Halloween Knight

Halloween was really fun this year with two kids that could walk long distances. This was the first year that the kids went out for a run, came back with filled pumpkins, and headed out for a second time in the opposite direction to obtain more loot. Grace went as a Pixie (see additional Pixie post), and Jack went as...well...we called it an angry pumpkin knight.

There is a bit of a story behind Jack's costume. I was happy to get him at least partially valiant at the end of it all. While on our costume trip to Wal-mart all he seemed to want to go as was a princess. OIY!!! The child needs a brother!!! Spiderman was rejected. So was Superman. I was desperate.

When I turned around and found Jack with this pumpkin mask on and a giant rubber rat in him arms I seized the day. Angry pumpkin equated to more masculinity than princess garb. I finally spotted a decent knight set, and tried to redirect his interest to being a knight, but he was stuck on angry pumpkin mask. I grabbed both, returned home and told Dad we needed to give him a whole lot of positive reinforcement with the knight and pumpkin costume. Tell him how tough and strong he looked in the knight outfit. Jack ate up the praise, but the pumpkin mask was not getting discarded. So...a compromise - angry pumpkin knight.

The quote of the night was made by the knight, after walking a good distance: "I sure am on a long journey." How knightly.

Sailing Solo

This afternoon, Grace hit the road again on her bike. Her confidence dripping over, she just wanted me to watch. And that is all I ever had to do. She has now gained complete control over her bike and can pedal for minutes at a time, start from a stop, and stop with her pedal brakes safely. It is such a joy to see the pride in her face.

Training Grace To Ride On Her Own

After our pumpkin fiasco, it seemed like we needed to redeem the day. With Grace turning 6 in one week, and a beautiful day outside, I decided it was time. Time for Grace to cross a rite of passage. We all remember the day...the day we first rode our bikes without training wheels. That day is engraved in each of our memories, and I was determined to replace the failed pumpkin memory with something triumphant.

Off came the training wheels, and out came the encouraging speeches of "When I was your age..." Grace was all for the idea, approaching it with great courage and determination. Dad came out to assist and be the running man, and we all headed out together to offer Grace our support and coaching. Of all the days to have the digital camera charging!!!

After 15 minutes, Grace was braving the road on her own, telling US to "Let go!". Her confidence took my breath away. Let go? Already??? What had I done?

Big tug on my heart strings: This was the first time she had ever asked us to let her go as she plunged ahead into uncertainty. She's growing up so fast! I don't know if my heart can keep up with the letting go.

Small Pumpkins...Who Knew?

After church today, we all headed to the pumpkin patch to pick out our traditional Halloween pumpkin. Thinking we were wise, for the first time ever, we went small - electing to pick pumpkins that were just big enough for Grace and Jack to handle (8 inch diameter). In this way, we speculated that the children could gut their own pumpkins, instead of Mom.

Grace was so excited to do her own pumpkin that it took everything she could muster to sit down and have lunch before preparing to carve it. Unable to stand it any longer, we settled down at the table after lunch to cut the top around the stem of the pumpkin. Sharp steak knife at the ready, I quickly discover that our pumpkin appears to be VERY thick headed.

** stab ** (silent maternal scream) Nooooo!
No! No! **stab**stab** NOOOOOOOOO!

No matter how hard I tried, the blade refused to go any further than 1/4 of an inch deep. A quick knock on the pumpkin confirmed my worst fear - rock solid.

Poor Grace. She was crushed. This was going to be her first "Do it all by myself" pumpkin. We resorted to gluing googley eyes, puff balls and making a wig for the pumpkin out of yarn.

In this case, bigger really is better.

The Fall of Dripping Water

The loos in our house always have a small stack of reading material on top of their water tanks. Yesterday, I picked up a book of quotes and prayers that I received last year as a hospitality gift from a friend. The book takes various quotes about water and applies them to personal prayers.

One quote in particular landed softly on my heart:

"The fall of dripping water hollows the stone."
Lucretius (99-55 B.C.)

How true it is that satisfying our thirst for Living Water everyday will hollow out the hardness of our hearts. I have personally found that after only a mere week away from God's Word my heart can grow frighteningly hard. And it is only after we have been in God's Word for a long time, that we are sensitive to the changes in our heart when we are without it.

