Gingerbread Nativity

This Christmas season, every time I was at Walmart I would look at all the gingerbread house options.  Frozen, Paw Patrol, Mario, Minions, classic, village with 4 small houses instead of one big one, etc.  I just couldn't decide which one I wanted to get for the kids to make.

Then the week before Christmas I saw that they had this one, a Gingerbread Nativity.  I snatched it up right away.  Perfect!

It depicts the Wise Men visiting the Christ child at the stable, which didn't really happen. (They visited the family after they had returned home, and Jesus could have been as old as 1 year.) It's a pet peeve of mine.  Still, though, I really liked finding another way to center the Christmas season on the birth of our Savior.

Homeschooling Means...#31

...Mom's idea of a funny prank is to try and convince the kids that the day after Christmas is a school day.  They did NOT like that idea. 

(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!)

Be Happy!

One of the kids in my 5 year old Primary class at church has cancer. He was treated for it before he turned 3 and thankfully it went into remission. Sadly, it's now back.

Nephi (*name changed) is the most upbeat kid you will ever meet!  Even with all the endless appointments, needle sticks, and host of other negative things in his life, he's often quick with a smile and an optimistic word. It's a blessing to know him!

Last Sunday as part of our lesson, I shared a story of Elder Featherstone when he was a little boy. Elder Featherstone's family was very poor and could not afford new shoes for him. He contemplated skipping church rather than wearing embarrassing hand-me-down women's nursing shoes. Thankfully he chose to go and no one made fun of him for it.

The main point of the story was that we should make the right choice to come to church and worship the Lord on the Sabbath no matter what. The secondary lesson that I wanted my students to understand is that they should never tease anyone who comes to church, no matter what they look like!

To help them gain a little more understanding and empathy, I asked them, "What should you do if you see someone come to our class wearing a dirty tshirt instead of a button down shirt? Would you give him a dirty look or tell him he shouldn't wear that here? What if a girl came with messy, tangled hair? Would you point and laugh? How would you feel if someone did that to you?"

I could tell they were really connecting with the message so I continued, "What about if someone had a tear in their dress, or breakfast stains on their clothes, or holes in their shoes, or-"

At this point Nephi chimed in with a big smile, "Or no hair! Or a funny hat!"

(Nephi had come into class earlier wearing a red apple-shaped knit hat and whipped it off to show off his shaved, patchy head. Then he excitedly explained to us that his hair was falling out in clumps.)

As everyone giggled, I seized the moment and asked, "Yeah! How would you feel if someone laughed at your hair?"

Nephi: "It would be fine because it's funny!"

Me: "Ok, but pretend that it really bothered you. Pretend to be really sad that I'm calling your hat silly."

Nephi: "But it is silly! I can't pretend that! It wouldn't make me sad at all!"

He is such a good example to me. Never get down about the way you look or what other people think about the way you look!

The world needs a few more Nephi's!

I Cannot Wait for New Years Eve!

November and December are crazy busy months for me. Aside from the normal way that the holiday season fills up calendars and to-do lists, it's also the busiest time of year for my small home-based business. Every weeknight I stay up past midnight to fill orders and prep for craft fairs. I'm utterly exhausted and stressed out!

During this time of year, when I'm tearing my hair out with stress and kicking myself with the guilt of not spending enough calm, quality time with the kids, I look forward wistfully to December 31st.

On Dec 31st, Thanksgiving and Christmas are over. All the big family meals are done, dishes cleaned, and leftovers eaten. The presents have been bought, wrapped, unwrapped, and put away. The Christmas tree has been put up and decorated (and if we're lucky, also taken down and packed away again. I have no more craft fairs until the spring. The family, friend, and church parties are over and the calendar is suddenly so much emptier.

December 31st, New Year's Eve, means that I can finally relax and take a deep breath.

Every year we spend New Year's Eve with my brother's family. The kids run around inside and out the house with cousins, we eat junk food until we pop, and play plenty of games. And above all, we hang out and make memories.

 It's a very low pressure holiday.  Exactly the kind of holiday I need!

I Stopped Dreaming

When I was a kid, my mom would frequently talk about her "Sky Castles."  These were dreams she had for improvements on the house.  An in-ground pool.  A second living room (the "add on.")  Turning the covered patio into a big bedroom with a second story loft area.

Those first two Sky Castles were realized before I was a teenager, but not until after many years of dreaming, planning, discussion, and saving.  And now that five of her nine children have moved out of the house, there isn't much need anymore for that third wish.  I'm actually not sure if she still talks about it.  Though I'm sure she has some other Sky Castle in her mind.

So I guess you could say that my mom taught me to dream big.  But somewhere along the way, dreaming became painful for me.

When Hubby and I were first married, we would talk constantly about our future house.  We would read or hear about something cool and turn to each other and say, "Can we have that in our castle?"  An indoor swimming pool.  An intercom system in every room so we don't have to shout at each other to come for dinner.  A slide from the top stories to the ground floor.  A mall-type food court in the basement.

Some of the features of our castle were just ridiculous and of course we would never be that rich. But it was always fun to talk about and dream.

But then financial difficulty hit.  We watched our savings account start to drain.  I would watch our 3 little ones play in our 2 bedroom apartment and just cry and cry that we would never be able to afford anything better.  I was insufferable with all my whining and ingratitude.  All that savings was supposed to be a down payment on a house!  And now it was gone and I could not see the future.  Would we ever have a sufficient income again?

