New Domain!!!

I have my own domain now, and it's set up with the RSS Feed, so please go to my new site to continue the story! :)

www.domesticallyemployed.com

Thanks!

A Perfectly Potty Day

Well, so it hasn't actually been perfect. At least not with regard to potty...not at all. But it sounded good. Sweet little Geneva has been blowing through her training pants today and is currently sitting on the pot once again. I am pretty sure we missed some kind of window with her training...she has had some success in the past, but now interest is low while need is high (at least from my point of view).

The day started well. Little ones worked on d's and e's. Big D, little d. Big E, little e. It's all VERY exciting! :) Beau's dexterity is improving daily, although he is still not able to form letters well. No rush. Kat and Dane worked on Math and Vocab. Then we went on to Grammar. Sigh. I like Grammar. I tried to explain to my dear friends today about my enjoyment of Grammar jingles, but I seem sadly alone here. :) (I love you, Jenny!) I really can't explain it. I just get such a kick out of the Shurley Grammar lady trying to sound all jiggy with her jingles at 10am in my home school. It makes me laugh OUT LOUD and the kid do think I'm crazy. There is no doubt of that. Regardless, the kids effortlessly diagrammed their helping verb sentences today, and they even managed to write a couple of their own. Kat's: "Did a stupid princess dive into our well?" Dane's: "Did the weird prince live through his chicken pox?" They went on to "improve" these sentences, which then became, "Did a brainless pauper jump over our well?" and "Did the geeky royal son die from his chicken pox?" So much for mixing in synonyms, antonyms and word changes...sometimes they really don't improve much of anything!

Bailey read our History today AND she made lunch. She is indispensable. I am glad she gets to go to college next year. (I'm not really so very glad, but I'm going to keep saying it to myself so that I will start to believe it. Haha...) (I love you too, Bails!)

We finished our moon study today (with the exception of Astronomy notebook work, which we will do tomorrow). Our experiment involved the reflection of light (from a flashlight) off the surface of a CD onto Dane's hand. This was an example of how the moon (the CD) reflects light to earth (Dane's hand) from the light of the sun (flashlight), demonstrating that the moon has no light of its own. Cool! The other experiment had something to do with a lamp, a styrofoam ball on a stick, and me spinning in circles...we skipped it. Need I explain why?

Bailey finished Robin Hood today, all except the Epilogue. We will read that tomorrow. I didn't get to hear all of this book read aloud, but the parts I read as well as the parts I heard were so great. I would like to own this version. The one we have must go back to the library. What could we do to celebrate the end of this wonderful book? Maybe I'll have the kids wear green and they can pretend to be merry men.

The kids finished the day with Spelling Wisdom and Cursive Handwriting (for Dane). I found it a bit amusing that Kat diligently wrote out her sentence, circled the word, "habit" as being a word to study, then wrote that word out 5 times...as "habbit." Hmmm. Much like "hobbit." I'll have to make a "hobbit" of checking her work before she leaves her desk!

After school, we were temporarily disappointed that our friends did not arrive. But then, just as we had given up hope, they came along after all! Yes, we had a fun visit with the Schmitt family, and Jenny and I had the chance to wax loquacious once again (to the delight of all, I'm sure). All kinds of fun things, from dollar stores to shoe boxes, from underpads to the French pronunciation of "pine" (or "pin") and everything in between.

Pizza night again, and my wonderful hubby remembered and brought it home on time. After a game of "Sorry," we let the kids watch some "Pirates of Penzance" on Hulu...the music is so fun! "Yo, ho, yo ho...the home school life for me!" (Yes, I know. I'm a geek. No argument.) :)

Back on Track!

We had an atypical Friday, then our field trip was rescheduled for Saturday, since it was supposed to rain Monday (which it did, copiously). So Monday, since we were so tuckered out from the weekend, and we had missed our Saturday by doing a field trip, we did a short day. Kat and Dane did Math and Grammar, and then we all went for doughnuts! :)

Today, Tuesday, we got back into our normal schedule. Kat and Dane had Math tests...Kat did great, Dane will need to rework 5 of his problems. For Grammar, we studied the introduction of helping verbs in diagramming. Both kids successfully diagrammed 3 sentences each, including the new helping verbs. They also worked on the "Helping Verb Jingle," which teaches 23 helping verbs. They also did Vocab, Chapter 8, Lesson 1.

For History, we read more about Wulf the Saxon. He has returned to the city and we have been introduced to his friend, Beorn, who was born frail but has now become much stronger after his own sojourn to the countryside.

The kids watched Latin tutorials today, with help from Bailey. The little ones had room time, and rather than work out, I did some office tasks. We have officially canceled our cable service, as of today. That's a savings of $45 we didn't need to be spending. I also spent time looking for a house cleaning service for our rental. I'm thinking it would be much cheaper to pay a sitter and go clean it myself! Yeesh!

Bailey read from Robin Hood after lunch--we are in part 8 of 8 parts! Amazing how the time flies by...we have a number of shorter books waiting in the wings to follow Robin Hood. They are all from the same time period, which means the kids can enter info into their History notebooks from what they learn in Literature. Nice!

Finally, we looked at the Moon. We have a couple of experiments to do with the lamp tomorrow, but it was fun to read about lunar phases and see cool pictures of the moon.

I'm planning to implement regular spelling work now, and Dane will continue his cursive. Tomorrow is also Geography...we will look at Kuwait.

That's the short and sweet of it! I also have a great video of Geneva doing most of Psalm 23 by herself...I think you can only see it on Facebook, however. The file was too big to put it here.

Friday, Fun day!

Our co-op got canceled due to illness, so what does that mean for our school day? The kids thought it would a GREAT idea to completely SKIP school! (But what kid wouldn't?) I chose a mini-day instead. The big kids did their Math assignments and took Grammar tests. Now, everyone is playing before lunch, and there is much rejoicing! It's great to see how easily entertained everyone is when the schedule is disrupted this way...the two littlers have put down pillows and blankets on the floor and are "reading" books (like Katarina does before bed) and pretending to nap. Nice! I like this activity! ;)

As for the biggers, Katarina is whipping through her latest book, "Peter and the Sword of Mercy." She is hoping her cousin, Avery, has not read this yet so she can surprise him with it. It's a pretty new release, so it's quite possible he hasn't read it. Dane is in the Lego room. He sure likes his Legos. In fact, he told me he was hoping to receive MORE Legos for Christmas. (MORE LEGOS???) Apparently, one can never have enough Legos. Especially if one is a boy.

We get to have pizza night at the Hess house tonight. That hasn't happened in awhile--we are all thrilled! I remember when I met Sally and marveled at her 5-kid family...well, now they have added a 6th, but somehow, we've almost caught up. (And there is NO need for us to "catch up"--it's just a phrase). So it's fun to spend time with them, although they have asked me to bring only ONE ingredient, as is typical. I tried to remind Sally that I have many children now too and should bring more food, but she insisted. So Canadian Bacon I will bring.

Okay, time to get back to enjoying my kids and our mini-day!

Attitude is everything!

Okay, there is NO doubt about it–my kids were HYPER again today. Nobody got very good sleep last night…Dane had a bad dream, Geneva lost her silkie blanket, Katarina went searching for it and couldn’t go back to sleep…it was not the most restful night. For that reason or some other, the kids have boundless frenetic energy. We are the antonym of calm here.

The Bible verses are going so well…it is impossible to describe the pleasure I feel when I hear my 3 and 4-yr-olds saying their memory verses before bedtime. I love Geneva’s cute twist on some of the phrases, i.e. “…yea, though I walk through the valley of MY DEATH, I will fear NO EVULL!” It’s some good stuff.

