Author Archives: Deanna

Wrapping Up Week 18 (2015-16)

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Weekly Wrap Up 2015-16
 Don’t you love those weeks when everything actually goes according to your plans?  I have a natural tendency to try to pack too much into our days/weeks, and it’s really hard for me to ease up or take a day off.  Yet I really want to minimize the time we spend on academics over the next few weeks, so I battled with the side of myself this week.  And won.

At the start of the week I sat down with Ian and showed him my lesson plan book for December.  We looked at what needed to be done (basically two weeks worth of lessons in his Veritas Press Self-Paced History Course, and five math lessons with lots of additional facts practice).  I told him once those things were completed, I wouldn’t ask him to do any more official schoolwork until after Christmas.

To be honest, I wanted him to dive in and get through it all this week.  He didn’t.  And so I just bit my tongue, took a deep breath, and let him go at his own pace.  We took a day off for Arianna’s birthday and he still managed to get in a solid week’s worth of work, so I can’t complain.  In addition to his history and math work on the computer, he’s reading through Robin Hood (A Stepping Stone Book), the assigned literature for his history course.  Ian loves being read to, but he’s usually reluctant to read on his own, so I was surprised at how enthusiastically he picked up the book each day.  He even asked if we could get some of the other Stepping Stone books, intrigued by the titles like Man in the Iron Mask and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  I told him I’d rather he wait a couple years and just read the “real” books, but I’d help him look at the library for the Stepping Stone versions.

DSCN0913xAs far as Elijah goes, I didn’t demand much from him this week.  Instead of doing regular lessons, I set him to work systematically going through his Architecto Gameand the Equilibrio book that uses the same blocks.  I like giving him something to do besides flying through grade levels on CTCMath.com, and since he’s fascinated by building things, I figure his time is well spent developing his spatial visualization skills.  After Christmas I’ll have him go back to lessons too, but for these light weeks I think this is a great Kindergarten activity.

Read Alouds

One of my goals over the next few weeks is to read with my children as much as possible , and we got off to a great start.  They spent a lot of time pawing through our collection of Christmas books, sometimes just flipping through them quietly on their own, and sometimes bringing them to me to read.  Here are the ones we read this week(for my most complete list of Christmas picture books, see my post Christmas Book Countdown):

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Best Christmas Pageant

I also had the pleasure of introducing the boys to The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson, one of my childhood favorites.  From the first page, Ian was hooked, and within a few chapters we had drawn Elijah in as well.  They kept begging for more and we ended reading the book in one sitting (well, with a few interruptions from the little ones).  It was such a hit I went searching for the movie, which I’d never seen.

So all in all we had a delightful week of snuggling up with books and enjoying lots of family time in the glow of the Christmas tree with the iPod serenading us with Christmas carols pretty much all day every day.  Bliss!

Posted in Holidays, Weekly Wrap Up

I Prayed For You by Jean Fischer (Book Review)

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If you’re looking for a sweet, thoughtful book to read with your preschooler, I would encourage you to check out I Prayed For You by Jean Fischer.  I received a copy from the publisher, Thomas Nelson, and from the first time I read it through I was convinced that this 20-page board book was definitely going to be one of those stories I read again and again to my children.

A mother bear narrates the book, and each page alternates between her talking to her young cub about some aspect of life and short, rhyming prayers to God about that particular thing.  The first page sets the stage beautifully:

Before you were born, I asked God for something special.  I asked Him for you.

“Dear loving Father in heaven above, send a sweet baby for Mama to love.”

I instantly remembered the years before I had children and that was the deepest cry of my heart.  I remember the pain of waiting and longing for that positive pregnancy test, and the overwhelming thankfulness I felt once they had arrived.  Almost every page in this book connected with my heart and had me nodding in agreement.  Mama Bear talks to her cub about watching his first steps and praying for God’s guidance, listening to his first prayers and praying he will always turn to God, tending her cub’s injuries and praying for God’s comfort, and so on.  The only page that didn’t really fit for us was the page about sending her cub off to school for a whole day without her, but I’m sure we’ll find other situations that we can relate to in a similar way.

For older kids the board book form and cuddly bear illustrations might seem too babyish, but they’ll certainly appreciate the love expressed on each page.   Even if younger kids haven’t necessarily experienced some of the things in the book yet I think they’ll love hearing about how someone has been praying for them.  This is the perfect book for taking some time to sit down for a good snuggle to reassure your children of how precious they are.

