Looking forward to 2013

Well, the Mayans were wrong (or did someone just interpret the calendar wrong? only time will tell) and we are still here.  So, that means looking ahead to a new year coming up and making plans for it.

This school year has gone really well so far amazingly.  The oldest 3 girls have made great strides and learned a lot of things attending a public charter school this school year while Jojo did schoolwork at home with me.  It has given us all a chance to grow as individuals and explore things that we never would have otherwise.  The girls have a new appreciation for our life as a homeschool family, and I've discovered the joy of being a domestic housewife with only having to teach 1 child and care for a baby during the day.  I have learned many things about myself in the process, and what I feel strongly about.  It has been a good opportunity, but I am ready for 2013 to come.

This first half of the new year, I am going to be working on my own personal shortcomings.  I am going to develop healthy habits for myself, including exercise, healthier eating, and getting the right meds and dosage for my anxiety issues.  This is a very important step, and one I must complete before school lets out for summer vacation at the end of May.

Starting in June, we will have a very different life.  I plan to take June and let the kids enjoy life and decompress before we pick up and start homeschooling in July.  Yes, I said homeschooling.  They will NOT be returning to the charter school next year, and I am looking forward to it.  I am working now slowly on creating an idea of what we will do in lessons and a schedule for our days.  It is going to be an adjustment, but I am looking forward to getting back to our real life and learning as a family.  I've had a few people who don't agree with our decision, but Scott and I know that this is the right decision for our family and we will do what we need to do for this to happen.  I realize that I have a child with severe dyslexia and a child with ADD and motor delays, and am prepared for this.  I have tutoring lined up to assist with my dyslexic, new curriculum chosen based on their needs, and my husband's support.

This is what God has led us to, and any naysayers can kiss my backside.  Society and popular practices do not choose what we do with our family, God has the say in things.  For those who feel that we should not let God dictate our lives, well now this is why it is OUR family and OUR life.  I am not forcing everyone to do as we do because God wants it, I am simply making choices for my own family with the support and backing of my husband.  Don't try to force your lack of religion on my family because my family having such faith scares you, let it be.

And that ends my last post of 2012 unless something major comes up tomorrow.

Isn't illness fun?

I really hoped that we would be spared this year from the annual rounds of illness that usually happen here.  Unfortunately, that did not happen as all 5 children have the flu and I believe I may be coming down with it as well.  The one being hit hardest would happen to be my sweet Kimmy, who will be 7 next month.

Obviously this virus is causing her some issues with her asthma.  But that's why we have a nebulizer, she's always had these troubles when she gets sick.  I also have a second nebulizer and tubing with a mask for PJ, as he has the same trouble Kimmy has with breathing while sick.  Hopefully we can keep it all under control and the girls can all recover over the weekend so they don't have to miss school again on Monday (they all came down with this one between getting off the bus yesterday and waking up this morning, with me and PJ starting it this afternoon).  Scott is pumping himself full of vitamin C to try and keep from getting it, and I'm forcing myself to keep going with life until he gets home from work tonight so I can go to bed and die.

4 weeks left of the semester

Over the weekend, I took a few minutes to figure out where we are in Jojo's lessons and to see how many days are left in the semester.  Well, there are 19 days left of the first semester (this is including today) and we aren't too far off course in lessons for her.  I wrote out how many lessons we have left in each subject to get to 50%, so I have a goal but I'm not going to get upset if I fall short in any subject.  Here's the list so I can keep accountable, then I'll give a few notes on this so you can see what the big picture is.

Phonics- 25 lessons
Language Skills- 29 lessons
Literature & Comprehension- 54 lessons
History- 24 lessons

And then there is 10 lessons left in social studies to reach 100% completion.

At first I kind of freaked over the number of lessons compared to days, but I'm not worried for a reason.  Phonics, the next 15 lessons we're doing are all reviewing and mastering short vowel sounds, so I should be able to condense those into 5-8 days instead of taking 15 to do it.  Lit. & comp. is scheduled to spend 3 days at a time reading a story and doing activities, but typically we read the story and then pick from the 3 days of activities to do the ones we are most interested in and do some review questions from all 3 days because Jojo will NOT stand for me re-reading a story 3 days in a row.  So we do 3 or 4 lessons a day in this subject typically (there are "your choice" days included randomly that allow you to play catch-up if you need it on a story).  History, even if we don't hit all 24 lessons left to make 50% it is only 2 days a week so I can just pick up a third day weekly if we want or need to (or even more days, for that matter).  Language skills is similar to Li. & comp. where we will do multiple lessons at a time because it just annoys the two of us too much to spend more than 1 day at a time right now on a poem or the stuff it covers (who needs to spend 3 days working on a page in the "All About Me" book anyway? honestly!)

We're doing pretty good on logged attendance hours too, only about 4 hours "behind" at this point with all the sickness I've had to deal with last month (before it started she was a good bit ahead, with having done almost all of her math K)

Math is the one subject you probably noticed that I didn't mention at all yet.  Well, there is a reason for that.  Jojo has FINISHED math+ blue (that's the grade K math) and her math+ green (1st grade mat) will be delivered this morning.  In fact it will likely be here in the next 1-2 hours with how UPS runs deliveries to me (I get a lot of UPS stuff sometimes with a big family and my taking college classes online here and there).  I plan to get her doing Study Island or Reading Eggs this morning once UPS comes so that I can spend an hour or two snuggling this adorable sleeping baby boy and looking through the new curriculum to get familiar with it.  She will then start it this afternoon once I've gotten a good feel for it.  Nope, not worried about her math progress, as she had already hit 100% in her math and is now working on the next grade level up.

Oh, and later if I get a chance and I remember, I'll have to put up the pictures I took of the girls ice skating on Friday.  OHVA sponsored a skating event at the local ice arena so I decided to pick them up early from school so they could join us.  Missa discovered that she loves to ice skate and her sisters decided they aren't too keen on it.  I'm hoping that we can swing paying for Missa to take lessons as her Christmas gift, but I have to see what we have left after we buy the other kids' 2 gifts each and the rest of the big group gift.

fun in November

A friend of mine on Facebook posted this little cartoon today and I just had to share it here.  I have encountered that very question many times, and I have answered similarly to that.  Now, on to what I wanted to share.....

Not much has really happened here in my home.  We have just plugged along with life here, doing what we need to do each day.  Jojo is doing well with her homeschool lessons, her big sisters are doing well in school, and PJ is being a little tag-along pest who follows me all over the place and hangs on my leg if I'm not holding him (ok that part is new, he gets super clingy when he's working on a big developmental milestone).

We had some disruptions to Jojo's lessons with PJ getting sick, we ended up at the hospital emergency room a couple weeks ago because he was struggling to breathe.  Turns out he has a reactive airway, which means that whenever he gets sick the coughing fits can cause his lungs and airways to spasm and he cannot breathe.  Yes, this means I now have two children who use the nebulizer when they are sick to control their breathing.  He will likely not outgrow this quirk, but that is ok because Kimmy and I both have it as well and I'm pretty familiar with how to handle it.  It is truly amazing how something as simple as a cold can cause such big problems, isn't it?

Jojo is currently visiting Europe in her history/geography lessons.  We are a bit behind in this subject, so I am planning to do extra lessons for the next couple weeks with her and get caught up again and possibly even ahead.

