Lots of Random

I shared this on facebook, but I thought I'd share it here too:

Today Nathan and I were talking about (of all things) the gender roles of women in other cultures (have I mentioned that this kid asks a lot of questions?).  He asked me for a specific example, and I, as usual, couldn't come up with something when put on the spot.  I told him, "I can't think of anything off the top of my head."

"Do you have anything at the bottom of your head?"

Hmmm....

*****

Paisley loves Brian's shoes.  She loves all of the shoes she finds, but she curls up and sleeps on top of Brian's with her mouth open, so that her tongue is against the inside.  Yum.


*****

I was totally craving mashed potatoes earlier this week, during my monthly bout of insanity.  So I made A TON.  And they're now sitting in the fridge, because my kids won't eat them unless under duress.  I think we'll be eating Shepherd's Pie tonight.

*****

I've ordered our literature supplies for the rest of the school year, and little by little, they're arriving.  New books!  And the one day that I didn't put the RING THE DOORBELL AND DIE!!! sticker out, the guy rang the doorbell.  I would get a plaque if it weren't that the schedule is not consistent throughout babyhood.

*****

Isaac and Paisley are sort of hysterical together.  Isaac is so strong willed, I haven't figured out how to enforce appropriate behavior with the pup.  Consequently, our day goes like this:

Isaac attacks Paisley.

Paisley attacks Isaac.

Isaac cries. 

I come to the rescue, separate the offending parties, calm everyone down.

Isaac attacks Paisley.

*****

Speaking of Isaac, he's calming down!!  Sort of.  This week, he discovered that the tops come off of the six inch gutter drain thingies.  Our toy car bucket has been reduced by about half.

I feel the need to note, though, that we cleaned out toys in a massive way last weekend.   So the toys now floating somewhere underground?  Those were the few we wanted to KEEP.

While I was on the phone lamenting the situation to a friend's voice mail (so that I would not lament the situation to my toddler at top volume), Isaac was pulling the keys off my computer keyboard.  So if you notice anyplace that an "r" is missing, it's because that one is broken and wobbly now. 

Also, I got the requisite Toddler With Lipstick All Over His Face Picture yesterday.  He was cute, I have one of each of the kids, and he didn't ruin the lipstick, though (like Brenna did for her picture), so I'm not holding that one against him.

*****

I think there's a huge benefit to having a puppy while having a toddler.  Bodily fluids are such a part of my daily existence, that another creature having accidents on the floor doesn't even phase me.

*****

So things are kind of busy around here, what with the new puppy and all, however, our floor has never been cleaner!  Since Paisley thinks anything left on the floor is hers by default, it all get picked up.  And put on a counter or table.  So if you come to my house, just stare at the floor, and you'll think I have this thing figured out!  But you might run screaming from the house if you happen to glance at any other surfaces.

Happy New Year, Y'all!

Sorry I've been absent for a bit.  This last week has been fuller than most since the school year started.

The library we usually frequent is closed for long-overdue repairs, so I finally decided it was time to find another one.  I found one in mid-city on the library website, then I looked it up on Google, and we were off.  There was no library at the given location.  This has happened SO MANY TIMES since we moved here.  It doesn't matter that Google says it's there, CALL FIRST.  Another reason for a smart phone.  Those things are looking more and more like they're worth spending too much money on!  We did finally find one, and got some great books, so that was good.  It just took up the whole afternoon.

Speaking of books, our FIAR book this week is Who Owns the Sun? by Stacy Chbosky.

This book is amazing, beautiful, and very hard for me.  And not at all hard for my children, which is fine, but makes me wonder if, well, I'm doing something wrong.  Like if I were teaching it correctly, they would understand.  But really, they just can't comprehend it yet.

The story is about a boy who adores his strong, wise father and asks him, "who owns the [sun/stars/wind, etc.]?" and his father responds with a description of the beauty of each of these things, and the answer, "no one can own the sun." 

Then one day, the boy overhears the man his parents work for talking about his father.  He is full of pride at the complements to his dad's strength and work ethic until the man says, "I wish I owned ten more just like him."

The conversation the boy has with his father afterwards is heartbreaking.

Stacy Chbosky was 14 years old when she wrote it for a school competition. 

For obvious reasons, race and prejudice have been on my mind consistently since we moved here.  As I talk with my kids about differences, it would seem that they are truly unaware of skin color and the value people place on it.  I am so grateful.  So grateful.


Well, I'm kind of worn out just thinking about that, so I guess I'll be back tomorrow with the rest of what we've been up to around here.  

