Feast of Saint Nicholas

The children woke up this morning with great excitment and ran downstairs to find that their shoes (which they had left out the night before) were filled with chocolate coins, cookies and oranges. Saint Nicholas has been here!!

He also left them a present (the wise men Playmobile set), a book, and a short letter telling them about the good things they have done this year, and reminding them to work on some of their vices for the next year.

This is one of our favorite feast days of the year because it's far enough away from the hustle and bustle of christmas that we aren't exhausted with all the preparations, and the kids get just as excited.

Right now the babies are still sleeping, and the rest of the family is finishing up a nice breakfast. We are lucky that daddy is working from home so he can enjoy the morning with us.

For some great ideas for activities to do today check out the St. Nicholas Center online. There are storybooks online about him, online games to play, and even a short cartoon movie for the kids to watch.

 

Movie day!

Friday is the day of choice for the kids in this family because friday means it's movie day!! In fact E measures the days of the week by how close they are to friday :-) They get to pile onto the couch (why did I buy a white couch btw? why didn't people tell me that was a bad idea for someone who wanted a bunch of kids one day?... anyways, I digress).

Since we don't have a television per se, we pull the laptop onto the coffee table and drag it as close as it can get to the couch for the real big screen, full sound experience. Today they are going to watch Prince of Egypt. Let's call this our history class for the day... and we can mix in a music class too because Prince of Egypt is a musical... oh, and don't forget religion class! I like this movie!!

Mommy loves movie day too, because not only do I get a break for a few hours, and I can also clean up the house faster than they can unclean it!

I also love movie day because it means that E is very motivated to get through her reading and math. Today she did SUCH a good job at reading.. it's really starting to 'click' for her. She read to me for about 45 min out of some little readers we have, and I'm just thrilled that she's starting to get it.

For math, we are working on memorizing the +2 facts. We're going through math-u-see but we've stopped for a bit and are focusing on memorizing the math facts before we move on. That's what I like about being the teacher.. I can ignore the book and do what I want.

John Paul and Peter love movie day too, because it means that they can play on the floor without the danger of being stepped on or loved too much.. and they can practice rolling over. (Peter rolled this week!!).

 

Thankful Thursdays part 2

Last week I had lots of time to write about all the biggies because I was stuck in bed sick, and had the laptop to keep me company. This week will be considerably shorter considering the 5 children who all seem to need me the second I even think of typing something on the computer.
Thanks to Diane for hosting the carnival.
What am I thankful for this week?

the little, simple things:

1. The smell of cinnamon buns baking in my kitchen... and the sticky smiles of my children enjoying them. (a science experiment to follow up on our study of microbes -- yeast)

2. Books on tape, and Storynory that can entertain my children all day while I try to get some housework accomplished inbetween nursing and changing babies.

3. The nap that I was able to have yesterday afternoon when my dear friend Karin was here helping out with the babies

4. The six hours of sleep that the twins had before they woke me up to eat in the middle of the night, and the four hours right after that. Good babies!

5. The wonderful afternoon that Sean and I enjoyed without the kids last weekend while my amazing parents and sister babysat all five kids.

6. The cinnamon bun I just had for breakfast... yummy!

7. My new washer and dryer that allows me to do two and half loads at a time compared to my old one. LOVE it!!

8. Chinooks!!

9. Disposable diapers (we've used cloth with all the other kids, and i'm so happy that people have given us boxes and boxes of disposables as gifts for the twins, because as much as I love my new washer - see #7 above - I don't love washing diapers).

10. Real Learning, the book. I just bought this from Elizabeth Foss and I am enjoying every page.

SHopping time!

John Paul sleeping on his auntie... This weekend we had a BIG treat! My parents willingly offered to babysit all five kids at the same time so sean and I could go out by ourselves. We couldn't find any interesting movie to go watch, so we had fun strolling through the toy stores without the kids, buying christmas presents and stocking stuckers. It's acutally quite fun to go into toy stores when you have no kids with you. you can imagine how your well behaved children will play politely and quietly with all of the new toys, and how they will develop creativity and learn to share.... It's also just plain fun to fall back to the child you used to be and imagine all the fun you would have had with these toys.

We ended up at the bookstore later that afternoon, and discovered the secret to the toy clutter problem that plagues our house: books!!! With five kids, calculating in birthdays and christmas, we have approximately 50 presents a year entering into our house (yikes!!) from relatives alone, and so we decided that the presents we have control over need to be fill some requirements:
1) small (so they don't take up lots of space)
2) timeless (so the youngest child can still use a present that the oldest child outgrew years ago)
3) durable (so they last longer than a few weeks)
4) educational (we are homeschooling here and need all the help we can get !!)

Books cover all four requirements and more, so we had a blast looking through all the titles in the store and thinking of other ones we'd like to get. Books even solved the question of "What do you get for your twin babies for christmas when they have everything and more?". 

How can you tell...

...if a baby is a boy or a girl when they are first born if they don't have any clothes on?
E wondered this aloud recently when the boys were born, thinking quite deeply about the question, because as she knew, they weren't born with dresses or pants on.

Ah ha! she told us she had found the answer: Boys have short eyelashes and girls have long ones.

