It's been a low-key kind of winter. New Daddy thought he had less vacation than he actually had, so we didn't plan a trip or go too far away. Just a few days' visit with family, a nice day at the beach, and then back to catching up on math (Do all homeschoolers catch up on math over their breaks? Are we ever ahead? At least Bubby is on schedule, and Cutie finally is now. Precious has to complete a whole book this semester to catch up.)
Precious has completed her first semester of Challenge A, and the difference that vision therapy has made in her ability to read/study/focus has been phenomenal. She has loved reading It Couldn't Just Happen for rhetoric. She's a little meh on map-drawing, but she gets it done. It seems incredible that they will draw the entire world, including all of the countries at the end of the year. But the mid-year exam was the Western hemisphere, and that went pretty well! She is enjoying the Latin, and I'm sort of keeping track of things (hehe).
Precious also took up a morning babysitting job for another CC community, alongside a retired homeschooling grandmother. She adores her "babies" (mostly toddlers) and brings home the cutest stories. She enjoys the extra cash for doing something that comes naturally for her. Interacting with smaller humans is one of the most notable of her many gifts.
Bubby auditioned into district honor band- the only 6th grade flutist. He bought his own instrument and a method book on Amazon with his birthday money a year and a half ago. Using the fingering chart in the back of the book, he has been self-taught until he began playing flute instead of trumpet in band this year. Having a piano background definitely makes it easier to pick up on new instruments!
Bubby has taken over the chicken duties, which in the winter means bringing in their water if temps are going to be below freezing, and running it out first thing in the morning. Some mornings, I take the water out; but for several of the past few mornings, he's set an alarm for 7:00, delivered the water, and gone back to bed. Over the past year, we've had a few heart-to-heart talks about responsibility, and he has become quite dependable.
Cutie is just the neatest companion. She is content wherever you take her, and she doesn't talk too much. But if you ask her opinion, she gives it with spunk and frankness. She plays imaginatively with Tater while the others have school. She accompanied New Daddy on a truck shopping trip this week, and New Daddy is pretty sure that her presence is why he got such an amazing deal! She's just as comfortable off playing by herself as she is giving a presentation in front of a group. I guess that's a typical middle child-- they're super-adaptable!
She's despising me making her do cursive for her CC copy work right now, but it's coming along very nicely! She is also zooming through her multiplication. To reinforce memory, she has to correctly complete the online drill for the lesson under a certain time constraint. Then, she's allowed to take the test for that lesson. I learned the hard way to not let students fly through the lessons without reinforcing memorization! She's handling it very well. Skip counting is a good foundation, but it's great to see kids proud of knowing the facts without having to skip count.
Tater is getting along well with his reading, handwriting, math, and CC memory work. We're not sweating the memory work too much, but he enjoys learning things and sharing what he knows. He plays a lot imaginatively and enjoys electronic games a bit more than he probably should. The youngest children always get to do more stuff because of their older siblings. The other day, I got a belly laugh out of him planting himself, superhero-style, arms and feet spread, in front of the automatic doors at the grocery store to "make" them open for us.
He is accomplished with several chores, like unloading the dishwasher and refilling toilet paper from the basement closet. The older ones are teaching him how to fold towels. Last summer, he and Bubby practiced the manly art of rooster taming, and it was a hilarious sight to behold! Now that he's not scared of the Silkie rooster (who is a bit weird about chasing children), he enjoys playing outside on his breaks from electronics. He'll take scraps of food out to Rosie and the chickens. When it was warmer, he did make it a habit of attaching Rosie's leash and walking that eternally patient canine around the backyard... That was pretty much the cutest thing ever when they were about the same height. His latest saying is "Mommy is my superhero," which totally melts my heart.
Last month, Andrew Pudewa (founder of IEW, the company that publishes the writing program used in Essentials) was doing a local workshop, and New Daddy and I went to hear him in the evening. His talk on reading aloud for literacy and neuron-connecting through memory work was just beyond outstanding. For us, it galvanized the benefits of memory-based programs like CC. And made us much more resolute in reading aloud to the children. Right now, we're reading Lois Lenski's Blue Ridge Billy at bedtime. Sometimes I read Ambleside Online poetry.
