This week is turning out so far to be much better than last week was. I called to schedule to get the installer back out here to finish hooking up my dishwasher (yes after 3 weeks!) and they will be out tomorrow to do it. I had to stand my ground and not take no for an answer when they tried to push me into Thursday and go up the chain of command to a supervisor and stand my ground some more, but I got my way for the most part (I was trying to get them here today, oh well tomorrow is close enough).
Now let's just hope the installer knows how to treat women with respect, unlike the last guy who was RUDE to me and sweet as sugar to my husband. If he isn't, there will be issues......
Monday, April 08, 2013
Friday, April 05, 2013
Thinking out a few things
I've been letting the girls decompress and learn how to get along again for the last few months since bringing them back home from the charter school, which has been quite the adventure. We've managed to do some schoolwork with them in math regularly and sporadically in grammar, science, and history until last week. Last Monday I had decided to give them that week off for "spring break" so no lesson material at all for them, then we were going to pick up again this past Monday. Of course, on Thursday last week the dog almost died, so we began the 8 day journey to struggle to figure out what was wrong and heal her before I gave up yesterday when the money ran out and the credit line we got for it was maxed out. The vet decided not to charge us at all for yesterday's testing and meds, and even is covering her cremation and return of ashes for free because she feels so badly for missing the obstruction. The kids are doing pretty good considering, and already asking when we can get a new dog. Of course, it helps that they don't know the whole story and probably won't know it for many years.
Which brings me to where I am right now. I'm in a funk over having to tell the vet to euthanize Tinkerbell. I know it was the right choice and I feel no guilt over the decision, only peace, but I still managed to work myself into a funk over it nonetheless. Even buying new homeschool supplies and working on lesson planning for us to get into things again Monday isn't helping me get out of that funk (I'm a weirdo, I enjoy planning things out and making lists and scheduling, coming up with projects, and creating the sample pages for the girls' binder that we're going to be doing with our 50 states study).
Since today is payday for us, I am able to make purchases for supplies we need. I bought the State by State: Lapbook Any State! Curriculum from Hands of a Child on sale (if you look under the freebies and specials tab they have a code for 25% off good 4/4 through 4/7, I got this eBook for $6 instead of $8 today). I printed off the schedule and activities instructions already and looked through each one, marking off the ones I don't want at all (4 activities) and then marking the ones we'll definitely be using for every state (10 activities) and the ones that I may or may not use on a state by state basis (11 activities). Tomorrow I plan to buy binders, cardstock, and printer paper (I'm thinking I want colored paper and cardstock so I'll likely just order those online if Scott is ok with that and use what I have here and locally purchased 2" binders). I also hope tomorrow to go to the library and pay off my fines that I never got around to dealing with, and get some books to use so that I can introduce the kids to our nation as a whole for the first part of our US binders. Stay tuned next week for pictures and details on how that goes for us. :) I need to search for some free templates to use for the "Our Nation" part that can't be covered by what I have here already on my computer.
Tomorrow Scott is picking up our new sofa and loveseat too. We had to cancel the purchase of the sectional and ottoman that we'd originally chosen, and instead did a sofa and loveseat that is quite lovely for about 1/3 the price. Later we may buy the matching sectional, as having a bigger family does call for more seating than a typical family has (especially when we have friends over to visit!). After we get the furniture here, we are going to start saving up for a Diono Radian RXT for Preston so that he can rear face until 45lbs for maximum protection of his spine while it continues to harden (this happens with typical children around the age of 2-3 years) and decrease the risk of sustaining a serious injury if we are in a crash (notice I said IF here). I just can't decide if I wish to get the red or the blue, I really love the red but I have a feeling Scott would like the blue better since it is for his SON. The girls have pink boosters, and he needs a new seat for my van (the Radian he's in now expires in 2 1/2 years so it will go in Scott's car so I have the option of taking it sometimes instead of the van without moving his VERY HEAVY seat around). I know that the seat we've chosen is expensive, but it is going to be the best option with his height and weight to ensure we can get him rear facing as close to age 3 as possible. Plus I know how to install the seat without any problems in my van and Scott's car, I've timed it and can do it in under 45 seconds with LATCH or a seat belt. This is truly one of the few areas we refuse to scrimp and compromise, our children's safety is that important to us.
Wow that was a lot of random stuff, wasn't it? Whew, it feels good to get it all out of my head where I can look at it and focus on one thing at a time this next few days. Now I think I can print off those template pieces that I'm going to use for every state so that I can build an example set of pages for my own reference with our 50 states study. Having too many things in my brain just causes me to shut down and not function.
Which brings me to where I am right now. I'm in a funk over having to tell the vet to euthanize Tinkerbell. I know it was the right choice and I feel no guilt over the decision, only peace, but I still managed to work myself into a funk over it nonetheless. Even buying new homeschool supplies and working on lesson planning for us to get into things again Monday isn't helping me get out of that funk (I'm a weirdo, I enjoy planning things out and making lists and scheduling, coming up with projects, and creating the sample pages for the girls' binder that we're going to be doing with our 50 states study).
Since today is payday for us, I am able to make purchases for supplies we need. I bought the State by State: Lapbook Any State! Curriculum from Hands of a Child on sale (if you look under the freebies and specials tab they have a code for 25% off good 4/4 through 4/7, I got this eBook for $6 instead of $8 today). I printed off the schedule and activities instructions already and looked through each one, marking off the ones I don't want at all (4 activities) and then marking the ones we'll definitely be using for every state (10 activities) and the ones that I may or may not use on a state by state basis (11 activities). Tomorrow I plan to buy binders, cardstock, and printer paper (I'm thinking I want colored paper and cardstock so I'll likely just order those online if Scott is ok with that and use what I have here and locally purchased 2" binders). I also hope tomorrow to go to the library and pay off my fines that I never got around to dealing with, and get some books to use so that I can introduce the kids to our nation as a whole for the first part of our US binders. Stay tuned next week for pictures and details on how that goes for us. :) I need to search for some free templates to use for the "Our Nation" part that can't be covered by what I have here already on my computer.
Tomorrow Scott is picking up our new sofa and loveseat too. We had to cancel the purchase of the sectional and ottoman that we'd originally chosen, and instead did a sofa and loveseat that is quite lovely for about 1/3 the price. Later we may buy the matching sectional, as having a bigger family does call for more seating than a typical family has (especially when we have friends over to visit!). After we get the furniture here, we are going to start saving up for a Diono Radian RXT for Preston so that he can rear face until 45lbs for maximum protection of his spine while it continues to harden (this happens with typical children around the age of 2-3 years) and decrease the risk of sustaining a serious injury if we are in a crash (notice I said IF here). I just can't decide if I wish to get the red or the blue, I really love the red but I have a feeling Scott would like the blue better since it is for his SON. The girls have pink boosters, and he needs a new seat for my van (the Radian he's in now expires in 2 1/2 years so it will go in Scott's car so I have the option of taking it sometimes instead of the van without moving his VERY HEAVY seat around). I know that the seat we've chosen is expensive, but it is going to be the best option with his height and weight to ensure we can get him rear facing as close to age 3 as possible. Plus I know how to install the seat without any problems in my van and Scott's car, I've timed it and can do it in under 45 seconds with LATCH or a seat belt. This is truly one of the few areas we refuse to scrimp and compromise, our children's safety is that important to us.
Wow that was a lot of random stuff, wasn't it? Whew, it feels good to get it all out of my head where I can look at it and focus on one thing at a time this next few days. Now I think I can print off those template pieces that I'm going to use for every state so that I can build an example set of pages for my own reference with our 50 states study. Having too many things in my brain just causes me to shut down and not function.
Thursday, April 04, 2013
taking a break from lessons
Sometimes, we enter a season when we must take a break from the usual to take care of other issues. This is one of those times for my family. Today we had to say good-bye to our sweet dog, Tinkerbell. The girls are devastated, and I'm giving them time to process the loss of their friend and schoolmate while I try to clean up from trying to care for a dog that was just too sick to recover. We had her at the vet again today and the vet found a mass in her intestine. She was too sick and weak to survive the surgery that would save her life, so I had to make the tough decision. I am going to take the kids tomorrow to pick up her collar.
We'll pick up again with our work sometime soon hopefully, but right now the kids just need to process it.
We'll pick up again with our work sometime soon hopefully, but right now the kids just need to process it.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Math-U-See and Common Core
This year, Math-U-See (the math curriculum we use in my home) changed their curriculum to align with Common Core standards. I've heard a lot of negativity about Common Core in general as it is being implemented in public schools across the nation, so I was a bit worried when I made my purchase for the next level of math for Missa and Liddy. Missa is about 2/3 done with Gamma so I got her Delta, and Liddy was waiting for me to buy her a Gamma book for a while now. Well, I sat down with my Gamma materials from Missa and with Liddy's new Gamma books (student workbook and test book both) to see what changes there were.
First, a little background. The Gamma level that Missa is doing is an older, comb-bound one from 2004. Yes, the books are from the year after she was born. Math doesn't typically change much, so I didn't have an issue with an older math book since it was free. Math-U-See teaches mastery, meaning that you work on ONE topic at a time until you have it instead of doing a little bit of a bunch of things. Gamma level teaches multiplication, so the entire level starts with 1*1 kind of problems and by the end of it your child will do stuff like 4,569*845 or something like that. A traditional spiral program will teach basic multiplication facts and then immediately go into basic division facts (division is the focus of the Delta level).
I ended up going through every single page and problem in the workbook and test book both to compare and this is what I found. There are no extra lessons or changes to any of the problems either book. The only change is an enrichment page for each lesson, marked lesson page G. These pages are exactly the same as the extra practice pages in the test book for level Alpha, only included in the work text instead of separately. For example, page 3G is two dot-to-dot using skip counting, and page 4G is a pictograph with questions and a crossword puzzle. These pages certainly going to be useful for some of my children who refuse to learn a concept without doing some sort of "fun" activity with it. But I don't think that they add too much the program it stands simply because of the fact that Math-U-See is in fact a mastery based curriculum with systematic review.
