Sea Star Academy

The Derby

2012-01-28T15:59:00.000-08:00

Ian has only been a cub scout for a month and today he got to participate in his first Pine Wood Derby.

He designed his car and went to the wood shop with his den about two weeks ago. His Dad went with him too. He spent some time sanding and painting it until he decided it was done. They also got a kit from the wood shop to help you sand down the nails that act as the axles. You really can spend a lot building the perfect car that will fly down the course. Ian told me about all sorts of books and kits that they sell so you can get all the secrets to making the perfect winner.

I wanted to make sure it was Ian's project so I tried really hard to let him do what he wanted when they came back from cutting the body. He decided it was going to be green (his favorite color) and he added some brown and gold and sort of dabbed it all around to make it look rusty or old. He was going for scales because he wanted it to look like a snake. I think it sort of looks a bit more like a frog but, oh well.

We actually took it to the post office earlier in the week to see exactly how much it weighed and the post lady knew exactly what it was and happily placed it on the scale. We were just a little shy of the 5 oz that is allowed. So at the official weigh in they gave him one more washer to glue to the bottom and that brought him to about a hundredth of an ounce off the 5 ounce limit.

I never realized how serious cubs and their leaders take the Derby. He had his weigh in on Thursday and the car was placed in a little white styrofoam box where it had to stay and was kept under lock and key until race day.

Here is Molly waiting for the races to begin.

Each boys car raced three times against different cars each time. Ian's car seemed to do well. He won one by quite a bit and barely squeaked out a win on another and on the third came in 2nd to what ended up being the car that took the overall best time. So despite having a tire pop off just before one of the races his car seemed to do great!

This is the practice track that the scouts used after their cars raced.

When the ranks were announced I was shocked to hear that Ian's car got first place in our ward's pack. His even did better than some of the boys' cars that take this race very serious and are out to WIN! His time was 6.837 seconds. The next fastest time was 6.863. And what was even more amazing was that his car was ranked third overall. His car was the third fastest in our stake or I guess it is a Den, I don't know all the scout terminalogy. (I guess sanding down the nails worked!) So he could go to the district race. We decided to decline that honor. We have heard some real horror stories about that event and decided this derby was enough for us.

So it was an exciting morning and our boy is very proud of his little green car!

Music and Art

2012-01-26T07:53:00.000-08:00

Sophie's art assignment for the past week was to take some music and draw/paint what ever comes to mind while to listen. So one night while the boys were off with their dad I put on a Chopin CD and gave Sophie a big piece of paper and she started to draw.

At first she didn't know what to draw but soon started thinking of different things. She listened to the entire CD and had a few small drawings scattered about her page.

Here is Pan playing his flute in a little forest.

an underwater castle,

And of course there was a cat. Sophie explained that the cat was looking out the widow wishing to go out but it was raining.

After listening for a good long time I gave her a fresh page and got out the watercolors. She picked one of her images and painted it.

I am not surprised it was the one of the cat.

A little light bedtime reading

2012-01-23T21:44:00.000-08:00

My kids have a really hard time calming down and going to bed. The bedtime ritual has to happen or else they just can't go to sleep. And the ritual is that their papa reads to them each night. At first I read a book to Sophie and the boys got their papa but Sophie always felt like she was missing out on something so would want to hear what book or story they were getting. Then when Molly came and I was off taking care of the baby my reading to Sophie stopped and she just joined the boys for a book and story from their papa.

And he spoils them. They get a good 30-45 min each night with him reading a book and then telling them stories. He makes them up on the spot and they often tell him what characters they want and he has to weave them all together. Often Harry Potter characters meet up with Tin Tin or Indiana Jones and have some adventure. Lately they have all been battling hydras or cyclopes or perhaps even a minotaur.

I usually pick out the book for the read aloud. My husband trusts my picks and lately I have picked some really great ones.

I gave him The Chocolate Touch which is a sort of King Midas story but set in the 50's and the boy turns everything chocolate. The kids loved telling me all about what turned chocolate each morning.

Then when that was finished I gave him Archimedes and the Door of Science . This time he would come and tell me about the book. He said this was not really a story book but sort of a biography but more about the gadgets and things Archimedes created. The kids loved it and so did he so it was a winner.

The current read aloud wasn't expressly chosen to be a read aloud. I actually checked it out of the library for me and my husband to read just because it is a topic he is interested in and it was recommended somewhere in the many blogs I read. It is an adult book and not from the children's section. The book is called How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes. He was reading aloud a section of the book to me while the kids were playing Legos one night and they enjoyed the storyline. It is told as a story. People live on an island and start trading fish which becomes their monetary system and the story continues as their economy grows and then begins to fall apart.

They are only half way through the book and my kids love it. I catch them reading it (all of them, Henry too, he likes the illustrations on many of the pages) during the day. Tonight at dinner they kept telling me all about how the government on this island started to create fake fish and the fish kept getting smaller and smaller until you had to have lots and lots of fish to satisfy yourself when you used to only need one. It is amazing how much economics they are picking up from this story.

The only thing with this whole read aloud set up is that I don't get to listen to the books. They are often books I haven't read either and when the kids tell me about them it makes me want to read them too. I guess I just need to start sneaking a peek into these books so I know what they are talking about when they excitedly tell me the latest of what is happening in their night read aloud.

We had Prime for about 30 Min.

2012-01-19T21:37:00.000-08:00

I love Amazon. I shop on Amazon all the time. I had prime membership for about a year because I joined their mom's club and because I bought diapers every month or two they continued to offer me Prime Membership for a year. That all ended in December (Thankfully, after Christmas). In December we decided to get a Roku box for our t.v. so that we could get BYUtv which would allow us to watch conference from the comfort of our own home without having to have cable or watch it on our laptop computer. With the Roku box we also are able to get the Amazontv app which would make it possible to stream movies from the Amazon library. I had been tempted to pay for Prime membership since getting the email that says prime members would get to stream a large library of movies for free. Prime is about $80 for the year. That is a lot less than what our Netflix costs us each year so it sounded like a good deal.

Last night I finally took the plunge and bought prime membership thinking we would then be able to drop the Netflix. But after setting up the app and looking at what was available, my husband and I were greatly disappointed with Amazon. First of all, most of the things we would want to watch aren't free even for Prime members. But what we were the most put off by was the lack of a queue or list where we could collect the shows and movies that we would like to watch eventually or that we know the kids would like to watch. This lack of a queue means that each time you want to watch something you have to search for it first. And in the searching you come across a lot of things that aren't for little eyes to see. Just flipping through the movies listed as new arrivals was almost pornographic. Thomas the tank engine videos were right next to a slasher movies or a scantily clad female bodies. Not something any of us need to see. Even just using the search engine where you have to click in the title of the film resulted in a lot of films other than the one you want to come up also. This doesn't happen with Netflix. I fill my queue online and the recommendations that pop up on the homepage are all based on things we have previously watched so it is very family friendly. When the kids click on the Netflix app on the tv they get our queue with is full of movies already approved by me for their viewing. There aren't any adds or recommendations there. I like that!

So after just a few minutes on Amazon's web page and tv app we could tell this wasn't what we wanted. We like Netflix and it is worth the extra money to keep things clean for our family. I quickly went back to the Amazon website and canceled Prime. Since I hadn't actually used any of the Prime benifits in the 30 minutes since I had clicked that order button, they refunded my money and canceled it. I did leave a comment with that cancellation so they at least got my opinion of the service and they could see about changing things for my demographic.

For now I will have to go back to filling my shopping cart with over $25.00 worth of items so I can qualify for free super saver shipping. And for now we will continue to pay for Netflix.

Organized? I don't think so.

2012-01-17T22:27:00.000-08:00

About a week ago I got an email from the lady in our ward who plans Relief Society Activities (formally known as Enrichment which used to be homemaking). In this email she asks me if I would be willing to speak to the group about organization. She said I had been recommended as someone who would have something to share.

I laughed!

Me talk about organization and about getting our lives organized? Wow.. wrong person!

I of course said yes because I have a problem with saying no. I just had no idea what to talk about since I have no systems that work. My house is not run on a schedule. I don't have meals planned out and baked for the month sitting in the freezer. Most of my days are spent juggling all the different parts of my life and hoping it all turns out alright. I had nothing to share with a bunch of other ladies of a variety of different ages and situations who all could tell me a thing or two that I know I am not getting to and not doing.

So......

I decided to talk about Wisdom. What does Wisdom have to do with Organizing our lives?

First of all, I have been reading and studying about the topic quite a bit over the last few weeks. After reading the Duggar's latest book A Love that Multiplies I was inspired to read the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament. Proverbs was just quoted a number of times throughout the book and I realized I had never really studied that particular book so I decided to give it a go. So a few weeks ago, around Christmas time actually, while the rest of the Christian world was reading about the birth of Jesus I was reading Proverbs. I was reading about the Savior's birth too but in my personal study time (when I could fit it in) I was reading all these wise sayings attributed to Solomon. I was even taking notes and writing in my new Scripture Journal. This is something new for me and so far I am enjoying it.

Don't look too closely at what I wrote mostly it is just quotes from the scripture and then my little thought about it. Nothing very profound but a good start, since this is a new way for me to study.

So anyway... for a few weeks I have been reading all these great thoughts about wisdom and what a wise person is and what they do and don't do.

As a result, I have the topic of wisdom on my mind and since organization isn't my strong suit I figured the change of topic would be more applicable to the ladies of our group. I tried to tie it into organization.

I shared my list of attributes that I had gathered from the book of Proverbs, used to describe a Wise person.

A wise person is

Reverent (Fears the Lord)
Has Discretion
Has Understanding
Teachable/ Humble
Willing to be chasened
Merciful
Truthful
Pleasant
Confident
Safe
Just
Diligent
Hard Working
Prudent
Balanced
Lowly
Upright
Full of Integrity
Slow to wrath
Friendly
Kind
Sincere
Abides Satisfied
Blessed
Merry
Pure
Generous
Courageous
Virtuous

I also shared a few of my favorite Proverbs

Wisdom is the principle thing; therefore get wisdom; and with all they getting get understanding. Proverbs 4:7

Wisdom is needed in all aspects of our life. Wisdom comes from God and we should consult him about everything we do. So if we are struggling with something and lack wisdom then we just need to ask. He will share his wisdom with us.

There is no Wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord. Proverbs 21:30

We need to choose what we walk with, who we walk with and what we bring into our lives. We need wisdom to determine if what we have in our schedules and lives is worthy of our time and not a foolish waste.

He that walketh with wisemen shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
Proverbs 13:20

Life isn't going to always be easy. We are going to have hard stressful times and yet we need to not wallow in it. But be faithful and find the joy in the journey we are taking.

He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.
Proverbs 15:15

So it wasn't a lesson on organization. In fact it wasn't a lesson at all. It ended up being more of a spiritual thought. Thanksgoodness I wasn't the only one scheduled to speak!

To even illustrate how disorganzied I am. I arrived late to the meeting. I thought it started at 7:00 and arrived 5 min early so I could quickly run to the copier and have a handout but when I got to the church the meeting was already underway (evidently it had started at 6:30) and it was my turn in mere moments. So no handout and I was a bit flustered because I had rushed to get there, only to be late.

I guess this only proves how funny it is to think of me as organized. My brain and schedule are zipping around bouncing from topic to topic and place to place with no rhyme or reason. I guess I need a little wisdom in my life to sort things out so my juggling act doesn't come crashing down around me.

School Work

2012-01-14T08:52:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted a weekly report in ages. Not that these are the most interesting posts but they are a good record of what we have been doing and since I was sitting here writing up a report for our last month of school to turn into our Charter School I figured why not put some of it here.

We will start with Science.
My hardest subject to actually get excited excited about. We have only done one chapter in our Anatomy Apologia text in the last month. We learned about blood. Next week we will get into the circulatory system hopefully but we have taken a long time learning about what is in our blood and what blood does for us. I have also been having Henry read a lot of the Magic School bus easy reader books. We have read about bones, blood, germs and a few others I can't remember. Some not even related to the body but just because they are fun and easy for him to read.
The kids start back into their science workshops this week so I won't feel quite so guilty about not doing formal science with them on a more regular basis.

History isn't too hard to fit into our schedule. We love reading books and my kids have really taken to Greek Myths. We listen to our chapters of Story of the World but mostly we read books about Greece or Mythology. We are also on the last book in the Percy Jackson series. There are a lot of things yet to cover about the Greeks that we haven't gotten to yet so I think we will be here for another few weeks.

Writing is going well with IEW. Sophie decided to switch to the Ancient History based Lessons rather than finish the All thing Fun and Fascinating. We have even stepped away from the lesson and just practiced the technique with things from the books we are reading in History and even Science. She has done a number of really good notebooking pages about blood and the Olympics in which she uses the techniques and dress ups she has been taught so far in in the IEW lessons. I love that she is feeling more confident in her writing.

I think I am going to start Ian on the Student Writing Intensive soon. He has been doing Literature based Language arts the last few weeks and it has been going well but I think we need to move on.

Henry is still doing explode the code. He finished book 4 and is going to do 4 1/2 and just like I did with Ian, I am going to stop them there. Henry is really starting to read well and it is time to start working on more. I am going to have to think about what to do with him in a few weeks when he has finished this workbook.

Math is going smoothly. Sophie started back into Singapore 5B and is having not any trouble with decimals. Ian has gotten through all the multiplication chapters but still doesn't have all those math facts stuck in his head so we are going to go through Math Mammoth to cement them into his head. Henry finished his 1B workbook and before moving on we are reading through the Life of Fred Elementary books that our family got for Christmas. We have already finished Apples and have started Butterflies. I don't have all of the elementary series yet so we will only get to read through Dogs right now but my boys really enjoy these even if they are really simple math. But they now have the days of the week and the months of the year down. They can even spell them, thanks to Fred and me quizzing them on them almost everyday!

We have reviewed our Latin Lessons this week since we have taken some time off from doing any Latin lessons over the holidays.

We read books about Grandma Moses for Art. I can't say it was an in depth study but we read her biography and looked at a few other books that use her artwork. It has also been a good way to go over the months of the year and the seasons.

Our read aloud has been The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. We then discussed it at Co-op.

I really liked the book but I can tell the kids only got some of the greatness of the book. It is hard to get all the puns and use of idioms when you are young and haven't heard them as much. But the kids, even at co-op, seemed to understand the point of the book.

My favorite quote from this book.

"Whenever you learn something new, the whole world becomes that much richer."

"Many places you would like to see are just off the map and many things you want to know are just out of sight or a little beyond your reach. But someday you'll reach them all, for what you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow. "

Other read alouds have been plentiful. I feel like I read and read and read to these kids. Molly loves the Fancy Nancy books and I noticed that the boys got very excited when they saw that I found a whole bunch of new ones at the library this week. I have also picked up a number of books to read about Mr. Magee. These are some very funny, rhyming books that are just fun.

Sophie was very excited when I found the new American Girl of the Year book at the library. She has already finished it.

That has been about it. There is all sort of other things we are doing but that is it for school.

Of course what I can't report to the school is the gospel study. They don't want anything to do with that. But we are reading the Book of Mormon again this year. We started reading the old testament at Christmas time because we had finished the Book of Mormon but our Stake President and Bishop challenged us to read the Book of Mormon since that is the course of study for Sunday School this year. My kids decided they would have to come back to the Old Testament once we have read through the Book of Mormon again.

We are reviewing the 2 Psalms we have learned. My kids have psalm 23 down but 100 needs a lot more help. After a week or two of not repeating it they have forgotten a lot of it. We added in 1 Nephi 3:7 to the list as well as all 13 articles of faith which they all have down pretty well thanks to those Scripture Scout songs. Ian has also been working on the things he needs to have memorized for his Bobcat badge. I signed them off so I think he should get that Bobcat at the next pack meeting.

As for our Hymn, Primary song for the month. We decided to learn Nephi's courage since we are reading those stories right now in the scriptures.

So that is a long list of the things we are studying. There is a lot going on and I know there are holes here and there in our studies but my kids love to learn so those things will eventually get filled in.

For now we are doing pretty well.

Art Class

2012-01-12T17:38:00.000-08:00

I signed Sophie up to take an online class this semester. She has wanted to take an art class for a long time and as much as I would love to have her actually attend an art class I just couldn't add yet another outside activity into our already busy schedule. This is where the internet steps in. She gets to take a class and we don't even have to leave the house. Plus if I sign up for something and actually have to pay for it, I am more likely to make sure it happens. Art is going to happen this semester for Sophie!

The class is given through Leadership Education Academy. Sophie sits in front of the computer with a set of ear phones and watches the instructor draw and she listens to the lecture. She has a sketch book in her hands and draws or takes notes during the class. An assignment to complete during the week is given. She is expected to complete it and then email it to the teacher. It sounds simple enough. So far it has gone smoothly except that I can't seem to get the microphone to work on her headset. I don't have the settings right on the computer or something. So she has to type her responses rather than talk. We are going to have to figure out the problem.

Her first assignment which was due last week was to draw cartoon characters. She choose Luigi and Mario. I think they turned out great!

She wasn't totally happy with this one because of the smudge on the right side of the paper that wouldn't erase and she did this drawing on a piece of scratch paper rather than on good drawing paper or in her sketch book. She also did another drawing just in case this first one wasn't good enough. This time her drawing is of the pink panther and totally from memory and not from a picture.

So far she has enjoyed the two days of class she has "attended". L.E.A. offers many other classes for her age and also for high school students so now that we have given one a try we may do more in the future.

She gets to give cross hatch drawing a try this week. I wonder what she will come up with for that assignment.

