Yesterday I called this week a wash for academics. Well, that changed this morning.
When I logged onto my Facebook this morning, the first thing I saw on my feed was a post by local channel 10 meteorologist Chris Bradley. He said that the aurora borealis (also known as the Northern Lights) will be visible as far south as the Ohio River tonight. Of course, the forecast for here in central Ohio is a lot of cloud coverage so chances of seeing it are low. I took the opportunity to tell the kids about it and we looked up pictures of the lights online, learned about the science of it happening, and we are planning to stay up late tonight to try and catch a glimpse through all the clouds.
Then I saw on my feed further down that a friend made a "naked egg" with her kids. I looked it up online and thought it sounds fun so we have an egg turning naked now. Tomorrow we'll take the naked egg and put it in colored water to show how the water flows through the egg's membrane, and then we'll put it in corn syrup if I have any to shrink it and discuss what happened with that. Lots of science fun on a whim, I love doing science like this.
Friday, September 12, 2014
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Week in Review
Yes, I'm doing a week in review post on Thursday. That should tell you what this week has been like for us. First, we had it 100% confirmed that Lydia has mono and even which specific strain it is (yay for modern medical technology!). That was on Monday morning. Wednesday we had Nathaniel's 4 month checkup and shots, which shot our afternoon in the foot. Plus, this week Scott started a new schedule at work so he's now working 5:30am-4pm every day so we are adjusting to that as well. Did I mention also that Scott and Preston both are sick as well? We are pretty sure Scott has bronchitis and suspect that Preston either has mono as well or he caught that respiratory virus that is going through the midwest and putting kids in the hospital. Either way, he's recovering slowly, sleeping a lot, and just a little beast to deal with between the grumpy attitude, horribly gross runny nose, and the fact that when he's awake he isn't slowing down much at all.
Needless to say, this week has been a bust for us academically. We did manage a couple days of math,bible, and English but that's about it really. I give up, we'll try again next week. I started our school year 3 weeks before the local school started specifically so we could be flexible like this, but dang I didn't expect to need it this soon.
I'm also getting really tired of 3 different math things going at once. So I'm taking the scope and sequence of the 2 formal curricula we're using to create an outline for me to follow, and then using the third thing (Khan Academy) as a supplemental thing for "math games day" that we'll do once in a while. My plan is to push forward with the outline until each kid is ready for algebra, then we'll pick up formal curriculum at that level. This should give us what we need there as far as meeting needs for my math whiz kid while also working for my average kids and giving the extra support my struggling learner needs. I'm hoping to work on my outline tonight after the kids go to bed, when it is quiet so I can focus and think.
Needless to say, this week has been a bust for us academically. We did manage a couple days of math,bible, and English but that's about it really. I give up, we'll try again next week. I started our school year 3 weeks before the local school started specifically so we could be flexible like this, but dang I didn't expect to need it this soon.
I'm also getting really tired of 3 different math things going at once. So I'm taking the scope and sequence of the 2 formal curricula we're using to create an outline for me to follow, and then using the third thing (Khan Academy) as a supplemental thing for "math games day" that we'll do once in a while. My plan is to push forward with the outline until each kid is ready for algebra, then we'll pick up formal curriculum at that level. This should give us what we need there as far as meeting needs for my math whiz kid while also working for my average kids and giving the extra support my struggling learner needs. I'm hoping to work on my outline tonight after the kids go to bed, when it is quiet so I can focus and think.
Sunday, September 07, 2014
Week preview 9/8 to 9/12
We've been pretty busy here the last few weeks. Jordan turned 7 last week, Nathaniel hit 4 months old the same day, and Lydia has been sick for the last month. Several doctor appointments to figure out what is going on with Lydia has been the name of our game here, and tomorrow at some point I'll be getting a call with lab results from our latest appointment to rule out mono. Lovely, isn't it? *sigh*
So, I'm going to try and look ahead and be positive. We do have appointments on Monday and Wednesday plus a picnic and club meetings on Friday (thank goodness all are the same location and host otherwise I would be frantic trying to pull THAT one off) so things are going to be a little different for us I think.
In history, we're going to start our explorers unit study. I got this lapbook from Hands Of A Child to do this month with the girls, and am going to be reading some good books to go with it. We're just easing our way through it and enjoying where it takes us, as is my goal for history this year. I have some library books to go with it just for a little bit of fun, and we'll probably hit up Pinterest for some ideas of fun projects to do with it if we feel a desire.
Science, we're going to keep going in our God's Design book. This term we're studying the human body, so we've got a lot going with that alone. I'm also adding in some experiments from the Apologia elementary anatomy and physiology book as we desire to do some hands-on, so we're pretty heavy in science for now.
In art, we are going to learn a bit about DaVinci and his art and inventions. There is actually a bit in our science book about him, which is what we're going to read Monday, so this is going to be a bit of a crossover lesson for us. I'm going to have to spend some time searching for a site to view some of his art, inventions, etc. with the kids because I got overwhelmed trying to pick a book at the library for this purpose.
In math, that is just going to keep on going. Melissa is almost done reviewing skills that we've needed to brush up on, Lydia is going to continue drilling her multiplication facts, Kim is getting ready to graduate to multiple digit multiplication, and Jordan is drilling basic addition and subtraction facts plus working on measurement and telling time. All is working perfectly in the math department, and I am very happy with where we are at there.
In English and language arts, Lydia is working on writing a book just because she wants to. Melissa is learning the parts of speech, and the other girls are working on reading a passage and retelling what the passage was about. We are also doing cursive lessons with the 3 oldest while Jordan fine-tunes her manuscript writing and we correct some reversals that occur regularly.
For music, I have no clue yet. I'll figure it out later. Melissa is working on learning to read music, which is going about as well as trying to teach me how to be patient. In other words, we may just kill each other before she finally gets the hang of reading music. We'll keep plugging along though, and maybe I'll see if there are any YouTube videos that I can use to try and help with this. She so wants to learn to play piano and several other instruments, so she needs to learn to read music so she can develop that skill for real. She can pick up music by ear, but reading music is going to really get her moving if she's serious about playing something (even if it is just for fun, like with me and piano)
That is about all I can think of right now for our look ahead to this week. After all, it is close to midnight here and I'm starting to get tired. Being sick recently, taking care of sick kids and husband both, and taking care of everything while Scott works 70+ hours a week the last few weeks has drained me pretty good. Hopefully this week's new work schedule for him brings him home before the kids go to bed each night like management says it will.
Have a great week folks!
So, I'm going to try and look ahead and be positive. We do have appointments on Monday and Wednesday plus a picnic and club meetings on Friday (thank goodness all are the same location and host otherwise I would be frantic trying to pull THAT one off) so things are going to be a little different for us I think.
In history, we're going to start our explorers unit study. I got this lapbook from Hands Of A Child to do this month with the girls, and am going to be reading some good books to go with it. We're just easing our way through it and enjoying where it takes us, as is my goal for history this year. I have some library books to go with it just for a little bit of fun, and we'll probably hit up Pinterest for some ideas of fun projects to do with it if we feel a desire.
Science, we're going to keep going in our God's Design book. This term we're studying the human body, so we've got a lot going with that alone. I'm also adding in some experiments from the Apologia elementary anatomy and physiology book as we desire to do some hands-on, so we're pretty heavy in science for now.
In art, we are going to learn a bit about DaVinci and his art and inventions. There is actually a bit in our science book about him, which is what we're going to read Monday, so this is going to be a bit of a crossover lesson for us. I'm going to have to spend some time searching for a site to view some of his art, inventions, etc. with the kids because I got overwhelmed trying to pick a book at the library for this purpose.
In math, that is just going to keep on going. Melissa is almost done reviewing skills that we've needed to brush up on, Lydia is going to continue drilling her multiplication facts, Kim is getting ready to graduate to multiple digit multiplication, and Jordan is drilling basic addition and subtraction facts plus working on measurement and telling time. All is working perfectly in the math department, and I am very happy with where we are at there.
In English and language arts, Lydia is working on writing a book just because she wants to. Melissa is learning the parts of speech, and the other girls are working on reading a passage and retelling what the passage was about. We are also doing cursive lessons with the 3 oldest while Jordan fine-tunes her manuscript writing and we correct some reversals that occur regularly.
For music, I have no clue yet. I'll figure it out later. Melissa is working on learning to read music, which is going about as well as trying to teach me how to be patient. In other words, we may just kill each other before she finally gets the hang of reading music. We'll keep plugging along though, and maybe I'll see if there are any YouTube videos that I can use to try and help with this. She so wants to learn to play piano and several other instruments, so she needs to learn to read music so she can develop that skill for real. She can pick up music by ear, but reading music is going to really get her moving if she's serious about playing something (even if it is just for fun, like with me and piano)
That is about all I can think of right now for our look ahead to this week. After all, it is close to midnight here and I'm starting to get tired. Being sick recently, taking care of sick kids and husband both, and taking care of everything while Scott works 70+ hours a week the last few weeks has drained me pretty good. Hopefully this week's new work schedule for him brings him home before the kids go to bed each night like management says it will.
Have a great week folks!
Saturday, August 16, 2014
Week in review
We started schooling this week. OK more like we attempted to start this week. I managed to get in a full day of schoolwork on Monday, go me, but then on Tuesday I declared "fine arts day" and we watched Robin Williams movies in his memory and just couldn't get back to it again. Oh well there's always next week.
Scott also started working some crazy hours on the job. A person in his department just up and quit on them Monday, so with no warning at all we got thrown into 14-16 hour shifts. He got more than 30 hours of overtime just this week alone, and it will continue for a few more weeks while he trains a new person in his department. I admit that the extra income is rather nice, but it is frustrating to have it only for a couple weeks and then gone again.
In other news, we started renovating here. We are replacing all the carpet with linoleum tiles, and repairing the subfloor at the same time. We've gotten the entry done so far, and this weekend are going to take on the hallway. It has been an experience, fixing up this place. We also had to replace the kitchen sink and faucet, which turned into a major plumbing job as we replaced half the drain pipes so that it was done correctly. Nothing in this house was done properly, so we are repairing it all as we go. Good thing Scott and I are pretty handy, otherwise we'd be in trouble. We should have the flooring all completed shortly after we get the tax refund next year so that we can move on to the next project.
