my older ones.  There should be no excuse to not have time since my hubby will be off and there are no scheduled vacations. 

And if it will ever rain I would love to focus some more on growing veggies!

Oh yeah.... we HAVE to build a chicken coop.

And we will be selling seven baby bunnies. 

And I would like to have some lazy days like this little momma (Sahara) and her babies.

A Full Week

We are going to do a full week OF SCHOOL this week!  I don't think we have done that in a while.  We have had some crazy weeks and some stressful days for Momma to work through.  Sometimes it was the things weighing heavily on my mind that kept us from doing a full week of school, but mostly it has been things on our schedule.  Sometimes you just have to roll with it.  If it is going to make life crazy, then it is better to not be crazy.  Last week we had a week that went something like this:

Monday was free.
Tuesday the older two girls had an invitation to go to a play with our neighbor at their homeschool co-op.
     That night would be 2+ hours of practice for our church musical.
Wednesday was free during the day, but church at 5:45 - about 8:30 with more practice for the church musical.
Thursday my husband took off work to spend the day with us and go to Seussical The Musical.
Friday was our Homeschool Co-op day.

From the beginning I knew we would only have Monday and Wednesday to do schooling, so two days does not make much for a week.  I decided we would do some review work rather than try to tackle a week of work in two days.  In reality my stress level was reaching all time highs about needing a caregiver, so we did one day of schooling in the end. 

This week there is nothing on the schedule at all... even Wednesday night church services have been cancelled for the next two weeks.  We will do a full week of school for both girls and then, my husband will be off for his public school Christmas break until January 3rd and so will we.  So, it is going to be a "full week"..... happily, it should be an easier week for us, though.... since we don't have a crazy schedule.

Okay, so you might want to see a pic from our church musical....

Sierra is the one in the really large burgundy costume front row.

Savannah is all the way to the right.

Cody is the tallest one on the right side (He played the role of Cascius, the tax collector and had a lot of lines and some singing parts... He was nervous, but never missed a beat!)

The whole cast was awesome and put in a lot of hours of work on their parts and the real live Baby Jesus just made it so beautiful!  Our church is a huge blessing in our lives!

Our Curriculum Choices for our 2010-2011 School Year

Animal Study: "Patches"

Character Training: "Patches"

Life Skills: "Patches"

I just wanted to post a list of the resources we will be using this year. I seem to be seeing this sort of thing all over the blogosphere, so I thought I would share mine. For the most part we use My Father's World and I highly recommend it, but we do alter it to "fit" us and some of our preferences. For instance, they recommend Rod and Staff Spelling for 2nd grade, but after that they recommend switching to Spelling Power from 3rd-12th grade. I like Spelling Power and I almost bought it last year, but we LOVE the Rod and Staff Spelling. So, for now we are sticking with it... maybe later we will change to Spelling Power and only time will tell. No more examples... I'll get on with my list.





Some things we will do together, some things, seperate and I will try to note that clearly.





1st Grade-- for Sierra:

• MFW 1st Grade (minus Drawing With Children; minus the recommend Math book -- for now)


• A Beka K Math that we did not finish, yet. We will zoom through this really because I have it already. Once we finish it up we will get the recommended Math or something else. I kind of forgot this detail this Summer. Shhhhh!! No big deal, because I won't need it right away. ;)

4th Grade-- Savannah:

• MFW Adventures (because we did not finish last year or this Summer as intended. Once we finish this up we will go straight into MFW ECC and it is likely that we will speed up some of Adventures where we can)


• Rod and Staff 4th Grade Spelling


• Primary Language Lessons (1-3 Lessons per day: I confess I was adjusting to homeschooling and this is recommended for 2nd-3rd grade, but we are using it for 4th: once done we will order Intermediate Language Lessons and begin that)


• Rod and Staff 4th & 5th Grade Math (We used A Beka last year and I used it a slower pace, but still Savannah has done most of what is in the R/S 4th & 5th grade books, so I am going to pick and choose what she needs from the two books. She should complete the year ready to start the 6th grade books even though she will only be going into 5th grade level... ??? Confusing, huh?! David Hazell says that if your child knows what grade she is in you are probably doing something wrong... We must be doing something right!)


• Letter Writing.... not a book... we are just going to have Savannah write! We met Amish Pen Pals this Summer and possibly some others.

All Ages-- Together:

• MFW 1st Grade (All will participate in calendar time, Science, Storytime & crafts when possible, and phonics & math games)


• MFW Adventures (All will participat in History & Science when possible)


• Consider God's Creation Science (This is a 2-3 year program, but do-able in 1; I just love it so much that I want to use it even though MFW is VERY complete. We will use this to add to MFW 1st & Adventures and work through the rest of it as time allows. My kids love Science, so I hope it can be a great motivator to get Savannah to focus.)


• Cooking/Sewing/Homemaking-- I do not have a "curriculum' for this, but I want to really train my kids this year to be helpers to one another. We need teamwork and I plan to have them in the kitchen as much as possible, as well as, helping with daily chores that are in need of focus. I want them to leave home one day knowing how a home should function and well equipped to manage their homes and families. To make it fun we will be using two children's cookbooks ("Williams-Sonoma the kid's cookbook" and "Kid's fun & healthy COOKBOOK" by DK).


