Tag Archives: The Kids 2009

Laboring on Labor Day…with help!

Posted on by
Reply


We decided to tackle a semi-small project on labor day. Actually, it’s been an ongoing project for the past couple of years. The project included replacing rickety shelving and adding shelving to our utility room. Believe me, these wooden shelves (attached to the wall by a very small piece of wood) were packed with junk. There were similar shelves on the other side of the door…to the left but those were removed a year ago. Yep, it’s taken us a whole year to replace a wall of shelves. We’re still not completely done with this wall as there is shelving that needs to be purchased and installed above the doorway. Painting, and installation took less than 2 hours…going through all the stuff took about as long. Luckily, for me, it was Mark’s side so he got to go through and put up most of it.
Up next is to do the side where the baskets are (and Mark’s shoes are hanging from). The idea is to put enough shelving over there to put all his tools on. That’ll clear up about 3 of these shelves leaving room for bulk food items and other things we need to store. This was a massive improvement over what was here…there was no where to walk in this corner.

Mark had a little helper while he worked on the project:


He really worked hard and did a good job for a three year old! Although, he did bang his finger a couple of times. After wielding a hammer, he then helped hold screws for Mark. I could hear them talking while I was working with Zoe and Ace doing school. Not sure if Mark was able to say much but Liam was a little chatterbox about this and that. I can tell already, helping daddy is going to be their connection. Let’s see what project I can cook up next so they can have some more bonding time…hmmmm.

Facebooktwittermail

Hang On!

Posted on by
Reply

Liam shaking his head up and down to Mark: Daddy, HAAANG ON!

Mark: Why?

Liam (head still shaking): Because my head is shaking!

We’re getting ready for a trip so life here is a bit hectic…please enjoy my children’s funniest sayings! For some reason, they’ve been on a role this week!

Facebooktwittermail

Eat Your Vegetables and other Sayings

Posted on by
2

Zoe, Ace, Liam, L & J talking a couple of weeks ago.

L (or J or Zoe…can’t remember which): Is your mom older than your dad?

Zoe: Yes.

Ace: Cuz she ate her vegetables.

***

Liam’s decided he wants to be bigger than Ace and he told Ge while visiting Granddaddy in the hospital. She told him that he would be. Ever since then, two weeks later, that Ge said he was going to get bigger. He’s holding on to that hope and eating more vegetables and fruits! Whatever it takes.

Facebooktwittermail

I got a tooth lost!

Posted on by
1

That’s Ace-ease for “I lost a tooth!” He’s had a super wiggly tooth for awhile and every once in a while he would let Mark fool with it. But it was very sensitive…at least for my super sensitive boy and he would want to quit shortly after working on it.

Yesterday, he finally came up and announced it needed to be pulled. He then asked me to wiggle it to see. Choking by my gagging reflex and not looking, I obliged. It was, indeed, very wiggly. However, since I don’t do feet or teeth, I told him he’d have to wait until dad got home. Mark walked through the door and it was, “Hi Dad! My tooth needs to come out!” So, after Mark got settled in at home they traipsed off to the bathroom and Ace squeezed my hand while Mark did a little tug…out it came. A few tears but lots of smiles left.


Liam was super excited and now, since he wants to grow big like Ace, he now wants to lose a tooth like Ace.

Facebooktwittermail

Breakthrough

Posted on by
Reply

Ceili Rain was extremely fussy yesterday. She refused to nap. So, yesterday afternoon, I rubbed her gums and she got really quiet and I felt a tooth! Aha! It just broke through the gums yesterday, so it’s got a little ways to come all the way in. Even with being so fussy during the day, she slept all night last night (well, eight hours). She was also pretty happy as long as we didn’t leave her in one spot for long.

On a sad note, she’s now moved up in size for her clothes. I’m still in awe that she’s growing up. It feels like she was just born.

At any rate, I doubt I’ll get a picture of her tooth any time soon as she likes to keep her hands and other things in her mouth!

Facebooktwittermail

Splish! Splash!

Posted on by
Reply

When Zoe, Ace, and Liam were little, there was a bath seat we were able to purchase so they could actually take a bath and not be stuck in a plastic tub or (in Ace and Liam’s case, the sink). After Liam, as can be imagined, it was covered in much grime and mildew. Our best efforts could not get it clean. And, when I went searching for one for Josiah, all I found was a bulky one that had some kind of arm rest on it. Not something I needed for our growing family. So, for Josiah, we settled for a bath pillow that worked great. But now, the baby superstore near us doesn’t carry that pillow.

However, a new superstore just opened up. They have comparable prices AND coupons! Mark and I perused it while on a date awhile back and guess what I found??

