Sit-Still-Squeezer (Part 2)

Two years ago I posted about the Sit-Still-Squeezer that I made for my active boy to play with to encourage him to sit still.  Just flour in a latex glove.  

He loved it.  It filled it's purpose.  And then it broke.  Flour everywhere.

I remade it a couple times.  I even made it in a rubber kitchen glove.  Since it's thicker, it lasted a really long time before it ripped open.  But even that was not indestructible.  So he's been without it for at least a year now.  

Thankfully, Tertius is maturing and doesn't really *need* this motivation to sit quietly as much anymore.  But I know it was a much loved toy.  So I finally made another one.

I actually made two this time.  And both of them are made with two rubber kitchen gloves.  Double layer hopefully means twice the life span!

The tops of the gloves are tied tightly with string.  One squeezer is full of flour again.  I had Tertius help me decide how much to put in and he wanted it full.  It's like a stress-ball consistency.  

The second one is popcorn kernels.  That one is not as full so it's got an interesting texture and you can squish the kernels all over.  

I've got one very happy boy.  He tried to convince me to say that these could be everyday toys instead of being saved for sitting quiet times.  I didn't go for it but am letting him play with them any way he wants for the rest of the day.  And now he's enthusiastically introducing his little brother to the simple joy that is playing with a glove full of dry food.

Are people thinking about you? What are they saying?

People don't think about you as much as you think they do.

People think about you more than you think they do.

Those two are completely contradictory.  But both completely true.  Some clarification is in order.

People don't think negatively about you as much as you think they do.
That giant pimple that you're so embarrassed about?  No one notices.
That stupid thing you just said?  Everyone forgot about it.

You can't assume that every flaw you feel you have is being scrutinized by everyone you come in contact with.  Because the fact is, that's not happening.  That's not reality. Everyone's too busy spending their mental energy on more important things. And the small handful of people that do talk about you behind your back for having a ketchup splotch on your t-shirt are not worth your energy!

I wish I had realized this sooner when I was a teenager!  It's so freeing to live your life for yourself the best you can and not spend even one minute worrying about what others think of you.


People think positively about you more than you think they do.
Recently I ran into a girl from my Stake growing up.  (In my church, each individual congregation is called a Ward.  Several Wards are grouped together to form a Stake.  Most activities and church services are done in individual Wards.  But often the Stake will join together.)

She's a couple years younger than me, we were from different Wards, and had different groups of friends.  I knew her name, but we never really interacted.  I assumed she would have no reason to remember me.

But she did remember me!  She didn't share any specific memory, just that she loved girls camp and she always knew I would be there.  For whatever reason, I was a positive part of her teenage memories.

If you are just living your life, trying to be a nice and good person, people will notice you.  People are drawn to good people.  Even just a quick smile to someone in the halls can be enough for that person to tell her friends, "Do you know so-and-so?  Yeah, she seems nice."  If you're trying to be your best self, you can't help but radiate a light.

If you feel alone and without any friends, don't assume you're invisible or being purposefully shunned.  It's hard for all of us to go outside our comfort zones and reach out to new friends.  So be that person.  Be proactive.  Assume that others noticed you for the good and would like to get to know you better.  Be the one to reach out first.

Screen Time Points and Behavior Chart

We've been using the following motivation method for over a year now. It's working out great.

The kids earn screen time by doing extra chores.  (Some chores they are just expected to do as a member of the family-put away your own laundry, clean up your toys, keep your room clean, help set the table, etc.)  Also, on school days they get a point once all of their schoolwork is done.  These are written up on a whiteboard where it's easily reached.  One point equals half an hour of screen time.

We also have this colored behavior chart hanging in the kitchen. Every morning their personal clip starts in the middle (white.)  Good choices move you up.  Bad choices move you down.  If you reach the bottom, you're "busted" which means you lose some privilege or get extra chores.  If you reach the top and are still there at bedtime, then you earn a bonus screen-time point.

Now that Quartus is 3 and a half, he is on the behavior chart and point system, too.  Though, we are less strict with him about it still.

Are you going to have any more children?

I really like blogs like this,  this , and this about having big families and how to respond when people ask you about them.  Some women get very annoyed and defensive when they hear questions like,

"You have your hands full, don't you?"
"Are you going to have any more?"
"Why do you have so many?"
"You know what causes that, right?"