And so I stopped talking about the castle.  It would just remind me how poor we were.  I can't imagine living in a castle when I can't even afford food.  It's too painful.

It's clear that for the past 8 years Heavenly Father has been trying to teach me to have faith and patience.  Some days are better than others.  But I definitely have significantly more positive days than I used to.  I'm not perfect, though I'm making progress.

Now I can finally see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Hubby has completed all of his schooling and takes as many substitute teacher hours as he can.

And yet I still fear for the future.  There's still too much uncertainty.  Until I feel secure, I still can't bring myself to dream.

I don't dream but I do hope that the future will be better.

What a Rebel

Anyone who knew me as a child or a teenager would describe me as a “good little Mormon girl.” I’ve never tasted alcohol. I’ve always worn super modest clothes. I don’t have any tattoos or piercings. And when I was 18, still living at home, and my parents changed my curfew to midnight, I obeyed with only a few grumbles.

But now that I’ve gotten married and have 4 children, I’ve turned into quite a rebel. I homeschool.

According to the Department of Education, in 2012 only 3.4 percent of children are homeschooled (although I suspect that number is higher if you consider children like mine, who officially do home study through a public charter school.) And that number is rapidly increasing as satisfaction with our public education system decreases.

Still, even though most people will agree that public schools have issues, homeschoolers are considered rebels. We’re challenging the status-quo. We simply don’t believe that the government knows best when it comes to how to educate our children. That rubs some people the wrong way.

I've said it about a million times on this blog, but isn't it wonderful to live in this "land of the free" and be able to have many different options on how to educate our kids?

To my fellow rebels: keep up the good work!

To the moms who are thinking about going against the grain and trying something different for your kids: go for it! You can do it!

A Tour of Our Book Shelves

I think it may be a rule that homeschoolers have to like books. I NEVER buy books at full price but it's so exciting to pick some up for free at the Stuff Swap or buy some for 25 cents at Goodwill Outlet or the Library book sale.

Another thing I LOVE to get for free or cheap is bookshelves. Sure, I could go buy some quality book shelves that will last many years. But I'd rather take everyone's cheap hand-me-downs and fit them in where I can. And we've been lucky that everytime one shelf falls apart, another one has come along. (At this point in our lives, we just have to make this work. I do have a plan on Ikea that I drool over, though.)

These are our chapter books, in our school room. They're all organized by reading level. If you look closely, you can see little flags made with masking tape and labeled with grade numbers.

I also have a few high school level books that are currently being stored in the garage until we need them.

You can see that our chapter books are next to this shelf (you see a bit at the far right of this picture.) This is about half of our non-fiction books. They're all divided by topic, the sections being labeled with manilla page dividers.

This is the other half of our nonfiction books, in the bottom two rows of this tall bookcase that sits on the other side of the school room.

In another corner of our school room is all of our picture books. Every once in a while, for fun, I'll sort the books and put all the Dr. Seuss books or fairytales together, for example. But I don't label these groups and I don't expect the kids to put books back in the same spot.

You can see in the top right corner of the picture that I have a little crate labeled "phonics readers." At the moment, Quartus is working his way through these books. As soon as he has read each little book once, then it gets pit back in that crate.

You can also see the big red and yellow plastic crates on top of the shelf. Those crates hold all of the boys' school books

This book case is to the left of the picture above. It's more picture books. The big green basket on the top shelf used to hold little baby board books, but I recently packed those away in storage. So at the moment it holds all the phonics readers that Quartus hasn't read yet.

The pink and light green crates on top hold the girls' school work.

The basket that holds the nonfiction books we're currently reading (on Fridays) lives on the floor under the window in the living room.

Our history curriculum and corresponding library books live on the top shelf of our entertainment center.

This bookcase is also in the living room. The bottom is where all our library books (and chapter books we're currently reading) are kept. 

The next shelf up is for scripture stories.

This tall bookcase stands at a section of wall between the kitchen and school room. At the top is a few religious books, mostly student manuals for Sunday School and Seminary.

Down from there are cookbooks. Since everything is online, I only keep a couple cookbooks for myself. The rest are fun ones for the children.

Next are craft and drawing instruction books, with craft kits and supplies below.

While there are always books in every bed, (the kids love to read to themselves before they go to sleep) we don't store any in the kids' bedrooms. All books are communal property so they need to be out where all can access them.

The exceptions are Hubby's collections of videos game strategy guides, writers' reference books (in the picture above), and history books (in the picture below.) All of these are in his "Man Nook" in our bedroom (he had his own "Man Cave" when the children were younger and all shared a bedroom together.)

So there you have it! How are the books in your homeschool organized?

Teaching Primus About Photoshop

Primus loves chatting on Google Hangouts with her friends. They mostly talk about Voltron, or whatever their newest obsession is, and shard silly memes. She was so entertained and just had to show me when someone shared a video that had a tripod from War of the Worlds photoshopped into a view of Hurricane Irma in Florida.


This led to a conversation with her about how amazingly talented some people are with photoshop and that you have to be skeptical and not assume everything you see on the internet is true. My friend, and Primus' best friend's mother, is on their chat and often says sarcastically there, "Oh, it's real. It's on the internet."

Then that led to a discussion about how extensively photoshop is used in magazines and advertisements. I shared with her the fact that studies have shown that the more girls read such magazines, the more they hate their own bodies. As I put it to her, some women come to desire to look like what they see in the magazine, but what they see is fiction and not physically possible. So that leads to poor self esteem and feelings of inadequacy.

