Heritage Academy

Weird Science Night

2011-12-21T19:53:00.000-05:00

One of the things I love about being part of a home school co-op is having the opportunity to do 'group' learning activities that we might not be able to do at home with only 3 students. In the co-op setting we can practice persentations, public speaking, team sports, and other activities. But just last month we were able to participate in a "Weird Science Night" at our co-op! Each kid got to choose a scientist to learn about, dress up as, and do an experiment or research project about.

Of course, Jefferson choose to do something Myth*busters related! He has been obsessively watching that show on net*flix every chance he gets. I love how it stretches his imagination as to what he can figure out if he wants to set his mind to it - those guys never give up on a hypothesis! It always amazes me how my kids can be so self motivated IF they are interested in their subject matter. For his science project, Jefferson basically took a MB kit (he got for his bday in Sept) and ran through the experiments (all related to AIR PRESSURE) himself. Then he used his mad glog*ster skills (taught to him by his wonderful Mrs. Third Grade Teacher a few years back) and started slapping out his "lab write-up" pages on MB designed pages (that HE put together - glog*ster is kinda like an online scrapbooking or blogging arena). He poured every minute of his school day into it for 4 days while I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get display boards, display board decor, help the 3rd & kindergartener with their projects, and cater to Jefferson's demandingness (he hasn't quite adjusted yet to NOT being the only child - sheesh!).

I was really thrilled with his effort, his hard work, and his end product! He dressed up like Adam Savage to show it off at Weird Science Night (and I'm happy to say that although he's growing like a weed - I still had to draw his beard onto his face - lol!).

Reagan (3rd gr) took a different approach to her science project, choosing to build on the science that we were already studying this year. Since we have been focusing on ornithology for weeks, she choose to dress up as John James Audubon, a famous naturalist and artist known for his work with American birds. [We later visited his early American home in PA] She added her journaling pages to her display and added different 'habitat' scenes as a background for her display board. I took her to the library to do some more research on Audubon and she decided to try to copy one of his painted birds. The green parakeet at the top of her display (as well as the flamingo in the frame) is the beautiful result!

And as usual, Adam wanted to participate in all the science hooplah that was going on around the house. So we turned him into Archimedes since that's what was fresh on my mind from Jefferson's history studies and we could make some of his concepts understandable to a kindergarden kid. We tried an experiment with aluminum foil to show how density affects how objects float. It didn't work well but he was super excited about his foil boat - lol! We tied a string onto his display board to show that the shortest distance between two points in a straight line. And he colored, traced, cut & paste bits & pieces to tell others about this ancient Greek. Although he wasn't too thrilled with wearing his adorable toga, he had a fun time & was so happy with all the work he did on his first science project!

What a fun & interesting time the kids had! They still pull out their display boards to enjoy their work and would love to do this all again!

16 Weeks Complete!

2011-11-20T23:49:00.001-05:00

So we're ~~speedin'~~ ~~chuggin'~~ trudging right along with our school work around here and I just realized that we have carved quite a little chunk out of our total school year! 180 days doesn't seem that bad until you start counting them out ....or missing them for this or that illness or event. But I really wanted to see what it would be like to take the entire month of December off, so we started in July (too hot for the kids to enjoy playing anyway & we aren't beach peeps) and have managed to get 75 days finished so far. How do our days go around here?

As usual, I haven't managed to keep up with photojournaling my brood but I'll share what I've got. In our earlier school days we were able to study the creatures in our backyard as well as my new flowers (I swapped out my veggie garden knowing that the baby would keep from it). It was a fun place to read outloud, bird watch or practice some ball skills as well.

But most days now Jefferson is the first to get up around 7 o'clock (I am still slacking off in the a.m. and 'blaming' it on the Baby even though she sleeps well through the night for us) and get started. He walks the dog and then starts his Bible reading and study - this year we've gone with the Sonlight plan. It works but isn't the most motivating for him. I haven't yet figured out if that's just a curriculum issue or more of a heart issue. Or possibly the fact that he does it on his own and I'm not in discussion with him about what he's learning as I used to be. :-/ Hmmmm....might need to rethink that & get us all back into a family sit down study/read instead.

(Daddy leads home church some Sundays)

But I digress....as usual...

Baby & breakfast keeps us from starting much else until 9a.m. but at least Jefferson can still get a little independent reading or vocabulary or grammar done while Reagan can get her phonics finished before then. Granted, that's all on a 'good' day where no one is cranky, sleeping in, or ignoring my pleading to "put that dog down and get started so we don't have to be all day at this!"

If (and this is a BIG 'if') I can manage to get the little boys somewhat quietly occupied and the Baby sitting on the floor (she loves to cry after me to see if I'll just sit with her instead of heading to the table to teach), then we work on math and spelling. It's the only combo that I can manage to multitask - calling out a word & sentence for Reagan while I help with geometry for Jefferson (his lessons are done independently with this program). This is his 5th grade year and he's finally come to the place in math where he meets frustration weekly and I'm struggling to teach him to perservere and read through twice when things aren't 5-second simple (as they almost always were in arithmetic). This is where he frequently speaks out of turn at me in his impatience with himself and me. In return he receives my montra "This is not about finishing your checklist. This is about learning so please slow down & try again!" I think I should tatoo it on my forehead so don't become hoarse - lol!

Reagan's response to spelling has been quite positive considering this is the first year that I am teaching it formally to her. At first she would get upset if she missed a word, but we have gotten into a pattern that works for her. I 'say-spell-say' the word after using it in a sentence and then she traces it with her finger in order to study. We do this for however many days we need to until I see that she's ready to write the words at which point she will do them on paper. If we've studied them, she almost always get the paper 'test' correct and then she feels great about herself! It's always such a blessing when we find something that works for her, even if it takes more times for me to integrate into our day.

(Reagan working on her Early Explorer's lapbook)

(Archimedes science experiment with Adam)

(Jefferson beating me at Scra*bble - a.k.a spelling practice)

Usually by 10:30 in the morning I am just starting to feel like we are getting somewhere (IF I've gotten the meal planning done the evening before, otherwise that totally clutters the morning. Ugh.) when someone somewhere ends up screamingyellingstompingthrowingdying about some ridiculous thing. My first thought is usually "Please, please settle down so I don't have to kill anyone!" and then they push my thoughts on to "Alright - find me the duct tape & the padded room so I can just get these lessons done!"

Ahhh, the joys of toddlers! Don't fret - I don't have a padded room or duct tape - lol!

Math is next for me to work with Reagan while Jefferson works on more independent work, such as his dvd spelling lesson, a composition revision, spanish, latin or piano. I always hope that her math lesson will be short & sweet so that I can get Jefferson's Institute for Excellence in Writing lesson finished before lunch. It's rare that she gets hung up on something - the Right Start Math program just seems to lay things out in small, manageable pieces allowing for plenty of practice. Our biggest problem with this subject for her is that the doggone noise level in the house has usually reached ear-splitting decibels by then which is VERY difficult for her auditory processing ability. I used to be able to toss those other little people outside but more often they are getting exiled to the basement play area for this lesson. There just is no sitting & playing quietly at the table with those two! :-/

At some point in the late morning I try to slap a lunch meal together. It's always boring and always light and almost always late. *sigh* I've gotta start planning better so I've got leftovers ready cuz once that Baby is down at 11:30 I don't want to be bothered with food -I just want to get some more lessons finshed while I still have the energy! On MWF, this hour is when I try to stuff in some phonics and/or math and/or penmanship and/or reading for Adam (who has usually been begging me all morning to 'do kindergarden'). I LOVE his enthusiasm and have finally learned (what is this - my 6th year?) to go with the flow & just photocopy something for him to do to feel included in whatever topic the 5th & 3rd grader may be working on. For example, he hasn't a clue when the ancient Greeks lived but had a ton of fun coloring in their buildings, warships, and all of their gods/godesses and slapping them into his own handmade lapbook (along with Spiderman and Woody of course) for him to enjoy 'reading' later. His creativity makes me happy (and it keeps him from bugging the other noisy boy in our house - lol!)! It's so nice to see his personality through his tablework!

(Working on his science project)

Well, if you've read this far I assume you're tired already. Well, so am I by this point in a typical day!! My energy has been slow to return after the lastest baby and my poor diet doesn't help me to get through the days well. Lincoln STILL is waking us 1 to 3 times many nights each week. That combined with my body's reaction to sugar & junk (my go-to stress food!!!) does not bode well for the character development of my children. I carry much guilt in this area because if there's one thing I can do to help my kids and to love them, it's to keep my own self healthy & rested so that I can be joyful and patient with them. A day at a time, I guess. I am learning to choose sleep and Plan*et Fitness over chocolate - but only slowly - lol!

Anyhoooo... I don't even know the real point of this post since I'm just kind of meandering around my own thoughts here. Day in the life kinda thing I guess....

After lunch, I feed the Baby Boo (this is the name that has stuck around here as well as Boo Bear - so silly but very sticky) and try not fall asleep in the chair as I do. My montra at this point in the day is usually, "Someone get on that piano NOW! Jefferson, get outta that computer chair! Boys stop killing each other!" all from upstairs to down. BabyBoo won't eat well if I sit downstairs with her and so the house goes to chaos while I let myeslf rest & try to enjoy my little bit of time with the cozy warm smiling baby. Thankfully, my older two kiddos also substitute as my coffee baristas and bring me my afternoon 'kick-in-the-rear' (cuz 2:30 always seems to drag on my eyelids)!

(Jefferson w/ his piano teacher - Ms. Laura)

3:00 is when I drag myself back into focus and we work on a couple more lessons. Most days we have history books for me to read aloud to them as well as either a science lesson, art lesson, or intro. to music lesson. We're using Apologia Zoology - Flying Creatures this year and have only just finished the section on birds (thus the ornithology science display for Reagan at the science fair). We are finding it pretty cool to learn to be amateur birders! We've visited Middle Creek Wildlife Preserve and I'll post later on our field trip to John James Audubon's Mill Grove house.

I've been pushing pretty hard to stay focused this year because I want a long Christmas break. The baby sure does change the dynamic - really defines what it means to 'juggle'! But for as much as I make sarcastic comments about trying to sell this or that child on e*bay, I know that the grass is not greener anywhere else. I love this job. I LOVE my kiddos. I love teaching them and cooking for them and being here with them everyday ....even if it IS a noisy and messy and sometimes frustrating task!

Equating to the Equine Heart

2011-10-22T16:04:00.000-04:00

In an attempt to teach Reagan how to better communicate and to grow her in confidence, we started her on horse lessons this summer. I don't think we could have chosen any better activity for her! Our goal was not that she actually learn to ride the horse well, but that she develop skills that one wouldn't normally see as having anything to do with horse riding, namely understanding the body language of another creature, learning to express her frustrations in a mature manner, building the confidence to direct something "greater" than herself, and learning that perfection is not the goal, rather it's the connection to another 'person' that matters. She loves animals and so, is much less likely to revert to her typical 'raging' behaviors while around them. They soften her heart so that even when they don't behave she doesn't play the 'blame' game as much with them.

Most of the summer she rode with her teacher leading the horse and so there was no fear for her to deal with at first. She thoroughly enjoyed 2 weeks of summer days camps and learned about breeds, behavior, body parts, cleaning & care, tacking and riding. She began learning to read the body language of the animal both on and off of it (I'm hoping this will make her more observant of other human's body language). She got to know the different personalities of various horses and her confidence grew. She even got to ride in her first local horse show (still on lead) and was encouraged by the ribbons that she brought home.

Recently, her teacher has decided to push her a bit further by teaching her to ride off-lead, as well as learning to trot while working on her form. At this point her teacher gave her a more fidgety horse than the one she usually rode. It continually pulled it's head to the ground or around to look at various things which leaned the saddle this way and that, getting Reagan much more freaked out than she'd been in any other lesson. At one point the horse decided to neigh very abruptly and loudly and Reagan gave out a long scream in response. I almost died laughing (to myself of course) because I knew it was something she would laugh about later and something that she would be able to get over (she's much more forgiving of those horses than her human family & friends). Her teacher calmly told her that she was ok, the horse was only 'singing' and that she needed to learn to let the horse know who's boss. Later, as Reagan walked her horse back to the stable I saw her give it a good shove when it decided to stop to chew grass. I was so proud that she took that control back from the horse even though it had cost her a tearful lesson!

I find it strange how controlling a fidgety horse is actually a difficult thing to manage for my "strong-willed" child! Even in her school work, I often see her express that she thinks herself incapable of doing things right. But then I've realized that her strong-will doesn't actually equate to the confidence she'll need as she grows & steps out in the world.

But the horses? That's *her* thing. There is no older brother to outshine her or little brothers to distract her or mama who doesn't always approach her correctly. It's just her and an animal with it's own mind but loving heart and a very patient teacher. She feels so good that she can care for it, talk to it, make it feel good, make it follow her instruction, and enjoy it all!

I love to watch her ride and plan to continue these lessons as long as we can!

(With Mikimoto, her favorite Arabian)

(With her handler and her show ribbons)

Update from the Silent HA

2011-10-16T22:50:00.001-04:00

I feel so terrible about being gone from the blogosphere for so long! I love posting here & journaling about my kids, even if just for future's sake. I haven't even been reading any of my favorite blog & I miss them oh.so.much - they are such a great source of encouragement & help as I travel this path. But I know I'm not the only busy momma around so I won't even bother to complain about all that's kept me away from here for so long - lol!
Baby I is already 8 1/2 months old! She's a rockin' & a rollin' a ton of joy around here but also adding to the day to day chaos. She started crawling 3 weeks ago and is constantly giving me mini-heart attacks by pulling up all over the place and falling over & over again. Into everything, of course! Now she's starting up with the "cry until Momma picks me up" phase, which is oh, so lovely while I attempt to school. Or cook. Or anything else. Good that's she's so doggone adorable!

We are 12 weeks into the school year already! I can't believe how much the kids have learned already and I'm thrilled with how things are going. Jefferson, now 10, is really learning how to work independently on his 5th grade work. He doesn't seem to have too much trouble with all that's on his plate this year and is making good mental connections in history, math & writing (new program - Institute for Excellence in Writing - we both LOVE it). He struggles with keeping out of the 'checklist' mentality and accepting what I plan for him to *learn* each day rather than just finish his assignment sheet.

Reagan (8.5 yo & in 3rd grade) is not working as independently or as quickly as *I* would like. But I am slowly realizing that I don't get to choose how she learns. She is doing very well at her own pace and I am seeing how wonderful it is to watch her grow! The joy on her face as she pieces together new ideas or something new clicks for her is so precious for me ... if I will just have the patience to enjoy it with her. We are still working on helping her to deal with her anxieties and her explosive behavior has slowly been decreasing (with much prayer & hard work).

Adam (almost 6) had finally started Kindergarden and at first was very excited. He still is actually - but that's only if I do everything EXACTLY as he wants me to - lol! I very much enjoy his enthusiasm at every activity. He always wants to do what Jefferson & Reagan are doing with their subjects too. He always wants to do something & gets irritated at the repetition that learning requires though. I try to tap into his creativity whenever I can - he could sit for hours coloring, cutting, & pasting!

Lincoln (almost 4) is headed to 'away' preschool 3 times each week. And this is what's keeping me sane! He is so cantancarous right now that I wonder if he'll ever grow out of his trouble making. I do believe that he is just too smart & gets bored easily. But he loves being an older brother and is still willing to help me as much as he can! He's very, very loud (we call him 'passionate' - lol!) but he's so doggone cute...

So! On with the photos!

(Our new 'student' computer)

(Study of Bethoven)

(Trouble with a capital T!)

Oh - and somewhere in the chaos of adding another baby to our lives, teaching another student, and dealing with food issues we decided to get a dog! Found her on crai*g's list and she is just perfect for our family! No training required, very happy & friendly, and hypoallergenic (as much a dog can be anyway - she's poodle mix). We had to change her name since everyone was started to call Baby I the dog's name so now we call her Ginger - short from Gingersnap!

Hopefully I will have a chance to write a little more at another time - as in before another 7 months pass! I really want to get hte blog updated and write more specifically about what we are covering in school this year. But we'll see - it's kinda nuts around here! ;-)

4th Grade Mini-Office

2011-03-27T11:41:00.001-04:00

I have lamented my lack of wall space in this house & our school room/kitchen eating area since we bagan home schooling. Having been educated in a public school class room, I have the notion in my head that I need to have all kinds of visuals hung up for my 'students.' But I do not have space for much more than a large map of the world and alphabet flashcards around the top of the room. I have managed to put our list of important 'scriptures' in a tiny spot and have hung a bit of grammar examples on the window.

I have noticed that Reagan sometimes mixes her letters up and seems to search for something to copy (the alphabet is up high, behind where she usually sits) and will look for examples of grammar on the window with each weekly grammar lesson. And even though Jefferson is in 4th grade, he will sometimes forget a cursive letter, composition revision symbol, or grammar example as well. Since we don't have space, I cannot have reminders for these things on the walls for them as they write and learn.

So, a friend from our home school clued me in to these cool things called "mini-offices" - lapbooks which are fiiled with reference charts for the child to have when working. I made one for Jefferson first. The idea is that you take small versions of graphs & charts that a child would normally find on the walls of a school room and you put it in a lapbook that the child stands in front of his or her workspace as he or she works. This space acts like their own little 'office'! It provides all the basic reminders they might need as they write & learn and also helps to block out some visual distraction from other kids. Each mini-office can be tailor made for the student or for the grade or for a specific subject which is being focused on.

I find that Jefferson uses his mostly when he is writing something but he'll often refer to it for the maps or spelling words (days of the week, months of the year) as well. I will try (I seriously can't recall where I found most of them!) to provide links to the sources of some of the charts & graphs if I can so you can make your own! Here are some photos of what his looks like:

This side holds:

Parts of Grammar

Punctuation

The Writing Process

Key Proofreading Marks

Months of the Year (ours is homemade)

The Cursive Alphabet

The Hundred Chart

Multiplication Table

Skip Counting Chart (from our math book)

Number Line

Fraction Chart (from our math book)
(I also had to paper clip a list of 'transition' words after I laminated. It wouldn't fit but it seems to help Jefferson's compositions)

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This side holds:

The Periodic Table of Elements in Pictures

A Celsius & Fahrenheit Chart

Mnemonic Verse for the Planets

Branches of the Government Diagram

World Map (Continents & Oceans only)

Map of the United States (state name & abbreviation)

American Wars list (homemade)

Understanding Centuries timeline

Books of the Old Testament

Books of the New Testament

Presidents of the United States (photos & dates in office)

Here are some more links & resources for mini-offices for various ages:

http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/resources/mini_offices.html (this one is awesome!)

http://www.reagankinderbears.com/printables.htm

http://www.teachingheart.net/minioffice.html

http://www.marcias-lesson-links.com/sharingminioffices.html

http://www.jmeacham.com/mini.offices.htm

http://www.abcteach.com/directory/teaching_extras/mini_offices/ (membership required)

Wordless Wednesday - Precious Cargo

2011-03-23T05:33:00.010-04:00

Tired me with tired Baby I trying out a sling (ya think she likes it??).

Four weeks old here:

Baby I

2011-03-18T14:06:00.000-04:00

I'm thinking we'll just be calling her BabyI around here. I know, I know...she won't be a baby forever. But if all goes as we plan (no comments from the peanut gallery please!), she will be THE baby around here! It'll have to do (couldn't very well choose her birth name based on what I wanted to call her on my silly blog now could I?).