When I think about the path of our homeschooling journey, I am a bit in awe at God's hand in it all. Back in 2007 and Precious was 2, I had wanted to do something "classical-ish", but with a Charlotte Mason lens. And here we are, reading aloud, listening to Story of the World, copying our CC memory work, drawing maps, and getting outdoors whenever possible. It's pretty much the way I wanted to do school before I had the focus to make it happen. CC focused the lens for me... and I'm pretty amazed.
Randomness. Did you hear that double spaces after periods aren't necessary anymore? A friend posted this on facebook today, and I'm still in denial. But I did try it while filling out a web form today. It was tough! But if you don't want to look old (i.e. 37+, hahaha), you should use single spaces after periods now. Just, wow. My kids are telling me I've been wrong all along, making them double space everything, hahaha! This is the only paragraph in which I observed this rule, by the way. It is torture; I'm using the backspace key a lot.
Okay- snow! We got our second snow of the season this week! I really enjoyed being home to catch up on laundry and sit in front of the fire. Those blasted Bradford pear trees are apparently good for something: harvesting the branches that threaten to split the tree and burning those things! Clean-burning firewood, renewable resource (hah). And the wood smells good when it burns. Snow is fun when the power stays on, you have firewood, and the snow melts within two days.
We had been praying about a truck, because finances just didn't look good for one at the prices we were seeing; but at 309k miles and only 5 seats, the old F150 was ready to retire from our ownership. New Daddy wanted a vehicle with 4 wheel drive that could also transport our whole family (to Lake Tugalo, of course!). Two weeks ago, New Daddy drove all over Atlanta looking at trucks, but nothing worked out. Some were sold before he even arrived, one was missing a steering wheel, etc... Then, last Saturday, he found a 4 year-old F150 and haggled the price. After he bought it on Monday, the dealer showed him his original invoice. The dealer had actually paid more for the truck than we did. He was a Christian, and maybe when he saw Cutie and all of her spunkiness, cuteness, and contentment, he wanted to help New Daddy out. God bless that dealer. We got exactly what we needed for a great price.
So that might be all of the news for now! Feels good to have the blog caught up a bit.
Cousins at the beach on 12/23/17
Precious has completed her first semester of Challenge A, and the difference that vision therapy has made in her ability to read/study/focus has been phenomenal. She has loved reading It Couldn't Just Happen for rhetoric. She's a little meh on map-drawing, but she gets it done. It seems incredible that they will draw the entire world, including all of the countries at the end of the year. But the mid-year exam was the Western hemisphere, and that went pretty well! She is enjoying the Latin, and I'm sort of keeping track of things (hehe).
Precious also took up a morning babysitting job for another CC community, alongside a retired homeschooling grandmother. She adores her "babies" (mostly toddlers) and brings home the cutest stories. She enjoys the extra cash for doing something that comes naturally for her. Interacting with smaller humans is one of the most notable of her many gifts.
Bubby auditioned into district honor band- the only 6th grade flutist. He bought his own instrument and a method book on Amazon with his birthday money a year and a half ago. Using the fingering chart in the back of the book, he has been self-taught until he began playing flute instead of trumpet in band this year. Having a piano background definitely makes it easier to pick up on new instruments!
Bubby has taken over the chicken duties, which in the winter means bringing in their water if temps are going to be below freezing, and running it out first thing in the morning. Some mornings, I take the water out; but for several of the past few mornings, he's set an alarm for 7:00, delivered the water, and gone back to bed. Over the past year, we've had a few heart-to-heart talks about responsibility, and he has become quite dependable.
