fashion show

Here are some new clothes the girls got for Christmas.  Thanks everyone!

more christmas

We had a lovely couple of days.  And lot's more pictures!  (Though it seems we had some trouble keeping our eyes open in the pictures.)  This year we decided to do our family celebration on Christmas Eve.  So we woke up to filled stockings and got to open our presents.  I was really proud of how thankful the kids were without even being reminded.  I guess all that nagging eventually pays off.  Anyway, we had some wonderful gifts from our very generous family and from each other.  Then we had a fun day playing with our new stuff and hanging out together.  Jomo took the kids out front to play a little football with Leo's new ball that he got from my brother.  They had fun and got muddy.  And the cherry on top was ordering take-out from our favorite restaurant!  No cooking.  Yay!  We watched the Clone Wars movie, put the kids to bed, and watched some of my new season of Scrubs.  Then today, Christmas day, we focused on celebrating Christ's birth.  We made a birthday cake for Jesus, watched The Nativity Story, and talked a bit about the importance of God coming to live on earth.  Another really good day.

gingerbread houses

We did this a couple weeks ago with our good friend.  We had a lot of fun!

christmas fun

We recently returned from Atlanta where we visited some of my side of the family for a Christmas celebration.  We had a layover in Charlotte, and unfortunately, both ways one of our flights was cancelled.  So on the way down we ended up renting a car and driving the rest of the way rather than waiting around in an airport with three cranky kids hoping to get on one of the other overbooked flights.  On the way back, we were able to catch the next plane pretty easily, but it was a long day.

Other than that, we really enjoyed getting to see family.  My aunt always decorates her house beautifully.  We had a few different events scheduled.  One was a presentation which the kids and their cousin gave, each one on a different aspect of ancient Egypt.  L did mummies, and Z talked about the people of ancient Egypt.  My aunt set the whole thing up like a conference (she's an events planner), and we all wore name tags, the kids wore special shirts, received some presenters bags with small gifts inside.  This was their first (and mine) power point presentation.

My aunt and uncle have three dogs: a large one, a medium sized one, and a small one.  The dogs didn't particularly take to us.  There are a lot of us and the kids aren't too experienced around dogs.

Opening presents.

The kids were about to start their own version of a white elephant game that the adults played.  We learned from this year's kids' game and hopefully will get it better next year.

The baby taking a ride in the box.

nutcracker

Z was a party guest, a snowflake, one of the punchinellas, and also a flower, but that dance was cut for time.  Cute outfits!

pace

We forgot to take our camera to Z's performance of The Nutcracker.  Can you believe it?  But our friend let us borrow hers, so I'm sure I'll post some pics at some point.

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about the pace of our life.  One of the things I most enjoy about homeschooling is getting to make choices ourselves about how much to do, rather than having a lot of the decisions made for us (hours/day in school, homework, getting out the door in the morning).  And while we live in a "go go go" society, we've talked about not wanting our lives to be full to the brim and rushed like that.  So I guess I've been mentally evaluating where we are in this. I've been trying to stay home as much as possible this year because I find that getting everyone ready to go, going, being somewhere, then returning home can be a lot of work and stress.  Especially if we're trying to get somewhere on time. Now some of this is our stage of life.  We have small children that still need some help getting ready, even if just reminders to use the bathroom before we go. And a baby who needs her diaper changed often and also eats quite often.  But I think I make some of the stress myself.  If I were a bit more laid back, I wouldn't get stressed because we "need" to get to the library in time for storytime.  And probably some of it is my lack of patience.  I just don't want to spend that much time getting everyone into the car!  So, I like myself a bit more when we just stay home.  

Having said that, there are some activities that are important to us.  Piano lessons for Z, and eventually for L.  Some sort of physical activity like dance or karate.  Library trips.  And then there are things like doctors/dentist appointments, not to mention the grocery store, bank and other errands.  And finally, the "s" word.  Yes, socialization.  I know it's on everyone's mind. We do also value social opportunities.  For now I think we're meeting this need adequately, though I think in the future we'll try to increase it.  The kids get to hang out with their friends at church, have group interactions in storytimes and classes, and we try to get together with other homeschoolers here and there.  Since we don't know if we'll be leaving the area in the spring, I've been a little cautious in getting involved in co-ops or groups. But we'll definitely be revisiting that idea after we make the big transition back to the real world.  

