Miscellany Monday–Random Things

Today is a perfect day to participate in Miscellany Monday, so that’s just what I’m going to do!

~1~

Our Family Home Evening lesson on The Plan of Salvation went well.  During the lessons everyone helped put together this poster I had colored and cut pieces out for ahead of time.Then they got to work on creating their own.  Some don’t really like to color but love the gluing together part. Others love to color. And cut out. And make faces while working.It takes all kinds, right?

~2~

Today’s homeschooling is done and went rather well for a Monday morning.  Everyone worked cheerfully, new lessons were begun in math and writing, and Caleb was content to play in the dining room while we worked.  We also read two more chapters in Peter and the Starcatchers – it’s really good!

~3~

I have officially decided time needs to slow down.  Tomorrow is November!  I am NOT ready for Caleb to turn 1 in November.  It doesn’t seem like a whole year has passed since he looked like this:But now he looks like this:And to think I’ll have another little man born in less than 12 weeks is a bit daunting.  Where does the time go?

~4~

I love my Kindle.  Really, who doesn’t love a great big library shrunk down into one itty bitty device that is as thin as a pencil?  Now if only it were inexpensive to replace some of the regular books I have on my shelves with the Kindle format.  For example, I love The Work and the Glory series enough that the books are falling to pieces quite literally.  To replace the whole set (9 books) will cost me almost $90.00 ($9.99 a book).  Sigh.  I think for Christmas I’ll be replacing some that are in the worst shape, but not all of them.  There are several with no spine that are also missing a front or back hardcover as well.  They’ll be first on my list.

~5~

Dinner needs cooked soon and unfortunately that means I need to go wash up the muffin pans from lunch.  Corralling children to unload the dishwasher is also in order, so it’s time to get moving. 

What miscellaneous things are on your mind this Monday?

Week 2 of Memorizing The Family Proclamation Begins

Did you miss it?  Last week I shared free printables to help families memorize The Family: A Proclamation to the World.  I broke the Proclamation down into 10 weeks with generally 3 sentences to learn per week.  I promised to post our progress each week, so here’s the first report!
Week 1 had us learning the following portion:

“We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.
All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.”

Several times each day we gather the family together to repeat after mommy, daddy, or big sister.  The first day we did a family home evening activity on the blessing it is to have bodies.  We also took time to discuss the doctrines from this section throughout the week. 
By the end of the week we also started ‘taking the reciting challenge’.  Anyone who felt ready could recite all by themselves.  Anyone who was feeling feisty could also challenge someone else to recite, usually poor daddy, who is not quite as handy at memorization as the children are.
Today we add week 2’s portion to our reciting.  One of the keys to really learning and retaining the whole piece is that we recite everything we’ve learned every time.  So this week we’ll say week 1’s portion immediately followed by the new material for week 2.  It really helps to cement the entire piece. 
Week 2’s sentences are as follows:

“Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.
In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave.”

We plan to have a family home evening lesson on the plan of salvation, beginning especially with a focus on our premortal existence with our Father in Heaven.  We’ll be using a combination of three Primary manual lessons.  I’ve linked them below and you can go read them or even download the lessons with links from each page:

1. Heavenly Father Has a Plan for Me from Behold Your Little Ones nursery manual – This has a simple lesson for our littlest ones centered around the song I am a Child of God.  It also includes a craft page to make a little mobile with words and pictures to go with the lesson.
2. Heavenly Father’s Plan for Us from Primary 6 Old Testament manual – This lesson, aimed at my older children, gives us scriptures to read and discuss as we use included printed pieces to put together God’s plan visually. 
3. Jesus Christ Was Chosen to be Our Savior from Primary 6 Old Testament manual – This lessons goes more in depth on the account in Moses 4:1-4 and Abraham 3:27-28 of Jesus Christ being chosen in the premortal life to be our Savior, our acceptance of Heavenly Father’s plan, and the War in Heaven where Lucifer(Satan) rebelled.

Most likely we will cover these over several afternoons or evenings throughout the week.  I also have a file folder game where the children can practice putting the Plan of Salvation pieces in order.

How is your memorization going?  It’s not too late to join us, just start with week 1 and get to work!

I'm also linking this post up at Miss MOE's Memory Monday!

It’s Christmas Time CD by Eclipse–Review & Giveaway

Christmas is coming and my family loves to begin listening to Christmas music well in advance.  Imagine the excitement when we received a new CD to review: It’s Christmas Time by Eclipse, a six member a cappella group, features ten new arrangements of Christmas music for a wide variety of styles.  The tracks are as follows:
1.  I Saw Three Ships
2. Come All Ye Faithful
3. Shake Up Christmas
4. O Holy Night
5. Need a Little Christmas
6. Christmas as a Child
7. Do You Hear What I Hear?
8. Christmastime
9. Let It Snow
10. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
It is simply amazing to hear these gentlemen sing.  I can hardly believe there are no instruments, but it’s true.  It’s Christmas Time is a joy to listen to!  You can go here to listen to previews of each song to see just what I mean.
The wonderful people at Deseret Book are offering one of my readers a free copy of It’s Christmas Time.  There are several ways to enter, leave a separate comment for each one you choose to do:

1. Leave me a comment telling me you want to win!  Please include your email address in this first comment so I can reach you if you win.
2. Go listen to a song preview here and tell me which you listened to.
3. Follow Our Busy Homeschool via Google Friend Connect, Email, etc. and tell me you do.

This giveaway ends Friday Nov. 4, 2011 at 9:00am Eastern and is open to US residents only.  Winner will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner will be drawn.
{Disclaimer: I received a copy of It's Christmas Time free to review from Deseret Book, as well as one to give away.  All opinions are my own.}

Heritage History Young Readers Curriculum–A Review

There are many ways to study history- from textbooks  that feed children bites of information and facts  to original documents and everything in between.  Reading living books that put our family in the time period is what works at my house.  When Heritage History offered to let our family review their Young Readers Curriculum, which focuses on the use of living books in electronic format for computer, Kindle, and other e-readers, or to print yourself, we were happy to accept.When our package arrived we found a packet of papers already hole punched called the Study Guide (to place into a binder) and a CD with the Young Reader’s Library – more than 80 books in digital format.  Technically, the Study Guide is on the CD, making a printed version optional.  The CD holds several file formats for each book enabling us to add each book to any and all of our e-reading devices (computers, laptops, IPod Touch, Kindle) or to print them. 