Then, thinking how to delicately explain this to her, I told her I knew an even better way to tell: They go to the bathroom differently.

She just laughed and laughed at me and said in her patronizing voice: Mommy! babies don't GO to the bathroom!! You change their diaper!

oh yeah right.. how could i forget :-)

today... some schoolwork!

Having just about recovered from another nasty bout of mastitis (grrrrrr!), I felt well enough to try and entice the kids into doing some school work this morning. We got a lot done for not having done much for a few months!

Math

We finished up the chapter on 'solving for the unknown' (a fancy way to say begining algebra for first graders... the way her math program introduces subtraction). Notice how E took the time to illustrate the two word problems. The first has two tennis players with the correct number of balls, and the second problem has 4 people at the table playing a game with a party going on around them. She patiently takes the time to draw all these pictures, making math last much longer than I think it should... but her 'doodles' are so much more productive than any of my schoolwork doodles ever were :-) Since having the twins, I've learned to slow down a lot and relax my expectations of life.... so math doodles are quite charming to me right now.Spelling/Reading

We are working on List E in SWR again, and she actually remember quite a bit of her spelling. I was proud of her!! She learned words like 'this, look, may, your, short'. We also reviewed all of the phonograms so far and she remembered most of them. (more than I remembered actually!)

Language Arts

We are working on memorizing a new poem and chose one by Robert Louis Stevenson called "Whole Duty of Children"

A child should always say what's true
And speak when he is spoken to
And behave mannerly at table
At least as much as he is able.

She can memorize so fast that I think she already knows the whole poem. The lesson plans in her FLL book allow a few weeks for her to learn it, so I think we will be modifying those. She also practiced her handwriting while writing the title, and then illustrating the poem:

the first drawing is a person saying yes (what's true)
the seond drawing is of a person saying "i did" (speak when spoken to)
the third is someone behaving at the table.. notice the napkin on their lap.

Cinematography (a relatively new course at our school)

Now the children are watching the 'making of mary poppins' and learning all sorts of interesting things :-) They actually ASKED for the special features on the mary poppins DVD for their weekly friday movie. (they watch it on daddy's laptop).


Now it's only 10am and I'm watching the clock waiting for daddy to come home... looks like it's going to be a long day here. Maybe we'll have to do more of our home economics class and get the laundry and dishes done. 

Thankful Thursday

Lisa at JoyfulChaos is hosting a blog carnival of sorts each Thursday through the month of November where we are supposed to write 10 things that we are thankful for, and since I have had so many blessings one after another in the past few years, I thought I would join in on the fun. Especially since I have been sick the past two days, and need a fresh perspective on life.

Ten Things to be thankful for

1. My husband...
My charming, handsome, gentle, and incredibly strong husband. The joy of my life and my best friend. I know it must be hard to be the breadwinner in a single income family with 5 small children in this day and age. He gives his all at his job during the day, and when he comes home, he gives us even more. He cleans up the kitchen, bathes the kids, reads stories and puts them to bed each night, and since the twins have been born he has often done it all carrying a baby in an arm, or on his chest in a baby carrier. When I'm sick, he doesn't hesitate to hop on a bus and come home as fast as he can to take care of me, and when I'm tired, he let's me sleep in, and brings breakfast (and lunch if need be) on a tray up to my bed. He has the most adorable smile, the strongest arms, and the wisest eyes I have ever known. I will always be thankful he asked me to marry him 7 years ago.

2. My Children

How could one mom be so blessed to have been given five precious children before she turned 31? They are all in the cutest years too: six years old, 3 1/2, 18 months, and 2 babies 6 weeks old. They have taught me better than anything else to let go of my selfishness and grow in generosity. They love me, even when I'm grumpy and mean to them. They draw me wonderful pictures, and give me the bestest hugs you could ever get. Even my little H gives me kisses each day. I always have reason to smile when they are around.

3. My extended family

With the birth of the twins, I have never felt so loved or taken care of. Everyone has surrounded us with their love and generosity. So many people our age live apart from their parents and siblings, growing their careers in different cities... but we have found the secret to a happy life: stay close to your family. We are so blessed to live near so many of our loved ones: Mom, dad, grandma, my sister and her husband, sean's parents and his brother and wife... They all add such joy to our life and the lives of our children. I can't imagine being able to manage my life without their love and support.

4. Our wonderful friends

When sean and I first got married we didn't feel like we had lots of friends, or even that we fit in anywhere. Being converts to Catholicism, we were sort of alienated from many of our protestant friends, and lost a lot in common with them, and we didn't know anyone in the catholic church because we were so new. We prayed often that one day God would find us some good friends and boy has he ever delivered on that!!!

We have always kept up a beautiful friendship with two of my friends from junior high and their husbands, and to this day they are so much fun to be with.. Especially now that they have their own babies!! There is such a comfort in being with a girlfriend you have known since you were only 12 or 13 years old.

We have also been given a large community of friends through Church and the various apostolates we are involved in. When the twins were born we were overwhelmed with the generosity of everyone. We have been given so many diapers that 6 weeks later I still haven't bought a single one, and our two freezers are so full of meals that we have no room for anything else!! I have also had so many people offer to come and play with the kids, take them out, read with E to help her schoolwork along, pick up groceries for me, pray for us, and even clean my house for me. People I hardly even know have been helping us.
Friends add such a richness to my life. I only hope that I can be as good of a friend to others when they need me.

