To Catch You Up…

I knew these past few weeks were going to be busy, but wow!

My oldest daughter had surgery, and we were occupied with keeping her comfy while she healed. The three girls and I were all in a wedding this past weekend. We were so busy with the rehearsal night, then the whole wedding day. We stayed with my in-laws, since the wedding was near them. I was exhausted just from packing clothes for the 2 days!

Ethan cut 2 teeth on the bottom, so he has been more fussy than normal. He is sleeping through the night and in Buddy’s room, so I am happy about that!

Buddy has been pushing buttons (literally and figuratively); that has been the most difficult issue lately. He is a week away from being two, and I am already wishing he was four or five. He is just so needy and whiny sometimes; it is my fault for babying him.

Addy can reach the light switches in the house all on her own now! That is a huge accomplishment for my teeny tiny girly. She is so proud!

Lily’s allergies have been ridiculous! Poor girl has been congested then fine then congested then fine. Today is a bad day for her; she isn’t happy with the sneezing and coughing and runny nose.

Iris is healing well. We found out one of her stitches tore, but the doctor said the scar will be minimal and she is healing great. The surgery was on a sensitive area, so she struggled with getting comfy when she first got home. She was brave and tough, though; she and I have really bonded from her having to be so dependent on me for the few days right after.

I am supposed to be napping right now. Ethan’s morning nap overlapped into lunch time, so he wasn’t sleeping with the bigger kids had their naps/rest time. These kinds of days are so tiring; I asked Iris to give me 15 minutes to rest on the couch. As soon as I close my eyes, Buddy is saying, “Mom! Mama! Mommy! MOM!!!!” I open my eyes and ask him what he wants; he just smiles and says hi. Frustrating and adorable at the same time. And he just stood there to yell whenever I closed my eyes again. Sooo, I gave up on the rest/nap.

Our garden is doing great. I need to get a trellis for our peas, but other than that it’s good! Iris and Lily sampled some early lettuce and said it was yummy, so I am going to go grab some to toss into salads for tonight!

It’s a little windy here, but I need to throw these kids outside to burn some extra energy.

I plan to be back at regular posting soon. No time frame, though. We are finishing up the school year and our busy month, so hopefully I will be back in the nest week or so!

Homeschool Checkup

This was an exciting week for several reasons. Not all were a good kind of exciting, but there was excitement nonetheless.

Monday was our grocery shopping day. Iris and Lily took notepads and pens into the stores to write what we bought (to practice spelling) and write new words they read (to practice phonics). It went pretty well, but it did slow down our trip immensely! We had to break up the shopping into 2 trips – one in the morning and another after naps. All in all, it was pretty educational!

Tuesday we started potty training with Buddy. The morning was a disaster, but he did well after naps and stayed dry all afternoon and into the evening.

Wednesday, we continued with potty training. The first few hours of the morning went well. About 10 o’clock or so, while I was teaching Iris and Lily, Buddy came out of Addy’s room with an odd look on his face.( I had just sat him on the potty chair because it seemed like he needed to go. He didn’t go, so I sent him on his way.) He was telling me “bug” and bringing me something. I immediately noticed he had wet his training pants and started to talk to him about that, when I noticed the “bug” he was bringing me wasn’t a bug at all. He had apparently gone #2, it fell out the side of his training pants and he was delivering it to me. Eek! I started laughing, then noticed a trail of his “bugs” that went back into Addy’s room. It was a chaotic few moments, but I was laughing most of the time.

Yesterday, the crazy storms started coming through in the afternoon and they continued all night. Our yard flooded, and we worried about the basement but thankfully it was fine. We skipped class today to just enjoy a stuck inside day, watching the waters rise and recede. Then we built a big fort this afternoon to enjoy. It’s actually getting dark again, but no big storm is supposed to happen again. Just more rain.

I am STILL working on relaxing more during school time. I am so stuck on getting a certain number of things done each day, that I still miss out on some key learning opportunities. And I continue to get flustered with Iris when she needs me to teach her in a way that it opposite of how I’m wired to explain things. So, a continual learning experience for us all.

