What Do You Hope For?

My friends at Deseret Book and Shadow Mountain Records just released this short video where people answer the question “What do you hope for?”  I wanted to share it with you, as well as my answer.

I hope to work in partnership with my husband to raise children who love and obey God because they want to, not because we want them to.  

What about you?  What do you hope for?  I would love to hear your answer in the comments.  You can also share your answer with others on the HopeSearch FB page (but please leave it here especially because I’m not on FB, so here is the only place I can read your answers!).

What have we been up to?

Life has been a bit random for the last week, so I thought I would share the randomness! 

Grandma K flew in Saturday to stay for a visit.  The children were thrilled and have tried to keep her attention nearly every minute since with playing indoors and out, reading books, drawing, and acting.

Sunday was church from 9am-noon, then home for lunch and quiet time.  We relaxed for a few hours and then headed back to church to attend a friend’s baptism.  That was wonderful, though the little guys had a hard time sitting for another hour at church. 

Monday was spent doing a little homeschool and lots of time with Grandma.  This was the day Makayla convinced Grandma to help her start a garden.  They found the seeds and made their plans.

Tuesday morning was spent outside cleaning the weeds out of our 3'x16' raised garden bed.  It was hot and muggy work, but they did it.  I also got to visit my midwife on this day!  She was thrilled to see me and none too surprised…LOL.  Everything looks good so far.  She did give me some medication to help with the terrible nausea I’ve got, but sadly it doesn’t seem to be helping.  Lots of playing this day despite the fact that Daddy was only home about 2 hours before he had to go to bed (at 6pm!  sometimes driving a truck stinks.).

This morning was also spent outside loosening up the garden soil, pulling last roots, and planting seeds.  Makayla is thrilled to have a garden and I’m thrilled to have had nothing to do with it.  I spent both days on a blanket with Caleb reading books and exploring grass and ants.

Right now the children are in quiet time.  My 3 youngest boys are all napping while the 3 older children listen to an audio book and rest. 

Tomorrow Grandma flies home, which means I will have sad, out of sorts children all day.  I’m still trying to think of some fun, easy things to do to cheer them up.  Preferably things that don’t involve driving anywhere, so a special movie, playing in the backyard, or some baking and crafting. 

Any ideas?

What Mommy is Reading

It is always interesting to me to see what books other moms are reading.  It is one of the best ways to find new books to try.  With that in mind I thought I would share the books I am either currently reading or starting soon.  Educating The WholeHearted Child – This classic by Clay Clarkson and his wife Sally has just been revised.  The original 252 pages grew to 384 pages and I’m trying to savor this one a little bit at a time.A Mind at a Time – Suggested to me by a homeschooling friend and former teacher, this book is the work of Mel Levine, M.D..  It describes eight fundamental brain systems of learning and how each child’s mind may be strong or weak in those areas – which affects learning and just about everything else!  I’ve already found a wonderful quote that I’m pondering from this one, so I’m going to share it:

“It’s taken for granted in adult society that we cannot all be generalists skilled in every area of learning and mastery.  Nevertheless, we apply tremendous pressure on our children to be good at everything.  Every day they are expected to shine in math, reading, writing, speaking, spelling, memorization, comprehension, problem solving, socialization, athletics, and following verbal directions.  Few if any children can master all of these “trades.”  And none of us adults can.  In one way of another, all minds have their specialties and their frailties.”

(A Mind at a Time p. 23 by Dr. Mel Levine)

How true is that?  Seriously!  I’m fascinated with this book because I have so many unique little minds in my children.  While not every thing will apply to each child, I will most likely see just about every area weak or strong between all my children. 

The rest of these books I have yet to begin, and as you’ll see, several are by Dr. Mel Levine.All Kinds of Minds – By Dr. Levine.  This book is written for young students and tells the story of five children with a variety of learning strengths and weaknesses based on the information in the previously mentioned book.  It can be read to or by the student, or by the parent.Keeping a Head in School – By Dr. Levine.  This book aims primarily to help slightly older children than the prior book children gain a realistic insight into their personal strengths and weaknesses and how to make the most of or compensate for those.Educational Care – This textbook is also by Dr. Levine, and what I appreciate in all his books is that his focus is on observing your child and identifying strengths and weaknesses, which you then can specifically support, strengthen, or praise them in.  The focus is NOT on labeling a child, which is something that happens far too much in our society today, and it is NOT on medicating a child for the God-given way their brains work.  Organizing the Disorganized Child - by Martin Kutscher & Marcella Moran.  This has practical strategies to implement with a child who is organizationally challenged.  I have at least one of those. 