Math went well. Grammar took a little longer than usual. I introduced Dane to particular objects pronouns as they are used while diagramming. He knows all about OP (object of the preposition), but the new ones for today were DO (direct object) and IO (indirect object). They also took a quiz that related directly to their Grammar Jingles…Kat aced it, Dane did not. Dane will be working on this…

History was a little tough…I was terribly sleepy. Kat and I were chilly, so we snuggled under a blanket, and this did not help my drowsy state. I kept dozing off mid-sentence, so I gave in and let the Kindle read for me for a bit. That worked well, except that the Kindle voice doesn’t always have the right inflections…this can be good, however, since it makes us laugh and that kept me awake. :) I woke up enough to read for awhile again, but then I started dozing once more. I let the guy read a little longer, then we gave up. I remember that Wulf was working on training with his army, and that he was showing noticeable improvement. I remember that he was expressing his satisfaction with Osgod, and that Osgod was glad to be in his service instead of being a blacksmith. The next thing I knew, they seemed to be on their way back to the big city, so those 2 years passed amazingly fast (and in a somewhat monotone voice, I might add!)

After lunch we studied Western Samoa. The kids were not too thrilled with the picture of the feast on one of the pages. It depicted a “fire” of hot rocks with a pig lying on it (all parts intact), a whole bunch of taro root (which I described to them as being rather mushy) and a big pile of liver (maybe from another pig?) Not too appetizing… No one was wearing shoes in the picture, except the son-in-law. The families were described as being overtly Christian, which was nice to learn. There is apparently some Mormon influence there also (no surprise). The family we studied had one radio, no TV, no car.

For Astronomy, the kids made “advertisements” for the planet Earth. Dane’s was….expedient. It was good, but rather quickly done, i.e. tagline at the top was, “This place is good.” He did point out that Earth “has Wii,” and is “warmer than your place.” Fun! Kat’s was characteristically creative. She raved about the appeal of gravity, blue skies, and “slower spinning” (so you don’t age as fast). I love these and am glad we will have them to look back on.

As for my post title, I am realizing more and more that if I can “roll” with things and have a great attitude, it makes our school day pretty wonderful, even if I don’t get all the things done as well as I’d like, and even if the kids are so high-energy that I wonder where my straitjackets are. It’s all OKAY. We are here together, we are learning, we are striving to glorify God in what we do. And that, my friends, is a GOOD DAY!

Waiting for Pizza...

Yes, it's pizza night. I was just about to commence bolognese preparation when I realized it was Wednesday...nice! Well, but then my sweet husband forgot it was pizza night, which is a problem only in that he is the one who picks up said pizza. Okay, reminded him about it close to 5:30...oh, but then, sadly, he called to say he had gotten locked out of his office. His keys were inside on his desk. Hmmm...no keys means no driving the car, which means no pizza (and no husband, for that matter). But hurray! Turns out a guy was still there who could let Dave in. So the oven is nice and hot, and I am waiting for pizza.

The kids are "getting their energy out" on the wii..."Outdoor Adventure," to be precise. We had wonderful visitors today after school ended...very dear friends who have 3 kids that match up well with 3 of our kids. Much fun was had, and of course I took pictures. I believe my baby girl is beginning to think I have a big black camera growing out of the middle of my face. The bigger kids smile patiently for me, and they have found that the more quickly they assume the pose I request, the sooner the whole thing is done and they can go back to their playing. Someday, someone will enjoy this ridiculously large collection of digital photos I have stored away on my computer and on the external hard drive (there are over 15,000 now, which is more than a little scary to me). (And I sure hope nothing "crashes" and erases it all. But I'm not going to think about that now.)

On to our school day. Things were pretty much as always...I had a little less energy than yesterday, but not too noticeably. In Grammar, it was mostly review. The kids had to compose sentences and then change them to "improved" sentences. I never liked that exercise much, and I don't think my kids do either. Good practice, I suppose.

In History, Wulf is leaving the court (King Harold) and heading back to the countryside, where he spent his childhood. He expects to learn about managing land and people, as well as training people to fight.

I worked out during Latin...it tired me out appropriately. Bailey read from Robin Hood after we had Minestrone leftovers (yum!) For Science, we tried some candy experiments. Sadly, the "floating M's" didn't work very well...the M's were supposed to release from the candies and float to the surface of the water. It DID work with the Skittles, however, and we saw some very fun S's floating around. On the other hand, we soaked the color off the different colors of Skittles in order to make a rainbow. The colors should have temporarily maintained separation due to variations in solute load, but it didn't really work out. We must not have done it right...but it was still fun. And it smelled luscious! Bailey and I declined eating the wet, sticky leftover Skittle centers, but the kids liked them just fine.

I realized we forgot to do Geography today...will have to try for tomorrow. We'll be looking at Western Samoa!

Last of all, we organized some things in the History and Astronomy notebooks, Dane finished his Vocabulary, and both older kids did their first "Spelling Wisdom" spelling tests. They did very well...I think it will get tougher as we go along.

Ah...pizza has ARRIVED!!! Husband has also ARRIVED!!! Soon, happiness will ARRIVE as my tummy stops grumbling...:) GOOD DAY!!

Soup

http://100digits.com/index.php?s=minestrone if you want the yummy minestrone we had tonight. YUM, YUM, YUM!!!! Thanks, Rene'!!!! I'd put a picture on, but the one one Rene's site is better than I can duplicate...

Well, never mind...I took a couple with my phone, so they're not great pics, but you get the idea.

Mojo is BACK!!!

I am SO glad I am doing this blog. If not, I might forget how things USUALLY are and get trapped into believing they are how they feel at a different moment, when things aren't as good. Yesterday, I just felt so tired out, so uninspired...it was just not a terrific school day. But today....my energy level is back up and it was a WONDERFUL day!!!!

Kids started out with Bible verses...they seem to be doing well with the new additions (from what I could hear while nursing the baby). Kat and Dane went on to Math while the littlers did work with "Z"...zig zags, zero, zipper, ZEBRA! Very fun. I also got a Facebook notification during that time where my friend, Olivia, told me her daughter was working on "Q." She was thinking of "qu" words and I guess she said, "quah, quah, kowalicks!" Hahaha--I loved that! How fun.

Grammar included diagramming today (my favorite!) We worked on adding in Possessive Noun Adjectives as well as the Possessive Noun Pronouns we worked on last week. The kids are great at identifying the prepositional phrases. Dane gets a little stuck sometimes when he's supposed to write in an "understood" pronoun as the subject noun...today, the sentence was, "Look inside John's barn for the surprise of your life!" So he was trying to find the subject noun, which, of course, was "You." He also has trouble at times identifying whether the sentence has been inverted or has an irregular adverb, but for the most part, they do such a great job with all of it. They ended with Vocabulary today--Dane is never thrilled about that, but Katarina loves it.

We started a new History book today, another G.A. Henty book called, "Wulf the Saxon." It was so much fun that the kids did not want me to stop reading when I needed to do my workout. (Either that, or they didn't want to do Latin flashcards, but it was probably some of both.) The story really DID start out fun! The preface was fascinating, as Henty wrote about the dynamics of bringing the Normans into England and how that impacted the future of Great Britain as well as Australia and America. What a melting pot we are! The first chapter has our young hero, Wulf, running up against a young Norman fellow named...Walter-Urse? I have to check on that. Anyway, Henty deftly demonstrated the tensions that likely existed between the Saxon subjects who were serving King Edward, a monarch who was raised abroad and seemed to prefer the Normans to his own people. The supposition made in this chapter is that Earl Harold will end up as king. Apparently, Edward was considered rather monk-like and had little interest in running a kingdom. Fascinating! I think we are somewhere near 1050 A.D.

I did my shorter workout today, but it did me well! I was able to get through it, but it was a good workout. Karen arrived during this time--she brought me a Thai lunch....AWESOME!!! A nice change from sandwiches and mac n' cheese, as yummy as those are. :) Ooh--I forgot to share with Bailey...sorry, Bails! ): Karen also brought a treat for the kids, which she often does...mini-cupcakes--yum! The kids loved them...I had one too...mmmm.