Those types of questions just don't bother me.  Maybe it's because I'm naive or have just been lucky to not have rude encounters with strangers, but I think every time I've been asked about my family size, I've personally seen it as an innocent way to start conversation.  And while I value privacy, I also enjoy open conversation.

Anyway, the following is my usual response (or rather, the long version if the other party is interested in listening) to the question, "Do you think you'll have more children?"



My husband and I have always wanted a "big family."  My husband was an only child and feels like he missed out on some experiences he wishes he could have had.  So he's dreamed of having 8 daughters.  And I came from a big family, 9 children, so having a lot of kids seems very doable and not scary at all.

But our financial situation is awful.  When we decided to conceive #3, my husband had just been given notice that his company was leaving the state.  But we were not worried because they gave us an awesome severance package and job search training and assured us that companies would be knocking down our door wanting to hire him and his colleagues.

But then we got pregnant with Tertius six months earlier than we expected and Hubby wasn't having an easy time getting hired.  It was also really hard being pregnant when Secundus was still so young.  But it was a blessing that Tertius came early because if God had waited even one month to send him, our medical insurance would have run out before he arrived.  

After that, financially things were only getting worse.  I still felt like Heavenly Father wanted me to have my "big family," (and stay home to raise them) but I got comfortable with the idea of not having anymore for a while.  I thought it might be fun to have three close together now, and then another group of three later on.

But once again, Heavenly Father had other plans.  We were surprised to be blessed with a fourth pregnancy.

I really struggled this time because we've had to rely so much on our family and government assistance to get by.  I HATE being dependent!  I babysat starting at age 12, worked from age 16 until I had Primus, was a part-time nanny until I had Secundus, and I had saved every penny.  After our marriage and as our family grew, I remained incredibly frugal.  This allowed us to build quite a large savings, even on only one income.  But now all that savings was getting used up.

But for some reason, Heavenly Father really wanted Quartus to come to our family. That's why he's here.  I was even blessed with a miraculously "easy" pregnancy.

Now Quartus is three-and-a-half.  That's older than Tertius was when he was born.  Our littlest is not so little anymore.  This is the longest time that we have been without an infant in the house.  I miss having a tiny baby to snuggle on my chest.

"So, are you going to have any more children?"  

We have close friends that have a two year old and a 4 month old and we have thoroughly enjoyed loving on them.  But even still, we're starting to feel "baby-hungry."  No matter how sweet it is to hold someone else's little one, it's not the same as snuggling my own.  My own infants just fit in my arms perfectly.  We feel (or hope?) that Heavenly Father probably has more to send us.

But it would still be irresponsible of us to try to have a fifth child right now.  Hubby has one more semester of school before he can get a full time teaching job.  Further, some health issues are making it so that we have infertility to deal with, too.

Will we have more?  Maybe.  How many more?  I don't know.

Something my mom always told me that has stuck is, "Take and love as many babies as God will send you."  We're going to joyfully welcome all the children that Heavenly Father will entrust us with.  And we're going to love and cherish all of them.  

Maybe that means learning to be content with four.  Maybe that means we'll miraculously be blessed with 4 more (and the means to provide for them).  God often seems to have different plans than we do.  So we just have to wait patiently with faith to find out what His plan is.

Student ID Cards

I found two cool sites for making FREE homeschool student ID cards:

Big Huge Labs and Homeschool Buyers Co-op.

This is the third year that I have made student ID's for the kids.  I put them on lanyards with the idea that they would wear them when we go out on field trips.  The kids love them and are always so excited to see how they turn out!  

But then the novelty always wears off and they get lost or forgotten.  Oh well.  It's fun for a little while.  Maybe we'll keep better track of them this year.

First Day of School 2016

Even though we all stayed up really late last night, these three were awake before 6:30 am and playing card games, waiting for me to get up.  They were just too excited for the first day of school!  

I'm so glad to be able to say that every year they look forward to the first day of school and their schultuten just like Christmas morning and stockings.

Primus, 5th Grade

Secundus, 3rd Grade

Tertius, 1st Grade

Quartus, Preschool

This year in their school cones they got sugar cereal, Carnation Instant Breakfast, chocolate pudding, apple sauce squeeze pouch, a pencil sharpener, and an Angry Bird Yowie.

We spent some of the first day of school decorating our new school baskets with stickers.  I got these plastics baskets at the 99 cent store for about 2 bucks each.  I had to use Mod Podge to make sure some of the stickers stayed stuck.

