WARNING: Sensitive viewers may not want to see these photos.

I haven't been sleeping well the last couple of nights.  Why?  Well, I've had this burning, itching sensation on my arm, waking me up at all hours.  Yep, poison ivy.  And it seems to be getting worse everyday.  That's what I get for trying to keep the bushes trimmed nicely!

So I bought some over-the-counter analgesic, just the typical poison ivy stuff.  And it does seem to help.  The only problem is, you can only use it 2-3 times a day.  So as I sit here, I have a baking soda paste all over my arm, drying and leaving little bits of soda around the house and in my chair.  It worked well for the itch, but now the burning is back.  Later on I think I'll try oatmeal, and then maybe diaper cream.  I guess the winner will be the one I go back to at 2 in the morning.

My camera doesn't quite pick up the details of the oozing blisters.  Maybe fortunate for you.  But somehow, I feel a little better being able to show someone my torturous rash.  Weird, huh.

Just thought I'd throw this cute one in of the baby chewing on a bottle cap.  We should probably try to keep those off the floor!

TV, baby food, and the kitchen sink...

...are three things that we can live without, apparently.  

On friday our kitchen sink clogged up, enough to need a plumber.  Well, it took until tuesday to for the plumber to come.  Now, that's of course inconvenient for washing dishes  (the dishwasher couldn't run.  We hand-washed dishes in the bathroom.)  But the real inconvenience, which is perhaps also the reason for the clog, is that our washing machine is hooked up to the sink.  Mountains of laundry filled our hallway (the only room in our small house for it).  I suppose we could've used a laundromat.

Secondly, the baby's first tooth arrived this week.  Ok, so we'll of course still feed her baby food, and she was eating table food even before the tooth.  Some of her favorites?  Canned green beans, chicken, rice, and crackers.  It sure is nice that she can feed herself some of the time now.

Enjoying some crackers!

It really is there, it's just hard to see.

And finally, we've been trying out no tv/video games during the week.  It's been quite successful.  So far Z has read Mouse Tales and The Frod and Toad Treasury by Arnold Lobel and another book called The Seven Treasure Hunts by Betsy Byars that we picked up at the Friends of the Library bookstore.  She also finger-knitted bracelets and necklaces for the whole family (exc. baby).  All this in her free time.  Ok, I'm done bragging.

All of us with our finger-knitted jewelry (this is where I learned to finger-knit, it's easy!)

Finger-knitting

Back to School!

Today was our first day back to school.  We had a good time and actually got through everything!

L's corner of the school room.

My beloved desk apprentice!

More of the school room.

Our new chore chart (I got this idea from another blog).

School room.

Happy campers!

 

A Lot!

I finished our school schedule and have planned out the first two weeks.  We're starting Monday so I'm feeling ahead of the curve.  Yay!  But I think my plans are pretty ambitious for first grade.  So we'll have to see how it goes.  Here's my plan:

6:00- I wake up, quiet time and coffee

7:00- kids can come out, they do Wii Fit

7:30- Jomo leaves, I do Wii Fit, kids have breakfast

8:30-Kids dress, we do chores, snack 

9:00-Start school:

Bible (20-30 min., memorize 1 verse/wk, window on the world, pray)

Math (20-30 min.)

Grammar/Spelling (10 min, alternating days)

Phonics (15 min or so)

Reading (Z reads aloud, 10 min)

Lit (20 min. I read aloud, narration)

History/Science (30-45 min. + depending on interest level, alternating days)

Handwriting (10 min, unless she already did a lot of writing, in which case we skip it)

12:00 Lunch, Piano Practice, Free Time

1:30 Rest Time

3:30 Tea Time (snack and learn about an artist/composer)

4:00 Free Time

6:00 Bathtime

6:30 Jomo comes home, dinner

7:00 Time with Dad

8:00 Bedtime, hang out with Jomo

Then on Friday we'll do things differently.  That'll be the day that we do our art lesson, get our hands-on projects and experiments done, piano lesson, library, karate, and any errands that need to be taken care of (though most errands will have to be on the weekend).  I'd also like to take a nature hike once a week, but I think I'll start with every other week until we get into the groove and see how it goes.  I'm also thinking about staggering rest time so that I can get some (short) one-on-one time with each child.  In my experience, it's worked better for me to start on a tighter schedule, and then loosen up where I know there's room as time goes by.  Then usually after awhile, I need to start over and tighten the schedule up again.  

Ok, I feel better now that that's out!

Schedules

Last night Jomo worked on his fall schedule.  I feel tired just thinking about it.  We're considering buying him a bike for his commute just so he can have a few extra hours in the week (probably for studying) that he would normally spend working out or running.  I continue to be really impressed with his commitment to spending time with me and the kids despite his crazy workload.  