Addy FINALLY decided she wanted to learn to write letters correctly, and (without me pushing her to focus!) she wrote an “A” on her own over the weekend! I’m very proud of her.

There is always something to be learned….for everyone. If we stop learning, we stop growing. I try to explain that to my girls, but it is something I need to remember as well!

 

Homeschool Checkup

Everyone is so busy learning over here! Here’s a breakdown of what we’re all working on:

Baby Ethan – He is working on holding his head up. He is soooo behind on this. Lazy baby. I put him on his tummy and he just lies his head down to the side and tries to sleep. This is what each of my other kids did as well (or they cried as soon as they were put on their tummy).  So, I am putting him in the Bumbo seat, and he is slooooowly getting better. He still just gives up and tries to sleep. He also favors looking to one side, just like Buddy did, so we have to work on strengthening his neck muscles more. It’s my fault because of how I held them both. He’s also working on sleeping through the night, but not doing so well with it, unfortunately.

Buddy – He is working on being a big boy. We started him on sleeping in his big boy bed last week. He took to it great! He doesn’t try to get out of it once he is lying down for bed or naps. He falls asleep right away and stays asleep. And in the morning, he walks over to his door and knocks, saying “Mommy! Heeeere!” This has been the easiest transition from crib to bed for any of the kids! I’m loving it…and needed it because of how tired we’ve been with the baby.

Addy – She is working on her listening skills…through trial and error. I don’t know if it’s the age, that she’s now the middle child, or a combo of both but she is really pushing buttons of people lately. And it doesn’t end well for her. I try to keep her occupied, so she can’t scheme to anger anyone. She knows she’s doing wrong, but she is looking for attention. On the days that I can’t give her the attention she wants/needs…look out!

Lily – She is working on reading and helping with the baby. She is so great at keeping the baby quiet and happy. She will talk to him, hold his hand, just sit with him or even help change his diaper (#1 only!…her request). She is adamant she doesn’t want kids when she’s older, but she says she’ll let her brothers live with her forever to “keep them safe and sound.” I could live with that.

Iris – She is working on helping around the house, in addition to regular school work. She loves to be in the kitchen, so I am giving her a little more freedom to help out or create foods. (This is tough for me…I like to keep my kitchen under control, but her creations tend to be crazy and messy at times!) She reads recipes for me, makes up her own snacks for us, and LOVES to wash dishes. Iris is also great with the baby. She is learning how to properly hold him, change his diaper, and soothe him when I can’t. She does so well with it all. I am so proud of how mature she is around the baby!

We’ve all been learning about SAFETY lately – fire safety, stranger safety, home safety, road safety, and emergencies. We had a fire drill, worked on 911 calling (PRETEND 911 dialing and giving info in emergencies). We also go into what to do if someone we don’t know comes into the house uninvited. Of course, children’s minds really get creative with the “what if’s”, but I tried to keep them on track. I am confident Iris would know what to do, where to go and whom to call if someone broke into the house when it’s just the kids and I at home. (might seem a little extreme, but our only next door neighbors aren’t home during the day, and it’s pretty quiet around here…we honestly don’t have any help very close by, so I found it important to explain plainly to the older girls what to do.) We also went over gun safety a little because they know we have guns. We worked on where to meet outside if we had to hurry out due to fire. And we went over rules for when we’re in public, at the park, at the pool, and other places.

Me? I’m learning to crochet. I’ve learned the simpler stitches and am making a crochet cell phone case.  A little dorky, but it was the easiest project in the book I have, so I wanted to try it. I’m about 1/2 way done. I did end up making a bonnet and apron for Iris’ Barbie, while practicing some stitches.

