thinking outside the box with math

If you've followed my blog for a while, you know that I have a child with special learning needs.  Missa struggles with all her basic math facts, she can't get them memorized totally.  She has some of them all in her long term memory, but it is a work in progress.  I've slowed down her lessons in math for a few years now because of this fact, and have watched her get frustrated and want to give up over it many times.  So I'm considering a new approach with her on this.

I'm thinking that this summer I'm going to take the remaining levels of Math-U-See that she has prior to algebra and teach her the concepts and practice her facts daily.  I am going to start back at Beta with multi-digit addition and subtraction, despite her already doing that level, just as a refresher for her and move forward from there.  She's really good at understanding concepts and how to do problems, the only thing that holds her back usually is the fact that she can't seem to get those facts memorized.  I'm going to teach her to do the work on paper AND on a calculator both, using the manipulative blocks and any other materials (including flash cards for fact practice!) to reinforce the concepts.  Then around September or October, depending on when we get finished with this step, I'm going to start pre-algebra with her.

I can already hear you asking why I would do such a thing.  Well, there are many reasons for this.  First off, Missa likes puzzles and is quite good at problems that involve solving for the unknown and other abstract concepts.  She is really quick to pick up and solve problems like what you would find in algebra.  Second, there is this awesome little device called a calculator that most people use (including professionals!) for basic math, even I use one quite frequently.  They really do make it pointless to memorize the math facts if one's brain just isn't hardwired for that kind of stuff to happen easily.  Third, I plan to continue working with her daily on basic math facts even as we move forward, in hopes that she will memorize all those facts eventually.

I've watched Missa grow a lot this last 5 years of learning, and she really is capable of higher math than we do because of her inability to memorize her facts.  This is the best part of homeschooling her.  I can take the time to work with her where she struggles but still not hold her back in the process.  I've noticed that when we spend an extended period of time just working on basic math facts, she starts to get discouraged and shut down on me, calling herself stupid and insisting she'll never get it and then she starts throwing things and getting angry about it.  However, if I work with her where she's struggling and add in new concepts at the same time, she seems to do much better and master both at a faster rate.  I don't know why, but it is how she does things so I'm going to go with it.

The other kids will continue to move forward as they have been doing, as they are progressing nicely and don't need the additional help.

homeschooling on a shoestring- the used curriculum sale

Yes, you read that correctly.  I said USED CURRICULUM SALE.  As a mom of 5, I don't always have the additional resources to purchase curriculum that we may want and/or need so I have to be resourceful.  Granted, I know of many ways to obtain free materials online and I use this for the bulk of our education.  However, sometimes you just can't beat a good old-fashioned book for teaching something efficiently.  That is where a used curriculum sale comes in handy.

My local homeschool group had their sale this evening, and since it happened to also be payday I was able to go pick up a few things.  I had in mind some very specific things I need for our lessons, in hopes that I'd be able to get some of it for less than the new price.  I had $60 to spend, which is about the cost of a single textbook new on my list of wants for this fall.  I was very careful and found a lot of great things, but in the end I managed to get most of what I really needed and a couple goodies for future use.

I got a book that lines up with our Middle Ages study in lessons for my oldest daughter to read bits of this year as appropriate.  I figure that she and I can read a bit of the book at a time together and discuss it, and even if we decide to put it on the shelf for a couple more years it will get used.  It was only $3 so I don't feel too put out from it.  I have a feeling Missa will enjoy it, as she is really into all things related to history.

I went with the intention of hopefully finding a specific science book (Real Science 4 Kids level 1 Biology) but instead left with Apologia science (the 6th day of Creation one, animal science).  I got it and another book that I can use to include my youngest girls in the lessons for $20 total.  I'm happy with that, although it isn't what I planned to use for science.