Reminiscing

This week we're reading A Pair of Red Clogs by Masako Matsuno.  It's the story of a grandmother reminiscing about a lesson learned in her childhood. 

As our activity, I asked the kids to narrate a memory to me.


Here is Nathan's special memory:

When my baby brother was born, I was four years old.  Beah was my baby brother's midwife.  When he was born, my dad went over and woke me up and when I got up, the breakfast I had was plain cheerios with sugar in them.

My dad was the one to catch my baby brother.

The other midwife that came helped Beah.

My baby brother's name is Isaac.

I got water for my mom.  Beah helped me get nice hot water from the kettle.

Nana came to our house when my baby brother was born.  Nana took care of me.

I was in my mom's room most of the time.  I wanted to catch my baby brother, but then I didn't want to .  So I watched Isaac come out of my mom's tummy.  It was in the middle of the night.

I was excited that I was gonna get a new baby brother!

Here is Brenna's special memory:

I went to Wahoo Wednesday.  We had tables there.  We sat at them and colored.

There were toys that you could sprinkle but they weren't real.  They were pretend food.  They were yellow.  It was cheese.

I asked Brenna if she remembered the shirt she wore to Wahoo Wednesday (our church's VBS) and she scrunched up her nose and said, "it's getting too big on me."

"What?"

"It's getting too big on me."

"Do you mean 'it's getting too small'?"

"No.  It's getting too big on me."

"Oh.  well do you want to write about that?"

"No."

Well, at least she's got her priorities straight.  It's all about the cheese.  Fake or otherwise.

A Perfect Fit, Part 2

On Saturday, I talked about my love for Five in a Row.  The freedom it's given us is just what our family needs.  However, so much more goes into a day of parenting/schooling around here.  FIAR makes up about 45 minutes of a full day that encompasses the things I love about homeschooling.

In the morning, our family works together to run a load of laundry and load/unload the dishwasher.  The kids each make their own beds (as a side note, for the first time in my life, it has become habit to make my bed as soon as I get out of it.  Yay for growth!) and put away all the books they read the night before.

Next, we sit down for a devotional time.  As I was trying to figure out what to do for devotionals shortly before school started, my friend Nina told me she was using a book called Leading Little Ones to God.

The title sounded vaguely familiar... last year, I was given a couple huge totes of homeschooling supplies and texts from an acquaintance back home.  I told Nina, "I think I have that!" and I did.  I hadn't spent any time at all looking at it, but for some reason, decided to bring it to New Orleans with us.  It's a wonderful book.  Each day has a short reading, a scripture passage, and a hymn.  Last week, our readings were

• Our hearts ask for God
• We cannot see God
• We see God's works
• God talked to people long ago
• God talks to us

When I saw these subjects, and all the rest presented in a very loving and simple way, I knew this would be perfect for Nathan.  He asks questions about these sorts of things all the time.  Another perfect fit!

After devotions, we do math.  One of the things that the commenters about FIAR mentioned was that you definitely need to supplement math and handwriting. 

For handwriting, I've chosen to have Nathan write letters to people, because sending mail is about the greatest thing EVER.  Every week, we'll write one letter (and Brenna draws a picture), and spend time the rest of the week working on the places that were hard.  I know that's sort of backwards, but it works for us!

The big math decision, I turned over to my mathematically inclined husband.  I narrowed it down to two programs, then told him to try to remember being a kid, and pick which one he would have liked to use.  As I am mathematically challenged, even studying the websites' descriptions of their teaching styles was confusing to me!  Brian chose Math-U-See, a program that has received raves from those who use it. 

Math-U-See comes with a video lesson, a teacher's text, a workbook, and colorful blocks to play work with.  While Nathan works on his lesson, Brenna builds with the blocks, occasionally stealing the ones he needs.  Good stuff.  Because math is so not my subject, the jury is still out on this part of our curriculum, but if it doesn't work well for us, people are selling these things on ebay for almost what we paid for them! 

So, then comes snack time, then FIAR, then lunch and rest time.  After rest time, we finish anything that we didn't complete before lunch, and the children have free play time.

Okay, now, all those of you who love me, please be gentle with the obvious-ness of this next part!  I am a work in progress!

One of the parts of our day I've come to love arrives at four o'clock.  We stop everything, and tidy all the major living areas of the house.  This includes picking up toys, sweeping, folding and putting away the clean laundry if we didn't finish that earlier.  We clear and set the table for dinner, make the kitchen ready for business, and make sure the clothes in the closets are actually on their hangers (it's sort of amazing how many things get taken off hangers in the search for something to wear!). 

