Nest of Pleasant Thoughts

When your baby has a cold

2011-11-20T21:34:00.000-06:00

On Tuesday morning my little guy (5 month old) woke up with a stuffy nose and a cough.
Yes, this cold has been going through our house so I wasn't surprised. But being that we have no insurance and that I have a strong dislike toward medication I do my best to never let any cold or cough get out of control.

First things first. If you are breastfeeding your baby then do your best to double up or add extra feedings while they are sick. Never let your infant get dehydrated.
For me this was easy this time, Samuel is a big nurser anyway and thankfully his nose never got so plugged up that he couldn't nurse. In fact most nights he spent in bed nursing:)

Make sure you have everything you need on hand to fight the cold.

vaporizer (cold mist preferred although all I have are the cheapest warm mist available)

nose sucker (exactly like the ones they use at birth in the hospitals)

vapor rub or essential oils

I have an old jar of vicks baby rub on hand that is probably 3 years old but works well to help clear out the nasal passages without the cool sensations of regular vicks rub. My personal favorite is Winter Breeze Vapor Rub or a blend of rosemary, lavender and eucalyptus essential oils diluted in olive or coconut oil.

As always do your own research into the essential oils to make sure that your baby won't react although I personally have never had an issue.

I also found it helpful this time, both for my back (nursing in bed and my back don't get along) and for his nose, to warm up my buckwheat hull neck pillow and then add a few drops of rosemary essential oil to the ends and drape it around my neck while nursing.

One more helpful hint. When using the nasal aspirator it is sometimes helpful to drop a couple drops of a saline solution into each nostril prior to sucking. This helps to loosen up the mucous making it easier to remove. If you don't have saline solution on hand you can also squirt a bit of breast milk into the nostrils with the same effects:)

Hope this helps you weather the cold months ahead!

Feel free to share any tips that you have found helpful.

And don't forget that keeping your little one healthy often means we as mommies will lose sleep so take naps when you can and drink plenty of water.

Nothing worse that a sick baby AND a sick mommy.

Jessica

Bad Days

2011-07-28T21:19:00.000-05:00

Today was tough.

I don't like to admit it often but being a mom is just plain hard work and some days I'd just rather not.

God is working though, to teach me obedience on bad days. Days where I'm frustrated and discouraged and where the enemy (Satan) is seeking to destroy me.

I sat back at the end of today and realized that instead of giving in to my bad feelings and taking my anger out on other (my kids). Somehow (by God's grace), I don't think my children even knew that I was having a "bad day". We read books, played games, went swimming, ate cookie dough, had pizza, didn't do chores and I didn't "lose" it all over any of them.

It made me stop and think...and then God stuck this post-it note in my brain.

Can you have a "bad day" and keep it a secret from your family? Do your children and husband really need to know that it's been a tough day? Can I take my pity party and lay it at my Father's feet and be content not to let anyone else know?

"Be confident of this very thing,

that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ,..."

Philippians 1:6

Handmaking Christmas

2010-12-10T11:25:00.000-06:00

With the emergence of Dollar stores in the past few years it is very tempting to load up on a bunch of cheapo toys and gadgets to give for niece and nephew gifts but something in me fights against doing that. So I'm going to pull out my long dormant crafty side and whip out some super cute gifts. I also wanted an excuse to buy fabric so that my kids will have some on hand to mess around with.

Here's what I will be working on:

Felt Brown Bag Lunch

Art Tote

Child's Apron

I also have been throwing around different ideas for my sister and sister-in-laws but have settled on this super easy and cheap gift.
P.S. if you fall in the above category don't look at this link:)

Question Jar

And if I'm a good homeschooling mom!?! I will have my kids join me for some easy sewing lessons:)

Weekly Wrap-up: The Outdoors Version

2010-04-05T15:27:00.000-05:00

On the 1st day of Spring it snowed......
On the last week of March it was summer.....

Not sure what happened to Spring but maybe we'll see it yet.

The temps read in the low 80's most of this week so we did light schooling in order to enjoy some extra outdoor free time. You never know how long it will last so I like to take advantage of the sun and warmth when able.

We are winding down our 2nd term of our school schedule and will be missing our beloved Little Duke but I'm excited to begin reading the Merry Adventures of Robin Hood!
In our History book "Our Island Story" we have been reading about the battles in the Hundred Year's War, this is written from a British perspective so Ali and Tom have been cheering on the English army in the battles with the French. I will be interested to see how they will react when in term 3 we will be a French perspective through Joan of Arc's eyes.

We are still focusing on Living Math through books I've snagged at our Library.
Our favorite this last week being "Math for All Seasons". Ali and Tom had already looked through it but we had a good time solving the riddles and looking for faster ways to figure the problems out.

We also picked up some math drills again this week and continue doing mental math informally. Next term I will use Ray's arithmetic more fully and we will add Miquon Math back into our routines.

Wes wanted to do his school so we pulled out the Cuisenaire Alphabet book for him to try. He is a hand-on learner and really enjoyed working these pages.

Pleased with his work on the "A" page.

Our Cecropia Cocoon in a jar....waiting to see if it will transform into the moth.

To close out our week we had a Fool's Day meal. All enjoyed the time and it will be a tradition to carry on for many years to come.

Menu Plan Monday - April 5th

2010-04-05T14:49:00.001-05:00

Even though I skipped posting my menus last week I did continue to cook from my menu list.
I apparently hate to be tied to a strict schedule and ten to swap around the whole 2 weeks of menus to suit my time and taste needs but it is still working.

I have noticed now that I have been menuing for a month here that I have more food on hand than I would if I just winged each meal and shopping trip. I've also taken more time to prepare foods ahead so my freezer keeps fuller as well.

I've been setting Tuesday's aside as Kitchen Days and work on baking, cooking and cleaning for as much of the day as I can. By doing this I have been able to make and freeze: mega muffin mix x5, cooked hamburger x6, burritos x12, runzas x20, cooked beans x10 cups and cooked chicken and chicken broth. This has made prep for meals and afternoon snacks much easier.

Tomorrow I will be making and freezing: meatballs, cooked chicken and broth, brown-bag burritos and more mega muffin mix.

On to the Menu Plan for this week!
I keep my menu list in a clear vinyl cover sticky-tacked to my fridge.

BREAKFAST:
same old, same old
Oatmeal - cooked, baked, boiled and fried....it's cheap and nutritious so it's a big staple for us:)
Rice pudding
Eggs and Toast

LUNCH
Beef & Cabbage Soup
Homemade Mac and Cheese
Brown Bag Burritos
Spaghetti & Meatballs
Scalloped Potatoes

(I add veggies and fruits to each meal just depends on what is in the freezer or fridge. We usually have at least 1-2 sandwich meals each week as well.)

SUPPER
Spanish Rice
Chili & Cornbread
Ranch House Chicken Casserole
Meatball Chowder

Hmmmmm, I need some more recipes here but what is on my list won't work because I ran out of cheddar cheese again and I am low on rice until I order it from my food co-op. I've got lots of chicken but need to do a refresh on my menus since it's getting warmer here and I don't like to cook many soups or casseroles in the spring and summer.
I'll probably work on supper meal ideas tomorrow during Kitchen Day.

If you are hitting a wall with recipe ideas I'd encourage you to check out books that your library has. I recently did this and came away with a great Amish cookbook as well as some "old" favorite type recipes. I find it helps to peruse a cookbook as opposed to a recipe website. If you are on a budget then I would recommend staying away from any recipe book that calls for odd or rarely used ingredients

Happy Cooking!

As always go Here to find tons more ideas and recipes.

Simple Woman's Daybook - March 23rd

2010-03-23T23:23:00.000-05:00

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...it's dark. Sun has set, kids and hubby are peacefully sleeping. I think the wind has died down a bit after a breezy but nice and sunny day.

I am thinking...that I should be in bed. I have been edgy this evening simply from tiredness and clingy babyness. Lord willing I will sleep better tonight but I should have turned in an hour ago.....slow learner.

I am thankful for...the days end, lol. Food on the table, husband's job, healthy children. There is much to be thankful for in my life.

From the learning rooms...scattered right now. Keeping it going but trying to get better organized. I should have waited to start using a work box/file method until after the term ends.

From the kitchen...had a profitable day. Made 5 double batches of Many Muffins Mix, cleaned the chest freezer, made a batch of Artisan Bread and mostly kept up with the dishes thanks to my hard-working children.

I am wearing...blue pants, blue shirt, shoes on sore feet.

I am creating...a ChorePack system.

I am going...to town tomorrow, maybe. Hopefully it won't rain and we will be able to meet another family at the park to play!

I am reading...various articles, nothing much specific at this time just snatches here and there.

I am hoping...for clear weather tomorrow.

I am hearing...my hubby snoring on the couch. Poor man is waiting up for me.

Around the house...we have hermit crabs from Louisiana thanks to a neighbor boy but I don't think they are going to make. There hasn't been any movement for a looooong time so they are probably dead. Only 1 moved since bringing them home and we simply are not prepared to keep and care for them at this time, but it's been neat for the kids to get a hands on lesson with them since we've been reading about hermit crabs in our Natural History lessons.

One of my favorite things...kisses from my kids. Ali likes to kiss lips for bedtime, Emi isn't much of a kisser, Tom gives sloppy kisses, Wes kisses cheeks, Will gives silly kisses and Sadie is still learning:) So sweet. Must collect more before they're gone.

A few plans for the rest of the week: more cleaning , more organizing. Taxes are at the CPA's so that's a load off and we should get them filed this week.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

from an adorable coffee shop that I wish was closer to me

Menu Plan for this 4th week of March

2010-03-23T12:30:00.000-05:00

I'm really liking the general menu plan that I've made and have found it very easy to switch around the order as needed to help and not hinder my days.

I hang my menu list on my fridge so that it is always visible and I am working on getting myself into the routine of preparing my supper meal right after lunch or right along with preparing lunch.
I do need to start getting more detailed with my side dishes so will be trying to add that to this next set of menus.

Last time I went shopping I forgot to list exactly how many blocks of cheese I needed to buy to prepare the listed dishes so I did run out early but have been able to make needed adjustments without too much trouble.

BREAKFAST:

7-grain Cereal
Oatmeal
Rice Pudding
Scrambled Eggs
Blueberry/Raisin Biscuits
Baked Oatmeal

LUNCH:

Fried Rice
PB & J
Goulash
Potato Soup
Runzas

SUPPER:

Honey Ginger Stir-Fry
Baked Beans
Crockpot Hamburger Veggie Soup
Crock Cabbage Rolls
Chicken Lasagna
Crockpot Spanish Rice
Homemade Pizza

You will probably find repeats from last week here but that is simply because I didn't make it last week and swapped some meals around :)

I like the flexibility that this open-ended menu gives me. I have a tendency to get locked into a calendar menu and feel like I can't possibly prepare the Wednesday meal on Monday or I'm simply doing it all wrong......neurotic, I know.

Make sure to check out more menus and recipes at Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Mondays.

Priorites of a Home School

2010-03-23T10:55:00.000-05:00

I have just finished reading a delightful and insightful article written by Charlotte Mason for the 3rd volume of The Parents' Review (1892-93) called "The Home School".

I am going to do my best to narrate back what I remember from my reading......and I'm seriously fighting the urge to grab the paper and re-read it (that would so be cheating!)

Miss Mason was writing for those parents that were homeschooling their children using the curriculum provided by her school. She felt that no parent should be ashamed or disappointed if their children were unable to attend a public or private school because she was convinced that on the whole the Home School was the best teaching and training ground for children provided the parents took a serious and active role in educating their children.

I was vastly encouraged when when she stated that it is nothing for a teacher to organize and teach a class of 20 or so children of the same age and grade but a much more difficult task to teach and organize a class of 3 children in 3 different grades.....Amen sister!

Miss Mason takes great pains to enumerate on the benefits of both education and experience for the teacher. She tells us that experience is not necessarily the best teacher in all matters because so often bad habits are trained through experience when this could have been avoided through better education.
She is quick to point out though that the experience of learning is quite a different thing and when one has a teachable spirit there are very few doors that aren't able to be opened.

Next she lays out the very basic priorities that should be included in every Home School.

Most importantly is the learning of the Bible. She places the importance of learning the stories from the bible for not only moral and language learning but mostly of spiritual training. The system used in her schools was for a short portion of the scriptures to be read and then to be narrated back word for word as possible by the student. She encourages the teacher or parent after the narration to feel free to ask a few questions if this will help the understanding of the student but to never consider the answers as narration. She also encourages the teacher to add any historical notes or insights that will be a help to the student.
She very specifically points out that there should be NO written narrations by children under the age of 10 siting that it is too easy for the child to put out poor work because they are not capably ready to write good composition before this time.
I was convicted by her statement that it is much easier for a teacher to set the student to write a narration because that then frees up her time for other things but that the more difficult task is for the teacher/parent to require a spoken narration from the student because it takes her time and attention.
(for a simple bible reading plan see my Scribd documents in the side bar)

Next in importance is the learning of History. She encourages the learning of Greek and Roman history and details some of the benefits of children learning from Plutarch's Lives.

She also encourages all teachers to put much effort into Natural History, not just in reading about areas of Natural History but to get in touch with Nature.
It is very important she says for children to keep tadpoles and caterpillars and other creatures to learn first hand about them. What is read in books should be a side benefit of learning Natural History not the whole of the education.

Physical Education and drills rank high in Miss Mason's list as well and she encourages teacher/parents to not just have their children go through the motions of the drills (Swedish) but to make sure that the children are using and training their muscles in the work.

Lastly, she encourages all parents to take the brave step into the world of foreign languages. I appreciate how she breaks down the learning to just 40 lines of a french tale for 1 term as a manageable amount. Miss Mason shows of the high esteem she has for children by affirming her belief that the students will surprise the teacher/parent by how much is learned and retained by consistent work in this area.

As a closing reminder Miss Mason clarifies that these schooling priorities should never consume a child's whole day. She reminds teacher/parents that 5 of the 13 waking hours of the child should be spent in free play and 3 of those say between the hours of 2 and 5 pm should be spent out-of-doors. Short lessons as always are an important essential and she places importance on not nagging or badgering or humiliating the student who does not complete the work set before them in the proper amount of time. There is nothing like personal experience for the child to learn to value time and do the work allotted for that specific time.

I hope you were encouraged and educated a little by my narration but I would highly recommened that you read the real article yourself.
You can find it here in the Parents' Review articles posted under Volume 3, title The Home School.

Simple Woman's Daybook - March 16, 2010

2010-03-16T13:02:00.000-05:00

FOR TODAY.....March 16, 2010

Outside my window...Cloudy, again. Cool and a bit breezy. Maybe later today the sun will come out and brighten things up a bit.

I am thinking...am I? Not sure. For some reason I couldn't go to sleep until around 1a.m. this morning and Sadie was restless last night but surprisingly I'm not too foggy.

I am thankful for...God's patience with me. I am so thick-headed it seems and very, very selfish but God continues to love and draw me and teach me His ways.

From the learning rooms...Due to time change we are running late all day long. It's 12:42 and lunch hasn't happened yet, it's in the crockpot but I didn't get it there until 11 so it's almost there. Yesterday we managed to get Circle Time done but the rest of the day was spent in cleaning up. Today we didn't get started until 11 so we have a bit to do this afternoon.

From the kitchen...It's clean! I've got lots of hamburger to cook up and cream to turn to butter and chicken to freeze and broth to freeze and, and, and,

I am wearing...black yoga pants, pink sweatshirt and since I haven't found sock yet I'm still in my slippers.

I am creating...school work files for the kids.

I am going...nowhere for a bit, need to work on taxes for the next couple of days first.

I am reading...the book of Matthew, Merry adventures of Robin Hood, Raising Godly Tomatoes, Don't make me count to Three.