Bailey read from Robin Hood and then she actually finished the Earth chapter for Science too so I could see Karen a bit more and nurse the baby. I was hoping to do a couple experiments with the kids, but we ended up doing a BUNCH of laundry instead. The kids cleaned their room up a bit, tidied the basement, did their main floor chores and folded and put away laundry. It's amazing how much laundry is left to fold...it's mostly Dave's. Since he works out daily, he has two sets of clothes into the wash every day...I need to find a better way to keep on top of all this during my school daze! :)

Oh, the experiments I WILL plan to do, either later or another day, are from a link sent to me by my friend, Rene'. She has a super-fabulous blog called 100Digits.com, and it is such a great resource. Anyway, this link is www.candyexperiments.com...looks like the PERFECT thing for our family! We might just have to squeeze these in at night, since they look so fun.

Time to go make Minestrone...I thought we were going to have it last night, but the plan was changed. So here I go...can't wait--it looks so delicious! Also from the 100Digits site...:)

Monday Slug Day

No, we don't have slugs oozing around our garden today...rather, I felt a bit like a slug all morning. We definitely need to get a more "down time" on the weekends!

There are 2 new Psalm entries for our memory module: Psalm 35:9 and Psalm 100. The kids did Math in the morning and the little ones worked on the letter "W." (Geneva was sooo proud of her wagon!)

Kat and Dane wrote papers during Grammar--first person and third person paragraphs again. This time they were focusing on plural and singular noun-verb agreement.

We finished Viking Adventure in History today. Sadly, Gorm was killed by Halfred. Sigurd figured that out, so he got his friend to release him in a washtub so he could escape. Then it turned out that the rest of Halfred's boat was dashed to bits in a storm.

The kids had video tutorials for Latin today. Bailey read from Robin Hood for Lit. Science was last, and our focus this week is Earth! There is so much to observe about how God made our planet to function perfectly the way it does.

Okay, this slug is going to go be sluggish and read a book while the kids are happy and the baby is napping. Minestrone for dinner...yum! (Recipe from 100Digits....)

Hillside Co-op

We had our first day of co-op on Friday, and although I really enjoyed it, I think I am still recovering! (Well, maybe it's just the fact that we had to work on the rental house also this weekend...I am just feeling so very tired.) Well, and we also had the fun of a lunch with extended family on Saturday (got to meet Dorian's girlfriend, Merrill, who is SO sweet) and a birthday party for Grampa on Sunday. Somewhere in there we also cleared the garage, repaired the hole in the floor at the rental, and made of list of things we still need to do.

But back to co-op...it went very well! I need to tweak my plan for the 1st-2nd grade class, but the other classes went great. Beau and Geneva fit well into their Kindergarten and Preschool classes, and Katarina and Dane enjoyed their 3rd-5th grade class. I pretty much taught Math concepts--patterns, calendar work, counting, sequencing--with a few games thrown in for fun. The Kindergarten class did a fabulous job with the Speckled Frog song...what fun! The older kids got to take a manners/etiquette class, classical music, sci-fi literature, and U.S. Geography. They will have many different classes throughout this year, which is a good thing.

Did I mention that I'm tired?

Okay, so I'm sure it will get easier. But today I am just exhausted from the Fri-Sun time period. But our Monday is starting out great...more on that later...time to teach Grammar!

Where am I?

Okay, I DO know where I am. But I feel like this week has been spinning...not out of control, necessarily, but it has been as busy as usual but with all the cracks filled in. Make sense?

Today, I rearranged the day around the fact that my new workout is nearly an hour long. I also feel it might be better to work out earlier since it seems to make me very energetic. HOWEVER, my best laid plans went by the wayside when I started trying to expedite our new renter's credit application. In addition, I was EXTREMELY sore today from yesterday's long workout, so I could hardly imagine completely same exercise today. PLUS, we had book club today, so Kat and I had to leave a bit early (1:15), and to make things even more CRAZY...tomorrow is the first day of co-op. Yes, Hillside Co-op begins tomorrow, and I need to pull together all my ideas and make concrete lesson plans for (3) 45-minute periods tomorrow. I will have nursery duty first period, but will then be teaching for the other 3. Did I mention my body is SORE as all get out? (What on earth is "get out," anyway?)

(The picture at the top is of our "lava" experiment. That's a plate with flour on it. The custard dish in the middle is inverted and acts as our "mountain." Then we melted butter and poured it onto the top of the mountain. The butter ran down in rivulets into the flour. Later, it hardened up and we were able to see a picture of how lava flows out of a volcano, melts some of what it comes in contact with, and then hardens to become part of the land.)

Kids started with Psalm 23. Then Kat & Dane did Math. I unpacked my Amazon Fresh groceries...SOOOO convenient, and yet it does take some time. So I helped with Math while I unpacked groceries AFTER I fed the baby. Then the olders had Grammar tests while the littles did cutting and pasting. Then Bailey read for Literature, and I launched into the rental credit app stuff. Then Geography (we studied Cuba today). Pretty funny--sweet Dane pronounced Cuba as "Cubba" the other day, and it has somehow stuck. So I guess we studied "Cubba."

We discovered that Cuba is 75% urban and 25% rural, much like Japan (the kids remembered that--yay!) The family we looked at had quite a lot more than others we have studied so far. I am hoping to look into the politics a bit more so I can explain it better. From what we read, the U.S. and Spain fought over the right to be "in charge" of Cuba, and then the country had various weak regimes which eventually led to Fidel Castro taking over. Apparently the Soviets used to subsidize the socialist economy of Castro's Cuba...but that has ended. So now it sounds like EVERYONE has health care and dental, but people still don't have much food or access to food. Hmm. Lots of folks have exiled from Cuba and are waiting for Communism to end there. It doesn't sound like the people in-country are very pleased either...the family we studied did have a photo of Castro as one of their pictured possessions, but refused to display a bust of Jose Marti, which had been given them by the Communist party chief for the "big picture" at the beginning of the article. Interesting stuff...I need to learn more and explain it to the kids...

We scarfed down lunch and Kat and I headed to Book Club. It was sooooo great! We had read, "A Little Princess," and the discussion was fabulous. Also, our friends brought lemon bars and tea--what fun! It was nice to have time with my girl AND our good friends (and new friends!)

Time to get ready for co-op...hope it goes well!

Wet Wednesday

Wow! What a wild, windy, watery Wednesday! I knew it was going to be a "different" kind of day since I got a call a couple days ago to remind me of 3 dental appts I had made 6 months ago. Since my calendar was wiped out (thanks to T-Mobile/Danger/Microsoft), I didn't exactly have this on my radar screen. I decided to go with it, and adjust accordingly. That was a fine plan, but then it turned out Dane had a cavity that needed to be filled. (Geneva & Kat were cavity-free...yay!) The appt started at 10, and I was hoping to be on with school by 11:15, but the dentist had an opening for Dane right then. I took that, rather than dealing with another interrupted school day. So...the kids had gotten Math done before and a bit after the dentist, but nothing else.

I left the big kids doing Latin while I went to do my workout...it was Ramp it Up today...48 minutes of lunges, squats, plies, push-ups, leg lifts, band work...whew! Nice to have gotten that done. Bailey facilitated Latin stuff and then made lunch for all...blessing!

I got a call about Kat's new reading club while I was eating my lunch and Bailey was reading Robin Hood aloud...very excited that the first club meeting is tomorrow. They read "A Little Princess," by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Such a childhood favorite of mine! Kat loved it. We will be meeting at the Bellevue library...should be fun!

After Robin Hood time, I did a quick Science experiment with the kids so they could see a simple visual of how lava works. I heated some butter and then poured it onto the surface of an inverted custard dish which was surrounded by a layer of flour. The butter ran down the sides of the dish and dribbled all over into the flour. We let it cool, and then later we were able to see how the "lava" cooled and hardened. It had melted some of the flour into it, and it had maintained some of its original "flowing" shape. Very cool! Nice idea from our Astronomy text. I'll try to post a pic.