Cutie is just the neatest companion. She is content wherever you take her, and she doesn't talk too much. But if you ask her opinion, she gives it with spunk and frankness. She plays imaginatively with Tater while the others have school. She accompanied New Daddy on a truck shopping trip this week, and New Daddy is pretty sure that her presence is why he got such an amazing deal! She's just as comfortable off playing by herself as she is giving a presentation in front of a group. I guess that's a typical middle child-- they're super-adaptable!
She's despising me making her do cursive for her CC copy work right now, but it's coming along very nicely! She is also zooming through her multiplication. To reinforce memory, she has to correctly complete the online drill for the lesson under a certain time constraint. Then, she's allowed to take the test for that lesson. I learned the hard way to not let students fly through the lessons without reinforcing memorization! She's handling it very well. Skip counting is a good foundation, but it's great to see kids proud of knowing the facts without having to skip count.
Tater is getting along well with his reading, handwriting, math, and CC memory work. We're not sweating the memory work too much, but he enjoys learning things and sharing what he knows. He plays a lot imaginatively and enjoys electronic games a bit more than he probably should. The youngest children always get to do more stuff because of their older siblings. The other day, I got a belly laugh out of him planting himself, superhero-style, arms and feet spread, in front of the automatic doors at the grocery store to "make" them open for us.
He is accomplished with several chores, like unloading the dishwasher and refilling toilet paper from the basement closet. The older ones are teaching him how to fold towels. Last summer, he and Bubby practiced the manly art of rooster taming, and it was a hilarious sight to behold! Now that he's not scared of the Silkie rooster (who is a bit weird about chasing children), he enjoys playing outside on his breaks from electronics. He'll take scraps of food out to Rosie and the chickens. When it was warmer, he did make it a habit of attaching Rosie's leash and walking that eternally patient canine around the backyard... That was pretty much the cutest thing ever when they were about the same height. His latest saying is "Mommy is my superhero," which totally melts my heart.
Last month, Andrew Pudewa (founder of IEW, the company that publishes the writing program used in Essentials) was doing a local workshop, and New Daddy and I went to hear him in the evening. His talk on reading aloud for literacy and neuron-connecting through memory work was just beyond outstanding. For us, it galvanized the benefits of memory-based programs like CC. And made us much more resolute in reading aloud to the children. Right now, we're reading Lois Lenski's Blue Ridge Billy at bedtime. Sometimes I read Ambleside Online poetry.
When I think about the path of our homeschooling journey, I am a bit in awe at God's hand in it all. Back in 2007 and Precious was 2, I had wanted to do something "classical-ish", but with a Charlotte Mason lens. And here we are, reading aloud, listening to Story of the World, copying our CC memory work, drawing maps, and getting outdoors whenever possible. It's pretty much the way I wanted to do school before I had the focus to make it happen. CC focused the lens for me... and I'm pretty amazed.
Okay- snow! We got our second snow of the season this week! I really enjoyed being home to catch up on laundry and sit in front of the fire. Those blasted Bradford pear trees are apparently good for something: harvesting the branches that threaten to split the tree and burning those things! Clean-burning firewood, renewable resource (hah). And the wood smells good when it burns. Snow is fun when the power stays on, you have firewood, and the snow melts within two days.
We had been praying about a truck, because finances just didn't look good for one at the prices we were seeing; but at 309k miles and only 5 seats, the old F150 was ready to retire from our ownership. New Daddy wanted a vehicle with 4 wheel drive that could also transport our whole family (to Lake Tugalo, of course!). Two weeks ago, New Daddy drove all over Atlanta looking at trucks, but nothing worked out. Some were sold before he even arrived, one was missing a steering wheel, etc... Then, last Saturday, he found a 4 year-old F150 and haggled the price. After he bought it on Monday, the dealer showed him his original invoice. The dealer had actually paid more for the truck than we did. He was a Christian, and maybe when he saw Cutie and all of her spunkiness, cuteness, and contentment, he wanted to help New Daddy out. God bless that dealer. We got exactly what we needed for a great price.
So that might be all of the news for now! Feels good to have the blog caught up a bit.
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