Breathers are so good

The holiday season always seems to bring about a need for pausing and breathing. Maybe it's the almost halfway point or the reminder that we really cannot do it all and the birth of a SAVIOR makes that okay.

We have been trying to steer the children away from the overcommercialized idea of Christmas and really bringing it back to what it is all about.

Advent is a threefold celebration of the birth of Jesus, his return to earth, and his ever presence in our lives right now. We have decided to incorporate small bits and pieces of these ideas into our daily routine to allow our children to understand that it really isn't just about one day and lots of presents, but a time to prepare and set ourselves apart and to make sacrifices to glorify God and his only-begotten Son.

We are reading a book called "Jotham's Journey" which is about a 10 year old boy who is on an adventure to find his lost family. His journey will take him across Israel where he encounters thieves, robbers, and kidnappers, but also runs into wise men, shepherds, and innkeepers until he finds his way to his family-and to a Savior born in Bethlehem.

We have made an advent wreath and each evening one of the boys lights the candle, we snuggle up on the couch and do the daily reading. Then someone else gets to blow the candle out. (I don't know what the big deal is about blowing a candle out, but it can create quite a raucous around here.) The older boys seem to really be enjoying the story and at the end of each reading, there are a few Bible verses relating how what Jotham is experiencing to God's love, guidance, and forgiveness of Israel.

Elijah and I made a paper Advent chain, where we wrote different people we can pray for each day on very link. The children are taking turns tearing off a link before mealtime and then praying. They love that the chain is getting smaller.

We are doing a few other things and really enjoying starting some new customs that will hopefully instill good ideas and memories within our family.

Love,
Amy

Inuit Carving

So, I am having the worst time getting a good picture of Dante's soap carving, but I hate not to add it.

Did you know?

The Inuit live in areas within and near the Arctic, from the northeastern tip of Russia across Alaska and northern Canada, to Greenland. The Inuit call themselves by words that mean "the people." In Canada they are Inuit, Yupik in Alaska and Yuit in Siberia. Historically, they carved images of the animals they've hunted or in traditional myths and stories they told, or as toys for their children. Today the Inuit carve to make works of art to sell and support their families. Most Inuit carvings show polar bears, walrus, seals or Inuit hunters and are carved from soapstone, a soft, talc-based stone that easily accepts carving techniques.

The fruits of my labor...aahhhhh!

The perfect homeschool in MY home this morning.

I slept in until 6:50, so missed my opportunity to grab a shower without the children being awake before Rich left for work. Dante says, "It's okay, mom. Go ahead and get a shower and I will tend to Izzie." HHMMMM?, my first thought. But considering my other options (not getting a shower and being stinky all day), I go for it. Quick. Quick. Quick. Because I hear no bickering, arguing, yelling, or screaming. I have not been interrupted, so I am sure someone is locked in a closet or um, maybe tied up with a lasso and a bandana around their mouth? As I walk out of the bathroom, what do my wandering eyes should appear?
Three children all cuddled on the couch, under a big blanket while big brother reads Ducky Goes to the Zoo.
Life is good. I am thankful God has been SOOOOO forgiving of my mistakes in raising my 10 year old. If only I would be more patient and know that my Savior is faithful even in the little things.
Love,
Amy

Homemade pinata

Well, we wrapped up our Mexican study with a fiesta. Rich stopped by the local Mexican joint and grabbed some goodies and I whipped up a few things to accompany the tortillas. We had planned on making them from scratch, but time got away from me. We talked a bit about what we had learned about Mexico over some good food and the kids couldn't wait to bust open the pinata they had made.
Unfortunately, the pinatat had split, so Rich had to do a little repair with his Army tape. Although it didn't look beautiful and we didn't have time to paint it, the kids had a blast hitting with a bat and gathering the treats from inside.
We travel to Canada for the next couple of weeks and then WE ARE TAKING A BREAK !! We have been moving full speed ahead, missing one maybe two days of school since the middle of August. We started when Rich went back for teacher training week. I will post of few photos of our Canadian art projects and then will be MIA for a bit.
Love,
Amy
So........maybe I will not post a pic. It seems that we have lost a few photos over the last couple of days and our ghetto pinata was one of them. No redoing of that craft. :O)

Annual Field trip

We do not get out on too many field trips, so they are pretty special when we do. Our Home Front Co op organized a trip to a local corn maze. I figured we would be outside and running through corn. Doesn't get much more family friendly than that. Also, my sweetest friend, Amber, her helpful hubby, Tom, and their children were going and offered to help with my little ones...THANKS SO MUCH, GUYS!

We did have a super time. Aside from the chilly weather, it was really cool. There were 4 acres of corn maze, a hayride, games, and lunch. I am sure we couldn't have picked a better field trip to attend this season.

Love,

Amy

New England Pumpkin Cake

At the conclusion of each country we study, we will "celebrate" by making a food from that country.

Dante chose a New England Pumpkin Cake to end our study of the United States.

When I asked if he wanted to do it together....? "I can do it myself," said the independent, self-sufficient 10 year old boy and, HE DID! What an AMAZING job. The cake was delicious and very pretty, too.