As you can see, I’m in a nonfiction phase.  It will swing back around to pleasure reading in a few weeks most likely. 

So what’s on your reading list right now?

I’m a Sheep and my Lambs are Following Me

I was re-reading a talk from the last General Conference called “Establishing a Christ-Centered Home”.  Partway through he quotes a poem by C. C. Miller that I thought I would share it today:

’Twas a sheep not a lamb
That strayed away in the parable Jesus told,
A grown-up sheep that strayed away
From the ninety and nine in the fold.
And why for the sheep should we seek
And earnestly hope and pray?
Because there is danger when sheep go wrong:
They lead the lambs astray.
Lambs will follow the sheep, you know,
Wherever the sheep may stray.
When sheep go wrong,
It won’t take long till the lambs are as wrong as they.
And so with the sheep we earnestly plead
For the sake of the lambs today,
For when the sheep are lost
What a terrible cost
The lambs will have to pay.

I really like the poem because it puts the focus back on me and my responsibilities as a mother and wife.  It is so easy in the day to day parenting to focus on correcting my children’s behavior (or should I say misbehavior?) and attitudes.  While there is no doubt that I need to address those things, I need to take an honest look at myself as well. 

“Parents teach their children with words and through example” Elder Maynes says in the talk, and we all know that actions speak louder than words.  I need to make sure my actions and behaviors are in line with the words I’m saying, because my children will pay more attention to what I do/am than to what I say. 

I’m a sheep and I want to be sure I’m leading my lambs to Christ with both my words and my actions.

Week in Review #7 –Muffin Math

Is it really Friday already?  Most of my week has been a blur of nausea (Thank you God, I’m grateful I’m pregnant and have this never-ending regular reminder of the life growing in my womb.)  My children have enjoyed a very relaxed week of learning.  Some things they accomplished include:

• Reading reading reading – on their own, to mommy, to one another, to their stuffed animals even!
• Math – lots of practice going on and mom sneaking math into conversations by talking about: We baked two pans of 12 muffins each, how many muffins did we bake?  If the six of you eat 3 muffins apiece how many muffins did you eat all together?  How many muffins are left over? How many pieces can we cut a pizza into?  If we eat 1/2 of them how many will be left?  Of course there was all the measurements when doing the cooking and baking too!
• Lots of games together – card games, board games, and games they made up.

We’re enjoying being the master of our schedule, choosing to focus on relationships.  There have been lots of opportunities for character-building with all the game playing (or is it just my children who argue over rules, winning, losing, and everything in between?). 

Have a blessed weekend!

Child Labor Laws Don’t Cover This

Most children in our country begin a 40+ hour a week job beginning at age 5 or younger, isolated away from the family unit.  They go to school for 1440 hours a year beginning at a young, tender age.  Where are the child labor laws??? 

Is it any wonder that a child’s love, respect, and allegiance soon shifts to the teacher and peers they spend so much of their day-to-day life with?  Is it any wonder that siblings who spend so much time segregated by age find their friendships lie with classmates instead of brothers and sisters?  The sad thing is that not only has this tragedy become commonplace, it has become accepted as normal. 

“In family relationships love is really spelled t-i-m-e, time.”
– President Uchtdorf (Nov. 2010 Ensign)

One of the blessings of homeschooling is the gift of time spent as parents and children, as brothers and sisters, as family.  Our children’s time is spent developing the deepest bonds of love and friendship with those God placed within the family circle, not those without. 

Scrapbooking Free or Not So Free

Recording memories is one of the purposes of this blog.  Once upon a time I had the time and energy to scrapbook, and few enough children (um, just one) that getting papers, stickers, bits, and pieces out was not asking for trouble.  Sadly enough my scrapbooks are very out of date.  This blog is helping to capture our family’s life, but I still want a nice scrapbook to browse through. 