So here are more photos of her growth over the last few weeks (she is now 6 weeks already - ackk!).

More of New Baby I

2011-03-14T22:25:00.000-04:00

With a new baby who is growing at the speed if light, I am thankful that I live in the age of digital media and can try to capture some of her preciousness in photos! These are all from her first week....

Found a finger to suck on!

Nice & filled out for a 3-day old!

Her Great Grandmother (can't get this one rotated - grrr...)

Chillin' with her Auntie M (my little sister)

Introducing Our Newest Blessing!!

2011-03-12T11:06:00.000-05:00

Since I haven't been blogging very often this school year, I haven't had the time to ~~harp & complain about~~ journal my 5th pregnancy. Consider yourself lucky - I was not a happy camper most of the time and I was hoping through it all that this meant I was carrying a baby of the 'female' type! So you get to skip all that jazz and get right to the good part - the sweet, precious, adorable, tiny, unique, and beautiful BABY!! (But first you must sit through the gorey details of the delivery.... hey, I want it written down for the kids' sake!)

Our duedate was January 23rd but I felt nothing close to being ready by that time. January had been particularly stressful for this momma since Reagan had developed chronic diarrhea after a stomach bug (from which we all recovered) and we didn't know why she was so sick. We finally got a colonoscopy scheduled for February 1, *knowing* that dh would be able to take her. We fully expected that I would be home with the new baby.

But durned if that little thing didn't want to bake extra long! She was just nice and comfy and I guess this momma still needed to be available for her other little girl in her time of pain and need.

So NINE days after our duedate, on February 1, Reagan goes in for her procedure and I start feeling what I thought were more braxton hicks contractions after she left. I fed the other kids, got dinner in the crockpot, sat and *listened* to my contractions, read the kids books, and *listened* again. By 11:30 I realized that those tummy muscles were hitting me every 12 to 15 minutes and I had better doggone well get my bathroom floor scrubbed clean (isn't that your first thought when you realize you're in labor??)! Talk about last minute nesting! My cleaning lady had cancelled that very day due to all the nasty ice we had and I couldn't stand the thought of my midwife seeing the dirty floor (that is, IF she could get there through that nasty ice we were having). What a sight I was, if you could imagine me, hugely pregnant, on my hands & knees in the bathroom and then running around hollaring at the kids to vacuum the floors and pick up toys!

I had started this day out thinking there was no way the baby would come if not by now and that I would just have to be pregnant forever. I gave my dh an awful computer virus for his first birthday gift of the morning and a birthday cake made out of paper (since Reagan was too sick to eat cake, none of us would have it in front of her). It was February and I could not believe there was still a baby inside of me and that I would have to ~~struggle through with a loopy prego brain~~ teach yet another day of school, when all I wanted was a *break* from school (if that's what having a baby really is - lol!). And then there was Reagan, who needed her momma and daddy to help her through her pain and her hospital procedure. The baby just would not be allowed to arrive on this day.

But alas, after I made lunch, my mother-in-law brought Reagan home at 12:30 and my contractions jumped to regular 2 minute intervals. For this reason, dh harped on me for not calling the midwife ASAP and for fixing lunch instead. Thankful to have childcare already there (in the form of a doting grandmother) and a daughter who finally had a diagnosis (albeit, not a good one - ulcerative colitis), I headed upstairs to labor and wait for the midwife and her nurses (who were all soooo lovely, by the way! I felt so comfortable with them).

The rest is quite boring and likely TMI for ya'll to read anyway. Suffice to say, that 4 hours and 15 mintutes after those first contractions, our second daughter arrived (rather quietly - not much of a screamer, that one) and stole our hearts away! We were not surprised at her size or that she looks more like my dh (he has dominant Romanian genes in his side - just take a look at his mom!). We were not surprised at how amazingly beautiful she felt in our arms either. We were not surprised at how happy we felt to finally see her!

So, may I introduce our 5th child and 2nd (much prayed for by Reagan who "already has enough brothers but if it's a boy,I'll love it anyway") daughter:

Isla Jane

February 1 @ 3:44pm

10lbs and 22 3/4 inches

A lovely birthday gift for which Dave was thrilled! No - that is not a typo - she is a nice big girl (but thankfully smaller than her last two brothers were!)! Her name is pronounced "eye-luh" and she is 5 weeks old as I post this, so I will just stick the newest shots of her here and post others as I have time. Reagan is so thrilled to have a sister and the boys are enthrhalled with her as well! I can not figure how to give her a *presidential* name for this blog - 'Eisenhower' just doesn't seem to suit a girl. So I welcome any suggestions for a bloggy name for her!

Wordless Wednesday - Reagan Looks Better!

2011-03-09T22:00:00.000-05:00

Reagan was very, very sick for the entire month of January and had begun to look thin with circle under her eyes. She couldn't concentrate on school, so we let it go. She was not very happy or smiley at all through all her pain.

(Her sickest point - the day of her colonoscopy AND the day of her sister's birth)

But I'm posting this, to show just how much better she is looking after a diagnosis and 5 weeks of anti-inflammitory meds. She has gained weight, has returned to school, and has been able to share in the joy of having a new baby sister around here (of whom I will later post photos!)! I'm so happy that she's feeling better and I thank God!!!

(New haircut & a happy smile!)

2011-03-02T20:17:00.000-05:00

Pre-baby photo (Jan 23rd but posted post-baby) of me and my girls! Reagan is 7 1/2 and I am only nine days from delivering her baby sister. Rae wanted to "dress up" for church (methinks she was tired of my lazy pregnant 'just shove some jeans on' mode).

Wordless Wednesday - Our Young Man!

2011-03-02T15:01:00.000-05:00

As if Jefferson isn't already looking like such a young man (age 9 1/2), he had to get glasses in January (2011) which just make him look so much older! Sigh.... no more little boy here...

But at least his growing means some great benefits for Mommy & Daddy: snowshoveling (still willingly) for instance! :-)

Sweet Dreams

2011-03-01T05:19:00.000-05:00

(December 3, 2010)

I love the sweet & caring personality of my firstborn son. It's moments like these, where he doesn't fuss or fidget or complain of irritation, but rather just enjoys the moment and realizes that it's precious which make me so proud of him! Lincoln has not been sleeping well at night for many months now and it takes it's toll on him (as well as us). So after lunch during the kids' movie time, he just fell right asleep on Jefferson's shoulder and stayed there.

Adam Turns Five!

2011-02-27T20:41:00.000-05:00

(Again, better late than never for this birthday post!)
Adam has the fortunate birthdate of the 2nd of December, but he was due the day after Thanksgiving. So each year, we have started inviting the famliy over for Thanksgiving and celebrating his birthday on the same day. It works out nicely for him - he gets a birthday feast that wouldn't be possible if we waited another week to have his party! And not only does he get a cake but also gets a variety of pies - yum! Of course his favorite part is having his 'friends' (cousins & family)over too - so much excitement all.day.long for him!

He loves "heliPocters"!

The tasty slow-cooked bird was again a success!

In his new Iron Man mask

And after 3 years of speech therapy, he was finally able to blow out his own candles this year (a difficult task when one couldn't make the 'sh' shape with the lips!) on his airplane cake! This is only one of the steps he's been able to take in this past year. He is finally learning his letters and numbers, can color in the lines and draw his own people, can ride his bike with training wheels and his scooter also, and narrate a pictue story from start to finish (a processing task that has always been hard for him). He is communicating so very much better this year, with full and thought out sentences, improved grammar, and very few speech impetiments left. He is also able to participate physically in play with his peers more so than before as his balance and gross motor skills have caught up.

Such a big year for him! He is such a joy to have around!

Typical School 'Table' Lesson

2011-02-26T23:01:00.002-05:00

Around here, about 50% of what we learn is done at the kitchen table. With two school age kiddos and two preschoolers, I try to get as much done in one lump as I can. Jefferson and Reagan can focus better this year but Lincoln is very hard to occupy, as he wants everyones attention. So generally, Reagan works on her phonics workbook, I sit next to her to explain or help as I am also teaching Jefferson spelling (or math or science). In this photo, he is doing the hands-on portion of his spelling lesson, while Lincoln plays with tiles and Reagan finishes her MCP phonics. Adam, thankfully, is at preschool in the a.m.

And in an atypical home school *science* lesson this particular week in November, Jefferson's body decided to react to one of our fermented beverages that I may have kept in the fridge just a tad too long. He has always enjoyed kombucha and never had an allergic reaction to it before so imagine my surprise when his face started to look like I had slapped him silly! Sheesh - the stinking food allergies in this family are gonna kill me...

Daniel Boone's Homestead

2011-02-26T19:45:00.001-05:00

My dh discovered another interesting Pennsylvania location for us to explore this fall - the Daniel Boone Homestead. I never knew it was so close to us and I was also thankful that he was willing to take Jefferson and Reagan, considering I was plenty tired in my last trimester of pregnancy (November 11, 2010). For not having studied about him prior to going on this field trip, Jefferson and Reagan were able to learn a ton from the excellent tour guide and people on site. The rifleman and the blacksmith on site spent quite awhile answering their (and by 'their' I mean my dh's) questions. They learned that the image people have of Daniel Boone is very often inaccurate or biased by different historians. He never wore a coonskin hat (thought it was uncivilized to do so) but rather, a beaverskin hat. Any money that he earned, he usually spent poorly & quickly and didn't care for his 'white' family very well. He even had another family of kids with a native at one point in his life! The visit to this famous frontiersman's original home helped to clear up a lot of these misconceptions created by people and movies. I made Jefferson journal when he got back, because I know that he was able and I wanted him to get down on paper all that was fresh in his mind. But Reagan decided to journal because she was actually interested in all that she learned! Since she has only been working on copywork this year (no other writing) I am always thrilled when she volunteers to write, as it is still a difficult process for her to get thoughts from mind to paper.

May 1, 2011 is Children's Day so visit the website if you're interested in a very cool field trip! There is plenty to learn and see!

Jefferson's journal:
On my trip to the Daniel Boone Homestead located in Reading, PA I was the spring cellar in the Boone house, saw the horses & sheep, saw the blacksmith shop when he was working, listened to a person tall us about Daniel & had cake & went to the rifle range. My favorite part was the blacksmitth shop because someone was working it & he told us about it. I also liked where the person taught us about Daniel. About halfway through his life, Daniel was captured & adopted by Indians. He had a new wife and family. Then he heard about a plan for attack on Boonsburg. So Daniel went & warned Boonsburg but he was shot in the leg and someone brought him back to the fort to save his life. But Daniel was best known for illegally helping settlers across the gap. Most people think of Daniel Boone as really free-spirited.

Reagan's journal:
We saw the House, the smokehouse, the blacksmith, the sawmill, and a man who taught us about flintlock guns. Daniel Boone was a famous frontiers man who lived from 1734 until the 1790's. And I saw the cellar it had a spring they can use it as a fridge. And they could store food in it so that the food did not get rall [raw - lol!] and so it staes good food to eet. Thay mad lots of things at the blacksmith like nails and horseshoes and lots of other things that are useful. That is what I did on the trip.

Lincoln turns THREE!

2011-02-23T10:26:00.001-05:00

*This post is sorely, sorely delayed. But such is life around here!

October is not only my favorite month of the year with crisp fall and my wedding anniversary, but also it is the month of our fourth little bear's birthday! As usual, I am shocked at how fast my child is growing and have been surprised by another year of growth. *sigh*

Lincoln has delighted this past year with his intelligence...as well as dismayed us with it. He started preschool as soon as he turned three -just so that he wouldn't be bored around the house with us! The times when I am focused on lessons with Jefferson and Reagan are the times when we will often find him focused on making trouble or messes. As he approached his third year, he started to show us his strong will and we learned that he could be the sweetest and most helpful boy... if he chooses to do so of his own mind!

His favorite activities include anything related to crafts (painting, drawing with his good fine motor skills, playdough), matchbox cars (this one borders on OCD - no one in the family dares to move even slightly one of his cars once it's set up *his* way), puzzles (again, he has surprised us with his spatial ability), and just plain irritating any of his older siblings by *touching* them repeatedly as they watch tv. He decided to potty train when he was about 2 1/2, thus saving me 7 months of daipers before the next baby came along (oh.so.thankful!) and allowing for us to send him to preschool. He got a toddler bed for his birthday (although that has NOT helped him keep from waking up once or twice each night...sigh) that he totally loves and which makes him feel like such a big boy!

I love three years old because he can communicate with us and show us just how doggone excited he was for his party! And here are the photos to prove it....

(Can you even tell that he ate the bottom part of the cake while I was napping & letting it cool? Thankfully, I saved it with large amounts of black frosting! Such mischief is so typical of little Lincoln!)

New Do!

2011-02-22T21:55:00.000-05:00

For those who don't know me or chat with me on face*book, here's a look at my latest hairdo. I generally have the urge when I am pregnant with a girl baby (not that I knew the baby was a girl but I suspected) to drastically chop my hair. I always regret it and know that the new style won't last long but at least I enjoy the new do for a little while. This time I had been eyeballing the more sculpted looking 'bobs' out there now - you know.... the ones that angle up from chin up toward the back of the neck? So that's what I tried for. And I do so like it - it takes less time to dry & iron and stays in place easily! But we'll see how long it lasts with the baby around!

(Hmmm - can't figure out why this is rotated! Grrr...)

Our New Favorite PE Activity

2011-02-22T21:34:00.001-05:00

This year has been the year of the roller skates in this house! Jefferson discovered through a friend's birthday party last year that he loves to roller skate and the rest of us have discovered it as well. He & Reagan have gotten quite good at it and dh takes Adam along with his whining, as well. Jefferson's 9th birthday party was at the rink and we try to get them there at least once a month for the christian skate nights.

Ahhhh yes - so much fun for such a small price!

Colonial Williamsburg Trip 2010

2010-10-28T18:04:00.036-04:00

It's way past time to post this field trip and since it was such a nice one, I don't want to skip it just because life is busy as usual around here.

Although I was planning to take this trip in late October, I only discovered last minute that Colonial Williamsburg was offering a Homschool Educators Week starting 9/11/10 (another in Feb so check out the site!). So, with no planning under my belt and only a desire that Jefferson should at least experience this piece of history (before we get too far away from his revolutionary war summer learning), I booked a hotel and ran down with he and Reagan for 4 days. It was crazy last minute for me but I feel like that stretches & grows my ability to flex (a talent that I was NOT born with - lol!).

(Her mood prior to getting a side cramp from all the walking!)

We arrived on a Saturday noon, checked in and head directly for the Colonial Williamsburg to get any needed tickets and try to catch as much in the last half of the day as possible. Having not researched our options ahead of time, it was a bit overwhelming at first. There are evening programs, costume rentals, carriage rides, & numerous museums available in addition to the classes offered to the home schooling groups and various tours available (and even online lesson plans & maps for those of you who are better at advanced prep than I)!

But we managed to check out an introductory video and the miniature model of the town with it's summary of the city's important part in America's colonial and revolutionary days. Jefferson was reluctant to start taking notes, but I assured him that wondering around the town with NO background as to it's history or people would be more useless and boring than he would like! He was surprised to learn how large the Virginia Colony actual was and how important it was to the churning revolutionaries. We headed out to explore & I quickly realized that we should have pre-trained for all the walking just as if we were training for a marathon - lol!

We stopped and explored the Great Hopes Plantation first. Wow - was there a lot to see there! It is only about a quarter of the size of the Plymouth Plantation replica in MA, but full of things to do and learn. It consists of a smokehouse, well, slave house, kitchen house, tobacco house, master's house (not built yet), fenced in livestock areas and fields. Jefferson and Reagan started by learning to hand dip candles from a hot cauldron full of beeswax. It took them quite some time to make just one candle! We next checked out the cotton field (having never seen a cotton plant before even online!). The plants were in bloom with yellow flowers which then grow pods full of cotton. When the pods dry, they crack open and the cotton must be picked. After observing these plants, we talked to one of the actor 'slaves' only to find that cotton did not actually become a cash crop in Virginia until about the 1820's! Before this, flax was used for clothing and cotton was not in as high demand as was tobacco. We also learned that slaves could not purchase their own freedom in Virginia between the years 1720 and 1783.

On to the Colonial town - what a beautiful place!! Many of the original buildings have been rebuilt and actors wonder around with their instruments or animals. We found many horses in pasture (belonging to the 'richer' colonialists for their carriages) and sheep & chickens. The streets are lined with trees that would not have been there in colonial times, having been used for buildings or firewood. Jefferson was thrilled to find a soda machine (hidden away) that accepted credit card for the water bottles ($3 EACH!) that we so much needed and I so foolishly forgot. We found our way to the brick capital building to wait for a cannon salute. We enjoyed an amazing fife & drum march along with a moving speech from Patrick Henry and the Governor as they took down the English flag and replaced it with an American colonial flag. The kids REALLY enjoyed this!

And all this was only in half of a day! We settled into our hotel that evening and I required Jefferson to journal about the day, using notes he had taken along the way. Though willing to do this for Mrs. Third Grade Teacher last year, he dragged his feet on it for me (in his typical home school style - at least it doesn't rub so hard on me this year as it did in 2nd grade: progress for this teacher momma!). Sigh.... but I knew he'd regret it later if he didn't have a record of his thoughts so we pushed through and hashed over the events until he could formulate them into his own words.

We visited local family & friends on Sunday but hit the pavement again on Monday, heading straight for the Jamestown Settlement (also having some great home school classes). We missed the home school classes since I didn't find out about them until 2 days before, but got take a 2-hour tour which was geared toward kids. Wow - it turned out to be nice also! We started at the three ships (replicas of the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery) used to bring the first colonists over to the new world from England. The kids were amazed at how small they were and didn't think that they would have liked to make that journey even once! We walked through a small replica of the Powhaten village that would have been close to the settlement and learned how they built their structures with reed woven mats and planted corn in a similar manner to the natives of Plymouth, MA (with a fish under each stalk to fertilize) as well as using fire to burnout logs for canoes (also similar to Plymouth). Both Rae & Jefferson got to try their hand at using nearby shells to scrape the outside of a burned log and found it harder than they expected! Strangely, we did not learn anything about Pocohantas since we were just lightly touching this bit of history. But I think that the James Fort was the most interesting for the kids. We learned a ton about how tobacco became a cash crop that saved the colony from starvation (after failed attempts at finding gold, planting corn, cutting lumber, and making green glass) and how the colony protected itself from indians & Spaniards. We enjoyed a neat demonstration of a colonial gun and wanted to post a video clip but I don't have the patience with blogg*er. Nothing like weapons & armor to attract the kids' attention though!

So here's a tidbit summary on Jamestown Settlement. If you visit this page, then you'll know just about as much as we do - lol! I think Jefferson only got the idea of where it fits into history mainly due to the amount that he studied Plymouth Plantation last year. But I thought the tour was great at summarizing and making some key points clear to the kids!

We took an "Artifacts" tour early the next morning, which turned out to be rather boring, even for me! But we did manage to learn something even though it wasn't quite geared for children. The area is rich, rich, rich with artifacts and give historians a great view of the cross section of people who lived in colonial Williamsburg. Not only is there a ton of glassware, but planty of pipes, toys, and dinnerware. The other item that the archeologists use to learn about the period is bones! We were surprised to find that the bones of animals in different areas could tell us how well-off the owner of that area was. For instance, a poor person would not ow livestock nor eat good cuts of large animals, like cows so one wouldn't find those bones near their houses. Here are a few pics of some sample artifacts.

