An Update On School

Well, we have played around with some morning school, which we attempted to keep up, but it only lasted a couple of weeks.

But I used the time afterwards to do a little research and formulate plans in my own mind on what we want to do this school year. I am very happy with all of my plans. I have also made goals, but intend to look them over and go a little more in-depth on specifics, etc. I won't write all of my plans down here, but I'll list a couple of them.

• My Man & I have discussed several times, how we like the idea of year-round homeschool. However, I keep coming back to the conclusion that I just KNOW I will burn out, even if I were only doing 4-day weeks. I have come up with a plan that might work: Do school for 3 months, then have a free month, and repeat. I can reevaluate, rejuvenate, and revamp (if needed), during the in-between times. I especially like this idea because it's been a longstanding goal of mine to take the month of December off each year, and just focus on the Christmas spirit and our family Christmas traditions.
• I still like the idea of a 4-day school week, but my Man surprised me by saying he thought we should do 6-day school weeks. Yikes! But then I realized that we could do our Morning Time 6 days per week, and do the rest of our school work only 4 of those days. If we are ambitious and do more, that works for me. But I don't have to have feelings of failure if we don't. :-)
• We will be trying to make it to Storytime at the library each week. We can pick up some history and science books every time, as I intend to use living literature books this year for science and history.
• We have both Primer & Alpha materials for Math-U-See, so after this coming week, I am thinking to add a math lesson 4 days each week.
• I have some awesome ideas for our binders. I know I can't hold myself back from the details, so I'll write more about that some other time. :-)

I am changing my method very slightly, in how to continue Son's reading lessons from here on out. I also have a pretty vastly changed method I am going to try with Sissy, and see how it works. She has pretty much nothing to go on at the moment, so it's a completely fresh start. LOL. Son does fine, but I still feel like I've learned some things through the process, and I also think that Sissy wouldn't do as well with the same system. I don't know, maybe it's just me. :-) But what the teacher thinks makes a big difference, so there you go! :-)

I have already taught Son how to write print letters, but he and I are going to practice cursive this year. After doing practice for a while, we are going to start some copywork exercises. That will probably constitute most of his writing for this year, since he's not very interested in writing for very long. However, I still intend to write from his dictation. I haven't decided how frequently I will require the copywork or dictation sessions, but I intend to do them, and we'll figure out how it works best for us as we go.

Also, I have done some reading and thinking, that brings me to the conclusion that I ought to try teaching my kids cursive first, from now on. So I intend to write big cursive words on pages, put them in page protectors, and have Sissy trace over them with dry-erase markers for her "copywork" exercises. If Honey wants to be involved, we'll probably work on shapes, color matching, and maybe letters. Maybe.

I intend to keep a "Blessings Book" for each of the kids. It will be more of a list, with just a sentence or two per kid, per day.

And finally, I plan to do lots of reading. We already like to read together, but don't do it as often as we should. The kids are always asking, but I'm always busy. However, I am having the kids start helping me out a little more, which should leave a little more time in the day for reading.

So here is a possible school day goal:

8:00am - Morning Time begins
Family prayers
Fix & eat breakfast
Family dressed, hair fixed, faces washed, teeth brushed
Read from the Bible, and choose a verse for our chalkboard
Rhyme Time (poem, fingerplay, song, or suchlike)
Memorizing of emergency info (parents names, phone numbers, address)
Copywork (still not sure how frequently this will be done)

and then, a flow for the day
Morning Chore
Walk (beginning in a couple weeks or so)
Lunch
Afternoon Chore
Quiet Time (kids sit still and quiet for an hour and a half)
Reading
Projects
Baths/Showers
Supper
Evening Chore
Free Time
7:30pm - Bedtime Routine
8:00pm - Bedtime

This looks more rigid than how it has been working in real life. We also have been reading throughout the day. Son's reading time has been divided into a morning session right after Morning Time, and an afternoon session around Quiet Time. There has been a lot of time for the kids to play and Mommy to do things like... make lists.... write a blog... talk on the phone... :-)

So that covers my plans for this next couple of months, and generalized plans for the course of the whole year.