We still haven't gotten her 1st grade math, as we have been dragging our feet with the little bit she needs to review before moving on.  PJ's illness and then the Thanksgiving holiday break threw us off in a big way.  She is working on weight and measurement, and I'm going to try having her take the test today just to see where she's at in it.  Once she passes this one last test I can have OHVA send us 1st grade materials.

Missa and Liddy had testing done last month at their school for services, and both qualified for an IEP.  Liddy, as suspected, needs therapy for her motor development and Missa is most definitely dyslexic and needing a lot of accommodations for that.  I signed that paperwork and got them started with services, and already there is a noticeable improvement in their work.

Kimmy is doing great, and has become "teacher's pet" so to speak.  She's the most popular kid in her class, has good grades, and is overall very polite and a pleasure to be around according to her teacher.

The 3 girls are all trying out for parts in a school play here in a couple weeks, and are really excited about that.  Missa also brought home an invitation to a birthday party next weekend, her first ever invitation.

PJ is now 9 months old, and making huge developmental leaps.  Right now he is working on learning to walk.  He can take 3-5 steps completely unassisted before he falls down, and with the push toy we have he runs all over the house.  He also eats crazy amounts of food.  He has graduated from baby food to table food cut up into bite-size pieces, and can easily eat 2-3 pancakes, an entire banana, or even 2 scrambled eggs with toast at a single meal.  According to our pediatrician at yesterday's checkup, he is 23lbs and 30 inches tall.  I knew he was tall for his age, but I had no clue he would be above the 90th percentile.  I guess I'm feeding him right to be growing like that, he is bigger than all his sisters were at this age (and bigger than 2 of them were at 2 years old!).

I told you that November has been pretty slow here.  Now we are gearing up for Christmas, and all the festivities that come with it.  This year we decided to tell the kids the truth about Santa since we have added expenses from some home repairs and aren't going to be able to do as much for Christmas as we have in the past, but also we have decided to introduce a variation of Elf on the Shelf for fun.  I am going Saturday to pick up our elf, and then we will have fun with it in our own crazy way.

Weekly wrap-up

This has been a fun week for us here.  We've had the added job of taking care of Tinkerbell as she recovered from her vet visit, went out to play with some new friends, and did our normal lessons.  However, I am going to mainly talk about the academics.

This week we wrapped up our visit to Australia in history.  Jojo had fun and we decided to dig into it pretty well, taking a few weeks to learn about the animals, plants, and culture in general.  We wrapped up Australia by making a shadowbox of Australian ocean life using a few household supplies we had on hand and some creativity.  It is nothing spectacular, as we are out of scotch tape so I had to be creative in how we attached some pieces (particularly the "floating" ones, I used a safety pin to attach the yarn to the animals and then punched holes in the box and tied the string that way instead of a couple pieces of tape holding it all on) but she had a good time.

Ignore the face she's making, she has hit THAT stage. *sigh*  As you can see, it isn't fancy at all and you can definitely tell a 5 year old made it with minimal help from mommy.

In math, she FINISHED her math K materials and we are now waiting for approval, ordering, and delivery of 1st grade math.  It should be all taken care of in the next 2 weeks I'm guessing, so until then she and I will work together in a Spectrum math workbook that was given to us by a friend and I shall introduce her to my friends also known as the addition and subtraction flash cards.

She is resisting phonics and language arts still, but we are making progress there.  She did 2 units in language arts this week after I discovered that she will listen to stories and poetry if I sit down and start reading it to her little brother.  She's done that whole "no I am NOT listening to you read" pout when I say that I'm going to read, and then when I tell her fine I'll read to Bub then sit with him on the floor and read her school stories to him she'll slowly make her way over and be next to me looking at the pictures and listening (and interrupting with commentary about the story and questions as needed) by the end of the second paragraph I'm reading out loud.  So I'm taking advantage of this discovery and working at an accelerated pace through the material to "catch up" in the curriculum (not hard to do, the material has us doing a story for 3 days straight and covers skills that she's already familiar with so I have no issues condensing the work to a story or 2 each day).  She's making excellent progress in her penmanship as well, and I anticipate that she'll finish her workbook by the new year and move on to just working on copying words and sentences daily.

Health right now is being covered by involving her in caring for her brother, cooking, and taking care of the dog.  She really likes this, and is easily doing daily health lessons through this method.

She also has finally figured out how to pedal her bike that she got for her birthday last month, which you already know I'm logging for physical education.  She also is starting yoga and stretching every morning to start the day.

That my dear friends is what our week has looked like here.  We've had a LOT of fun and learned a lot of things.  I didn't think she'd do this well in schoolwork, but she's pulling it off nicely.

Fun times here

So we got a dog last month, as you know from my last post.  A 10 month old Yorkie-poodle mix we named Tinkerbell.  She has definitely made life different here.

She doesn't like her dog food too much, but is getting used to it.  She isn't terribly fond of PJ, after he tugged on her ears and tail a couple times (totally expected that he'd be curious and tug, and totally expected that she isn't too fond of him now because of it but we're teaching him to be be gentle and her to tolerate him).  She is very protective of our bedroom and growls at the girls when they dare to enter until she's told to knock it off.

And then there is THIS week.  Yesterday she went to get spayed and taken care of at the vet.  You know the drill, dental, blood tests, fecal sample, the works to make sure she's healthy.  All her boosters are done for the year, tests all came back perfect, she is now spayed.  However, there were a few little glitches.  She is NOT a puppy.  She's about 7 years old, and was horribly neglected by her previous owner.  The fact that she had lost several teeth and we had to have the vet pull several more made that pretty obvious.  The vet also shaved her matted fur for us after seeing how I've been carefully removing the worst matting with my hair cutting scissors.  Needless to say, she hates me right now for all she had done in the last 24 hours, and we spent a lot of money.  But, it is worth it to know that she is healthy and taken care of properly.

As far as the kids, well that has been fun too.  Missa is being harassed and bullied at school and says that the school doesn't believe her about it and are ignoring her complaints.  Liddy is a drama queen as usual, screaming and yelling and lashing out physically whenever she doesn't get EXACTLY her way.  Kimmy is loving school and bringing home good grades.  Jojo is being VERY 5, and gives me a run for my money some days.  And then there is PJ, pulling up and trying to walk all over the place.  He will pull up and then let go and fall over.  Then he will start screaming if he sees someone watching him LOL  He also is eating as well as his sisters, and exactly what they eat sometimes.  Yes, he is moving on to table foods now by his own choosing.  He loves pancakes and waffles, and especially enjoys dropping them on the floor to watch the dog come running to eat them.  He enjoys apple juice diluted in a sippy cup too.

Oh, and yesterday we went on a field trip with OHVA.  Since Jojo is enrolled in OHVA for her K year, we are required to attend 4 face-to-face (F2F) events each school year.  Her KRA-L test would have counted as the first one, however we had a baby with chicken pox (caught it from his oldest sister who picked it up at school, luckily none of the others got it) so we had to do that testing online instead.  So, I have 4 field trips I need to do for Jojo to get her required 4 F2F events.  Yesterday was the first one, and her big sisters didn't have school that day so they got to join us.  We all went to the pumpkin patch.