5. My faith

I'm not sure I would have been able to get through the shock of finding out we had twins, having them born the next day at home before the paramedics got here, having them in the hospital for 2 weeks, and having sean go back to work so soon leaving me home with 5 kids under six, without my faith.

Through my whole tiring pregnancy, and the craziness that came afterwards, I always had my faith to keep me strong, and hold me up. I have a tendency to become a real worrier, and my faith has allowed me to take one step at a time, not worrying about what is to come after the next step.

When I think of all the coincidences and timing of everything to do with this pregnancy and birth, I can clearly see that God was taking care of us. Firstly, we weren't even trying to get pregnant this time. We wanted more children eventually, but right then we were taking a little break, or so we thought... (of course we are always open to the gift of new life, and were so excited when we found out we were pregnant, but the very fact that we weren't trying to get pregnant makes the twins even more of a gift and blessing to us). Secondly, I was on an airplane from Kelowna a mere 30 hours before the boys were born!! In fact, 30 hours before they were born, I didn't even know I was having twins. Thirdly, because my labour was so short, if sean hadn't been home at the time, I would have likely had to deliver the babies myself with three kids running around. Now that would have been a good news headline!! Fourth, they were born at home like I wanted, without any interventions and excitement of doctors and nurses whisking them away asap. Fifth, they were born on the feast day of the twins St. Cosmas and Damian. Cool! Sixth, Peter, who is named after my dear grandpa Pete who passed away two years ago, was baptized on the anniversary of his death. What a beautiful way to redeem that day.

6. Baby Carriers

I love baby carriers.. slings, pouches, wraps, backpacks, mei tais... It's so fun to pick out beautiful carriers to buy on the internet, and to hunt for bargains in the secondhand baby stores, and there's nothing that beats the feeling of carrying a newborn close to your heart in a carrier while he sleeps. Not to mention, how would I ever get anything done around here without them? We don't have lots of baby contraptions like swings and vibrating what-nots that play music and twinkle and sparkle to keep babies entertained. We don't really have room for them, and I can't leave babies that exposed to the antics of my other kids anyways. Plus, I love the physical contact with my babies, and they love it too, I'm sure. What a great invention!

7. Homeschooling

This has been such a blessing to our family. Firstly, on a practical level, I don't have to take my grade oner to school each day, bundling everyone up into the car in the morning and again in the afternoon. Secondly, the kids love being together, and I don't know what I'd do without my 6 year old's help during the day. Thirdly, I love learning alongside them, and watching them grow. It's such a joy to be with them all day each day.... oh, and it gives me great excuses to buy more books :-)

8. Books

We spend a lot of time each day here immersed in books. Whether listening to books on tape, or reading at the dinner table, or at bed time and nap time, our family loves books. Nothing can stretch your mind and take you places you haven't ever been like a good book. They promote creativity, concentration and patience, and expand your vocabulary and knowledge. We have so many books, we are running out of book shelves, and I am sure that we have paid for a few extra shelves of books at the library in late fees by now :-) I am currently feeling a bit lost here because I have read all of the fiction in the house, and haven't had the time to find a new good book to read. When I have a bath, it feels so empty without a book in hand.

9. Debt free living

Oh the freedom of not having debt hanging over your head. I am so thankful that my husband has been strong enough to lead our family out of all debt (except our mortgage of course). We live simply, and within our means. We have a small house, and one car, and we have been blessed with the generosity of friends and family where we have needs we can't meet ourselves. It's funny, the more we try to simplify our home and cut back on buying material goods, the less we want the stuff we already have! It seems like every week I'm sending a bag full of stuff to donate to the goodwill, and when requested to make a Christmas list up, I struggle to think of anything that I could possibly want or need (besides a housecleaner and more frozen meals LOL).

10. TV free house

More freedom!! We have been without a TV for so long I can't even remember now... Probably 8 years now. This has been a huge help in number 9 above, because we don't see the commercials, and all the cool stuff that the reality TV show people have. We don't know about all the new gadgets, the latest styles, and the fancy cars that 'everyone' has because we don't watch it on TV.

Also, we have so much more time for reading books together as a family, for playing games, going for walks, talking, and my favorite... Sleeping. The kids are so creative in their play, and rarely get bored. They know how to entertain themselves without me having to organize everything for them, and they don't even know what the latest and greatest toys and breakfast cereals are. I think that the secret to the success and happiness of our family is the lack of television.

hide and seek... a mother's best friend

I just stumbled upon the most wonderful game for the kids to play. Hide-and-seek!!

You might think this often erupts into noisy chaos with kids running around like mad, but I have found the secret to this game quite by accident....

You see, after playing this game with their babysitter, and my new mother's helper (God bless her heart), they thought they might like to try playing it by themselves when she left. E came running downstairs to hide in the perfect spot while Z and H were upstairs counting (so she said). After about five minutes of quiet all through the house I began to wonder if Z didn't think that HE was supposed to be the one hiding... I was about to go tell him his error when I came to my senses.