Because of the busyness that has been going on in our life, we didn't begin this stuff in earnest until Wednesday. We did things a little differently that day, since it was "the first day". We read the Bible, practiced a new poem, and made up a "first day page" for each child. It included the date, along with their name & age, height, weight, favorite colors, favorite stories/books, goal to reach by their next birthday, a tracing of their hand, a photo of themselves, and a small picture they each drew in the corner. Then we went to Storytime at the library.

Later in the day, I asked them to tell me what to write about Storytime. I wrote everything in their own words. I was very impressed with their dictation.

First 2016 Storytime, September 28, by Son
    I only know one song. It's the song that we had to get bean bags for. We had to throw and catch. We had to put it on our head and walk around the room. We had to put it on our shoulders, and elbows, and knees, and toes.
    I know two songs now; it's about leaves. We had to put the leaves on our hands, and sing the leaf song. We had to make our hands up high in a tree. I had six. I dropped one before it started, because I wanted to only have five. That's 'cause I am five.
    The lady in the room had to take off the leaf with her other hand and drop it. With the hand that didn't have leaves on it. With the hand that she had the singing words with.
    We had to get rattles for another song.

This filled up one notebook page. I was impressed with his details about what he remembered. After his was done, I had Sissy tell me her version:

First 2016 Storytime, September 28, by Sissy
    I only know zero songs right now, so don't write about any songs.
    I only know one song, that we had to throw beans up.
    Now I know two songs. The song is about when we had to do the rattles.
    We did the Hokey-Pokey!
    We got to color with those markers. We put a umbrella on our papers. We took them home, and we goed home.
    We got books.
    We got to play with toys. The toys were fun, so we started doing the Hokey-Pokey.
    We goed home after all those fun things, and I got tired! We goed home and we put the purple papers on our furnace.

(Mom Note: The papers were dark blue, not purple. Also, they didn't do the Hokey-Pokey when they played with the toys.)

I was impressed with Sissy mentioning as many things as she could, although there wasn't much detail to it. She tried not to leave anything out. And then:

First 2016 Storytime, September 28, by Honey
We got a story. That lady read the story to us. Draw on paper? YAY!

(Mom Note: When I reminded her that they colored on paper at Storytime, she got so excited. :-))
Her baby talk was SUPER CUTE!!!!!

We have had a lot of fun the last couple days. Yesterday, we followed the "schedule" I laid out above, a little closer, and the kids helped me make no-bake cookies for after-church snacks. Son also emailed a few emails back and forth with Grandpa (he was sure that his cousin needed Grandpa to sing him happy birthday, even though it wasn't Grandpa's grandkid. Since Grandpa said he wouldn't be able to, Son said that "we REELEE need to sege to him win he trns 4." :-) I need to show him Grandpa's reply: "Yes and maybe just maybe, we will forget that it really needs done so bad." LOL. Nice, Dad.) :-)

Well, so far, I am super happy with my plans/intentions, and where we are in the implementation stage. :-) You will be hearing more on this subject, mark my words. :-)

Firstborn Son

Son: Mommy, do you have camo thread?
Me: Um, no. I have green thread and brown thread, though. But not camo. Do you?
Son: [sudden giggles] No! I'm your kid! Your firstborn son!
Me: Oh, yeah, you are, aren't you!
Sissy: Look, Mommy! I'm tied to the stove!
[she has been entertaining herself for the past 30 minutes by tying herself to things with her winter scarf]
Honey: Mommy! I go tinky! [stinky; and whew! it was in the potty chair!]
My Man: Do you have any more chicken legs in the crock pot?
Me: Um, no.... I cooked half of a chicken.

What a beautiful family I've been blessed with. :-)

The whole "I'm your firstborn son" part really cracked me up. :-)

More Basement Work

Another hour and a half working on the basement, with wonderful results! We've still got a long ways to go, but this total of 3 hours has made so much difference! It's very inspiring every time I need to go down there to get something... sometimes I go down there for no reason except to inspire myself! :-)

Yesterday, we did some housework, and then worked on the basement while Honey took her nap. Today, I was lazy and we didn't get around very early. But then we went down and the kids fully played with a toy tea set down there, for the whole hour and a half while I was working. Oh, I guess they DID find some random bike tires that they were having a blast with. I kept having to tell them to stop throwing the bike tires because it was dangerous. They didn't fully stop until I explained that I would just take the bike tires to the trash (which is to be picked up today) if they threw one of them even one more time. Boom. Sudden obedience.