It's quite difficult to find a balance.  I think the best way to juggle everything well is to prioritize. And then when it's too much, cut out the lowest priorities.  I'm not so good at seeing when it's too much until after the fact.  Also, sometimes those lower priorities are hard to let go of.  And at the end of the day, I think  I need to keep in mind the bare minimum, and feel successful even if we only did that.  So I'm thinking that might be: treat them with love, teach them to treat others with love, feed them (?). Ok, I'm still working on it.  Those things encompass a lot.  And schoolwork is important, but not necessarily at the cost of these other ones, if that makes sense.  Ok, that's enough philosophizing for me.   

new challenges

Things have gotten considerably harder around here recently since Little Miss S has learned to walk and is (usually) taking only one nap these days.  It's hard to do school with Z, or read to the kids, or cook dinner, or any other normal activity if I keep having to stop and get S out of trouble. I'm having to adjust quite a bit for this new development.  It's good for me to remember that things have changed so I don't feel guilty for not getting as much done.  My new strategy is to set up the Pack'n'Play in the living room first thing in the morning so I can stick her in there in a pinch... and also during my shower, for part of school, and generally whenever she's driving me crazy :) Ok, it sounds like she's in there all day.  She's not, but certainly more often!  This takes me back to L's toddler days. I remember friends telling me that having two kids got easier after the second was one, but I think it got harder for me.  (And I kept waiting for it to get easier again until I eventually figured out that it's just harder to have two kids instead of one. What a shock.) So I'm trying to keep in mind that now my attention is going to be pulled three different ways, and that's ok.  That's three kids.  I love my kids very much, and I really enjoy my life these days.  But I hope you'll excuse me if I occasionally use this blog as a means of therapy, sorting out my thoughts amidst the chaos of my life! 

decorating

Probably the thing I love most about Thanksgiving weekend is decorating for Christmas.  Yes, even more than the food, surprisingly.  This year we set up the our tiny tree that Jomo and I bought for our first Christmas back in student housing.  It's perfect for our tiny house!  

The baby was SOOO excited when she first saw the Christmas tree upon waking up from her nap.  Now we just need to get her to leave it alone!

This is our little Christmas corner.  Jomo did a very nice job.  He even sewed us two new stockings this year, for him and me, since we were short one last year after the baby came. You can see him hanging them in the picture.  Later on that night we wrapped up a bunch of presents to put under the tree.  We don't really like the lonely tree look.  (This year we received a very generous, anonymous gift which we used to buy the kids some fun presents.  We enjoyed taking them to the toy store to see what sparked their interest, and then secretly buying some of it!)  On top of the shelves is our new (from after Xmas sales last year) advent calendar, and we actually started on time.  I printed out a verse or two per day of the Christmas story in the Bible, and placed them with two candies in each door.  It's super fun!

This week I finally got out our Egyptian Dig Kit which was so much fun.  I wish I had done it sooner.  Z especially enjoyed searching for treasures and declared she would be an archaeologist someday (maybe shortly after she pursues these other careers: lawyer, artist, ballerina, doctor, scientist... ok those are all the ones I can remember).

art museum

Our day was much better today.  We had a really good trip to the National Gallery and checked out several Van Gogh paintings.  I was thinking about why this trip went so well (compared to a few others in the past), and this is what I came up with:

1.  L wanted to help pack our lunch, which I allowed him to do.  No whining at lunch time!

2. We looked at You Can't Take a Balloon into the National Gallery, by Weitzman and Glasser, that my mother-in-law sent awhile ago. It had some reproductions throughout, and the kids kept saying, "Look!  That one was in the book!"

3.  We took the Metro with Jomo on his way into school, so the kids got to hang out with Dad for half of the ride.  

4.  I brought along things for them to do on the train ride (Pokemon handbook and a library book).

5.  I stopped before we walked into the museum and told them the rules about museum behavior.  So glad I did this (though it did need to be repeated a couple of times).