I’ve begun looking into digital scrapbooking and thought I would share what I’m doing for now (it’s free!), as well as what I hope to do sometime in the future.  First let me give you my own description of digital scrapbooking as I grasp it so far. 

Digital Scrapbooking
Creating scrapbook pages on a computer, which can then be shared online or printed and bound in a book.  The perks for me are that it is paperless until I’m ready to print the finished page, I don’t have to have scissors, glue, and printed photographs spread across the table, nor do I have to wait to scrapbook until my children are asleep. 

The Free Version
For the moment I am gathering free digital scrapbook papers (in jpeg format) and loading them into Picassa (also free).  With the collage option in Picassa I have been able to create simple pages in a short amount of time. 

In this page I simply used two papers and two photographs in the Picture Pile option of Picassa’s Collage creation area.  I set one as the background, tilted the other, and put both pictures on the page.  After creating the collage I was able to add text.  I did this as a 12x12 layout.

This one was even easier, but more limited.  I used the Mosaic option in the collage area, which takes any pictures or papers and fits them together.  I chose to show the grid/space between pictures and set a blue paper as the grid color.  I couldn’t adjust each box size, though I could shuffle around pictures.  After pushing the Create Collage button I was able to add text.  This is a 12x12 size layout.

So what are the drawbacks to using Picassa for digital scrapbooking?  The main drawback is the inability to use frames, embellishments, and all the fancy details that really make a page look nice.  Those files, while I can find them for free, are not .jpeg, because the area surrounding the item or within a frame is transparent.  They are .png files, and currently Picassa doesn’t support them.  This will work for now, it is better than nothing.  But one of these days I want to do the following -

The Not-So-Free Version
If I’m going to pay money for a program to do nice digital scrapbooks I’m going to go for the best, or close to it.  There are cheap programs with limited capabilities for under $100.00.  The program I want is Adobe Photoshop CS5, which sells for $670.00 on Amazon.  Ouch!  There is a ‘light’ version called Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 for $79.99.  I have found that I can get a fantastic discount on Adobe Photoshop CS5 because we homeschool (miracles really do happen – thank you Adobe for supporting education and homeschooling!).  The program will only cost $192.00 with the proper paperwork. 

I can’t buy it yet, I’m going to have to save up for it.  I also have to save up for another program because my computer operating system is not compatible with Photoshop –Windows Vista Home Basic.  I’ll probably go with Windows 7, a decision that will make my husband very happy.  I’ll be saving up for both programs for a long while, and until then I’ll just keep scrapbooking with Picassa.   Oh, and one of these days we’ll need a nicer digital camera . . . anyone want to give me one?

Do you scrapbook?  Paper or digital?  If you do digital scrapbooking I would love to know what program you use, what you love, what you hate, and where you find free digital scrapbook kits.

Celebrating the Little Things

Today Joseph had a great accomplishment – he read a 38 page story to me because he wanted to.  I had planned to have him read a few pages a day to me over the course of the week, but this evening he pulled out the book, determined to finish the first story.  He read about Remy, the rat in Ratatouille.  Emma also read a whole story in her book, a simpler story, but still quite an accomplishment considering she’s 5.    

My plan for tomorrow is to have them start the same story over and see how well they do on the words that were difficult and needed explaining today.  And again the day after that.  I’m hoping to harness the enthusiasm for some repeated reading all week to work on fluency.  We’ll see how it goes!

If you’re interested in small collections of stories for beginning readers here are the ones Joseph and Emma read from today:

I Need Your Ideas

I’ve got a post up today over on Latter-Day Homeschooling about who (or what) we allow to teach our children when it comes to science.  I’m looking for your science ideas, so pop on over and see if you can help me out!  Just click on the graphic at the top of this post to get there.

Homeschool for the Week

I thought I would share the plans for this week’s homeschool here on the blog because I need a goal.  Life is extra busy this week(appointments, book club, writing class, and possibly family flying in to stay from out of state late in the week) and this pregnancy is giving me more nausea by the day.  The nausea is a mixed blessing.  I’m praying a whole lot because I made the commitment at the beginning of this pregnancy to thank God every time I felt sick, tired, or otherwise pregnant.  He’s certainly giving me plenty of opportunities!  I know that things will probably end up looking different by the end of the week, but if I don’t aim at something time will be wasted. 

