School & Sickness

What a crazy few weeks! My family has decided to go out and catch every bug they could and pass it around the past 3-4 weeks. First Big Boy, then Big Girl, myself, the three oldest, my husband, and then Baby Girl! We are still not 100% here, but we are hopefully getting over our last round of this stuff.

School has pretty much been a joke through all of this, but we were able to get some stuff done here and there. Plus, I learned one disadvantage to the set up I have had for the past couple of years.

As I've mentioned several times, we use and love Tapestry of Grace for most of our subjects. I love the approach that they (and several other curricula) take in using with multiple age groups. It makes planning so much easier on me, allows the kids to learn from each other since they are covering the same topics, and helps dad (or the non-teaching parent) to keep up with what is happening in school.

The problem comes when one child gets sick. What then do you do? I could keep going and just have the sick child miss those days but then what happens when new lessons depend on the knowledge gained in the missed lessons. Plus, I could be back to planning separate lessons for each of my children. I could just give everyone the day off of school, but what if said sickness lasts for much longer than anticipated? Now, I'm having to scramble to get all of our allotted days in according to state law. Do I say forget the curriculum and do a separate unit study to pass the time with healthy kids? I could but then the library gets cranky because now all my school books are well past due.

So what did I do these last few weeks when we had pretty much every non-serious bug imaginable hit our house? A bit of a combination of all of the above.

I was blessed by the fact that the Winter Olympics were on when my kids all came down sick - instant unit study! Yay! We did really easy lapbooks (which I'll blog on when get all wrapped up with those), and the kids got the afternoons off to watch the competition. They loved the break from our usual routine and the fact that they got to watch lots of TV!

But then what about all those library books? Well, as I said, the lapbooks we did were super easy and had enough flexibility to be able to get caught up on when said sick child felt better. That allowed for all of the regularly schedule reading to take place on schedule. Sick kids can still hear read-alouds after all, and the healthy kids get out of the regular assignments since we're doing Olympics unit. Plus, I can return those library books on time, so the librarians stay happy with me! Win-win for everyone!

Now I just have to figure out how to convince the kids to happily return to their normal routine of full lessons and assignments. Hmmmm.....thoughts on this one?

Life Skills Day

One of the great things about homeschooling is that in addition to the academic stuff, my kids really get to learn about life out in the real world, and they do it my living it right alongside me day in and day out!

I'm not the best housekeeper normally, so when you add in the extra duties of homeschooling and consider that my kids are here to help mess up the place all day long, you can probably imagine the task I have ahead of me feels pretty daunting. This really is my biggest weakness as a mom and wife.

So, how do I combat that? Every so often, we take a break from the books and have a "life skills day". The great thing is that it still counts as a school day because it is not just the kids doing their daily chores. I'm spending the day teaching them the skills needed to manage a household. Yes, they are doing chores as part of it, and yes, the advantage for me is that I can get caught up on housework.

For a life skills day, we'd be working on your typical housework, like laundry. Here is what it looks like after Big Girl has emptied the chute. (Yes, we have a laundry chute! Coolest thing ever!)

This is one of her weekly chores, so I don't get to count this as school since she already has the skills to independently complete the task. The plan today is to teach her how to pre-treat stains, so that when I ask her to load the washing machine, she knows to look for stains and how to take care of them when they're found.

Big Boy's task for the day is running the dishwasher. He already handles the silverware tray, while I load everything else. I'm a little OCD when it comes to loading the dishwasher. Today, I'll take a few minutes to show him how to add soap (We use the packets, so no pouring.) and show him all the settings discussing how/why we use each one.

These two tasks won't take up our whole day. We will be doing and learning other tasks under supervision along with the two continuing to work on independent tasks. Baby Boy will practice picking up after himself (something that is a constant battle with my very strong willed little guy).

Here's a quick list of things that are being taught/mastered at the moment:

• Using the ShopVac to clean the kitchen/laundry room floor
• Putting away laundry appropriately
• Cleaning the lint trap on the dryer
• Bulk cooking (homemade oatmeal packets & breakfast burritos)

I'll be completely honest in saying that while these days are a break from our normal routine, they are in no way easy days. Training my kids in home management is hard, especially since I don't enjoy the work, but it is absolutely necessary.

