Only at our house...

Tonight the kids lined up on the couch for family movie night with their new popcorn buckets that they got from Santa. 

The movie we picked was A&E's "The Crossing."  It's a film about George Washington and the battle of Trenton.  It was totally over their heads and we got started late, so they all fell asleep before it was over.  Hubby kept stopping the film to explain some things and hopefully they will appreciate it more when they get older :)

Christmas Food Crafts

(These are kind of late for any readers to duplicate them this year.  Sorry!)

Christmas Tree: 

Slather a sugar cone with green frosting and then decorate with candy.  To make frosting the cone easier, stick your hand inside the cone and use the other hand the do the frosting.  Some candy that we used: gumdrops, M&M's, coconut (snow), gummy worms (string of lights), sprinkles, and gummy rings.

Snowman:
Use a bit of frosting to glue a Rolo onto a mini powdered sugar donut for the snowman's hat.  The "coal" eyes and mouth are sunburst candies that are simply pressed into the donut.  (Sunbursts are chocolate and candy coated sunflower seeds.  They are pointed at one end, which made it easier to stick them in.)  To make the carrot nose, cut a piece of a gummy orange slice and stick it in the middle of the donut.

Guest Speaker: Pirate Captain

Today we had our much anticipated guest speaker, Mean Dean the Barbarian (also known as Grandpa.)

It was great!  Grandpa taught them how to do a sheet bend knot (to tie the sail to a rope) and how to do a double half hitch knot (to tie the rope to the ship.)  I'll have to quiz them later to see if they remember how to do the knots on their own.  Probably not, but it will be interesting to watch them try.

He also went over compasses, bearings, and using a compass and map together.  He even had them make a compass using a needle, magnet, and bowl of water.  It was awesome!

Schooling During the Christmas Season

One week left until Christmas!

Today we took it easy, as far as academics goes. 

Making ornaments, filling bags of Snowman Poop and Reindeer Poop, and learning how to wrap presents counts as school work, right?

Legos and Math

This morning started with Primus requesting to do a couple math pages after breakfast.  What kind of weird kid does that?  lol

After that, she spent a good chunk of the day building a Lego pirate ship with Daddy.  While they were building it, he taught her all about the anatomy of the ship and some of the history of the Golden Age of Pirates.  They both really enjoyed the lesson. 

It seems like we've been using Legos a lot lately in our schoolwork.  They are a great teaching tool!  Hubby has been teased for being a grown man that plays with Legos.  But it is times like this that make me glad he has them!

How do you know Shirley?

Tonight my friend threw me a very low-key "diaper sprinkle" (baby shower.)  At the beginning she had everyone go around the room and state their name and how they know me. 

Since it was so relaxed and at my home, my kids were there also.  So my friend included my kids in the introductions.  Secundus of course said she knows me because "she's my mommy."  When we asked her where she met me, we were trying to get her to say, "the hospital."  But she just didn't get it. 

The best was when it came around to my oldest's turn.  She said, "My name is [Primus] and Shirley's my first grade teacher." 

I was so proud!

Educational Songs

We were able to check out Schoolhouse Rock a while ago from the library and it was awesome!  The disc contained all of the old songs from the 70's.  I would love to own it. 

 

I was going to find some of my favorites on youtube and link here.  But it appears that some versions have been blocked due to copyright issues.  I was able to find other (low quality) versions on youtube, posted by other users, but I didn't feel comfortable posting the links here. 

 

So instead, enjoy this hilarious semi-"educational" song by Veggie Tales.  So, it's mostly ridiculous.  But I have seriously used this song to help my kids remember that chimpanzees and gorillas aren't monkeys.

 

 

Here's another fun one that I find myself quoting often- School House Polka:

 

History Crafts- Middle Kingdom of Egypt

I love learning history with my kids!  Like I've said before, I never thought I liked history.  But it all depends on how you learn it! 

I love learning it with Susan Wise Bauer's "Story of the World."  It moves pretty fast and doesn't get terribly in depth (though it does include a resource list so you can learn more on your own.)  So it is perfect for my girls (and me) to learn a good overview of ancient cultures and establish a good base for future studies.  I am impressed everyday with how much Primus is able to remember from our readings.  It makes her father proud to know that she seems to have a brain for this kind of thing.

Here are the crafts we did to supplement our readings of the Middle and New Kingdoms of Egypt.  I love the ideas that are included in the Story of the World.  I usually end up tweaking them a little to work for us, though.

We made gold arm bands like the Egyptian upper class might have worn, using gold from Nubia.  Such an easy, quick, cute craft!  Just a strip of toilet paper tube, cut open so it will fit around your arm.  Then we glued on gold glitter.

Next, we made chariots for our My Little Ponies like the Hyksos. The girls played with these all afternoon. Of course their little Polly Pockets and princess dolls rode in the chariots!  We used part of a Stove Top stuffing box, cardboard wheals, and popsicle sticks.