I am hoping...to get laundry caught up today and to caulk around the bottom of my toilet so that when it overflows it no longer pours potty water all over my clean baskets of laundry like it did this morning. Sigh.

I am hearing...Adventures in Odyssey on the internet, El Rushbo on the radio and Emily skating in the livingroom.

Around the house...the boys are making houses and forts out of the couch cushions.

One of my favorite things...hot steamy chai tea with lots of cream, I happen to be out of chai tea at the moment so of course I'm craving it!

A few plans for the rest of the week: laundry, cooking, taxes, school planning.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

My girls!

Find more wonderful Daybook entries here.

The Pantry is Full - What's for Dinner?

2010-03-15T11:40:00.001-05:00

Finally after wandering around searching for the last 5 minutes looking for my Home Management Notebook where my menus are kept.
Which proves that you don't have to be super or even mildy organized to make and use menus!

Last week went pretty well and I mostly stuck to my menu plan.
This week my cupboards are full though my fridge still needs some organizing and wiping.

Instead of using a specific day plan I'm using a general plan of options for each day.

BREAKFAST
(I don't rotate daily necessarily, depends on how the night with little one went. Our staple is oatmeal)

Apple Oatmeal
7-grain Cereal
Rice Pudding
Oatmeal
Biscuit Egg Sandwiches

LUNCH

SUPPER

Baked Chicken Legs
Taco Soup
Chicken Licken (crockpot)
Crock Cabbage Rolls
Homemade Pizza
Pancakes & Eggs
Chicken Pot Pie

I'm using the FREE downloads for menus and shopping lists from Money Saving Mom this time around and I'm really liking the layout and how many different options you can choose from.

I'm going to be working on organizing a Baking Day alongside my Kitchen Day and I'll start by using the basic recipes given in this E-Book from the Family Homestead.

As always don't forget to check out all of the wonderful menu plans on Organizing Junkie.

Weekly Wrap-Up: Mud & Bugs Week 20

2010-03-14T20:07:00.000-05:00

It's still wet. And muddy.

It's supposed to be APRIL showers not March!

But it is getting greener and since I banned carpet from my main living areas in our house years ago I really don't need to complain. The crawling baby complicates things but at least my floors get mopped a whole bunch more than normal.

This week we got caught up......almost. One scheduled chapter in An Island Story got left behind but it's short so we should be able to get it in this next week.

Mr. Dad has every other Friday off of work right now and this past week was a free Friday week so we did a light school day and then visited the Insect Zoo nearby. Originally we were supposed to visit the zoo back in December after finishing Term 1 and a 12 week insect focus, but it just didn't happen. Better late than never though.

Is there anything cooler than huge insects that freak your sister out!

Ali found an insect that didn't "freak" her out.

Up close and personal

Hungry anyone??

Weaver Ant Eggs, preserved Grasshoppers, preserved Silk worms, preserved Mole Crickets

Yes, these are for eating!

Of course, we can't have an insect zoo without some mind-numbing insect movie!!!! Heaven forbid the children actually learn without being glued to a tv.

Playing pretend adventures with large bugs.

Willy loved the dark room with the flashlights and spiders!

Sadie was just happy to be on the floor.

My favorite was the walking stick displays. They are in there.....can you see them?

Wes liked this snake that one of the employees kept at the zoo.

We finished listening to Burgess Animal Book this week much to the delight of Tom, and Ali's disappointment:)
We also made it through all of the long chapters in The Little Duke so were able to get current with those readings as well. Tom and Ali have struggled off and on with narrating from this book but as we have worked to slow down on it we have really enjoyed the adventures of the Little Duke (Richard of Normandy). I think we will miss him but next in line is Joan of Arc so the middle age adventures are sure to continue.

This week I did well with getting math done daily and moving forward in that and incorporated a couple of living math books during Circle/Morning Time which created a lot of discussion for the rest of the week.
By the way do you know what a googol is? I didn't until we read On Beyond a Million.

Along those lines there is a great group on yahoo for living math and in the files is a looooong list of living math books that are sure to please both parent and child. We have read several and will be working our way through the list for quite awhile.

I'm working to set up and use a workbox type system this next week and concentrate on the habits of attention and obedience during school time for all of the kids. Hopefully I'll be able to report some progress or success along these lines next week.

Thoughtfulness

2010-03-09T17:50:00.000-06:00

In a thinking mode lately and seeking and praying for direction and guidance.

Do I switch to workboxes?

Should I start Wes with Kindergarten work?

How do I fit in everything I feel we are missing?

Mostly, I'm fighting to keep my focus. To not be distracted by what others are doing and what works for them, but prioritizing what our goals are and how to meet them.

Praying:
His priorities become mine
I do not waste my time on frivolous ways

Reading:
Magnanimity Newsletter
PNEU articles
For the Children's Sake
School Education

What are Runzas????

2010-03-09T17:17:00.000-06:00

"Runza? What is that?"

If you are from the midwest, like me, you know the answer.

If you are from another part of the country you may have eaten one but it just has a different name.

"A runza (also called a bierock, fleischkuche or Kraut Pirok) is a yeast dough bread pocket with a filling consisting of beef, pork, cabbage or sauerkraut, onions, and seasonings. They are baked in various shapes such as a half-moon, rectangle, round (bun), square, or triangle. In Nebraska, the runza is usually baked in a rectangular shape. The bierocks of Kansas, on the other hand, are generally baked in the shape of a bun." (Wikepdia)

Where I grew up my favorite fast food restaurant was Runza.
But where we live now the closest restaurant is ummm, actually I'm not really sure. Maybe 1.5 hours away.

I make my own. There's tons of recipes just google or try one of the following.

These freeze great so make up a ton.
My SIL adds cheese to hers and then uses canned cream soups mixed up as dips for the sandwiches.

If you are nursing and aren't used to cabbage be aware that your little one may react to the extra "gas", and you may too:)

Original Runza Recipe with variations

Runza Recipe with pictures

Runza (meat pies) with pictures

Pantry Eating Menu Plans

2010-03-07T20:52:00.001-06:00

I'm working on eating from the pantry for this week and last week. We did end up doing a bit of basic shopping yesterday in town spending about $46 on some basics and snagging some good deals that a couple stores where running due to Grand Opening gigs.Here is a rough outline of what we will be eating this week.

BREAKFAST

eggs & toast
perfect steel cut oats
rice pudding
oatmeal
10 grain cereal
breakfast casserole

LUNCH

tomato soup & cheese sandwiches
fried rice
baked potatoes with toppings
hot dogs & carrots slices
sandwiches with fruit smoothies
fried potatoes with sausage

SUPPER

baked beans
barbecue chicken & mashed potatoes
chicken pot pie
pancakes & eggs
homemade runzas
pizza

I know I have enough food on hand although I am running a bit low in some areas....especially veggies. I do have 2 heads of cabbage and 2 heads of cauliflower and a couple of sweet potatoes, oh and a bag of frozen brussel sprouts so I'm sure we will make it work:)
The toughest this week will be having good food on hand for my 9 month old. I'll reserve the sweet potatoes for her and she could eat mashed cauliflower too. She eats soft-boiled egg yolks and I do have plenty of eggs on hand, I will also probably make up some yummy baby custard for her and maybe some arrowroot crackers as well.

Anyways this is the rough draft but I'm sure it will change with inspiration or tiredness....whichever comes first!

Weekly Wrap-up of Week 19

2010-03-06T21:05:00.000-06:00

We've had a long, short, crazy, normal week around here.
I'm sure you know what I mean:)

We spent a long weekend at my parents house and visiting family and arrived home late afternoon Monday but since I had made a quick trip to the library before we left I was stocked up with good audio books to listen to while driving. We caught up on our chapters in Wind in the Willows and hubby especially enjoyed the chapter on Mr. Toad.

Unfortunately a trip like that pretty much wipes me out and the rest of the week I've been trying to catch up on sleep, laundry and dishes and trying to get the smoke smell removed from my poor oven after a seriously gone wrong oven clean involving lots and lots of choking smoke filling our house and necessitating a removal of all children for a few hours. (note to self...do NOT clean the oven in the winter, do NOT spill cream into your oven)

So let's see.....we finished reading Tree in the Trail last week and started reading Seabird this week. I printed off a couple notebooking pages and we kind of sort of filled them out. I definitely need to plan this ahead so it doesn't take so much time and let the kids do the research on their own or frankly I just need to forget this extra step.

Due to tiredness and lack of motivation we didn't get much of the foundational subjects accomplished, like math, phonics and copywork but just keeping up with reading our books was enough.
Thankfully the weather has been wonderful all week so we've gone for a few walks and the kids have spent tons of time digging, running, climbing and playing in the yard. A blissful break from the cold although it has included plenty of mud.

On Thursday Mr. Dad loaded the upper 5 kiddos and took them on a "mommy needs a break" trip to a local park. This is more of a nature park that runs along a couple of creeks so of course they had a muddy enjoyable time:) They did explore around and found horse, dog, and coyote tracks and received an impromptu lesson on following and identifying tracks and of course told it all back to me in various forms after returning home. I was especially impressed with Wes (5yo) who drew a picture of the horse tracks.

All in all....we made it! The week is over and it's on to the next thing...until Monday.

I'm rethinking our book schedule and will probably be cutting Pilgrim's Progress out since we will be covering it again next year. I may look into using Pilgrims Progress told to the Children or just take the audio version that we have along with us on some trips. I get the most complaints from this book but I know good and well that they do really enjoy it. I think it would work better for a longer listening period than restricting how much we listen to to keep on schedule. Maybe I'll just slip it in during Quiet Time one of these days:)

February Flab

2010-02-16T20:58:00.000-06:00

Anybody else feel the need to trim things up a bit?

Yes, my waistline is in dire need of this but mostly I'm talking in school/home terms.
Somehow my bookshelves have multiplied and even though I have 5 boxes of packed away books in my basement my 2 bookshelves are overflowing!

I'm sure it has nothing to do with my inability to pass by my libraries used book corner......seriously, can you pass up a 50 cent copy of a favorite or needed book? I can't.

Thankfully, after much prayer and thinking God inspired me and I was able to rearrange our livingroom so that I can squeeze in a couple more bookshelves.
Now just need to actually get those shelves......have to talk to hubby about this one:)

I'm hoping to organize my shelves kind of like a library does...not dewey decimal but more along the lines of a shelf for each year in Ambleside. We'll see what I actually manage to get done.

Here are some different ideas for how other moms have organized their "space".

Our Homeschool Space @ Gaze Into the Heavens

Our Classroom @ Sunshine and Lemonade

Avoiding February Homeschool Burnout before it happens @ Like Mother, Like Daughter

Organizing Children's Books A Category Simple Method @ The Tranquil Parent

Organizing Part Two: The Bookshelves @ Everyday Snapshots Explores Homeschooling

Bookshelf Organization @ Higher Up and Further In

Organizing our Homeschool @ Color me Orange

How you Organize your Home Library @ Mental Floss

Not to beLabor the point, but... @ The Pioneer Woman

(I could probably keep going all night just to avoid exercising but, for my children's sake I had better knock this off!)

How do you keep it all together?
Do you wing it?
Do you have a "school room"?
Are you drowning?
Does your space flow well?

Blog Carnival going on over at Established Work (my other blog)

2010-02-16T13:29:00.005-06:00

Established Work

Simple Woman's Daybook - February 16th

2010-02-15T23:05:00.003-06:00

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...
It's dark, I'm writing this at night. I really should be in bed after a long weekend with a sick baby but I am still working on breaking my late night computer browsing habit. I think the wind might have died down and amazingly it's a bit warmer out there compared to most of today. Maybe we will see the sun in the morning.

I am thinking...
About books to read, about my sister in Africa, about budgeting, about school tomorrow.

I am thankful for...
Hubby having a long weekend just in time for baby to get sick. Dave Ramsey's steps to financial peace.

From the learning rooms...
I totally bombed on the whole Presidents Day thing today. We read a few books last week and will finish them tomorrow but that will be about it. Just gonna keep plugging away at our daily work.

From the kitchen...
God Bless my babysitter. We have Financial Peace University classes on Monday night right now at church so a dear friend watches the 5 kiddos while we take baby with us and wouldn't you know that she leaves me with a cleaner house and kitchen! No dirty dishes left piled next to my sink.
Tonight I tried something new to me for supper and thankfully it was a hit. My kids call it Enchilada Pizza but basically it's just enchiladas layered into a pan. I did add a can of corn and some chili beans to the meat mix for variety too.

I am wearing...
Jeans, shoes, hoodie

I am going...
Nowhere until Wednesday or so.

I am reading...
Ummm, which to choose! Financial Peace revisited, My Father's Dragon.

I am hoping...
To get outside tomorrow. It's been awhile since I've seen the sun or my backyard for that matter.

I am hearing...
Quiet, Silence.....I'm the only one awake.

Around the house...
Went dumpster diving and got a floor lamp so I need to see if it works and then dress it up, I'm hoping to use it in my newly rearranged livingroom. Finally bought curtains and rods for the kids bedrooms so need to get those hung soon. It's really time I started working my way through the many boxes of papers and junk that I have piled on my filing cabinet too.

One of my favorite things...
Valentines Day....chocolate, lots of chocolate:)

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Complete a budget, exercise 3 times with T-Tapps, pay bills.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

Wes, being a goof while getting ready for bed.

52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge

2010-02-15T22:55:00.004-06:00

Gasp!

I just found this blog and am getting chills at the possibilities. I love to read.....no let me rephrase that, I am addicted to reading and to books. Just ask my DH, he'll tell you.

I blame my mom really, ever since I was a child she would buy a book and then crack it open to smell the inside....you know that "new book smell". Ahhh, nothing quite like it and yes, I do the same:) She also took great care to pick out the perfect book for Christmas to give to each of her children, a practice that I am doing my best to emulate.

So I'm taking this challenge and my only goal is not to get obsessive with it. Got to remember, slow and steady wins the race, I don't need to read 52 books this month:)

Go ahead and join yourself.....you know you want to
52 Books in 52 Weeks

Jessica

Rejoicing in my Savior!

2010-02-14T11:46:00.003-06:00

PRAISE

PRAYER

For my husband

For my children

LISTENING

Sermons

Scripture

THINKING

Bible Reading plans

Slowing Down

2010-02-14T10:05:00.000-06:00

Recently due to some narrating issues that we were having I've had to slow our school progress down a bit.

Granted, this is not easy for me to do.
I'm the kind of gal that likes to check things off of the list....any list. In fact I will make lists of things that I've done just so I can check them off!
I know some of you can relate.

So when I look at the weekly schedule laid out for my kiddos on Ambleside it does not even compute with me that we have a choice NOT to do a certain book or to go at our own pace through other books.

Since this is our second year in using Ambleside I have been able to let a few book choices go but I start to get really worried and anxious if we fall behind in our weekly readings. So you can imagine my dismay upon doing some research and reading into helping my oldest son, Tom, better his narrations when I found one of the best methods would be to SLOW DOWN.

Not just slow the speed of my reading....but literally to take smaller sections of the books and require more narrations.
I wasn't sure how this would work out since we have struggled all year to keep up (adorable baby distractions and the like).

But on the encouragement of a veteran CM'er and her own experiences with narrating I jumped in with both feet.
We started with the last few pages we were reading from "Wind in the Willows" and I took it sentence by sentence reminding both Tom and Ali often to listen to the "first part" of the sentence to be able to "tell back".

I think that last page & a half took us about a 1/2 an hour. But by the end of it Tom was already doing better and was listening and narrating from the "first part" of the sentence rather that just telling back the last portion of what I had read.
Ali, who doesn't usually struggle with narrating unless out of laziness, was a bit frustrated at the slow going initially but gradually caught on and has also been giving better narrations.