This week for Makayla will include:

• Math Facts Now! twice daily to cement those multiplication facts.
• Pet Shop Math at least once this week.
• All About Spelling level 3 step 11 (consonant suffixes).
• Read A Cache of Nouns by Ruth Heller (on collective nouns) plus Henry Goes to Hollywood from the Punctuation Tales series for grammar.
• A few writing prompts until Thursday, when she begins Story Quest, our new writing class.
• Piano (lesson Monday, practice all week).

Joseph and Emma’s week should include:

• Counting and writing 1-100, skip count by 2, and oral practice on +1’s.
• Lots of reading to mommy, phonics games, and trying to choose some sight words to learn.
• Copywork of numbers and spelling words on alternate days.
• All About Spelling level 1 step 6 (short a words).
• Listen to mommy read aloud the rest of Meet Samantha.

Daniel and Oliver will have some fun work together this week too:

• Counting to 15 (Oliver) and 30 (Daniel).
• Phonics focusing on the letter Gg, coloring page for “Gg”, and air writing the letter.
• Snuggling with mommy to read My “G” Sound Box and Gorilla, Be Good! (AlphaTales series).

Now it’s your turn to share - what are your goals for the week?

Week in Review #6–A Good Week

I have to be honest, it’s been a nice week to relax and just do the 4 R’s.  Several days the weather has been cool (70’s) so we’ve played outside and enjoyed it.  On hot days we just added homemade popsicles to the outside play.  I’ll try to share a rundown of things from homeschool this week below.

Makayla finished the end of book test in Math U See Gamma on Wednesday.  Hooray!  She is officially moving to Delta next week I think.  I also found a neat math adventure we’re adding to the mix from Simply Charlotte Mason.  They offer a “Your Business Math” series in 3 themes, one of which is Pet Store.  The idea is the child learns to run a pretend store for a year.  Topics that will be used by or introduced to Makayla through this include:

• addition, subtraction, multiplication, division
• decimals, percents and product markup
• figuring sales tax
• writing checks
• taking orders
• inventory and restocking
• bill paying (recurring bills like electricity)

It looks like fun, something I think she’ll really like because it will apply math to her interests.  One adaptation I am pretty sure she’ll make is creating cards on the computer for the items she offers in the store to help her have a hands on way to track her inventory.

Joseph and Emma have been working on counting and writing to 100.  Mostly they’re focusing on the writing, they’re good at the counting already.  Daniel and Oliver have been practicing counting to 15 and 30 respectively. 

We’ve done lots of reading this week on all sides.  We’ve read scriptures together, I’ve read nearly all of Meet Samantha to the middles and littles, Makayla read all of Nellie’s Promise and is partway through the fourth Fablehaven book.  I’ve read at least 2 or 3 Magic School Bus books to Daniel each day, usually the same ones over and over.  I can quote Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? now.  Joseph and Emma have worked on reading different books aloud to mommy, a few pages at a time. 

Writing for the middles has been copywork while Makayla has done a mix of grammar manipulatives and composition.  Today, for example, she wrote a book report, a short story, and a poem.  She also writes in a personal journal each night.  Her grammar has focused on verbs this week.  Next week we start Story Quest!  I’m excited about it and hopefully all the children participating will be too.

File folder games and learning centers have been used a lot this week as well.  Oliver has just discovered the joy of file folder games, so he grabs them down a lot.  I would like to make time to print and put together some more sometime this month. 

That leaves Caleb’s accomplishments for the week.  He is 6 months old, weighs 18lb 7oz, and has been a busy little man.  He got his first tooth, which officially makes him the earliest teether of my children so far.  His army crawling has improved enough that he would probably give his Uncle Justin a run for his money on an obstacle course (hehe, his uncle is in the Army and has yet to meet this little nephew).  Caleb travels from room to room now, which means I’m constantly needing to sweep or pick up little bits of paper and such from the floor.  He has also started protesting when I leave the room.  Loud, wailing protests.  I’m learning to make sure he’s involved in a toy before I go try cooking a meal.  That, or I bring him in the kitchen and give him some bowls to play with.