What a wonderful illustration we find in God's creation of how water, a substance that runs softly through our fingers, can patiently hollow out a place for itself inside the mightiest of stones.

He's Done It! Success With Double Digits

I feel like Jack and I have been working for a long time on understanding how to read double digits. I have a couple posts from earlier that explain my approach of using engines and coaches as an illustrative tool to help him remember what to read first. It seemed to get us half way there.

You know what did it? Jack's incredible desire to learn how to tell time. He has been on a mission for almost two months to figure out how to read time. His motivation? A really lame video game called "Monkey Ball" the children have become completely addicted to. Other than Grand Turismo, it is the only video game Jack and Grace have been given. They are allowed to play at 4:00pm for about an hour on a number of given days. So sad as it is, after school is over, it becomes a count down until 4:00pm. For Jack, this begins a constant game of "What time is it?". This game includes constantly running to the oven clock between activities to see how much time has passed between his activities that he finds to do (just to pass the time).

Miracle beyond miracles, this has trained his eye more than anything to read the digital clocks and get the double digits correct for the minutes. Today we played a game of "You name it, you get to keep it". He loves beating his mother at having more cards in his hand after a game is done than me. I did things a little differently this time, and laid out 9 cards in a box before him. He could only take a card if he could say it correctly - incorrectly and it was mommy's card. After three games of this, I had 5 cards, and Jack had the rest!

Joy! Joy! I was so proud of him. What was really telling, was for some cards that he had difficulty with he would point to the first number with his finger, or even trace it, as he tried to recall how to name his "engine" first.

A Pink Pixie Has Been Captured On Film

Look what I captured on film distributing pixie dust this evening in our October garden!

Pink Pixies are very elusive creatures, rarely sitting still long enough for a clear photograph. This one was in a hurry as she was heading off to costume night at AWANA, but she was feeling photogenic today, and obliged to sit still for just a millisecond so that I could take her picture. After all, it is not every day that you catch a pixie actively spreading her good cheer in the garden.

Honestly, have you ever seen a child that looked so beautiful with pink hair??? I could just eat her up.

Two More Months Until We are Debt Free!

There is an odd anticipation in our house. These last few months, Ken and I actually look forward to receiving our mortgage payment. This year we made a very hefty goal of paying off our house entirely. For five years, we have diligently been making our minimum payments, and our stomachs got sicker with each payment. After five years, very little had gone toward actually paying off the house - all of our payments were being applied to the interest. It felt like we were just spinning our wheels, and throwing our dollars away. So, Ken determined that the house would be our a final goal - the last thing on our check list towards becoming debt free.

Nine years ago, we had it all: the car payments, the credit card payments, the rent that never disappeared. After our third year in marriage, something kicked in, and we started knocking out the credit card payments. It felt great to be beyond the credit card burden. We basked in the freedom of no credit card debt for awhile, and then a couple of years later, we decided to pay off our two cars. That liberating task has come and gone.

So now, the biggy. The house. This was the year. And in two more payments, this baby of 6 wonderful years is OURS. No longer the bank's house...she's ALL OURS!!!!

In celebration, Ken has agreed to finally accept the Christmas gift he was supposed to pick out LAST Christmas - a movie projector and sound system for the basement. WAHH-Hoooooieee!!!!!

I'm Going To Need Another Floor In My House

The key to our homeschooling success (success = 1/2 peace + 1/2 learning) has been separation. The separation is radical. Things work best when one is working on a computer game on one floor, and I am working one on one with the other on the ground floor. Two neighboring rooms does not work, as the children have highly sensitive sonar systems and still find themselves wanting to do whatever the other child is working on.

I am finding that homeschooling is really a ballet of sorts in slow motion, with entrances and exits carefully choreographed. We also work on activities together, but the basics and the reading I reserve for "special time".

A small panic is growing in the pit of my stomach. What am I going to do when Faith arrives??? How will I juggle three? I'm going to need another floor in my house. And perhaps a 4th floor so I can run and hide.

Renoir Back In The Studies

I'm ashamed to admit that Renoir, as great of a master painter that he was, has been on hiatus for a long while. Our basic studies as well as our nature study was consuming most of our time, and well...interest. But today, I made a determined effort to get the children reaccquainted with Renoir.

Before I knew it we had played one match of Renoir Memory, done a small magnetic Renoir puzzle, and played I Spy with the numerous Dover Publications Renoir postcards I had on file.

