Presidents!

 We have been learning about presidents and voting this week and last. It's been fun! At playgroup last week we had an election on an issue: what to eat for lunch! First the kids registered to vote, "campaigned" for their viewpoint, and then got to vote in the booth! The options were mac 'n' cheese or grilled cheese. Mac 'n' cheese won!

 We also learned about the branches of government, and later added a card that says "president" under the Executive card. Obviously much of this is over their heads, but it's on display in the school room so hopefully over time it'll set in.

We have been learning about individual presidents and Caley has been working on a book about Abraham Lincoln. We've also learned how certain presidents are on our money. This week she really surprised me by doing most of her work independently on Wednesday while I was doing women's group. She did her math, some crossword pages, her editing page, independent reading, and her spelling work.

They're all doing great!

(Check out the posts below for more pictures I just uploaded.)

What we're learning!

 We are having fun learning about our Founding Fathers! So far we've covered George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and James Madison. We have learned about the Revolutionary War, the Declaration of Independence, and more! Check out these pictures...


 With our friends Odessa and Dexter we made three-cornered hats and colonial wigs and then "signed" the Declaration of Independence after watching a scene from "John Adams."

 They made an elaborate Lincoln Log house and while Caley was playing her eyes lit up and she proclaimed, "I know why they are called Lincoln Logs! Because Abraham Lincoln lived in a log cabin!"

 They also architected a fort from the cushions and still make forts from the blankets almost every day.

Two weeks in!

It's been two weeks in the new school year and so far things are going well. It obviously hasn't been perfect, I've lost my shizz at least twice, we haven't done everything I planned on the day I planned it for, but we have been learning, having fun, reading lots of books, and doing life.

A few things I've learned:
1. Having a schedule really helps. I put together a schedule for myself and the girls. The girl's each includes the subjects they're doing each day (the same each day except art and music on Fridays), and mine includes my commitments and chores for each day. We have a big house and it's a challenge to keep up with the housework. So on my daily schedule I assigned myself one or two chores, taking into account I probably don't want to wash the floor the day before women's group (read: messy kids everywhere). So: Sunday- review school plan and prepare and plan meal/grocery list, Monday- grocery day, Tuesday- laundry wash and fold and clean bathrooms (alternating upstairs and downstairs for now), Wednesday- wash hardwoods, Thursday- vacuum all carpets, Friday- monthly chore like clean out car, fridge, or dusting.
2. This is my "job." When I think of homeschooling my children and running my household as a "job" it's easier to take seriously and keep my time sacred. This involves, mainly, saying no to things. Sorry, I can't do this-or-that, we have school. Obviously there are exceptions, and we're only 2 weeks in so we'll see how this realistically works out, but I am practicing being more "selfish" with our time.
3. Number 1 and 2 are easier when I have planned "Mommy time" i.e. women's group. My weekly gathering with other Christian women is essential to my sanity. It reminds me of who I am first and foremost: a lover of Jesus Christ. I adore opening up my home each week to upwards of 12 ladies and their children to study the Bible and build community. It's also essential that I have face-to-face interactions with others, as much as I adore my children.
4. Getting up earlier than the kids also helps. I am still working on this habit. The days that I do drag myself out of bed at 5am, workout, and have prayer time are usually smoother and easier to deal with. But I do love sleeping in. Hoping to refine this habit throughout this year so that's it's just second-nature.

Summer is drawing to a close...

I can see the start of school year 2012-13 on my calendar and am so excited to start on Tuesday! I have a lot of fun things planned for this fall. We are going to learn about the Founding Fathers, government, the electoral process and presidents! I am also going to attempt to be better about studying music and art with the girls, and keeping Wesley occupied during school instead of continually throwing food at him and pulling my hair out in frustration.

We've had a great summer. Busy, but not so busy I couldn't keep up. We balanced our busy weeks with some chill weeks. We didn't really go anywhere, but still took many day trips, although the kids did go to Astoria for two full weeks.