Ohhh...super excited! My hubby got my domain name for me, so I will be switching to that as soon as I figure out how. I will BE domesticallyemployed.com! :)

To close out the day, I had Kat and Dane do some work in their Astronomy and History notebooks. They drew comics called, "A Day on Venus," and they drew some pictures of Columbus stuff and recorded the facts we learned that day.

As I told Bailey today, she is the sun on my cloudy day. Without her here encouraging me, I would have felt utterly forlorn about our disorganized day. But instead, life is good! So nice to have a Bails. :)

Truckin along on a Tuesday...

The day had a bit of a rough start. I hate when I feel like I'm "behind" on my plan and time is flying forward without me. That's how today started out...Math took longer than expected, Grammar took longer than expected...I was SEVERELY lagging on starting my workout (was dreading it, if truth be told!) The good news is that our flex schedule and Bailey's competent assistance got us back on schedule, and I DID do my workout and felt fabulous after! (And in case you're waiting for the other shoe to drop, there is NO bad news. Nice!)

We read more into Viking Adventure...young Sigurd is headed out on his first Viking voyage. There is some tension between the owner of the ship (Halfred) and the captain of the ship (Gorm). Sigurd's main task is rowing. We talked about how "restless" the Vikings seemed to be--how much they focused on exploring and conquering. This is the flip side of the story we read before about the Saxons defending against the attacks of the Vikings.

Bailey read more from Robin Hood during Lit time. We are past the halfway point in that book! For Science, we finished our reading on Venus. We learned about the heavy atmosphere on Venus, the fact that it looks a lot like earth (and is close in size) and yet is so different. It is VERY hot since its atmosphere is so heavy that it traps the heat from the sun. Venus spins very sloooooowly, which means a Venus "day" is 243 earth days long. Unlike any other planet, it takes less time (225 earth days) for this planet to orbit the sun than it does for the planet to complete a full rotation. Since it is almost impossible for equipment to "survive" the conditions of Venus, we have gained most topographical information via radar technology. We can see Venus just before dawn and just after sunset, but we can only see it when it's in a viewable phase from earth. We have a lava experiment to complete, and we may look at radar more closely. Then the kids will need to fill some info in for their Astronomy notebooks.

We frosted cookies at the end of our day, and then we ate them--yummy!

The BEST thing about this day was that it only got better as we went along. I am SO THANKFUL for each of my amazing kids and for the opportunity God has given us to be together during our days. And I am also thankful for Bailey, for it is a rare thing to know a girl her age who exhibits so much joy when working with little people! God is good!

Columbus Day

....We celebrated Columbus Day, as I said we would. I woke the kids to the sounds of opera music and then greeted them dressed in my green velvet dress. Their eyes were wide with wonder...what's going on?? They had special cinnamon pastries for breakfast, and then, right after they asked if I had texted Bailey to tell her about the special day, she showed up dressed in a perfect costume!

We began with a review of the 23rd Psalm, and then we watched a Biography special on Columbus (from A&E). The kids filled out a big poster board full of information about Columbus, and then they did some worksheets (alphabetizing Columbus Day words and mapping his 4 voyages across the Atlantic). We discussed how character traits usually have a good and bad side, like sides on a coin. On the one hand, Columbus had amazing ambition and dedication to his mission (finding a shortcut to Asia), but on the other hand, he was ruthless and cruel in his orchestration of that mission. He began as a celebrated man, but he died in bitterness. It was a fascinating story to study, and I did some online research to supplement the A&E version.

Next, we danced to opera music. The big kids always lament that they miss "dancing time," so on this special day, they got some time to move creatively! And speaking of creativity, the next activity was art: 1) making things out of scented play-doh (another thing the big kids have been requesting to participate in), and 2) painting on the easel. Each child did a wonderful painting--we put them out on the deck to dry. Thankfully, it didn't rain that day!

For our last fun activity, we made cut-out sugar cookies. We had planned to carve pumpkins too, but that got postponed due to time constraints.

Overall, it was a great day to learn more about Columbus than we knew before. It was also a perfect time to do some fun things that we often don't have time for on other days. Finally, I greatly enjoyed keeping the kids "on their toes." I want them to see some of the wonderful benefits of doing school at home, which includes the flexibility to shake things up!

Okay, I posted this today instead of yesterday because I was too tired last night...so I'll end it and start a new one for today.

Venus on Friday

Yay!!!! Friday!!!!

The kids are continuing work on the 23rd Psalm...probably a couple more days with that. Bailey is doing most of the work on that since I'm usually nursing then. Pretty soon, we'll get to go on to the next verse in the series!

Math tests...Kat & Dane did Math test #3 and both got only 1 wrong...TERRIFIC!!! They are both doing so well--their speed drills are going well too, although I will probably start doing those more often. Seems to make their other work easier when they've got the Math facts more pat.

In Grammar, we started by reviewing all the Jingles we've learned thus far. Then, we did some more diagramming...the new entry today was subject pronouns and the "understood subject pronoun." Then we identified nouns versus pronouns in our diagrammed sentences. Finally, they worked on Chapter 6 Vocabulary words. (Dane doesn't seem to be struggling with any of this, even though we are consistently using the 6th Grade sentences rather than the 4th Grade sentences for our practice time...cool!)

Beau & Geneva did more cutting and pasting--today was the letter "Y." They are doing really well with this stuff, but I am planning to have them start with Phonics music rather than the workbooks for awhile. They are a little sluggish first thing, so I think the cutting etc. will be easier when they are more awake. Bailey suggested we try having them do it during Grammar, so that is what we will try next week.

We started "Viking Adventure" by Clyde Robert Bulla today for History. It is a much simpler book, purposefully, than the Henty. We will be through it in 3 days or less, but I think it's good to mix it up a bit. I also like that the kids will see some things from the Viking view now so they can see a bit of both sides, having already looked at the Saxon viewpoint. As a result of our reading today, Kat and Dane have been fencing in the yard...nice!

I worked out during Latin time. It was easier today than yesterday, and I am less sore, but the lunges were a bear. I almost collapsed on my last pushup, but again...it's getting easier. I only have another day or 2 before I move on to the next program step.

Beau and Geneva got to open up the scented play dough today. I've been saving it, and they were really excited to finally get their hands into it.

I read Robin Hood today, although the kids like to hear Bailey read too. I think she and I will switch off. The chapter was very interesting--all about Robin and Little John grabbing travelers and bringing them into camp for a feast. Ended up getting a noble knight (Sir Richard of Lea) and Bishop Hereford. Lots of fun stuff ensued, including the solution to Sir Richard's money woes.

We started Venus in Science. I can't say much about it because I had Bailey read it today so I could spend time with Geneva and Ansley. I couldn't hear it well--I'll have to catch up on my own. The kids enjoyed it VERY much, and there is a fun activity we can do on the 2nd page.

Bailey & I planned our Columbus Day activities for Monday. I'm going to get some poster board and make some Italian and Spanish flag decorations. We have a BUNCH of stuff planned, including costumes, homemade pizzas, shaped sugar cookies, Italian opera, Columbus biography, painting at the art easel, and pumpkin carving. (Why pumpkin carving? Because I know the kids will love it. Maybe we'll make a Columbus pumpkin...haha!)

It's family video night...need to pick a good film. I'm sure the kids will want to do another campfire too...HAPPY WEEKEND!!!!! :)

Mercury spinning!

Gotta keep this quick, but wanted to get a quick post in.

Today was SUPER!!! When I came down from nursing the baby and saw Bailey stretched out on her tummy in the grass, in the shade, reading Robin Hood aloud to my 4 other children...I sighed and my heart smiled. This is what it's all about!!! How could I possibly be any happier? And the day got even better.