We continued this for the rest of the week, sentence by sentence readings with the twins taking turns in narrating back to me specifically listening to the "first part" of the reading. Towards the end of the week I was able to do 2 sentences at a time and Tom has done a much better job of cohesively retelling them in his own words. I have also noticed that in the beginning both of the kids would try narrating back to me word for word what I read, but after encouraging them to use their own words they have been able to take a portion of the reading and tell it back in their own words but with greater detail than if I had given them a larger reading.

I am encouraged though still slightly fretful over the slow progress we will most likely make. I have had to continually remind myself that it would be a pointless journey through these "living" books if my children were unable to train their minds to the habit of attention.

"A vigorous effort of will should enable us at any time to fix our thoughts. Yes; but a vigorous self-compelling will is the flower of a developed character; and while the child has no character to speak of, but only natural disposition, who is to keep humming-tops out of a geography lesson, or a doll's sofa out of a French verb? Here is the secret of the weariness of the home schoolroom––the children are thinking all the time about something else than their lessons; or rather, they are at the mercy of the thousand fancies that flit through their brains, each in the train of the last. "Oh, Miss Smith," said a little girl to her governess, "there are so many things more interesting than lessons to think about!"

Where is the harm? In this: not merely that the children are wasting time, though that is a pity; but that they are forming a desultory habit of mind, and reducing their own capacity for mental effort."

Home Education pg 139

In the wonderful issues of the online newsletter Magnanimity published by Karen Glass, she has an article that has been a breath of fresh air to me entitled "The Still Progress of Growth".
In it she points out that we need to view our children's growth and education like a tree growing. We may not see with our eyes any growth but we do not always know what is going on under the surface. Roots are being pushed deeper, limbs become denser, sap is rising to produce more fruit.
Our children are the same way. Being able to check off of a list that we have read a particular chapter is fine, but if I have not taken the time to slow down and train habits of attention and listening so that they may order their thoughts. Then I have not necessarily made "progress".

"Is there not some confusion of ideas about this fetish of progress? Do we not confound progress with

movement, action, assuming that where these are there is necessarily
advance? Whereas much of our activity is like the waves of the sea, going
always and arriving never. What we desire is the still progress of growth
that comes of root striking downwards and fruit urging upwards. And this
progress in character and conduct is not attained through conditions of
environment or influence but only through the growth of ideas, received with
conscious intellectual effort."
A Philosophy of Education, p. 297.

To read the newsletter Magnanimity - join here.
To read the article The Still Progress of Growth join the yahoo group and find Volume 1, Issue 2.

How to Keep School going all week

2010-02-11T10:11:00.000-06:00

Still working on this one!
This year we've been using a 5-day week schedule but I'm seeing the need to revamp it and change to a 4-day schedule. It seems we end up doing 4 days anyway and at least 1 day is a catch-up or errand day.
Also recently my husbands work schedule has changed so that every other Friday he has the day off and obviously it would be nice to be more free from a schedule when he is home.

It is extremely helpful to be able to make cd's of the books we are reading from librivox and take with us if we are traveling. Someday here I will get another mp3 player or maybe (Lord willing) even an ipod! I'm always leery of purchasing higher priced electronics just because of the destructive nature of children......especially mine, but I'm really missing the help of my old mp3 player in getting all of the kids readings done.

If you have and ipod or mp3 player available to you I would highly suggest using it for your kids school readings. I found that my oldest son, who often has difficulties attending to my reading with other noise and distractions going on around him, could narrate back more of a story he had listened to on the mp3 player because the other noise was eliminated.

Don't be discouraged if your schedule seems to need constant revamping and reworking....I have realized that this is just life and our job is to remain fluid in it. Be purposeful in your school time but don't fret the small stuff.

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival - February 16th, 2010

2010-02-10T14:45:00.000-06:00

Welcome to a Presidential edition of the
Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival!

Charlotte Mason Educating

Habit Formation: What about our own Habits @ Habits for a Happy Home

Slowing Down @ Established Work

Habit Formation: Habit of Attention @ The One Thing

Charlotte Mason Methods and Non-Traditional Learning @ Epi Kardia

"Science of Relations"...and a happy dance moment! @ Bugs, Knights, and Turkeys in the Yard

Plants of Renown @ Sage Parnassus

"I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man." - George Washington

Literature

Shakespeare @ Sunny Scholars

Introduction to Biblical Poetry @ Life Nurturing Education

The Importance of Reading Aloud @ Seasons of Learning

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same."
Ronald Reagan

The Great Outdoors

The Beginnings of a Robin Study @ Handbook of Nature Study

February Nature Notables @ In the Sparrows Nest

"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

The Arts

Hymn @ Sunny Scholars

Great Reproductions: Another Helpful Lesson in Art Copywork @ Harmony Art Mom

"Patience and perseverance have a magical affect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish." - John Quincy Adams

Hands On

Handicraft/Life Skills Challenge: Olympic Edition @ The One Thing

"Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them." Abraham Lincoln

Extras

Little Bear's Birthday Soup @ God Made, Home Grown

Masterly Inactivity: Wisely Passive Techniques to Get Kids to Eat > Taking a Detour: One good way to neutralize a kid’s food resistance @ Sacred Appetite

"There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live." - John Adams

Thanks to all for the wonderful, insightful, encouraging and informative contributions!

Don't forget to submit your Charlotte Mason articles to The Holistic Homeschooler who will be hosting our next Carnival on March 2nd.

Food for thought

2010-02-07T15:19:00.001-06:00

My sister has a blog and I'm sitting here weeping over her recent post....please visit

A journey to Leaning on My Beloved

Narration Encouragement

2010-02-03T12:52:00.000-06:00

We sailed through our first term this year with loads of great and thorough narrating especially from my oldest son who has always struggled with language arts stuff. I was pleased and excited and really felt that we had made it....problems solved, they knew what to do and had acquired the habit of attention for narrating purposes.
Then we had a long Christmas break and ever since starting our 2nd term narrating has been a HUGE struggle. Some for Ali but mostly for Tom, sigh.

So I've been trying to evaluate what has changed and what might need to be changed to help the poor kid out.
First, I remember that I used a narration jar for most of the 1st term and both kids really enjoyed that, so I finally made up more questions this morning and restocked our narration jar.
Second, because I've been frustrated and Tom has been unwilling I've found myself falling into the habit of quizzing, goading and just plain nagging him. Bad mom!!

Teachers become so inured to this practice of goading their pupils' thoughts along prescribed channels, that information not given within the limits they choose to place seems illogical and discursive.

Today, blessedly, I received a very informative and inspiring email from yahoo group AmbleLore. Seriously if you aren't part of this group you simply must join. I don't get to read it that often but when I have read it has been an excellent addition to my education as an educator.

Go, right now and join this group and then look for the message titled On Narration. You won't regret it, even if narration is not a struggle right now this author gives incentive for you and your children to take it to a new level.

You can also visit my scribd docs and find the narrations cards that I just made today (copied from several sources) for our narration jar.

Sunday's at Home

2010-01-31T10:36:00.002-06:00

I'm sure you've had them....sick kids, sick mom, bad weather etc.
I've had more than usual this past year, it seems that my body doesn't bounce back quite as quickly as it used to after losing several nights sleep:)

Today Sadie and I are tired. Poor Sadie is teething or something but is very needy and tired and just plain not sleeping well so we are resting.

But home does not take me from the presence of my Lord! Here is where he is speaking to me.

Cornerstone Church Sermon "Don't Get Carried Away" pt.1

Personal Study

A Broad Education - The Arts

2010-01-29T14:42:00.000-06:00

When children have begun regular lessons (that is, as soon as they are six), this sort of study of pictures should not be left to chance, but they should take one artist after another, term by term, and study quietly some half-dozen reproductions of his work in the course of the term.

Charlotte Mason - Home Education pg. 309

Something wonderful has happened in our home over the past year or so and I can't help but lay my personal thanks to Charlotte Mason and her ideas on "short lessons". Instead of sticking to only the basics of school subjects I have been able to open broad doors to a very liberal education for my children starting at a young age.
Left to myself I would never have felt able to tackle such subjects as literature, world history, art, classical music and composers, poetry and handicrafts. But being bolstered and instructed by an experienced educator (Miss Mason) we have boldly entered into each of these subjects.

"the lessons are short, seldom more than twenty minutes in length for children under eight..."

I have talked with other home school mom's who wish to add many of these border subjects to their child's school routine but are too overloaded with current schedules or unsure of how to proceed that they simply don't even try. Frankly had I not read Miss Mason's work I would have been in the same boat. It seems as though we as home school moms feel that we must cover all or not at all, we tend to overdue all subjects especially those that are not considered basics. Normally I would have approached art study or composer study thinking that we needed to read several books on the artist or composer and hear or study all of their works. Miss Mason's protocol for art and music study would have seemed very simplistic.
Thankfully, I was willing to try and have been overwhelmingly pleased with the results. Not only do we have the time (5-15 minutes, once a week) to study paintings and listen to musical selections we have also learned from narrating our impressions to each other and each of my school age children has enjoyed learning more about a particular artist or composer on their own.

The art training of children should proceed on two lines. The six-year-old child should begin both to express himself and to appreciate, and his appreciation should be well in advance of his power to express what he sees or imagines.
Charlotte Mason - Home Education pg. 307

If you are using Ambleside Online's composer rotation then at some point you will want to listen to Jean Sibelius's Symphony no. 1. I can't say that I've heard this symphony before or for that matter much at all by Sibelius but I am happy to say that it is a very good piece and we all enjoyed listening to it as well as watching the orchestra perform it.

You can read more about the symphony here and more about Jean Sibelius here.

If you are looking for an avenue for your kiddos to learn more about the symphony and the various musical instruments then I would highly recommend the games found at Carnegie Hall Listening Adventures. My children have really enjoyed playing the games and have learned a large amount about instruments and the symphony. They can each name the instruments by sight although we are still working on being able to name them by sound.

FREE Eugene Field Resource

2010-01-19T13:55:00.000-06:00

If you are using Ambleside Online curriculum and in Year 2 or looking ahead to using Year 2 then you will want to download these resources.

Available today through Homeschool Radio Shows and audio biography of Eugene Field and an ebook of poems from Mr. Field.

Don't miss it!

When Life gets in the way of blogging

2010-01-17T21:19:00.000-06:00

Okay so really it's the other way around but since the holidays are past and we are on the tale end of doing some remodeling and school is back under way I might get a chance to drop in here and post some stuff.
We took the entire month of December off from formal school and while it was really very nice and needed it was a bit too long. I stopped thinking in school terms. Not the worst thing in the world but kind of makes starting up again a bit sluggish. The plan was to start school the first week in January but I realized after returning from my parents house that I hadn't planned the first week out much less the entire term and so I spent the week planning and organizing.
It was worth the effort as this last week (our first in term 2) went by smoothly, not easily just smoothly:)
So far so good but we are already behind in 1 history book ( The Little Duke) so we will be reading a bit from it every day to keep up. I've found that this year I've had to spread our readings out over an hour or so but have to keep rotating books because I can't stay awake while reading in the afternoon much longer than 15 minutes. Such is life with a baby.
I'd like to add in some extra studies this term but it just may not happen, and that's okay too.

Simply Devotional

2009-11-18T15:33:00.003-06:00

The last couple of days God has given me the promptings and alertness to make time with Him my first priority of the morning. I tend to be the type that overdoes and over plans EVERYTHING!
You know, morning devotion had to be with a hot cup of tea; sitting in my recliner; complete silence of sleeping children; and very early in the morning so that I could completely focus on my bible reading and study for a solid 45 minutes.

Yeah right!

Yep, you guessed it. It almost NEVER happened. And so I just kept feeling guilty.

But then it hit me that I could do more than nothing.
I started by implementing the repeat method with the shortest book in the bible. After all surely I could read 14 verses at least a few times a day.
Then I realized that I could do this very easily first thing upon waking.
So now I keep my compact bible next to my bed. Sometimes I'm nursing baby, or have kids bouncing on the bed but in this very simple easy way I can meet with my Lord first thing. And sometimes I bend my knees next to my bed and converse for just a few moments before the craziness starts.

Another lesson learned....simple is best!

2009-11-16T12:45:00.004-06:00

FOR TODAY
November 16th

Outside my window...
SNOW!! We woke up to a blanket of wet sticky snow covering the grass and then shortly after breakfast it started snowing again. I guess by the end of the storm we are supposed to have around 6 inches total, but since it's not very cold out I don't expect it to stick around very long.

I am thinking...
of too much. Trying desperately to find some sense of organization but after being up last night with a teething baby I think a nap will take higher priority.

I am thankful for...
sleep, food, my husband's job, healthy children.

From the learning rooms...
It's been pretty rough around here lately. Last week I cut school short so that we could get some cleaning done but this week I need to push through school even though I have some pretty messy areas in the house still. We only have 2.5 weeks of our first term left but it is getting oh so hard to keep going.

From the kitchen...
Dirty dishes....everywhere:( Since it's snowing and since I've got a sweet tooth we will be making some homemade French Beignets (donuts) and some hot cocoa for a nice afternoon snack. I finally (Praise the Lord) got a dishwasher to replace my old and broken one but we need to get 1 more hose to get it installed and working. Lord willing that will happen this weekend and I will consequently get caught up on dishes a bit quicker.

I am wearing...
Comfy and warm yoga pants and a hoodie:)

I am creating...
Organization! I'm reading through Survival for Busy Women and installing the box system to organize my small house so that I can get more use out of every inch of space. This is the same system that Michelle Duggar uses and recommends in her book "20 and counting".

I am going...
We were supposed to have a field trip (just our family) to the local Insect Zoo to help round out our Nature Study of insects but since I wasn't sure what the weather would hold for the rest of the day I decided to cancel. The kids were kind of bummed but we should be able to reschedule for next week.

I am reading...
George Muller biography
2nd John using the repeat method
Survival for Busy Women by Emily Barnes

I am hearing...
Sadie squealing for some attention, mostly quiet since I sent everyone else to separate rooms for Quiet Time.

Around the house...
We discovered this weekend that our house has no insulation on any of our outside walls!!! This discovery was made after trying to find the source of the mold that has been growing on the boys' room walls and ceilings and around the girls' window. Of course this will mean a total overhaul of each and every room to put insulation in but thankfully we have a small house so it shouldn't be too expensive and DH and my brother can do the work themselves. I'm hoping we can postpone it until after Christmas since the kids and I will be staying at my moms for a week or so afterwards.

One of my favorite things...
Starbucks new instant coffee! I'm in love.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Clean the laundry room. Make 1 week of supper menus out.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

Emi in the leaves

Read more daybook entries HERE

Narration Gathering

2009-11-14T13:30:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I just need a one-stop shop for all the ideas that I find around the internet. So in order to facilitate my being able to find what I need when I need it and to hopefully help some of you out as well I'm gathering all the links and articles that have helped me with narration.

I'll also post these in the side-bar.

We use narration daily instead of tests or review or questioning. After I finish reading a portion of whatever book we are working through I pass around our Narration Jar and let the kids each pick a question. Some questions aren't always appropriate for what we have read so it's not a hard and fast thing.
Each child must narrate. I don't require long answers but "I don't remember" or "I don't know" are not passing grade:) If a child balks or can't seem to come up with anything I either move on to the next child (I have 2 in 2nd grade-twins) or I may ask a few general questions to help stir their memory. I have often found it helpful to narrate to them what I remember. Sometimes I have one of the children ask a question and each of us has to answer it.
I have found that using the narration jar and questions gets better co-operation and more enthusiasm than me just asking "what do you remember".
I haven't been really good and consistent about writing down narrations but I am making a better effort towards that end.

In case you are wondering, out of the 3 children old enough to give me narrations my son (8) by far gives me a shorter narration than my girls, but he has made tremendous progress. Tom didn't begin talking until he was 3 and spent a couple years in speech therapy, but after just one year of narrating his speech was brought up to his age level and now in our third year of narrating he is able to remember and narrate more than the last sentence!