Personally, after using MUS from Primer on up through my oldest about to start Delta now, I really like the changes. The enrichment pages are totally optional, and do reinforce the material being taught in the lesson. But also they do sometimes introduce a concept that isn't in the curriculum at that point to create a little "oh I remember hearing about that before" moment when it is taught fully in a later level. I have up through Algebra 1 sitting here waiting for my children to need them. I know many parents use the student materials as non-consumable texts, but my family is not one of them so we buy each child a new workbook when they need it. I think that we may do most of the enrichment pages, but I'm sure there will be some that we don't do just because they don't need the extra practice or I don't want to take the time to teach whatever concept they are introducing. The program is still the same if you choose to delete those pages, or you can use them and add a little to it. Either way, you can't go wrong with the curriculum as it is now.
If you want a review of the teacher materials, you'll have to wait for another post because I've not had a chance to get into the Delta set I purchased for Missa (I had to buy the teacher set with DVD since it is the only level I didn't already have those materials)
First, a little background. The Gamma level that Missa is doing is an older, comb-bound one from 2004. Yes, the books are from the year after she was born. Math doesn't typically change much, so I didn't have an issue with an older math book since it was free. Math-U-See teaches mastery, meaning that you work on ONE topic at a time until you have it instead of doing a little bit of a bunch of things. Gamma level teaches multiplication, so the entire level starts with 1*1 kind of problems and by the end of it your child will do stuff like 4,569*845 or something like that. A traditional spiral program will teach basic multiplication facts and then immediately go into basic division facts (division is the focus of the Delta level).
I ended up going through every single page and problem in the workbook and test book both to compare and this is what I found. There are no extra lessons or changes to any of the problems either book. The only change is an enrichment page for each lesson, marked lesson page G. These pages are exactly the same as the extra practice pages in the test book for level Alpha, only included in the work text instead of separately. For example, page 3G is two dot-to-dot using skip counting, and page 4G is a pictograph with questions and a crossword puzzle. These pages certainly going to be useful for some of my children who refuse to learn a concept without doing some sort of "fun" activity with it. But I don't think that they add too much the program it stands simply because of the fact that Math-U-See is in fact a mastery based curriculum with systematic review.
Personally, after using MUS from Primer on up through my oldest about to start Delta now, I really like the changes. The enrichment pages are totally optional, and do reinforce the material being taught in the lesson. But also they do sometimes introduce a concept that isn't in the curriculum at that point to create a little "oh I remember hearing about that before" moment when it is taught fully in a later level. I have up through Algebra 1 sitting here waiting for my children to need them. I know many parents use the student materials as non-consumable texts, but my family is not one of them so we buy each child a new workbook when they need it. I think that we may do most of the enrichment pages, but I'm sure there will be some that we don't do just because they don't need the extra practice or I don't want to take the time to teach whatever concept they are introducing. The program is still the same if you choose to delete those pages, or you can use them and add a little to it. Either way, you can't go wrong with the curriculum as it is now.
If you want a review of the teacher materials, you'll have to wait for another post because I've not had a chance to get into the Delta set I purchased for Missa (I had to buy the teacher set with DVD since it is the only level I didn't already have those materials)
Thursday, March 28, 2013
slow times and deliveries and other random things
The last couple weeks here have been fairly quiet for us. We've plugged along in our schooling to a degree, relaxing a bit as the weather has been unpredictable to allow freedom to play outside whenever weather allows (in other words, not snowing or too cold). But I'm not too concerned about not making as much progress as we should be, as I know that soon enough it will be hot enough that we won't want to go outside as much and we'll spend time inside, enjoying the air conditioning and having the time to pick up extra lessons.
The last couple weeks have also brought us some changes. We have been going back and forth on what to do for history and science, especially as we have the tax money in and set aside the amount I'm using for curriculum. One of the only things we did agree on so far is that I needed to order math and toner for the printer. We both agree that it is time to start digging into US history after doing so much world history before this year, and then picking up with US geography when we brought the kids back home in January.
The kids and I are all enjoying our foray into unit studies with lapbooking that we've done this year, doing short daily lessons on many topics and reading great books and exploring. We are next going to venture into creating a nature journal for each kid (including Preston!) when we get our gardens built so that I can buy the little plants for us to grow some produce this year. If I can save money on tomatoes, peppers, and other goodies that the girls enjoy as snacks daily (yes I have a couple who think bell peppers are better than candy) then it will be worth the effort and learning that we all will have to do. The man across the side street from us grows corn every year, so I may approach him about growing some extra of it and us planting some extra of our goodies that both families can share (and maybe ask him if he'd be willing to come over and give us lessons on growing things, as he is a retired farmer).
Last weekend we made the purchases of toner and math materials. Well, more specifically on Friday last week we ordered toner, then on Sunday we ordered part of our math. I was given a link to a site that sells generic high-yield toner for my printer for half or more off (just depends if you buy the single, 2 pack, or 4 pack). I've never used generic toner or printer ink before, so we opted to buy a single cartridge and see how it works. Today my toner arrived, and I love it already. I've only printed about 30 pages or so with it, but the quality is comparable, if not superior, to the actual Brother brand toner. By the time my low toner light comes on again from this cartridge, I'll decide if I like it enough to get the 4 pack. The single I bought cost $21 (compared to $59 for the Brother brand) and the 4 pack is $51, and they both get free shipping via FedEx Smart Post (this method it starts out on a FedEx truck but is then delivered to the local post office for them to deliver to you). I do believe I will only use this generic toner from www.meritline.com as long as I own this printer.
I also managed to get an unbelievable score for us. An online friend of mine got some fraction overlays for our math curriculum (we use Math-U-See) among a bunch of homeschool stuff she got, and sold me the overlays for $5 plus shipping costs. This set retails from the company at $33 brand new, plus separate shipping costs, and I got it for $9. That is a steal no matter how you slice it! That on top of all the teacher guides and DVDs that a friend of Scott's gave us last year is going to save us a bunch of money in the long run. I did have to buy the teacher guide for Delta level, which it is now on the way here from MUS along with a couple of student packs that I need for the two oldest so they can move up in math. Liddy is ready to move up to Gamma and Missa is on lesson 22 of Gamma now, I needed the math as soon as I could get it here. Kimmy and Jojo are working with me together on the concepts in Alpha and Beta, not using the teaching materials or student packs at all. I'm just teaching them place value and addition/subtraction then we'll move them into Gamma probably by fall (which will mean another purchase and delivery from MUS). Yes I just said that I'll likely have then doing multiplication this fall in grades 2 and 1. That is the beauty of home educating, we can move totally at their paces in every subject. I am rather excited at the delivery of our math materials this week, as I did get the new edition that lines up with Common Core so I can see what I think of it. I'm not one typically to use materials that line up with the public school standards, but since we have discovered that MUS is THE program I need to use because no other method will likely work with Missa and her learning differences I'm ok with that. I figure that if I really dislike the whole Common Core thing, I'll just sell the Delta guide and DVD and then find a used older copy of Delta.
Now, I am going to spend some time loving and snuggling on Preston as he snores in my lap. He's moving to one nap a day right now on his own, so I'm trying to ease that transition a bit by letting him snooze on me midday and then he catnaps in the late afternoon. I hope he adjusts soon and drops that late nap, it is affecting his overnight sleeping.
The last couple weeks have also brought us some changes. We have been going back and forth on what to do for history and science, especially as we have the tax money in and set aside the amount I'm using for curriculum. One of the only things we did agree on so far is that I needed to order math and toner for the printer. We both agree that it is time to start digging into US history after doing so much world history before this year, and then picking up with US geography when we brought the kids back home in January.
The kids and I are all enjoying our foray into unit studies with lapbooking that we've done this year, doing short daily lessons on many topics and reading great books and exploring. We are next going to venture into creating a nature journal for each kid (including Preston!) when we get our gardens built so that I can buy the little plants for us to grow some produce this year. If I can save money on tomatoes, peppers, and other goodies that the girls enjoy as snacks daily (yes I have a couple who think bell peppers are better than candy) then it will be worth the effort and learning that we all will have to do. The man across the side street from us grows corn every year, so I may approach him about growing some extra of it and us planting some extra of our goodies that both families can share (and maybe ask him if he'd be willing to come over and give us lessons on growing things, as he is a retired farmer).
Last weekend we made the purchases of toner and math materials. Well, more specifically on Friday last week we ordered toner, then on Sunday we ordered part of our math. I was given a link to a site that sells generic high-yield toner for my printer for half or more off (just depends if you buy the single, 2 pack, or 4 pack). I've never used generic toner or printer ink before, so we opted to buy a single cartridge and see how it works. Today my toner arrived, and I love it already. I've only printed about 30 pages or so with it, but the quality is comparable, if not superior, to the actual Brother brand toner. By the time my low toner light comes on again from this cartridge, I'll decide if I like it enough to get the 4 pack. The single I bought cost $21 (compared to $59 for the Brother brand) and the 4 pack is $51, and they both get free shipping via FedEx Smart Post (this method it starts out on a FedEx truck but is then delivered to the local post office for them to deliver to you). I do believe I will only use this generic toner from www.meritline.com as long as I own this printer.
I also managed to get an unbelievable score for us. An online friend of mine got some fraction overlays for our math curriculum (we use Math-U-See) among a bunch of homeschool stuff she got, and sold me the overlays for $5 plus shipping costs. This set retails from the company at $33 brand new, plus separate shipping costs, and I got it for $9. That is a steal no matter how you slice it! That on top of all the teacher guides and DVDs that a friend of Scott's gave us last year is going to save us a bunch of money in the long run. I did have to buy the teacher guide for Delta level, which it is now on the way here from MUS along with a couple of student packs that I need for the two oldest so they can move up in math. Liddy is ready to move up to Gamma and Missa is on lesson 22 of Gamma now, I needed the math as soon as I could get it here. Kimmy and Jojo are working with me together on the concepts in Alpha and Beta, not using the teaching materials or student packs at all. I'm just teaching them place value and addition/subtraction then we'll move them into Gamma probably by fall (which will mean another purchase and delivery from MUS). Yes I just said that I'll likely have then doing multiplication this fall in grades 2 and 1. That is the beauty of home educating, we can move totally at their paces in every subject. I am rather excited at the delivery of our math materials this week, as I did get the new edition that lines up with Common Core so I can see what I think of it. I'm not one typically to use materials that line up with the public school standards, but since we have discovered that MUS is THE program I need to use because no other method will likely work with Missa and her learning differences I'm ok with that. I figure that if I really dislike the whole Common Core thing, I'll just sell the Delta guide and DVD and then find a used older copy of Delta.
