I'm excited because

L has been asking to learn to read.  Unfortunately, we can't start yet since we're just about to have a massive transition, including lot's of packing and travel.  But we're planning to have him start in June, when our next school session will be. (Jomo will be studying for the bar.)  But now I'm really looking forward to his kindergarten school year.  I've been going back and forth over different curricula ideas and think I've finally settle on Ordinary Parent's Guide for Teaching Reading.   It looks gentle and straight forward.  No spending half the year learning the sounds of the letters (which he already knows) until finally putting some of them together.  I'll probably also use BOB books to go along.  He also wants to make some of his own little books, and I was able to find a great deal on this Evan-moor resource.  And I'm thinking about a couple of history story books that sound fun.  I've already posted about science plans, and as I was just packing up some of our science books, I realized we have plenty of resources and won't need to order much of anything.  For math I want to try something new for both kids.  Z is finding math very boring and is looking forward to something different.  It's called Developmental Math, which I believe is considered a "mastery approach."  But the thing I like about (if I can remember back to when I picked it out) it is that it's very visual, intended to be used independently, and inexpensive.  So for L I think I'll order Book 2, since he really seems to "get" math, and just use it whenever he seems ready.  Until that time, I'll plan to use Family Math which I picked up at a thrift store for a couple of bucks.  Ok, enough!  I'm done.

haven't posted in a while

and I don't really know why.  I've just not been inspired to write anything.  Following my very wonderful week complete with a lovely nature walk was a pretty crummy week.  Bad attitudes, much stress, some very emotional times.  And that was mostly me.  Just one of those weeks, I guess.  But it wasn't all bad.  My mom took us out to lunch one day, which was a nice time.  Z had some beautiful moments of teachability over issues that have been difficult in the past for her. And after working with L about complaining about my food, today he really enjoyed tuna fish sandwiches (and asked for seconds!) after coming to the table with a sour expression. Little victories, I guess.  

I think better things are on the horizon.  Next week is our last "official" week of school until after we move (which we are planning to do at the very end of april.)  And I've decided to just wait on learning about Ancient Rome, which is sort of a relief.  So I won't be trying to cram the week full of stuff.  And we're going to Michigan soon to see family and friends, and we're really looking forward to that.  I'm also thinking about unplugging myself a bit, but I think I'll wait for the next post to discuss that.   Oh, and we got a video camera, but right now it has the memory card from our regular camera in it, so we haven't been taking a lot of pictures.  But we'll fix that soon and try to get some more pictures posted.  That's it for now!

chores

I try to have the kids do chores every weekday morning.  Sometimes I succeed and sometimes not.  The thing about young kids and chores is that often, it's not all that helpful.  It's easier and quicker to these things myself.  And I'm often tempted to do just that.  But by having the kids do daily chores, I'm training them to be disciplined, to think of others and serve, and to have important life skills.  And eventually, they will be able to take some of the household workload, which is something I think is part of being a family and a team, accomplishing our goals together. So while it's more work now, I'm trying to remember the pay-off.  And actually, I really think soon Z will be able to do laundry on her own, and many other chores.  But I'm thinking that within a couple of years Z will be washing and drying, and maybe L will be folding and putting away with just a little supervision.  And just maybe S won't be messing up all the piles! That will be wonderful.  

more science thoughts

So now I'm going to attempt to organize my thoughts about next year.  Today is science.  For Z we'll be doing the Burgess Animal Book for the first two-thirds of the year, and Holling C. Holling's Pagoo for the last part (according to AO).  Along with Burgess we'll be coloring in Peterson's Color-in Mammals book.  And I'm not sure what we'll do along with Pagoo.  Maybe just some field trips.  For L we'll be reading Christian Liberty Nature Reader K, which focuses on one animal for each letter of the alphabet.  And I think I'm going to get him an animal sticker book to go along with it.  Additionally we'll be taking nature walks once a week, hopefully even in bad weather (except maybe we'll stay closer to home), and I'm thinking along with that we may do the Outdoor Hour Challenge to give our nature studies some direction.  I think we'll also check out an outdoor experiment or activity type of book from the library to add in some scientific method type stuff.  So generally that would be two days/week of science, one day for nature study, and one day for animal study.  Then at other times we'll supplement with some books and activities that we have.