I have realized though that Caley may do better with a schedule like we have in school. She is 7.5 and over the summer started to do some of her old behaviors like refusing to put on shoes or complain that her clothes don't feel right. Issues I thought we had overcome. So I'm excited to see how she does over the next few weeks as we ease into a new structure to our days.

I also am going to make a better effort at being "selfish" with my/our time. If I say yes to anything and everything, school just isn't going to go very well. Examining my motives will be a discipline I get to work on.

Mommy's goals for this school year, posted here for my personal benefit (not to boast but to keep myself accountable):
-Wake up earlier than the kids (5am) to spend time with Jesus, workout, and get a head start on the day
-Keep "school time" sacred and not obligate our time to other things without good reason
-Make yummy, nutritious meals throughout the year, with healthy snacks throughout each day to keep the kid's minds sharp
(I'll add more to this list as the year goes on.)

Summer School

We finished school the first week of June and my best intentions of doing a wrap up on this blog didn't pan out...such is life. We are enjoying our summer vacation. I toyed with the idea of doing a scheduled and organized summer school and it hasn't happened. June flew by between "Grama Camp" and swimming lessons and then July has spun by too with VBS, another week of "Grama Camp" and holidays. August...we have nothing planned. Nothing. Okay, one thing, Amelia's birthday party. But after that, nothing. And I plan on keeping it that way. We will go to the park, have community group, women's group and various playdates here and there, but I hope to spend most of August enjoying the weather, our garden, and our little family.

Today we had an impromptu day at home and did a "Dinosaurs for Della" day! We read books about dinosaurs, watched library book videos about dinosaurs, made salt dough fossils, fossil sugar cookies, and watched "Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs"! The kids loved it!! (and so did Mommy) I hope we can do a few more of these "school" days this summer. No pressure, just fun learning. Later tonight we watched the Olympic opening ceremony in London which was also a great learning experience.

I love my kids and my husband, I love this life.

Update!

It's been a while since this blog was updated! That seems to be how I begin every entry. I became convicted a few years ago that I was devoting more time to making the blog look good than actually being intentional with my children. So rest assured, we are regularly having school lessons and everyone's getting educated around here even if I am not updating the blog.

Since my last post, we have studied boats, airplanes, flight and floating, and we are currently in a mini-unit on the attributes of God (omniscient, holy, loving, omnipresent, eternal, immutable, omnipotent, etc). For our boats and floating unit we learned about Archimedes' principle of displacement and did an experiment in which we observed water being displaced with marbles, then made an aluminum foil boat. The kids had a lot of fun playing in the bathtub with their boats, it was actually quite a mess. During the airplanes and flight study we did the hairdryer and ping-pong ball experiment in which we floated the ball in the stream of hair dryer air and then made it shoot farther using a toilet paper tube to illustrate Bernoulli's principle (air increases in speed in small spaces). It was so fun! We also made paper helicopters and airplanes and threw them off the second floor landing.

Our Attributes of God unit was something I threw in between the "Trust" and "Stewardship" units. It's part of the "Honor" unit in KONOS and had so many fun activities and biblical tie-ins that I couldn't skip it. Another thing I love about homeschooling, especially not working with a district--I don't have to feel bad about teaching my kids about Jesus during "school time"! I actually made this mini-unit two weeks longer than originally planned so we are devoting a whole month to it. We have played with playdough to illustrate omnipotence, identified circles around the house to show eternalness, and Caley has also been learning how to use a dictionary to look up meanings of words. This week we studied God being eternal and read Revelation 1:8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end." This nicely lead us to learn a bit of Greek! We learned the Greek alphabet in a song and copied some Greek text. The girls loved it!

I have been trying a new thing regarding school--doing it in the afternoon! This way Wesley has more time to play with Caley and Amelia during the day instead of trying to keep him occupied while I do lessons with the girls. It has worked well, because he usually takes a good afternoon nap. School time usually takes 2-2.5 hours so we still have time for quiet time ourselves which is very helpful for mama's sanity.