I plan to show her some videos of photoshopping in progress. During our brief conversation, however, I gave her just a few examples of the kinds of things on a woman's body that a photoshopper would change such as making hair fuller, erasing knee caps, shaving arm width, etc. She suggested that they might erase freckles. When I confirmed that she was absolutely right, she was horrified! "I love my freckles!" she emphatically declared as she grabbed her nose.

I'm so glad that she seems to have such a good head on her shoulders and that she is comfortable in her own skin. She's in sixth grade. I was in sixth grade when I finally really became aware of my own appearance, and I did not like what I saw. I hope that she never loses her confidence and knowledge that she is a beautiful and unique daughter of God.

I'm so grateful for the teaching opportunity that a silly Youtube video provided for us!

Homeschooling Means...#30

...using the Newsies musical as a jumping off spot for an extra history lesson.

The girls and I got to see a stage production of The Music Man with grandma, which prompted us to borrow the 1962 version on DVD and watch it as a family. It's a fun musical and Hubby has fond memories of being the high tenor voice in the barbershop quartet when his high school performed it. But it's a weird story! And the kids annoyed us with their rendition of "Shipoopi" for a few days so I decided we needed to watch another musical to get that song out of their heads.

Unfortunately, Netflix's current selection of classic musicals is lacking. But even though they didn't have the original Newsies movie, they did have a Broadway stage production version of it that was produced this year. It's so good! There are a few changes in characters and songs, but I think they're great changes!

The kids loved watching it, too! I'd much rather hear them singing, "Seize the Day" instead of "Pick a Little Talk a Little" over and over again! 

And of course, since we are a homeschooling family, we couldn't pass up this opportunity to look up information about the true story behind the story! Did you know it was inspired by a real newsboy strike in 1899 against Mr. Pulitzer that lasted 2 weeks and was led by a boy nicknamed Kid Blink?

There could be a real opportunity hear. Someone should create a homeschool curriculum that teaches history through musicals! 
Use Hamilton to learn about the American Revolution,
Newsies to learn about the history of unions and working conditions of children and lower class families at the turn of the century,
Fiddler on the Roof to learn about turn of the century czarist Russia,
Les Miserables to learn about the French Revolution, 
The Sound of Music to learn about The Third Reich's annexation of Austria, 
Annie Get Your Gun to learn about the historic Buffalo Bills Wild West show,
The King and I to learn about 1860 British Imperialism.

Let me know as soon as someone more creative and knowledgeable than I makes such a thing a reality. I will happily be their first customer!



(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!)

6th Grade Memories

I like being busy. I like being social. I like being involved in everything. (Sometimes this catches up with me and I get stressed out because I put too much on my plate, but I digress.) This really started being clear to me in 6th grade.

6th grade at Pershing Elementary School was really a defining time for me in a lot of ways. I learned a lot about myself that year.

I could be remembering wrong, but I think the following was my schedule. This was also the year that I was finally allowed to walk home half a mile with friends (Beth, David, and Leslie) on most days. So many fond memories!

Mondays I went to private piano lessons with Sister Cooper.

Tuesdays after school I attended Readers' Theater group.
(This was a fun class and great for someone like me who has no natural acting talent. Performance time was a disaster, though. I mentioned it a little here.)

Wednesdays after school I stayed for GATE.
 (From talking to other people, it seems like our GATE program was much different than the way other schools do it and it was actually kind of lame. At my elementary school we had the regular classes and then the Rapid Learner classes. Even though I qualified for RL, my parents preferred the regular classes. My last year there they started GATE for the "smart" or gifted kids who weren't in RL. Basically we just met after school for an hour a week and did educational and fun stuff. We did a unit on the science of bubbles, a unit all about paper airplanes, and a whole semester with the computer lab teacher. We were planning improvements for the school website. We were working on some really awesome stuff! But either we didn't finish or we weren't allowed to actually make it live. Lame. Probably my favorite day was when we spent the whole time telling the computer teacher all about how snobby and mean the RL kids were. She had a daughter in RL but patiently listened to our frustrations and jealousies without rebuking us.)

I think the Girls Activity Days (church youth group) were also on Wednesdays every other week in the late afternoon.

Thursdays were spent at choir practice.

Band practice was before school on one of those days.


I'm thankful to my awesome elementary school that provided so many extracurricular activities (for free!) and to my mother for letting me join all of them!

“Can a woman forget her sucking child?”

Isaiah 49:15-16

15 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.

This scripture is close to my heart. I have breastfed for a total of about 5 years (nonconsecutive) over the course of nurturing 4 babies.

There is a bond between mother and child. Spiritual, emotional, and physical. Even after the umbilical cord is cut, I was still linked physically with my infant. If I heard her cry, my body would respond by preparing to release milk for her.  If I was away from her for too long, my body made sure that I knew it!

Can a woman forget her sucking child? No! As a nursing mother, I could tell when it had been too long since the last feeding. If I was away from my baby and unable to pump to release some pressure, I would become engorged. It hurts! There is actual physical pain that happens to make sure the mother can't forget her child.


Like a breastfeeding mother to her infant, Christ our Savior is literally physically linked with us. He doesn't think of us and have compassion for us simply because of an emotional or spiritual connection with us. It is also a physical bond! He literally took upon him all of our sins and afflictions. He knows exactly what each of our pains, disappointments, sadness, and joys feel like to each of us.

