April 18th - April 24th: Another Week at Home Together

Saturday I headed out early to grab the necessities at the store. It is really difficult to get enough fresh food for 12 people for more than a week or two, especially with 1 refrigerator. Picture milk, for example, or fruits and veggies. We can eat a 3 lb bag of apples or potatoes in a single snack or meal. A gallon of milk lasts 1 day if we ration it and only use it for breakfast and dinner.

In the afternoon we got to visit with my sister and her husband from 6 feet apart - them outside the house, us in the doorway - when they stopped by to grab some dvds from our porch.

Sunday was a special day for us. We decided last week that we would have a Thanksgiving day on this day. We had a turkey in the freezer from November sales that we pulled out to cook, and made everyone's favorites. The house smelled delicious all day while the turkey roasted.

We had church at home. It is a sweet routine we have developed, with different children responsible for different parts of preparing the room for the Sabbath (cleaning, setting up chairs, preparing music, and so on). After the sacrament, we had a short lesson about some of the teachings of King Benjamin found in the early chapters of Mosiah. We played Hangman, with the words being from his teachings. We sang a few of my favorite hymns: I Am a Child of God, There Is a Green Hill Far Away, and Love One Another.

Top: Daniel sorted cars by color, then ran tests to see 

which were the fastest in each color.

Left: The kids made tents several times this week.

Right: The older girls baked and decorated watermelon cupcakes.

Monday we were back into the homeschool routine and Daddy's next college class started too. Everyone's math lessons were straightforward, always a bonus on a Monday. After a morning of school work we headed into the backyard in the afternoon to enjoy chilly sunshine! When we came inside Makayla and Emma, my oldest girls, got to work baking watermelon cupcakes, while most of the boys made tents with sheets and clothespins.

Tuesday was not a good day. School went just fine, but as the day went on, grumps increased. They pestered one another, whined, complained, and generally drove me batty. It was just a rough afternoon and evening. The only good point was when I pulled out The Oregon Trail card game and Go Fish and played with the kids. Then they went right back to being grumps. It can't all be sunshine and roses, right?

Wednesday we set out to have a happier day. A lot of my boys gathered on the floor right after breakfast for a game of Labyrinth. I sat down with them and helped the younger boys when requested. It was a lot of fun and a solid way to start our morning. The school day moved on from there. We baked subs in the oven for lunch. Some of my kids made a new batch of slime together. After a taco dinner there were some kids creating with Model Magic. At 6:45pm we turned on part of the Disney Family Singalong. We may not be talented singers, but we are enthusiastic.

Thursday it rained and clouds abounded. We learned about bats in science by studying their anatomy, diet, different attributes, sizes, and habitats. We tested our hearing and played an echolocation game. We talked about the bats we've seen at our zoo, and watched a video about bats from our curriculum. That led to watching some videos from our zoo and another in our state - both are sharing regular animal videos while everyone is quarantined. We found out today that one of our gorillas had a baby this month and she is adorable.

Friday morning I surprised the kids with a free day - no school. They quickly got busy playing. A group of us played Outfoxed. Two kids worked on origami projects. One was drawing. Two were discussing what their favorite book characters would do if they swapped worlds. As I type, one teen is playing Cruella De Ville on the piano. Three little kids are playing with the slime again. I am going to hit publish on this post and see how much reading I can get done in my book before someone needs me.

April 11th - April 17th

Saturday we spent the morning playing games. In the evening we had a cupcake delivery from Grandma and Grandpa, who dropped them off on the porch, then stepped away and said hello from a distance. We introduced the kids to the Jetsons movie, watching half this evening.

Easter Sunday we worshipped as a family. We sang hymns that remind us of the atonement of Christ, spoke of his death, resurrection, and ministry after resurrection, and one child asked to bear his testimony of Christ. Once church was finished, before everyone scattered, we gathered for a family photo. After dinner we finished watching the Jetsons movie.