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Posted in Book reviews

Slowing Down for Advent

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Advent 1I love making Advent a season of joyous anticipation in our home.  Over the years we have developed many traditions and I’ve tried to make plans for special activities to help point my children to Jesus in the midst of the chaos in the world around us.  Here are a few things we’ve done at least once:

This year, however, I feel a call to slow down, to purposefully step back from the busyness of the season and soak it all in.  I want to keep school work to a minimum, just keeping up with Ian’s online history course, playing math games, and reading with all the children a lot.  Rather than wrapping up books for each day, I’ve just left them all out for the kids to peruse.  Ian’s already started bringing me old favorites, and I hope we’ll all find lots of time for reading together.

Reading is actually my only real plan.  Last year we really enjoyed Jotham’s Journey by Arnold Ytreeide, a story broken into daily readings to be enjoyed through the weeks of Advent.  We loved gathering as a family every evening by the glow of the candles on our Advent wreath and the lights on our Christmas tree to hear about Jotham’s latest adventure.  It was such a hit that this year we’re reading the next book in the series, Bartholomew’s Passage.  I had planned to also go through Unwrapping the Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp, but it might just be too much to try to do both, so I may save it for another year.

I’m hoping to have all our gifts purchased by the end of this week so I can just rest, reflect, and ready myself for the celebration of Christ’s glorious arrival.  I’m sure things will come up, but with God’s help we’ll slow down enough to really enjoy the beauty of Advent.

Posted in Holidays

Wrapping Up Week 17 (2015-16)

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Weekly Wrap Up 2015-16
 

It’s amazing how much a little structure can change things.  When we moved back in June, we took down our Accountable Kids pegboards, and they’ve sat in a box ever since, just waiting to be put back to use.  Two weeks ago we finally got around to mounting them on the wall, and consequently the kids accomplished an amazing amount of things they’d neglected in the last few months, like practicing the piano, getting laundry regularly, and helping with the dishwasher.

I used some of the time that allowed me to get back into the DVDs from IEW’s Teaching Writing: Structure and Style seminar.  As the boys have progressed in their writing class (using Fables, Myths and Fairy Tales: Writing Lessons in Structure & Style) I find that I really need to know how the IEW system works to be able to help them.  They are both young to be attempting this material, and they definitely need some “scaffolding” to get through it, but I think they’re both getting a lot out of the class, and we’re just trying to introduce the ideas this year.  We find ourselves having lots of conversations about finding interesting words to describe the world around us.

“Conversational” is probably the best word to describe our whole week.  We got caught up through lesson 14 in Our Planet Earth (from God’s Design for Heaven and Earth), just reading the text and talking through the different kinds of rocks.

In math, I only had Ian do two lessons in Teaching Textbooks Math 3 and we spent a lot of time playing games to help the boys learn their multiplication facts (excluding 7’s, 8’s, and 9’s).

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We finished reading Marianna Mayer’s adaptation of Ivanhoe.  I think I’m going to quit on Pinocchio though.  I remember really enjoying it as a child, and perhaps if I’d been more intentional about finding time to read it we’d be more enthusiastic, but as it is, Ian’s not thrilled with it and we’re not terribly motivated to pick it up.  Perhaps I’ll come back to it with the younger children in a few years.  There are just so many wonderful books I want to read with all of the kids during Advent, so it’s time to just put Pinocchio away.

A few final thoughts

The older three children had their final choir performance for the semester on the Friday before Thanksgiving, which helped me really feel ready for the holidays to begin.  We wrapped up a few loose ends in history and writing this week (which is why I’m posting a week late), but now we’re just enjoying the holiday break and looking forward to the joyous anticipation of Advent.

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Posted in Weekly Wrap Up

So Thankful…

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ThanksgivingThis morning we gathered with some other homeschool families to celebrate Thanksgiving, and of course at one point we asked the kids to list the things they were thankful for.  We’d had a hideous morning so far, and my kids’ answers did nothing to improve my mood: toys, cars, chairs, strollers, cups… basically just anything they saw in front of them.  They were just not getting into the mindset we were trying to encourage, and I’m sure I didn’t help the situation, since I’d been in tears several times over the past couple hours and was barely holding myself together to lead the discussion.