I am experiencing a phenomenon that I can't quite recall the name of back in my Psychology college classes. Retro-Memory something or other??? It is when something in our memory from the past, blocks our ability to recall present short term memory. Grace has assigned Edgar Degas' name to every painter. Every painting is a Degas, and I seem to be having problems getting her to make the full connection that Renoir and Tissot were different painters. It is difficult to explain when they are really all from the same general period of time and painted with the same Impressionist flair (Renoir and Degas).

Unfortunately, I haven't found a great children's oriented book that puts that in perspective yet.

A Glimpse Beyond Imagination

Tonight was a very special night for the children. I had asked Ken to order from Netflix a number of documentaries on tidepool and sea life. So this evening they were treated with an all lights off viewing of The Blue Planet's: Sea's of Life: Seasonal Seas. I think I might have heard a few complete sentences of the narration. The entire viewing was filled with questions and excited exclamations.

Jack watched as the kelp below swayed under a storm above, and he asked if there was wind in the ocean. How do you show that in a book? Other than reading Pagoo, and the usual army of library books, I realized that the kids are really in the dark about the movement of the ocean. And the sounds of the ocean under water. It is amazing how an under water camera can open up and capture a whole new world even on a flat TV screen. Some of the scenes are absolutely surreal. We all sat in awe as the camera panned over hundreds and hundreds of jellyfish.

I'm glad we did a majority of our reading first before turning on the TV. Grace was able to recognize many of the animals mentioned in Pagoo. But it was the TV that placed those pictures on the pages in motion.

2 Chapters Left...And Counting

Only two more chapters of Pagoo left. What a great educational living book! Grace and I have both learned so much about crustaceans and life in the tidepool from this book. I realized just how little I knew about God's creative creation in this segment of animal life. Toward the end of the book, each chapter suddenly becomes a page turner, full of harrowing near death escapes for Pagoo.

Grace is double excited about finishing Pagoo. She knows that once we complete the last chapter, it will be her birthday. :) And she has already attempted to sneak in Minn of Mississippi - a good sign that she is ready to explore a bit of about freshwater life now.

New Wall Art For The Room

A bit late in the game, I ordered a sea shell identification poster from Dover. I had debated earlier on purchasing it, but realized it would be quite helpful to the children as we moved further into our study.

The children have an amazing gravitation to posters. I usually have to keep them in a cheap plastic protector and keep on the on the ground for weeks as they "ooo" and "ahh" over whatever is displayed. Today's arrival was no different. They hit the ground with me as I was inserting it into the cover; one tackling and pointing out the seashells they knew, the other inquiring about new kinds of shells.

It was a bit of a test incognito, and fun to watch. Grace started getting out a few shells she knew and laying them over the top of the poster specimens. So, mama feels good that I went ahead and made the purchase.

The Jungle Book & Jungle Gyms

Today was a day for the kids. Ken and his business partner Jonathan received free tickets for both of our families to see an outstanding musical production of The Jungle Book. Following the entertainment, we all headed around to the back of the building for a little jungling of our own at the park.

Grace and Elizabeth all smiles to see each other again.
Our families get along so well, and the children really have a blast with one another. It has been many months since we were able to get back together, but the children didn't skip a beat. There were endless games of chase around the park and wrestling challenges.

Jeremiah and Jack following a wrestling duel.
Baby John held his own at the park. (I can't wait until we have another one of these waddling around our house). He was such a delight!


Here are all of the girls hamming it up on the gym. Farthest to the right is little Maddy. She's become such a little woman since the last time we saw the brown eyed beauty. She was my biggest competition last year. Ken would come home from visits at Jonathan's house with stories of Maddy and how she would batt her eyelashes, grin with a sigh, and say in a southern swoon, "Ke-en." Her crush on him is still evident, but I think she's beginning to moving on.

We Wish The Old Things...

"We wish the old things because we cannot understand the new, and we are always seeking after that gorgeousness which belongs to things already on decline, without recognizing in the humble simplicity of new ideas the germ which shall develop in the future."

~ Maria Montessori


Context of the Quote: Maria reflecting on a period of time when she had spent two months looking for beautiful enameled letters in print and cursive for the children. Her search was in vain. In disappointment she formulated an alternative: cut out sandpaper letters glued to smooth cards. In the end, this alphabet turned out to be superior to her experiences with enameled letters in the classroom.