It has been my experience that shorter portions of harder or highly detailed books makes narration much more doable for my kids. Pictures of what we are reading about are sometimes helpful as well.
My daughters both enjoy drawing their narrations while my son does not. Ali and Emi can narrate after longer passages while Tom does better with shorter ones.
The slower I read the better.

Anyways, I hope this helps and encourages you. If you are struggling or feeling like this isn't working please don't give up.
Relax and try again tomorrow.

NARRATION WHY AND HOW:

The art of Narrating
Narration Reminders from Jimmie's Collage
Narration and the Narration Cube
Articles on Narrating from Lindafay
Narration Jar from A Dusty Frame
Narration Ideas from Simply Charlotte Mason
Parents' Review Article at AmblesideOnline
Narration Bookmarks at Gentle Art of Chaos (I love these!)

Narration Starters

WFMW-Bathroom organizing

2009-11-11T15:47:00.004-06:00

Sometimes it take awhile for me to figure out how best to use organizers. But after a couple of years of these baskets sitting around with no particular use, I finally hit upon an idea that has worked.
Years of having brushes on the bathroom counter and hair paraphernalia in a hard-to-open drawer has made this carrier so helpful. I divide the brushes, hair elastics and barrettes into each separate slot so that everything is easy to find and grab when needed. I keep this on a shelf in the bathroom cupboard under the sink.
(I do have more brushes than is shown but a couple of long-haired children tend to wander off with them and not return)

Although daddy keeps his brush separate to avoid sharing with the kiddos this has helped so much in keeping the kids' toothbrushes from ending up on the floor or the counter smeared in toothpaste. This also sits under the sink on a shelf. Yes, my toothbrush is also in that mix somewhere but a few minutes of running under hot water before use does away with any phobias I might have:)

Week 9 Wrap-Up

2009-11-07T20:52:00.000-06:00

Combine sick baby, potty-training toddler and time change in the same week and to be honest school takes a bit of a back burner. We were able to get some done every day but not all. Thankfully I'm really too tired to worry about it and since we did keep up with our weekly reading schedule I won't fret about what wasn't finished.

The weather this past week has been simply amazing! Sunny and warm, so we have spent many, many hours outside playing. We have 2 large sycamore trees in our backyard and their leaves are simply huge so make wonderfully large leaf piles to jump into. We have yet to make it to the local arboretum for some exploring since Sadie was born but maybe it will happen this next week.

Ali and Tom are getting the hang of Miquon Math and seem to be enjoying the format of the books. Emi is exhibiting more staying power with her math and phonics and is still making rapid reading progress.

We enjoyed listening to the newly purchased Pilgrim's Progress mp3 cd for our weekly reading and I think the kids will be able to get a bit more from it than before.

We spent a few hours at a local city park one afternoon as well.

Nothing exciting or extremely note-worthy at least that my sleep-deprived brain can remember:)

First Things First

2009-11-04T21:57:00.000-06:00

It's taken me awhile to implement and I'm still pretty new at this but thanks to some encouragement we have begun a new practice in our home.

After Breakfast....
Before kitchen chores....
Before Circle Time....

Each child gathers their bible from the "bible shelf" in the livingroom and returns to our table. We open to the portion of scripture we are reading through (James right now) and then 1 by 1 we make our way verse by verse.
Most days we cover about 8 verses or so, 2 per reader, although while we were reading the Psalms we usually read a whole Psalm. After we read and after I've explained any hard words, we open up our journals to write. So far I'm keeping this pretty relaxed, just gently encouraging each one to listen for His voice, for a rhema. Some children do record, others simply talk it out, I always write my own thoughts in my journal.
When we finish in our journals I open up a tiny notebook that has become our family's prayer journal. I've been taking George Mueller's advice and recording the dates that we begin praying for things so that as the answers come we can record that as well. I ask for prayer requests and we read over the ones from the past days and update as needed. I also use prayer updates provided by Voice of the Martyrs so that every day our focus goes beyond our little house to the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world.
Usually all of the children are eager to pray and then I close our time together with a prayer.

A few weeks ago I would have thought this daily habit something impossible to begin or keep and frankly what would have been the point...aren't they too young to understand...to hear? But thankfully my heavenly Father knows best.
My first inkling of change came on Sunday morning at church. Honestly, it's been a dry few months in my own spiritual life. But this Sunday was different, I came excited, I came feeling full, I came thirsting more. I was not coming to receive but I felt like I was coming to give! Why? What changed?
God and I had met, had spoken, had communicated in those after breakfast times in His Word with slow beginning readers, ornery little boy antics, and fussy baby snuggles.

And then today, we read about being doers of the Word and not hearers only and discussed bridling our tongues and being slow to anger. Wouldn't you know that each of us was given a chance to be obedient in these areas and to encourage each other with scripture!

I encourage anyone who reads this to make being in God's word a priority over chores, school and housework it is a thing worth doing, of lasting value.

Seeing what we are Reading - Burgess Animal Book

2009-11-04T15:35:00.000-06:00

In following year 2 of Ambleside we have been reading the Burgess Animal Book for Children. Well, okay, we've been listening to it thanks to Librivox.
I wanted the kids to be able to picture the animals that we have been reading about so I went searching and found a great picture album put together by Lindafay on shutterfly. The only problem was that I had to search through the whole thing to find the correct pictures and I kind of wanted something a bit more detailed.
So I created my own album.
I'm not quite finished yet but so far I'm liking how it's working. I've made an album for each of the chapters in the book with the same title so that I can just click on the chapter we are listening to and look at the pictures of those animals. I've also tried to listen to each chapter with the kids and make sure that the pictures I have chosen correspond well with the description Mother Nature provides for us in the book.
Check it out and see what you think.

Burgess Animal Book Pics

Works-for-Me Wednesday Thanksgiving

2009-11-03T19:56:00.005-06:00

Every year about this time I get a hankering to do some baking. My specialty is pies. I've been known to drag 8-10 pies on a 3 hour drive to family get-togethers every thanksgiving.
I love experimenting with new recipes and making every tiny thing from scratch including whip cream and pudding for cream pies! So much fun and soooooo good.
A few years ago my mom showed me this pie bag she found for rolling out perfect pie crusts and I have used it every time ever since. I found it at the kitchen gadget store at our local mall, so if you're tired of scraping flour off of your counter or having your pie crust disintegrate before it reaches the pie pan then you will enjoy using it.

Week 4

2009-09-29T15:52:00.000-05:00

So I'm a bit late posting this but I guess, better late than never.

Last week was a bit rough, mostly my fault for staying up too late for several nights (C. S. Lewis Space trilogy is just too good!) and not resting during the day. But we made it through with only a little bit of reading to catch up on.

Our fav thing of the week was finally getting the timeline up on our hallway wall. Everyone has enjoyed looking at the pics and dates and can't wait for Fridays when we put any new ones up.

I had 1 set of timeline figures from Homeschool in the Woods (yellow lines) and then copied that format and made the rest of the dates myself. I used different colors for each of the different time periods and followed the measurement guidelines given by Terri at Knowledge Quest.

I spent some time before school started going through each book for Year 2 from Ambleside and made my own timeline cards. Most of the info was taken from Wikipedia and didn't take long at all. Someday when I figure it out I'll make it available as a download.

Everyone enjoyed browsing through new library books and we've been reading some of them during circle time.

Emi worked on her reading skills using Bob Books. She is making progress but I'm finding it interesting meeting her needs. She is a very quick learner which means she gets bored easy. She is also a young 1st grader so some things take a bit longer for her to get figured out simply because she lacks the patience to learn it. I did find some great resources for reading practice and phonics work here and for the most part they have engaged her a lot better and spurred her on to try harder. I'm also planning on ordering this adorable reader for her to gain more confidence with.

We've been using Tanglewoods Corebook Health & Safety guide for a weekly focus and this past week was Tooth Care. We read some books from the library and talked a bit about keeping our teeth healthy and then of course we all had to practice it.

Over the past weekend I had a crisis about math study and was concerned that I was focusing too hard on drill work and not enough on math concepts, so I spent some time re-reading what Charlotte Mason had to say on the subject and then going over the links given on Ambleside Online. I decided that I just needed to strive for better balance than I was giving so am currently trying a rotation during the week using Calculadders, Math-It and Quarter Mile Math for drill work; Miquon Math and Family Math for mathematical concepts and Ray's Arithmetic for well, arithmetic. So far it's working o.k. I just can't quite check out of teaching like I'd kind of like to do:)

Don't forget to check out more great posts HERE!

Simple Woman's Daybook - September 29

2009-09-29T09:12:00.005-05:00

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...
The sun is shining, it's a bit chilly and the kids are all begging for jackets "with hoods". I'm slowly digging out warmer clothes as I weed out the summer clothes while I fold laundry. The weather has definitely turned "fallish" and even came close to freezing last night. It seems early for this kind of weather but I'm pretty sure that I blinked and missed a couple of summer months.
I am thinking...
About school and how to better organize our time so that we get the big rocks put in our day first. I'm inspired by Ann's way of journaling what has been done throughout the day instead of looking at a list of what hasn't gotten completed.
I am thankful for...
Teething baby who wants to be held and comforted by me, little boy eager and excited to ride a big bike, hubby who spends his free time fixing broken vehicles to save us large amounts of money.
From the learning rooms...
Crying with the Little Duke over the loss of his father, laughing with Betsy as she experiences a new life, sweating over arithmetic trying to beat the clock, kids giggling at mom holding a tickling worm during nature study.
From the kitchen...
With help from friends the piles and piles of dishes got washed so now I'm doing my best to keep up with them. Need to make some Porky Pine meatballs with about 6#'s of hamburger to eat for supper and freeze for later.
I am wearing...
Pretty much whatever I could find in the dark this morning pulled from my very disorganized drawers. Red yoga pants, wife beater and red shirt.
I am creating...
Lists....in my head. As soon as I get to the store I'll be buying pant for the kitchen cupboards in order to create a lot of mess for a lot of beauty:)
I am reading...
Finishing up Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, a few chapters into Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I am hearing...
Son playing Mary had a little lamb on the piano...note to self schedule a piano lesson in for today, baby fussing for being laid down for a nap, daredevil son riding his bike komokazi style.
Around the house...
Big plans for painting and finishing rooms so that we can sell house soon. Papers to file, laundry to fold, rooms to clean etc. ad infinitum.
One of my favorite things...
Sipping on a hot cup of aromatic hazelnut coffee while sitting in rocking chair snuggled with little son on lap.
A few plans for the rest of the week: GOING TO GRANDMA'S HOUSE.............need I say more:)
Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

Read more Daybook entries Here.

Are you living in the Safety Zone?

2009-09-23T13:03:00.000-05:00

Week 3

2009-09-18T16:11:00.000-05:00

Week 3 has come to a close, mostly. I'm still in the process of getting our wall timeline put together, I have the people printed out and ready to mount and finally today got the date strips printed out so maybe tomorrow or next week we will actually get all of it posted on the wall.
Since I'm new to posting our weekly wrap-ups I didn't grab the camera until today so my pics are fairly limited.

Highlights:
Seeing our monarch chrysalis turn into a butterfly!
Playing battleship for math lesson.

We are starting to get into somewhat of a routine around here although not as consistent as I would like. This week we ran late everyday but it still worked out well and I felt more relaxed by spreading out the lessons than trying to cram them all in during the morning hours.
Ali and Tom are doing well with their "daily vitamins" i.e. Calculadders, but we've had to start back at the beginning using Math-it. I'm not using a textbook for math until they have their addition facts down cold and are able to quickly add large numbers. I plan on using the shortcut adding methods suggested in "How Stevie Learned his Math".

Gathered around for circle time

I'm still working on streamlining Circle time and making it more enhancing for the younger kids and will hopefully have things in better order next week.

Egg-citing Levitation experiment......it worked!

Experimenting with different density liquids

It took a bit of help but they did get the concept of battleship and were really enjoying themselves until they bumped their boards and lost the pegs.

Copywork using Italic Handwriting from Penny Gardner

New Experiences in Nature Study 2

2009-09-15T18:19:00.000-05:00

The miraculous happened this morning!
While breakfast was being made one of the children noticed that the chrysalis had changed color and was now almost black. I knew this meant that the butterfly would emerge soon but I wasn't prepared for how soon.
Ali noticed it first, the butterfly sitting outside of the chrysalis, we immediately took it outside to the porch where it could be in the sun and removed the cheesecloth lid. I was a bit worried at first because its wings were so small, in fact they were only half the size of the butterflies body. But it did not take very long before they began to lengthen and spread out as the butterfly shook them.
We spent a lot of the next 2 hours or so watching it grow and move. It would unroll its tongue out and move its legs and continued to shake its wings. After awhile it just sat very, very still and I explained to the kids (who kept wanting to poke it) that butterflies rest with their wings closed.
About 2.5 hours after it emerged and while Ali and Will were watching it took off in flight.

New Experiences in Nature Study

2009-09-07T20:03:00.000-05:00

This term in school we are studying insects as suggested in the Ambleside Online rotation. Initially I had planned on using Apologia's "Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day" but felt that it was a bit too much to handle for me as a teacher this year. Instead I downloaded Barb's "Outdoor Hour Challenges" for insects and plan on using them. I also spent some time reading portions of the Handbook of Nature Study to familiarize myself with what insects we should look out for and some places to find them.
As I was browsing through the butterfly section I read how you could find Monarch Caterpillars on milkweed plants especially in the month of September, so on Monday, our nature study day, we walked to the end of our block where I knew there were several uncut milkweed plants. It took us a bit of looking and poking around but just before we were ready to give up we spotted a caterpillar sitting on a leaf.

The kids quickly ran back home and got a jar and some scissors so that we could take it home. Luckily I thought to grab an extra top from another milkweed plant to stick in the big jar at home because this would come in handy very soon.
We brought "stripey" home, put him and a couple stalks of milkweed into a gallon size glass jar, spread some cheesecloth across the top and then waited.....and waited......and waited.
I thought we had killed him somehow when after 24 hours he hadn't so much as moved a muscle, but lo and behold he was in the process of shedding skin. We were able to observe the tail-end of it and then stood in amazement over the next few days as we watched this little caterpillar eat, and eat, and eat and eat.
The boys would try to race the caterpillar at supper time to see if they could eat as much as fast as the caterpillar did; my husband and I would laugh as we watched it's little head tick back and forth while it ate reminding us of a typewriter and my girls got completely grossed out as the bottom of the jar filled with caterpillar droppings!
Once everyday I would boil some water on the stove to add some humidity to the air (not that it was needed much) because we were instructed not to let the air get too dry. We also replenished the food supply a couple of times and cleaned out the droppings as well.
On Saturday I took it out to clean the jar and add fresh milkweed but noticed that the caterpillar was hanging upside down and it's back-end was attached to the stem. I decided to leave it and just see what would happen. Sure enough later on it let go of the stem and just hung so I assumed that it would be changing into a chrysalis soon.
We missed the transformation because it happened while we were at church but you can see how it happens here.

Can you imagine the excitement when we came home and saw no longer a two inch upside down caterpillar but a tiny little jade chrysalis?

Now we wait. According to HNS it will take about 12 days to mature into a butterfly, but the changes to the chrysalis each day are absolutely amazing!

"The monarch chrysalis is, I maintain, the most beautiful gem in Nature's jewel csket; it is an oblong jewel of jade, darker at the upper end and shading to the most exquisite whitish green below; outlining this lower paler portion are shining flecks of gold."
HNS page 307-308

Simple Woman's Daybook - August 17th Edition

2009-08-17T11:30:00.002-05:00

FOR TODAY...

Outside my window...Bright and sunny after a good drenching rain for most of the night. Great day for a picnic lunch and a nature walk.

I am thinking...that I need to make a schedule for time spent on the computer for both myself and the kids.

