The Three Weeks crossing September into October

Saturday we headed to COSI, the big science center in the city, for some fun. We checked out the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles exhibit, pet real turtles, explored the Ocean and Life exhibits, and found the WOSU broadcast studio tucked away at the end of a hall. The kids had fun filming themselves, using green screen, and more. 

Sunday started off with church. Tobias was wild and crazy leading up to the service, but settled down as the opening hymn was sung. After church was a quiet afternoon at home as a family. After dinner we headed to the cousins' house for a double birthday party and some jumping on the trampoline.

Monday around school I played chauffer for my mom and step-dad for eye surgeries. We will do that again next Monday too, for their second eye each. Daddy was home and working on his own school work, as well as doing a repair project in the bathroom upstairs, then visiting a surgeon of his own. He's got some testing coming up and then it looks like he may be having more surgeries. We don't know how long he will need to be off work, and to be honest, after 5 months off at the beginning of the year, we are hoping for short recovery times. We shall see!

Tuesday around school Mason and I headed to physical therapy to evaluate the new braces that were made. Unfortunately, they don't work well. Mason has some bone, tendon, and muscle issues in his legs and we are pretty sure that until the next round of surgeries is done bracing isn't going to work. We've decided to get back to physical therapy and focus on core and upper body work, no walking, until his x-rays and surgery plan appointment in 5 weeks. We will wait to try more adjustments on the braces until after surgeries/recovery, unless the surgeon's schedule is packed and we have to wait into 2020 for surgery.

We had a very laid back afternoon. Kids were busy building with legos, reading books, and playing games. I read, cooked, and read some more. It was a rare day with few kid arguments.

Wednesday we dove into all things Vikings. The kids had varying levels of familiarity with the topic, so it was fun to hear older ones sharing things they knew with younger ones, and everyone learning new things together. Caleb was fascinated with the idea of building boats, and his lego creations reflect that.

My middle boys have been very into coloring in the evening while listening to their audiobook. Sometimes they like to draw, but more often they want coloring pages. Today I took some time to print out a stack of new coloring pages for them.

Older kids also had the usual Wednesday night activities at church.

Thursday we had nothing on the calendar. These are my favorite days. No hurrying to get school work done before appointments, piano lessons, errands, or field trips. Just letting the morning work unfold at it's own pace for each child.

Friday we ended up with one sick teen. Stomach illness is never a good thing in a large family. Will they share it? How long will it last passing from person to person? Will we drown in laundry along the way?

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It is now a week since I last took any notes. Life has simply been the happy and full life of a large family. We did not end up having the plague sweep through the house, which I was very thankful for. There was the usual steady pace of homeschooling, physical therapy, chores, church, youth activities, library trips, grocery shopping, piano lessons, doctors appointments, and medical care. This past weekend was General Conference, 10 hours of encouraging talks from leaders of our church broken up over several sessions. We are able to stream these live from home and our kids love it. Yummy food, drawing, coloring, note taking, music, and time together makes for a refreshing weekend. The kids also did a couple art projects, including watercolor trees or pumpkins, as well as painting actual pumpkins we were given.

This week was supposed to be the first week long school break of the 2019-2020 school year. Before the school year began I tentatively marked out our break weeks, with flexibility to adjust when we want to. As everyone is still working willingly, and we have several appointments and interruptions to our week next week, as well as two birthdays, we decided to move our break week to next week.

Monday this week we made a nature study trip after school was finished. We observed chipmunks, a variety of birds, a beehive, turtles, a variety of nature materials in a nature center, and then a rainy drive through the arboretum to see the beginnings of fall changes to our area. We visit this arboretum several times each season, sometimes hiking the trails, sometimes driving the auto trails. It makes for a wonderful way to watch the changes of each season unfold.

Tuesday there was nature journaling about yesterday's trip for the 6th grade and under kids. The nature journals varied, with drawings and writing, but several of the kids wrote about the turtles we saw and the things they learned about them. Math this week is pretty much the two ends of the spectrum - easy or hard - according to the kids. There was also language arts, geography, reading, and so on. Emma and Oliver mixed up a batch of banana chocolate chip muffins and put them in bread pans instead of muffin pans. It was a delicious lunch

Wednesday the kids woke up, ate breakfast, and settled into the school work routine. I asked some children to do a less favorite subject earlier in the day instead of putting it off to last, just to see if the subject went better while they were fresh. It went better for some of them, and one it went about the same.

History today was studying Marco Polo and putting him in our mental timeline in relation to other people we are familiar with.

There was also a lot of cupcake baking going on. Emma made 2 dozen blue cupcakes yesterday evening for a cupcake decorating class today. She made 4 dozen purple cupcakes today and iced them for everyone at home to enjoy.

Thursday if you asked my elementary science group what their favorite subject was, they would all say science. Today we took a few of our sunflowers and pulled them apart to harvest the seeds. It was fun and messy. The kids decided to put the sunflower seeds outside in the backyard where we often see birds and squirrels. Now they wander back to the windows to check for visiting animals.

Friday everyone woke excited to get school work done because after weeks of cancelling due to various families' illnesses, we were having Homeschool Book Club. In history we started talking about reasons for explorers to travel. We learned about a few different explorers and their discoveries, challenges, and how they influenced the explorers who came after them.

