School

I've been asked by numerous people what we do for school or what we are doing this year. We are very eclectic in our approach to school. We sort of follow a classical model, but throw in some Charlotte Mason, some workbooks and some confusion and that's what we do! :-) This year we are changing things a bit more. Mainly, we are trying to not focus so much on academics and instead focus on character issues. With a move last year, a baby and lots of sickness, we are having some pretty big character struggles with our kids (and ourselves at times!). Our hope is that we can maintain minimum structured academics (math and reading) and spend more time working together and enjoying each other while getting the other academics done (science, history, language arts). How is this all going to work? I am not sure at this point. You know, I always have this vision of what school will/should/could look like and very rarely does it happen that way. :-)

Here's what we are planning. My (good) day will start with us all getting up, getting dressed, eating breakfast and doing devotions together. Then we will get some chores done - some every day ones and (hopefully) one "big" chore we can do together. We've been trying this model for about 4 weeks now and some days it works, others, it doesn't. The days it works are the days I am on top of things, staying on top of the kids and making it all happen. If I let my guard down for a while (get on the phone, get on the computer, take a shower!, go to the bathroom - ha ha - only partly true) it all seems to fall apart. Obviously, the goal is that this will start happening without me hovering, but for now ... After all that, I'm trying to get Little Bit down for a nap (around 9) and then we do math. If we don't do math first, it will NOT happen. Again, we've been following this part for about 4 weeks and mostly it's happening. The hardest part of math is trying to have 4 kids do math at the same time - at 4 different levels. Trying to switch my brain from the preschooler and teaching him shapes, numbers (and he needs help nonstop and is NOT quiet about asking for it - or patient) to jumping over and teaching the 6th grader how to divide fractions. My brain is worn out by the end!

So far that is all I've been doing consistently. My goal for right now is to get at least one other subject done during the day. We've done an ok job at geography. We're using A Child's Geography, which is very friendly to all the kids and yet isn't boring for our oldest. For history we will be studying the Middle Ages through the Renaissance (ought to learn how to spell that word - took me a few tries!). We'll have the kids listen to Story of the World vol 2 on CD and then have readers and read-alouds to go with it. My dream is to have everything sort of correspond with history - music, art, literature... Not sure we will accomplish it, but I want to try. Science is chemistry this year and we're using a fun science, Real Science 4 Real Kids. We've used this before and the kids loved it. The experiments are easy. Also, the Pre-Science books correspond by chapter with the regular books, so we can keep all the kids on the same chapter. Eric is planning on keeping up with the science with them.

Now, language arts. We've tried many different things here. This year, we will try to drop all the different parts and combine it into one. Instead of grammar, spelling, writing, vocabulary and handwriting (although Anne is learning cursive and Dawn is learning typing), we are going to notebooking/journaling. The idea there is that when they learn something in history or science or take a field trip or go on a hike, they journal about it and draw pictures about it (art!). So far this has been working great for the girls, not so great for Joseph (he's almost 6 and hates drawing and writing). We're still working on it though. Joseph will dictate to me and I write it down. Oh, so how does that cover language arts? Well, if they have errors in spelling, grammar or poor penmanship, we correct it and they can rewrite.

I'm sure I'm skipping a few things here, but it doesn't matter. You get the main idea of what we're trying to do. I guess I've had pretty rough time trying to juggle 5 kids, 3 not really doing school, 2 heavily into the academics, plus the rest of normal life. I know, I know, I have many friends who seem to do this well. I can't. I don't know why, but I've just struggled so much with it this past year.

What I was really hoping to post about here was how God has been trying to open my eyes to stepping back from the academics and trying to enjoy the kids and work more on character issues. I had some good quotes and everything! But, if you're like me, this blog post is long enough and you have other things to get done. Maybe I will post about that subject another day. :-)

Monday Morning

Little Bit is sitting on the floor next to me, pulling popsicle wrappers out of the trash and sucking on them. And I'm letting her. Gross, you think? She is the 5th, so my standards are way low, and it is Monday morning, so they're even lower than normal. #2, 3 and 4 children are running around taking silly pictures with my digital camera. And I'm letting them. They aren't fighting (too much) and are having fun (mostly). #1 child is playing in her room, trying to stay away from the chaos. :-) I envy her sometimes.

Apparently I skipped reading blogs last week. Or writing on mine. Not sure what happened. We have started school and I'm finding that to be slightly overwhelming. But I was still on the computer, so why didn't I read or blog? Maybe I was actually attempting to be responsible and pay attention to my kids. Nah, that can't be it! :-)

While attempting to catch up on blogs this morning (and ignoring my kids), I caught this from my cousin/friend, Melissa:

"For as long as I can remember I have felt that, at some point, people 'grow up,' they figure out life, and they know everything. They have wisdom and act upon it. They know what is best and they do it. And I've been wondering, subtly, in the back of my head, for years...'When will I reach that place? That grown up place where I know the answers, I have life figured out, and I am wise?'
I am laughing now, as I write this. There is no grown up place. There is no easy ride. I think I am learning to resign myself to the fact that I will always be learning more, growing more, developing a sense of who I am and how I operate and how to go forth in the world, until the day I die."

