Great Family Day

Yesterday was a nice family day. We had a big breakfast of pancakes and strawberries, did some cleaning and organizing and then took a family nap. We headed out for a long (over two hours) walk around the neighborhood, we stopped in a grocery store and picked up some fruit and veggies and continued. We stopped at a pizzareia and ordered delivery that met us at home right about when we arrived from our walk.

We ate pizza and watched a discovery channel movie on the Space Station we rented from the library and then after the movie we got ready for bed and folded three loads of laundry, then headed into the library for some special family reading time. The kids were off to bed and Serona and I watched a movie with Sirah and I worked on another blanket. A great day.

Peace,
Tenn

Disciplined Life

I used to believe that balance was key to a happy and productive life. The older I get the more I realize that discipline is they key to balance. I need to be more disciplined with myself in a variety of areas of life: household responsibilities, finances, relationships, time management, eating habits, exercise and finances. It is not that these are out of control for me or my family - it is that they could always stand some improving and I am finally admitting I need to be more disciplined.

This is not an easy admission for me to make as I am a laid back easy-going person who often resists structures. But I am finally coming to realize that as the family grows we all do much better with some basic structure and discipline in our lives. we are all more at peace when the house is clean. The kids respond better when they can anticipate what is coming next. I will feel better when I am at a healthy weight which requires eating and exercise discipline. The bottom line I need to just stop talking about it and do it better.

I know what I need to do and it starts with going to bed earlier and getting up earlier. Two things I have resisted my whole life. It includes regular household chore schedules and more routines during each day. It requires a commitment to more exercise and healthier eating habits. For me it also includes a daily quiet time and limiting time I do things I enjoy (such as blogging).

I know I need to do it in babysteps and for me that means living with my timer and remembering I can do anything for 15 minutes. It is often stopping after 15 minutes that is harder for me.

Peace,
Tenn

Mommy Reading

Current Books Being Read:

The Glorious Appearing by LaHaye and Jenkins
Gathering Place by Thomas Kinkade

Your Three Year Old by Ilg and Ames
Your Four Year Old by Ilg and Ames

Making Room for Life by Randy Frazee
Wll Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer
Honet for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt

Current Audio Books:
Shepherd's Abiding by Jan Karon
Modern Scholar: The Modern American Presidency by Robert Dallek

Next in line:

Your five year old by Ilg and Ames
Siblings Without Rivalry by Faber and Mazlich
How to Talk so your Kids will learn by Faber and Mazlich
100 Best Books for Children by Anita Silvey
Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy

Keeping my calm

As you can imagine with three under the age of five there are times my patience is tried, today we had one of those moments. I must admit for all our reading we do - I do not care for arts and crafts and mess, so sadly my kids don't get to do it that often. Recently they have really wanted to paint - today I agreed _sigh_ and soon discovered why I've been so slow to. I convinced them to do water paints - which was not so bad - I threw out dropcloth down and put the easel on it and then let them paint for awhile - it was easy to clean up. My mistake was in agreeing to allow fingerpainting and with BLUE no less. It was going okay until they started sticking entire hands in the container at a time and squishing and spilling. I started to lose it and sent them to the bathroom to clean up - Rhiannon dripped blue paint on the carpet along the way. The easel was covered in blue paint and so was the dropcloth.

As I was cleaning the spots in the carpet and checking on the kids in the bathroom I hear very unhappy cries from the schoolroom. Sirah managed to crawl through the paint and somehow got it all over her face! I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or scream, I think I wanted to do all of them. Instead I grabbed my camera and took a picture, then carried her into the bathroom so her siblings could witness what their mess caused and cleaned her off. I proceeded to clean as best I could the rest, sending the kids to their rooms while I could regroup.

A little time passed and I realized I just needed them to go outside and run off some of the energy I apologized to them for losing my patience and expressed my frustration at the situation. I praised their artwork and creativity and sent them out to play. I suppose this is one of those moments I will look back on and smile (like my parents must now years after my brother and I decided to make it snow in our living room using Comet) and I'm glad that overall I kept my calm.