However, the experience got me thinking, and as the day progressed I tried to be intentional about focusing on gratitude in the midst of frustrating circumstances.  I am so thankful for these blessings today:

  • my sweet friend who told me not to stress when I realized our celebration started in 10 minutes not in 2 hours
  • our neighbor, herself a busy homeschooling mom of four, who took the time to come jump start my car when the battery was dead for the fourth time in as many weeks, even though she needed to leave herself
  • another dear friend who sent her older kids to whisk my little ones away to the playground and help clean up the mess from my leaky containers of food for our feast
  • multiple friends jumping to take over my clean-up responsibilities when I expressed how overwhelmed I was and just needed to go home
  • A healthy 3-month old who interrupted his nursing just to smile and coo at me when I finally escaped to my bedroom for an hour of peace.  Every day I get teary and praise God for him, remembering his rough beginning and how I longed to hold him while he was getting strong in the NICU.
  • A day at home tomorrow.  The last few days of early holiday celebrations have been too much for this introvert and I am thoroughly “peopled out.”
  • God’s mercies which are new every morning.  There are many moments today that I wish I could take back, but I’ll settle for moving forward and resting in His sweet mercies.

Of course there are so many things I could add, but the important thing isn’t what’s on the list but the simple act of setting aside my tears and frustration to notice even a few of the myriad blessings God pours out on me each day.  Truly, my cup overflows.

Posted in Personal

Wrapping Up Week 16 (2015-16)

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Weekly Wrap Up 2015-16
 Last week it finally felt like we were back to our routine (though since it’s taken me a couple extra days to write about it, I’m obviously not quite as top of things as I like to think).  Still, I was happy with what we managed to get through, especially since we took a day off for Elijah’s sixth birthday.  He takes great delight in building things, so most of his gifts followed that interest.  I may decide to have him work through the designs in Architecto as part of his school work.

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Preschool

Arianna is back into Reading Eggs and is doing really well as she repeats the first couple dozen lessons.  I’m really glad I set her progress back, because she has so much more confidence this time around and is working much more independently.  She really wants to be doing work on the computer like the boys, so I let her spend time both with Reading Eggs and with La La Logic [Edited to remove link as this online curriculum is no longer available] . which we’d taken a break from when we moved at the beginning of the summer and never started back up again.  Both she and Elijah spent quite a bit of time on it this past week.

Read Alouds

We finished up our King Arthur stories by reading The Kitchen Knight as retold by Margaret Hodges.  I had planned on reading more, but it just felt like time to stop.  I’m sure at some point in years to come, we’ll go back and read more stories about the knights of the round table, but the weeks we’ve spent on it this year have definitely given Ian (and Elijah, to the extent that he was following along) a good introduction.

  We started reading an adaptation of Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe by Marianna Mayer with beautiful illustrations by John Rush.  This version is highly simplified, but Ian enjoyed the story and spent a long time admiring the pictures.  It fit well with his history lessons as well.

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We also read a few more chapters in Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, though not as much as Ian would like.  (Since we’re taking turns choosing our non-history related chapter books, he’s anxious to get through my selection and onto his next choice.

Independent (Computer) Lessons

Math

Ian has reached multiplication in his Teaching Textbooks Math 3 lessons.  I’m not quite ready to start him on practicing his multiplication facts on xtramath.org, just because he’s got a few more subtraction facts to master.  Instead I’m slowing down our pace with Teaching Textbooks, doing just a couple lessons a week, and spending time with some fun games to help him (and Elijah) practice the facts as they’re introduced.  (So far aside from learning the rule for 0’s and 1’s he’s done the 10’s, 2’s, 5’s, and 4’s.)

For dessert one night I split the kids into teams: Ian and Nico vs. Elijah and Arianna.  (The little ones love shouting out numbers, even if they have no clue what the point is, but since Ian and Elijah are pretty evenly matched, the teams are as fair as I could make them).  We went through flashcards with all those fact families, giving M&M’s to each member of the team who got the correct answer first.  They got in some good practice and everyone ended up with a handful of candy by the time we finished.

History

I continue to be amazed by how much Ian is enjoying the Veritas Press Self-Paced History Course on the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation.  We had taken a week off for our road trip, so we’re behind where I had planned to be.  Still, I wanted to enjoy our week on cathedrals.  It was a bit of a review since we discussed them last year during a unit study, so I didn’t go too in depth.  I have Ian a choice of which video he wanted to re-watch, and he chose Building the Great Cathedrals, which my Kindergarten architect enjoyed a lot as well.