There were a couple other little odds and ends I picked up as well, but I think my biggest score was all 3 volumes of the KONOS curriculum.  These 3 books retail new for $110 each from the company, and I got the 3 books together used in pretty good shape (there are some penciled in notes and check marks and stuff like that, nothing a few minutes with an eraser can't fix) for a grand total of $20.  Yes, I managed to get over $300 of curriculum for $20.  I have a general plan already for this fall, using Story Of The World for history, but I am looking forward to using the KONOS books to keep going with lessons when we are starting to lose steam and hit burnout from going too long on our regularly scheduled lessons.  It will provide a wonderful change of pace for us in that area.  The only downside to this is that I'm not really all that familiar with the curriculum outside of knowing that it is unit studies centered around character traits, so I will need to spend some time really going through it and figuring it out so I am ready for it when we need to take that break.

I will still obviously need to get a copy of one specific book I need for a spine with our history program, but I am saving up for it and will purchase the book through Amazon this fall.  Unless, of course, anyone who reads my blog wishes to donate a copy of the Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History.......... No takers?  Darn.  Oh well, I'll get the book before we start in the fall and I'm not really too worried about it.

If you haven't taken advantage of a used curriculum sale, I highly suggest it.  I spent less than $50 tonight and got a lot of great things that I can't wait to use with the kids this fall, to the point where I'm seriously considering cancelling "summer vacation" because of their bad attitudes already and jumping in as soon as VBS week is finished here.

2013-2014 school year plans

Since it is summer, the kids are playing and relaxing while I figure out what we're doing this fall.  I thought I'd share what I've figured out so far, since I have a lot in my mind and I need to straighten it all out.

History this year we are going to use "Story Of The World Volume 2" to cover world history from Rome to the Renaissance (or somewhere around there).  I was gifted all the materials for this level (book, activity guide, EVERYTHING except the extra books like a world history encyclopedia) so this costs me almost nothing to do (just printer paper to make copies of activity pages for the girls to all do).  I can do this with all 4 girls together at the same time, making my life easier.

I'm also going to dust off All About Spelling for Lydia to do, she is having a lot of trouble with her spelling so I think we need to run through levels 1 and 2 with her (and Missa too but we'll see how that goes, I'll order more levels as needed for them).  Hopefully it does enough that I'm not spending three times as long as I should to read her written work.  I'm surprised that the school allowed her to have such horrible spelling without any intervention at all the first half of the school year, it is truly scary sad.

We also will read lots of great literature from the list for Sonlight cores B and C that go well with the history that we're doing this year.  I also plan to tie in art and music by teaching about different styles of art (and for some of it, recreating copies of that art ourselves) and learning about instruments that were popular during that time (maybe try to make a few of our own if we feel a desire to do so).

I'm also going to do some US geography as we continue our 50 states study.  We school 6 days a week during the busy time at Scott's work (back to school season is KILLER for us, he pulls 70 hour weeks easily from the beginning of August usually until around Thanksgiving or so) and most of the chapters in our history curriculum will only take 3 days a week to do.  I'll use the other days each week to do a state with the kids, learning some stuff about each one and finding them on a map.  This was the big thing I found out when we started our 50 states study, it only takes 2-3 days to cover most states the way I'm aiming to do them.

We are also going to learn sign language more deliberately.  I did some searching on YouTube last night and found a channel called "Sign Language 101" that is nothing but videos to teach it, so I'm going to start on it tonight and just sign/speak together all the time as I learn more sign and then this fall I'll start enforcing with the kids that they sign when they speak while they learn new signs.  The Signing Time dvd set will continue to be watched a couple times a week, but most of their learning will happen through immersion.  It is the most effective way to learn a language, and will serve us well.  I also plan on getting plugged into the local deaf community through a lovely lady I know who has a deaf son, to expand our opportunities to practice signing.

Math will continue as planned.  The oldest 2 girls are plugging along in Math-U-See and doing well, while I plan to have the younger girls do Math Mammoth.  I was gifted the books for the younger girls, so I don't have any out of pocket expense for them at this time.  I just have to keep up with buying student books for the older girls, which I already have the books they need for this year.