It’s been busy, busy here, so I haven’t been online much. I jumped on Facebook yesterday for a little bit, and I got a little carried away posting things…like I was making up for the time I haven’t been on there. I hate Facebook for that reason…I can’t just be on there for 5 minutes. It becomes 45 minutes and I’ve done nothing important. So, I am limiting my time on there, as well as working on getting my posts all typed up and scheduled on Mondays. That way I’m not scrambling to get things typed up every single day.

Please share: Are you learning anything new? A new skill? Taking a class? Teaching your kids anything new?

 

Update on the Chaos :)

Every time I talk about how we’re doing, it seems I’m talking about how crazy and chaotic things are. This is nothing new and appears to be our new normal. Just takes a little getting used to, I suppose.

With teething and germs, we were at our family doctor’s office 6 times in February! I love our doctor; she is great. It became so humorous every time we saw her! She would just laugh at the end of the appointment and say “see ya next week!” And I laughed (maybe cried a little inside, too), knowing we most likely would see her for another sick visit.

All 5 kids ended up on antibiotics: 3 for ear infections and 2 for Strep throat. Four of the kids turned out to be allergic to the antibiotic.

Buddy is working on his two year molars. They haven’t even broken the skin, but they are terrorizing him for sure. He gets a runny nose and yucky cough each time he is biting his fingers and hand. I am hoping it’s not going to happen each time new teeth come in; that poor boy can’t hardly sleep with the snot and cough.

Baby Ethan appears to be working on teeth as well. He gnaws on his fist all day; he gnaws on me (ouch!) during feedings. He gets a croupy cough, too, and has trouble sleeping flat on his back. It makes for some really looooong nights, when I have to sit up with him to sleep. He sleeps wonderfully that way, but I have trouble getting back to sleep.

Last Thursday, I had to call the doctor in the early morning to get Ethan in because I worried his cough and phlegm may end up as another ear infection for him. I cancelled my dentist appointment to take him in.

On the way to the doctor’s office, our van got a flat tire. Thankfully, Arthur was driving behind us in his car and was able to change the tire for me. After the doctor’s, we had to drop off Arthur’s car for an oil change, then take the flat van tire to the tire store. We found out it couldn’t be patched, BUT our tires were still under warranty so we got a new one for free…but it wouldn’t be in until later in the day. After all that running around, we went home for a very quick lunch then had 4 eye doctor appointments for us that afternoon.

After the eye appointments, we had to go back to the tire place so they could put the new tire on. Our day finally ended and we were exhausted! No one got a good nap, so everyone was tired and crabby!

I haven’t felt so crazy in a long time! And the next two months are going to be busy every weekend, so I imagine the crazy feeling will just continue.

This week is a bridal shower I’m attending. The following week is Easter. The week after Easter is a race Arthur is running in Chicago. After that is the bachelorette party. Then a baby shower for my brother and sister-in-law. A few weeks after that is the wedding that all 3 girls and I are in.

Somewhere in the next few weeks, I have to get 4 dresses altered and buy shoes for Iris and Lily. And we are trying to wrap up school by the end of May; it may not work out, so we might have to go a few weeks into June.

Ahhh! See what I mean about crazy?!

 

Homeschool Checkup

We have had a GREAT week of school. Our daily routine changed a bit, and I think I’m loving it more.

I had always tried to get the girls started with lessons by 8 AM (even it meant I didn’t get a shower and we were rushed), but I’m finding that 9 AM is a better goal time for now because the baby still isn’t sleeping through the night. The kids get to watch a few cartoons after breakfast and play for a while. I get a shower and time to check emails (ok, Facebook mostly). Then we are ready to go around 9:00 and no one is yelling or whining!

Yesterday was our library day. We went right before lunch because of a  snow storm headed our way. I grabbed several teacher books about reading and math and exercise for homeschoolers. I am so excited to get ideas from them all!

I am finding that we spend a lot more time reading (Iris and Lily reading to me, and me reading to all the kids) than before, which is wonderful! Iris complains about it, but I can SEE the improvement in her ability. It’s so neat! She also does really great with reading comprehension. Lily is picking up on new words very quickly. She remembers sight words so well; I almost never have to remind her after telling her the first time what the new word is that she’s reading.

