November Homeschool

October School

December is always a full month. I have set out to keep it as simple as I can over the last years, but no matter how I try it's full. Events and gifts, cards , decluttering, and school.

Yes, school is just about last on the list. And it's good, we do light school. A few more reading aloud, a little less seat work. It's kind for all of us, peaceful December.

My most recent excitement is deciding that we need a school room. It is not an easy interruption, clearing the table for meals or any other thing that needs to take place on the kitchen table. Not only that, but I think it would be lovely to have walls on which to pin my maps and other school wall-art. Mostly, I'd love to have a chalk or white board.

I started dreaming on moving school to the basement. We have a large playroom down there, it seemed the logical place to have school and tables, posters and pencils. However I've since changed my mind, and decided to put school in the room that has no name. It's a small room off our family room. Right now it's a Lego room, home to a large collection of toys sprawled across the floor. A bookshelf, a drying rack, a file cabinet. Nothing much in there but space and window and WALLS. So I'm excited to begin the changes this room needs to work school out of the kitchen. Oh, can you tell I'm excited? I can't stop rambling about it.

The other wonderful part is that my grandmother has asked if I want her old teaching table. My grandmother got her teaching certificate when she was 16 years old. Must have been about 1930. She worked in a one-room school house in Nebraska for 6 years, running the school and the furnace to keep them warm. What a lovely story! Years later after my father was born, she held a Kindergarten in a finished garage off of their home. In these days Kindergarten was optional. So in this Kindergarten she had four large tables for her students, my grandfather made each of quality Walnut. And she would like to know if I want the table! Oh joy! I cannot wait!

I did go to visit my grandparents over the weekend, a very, very sweet time. I wasn't able to bring the truck to move the table though, the roads were snowy and I drove my car.

I will be posting photos of the new school room as it develops.

Reviewing the month of November goes like this;

We stuck to our plan of Unschooling Fridays. We had a lovely time focusing on Nature Studies but also spending time on Autumn crafts and then, snow play!

For all of my three students;

I'm using Start Write to work on Penmanship. I usually copy of the memory verse the boys are working on for Awana and they copy them daily. The boys need plenty of work on Penmanship, all three. We also read through their Awana books for Bible stories and conversation.

The boys continue to practice Classical Conversations memory work as usual, and Joey is doing extra practice work. Joey will try for Memory Master this year, which will require him to have memorized 100% of the facts we've learned this year; English, World History Timeline, Geography, Latin, Science, History, Math. This is a lot of work but memorizing seems to come easily to him and he gets better.

Our Classical Conversations has spurred topics and mini studies in the solar system and constellations, and we follow up with Story of the World learning about Islam and other Medieval Middle Eastern History.

We continue with Nature Studies, Art, and have practiced Tin Whistle in Novemember.

Eldest, Third Grade, turned 9 in November! What a fun month for him.

Saxon Math

For his Essentials Writing Class, we're reading through First Language Lessons. He's been writing about Knights and the Middle Ages, and Honey Pot Ants.

For Spelling we've used SpellingCity.com (too fun!) and practice. Luckily, Spelling comes easily to Joe.

Middlest , First Grade

Saxon Math

We keep personal Calendars to discuss the format & work on the concepts of time and planning.

Nate is working through Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lesson and improving on his reading daily. He likes to read Bob books and I am working through Writing With Ease with he and Eli.

Littlest, Kinderyear

Eli has been working through various workbooks for Math. Numbers, addition and subtraction seem to come quickly to Eli.

He is also doing daily reading lessons in 100 Easy Lessons. Eli has read a few books, but I think this book is a good place for him to start.

Other Thoughts:

My husband suggested that I begin to create monthly report to keep record of what we're doing, what materials we're using, etc. Truthfully, I'm a little miserable at keeping track elsewhere. In doing this, I'm also seeing some weak areas I'd like to improve upon.

I haven't really taken time to set goals in our work. Perhaps I'll set some sort of calendar to create goals. I'd like to work through our read alouds more quickly, and work more quickly through our Math books too. I will start Eli on Saxon 1, and probably begin 1/4 into the book, and take Nate there with us. Going back a little will reinforce the work that he has done and he and Eli can do the work together. Nate is ready to begin spelling, and it's just time to make some changes. I'll post my plan one day. :)

November 25....& the 26th (Happy Birthday Joe)

Giving Thanks....