On our next tour we learned about daily life & clothing that the colonials wore as well as the fact that Jefferson & Reagan fit quite nicely into the stockades! :-) I think I need to get a set for my house!

The kids told me that our final tour was their favorite - horse & buggies of the period! Colonial Williamsburg keeps many horses (of the original breeds from the period) and a number of carriage replicas which are used to tour people around the city. We learned what it takes to shoe a horse and how many different breeds are kept as well as how very, very expensive the nice carriages were (thus making them much more rare than we think they were).

By the time we were finished running around and were rushing back to our shuttle, we were dead beat! I was amazed at how large the old city was and just how much there was to see and do and learn. Even after so much time and journaling, it seemed like we only just brushed the surface of all there was to see. We didn't even have time to use the hotel pool (a big disappointment to the kids but at least they got to eat at restuarants and have ice cream)!

For anyone who can, this is a trip that is definitely worth it! I think that we'll have to plan this one every few years for the rest of the kids to enjoy as well!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-09-22T19:11:00.000-04:00

One thing I'll miss about summer...

The Tiniest Things...

2010-09-11T21:44:00.000-04:00

Two reasons that I love the 'macro' setting on my camera:

1) It reminds me to focus on the amazing and perfect detail that our God has put into even the tiniest things! If I can capture them, I could just stare and ponder those details over and over...and over....

2) It's the ONLY thing I can get right with my camera (all other photographic shots, as well as any creativity, usually fail)!

Wordless Wednesday - J Turns 9!

2010-09-08T17:52:00.000-04:00

How has it come to be that time of year again, when the pools close and the weather turns a downward trend and I am reminded of my age by the passing of another birthday for my firstborn?? This year Jefferson has been very interested in rollerskating and although we won't have his rollerrink party for another couple weeks, we gathered as much family as we could for a day to celebrate his 9th birthday. He requested chocolate cake and since I didn't have time to make it, I picked up the largest, chocolatiest, heaviest monstrosity that I could find (thx Cost*co, for the tummy ache & heartburn!). It was just so much fun to see how excited he was all day long as he waited for his aunts & uncles & grandparents (and PRESENTS!)!

2010-2011 School Year

2010-08-23T22:14:00.002-04:00

We have made it through 3 weeks of our new school year and are getting used to all the newness of it. Still need to update my sidebars but here's what's going on around HA....

First big change: Jefferson is at home again! I really can't explain how nice that is - we just love having him home and watching him learn so much! He loved his time away school last year and did very well among the students as well as academically. But by the middle of the year we became aware that God was using the year more as a lesson for us than for him. We were reminded of His calling to homeschool our children and that He is always faithful to meet our needs.

Second big change: we are a little past four months pregnant with our fifth (yup - I counted correctly) baby! We are excited but feeling a bit of pressure due to my lack of energy and first year of accountability with the school district plus the special GAPS diet we are trying to keep implemented around here. This baby may well just get shoved in box in a white onsie when he/she arrives since I can't yet fathom the prep for it - lol! We only have one child rootin' for a girl while the rest would like another brother but I'm sure that January 23rd will arrive sooner than we all expect! Definitely considering a good baby sling this time if we want to finish the school year...

Third big change: the two littlest boys, Adam (4.5) and Lincoln (2.5) will both be headed to a local preschool, giving me some much, much needed focus on my 4th and 2nd grade students. So far, I've been shoving them outside or down into our basement play area for a few lessons. That was...until Adam decided it would be fun to peepee on everything in the basement! Sheesh...what they will think of when noone is looking. September is when they start so, on every day of the week, at least one of them will be in school so that Jefferson & Reagan will have less screaming and fighting to endure from them while trying to concentrate. The boys are both excited and I know they will love it (~~but not more than I will!!!!~~ as I weep when dropping them off)!

Our plan for Jefferson (4th grade) and Reagan (2nd grade) is working nicely so far though!

4th Grade:
Bible - Kay Arthur inductive study kids series (Jonah)
Sonlight Core 4 History (1850's to the World Wars)
Sonlight Core 4 LA (plus MCP vocabulary and cursive but with no grammar)
Spelling Power
Saxon 5/4 Math (plus DVD teacher)
Chemistry with Answers In Genesis
Rosetta Stone (beginning at year 1 again by his choice)

All reading, read-aloud, geography, grammar, dictation, writing, timeline work, memory work, vocabulary is included in the Sonlight program. He is old enough to study his bible independently now (with my checking his conclusions) and we already enjoy the Kay Arthur inductive studies. We have yet to find any other children's program that isn't just fluff or summarized Bible reading and are seeing progress with him in this study on Jonah already.

Spelling Power is a program that works for 3rd through 12th grade and only takes us 15 minutes each day. We'll see how it improves his spelling or not by the end of the year.

Having used Saxon math at away school last year, Jefferson requested it for homeschool this year. Aaaaaand then he whined and fussed about it for the last three weeks we've used it! Oy - a momma sometimes can't win - lol! I think it works well for the way that he thinks but he was just having trouble adjusting to all his different lessons (SL breaks things into little pieces which then makes math feel like it takes too long). Today he decided that he'd have a better attitude about it, thankfully!

He is already enjoying chemistry and I am relieved to see that the AIG is not too far above his head. Although we don't always get 3 lessons in, he really likes the experiments so far. We are using a marble notebook to teach him to record the scientific method to the extent that he can (including any photos, data charts, and drawing). Below he was testing to see whether yeast grow better with sugar or honey as their food source.

2nd Grade
Writing with Excellence Phonetic Zoo (Level A) (phonics based auditory spelling)
MCP Plaid Phonics Level C
AL Right Start Math Level C
Reading to me
Read-aloud
Simply Grammar (Karen Andreola)
The Story of the World (finish v1 & start vol2)
Sonlight Core 2 Science

With Reagan, I am always looking for something....anything....that will work with the way she processes. She's just not a left-to-right, fit-in-a-box, do-what-everyone-else-does kind of learner. The Christ Centered Curriculum phonics program that we used for the last 2 years, just doesn't seem to velcro the info into her head nor does it interest her - at all. So this year, I purchased Phonetic Zoo in the hope that it would help her to develop her auditory processing as well as improving her spelling. We are taking it slowly, but I hope to have her grab the headphones and complete lessons on her own by Jan. In the meantime, she is really enjoying MCP phonics workbook because she can read the instructions herself, complete 2 pages in a short amount of time, and it's full of color and varying excercises which hold her attention.

For math, we continue with the Right Start program that I love so much and that gave Jefferson such a strong math foundation. I have found that the only difference in her learning is that she requires more practice (which in this program comes in the form of card games mostly but also much abacus work) than he did in order to deepen her understanding of an algorithm. I have been pleasantly surprised so far this year at her memory of what she previously learned (she had about 8 weeks summer break due to the pregnancy!) as well as her willingness to talk through her solution process with me. I think she is finally understanding that I expect her to show me what's going on in her brain so that I can help her to become better!

Reading outloud is something that Reagan finds to be laborious, except on the rare occasion where she is reading to the little boys. And yet she needs it more than she realizes since she still doesn't sound out difficult words very well (she just isn't willing to slow down and try - just wants to know or else skip it). So I have to be careful what we choose for her to read, so that she finds more success than frustration. We only spend about 15 minutes each day and I hope that this is enough? Currently, we are enjoying the "Millers" series of readers by Christian Light Publications but I will use anything that I see holds her attention.

Read aloud is just as tough for me to figure out for her. I am not able to read something like "Jason & the Argonauts" or "Moccasin Trail" and expect any comprehension out of her. So instead of reading from the same things I did for Jefferson (mostly based on where we were in history), I'm just grabbing at straws. She liked the adaptation of the Odyssey that I found and has enjoyed the last two Magic Tree House books (Ancient Greece & Ancient Rome) but I really want to move into harder works or have her listen to the stuff I'm reading to J. But maybe later - we'll see.

I am hoping to be more diligent in The Story of the World this year, as we barely worked through half of it last year. This would have stressed me a few years ago, but I have figured out that she needs more in depth study or sources in order to really connect with history (coloring pages, maps, Usborne, DK Eyewitness, Magic Tree House, etc). And with her slowness to read and write, I could not concetrate much on history last year. I do enjoy SOTW however, and will not be trying to incorporate Mystery of History this year as it does not suite her learning style. My goal is to stay on top of adding living books to her history, so that she starts to get a real feel for the ancient peoples and places.

Science definitely interests her if I can keep it short and to the point. We are using SL Core 2, which is a combination of different studies. She finally has enough penmanship and reading skills to handle these short lessons. Plus, I am trying to keep her in the loop on the experiments that Jefferson is doing (below is our lactic acid fermented veggies/pickles). I find it interesting that she will often be sitting in her own time, reading a Magic School Bus book or some other books from our science shelf! We will continue to incorporate nature sketches when we can, as she is finding that she loves to draw and she loves to look at Creation. It's so exciting for me to see her interested in something!

Right now we are still in the exciting, new part of the year and are just finding our groove. Summer keeps interrupting us, but pool time, rollerskating, and bike riding all count as P.E. around here and the weather and camp must be enjoyed as we have it. The house seems particularly messy (as the 'littles' get more unsupervised time) but the structure is definitely doing us all good and is feeling comfortable again. I am surprised at what God has done with my teaching style in the 5 years since I started J in Kindergarden! I hope that Jefferson and Reagan will both learn this year, that above all, I just want them to put in their best effort and be diligent in working through any frustrations they may have. Reagan needs to learn to accept my correction, no matter how small, with no rebellion (depending on her mood, she can have a major breakdown if I even ask her to erase a word and put it somewhere else on the page!). And Jefferson needs to get himself out of "I'm being graded" mode and more into "I need to learn/remember something about this for my own benefit" mode (I can already see him starting to motivate himself better each day and I'm hoping it continues!).

So this may be it for awhile around this blog, as this pregnant momma just can't do everything (this garden shot was 3 months ago - before it turned into an inaccessible jungle)! I'll try to get some photos or updates in along the way this fall!

3rd Grade at Plymouth MA

2010-06-12T09:45:00.001-04:00

Although I haven't had time to finish this post until now (5 months later!), it is important for Jefferson to have a record of it so I post it late anyway....

Every year at D. C. Academy, Mrs. Third Grade Teacher takes her 3rd grade class on a four-day trip to Plymouth, MA to culminate their studies on the history of the pilgrims. This year I got to go with Jefferson and it was so well worth it! This trip was truly, truly wonderful and so much more vauable than any field trip I've ever taken. [Jefferson still raves about it!]

Having been taught the history of the pilgrims in public school, I got a much watered down and biased version of their purpose and their ordeal. This trip was a delightful learning experience for me and a majorly memorable trip for Jefferson. He was so excited that he could hardly stand it! And since God is the Author of all history (whether you believe it or not), it was a huge blessing to walk and learn from Mrs. Third Grade Teacher, who's studied these most important founding people from the best sources - themselves and their writings! Her passion is to work to see that the truth of our nation's beginnings is not lost in the mire of political correctness or modern rewriting based on popular opinion. Sorry folks, but God cannot be taken out of this story, for His hand is clearly shown in His providence towards these Spirit-led people in a time of heavy religious oppression and difficult economic times (for such a group)!

We took a million photos and got very little sleep (I cannot help but be up at the crack of dawn and by 10pm was sooooo very exhausted) and walked a lot to get as much covered as we could. Jefferson loved staying in a hotel, swimming (if that's what you can call a Polar Bear Plunge - lol!) in the ocean for his 1st time, staying up late, being with his friends, and trying to get himself gored by a steer. He will likely never forget the meaning of the word 'economy' since his student group ~~got stuck with~~ was assigned that topic for their trip presentation. He even found out that he loves the freedom of journaling. He will NEVER forget this trip!

Looking forward to getting to MA & loving the busride

Journaling in his notebook

The Mayflower II - amazing working ship with period actors onboard

No slackers here - we learned at every stop!

Our country's oldest mill - beautiful & quite interesting!

He survived the 'Polar Bear Plunge' in the bay at the hotel!

The Forefather's Monument - I cried (really!) when the class recited the Mayflower Compact!

Portraying Samuel Fuller at Plimoth Plantation - he was great!

Main Street up to the fort at Plimoth Plantation (replica of original)

Journaling in "William Bradford's" backyard - beautiful!

The inside of a pilgrim's house - very small!

My little pilgrim boy!

And let's not forget the best part of the trip - the pillow fight at the Plantation sleepover (I think the girls won)!

Another excellent actor at the Plantation and another teary moment for me as the children sang the 100th Psalm for him!

The steer that tried to gore J's arm! (And me who must be subconscious of the 4-week pregnant belly -lol!)

With Mrs. Third Grade Teacher - the awesome organizer of the trip!

Overall, we were exhausted by the end of this trip. It was non-stop and late night for us but so much to see and so.much.fun! I was proud of my oldest boy and his motivation to journal and learn and get to know his history better. I am so glad that Jefferson will never forget his 3rd grade teacher or this special trip to Plymouth!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-04T09:06:00.000-04:00

Forgot to post our Easter family photo this year!

Most of them went like this:

But we finally got one with everyone smiling - no easy task anymore:

Worth the effort though, cuz I think they're just adorable when they aren't screamin' & fussing - lol!

Some 'Sweet' Recipes

2010-05-12T22:32:00.000-04:00

I promised some recipes for some of our GAPS treats around here (and with bloggy-block, why not now - lol!). These are considered super special since I don't often have time to make them. They are oh-so-yummy and not that hard to make.

Almond Brittle (Can be peanut brittle if you aren't allergic)
From Grain-Free Gourmet by Jodi Badger & Jenny Lass

1 C honey
1/4 C unsalted, nothing added almond butter
2 Tbsp coconut oil (or butter)
2 C almonds (we soak & dry them first - they are crispier this way) chopped to your liking
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda (we don't use this on GAPS)

1) Boil honey on low to medium heat in a medium-sized pot for 16-18 minutes, or until it reaches 315 degrees F on a candy thermometer [Having messed this up the first time, I highly recommend using the thermometer]. The honey should boil as vigoraously as it can without boiling over. Stir the honey as it boils.

2) Turn off the stove, but keep the pot on the burner. Add the almond butter, coconut oil, almonds, and vanilla, and mix well.

3) Add the baking soda - the candy will bubble and froth.

4) While the candy if bubbling, spread it evenly onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

5) Refridgerate for 1 hour.

6) Once the candy has hardened, break it into large pieces and store in the refridgerator to keep it crisp.

Coconut Macaroons
From Cara @ Health, Home and Happiness (http://www.healthhomehappy.com/2009/12/tropical-traditions-shredded-coconut.html

6 egg whites
Pinch of sea salt
2/3 C liquid honey
2 1/2 C unsweetened, unsulphered shredded coconut

1) Preheat oven to 250 degrees F

2) Grease a large cookie sheet with coconut oil (parchment paper didn't work for me)

3) Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

4) Add the pinch of seas salt while the mixer is on.

5) Slowly pour in honey as the mixer is still on.
6) Fold in the shredded coconut with a spatula until it's thoroughly mixed. Be gentle, you don't want to deflate the eggs!

7) Use a cookie scoop or spoon to scoop about a 1 Tbsp mound at about 1 inch between cookies on the sheet.

8) Bake for about 50 minutes (not too brown) and allow to cool briefly on the cookie sheet.

9) Remove with a thin spatula - they will continue to harde and dry as they cool.

These are the next best thing to heaven so be sure to make them when the kids and hubby and pets are ALL away so that you can eat them ALL!! Thx so much to Cara for this simple and GAPS friendly recipe! She has some lovely photos since my didn't turn out as 'pretty' as they tasted.

Sage Sausage Patties (or Meatballs)
From my very own brain! :-)

1 lb grass-fed ground beef
1 lb free-range ground turkey (or pork)
4 tsp sea salt
2 tsp dried ground sage
4 tsp dried ground coriander
pepper to taste

1) Mix all ingredients together (I use my KitchenAid blender)

2) Form into 3-nch patties and freeze for use anytime (they seem to cook flatter if frozen first)

3) Fry with a bit of coconut oil.

For meatballs:
1) Finely chop 2 carrots and 1/2 onion (or any other veggie you like such as spinach or zuchinni) in a food processor and add to meat before forming meatballs.

2) Freeze meatballs for later adding to stock for soup or cooking in a bit of tomato sauce for eating with noodles.

I also use this combo for stuffed peppers (shown below, ready to go into the oven) and just use a thermometer to tell me when they're cooked in the middle. I add plain broth around the peppers for a steaming affect but you could add rice or quinoa to the broth too. Truthfully, you could add any combo of spices that your family loves for this meat mixture! Freezing them makes them quick and easy for when you're short on time.

Apple Crisp
From Grain-Free Gourmet by Jodi Bage and Jenny Lass

10 large sweet apples, such as Gala, Fuji, or Ida Red
1/2 C water
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
pinch sea salt
1/2 C nothing-added raisins
1 C almond flour
1 1/2 C almonds, chopped (we soak & dry these first)
2 Tbsp coconut oil (or butter), melted
1 Tbsp liquid honey (we used around 5 Tbsp cuz the kids wanted it sweet!)
1/2 tsp ground cinnimon
pinch sea salt

1) Preheat oven to 310 degrees F.

2) Peel the apples and chop into chunks or slices.

3) Place apples in a large po with water, cinnimon, nutmeg, and salt. Cook until they are soft but not mushy.

4) Remove apples from heat and drain, reserving 1/4 C of the apple liquid for the topping.

5) Add the raisins and toss unil evenly distributed. Pour into a 9x13 dish.

6) Prepare the topping by combing the remaining ingredients using your hands to create a crumbly mixture, not a paste. Add more honey if you like it sweeter as this recipe is 'low' sweetness.

7)Crumble the topping evenly over the apple mixture.

8) Bake for 40 minutes, until the top is lightly browned.

9) Serve warm. The crisp can also be baked ahead of time and reheated in a 200 degree F oven for 30 minutes.

In our house this seems like a very sweet recipe, but we realize that our tastebuds are used to less sweet than most. Just up the honey to taste for your family. The kids fight over this one but usually their daddy wins out - lol!

Pumpkin Pie Squash
From Me (an everyday favorite around here)!

2-3 butternut squash (acorn squash works too, just not as 'pumpkiny' flavored)
2-5 Tbsp honey (to taste)
2-5 Tbsp coconut oil (or none if you like)
1-2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 - 1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
smidge of ground cloves if you like

1) Cute squash in halves, scoop out seeds, and lay face down in baking dishes. Fill dishes with 1 inch of water.

2) Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes or until a knife easily pierces the skin.

3) Let cool (face up) a bit before scooping into a large bowl.

4) Add remaining ingredients.

5) Blend VERY well. I use a KitchenAide stick blender - it turns the squash into a heavenly pudding-like texture.

6) Add to a pie crust if you wish to enjoy it that way, but we just stuff our faces as soons as the blender comes out of the bowl!

This one is all about approximating the amounts that you like most. I've easily put too much clove and nutmeg in before so I add just enough to taste it. And again, we don't like it as sweet as some people do so we keep the honey low but you should add as much as you like! As soon as the kids are eating eggs again, we will add 1 or 2 to this to bake it as a crisp or pie (with almond flour crust - haven't tried that yet but sure gonna!). When I have time I can add an egg and some almond flour and fry this stuff up in coconut oil for what the kids call "pancakes" (this photo was from our last attempt to re-introduce eggs). They love these but they irritate the daylights outta me since I can't seem to get the ratio right so that they are indeed flippable pancakes and not just a crumbly mess of fried and smooshed squash!

