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!

2012

I am so excited to hit the ground running this week and re-start school! I spent some time over Christmas break re-arranging the school room and planning most of the next quarter in KONOS. I'm sure this quarter will have its challenges, but I'm so excited! More specifics forthcoming. :)

Catching up

Della's been in our family (on the "outside") for almost 6 weeks and we're getting into a pretty good groove around here. We are receiving meals from our church family which has been a huge help in getting used to managing everything. I am trying to add things one at a time to avoid burnout. So we actually did school a lot in November, more than I originally planned. Now that it's December, we are stepping back again from the academics of school and focusing on the Christmas season. So we've been doing lots of crafts, Advent activities, special activities and just spending time together. To my surprise, it's actually pretty "academic" but without the books we were using. For example, we're doing a lot of crafts with buttons, so the girls have had a lot of time sorting buttons to use. We've also been painting and practicing good artistic planning and ability.

I put together an Advent calendar/activity plan, which everyone's liked so far. I printed out a Bible verse for each day and glued it onto a card. I also planned an activity for each day and put that on a separate card. Each morning the day's card is sitting with the special elf that is in a new place every day. (Not "Elf on a Shelf" that everyone else and their mom is doing this year.) I chose activities such as cookie baking, crafts and ornament-making, places we're going to go and things we're going to do, and also things like "sing Christmas carols." It's been really fun and fit in nicely with our "December School."

This week and last they played with shaving cream or "snow" and made a huge mess! Then we sang Christmas carols and Caley played on the computer on a caroling website I found. We have been making salt dough ornaments and then painting them, and we learned about St Nicholas on December 6, St Nicholas Day. They even got treats in their shoes that morning! Yesterday they bought a toy for the toy drive, and today we're delivering it.

I feel good about taking December "off" from the usual academics of our school. It is giving us a lot of opportunities to grow in our traditions as a family.

Pictures to come!

The last few weeks

We have been busy the last few weeks but I've neglected to blog about it, mostly because we've just had so much going on! We did a week's study about yeast and mold which led to many opportunities for science, and a ton of fun! We learned that yeast emits gas by having the air blow up a balloon and also tested what yeast likes to eat best. We tested oil, salt, sugar, cookie (NutriGrain bar) and flour (and nothing for a control). We also grew mold on the bread we'd made the previous week and looked at it under a magnifying glass. Gross, but educational!

                                       

The following week we learned about babies, including a basic explanation of how babies are made. I was really nervous about this week, because I wasn't sure what kinds of questions the girls would ask. And the fact that they might put 2 and 2 together that Mommy has a baby in her tummy so...ya know. I prepared and had on hand a lot of books and such. But Caley was fine with simply knowing that it takes a Mommy and a Daddy to make a baby, and the baby starts out really small inside the mommy and grows and grows. We read a book about bellybuttons, that everyone has one, and looked at a magazine of "A Child is Born" with the prenatal photos and put them on a timeline of the baby's growth. I also arranged for us to go the Everett Pregnancy Resource Center and look at their materials, including models of babies. We were just in a small counseling room for about 20 minutes and I let the kids explore the models and put them in order of age. They loved it! Talking about babies also lent itself well to how to take care of babies, what babies need, how we can prepare for our baby and how much we've changed since we were babies. 

                                      

That same week we went to the pumpkin patch (pictures coming soon), played with a new train tent, and played with Legos with Daddy! 

Caley really is enjoying school. We are trying to be flexible and frequently do school work in the afternoon when Wesley is napping. It's easier for her to focus when he's not around climbing all over everything. I enjoy it because it frees up our mornings to do fun things together with everyone, or go somewhere together.

I am really glad to be homeschooling. It makes me really happy to be able to see our children learn together how to love one another and foster real relationships. So far this year is going really, really well and I couldn't be more pleased.
Thank you Jesus!