School is in session

We've been cruising along for a few weeks, but this week have brought our lessons up to full-tilt. Things seem to be going really well so far, even as concerned and anxious I was about it. I have to admit I was really kind of dreading homeschooling this year. I wanted to, but at the same time I was feeling so burnt out.

I cannot praise the new addition I made to our organization process this year...hanging file boxes. $3.50 each at Walmart, and well worth it. The three girls each have their own boxes which holds their books, folders, worksheets, flashcards, games...whatever for the subjects they are studying. They keep their weekly "to do" lists and have a folder for completed work for me to grade or file. I let them decorate their box and they are responsible for it. I've never seen them take such ownership of their school work before. Plus, planning and organizing each week is a snap.

I'm still trying to get a handle on having preschool and elementary ages going at the same time. I didn't really do preschool for Katie since she had no interest and was much more content to develop her skills through independent play and her creative outlets. Emily, on the other hand, is so excited each day for whatever her new lessons are going to be. Everyday when she finishes she is disappointed she doesn't have more. Robbie, being Emily's shadow, of course cannot be left out and has to have something to do too...at least when he isn't hanging from my leg saying "read book Mommy."

I've had to adjust Katie's math program and step back a level. Grade 2 Math Mammoth moved way too fast for her. We are going back to Grade 1 and am going to work to really cement her facts and build up confidence. The math is in her head. I've seen her use it, but she lacks faith in herself. If nothing else, I have learned that it is more important to build a strong confidence base rather than trying to keep up with the "Jones". Otherwise, for being the first year that I am asking Katie to do a full load each day, she is doing really well.

Mary is great. She is adjusting to the larger amount of writing and independent work I am expecting for her 4th grade year. She doesn't like it, but she is doing it. We still are running into her perfectionist issues which are really at odds with her impulsive, gotta get this done as fast as possible attitude. But, I guess she will soon learn that you can't have it both ways.

DH has been a life saver and very involved when he comes home. Working with each of the two older ones at night on at least one subject. Whichever one seemed to be the most difficult that day. It is really good for the kids to get a different perspective on their lessons. And, a break for me.

Today was the first day for public schools in the area, so we packed up and went on a field trip. This summer a dinosaur exhibit opened at the Museum of Life and Sciences, but we had not made it out there yet. The exhibit was really nice and ended with a a fossil dig. Except for the fact that I think every toddler and preschooler in a 50 mile radius was there, we had a lot of fun.




Since there were so many other "little" ones around we left the museum after a quick spin over to the sailboats and a stop by the Kapla blocks for Mary. The kids were really excited for our next stop...a picnic at the river and a chance to go swimming.




I think the kids enjoyed the first "official" day of school.

Peace,

Amy

Trying to get organized

We start school in only a couple of weeks and I have been very lackadaisical about getting ready for it. I'll take all blame off me and put it on the fact we have been traveling a lot and the weather has been too nice to spend much time inside organizing & thinking. But, the temps are now above 90, with humidity and the mosquitoes are attacking en mass. So, time to get ready for August.

Big strides have been made since we stopped school last Spring. I take no credit for it, the kids are just finding their own stride. I'm having to re-think where to start this year with each of them. Emily has managed to finish all pre-K and most K-level math workbooks I have laying around. In most areas she is ready to begin the 1st grade materials I have. But, she is only 4 1/2 and has some perfectionist issues that are limiting her writing at this point. I would not even be pushing her to do anything, as I tend to try to delay "academics", but she wants her school like her sisters.

Katie has discovered the fun of reading. She is working through her own personal list of books for Barnes & Nobles Summer Reading program. It has been a lot of fun to sit with and listen to her read, and laugh, and laugh some more. She re-reads passages she finds particularly amusing, over and over.

Mary has decided that writing and reading can actually be useful. Being away at camp with the only contact with us being emails & letters has jump started this. She still doesn't LOVE reading or writing, but I'm not so concerned about her being able to keep up with 4th grade this year.

I've had a general idea of what we are going to cover this year for awhile, with a short list of books I would like to use. But, as money continues to be tight I'm trying to figure out what we already have that can be used instead. I did order Math Mammoth for Katie & Mary, and my mom is going to order The Story of USA to use as our history spine this year. Mary's reading is going to be based on the books she will be reading for US History. I have readers for Katie and Emily. I'm on the fence about a penmanship program this year. I already have materials for Language Arts/Grammar. Science is Earth Science, which I have a lot of misc books and workbooks to use for this...along with the library.