Science is one area I've not really done a lot with yet.  Right now we're going to breeze through our Real Science 4 Kids biology book, then I was thinking we'd do some animal studies.  I would ideally like to purchase Winter Promise's Equine Science curriculum, but I don't know that we'll have the funds for that so I'm gathering up free resources as I find them to cover animal science.

We also are looking into the local American Heritage Girls troop for all the girls, and seriously considering it for "social skills" and any other area that it could cross over into.  We'd do Girl Scouts, but quite frankly I'd weigh 500lbs if I had them selling cookies so they aren't doing that.  Plus, AHG includes a lot of the values that we feel are important but Girl Scouts doesn't do.  Yup, we chose the conservative Christian group that emphasizes traditional family values instead of the liberal group sponsored by Planned Parenthood that promotes a lot of things I won't be going into here (I have friends who love Girl Scouts, and am trying to respect their decision in this area without being insulting)

That is about all I've figured out at this point in time, I'm still working on the final plans and getting everything ready to go for us to start in August.  Of course, I still have to give the girls their standardized tests to finish the year for reporting, and we'll be ordering those tests this weekend.

the last week of the 2012-13 school year

I'm trying to keep plugging forward despite all the curves that I've had thrown at me this last few months, we set this upcoming Friday as our last day of the school year and I am NOT going to call it quits before then.  I'm really REALLY hoping that we can get this week to go semi-smoothly so that I can go into our summer plans.  I am planning that we'll take the rest of June off all lessons completely once we finish this break, then pick up again in July with a fun series of Evan-Moor theme pockets (I got the July monthly theme set for us to do some of) and gently work back into full lessons with the basics.  I also plan to fill our summer with hands-on crafty stuff and lots of time outdoors, playing and working in our small garden.

I may be a bit behind, but I discovered recently that there is a really nice park not too far from our home and that it is easily accessed by just hopping on the bike path so we don't need gas for the van even to get there.  Add in 79 cent ice cream cones at McDonald's (also within walking distance if we wanted to) and we will have a pretty good time with cool summer treats and lots of park time.

We also are hoping that we can get the funds to buy bikes for Scott, Missa, and myself along with replacing a tire on 2 bikes we already have for Liddy and Kimmy (oh and a seat for Preston on my bike).  If we can get that all going on, then we can hit the bike path regularly as a family and ride all over the county (maybe even to visit Grandma in Johnstown by the end of summer).

There will also be a point at some point where we will take a couple days off lessons likely, as we've made a painful decision that medically we have to take permanent measures to prevent more pregnancies.  My last pregnancy was touchy for us with my hypertension, and it progressing into full pre-eclampsia within 6 hours of Preston's birth, and I'm still suffering some of the effects of that complication.  We've been told that there's no guarantee that it would happen again in the future, however we feel that it is more important to our family that the 5 children we have are able to have two living parents who are fairly healthy so I have a consultation for a non-surgical procedure called Essure to see if I'm a candidate for the procedure.  If not, then we have to discuss other options to determine who will be having surgery and when we can afford for Scott to take the time off (with Essure I could have it done on a Friday and be up and going again before Monday, requiring Scott to only take 1 day off work).  It is a decision that we've had a lot of conflict over the past 15 months, but now that we've made a decision about it I really do feel ok with it and know that it is the right way to go.  We've been blessed with 5 incredible healthy children and while we'd love a few more, it is time to call it done for medical reasons.  We plan to open our home up to foster care and adoption in the future as our kids are older and we have the space to do so.

That about sums up what our June is going to look like I think.  I can't wait for this weekend when we will do our own little "graduation" to move each kid up to the next grade with a certificate and cake (I just have to find a dairy-free recipe that tastes good, I already have plans to make a butterfly cake thanks to some directions my mother shared on my Facebook wall this morning)

Once we get through this week, I'm going to make plans officially for the summer and then I'll share the July plans here.  Hopefully I can have it all figured out in the 1 week between finishing lessons and Scott's week off, because we'll be spending that entire week off doing things like going to Amish country, the Columbus Zoo, and other such things. :)

update on Lydia

We've had a rough couple weeks with Lydia being sick, and we think we have some answers now.  Last appointment, the pediatrician had me keep a fairly extensive log to see if we could see a pattern in her vomiting.  A pattern did emerge in this, showing that typically she would vomit with acidic and dairy-heavy foods.  As a result, we are trying medication for reflux and dietary changes that eliminate highly acidic foods and all dairy.