Furthermore, when Christ was put on the cross, we were "graven upon the palms of his hands." That is a physical reminder of us to him. He has tangible evidence of the sacrifice he made for us and our connection to him.

I love my Savior and am eternally grateful to him for his sacrifice for me!

How We Do Fridays

Many homeschoolers choose to do a 4 day per week school schedule. That leaves 1 week day open every week for field trips, errands and chores (totally counts as "life skills" education), or self-directed or delight-directed relaxed learning.

I have my own version of that idea.

I feel like I push my kids really hard academically Monday through Thursday. I think I have high expectations of them and have to try hard to make sure that I'm keeping things for them in balance. I worry sometimes that my expectations and requirements of them are too high and we need to have more down time or unschoolish type education. It's very normal for me as a mom, and especially as a homeschool mom, to constantly second guess myself.

However, I digress...

My goal is for every kid to be done with their weekly assignments by Thursday. (If that means that they work longer on Thursdays because they slacked off earlier in the week, then so be it.) That way Friday is open for other pursuits. The following is what we are doing this semester. Not every semester or school year is identical!

Fridays start with group scripture and song memorization and family prayer, followed by personal scripture study time (same as every school day.)

After that, I read aloud from a biography of a classical composer. We're using these books. (Great Musicians Series from Zeezok Publishing.) They come with CDs of music to go along with it, but I find it easier to just make a Youtube playlist of songs from the particular composer and then listen to it with my tablet while I read and while we do our school work during the week. Also, while I read, the kids are free to play in the same room as me. It's usually things like Legos or Pattern Blocks. I tell them to find something that will keep their hands busy and their mouths quiet so that they can listen. It's been taking us two Fridays to get through each book.

Next, the girls will do a spelling lesson with me (All About Spelling) while Tertius does some free reading of non-fiction books. (I set out a basket of books on a particular topic such as animals, space, or American history and the books get switched out for a new topic every other week.) When the girls are done with their lesson, then they get to read while Tertius does spelling. Meanwhile, Quartus just does whatever he wants. He might look at the books or he might play with toys. I don't mind either way. Kindergartners get more freedom!

After that, we get to spend time with my friend and the kids' "adopted" Grandma. We might do a fun art or food project. We might do an activity from a science kit. Or we might just hang out (outside when the weather is nice), relax, play with toys, and enjoy each others' company. Lately Grandma's been spending all her free time on painting rocks, big and small. They're beautiful and she's so talented! So some weeks she teaches us how to paint rocks and the kids have come up with some really fun designs.

We always look forward to our Fridays. I'm hoping the way I have our week structured is teaching the kids that we need to do the hard work first and then fun can happen later. A useful life lesson!

Kids Love Gospel Art On Their Walls

Recently I went to Deseret Book to buy some gospel art to put on the walls of my primary classroom. The kids came with me and they were amazed to see so many different prints of art for sale. They wanted them all! 

I let them spend their own money to buy a few pictures to put on their bedroom walls. It was really hard for them to decide which ones to get. These little 3X4 pictures were only about 50 cents each.

The photo above is Tertius' wall. He bought the Salt Lake Temple, the Savior with the words Come Follow Me, the Savior with a crown of thorns, and the Armor of God.

This one is Quartus' wall. He has the Salt Lake Temple, Jesus, and also a snapshot of our family when he was a baby (you can see the edge of it at the top of the picture.)

Here is the girls' room. Together they got the prophet Thomas S. Monson, Christ with a little girl, the Armor of God, a bookmark of the Armor of God, one called Behold He Cometh which is a young woman holding an oil lamp, and a bookmark of the Relief Society theme.

It was heart warming to witness their enthusiasm for decorating their rooms with art that would remind them of the Gospel and their Lord Jesus Christ!

I think maybe for Christmas I'll buy them some of the pictures that they wanted but decided to put back!

No, It's NOT Because They're Homeschooled

Read this article!

"It's Because They're Homeschooled." No. Actually, It's Not.
By The Hmmm...Schooling Mom
http://thehmmmschoolingmom.com/because-theyre-homeschooled/

This is so good! And the author points out that you can replace "homeschooled" with "public schooled" in that title and it would still be accurate.

It's fun to speculate how my kids would be different if they went to public school, had more or less siblings, lived in a different state, could afford family vacations, or if they were born into a different family.

 Certainly, their upbringing and environment DO effect them. But their base personalities are central to who they are and can't be changed. One of mine is very independent and confident; it's not easy to parent, or teach, a toddler or preschooler with these traits! Honestly, in one of my lowest parenting moments, i did try to change her personality. And it backfired! Sending her to public school wouldn't have changed her, either!

My kids are the way they are mostly because that's the way we are, NOT because they are homeschooled.

Like I said, environment and upbringing do effect children, but as this author emphasizes, the double standard is unacceptable. If a homeschooled kid and a public schooled kid both do the exact same behavior (talk nonstop and insist on doing things her own way instead of following instructions, for example), we can't say that one did it because of their schooling while one did it because of their personality.

Let's not judge and just allow ALL parents the support and encouragement they need to make the choices they feel will be best for their kids! ❤

(All that said, I don't begrudge my family and friends who tease us about being homeschooled. With them, I choose to believe it's all in good fun and not sincere criticism. Teasing is genetic in my family. We roll with it and dish it right back.)