Now, I am going to spend some time loving and snuggling on Preston as he snores in my lap. He's moving to one nap a day right now on his own, so I'm trying to ease that transition a bit by letting him snooze on me midday and then he catnaps in the late afternoon. I hope he adjusts soon and drops that late nap, it is affecting his overnight sleeping.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
busy week of anticipation then disappointment
I had a pretty busy week. Last weekend we went out and I got to pick out a new dishwasher since ours has been limping for a while now and not doing such a great job at actually getting the dishes clean. Having to wash dishes at least twice while running the dishwasher at only half filled just doesn't cut it for me. Therefore, we got me a new kitchen slave that my husband feels is a need to make sure I have just one less thing to complain about (I do NOT like doing dishes, and we've had a dishwasher since my father gave us a portable for Christmas when Missa was a baby and we lived in the trailer so I've been softened and spoiled by the machine). He says that spending the money now to make sure that I am smiling over clean dishes is beyond worth not having to hear me complain about all the dishes that we go through, and is cheaper than paper plates half the time.
We scheduled for the dishwasher to be delivered and installed today, and then made the decision as a couple to let the kids have the week off lessons so that I could deep clean my kitchen in preparation of the new dishwasher. I got the kitchen halfway done to my liking before this morning's delivery, which isn't my ideal but it works. The kids even helped with the cleaning, even down to Missa mopping the kitchen floor this morning until she slipped and fell on the wet floor (she didn't have a shoe on the foot not in a cast).
I should have known that the install was going to go badly when the guy showed up and tried to tell me instantly that we'd not be able to fit the new dishwasher in through the doorway to my kitchen. I measured it myself before they arrived, the doorway is 2" wider than the dishwasher they were putting in. He didn't like that, but double checked my measurement and then started. Pulled out the old one no issues, then measured the space height before he brought in the new one. It was 1/2" too short.
He tried to tell us that it wouldn't work, however we knew better because the way this house is done. See, in the kitchen there is a lovely Pergo floor that I absolutely can't stand because it is such a light wood. We have linoleum tiles waiting for Scott to pull out the Pergo and prepare the underlying floor (meaning tear out the old tiles and prep the subfloor, possibly replacing some of it). This floor does NOT go under the dishwasher, it just goes up to the kick plate. Scott popped out the floor board that is directly in front of the dishwasher and poof we have exactly 34 inches of height now for the new one. So delivery guy goes out to get the machine and have his partner help him carry it in.
They get it in, and we discover one "small" issue. I say "small" like that because it is just a little thing but it is a BIG holdup. The people my grandmother bought this house from must have renovated the kitchen and moved the stove, as the 220 outlet for my stove is where the dishwasher goes. This isn't an issue with the old dishwasher because how the design. The machine sits up pretty high with a smaller area for the racks to go in. The new machine is MUCH deeper, and the bottom is almost on the ground to allow for the taller area needed for my adjustable top rack. It won't slide in with that outlet where it is.
We have an electrician coming out on Monday afternoon to take a look at it and tell us how much it will cost to move it about 4 feet to be behind the stove. There goes what I had set aside for curriculum, just so I can have a working dishwasher. Once that outlet is moved, the delivery guy gets to come back and finish installing my dishwasher for us. We paid the extra to have them deliver and install it plus take away the old one, and I'm NOT going to give up the install part. I've already spoken to his supervisor about it and he is going to call me on Tuesday afternoon to set up when they will come back out. Until then, I hand wash every dish we use and try as hard as possible to not complain because my delicate soft hands are being ruined by dishes.
I really hope that the time goes quickly, and that the electrician doesn't charge us too much and can get it taken care of very fast so that I can have my brand new dishwasher up and running by the end of the week. Until then, teamwork with kids and mom (and dad when he's home) will be how we do dishes.
We scheduled for the dishwasher to be delivered and installed today, and then made the decision as a couple to let the kids have the week off lessons so that I could deep clean my kitchen in preparation of the new dishwasher. I got the kitchen halfway done to my liking before this morning's delivery, which isn't my ideal but it works. The kids even helped with the cleaning, even down to Missa mopping the kitchen floor this morning until she slipped and fell on the wet floor (she didn't have a shoe on the foot not in a cast).
I should have known that the install was going to go badly when the guy showed up and tried to tell me instantly that we'd not be able to fit the new dishwasher in through the doorway to my kitchen. I measured it myself before they arrived, the doorway is 2" wider than the dishwasher they were putting in. He didn't like that, but double checked my measurement and then started. Pulled out the old one no issues, then measured the space height before he brought in the new one. It was 1/2" too short.
He tried to tell us that it wouldn't work, however we knew better because the way this house is done. See, in the kitchen there is a lovely Pergo floor that I absolutely can't stand because it is such a light wood. We have linoleum tiles waiting for Scott to pull out the Pergo and prepare the underlying floor (meaning tear out the old tiles and prep the subfloor, possibly replacing some of it). This floor does NOT go under the dishwasher, it just goes up to the kick plate. Scott popped out the floor board that is directly in front of the dishwasher and poof we have exactly 34 inches of height now for the new one. So delivery guy goes out to get the machine and have his partner help him carry it in.
They get it in, and we discover one "small" issue. I say "small" like that because it is just a little thing but it is a BIG holdup. The people my grandmother bought this house from must have renovated the kitchen and moved the stove, as the 220 outlet for my stove is where the dishwasher goes. This isn't an issue with the old dishwasher because how the design. The machine sits up pretty high with a smaller area for the racks to go in. The new machine is MUCH deeper, and the bottom is almost on the ground to allow for the taller area needed for my adjustable top rack. It won't slide in with that outlet where it is.
We have an electrician coming out on Monday afternoon to take a look at it and tell us how much it will cost to move it about 4 feet to be behind the stove. There goes what I had set aside for curriculum, just so I can have a working dishwasher. Once that outlet is moved, the delivery guy gets to come back and finish installing my dishwasher for us. We paid the extra to have them deliver and install it plus take away the old one, and I'm NOT going to give up the install part. I've already spoken to his supervisor about it and he is going to call me on Tuesday afternoon to set up when they will come back out. Until then, I hand wash every dish we use and try as hard as possible to not complain because my delicate soft hands are being ruined by dishes.
I really hope that the time goes quickly, and that the electrician doesn't charge us too much and can get it taken care of very fast so that I can have my brand new dishwasher up and running by the end of the week. Until then, teamwork with kids and mom (and dad when he's home) will be how we do dishes.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
buying for the new year
It is that time when we have extra money. The tax refund is in and we have begun to plan purchases now that we have dealt with the need for some furniture and a few other things.
My curriculum list this year isn't too bad. Besides the obvious need for the next level in math for the two oldest ASAP, the only other major purchase is a subscription to teacher's file box at Evan- Moor. Oh, and toner. I need lots of toner. The math for the younger girls, art supplies, random unit studies, and other goodies we will purchase as needed with money being set aside. It is going to be a thrifty and fun year.
Of course, Scott felt a need to surprise me. He originally planned to get my laptop fixed so I could get it back into the middle of our busy life, but then discovered that it was going to be less expensive to get a new one instead. So, he did one better; he bought me a tablet. Not just any tablet either; I was surprised with a new Kindle Fire HD this evening. I have it all set up and charged, and am checking all the things I need for compatibility now. So far no issues at all, and I can even post on my blog with it. I like it a lot more than I thought I would.
My curriculum list this year isn't too bad. Besides the obvious need for the next level in math for the two oldest ASAP, the only other major purchase is a subscription to teacher's file box at Evan- Moor. Oh, and toner. I need lots of toner. The math for the younger girls, art supplies, random unit studies, and other goodies we will purchase as needed with money being set aside. It is going to be a thrifty and fun year.
Of course, Scott felt a need to surprise me. He originally planned to get my laptop fixed so I could get it back into the middle of our busy life, but then discovered that it was going to be less expensive to get a new one instead. So, he did one better; he bought me a tablet. Not just any tablet either; I was surprised with a new Kindle Fire HD this evening. I have it all set up and charged, and am checking all the things I need for compatibility now. So far no issues at all, and I can even post on my blog with it. I like it a lot more than I thought I would.
Friday, March 01, 2013
This week's happenings
This week has been fun and interesting for me. We took a couple days off schoolwork unexpectedly, and we had lots of fun and even had a package arrive today in the mail. Ready for this? Here's my week, complete with a couple pictures.
Saturday is where I'll start, since that is the first day of "this past week" with today being Friday. I started Saturday off by staying up entirely too late the night before, chatting online with a missionary friend of mine who is in Mexico. I got to bed around 3am, figuring Scott could handle the morning meal so that I could get a little extra sleep. I was wrong. He had to go to urgent care for some pretty nasty pain, which turned out to be a severe kidney infection. Which led to our taking Monday off schoolwork; the doctor told him he was to take that day off work and stay in bed so that the medications can give his body a good head start fighting off the infection. Daddy at home is not good for our schooling, and we always just end up having to cancel the day's lessons when that happens. He is too distracting to me and the kids, even if he stays in bed with the door closed so we don't see or hear him.
Sunday we got Preston's first pair of shoes. I'm not talking those cute little leather soled crib shoes. I mean REAL shoes with an actual sturdy sole to protect his feet when walking in public. He was not impressed with his new little brown boots, but he'll get used to them soon enough. I got them at Sears on sale for $10 (regularly $40) and I also got him a little track suit for $5.40 (marked down from $35).
Thursday we had a plumbing issue come up that had me on the phone most of the day, trying to find a plumber willing to fix it with our old pipes and access issues. I couldn't find one, so tomorrow Scott gets to buy a shovel and do some digging in our front yard to find the access pipe that a previous owner buried under a raised garden so our regular drain guy can come fix it for us on Monday or Tuesday. The issue isn't preventing us from doing the basic functions, we just can't do laundry until the drain guy comes to resolve the issue.
Then today, I got a package in the mail. I placed an order last weekend at Amazon for a couple supplies that we need here. Kimmy and Jojo are learning to tell time, so I got them a small learning clock to work with instead of the paper one that they made with their math books. I probably should have gotten 2 clocks so I can teach them together, but this will guarantee that we have 1:1 time on a topic until I can buy a second one (tax refund whenever it gets here, then when they master time I can keep both and have a clock for me and one for Preston when he is ready to start learning to tell time). They are both excited to start working on telling time with a sturdy clock today; they dislike having to be so careful with the paper one we have been using.