WHY on earth would I disturb three perfectly quiet children?... Especially right before dinner time when they are normally fighting and underfoot while I'm trying to make dinner. So I took the moment to take a deep breath, stir my sauce on the stove and relax. :-) Who knew I would find joy in such small things?

I'm not alone!!

I should be sleeping... the twins are asleep, the toddler is asleep, the preschooler is asleep, the grade one princess is asleep, my husband is out, and the house is so beautifully quiet.

I just couldn't resist a few minutes, however, to catch up on some good blog reading, and I'm so glad I did. There are many other Catholic homeschooling moms out there, and I have been enjoying reading about their lives. Especially this one at Three plus Two where a mom describes her crazy toddler twins and the trouble they get into. I giggled and giggled, and then prayed for help as I imagined my life next year.

If she can do it, so can I!! Thank you, dear God, for the companionship of other women... even if it is just a peak into each other's lives through the fun of blogging.

The new normal?

I have been advised by many wise people that instead of waiting for things to get back to 'normal' around here, I should redefine normal.. or perhaps get rid of the concept all together.

We are slowly adjusting to life with five little children 6 and under, and I am almost used to the sleep deprivation now. The other 3 kids are adjusting very well, and even enjoy having little babies in the house. (I think it's probably because the babies can be counted on to tie mommy to the couch for at least a half hour every 2-3 hours, so the others can get into all sorts of fun activities that would otherwise be forbidden).

So what have we been doing each day besides nursing babies and changing diapers?? Not much really... lots of playing, a bit of 'school', a few movie days on the couch, and a lot of reading stories. One of the joys we have discovered is listening to books on tape. Right now the kids are in the living room listening to Heidi (10 hours long.. that should keep them busy for awhile!!), and they have spent all of last week listening to old time radio shows for children.

We are also enjoying reading aloud Farmer Boy by Laura Ingills Wilder at dinner time after mommy and daddy are done eating, and the children are inevitably just starting their second bite. This has two benefits that I can see: The children are given time to finish their food without mommy or daddy having to cajole them, and we are all enriched with good literature. It's becoming a nice family tradition.

What I have learned

The one thing that I've learned through this whole new adventure is the virtue of humility. (Not humiliation... although I have that one down too, when people come over to see me still in my PJs at 3pm, with hair everywhere and milk all over my shirt, and toys strewn all through the house).

Learning humility for me has been allowing myself to let go of my perfectionism and pride, and allow other people to help me. To say yes to every offer of help that comes our way (and believe me we are overflowing with offers), and to admit that I can't do this by myself. Without humility I would be shut up inside my house alone (with five kids), pretending that I am supermom, and drowning in laundry, dishes, dust and diapers... and growing more and more grumpy and irritable each day.

Instead, God has given us the most wonderful gift of a community of people who have surrounded us with love and great generosity. I have rarely been without help since the babies were born 5 weeks ago. Every day someone either comes over and drops off a meal, throws in some laundry, reads to my little emerging reader, changes a diaper, or just settles in for nice adult conversation. Thank you with all my heart, to everyone who has shown their kindness and love towards us. I can say with certainty that we couldn't do this without you.

The only reason I can see that God chose to bless us with twins is not that he knew WE could handle it, but that he knew YOU could handle it. He had such faith and trust in our community of friends and family, that he knew he could leave us all in your kind, generous hands.

Thank You.

What will it be like when the TWINS are this age?

What is life going to be like in another year and a half, if this is the kind of trouble my other toddler and preschooler can get into??

This morning, after taking a shower, I came downstairs to discover my mischevious little monkeys stuffing handfulls of sugar into their mouths... the day after halloween to boot! What a mess!! sugar in the hair, on the clothes, on the floor, and then all over the vacuum brush, and the bathroom towel.

Shortly after this adventure, while I was still vacuuming up the sugar, I found my little princess perched on the kitchen table dumping the salt out of the salt shaker and tasting it. Sigh... I think she'll be either a great scientist (such wonderful curiosity), or perhaps a mother to her own set of toddlers to clean up after.



 

Welcome to God's Family JP and Peter!!

What's that I see? TWO babies??

I'm sure all my blog readers have either heard about our crazy news, or have deserted me since I haven't posted in a month... in either case, this is why I haven't been posting, nor will post as consistently as before for awhile: TWINS!!!! I'm still in shock. I am living the life that happens to other people.. the kind you read about in the paper :-) 

Why didn't we listen to him?

8 months ago...

Daddy, talking to the kids at dinner time, "Hey guys, guess what?? mommy has a baby in her tummy!! You're going to have another brother or sister to play with soon!!"

E and Z: "yay!!"

Mommy: " Do you think it's a little brother, or a little sister?"

E: " I think it's a sister!!"

H: throws her bowl of food on the floor (about the only thing that hasn't changed in my life in the last month)

Z: " I think it's TWO brothers!!"

Mommy and Daddy: (nervous laughter) " uh... No Z, there's only one baby. A brother would be nice wouldn't it?.. I guess we'll just have to see what God wants to bless us with".

Fast forward to the afternoon of September 25th where we learn via ultrasound that we had two babies coming soon...

... sooner than we think!!

Sept 26th, 2006 around 4 am

the feast day of the TWIN saints Cosmas and Damian...