Yes, I took 5 kids by myself to the pumpkin patch.  I'm slightly out of practice since school started, I don't typically have to take more than just 2 kids anywhere (or 3 if someone is sick at home from school).  I honestly dreaded this trip, and even moreso when the vet said that the only time they could get Tink in for her spay was on the same day as the trip to the pumpkin patch. *sigh*  It went well though, I laid down the rules real early and made sure they flat out KNEW them.  I assigned a buddy system for them to make it easier for me to keep track of them, and off we went.  2 hours they spent running through the corn maze, in the enchanted forest, and then hunting through the pumpkins to find their perfect ones to carve this weekend for Halloween.  Here's a couple pictures from that trip. :)

I do not approve of this stroller mommy!

From left to right- Jojo, Liddy, Kimmy, Missa

At the mini maze, yes PJ lost his socks as usual

a new addition to our family

As if life isn't already busy enough with 5 kids, 3 going to school and one homeschooling with a baby in the mix, we added to the busy and chaos.  Meet Tinkerbell, our new pup.

She is a 10 month old Yorkie-Poo that we found at the county animal shelter yesterday.  Her previous owner was a sweet old woman who was no longer able to care for her, and her grandson brought her in to the shelter.  They told him that if he was surrendering her that he needed to either take her next door to the humane society or fill out paperwork and pay a surrender fee.  He didn't want to do either one, so he walked out the door, set her in the grass in front of the shelter, and drove off.  She is still on hold for owner retrieval, but on Monday (that is tomorrow) she is released from the hold and we can pick her up at 1pm.  I signed a hold contract and paid a deposit to ensure that we get her, and will pay the rest of the $100 adoption fee tomorrow (that includes shots, deworming, spay, and license for this year).  Jojo is super excited to be able to go get her tomorrow afternoon, and her sisters are also thrilled that when they get home from school she'll be here as a part of our family.  I just have to detangle her poor fur, it is all matted and she needs a good bath.  She is so sweet though, we could tell when we were there that she was just terrified at being in a little cage there in the cat room and she just kept shaking.  Scott was the one she warmed up to, she snuggled  him happily and rubbed his legs when he set her down for the girls to see her.

I hope she adjusts quickly and happily to her new home with us.  The girls are beyond ecstatic to have her coming to join our family.

The Little Things

There are so many things that we tend to take for granted.  Electricity, garbage pick up, indoor plumbing, and stuff like that.  Little things that we don't know how to live without.  Well, for 3 months my family lived without one of those small things in life when our washing machine died.

I spent 3 months hand washing all our laundry in the bathtub while we saved up to repair our machine.  However, sometimes it costs less to just buy a new one and get it over with.  This turned out to be the case with our washer.  So, Scott took the money we had saved up for the repair and he purchased a new one for me last weekend.  It arrived this morning, and I already have it running with a load of laundry.

I never realized how much I depended on that machine until I had to do without it for an extended period of time.  Now I have a new appreciation for the washing machine, and I plan to be easier on it than I was in the past.

Phonics with active kids

Jojo is one of my active kids.  By active, I mean totally ADHD and unable to focus or sit still for more than a minute at the most, constantly getting into stuff, curious about everything, chattering nonstop, playing until she passes out asleep at night kind of active.  I knew that teaching her myself would be a challenge when we decided to keep her home and do OHVA with her instead of sending her to the charter school with her sisters this year.

Now don't get me wrong.  I love teaching her, and I do have a lot of experience with this kind of learner thanks to having Missa first and myself also being this kind of learner.  It keeps life interesting, to say the least.  I never know what she is going to do next in some situations.  She is my child who, at the sweet innocent age of 2, made a beach in my kitchen with flour, salt, and sugar for the sand and then climbed on the counter to use the kitchen sprayer to make the water.  She is the one that I had to call 911 a couple times in one summer because she got into chemicals that I had put in (I thought!) a safe place.  She is my handful, that's for sure.  So I knew I was in for it teaching her myself.

Anyway, she balks at phonics because it has her sitting and working with me quietly.  So what am I supposed to do when the curriculum is the wrong style?  I tweak it, of course!  I tossed aside the letter tiles and workbook for now, and we are using my driveway and sidewalk chalk to practice and learn letter sounds, digraphs, and sight words.  I write them on the driveway, and then I call out a sound or sight word and she jumps on it.  When weather doesn't allow us to do this out in the yard, I have a LOT of printer paper that I can use inside for this.

Yes, sidewalk chalk is a necessary school supply in my home, precisely for the active learners I have.

getting adjusted to the school year

Getting adjusted to any big change in our lives is hard for me and a couple kids.  I like routine and predictability in my days, and having a change causes me anxiety and makes me grumpy.  So obviously, this school year with the oldest 3 girls going to school, a new baby, and Jojo starting homeschooling we had our share of temper tantrums.

Jordan's big adjustment is still happening here, as she's not used to sitting down daily and doing lessons with me that aren't mostly fun stuff.  She's not that into reading times and certain types of activities, but she's learning quickly how to tolerate it and do what she needs to do.  A big bag of tootsie rolls is helping with this one, I've been giving her one after each lesson we complete.  I plan to keep that up for a while and then slowly drop the reward.

The older girls have a completely different adjustment.  Lydia and Kimmy are NOT morning people, and they have to get on the bus at 6:45am since they are the first stop on the route.  Missa is adjusting to having to bring home homework and having to focus and sit still.  This is a hard one for her because of her ADHD.  All 3 girls obviously are adjusting to the structure of the school schedule, some of the rules at school, and not being able to just get up and go to the bathroom or grab a snack whenever they want.  It is happening though, and the girls are liking the school they are going to this year (this is always a good thing!)

As for me, I am a morning person but I personally don't like to get up early.  I snap right up when it is time, and have little problem with being tired or grouchy under normal circumstances.  The only time that I am grumpy when I get up is if I have to listen to a screeching tantrum from one of my kids who don't do mornings too well.

And now for the totally honest moment that I don't want to admit.  I am finding with the older kids at school that I'm a better mom to all my children.  I butt heads with one child because we are both very stubborn and have major independent streaks, and with another because she has a tendency to scream, whine, and can cause me one heck of a migraine in under 10 seconds flat when things aren't going her way or she's not the center of the universe.  Then there is my devious child, who is so quiet and sweet while she plots her takeover of the universe.  The three of them together is not a good thing for my sanity sometimes.  Being able to put them on the bus to go to school on weekday mornings helps me to be able to do the things that I need to do without losing my mind in the process, and gives me the opportunity to be in that place I need to be mentally for handling them after school and on weekends/holidays.  I spent 4 years teaching my children at home, and I knew that it wasn't something I can easily do long-term.  With them going to school, I find that I am almost never yelling, I have more patience to diffuse explosive tantrums from my drama queen, and my house is getting cleaned up because I don't have them undoing my work as fast as I get it cleaned up.

Yes, we are adjusting nicely to the school year and all the changes that happened this year/

September- new month, new goals

Yup, it is that time again.  At the start of every month, I take a look at where I am and set a goal for each child I am working with.  So here is what my goals are looking like.

JOJO:

finish testing out of math+ K
test to the right place in phonics K
keep plugging away at all subjects

PJ:

keep baby-proofing the house
try not to lose or drop him (hey he's heavy and FAST now that he's figured out crawling)

the other girls:

continue keeping up with homework
30min every day of reading for them
sewing lessons may be good here too

As you can see, not much really is planned for the kids.  Jojo has her first testing session online with her teacher tomorrow morning, and if I can get her to do it I know she'll do just fine.  She already meets the benchmarks to pass K and go into 1st grade academically (hence her not going to the charter school with her sisters) so I am not too worried about it.