GAPS can seem quite 'restrictive' but certainly not tasteless for us. We are finding all kinds of delicious options as we go! So for anyone willing to try, go ahead and enjoy! We sure do!

Here's the deal....

2010-05-08T20:58:00.000-04:00

I've got blogger's block (if there really is such a thing!). And I'm not too worried about it.

Yes - there are a ton of things running around my head for posting (usually crystal clear at 7am when I'm driving Jefferson to school and nowhere near my laptop).

Yes - I have hundreds of cute and fuzzy photos from the stuff going on around here as the weather warms up (too many to actually sit down and choose from).

Yes - I love leaving posts for my kids to read later and remember their young lives (and how they almost made me crazy).

But I've just not got the time or clarity to get any of it down. Got the end lessons to push through with Reagan, and a school trip to Plymouth with Jefferson. A twice-the-size-as-last-year garden which is only now finally sown. I'm in a brand new place spiritually right now and I just don't want anything to distract me or drag me away from the amazing things the Lord is doing in me. So computer time has been cut drastically, sleep has been added, and the tube has been all kinds of lonely as I continue to work at getting my prioities straight in this little homeschool/family.

But I feel great and am hoping to be given a smidge of time soon to journal a few things for my kiddos. With that said - now to bed early. Good night!

Oh! And also, JEFFERSON IS COMING BACK TO HERITAGE ACADEMY again next year for 4th grade!! How awesome is that?? (insert delighted squeal and beaming smile HERE) Details later - I promise.....

Reagan Turned 7!

2010-04-01T22:25:00.000-04:00

Reagan turned 7...almost a month ago now. And I haven't blogged photos or anything due to my ~~loss of marbles~~ lack of focus and daily runrunrun. But such is life around here and these things are better late than never! She did have such a fabulous day that I thought I should leave her a bloggy reminder.

Since she seems to display a love of all things crafty, I booked a room & instructor at Miche*al's Craft store for a few hours in the morning. I brought some decorations to match the craft being done (a kid-sized apron with butterfly stamps) as well as some very special treats for her and her friends to eat. Her older brother came as well as her BFF, Lacey, and a new friend from homeschool co-op, Sarah (nice and simple - just the way her momma likes it!). The room was spacey and we were given plenty of time for the kids to work on their lovely aprons (goodness did they love this craft) while this momma got some grown-up girl talk in (as well as time to oogle Joyful Mama's newest princess....sigh - I heart babies!).

But you should have seen Jefferson and Reagan dig into the eat-treats! You'd think they hadn't had a piece of cake or candy in weeks! Oh....wait.....they haven't. LOL! I 'caught' Jefferson with a fistful of almond brittle - this after 3 chocolate cupcakes, 2 daterolls, and an untold numbers of coconut macaroons - and gave him my best forboding "momma says you'll get a tummy ache" look. And Reagan was just pleased as punch with her eats as well! (Needless to say that lunch was not well-eaten when we got home - lol!)

When it was time for her party gifts, Rae ever so quietly and tackfully shouted out, "Mommy! We can't eat these - we have to throw them away RIGHT NOW!" in regards to the first thing unwrapped - an 8-pack of Rees*es PB Cups! I wanted to crawl in a hole but instead reminded her that we could in fact freeze them for later (and by 'later' I mean, whenever Aunt Becky can get herself over to take them off our hands and enjoy them herself). That faux pas behind her, she gladly accepted the bounty of lovely presents brought for her all the while smiling and posing for the camera (she's gotten quite "America's Next Top Model" about this when the camera's around - lol!) and giving hugs and thanks. She received quite a few crafty kits, a gorgeous handmade tote & hair scarf, magnetic 'paper' doll, puzzles, and her first 'Darbie' doll (having never had a Barbie, this is what she thought we all called it). Jefferson bought her a bracelet with his own money and was so excited to see her open it. DH and I got her some dress up clothes (because every girl needs a tutu and sparkly pink shoes to go with her fairy wings) and a bead bracelet kit.

When we returned home from her party, Nana and Grandpa were up from MD and showered her with more gifts & attention. She could hardly take it all in, especially with the huge influx of sweet treats and was surely a tired birthday girl by the end of the day.

She told me, however, that this was her "best birthday ever!" Bighappymommysigh......

Hazards of Good Food!

2010-03-28T16:01:00.002-04:00

I'm typing at a snail's pace (ugh) with just my left hand. Why?? Because of how hazardous the food prep in this new food plan has become! What with all the veggies to chop every.single.day a momma can get quite lax about the extreme sharpness of the blade with which she is working and take off a thumbtip in the process.

:-(

The worst part is that this is the SECOND time I've done this in the last 8 weeks - same chopper! My tears (and holy cow did I cry this time - last time not so much even though it was deeper the first time) this time came not for the pain, but for the stupidity of not throwing out that doggone slicer the last time this happened. That and the realiazation of just how much this injury slows down my work and adds to my sense of overwhelm. It took 4 weeks to heal almost fully from last time and was still pink when I dug into it today.

I DON'T have time for this!

I have veggies to chop and kids to feed and laundry to fold and numerous others bits of life which require the use of one's right thumb. Not to mention the additional work that DH has to do to keep us going until I can use the right hand again (took 2 full days last time before I could chop, cut, wash, cook, fold, dress kiddos without opening the wound up). Poor, dear hubby! (Such a good, good man!)

At least this time the Spirit had the sense to remind me to call my in-laws who live down the road, one of whom is a doctor. Not that I revelled in the idea of him poking and prodding my fresh wound and torturing me with alcohol (DH says thats what he always used on them growing up!).

You see.....I am a wimp. Not just a wimp but the kind of wimp that cries at a paper cut and has to look away from needles. And by the time dear father in-law got here, the thumb was clotted well into the gauze and I was practically biting my lip not to bawl as I peeled it off for him to examine. And then I got woozy and he had to have me lay on the kitchen floor to clean and bandage it while I shook like a leaf.

Such.a.BABY! Could you have witnessed you would have been ROFL, I'm telling ya!! :-o

Maybe if I would just listen to God telling me to slow down, I wouldn't have to be stopped in my tracts like this, huh? Like anything else that seems no good at all, there is always something good to come out of it. I 'll let ya know when I figure it out for this situation - lol!! Until then, I'll just type with my left hand, very, very slowly.....

How Does THAT Taste??

2010-03-23T22:28:00.001-04:00

Wanted to post an update on our progress with the new food plan for this year based upon 'The Gut and Pyschology Syndrome' book (aka GAPS) and similar also to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. I've already posted our reasons for this venture here and here and our basic plan, here. Many of you have seen frequent (and sometimes strange) posts on Face*Book (green burgers, duck, bone pate, etc.). Stephanie at Keeper of the Home has also just started this and has done a better job of explaining it all here and here than I.

So far we have been in the Introduction to GAPS, which is a very restricted version on the full GAPS diet aimed at jumpstarting the gut-healing process with extremely digestible and well cooked foods, along with the addition of huge amounts of fats and bone broths. In this period our diet consists mostly of water/broth cooked meats and veggies with lots of fats in soup form. Each week we add a new food - slowly.

(Veggie soup w/ leftover roast duck)

We started by adding:

lactofermented veggies (real saurkraut, beet kvass, pickles, salsa)
avacado (not the best results - we'll try again later)
raw egg yolks in soups
eggs scrambled in large amounts of fat (we think all the eggs were producing dry skin and itching in Rae & Adam so we'll try adding them again later; I am desparate to be using eggs as they are so nutrtious, cheaper than meat, and great for baking)
nuts (soaked first and dried in the oven) - we are definitely overdoing these as they seem to be our only allowable snack right now. I think they may reacting to these but plan on keeping them in.
raw veggies (lettuce, cucumber, carrot, salad so far)

And soon to be added:

cooked fruits
raw fruits
try the eggs again
try avocado again
ghee (clarified butter)
goat yogurt (can't wait!!!!)
goat and/or coconut milk kefir (very high in probiotics)

(Stuffed peppers ready for the oven - kids love these!)

So what does our daily menu look like around here, right now? Well, it may seem rather strange or bland to others but we are loving it and eating quite a few new (to us) things!

Breakfast:

Pork sausages (from the farm) or homemade turkey sausage patties
Bone broth leftover from dinner with whatever veggies are left in it (sometimes we add more)
Jefferson and I and dh have 3 eggs fried in lard or coconut oil since we seem to handle them well enough
Probiotics

Morning snack (1 of these):

bone pate sometimes with carrot sticks for dipping
almond butter with carrot sticks
handful of soaked and dehydrated nuts or seeds
soft boiled egg (for myself)
cup/bowl of leftover broth
leftover sausages (although it is very, very rare that any are leftover as the kids eat like horses right now)
no fruit yet - not enough gut healing has ocurred yet to try these
beef jerky (no sugar or additives - got mine from the Leola Amish Market and proceeded to try to burn an eyeball out when I somehow got some of the black pepper in it!)

Lunch:

either chicken or beef bone broth in large pot (haven't braved the fishy broth yet)
tons of whatever veggies I have (turnips, cauliflower, brocolli, onion, carrot, spinach, squash, green beans, etc.) chopped into the pot
some type of meat (sausages, meatballs, beef roast cubed, chicken, duck, ground meat) cooked in pot before veggies go in
sometimes butternut or acorn squash mashed with coconut oil, smidge of honey, spices
dose of lactofermented veggie juice

Dinner:

salad with carrots, cucumber, soaked sunflower seeds, EV olive oil, raw apple cidar vinegar, Herbamare
roast chicken/duck/beef roast (onion, celery, sea salt, spices)
veggies (turnips, onions, shrooms are my fave) roasted in seasalt and lard
squash (if we didn't have it for lunch)
dose of lactofermented veggie juice
dose of cod liver oil
probiotics

(Duck bone broth - beautifully gelatinous!)

We are just now starting to step away from the soup, soup, soup stage to roasting and pancooking meats and sauteeing veggies. But every meal still must have a cup of bone broth and lactofermented veggies as well as a ton of fat. I spoon globs of it (tallow, lard, coconut oil but no butter yet) into every bowl/cup of broth for the kids and am trying out things like "fudge" made from coconut oil, honey, vanilla, and almond butter. The kids love the 'zingy' salad and the 'zingy' fermented veggies and only struggle with disliking zucchini and mushrooms so far. And although our guts aren't ready for such things every day, we can still have a GAPS friendly treat for special occasions, such as Reagan's birthday (almond brittle, date rolls, coconut macaroons, coconut cupcakes).

(Roast duck, roasted veggies in lard, butternut squash 'pancakes' - my favorite meal so far!)

After about 8 weeks, the results are not so easy to quantify. The obvious is that the kids' (R, A, and L)eczema cleared up right away and all the poo (sorry but that's what we watch these days!) in the house except for Lincoln's is normal (this is the first time for this for Adam - ever!). But another observation is that Adam has not caught a single virus since we started! This is the child who has caught every bug that's come around since he was 11 months old! He hasn't missed any school (nor complained about his sausage snacks in the face of Gold*fish) due to illness either. His speech therapist has noticed a major jump in his speech progress as well as his social progress improvement at preschool. Lincoln also seemed to burst forth with speech growth although he is still struggling with constipation (possibly due to leftover issue from his bouts with antibiotics). I felt great for the first 3 weeks but now find myself to be tired and am wondering what's causing that. I lost my last bit of baby weight (9lbs) and leveled out. All the kids are full and satisfied with each meal and I often get a "thumbs up" from Adam (so stinkin' cute when he does that - usually comes with the words "totally awesome!"). Allergy season is starting up and in all of the nice days we've spent outside, we've only had to give Adam allergy eyedrops once. Last year he was living on steroids just to keep his eyes from puffing closed! Of course, I'm hoping that this improvement will continue and get him through the worst of the pollen season yet to come.

(Happy kiddos reading, reading, reading!)

We still have a way to go, especially with Adam. I am hoping to see their behaviors even out a little more as they adjust to the higher doses of probiotics ("die-off" of 'bad' bacteria can cause quite some yucky bouts of tantrums!). I am more than ready to start adding some more foods in - especially those eggs! The meat budget is killing me and I can't really use dairy, or eggs, or beans even to set it off. I don't have enough room in both fridges for veggies to stretch 2 weeks and my farm runs have to be frequent also so my errands are increased around here. Add that to the running and financial burden we are feeling from having Jefferson in away school and it's not so easy to make work. Can you say, "Holy pricey grass-fed beef, Batman!" Where's my 99cent box O' macNcheese when I need it - lol!

I am glad however, that the kids and dh love the foods, that we live in Lancaster - a wonderful farmland full of good foods (and whole food eatin' peeps), that we are all feeling better from eating better, and that we aren't spending so much on eating out or snacks. I feel great, even if tired, when I place a good hearty meal in front of the fam that I know is working to heal them instead of harming them. I am thankful that we all enjoy the taste and are full with each meal. There is no more stress from hearing a child tell me their tummy hurts after I feed them something processed!

I'll tell ya - it tastes great around here!! God's leading has been fruitful (as usual)! Recipes and more photos to follow soon....

Baby Book Entry for Lincoln

2010-03-18T08:54:00.003-04:00

I could not resist blogging about our youngest, fattest toddler - Lincoln (aka "FatFat", "LumpLump", Lumpy Bear", "LubLub"). His baby book is in a sorry state (as is usually the case for babies who arrive anywhere after second place!) and I don't want to forget just how amazing he is at this age - 28 months!

He has always been ~~mammoth~~ a big boy and unlike Adam, kept his health and muscle and fat as he grew into toddlerhood. He met his milestones and his silly, playful personality blossomed. He loved to copy his older siblings and try to keep up with everything that they do.

But at 27months, we weren't really paying attention to his motor skills and the extent of his vocabulary was "Mahmoo", "Dahdoo", "car", and "star." With the speech and motor and auditory processing delays we've seen in Adam (4) and the auditory and sensory processing delays in Reagan (7), I guess we just didn't think twice about fretting over where Lincoln would fall in his development. We just expected to meet whateever needs he may have, as the Lord led us - just as with the others.

Just last month, however, we were surprised to see a huge jump in his development - namely his speech but also in other areas. In just a few days of time he moved from starting with 1-word communication to using 3 words in a sentence! We were shocked that he could sing many of the words to his favorite nursery rhymes. He could ask for "want more nuts" or "need a coat" or "read a book." He sings "Jesus Loves Me" with us already! All from nothing! Obviously he had been quietly soaking up all the world's input around him.

We also noticed that he is able to do fine motor activities such as gripping crayons (something that Adam has only recently started doing) and playing with big brother's tiny Le*go sets. He started using his sign language at the same time the words started coming out (we'd tried signs for the last 12 months since he wasn't talking, but to no avail!!). He doesn't fall down all the time or sit funny or turn his legs funny but runs as fast as he can after his siblings and piles on top of them. He can climb in and out of crib on his own (again Adam could not so this surprised us) and turn door knobs to open them. He will not be left behind and insists on doing everything that he can by himself - zipping, feeding himself, putting on his shoes, page turning, playdough, coloring. His independent nature amazes us - he is the most determined of the four for sure!

We've also noticed that he knows his colors and most of his shapes. He seems to be learning them from the things that Adam works on (at home and at perschool) and from the tons of books that he insists on being read to him (thankfully Reagan loves to read to him too)! Tonight as I was being silly with him at bedtime, I noticed that he could copy any face that I made at him - sad, mad, puckered lips, silly half opened mouth. This seemed strange that he could actually do this! Is this what 2yo's are supposed to be able to do?? I don't recall these details from my others (certainly not Adam) since I don't write enough of it down nor can remember far enough back. I would like to think that our new food plan helped to jumpstart this progress (Ms. Speech Therapist has seen a huge improvement in Adam as well), but I don't know - only that his speech showed up the week after we started the diet. Hmmmm...

Anyway, I just had to get these things down....before they slip away and out of my memory and into the chaos and noise and busyness of life. The unique personality and development of our fourth little blessing just thrills me and reminds me of God's obvious work in our family!

Wordless (Brainless) Wednesday

2010-03-10T06:07:00.001-05:00

Will someone please tell me what made me think that THIS huge bowl of chopped veggies would fit into THAT small pot which is already filled with soup and meatballs??? Uhhh. No. Go find me the huge stockpot please....

The Tough Parts of Homeschooling...

2010-03-07T19:27:00.000-05:00

No one could have prepared me for how difficult it is to teach your children while also managing the rest of life in the house. But the juggling of cooking, reading, training, teaching, cleaning, organizing, researching, etc. isn't what I'm finding to be the toughest part of teaching my children.

So far, I've found that getting them through their own frustration or learning blocks is so.very.hard.

For example, when I sit to teach Reagan how to add 2-digit numbers for the fourth time and she starts crying the instant that she can't throw me an answer - this is when I struggle. I think right away of how a 'professional' educator would know what to do - how to make her see the numbers more clearly. I think of how if I could just keep my tone of voice more even it wouldn't trigger her emotions. I think of how I shouldn't be, but truly am, irritated that another lesson is brought to a crawl by tears. I wonder at how she got to thinking in the first place that my expectation is so sky high! So many times, I've told her (as I see her tensing up or heading toward frustration) that school is about repetition, practice, learning by doing - and not about right answers....

And yet we sit. Me staring out the opposite window and biting my lip and praying. She crying and rubbing her eyes. Both of us waiting until her brain is functional again ("Crying shuts your brain down Rae. It just doesn't work right when you get upset") so we can salvage the lesson. In the background, I hear a timer for something cooking/burning and/or the younger ones either screaming at each other or screaming in play or screaming about a boo-boo. The phone rings and I hope that the message tells me that's it's not a pressing call of any sort so that it doesn't add to my mind's diversion. I can not seem to help but feel the pressure of time, since there are so many other things as well as other little people that need my attention.

But...
I am thankful that I am her mother. That I know her heart and mind well. That I don't have to believe the lies my enemy tells me about my own teaching ability. I am thankful that this is not every day every lesson at Heritage Academy. I am thankful that I know her heart will be softer when she is finished crying. I am thankful that I don't have to meet anyone's else's goal for her - only that of her own growth rate. I am thankful that I can tell when she's ready.

And as I sit and think on all that I'm thankful for, it seems but a moment when I feel tug on my sleeve and we hug and we start again with "I don't expect perfection, Reagan, only that you try and that you accept it when I correct you. You don't need to cry - that makes lessons no fun. Let's try again, okay?"

I am not always patient - definitely not. But I know that Someone is trying to make me so with the tough parts of homeschooling...

[Monica over at Shine Again understands the tough parts as well - she practically wrote the words from my head in her latest post so I had to share it.]

Summer Reading Goal

2010-03-05T10:56:00.002-05:00

I'll start by saying that I like to set high expectations. In my opinion, how can one hope to achieve much if the bar is set too low? Now, I don't mean that lofty goals must all be met - certainly not. That would make life unbearably stressful (like for we type A's!!).