Our friends arrived midmorning to much rejoicing. Conversations, games, discussion of Archimedes and the Door of Science, and snacks filled our time together.

It is now Friday afternoon. Kids are playing games on their Kindles or watching an episode of Doctor Who. I am getting ready for an afternoon of phone calls and we are officially on our fall break. Yay!

Food Chains and Microscope Views

I shared our Monday notes in my last post, so let's pick up with Tuesday. The day started out a bit different because after dropping Joseph off for seminary at 5:55am I headed to the hospital for lab work. Eight vials of blood later I headed home and we got our morning started with breakfast, chores, getting dressed, and then school work.

Caleb reached the point in his Handwriting Without Tears book where cursive is introduced. He is so excited. We pulled out the chalkboard and got to work. He liked the flow of one letter into another.

Various kids completed reading, language arts, math, and so on. Daniel wrote a poem today while Joseph and Emma wrote about a book they recently finished reading. Elementary group science today was on food chains and webs. The boys lined up and started choosing a role in the chain. In one chain we had the sun, grass, a grasshopper, a snake, and a hawk. Then we started creating several chains that all linked together, such as orange tree-caterpillar-bird, orange tree-caterpillar-frog-bird, orange tree-squirrel-cat, orange tree-deer-bear. The boys had a blast being different predators and prey, deciding what kind of consumers each animal was, etc.

I baked chocolate chip pumpkin muffins and blueberry muffins. Over an early lunch we listened to more of Little Men, followed by our usual afternoon medical care. At 1:00pm we sat down to watch the live stream of a devotional with President Russel M. Nelson, then it was on to piano lessons and enjoying the rest of our day.

Wednesday I had one very grumpy child for the entire school day. It made for a rough morning but I practiced being impervious: "Unable to be affected by something". We made it through. I wonder if they are getting sick, because they went to their room and napped, something they haven't done in years.

Wednesday afternoon I got most of my bloodwork results from my endocrinologist. My thyroid numbers are good so no change to my medication dose. I am anemic (low iron), which I suspected, and my vitamin D levels are low, among other things. That means I've got some new supplements to take and have to split things up over 3 different times of day so they don't affect the absorption of each other. For the anemia I'm starting by taking vitamin C and dessicated liver pills. I don't like the side effects of iron pills, so we'll try this for a couple months to see if it helps enough. I've done this in the past and it has worked well. Liver pills are pretty smelly and taste about like you would expect liver to taste - yuck! For the vitamin D I'm supplementing and trying to increase my time outside in the sun. I will repeat bloodwork in a few months to see what is improving and what needs a new approach.

In the evening five kids headed off to the church for youth and scout activities. I loaded up the younger four to pick them up when it was over and we did a little stargazing when we got home, then bedtime.

Thursday the older two had some microscopic specimens to look at under the microscope. They are doing Apologia's Biology course together this year and the current module is about microscopic life forms.

I tried to get a few pictures of what they could see using my phone.

It was a lot harder than I thought it would be!

Some kids started research on places to visit on the Isle of the Skye in Scotland. My elementary science kids drew food chains. There were books read. Snacks eaten. Math work completed. It was a solid, normal day. In the evening Joseph, Emma, and Daniel headed to the temple with grandparents.

Friday we had to postpone book club for a week because of illness in one of the families. We had a typical school morning, then settled in to listen to Little Men over lunch, as usual. We are enjoying the book.

In mom learning this week I started reading The Smartest Kids in the World - and how they got that way by Amanda Ripley. It's been on my to read list for a while and I finally got a copy through the library. It is interesting so far - a reporter follows U.S. exchange students as they spend a year in top ranking countries, interviews researchers in education and testing internationally, and uses narrative to explore the state of education around the world. 

I am also almost halfway through The Book of Mormon, and two-thirds of the way through the New Testament in the Bible.

I'm reading some 'just for fun' books as well.

I've learned that I like to have reading going in several categories. Then I can pick up the book that fits my mood at the moment. I also try to make sure at least one is an ebook, so it is on my phone and easy to work on waiting in line, in doctor's offices, etc.

Two Weeks of September

Cedar Point, middle of the day of fun.

Saturday was a fun and exhausting day. Daniel had asked last Christmas for tickets to Cedar Point, an amusement park. He's never really ridden on roller coasters, other than a small one at the zoo, so I wasn't sure how this would go. It ended up being a blast! One on one time for him and I, tons of fun, and the longest line we stood in was about 1 hour and 15 minutes. 

Sunday was a peaceful day with church, video chatting with Makayla, and family time. 

Rebekah loves to put on an apron and help me 

in the kitchen.

Monday was Labor Day and we decided this was going to be just a regular school week for us. One of the perks of homeschooling is deciding when we want our time off to be. Nobody felt the need for a day off, so school work was done in the morning. In the afternoon I did grocery shopping that hadn't been done Saturday, prepared a package to mail to Makayla, and worked on a brainstorm list of materials to go in our playdough bin.

Tuesday I snuck over to the post office to mail a package to Makayla. Then it was back home to oversee homeschool work along with Daddy. He got an extra day off this week and we were thrilled. Mid-morning as I was gathering the elementary boys for science we made a fun discovery. Outside our front window we have a bunch of sunflowers the kids grew. Today several Monarch butterflies were visiting the sunflowers, as well as a hummingbird. It was so neat to watch!