All in One

2012-01-10T13:16:00.000-08:00

Ian's birthday was a very busy day! It started off with streamers and balloons as usual. He decided to have Toad in the Hole and of course was given one of his gifts for breakfast.

I then spent the rest of the morning cutting veggies and making cake for later in the day. He spent some time working on his new Lego Technic set. He LOVED it and I was reminded why the tradition got started to open on gift at breakfast. It keeps the super excited child busy for a little while while he waits for the party to really get started.

Cousins arrived at about lunch time and after some food and a bike ride everyone returned to our little house for cake and Ice Cream an of course presents.

I don't think Ian could have been happier with the gifts he received. Tintin Wii game, another lego set, Mario Knex car, a fort building set and his very own set of scriptures. Until my kids turn 8 they use an old set of scriptures from my youth. Ian was very thrilled to get his own set with his name on them as well as a set to scripture stickers to put in. Everyone knows this boy well because he couldn't have been happier with all this gifts.

Since this is the birthday that Ian turned 8 so after all the cake and presents we put on our dresses and headed to the church for Ian's baptism.

Ian of course insisted on wearing his cub scout belt and hat along with his ever present bag to his baptism. The hat did end up staying in the car thank goodness.

I can't say we took many pictures at the baptism itself. It went really quickly and I felt pretty busy the whole time so this is the best picture of my beaming boy that was taken at the event.

I am so proud and happy for my little guy. He is such a wonderful boy and tries so hard to do what is right. He also is just so enthusiastic about life.

Happy Birthday and Congratulations on your baptism.

p.s. I don't want to do both a birthday and baptism on one day again. It was convenient but made for a rather stressful, hectic day! Good thing I have a year and some before we having to think about planning another baptism. Everything went lovely but I felt like we rushed from one thing to next and didn't get to really enjoy or savor the experience of either the party or the baptism.

First Den Meeting

2012-01-05T18:30:00.000-08:00

And so it begins. This big kid is so excited to finally get to be a boy scout.

We bought the uniform a few days ago and he has worn at least some part of it ever since.

Henry is very sad that he has to wait a few years before he gets to go.

Very Umbridge

2012-01-04T13:22:00.000-08:00

On Monday night we had an FHE lesson on safety. Ian is starting cub scouts and needed to go through the child abuse pamphlet that was included with his new Wolf handbook so we went through it for FHE and went over the rules of our house. One of the things that was emphasized was the fact that they always tell me where they going and if there is a change in their plans then they need to let me know what the changes are. They kids knew all the answers and were able to go through the different scenarios giving all the correct responses. I thought they had this down.

Tuesday afternoon some of our kids friends showed up at the door on their bikes. They often ride over to our house and hang out for an hour or so after school. They are always welcome to come but sometimes the fun of having friend over makes my kids forget the rules. When it was time for the others to head back home all the kids went out to what I thought was just saying goodbye. Next thing I knew all was quiet in my driveway and no kids were in sight. Luckily Molly was snoozing soundly on the big blue chair. But my older three were nowhere.

They were only gone for 15 min. They had only gone and rode their bikes with their friends for a few extra minutes in the cul-de-sac. My kids often go are ride there on their own. But they know they have to let me know they are going there. When they came home and came inside I sat them down to discuss this infraction. I knew they needed a punishment to make sure they knew they had the rule ingrained into their memories. At first I thought to just take away privileges like screen time or computer/wii time. But that wouldn't happen until the future so instead I gave them the only thing I could think of that would be immediate and "painful" enough to make a point.

I gave them lines.

"I will not leave the house without telling mama".

100 x for Sophie
75 x for Ian
50 x for Henry

Oh my goodness was there weeping, wailing and all sorts of begging.

It took them a long time to complete this task. A full three hours for the boys and Sophie actually finished hers in about two. I did give them a short break for dinner. I don't withhold food. My kids get too crazy when they are hungry. It was amazing how much less crying and whimpering went on once they all had their stomachs full.

There was still a lot of begging to only have to do ____ instead of the number I gave them. But I didn't budge. I made them each meet the number I told them. I was so mean and I felt like Pro. Umbridge from the Harry Potter books. At least they didn't have the sentence etched into the skin of the back their hands. They were writing in pencil and not their own blood. I just hope the rule is now something they will remember.

I don't know if this break in the rules would have hit me so hard if we had not just had the discussion the night before.

They were all smiles once they each reached their number. They actually felt like they accomplished something. I hope we don't have to repeat this punishment again. I just hoped it worked and they will not have this problem again in the future.

Just Because and a Great Cookie Recipe.

2011-12-31T12:03:00.000-08:00

I didn't want my post about Tin Tin to be the last thing I post for the year. But I can't say I have any goals or resolutions set for the start of the new year. I am still in the thick of the holiday whirlwind. It doesn't really end around her until after Ian's Birthday which is still a week away. And this year he turns 8 so there is all sorts of things to do and plan for.

So anyway... this post is mostly some random pictures from the last few weeks. They don't fit into a post and yet to don't want to loose them or forget about them.

My kids all loved the candles. They asked if we could light them just about every night.

Here Molly is holding a chocolate frog which is the treat I made for each of our co op friends. Oh and those cookies on the counter are the BEST! I got it from this site. But just so I don't forget it I am going to repost it here. These are SOOO good!

Better-than-Brownies Chocolate Cookies

from Brown Eyed Baker

2 2/3 cups (about 16 ounces) bittersweet chocolate, chopped

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

4 eggs

1 1/3 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set it over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally, until completely melted and smooth.

In the meantime, whisk together the eggs, vanilla and sugar in a medium bowl. Set aside. In a small bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder.

Add the melted chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and stir to combine well. Slowly add the dry ingredients, folding them into the batter. Once all of the flour is incorporated, fold in the chocolate chips.

Scoop about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough (a medium cookie scoop’s worth) onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are firm on the outside. Like brownies, do not overbake! Leave to cool completely on the baking sheets.

Makes about 24 cookies

One Grandma gave Henry this monkey but Molly quickly took charge of it and has been holding it like a baby wrapped in a blanket. She calls it her Baby Jesus.

We checked out The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and of course had to make a few origami Yoda puppets.

And now I will get back to playing with all the new toys and games we received for Christmas. The boys have especially loved their Mario, Luigi and Yoshi Knex toys. They have been building little tracks for them to race through for days now.

We have had a good year and look forward to the next.

Have a Happy New Year!

Better than Expected.

2011-12-27T13:08:00.000-08:00

My kids each found a movie theater style box of Raisinettes in their stockings on Christmas morning. They were the perfect snack to stick in their pocket for movie they would get to go to the theater to see the next day. I know... wait until the next day?.... but Christmas was on the Sabbath this year so no movie that day.

We don't go to movies very often so this was a very special treat!

My husband was the one to take the kids. (I stayed home with Molly. We will have to wait to see it on DVD or Netflix.) He said he didn't have really high expectations for the film. He had read some mixed reviews. Plus this is one of his favorite things to read aloud to the kids. He has a voice for each of the characters and he didn't want to be disappointed when they made the characters sound different. He was also worried about the story and how they would combine story lines of the different books. Would it still have the charm of these old 1930's comics?

When the kids came bursting in the doors of Grandma's house after returning from the film, they were all pumped up and excited about how good the film was. They LOVED it! My husband said it exceeded his expectations. And, of course, now my kids want to get the Wii video game that goes along the film. It was one of the many previews that were shown before the film began.

My kids gave this film two thumbs up and can't stop telling me about this or that from the film. And for someone who hasn't ever read the comics or watched the film, it is rather funny to hear and ends up being just a big jumble of words. I guess I better check these books out of the library again and read through them so I can understand what these guys are talking about.

Christmas Party

2011-12-24T08:00:00.000-08:00

I am finally getting around to posting the pictures of our Church Christmas party. It was a few weeks ago.

Since there is no longer an activities committee someone is just selected to be in charge of each activity. My husband was chosen to make sure the Christmas party happened this year. And can I just say it was stressful! I have been on Relief Society activity committees and such so it just didn't seem like it would be that much different than that but my husband, who has not had that pleasure found the whole experience rather daunting. Plus this is just the season of busyness so it was somewhat difficult to get others, that were also asked to help pull this shindig together, to meet to plan etc. But he was really grateful for those that did! And the whole event went very well and all had a great time.

Here are some pictures of our family from that night. There is a photographer in our ward who took the pictures with Santa and other shots during the night. He did such a fantastic job! I quickly downloaded a few and used them for our Christmas card this year.

Here are all the primary kids singing a few Christmas songs.

Ian is really singing away!

Can you tell what song the kids are singing here?

My husband MC'd the event and so was on the mic most of the night.

Of course Molly had to go up and see him. She was not going to sit still with me for anything.

And if Molly got to go up then Henry of course had to go up as well.

So from our house to yours Merry Christmas to all.

Celebrating Hanukkah

2011-12-22T22:29:00.000-08:00

Every year along with all our Christmas book and activities we spend a little time reading and learning about Hanukkah. It is easy to find books about this Jewish holiday. The Library usually has a big group of them pulled off the shelf much like the Christmas books at this time of year and they are set up on top of the book shelves for easy access. I always find a few good books there to bring home and read with my kids on the first day of Hanukkah. (I do a similar thing with Passover around Easter time)

We read a few books and listened to some Hanukkah music. I had found this DK Sticker book on the used book shelf a few months ago. It looked brand new and was only 25 cents. I am glad I picked it up and brought it home. I am even more glad I remembered it and could still find it when it was the right time to use it.

When we attended Bethlehem this year, and every year past, one of the booths in the "city" hands out a dreidel to the kids. They have been floating around our house for a week and some already but the kids found them and figured out how to play.

And of course for dinner I decided to make some latkes. Mine, I am happy to say, looked almost exactly like the ones pictured. These of course aren't mine because I didn't break my camera out at all during the day. Henry had at least three of them, Ian had a few too, and Sophie actually finished the one I gave her. For kids who aren't usually that adventurous with food, especially Sophie, this was quite an achievement.

I also served applesauce but we didn't eat it with the latkes. We had it for desert. I didn't make the traditional donuts. We have so many cookies and treats in the house I didn't think we needed yet another.

My husband tried to teach the kids a hebrew prayer that he knows. The kids recognized it from the book/books we had read that day.

We didn't light any candles and we don't have a menorah but I think we celebrated Hanukkah in our own way.

There is a special kinship I feel with the Jewish people and faith. Perhaps because we share some of the same history and scripture. For what ever reason, I like sharing a little bit of the holidays remembering the miracles God has performed for his people.

Evaluating the Wii

2011-12-19T22:44:00.000-08:00

It has been almost a year since we bought our family a Wii. I am still sitting the fence on how much I like it. There are good things about having a game system in the house and there are also some aspects that I don't always appreciate.

I personally love to use the Wii Fit and I admit I am a pretty good skate boarder and all those years in marching band have paid off because I can't be beat at the Rhythm Parade. I am however horrible at the Soccer heading and juggling. My husband and I, after the kids go to bed have been known to have a little bowling tournament or we pass a few levels of Lego Harry Potter or Lego Indiana Jones. My goodness can time fly while you are lost in the world of video games!


Here is Sophie doing the Kung Fu game with the Wii Fit. Aren't our Mii characters cute!

Sophie actually don't really enjoy playing the Wii all that much. She will take her turn on Wii Fit and she has her Daring Game for Girls but she isn't interested in the Lego games or even the sports. She prefers games like Civilization on the computer.

The boys, at times, live and breath wii games. They talk about, draw pictures about and even dream about their wii games. They have been known to even pray for help to figure out how to pass a certain level. I can usually tell when they have had too much Wii time.

We have tried to keep the time on the Wii to only an hour on Saturdays and once in awhile during other days. But for some reason the boys seem to think that any time Mom has band practice or a meeting to go to at night that means they get to play Wii. I need to break them of this idea but then when Mom is away the mice to play.

So for now the Wii is staying. We have a handful of games and sometimes even try a new one that we find at the library. The boys are each getting a new game for Christmas. One is an active game that even requires the use of a mat the other is a creative game. We will see how things go. When all I hear about from the boys is their latest strategy to pass the next obstacle in Indi I start to threaten them with a Wii fast. It is sort of scary to see how much power these games have over my boys especially. They can fly through their chores each Saturday so they can get to their hour of play.

So, yes, I have a sort of Love/Hate relationship with the Wii. I do enjoy playing the games occasionally and I don't mind that my kids play them a little. I just object to it becoming the sole motivation to get things done or the ultimate reward.

Everything is a constant work in progress. We will continue to see how it goes.

Mary

2011-12-18T20:38:00.000-08:00

Molly has really embraced the Nativity Story. We have been reading book after book and watching movies about Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus for weeks now. Molly loves this story. She is always telling me to read "Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus book". Usually this is accompanied by her throwing one of the many Christmas pictures books at me that we have on the shelf or at the moment they are usually scattered about the room.

When the Christmas boxes were unloaded a few weeks ago so that we could decorate the tree and put out the nativities there was a bag of things that Molly in particular has enjoyed. It is the bag of costumes that I made a number of years back so our family could dress up to go to Bethlehem. They have been used ever since so our kids could act out the nativity story. I think it is time to make some bigger shepherd costumes. Sophie and Ian can't fit into any of them anymore.

Molly quickly picked out a robe and a headdress and asked me to make her Mary. She often doesn't want me to take this off so she has dressed like Mary for several different outings. And her pink hat and bowed baby is now constantly playing the role of baby Jesus.

Molly has caught the Christmas story very well and is often singing away at Angels We have Heard on High. She usually gets stuck on the Glooooooooooo and never gets to the -ia but she has the main gist of the song.

It really is very cute to see her take such an interest in the goings on of Christmas.

But, of course there is also a fair amount of singing about raindeer and she also has appeared as a few other famous ladies lately also.

I think this is a sugar plum fairy mixed with lady liberty. She bounces from one outfit to the next rather quickly. She hasn't mastered the art of the quick costume change yet.

What we would do without this cute but busy little two year old around the house?!

December so far

2011-12-12T20:50:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it is already almost half way through December. The days are passing so quickly.

My kids are counting down the days until Christmas but honestly I didn't do any kind of advent type things this year. December crept up on me before I had anything planned out. But that hasn't stopped us from reading a bunch of Christmas books, learning some new Christmas songs or going to our usual Christmas activities.

We of course went to the Christmas Creche Exhibit. We saw many lovely nativity sets from around the world. The kids had fun going on the scavenger hunt through all the rooms looking and trying to find the nativity with a shepherd holding a chicken or one with an angel in a pink dress. My kids always look forward to this event and are thrilled to see the marionette show performed in the children's room. Molly really enjoyed the dressing up and finally getting to touch and play with a nativity set. It is hard to have a 2 year old in a place where she can't touch anything.

We also took a trip to Bethlehem where we get to walk through the Christmas story. It is the same show, usually even the same actors but every year it is a highlight of this season. The pictures throughout this post were all taken while we were at this event.

The kids love seeing the animals and the different booths that are set up to see carpentry tools, foods, natural dyes, pottery and games from that time and place.

We have also had a number of parties to attend. My husband in particular is thrilled that the Ward Christmas Party has come and gone. He was put in charge of it this year and he was a bit stressed having to plan and carry out this event for 200+ people. But it was a wonderful evening, everything seemed to run smoothly and everyone had a good time.

Everything is packed into the first two weeks of December. Most of our yearly Christmas outings have already come and gone. We are now at the waiting.... waiting.... waiting sage of the Christmas season. We still have a bunch of pictures books to read, a number of Christmas movies I plan to introduce my kids to, and I plan to have Jim Dale tell us the story of A Christmas Carol.

There is still lots of things in which to fill in the next two weeks. Christmas day will be here before we know it.

Test Results

2011-12-08T16:37:00.000-08:00

I met with my Educational Specialist today. This is one of the necessary parts of joining a Charter School. I have to report on our studies and turn in samples of their work each month. At the beginning of the school year the kids each took a test to determine a level to base progress against. My ES brought the results of those tests with her today.

Since my kids have never gotten report cards and have never taken any tests like this before it was sort of nice to see that they are doing just fine.

Henry is reading, writing and doing mathematics at about a 1.9 grade level. Which means he tested at the first grade, ninth month average. So he is right on target as far as age and abilities. Since reading is still a struggle with him (Those front two teeth are still holding strong! Those are the reading teeth as my Sister-in-law, who was a school teacher before having her own children, explained to me once.) We will see if reading finally clicks for him in the next little while. He reads but very slowly and he has to really work at it still. So it was nice to hear he is still right on target as far as academics.

Ian was excited to learn that despite being a 2nd grader he is reading at a 4.8 grade level and scored 4.1 in math. I don't know exactly how they measure these things but evidently he is doing great.

Sophie's number were impressive as well. She scored a 6.2 in math and 9.9 in reading.

Now these scores don't really mean a whole lot. I don't post them here to brag. I know they aren't a measure of how smart my kids are or guarantee that they will do well in the future. It doesn't even tell me that I am a great teacher. I know my kids are learning and I have been happy with what they have been able to do thus far. I never felt the need to test them before this but since the school insists on it, and if we want to have access to the funds the school provides, we have to comply. More than anything it is a relief to know my kids can take tests and do well at them.

Now we await to see what the school says about Ian and Sophie's required writing assessment and when I mentioned to the kids that they have to take a scantron test in the spring they didn't know what I was talking about. They knew they needed to take a test but scantron was a new word to them. So the testing continues. And for kids who have never taken a real test in their lives I am just happy to see they can come through with flying colors.