Yesterday I got a lot of kitchen-related items moved into one area. Today I got most of my sewing scraps moved into another area, and after emptying two of the wonderful, sturdy, stackable storage bins that my Man has been keeping me supplied with, then I promptly filled them back up with what I'd wanted to put in them in the first place; into one, all outgrown diapers, both disposables and cloth, and related diaper changing paraphernalia. Into the other, things to keep on hand for another birth, including the only baby outfits/shoes/etc that I couldn't possibly give up when I went through getting rid of almost EVERY SINGLE OUTGROWN ITEM a few months ago. Or was it a year ago? I don't recall. In any case, I do have a boxful of things that I just HAVE to have on hand for when we have another baby someday.

But now I still have cleaning to do. Lots of laundry, that I washed yesterday, but never folded or put away. Lots of dishes, some left over from yesterday, some dirtied today. I'm not going to vacuum, even though the floor needs it. After laundry and dishes, I'm hoping to go back to the basement for another hour and a half.

I haven't been setting a timer. But during both yesterday's session and today's, then I got to a point where I all of a sudden felt like "I can't do this for even one more minute!" Then I looked at my clock and saw that I'd worked for an hour and a half.

I think part of it is having the kids down there "helping". And part of it is all the dust that gets stirred up. And part of it is thinking the dust is so bad that I don't want the kids breathing it, even if I could deal with it.

So... first I'll put Honey, and HOPFULLY Sissy, down for naps. Then, sort the clean laundry. Then, wash half or more of the dishes. Then, back to the basement for, most likely, an hour and a half. I definitely WANT to get more done before we apply the spider bombs, if I am able to. However, if I don't get another chance to go down there, I think I've got it well enough that there won't be much of anywhere for a spider to hide from the poison. :-)

Anyway, I hope.

Finally Worked On The Basement

I only worked in the basement for an hour and a half today. During Honey's nap. The older kids helped me. We actually got a LOT done! It's so inspiring! Tomorrow I intend to work on it some more, but in several spurts this time. Maybe we can get a total of a few hours in over the course of the day, that way. I forgot to take "before" pictures, but I did take after pictures, and when I post them, I can at least explain how horrid it was before, and you can guess a small fraction of the reality.

Ugh!

Ugh! I have too many things on my plate! Busy, busy, busy.

Today I had simply intended on keeping up on the housework, and working as hard as I could in the basement. I was going to keep up that routine for Monday-Thursday, and then use Friday to put clean laundry, dishes, etc into bags so they don't have to be rewashed after the spider bomb we have to do on Sunday. Then, on Saturday, prepare Church dinner, and be sure everyone is bathed and hair washed. And bag any few things left that I don't want to wash on Monday.

Instead, we had a wonderful day yesterday but I never got any cleaning done. We received more peaches, and some corn, from different sources. So I need to take care of them today (I'm happy, but it delays basement work). My Man has a check he wants me to cash for him, and then I'll want to pick up a few groceries. And I need to buy a bubble envelope and mail a package of gospel CDs that I copied off for somebody who stayed at our house a few months ago and wanted copies. My Man also asked me to take something for him that he wasn't able to deliver over the weekend, and bring it to some friends house about 20 minutes away from us. And, of course, the house is a livable wreck but will go downhill way too quickly if I don't clean it again today. So add into all that, the fact that I will have to make sure 3 kids and myself are clean, dressed nicely, and hair fixed before we leave the house, and the fact that I will also need to fix meals in a timely manner (which will, of course, make a few more dishes to clean up)...... It's a full day. And I still tell myself "Well, after all this, you can do a little work in the basement." Ha. Yeah, right.... most likely not.

I'll say it again:

Ugh!

Goals & Quilts

I have significantly lessened my list of what to accomplish during the remainder of this week (yesterday, today, and Saturday).