• Art: We will be continuing with "I Can Do All Things" that is recommended for Adventures; Draw To Learn About Jesus by Notgrass (Had I been thinking I might have bought the one for Proverbs, since you learn Proverbs weekly in MFW 1st); Dover Coloring Books (Sea Life; Exotic Butterflies & Moths; Backyard Nature) & Dover Stain Glass Coloring Book Kits (Wild Animals; Fairies; Butterfly Designs)


• Music Time: I will try to play random music all day (children's music; Bible songs; bluegrass ... my kids want to learn to play fiddle; worship songs); hopefully, violin lessons (online or in person); Violin study using "Violin Primer For Beginners" by Jim Tolles and "A New Tune A Day for Violin: Book 1" by Sarah Pope


• Audio Story Time: This will be used for listening to things such as Jonathon Park CDs, books on tape from the library, etc.


• Video Time: When we left in June on our five week vacation we cancelled or Dish Network. I believe it needed to be done for several reasons: commercials, inappropriate content on even children's programs, personal self control (my husband), & it was waste of our money for the lack of usage other than cartoon channels. Caden was addicted, also... and that is all he was wanting to do. Regarding my husband, what I mean is that he watched very little, but what was drawing him in was not appropriate. He might want to watch the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), but the Spike channel is full of trashy commercials and "bleeped" out words. I think your mind still "imagines" the words and that is as bad as them being on the TV. Back on topic....... I want to still allow my kids some movie time. We still have our own movie collection and I think one every other day or so would not be so bad, especially the ones from Lifeway, etc..


• Exercise & Free Play: Thank God Fall is coming!!! I want to get outdoors. I NEED TO to prepare my body for labor, but have been taking it easy until the end of the first trimester. The kids need exercise to, of course! Gymnastics is still up for consideration, but I just do not know if we can swing it in this "season" of our life.


• Computer time: Games, Learning games, Typing, Spanish, etc.
• 4-H (not sure what we are doing, but "Patches" could get involved
• Co-op classes (For us it is all about friendships and anything they learn is just a "bonus"; Savannah will be taking World History and Gardening 101; Sierra will be taking Missions which includes some geography and cultures and Math Using Learning Through Literature); I am sure we will attend several theatre productions again this year as that is a love of ours and enjoy park day time after co-op.

FOR ANYONE OUT THERE READING THAT MIGHT BE INTIMIDATED BY THIS AND THINK IT IS AMAZING WE WILL BE DOING ALL THIS.... this is a ""plan" and we alter our plans alot! :) Mainly, it is a guideline, but we are not bound by it. Some of these activities are for "busywork"... You know, if "idle" hands are left with nothing to do, they start to get into trouble. If the kids are grumpy are arguing it might be a good time to pull out an "Art Activity", game, puzzle, or do a craft. I want alot on the "plan", so I have a lot to choose from.

As far as our schedule.... I don't have one, but we are jumping in full force Monday with or without one anyway!!! Sink or swim we are diving in!!! A schedule will have to "develop". Ha!!! It'll work out. Last year I fought with the perfect schedule, but by year end we had one that was very variable and it worked for us. This year we will do a similar thing and let life form the schedule.

ENJOY YOUR YEAR!!!

First Day of School 2010 & Our Focus

Today is our first day of school. Sort of.... we are getting back in to our routine gradually. I realized mid-week that My Father's World recommends starting 1st Grade on a Thursday and after looking closer at the lesson plans I agree that is the best way to use this curriculum. Also, this is going to allow us to make a smoother more gradual transition into our year. Today and tomorrow we will only do 1st Grade with Savannah (4th) sitting in. There is nothing for Savannah to really do with us these first few days so we are focusing on character training with her. Our focus this week for her will be to not be a distraction. Savannah will do calendar time and those basic math activities and then, she can sit and read, etc. for this hour that I work with Sierra. Savannah tends to try to talk to us about what she is reading or show us everything which is a major distraction. I love that she wants to talk to us, but it makes what we are doing take twice as long. I think these two days will be a great chance for her to practice not being a distraction. As well, I want Sierra to learn to focus on her work and not allow the distraction to suck her in. During these days our focus with the two little ones is strictly character training. It seems some little boy thinks that every thing is to be throw wildly through the air like a grenade. So, Caden will be learning NOT to throw things and Sahara will be learning not to follow his lead in doing so. Caden will also be learning to clean up his messes, which is a big deal for him. He is still a baby in many ways and does not think clean up is "really" his job. Time to change that line of thinking. ;)


And because we do things just a bit different than everyone else this is all of the kids on our first "practice" day of school one day last week. Daddy was home still and let's just say that that week did not go as planned. The plan was to "practice" our school routine all week. It worked on the one day that Daddy was gone, but even on that day it was obvious I had to figure out really what I want this year to be like. I still don't fully know, but we will do this gradually instead of jump in trying to do school all day and burn them our before we get going good. I am thinking that next week we will step it up a notch with 1st grade and ease into some of Savannah's 4th grade. As the weeks progress we will add a little more to our day. I tend to try to take on the world from the beginning and end up in total frustration. This year I want them to love it... and it become their way of life... an enjoyable way of life. I will try to post more on that later and our curriculum choices, as well as, our extras (ya know.... what they call "electives" in public school"). We are going to have a lot of extras.

Our focus this year: Character and being helpers to one another while getting in some real learning.