Montessori Tray: Locks & Keys

I've been waiting for weeks now to get my hands on a variety of locks and keys for the children to work with. Other than the bathroom and front doors, we live a rather lockless life. So yesterday I had my chance at Walmart and grabbed a large key lock, two small luggage key locks, the standard locker combination lock, and a lock that has 4 individual number dials.

Later, Ken and I found ourselves forcing the children outside to play. We laughed as we watched them walk aimlessly around the yard trying to find something of interest to do. Ken commented that our children needed to learn how to pretend outside more. I challenged him to think of something to pretend (other than the ususual pretending they did), and we laughed that he couldn't think of anything either.

The kids came back inside begging to be let back in the house. In a strong mommy effort to get them back outdoors, I decided to "teach" my children how to play the game of cops and robbers. They had never heard of the game. Giving them a brief lesson in using a key lock, I showed them how to wrap up each other's wrists with a chain and lock the lock to put them in jail. I watched as their eyes lit up with the idea of locking someone up for fun.

So yesterday and today they have been entertaining themselves with the various types of locks. Wrapping up their stuffed animals in chains and locks, and then saving them. They are having trouble recalling the name of the game though, and keep calling it "Locks and Lockers". I actually like their name better, as there was an odd feeling in the pit of my stomach when I was teaching that the "robber" needs to steal something, so the "cop" could catch him.

While this is an official Montessori activity, the locks can't stay on the tray long enough.

Montessori Tray: Manual Egg Beating

I have very fond memories of one of these nifty contraptions (manual egg beater) in one of my mother's baking drawers. I was always fascinated by it, and loved to watch how when I turned the handle everything worked in perfect synchronization. So yesterday, when I saw this in the grocery store, I had to buy the $8.00 ticket item for my two children who love hand mixing. My hunch was correct - it is just as intriguing a tool today as it was years ago.

Unfortunately, the one thing I forgot to buy at the store was eggs. So today the children have been taking turns mixing oil, flour, food coloring, and soap water together. I'm beginning to run out of ideas, as they keep running back to me asking, "Now what can I mix???".

This activity is a keeper your kids will appreciate.

A Fractional Pepper Epiphany

Grace and I reviewed fractions today. The child is a math genius in my eyes. At the age of almost 6, math comes so easy to her.

Today she was doing a math worksheet - coloring a certain number of fruit and veggies displayed in a total to illustrate the fraction presented in each problem. Our last fraction was 3/6. There were 6 peppers.

She sat for a little longer on this, and with thoughtfulness in her voice said, "Hmm. I'll need to decide if these should be green peppers, red peppers, or yellow peppers." That statement in itself surprised me. And after a little more thought, she said with a smile, "Oh. Mom. Look what I'm going to do!". She then proceeded to color the first one red, the second green, and the last yellow. She was so satisfied that her math equation had answered her desire to express all three pepper colors.

I was beaming with pride.

Neck Deep in Sea Shell Identification

Do you realize how difficult it is to identify seashells? You'd think it would be an easy task. I walked into our Nature Study this term thinking we'd have a blast memorizing and identifying shell types, but what I have discovered is that before I can tell my children what they are, I have to be sure that I have correctly identified them myself! And for some reason, this has been difficult, despite having a condensed Peterson guide next to me.

So last night and for a couple of hours this morning, I laid out all of our purchased shells, personal shells, and a few new ones I purchased yesterday from Hobby Lobby and set to work. Ken even sat down and helped me out for an hour. Grace was ecstatic to be part of the action, and liked to help solve our pile of "mystery" shells.

By noon today, I had two clear plastic craft boxes, full of sorted and labeled gastropods and univalves. And I'm confident that I have everything 95% correct. It wasn't until almost everything was sorted that I discovered a great web site for shell identification (and I've been looking hard ever since this study started). I highly recommend visiting: SeashellWorld.com

It was a big part in solving some of my mystery shells, and correcting my misidentification. Just in case you are losing sleep over it, a Trapezium Whelk Shell is the same as a Horse Conch Shell. If you haven't a clue as to what I am saying - you'll thank me later.

Check Out My Brother's Loft!