The first day we implemented this, I almost cried.  I had set aside about 45 minutes in our schedule to attempt to tidy two rooms (the living room and playroom).  An hour and a half later, the progress was, well, almost noticeable.  But as we've made this our habit, the cleaning itself goes faster (which is why we're able to do more than just tidy two rooms), and the cleaning carries over to the next day.  It's sort of amazing to me!

So once we've tidied, the kids are free to do their thing until Daddy comes home, and everyone goes positively spazzy.  And the mama pours herself a glass of whine wine and hides for the rest of the night.

So that's our school day.  All in all, a perfect fit for us.  Next mission: figuring out when to do the grocery shopping!

A Perfect Fit, Part 1

I was a little late to the curriculum game.  As I'm a little late most places, I guess that's par for the course!  So it wasn't until June that I started seriously pondering what level of structure would be best for us.  Right around that time, my friend Rachel asked if I'd seen Five in a Row, as it seemed like it might be a good fit for me.  I hadn't, but as is my general method, I first went to their site, then googled "five in a row blog".  The descriptions I found were glowing.

Basically, with FIAR, we read the same book, a well-chosen piece of classical children's literature, every day for the week.  Then, each day we discuss/study/experiment with different aspects of the book.  This is referred to as a "unit study" in homeschooling (and probably elsewhere). The lessons are given in short paragraphs in the (inexpensive) curriculum book, and we do several a day.  It's very low-key, and I can do as many or as few lessons as I wish.

This week we read The Story about Ping, a book we've had on our shelf for a couple years.  My kids asked for it periodically, but it's never been a particular favorite. Friday, as Nathan brought the book to me for the fifth time, he declared, "Mom, this is my FAVORITE BOOK!"  I asked how he liked it after reading it five times in a row, and he replied, "I never knew what a WONDERFUL BOOK this was!"

Ping is about a little duck who lives on the Yangtze River in China.  His master has trained his ducks to hurry onto his boat by giving the last duck across the bridge a spank on the back.  One day, Ping has his head under the water when his master calls, and he quickly  realizes he will be the last on the boat.  To avoid the spank, Ping hides rather than go home.  The story that follows is about Ping's misadventures before he is reunited with his family aboard the boat.  Ultimately, he has to make a choice to either take the discipline he doesn't want or be separated again from his family.

So this is how our week broke down:

Monday:
We read the book, then talked about China and the Yangtze river (the third largest river in the world).  We located them on a map, talked about the size of the river, how many people live on/around it, and how Ping would feel when he was lost in such a huge place, surrounded by so many people. Then we talked about the clothes, food and boats of the human characters in the book.  Nathan colored and cut out a "story disk" and placed it on our wall map.

Tuesday:
We read the book, then talked about what makes a book "a classic", what fiction is, then talked about how repetition is used.  For example, Ping begins and ends with,

"Ping (lived) with his mother and his father and two sisters and three brothers and eleven aunts and seven uncles and forty-two cousins"

Also throughout, there is repetition of the phrase, "the wise-eyed boat on the Yangtze river."

Wednesday:
Such a fun day!  We read the book, then talked first about discernment, how things are sometimes not what they seem.  Sometimes they seem better than what they are; Ping followed some rice cake crumbs and was captured for a duck dinner.  Sometimes they are worse than what they are; Ping avoided a spank and was separated from his loved ones.

Then we talked about the pictures in the book, what they were made with (crayon and colored pencil in primary colors), the use of water in almost every picture as a unifying theme (of course I didn't use that term with Nathan and Brenna!) and then we sat at the table with our own colored pencils to experiment with drawing like the artist (layered colors, water, reflections and ripples).

By Nathan

By Brenna

Thursday:
We read the book, then counted out Pings family, then talked about ducks.

Friday:
We read the book, then experimented with things floating in a bowl of water (a major human character has a barrel tied to his back).  We talked about life vests and floaties, and why some things float and others don't.  Then we talked about reflections.  We read the poem "The Mirror" by A. A. Milne, and used a hand mirror to look at reflections.


Five in a Row has given my family amazing literature and structure combined with flexibility in a way that is perfect for us. I couldn't be happier.  Next week, we travel to Japan!

Brenna, Isaac and Homeschooling

By far, the most common question people (family, friends, complete strangers) ask me about homeschooling is, I suppose, the most practical one:

What do you do with Brenna and Isaac while you teach Nathan?

I lock them in their room.