Math: Lesson 20 for both kids. Littl'uns: worked on cutting & pasting penguins, writing p's, and circling "same" things.

Grammar: Kat aced her test from yesterday, Dane did GREAT--just a couple little mistakes that we went over together today. Kids wrote paragraphs in both 1st & 3rd person. Then the little ones went to church play group with Bailey.

History: gathered together info for our Book of Centuries pages for 800-900 A.D. Kids cut and pasted pictures of Danes and Vikings, wrote out facts, and even drew some of their own pictures. Cool!

Did Day 4 of Slim in 6...was pretty tough and I'm still sore, but I felt stronger afterward than yesterday...not so noodle-legged.

Literature: (aforementioned)

Science: Added info about Mercury to the Astronomy notebooks. This info included facts such as...1) Mercury takes 59 days to spin around once, but it orbits the sun every 88 days. We'd get old fast on Mercury! 2) But we'd actually be dead, because a hot day on Mercury is 750 degrees and a cold night is -300 degrees. Not to comfy; 3) Sky always looks dark on this terrestrial planet, and the sun always looks completely white (all light waves bounce off and are not absorbed); 4) If earth was a baseball, Mercury would be a golf ball. Only smaller planet (if you consider it such) is Pluto; 5) Mercury's orbit is quite elliptical; and 6) We learned about how craters may have been formed and why it might be that there are crater-less areas on Mercury (think young universe).

Dane finished up with cursive...the Magic C Bunny...we get a kick out of that little character in his cursive book...Kat enjoys teasing him about "Magic C Bunny time!" :)

Got to go take pictures of the rental house in the afternoon. Had a really nice time talking with Comfort...hard to leave since we never get to chat! Fun to talk about school stuff with her.

Bailey stayed for NUMMY baked potato supper...gotta love fresh bacon bits. SHE baked the potatoes up for us and they were perfect!!! THEN, we had a little family campfire down in the yard and the kids made S'Mores. Another big sigh of YAY for home schooling.

Time for sleep! Math tests tomorrow...but it's FRIDAY!!!! (Oh, and don't tell the kids, but Bailey and I are planning to do "all things Columbus" on Monday...I found a Biography of Columbus film to show and we will dress up and eat cool things...all a surprise to the kiddos. I can't wait!!!)

What a day!!

Okay, yesterday was pretty fun! The kids dressed up in Viking and Saxon costumes in honor of our last day of "The Dragon and the Raven." I will post a picture of how they looked--it was pretty sweet. Geneva was "Freda," Dane was King Alfred, Kat was a knight, and Beau was Egbert. The book ended with the Saxons recovering Freda from the hands of the northmen (off the coast of Sicily). Edmund began to fight with Sweyn, but Seigbert threw a javelin that went right through Sweyn and killed him. Seemed a fitting end, since Sweyn had kidnapped Seigbert's daughter.

We got to read about Mercury and learned many interesting facts about that planet. I really like how Apologia presents the information for the kids.

Today was a more difficult day...Geneva was up at 3:20am with a bad dream, so that interrupted sleep for all but Beau. We were all dragging a bit this morning. Then, I gave the kids their Grammar tests, but they immediately informed me that I had given them the answer keys instead of the tests! Ha! Good thing they are such sweet, honest kids. I had to photocopy their tests and deal with the guy who stopped by to make adjustments to our cable. Then Ansley wasn't sleeping her normal time, so I ended up feeding her before my workout, which delayed my lunch a bit. It ended up working out, though...I actually liked some aspects of that schedule, but the little interruptions always throw us behind a little.

We studied Haiti today for Geography. That country has such a tragic history. We only saw one toy in the picture of the Haitian family featured. And that toy was broken. When asked what their most prized possession was, both parents of the family stated that they had NOTHING of value. Not one thing. The kids and I talked about how very blessed and fortunate we are here and how easy it is for us to get an education in this country (especially compared with some of the countries we are studying). I also pointed out to them that the kids in Haiti have less access to TV and audio CD's, etc., but that they also don't have many resources for growing their minds and bodies through games and outdoor play, like our kids have. I want to encourage our kids to USE their minds and bodies...to build things and make-believe...to investigate and discover all the nature we have around our house.

We did not do History today, since we will be working on our History notebooks tomorrow. The younger kids will be gone to play group at church, so that will give us a good chance to really focus on the time period we just studied.

For Science, we did a salt-dough replica of the planet, Mercury. The kids used pebbles and a pencil eraser and tip to make little "craters" in the ball of dough. We are drying it now and will take a picture for the Astronomy notebooks. It worked out okay, except that the kids kept smoothing it out and re-cratering it (haha), so it looks a little....bumpy. :) But it was fun!

Our reading in Robin Hood was REALLY funny today. We got to hear Friar Tuck singing a song with himself, playing the part of both the girl and the boy in the song. He also had some very funny interaction with Robin, and the old English and the wit of it all is just a blast to read through.

I have completed Day 3 of my Slim in 6 program...I am intensely sore. I could barely make it through all the lunges and squats in my program. And I almost collapsed on my last push-up. But I DID it ALL, and I know I will only feel better for having done it. I need to get my "before" picture taken...bleh.

Connor is over to play, and I've got stuff to get ready before the Community Group comes over for dessert later. It's pizza night, so that makes dinner easy.

I LOVE OUR HOME SCHOOL!!!!!

Fabulous Monday

The kids are making great progress on the 23rd Psalm. That is the 5th passage in our current memory module--it's so helpful to be using this system!!! (Thanks, Megan H. for the recommendation!)

After Bible, Kat and Dane had a Math test and some corrections to do for Friday's work. I will grade them in a bit--hopefully they did as well as they did with Grammar tests from Friday! Kat aced her Grammar and Dane only got a couple points off.

We went ahead and read further into Henty today. The kids want to have a Viking party tomorrow to celebrate the end of our first book...Mom's gonna have to put some thought into that one. More on that later. As for our story, we are still near 879 A.D., and the Saxons have just helped the French to defend Paris and survive a difficult siege. A messenger appeared to Edmund to let him know Jarl Siegbert was nearby and was wounded. Upon finding Siegbert, Edmund was informed that Sweyn the "Left Hand" has abducted Siegbert's daughter, Freda. So Edmund sent Egbert to guard the Dragon and took 2 Danes and 2 Saxons with him in pursuit of Sweyn. After much difficulty, they managed to find Sweyn's camp. The northmen were assembling enough galleys to take them back down the river so they could head to the Mediterranean with Freda as their captive. Edmund dressed like a Dane and approached Freda secretly so she could be informed of his plan to rescue her. Edmund was unable to garner help from the Frenchmen in the nearby towns as those people wanted nothing more than for the Danish to build their boats and go. So Edmund and his group left to alert Egbert and instruct him to take the Dragon and block the mouth of the river in order to intercept the Danes. What will happen next?? We'll see....:)

No Latin today since we extended our History time. Once the book is finished, the kids will be filling in historical information (AND historical FICTION info about our story) in their book of centuries. Our next book is a Viking book, so we'll get a chance to see the whole thing from the Danish perspective instead. Cool!

I got my workout in--yay! Meant to do Turbo Jam, but I couldn't find the DVD for some reason. So I pulled out Slim in 6, and it absolutely kicked my tush. I could hardly walk down the stairs afterwards...good stuff!

After lunch, we did Literature. Bailey read from Robin Hood, and we decided to read outside today since the weather was so gorgeous. It was perfect! We have postponed our study of Mercury until tomorrow because of an important phone call I needed to take...yay for flexibility!

What could be better than all this fun and then NO HOMEWORK at night??? I LOVE IT!!! I must go now and hang out with all the kids while the baby is sleeping...and time to start supper soon too...Cajun Shrimp Fettucine and broccoli tonight...what a nice start to the week!