We even had some fun visitors yesterday.  Aunt Michelle and Uncle Daryl stopped in on their way from Indiana to Pennsylvania – on a motorcycle hauling a trailer.  The children were in awe of the bike and that was all it took to break the ice and have them adopt their uncle forever (this was the first time to meet him). 

Now the week is over and it is nearly quiet time, so I’m going to hit publish on this post and get the kids moving that direction.  Have a great weekend!

Current Book Club Selections

This month for Book Club we decided to do some American Girl reading, focusing on Samantha Parkington.  We will meet July 13th about the book or books we read.  Our minimum goal is to read Meet Samantha: An American Girl, but each family and child is welcome to read more books about Samantha if they wish.  I’m reading Meet Samantha to my middle and younger children for starters.  Makayla has read the series a few times before, so she chose to read a companion book about Samantha’s friend called Nellie's Promise.  We have the book Welcome to Samantha's World-1904: Growing Up in America's New Century to see more about real-life in 1904, as well as some more books - the mysteries featuring Samantha.

If any of the children get in the mood to lapbook there are also free American Girl lapbook templates on Homeschool Share here. 

One last free resource is the American Girl website’s page for Samantha.  Games, e-cards, wallpaper, and more are all free.

What are you reading right now?

Ultrasound and Naps

Today I got to see our sweet little baby via ultrasound, a little heart beating away.  Yay!  Conceived when Caleb was just 4 months old, we expect to meet this little one in late January 2012.  My dear mother came to watch my other children while I was at the doctor (thanks mom!).  I knew she was planning to skip quiet time so she could play with my children while I was gone.  They had a wonderful time, as always. 

A few hours later, this is what has happened to Oliver: The poor guy just sat on the couch for a moment and went right to sleep.  It’s nearly 4:00pm, not a good time for a nap, but I’m just going to plan on staying up late watching a movie while he winds down tonight.  Now I just have to decide what movie to watch!

Timberdoodle Review–3D Feel and Find–Toddler Core Curriculum

Life is full in our homeschool.  I am currently mother to a 5th grader, a 1st grader, a Kindergartener, a Preschooler, a Toddler, a 6 month old baby, and I’m pregnant with baby number 7.  One of the challenges I face daily is what to do with my little ones during our homeschool time, when they want to be a part of all the fun and are not really old enough to participate in much.  When Timberdoodle gave me the opportunity to choose an item from their Toddler Core Curriculum to review I was a very happy woman!  I received the Guidecraft 3D Feel and Find as well as the Toddler Planning Folder. 

My 2 and 3 year old boys have loved the 3D Feel and Find.  Inside the cloth bag are 20 rubberwood shapes with 20 puzzle boards.  The puzzle boards have a bit of extra room for each piece to fit, making it easy enough for my 2 year old to have success doing puzzles all by himself.  I love that this is a sturdy tool that will last through multiple children!We’ve played with these a lot of different ways.  First we did the puzzles.  I found that for my 2 year old Oliver it is important to only offer him a few puzzle boards and pieces at a time.  When the entire set is out he has trouble finding what he needs.  His big brother Daniel needs the challenge of using the whole set at once though.We’ve done a guessing game by putting a few of the wooden shapes into the bag.  A child reaches in the bag and feels a shape.  They then try to guess what shape they have before they pull it out. Sometimes the boys just want to play with the wooden shapes.  They act out things with the animals and trees, or they try stacking them into crazy towers. Another way we have used the 3D Feel and Find is for learning and practicing colors.  With Oliver we simply ask him what color a shape is, or to find a green shape.  Daniel takes it further and sorts the pieces into piles by color.Let me share a little bit about the Toddler Folder as well.  Inside this folder are pages of information with ideas for using each of the items in the Toddler Core Curriculum.  There are articles about teaching young children through play, homeschooling, and even disposable toys versus childhood tools. Another helpful page in the folder is a recording sheet that lists the components of the Toddler Core Curriculum and has day of the week boxes to check off when you use an activity.  I really like this because in a glance I can see what activities have been used recently, as well as remind me of all the options we could be using that week.  It would be easier to get a variety of activities in this way because I would see when we were getting in a rut.  Guess what – the Toddler Folder is available free as a PDF, so you can read the articles and see the recording sheet yourself by clicking here.