Just kidding.  This question is one that I wondered about before we started school, but sorted itself out more simply than I expected.

What do you do with your kids when you're cooking, cleaning, loading the dishwasher?  Either they do it with you, or they go play, right?

Well, in general, Brenna does school with us, and Isaac plays/disrupts/naps.

Disruption at its cutest. 
Those are wet clothes he's sitting in.

(Yesterday, his brand of disruption was pelting me in the face with a stuffed football.  Nathan and I were working at the table, and Isaac climbed into the chair opposite us and threw the ball at my head.  I set it on the floor.  He came around, grabbed it, went back to the chair, and threw it at my head again. OVER AND OVER.  I was concentrating on what I was trying to teach Nathan, so that dang ball hit me in the head about five times before I threw it back at him took it away.)

Isaac is on a spazzy (for his age) nap schedule.  He's definitely down to one nap a day, however, that nap needs to start between 10:00 and 11:30 (One day this week he woke up on the wrong side of the whole world and was tossed back in his crib at 8:30).  This causes me some measure of stress, as a nap that begins at ten in the morning and lasts a couple hours is not going to see this young man through until his seven o'clock bedtime.  So basically he wakes up shortly after lunch, and I try to keep him happy until Daddy gets home around six, thus starting the only part of his little day worth living for.  The upside is that he sleeps through a good portion of our school day, which makes things much simpler.

Brenna, on the other hand, for the most part does school with us.  I have a couple cheap little preschool workbooks and the amazing Kumon My First Book of Cutting that she works on while Nathan does his math, and she does the rest with us, or takes off to go play as she sees fit.

There are definitely times that I have to explain to her, "Right now, I'm working with Nathan.  You may listen quietly or go play, but I cannot talk with you until we're done."  I sort of file that one under "Having more than one child". 

So that's how we roll.  For those of you who can stand it, tomorrow, I'll talk about how our school day actually looks.  I am LOVING our curriculum!

First Grade, Here We Come!

Warning: this post is mostly my thoughts and reflection this morning, and as such, may not be... well, interesting!

Today is Nathan's first day of 1st grade.  We are all excited for another fun beginning and relieved to be back in a pattern.

I noticed a couple things this morning:

We are so much more relaxed this year!  I'm sure that's a no-brainer, but last year was such a learning experience for both all of us.  I spent last year figuring out how Nathan learns, what motivates him, and also how I teach. 

The other big thing I noticed is that it's not all about Nathan this year.  Last year, every single decision I made regarding school was made with Nathan in mind.

What's best for Nathan?
How will this affect Nathan?
When I school Nathan...
etc.

Conversations about homeschooling were only about him, even though I knew that (most likely) I'll be home educating the other two as well.  I would try to break out of that thought pattern and think about the broader implications of our decisions... but I couldn't do it.

This summer, though, my thoughts have turned much more to our family.

What's best for our family?
How will this affect our family?
When our family is in school...

It's really been a relief to know that I don't have to be hyper-focused on my beautiful boy at all times!

We've completed our morning routine and we're getting ready to start school.  It's gonna be a great year!

7 Quick Takes Friday

I have a whole lot of little random things rattling around my brain lately.  I keep thinking I should write a post about that.... but it would be one sentence.  When I saw 7 Quick Takes Friday over at Conversion Diary, it was a little gift of brevity from God!

1.  I've been getting ready to start our home school year all week.  The curriculum I'm using is ordered, and I'm very excited about it, so our actual timeline will likely depend on when it gets here, since we'll probably just dive right in.

2.  I'm contemplating, after these many years of using children as an alarm clock, getting my own.  I KNOW!  It sounds terrible.  But there may be some relief in having my coffee before there are three little voices at the side of my bed making their imminent starvation my problem.

3.  I've also been working on Brenna's quilt, and as I've mentioned a time or two, I like to make things harder than they were supposed to be.  Due to my overestimation of my own abilities, I'm having a problem with the dimensions of the quilt.  The style I chose moves around a lot.  Anyhoo, I also don't really love the way it's all coming together.  It makes me glad I'm getting all this learning out of the way while my children are young enough to think everything I make is THE COOLEST THING EVER!

4.  Isaac is killing me.  He is loud, insistent, obnoxiously stubborn, LOUD, he hits, he throws, he screams, he's fearless to the point of injury, and he's loud.  All the time.  If he's awake, I'm stressed.  Definitely my hardest toddler.  Then he smiles, and oh.my.word.  He's beautiful.  Charming.  Such a gift.  Then he throws his shoes at me.

