It’s been so long since I updated here. 

We are doing fine.  We spent some of the most frigid weeks of winter in the house, as it took too long to heat our schoolroom.  We are all moved back in now, and it’s nice.

A couple of cute stories:

When I gave Caleb his first lesson on subtraction I said something like this:  “If someone had three cookies and one was taken away, how many cookies would he have left?”  Caleb just sat there and then to my surprise he began to cry.  “I don’t like thinking about sad things like this,” he said. 

Today, I was doing a dictation with David and he didn’t know how to spell beautiful.  So I wrote it on the board like this:  “Beautiful.  Like Mommy.”  I added the last part just to be funny.  As soon as we were done, David was at the board.  He erased “Mommy” and wrote “Sarah” instead.  (His baby sister).  !

The other day Caleb got too close to a candle and started his Math paper on fire.  Thankfully it went out on it’s own and I also stomped on it. 

I read this in a children’s biography on Norman Rockwell and thought it was touching.  This was a good teacher:  “By the eighth grade Norman was drawing all the time.  Miss Julia Smith, his teacher, recognized how talented he was.  She told him to draw pictures to go with his reports:  ‘Revolutionary soldiers and covered wagons for history; birds, lions, fish, elephants for science.’  She urged him to draw a special Christmas picture on the blackboard.” 

Well, week eight has ended!  What a nice day of school we had today over in the schoolhouse above the garage.  It was as crazyish as usual, but not too bad.  I spun from one desk to the other…quizzing David on spelling words, reading Caleb his directions, keeping Seth busy, running to the house to check on sleeping Sarah, doing a dictation exercise with Jacob and Ethan, etc.  Oh, and I read a couple of books in the rocking chair with the little boys…one about the ABC’s and also Little Bear (such a dear book).

The room is slowing evolving into a cozy learning environment.  We have a few more things to do before I will take pictures of it all for the blog.

Anyway.  DRAWING has been all the rage here lately.  My kids go to their friend’s house for art lessons with a wonderful old lady who is in her 70′s.  She’s artsy through and through, her mannerisms and wardrobe, she is young at heart for sure and the kids adore her.  They are all artists now, really and truly.

Here is David, tracing.  This is a great activity for his age group.  Very rewarding and so fun you don’t even want to take the time to eat a popsicle.

He is holding a Star Wars coloring page up to the window, with a blank paper in front of it.  The arms get tired at times and then he takes a break.  He says his teeth NEVER get tired.

 

Ethan did this one of Mario.  He looked at a picture and drew it.

And this is Caleb’s (age 5) rendition of the same picture that Ethan used.  

I am sure you will agree that his is quite charming.  I even framed it for him. 

 

Jacob has been drawing daily for the last few weeks.  He just loves to draw and has made some pictures that he is very proud of.

Pencil and paper was all he used and he drew by looking at pictures.

 

He did a self portrait.  I put that scrap piece of paper over our last name. 

Another Star Wars guy:

 This man was an actor in the movie Lord of the Rings (which my children have not watched, but they read the books so they looked at “how they made the movie” book)~

I try to gather and save art work and I put it in a portfolio that I found on sale.  It’s fun to leaf through.

This is one of Jacob’s earlier works, and a drawing by Caleb; The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything (veggietales)

Buzz Lightyear, by Caleb

A drawing by Davy~

 

 

 

If the child tells me a random comment about their drawing, I write it down, like this one.  (“coffee” meant “copy” SO CUTE!!)

This went along with the above drawing.

We also have some REAL art books, to inspire us. 

Grace likes to draw, too, but I didn’t find any of her stuff today to photograph.

Do you like to draw?  Do your kids?  Do you take them to art museums?  Do you have any favorite artists or paintings?  Any good books for kids on the subject?  Whenever I see a “how to draw” book at library book sales I scoop them up.  Oh, and we also enjoy tracing Charlie Brown and Snoopy.

I love art, it really is a peaceful, soul-satisfying, enjoyable study.  God is an artist, you know, the best one!

Happy Friday!

Each child has his or her own space.  (very important to a family that shares almost everything)  

Each desk is set at the proper height for each student….making it much easier for writing.  

They each have a black student chair that is just the right size, too.

The desks make keeping track of books, supplies, and notebooks much easier.

They are fun.

The children LOVE their desks.  My heart is happy when I see my little students.  

Rich hung it up last night and wrote:  “The one who writes first on the chalkboard is probably the one who hung it up.  The children will always remember their school…..and their beautiful teacher.”

I am happy to say that we had another great day of school.  I worked with Caleb one on one, just the two of us.  I let him use the chalkboard to practice his letters.  Then, later on, when Seth and Sarah took their naps, I worked with David, Jacob, Ethan, and Grace.  We read about Roger Williams, the founder of Providence Plantation (Rhode Island).  I was impressed and touched to read that Roger Williams respected the Indian’s right to personal property, and when he offered to purchase land, the Indians GAVE it to him.

The children made a campfire this morning and the older three boys have been busy blacksmithing during every free moment.  They find pieces of metal, heat it up, and pound it with hammers to make (of course) swords.  I found a poem in McGuffey’s third reader about blacksmithing and read it to them.  I also read them an essay from the same book, on Beavers.  These two impromptu lessons were greatly enjoyed.  I need to remember to use their current passions as teaching opportunities.