And just for fun, here is a picture of her cute Kindergarten self.

And all 5 kids together.  Poor PJ is totally outnumbered!

First days of school for the big kids

The oldest 3 girls this year are attending a local charter school instead of homeschooling.  I was really nervous about it, knowing that they were behind in some areas but way ahead in others.  Two of them had never attended a school at all, and Missa has only done half a year of K in school.  Needless to say, my anxiety was running high this week before they started school on Thursday.

They got onto the bus at 6:45am just fine on the first day, although Kimmy was a bit grumpy because she's not a morning person anyway and wasn't too keen on the idea of going to school.  The bus brought them home almost a full hour late that day, and poor Kimmy had fallen asleep on the bus so she wasn't too steady at first.  Missa and Liddy loved school, and Kimmy hated it that first day.  The second day I had to carry Kimmy to the bus and force her to get on it, which I did because we made the decision that if we withdraw any of the girls the decision will be made after Halloween, allowing them the opportunity to fully adjust and get a really good feel for the school.  However, after school Kimmy hopped off the bus smiling and saying that she liked school a lot more.

Now I am having to listen to the 3 girls all complaining that they want to go to school and that they can't wait for the weekend to be over.  They have this upcoming Friday and the following Monday off, giving them a 4 day weekend, and I just know that they aren't going to be too happy about it.  I hope they can keep up the excitement at school for the rest of the year.

As far as Jojo is concerned, we start logging her attendance for OHVA tomorrow.  So I'm going to spend today trying to get a fairly workable routine for lessons made out and looking over the lessons to be sure I have all the necessary supplies for the week.

week 1 for Jojo

This week we started easing into our school routines with the kids.  The older girls have to get on the bus at 6:30am, so we have been adjusting wake-up time to 5:30 so they can get dressed and eat before they get on the bus.  This has gone pretty well, and yesterday we nailed the wake-up time perfectly and got them all fed and dressed like I need to in time.

Jojo, on the other hand, is having a harder time adjusting to school.  We have another week still before I have to start logging attendance, so I have time to get her into it better.  Now remember, she is a young K'er with her birthday being just a few weeks before the cutoff date in Ohio.  She is still 4, and VERY much a 4 year old.  I keep lessons short and sweet with her, breaking up the bigger stuff into little bits and adding in hands-on craft stuff to keep her going.  She's working at a developmentally appropriate level for her age with the tweaking I'm doing, and I have no issues with it.  This challenge we are working through right now is precisely WHY she isn't going to the charter school with her sisters.  She really does need the extra time working with me before she's ready to head off to school too.

This week has been really interesting as far as trying to get a routine started with Jojo and her schoolwork.  Having her sisters home all week (and half of the upcoming week as well) has made it a bit difficult to get into a routine with her; she keeps wanting to do her lessons and then getting distracted by their presence.  So I'm just calling it good that we get anything at all done before they head off on Thursday to school.

Really, though, she has done a lot.  We have completed the first unit in math (about 3 weeks of lessons, it was all review for her) and the first 2 units in phonics (again, review for her) on top of half the handwriting for the year (it was the same book we did with her last school year so she just sat down and did it all over the course of a few days for fun) and a few lessons in language arts and social studies.  It has been a very productive week for her, even with the distraction of her sisters being here still all day.

I anticipate that next week when they head to school, it will be a completely different story for how Jojo does in her schoolwork.  But, we have a picnic on Thursday and PJ has his 6 month checkup on Friday, so we'll see how much we get done those first two days of school.

New school year has begun!

I only have a few minutes to post, so I'll try to keep it short here.  Yesterday the OLS for Jojo's schooling was ready with her work, so we started lessons yesterday to get a head start on her schooling.  I have to begin logging attendance on the 27th, so we're starting 2 weeks early, but OHVA can be a bit tedious at times so I wanted to be sure to ease her in to the workload properly instead of just jumping into it all with both feet on the 27th.

The older 3 girls start going to school on the 23rd, so they are helping me with this transition.  I am trying to get us into a schedule of sorts for our days, and it isn't an easy transition for me to do this after 4 years of just kind of going with the flow.  Missa and Liddy have been VERY helpful with this transition so that I can get into the swing of it without holding PJ constantly or wearing him in the carrier before I have to do it with him attached to me one way or another.  I feel pretty good about how its going, although I can tell that this school year is going to be a real experience with Jojo as she still has the attention span of a gnat and can't sit still for more than 30 seconds at a time (which was our main reason for doing OHVA with her instead of sending her to the school her sisters will be attending).

As for the big girls, we are adjusting wakeup time so that they have adequate time to dress in their uniforms and eat before the bus comes at 6:35am to get them.  None of us are doing well with the 5:30am wakeup, but we'll get there by the end of the week hopefully.

Playing with friends

I sent an e-mail yesterday to a friend of mine to see if we could come play one day before the big kids start school in 15 days.  We set up to do it this morning, and we had so much fun.  It is very important as an at-home mom, especially a home educating mom, to get out with other moms and talk so that we don't forget how to do that stuff.

So, we showed up this morning to play and the girls were ecstatic at different playmates.  And PJ got his first "play date" with a little boy just 6 weeks or so older than he is.  I even got some pictures on my phone of the playing, but only 1 has made it to my computer right now.  I got to spend a couple hours talking with Tristan from Our Busy Homeschool and the girls played with her 6 older children while she and I snuggled our sweet babies.  I even got a chance to snuggle her little guy, he is so sweet and squishy.

And even better, it is one of those super rare pictures with me in it.  I loved having both in my lap like that, but man I'm glad I was never given twins.  That was just TOO heavy for me to do very long.

shopping

I love having a little shopping buddy, and when the shopping buddy is THIS cute I just can't help but grin the entire time we're out doing this dreaded task (shopping is not something I enjoy doing, especially when it is food shopping trips).

Yes we were at WalMart.  I had to go pick up the ingredients to make a cheesecake, as Scott's birthday is tomorrow and that is his absolute favorite dessert (I always do the birthday person's favorite meal and dessert, from scratch whenever possible).  I also swung over to the baby department to get PJ a crinkle toy.  This one that he got today is a teething blanket, its crinkly all over with 2 corners with chewing ends and a third with a squeaky thing.

Yup, my littlest shopping buddy makes the grocery store fun, especially since he's now sitting up well enough that he can hang out in the cart instead of me having to wear him all the time.  He likes the new view too.  The seatbelt in the cart provides just enough support for him to sit up for the trip.

Family game night

We are getting ready to enter the busy season at work for Scott, as all the kids are getting ready for back to school and need to get new glasses (he cuts lenses in an optical lab).  So this means that quality time is going to get harder to come by around here with him.  As a result, on Sunday evenings we are now having "family game night" in an attempt to spend time with Scott.  Last night was our first night of this, and he played Wii bowling with the girls.  They played two full games before the girls had to go to bed, and it went pretty well.  Jojo decided that she didn't want to play, so she instead became a cheerleader and cheered every time someone knocked down pins.  PJ and I sat on the sofa watching, and PJ just screeched and talked the whole time.  It was a total success.

Now I need to come up with an idea for next weekend's family game night.  I'm thinking we may try splitting into teams and teaching the girls charades.  That should be fun I think.  Or maybe I'll snag some new dry erase markers and clear off the big dry erase board so we can play Pictionary.  I'll come up with an idea.