Timberdoodle offers Complete Curriculum Packages for babies through 10th graders.  While you may or may not be looking for a complete curriculum, their packages are a great place to gather ideas for age-appropriate materials.

{Disclaimer:  I received these materials free to review as a member of Timberdoodle’s Blogger Review Team.  I received no other compensation and all opinions presented herein are my own.}

Makayla Turns 10!

Today Makayla is 10 years old.  Happy Birthday Sweetheart!  Yesterday she got flowers from her Daddy to celebrate: In the afternoon Makayla had a birthday party with friends and family.  She chose to have a Harry Potter theme and we had a lot of fun with it.  First the children were sorted into houses: Then they had wand practice:Potions class was next:The potion was foaming and came very close to spilling over:They also did pin the letter on the owl, played a game similar to hot potato where they passed around the snitch from quidditch, and so on.  It was a lot of fun!

It was neat to see the presents she received because they were all things she would have chosen herself and she has been playing and crafting ever since.  She got a mini-American Girl doll:An outfit for her 18" doll:And many craft kits, from clay and friendship bracelets, to sewing and other fun activities.  As I type she is working away with one of the craft kits, being productive while she waits to go to church.

Eleven Years Ago…

Eleven years ago today I stepped through the doors of the Columbus Ohio Temple and started my forever.  I was 19, he was 22.  Both oldest children but with very different personalities, we’ve had ups, downs, and everything in between, but we’ve done it all TOGETHER.  I have to say that God has blessed me so much in my marriage.  I got all the things I wanted plus all the things I didn’t think to ask for in Jason.    Here we are 11 years later:Aww, just as I was getting ready to post this there was a knock on the door – flowers!  Stargazer lilies were in my bouquet, they’re still my favorite flower.  Thanks sweetheart!

Week in Review #5–Art and Play and Popcorn

This week we began implementing our 4 R’s focus (read more here).  We’re spending time in our scriptures first thing each morning, then we work through math, spelling, reading, and writing.  This has been a lot of fun, mostly because the children then have lots of time to play.  It is fun to see the things they gravitate towards.  One day this week I saw this:Makayla was playing piano just because she loves it, the middle four were play with Citiblocs, and Caleb off to the right had just noticed the blocks.  After this picture he army crawled his way in the middle of the fun to chew on a few Citiblocs. 

On Thursday Joseph and Emma finished their Hoppin Popcorn study, so I’ll share a few pictures.  We had a lot of fun with this one and now Joseph has an entire notebook with lapbook about popcorn and the states that are the top popcorn growers.  Here are some of his pages:

He learned about corn plants.  Did you know that not just any corn can be popped?  It takes a specific moisture content to pop.  Too much or too little and you’re out of luck.

We learned about five different states that are major popcorn producers. 

We even learned some of the crazy things corn is an ingredient in.  Eww!  I didn’t share pictures of his lapbook, but you’ll see a few of the pieces as you look at Emma’s next.Emma did the lapbook portion of Hoppin Popcorn only, skipping the notebook.  Here is the inside:   On the left is a graphing piece, then an accordion full of popcorn related vocabulary. 

She took the state notebook pages and made them into flaps for her lapbook. 

The girls seem to have gotten bit by the drawing bug, all they have done for the last several days is draw.  It always amazes me to see Emma’s artwork.  She is only 5 and her drawing are nearly as good as her 10 year old sisters!  Want to see some of their creations? 

Makayla did these two.  The top one is an elf riding a horse.  The bottom is a horse in a field with the barn nearby. Emma’s first picture is a princess on her royal horse.Makayla’s next picture is a thorny lizard.  He looks quite fierce, doesn’t he?  Emma’s baby horse was a boy.Makayla’s giant anteater.Emma’s hermit crab.Makayla also drew a nest with a cardinal family.

In other things this week we’ve just tried to stay cool.  That meant eating lots of homemade popsicles and playing in the sprinkler.  Today seems to be destined for thunderstorms, so the windows are actually open.

That’s all for our week.  What have you been up to?

This post is linked to the Weekly Wrap-Up.