Then we put together our wooden Thor toys.  Lowes Hardward Store puts on free kids' workshops a couple times per month.  I noticed last Saturday the project was a Black Widow (Avenger) toy.  We love the Avengers so we all went.  And then we found out that they had been doing a different Avenger each time for the past several weeks.  We had missed 4 Avengers and if you have all six, they link together in a cool way.  So sad!  Thankfully, they happened to have left over Thor kits from the last workshop.  So today we built them and at the end of the month we'll be able to do Hulk.

Today we also did some little mazes, word searches, and educational games.

 Our first day of school 2016 was capped off with a surprise field trip to get frozen yogurt.  I love starting the school year fun and laid back!

What's your favorite first day of school tradition?

Homeschooling Means...#22

...my kids don't get to participate in the typical low-budget school plays that are put on by dedicated volunteers.  For many years I played the piano for second grade plays for a teacher friend of mine.  It was fun and kids love to be on stage!  

Peter Pan, 2015

Raccoon Twin, Rosetta, and Hop

Instead, we have the pleasure of participating in a children's theater workshop for homeschoolers put on by knowledgeable, talented people who are in the local theater community.  The kids audition and then have 3 hour rehearsal classes every week for 3 months where they learn to act, sing, and dance.  The result is a quality production that truly is a pleasure to see.

This year is Disney's Mulan Jr and we cannot wait to see what parts the kids get!


(This series is meant to be mostly lighthearted and fun.  Some may be serious, but most will be silly, braggy, or of the keepin'-it-real variety.  Not every homeschool is the same.  And some of these things could be said by public school parents.  This is just to highlight MY experience with MY homeschool and MY children.  Enjoy these little insights into our life and feel free to share your own "Homeschooling means..." in the comments!)

Brag Time: Reading Levels

This summer I was reading the chapter books that Primus has chosen to study this year for literature and started to get worried that one was going to be too difficult for her.  According to Scholastic Book Wizard, it's rated as a 6.9 reading level.  She's only entering the 5th grade this year. 

So I figured it was about time that I tested all the kids so I could have a more accurate view of their reading ability.  Our charter school tests them twice a year on several Language Arts and Math skills, but for various reasons, I always take those results with a grain of salt.

The first test I administered was the SORT (Slosson Oral Reading Test).  It's several leveled vocab word lists and you count up how many the student can read correctly.  It's important to note that this test does not care whether the student understands what the word means or if they can use it correctly in a sentence.  It's only assessing if the student can read the word out loud properly.  

According to the SORT, Primus (going into 5th) is at a 7.4 grade level, Secundus (going into 3rd) is a 4.8 grade level, and Tertius (going into 1st) is a 2.1 grade level.  


Next, I wanted to test the kids' oral reading speed.  I used the leveled reading passages and scoring method found in Evan Moor's Building Fluency books (I have free access to all of them because of my membership with their Teacher File Box site.)  There's also an explanation on how to test using any reading passage here.

Again, this assessment did not test for comprehension, only reading speed and accuracy.

Primus: Using the 5th grade passage, she read 168 words per minute, 90th percentile. 
Using the 6th grade passage, she read 150 words per minute, 75th percentile.  
Using the 7th grade passage, she read 141 words per minute, 60th percentile.

Secundus: Using the 3rd grade passage, she read 129 words per minute, 90th percentile. 
Using the 5th grade passage, she read 127 words per minute, 65th percentile.

Tertius: Using the 1st grade passage, he read 70 words per minute. No percentile is assigned for 1st graders at the beginning of the year because it's not supposed to be administered until later.  However, this word speed is equivalent to 85th percentile for a mid-year 1st grader.
Using the 2nd grade passage, he read 56 words per minute, 55th percentile.


In summation, all three kids are 1-2 grade levels above where they "should" be. One proud homeschooling Mama over here! It's always nice to see that I'm not screwing up my kids! Yay! lol ;)

Cooking Lessons

Last school year the kids got really interested in watching Master Chef Junior and Man vs. Child.  It really opened their eyes to the fact that they're not too young to cook.

It opened my eyes, too.  I always say that I value independence in my children and that the sign of a good mother is one who works herself out of a job.  But I have never really enjoyed having the kids help me in the kitchen.  I'd rather just do it myself and get it over with rather than deal with the slow pace, frustration, imperfection, and mess that is cooking with kids.  