I am thankful for...getting our computer back and working after contracting a huge nasty virus on it.

From the learning rooms...now that I have the computer back I need to sit down and get our schedule printed out and finish processing just how our days should go. I have all the books that I need right now although Wes (4) is expressing interest in doing school so I may need to grab a couple things for him....maybe.

From the kitchen...Made a batch of W.W. Pineapple muffins this morning and they turned out really good. I messed with an applesauce muffin recipe to make this happen so I'm glad they turned out. I will sort through the tomatoes that I picked and get them canned today after I check the garden for anymore. Hopefully hubby will get the stove part that we need to fix my big burner or canning will be pretty slow going:)

I am wearing...comfy clothes!

I am going...walking for exercise later tonight.

I am reading...Middlemarch by George Eliot

I am hoping...to get most of the kitchen dishes washed!

I am listening...to Rush Limbaugh and Sadie waking up

Around the house...needs to be cleaned

One of my favorite things...waking up to rain hitting the window

A few plans for the rest of the week:Canning, school planning, homeschool kickoff meeting, cleaning, Wednesday night church.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

Join the other Daybookers @ Simple Woman's Daybook

Run to Christ Jesus!

2009-06-28T17:32:00.000-05:00

Run for you Life!

2009-06-28T17:10:00.001-05:00

Simple Woman's Daybook - June 24th edition

2009-06-24T10:57:00.005-05:00

FOR TODAY...

Outside my window...hot, hot, hot

I am thinking...that I need to stop messing around on this computer and effect a change in the state of my house

I am thankful for...a patient husband, children that sleep at night, air conditioning

From the learning rooms...still reading

From the kitchen...hoping to get some baking done today

I am wearing...red tanktop, white shorts, tennis shoes

I am praying...for patience and energy and joy

I am going...nowhere today or the rest of this week if I can help it although a date night would be really nice

I am reading...Big Red, Laying down Rails, Peter Pan

I am hoping...to have a clean livingroom by the time hubby comes home

I am hearing...kids not doing there chores, daughter singing, toddler being too quiet

Around the house...it's a mess. We haven't gotten everything put away from our week stay at my parents house and the lack of a dishwasher is really taking its toll.

One of my favorite things...laying in bed at night listening to the silence of children sleeping peacefully.....can you tell I'm a bit stressed:)

A few plans for the rest of the week: bake and cook and clean

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

getting dizzy and sick on the merry-go-round at grandma & grandpa's
(after several turns on this Wes came in a threw up all over the kitchen floor!)

join the daybooking club here

Menu Plan Monday.....on Wednesday

2009-06-24T10:34:00.003-05:00

BREAKFAST
oatmeal
eggs & english muffins
baked oatmeal
eggs & toast
coffee cake

LUNCH
hot dogs, chips, fruit
sandwiches, carrots & celery
goulash, salad
crockpot spaghetti, green beans, french bread
hot dogs, veggies
fried potatoes with ham, green beans
pot roast, potatoes, carrots, salad (Sunday Lunch)

SUPPER
abc soup, french bread
enchiladas, corn, green beans
au gratin potatoes, peas & carrots
leftovers
pepperoni pizza, salad
baked beans, cornbread, salad
biscuits & gravy, fruit

SNACKS
frozen fruit cups
muffins
coffee cake
oatmeal raisin bars
cookies
popcorn & fruit

My goal today and tomorrow is to bake and prep some food ahead of time to make the flow of meal making a bit easier.
I'm hoping to:
brown hamburger, make biscuit mix, cut up veggies & freeze, bake french bread, freeze pizza crust, shred cheese, make cornbread mix, make frozen fruit cups, bake & freeze muffins, bake oatmeal raisin bars & some cookies, make coffee cake mix.

Right now this list seems impossibly long considering that I can not walk through one room in my house without tripping over something. And of course since I've spent the last hour that Sadie has been sleeping on the computer instead of cleaning it may take a bit to get started! But I do feel better and more focused just by having this all written down and planned so that is success.

Home Education Food for Thought

2009-06-24T10:13:00.000-05:00

Here are some great blog articles that I have run across that keep me energized and focused.

How to Nurture Geniuses

Pros and Cons to Homeschooling - Why We do it

Exposing the Seven Major Blindspots of Homeschoolers

Homeschooling Heresies

Heart Encouragement

2009-06-24T10:00:00.002-05:00

Life is tough right now.

Blending a new little one into a family is a joy but it is a long and sometimes difficult process and my energy and joyfulness have taken a beating.
God in His renewing mercy has led me to read these blog posts today and I am encouraged!

Choose Your View

As You Love Me

Joy Habit - My Joy has no Regard for Circumstances

Peace is a Person

Tunnel Vision

Simple Woman's Daybook - June 15th Edition

2009-06-15T10:08:00.004-05:00

FOR TODAY....

Outside my window...birds singing, green grass, growing garden. I'm at my mom's this week so it's a bit more peaceful out here in the country

I am thinking...that I need to lay off the sweets and caffeine and take a nap....like all day!

I am thankful for...the older kids sleeping well at night and PBS kids for the mornings:)

From the kitchen...mom made scones this morning and they were yummy!

I am wearing...black capris, red t-shirt, no shoes or socks

I am going...nowhere today but have family to visit and plans for the rest of the week.

I am reading...Mary Poppins (it's a free read for school next year) and hoping to start Peter Pan with the kids today.

I am hoping...to get a nap

I am hearing...quiet, this house is bigger and I'm in the back:)

I am praying...for my cousin's job security, for my husband, for my uncle and Grandpa

One of my favorite things...listening to all the birds wake up and sing each morning. There is a wider variety of birds at my mom's house so it's been fun to try and match the song with the bird.

A few plans for the rest of the week: camp for the older 2, swimming, museum trip, visiting cousins, garage sales, Goodwill trip and maybe some swimming

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

picnic on a cool day @ Grandma's

Join the daybooking club here

Squidoo lenses that excite me

2009-06-10T22:10:00.000-05:00

Make your Own Notebooking Pages

Creating Geography Treasure Boxes

Using Drawing with Children

Native American Crafts & Activities

I have found notebooking resources for the book Seabird and Pagoo which we will be using in Year 2 of Ambleside Online this next year but I am wanting to try one for the Tree in the Trail book as well. I haven't found any notebooking pages for that book yet so I will be attempting to make my own in the next few weeks.
I really like the idea of the geography treasure boxes as well. My little sis will be a short-term missionary in Kenya next year so I will be incorporating a unit study style of learning for our family while she is away. I'm planning on focusing on Africa as a whole and then zeroing in on Kenya. It should work out nice since we will be reading about David Livingstone as well.

Simple Woman's Daybook - June 8th edition

2009-06-08T10:08:00.005-05:00

FOR TODAY...

Outside my window... sunny, humid, beautiful

I am thinking...that I need to grab Sadie and feed her and sit and relax for the rest of the day! Why do I have such a hard time relaxing?

I am thankful for...my children, who continue to love and forgive me regardless of my faults

From the learning rooms...we've been doing lots of reading for the library program and will try to get some wildflower nature journaling done this week.

From the kitchen...dishes, dishes and more dishes! I'm researching dishwashers and will be getting a working one soon, Lord willing:)

I am wearing...shorts and a striped shirt with flip-flops

I am creating...ideas for things that I won't have time to do for awhile

I am reading...several books

I am hoping...to get caught up with laundry

I am hearing...the bell from my phone meaning that I have a text

Around the house...I'm declaring Mondays to be bedroom cleaning day! At least this Monday is!

One of my favorite things...talking to my 2yo ds, he's such a chatter box.

A few plans for the rest of the week: cleaning house

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

Emi with a bouquet of wildflowers that she picked.

Great Home Remedies Websites

2009-06-02T20:23:00.003-05:00

I just got a call from my little sis about an ear issue and how to deal with it and bumped into a new home remedies website that I wanted to share:)
Also here are a few other sites that I frequent for natural home remedies, herbs and nutrition.

Well Tell Me
Home Remedies - new site I found today
Bulk Herb Store
Mountain Rose Herbs - cheap organic coconut oil sold here!
Naturally Healthy - I have all Shonda Parker's books and find them indispensable.
Nourishing Our Children
My Home Remedies

Simple Woman's Daybook - June 1st edition

2009-06-01T17:53:00.005-05:00

FOR TODAY...

Outside my window... children playing

I am thinking... of nothing in particular

I am thankful for... hubby only working half-days all week

From the learning rooms... started the reading program from library today and gave the older 3 kids phonics lessons.

From the kitchen... didn't pull out the chicken pot pie stuff in time to defrost and make for supper so DH ran to town to get some frozen pizzas

I am wearing... black capris and baggy t-shirt

I am going... to bed early.....hopefully!

I am reading... Power of a Praying Wife for SHMILY TIME

I am hoping... for something chocolate

I am praying... for my husband, for patience, endurance and joy for me

I am hearing... a little boy pushing his car on the street instead of the driveway.....sigh

Around the house... trying to keep up with basics and kids chores while we get back into the swing of things

One of my favorite things... kissing chubby baby cheeks!

A few plans for the rest of the week: concentrating on keeping healthy and recovering

Here is picture thought I am sharing...
our little plot of land

Read more daybook entries at Simple Woman's Daybook

Enter into His courts with Praise!

2009-05-31T11:49:00.001-05:00

Baby is Here!

2009-05-25T16:29:00.000-05:00

We have been blessed with the early arrival of an adorable baby girl!
You can read more at this blog.

Simple Woman's Daybook - May 25th edition

2009-05-25T13:20:00.006-05:00

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...birds singing, light breeze, cloudy and muggy

I am thinking...that I'll help myself to another bowl of homemade baked beans

I am thankful for...the blessing of family

From the learning rooms...directing very little thought to this area right now:)

From the kitchen...since kiddos are at Grandma's this week we are taking it easy. I made some baked beans this morning just cause I was hankering for some.

I am wearing...the smallest maternity clothes I can

I am creating...a blog post

I am going...absolutely nowhere!

I am hoping...for another restful night

I am hearing...the quiet created with 5 fewer people in my house.....a little too quiet

One of my favorite things...chocolate ice cream, and there's even some in my freezer

A few plans for the rest of the week: see midwife tomorrow for postpartum and baby checkup, sleep, rest, sleep, eat, sleep

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

Ali took this picture of Emi, Wes, Sadie & me shortly after we arrived back home.

More Daybook entries can be found at The Simple Woman's Daybook

Baby is Here!

2009-05-25T13:13:00.002-05:00

Sadie Teresa
born on: May 21st
time: 5:51 p.m.
weight: 8 lbs. 8 oz.
length: 19 inches

It is my pleasure to announce the much anticipated arrival of the newest member to our family! She arrived on Thursday, May 21st after a few hours of labor and an interesting delivery. She is healthy, beautiful and adorable. Her siblings are enthralled with her and love to help with all facets of her care:) We are enjoying a quiet rest this week while the rest of our children are whooping it up and Grandma and Grandpa's place (thanks mom & dad).
Thank you for your prayers, support and encouragement.

Simple Womans' Daybook - May 18th edition

2009-05-18T16:03:00.004-05:00

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...windy, sunny and green

I am thinking...about how little I got done today but how nice it is to relax once and awhile

I am thankful for...slow days like today

From the learning rooms...school is over but planning for next year is in the works. I got the last book that I needed for next year and will be pre-reading several of them. Also making a light school schedule to use throughout the summer.

From the kitchen...have a crockpot of spaghetti sauce cooking and need to cut up the cooked chicken to freeze and throw in the sauce. Our neighbor's husband is very ill so will be taking her some supper tonight.

I am wearing...The largest most comfortable maternity clothes that I can find:)

I am creating...a letter to my great aunt

I am reading...John Adams by David McCullough and The Tale of Despereaux to the kids

I am hoping...baby will decide to join us in the next 12 hours!

I am hearing...kids playing outside

Around the house...keeping things prepped for baby's arrival

One of my favorite things...quiet time in the afternoons

A few plans for the rest of the week:tomorrow is my last prenatal appointment and hubby will be coming with us. Other than that just keeping things ready for baby to come.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

a rainy afternoon when they were all so little

read more daybook entries at The Simple Woman's Daybook

Finishing up School

2009-05-11T12:45:00.000-05:00

Officially we are done with school!
Last week was rough and distracting so we didn't do a great job of getting stuff done. I plan on continuing copywork, phonics, and reading lessons throughout the summer and need to make out a rough schedule for that so that it actually gets done:)
We do have 1 more Shakespeare play to read but other than that we have competed all of the reading for Year 1 from Ambleside. We also finished up our read-aloud Pinnochio which we all enjoyed thoroughly. Next on the list will probably be Little House on the Prairie.
For this summer I'll have the kids join a summer reading program through the library and I'm going to try to get us out of the house to various free nature locations.

I have been contemplating how to go about implementing our schedule this next year and am leaning towards a 12 weeks on 4 weeks off schedule. This would have us taking off December, April and August and continuing with school through the other 9 months of the year. I think I'm just going to have to try it to see whether or not it works for our family. I like the idea of it I just know that July can be an incredibly busy month for us with 4 birthdays and swimming lessons etc.
At least I have a few months to decide:)

I think I've lost my Marbles!!

2009-05-06T14:16:00.003-05:00

Week 36

I'm not sure if it's the 5 kiddos that I have, the 1 I'm expecting, the extra gray hairs or the fact that I'm now in my 30's. But I seem to have lost my short term memory!
Distraction doesn't even cover my current condition and unfortunately I don't see much hope for the near future.
I throw away things I should keep, I forget bills that need paying, I sit when I should be cleaning, and I can't trail a paper if I wanted to. Unless I intentionally pay very close attention to exactly where I lay something down or put it away, it's pretty much a guarantee that I won't remember anything about it later.

This pregnancy has been very different for me for the reason that I haven't hardly focused on it at all! Usually I re-read several childbirth books and pregnancy books and I track everything and keep all sorts of lists. This time, with schooling and extra activities my whole pregnancy seems to be a bit of a side issue:)
A couple of weeks ago I panicked to realized that I had nothing ready for the baby, so in a splurge of energy I deep cleaned our bedroom, got the playpen set up, baby clothes washed and diaper bag packed. Phew! That felt better.
Now I'm panicking that I don't have my things packed or my birth kit ordered or freezer meals made up!
It's always something.

For my sake I am listing here the things that I need to take care of in the next couple of weeks.

Order Tummy Wrap for postpartum
Make up Comfrey Tea Pads for postpartum care
Order Birth Kit
Pack Overnight bag for hubby and myself
Make at least 14 meals for the freezer.
Balance Checkbook and write out Budget for June.
Make Menus for the next couple of months.
Write out phone contact list and/or program numbers in cell phones.
Hit a few more garage sales to add a bit more to my baby stash.
Declutter, Clean, Declutter, Clean, Declutter, Clean.

Utilizing Yahoo Groups for your CM Homeschool

2009-05-04T15:44:00.000-05:00

I am continually amazed at the amount and wealth of information that is available through the internet these days! While I have not even begun to tap all of the resources listed through Ambleside Online I have found even another outlet of amazing information through YahooGroups.

I highly recommend searching out these groups as well as using the Yahoo search tool to find other groups you might be interested in. I found several just by typing in "Charlotte Mason" and "Ambleside".

Here is a list of the groups that I have joined:

AmbleLore

Ambleside_Online_Curriculum

Ambleside_Year0

Ambleside_Year1

AmblesideOnline

AO_HEO_Schedules

AOArtPrints

AOCopywork

AOLessonPlans

AONarration

AO_Timeline

CharlotteMasonKindergarten

Charlotte_Mason_Friends_in_(your state)

cmason

CMcurricula

CMforMomsofMany

CMseries

understandingcharlotte

This may seem like a lot but not every group has a ton of activity and I always opt for the daily digest emails so that my inbox does not become too overloaded. I usually just scan the titles of each digest and if I'm interested in a particular post I click on that link. Also, I rarely post on these, mostly just glean information from others and utilize the files sections. The FILES are where I have found many wonderful treasures. Not every group will have files to access but a lot of them do and they are well worth your time to investigate.

