ordering the chaos...

amidst the chaos, we have been homeschooling for a few weeks now.  in reality, we are catching up on last year’s math, writing and language arts.  we never quite finished up our curriculum from the 2010 year, so, we are hitting it hard right now to get things “caught up” so to speak.

but, we are living in chaos.  i would take a picture of it, but let’s just say, if you showed up on my doorstep right now, i would come out on the porch to talk with you rather than let you in our home.

we are a mess!  every two weeks, i frantically clean for 2 solid days while we get the house ready for our small group.  and even then it isn’t that clean. the clutter is overtaking me! 

a lot of it stems from the inability of my children (and my husband, bless him) to put their things away when they are done with them.  and my inability to make them (the kids, not the hubby) . 

so we are embarking on a few new things to get the house cleaned up.  i am going to start training the kids to clean!  i know, i know.  this is not a new topic for most of you reading this (does anyone read this?)...but i guess i have always just done things myself because it is easier.

faster.

and i don’t have to redo anything (usually).

But... NO MORE!!

every month i will train each child on one age appropriate chore.  i think this is do-able.  rather than try to eat the whole darn elephant, ya know? that way, each child will be proficient in one chore each month and we will slowly build up responsibility in each of them.

a much needed character trait.

my character will be stretched also.  i have very little patience with my children when it comes to teaching them how to clean up after themselves.  i know that i am going to have to learn how to hold my tongue and not blow my top when they don’t do as i have instructed or if it needs to be done over. 

or if they decide to use the broom as a rifle and the sponge as a missile.

i have boys, remember?

and so, i am coming up with a short list of chores for the kids to do.  as i look around the house, the major areas of need are the kitchen, bathrooms and dining room.  no surprise as we do most of our schooling in the kitchen and dining room.  laundry is also a HUGE need as things collect in various piles: clean, unclean, folded but unfolded by moose, sorted and need to be put away, etc. 

i am still contemplating who is going to get what chores, but i thought i would share this for now. 

wish me luck!!

a day at the zoo

after a very quiet night of call (nothing after 9:30 pm) we took a much needed family day and headed to the zoo. not that everyone hasn’t seen pictures of the zoo before, i mean, who hasn’t seen turtles? but i wanted to share a few pics.

this was a huge egg in the petting zoo. the kids just about jumped into it!

then we saw something that you may not have ever seen, esp since there are only three of these in the United States.

it is an albino peacock! all except his eyes and one light blue feather on his neck. he was in the shade, so the pics did not turn out as nicely as i would have liked. it was awesome! apparently, there is a potential mate in a nearby zoo, but neither of the zoos will send there peacock to the other zoo. the parents of this lovely creature are still in the zoo, so they are hoping for another one someday. isn’t he gorgeous??

the naked mole rats had babies on their backs. kind of hard to see, but some of them were nursing! the kids were fascinated. and so was the KISA.

and last but not least, a pic of the moose and tic tac watching the otters. this one only has three legs. i cannot remember the story of how he lost his leg, but it hasn’t slowed him down at all.

it was a much needed day off for the whole family. we rarely get an opportunity to spend extended time together with our work schedules. i was so happy that our children got to see daddy and me holding hands and enjoying a day without trying to get out the door to another appt! it was a nice little slice of heaven!

journal #1

i am trying out the homeschool chick’s journal prompts this week.  since i am having such a hard time coming up with my own original thoughts, well, i guess i needed some help! so, here goes!

In my life this week… i am fighting off a nasty head cold that has made swallowing a real effort.  everything else has taken a distant second,

In our homeschool this week…we haven’t done much, i cannot read a thing since i have no voice in addition to the cough. blech

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…absolutely nowhere.  daddy took the kids to church on sunday without me so i could rest up a bit.  i am hoping we can take a trip down south to see my mom and dad soon.

My favorite thing this week was…the drawings and love notes from my kids on Mother’s Day.  they even did them this year without any prompting.  the hubby even broke out some bling!  i haven’t gotten jewelry for a very long time.  i haven’t been able to wear my wedding ring for about 2 years with my arthritic knuckles, so the ring is perfect!