Why I Love Homeschooling with a Charter School, and How That Relates to My Failure As a Piano Teacher

Here in California, homeschoolers get to choose between two ways to do so. We can either enroll in a Charter School set up for supporting homeschoolers, or we can file a Private School Affidavit.

We've been with our charter school from the beginning (when Primus was a kindergartner.)  I love it!  It is such a blessing to our family to have this option!

Philosophically, I disagree with the state required standardized testing (which we wouldn't have to do if we went the private school route.)  So that's an annoying hoop I have to jump through.  But everything else makes it worth it.

The thing I love the most is the funds we receive for curriculum, supplies, and classes.

Another big reason I love the charter is that we have a supervising teacher to support us.  I need this.

Every month a credentialed teacher visits us, delivers any orders we placed, records what we learned, and collects work samples for a yearly portfolio.  These meetings are great.  I love our "ES."  I always feel supported instead of criticized or judged.  I feel like our ES trusts my abilities and judgement in teaching my children.  I also feel like if she felt there were any issues or gaps that she would tell me and help me come up with a plan for remedying it.

So this support I receive is invaluable.  But it's also important to me that I am accountable to an outside person.  I need this.  This is abundantly clear by the fact that I for years have had great intentions to teach piano to my girls but found it extremely hard to do it consistently.  Instead of weekly lessons and regular practice, Primus got a lesson about once a month.  She liked it and plays the piano a lot, but she usually wouldn't practice the things that she was supposed to.  And Secundus got maybe 4 lessons in a year.  Uggh.

The problem is, piano just isn't required by the school.  It's not something that I have to report on to my ES every month.  It's not included in our yearly portfolio.  Therefore it is so easy for me to put it low on the priority list.

However, regular piano lessons are finally happening this year! I'll talk more about my source of motivation in another post.

As far as my need for accountability goes, I think I've finally found something that worked! We see our ES about once a month so the goal is for the girls to have 4 lessons and do 480 minutes of practice before she comes. If they do, then they earn a full pack of gum from me, a much coveted treat.  All of that is recorded on a single piece of paper. When she comes, that paper is put in the folder they use to hold all their other work samples. She pulls out the work samples to take with her for their portfolio, but leaves the piano record there since she doesn't need it. But it still feels like we have a little bit of accountability to her. It would be embarrassing to the girls and I to let her see that page if it wasn't completed.

I'm optimistic that in a year I'll be able to report that both of the girls are making steady progress with piano!

Review: "Teaching Drawing Without Knowing How to Draw"

I’m not artistic. I’m creative in some ways, but can’t draw or paint worth beans! So this curriculum really appealed to me! “Teaching Drawing Without Knowing How to Draw by Jeffry Byrd” (a very talented illustrator, graphic designer, and artist- check out his work here.)

I’m always looking for a good class or program that I can fit into our homeschool schedule to give the kids exposure to the world of art. I believe that it’s my job to give my kids opportunities to find their hidden talents and passions. So when I was given this chance to review Lesson 1, I couldn't pass it up!

(The author, Jeffry Byrd, is an acquaintance of mine from a small business class I'm taking. He asked me to review Lesson 1. The following is my 100% honest and personal opinion.)

Lesson 1, Creativity and You, starts with a one page introduction and explanation of the flow of the lesson. I really appreciate that it’s concise! It’s not long winded at all and is easy to follow and understand.

One of the first things I noticed was that this curriculum was written with language that makes it seem the author had both homeschool and traditional classrooms in mind. It does speak of “groups” of students, so you would have to adjust if you were using it to teach only one child. But I think it would work well whether you had a class of 2 or 50!

Included in this introduction is a small paragraph about the setting you choose to teach in. It had some great tips on how your setting might affect the way student receive the information.

Following that was a useful materials list (all things that are inexpensive and easy to obtain, like sketchbook and pencil.) Also included in the materials list are links to the images and art that are referenced in the lesson. I love that if I’m supposed to show my kids a “car rendering,” for example, I don’t have to go Googling for a good picture that fits the purpose. It’s already included! I printed out the PDF because I like to have physical curriculum to hold and make notes on, but while I was teaching I kept my tablet nearby so I could pull up the links at the appropriate time.

Next is a quick list of the lesson structure, followed by an explanation of each part. They are: assignment report, attention activity and questions, images/examples, instruction activity, and assignment. I like that there’s a predictable and consistent order to each lesson! Again, these explanations are short and sweet and show the purpose or goal of each part of the lesson.

One of things I love the most about this curriculum was the emphasis on critiques. It’s an important part of every lesson. The section on critiquing explains why it’s valuable, what students will learn, and how to critique effectively. The structure that it teaches is what I’ve heard referred to elsewhere as a “love sandwich” where you sandwich your comment about what needs to be improved between two positive observations or compliments. My children responded really well to this! I think this is a valuable skill to practice (giving and receiving critique) as it will serve them well through all areas of their lives!

After the introduction page, the lesson itself takes up only two pages (really only just over one page plus ideas for optional expansion.)  I’ll say it once again, I like it when curriculum gets right to the point!

It was helpful that an estimation was given for how long you should spend on each section. All told, the lesson should take between 55 and 80 minutes, plus easy daily homework. With my 4 children, we stuck very close to those suggestions. The exception was the “instruction activity” part where we were supposed to listen to a piece of instrumental music and draw what we imagined. We spent 40 minutes on that instead of 20-30 because the girls were in the mood to get very detailed! (Also, as you can see, my kids insisted on using crayons instead of just pencil like it said to use in the material list. Using a different medium probably contributed to the longer drawing time.)