A little over a year ago, my "baby" brother Jeff, decided to take a shot at investing in real estate. He made the decision to invest in a loft within the city of St. Louis that offered a rooftop deck, and parking underground. Over the last year, it has been undergoing the renovations necessary to convert a 1917 printing building into residential housing. He just finally rented out the brand new 2 bedroom/2 bath loft to his first resident.

As luck would have it...her feminine modern touch to the place (paint and furniture) has brought free advertising to his hip investment.

For a full article on the loft you can visit: http://www.alivemag.com/articles/homedecor.php

Way to go bro!

The Weather Today: Sick and Gorgeous

Boo. I'm sick - enduring the 4th day of a chest cold (compliments of Jack). I'm going it alone - drug free - with baby Faith twirling in the womb. You ever get that feeling of rawness in the brain? You know..when the air just plain hurts your head to breathe as it enters your insides? That's the feeling today. Besides the constant headache, wheezy lungs, manly voice and incessant coughing - the day really is beautiful. Seriously, it is gorgeous outside.

So, to take advantage of a nice day, and learn from past mistakes, the kids are embossing again. This time they are in the garage sitting at old school desks.

I took the morning to freshen up the bottom floor of the house and bake our first batch of wheat bread since we were plum out of bread. The kids love to watch the bread machine mix bread, so they stood nearby to personally assist in assembling the ingredients, and take turns breathing all over the dough as it kneaded. Hmm...and I'm sick because...????

Growing impatient with me and my delay of school, Grace and Jack decided to start school without me. Grace got out the addition flashcards and began testing Jack who hasn't added a day in his life. Thankfully, we got it all done in just over an hour, which was a blessing, as I didn't have much in me today for patience. The kids seemed to know that, showing a strong effort of mercy.

Now I just need to get through the rest of day. Their mercy has ended, and the dishwasher, laundry and dinner prep is still calling my name. Over the din of the chores, the pillow and couch are quietly trying to convince me that laying around the house for the 3rd day would feel much better. Ah..motherhood. When we negotiated our contracts, we all missed that clause regarding "no available sick days".

Gearing Up Early For Our Next Term

In a determined effort to stay organized, and knowing that baby Faith will be arriving in January, I sat down last night and laid out Grace's schedule from January to June 2006. There are still a number of books from Ambleside's Year 1 that I would like to postpone, but I looked over the Year 2 schedule, and decided to pull from there. Our homeschooling is all year round, and we tend to have three terms, but the shortest term falls in the summer months.

Here's what we will be working on for the first six months of 2006:

Nature Study: Rodentia
Artist Study: Monet
Composer: To Be Determined

American History: Unit Studies to include Vikings and Columbus
* Lucky Lief and Columbus books by the D'Aulaires
* Viking Tales by Jennie Hall
* This Country of Ours (Chapters 1-5) by H.E. Marshall

World History: Unit Study of Marco Polo - Part I
* Completing 50 Famous Stories
* Marco Polo for Kids (Chapters 1-3) by Janice Herbert

Science: Rodentia Nature Study
* Burgess Animal Book (Chapters 1-20)

Literature:
* Understood Betsy by Dorothy Fisher
* The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Poetry:
* The Oxford Book of Verse (Grace will read the poem)

The books have been ordered this morning as well as ordering a large number of coloring books from Dover Publications to cover these topics. (I'd like to ditch the plethora of Princess coloring books in the room).

Faith's Ultrasound Picture

Thanks to Aunt Kristy, I was able to get the ultrasound picture from about a month ago finally scanned. For the record, I believe we have settled on her full name.

So here is a profile of our little girl, Faith Alexa H., pressure cooking in the womb:

Party In The Park

All morning I listened to Jack fret and tell me, "I don't think anyone is going to come, Mom." He was referring to our monthly playdate with other homeschooling families, that I had also organized as a small party for Jack's birthday at the "purple hippopotamus park". We spent the morning getting Jack a handsome buzz cut, collecting cupcakes with mountains of frosting, and gathering balloons and goodie bag accessories.