6.  A nice woman at the information desk gave the kids "picture hunt" sheets, and the kids were excited about finding the different pictures.

7.  We ate lunch first thing.

7.  The baby fell asleep in the stroller after lunch.

8.  We kept the trip short.  We saw the Matisse cut-outs that Z was excited about, then tried to find a few pictures from the "picture hunt," then sat on the couch in front of the Van Gogh's for a bit.

9.  I had five bucks in my pocket (I normally don't carry cash) which we used to give the kids a ride on the carousel at the end.

Certainly we had some difficult moments, and some tiredness, but all in all a pretty good visit!

L and Z both picked out their favorites of the Van Gogh's to take a picture with.

I let the kids each pick out a postcard from the art store, and Z chose this Matisse cut-out.  She ripped the white space around the piece because it was distracting, but then went on to draw her own versions of it, including a "ballerina" one.  I love her enthusiasm about art!

This has nothing to do with the museum, but I wanted to post these before and after pictures of Z's handwriting.  She was doing copywork with Psalm 23 over several weeks.  I tried to tell her to slow down and use her best handwriting, but she wasn't too interested.  I didn't care too much, but I thought I'd try out a Charlotte Mason idea which was to work on one stroke, one letter, one word at a time and basically require perfection.  So we gave it a shot, and I'm very pleased with the result.  I underlined letters that she needed to redo, which she wasn't too happy about.  But she did slow down after a couple of days, and now she's even voluntarily using this beautiful handwriting on her own sometimes.

Before

After

I'm having a day

It's one of those afternoons/evenings where things keep going badly.  Especially my attitude.  We drove Jomo in to school this morning, then hit the library since we were already out.  I was planning to do school in the afternoon after rest time.  But ever since the baby has woken up from her nap she's been terrorizing me.  She's been getting into everything!  The piano books, the library books, the bottom drawer with tupperware (which I usually don't mind except she has a raging cold and snot everywhere!), the pictures on the fridge, etc.  And just as I was putting the styrofoam tray from the chicken in the trash, she of course heads right over to grab that.  On top of all of this, she's figured out how to climb onto the couch and likes to play a game with mommy called "Stand up smiling and watch for mommy to say no!"  She's fallen off the couch three times today, one time head over heals which turned out not too bad, and I just can't be there every minute.  Oh, look. She's playing her game right now as I write.  So admittedly, our house is not very baby-proofed.  And I'm seriously considering spending a good chunk of the holiday weekend working on that.  So, needless to say, with my crabbiness, I went ahead and scrapped the rest of school.  We did read some Thanksgiving books and a little about Van Gogh.  And I think we're going to the art museum tomorrow, but for now the kids are quietly watching a video (after coming in from outdoors covered in mud, including their coats which I just washed), and I think I'm going to go give my little terror some one-on-one time.  Sorry for my long-winded rant.  It all doesn't feel so bad anymore, and I'm going to spend some time thinking about all the things I'm thankful for.  Happy Thanksgiving!

school again

So we started up school again this week.  I'm kind of relieved.  It's nice to have more structure back in our day, and I missed the schoolwork.  The break turned out, well... not as I expected.  I wanted to do more relaxing, have fun with the kids, go to parks, read books, and so on, and yet, the house still needed its normal maintenance and Jomo was still in school.  There just wasn't as much time as I pictured.  

I moved our schedule around a bit, and I think it's going well.   Since the baby's naptime has moved later in the morning (I think she's going to be dropping a nap pretty soon here), I decided to move school a little later to have more time with the kids without the baby.  So we're starting at 10am.  I feel like such a slacker.  But it really works well right now.  There's plenty of time in the morning to do more household chores, which is good since by the afternoon I'm tired and don't want to clean.  And I'm just generally more relaxed starting the day.  I don't feel like I have to rush through everything.  The other thing I changed is that depending on the time, we're doing our history/science reading during lunch.  Then Z can do a notebook page during her rest time.  