Given that the lesson was only supposed to take about an hour, it could usually be accomplished on one sitting. However, since we spent so much extra time on one part, we had too many other things to do that day, and my little boys don’t have a large attention span for art, we broke it up into two days. It worked. I like flexibility!

In summary, I’ll give a critique in the format the author taught.

Positive: I love so many things about this curriculum! The format, the skills taught, the clear writing style of the author, etc are all excellent.

Negative: I wish it worked better for younger grades. The suggested grade levels are 3rd through 6th and I think that's accurate.  For example, the discussion on “what is creativity” was over the heads of my kinder and 2nd grade boys. My 4th and 6th grade girls, though, we’re engaged by it. I really do prefer teaching all four of my kids at once if I can. And if I can't teach all at the same time, then I prefer curriculum that my kids can use to self-teach during their independent time, and this wouldn't work that way. But that's ok! I can adjust a little to involve the boys at their level.

Positive: It’s clear the author put a lot of love and work into this project and I think it would be beneficial to a lot of teachers and homeschool parents!

I think we’ll be purchasing the full curriculum so my kids can continue with it. I’m excited to see their improvement in their drawings after going through all the lessons! Primus especially has been sketching a lot of people and fashions lately so perhaps this can help her!

All lessons are available for purchase on Teachers Pay Teachers. The following are links to take you directly to each one. There are six total and with a price of only about $6 each, it's a great value! (As of right now, they're also all on sale!)

Lesson 1, Creativity and You (currently free!)
Lesson 2, Shapes Are Everywhere
Lesson 3, All About Lines
Lesson 4, Getting Perspective
Lesson 5, Shadows and Shading
Lesson 6, How to Practice

Hubby's Passionate About History

I had a really weird dream...

I took the kids to a place for a history class, since I'm not adept at that subject. The teacher was a middle aged portly man who simply read from the Story of the World curriculum in a monotone. During our time with him, he kept getting interrupted by people coming into the room and talking with him. He was being very disrespectful of our time. Then once class was done and we were packing up to go, he got into a conversation with another man in which he was loudly criticizing my family and our church. 

I exploded! 

I absolutely ripped into him for being so disrespectful of me and my children and criticize our religion! How dare he! He tried to yell over me and argue with me. 

I also screamed at him for being such a waste of time and money and a horrible history teacher. I declared that I would rather have my husband teach the kids in the evenings than bring them back to him. I emphasized, "My husband has real PASSION for history, unlike you! I have never seen someone with more PASSION than him!"

While that scenario is likely to never play out in real life, I can imagine my reaction would be just like that if it were. 😂

Look for the Blessings in Trials

I own a small business out of my home kitchen. At the moment, it's not really big; basically it pays for Christmas for the kids. It's exciting to see the growth I've had from year to year, though.

Yesterday morning however, I had a crisis that had me feeling for a moment like maybe this venture has run it's course and it was time to throw in the towel.

I had an issue with one of my suppliers. I always feared this day would come, but didn't have a solid back up plan. Now I was absolutely panicking! I couldn't even think straight.

As Hubby is constantly reminding me, though, when there's a trial I have to focus on the blessings. There is always hope and Heavenly Father was right there. So instead of wallowing, I need to "look on the bright side." This is so hard for me to do! But here it goes...

1. I realized the issue early in the week, with plenty of time to find a solution before my event this weekend.
2. The kids are pretty independent and were able to do their schoolwork on their own while I focused on this crisis.
3. Hubby was home to talk me through solutions and plans. It was a bummer that he didn't have a job assignment to go to today, but Heavenly Father knew that I was going to need him at home!
4. I found a new local supplier that was able to take care of me today, with only a slight price increase over what I was getting.
5. My laptop is crappy and gives me "blue screen of death" often and at the most inopportune times. But today I was able to do plenty of Googling and such on it and it didn't shut down until right *after* I was done with it.

Proverbs 28:20 A faithful man shall abound with blessings.

When Grandma Met Grandpa

Recently when my grandmother (Shirley Thueson) was in the hospital, I tried to visit as much as I could. During one of my visits the hospital chaplain stopped by the room and struck up a lovely conversation with her about Grandpa Orel.

Grandma has been widowed for about 17 years and it was special to hear her talk about working with him in the drugstore they owned in Placerville (he was a pharmacist) and about how they met.

(I don't know or understand all the details and timeline. Perhaps I'll come back and edit this when I know more. But for now I really just wanted to get this in print before I forgot.)

Apparently my grandma's mom wanted to throw a party but there weren't very many people around. (This was wartime.) She tried inviting the men from the Air Corp in Santa Rosa but that was a no-go. And so she ended up inviting the military men who were POW camp guards in Windsor. My grandpa was one of those men. Apparently they were guarding German submariners. (Grandma commented that they were beautiful blonde haired, blue eyed men. Lol.)

The rest is history, as they say. Grandma met grandpa at the party and were later married. So it was my great grandmother who is responsible for them meeting. By the way grandma chuckled, and from what I seem to recall my mom telling me when I was little, I don't think great grandma was too happy about that. You see, my grandpa was a Mormon boy, so that didn't sit too well with her.  😂😍

I'm sure glad Great Grandma threw that party that night!