We waited until Ceili Rain could sit up okay (she still can’t do it unassisted but she’s got some skills). I purchased it a couple of weeks ago and here’s little miss thought of it (oh, I put the tub sponge in the seat for a little bit more stability on her part).

Realxin’ in the tub…

Having a little snack on the washcloth.


It helps that sister likes to climb in with her too. So she has instant entertainment (and we’re not using too much water on one child).

Facebooktwittermail

So, How Do You Do It? Homeschooling

Posted on by
Reply


This is a good question. We’re still working on figuring it out but we’ve got the basics of it right now. Here’s a run down of our curriculum since that’s the first question I’m asked by other homeschooling moms:

Phonics/Language Arts: Zoe is in Abeka 2nd Grad phonics/language, Ace is K5 Abeka Phonics
Math: Both are using Saxon Math 1
History: Truthquest History Early American History for Young Students 1
Science: God’s Design for Life (Answers in Genesis)
Comprehension for Zoe: She started out with a workbook but now she’s using a software program called Reading Detective
Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting (K for Ace; A for Zoe)

Now for all the non-homeschoolers: I’m writing this because I can not count the number of times that people have asked me if I have to report our curriculum/have it approved or use only what is issued. Each state governs public schools/education. As such each state has different laws as to what is required of homeschoolers. Some are more strict than others. I would consider our state’s laws medium to less strict. We have report attendance, sign a declaration of intent and keep annual progress reports. They will not supervise my teaching nor the curriculum Iwe choose to use…that’s part of the positives of being able to homeschool.

We could have chosen to use one set of curriculum which would have been easy but I know that not one set of curriculum will/can serve our needs academically and spiritually. Our goal is to raise up our children to bring glory and honor to God first and then the academics can follow.

As far as when I teach, we break it up. I’ve done a lot of tweaking but finally have a working schedule that I used based on Managers of Their Chores. Now, I have the times written down, but we have yet to hit each mark. Ceili Rain still is not on a workable schedule as she wakes up at different times during the night causing our daytime routine to not be set…so, we just follow the order which is what really works best for my kids.

The kids each have a pocket folder that I keep their worksheets in for the day. They each keep notebooks that we keep the completed worksheets in. We also journal and keep up with projects that we’re working on/studying. I love watching them flip through their notebooks and see what they’ve worked on and remember things that we’ve done. Tons of fun to see!

All the kids follow a schedule and I work with Liam for about 10 to 15 minutes on critical thinking skills. So, we have some blanket time for the youngers and playing with older siblings and sit time. It keeps the house to a minimal catastrophe at the end of the morning…on some days.

Facebooktwittermail

Super DAD!!

Posted on by
1

For the past six weeks (I think), we have had a friend come over with her four children to eat supper with us, once a week. Her husband is military and doing short time in Iraq. So, this was an adventure for all the kids to get together and for us to have “adult conversation” including all the interruptions and boo-boo kisses.

So, last night, Mark volunteered his Super Dad services and sent us packing. We left, with our wallets in hand (because our purses are our diaper bags…okay, I take that back, I actually have a small purse to transfer to if needed) and attacked the fabric store. We laughed and shopped until we spent all our money! And we found some absolutely adorable fabric for our sweet girls (and her boys…I’m not that brave yet).

Before I get to what my sweet husband had our kids do, I’ll just have this one little story:

I had to drop some food off to a homeschool association meeting before going to the fabric store. While driving all over town trying to find the place the meeting was, we did a u-turn and wound up behind this scooter. Not just any scooter a very tiny scooter. I mean Zoe’s dolls could have ridden it and stayed on (okay, maybe not that small but it was pretty close). And riding this scooter was a not so tiny man. He was pretty overweight. The road we were on was quite hilly and if my physics is correct: tiny scooter + large man+ large hills=put puttin’ along. And yep, that’s what we did. No joke, he had to bounce up and down to get it to go all of 10 mph going up the hill. I tried to coax my friend into going out and giving him a little push to keep him going. She tried to get me to slow down in case he started going backwards and we hit him (giving CPR while out is just not fun). Once up the hill, he had a red light. We were beside him and then we passed him…and then discussed how he was a glutton for punishment going down a major road.

So, while we were gone, what did one man do with nine kids six and under???

Here’s the answer:

Why I Love Mommy from justabunchofcharacters on Vimeo.

On another note: Granddaddy is home from the hospital and heading for a check up with his cardiologist today. He had only a minor, very minor, heart attack. PET scan on Monday showed adequate blood flow to and from the heart. Praise God!

Facebooktwittermail