But I realize that I've forgotten how light the summer schedule has been, now that we need to get back into the swing of the school year.  I'm getting a bit nervous about our added subjects this year.  I'm sure I'll feel better once we've worked out our schedule and I can see where everything fits.  On the bright side, we signed Z up for ballet (and she'll get to be in a production of The Nutcracker!), and we signed L up for karate (and he'll get to kick people!)

Life Science

I just finished planning out science for the year yesterday.  I had looked at different curricula and the ones I really liked (Living Learning Books and Noeo Science) were ones which I thought I could pretty much plan out myself.  So that's what I did yesterday.  Here's are the topics I came up with: weather, seashore, fish, sea life, eggs, frogs, whales, seals, penguins, owls, eagles, John James Audubon, backyard birds, woods, trees, other habitats, Louis Pasteur, bacteria, fungi, human body, plants, leaves/roots/stems, seeds, flowers, and carnivorous plants.  I may also include insects somewhere.  And some of the fun experiments we will do include: making a cloud in a jar, making snacks for the birds and birdwatching, making a terrarium, and dissecting a real owl pellet.  We will also make a science notebook with all our summaries, experiment pages, coloring pages, and definition pages.  I think it'll be fun!

Charlotte Mason

These past several months I've had fun researching homeschooling styles and trying to figure out our own.  I've been especially drawn to some Charlotte Mason ideas.  (She was a school teacher in England in the 19th century, I think)  Her style of schooling centers on using "living books" rather than text books, having children do "narrations" which are basically oral or written summaries of what they've read.  She also thought children should have shorter lessons in the morning, and have plenty of time in the afternoons to be outdoors, do "handicrafts," and use their imaginations.  There are a lot more specifics, but I've been trying out some of these methods this summer to see how it's gone.  We went on some nature hikes and worked in our nature journals, drawing some of the things we saw.  (A highlight was seeing two deer very close by in the same afternoon.)  We were already doing our school in the mornings, and not in the afternoons, but I was feeling guilty about that.  And I tried out narrating with Z.  It bombed at first.  I had her narrate back a chapter at a time in the book we were reading.  She didn't know what to say, she didn't want to say anything.  It seemed to suck the joy out of reading.  I talked with Jomo and he thought it sounded pointless, at least to her.  So I waited awhile and gave it a try again, this time using Aesop's Fables, as suggested by many CMers.  And I gave Z a project with it: to make her own version of the fables together in a book to read to her younger siblings.  Well, she absolutely loves it, and is asking to do Aesop at other times.  She tells the story back to me as I type what she says, then we print it out and she illustrates it.  The point of narration, by the way, is that the student does the mental work of summarizing what she's heard and learning to communicate that information.  So anyway, I'm not an all-out CMer.  There are some ideas I like, and other things aren't as important to me.  But I'm enjoying what we're trying.   

Summer fun, getting ready for fall

We're going to try to enjoy these last few weeks of summer before we start up school again at the end of the month.  Jomo is about to have a couple of weeks off, and I'm looking forward to resting, taking trips to the park, maybe some nature walks, and not having to be anywhere or doing anything.

I have been working on getting ready for the fall.  I'm currently cleaning and organizing our school room, and finishing up with having all our copies made that we need for the year.  I'm really looking forward to school this year.  We're going to be studying ancient history (I'm really excited to learn along with Z).  We're going to make a big wall time-line (Jomo's wonderful idea), and I'll have Z cut out and label clip art to paste up on it.  I'm also really excited about the science plan, which I'm making up myself.  It's going to be life-science and I think will include weather, habitats, certainly animals, the human body, and plants.  We'll mostly get books from the library or from our shelves and do notebooking (something we're eager to try) with them.  More to come on that in the future.  I also have my eye on some experiment kits that I'd like to try out.  And finally, Z is reading really well, so I look forward to her reading more and more this year.  (Math isn't really registering on my excitement meter since I'm not loving our curriculum, but Z really enjoys Math, and I have some ideas for making it more fun this year.)  I have a lot more I could say about our school plans, but I'll save it for another post.  

Desk Apprentice

I just bought a desk apprentice tonight at Staples.  (They even gave me the online sale price!)  This thing is so cool.  The answer to my school room clutter needs!  I'm very excited.  I'm working on organizing our school room (well, school room by day, mom and dad's bedroom by night) this week.  I like when everything has a place, but rarely in my house is everything in it's place.  And there are still many things that don't yet have a place, so you can imagine the mess.  Thanks to my handy-dandy desk apprentice, some of those things have a new home.  Now we just need to work towards keeping everything where it goes.  Someday my house will be completely clean.  Maybe.

Ok, so I'm trying out this blogging thing.  I think most of this will be about the family and homeschooling.  Maybe someone will read it, maybe not.  But it'll be nice to have a place to record my thoughts.