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes (The Lazy Way)

Did you know that mini muffins from the bakery fit perfectly inside ice cream cones?

Last Sunday someone gave me 2 big unopened boxes of ice cream cones before church. Rather than run them out to my car, I just threw them with my bags under the table in my primary class. Of course when my students came in and noticed, they got excited and thought I brought treats. I promised I would bring them filled with something the next week because one of the boys was having a birthday.

But then a week went by and I didn't have time to bake ice cream cone cupcakes. When I was nursery leader (age 18 months to 3 years) I would always do ice cream cones filled with fruit loops for birthday treats. (Or gluten free cones with fruity pebbles when I had a gluten sensitive student.) It was colorful, different, and relatively cheap and easy. It was hilarious to watch the kids discover that their cup was edible. And it entertained me to no end when they would accidently spill their cereal, give a shocked face, then carefully put them all back in (bonus fine motor practice) and then accidentally dump it again. Then of course there were the kids who discovered there was a marshmallow under the cereal (to fill space) and so would immediately pour out their cereal so they could eat the marshmallow first.

I could have done that with this class (they're 5-turning 6) but it was easier to just pick up a dozen mini chocolate muffins. If I were to do it again for a party or some such, I would put a marshmallow or some candy under the muffin to fill space and be a yummy surprise.

Post #500

This is a fun milestone! I have published 500 posts. 500 times my thoughts were put out on the interwebs for public consumption.

I started this blog in 2011, when I began homeschooling Primus. Now here we are, 6 years, 499 posts, and 3 additional students later. In another 6 years my oldest will be finishing her high school experience and my baby will be in sixth grade! Eek!


I still love homeschooling and feel that it's the best plan for my family. And I'm so thankful for all my friends and family who have supported us over the years!

If you have questions about homeschooling, browse the blog and hopefully you can find what you need. Also feel free to ask me anything!

In Memory of Mary Martineau Cooper

A while ago my former piano teacher, Mary Cooper passed away. She touched many lives and is missed.

I took piano lessons, along with a couple of my brothers, for a short while when I was maybe around 8. I didn't like it. Hated to practice. Eventually our teacher moved away so that was the end of that. When I was in 5th grade I was interested in learning piano again. Our school was also starting a band and I desperately wanted to join that, too. I remember my parents debating about whether I should do band OR piano. My mom won and I was allowed to do both.

I wanted to play the trombone but was told my arms were too short (of course they were! I think the band teacher just didn't want to teach any instruments other than flute, clarinet, sax, and trumpet.) So the clarinet was chosen (I think partially because my dad was a fan of Kenny G.) And about the same time, I began taking piano lessons from Sister Mary Cooper, who we went to church with.

I didn't keep up with the clarinet past 8th grade, but use my musical (and specifically piano) talents often. I am eternally grateful to my parents for encouraging and facilitating my musical education!


Sister Cooper was a joy to learn from! I will always remember her pink rose decor covering every inch of her sitting room. I loved arriving early or being picked up late because then I could sit on her couch and eat candy from her crystal candy dish while listening to her work with the next student.

In that room, near the couch, she had a comfortable chair. Sometimes she would put down her red pen, step away from her seat beside the piano bench, sit in that chair, close her eyes, and just listen. She wanted to hear her own private concert on a piece or two, through the ears of an audience member instead of a teacher.

When we began learning a song, she would write the date on the top of the page. When we passed it off, we would get to put a sticker on the corner of the page. It was so exciting to see what new, cute little stickers she had bought.

She had a drawer full of prizes. If we practiced at least 120 minutes per week, for 2 weeks, we could pick something out. They were always fun things from the Dollar store. Candy, cups with twisty straws, seasonal figurines, stationary sets, etc.

I remember when I first started lessons, she told my parents that her goal wasn't to teach her students to be piano robots who were programmed to play all the classics with perfection. We learned fun pieces, folksongs, and yes classics too. It was also important to her that we learn the hymns. This was perfect for me because I learned that I would much rather accompany singers (solo, small group, choir, or congregation) than be a soloist.

Even though we went over many of the hymns, for some reason I remember learning High on the Mountain Top with her. She also was passionate about teaching me Master, the Tempest is Raging. She loved that song! The movement and drama in it spoke to her soul! And now it is one of my favorite hymns to play on piano (if the singer/s are willing to sing with plenty of dynamics!)  She was our Ward organist and she would sometimes talk about loving to have the congregation sing the really upbeat, rousing songs. She wanted people to feel like marching in the aisles!

She was so patient with me! There were a couple times when she had given me a piece to learn and I was able to do them with adequate technical accuracy. But I just didn't "feel" the piece and so could not play with the emotion that she wanted. Week after week I disappointed her with my lack of progress. Finally she admitted that I just didn't like the song and therefore it just wasn't going to get any better. Then she crossed it off the list and we never revisited it again.

As I neared my Junior year of high school, Mary began saying that I had outgrown her. I never became the next Mozart or anything, but she expressed that she didn't have much more new things she could teach me.  I can't remember now the name of the piece or the composer, but she had given me one classical piece to learn that had a couple long and very fast runs. It was an extremely  difficult section! She was so pleased when her daughter was in town so that she could teach me the best way to learn and practice it.