In the end we have some blue paint stains on a carpet that no doubt will see a million more stains with three children and an Australian Shepherd. We have content kids who have made some artwork and loved every minute of it, one ruined outfit of the babies (unfortunately one of my favorites)and some cute pictures. And we built a memory that will stand out for years to come.

Peace,
Tenn

Problems with Blogger

There appears to be some problem with blogger.com now - I'm trying to work it out. In the meantime, rereshing the page seems to work.

Peace,
Tenn

Tripping Down Memory Lane

MusicMatch Artist on Demand has been wonderful overall for our family. We use the Composer on Demand function daily and it saves us money from buying a bunch of albulms. I listen to internet based radio all the time now, and our music selection is almost endless for friend's visits and parties. However, there has been an unanticipated downside: it is very easy to relive your past through this.

I don't know about you - but for me music is so representative of stages of my life and there are a lot of memories attached to certain songs and artists. I find myself late at night listening to really random and old bands to see if I still like them or to figure out why I ever liked them in the first place and sometimes it brings back floods of memories I had forgotten (or tried to at least). Music Match has a similar artist function which makes it easy to follow your trail and history. I had a wide variety of music interests over the years (sometimes at the same time). Some recent blasts and flops from the past I've listened to are (in no order):

The Eagles
Don Henley (I saw a deadhead sticker on a cadillac)
Sophie B Hawkins
Tiffany
Belinda Carlisle
Fleewtood Mac (a nice now and again even now)
Gordon Lightfoot (reminded me why I liked him)
Van Morrison (still a favorite)
Billy Joel (You can take the girl out of NY but you can't take NY out of the girl)
Crosby Stills Nash and Young
Bruce Springsteen
Counting Crows
James (still listen to him)
Pink Floyd (will always be a fav - own near complete collection)
Duran Duran (wild Boys Hungry Like the Wolf?)
Tears for Fears (real genius)
Genesis (Gabriel and Collins)
The Police
Van Halen (I know many don't think of 5150 as "real" but dreams is one of my favs)
Rush (still classic)
Suzanne Vega aka Luka
Leonard Cohen
Cat Stevens
Harry Chapin (cat's in the cradle has new meaning)
The Cure
The Smiths (still listen to Morrissey and we own many "There's a Light That Never Goes Out)
Ramones
Violent Femmes
Billy Idol
A Ha (best video ever - of course i stopped wathing over 10 years ago)
Journey
Richard Marx
Night Ranger
BTO
Meatloaf (you're never gonna find a coup deville in the bottom of a cracker jax box)
Black Crowes
Phish
Grateful Dead
Beach Boys



I suppose I am giving my kids excellent "picking on me" grounds later in life. But it has beenn a fun stroll. Some I listened to for awhile - others went right off as I say "what was I thinking?" but mostly they brought back good memories

Too Many Pursuits

I am finding there are just too many good things to do with my time and I want to do them all. Some recent things I find myself choosing between for my limited "free time" are: blogging, crocheting, reading, writing my book, surfing the internet, and truth be told sleep. Soon enough biking and hiking will be added to that lengthy list. It is hard to make choices of what to do when. I suppose that is the same for everyone - sometimes I wish I had that time stopper that Hermoine had in the Harry Potter series.

Peace,
Tenn

A day of reading

We spent the better part of the day reading. When I was adding the books to our current list - I realized we read nearly 30 books today! Now many of them were short storybooks (I read to Sirah a bit today as well) but still I know I spent over 3 hours reading today. We spent nearly three hours at the library today - some of that time was spent looking for books and playing computer games - but we read quite a bit too. It was a good day - but I must admit to be all read out. I was planning on reading more of "The Glorious Appearing" my current book - but I can't do it. I also spent the past two hours cleaning out my email account (shame on me for not dealing with it as it comes in) I think I will crochet a bit and head off to sleep.

Peace,
Tenn

Starting Off S Week

It's been a good morning so far. We started with some phonics work in our library - while Ciaran and Sirah pulled books off the shelves to look at them. Rhiannon has come so far already - today she showed me that she has mastered blending three letter words with short vowel sounds - she no longer needs to sound most of them out.