This first assessment was given to them via a computer. I wonder if it will make a difference. Perhaps I need to teach them how to fill in bubbles with a #2 pencil.

Transitions

2011-12-04T09:36:00.000-08:00

Molly has not been napping lately. She can climb out of her crib and when I put her in there for a nap she emerges a few minutes later and usually when I go back there later I find all the clothes from her shelves dumped on the floor. So I have given up trying to get her to sleep in her crib during the day. At night she seems to still be doing alright since by then she is especially tired, I guess.

When we packed the car to go over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving I took the big stroller out of the back of the van and put it in the house. I never got around to putting it back when we got home so it has sat here in the living room for a few days. While we were doing school work one day Molly grabbed her favorite blanket and asked for her Binky (which she only uses at sleepy time). I relented on the pacifier because I needed her to be quiet for a little while. She climbed into the stroller and even gave herself a pillow and before we knew it she was snoozing away in the noisy front room cuddled up in the stroller. She slept there for a good hour and a half and would have slept more except I had to wake her so we could go out to some appointment.

She did this same trick the next day again. It was great. But I finally took the stroller out of the front room because we had to rearrange things a bit when we put the Christmas Tree up. But when she started to get cranky and asking for her binky, I asked her if she could sleep in Sophie's room on the bunk bed. This is where she will eventually sleep full time. I didn't know if it would work but she went in and laid down on the bed and slept for a good long nap. I tried to put her in there for bedtime at night and it didn't work out. Sophie likes to read and night so Molly kept climbing up the ladder and bothering her. I whisked Molly off to her crib, which is in our closet, and she promptly went right to sleep.

I don't know how we are ever going transition Molly into sleeping in the "girl's room" at night. 8 years is such a big difference in age. Sophie also isn't the most patient of girls. She doesn't like being bothered by here younger siblings and isn't helping the situation. There isn't much of a choice, however. We don't have a 4th bedroom and Molly can't sleep in our closet forever.

Loves the Thesaurus

2011-12-01T21:44:00.000-08:00

In her writing assignments with the Institute of Excellence in Writing curriculum that she has been doing the last few months there are some banned words. When Sophie writes she isn't allowed to use words like got/get, say/said, go/went, good/bad, etc. The goal is to get her to use stronger verbs and better descriptive adjectives. I introduced her to the thesaurus recently and now she can't seem to write a paragraph with out it. She loves looking up words to find synonyms. I have even caught her just reading it. I don't blame her, words are fun!

Here is her paragraph from today's lesson. She didn't score full points since she didn't include an alliteration or a simile. She also did not include one of the sentence openers they taught her in her last lesson but I think she did remarkably well. Her writing is vastly improving and she seems to enjoy the process a little more now. It does require more work which she does fight at times but I think she is exploring the creative aspects of writing a little more since we switched to this program for writing.

The assignment was to read through a page of text describing how beavers build dams, outline the main points and then write a short summary paragraph.

Dwelling of Safety

Beavers build their homes soundly so that opponents can't harm them. They build their lodges at night so that enemies can't see them. Firstly, they accumulate sticks and rocks to form a mound. Then place more on top of the mound to make it higher than water level. After that, bevers tunnel to the center from under the water, dig it out, and create a room. They gather small twigs, which they eat and use to repair their lodge, for when they live in their homes all winter. The lodge is a secure dwelling.

It isn't perfect but it is so much better than what she used to write!

Fog

2011-11-29T18:49:00.000-08:00

My boys were very excited this morning. After breakfast and before we started school they went outside and discovered that we had a bit of fog. They then decided it was a great time to play outside. Since I had yet to take a shower I told them they had to stay in the driveway. This didn't damper their enthusiasm. They thought it was great that they could see their breath. And Ian and Sophie even broke out their gloves as they whirled around.

We really are spoiled here in California. Our winters are so mild. We don't ever get snow and light jackets, actual shoes (not crocs or flip flops) and long sleeve shirts are about the extent of our winter gear. So my kids get really excited when they see a change in the weather. Even though I knew the fog would burn off quickly and that the jackets would be put back into the closet and not needed the rest of the day it was fun to get outside while it was cold.

Vision Forum

2011-11-21T21:37:00.000-08:00

My kids love to go to the post box to get the mail each day. If I happen to go out to get it they always look at what I brought in to see if anything exciting has arrived for them. This time of year especially has been fun since we have received a number of great catalogs from companies hoping to entice us into spending some money for Christmas gifts. One of the new catalogs we have received recently is from Vision Forum.

My boys looked through their catalog at all the great gear featured inside for an adventurous young men. Henry fell in love with this bow and arrow set. Ian in particular pointed out that the Dangerous Book for Boys Kits would be a great Christmas gift.

I usually take my time looking through all the homeschooling and christian books, movies and audio programs that they offer.

They are starting their Black Friday sale right now. This is what they are offering. Buy any 2 and get a 3rd free.

And if case you need even more of an incentive to give Vision Forum a perusal then enter to win gift cards from The Modest Mom or Raising Olives. They each have $600 in gift cards for some lucky winners!

Every Four Years

2011-11-19T21:36:00.000-08:00

We happen to live near an Egyptian Museum. It claims to have the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts in the Western United States. My kids have been so excited all week because we were finally going to take them to see the mummies.

Here are the kids outside the doors. This is a avenue of goat headed sphinx's but somehow that part didn't end up in the picture. Oh well....

We weren't supposed to use flash inside the museum so our inside photos are rather dark. But I did my best to brighten them up a bit. Here we all are in front of a replica of King Tuts Mummy case.

Sophie was really interested in this baboon mummy. Molly just called it "Monkey Mummy".

Here are the kids inside the mock tomb. We spent a good amount of time in here looking at all the wall art. The kids were able to name just about all the gods depicted on the walls and tell the story of the weighing of the heart ceremony which is seen behind them.

At every statue we came across the kids would all pose and say take our picture with ______. The above statue is Khufu. The one below is Amenhotep III.

And here is Ahkenaten.

Nearby there was a cast figure of Nefertiti's head as well. But all eyes were on the statues.

The kids also sat in on a class where they learned to play the Egyptian game of Senet. They are going to one day teach me how to play since I spent that 30 min climbing up and down stairs with Molly.

Henry, this evening, told me he was "all egypted out". I guess that is the sign that we have worn out that topic and it is time to move on.

The museum was a great way to finish off our studies. We last went 4 years ago when we studied Egypt the first time with Story of the World and I am sure we will make our way here again in 4 years when we revisit the ancients in the next go round of history.

Magnents and Play Dough

2011-11-18T21:31:00.000-08:00

Poor Molly has a hard time each day. I spend a lot of my day telling her "not now" or "stop" so I have been trying really hard to give her things to do while we do school work each day.

Lately Molly has been enamored with the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book. I have been reading it often and she has been requesting the DVD as well. One day while exploring the game closet she found a bag full of magnetic letters. She quickly added them to the fridge and was singing "a told b and b told c, I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree" but of course her version was more "a..b... up coconut tree".

Later in the week I went to a Relief Society craft night and came home with a new nativity magnet set to play on the fridge. Molly has had a good time rearranging them on the fridge, the dishwasher and I even found Mary and Joseph on the oven at one point.

This one will stay on the fridge for awhile. And so far it has kept her busy while I make dinner.

And for the first time in my life I actually made play dough. I don't know how cost effective it is since the recipe I used called for Cream of Tarter and that stuff is expensive especially if you need a quarter cup of it. But the play dough was so smooth and it was nice to only have one color. My kids all loved playing with it especially since I had just cooked it and it was still warm.

I broke out all the play dough toys too. That isn't something I do often. I just hate having to clean up the play dough mess.

Maybe play dough will have to be our new Rainy day activity. I know my kids love it and I do have a very nice big batch of bright pink dough now.

Plenty for all to have a large blob.

I know Molly would love to play with it everyday but I don't know if I am up for that yet.

If you need a good Play dough recipe, this is what I did.

2 cups water

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

1/4 cup Cream of tarter

1/4 cup oil

food coloring or even paint (I just used food coloring)

Heat on the stove in a large pot. Fold the flour over and over making sure the bottom is pulled up to the top. After about 5 min. it should be stiff and well mixed. Dump it out on a floured counter and kneed it (when it is cool enough to touch) for awhile until very smooth. Then play and play.

Keep in a air tight container and it should stay moist for a number of months.

I am trying to keep Molly better occupied while I help the others with school. It isn't easy and she often gets pushed aside and as a result she is rather crabby so I am trying to make sure she gets read to and played with each day but also that she is given things to do while I am needed elsewhere.

The Perfect Book for November!

2011-11-15T22:08:00.000-08:00

This Fall I put in charge of the younger children's book club at our co-op. I looked through lists of books and read different recommendations and came up with a list of books we would read over the next 4 months. I just assigned the books to a month without much planning. I am so grateful for those that recommended Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, it really is the perfect book to discuss at Thanksgiving time.

It certainly doesn't look like a Thanksgiving book. There are no pumpkins or pilgrims and such but the theme is all about appreciating what you have and finding happiness.

Grace Lin in her acceptance speech for one of the many awards this book has won says :

"Minli is not perfect, but she tries her best and at every point she learns and grows until finally she realizes that happiness is not a prize that can be bought or won. Happiness is a gift that is cherished, something that one is truly grateful for."

That message comes through loud and clear through this story or I guess I could say stories since this book contains lots of little stories woven together to tell the entire tale. It is sort of the Chinese Wizard of Oz with Minli traveling through a land and meeting lots of different characters and hearing their stories. In a way you could say Minli and Dorothy learn the same lesson. In the Wizard of Oz the theme is somewhat simplified into "There is no place like home". Minli (as well as other characters) learns that good fortune and happiness were already around her, she just needs to recognize and appreciate them.

We listened to the Audio book but am so glad I also got the actual book as well. The illustrations are beautiful! Here are a few.

I haven't quite decided how I am going to approach the book club discussion. In the past we looked at the themes by discussing the protagonist and what they are trying to do while the antagonist tries to stop them. That could be interesting to see if the kids could come up with who the antagonist is in this story. Or I could approach it as a discussion of the plot or story sequence and discuss the theme as we define and discuss the rising action, climax and resolution. Or I could even do something totally different and have the kids actually talk about the similarities and differences to the Wizard of Oz story. I think if I took any of these directions, I am sure we would discuss the book pretty thoroughly and cover the wonderful theme of the book.

I think I am going to make bookmarks for the kids with the Chinese characters for Thankfulness on them.

I really hope this is what these characters say. I just googled the phrase and this is what came up. It certainly looks good!

And of course some goldfish and a red thread or yarn on the end. Each of these things plays a role in the story.

And no book club meeting would be complete without a snack so we will eat some goldfish crackers as well.
I saw one of the girls in the club today at a different event and she had her book with her. She said she is liking it so much she has been bringing it with her so she can read more when she can fit it in. Coming from a 9 year old girl that is great praise indeed.

It should be a good book discussion.

More Egypt and All the Rest

2011-11-12T22:05:00.000-08:00

I think we finally have reached the end of our Egypt study. I am ready to move on to our next major civilization. Not that Egypt hasn't been fascinating. I thought I had learned a ton about Egypt when we studied it 4 years ago but this time through we have really immersed ourselves in stories about the people, their gods and tied it all together with some great fiction that only added to and reinforced our studies.

This week we spent a lot of time reading books about Akhenaten, Nefertiti and King Tut.

I read aloud this book which was a short chapter book about how the Egyptians may felt when Akhenaten changed things in Egypt and forced all to worship one god instead of the many gods they had been worshiped for thousands of years.

It was interesting but my kids are enjoying listening to the audiobook of The Red Pyramid even more.

Sophie couldn't wait for it to finish so started reading the physical book and has finished it already and has now started the 2nd book in the series. She can't wait for the third one to come out in the spring.

I know we aren't totally done yet with Egypt. We still have the story of Cleopatra which comes later when Rome takes over everything but for now I am happy with what we have been able to cover and am ready to move on to other things.

I think it might be time to head to the Egyptian Museum we have nearby. I have been saving it until we had finished learning and talking about Egypt but I think we may need to go soon before the excitement for all things Egyptian fades.

We also finally wrapped our chicken mummy.

Here is Cleopatra after sitting in salts for weeks and weeks.

Sophie has been waiting to wrap this little chicken for weeks. I am so happy to finally have this project done. She can stop ~~pestering~~ asking me when we would wrap her.

We used some more of the plaster bandages that we had made our masks with a few weeks ago. It worked perfectly. She is now officially a mummy. Now what do we do with this Mummified hen? Sophie already has plans to make a sarcophagus.

As for other subjects we have covered this week.....

Sophie has been doing something new in Math. Since she had finished her Singapore 5A book I thought she could use a break from the regular stuff she had been doing so I downloaded the Pet store version of Simply Charlotte Mason's business math. She is flying through it really quickly. Sophie has already done about 4 months out of the twelve that she will do with this series. It is a bit hard to see her have to add all those columns of addition by hand when I know it would be so much easier with a calculator or even better if the records were kept on the computer and it did the adding for her. It is good for her to have to do a lot of math by hand!

The boys are still working on their Singapore math workbooks.

Science has been a bit hit and miss the last few weeks. It is always the subject that gets left out if we run short on time. I need to make sure we get it back into the schedule again. We didn't read any of our Apologia book. We should be doing the respiratory system. It will have to be a focus for next week. The kids of course are getting some Science in at their workshop that they attend each Wednesday but I can't really say that is enough science so I need to squeeze in more.

Sophie is doing great with her IEW All things Fun and Fascinating. I really like this writing program! The lessons aren't as easily split up into weeks as Writing with Ease but I feel like Sophie is learning more about how to go about writing. Writing with Ease often felt like it was busywork. Ian of course is still doing Writing with ease but I have ordered the IEW DVDs and the Student Writing Intensive so I may switch him soon and start it slowly since it is designed to start at about 3rd grade. Henry is doing his Explode the code but he has reached the point that I remember feeling like Ian was done with them. Henry too is starting to show signs that he is ready for more. So perhaps I need to switch Henry to something else.

The kids are learning Fur Elise in their piano class. And we have listened to a lot of Beethoven music and I turned on Fantasia a few days ago so they could see the Pastoral symphony. We watched the whole film because my kids love it.

We also read the Venezia biography of Beethoven and listened to the Classics for Kids production of Beethoven Lives Upstairs.

And I guess I can claim some art because I put on a DVD tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the kids sat and watched it with me. They got very excited when they recognize Vermeer, Matisse Van Gogh, or other paintings that we have studied in the past.

We also added in a new Latin Program. I used our Charter school funds to purchase Minimus Latin. We have done the first lesson and my kids seem to enjoy the story so far. This isn't the program we wanted to use but since the Charter School turned down my first 3 choices, saying they are "sectarian" I was happy to find one that they actually would allow. We will have to see if this will work out. I may have to just break down and get the program I really want. But then I wouldn't be able to turn in any of the latin work we do for the portfolios each child has to turn in to the school each semester.

Oh... the charter school woes :) But I have to remember why I am doing it.

Piano lessons are going very well. The kids don't fight me about practice each day. They do often rush through and are sometime sloppy in their practice but their teacher is pleased with their progress and so am I. It is a pleasure to hear them stop and play a little tune when they are passing the piano. I have also been teaching them the simplified version of For the Beauty of the Earth "just for fun". We have been singing a few of the Thanksgiving hymns each day and they asked me to help them learn this one. They all seem to have the right hand down so now I get to add in the left hand. Maybe by Thanksgiving they will each be able to play that one hymn.

Oh.. yeah.. one more thing for the week. We did something for P.E. Since Sophie is going to be running a mile in the spring as part of the required 5th grade physical fitness test I decided we should go to the track and run it, just to see how well they could do it. I used to hate having to run the mile in Elementary school. I always felt yucky after doing it. But since we are pretty active and take hikes quite often they didn't seem to have a problem at all. We didn't run the entire 4 laps. I decided to start us off a little easier and only run the straights and walk the corners. That was the way I always did it all the way through high school. All the kids made it around that community center track 4 times and made it while pushing Molly in a stroller. If we make a habit of this I am going to need to do something different because it wasn't a jogging stroller and I kept kicking it or having to really watch my stride.

So that was our week, and now I just need to get ready to head into the next.

No Posts?

2011-11-11T06:42:00.000-08:00

It has been over a week since I last posted. I guess I don't have much to say... or it could be this little two year old who never seems to give me a moments peace.

With the time change she has been getting up early and for some reason I find it hard to type with a squirmy little girl who wants to hit the buttons all the time.

She also seems to follow me around all day long so there isn't even a few moments here and there throughout the day where I get to be free of this cute little bundle. She is my little shadow. I head to the bathroom sometimes just so I can shut the door for a few minutes but she usually stands right outside, often banging on it.

And since she loves to see pictures of herself I figured I better post of new shots of this little one. She loves to pose for the camera!

Perhaps some day I will get back to writing something. For now this will have to do because the little person on my lap rules my free time at the moment. And I am having a hard time thinking, typing and keeping her fingers off the keyboard.

Organized Crime?