For a new home, and a family who will share my Thanksgiving day and dinner with.
For cozy corners in our own home, and an old favorite quilt, and other old favorite things.


For little boys, whose eyes sparkle all the same amber-brown as their daddy. All the same.

A precocious five year old.

A darling and mischievous nearly 7 year old.

And my Thanksgiving baby boy, who'll be 9 tomorrow. Happy birthday sweet boy, my writer and reader, dreamer and snuggler. Wrestling and running and happy and boy. Happy Birthday Joe.

The Watched Pot Will Someday Boil

It's the task that you hammer away at.

Day after day you water, feed, give light and wait...

wait...

wait...

wait for the little synapses to connect. Wait for that seed you planted to take root and grow fruit.

And most days it feels like waiting for that pot, watching and waiting.

Then one day you wake up and the day feels normal. Climb out of bed and pray for wisdom in the day with a 5 year old wrapped around your legs under a blanket on the couch. Breakfast and books & pages of numbers. A doctor's appointment and stop at the local office store.

Then come home to snuggle up to some reading work. Always start with the littlest student. His work usually takes the least time, and the biggers can work quietly while the little one gets some mama-teach-time. And you open that book and talk about sounds and then it happens.

He reads a word. Mama squeals and bursts into laughter and tickles that sweet 5 year old because he just learned the best tool he'll learn in life. He read a word. His first word was "at." And maybe he was a little more excited about "ax" because that's a word that means something to a boy.

And more importantly, he learned that learning is a delight. It's fun. It's important. And sometimes you get a squeal out of your teacher.

Then the day shifts into one of those days where the water is boiling and I can't imagine any job that's more important, any job that I'd rather be doing today.

And tomorrow, when I'll be watching the pot again.

...post script~ I wrote this post a week ago. From his first time reading on, each time he sounds out a new road, Eli cries, "Tickle me Mama! Tickle me!!"

We have recently taken up "Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." It's been very helpful for my younger boys, and includes "games" & short lessons that keep our work fun.

Moving Days

I thought I'd sit down for a minutes and drop a line. We are thrilled to say we got the keys to the house; the movers came Sunday and now the unpacking begins

We're loving the new house. Every.little.thing. Even the creeking of old floors and mysteries that are yet tobe solved, mysteries of a new home. (Does the hot tub work? Where does this door lead to? Was this a laundry chute once upon a time?) The boys are relishing the space, running from their top floor bedrooms to basement and outside. This morning I was getting ready to shower, I peeked into the backyard to see Nate out on his bike jumping a ramp Ralph made on the bb court. At 7:00 a.m. The space is just simply divine.

Of course, my nose has been to the grindstone, emptying boxes as fast as I can and finding places for each thing....everything else goes in the basement for now. A little school here and there but I started early to give grace to these next weeks.

My mom came up to help empty boxes, the boys and I are delighted to have the company (and help!)

I'll be back, posting again sometime soon. Until then...enjoy your almost Autumn! Until then, I found this photo of Eli helping out with our move from VA to OR. He's a little bigger now but man, babies are cute!!...and I wouldn't dare post that one without this sweet photo taken of the boys that same month. Just 4 short years ago. Cutie boys, don't you think?

Our Four-year-old

Will be 5 in 21 days. But who's counting? He loves s'mores.
He's a family sort of guy, & a treasure to our family.
Eli loves the out of doors. He loves nature. He always has a charming knock-your-socks off smile.
Is 100% muscle. He has a 6 pack. Would you know what I meant if I said he's a full-strength boy? He does everything with full strength. He is brave, witty, wise and all boy.
Sweet Elijah Jonathan likes to be called 'Eli.'

Keeping it Real

Eli plays peek behind his snowman

I stumbled across this very realistic and ambitious friends' blog today, and I love her idea of keeping those New Year's Resolutions real in 2009:

As for me, I’m keeping it real, attainable, and utterly basic, so as to actually realize a few goals. Gone are the “read 30 classic novels in one year,” “become fluent in French” and "learn to play Bach" Jennifer in OR

I will say that I have a few lofty ideas about the year. But friends I will list some simpler things for you..

1. I want to stick strictly to my resolve to put down everything and anything when my child asks "will you read to me" and always, always read to him.
2. Keep more frozen/easy meals around so that there is something to cook when we run into crunch time so we don't have to just eat toast.
3. Pay better attention to what my husband likes in the house or on the table, and do it just because he likes it.
   
