Acorn Pumpkins

I know, it's a terrible picture. My good camera had a mishap with the ground more than a year ago. I cried. I still cry occasionally. My wonderful mother in law is sending it in to be fixed for my Christmas present this year. Oh, I can't wait! Till then, these blurry ones will just have to do. School has pretty much been out the window this week. But we at least were a little crafty today. It was such a beautiful, cool fall day, and we spent much of it outdoors. Well, once I talked myself into actually getting out of the bed, anyway. The newest addition still thinks night time is for playing, and day time for sleeping. If it were a born of the body baby, I'd probably be frustrated and cranky about that. Born of the heart babies are different....especially ones that I know might not be staying. They are not taken for granted. The once dread of having to get up at night suddenly becomes a privilege. It should be so with born of the body babies, too, but for some reason that isn't always as obvious with them. There's a sneak peek in one of the pictures, at least you can see how TINY she is!





Do you see that Blessing is painting her fingers more than the acorns? Oh, and she actually has her clothes on!!!!! ;)

Fun Friday

I know, I know. It's Monday. I've been a little busy. Gee, I can't imagine why!

I try to reserve Fridays for lots of fun. We still do school, but it's the fun stuff. Last Friday we painted flower pots and will be planting some seeds for our botany lessons, played in the rain again, spent some time in the kitchen making rice krispie treats and pizza, did a little reading and squeezed in a couple of not so fun math lessons in between. We also listened to some of our new favorite audio series, The Pond radio show, and Jonathan Park radio drama.


Yes, Blessing is naked. Well, all except for the diaper that I swore I would never again put on her about 2 or 3 months ago. 6 pair of panties per day later, I caved. I'm frustrated about that, both at myself and her, and not sure what the next step is. She's 3, people. 3 and though slightly developmentally delayed, not enough that makes me think she is not capable of potty training. In fact, she has had as much as a week at a time with no accident. Then suddenly, 6 panties in one day again. every. day. arg. And as far as the nakedness, well, neurologically she tolerates clothes just fine. But one speck of wet, dirt, paint, or if the seams aren't just right, off they come.


And then there's Charity. Who after 2 seconds of pretty colors and paint brushes decided that madly banging and franticly rubbing the paint all over the page worked much better. She's one of those if-I-can't-do-it-perfectly-then-I-freak personalities. You're not the only one, darling. Definitely not the only one.


I know it's a terrible picture, and it's hard to tell, but it's raining. And that is a tree "swing" the older girls rigged. Look close and you can see those stinky red sparkly shoes on Grace. With her pajamas. Do you still think I'm a good mom?


And last, but not least, my oldest girls. They slipped and slid and enjoyed the rain, too!

Busy, Busy

We're busy as bees. We're having good school days, working hard, and that just leaves very little time on the computer for me!

Math for Hope


Faith's science notebook with a recently finished page. We're currently studying botany.



I love this next picture for a couple of reasons. The biggest one because Faith is actually teaching Grace and Charity their math lesson. During nap time one day, I taught Faith and Hope how to teach the little ones their first few math concepts, and then had them teach the lessons back to me. I did that for several reasons - I may take the time to explain later -, but for now I just want to brag. Faith did a GREAT job with the "littles" (I can't call them babies forever). I was so proud.
The other reasons I like the picture are all the things you can tell about our home and my parenting just from looking at the details:
1. Notice the ergo on the back of Grace's chair. I'm a baby wearer! ;) Even though my current "baby" is 3. I still wear her all the time.
2. Notice the ring pops. This actually is not typical at all, but when grouchy children who won't nap dictate, I can bribe for a little peace. Obviously. And I can allow sugar for special treats.
3. Notice the decor on the furniture behind the table. It once held a beautiful vase with flours, an elegant creamy white bowl full of fruit (even the bowl's crack was beautiful and elegant and added so much character), and what we call our family altar (more on that later). But, as you can see, it was out with beautiful, and in with practical. And though there is a baby doll peering out over the school table from one of the girl's baskets, they actually hold school books and supplies for each of my students.
4. Last but certainly not least, the big red bow on grace's head. You can't really tell from the picture, but the outfit she has on is mostly orange in color. (the shorts and what is on the t-shirt) The bow only matches the ring pop, And the shoes you KNOW are on her feet! ;) This is my best mothering trait....picking the battles carefully. And being wise enough to know what really matters and what doesn't. Ok, ok, so SOMETIMES it's a great trait. Sometimes I have to work at it. And sometimes wanting neat-as-a-tac children does get the best of me. And I dress them all in the cutest dresses and MATCHING bows and demand little red shoes NOT be part of the attire. I even fix the ten yr old's hair, much to her dismay. But that's more rare than ring pops.

Ode to being 4

Because at 4, this outfit is suitable for any task. What can be better? Glue AND glamour. All in one day.

School Update

School has gone well, although we did not accomplish 5 full days this week. Actually my goal is 4 full days. "Full" meaning every intended subject accomplished. That usually only takes us until about 1:00 (we start at 8:30 and break for lunch). The 5th day is for the fun stuff! ;) An art project, or a science project, the library, or other field trip. This week we've only managed 3 full days. One day, my sister came in and we spent the day playing hide and seek, and dancing. Today, the oldest 2 are at a friend's house celebrating one of her daughter's birthdays. But the days we had went very well, and I'm very happy with the curriculum we're using.