Box day

Today Jojo's curriculum arrived.  She was super excited to get it, and to see what all was in the boxes.  K12 has certainly improved since I used their K materials with Liddy, that's for sure.  It was a good solid program before but the changes have really improved the program I think.

Of course, Jojo was so excited that she insisted that I let her do SOMETHING of the schoolwork today.  I let her at one of the handwriting workbooks, and that satisfied her.

Getting ready for the school year

Last week, I made a decision.  Since my oldest 3 are going to a charter school, I decided that it is time to get them used to waking up early so they can catch the bus.  I anticipate that they will need to get up at 6am to have enough time to get ready and eat before the bus comes, and they usually start waking up around 8am.  So this is a big change for them.  I started this morning with waking them at 7am, and will do this daily for a couple weeks before I move it to 6am.  Today went fairly well with it being the first day of the new routine, although I didn't get up a half hour before waking them up (PJ got me up at 4am and kept me up until 5:30 screaming, I think he's teething) so they had to wait for me to catch up to them so they could have breakfast.  I am so happy that I decided to start this a full month before they start school so that I can adjust and work all the kinks out of the system!

As far as prepping for Jojo's school year at home with me, I'm just waiting for payday so that I can get hold of a bookshelf for her stuff, and a couple bins for the littler supplies.  Her enrollment is completed and approved, and curriculum and computer have been ordered by the school for her.  I should have those things here in the next 2 weeks, give or take a few days.  I'll update when I get the e-mail with tracking numbers.

Of course, for the big girls getting supplies is a bit different.  I'm slowly working at getting their supplies, and on Wednesday the school is having a used uniform sale that I'm going to take advantage of.  My parents are being awesome and decided to buy the girls their uniform shoes, which is a HUGE burden off our shoulders right now financially.  Now I have to work our tight budget to include uniform skirts and the rest of their supplies they need.

Mom's in trouble

Yup, I'm in for it.  That is a baby trying to take off chasing his sisters.  He's 5 months old today, and I am totally NOT ready for this new milestone he's hitting.  Someone needs to tell him to lay back down and be a baby for a while longer.

Jojo's education figured out

I posted a while back about if I should enroll Jojo in the charter school with her sisters or keep her home another year.  I found a solution that will work PERFECTLY for us I think.

I am now in the process of enrolling her in Ohio Virtual Academy for her K year.  This way, I can keep her at home to work on developing the skills she'll need to handle school if we choose to send her next school year, yet at the same time we will not be holding her back academically.  I just have to get some printer ink so that I can print off the forms that I have to fill out and fax in with her birth certificate and other stuff, then she'll be set to go.

Her sisters will head off starting August 23rd, and her first official day of school is the 27th.  I have a good feeling about this year, and am looking forward to working with OHVA and the k12 curriculum for K again.  I also am looking forward to adding in many of the optional activities in the program that we skipped when I did this program with my oldest girls since it will be just her and PJ during the day.

My guys

I took this last night while supper was in the oven.  We do this every night, Scott cuddles his boy while I make supper and PJ typically falls asleep on his daddy's shoulder.

The end of a season

Today my children lost a bit of that innocence they have had.  This evening at 8pm we buried their pet hamster, S'more.  He had been ill for a while now, and slowly declining, so we had been expecting him to die.  This morning he appeared to be doing a bit better; however, that was just his honeymoon health before he passed this evening.  Now I have a little grave in the back yard, and Lydia crying in my ear and refusing to believe that he has indeed passed into the big hamster wheel in the sky.  He was our pet for a little over a year before his passing, and while he wasn't the easiest to get along with (he had a habit of biting the girls if they messed with him too much) he was loved by all 4 girls and they will miss him.

Until we get a rabbit that is........ stay tuned for that blog post coming in the next couple months.

tough decision with a child

I only have a few minutes before we have to leave for VBS so I will keep this short.

Jojo will be 5 on September 3rd.  The cutoff for a child to start school is September 30th, and school starts this year on August 22nd.  She technically passed the K screening but has some areas that we need to keep working on, and I question her maturity at times.  We have full-day K only around here, I don't know of any half-day options.  So I'm about 90% sure that she won't be going to school this fall with her sisters.  I'm thinking she would benefit from another year at home with me, working casually and gently on things that she struggles in and maturing a bit more before she starts the next year.  But Scott wants me to send her and at least give it a try to see how she does.  She doesn't really have an opinion either way.

If we keep her home, I'll get her reading and start addition and subtraction when PJ naps.

VBS week and life's crazy fun stuff

This week is VBS week for us.  In case you don't know, VBS is Vacation Bible School, and every summer the kids who are old enough go to the program at a church near our home.  This happens to also be the church they go to Awana at and the host church for the homeschool group we've been a part of the past 4 years.  We enjoy the children's activities there, and it is just a few miles away, so they go there for activities even though it is not our home church (it is a half hour drive each way, we can't spend that much on gas for activities there outside a few special events and going to the service on Saturday nights).

This year Jojo is old enough to go, so I have all 4 girls going there from 8am-noon this week.  This is the first time I've had all 4 of them off like this for an activity, and it is also good practice for me to see what it will be like this fall when they are all 4 off to school.  Yesterday I spent the time making all the important phone calls I needed to make, and this morning I went to the grocery store and did a little bit of tidying up.  Tomorrow's VBS time I will be taking PJ to his 4 month checkup and shots, and the rest of the week is likely going to be me doing some of the chores I have to get done and taking my laundry over to a friend's house to get some done.

Yes I said taking laundry to a friend's house.  Our washer blessed us on Saturday morning when I was washing PJ's clothes by breaking down in mid-wash.  The pump quit working while it was draining the spin after washing, and then we had it fill to rinse and not drain that water.  Scott got the dryer unstacked last night so that we could tip the washer back for me to get the clothes out and scoop the water out into my mop bucket.  Next weekend he is hopefully going to order the parts we need and then he and I will try to fix it ourselves (if we can't do it ourselves, we have a reputable locally owned repair place that will put it in for us for $109 labor).  Hopefully it isn't down too much, because I don't want to do too much laundry at my friend's house and what I don't do there I am hand washing in the bathtub.  I really do NOT like hand washing dirty laundry, especially when I am dealing with diaper poop explosions because I have to use disposable diapers instead of cloth on PJ until the washer is fixed.

PJ and the milestone

I thought I'd do a little blip here about PJ's latest milestone.  I think I'll share a couple pictures first and then comment with what exactly is going through my mind now.

Nom nom nom!

PJ and the wubbie

He has started putting things in his mouth this week to chew on them.  Yes he is teething.  Yes he is starting to grab at toys and bat things.  No I am NOT prepared for the amount of heavy cleaning that this means I need to do and keep up with.  I've always kept things tidied enough to pass here, as life is just busy with 5 kids.  But now that he's starting to grab at things and is putting them in his mouth, I need to be extra diligent about keeping things picked up.  I do not want to have to deal with him getting something small in his mouth stuck there.

So today I started cleaning.  Nothing like having a baby who chews everything to force a "flight of the bumblebee" style deep cleaning.