In my Junior year, I decided to stop lessons. I was working a part time job, was Laurel President, and had several honors classes. I was so busy but it was still very hard to decide to give up my weekly chat with Sister Cooper. After I graduated high school, she convinced me to take some organ lessons from her. We would meet at the church early in the morning and she even arranged for me to have my own code to the building and key to the organ so I could get in and practice whenever I wanted. I'm so glad she insisted on that! I'm not a very good organ player, but I at least have basic knowledge and am able to accompany the singing in Sacrament Meeting twice a month. I'm grateful to her for that!


Sister Cooper was a wonderful woman outside of lessons, too. Actually, sometimes it seemed like half of my lesson time was taken up in her recounting her life story. 😉

She had a beautiful flower garden and I felt privileged to be trusted to water for her when she went out of town.

She spent many hours making beautiful handmade cards. She sent some of these as birthday cards to everyone at church.

She was so proud of her family and talked of them often. She loved her Sunday dinners with her grandchildren, served on beautiful dishes. She also had an exchange student son (from Scandinavia??) that she also talked about constantly and with such love.

Education was very important to her. At a time when it was uncommon for women to pursue higher education, she persevered and earned her Masters Degree. She was so proud of that accomplishment! She also taught music at her children's elementary school when they were young. She was always telling me how important it was to prioritize my college education, even after marriage and children came along.

As evidenced by her college education, she was a sharp woman! And as she got older, she often expressed fear that she would be passed over for callings and service opportunities in the church because people would assume she was old and incapable. She would say that her body may be slowing down but, "My mind still works!!"


Mary Cooper, you are missed! I cherish my memories of my time spent at the piano bench with you. As I teach my own children and nieces and nephews piano, I find myself thinking more and more about you and the way you taught. I'm sure right now you are playing the organ in Heaven getting all the angels in the Heavenly choir to sing Master the Tempest is Raging with gusto! Or perhaps they're singing How Firm a Foundation and you're trying not to giggle at the memory of the line in the pre-1985 hymnal that made it sound like you were singing, "Yoo-hoo unto Jesus."

The world is a brighter place because you were in it. ❤❤❤

Homeschooling Means...#29

...when a loved one is sick, Daddy takes care of the kids while Mommy spends a lot of time at the hospital. Meanwhile, the kids do a very abbreviated school load for a few days and Mommy feels no guilt about it whatsoever. 

(Ok, did I feel stress about what we didn't get done and worry about getting behind in our curriculum? Maybe. But I'm a nutcase who needs to be reminded about how I should be prioritizing my life. 😁 But no guilt.)

(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!)

Homeschooling Means...#28

...an impromptu history lesson about World War II propaganda at the dinner table on a Sunday.

Somehow "freedom fries," "liberty sandwiches," and "victory gardens" came up.  Then Hubby said something about propaganda, which prompted Primus to ask what that word meant.  She had heard it before but didn't understand.  Hence, the history lesson and discussion about what it is, what its purpose is, and what are the short and long-term effects to our country and culture.  

The kids already knew about Rosie the Riveter, and it blew their minds when we told them that Walt Disney and Dr. Seuss both made propaganda cartoons during the war years.  So of course we had to show them some.  


The first one I found is where Donald Duck has a nightmare about joining the Nazis.  The kids thought it was hilarious, especially when Donald is coerced to repeat "Heil Hitler" over and over again while assembling shells. They kept quoting Donald and singing "Der Fuehrer's Face." 

We had to have a serious discussion before I let them rewatch it. While it's hilarious when you understand the context and nature of the cartoon, they are not allowed to repeat any of it outside of our home. Because the world is crazier than usual right now and could you imagine the outrage and problems it might cause??



We also watched this one where "Commando Duck" is tasked with wiping out the enemy Japanese camp. There are some VERY racist things about the Japanese in this one! Wow!  We discussed what was going on, why they were being characterized like that, how absolutely ridiculous and offensive it was, and what the goal of this propaganda piece was.

Especially with Hubby being such a history fanatic, we believe strongly in our house that we must learn from the past in order to prevent it from happening in the future.  We don't want to put our kids in a bubble and hide the ugly things of the past from them.  We want them to see how much better things are in the present and then continue to improve things for the future.


(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!)

When the Library Fines You For a Book You Already Returned...

Pro-tip for you today: if the library says you haven't returned a book (but you're pretty sure you have) and you've turned the house upside down and still haven't found it...then go and see if it's in the library sitting on a shelf! 

We go to the library at least once a week and check out a lot of books. There were three that we had used for school last year (one for science and two for history) that I was pretty sure had gotten returned before the end of the school year. But they were still on my account.

I just kept renewing them and hoping that they would turn up under a pile of blankets or something. But one of the books was renewed so many times and was so late that they just billed me for the full cost of the book! That was finally the kick in the butt I needed to do some more digging.

I went to the three libraries that we frequent, because I have no idea which one I would have returned it to, and checked their shelves. I had even written down the bar-codes so I could make sure I wasn't just finding a duplicate copy instead of the one I checked out.

At the last library I found all three of my overdue books in the exact place you would have expected them to be reshelved after being checked in. Except apparently they didn't actually get scanned in before being put away!

Thankfully the librarian was very understanding and apologetic and removed all fines from my account.  I've been taking my kids to the public library on a weekly basis for the past 10 years and this is not the first time this has happened to us.  It's so frustrating.  I think from now on I'm going to try and return books at the same location every time.  Hopefully that will make the search and resolution easier the next time it (hopefully doesn't) happen.