Jack, still fighting bronchial problems, was pretty down on himself an hour before the party, questioning who was coming, and then doubting my answers. Where does he get this??? Thankfully, the party was wonderful, we were in good company, and Dad was also able to take time out of the day to make an entrance. Jack snapped out of his doubting funk, and was soon running around amongst friends. Here are a few highlights:

Hanging out with his buddy from gymnastics and AWANA:


Jack demonstrating a lack of control when it comes to waiting to blow out candles. (Blown out before we could get past the second line in the birthday song):


Grace's favorite part of the park was climbing up some perfect climbing trees:

Welcome To Our Home

Ken and I have decided to try and stay in our house of 6 years for at least another 3 years. This has prompted us to ask, "What can we do to enjoy the house even more?". For me, our porch has always been a weak spot, and very uninviting. These last two weeks I have been working on making that area a little "warmer". One garden bench, two rockers, three candles, four planters and six mums later - I'm almost there. I still need to sew the pillows and cushions for the furniture, as well as add the second rocking chair, but here she is in all of her autumn splendor!

I've really been enjoying sitting on a bench working on the baby's blanket outside while the kids are at play. And finally, everyone can sit on the porch together. We've already taken advantage of this new opportunity by sitting on the porch at night to do our bedtime reading with the kids.

Fall 2005 School Pictures

There is one small disadvantage to homeschooling...no school pictures. I always enjoyed getting that thick packet of school pictures back and gazing into the blue eyes of my children all pretty and prepped for photo shoots.

I thought I would take advantage of our fall theme on our porch and get a few pictures this morning while everyone was decked in their "Happy Birthday Jack!" attire.

Our "Bubba" Turns 4 Today!

Four years ago today, just ticks past midnight our little "bubba", Jack, was born. I remember thinking when I first saw him, "His nostrils are so tiny!". Odd thought, I know. But he just had a button of a nose, and I couldn't imagine how any air could possibly squeeze through those micro-nostrils.

This morning Jack came into my room and crawled in bed with me, wheezing and coughing all over his mama's pillow. Little did I know how prophetic my thoughts on his birth day would be. The poor little guy is sick on his birthday, with chest cold induced asthma. (Something we have struggled with since he was born). I felt so bad for him - but he is taking it in stride. We've been doing the usual nebulizer treatments for the last two days to help him out.

The bright spots in his morning so far has been:

1) One present we let him open (a time telling clock from Nana)
2) Daddy brought home left over doughnuts from his morning Bible Study, which triggered a moment caught on camera of sensory overload -


3) He also had the treat of watching a real show on TV (something we don't do often) when he had his morning nebulizer treatment. We offered a trip to Chuckee-Cheese for dinner, but he's turned us down on our offer so far. We're working on him.

We are trying to make "grumpy gills" as happy as possible, reminding him how much he is the big 4 now. Tomorrow we have a party with kids at his favorite park for him, so say a few prayers that he'll be feeling a bit better tomorrow.

Montessori Tray: Seashell Sorting

Items Needed: Large Grab Bag of Seashells, Sectioned Box, Bowl

We have a wooden box from Hobby Lobby that is sectioned into eight squares. In each square I place a specific type of shell. The child then has a bowl of shells that contain 5-10 matches to eight various types of seashells (example: scallop, cockle, murex, snail, horn, etc) that have been placed in their respective slots. The bowl the child has before them may contain about 50 shells to match. The task for the child is to focus their attention on the shape and style of a seashell, while ignoring variations in color or size, matching the shells from the bowl into the correct bins.

It may be necessary to stress that the child is only to look at the shape of the shell, and not sort on color or size.

This exercise has been performed throughout our Fish and Crustacean study and it is one that my children never tire from performing.

I've Been Tagged...Oh Goodie, Another Task

Apparently, I have been "tagged" by a fellow blogger who is doing Year 1 of Ambleside Online. It kind of feels nice, in an odd way. So...thank you. I tried to explain this to my husband, and he just gave me a "what???" look. I'm not much for passing things along, but I'll participate up to rule number 4 - (call me blogger friendless).

So here are the rules to the game:

1) Search your blog archive.
2) Find your 23rd post.
3) Find the fifth sentence (this is meant to say something about you).
4) Post that sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5) Tag five people to do the same.

That lands me at my school schedule post, and places me at the line:

"Now that it is complete, I can say that it was well worth the work!"

Yes. This does say something about me. I'm a born task oriented person. I'm as task oriented as you can get. I love it, and I hate it. It's a bit like living in a cozy prison. If I haven't completed at least three tasks in my day, I've failed the day. I also have many, MANY tasks I have started that I am still trying to complete. Task oriented people are task creators. We all have our To Do lists, whether they are in our heads or on our little lists. And somehow, with all of our task completing, we just create more work for ourselves (isn't it true?).