Also in the box was something for Missa.
I found a gap in Missa's knowledge when I did placement testing with her in another math curriculum before we started up again in Math-U-See, and instead of taking the time to search through all the levels I own (Primer to Algebra 1) I decided to just get her a workbook dedicated to that skill. I've heard great things about the "Key To" series, so I decided to purchase the 4 workbook set for measurement. She really struggles in this area, not knowing how many inches are in a foot and so on (I know part of this is my own failure to get it into her long-term memory when she was homeschooling prior to this year, and the school had trouble too), so we are going to do a season focusing on JUST measurement with her. I'm going to start in book 1 as soon as she finishes her current lesson in Gamma, then when I feel comfortable that we've covered "enough" we will pick up Gamma again to finish it while we keep plugging forward. I hope this series does as well as I've heard they do at teaching concepts. If it does, then when Missa finishes Delta (the next level in her math program) we'll add the Key To books to her math (they have fractions and decimals and all that great stuff, so when we get to that point we could technically switch completely for a while if we wanted to once she understands the 4 basic operations).
Preston got something too in this purchase. I was $3 short of free shipping for this purchase, so I added in a new cup for him to use.
His first straw sippy cup. He loves it. He is constantly trying to steal his sisters' cups if they have a straw, and doesn't do too well with drinking from a regular spout cup so I thought this would be a perfect time to move him up to a straw cup. The kid LOVES milk, and now I don't have to hold him in my lap and fight him about holding a regular cup with a straw so that he can have his milk. This also means that he can have his drink in the van too, just like his big sisters and their water bottles.
Of course, this week wasn't just about schoolwork, a sick husband, and a package coming in the mail. We had fun together, and learned through living quite a bit. This week we also had a lesson about dogs and their sense of hearing when Missa ran the sweeper and our dog kept attacking it and barking hysterically. We had impromptu cooking lessons and some random extra chores that we did, discussed the process of a broken bone healing (as Missa got antsy a couple times and wants out of her walking cast so that she can run and play freely again), and the oldest 2 girls even did a small "written report" on an invertebrate of their choice (Missa did a starfish, Liddy did an octopus) while Kimmy drew a picture of a jellyfish. We had a lot of fun together as a family through all the things we did this week, and learned things that cannot be taught by a curriculum.
Saturday is where I'll start, since that is the first day of "this past week" with today being Friday. I started Saturday off by staying up entirely too late the night before, chatting online with a missionary friend of mine who is in Mexico. I got to bed around 3am, figuring Scott could handle the morning meal so that I could get a little extra sleep. I was wrong. He had to go to urgent care for some pretty nasty pain, which turned out to be a severe kidney infection. Which led to our taking Monday off schoolwork; the doctor told him he was to take that day off work and stay in bed so that the medications can give his body a good head start fighting off the infection. Daddy at home is not good for our schooling, and we always just end up having to cancel the day's lessons when that happens. He is too distracting to me and the kids, even if he stays in bed with the door closed so we don't see or hear him.
Sunday we got Preston's first pair of shoes. I'm not talking those cute little leather soled crib shoes. I mean REAL shoes with an actual sturdy sole to protect his feet when walking in public. He was not impressed with his new little brown boots, but he'll get used to them soon enough. I got them at Sears on sale for $10 (regularly $40) and I also got him a little track suit for $5.40 (marked down from $35).
Thursday we had a plumbing issue come up that had me on the phone most of the day, trying to find a plumber willing to fix it with our old pipes and access issues. I couldn't find one, so tomorrow Scott gets to buy a shovel and do some digging in our front yard to find the access pipe that a previous owner buried under a raised garden so our regular drain guy can come fix it for us on Monday or Tuesday. The issue isn't preventing us from doing the basic functions, we just can't do laundry until the drain guy comes to resolve the issue.
Then today, I got a package in the mail. I placed an order last weekend at Amazon for a couple supplies that we need here. Kimmy and Jojo are learning to tell time, so I got them a small learning clock to work with instead of the paper one that they made with their math books. I probably should have gotten 2 clocks so I can teach them together, but this will guarantee that we have 1:1 time on a topic until I can buy a second one (tax refund whenever it gets here, then when they master time I can keep both and have a clock for me and one for Preston when he is ready to start learning to tell time). They are both excited to start working on telling time with a sturdy clock today; they dislike having to be so careful with the paper one we have been using.
Also in the box was something for Missa.
I found a gap in Missa's knowledge when I did placement testing with her in another math curriculum before we started up again in Math-U-See, and instead of taking the time to search through all the levels I own (Primer to Algebra 1) I decided to just get her a workbook dedicated to that skill. I've heard great things about the "Key To" series, so I decided to purchase the 4 workbook set for measurement. She really struggles in this area, not knowing how many inches are in a foot and so on (I know part of this is my own failure to get it into her long-term memory when she was homeschooling prior to this year, and the school had trouble too), so we are going to do a season focusing on JUST measurement with her. I'm going to start in book 1 as soon as she finishes her current lesson in Gamma, then when I feel comfortable that we've covered "enough" we will pick up Gamma again to finish it while we keep plugging forward. I hope this series does as well as I've heard they do at teaching concepts. If it does, then when Missa finishes Delta (the next level in her math program) we'll add the Key To books to her math (they have fractions and decimals and all that great stuff, so when we get to that point we could technically switch completely for a while if we wanted to once she understands the 4 basic operations).
Preston got something too in this purchase. I was $3 short of free shipping for this purchase, so I added in a new cup for him to use.
His first straw sippy cup. He loves it. He is constantly trying to steal his sisters' cups if they have a straw, and doesn't do too well with drinking from a regular spout cup so I thought this would be a perfect time to move him up to a straw cup. The kid LOVES milk, and now I don't have to hold him in my lap and fight him about holding a regular cup with a straw so that he can have his milk. This also means that he can have his drink in the van too, just like his big sisters and their water bottles.
Of course, this week wasn't just about schoolwork, a sick husband, and a package coming in the mail. We had fun together, and learned through living quite a bit. This week we also had a lesson about dogs and their sense of hearing when Missa ran the sweeper and our dog kept attacking it and barking hysterically. We had impromptu cooking lessons and some random extra chores that we did, discussed the process of a broken bone healing (as Missa got antsy a couple times and wants out of her walking cast so that she can run and play freely again), and the oldest 2 girls even did a small "written report" on an invertebrate of their choice (Missa did a starfish, Liddy did an octopus) while Kimmy drew a picture of a jellyfish. We had a lot of fun together as a family through all the things we did this week, and learned things that cannot be taught by a curriculum.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Is it really already that time?
I was looking at the calendar a few minutes ago and realized that pretty soon I need to schedule a portfolio review or order standardized tests for my notification in the fall. I can't believe it is already that time, I don't have a lot really to show for our work so far. I have the girls' math workbooks (or notebook in Missa's case) and their journals, and right now we're working on a lapbook for animal classification (I'm having trouble getting to this one for some reason, the kids enjoy working on it but I'm just having a lot of trouble forcing myself to do it) and doing a study on map reading. I feel like I should have more to show though, although I know they've come a LONG way in the 2 months we've had them back home again. I am going to call the lady who did our last assessment to see if I can schedule for Scott's week off in May or the one in June, then just keep plugging along to get some sort of paper trail to show her when we go in. I have plans for the time until we get the assessment done, but it is tough for me to be so consistent and structured. We spent 4 years as unschoolers before this year, with lots of literature and some random unit studies thrown in the mix. We didn't really follow much of a schedule or predictable flow to our days, so I'm having a LOT of trouble with this right now. I know I need to be more structured for the kids' educational needs, but it just isn't something that comes natural to me.
But at least we have something to show for a few subjects. :)
But at least we have something to show for a few subjects. :)
Monday, February 18, 2013
A year ago yesterday
I was a bit busy yesterday, so I didn't get to post this right away. After all, the new episode of "The Walking Dead" was on when PJ fell asleep in my lap and I just had to see who was shot, eaten by zombies, and all that great stuff that is pretty normal for the show. Hey, I know what you are thinking about the quality programming I watch, but it is once a week after the kids go to bed and an opportunity for me and Scott to get a little time doing something together. I'm not giving up my show (even if I do cover my eyes or look away during some scenes). Anyway, back to what I was saying.......
Yesterday my baby boy had a big day. It was his first birthday yesterday, and we spent the day enjoying his first things he did as a 1 year old. If you want, you can CLICK HERE to read about his joining our family (warning, may be a little profanity in there as I was being very candid and honest about how I felt).
He started his day as usual around 6am, just like a good little morning person (I now have 2 kids who are morning people, luckily I'm one as well). Running and playing with his oldest sister while the other girls and Scott slept was his start to the day.
Missa made that crown for him; she had so much fun doing it. His energy in the mornings once he's awake (he's a little grumpy usually the first few minutes until he has had some time to snuggle and nurse, then he's off and running usually) should be illegal I think. If I could find a way to bottle it I'd be a very rich woman. He spent all day playing with his sisters when it wasn't time to eat. We had a big pancake breakfast, which is one of his favorite things to eat in the mornings (he ate 2 whole pancakes) and then everyone got dressed. I decided that we would eat his favorite foods for the day, except at lunch which Scott handled while PJ napped and I laid down with him. He played a rousing game of "keep away from Missa because she wants to put a dry diaper on me" after she decided to change him and had taken off his wet diaper, which was a few minutes of entertainment with him running off from her and then turning around and screeching happily before tearing off again. (highly amusing to watch I tell you) He chased the dog, who was in no mood with her injured paw so she spent most of the day up on a bed or cuddled up with any big human who would protect her from that ornery baby.
Then it was supper time. I made personal pizzas for everyone, including PJ getting his own for the first time. We had the choice of pepperoni, pineapple, and mushrooms for pizzas. He had a cheese pizza and loved it.
As you can see, he enjoyed pizza night and getting the best seat in the house to watch tv. He ate that entire pizza by himself (the pizza was cut into 4 pieces, he had the smallest pizza of the whole lot). Then it was time for dessert.
Scott made the cupcakes while I was laying down with PJ for his nap, and then I iced them. I actually found a can of BLUE icing at the store on Saturday, it was funfetti icing that came with fish shaped sprinkles. The girls thought it was the best EVER to get to do blue icing on his cupcakes, so that's what we did. Then we had the joy of dealing with the effects of the artificial food dyes in it for a few hours afterward with the girls, although it was much better than usual AND they spent most of the reaction time sleeping through it.