This is not a new diet for me, as I was on a similar one in high school for similar symptoms.  I was instructed to stop Zofran once we get her started on the Zantac pills, which is going to be difficult for her I think.  We also did blood work to test her thyroid, liver and kidney function, and look for markers that would indicate a gluten intolerance (celiac disease).  They also ordered some other tests in the lab that I don't remember right off the top of my head.  We will have results of all her labs in the next few days, and can adjust as needed from there.

At this point, we aren't going to pursue a referral to a specialist in GI up at Children's Hospital, but we are going to be following up with her pediatrician again next month to see how the dietary and medication changes are helping.  If she has a complete turn around with the full combination, at that appointment I'll bring up challenging her with dairy again to see if that is in fact a factor or if it is just coincidence.

She's a bit overwhelmed, obviously, at all the changes that we're making to her diet (dairy alone is a big change, but to add in acidic foods too and going cold turkey is hard for her to process mentally right now).  I did decide that while she's on this diet, I'm going to join her 100% so she doesn't feel left out of all the meals for the rest of the family.  Also, if this works well we will as a family be on this diet to support her fully.  I'm also teaching her how to make things as we go, so far she's learned how to make homemade spaghetti sauce and cut the acidity without changing the flavor.

giving up until fall I think

Well, this school year has been a wash for me.  Every time we start trying to getting into a good routine something completely messes up things and it takes several days to deal with that and then get back to life as normal, only to repeat.  I'm seriously thinking that I'm just going to finish up attendance with k12 for Jordan, and then call it done until September.  All I have to do with the oldest girls is their standardized test, which we're going to do instead of a portfolio review this year to see if it is any easier for me.  I'm getting the CAT from Seton testing services.  It is not a timed test, so it will fit perfectly with Missa's and Liddy's IEP section that gives them both extra time on testing without having to think and watch the clock.  It also should be easy to accommodate Missa's dyslexia per her IEP she had at the charter school, I'm planning to test each girl individually so it will be easy to adjust as needed.  I just have to get to order the tests so that I can administer them to the kids.  I'm *supposed* to order them this payday, which is tomorrow, but thanks to yet another car repair we will be putting that off most likely.  I need to crunch numbers still and see what we have to work with after the car repair and groceries/gas since we are going to be putting off a couple bills to cover the car.

ok is vacation week over yet?

I was so looking forward to Scott having this week off and getting to do all sorts of fun things as a family.  We were going to go to the zoo, get our portfolio review done, and do a LOT of yard work.  We had a full, busy, and fun week planned for time together as a family.

Instead, Lydia spent 8 days throwing up nonstop.  The other girls got to spend a day at grandma's while we took her to Children's Hospital, she went to the pediatrician on Friday, and now on day 8 she's at the point that if she doesn't improve by Monday morning I'll be calling her doctor and demanding that they put in an order to admit her for IV fluids and medication.  She's weakened to where she's having trouble walking, she is starting to hallucinate, and is just miserable and making everyone else miserable.  Her 9th birthday was Friday, and her present was suppositories for her nausea and Zofran pills to take once the other medicine starts to work with a "come back in a week once she's hydrated so we can run a million blood tests on her that will require 2 or 3 people helping to hold her down."  She didn't even get to have her birthday cake.  She picked out an ice cream cake, and nobody got it yesterday.  She did keep food down last night all night, so we made the decision to go ahead and do the ice cream cake for her.  That was a mistake, and it totally set off her vomiting again until she fell asleep while I was out shopping with a friend of mine (and the boy along for the ride, poor kid).