I promise to post pictures soon, but there's a quick update for ya!

Two of my favorite things: Homeschooling and Ryan Gosling!

I can't describe how awesome this is. You'll just have to see for yourself.

More here: http://homeschoolingryangosling.tumblr.com/

Snow Week

This last week it snowed! So much that we didn't leave our house or neighborhood for 6 days! Bill worked from home two days and was off work two days. That left plenty of outside play time and inside play (Lego) time. We did school Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Wednesday we don't usually do school anyway, and Thursday was a "snow day" and the girls stayed in their jammies all day long and watched a movie! This week we studied sheep and beginning the process of weaving. We watched youtube videos about how a sheep is shorn and the process of making yarn from wool.
I'm getting into an okay rhythm of managing everyone during school time. We generally wake up and have breakfast then clean up from the morning and get started on chores (laundry mostly). After about 90 minutes, Della's ready to take her first nap. I lay her down and then we get cracking on school. It's usually around 9am. Everyone moves into the school room (which is now just a school room and not the play room, since my awesome husband decided the toys needed to be in a specific toy room), and we start with Bible, writing a verse, and then phonics (reading, editing, spelling). During this time Amelia works in her copy book or does some writing workbook pages. Then Caley does math and while she's working on her math homework pages I do the reading book with Amelia. Wesley is usually playing with random toys or sitting in his booster chair with tray and coloring or playing some busywork game I've made up on the fly. Last week I had him put pipe cleaners in a strainer (through the holes) and put coins in a wipes box. After math time and reading book, we usually take a break and have snack around 10:30, but if we started late and it's nearly lunchtime, I just make lunch and call it good. I like to bring the snack into the school room rather than having them eat in the kitchen, it saves on the mess.
After snack, if everything else is done, we move into our KONOS plan for the day. So this is usually the project or art time, depending on what I've planned. Sometimes if Caley still has work to do, I let Amelia start the project and then have Caley finish her work before starting the project. This helps with her motivation to endure the less interesting work. Sometimes our KONOS plan is listening to or watching a movie online and then doing a project related to it. Last week I had them listen to Martin Luther King, Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech and then color a picture showing their dream. Even though I explained that MLK's dream wasn't something he had while sleeping but something he wanted for the future, both the girls colored a picture of themselves with fairy wings flying to a castle because that was their wish. Oh well, maybe we'll tackle the issue of civil rights again next year.
After KONOS (or while we're still working), Della usually wakes up and there's about 30-60 minutes of free time before Wesley and Della go down for their naps. During this time we work on chores like laundry, dishes and vacuuming.
When the little ones go down for their naps, the girls and I finish up any leftover schoolwork or play a game or something. Then, depending on the day they do quiet time or just play together or help me with chores.

It's going well. The key is to work efficiently. And to not freak out when it doesn't go my way! :) This is surely a sanctifying adventure.

The first week back...and my 100th post!

The first normal week back to school in about 2 months went great! We studied trust and talked a lot about "stranger danger." Caley was very enthusiastic about her math work and is still reading confidently. We started a Grade 1 Editing book my mom gave us as well and also did some "Reader's Theater" of the "Three Little Pigs." My favorite thing about homeschooling is how it affects the girls independent play time. Frequently when I bring up new topics during school time, later that day the girls act it out. This happened with the Three Little Pigs this week.
This week I also got some chairs for the school room at the counter, so we don't have to move the kitchen chairs every day. The girls love it. They have been sitting at the counter all week doing projects when we're not doing school. It's a wonderful place for them to be creative and messy without it being everywhere else. Why didn't I do this sooner! We also recently moved all the toys that were in the mud/school room into a room upstairs. We removed the bed and made it a play room. Again, why didn't we do this sooner? It's simplified everything! No toys all over the house, just upstairs in the play room. Of course, we allow some toys downstairs, as long as they go back upstairs at the end of the day. And school time is so much neater because there's less crap to fall over.
We also took a field trip on Friday (today) to visit Great Grandma in Silverdale. It was a fun day!