Summer plans

This summer is going to be a very different one for us.  Scott and I made the decision to enroll the girls in a charter school this fall, so in August they will be getting on the bus and headed off all day during the week.  We are both in agreement that this is the path we need to follow at this time, and are confident in this decision.  This does not mean that I will no longer be teaching my children.  We plan to continue to supplement the school with our own materials at home on weekends and school breaks in history and science, and daily as needed with math and language arts.  This is going to be a new experience for me, as it means that I will be home with just PJ during the day.  But I have a feeling it will be exactly what our family needs right now, and give all of us an opportunity to grow in a new way.

So, that means that this summer we are going to be focused on preparing the girls to attend school.  Missa and Liddy are *slightly* behind the school so we will be spending time daily getting them caught up and even a bit ahead in math.  Missa also will get a crash course in cursive and spelling, in hopes that she will improve noticeably over the summer.  It is going to be an interesting and busy summer here, but I have faith that we can pull it off.

And I have to rework our budget to allow for us to purchase uniforms for the girls to wear.  That will be the hard part I think.

wrapping up the school year

We have had a very eventful school year here, and now it is June so we need to wrap up things at some point and take a bit of a break.  Originally I wasn't going to take a break here due to the time we had to take off with my pregnancy complications, but even I am wanting a little time to relax and enjoy.  Plus, I need to free up some time to focus on getting my plans for this upcoming school year figured out in a couple areas.

We have made a lot of progress this year despite the things that came up.  The girls had a chance to learn through my pregnancy, about keeping healthy and making good choices along with learning about the development of a baby before it is born (science and health both right there).  They learned the importance of working together and helping out when needed, and gained some additional independence this school year.  We did keep plugging away in academics of course, completing most of our goals in history and science for the year plus making great progress in math and reading.  Missa finished her math book and moved up into Beta back in October I believe, and yesterday Jojo finished her Singapore Earlybird math book.  Liddy should finish her math book in the next few weeks and move on up to Beta as well, and Kimmy will finish her math book probably by fall.  Overall, I am happy with how the school year has gone for us.

So we shall wrap up this year over this month and take a bit of time off, then pick up with grades 4, 3, 1, and K in late July or early August.  We will keep up with doing some math and reading most likely over this summer, but at a more relaxed pace.  But officially, I'm calling it over with by the end of this month and just taking it for what it is.  I didn't get as much done as I would have liked in history or science, but they still got a LOT more than they would have in our local public school.  We have many years still to finish up the history we did this school year, and I am looking forward to the US geography study we will be doing this fall.  I have even decided to expand it to include science by studying earth science (identifying landforms in each state, like mountains, canyons, and such) and some plant/animal science (studying different plant and aminal life that is in each state, such as tumbleweed and cacti, scorpions, birds, and such).  I need to take a bit of time to rework the plan I originally had obviously to include this, as I was just going to keep plugging forward in science with what we have here (finishing the Real Science 4 Kids books that I got for this school year).  I also need to take some time to create a basic intro to music theory for the kids, as I would ideally like to have the oldest girls reading music a little bit next school year, and come up with something for art.

3 months old, and May wrap-up

This has been a good month for us.  PJ turned 3 months old, Liddy is now 8, and Scott is spending more time at home with us and less at work (of course, this is also a negative, as it means they cut his hours at work so he has smaller paychecks).  The girls are making progress in their schoolwork, and getting along better.  They also are starting to listen to me more about helping out.

Here's a few pictures from this month's activities.

 PJ has decided that he LOVES tummy time, and gives big grins and squeals for about 20-30 minutes at a time twice a day.  I took this picture this morning because he was being so stinking CUTE about tummy time.

This was early this month, PJ's first time on our swingset.  He wasn't too impressed with it but tolerated it pretty well for long enough to get a picture.

A math lesson this week.  In case you didn't already know, my oldest 3 use Math-U-See and Jojo will start it when she's ready as well.  Right now she's focusing on motor skill development and using pattern blocks to make pictures, and she adores the Mighty Mind game we have.  It is a part of Sonlight core P3/4.

finding time for me

This is something I've not really done much of the last several months.  I am especially finding it difficult with a new baby that needs to be with me at all times since he doesn't take a bottle.  So, I have to really make an effort to find time to do things for myself.  Right now the girls are playing happily and leaving me alone for once, and PJ is hanging out in the playpen and talking to his animals on the mobile above him.  I should really get out my sewing machine and do some sewing for the kids, but instead I am here on the computer typing a blog post.

I need to force myself to be more diligent about taking time for me daily.  I have many activities that I enjoy doing and the things I need to do them, but I don't take the time to do it.  I have about 20lbs to lose, and I have workout DVDs plus access to free workouts on Netflix and on my cable's OnDemand collection.  I have a large supply of fabric and patterns for myself and the kids, and a long list of things to make for us (mainly we need skirts and dresses, and PJ needs more diapers).  I have yarn and knitting/crochet needles/hooks plus patterns for things I want to make.  I have 2 books of music that I can learn to play on my flute or the piano.  I even have almost a dozen books on my Kindle, just waiting for me to read them, and a couple games for the Wii and Playstation 3 that I haven't played in a long time.

As I said, I have a lot of great stuff that I can do, and yet I do not take the time to do any of it.  Instead, while Scott reads to the girls at bedtime, I watch tv and rock PJ to sleep before I head off to sleep myself, and I get up with the first child in the morning every day.  The free time I have, in the past I've spent at the computer playing games and reading on chat forums.  I need to rekindle that spark for my hobbies and do it.

So, I am going to set up a plan.  Yesterday we had our first quiet time after lunch, and today I plan to do it again after Lydia's yearly checkup.  During that time, I am going to finish the shirt I have waiting for Jordan and then start making skirts for us all (the girls each need 4 or 5 at a minimum and I need 3 or more, that is a LOT of skirts) if PJ will let me put him down.  If not, then I will get out my yarn and start making dishcloths or I'll read a book on the Kindle.  Quiet time is 90 minutes that I can spend doing what interests me, so I'm going to do it.

And yes, I do consider making clothes for the kids to be fun and relaxing to me.  I have always enjoyed sewing, and I have wonderful high quality machines to do it.  Anything is fun for me to sew no matter what it is and who it is for, so I will be taking advantage to make some clothes that we need anyway and just continue to enjoy the sound of the machine humming away and the feel of the fabric in my hands as I work it through my machines.  It is a highly satisfying thing to start with a pattern and a pile of fabric and then see it transformed into something useful and beautiful.  Blankets, pillows, clothing, toys, you name it I'll make it.

Yes, I need to remember to take more time out for me.

fasting

I have come to the decision that I spend too much time on the computer.  It is very easy to sit down just to read a friend's blog and then end up spending a couple hours playing games on Facebook.  So, I have decided that I am taking time off this machine.  For at least a week, the only times I will be getting on the computer are to check my friends' blogs (I have a few that I read regularly), to post on my blog, and for homeschool purposes (printing off materials, finding something to add to the lesson, stuff like that).  So, if we talk on a chat board, are Facebook friends, etc. you will not see me around much at all for a while.  I do access on my phone a couple times daily, but I get irritated easily with the smaller screen.

My family is going through a lot of changes here in our dynamic, and the girls need more of my time than I have been giving them because of this computer habit of mine.  I started this yesterday, and will continue definitely until Scott gets paid on Friday.  It is time to get back to the family, and spend more time living and loving with them.  I have 5 amazing children and a wonderful husband, all of whom are being neglected by my time at the computer.  It is time to stop this and get back at life the way we are meant to live it.