It wasn't much that we did for his birthday, as we are still waiting for the IRS to process our taxes and give us that refund already, but we had fun. I had to promise the girls that we'll do a "proper" party for his birthday when the refund finally gets here (and after we pay off the layaway on the new furniture and fix Scott's car so I can have my van back). But I don't think he noticed that we didn't have presents or balloons or anything like that this time.
As you can tell, it wore him out just in time for the end of our show. He spent 3/4 of it running from our room into his sisters' bedroom and waking them up to play with him, only to be carried back to us by a GROUCHY Missa clunking around in that walking cast. lol He got even with them last night for all the times they've interrupted his naps to play with him the last year.
Happy birthday little dude, you survived your first year with all these big sisters and our crazy life. I can't wait to see what this next year will bring us as you grow more into the ornery little boy you are quickly becoming.
Yesterday my baby boy had a big day. It was his first birthday yesterday, and we spent the day enjoying his first things he did as a 1 year old. If you want, you can CLICK HERE to read about his joining our family (warning, may be a little profanity in there as I was being very candid and honest about how I felt).
He started his day as usual around 6am, just like a good little morning person (I now have 2 kids who are morning people, luckily I'm one as well). Running and playing with his oldest sister while the other girls and Scott slept was his start to the day.
Missa made that crown for him; she had so much fun doing it. His energy in the mornings once he's awake (he's a little grumpy usually the first few minutes until he has had some time to snuggle and nurse, then he's off and running usually) should be illegal I think. If I could find a way to bottle it I'd be a very rich woman. He spent all day playing with his sisters when it wasn't time to eat. We had a big pancake breakfast, which is one of his favorite things to eat in the mornings (he ate 2 whole pancakes) and then everyone got dressed. I decided that we would eat his favorite foods for the day, except at lunch which Scott handled while PJ napped and I laid down with him. He played a rousing game of "keep away from Missa because she wants to put a dry diaper on me" after she decided to change him and had taken off his wet diaper, which was a few minutes of entertainment with him running off from her and then turning around and screeching happily before tearing off again. (highly amusing to watch I tell you) He chased the dog, who was in no mood with her injured paw so she spent most of the day up on a bed or cuddled up with any big human who would protect her from that ornery baby.
Then it was supper time. I made personal pizzas for everyone, including PJ getting his own for the first time. We had the choice of pepperoni, pineapple, and mushrooms for pizzas. He had a cheese pizza and loved it.
As you can see, he enjoyed pizza night and getting the best seat in the house to watch tv. He ate that entire pizza by himself (the pizza was cut into 4 pieces, he had the smallest pizza of the whole lot). Then it was time for dessert.
Scott made the cupcakes while I was laying down with PJ for his nap, and then I iced them. I actually found a can of BLUE icing at the store on Saturday, it was funfetti icing that came with fish shaped sprinkles. The girls thought it was the best EVER to get to do blue icing on his cupcakes, so that's what we did. Then we had the joy of dealing with the effects of the artificial food dyes in it for a few hours afterward with the girls, although it was much better than usual AND they spent most of the reaction time sleeping through it.
It wasn't much that we did for his birthday, as we are still waiting for the IRS to process our taxes and give us that refund already, but we had fun. I had to promise the girls that we'll do a "proper" party for his birthday when the refund finally gets here (and after we pay off the layaway on the new furniture and fix Scott's car so I can have my van back). But I don't think he noticed that we didn't have presents or balloons or anything like that this time.
As you can tell, it wore him out just in time for the end of our show. He spent 3/4 of it running from our room into his sisters' bedroom and waking them up to play with him, only to be carried back to us by a GROUCHY Missa clunking around in that walking cast. lol He got even with them last night for all the times they've interrupted his naps to play with him the last year.
Happy birthday little dude, you survived your first year with all these big sisters and our crazy life. I can't wait to see what this next year will bring us as you grow more into the ornery little boy you are quickly becoming.
Friday, February 15, 2013
week in review
This week has been interesting for me. I did basics with the girls, because quite honestly I've been in a funk most of the week and couldn't get my head into the game. Thank goodness we have some semi-independent materials for them to cover the basic subjects, otherwise it wouldn't have happened this week.
Scott has been taking my van to work the last couple days, thanks to mechanical problems with his car that make it unsafe to drive. So in addition to my funk I'm going stir-crazy because I can't go out even if I wanted to (which I usually don't want to go anywhere and we don't need to usually either). It has been quite an exercise for me to have to stay home with no option of going out. We can't go for a walk right now with Missa's broken foot, she still needs the crutches frequently despite having a walking cast and permission to walk on it, and my knee is acting up still so I'm having trouble walking as well right now. Thank goodness yesterday the cable guy came and fixed our cable (we fried the box for the second time in under 6 months) so now we have all our digital television and music channels back (we have the smallest package you can get with the Disney channels in it, there's only 2 packages lower, and no premium channels unless they are on free preview). We don't own a radio or CD player (every time we buy one a child takes a screwdriver to it to see how it works and then we can't put it back together again) so we depend on streaming music online or through the tv music channels.
Speaking of not owning a radio or CD player....... I know there are a few friends of mine locally who read my blog, so I'll share this here as well as on Facebook. I am planning to put together a workstation for the kids where they can take apart stuff and build things as they desire in hopes that they will leave our electronics alone. If anyone local has non-working electronics or appliances that they would like to get rid of (of a reasonable size, no stoves or something huge like that) I would be MORE than happy to come pick them up to add to their workstation. Just e-mail me or call/text with what you have and when I can do a pick up (remember, only one car for now so it will be evenings or weekends only that I can get stuff unless you want to bring it to me).
Scott has been taking my van to work the last couple days, thanks to mechanical problems with his car that make it unsafe to drive. So in addition to my funk I'm going stir-crazy because I can't go out even if I wanted to (which I usually don't want to go anywhere and we don't need to usually either). It has been quite an exercise for me to have to stay home with no option of going out. We can't go for a walk right now with Missa's broken foot, she still needs the crutches frequently despite having a walking cast and permission to walk on it, and my knee is acting up still so I'm having trouble walking as well right now. Thank goodness yesterday the cable guy came and fixed our cable (we fried the box for the second time in under 6 months) so now we have all our digital television and music channels back (we have the smallest package you can get with the Disney channels in it, there's only 2 packages lower, and no premium channels unless they are on free preview). We don't own a radio or CD player (every time we buy one a child takes a screwdriver to it to see how it works and then we can't put it back together again) so we depend on streaming music online or through the tv music channels.
Speaking of not owning a radio or CD player....... I know there are a few friends of mine locally who read my blog, so I'll share this here as well as on Facebook. I am planning to put together a workstation for the kids where they can take apart stuff and build things as they desire in hopes that they will leave our electronics alone. If anyone local has non-working electronics or appliances that they would like to get rid of (of a reasonable size, no stoves or something huge like that) I would be MORE than happy to come pick them up to add to their workstation. Just e-mail me or call/text with what you have and when I can do a pick up (remember, only one car for now so it will be evenings or weekends only that I can get stuff unless you want to bring it to me).
Monday, February 11, 2013
a thought to share
This morning as I was reading on message boards and Facebook, I came across this post that was shared there by another lady who saw it somewhere else. I thought it was simply lovely, and decided to share it here as well. Blessings!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Mother of Only One Child,
Don't say it. Before the words can even pass your lips, let me beg you: don't say, "Wow, you have nine kids? I thought it was hard with just my one!"
My dear, it is hard. You're not being a wuss or a whiner when you feel like your life is hard. I know, because I remember having 'only one child.' You may not even believe how many times I stop and reflect on how much easier my life is, now that I have nine children.
All right, so there is a lot more laundry. Keeping up with each child's needs, and making sure they all get enough attention, is a constant worry. And a stomach bug is pretty much the end of the world, when nine digestive tracts are afflicted.
But I remember having only one child, and it was hard- so very hard. Some of the difficulties were just practical: I didn't know what I was doing, had to learn everything. People pushed me around because I was young and inexperienced. But even worse were the emotional struggles of learning to be a mother.
When I had only one child, I truly suffered during those long, long, long days in our little apartment, no one but the two of us, baby and me, dealing with each other all day long. I invented errands and dawdled and took the long way home, but still had hours and hours to fill before I would hear my husband's key in the door.
I cared so much what other people thought about her- they had to notice how beautiful she was, they had to be impressed at my natural mothering skills. I obsessed over childhood development charts, tense with fear that my mothering was lacking- that I hadn't stimulated her enough, or maybe had just passed on the wrong kind of genes. I cringe when I remember how I pushed her- a little baby!- to achieve milestones she wasn't ready for.
I lived in terror for her physical safety (I once brought her to Urgent Care, where the doctor somewhat irritably diagnosed a case of moderate sniffles) fearing every imaginable disease and injury. In my sleep-deprived state, I would have sudden insane hallucinations that her head had fallen off, her knees had suddenly broken themselves in the night, and so on.
My husband didn't know how to help me. I didn't know how to ask for help. My husband had become a father, and I adored him for it. My husband got to leave the house every day, and sleep every night. He got to go to the bathroom alone. I hated him for it.
When I had only one child, I told myself over and over that motherhood was fulfilling and sanctifying and was filling my heart to the brim with peace and satisfaction. And so I felt horribly guilty for being so bored, so resentful, so exhausted. This is a joyful time, dammit! I should enjoy being suddenly transformed into the Doyenne of Anything that Smells Bad.
I loved my baby, I loved pushing her on the swing, watching squirrels at the park together, introducing her to apple sauce, and watching her lips move in joyful dreams of milk. But it was hard, hard, hard. All this work: is this who I am now? I remember!
So now? Yes, the practical parts are a thousand times easier: I'm a virtuoso. I worry, but then I move along. Nobody pushes me around, and I have helpers galore. Someone fetches clean diapers and gets rid of the dirty ones. When the baby wakes up in the middle of the night for the ten thousandth time, I sigh and roll my eyes, maybe even cry a little bit for sheer tiredness- but I know it will pass, it will pass.
It's becoming easier, and it will be easier still. They are passing me by.