1st grade today:
Calendar time and 100 day chart with calendar coloring time
Place Value cups
Days of the week song (I almost forgot the words ;) )
Letter Practice for A, B, C -- writing and sounds
Discussion of SCROLLS and the way they were used in Bible times
More Letter Practice for our scroll pages -- A, B, C
There was not a specific suggestion for books for today only that we do about fifteen minutes of reading, so we read:

• Zink The Zebra by Kelly Weil (about a zebra that is different.... the moral of the story is that is okay to be different)
• Smudge by Clare Newberry (about mischievious kittens... great charcoal drawings)
• Not THIS Bear! (about a little boy that is mistaken for a bear in his fur coat & hat on his way to visit his aunt)

And I guess I have resigned to the fact that we will be adopting a similar school year schedule as my husband's public school. I want to school year round, but it is not working well when he is home. I have wanted the flexibility of year round schooling, but it is just not working for us. Maybe someday. This does not mean we will be on their exact schedule. Public schools actually schedule in more days than required and so we will still take off most or all of December. Also, I am due to have a new baby the week AFTER his Spring Break, so we may have an extended Spring Break... who knows, but I am learning not to plan it all out too much and just roll with what life hands us.

A Glimpse of our Last Two School Weeks

The week before this past one was Spring Break for my husband's school, but the whole family was sick so we stayed home. For Savannah we did 3rd grade Math some and did some light reading. For Sierra we did light reading, a bit of phonics like games and discussing words, and just mostly played when we were feeling up to it. Our biggest venture out was a trip to the Sno Cone stand once. There was a bigger plan, but life happens and we are still recouping from a virus after two weeks.

This past week I had planned to jump back into MFW Adventures, but that did not happen and I just am not going to worry about it. It may take us two years to do this little one year program, but I am more concerned with enjoying it than just getting it done. "Just getting it done" was my focus for a while and I have learned that there is no benefit from that. We are all quite excited to start the state studies and bird study, though. I'll shoot for starting that this coming week. We will be more prepared that way anyway. For Savannah (3rd) we did our Spelling (Rod & Staff) with double lessons. We did a "Review week" lesson and a normal week lesson at the same time. I was confident in Savannah's ability to handle two weeks of study at a time, so I did not feel this was too much for her. She aced her end of week test with a 100. The normal week lesson was with words like cutting and other -ing words and adding suffixes (-ing, -ed, -en). We did four days of math lessons and speed drills (and I still don't get why she is suddenly liking these, but I will go with it... Hehehehe!). We do "math extras", which includes using "wrap ups" and other math toys or flashcards, as well as, writing mulitiplication facts. I hear that using math songs for skip counting works well, but I have failed at implementing it so far. Maybe we will do it sometime. I also, want to start using math games online, etc. more as we just purchased two more computers as part of our school expenditures. We have saved money by borrowing some of our curriculum that has made this possible. God supplies all our needs!! Since Savannah did double lessons in Spelling I only had her do one day of handwriting practice. A normal spelling lesson consists of 16 spelling words (3 review) and the review week consists of five weeks of words (13 words each) totalling 65 words. She had only previously missed one of the 65 words so her testing consisted of the 16 words from the normal list and the one previously missed word. She made a 100. And by the way I "grade like so... all correct = 100... any missed = -1 (etc.). I don't give number grades. I have no concern for grade numbers and I would only move on to the next thing if she really knows the information. I like a Content Mastery approach and a focus on actually learning. I don't want my kids simply memorizing information for a test. Anyway, back to the handwriting... She did one day of writing her spelling words (the 16) in cursive. We usually do one day of a Bible verse, two days of the spelling words, one day of family names , and one day of other random words/sentences/verse. As long as she is writing I do not care what as long as it fills a page and is dated and signed. I had a handwriting curriculum this year for both my girls, but found it to be monotonious..... write " j j j j ..." ... we skipped all that and grabbed the old style writing paper and did what comes naturally. Much more enjoyable! Savannah read library books and some of our books. That was reading!

Before I go into Sierra's I want to tell you our schedule. Sick people just don't care..... we rested... we played when we felt like it and sometime in the late afternoon we would start some schooling. I usually started with Sierra this week and let Savannah start her independent work in Spelling or Math. We did school outside, on the couch, in the school area.... whatever felt good at the moment... sick people take a lot to motivate... especially, when it is Momma. Most of our school took place after Daddy arrived home and after dinner. It worked quite well and I would highly recommend it for those that are struggling with juggling all that life offers. I actually plan to use this "schedule" more often. I think it may be the key to getting some of our chaos in order. I can spend my days focusing on guiding my kids to help with chores and our attitudes first and foremost. We can prepare for dinner ahead of time and get more laundry done, etc. The stress of that getting lost in the shuffle greatly governs our day. With that front and center I think the schooling will just fall right into place in a more relaxed way.... even if it is in the evenings. The reality is that we can still do all our school in the same amount of time we used to do on just evening homework. I am seeing that it does not matter what time of the day we do our school. It should just be part of our life whenever it works good to do it.

