The First 6 Weeks of School in Pictures

July 29:  Back to School Party:  We had our very own circus along with circus food.  See the tags to see which parts the students played.  I didn't take pictures during the event.  Jeff was the ticketmaster and I was in charge of concessions.

July 30:  Building a log cabin to go with Storytime:

Aug. 2:  Roof replacement:

Aug. 3:  OOT  (Opperation Occupy Twins)

Aug. 9:  Kaomi making a switch for her Robotics class

Aug. 16:  Kaomi made a water-bot for Robotics class

We want to play in the pool, too.

Colt want's to be like the big kids. 

Aug. 21:  Eclipse Watching

Aug. 24:  Turkish Shepherd's Meal put on by the 1st and 5th grades.

Sept. 5:  Football with Twins and Full Moon

Sept. 6:  Kent and Katy made Battle Diorama's for their Writing Class

Katy's Battle Diorama

Kent's Battle Diorama

Sept. 7:  Quinn finished learning the lower case letters.  Now he is on to learning about the sounds
                each letter makes.

Sept. 8:  Pink Dragonfly discovery and Covered Wagon Play to go along with storytime.

Sept. 11:  OOT and Does cardboard sledding count for school?

Sept. 13:  Kaomi learning about how rain is made for science class and Dr. Colt

Life as Recorded by My Phone in August

Colt's first haircut

Kade's first haircut

Jeff giving a lecture

Felicity finished a project she started with Mimi

Colt was "lost" and found in the laundry room
playing with the trash bags.

Kaomi made a water-bot

Okra is growing tall, as off now the tallest are
about 2 ft. taller than in this picture, probably
about 10 ft. tall.

Quinn had his first dentist appointment

Colt went to Sunday School with Suanna and
occupied himself quietly for the whole lesson.

Colt

Visit to a park with cousins who were visiting.

All the children in our family, plus a cousin and Riley the dog.

Mommy Survey

My kids gave me a survey to fill out this week.  I thought I'd share their questions and my answers with all of you.

Dear Mommy,

We want to know more about you.  So, If you will, please answer these questions and then return the paper.  We love you, The Kids

1. What do you like best about each of us?

It’s hard for me to choose something I like best about each of you, because I like all of you just the way God made you, so I will choose something I like about each of you, but please understand that it’s not the only thing I like about you.

Kent:  I like the way you play the piano.  I enjoy listening to you practice.

Katy: I like how you like to learn how to do your doll’s hair in different styles.

Kaomi:  I like how you want to help with the babies and the love you show for them.

Felicity:  I like how you love to play with your dolls and animals.

Clark: I like how you are enthusiastic about life and your carefreeness.  You just like to have fun.

Quinn: I like how you almost always pick me a dandelion when you go out to play.

Colt: I like how you squint your eyes closed when we are praying, while looking at us to see if you are doing it correctly.

Kade: I like how you like to dig in the dirt with a stick.

2. What is your favorite flavor of cake? and how do you like it?

I like homemade chocolate cake with homemade chocolate icing.  I also like yellow cake with homemade chocolate icing.  I 

               like strawberry short-cake, too.

3. What is your favorite song?

I have lots of songs that I like and I’m not sure if I have a favorite one.  I like lots of hymns.  I like the songs from “The Sound                of Music.”

4. What is your favorite meal for lunch or supper?

I like yummy leftovers for lunch.  I like grilled chicken and steak with salad and/or 

vegetables.  I also like Mexican food like: tacos, quesadillas, and tamales.

5. What is your favorite fruit?

I like strawberries.  I like raspberries, too, though sometimes I’m not a fan of their seeds.

6. If you could make us do anything what would you like us to do?

I would love for each of you to love Jesus and trust him with the plans he has for your life.

Also, I would like you to obey Daddy and Mommy immediately every-time, and I would like you to try to keep your rooms and the         game room a little straighter, by putting away your things as soon as you are done using them.

7. If you could go out with somebody all day who would you go with and where would you go.

I’d love to go out with Daddy all day.  I’d like to go to Ikea, play miniature golf, and enjoy an unhurried yummy meal (not sure                 what).  or I’d like to go hiking at a waterfall.

8. Please will you give us 5 interesting facts about yourself?

1.  I think it would be fun to stay in a houseboat and sail down the Mississippi 

    River.  Though it is probably different now than it was in the late 1800’s.