Early American Quilts

Did you know???

Quilting bees, or quilting parties, were one of the favorite social times for women of the early American colonies. They would meet and work together, working on one quilt at a time until each person had a completed quilt. Quilting also made good use of fabric scraps; quilters developed simple and intricate unique American designs. Many quilt designs have been passed down for generations and are still being used today.

A sample of our American Quilt made by Dante.

Science notebooking on Wood

Just to spice things up a bit, we decided to do our Science Journal entry on a piece of wood with our new woodburner. We are studying the desert and Dante and I are both surprised by how many animals actually do live in the Desert. You would think with as dry as they are...God is so creative in that He has provided such variety, even in a dry and dusty desert. There is no way to ever get bored studying all of His Creation.

Dante burned a Red-Tailed Hawk, which is often mistaken for an eagle. This bird has a rufous-red coloring on the upper tail , broad wings, and a rounded tail.

I think he did a super job. Now, if we could only find some cheap wood to burn, we'd be in business.

Love,

Amy

North American Art

Once a week, we will be including art projects that coincide with the countries we are studying. The projects will mostly come from a book entitled Global Art.

Did you know?
Over 100 years ago, the Sioux Indians did not write their stories down like we do today. Instead, the painted pictures on rawhide that would tell about important events in their lives and in the tribe. These rawhide drawings would then be tied to sticks called "coup sticks." The sticks were useful for retelling stories of events gone by.

Our events gone by??
Dante
1. shooting bb guns with Elijah
2. chasing Franklin
3. hunting
Justus
1. scribble, scribble, and scribble
Elijah
1. shooting at birds with a bb gun. (hhhmmmm?)
2. riding a horse at the Brentwood County Fair (it was really a pony..sssshhh)
3. a previous aluminum foil art project

My Father's World

We started a new unit study curriculum this year. It starts out with a year long study that focuses on Geography, called Exploring Countries and Cultures. The first 2 weeks was an introduction to the idea that there is a great big world outside of where you are and it was ALL created by OUR CREATOR, God. We ended the 2 week study by going on a treasure hunt, in which the boys had to follow a map in order to find the treasure and by baking a cake that we decorated to represent the World.

Our first stop is North America, where we will explore The US, Mexico, and Canada.

Love,
Amy

Wednesday Nature Time

The curriculum that we are following this year, My Father's World, incorporates a time to spend outside in Nature each Wednesday. We are just heading to local parks with notebooks and pencils in hand to journal the children's "finds." Yesterday we headed to Riverside Park where the kids played for a few minutes and then we walked around a paved path in the gorgeous sunshine. Because most of my children are too small to understand the concept of "nature finds," we are just focusing on getting out into God's creation, even if it is just to soak in some Vitamin D.

The best part of yesterday's Nature Time was Dante literally getting stuck in the tire swing. I have not laughed that hard in awhile. It actually took me and one other lady to "unstick" him. How funny. The littles were chucking acorns at him while he was vulnerable. Nothing like a great opportunity for a lesson in compassion.

Love,
Amy

The letter M

I am making a true effort in catering to most of the learning styles by just incorporating them into our everyday doings. The boys have always been very hands on. (I do believe most children learn best by doing.) We decided to play guess the "m" Play dough creation yesterday. Can you guess the "m" objects? The boys just enjoy doing this kind of thing so much. It makes "school" so much more gentle and enjoyable for us all.

I found this Electricity Science Lab at the Goodwill for $3.00. Although a bit involved, it is great fun while the littles are napping. Dante is recording his findings in his Science Notebook, too. Great way to sneak in some writing activities.

Love,
Amy

Here we go, Week 3

The first two weeks of school went super well. Last Wednesday I wound up with a wicked migraine that lasted for 2 days. UGH! Dante severely cut his thumb with a very sharp buck knife. (see homepage for full story) We were able to stay on track for the most part. We started week 3 with a fun activity for the kids called Ball and Cup game. They took Styrofoam cups, punched a hole in the bottom, strung yarn through the hole and attached an aluminum foil ball to the end. Once they got the hang of it, they had quite a bit of fun. Izzie's fun was just hitting the boys with her ball. The boys are such good sports with her...most of the time.

While the littles napped, Dante and Elijah did an art project from the book Art Appreciation where they listened to a story about an amazing piece of fruit. I gave them blank trees in which to draw their idea of what the fruit may have looked like. It was cool to see what they both came up with.

We did a bit of Math and Language Arts and now the boys are in the back yard playing Calvary.

We are hoping to get our History and Science curriculum here within the next couple of weeks because we are excited to get that started, too.

Love,

Amy

Self made Unit Study

Dante was browsing through The Usborne Encyclopedia of World History. It has some beautiful illustrations. He was reading from the section on the first humans and decided to recreate some of their weapons. Dante, Elijah, and Justus all made clay pots from dirt. They were actually pretty solid, until I dropped 2 of them. Dante also went on to create an arrow, a wooden knife, a leather sheath, and a tomahawk all from things that we had in the house or in the yard.

It is just amazing to watch your children self teach. Knowing that not only is God filling in the gaps where we are missing, but are children are teaching themselves in the areas that they are interested in.