4. Listen to my children better, be less distracted.
   
5. Make more home movies.
6. Write an old fashioned letter to a friend or loved one every month. "Pen, Paper and Stamps" Jen says.
7. Teach my boys to take care of their rooms and things better.
   
8. Spend 15 minutes each day learning something new.
9. Run and eat well regularly because it makes me feel good.
   
10. Enjoy the beauty of my own backyard, & beautify it more.

So now...your turn. What's churning in your mind this New Year?

December Part One

Folks without lightspeed internet use, be warned; this is the heftiest of my photo blogs in quite some time. You might just want to go get yourselves a cup o' tea while the photos steep. I promise they're worth it.

Life has a way of flying by this time of year. I've been swimming in Christmas plans, shopping, super-cleaning my house and trying to enjoy the season and just hang with my family in my spare time.
Ralph gives the boys chess lessons while he's stuck off his feet.
Check out all that hair on those boys, dreamy..eh?

On top of it all, we've been sick on and off. Ralph was off his foot (on crutches) for 8 weeks and when he started getting around more he was hit with a small virus but his body took weeks to recover. This week he's feeling better, I'm so grateful because Joey's first play ran (2 rehearsals and 4 performances) this week and we were covering a lot of bases together. What a busy season.

My load was lightened when I decided last week to pull back on school. I've been reading to the boys and playing more games, baking, and that is what school has been. I'm a better mom for that decision.

Going back a little...

Thanksgiving day was Joe's 8th birthday. The years go by so fast (though the days are sometimes long) and he's just so big, and so pleasant. I'm enjoying everyday I get to spend with this sweet boy who is growing up before my eyes. We had a little party for him before Thanksgiving dinner, it was a fun day;
All my boys pictured with their cousin, Zander.

We got our tree, the boys loved decorating and redecorating;


This week I took the boys to run some errands and we had a lunch date, good fun;


The boys are taking private swim lessons too. We usually try and get the boys in a few sessions of swim lessons in the Winter but all our other activities make that harder and harder. Five private lessons have been the equivalent (in learning) to 4 sessions for each boy; cheaper and much, much less time. Eli and Nate can both swim the length of the pool now, and Joey is perfecting his breathing and strokes.

I picked up some 5x7 canvas at Michael's (40% off) for the boys to make Christmas gifts for their grandparents. I covered the table and the boys and pulled out the acrylic paints- let 'em at it. Of course they loved painting every.square.inch of each canvas and I think they'll make beautiful gifts for Grandparents. Easy and heartfelt. :)

This will be the longest blog entry ever.
I'm okay with that.

Nathan's birthday is sneaking up too...to make sure the anticipation isn't lost in the midst of Christmas, I made him a paper chain to count down the days. He loves it of course, but still pouts when he realizes he has 20-some days to go. Every day he cuts off a link and gets one day closer.

Yes, his shirt is backward and inside out 'cause that's how we paint around here.

So that is what's been going on around here. I'm missing all of you and noting that a lot of friends just are too busy to post just now. Looking forward to reading about your lives more later...

10 Quick Takes

So friends, life seems to be quite busy...not just for me but for most of my bloggy friends. Posts come few and far between these days. But I think this is a good minute to make a little blog update;

1. My freshly-turned-8-year-old has a new found awareness of other people. He got an enormous amount of cash for his big day, and recently decided to spend a lot of that cash on Christmas gifts for his brothers. I was so amazed to take him to the store today and watch him unselfishly choose large gifts for his brothers. Gifts he knew his brothers would love. How sweet is that?
2. The sweet sunshine called me out to go running today. I haven't been out there for too long and it felt great to go out today. Juneau was happy to run too.
3. Please pray for this family. A family has several bio kids, and several foster kids. Rumor has it that the foster kids will not be getting Christmas gifts this year because they have to "earn" them, and they haven't. Pray for the parents of these little ones, that their hearts will be melted when they realize how awful this would be for their foster children. Pray that someone respected will confront these parents and give them some kind advice, be so kind to these little ones.
4. I bought my boys some cutsie soft jammies for the season. Eli has peeled his off ONLY for swim lessons and for outings...he loves them. I love that.
5. Ralph is still recovering. He has been going without crutches for a few days now, and still moves slowly, still wears the boot but he's getting around better. Sadly though, he's been sick and it's really wearing on his immune system. Today he went to the doctor after his hands and legs have been covered in a rash that made him swell up like crazy and has given him an awful gut-ache. It seems his body is tired of fighting. He was given antihistamines to take over the weekend, hopefully he'll feel better.
6. School in December is tricky. I hear that from more and more homeschool mamas. We have taken the angle of doing minimal school...doing about 1/2 of what's normal. It's a good way for us to keep school going & to keep sane and paced too.
   