The Study Guide has the following sections:  

• The Young Readers Teachers’ Guide – This explains the contents of the Young Readers Library, the philosophy behind the Heritage program, historical divisions of books, timeline overviews, and more.
• Accountability Forms – A few different forms for keeping track of what your children read each week, or what you read to them.
• The Curriculum User Guide – Explains the entire Heritage Curriculum from the earliest ages through high school, what you’ll find in study guides for older ages, and recommended course sequences.
• The Electronic Text User Guide – This covers e-readers, how to get the books from the CD onto your e-reader, or how to print out the library and bind it if that is your desire, along with copyright information.

The Young Readers course is organized around five categories:

1. American History
2. European History
3. Ancient History
4. Bible Stories
5. Legends and Folklore

Unlike the older student courses, which focus on one civilization per course, young readers are encouraged to begin their acquaintance with characters and civilizations across time.  The recommended plan is to read one or more books from each category during your study, and with over 80 books you can continue this exploration of history for several years!  The books in the Young Readers Library were all written by children’s authors who loved their subjects and wrote for children – making the books interesting and engaging.

While good readers can work independently and narrate to their parent about what they read, the books also work well as read-alouds.  That is the direction our family went for the review period, though I also read some of the books on my own to get a broader view of the contents.  We’re using our Kindle to read the books.

One key feature I loved on the CD library was a summary of each book and each series.  I actually printed these out and added them to my binder, divided by category.  The title of a book does not always give you a great idea of its contents, but a summary does.  As I wanted to fit our reading in with our existing history studies this was priceless.  I’ll share just a few examples of what we’ve read so far.From the European History section we are currently reading The Story of Captain Cook by John Lang.  Looking in the Teacher’s Guide I was able to see that this book, if printed, would take 34 sheets of paper, which makes a story just under 70 pages long.  All of my children are enjoying this biography because it is written with children in mind.  It begins by introducing us to James Cook as a boy, taking us through his early life and learning before we discover the man he was to become.  In the Ancient History category we couldn’t resist reading Milo Winter’s Aesop for Children.  Being familiar with several of Aesop’s fables, my children were delighted to discover new-to-them fables that included illustrations from the original book.  The fables are also a short and easy read to slip into our day, which was fun.

Having just finished our study of Vikings when the Young Readers Curriculum arrived at our house, we took a few days to read portions from several related titles.  My 10 year old Makayla especially enjoys biographies.  There were times when we would read about someone in our regular history curriculum and she would ask if I had any more books about them.  Often, thanks to Heritage History, I did. 

Final Thoughts

I really think that for the price you can’t really beat Heritage History’s Young Readers curriculum as a choice to start out a child’s first acquaintance with history!  If you’re willing to forgo buying a printed version of the Study Guide (since it is on the CD already) you will only spend $24.99 for 86 books.  Those books will give you enough material to last well over a year if you’re following Charlotte Mason’s guidelines to read and savor each living book, giving your child time to live in the story. 

I love that it is all centered around stories!  There is not a better way for a young child to connect with the facts of history than to have it pulled together into a story.  The books included are well-written and we’ve enjoyed every one we’ve read so far. 

If you’re wanting a gentle history curriculum for your young readers or wanting a library of quality living books check out Heritage History!

{Disclaimer: I received this product free to review.  I was not required to write a positive review, I just really like it.  All opinions presented herein are my own.}

Five Things for Friday–Homeschool, life, details

I love Fridays because they signal the end of the school week, the end of my husband’s work week, and the beginning of concentrated family time all weekend long!  I also love taking time to look back over the week and record what we did, or did not, accomplish.

{1}

In homeschool this week we’ve pretty much accomplished all our goals from this post.  Makayla did not go on to chapter 7 in math because there was a unit test after her chapter 6 test, but she’ll be ready for it next week. She’s working on her typing and I caught a picture of her working on a final draft for writing.  Joseph and Emma are working really hard in their reading to me and I’m seeing Joseph really take a step ahead of Emma in this area.  Emma has been spending every spare minute doing art this week, drawing drawing and more drawing.  She is definitely my crafty girl.  Daniel’s favorite activity this week has been his letter pages from Starfall.  He writes and draws and then colors everything he possibly can on each page.  Oliver has been coloring and playing.  Of course, Caleb just wants to be where the action is.  If mommy is in the kitchen so is he.  If daddy walks past and heads to the bathroom Caleb follows.  When big brothers tromp past with toys in hand he follows.  He’s been loving the 3D Feel and Find puzzles we reviewed last June, and here you can see Joseph trying to teach Caleb about the color red.

The children ended up choosing Mary Poppins as our new audiobook.  Have you checked your local library for audio books?  Mine even offers them in a downloadable format from home – very convenient!  I think I need to find the sequels before we finish this one because they’re going to want them.  We also started another read aloud book as a family – Peter and the Starcatchers.  Wonderfully fun!

{2}

Sleep changes are happening and it makes me so excited.  Oliver’s big change is that he goes to bed with the rest of the big kids right into his bed.  No more staying downstairs to fall asleep on the couch.  I didn’t really have to do anything for this one though – he insisted he wanted to go upstairs with the big kids one night at bedtime, climbed in his toddler bed, and went to sleep.  He’s done it every night since.  It’s heavenly!  Now to tackle naptime…

Caleb’s sleep changes are slower.  I’m still hammering out the details of our sleep plan for him (read more here about his sleep).  What we’ve started with has been simple:

• We make sure to feed him real food shortly before bedtime, not just a bottle.
• When he wakes up at night his bottle is only 2 ounces, and only if he insists he wants one.  So far he insists (cries and takes out his pacifier to throw it on the floor, looks for his bottle).  This will be switched to water in the next week or so to see if we can discourage him even further from wanting a bottle at night.
• Put him in his crib really sleepy, but not totally out, giving him the opportunity to settle himself.  This is more successful in the middle of the night than during any other time.

