Sneaking in Summer

I thought before we get to far into the school year that I should post some of our summer pics for family and friends. These were taken at the local beach in a town about 10-15min away from here.

You ask, "where is Gabrielle?" Well she didn't want to go swimming that day. She was under the tree reading, of course. There is maybe around 15-20 photos so keep watching. Some of them are pretty good.

Journaling with Children-it's the little things that produce big results

I started journaling with the kids the other night. I bought my four older girls those 10cent notebooks when the stores do those back to school specials. And my youngest, Micah, I bought him the journal with space at the top for drawing a picture and lines below for writing. We've only been doing it a few days now but it has been fun and rewarding. Micah and I draw pictures to each other and I write him a short sentece as a note. The other night he secretly asked his sister's for help to spell words for his little sentence back to me.

He wrote: I (heart symbol colored in pink) you. It was very sweet.

I'm getting a chance to write little notes back and forth to each of my kids. I'm always curious to what they write back or how they perceive this "exercise". I don't correct spelling, grammar, or punctuation. It is merely for the practice of putting words to paper. My Annaliese, 8 years old, really looks foward to it. It's like passing notes in school but you don't get caught by the teacher. Instead the teacher is the one who started it. I've noticed in one of my children that she can share her personal thoughts better on paper than in coversations, she has a hard time finding the right words when talking. And that's okay. She will learn and grow and this keeps it easy and free for her to talk about things. With another child it was neat to see the Holy Spirit working in her, convicting her of wrong doing. She took the time in her note the other day to apologize for her behavior. So it's those little things, the fun things, that often touch the heart of a child and produce big results.

The Best Laid Plans

I've spent the past couple of weeks planning out our school schedule for this coming year. Figuring out when we will cover which subjects, when to fit in activities outside the home, at what time will the computer be used for their math lessons, how my freshman daughter's high school schedule will mesh with her younger siblings, and how to make the best use of our time each day. But you know what they say, the best laid plans . . . will be replaced by vacation, by unexpected field trips, by sickness; replaced by daily life. Those best laid plans. . . will be replaced with how to juggle everyone's English lesson, with cooking meals and doing laundry, with answering the many calls for "Help, I'm stuck!" We might have days where it seems like we are falling behind; where our plans seem non-existant. And once again our best laid plans . . . will be replaced with the day to day life of our family.

But that's okay, because those best laid plans . . . will also be replaced with laughter and fun, with learning and creativity, with reading good books, with smiles. With recognizing the little accomplishments like learning how to write your name or learning to read for the first time. Or replaced with big accomplishments like conquering algebra.

The best laid plans . . . will be replaced with moments like these. Moments I get to spend watching my children grow and develop their own unique gifts. Moments of sibling rivalry changed into friendships between sister and sister, between brother and sister, the strengthening of that bond. Moments between a mother and a child, keeping the lines of communication open.

The best laid plans . . . will be replaced with character training, with instilling values and faith in my children. Helping them to become the person God intends for them to be.

And I wouldn't trade those moments with anyone. So to heck with schedules and those "best laid plans" life is full of surprises.

Artist Study and a Little Bit of Fun

The other day I thought I'd try out these card games that I bought many years ago and had forgotten all about. I have 3 sets from Birdcage books - Van Gogh and Friends, Impressionists, and Renaissance. The game is played just like "Go Fish" just with groups of artists and their paintings. It was a big hit with my younger three ages 10 down to 5. The kids had fun trying to figure out how to pronounce French and Italian paintings along with the names of the famous painters. They were able to recognize some of them from previous years of art study - yeah!

I'm really hoping this year to cover more ground in the way of famous artists and their great works. My thoughts are to incorporate reading library books such as the Mike Venezia series, looking through our wide collection of art books and talking about their paintings, lastly I want to implement Debra's art study pages from Notebookingpages.com I also have many of those "color your own" books from Dover. We will be spending 1-2 weeks on each artist, just giving them some of the highlights. I think I will also invest in one or two more games that feature famous artists and their works. I will have 5 students in grades 7th, 5th, 3rd and K/1st. I'll let you know how it goes.

Overwhelmed!

Life hasn't been too crazy in this little town but I am starting to feel overwhelmed. Another school year is fast approaching and I don't feel nearly ready and I don't imagine my kids feel nearly ready either. I am overwhelmed with the organizing that still needs to be done, with some of the purchases that still need to be made, overwhelmed with the time commitment we make each year to homeschooling, just plain overwhelmed some days.

This coming year will be my first student in high school. I often feel like I have gone back to school myself with just a few differences - I am the teacher (how did that happen?), we don't have to raise our hands to go to the bathroom, we can go to school in our PJ's if we choose, we can take any day off during the year - it doesn't have to be a scheduled school break, we can sit together and read all day, we can laugh and share the precious time we have together. For in the blink of an eye, they will be all grown and leaving for an adventure of their own.

I hope when they are older that they will look back with fond memories of being homeschooled, with no regrets, and with a confidence to face the world's challenges knowing how much they were loved.

