End of February Notes 2020

We started back to our last term of school on Monday. I am so glad we're here! Today I got to introduce the elementary science kids to our last science unit of the school year. We are using the new Mammals unit from The Good and the Beautiful. This gorgeous unit has 14 lessons, plus additional extension lessons for 7th and 8th graders, as well as several books to read. I am using Mammals with Daniel (6th grade), Oliver (5th grade), Caleb (3rd grade), Mason (2nd grade), and Samuel (1st). However, as is typical in our little one room school house, today I had four tagalongs - Tobias age 4 and Rebekah age 2, as well as Joseph (9th grade) and Emma (8th grade). The youngest tagalongs loved the video that accompanied today's lesson, while the oldest tagalongs had great commentary to share from their biology studies this year.

We will spend about a week per lesson, including doing the 7th/8th grade extension. I read and prepare materials, and decide where to split the lesson in half. We do science twice a week for a longer time, instead of four days with shorter lessons. The Mammals unit includes photographs, art work, poetry, readings, integrated books, experiments/demonstrations of concepts, notebooking, and hands on pieces to manipulate. I also put a quick stack of books on hold at my local library that will go with each lesson for a book basket. These are popular for bedtime reading.

Every few weeks we will take a field trip to the zoo and do an animal hunt, seeking the animals we have covered in the most recent lessons. The kids are ridiculously excited about this part of the plan. I am counting on warming temperatures to arrive by the end of March so we don't freeze at the zoo.

Tuesday the kids were excited to get school accomplished because Frozen 2 came out on DVD. We did not see the movie in theaters, so we made a movie watching date at home for right after school was finished. This meant some fun perks like eating lunch in the living room during the movie, as well as passing out candy to enjoy. School went beautifully, the movie was a hit, and we had a great day.

Wednesday my sweet Oliver turned eleven years old. He started the morning opening his presents, getting to work using them right away (Legos to build and a drawing book for characters from How to Train Your Dragon.) By 8:30am everyone was doing school work. The day moved cheerfully along. Today was a history day. Our lesson was on the division of powers delegated to the federal government or the state governments. It was a fascinating lesson to the kids to really think about the 'why' behind some of these. For example, why are the laws governing immigration and the enforcement of them a federal matter? What would be different if that power was given to individual states to legislate and oversee?

Thursday we woke to cold, snowy weather. We really have had a much milder winter this year than the last few, with smaller snowfall amounts and many 'warmer' days in the 40s. It makes it much easier to enjoy and appreciate the beauty and wonder of the frozen days.

Friday was another cold, snowy day. We plowed through school cheerfully. Several kids spent time drawing. Others built elaborate train tracks for the little ones to enjoy. We also had a short visit from Grandma (my mom), who was dropping off a few things for the package we were sending to Makayla.

Break Week Notes: February 15th-23rd

I have learned after many years of homeschooling that February burnout can be very real. I also remember feeling it as a student in public school. To combat it, we take a week off each February to rest, relax, gain fresh perspective, and just enjoy life. This simple habit has virtually eliminated winter burnout in our homeschool. We've made it to break week, so while you won't hear about formal lessons, you will get a peek at large family life.

Saturday kicked off with a 4:30am trip to WalMart with two teens. We were hunting for Valentine candy clearance to refill our read aloud bin. We were successful! Once home, it wasn't long before younger kids started waking up to join us (6:00am is the earliest kids are allowed out of bed and downstairs). We had a slow morning of play and reading, followed by an afternoon of cleaning and family time.

Sunday was church, time at home, and then a family birthday party for my mom and brother in law. We had a great time!

Monday kicked off with a morning trip to Target for two boys who had money leftover from Christmas to spend. After morning snack we loaded everyone up to visit the nature center at the arboretum. We wanted to do some birdwatching for the last day of the Great Backyard Bird Count. We saw a mix of birds we do not always get to see at our home birdfeeder, which was so interesting. We also enjoyed the hands on activities, explorations, books, and learning stations in the nature center. The favorite find today was part of a paper wasp nest on the 'please touch' table. We drove through the auto trails on our way out and parked in a few spots to birdwatch (found a downy woodpecker to observe), to identify a tree with interesting pods (Kentucky Coffee Bean Tree), and then even saw a red-tailed hawk land in a tree near us for a bit.

Back at home in the afternoon we played Settlers of Catan, as well as pulling out kinetic sand for younger kids. We have Catan with the expansion to be able to play with up to 6 players.

