Week In Review

Here are a couple pictures of Sophia and Allison painting one morning. It was funny because for some reason I decided when I set them up to paint to tell them not to mix the colors. So I gave them three colors and three paint brushes and explained to them that there was one paint brush for each color and that the colors were not to be mixed. Where was reality in that moment to remind me that I was telling a three year old to not mix the paint colors??? Yeah, hello Shelly, are you really thinking this is going to work? Of course, I no sooner sat down at my computer and Sophia was furious because Allison was mixing the colors. Duh mom. So I ended up eventually giving Sophia her own palette of paints because she was so mad at Alli for messing them all up! Nothing like passing on my perfectionism! In the end, I was given more beautiful paintings by my little sweeties! Is there really any better artwork than that?

So, we really did have a very pleasant week in our homeschool. We managed all their music lessons, speech practices, and daily work. I even got to attend a local homeschool meeting. I love to attend these meetings and hear what others are doing. I am glad I am settled enough in our homeschool to be confident that what I am doing is the right fit for our family. In the early years it was easy to listen to others and think I was never doing enough. Now I have learned to be content where we are and when I hear a great idea that I think we can actually implement, I write it down. Sometimes we actually even try it! At this meeting one mom was sharing about the journaling that her kids do. By the way, I happen to just love this particular homeschool mom! :) She has always been an inspiration to me. But anyway, I picked up a composition notebook for Emily and Grace so they can start doing some journaling. We did start out the year with some journaling on their computers, but we haven't done that in a while. But that was more for a creative writing purpose. This time I want to do more of a spelling and grammar approach. I know Em and Grace need more work in these areas and hopefully journaling will be a fun way for them to do this. I also picked up a couple extra notebooks for Sophia and Allison so they can feel like they get to participate, too! Also discussed at the meeting was testing. Brooke and Em were required to be tested last year so I went ahead and tested Grace, too. I have decided to have Grace tested again this year, since we held her back. I am really looking forward to the results of this testing. I am hoping we see a lot of improvement in her test, to reinforce what I think we have accomplished this year by keeping her back. But, that won't be until the end of April so we have a bit yet. Well, I think that is all we have been up to this week. I certainly hope that next week will be another great one!

The Perfect Homeschool Day...Well Morning Atleast

Yes, that is right, we had a great morning this morning. If I could dream up my homeschool world, this morning would be every morning! I managed to crawl out of bed at a decent hour (7:00 in case you are wondering) and onto the treadmill for a quick run. Then a little breakfast, a shower and ready for my morning chores. All the while the kids were up, in good moods, getting their chores done. Things just went so smooth! The best part of it all is shown in these pictures I took. I even had time to make up some banana bread with the bananas that have been waiting for a very long time to be used. But what was great was that while I was mixing it up, Lydia was busy eating crayons in her high chair, Allison was coloring and helping me, and Sophia was working hard in her workbook. The older three were quietly working at their desks in the bedroom. I only had to go in to answer an occasional question for them. This was the morning that homeschool dreams are made up of and the reason I choose to homeschool. I need to make this happen more often. We also managed to have lunch at noon, read for 20 minutes today to the little ones, and read to Em and Grace from the book we have been trying to finish, topped off with a 20 minute nap! :) I enjoyed a little computer time in the afternoon, followed by some pretty major housecleaning by all of us. Roast was in the crockpot, made by Grace after lunch, potatoes in the oven, thanks to Brooke. We finished up our day with a nice supper with Josh and our evening chores. My big discovery for the day...put Allison to bed and down for naptime in my room...amazing. Okay, I admit, there was a little bit of craziness with the cleaning and phone calls about our house(which we are selling), and I didn't get the girls' school corrected. But all in all, it was a great day!!

What we've been doing...

Things have been so crazy busy here. But then again, when are things not crazy busy here? I feel like I'm always a few steps behind. Whether it is with the laundry, the cooking or the school work, always behind. But slowly I am learning to let go and relax a little bit. Because this is what life is. It is not perfect. That would be boring. It is messy, as it should be. It is full of excitement, stress, and busyness. But it is good. And isn't that what matters most? Life is good. Even on the bad days, it is still so good here. :)

Brooke: Ah, the teenager. She should be getting her license this spring and we are so excited about that! Life will be a little bit easier when she can drive herself to a few things. Right now we are running to Alexander twice a week for Speech practice. That is a lot of time out of the day, but she just loves participating in speech. She is looking forward to their first meet next weekend. School is going good for her. Her grades are great and she seems to be managing her school along with her once in a while cleaning job, Speech, and violin practice. I remember those busy days!

Emily: School is going good for Emily. It is just the usual. We are quite excited about a new guitar teacher for her. He actually comes to OUR HOUSE!!! Does it get any better than that? A very nice young man who seems very excited about teaching guitar! He told her if she practiced really hard on what he taught her last Monday that he should be able to teach her a Taylor Swift song at her next lesson. Now that got her practicing hard this week! Emily is also continuing with violin lessons once a week. But next year she will probably have to choose one or the other. It is quite expensive for all these music lessons!

Grace: School is going so wonderfully great for Grace this year. She is just having such a great year. Holding her back this year is a decision that I think we will never ever regret. She is confident and feels smart! Her grades are great this year and it has helped her so much! She just started piano lessons last week at my neighbor's house. She is really excited about that. I think she just really likes having something just for her. It will be interesting to see if piano is something she really likes and will practice.

Sophia: I hate to admit that school has been pretty nonexistant for Sophia this last few weeks. I do try, it just seems so easy to get busy with other things and put off her work. Which really isn't fair since she always wants to do her schoolwork. So that is something I need to work on this week. She is working in three workbooks right now. One on lowercase letters, numbers, and alphabet games.

Allison: For Christmas, Allison received some cute little workbooks that I have been trying to work on with her. Fun things, like coloring, cutting, folding, and pasting. I haven't done much with her these last few weeks either. Okay, I promise to work harder with the little ones! I need to get back to story time with them to. My goal is to read to them 20 minutes a day, either before naps or before bed. I know that is not much, but it is a good goal time for me!

Lydia: I have scheduled in some signing time video time in the morning, in hopes of making myself sit with Lydia and Sophia and Allison for a half hour a day so they can learn more signs. Lydia is at that perfect age to start learning the signs. She has taken a couple steps here and there, but is nowhere near fully walking yet. We can wait for that, she is quick enough already!

I have been reading "Peter and the Starcatchers" by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson to Emily and Grace in the afternoons. It is a great book and I highly recommend it for a read aloud. There are more books after this one, too. I think this book is what leads up to Peter Pan. Some days we can't stop reading, but most days I end up reading for a while and then falling asleep!

Well, that about sums it up for us. I'm off to bed, goodnight!!

Valentine Crafts

Thank goodness I have a good friend, Brandy, that loves to do crafty projects. First it was the advent baskets and now she found this great idea for Valentine mailboxes. All we had to do was show up with some extra scrapbook paper and she had everything else all ready for the girls! They had so much fun making these cute projects.

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Here is the finished project. Now Emily and Grace each have a special mailbox on their school desks just perfect for holding notes they write each other throughout the day. Aren't they cute? Thanks Brandy!!!