Monday we had to pick up some people's usual monthly prescriptions. I wish we could get them all coordinated to the same week, but so far, no luck. Homeschool went well. We are in the last few lessons of math for most kids, so it is fun extra topics that Math U See saves for the end of year. For example, Mason's (Beta level) this week is working on ordinal numbers (first, second, etc) using days of the week and months of the year, while also working with tally marks. Joseph and Emma's Algebra 1 has them working with unit multipliers to do extended conversions (ex: taking a quantity in gallons and converting to cups, which involves going from gallons to quarts to pints to cups). They write it out like you see in Chemistry, which is great so they are familiar with it when we do chemistry.

Tuesday was a smooth and easy day. My favorite kind! Kids worked through school work. I helped as needed. We finished the Feline family portion of our The Good and the Beautiful Mammals study in science today, then saw the Cincinnati Zoo share a live video with their Serval cat - very cool! In the evening we gathered the family to play General Conference Jeopardy together. It was so sweet to hear the things kids remembered from Conference, and hilarious as people debated answers, cheered, or despaired as the game went on.

Wednesday in group lessons we had history. Today we moved into the 1930s and the Great Depression. It was a great topic that also has some relevance to current events. We had discussion about how the economy, stock market, bank system, and more are interconnected. The kids had so many questions and if I didn't know the answer, we looked it up. This is pretty normal for our homeschooling life. The kids have some crazy or amazing question and we go on an adventure to find the answer. The rest of school was pretty normal. Math, language arts, biology, and so on.

Thursday's highlight was finishing The Good and the Beautiful History 2. We learned about the Dust Bowl. The kids were fascinated by the photographs and stories of actual people who lived through it. We also talked about Esperanza Rising, a book we read a while back as part of our Homeschool Book Club. It is set in this time period and follows a migrant family. For our very last bit of history we flipped through the maps and images book for History 2 and reviewed our entire year. Kids shared the things they remembered about each topic. Here are just a few of the things we covered in History 2:

•  Ancient Greece
• Alexander the Great
• Bucephalus
• Ancient China: Dynasties, religion, art, daily life
• Gengis and Kublai Khan
• Ancient India
• Vikings
• Marco Polo
• Christopher Columbus
• Explorers: Cabot, Balboa, Vespucci, Magellan, 
• Pre-Colombian American peoples
• Conquistadors
• Each of the American colonies
• Henry Hudson
• Ben Franklin
• The Constitution 
• Presidents
• Education in Early America
• Noah Webster
• William McGuffey
• Henry Ford
• WWI: Causes, Effects, Weapons, Ad Campaigns,Trenches, Technology
• Roaring 20s
• Great Depression and Dust Bowl

We really loved our second year with The Good and the Beautiful History. It is so fun to go from Creation to the 1900s every year because of the variety. The courses are really good about using stories, reviews, and the timeline to take year 1 items and put them in context of the things we learn as we go through year 2. There are 4 years total. We're moving into History 3 in the fall.

Thursday was also Daddy's birthday. Rebekah and I baked him a cake while he was at work, and everyone sang and celebrated with him in the evening.

Friday was bird central. Different kids were enthralled by the birdfeeder on and off all day. Mason called kids over to see a downy woodpecker. Caleb called kids over to see some blue jays. Rebekah loves the European starlings, and there is a flock visiting our feeder frequently. We saw a cardinal today.

It is Friday afternoon and I'm going to publish this post and go spend a few minutes in a quiet corner reading a book while the kids play. 

April 4th to April 10th

We had a lovely weekend at home watching General Conference. It was uplifting and encouraging. You can read, watch, or listen to the messages and music right here. Everyone had different talks that they enjoyed, stories they wanted to talk about and process, and ideas.

Monday we hopped right back in to the homeschool routine. New math lessons happened. Reading lessons. Language arts lessons. Elementary Science was focused on primates today. Joseph and Emma had a crawfish dissection for biology. In the afternoon we spent a while outside, just like we've done most days since the rain let up. Chalking on the sidewalk that was washed clean by recent rains, playing basketball, using swings, doing yard work, and taking a walk on nearby streets filled up our time.