What we’re seeing is slow but steady progress.  He is waking up less often (twice every night but last night, where he only woke once!).  He does still need a diaper change when he wakes, and that is really what is waking him.  He’s in cloth diapers and there’s no pretending he’s dry when there aren’t chemicals in the diaper to soak up liquid through a barrier.  I’m going to dig out some hemp liners from the basement diaper stash this weekend to see if that helps at all for bedtime diapers. 

{3}

I’m so thankful for friends and family who will watch my children when I have doctor’s appointments.  Some appointments I just bring along the children.  On Tuesday I had a checkup with my midwife and my glucola test for gestational diabetes.  The children were well behaved, enjoyed hearing Mason’s heartbeat on dopplar, and were interested or grossed out by the needles and blood draw process.  They got to ask questions about machines in the blood lab.  An hour and a half appointment was doable with six children, especially when it’s only a few minutes from home.

On Thursday dear friends came over with their three children to watch my six.  I had to travel into the neighboring big city for the ultrasound appointment with the perinatologist(see pictures of Mason from that appointment here).  Spending nearly an hour laying down for an ultrasound wouldn’t work with six little children along, so leaving them at home is a must. 

{4}

Remember that we’re using We Choose Virtues at our house right now?  And that I’m an affiliate?  That means I can share the newest coupon codes with you, so here they are:

• “family” for $3.00 off the Kids Virtue Poster, no expiration date set
• “Virtue15” for 15% off your entire shopping cart, no expiration date set
• “ourhouse” for $15.00 off the new Family Kit, October and November only

You may use one code per order.  In case you’re wondering, yes, I really will be sharing a review of We Choose Virtues in November, which begins next week.  Where does the time go?

{5}

There is still a little bit of time to enter my Hillary Weeks CD giveaway – you’ve got until tomorrow morning so go enter!  I’ve got another CD review coming up soon to get you in the Christmas spirit.  Keep an eye out for it because it will include a giveaway as well.

*    *    *

That’s all for this Friday.  I’m linking up to Five Things for Friday and the Weekly Wrap-Up or at least to their host blogs as they’ve not got their posts up just yet! 

Updates and Pictures of Baby Mason

Just a quick note today to invite you to come visit my newest post about baby Mason on my other blog.  Today was ultrasound day and I have some pictures related to his spina bifida and clubfeet to share that help me explain what’s going on with the little guy.  Click on Mason’s picture at the top of this post to go directly to that new entry, or click on Mason’s Spina Bifida Journal. 

Talking about Books –Book Club

Book Club rolled around again today – our picture book week this month.  My children were thrilled to see their friends as we were in Washington during the last Book Club meeting.  It was my turn to bring one of the picture books and I chose Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett.  In case you’re wondering, no, the book is not like the movie of the same name.  It’s better. Books always are, right?

While there were so many different activities that could have come from reading this book, I went with simple this time.  Near the end of the book the people of ChewandSwallow use stale bread and food to build boats and sail away from their town, where the weather has become downright destructive.  Landing upon a distant shore they use those food boats to build their new homes.  The children’s assignment was to draw a ship or a home made out of some of their favorite foods.  They worked very hard and no two houses or boats were the same.  The second book today was about favorites.  It told the story of three bear siblings whose parents assure them they are ALL favorites.  The family who brought that book had the children write down one of their favorite things on a slip of paper and we played a guessing game to see who we thought had written each item down.  It was fun and funny to hear what some of the children came up with.

After a full morning of play and learning with friends we came home and ate lunch.  Not too long afterwards Oliver was quite happy to lay down for a nap: You can just make out his stuffed tarantula behind his head.  It’s his favorite toy to sleep with.  He picked it out once upon a time at the zoo, when he was not a lot bigger than Caleb is now.  He’s had other short term favorites along the way and lately has been trying to confiscate stuffed animals from his siblings’ beds.  Daddy and I decided he should get a new stuffed friend for Christmas this year – and we were able to find one that matches a longstanding favorite topic of his – pirates!  Want a peek?  Cute, cuddly, and pirate-y! 

Speaking of pirates, we started a new read aloud today.  We’re trying out Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson.  So far the kids are hooked and so am I.

What are you reading aloud with your children right now?

Some Links to Current Homeschool Materials

I thought I would share links to some of the materials we’re currently using in our homeschool.  We do a mix of things and sometimes readers email to ask where they can find a product I mention, so here goes.

Math U See – Currently we’re using Primer (Daniel), Alpha (Joseph and Emma), and Delta (Makayla).WriteShop Primary A – Just started this with Joseph and Emma and love it!  I’ll do a post soon sharing how it not only is for writing, but provides them with personalized copywork of their stories, games, and fun ways to publish their writing – yay!All Things Fun and Fascinating – This writing book from Institute for Excellence in Writing is written for students in 3rd-5th grade and works well for my reluctant writer.  She’s currently learning about using a who/which clause while reading and rewriting a portion from the classic The Pilgrim’s Progress.  You can watch an introduction to this book here or download a sample here.

The Family: A Proclamation to the World memory work – You can get my free printables for this one here.We Choose Virtues – We’re doing character lessons with this.  I’ll have a review and giveaway in November, but until then check out my introductory post here for links.

Young Readers Curriculum – This history set is from Heritage History and I’ll be posting my review late this week or early next.  I love that it centers on reading aloud and that it fits in well with our regular history curriculum, which I’ll share next.Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation, & Epistles – This is our regular history curriculum from Simply Charlotte Mason.  We read living books set in the time periods and it’s so much fun!

Starfall Reading and Writing Journals – This is a freebie Joseph and Emma are using from the free reading website Starfall.com.  They’re starting with the Level I book and doing 2 pages per day generally, then we’ll move to level II. 