For math, I’m trying to be more consistent with practicing addition facts each day. Iris needs repetition for memory, so I can see this will be helpful. Lily doesn’t need repetition, but it’s good for her to practice “reading” the problems correctly. She doesn’t like to use the word “equals” but rather says “is” for addition problems…which drives me nuts. I’d like for her to learn the correct words when referring to math. Maybe I’m too picky.

Next week, my sister will be in town. She is a former kindergarten teacher, so I might have her step in and teach while she’s here. I’ll take a personal day and she can sub for me!

 

Homeschool Checkup

We spent this week doing a mixture of school work and Valentine’s fun! We made Valentines for Dad and decorations to put on the wall. Addy successfully completed a letter “v” letter hunt!

Our school week was cut short due to the continued fevers between the kids. The four older ones have had fevers on and off since last Friday. I finally called the doctor on Wednesday. An appointment was set for Thursday. Only Lily was feverish on Wednesday but Thursday morning brought fevers for Iris and Addy also.

At the doctor’s office, we had all the kids. We didn’t know if she’d be able to see all of them but our wonderful doctor went out of her way to check everyone’s temp and Iris and Addy did have fevers. She started checking throats and ears at that point. She found that Buddy had a double ear infection, Lily had a single ear infection. Iris tested positive for strep. Addy wasn’t tested but she assumed she had strep (or would eventually have it!) and prescribed antibiotic as well. I felt so bad that we’d waited all week to take them, but I just assumed it was a nasty cold they were passing around. I guess it was…but it had become more.

This was the first time we’ve had to deal with ear infections or strep. This was also a first for any of the kids to have antibiotics. So far, no issues. Dad has some allergies to different antibiotics, so I was nervous the kids might too. But, nothing has been noted yet. Fevers are down and just the nasty coughs remain today.

So, school was kind of an after thought for most of the week, doing things here and there between coughing fits and feverish naps. I was surprised how much we got done, though!

Next week we will work on some Presidents Day projects and crafts!

Homeschool Checkup

I can’t believe it’s February! Just under 4 more months of school left!

This week, we are gearing up for Valentine’s Day. Last year, we just did one day of celebrating, but I decided to do a little each day for the week leading up to Valentine’s Day.

The girls worked on coloring pages, connect the dot pages, mini books, and our very first lap book! The lap book is preschool level, but all three girls enjoyed doing the activities in it. I made it for them because I wasn’t sure how time-consuming it was going to be and we didn’t have a ton of craft time when I decided to make it. I am looking forward to the next one, when they can do all the work themselves; I think they’d enjoy that even more.

Here’s a picture recap of some of what we worked on this week. We also sneaked in a playdate with a family from church on Tuesday. It was a nice change of pace for a weekday, and I got to talk about homeschooling with the mom (which I always enjoy).

I was hoping to get to the library today, but it looks like we’re going to have freezing rain all day. Not sure if I want to brave that with the kids!

Addy’s mini book, Valentine, Valentine What Do You See?

Cupid coloring pages. Iris asked why Cupid was still in diapers.

Our lap book. Matching games and counting games.

Addy worked on letter D last week and this week. She is gluing diamonds on her D page here. She LOVES glue. Me? Not really at all. She is getting better with placing the glue on the correct item and not all over the table! We are still working on controlling how much she squeezes (thankful for the adjustable tops on glue bottles!…I can help control the flow!).

Homeschool Checkup

We’re back at it! Last week was a trial run, but this week we are diving right back into school.

My mom gave us a dining table this past weekend, so we had school at the new table today. The girls thought it was so fun to be doing it downstairs in the dining room. I found it a little hectic, but Buddy did have a bigger area to run around in.