We had some storytime this morning - each child picked two books and I picked some myself. Most centered around our S theme for the week. As we read we point out words and objects on the pages of the book that start with S. We read a few yesterday and spent the day pointing out words that started with s. Today we worked on our sound box- we collected toys and items from around the house that start with the letter S and put them into our book. Then throughout the week they can add things to the box and take some out saying what it is and what sound and letter it starts with. We went from room to room filling the box (we opted to not put the salt and sugar in from the kitchen! The kids really enjoy this activity and it does not take that long. It is a great springboard for the rest of the week as well.

We took some time to talk about hearts today - reading a book about children's hearts and looking at diagrams of hearts. Ciaran has his annual cardiologist appointment today - so we wanted to refresh his memory about what the tests entail and show him what his heart looked like. I will follow-up this lesson with a printout diagram from Enchanted Learning of the human heart and all the parts that make it up.

Rhiannon is working on her capital and lowercase S handwriting and when she finishes we will take a walk and see how many words we can find that start with the letter S. This evening we will work on our science project for our upcoming science fair.

Peace,
Tenn

We don't know it all

Serona does a nice job over at CyberEcology explaining how the general public and even the media are often NOT privy to all the information that our political leaders are (and there is good reason for that). This blog post is worth a read to remind us to be critical of what we read and that the media does not know it all either.

Peace,
Tenn

Zambia Lesson Plan

We read Zambia by Timothy Holmes this week. We actually only read pieces of it and discussed each of the pictures. My kids really liked the ones of children in slings. After that Serona took them down to the world map on the wall to show them where it was and then over to our globe to show them again.

They asked how long it would take to travel there and then Serona estimated a 16 hour plane ride. Since then we talked a little about why they want to visit and what they might see there. We have also been talking about Africa in general this week as we studied zebras and went to the zoo, so I was able to make some nice tie-ins.

Tomorrow we will look at the flag of Zambia and do some coloring sheets of African masks (they liked the one in the book) and trace the country's outline and practicing writing the name. A quick and easy lesson on a far away country with a simple book from the library and the wonderful resources of the "answer box."

Peace,
Tenn

Flower Shop Field Trip

Our homeschool group headed to a local flower shop for a fun field trip. On the trip the kids got to learn the history of the flower shop (seeing old pictures and learning stories about the founders and the way they built the business). They went into the main distribution center to see where the bouquets go to be shipped , they watched someone wrap up flowers for delivery, walked through the order center (where they take phone and computer orders), went into the freezer where they keep the flowers (here they learned about where the flowers come from and how they are kept until they are used and sent). We walked through the floral design room and watched many designers putting together a variety of bouquets and corsages. Each child on the tour got to plant their own impatient plant to take home and had a coloring sheet to bring with them. We ended the tour by walking through their wide variety of shops and ending in a gift shop (as all well planned tours do). I must admit to being surprised and impressed with Ciaran's behavior. He did very well through the entire tour, listening to directions and even paying attention and being quiet. It was a fun field trip and one I would recommend to others.

Peace,
Tenn

Flower Shop Field Trip

Our homeschool group headed to a local flower shop for a fun field trip. On the trip the kids got to learn the history of the flower shop (seeing old pictures and learning stories about the founders and the way they built the business). They went into the main distribution center to see where the bouquets go to be shipped , they watched someone wrap up flowers for delivery, walked through the order center (where they take phone and computer orders), went into the freezer where they keep the flowers (here they learned about where the flowers come from and how they are kept until they are used and sent). We walked through the floral design room and watched many designers putting together a variety of bouquets and corsages. Each child on the tour got to plant their own impatient plant to take home and had a coloring sheet to bring with them. We ended the tour by walking through their wide variety of shops and ending in a gift shop (as all well planned tours do). I must admit to being surprised and impressed with Ciaran's behavior. He did very well through the entire tour, listening to directions and even paying attention and being quiet. It was a fun field trip and one I would recommend to others.

Peace,
Tenn

Homeschooling in Minnesota

The Star Tribune's article For many, family room doubles as a classroom has some interesting points. Including:

"The Swans, of Brooklyn Park, are among more than 16,000 Minnesota children who receive their primary education at home. That number has grown by more than 20 percent over the past decade. Nationally, about 2 million students in 750,000 families are educated at home."