Yesterday, my goal was just to clean the house and bathe everybody before Church. I was successful in that, although I now have a couch full of laundry ready to put away. And the laundry room itself needs some work (it gathers random odds & ends like you wouldn't believe!).

Today, the goal is to burn off some CDs for an older "aunt" who stayed with us a few months ago. Pretty quickly after she left, I went on my 3-week trip to the West Coast to see family & friends I grew up with. Then two of my sisters were out here for a month, immediately following that. Now it's been a couple of weeks, and I need to get that job DONE! I also want to try walmart.com again, and see if they fixed their problem so I can order picture CDs. If not, I'll have to find somebody else who provides that service.

Tomorrow, the goal is to keep the house clean, and make lots of specific homeschool plans... Yay!!!! And spend the day with the family, of course. So the homeschool planning of the day may go down the drain... But oh well, if it does. My family is most important!

So last night, I forced myself to clear my mind early enough that I could actually get a somewhat decent amount of sleep. But not before remembering... Oh! Sissy's next birthday will be her fifth! On Son's fifth, I made him a denim quilt. Hmmm.... I only have 10 months left... maybe I ought to start now! LOL. Son's was accomplished in a matter of two days, but I happened to have my mother-in-law assisting me, and she is an excellent and experienced quilt-maker.

So what did I do this morning? As soon as I had my husband's breakfast, lunch, and work clothes ready, I hopped right on to Pinterest, and spent 40 minutes looking at denim quilts and just any quilts in general.

Last night I had the idea to make a center panel for the quilt, with an appliqued Sunbonnet Sue pushing a baby carriage. I wasn't sure how to surround it, though. After lots of pinning this morning, I'm thinking surround with smallish blocks made of:
    ~    four triangles
    ~    two triangles
    ~    hearts
and, of course
    ~    pockets

Of course, knowing me, I could change my mind entirely and not make a quilt at all like what I presently have in mind. And as much as I want to, I can't really justify starting her quilt right now, anyway. Besides, I may wait on hers until she's older. I did Son's just because he was so enthralled with the denim quilt that Grandmother made for Daddy when Daddy was a boy, and he wanted me to make him one, too. Sissy hasn't got such a desire at this point. I could just make her a denim doll quilt and call it good. She'd go bananas for that! :-)

"Close your eyes, Mommy!"

Here's another post before I go to bed again;

A few months ago, I was talking to my cousin and close friend over the phone. I was telling her that I'd previously gone back and forth between whether I thought it was okay for me to watch movies or not, and that I'd finally come to the conclusion that if a movie meets certain criteria, I can enjoy it and not feel at all uncomfortable, as long as I don't get excessive in the habit. On the other hand, most modern movies do not meet that criteria, and even if I enjoy them, afterwards I wind up feeling as though I partook in something dirty, which causes me to think I should not watch movies whatsoever. Anyway, as I told her the type that I actually enjoy, I mentioned that I was afraid to try too many more, in case they were ones that would bother me. She suggested White Christmas and Holiday Inn, both Bing Crosby movies.

I don't recall which one I watched first, but while watching Holiday Inn, which featured vaudeville performers. Of course, since there were vaudeville performers, there were vaudeville costumes... so there were some dancing girls who had tights and whatnot, but also shorter, fluffier dresses (maybe like a tu-tu or something, I don't recall). At any rate, while some of these girls were dancing across the stage, my not-quite-four-year-old daughter turned to me and exclaimed "You need to close your eyes, Mommy! Those girls aren't wearing decent clothes! I'll tell you when you can open them, okay?!" whereupon she returned to watching the scene, and I inwardly laughed and laughed.

IT WAS FUNNY, OKAY?!?!?!?!

Insomnia

Another night where I can't get to sleep. Sigh. And I've been strictly avoiding coffee in the afternoons to prevent this, too! I haven't been sleeping in most mornings. It's just that I've got so much on my mind, and can't seem to clear it out at night until I've tossed and turned for at least an hour or so. And I've got the irritating cold that's been going around ever since they started up shots and whatnot again this year. So that doesn't help.