I have ~~pounded myself with guilt~~ struggled with feeling like Jefferson (and even Reagan) has not had enough read-aloud time this year and would really like to improve on that, especially as the weather improves (while it was warm, we were getting 1/2 hour in after school on the swings and loving it!). This requires the 'lofty' goal that I stop treating the afternoon time like it's 'mine' and give it back to the kids instead (uhhmm - this will require more coffee people - more coffee!!)! With that said, here is my reading goal for Jefferson and Reagan from now through the end of summer. [Those in orange are to be read by Jefferson or Reagan]

Jefferson:
Swift Rivers (Cornelia Meigs)
Robert Fulton - Boy Craftsman (Marguerite Henry)
George Washington Our First Leader (Augusta Stevenson)
Carry On Mr. Bowditch (Jean Lee Latham)
Meet Thomas Jefferson (Marvin Barrett)
Johnny Tremain (Esther Forbes)
Sarah, Plain and Tall (Patricia MacLachlan)
Justin Morgan Had a Horse (Marguerite Henry)
C. S. Lewis - Master Storyteller (YWAM Janet &Geoff Benge)
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain (Alice Dalgliesh)
The Sugar Creek Gang #14-24 (Paul Hutchens)
Peter Pan (J.M. Barrie)

Reagan:
I Wonder (Christian Light Reading to Learn Series #1)
Helping Hands (Christian Light Reading to Learn Series #2.1)
Happy Hearts (Christian Light Reading to Learn Series #2.2)
Great Truths for Little Children (Grace & Truth Books)
Prudence and the Millers (Mildred A Martin)
Christian Liberty Nature Reader - Book 1 (Florence Bass) - perfect for warm weather nature observation!
Jason & the Golden Fleece
A Children's Treasury of Mythology (Barnes & Noble)
Little House on the Prairie series (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
Amy Carmichael - Rescuer of Precious Gems (YWAM Janet &Geoff Benge)

What do you think?? If I read 3 straight hours per day per child, we should be able to get through this is no time, right? (hehehehahahasnorthehehe - minus toddlers, cooking, and life in general!)

The problem is that there are just too many books! But it can't hurt to set the bar high! :-D

A Letter to My Children

2010-03-03T21:41:00.002-05:00

To my four little ones,
I have no talent for words, nor ability to spin a tune for you. I don't offer any magnificent or wondrous manner of charm or humor. I simply want you to know about my love for you. How deep it runs.
A wide, wide river could not hold the love I feel for you each. But it is yet a minute drop next to the love of Christ. Your Maker.

You are valuable beyond what you could imagine, for you have been carefully thought out. Planned with a purpose in this life. Brought to fruition in these adorable little people that you are. That He would see fit to lend you to me for a time, short though it is, is uncomprehensible. I don't deserve.

But therein lies His love. Always shown in ways unfathomable to us. There is none worthy of such love. And yet....

An imperfect and weak momma that I am - given care of such gifts. Given stewardship and told to build His legacy here. With you each.

But I fail (...My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness). You know it, even with your young hearts. That the flesh is not fully sanctified. That I can't be what you need. For if so, what then of the work of the cross? Useless if your momma was perfect for you! And so I remind you that my love, deep, deep and so very strong, is but a twinkle in the light of His for you each. Is not what you need in this life.

I hope (desire, pray, long, aspire to my very depth) always to point you to God's Truth. His salvation. But you must do the walking. Listen to me, my dears. You must do the walking. He will take you - arms open wide, for your wages have been paid as well as mine. You were made for Him - not for me (thankful to share, to have this wisp of time with you, sweet ones from my womb). He asks only that you believe. Not that you become perfect. Not that life is easy. Not that no one ever offends you. Not that you work to deserve (we could never....).

Accept his Grace, given to the making of sun-blinding brightness. White! (No longer rags....).

This. This is my love for you. That you would see our Lord in my walk (in my path - purposed by Him). The part that runs side by side with yours each, if for but a whisper of a moment.

I delight in you each! My heart is burdened with this wide, deep love for you - such an exalted goal (above all worldly things!). I pray for you (In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness;for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;...) For your path. That it may lead to His truth and salvation. That we may each be all united in such a glorious presence, as we have never even imagined! His.

Love, grace and peace,
Mommy

...the mouths of babes!

2010-03-02T06:43:00.001-05:00

Lincoln has baffled us by choosing to speak, after 28 months of nothing but our names, star, and moon. Here are some of my favorites from his grinning little face:

"Rockabye baby in the tree top, when the wind blows the cradle will rock" (I kid you not - from no words to this! He loves songs!)

"Kraut" (he loves saurkraut)
"Beet Kuh Vahs" (he loves beet kvass too)
"Baff" (bath)
"JayJay ant RaeRae" (J and R's names)
"Moo meat pleasssse" (More meat please)
"Read uh book?" (My fave!)
"Dom nose?" (Dominoes)
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Adam (4yo): "They're gonna make a baby! They're gonna make a baby!"
(He loves the making of the baby 'robot' put together by parts from box in the movie "Robots")

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But here's the MacDaddy of the week that I must journal for her sake when she calls me about her mischievous children:
Reagan was caught in the nursery of the church we visited last weekend, stealing mini animal crackers. These are NOT allowed on our food plan and she also taught Adam how to steal in the process. She was reprimanded and seemed to take her punishment rather well. When we returned home, she quickly ran for the bathroom and insisted that she didn't need any help with her long dress. She was impatient with how long it was taking me to wash my hands and leave so I was thusly clued into some form of deceit. Her usual m.o. is to try oi hide an 'accident' so I asked to see her underwear (which she was trying to hide from me as she sat).
And low and behold - what do I find? Not wet underwear but a large handful of mini-animal crackers! IN her underwear!!! Stashed away from the church nursery since she didn't have any pockets (and clearly we are starving her in our disallowing of such tempting treats). I literally had to duck my head out of the door so she wouldn't see me choke down a laugh as I called dh to come witness the scene.

Have mercy - I don't know if I will survive this child! Goodness gracious and deary me oh my!
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For more Tiny Talk Tuesday visit Mary over at Not Before 7!

Reagan's Weekly Report - Week # Whoknowswhat

2010-02-28T13:21:00.001-05:00

Another productive week for Reagan's first grade here at Heritage Academy! I'm finding that if I (and by I, I mean my most wonderfully helpful dh who has really helped takes up my slack and make my currently heavier job in the kitchen much easier for me - "Shout out, Hubbs! You rock!") really focus on getting prep work for the day's huge homemade meals and chores done the evening before, our lessons go much more smoothly allowing more wiggle room for her attitude. She has been a bit on the moody side this week and it's meant a lot of lip-biting for me to keep the lesson upbeat and try to keep her from crying (about nothing other than her inability to answer me quickly and correctly every time - I don't know where she gets this standard as I am constantly reminding her to take her time and just try again if she makes a mistake!). So I'm thankful when I have some wiggle room that allows her time to re-adjust her emotions...and also for coffee, even if it is black these days! :-D

Phonics/Spelling:

We plodded through our CCC workbook covering the long /e/ sound when spelled (e consonant silent e), (ea), (ee), and the oh.so.difficult because it doesn't follow our 2-vowel rule, (ie). I find that the rules for using each of these in words are becoming too many for her to manage, so I'm trying to just expose her to as many examples of each as I can through copywork and add to her spelling list (since her spelling 'tray' helps her to 'velcro' the words into her head better). I assume that as she sees the usage of these phonograms more and more over her elementary years, her spelling will improve. (Maybe I'll run her through a Spelling Workout book over the summer to see how she does...)

On another note, I'm looking for advice on 'decoding' words... or breaking them down into syllables with correct accent and vowel sounds marked. At what point should a student learn this? This part of the lesson always tortured Jefferson (as well as me) and is now ~~bringing the glazed deer-in-headlights look to her eyes~~ torturing Reagan also. She just doesn't seem to be able to hold all the 'rules' for syllable breaks, accents and vowel sounds in her head...so every lesson is like a new lesson instead of one that builds on previous knowledge. Will this info get picked up later? How will this skill help her - in reading...spelling??

Writing/Penmanship:

As I can see her motorskills improving and her hand becoming stronger, I am trying to give her 1 to 3 lines of copywork each day (we started the year with that much per week). She is finally writing more quickly but her penmanship still looks wonderful. I never thought we'd get past all her little kinks and backwords habits she'd had! With some good spelling basics under her belt and the ability to read, she is also becoming confident enough to write her own little stories. She does this on papers and cards and little homemade 'books' and has a great time with her imagination! I try not to correct these writings unless she asks me because I want to encourage her confidence in writing down the things on her mind. I love the initiative she shows!

(A Lightning McQueen book written & illustrated for little brother, A)

Grammar (FLL):

I love that these lessons are so short - they don't seem to burden her that way and I can fit them in here or there. She is gaining a better feel for the noun, proper and common, while learning some basics, like her address and how to abbreviate. She memorized the poem "Work" by Anonymous in two days (shocking me, as usual, with her memory). I wrote down her narration of "The Girl Who Wanted to be Dirty" and she illustrated it.

Math:

One of our first tough weeks in this subject - I was surprised! It turns out that she needs some more practice partitioning numbers up to twenty (ie. 20=8+5+5+2). I really want her to have a good grip on mental adding strategies before she moves on to harder topics. Right now she is working on adding by "completing the ten", "two five's", "adding nines" (always one less) and seems to be able to add most 2-digit numbers that I give her, even if they 'trade' over into the next place number. She still needs practice at this, so we are working on card games since they keep her interested and relaxed (I looooove Right Start's card games! I have no problem resorting to 'trickery' of this kind to get strategies into student's brains - lol!). But even the games didn't seem to keep her from getting frustrated this week with the partitioning, as she would start crying almost as soon as she hesitated at an answer. It was as difficult for me, the teacher, as it was when Jefferson used to deal with frustration! The real lesson for them is that practice is more important than fast or correct answers! I'm hoping that next week the practice will result in a more relaxed and confident student (and fewer greys hairs for me!). I am happy that we are still progressing well and have plenty of room for the practice that she needs as this foundational mental math is sooooo important.

And all this in just one week! Surely I could learn to make my post a little more concise so I'd be more likely to keep up with journaling her progress. But hey....there's always next week's report...

Jefferson & Magnetism

2010-02-26T07:52:00.006-05:00

Jefferson is currently studying science in his second trimester at away school....and loving every minute of it! Not that I'm surprised by that - he has always loved science. And this year is full of new stuff (as opposed to my nature walks and sketches - "Another drawing? Awww, Mooooom!") with a new (and well respected)teacher.

His longterm science assignment this trimester was to choose a scientific principle, find sources from which to study it, write a paragraph about it, and find a way to demonstrate it.

He choose magnetism and a demonstration of a home made compass. I will admit that I was a bit nervous about this assignment since I am ~~clueless~~ not well informed about magnetism and didn't know quite where to start helping him (not mention the rest of the 'chaos' around here with their fat little legs and loud little voices). Nevermind that this was in the Sonlight plan for his 3rd grade year at home - if I haven't taught it, I haven't ~~learned~~ re-learned it. So I diverted to my oh.so.smart mechanical engineer educated (but working software engineer) hubbs (there has to be some kind of info about magnetism in those degrees and experience, right?)!

Nice thing about homeschooling is that one can always find a book (or two or three) with information about magnetism and compasses around! Who needs the internet when one is a bookaholic?? ;-)

Hubbs helped him learn how to copy the reference information from the books and summarize the information about magnetism given in each book so that all Jefferson would have to do for his sloppy copy is to pull his summaries together into a paragraph. There ensued much arguing at this point as Jefferson has trouble listening (to us, mind you, not to Mrs. Third Grade Teacher!) and seems to know everything already (is this just age 8 or is it MY kid? LOL!).

Once he had read from his sources and discussed the principle with dh, he chunked out a sloppy copy which dh didn't have time to help him refine. So I sat to help him fix spelling and chop any extra stuff. He was so durned excited the whole time I worked with him that I thought someone might get throttled - lol!

Here's the end result for "Magnetism" by Jefferson:

"I would like to know more about magnetism. The main people who discovered magnetism are Nicolas Tesla and Michael Faraday. Some vocabulary words that you might need to know are: magnetic field, which means the field surrounding an object, magnetic domains, which are atoms that all have the same magnetic direction, and magnetism, which is how materials respond when exposed to a magnetic field. That ends our vocabulary words. Now on to the background information. There are many uses for magnetism including electric motors, bicycle lights, and compasses. The compass involves magnetizing a piece of metal. This makes the metal align with the earth's magnetic field. Since we know that the earth's magnetic field goes North to South, this then helps us with navigation because the magnetized piece of metal will tell us which way is North.

Magnetism is when all the magnetic domains in a material are aligned. To align all the magnetic domains rub a magnet on a piece of metal in one direction. Use metal because magnetism will not work with insulators, like cork. The magnet will align itself with the earth's magnetic field just like a compass."

For his demonstration of a home made compass, he was required to explain a bit about magnetism and the compass without his report. Holy smokes, did this makes him nervous! He thought that he'd have to write something else out in order to memorize it. But I reminded him that he had clearly explained it to me (who had not done the research with him) and that he already KNEW the information from his research (which was the point - not that he realized that he actually learned in this process - lol!). And after a bit of practice, he was ready to take on the third grade class!

DH went to watch his presentation (leaving jealous momma at home) and take photos. Jefferson did very well and hardly stumbled - even when Mrs. Third Grade Teacher asked him questions and got up to check his home made compass with a real one (I hadn't thought of that!). He later told me that it helped that he had something in his hands to talk about (isn't that the truth for most of us?). His overall grade was excellent - better than even he expected. We're so proud of our boy! I continue to be amazed at how he reaches and exceeds the bar that is set for him. His motivation may be that of pleasing his teacher (insert envious momma sigh here) as well as his excitement for learning (every momma's goal) but it's so exciting to see how fast he's learning! I hope that he remembers this project because we certainly will....

Wordless Wednesday - Reagan's Reading!

2010-02-24T06:41:00.001-05:00

I can not tell you how this thrills me to.the.core!

Reagan reads from mom24heritage on Vimeo.

I love how she tracks with her finger every "hehehehahahahehehe" of the laughing monkeys! Also note the "grownup" mug she is using for her elderberry tea - she uses it because she pretends it's her coffee and she likes to 'sip' it like me! The boys love it when she reads to them!

Wordless Wednesday - My Sweet Valentine

2010-02-17T06:04:00.002-05:00

October 11, 1997

(Barry Wolfe, Photographer, Fallston, MD)

And to think that this guy came up to me my the first day of my freshman year at Drexel University and introduced himself even though my face clearly said "Please do not speak to me cuz I am too freaked out about being away at school and I don't wanna know you no matter how cute you are!" He also thought it would be funny (5 mo later) to stick his finger in my back and ask me for all my money the day after I was mugged (although he didn't actually know about the mugging and the dimples helped convince me!). He talked me into joining the crew team (I'm sure just so that I could enjoy the view - lol!) and then I didn't see him around campus for a while. Wasn't until 3 years later that we even started dating and the rest is history!

...the mouths of babes!

2010-02-16T07:24:00.001-05:00

Adam (4) talking about the coffee I always drink: "I can't have that because it has COFFIENE in it, right?" (He hasn't a clue what the difference in 'coffee' and 'caffiene is anyway'!)
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Reagan (6) in regards to dh's not eating the same food as us: "Yeah - Daddy can't have that because of the pounds, right?"
(Don't think she gets what these pounds are that we talk about but I'm sure she knows we don't want to have too many!)
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DH wanted to turn off the tube and put the kids to bed before they saw the winner of AFV. But I gave him a look and convinced him to let them stay up later, to which he said: "Isn't Mommy the nice one??"

Right away Jefferson's (8) face looked shocked and unsure as he said: "Uhhh....not usually!"
(Yes - we know who the 'mean' one is in this house - lol!)
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Reagan (6) tends to be our little drama queen so I wasn't shocked to hear: "Mommy - when are we ever going to scrapbook again in our whole lives?"
(Life is just so hard when you are 6 years old and have everything that you need but still find yourself bored!)
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Enjoy more Tiny Talk Tuesday with Mary over at Not Before 7!

Reagan's 1st Grade Progress

2010-02-13T15:28:00.002-05:00

It's truly been forever since I've taken the time to journal about Reagan's progress this year in 1st grade. It really has just been such a different 1st grade than Jefferson had....don't know why I thought it would be the same considering their uniqueness and the events of this year - lol!

Our year got off to a rough start last August while I tried to balance Jefferson's heavier 3rd grade load (and new Sonlight curriculum package and growing ~~disrespectful~~ independent attitude) with Reagan's learning differences (namely her auditory processing delays and sensory ~~make the mommy crazy bullheadeness~~ irritations). After four weeks, we ended up placing Jefferson in a local (but not quite local enough - next door would be nice - lol!) Christian school so that I could give Reagan focused attention at what could be a critical year for her developmentally. DH and I truly felt that she would end up farther and farther behind if we didn't help her learn to concentrate and learn to be disciplined about her school work and to work through her struggles. We felt that she was being hugely overshadowed by Jefferson and the attention that he often stole throughout the day (not purposely - just a part of his "golden retriever" type personality).

I'm so glad to see how well Reagan is doing at this point in the year! She has come to be a great helper as she has gotten to step up and be the "oldest" child during the day, which builds her confidence and spills over into her lessons. She is still very particular - to the point of perfectionism with her penmanship and with her lessons. But THIS momma understands THAT - lol! I do my best (snortchucklechuckle - as I bite my lip into pieces!) to patiently encourage her past it rather than try to shove her through (she will NOT be shoved people!). I've even come to enjoy the quality of work that her perfectionism produces and have learned to give her time limits so that she doesn't sit indefinitely working on one task.

Reading is now exciting for her! She is finally moving over that 'hump' from struggling to read one word at a time to reading more smoothly into readers. Dr. Suess and anything with a princess in it are her favorites. She recently purchased a Littlest Petshop book and shocked us by reading almost all of it by herself (there were some big words in there!)! This has to be the most exciting part of teaching someone to read. It is such a joy to see her choose to sit down and read a book for me. But my favorite has to be when she reads books to her little brothers!!! So wonderful....and it makes her so proud to be 'helping' me to 'teach' them!

Her penmanship is improving in leaps and bounds! What used to be like pulling teeth for me has become something that she enjoys because she realizes how well she is doing and how much she is learning (my goal is to keep her from being anxious about it and to move more quickly past something that isn't 'perfect' in her eyes). Simple grammar (capital letters for sentence starting and proper nouns; punctuation; indenting in letter writing; identifying nouns) is starting to become familiar to her through her copywork and she is developing better stamina in her hand.

(The final line is "To live again a butterfly")

Her spelling lesson is part of her Christ Centered Curriculum phonics program - she learns one phonegram (ie. "a consonant silent e" or "ai" to represent the /a/ sound) per lesson and practices spelling words which use it (in addition to words she's already learned). Because of her 'struggle' to write perfectly, I have had to switch her to tracing the word in a sand tray rather than have her use a pencil. This small change has helped her stop stumbling over the penmanship and improve in the spelling - she loves it!

For grammar we have finally started using First Language Lessons (Wise Bauer) when I told myself that we wouldn't. With her literal mind, I figured she wouldn't be able to wrap her mind around the abstraction of grammar - yet. I am thankful that she seems to be at a point where she is comprehending it! I do NOT enjoy the way it is presented in CCC, however, and do not wish to purchase another program. Because she is 'ready,' I have been able to run more rapidly thought the first FLL lessons than I did with Jefferson (what a struggle grammar was for him!!). MY perfectionism would tell me that we are 'behind' here (as I 'compare' to Jefferson or others) but what I've learned about homeschooling and how I'm learning to better understand my students allows me to realize that we are right where she needs to be! Yay - progress for teacher Mommy!