Tuesday I spent some time updating each child's homeschool portfolio for this year. I try to keep up with this to make the end of our school year easy. I keep a file folder of their work, that they put papers into each day as they finish them. Today kids helped me update their reading lists and printed any writing assignments from the last two months.

Wednesday I worked on tax filing. The kids read and played a host of games. The most popular games today were Gubs and Forbidden Island. In the evening six of the nine kids had children/youth activities at church. The youngest three kids and I went to play in the nursery room at church while we waited for everyone.

Thursday's mundane task was washing bedding. It is practically an Olympic event when you need to wash and change bedding on ten beds. Thankfully, the kids do a lot of the changing, especially for the two triple bunk beds.

Friday I took a quick snapshot of these kids playing with playdough. I made a quick post on Instagram that shared what everyone was doing in the house during that one moment. Here is what I wrote:

"We have been loving our February break week. It is nearly at an end and so I'm sharing a pook at this moment in time. A little bit of crative play is going on with playdough kits this morning. I'm hearing artillery firing, rescue missions being launched, and shark attacks. Upstairs I can hear a few more kids digging through a bin of legos. They tell me they are building a tree house. Another child is practicing a piano piece for a talent show. The last one is drawing a series of dog portraits, having branched out after watching an episode of two of Dog Whisperer."

I took a few minutes to change out the sensory bin items today. We're back to rice as our base, with rocks, little buckets, and farm and ocean animals.

I made a quick trip to our library drive through. They aren't going to love me very much for the next several months. Have I mentioned the entire childrens/teens floor of our library is closed until May for renovation? That means I'm doing a lot of online ordering, putting stacks of titles on hold for them to gather for me.

Saturday started with a grocery pick up order in the frosty morning. In the afternoon my mom came to watch the kids while my husband and I went on a date. In the evening we took the kids out to play in the back yard while I gave five of the boys haircuts. I also worked on preparing our Mammals science unit from The Good and the Beautiful, which the 6th grade and under crowd will spend the rest of the school year studying, along with several zoo trips to see up close the creatures we are studying.

Now it is Sunday. We had a sweet day at church, came home and video chatted with our college student, and next up is cookie baking. We decided to bake treats for this evening's Children and Youth Fireside that we will watch online as a family.

Tomorrow, we are back to the homeschool routine!

February Notes: 9th - 14th

Geometric hearts - we used 

oil pastels and watercolors.

Sunday was our usual anchor of the week, church and family time. This peaceful beginning to a new week is my favorite. I got to be in the Nursery class as a substitute, which is children age 18mos-3yrs. Rebekah is in this group. I love seeing how different each individual child is even at this young age!

Monday our science experiment was about lungs. We made an artificial lung, tested lung capacity, and then discussed air and how we could see and touch something that is invisible. Joseph and Emma continued their biology module, which is studying Charles Darwin, his theories, and more genetics. There was a lot of reading, some writing, math, handwriting, and more. We also made some more hearts to decorate the house before Valentine's Day. These were smaller hearts decorated with analogous colored markers.

It is not a Monday if I don't have some medical phone calls to make. I reached out to Jason's vein surgeon to get surgery scheduled. It turns out last week's test results never got sent from the hospital to the doctor. They pulled those and the doctor will review them and sign a surgery order sometime this week. I also tried to get the rest of Emma's bloodwork results. The receptionist said she would have a nurse call me. I got pretty worried when the DOCTOR called instead. Almost all her test results came back normal, including all the ones for diabetes. One test did not, but it is one that could be 'her normal is higher than average' or it could be an indicator of an autoimmune issue. Based on the symptoms that sent her in for bloodwork and the current lack of symptoms, we're guessing her normal is just higher than average. We have a list of symptoms to watch for, just in case.

Monday evening a box arrived with part of our order for homeschool curriculum for the fall. It was fun to flip through everything, then put it away for later.

Tuesday the next box of homeschool curriculum arrived (same company, we had a large order). It was so exciting to peek at what is ahead of us. I spent part of the afternoon downloading audio files and student explorers for the history programs.

We read the second chapter of Framed aloud today and it is a hit. The kids were laughing as we learned of the day Florian met Margaret, a neighbor. We learned of T.O.A.S.T., the Theory of all small things. We read another chapter later in the afternoon.