Starfall ABC Printouts – Daniel is using the Level K ABC Printouts that are also free from Starfall.com.  You can’t beat free!Typing Instructor for Kids Platinum 5.0 – Makayla has been all the way through this program once.  After a nice break of several months she’s tackling it again using a more challenging goal.  I linked the title to the site we purchased ours over a year ago because it has wonderful screen shots and descriptions of the entire program, but last I checked you can get it for $5.00 less on Amazon.

I think that covers all the items I’ve mentioned recently that we’re using.  If you have questions about any of these, or anything else we use in our homeschool just leave a comment!

First Sleep Logs for Oliver and Caleb

Did you know that health professionals consider sleeping through the night to be a stretch of 5 hours without waking? 

As I mentioned recently we are beginning to focus on some sleep issues at our house.  What we have is minor.  I remember when Oliver was the baby and Daniel was the toddler - waking 6 times a night between the two was normal life.  Things are not nearly that exhausting now.

The issues we’re hoping to change:

1. Caleb still wakes 2-3 times per night.  He also doesn’t go to sleep unless he’s in someone’s arms. 
2. Oliver doesn’t fall asleep in his bed for nap or bedtime.  He lays down on the couch and goes to sleep (usually easily).  Then I have a 33 pound toddler to carry up to bed at night.

See, like I said, nothing major but still inconvenient.  I’ve got a few pages left to read in The No-Cry Sleep Solution, then I’ll be going through The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers as well as a new-to-me book also by the same author – The No-Cry Nap Solution.  I love her books for several reasons:

• They’re informative.  There is a lot of medical knowledge out there related to sleep, she puts it in one place in easy-to-read format. 
• The approach is gentle and respectful of the child and the parent.
• There are many solutions to choose from when making an individualized plan for your child’s individual needs.

Yesterday and last night I did sleep logs for Oliver and Caleb both.  I thought I would share them here because then I’ll be able to find them later and see how things are improving.

Oliver is 2 years 8 months old.  He woke yesterday morning at 8:30am and then went down for a nap on the couch with his pillow, blanket, and stuffed tarantula at 1:40pm.  He slept for 1 h. 35 m. and woke up on his own at 3:15pm.  He fell asleep on the couch at 9:25pm.  I moved him upstairs to his toddler bed, where he slept until 7:50am today, a 10 hour 25 minute stretch. 
Total sleep for the day: 12 hours. 
Recommended total sleep for his age: 12-13.5 hours. 

Caleb is 11 months old.  He woke yesterday morning at8:30am and went down in my arms for his nap at 12:46pm with a bottle and pacifier.  I put him in his crib where he slept peacefully for 2 hours and 50 minutes, until 3:35pm.  He went to bed in my arms (with a bottle and pacifier) at 7:50pm.  Caleb slept for 2 hours 8 minutes before waking at 9:58pm.  A diaper change, bottle, and pacifier had him asleep in 9 minutes.  He then slept for 3 hours 28 minutes until 1:35am.  Repeated the same diaper change, bottle, pacifier routine and he was asleep in 10 minutes.  His longest stretch of sleep happened – 4 whole hours – and he woke up at 5:45am for another diaper change, bottle, and pacifier(awake for 10 minutes).  2 hours and 45 minutes later he woke up for the day at 8:30am. 
Total night sleep: 12 hours 21 minutes.
Total sleep for the day: 15 hours and 11 minutes. 
Recommended total sleep for his age: 13-14 hours.

When you look at it like that you see that neither of my boys is especially lacking in sleep.  Even Caleb, with all the night waking, is getting plenty of sleep.  In all honesty, I know that as we address his sleep association with the bottle he will begin waking less for the simple fact that he won’t wake up with so many wet diapers.  Now seems to be an ideal time to address it as he’s about to say goodbye to bottles all together, and I’m currently in the semi-energetic middle of pregnancy months. 

I’m sitting down with my husband this evening to write out our sleep plan for each child.  Wish me luck!

Are there any sleep issues bothering your house right now?  Have you ever read any of Elizabeth Pantley’s books?  She’s got titles on sleep, discipline, and even picky eaters – some of which I hope to read soon.

Every Step -Hillary Weeks CD Review & Giveaway

Hillary Weeks is one of the artists I love to listen to and today she is releasing a new CD – Every Step.  This album features songs written to lift others’ spirits.  There are eleven inspirational tracks that remind us we’re not alone on this journey in mortality, even when our path leads us to places we never expected.  God is there in the rain and fear and doubt, waiting for us to let Him in.  The songs are:

• That's Who I Am
• Find Me
• Right Here
• Beautiful Heartbreak
• Living Proof
• Stand Still
• I Will
• This Is Not Your Home
• Dancing in the Rain
• Past the Point
• All My Days

You can listen to four of these songs right now here.  Go ahead, I’ll wait.  Aren’t they great?  Well so are the lovely people at Deseret Book who are offering a free copy of Every Step to one of my readers! 

THIS GIVEAWAY HAS CLOSED. 
Congratulations to commentor #15:

The Alchemist said...

Thanks for sharing. I'd love to win this CD.

jennebeker at gmail dot com

October 26, 2011 12:25 PM

There are several ways to enter, leave a separate comment for each one you choose to do:

1. Leave me a comment telling me you want to win!  Please include your email address in this first comment so I can reach you if you win.
2. Go listen to one of the songs I linked above and tell me which you listened to.
3. Follow Our Busy Homeschool via Google Friend Connect, Email, etc. and tell me you do.

This giveaway ends Saturday at 9:00am Eastern and is open to US residents only.  Winner will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner will be drawn.
{Disclaimer: I received a copy of Every Step free to review from Deseret Book, as well as one to give away.  All opinions are my own.}

Parenting Questions Answered

A friend emailed me two questions a few weeks ago that I am just now getting around to answering.  Her questions relate to children who should be sleeping, and a little boy acting out.

“4 yo son and 2 yo son share a room, both take naps but 4yo will literally play and hassle with the 2yo instead. He also gets up and plays and then will come out of his room before I go get him, and then wakes up his brother. How do you get your kids to not bother the ones sleeping?” 