Late

Yep, it's late, so I'm headed to bed. I have high hopes for a good MONDAY!!! Maybe I'll even get my workout in...the kids have a Math test and then a big Grammar lesson (diagramming prepositions!) We only have 3 Henty chapters left. Maybe we'll read a couple tomorrow and have only 1 left...fun! Skip Latin!!! Hahaha...kids would like that, I think.

For Science, we are going into the chapter about Mercury. Short chapter, so we might get all the reading done. Looks like a fun activity for our next session.

Okay, sleepy time! I am thankful for my dear friends who actually make time here and there to see what this domestically employed lady is up to! :) Thanks, guys!! (And yay for Rene, my first following friend!)

HYPER!!!!!

Okay, today my children were hyper. I don't know if it had to do with their sleep, their food, or the basic fidgety-ness of feeling the weather turn colder. But yowza! They were so very silly and loud. Short attention spans were in residence. And truly, their behavior bordered on the annoying.........but STILL I am glad to have them home with me. I have asked them to do better tomorrow, and I have given the two older kids a cleaning task as a deterrent to further silliness in class. Aunt Nova is getting a dog crate for me to give to her friend, and the kids are cleaning the crate out for her. Nice! I really didn't feel like doing that. They are doing it joyfully (and with much silliness) out on the deck. Perfect time and place for silliness!

School started a little late today--the kids were up late and I had a Bible study last night, so everyone was just a bit tired. So Bailey read Henty during breakfast, then the kids did Math while I unloaded the Amazon Fresh pre-dawn delivery groceries. Next, Bailey did preschool stuff with the littles while I did Grammar lessons with the olders. Each had a separate Grammar lesson today and each also started on their new Vocabulary notebooks.

For Geography, we looked at Ethiopia. We have many friends from Ethiopia, and indeed their connection to our Grandmother makes them nearly family to us. So we looked at a typical Ethiopian family and the kids could see that the people have very little in terms of worldly possessions. The children have no toys to speak of. Animals are a very important element to the Ethiopian family, and the oxen were actually listed as that family's most prized possessions. The thing that struck us most was that, in order for the kids to attend school, they must buy their own nice clothes and school supplies. The cost for those items is approximately 1/3 the average income for the family for the year. Astounding! Another problem is that the language they know and use in the rural schools is not the one they need in the city to get a job. Tough stuff. The kids enjoyed locating Ethiopia on the map and the globe, and we also looked at India again in those places, to compare size.

Last stop today was Science. We finished our sun chapter, so we looked at solar eclipse info and learned about color waves. We studied the concept of how our eyes interpret color based on which color waves are absorbed versus the ones that bounce back. Fascinating!!!

Okay, the rowdy ones need Mom to sit on them. (Not literally, of course, but you know what I mean.) Another day down!!! :)

My Tuesday was a Monday

Haha...well, Monday went so great that we just HAD to have a sorta rough Tuesday! Oh, it was fine, just had a bit of a tough start and got derailed by the unexpected. I had ignored an early email from a family member the day before and had almost caused some difficulties for having done so, so I did NOT ignore one today, and then I got distracted. But I managed to acquire a super fabulous bday gift for my hubby (a Kindle all his own) and also started the ball rolling for a group excursion to the Mariner game Thursday night. Looks like Dave will take the 3 older kids, along with Jerry & George, Eric Letsche and 2 of his boys, and maybe 3 Kumley folks. Should be fun for all! I will stay home with the cute little girls. Bails has to work, so she can't go...boo hoo!

I got to have some fun time with my preschoolers today working with pattern blocks. They also did their Math meeting time...getting better and better at that. I was amazed to see how much Beau and Geneva are picking up of the 23rd Psalm...terrific!! It's fun to hear them say the phrases in their cute little voices.

Bailey read the Grammar script to Kat and Dane today...it was a long one! After, they wrote paragraphs. Kat wrote about her favorite kinds of stories and Dane wrote about his favorite games.

We were low on groceries (Amazon Fresh is due tomorrow morning), so we hopped in the car and went through the McDonalds drive thru for lunch. Bailey read our Henty aloud along the way, so we got our history done on the move! The Danes are attacking the Saxons here and there, pirating quite a bit, so the Dragon is back on the open seas. It has gone ashore in France during a storm. Looks like Paris will be held in seige in the next chapter.

We ended the day with Lit, so no Latin and no Science. Tomorrow will be better!! But for being "not the best" today, it really wasn't all that bad! :) I'm sure glad I had Bailey here--she helps me by listening to me and encouraging me. Can't pay enough for that kind of help...but don't tell her that. (wink, wink) (are you reading this, Bails?) :)

Ah, yes....MONDAY!!

Okay, so there I was last night, truly looking forward to my Monday, but then I forgot to set my alarm! The kids, who are now able to contrast these structured morning days with the not-so-long-lost lazy mornings of summer, did their best NOT to wake Mom. Ha! I finally stirred at 8:45 am and jumped out of bed, ran downstairs, and found Kat & Dane doing their Math lessons while Beau & Geneva danced around in the office. No one had started on breakfast and no one was in their school uniforms. Sigh...well, at least nobody's gonna miss the bus, right?? :)

Kids had a quick cereal breakfast and got dressed and started on Bible verses. Bigger kids continued their Math while I nursed Ansley. We actually only got started 15 min later than usual, so it worked out fine. The big kids had Chapter 3 Grammar tests, which I had prepped the night before. Both did great! The littlers are splitting a little on their cutting/gluing work...Beau is improving AMAZINGLY and is cutting right along the lines. He knows where to glue what, and he is able to work on his own quite a bit. Geneva, on the other hand, easily tires of cutting and her attention span is much shorter than Beau's, despite her new age (turned 3 on Sept 25!) So Bailey is helping her more and trying to vary her sitting time a bit. Both Beau & Geneva look forward to their Phonics dancing time each day, and today was no exception. It's so fun to hear them dancing and singing their letters and sounds!

Henty was exciting again today. King Alfred had hidden away on a secluded island while the enemy took over his land. He and many other Saxons were biding their time until it might be possible to rise against the Danes. Edmund's return to England meant a revival of spirits for all, and after much training, fortifying, and arms manufacturing, they planned a revolt in the spring. They did much good by attacking by surprise, but the Danes remained smug as they retreated toward their fort at Chippenham. The Saxons performed well under the king's leadership and they routed the Danes, though they were greatly outnumbered. The much smaller remnant of Danes returned to Chippenham until the Saxons forced them out with a seige. Hungry and weak, the Danes surrendered. Rather than send them away, King Alfred chose to allow the Danes to stay and peacefully incorporate themselves under Saxon rule. The Danish king chose to embrace Christianity, and so this battle turned the tides of the future for England. If they had lost, England would have remained Danish. Since they won, England was restored and yet some Danes remained, intermarried, and continued a settled life. The next chapter is entitled, "Four Years of Peace," so there is more excitement coming! We are just past halfway through the book, so it will be interesting to see what comes next. I am especially interested to know if Edmund returns to the north to claim Freda as his bride! (Am I a romantic, or what?!) :)

For Science, the olders wrote papers about the sun and its effects on the eyes. They also drew pictures for their Astronomy notebooks.

I got to spend some time with the preschoolers while Bailey read Robin Hood. Beau is definitely doing well with his numbers, and I enjoyed reading aloud to all 3 littles. Ansley finally objected, however, and had to be put to bed. Beau and Geneva particularly enjoyed the "Hippos Go Berserk" book and they themselves enjoyed getting up and "going BERSERK!!!"

FUN MONDAY!!!!

I LOVE MONDAYS!!!

Okay, I don't think I have ever said that before, and I'm not sure if I will continue to say it much longer, but right NOW, I DO love Mondays. Monday means Bailey comes in the morning and we get to start a new week of fun and learning. That might sound corny, but since we aren't piled up in textbooks all day, the learning IS fun! In fact, I am seriously tempted to do more living books for more subjects...but I'm going to keep on with what we've been doing for now.