I am unsure where they are obtaining their stats from, but it is an interesting read.

Peace,
Tenn

Zoo Lesson Plan

During our X, Y, and Z week I planned a trip to the zoo. The kids had a blast - they even got to hold a baby rabbit and touch baby chicks. Ciaran's favorite was the sharks and Rhiannon liked the dolphin and flamingos. They also really enjoyed the otters and the tigers. They watched the sun bears and the fish tanks for awhile.

We did lessons spur of the moment based on their interest. A big fish was laying right next to glass and we were able to talk about why they have gills and how they work. We compared sizes of animals and discussed why some prefer the dark to the light. We talked about what different animals eat. They were able to touch some fish and some skeltal displays. I had contemplated creating a scavenger hunt but decided instead just to go with the flow of the day.

After a few hours and lunch we headed over to the gift shop where Ciaran picked out a shark to add to his ever growing animal collection. Rhiannon picked out a dolphin ring. We do not typically pick up gifts at places we go - but I'm glad we made an exception this time, it was 5.00 well spent.

When we arrived home we did an impromptu lesson on the zoo and what we saw. We headed over to Enchanted Learning to print out fact and coloring sheets on several animals of the kids choosing. We also printed out and colored a book of zoo animals, which includes simple sentence copywork. We discussed some of our favorite animals and experiences of the day.

We ended the day with reading the following books:

If I ran the Zoo by Dr Suess
Our Class Took a Trip to the Zoo by Shirley Neitzel
Put me in the Zoo by Dr Suess
What if the Zebras Lost their Stripes? by John Reitano
What the Animals Were Waiting For by Jonathan London
Zebras by Melissa Stewart
Zoo Flakes ABC by Will Howell
Zoo Patterns by Patricia Whitehouse

Easy and fun day. There are so many more things you can do with this as well.

Peace,
Tenn

Curriculum Overview

We had a nice Easter here - the kids and Serona were sick so we just had a low key day here. An Easter egg hunt and the Easter story in the morning and then relaxing and watching movies most of the rest of the day. We had an unusual Easter dinner of pancakes and home fries (it was perfect) and then some snacks before bed. We watched Return of the Jedi and Dinotopia with the kids. I finished an afghan I was working on for a friend and it was a relaxing day.

Thought I would recap recent activities with each of the kids for the record.

Rhiannon

We are still working through our basic curriculum of the following resources (plus whatever we supplement with) based loosely around the concepts found in The Well Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer (a nice outline of a classical style education) and The Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola (a nice review of the concepts of a Charlotte Mason based education) :
Phonics Pathways by Dolores Hiskes
Bob Book Fun Set A Level 2
Primary Phonics 1 by Barbara Makar
Storybook Treasury of Dick and Jane and Friends by Grosset and Dunlap
Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer
My ABC Bible Verses by Susan Hunt

Christian Liberty Nature Reader Book 1 (Christian Liberty Nature Readers)
by Julia Wright
What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know by JR ED Hirsch
Spectrum Math K - though I can't wait to start Miquon Math

Other activities we work on include:
Handwriting practice (individual letters and sentences)
Nature Study Notebook (personal drawing journal)
Classical Music Appreciation (currently on Beethoven)
Art Appreciation (currently on Mary Cassat)
Handwork (currently potholders)
Letter of the week activities (currently x,y, and z)
Many Daily Read Alouds (see current reading list.

And of course free play time in the yard and with toys. Some of her favorite activities right now include swinging, riding her bike, digging in the sand, playing with her dollhouse, imaginative play and making maps and lists for everyone to follow. When asked what she wants to do she almost always asks for me to read her a book. She also really enjoys books on tape. She is currently listening to Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and Prince Caspian by CS Lewis (both unabridged). She enjoys dancing and putting on shows and in general being the center of attention.