Love,

Amy

Pudding Paint

There are so many times that God gives me the opportunity to be thankful for all of these little ones that scamper under my feet from 6:30am until 8:30pm. Today was the perfect example. We need to do some Art for school and I really did not have anything prepared. A few weeks ago, I bought an Arts and Craft book at Sam's, so I whipped that out to grab an idea. Pudding Paint...hello. What better form of art than the edible kind? In less than 5 minutes we had a super art project going in the carport and all of the children were completely happy, messy, but happy. If my kids were older there is a chance that "Art" would not be so simple. I love that we can do super easy fun activities, call it "school", and have a blast. Yes, they did all eat their projects.

Love,

Amy

Day 2 in the life of our homeschool

Even with Rich home today, we have had a productive day. We have already had to move the schedule around a little bit to accomodate some crazy crazy toddlers and preschoolers who just refuse to sit still for anything. We decided to switch our morning academic time with the afternoon quite time/craft time. It seems to have worked a bit better to wait until the crazy little ones are napping in order to have the house quiet for academics. Both Dante and Elijah have a hard time concentrating with lots of noise around them.

Anyway, for craft time today, we cut out sponges and painted with them. The children made some beautiful art work. Elijah did cut his hand, but it was all better with one bandaid. Even Isabella enjoyed her first big paint project. Of course, she could not resist painting her hands and booster seat. Justus wound up in the bathtub with a blue head of hair. Dante made a beautiful cowboy picture.

We also painted the carport window with a stale beer and espom salt mixture to made "Jack Frost Crystals." It kind of worked, but not sure if it worth the beer smell every time you walk in or out of the door.

Elijah played a phonics match game and Dante reviewed adverbs and regrouping.

We also read the story of Jacob and Rebekah out in the sun and it was such a glorious reminder of why we are home. Why are house is so nuts. Why we love being together. We just LOVE being able to all of these things to the GLORY OF GOD and calling it OUR HOMESCHOOL. What a faithful and maginificent God we serve.

Love,

Amy

Back to school

We started our official school year today. Rich and I have worked together in coming up with a schedule that we both feel will balance out a day in the life of a momma and 5 kiddos. It allows us some structured academic time, some artsy fartsy time, and some good old fashioned play time. Using the schedule today proved very productive.

6:15....mama gets up, excercises for 25 minutes, starts coffee, showers, and starts breakfast

7:30....breakfast, Bible reading, clean up, brush teeth, room tidy

9:00....math and lang. arts with older boys/music time for little ones

11:00...lunch and clean up

12:00....naptime for littles/quiet reading, history, and science for older boys

3:00....arts and crafts and free time

5:00...dinner and clean up

I am sure we will be tweeking this schedule a bit as the school year progresses, but for now, we will work with it and hope that we see some good productive, calm days.

Today, Dante worked on Categorizing in Lang. Arts and he reviewed multiplication facts in Math. Elijah put together a phonics alphabet puzzle for Lang. Arts and wrote the #'s 1-20 and did some simple addition in Math.

All the children (except Cheyanne)made a hot air balloon out of tissue paper and used a hair dryer to fly it. This led to a total tissue paper extravaganza. The boys each tried to make kites out of tissue paper and sticks. Justus decided to set off some "fireworks" in the carport with 2 sticks and a rock, representing the matches and fireworks.

Their imaginations just amaze me. We also spent a few hours at the park with the Sullivans and my kids had a blast. Both Dante and Elijah thanked me for making time for them to hang out with friends. The kids were pretending to me Billy the Kid, Jesse James, and Annie Oakley on this little wooden bridge....great fun and super memories.

I will have to say that our first day of school was blessed.

Love,

Amy

Lazy summer days

Although we are doing a bit of schooling this summer, we are enjoying a nice relaxing break from our normal. The break has been so Divinely time by the Lord with the arrival of Cheyanne.

Elijah is completing his Sing, Spell, Read, and Write and moving forward with the Math U See Primer. Dante is working at finishing SOS Language Arts on the computer and cementing his multiplication facts with some practice worksheets.

All 3 boys are participating in the Summer Reading Program at the local library. Dante has started reading chapter books ON HIS OWN !!! WWWWOOOHHHHOOOO! Elijah, Justus, and I are enjoying reading a ton of books out loud in order to be able to put stickers are their charts, which they will be able to use as prizes at the end of the program.

I will update with our plans for next school year when time permits.

Love,

Amy

Schooling in Spring

I just LOVE homeschooling in the Spring. Once the first flower blossoms start poppig up and the first butterfly flaps her wings, I never doubt our choice to homeschool. The kids are so good at a self lead education when it is nice out. Today, they decided to go on a butterfly hunt in the adjacent field. We packed a butterfly net and butterfly tent and enjoyed an hour running around chatting about how awesome our God is for blessing us with this rebirth of the Earth every year. I think they were able to catch 4 by the time they were worn out. I included a few photos...totally hilarious watching them run around the field trying to swat at these baby butterflies. I really needed a video camera. I was completely doubled over belly laughing. Enjoy!

Love,

Amy