As soon as I get motivated to put new batteries in the camera, I'll post some pictures of Z's recent schoolwork that I'm very proud of.

happy birthday

Our little baby turned one this past weekend.  To celebrate we had a little family tasting party so that she could try some new foods.  It ended up being mostly desserts and tacos.  But the big hit was brownies that our good friend brought over.  

Opening presents was a drawn out process.  She wasn't sure what to do!

Her favorite present seemed to be this green sippy cup.  We could hardly get it away from her.

What is this stuff?

Ew, it's all over my hands!

Brownies, that's more like it.

bittersweet

I'm a little sad these days because our baby's turning one next week.  It's so exciting to see her grow and learn new things, but I know I'm going to miss this phase of life.  And since we may not be here again, it's extra sad.  She had her first taste of cow's milk this week (to which she turned up her nose!), but I'm going to miss our quiet cuddle times away from the chaos.  And Jomo and I have been talking a lot about the mechanics of moving at the end of the school year, and so we're planning to get rid of all our baby stuff.  I know it's going to be hard to say good-bye to all those tiny little outfits! 

plans

I've looked at a bunch of books from the library and have ordered a few more.  I'm recording my ideas here, mostly for my sake so I don't forget.  So here's what we're going to be studying this next, short, little while.  

I decided for our composer and artist studies, that we would choose Mozart and Van Gogh, and continue on with more popular individuals in starting out with the kids.  The reason is, there's a lot more available information for their age level, along with fun books, and easy to find prints and music.  And hopefully, later on, when we all know a little more about some of the basics of art/music history, we can join in with Ambleside's schedule. 

Mozart- I'll pick up a bunch of resources from the library next week.  I decided to start with him, rather than Beethoven in keeping with chronology.  Beethoven will be next.

Van Gogh- I have a book on him, and we will read  The Yellow House, by Susan Goldman Rubin.  Also we will look at Ambleside's selection of prints.

History- I checked out Story of the World, by Susan Wise Bauer (again), which we will read along with a few other resources.  I'm separating Bible history to read during our Bible time in our children's Bible.  So I guess this is take 2 (or 3 or 4) for history.  I'm sure we'll figure it out at some point.

Science- I'm planning to learn about Birds for the whole five weeks, though we may try to finish up our pages of our tree book we're making.

Math- We may just work on Miquon math for now to try to get in a groove with it.

Language Arts- Continue with Sing Spell, and I think we have another Shakespeare story on the schedule.  We may also read our first Plutarch.  I think I may drop First Language Lessons for now.  So maybe I'll have Z choose a poem to memorize in its place.  Go back to working on our Handwriting book.

Bible- Read the bible stories that correspond with history studies to both kids.  Also, memorize Psalm 23.  Also work on Leading Little Ones to God (I'm looking forward to having these discussions with Z), though I may do this at a different time.

That's it for now.

on break!

So we're officially taking our break.  I looked at our years' schedule that we had planned out, and I realized that we were suppose to be finishing our break right now, rather than starting it.  So the next "quarter" is going to be pretty short, five weeks, until the break for Christmas.  

We decided that we are going to let the kids watch some extra dvds.  And I'm going to do two cleaning days when I can focus on some organizing in the house.  Otherwise, I think we'll just take it easy.  Hang out with friends if that works out, go to parks if we feel like it, read a lot.  And I think we're going to hold off on the museums.  It's fun to go, but it's a lot of work and not very relaxing.  So since they would be considered field trips, and part of school, we'll wait until we're actually doing school.

Happy voting, everyone!

obligatory halloween photos

I guess I'm a bit over Halloween this year.  I think I'm just tired.  We did some Halloweeny things this week, including trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.  It started out a bit shaky what with the dog attack at the first house.  Well, it wasn't really an attack, but the dog thought Z was playing when she was really running away.  She got a little jumped on, shed a few tears, then we got back to it.  But the piece de resistance was when some guy swore in front of my children when he couldn't find his candy.  Great.  Thanks.  But the kids were pretty cute.  Z picked out her own costume from her dress-up stuff.  She was a snow princess.  L is obviously a ninja turtle, and S was Eeyore.