Boy vs Pumpkin

To give him a little credit, Jefferson has never done a sack race before. Although, in this case he wasn't racing anyone at all, I'm sure that pumpkin just jumped into his way!

For more Wordless Wednesday see 5Minutes for Mom.

"Peh-tih-ser-nates?" A Weather Unit

This week we finished up a small science unit on weather with Reagan. I don't have a good plan for her this year for science since Jefferson, who read and helped her with Son*light lessons, is now away each day. I don't really know whether to go with the animal study I've used before or a new workbook based on the six days of creation.


So I just opened up one of our Son*light books, a wonderful DK Eye Wonder book of weather and started teaching her about lightning. What a great book! It has just enough info to hold interest but not overwhelm and has wonderful photos. Add to this "The Weather Book" by Michael Oard, a more advanced book but one with wonderful diagrams and a biblical perspective, and I felt like I had enough to keep her busy for a while.

She really, really enjoyed learning about the different kinds of weather and it was obvious that she learned a lot about the magnitude of God in seeing this powerful part of His creation. This is such an exciting part of home schooling! My favorite part was how she would re-tell all that she had learned that day to her daddy or grandparent or anyone who would listen! I'm finding that if the information is presented in the right way for her, she will just soak it all up, remember it, and ponder it for days. And because she is loves to narrate what's she's learned, I can always get a better idea of how much she comprehends. The word "precipitation" for instance is just NOT sticking and always comes out as "peh-tih-ser-nates?" or just "the water stuffs that come from the sky." LOL!


So after learning about the evaporation cycle, precipitation, wind, lightning, and storms, we made a "cloud" in a mason jar (ice on top and hot water inside), a weather vane to observe wind movement, and a precipitation poster showing vapor, rain, and frozen types. And I still feel like we could do so much more! But for now I'll just post the few photos that I have and plan on moving to a new exciting science unit...

(3 types of clouds on the left, rain & flood in the middle, snowflakes, frost, & hail on the right)

Wordless Wednesday (a bit late)

This is the reason (or one of them) that I wear earplugs - little ones sure do know how to find a plaything that rocks the house! These plastic stools rattle my bones and nerves, but I enjoy how much they love playing with them!

Lincoln turns TWO!!

Our little , lumpy fourth baby has finally turned TWO! I truly feel like it was yesterday that I popped this one out! We mamas all know that times flies with our precious babies, but I'm getting the feeling that the more babies one has, the faster time seems to fly?

Lincoln was out first home birth baby and our second huge 11 pounder. He loves, loves, loves, playing with all of his older siblings....most of the time - lol! The other times, he has learned to use those vocal chords to make himself known. And this one throws - anything in his hands at the time of his frustration. And if nothing's in his hands, he'll find something to throw. Maybe he's becoming a bit dramatic like his sister or just plain strong willed. He's definitely becoming TWO! We love to watch him copy his siblings and learn to dance or sing or make silly sound effects with them. He loves to park his cars all in a row and MUST fix them if they become slightly misaligned (oy!). He still sucks his middle two fingers (like I used to) and runs away with giggle every time we call him to come. He calls me "Mahmoo" right now (not quite speaking yet) and loves to sit on my lap with a book (probably one that he's already chewed on in past months). One of his favorite things to do is to pull out ALL the dvds or books while I teach Reagan her lessons. I can laugh about that now only because he now starting to put them back too! :-)

Here are his two-year photos. He decided that he would NOT smile, no matter how the photographer sang and danced for him. Ya gotta laugh at that first grimace on his face! But he gradually warmed up a bit and (with the help of another singing, dancing photographer and a tennis ball) he finally did smile ... even if just for a shot or two.

Happy Birthday Lincoln! I hope your third year doesn't fly by quite so quickly...

My first video post!

So weird to do a video post - felt really silly hiding in the bathroom and trying to get that stupid red book out of the frame while I talked and talked about ME! I missed a ton of topics but at least it's an intro for those who don't know me or see me.

Let me know what you think of the crazy lady from PA! Maybe you all would be brave enough to post some videos of yourselves too? :-)

blog introduction from mom24heritage on Vimeo.

Need a bloggy update...

Goodness, I need to update my blog! My sidebars are all leftover from last year, our read-alouds are all different and the my family pics are all outdated. Plus, I'm ready for a Heritage Academy icon to use for book labels, t-shirts, my header, and business cards.

I've really got to start focusing on getting a post done each week also. I hope that I'll be able to do this better with only one hs student. It's just that with my perfectionist personality, I feel like I have to get everything else done first! Not to mention my frustration with Blogger and adding photos. Grrrr...