I'm broken in. There's no collision of worlds. We're so darn busy that it's a sheer delight to take some time to wash some small child's small limbs in a quiet bath, or to read The Story of Ferdinand one more time. Taking care of them is easy. It's tiring, it's frustrating, but when I stop and take a breath, I see that it's almost like a charade of work. All these things, the dishes, the diapers, the spills- they must be taken care of, but they don't matter. They aren't who I am.
To become a mother, I had to learn how to care about someone more than I did about myself, and that was terrible. But who I am now is something more terrible: the protector who can't always protect; the one with arms that are designed to hold, always having to let go.
Dear mother of only one child, don't blame yourself for thinking that your life is hard. You're suffering now because you're turning into a new woman, a woman who is never allowed to be alone. For what? Only so that you can become strong enough to be a woman who will be left.
When I had only one child, she was so heavy. Now I can see that children are as light as air. They float past you, nudging against you like balloons as they ascend.
Dear mother, don't worry about enjoying your life. Your life is hard; your life will be hard. That doesn't mean you're doing something wrong- it means you're doing it right.
(originally posted at http://www.ncregister.com/blog/simcha-fisher/to-the-mother-with-only-one-child#ixzz2JydFXsDU on January 19, 2012)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Mother of Only One Child,
Don't say it. Before the words can even pass your lips, let me beg you: don't say, "Wow, you have nine kids? I thought it was hard with just my one!"
My dear, it is hard. You're not being a wuss or a whiner when you feel like your life is hard. I know, because I remember having 'only one child.' You may not even believe how many times I stop and reflect on how much easier my life is, now that I have nine children.
All right, so there is a lot more laundry. Keeping up with each child's needs, and making sure they all get enough attention, is a constant worry. And a stomach bug is pretty much the end of the world, when nine digestive tracts are afflicted.
But I remember having only one child, and it was hard- so very hard. Some of the difficulties were just practical: I didn't know what I was doing, had to learn everything. People pushed me around because I was young and inexperienced. But even worse were the emotional struggles of learning to be a mother.
When I had only one child, I truly suffered during those long, long, long days in our little apartment, no one but the two of us, baby and me, dealing with each other all day long. I invented errands and dawdled and took the long way home, but still had hours and hours to fill before I would hear my husband's key in the door.
I cared so much what other people thought about her- they had to notice how beautiful she was, they had to be impressed at my natural mothering skills. I obsessed over childhood development charts, tense with fear that my mothering was lacking- that I hadn't stimulated her enough, or maybe had just passed on the wrong kind of genes. I cringe when I remember how I pushed her- a little baby!- to achieve milestones she wasn't ready for.
I lived in terror for her physical safety (I once brought her to Urgent Care, where the doctor somewhat irritably diagnosed a case of moderate sniffles) fearing every imaginable disease and injury. In my sleep-deprived state, I would have sudden insane hallucinations that her head had fallen off, her knees had suddenly broken themselves in the night, and so on.
My husband didn't know how to help me. I didn't know how to ask for help. My husband had become a father, and I adored him for it. My husband got to leave the house every day, and sleep every night. He got to go to the bathroom alone. I hated him for it.
When I had only one child, I told myself over and over that motherhood was fulfilling and sanctifying and was filling my heart to the brim with peace and satisfaction. And so I felt horribly guilty for being so bored, so resentful, so exhausted. This is a joyful time, dammit! I should enjoy being suddenly transformed into the Doyenne of Anything that Smells Bad.
I loved my baby, I loved pushing her on the swing, watching squirrels at the park together, introducing her to apple sauce, and watching her lips move in joyful dreams of milk. But it was hard, hard, hard. All this work: is this who I am now? I remember!
So now? Yes, the practical parts are a thousand times easier: I'm a virtuoso. I worry, but then I move along. Nobody pushes me around, and I have helpers galore. Someone fetches clean diapers and gets rid of the dirty ones. When the baby wakes up in the middle of the night for the ten thousandth time, I sigh and roll my eyes, maybe even cry a little bit for sheer tiredness- but I know it will pass, it will pass.
It's becoming easier, and it will be easier still. They are passing me by.
I'm broken in. There's no collision of worlds. We're so darn busy that it's a sheer delight to take some time to wash some small child's small limbs in a quiet bath, or to read The Story of Ferdinand one more time. Taking care of them is easy. It's tiring, it's frustrating, but when I stop and take a breath, I see that it's almost like a charade of work. All these things, the dishes, the diapers, the spills- they must be taken care of, but they don't matter. They aren't who I am.
To become a mother, I had to learn how to care about someone more than I did about myself, and that was terrible. But who I am now is something more terrible: the protector who can't always protect; the one with arms that are designed to hold, always having to let go.
Dear mother of only one child, don't blame yourself for thinking that your life is hard. You're suffering now because you're turning into a new woman, a woman who is never allowed to be alone. For what? Only so that you can become strong enough to be a woman who will be left.
When I had only one child, she was so heavy. Now I can see that children are as light as air. They float past you, nudging against you like balloons as they ascend.
Dear mother, don't worry about enjoying your life. Your life is hard; your life will be hard. That doesn't mean you're doing something wrong- it means you're doing it right.
(originally posted at http://www.ncregister.com/blog/simcha-fisher/to-the-mother-with-only-one-child#ixzz2JydFXsDU on January 19, 2012)
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Saturday is for shopping
Yesterday Scott had to work in the morning, so I made plans for us to spend the rest of the day working together as a full family to clean the house. When he got home and heard my plan (and saw the list of chores) he decided that he wanted to take us out to look at a few things we need to buy with our tax refund. So he got everyone ready while I showered and dressed so that we could go out shopping.
We started with lunch at a local restaurant, getting PJ his first kid meal (he had grilled cheese and fries).
He thought it was awesome. 3 of his sisters had pancakes and the oldest one had spaghetti along with his meal. I wish I had thought to get a picture of all 5 kids and Scott sitting at the table together, it is a great sight I think.
Then we went to Target and picked up some basics that we needed (vitamins for the girls and me) and rummaged a bit in the clearance sections. Missa got a book for fluff fun reading, and then I found a coat sized perfectly for PJ to wear next fall and winter marked down.
As you can see, the discount was too good to really pass up. I got a $33 winter coat for $10, and it is blue too. I'm going to wash it up this weekend with his sisters' coats (they got muddy with this week's thaw) and then see if it will work for him now too (I know it is too big though, he wears 12mo and some 18mo in clothes).
Then we went to a couple furniture stores as well. They were sprinkled through our trip as we passed by them. See, we need a new sofa and a second set of bunk beds. Our old sofa was gifted to us by a wonderful family when we moved here almost 5 years ago, and it has given out with kids jumping on and over it. The cushions are ripping, the arms are torn open, and one seat is almost on the ground because the frame snapped. It is definitely at the end of its life span. We found a sectional that Scott and I both fell in love with at one furniture store, but it was more than we had budgeted so we kept looking.
Then we went to DFW in Heath and found the exact same sectional for MUCH less, even less than we had budgeted. We also checked out bunk beds while we were there, knowing what we wanted and the typical prices for that one. They had one for well under what we had budgeted there too. In fact we saved so much on budget buying what we NEED in furniture that we decided to splurge and get ourselves a new bigger dining table that we saw there as well. Scott put it all on layaway and will make payments on it until we get the tax refund that will allow him to write a check to pay it off and rent a U-Haul truck to pick it all up with (they want WAY too much for delivery, and my van isn't big enough to bring the sectional home in even 1 piece at a time). By this time next month, we should have a bunch of new furniture in our home.
Now we just have to figure out what to do with our "small" dining table. Scott suggested we store it in the garage to use when we have company over for supper so that there is room for everyone at the table, but I'm thinking I want to donate it to charity once I get it fully cleaned up and recovered from our family and then buy a couple of folding tables to use for guests.
We started with lunch at a local restaurant, getting PJ his first kid meal (he had grilled cheese and fries).
He thought it was awesome. 3 of his sisters had pancakes and the oldest one had spaghetti along with his meal. I wish I had thought to get a picture of all 5 kids and Scott sitting at the table together, it is a great sight I think.
Then we went to Target and picked up some basics that we needed (vitamins for the girls and me) and rummaged a bit in the clearance sections. Missa got a book for fluff fun reading, and then I found a coat sized perfectly for PJ to wear next fall and winter marked down.
As you can see, the discount was too good to really pass up. I got a $33 winter coat for $10, and it is blue too. I'm going to wash it up this weekend with his sisters' coats (they got muddy with this week's thaw) and then see if it will work for him now too (I know it is too big though, he wears 12mo and some 18mo in clothes).
Then we went to a couple furniture stores as well. They were sprinkled through our trip as we passed by them. See, we need a new sofa and a second set of bunk beds. Our old sofa was gifted to us by a wonderful family when we moved here almost 5 years ago, and it has given out with kids jumping on and over it. The cushions are ripping, the arms are torn open, and one seat is almost on the ground because the frame snapped. It is definitely at the end of its life span. We found a sectional that Scott and I both fell in love with at one furniture store, but it was more than we had budgeted so we kept looking.
Then we went to DFW in Heath and found the exact same sectional for MUCH less, even less than we had budgeted. We also checked out bunk beds while we were there, knowing what we wanted and the typical prices for that one. They had one for well under what we had budgeted there too. In fact we saved so much on budget buying what we NEED in furniture that we decided to splurge and get ourselves a new bigger dining table that we saw there as well. Scott put it all on layaway and will make payments on it until we get the tax refund that will allow him to write a check to pay it off and rent a U-Haul truck to pick it all up with (they want WAY too much for delivery, and my van isn't big enough to bring the sectional home in even 1 piece at a time). By this time next month, we should have a bunch of new furniture in our home.
 |
| New sectional, we ordered it in reverse to fit the space it is going better. |
 |
| The bunk bed. We also did get the under bed drawers, and picked this one BECAUSE of the drawers built into the stairs. |
 |
| Our bonus table, it has a leaf in it that expands it to fit our family beautifully with a little room to spare. No we did NOT get the matching chairs, to do that would have been $500 more that we weren't planning to spend. |
Friday, February 08, 2013
Week in Review
This week has been full of lots of weird little things and new stuff happening. If you saw my mid-week musings you know some of it, but the good stuff happened yesterday and today.