Spelling Made Easy in the Early Years

2009-04-30T15:48:00.000-05:00

I'll be honest from the start here, spelling has never been a problem for me. I have siblings who struggle with it but honestly until I read Charlotte's writings on spelling I could never figure out what their problem was. As I've studied teaching approaches and learning styles I have figured out that my learning style (60% visual and 40% auditory) plays a large part in why I don't struggle with spelling and why others do. The more of a visual learner you are the less trouble you will likely have because you automatically "see" the words and remember them.

But the fact is, the gift of spelling depends upon the power the eye possesses to 'take' (in a photographic sense) a detailed picture of a word; and this is a power and habit which must be cultivated in children from the first. CM vol 1 pg 241

Of course as a teacher though, the last thing that I wanted was for it to be a problem for any of my children, so I have always been interested in the various programs and curriculum that tout complete success in this area. And while most of them seem to be on the right track and do probably accomplish the end goal I had a hard time swallowing the amount of money and time most of them required. Having a large family with children close in age has forced me to look at all things in the view of "how much time will it take?", "how much does it cost?" and "how simple is it?". Upon reading Miss Mason's spelling methods and instructions my criteria questions were answered satisfactorily. Not only is her method a logical approach to spelling success it is very easy to implement, takes very little time, cost nearly nothing and the results can be seen quickly.

Transcription (copywork) should be an introduction to spelling. Children should be encouraged to look at the word, see a picture of it with their eyes shut, and then write from memory. CM vol 1 pg 238

A Fertile Cause of Bad Spelling.––The common practise is for the teacher to dictate a passage, clause by clause, repeating each clause, perhaps, three of our times under a fire of questions from the writers. Every line has errors in spelling, one, two, three, perhaps. The conscientious teacher draws her pencil under these errors, or solemnly underlines them with red ink. The children correct in various fashions; sometimes they change books, and each corrects the errors of another, copying the word from the book or from the blackboard. A few benighted teachers still cause children to copy their own error along with the correction, which last is written three or four times, learned, and spelt to the teacher. The latter is astonished at the pure perversity which causes the same errors to be repeated again and again, notwithstanding all these painstaking efforts. CM vol 1 pg 240-241

The plan that Miss Mason lays out is very simple and this is how we have put it into practice in our home.

During phonics lesson there are always words that the child needs to write, I pick 2-3 of these words and after the child reads the word I ask them to look at the word closely and take a picture of it in their mind. I generally try to block out the other surrounding words to help them to focus better as well. Once they have the picture in their head I ask them to close their eyes and see it and then write it on their paper. I keep a very close watch on each letter they write and if I see them starting to write the wrong letter I stop them and have them re-take a picture of the word. At no time are they allowed to misspell the word.

I also implement spelling practice during the child's reading practice time. After they have completed their reading I pick out 2-3 words and have them take a picture in their mind. Instead of writing this word out though, I have them spell it out loud to me. Again I stop them immediately if a mistake is made and have them re-look at the word for another picture.

At first some of my kids were frustrated and didn't want to try, but after some encouragement and starting with 3-4 letter words they began to gain more confidence and have gradually increased their abilities.

When they have read 'cat,' they must be encouraged to see the word with their eyes shut, and the same habit will enable them to image 'Thermopylae.' This picturing of words upon the retina appears to be to be the only royal road to spelling; an error once made and corrected leads to fearful doubt for the rest of one's life, as to which was the wrong way and which is the right. CM vol 1 pg 241

Once the eye sees a misspelt word, that image remains; and if there is also the image of the word rightly spelt, we are perplexed as to which is which. CM vol 1 pg 241

A mistake that I made in the beginning was to allow the child to say the letters under their breath and then close their eyes and spell. This is not the way to train their eyes to see the word and should not be allowed to take place. I have also not put into practice these very easy steps for most of first grade and I do regret putting it aside for other topics. Kindergarten is a great place to start having the child practice seeing the words they are beginning to read and will give them a cause for much celebrating upon their success:)

Spelling must not be lost sight of in the children's other studies, though they should not be teased to spell. It is well to write a difficult proper name, for example, on the blackboard in the course of history or geography readings, rubbing the word out when the children say they can see it. The whole secret of spelling lies in the habit of visualising words from memory, and children must be trained to visualise in the course of their reading. They enjoy this way of learning to spell. CM vol 1 pg 243

Miss Mason also lays out how to continue increasing the child's ability and practice of spelling through dictation. She advocates not starting this until the child is 8-9 years old or 2nd to 3rd grade. I think the timing of this may depend a lot the child's maturity level but I would say that most children are capable of much more than we as their mothers ask of them. I will not comment much on dictation as we are just finishing up first grade right now, but as I learn more and begin using it I hope to share how it is working in our house.

Steps of a Dictation Lesson.––Dictation lessons, conducted in some such way as the following, usually result in good spelling. A child of eight or nine prepares a paragraph, older children a page, or two or three pages. The child prepares by himself, by looking at the word he is not sure of, and then seeing it with his eyes shut. Before he begins, the teacher asks what words he thinks will need his attention. He generally knows, but the teacher may point out any word likely to be a cause of stumbling. He lets his teacher know when he is ready. The teacher asks if there are any words he is not sure of. These she puts, one by one, on the blackboard, letting the child look till he has a picture, and then rubbing the word out. If anyone is still doubtful he should be called to put the word he is not sure of on the board, the teacher watching to rub out the word when a wrong letter begins to appear, and again helping the child to get a mental picture. Then the teacher gives out the dictation, clause by clause, each clause repeated once. She dictates with a view to the pointing, which the children are expected to put in as they write; but they must not be told 'comma,' 'semicolon,' etc. After the sort of preparation I have described, which takes ten minutes or less, there is rarely an error in spelling. If there be, it is well worth while for the teacher to be on the watch with slips of stamp-paper to put over the wrong word, that its image may be erased as far as possible. At the end of the lesson, the child should again study the wrong word in his book until he says he is sure of, and should write it correctly on the stamp-paper.

A lesson of this kind secures the hearty co-operation of children, who feel they take their due part in it; and it also prepares them for the second condition of good spelling, which is––much reading combined with the habit of imaging the words as they are read.

Illiterate spelling is usually a sign of sparse reading; but, sometimes, of hasty reading without the habit of seeing the words that are skimmed over. CM vol 1 pg 242-243

First Grade - Copywork/Handwriting/Transcription

2009-04-18T15:50:00.000-05:00

After a recent conversation it was brought to my attention that maybe I don't include enough handwriting, creative writing or spelling practice in my 1st graders curriculum.

While at first this comment rather bugged me; after some reflection and thought I decided to use it as an opportunity to analyze whether or not I was meeting my goals for my children in this area. And whether or not I was following the guidelines laid out by Charlotte Mason.

So after a bit of reading and research and thinking I have come up with the following. I feel this is a fair representation of Charlotte's guides and is workable for most 1st graders.

First off if you have read CM's "Home Education" you will notice that there is no mention of copywork in her writings, that is simply because she called it "transcription". You can reference her writings on transcription and handwriting here. (scroll down the page to parts X & XI)

"The earliest practice in writing proper for children of seven or eight should be, not letter writing or dictation, but transcription, slow and beautiful work..." CM vol. 1 pg. 238

First Grade Goals

Short Lessons, no longer than 10 -15 minutes

Learn 1 letter daily, gradually working up to short words and then sentences.

Avoid careless, sloppy work

I can only offer a few hints on the teaching of writing, though much might be said. First, let the child accomplish something perfectly in every lesson––a stroke, a pothook, a letter. Let the writing lesson be short; it should not last more than five or ten minutes. Ease in writing comes by practice; but that must be secured later. In the meantime, the thing to be avoided is the habit of careless work––humpy 'm's, angular o's. CM vol.1 pg. 233

Why you may ask should writing lessons be so short? After all doesn't a child need more practice to get better? And won't he surely forget what he has learned if his lessons do not encompass more than just 1 letter a day?
If you have observed a child of this age writing you will notice that the more that they write the more careless their letters become.
Unknowingly I experimented with this very principle this year while teaching Ali & Tom. Since they had learned their letters in Kindergarten using a workbook, I figured it would be too laborious for them to backtrack and relearn to write their letters in a perfect hand. And everybody said that they should be doing "copywork" for this first year. So we delved into transcribing short sentences accomplishing a couple per week. But I did not expect perfect work and therefore did not get it. It did not matter how short the sentence or how long it was as if they were incapable of turning out beautiful work. I also did not notice any change in their penmanship during other projects and this was very discouraging because if I truly believed what Charlotte said then I was not expecting enough from my children.
So we made a break.
I purchased Penny Gardner's Italic Handwriting and we started over from the beginning. I probably did not need to go back this far but it has proved to be worth it.
Some days they only turn out 1 letter perfectly, other days 1 word and some days several words of perfect handwriting. We have not added sentences yet but I am confident that as long as we continue through the perfect forming of each letter that by the start of next year they will be more than ready to produce the quality of penmanship that I desire.

"Of the further stages, little need be said. Secure that the child begins by making perfect letters and is never allowed to make faulty ones, and the rest he will do for himself; as for 'a good hand,' do not hurry him; his 'handwriting' will come by-and-by out of the character that is in him; but, as a child, he cannot be said, strictly speaking, to have character." CM vol. 1 pg. 234

As they have trained their eyes to look for perfect work I have noticed a difference in their handwriting during phonics lessons and in their nature notebooks. I do not expect perfect work outside of copywork but for their nature notebooks I ask them to write as nicely as they can.
I have found the best approach in training their eyes to "see" perfect work is to ask them if they think their work is "perfect". Nine times out of ten the will reply honestly and will correct their work if needed, the rest of the time I will point out how their letter differs from the original and then work on getting them to see what needs to change.
I should say as well that right now our writing lessons are not longer than about 5 minutes, but as Tom & Ali have become more accustomed to writing perfectly they have been able to accomplish a bit more each lesson. In the beginning though it was a major struggle for them to accomplish 1 letter perfectly.
I think it is wise for us moms to remember that in the case of copywork consistency and diligence in careful, beautiful copywork are much more important than having your child fill in pages of handwriting practice sheets.

Month 8 - On the home stretch!

2009-04-17T20:53:00.002-05:00

This pregnancy has reached the final stages and I am getting very excited to meet this new little one and to frankly be done being pregnant for awhile:)

This baby has been very active but has started to settle down a bit and even get into a routine! He/She usually wakes up shortly after I do and spends a couple hours bumping around and getting comfortable and then is quiet until early afternoon and wakes up for several hours to "visit" and then gets really active right after the other kids go to bed! Should be interesting to see if this continues after he/she is born.

I am at week 33 now and usually go on my due date or a bit late. Thankfully we will be wrapping up school a few weeks prior to this so that there is a bit of breathing room to finish preparing food and house for the new arrival.

Time & Energy

2009-04-17T13:21:00.000-05:00

Have you ever had some thoughts rattling around in your head that you really want to get posted but whenever you have a few minutes your brain just kind of shuts down?

That's how I've been feeling lately.

So for those who read this blog someday in the hopefully near future I'll actually have the time, energy and brain power all put together at the same time to jot down some thoughts I've been having.

But for now I'll just have to keep reading and researching so that I'll have my sources in order when the time comes.

And for those who are interested I'm rapidly nearing the end of pregnancy so that my be part of my brain power problem.

Have a Blessed Resurrection Sunday!

2009-04-12T14:07:00.004-05:00

What a Nature Walk looks like for us

2009-04-11T13:48:00.000-05:00

It's been awhile since we have gotten over to the arboretum.
Combine sporadic weather with a tired distracted pregnant mama and some things just don't happen. The problem is that this is one that should happen more often!
I can't say nature walks are all that refreshing for me right now but the kids have so much fun hiking the trails and running around those wide open spaces that I just simply must make going a priority.
I have set aside Fridays as a break from schoolwork and a day to catch up and go on outings, but I've ranked cleaning the house as much higher a priority than taking the kids out. Not good.
So here's a pledge to do better and to blog about our nature time to help keep me accountable.

Eating lunch before our hike. We sat in the Oak circle this time.

At the start of our hike. Wesley really enjoyed all of the bridges on this trail, 6 in all!

Waiting for slow-poke mom to catch up.

A surprise along the way.

Tom wanting a close up of his flower.

And that's all folks! We had a good time and enjoyed the exercise and change of scenery. This mama's bladder doesn't hold out for more than a couple of hours right now but it's worth the effort.

Sweet things!

2009-04-05T21:44:00.002-05:00

There are a couple of cool things I wanted to pass on to you.

First if you have an account with Shutterfly they have a promotion until tomorrow that you can order 2 8x10 prints for FREE.
I ordered 2 prints and only paid $1.92 for shipping cost!

They sent me a unique code for my account but you might be able to get in on this by signing up for an account or if you haven't checked your email lately you might have a similar deal sitting in your inbox.

The other cool thing is a giveaway going on over at STL Mommy. This giveaway is for a $50 gift certificate for diapers.com!!!
I'm totally drooling over this one and since I get an extra entry by blogging about it :) that is why I'm sharing it here.
Check it out, it never hurts to try!

Diapers.com giveaway

Getting ready for the baby!

2009-03-28T10:29:00.004-05:00

Well as I get nearer and nearer to my due date and getting my first glimpse of the baby that I'm carrying I start thinking of those things that are helpful for postpartum recovery and for the year of breastfeeding ahead of us.

Here are the few items that I have purchased, will be purchasing or am just placing on a wishlist:)

Mama's Milk Tea - Bulk Herb Store
(increase the amount and nutrition of you milk)

Belly Bandit
(get back to your pre-pregnancy size sooner!)

4-in-1 Nursing Shawl - L'ovedbaby
(see a great review about this item at SAGE & SAVVY)

Babysafe Crib Mattress Cover
(learn more about the connection between SIDS and crib mattresses at STOPSIDSNOW)

Bumgenius All-in-One Cloth Diaper
(I love these especially when your out and about)

Nursing Tank Top - Glamourmom

Cotton Nursing Pads and Bra - Milk Diapers
(see review of the nursing pads at SAGE & SAVVY)

Another Giveaway!

2009-03-24T21:22:00.002-05:00

Calling all pregnant women!

Here's a giveaway you'll appreciate.

Head on over to the thrifty and chic mom and enter to win a set of Sane Fitness Preggers cards:)

Giveaways!!!!

2009-03-24T21:06:00.002-05:00

If you simply love getting stuff for free then you must head on over to Money Saving Mom! She has 88 links for different giveaways all over the internet!

And if you love cloth diapers or would like to give them a whirl make sure and check out this super giveaway at Mommies with Cents.
The giveaway is for a $50 gift cert. at Fuzzi Bunz diapers!!!!
I love Fuzzi Bunz and this would be very timely for me with the baby on the way:)

Geography and Paddle-to-the-Sea

2009-03-23T13:54:00.000-05:00

Could there possibly be a better choice for Year 1 students but this book Paddle to the Sea?

Tom, Ali and I have enjoyed reading through this book very much and have learned a lot about the great lakes in the process.
My DH grew up around the great lakes so the kids enjoy asking him questions about each lake that he has seen or been to. For instance we had just read about Lake Erie and where telling DH what we had learned and he was able to add that he had swam in that lake and that it was a murky lake.
We've used mostly maps for learning about the areas that Paddle drifts through and this has worked very well. I have a large U.S. map on our livingroom wall that we refer to for the big picture of where paddle was and is in each adventure.