And on to Sierra's... we started our "Goat Gg Week" in MFW Kindergarten. I actually want to get a bit "caught up" on where we are in lessons, so I look at the coming weeks and see that there are three weeks related to farming (Goats, Cows, Horses). I thought I would combine the Goat week with the Cows, but we were feeling too puney. Monday I finished up some unfinished work from our Insect week and did a little more preparing for the farming weeks. I have really had Sierra do more reading than the lessons call for, so I was happy to see that in the Goat week this week they finally add the first sight word (the). Sierra already knew it, so that was easy and confirmed we are on the right direction with her. She is the first on that I have had to teach to read, so it is really nerve racking sometimes.... but exciting!!! She is doing great! We did an animal matching file folder game and did some animal matching with a wooden hide-n-seek type puzzle that I have. I made some extra animals to go with it. We also used it to sing Old McDonald. I had each of the girls pick five animals and we hide them in the puzzle. As we sang we opened the little doors to see what animal was there and did each one and it's sound. For future reference 10 animals is way to long of a song when you are coughing your head off. ;) We mostly read books this week and worked through the MFW Reading Plan (I leave out some things that Sierra knows well) and did the worksheets. She did great and I am so gald that the worksheets are finally adding sentences for the child to read. The one thing I think this program is really missing..... and I say this lightly because I know it is meant to be a slow and easy approach to teaching reading and I am thankful for that.... I think it is missing little phonics readers. I have found with Sierra that the key to teaching her to read has been to put little phonics readers in her hands. Once she sees she can sound out some of these words phonetically she gets quite excited. I think it is great to write little nonsense story sentences using the words that you are focus on and let the child read those. And example off the top of my head is:

The cat is fat.

The cat is in a hat.

The cat is on a mat.

The cat sat.

The cat sat on the mat.

The cat is red.

The hat is red.

The mat is red.

I don't think we did any crafts... ooops! They did not miss it. Anyway, that was our week! Gotta run to church, again! Later!

Letting the FUN Happen

Sometimes it is so hard to just let life be lived. Sometimes we just have to let the fun happen. Some of the most burden relieving advice I get it is when a homeschool mother says not to worry about teaching your kids a thing for now. I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful neighbor who has five children (four of them or grown and gone on) and she tells me all the time that you really do not have to teach your kids until around nine or older. Just let them play and read to them and play games with them and enjoy them. Her four older grown and gone children are successful. I am not sure all of what they do, but one just got his law degree a year ago. So, they are not lacking in their education.

Another friend has advised me to "do the opposite of what you think you should do".

Today I was visiting with a friend that has five children with her oldest being fourteen and she said that you really do not need to teach them grammar until they are older. We discussed that earlier in the year my husband (the public school English teacher) comment on my 3rd graders Grammar work being the same as what he uses for his 7th grade students. So, they spend four years repeating the same thing. Now, I do realize repetition drills it in the heads, but I have a feeling that they teach it for four plus years is more about the fact they are not given one on one teaching. My 3rd grader gets it and it is not that she is a genius. Anyway, today my friend was saying that really she thinks it is not necessary to teach Grammar/English until probably 7th grade.

And I hear that there is a book called "Better Late Than Early", although I have never read it. I hear that it is wonderful. Maybe one day I will read it. Maybe you will have the time to do it sooner than I and you can learn from it.

I am so struck by how intelligent these children are! Do we really need to rush them.

The lady I was talking to today said that the best thing you can do is focus on character while they are young. Amazing to talk to her about this because that has been what has been on my heart this past week. All the academics in the world is going to be worthless if they have poor character. A very wise comment she made was that it is much harder to shape their character when they are older and it is just so important to do that part while they are young. Another thing that she was talking about was teaching your children to serve their daddy and to make him feel special when he is home.

We let the fun happen today..... after their playtime with friends I usually try to do their school with them before Daddy gets home... and some while he is there sometimes. Today I let them play while I rocked the baby and did a few things. When their daddy got home they played together. Wii have a Wii, you see ;) ... but my kids rarely get to play it. It was a gift from grandparents and they probably get to play it less than once per month. I know... no fun.... so, today they played the Wii with Daddy while I watched them from the kitchen doing my cooking and laundry. It was nice to just let them play today... and to see their daddy come home and just get to play with them without the stress of "what to do next".

I have a hard time with this... feeling like I am not giving them what they need... like I am not preparing them for life... yet, I know it is better to prepare them non-academically.... to mold their character and their spirituality.

Today the kids played with other homeschool buddies... went in their new secret wooded clubhouse... jumped on the trampoline.... climbed trees.... got stuck in trees ;) .... watched TV.... played with their siblings... played the Wii with Daddy.... made a new friend played with her.... drank hot chocolate even though it is not cold at all... We just let the fun happen!

And you know what? We are doing it again tomorrow! Crazy huh?! We are going to homeschool co-op, then to the park. We might run an important errand.... and I doubt we will do very little of our "school work" ... and that will put us behind.... again... but that's okay because we have friends coming over on Saturday and we are going to let some more fun happen. ;)

Just posting this to say.... RELAX and ENJOY your kids. What is life really about if we don't enjoy this. God gave them to us to enjoy them!

M. I. A. and Ponderings

I have been M.I.A. (Missing In Action)... and I do mean ACTION! In the last month I have packed up (and unpacked) for three trips out of town. Craziness! It has nearly killed me, I think. I have actually considered cancelling the trip we have been trying to plan for Christmas. We have been doing very little of our school and that just makes me feel awful. I try to "prioritze" and, of course, getting school done should be top on the priority list, but two of these trips have been to see out-of-state relatives and that is a high priority, too. We were able to visit with my husband's twin all the way from California and only have to drive the two hours to our in-laws. So much closer than the 20 hour drive to California! [And yes, we drive to get there.] The second visit was with my brother, his wife, and their six year old daughter and again, we only had to drive two hours to my parents house as opposed to the 10 hour drive to Alabama. The last trip was supposed to be a "joy ride" kinda two day getaway to recover from the other travels... let's just say it was not so much!

