Bovine Beauty

I'm sure this must seem like an udderly random post, but these photos were among the 315 previously mentioned and I just love them. They were taken during our day trip to the Kingston campgrounds last weekend and perfectly capture, I think, the beauty of the day and the surrounding area. More photos, I hope, will follow soon. Enjoy!

School Days

I really regret not documenting more of last year's school work, because it's so much fun to go back and see what we were doing at any given time. So, although this may only be interesting to Darren, myself, and my mother, I'm going to be making more of an effort to record our favorite parts of our school days! Yesterday we continued with Ants and the letter A. We sculpted A's and ants out of Play Doh (for about two minutes, until it was decided that minotaurs were much more interesting and fun to create!)

We all love our Magic School Bus books, so to supplement our reading, I typed up a little matching worksheet for Dylan to see how much he remembered from The Magic School Bus Gets Ants in its Pants. He was so excited; it's exactly the sort of thing he's always doing for Caitlyn! (Of course, now he wants to create an entire series of worksheets...which might not be a bad thing...)

To honor the memorial of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta today, I selected a few lovely quotes from Mother Teresa: In My Own Words and wrote them, with white crayon, on white construction paper. Then we painted over them with water colors, revealing Mother Teresa's messages of love. They turned out quite lovely, but didn't photograph too well. We really enjoyed it, and I have to credit Dylan for the clever idea. A few days ago, he created a similar "Magic Paint" book for Caitlyn using this technique. I would never have thought of it on my own!

"We have been created to love and be loved."


"Love is the product of every season."


"Good works are links that form a chain of love."


"Love and faith go hand in hand."

I had really been looking forward to sharing this beautiful coloring page with my children; unfortunately for them, their technologically challenged mommy could not get the printer to cooperate and thus, those lovely pages were cut off time and again until finally I resorted to creating my own with an image found through Google. (I embellished with text, but still wished for the lovely work of Charlotte. Sniff! Maybe next time.) Dylan was looking at the cover photo of The Joy in Loving as his coloring guide, and after reading a few pages, has decided he'd like to read the entire book. :)

Last night, I'd just also like to note, was the first time in months that I actually had dinner started when Darren got home. Two loads of laundry had been done, too, and the dishwasher had been run. I was wearing a skirt and make-up! It's amazing how the start of a new school year has so motivated me to stay on a regular schedule. Let's see how long it lasts. ;)

Our First Day of School

I was just looking at my posts from last year's first few days of school and am so relieved to find that I was a nervous wreck back then, too! I really wanted yesterday to feel special, and while we marvelously exceeded my expectations for the day, I just also have to say...wow. There were a few really tense moments there! I'm so glad that, by pure circumstantial chance, Darren was able to be home for the morning. It was such a tremendous help to have him here with me, and he did an awesome job of keeping me level headed, and plus, we were just really thrilled to have Daddy here for our first morning back to school!

My two early rising girls were a big help to me in the kitchen yesterday as I lovingly prepared a delicious breakfast surprise. (When I saw Margaret's Monkey Bread posted a few weeks ago, I knew it would be perfect for the first day of school.) As expected, it was a huge hit. :)

Oh, and see those beautiful autumn cones there? I totally stole that idea from Margaret, too. Darren helped me put them together in about ten minutes Tuesday night with items we already had on hand...some cool pen and post it note sets he had from a conference, small note pads, nuts, new crayons tied with ribbon, some sticker sheets, new pencils, and my old Matryoshka dolls, with which they had fallen instantly in love when they were rediscovered in the top of my closet a few days ago. (I'm not so much into doll collecting anymore, so I rather they make my children happy now.) Easy, and so well received! I love doing little things like this for my children. How happy it makes me to see them so happy!

Our first project of the day was "A Book About Me!", an impulsive idea I had come up with the day before. I made one each for Dylan and Caitlyn, identical in format but unique in colors and fonts. I simply typed up questions relevant to who they are right now, as well as what they hope for the future, and also included a page for their handprints with sweet little poems I found here. Meghan didn't have a book, but she got to make handprints, too. These were by far my favorite part! They already make me want to cry...I can't imagine looking at them again in another ten or twenty years! I'd like to make these books a first day of school tradition; they will become priceless keepsakes for the children when they are older!