I also printed out a couple of outline maps for the kids to color in. This map gives a nice view of all the lakes and surrounding states without any state or city names, while this map helps them to locate each state and lake by its name. As we read each chapter I have them color in any new area that we learn about and then we discuss the states that surround each lake and how to tell the difference on a map between each lake.

Another fun tool especially for Tom has been following Paddle's adventures on Google Earth. This has been fun to get a bird's eye view of the areas that Paddle floats through. We have also googled searched the Soo locks and various other landmarks to help with picturing the areas.
And for a grand finale of our geography lessons for the year we will be watching the movie of Paddle-to-the-Sea on youtube. The kids are bummed that I won't let them watch it now but I want them to use their own imaginations of what they think things looked like for Paddle before they see a movie of it. But since the movie is live action and not a cartoon it should be very enlightening to watch.

We are also working on a plan to visit the great lakes possibly next year.

Anyway enjoy your reading and if you've found other helpful links in your research please post them in the comments.

A Bundle of Savings

2009-03-20T14:05:00.004-05:00

I have been working on reducing our monthly money outflow recently by learning more about couponing and cutting our grocery budget and to help me out has been these ebooks.
Right now you can purchase a whole bundle of ebooks for a low price of $17 here.
You will receive "Supermarket Savings 101", "Grocery Shopping on a Budget", "Money saving Meats" and "Saving on Cleaning Supplies". Plus 13 other ebooks full of frugal living advice and low cost recipes!
I've been working through Supermarket Savings and have been inspired to change the way I've been shopping with the goal of reducing our monthly grocery budge by $300! And now I have all the tools at hand to do so.

If you haven't been to these great websites yet please visit them today. You will be amazed at what you didn't know about grocery shopping cheaply with very little extra effort.

SAVING 'O' THE GREEN EBOOK PACKAGE DEAL!

Frugal Homeschooling

Grocery Cart Challenge

Miserly Moms

Saving Cents with Sense

The Simple Dollar

Money Saving Mom

Term 3 Artist Study

2009-03-20T13:56:00.000-05:00

For most of this year we have been using Harmony Fine Arts Grade 1 curriculum for our music and art appreciation and while I love this well put together curriculum I found that there were too many artists for my kids to get a good grasp on and I wasn't getting any of the wonderful extra activities in. So I decided to simplify a bit and go ahead and follow the Art rotation laid out on AmblesideOnline.

Now if you have not gone through AmblesideOnline with a fine toothpick comb yet, then please find an area and start clicking on all of those delightful links that have been provided. I just clicked on a few on the Art Schedule page and am really excited about using them.

In the past a member provided the art prints each term at a low cost but she is not able to do that anymore so you will need to find a way to get them yourself. I would highly recommend joining the AO Art yahoo group because you can download the terms artist pictures and those of past years. While you could print them out yourself at home I have found a cheap alternative that I wanted to share.

Since we have a fedex/kinkos store in the town that I frequent I got online yesterday and registered on their website and then placed an order to have the Van Gogh pictures printed out by them. This was unbelievably easy and took a matter of 10 minutes or so. I chose cardstock glossy paper and full-color copies to be made from the file that I had downloaded from the yahoo group and had uploaded to the kinkos site. And they have a promotion going right now for users to receive 20% off of a printing order so my total cost for having 7 pages printed was under $7!!!

Today I had errands to run in town and dropped by the store to pick up my prints. I was very happy with the results and can't wait to put them in use. I will be putting each print as we view it into a binder with page protectors. I also plan to keep my eyes open at garage sales for some nice 8 x 10 frames so that I can hang a few of our favorites up throughout the house.

Seriously, do you ever wonder what we would do without the internet!

Join the Green Product Giveaway

2009-03-16T21:39:00.002-05:00

A great new blog that I found is hosting a giveaway of natural dishwasher detergent!

Jump on over to enter and check it out.

The Grocery Cart Challenge

Menu Plan Monday

2009-03-16T20:46:00.004-05:00

Here we go! In an effort to establish a much needed habit and to become better organized for baby's arrival I am jumping on board to create and use a menu each week.
I'm going to go ahead and list the plan for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'll provide links when and where I can.

Here's what I've got for this week:

Monday:
cold cereal
hot dogs & grapes
meatloaf & salad
(none of this was on my actual menu but it is what we had)

Tuesday:
7-grain porridge
fried rice
chicken noodle casserole

Wednesday:
rice pudding
tuna noodle casserole
crockpot chicken & gravy

Thursday:
oatmeal
fried potatoes
chinese pork over rice

Friday:
oatmeal
baked potatoes & bacon
bbq meatballs

Saturday:
eggs & toast
sandwiches
baked beans

Sunday:
baked oatmeal or coffee cake
leftovers
navy bean casserole

Well that's all for this week. I'm sure I'll switch a few things around but after writing this out here I know what I need to prep for tomorrow!

Make sure to pop on over to Organizing Junkie to check out other posts about menus.

This week you can visit a whole slew of blogs that participate in Menu Plan Mondays at $5 Dinners blog.

Our First Crochet Lesson

2009-03-13T14:00:00.000-05:00

Today I sat down with both Tom and Ali to begin teaching them crochet.
I followed Charlotte's advice and kept our lesson short (10-15 min.) so that neither of us would get frustrated. I also gave them each a lesson separately so that I could focus individually.

I followed the advice given here on teaching the basics to children and started by showing (visual) them how to make a slip knot and describing each step along the way. Then I let them try it out. It took a few tries and some extra showing but both of them got it and were able to make a nice slip knot.

Next I showed them the crochet hook and explained the different sizes and how they are lettered or numbered. It is best to start with as large a hook as possible and large yarn but all I had on hand was a size J hook and some wool yarn. Neither Tom or Ali seemed to be bothered by the sizes but if I can locate my size P or Q hook we may try that. I also showed the 2 different ways that the hook can be held (knife or pencil method) but they both automatically grabbed it and held it like I do (knife method).

Initially I started out from the slip knot and demonstrated a few chain stitches. I explained how we wanted to make "fat worms" not "hungry worms" and then showed how this was accomplished. After watching a few stitches being made I handed it over to them to try. After a little bit we found that it worked best for me to direct their hands as we made more stitches. This reduced frustration and correction so that they were able to make several stitches.
Most of our time was spent in proper hand position, holding the yarn and proper yarn tension. But all in all I think it went o.k.

I do think that I will also throughout the week be teaching each of them as well as Emi to finger knit. Working with yarn in this way will take some of the unfamiliarity away and they will be able to get results sooner. Finger knitting is what I first learned to do and spent many years making yards of rope.

You can watch a very good video of instruction for finger knitting here and here and a cute video of a different method here. You can also find some great projects to make using the rope made from finger knitting.

More helpful articles:

How to teach your child to crochet

Teach your child how to crochet

Teaching kids to crochet and/or knit

You can also find more info from my first post here.

Handiwork - Teaching crocheting

2009-03-10T14:02:00.000-05:00

I'll be honest, I have neglected to focus on any handiwork diligently for the first 2 terms and so I find myself not having accomplished anything in this area for our 3rd term!
I had hoped to have Ali and Tom proficient in at least 1 area of handiwork by now, but there is no time like the present.
I have decided that crocheting is a good place to start, mostly because I'm still not a very accomplished knitter and because I have tons of yarn and crochet hooks.
Also I found these adorable patterns on Lion Brand yarn's website which I think will be a great motivation once they learn the basics of crochet. (you will need to register with this site to access the patterns)

I did a quick google search and came across this great website for teaching children how to crochet. This gives me a great starting point and their instructions are very user friendly and geared toward children.
So coming this next week I will be starting with the Slip knot and Chain stitch.
If you would like some pictures to show your kids or to help out you can find them at these sites:

Teaching Crochet to the Young

The Slip Stitch

Free Crochet Video Tutorial

And no post here would be quite complete without directing our thoughts back to Charlotte's ideas and thoughts on the subject of Handicrafts.

Ambleside articles on Handicrafts

"The points to be borne in mind in children's handicrafts are: (a) that they should not be employed in making futilities such as pea and stick work, paper mats, and the like; (b) that they should be taught slowly and carefully what they are to do; (c) that slipshod work should not allowed; (d) and that, therefore, the children's work should be kept well within their compass."

CM Vol. 1, pg. 315-316

Life as Mom - Giveaway

2009-03-07T14:47:00.001-06:00

If you're a new mom, a mom to be or a veteran you'll probably still enjoy this set of dvd's. The title itself is pretty catchy!
I'm expecting our 6th currently and I still enjoy absorbing and researching childbirth, breastfeeding and childcare especially when the advice is from other pro-moms!
Go on over and check it out, you never know, you might win!
Life as Mom - Laugh and Learn

Striving to live cheaper

2009-03-07T14:03:00.003-06:00

At the beginning of the year my hubby and I made a commitment to not let our finances go to pot like we have for many years. It is sad to think of all the money that we have wasted simply by not paying attention or taking the time to keep track of things.
So, I have really dedicated myself to keeping our checkbook balanced and following a written budget plan. (see Dave Ramsey if you need help with budgeting)
It has taken me several attempts and different forms to come up with a budget plan that is simple and easy to use. I tried Larry Burkett's system when we were first married but as soon as kids came along I found it almost impossible to manage, I also tried this plan, and have worked Dave Ramsey's plan as well. But invariably they were all too detailed or for whatever reason I had a hard time sticking with them.
After much trial and error I have come up with a simple one-page monthly budget plan.d

Along these same lines I have run into a problem that will not be solved by adding more money to the budget category. FOOD! This is a major budget buster in our house and I'm totally to blame for it. We hardly ever eat out so that's not the issue but I've been averaging close to $700 a month on groceries for our family of 7!!!!!! I know that I can do better than this without sacrificing our health.
Part of my problem has been that while I make out a grocery list I don't usually have a menu written out as well, so I impulse buy. Also I have a bad habit of borrowing from other envelope categories if I've overspent at one store so that I don't have to cut very much from my list. Very bad idea!

Thankfully there are much more frugal and creative souls out in the blogsphere and internet world that have readily shared winning strategies on saving money and living more frugally, so I wanted to share some posts that have especially hit home for me.

The Simply Dollar - The Happy Minimum

Biblical Womanhood - Frugal Friday Menu planning

Money Saving Mom - 100 Different ways to save $100

Life as Mom

I love this website for really good, simple, cheap recipes as well.
The Family Homestead

Quotes on Socialism

2009-03-03T15:06:00.002-06:00

Quotes can help to simplify a complicated subject when you are trying to get across a point to someone who needs help understanding a philisophical difference of opinion.

"Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.
Alexis de Tocqueville

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."
Winston Churchill

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."
Winston Churchill

"First, then, State Socialism, which may be described as the doctrine that all the affairs of men should be managed by the government, regardless of individual choice."
Benjamin Tucker

"In practice, socialism didn't work. But socialism could never have worked because it is based on false premises about human psychology and society, and gross ignorance of human economy."
David Horowitz

"No one should suffer from the great delusion that any form of communism or socialism which promotes the dictatorship of the few instead of the initiative of the millions can produce a happier or more prosperous society."
Charles E. Wilson

"In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other."
-- Voltaire

"Socialism is the doctrine that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that his life and his work do not belong to him, but belong to society, that the only justification of his existence is his service to society, and that society may dispose of him in any way it pleases for the sake of whatever it deems to be its own tribal, collective good."
-- Ayn Rand

"To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, 'the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.'"
-- Thomas Jefferson

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
-- C.S. Lewis

"You cannot bring prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further brotherhood of men by inciting class hatred.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."
-- Rev. William J. H. Boetcker*

Copied from a good friends post on facebook

Also if you haven't heard those who have tried Socialism have given our government some advice on the matter......not that they are listening.

Spring Cleaning

2009-03-03T12:53:00.003-06:00

I don't know about you but I really need this. I'm feeling very overwhelmed with what I want and need to get done before the baby comes and of course since spring is almost here most of it involves cleaning, organizing and decluttering. And of course when I'm feeling overwhelmed I have a hard time getting myself started and tend to bounce around on several different projects. This is also my first year of homeschooling full-time and trying to get ready for a baby so I can no longer focus all my time and energies on the house. I'm gradually learning to do little bits of decluttering when I can instead of taking a whole day to do something.
Anyway I thought I'd share this link for all those of you who like me need an extra kick in the rear to get on the road to a cleaner more organized home!

Year 1, Term 2 EXAM WEEK

2009-03-02T20:54:00.000-06:00

This past week was the end of our 2nd term and the first exam week that we've done. At first I was rather intimidated by the idea of an exam time and frankly a bit scared that it would reveal that my kids have in fact learned nothing, but after this 2nd term I've gotten past those fears and forged ahead to try our hands at this thing.

I got ideas for questions from the exam questions listed at Ambleside and from Jacci's post about exams.

I can't say that I was super creative but I tried to cover all the subjects and get a good feel for what has been retained and understood, and what will need a bit more work.

The subjects of art study and composer/music study I will be slowing up a bit and focusing on just 1 of each this 3rd term. Alissa was able to recall some but Tom was pretty baffled.

It was interesting to see how the gender differences came out with both Tom and Ali. Ali was very descriptive with the stories but struggled on the math end and Tom wizzed through the math but struggled with recalling more than the basics from our readings. I'm not really sure how I'll address this on a daily level other than to keep gently pushing Tom for more descriptive narrations. It may also help for me to become consistent with recording their narrations on the computer or giving them other alternatives to oral narrations i.e. acting out, drawing etc.

All in all I am satisfied with how our first exam week has gone. We didn't get all the questions finished so will be tying them up this week. One thing that I did struggle with was that our schedule fell apart and at the end of the week I was exhausted, the house was a disaster and I had accomplished absolutely nothing in the way of extra cleaning and organizing projects. I think it would work much better to maintain the same daily school schedule but just insert the exam questions instead of the usual school work. I guess I've got 12 weeks to figure that one out!

I made up 2 sets of questions, one for each child, and kept them in Microsoft Word and then typed their answers in the proper places. I will be printing them out and filing them away as soon as we get them all finished. I think we only have a couple left.

Without further ado, here are the questions:

Bible Lessons

1. Tell me about Moses & the Ten Commandments

2. Tell me about Joseph & His brothers

Writing

1. There is Power in the Blood

Nature History

1. Describe 2 birds & what you have noticed about them.

2. Describe the nicest walk you have had this term? What did you find?

Geography

1. Draw the shape of Lake Superior or Lake Michigan.
2. Tell something about Britain. Where is it?

Number

1. Answer questions on pages 38, 39 & 40.
2. Do math question sheet.

(these were tests from Ray's Arithmetic parents guide)

Picture Talk

1. Describe the picture you liked the most from this term.

Tales

1. Tell about an Aesop tale that you liked.

History

1. Tell the story of King Arthur

2. Tell me about the Giant’s Dance

Reading

1. Read a passage for dad.

Music

1. What piece did you like best from this term’s music you have heard? Why?

I've decided

2009-03-02T14:37:00.002-06:00

After some consideration and pondering (o.k. not that much) I've decided to use this blog as a "picture of my life and family" blog and my other blog as a "home education" blog.
How I'm going to maintain two blogs when I can barely keep up with one is beyond me, but I don't want to give up either of them.
I hope you'll keep track of me on both and since my blogger account is working again I'll be able to leave comments on all these great posts that I've been reading!

The Reading Mother

2009-02-28T20:18:00.000-06:00

I had a Mother who read to me,

Sagas of pirates, who scoured the sea,

Cutlasses clenched in their yellow teeth,

"Blackbirds" stowed in the hold beneath.

I had a Mother who read me lays,

Of ancient and gallant and golden days;

Stories of Marmion and Ivanhoe,

Which every boy has a right to know.

I had a Mother who read me tales,

Of Gelert the hound of the hills of Wales,

True to his trust till his tragic death,

Faithfulness lent with his final breath.