We did finish the last of the 5 senses in science today. It was the sense of hearing, which of course calls for a good game of telephone. The kids were thrilled to have piano lessons after an impromptu August break.

Pirate Treasure playdough

Wednesday was a slow and steady day. Everyone worked on their assignments in a pretty steady way. One child has been especially chatty/distracting this week, so we will probably be working on a solution for that next week. In the past he has worn noise cancelling headphones like you wear at a gun range, so that is the first thing we'll try.

Mason Funny Moment: Out of the blue while labeling a map of North America he asked, "Mom, I wonder what a king would do with an executed person's head? And why would people want to watch a person be executed? That would be really bloody!"

Brothers playing together.

After checking in with my elementary age boys, I've decided the next while our science group will focus on natural science (nature study). They were asking for things that pretty much all fit in this umbrella - ants, bees, when will the leaves change colors, why do they change colors, wanting to know more about bats and echolocation, asking questions about the plants they see. I've got an archive of Outdoor Hour Challenge materials from 2010-2017. I went through the files and printed a few challenge grids for September. These are a fun way to give us some activities when outside doing nature study. One, for example, focuses on insects, and has these boxes:

• Turn over a log or rock and look for insects.
• Observe an insect with a magnifying lens and count its legs.
• Visit a pond or creek and look for insects.
• Watch a bee and then eat some honey.
• Find three insects of different colors.
• Observe an ant. Is it carrying something?
• Draw an insect in your nature journal and label its parts. 
• Observe an insect and note its means of camouflage.

Thursday was our next science day, so I grabbed all my kids and outside we went. While our goal was to observe insects or the evidence that insects had been somewhere (ex: holes in a leaf, a spider web), we saw so much more than that. Joseph and Emma joined us outside and did some nature drawing for art. The younger kids' favorite thing was uncovering worms and holding them. Rebekah loved running around and swinging and really did not like the worms. Our insect list for this day:

• bumblebees - watched one gathering nectar from flowers and observed the pollen all over it's hind legs as it flew from flower to flower.
• praying mantis - it was resting on one of our windows. 
• worms - squirming and digging in the dirt.
• ants - climbing on our trees, the fence, and the ground. 
• spiders - sitting still on their webs.

The rest of school was straightforward as always. I'll be honest, our homeschool is a mix of organized curriculum and free form learning. We accomplish our organized learning before lunch. There are math lessons, history lessons, language arts, reading, handwriting, and so on. It doesn't take the entire day, and for the younger elementary kids it doesn't take much more than 60-90 minutes. The rest of the day children are free to engage in their interests. Piano practice, art creation, watching a favorite show, reading books, writing fan fiction, playing with toys, building with different materials, crafting, cooking, baking, making tents and forts, using science materials, researching the answer to questions, and so on. This is educational freedom. My goal is to give them a solid foundation in the basics and then let them explore whatever captures their interest. 

The first round of playdough kits we made.

Friday Joseph didn't have early morning Seminary (scripture study class with other high school teens he goes to from 6am-6:50am Monday through Friday) because his teacher was sick. My body, however, is used to waking up early to take him to class, so I was up shortly after 5am. I decided it was the perfect time to put together some playdough/kinetic sand activity kits I had been gathering items for. Basically, the items in each kit can be used while playing with playdough or kinetic sand. I've seen kits similar to these selling for $30 online. (Look at Doughsiedough on Instagram for great examples of how kids use these kind of kits). I spent $18 on some materials at the dollar store and craft store a few days ago in preparation for making kits. Daniel and Mason woke up early and helped me with the kit making. In this first round of work we made the following kits:

• Robot parts 1 and 2
• Rainbow
• Army Men 1 and 2
• Spooky Fun
• Pirate Treasure
• Bugs
• Farm
• Dinosaurs
• Fall Harvest
• Arctic Days

Playdough robots

The kids have loved them. Every single day, several times a day, they get out playdough and dive into their imaginary worlds.

School was school. Today was a history day. Joseph studied Marie Curie. The rest of the kids do The Good and the Beautiful History 2 with me. Today we learned about some of the dynasties of ancient China and added them to our timeline. We explored calligraphy, the terra cotta army of Emperor Qin, the Great Wall of China, and the Chinese calendar system that was lunar with a solar component to reset it each year.

Saturday I had a lot of errands to do. We also moved Rebekah into the girl bedroom with Emma, now that Makayla is at college. It is so nice to have no crib in our bedroom anymore.

Setting up an army battle with playdough.

Sunday was a quiet day. We took advantage of some cooler weather to go walking at a Japanese garden. The kids enjoyed exploring the pond. They found snails and fish enjoying their watery habitat. In the evening I made a couple double batches of playdough in colors we didn't have. I made green, red, and black and added glitter and essential oils to each one for scented dough.

The rainbow playdough kit.

Monday is a day for beginnings. We began another school week in a very uneventful way - math lessons. The kids worked steadily through each subject. Daddy helped teach a few lessons. Writing assignments today were making a notebook entry into nature journals (we do these on loose-leaf paper instead of in bound journals). In the afternoon Mason and I loaded up to go for a brace fitting. Four hours and 15 minutes later we arrived home. It was a long appointment, lots of adjustments to brand new braces, and I am sure there will be more adjustments ahead. We will try using these braces in physical therapy for a bit and see what needs changed.