It’s the end of another day and thinking back on it, I am happy with the way the day went.  I was tired out and overwhelmed all morning but we did end up getting our core subjects done.  David worked on reading, cursive writing (the letter L), and spelling.  I have been waiting for his math book to arrive for almost a month, I think I will call A beka tomorrow to see what’s going on.  Grace did cursive, Language Arts, and reading.  She didn’t get to Math but she did practice piano.  Jacob and Ethan completed all of their subjects, including Math.  They just started their new Teaching Textbooks Math…Jacob with Algebra and Ethan with Pre Algebra.  Caleb worked on printing the lower case “n” which was nerve wracking.  He would write the strangest lines and upsidedown n’s.  I showed him over and over how to do it and finally he got it.  He does better if I put aside the practice paper with all those lines on it and just let him use a blank white paper.  He did great with his numbers.

I’m most especially thankful for all the time we spent outside today in the sunshine.  The leaves are bright and colorful and the air is perfumed with the scent of drying leaves and cool breezes.  The robins are getting fat on the wild berries.  I also saw a small woodpecker up close in a bush.  I overheard Grace and David make-believing.  They were playing the “Bambi” story.  We listened to the unabridged audio book on vacation and it’s all the rage now.  I heard Grace say to David, “Now, I don’t want you eating anymore sticks again until winter.”  I’ve been chuckling over that all afternoon.

I was so happy to get all the children gathered together for a walk.  We took some pictures, too. 

And, best of all…..we got to see a beaver!  There is a beaver making a dam down at our stream and we heard it chewing, just like carrots.  We inched closer and closer and saw it in the shrubs, in the edge of the water, chewing away….busy as a beaver.  I got to watch it swim down the stream, with it’s stick in it’s mouth and it’s tail behind it, gliding along silently.  Beavers are very interesting animals and are actually a benefit to our ecosystem.  Did you know that the dams they make actually filter the water and make it cleaner?  We are all very interested in beavers, now, and read about them.

Every day we work in the kitchen.  Today Jacob made hard boiled eggs for egg salad.  David made himself scrambled eggs for dinner and his own peanut butter sandwich for lunch.  One of our men at church just came back from Iraq and brought the teen boys some army meals.  Jacob and Ethan had a great time trying them this evening.

We all cleaned and cleaned, too.  I am happy to say that the kitchen and livingroom are clean and we are all hoping for a much calmer morning tomorrow. 

Rich is over at our schoolroom, hanging up our chalkboard.  I sent Grace over with some chalk to tell him to leave me a surprising love note for tomorrow.  I wonder what he will write.

Seth is to bed, Sarah is nursing as I type (I just gave her a bath in the kitchen, by candlelight).  Jacob, Ethan, David, and Caleb are at the table, drawing by candlelight.

The boys have been calling Sarah BALDO all day. 

8:15…my eyes are dropping shut.  Peace and love to all who stop by here tonight~

I came across a paper that Ethan wrote and I almost died laughing.

 

Each Chicken Equals 5%

10% of our chickens lay green and blue eggs, while 50% of our chickens lay brown and speckled eggs.  The last 40% don’t lay either because they are chicks.  45% of our chickens stay with our rooster, and there are groups of other chickens that prefer staying in little groups without our rooster;  a 10% group, a 30% group, and another 10% group.  George dislikes some chickens but out of all 95% George only chases 5%.  The exact amount of laying hens is 60%.  About 5% lay behind the haybale, 5% in the barrel, 10% in the corner, and 40% in the nesting boxes.  15% of our chickens are roosters. 

 

 

How to Raise Boys who Read

 

I read this article this morning at my friend Christie’s recommendation.  Very interesting!  Thankfully I have boys who love to read, but I have noticed that they seem to prefer the DS lately.  Time to hide it for a while!

Jacob is in the middle of Tom Sawyer and loves it! 

 

Caleb and Seth playing with/eating playdough, together.

The children made little foil boats the day we talked about Columbus and his three ships.

Grace’s penmanship paper and one of our laminated map placemats.

We used to use Mr. Sketch smelly markers at school when I was growing up.  I still love the smell of them and when I found them at Target I had to get them.  Yum!

Here is Davy, working hard on his cursive writing paper.

We go to the library just about every week.  The children learn a lot by the choices they make.  Grace has been loving her books on Fairies.

 

David loves his cursive writing paper and looks forward to doing it every day.  Look how happy and proud he is!

These pictures are all from a couple of weeks ago.  I’ll have to update more soon.  They grow and learn and change so quickly.

Crazy homeschool moment of the day:  Me, helping G with her poetry, looking up some words on laptop on my bed.  Here comes Seth, who was out on the porch playing.  I lifted him up on my bed with G and I, only to discover that he had gotten into chicken poop.  He got himself, me, and my bedding stinky.  Had to stick him in the tub and change.  Meanwhile G is waiting for me.  I throw my bedding in the washer.  I get back to G and here comes J, with crying Sarah in his arms.  I finally get the computer on for Grace but could not hear it at all because of Seth “singing” in the tub.  Leave G with boys, watching video.  Go give Seth his bath and put Sarah on the floor of my bathroom, to wait for me….and on and on it goes….One thing after another.  

 

 

Bless her heart, this morning I let Grace read our history lesson on the Pilgrims.  She kept reading “prostitute” instead of “Protestant”.  She doesn’t even know what that means.   Yikes!