I'm seeing progress in her narration ability just these last months as well. This can be a difficult skill for some children and I think that it's important to choose the right reading/picture for them to narrate back from. This is doubly important for Reagan due to her auditory processing delays. Learning to listen (not just hear) the words read to her and process the information as well as formulate her own words to tell it back was quite hard. We had started with daily reading from the Little House on the Prairie series. She liked these but found the chapters very hard to narrate back and soon I could see her body language telling that she was dreading our reading time. So we recently started with a book from the Millers series, Storytime with the Millers, which is comprised of short chapters based on clear lessons about godly character traits. These have been short and clear and Reagan is enjoying them much more! The added benefit being that her heart is soft enough to gain wisdom from the Spirit in these chapters as well! My plan is to work on different ways for her to narrate, including verbally, acting out, or drawing a picture. I'm hoping this will make it more interesting for her and help her to listen better.

Math is by far her favorite subject! Again - a surprise to me (yeah - I'm always surprised by the speed at which my kids learn - shocks me everytime and adds to the joy of getting to teach them!) since I initially thought that her little nuansances and perfectionism would delay her actual learning here. But here she is - flying through the same awesome curriculum that Jefferson used (I'd bought another more "right-brained" program but was so pleased with AL RightStart that I knew it would work for her). As fast as she is picking it up however, I find her perfectionism creep in and do it's best to ruin a lesson if she finds that she can't give me answers quickly enough (in her mind - not by my requirement!). Again - I'm working on teaching her that it's the learning & repetition that matters and not perfection!

But here's where I've gone so astray from my last journey through 1st grade: history & science! My plan this year was to combine The Story of the World Vol1 with Mystery of History for history but I'm not sure I'm liking MOH so much (for this age and this student - it doesn't hold her at all). We've been trying to hit one chapter of SOTW each week as well as one day with mapwork/coloring sheet. However, it always seems that this gets pushed if time gets tight and we are vastly behind schedule - certainly not going to complete SOTW by June. My problem with this is that Reagan needs continuity to gain a feel for the flow of history (as well as the fact that my almost OCD can't stand to be not on schedule - lol!)! We find ourselves in the same boat with science. Just wrapped up a unit on the human body (which she loved!) but not sure what to work on next (holy crow! Think of that: me - with no lesson plan! You flexibile, laidback mommas would be so proud!). Most likely we will continue with some more nature study as we head into spring (she loves this and seems to have a knack for observation and for sketching). I plan to just flex with it (while biting my lip to hold back my own perfectionism) and remind myself that she is excelling well in her basics (applause for me please, those who know me and my love of non-flexing)!

(Looking for a 'cloud' to form at the top of the jar -what focus, huh?)

(Sketching seeds pods we found outside)

(A white blood cell enveloping a 'bad' bacteria)

(We all know how hard it is to do 'detail' work with watercolors!)

(A bit of geography in every lesson)

As far as teacher planning goes this year, I have been far from diligent myself! The calendar that I planned for us has been shredded due to Jefferson's time in 'away' school - everything now rotates around that (I hate to admit how stifling it feels to me after 3 years of a more flexible homeschool schedule). If he has a snow day, so does she - even though I would normally have gotten lessons done in the morning. I had a week break planned for this next week (2/22-2/26) - for some time to regroup, photocopy, re-adjust the schedule according to her progress. But then the double blizzard hit, brought Jefferson AND dh home and no lessons got done for Reagan. I'm a bit bummed that I didn't use the time better (I focused on our food prep & research and making Valentine's instead) because now I'm gonna have to stuff my planning into a couple weekends instead (I don't like to have to ask dh to deal with our labor intensive food plan).

But now that Reagan is progressing so well and has settled into the flow of homeschool in our house, I feel that I need to focus on diligently bringing her along as far as she can get in the next few months. I plan on schooling through the summer (for 1st grade - that's light enough and leaves plenty of play time) but will have to balance that with Jefferson being home daily on his break. I guess the best thing to do is to plan a summer 'school' for him as well - he's always happier when he's busy.

Goodness, what a post! Glad to have caught my dear blog up a bit on Reagan's 1st grade progress thus far and I'm hoping that I can do so on a more regular basis - kind of get back into the swing of weekly reports. But now....back to teacher planning for me!

Swallowed Up By Snow

2010-02-11T22:29:00.001-05:00

Can't go without posting photos of this week's two (oh.my.word that's as in double!) blizzards. After all, the last time we had this much snow was 14 years ago when I played King of the Mountain with this cute dimpled computer geeky guy on Drexel's campus (and then went on to marry him)! I want the kids to remember how much fun they had and just how much their daddy had to blow off the driveway. Consider it a late Wordless Wednesday....

A Reflection of My Brain These Days

2010-02-04T13:18:00.005-05:00

I don't know if it's having four young children, getting older, or just that I'm only now realizing it,but my brain seems to be becoming more and more scattered! Try as I might, I often succomb to what I call "The Overwhelm" and just throw my hands up and throw my stuff around, where it sits and give me a panic attack to look at until the day (months later) when I can return it to some semblance of normalcy and order (snortchucklesnort....riiiiight).

This photo is evidence of this ~~homeschool/cook/cleaning lady/mommy~~ me phenomenon occuring on my desk. I have my highschool yearbook (Why? Oh - that would be for FB) up with my Teacher Manual along with my garden notebook, a book on allergies, Mystery of History (am I even utilizing that this year?), printer/scanner and colored paper up where they should be safe from clutter, but alas..... All other scraps and pieces are a hodgepodge of life. Don't know why I need a 150 piece pack of safety pins or reciepts from Christmas 2008 but hey - why deal with that now when I can wait a few ~~months~~ years?

It truly is a reflection of my brain these days.....how do I even function? Oh...the coffee - that's how! LOL!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-02-02T23:05:00.000-05:00

Wishing for spring as I'm greeted each morning by sparkling frost, remnants of long lost flowers, and a lonely, quiet baby swing...

A Day in the Life of Our "Away Schooler"

2010-01-28T22:35:00.003-05:00

I've been itchin' since we started Jefferson in 'away' school ("Mooom! No one calls it that - why do you do that?") to go in for a day and ~~torture the teacher with my presence and beady-eyed stare~~ observe. It's been a while since I've been 'in' school myself and although I have a good feel from Jefferson for how things go at 3rd grade in Dayspring Christian Academy, I just wanted to see how things flowed.

I was quite pleased (but not surprised) at how well Mrs.3rd Grade Teacher interacts with her students and keeps them in control. There was not one wild or rambunctious child and only a couple whom were even slightly distracted (and these she dealt with quickly, firmly, and discreetly - wow!). Her instructions were always clear and well-followed with room available for any questions. These kids obviously respect her but aren't afraid of her - great balance, I'd say!

But my favorite thing about this class is not the academics or even the wonderful behavior of the students, but the obvious faith of Mrs. 3rd Grade Teacher. She has prayed with me at parents meetings and she prays with her students each day, as well as pulling out her guitar and playing praise music with Mrs. Teacher's Aide (also the school music teacher). This warms my heart and puts any doubt (yes, the enemy still tries to get under my skin about Jefferson even being at away school) at ease. She stays in constant communication with the parents, works hard to stay prepared for each day, and obviously cares for her students! Isn't that what a parent wants for their child in school?

*happysigh*

So, no more blabbering. On to today's ~~poorly taken summary notes~~ agenda in 3rd grade...

As day starts, students finish uncompleted items, leftover work, or corrections quietly at their desks.
Students pledge allegiance to God's Word, the Christian flag, and then the U.S.
Mrs. 3rd Grade Teacher prays
Praise music and then devotions
Math -> verbally walk through word problem sheet (teacher & class together) with plenty of room for questions; timed practice sheets; lesson of the day; more time on word problem sheet with teacher help (Saxon 3 is the math program)
Spelling ->buddy system spelling practice (today no lesson or new words)
Recess & snack (poor Mrs. 3rd Grade Teacher barely had time for her own snack as she prepped for reading)
Reading -> lots of options today (literature discussion circle w/ Mrs. 3rd Grade Teacher; group meets & discusses questions w/ Mrs. Teacher's Aide; student voice records a reading passage to improve their fluency; work on comprehension worksheet; work on AR book); students worked quietly and Mrs. 3rd Grade Teacher's multitasking talent came through as she met their needs
English -> using Shurley Grammar 3 students work verbally w/ Mrs. 3rd Grade Teacher to diagram sentences together allowing for any questions & plenty of class participation; students worked on their 'persuasive' paragraphs & had time to discuss their progress with the teacher
LUNCH! (I have to admit that I really felt the need to stretch by this point. The kids accomplished a lot in the time just before lunch but it still seemed like a long time to me! Must be the 'homeschool' in me - lol!)

What a great lesson for me today in Jefferson's 3rd grade class! I felt like I learned a ton about teaching just by watching a talented teacher do her work. It was as exciting as it is for me at home just because I love to see kids learn! And someday Jefferson will hopefully find it interesting to look back at a day in the life of his 3rd grade year!

...the mouths of babes!

2010-01-26T07:10:00.002-05:00

I've been so long in putting together a Tiny Talk Tuesday post - just keep forgetting to write down the funny things these kiddos say!

We were giving the kids a taste of the new lacto-fermented salsa that will be a daily part of their new diet. It tastes like fresh salsa except that it has a certain something that fills your sinuses.
Rae (6): Man, this stuff is zingy! (Her word for anything spicey or vinegary)
Jefferson (8): It's not a zing - it's a BANG! (As he struggles for breathe and chokes it down)

Strangely enough, both Adam (4) & Lincoln (2) liked that 'bang' enough to eat more!
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Adam is doing wonderfully in his speech therapy! He is 4 now but just 2 years ago he couldn't even say 'mommy.' Here are some of his favorite words that I love:

"lasterday" (yesterday)
"helipockter" (helicopter)
"I dough know!" (I don't know)
"One, two, three, FIVE!"
"Bummy tumps!" (He love the 'tummy bumps' in the road!)
"Did you buy 'at one?" (He asks me this about EVERY item in the house multiple times each day- for some reason he wants to know if I bought 'that one' from the store)

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I was telling Jefferson (8yo) once again that he is just growing so fast I can hardly believe it:

Me: It's like you're growing taller every day!
Jefferson: Yeah... you know I DO grow like a germ taller everyday.
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Two quotes from our "How to open a fresh coconut" adventure:

Adam: I want to see the eyeballs - let me see the eyeballs!! (wanting to see the coconut 'eyes')

DH: Look kids - we're milkin' a coconut!
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Join Mary for more fun Tiny Talk Tuesday over at Not Before 7!

Random Thoughts

2010-01-22T14:54:00.002-05:00

Playing along with Living to Learn's random meme today!

The phone rings. Who will it be?
Blockbuster telling me that the movie(s) I rented will be charged to me and owned by me very,very soon if I don't get my rear up and return them!

When shopping at the grocery store, do you return your cart?
Always - my almost OCD can't stand them to be not in the right place (sad, I know)

In a social setting, are you more of a talker or a listener?
Listener - tend to be more introverted and love to observe people

Do you take compliments well?
They embarrass me but feel good too

Do you play Sudoku?
Love it but don't play it often enough

If abandoned alone in the wilderness, would you survive?
Absolutely not but at least the view would be lovely!

Did you ever go to camp as a kid?
Band camp - what else? LOL! Girl scout camp when I was little and music camp when I was in high school (intense amounts of practice - ouch!) and drum major camp in high school (no, I did not get to be the drum major - sigh...lol!).

What was your favorite game as a kid?
Rummi Cube with Mom...actually any game with mom - I just liked spending time with her.

Use three words to describe yourself?
Friendly, shy, too perfectionistic to get anything done

Do any songs make you cry?
My middle name is SAP -yes!

Are you continuing your education?
Everyday I teach my children I am learning a TON! But I've recently been inspired to look into Speech Pathology after I've finished educating my kids...

Have you ever taken pictures in a photo booth?
Yes - with my sister. I vaguely remember a seal in the background or something?

How often do you read books?
Everyday with the kids - Little House on the Prairie series right now. For me? Maybe 1 or 2 pages a day, if that....just so busy (as I sit here blogging - snortsnortchuckle!)

Do you think more about the past, present or future?
The future- always trying to plan everything out (as if I have any control over it though!)

What is your favorite children’s book?
I have to pick just one?? Sheesh!
Llama Llama Red Pajama brings such joy to their little faces - we love it!!

What color are your eyes?
blue (sometimes greenish)

Where is your dream house located?
Where ever my family is but hopefully overlooking rolling farmland

If your house was on fire, what would be the first thing you grabbed?
My scrapbooks, my computer and my kids - in that order! No serisously....

When was the last time you were at Olive Garden?
Can't remember - haven't eaten pasta in what seems like forever!
Where was the farthest place you traveled today?
Lancaster to drop Jefferson off at school - I'm starting to love this drive at 7am. It's beautiful when the world is just waking up!

Do you like mustard?
Love it! Foods with zing!

Do you look like your mom or dad?
NOT my mom. I think God just put my dad on the copy machine and left my mom outta the deal!

How long does it take you in the shower?
Too long and I never have enough time for it!

Can you do the splits?
Why on earth would I want to do that?? My knees pop just sitting down anymore!

What movie do you want to see right now?
The Blind Side - it'll probably make me cry (remember my middle name?)

What did you do for New Year’s?
Uhhh - I think I just made dinner and went to bed - the usual. Couldn't find a sitter and probably couldn't keep myself awake anyway!

Do you own a camera phone?
Yeah but it takes cruddy photos so I rarely use it.

How many hours of sleep do you get a night?
6-7 hours but I need 7-8!

What do you buy at the movies?
Depends on whether I'm being good or not - lol! Good=water and naughty=Raisinets

Do you wear your seat belt?
Absolutely, although I thoroughly hate that the government 'requires' me to. I am not a child and it should be my choice.

How many meals do you eat a day?
3 and 2 snacks

Do you like funny or serious people better?
Funny! Serious people scare me. :-(

Ever been to L.A.?
No but San Diego was probably nicer!

Did you eat a cookie today?
Coconut macaroon (one too many!)

Do you hate chocolate?
Do chocolate haters really exist?? How is that possible?

Are you a gullible person?
Ohhhhh yeah! Wait - did you really mean that question or were you justing trying to get me?

Are you easy to get along with?
Depends on who you ask cuz hubbs may say 'No way!'

Wordless Wednesday - Allergy Symptoms & Results

2010-01-20T07:38:00.023-05:00

These photos show why we are trying so hard to find a something to help Adam's food and seasonal allergies.

1st seasonal allergy attack at age 17 months (miserable!!)

3rd reaction to peanuts at 3 years (12/07) - we now have an Epipen

Last April (3 years old) was his first reaction to seasonal pollens since he was 18 months old. We weren't expecting it since we hadn't seen it the season before. Poor miserable little boy!! We now have eyedrops and a steroid nasal spray as well as a new diet...

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Skin Prick Test Results for both Adam & Reagan

ADAM
very strong response to peanut and cat
slightly less but still strong response to ragweed, tree pollen, and grass (uh, really?? Couldn't tell from those pics - lol!)

REAGAN
NO positive response (except the control prick)!! This is also about what we had guessed but are happy to have comfirmed.

The Food We Eat - Allergy Testing

2010-01-16T21:21:00.002-05:00

I have discovered, much to my dismay, that allergy testing does not always provide clear-cut answers. I'm sure those of you who have dealt with allergies, whether seasonal, food related, drug related, latex, insect, r other have found the same frustrations in the process of trying to diagnose and cure (I use this word rather than treat because I feel that many allergies are curable). Add that to the fact that not everyone agrees about the approach to take in dealing with allergies, and a parent can become pretty confused. In our case, I am thankful to be able to ask and trust God for His wisdom and His direction in the way that we should choose to deal with allergies and food sensitivities that we've seen in Reagan, Adam, and sometimes even Lincoln.

Our family physician was the first (2 1/2 years ago) to suggest that we try to find the source of Adam & Reagan's eczema rather than continue to use topical steroids to treat.

"Accepted" Allergy diagnostic tools (medically "accepted" - we've 'used' the ones in orange):

medical history (family, observed responses, general state of health)
blood tests (RAST is medically mainstream, identifies IgE response)
prick skin test (identifies IgE)
food challenges (physician observed response to eaten foods)
elimination diets (take out foods groups for weeks & reintroduce in order to observe a reaction)

"Other" Allergy diagnostic tools (not "accepted" by mainstream medicine - we've 'used' the ones in orange):

Applied Kinesiology Testing (usually done by naturopaths)
Body Chemical Analysis (aka - saliva testing also done by naturopaths)
Pulse Testing (increased heartrate after exposure to allergenic foods)
ELISA Blood test (measures IgG - our allergist ignored this info as useless although our family dr is who prescribed it)

Whoa! The amount of options just leaves one's head spinning! We have used many naturopathic tests, which told us that they were 'sick' as well as the ELISA blood test for Adam and Reagan and got some results which seemed normal (having observed the kids react to certain foods) and some which seemed odd (or just plain wrong - like the fact that an observed allergy to peanut did not show up or the positive response to mung bean, which none of us had ever eaten...do you even know what they look like?). We've since learned just how complicated the immune system is and how much test results can vary! Although I read much about IgE, IgA, IgG antibodies produced by the body for whatever reason (external contaminants such as pollen or bee stings, or particles of food that are to large to be used in the blood and have 'leaked' through the gut wall), I still struggle to keep it straight.

From the Food Allergy Initiative website (mainstream):

"A Note about False Positives

About 50-60% of all skin and blood tests are false positives. These results occur for two reasons:

•When you eat a food, your digestive system gradually breaks down the food proteins, chopping them into small pieces. But diagnostic tests can’t mimic this allergen-reducing process. Since food proteins are bigger when they interact directly with your skin or blood, it is easier for the IgE antibodies to “see” and attack them. As a result, your tests may show that you are more sensitive to a suspect food than you really are. Thanks to the digestive process, the allergenic proteins are small enough to fly under the IgE radar—and the food is safe for you to eat.

•Members of a food “family” often share similar proteins. For example, if you are allergic to peanuts, your tests may show a positive response to other members of the legume family, such as green beans, even if eating green beans has never been a problem for you. This is known as cross-reactivity. The test is positive because it recognizes a similar protein in peanuts and green beans. But the test is not detecting the real culprit—an entirely different protein found only in peanuts." [emphasis mine]

Well at least that let's us know some reasons why we get such inaccurate results from allergy testing. It's really quite dissapointing for us because it means that we have to be even more diligent in observing our kids and their responses to the foods they eat. And it doesn't help us to understand what is and what isn't a false positive. So even with a blood test, we are stuck with our best 'guess' based on observation and medical history.

And an excerp from a different perspective (yes - we are those kinds of nutty people) on diagnosing and treating allergies than the mainstream medical community generally accepts - working to heal the gut to get rid of food allergies...

From Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride at the GAPS diet website (not mainstream):

"Many people try to identify which foods they react to. However, with damaged gut wall they are likely to absorb most of their foods partially digested, which may cause an immediate reaction or a delayed reaction (a day, a few days or even a couple of weeks later). As these reactions overlap with each other, you can never be sure what exactly you are reacting to on any given day. Testing for food allergies in notoriously unreliable: if one had enough resources to test twice a day for two weeks, they would find that they are "allergic" to everything they eat. As long as the gut wall is damaged and stays damaged, you can be juggling your diet forever removing different foods and never get anywhere. From my clinical experience it is best to concentrate on healing the gut wall with the Introduction Diet [this is the first stage of her recommended dietary approach to healing allergies through the gut]. Once the gut wall is healed, the foods will be digested properly before being absorbed, which will remove most food intolerances and allergies." [emphasis mine]

So we have a history, a blood test (albeit not current - at this point I don't want to spend the money for something so unpredictable anyway), a skin prick test (just last week - I'll post the results later), and now a plan of attack (Gut And Psychology Syndrome Diet). I know that some find it strange that we aren't just dosing the kids on Zyrtec and cortisone and leaving it at that, but I don't really care what others think. We are more than willing to use these remedies if we are led that direction. But until then, we will attempt to make them healthier from the inside out and hope and pray that their symptoms decrease or dissappear altogether.