Now I need to wake up a sick kid and an infant so that I can get both ready to go to the pediatric clinic at their doctor's office.
Scott also started working some crazy hours on the job. A person in his department just up and quit on them Monday, so with no warning at all we got thrown into 14-16 hour shifts. He got more than 30 hours of overtime just this week alone, and it will continue for a few more weeks while he trains a new person in his department. I admit that the extra income is rather nice, but it is frustrating to have it only for a couple weeks and then gone again.
In other news, we started renovating here. We are replacing all the carpet with linoleum tiles, and repairing the subfloor at the same time. We've gotten the entry done so far, and this weekend are going to take on the hallway. It has been an experience, fixing up this place. We also had to replace the kitchen sink and faucet, which turned into a major plumbing job as we replaced half the drain pipes so that it was done correctly. Nothing in this house was done properly, so we are repairing it all as we go. Good thing Scott and I are pretty handy, otherwise we'd be in trouble. We should have the flooring all completed shortly after we get the tax refund next year so that we can move on to the next project.
Now I need to wake up a sick kid and an infant so that I can get both ready to go to the pediatric clinic at their doctor's office.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
preparing for fall
I know I've posted recently-ish about what we are covering this fall in our homeschool. That pretty much hasn't changed, except for science and math mostly. I'm making life easier on me and the girls will all do Khan Academy for math this next couple years while Scott is in college full time (Lord help me, this is going to make life insanely busy for me) and for science I am doing Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology and then Apologia Botany. We are taking a science-centered focus for a while, learning and experimenting as a family this year to try and make up for my serious neglect of the subject. I don't like science and have never been very good at it, with the exception of human anatomy and physiology. Preston even gets some simple lessons, using the free lesson plans from ABC Jesus Loves Me. I'm going to pick and choose, based on his interest and how much time we have. No pressure, just some fun and games with a little coloring and simple activities.
That leads me to the place I'm at now. I'm pre-reading my first science book for the year now, and enjoying it. I'm trying to be mindful to make notes in a Word document so that I know where I feel good stopping points are in the chapters to break it up into shorter lessons, as well as noting when there is an experiment or when I want to add in a notebooking page from the free extras that I can access at the Apologia site (they have a code in the introduction to each book that I've used so far). Once I finish this stage, I plan to do a little looking online to see if I can find some coloring pages to pass out while I'm reading the text to the kids. I have a couple girls who listen much better when they have a quiet activity like coloring to keep their hands occupied.
Nathaniel, well he will just remain cute and cuddly and spend a lot of time hanging out on my chest in my beloved Action Baby Carrier on a daily basis.
That leads me to the place I'm at now. I'm pre-reading my first science book for the year now, and enjoying it. I'm trying to be mindful to make notes in a Word document so that I know where I feel good stopping points are in the chapters to break it up into shorter lessons, as well as noting when there is an experiment or when I want to add in a notebooking page from the free extras that I can access at the Apologia site (they have a code in the introduction to each book that I've used so far). Once I finish this stage, I plan to do a little looking online to see if I can find some coloring pages to pass out while I'm reading the text to the kids. I have a couple girls who listen much better when they have a quiet activity like coloring to keep their hands occupied.
Nathaniel, well he will just remain cute and cuddly and spend a lot of time hanging out on my chest in my beloved Action Baby Carrier on a daily basis.
Friday, July 04, 2014
Happy Independence Day
Or should I say, "Happy go to a parade to see politicians and businesses give out flyers and candy to win customers/votes day." That sums up the parade we went to this morning, although we did get coupons for some free tumbling classes and karate lessons. I'll take advantage of those when we have the extra room for gas to do them.
And just for fun, here's a picture of me holding Nathaniel last night as he got to see his first fireworks on his month-day. :)
How on earth did he grow this quickly into a 2 month old? It is going so fast.
Sorry no pictures of the kids were taken today, we opted to spend the majority of today without technology and ended up out back all day after the parade, grilling hot dogs and burgers and just having fun as a family.
And just for fun, here's a picture of me holding Nathaniel last night as he got to see his first fireworks on his month-day. :)
How on earth did he grow this quickly into a 2 month old? It is going so fast.
Sorry no pictures of the kids were taken today, we opted to spend the majority of today without technology and ended up out back all day after the parade, grilling hot dogs and burgers and just having fun as a family.
Friday, June 27, 2014
Overwhelming week
This has been a really rough week for me emotionally, and I've just been failing at the mom gig totally. In a nutshell, my husband's family was struck by tragedy yesterday when two of my kids' cousins were in a car accident. Three passengers in back (also related) were killed and the two kids up front are both in the hospital. On top of it, my father is back in our lives and playing games already with us to where I'm ready to cut contact permanently.
Of course, it didn't help that we also have been tight financially the last couple months and now on top of it my Kindle Fire is no longer functional. I need chocolate, large amounts of chocolate and maybe a glass of wine.
Hopefully next week is better for us.
Of course, it didn't help that we also have been tight financially the last couple months and now on top of it my Kindle Fire is no longer functional. I need chocolate, large amounts of chocolate and maybe a glass of wine.
Hopefully next week is better for us.
Monday, June 16, 2014
Curriculum plan 2014-15 school year
A lovely lady I know is doing a "let's share our 2014-15 curriculum" link up and I decided to try joining in on this one. I was working just last week on my notification for the school year, so I do actually have some clue what I'm going to be doing this year (for once!).
A little background if you are coming here from the link up. I have 6 kids and this is our 7th year homeschooling. This fall I will have 4 that I'm teaching (ages 11, 10, 8, and almost 7) along with a two-year-old tornado and our newest who is just 6 weeks old right now. In the past, we've pretty much always used Sonlight because I like having everything laid out for me so I can just open and go with things, no thinking required. However, the last 2 years we've used other materials and ventured away from pre-packaged stuff. I've started to embrace and enjoy doing our own thing that isn't dictated at all by someone else's opinion of what should be taught and when.
***** WARNING: this could get a little bit long, I ramble at times. I'll try to control this though. *****
As a group, we have plans to study American and Native American history. This means we will be definitely studying the less pleasant parts of our nation's history, and I don't sugar-coat things so they are going to learn a lot of things that likely are no longer taught in public schools. I don't have an actual curriculum for this. Instead, I will be heavily depending on the local public library, purchasing books on my Kindle Fire, and using online resources as the majority of our curriculum. I do have a few unit studies that I'll incorporate into history, and we'll be putting a timeline up on the wall for important dates. I plan to incorporate our music and art into this year's history. We'll do projects such as weaving, making pottery, building models of different things, sewing costumes, etc. along with learning songs about our nation and learning traditional dances and such. I have a lot knocking around in my mind with this, and it will likely take a couple years to really finish up all of it.
We also have science planned as a family study. If I have the financial excess, my plan is to purchase Winter Promise's equine science curriculum for the girls. They are all horse-crazy and would LOVE this. It also will go well with our history studies since horses were a primary means of transportation in early America. If we cannot purchase this curriculum for science, my backup plan is to do Apologia elementary astronomy. I already have that textbook on my shelf, so it won't cost us anything. Apologia isn't my favorite though, as I am not a young-earth believer. I have a child who is, but I am most definitely NOT. (not looking to open a debate here, so just leave it be as it is).
Individually the girls will read good books, write stories, learn cursive, and all sorts of little things. Then there is math.
In math, I have 3 different curricula going on based on individual needs.
Melissa is doing Math-U-See. It works very well for her and I have no plans to change it. She's been working slowly through Gamma this last year and a half, and should be finishing it sometime this fall. FINALLY. I didn't expect Gamma to be such a struggle for her; this book caused us both a lot of headaches as she slowly worked to master the material. I have Delta waiting for her already so the plan is that she'll finish the current level and then go straight into the next one.
Lydia is doing Saxon math. She's not too terribly math-minded, but she learns fast and independently for the most part. I'm guessing we have about a year and a half left before she hits algebra 1 with the pace that she's currently going in math. She'll be starting 6/5 this fall at some point.
Kimberly and Jordan are doing Horizons math. This is a no-brainer for me, we just work in the book and buy the next one when they are almost finished. Right now Kim is in book 2.2 and Jo is in book 1.1 and they both are progressing nicely. This is one of those more accelerated math curricula, so I'm not too concerned about them being a bit "behind" in math right now.
For English/Language Arts we are going to focus on grammar. I have made some mini-posters already for the parts of speech (this is where we are starting) and then we'll go into punctuation and capitalization rules and eventually by the end of the year we'll dabble a little into diagramming sentences. This subject is obviously aimed at the oldest kids, I don't expect Jordan to actually pick it all up with mastery (nor any of them really, I plan to do a couple sentences daily with them together as a group for a LONG time to help them master all that I'm introducing this year).
Miscellaneous resources I'm *planning* to use with these kids are:
Handwriting Without Tears to teach cursive
The Writer's Jungle to help guide me through teaching them writing
a couple units from the 3 volumes of KONOS curriculum sitting on my shelf
crap-tons of art and craft supplie
Oh, and I almost forgot. The dreaded OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES. This year we are looking at Upward cheer for the girls during basketball season. That's going to be the big thing. I also am going to take advantage of where I live to plan a few field trips, as we live within an hour of a lot of great places to visit. The only limit to where all we can go for field trips would be the fact that I drive the biggest SUV in the universe and it gets like 6mpg right now (I have to rebuild the rear passenger brake system, it is locked up engaged slightly, good thing I am really handy with vehicles so I'm going to save some money right there)
A little background if you are coming here from the link up. I have 6 kids and this is our 7th year homeschooling. This fall I will have 4 that I'm teaching (ages 11, 10, 8, and almost 7) along with a two-year-old tornado and our newest who is just 6 weeks old right now. In the past, we've pretty much always used Sonlight because I like having everything laid out for me so I can just open and go with things, no thinking required. However, the last 2 years we've used other materials and ventured away from pre-packaged stuff. I've started to embrace and enjoy doing our own thing that isn't dictated at all by someone else's opinion of what should be taught and when.