What life skills are you teaching your children? How do you manage to stay caught up on all those tasks it takes to run a successful home? I'd love to know!

Walken in a Winter Wonderland

Okay, so I'm not actually writing about Christopher Walken. This is just one of my favorite memes, and I do want to share another art project we've done to make our home a crafty little winter wonderland.

This week's winter craft project was coffee filter snowflakes, which we proudly displayed on our kitchen windows! Big Girl and Big Boy took part in this, as did Mom. No way was I allowing Baby Boy in on this one. Given his propensity lately to find humor in disobeying me, I just didn't feel it was safe to put scissors in his little hands.

I'll be honest, I've had a hard time coming up with craft ideas. Thank goodness for Pinterest!

"Remember the Alamo!"

As I mentioned in my 2014 Homeschool Goals post, I'm striving to get more art activities incorporated into our week. For this week, I did something quick and simple to go along with our study of the Alamo.

Before we get to the art project, I thought I'd share briefly what this week's lessons included.

A few of the books we read:

The Story of the Alamo by Peter F. Copeland

Susanna of the Alamo by John Jakes

Story of the World, Vol 3, Chpt 40 by Susan Wise Bauer

The Alamo by Tom McGowen

A Picture Book of Davy Crockett by David A. Adler

We also visited the Alamo via Google Maps street view! My kids always love doing this. (We've visited the Colosseum, Pyramids of Giza, the USS Constitution, and the Palace of Versailles among other places.) 

Now onto the art project. I decided on simple for this week and printed off the Texas state flag. Then I allowed the kids to fill it in using whatever medium they chose. Big Girl chose yarn, adhesive foam, Crayola Model Magic, and cotton balls. Big Boy opted for red, white, and blue finger paints.

And the finished products:

Any other ideas on incorporating art into history?

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

Shortly before Christmas, our family went out to see the movie Frozen. It is seriously adorable, and Olaf (the snowman) provides some great comic relief. The kids have all been singing the summer song the last several weeks. Haven't heard? Take the time to YouTube it! I promise you'll be cracking up.

Anyway, in keeping with my goal of doing weekly art projects, we decided to create our very own Olaf!

The idea initially came to me when I was killing time on Pinterest and found a simple cut out activity over on My Mommy Reads. I first had the kids paint a winter scene using watercolors since we were studying Audobon's paintings. Even Baby Boy got in on the action after he woke up from his nap!

Then I took the cutout pieces and let the kids arrange them as they saw fit. They came out really cute and now any time Baby Boy enters the room, he yells out "happy snowman!"

Like what you've seen here? Get your own cut out Olaf here!

Happy New Year!

For me 2013 was a chaotic year. It was an excited chaotic as we anxiously awaited and welcomed our 4th child and older kids explored new activities and sports. It was a difficult chaotic as I struggled with depression and toxic familial relationships. Fortunately, God was always there during those difficult times, even if in just small ways like having me stumble upon old favorites of mine on YouTube.

Seriously, this song always brings a smile to my face because this is so me, right down to the lack of patience and the scatterbrain. It is such a reminder to me that God is ALWAYS there even when we forget to look at Him!

Now on to 2014! I'm looking forward to what God wants to do in my life personally, in our home, and in our school. I'm big on setting goals at the beginning of each year and coming up with an actual plan of meeting each of those goals. Like most, I'm not always the best at keeping them, but I figure that every little step forward is better than standing still.

Goals for our school in 2014:

• Accumulate fewer fines at our local library! Do this by packing our books the night before our weekly trip when we are not as rushed and tending to forget things.
• Stay on top of inter-library loan orders, so I'm not waiting on materials for lessons. I'm trying something new for this quarter to see if it will help. I ordered all the books up front requesting them for the length I needed them (some up to 9 weeks), so I only have to worry about returning them on time. (I'll look at doing another blog post on how I manage my ILL's so I don't return something too early by accident.)
• Do our morning routine on a daily basis. This includes reading a chapter from Psalms, calendar, counting practice, mental math, patterns, and money. This also includes getting the kids to put their own stickers on the attendance chart again instead of me doing this. (I'm bad about just doing things for them instead of holding them responsible for what they should be doing on their own.)
• Making art a bigger part of our school week. Big Girl loves art, so she's always a more eager student if she knows there is an art project to be done! Big Boy isn't as into art, but I have noticed that really enjoys the break from lessons that art gives him.