We started our Easter scripture study today with a simple activity. I printed out and cut apart a coloring page with four prophets from the Book of Mormon and four images about things they prophesied about Christ, then passed out a picture or scripture reference to each child. Someone read a scripture, we figured out which prophet was speaking, and we found the picture that related to their prophesy of Christ.

Tuesday we had gray, rainy, thunder and lightning background to our morning of homeschooling. Everyone moves a little slower through their school when it is gray and rainy. Tobias was extra cute today. He is pretty picky about what books he wants me to read aloud to him. He likes to repeat books, like most 4 year olds. Today I offered him one of my favorite picture books - The Tale of Peter Rabbit - and he was so invested in the adventures of that little rabbit. I can't wait to reread it a bunch this week before I introduce him to another animal tale from Beatrix Potter!

Wednesday started really early when a giant storm blew through our area. Hail, thunder, and lightning woke up several people in the family. There was so much lightning that the thunder just kept rumbling without breaks. Everyone eventually went back to sleep and then started the morning at a more normal hour. We finished up our time in World War I today studying some heroes.

In the evening the little kids were getting rowdy and so I pulled out our sensory bin with new contents. We put 1/2" of water in the bin, wash cloths, scrubbers, and our plastic dinosaurs. They washed dinosaurs and played in the water happily.

Thursday's highlight was making cookies. The kids requested 'monster cookies', which is just their code for tossing in a few different chips/candies. Today was chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and M&Ms, with cinnamon and almond flavoring.

The kids agreed today's school highlight was history. We explored the Roaring 20s. Besides the lesson materials from The Good and the Beautiful History 2, we watched some YouTube videos on the 20s and jazz music.

Friday is here and most of us joined in a worldwide fast. We got school work is finished for the week. and we are getting ready to go start a fire in the back yard for dinner next.

March 25th - April 3rd Notes

Wednesday morning the kids were thrilled for the day's themed activity - video games. Everyone got a 30 minute turn playing a game. Here's what was played:

• Minecraft (on Kindle)
• Pizza Boy (on Kindle)
• Battle Cats (on Kindle)
• The Legend of Zelda (on Nintendo, the one older than my children are)
• Angry Bird Star Wars (on XBox 360)
• Lego Movie (on XBox 360)
• Super Mario 3 (on Nintendo)
• Excite Bike (on Nintendo)
• Pac Man (on Nintendo) 

After game time was up kids scattered to do a variety of activities. A few completed paint by sticker pages. Several played with the Little People we brought out of the attic on Monday. Two played with Kinetic Sand. One went upstairs to work on art. The day kept moving along smoothly. We spent the afternoon outside enjoying the sunshine in our still a bit muddy yard. Dinner was spaghetti and meatballs.

We spent some extra time reading today to finally finish Framed! by James Conti. It was a solid family read aloud, entertaining, and the kids begged me to get the next two books in the series. So I did. (Three of the big kids already read the series, using library books for book 2 and 3. Libraries are closed for who knows how long, and ours didn't have ebook copies available. My big kids enjoyed the series enough they are willing listeners as I read it aloud. That means I know the series is a winner.)

Thursday the kids asked about their Lego Masters Challenge, today's theme. The first challenge was to build a boat out of Legos. They were told we would test the boat's ability to float and to carry passengers. It took them an hour to create their boats. They had so much fun testing them out - and my dining room had so much water not in the tub by the end of it all.

In the afternoon we watched the newest episode of Lego Masters online. Then the kids spread out to play and craft, so we decided to save the second challenge, bridge building, for another day. We also read two chapters in Vanished! by James Conti. We were sucked right in to the action. The kids love that I am learning what happens right along side them.

By evening the kids had pulled their Kiwi and Tinker crates back out to work on more activities.

Friday some of the kids did end up building Lego bridges. The actual themed activity of the day was Model Magic, so we have another pan of creations air drying. Beyond that we grabbed some short sleeve shirts and shorts out of the attic bins, to help with our more spring-like weather days. Of course, now each child's 1-2 drawers for clothing are overstuffed. We will deal with that soon. We got to help Makayla with an assignment for her Music and Civilization class that included a fun karaoke session.