Finally, we made fake beards so we could pretend to be Hatshepsut, the female pharaoh.  It's half a paper towel tube with tissue paper glued on for decoration.  Then attach to your head with elastic.

Boy Scouts and Pirates have something in common...

Primus has been excited about doing a unit on pirates ever since last summer.  This morning I finally pulled out my resources to start making a lesson plan.  I suggested to Primus that maybe we should ask Grandpa to teach one day.  I told her that he knew how to tie knots and use a compass. 

Her eyes got really wide as she excitedly asked, "Did he go to Pirate High School??"

I gave her a funny look and responded, "No.  He's a Boy Scout."

Maybe I should have let her believe that he was a pirate.  It wouldn't be so hard for her to believe that Grandpa is a few hundred years old, right?  Either way, we are very excited to have a guest teacher next month!

Carnival of Homeschooling

The new Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Notes From A Homeschooled Mom. 

Finding the Blessings

While we were enjoying our Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws' house, somone was breaking into our new home. 

When we arrived home Thursday night and made the discovery, we experienced a very scary few minutes.   Instead of bore you with the details of the evening (which took up 5 separate posts on my family blog), I wanted to share what we have learned and why we are in such great spirits.

We are truly so blessed. Even in this horrible experience, we are being very optimistic and seeing it as a blessing.

Things could have been so much worse in so many ways.   For example, they didn't take very much.  Also, we weren't home at the time. 
We are so blessed to live in the wonderful neighborhood that we do.
We are so blessed that the police were able to respond so quickly.
We are so blessed that our landlords (my in-laws) live nearby and were able to come immediately and help us out.
The girls have been saying things like, "It's good they didn't take our pillows! It's good they didn't take our stuffed animals!" I love their attitude! The things of true value to them weren't effected at all.
The most important pieces of jewelry I own are always with me: my wedding and engagement rings.

Before sending the kids to bed on Thursday night, we did our family scripture study and prayer, as usual. On this night we focused on 1 Nephi chapter 17.

1 And it came to pass that we did again take our journey in the wilderness; and we did travel nearly eastward from that time forth. And we did travel and wade through much affliction in the wilderness; and our women did bear children in the wilderness.
2 And so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us, that while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their children, and were strong, yea, even like unto the men; and they began to bear their journeyings without murmurings.
3 And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness.
4 And we did sojourn for the space of many years, yea, even eight years in the wilderness.
5 And we did come to the land which we called Bountiful, because of its much fruit and also wild honey; and all these things were prepared of the Lord that we might not perish.

Even though Nephi and his family were experiencing affliction and tribulation in the wilderness, they were still blessed in amazing ways. The Lord was mindful of them and protected them. If we keep His commandments and not murmur, then we will be blessed. And in the end, when they had proven that they would submit to the Lord and trust him, they were rewarded for their faithfulness. After the trials of the wilderness and having to subsist on raw meat, they were lead to the land Bountiful, which was full of fruit and wild honey.

Kids are more capable than we (I) sometimes think...

I am constantly amazed by the things that kids are capable of, if we only give them the chance. 

In preparation for Thanksgiving, I had a whole pot full of hard-boiled eggs that needed to be shelled.  I asked Secundus to help and taught her how to do it. Of course Tertius wanted to get in on it, too.  So I handed him one that had cracked while it was boiling so I wasn't worried about him ruining it because it was already ugly. 

They both did great!  Both of them went on to shell several eggs for me and Tertius only ruined one!  In fact, I think some of the ones that Secundus shelled looked prettier than the ones I did. 

Carnival of Homeschooling

The latest Carnival of Homeschooling is up over at Home Spun Juggling.  Go check it out!  (Oh, and I happen to have an article included this time.  Woot, woot!)

Massive Giveaway!

Sir Ken Robinson-Education Reform

Thinking Outside the Box

The following was a question in Primus' Daily Language Review today:

Circle the word that does NOT belong.
tractor    barn    skyscraper    haystack

She circled tractor.  Her explanation was that the other 3 are things that don't move.

I love that I had the opportunity to hear and validate her reasoning! 

Whenever something like this comes up, I make sure and explain to her that if she was at "regular" school, she would have had it marked wrong.  "Regular" school doesn't usually accommodate for this kind of out-of-the-box thinking.


In other, unrelated news, she found out about the concept of "A+."  I had already been putting how many she got wrong (or "100%" if they were all right) at the top of her tests.  She asked that I start putting A+ also when she earns it.  She was SOOOO excited today to see that scrawled on top of her math page this morning.  It's the simple rewards that make a difference, I suppose.

Dora vs. Diego

Reasons why "Go, Diego, Go!" is better than "Dora the Explorer:"

*The Bobo brothers seem to be simply clueless, not malicious like Swiper.

*The Bobo brothers always apologize.  Swiper is never repentant.

*Swiper even gets rewarded sometimes, despite his thievery.