Lately I've been wondering this too. When will I finally feel like I'm the grown up? It sort of surprised me when I realize that there are younger moms out there, younger wives - who might even look at me and think I'm OLDER and therefore maybe a little bit more grown up. Yikes! That's actually a little scary. Part of me recognizes that, yes, I am more grown up than I used to be (of course when you're as immature as I was, it's not hard to grow up some!). But part of me also knows I have so stinking far to go. And, sadly, some days I don't want to be the grown up. I want to be irresponsible. I want to just play and have fun. I want to be the babysitter! :-) Most days I want an adult to come over and tell me what to do! :-) Then Eric comes home and I'm irritated with him for being the adult and not just wanting to play and wanting to let me play.

Along with this train of thought is that I really get to feeling trapped by being an adult some days. When I was a young adult, my goal was to have fun. That's it. I didn't want marriage, kids, responsibility, a college degree, a career. I wanted FUN. What happened??? :-) Most of the time I love my life - even with marriage, kids, responsibility ... But some days I look around and wonder how I got here. :-) Can I just ditch it all for a few hours and play? Not worry about cleaning the house, cooking meals, training kids, teaching school, being a wife. Being able to eat whatever I want because I'm 20 and don't worry about my fat butt and hips. Ahhh, now wouldn't that be nice?

All right. My kids have been neglected long enough. I have 2 kids crying next to me (well, whining). The oldest is asking when we can start school work (yes, she IS crazy). The baby needs a nap. The odds of a fight starting are increasing by the minute.

Time to go pretend that I'm the adult! :-)

Boys II

Apparently I've become very adept at ignoring my boys and their "boyishness". Last night, we were getting a bedtime snack. Joseph was getting his pajamas on in the boys room. Since David and he are unable to get along very well, and Little Bit was already asleep, we had David come into the kitchen to get his pajamas on. David threw his pajamas on the counter (they landed on a dirty griddle) and I was picking them off and straightening them. It barely even registered when David pulled his underwear down, bent over, faced his bum to me, grabbed the sides of his bum and said "pssss". Then he stood up, pulled his underwear up, turned to me with a HUGE grin on his face and said, "Ha ha, I sprayed stinky skunk on you!" At this point, it finally registered just what he had been doing. I tried to not laugh too hard, looked at Dawn and she just said, "Joseph does that ALL the time in the basement. He even did it once when we had company." So, if you've ever been sprayed by a stinky skunk in my house, I apologize! :-)

School

Lately everyone keeps asking me when we are going to start school this year. I usually want to rip their heads off and scream "NEVER". Instead I just say, "we're not sure." For obvious reasons, this past year was just rough. Every time we did school I just wanted to STOP and do nothing. I was behind in so many things and school just felt like a chore. We've decided to change up the way we do school this year - mainly to do more things together, including the boys in it. This means doing a whole lot more hands on, outdoors, active things! Good for all of us! Lots less of "school work".

Saturday before supper, Dawn cleaned the school room - without being asked. She asked me to come down and see it and then, she cornered me. "When are we starting school, Mom?" "Ummm, why, do you WANT to start school?" "YES. I'm bored." "Well, I guess we can start Math on Monday." Her reply?????? (Remember, this child is NOT in love with math - her worst subject.) "Yippee!" Oh goodness, what kind of a person am I raising here?

Needless to say, we started school today. I'm not thrilled, just because I don't feel ready. Not that I will feel ready in another month, or 2 months, or a year... I don't feel like I have a "plan" in place. Like I know exactly what we're doing for every subject. Like I have the school room organized. When I started complaining about this last night, Eric said, "so what, it will get done." I actually started crying a tiny bit. Who are we kidding? We're so behind and so unorganized at this point, when will we ever find time to get "ready" for school?

Today we did devotions, chores, math, art and geography. We're planning to head over to my sister's this afternoon and make bread - that counts for something. Oh, and the chores included cleaning out the crayfish tank (did I mention the kids caught a crayfish and it is now our pet?), cleaning up the dog poop in the back yard and cleaning out the cat litter. A pet chore day!

Boys

My boys crack me up all day long. Last night they were outside making "Poison Mud Soup." How cool is that! They are also REALLY into this "Nature's Yucky" book. I walked in the house this morning, AFTER MY RUN, and David calls to me, "Mom, we're eating bee throw up on our cereal!" Every time they have honey now, they tell me they are eating bee throw up. Yum. Makes me want to have some honey. Most days there are one or two things they do that I think I should blog about. If only I was able to get to the computer quickly every time!

I am SUCH a Bad Mom!

This morning, Dawn, our 11 year old, informed me that I was spoiling Little Bit. She did say this with a laugh, so don't get worried that Dawn was being sassy. Here are a few pictures of Little Bit while I was "spoiling" her.






Now, she is so happy! How could I have been spoiling her? I mean, a little bit of whipped cream on the high chair tray to keep a baby happy can't be spoiling her, can it? We were getting breakfast made, reading devotions while we ate and, look at how contented and happy she was. :-)

I guess she was referring to the fact that as soon as Little Bit squawked at me, I gave her more. Well, she can't say "please" yet. Or even "more". :-)

Running

I ran this morning.
Alone.
5 minutes walking, 5 minutes jogging, 2 minutes walking, 5 minutes jogging, 3 minutes walking.
Maybe it's a walk/jog then?
It felt good.
I didn't pee.
Nothing fell out. :-)
My lungs are in worse shape than my muscles!

I have a few things to post about today. Hopefully I'll get a chance.