***** WARNING: this could get a little bit long, I ramble at times. I'll try to control this though. *****
As a group, we have plans to study American and Native American history. This means we will be definitely studying the less pleasant parts of our nation's history, and I don't sugar-coat things so they are going to learn a lot of things that likely are no longer taught in public schools. I don't have an actual curriculum for this. Instead, I will be heavily depending on the local public library, purchasing books on my Kindle Fire, and using online resources as the majority of our curriculum. I do have a few unit studies that I'll incorporate into history, and we'll be putting a timeline up on the wall for important dates. I plan to incorporate our music and art into this year's history. We'll do projects such as weaving, making pottery, building models of different things, sewing costumes, etc. along with learning songs about our nation and learning traditional dances and such. I have a lot knocking around in my mind with this, and it will likely take a couple years to really finish up all of it.
We also have science planned as a family study. If I have the financial excess, my plan is to purchase Winter Promise's equine science curriculum for the girls. They are all horse-crazy and would LOVE this. It also will go well with our history studies since horses were a primary means of transportation in early America. If we cannot purchase this curriculum for science, my backup plan is to do Apologia elementary astronomy. I already have that textbook on my shelf, so it won't cost us anything. Apologia isn't my favorite though, as I am not a young-earth believer. I have a child who is, but I am most definitely NOT. (not looking to open a debate here, so just leave it be as it is).
Individually the girls will read good books, write stories, learn cursive, and all sorts of little things. Then there is math.
In math, I have 3 different curricula going on based on individual needs.
Melissa is doing Math-U-See. It works very well for her and I have no plans to change it. She's been working slowly through Gamma this last year and a half, and should be finishing it sometime this fall. FINALLY. I didn't expect Gamma to be such a struggle for her; this book caused us both a lot of headaches as she slowly worked to master the material. I have Delta waiting for her already so the plan is that she'll finish the current level and then go straight into the next one.
Lydia is doing Saxon math. She's not too terribly math-minded, but she learns fast and independently for the most part. I'm guessing we have about a year and a half left before she hits algebra 1 with the pace that she's currently going in math. She'll be starting 6/5 this fall at some point.
Kimberly and Jordan are doing Horizons math. This is a no-brainer for me, we just work in the book and buy the next one when they are almost finished. Right now Kim is in book 2.2 and Jo is in book 1.1 and they both are progressing nicely. This is one of those more accelerated math curricula, so I'm not too concerned about them being a bit "behind" in math right now.
For English/Language Arts we are going to focus on grammar. I have made some mini-posters already for the parts of speech (this is where we are starting) and then we'll go into punctuation and capitalization rules and eventually by the end of the year we'll dabble a little into diagramming sentences. This subject is obviously aimed at the oldest kids, I don't expect Jordan to actually pick it all up with mastery (nor any of them really, I plan to do a couple sentences daily with them together as a group for a LONG time to help them master all that I'm introducing this year).
Miscellaneous resources I'm *planning* to use with these kids are:
Handwriting Without Tears to teach cursive
The Writer's Jungle to help guide me through teaching them writing
a couple units from the 3 volumes of KONOS curriculum sitting on my shelf
crap-tons of art and craft supplie
Oh, and I almost forgot. The dreaded OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES. This year we are looking at Upward cheer for the girls during basketball season. That's going to be the big thing. I also am going to take advantage of where I live to plan a few field trips, as we live within an hour of a lot of great places to visit. The only limit to where all we can go for field trips would be the fact that I drive the biggest SUV in the universe and it gets like 6mpg right now (I have to rebuild the rear passenger brake system, it is locked up engaged slightly, good thing I am really handy with vehicles so I'm going to save some money right there)
Monday, May 12, 2014
What's happening this week
We've been pretty quiet here, I know, and for good reason. We took the last two weeks off completely from everything here. I had a baby on March 3rd.
At 35 weeks I was told that I again had pregnancy-induced hypertension, just like I did with Preston. Fortunately, this time it was much later that it developed, so I didn't spend several weeks doing extra lab tests and bedrest to keep my blood pressure in the "safe" zone. Instead, I watched how I was feeling and had extra labs for 2 weeks. Then at my 37 week appointment my blood pressure was 150/100 so I got sent to labor and delivery for monitoring and testing, and possibly to be induced if things didn't look right. Immediate labs looked ok so they sent me home after a few hours to do the 24 hour labs a third time. However, between my appointment and getting to the hospital for monitoring, I developed a headache and Tylenol did nothing for it.
So I got home and did the 24hr stuff, and that evening noticed a few new things. Mainly, my ability to pee seemed to be almost completely gone. This is kind of important, as the main part of the 24hr labs is collecting urine for 24hrs straight and taking it in to be tested. My urine output over that 24hrs was about 1/4 of what it was when I did the 24hr labs a week earlier. The headache also started getting worse the morning after my appointment, so I put in a call to my midwife and ended up sent back to the hospital.
Anyone who has kids knows that being sent unexpectedly like that can be a bit of trouble to find a sitter on a whim, so I ended up having to wait until Scott was at lunch break to get him on his way home to drop me off at the hospital and watch the kids. I wasn't thinking too clearly at that point, as the headache was getting in the way of that, or I would have called one of a couple people I had lined up for this birth.
I was monitored less than an hour while the midwife on call (my midwife was out sick the last couple days) looked over my chart to see what this pregnancy and the one before had done and she waited on labs. I got 3 high blood pressure readings in a row, 15 minutes apart each, and she decided to induce me. So, Pitocin and antibiotics for me and then 4 hours later the lovely epidural (I knew what Pitocin does to me already and chose to take the wimp route with NO regrets). A total of 8 hours after the induction started, little Nathaniel was born clocking in at 6lb 6oz and 20" long. He was perfectly healthy, though TINY for us after having three 8lb newborns before him.
I had the foresight to take off that week from lessons because I just didn't feel good at all, and I was induced on Friday afternoon (he was born at 12:20am Saturday) so the kids and I had a week of me just feeling yucky and resting. Then we took off on baby break so I could obviously recover, as an epidural is one of those things that just takes a little time to recover from. He is now 9 days old and my back still aches a little once in a while where it was done, but it is much better.
We picked up schoolwork again today. Yes I said today. We needed the routine back in our life, that normal feeling. We started with just math, science, and literature (science and literature is me reading to them and then on weekends they do the experiment with Scott maybe, but he doesn't know that detail yet heehee). Later in the week I'll add in reading some of "A Child's History of the World" to cover history with a little about the middle ages while I pull together a few resources to finish an Ohio unit that we had started just before we went on break. Next week, we'll add in some electives.
And now, enjoy a little bit of tiny new baby cuteness.
At 35 weeks I was told that I again had pregnancy-induced hypertension, just like I did with Preston. Fortunately, this time it was much later that it developed, so I didn't spend several weeks doing extra lab tests and bedrest to keep my blood pressure in the "safe" zone. Instead, I watched how I was feeling and had extra labs for 2 weeks. Then at my 37 week appointment my blood pressure was 150/100 so I got sent to labor and delivery for monitoring and testing, and possibly to be induced if things didn't look right. Immediate labs looked ok so they sent me home after a few hours to do the 24 hour labs a third time. However, between my appointment and getting to the hospital for monitoring, I developed a headache and Tylenol did nothing for it.
So I got home and did the 24hr stuff, and that evening noticed a few new things. Mainly, my ability to pee seemed to be almost completely gone. This is kind of important, as the main part of the 24hr labs is collecting urine for 24hrs straight and taking it in to be tested. My urine output over that 24hrs was about 1/4 of what it was when I did the 24hr labs a week earlier. The headache also started getting worse the morning after my appointment, so I put in a call to my midwife and ended up sent back to the hospital.
Anyone who has kids knows that being sent unexpectedly like that can be a bit of trouble to find a sitter on a whim, so I ended up having to wait until Scott was at lunch break to get him on his way home to drop me off at the hospital and watch the kids. I wasn't thinking too clearly at that point, as the headache was getting in the way of that, or I would have called one of a couple people I had lined up for this birth.
I was monitored less than an hour while the midwife on call (my midwife was out sick the last couple days) looked over my chart to see what this pregnancy and the one before had done and she waited on labs. I got 3 high blood pressure readings in a row, 15 minutes apart each, and she decided to induce me. So, Pitocin and antibiotics for me and then 4 hours later the lovely epidural (I knew what Pitocin does to me already and chose to take the wimp route with NO regrets). A total of 8 hours after the induction started, little Nathaniel was born clocking in at 6lb 6oz and 20" long. He was perfectly healthy, though TINY for us after having three 8lb newborns before him.
I had the foresight to take off that week from lessons because I just didn't feel good at all, and I was induced on Friday afternoon (he was born at 12:20am Saturday) so the kids and I had a week of me just feeling yucky and resting. Then we took off on baby break so I could obviously recover, as an epidural is one of those things that just takes a little time to recover from. He is now 9 days old and my back still aches a little once in a while where it was done, but it is much better.
We picked up schoolwork again today. Yes I said today. We needed the routine back in our life, that normal feeling. We started with just math, science, and literature (science and literature is me reading to them and then on weekends they do the experiment with Scott maybe, but he doesn't know that detail yet heehee). Later in the week I'll add in reading some of "A Child's History of the World" to cover history with a little about the middle ages while I pull together a few resources to finish an Ohio unit that we had started just before we went on break. Next week, we'll add in some electives.
And now, enjoy a little bit of tiny new baby cuteness.
Monday, April 14, 2014
this week
This is a busy week in my home. I only have a few minutes, so bear with me. I'll come back later hopefully to edit and add some pictures since I'm on my laptop and have no pictures on here.
Today is Melissa's birthday, she's 11 years old now. Crap where did the time go? I have to bake her a cake, she chose a strawberry one with purple icing, so I need to do it soon to have ready for tonight.