Wednesday arrived with a little bit of sunshine in the morning, before clouds moved in again. We worked through each subject, including beginning our study of the U. S. Constitution. Another two chapters of Framed were read aloud during lunch. Book discussions abounded.

In the afternoon I made a quick run to Aldi for some groceries, because I had not gone shopping over the weekend. $90 for the week's food is pretty great for eleven people. Usually we spend closer to $200. We are using a lot of food already in our pantry/freezer to clear things out a bit.

Around dinner time it started snowing steadily. Youth activities were cancelled due to slippery roads, so we played Brain Games: The Game here as a family instead.

One of the puzzles we put together this week.

Thursday morning roads had been cleared and Joseph had seminary. Not too long after he returned home it started raining, then switched to snow again. What a mucky mess. We stayed inside and homeschooled, worked on puzzles, and did some birdwatching, among other things. Several of the kids pulled out some past Kiwi Crates and Tinker Crates to work on more extension projects from the magazines.

We kicked Valentine's Day off Friday morning with a read aloud over breakfast. The kids are still loving Framed. There was more homeschooling, more crafting, and taking quizzes (printed from Simply On Purpose) to find out each child's love language. I'm a huge fan of learning about love languages and applying that information in our relationships. I have also learned that as kids grow, their primary love languages can change. Today was a great day to talk about love languages with the kids and do the quizzes one on one.

In the afternoon we watched a movie together - Princess Diaries 2. It is a fun movie that made us laugh a lot. Grandma came to visit for a bit, not long after Daddy got home from work. Daddy spent a chunk of the evening working on homework for his DNA:Genetic Identity, Disease, and Design class online.

It's Friday evening and time to hit publish on this post, so I can enjoy some more family time. Have a great weekend!

February Notes: 1st - 8th

Rebekah at COSI - enjoying the Ocean exhibit.

The weekend slipped quickly past with family time, church, and celebrating February birthdays. This month two of my kiddos have birthdays.

Monday morning we dove into school work. New math lessons were everywhere.. Oliver is rocking all things fractions this year. Daniel is on speaking terms with pre-algebra, most of the time. Caleb loves multiplication. I have no idea why. Joseph and Emma have a love-hate relationship with algebra. They hated the graphing equations and inequalities of the early chapters, but are following along well with factoring equations. Samuel has started subtraction. He has to tell a story with every single problem. The usual theme is a pet store, where he has a certain kind of animal available and someone comes in to take away some as pets. (Ex: 8 crabs take away 5 crabs leaves 3 crabs in his pet store.) Mason is working with larger addition and subtraction problems, mostly without complaint.

Tuesday felt wonderful because the kids managed to start lessons where they needed me at mostly different times. I wasn't pulled in quite so many directions at once. We also spent some time birdwatching on this rainy day. The favorite sighting was a beautiful scarlet cardinal that hung around in the bushes for 20 minutes.

Several of my kids decided to listen to and sing all the songs in Musical Multiplication from The Good and the Beautiful today. We have not worked through all 4 booklets yet, but they did them anyway. The songs are simple, sweet, and memorable. We are loving them.

Caleb loves to craft. This is a hedgehog he made this week.

Wednesday I just remember being tired. Ever since the whole family spent most of January sick, I haven't had a great sleep schedule. Right now I get to sleep at 11:15pm and wake up at 4:43am (before my 5:15am alarm clock that is supposed to wake me so I can drive Joseph to seminary). I'm trying to fit a regular nap in, but that isn't always possible.

Thursday my baby girl turned 2 years old. You can read her birth story if you like that sort of things, I wrote it not long after she was born. We finished our study of Benjamin Franklin with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, ending the Revolutionary War. The kids were fascinated by the many different things Franklin did, tried, learned, explored, invented, and made.

We also had fun playing Apples to Apples Disney as a family. Most of the kids can read now, and the few who can't are able to play because this version of Apples to Apples includes pictures on the cards. It was a lot of laughing and disagreeing over which card fit the theme the best each time.

Friday we woke to a few inches of snow. After breakfast almost every single child was sitting curled up somewhere reading a book. It felt heavenly! I read books to Tobias and Rebekah, including Little Blue Truck. They really liked that one. Over morning snack I started a new read aloud with the kids. We're reading Framed by James Ponti (Amazon Affiliate Link). Joseph, Emma, and Daniel have read this series before, and when I asked the kids for read aloud suggestions it was their nomination. The first chapter was funny, especially when reading some parts with my poor attempt at a Russian accent.