What’s working/not working for us…we are making some major adjustments to our homeschooling curriculum, and my husband is taking a very active role.  we haven’t ever really set any goals for the kids and it is definitely time to do so

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have…why is it so hard to find a truly bible based overview of world history for the 6-9 age range?  we are struggling with this in a big way.  we love the classical approach, starting with Creation and then progressing through history.  

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

they were actually cooperating to make this masterpiece!

library pick of the week

 

we haven’t been going to the library too often these days.  somehow i just haven’t managed to fit it into our daily schedule. 

and even when i think i can get it in, something happens during our day that sabotages it.  i haven’t even been letting the kids in on when i have been planning it, just to avoid the disappointed stares and tears.

but…

i made it to the library for a few minutes before some errands last night after the kiddos were in bed.  and i picked up some books from one of our favorite authors of all time:  Bill Peet.

we were first introduced to Bill Peet when we read Capyboppy with the SonLight K curriculum. we have since picked up numerous tales and have laughed at each one. 

How Droofus the Dragon Lost His Head is no exception.  it is the tale of a dragon who gets separated from his family and, left alone to his own devices, turns vegetarian after rescuing a grasshopper from the clutches of a hungry spider.  we read how Droofus grows up, goes back to flying, gets chased by Knights from a nearby kingdom, loses his wings in a storm, and saves a farm.  the ending is wonderful… i won’t spoil it for you. 

if you haven’t read any Bill Peet adventures, i highly recommend them!

science with magnets

as we continue in our study of magnets in our SL curriculum, i thought i would post a few pics of our fun.

we had fun learning about poles and how we can push and pull things with our magnets.  the boys took up the challenge to see how many train pieces they could push with the big cow magnet in the science kit.

we also had a lot of fun with our fishing game as we used some magnetic fishing poles from a previous car trip to match up some paper socks.  this didn’t work as well as i would have liked.  the poles had strings that were waaaaay too long and i had to really manipulate the socks onto the magnets for the kids.

 

flying the butterfly was really hard for the younger ones.  tic tac managed to master it after only a few tries.  but stinkerbell and bonobo could not make it fly without having the magnet directly in contact with the paperclip attached to the butterfly.  it became a lesson in perseverance and maintaining composure in light of disappointment.

we also had fun finding north on a homemade compass and then made our own magnets with needles.  the kids have really enjoyed this unit. 

we are looking

changing it up…

well, we have had to make some adjustments here to our homeschooling curriculum

my husband, bless his heart, had noticed that i was really struggling with our choices for the year.  especially the FIAR studies.

i was getting really stressed over planning and implementing the activities that would span across the ages of our children.  working outside the home full time has been much more energy draining than i thought it would.

i was unable to put into motion the ideas that would form in my head when trying to plan out our rows.  what ended up happening was that i would struggle through a school day trying to get crafts and read alongs and other activities together, and then the whole thing would get scrapped because we ran out of time, or needed to run errands, or needed to do laundry, or whatever.

when i finally owned up to the fact that i wasn’t SuperMom (nah, really?!?!?) and poured out everything to my KISA.  well, let’s just say that when you bottle things up for a really long time, the thoughts come spewing forth like a wild volcano in the midst of a typhoon topped off with a huge tornado. 

it wasn’t pretty.

so, we changed things up.

we are the proud owners of SonLight 1.  we had done their K curriculum a few years ago, and then i was overwhelmed because i always felt behind.  to be honest, it was just because my oldest, at age 5-6, just wasn’t ready for workbooks and sitting down to do school.  we have come a long way since then, and now that he is reading, things are much smoother!

our plan is to finish 6 weeks of SonLight and then row a book for a week.  and that is because i love FIAR so much, i cannot give up on it totally.  i am hoping that planning for one week of FIAR won’t be as daunting. 

we did have a slow start to the new schedule, mostly because february was so hard on our house.  we are finally healthy again, so we seem to be back on track.

as i adjust to our new lifestyle, i am often frustrated by how little time i have to devote to the children.  i am becoming more creative in how we spend time together, and i hope to write about it soon. 

happy schooling!