So one of the things on my mind tonight; I bombed the house for spiders yesterday, which was, of course, a big ordeal. After four hours, I stopped by the house to open all the doors & windows and let the place air out. What did I find? A spider. A live spider. Grrrrrrrr.

And then, because the stupid "30 minutes" to air out the house is never enough, including yesterday, then we had to spend the rest of the evening away from home, as well. Finally we came home, but the odor was still pretty strong. We didn't have anywhere else to go, so left all the windows open and the fans blowing for the night. Which, of course, was bad for my cold. So irritating.

This morning I woke up and had a huge to-do list, scrubbing things down from the spider bombing. But I was so discouraged, and I basically did nothing except stay a little depressed and grumpy until about five o'clock. At that point, I called my sister while I washed the kitchen cabinets so I could put at least some things away. I tried to get re-inspired while I was on the phone, but I just kept the discouragement. It just lessened a little. I bemoaned the fact that I'd forgotten to bag the coffee maker before bombing, and all throughout the day, I'd never made myself go put it through a cleaning cycle.

We had pancakes for supper, which I fixed while my Man and a couple of the kids watched an Astrix show. Then I went down to the store and got milk, because I forgot to when I was at the grocery store yesterday. I came home, watched the rest of the show with my family, and then got everyone settled into bed. And then tossed and turned for an hour, and finally came back downstairs to type up a post, because I felt a headache coming on, and I haven't posted in a few days anyway.

One good news is that my Man & I decided that the best course of action would be to bomb the house again on our next two Church Dinner days. This is because we are supposed to bomb again in 30 days to catch any hatched eggs. I had been so irritated by the live spider I found, that I had intended to bomb again next Tuesday, or maybe this Sunday. But when my Man suggested doing it on our Dinner days, I felt very relieved to be able to wait a tad longer.

Other things on my mind are thoughts about:
    ~    School ideas for this year
    ~    Parenting methods
    ~    KonMari'ing the entire house
    ~    Setting up our basement, as per my lofty plans
    ~    Sorting through the junk in my Man's shop (he requested this favor)
    ~    And a variety of smaller things to boot, assail me each day & night :-(

Other good news is that just before I left for the grocery store, I poured vinegar in the coffee maker and got the clean cycle started. Tomorrow morning I'll have to run a couple quick cycles of water through, and wash the pot. Then I'll be able to have coffee!

So here's hoping for a better day tomorrow. (I do think I'll feel a little better tomorrow. The wheels spinning in my head tonight are because of the myriad of things I'm planning on planning tomorrow... if that makes sense!)

To-Do List

This has been a very good day.

Church this morning was very encouraging. Choosing spouses, and interacting with them after marriage, was focused on. It was good to be reminded of, and I really enjoyed it.

Then we came home for lunch, and I had the kids look at books while my Man & I took naps. Of course, the kids didn't stick to the books like they were supposed to, but still. They were less destructive than they might've been without the direction, and the sleep was totally worth it.

Then we drove 45 minutes to visit some friends of ours. I hadn't been to their new home before, and was well impressed. They are expecting their first child, and she asked me for advice & tips I might have for her, to help her prepare. It was a fun visit, although she mostly had everything listed already, as she's asked several other women as well.

Tomorrow is the beginning of a very big week for us. I'll be getting the house prepared for spider bombs, and then Tuesday, we will set the bombs off as we head out the door. We'll do a few things in town and then go to the weekly quilting we have at the church. After the house has aired out, I'll have to really make myself work so I can get a few things scrubbed down post-spider-bomb. With special attention paid to the kitchen.

Things I want to do later in the week, include more scrubbing, fixing torn/broken books, adding category tape to some new books we've acquired, and sorting through my small stack of paperwork. Yes, that means that last week I did get our clothes reKonMari'd, but not the books or papers. Sigh. I'm worried that doing the spider bomb will put me further behind, but I'm determined to try to work as hard as I can and NOT let that happen!

And of course, we want to keep up on our Morning School each day of this week.

So I intend to be busy!

Freezing Peaches

Some of my list from the other day, I accomplished. Some I did not. Some everyday work NOT included on the list, I accomplished. Some I did not.