Scott is working double shifts all week, yes I mean 16 hour days on top of his 1 hour commute each way. We won't see too much of him until Saturday, and then he'll likely spend the weekend sleeping off this week at work since this is his scheduled full weekend off. We obviously are NOT making plans for the weekend that involve going anywhere major because he'll be too tired.
I'm 35 weeks pregnant as of today, and still baking away happily. I go in Thursday for my regular prenatal appointment, and Scott has specially arranged to have the morning off so that he can take over with the kids instead of me taking them with me. My appointments just go faster if I'm not taking them along, so he does that once in a while. We will likely be starting weekly appointments at this point, as my last baby was born at 37 weeks gestation. I'll also be asking about possibly inducing to make sure I can actually make it to the hospital on time with Scott's commute time. I am concerned that this time will be faster than my last birth (I was in labor a total 1 1/2 hours last time around, we were lucky that I was already at the hospital for hypertension to decide if they were going to induce me right then or wait for the next day to do it when that started) and that my dear daddy-to-be will possibly miss the birth of our last child (and I possibly not get to the hospital and end up with an unplanned unassisted homebirth, I don't want to do that thankyouverymuch).
Kim started Horizons math today. I got her book 2 of second grade math, figuring that it would be about her level. I've heard that Horizons is about a year ahead, and she's ahead in math so right on level would be good for her. Yup, too easy. Oh well, I used the AOP sale they do every April to get it so it was only $15 and free shipping. She can zip through it at her speed and we'll teach whatever she doesn't know already, and I'll call it "adjusting to a new curriculum style and layout with review" before she starts the third grade books I plan to buy this upcoming weekend for her to do next. Problem solved.
Full moon/ blood moon/ lunar eclipse tonight. I'm hoping to stay up and get some pictures of it that I can share with the girls tomorrow and then set up an experiment with a flashlight and some balls to simulate an eclipse so we can talk about why and how it happens. However, if I can't stay awake (which I know is possible at this stage of pregnancy) I know that I'll find a lot of pictures online for this. So that is on my list for science lessons this week.
We started an Ohio study to meet the state history requirements for our state this year. Just covering the basic information on the state at this point, then we'll dig in and learn historical events, people, places, etc. as we go along. This study is going to last until Nathaniel is born, and we're doing a lapbook to go with it. I have no clue how much is going to end up being covered, but it will be enough to meet the state requirements easily.
I think that covers it for now. So now I shall go bake a cake and figure out supper for tonight.
Today is Melissa's birthday, she's 11 years old now. Crap where did the time go? I have to bake her a cake, she chose a strawberry one with purple icing, so I need to do it soon to have ready for tonight.
Scott is working double shifts all week, yes I mean 16 hour days on top of his 1 hour commute each way. We won't see too much of him until Saturday, and then he'll likely spend the weekend sleeping off this week at work since this is his scheduled full weekend off. We obviously are NOT making plans for the weekend that involve going anywhere major because he'll be too tired.
I'm 35 weeks pregnant as of today, and still baking away happily. I go in Thursday for my regular prenatal appointment, and Scott has specially arranged to have the morning off so that he can take over with the kids instead of me taking them with me. My appointments just go faster if I'm not taking them along, so he does that once in a while. We will likely be starting weekly appointments at this point, as my last baby was born at 37 weeks gestation. I'll also be asking about possibly inducing to make sure I can actually make it to the hospital on time with Scott's commute time. I am concerned that this time will be faster than my last birth (I was in labor a total 1 1/2 hours last time around, we were lucky that I was already at the hospital for hypertension to decide if they were going to induce me right then or wait for the next day to do it when that started) and that my dear daddy-to-be will possibly miss the birth of our last child (and I possibly not get to the hospital and end up with an unplanned unassisted homebirth, I don't want to do that thankyouverymuch).
Kim started Horizons math today. I got her book 2 of second grade math, figuring that it would be about her level. I've heard that Horizons is about a year ahead, and she's ahead in math so right on level would be good for her. Yup, too easy. Oh well, I used the AOP sale they do every April to get it so it was only $15 and free shipping. She can zip through it at her speed and we'll teach whatever she doesn't know already, and I'll call it "adjusting to a new curriculum style and layout with review" before she starts the third grade books I plan to buy this upcoming weekend for her to do next. Problem solved.
Full moon/ blood moon/ lunar eclipse tonight. I'm hoping to stay up and get some pictures of it that I can share with the girls tomorrow and then set up an experiment with a flashlight and some balls to simulate an eclipse so we can talk about why and how it happens. However, if I can't stay awake (which I know is possible at this stage of pregnancy) I know that I'll find a lot of pictures online for this. So that is on my list for science lessons this week.
We started an Ohio study to meet the state history requirements for our state this year. Just covering the basic information on the state at this point, then we'll dig in and learn historical events, people, places, etc. as we go along. This study is going to last until Nathaniel is born, and we're doing a lapbook to go with it. I have no clue how much is going to end up being covered, but it will be enough to meet the state requirements easily.
I think that covers it for now. So now I shall go bake a cake and figure out supper for tonight.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
mid-week progress
Well, we are halfway through the week. Literally, it is lunchtime on Wednesday here. It has been one BUSY week here so far.
Missa is plugging away in MUS Gamma as she has been. She's about halfway through the book now, so we are finishing up the basic multiplication facts with her.
Lydia took a Saxon math placement test on Monday and then on Tuesday started 5/4. She only needs part of the book before she can go into 6/5, but we decided to start at the beginning to make sure that she gets used to the different program with good review of things she knows already. Saxon is definitely a different animal from the Everyday Mathematics garbage they teach in the local public school, she's going to need a little time.
Kimberly is just working on her multiplication and division facts, then she too will start Saxon 5/4. I figure she'll start it about the same time her sister moves up to 6/5, so we're taking our time and working on things. I'm also having to re-teach her how to do some things that are basic concepts that the public school totally screwed up teaching her. No big deal really, although I do find it mildly annoying that I have to undo the damage from a poorly written math curriculum.
Jordan this week is working on greater than and less than in Math Mammoth. She is doing really well with this curriculum, and will stay with it until further notice.
Yes, I'm doing 4 completely different things with 4 kids in math. Mildly annoying that I've got so many different curricula going, but it is what works best so I juggle it.
We also started Apologia elementary Astronomy this week. I'm reading 1 or 2 sections out loud daily to the kids, as the youngest girl doesn't seem to have the attention span at this point for more. No biggie, we'll work up to longer time reading out loud as we go.
History is on hold until after Nathaniel is born at this point. I'm trying to be realistic in what our workload is with this pregnancy. Things are 100% textbook perfect for me with it, but I know how fast things can change in this area. I don't want to go from full speed to a dead halt suddenly because of hypertension issues again like we had to do last time, so we're going a slower pace.
The girls are also reading daily for a little bit. They pick the book, but they MUST read daily. It is working really well for us at this point.
Missa is plugging away in MUS Gamma as she has been. She's about halfway through the book now, so we are finishing up the basic multiplication facts with her.
Lydia took a Saxon math placement test on Monday and then on Tuesday started 5/4. She only needs part of the book before she can go into 6/5, but we decided to start at the beginning to make sure that she gets used to the different program with good review of things she knows already. Saxon is definitely a different animal from the Everyday Mathematics garbage they teach in the local public school, she's going to need a little time.
Kimberly is just working on her multiplication and division facts, then she too will start Saxon 5/4. I figure she'll start it about the same time her sister moves up to 6/5, so we're taking our time and working on things. I'm also having to re-teach her how to do some things that are basic concepts that the public school totally screwed up teaching her. No big deal really, although I do find it mildly annoying that I have to undo the damage from a poorly written math curriculum.
Jordan this week is working on greater than and less than in Math Mammoth. She is doing really well with this curriculum, and will stay with it until further notice.
Yes, I'm doing 4 completely different things with 4 kids in math. Mildly annoying that I've got so many different curricula going, but it is what works best so I juggle it.
We also started Apologia elementary Astronomy this week. I'm reading 1 or 2 sections out loud daily to the kids, as the youngest girl doesn't seem to have the attention span at this point for more. No biggie, we'll work up to longer time reading out loud as we go.
History is on hold until after Nathaniel is born at this point. I'm trying to be realistic in what our workload is with this pregnancy. Things are 100% textbook perfect for me with it, but I know how fast things can change in this area. I don't want to go from full speed to a dead halt suddenly because of hypertension issues again like we had to do last time, so we're going a slower pace.
The girls are also reading daily for a little bit. They pick the book, but they MUST read daily. It is working really well for us at this point.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
finally!
I think it is safe to say that we are all 7 well on the road to recovery from this horrible illness we had. Thanks public school..... That was not a fun ride for us, but after a diagnosis of strep for Missa, Jordan, and Preston complete with antibiotics, I'm pretty sure we got it on its way out of here finally.
Do you have ANY idea how difficult it is to keep track of antibiotics for 7, prescription antihistamines for 2, cough syrup for 4, fever/pain medication for 6, and breathing medications for 2 with the dosing amounts and times? I was about to borrow a trick for a lovely lady I know who creates a chart to log it all with, by creating one in Word and then printing out a few copies so that I could just get it going on. I think that the next time we have a major run of illness like this one, I will do just that. Maybe I should create a generic chart soon to keep on the computer, one that I can just open up and add medication names/categories to then print off.
Do you have ANY idea how difficult it is to keep track of antibiotics for 7, prescription antihistamines for 2, cough syrup for 4, fever/pain medication for 6, and breathing medications for 2 with the dosing amounts and times? I was about to borrow a trick for a lovely lady I know who creates a chart to log it all with, by creating one in Word and then printing out a few copies so that I could just get it going on. I think that the next time we have a major run of illness like this one, I will do just that. Maybe I should create a generic chart soon to keep on the computer, one that I can just open up and add medication names/categories to then print off.
Wednesday, March 05, 2014
Not the week I was expecting
So this is the first week of all the kids homeschooling again. I knew there would be bumps but this is just ridiculous. We are ALL sick.