Now I just need to sit down and layout at least the next couple of months. Something to do for the next few weeks.

Peace,

Amy

Update from the Suburban Homestead

Finally a day to relax! Since coming home from "vacation" we have been in go-go-go mode. The big thing was getting the old living room divided and finished so that Mary could have her own room and it also gave us a den/kids hang out area. I am so happy to say that we finished that project last week while Mary was at Girl Scout Camp.

I wish we had done this project sooner. Being able to move all of Mary's stuff into one place has cleared up so much clutter. Once her bed was out of the girls' bedroom there was all of this space. Which meant that I could also move all of Katie and Emily's things into their room, including some of their toys being stored in Robbie's room. For three days I did little more than move belongings around and getting them out of the common spaces.

Even though it is Mary's new room, all of the kids are thrilled with the outcome. In the den, their computer is now positioned in such a way that they can watch shows on the computer, just like the TV. Robbie has fallen in love with the Woody the Woodpecker & Speed Racer cartoons on Hulu. Katie and Emily have all sorts of room in their bedroom to pull out dress up clothes or play with their plastic animals.

When I have not been organizing and moving furniture around I have been trying to keep up with the garden. It has produced beyond our expectations this year and every few days I am putting more tomatoes and zucchini in the freezer for this winter. It is such a blessing to us now as each month our budget is becoming tighter and tighter and I am worried about later this year when our mortgage re-sets for tax & insurance increases, along with the health insurance increase I am sure is coming in January. Putting food away right now is about the only thing I have been able to do to prepare. We have been eating out of our meat stockpile in the freezer when we have been home this summer, reducing our grocery expenditures. But, that extra money is going right into the dental work I've been having to have done.

DH is slowly working through the huge pile of logs we got free when our neighbor lost his oak tree this Spring. He is getting down to the logs that he will need to use a splitter on. We will have a nice woodpile to depend on to help out our winter heating costs. DH even recruited Emily to help him move the split logs.


She was so cute hauling all the wood through the backyard...even in her inside-out clothes. She managed to make two trips for him. I was impressed.

We've got a couple more weeks of camp, day-camp and sleep-away camp, followed by another week away visiting family. Then we will finally be home and settling in for awhile as no more trips are planned at this time. At some point I have got to make some decisions about school for this coming year. Some plan for how we will be spending our days. LOL. All I know at this point is that I want to get Math Mammoth for the kids, Mary & Katie will be doing US History I, Mary's reading/language arts is going to be combined with History, and we are going to focus on Earth Science. Oh, and Emily wants her school too!!!

Peace,

Amy

Back from vacation

Returning from spending almost the last two weeks at the coast visiting my family. It didn't find take the girls too long to find their favorite place to be...






But, we didn't spend every day at the beach. We visited the Hammocks Beach State Park Learning Center where we learned about sea turtles. We did not take the ferry out to the island as it was one of our 100 degree days and did not feel up to the boat ride.

The next day we drove to the tiny town of Aurora where there is a fossil museum sponsored by a local phosphate mining company. The fun of this visit is digging in the pit for fossils...



In less than an hour of digging we found more than 100 sharks teeth and various other fossils of ancient sea life. I also learned that fossils of walruses have been found in Eastern NC, dating back to the last ice age.

After two hot days out and about, we spent the next couple of days close to the shore and visiting the aquarium. At the aquarium we saw an awesome presentation by the Outer Banks Wildlife Shelter, including a Peregrine Falcon and a Barred Owl. The presentation was so good that we decided to go take a tour of the facility when DH came down over the weekend.

DH was able to join us Friday evening and stayed through today, returning with the rest of us. The kids had a lot of fun once Daddy got there.


Drowning Daddy seemed to be the hit game. Along with floating along doing nothing.


For the Fourth of July, Mary and Katie went with my Dad and Step-Mother to Swansboro to hear the Beach Music band and watch fireworks. DH and I took Emily and Robbie down to Sound where we got two firework shows for the price of one...without all the noise. I also found out just how awesome my camera is.












We left Katie behind to attend her day camp and spend the week with my Mom. I'll be spending the week trying to help DH finish Mary's new bedroom he built while we were gone and packing Mary for Girl Scout camp next week. It just keeps going!!

Peace,

Amy

Time flies when you are having fun

We've spent the last month enjoying our break before the summer craziness kicks in. I have had to endure several dental appointments over the last month, but they are winding down. That will be alot of relief on me and the pocketbook. Other than trips to the dentist we have really tried to get out and enjoy some local inexpensive activities. I've been so focused on just going that I have been bad about forgetting the camera.