On Monday, a precious friend brought me a box of peaches. Because they were pretty hard, I divided them up into a total of 3 boxes (so they wouldn't smash the bottom layers while they were ripening up).

Then on Wednesday, I sorted through and took out all of them that had softened. I rinsed, cut, flash froze them, and then transferred them to gallon freezer ziplocs.

Today, I did nearly half of what was left, since they were almost all softened and it wasn't worth finding the couple that were still fairly hard. Here are pictures of my mornings work:

All rinsed and ready to cut.

I wanted to use the same box to freeze them with, so in went the layers of wax paper!

Let me pause so I can go start the next youtube "educational show" for my early rising girls. :-)

More wax paper for more peaches :-)

Since there were only 3 peaches left, I went ahead and succumbed to adding a partial third layer.

Not too much of the valuable peach went to waste!

I feel so accomplished!

Hmmm... when did that frost build up? Better take care of it.

Busy taking care of it. :-)

Fits exactly right! Notice the way I hold up the lid when a kid isn't handy...

This is the results from Wednesday. I did slightly more this morning, and have a little more than that for the batch I'm about to start. :-)

Also Wednesday, I froze the beets that another friend gave me. I would advise to anyone who wants to flash freeze beets... it will be easier to get them into your bags if you don't try to freeze them before they've cooled down...

The reason I bring up the beets is because my children & I couldn't resist eating a few while I was cutting them up. The results have had the kids intrigued and excited. Poor Sissy, though. She only had one beet chunk. Not enough to change the color of her potty. :-( And trust me, that is very disappointing to a four-year-old. Especially one whose favorite colors are pink & purple...

First & Second School Days 2016-17

We had our first day of "school" yesterday. We just did morning school, and not even all of it.

We read the book of Jonah and explained what was going on as we went through it.

We read a chapter of Agatha Campbell's Hat by Danni McGriffith (too intense... it's been too long since I read that book! I had to soften it up quite a bit as I went!).

We practiced a verse about September:

September is a time
Of beginning for all,
Beginning of school
Beginning of fall!

Then Sissy and I went through all of her clothing and chose what to keep out and what to store. My, how we reduced her former gigantic pile of all the clothes in her size - both in season and out! This may not have been the greatest time to do it, since the seasons are changing, but we went ahead and got it over with anyway. She's had this mess of clothes to sort through every day since this spring... don't tell anyone about that, though. It's been safely hidden away in our room. Nobody is supposed to know.

I also mended the things that needed it, that she chose to keep in her current wardrobe. A mixture of warm and cold weather clothing so she is prepared for whatever the day brings as we gradually transition to winter.

At breakfast today, we discussed the story of Jonah, and the kids remembered it very well. I was happy about that!

Then we walked the few blocks down to the shop my Man's boss just bought (Yay!!!) and grabbed the car. We drove down to the dollar store (I'm so cheap) and picked up some AAA batteries for the kids' tag reader. Unfortunately, once we'd dropped the car off and walked back home, we discovered that we still couldn't get the tag reader to work. Okay, so either the dollar store batteries are total junk, or else the kids had bathed the tag reader shortly before it went into storage for an undetermined number of months. I'm not sure which. We'll have to buy good batteries, try it out again, and see if it works. I sure hope so. I didn't spend a bunch of money on the tag reader, as it was given to us, but still! It's such an awesome "toy" - fun, but educational as well. I would hate for it to be unusable.

At any rate, we practiced our September verse a couple more times while we were in the car.

And we will be reading more of Agatha Campbell's Hat at the start-out of Quiet Time.

Other plans for the day include:
Housework
Honey's wardrobe (same thing we did to Sissy's yesterday)
Son's wardrobe (")
My wardrobe (won't take as long, just a little KonMari maintenance)
Food - take care of the peaches, zucchinis, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, and beets that were given to us from several sources.

And hopefully:
Prepare for dividing everything in the house into KonMari subcategories of "Miscellaneous".
Figure out what is needed to make Honey her own bed so she doesn't have to share with Sissy anymore (I have plans... maybe I won't have to buy anything... we'll see...)
And... write a blog post

So we'll see what of that weighty list actually gets accomplished!