*The songs in Diego (Rescue Pack, Click the Camera) are infinitely less annoying than the ones in Dora (Backpack, Map.)

*My kids actually learn a few things about various animals from Diego.

*Diego has a zip-line!

A benefit of homeschooling...?

Just because your child is "sick," doesn't mean they have to miss school. 
I would tend to call this a benefit.  I'm guessing most children would not agree.

My family has had a minor stomach bug going around this week.  I was feeling at my worst on Sunday and since then have been mostly fine, except for being so. darn. tired!  Primus is acting totally fine but she puked once yesterday afternoon and then again today (she overdid it mowing the lawn.)  Before and after each incident she was jumping around and being mostly normal (maybe just acting a little tired.)

So, if she had been attending "regular" school, they would have sent her home early on Thursday.  And then I would have been expected to keep her home today to make sure she was fine.  So that would have been 1 1/2 wasted school days!  And then she would have had to make up that work after the holiday weekend. 

But since we homeschool, we were able to keep on schedule! 

Poor kid, I'm sure she's going to hate that "perk" as she becomes older. 

I'm a horrible, horrible person...

I wanted to reach through the computer screen so bad earlier and punch the little kids in my daughter's live online book club class. 

Today was the first time that Primus (or I, for that matter) has ever done something like this.  Overall, it was fun and informative and she is excited to participate again next month.  But I was getting so annoyed that I had to keep stepping away. 

The "classroom" is set up with a video of the teacher in the upper left corner. To the right of her is a large box with shows the videos, questions, and PowerPoint that she is presenting. And then below that is a chat box where anyone can type questions or comments to the class at anytime.  I don't know how old these kids were, but the book we read was 2-3 grade reading level.

Here are some of the things getting on my nerves (and the worst part was that some of this was specifically prohibited in the class description that they should all have read before class, and the teacher said nothing about it.)

*Kids were typing in the chat box non-stop!!  If they had been talking out-loud in a real classroom, then that would be very distracting and rude.  And seeing all that "noise" in the chat box was just as distracting and rude, in my opinion.  "Shut up" and listen to the teacher's presentation, for Pete's Sake!

*Instead of typing, "cool."  Some would type, "ccccccccoooooooooolllllllllll."

*TYPING IN ALL CAPS.  And, no, their caps lock was not just stuck.  I noticed that certain kids were purposely turn it on and off at random points. 

*There was one girl who kept typing, "I feed and petted dolphins once in Florida."  (The book was called Dolphins at Daybreak.)  She started "saying" this right at the beginning of class and kept saying it again all the time.  We get it!  Let it go!  Not relevant to what the teacher is trying to teach right now!

*Instead of just typing their answer to the question in the chat box, (ex: "2") one or two kids would type, "my baby brother says 2,"  or, "my puppy says 2."

*One girl kept complaining that the questions were too easy.  Eventually, the teacher recognized her comment and laughingly apologized.  The very next question was multiple choice and the teacher specifically said, "Pick 3 correct answers."  (They were supposed to remember the colors of coral mentioned in the book.)  This girl's answer was, "I pick all of them."

Parents, PLEASE teach your kids online etiquette!  Apparently it's never too early to learn!

More Halloween Crafts

So here is Halloween crafts round 2!

Lift-the-Flap Haunted House.  I found the template and instructions here.  Of course my girls picked pink!  If we weren't running low on black construction paper, I would have pushed a little harder for that. 

 

Q-Tip Skeleton.  Note that some of them had to be cut short, just with regular (not kid) scissors (fingers, feet, neck.)  Pour some white glue in a bowl and then dip the cotton end of the q-tips into the glue before putting them on the paper.

 

Spider Web.  Cut out the middle of a paper plate and punch holes all the way around.  Tie one end of a long string to one of the holes.  Put masking tape around the other end to make lacing easier. 

Spider.  Cut 2 black "pipe cleaners" in half, so you end up with 4 pieces.  Twist them together in the middle to make the legs.  Glue on a big black puff ball for the body and a small black puff for the head.  We used Tacky Glue.

 

 

Candy Corn Garland.  Trace a candy corn shape (rounded triangle) on a 8X10 piece of cardboard.  Cut it out and cut into 3 pieces.  Then use your three templates to cut out shapes from white, orange, and yellow.  Glue the colors together in order by overlapping them just a little bit.  We strung 3 candy corns together by simply scotch-taping a length of string between them.



 

Ghost Face.  Put some water in the bottom of a clean, empty gallon milk jug so it won't blow away in the wind.  The face is cut from black construction paper and glued on with Tacky Glue.

 

Witch Broom.  Cut strips in a paper lunch sack from the top all the way to the bottom (leave the bottom in tact.)  Fill a second paper lunch sack with dirt and plant a stick in it.  Gather the pieces of the first paper bag up around the second one.  Tie the top tightly with a string. 