Some fun places we have been to recently include Pullen Park for a picnic and to ride the carousel and the train. We also drove to the Museum of Life and Science to visit the Butterfly House and then another picnic and hike along the Eno River.

Soccer and girl scouts wrapped up during May, but all the finishing took a lot of energy.

We've also enjoyed working in the garden, which is the best one we have ever had.



We are looking forward to the fresh veggies in the coming weeks.

Now, I'm looking forward to the summer. Which looks crazier every day. I don't know how much blogging I'll manage to fit in, but I'll do my best to keep some sort of updated journal about how we are doing.

It all starts at the end of this week when I take Mary to her first camp, an Eco-Church Camp in the mountains. She'll spend a week there, then I pick her up and take a day or two to wash clothes and we go to the Beach for two weeks to visit with family. We'll leave Katie there for a week of camp and come home to get Mary ready for her next camp the following week. Katie comes home and Mary goes to camp. The next week we have soccer day camp locally and the next week Mary goes away for another week of camp. When we pick Mary up from that camp we head to the mountains for a week, where Katie will attend her first sleep-over camp for a weekend. And, then finally home and it will be the second week of August and time to start school. Have mercy on me.

Peace,

Amy

Out and About

We have entered that time of the year we just can't stay home. The weather has been great and we are enjoying our time outside. And, as a side note can say how great it is to go on field trips and *not* have to use the stroller constantly, or carry the extra 25lbs of stuff.



A lot of time has been spent at the soccer fields. This is Emily's first year...it is such fun watching the little ones chase the ball and then fall down in the dirt and start hunting for clover or build dirt towers, totally ignoring the ball rolling past them. A big difference from Mary's level where the girls are focused on tryouts for next year and us parents are all sitting around discussing if we should jump ship to another league for better coaching. If the girls are going to make it to the next level at age 11, then this is a very important year for good coaching.

Last week we traveled to the zoo with my mom. The girls really wanted to visit the arctic animals this time.


We also learned that not all wild animals are confined to the zoo...
Sometimes we bring them in with us.

And sometimes they are along the paths...

We also finished off Mary's Girl Scouts for the year with a little celebration. Katie's troop will continue into the summer when she moves up and becomes a Brownie. But, at least I will no longer need to be two places at once every other Tuesday evening.

Yesterday I took advantage of one more pretty day before the rain and storms moved in for another trip to Black Creek and some rock hunting.


We brought home a nice collection of rocks to identify, a few leaves that Katie wants to identify and a picture of an Eastern Box Turtle that I refused to bring home.


Today the rain is falling, so I guess we will not be heading out anywhere. Lots to catch up around the house anyway. A nice quiet day is always good.

Peace,

Amy

One big aching muscle!

I followed up the first bike ride of the season by playing soccer with Mary for at least 2 hours on Thursday. Then spent Friday afternoon re-turning the summer garden plot (by hand this time) and trying to break up the nasty clay soil we have. Today was several hours at the soccer fields and picking up the Angel Food boxes (which can be seemingly heavy), then back to the garden to plant it and break up more dirt clods. I am physically spent and don't think there is a muscle in my body that doesn't hurt.

I'm excited about getting the garden in, but have doubts about its success since the soil seems so, well, crappy. But, hey people have been farming around these parts for generations, it has to grow something, right.

As always the Angel Food boxes made me smile. Nothing like filling the freezer in one swoop. And, this month with a lot of chicken breasts and steaks. We will be eating well. Also, got a real-life pineapple and a cantaloupe in the veggie box. Tomorrow I have to go hit Aldis' to get the rest of our month supplies. And, hopefully will be done spending money for awhile.

I'm thinking an actual bath is in my near future while DH grills the salmon for dinner and watches the children playing "African Safari" in the backyard.

Peace

Amy

Earth Day Activities

Next Monday is Earth Day, although my children will tell anyone and everyone that everyday is Earth Day. With that in mind we are spending time this week working on some Earth Day activities. Tuesday we spent part of the morning driving around getting all the supplies we needed for activities later this week, but at least I actually got it all done in one trip.

Our first activity was a craft. They are supposed to be sun catcher Earth's that will stick to the window. Made with glue & food coloring, I figured what could be easier. Except, I forgot that when dealing with my children, when you say make blue glue...they hear make as many different colors of glue as you can.



It really is a good thing I decided to pick up the HUGE container of white glue.

They had fun, and eventually got three molds of a blue Earth made, which dried overnight. Unfortunately, they don't stick to our windows. But, no one can say we didn't have fun making them.