I have 2 4-yr-olds. One of which is MORE than ready to start kindergarden. This was suitable for me, since she really needed to be by me at the table most of the time, anyway. I also felt it would separate the 2 of them in grade level, and therefore maybe eliminate some of the competition they would otherwise experience. Charity is just one of THOSE kids. She's EXTREMELY smart. And not only that, but she's extremely coordinated, too. She's good at anything she tries. If she wants to be. She'll make excellent grades. She'll have perfect penmanship. Her reading will be perfectly fluent and expressive. You get the picture. I felt that would automatically put Grace in an awkward position. Grace is younger, though only by 4 months. And I did not think she was ready for Kindergarden.

Again, I don't know where my mind was. Can you imagine the response as Charity got to be beside me at the table, doing work I was constantly praising her for? Sitting in my lap for her reading lesson, high fives, and "great job"s, and "wow"s probably looks pretty enticing to the other 4 yr. old. Sure enough, Grace was BEGGING to do school, too. "Me, too, Mom, Me too!" "I want to do what she's doing."

So, I now have 4 official schoolers. My table is full for several hours every day. Which I love. The 2 of them are currently working on a binder. One thing I LOVE about homeschooling is that instead of getting new binders or notebooks every year, they can build on the same binder year after year. You see, Faith and Hope each have a Vocabulary binder. Each letter of the alphabet is colored or painted or crafted in a special way. We then put it in a page protector, and place in a binder. Year after year, their vocabulary words are written in their binder filed behind the correct alphabet letter. Faith has some vocabulary words she wrote way back in the first grade! ;) LOVE that! So, Charity and Grace have started their binder. They made a page for "a" this week. I don't know if we'll stick with one letter per week, or move quicker. Their reading lessons move much quicker, so we may try to keep up with that. We'll see! That's one thing about starting K a year early. We can certainly take our time and enjoy the lessons and make sure they master each skill before we move on. I love getting to be the one to teach them to read. It's my most favorite thing about home schooling.

Geocaching

Have you done this yet? You HAVE to. We only went for about an hour, a friend teaching us the ropes, but we are hooked! This trip was just for Faith and Hope (and their friends), but next time it will be a family affair. I can see even the little ones loving the "treasure hunt". We found 2 today, and one had a coin that can also be tracked online. We have yet to track it, but will do that tomorrow, and then place it in another cache the next time we go! The girls replaced the items they took (the tracking coin, and another coin with a cross cut out of it) with necklaces. A young boy with us put in a little cowboy figurine and pulled out a cross charm "for my mom." All together, now. Aaaaaawwwwwww!

And So It Begins

School, that is. I did not expect to start school until the week after next. First of all I did not order the kids' curriculum until less than a week ago, and fully expected it to be 2 to 3 weeks before it came in. The math has not yet made it here, but yesterday the mailman rang our doorbell. I'm sure he's never received so many squeals over a delivery. The big girls were jumping up and down with delighted squeals, which caused the 3 little ones to also squeal and run in circles all excited like. I was cracking up because I knew very well they had no idea what they were so happy about. Faith and Hope's excitement was enough for them to know it had to be something good! Of course we emptied the boxes right away, ooing and ahing over every book and every new adventure we get to be a part of this school year. The kids BEGGED (oh, how I wish they would stay that enthused for the entire year) to start school today. I wanted to wait because we will not be doing school tomorrow, not the weekend, and probably not Monday, either. It seemed pointless. But who can look at children begging to do school and not oblige?




School is NOT easy with 3 little ones. I've put much thought and effort into how I would handle it this year. We began the day (after breakfast and chores) with Bible time at the table with all 5 girls. Then Faith and Hope made a journal entry while I taught Charity her reading lesson. I put Blessing and Grace at the bar with water paints, and Charity joined them after her handwriting was done. That kept them busy while I read the big girls their first science lesson. Once I gave Faith and Hope their science assignment, and they were busy working, I set up 3 areas for the little kids. I put one small kid in each station, threatened them with their lives to stay there until the timer went off, and set the timer for 30 minutes. When the timer went off, they swapped to another spot. This bought me an hour and 1/2 of table time with the older 2 girls. I had begun training the little ones that I expected them to stay put when the special toys/activities were pulled out about a week ago. They did pretty good today. Better than I thought they would on our first day (they're so nosy about what's going on at the table...it might be more fun!), but not as good as I hope they'll get as the school year goes on.

Lest you think these were some kind of extravagant stations, let me point out that I'm just talking about certain toys or activities that aren't always available to them. If you have any great ideas, just let me know. Obviously, the stations can't be the same everyday, or they will quickly lose interest. Here's what we did today:

Play dishes needed washed. (no one was ready to leave this station even after 30 minutes...those were VERY clean dishes)


These are "Littlest Pet Shop" toys that stay in my room for special occasions.


I have no idea what these are called. They snap together, and there are even little pieces that allow you to make rings, or bracelets. You can just snap them together in a circle for a necklace, or see how long of a line you can make. You might also notice some magnetix on the table. I intended for them to choose one or the other, but of course they wanted them both! ;)