Math was fun. I've been strongly considering Math-U-See for a very long while, and would still, at some point, like to go ahead and order from them. But, as I mentioned in a previous post, this fall is just not the time for us to be buying a lot of new curricula when we've already got so much we can be using in the meantime. Instead, we gathered together on the floor of the living room and played with our linking cubes, devising equations and problems appropriate for Dylan, Caitlyn, and Meghan. Dylan is beginning to grasp the concept of multiplication now, so that's what he and I worked on. I got him started with small groupings, and soon he was creating his own and correctly writing their equivalent equations. He did a great job! I'm so proud of him! In the same way, Caitlyn and I worked on addition. I was impressed to see how much she already knew about writing equations (which symbols to use and where to use them, etc.) and she, too, did an excellent job with her cubes! Meghan and I sorted colors and counted cubes and I am just so astounded when I see how far she's come. Her speech has really improved since beginning therapy and sometimes I just am filled with awe at the new found verbal abilities of my little girl! She amazes me!

I wondered how I might include all of the children in lessons at the same time, as they are, obviously, at quite different developmental stages. But actually, what I've come up with has worked out beautifully. It was important to me that, as much as possible, they would be able to work together. They really enjoy that, and I do, too. So, we're going to be doing little unit studies, I suppose (for lack of better explanation). Yesterday, for example, we began with the letter "A": "A" is for Ant. Dylan has been so eager to begin cursive writing, so I printed out several worksheets to practice upper and lower case cursive A. He loved them! And it is so fulfilling to me, as his mother and teacher, to see his little face just light up when he finally grasps a concept! He first practiced each letter individually, but then advanced to linking the upper and lower case letters, and was just so thrilled when he finally mastered the technique! Caitlyn, in the meantime, was practicing her printing in one of the many Preschool workbooks we have for her. She loves to write so much, and is doing so well! Meghan was busy coloring her letter A picture while the older children worked on their pages. We're still working on letter sounds with her.

Later, continuing with our Ant theme, we read from our selection of Ant books and made special treats to enjoy as a snack! I had wanted to make Ants on a Log, but my children don't really like celery...and also, I hadn't realized that we were completely out of raisins. So instead, we made these superb cookies, and called them Ants on a Log. See? The chocolate chips are ants. We've even got some green grass, there. (I never knew my kids love coconut!) :)

I think we're off to a really great start. It thrills me to see how eager my children are to learn. Dylan begs to stay up just a little bit later to keep making just one more workbook for Caitlyn. He works through workbooks before I'm ready to review with him. Caitlyn asks, a dozen times, if "we get to do more school". Meghan cheers each time I announce a new activity. It is so cute, and so rewarding. My children can, I admit, test my very limits. They are not always perfect. But if, at the end of the day, I go to sleep with sides sore from all the laughing, arms tired from all the holding, mind numb from all the negotiating and planning and doing, then I know it's been well worth it all. It's been a good day. A blessed day.

Priorities

I have this blog entry called "All the posts I never wrote" sitting in my drafts folder, the purpose of which was supposed to be sharing all the fun and wonderful things we did together over the summer that never made it onto my blog. It still isn't finished, and now I'm so far behind in playing catch up that I promised myself I would make a much more concerted effort to stay current with my fall posts, beginning with the very first day of our second year of homeschooling.

But, that didn't happen.

(Sorry, Mom!)

I had every intention of writing all about our day last night, but what I failed to take into consideration was the fact that the Republican National Convention was being televised live and of course there was no way I was going to miss watching Gov. Sarah Palin speak. (Love her. LOVE her!) What I also failed to consider was how hyped up the children would still be an hour past their bedtime, working, entirely on their own, on new school projects! And then, too, there was the pact I made with myself to be in bed no later than ten o'clock every night (which didn't exactly happen last night), but I simply could not postpone bedtime any later in favor of blogging.