But I am determined to have something...anything...for the kids and myself to look through later in life. This blog has become the first journal of my life where I feel comfortable writing about our lives! Every other time I've tried to journal I've gone back to read after a couple months and not liked what I'd written and would've been embarrassed if someone else had read it. Strange that this forum - totally public and exposed - would be where I find my journaling groove.

I do think that it has something to do with the other bloggy peeps that I now feel like I can call friends. Not feeling alone in my journey as a wife, mom, and teacher actually seems to help me put thought to 'paper.' So, while poor little Adam and Lincoln may have cruddy baby books (and NO scrapbooks), at least part of their young lives are documented here with Jefferson and Reagan's early academic lives. And my personality is actually being journalled...in public - go figure!

So for now, I start by working no my sidebars this week. Tiny steps people...tiny steps..

Blogging Woes and Entering the realm of 'away' school....

When I last posted I never expected to be away from the blogosphere for so long! It's not that I have a list of readers or have anything valuable to share with the sphere. These I do not. My disappointment in my absence comes from the fact that my primary use of this forum is to leave a path of journaling by which my children can get to know me better later in their lives and use it to reflect back upon their early lives, where their memories do not have access. So I plan to make it my priority this week to get this post finished, since it entails the details of one of our biggest family life changes to date - moving Jefferson to from home school to 'away' school.

Ahhhh...where to start, where to start....

Let's begin in the first week of August, after 3 weeks of home school break (from 2nd gr and K)for the kids and teacher planning for me. We dove into Core 3 of Sonlight curriculum and I was just loving it. Teaching from a history core is just such a great way to infuse the student with multiple levels of knowledge of the era being covered! The early explorer's are so interesting. I loved reading "Walk the World's Rim" (by Betty Baker) while he read "Pedro's Journal" (by Pam Conrad), a story about Christopher Columbus's first journey to the America's, by himself. Although the book started out roughly, "Walk the World's Rim" gave us many character lessons from which to learn and I was soon saying to him, "Maybe those two are just walking a different trail?" to indicate to him that the characters were not understanding each other's view on life. I pointed out examples of this in relationships around us. Little did I realize that I would soon be pointing it out to him about our teacher/student relationship!

While trying to push (and I WAS pushing, not encouraging) Jefferson to do as much of his work as he could WITHOUT coming to me every 3 seconds with unneeded questions, I was also trying to step up Reagan's lessons to include phonics (20 mins), reading (20 mins plus read aloud time), math (30mins), science (15 mins done daily with Jefferson reading it for her), and history (15 mins reading or small project), as well as one art lesson and art project per week. This was a significant work load increase from her Kindergarten lessons (phonics & math daily) and barely could fit into the workload that I was trying to accomplish with Jefferson. I couldn't seem to teach both of them at the same time as Jefferson refused to focus if another kid was in the room and as every hs mom of multiple students knows, that's practically impossible!

I soon found myself pulling my hair out in frustration as Jefferson cried when he couldn't complete something efficiently and Reagan cried because I was pushing her too hard to complete her lessons quickly. He could never attempt his work on his own and then come to be with the questions he gathered. Rather he would interrupt Reagan's lessons multiple times until I yelled at him and was then too frustrated to be patient with her (something she really, really needs in order to learn). I couldn't read her even one paragraph with focus and I could tell she wasn't processing very well the information I was reading.

I was exhausted and tried to chalk up my troubles to our normal beginning of school stress. After all, every other year was tough in the beginning. I hoped that it would work itself out as we got comfortable with our new routine and lesson load. But instead, Jefferson snapped at me all day long until I snapped back. He constantly asked me what he could do and never occupied himself (except when reading a book - believe me, I worked hard to have tons of reading available for him) while the younger two were transitioning to a lovely new stage of screaming at each other and not sharing and thus adding noise and chaos to the day as well. The assignments were getting checked off of both of their lists while I went to bed tired and feeling guilty for my lack of patience and my tone of voice. And other than the tears and perfectionism she displayed in lessons, Reagan quietly occupied herself and didn't notice that she was getting the short end of the academic stick. It's not like she was begging me to sit and read to her (read-alouds were one of the first things to get skipped each day with our time constraints). But I knew that with her learning differences, she needed more, not less time, than Jefferson received when he was in first grade!

So after a particularly bad Friday, Jefferson and I were both crying at lunch as we tried to explain to the principal Daddy just how rough it had gotten. Dh called one of the two Christian classical schools in the area to set up an appointment and get some info. Keep in mind that this was the Friday before they began their classes! We didn't know how to meet our family's needs (put Reagan in school or Jefferson or change our curriculum or get counseling or what), but knew that we needed to change something major.

It was clear and evident. And really, really, really hard for me to accept.