Tobias enjoying the arctic playdough kit.

We also put together a few more playdough kits - Space, Wild West, and Under the Sea.

Tuesday is our piano lesson day. We do all our school in the morning, working steadily. Rebekah and Tobias play nearby, or sit at the table with an activity to do. Today they used a magnetic dress up doll from Melissa and Doug, looked at books, and used crayons at the table. Mid-morning Emma baked magic cookie bars so they could cool for a treat later in the day. Here is the 'recipe' that we change up every single time we make these:

• 1 bag chocolate chips
• 1 bag other flavor chips (butterscotch, mint, peanut butter, etc)
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 4 cups crumbs for crust (graham cracker, cookie, pretzel, etc)
• 1 stick melted butter
• 1/4 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F. Mix butter, crumbs, and sugar in a bowl. Spread 3/4 of this mix into the bottom of a 13x9 pan for crust. Spread bags of chips over crust. Sprinkle remaining crust mix over chips. Pour sweetened condensed milk over top of it all. Bake for 25 minutes then cool completely. 

Sometimes we change the chip flavors, or the crumbs for the crust, or add coconut or mini marshmallows. Today Emma used chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, graham cracker crumbs, and pretzel crumbs. 

The opossum relaxing in our trash can.

Wednesday we explored life in Ancient China for history, saw a live opossum in our trash can for some nature study, and enjoyed individual studies as well. Joseph, Emma, and Daniel participated in a talent show at our church youth group. Joseph shared art work, Emma sang Tightrope from The Greatest Showman, and Daniel did some magic tricks. They all came home enthusiastic about a fun evening with their friends.

Thursday's science study for the elementary group was them teaching me all they know about the moon. We will be making a Harvest Moon night walk tomorrow for the full moon, so I was interested to see what all they knew or could teach each other about the moon. Their information was fascinating!

Caleb added frog eyes to this hulk costume to be

a super strong frog that can jump

really high.

We pulled out the dress up bin from the attic and the kids enjoyed that.

Army man Mason.

I also did a quick grocery pick up order today in an effort to free up some of our weekend time to work on some around the house projects.

The Harvest Moon rising.

Friday we studied three religions of Ancient China as part of history. We learned about how each began, core beliefs, and important figures in each. There was a lot of reading and talking about books today. Everyone was also counting down to our night walk with the harvest moon. After bedtime, once the moon had risen enough, we grabbed all the kids out of their beds and headed outside. It was fun, but very buggy.

Saturday was ruled by an alarm that went off every 70 minutes and reminded us to switch the washer and dryer loads. Eight loads later all the bedding for 11 beds was washed, dried, and put back on beds. Phew! That didn't include our regular daily load of laundry.

I did make a quick drive through run to our library to return and pick up books. I love that our library has a drive through lane!

Yarn Doll

Sunday our morning began with church. Once home Caleb decided it was the perfect day to make yarn dolls. Most of the middle and younger boys made yarn dolls. They thought Rebekah should have one too, so we made one for her while she napped.

Rebekah loves her yarn doll!

She loves it!

Right now it is Monday afternoon. We've done school work. The elementary science group started learning about ecosystems, producers, consumers, and decomposers today. We'll study food chains, webs, and take a nature walk this week.

We will meet at the end of this week for Homeschool Book Club. This past month we've read Archimedes and the Door of Science. Because we've finished the book, we decided to start listening to our next book club title today over lunch - Little Men by Louisa May Alcott. This is one of my favorite books. We read this in Book Club in 2011 when I only had 6 children instead of 10: Makayla, Joseph, Emma, Daniel, Oliver, and Caleb. They were ages 10, 7, 6, 4, 2, and 1. Makayla is off to college and none of the other kids remember this book. We decided it was time to revisit this classic.

Fun Fact: Our first homeschool book club meeting was held on March 3, 2010. I have records of most of the books we've read in book club since that first meeting.

 I had an appointment with a new endocrinologist (I have hypothyroidism) and have a host of bloodwork and tests to do this week to evaluate some things. My husband Jason has enjoyed his 7 week summer break and started a new college class today online - Hot Spot: Pakistan. It's one of 3 classes he needs to finish his general associate's degree.

September is slipping by quickly and I am just trying to soak up and enjoy every moment with my family. I love being a mom!

Pizza, Sunflowers, and everything in between

Rebekah helped herself to some cake this week.

She is quite the climber.

Another week has slipped by at our house. Sunday was peaceful. We enjoyed church as a family and spent the day together after that. I love our peaceful Sabbath evenings together.

Monday was full of homeschool lessons. We read great books. Art created. Group science was on the sense of smell, with lots of spices and essential oils to smell and identify. Math lessons went smoothly. It was just a normal, full morning. Then we played Ticket to Ride at the request of the 14 year old boy.

By late afternoon we were going through bins of clothing in the attic, seeing what fall/winter clothing we have for each child and what things we need. I made a list with sizes, details of what they have and need, and finished the process with 7 of the kids.

Joseph has been using chalk pastels regularly this week.