The kids are also being limited in their computer and television time as well, which is a new thing for us.  This should be interesting, to say the least.

Saturday fun

Scott has a thing he likes to do with the girls.  On the first Saturday of every month, Home Depot has a free kids workshop.  He takes them up and they get an apron, popcorn, and build something.  Today he took them for the first time since PJ was born.  They built little planter boxes, and the store gave away free plants to the kids as well so they all came home with strawberry plants.  The girls also got to meet Chester Cheetah (the Cheetos character).  I have to figure out how to get the pictures out of my texting inbox and onto a computer first, but as soon as I do that I'll edit this with pictures he took.

And while they were at workshop, PJ and I went grocery shopping for a few basic necessities.  I really am happy that we splurged on the carrier that we got me last month, he hung out in it on my chest the entire trip and then got mad at me when I took him out again at the car (Scott took the van) so I could buckle him into his seat.

May goals

Well, it is a new month, so it is time for new goals.  I like setting goals for a month, it helps me to get some focus going on and motivation to get it done.

Homeschool goals:

Liddy finish her level of math
do spelling at least twice a week with Missa
Get Kimmy reading to me at least 3 times a week
keep working with Jojo on her letter sounds

Household goals:

stay more on top of the housework than I have been
catch up the laundry fully
plant shrubs out back

Personal goals:

daily time with my Bible
finish reading "Love and Logic"
exercise twice a week on purpose
go to bed by 10pm every night
smile more often

Yes, I think that is enough of a goal setting for now.  I have a lot of places I need to improve as a wife and mother, so my plan for this month is to start working on the areas that need the most help.  One day I may take the time to share all my shortcomings that I need and want to work on, but I rather like the idea of just posting a couple to work on each month instead like this.

And just because I can, here's my first picture this month of PJ and me together.  Please try to ignore the smears on the mirror, I know I need to take some Windex to it.

I can't believe how big he is getting already.  He will be 3 months old here in just 16 days, and in 9 days Liddy will be 8 years old.  I am NOT ready for this month.

ornery kids

Look what they taught my sweet little baby boy to do.

The girls taught PJ to stick his tongue out when they stick theirs out at him........  And Scott helped with that lesson.  Darn ornery girls and daddy!

But he is starting to laugh now when you get him excited enough.  I love getting him going real good with the kicks and the grins and squeals until he gives out a little chuckle.  He's also starting to blow raspberries during those times too, which just increases his cute factor.

Yup, I am definitely going to have my hands full soon with him, especially since he's starting to do pushups and can already propel himself forward by wiggling his front end and pushing with his legs and feet.  I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet.

9 years ago

OK this is a couple days late, I should have posted it on Saturday, but hey better late than never, right? :-)

9 years ago, I was 21 and clueless.  I also became a mom for the first time ever on April 14th at 4:30pm to a 6lb 14oz little baby girl.  I had never held a baby before in my life, and was from that point on expected to take care of and train this baby girl to be a beautiful independent woman.  I had to ask the nurse at the hospital how to change a diaper and bathe my baby, I was that clueless.  I felt like I would never figure out this who parenting thing.  All I knew was that I didn't want to give up and leave like my own mom had done when I was little.  I was determined to give that baby girl both a dad AND a mom, and a life that I never had.

And now today, that guinea pig baby girl I had at 21 is a beautiful and kind, compassionate, caring girl who is growing into an amazing young woman.  She has an independent streak almost as big as her stubborn streak, and makes me proud of her every day.  She has her struggles with learning differences, but her determination to push through and master her lessons is something to admire.  I can't wait to see what the next 9 years of her life will bring, she is an amazing person.

Happy 9th birthday Missa.

lookie what I got in the mail today

That, my friends, is an Action Baby Carrier (ABC).  I love wearing my babies, and I find it increasingly needed as our family grows.  I've never actually purchased a baby carrier before, as all ours were either gifted to us or I made them myself.  I had 4 different carriers (2 wraps, a sling, and a mei tai) but PJ didn't care for any of them, so Scott and I decided to try purchasing a soft structured carrier and see if that would be any better.  He loves being held upright, but none of the other carriers I had would give him the support he likes to have (trust me I seriously tried).  So, I did some looking and asking around before deciding to purchase an ABC to try.  This one is the Deco Dots print, which is the lowest priced clearance carrier they have currently at $65 with free shipping in the US.

It was ordered on Saturday, then on Tuesday I got notification that it was finished.  Today is Thursday, and it is at my home.  I ordered direct from ABC instead of through one of the retailers, and this is the standard size carrier.  The girls helped me open the box it came in, then I took PJ into my bedroom to try putting him in it (I always do the first couple times with a new carrier/kid combo on my bed in case I drop the baby, soft landing spot is a good thing).  It took under a minute to get him in it and the thing perfectly adjusted, and then we put on my shoes and coat before heading outside with the girls to play before lunch.  He stopped crying as soon as I got him in it, then fell asleep within just a couple minutes.  He stayed asleep for an hour and a half, which allowed me to play with the kids outside, make lunch and feed them, then load the dishwasher and get it running before having a bit of computer time.

I think its safe to say he loves it.  I love it too, my back didn't bother me one bit the entire time he was in it and I'm about to get him back in it so that I can unload the dishwasher and refill and run it again.  I wish I had gotten one of these when Missa was a baby.

a kid on crutches

What a crazy time its been here the last couple days.  Missa managed to fall and hurt herself on Tuesday, so we had an unexpected trip to the doctor.  The official diagnosis is a couple bruised bones and she pulled/stretched muscles and other goodies in her left foot.  I was told ice, Advil, and keep her off it for at least a few days.  Well, yesterday I couldn't keep her off it at all, she kept getting up and running around with her sisters whenever I wasn't watching her, so last night we put her on crutches to keep her weight off that foot.  Hopefully we can get her back on her feet by Sunday, we have a special trip planned for a birthday gift for her (she'll be 9 on Saturday).

She is soooo like her momma with her coordination.

next school year's social plans

Ahhh yes, the social aspect of schooling.  Many people love to ask about socialization when it comes to homeschooling.  Well, I thought I'd give a peek into what we are planning for outside activities to show you exactly how a homeschooler does things.  Now remember, I have 5 kids and I attempt to get as many kids as I can convince into a single activity so that I'm not doing 2 million different things at once.

American Heritage Girls (similar to Girl Scouts, but with a biblical and family emphasis)
Awana (2 in T&T, 1 Spark, and 1 in Cubbies)
weekly park trips as long as weather allows
regular grocery store trips
a million checkups for kids with doctors
church Saturday nights (including Motion City)
maybe 4H if we can agree on what they will do
regular library trips

And this year we also are adding hopefully a couple of trips out of state for history-related field trips.

One of the best things is that we are able to provide a social moment pretty much every time we go out in public.  It is impossible to go somewhere and not interact with anyone at all, so we are blessed to have such a variety of ages and personalities and so on with public outings for social moments, instead of being locked up in a classroom all day during the week and only interacting with your age-mates and teachers during designated times.  This is something I really am looking forward to, I know that I will be incredibly busy with the things that we have planned for the school year as far as running around for the various activities and all that may entail.  However, it will be worth it to provide the kids with such a valuable real-world application of the social lessons they are getting with all of this.

Take that, socialization myth.