After the Friday meeting with Day.spring Chris.tian Academy, we prayed and prayed all weekend about what we would do for the spiritual health of our family. We talked with our closest friends and asked our FB friends to pray for us. And I cried and cried and cried. Although I hadn't meant it to happen, home schooling has become more of my identity than I realized and now I felt like I was failing or giving up my son, in some way. Even with all the struggle in our one month of home schooling, I hadn't expected the Lord to lay THIS on our lap!

But it felt like the right thing to do. Jefferson thrives in structure, excels in academics, and never talks back to adults other than his parents/grandparents. And his walk with the Lord was not being strengthened or nurtured by the frazzled, short, and impatient mother who was teaching him school. We felt that we should give academics over to this classical christian school so that we could work on tying strings of love and fellowship with him instead, as well as providing the needed time and attention for Reagan to do well in first grade.

So we enrolled him on DCA's second day of school. And I cried some more.

It was busy, busy, busy getting used to the driving routine to drop and pick up as well as extra things such as getting lunches ready and uniforms bought and washed. I had to run to the store for school supplies at the same time as the rest of the country only to find most of them gone. Reagan missed about 7 days of school amidst all the meetings with teacher's and evaluator's. And this after being a 'laid back' home school schedule for 3 years - you know, breakfast done by 9:00 and lessons started by 9:30, lunch whenever it fits and naps after that. I prayed that we would get used to the restrictive schedule and still be able to provide for the specific needs of each child. I prayed that Jefferson would fit in well and pick up the little things about school that he had missed from being educated with different curriculum.

After one week, we got an email from his 2nd grade teacher telling us that he was doing almost"too well" for 2nd grade. So I questioned our decision to have him take 2nd grade again and I prayed for direction. After another call from the school telling us that he was 'flying through his evaluation tests' and a meeting with the 3rd grade teacher (a woman highly recommended by other parents), we moved him into 3rd grade. Another adjustment for him and more fretting for me! Such little faith at a time when God's leading was so clear to us! Sigh....you'd think I'd learn - lol! We prayed much for him and I studied his 'new' phonics and 'new' grammar (Shurley Grammar, which I had bought but chosen not to use - go figure!) so that I could help him "catch up" after his first week in 3rd grade.

But then I got an email from his teacher telling me that he aced both his grammar and his phonics tests! In every area he was doing well!

And I praised God instead of crying anymore. He is soooo very good and lead us so clearly and has provided for Jefferson and our family so perfectly. Jefferson is so happy at school and clearly does well academically (and socially - he's never had a problem there). Reagan is getting wonderful time with all of her lessons and is actually enjoying them and learning from them. I LOVE having more time with her - she is blossoming like a sweet rose!! And I even have time to read to the younger boys - one of my favorite snuggly times. Even with the extra driving....

So all that to try to put in words the process our family has been through these past two months that has rocked our world and even my faith. I hope that when the Lord brings us a new change in direction in the future, I can say that I have learned something from this and that my faith has grown. I hope that the kids (in the future) will know how much we want for their walk with the Lord and they will understand that we are willing to give up OUR plans for them so that the Lord's will prevails and blesses them instead.

And please, if you think about it, pray for us as we continue to adjust, that our family would grow stronger in faith and in our walk with God.....

Working up that nervous 'pre' school frenzy!

Hey there! Here I am! I know you forgot but it's me - that strange country bumpkin with the presidentially named kids. Crazy how the calendar moves before I realize that although I've been blogging in my own head, I've not actually typed any of it up for you to see since last month! LOL! I guess I was hoping that you all had telepathy....

Just have so much on my mind these days! There certainly isn't time for blogging with the 'end' of last school year's work (well, kinda since we 'schooled' all year this year) and the lovely weather and summer activities. I've been to see family in Phoenix, family in Maryland (and I got to meet Mary's beautiful new boy - nanny, nanny to you all - he was adorable!), North Carolina, and, just yesterday, Washington D.C. - trips which have kept me up to my eyeballs in planning and laundry and catch up (on the return). We've had swimming lessons and karate and play dates galore. I've been "painting my thumb green" with a new (albeit TINY) garden, perennials, and flower baskets. And I've been making some headway on the seasonal clothing change (takes me f.o.r.e.v.e.r in this house!) and closet cleanup.

(Jefferson eatin' more sweet peas than he's picking for me!)


(Jefferson earned his yellow belt in Wado Ryu Karate)

But what really keeps me away, is the planning I need to get done for this coming (in 2 1/2 weeks?? Yikes!) school year where Reagan will need more time consuming teaching, Jefferson is headed into a new curriculum (we've chosen Sonlight - yay!) and Adam heads to pre school (Lincoln, at 2, will be doing his best to cause all sorts of mess and distraction - his specialty right now!).