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Ian actually finished all the lessons for the week early, and then we I told him he didn’t have any more history to do, he dived into the next week’s lessons on the Crusades.  I’m hoping we’ll get caught up and back on schedule without doing history all the way up to Christmas.  It’s wonderful that he loves the program so much.  Elijah keeps asking me when he’ll be old enough to do history as well.  (He already watches Ian do his lessons every day and has the song memorized.)  I wish there were a way to purchase the Veritas Press online courses to use over and over again, because I just don’t see this being something we can afford every year, especially for multiple students.

A few final thoughts

I can’t believe how quickly this year is flying by.  On Friday the kids had their final music classes with the exception of choir, which will wrap up with a final performance this week.  Before we know it, Christmas will be upon us!

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Posted in Weekly Wrap Up

2015 Schoolhouse Review Crew Awards!

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2015 Reviews Collage
The Schoolhouse Review Crew’s year is officially over, and it has been a pleasure to be a part of it for the second year in a row.  The Crew has reviewed so many great products this year, and we’ve come together to vote for our favorites.  Before I get to that, however, here are the products our family had a chance to check out in 2015 (with links to my reviews if you want to find out more):

What We’re Still Using

Just in case you’re wondering, I thought I’d make note of which products we’ve continued to use even after their review periods were concluded:

  1. CTC Math is Elijah’s regular daily math curriculum.  He has completed the Kindergarten and first grade lessons and is about halfway through second grade.
  2. La La Logic continues to be a favorite around here, especially with Arianna and Elijah
  3. Horizons 1st Grade Penmanship is another part of Elijah’s daily routine
  4. Middlebury Interactive Languages doesn’t get used daily, but the boys still do lessons regularly, and I’d like to see them both complete the 2nd semester of Spanish before our subscription runs out.
  5. The Timeline of Classics and A Word Write Now from IEW are handy references we still turn to on occasion.
  6. The three audio dramas aren’t currently getting played, but I know the boys (especially Ian) will return to them in the future.

CTC Math and Middlebury Interactive Languages were actually returning favorites from our 2014 Review Year.  Ian is also continuing to use Spelling You See, and now that the boys are getting a little older I want to go back to SchoolhouseTeachers.com to see if there are any courses they’d like to try.

Crew Favorites

There are many products other members of the Crew reviewed in addition to those our family used, so if you want to see what products were the most popular with Crew families, check out the 2015 Blue Ribbon Awards!

2015 Schoolhouse Review Crew Blue Ribbon Awards

Posted in Product reviews

Goodnight, Manger by Laura Sassi (Book Review)

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We have an extensive collection of Christmas picture books, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped searching for treasures for my children to enjoy during Advent.  I was pleased to receive a copy of Goodnight, Manger by Laura Sassi to review, and look forward to sharing it with my children when we launch our annual picture book countdown to Christmas in a few weeks.

I was delightfully surprised by this winsome book.  We have a new baby in the house, and with four other children who find it difficult to contain their youthful exuberance, I can relate all too well to the story of trying to quiet down the excited crowd so the little one can get some sleep.  In Goodnight, Manger, Laura Sassi uses simple rhymes to tell about the wiggly baby Jesus trying to go to sleep amidst a noisy audience of animals, angels, shepherds, and kings.  Mary finally convinces everyone to join in a quiet lullaby and at last the baby drifts off.

Award winning artist Jane Chapman’s beautiful illustrations enhance the already charming story.  Each picture catches the eye its warm, vibrant colors.  The Holy Family is refreshingly portrayed with authentic ethnic coloring.  And the characters exude a joy that pulls the reader into the jubilant stable and makes them want to join the festivities.

If you’re looking for a serious, straight forward telling of the story of Jesus’ birth, this is not the book for you.  However, if you’re looking for a sweet bedtime story to share with your children, this book is sure to delight your entire family, not just at Christmas, but all year long!

 

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Posted in Book reviews, Holidays

Comic Relief for a Frazzled Mom

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This morning did not get off to a great start.  The boys had their IEW class at 10, so in addition to the normal morning tasks of trying to get everyone fed and dressed, we were trying to squeeze in a little math, plus they needed to finish their homework before we left.  It soon became obvious that no one else was going to jump on board my efficiency train however, so I found myself dealing with chaos:

  • Ian arguing about wanting to do different math.
  • Arianna battling over my refusal to let her wear a nice church dress to her class because they usually go outside and play in the sand and I didn’t want it ruined.
  • Both boys rushing off sloppy stick figure sketches instead of doing their best work and then breaking down in tears when I required them to go back and improve their illustrations.
  • Nicholas droning on and on, “Why, Mama?” like a broken record about nothing in particular, not trying to cause trouble but annoying me to no end as I tried to tend to everyone else.
  • And behind it all, the background noise of Nathaniel crying incessantly, mostly because I dared to set him down to fix breakfast, help get people dressed, or change the diaper that I didn’t notice was dirty until I started buckling Nico into his car seat.