Iris is doing great with math. I have figured out her little scheme – after I teach the lesson, I cannot sit near her while she finishes the worksheet. She seems to not remember anything if I’m near her, like she wants me to help her finish (and give her answers!). If I leave her by herself OR have her save the worksheet to do during her independent work time….she does it perfectly without complaint or requesting help! Last night, Arthur witnessed this when he saw how great Iris was doing on her own. As soon as she saw him, she came to him asking him for help. He encouraged her to finish it on her own….and she only missed one problem! I can’t believe it took us this long to figure this out! And I can’t believe (ok, I guess I can) how sneaky she has been.

Lily is working on reading more. She does the easy readers with 3 or 4 words to a sentence, but she has branched out into longer sentences now. While I make dinner, she and Iris have been sitting at the island. Lily reads and if it’s a reader with harder words in it, Iris helps her sound them out (or tells them to her, for the sight words). It’s so nice to see them work together….until they aren’t working together and start arguing over words!

Addy learned about Joseph and the Technicolor dream coat  coat of many colors. She worked on letter C and the number 3. She cracks me up because she doesn’t like to listen to me explain anything; she’s just there for the projects and crafts. She glued cotton balls on a letter Cc page, as well as decorated her own brown paper bag “coat.” We also worked on a dog puppet (with a lunch size brown bag) to go with the book Go Dog Go! She likes that book quite a bit, so it was fun to see her listen and then make the puppet. She loves glue, also, so that makes it exciting….for her, not so much for me (“please keep the glue upright until you need to use it…..keep the glue on the paper, not your hands…..don’t give your brother the glue…ok, that’s plenty of glue….no, we don’t need to glue the scrap papers onto things”).

Buddy sat in for reading time this week. He’s getting a little better with sitting down for books. He mostly just wants to run around and yell lately. I hear that’s a boy thing, though, so I was sort of expecting it. The girls look at him sometimes like he is crazy. And I’ll admit, he DOES look a little crazy running back and forth across the room with his head thrown back, screaming/cheering/laughing at the top of his lungs!

And baby Ethan….he sleeps most of the time. When he isn’t sleeping, I’m holding him and rocking. He LOVES to rock….calms him right away.

Next week, we will be back at the library and hopefully starting up Geography and Health again. Those take a little more prep time, so I eased back into school with the simpler subjects. We are traveling around the world in Geography, and I have no clue where we are supposed to head next! Guess I need to get some good lesson planning in soon!

Related articles

• Homeschool Checkup (lifeasmomknowsit.wordpress.com)
• Some Encouraging Words for Homeschoolers “In Light of Eternity” (northstarindependenthomeschoolers.com)
• A Day in the Life of this Homeschooling Momma….January 23, 2013 (mytropicalhome.wordpress.com)

 

Homeschool Checkup

We are still on a break from school. I just need a bit more sleep at night to fully function as a teacher during the day.

I plan to start on Monday with a bit of work. I said that about this past Monday, but we didn’t get anything but a library trip done this week. The baby did have an audiologist appointment on Tuesday that kind of messed up our schedule. And we had other random things happen that threw me off. I am committed to doing work with the girls this coming Monday, though.

Iris and Lily each received a Kindle Fire from my in-laws for Christmas, so they’ve been reading (and PLAYING!) on those a little. I haven’t monitored it very well, though, so I don’t know that they are actually doing much learning. I just set a time limit for them to use it some each day.

I can tell that we need to get back on schedule soon because everyone appears bored mid-morning. Cartoons and Kindles aren’t keeping them entertained for very long. And when they play together, they are getting annoyed with each other much more quickly.

A friend from church gave me some samples of Touch Math to try with Iris, since she’s a very hands-on girl. It looks pretty interesting; I’ll post more once we actually get into it.

She also gave me some phonics teacher guides and student readers for Kindergarten level that I plan to incorporate into Lily’s lessons. Lily is actually way ahead of where Iris was at this point in Kindergarten work, so she may finish up Kindergarten phonics and reading before the end of the school year and move on into 1st grade work!

Addy still doesn’t show much interest in school for more than about 30 minutes. She’ll be 4 in April, so I’ll be more intentional with her in the Fall. She just enjoys coloring and projects for now, which is fine with me.