This week I struggled with keeping my focus on things. We managed to get schoolwork done EVERY day this week except today, so I'm calling it a successful week here. Of course, it helped that the first half of the week looked like this:
There was a lot of excitement and learning happening as we began our first science unit this week. We'll be spending time learning about animals for a while, so I decided to start with teaching them about animal classification. The picture above was taken yesterday, when we talked about the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates. I did a fast search right before the lesson and found a couple coloring pages to print off for them to do, then snapped this picture while they colored.
And as usual, there was a lot of horseplay, such as yesterday when PJ decided that he was going to wrestle with Kimmy. We also played charades and a few other games, which somehow always ended up with at least one child streaking through the house naked and laughing hysterically while I tried to chase her down to get clothes on her.
It has been a fun week, and we got a lot of things done. The girls are finishing up their math lesson pages now and doing their daily journal writing, which is the last thing they have to do today. Missa is finishing up lesson 7 in MUS Gamma today, after we decided that she needed to spend a couple days on it so that she could get more practice on area of rectangles before moving on. Liddy and Kimmy and plugging away at a nice pace in their books (Beta for Liddy and Alpha for Kimmy), and Jojo has mastered skip counting by 5 and 10 to 100 so we are moving on to counting by 2 now.
This week I struggled with keeping my focus on things. We managed to get schoolwork done EVERY day this week except today, so I'm calling it a successful week here. Of course, it helped that the first half of the week looked like this:
There was lots of time stuck inside while the snow kept us from going out with Missa on crutches, we didn't want her to slip and fall again like she did over the weekend at church. We spent that time reading and learning together, doing chores, and being goofy.
It has been a fun week, and we got a lot of things done. The girls are finishing up their math lesson pages now and doing their daily journal writing, which is the last thing they have to do today. Missa is finishing up lesson 7 in MUS Gamma today, after we decided that she needed to spend a couple days on it so that she could get more practice on area of rectangles before moving on. Liddy and Kimmy and plugging away at a nice pace in their books (Beta for Liddy and Alpha for Kimmy), and Jojo has mastered skip counting by 5 and 10 to 100 so we are moving on to counting by 2 now.
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
Mid-week musings
This week has been fun for me so far. Monday we started off by celebrating my 31st birthday, which is a big deal since I was told by a cardiologist that I wouldn't live to see 30 after drug abuse caused damage to my heart. Obviously that doctor was wrong, as I am still here causing trouble. Tuesday, I decided that I needed to take charge of our day again, and I started to create a schedule to implement here at home. I finished it up that evening, and then spent the night with some sort of stomach virus that Scott brought home from work. Then today, we implemented the schedule.
I'm not keeping 100% to it right now, as it is just our first day on it, but I'm sticking fairly closely to it. I'm not too worried if it takes us 3-4 weeks to figure out how to do this so that we get everything done in a reasonable time. Like right now, according to the schedule we were supposed to start eating lunch 15 minutes ago, however it is still cooking so we are going to be late on that. We missed a subject in lessons today because of being behind (again my fault, just like today with lunch) but I figure in the next few weeks we'll adjust and everything will run more smoothly.
Other than that, really the only excitement happening here is that I'm totally in love with my new printer, and it is getting one heck of a workout.
I'm not keeping 100% to it right now, as it is just our first day on it, but I'm sticking fairly closely to it. I'm not too worried if it takes us 3-4 weeks to figure out how to do this so that we get everything done in a reasonable time. Like right now, according to the schedule we were supposed to start eating lunch 15 minutes ago, however it is still cooking so we are going to be late on that. We missed a subject in lessons today because of being behind (again my fault, just like today with lunch) but I figure in the next few weeks we'll adjust and everything will run more smoothly.
Other than that, really the only excitement happening here is that I'm totally in love with my new printer, and it is getting one heck of a workout.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
giving up for the week
This week has been one of those weeks that I just couldn't keep up with it and had too many fun things thrown at me. Between my being sick and Missa's broken foot, I've been lucky to get some chores and math lessons done daily. So, we are going to just do math and journals tomorrow and call it a week I think. I'm going to tweak a few things to fit our family better over the long weekend and start back to it on Monday refreshed. Maybe I'll take some time and sneak off to a coffee shop with my Kindle and my phone (and maybe the laptop if I can get it to turn on, it is really moody) and enjoy a bit of quiet for an hour or so with a latte and no kids (yes, that includes the baby if I can keep it under an hour and a half that I'm gone and I remember to feed him real good before I sneak off).
Hopefully next week is a bit smoother. I just downloaded a free unit study and notebooking set from Hands Of A Child, and then bought the book for my Kindle that goes with it. I didn't plan initially to do a unit on "Island of the Blue Dolphins" but I think it will be a fun change from our normal stuff before we really dig back into it again. If I can't complete this unit study with the kids, I have issues beyond just having had a rough week.
Hopefully next week is a bit smoother. I just downloaded a free unit study and notebooking set from Hands Of A Child, and then bought the book for my Kindle that goes with it. I didn't plan initially to do a unit on "Island of the Blue Dolphins" but I think it will be a fun change from our normal stuff before we really dig back into it again. If I can't complete this unit study with the kids, I have issues beyond just having had a rough week.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
isn't the hospital fun?
The last couple days we've had some interesting things happen here. First, on Sunday I ended up at the local Urgent Care clinic as soon as they opened. I was diagnosed with the flu and bronchitis, and given medications to take care of that (tomorrow is my last day of antibiotics). So obviously, on Monday I didn't feel much like doing anything but I did anyway, and it turned out to be our most productive day of homeschool yet (and this includes the 4 years we homeschooled before the oldest 3 kids went to school part of this year).
Then on Tuesday we had our normal day, and just after finishing lessons for the night (we're late afternoon schoolers here, it works better for our lifestyle) Missa decided to get on the floor to wrestle with PJ. He likes to climb on anyone on the floor, smacking them and bouncing on them while laughing and squealing. Missa loves to wrestle with him, and he gets hysterical goofy when it is Missa who is doing the wrestling (I think she may be his favorite sister). Anyway, Liddy and Kimmy decided that it looked fun, so they joined PJ in wrestling Missa. One of them came down just right on her foot, and about 9 hours later the doctor at the emergency room told us that she had fractured a growth plate in her foot and put her into a shoe splint and referred us to an amazing orthopedist. By the time I got home with her (and PJ along for the ride) it was 2:30am so she crashed on a sofa for the night after taking some Advil.
This morning was her first follow-up with the ortho, and he changed it from a shoe splint thing to a full boot (also known as a type of walking cast). She's to wear it until her appointment in March, and rest and elevate it as much as she can (no running, jumping, stuff like that and NO sleeping on the top bunk). He hopefully will clear her to not wear it at that appointment after the repeat x-rays to check how it is healing.
Which brings me to our fun picture of the day. This is Missa showing that even with injury and not getting to bed at a decent hour, she can still do her schoolwork at home.
And this is what her foot looks like under that boot, I took it while we were waiting for the orthopedist to come look at it and tell us what to do. Notice those fat little toes there and the discoloration? My cell phone may not take the greatest pictures, but it does well enough to show off some of the swelling and bruising.
She obviously doesn't feel too hot, especially with just Tylenol for the pain. But she's a trooper, and got a 100% on today's math test (Math-U-See Gamma lesson 4 test, tomorrow she'll do lesson 5's test)
And all of the family agrees, we all hope that Scott doesn't have to work too late tonight so that I can go to bed early to make up for the lack of sleep (we may have gotten in at 2:30 but I didn't fall asleep until after 4 from the adrenaline). If this momma doesn't get enough sleep, she is a cranky pants and yells a lot.
Hopefully the rest of this week is uneventful, I don't think I could take much more excitement right now.
Then on Tuesday we had our normal day, and just after finishing lessons for the night (we're late afternoon schoolers here, it works better for our lifestyle) Missa decided to get on the floor to wrestle with PJ. He likes to climb on anyone on the floor, smacking them and bouncing on them while laughing and squealing. Missa loves to wrestle with him, and he gets hysterical goofy when it is Missa who is doing the wrestling (I think she may be his favorite sister). Anyway, Liddy and Kimmy decided that it looked fun, so they joined PJ in wrestling Missa. One of them came down just right on her foot, and about 9 hours later the doctor at the emergency room told us that she had fractured a growth plate in her foot and put her into a shoe splint and referred us to an amazing orthopedist. By the time I got home with her (and PJ along for the ride) it was 2:30am so she crashed on a sofa for the night after taking some Advil.
This morning was her first follow-up with the ortho, and he changed it from a shoe splint thing to a full boot (also known as a type of walking cast). She's to wear it until her appointment in March, and rest and elevate it as much as she can (no running, jumping, stuff like that and NO sleeping on the top bunk). He hopefully will clear her to not wear it at that appointment after the repeat x-rays to check how it is healing.
Which brings me to our fun picture of the day. This is Missa showing that even with injury and not getting to bed at a decent hour, she can still do her schoolwork at home.
And this is what her foot looks like under that boot, I took it while we were waiting for the orthopedist to come look at it and tell us what to do. Notice those fat little toes there and the discoloration? My cell phone may not take the greatest pictures, but it does well enough to show off some of the swelling and bruising.
And all of the family agrees, we all hope that Scott doesn't have to work too late tonight so that I can go to bed early to make up for the lack of sleep (we may have gotten in at 2:30 but I didn't fall asleep until after 4 from the adrenaline). If this momma doesn't get enough sleep, she is a cranky pants and yells a lot.
Hopefully the rest of this week is uneventful, I don't think I could take much more excitement right now.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
homeschooling funny
Homeschooling can be physically painful at times. Seriously, it can. This actually happened to me during lessons today.
I had Missa doing a math test, Liddy doing some drill practice with an app on my phone, and Kimmy doing her daily computer time so I figured that it would be a great time to sit and work with Jojo on skip counting. She's having trouble with counting by 5's, so we got out the laminated hundred chart and I marked the 5's for her so she could see them as we counted together. We got comfy on the floor together, and then I made the mistake of laying down.
Until I laid down, PJ was happily playing nearby with a toy. He likes to wrestle, and when he saw me lay down he immediately got up and walked over to me, then before I could react he had both hands firmly planted in my hair and had climbed up on my head. Just try to picture me laying there at an odd angle, unable to reach the baby sitting on my head with both hands tightly grabbing my hair as he bounces up and down and squeals and laughs hysterically while I yell for Missa to PLEASE stop taking her math test for a minute and come get her brother off my head.