Ciaran

We are just playing our way through learning. We are focusing on his ABC's, numbers 1-10 and learning the letters in his name. He seems to have his colors and shapes down now. He has much more patience for listening to stories now. The other day he requested and listened very well through a 42 page non-fiction book on Israel (it did have lots of pictures but still stop took almost 20 minutes to read through). We try to go through his alphabet atleast twice a day pointing to and saying each letter and often tracing them. He can count easily to 10 with help to 20 and is slowly understanding how much things are (moving from route memorization to understanding of concept of numbers). We also do a letter of the week and plan activities and learning around that letter (this week is x,y and z). I am trying to teach him to write and recognize his name (this is currently quite challenging).

Some of his favorite things to do right now are dig in the sand, slide on his swinget, climb on anything, ride his trike, play soccer, build cities with his blocks, drive his cars, playing with his trains and doing puzzles. He also loves stamping with ink and doing anything crafty. He takes part in these aspects of Rhiannons studies, as well as the daily read alouds:

Nature Study Notebook (personal drawing journal)
Classical Music Appreciation (currently on Beethoven)
Art Appreciation (currently on Mary Cassat)
Letter of the Week activities (including keeping a sound box)

Sirah

Sirah just plays with us and is growing so fast. She is crawling all over the place and is getting harder to keep up with. She is starting to pull herself up and stand by herself for a few seconds before falling down again (she gets up and starts again right away), she is beginning to cruise on furniture and it is clear she wants to be more mobile then she is. She is starting to babble more and more and her smiles are still so wonderful. She is definitely fully mobile now and can get where she wants to. She loves try to pick up and eat little pieces of anything and paper. Her toys are often bypassed for some fascinating piece of pea gravel that has migrated from our swingset. She loves being in the backpack or sling (though she prefers the backpack) and just sitting with us. The only thing we do with her is sing to and play with her and talk to her about things.

Peace,
Tenn

Minnesota Homeschooling Conference

MACHE's annual homeschooling conference is coming next weekend to Duluth MN. For more info check out this article, or the MACHE flyer.

Peace,
Tenn

Easter Crafts

Here are two easy and relatively quick easter crafts our kids enjoy.

Family Easter Cross
Trace each family members handprints on construction paper and cut out (using one color for each member)
Cut butcher block paper into two long strips and attach in the shape of a cross
Glue the handprints to the paper
Write on the handprints Easter 2004 (or corresponding year)
Glue to cardboard (we skip this step because i like to save them in our portfolios each year)

Bird's Nest

Cut two strips of construction paper
Roll together in a circle and staple so you have two rings (one for the head and one for the body)
Staple the rings together
Squish an opened paper lunch bag down to form nest
Glue the rings onto the nest and decorate with eyes, feathers, and a beak

Our kids did this one with their homeschool group and it was very easy and turns out cute.

Peace,
Tenn

Sirah's milestones

Yesterday was a big day for Sirah. I sat her on the floor in the playroom in a safe spot for her to crawl and left the room for just a minute to check on something. As I returned I found her standing! She had crawled over to a bookshelf and pulled herself up to standing. She was so proud of herself but could not figure out what to do next (thankfully she did not attempt to cruise yet) and I helped her sit down. She spent much of the day trying to pull herself up on whatever was available.

As if that was not enough to accomplish in one day, she figured out how to get off her back. I laid her down for a nap in our family bed and returned when I heard her awake. I found her sitting in the middle of the bed! She managed to roll over and sit herself up. Days of unattended napping in bed are over as well.

I forget all the milestones at this age. These past few weeks she has learned to crawl, roll, pull herself to standing and imitate sounds. I love watching her learn - though I guess we must admit it is time to babyproof.

Peace,
Tenn

Obsession with Paper

Why do small children love to eat paper and cardboard? Put Sirah in a room on the floor and she will crawl over all the brightly colored toys and nice wooden toys we have and make a beeline for either a piece of paper or cardboard to eat. If she can not find one of those she will settle for her second choice - some small piece of fuzz or Pea gravel (thanks to the playground) anything she can put in her mouth that she is not allowed to.

I can immediately take it away (to howls of protest) and replace it with some fun and interesting toy only to see that toy flung across the room as she heads off for the next piece of fuzz or paper she can find. My days of sitting her down and leaving her are long over. Let the fun begin!

Peace,
Tenn