So, I awake this morning pondering what to do... Originally, I had planned to take the whole month of December off for a Christmas break and do only Christmas related schooling. The thing is we ended up taking off most of the month of November. Well, we did some schooling, but it was such a "half-effort" that I just do not think it was as beneficial as it could have been. I am totally glad that I decided to school year round because we seem to have to take a lot of off time. The recent months have also shown me that I am probably going to want to switch to four day school weeks, so we have day to run errrands, do shopping trips, appointments, visits with friends, Co-op days, "field trips", cleaning, etc. (all those things that still draw for our attention).

Just to throw in something random... I have not done Christmas cards! Not that that is really earth shattering, but I usually do send Christmas cards. Last year I did not do it because I just had made so many changes in my life with having a new baby and switching to homeschooling mid-year and trying to learn what I was doing. I was just "treading water" and trying to survive it all.... uh, same this year, too! LOL! Well, I guess I still have time.... we'll see if I get it done. ;) That is the thing.... if we don't do our "usual" school I could get some of these things done and the kids could be involved in it. Hmmm... and it is only really two weeks that I am talking about because we will be taking the usual time off that our public school takes off [remember my husband is a Teacher]. Anyway, I am just pondering it all and for me this year I have really been pondering how we will make school a "way of life" and life a "way of schooling"... not so much about a curriculum, but with them still learning and achieving the appropriate academics. By the way, I haven't mentioned that we are naming our school! For the most part it is decided that we will call it "Way of Life School". [Reasons for "naming" our school vary, but some of it is for the future when they need highschool transcripts.... some of it is so they can have a "school" to say they attended and not just saying, "I am homeschooled."... some of it is just for FUN!] I pondered a few variations: "Way of Life Academy", but our focus is not purely academic; "Way of Life Christian School", not opposed to that one for sure; "Way of Life School", just like the flow of it and the simplicity of what it says and the profound statement of it even with the simplicity. I obviously stayed away from my first choice with something about Little Things because they will not always be little and therefore, not want to be referred to as such in their teens. :)

Anyway, I just wanted to share my ponderings and let you all know I am out here still... alive and well exhausted!

A Special One Year Anniversary

I just wanted to let you all out there know that I am still on this planet, but I have been busier than busy. I have been digging deep on sorting out how our homeschool life really is going to work for us. I change my mind daily about it all. One thing is consistent though... I know that I want God to be at the center of it all. Amazingly, a year ago I would have told you that I thought it was just fine to keep God and school seperate. What an amazing journey this year has been for me and my family. In this very moment I am just realizing how strange it is that I am making that statement as a type.. you see today marks our One Year Anniversary of homeschooling!! Wow! I can't believe it.... This day one year ago was Savannah and Sierra's last day to attend public school. October 31, 2008 I sent Savannah to school telling her that it might be the last time she would be attending public school and her daddy told her in the car that morning that it would be (I wanted to not tell her and make it easy for her... He thought she needed to tell her friends goodbye... I didn't want teacher drama, etc... It was okay either way, I guess.)

I spent a great deal of time over the coming months feeling awful for Sierra because she loved her school and all it had to offer her. Sadly, it was a break away for her and a chance for her to shine. What I have witnessed in our home is something that was not immediate and still is a work in progress, but it is that we are learning to let her shine.... HERE. I struggle with feeling like I am not good enough to deal with her... see, she is very independent. She does not need others like some kids do, but in many ways she needs me more. She needs to feel important and special. Sometimes in a larger than average family a child like that gets kind of looked over. That is how I feel about her. She is confident and a hard working... focused and driven to succeed. She is willing to jump in and do her part, but as wonderful as that all seems it is easy to forget to focus on her needs. She is the child that always wanted to sleep in her OWN bed and left us heartbroken that she did not want to sleep with us. ;) We disturbed her from resting. ;( She was so happy to move out of our room and the baby bed and move on to her big girl bed alongside her older sister. I could lay her down for a nap and put on the Pooh Heffalump movie and she would always drift off to peaceful sleep when Kanga would sing Roo to sleep in the movie. I might note that I rocked Savannah to sleep for naps until she was four years old... or longer. Sierra was quite content with all this, but it left me with mommy guilt anyway. :) Due to birth order I never read to Sierra as much... or did anything as much as I did for Savannah. All of those things are normal, but I always felt I should be doing more for her. I also, had a fall and pregnancy loss when she was 1 1/2 which caused me to have some anxiety issues... always trying to be careful, etc.. I am sure I sat around way to much when I should have been up and busy with her. Just life's happenings really, but it all left me feeling like she always got the leftovers of me. So, taking her away from something she loved was a hard thing and caused me much guilt... once again! Guess what I know now?! I am not shortchanging her!! I am learning HOW TO focus on her. I will say that it has not felt that way, but sitting her now I can tell you that many of my schedule changes have been because I know that she is not getting her time that she needs for her learning and her Kindergarten experience. And in the last few weeks I have been scrapping all my plans to make sure we are "getting it right"... and I don't mean academics (gasp!) ... I mean the way we do our schooling... the time we spend together... the way we spend that time... the way we interact with one another... my attitude... their attitudes... I can finally see that this is all going to work. I can let it go and let it "happen". Sierra is shining, too.