I ordered Core 3 (Intro. to Amer. History), Science 2 (so he and Reagan could share), and Language Arts 3 from Sonlight this year. "Box day" was last week and I've only got the Instructor's Guide put together, with no progress on labeling and shelving the books, or entering the assignments into my Homeschool Tracker Plus (which I love too much to give up even though it requires much input time). The kids LOVED the books and spent a few days pouring over them before I had to tape the box back up (to keep Jefferson from reading too many) Sheesh, what a problem to have - lol!
So in order to tackle the Sonlight/HST+ combination & entry, I joined both forums and have been ignoring this dear blog. Dh has offered to take 'The Four' out of the house on Sat so I can get some good data entry/ planning time in. I am hoping that I can keep my head on straight because I am finding that I have trouble focusing these days. Deadlines always help though!

The other issue I'm trying to tackle at the same time is the planning of Reagan's 1st grade year. I am nervous about what we will be able to accomplish since she is still only in basic readers and is having trouble with eye tracking. I still need to plan out her phonics lessons to incorporate the multi-sensory techniques that are oh, so important and effective with her, as well as figure out how to incorporate some of SOTW1 with the Mystery of History I plan to use instead (more another time on why). It is critical that I get her plan completely mapped out since I have discovered this year that her lessons easily get shoved to the back burner in lieu of Jefferson's work.

At this point, I am thankful that I have a roll top desk since it looks like my head feels - completely disheveled! But...I am hoping (and praying of course!) that prioritizing and using lists will help me plod through little by little and get it all done. I've done it before and hundreds of ladies before me have done it too, right?

Ohhhh, the fun "pre" school frenzy...er, planning I mean. I am glad for the excitement about the new year and new goals that comes with it though! Hopefully, it won't keep me away from here for too long....

Wordless Wednesday - Photo Effects

(Original photo above)
I can't believe how angelic my little man still looks at 19 months old (especially considering the horrific sounds that can come from his mouth when he's told "No!" - lol!). Those eyes just melt my heart!





A special thanks to Darcy (my photography and Photoshop hero) at Life with My 3 Boybarians for recommending picnik.com (free software) for photo editing. I haven't the talent to invest in Photoshop but didn't have enough options with Picassa and Paint. It was fun giving him blue eyes and trying all kinds of other strange effects on this photo (while I should have been doing *insert.any.daily. motherly.task.here*)!

For more Wordless Wednesday, see 5 minutes for Mom.

Baby Chicks - Fun project!

I love the little things that God brings to our home school experience to make it more interesting and exciting for the kids (and me too)! At the end of our hs co-op, we got an email from a hs acquaintance asking if anyone wanted to try incubating some chicken eggs. Sounds interesting but I didn't think I had time to figure out how to make an incubator.

Thankfully someone at co-op offered to lend us one! Awesome! I mean - how hard could it be to turn some eggs a couple times every day, right?

So the kids helped me to label the eggs so that we could remember to turn them and then they learned that we needed to keep the incubator between 98 and 103 degrees while keeping water in it to maintain humidity. Someone also told us to keep the eggs slanted with the big end slightly upward - haven't figured out if that was needed but we did it.

The egg part was easy (although it has taken us a huge part of my kitchen counter space for 3 weeks) but I worried about them getting turned when Jefferson and I went to Phoenix for a week. But dh turned out to be a good egg turner - even with 3 kids, 2 hermit crabs, a garden/flowers, and a fish to take care of also!

Jefferson and I got back from Phoenix just in time for them to start hatching - 21 days exactly! They waited until evening to do it so I had to video much of it for the kids (and you!) to see. It took each chick about an hour to get itself our and start flopping around. I stayed up late to wait for them to dry before I moved them over to our brooder. We somehow managed to throw it together last minute (typical of me!) with one of our heated lamps, a box and aluminum foil.

Hatching Chickens from DNAC on Vimeo.

We hadn't been looking at the calender closely enough and weren't ready for them to hatch. So we had to wait until the next day to run to a friend's farm to get feed for them. It has been harder to keep the temp in the brooder steady for them since it is an open box but using aluminum foil on top helps.

The baby chicks are very cute and fluffy! They peep and peck and hop and then spontaneously sleep. The kids love to watch them in their box and keep asking me to keep them. It stresses them to be handled but it is hard to resist doing so. Unfortunately, we let some little friends hold them and one got dropped! I was hoping with would be okay but it seems not to be using it's right leg. :-( Future reference for anyone else - chicks ARE breakable!

Here are some cute pics! Glad to have been able to do this project but now that they are smelling up my kitchen, I'm ready to get them back to the farmer - lol! Don't think my neighborhood association would care for any livestock in our backyard (not that I wouldn't mind the healthy, soy-free eggs!)......