 

Pumpkin.  Color a coffee filter with orange marker.  Then spritz with water and allow to dry.  The water will make the ink bleed and spread.  (If you get it too wet, though, your marker may all wash away.)  For the stem and leaf, color green and brown patches on another filter and cut out shapes when dry.  I laminated our finished pumpkins with clear contact paper to make them more durable and hung them in the window.

 

Monster Masks.  Tape a large tongue-depressor to one side of a paper plate.  Cut eye holes from the plate and decorate with markers, construction paper, and any other collage materials you have on hand.

Fitness 4 Homeschool

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Halloween Crafts

We've been doing a lot of Halloween crafts.  We don't own many Halloween decorations, and I'm not exactly sure where they would be packed away anyway.  Plus, I still haven't gotten any photographs put up at this house.  So our bare walls definitely welcomed the many wonderful creations we've come up with!

 

I got most of these ideas from doing a quick search on Pinterest.  They are all super easy!

Several of them were done with a paper plate that we painted.  We had to paint the bottoms because the inside of the plate was too glossy for washable tempera paint to stick well.  We used sponges to do the painting so they could experiment with how to paint different textures.  I thought just stamping the sponge looked better.  But the girls mostly liked to just rub the sponge around.

 

 

Pumpkin. Plate painted orange. Green hand prints on white paper, with brown stem painted on. Cut out and stapled to top. 

 

Spider.  Plate painted black.  Crinkled construction paper legs and circle construction paper head stapled on.  Glitter glue to decorate.

Ghost.  Face drawn on paper plate with black marker.  White streamers taped to bottom.

Spider.  Black hand prints (don't put paint on the thumbs!)  Googly eyes glued on and spider web painted.

Witch.  Plate painted green.  For the hair, cut strips in orange construction paper, leaving a couple inches uncut at the top of the paper.  Staple hair and black construction paper hat to plate.  The nose is a small orange paper triangle glued to the plate only at the bottom so it can stand out.  Face and moles drawn with black marker.

Ghost.  Thick bundle of white yarn, folded in half.  Tie string around near top to create head.  Glue on small black puff balls for eyes. 

Ghosts.  White footprints.  Face drawn with black marker.

And there are a few more to come!

A Scottish Story

For our literature curriculum, we have been studying various Caldecott Winners using this book from Evan Moor.  Our latest book was "Always Room for One More" which was illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian.  It's actually based on a Scottish folksong. 
To learn and remember what several of the Scottish words mean, the kids were supposed to write each of them in a sentence.  From the beginning, Secundus was very insistent that she wasn't just going to think of individual sentences; she wanted to write a story.

Following is what she dictated to me.  (the underlined words are the vocabulary words.)

One bairn was walking along.  My daddy's mother said, "You can't walk in the middle of the street at night!"  That's blether.  And my daddy's mother didn't know he was walking on a brae.  She thought he was walking in the middle of the street.  Daddy didn't know that his mother was canny, which is smart.  "Och!"  My daddy didn't know that it was raining.  My daddy's mother made porridge for him when he came inside.  But when his mother slammed the door he saw something wee which was a little mouse.

I was very impressed with what she came up with.  When I read it to Hubby, he almost choked because he started laughing so hard.  Apparently that very morning as he was walking down the street with the girls (they had to park around the corner because of street work going on) he told them about when he was younger he would sometimes walk in the middle of the street at night.  I guess the girls got very passionate and told him all about how awful and dangerous that was for him to do and that Grandma shouldn't have let him do that.
So now her story makes sense!  Apparently the topic was fresh in her mind.

Talent Show

Tonight we had the grandparents over for a Talent Show.  We also invited an Aunt, Uncle, and cousins.  I didn't get many good pictures, and it takes too long to load a video on here, but here is a recap:

We started the night with Primus and Secundus singing Fifty Nifty United States.  Their brother was supposed to sing with them, but he was more interested in running around and occasionally hitting his sister.

Next was Secundus' puppet show.  This girl LOVES to do puppet shows.  Any time she has a craft that vaguely resembles a puppet, she insists on making up a (long and rambling) story and doing a show for us.  For this Talent Show I printed out some pictures for Goldilocks and the 3 Bears and she did a great job performing it.

Then Primus showed off some of the moves they do in ballet class for warm up.  She's not very good at them yet or very graceful, but it was awfully cute!

For the girls' concluding performance, they sung a song they learned at Cherubs (mommy-and-me music class).  It goes, "Knock, knock.  Trick or Treat.  Who are you?  I'm a ...  I'm a little..."  Each time you sing it, you insert another Halloween costume name.  So they grabbed several hats out of their dress up box and took turns showing off a verse.

I'm so glad we were able to convince their cousins to participate, too.  Their 2 older cousins danced to the "Cha Cha Slide." 

And finally their little 3 year old cousin danced to Owl City's "Fireflies."  She must have gotten stage fright cause she didn't do as many cute dance moves for performance as she did during rehearsal.  But that was ok because she is just adorable no matter what she does!