Reflecting Back.... Some things that we have accomplished are: I taught Sierra her ABC's and am teaching her how to begin reading... her numbers... many other things.... NOT some other person, but ME taught her!!! Wow! And I must say that I really do not know what I am doing, but I work hard at it and we are learning together how to teach her. It is truly amazing! I have taught Savannah so many new concepts... many of which I can't imagine that she would learn so easily (if she were not fighting me all the way... [insert sarcastic grin])... basic addition & subtraction, complex addition & subtraction, 100, 000 place and beyond, Roman Numerals, fractions, telling time, punctuation, abbreviations, LOVING TO read vs. hating to read, cursive handwriting, multiplication (1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 10s, 11s, some 12s), beginning division, LOVING music vs. disliking music... the list goes on.

I think we have started to enjoy our schooling more... What a great way to celebrate our special anniversary!!! Anyway, I will catch you all up on my life a bit later... we are here... we are working hard... and I am evaluating carefully how I spend my time and unfortunately I have been taking a bit of a bloggy break. I need to update the MFW blogroll posts some and I want to show you some of things we have been up to... The Texas Renaissance Festival was great... our costumes were so fun.... we enjoyed some fall festivals.... we, I mean, the older girls each won 1st place in a costume contest tonight at a nearby fall festival! I was super thrilled since I made them!! They were super thrilled because their Momma made them and they got a bucket of fun and candy for a prize! OOoooohhh ... sorry... no pics right now... I will share later... but now I must go to bed.

Going Somewhere...

Well, it's going to be a short trip, but we ARE going somewhere. Tomorrow we will be heading out to the Texas Renaissance Festival for their School Days. I meant to post this a couple days ago, but I have been sooooooo busy. I was going to see if anyone out there is going to be attending, but by the time you tell me I will be on the road now. ;) Ooops!! Maybe I will see some of you there. Leave me a comment if you attend... just because I would love to know it even after the fact.

So, I am Missing In Action... and I do mean action... it has been crazy here! By the time I post my My Father's World updates I am going to have 3 weeks to post at once. Whew! I don't know how everyone else gets it done!! Seriously, I have been trying to put my computer aside and focus on schooling. If I let myself get on the computer I kind of "check out of reality". My focus has been on trying NOT to do that and I have been tackling some projects.... reorganizing closets, going through all the kids clothing, celebrating a third birthday for Caden, having a yard sale, tackling a filing nightmare, changing our schedule (AGAIN)... not really changing it, but rather juggling it because life gets messy and that schedule thing justs gets all scrambled around. Maybe that will be the way for a while. Some days I like to let the kids wake up when they want and play with each other... you know they are learning to enjoy one another and that is something that is not in our books completely... I just don't want to look back at a rigid schedule and wonder if I could have been more relaxed about it all. On Wednesday it was Caden's birthday and I just let all the kids play together until lunch time. It was so great to see them just buzzing through the house having fun as siblings. I thought of all those children sitting in desks staring at their papers and missing out on this... this is why I started homeschooling... togetherness and loving being together... not just schooling on a rigid schedule.

Anyway.... I am actually going somewhere outside the walls of this house!! Ah--ha--ha--ha!

Schedule Change... Plan "C" & MFW & Library

I am guilty of not adding enough photos to my posts... trying to reform!!

Not the best, but you just can't always get that perfect pic when you are always running late. ;)

Savannah was too distracted by Sahara fussing that she could not smile because they all worry about her every whimper. Look close because Caden is ready to get someone with his "sword" (plastic toy knife).

Okay, so the point of this post is my most recent SCHEDULE. I really am not totally difficult, but I am really trying to get our schedule just the way I want it.... the way it works well for all of us. And I so desire for my kids to be working together and learning together and teaching one another through it all. We do this already, but I want to tweek the details so that it has a great flow.... and a joyous, harmonious flow. So, here it is:

By 7:00 a.m.
Kids Awaken!
Dress Routine
Come to Breakfast / Set Table
Prayer Requests & Commitments / Prayer Time
Breakfast with Parent Lead Devotional
My desire for this is that the kids will be eating breakfast WITH Daddy. They can start the morning praying with Daddy, etc. and not just me.

By 7:30 a.m.
Singing (during Breakfast Clean-up)
Story Time / Read Alound (Our Choice--not based on curriculum)
Motto Chant (“I homeschool because I want to be with you”)… then, move to school area.
Read Alouds can just take place gathered around the table making a smoother transition into schooling.