2.  I pray that God would help Daddy and I to be a good examples of Godly parents for each of you to be able to draw                                experience from when you have your own children.

3.  I like to enjoy God’s creation outside:  beautiful days, green grass, blue skies, 

    sunsets and sunrises, birds, flowers, animals, wind, rain, snow, etc.

4.  I like to grow things to eat in my garden.  I like to water my garden and pull 

    weeds.  I enjoy being able to serve fresh vegetables and fruit that we grew.

5.  I like to sew.  Mimi taught me how.  One day I hope to teach my own children how to sew, too.

Bonus:  I like to prepare and cook meals, more than I like to bake.  That’s probably why we don’t have freshly baked                                          cookies, cakes, pies, and breads very often.

A Little Fun at School

     This year I have 6 students and 2 babies.  I was feeling overwhelmed by trying to teach from 3 teacher guides and keeping up with grading and making sure everyone was completing their assignments in a timely fashion.  I also have 1 student who I was feeling needed a lot more teaching with instruction and less assignments to have to read and complete on her own.  So when we restarted at the beginning of August we decided to try something a little different.
     Now I have one main teacher guide, I copied a couple assignments from another one for one of my students and I'm using a very small amount of the third teacher guide.  We've combined everyone into one class wherever possible.  I'm finding my days much easier to get through and we are all working together, so everyone's assignments are similar and easy for me to grade.
     My 3 oldest students bring their assignment notebooks to every class and I give the assignments for everyone or individual assignments as needed and they write them down.  For any assignments that I need to make sure are completed or are due at a later date I write down the assignment on a master checklist along with the "due date" and check them off when they are complete.  Having my master list helps me to know who still has to finish an assignment and helps me remember to check up on each person as needed.

   So you may be wondering how does this all fit together.  We are using a structured day with scheduled time for individual work, classes I teach, and Kindergarten.  Kent (7th), Katy (6th), and Kaomi (4th) begin their individual work at 8:30 every morning.  I write the list of individual work on a white board and the fist three to four items are what they need to make priority for this time.  It usually begins with: study dictation, science, math, and complete any previous assignments.  While they are getting started I am finishing up getting the babies fed and settled for the morning and making sure I have everything I need for the day ready (including my breakfast if I didn't get it earlier).  Often I send Felicity (Kindergarten), Clark (Kindergarten), and Quinn (preschool) to play outside in the backyard.  Sometimes they play for 20 minutes and other times for an hour.  At 9:30 we all join together for Bible (everyday) and Biblical Worldview ( 2x/week).  We complete reading and I give assignments and then the oldest three work on their assignments until 10:25.  At 10:30 I try to have some activity boxes out for the Kindergarteners and preschooler.  They have fun playing while I teach Language Arts.  Language Arts consists of dictation, grammar, writing, and reading.  Usually, we work through those items in that order.  Sometimes there is just an assignment for them to complete by the next class, and other times there is instruction time.  If anyone needs to work directly with me for one of the assignments we try to fit this in before 11:30, when I teach Kindergarten and Preschool.  From 11:30-12ish we cover math, fine motor skills, handwriting, and storytime.  Then we break for lunch.  We meet back again all together at 1:30 for history often the babies are with us during this time as well.  Felicity, Clark, and Quinn each have their own history notebook that they draw a picture that I assign them to work on while I am reading the lesson.  Today they drew Patrick Henry giving his speech :)  After history I read storytime to Kaomi, unless our lesson was a long one.  Then I teach reading to Felicity and Clark.  They each need to work with me by themselves, so I rotate who begins, since there are some days that I can't fit teaching them both in.  I try to be done with them by 3:15 and then I am available to the oldest students if they need to see me for any of the assignments they are working on.  I try to be all done being the teacher by 3:30, so I can take a short break before afternoon chores and dinner begin.

     Overall I like the way this is working for us.  The older kids don't have quite as much freedom as they've had before to just plowing through everything and finish quickly, but they are welcome to do that with their individual assignments.  We are definitely seeing where they need to work more on their own time management, but hopefully we can continue helping them learn and the skills that go along with that will grow too.