Tuesday school random notes:

• Reading about lighthouses, Greek scientist Archimedes, levers, a circus, the sense of smell, microscopes, an elf in the mountains, microbiology. Reading poetry and discussing it. 
• Microscope exploration for the biology students, learning parts and how to use the different objective lenses and focus. 
• Math topics included adding and subtracting fractions, multiplication and negative numbers, skip counts, adding to make 10, simplifying and solving algebraic equations.
• Language Arts included sentence diagramming, commas in a series, changing silent e words to -ing words and back, rhyme scheme and stanzas in poetry, homonyms, spelling, sentence dictation, challenging words (vocab), etc.
• Handwriting. Lots of handwriting.

In the afternoon we got through the last two kids clothing bins. Rebekah napped. We made homemade pizzas for dinner.

One of the kids used a free coupon to rent Secret Life of Pets 2 and we watched it as a family after dinner. 

Wednesday we started school but then Makayla called for a video chat. When choosing between school work and relationships it was obvious - leave the school work on the table and chat from the couch. Again, this is a perk of homeschooling! We can put our priorities in the order we feel is best. Family comes before academics! Everyone spent time talking with big sister. I will never forget how excited Rebekah and Tobias were to see and hear Makayla. The rest of the kids are old enough to understand that Makayla will come back for visits. These two little ones are 1 and 3 and simply don't understand. They were so happy, they had been missing big sister.

The rest of the morning was spent doing school. Today's The Good and the Beautiful history lesson was about several famous Greeks. We read about them, placed them on our timeline, compared when they lived with other peoples and events we are familiar with, and talked about their contributions to the world. We only have one more lesson set in Ancient Greece before moving to Ancient China. If I get terribly energetic we may do an Ancient Greece themed art project.

I thought it would be fun to share a peek at the Good and the Beautiful Language Arts. One thing that I love about TGTB is that their language arts courses rotate your student through so many subjects. It is not just reading and writing. They integrate things so well. For example the geography/map work is related to the stories you are reading or the people who wrote the poetry/created the art/wrote the stories you are studying. Here are notes about what was covered today in the various levels my kids are in:

• Spelling practice.
• Sentence dictation.
• Grammar definition card review.
• Geography cards reviewed.
• States/Capitals Ladder reviews.
• Poetry memorization practice.
• Reading aloud (elocution) in a variety of forms: poetry, story, vocabulary and definitions, factual information relating to geography, an artist's experience as a POW in WWI, and an author.
• Personal reading of stories set in several time periods and places, depending on the level.
• Reading challenging words. 
• Grammar/punctuation practice with focus on apostrophes, commas, dependent clauses, independent clauses.
• Beginning to write a 'How To' Essay.
• Learning about protagonists, writing about the protagonist in a story, creating a list of possible protagonists and their descriptions for a future writing project.
• Mapping European countries (related to an artist whose work would be studied).
• Observing a painting and then oral discussion of the painting.

In biology Joseph and Emma are finishing up the first module. We were reviewing some of the concepts in the chapter by doing the study guide questions. It is fascinating to see the difference between these two students. They approach, absorb, and interact with the information differently. 

The kids planted sunflowers this year. 

They are growing and blooming so the

kids brought a few in this week to enjoy.

Thursday's school was peacefully uneventful. We followed our routines and the day went easily. In the late afternoon I loaded everyone up to take Joseph and Emma to the orthodontist for regular adjustments. I sit in the van with my car full of kids and we listen to an audio book while we wait. Joseph only has 2 appointments left before he gets his braces off, which he was excited about.

Friday is here and the afternoon is in progress. Kids are pursuing their own interests. Rebekah is napping. It is the end of the school week and it is wonderful! 

Off to College, Homeschooling, and the Jar of Joy

Flowers at a rest stop in Virginia

I'll say right up front that I nearly took this week off of school. I knew we would be off Wednesday and Thursday dropping Makayla off at college 7 hours away. I knew the beginning of the week had all the last minute packing and preparations to do. I decided that the rest of the kids needed the comfort of routines, so school happened Monday, Tuesday, and Friday.

Sibling tears over Makayla leaving began Monday night. It was hard. These children have spent more waking hours together than the average family because of homeschooling. This is an enormous blessing! They have strong bonds, know each other deeply, and have many memories together. The children at home have been praying for Makayla by name ever since she left, in every prayer.

The trip to Virginia was uneventful. Moving our daughter into her dorm, one last trip to WalMart to grab a few items, meeting her roommate, and then goodbye. We all cried. It was hard, but I know she is ready to thrive as a young adult.

One thing we did in secret in the weeks before Makayla left for college was gather notes from people who know and love her. We made her a "Jar of Joy". The idea was simple, there were five categories for notes, each printed on a different color paper. There are enough notes in the jar for Makayla to read one every day for the entire first year of college. The categories are:

1. Memories - These all are memories of Makayla from across the years.
2. Encouragement - These are favorite quotes, scriptures, and personal notes for Makayla. 
3. Fun Facts - The topics range all over the place.
4. Humor - Jokes or funny stories landed here.
5. Just Because - This category was the catch all for anything that didn't fit the other categories, and some things that would have fit other categories but were placed here by the person who wrote them 'just because'. 

Thursday my husband and I drove home to Ohio. It is so rare for us to be able to spend 7 hours together without kids. It was a wonderful time. We talked, laughed, and dreamed together. We discussed each of our children in turn. We made plans for the future and reminisced about the past. We found Grandma holding down the fort with the nine children, then we got right back into the swing of daily life in a large family. 