The Gut and Psychology Syndrom diet is usually used for cases far more serious than ours - autism, depression, ADD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and schizophrenia - but is recommends for people with continual eczema, asthma, and known food allergies. It is very, very strict and depending on the individual, may take many months to help the gut get back into a better state of bacterial ~~balance~~ health which is what we feel will actually help our children. We are thankful that we are already in a place that makes it easier for us to implement it than we ever were before we started eating and cooking whole, healthy foods. I know I could never have gone from using Campb.ells and CoolW.hip right into this diet (goodness knows it's taken me all 12 years of my marriage and I'm still figuring out this cooking thing)! Still, it will be ~~nearly impossible and full of stress~~ quite difficult for us to eat out of the home in situations with family or at 'away' school or any other fieldtrip that takes us from our kitchen (can you tell I'm nervous about this part?).

However, I am so optimistic about this new diet! I hope that our efforts will be God led and blessed with fewer allergies in the future so that years from now the kids won't have to worry about their hurting tummies and itchy skin, nor be diagnosed with worse conditions, like asthma. For now, I can handle the complaining children, the extra time in the kitchen, and the eyerolling friends. Even if it doesn't do what we expect it too, is it wrong to be eating more healthily...learning to be better stewards of our bodies?

After all, my children are a heritage from the Lord - they are worth it!

The Food We Eat - Attempting to Alleviate Allergies

2010-01-05T22:48:00.002-05:00

My head is whirling with information about and planning for alleviating the food allergies that we have in this house! I don't know why I get so easily overwhelmed but I need to just get with it and get to it in planning our next step in our life with food allergies.

We learned a lot since our last rotation diet (started back in Feb of 2008, I think). It was a very stressful diet since it was very complicated. I ended up cooking different foods for practically each person in the house and our food choices were quite limited. My stress ended up pushing me to junkfood & an outbreak of guttate psoriasis and instead of properly (one at a time and in small amounts) reintroducing foods, I just kind of gave up after 5 months.

However, we did experience many benefits from our first attempt to deal with food sensitivities. We saw eczema clear up in Adam & Reagan, sleep improve, and dramatic improvement in behavior. It was enough to prove to me that what I feed my kids is very important! And although I haven't stayed away from ALL the items which they tested senstive to in the ELISA blood test (quite a list!), we've tried since then to be careful about wheat, cow dairy, eggs, soy, and peanuts. After so many weeks strictly following that diet, we hoped that what was a 'light' sensitivity' to certain foods would just be ok to relax on, such as rice, coconut (a MAJOR fat staple around here), almond, oat, and yeast. I didn't, after all, really even know how accurate the blood test is or if it just shows foods that you tend to eat all the time. And we never had a skin scratch test done or did an elimination diet to investigate further after this rotation diet.

So this last year and a half we have lived with good whole foods and loosely avoided wheat, dairy, eggs, and soy. I let church snacks & preschool snacks slip and we went to out to eat or to gramndma's on occasion. I've used yogurt and cheese as snacks when I'm desperate for something high in fat and use butter all the time in order to get the veggies into them. We let them eat a bunch of no-no's over Thanksgiving and then through to Christmas, from which we are clearly seeing consequences in the form of new ezcema and crankiness. And Adam also seems to still continually get every virus that comes around - when I thought for sure that he would have a stronger immune system by now.

Which is where we are now as I plan to head us into a new diet in hopes of truly healing everyone's gut (I forgot to mention that I got myself blood tested and showed up allergic to DAIRY and eggs - NOT wheat as I had so thought for sure was my problem!). 'Loosely' avoiding certain foods is not yet enough for Reagan and Adam since I don't think that we've ever truly managed to heal their digestive system.

Our diet will follow "The Gut & Pscyhology Syndrome" book by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. It is very similar to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet except that all dairy is excluded until the person can handle yoghurt & creme-fraise (a home made soured cream).

The basic start (ghee & homemade yoghurt are first dairy to be brought back while other foods are brought back in one at a time and in small amounts with observation for allergic responses) of this diet is as follows:
*no grains
*no starches (potatoes, corn, beans except lima & navy)
*no dairy
*no sugar (honey is the only sweetener allowed)
*no soy
*no processed foods (hydrogenated oils, MSG, preservatives, food coloring, etc.)
*peanuts (this goes without saying as we have definitely observed a first immune response to these in Adam!)

Recommended foods:
*all meats (& organ meats) and fish
*eggs (we may be able to have the yoke - don't know yet)
*all non-starch fresh veggies (cooked at first is gentler)
*all fruit, including berries & avocado
*nuts & seeds (soaked first for 12-24 hours)
*navy, lima, string beans, lentils, split peas (no bean flours since they haven't been soaked)
*raw, unheated honey
*water w/lemon & fresh pressed juices; homemade nut milk or coconut milk; homemade meat stocks
*natural saturated meat fats; virgin cold-pressed olive oil or other cold-pressed oils; coconut oil
*homemade fermented dairy allowed later as the gut allows (yoghurt, creme-fraise)

Yes, it is quite restrictive.
Yes, I am quite nervous about implementing it with young kids who will whine and complain and about having to deal with the difficulties of eating away from home and financing this food.

But the point is not that this is permantly how we will eat, but that it will provide a resting, healing period for our digestive tracts in order that we may enjoy a wider range of harder to digest or previously allergic foods again in the near future!

In the meantime, as I prepare recipes and plan grocery trips and visit the allergist, I covet your prayers that this may be less stressful and even more beneficial for our family and that I would perservere in peace (not stress) to our goal.... allergy-free eating for us and our kiddos and better health all around!

There's Always that One Kid and...

2010-01-03T10:03:00.001-05:00

WE are those parents.

You know the ones...
with the kid who just can not stand still and do his cute little part in the church Christmas play.
with the kid who refuses to keep his shoes & socks on in the dead of winter.
with the kid who hasn't a clue what this white headband with sheep ears is and why it must be on his head.

I'm sure every parent get their turn but this year we were the ones...
with the kid who has his hands down the back of his pants and decided that it was funny to let them fall and moon everyone as he walked to his seat (wish I'd gotten THAT on video!).
with the kid who loves to look around him and take it all in as he is supposed to be singing some song about a 'deliberrrr' (Deliverer).

Mischievous sheep in the nativity! from DNAC on Vimeo.

But I am so thankful that his older brother (a wise king in the back) enjoyed his part and that his older sister (a "sheep" behind his left shoulder) is happy to try to guide him and help him with his headband/ears. This is the first year they have all been old enough to join in this part of the Christmas celebration and we were blessed to have found a new church family in time that they could be part of the play! I was so proud to be the parent of that one kid!

But maybe next year YOU will be those parents instead of us....or maybe it will be Lincoln's turn to shine?

Time for theYearly Resolutions!

2010-01-02T14:24:00.001-05:00

So many things on my mind that could use work...be changed...improved. So many things that would fit nicely on a list of resolutions and look so nice with a fat checkmark next to them. It could be an 'easy' list or an 'unreachable' list, depending on my mood at the time of writing it. And everyone who knows me understands just how much I.love.a.list!

But I often find that my list of resolutions each year can become burdensome ... bearing guilt instead of accountability, considering the perfectionistic nature which I have. Causing bouts of doubts in my faith and walk with the Lord. Dragging me down with reminders of what I am unable to change by myself, as I so often try to do. And as much as I love a list, I can hardly stand even a smidge of it to remain UNchecked!

This result throughout and at the end of each year is clearly is not God's plan for me - His is to bless me and not to harm me; for me to seek Him with all my heart.

Since this is the way I have been wonderfully made, I think that this year I will make my so-called 'list of resolutions' out of scripture instead and post them on my kitchen cabinets to remind and encourage and remain in my heart & mind. In this sense, I know that I will NOT be attempting to change myself and thus NONE of them will get a nice little checkmark. And in this little way, I am hoping to allow the Spirit to more freely move in my life and grow me into all the things that a "list" of personal resolutions would instead have me trying to accomplish of my own strength! Sound like a plan to you?

So here they are:
*"But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." 1 Tim. 1:5

*"It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery" Gal. 5:1 (I am no longer in bondage to food, anger, yelling, pride, controllingness, laziness...)

*"But seek first first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matt. 6:33-34 (Heaven knows how I worry & fret & get distracted away from God!)

*"Let no unwholesome word proceed from our mouth, but only such a word as is good for the dification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear it. Do not grieve the Holy Sprit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." Eph. 4:29-30 (I have great difficulty using my words properly with my family)

*"Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better'" Luke 10:41-42 (All you Marthas out there know exactly why this one is on the list!)

*"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." John 6:63 (My flesh cannot change me - only the Spirit can give me life and give it abundantly!)

*"The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much." James 5:16b (I should always remember to pray more often and sincerely)

Wordless Wednesday - The Reason for the Season

2009-12-30T08:32:00.000-05:00

Hope you had a most blessed Christmas!

Starting a Fire on a Snowday....

2009-12-22T16:37:00.000-05:00

....requires small children and an overzealous daddy with a HAND-CRANK flashlight (oooooohhhhh how I have ragged him about that silly flashlight - makes me giggle just thinking 'bout it)!

Starting a Fire on a Snowday.... from DNAC on Vimeo.

Eye Contact - rethinking how we communicate with our kids

2009-12-21T06:52:00.002-05:00

I came upon this post recently and it brought to mind some of the things that I've already been thinking about around here with Adam. I haven't had time to share since I don't post often but our little Adam, 4yo, has had speech delays and is in weekly speech therapy for the past 18 months.

When he was younger, I often worried about his lack of eye contact. I would constantly ask him to look at me while I spoke to him and he would constantly glance at me and shift his eyes away. He would look at others but not when he spoke (if he did at all) or when they spoke to him. And with rates of Autism in children increasing so exponentially these days, I was definitely concerned.

It wasn't until our wonderful speech therapist was working with him on a regular basis that she informed me that, especially in children with processing delays or fine motor problems, having to use both their eyes AND their ears to pay attention to us as we speak to them only makes it more difficult for them to process the information that we are giving them! I was quite surprised - I mean after all, we are all taught that direct eye contact is a good thing in communication, right? I had just assumed that this is how we were to teach our kids to speak/listen to others. This is the point that the post at 'Beautiful Canvas' makes - our assumption may be wrong!

I felt like as soon as the therapist gave me new info on this, I understood his shifty eye contact right away. He had tried to obey me but could not take in my instructions with both his ears and eyes at the same time. And it seems that it is not unusual for both these developing parts of the brain, auditory and visual, to be delayed together - we were already aware of the auditory delays associated with his speech delay.

Of course, I proceeded to test this out by leaning my head down to his ear and speaking instructions into his ear first, and only then, raising my head to ask that he looked in my eye to say "Ok." In the bit it took me to raise my eyes to where he could look at them, he had time to process my auditory instructions and his responses improved immediately!! The amazing workings of our Creator God in child development never cease to amaze me and in this case I was immediately grateful for the wisdom He gave dh and I about making eye contact with our kids.

I wonder, why is it that we think someone isn't hearing us if they aren't looking us directly in the eye? Why do we expect our young ones, who are still developing their communication skills, to use both auditory processing and visual processing at the same time when 'listening' to us? Because that's what our parents expected! Try to think about how difficult it can be when you are politely keeping eye contact with someone, but can't seem to remember what they said or process the correct response. Don't know about you, but this happens to me all the time!

I am thankful to be constantly learning about how to grow my children....even if it means rethinking ideas that I've had engrained in me since my childhood! I am determined not to remain clueless but to continue to educate myself for the sake of these beautiful kiddos! Our next step: appt with a dr. specializing in pediatric visual processing to check for proper tracking and peripheral neglect. And as we learn more, I'll keep you updated!

A Fresh Makeover!

2009-12-20T00:47:00.001-05:00

I'm totally excited! Can you just guess about what?? Come oooon....you've gotta notice the lovely change in scenery around here? (gringrin!)

You guessed it! I finally made it onto Darcy's queue at Graphically Designing and made a change for the better here (now that I know I'll be stickin' around cyberspace for awhile....after all, I DO really like it here - ya'll are great)!

But I was getting soooo tired of my old diggs, ya know? The one with the BRIGHT orange and blue flat, boxed design?

I mean thanks and all to my hubbs for at least giving me a different title than the one that came from Blogger, but I knew I needed some real designing talent in order to redecorate around here....someone who's designs are always beautiful, functional, and balanced.

Enter Darcy! You may already know her from her musings on life with 3 young boybarians but did you know that she is an artist as well? Check out her humor, great cyberbloggy advice, and beautiful photography (not to mention the cuteness of her 3 favorite young subjects) at My 3 Boybarians as well as her other wonderful design work in cyber space over at:

And I'm sure that you'll understand why I was so glad to have her give Heritage Academy a lovely new look!

Here are her thoughts on her design:

"Your 4 children are the "cornerstones" of your homeschool. With you and hubby being the center. So I cornerstoned a notch - representing each child who shapes your homeschool. This was the inspiration for the design shape in your header and button. You at the heart - your children each shaping your academy."

So sweet! Hey.... let me know what you think!

Cuz I'm just totally excited!

Adam's Speech Progress

2009-12-05T19:54:00.020-05:00

I don't think I've really posted much about Adam's speech therapy in this last year. So (I use the word 'so' a million times per post, I swear), I wanted to get some info down here for me to refer back to if I need to.

I just met with his preschool teacher, IU13 (PA governmt Child Development & Early Learning) service coordinator, and current speech therapist this past Wedns. to update his goals for this year's Individualized Education Program (IEP). So (there it is again - acckk!), here is a bit of his history:

*He didn't use his left leg properly when learning to crawl and sit

*He didn't walk, due to his strange leg use, until 18 months

*He didn't say more than 5 words (and those were not complete words with ending consonants) by the time he was 20 months old

* We kept hoping that new words will just pop up, but by 24 months we started looking for speech therapy

* His 1st evaluation with the IU13 showed more than enough delay to warrant speech therapy but we were not given OT/PT even though he showed delay in his motor skill development as well. At this point, I was still clueless about IU13 and the process for getting him services, as well as not quite ready to accept the fact that he had delays. I did not push further for OT.

*His 1st speech therapist came and "played" with him once each week at our house. He got to love her and look forward to her sessions, while she managed (miraculously in my opinion) to coax new sounds out of him. I was shocked to hear him call me "Bobby" for the first time, instead of using the hand sign. By the time she had worked with him for 9 months, he could say "I ub you, Bobby" as well as other 2-word sentences. I was amazed!

*He got a new therapist when he turned 3. She turned out to be even more amazing at her job! Through play, modeling, reading, and use of cues, she has been able to break him out of his quiet little shell and into the world of verbal communication in just 1 year!

I wish I could explain truly how much this has meant to our family, as we only had a few hand signs and much whining/fussing with which to 'talk' to him. Not speaking had locked him out of relating to other kids his age also. Since this was my primary concern at the time, I didn't focus much on his motor delays. Ms. Dria (his speech therapist), however, was skilled enough to give us many tools and clues to his speech AND motor behavior over the past year. She has explained to us how his low muscle tone (discovered by us when we were trying to figure out what was wrong with his leg) affects his speech and motor skills as well as just delaying his walking. She thinks he displays 'peripheral neglect' - a visual processing issue. Her observation is that his motor skills have not caught up to where the average 4year old should be, and she is helping us to try to get him OT. She has truly become an advocate for him and his development and we value her highly.

So where are we now? We continue with his speech therapy with some updated word usage & social goals from this year's IEP:

#1) "In order to communicate his ideas, experiences, and feelings for a variety of purposes, Adam will speak clearly enough to be understood by most listeners by using accurate sounds and all syllables expected in his words." [This goal has to do with actual physical usage of words & language rather than social communication]

Using -> auditory discrimination activities; repeated practice & modeling; reinforcing activities (playdough, crafts, motor movement games, puzzles); verbal prompts & touch cues; reading

Outcome -> measured by consistent use of target sounds in connected speech when given less than 2 cues.

#2) " In order to communicate his ideas, experiences, and feelings for a variety of purposes, Adam will use verbal and nonverbal language to interact and communicate for a variety of purposes" [This goal has to do with his new reluctance to use the words he's learning in social situations but rather resorting to fussing and not interacting with his peers]

Using ->reinforced activities [at preschool & home]; providing him with short models of things he can say to his 'peers';expanding his contribution [at preschool] to predictable routines; allowing him to respond with gestures or single words [at preschool & home] in order to reduce social demand stress

Outcome ->measured by his communication skills (questioning, responding, commenting, interacting) with his peers and family.

I really don't get how they try to quantify such things as speech and lack of communication, (although I understand that they must). But if I read it all slowly (and I talk through it with Ms. Dria), I can understand where we are headed with Adam. Although his progress in the last year has been huge, he still has trouble with quite a few sounds and cannot always be understood by other adults or peers. His teacher at preschool will help us to move him away from his 'demand' stress (refuses to communicate when directly questioned or 'put on the spot', even with grandparents). As far as getting his some OT, I've filled out my evaluation of his skills and his preschool teacher gave her opinion. Now we just have to wait to see if that, along with Ms. Dria's experience with his motor skills, is enough to earn him an OT evaluation.

Hopefully, another year of speech therapy (and OT?) will bring Adam along far enough for us to begin Kindergarten on track! Until then, we keep working one session at a time... And any advice from others on these therapies or your journeys with them would be welcomed as well!

4 year old gets a Thankgiving feast for his birthday!

2009-12-01T11:29:00.028-05:00

Hosting Thanksgiving this year was bound to happen. I managed to get out of it for the past 11 years of my marriage. But when my mother gave me a huge counter top roaster this past summer, I knew I could avoid the TURKEY task no longer.

And so we invited everyone in our family without realizing how few we could actually fit at our dining table. And amazingly, almost everyone from both sides of the family were able to join us! Accckk! So we had to buy a new folding table, extra dishes, 3 sets of silverware, new glasses, and some more fall decor. Times like that make me glad that I'm a list person, even if everyone else makes fun of me for it! ;-)

So, since most the fam would be here for the holiday, we also decided to just have Adam's 4th birthday party that day instead of the next weekend. Two birds, one very, very large stone (actually only ONE bird - lol)! In addition to the fall decor, there were balloons to be blown up & hung, gifts to buy & wrap, and cake to bake & frost. And with Jefferson's school schedule, there was no way I was going to be able to get more than one day of lessons in with Reagan.

But at least we could do a few fun Thanksgiving crafties around here. Adam made a turkey out of feathers & play dough, while Jefferson & Reagan colored in turkey place mats (the small size of my laminator disappointed them, however) and we all added leaves to our "Thankful" tree.
Jefferson memorized Psalm 100 and sang it to the tune of a hymn for our guests. And a new tradition this year (started & planned by my sil) was to light a votive candle for each person at the table while offering up something for which that person was thankful. By the time we'd all gone around the table and parents had spoken for each of their kids, we had a beautifully lit dining environment!