July 2016 Update

     This month we celebrated the 4th of July with a family get together with Jeff's brother and their famliy at their home and and evening fireworks watched from our front yard.  The fireworks weren't as fun as sometimes, but we enjoyed spending time together.  The weekend of the 4th Jeff and I tackled a few projects around the house and got Quinn moved upstairs to the boys room before putting up some decor in the nursery and moving Kade into the crib.  Colt (our night owl) still sleeps in the living room or master bedroom, but I hope to transition him to the nursery soon.
     Then Katy and Kaomi went to VBS at our church, followed by a busy week cleaning the bedrooms.  Kent got to take a trip to New Mexico with Grammy and Jeff's sister and brother-in-law.  Then Katy and Kaomi attended Kid's Praise Camp at our church for a week and participated in three productions of "The Kingdom Connection" and they really enjoyed it.
     I've also worked on cleaning my closet and bathroom this month trying to tackle some much neglected cleaning before we start back to school.  I worked on some school plans and have redone our schedule to include most of the kids in several of the classes we have this year.  We'll see how combining grades works for us, but just looking at our tentative schedule is providing a sense of relief for this teacher/mom who was having trouble trying to fit in "everything" for three different levels.  We have plans to start back to school on August 8th, so this next week we will be trying to put any final details on getting ready for school and I am going to work on cleaning my sewing room/guest room.

May 2016 update

School's finished for May.

Planning for next school year is in progress and all books are ordered.  Most of them have already arrived.  We start school again in June, but I haven't decided exactly when yet.

Kids have been playing outside, digging a hole in the backyard, and making "pets" out of roly-polies.

I picked our first green beans of the season from our small garden this morning and am looking forward to serving them for dinner.  Our garden is also proficiently growing volunteer basil plants.  A few other things that we planted are growing, but several seeds didn't sprout this year, so I am hoping to make it to a garden center to get a few extra plants sometime soon.

I've enjoyed having a little extra free time and playing the piano for a short while.

The twins are growing again and Kade likes to get out and crawl or cruise around.  Colt doesn't mind staying in the play-yard, but he's only been crawling for a short time.

Even though we don't have school, the kids seem to be getting up earlier in the morning than they were before school ended, so I've been having to enforce our morning quiet time until 7:30.  Some children have a harder time being quiet than others :)

Are Your Children a Burden or a Blessing?

Earlier this year I had a short conversation with a seasoned mom who mentioned that her now grown children told her they felt like they were a burden to their mom while they were growing up.  She said she never meant to make them feel like that and admitted that she was very busy with normal life, a child with special needs, and getting a home business off the ground.  She said she probably had too much on her plate.

As I’ve pondered her words, I’ve prayed that I haven’t made my children feel like they are a burden in my life.  If I have made them feel that way I hope that when they are grown they will not remember, unless they also remember that I love them and I worked hard to make them feel like they belong to our family.

What can I do to make sure that my children don’t think they are a burden?

Note:  I started writing this post a few months ago and had plans to add scripture to help remind us that the children God has given us are a blessing from him.  If God gives a blessing, who am I to undermine him by making my children feel like they aren’t a blessing.  Since I've been busy and haven't I wanted to post these thoughts anyway.

My prayer for those of you who read this post is to ponder the idea of how you look at your own children or other family members.  Do you treat them like they are a burden or do you strive to enjoy them, no matter how busy you think you are?

March Break

This week we've had our break from school.  The kids have been enjoying the lovely weather and just having time to play and pursue their own interests.  I had a list of things I wanted to work on this week, too, but so far only 1 of the items has been cross off the list.  That item was cook bacon.  Two other items have been partially completed.

Since it can be discouraging to not get the things done I wanted to do I started making a list of all the things that I did do.  It helps a little to see the things I've done with my children on their week off of school and to know that I'm just being a mom and doing what God created me to do.  Taking the week off of school means I don't have to teach, but my children still need me and my wishes aren't necessarily something that gets to take first place.  Putting aside my selfish desires is hard.

Here's the list of just a few of the things I've done this week:
-went to the library
-went to the playground
-baked cookies with a few of my children
-helped paint shape and race cars (3 days)
-built Lego's with Quinn and Clark
-cleaned part of my desk
-took care of some of the mail pile (4 days)
-read stories to littles
-ate chocolate
-enjoyed dandelions
-stayed up late playing peek-a-boo with the twins, because baby laughter is so much fun
-walked to the end of the street and back (4 days)
-played outside x2
-listened to Clark and Quinn signing songs while they were coloring
-made hot chocolate
-got school plans ready for preschool and kindergarten next week
-worked a Sudoku or two every morning while drinking my coffee
-watched a movie with the kids


I'm not ready to start back to school on Monday, but I still have the weekend to hopefully finish getting school plans ready.