The joys of having a little boy..... and older children that I'm trying to teach while said little boy refuses to take his nap. The girls all collapsed with laughter, PJ finally fell off my head (Missa was laughing too hard to rescue me), and I ended up having to go to my bedroom for a brief time out to cry and compose myself.
I had Missa doing a math test, Liddy doing some drill practice with an app on my phone, and Kimmy doing her daily computer time so I figured that it would be a great time to sit and work with Jojo on skip counting. She's having trouble with counting by 5's, so we got out the laminated hundred chart and I marked the 5's for her so she could see them as we counted together. We got comfy on the floor together, and then I made the mistake of laying down.
Until I laid down, PJ was happily playing nearby with a toy. He likes to wrestle, and when he saw me lay down he immediately got up and walked over to me, then before I could react he had both hands firmly planted in my hair and had climbed up on my head. Just try to picture me laying there at an odd angle, unable to reach the baby sitting on my head with both hands tightly grabbing my hair as he bounces up and down and squeals and laughs hysterically while I yell for Missa to PLEASE stop taking her math test for a minute and come get her brother off my head.
The joys of having a little boy..... and older children that I'm trying to teach while said little boy refuses to take his nap. The girls all collapsed with laughter, PJ finally fell off my head (Missa was laughing too hard to rescue me), and I ended up having to go to my bedroom for a brief time out to cry and compose myself.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
back to homeschool, life as usual
Well this week is so far going better than I expected. We decided this week to just do grammar, math, and literature lessons and then add in history and science and all the other stuff they want to learn (I agreed to lessons in Spanish, crochet, calligraphy, sewing, cooking, and origami also) as we adjust to schooling at home. We are having a lot of fun at home and working well, but there is a lot of fighting right now that i could do without. Today would be a great example. So far today, Liddy has been sent to her room for throwing toys at a sister in anger (trying to injure her with them), Missa has slapped Kimmy in the face because Kimmy didn't want her to join her in her play, and a LOT of screaming and yelling. I think they are getting on each others' nerves right now so I need to come up with some ways to keep them occupied and working together.
In math Kimmy is going through Alpha to buy me a little time before I have to get her a Beta book, and Liddy is reviewing material in her Beta book that she needs more practice on before I move her up to Gamma. She's having a little trouble with regrouping, so this was a perfect choice for her. Missa, she is straight into Gamma and right now we are doing the tests first to find her spot, if she gets 100% on the test we move to the next lesson but if she doesn't we review the material. She's liking the pace of it this way, and is really proud of being able to just test out of lessons like they are nothing to her.
Grammar has been a bit of a struggle, but more on my end than anything else. See, I've never had much success with learning proper grammar (as I'm sure you may have noticed in my blog, I know I make some simple mistakes in writing although I am a natural writer in general so I have been able to kind of muddle through without getting any of it). However, I feel that grammar is something that my children need to learn so that they can be successful later in college, and it is doubly important for my dyslexic student. So I took the time to find a good solid program that will hold my hand through teaching grammar properly with little knowledge on my part, and Easy Grammar fit the bill on this one. I'm learning right alongside my girls, right now we are studying prepositions and I'm finally getting what a preposition is. Yes, at almost 31 I am finally learning grammar. The hurdle I have encountered is related to my lack of printer ink at the moment. Without ink, I have to hand-write the worksheets for the oldest girls to do. I do not like creating worksheets by hand, but I did it today. Scott said that we can get some more ink when he gets paid Friday so that I don't have to keep dealing with the hassle of hand-writing practice sheets. I just have to get through tomorrow's lessons, and then we will have the money for me to go to the store Friday for printer ink.
I really should read to the kids now that we have finished almost all the girls' seatwork for the day, but I'm enjoying sitting down and relaxing before I head off to the kitchen to do some prep for dinner and make the pie for dessert. I have had a few moments this week where I asked myself what I was thinking to pull them out of school, but overall so far it has been going well.
In math Kimmy is going through Alpha to buy me a little time before I have to get her a Beta book, and Liddy is reviewing material in her Beta book that she needs more practice on before I move her up to Gamma. She's having a little trouble with regrouping, so this was a perfect choice for her. Missa, she is straight into Gamma and right now we are doing the tests first to find her spot, if she gets 100% on the test we move to the next lesson but if she doesn't we review the material. She's liking the pace of it this way, and is really proud of being able to just test out of lessons like they are nothing to her.
Grammar has been a bit of a struggle, but more on my end than anything else. See, I've never had much success with learning proper grammar (as I'm sure you may have noticed in my blog, I know I make some simple mistakes in writing although I am a natural writer in general so I have been able to kind of muddle through without getting any of it). However, I feel that grammar is something that my children need to learn so that they can be successful later in college, and it is doubly important for my dyslexic student. So I took the time to find a good solid program that will hold my hand through teaching grammar properly with little knowledge on my part, and Easy Grammar fit the bill on this one. I'm learning right alongside my girls, right now we are studying prepositions and I'm finally getting what a preposition is. Yes, at almost 31 I am finally learning grammar. The hurdle I have encountered is related to my lack of printer ink at the moment. Without ink, I have to hand-write the worksheets for the oldest girls to do. I do not like creating worksheets by hand, but I did it today. Scott said that we can get some more ink when he gets paid Friday so that I don't have to keep dealing with the hassle of hand-writing practice sheets. I just have to get through tomorrow's lessons, and then we will have the money for me to go to the store Friday for printer ink.
I really should read to the kids now that we have finished almost all the girls' seatwork for the day, but I'm enjoying sitting down and relaxing before I head off to the kitchen to do some prep for dinner and make the pie for dessert. I have had a few moments this week where I asked myself what I was thinking to pull them out of school, but overall so far it has been going well.
Friday, January 18, 2013
homeschool week 1 tentative plans
We have a 4 day week for our first week of homeschool, due to a field trip I have planned Monday to the zoo. So I am trying to decide where we are starting and what to do.
I wanted to spend this first week working with the girls on reading a map and the different symbols and such on maps before we start Cantering the Country. I need to find my road atlas so that I have a nice big map to use for this. Our vocabulary this week will be directional and geographic words that we would find on a map, with a quiz at the end of the week to see how well they got the vocabulary.
In science, I thought it would be fun to do the Animal Classification lapbook at Homeschool Share with the girls before we start digging into the science part of our US studies. I can't print off the material for that until next weekend though, so we are going to do that in week 2 I guess and not do any science this first week.
For language arts, I plan to get the girls each a book to read and they will do a mini book report for me. We also will begin Easy Grammar, which the first unit is prepositions so I am going to start working with them on memorizing the list of prepositions that they need to learn this year (there is a total of 40 that they must memorize to be successful in the program this year). Easy Grammar is for the oldest two girls, Kimmy will work on nouns and verbs as well as ending punctuation for sentences (but she is welcome to join her big sisters in grammar if she wants, and may end up doing it with them totally if she seems to be catching on completely).
In math, the older girls will practice multiplication facts memorization and do some drill quizzes like I remember doing in school. I'll make a chart to show what facts groups they memorized and we will focus on one fact group at a time in daily drills. First up will be x0, x1, and x2 facts as a big group because I know they pretty much have those mastered then we'll do x3 daily until they get them, and keep moving forward from there. I can do each girl separately at the same time this way and then just go from there. Kimmy will review basic addition and subtraction facts and then we'll start Beta with her.
Our copywork this week will be a bible verse that I have yet to pick out, and it will be related to a character trait I've not decided on either. This is a new thing in our homeschool, as I have never really incorporated Scripture or character traits into our lessons. I think we will do a notebook for traits so that they can record it as we do lessons. I'm still working out the kinks in this plan, and may not start it until week 2 or 3 depending on how much time I have this weekend to spend thinking on it.
And of course, lots of playing, crafting, and reading together. I think this week I'll read "Detectives in Togas" to the girls and get them doing a journal page after each chapter. I have a BUNCH of books hanging around from our days with Sonlight that I can use for literature time. I'll just grab one off the shelf and read a chapter a day (or a couple times a day, depending on how the girls like the book) to cover that until we start our US studies since I have lots of literature included in that study.
I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew with this one!
I wanted to spend this first week working with the girls on reading a map and the different symbols and such on maps before we start Cantering the Country. I need to find my road atlas so that I have a nice big map to use for this. Our vocabulary this week will be directional and geographic words that we would find on a map, with a quiz at the end of the week to see how well they got the vocabulary.
In science, I thought it would be fun to do the Animal Classification lapbook at Homeschool Share with the girls before we start digging into the science part of our US studies. I can't print off the material for that until next weekend though, so we are going to do that in week 2 I guess and not do any science this first week.
For language arts, I plan to get the girls each a book to read and they will do a mini book report for me. We also will begin Easy Grammar, which the first unit is prepositions so I am going to start working with them on memorizing the list of prepositions that they need to learn this year (there is a total of 40 that they must memorize to be successful in the program this year). Easy Grammar is for the oldest two girls, Kimmy will work on nouns and verbs as well as ending punctuation for sentences (but she is welcome to join her big sisters in grammar if she wants, and may end up doing it with them totally if she seems to be catching on completely).
In math, the older girls will practice multiplication facts memorization and do some drill quizzes like I remember doing in school. I'll make a chart to show what facts groups they memorized and we will focus on one fact group at a time in daily drills. First up will be x0, x1, and x2 facts as a big group because I know they pretty much have those mastered then we'll do x3 daily until they get them, and keep moving forward from there. I can do each girl separately at the same time this way and then just go from there. Kimmy will review basic addition and subtraction facts and then we'll start Beta with her.
Our copywork this week will be a bible verse that I have yet to pick out, and it will be related to a character trait I've not decided on either. This is a new thing in our homeschool, as I have never really incorporated Scripture or character traits into our lessons. I think we will do a notebook for traits so that they can record it as we do lessons. I'm still working out the kinks in this plan, and may not start it until week 2 or 3 depending on how much time I have this weekend to spend thinking on it.
And of course, lots of playing, crafting, and reading together. I think this week I'll read "Detectives in Togas" to the girls and get them doing a journal page after each chapter. I have a BUNCH of books hanging around from our days with Sonlight that I can use for literature time. I'll just grab one off the shelf and read a chapter a day (or a couple times a day, depending on how the girls like the book) to cover that until we start our US studies since I have lots of literature included in that study.
I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew with this one!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)