In a task oriented world, the irony (or tragedy) is the work is never done. There is a looming sense of guilt I am forever trying to appease. But I give myself those small moments of pure joy after completing the task. A fullness of satisfaction and sense of accomplishment. TO's are the only ones in the world who feel joy when we fold and put away the daily load of laundry. And then we are off again.

Can you be a mother and not be task oriented? I'm not sure that is cosmically possible. Now, off to fold that laundry.

Her Narrations Have Arrived

I've been careful since the onset of our schooling in January not to get too excited with homeschooling and burn out the kids or myself. I'm trying to stick to the motto of "short and sweet".

Grace will be turning 6 next month. And then our schooling will be "Charlotte Mason Legal". (I seem to recall somewhere in my Charlotte Mason reading that technically schooling shouldn't start until the age of 6 anyway.) What I have been the most hesitant about is doing narrations. I believe in them, but I knew it would be a sticking point in our house, as it seems to be for many children at first.

So this past term I started easing into it. Grace has been working on creating books from three selections of reading material (Pagoo, Tree in the Trail, and Ben Franklin). Often it is up to her to make up a summarizing sentence about what occured in the chapter, and then draw a picture with it. This was my idea of a narration primer. And it has worked for the most part.

I also started asking, "So what happened in our chapter today?". At first I got the standard "I don't remember." So I would start it by saying something like "There was a man named King Alfred who ran away from the Danes to an island and then..." This would seem to get the wheels turning.

But yesterday was it. It was beautiful. A true narration from Baldwin's 50 Famous Stories, with big words, and a remarkable word for word recall on a number of sentences. There was order, chronology, good sense and little prompting from me. Wahoo! I was so excited with her narration, that I think she really drew from my enthusiasm.

In true dork mom fashion, we did high fives at the end.

Under Pressure

Maybe I'm getting old. Up until about a month ago this pregnancy was a breeze. Nothing to report, and smooth sailing. Until, I started to feel the pressure. A new pressure I have never experienced with a pregnancy before, that intensifies as the hours pass through the day. By evening I am waddling around, and using my arms to bear all of my weight moving into or out of a sitting/crouched position or going up stairs. Even the movement to cross my legs is difficult.

So I'm nervous, as the pressure is right underneath me. I'm beginning to think that as Faith grows that pressure will really begin to pay its dues. The extra arm support is something an 8 month prego mom does, not a 5 monther.

(This could get embarassing.)

Chalk One Up For Starfall.com

I hate to keep plugging a web site, but I really have to say again just how much Starfall has done to turn Jack on to Phonics, and give Grace the confidence and incentive she needed to feel completely comfortable reading aloud.

We are now completing our third week of using Starfall daily in our school routine. And I am very impressed with the results. This week was review or "Test Week" for Jack to get a feel for just how well he is memorizing the sounds of letters. Today we took a step away from Starfall, and I used letter flashcards to test him on the sounds (curious if he could separate the task of computer stimulation from what he recalled). He could. With the exception of three letters, he has the sounds down pat. That is saying something, for a little boy who three weeks ago, couldn't tell you what sounds ANY letter made.

For the first time, today, I heard Grace ask Jack if he wanted her to read to him. He obliged and she proceeded to read a simple "Old Hat, New Hat" Berenstain Bears book to him. She was so happy she could read it, she read it twice to him and then once more to myself and Jack.

So kudos to Starfall. What a difference. Don't you love it when something works...and it's free?!

Poetry Book Gone AWOL

Where in the world could our "When We Were Very Young" poetry book go? I've put off poetry now for two weeks because the book is no where to be found. I'm beginning to get a little suspicious as Poetry is the one thing Grace has little to no interest in (a bit like her mother in that regard). It is the only subject that generates groans.

The little thing is bright pink...you'd think it would glow in the dark. I might have to start "When We Were Six" just to stay on track. If that one disappears...the gig is up!

Welcome to This World Baby Kate!

Hello new niece! Aunt Christy had Kate Elizabeth at 12:41pm this afternoon. She weighed a petite 6lbs 6oz (she came two weeks early) and was 19 inches long.

Pictured from left to right are sister Christina, brother James and sister Kate.