Friday morning my husband was back to work and the kids and I were back to homeschool. We got subjects done early and headed out the door for Homeschool Book Club. This time we talked about The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Catling. It was a really fun book that is a spin on the tale of King Midas and the touch of gold. All the kids liked it. Our next book club title is Archimedes and the Door of Science, which fits in with our history study of Ancient Greece.

Saturday has started and we went to the post office, the library, returned the van we borrowed for the summer so we would have 3 vehicles, cleaned the church, and then grocery shopping. I'm going to go over next week's homeschool lessons and then it will be time to cook dinner.

Happy End of the Week!

The 2019-2020 Homeschool Year is in Session!

8am - The 1 year old eating breakfast, lots of kids

working on school. Another is behind the table

laying on the floor doing math, one is on 

the couch in the living room working.

Monday
The first day of our new school year went well. I reminded the kids that it would be a bit unorganized this week as we all get used to our new materials and figure out what to do for each subject. My husband is home on Mondays, so I really was able to focus on helping kids do school while he kept Tobias (age 3) and Rebekah (age 1) happily playing.

Daniel reading to me from The Good and the 

Beautiful Language Arts

This year I set a block schedule for each day. There are no specific times - instead the kids have certain subjects assigned to each day. Then there are things kids don't have assigned, because they simply do them every day, like reading great books, handicrafts, personal scripture study, and piano practice. Today's blocks were as follows:

1. Joseph - Math, Language Arts, Art. Our language arts curriculum encompasses many different subjects including: grammar, writing, literature/reading, poetry memorization, spelling, geography, art appreciation, art expression. I just list it as language arts for simplicity.
2. Emma -  Math, Language Arts, Art. 
3. Daniel - Math, Language Arts, Science. This science is a group of Daniel, Oliver, Caleb, Mason, Samuel. Today we studied sight and did a lot of fun experiments/activities. 
4. Oliver - Math, Language Arts, Science.
5. Caleb - Math, Reading, Handwriting, Science. Caleb is not finished with All About Reading, being partway through level 3 of 4, so he does not yet use The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts. Perk of homeschooling - we go at his pace!
6. Mason - Math, Language Arts, Handwriting, Science. Mason has finished all levels of All About Reading so he is doing TGTB LA. Again, perk of homeschooling - we go at his pace!
7. Samuel - Math, Reading, Handwriting, Science. 

Monday is the most challenging day for me as teacher, because I have six new math lessons to teach. The rest of the week kids are doing practice pages, but Monday takes a lot more direct instruction. 

A Peek at Monday Topics

Joseph and Emma reviewed the commutative and associative property today. The chalk pastel work from language arts made Emma batty - because chalk pastels are square, not round like a colored pencil. In Artistic Pursuits the three of us started the unit on space - the area filled or left empty in a piece of art, studied an Indian miniature painting of an elephant chasing his handler, then reproduced a rough sketch of it on 9x12 paper and then on a half sheet, paying attention to the proportion of elephant (4/5ths of the page) to man (1/5th of the page). 

Daniel reviewed negative numbers with addition/subtraction/multiplication/division/exponents. In language arts he happily remembered the grammar concepts and started reading a biography of Evaleen Stein. He loved science. His favorite part was exploring the affect of covering one eye and trying to throw or catch small objects - it really messed with his depth perception. 

Oliver doing The Good and the Beautiful

Language Arts 3

Oliver is focusing on all things fractions this year in Math U See Epsilon. Today he found fractions of a group. For example: "What is 3/5 of 20?" We kept it very hands on with manipulatives. In science he liked looking at everyone's irises and seeing how different the colors are, even within our family. Language arts was all new to him and me - nobody in my home has used TGTB LA level 3. We read through lesson 1 together and practiced using commas in a series, among other things.

Caleb did reading with Daddy, reading aloud the word sheet that prepares him for his next story. This year he will begin transitioning to learning cursive with Handwriting Without Tears, so today was reviewing writing the print alphabet. Math was easy, according to Caleb. He is starting multiplication. Today was hands on, with rectangular arrays of blocks. He liked science best today.

Mason working on Math U See

Mason is still in the throes of all things addition and subtraction this year. He is finishing the last few lessons from Math U See Alpha and moving into MUS Beta. He started TGTB LA 3 today too. I am waiting to see how he does with this. His reading ability is easily on this level, but the amount of writing may prove challenging with the fine motor challenges he has. His favorite science activity today was when we tested peripheral vision to see who can see best to their sides while still looking forward.

Samuel is not sure he wants to be in 1st grade this year because it means learning time infringes on all this play time. I just make sure he has breaks between each subject and offer praise when he is working on his learning activities. He is reading pretty well, semi-fluent in his current level of All About Reading, level 2. His pencil grip is the craziest I have seen in my kids yet, so we are trying a few things to remind him how to hold his pencil when doing handwriting. He liked science well enough, anything that feels more like play than sit down learning is going to be a hit with him. Math was his least favorite because he wasn't thrilled with writing numbers - again, coming back to pencil grip issues.

Rebekah enjoying a puzzle

Tuesday
Day 2 of the homeschool year was day 1 without daddy home and everything went smoothly. Rebekah and Tobias mostly gravitated to whatever room I was in, pulling along toys or climbing up to the table with a bin of activities like slime, thinking putty, magnetic dolls from Melissa and Doug, puzzles, wooden lacing animals, and counting bears.