Hopefully she improves soon, or on Monday morning I'll be calling her doctor again.  No point in calling right now or tomorrow even, as her doctor isn't on call and the pediatrician at the local ER is a total douche and I flat out can't stand him.  He stinks as a doctor too in my not-so-professional opinion.  I am supposed to take the healthy 3 girls and the boy to church tonight, leave in about 45 minutes, but I really don't feel up to it.  I'm drained, both physically and mentally.

This vacation week has sucked.  Hopefully Monday brings back normal life and health to an extent where I'm not freaked over Lydia being so sick.  I'll come back another time and post more details about her illness, as it is something we've battled for all her life to a degree with the last several months of it being more serious (with the worst flare up being this past 8 days)

a plan for this week and next

This week is going to be fun for us.  I decided over the weekend that we needed to change how we do our lessons, so we start this week with a new weekly schedule.  Monday was our housework and errands day (good thing too, as I had an appointment yesterday afternoon and needed to go to the grocery store in the morning) and then we do lessons on Tuesday through Friday.  Saturday mornings will be electives or catch-up time, as Scott typically works on Saturday mornings (this week he isn't though, so he is taking the girls to Home Depot for the monthly workshop and then maybe to the park if weather is good, that will give me time to grade papers and get some things planned out, plus go grocery shopping for next week if I want to or even take a nap).

Since today is Tuesday, I thought I would go ahead and share what we are going to be studying this week in our lessons.  I'm really excited about this week, knowing that we're going to have some real structure to our days.

Our big study this week is on the state of Alabama.  I have a Scholastic book that I'm going to use for this, and my "Lapbook Any State" set from Hands of a Child ready to go.  Each morning I'm printing off 4 copies of the day's minibooks so they can do them, and we're going to glue them onto cardstock in binders.  We are going to do all 50 states this way.  I have all the basics of the state obviously planned, but one really fun thing we're going to do is spending Friday learning about Helen Keller.  She was born in Alabama, and I thought it would be a great little addition.  I have a couple books on her for the lesson (1 picture book to read to the younger kids plus two biographies for the older girls to read and fill out a report sheet on her) and I found a braille book at the library that I checked out so I can show them firsthand how the blind read.  We're also going to try being blind and deaf by using ear plugs and a blindfold then navigating our home and doing simple things like eating a snack.  I want this to really come alive for the girls so they can see her struggles and what she overcame in her lifetime.  Later we'll revisit Helen Keller and spend some real time learning all about her, but this week is just an introduction to her for the kids.

In math, the girls are working on lapbooks for math facts.  Missa and Liddy are working on multiplication facts, as they are both in Math-U-See Gamma, while Kimmy and Jordan are doing addition facts to go with Alpha and Beta.  Once they finish the lapbooks this week, I plan to have the girls do a timed math drill sheet for their facts each morning before they review and practice their facts with their lapbooks daily.  By the end of the next few weeks, hopefully the girls will have their facts memorized and can move on to the next one (division or subtraction).


And through all this, I'm going to be one-handed so the girls have to be my helper.  I tried last week to teach Missa how to do a proper push-up and managed to hurt my left shoulder.  Having it in a sling wouldn't be such an issue if I wasn't left-handed, but we're working with it and making things happen.  Missa gets to do more cooking while I supervise, and a lot of the chores are not getting done as I would prefer because I have to get the kids helping a lot more.  Hopefully it heals quickly, as the compromise in chores is driving me batty.

Then there is next week.  Next week Scott is on vacation so he'll be home all day.  We're going to take a break from formal lessons and focus instead on the more fun stuff.  We have our annual portfolio review this week, and we plan to go to the Columbus Zoo and get our annual membership (the membership costs almost as much as one visit with a family our size, and this year we're doing the one that admits 2 guests as well so I'll be able to use it a lot more since I'm not comfortable taking all 5 myself during the week, maybe my wonderful cousin will come a couple times with us).  We also have plans to get the gardens going here, all the flowers planted (hopefully!) and the garden dug for my veggies.  I told Scott that if he thinks we need to wait for next year to plant so that this year we can prep the garden that I'm ok with it, but I'd really rather get something planted (peppers and tomatoes at a minimum, we go through sooooo many of both those things!).  We are really looking forward to the opportunity to spend an entire week working together as a family.