Peter Michael 4 lbs 11 oz

John Paul Joseph 5 lbs 7 oz

caught by daddy at home.

It seems like ages since I've had the time or energy to sit down and blog a bit about our life and our homeschool. My camera was mia for awhile too, so I didn't have any cute pictures to share.

I'm getting closer to the end of this pregnancy!! I can hardly wait to find out if we're having a little boy or a little girl. How exciting :-) The kids think it would be splendid to have a little boy, but I'm sure they would be delighted with a little sister. I can't believe E will be a whole six years older than this little one. What a treasure for her to have a baby around when she's old enough to really appreciate the sweetness. I know I always wanted my mom to have another baby when I was growing up. It seemed like it would be so much fun to have a little baby around to help take care of.

We're slowly getting everything ready for the little one.... firstly, we're trying to stuff E with lots of food so she'll grow to 40 lbs and move into a booster seat (finally!!) and then Z can have her carseat, H can have his, and the new baby can have hers. What a full van we will have with so many carseats stuffed into it! And the noise...I can already hear it in my head LOL.

There are so many other things I want to get done... wash the floors, clean the windows, clean out the fridge, wash the walls going up the stairs...all essential to a new baby LOL (guess I must be nesting?)

For homeschooling, we're winding down quite a bit here to give mommy more time to spend just having fun with the toddler, and the other two. I want to savour the last few months before the baby comes and needs a lot of my sleep and attention. We've been trying to go for nightly walks as a family, playing lots of games, reading lots and lots of stories, and going to the library.

We're keeping up with reading/spelling for now, because I don't want E to forget everything she's learned so far. She's doing great so far. Cursive is wonderful, and she's remembering her spelling words, and even using them on her own when she draws pictures. Today she drew a picture of her at the table doing school work with a cartoon text bubble saying "I em at home. I em doeng school". Cute. I just want to snuggle them all in my arms and have a nap :-)

what's new here

Bunk Beds!! (camera is MIA so i'll post a picture later)

In anticipation of a new baby in the family, we've turned the kids beds into a bunkebed so their not-so-little-anymore sister can join them in their room... for those of you who know our little H, it's a scary idea putting her in a room to sleep where there is so much entertainment to be had. I'm not sure if we'll ever sleep again in this house, but I wasn't about to trust her alone with the baby in the baby's room... and there is NO way she's going to sleep in my bedroom.

The only problem with the bunkbeds is they have ladders... and ladders are just the funnest thing to play on if you are almost 18 months old and a monkey. Yeah, that's right!! I found her halfway up the ladder this morning.

Microbes!!

We are now done weather and have moved on to microbes in science. This weekend E and her dad did an experiment growing bacteria and fungi. it's growing inside my book cupboard right now.. hope H doesn't get into it!!

Choir

E started her first day of choir today... she's really going to love it. More on this next week.

I"m off to bed... 33 weeks pregnant already!!

Grandmas are special

Yesterday we spent the morning over at my grandma's house. What a treat it is to be with her... she is full of knowledge, stories, smiles, treats, and good cooking. The kids love spending time with her. Even little H had a great time climbing into her lap, babbling to her about the toys she kept finding around the house.

Only a grandma has her house well stocked with toys decades after all her own children leave home.... and only a grandma has those toys from garage sales that kids love (and parents can't stand because they are so noisy and you just know exactly why they were in the garage sale in the first place). The favorite toys of this visit where the baby doll that talks and coos (very loudly) everytime there's a noise in the room (H loved this one), and the toy electric guitar that is straight out of the 80's that you can even hang around your neck and dance like a rock star.

We also got to hear stories of how Grandpa Pete built their house, and all the times he fell off the roof :-) , look at old pictures of everyone, and see her nice garden in the back... and we got to have lunch (she had some pizza in the freezer for any grandkids who might stop by), with a tasty dessert of fruit salad (E was so impressed we were having dessert with lunch).

When we left E told me that Grandmas are special (we talked about this when we were reading about St. Anne, the grandma of Jesus). She's right, I thought. Especially the ones who send you home with cookies, and home-grown cucumbers that are shaped like hearts when you slice them.

Another Art Lesson

After a week of crafts, I ran out of inspiring ideas to quench E's unstoppable thirst for creating... so I turned to her art curriculum for the next lesson... learning how artists use photographs for inspiration in their work. We studied a picture by Degas of a ballerina dancing. Apparently, he painted this picture from a photograph to help him capture movement, without the ballerina having to stand like that the whole time... (or at least that is how the grade one book explains it).

So we went hunting for some pictures of our own to paint from. We found a spider (from Grandma flash), and some animals from an animal fact book we have. She had lots of fun painting what she saw in the picture.

Later on, Z came down from his nap and drew his own version of a Zebra. It is just wonderful! One of the first times he has really drawn something recognizable on paper. We are so proud of him :-)

In case you think we never do any math or spelling...

E's Spelling Words for this week:

mother
school
street
are
say
play
home
time
was
has
had
have
must
jump
boy
man
dog
hand


We've spent a fair amount of time this week on the two biggie academic subjects of math and spelling/phonics/writing.

Each morning we start with about 30-40 minutes of practicing spelling/writing/reading. Today she took a spelling test and got 18/20. Isn't she doing great with her cursive?