It started with just Kim, and I took her in on Saturday morning to get looked at. She has bronchitis, joy and delight. I have her taking steroids, 2 different nebulizer medications, allergy medication, all the usual stuff to keep it from getting worse. I have to call the pediatrician tomorrow to get her in because the only difference so far is that her fever is gone.
The rest of the kids and myself, well we managed to catch the virus that she had that turned to bronchitis in the first place. This stinks.
By the way, if you didn't know this already..... I learned last night that if you smear Vick's chest rub on your feet (a good amount, none of this eeeeewwww as little as possible stuff here) and then put on socks to protect everything just as you are going to bed, it will work a million times better than anything else I've ever tried with that stuff before to loosen up my chest and sinuses. Unfortunately, Scott didn't appreciate sleep next to me last night, he said the room REEKED of that stuff.
It started with just Kim, and I took her in on Saturday morning to get looked at. She has bronchitis, joy and delight. I have her taking steroids, 2 different nebulizer medications, allergy medication, all the usual stuff to keep it from getting worse. I have to call the pediatrician tomorrow to get her in because the only difference so far is that her fever is gone.
The rest of the kids and myself, well we managed to catch the virus that she had that turned to bronchitis in the first place. This stinks.
By the way, if you didn't know this already..... I learned last night that if you smear Vick's chest rub on your feet (a good amount, none of this eeeeewwww as little as possible stuff here) and then put on socks to protect everything just as you are going to bed, it will work a million times better than anything else I've ever tried with that stuff before to loosen up my chest and sinuses. Unfortunately, Scott didn't appreciate sleep next to me last night, he said the room REEKED of that stuff.
Saturday, March 01, 2014
A new beginning
Things have been pretty crazy around here the last couple months. I'm finally in third trimester of pregnancy (will be 29 weeks the day after tomorrow) and the two girls have missed a decent amount of school due to weather. It has been one heck of a winter here in central Ohio, that's for sure. Currently the state is discussing if they are going to approve an additional 4 days that schools are allowed to close since the majority of districts have at least 1 or 2 days to make up now. There is another storm coming in this weekend that will likely close the local schools another day or two in fact, and they already have done one make-up day by turning a teacher development day into a student day. Yes, it has been busy times here.
However, we are entering a new stage now. Remember that please while I ramble a moment about several things.
January brought a good amount of snow, ice, and frigid arctic cold. That led to most of the snow days the kids had. It also brought me into a season of illness, as my own asthma decided that it did not agree with the frigid cold weather and I began a fight with bronchitis at the tail end of the month. I also started experiencing the first stages of the bile reflux that I always develop in third trimester, which has me now on prescription reflux medication and back on nausea medication. *sigh* Yes, I take a lot of pills along with having to modify my diet to work with it.
February brought its own set of fun things. I entered third trimester, which really helped to bring home that this is pregnancy is winding down. I'm now at the stage where I am growing a little bigger each day, and it is not funny. It also begins the stage that my husband enjoys most, that time when I start waddling and he gets a cheap thrill out of copying my waddle as it gets worse. Not funny, dude. It also brought us the tax refund, which is ALWAYS a welcome thing. It was deposited in our account just 3 days after we celebrated my 32nd birthday. Scott got me a new laptop as my gift, I'm totally loving it. We also got to celebrate Preston's second birthday. Yes, the little boy has managed to survive for a whole 2 years without any major injuries or killing himself or anyone else. I also got to experience the joys of the one hour gestational diabetes test, which I managed to fail by 8 points.
I took the 3 hour diabetes test the following weekend and passed it with great numbers. I figured I would, as I am hypoglycemic.
That brings us up to this past week. Our district has had some interesting things hit the news this past week, involving a teacher who is now in jail after a little inappropriate extra credit he gave some of the girls in the band (he WAS the assistant band director for the high school). As this case exploded through the week, Scott decided that it was no longer in the best interest of the two girls for them to remain in the local public school so they were withdrawn. Their last day was Friday (that's yesterday) and we will pick up with homeschooling on Monday unless the school calls a snow day. I'm going to honor the snow days and breaks of the district the rest of this year I think, just to keep up the schedule and routine that we've gotten used to this year.
Of course, withdrawing them was slightly interesting. Thursday I was the responsible mom and I personally delivered my notification and curriculum outline to the district administration office. The lady who handles homeschooling and attendance for the district was out that day for meetings, so the receptionist put the paperwork in her inbox to get it first thing the next morning. Friday, which is the next morning, I got an e-mail from this lovely lady who handles attendance and homeschooling. I had sent a note with the girls stating that it was their last day and thanking the teachers for a good year, and providing my e-mail address if they had any questions for me. My cell phone had decided to malfunction on me and not work all day, so I was down to just having internet communication for everything. No big deal really, and my phone is working properly again now. Anyway, the attendance lady hadn't gotten my notification and was informing me that I needed to either have them enrolled in a school or have notification to her before I could withdraw them. I replied with a simple, "I delivered notification yesterday to the administration office, it should be in your inbox there waiting for you." Yup, the receptionist forgot to put it in the inbox and it was still sitting on her desk. Got it tracked down, everything is in order now and she is sending out my excuse letters.
Hopefully there is nothing else interesting that happens with this. I don't know that I have the strength to keep going with any sort of real drama. I may just snap and tell people where to stick it and then let HSLDA loose on the district if anything else comes up.
So what is the plan? Well I have some math stuff that I'm going to be looking through tonight and tomorrow to find the specific spot each girl belongs at, and they will start it Monday. History, right now I'm going to just read daily from a history book I have here already and see if we can finish up the year that way. Science, I'm going to do the same with an elementary biology book I have. With both subjects, we'll also add in library books as desired, and I may add in some units from KONOS as I feel a need and desire to. All other subjects that are required by law (language arts, music, art, etc) will be incorporated into science and history by having them do research, projects, crafts, etc. related to what we're learning about.
Hopefully March and April go smoothly with this plan. I'll let you know on Friday how this week goes.
However, we are entering a new stage now. Remember that please while I ramble a moment about several things.
January brought a good amount of snow, ice, and frigid arctic cold. That led to most of the snow days the kids had. It also brought me into a season of illness, as my own asthma decided that it did not agree with the frigid cold weather and I began a fight with bronchitis at the tail end of the month. I also started experiencing the first stages of the bile reflux that I always develop in third trimester, which has me now on prescription reflux medication and back on nausea medication. *sigh* Yes, I take a lot of pills along with having to modify my diet to work with it.
February brought its own set of fun things. I entered third trimester, which really helped to bring home that this is pregnancy is winding down. I'm now at the stage where I am growing a little bigger each day, and it is not funny. It also begins the stage that my husband enjoys most, that time when I start waddling and he gets a cheap thrill out of copying my waddle as it gets worse. Not funny, dude. It also brought us the tax refund, which is ALWAYS a welcome thing. It was deposited in our account just 3 days after we celebrated my 32nd birthday. Scott got me a new laptop as my gift, I'm totally loving it. We also got to celebrate Preston's second birthday. Yes, the little boy has managed to survive for a whole 2 years without any major injuries or killing himself or anyone else. I also got to experience the joys of the one hour gestational diabetes test, which I managed to fail by 8 points.
I took the 3 hour diabetes test the following weekend and passed it with great numbers. I figured I would, as I am hypoglycemic.
That brings us up to this past week. Our district has had some interesting things hit the news this past week, involving a teacher who is now in jail after a little inappropriate extra credit he gave some of the girls in the band (he WAS the assistant band director for the high school). As this case exploded through the week, Scott decided that it was no longer in the best interest of the two girls for them to remain in the local public school so they were withdrawn. Their last day was Friday (that's yesterday) and we will pick up with homeschooling on Monday unless the school calls a snow day. I'm going to honor the snow days and breaks of the district the rest of this year I think, just to keep up the schedule and routine that we've gotten used to this year.
Of course, withdrawing them was slightly interesting. Thursday I was the responsible mom and I personally delivered my notification and curriculum outline to the district administration office. The lady who handles homeschooling and attendance for the district was out that day for meetings, so the receptionist put the paperwork in her inbox to get it first thing the next morning. Friday, which is the next morning, I got an e-mail from this lovely lady who handles attendance and homeschooling. I had sent a note with the girls stating that it was their last day and thanking the teachers for a good year, and providing my e-mail address if they had any questions for me. My cell phone had decided to malfunction on me and not work all day, so I was down to just having internet communication for everything. No big deal really, and my phone is working properly again now. Anyway, the attendance lady hadn't gotten my notification and was informing me that I needed to either have them enrolled in a school or have notification to her before I could withdraw them. I replied with a simple, "I delivered notification yesterday to the administration office, it should be in your inbox there waiting for you." Yup, the receptionist forgot to put it in the inbox and it was still sitting on her desk. Got it tracked down, everything is in order now and she is sending out my excuse letters.
Hopefully there is nothing else interesting that happens with this. I don't know that I have the strength to keep going with any sort of real drama. I may just snap and tell people where to stick it and then let HSLDA loose on the district if anything else comes up.
So what is the plan? Well I have some math stuff that I'm going to be looking through tonight and tomorrow to find the specific spot each girl belongs at, and they will start it Monday. History, right now I'm going to just read daily from a history book I have here already and see if we can finish up the year that way. Science, I'm going to do the same with an elementary biology book I have. With both subjects, we'll also add in library books as desired, and I may add in some units from KONOS as I feel a need and desire to. All other subjects that are required by law (language arts, music, art, etc) will be incorporated into science and history by having them do research, projects, crafts, etc. related to what we're learning about.
Hopefully March and April go smoothly with this plan. I'll let you know on Friday how this week goes.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
snow day
Since I have 2 kids in public school, I'm a slave to the schedule. Which means, when they close for weather my homeschooled kids don't do any schoolwork.
Last Friday and again today we had school cancelled for the weather. This throws off my normal groove, even when we're on a winter break from lessons. I have to completely restructure my day to get things done, and triple the time it takes to do things because of added interruptions for questions and to break up fights. Ah so goes the life of a mom with a bunch of kids.