Saturday we gathered up the kids and grandma and headed to COSI, a science center in the city. It was the opening day of a new exhibit about DC superheroes, which was fun. The best part was seeing the art gallery for the exhibit - because Emma's art was one of the 12 pieces accepted for the gallery. The entrants were to create a new superhero and share their story in 100 words or less.

Emma and her art hanging on the gallery wall at COSI.

She used a mix of pen and colored pencils for this piece. It never ceases to amaze me to see the things people can do with basic art supplies. I love that homeschooling gives kids time to explore and work on their interests as a regular part of their day. Emma is often found drawing or writing for fun.

Here is a close up of the story of Volt, her superhero creation:

After a couple hours visiting different exhibits at COSI we headed home in the snow. The rest of the day was spent playing games, video chatting with Makayla, studying scriptures together, and crafting. 

Notes for January 25th - 31st

I love seeing my kids reading

together. Rebekah loves this 'puppy book' and

wants it read often. Samuel read it to her 

Tuesday when she asked.

Saturday got its very own post right here, because it was Mason's baptism day! After a lovely service in the morning we had doughnuts for lunch and spent the rest of the day as a family. We cleaned, organized, played games, and watched the movie Inside Out together.

Sunday was our first day back to church in what felt like ages. Illness just wipes out large chunks of winter church attendance with 11 people to take turns getting sick. It was wonderful to be back at church, listening to talks, singing hymns, and learning about Jesus together. Once we got home we had hamburgers from the crock pot for lunch and studied the scriptures together.

I took some of the spooky playdough kit toys 

and put them in this sensory bin with rice. 

The kids loved it.

Monday the kids groaned to see a 5 day school week, until they realized we had been putting 5 days of work into 4 for the last several weeks. Now that work spaces out just a bit and they appreciate it. Math started the day because most of the kids just want to get it over with first. Biology included a great discussion of Rh factor during Joseph and Emma's continued study of genetics and how it impacted my pregnancies. The younger science group finished their read aloud about forest fires/firefighting and illustrated notebook entries about what they learned. Language arts included work on adjectives using picture study, finishing essays, spelling through sentence dictation, reading a variety of books, and sentence diagramming.

We baked cinnamon swirl bread for dinner tonight because it is a little bit faster than cinnamon rolls. Everyone liked it, especially as we still pulled out icing to put on our slices.

Tuesday everyone settled right in to school work. It was an easy morning with no major hiccups. I am so grateful for these days!

In the afternoon during Rebekah's nap I did some research and curriculum planning for fall. Today's research topic was math. We like Math U See and have used it for a decade. I have a few little kids, however, who I think would benefit from a fairly new to the market math program for their first few years of school. It is more of a living math approach. Mason, also, would benefit from some of the program.

Wednesday's smooth school day was wonderful. Everyone enjoyed most of their subjects. Several kids finished current chapter books and picked new ones from the shelves to start reading. History included study of a few more things related to life in colonial times.

Buttering a roll for himself.

This week we got a new table - so let me tell you about what it is for. I found this adjustable height, folding table (aff link) on Amazon. It is 2 feet deep and 4 feet long. It fits in our kitchen along one wall, and can be set at a child height, regular table height, and counter top height. We set it to child height and it works for Mason to use with his wheelchair. He is now able to be the kitchen helper during meal prep. He is thrilled. This table also offers us more 'counter top' space when setting out food for meals. We generally dish up food in the kitchen instead of bringing all food to the dining room table, because a table of 11 or 12 people is already really full just with plates, cups, and silverware.

Thursday I woke after not very many hours of sleep. The day just kept moving along on our routines, which saved my sanity. I spent an hour on the phone with insurance dealing with problems. In the end, things have been moved to a supervisor to look at and hopefully correct. I'm waiting to hear back about that tomorrow.

Friday I woke to find that Rebekah had thrown up at some point overnight in her crib, then went back to sleep. Yuck. I'm not sure why she threw up, and she seems to be doing just fine as of this afternoon. Hopefully it was just a fluke.

I'm going to publish this post and go enjoy the start of our weekend. Happy Friday!

Happy Baptism Day, Mason!

Today was a special day for our family - it was Mason's baptism day! He was surrounded by friends and family. He was so excited!

One really sweet part of the day was that Joseph, Mason's oldest brother, got to help with the baptism, as Mason can't stand up. He needed extra hands helping him in the font.