For math, we've been learning the addition facts. She breezed through the +0 facts, and the + 1 facts... and so I thought we'd take it slower with the + 2 facts... but she surprised me and did the page really fast, without even using the blocks or her fingers. She did it all in her head.

We decided to make a fun math facts folder book (called lapbooks by some people) so she can practice her math facts and memorize them. We spent quite awhile picking out pretty paper, and cutting out the flash cards.

Ziggurat anyone?

History time!! We've been learning about Abraham and Sarah from the Old Testament (the next major characters in history after Noah) this week. We learned that they were from the city of Ur which was in Mesopotamia or Sumeria. Ur had some of the world's first great architectural structures: Ziggurats.

So, being the fun mom that I am, we decided to make our own ziggurats, using boxes, paint and cornmeal for texture. Messy, yes.. but E thought it was so much fun to make it. She designed the stairs, and did most of the painting. I did the cleaning up afterwards.

Later, while we were in the creative messy mood, we also made some ants out of egg cartons.

Z helped us make both crafts, but kept getting their names mixed up, calling the Ziggurat an 'antenna'.

" mom, where's our big antenna that we made?"
"huh??... OH! the Ziggurat? It's over there"
"thanks mom!" (and he runs off with his hands full of dinosaurs to climb the ziggurat stairs and worship some idols).

Who has time to go to school when you are busy being an artist?

We've had so much fun over the last week creating beautiful paintings, drawings and crafts that we haven't had time to do any blogging at all!

We started E's art curriculum this week with a trip to Michael's and bought a whole bunch of really nice and very enticing art supplies. As soon as we got home, E got right into them, creating many beautiful pictures:

Later she did her first lesson, and part of it was to draw something that she could see around her using her new special ebony pencil. We were sitting outside and so this is what she drew: (our front yard)
A few days later she did the second lesson, which was to draw and then color with watercolor crayons something that she loved about where she is growing up she should use her imagination and creativity. This is what she drew: (mom, E and Z watching a movie on our laptop, H and a friend eating at the table, and daddy making breakfast for everyone in the kitchen)
We also did a lot of playing with modelling clay this week. E made among other things, a bird and a triceritops:We also spent some time doing History drawings (Noah and his ark), and Religion (St. Anne). Whew! What a busy week, and that was just the fun subjects!!

Oh, the joyous sounds of home...

Z: ahhh! Ahhh!!

E (my little tattler): "Mommy!! H is hitting him!!"

Z (indignant): "No!! I'm hitting her!!!"

E: "Mommy! Z is hitting her!!"

... to which mommy says nothing and pretends she didn't hear for fear of three small children running to her and crying.... oh good, it worked! they are all happy again.

where did she learn that??

My always entertaining and somewhat exhausting little 16 month old girl H learned a new trick today:

She can make farting noises by blowing on her arm.

I thought only teenage boys knew how to do that??

She quickly taught her big brother, and now the house is filled with peals of laughter from the kids and daddy too.

Hope she doesn't use her new trick in church!!

Queens and kings and mary

Yesterday was the feast of the "Queenship of Mary" and so today we had fun making a little crown for our mary statue, and some big crowns for the kids. They had lots of fun wearing them around the house, and even wore them to my midwife appointment later in the morning.

H enjoyed the crowns too, although in her own way of course. At lunch time, while she was in her highchair I noticed she was eating something before I had given her any food... whatever could that be, I wondered, as I pulled out 5 sequins one at a time from her mouth. I guess she prefers to eat crowns. Maybe she was listening last week when we read Hansel and Gretel? I hope she didn't hear the part about pushing the witch into the oven :-)

The crowns inspired E to dress up in her cinderella dress, and then later to put H in her other princess dress (waaaaay too big). H just beamed as she looked in the mirror at herself beside her big sister. Then H spent the rest of the day wrestling with her big brother.

10 weeks to go until the new baby is here!! I'm not sure how much more fun this house can take :-)

Later on we spent time doing our new spelling words (some big ones including school and mother), and then E drew a lovely picture of Noah and the Rainbow in her timeline book.
She also did a math test and got 6.5/7

God must really love me :-)

After wrestling both mentally and physically with 3 children all morning, I climbed into my bed for a much needed nap after lunch time only to find out that my neighbours are having a garage built , and there is a bobcat digging dirt, and a big dump truck driving back and forth right under my bedroom window... sigh. I was so tired (urgh! my iron is low again, so my doctor tells me)...I prayed that God would help me rest regardless of all the noise happening out there and I closed my eyes...

... only to open them two hours later and wonder why it was so quiet, thankful for the long rest.

I looked out my window and what do I see? A firetruck, the Gas company truck and the workers looking rather sheepishly into the big hole that they have dug. The firetruck just drove away, so I'm assuming I don't have to evacuate my house... thank God, but I am very grateful for the quiet nap time that I was given.

How can you argue with logic like this?

The whole family is in the car coming home from a long day somewhere. Mommy looks back at the kiddies, and notices that E's shoes are on the floor of the car, and not on her feet where they belong (again).

Mommy: "ummm.. why are you shoes on the floor?"

E: "Mommy!" (with this tone of unbelief at my stupidity in not knowing the answer)... "there's dirt in my shoes and so I don't want my feet to get dirty".