By 8:00 a.m.
Minutes
5 Calendar Time (Month, Day of Week, Date, Year, Special Days, Upcoming Events, Weather & Seasons, 100 Day Chart)
Pledges
ART TIME (I Can Do All Things or other) Not too sure about this Art Book just yet... thinking I would have preferred something a bit more "elementary" (translation=easy).
=1 hour

By 9:00 a.m. (Order should depend upon the season/weather)
60 Begin MFW Kindergarten with Sierra & Others join in w/ Savannah being a Teacher’s Helper
60 Group Study for MFW Science & History, Etc.
60 Outdoor Activities & Physical Exercise & Chore Time *

By 12:00 p.m.
Morning Activities End
LUNCH & Clean-up & Chore Time & Meal Planning for Dinner /Home Ec. ;)

1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Naptime for Caden (2 hours) & Sahara (varies)
Independent Studies for Savannah -- Bible Verse / Memorization; Math, Grammar, Spelling, Reading, Etc.
Individual “Centers” Time ** (Savannah/Sierra)

Note: (Can vary daily… just ideas)
* Outdoor Activities & Physical Exercise:
· Gymnastics & Trampoline
· Ballet Class
· Bicycling or Walking
· Games: Kickball, etc.
· Yard Care & Plant Care
· Swimming
** “Centers” Time
· Computer Time
· Puzzles
· Typing
· Games (Cards, Board Games)
· Bingo
· Science
· Library
· Music
· Books of the Bible
· Handwriting
· Math
· Journaling

And on a final note for the night I am totally ready to get started using My Father's World (Kindergarten & Adventures), but since we have been hit so hard with this flu bug I am going to postpone for one more week. I was planning to take off most or all of December, but that might not happen now. It is great to have the freedom to change things up. I think this week is going to be a "make some messes/art/organization/get better week"! I am eager to start sharing some of our MFW schooling, but it is going to have to wait just a bit longer. One thing I will share is that I have been working on a Home Library Listing of all our books. I have also included the various puzzles we have and it might just eventually grow to include games or any other learning items we have on hand. The idea is that I can do a search on the database for our topic and it will show me what I have on hand. Sometimes we forget that "penguin" puzzle or book, etc.. I am also discovering that I own some books that I did realize we had. ;) I am getting very familar with the various authors of children's books, so it is a learning experience for me, as well. The main reason I am mentioning this is that in the MFW Kindergarten curriculum it says to make 27 file folders for the letters/topics of study and to start placing things in the folder to use. Well, I do not want to pull the "Penguin Reader" now for that folder. I want my kids to have access to their books on their bookshelf; however, I am planning to write a list directly on the file folder of things that I think of that I would like to use. Using the "Penguin" folder as an example again... I already know that I have a couple of fictional storybooks involving penguins and I have some easy reading Science readers about penguins. I also have some Pre-K level wooden puzzles that have penguins and other animals that would be great. I know that I have some various textbook type books that have penguins in them and I plan to write down the title of the book and the page numbers. I might make a note of an additional craft for penguins and note the website or write down my own craft idea should one come to mine. So, that is how I am planning to use the MFW Kindergarten file folder system. Hope that gives someone out there an idea! Goodnight all!!

Working On "Plan B"

I'm working on a "Plan B", but I spent a lot of time digging deep to really figure out what direction I want to go for our homeschool. It feels like I failed by not deciding by today, but I am waiting on God and right now He has deeper issues to work out for us it seems. I did stay up until 3:00 a.m. Saturday night (because that is the only time it gets quiet), but I only had time to deal with scheduling our homeschool time. I have a great "Plan A", but it is just not working for us. I love David Hazell's theories on schedules with free afternoons and light day Fridays, but the free afternoons part is just not happening. We are not getting all the schooling done in the morning... and it's no wonder with all my little ones. And now that I have a My Father's World curriculum book here to look at I see that they have a statement about this type of scheduling may not work when you have an infant in the house. Anyway, somewhere around 1:00 a.m. that night I prayed that God would reveal to me the schedule that we should have as I was working on it. I was thinking so deep while focusing on our little schedule. It took quite a while, but I feel God was revealing it to me through those deep thoughts. The rundown for our day is something like this after the changes:

1. We are going to start our day with our Circle Time and that includes Prayer, Pledges, Calendar & Seasons, Song of the Week, Story Time/Read Alouds, & Our Motto Chant (also, Devotionals/Bible Verse & Memorization are in our day and planned for this time, but they may be moving to another time slot) [TIME = 1 hr. = approx. 8:00-9:00]

2. The next three hours (a., b., c. shown below) of our morning will be versatile dependent upon weather/season) and the reason for this change is that we live in Texas and we were spending the coolest part of our indoors and then, it would be time for lunch and ... then, time for Caden's nap ... and that is also the hottest time of the day anyway. So, we were feeling like house hermits. I want to be able to have my kids outdoors for some part of their schooling day and doing some physical activities.

a. Outdoor Activities/Exercise/Outdoor Chore Time (i.e. Water Plants, Clean Yard Toys, etc.) [TIME = 1 hr. = approx. 9:00-10:00]

b. I was trying to combine teaching time with Sierra & Savannah (K & 3rd) and it was too distracting for Savannah. Savannah is probably ADD, although I will not consider medicating my child. I think we just have to learn to deal with it and teach her to deal with it. So, I have decided to make her my Assistant Kindergarten Teacher. ;) She will help me teach Sierra and partake in the activities that Sierra does while actually learning to be a teacher, too. During some of the activities that are easy to tie in some 3rd grader work she will do hers along side her sister (not anything that is going to take over the K time, though). Much of this decision is based on the fact that I know Sierra was robbed of much of my focus for her Pre-K time and now that has been happening with her K time. I do not want her to miss all those wonderful fun things that the K grade does. So, the following is what we did for today to provide an example of how Savannah will work with me to teach her sister: [TIME = 1 hr. = approx. 10:00-11:00]

-- I started them with a maze each which would be my "icebreaker" and that lasted less than a minute, but they liked doing that.

