Guest Post:

this is kaytie. mom is letting me tell my news on her blog

my tooth is loose!

mom says when my tooth falls out i will bleed like a stuck pig. LOL I say when it falls out I will put it under my pillow.

Of Shoes and Spit and Protestations of Innocence

Once, as we were getting ready to go somewhere, Nate asked why they always had to put on their shoes to leave the house. I wasn't fully paying attention, so I explained, briefly and randomly, that shoes protect our feet from rocks, broken glass, and people spitting on the sidewalk. The conversation apparently meant much more to him than it did to me.

Yesterday, we took Lizzie home. I was in somewhat of hurry to get there and back since I had a lasagna in the oven, so I told the kids (Kaytie and Daniel were the only ones listening) that shoes weren't strictly necessary for this trip.
About halfway home, Nate suddenly yelled, "Kaytie isn't wearing shoes!!!!"
There was a brief silence, heavy with the feeling of "so what?" So he asked, "Kaytie, do you WANT to get run over?"
This time the silence was filled with a sense of "huh?" So he tried again, "Kaytie, not wearing shoes is DANGER." And finally got a response, "It is not."
"It IS! It's DANGER!"
The "so what?" silence was back. He began to sputter, "It is... it is..." until he finally remembered, "People spit on the sidewalk!"
Abbie yelled, "NOT ME!!! Anjel (Daniel) spit on sidewa'k. Not me! I not spit on sidewa'k! Anjel do it!"

The Great Rambling Post about Next Year

So is anyone else thinking about Next Year, yet?


I'm excited, but nervous too, about teaching three kids "for real" instead of just two. Kaytie is starting 2nd grade and Nate will be in First (that's what I tell him anyway, even though they are doing all the same stuff except for their reading ability. He is, actually, a tad bit better than her in math. But it's weird enough having my 5 year old trucking through second grade material without having to explain it to random strangers who ask him what grade he is in!) Daniel will be starting PreK, which means a "real" curriculum (I made it myself, so its "reality" is up for debate) with emphasis on learning his letters, numbers, and how to follow directions. He will still be doing the "shelf" thing, I'm just going to stock it with all the games and color pages I made for Kaytie and Nate when they were in preK. Abbie will still be playing in Totschool, although I am printing off a copy of all my preK consumables for her, because I know how this works.


I have everything nailed down, pretty much, as far as what we are going to be doing next year and I will be spending the next four months pulling it all together.


For math, we are continuing in Horizons, there was a week or so of panic and confusion (we narrowly avoid delay) about our math curriculum, but the Voice of Reason, also known as Daddy, stepped in in the nick of time to rescue us, and Horizons it is.


For Language, we will be working our way through First Language Lessons for the Well-trained Mind, reading aloud through the old-fashioned but fun McGuffy Readers (Kaytie will start the 4th and Nate will start the 3rd), learning spelling rules, working on copywork, and reading to ourselves The Boxcar Children and The Magic Treehouse until we run out of books and have to find another series.


For science, we will be reading and experimenting our way through Apologia's Zoology book. Adding library books and forays into nature as often as we can. I know that Biology is supposed to be next, but I just think they will have more fun, at this age, learning about animals and insects.


For history, we are going to read through The Light and the Glory for Children. I have pulled together a list of activities, discussion topics, and library book ideas for each chapter and am now working on finding, printing, and putting together the appropriate materials needed.


For Geography, I found a lovely book called Children Around the World, full of ideas for recipes, games, activities and color pages for about 50 countries. It will probably take us a couple of school years to work our way through the book, but it looks like it is going to be plenty of fun.


Music will be piano lessons and art will be continuing with our "still-life and nature sketching" while working our way through How to Teach Your Children About Art, and possibly, Drawing with Children. I am also offering, rather diffidently at first, pictures, stories, and music from one artist and one composer every three months. We shall see how that goes. Any Charlotte Mason followers care to give me ideas of which artist and composer with which to start? Because I need guidance. :)


I'm working my way through a curriculum of Bible stories and a list of things I want them to memorize (the 10 commandments, the books of the Bible, the fruits of the Spirit) and lists of memory verses.


I wasn't going to do Latin (since it flopped so early and so easily this year) but then I just happened to stumble across Prima Latina and it was exactly what I thought my last purchase was, and now I'm rethinking. The chancellor of the exchequer has approved the spending of funds, so it is a definite possibility.


And if that doesn't keep us busy enough, we will be going on field trips to the park and the science museum, grocery stores and hither and yon.


As for a schedule, I'm biting the bullet and planning a five day week this year. sigh. I'm thinking that Daniel, with tag-along Abbie, will be doing their thing in the morning, per usual, and I will have Kaytie and Nate do their math, copywork, etc, basically anything that they can do "on their own" with minimum of input from me, during that time. Then, the stuff that they need me directly involved (science experiments for example) we will do in the afternoons, while the babies, ummm, "rest" (we dare not call it napping) (And for that matter, I should probably give up calling them babies, too, huh?) SIGH.


Oh, and we are dropping the Traditional American School Year Calendar and switching to "terms". Three months on, one month off. We will start our new year in September, in order to cash in on all the Back to School excitement/adrenaline going around the country, but we will take off December, April and August every year, rather than June, July and August. There are many reasons for doing this. December, April and August are usually our busiest months of doing other things besides school, and it will be nice to have them "off". It gets rid of the issue of having to review to catch up after three months of idleness. And most of all, it seems to fit perfectly into the way I plan. We always seem to lose ourselves in December, because that is when my detailed plans start running out and I don't do well with planning as I go. This schedule will give me an entire month to rejuvenate and detail out our next moves.