I did, however, get to pause long enough for Missa to use my crappy iPhone to take a quick picture of me sporting my latest baby bump. Enjoy it folks, because I do not like being in front of the camera. I know it is slightly fuzzy, Preston was trying to climb her so that he could snuggle his "babwit sista" as he'd say (that's toddler for favorite sister if you don't speak this fun language).
Yup, there is totally a baby in there. Now we wait for the kicking to start, darn that anterior placenta that I'm rocking this time around. I'm still 5lbs below the weight I started at, but that shouldn't last too much longer now that I'm starting to look like there's a baby in there instead of looking like I ate one too many pieces of pie.
Last Friday and again today we had school cancelled for the weather. This throws off my normal groove, even when we're on a winter break from lessons. I have to completely restructure my day to get things done, and triple the time it takes to do things because of added interruptions for questions and to break up fights. Ah so goes the life of a mom with a bunch of kids.
I did, however, get to pause long enough for Missa to use my crappy iPhone to take a quick picture of me sporting my latest baby bump. Enjoy it folks, because I do not like being in front of the camera. I know it is slightly fuzzy, Preston was trying to climb her so that he could snuggle his "babwit sista" as he'd say (that's toddler for favorite sister if you don't speak this fun language).
Monday, November 25, 2013
Winter break!
Woohoo! It is the week of Thanksgiving, which gives me the opportunity to relax a while. Every year we take off this week until the first Monday in January. Without the added focus of daily schoolwork, this gives me the opportunity to focus on preparing for the holidays and doing fun little crafts and activities with the kids. We all welcome this nice long break, and it just gives us all a chance to step back and really enjoy one another as a family without the pressures and expectations of academics thrown into the mix.
During this time, the kids will watch too much television, make lots of messes with art supplies, cook a ton with me, play together, read, get on computers, pretty much anything we come up with. We also will spend time focusing on life skills like fine-tuning chores that we do, and getting my end of year deep cleaning done (hopefully!).
As for me, well my plan for this time is to create a 6 month plan for January through June. Since we have a baby coming in May, I need to make sure I have a plan in place to cover potential third trimester bedrest and complications plus time for me to recover from birth and surgery. I don't want this period to go like it did with my last pregnancy, as we were totally unprepared for the challenges of having me on bedrest for 3 months and the complications that come with pregnancy-induced hypertension.
I'll keep you updated with my plans that are in process. I have a rough idea what is going to be put into place, but we'll see what it turns into as I write it out for us.
During this time, the kids will watch too much television, make lots of messes with art supplies, cook a ton with me, play together, read, get on computers, pretty much anything we come up with. We also will spend time focusing on life skills like fine-tuning chores that we do, and getting my end of year deep cleaning done (hopefully!).
As for me, well my plan for this time is to create a 6 month plan for January through June. Since we have a baby coming in May, I need to make sure I have a plan in place to cover potential third trimester bedrest and complications plus time for me to recover from birth and surgery. I don't want this period to go like it did with my last pregnancy, as we were totally unprepared for the challenges of having me on bedrest for 3 months and the complications that come with pregnancy-induced hypertension.
I'll keep you updated with my plans that are in process. I have a rough idea what is going to be put into place, but we'll see what it turns into as I write it out for us.
Monday, October 21, 2013
What's happening here
We've had a few things happening here lately. I'll try not to spend too much time rambling on though, as I have a lot to do today.
First, last week we finally found a new to us vehicle. We traded in my minivan for a Ford Excursion, it is older and has high high miles (2000 with 163,000 miles on it) but it runs beautifully and is a great fit for our family. There is enough room for even the new baby coming in the spring.
Isn't it a pretty piece of machinery? I love driving it, and have gotten a few funny looks from people when they see this short little girl get out of this huge truck (the mirrors are at eye level to me).
Saturday night we took it for our first drive out of town, going to church. Remember what I said about the extra space this gives us? Well here's what I mean (I'm later going to move Preston's seat to the 3rd row where the empty spot is so that we can put the baby in the middle row where he is now)
Like I said, a LOT more space, and I got cargo room too so we can go grocery shopping on weekends as a family again. I can't wait until next payday in 2 weeks so that we can do this (nobody wanted to go over the weekend with me for the short trip so I did it alone). It also is allowing us to be able to go on a vacation, we're talking about going to the beach next summer at some point (likely when public school starts up again for next school year).
The other fun thing is a pregnancy update. I had my first ultrasound and labwork done this morning at *yawn* 7am. This is thankfully only 1 baby, this is a concern we had based on my symptoms and history (I miscarried triplets before having our oldest, and our second had a vanished twin).
As you can see, we have a perfectly formed baby there as far as we can tell. The little booger is already incredibly active, the tech had trouble taking measurements because he (we'll call it a he until we get a gender, then we'll start using our chosen name, yes we have names already picked and no we aren't sharing until we know who this baby is) was waving, kicking, and bouncing so much all over in there. We also changed my due date. Based on my cycle I was due May 25th, and now according to the scan I'm due May 19th. Lydia's birthday is May 10th, and she is not amused by the change in due date. His heart rate clocked in at 170bpm, which is excellent. Now I have seen who it is exactly that's made me so sick I can barely function some days. Zofran is my friend right now.....
That about covers it I think, for now at least. Hope you enjoyed the pictures I had to go with today's update.
First, last week we finally found a new to us vehicle. We traded in my minivan for a Ford Excursion, it is older and has high high miles (2000 with 163,000 miles on it) but it runs beautifully and is a great fit for our family. There is enough room for even the new baby coming in the spring.
Saturday night we took it for our first drive out of town, going to church. Remember what I said about the extra space this gives us? Well here's what I mean (I'm later going to move Preston's seat to the 3rd row where the empty spot is so that we can put the baby in the middle row where he is now)
Like I said, a LOT more space, and I got cargo room too so we can go grocery shopping on weekends as a family again. I can't wait until next payday in 2 weeks so that we can do this (nobody wanted to go over the weekend with me for the short trip so I did it alone). It also is allowing us to be able to go on a vacation, we're talking about going to the beach next summer at some point (likely when public school starts up again for next school year).
The other fun thing is a pregnancy update. I had my first ultrasound and labwork done this morning at *yawn* 7am. This is thankfully only 1 baby, this is a concern we had based on my symptoms and history (I miscarried triplets before having our oldest, and our second had a vanished twin).
As you can see, we have a perfectly formed baby there as far as we can tell. The little booger is already incredibly active, the tech had trouble taking measurements because he (we'll call it a he until we get a gender, then we'll start using our chosen name, yes we have names already picked and no we aren't sharing until we know who this baby is) was waving, kicking, and bouncing so much all over in there. We also changed my due date. Based on my cycle I was due May 25th, and now according to the scan I'm due May 19th. Lydia's birthday is May 10th, and she is not amused by the change in due date. His heart rate clocked in at 170bpm, which is excellent. Now I have seen who it is exactly that's made me so sick I can barely function some days. Zofran is my friend right now.....
That about covers it I think, for now at least. Hope you enjoyed the pictures I had to go with today's update.
Tuesday, October 08, 2013
lots happening lately here
It has been a crazy month here in my family. Lots of fun stuff, I tell ya!
I know not everyone has facebook so I'm going to put all the stuff we've been up to here.
First, we've not found our new van yet. Every time we think we had, it gets sold before we can make the trip to check it out. *sigh* Oh well, no big deal as we do have an 8 passenger van at this point and it will work for now with our family. Eventually we will find the right van for our family, and we already know what we qualify for in a vehicle loan (and what we can afford in a payment) so we have a budget already set. That makes it a LOT easier for when we do find our new van.
Second, we've had a lot of issues with Lydia. She's had stomach problems her entire life, but this year has been especially difficult for her. We've put her on medication for reflux, which has changed twice so far with not a lot of improvement. We have her on a daily dose of colace to try and manage the bowel issues. She is just miserable and lives in pain and vomiting regularly (at least 2-3 times a day). We got a referral to the GI clinic at Nationwide Children's Hospital and she saw the doctor last week, then yesterday went in for an upper GI. It came back 100% normal, so the doctor ordered blood tests that she went and did today after school. I should know by the end of the week what the results of the labs are, and she goes back to GI clinic in 3 months (at this point in time, could be sooner depending). We are also working with a dietician because earlier blood tests showed elevated cholesterol and triglycerides. Lots has gone on there just with her. *whew*
Third, Lydia and Kimmy started public school in August by their choice and are doing VERY well. I encourage each child to take ownership of their educations because it isn't something I can do for them, and the two of them felt that it was the best option for this year. We discussed it several days before enrollment, and they are doing pretty well. At least, they are doing well when they are there. Lydia has already missed 5 days for her GI appointments, and Kimmy has missed 2 days for being sick. I am trying not to worry about it, but if Lydia misses too much work I'll likely discuss moving her to a virtual academy for the remainder of the year while we get all the GI stuff taken care of.
Now, let's finish off with an adorable picture of my little man. Preston is such a happy proud boy!
(yes his shirt means we're expecting #6. Please say a prayer for us as this pregnancy is NOT being kind to me so far, I'm so sick Zofran isn't always doing much to help and it is affecting my parenting right now, the home learning kids are on a school break until I can get it under control again)
I know not everyone has facebook so I'm going to put all the stuff we've been up to here.
First, we've not found our new van yet. Every time we think we had, it gets sold before we can make the trip to check it out. *sigh* Oh well, no big deal as we do have an 8 passenger van at this point and it will work for now with our family. Eventually we will find the right van for our family, and we already know what we qualify for in a vehicle loan (and what we can afford in a payment) so we have a budget already set. That makes it a LOT easier for when we do find our new van.