We ended the evening with yummy slightly undercooked brownies while the kids ran wild in the dark backyard and Primus convinced everyone to buy stuff for her dance recital fundraiser.  It was a great time!

Time to Brag

Our ES (basically my supervising teacher) assesses Primus at the beginning of every school year.  Last year and this year it was an oral test.  Next year, second grade, she will have to start doing it herself on paper. 

Last time we met, ES showed me the results of the test.  Primus scored as a 3rd grader for oral vocab and comprehension!  I am not surprised.  I could have told you that she had a big vocabulary and could remember and understand things really well.  But it is so awesome to see it officially recorded in writing!  My kid is super smart!

In light of that, my ES held up the two book reports that Primus had done this month for the Magic Tree House books she read.  She looked at me and basically said, "Next month don't let her dictate the plot to you.  She should be doing it herself." 
Ouch!  Yes, I suppose I baby her too much at times.  She is very smart in her oral skills, but not so much on paper.  Truthfully, she has a really hard time focusing enough to write very much or very fast.  And I definitely do not have the patience for her to spend several hours writing the summary of a plot of one chapter book. 

So I have been letting her get away with dictating a lot of things to me instead.  It's been tough these last couple weeks, but Primus knows that she is being expected to write more.  For example, instead of just 2 sentences about a prompt in her morning journal, she now has to do 3. 

Whenever she gets whiny about having to write so much, I just blame it on the ES.  And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I'm glad we homeschool with a charter school instead of just on our own.  :)

I'm excited to see if at the beginning of next year Primus will be able to prove that her written vocabulary and comprehension have caught up with her oral scores!

Unexpected Beanstalk

The kids got a little out of control a while ago with our beans-and-rice sensory box.  The box stays on the patio and the beans and rice are supposed to stay in the box.  On this day, handfuls got thrown all about and some landed on the grass. 

 

Today we noticed that they had sprouted and grown!  It is so cool to look at and kind of mind-blowing that they grew so fast (well, honestly, we hadn't been on the grass much lately so just hadn't noticed-not sure when exactly the seeds were sown.)

 

It was great to have an impromptu, hands-on, real-life science lesson.

 

Old Town Field Trip

This week we took a field trip to historic Old Sacramento with our dear friends Cindy and Candy. 

Here is the summary that Primus dictated to me:
We went to Candy Heaven.  And we tasted some blue candy. I tasted Bit-O-Honey.  Secundus tasted caramel.  And then we all went downtown.  And on the way there, as Cindy and Candy went to a store to buy rocks, me and my siblings played on the statue buffalo.  And each time when I got up there, once my sister and brother both wanted to get on the buffalo with me so I could hold them safe and not fall if my arms were on them.  And then I said, "One at a time!"  And I said, "Secundus, can I please let Tertius go first."  And then she said, "No."  And then Cindy and Candy walked back with our bags full of rocks.  Tertius got all different kind of colors, just like Cindy.  Secundus got red.  And I got green, my favorite color.
And before we went to old town, me and Secundus got on our M&M shirts and Mommy asked me to get Tertius' M&M shirt. 
As we walked, we saw a carriage.  And as we walked more, we saw a train and we saw a place that led down to the river that Sacramento was built near. 
When we came back to Cindy's house to drop her off, we stayed for a little while. And as we got in, Cindy asked me if I wanted to pick apples from her apple bush.  And then after that we went into Cindy's room and we watched Disney Junior and watched Mickey Mouse.  And that Mickey Mouse title was called, the Golden Booboo with Daisy O'Dare.  And then we came home and tasted some of our taffy and then we ate my gummies and Secundus' lollipop. 

Secundus' summary:

When we were walking to the candy shop, I buyed a lollipop. And the words on each lollipop wrapper, they had a W so that word looked like Willy Wonka. But it wasn't. It was Whirly Pop. And when I tasted it, it tasted great! And I decided that I'll eat it at home. Then my mother said when we were home, she said, "If you want to buy candy, then you have to get a wallet to carry your money." So we wanted to get candy, then we got a wallet and it was full of money from our banks. Then I thought it was in Missouri. And I asked Cindy when we were getting her, "Do you know how to get to Old Sacramento?" "No." "Are you sure?" And then she said, "Yes." And then when we got home, we ate our candy. And we saved the licorice for school and that was the end.

Some extra details:

I was very sad that we couldn't get very close to the old one-room schoolhouse.  There were a ton of volunteers working to spruce things up.  While we stood across the street, Cindy and I explained what it would have been like back then.  The girls thought it was cool that they could see a couple swings outside of the school.

Note the cool old boardwalks.

Sacramento was built right next to the river.  It was really cool to be able to make connections to our recent history lesson about why ancient cities were built near rivers (Egypt, Mesopotamia, etc.)
This was also there first time seeing the big paddle on the back of a boat so I got to explain how that worked.

We saw several trains.

Cool old firetruck.