2011-11-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

I just returned from the grocery store with my children. The older kids and I were putting our items on the conveyor belt while I talked to Molly who was sitting in the cart. A woman got into line behind us just as we were finishing and needed to wait until it was our turn to be checked out. This lady behind us started talking and at first I just thought she was talking to herself or perhaps on a cell phone. Such things are rather common these days. After catching snippits of what she was muttering I realized her words were for me to hear. She was grumbling about overpopulation and cancer and when I choose not to turn around she got up closer to me and started calling me a breeder and accusing me of organized crime. I lost my cool a bit and and turned to her and asked her to stop. I told her that having children is not a crime and that she should stop being so rude and keep her opinions to herself. The checker quickly caught on that there was a slight altercation going on and stepped in. The lady then went on to accuse me of somehow causing lip cancer because I had too many children. I can only guess she was some kind of green activist who saw me as someone who, because of my many children, had such a large carbon footprint that I contributed to the global warming and therefore cancer and the end of the world.

I honestly have never had anyone so blatantly call me a criminal.

The store manager came to calm things down and quickly took that lady to another line to check out. I was given a $3.00 discount on my purchases and we both went on our way.

Sophie didn't quite follow what was going on exactly. She just knew it was something I was angry about and that is somehow involved them. I had to explain that that lady doesn't like people that have children and that she thinks I am conspiring to overpopulate the earth. I then proceeded to tell the kids that that lady doesn't understand how wonderful it is to have kids and that children are a blessing not a burden to the earth.

As the kids settled in to listen to the audio book as we drove home, I couldn't help but think over the event. It hurts to be accused of wrong doing even when you know you haven't. I know nothing I could have said would have changed this woman's mind. (She might have been out of her mind for all I know.) But part of me wishes I could have defended the truth more or better. Words, to people like this, don't do anything. All I can do is continue to live my life the way I know is right and continue to teach my children the truth and to be good stewards of the blessings we enjoy.

The cashier at the store is someone I see there all the time. We have talked about her children and grandchildren and she knows me. Even the manager who came to deal with things has seen us there many times which, I'm sure, is why I got my little discount. They have seen me and my kids many times. I can be a good example to them and any others who I come in contact.

"The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God's commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force". The Family: A Proclamation to the World

It is sad to think there are such people out there that hold such hatred for something I consider a blessing. All I can guess is that she never had children and needed a cause to get behind. She fell for the global warming propaganda and now feels strongly about such things. Or perhaps she was just diagnosed with cancer and needs someone to blame. For what ever reason she has for her hatred and rudeness, I only feel pity for her..... now that my feathers are done being ruffled.

"Children are an heritage of the Lord" (Psalms 127:3)

A Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T21:04:00.000-07:00

Trick or Treating tonight was the icing on the cake as far as Halloweens go. My kids have gotten to wear their costumes multiple times for different parties and events. Henry was a little melancholy when he handed me his costume tonight when we got home. He questioned "When am I going to get to be Darth Vader again?". I explained that he could be Darth again next year, the costume would most likely still fit. He gave me a little nod and a happy smile.

So here they are in all their Halloween finery ready to go out trick or treating.

Molly really enjoyed trekking from house to house and filling her little bag.

This little Kangaroo outfit has been worn by each of my kids when they were 2. I certainly feel like it was well worth the 3 dollars I paid for it years and years ago.

Here is our little crew outside of one of the well decorated houses in the neighborhood.

Upon arriving home, the sorting began. Everyone dumped out their bags and they arranged all the loot into kinds.

We all ate a little too much candy tonight and play to give at least half of this stash to the Bishop to hand out to the kids each week at church.

But for tonight the kids are relishing the fun and sweats.

Happy Halloween!

Epiphany

2011-10-31T07:47:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks I have been experiencing some rash and itching on my face. It is the same exactly location that I experienced poison oak a few months ago and it felt a lot like poison oak except there weren't any blisters. I just itched and got a bit swollen. It would go away and then come back in the same spot. Yesterday my eye swelled up and I couldn't help but rub it and rub it because it itches so badly. I haven't come in contact with any poison oak so I knew that wasn't the culprit. But something was irritating me and making me feel like I was having an allergic reaction.

This morning while laying in bed knowing my eye was puffy still and still trying to figure out what was the cause I suddenly had an epiphany.... MANGOS. I bought a large box of mangos at costco a few weeks ago while we did our India unit. Mangos are native to India. All other mangos in the world are transplants from their native land. But this morning I suddenly remembered something I had read when we looked up information about mangos. Mango skin contains urushiol. I have been peeling mangos off and on for the last two weeks and since my body is especially sensitive to this lovely oil I developed a rash. I must brush the hair out of my face while I peal mangos or perhaps it developed in that spot because I just recently had an irritation there but mangos seem to explain my problem.

I guess I won't be handling mangos anymore. I can still eat mangos, I just can't peal them anymore. I looked up other foods that also contain urushiol and I guess I shouldn't handle cashews or pistachios either. They are from the same plant family.

So I can still eat mangos. Good thing the flesh is still alright. My family loves mangos and we put frozen mangos in our smoothies all the time. I just can't peel them anymore.

I hope my epiphany is right and that this is all I need to avoid. I really need my eye to return to normal soon. I am tired of taking antihistamines. Hey I guess I don't need a mask for Halloween my face is pretty scary with my eye all red and swollen like it is. It is sure the scare the trick-or-treaters that come to our door.

Two Weeks Worth

2011-10-29T14:09:00.000-07:00

I didn't do a report last week so I have two week so cover.

Lets start with History/Geography

My kids really enjoyed our study of India. We read tons and tons of books about India, watched a Bollywood film, played lots of parchessi, tried some curry dishes and then prepared our presentation for Co-op. We used three poster boards and each kids was supposed to present part of it. Sophie ended up doing the entire presentation because the boys got a little shy at the last moment.

We covered some of the Geography of the country, landmarks such as the Taj Mahal and K2, foods, dress, animals, music and religions of India.

I purposely planned our geography presentation to correspond with our chapter from Story of the World for the Week. So last week we read about the ancient Indian people that lived along the Indus River.

This week's History was a little mixed up. Somehow I thought it was supposed to be Africa next so I had the kids draw maps of the continent of Africa and we listened to and read a bunch of Anansi stories. Then when I got around to listening to the next chapter of Story of the World It was China next and then Africa. My kids didn't want to skip ahead to the next chapter before listening to the China Chapter so we ended up listening to both. Next week we won't be moving but staying and reading all the books about China I have on the shelf. We also started a new Audio Book since we finished Theodosia. We are now listening to Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
which is a Chinese story.

Sophie is very anxious to get to the next chapters of SoTW because we will be going back to Egypt and we will finally finish up our Chicken Mummy. We will see if I can hold her back one more week so we can give China a chance in our studies.

Science is going ever so slowly. We made it through the digestive system at last. There are a lot of different organs and such involved in that one system it took us a long time to get through it. This week we covered Nutrition. So we got to talk about carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals and water and how our body uses those items.

Writing is going alright. I can't say I am thrilled with how much my kids write. Ian just does his quick little Writing with Ease assignment and really doesn't like to do anything more. Sophie is doing much better with writing since we switched to IEW's All Things Fun and Fascinating. I feel like she is better learning how to put her thoughts down on paper. I love that it teaches outlining to begin with and builds from there. It has made a big difference.

I also have been teaching them a little more about compare and contrast essays/paragraphs since they have to do one for the Charter school this next month. I gave them the practice prompt and was pleasantly surprised that they did pretty well. I don't feel nearly as stressed about this assignment any more.

Math plugs along as usual. The boys each are working through their workbooks. Sophie finished her Singapore 5A book this week. I am going to give her a break from Singapore of a bit and she is going to do Pet Store Buisiness math from Simply Charlotte Mason. Sophie was so excited to get started that she already did the start up section and will jump into the first month's business on Monday. Already I can tell she is going to LOVE this. Math used in a real life sort of way is so much more fun than a workbook. Ian want so badly to do a math unit like this but he isn't quite ready for it yet. He does sit with Sophie and plan things out with her and help her gather the information she needs.

Piano continues to go well. The kids practice every day. I have to push them but they don't fight it too much and I know they enjoy having little songs that they can play whenever they see a piano.

Artist/Musician study has happened but very informally. I have put on The Story of Beethoven when I start making dinner or when the kids are just playing legos. They have also listened to the Classics for Kids production of Beethoven Lives Upstairs. The kids are learning to play Ode to Joy and will be learning Fur Elise next week at the piano class so I thought it fitting that we should study Beethoven. Our artist is Matisse. We have watched a video that I picked up at the library and that is all so far. I have a number of books to read and I know the kids will enjoy the art projects I have planned. I just need to fit them into our packed schedule.

So that is what we have been up to lately.

Draw like an Egyptian

2011-10-27T17:13:00.000-07:00

Sophie has been spending a lot of time drawing pictures of all the different Egyptian Gods and other characters. She is getting really good at creating scenes of Ancient Egypt. What better way is there to pass the time while you listen to audio books.

This is the book I picked up at the library which has been a great help for her drawings.

I think I need to to find her a little better way for her to add color to these drawings because the markers are not my favorite medium. Our colored pencil stash is sadly lacking at the moment. I need to grab a new box soon. One of those school supplies I should have stocked up on while they were on clearance a month or so ago, but forgot about them.

Here is how the book explains to draw the figure of Isis.

Isis is especially important because that is who Sophie says she is for Halloween. She has an Egyptian costume. She wanted wings but I just don't have the energy to throw that part together for her.

Here is Sophie's version of Isis.

She has been very busy! And now knows so much about all the Egyptian gods. She can tell you what animal head each has and what kid of hat each wears as well.

I think she is doing a great job! She now draws these on every scrap of paper she can find. She doesn't even need the book to look at for directions. They are now engraved into her memory.

Reading about Education

2011-10-23T07:34:00.000-07:00

I recently finished yet another book about education. Over the years I have read loads of people's thoughts on what an education is, the trouble with the public school system, different approaches to teaching, the importance of certain subjects and how they should be taught.

The most recent book I finished is called The Core: Teaching Your Child the Foundations of Classical Education. I can't say this book told me anything I hadn't already read before. Especially since I already agree with much of what the author says and actually practice much of what she describes. I don't think this book even comes close to teaching what a Classical Education looks like when you compare it to The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home. I read Bauer's book before Sophie was even old enough for Kindergarden so I can't help but think of it first when I consider Classical Education. I check it out of the library at least once a year to revisit the lists and ideas presented.

Another book that also presents Classical Education but calls it Leadership Education because the approach is a little different is A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-first Century. I say the approach is different because this book doesn't give you lists of things to do for each grade level but instead gives you principles to use as you explore all the many different subjects out there. I really LOVE the principles of Leadership Education and try to incorporate them into our schooling. I have read many of the other books written by DeMille and others that follow this approach and can see the benefits but I felt like I needed to also look to other sources in order to gather ideas for the day to day subjects and methods that I should guide my children toward and study with my children.

I found this guidance from Charlotte Mason. I have borrowed her Original Homeschooling Series, book by book, from the library and work my way through them. They are rather long and hard to get through but I have had more luck with books written about her methods than with her original works. I really need to get them again and reread them but I do revisit For the Children's Sake and A Charlotte Mason Companion. I have both of these on the shelf and I reread them often, especially when I feel like we have run off track and need to come back to the path.

To me Charlotte Mason ideas and the principles of Leadership Education seem to coexist well together. Charlotte Mason is a little more "school" like than Oliver DeMille describes in Leadership Education but since I am the teacher, principle and school board for my home I can make my house look and act the way I see fit.

So I am sure I will keep reading and rereading books about education. I glean ideas from each, either in an approach to a certain subject, or simply help me look at where we are headed and point us toward the path I want to follow and that I feel is right for my family.

So after reading through this latest book. There are a few things I liked that I really want to do with my kids. In The Core, the author describes what she does for Geography. She has the children draw the maps themselves. Right now we look at maps and we even color in maps that are in our Story of the World Activity guide but I really like the idea of laying out the grid and having the kids look at the map and draw that continent or country and label the cities and land formation and such.

One of the things that bothered me about what The Core emphasized was Memorization. Now I do have my kids memorize things. They have poems and scriptures that we memorize but I haven't placed a lot of emphasis on ingraining the dates of a time line into their brains. I feel like the kids remember names, dates and events because we have covered them enough so that they remember it without me having to tell them to memorize it. For me it is better to have a general idea of the time period then to know the specific date something happened. Especially at this young age. In her book she kept using words that made it sound like kids enjoyed memorizing or were thrilled with the drills she conducted with them. She must have different children than I do because my kids don't like to be forced into much of anything. But when something is introduced and revisited enough through the course of our unit, the kids learn it without being forced.

I know every home is different and no one approach is right for everyone. I certainly don't subscribe to any one philosophy or method and reject all others. I read as much as I can and take what I like and leave the rest. There are a number of books I revisit often for inspiration or reminders but most I am glad I just checked out of the library.

Here are a few more good ones to see if your library has.

I know this isn't an exhaustive list. I know I have read many many more. Are there any that you suggest?

The Broken Tusk

2011-10-17T20:57:00.000-07:00

In an effort to make this round through Story of the World a little more challenging to Sophie I have been using some of the recommendations from Classical House of Learning's Logic Stage guide. Without me telling her to read these books Sophie has simply gravitated to them when I brought them home from the library. (Except for Gilgamesh the Hero. She enjoyed the picture books I brought home when I read them aloud to the boys but she didn't take any interest in this longer retelling of the story. I didn't push it on her. Maybe if it sits here on the shelf long enough she will get to it eventually.)

Theodosia was one I did read aloud to all the kids and we continue to enjoy the rest of the series. Sophie picked up a copy of Tales of Ancient Egypt and read the whole book for some light night reading. She now tells me all the stories of the Egyptian gods and acts surprised when I don't know the story that she is referring to. She loves to find the holes in my education! I can't keep up with her reading so she is quickly schooling me on many subjects.

The Broken Tusk was a book I picked up at the library last week and she found it in my bag during the drive home. She now knows so much about this Hindu god. At her age I don't even think I knew what Hinduism was or where it was practiced. She finds these stories or myths, as she usually refers to them, very funny.

So today I asked her if she would like to put together a little book report lapbook. She got so excited. I got her a folder and some cardstock and let her do whatever she wanted. I even gave her a picture of Ganesha that I had printed out for our India report. She wants a few more before the project will be done. I was really surprised she took to such an assignment. It isn't a lapbook and it isn't a book report but it will be a perfect way for her to narrate to me the text and have ownership of the presentation.

It works for me. And thankfully it works for her as well.

I have Tales from Africa coming from the library for next week. We will see if she naturally snaps that one up next.

Another Trip to the ER

2011-10-16T21:25:00.000-07:00

It is never easy to be a mom. There are so many things to do all the same time. Today after church I got to work on dinner. We were all hungry and Molly was tired since on Sundays she misses her nap due to afternoon church right at the normal nap time. So she was a bit cranky and underfoot while I was cooking up some spaghetti. I had just browned some beef and had drained the grease into a little throwaway cup and was busy making the sauce when I heard Molly behind me start to scream. I turned and there she was with the hot liquid all over her face and chest. I am usually so careful with hot items on the stove and such but somehow I left that little cup of drippings too close to the edge of the counter and this little curious girl got her hands on it. I quickly pulled her dress off (I am still hoping her dress isn't ruined) and called my husband to help put her in a cool bath. I didn't know what else to do. While he bathed her she continued to scream and scream. I called the ask a nurse to see what else we could do and she recommended we take her to the ER. So we left our unfinished spaghetti to sit on the stove (turned off of course) and headed to the hospital. Poor little Molly screaming the whole way. I think we hit every light red on the way there!

The doctor said she has mostly just a first degree burn but a few places where she has a slight 2nd degree burn. I consider this lucky. Her face was bright red and her chest was scarlet with a few places where the blisters has formed and popped leaving some loose skin. (Sorry to be so graphic).

The whole time in the hospital Molly kept begging to "go home". She didn't want anyone to touch her and she didn't want anything to do with anything the nurses or doctors brought her. She wouldn't even take a lick of the popsicle that they offered her. They put some ointment on the raw spots on her chest and tried to put a bandage on her but she grabbed it off and fought the nurse when she tried to reapply it. Molly really just wanted to go home. We did force down some Motrin and we were sent home. Molly conked out on the way home. All the screaming did her in.

After returning home she woke up and seemed back to her normal self. She ate the rewarmed spaghetti and even had a cup of chocolate milk before we sent her off to bed. I am really hoping she sleeps well.

I think Molly and I learned a lesson with this incident. I will be MUCH more diligent about keeping hot items out of reach and hopefully Molly has learned not to be too curious. I feel like the man with the yellow hat telling George to not be curious. Of course she will be curious but maybe, just maybe she will have the memory of this burn to help her pause and think about grabbing things from up on the counter. I know this will be etched into my memory so each time I ever "drain the fat" it will be placed well out of reach.

I am sure Molly will be fine, thank goodness. Her face and chest aren't even red anymore (maybe it was all that screaming that was really causing her to be so red. I reapplied the ointment just before putting her to bed and it was only the few bad patches that were still angry. She really does need a good bath. She still smells like grease.

They loved it!

2011-10-15T22:01:00.000-07:00

It isn't a secret, my husband and I watch a lot of Bollywood films. We watch foreign films all the time and these Indian ones in particular. Until recently they had some strict rules about intimacy in films so you never saw the characters actually kiss. Bollywood films are almost always full of romance so they use song and dance to show how people are feeling rather than just have the characters kiss. Our kids know that we watch these films at night when they have gone to bed and have always been curious about these musical films that we often discuss with our Indian friends (who are just shocked that we even watch these movies). Since we have read so much and studied so much about India this past week I picked up a Bollywood film at the library this week to show them. Tonight we put it on.

I picked Lagaan - Once Upon a Time in India
to show them. This was one of the first Indian films I saw and I knew it was a story that the kids would get hooked into. It isn't a true story but it does show some elements of India's history. It shows some of the tension between the British and the Indian people. It also has a lot of Cricket in it which I knew would be interesting to the boys.