Second, we've had a lot of issues with Lydia. She's had stomach problems her entire life, but this year has been especially difficult for her. We've put her on medication for reflux, which has changed twice so far with not a lot of improvement. We have her on a daily dose of colace to try and manage the bowel issues. She is just miserable and lives in pain and vomiting regularly (at least 2-3 times a day). We got a referral to the GI clinic at Nationwide Children's Hospital and she saw the doctor last week, then yesterday went in for an upper GI. It came back 100% normal, so the doctor ordered blood tests that she went and did today after school. I should know by the end of the week what the results of the labs are, and she goes back to GI clinic in 3 months (at this point in time, could be sooner depending). We are also working with a dietician because earlier blood tests showed elevated cholesterol and triglycerides. Lots has gone on there just with her. *whew*
Third, Lydia and Kimmy started public school in August by their choice and are doing VERY well. I encourage each child to take ownership of their educations because it isn't something I can do for them, and the two of them felt that it was the best option for this year. We discussed it several days before enrollment, and they are doing pretty well. At least, they are doing well when they are there. Lydia has already missed 5 days for her GI appointments, and Kimmy has missed 2 days for being sick. I am trying not to worry about it, but if Lydia misses too much work I'll likely discuss moving her to a virtual academy for the remainder of the year while we get all the GI stuff taken care of.
Now, let's finish off with an adorable picture of my little man. Preston is such a happy proud boy!
(yes his shirt means we're expecting #6. Please say a prayer for us as this pregnancy is NOT being kind to me so far, I'm so sick Zofran isn't always doing much to help and it is affecting my parenting right now, the home learning kids are on a school break until I can get it under control again)
Monday, September 09, 2013
Upcoming hopeful changes
We've had one minor source of discomfort here as a larger family, which I'm sure many can relate to (no matter how many children you have!). We do not enjoy going out as a family because my minivan is just a tad cramped for our family of 7 after we add any supplies we may need.
I know this is something almost everyone can relate to at some point, as I've seen many vans and larger SUVs with family stickers on them sporting only 1 or 2 children, or a few even with no children but several "fur babies" that are transported. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with having a vehicle larger in seating than what you may fit, and this is a lesson I've learned only after having a 5th child and a dog.
If you are not aware, I am blessed that we own an 8 passenger van. We purchased the vehicle shortly after learning of my pregnancy with our 4th child, trading in my awesome crew cab pickup truck with suicide doors (I could easily fit our then 5 member family in there). We've had this van for 6 1/2 years now, and it has served us very well. It fits us for a quick trip to the store or for an outing to visit family or friends locally, or even a trip to the park or a nearby field trip (such as to the local science and history museum). However, we are unable to pack it adequately for a day trip with the stroller for my toddler, a cooler for meals and snacks, extra clothes for EVERY person (2 outfits for the toddler!), diapers and wipes, and anything else we may need. My kids in the third row fight nonstop as I have 3 back there (we removed a 2nd row seat to provide access to the 3rd row) and that causes a great deal of noise and distraction to the driver no matter WHERE we go.
We've made the transition to being a 2 vehicle family for any outing more than 10 minutes away from home whenever possible, just to not hear the fighting. But this gives us a different set of complaints. All the kids want to ride with daddy, and none with mommy, so they take turns 2 girls at a time (we only have 1 car seat for Preston at this point and it stays in the van because I refuse to wrestle it on a regular basis). This is a great solution for the most part, but it results in Scott and I frequently on our cell phones the entire trip to make sure that I know where I'm going, and I feel it reduces the family time a little bit. I miss being all in one vehicle for outings, but can't STAND the fighting from the back 3 kids hitting each other and ganging up 2 kids on 1 back there and screaming about a sister singing along with the radio, well you get the idea. I would wear ear plugs if it wasn't a bad idea because of needing to hear emergency vehicle sirens.
I saw this issue coming long before this time, as I started searching for a larger van during my pregnancy with Preston. This is a big deal to me, as I once told Scott that I would never be one of those moms who drives a minivan. I pouted for quite a long time when Scott chose to trade my truck in for my minivan instead of getting me the Suburban that I had picked out. He wouldn't even LOOK at my pick, he just went straight to what is now my van and we test drove it and bought it. Now, I love having a van instead of the SUV that I wanted originally.
The only way to get a bigger van than what we already have is to buy one of those vans that a lot of people refer to as "church vans." These vans seat 12-15 passengers and are HUGE. Of course, we could just buy a retired short bus, but that would probably require us both to have a CDL to drive it. We do joke often about buying a bus and then have a laugh at the mental image of the horrified reactions from our neighbors who are already trying to run us out of the neighborhood with bogus calls to the city for violations that don't exist. The neighbors have cooled it once I flipped on the rudest one and raked them both over the fire, and now they approach us with things instead of just calling the city. Finally.
I have very specific wants for a new van of course. I want it to be a 15 passenger van, but instead of bench seats I want captain's chairs and lap/shoulder belts in ALL positions for maximum safety in a crash (lap belts I feel are about useless outside of installing a harness car seat). I don't care about little things like having LATCH, although it would be nice, or the color of the van (which I'd REALLY prefer to not have a white van if possible). In the past 2 years, I've not found exactly what I'm looking for because of a couple little specifics. All the pre-owned vans in my area have bench seats and a LOT of lap-only belts, or they are a 12 passenger van that isn't on a 15 body (meaning no cargo space behind the back row of seating).
Until last weekend, that is........
I found a dealership 90 miles away with THREE vans that fit my specifics (minus the fact that they are white, oh well can't win them all!). These vans have captain's seats in all positions, which modifies it from a 15 passenger to a 14 passenger van. They have lap/shoulder belts in all seating positions, and are in great condition and at a very affordable price. I've already made the call to our insurance company to find out what the difference in policy pricing would be, and it is more than affordable with the slight changes I made to our policy in the same call. All that is left to do is a step that I cannot do, which is to contact the bank to find out about financing the vehicle. That is a step that Scott needs to do, as all credit that we take out is always in his name as the head of our family. I need to get together the things that Scott needs to have for the bank, which he will be doing first thing Saturday morning on his way home from work (I want to secure approval before we make the trip to Akron, for obvious reasons). I am currently in the process of reviewing our budget to make final cuts that will more easily allow us to make the payments on this van, but I don't have too much to do there.
Having a car payment will be an adjustment for us after living payment free for several years now, but I know that we have the budget to make it work and I'm comfortable with taking out a loan until we can pay it WAY down (or completely paid off) in the spring with our tax refund.
Now I already hear the question from you. "Why don't you just wait for the refund to buy the van instead?" Well, I've been looking a little under 2 years for the perfect van for our family, and now that we found it I do not want to pass it up and risk not finding another in the spring. I would rather take a tight budget for about 6 months to make 100% sure that we don't have to settle for a less ideal vehicle for more money. The van I found is just over $11,000 for exactly what I want, while comparable vans in my area are $15,000 and up without fitting the specific must-have things that this van does. The van we are going after at that lovely price is worth close to $18,000 according to KBB, so if I can get it that low I'm going to jump. It is truly a deal that we are meant to have, as I've prayed for an amazing deal to be granted to us at the perfect timing for our family.
I can't wait to find out what Scott gets worked out at the bank this weekend, and if we are going to go for it definitely. He knows how much this purchase means to me personally, and has promised to do whatever he can to make it happen. Here's hoping!
I know this is something almost everyone can relate to at some point, as I've seen many vans and larger SUVs with family stickers on them sporting only 1 or 2 children, or a few even with no children but several "fur babies" that are transported. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with having a vehicle larger in seating than what you may fit, and this is a lesson I've learned only after having a 5th child and a dog.
If you are not aware, I am blessed that we own an 8 passenger van. We purchased the vehicle shortly after learning of my pregnancy with our 4th child, trading in my awesome crew cab pickup truck with suicide doors (I could easily fit our then 5 member family in there). We've had this van for 6 1/2 years now, and it has served us very well. It fits us for a quick trip to the store or for an outing to visit family or friends locally, or even a trip to the park or a nearby field trip (such as to the local science and history museum). However, we are unable to pack it adequately for a day trip with the stroller for my toddler, a cooler for meals and snacks, extra clothes for EVERY person (2 outfits for the toddler!), diapers and wipes, and anything else we may need. My kids in the third row fight nonstop as I have 3 back there (we removed a 2nd row seat to provide access to the 3rd row) and that causes a great deal of noise and distraction to the driver no matter WHERE we go.
We've made the transition to being a 2 vehicle family for any outing more than 10 minutes away from home whenever possible, just to not hear the fighting. But this gives us a different set of complaints. All the kids want to ride with daddy, and none with mommy, so they take turns 2 girls at a time (we only have 1 car seat for Preston at this point and it stays in the van because I refuse to wrestle it on a regular basis). This is a great solution for the most part, but it results in Scott and I frequently on our cell phones the entire trip to make sure that I know where I'm going, and I feel it reduces the family time a little bit. I miss being all in one vehicle for outings, but can't STAND the fighting from the back 3 kids hitting each other and ganging up 2 kids on 1 back there and screaming about a sister singing along with the radio, well you get the idea. I would wear ear plugs if it wasn't a bad idea because of needing to hear emergency vehicle sirens.
I saw this issue coming long before this time, as I started searching for a larger van during my pregnancy with Preston. This is a big deal to me, as I once told Scott that I would never be one of those moms who drives a minivan. I pouted for quite a long time when Scott chose to trade my truck in for my minivan instead of getting me the Suburban that I had picked out. He wouldn't even LOOK at my pick, he just went straight to what is now my van and we test drove it and bought it. Now, I love having a van instead of the SUV that I wanted originally.
The only way to get a bigger van than what we already have is to buy one of those vans that a lot of people refer to as "church vans." These vans seat 12-15 passengers and are HUGE. Of course, we could just buy a retired short bus, but that would probably require us both to have a CDL to drive it. We do joke often about buying a bus and then have a laugh at the mental image of the horrified reactions from our neighbors who are already trying to run us out of the neighborhood with bogus calls to the city for violations that don't exist. The neighbors have cooled it once I flipped on the rudest one and raked them both over the fire, and now they approach us with things instead of just calling the city. Finally.
I have very specific wants for a new van of course. I want it to be a 15 passenger van, but instead of bench seats I want captain's chairs and lap/shoulder belts in ALL positions for maximum safety in a crash (lap belts I feel are about useless outside of installing a harness car seat). I don't care about little things like having LATCH, although it would be nice, or the color of the van (which I'd REALLY prefer to not have a white van if possible). In the past 2 years, I've not found exactly what I'm looking for because of a couple little specifics. All the pre-owned vans in my area have bench seats and a LOT of lap-only belts, or they are a 12 passenger van that isn't on a 15 body (meaning no cargo space behind the back row of seating).