Well, that about sums up my next two weeks, so I'll see you later.  I'll post on Friday with a summary of how this week went, complete with pictures hopefully, and then next week I'll try to post some pictures of our trip to the zoo and working in the gardens and stuff like that.  I'm just hoping that I don't spend all of next week in a sling to go with it, I hate being pretty much useless like I am right now.

homeschooling as a lifestyle

This is something I've been thinking about lately, as I've been looking up regulations in other states just in case I get my way and we can move to a more homeschool-friendly state in the future.  Ohio isn't too bad with the regulation, but I'd really rather have even more flexibility with the non-reporting states simply so that I don't spend 2-3 weeks stressing and preparing for portfolio review (which I'm in the midst of now, our review is in a little over 3 weeks).  Sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference between living life and educating your child, especially when you tend to fall more on the unschooling end of the spectrum like we do.  Everyday activities carry many educational opportunities, such as making a meal or preparing our front garden for this year's flowers.  It also means that we start early with learning, introducing our little ones to counting, colors, shapes, and books as soon as possible.

This is a perfect example of early introduction of educational things.  Preston will be 14 months old this week, and right after he woke up from his nap I decided to get out a beautiful picture book to share with him.  This book is "Noah's Ark" and is a 1978 Caldecott Medal winner, and it happens to have NO words beyond the first couple pages.  It fully illustrates the story of the Great Flood, and is one of those books that the kids love,  His sisters have spent MANY hours looking at the pictures and retelling the story to each other, imaginary companions, or favorite toys.  Today I got the joy of introducing Preston to this lovely book.  We only made it through about 3 pages of pictures before he lost interest and slapped me in the face to get the book away, but that 1 minute was perfect for him.  In time he will develop the same love of books and reading that the rest of our family has.  This book will be the one we use daily with him in story time for the rest of this month, and possibly all of next month as well, before we move to simple story books (think beginning readers and board books).

Reading to Preston is a critical step in his speech development, but it does so much more.  A book like this especially, with beautiful detailed illustrations, develops his attention span, increases vocabulary, introduces different animals to him, and can also be used with motor development as he begins to try turning pages and pointing at different animals in the illustrations while I tell the story.  We got this book when Missa was in kindergarten and I purchased Sonlight's core P3/4 in a desperate attempt to get her interested in books (no kid can resist great picture books).

With the oldest kids, as I sat with Preston reading, they were working in the front flower garden to start getting it ready for this year's planting.  Scott had to dig to find our sewage cleanout access last month, and the first thing the girls did was fill in the holes he dug to find it before they started removing debris and cutting down the ornamental grass for this year's growth.  There is a lot left to do still, but we'll get it done this weekend hopefully so that we can start planting soon.  I actually am hoping to expand the garden out front this year to the driveway loop in one area over the next few years, so there will be a lot of work ahead for us this year with digging and preparing the land, on top of placing decorative border bricks and a path to the loop from the front walk beside the garden area.  It is going to be lovely once I finish it, if we can get it really going.

All these things are so full of educational opportunities.  There is the physical activity in digging the new garden, research to select plants that complement each other and will grow well in our garden locations, patterns that may be created with border stones, even math in figuring out how much stone we need and the area of the garden for topsoil and how many of each plant and the spacing.