So, three weeks off of school after having a baby. I think that’s a decent amount of time. My friend from church said she took off a month when she had her last baby (she has 7 kids that she homeschools!). That made me feel less lazy when we didn’t start up again after 2 weeks.

 

Homeschool Checkup

It feels like forever since I posted on school progress. We have been so busy with other things that I’ve forgotten to post about it!

I am trying to stay as consistent as possible, even with the upcoming baby and major holidays. I don’t want to get off track and then have to go into next Summer for lessons. I want the kids to be able to enjoy their first full Summer here in our awesome neighborhood!

Iris learned how to spell her entire name in CURSIVE! She is so excited to keep practicing it. The lessons are into uppercase cursive letters yet, but she begged me to show her “I” in order to write her name. She has such pretty handwriting, too, which amazes me for how fast she tries to get through her lessons. I am happy to see her wanting to do more writing, just to practice cursive.

She is struggling with counting by 3′s, 4′s and 6′s in math. I am open for any and all suggestions on how to get her to memorize them, if anyone has advice to give. She just likes to rush through things, so memorization of a bunch of numbers doesn’t seem to be what she wants to do. I’ve explained that repetition will help her remember, but I think she just zones out. Hopefully we can conquer it by end of year, though.

In Health, we are talking about healthy choices, which is right up her alley. She loves to talk about making good decisions for food and exercise and safety. We are beginning a booklet about what they can do on their own to keep themselves healthy and safe.

Lily is coming along with her cursive as well. She struggles with the flow of letters like “f” and “h” (lowercase for both), but she is a very new 5-year-old. The coordination will be there eventually; I try not to push her too much to correct every little mistake. She still likes learning new letters, though.

She is zooming through math. We just started adding on number lines; I think it confuses her. She seems to add WITHOUT the number line, as the hopping on the line appears to be too many steps to get to an answer. Just like her mother….doesn’t want to show the work, just the answer.

Lily is also reading now! She has been doing great at her blend ladders and three-letter words. I had her read some of the beginner readers and she was awesome at it! So, we’ve continued with more difficult ones to challenge her. Don’t want her to get bored.

Addy is working on the story of Noah for now. I am stretching out her weekly work to cover 2 or 3 weeks. I am constantly forgetting she is only 3 and may not be ready to sit for an hour with the big girls. She is distracted and asks to go play a lot, so I let her. She likes to color the pictures and make the crafts for the letter she is learning, but actually sitting there and listening to me read a lesson isn’t her cup of tea. And that’s ok for now.

Buddy is becoming more and more antsy during school time. He likes to sit stand on the chair and say “ta-da!” over and over. It’s cute the first time or two, then it’s really disruptive. I put up the gate in his doorway often to keep him confined to play in his room. I definitely see the difference between boys and girls! He is so energetic and aggressive with playing. He wants to climb on everything and everyone and is very physical to get your attention (like banging on the girls’ heads if he wants them to look at him). So, we’ll see how it works out once the baby is here, too!

My plan is to keep going with lessons until the baby arrives and start our Christmas Break at that point. BUT, I have no clue how I’ll feel in the next few weeks; if it becomes too much, I will start our Break early. I am already extremely irritable 24/7. And I ache all day. I can imagine my kids are dying for a break soon! And, I still have some things to get ready and organized before baby, so our break may start sooner than I’d like.

(If you’ll notice, all of the related articles below have to do with cursive handwriting. I feel VERY strongly that children should still learn this style of writing. Just because everything is on computers these days, cursive is a GREAT skill of coordination and a style that should be passed on. Just my opinion, of course.)

Related articles

• “Children should still learn how to write in cursive” [Obvious] (fark.com)
• Curtains for cursive? Typing replaces handwriting in schools (news.cnet.com)
• cursive is not dead (runningmylifemyworld.wordpress.com)
• Why We Should Keep Cursive Writing in Schools (wonderifit.wordpress.com)