Our boy bedroom currently has the 7, 4, and 2 year old, while the 10 and almost 6yo girl share the other bedroom and the 11 month old is in mommy and daddy’s bedroom.  At naptime the current routine is to divide and conquer – the 7yo and 4yo go into their beds, the 2yo falls asleep on the couch downstairs.  {Prior to this we had my 7yo in my bed so his now 4yo brother could nap.  As Daniel(4) is napping less we’re putting them together.} 

Our rules are as follows:

• You must stay on your bed.  Period.  I will confiscate any toy you get out of bed to play with – locked away for a week or longer.  If you get up out of quiet time you go to bed earlier by 5 minutes for each infraction (or you can add time onto how long they must stay in bed for quiet time).
• You may have a stack of books to look at, these must be grabbed before getting on your bed at the beginning of quiet time.
• After the 2yo has fallen asleep I will turn on an audio book in the hall for other children to listen to.  This helps tremendously for the non-readers. 

My suggestions for your situation would be to try to divide and conquer.  Give the 4yo a separate place to begin (the couch, your bed, a blanket on the floor in the hall) and when his little brother is asleep move the 4yo into his bed.  An audio book with headphones may help if he likes listening to books.  When Joseph was the little guy he needed a clock in his room to see the time, with the number written that he needed to get to before quiet time was over.   

Kris’ other question is somewhat related:

“My oldest son will be 5 in January & has recently started acting out more.  He has also started getting up and waking up his siblings around 5AM … my 2yo is really missing sleep here. I guess overall I wanted to know if there is anything you could suggest I do?  We have tried redirecting him, and I do allow him books in bed, I don’t allow TV.”

Let me start by saying he sounds like a normal 4 year old boy.  Not too comforting, I know.  He’s right on the edge of preschooler and little boy.  Some days he acts like a 3 year old, other days he’s trying on 5yo boy ways.  It’s exhausting for him - and you!  Things you wouldn’t blink at him doing if he were still 3 are suddenly more frustrating simply because he’s ‘almost 5’. 

What I would do is set up specific expectations and consequences.  We have an early riser and he has learned he must stay in his bed until the clock says 7:00am.  No lights on, no waking others.  Like you, we don’t want to just let him go watch tv until others are ready to get up.  He is allowed to look out his window, lay there, or sleep.  Consequences for waking a sibling before 7am at our house would depend on the child – what is important to them?  For one child it is Legos, so he would lose Legos that day if he had climbed onto the sibling’s bed and woke them.  For another they might earn an extra quiet time, extra chores, etc. 

Are you awake before 7am or whatever time you think the 2yo needs to be sleeping to?  If so then you could also let your son come downstairs where you are with books when you are already up.  I do this for Joseph.  If he sees the light on downstairs before 7am it means I’m up and he can come down (he may not wake me up though).  He can lay on the couch, read a book, etc.  He must stay quiet because this is MY quiet time reading scriptures and waking up.  If he isn’t quiet he goes back to bed until 7am.

Other reasons for the acting out:

• Is he needing more mom time/attention?  Sometimes it’s easy to spend the majority of my time tending little ones or those who fuss.  All of a sudden one of my normally quiet kids will start acting out because they’re needing my attention and the ‘squeaky wheel’ is what gets the attention.  Try making a point to have some positive time with him, just a snuggle here, and book there, an invitation to be mom’s helper for a specific chore.  It’s not all play but it is all time with you and your attention.
• Is he getting enough exercise/movement in his day?  With wet/cold weather it gets easy to end up stuck in the house all day telling kids to ‘stop running’ and ‘play quietly’.  God made us for motion and children truly need to run and play and use those muscles every day.  They need physical work, be it jumping on an indoor trampoline or running circles or helping lift and carry laundry for mom.  When they don’t get enough energy out it gets redirected in less desirable ways (acting out). 

I’m right there with you in the boy department, as you know.  My boys right now are 7, 4, 2, and almost 1.  They have far more energy than a nuclear reactor.  The only other thing I really recommend is having a routine to your days.  It gives everyone a rut to run in, predictability.  Try planning specific active times, quieter activities, food, and so on. 

Oh, and enjoy every moment.  They don’t stay little forever, even if it seems like it right now.  Soon enough they’ll go to bed and sleep without fuss, you’ll have to drag them out of bed in the morning, and things will be different – still good, but different. 

Do you have questions for me?  I love sharing with others what works and what doesn’t at my house.  I’m happy to field parenting, homeschooling, or large family questions – simply leave a comment on this post or email me at tdrowlee@yahoo.com . 

Learning Plans for the Week

It’s Monday again and we’re ready for a new week of homeschool and life.  Around an ultrasound to check on baby Mason, an appointment with my midwife, and book club day we’ve got some regular learning planned.  I always do better when I write down the goals so here is what we’re hoping to accomplish this week.

Family

Daily scripture study – We continue in the Old Testament meeting Abraham this week. 

Hymns – Practicing some of our recently learned hymns before we start learning new ones.

Memory Work – We’re memorizing The Family: A Proclamation to the World.  We started week one yesterday.  You can learn more here and even download the free printables I made to join us each week.

We Choose Virtues – We’ve done three virtues so far and want to spend another week practicing these before we begin another area.  We’re currently practicing being gentle, obedient, and kind. 

Read Alouds – We’re reading many of the works of Beatrix Potter for book club this month.  They’re listening to some audio books (just finished The Lightning Thief and choosing a new book tomorrow).

History – One more week reading aloud with the Young Reader’s Curriculum from Heritage History.  I hope to share my review by the end of the week.

5th Grade

Math – Makayla will be taking the test for chapter 6 in MUS Delta and moving on to chapter 7.

Writing/Language Arts – She’ll do the next chapter in IEW’s All Things Fun and Fascinating.  It has her reading an allegory, writing a one paragraph version of the story, and focusing on using quality adjectives, strong verbs, and alliteration.  She’s also going to start her typing program over to see if she can improve her WPM and accuracy.

1st Grade/Kindergarten

Math – Joseph and Emma begin lesson 11 in MUS Alpha this week.