7. Joey is in his first theatre production next week. With 6 lines, his cute little face will make an appearance on the stage for 4 nights next week. It will be exhausting and fun. I'm anxious to see the finished product.
8. I'm hosting Christmas this year. In order to keep myself sane, I made up a special calendar assigning myself to a few tasks to prepare a day. So far, it's working well. I don't always get everything done, but things are getting done and I'm hoping in two weeks I have a lot of the details done so I can just enjoy the season, bake with my kiddos, attend parties and scrub my house up for company. Fun!
9. Speaking of fun, head over to Mama Drama to read a little and watch an interesting snippet about simplicity in living. I love the concept, but it's not so American...not so cozy. I do however, want to simplify as much as I can. One question that reigns in my brain? Kids that go to school don't seem to need too too many toys. But homeschool kiddos...they're home all day- how few toys can we get away with? Oh, and here comes Christmas...

Soccer-Happy-Mom

40 practices
24 games
lots of new friends
3 happy boys

Soccer season has ended. The boys made amazing progress over the 8 weeks they participated this fall. All of the boys ran hard, played hard, worked on teamwork, made goals, learned new sweet-skillz...and I got to watch. ;)

Tonight on our way home from swim lessons Nate wondered out loud how I could think it was fun to watch the boys swim. I know what he was thinking. When I was a kid I just wanted to swim too! But as I explained to him, mama's love to watch their kids learn, excel, try new things. I have so enjoyed this season. I have such lovely little monkeys, how could it be boring to be a soccer mom?
Soccer Fall 2009

Astoria, Eating and Cycling

I promised photos of our trip to Astoria, and they are finally here. Ralph and I went to Astoria to celebrate our 9th anniversary ALL.BY.OURSELVES this month. The trip was nothing but a delight, and I loved every minute of it. We stayed at the very lovely Cannery Pier Hotel which was recommended by a sweet friend (& witty blogger) and her husband AND an old facebook friend. It was hands down my favorite hotel in the world (not that I travel so much) and I would love to go stay there again. And again. And again.

The room with a view was cozy and had a very at home feeling. Complete with fireplace & a balcony that sat about 5 feet about the river at high tide. (If you think I'm all mixed up, I'm not. Astoria sits at the mouth of the Columbia river where it flows into the ocean. It was lovely to have the window open and full view of the water, sea life, freighters and tug boats moving to and fro. I loved it. We could have stayed in the Hotel the entire weekend. But we didn't....the Hotel had loaner cruisers- so we spent a good part of the weekend on those. Dinking around downtown, riding around the shoreline checking out all the old piers and the little shops and eatieries along the way. Checking out just what an ancient fishing town is really made of and all those lovely bits of history. Checking out all the fun things....sea lions included. I've never been so close and never more respectful of these huge beasties as when I was standing with my back to them for a photo opp. I know I look calm and cool, but I was NERVOUS. Add that to beautiful (not a cloud in the usually rainy) skies and lovely weather and all you have is way mellow, lovely, do-nothing-and-loving-it days. It was wonderful. Did I say that?

For dinner we hit Fort George Brewery and Rogue Brewerywhere we played some serious poolYum, and yum and fun. Made me feel young again. We laughed as we dreamed we'd still be frequenting breweries when our kiddos are grown and dragging them to those boring places of the old days.

We rode bikes, went to the Astor Column, went to the Maritime Museum, rode bikes, took a nap, walked downtown, ate, went to a movie, slept in, rode bikes, you know I took a long hot bath in a beautiful tub, took photos, laughed and had a beautiful time.

On the way home we made a stop in Portland to go to a favorite (world's largest) bookstore, we read awhile because we're geeky like that then had lunch at a favorite yummy place that sells awesome lettuce wraps because we don't have a P.F. Changs for miles and miles.

The entire weekend was dreamy. I highly recommend quiet vacations in sleepy interesting towns where there's not too much to do or see so that you have the luxury of....rest.

Ah.