A sign of Intelligence

Today my oldest daughter Gabrielle got her first pair of glasses. They look quite good on her - make her look sophisticated and brainy. Her siblings were great about not teasing her. Maybe she'll let me post a picture some day soon.

The Never Ending Story

My 3rd child Natania has had a long list of ER visits, a couple of broken bones - the large toe on each foot, some minor things like asthma plus some huge things like growth hormone shots. She is the never ending story of health problems in our family. I guess every family has one child like this and for us, she is it. Just yesterday we found out another minor crisis - Osgood-Schlatter disease which to me really isn't a disease but more of a neusance. It is a knee ailment that occurs usually around age 10 in children that are very active for instance in running, basketball, soccer - sports that have alot of impact on your knee joint. And as the same time are going through growth spurts. It causes the tendons to somehow become over stretch in a way which leads to a large lump just under the knee cap. The worst of it is knowing that she is in daily pain just from being an active kid. She will need to ice her knee often to control the pain. I also ordered a special knee strap to see if that will help. Thank God she will out grow it. Once she gets to her mature height, the pain should stop.

Ordinary or Extraordinary !

I use to complain about my husband influencing my kids in the areas of books, music, movies and television shows. You see, my DH is a huge fan of science fiction. And naturally, he wants to spend time with his children and they with him. So even at very young ages he got them hooked on Star Trek, then Stargate, Dr. Who, etc... Now several years later, I see that my children can think imaginatively, think for themselves, and form opinions about all kinds of topics, in all different forms. Just recently we were spending an afternoon with homeschooling friends and found out they also are huge science fiction fans, also thanks to their dad. So I'm learning that some love science fiction but won't admit to it, while others will step out and be bold enough to say what they enjoy. Their interests in science fiction, mysteries, British movies and different forms of music is allowing them to have a well rounded education.

My children are such a blessing in my life. They are not ordinary, they are EXTRAORDINARY gifts from God, becoming the EXTRAORDINARY people God intends for them to be-they are UNIQUE.

The Art of Drawing

Charlotte Mason was a huge fan of drawing, specifically drawing from nature. At the time of these drawings we were living in Wisconsin which tends to get very cold during the fall and winter. I adapted her concepts and had the children draw pictures from field guides and animal books. There is one photo that doesn't pertain to those topics because my son Micah wanted to be included and has done very little nature drawing. He traces and colors in his pictures for now which isn't too bad for a 5 year old boy.

We didn't seem to do as much natural journaling as I remembered. The kids took off on their own with drawing together and creating personal notebooks full of their hard work. I hope this coming school year (2008-09) that we can expand on our art with more drawing, pen and ink, and painting.

Charlotte Mason Picture Study

When I first started reading about Charlotte Mason and her ideas on education I was so encouraged. With a large family it is often hard to implement art and music. The CM method has allowed us to study both. I'm going to write just a little bit on Charlotte's philosophy on picture study. Now I am no expert on her style of teaching but the one thing I cherish is her ease of studying art with young children. I started when my kids were about 5-7 years old. We would take an artist, read a child's biography and then find books with paintings by that artist. First we would look at the picture and discuss the colors, what we liked or didn't like, the shadows, the scenery, things like that. Then we would turn the picture over and take turns remembering the details of the painting. It was always so interesting to see who remembered what. We have implemented this style of learning off in on through our years of studying art. It is a wonderful, relaxing way to introduce your children to the finer things in life.

Perspective

I recently had the opportunity to go with my husband and visit a member's daughter who was diagnosed with cancer. I don't usually make hospital visits with my hubby but this time I felt compelled to go. Upon arriving I was surprised to find a room full of people, almost a party. They were all in good spirits and hopeful that their daughter would survive. I didn't feel it made much difference for me to go on this hospital visit but I am told that sometimes just being there is what is needed. The whole experience from the first phone call announcing this family's crisis to the continuing of chemo treatments give us new perspective on our lives here on this earth. I can't begin to imagine what this family is going through, what the mom is going through. My heart breaks for them. We have many things that we complain about here in rural Wisconsin. My own heart longs to be in a different place. But for now God is using us in this family's lives and in the lives of others in our church. Although I am not always happy about my husband's calling to be a pastor it is an important work. Life has a way of putting things into perspective for us, letting us see a glimpse of how fragile life can be. Even though I wish for us to be in "suburbia", our frustrations are minor compared to life threatening illnesses. I can be thankful that my children are healthy and that God is in the midst of it all.

Playground

I took these photos at the TL school playground. I wanted some updated photos of the kids plus I wanted to learn how to use photo bucket.

Soccer Mom

Well . . . it's official, I'm a soccer mom. I have two girls Arianna and Natania who just love the sport. We've been playing through AYSO soccer league. I love watching them use their God given abilities out there on the field. It's been crazy driving two of them around with practices and games, sometimes at the same time. I can't imagine next year when my son Micah might want play. Talk about the running around.