So, for those of you who are still here... lol that's what next year is shaping up to look like and thanks for reading! :)

Picnic

One of our favorite things to do in the Spring and Summer (and Autumn, too, really) is to go on picnics. This was our first picnic of the year, and we enjoyed it thoroughly!


We started with some fun food...


sandwiches, apple slices with yogurt dipping, chips, and juice boxes!

We had a little kite flying...

up, up, up...

and away! See how Abbie is keeping her distance? :)



And then we played on the playground.

swinging

"sailing"

counting rocks (Dad asked Daniel, "How many rocks do I have in my hand?" Daniel scooped up a double handful, dumped them in Daddy's hands and answered, "Plenty!"

delighting over rocks

hanging out with Daddy (this is definitely Daddy's girl!)

and just generally having an awesome time!

Totschool Returns!

Since Spring came, we have been a little laid-back and relaxed about school. We have been going to the park and hanging outside, and what little school we have done, I haven't gotten around to taking pictures of. But last weekend, I finally got it together and put out new things on our shelves.

So Daniel enjoyed tonging spiny balls.

Does he not look proud of himself?

and I was loving the bright colors!

This was his favorite. It has ALWAYS been his favorite! Apparently he missed it quite a lot.

This "puzzle" I made quite a few months ago, but no one was interested. Ever. So it's been in a box for awhile. Daniel has started showing an interest in letters, lately, so I pulled this out, and he chose it several times. He needs a lot of help with it, still, but he enjoys it. I really need to make more letters for it.

He matched geometric solids to the picture once. Built with the blocks for awhile, then left it on the shelf.

The Go-together Cards have been available for a long time, but he has NEVER chosen it before. After he breezed through it without a second thought, I realized why... it is way too easy for him! He looks like he enjoyed though, doesn't he?

He never got around to actually tracing letters on these ABC cards, but he had fun naming and coloring the pictures. He kept asking me, "What letter is next, Mom?" Then he would flip the page and laugh excitedly.

He chose this, farm magnets and a magnetic board, several times, but always seemed vaguely disappointed in them.

The Viewmaster was a HUGE hit. Especially the picture of the scary dinosaur!!!

Abbie enjoyed the numbers puzzle.

and matching objects to initial sound cards. She did not actually do this on her own, as you can tell. But she loved looking at the objects and naming them.

this is the lower-case letter version of our roll-a-color game

Daniel and Abbie enjoyed playing it together.

She played with the ABC puzzle, although she wasn't able to do it alone at all.

And chose the toothpicks and jar many many times.

She chose this everyday, and played with it until tempted to taste the popcorn and I would make her put it away. Every single day.

She scribbled to her heart's content.

And enjoyed stringing shapes and pony-beads on a string. She really really liked this.

She enjoyed making all the animal sounds and naming the animals. The scarecrow and the barn were new ideas to her. :)

For more Totschool ideas, click here.

Prom

My two nieces and my nephew had Prom tonight. They are all home schoolers, and our local association has a prom and a Lock-in every year for all high schoolers who are interested. I went over and took pictures before they left...

Courtney and Elizabeth

aka: Corky and Lizzie :P

Courtney, Brian, and Lizzie

"gotta make the girls laugh"

Little brother/Big sister

or not?

The Three Cousins

I have no idea...

Lizzie

(my husband made the girls' flowers and Brian's corsage)

The girls found a couple of very reluctant dates.




The girls with a couple of their friends. They were laughing because there was three cameras clicking at them and they didn't know which one to look at!

Now I Understand

Nate, reading a book, informs us, "Mosquitoes eat mammals, reptiles, and birds." Then he adds, from his own vast store of information, "I am a reptile. Daniel, you are a reptile, too."
As I try to correct this opinion with something a little closer to the truth, Daniel jumps into the conversation to give me the heads-up, "Mom, when I grow up, I'm going to be a mosquito. And eat cows."
And suddenly, I have the answer to my life-long question. Have you ever wondered, as I have, Why God created mosquitoes? What purpose do they serve?
Well, now I know, God created mosquitoes so that three-year-olds have career options.

Book Review

I love to read, I always have. I will read anything at least once, and if I like it, I'll read it many many more times! I have, through the years, had many books recommended highly to me that I didn't really care for, and many books "trashed" to me that I actually loved. Therefor, I have come to the conclusion that books are a personal thing, and you will either love or hate them and that has nothing to do with ME or how I felt about the book. So I rarely recommend books except to people that I know well and I try to introduce them to books that I know they will make good friends to.
However, in my library trips lately, I have run across a series of books that caught my attention well enough to mention them here. There are, apparently, tons of them, although we have personally only read two. The Flower Alphabet Book and The Beetle Alphabet book. But the kids pored over both books, and they are a delightful mixture of ABCs, science, some history, and pure fun! They are cute, interesting, and informative. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of Jerry Pallotta's series of ABC books.

Daniel

When Daniel asked for a third helping of supper, I posed the rhetorical question, "Daniel, how many hollow legs do you have?"
He looked down at his feet and thought a minute...
"Two."

Field Trip

Now that the weather is so nice, we are trying to get out as much as we can. On this day, we went looking for adventure at the nearby park.


There was sliding fun. Abbie is a sliding junkie. She has been since before she could walk.

Daniel enjoyed digging, building, and just playing in the rocks.

Kaytie likes to swing like an "airplane".

Nate likes looking cool for the camera.

Kaytie is a great big sister, and Abbie loves to have her help her. I hope they are this close and loving all their lives.

More sliding fun.

After awhile, we took a loooong walk over to the "lake".



My one rule was, "Don't Fall In The Water". And there is Nate, pushing the boundary, as usual.


I think this is the biggest body of water my kids have ever seen. :D

We had lots of fun, and will do it again soon.