Until last weekend, that is........
I found a dealership 90 miles away with THREE vans that fit my specifics (minus the fact that they are white, oh well can't win them all!). These vans have captain's seats in all positions, which modifies it from a 15 passenger to a 14 passenger van. They have lap/shoulder belts in all seating positions, and are in great condition and at a very affordable price. I've already made the call to our insurance company to find out what the difference in policy pricing would be, and it is more than affordable with the slight changes I made to our policy in the same call. All that is left to do is a step that I cannot do, which is to contact the bank to find out about financing the vehicle. That is a step that Scott needs to do, as all credit that we take out is always in his name as the head of our family. I need to get together the things that Scott needs to have for the bank, which he will be doing first thing Saturday morning on his way home from work (I want to secure approval before we make the trip to Akron, for obvious reasons). I am currently in the process of reviewing our budget to make final cuts that will more easily allow us to make the payments on this van, but I don't have too much to do there.
Having a car payment will be an adjustment for us after living payment free for several years now, but I know that we have the budget to make it work and I'm comfortable with taking out a loan until we can pay it WAY down (or completely paid off) in the spring with our tax refund.
Now I already hear the question from you. "Why don't you just wait for the refund to buy the van instead?" Well, I've been looking a little under 2 years for the perfect van for our family, and now that we found it I do not want to pass it up and risk not finding another in the spring. I would rather take a tight budget for about 6 months to make 100% sure that we don't have to settle for a less ideal vehicle for more money. The van I found is just over $11,000 for exactly what I want, while comparable vans in my area are $15,000 and up without fitting the specific must-have things that this van does. The van we are going after at that lovely price is worth close to $18,000 according to KBB, so if I can get it that low I'm going to jump. It is truly a deal that we are meant to have, as I've prayed for an amazing deal to be granted to us at the perfect timing for our family.
I can't wait to find out what Scott gets worked out at the bank this weekend, and if we are going to go for it definitely. He knows how much this purchase means to me personally, and has promised to do whatever he can to make it happen. Here's hoping!
Friday, August 30, 2013
Lapbook vs. notebook
I've been strangely silent, I know. Life has been a bit crazy here for us. I was met 2 weeks ago with two of my daughters wanting to attend public school this year, just 4 days before school started, so I had to get them enrolled and then go get school supplies and lunch stuff and open house, bus stop assignment, all that great stuff. They have been in school a week and a half now, and are doing excellent. These two thrive in that type of environment, so it was a good decision that they made. Lydia and Kimmy are quite enjoying their days at school, and have no issues with homework afterward.
Melissa and Jordan, obviously, are still learning at home. This means that I had to completely rethink my plan for the school year in the subjects we've combined (science and history, geography, social studies). I no longer can aim my lesson materials at my middle two children and add in for the oldest and youngest of the 4, as my middle 2 are attending school. So we are changing up the year. It will go pretty well I think, as I've decided to split the two girls up and let them learn more on their own terms.
Now, on to the real purpose of this post......
One of the things I chose to do with the girls is that they will each have a literature study each month. I already have September's literature units picked out for the two. Jordan will do American Tall Tales, using the Evan-Moor literature pockets set of tall tales. Melissa will do a literature study on the book "Island of the Blue Dolphins" this month. It is Melissa's study that I need a little help with.
I have already purchased the Kindle version of the book and loaded it on both Kindles that we own. I also obtained the unit study from Hands of A Child last year when they offered it as a freebie. I have both the lapbooking set and the notebooking set. Currently, I am sitting here trying to decide which set I should assign to Melissa to do for this study. She has done both lapbooks and notebooking but has no preference of one over the other, so she has no opinion on which to assign to her.
For those of you who read my blog but do not know what lapbooking or notebooking is (yes I know who you are!), a lapbook is pretty much taking a couple file folders and refolding them and gluing them together to make a book of sorts. Inside you glue little paper minibook flap things, wheels, pockets for cards, stuff like that with information you write on/in them. It is pretty cool, we've really enjoyed making them in the past as the kids were younger. If you dig through my blog I'm sure you will find pictures of what we've done for lapbooks in the past.
Notebooking is a bit different. Instead of having a little flap book or something like that to write the info on, you have a journal paper type page and you write down the stuff and there may be an area to draw out illustrations or glue pictures you find and cut out. You can punch the pages and put into a 3 ring binder, or store in a folder, or just about anything (including spiral binding to store like a book).
I'm weighing the ups and downs of both choices still. With both options, there are a LOT of templates to choose from and different ways to layout the material. With notebooking, you can do some pages laid out like a newspaper with different "articles" written about the characters or the locations, events, things like that. You can do a similar page with a lapbook, then just fold it up and put in a pocket glued into the file folder to store it (label the pocket though so you know what is in it!). Both allow you do have many different aspects to your project. The biggest difference I can think of is the space for each thing. A lapbook, you are limited to the size of the mini-book for how much you can write so it is important to choose the templates carefully for each piece you want to add. With a notebook, you can write as much or as little as you want on the page. That makes for a pro to notebooking and con for lapbooking. But, to flip it a notebook feels so plain and kind of dull and lacking creativity in design, while a lapbook you can add clip art, arrange the mini-books however you want, print them on multiple colors of paper if desired (instead of all on white), pretty much the sky is the limit.
Another big thing I need to factor with Missa is the fact that she is both dyslexic AND left-handed, so her handwriting can be difficult to read at times. Notebooking would allow her more room for her writing and more practice of writing as she writes longer passages, but a lapbook may be better because it will limit the amount of writing so she can focus more on neat penmanship and proper spelling.
I also need to take into consideration that this particular literature unit is listed for grades 4-8 and she's in 5th grade. She is at the lower end of the range based on her particular abilities, as she is about a year behind in reading and writing skills. The unit is written as a 10 day project, but is assigned for the entire month so she can work at her speed on it. If it takes longer than a month to finish, that is fine as I will just assign the next unit when she finishes this one. If it takes less time, then she can come up with a creative project (art related most likely) related to her literature unit to fill in the rest of the month until her next unit.
So now I turn to those who read my blog. Should I assign the lapbook or the notebook to Missa for this month? With the holiday on Monday, I don't have to print off anything until Monday night so she can start it on Tuesday.
Melissa and Jordan, obviously, are still learning at home. This means that I had to completely rethink my plan for the school year in the subjects we've combined (science and history, geography, social studies). I no longer can aim my lesson materials at my middle two children and add in for the oldest and youngest of the 4, as my middle 2 are attending school. So we are changing up the year. It will go pretty well I think, as I've decided to split the two girls up and let them learn more on their own terms.
Now, on to the real purpose of this post......
One of the things I chose to do with the girls is that they will each have a literature study each month. I already have September's literature units picked out for the two. Jordan will do American Tall Tales, using the Evan-Moor literature pockets set of tall tales. Melissa will do a literature study on the book "Island of the Blue Dolphins" this month. It is Melissa's study that I need a little help with.
I have already purchased the Kindle version of the book and loaded it on both Kindles that we own. I also obtained the unit study from Hands of A Child last year when they offered it as a freebie. I have both the lapbooking set and the notebooking set. Currently, I am sitting here trying to decide which set I should assign to Melissa to do for this study. She has done both lapbooks and notebooking but has no preference of one over the other, so she has no opinion on which to assign to her.
For those of you who read my blog but do not know what lapbooking or notebooking is (yes I know who you are!), a lapbook is pretty much taking a couple file folders and refolding them and gluing them together to make a book of sorts. Inside you glue little paper minibook flap things, wheels, pockets for cards, stuff like that with information you write on/in them. It is pretty cool, we've really enjoyed making them in the past as the kids were younger. If you dig through my blog I'm sure you will find pictures of what we've done for lapbooks in the past.
Notebooking is a bit different. Instead of having a little flap book or something like that to write the info on, you have a journal paper type page and you write down the stuff and there may be an area to draw out illustrations or glue pictures you find and cut out. You can punch the pages and put into a 3 ring binder, or store in a folder, or just about anything (including spiral binding to store like a book).
I'm weighing the ups and downs of both choices still. With both options, there are a LOT of templates to choose from and different ways to layout the material. With notebooking, you can do some pages laid out like a newspaper with different "articles" written about the characters or the locations, events, things like that. You can do a similar page with a lapbook, then just fold it up and put in a pocket glued into the file folder to store it (label the pocket though so you know what is in it!). Both allow you do have many different aspects to your project. The biggest difference I can think of is the space for each thing. A lapbook, you are limited to the size of the mini-book for how much you can write so it is important to choose the templates carefully for each piece you want to add. With a notebook, you can write as much or as little as you want on the page. That makes for a pro to notebooking and con for lapbooking. But, to flip it a notebook feels so plain and kind of dull and lacking creativity in design, while a lapbook you can add clip art, arrange the mini-books however you want, print them on multiple colors of paper if desired (instead of all on white), pretty much the sky is the limit.
Another big thing I need to factor with Missa is the fact that she is both dyslexic AND left-handed, so her handwriting can be difficult to read at times. Notebooking would allow her more room for her writing and more practice of writing as she writes longer passages, but a lapbook may be better because it will limit the amount of writing so she can focus more on neat penmanship and proper spelling.
I also need to take into consideration that this particular literature unit is listed for grades 4-8 and she's in 5th grade. She is at the lower end of the range based on her particular abilities, as she is about a year behind in reading and writing skills. The unit is written as a 10 day project, but is assigned for the entire month so she can work at her speed on it. If it takes longer than a month to finish, that is fine as I will just assign the next unit when she finishes this one. If it takes less time, then she can come up with a creative project (art related most likely) related to her literature unit to fill in the rest of the month until her next unit.
So now I turn to those who read my blog. Should I assign the lapbook or the notebook to Missa for this month? With the holiday on Monday, I don't have to print off anything until Monday night so she can start it on Tuesday.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)