Mommy: "uuuuhhhh" (speechless) "ok"

back at school

After a week of fun at Vacation Bible School, we have started back at schoolwork this morning.

We woke up early, made it to morning mass with daddy and then came home and got a good start on the day with

Religion (at snack time): learning about guardian angels, our 5 senses, and the difference between animals, rocks, plants and humans

Spelling, reading and writing: reviewing the 60 words that she has already learned to spell and read, and practicing her phonograms

Grammar: reviewing the poem she learned, and then illustrating it for her binder, and reviewing the difference between proper and common nous

Math: orally going through place value and reading and writing numbers from 0-999

Then at lunch time we pulled our food and an extra chair out onto the porch and had a lovely lunch of Macaroni and cheese (don't forget the ketchup!) together in the shade.

By this time, all 4 of us were tired, so we cleaned up (after picking H off the kitchen table 3 times... she thinks it's fun to climb up there and play with the salt and pepper), and read some stories.

E picked out a book on archaeologists, so we learned about how they search for clues about the past in their digs. This encompased both science and history for today... good choice!!

Now everyone is sleeping, and I am about to climb up to bed too... gotta get my rest in while I can before the new baby makes an appearance on the scene in a few months.

Vacation Bible School

We've taken a break from formal studies for an end of the summer field trip to vacation bible school each day this week. E had a wonderful time going all by herself to VBS each morning, doing crafts, learning songs, playing fun games, and eating candy.

The Vacation Bible School was a Catholic Kids Net and the organizers did a wonderful job. Today was the last day and they had a carnival for all the kids and their siblings. I should have brought my camera, because they had a great time there eating cotton candy, popcorn, chocolate, brownies, getting their face painted, watching the clown, playing games, and singing songs. Even the little monkey H got into the action... all the sweet little 8 and 9 year old girls kept bringing her candy and treats to eat. She's now zonked upstairs in her crib after all that sugar. :-)

Next week we'll start back with regular schoolwork. It's getting harder as my due date approaches, but I think we'll manage. My only real big goals for the year are to get Elizabeth reading well and adding and subtracting. She's really taken to cursive writing, so we don't have to worry too much about penmanship as she's already ahead of the game there. We are also looking into enrolling her in a Girls Choir this year. It's a teaching choir that has a few performances a year and 2 of her friends are in it as well. I'm sure she'll love it.

I'm off for my daily nap :-)

I'm not THAT big!! am I ?

E is at VBS again (vacation bible school) all week. She is loving it!
I'm having fun at home with the little ones. I can't believe that our youngest is already 16 months old!! how has the time gone by so fast?

Yesterday evening we went to the library, and the kids all picked out their own books. Little H was the cutest of all, going from shelf to shelf with pure delight in all the books, occasionally bringing one back to mommy or daddy to read to her.

Just before we left, everyone had to pick out which one they wanted to bring home. Elizabeth chose 2 magic school bus books (her current favorite,... a series on science). Z chose a book on dinosaurs which he was really pleased with, and a book on spaceships.

Heather walked over to a shelf, picked a big book from about 50 of them and brought it over... "There's a house inside my mommys tummy". Lovely.

camping with little ones...

YAWN is about all I can say

Seriously though, we had so much fun camping this weekend. On friday night after work, we packed up our new tent trailer, convinced my sister and her husband to come with us, stuffed almost everything we own into the van, and drove off to a camp ground a few hours away.

We didn't arrive until after dark, and lucky for us, homeschooling family that we are, our science class (we've been learning about weather) followed us out there in the form of big clouds, lots of wind, drizzle, downpours, lightening and thunder, etc... The only thing the kids missed seeing were a hurricane and a tornado. That was the first night.

The next morning when we got up, we got to see some of the fruit of our homeschooling efforts when our darling little grade one was explaining to her auntie that the drops of water falling on her head from the roof were not coming from the outside of the tent, they were from the water vapor in the air inside the tent that was condensing on the ceiling. LOL... I'm sure this didn't make auntie M feel any better about having a wet pillow and blanket, but I was happy to see that some of what we've been teaching is sticking.

One thing that I'm starting to see about homeschooling is that school teachers don't get that pleasure of seeing the fruits of their teaching as often as a homeschooling parent would. It's such a treat for me to be able to watch E understand and then apply her knowledge slowly over the progress of each year. For instance, later on in the day, when it was still raining and we were all having so much fun crammed into our tent trailer with a crazy toddler bouncing around, E eased her boredom by drawing, and then writing a story for us spontaneously.

My cat is red.
My cat is a good cat.
Good cat!

These are all words from our spelling lists, and I was delighted to see that she is actually learning them and not just straight memorizing them in one context.

Anyways, the rest of the trip turned out lovely. We spent the rest of the day at a very fun dinosaur museum where the kids had a great time running from exhibit to exhibit, thankfully burning off some of the energy that had built up over the past day hiding from the rain. My favorite quote of the day was my little 3yr old boy:

" mommy, why are dinosaurs called dinosaurs?"
....."ummmm... I don't know sweetie"
"hey I know!! Maybe they are called dinosaurs because they die all the time".