New addition: Spelling Wisdom! I got this from the SimplyCharlotteMason.com site...it looks really good. It's basically 140 lessons (in each book) with an excerpt from great literature...the child is to study the short piece and then identify words within that seem tricky to them. Study those words. Then, write out the excerpt from dictation. Anything that is spelled wrong is immediately covered up and corrected so that the child doesn't spend any time looking at the wrong spelling of the word(s). Cool!

I'm really interested to see what happens next in Henty...the last chapter was the best so far!

Okay, off to bed I go. Wait--it was just 11pm...how'd it get so late??? :)

Time flies...

I can't believe it has been almost a week since I last posted. I'm trying to get to bed earlier, which means I don't make it into the office late at night as much. But things are going so well!!!

I have a dream job--there is no doubt. I am SOOOO loving seeing my kids all day! Bailey and I just go along as a team and things are pretty smooth and the whole process is endlessly interesting!

In Henty, the Saxons grounded their ship on Danish soil, which led to the Danes capturing Edmund. Thankfully, one of the leaders of the group had been spared by Edmund earlier, along with his daughter, Freda. Ahh....wilt there be romance in our tale? Methinks yes!

In Science, we've been studying the solar system. Today, we mounted balloons to the ceiling that hang down like the planets and show the basic scale of all planets with reference to each other. The only one that is really off is the sun because we didn't have a balloon big enough. But we made it as big as we could (good job, Dane!)

The kids did REALLY well on their first Math tests and Grammar tests--woo hoo! They are plugging along in Latin, but Geography is a big favorite. We looked at India yesterday...featured a rural family. They hardly owned anything. Plus, no TV, radio, or computer...the kids were amazed.

Dave has been out of town since Tuesday night. He returns Saturday, the day after Geneva's birthday. We will celebrate her bday with the Kumley family tomorrow, and then the kids will stay at the Kumleys because I have a 40th bday party with Jenny S. It's a sleepover!

So off to bed I go...

Co-op Day! (Well, Park Day w/Co-op)

Until our Hillside Co-op starts up on Oct 16, we seem to be doing "park days" on Fridays. We aren't really planning to participate in park days at this point since the parks are often far away for us and we really want to get comfortable with our home schooling, being the newbies. I don't want Fridays to be wasted school-wise for us since we have so many adjustments and adaptations to deal with first year. HOWEVER, since park day was scheduled to be at OUR HOUSE today, we of course participated, and it was so fun!!!

3 families were out with illness etc., so we had 5 families involved. That meant about 21 kids were here. My kids did Math in the morning before the folks arrived, but the rest of the day was spent playing out in the woods and enjoying time with our friends. The kids get along so fabulously...one of the highlights for Dane was that 2 of the boys brought their pocketknives, so he felt fully justified in carrying his around too. I saw lots of kids spending time in the treehouse and swinging out over the ravine on the new rope swing. The ladies mostly sat out on the deck together under the sunshade...we enjoyed our sandwiches and listened to the kids play. Pretty relaxing!

At 3, Bailey came to watch the kids so Dave and I could go sign our mortgage refinance papers. The happy news is that our payment is slightly lower than we expected and we also don't have to make our first payment until Nov. 1. Pretty cool! We also get some cash back from our original lender, so that's pleasant.

Dave is headed out in a few minutes to celebrate Dale's birthday with the rest of the co-op guys. I think he's pretty worn out, but he is trying his best to get to know the guys.

I don't think I wrote about yesterday's school day--it was very good. We started 1/2 hour later than usual since we'd been out to the musical the night before. We didn't do Latin, so that meant we got back on schedule pretty well. We finished reading our first chapter in our Science text, and we got through chapter 6 in Henty. Kat has nearly finished memorizing her poem for English and both kids spent time writing out sentences of the 4 main types and also doing some journal time. Good stuff!

A & B Days

I have decided that my home school days have been "A" and "B" days so far. The "A" days are the days that have gone great! The "B" days have meant a few bumps along the way. I am hoping we don't degrade to "C" and "D" days, but I suppose that is likely to happen at some point. Yesterday was a "B" day, but today was an "A!"

We did our first day of Geography study. The kids had been talking about Japan and calling the people "Chinese," so I decided it was time to look at those countries and observe some of the differences. We have a book called, "Material World, A Global Family Portrait." It is really fascinating! We read about the "average family" in both Japan and China. The most interesting differences were that China is SO much larger, has SO many more people, and that about 75% of the Japanese are urban dwellers, while only 25% of the Chinese are urban. The kids enjoyed looking up the countries on the globe and the wall map. Aunt Gretchen has offered to come do some special stuff on a Geography day, so that will be fun to plan.

We have gone forward a few years in Henty, to 875 A.D. Things are not looking good for the Saxons, but King Alfred is working hard training his men to defeat the Danes.

We began our Science text today. It is Apologia's "Astronomy" textbook. I read some aloud and the kids seemed to find it very interesting.

The kids are doing well with their Bible memory module. I think they have 3-4 verses pretty well memorized. Even Beau and Geneva are doing well with this.

Kat is memorizing a really nice poem from her Serl book. We studied the 4 main types of sentences today and talked about classifying the different words in the sentences. Tomorrow the kids will do another entry in their journals. I'm happy to see how much they enjoy the journal time, but I was amused at how much they did NOT want to recite their Grammar jingles. I think the jingles (Shurley Grammar) are cool--an easy way to memorize the info. They complained some about it, but I think they were relieved that they didn't need to stand up and do it like they had done in school.

Beau and Geneva continue to love dancing to their Raceway and Phonics songs. Today we danced in the foyer, and there was much joy! What a precious age they are.

Tonight, I got to go to the Paramount to see "Wicked" with Bailey, Hahnna, Carter and Mattie. What fun! I really didn't enjoy the book, but the musical was very fun. The sets and costumes were fantastic, and the music was beautiful.

Dave and I finished watching "Quantum of Solace" tonight, and I must confess that I am a bit confused about the story-line. Sigh. I need to pay closer attention to these "guy" flicks. I try to do a little school prep now at night....not the best choice when taking in 007. Oh, dear...it's late. I've gone backwards. :)

Tough Weekend...

Got two pieces of hard news this last Sunday. Our good friend, Jeff, has been diagnosed with leukemia (chronic myeloid). He got blood drawn Saturday and was called in to UW Med on Sunday. VERY SAD! He and Rene have 5 kids, and they own their own business and home school. Prayers of the saints are going up EVERYWHERE, which has been extremely encouraging to see. These people are loved!

As for school, it was an interesting Monday. We had an 8th-grade girl here as a "helper" since she was suspended from school this week. She did a great job cleaning the floors for me and hanging up loads of baby clothes (oh, and folding 2 loads of laundry--yay!) I was amazed at how nice it was to have a girl that age getting things on my list done while I taught my children...felt very efficient!

Beau and Geneva do not have the fine motor skills to make letters yet. I knew Geneva would be challenged with it, but I don't think Beau is quite ready either. They both did GREAT at the Math meeting calendar, however! They picked right up on the color pattern, and they managed to say the date. They are also doing well with the Genesis memory verses.

"The Dragon and the Raven" by Henty continues to be very exciting! I am enjoying studying that time period this way. The kids also enjoyed the creation science video about dinosaurs. I even managed to get my workout in today during Latin...I did Turbo Jam Fat Burner and I have been suffering a headache tonight to celebrate. I ALWAYS get a headache first day back, so I'm hoping it clears soon. I am hoping to see some benefit from the Shakeology drink I have for breakfast. It should be a very good thing...hard to see the results clearly, however.

I'm dull tonight (probably due to the headache) so off to bed I go. Oh, look...the time is even earlier than last time! That's progress!!

Bottom line: I am REALLY loving schooling my kids. The very, very best thing of all is that I am with them during the part of the day when I am fresh and cheerful. So we are having a constant party...of course, having Bailey here helps make the party run smooooothly....:)

School is FUN!!!!