But I must share the "turkey" story since my dear husband cracks me up in the way he tackles his 'projects.' He insisted that he would take care of the turkey, as long as I had a roaster for it. After pouring over the instructions that came with the roaster (for what seemed like hours although I'm sure it was only minutes - lol!), he calls to order the turkey and spends an hour on the phone with the meat department trying to figure out what size turkey would fit in the roaster or if we needed to use two smaller ones. At one point he had the person measure both the 24lb and the 12lb turkeys!! I was just doing my best not to let my 'chuckle' out through my nose while he was on the phone! His next step in this engineering process (or I could call it a 'Fogoros' process, after my mil's way of researching) was to take the roaster pan with him to the grocery and get into hours of debate with the meat ladies as to the best way to feed 12 adults and 9 kids most efficiently. Had I been there to see that,I would NOT have been able to contain myself as they squished and squashed different size and combos of turkey into the pan in as many different configurations as possible!

You see, as my un-detail oriented mother before me, I would have seen that the roaster called for a max of 18 lbs and would have ordered a 22 pounder and just crossed my fingers! LOL! Thankfully, however, I was blessed with such a man as this. He, after ordering a 24 pounder, whipped out his calculator to figure out how many hours of slow cooking this fowl beast would require. SLOW cooking, people. He wanted tender meat. So - after 17 1/2 hours at 250 degrees, we cautiously cut open the lid (it had to be tied in due to it's size!) and prayed that his brainwork had paid off. And as you can see in the photos, this bird turned out WONDERFULLY! Cooking it upside down helped keep the white meat from drying out but made it quite a task to slice since it practically fell apart when moved.
Add the perfect bird to the huge amounts of sides that everyone helped with and we were solidly stuffed in no time! Well worth the hungry wait through the afternoon!

What a wonderful day to be with family! We decided to let Adam 'rip' into his birthday gifts before the meal since we knew we'd all still be conscious and that he could hardly wait another minute. He had been touching and re-arranging them since they started arriving at 10am - just oogling over them! But then he could hardly get through opening them since he was so interested in playing with each as he opened them. After our meal (and a bit of a break to make room for the sweet stuff!) we finally sang to him and let him have a go at the candle. I find it amusing how I grabbed his neck to shove him closer to the burning candle! But it wasn't until he saw the video that he realized that Mommy "helped" him with the candle - lol!

Our 4 year old! Ka-CHOW! from DNAC on Vimeo.

The time with family couldn't have been any better! The cousins enjoyed playing all.day.long and got to have cake & ice cream also. The adults caught up with each other while trying to keep the turkey fom putting us to sleep and the aroma of hot spiced apple cider filled the house with warmth.

*HAPPY SIGH*

Our dinner verse before the meal:

"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
whom he has redeemed from trouble

and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.

Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to a city to dwell in;

hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them.

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.

He led them by a straight way
till they reached a city to dwell in.

Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!

For he satisfies the longing soul,
and the hungry soul he fills with good things."
Psalm 107:1-9

Boy vs Pumpkin

2009-11-11T09:11:00.006-05:00

To give him a little credit, Jefferson has never done a sack race before. Although, in this case he wasn't racing anyone at all, I'm sure that pumpkin just jumped into his way!

For more Wordless Wednesday see 5Minutes for Mom.

"Peh-tih-ser-nates?" A Weather Unit

2009-11-03T19:38:00.011-05:00

This week we finished up a small science unit on weather with Reagan. I don't have a good plan for her this year for science since Jefferson, who read and helped her with Son*light lessons, is now away each day. I don't really know whether to go with the animal study I've used before or a new workbook based on the six days of creation.

So I just opened up one of our Son*light books, a wonderful DK Eye Wonder book of weather and started teaching her about lightning. What a great book! It has just enough info to hold interest but not overwhelm and has wonderful photos. Add to this "The Weather Book" by Michael Oard, a more advanced book but one with wonderful diagrams and a biblical perspective, and I felt like I had enough to keep her busy for a while.

She really, really enjoyed learning about the different kinds of weather and it was obvious that she learned a lot about the magnitude of God in seeing this powerful part of His creation. This is such an exciting part of home schooling! My favorite part was how she would re-tell all that she had learned that day to her daddy or grandparent or anyone who would listen! I'm finding that if the information is presented in the right way for her, she will just soak it all up, remember it, and ponder it for days. And because she is loves to narrate what's she's learned, I can always get a better idea of how much she comprehends. The word "precipitation" for instance is just NOT sticking and always comes out as "peh-tih-ser-nates?" or just "the water stuffs that come from the sky." LOL!

So after learning about the evaporation cycle, precipitation, wind, lightning, and storms, we made a "cloud" in a mason jar (ice on top and hot water inside), a weather vane to observe wind movement, and a precipitation poster showing vapor, rain, and frozen types. And I still feel like we could do so much more! But for now I'll just post the few photos that I have and plan on moving to a new exciting science unit...

(3 types of clouds on the left, rain & flood in the middle, snowflakes, frost, & hail on the right)

Wordless Wednesday (a bit late)

2009-10-29T08:43:00.003-04:00

This is the reason (or one of them) that I wear earplugs - little ones sure do know how to find a plaything that rocks the house! These plastic stools rattle my bones and nerves, but I enjoy how much they love playing with them!

Lincoln turns TWO!!

2009-10-26T08:13:00.007-04:00

Our little , lumpy fourth baby has finally turned TWO! I truly feel like it was yesterday that I popped this one out! We mamas all know that times flies with our precious babies, but I'm getting the feeling that the more babies one has, the faster time seems to fly?

Lincoln was out first home birth baby and our second huge 11 pounder. He loves, loves, loves, playing with all of his older siblings....most of the time - lol! The other times, he has learned to use those vocal chords to make himself known. And this one throws - anything in his hands at the time of his frustration. And if nothing's in his hands, he'll find something to throw. Maybe he's becoming a bit dramatic like his sister or just plain strong willed. He's definitely becoming TWO! We love to watch him copy his siblings and learn to dance or sing or make silly sound effects with them. He loves to park his cars all in a row and MUST fix them if they become slightly misaligned (oy!). He still sucks his middle two fingers (like I used to) and runs away with giggle every time we call him to come. He calls me "Mahmoo" right now (not quite speaking yet) and loves to sit on my lap with a book (probably one that he's already chewed on in past months). One of his favorite things to do is to pull out ALL the dvds or books while I teach Reagan her lessons. I can laugh about that now only because he now starting to put them back too! :-)

Here are his two-year photos. He decided that he would NOT smile, no matter how the photographer sang and danced for him. Ya gotta laugh at that first grimace on his face! But he gradually warmed up a bit and (with the help of another singing, dancing photographer and a tennis ball) he finally did smile ... even if just for a shot or two.

Happy Birthday Lincoln! I hope your third year doesn't fly by quite so quickly...

My first video post!

2009-10-18T23:24:00.006-04:00

So weird to do a video post - felt really silly hiding in the bathroom and trying to get that stupid red book out of the frame while I talked and talked about ME! I missed a ton of topics but at least it's an intro for those who don't know me or see me.

Let me know what you think of the crazy lady from PA! Maybe you all would be brave enough to post some videos of yourselves too? :-)

blog introduction from mom24heritage on Vimeo.

Need a bloggy update...

2009-10-18T15:21:00.006-04:00

Goodness, I need to update my blog! My sidebars are all leftover from last year, our read-alouds are all different and the my family pics are all outdated. Plus, I'm ready for a Heritage Academy icon to use for book labels, t-shirts, my header, and business cards.

I've really got to start focusing on getting a post done each week also. I hope that I'll be able to do this better with only one hs student. It's just that with my perfectionist personality, I feel like I have to get everything else done first! Not to mention my frustration with Blogger and adding photos. Grrrr...

But I am determined to have something...anything...for the kids and myself to look through later in life. This blog has become the first journal of my life where I feel comfortable writing about our lives! Every other time I've tried to journal I've gone back to read after a couple months and not liked what I'd written and would've been embarrassed if someone else had read it. Strange that this forum - totally public and exposed - would be where I find my journaling groove.

I do think that it has something to do with the other bloggy peeps that I now feel like I can call friends. Not feeling alone in my journey as a wife, mom, and teacher actually seems to help me put thought to 'paper.' So, while poor little Adam and Lincoln may have cruddy baby books (and NO scrapbooks), at least part of their young lives are documented here with Jefferson and Reagan's early academic lives. And my personality is actually being journalled...in public - go figure!

So for now, I start by working no my sidebars this week. Tiny steps people...tiny steps..

Blogging Woes and Entering the realm of 'away' school....

2009-09-30T14:49:00.023-04:00

When I last posted I never expected to be away from the blogosphere for so long! It's not that I have a list of readers or have anything valuable to share with the sphere. These I do not. My disappointment in my absence comes from the fact that my primary use of this forum is to leave a path of journaling by which my children can get to know me better later in their lives and use it to reflect back upon their early lives, where their memories do not have access. So I plan to make it my priority this week to get this post finished, since it entails the details of one of our biggest family life changes to date - moving Jefferson to from home school to 'away' school.

Ahhhh...where to start, where to start....

Let's begin in the first week of August, after 3 weeks of home school break (from 2nd gr and K)for the kids and teacher planning for me. We dove into Core 3 of Sonlight curriculum and I was just loving it. Teaching from a history core is just such a great way to infuse the student with multiple levels of knowledge of the era being covered! The early explorer's are so interesting. I loved reading "Walk the World's Rim" (by Betty Baker) while he read "Pedro's Journal" (by Pam Conrad), a story about Christopher Columbus's first journey to the America's, by himself. Although the book started out roughly, "Walk the World's Rim" gave us many character lessons from which to learn and I was soon saying to him, "Maybe those two are just walking a different trail?" to indicate to him that the characters were not understanding each other's view on life. I pointed out examples of this in relationships around us. Little did I realize that I would soon be pointing it out to him about our teacher/student relationship!

While trying to push (and I WAS pushing, not encouraging) Jefferson to do as much of his work as he could WITHOUT coming to me every 3 seconds with unneeded questions, I was also trying to step up Reagan's lessons to include phonics (20 mins), reading (20 mins plus read aloud time), math (30mins), science (15 mins done daily with Jefferson reading it for her), and history (15 mins reading or small project), as well as one art lesson and art project per week. This was a significant work load increase from her Kindergarten lessons (phonics & math daily) and barely could fit into the workload that I was trying to accomplish with Jefferson. I couldn't seem to teach both of them at the same time as Jefferson refused to focus if another kid was in the room and as every hs mom of multiple students knows, that's practically impossible!

I soon found myself pulling my hair out in frustration as Jefferson cried when he couldn't complete something efficiently and Reagan cried because I was pushing her too hard to complete her lessons quickly. He could never attempt his work on his own and then come to be with the questions he gathered. Rather he would interrupt Reagan's lessons multiple times until I yelled at him and was then too frustrated to be patient with her (something she really, really needs in order to learn). I couldn't read her even one paragraph with focus and I could tell she wasn't processing very well the information I was reading.

I was exhausted and tried to chalk up my troubles to our normal beginning of school stress. After all, every other year was tough in the beginning. I hoped that it would work itself out as we got comfortable with our new routine and lesson load. But instead, Jefferson snapped at me all day long until I snapped back. He constantly asked me what he could do and never occupied himself (except when reading a book - believe me, I worked hard to have tons of reading available for him) while the younger two were transitioning to a lovely new stage of screaming at each other and not sharing and thus adding noise and chaos to the day as well. The assignments were getting checked off of both of their lists while I went to bed tired and feeling guilty for my lack of patience and my tone of voice. And other than the tears and perfectionism she displayed in lessons, Reagan quietly occupied herself and didn't notice that she was getting the short end of the academic stick. It's not like she was begging me to sit and read to her (read-alouds were one of the first things to get skipped each day with our time constraints). But I knew that with her learning differences, she needed more, not less time, than Jefferson received when he was in first grade!

So after a particularly bad Friday, Jefferson and I were both crying at lunch as we tried to explain to the principal Daddy just how rough it had gotten. Dh called one of the two Christian classical schools in the area to set up an appointment and get some info. Keep in mind that this was the Friday before they began their classes! We didn't know how to meet our family's needs (put Reagan in school or Jefferson or change our curriculum or get counseling or what), but knew that we needed to change something major.

It was clear and evident. And really, really, really hard for me to accept.

After the Friday meeting with Day.spring Chris.tian Academy, we prayed and prayed all weekend about what we would do for the spiritual health of our family. We talked with our closest friends and asked our FB friends to pray for us. And I cried and cried and cried. Although I hadn't meant it to happen, home schooling has become more of my identity than I realized and now I felt like I was failing or giving up my son, in some way. Even with all the struggle in our one month of home schooling, I hadn't expected the Lord to lay THIS on our lap!

But it felt like the right thing to do. Jefferson thrives in structure, excels in academics, and never talks back to adults other than his parents/grandparents. And his walk with the Lord was not being strengthened or nurtured by the frazzled, short, and impatient mother who was teaching him school. We felt that we should give academics over to this classical christian school so that we could work on tying strings of love and fellowship with him instead, as well as providing the needed time and attention for Reagan to do well in first grade.

So we enrolled him on DCA's second day of school. And I cried some more.

It was busy, busy, busy getting used to the driving routine to drop and pick up as well as extra things such as getting lunches ready and uniforms bought and washed. I had to run to the store for school supplies at the same time as the rest of the country only to find most of them gone. Reagan missed about 7 days of school amidst all the meetings with teacher's and evaluator's. And this after being a 'laid back' home school schedule for 3 years - you know, breakfast done by 9:00 and lessons started by 9:30, lunch whenever it fits and naps after that. I prayed that we would get used to the restrictive schedule and still be able to provide for the specific needs of each child. I prayed that Jefferson would fit in well and pick up the little things about school that he had missed from being educated with different curriculum.

After one week, we got an email from his 2nd grade teacher telling us that he was doing almost"too well" for 2nd grade. So I questioned our decision to have him take 2nd grade again and I prayed for direction. After another call from the school telling us that he was 'flying through his evaluation tests' and a meeting with the 3rd grade teacher (a woman highly recommended by other parents), we moved him into 3rd grade. Another adjustment for him and more fretting for me! Such little faith at a time when God's leading was so clear to us! Sigh....you'd think I'd learn - lol! We prayed much for him and I studied his 'new' phonics and 'new' grammar (Shurley Grammar, which I had bought but chosen not to use - go figure!) so that I could help him "catch up" after his first week in 3rd grade.

But then I got an email from his teacher telling me that he aced both his grammar and his phonics tests! In every area he was doing well!

And I praised God instead of crying anymore. He is soooo very good and lead us so clearly and has provided for Jefferson and our family so perfectly. Jefferson is so happy at school and clearly does well academically (and socially - he's never had a problem there). Reagan is getting wonderful time with all of her lessons and is actually enjoying them and learning from them. I LOVE having more time with her - she is blossoming like a sweet rose!! And I even have time to read to the younger boys - one of my favorite snuggly times. Even with the extra driving....

So all that to try to put in words the process our family has been through these past two months that has rocked our world and even my faith. I hope that when the Lord brings us a new change in direction in the future, I can say that I have learned something from this and that my faith has grown. I hope that the kids (in the future) will know how much we want for their walk with the Lord and they will understand that we are willing to give up OUR plans for them so that the Lord's will prevails and blesses them instead.

And please, if you think about it, pray for us as we continue to adjust, that our family would grow stronger in faith and in our walk with God.....

Working up that nervous 'pre' school frenzy!

2009-07-15T21:41:00.012-04:00

Hey there! Here I am! I know you forgot but it's me - that strange country bumpkin with the presidentially named kids. Crazy how the calendar moves before I realize that although I've been blogging in my own head, I've not actually typed any of it up for you to see since last month! LOL! I guess I was hoping that you all had telepathy....

Just have so much on my mind these days! There certainly isn't time for blogging with the 'end' of last school year's work (well, kinda since we 'schooled' all year this year) and the lovely weather and summer activities. I've been to see family in Phoenix, family in Maryland (and I got to meet Mary's beautiful new boy - nanny, nanny to you all - he was adorable!), North Carolina, and, just yesterday, Washington D.C. - trips which have kept me up to my eyeballs in planning and laundry and catch up (on the return). We've had swimming lessons and karate and play dates galore. I've been "painting my thumb green" with a new (albeit TINY) garden, perennials, and flower baskets. And I've been making some headway on the seasonal clothing change (takes me f.o.r.e.v.e.r in this house!) and closet cleanup.

(Jefferson eatin' more sweet peas than he's picking for me!)

(Jefferson earned his yellow belt in Wado Ryu Karate)

But what really keeps me away, is the planning I need to get done for this coming (in 2 1/2 weeks?? Yikes!) school year where Reagan will need more time consuming teaching, Jefferson is headed into a new curriculum (we've chosen Sonlight - yay!) and Adam heads to pre school (Lincoln, at 2, will be doing his best to cause all sorts of mess and distraction - his specialty right now!).

I ordered Core 3 (Intro. to Amer. History), Science 2 (so he and Reagan could share), and Language Arts 3 from Sonlight this year. "Box day" was last week and I've only got the Instructor's Guide put together, with no progress on labeling and shelving the books, or entering the assignments into my Homeschool Tracker Plus (which I love too much to give up even though it requires much input time). The kids LOVED the books and spent a few days pouring over them before I had to tape the box back up (to keep Jefferson from reading too many) Sheesh, what a problem to have - lol!
So in order to tackle the Sonlight/HST+ combination & entry, I joined both forums and have been ignoring this dear blog. Dh has offered to take 'The Four' out of the house on Sat so I can get some good data entry/ planning time in. I am hoping that I can keep my head on straight because I am finding that I have trouble focusing these days. Deadlines always help though!

The other issue I'm trying to tackle at the same time is the planning of Reagan's 1st grade year. I am nervous about what we will be able to accomplish since she is still only in basic readers and is having trouble with eye tracking. I still need to plan out her phonics lessons to incorporate the multi-sensory techniques that are oh, so important and effective with her, as well as figure out how to incorporate some of SOTW1 with the Mystery of History I plan to use instead (more another time on why). It is critical that I get her plan completely mapped out since I have discovered this year that her lessons easily get shoved to the back burner in lieu of Jefferson's work.

At this point, I am thankful that I have a roll top desk since it looks like my head feels - completely disheveled! But...I am hoping (and praying of course!) that prioritizing and using lists will help me plod through little by little and get it all done. I've done it before and hundreds of ladies before me have done it too, right?

Ohhhh, the fun "pre" school frenzy...er, planning I mean. I am glad for the excitement about the new year and new goals that comes with it though! Hopefully, it won't keep me away from here for too long....

Wordless Wednesday - Photo Effects

2009-06-09T23:00:00.002-04:00

(Original photo above)
I can't believe how angelic my little man still looks at 19 months old (especially considering the horrific sounds that can come from his mouth when he's told "No!" - lol!). Those eyes just melt my heart!

A special thanks to Darcy (my photography and Photoshop hero) at Life with My 3 Boybarians for recommending picnik.com (free software) for photo editing. I haven't the talent to invest in Photoshop but didn't have enough options with Picassa and Paint. It was fun giving him blue eyes and trying all kinds of other strange effects on this photo (while I should have been doing *insert.any.daily. motherly.task.here*)!

For more Wordless Wednesday, see 5 minutes for Mom.