Katie has become huge into calendars lately. She had me print off monthly pages from Outlook and has meticulous been copying the wall calendar and adding her own future plans.



Last night Mary and Katie both had Girl Scouts, which gave them another opportunity to do some recycling art. And, Mary was "taught" the basics of how to make a campfire. A high-point of the day I tell you for my budding pyromaniac. I ended up having a one-hour GS training meeting afterwards, but thankfully a friend brought the girls home for me so they did not have to hang out.

Today, we did some outside stuff while it wasn't raining. Emily was begging to go back to the library and Mary wanted a bike ride... so we combined the two. I dragged out my bike and trailer and dusted them off.
1. I am really out of shape after this winter.
2. I really need to stop feeding the two younger ones if I am going to keep towing them all summer.

But, we had a very nice ride over to the library and got there just as story time was starting. None of the children were keen to sit down and listen, but looked for books along the edge of the group so that they could listen along. Robbie enjoyed singing time the best, of course.

My heart almost sang aloud when Mary came back with her books, and after years of suggesting she gets a fiction book, a science topic and a history topic, I'll be daggoned if she didn't come back with a copy of The Incredible Journey, a book on crystals and a book on the Pueblos'.

On the way home we rode up the greenway and admired how high the water has risen. After nearly 3 years of low water levels, it was great to be able to enjoy the small waterfalls and float sticks, a la Pooh. But, I have to admit, my thighs were SCREAMING before we were even half-way home.

This afternoon we have chilled. Emily had her dance class, but I don't have to go anywhere for that. I've been working on laundry while the kids have been making recycling art. Mary has been trying to learn the Hoedown Throwdown dance from the Hannah Montana movie.

Tomorrow we might actually get back to learning something *wink*

Peace,

Amy

Easter Monday School

Happy Easter from the Family

Trying to take pictures of the kids after having sat through and hour-long church service and being told their chocolate bunnies were being held hostage until after picture taking, on can end of with pictures similar to this:




Thankfully, my FIL can take much better pictures.


Happy Easter everyone!

Peace,

Amy

What a week!

Last week was really busy, but a good busy. The beginning part of the week was fairly normal...schoolwork and getting the house ready for my mom's visit on Thursday. My mom came up so that she could go with us to see "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" Musical put on by Broadway South. It was Mary's and Katie's first experience with musical theater. We all really, really enjoyed it. I thought that it was a wonderful presentation and a great first experience for all of us (for me taking my kids to the theater).

On Friday we got our two new babies. Baby kittens that is. We were only going to get one, but they were brothers an we thought ours would settle in better if we borrowed the brother for a couple of nights. Now we have fallen for both of them.


Oreo is the black & white tabby and Zeus looks black, but does have tabby stripes. They spend a lot of time curled up together when they are not being handled by the kiddos. DH, who wasn't sure about this whole "getting a cat thing" is very taken by them. Ginger, the 4 yr old golden retriever was very excited about them, but has calmed down each day that they are here. So, we now have 4 kids & 4 pets in a very busy household.

My mom left Saturday morning so she could be home for Palm Sunday. My SIL came by and picked up all 4 of the kids so she could take them to an Easter Egg hunt. DH went to draft his fantasy baseball team, and I got the very unusual experience of being totally alone in the house for 2 hours by myself!! It was bliss. I curled up on the sofa with the two kittens and read my book. I wasn't going to waste this opportunity with something as routine as cleaning.

Sunday we had Mary's soccer game in the afternoon. Finally a beautiful weekend to play soccer. We have already missed three games this season because of rain. Mary's team finally had a good day too. All season they have looked flat and unenergetic. Mary came out ready to play on Sunday. She scored 2 quick goals, and had a great day moving and passing the ball. Such improvement just since last fall. Their team ended up winning 6-0, scoring all the goals they have not so far this season.

This week has not started out so well. I woke this morning with a migraine. Thankfully the younger kids wanted to go to the Play Place for a couple of hours, so Mary and I did some shopping to try and find sweaters for next Sunday. We also browsed through homewares picking out rugs and curtains for Mary's future bedroom. Needless to say not much schoolwork got completed today. Mary did practice using sign language to spell some of her spelling words, Katie read to me and I read another chapter of Little House in the Big Woods to Katie, and whomever else wanted to listen.

Tomorrow the public school kids will begin their Spring Break. We'll focus on the basics this week, and let the kids burn off some energy with their friends. Maybe I can get a bit more planning done.

Peace,

Amy