I was a bit shocked by how much the kids liked this. They had to read subtitles and there were many times Henry asked me what they were saying but the others followed along just fine with the subtitles. The kids didn't get bored at all and sat through all 3 and 1/2 hours of this film in one sitting. We had a lot of popcorn and homemade bread and butter to keep up our strength as we watched but these kids were hooked almost from the start.

I had planned to just show a bit of the film originally. Show one of the dance numbers or something and see how it went. I didn't think the kids would be that interested. I shouldn't underestimate these little guys.

Now that I know my kids can handle subtitles maybe I need to show them a few more foreign films. It is a great way to get a taste of a culture. Can you think of any classics like Lagaan I could show my kids?

More or less of the Same

2011-10-15T08:13:00.000-07:00

Our week went much like the weeks in the past. We hit all the normal subjects and did a lot of reading.

Math is still going fine with all the kids. Nothing too challenging at the moment. I am so glad my kids don't fight me about math anymore. Even Sophie does her math without too much complaint. She did have a little fit when I asked her to do a practice from the textbook. She always just wants to move onto the next subject but I have been having her do all the practices and reviews when we come to them to make sure she gets enough practice. She is starting to realize the practices tend to be short and easy so she actually gets an easy day of math on those days. Reviews can sometimes be rather long and then we split them between two days so she really shouldn't complain. I am not as good about having the boys do reviews and such from their textbooks. We don't even use their textbooks very often so I don't see the practice problems. We just jump right into the workbook. Once the math gets a little more challenging this will change I am sure.

Writing is going well. Sophie is doing great with All Things Fun and Fascinating. Ian is working through Writing with Ease. But I feel like I am doing a lot of coaching to get him to come up with the few sentences about the book passage. Henry finished Explode the Code 3 1/2 this week. It isn't good to compare but Ian was reading better and writing better by the time we got to this point with ETC. Henry is just different kid. He reads pretty good but has no desire to read unless I am asking him to. I keep hoping that reading gene will kick in. He has some maturing to do before that. We will keep going with ETC 4 and see how it goes.

We finished up the digestive system this week. It is taking us a long time to get through each system of the body. Longer than I had originally planned but my kids are enjoying all experiments and worksheets so I am not going to worry about how long it takes to get through. I would rather go slowly and really learn it than try to race through and drag the kids along. We have been adding in parts and organs to an outline of Henry and the boys love cutting out pieces and figuring out where they fit. The stomach area has quite a few layers already since the kidneys and such are behind some of those digestive organs. The parts they cut out of construction paper are a bit too big for Henry's body but they don't seem to care. It is a project they have taken over and are enjoying.

In History this week we again read about Assyria. Henry still says he doesn't know what Mesopotamia means but he LOVED the story of Gilgamesh. The books we borrowed from the library were big hits and I found he looking at all the pictures again and again this week. I think Henry is just in that phase where he just soaks up the stories and could care less about the names and dates and places. Give him a good adventure story and he will be good to go. Ian is much the same but he actually remembers a lot of the details too. Sophie usually has everything read and in her head before we even read the chapter or pull the books off the shelf. She reads everything I bring home from the library before we ever get to them for school.

We added in some Geography this week. We are doing a geography presentation in our co-op next week so we got started on that project. We choose India so have been reading lots of books about India. Here are a few of them. We got more when we went to the library this week. So we have been learning all about the climate, topography, culture, religions and such about India. We are making some posters to help with our presentation which I will post next week when we are finished. And of course we bought parchessi and the kids are having a great time with that. Our history subject next week from Story of the World is Ancient India too. So we will be very prepared for that.

The kids are all doing great with Piano. I have to encourage practice but they usually do it without complaint. The only complaint they do have is when I try to correct them when they make a mistake. They hate it when I come to the piano to show them where they fumbled and point them in the right direction.

We are still working on Theodosia books and the kids have started the Four Story Mistake which is the 2nd of the Melendy books. We had our book discussion at co-op about The Saturdays and all the kids seemed to like it. I hope they like the book I picked for next month. We already have the Audio book of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon we should start it soon because it is a little longer than books we have read for co-op in the past.

That is about it for this week. It was another busy week.

Parcheesi

2011-10-14T17:48:00.000-07:00

I never realized how much of a board game family we were. We play a few every week but I didn't think we had a problem. Until this week. We have a game closet and it is is full of board games. We seem to collect them. I even added in another new one this week. I don't know how my kids seem to convince me to buy them new games. I really don't do it often but since they used the "this one is for school" trick, I fell for it and bought them a new game.

We have been doing a little unit on India. Each family gets to give a presentation at our Co-op about a country. I thought our family could do India. It is a country I have grown quite fond of in the last few years due to the number of Bollywood movies I have watched.
So we have been learning all about the geography and culture of India this week. We will continue learning more about India next week and prepare for our presentation next week.

While at the store earlier this week the kids saw a Parcheesi game. They got very excited since we had just read about one of the Mogul emperors who had a life size parcheesi board built in his garden and had servant move about the board as the pieces. So when they pulled out the "It's for school" excuse I broke down and bought the game. I figured it has be a good game if it has lasted for centuries.

My kids have played it everyday this week, multiple times. They love it! I explained it was a bit like the game of Sorry. We don't own the game of Sorry, and my kids hadn't played it either. But Ian said it was sort of like Trouble. Which I think they played at the YMCA Kids Corner. In any case, you move a number of movers around the board in order to get to their home. There are some really big differences as well but the objectives are much the same. I think the makers of Sorry stole the concept from the ancient game of Parcheesi.
.

Parcheesi has been a great addition to the cache of games we keep in the closet. I am sure it will get played quite a bit.

Week in Review

2011-10-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

I don't know how people can get so much work done in a week. We seem to go and go but barely get done what we do get done while leaving a bunch of stuff still undone. But here is our run down for the week.

Lets start with the fun stuff. The Read aloud and Audio books.

I read Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos to my kids. I had fun doing the British accents. The kids loved the story and would beg me to read more and more. Lots of good information about Ancient Egypt and mummies as well as some magic and adventure. I got the audio book for the 2nd book in the series and Sophie told me she likes me reading it better. She didn't like the accent of the reader or something. The readers was most likely more authentic. We are now about half way through Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris. We have it going in the car and I am afraid it caused us to be late to our co-op's hike. I was so engrossed in the story I missed our exit and it took us about 15 min to realize the mistake and get back on track. There are two more books in the series and I am sure we will make it through them quickly.

In the house I have started a new read aloud. This one is for our co-op Book Club, which I am the leader of. I picked the book The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright. This has been a fun read so far. Each chapter is another Saturday in the life of the Melendy family. My kids are really enjoying it. I am able to use the "clean up the front room so I can read about another Saturday" trick. I love it when they like books that much. They consider it such a treat to have me read aloud to them. This one takes place in NYC so no British accents but I still try to give each character it's own voice or style.

So.... from here we will head into the more mundane and less fun subjects.

Math - All kids are working through Singapore books. Sophie is happy she isn't multiplying and dividing fractions anymore. She has moved into a geometry section. I am sure fractions will jump in again but for now it is a nice break.
Ian finished a section on place value and will start something new on Monday.

Henry always seems to be adding and subtracting. I hadn't really thought about how little variety his math has. They try to vary it with little mazes or puzzles but it is still adding and subtracting.

History - We listened to our chapter of SOTW but I can't say we did much else. It was a chapter about Babylon and Hammarabi. Other than map work and drawing a ziggurat we didn't really do much to go along with the chapter. I do have some books on the shelf but we just never seemed to get to them.

Writing - I started a new writing program with Sophie. It wasn't that I didn't like Writing with Ease but I just felt like she needed something different. It was starting to seem like busy work. So this week we started All Things Fun and Fascinating which is one of the offerings from the Institute for Excellence in Writing. We did the first two lessons this week and all the practice to go along with it. These were about outlining. And she got it.

Ian is still doing Book 2 of the WWE program and seems to be doing fine with that for now.

Henry is still plugging away at his Explode the Code.

We also looked at two Vermeer paintings and learned how to compare and contrast. The kids made Venn diagrams about The Geographer and The Astronomer.

So this could count as art but I am including it in Writing since it was an exercise to help prepare them for a compare and contrast writing assignment they are going to have to do for the Charter School.

Science - We read some more about the Digestive system. We still haven't made it all the way through and will take another week to finish off this system. I am finding it hard to get more than two days a week of science because we also have our Science workshops that the kids attend. The boys got to see and handle cow hearts at theirs this week. Sophie is raising fruit flies and learning about genetics.

We also made our masks which I talked about the other day and watched some Tin Tin cartoons on Youtube. There was also some Wii Fit and other Wii games that got played because it was raining and we needed to use some of our energy in a more constructive way.

Logic - I added in some logic workbooks this week. Henry complained a bit since it was "yet another workbook" but it was super easy and he discovered he could fly through three or four lessons rather quickly. He will finish his Lollipop logic book really quickly I think. Ian has Primary Logic and Sophie is doing the Countdown to Logic. These lessons take about 5 min but I hope as they get harder it will help the kids reason through problems. We will see, it is still an experiment.

Piano - The kids are doing great with piano. They practice everyday and I really like having the lesson on Monday and then we watch the DVD lesson on Tuesday to cement what they learned at the lesson and then they have a few days to practice. I need to make sure we get that DVD lesson in on Tuesdays. My kids are going to feel very prepared for their lesson on Monday since they have actually spent a few days practicing the new song rather than we watch it Monday before their lesson, which is what has happened a few times. So that is my goal for the future. Make that lesson a part of the Tuesday schedule.

That was about it for our week. Not too shabby. There is still a lot that I wish we could somehow squeeze in but for now this is good.

Finally Doing Something Fun

2011-10-06T17:49:00.000-07:00

I read Rafe Esquith's book Teach like your Hair's on Fire a few weeks ago. It was one of those books that makes me feel guilty that I don't teach as well or as thoroughly as he does. As much as I would love to run things as efficiently as he does. I had to remind myself that he teaches one grade and the same grade every year. He can reuse and make minor changes to his yearly curriculum but more or less teach the same things every year. Yeah the kids, the Shakespeare play and the music changes each year but the activities are more or less the same. I have to reinvent the wheel each year with students in multiple grades, some who can't read well or do the same math. But I really enjoyed the book and took what ideas I could from it.

One of the things that quickly caught my attention was the art projects his kids do. I would love to do the string art project that he describes in the book but I don't see my kids doing that one right now. But one of the other project he mentions in the art section is a plaster mask. He does it every October for Halloween. I figured I could rationalize this as a sort of history project. Sort of a mummy type thing. But really it is just a fun project.

So I bought some plaster bandages. I actually got them on ebay. I got 6 rolls for the same price Amazon was selling one. I didn't know how much plaster bandages I would need to make the masks so 6 rolls sounded good. It ended up being a whole lot. I used 1 and a half rolls to make all 4 masks. So perhaps we will be doing this project next year as well. I certainly am ready if we have any broken bones.

Henry was the first victim. I covered his eyebrows and face with petroleum jelly so that it would come off without too much fuss and with out pulling out the hairs. Then we set to work on the bandages.

None of the kids wanted me to cover their eyes or mouth so we left them open.

I can't say it ended up being really smooth. Perhaps I was in too much of a rush. These kids were somewhat impatient to "see the results", they couldn't hold still.

Sophie was next.

I was surprised at how quickly the plaster dried so the kids could take the masks off.

Ian was a little skeptical of the whole thing. He thought it might be a little scary to lay there on the table and have plaster all over his face. But eventually he did it because I think he knew he would miss out on the painting later. And of course the camera battery died right then so I don't have any pictures of him laying on the table. He was by far the wiggliest and would wrinkle up his eyes so I had to keep smoothing them out.

Here he is with his finished project once I got the camera back to full power.

I sort of liked them just white but the kids were determined to paint them.

That night they also insisted that my husband have a mask of his own. So he let himself be covered in plaster as well.

It has been a whole 2 days since we made the masks and Sophie has been pestering me about painting them. So this afternoon, since it was raining anyway, I broke out the paints and they got down to business.

Molly woke up from her nap and had to do a little painting as well.

Here are the finished masks. The painted them any way they wanted.

Sophie was determined to make hers look Egyptian. I think she did a great job.

So my kids can't say we never do anything fun! Now... what am I going to do with these masks? Do I mount them on the wall? If I don't they will soon get smashed. I guess we will see what happens.

Our Youngest Pupil

2011-10-04T21:15:00.000-07:00

Molly is a girl who knows her mind. She is a very different girl that Sophie was at her age. Molly is very feminine. She loves to wear dresses and gets so mad at me when I pick out an outfit with pants. She also insists on nightgowns. She doesn't appreciate the warm footed pajamas that I have had for all the other kids. I have made her a few more nightgowns out of old receiving blankets. Those have turned out to be a great place to find some flannel that was just sitting on the shelf.

This is one lively little girl. She keeps us very busy and keeps us entertained.

Molly often raids the dress up box and finds the skirts that Sophie has collected from a few years of ballet. The pink sparkly one is her favorite. In fact when you ask her what her favorite color is she will tell you "Pink".

Molly also really loves dolls. This is a big change from my other kids. Sophie always loved animals but was never that interested in dolls. (Until she got excited about American Girl dolls). So all my old Cabbage Patch Kids have come out and are actually getting played with from time to time.

While we do our school work and often during FHE games Molly breaks out the Pretty Pretty Princess game. She loves putting on all the necklaces and earrings. We don't play the game, we just put on all the jewelry.

This is one of the nightgowns I made out of a receiving blanket. I kept the crocheted edging along the bottom. Molly doesn't even mind the green color because of the cute ruffle on the bottom.

The last few months we have seen great changes in her communication. Molly used to sign a lot and now I sort of miss all her cute signs. (She still uses the sign for cheese a lot because that is her favorite food and sometimes I don't let her have yet another cheese stick so she thinks if she signs it along with scream "cheese" at me that I might give in. ) She is a talker now!

She sings too. She has loved Popcorn Popping and Once there was a Snowman for a long time. She used to just act them out while we sang. Now she is singing along. I heard her last night singing I am a Child of God. I know they sing this one in nursery every week. We haven't sung this one a whole lot at home lately as we have been going through the ones for the primary program. It is so cute to hear her little voice sing this song!

Despite her girly tendencies this little lady can get down and dirty. She loves to get outside and play in the dirt and mud. At the park she goes straight to the water and sand areas. She may be feminine and loves all things pink and pretty but she doesn't let that interfere with her desire to explore everything around her.

We are so lucky to have her in our home.

There is no Place Like Home

2011-10-04T09:33:00.000-07:00

My kids always have a hard time returning to our normal city life after spending a weekend up in the hills with my parents. We usually spend Conference weekend up there with them since they have cable and can watch it on BYUtv. We have stayed home and watched conference on our computer but it just isn't quite as nice.

It is always better to have family around so we can discuss what we heard and enjoy cooking and such together.

My parents also have two computers which the kids fight over. Once their screen time is used up they are sent outside. With such a big wilderness around to play in they should be out soaking it up as much as possible. We of course visited the tire swing many times and the boys took the play swords and light sabors out to beat the bushes with. Why do boys love to whack plants? It is my boys favorite past time. They find sticks just so they can hit something. But as long as they aren't doing it on people I guess I should be happy.

So between conference sessions we picked up apples off of the ground around Grandpa's tree to feed to the horses down the street. Those horses always come running when they see the kids walking up the street. They know they will get a treat. My kids consider it quite a treat to get to pet the end of their noses.

But my kids favorite part of any trip up to Grandma's is that cousins usually come over as well and they all get to run around outside and play games inside. My kids were very sad when they had to spend all of Saturday just playing by themselves. The cousins had Soccer games all day so we didn't see them until Sunday. We would usually have gone to see the games but we stayed home to listen to conference.

Henry was in tears when we had to climb back into the car and drive home. He always makes the comment that "Grandma's house feels more like home". I am glad my kids love visiting with their extended family. I had to remind him that trips to grandma's wouldn't be quite as exciting if we lived there and saw them everyday. The extraordinary thing about Grandma's house is that we aren't there everyday. I admit it was a fun place to grow up but you never appreciate it fully until you leave and have to live someplace else.

Even after Henry's comment about Grandma's feeling more like home we were all happy to get back to our normal beds and our usual stuff. I always enjoy keeping the kids to a schedule. They are much easier to be around when they have had enough sleep and food. They are usually too busy at Grandma's to eat and drink enough and they tend to go to bed late and wake up early.

Grandma's house is our home away from and we love visiting. We are so grateful to have a place to head to, in order to get us out of the city.

More Vermeer

2011-09-27T21:38:00.000-07:00

When I pulled this Venezia biography off the shelf my kids got very excited. They piled in close to me on the couch while I read aloud. They love all the biographies in this series but since they are so entranced by Vermeer at the moment they really got involved with subject. I don't think this book filled in much that we didn't already know about Vermeer. The Chasing Vermeer book gives background on the artist, at least as much as is known about him. The two books did differ in the amount of children each claimed Vermeer had. One said 11 the other 15. I think I have read 15 from another source so I am going with that number. Other than this the essentials have all been the same. Mostly the kids just like to look at the paintings. So of course they had to break out the big book of Vermeer paintings again to look at their favorites.
They started to compare all the different paintings to find the repeating clothing and props in them. I was going to do this for an assignment but I was happy they just did it on their own. I may still have them do some sort of writing assignment about his use of objects over and over again in his paintings.