A Day with Me

     It’s 3 am.  Kade wakes up and wants to eat.  By the time he is finished eating, had a bottle supplement and burped it is almost 4 o’clock.  He’s bright eyed, so I put him in the bouncy chair and get Colt.  I nurse, supplement with a bottle and get Colt back to sleep while watching Kade kick and smile.  Kade is still wide awake.  It’s 4:35 and I figure I might as well nurse him again.  At 5:15 he’s back asleep and I decide to go back to bed.  It’d be nice to sleep until 7, I think.  At some point my husband wakes me up.  He wants me to move over; the next thing I know Colt is fussing and wants to eat.  It’s 6:15.  I guess I should have just stayed up.  Jeff gives him to me and I nurse him in bed while dozing.  Jeff goes for a run.  It is so hard to wake up.  Jeff’s getting ready for work and encouraging the kids at their chores.  He changed Quinn’s diaper and got him dressed for the day.  Jeff heads out and I finally make it out of bed.  I don’t look at the clock, but guess it’s close to 8:00.  I enter into the usual chaos in the rest of the house.  I fix breakfast for Clark and Lissie.  I’m still not really awake, so I sit down to try and finish waking up and check my e-mail.  Both babies are still sleeping, so I take advantage of that to fry an egg and eat breakfast, while fielding school related questions.  Kent (11) starts “freaking” out about a plastic spider ring.  This type of behavior is on the normal side for him, so I ignore it and continue eating.
      It’s almost 9:00.  The older kids have science class today.  I need to hurry.  I get Kade up.  He has lots of cute smiles for me, but he’s drenched.  I change his diaper and clothes and get out a clean rag and Felicity got me a clean blanket.  I sit down to nurse him.  At some point Kent asks for help.  I guess he put the spider ring on his finger and can’t get it off.  It doesn’t look like its cutting the circulation off and I have no free hands to help.  He’ll have to wait.  I finish feeding Kade and it is time to leave, but before we can leave I need to change Quinn’s diaper and Colt’s diaper and clothes.  As I buckle Colt into his seat he looks at me with a puzzled expression, he thought he was going to be fed.  I send everyone to get in the van and Kent isn’t ready to go, even though I had said to be ready to go twenty minutes ago.  On the way I remember the spider ring and told him he’d have to wear it until he got home and I would help get it off then, but he had already removed it.  We pulled into the parking lot where the science co-op meets two minutes before class time.  Kent, Katy, and Kaomi hurry to their class and I drive back home. 
     I help unbuckle Clark and Quinn at home and we unload from the van.  By 10:35 Colt is finally getting to eat.  Clark and Quinn play with little legos while I am feeding Colt and Felicity wants to know what the activities are for the day.  She has to wait since I haven’t pulled today’s activities out yet.  She plays and talks to Kade while waiting.  Colt fell asleep so I put him in his rocker and grab the daily activities, before I feed Kade.  Today’s activities are the cooking set, markers, Doodle Dice, books about boys or girls, and floor puzzles, which I didn’t get out.  I’m disappointed because I don’t think we’ll enjoy preschool today.  On Thursday’s I need to be up no later than 7 in the morning for me to be able to help the morning run smoothly.  I’m hoping for a late morning cup of coffee when Kade finishes nursing.
     Yeah!  There was enough coffee leftover in the pot for a cup.  I drank it while putting sweet potatoes in the oven to bake and making lunch for Felicity, Clark, and Quinn.  Today they had peanut butter sandwiches, peach yogurt and a cookie.  I found some leftover tamales in the freezer and warmed them up for my lunch.  While they were warming I handed out reward stickers to the preschoolers for the activities they did this morning.  After I ate my tamales I sharpened colored pencils while chatting with my children.  Jeff dropped Kent, Katy, and Kaomi home from science and they started making their own lunches and I handed out their reward stickers.  Then I had twenty minutes of free time in which I printed a coloring sheet for school, held a sleeping baby and changed a diaper.
     At 1:05 pm we started school with story time and I fed Colt.  I read for about 45 minutes.  The books we are currently reading are Mystery of the Silver Coins and The Illustrated Book of Knights.  Then Kent, Katy, and Kaomi worked on their school and met with me as needed for instruction while I fed Kade.  Quinn went to his bed for nap time and Lissie and Clark sat on opposite ends of the couch with books and their blankets for quiet time.  By 3:00 I was completing most of the instruction that I needed to give.  I have had a little time to get on my computer this afternoon when it wasn’t being used for math class.  The older children continued working on their work to wrap up everything possible by 4:00.  I didn’t give instructions to everyone about their reading project, so we will add that to their list of assignments for tomorrow.  Anything else that hasn’t been finished by 4 o’clock will also be added to tomorrow’s assignments.  The goal is to have everything completed by this afternoon or no later than noon on Friday, so we can watch our Friday movie.