And yet, the oldest three are now 10, 8, 6, and more capable than I give them credit for.  And they're going to have to learn how to cook sometime if I expect them to grow up to be productive, independent adults!  

My perspective has shifted.  When I thought of cooking with the kids as a way to "have fun and play" with them, I hated it and it was not an enjoyable experience.  But now that I see it as "teaching and raising capable adults,"  I love it!  

And it turns out we really are having fun and "playing" together.  I don't care as much about the mess and am being more hands off and letting them do the measurements themselves even if they mess up a little.  The end goal isn't to have a delicious dish.  Rather, the goal is the teaching of an important skill and seeing the pride in their faces when they can declare, "I made this!"

In talking with friends last school year, a cool monthly subscription service for kids was discovered called Raddish.  One friend ended up ordering it for her kids so I got to see first-hand how cool it was.  Seriously.  Check it out.  It's neat.  

I internally debated back and forth for a long time, trying to decide if I wanted to spend my school budget on it or not.  But then it hit me.  I already have enough cookbooks!  Furthermore, I have a binder full of recipes that our family uses regularly, plus enough knowledge myself on how to execute them.  It would be more beneficial at this time for the kids to learn how to make the recipes they already like to eat.  And so, my plan was born.

The oldest three each have their own binder.  By the time they grow up and leave the house, it will be full of all the recipes they've learned to do.  

In the front they have this table of contents.  When they learn a new recipe, they write down the name of it and then they have three boxes where they write the dates they do it.  They need to do it at least twice with my help/supervision before they get to attempt it completely alone.  

This one belongs to Primus.  As you can see, the first three recipes are just easy, silly little things she found in a kids' "cookbook."  Then she has listed: cake mix cookies, drop biscuits, cornbread, chicken-tastic, baked chicken (seasoned with a McCormick rub), macaroni salad, cheesecake strawberries, and homemade corndogs.  This had all been done between the start of June and mid July.

One thing that is very important to me is that I don't just photocopy the recipes for them.  Before they begin, the kids must copy it out by hand in their binder.  This forces them to get acquainted with the whole recipe before starting.  (Since Tertius is still young and not a good writer yet, I just have him write the name at the top of the page, and then I do the rest for him. But we read the whole thing out loud together.)

I also encourage the kids to rewrite things in a way that makes sense to them.  I personally HATE the way standard recipes are written.  It drives me crazy to look back and forth from the instructions to the ingredient list, especially when it's all written so small and in full paragraphs.  I prefer large letters, liberal line spacing, bullet organization, and ingredients with quantities integrated in the directions.  So I always have to rewrite my recipes if I plan on making it more than once.

So far, it is going wonderfully!  The kids don't ask to make dinner every night, but when they do feel like doing it, they are so proud of themselves!  In fact, last night Secundus wandered into the kitchen and thought she saw me making "Sausage and Apples" (I was actually roasting some red potatoes.)  She got upset and said, "Hey, why didn't you tell me you were making that!  I know how to do Sausage and Apples!  I would have done it!"



Have you started teaching your kids to cook?  What age did you start learning kitchen skills?

Morning Routine Flip Charts

By the end of last school year, I was pretty sick of getting up in the morning and sounding like a broken record.  Come on, kids!  You know what you're supposed to do every morning before school starts or we can go somewhere!  It never changes!  I shouldn't have to say it anymore!

So I came up with a solution.  These flip charts.

They were made with manilla folders, construction paper for individuality, and clipart found on Google.  Velcro holds the pieces up when the tasks are completed.  Now that they've been used for a few months, I see that I need to go back and reinforce them with some clear contact paper.

Each kid has their own hanging on the kitchen wall and they're expected to help the younger ones when they're done with their own. At night I flip everything back down so it's ready for them the next morning.  It has been working beautifully!

Homeschooling Means...#21

...My heart excitedly skips a beat when the Lakeshore sales flyer arrives in the mail.  Even though I've already submitted all my school orders for the semester.

(This series is meant to be mostly lighthearted and fun.  Some may be serious, but most will be silly, braggy, or of the keepin'-it-real variety.  Not every homeschool is the same.  And some of these things could be said by public school parents.  This is just to highlight MY experience with MY homeschool and MY children.  Enjoy these little insights into our life and feel free to share your own "Homeschooling means..." in the comments!)