(He is becoming much more aware of sounds in words and breaking words apart into the sounds they start with. This is the first step of learning how to read, so it is really neat to watch it start. With my first preschooler, I was trying to hard to push her from one stage to the next, trying to be a good 'teacher'. With Z I don't have time to do that and I really enjoy watching him learn things as his development unfolds naturally.)

Below are some more pics of our trip... my favorite one being the first with H climbing into the exhibit... notice the sign right beside her :-)

Life with little ones

This is a beautiful post written by Elizabeth Foss, a catholic homeschooling mom in the states... I've been thinking more and more about how I need to limit computer time, and just really 'be' with my children. I love them, but I find that I can get into these ruts where I'm always trying to find something to occupy them away from me so I can get a breather. But, like I tell my eldest child all the time when she can't wait for the next fun even to come... Stop wishing your life away!!

They are my life and my vocation, and this period with them all so young is so shortlived that I want to savour it and enjoy it.

I know I'm one step ahead in the game already by not having a television to distract me or the kids with, but there are so many other things that can grab my attention and mind away from them.

Go ahead and read her post... it's very beautiful.. and then check out the rest of her blog and look at her series of posts on teaching and playing with preschoolers in the home.

Sleep, cookies and other deep thoughts

I have a new philosophy that I've adopted as my motto in life, since becoming pregnant with my fourth child in 5 years. It goes like this:

"Never think farther ahead in life than past my next sleep"

Now this doesn't mean I can't plan fun vacations next month, and I can't daydream about what I'm going to be when my kids grow up... but it does mean that I don't have to worry about how I'm going to handle making dinner tomorrow when my one year old has kept me up all night, and I'm not to even start thinking about how I'm going to teach my 6 year old high school physics when she's a teenager.

In fact, I don't worry about laundry, dishes, vacuuming.. or even what time I'm going to be woken up in the night by assorted children who need their mommy.... Because it's all after my next sleep and therefore is out of bounds.

Miraculously, without all the worry and angst that I used to put into everything from laundry to when I'm going to hit menopause... Life still seems to go on. Laundry and dinner get done, because I'm not as stressed out anymore. Children get attended to, and husbands get clean socks and underwear, and I even get naps in.

......

Now I am wondering how I can transfer this good motto over to my cooking skills somehow... Like don't think farther ahead then when your timer buzzes.

I'm not sure why, but every single batch of cookies I have made in the past 5 years or so has managed to have at least one tray full of burnt hockey pucks. The first tray always comes out perfectly, but after the initial excitement, all the kids wander in search of greener pastures, and I am left in the kitchen all alone with a timer waiting to beep, mess everywhere, and a tray full of warm fresh cookies. What am I to do but to ignore the mess and sit down to taste-test one or a few of our freshly baked treats.

This is where I go wrong every time.... I'm eating a cookie, there's a mess I'm trying to ignore, and there are no kids around so I'm trying madly to think of something to do to take advantage of the quiet. I start thinking beyond the end of the timer, and inevitably phone someone, start checking my email, or settle into a good book, and then poof!! Where did the time go? All of a sudden that telltale smell drags me out of my state, and I realize I've wrecked yet another batch. Urgh!

I think I'm going to have to set a rule of only baking one batch at a time and freezing the rest of the dough for another moment of 'domesticity'. Or maybe just eat the cookie dough raw... Yummy!!

More Science

E has told me that her most favorite part of school is doing science. Today we learned more about rain and hail. We are basically learning about the water cycle.
We did a simple experiment where we filled a glass with water and ice and watched as the outside of the glass got wet (why we need coasters, i guess). We learned that the water vapor in the air turned back into water or 'condensed' when it touched the cold glass, because when water vapor gets cold, it turns back into water.

Then we read a good book that explained it very clearly in grade one language. It's called Down Comes the Rain by Franklyn Branley. This series of books is very well written and I highly recommend it.

Below is her drawing and her 'narration' to me of how the water cycle works. Water vapour comes from rivers and oceans and seas. It turns into water vapour by the sun. Water vapour is always everywhere. Even in the house. It’s on trees, horses, cows and us too.

The water vapour turns into a cloud because if you go further away from the earth it gets colder and colder. The water vapour turns back into water to become a cloud.

The little droplets stick together, and the clouds become bigger and bigger with more water vapour and then the little droplets fall down as rain. 

Science with Daddy

Last saturday....  

My 3year old meterologist

In a very serious (but with the added 3 year old cuteness) voice,

"mommy, look at all the cumulus clouds outside... I think it's going to rain."

Science With daddy

On saturday Daddy is the science guy. This week the kids got up early, helped make a nice breakfast with dad and then started on their science project. We have spent the week learning about weather and the seasons, and their project was to make a wind vane.

First, they pulled out all of their materials, started reading the instructions, but then got sidetracked talking about the compass and directions. E decided to draw a picture of a compass in her science notebook, and then draw pictures of what was to the N, S, E and W of our house.

Daddy introduced her to the amazing world of google earth, and they spent about an hour together exploring all the interesting pictures of the world. Personally, the program makes me very dizzy and sick, so I was happily scrapbooking at the kitchen table.

Later on they eventually got back to their experiment, and discovered the wind was coming from the SE. I think Science with Daddy will be lots of fun this year!!