There is some kind of event coming up in Old Town so there were several people rehearsing and blocking for a play.  The only one in full costume was Abraham Lincoln.  We have a fondness for Abe because Grandpa has the same style beard.  We hung around and watched for quite a while.  When they were all done, the kids had stopped paying attention and were instead concerned with staying out of the way of the trucks spraying down the dust.  Apparently he was watching them and said, "You don't want to get wet, do you?"  Primus thought that was so cool that he talked to them.

Here's that buffalo she talked about.

It was a great trip and we were all exhausted when it was over.

Books as Toys

I love that in my house, books are toys. 

Even though Tertius obviously doesn't read yet, and he doesn't usually have much patience to sit and listen to me read, he has already learned that books are pretty cool and nice to have around. 

That's evidenced by the fact that they are constantly being stacked, piled up, lined up, put in bags, carried around, and (usually) not thrown.

Homeschooling Update: Stresses and Blessings

As a general update of our life as a homeschooling family: we are having so much fun!

This year is definitely harder for me. But a lot of that has to do with what's going on in my head right now. Oh, sure, Primus is doing more subjects and more complicated ones. And yes, I am also spending more time and energy on Secundus' education (she's pre-K and is learning to read.) But I can handle all that.

Most of the reason why I say that this year is harder is because it is so easy for me to get stressed out and overwhelmed by all that I have to do. There is so much that I want my kids to learn and experience and there are only so many hours in the day and only so many years that I will have them at home. College seems like it is right around the corner sometimes! So I am constantly second-guessing myself. Are we doing enough each day? Are we doing too much? Do they have enough free fun time to explore and be kids? Are they remembering what I'm teaching? Do we need more educational games? Do we need to cut back on our weekly out-of-the-house activities? Should we do more out-of-the-house activities? Should we be doing different out-of-the-house activities?

And then I get to thinking about far into the future. What kind of curriculum will we use for middle school? What sort of literature study are we going to use in a couple years? How am I going to teach them about essay writing? When should they start learning piano (or another instrument)? Will I teach them how to diagram a sentence or not? When we have completed our current history curriculum in 4 or 5 years, then what will we do?

At the beginning of this school year, Hubby gave each of us "Father's Blessings." I wish I had written down the inspired things he said to each of us. (The sweetest thing I remember about Secundus' blessing was that Hubby felt strongly prompted to change his speech pattern. So instead of speaking like he did for Primus' and my blessings, he spoke to Secundus like you would normally speak to a 4 year old. Smaller words, different tone of voice, etc. Heavenly Father knows not only what we need to hear, but how we need to hear it. I know for a fact that Heavenly Father knows and loves Secundus.)

One thing I definitely remember about the blessing he gave me is that it was confirmed again that Heavenly Father approves of our choice to homeschool and that He is proud of me. I was told that this year will be hard and at times I may be tempted to give up. But I was told to not give up.

So now I need to keep that in mind. I need to live and enjoy one day at a time. I need to not let doubts about the current year or needless stress about the coming years get in the way of the wonderful things that we are learning together, the great fun we are having together, and the strong bonds we are building together.

I love being a mother and I love being a teacher. I am so blessed to be able to be both.

Fun with Story of the World

Learning about history is very important to us, especially to Hubby.  I used to think that I hated studying history.  But I've come to realize that one reason for that is because I never got excited about it.  And that's because history textbooks are boring, condescending, one-sided, narrow-minded, and heavily politically influenced.  And most elementary school teachers and some middle-school and high-school teachers are not experts in history (some middle and high school history teachers did not major in history, but rather in political science or something like that) or enthusiastic about it and therefore rely heavily on these horrible texts. 



The more Hubby has opened my eyes to what the study of history should be like, the more I see how important it is and the more interested I become.  I will never be an expert, but I can remember enough to get me through, and I know how to research the rest. 

But I digress...

We have chosen for our history text, "Story of the World" by Susan Wise Bauer.  It is a chronological study, which definitely makes sense to the way my brain works.  We read a section and discuss it as we go, to ensure comprehension.  Then we do the comprehension questions together orally.  Then for each chapter (one or two sections) there is a map activity (love!), often a coloring page (Secundus loves to participate with these), and several suggestions for other activities.  There is also included a good list of books to get from the library to supplement. 

We often orally review the things we learned previously and today we started doing a review by compiling a timeline.  And I am so impressed with how much the girls are remembering! 

Here are a couple pictures of some of the fun activities we have done, as suggested by Story of the World:

Archaeological dig.  We don't have a sand box, so our beans-and-rice sensory box was a good back-up.  I secretly buried several items.  Then the girls had to tape string across the box to make a grid.  Then they carefully and systematically dug for artifacts using spoons and paint brushes.  Each time they found an artifact, they bagged and labeled it, and recorded the location it was found.  Later, we examined our items and discussed what we might learn about these ancient people by looking at what we found.