Writing/Language Arts – They begin WriteShop A this week with mommy.  They’ve discovered the joy of the free Starfall Reading and Writing Journals I downloaded, so they’ll do a few more pages in those.  They’re also reading to me daily with phonics practice in areas where they need it. 

Preschool

Math – Daniel has been doing MUS Primer for fun each day.  Honestly, he begs to do math and loves it.  Oliver is working on counting past 10 and practicing colors.

Writing/Language Arts – Daniel will be using the free alphabet pages from Starfall.com and reading to me from some of our early readers.  Oliver is playing alphabet games with some letter manipulatives we have.

* * * *

That’s the plan for the kids.  My learning this week is all about sleep.  I’m re-reading The No-Cry Sleep Solution and The No-Cry Sleep Solution for toddlers and preschoolers – both by Elizabeth Pantley.  Caleb will be transitioning to a toddler bed in the girls’ bedroom and saying goodbye to his pacifier.  Oliver will be learning to lay down in his bed to go to sleep instead of drifting off on the couch and having mommy carry him up to bed each night.

I also have two books to read and review: Jacob T. Marley by R. William Bennett and Great American Documents for Latter-Day Saint Families.  I haven’t decided which one I’ll begin first, and if I don’t hurry Makayla may steal Jacob T. Marley off my desk and read it first.   

What are you reading or learning about this week?

Memorize The Family: A Proclamation to the World with Us!

It’s time for some memory work!  Would you like to join us?  Read all the way to the bottom for a free file to print with bite-size sections!

I have a testimony of the blessings and importance of families. They are God’s chosen pattern for His children’s happiness and growth. Families come in all shapes and sizes, through many different circumstances. Satan is attacking our families like never before. The Family: A Proclamation to the World was written by inspired prophets and apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ to give us direction in how to strengthen and protect our families.

I know that the doctrines taught in this Proclamation, when acted upon diligently, will bring us happiness now and in eternity. Memorizing these inspired words will offer us a continual reminder of ways to combat Satan’s attacks on our families, of ways to develop our relationships for eternity.

Join my family in memorizing The Family: A Proclamation to the World. The plan is simple. I have divided the Proclamation into 10 weeks with generally 3 sentences to learn each week. At our house we’ve found the simplest way to memorize anything is to read it out loud together, with mom or dad saying a phrase at a time and waiting for everyone else to repeat it. Even non-readers can do this! We try to recite several times each day, such as at every meal and before bed. Just those four practices per day will have us all repeating the new material 28 times in one week. Usually everyone is able to say the memory work in unison at that point.

When a new week comes around we keep saying the part we’ve learned and start adding on the new section. Again, just keep saying it together and by the end of the week you’ll have said the material from week one 56 times and the material from week two 28 times. Can you see where we’re going with this? In 10 weeks you will have said some portions of the Proclamation over 250 times! Do you think you’ll know it by then? Oh yes!

To make it easy for everyone I’ve prepared some simple free printables, which you can download at the bottom of this post.  Page 2 of this file is the entire Proclamation on one page. Pages 3-12 contain the Proclamation broken down into 10 weeks of memorization bites. Pages 13-19 have the Proclamation separated into sentences. We plan to cut each sentence apart and let the children practice putting the Proclamation in order, adding in new sentences each week to the game.

I hope you find this file helpful, but let me just say this – DOWNLOAD the .doc format!  For some reason when Scribd converts this to a pdf is messes up the alignment and words end up shifting to the wrong page.  Grr.  Remember, the easiest way to eat an elephant (or memorize a long passage) is a bite at a time. I will post our progress each Sunday on and would love to hear your progress! Go start Week 1!  

Memorize the Family Proclamation

Happy Memorizing!

Five Things for Friday–Christmas, New Stages, Writing, and more!

{1}

Christmas planning has commenced.  We’re partway done with Christmas shopping for the kids - easy when we only buy a few gifts each.  We’re deciding what special books will be read in December.  Christmas with the Prophets has made our list so far for sure.  We’re picking the Christmas hymns we’ll be practicing – here is last year’s list.  Most likely we’ll stick with some of those, but I do want to see which ones Makayla is working on in piano as well, she can get extra practice accompanying us.   

{2}

It’s time to start moving little guys into new stages.  Caleb is 11 months old so we’re hoping to say goodbye to bottles and his pacifier in the next 4 weeks.  Oliver is 2 years 8 months old and he’ll be potty training in the next 4 weeks as well.  I’m going to re-read my favorite potty book first – The No-Cry Potty Training Solution by Elizabeth Pantley.  I really love all her books.  As a matter of fact it is probably time to re-read her sleep books because Caleb is running out of time sleeping in the crib in mommy and daddy’s bedroom.  Mason will need it.  Caleb will join his 3 big brothers in the boy’s room and sleeping through the night would make that easier. 

{3}

I’m grateful for a dry day today.  It’s not sunny, but it finally stopped raining.  All we’ve seen for two and a half days is rain, rain, rain.  I had hoped to leave all that behind in Washington at my sister’s house, but she tells me they’ve gotten our sunshine instead.  It figures.

{4}

I’ve been reading through the WriteShop blog the last few days.  Their blog has been active for several years and contains lots of fun ideas.  Remember how I mentioned here that God gives me directions unexpectedly?  Joseph and Emma have been asking to do “writing lessons” like Makayla does with her IEW materials.  I don’t think little ones need writing lessons – they need books read aloud, narration, and copywork for now – so I kept putting them off.  God finally gave me the nudge to look at WriteShop Primary A.  Lo and behold it uses narration, copywork, reading books, games, crafts for publishing the children’s writing, and is very gentle and fun.  I bought it this week (less than $30.00 for the ebook version) and hope to have our writing center all ready to roll out Monday morning.  It’s so easy that I may even let Makayla take a turn ‘teaching’ once a week.  She enjoys that and so do her siblings.

{5}

I think nesting is setting in early.  Everywhere I look I see things I want to rearrange, donate to Goodwill, or throw in the trash.  I think I need to set time aside on Tuesdays to work on it because trash day is Wednesdays.  I could keep a box on the porch for items to donate too.  Hmm.  I wonder if I can convince the kids it’s time to go through their toys again?  Now would also be a great time to work on organizing the attic storage because it’s no longer 100 degrees up there. 