-- Review short vowel sounds (opening the barnyard doors from a craft done last week that was so cute). I had Savannah ask Sierra the name of the animal and it's vowel sound.

-- Review Creation Booklet (another cute craft book done last week). I let Savannah read it to her sister, since Sierra can not read it, yet. Savannah made a commnet about how cool the booklet was that her sister made. :) Love it! I did have to tell Savannah at one point that we do not criticize others "art techniques".

-- Practice Writing worksheet (half homemade) for some of the numbers 1-20 (randomly). I had Savannah say something like, "Sierra, draw a green triangle around the number 13, then trace the number. Circle the 7 with an orange marker and trace that number." We did this randomly with about 10 of the numbers. Sierra does not struggle with these concepts, so it is a great way to teach her to follow directions. She is one of those kids that you hand a worksheet and she just dives in and does it.... before instructions. Most the time she does it correctly, but other times not. This is also reinforcing the colors and shapes she already knows and teaching the numbers 11-20 that she still gets a little mixed up with. This is just an activity I developed on a whim. The reason I say it is "half homemade" is that her workbooks are workign on the number 2 still!! I don't want her to be held back from learning. I use the practice sheet for Lesson 70 for writing numbers 1-10 and I add a column that I write in light marker for the numbers 11-20.

-- Then, they got "starving" and I told them they could have pretzels while Sierra was doing a few simple worksheets (one for tracing, one for drawing, and two that are way too easy math for her, but she gets to color)... anywhoooo... their snack turn in to numbers (11, 1), then letters (A, E, F, H, I, K, L, M, N, T, V, W, X, Y,Z) and that was fun for them to be creative and reinforce letters.... of course, this was on a whim, too. We went over our time and we did not get to her letter writing practice, BUT look at what we DID accomplish.... two added "on the whim" activities and teaching Savannah to teach her sister. Also, Savannah did her own handwriting practice page while Sierra was doing two of the worksheets.

c. The other hour will be combined teaching for both of them for Science and History and we will do simple experiments/crafts during this time. Some of the more complex things might take place in the kitchen/outside or in the evening hours. [TIME = 1 hr. = approx. 11:00-12:00]

3. This will bring us up to lunch time. During this time they will be expected to help with setting the table, eating, clearing the table and help planning the Dinner Meal (by this I mean pre-prep like taking meat out to thaw, etc. and talking about what will be served). I seem to get so caught up in our day that I forget to plan ahead for dinner and we are eating out more or cooking really quick meals in a rush. [TIME = 1 hr. = approx. 12:00-1:00]

4. During the last hour I try to nurse Sahara, so that I can put Caden to bed for a nap. I still like to rock him or hold him because that is the only time I get to these days. So I put him down for his nap and at the same time will get Savannah started on Independent work. I have a folder for each day that I hand her that has her worksheets and a checklist of her assignments. Ideally, she would eagerly grab her folder and get busy checking off the work as she does it. That is what we are striving for, anyway. ;) I am here to help her where she needs it and teach new concepts. Savannah's checklist includes Bible reading, devotional reading for church, math worksheet, phonics reading time, story reader time, language worksheet, handwriting, science, and history. Keep in mind that she could already check off the last three because we did those with Sierra. Also, her devotional reading might be done earlier, too. Today Sierra came back in here and did Dot Marker art pages... Caden did one, too. Savannah did two pages during a short brain break. [TIME = 2 hr. = approx. 1:00-3:00]

5. Anytime after that Savannah & Sierra could do what we are calling "Centers" activities. That includes games, cards, computer, reading, puzzles, etc... and playing... less TV time, etc. We are not eliminating TV just yet, but I want it to be limited and I want to wean them off some of the shows that I feel are damaging to their spirits (I'll do a post on that soon).

6. I want my "littles" to be involved in as much as they can, but I am still working on how to accomplish that. Caden is content to run around the corner and pop in a JoJo's Circus DVD and play, but I do not want him spending his days in front of a TV. Hopefully, this schedule will allow more little projects he can participate in. I also am considering locking him in here with us via baby gates. I have an adjoining room that would be perfect once I remove the boxes of stuff that used to decorate this living room turned school room. The "littles" could play and have a grand time while under closer supervision.

I really did not plan to type all this detail, but it helps me reflect on my day. And who knows... maybe there is someone out there that can use this insight or adapt this schedule to their needs. I also hope that one day my children can read my writings and find it useful to apply to their own lives.

The decision is still pending regarding a curriculum switch, but this week would not be a good week for starting anyway. My husband was off for Labor Day, so we took it off, also. Our Co-Op starts Friday, so we will only have three full school days here.... so, I will chill some for now and keep digging in deeper. I will say this. I think what I have now (A Beka) is good when modified greatly. What I like about MFW is that is compiled in one lesson plan book and simpler to follow. A Beka has a lesson plan book for each subject and I basically teach from the student books. I rarely use the lesson plans. I pull all the crafts, learning games, etc. together own my own. Uh.... reading that I am thinking... duh! There's no wonder I struggle... that and my highly distractable beautiful daughter. :) For me A Beka's multitude of books is beyond overwhelming and like trying to put together a 5000 piece puzzle. There's the lesson plan, teacher key book, and student book and that is for EACH subject. I wish they had a lesson plan for all subjects... well, I probably wouldn't use it either. LOL! I'll likely switch to MFW... we'll see.