Lego pyramids and Egypt double crowns.  The crowns were actually based on something I found online, rather than from the book.  I love this picture because Secundus couldn't find her crown (they had been having so much fun with them all around the house) when it was time for the picture so instead she grabbed a Santa hat so she would not look too out of place.  And Tertius doesn't have a pyramid, but rather is holding a batman logo made of Legos that he borrow from Hubby because he didn't want to be left out.

School House Rock Rocks!

Secundus: "Primus, start with 'I'm Just a Bill' because that is really fun!"
I love School House Rock and I LOVE that my kids love it too!

Being Poor Sucks

I'm in a depressed mood right now and just need to whine a little. 

The charter we are with organizes great field trips.  And I can use our school funds to pay for Primus' to go.  But I have to pay out-of-pocket for myself and the siblings.  But we can't afford it! 

In a month they are doing a great field trip to a museum in the city and *everyone* will get in free.  But we *still* can't go because we can't afford the parking!  My kids are missing out on great opportunities and experiences all because we're too poor!!  I think I'm going to go cry now...

10 Reasons Why Homeschooling With A New Baby Is Going To Be Do-able

We are expecting a 4th little one to join our clan in January! 

Ever since we found out that we were pregnant, we've been enduring comments from a loved one who seems to disapprove of this pregnancy.  We've always been open to having a large family, but did not plan on even thinking about adding a fourth for another couple years.  The fact is, we're poor.  Like, really poor.  Hubby has been unemployed for 3 years and is going to school.  Not the most logical time to have another kid.  But, Heavenly Father apparently has different plans for us!

So I understand where this loved one is coming from, but what does this person expect us to do about it?  God decided to bless us with another child and He is obviously in control.  He knows the end from the beginning.  

The comments that hurt the most are the ones that question my ability as a mother to take care of 4 kids.  Yes, having 3 age 6 and under is hard.  Yes, having 4 will be harder.  But women do it all the time!  And their children not only survive, but thrive! 

Especially considering that we do homeschool, this person has questioned how I will be able to teach the older two while meeting the needs of the younger two.  So I've done a little thinking and come up with 10 reasons why things aren't going to be as hard as our loved one fears:

1) Even though we are enrolled with a charter school and have to stick to their schedule, I plan on taking advantage of the flexibility homeschoolers generally enjoy.  I don't feel bad about working through Christmas break and then instead taking those vacation days after baby Quartus is born.  I figure that our number of days worked is more important than actually sticking to the school's calendar.  This way, we'll be able to take it easy and focus on the brand new baby for a couple weeks in January.

2) Primus is very bright, responsible, and independent.  She doesn't need me sitting next to her every second in order to learn and do the things she needs to.

3) Secundus isn't in Kindergarten yet so if her schooling slides, then no sweat!  At this age, she is learning a ton through free play and casually listening in to her sister's lessons.

4) Tertius doesn't require that much attention.  I am very proud of the fact that all three of my children are very good at entertaining themselves.  The school room is full of toys and books that he can play with if I want to keep him close.  Or I can just open up the door to the backyard and set him loose in nature.  I also don't worry about him too much if he is out of my sight playing in another part of the house.  He's easy.

5) I breastfeed.  That means that for the first 4-6 months, my amount of dirty dishes that must get done during the day will not be increased in the slightest.  Plus, I don't have to spend anytime mixing and warming bottles.  Also, I can feed one-handed...and standing if needed.  So I am more than capable of nursing the baby while doing a million other things: reading a book to the kids, teaching a lesson, grabbing needed books or art supplies off the bookshelves, writing instructions on the whiteboard, even putting lunch on the table! 

6) Babies sleep a lot during the day.

7) Babies are portable.  If I need both arms free and baby isn't taking a nap, I may be able to keep him happy for long stretches in the bouncy seat or swing nearby.

8) Silver lining to unemployment: Daddy is around.  True, he will have to go to class and take time for homework.  But he will still have many free hours at home with us to help out with everything.

9) Right after moving in to the new house, I trained the kids to help start and switch the laundry.  One less thing I have to do!

10) Heavenly Father is in charge.  He wanted us to be blessed with these children.  He also wanted me to homeschool.  This fact has been confirmed to me several times as I've prayed and received Priesthood blessings.  He will sustain us and help us through.

"Educational" Videos

First Day 2012

All smiles on our first day of school!

Monday, August 13th, 2012

For our first day, we did a light load in the morning and then had some of Primus' friends from church over to party in the backyard.  We don't hang out with any homeschooling families so it was nice that the local school district didn't start until Thursday this week so our friends were home and available to have fun with us.

Substitute Teacher

Yesterday, the 4th day of our first week of school, was awful. 

Due to various reasons, I was feeling really stressed out and cranky and totally off my game.  So I didn't even attempt to do any schooling.  And the fact that I was wasting a school day this early in the year made me feel even crappier, which gave me even less motivation to do school work.  Vicious circle. 