Saturday I made a quick trip to the store to replenish what supplies I could find. Stores were better stocked than they have been the last two weeks. In the afternoon we did our themed activity - watching a movie. We bought the new movie Onward by Pixar. Joseph and Emma went to the theater to see this one several weeks ago, but it was new for everyone else.

Sunday our family participated in a worldwide fast, shared our testimonies in our home sacrament meeting, baked cookies late in the day to break our fast, and went through clothing in kid drawers to remove half the cold weather clothes and add in some warm weather clothes now that spring is here. In the evening we watched half of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Monday was the beginning of the end of our school year. We have 7 weeks left, with different subjects finishing along the way. For example, history will be the first subject we finish, in about 3.5 weeks, while math will be the last subject we finish, in 7 weeks. Today we learned about elephants in science. They are fascinating creatures!

Tuesday kids got their school work done quickly. It felt like old times when Makayla asked for help explaining a math concept for one of her college classes. By snack time the elementary kids were ready for science. Today we finished reading Mammals of Small Pond. It is one of the extra books that go with our Mammals unit from The Good and the Beautiful. Next we will start Track It. Over lunch we read another chapter in Vanished.

Wednesday kicked off gray and dreary. School work was streamlined, with kids needing help at different times. I love when it works out like that! We learned about trench warfare and the changes in weapons capabilities in World War I today. The middle boys (Caleb, Oliver) helped me bake a double batch of banana bread for lunch.

One interesting happening over the last two weeks - Rebekah, who turned 2 in February, has started to potty train herself. As in, she literally walked up to me one day and told me she wanted to use the potty and has done so with semi-regular success ever since. I wait until a child is close to age 3 to pursue potty training, and she is not dry overnight yet, so I know her body isn't completely ready. She is still in diapers during the day, we just take it off when she asks to use the bathroom, and put it back on when she is finished if it is still dry (about 50% of the time it is still dry). After potty training 9 children, I'm thrilled that #10 seems to plan to potty train herself. I'm going to let her.

Thursday was the opposite of Wednesday in the homeschool arena. It felt like every child needed my help at the exact same time all morning. We made it through it, but my brain was ready to pop. I took a mommy time out to sit quietly for a few minutes before we did history. Today's history was really interesting. We looked at American posters from WWI and read about how they related to life in America during the war. The kids were able to understand things like rationing better due to the current shelter in place orders from COVID-19, and how that has affected food and other supply availability.

It's Friday afternoon now. Another week of school is finished. We have 6 weeks left. Some kids are already making rumbling comments about doubling up lessons to finish even earlier. We shall see what they each decide to do.

This weekend is one of our absolute favorites of the year. It is General Conference time! I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Our church leaders share talks, music, and encouragement every 6 months in a live broadcast of sessions free online. There are five sessions, each with a different roster of speakers. At our house we count down to this, and have family traditions surrounding it. For example, we live in the Eastern time zone, so the morning and afternoon sessions on both Saturday and Sunday happen during meal time. We picnic in the living room where our tv is. (In general, we do not eat in the living room, except at birthday parties when we cannot seat everyone at our table.) Kids are encouraged to bring paper and something to write or draw with to take notes or keep their hands busy as we listen to the speakers. They listen for familiar scriptures we've read and interesting stories. They know that within a week or two we will have family Jeopardy night, with every question relating to General Conference. We have foods we make every year - cinnamon rolls for Saturday is the favorite. Then, over the next six months, we will re-read/watch/listen to these inspired talks and discuss them, apply them to our lives, and learn and grow together.

If you want to join us and watch General Conference there are several ways to do that, right from the comfort of your home. All are free. The broadcasts will air on the church website, on YouTube, and on BYUtv's website. Sessions are at 12pm Eastern, 4pm Eastern, and 8pm Eastern on Saturday and at 12pm Eastern and 4pm Eastern on Sunday. If you would like to learn more about what we believe, you can do so here.