5.  It's been hot.  Big surprise, right?  So we've been traveling around the area finding things to do on the weekend just to get out of the house.  We figure it's better to be hot someplace interesting.

A few weeks ago we went to Oak Alley Plantation.  It was beautiful.  The tour probably would have been better if the above mentioned toddler hadn't felt it was imperative to be louder than the guide at all times, causing the two of us to have to leave, much to the relief of the other paying customers.

This weekend we're going to New Orleans Museum of Art.  It'll be the kids' first time at an art museum.  Yay for culture!

6.  I can't figure out what to do for the Brenna and Nathan's birthdays.  I'm a little wary of inviting three or four six year old boys over to climb my walls for a couple hours, but it will be too hot to do anything outside and I'm not willing to pay several hundred dollars to rent a birthday party venue for a total of eight children.  Anyone have any ideas for me?

7.  Ummm...

We got a good coupon for a set of tires, which we will need reasonably soon.

Or,

I can't find a picture I like for the place of honor in my wall of pictures, so the frame is still empty.  It's starting to bug me.

Oh, I know! 

This week I wrote my to-do list on the white board, really big.  It's awesome, because I can't ignore it!  I have been so productive.  Of course, that means that my children REALLY, REALLY need to use the white board that they've been ignoring all summer, because clearly it's the most desirable space in the house.

THE END

Poetry

I've never cared for poetry.  I don't really get it.  As a kid, I couldn't write it, and well... there just was no reason to try.  Except Shakespeare, because actually, I love the sonnets.

So it has come as a fun surprise to me to read kid's poetry.  I love it!  A.A. Milne is a favorite, sweet, personable.  And to be honest, one of my favorites was a bit of deja vu:

Spring Morning

Where am I going?  I don't quite know.
Down to the stream where the king-cups grow-
Up on the hill where the pine-trees blow-
Anywhere, anywhere.  I don't know.

Where am I going?  The clouds sail by,
Little ones, baby ones, over the sky.
Where am I going?  The shadows pass,
Little ones, baby ones, over the grass.

If you were a cloud, and sailed up there,
You'd sail on water as blue as air,
And you'd see me here in the fields and say:
"Doesn't the sky look green today?"

Where am I going?  The high rooks call:
"It's awful fun to be born at all."
Where am I going?  The ring-doves coo:
"We do have beautiful things to do."

If you were a bird, and lived on high,
You'd lean on the wind when the wind came by,
You'd say to the wind when it took you away:
"That's where I wanted to go today!"

Where am I going?  I don't quite know.
What does it matter where people go?
Down to the wood where the blue-bells grow-
Anywhere, anywhere.  I don't know.

The first time I read this to the kids it sounded very familiar.  I read it through again and realized where I've heard it before- one of my favorite movies as a kid: Kindergarten Cop.  As silly as it is, every time I read it now, I wonder what it is about this particular poem that the writer's of that movie wanted to share it.  It is definitely a read-aloud.  If you're not a fan of poetry yet, try reading it aloud.  It has the most beautiful rhythm.

So that's what I'm thinking about today.  Poetry, and starting back at the beginning to learn to love something.

Splash!

Rainbow Making

To make a rainbow,

light must learn to paint

with beads of water

mixed with air

just right,

and master every color 

row by row

to shape a bow.

It seems to take 

a lot of stormy tries

to watercolor-paint

on misty skies.

My Son, the Author

Brian keeps gleefully exclaiming (something I clearly need to work with Nathan on), "our boy's a GENIUS!"  Love it.  Here's Nathan very first original composition:

  So how much of that did you get?  I'll do my best to interpret:

Jack liked cars!  His dad loved cars too!  The dragons cars there was too many!  There was only one man who was brave enough because he believed

in God so that he could kill all the dragons there was.  Lost stuff that met enough too upset the people.  The beast or the queen

up in the mountain!  There lived a boy, he loved to play checkers.  One day he was playing basket ball when his friend saw him.  He

whispered in his friends' ear last night I saw a queen standing on the cabinets.  I ran outside.  I look for a spot to hide.  The only ??? to it was

a bush.  I heard someone call my name.  I looked around.  All I could see the queen she was beautiful.  I set a lid ??? the dragons was ??? mother ??? she


was handsome :)

If you can fill in any of the words I missed, I'd appreciate it!  I must note that the first several times I read the story to Nathan (because he wanted to hear how it sounded) I read the second word, lict, licked.  As in, "Jack licked cars."  Nathan was not amused.