While they were still engrossed in all things Vermeer I brought out some sketch paper and asked the kids to pick a painting to try to sketch. They thought Young Woman with a Water Pitcher looked easy enough. That is until they started to draw it.

Sophie's drawing of Young Woman with a Water Pitcher

All of a sudden they saw all the details. There were pains of glass in the window and the rug draped over the table and the map on the wall. I sat down and sketched with them for awhile and each tried their best to sketch this painting.

Henry's sketch

Ian's sketch

My sketch.

Sophie decided she wasn't done yet and wanted to do another drawing. She picked Girl with a Pearl Earring to attempt next. I encouraged her to add some color this time. We really need a decent set of colored pencils. I think I will have to ask Santa to bring us a few new sets of good colored pencils.

She loved how it turned out. While she drew and colored, I added a little color to my sketch. The boys sat fascinated by my picture. They couldn't believe how "good" it looked.

I think the window turned out really nice but the rest is a little off. But then, I am my hardest critic.

I am just happy my kids are enjoying some Art studies and especially glad they have kindled a love of Vermeer. He has always been one of my favorites.

Chasing Vermeer

2011-09-27T09:27:00.000-07:00

We started a new audio book in the car a few days ago. I choose Chasing Vermeer to get us started on our study of Johannes Vermeer. I didn't specifically tell the kids we were going to study Vermeer as our next artist I just put the audio book on and also picked up a large Vermeer book with all his paintings inside and had it sitting on the shelf waiting for them to discover it.
We have had a bit of driving around the last few days so we have gotten further into the book. As we were getting out of the car yesterday Henry asked me if Vermeer was real and if there really was a painting called Lady writing a letter.

We went inside and I showed him the big Vermeer book and we looked through the pictures to find the ones that the audio book mentioned. We found the Lady writing a letter and the Geographer which also was referred to in the book.

This is Ian's favorite one. He really wanted to find it in the book of paintings.

We aren't even close to finishing the audio book yet but we are already learning a lot about Vermeer. Hopefully I can squeeze in a little more art study into our day so we can do some fun projects like the ones on this Squido lens. I am happy with our start so far. I love it when a book introduces a topic for me. It draws my kids in so much better than if I just jump into something new and try to drag them with me. So hopefully I will be able to share some fun things we do to learn more about Vermeer and his artwork.

Our Schedule is Full

2011-09-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

I feel like we have over loaded our schedule. We have stuff planned for every day of the week. When I say stuff it is classes, activities or events on every single day. There isn't even one day where don't have something we are committed to doing or being at.

After a full day of school work my kids have music lessons on Monday. These are going very well by the way. My kids are playing songs and the method seems to be working well especially for Henry. Sophie catches onto songs rather quickly and Ian, when he is able to get practice in, works hard to master the songs. But Henry doesn't like my help and seems to squirm through the lessons but ends up playing the songs just fine when asked to play. It is sort of strange?!

On Tuesday Sophie has choir in the afternoon. She loves to sing and this choir gives her a chance to be with older kids who sing and play music. I consider this good exposure to kids that I wouldn't mind my kids emulating. While Sophie is singing I take the boys and Molly shopping nearby. Thank goodness for a Target just down the street where we can waste an hour. Then we rush home so I can change and get to my Cycling class at the YMCA. I love this class and the kids play at the Kids Corner.

Science Class started this week on Wednesday. Ian and Henry are doing some hands on Anatomy and Physiology while Sophie gets to study Genetics and raise fruit flies. This of course means I have two hours, one with Sophie and Molly while the boys have their class and then another hour with Molly and the boys while Sophie has hers. I need to bring some work for the kids to do on their hour out of class to help the time pass more quickly. I am going to have to work on this.
Wednesday is also park day, so we have to rush home after science classes and squeeze in a few hours of work before heading to the park to play with friends.

Thursday has been our Library day for years. The kids get to spend their hour on the computer playing Mooshie Monsters, Webkins, or Lego games while I play Reader Rabbit on the computer, legos (the library just got rid of the puzzles and put in a duplo lego table) or read books with Molly.
Sophie also has Activity girls Thursday night to which all the kids go. (My husband goes to the gym while we are out) There are usually a bunch of other siblings also at the church and my boys feel deprived if they don't get to go and play with their friends at the church.

Friday is Co-op. My kids LOVE Co-op. I get to teach classes for the littlest kids once or twice a month and lead the book club once a month. The kids get to run, play and sing with a bunch of other homeschooled kids. I can't say much of Co-op is academic. It is mostly a chance for these kids to do things together in a group. They sing once a month at a nursing home too so there is a little service done as well.

So that is all the extras we have put into our schedules. I don't know how we have time to put everything else in. But somehow we get a lot of school work and life work done along with these things.

In History we finished up our chapter on Mummies and Pyramids.

In Science we are working on the Muscular System.

In Math Sophie is doing Fractions, Ian is working on Money and Henry is still working on Place Value.

Henry is working through Explode the code and beyond the code.

Sophie and Ian do Writing with ease one week at a time.

We are listening to a an audio book about Cleopatra and I am reading aloud Theodosia and the serpent of Chaos.

And we are plugging away the the Book of Mormon each day and are almost through 3 Nephi.

We even added in the Family Proclamation into our devotional time and focused mainly on the plan of Salvation.

Oh yeah.. I can claim some P.E. as well. My kids have been outside jumping rope and shooting hoops quite often now that the weather seems to be a bit cooler.

Daring and Dangerous

2011-09-15T17:44:00.000-07:00

Sophie had a birthday last week. It was a nice quiet birthday with family. No big party with friend just a nice dinner with Grandma and Grandpa, aunts, uncles, brothers, parents, a sister and cousins. Sophie got just about everything on her wish list. She got Hermione's illuminating wand (I really hope Grandma didn't pay that much for it!). She finally had enough money saved up to buy Kanani, the american girl doll of the year. And she got a lovely jewelry box that is now storing all the little hair accessories she has collected for her American girl dolls. She also got a few books and other small things.

In an effort to find a game the Sophie enjoys playing on the Wii (Her brothers tend to monopolize the Wii with Lego Harry Potter or Indiana Jones or Super Mario Brothers) I bought a game called The Daring Game for Girls just for her.

I am glad to report that she loves it. It is the perfect game for this girl who usually would rather play Civilization with her Dad than play Wii which is always says she just isn't good at. There are trivia questions to answer as well as things to gather to make things and secret gardens to tend. She thinks it is great! I am happy she finally has a game she enjoys playing. The boys tend to think the Wii is just for them.

One nice aspect of this game is that it has sparked interest in the book. This week Sophie has been taking the Daring book for Girls around with her and reading bits of it as we drive around to our different activities.
Ian too has been carrying around the Dangerous book for boys as well. They both are constantly telling about the great new things they are learning. Ian has been folding lots of paper Airplanes and making paper boats after reading sections on folding paper. Sophie has been telling me about the lists of good books for girls that she found in her book and is surprised by how many she has already read.

I am glad to see my kids so thrilled and excited about life.

Letting things Slip

2011-09-10T08:50:00.000-07:00

This ended up being a somewhat haphazard week. My husband had Monday off so my kids decided we all needed to have a holiday. We still read our Scriptures and some chores but Henry was very excited to play his new wii games that he got for his birthday.

The kids did start their new piano lessons on Monday afternoon. It is a group class and since all of them are pretty much at the same level it should work for now. It is a play based program rather than reading based. So the kids are learning to play songs first and then they will be taught to read the music. They have spent the week playing their new song over and over again. There is a DVD that the teacher sent us home with that goes over many of the things the kids learned at their lesson.

The rest of the week we did some of the normal things each day but we added in Choir and Co-op on their days, which added more places to be at a certain time. I am starting to feel like a chauffeur and we still have Science class to add in next week. I am feeling a little over scheduled. At least my kids all participate in these things together so I only have to go once to each rather than multiple classes.

We also had our excursion down to Santa Cruz and the Beach on Thursday which ate up most of that day. So we have had a hard time getting everything else into the hours we have left at home. I am starting to see that home schoolers don't often spend a lot of time at home.

We did start our chapter of Story of the world. We listened to the bit about mummies and started Cleopatra's mummification. We never made it to Pyramids which is the 2nd half of the chapter.

Science was just finishing up our lesson on the Skeletal system. We did do some workbook pages and read the section about joints.

We only did three out of four days of Writing with Ease. This is becoming a habit. We end up skipping one of the assignments so we can start each week with a new story or reading. Dictation is usually the one we leave out.

We always fit in Math. That is the easiest subject lately to get my kids to do. The boys get to work on theirs without me and Sophie has a quick lesson on the new topic and then gets to work. I am around to keep them on task but that is about it.

We didn't do any Story Quest this week. We just couldn't fit it in. I will have to make sure we squeeze it in next week.

I also haven't been having my boys read aloud to me each day like I have in the past. They do read scripture aloud but usually I have Henry and Ian read a book to me. I need to get this back into our day. Henry really needs the practice.

We didn't do anything with our artist or musician. This always seems to get left out.

So I feel like we are letting a lot of things slip. We do still get a bunch of books and reading in each day so I know we are fine. I just can't seem to keep up with all the housework, classes and activities we have on the schedule. I will have to reevaluate everything and see what we can do differently or maybe I am feeling this way because things are just getting started and we haven't found our groove yet. Once this becomes routine hopefully I won't feel so frazzled and can see where to fit in some of those things we have recently been letting slide.

Next week is full of possibilities!

Quick Beach Trip

2011-09-08T21:33:00.000-07:00

My kids were very disappointed we didn't make it to the beach this Summer. I don't know exactly why we didn't make it to the beach. Perhaps it was because in June we went to Hawaii and spent a bunch time at the beach there. Maybe it was because it was a rather cool summer and it just never got hot enough for us to feel like we needed to go to the beach to escape. For what ever reason we never got to the beach. Summer seemed to whoosh right by us.

Today we had some business to take car of in Santa Cruz and since we were that close I told the kids we could also go to the beach. It was cold in Santa Cruz that morning. We were silly and only wore shorts and didn't bring a sweatshirt. But this fact didn't stop my kids from wanting to play on the beach. They put on their swim stuff and headed down to the sand and waves.

They didn't even seem to mind that the water was freezing.

Even Molly had fun jumping around in the waves.

How ever, after a few minutes in the water she quickly changed her tune and decided the water was not that fun.

She kept telling me she wanted to "go home now". But the other kids were having so much fun I couldn't pull them away yet.

Ian distracted her for awhile by digging for sand crabs. Molly loved this. Anytime you can get muddy is fun!

Until that really cold water washes in and fills your sand pit and freezes your legs again.

Henry and Ian had a great time just grabbing handfuls of sand and throwing them into the waves.

Mostly the kids just frolicked in the water that washed up on the beach. They weren't interested in getting too wet. So when a few big waves rolled in they quickly ran for higher ground.

Sophie was so excited to find a whole sand dollar laying on the beach. It is rare for us to even find a shell that is complete it is amazing to find a whole sand dollar.

It was a lovely beach. I want to go back there when it is a bit warmer.

After about a hour at this beach Molly was totally done. Even wrapping her in a towel didn't stop the incessant repetition of "Go home, NOW!".

So I gathered up our stuff and told the other kids it was time to leave. They weren't excited to go. They really could have stayed a lot longer.

But we know who the boss is in our house. She who complains the loudest and most frequent wins most arguments. So we took Molly home for the bath she kept asking for.

So we squeezed in one short beach trip.

My kids are happy!

I need to go vacuum out the car.

Meet Cleo

2011-09-08T19:46:00.000-07:00

Meet Cleo, short for Cleopatra. That is the name my kids decided to give the game hen we have decided to mummify. Sophie said he was a girl because it was a "hen".

So after giving this little lady a good wash down in water and then again with alcohol we stuffed her with Salts and are hoping for the best.

This is a project listed in our Story of the World History book. I avoided it the last time we went through this book but Sophie wouldn't hear of us skipping it this time. So I found the smallest chicken I could find and stocked up on Salt and baking power and soda. I really hope this works and I don't end up with a very stinky bird in my laundry room. That is where she stays when not being poked and prodded when checked.

The boys were sad there wasn't more to do in order to do the mummification. I tried to explain it isn't even close to being done yet. We will be checking on Cleo's progress throughout the next month and some to see that she is turning nice and leathery and change her salts as needed. I am sure the boys will enjoy the wrapping stage of this activity.

For now they are a little unimpressed by this project. It is just a lot of dumping, shaking and smushing. Perhaps it will become cooler when she actually starts to look like a mummy.

Celebrate Family

2011-09-04T22:06:00.000-07:00

Last September I really enjoyed all the posts about family included in last years Family Proclamation Celebration. I am looking forward to this years round of posts.

I think it is time to take out The Family: A Proclamation to the World again and review it with my kids. We didn't memorize it last year but we went through it and did little activities to go along with it. I will have to start making some new plans for this years review. I guess we will see what I come with.

The Best Birthday Ever!

2011-09-04T19:37:00.000-07:00

Even after Henry's big Party the Birthday celebration didn't stop there.

We served breakfast on the Red Plate. (I totally forgot the fact that it was Fast Sunday. All this birthday excitement totally erased anything else from my head!)

We have a tradition, started many years ago. I don't know exactly when it started but my kids each get one of their presents at breakfast. Maybe it was started one of those years I just couldn't wait for them to open a gift or we needed to use it that day or something but my kids insist it is a tradition and I don't mind. It gives them something to play with while they wait for the cake and Ice Cream and the rest of the presents.

I gave Henry the 5 lb box of Lego bricks that I picked up on Ebay a few weeks ago. My little guys have all sorts of legos already but they seemed to be a bunch of specialty pieces to build space ships and such but not many plane old bricks. So I bought some legos by the lb off of Ebay. They ended up being only Red and Green but my kids didn't seem to mind.

They got right down onto the floor and dumped out the box and started building. It was fun to discover all the great pieces we have added to our huge stash of legos.

Henry got sung to at church. He made sure I had his birthday card ready for him. I am the one who is responsible to have birthday cards for the primary kids so he wanted to make sure I got it done and didn't forget him.

Shortly after dinner tonight Henry came running out of the bathroom and said "It happened when I came out of the bathroom. It just came out!" I was bewildered at first but quickly figured out that it was a tooth he held in his hand.

This is Henry's first lost tooth. If you can't tell from the picture. The two adult teeth have already grown in behind the baby teeth so we knew it was only a matter of time before they came out but it certainly was long overdue. I hope the adult ones move into their proper places because right now they are pushed back. We have been calling Henry a shark the last few days because he had rows of teeth. He said we couldn't call him that anymore. He has another tooth to loose before that!:)

Presents came next and Henry quickly got to work opening the few gifts he had left. His party and the box of legos was his gift from us. But both Grandma's came through with spectacular gifts.

Henry LOVED the Super Mario Wii game. Can you tell from the look on his face?!

Ian got Harry Potter's wand for his birthday so Henry wanted Ron's wand. Evidently Grandma had to really shop around to find this one. It is somewhat hard to find. But it was exactly what this Harry Potter fan needed to finish off his Super Fantastic Harry Potter Birthday.

I don't know how other birthdays are going to be able to compare to this one. This is one happy little guy!

I sure hope the Tooth Fairy remembers to make a visit. She may be pretty worn out and fall asleep before getting her job done!

The Party at last!

2011-09-03T17:26:00.000-07:00

Last night my kids couldn't get to sleep. You would have thought it was Christmas Eve. They were all so excited about Henry's Birthday party. We have spent weeks thinking about and preparing for this party. I am happy to say they helped with much of it and I think they really felt like they were involved in the whole process. O.K.... at least some of the process. I did a lot of the planning and they did a lot of the excited giggles as I told them what was planned.

I can't say we decorated a whole lot. We hung up some streamers which we do for all birthdays. And I printed out some Hogwarts house banners that I found online with the sorting hat song for each of the houses that was sung in book one. My husband took care of the cauldron full of rootbeer bubbling away with dry ice. That was about it for festive decor.

We did a charms class first where the kids were given their wands. I ended up making 21 of them which ended up being great because then the kids were able to switch for ones that felt better for them and some were even able to take them home to siblings that would appreciate them.

Sophie took over this class and taught the kids all sorts of charms and the boys all thought it was fun to wave their wand around and yell funny words. Funny how "Expeliarmus" is always their favorite and of course the one who received the spell had to throw their wand in the air and fall over.

We went outside and played a version of Red Light, Green Light except using spells instead.

A little food, a snitch pinata, oh.... and there was a Care of Magical Creatures Class as well.

I think my favorite was the Potions class.

We mixed up two different potions. One that changed colors as we added different ingredients and then made popping noises. I called this one the Whisper Potion because it talked to you. The other potion just bubbled and changed colors. I didn't give it a name. The boys then got to make a potion to take home. It was water and oil with a bit of glitter and their choice of colors in a spice jar. We superglued the lid on and the boys could shake and watch to their hearts contents.

Henry decided that cake pops sounded fun. I mentioned them as something I had seen online but had never tried. So of course he wanted them. Wow are they a potent dose of chocolate.

We sent the kids home with the t-shirt wizard robe, their wand, the potion that they made, the candy from the pinata and a few chocolate frogs. My kids have spent the rest of the day playing with all the new legos, a remote control car and other great toys that Henry's friends brought him. I keep hearing them tell each other who brought which gift and Henry said "I have great friends!".

I think the party was a success. I am glad I don't do big parties like this every year. But I am happy to have helped create these memories for my kids.