So, that's it! I can think of about a million more things I could add to this list, but these really feel like the big ones. I feel like they can really be summed up by saying be more organized, more diligent, and more fun!

What are your goals for 2014?

My Absence from Blogging

As you probably noticed, I've been gone a few weeks. One of my personal goals for this year has been to keep up with my writing, so these last few weeks have been kind of difficult for me knowing that I'm not meeting that goal, even if for a VERY good reason...

BABY GIRL ARRIVED!

Since our pumpkin patch trip, we have kept ourselves busy. School has honestly been hit and miss, but we've kept up with what we can and even managed to get in a few art projects here and there. First up was silly skeletons. Then we did a brief lesson on pointillism, and what a better project for fall than pumpkins!

We are a homeschool family that does celebrate Halloween, so in keeping with our usual tradition, we carved a pumpkin. The kids decided on a simple design for this year's jack-o-lantern. We also did some trick-or-treating as Catwoman, Batman, and Robin!

Since Halloween, we took a step back in waiting for Baby Girl's arrival. Mommy was tired, and the rest of the family was excited. All of us were having our patience tested, though, as baby girl decided to arrival a whole 2 weeks late! She has absolutely been worth the wait, though, and even Baby Boy has taken to her!

Our family had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. We were all thankful for the newest member of our family and for our health. In the couple of weeks that have followed, we have learned just how thankful for our health we are, as we ALL decided to catch a nasty head cold. Even Baby Girl has decided to get in on the fun.

Well, that's the update from the last few weeks. I hope this finds you all happy and above all healthy as we head into the Christmas season! Come back next week for a new entry and continued writing from yours truly!

A Day at the Farm

So, last week I completely missed posting. Baby Boy decided to come down with the flu, and in caring for him and keeping an eye out for symptoms in the rest of the family, blogging went to the wayside. I return this week, however, with a recap of our recent field trip to the pumpkin patch!

For the younger crowd, our homeschool group usually does an annual trip to one of our local pumpkin patches. Whoever plans it decides which one. This year, I volunteered and set us up with my favorite one, which is run by a wonderful Christian family and truly has a farm feel to it!

We started things off with a hayride, and yes, we rode through the countryside on real bales of hay in wagons pulled my a tractor - no commercialized vehicles here! There's always one part of this ride where I'm always nervous and convinced we are going to tip although it's never happened. On one side of the wagon it drops off to a creek bed several feet down as you bump across a little rock bridge. Once we got past this "scary" part, we spent the rest of the ride trying to identify the many trees along the way!

After the hayride, we headed into the barn where we sat on hay bales in the main area between rows of animal stalls (open to the outside, so the animals were able to come and go as they pleased) where we listened to the farmer herself tell how a pumpkin grows from seed to fruit and showed us the many varieties of pumpkin they grow at the farm. No videos here! We got the real deal!

From there, we were able to meet some of the animals on the farm - a dairy cow, miniature horse, donkey, geese, ducks, goats, lambs, pigs and turkeys - before heading off to the real excitement for the kids, the play area!!! My kids especially love the corn bin, even though it grosses me out just a tad thinking about all the little bodies that have already been in there and where that corn could have ended up before my kids jumped in. *shudder*

We let them play a good 45 minutes or so before heading out to the patch and picking out our pumpkins! Each kid was able to pick out a miniature pumpkin or gourd to take home. They had some really cool looking gourds, but my husband told me we couldn't go to a pumpkin patch and NOT bring home pumpkins. Anyway, I love this pic so much, I've got to show you the unedited version!

Off to the left of the above picture, you can see the entrance to the HUGE corn maze they have. We did take a few minutes to go through it just long enough to find the exit (as opposed to go for the prize by finding the hidden items) before heading back home. 

All-in-all it was a great day, and I was able to cross something off our family's fall bucket list! 

What About Socialization?