Haha...looks like my posts are creeping slightly earlier and earlier each night...good thing...I need more rest! If I keep this up, I'll be able to put myself to bed by 10pm....oh, my...can't really imagine that happening anytime in my adult life. But miracles do happen, right? (The miracle would be me WANTING to go to bed by 10, in case you don't know me well.)

Should keep this short since we have company staying (Raoul & Jamie--yay!) We had such a super-fabulous-terrific-outstanding school day today that I can hardly believe we were learning. But we were! THEY were! One high point for me was when 4-yr-old Beau looked up from his puzzle play on the floor during Henty read-aloud time and asked, "Mom, did you just say that the guy had a SWORD???" Hahahaha...YES!!! A sword, a shield, a battle...awesome stuff! All in 870 A.D. Three days ago I could not have told you ANYTHING about what life was like for people who lived in 870 A.D. Today I could. Cool! Also very wonderful today was that 9-yr-old Dane made us all waffles (Eggo), scrambled eggs, and apple slices for breakfast. Woo hoo!!! I heard someone in the kitchen when I got up, but I was so pleasantly thrilled that breakfast was ready for everyone. Good job, Dane!! Then, after Bible, I went up to nurse the baby and when I came back down, the older kids had begun their Math on their own. Nice! Bailey took the pre-schoolers today, so I got to enjoy Language Art stuff with the olders. Kat read a story and narrated it back to me beautifully. Shurley assignment today was journal-writing...I caught both kids writing in their new journals a number of times later in the day...on their "own" time...sigh...I'm liking it.

VERY exciting news today was the birth of Chesterton Merryman Hyink. That's baby #5 for the Hyink family, and I got to take them their first meal. I cried when I held that gorgeous baby boy...born at 5:14am, so he was SO BRAND NEW!!!!!

Also attended a cocktail party at the neighbor's house, as a courtesy. I'm not really in the market to be a direct seller right now. I have ENOUGH going on, I'd say...;) The company is Trump Enterprises...customized vitamins. We'll see where it goes for Val.

Time for sleep! Tomorrow is a free day...we are going to go ride the Seattle Ferry to Bainbridge Island with the Langin family (visiting from Kentucky). Maybe we can look up some stuff about the ferries after and keep having fun doing schooooooooooool! :)

First day down!

Yes!!!! We had our first day. Was it perfect? No. Is that okay? Yes. Will there be worse days and better days? I expect so.

Took a bit of effort to drag the summer slugs out of their beds this morning...they were excited about school, but it still seemed early to them...8:15am, that is. We got to the office for Bible verses and prayer by 9 rather than the planned 8:45, but that was okay. Math was a bit of a tough start because I had to get Kat keyed up with her DIVE Math program on the laptop...couldn't figure out how to un-mute the sound...the whole thing was delayed so that ran into our Grammar/English time. Dane flew through his Math pretty fast and well. I worked on "wetters" (that's how Geneva says "letters") with Beau and Geneva in the basement. We practiced recognition of a-g, lowercase. Beau was only confident about "b," "c," and "f." He seemed to really like "f." Geneva had a hard time keeping her buns on her seat. The write-erase board stuff by Crayola was fun for them, but they didn't try to make any of the letters.

Grammar went very well, although we were behind on time. Dane studied a picture and answered questions, and they both did some work with synonyms/antonyms and vocabulary. Kat whizzed through that stuff, while Dane struggled with finding all the vocab words in his big dictionary. We could hear the pre-schoolers hooting and whooping in the basement, where they were doing magnetic motor-skill work with Bailey on this cool thing I found at the Lakeshore Learning Center.

Next we read aloud from Henty. Pretty old English, lots of awkward phrasing and words, but I thought it was very cool. Once the story picks up, I think the kids will engage more. As it was, Kat and Dane did pretty well listening. The little ones cut pieces of paper up with their new scissors, but they were pretty quiet.

The next subject was Latin. I was supposed to work out then, but the baby woke crying and I realized I hadn't worked out the feeding times right. Oh, well...will try to do better tomorrow. I set Kat and Dane up with their DVD tutors, but we got way behind here as well since Dane had an intro before his lesson, and then he didn't realize to stop watching before lesson 2 started, so he went too far. Kat was a little overwhelmed by all the work she had to do with one lesson, so I may try to make each lesson go for two sessions. Flexibility! How nice it is.

Lunch was next. We at closer to 12:40...so 40 minutes behind at that point. Bailey took the baby outside and the kids went out to play after eating, so I was able to eat and clean up in the quiet...nice break there. As soon as I loaded the dishes I called the kids back in for Lit.

Started "Robin Hood," and it was fabulous. The kids really enjoyed it, and even though Pyle's old English is a bit difficult, we all thought it was fun. This one is on the Kindle, so that's cool too. We were supposed to do Science last, but since we were so behind with our day, we decided to postpone that.

I took Geneva and the baby up for a nap, and I crashed for at least 20 minutes. It was very rejuvenating! Then I went on with my day...Costco, dinner, shower, birthday party for a dear friend WITH a dear friend...nice. But now it's late again, and I probably shouldn't have written all this, but I wanted to get it down while it was fresh. I have no wittiness in me after this day, so off to bed I go.

Last day of summer...

Yup. This is it. Tuesday is the last hurrah for our sweet, lazy day summer. And yes, I do need to start going to bed earlier. Why on earth is that so hard??? I know why...it's because the house is so quiet that I can actually hear myself think for a change. I don't long for my days to be quiet--I love the fun of our noisy house, but when evening comes...too bad I need sleep. I can get a lot done at night.

So what's my home school plan? We have hired our dear Bailey girl to help make our days run smoothly. My hope is to do school (lunch & playtime included) from 8:45am until 2pm. I plan to start with Saxon Math (3rd & 5th graders) and do pre-school/pre-K with the 2 (almost 3) and 4-yr-olds simultaneously. Bailey and I will eventually switch back and forth between those duties (if all goes well). Next is Shurley Grammar for the olders and playtime/naptime for the youngers. Then READING...sure to be one of my favorite parts of this whole thing. We will be starting with a G.A. Henty book called, "The Dragon and the Raven." Historical fiction...I hope it helps the kids (and me) remember stuff better. Then Latin for the olders, roomtime for the youngers, and workout time for me. Going to have to lug this mommified body down to the basement for some DVD fun...thinking of starting with Turbo Jam. Next is lunch and "recess." Then back for more READING...Literature this time. We will be starting with Viking Adventure or the Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, depending on which comes in at the library. (I can't believe I ordered a hold for Geography but forgot to order for the hold for Lit!) Last of all is Science. I am still working that one out. I have Bob Jones 6 in hand...but I am waiting for another book I might like to try...

Okay, time for sleep.

Happy at Home

I recently attended my 20th high school reunion...yeesh, how on earth did I get to be 20 reunions old? Well, okay, only 1 reunion old, actually, since I didn't attend any of the priors. But a guy there asked me how many kids I had, and when I answered 5, he seemed to be thinking really hard about something. "Oh, you must stay home," he announced. "How could you possibly afford a nanny for 5?" And why would I want to? Ha! If one chooses to have 5 children, one most likely has a strong desire to spend lots of time with said children, which certainly must alleviate "nanny-neediness." Yes, I stay home. And I love to stay home! I have a B.S. degree in Foods and Nutrition, and that fits well with staying home and feeding 5 growing people and one very fit husband.

But now staying home has a whole new meaning for us. We (I) are (am) embarking on a new journey...we have taken our kids out of the local (and beloved) Christian school and are going to try home schooling. It is a daunting prospect, but I, for one, am SUPER EXCITED!!!! I am writing this blog for myself...to document this journey. Hopefully, when my motor begins to wind down, I will be able to go back and see how excited I was. That might just be the momentum I need to continue going forward.

So that's it. I stay home. I home school. I am, without a doubt, Domestically Employed.