And now I'm up much later than I wanted to be this morning (You see? I should have been in bed earlier last night!) and it won't be long before the day is moving along in full swing. Right now a second cup of coffee and a shower are sounding much more preferable to sitting in front of the computer, so that post still isn't written...but later. Hopefully today. Or tonight, maybe. For now, just know that our first day back was amazing, mostly everything I hoped for, and my children enjoyed every minute.

Here's hoping for another great day of learning!

Preparing for Fall

Anticipation is high around here as tomorrow we begin another exciting year of homeschooling! And while I would by no means qualify myself as an "experienced" home schooler at this point, having improvised for what felt like most of our Kindergarten year, I do have to say that I feel much more at peace about our chosen lifestyle than I did last year. Budget constraints have challenged me to create a mostly free, and definitely flexible, curriculum for this year, and, while I would love (and do plan) to share the "nuts and bolts" of what we've got lined up, I just first have to share how much I love our new learning environment!

Although it had become increasingly impractical, I was so saddened by the dismantling of our home school room last Spring. It was really no longer adequately serving it's purpose, but still...I was charmed by the notion of a school room and it was really hard for me to let it go. If there's one thing I love, though, it's the creative rearrangement or repurposing of what we've got to best suit all of our needs, and, if you'll allow me please to beam for just a moment here, I've got to say that I am so very pleased with what we've devised in our dining room! I don't really think I realized it until this morning, but I'm certain now that I've been enormously influenced by the ever inspiring Dawn at By Sun and Candlelight. She and her boys enjoy such a cozy space that every time I stop by for a virtual visit, I just want to crawl right through the computer screen to join them for a cup of tea! :)

So, here is what we've created over the past few days:

I love it so much! The bay window still seems a little bare to me, but I'm thinking that it's ornamentation will provide a fun project for the children and I to work on tomorrow. I'm not sure yet how I want to dress it up...last year was butterflies, but this year I'm thinking leaves, maybe? (Any suggestions?) The lights and garland from last year's window display are now part of our new seasonal table, along with our fall angel, this month's art masterpiece, a lovely autumn platter I just couldn't pass up at Hobby Lobby last year, a couple of figurines, pine cones, two small, beautiful books, pecans from my dad's tree, and a cat. Oh, wait, no! The cat's not a permanent fixture. :)

Another feature of our new learning space that I'm really enjoying, aside from our seasonal table, is our autumn reading basket. I've already updated our book list in my left hand sidebar, so I won't list everything that's in it here, but I would just like to say how cozy it feels to have a nice collection of easy fall reading right at our fingertips. Perfect for our tea times! Also out are books that I plan to use regularly (daily or weekly). These are A Child's Garden of Verses, New Catholic Picture Bible, and Devotional Stories for Little Folks.

I tucked a small bookcase beside our craft cabinet, to hold our flashcards, pens and pencils, math games and manipulatives, and all the books we're likely to be using this fall. This has already proven to be very convenient!

Of course, I have to also mention what is perhaps my most favorite feature of all: our seasonal table makes the perfect spot for cooling all of our fresh baked fall treats! We've already tried apple pie, two loaves of bread, and Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip Pecan cookies, although those were eaten sooner than I could photograph them. :)

I am so happy. I am so looking forward to tomorrow and a new year of learning with my children!

Labor Day Weekend

As promised, we packed up the van with blankets and ice chests and backpacks and field guides yesterday and headed into the mountains with our children for a memorable time of excitement and exploration. When we returned home last night I transferred 315 photos from my camera onto the computer. I'd love to share them all with you now, and tell all about the wonderful time we had, but alas, lesson plans and house cleaning and laundry must all be addressed while Darren is still home to help me!

But because I just can't help myself, here are a few of my favorite photos from yesterday:

Where we were:

What we ate:

What we saw:

What we did:

Just remember: three hundred and fifteen photos! I'm sure I'll be back later with more. :)

Happy Labor Day!