Like I said, homeschooling isn't just a method for my family.  It is truly a lifestyle, and the lines can often blur between education and living life.  That makes it very difficult at times to create an adequate portfolio for reporting to our district.  Thankfully, I have found a wonderful lady who does assessments for families like mine.  She understands the value in these rich opportunities at living and learning, and doesn't require just workbooks and things like that to show what we've done.  Sure, I have a couple lapbooks and the girls' math workbooks to show that we've done academics, but I also have many pictures and great experiences to share that tell so much more of the bigger picture of our learning lifestyle.

homemade convenience foods

With a bigger than typical family, I like convenience foods.  They are a super simple way to provide a meal or snack to my kids when we are running a little too fast in our lives, or if I'm sick and can't keep up as well.  Unfortunately, our budget doesn't allow for the purchase of these foods too often, and neither does our dietary limitations (I have a dairy allergy, Missa is red dye allergic, Liddy has Celiac, and Kimmy is soy sensitive and Celiac).  So I have the joy of doing a LOT of cooking from scratch to make good meals that the whole family can eat.

As you can imagine, with so many limits I decided to cook to the children's allergies for the main meals, then if the meal has dairy in it I'll make a dairy free alternative for me.  With having a soy sensitive child (she was soy allergic, now she's just intolerant but we are still avoiding it 100% whenever possible in hopes that she may outgrow the allergy since it is getting less severe) it makes things a lot more interesting to work around the Celiac, but it is totally possible to do so.

In case you aren't familiar with Celiac, it is a disorder that can be pretty nasty.  What it boils down to is that Liddy and Kimmy can't have any wheat, rye, or barley products at all, or any other products that have gluten in them.  Oats are still iffy, as technically they do have small amounts of gluten, but they don't seem to have any effect on the girls so we do oatmeal and granola once in a while.  When a Celiac eats something with gluten, the gluten damages the villi in the intestinal tract.  Those little villi do not repair themselves very easily, and are how your body absorbs nutrients from the food you eat.  Too much damage can be deadly if left unchecked for too long.  The only way to repair the villi is a STRICT diet that is completely void of all possible allergens to give the intestine a chance to heal over the course of several months (I told you they don't heal easily!).  I do a lot of label reading at the store, which means that I RARELY shop with all the children along unless I am after a couple very specific things.  Did you know that Twizzlers even have wheat in them?  We don't buy them often because the obvious red dye in them, but when we learned of the Celiac we had to completely quit buying them because the company uses wheat to bind the stuff together to make the Twizzlers.

Obviously, cooking is interesting in my home at times, and I do get tired of it sometimes.  I use rice flour to make my pizza crusts, which eliminates gluten (my recipe is yeast free, which my Celiac girls seem to react to as well) and by using 100% rice flour I can ensure that there is little to no soy present.  I need to get a grain mill so that I can grind my own rice flour, as it is fairly expensive.  We use the pizza crust dough to make homemade hot pockets regularly.  On busy days I can just grab some sandwich (or pizza!) pockets from the freezer and toss in the microwave to warm up while the kids put shoes on, then they have a tidy sandwich that they can eat in the van.  It costs around $10 for a box of 12 hot pockets, or I can spend about $6 for the ingredients to make 12 homemade ones and toss them in the freezer after baking (that cost includes fresh cut meat and cheese from the deli and parchment paper for my baking sheet since we can't use cooking sprays).  Do you see the savings?

Yogurt is another one we have to be careful of.  Most brands at the store have artificial dyes and/or soy in them so I generally avoid them.  I was reading labels for a long time until a friend posted on her blog about making yogurt in her crock pot.  I tried it once and was hooked, and have been doing it since.  I don't regularly make it though, so we don't always have some left over yogurt on hand to activate the new batch.  But with the small amount needed to do it, I don't read labels for the starter cup of yogurt.  I just buy Oikos greek yogurt, it is the only single serving cup I've found that comes in plain with no sugars or anything.  It is SUPER simple to make yogurt, as long as I keep an eye on the times the crock pot does 99% of it and it turns out perfectly.

Bread is another thing here.  Out of the 7 in my home, 5 of us can have regular wheat bread no issues.  So, I buy a couple loaves of bread each week for sandwiches and toast, and the 2 that can't have bread will use either a corn tortilla to do a wrap or they will do roll ups.  To make a roll up, you take your lunch meat and some cheese and then roll a strip of the cheese up in the meat.