Caleb doing Handwriting Without Tears

It was day 1 of biology for Joseph and Emma, so I got them oriented in the student notebook and they jumped right in to the textbook. The younger boys science group focused on fooling our eyes today. We experimented with optical illusions.

Our nature study right now is watching the spider who has taken up residence outside our window, building a web and trapping bugs for its dinner.

Emma decided a treat was in order and made a double batch of no bake cookies, about 70 cookies.

Wednesday
No meltdowns yet is cause for celebration. Samuel did tell me he didn't want to be a big kid and do school work any more when it was time for handwriting. Ha!

Joseph working on The Good and the Beautiful

Language Arts

We started our day with our very first lesson from The Good and the Beautiful History 2. I passed out books about Ancient Greece and Greek mythology to the kids and challenged them to flip through and just look at pictures, to get a mental image of ancient Greece started. They each chose a favorite picture from their book, or one they had a question about, to share. Then we started reading the lesson, which begins with a discussion of our belief in one God (monotheism) and the Greek belief in many gods (polytheism). Most of my kids are familiar with Greek mythology so we compared the characteristics of the true God to the characteristics of the Greek gods and goddesses. We looked at maps of Greece - political, topographical, historical - and discussed how the land and water could impact the people groups in ancient times. We learned about the Minoans and Mycenaeans and started individual timelines with entries related to each. We also read some Greek myths.

I am tweaking the amount of writing in TGTB Language Arts 3 as I go for Mason. He has fine motor challenges and is on the young side for this level. He cannot do all the writing by hand in this on top of handwriting lessons. Some days seem especially heavy on writing in the language arts. Today, for example, included the following writing in the lesson:

• Writing 20 words, many of which follow a particular spelling rule, as orally dictated by me. This is not the normal spelling words, this is a lesson on a particular spelling rule.
• Write 4 adjectives that describe a painting in the lesson. 
• Use a thesaurus to write a list of synonyms for those 4 adjectives.
• Write a list of 7 nouns from the painting.
• Rewrite the list of nouns in alphabetical order.
• Write 2-3 sentences that use those nouns in a series with commas.
• Practice the 5-7 spelling words the child is on in the Course companion. TO do this the child is to come up with a sentence for each word and write the sentence.

Add to that all his writing in other subjects and it's overwhelming him. So we tweak. We do some things orally. I write the nouns he lists. We take turns writing the list in alphabetical order. We make the curriculum fit the child, not the child fit the curriculum. It's a perk of homeschooling!

Handwriting Without Tears for Samuel

Today we finished our Homeschool Book Club read aloud: The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Catling. Everyone enjoyed it. We have simply listened to it at lunch time each day. The sweetest thing happened at dinner time. Tobias ran into the other room and grabbed our CD player because he wanted to listen to another story. He was quite put out when I didn't have one ready.

Thursday
A rhythm is starting that feels solid and comfortable. I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts! Everyone is doing their assignments. I'm trying to get my routine back in place for checking papers/grading. I used to do it during Rebekah's long afternoon nap, but we have discovered that if she naps too long in the afternoons now she will be up to midnight or later. As I am not a night owl, and I wake before the sun most days, that nap is now kept to 2 hours or less before I wake her up. And during 1 1/2 of that 2 hours I'm doing medical care with Mason.

Emma doing Apologia Biology

One subject that is outside my comfort zone this year is art with Joseph and Emma. They decided I need to participate in Artistic Pursuits with them. Drawing is not an area I enjoy. I just keep reminding myself that they feel that way about some of their other subjects, so surely I can cheerfully do art. Today's task was exploring the different art pencils and doing a rough sketch of something interesting to us. We headed outside to draw.

Tobias loves this Button Art

Friday
We made it through the entire first week of the school year without tears. It is probably a record. So far I think the block schedule is going to be a great fit. The moments of me being pulled in too many directions/subjects at once were few this week because everyone had the same general subjects each day.

In history group (Emma down through Samuel) we sat around the living room listening to the first audio story for this year's history curriculum. We learned more about the ancient Greeks. We pulled out our timeline and used it to answer some questions relating people and events we learned about last year to this year. Then we did our first day with this history level's game. It is a card game that is set up to be used like a memory match. On light blue cards are descriptions of people. On dark blue cards are a picture and name of a corresponding person. These are all people we will learn about this year.

For today, I passed out people cards to the kids, including Tobias, and kept the description cards. I  read a description card aloud and they could guess who the match was. If they didn't have any idea I would tell them. When you had the match you brought it to me. The kids loved this sneak peek at the people we will learn about this year. As we go through the rest of the year we will play the game as a memory match. Sometimes I will give description cards to each family member and have them pretend to be that person and give us clues about who they are. We will do Pictionary with the cards and take turns drawing the clues. There are lots of different ways we can play with these cards.

While we were doing this Joseph was reading about Einstein's teen years and writing about him for history. He's decided to begin his history study with Einstein.

Over lunch today I read aloud a chapter of Archimedes and the Door of Science. This is the first read aloud we'll do with The Good and the Beautiful History 2.


Well, that's all my notes from the week, so I'm hitting publish. Hooray for another year learning together at home!