Well, those are my Five Things for Friday.  I’m linking up with Heather over at Women in the Scriptures, why don’t you come on over and join me?

Ten Weeks to 2012

Autumn seems short and I realized that as of Saturday we have 10 weeks left in 2011!  That is the official point where Mason is no longer considered preterm.  Our current goal is staying pregnant at least until then.  I go next week for another Level 2 ultrasound to check his growth.  Hopefully we’ll see no signs of hydrocephalus yet,(fluid backing up in the brain), which is the one big thing that would push us into an early delivery. 

All of these realizations have also pushed to the front of my mind the fact that I need to evaluate where we’re at in homeschool and where we hope to be at the end of these 10 weeks.  Once Mason is here school will be on hold indefinitely.  We just don’t know how long his hospital stay will be, if there will be complications, and how long it will take to adjust to having a seventh child (who happens to have special needs). 

One of the blessings of homeschooling is the flexible schedule, which we plan to take full advantage of.  Our year doesn’t always end June 1st and begin September 1st.  As a matter of fact, most years is doesn’t.  I am trying to decide what ‘learning things’ I can prepare ahead so that school becomes grab and go once we’re home and settled with Mason, but I can’t really decide all that until I know where we’ll be in 10 weeks with current academics.   

So what am I doing to figure that out?

1. Praying – That’s right, my #1 tool right now is prayer.  I’m seeking the Lord’s guidance in where we need to focus our efforts for the next 10 weeks, what goals to reach for.  I know that if I set my own goals we’re bound to fail.  God’s plan is always the one that works best.

2. Evaluating where we’re at in current curricula – How many lessons into math books are we?  Have we mastered that material?  How are my beginning readers doing?  What is the next step on that path?  You get the idea….

3. Making the most of our time – As the answers to prayer begin to come line upon line I’m acting on them, instead of waiting around to have the whole picture laid out first.  This is one of the harder things for me to do.  I like to know the plan in full before I step out on a path.  I don’t like uncertainty, surprises, or partial explanations.  Yet God seems to delight in giving me directions without explanations, sometimes at the oddest moments, when I’m not actively thinking about homeschool or goals. 

Can you believe there are only 10 weeks left in the year?

Read-Aloud Thursday–Beatrix Potter Time!

I thought I would join Amy at Hope is the Word today for Read-Aloud Thursday.  Reading aloud is something we love to do at our house and right now we’re just beginning some new fun.  You see, we finally finished Pollyanna yesterday, which was wonderful.  (Really, if you’ve never read it please do!)  Many of our read aloud books are dictated by the choices we made with our book club friends, and this time is no exception.The next four weeks we’re doing Beatrix Potter month!  I’ve read many of her 23 stories over the years with various children.  We even own The Beatrix Potter Collection DVD and love it.  Last night we began reading The Tale of Peter Rabbit right before bed.  Our goal for book club was simple – read The Tale of Peter Rabbit and then any of her other stories we wish in the next four weeks.  I don’t have a favorite Beatrix Potter story yet.  I can’t wait to find out which ones my children decide are their favorites.  I think we’ll grab a children’s biography of Beatrix Potter to read from the library too.  I even have some lapbooks handy in case someone decides they need one.  The nice thing is that if you don’t have access to her books in printed format they’re available free online.  You can get them from Amazon in Kindle format for free without illustrations(and there’s a free Kindle app to read them with if you don’t have a Kindle), or you can find a lot of them with or without illustrations on Project Gutenberg. 

What have you been reading aloud lately?

Family Scripture Study Right Now

“Never let a day go by without holding family prayer and family scripture study. Put this, the Lord’s program, to the test; and see if it does not bless your home with greater peace, hope, love, and faith.” – Elder L. Tom Perry

One of my essential priorities I mentioned yesterday is studying the scriptures as a family.  We’re like any other family with lots of young children who find that it’s not always easy to gather everyone in one spot and it’s not always reverent once we’re together.  Sometimes it is hard to feel the spirit while wrestling the 2 year old off his big brother, keeping the 10 month old from eating the pages of the scriptures, and having an attitude from the 10 year old who was in the middle of “a really good part in my book, mom”.  It’s still worth the effort! 

Over the years we’ve done family scripture study many different ways including:

• Reading children’s scripture readers.
• Reading directly from the scriptures.
• Telling the story while looking at related pictures from the Gospel Art Book.
• Acting out the stories as we read.
• Drawing the stories while listening to mom or dad read.

We have recently started reading through the Bible with our children, beginning in Genesis.  While reading every word is a great goal, it’s just not realistic with four of our six children age five or younger.  We’re using The Storied Scriptures plan available for free here instead.  It focuses on reading the most memorable stories directly from the scriptures in manageable portions. 

I printed out the Old Testament chart and each day we read and talk about the next section.  Everyone takes a turn reading at least one verse, repeating after an older helper if needed.  We take time to ask questions, to define words, and to really understand the day’s reading. 

One helpful thing we’ve done is gather everyone’s scriptures into a crate that lives in the main room of our home.  There is no waiting for everyone to track down their scriptures, we just grab the crate.  A pencil and the reading chart are kept in the crate as well.  I think tonight I’ll be adding in some crayons and paper on clipboards to give little hands a place to draw what we’re reading if they’re having trouble sitting still.

What works for your family in scripture study? 

Any favorite tips for getting it done with little ones in the mix?  I’m all ears!

Avoiding Distraction, Staying Focused

How do you stay focused on what matters most amidst the day-to-day distractions of life?

I find myself so easily needing course corrections.  In case you’re reading this post to find out the answer let me just state up front that I don’t have an answer yet.  I’m still figuring it out daily, but I wanted to share a few things that help me.

Choosing Priorities

That’s right, I’ve got to have priorities and those priorities need to be ranked so I know what is essential and what comes in lower down on the list.  Without this I will never do what is most important because there will always be things that seem urgent but are not essential. 