We also happen to LOVE pasta.  Now, I used to make 100% of our pasta fresh but since the Celiac diagnoses I've struggled with finding a recipe that won't fall apart when I run it through my roller.  So we buy rice pasta at the store.  It is really expensive, so when I do that I make just enough of it for the Celiac girls and the rest of us have homemade regular pasta.

Juicing also helps.  We really enjoy fresh fruit juices, so I try to get out the juicer regularly and juice fruits and veggies that are in season.  I always sneak a little carrot into our juices, and sometimes celery or something else.  It is especially easy to sneak in the stronger flavored veggies when I do fruit juices that are stronger flavored, like with berries.  The remaining pulp either gets composted or, depending on what fruits it is, goes into a cake.

Then there are those awesome Souffer's lasagnas and such.  Those are my weakness, as I love being able to just pop it in the oven and forget about it until the oven beeps.  These are meals that my kids can make even, and I've often had one of the oldest kids put one in the oven when I'm fighting a migraine or in the midst of pregnancy sickness.  Lunchables and TV dinners also fall under this category, along with frozen pizzas.  So I just automatically double all lasagnas I make, or make an extra pizza to stuff in the freezer, or something like that.  When I go shopping, I'll take some time that day to chop up part of the fruits and veggies so that I have ready-made snacks that just require me to make the veggie or fruit dip (a really good fruit dip is a block of soft cream cheese, whip it in your mixer to fluffy, then add 1/2 cup of brown sugar and some vanilla to taste and whip the snot out of it until its really light and fluffy, goes great with ALL fruits and takes under 10 minutes to make).  For homemade tv dinners, my mother taught me this one.  Get some sectioned plates with lids, you can get them almost anywhere now (they even have Gladware ones!) and dish up leftovers after supper into proper portions in the plates and snap the lid on and pop in the freezer.  Poof, tv dinner made with no effort!

Ialso make my own seasonings whenever possible.  I make my own taco seasoning, which works well to double as chili seasoning.  Gravy I almost always make from scratch using corn starch.  Ketchup and mustard, well those I always buy.  One of the only things that I'm a real brand snob on is Miracle Whip; I will NEVER use any other brand and yes I really can tell the difference.  I'm nice and don't say anything when not eating my own cooking if they use a generic or real mayonnaise but trust me I'm cringing inside.

If you like Rice-A-Roni (which I totally do!) you can make your own real easily.  Take your rice and then break up a little spaghetti into small pieces and saute' until the pasta is browned (I use olive oil instead of butter), and then cook it in the broth of your choice.  I keep chicken bouillon on hand at all times for this, beef too.

Fried rice is easy to make homemade too, but it isn't really a soy-free food since you need SOY SAUCE for it.  There are millions of great recipes online for it that you can use so I won't share how I do it here.  But it makes a great use for leftover rice, veggies, and meat with minimal effort made.  I have one skillet that is just for making fried rice so that I can avoid cross contamination for Kimmy and her soy issues as much as possible (it is also the only pan that I never put in the dishwasher, yes I wash my pots and pans in the kitchen slave, life is too short for me to hand wash dishes).

I used to spend a LOT of money on the convenience foods at Whole Foods that would fit our dietary needs until our 5th child was coming.  That was when I decided it was time to clean up my act and just make it all myself.  There is a little more effort to assemble 2 or 3 lasagnas at once to freeze some for future use, or time to make 3 or 4 dozen homemade hot pockets when I make them fresh for lunch one day, but it really is worth the money saved for my family.  If I get a grain mill to grind my own rice flour, then we'll go 100% gluten-free across the board and I'll work harder at finding recipes that will actually work for pasta and some other things we've skipped.  It will definitely save us more money considering the outrageous price of rice flour compared to plain rice.

hooray!

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......

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. :)

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.