Last weeks report

2011-08-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how quickly time passes. Our days are so full and I have a lot of projects going so have little time to sit and post but I really want to keep a record of what we have been accomplishing so I am going to quickly do my weekly report for last week.

History - Story of the World chapter 2. We learned about the Nile and also about the Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. The kids did a few Notebooking pages. These are working very well to give Sophie a little more work to do this year. She has been reading every book I bring home from the library so was able to fill in all sorts of interesting facts beyond just what SoTW had in the chapter. I haven't taken a picture of all the books we read to go along with history but I am very sure my kids understand why the Nile River was so important and many of the Gods and goddesses of Egypt by their pictures and could tell you a bit of their story.

We also did the Nile project again. So we filled a pan with dirt and built the Nile river. complete with pyramids and a bunch of Sphinx. We didn't plant grass we planted some sort of white ground cover flower. The seed packets were only 25 cents and that seems so much better than grass seed which came in big bags and cost a bunch more. So we will see what turns up once they get big enough. But we are already seeing sprouts and the kids are amazed.

Science - I am really enjoying Apologia's Anatomy and Physiology book. I bought workbooks for Ian and Sophie. Ian has the Jr. version and Sophie has the regular version. It is sort of like a lapbook/notebook in one. It is making things a lot easier as far as doing writing to go along with our science lessons. Ian's has more coloring pages which he isn't really interested in doing but he enjoys the workbook pages.

Henry has been doing some coloring in his Anatomy coloring book. As well as the projects in this activity book. Sophie remembers doing those projects when we did the Human body four years ago. He doesn't do a lot of writing but he is having a good time reading the books and doing the projects.

Language Arts - We did Writing with Ease with Ian and Sophie. They both do very well at these but both hate the dictation. I wonder how long it will take before the complaining stops. Henry is plugging away at Explode the code 3 1/2. He usually can finish 2 lessons a week.

We also did a few "lessons" of Story Quest. We are actually still in Lesson 1 but we are breaking it into many small mini lessons. So we had a lesson on Protagonists and Antagonists one day and then the next we learned about how to make stories or sentences interesting by adding in great verbs, adjectives and adverbs. They LOVE these lessons. We had a great time with the two days we did this and they asked to do it on other days during the week but I wasn't prepared to move on so we kept to our twice a week schedule.

Math - Singapore Math is still going well. Ian finished 2B and Henry finished 1A. Before Ian moves onto 3A I have decided to have him do a Math Mammoth unit on Money. He couldn't remember how much each of the coins were worth so I figured he could use some practice. Sophie is doing really well at 5A. She is adding and subtracting fractions and it is really easy for her since we did Life of Fred Fractions as well as a Math Mammoth unit on Fractions. It is more of a review for her. But it is always good to review!

Music/ Art - didn't really happen this week. Back to our usual in this subject. I really need to stick to the schedule I printed up but something had to give this week and it was Music and art.

I am sure there was other things we accomplished. I know we listened to Jim Wiese tell us Egypt stories and we are almost done with Wind in the Door. And I am reading aloud The Lemonade War. I also picked up a bunch of Dick King-Smith books from the library so my kids have been reading about Babe the Gallant Pig and other animals on the Hoggert farm. So there is all sorts of extra reading going on that isn't actually school related but is certainly good reading.

We also go outside a bit for outside play. We even visited a farm and picked blackberries, chased turkeys and fed some chickens. Molly loved saying hello to all the "baas" and "Maas", sheep and goats.

It was a busy week and it doesn't seem to be letting up this week. I have a party to finish preparing for which is keeping me a bit stressed and busy. Hopefully things will settle down after this week. It most likely wont since that is just when our classes and lessons will start and we will be taxiing kids from one place to the other. Poor Molly is just going to get dragged around. We will see how well this works.

Shaduf

2011-08-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

We read through the first half of chapter 2 in Story of the World today. It was about the Nile River and how the farmers used the yearly flooding to grow crops along its banks. After we made a little Nile river model/experiment out of soil and rocks and tin foil. My kids decided they wanted to add a shaduf onto one of the banks. Not being prepared for this addition to the project I distracted them with K'nex. I told them we could make a shaduf but not for our model. They were happy with that.

So they went right to work. Each child wanted to do theirs all on their own and even though they all seemed to work in the end not one of them turned out the same. Ian was the quickest. He was clever and even added anchors to help it be more stable on the edge of the couch or table.

We had some good discussions about how long our beams should be on either side of the fulcrum. I loved it that my kids remembered that term from our study of simple machines last year. They experimented a bit with different lengths and different weights on either end. It was a fun, impromptu review.

Here is mine.

Molly just had a great time playing with all the different pieces scattered about on the floor. She made a few lollipops and then just enjoyed putting the wheels on her fingers. I guess she got a thrill from being able to put her little fingers in those tiny holes.

Ian started to really get creative and even built a little man who got to ride on the shaduf up and down, up and down.

Sophie got in on that action and built herself a farmer but her little man was doing what the farmers were supposed to do and pulled on the rope end.

Henry struggled a bit with his design. He hadn't quite figured out how to build a strong base and have the bars shift back and forth and he didn't want any help. He just diligently kept at it and finally came up with a shaduf all his own.

He had to redo it and remake it over and over again until it worked like it was supposed to but he finally got it to work.

This was a great project. I wish I had thought of it but it just sort of happened because my kids asked for it.

We don't get the K'nex out enough. I love it when we get out some of our toys and we really make use of our knowledge as well as our imaginations.

Deconstructing Penguins

2011-08-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

There are so many times I go to the library to pick up my holds and I discover a book that I don't remember putting on my list. I often read blogs with my library's catalog on another tab and I will look up books that are discussed or recommended. I don't remember who talked about this book but THANK YOU! It is wonderful. I may have to buy myself a copy just so I can refresh my memory from time to time.

Deconstructing Penguins is going to come in handy when I lead my first children's book club at co-op in a few weeks. It has given me the tools and ideas to really lead a discussion about a book. Sure it is going to take some work before hand on my part but I have a clearer picture of what we should be looking at and discussing. I will also pick the books we read a little differently. Not that the ones I already picked for the next few months are bad choices. I just will have to think them through a bit more, rather than just picking books I haven't read and that I think we should read or that are on lists of good books.

This is a great, quick read that is helpful in really figuring out books and what they are trying to tell us and leading children or adults on that journey.

Getting back into the swing of things.

2011-08-19T22:28:00.000-07:00

We officially started school this week. I have to actually keep attendance so I figure I need a start date. So here is the quick run down.

Scripture - Book of Mormon - We got to read about Samuel the Lamanite and today read about the signs of Jesus' birth. Each of the kids including Henry take turns reading aloud.

History - My kids have been anxious to start Story of the world so we listened to the Introduction about what history is and the difference between Historians and Archaeologists. The loved Archaeologists Dig for Clues.

The kids wanted a project but since I didn't have anything planned they just did some drawings of archaeologists or what ever they wanted to related to the book and labeled it for me. We did break out the Mummy's Treasure game and played a few rounds of this Archaeology based game.

Since this wasn't enough history for the week the kids decided we needed to do chapter 1 of Story of the World also. We listened to the Audio and looked at maps as he described where the Nomads lived.
I think Sophie can't wait to dig into Egyptian History because she actually wanted to move onto chapter 2 the next day as well. But I held her back and we read Simon and Barklee in Egypt.
I can't say this was the most exciting book but the kids kept wanting me to continue reading when I came to the end of each chapter so I guess they enjoyed it. It wasn't really historical but it did introduce some of the geography of Egypt especially since we again broke out the atlas to look at all the places these little animals traveled on their adventures. I guess for the 25 cents I paid the Friends of the Library for the book, which was on the used book shelf a few months back, it was worth the money and the hour spent on the book.

Math - The kids are all doing their Singapore with little complaints. They much prefer it over the Math Mammoth I had them doing over the Summer. Henry is almost finished with 1A. Ian is going to be done with 2B shortly as well. Sophie just reached the first review in 5A. They have her doing a lot of Division and it is so time consuming. She has to sit doing math long after the boys have finished and moved onto other things. I guess that is all part of the fun of being a 5th Grader.

Science - The kids were tired of birds and I have to say I was too. They all decided they wanted to do Anatomy instead. So even though I wasn't totally prepared for it be jumped into Apologia's Anatomy and Physiology.

My kids love learning about the human body. They had The Way We Work out looking at the pictures that go along with the section we read about cells this week just so they could compare the two.

I did get the yellow jello and candy so we could make the edible cells. The kids loved this. I don't know if it exactly helped them remember the parts any better than drawing them did but they had fun and they got to eat the jello later.

Writing - Henry is still plugging away at Explode the code which is what I count as his writing. I am still waiting for reading to really click with him before we move onto Writing with Ease. He is still really fighting reading.

Sophie started Writing with Ease 4 this week. She really didn't like the long sentence she had to write for Dictation on the 2nd day and had quite a tantrum about it but other than that one day it went smoothly.

Ian started Writing with Ease 2 and had to do dictation for the first time this week. He actually did really well.

Reading - I have Ian and Henry read aloud to me. Ian has been reading a chapter each day from the Magic Tree House reptile reference book, which is the book he choose as his summer reading prize from the library. Henry has been reading any of the easy reader books we have on the shelf. We had one about mummies which was good.
I don't have Sophie read aloud to me because she does a lot of the reading for science and other subjects. She also gets to read books to Molly to keep her occupied while I do other things.

Art - The artist I choose for the rest of August is John Audubon. I was thinking we were going to finish our science study of birds and Audubon would gone along well with that but now we are doing something different for Science but I have a bunch of books on Audubon. We still read The boy who drew birds. The kids also took one of his bird pictures and tried to sketch it.

Music - We are listening to Vivaldi this month. I turned on the Classics for Kids radio show about Vivaldi while the kids colored a picture of Vivaldi. Then they dug out the CD of Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery. It is sort of strange how little as far as biographies of Vivaldi there are at the library. But we listened to the Four Seasons a few times this week and the kids have a general idea of who it was and where he lived so I guess that is about all they really need.

Story Quest - This is something I have just added into our usual line up. It is from the Institute for Excellence in Writing. We did one little part of the first lesson and I can see I really need to go slowly through this for my kids at first. They really enjoyed discussing stories and the genres they fit in and even what makes up a plot. They got frustrated when I tried to have them write a story that first day even if it was together and out loud with me. I broke out the white board and markers for this lesson and I think they were a distraction. Henry just kept erasing things from the board and asking if he could have a pen. So I can't say the first try went smoothly but I will give it another go next week.

P.E. - I am actually required to do P.E. with my kids so I guess I should make more of an effort to put something in our schedule that looks like athletics. We did go on a few walks around the block. Molly requests "walk block"s quite often. The kids played some Wii Fit one morning. We did some yoga and sit-up one day as well. I hope that counts as P.E.

It was a pretty full week. We were very busy and even made it to all the appointments we had scheduled, had a play date, got hair cuts, went to park day, watered a neighbors plants a few times while they are away and went to activity girls (the whole crew goes to this. The boys play with a bunch of other siblings too young for the activities but Mom brings them because Dad is still at work. So my boys have a great time with friends while Sophie has her class).

I don't know how we are going to fit everything in once piano lessons, science class, co-op, my band practice, and oh yeah... we didn't do any Latin this week either. I think I need a few more hours in the day or maybe just need to go to sleep earlier.

Leaving the Doctors office in tears.

2011-08-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

Today we had the 6 week visit with the surgeon who did Sophie's surgery. She had x-rays taken and everything is going great! He said there is all sorts of bone tissue up there and the bone is fusing and that her canine tooth is actually moving into place and may come through soon. Sophie has had such a large gap in her mouth on that side for years it seems. There is the hole for the tooth that she will never have because it is where the cleft actually is. The baby canine next to that hole fell out a few years ago but without bone for it to really grow into it never came through but thankfully it just was there just waiting and he said it was moving into the right position. So that is really good news. The surgery seems to be doing what it was meant to do. Sophie shouldn't need any more surgery until she is ready for her nose to be redone but that isn't done until she has finished growing. So of that we are all very happy.

After talking with the doctor for a little while we left. Sophie left with tears in her eyes. When I asked her why she was upset she explained that she was sad about still noting getting to EAT FOOD. The doctor said we should continue with the soft food diet for at least another month. We have been gravitating toward a more soft food rather than liquid diet the last week or two. Sophie eats peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, very tiny pieces of cut up meat, as well as a variety of other things I let her pop bite size pieces into her mouth and push to the back so that she only grinds it up with her back teeth. The tears were a result of her thinking he was saying she couldn't go out and get a burger. She is very tired of being limited in what she can eat. I asked her what food she was wanting and we would see what we could do. She couldn't really tell me anything. She eats pizza and all the fruits and even hot dogs at Costco. I just cut everything up in tiny bites like I did when she was a baby and just learning to eat solids. I don't blame her, it isn't a very ideal way of eating. But we are going to keep at the soft food diet for awhile.

I didn't leave the office in tears but if I had had tears it would have been tears of embarrassment or weariness or maybe tears of frustration. The doctor was very paitient with us but it is always a challenge when I have to take all the kids with me to the doctor's office. There is just something about the little dentist type chair in the room with all the buttons that control it's angle and height. The movable lights on the wall just scream out to be positioned over and over again as well as flipped on and off. The sink in the room calls out to Molly to wash her hand every two seconds. The drawers of tools and bandages and such have to opened and explored. I would have one sitting only to have the others up and getting into something. I think because Molly is two and into everything the boys seem to follow her lead and act like two year olds as well. They seem to forget how to behave when confined in the tiny rooms as a wait for doctors. As I walked out to the car I told the boys their behavior just cost them their Wii time on Saturday. So the tears leaving the doctor's office weren't mine but my boys who were hopefully regretting their behavior since it cost them the hour with Indiana Jones or Luke Skywalker.

I need to go make some pesto pasta with brocolli which is still Sophie's favorite meal that I make which she can eat. Now she doesn't even have to have ground up in the blender.

The pictures are from a swimming party we went to this past week. Molly was unstoppable. She went down the slide and jumped off the board. Thank goodness for the float she was wearing. She has no fear of swimming and going under the water. She just needs to learn how to swim. Everyone had a great time!

Planning

2011-08-13T08:58:00.000-07:00

I admit I am not a very good planner. At least I don't do a whole lot of written, detailed plans until I have to. I don't usually plan out an entire school year week by week. I don't even use a lesson plan book or planner. I guess I rely on my memory and a lot of luck to keep things running smoothly.

This week has been a busy week while we get ready for the next school year. I know... we don't really start or end school because we just keep learning and "doing school" all year long. But we will be starting co-op in a few weeks and we have some outside of the house type classes that my kids are going to be starting soon. I have had to research, plan and go to meetings for each of these things. My kids are getting excited about making changes to the schedule and doing some new things.

Starting in September the kids will be starting piano lessons. For the last few months I have had the kids spend 15 min practicing piano each day. They have been working through the Teaching Little Fingers to play book as well as a five finger movie theme book. Henry is very good at the Harry Potter song and plays it every time he has access to a piano. So if we stop by your house for what ever reason and Henry sees your piano he will ask to play Hedwig's Theme. I guess I should be happy it isn't the Darth Vader music he used to play all the time. We will see how lessons go with each of the kids.

I have also signed them up for a science class. It is an anatomy class for the boys and a genetics class for Sophie. It is done by the same people that we have done science classes with before so I already know the kids will love these.

At co-op the kids will be doing Art once a month, a Lego class (My kids will LOVE this one!), and all the normal singing, sharing and game playing, as well as a new Geography class we are starting. It is more of a world cultures class. We plan to highlight one country every week and have one of the children prepare a little presentation about that country including any food, culture, customs and language from that country. It should be fun. I am in charge of the book club for the 6-12 year olds. It is a somewhat difficult class to pick books for since there are kids who are still newer readers and the older ones in the group are needing to be challenged. So I just picked some books from the middle of that age range and I am hoping for the best. The Lemonade War is my pick for September's meeting. The Saturdays is for October, Where the Mountain meets the Moon for November and Nim's Island is for December. I hope these are challenging and interesting enough for the older kids without being too difficult for the younger ones in the group.

I still wish I could find some sort of gymnastics or swimming class for the kids but I think for now we are booked up pretty tight. I don't know how we are going to fit in all these outside things in while still getting the usual school work done.

As for the usual.....

History will be Story of the World again. We are starting over with Ancients and my kids are SOO excited to get to mummify a chicken this year. I picked up a little cornish hen a week or so ago for us to use for this project and the kids keep asking when we are going to start it. We are going to just work our way through the book and read through as many of the suggested readings as we can. This week we have been reading about Adam and Eve and the Creation of the world in our scriptures and also story books in preparation to starting chapter one on Monday.

Math will be Singapore Math. My kids were tired of Math Mammoth and were eager to go back to Signapore. Henry is going to be starting 1B, Ian will be in 3A, and Sophie is already half way through 5A. She needs review of Multiplication tables because they aren't quick in her head and it is hard to make the connections between numbers without having those down.

Science - We made it through about 7 of the lessons in the Apologia Zoology book. I think when we finish the section on birds we will switch to Anatomy and then go back and do bats and insects in the spring.

Language Arts - I really like Writing with Ease and will continue to use it with all the kids. I have rushed Sophie through the 2nd and now the 3rd and will start the 4th workbook in the series. We haven't done all the lessons in the workbooks. I have skipped around making sure she is comfortable doing the reading and writing before pushing on. So far it has been pretty easy so I hope the 4th one will challenge her a little more.
Ian is going to start workbook 2 on Monday. We will be working slowly through the book with him. He is doing well but I don't feel like we need to push him at all. He is right where he should be.
Henry is still plugging away at Explode the Code. He is finishing up the 3 1/2 book. I don't know how much more he is going to do. We may switch him to Writing with Ease 1 and drop Explode the Code. I haven't decided yet. He isn't quite as proficient in his reading yet but things could change quickly. They did for Ian and now Ian is reading really well.