I had a Mother who read me the things,

That wholesome life to the boy heart brings

Stories that stir with an upward touch,

Oh, that each mother of boys were such.

You may have tangible wealth untold;

Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.

Richer than I you can never be--

I had a Mother who read to me!

By: Strickland Gillilan

"Today a reader,

Tomorrow a leader."

~ Margaret Fuller ~

When I was about eight, I decided that the most wonderful thing, next to a human being, was a book. ~ Margaret Walker ~

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ~Anna Quindlen ~

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. ~ Lady Mary Wortley Montagu ~

There is no substitute for books in the life of a child. ~ Mary Ellen Chase ~

A room without books is like a body without a soul. ~ Marcus T. Cicero ~

Never judge a book by its movie. ~ J. W. Eagan ~

When you have mastered numbers, you will in fact no longer be

reading numbers, any more than you read words when reading books

you will be reading meanings. ~ Harold S. Geneen ~

Books are not men and yet they stay alive.

~ Stephen Vincent Benet ~

Books are not made for furniture,

but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.

~ Henry Ward Beecher ~

A book is good company.

It is full of conversation without loquacity.

It comes to your longing with full instruction,

but pursues you never. ~ Henry Ward Beecher ~

Thoughts floating through my brain tonight

2009-02-26T21:19:00.004-06:00

I need to get organized........again.

Anybody else feel that way?

With spring just a month away and only 12 weeks of school left and baby due in a short 14 weeks I'm really feeling the urge and need to get my act together in a better fashion. We've made a lot of progress over the past few years but life never stops so it's time to reevaluate how things are currently working and what needs to change and what areas are problem areas.
So here's where I've been going to get some ideas:

Flylady (scroll down the page to the "Flying with Kids" section. There are some great tips from other moms.

Lindafay has some good tips for keeping things simple with clothes, schoolwork and daily life.

Amy shares her heart for cleaning and organization.

And just to get my decorative instincts moving (they died somewhere between the 3rd and 5th child) I wing my way over to The Nester and see what she's got cooking and what I can do with my own nest.

Exam Week

2009-02-23T07:32:00.003-06:00

We have just finished Term 2 of Year 1 so will be using this week as our exam week. And since I've got some cleaning projects that are in need of attention we'll also be focusing on doing some deep cleaning in at least 1 room each day and hopefully I'll even get down to the basement to put away last summer's clothes and see what will be needed for this next year!
I've also managed to get all of the kiddos scheduled for dental checkups this week too, so we'll be in town a bit more than usual.
Hmm, now that I think of it this would be a good week to get taxes wrapped up and taken into be filed. I think I'd better make a list of all this or I'll get to the end of the week having accomplished very little.
I'll be playing around on this blog to see if I can get it looking like I want it too but feel free to drop by any time.

2009-02-22T13:37:00.002-06:00

Worship the Almighty God!

Kindergarten, Year 0 and Charlotte Mason

2009-02-17T20:12:00.000-06:00

What to do, what to do? That is the question.
I've been reading, researching, thinking, praying and meditating about my daughter Emi and what kind of curriculum I should follow for her this next year. She is 5.5 right now and will turn 6 shortly before we start our next school year, so technically she would be Kindergarten age, but she has already completed the majority of Kindergarten requirements that a public school would teach her and has been through all of the books suggested in Year 0 on Ambleside. On the other hand I don't really feel comfortable throwing Year 1 work at her because I don't feel that she has the maturity to handle all of it. And the thought of having 2 in Year 2 and 1 in Year 1 next year with a new baby is not overly appealing.
So after much debating I think I have hit upon a curriculum that will be challenging to her but not discouraging and definitely doable for me.
I also am confident that this is what Miss Mason would have suggested as well.....wait a minute, I guess she already did!

First she has given us an entire book full of ideas (Home Education) and she also compiled a list of attainments that help bring into focus specific goals for a Kindergarten child. (You can find this list and other ideas for implementing at Ambleside under curriculum Year 0.)

And then she set out this excellent list of guidelines to help us along the way. Here is how I will be putting it into practice for Emi in our home. I will be starting her first term in a couple of weeks officially since that's when Tom and Ali will be starting Term 3 of Year 1.

I have added supplemental reading from Charlotte Mason's Home Education book for extra support, help and encouragement for anyone interested.

A FORMIDABLE LIST OF ATTAINMENTS FOR A CHILD OF SIX

1. To recite, beautifully, 6 easy poems and hymns

Pretty basic here, I'm letting her pick out the poems and we a hymn or two everyday so we may work on being able to recite some as well.

Spread out through a year this would mean 2 poems and 2 hymns each term so nothing too overwhelming.

vol. 1, pg. 222-224

2. To recite, perfectly and beautifully, a parable & a psalm

Miss Mason encourages memorizing out of the book of Mark and I have picked out Mark 4:1-9 and Psalm 1 for Emi.

vol. 1, pg. 222-224

3. To add & subtract numbers up to 10, with dominoes or counters

Emi has been learning these just from using manipulatives and such so this isn't a big deal we will just focus more on it. I will be starting her slowly in Ray's Arithmetic and she joins Ali and Tom in our Family Math games.

vol. 1, pg.253-264

4. To read - what and how much, will depend on what we are told of the child

We have already begun this using a mixture of CM methods, Reading Reflex and Ruth Beechick. She is progressing well although not fast enough to suit her eagerness so I will be stepping this up to being daily work instead of sporadically.

vol. 1, pg. 199-222

5. To copy in print-hand from a book

Right now we are working on one letter at a time concentrating on producing perfect work. Later we will start with short copywork pieces. I will be using Penny Gardner's Italics Beautiful Handwriting as a guide.

vol. 1, pg. 159-160 & pg. 233-240

6. To know the points of the compass with relation to their own home, where the sun rises and sets, and the way the wind blows

We will continue to talk and use compass terms while out of doors, she will also be keeping a weather/nature calendar throughout the year. I will be purchasing a compass for all of the kids to experiment with and learn how to use, I was also thinking of making a wind sock together and posting on on of the fence posts.

vol. 1, pg. 74-77

7. To describe the boundaries of their own home

Pretty self-explanatory here but I'll be re-reading what Charlotte had to say about this.

vol. 1, pg. 77

8. To describe any lake, river, pond, island etc. within easy reach

Make weekly trips to the aboretum, and other local nature sites and trails.

vol.1, pg. 48-50

9. to tell quite accurately (however shortly) 3 stories from Bible history, 3 from early American, and 3 from early Roman history

I will be reading to her from some different history books although I haven't quite nailed down which ones but will probably be On the Shores of the Great Sea by M.B. Sygne.

vol. 1, pg. 279-295

10. to be able to describe 3 walks and 3 views

Continue to take walks and use the approaches to increasing attentiveness that Miss Mason talks about.

vol. 1, pg. 45-48

11. to mount in a scrap book a dozen common wildflowers, with leaves (one every week); to name these, describe them in their own words, and say where they found them

vol. 1, pg. 51-56 & pg. 62-65

12. to do the same with leaves and flowers of 6 forest trees

13. to know 6 birds by song, color and shape

We have been making bird lapbooks recently which has allowed each child to focus on learning more information about their favorite backyard birds. We also keep our bird feeders filled and watch and discuss the birds that come every morning. Emi is very good at picking up and imitating bird songs so I will continue to expose her to individual songs and we will be keeping an attentive ear while outside.

vol. 1, pg. 59-62 & 89-92

14. to send in certain Kindergarten or other handiwork, as directed

I'll be starting her on some plastic canvas work and then moving on to crosstitch, knitting, and hand sewing over time.

vol. 1, pg. 315-316

15. to tell three stories about their own "pets" - rabbit, dog or catThis one should be interesting considering that we have no pets right now! My husband and I have agreed that a large family in a small house living in town can do without pets, but I might have to reconsider this and see if we can come up with a compromise:) I'm thinking of ordering an ant farm kit and we might look into a fish tank.

16. to name 20 common objects in French, and say a dozen little sentences

For our family we have decided to pursue learning Spanish instead of French. I do not learn foreign languages very easily and well so that will help me to be more patient as we learn together.

We have lyric language cd & dvd in spanish and will be purchasing Rosetta Stone for all of us to use.

vol. 1, pg. 80-81 & 301-307

17. to sing one hymn, one French song, and one English song

We will be following the Ambleside hymn list and adding in some other folk songs as well as some French or Spanish songs.

vol. 1, pg. 133 & 314-315

18. to keep a caterpillar and tell the life-story of a butterfly from his own observationsWe may end up purchasing this as a kit but hopefully we will catch one this fall!

vol. 1, pg. 59-61

As you can see there is little to no book work mostly just enjoyable fun learning time with some minor direction.

You can read more about what Miss Mason thought about Kindergarten here.

Also here are some great blog posts concerning this list and Kindergarten.

Piney Woods Homeschool

Ancient Paths Homeschool

Sunflower Faith

Understanding Charlotte

Higher Up and Further In

Home-made Living

One Day at a Time....

Delighting in the Days

President's Day or Month!

2009-02-15T20:09:00.000-06:00

I laughingly call my oldest son Tom our unit study leader because of his yearly intense focus on various subjects. Last year it was the solar system and the year before that it was something else (which I can't currently remember). Right now his focus is money and presidents, specifically Abraham Lincoln!

I believe he became interested in the presidents through observing the coins that he has been earning in his household chores by commission. And since pennies are a bit more common to see he took up an interest in Abe Lincoln. Imagine his joy then when upon looking at the February calender he realized that not only would we be observing Lincoln's birthday but that of George Washington's too. And since we had just finished reading the D'Aulaire book about George Washington and had read the D'Aulaire book about Abraham Lincoln last summer, things began to click.

So we have been riding the adventure that Tom's studies takes us on. Tomorrow we will do a few activities such as drawing a log cabin and rubbing a quarter and a penny but mostly we have been reading "living" history books about both men. I was blessed to find a book about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln that was published by Random House back in the 1950's at a local used bookstore and then have added several books from the library. And for Ali I brought home "Welcome to Kirsten's World" which is during the Lincoln years and "Welcome to Felicity's World" from the Washington years.

I have also picked up several books about presidents in general so that the kids could explore other presidents as well. I plan on pursuing this adventure as long as the interest and curiosity is alive in Tom's heart:)

All the kids enjoyed the short videos that we found at the History Channel about various presidents as well. Tom's only complaint is that we can't go to youtube or something to see "real" videos of Abraham Lincoln!

The blessing for us has been that because of Charlotte Mason's advocacy of "short lessons" we have plenty of time to engage in and learn about other interests!

Winter Outdoor Time

2009-02-11T21:05:00.000-06:00

It is infinitely well worth of the mother's while to take some pains every day to secure, in the first place, that her children spend hours daily amongst rural and natural objects; and, in the second place, to infuse into them, or rather to cherish in them, the love of investigation. "I say it deliberately," says Kingsley, "as a student of society and of history: power will pass more and more into the hands of scientific men. They will rule, and they will act––cautiously, we may hope, and modestly, and charitably––because in learning true knowledge they will have learnt also their own ignorance, and the vastness, the complexity, the mystery of Nature. But they will also be able to rule, they will be able to act, because they have taken the trouble to learn the facts and the laws of Nature."

CM Vol. 1, pg. 71

Even though we have had our share of bone-chilling cold this winter, the moisture level has been very low. And while we haven't gotten outside nearly as much as we should have (I don't like being cold!) We have had some fun. Here's just a few pics of our outdoors time in the last couple of months.

On our way the bridge and creek

Emi and Ali getting up close

On the way up or down

Wes and Will dropping rocks

Thomas wanting to go across the crik.

Mothers and Teachers should know about Nature. - The mother cannot devote herself too much to this kind of reading, not only that she may read tit-bits to her children about matters they have come across, but that she may be able to answer their queries and direct their observations. And not only the mother, but any woman, who is likely ever

to spend an hour or two in the society of children, should make herself mistress of this sort of information; the children will adore her for knowing what they want to know, and who knows but she may give its bent for life to some young mind designed to do great things for the world. CM Vol. 1 pg.64-65

Our "find" on the way home. We cut off a small branch to research when we got home and thanks to the book "Discover Nature in Winter" we found out that this is a bagworm moth.

"Bagworm moths spend the winter as eggs in cocoonlike sacks that dangle from evergreen shrubs and trees by silken threads. Collect a few bags and open them. The cocoon of a female bagworm will hold hundreds of yellow eggs. The larvae that make the bags are not easily seen; they live in the ground, where they thrive on grass or roots."

Discover Nature in Winter pg. 137-138

We got to go trail hiking at our visit to the nearby aboretum. We didn't see a whole bunch of birds mostly because the kids were too excited to be very quiet:)

Hiking the whole 1 mile wasn't possible on this day because Will tuckered out and mom was pretty much done for too! I do need to figure out something for bathroom use though, not for the kids because they can go in the grass if necessary but for this pregnant mom's squashed bladder!

Before our hike we had a nice picnic lunch and then snacked with a friendly bee after our hike.

Meals out of Doors.––People who live in the country know the value of fresh air very well, and their children live out of doors, with intervals within for sleeping and eating. As to the latter, even country people do not make full use of their opportunities. On fine days when it is warm enough to sit out with wraps, why should not tea and breakfast, everything but a hot dinner, be served out of doors? For we are an overwrought generation, running to nerves as a cabbage runs to seed; and every hour spent in the open is a clear gain, tending to the increase of brain power and bodily vigour, and to the lengthening of life itself. They who know what it is to have fevered skin and throbbing brain deliciously soothed by the cool touch of the air are inclined to make a new rule of life, Never be within doors when you can rightly be without.

Besides, the gain of an hour or two in the open air, there is this to be considered: meals taken al fresco are usually joyous, and there is nothing like gladness for converting meat and drink into healthy

blood and tissue. All the time, too, the children are storing up memories of a happy childhood. Fifty years hence they will see the shadows of the boughs making patterns on the white tablecloth; and sunshine, children's laughter, hum of bees, and scent of flowers are being bottled up for after refreshment. CM Vol 1.pg.42-43

Starting out - the weather this day was in the upper 60's!

Possibilities of a Day in the Open.––I make a point, says a judicious mother, of sending my children out, weather permitting, for an hour in the winter, and two hours a day in the summer months. That is well; but it is not enough. In the first place, do not send them; if it is anyway possible, take them; for, although the children should be left much to themselves, there is a great deal to be done and a great deal to be prevented during these long hours in the open air. And long hours they should be; not two, but four, five, or six hours they should have on every tolerably fine day, from April till October. Impossible! Says an overwrought mother who sees her way to no more for her children than a daily hour or so on the pavements of the neighbouring London squares. Let me repeat, that I venture to suggest, not what is practicable in any household, but what seems to me absolutely best for the children; and that, in the faith that mothers work wonders once they are convinced that wonders are demanded of them. A journey of twenty minutes by rail or omnibus, and a luncheon basket, will make a day in the country possible to most town dwellers; and if one day, why not many, even every suitable day? CM Vol. 1 pg. 44-45

Will taking a break and exploring a stump.

Intimacy with Nature makes for Personal Well-being.––But to enable them to swim with the stream is the least of the benefits this early training should confer on the children; a love of Nature, implanted so early that it will seem to them hereafter to have been born in them, will enrich their lives with pure interests, absorbing pursuits, health, and good humour. "I have seen," says the same writer, "the young man of fierce passions and uncontrollable daring expend healthily that energy which threatened daily to plunge him into recklessness, if not into sin, upon hunting out and collecting, through rock and bog, snow and tempest, every bird and egg of the neighbouring forest . . . I have seen the young London beauty, amid all the excitement and temptation of luxury and flattery, with her heart pure, and her mind occupied in a boudoir full of shells and fossils, flowers and seaweeds, keeping herself unspotted from the world, by considering the lilies of the fields of the field, how they grow." CM Vol. 1, pg. 71-72