Ordinarily I might have just cancelled school for the day, but I didn’t want the boys to miss class, plus we have a birthday and a field trip later this week so we really did need to get something accomplished.  By the time we left the house, I had apologized to at least three children for making them frustrated and for letting my stress get the better of me.

We made it to church (where their writing class is held) and got everyone settled in the appropriate rooms.  I swung by the bookstore/coffee bar on site for an iced mocha and a pecan roll to finish off my breakfast (since chocolate seemed like a necessity at that moment).  Then I popped into the women’s Bible study for a bit of peace while I nursed the baby before joining the boys in their class.  Settling in, I took a deep breath, determined to soak in the quiet of a [mostly] child-free moment, and prepared my heart as my friend Elizabeth opened with a reading from Psalm 56 (NLT).

O God, have mercy on me,
    for people are hounding me.
    My foes attack me all day long.
 I am constantly hounded by those who slander me,
    and many are boldly attacking me…

I almost started laughing out loud as the words made me picture our morning and my children as the “foes.”

I praise God for what he has promised.
    I trust in God, so why should I be afraid?
    What can mere mortals do to me?

They are always twisting what I say;
    they spend their days plotting to harm me.
They come together to spy on me—
    watching my every step, eager to kill me…

Okay, well at least it hasn’t gone that far, I chuckled, feeling slightly guilty that this psalm was striking me as something humorous when there are people in the world facing truly deadly situations.

My enemies will retreat when I call to you for help.
    This I know: God is on my side!
I praise God for what he has promised;
    yes, I praise the Lord for what he has promised.
I trust in God, so why should I be afraid?
    What can mere mortals do to me?

BlessingsFor years, I clung to the promise God had given me in a vision when I was just fifteen, a promise of a husband and children.  I longed for the life I have now and dreamed of getting to spend each day discipling the children He would give me.  So even though I know it’s a gross misinterpretation of this Scripture, the words of the Psalm were a gentle reminder for this frazzled mom that I have so much for which to be thankful.  Even on the stressful days, I want to make sure I am praising God, especially for these five precious blessings, “mere mortals” from whom I have nothing to fear.

I will fulfill my vows to you, O God,
    and will offer a sacrifice of thanks for your help.
For you have rescued me from death;
    you have kept my feet from slipping.
So now I can walk in your presence, O God,
    in your life-giving light.

Oh, let it be so, dear Lord.  Thank you for making me smile in the midst of my stress and for the reminder to turn my eyes upon you so that I can bask in the glory of your “life-giving light.”

Posted in Personal

Wrapping Up Week 15 (2015-16)

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Weekly Wrap Up 2015-16
 

Last week was mostly spent recovering from our road trip.  At home we focused mostly on math and history.  The boys also had their IEW class and all the kids were happy to be back to their Friday music classes.  I’m both looking forward to and dreading the holidays, because while a break is always nice, it’s hard for us to get back in the swing of things!

Sir GawainWe continued enjoying King Arthur stories by reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as told by Michael Morpurgo and beautifully illustrated by Michael Foreman.  Ian enjoyed the book, though I found myself wondering if I should have skipped this one.  During part of the story, Gawain is tempted by the wife of his host, and I became a little uncomfortable.  We talked about the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, comparing the wisdom Joseph showed by fleeing with Gawain’s foolishness in allowing someone else’s wife to spend time alone with him and accepting her kisses.  It wasn’t exactly a discussion I would have planned for my 2nd grader, but once it had come up I didn’t want to just ignore the situation and give the impression that I was okay with such behavior.

Elijah really enjoyed mapping our trip and keeping track of which states we passed through, so I tried to give him time to practice the geography he had learned.  He really enjoyed looking at maps of the US and putting together a wooden puzzle of the states.  I love that we were able to make the map come alive for him, and I’m looking forward to exploring more of the country in the years to come!

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Upcoming Reviews

Our review season is almost wrapped up!  Watch for these last couple reviews in the next few days:

Posted in Weekly Wrap Up
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