     From 3:00 to 4:00 I attend to some of my children’s needs and help Katy with a few ideas on how to make her writing assignment better.   I made sure everyone had a snack of unhealthy candy.  I didn’t have the energy to find something else and what was on my snack menu I didn’t have in my pantry.  I’m also feeling the end of the afternoon drain.  I’m so sleepy, but naps aren’t an activity I get to participate in, because even if I were to fall asleep someone will come and wake me up with a question or argument.  Feeding babies, again, fits into the late afternoon.  Most of the kids are making sure their chores for the day are completed and having free time.  I’m thankful it’s cereal night.  I don’t have to prepare anything for the kids dinner.  I’m not sure what Jeff and I are going to have, so I sent him a text to see if he wanted to bring something home for our dinner.  Auto correct kicked in on a text and it said something about him bringing “snot” home for dinner.  I was trying to control my laughter and not draw the attention of all my kids.  I snuggle with Kade for several minutes and help Kent check on his fantasy football team.
     Quinn asks me to change his diaper.  Then, I head into the kitchen to fix Kade a bottle.  He keeps fussing, so maybe he needs a little extra.  He eats and continues to fuss, so I put him in another room.  While in there I take care of the sweet potatoes and get out the cereal for tonight and pour portions out for everyone to eat when the children are ready.  They heard breakfast was ready and all ate promptly tonight.  I clean up a few things in the kitchen and it is time for Colt to eat again.  Around 6:00 Katy wants to hold Kade and see if she can help him stop fussing.  Colt is ready for a bottle, too.
     Jeff arrives home with Schlotzky’s for us while Colt is finishing his bottle.  Kade is still fussing and it’s almost time for him to eat.  I feed him with hopes that he will be happy and we can eat without babies needing me.  We ate, Kent went running, and the other siblings provided distractions for the twins.  Then I washed baby bottles, mixed formula and worked on something for school.  Jeff took five of the kids for a walk and Kent was given permission to turn on the Thursday night football game.  The Denver Broncos are playing.  I asked Kent to help fold laundry while he watched the game, since the pile to be folded has exceeded the number of pieces that usually get folded in a day.  I joined Kent in folding the laundry to see how much we could get squared away in a short time before the twins would need to eat.  Jeff and the kids got back from their walk and they made a crowd in the living room to watch the game.  We sent them off to bed at half-time and then Jeff and I had a snack and watched a tv show and picked up most of the last quarter of the Broncos game to see the defense pull off a win.  Now its to bed.  Hopefully the twins will sleep a little later than 3 am tomorrow.
    
    

Beginning of 2015-2016 School Year

We started back to school today.  We kicked off our new year with a trip to the library for program with Miniature Therapy Horses.  These horses are taken into nursing homes and rehabilitation centers where the residents get to connect with an animal which can have a soothing effect on many people. They can also jog good memories and help people open up and have a better day.

*Pictures taken on my phone.  I need to remember to take the camera with me for activities like this.

2-27 Real Snow

We finally got some real snow!  It was too powdery to do much with, but the kids had lots of fun playing in it.  Isaiah even walked over to come and play with the kids and Jeff came home from work a little early so he could play in it too.  We were only supposed to get 1-2", but I was praying that we would get more than 4 inches, because it is more fun.  We had somewhere around 5 inches or a little more. 

Then this morning they went out as it was starting to freezing drizzle and they built a snow man.  Everyone was having so much fun this morning that Clark and Quinn were out for more than an hour.  Jeff came in shortly after they did after having a snowball fight with several kids who were out playing from the neighborhood and Kent, Katy and Felicity were out for almost 3 hours.

February 28, 2015