next year

Ok, again with next year's plans.  Here's my problem: I keep finding good looking curricula that I want to use.  Here's the other problem: I think we're already doing too much so that we don't have time to slow down and enjoy what we're doing.  The latest thing I found is this free life science curriculum that looks really good.  The problem is that I'm trying to do less for science so that we can do more nature study.  We had a wonderful nature walk yesterday at our local nature center.  The center has a really nice discovery room with lot's of books, puzzles, live animals, and activities.   Then we went on a short walk (with the baby in the kelty) and discovered moss, and came home and drew in our nature journals and looked up information about moss.  It was low-key.  No pressure to get something done at a certain time.  And the kids loved it.  I don't know why I have a hard time getting motivated to go, but I really want to do nature walks every week next year.  And Ambleside Online is pretty full, I'm discovering, so really I should probably just try to do that only.  Or at least with very minimal additions.  So I'm finding myself wanting to cram all this other good stuff in before we start Year 2 in the fall, but we're moving this summer.  And I don't know what it's going to look like for us while Jomo is studying for the bar, but I hope to spend a lot of time outdoors.  And I hope to catch up to where we should be in some of the AO books, like Island Story and Trial and Triumph.  So I probably shouldn't be adding much else to our summer plans.  Can you tell I'm trying to talk myself out of this science thing?  I don't think it's working though because I think we'll try it out now for a bit and see how it goes.  

back on top

My modern girls.

I actually woke up on time today.  I think I've discovered that getting out of bed at 6ish is one key to a good day.  This morning I dyed my hair, took a shower, had a quiet time, got school ready, made Jomo's lunch, and scrambled some eggs, all before 7:30 which is when the kids are allowed to come out of their room.  Now I feel like I actually have time to help them get ready and do their chores in the next hour or so.  And my baby girl is smiling again after her bad cold and ear infection.  So that's nice.  Though I think her cold helped me realize that it's just hard to get much done when the kids are up and about, especially S.  So instead of getting frustrated in the afternoons because all my grand plans of completely cleaning the house aren't coming to fruition, I think I should just sit down and hang out with them, and find other times to work on the house. Like in the morning, or before bed, or... (gulp) during rest time.  But it feels doable.

sick

We've had a busy week.  On Z's birthday she got sick and went to bed early.  She was sick the next day with fever and a bad cold.  Then S caught it.  And then I did.  Z was well enough on Saturday to do her birthday celebration.  We went to IHOP with Didi and our good friend and enjoyed some pancakes and later on presents and apple pie.  Then on Sunday, when I was really sick, Z had her first Japanese dance performance.  So Jomo took her and I was planning to stay home with the other two kids, but after I took some medicine I was feeling better and really didn't want to miss Z's performance.  So we took the long train ride and made it just in time to see her perform.  She did a great job! I was glad to be there, but by the end my medicine had worn off and I could hardly stand.  (And hopefully we didn't pass any of our germs on.)  Then yesterday I mostly stayed in bed all day. The kids were great and played their DS games and watched movies.  The baby took lots of naps.  Jomo made dinner and took care of the kids when he got home.  So today I'm feeling much better and trying catch up on housework.  It's amazing how messy it gets in just two days.  S is still sick with a bad cold, so she's pretty clingy. We're heading to the doctor in the morning to make sure her ears are clear.  But for now we're just trying to get back on track. 

saying good-bye to an old friend

So I've finally given up diet coke.  Actually, I'm writing this down in order to solidify my plan.  I've been meaning to cut it back for a very long time, but this time I didn't buy any at the store and I didn't even need to make a mid-week trip to some convenience store to get a fix.  Mostly because I've replaced it with coffee, so baby steps.  But I figure coffee's got to be better than all that artificial stuff.  This is motivated by my wanting to move our family towards more real food and less junk added in, like preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, fake sugars, and other chemicals. I'm no expert at this and don't want to blow things out of proportion, nor can we afford to buy everything organic.  So I'm moving slowly and just trying out some healthier options to see if we can make it work while I decide how important this really is to me.  I have to say I'm loving Trader Joe's since they have a lot of affordable options.  But this is putting a real dent lately in my ordering groceries online strategy for time/money savings.  So again, I guess I'll be slowly replacing some of our regular foods and intentionally not stressing about every little thing.  (So now that I've written this I'm really going to have to think before taking that next sip of D.C., though I've heard all sorts of neat things about the benefits of not drinking it, from weight loss, to more energy, to fewer sweet cravings.  That would be nice!)

Happy 7th Birthday!