Preparing for Another Homeschool Year

With August here I am in final preparations for the new homeschool year. This is one of my favorite things! I love seeing the possibilities ahead of my family as I sort our materials, make plans, and contemplate weekly schedules. This year I will have 7 students in grades 9, 8, 6, 5, 3, 2, 1, with a 3 and 1 year old tagging along for the ride. My oldest will be a college freshman in another state. I'm going to miss her, but it will be a wonderful adventure for her. I thought I would share about how I'm preparing things for this school year.

Task #1 was to create our calendar year. Homeschooling is flexible and laws vary in each state. In Ohio we are given a specific number of hours to aim for - 900. We do not have a number of school days required. I still block out our year and mark when we will be schooling and when we will be on break. Each year is a bit different based on our start date, when holidays fall, and when the local high school spring break is. Until I had high school age students I ignored this. However, from 9th grade on, my teens attend an early morning scripture study class, called Seminary, at 6am. This class follows the local public school calendar somewhat, and I learned with Makayla that it is really nice to have our spring break overlap the seminary class spring break. 

Task #2 was to write out the books and curricula I need for each child and start gathering everything into one place. I ordered materials earlier this year, and some things we reuse for younger children. I have been gathering things to a cubicle in my bedroom. For anything new, that we haven't used before, I spend a few minutes reading through introductions and making notes. 

Some new to us materials this year are:

• Handwriting Without Tears - we've used the orange level, but this year I have kids who will use the next two levels. 
• The Good and the Beautiful History 2 - we used History 1 last year and loved it. History 2 is similar in setup. I have a few things to prep for this year. I printed the first quarter of student explorers for different grade levels. I created a supplies list by lesson. I made a list of coordinating art projects from my Deep Space Sparkle stash of lessons. I gathered books for the first quarter of topics from by boxes of history books in the attic (these are a mix of nonfiction, picture books, and chapter books). They will go into a book basket for free reading. I chose a history read aloud. I transferred the audio story files onto a kindle and grabbed a speaker so these are ready when we need them.
•  The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts levels 3 and 6 - we used 4, 5, and High School 1 last year. This year I will have kids using 3, 3, 5, 6, 6. I'm looking through the new to us levels and making a daily checklist for each level that doesn't already come with one. 
• Photography - Joseph wants to do digital photography as an elective this year. We have a couple resources: Fundamentals of Photography (The Great Courses) with National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore is 23 video based classes, Basics of Digital Photography with Rick Allred is 9 video classes, and we have a checklist of photograph categories (ex: flowers, landscapes, buildings and bridges, teens and adults) that Joseph will use to take 50 photos per category, then choose 10 favorites in each category. He will edit 2 from each category and create a book of his photography from the year. 
• Artistic Pursuits: The Elements of Art and Composition - Emma and Joseph want to do this course. I grabbed a picture of the materials list with my phone and picked up the few things we needed. 

Some materials we have used before:

•  Apologia's high school Biology - I gathered the student notebooks, textbooks, dissection tools, dissection specimens, microscope, and biology slides. Dissections don't begin until Module 11 (about 22 weeks into the course), so those items won't be brought downstairs to the dining room yet. 
• Science for my Elementary group - This year the 5 boys in this group (Daniel, Oliver, Caleb, Mason, Samuel) each chose a couple topics they want to study. We will rotate through the topics together. Here are the ones they chose: Bats, Ants, Bees, Big Cats, the 5 Senses, Muscular system, Circulatory system, Light, Simple Machines, Motion/Mechanics. I have the Apologia Elementary Science series of textbooks, which is what the kids flipped through to give them topic ideas. We will use the chapters that go with each topic, as well as hands on learning, and nonfiction and picture books from our shelves or the library. 
•  Math U See - Pulled teacher's manuals and dvds from the attic for Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Epsilon, Pre-Algebra, and Algebra 1. Opened the box of student workbooks we ordered. 

Task #3 was to have each child empty their school bin and pass out their new books. It was a quick and fun job. 

Then came the hardest part - Task #4 - making a realistic weekly schedule. One interesting facet of homeschooling is that I teach lessons for everything from elementary school through high school in a variety of subjects every day. There are independent portions, such as math worksheets after the weekly lesson, but a lot of mom-led lessons happen too, especially with the younger students. I do some group teaching. For example this year Joseph and Emma combine for Biology and Art, Daniel, Oliver, Caleb, Mason, and Samuel combine for science, and Emma down through Samuel combine for portions of history. Add in the fact that I have a 3 year old and a 1 year old, cooking meals, physical therapy and daily medical care for Mason, piano lessons one afternoon a week, and life in general, and having a realistic schedule is important. 

This year we are starting out trying a slightly different way of scheduling. In past years the kids get assignment sheets listing how many days per week they need to do each subject. They would then schedule that week however they wanted. It works, but it means I have some days very heavy on lessons kids need me for, and others lighter. I want this year to be a more even balance. 

To get that balance, we are trying a more set schedule, where each day has the subjects assigned out already. For example, I will teach the elementary science group lessons on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, while we have a history block on Wednesday and Friday. Our block schedule allows for more time to immerse ourselves in a topic each day, instead of rotating through every subject every day for a shorter time. I also won't have as much mental jumping around because everyone has history on history days, or everyone has science on science days.

Task #5 is to start teaching and learning together. That happens Monday. I'm as ready as I can be. The kids are ready. The schedule is cleared, with as few interruptions to the first week as possible (no appointments).
Here we go!