After dinner, as I painted my toenails and wasted time on facebook, Hubby decided to sit the kids down to give them an impromptu history lesson.  I don't know if his motivation was that he is just as passionate about this homeschool journey as me and didn't want a wasted day, or if he wanted to cheer me up, or if one of the kids had asked him a history question, or if the topic just happened to be on his mind so he wanted to share.  Probably a combination of all four. 

The lesson this day was on the Presidential curse of the year zero.  Know what I'm talking about?  Every president elected in a year ending in zero dies in office. 

He brought out the whiteboard and the president flashcards and taught them about the origins of the curse and which presidents it effected.  He also talked about how it appears that Reagan had beat the curse. 

I was really impressed with how well Primus was remembering the dates of when certain presidents were elected when he was quizzing her.  Daddy is going to have to substitute more often!

School Room Organization



We've been in our new house for almost 3 months now.  One of the things about this house that really made me fall in love with it was the school room!  So here it is, all organized and ready for school to begin!

This is a view from the living room.  As you can see, there is a sliding glass door that I close and lock every night before I go to bed in case the kids wake up before me.  I do not want the boy running wild and unchecked in this room!

I love the curtains I made!  As you can see, they are USA and world maps.   I'm also proud of the art display clothes line I tacked up above the curtains.  It's very simple and practical; just my style!

This is the bookshelf to the far right in that first picture.  To the right of this picture is a sliding glass door to the backyard. 
The top shelf holds all the curriculum that we are currently using. 
The next shelf has leveled readers, chapter books, and phonics readers in that black box.  Next to that box you can see a stash of writing paper and a music kit we are excited to use this year.
The bottom shelf has a few sticker books and pop-up books.  Next to those is a box of travel brochures I got from every state in the union.
On the very top of this shelf is big construction paper and a cup of sharp pencils.

The next bookshelf has various manipulatives and toys on the bottom. 
The next shelf up holds are ridiculously huge collection of coloring books (on the right-hand side.)  Next to that is a box that holds small notebooks and various rulers and stencils.  Next to that is where we stow our small whiteboards.  Those two big binders are full of various fun workbooks that I got from the dollar store.  I tore out all the pages and put them in plastic sheet protectors so the kids can use dry-erase markers on them.
Above that we have  containers of counting bears, colored pencils, sponge stamps, and rubber stamps.  As you will notice, I used a hodge-podge of containers and just masking tape for labels.  Again, very simple and practical.  I've got no one to impress. 
On the very top are filing shelves.  Three trays are for art that needs to be hung, art that needs to be finished, and art that is intended to be gifted to various friends or relatives.  Two trays are used for construction paper and drawing paper.  One tray is used to hold some file folder games I made.  And the last tray holds curriculum that I intend to use this year, but still need to look at and prepare.

I love these plastic drawers!  They used to hold various things in my bathroom.  But the new bathroom has no place for them.  So I gladly re-purposed them for the school room! 
On top is where we keep a cup of whiteboard markers.  The top drawer holds tempera paint bottles.  The other drawers are full of various flashcards, manipulatives, and small science tools.

And here's the final bookshelf on this wall.  The top shelf holds various educational and reference books.  The bottom two shelves are full of several toys to keep the younger ones entertained.  I tried to pick things that were mildly educational.  For example, we have lacing cards and 2 different types of wooden blocks.

This wall is perpendicular to the long wall where all the bookshelves are.  As you can see, it holds our bulletin board and a modest-sized whiteboard hung at child-height. 
The rest of this wall (to the left of this picture) is being left blank in hopes that I will one day have a piano to go here. 
That window you see at the top left corner is actually a window into my laundry room.  There's also a door into the laundry room.  I love the set up of this house!!

This bookshelf lives on the wall opposite the one with all the short shelves.  You can see the doorway into my living room there to the left.  To the right of this bookshelf you can see that I have a window into my kitchen.  I'm going to say it again:  I love the way this house is set up!  I can stand at the kitchen sink doing dishes and still be able to see into the school room to supervise anything going on in there.
The top shelf holds boxes of art supplies that I do not want the kids to have unsupervised access too.  There are only so many times I can see the crayon box dumped out before I go absolutely bonkers!
The next shelf down holds curriculum that we don't need right now, but I'm not ready to pack away out of sight completely.
The bottom three shelves hold all our picture books.  On the bottom shelf, you may notice a cardboard box that holds all our cloth books.  The blue and red cardboard box in front of that is full of new-to-us picture books that we have inherited.  I want to read them all at least once before they get tucked away on the shelves. 
On the floor to the right of the bookshelf is a box with our random craft supplies.

This is my school table.  It's pretty ancient.  Hubby remembers being little and laying underneath it and drawing on the wood (naughty boy!)  I think it was even old already at that point.  It actually used to be a coffee table.  It was so short that poor Primus couldn't fit her knees underneath when she sat in a little chair.  That's why we did most of our schooling at the kitchen table or on our laps on the couch last year. 
This year I finally asked my father-in-law to put longer legs on it.  So much better now!