Happy Baptism Day Mason!

Notes for January 18th-24th

Saturday we finally started to see improvement in Samuel. The day was pretty laid back for most of the family. Emma and I headed to the city to drop off her art piece for the gallery mid-morning. In the late afternoon Emma, Joseph, and I went to see the new Dolittle movie. The kids buy their own tickets and then decide if they want to invite a parent along. They bought tickets a couple weeks ago and wanted me to join them. The movie was better than I expected, though I didn't always enjoy the humor.

Sunday we kept the whole family home from church to rest. Our low-key activities included playing Dutch Blitz, baking fresh bread, and having family scripture study. I was able to get a solid hour in of homeschool curriculum research for next year. In most areas we will simply continue using the same curriculum, changing levels as needed. However, I will have two high schoolers in the fall, and in high school our kids get a lot of input into which materials they use for courses.

One area they have options in next fall is language arts/writing. They can do the next level in The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts. It is a solid mix of literature, writing, grammar, spelling, geography, art appreciation that we like a lot. Or they can choose to do a writing focused year with a side of literature. I'm looking at three courses from the same company. The company is Clear Water Press and what I love about them is they take writing and provide interesting video lessons to draw you through the year of learning. Makayla used one of these courses during high school and enjoyed it.

• Cover Story - Writing a variety of pieces that combine to create a themed magazine at the end of the year. 
• Byline - Essay writing with a side of journalism that creates a newspaper at the end of the year.
• One Year Adventure Novel - Studying about and writing a novel. Makayla did this course. We would simply need to pick up new student materials.

Monday was 17 degrees of cold when Daniel and I headed out the door to do a grocery pick up order. Then the last two eye doctor appointments happened, followed by lunch, and then three of the last four dental cleanings. Daddy also had an appointment with his vein surgeon. He has some problems, including clots, and will be having surgery. They are doing updated scans and they will schedule surgery.

Tuesday we started the homeschool week with math for everyone. The oldest two had biology and are beginning a study of genetics beginning with Gregor Mendel. I love genetics, which they found hilarious. Then they had fun looking for evidence of some of their own family genetics based on traits like the ability to roll your tongue, attached or free earlobes, etc. History was learning about the beginnings of the last two American colonies we had to discuss - Pennsylvania and Georgia. For language arts various books were read, essays worked on, sentences diagrammed, and so on. We tossed in a quick trip to the doctor for Caleb to check on some illness symptoms he's dealing with.

Wednesday was the last day with a doctor's appointment this week, a checkup for Samuel. He is recovering nicely from pneumonia. The morning was school work, of course. In the evening the oldest 3 had youth activities. There were communication exercises, giving speeches, and doing family history research between the three groups.

Thursday morning I got desperate. Rebekah was in a mood and was just unhappy unless she had my undivided attention and was on my lap. This makes teaching some subjects a challenge. I finally pulled out some sensory bin materials I had gathered weeks ago. It was a hit, and various kids gravitated to the bin as they finished school subjects. We started studying forest fires, ecology, and firefighting in science.

Late Thursday afternoon I headed to the library with a couple of the kids, while Daddy held down the fort at home with the rest. We found a nice stack of books for various people's interests.

Friday is here and I'm listening to one child practice piano, dictating sentences to another, and just having a steady morning of learning. The kids also let me know it is National Peanut Butter Day, and that they plan to make no bake cookies this afternoon to go along with it. Yum.

Tomorrow is a special day. I'll try to get pictures and share more about it soon.

BOOKS

I try to share updates occasionally on the books my kids and I are reading because I look back at this blog when updating homeschool records. Here are some of the books happening around here lately, not including picture books or school assignment books :

• Maria's Many Colors (Mason)
• Dr. Seuss books (Samuel)
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Caleb)
• Grasshopper on the Road (Caleb)
• Childhood of Famous Americans: George Washington (Mason and Oliver)
• The Mysterious Benedict Society (Daniel)
• The Falcon of Eric the Red (Daniel)
• Race for the Prairie (Joseph)
• Trials of Apollo (Emma)
• Hawkeye Comic Books (Emma)
• Keeper of the Lost Cities (Me) - I'm on the 4th book in this series and it is fantastic. LOVE!
• Divergent (Joseph)
• Inheritance (All boys)
• Dragonwatch book 3 (Joseph)