As I sit watching "18 Kids and Counting" on Netflix, I'm hearing one question over and over in regards to homeschooling. What about socialization?

I think before I can answer this question for myself (and I truly believe most homeschoolers would answer in a similar way), I think I need to first define the term socialization. According to Dictionary.com (the definition was not found on the Merriam-Webster online dictionary), socialization is the process by which one acquires social skills. Socialize means to associate or mingle with others. Very similar definitions, yes; however, we are talking a difference between the learning of skills and the application of those skills.

I find in my personal experience that when I am asked the socialization question, what I'm really being asked is do my children ever get to interact with other children. As in, do they ever socialize with others? The answer is a resounding YES! Ask when and where this socializing occurs, and you'll get as many answers as there are homeschooling families. Here are my answers:

Karate Class - As part of our curriculum, my kids take karate classes. During class, they are not only learning self-defense skills and discipline, but they are running around laughing, talking, and playing games at different times. Also, every other week I drive a friend's son to class. The 30 minute trip involves plenty of talking, giggling, and good-natured teasing in the backseat!

Weekly Bible Club - They attend a weekly Bible club at their grandparents's church, where they not only learn more about our values and beliefs, but they are able to interact with kids from the community (many of which attend the public school system).

Children's Church - This takes place each Sunday at our church. We attend a different church than either of our parents in a different town than where we live, so this is a whole different group of kids that they see each Bible club meeting. Again, they learning core values/beliefs, playing games, talking, laughing, etc. with kids who attend either our private church school or the public schools of that community.

Homeschool Group - Once a month, our homeschool group gets together for field trips. Our group is very diverse as far as beliefs go. The only thing some of us have in common are the fact that we educate our children at home. We live in different communities ranging in size from miles away from anyone else to cities of 60,000 people. Of those that do attend church, very few of us actually attend the same church, and our denominations vary from LDS to Baptist to Pentecostal to non-denominational. Family sizes range from 2 children to 11 children. Some homeschooling moms have education degrees (up through masters) while others have high school diplomas. As you can see, we come from different walks of life and are raising our children with different beliefs in different communities.

Neighborhood Kids - Our neighborhood is full of kids, and my family is the ONLY one who homeschools. Come 3:00pm, our doorbell often starts ringing asking for play dates. This is probably our least diverse group of kids when compared with each other but still very different from our family. Most come from single parent homes, are of mixed race, and do not attend church of any kind. They are all great kids, and my kids love playing with them!

Library Activities -  Each week, we attend storytime. The two age groups are pretty small, but it is another opportunity to get the kids out in the community and playing with other kids.

Misc Community Activities - We do our best to keep an eye out for different camps and fun days. In the past couple of years, we've participated in kids games at community events, education camps put on by the regional education service center, cheerleading camp put on by the local public school, back to school bash put on by the local public school, community VBS celebrations, and summer sports teams.

As you can see, there is no shortage here of socializing that my kids get. As I initially said, this is the application of the socialization (the learning of social skills) they receive from Mom and Dad through watching us, family discussions, character education, etiquette education, etc.

This is how we tackle socializing in our family. How do you make sure your kids get in socializing? How do you handle this question when asked?

October...Already?!?!

Wow! Is it really October already?

We've completed our first full month of schooling for this academic year, and while there are a few minor changes I would make if I could travel back in time, I've been very pleased with our progress so far!

Big Boy is adjusting so well to the new heavier schedule of 1st grade, and Big Girl is actually really enjoying math this year! I cannot tell you what a relief these two things are for me. I really was worried about them looking back on last year.

Baby Boy continues to be a challenge. My school-only activities and toys are not working to keep him as entertained as I had hoped. Sure he enjoys what I've gotten, but he is such a perfectionist (much like older sister and mom) that he gets frustrated if the slightest thing goes "wrong". I'm really looking at scrapping the plans I have in place for him and trying to figure something else out.

Looking forward, October is set up to be a pretty busy month.

• College homecoming
• Hometown homecoming/fall festival
• Husband's 15 year class reunion
• Trip to a local pumpkin patch
• Piano performance in nearby town
• History day with the homeschool group
• Halloween

How about you? Any big plans for the coming month/season?