American history 2012-13 school year

Yup, that's what I'm doing this upcoming fall.  Our *plan* is to either get Sonlight core D (the first part of a 2 year US history study) using the 9 month time payment plan, OR to create my own thing.  Since we can't apply for the payment plan until after April 1st, I am spending this week's free time looking over resources to buy for us to create our own thing.  I'm going to just post this as a reminder of what I'm liking as of right now.

History Pockets- love these, we did the grades 1-3 ancient civilizations one alongside our world history studies this last couple years and it was great.  I'm going to be purchasing some of the ones that go with US history to do as the starting point for our studies, and we'll lapbook them instead of making the construction paper pockets (how we did the ancient civ. one)

Smithsonian Children's Encyclopedia of American History- I am pretty sure this is the US history reference book we'll be going with, but I'm still exploring the different ones available.  It is going to be difficult to find one that doesn't have an obvious political slant (either liberal or conservative) but this one appears so far to be fairly neutral.  I need to take this search to the local public library this weekend to see if I can find this one to look at closer, as well as look over some other reference books that they may have. (feel free to comment if you have a suggestion for a good book to fill this spot, it will be one of my big tools for teaching this subject)

library books- an ever-popular resource, I'll be finding a lot of books at the library to add to our studies.

Not too much set up yet, but I'm working on it.  In fact, if I get a good feel of what I'm doing before we can try for the payment plan, I may just opt to go this route instead of buying Sonlight.  I'm actually having fun trying to come up with something to do on my own like this instead of just buying the next core package in line, although I can 100% guarantee that I will be buying Sonlight's core F in a few years for the girls to do while PJ does a core (either the P cores or core A, depends on how old he is when we buy it)

the Kindle

Yes, we finally bought one this month for me.  I swore that I'd never own one, as a book lover one of my favorite things about reading a book is the rustling of pages and being able to twiddle the side of the pages as I read to help me focus.  However, books are horribly impractical for reading when you are spending hours a day stuck in a chair while the baby is latched on to nurse.  A traditional book is a little too heavy and big to hold with one hand and read easily, and turning pages is a chore.  So, Scott and I agreed that a Kindle would be the way to go.

We were initially going to get the Kindle Fire because I like gadgets like that, but we decided to go instead with the classic and continue to save up for my iPad that I've been wanting since they first came out.  That iPad will come in VERY handy at managing my life with some of the apps I can get, but that's a completely different post for a future date when I actually GET the iPad and can share all the things I will be using it for.

But anyway, the Kindle.......

It was a breeze for me to get set up and charged, and get some books on it.  I have about $24 in Amazon gift certificate money loaded to my account still, and I want to spend it on books for me to read.  I have many free domain books on the Kindle already, sorted into collections based on who and what they are for (kids' history, kids' read alouds, mom's reading, and such).  OK so maybe many isn't the right word here as I only have about 30 books loaded on it.  But it feels like a lot of books to me.

So now I must ask for some suggestions.  I am in need of some new reading material for me personally.  Most of the books I have already on it I've read in the past and enjoyed, or they are the entire 6 volume series by Charlotte Mason (dry as heck).  I'm looking for new reading material.  I'm especially interested in books that may help me as a parent, wife, and/or homeschool parent, and total fluff (I rather enjoyed the Ann Rice books I've read in the past and plan to get a couple more).

What do YOU like to read on your Kindle?

Planning the new school year

Yes, I know its ONLY March.  However, it is that time that I like to look over where we are in each subject and start getting real solid ideas for next fall.  We typically call our first day of school officially at the very start of August, and I would *like* to take July off most lessons if possible so that we can enjoy some street fairs and summer weather.  July is the month that is usually slowest for Scott at work, so we get to spend more time together as a family before it picks up again in August with all the kids getting glasses for school to start (in case you don't know, Scott makes eyeglasses for a living, a lot of his work is actually for children on Medicaid in a few different states).  So, during his hours off work we do field trips on weekends and go on picnics and stuff like that.  It is something we always look forward to, even if the paychecks are barely enough to cover our bills during the slower season.

So, I'm looking now and figuring out fall, mainly to ease the amount of work I have to do when Scott is at work less.  If I plan now, then it is ready to go before he's no longer working 70 hour weeks (that's the busier times, during summer he gets 45 hours a week if we're lucky).  So here's what we have figured out so far.

This fall I will have an infant still, which I hear that the infant year is easiest to do this.  I've never schooled kids with an infant, Missa didn't start K until Jojo was a year old, so this is a new experience for us.  I'm learning as we go with it.  Anyway, this fall I will also have all 4 girls going formally.  Jojo will be of K age by cutoff date, so we will begin K with her and plan to stretch it out over 2 years on paper for maturity.  So she will be a Junior K and then her sisters will be in grades 1, 3, and 4.  Sounds fun, don't you think?  Lots of juggling, and not a lot of independent work with a couple of them.

So, here's what IS working for us this year, which will follow us into next year:

Math-U-See (I will have to get only 2 workbooks, the middle girls went slower than expected this year)
All About Spelling (Missa is working her speed and Liddy will start level 1)
Real Science 4 Kids (not finished with the books we got for this year so we'll finish them up and go into some unit studies)

That right there takes care of half my requirements easily.  Now for the fun part.  What didn't work so well, or what we're changing out of necessity because it just is a bad fit for our situation with all the kids going at once.

The biggest change for us will be that we are taking a year off Sonlight.  I'm feeling a need to spend a year doing geography and some US history and state studies, so I'm working out the kinks in this one now.  I already have "Geography Songs" that we are going to do to cover the basic geography stuff, from our Sonlight core (one of the things we got then dropped early on because of the pregnancy when I started lightening my load in teaching back in I think October).  I also have some free domain books on my Kindle that we will utilize, as well as 11th grade A Beka US History to refresh my own memory before I start working this out.  I will need to use as many free resources as possible to cover this year's history, we just don't have the money to buy all the consumables I need for 4 kids AND the US history program I was originally wanting (I had originally decided on Winter Promise American Story 1 for this fall, then Scott had to get a car and we decided on one about $1500 more than we planned so my homeschool budget went down from $1200 to $300 and I spent part of that on a Kindle).

I also am dropping Handwriting Without Tears, and getting a couple of dry-erase handwriting practice books they have at a store here locally.  This year, I simply cannot afford to buy handwriting workbooks for all 4 kids to go through as fast as they do, so they will use the dry-erase variety and take turns practicing.  I also am going back to regular copywork instead of the copywork and journaling books we did this year, also because of cost.  Thankfully, I only need to buy 2 math workbooks for Missa and Jojo to do this fall, and a friend blessed us with the teaching materials for all the Math-U-See levels we didn't have up to Algebra 1 so I am set there for several years.

And that's about all I figured out so far.  I am hoping to make it to the CHEO convention in June this year, but I'm not sure I can do it with the cost for the person we have do our portfolio reviews for reporting.

Pictures!!!!!

I mentioned EARLY this morning that we had pictures today, and here are a couple from that session.  PJ was not in the mood to cooperate too much, that child has a one-track mind and only wants to be feeding if he's awake still.  But we got some great shots I think. :)

I am definitely enjoying having a little boy too much obviously.  I loved getting to pick out his first little man outfit for today, and I do think he looks amazingly handsome in it.  Even Scott had to agree that he looked good for pictures.  I just wish I had been able to get his outfit in a newborn size instead of 0-3 month, it was a little big on him.  Oh well, just means he can wear it a little longer before he outgrows it.