How you choose priorities and what priorities you choose is an individual matter, but let me give you a hint – God has a lot to say about what is essential and He’s waiting for you to seek Him for the answers.  He’s even ready to remind you that His priorities for you will be individual and may not be the same as His priorities for someone else.  “To every thing there is a season” – what is your season?

Sometimes I find that the things God wants for my priorities don’t include what I think they should.  An example in my life right now is my children’s education.  I’ve always enjoyed the academics and we’ve done a wide variety of learning in our little homeschool.  Right now God’s emphasis is on foundations though.  He’s continually reminding me to strengthen a few key areas for each child and to let go of extras. 

Another priority right now is my own health through this pregnancy.  We’ve been making some changes in our eating that are going well.  I’m even enjoying it.  However I am being nudged to do some specific exercise time using a particular DVD.  Not only does that mean I need to find time in my day, but I need to find energy too!  It’s certainly not what I want as a priority, but it is what God is calling me to. 

One theme I have noticed Elder Dallin H. Oaks speak on in General Conference is this choosing of priorities.  Here are three of his talks that I highly recommend:

• Focus and Priorities – April 2001
•  Good, Better, Best – October 2007
• Desire – October 2011

Routines or Schedules

This helps in two ways.  First, having routines for priorities gives us a rut to run in.  We got home from vacation late Saturday night and into bed in the wee hours of Sunday morning.  However, being back in our familiar surroundings we had our routines to slip into, such as scripture study done at the table after dinner.  It took no extra thought or planning on my part, we just grabbed the scriptures and did it.

The second way routines help are in managing those day-to-day distractions.  I never know when the moment will come that a child needs me – be it for a snuggle, some discipline, or a heart-to-heart talk.  These moments can so easily be pushed aside when I’m too busy cleaning up the newest mess or trying to conquer a mountain of laundry that was left to pile up until it took over the house. 

Using routines for the housework keeps me free to stop what I’m doing because I know the household tasks have been maintained.  For example, I certainly could wait to do laundry until it piles up and fills every basket, but by having a routine of washing two loads every morning (1 of clothing, 1 of cloth diapers) I avoid the mess, the stress, and and entire day spent slaving over laundry instead of responding to my children when they need me.

Evaluation

I think the final key right now for me is to have a regular time to evaluate what my focus has been in the preceding week.  Sunday when the children lay down for quiet time I usually snuggle up on the couch with my husband and we talk about the past week as well as the upcoming one. 

• Has there been too much of a focus on one area? 
• Have we let something important slide? 
• Is there someone or something we need to spend more time on in the coming week?  
• Does the way we’ve spent our time reflect those priorities we feel are essential, or did we get distracted from the essential this week?

While I could do this evaluation on my own, and sometimes I do, I find that having two of us participate brings more perspective to the answers.  I can’t pretend to myself that things went well when he’s there to remind me of all the time spent on non-essentials.  I also can’t tear apart my week and focus on something small, blowing it out of proportion, because my husband is there to remind me to look at the big picture. 

What do you think?  How do you stay focused on what matters most amidst the day-to-day distractions of life?

Our Vacation Highlights in Pictures

I meant to post yesterday about our vacation but we were still just recovering from being gone for a week.  In case you missed it, my family flew from Ohio to Washington state to stay with my sister’s family for a week.  Originally we were to go with my mother and her husband, but mom broke her leg in our first airport (read more here), so my husband and I flew with 6 children while my mom went into surgery.  She’s slowly recovering, but it will be a long road as she broke her femur – ouch!

We had a wonderful time on our vacation with 14 people in one small house.  A bit loud and crazy, but fun nonetheless.  Between our two families we had ten children ages 10 years to 10 months old - the ages by the end of the week were: 10, 10, 7, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 10 mos.  I’m going to share some pictures from the trip with a bit about each one, so here we go! Early in our trip we walked to a park on base (my brother-in-law is in the Army).  It was a bit rainy but everyone enjoyed themselves.  There were not enough swings to go around – all of those children are mine or my sisters and the rest had to wait their turn. Of course, that meant they could climb the big rock in the park . . .or the little one.  Caleb wasn’t all that thrilled with the rock.  He preferred the swing:Another day we drove to Seattle to visit the aquarium and Pike’s Market.  It was raining, again.  There is an amazing set of touchpools at the aquarium with many creatures to touch – snails, hermit crabs, sea anemones, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, starfish, and more.  The water is pumped in from the sound, so it was icy cold.Caleb enjoyed riding along in the Moby Wrap with mommy.  He noticed some of the fish, including this lionfish – who shared a tank with a blue lobster.There were some birds (puffin), sea lions, sea otters, and more to see.  There were even these crazy monkeys:Oh wait, those were just the cousins acting crazy.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to get all 10 children together in one picture?  This was my best attempt that day.  Pike’s Market was amazing and packed, even on a weekday.  Some of the things were beautiful, others smelly (like the seafood stands).  I hate crowds and this was really stressful for me, but the children enjoyed themselves.  I just kept counting heads to make sure we didn’t lose anyone.Back at the house the cousins had fun playing, coloring, playing checkers, and generally just being together.  The boys played Legos and introduced my husband to the fun of the Ninjago sets that have guys on spinners.  There was even a night of smores around the fire. One day my sister even tried to kill me – we went to the Nisqually Refuge to walk and walk and walk and walk . . . my pregnant self just about kicked the littlest ones out of the stroller so I could get a ride.    We saw well over 50 wooly bear caterpillars and a lot of large slugs along one part of our walk.  That was neat, except for the fact that every few feet half the children would drop to the ground in a huddle to see the newest specimen.  It made for a very long walk. 

We finished out the week celebrating Joseph and Daniel’s birthdays.  Friday Joseph turned 7 and tomorrow Daniel will be 4.  Where does the time go?

Okay, if you’ve read the post this far you are either related to me somehow or you’re just really patient!  I think I’ll stop here and maybe post a bit about the flights later on.  Right now the kids are waiting for me to come read some more Pollyanna to them.