They all read aloud to me each day from a book of their choosing or their McGuffy Reader and then Narrate what they have read. They also daily work on memorization of scriptures and poetry.

Artist/Musician - I am going to really make an effort to do our artist and musician each month. In September we will study the artwork of Audubon (since science is all about birds I thought this would be a good way to incorporate the two) while we listen to Vivaldi. We are starting with people we have already studied. It has been awhile though so the review will be good for us and I know the boys didn't pay all that much attention first time.

Latin - Plugging away the Getting Started with Latin. We may need to switch to something else because I never seem to remember to do this. But would something different suddenly make me fit it in? We will see. I really need to set a more defined schedule to make sure Latin makes it into the mix.

P.E. - I am required by law to teach P.E. but haven't ever done anything more than take walks, ride bikes and play some basketball in the driveway. I guess swimming once or twice a week at the YMCA counts. Maybe I need to think about this one some more.

Anyway.. these are the plans for the near future. We will see how well it all fits in. I know we don't cover nearly as many subjects as others seem to. We don't do any formal grammar or spelling but I hope those things will come along as we write more. I just don't know how to fit it all in without burning my kids and me out. So for now we do what we can do and the rest will just have to find its way.

Summer Reading

2011-08-05T14:55:00.000-07:00

We attended the last of the Library's Summer Reading club activities yesterday. I can not believe the Summer is already winding down. That seemed to fly by.

In June my kids each had to post a goal of how many books they would read during the summer. If they reach their goal then at the end of the summer they get to pick a book as a prize. Sophie usually gives herself a huge number as a goal but I convinced her to only put 25 books as her goal this year. Ian decided to put 15 and Henry set his goal at 10. I told them these were books they had to actually read themselves. We wouldn't count all the books I read to them or the ones we listen to.

Sophie has read a few new series of books which helped her reach her goal. Of course she read all 5 of the Fablehaven books. But she has recently discovered the Warriors series. They are about cats which of course is a big draw for my cat loving girl. She flies through the books rather quickly. Ian has started the first one but is distracted by picture books and such that are a bit easier for him.

The Dinotopia books were a big hit for a long time. I finally convinced my kids to return them to the library yesterday. They had finally got their fill but they floated around here for over a month and the kids loved them. Sophie drew all sorts of dinosaurs in her sketch books and now knows all the names of all the dinosaurs in the books. She is quickly convincing me to let her read all the Harry Potter books. She read the entire Half Blood Prince in one day. She stayed up late reading and then hid away in her room all morning to finish it. I guess with only one book left in the series I might as well let her finish. So much for making my kids wait until they are older to read these books. I am still going to hold back on watching the movies however.

Ian's list of books includes a lot of Berenstain Bears, Magic Tree house books as well as a few other random books and then I relented and let him put on the 3 Fablehaven books and the 2 Narnia books we listened to recently.

Henry only needed 10 books and his list has things like Danny and the Dinosaur, Small Pig and a few easy reading Berenstain bears along with a few that I read aloud to him. He still isn't a strong reader and prefers me to read to him. But I do insist on him reading aloud to me at least a little each day.

I don't usually keep track of the books my kids read and I can't say I was very diligent about keeping track even when we were supposed to for this reading club. I have never been a very good record keeper. That is why it is good I at least sometimes talk about some of the books we read here on this blog. That way I can look back and see what we have been reading.

Playing Snape and Olivander

2011-08-02T21:28:00.000-07:00

One of the tasks I have this August is to prepare for Henry's big Birthday party. I don't throw big birthday parties with lots of friends and such for my kids usually. So far each of my kids has had very small parties with family and sometimes with friends. Sophie had a big friend party for her sixth birthday with tons of kids, a theme, party games, presents and everything. Ian too had his big Indiana Jones party when he turned 6 as well. Henry turns 6 this year and is planning quite a celebration. He has chosen to have a Harry Potter theme and has quite a large imagination as far as what we are going to do during this party. I have been racking my brain and searching the internet for things we can do for this party.

So far we have tried out some potion making things so we can have a little potions class. I bought one of these Magic Science kits and gave the projects a try. The boys had a great time doing each of the experiments. Luckily there was included enough of most of the ingredients so I can do the projects again. So we will certainly have a good time throwing things together to watch them react.

I searched for wands online and couldn't find any inexpensive enough for me to be able to get one for each of our guests. I did, however, find a tutorial for making wands out of paper. I decided to give it a try. At first I started to make only 4 of them but after rolling up the first few I decided I might as well just make 15. That should be enough for all the guests at the party plus a few.

First you just roll up the paper. This is just normal 8.5'' x 11'' paper rolled so that one end is slightly smaller than the other. I used lots of Elmer's glue to make sure the paper was well coated and the edges stuck down well. I let these dry for a few hours but ended up putting the whole tray in the warm oven for a about 20 min. They came out nice and dry and pretty stiff.

I then took my little glue gun and filled in the two ends of each of the rolls and then embellished them with rings, twists or just globs of glue to add some texture and a bit more strength to the wands.

One nice sunny and breezy afternoon I took the wands outside and spray painted them a nice brown color. I left them outside for a few hours to let the paint smell dissipate. Now I know why Michael's keep their spray paint under lock and key. That stuff stinks! I am glad I did all these at the same time. I don't want to have to spray paint again any time soon.

At this point the wands were all the same color and looked sort of like chocolate. But I broke out my box of acrylic paints and went to work distressing them with a variety of colors. My kids kept wanting me to paint them bright colors. They hadn't caught the vision of these actually looking like wood.

I did add some purple, red and greens into the mix along with the browns and blacks. The brown ones turned out better in my mind but the kids liked them all. Each wand turned out very different from the others in shape decoration and color.

I don't know if I am quite done yet with these wands. There are some that turned out really well and others I am still not happy with so I may go back and touch them up a little more or add some gold paint to give them a little pizzazz. But hey I think they look really great. It is amazing what you can make with paper and glue.

Sophie really wanted a vine covered wand like Hermione's wand and this is what my version turned out like. It is a little more green colored but Sophie was happy with it.

This little guy is happy with the results. I sure hope all the kids will enjoy their wands at the party. But since the only thing I didn't already have on hand and that had to spend money on was the bottle of spray paint (which I bought with a 50% off coupon) I am thrilled with the results.

I have a frog mold so I can make chocolate frogs. I think I will have to give them a trail run soon so I can make sure I know what I am doing. That will be a yummy experiment. Has anyone ever made a caramel filling for this type of thing. I can't do peanut butter because some of the kids that will be invited have nut allergies? I am sure I can find something online.

Seriously what did people do before the internet and blogs where people shared their tips and tricks?

Not My Job to Entertain

2011-07-29T16:31:00.000-07:00

My kids keep coming to me and telling me they are bored. I admit we haven't been doing our usual school work each day. After a trip to Grandma's we always take a few days to get back into a rhythm. My kids have been sleeping in late and going to bed late so we just don't get our usual start to the day.

Wednesday morning I insisted my kids get up so we could go to the YMCA for my step class. About 5 minutes into class, still in the warm up phase of the class, I suddenly felt like my calf muscle popped. I went and walked a bit but was it was really hurting to walk. I left the class and went to talk to one of the trainers. He told me that I shouldn't walk it but that I needed to get off of it and ice it. I limped my way to pick up the kids and went home to sit in a chair with an ice pack to rest my calf upon. It is now friday and I can walk more or less without pain but if I tweak or twist my leg at all it hurts. So I have been sitting around quite a bit even though my kids want to "do something".

I made the mistake and took my kids to the library yesterday. I limped after Molly for an hour while my kids played on the computer and then limped after her for another hour while they did the activity for the Summer Reading Club. I was really worn out after that one outing. That and one trip to the store have been about all we have done this whole week. My kids keep telling me they are bored and are always asking me for things to do. I remind them they it isn't my job to entertain them. They then think they have to play the Wii because there isn't anything else to do. I admit I have relented to video Game playing since I just don't have the energy to fight at the moment but I do try to keep them only to their hour a day.

They really can't complain too much. They have audio books to listen to and I have played endless games of Cities and Knights of Catan. The Cities and Knight expansion has sat in the closet unplayed for a number of years. It was a mistake to introduce this expansion for an already well liked game. We have had to play and play it because they want to master the new rules of play. I think the regular old Settlers of Catan game is going to be rather boring after this. There won't be any barbarians attacking and no knights to feed. My kids are already asking when we can get the Seafarers of Catan expansion. They want to build ships and sail to other islands as well. We will have to see about that.

They are also asking for more expansions to the Carcassonne game as well. I guess we have played these games so much lately they are almost boring because it is the same things over and over again. I guess it is time to get rid of some of the old games and get some new ones. My kids are ready for more challenging games.

The kids have spent some time outdoors too. They have rode scooters and shot hoops in the driveway. But they really had fun once I let them turn on a sprinkler and run through it.

Molly enjoyed the mud puddles created the most.

But spent some time sitting in a chair she took out onto the lawn in the spray of the sprinklers.

I really hope my leg starts to feel better soon. According to internet searches it looks like it could take some time depending on how severe the strain. I guess I won't be doing any step classes for awhile. Maybe I need to look into when the YMCA swimming pool is open for us to swim. My kids are showing signs of cabin fever. That is something we could do, stay cool, and that wouldn't hurt my leg. Although I spend all my swimming time keeping Molly from drowning... she has no fear of jumping off the side and wants me to let go of her......maybe that isn't a good idea.

I guess my kids are just going to have to be bored. I am just not able to come up with stuff to keep them busy all day long. Actually I am sure there are some toilets to scrub and dishes that need washing. They have been helping out a lot around the house but each time they ask me to entertain them I will have to come up with a chore that needs doing. That will stop the constant nagging for things to do.

Swimming at the Lake

2011-07-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

We headed up to Grandma's house for the weekend. We haven't had a lot of time up there this summer and my kids were looking forward to some time with cousins and of course doing a lot of swimming.

For Pioneer Day my parent's ward (the ward I grew up in) has a big picnic at the lake. My kids were thrilled that we would be there to go to the Lake for some swimming. It was such a perfectly beautiful day. Warm without being hot and sky was so blue. It was lovely.

The kids still made a little mud fort on the beach.

Did a little rock climbing and jumping.

The picnic spot is on a far spot away from the "beach" area designated for swimming but the kids had a great time in the water among the parked boats and kayak.

Once the cousins arrived and eveyone had eaten a bit they headed back out to the water.

Molly spent some time in the water but ended up having more fun playing the stumps like drums and getting into other mischief on the shore. The water was really cold!

It didn't stop the kids from having the best time out in the water.

Henry particularly loved that someone brought up a large package of water balloons for a fun balloon fight.

After everything was packed up and we were ready to head down the hill the kids all decided they needed to head back to grandma's house for a swim in the pool.

It was in the 90's this weekend so temperatures were just right for all this water play.

Officially Two

2011-07-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my baby is now two. Time sure flies!

She certainly loves being the center of attention. We didn't hang up balloons or banners but we did bring out the red plate for Molly to use at breakfast and then again at dinner.

She got to have her favorite snack that afternoon. Popcorn isn't on Sophie's liquid diet so we haven't had it in over 3 weeks and Molly was so excited when that big bowl of popcorn we put down on the floor for her to enjoy.

I was actually thinking of not getting Molly anything for her birthday. She is not in need of anything. We have too many toys already in our small house but I ended up breaking down and getting her some little dolls. Molly loves to play with dolls. I thought some little dolls that she could take with her would be nice so I looked around at some mini sized dolls and just didn't find anything that I liked so I looked on ebay for some American Girl mini dolls. I found a Molly doll and her friend Emily. They are missing a few of their accessories but are still in good shape and who can beat 2 American girl dolls for $10.00 including shipping. Molly was more than happy with these two cuties.

Since the plan is for her to take them with her I thought she needed a little bag or something to carry them and keep them in. So in about 5 min I cut a large square from some scrap material and created this little doll roll.

The dolls fit in the little pockets as if they are going into a sleeping bag. Molly finds it so fun to put them in and out of the little pouches.

Grandma got her some Sing-a-ma-jigs. I think my older kids have had more fun with these little toys. I have them take them into the bedrooms to play since they make a lot of noise.

For desert we had some Hot Fudge Sundae cake. I thought this was best since it was something soft enough for Sophie to eat with us. Plus it tastes so good! Henry told me he wants this cake for him birthday too.

Grandma also provided us with a popper. Grandmas always seem to know what kind of toys will make the most noise and therefore become their favorites.

Over the weekend we went up to the other grandma's house and she made Molly a dress for her favorite doll. This is the doll this Grandma had given her last year for her birthday and the little nightgown was perfect for this little baby doll.

Molly had a great birthday. We never had an official party but we ate lots of cake and opened a number of presents.

The strawberry cake we served for dinner with the cousins was very tasty. I had mentioned a strawberry cake to the kids a few weeks ago since Molly's favorite book is still The Big Hungry Bear and the Red Ripe Strawberry.

I didn't hear any complaints about the cake and ice cream so everyone must have enjoyed it. Even Sophie had a piece. She mixed her cake and crushed up the strawberries into the ice cream to make a nice ice cream cake mush.

Here is Molly with the cousin closest to her age. (Sorry it is fuzzy. The picture is taken through the window screen.) They are about 7 months different in age. It looks like a lot more in this picture. I guess over the next few months my girl will grow up to be an even bigger girl like this cousin.

My Goodness do this kids grow up quickly!

2 and a Half Weeks Down, 5 and a Half to Go

2011-07-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

I thought I would post an update on Sophie since I haven't in some time. She is more or less back to her normal self physically. She is running, jumping, swimming and even biking just as she did before. Her hip doesn't really bother her at all. She doesn't like anyone bumping it and still won't let me peal those tape strips off but as far as her hip goes she is fine. Before this surgery I often was told and read that the hip was what hurt the worst and I had the idea that she wouldn't be up walking around so well afterward but Sophie isn't the type of girl that will ever sit still for long. She needs to be doing things and doesn't take a rest for any reason (except when she is so engrossed in a book and hides in her room, curled up on her bed, to read undisturbed).

Her mouth seems to be doing well. Every once in awhile Sophie will show me a little knotted piece of string she finds in her mouth. I guess the sutures are falling out rather than just being absorbed. Tonight she even found little pieces of bone in her mouth.

We saw the surgeon at the end of last week and he took an x-ray of her face and he said the bone looks just as it should and that we need to get her to the orthodontist to be fitted for a new retainer to make sure her teeth don't shift any further. She has been without her retainer since the day of surgery. It will end up being a month since that day before we can be seen and the mold taken. I really hope things haven't shifted too much!

The hardest part of this whole post op experience has been the liquid/ soft foods diet. I have a really hard time finding things for Sophie to eat. She is tired of yogurt but eats it because there isn't anything else except apple sauce that she can just pull out of the fridge and eat. I send most of our regular meals through the blender and see if they are palatable in that form. Most of them taste very different as mush. One meal she does like is Pesto Pasta. I just buy the Costco pesto and serve it with broccoli and cauliflower and if I have it some chicken over some whole wheat pasta. My kids love it and luckily it tastes pretty much the same ground up. So we have had that meal several times over the past two weeks and then the left overs have been used for lunch and dinner for Sophie for days afterward. I think she is getting tired of it as well.

We have tried mashed potatoes but they have never been one of the things Soph has really enjoyed. She ate them because there wasn't another choice. She still wont eat scrambled eggs or even oatmeal. She is a rather picky eater anyway but cut out a lot of the things she normally eats and she has even less to fill her belly.

This is where things are really taking their toll. Sophie never really feels full. She eats because she is hungry but because the food is just ok or because she is only eating things because there isn't anything else, she isn't really eating enough. I haven't weighed her but I am sure she is loosing weight. But the worst thing is that she tends to get really cranky and has had a number of very big outbursts where she just looses control. I just know it is because she isn't getting enough in her tummy. I offer all sorts of food but she doesn't eat them. I am sure it is just something we are going to have to live with until the doctor says it is ok to use her teeth.

We have ended up eating a lot of soup for dinner and then the left overs become her lunch for the next day. I have been trying a lot of different soups as a result and we have found a few new ones that we will be making again in the future.

Last night we had a Pumpkin Black Bean soup (I wish I remembered where I found it so I could point you in the right direction for the recipe. I printed it out months ago so can't remember) which my husband really enjoyed. It has curry in it so has a bit of the Indian food smell and taste. It was great with tortillas dipped in it. Sophie of course had it blended up and it went down alright but the boys really fought it and Molly wouldn't try it at all. But it was a first try so we will have to give it another go another time.

I also make a lot of smoothies sometimes with the kale or spinach and sometimes with just fruit. It depends on what I am serving it with. If the dinner already has a lot of greens than I just do fruit. But I throw spinach in just about all my smoothies and even sometimes the ice cream I make in my blender. I LOVE our Blendtec. I don't know how I would do this liquid diet without it.

Last night's smoothie was particularly good. Henry didn't even complain too much about it. And it was loaded with kale and spinach. I think it was the Pomegranate juice and the frozen mango and papayas that I used that the kids really enjoyed. I am getting better and better at really good tasting green smoothies.

So right now we are just hanging in there with the food situation but everything else is going really well.