How do you have the time?

People ask me this a lot in regards to my blog.  So, I thought I'd answer by first stating things I don't do:  1.  Watch TV or videos, 2.  Leave the house.  3.  Have a life.  Haha!  Well, it's my season with a house full of small children.  So, blogging is something I can do easily from the comfort of my home, sharing my passion - which is my children.  That being said, what I usually do is take photos throughout the week of things we do.  Thoughts will be stirring.  Then on the weekend I take a little time to put together a few posts and set them to post throughout the week.  So what you're seeing here is usually one week behind.  Shhhh, now you know my secret.

Fun with food coloring

Just add a few drops of food coloring to water in clear containers.  I gave my kids a couple different kinds of medicine droppers to play with and they had fun for a long time mixing and adding colors.

Ezzy poured the water in containers.

 

Then he added a few drops of food coloring to each one.

Begin mixing with droppers.  Kai played too.

But this activity really captivated Ezzy's (almost 5) attention the longest.

Multitude Monday

I haven't been keeping up online, but here's a peek into my gratitude journal...

130. Jude jumping up and cheering for Ezzy when he stood up on a surfboard.
136. Stressing for no reason because God has it totally under control!
138. Ezzy and Jude's creative play and laughter.
139. Being told by a stranger how much she enjoyed watching my children play.
141. Ezzy and Jude playing duck duck goose by themselves - funniest thing I've ever seen!
143. Time with just Ezzy playing in my room.
145. Playing "hermit crabs."
146. The whole family snuggling up and laughing watching Goofy cartoons in bed.
147. Speaking Spanish.
148. Lessons learned and being applied to a new situation. The past not repeating itself!
149. Hosting our first missions team.
150. Cooking with a huge block of California cheddar cheese.
156. Reading Proverbs with Scott.
159. Good books challenging my thinking and stretching my brain.
160. New ideas for homeschool.
161. Free surf camp for the boys!
165. Fireworks and good friends on the fourth of July
170. A small living space that gets messy fast, but also cleans up very fast.
171. A house that is very lived in - every inch of space is used- I love that!
174. Jude washing dishes.
175. Being a part of a woman's Bible study.

Mad Hungry

Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys

I just got this book in the mail from my sister.  Isn't this just the most perfect book for me?  I'm going through it and underlining with a pencil!  Listen to the introduction

"Men eat differently from women - they eat more, they eat constantly, and they eat passionately.  They ransack a packed refrigerator and scrounge crumbs from an empty one.  They eat standing in front of the fridge, and they eat with their fingers.  They always make a mess and never notice.  They are all appetite and no pretense.  'What's for dinner?' is the most important, most burning question.  Food is everything to them and food is nothing until there is none.  And if they're 'mad hungry' with no food in sight, life is a living hell.  But feeding them well is what many of us love to do and few jobs feel as satisfying.  It's what keeps them healthy, keeps them happy, gives them some of their fondest memories and teaches them to cook."

I love it!  Thanks Bop, you're the best!  Recipes to follow...

Paint bubbles

 

You just fill a container with a little water, paint and dishwashing soap.  Blow with a straw to make bubbles and then print them on paper. 

 

Wow!

Paint speckled face.

Our results - fantastic!

I found this activity at simplehomeschool.net.  I check in every few days and find some great ideas. 

Just wanted to share a few other fun ideas.  Listed below is a great resource for age appropriate art activities with kids.  It lists all the art supplies you can use and have on hand for different ages with different arts and crafts activities listed.

Making Art at Home:  My Favorite Art Supplies for Toddlers

Making Art at Home:  My Favorite Art Supplies for Preschoolers

Making Art at Home:  My Favorite Art Supplies for School - Aged children

What art activities do you enjoy with your kids?

Happy 4th of July!

math struggles

The last two weeks have seen Kai and I seriously struggling to get his math work done.  His eyes glaze over, he says he's "soooo tired," and resists in every way.  I've been trying to push through with the Horizon curriculum we purchased because it was expensive.   Honestly, I was expecting it to be something totally different than it is - which is basically just a set of workbooks with a teacher's manual.  I've also been sticking with it because I don't have the confidence to really know which direction to go with math.  And somewhere in the back of my head there's this little nagging thought, "Is he behind other children?" and "Is he where he needs to be?"   The curriculum has been a crutch for me to lean on to give me that security of knowing that I'm headed in the "right" direction.  But it's not working.  Kai is unhappy.  I am unhappy.  Our relationship becomes strained as I push him to do something he doesn't want to do.  My joyful, happy, curious boy is becoming whiny and grumpy.

Something clicked on Friday when he looked up at me and grabbed his head, "My brain is getting too fat," he said.  "It's too filled up than it's supposed to be." 


I really had to pause and just listen to those words, to really grasp what he was trying to communicate to me.  It was a description of a painful situation for him.  It's time to re-evaluate what I'm doing and make changes.

I spent time this weekend reading through some of my books and exploring articles and blog posts about math.  And crying some, too, just feeling bad about how things are going. 

Here's a few quotes and thoughts and things I'm thinking through.

These are from The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook

"Your curriculum should be tailored to your child and provide him much more time to pursue his interests than your workbooks.  For many parents a good curriculum provides feelings of security.  But parents need to learn how children develop and learn." 

"Why struggle with and push our children to learn something when they don't want to?  'To everything there is a season,' wrote King Solomon.  The wise parent, we have discovered, patiently waits for 'springtime' and 'harvest' rather than forcing something prematurely.  When we find ourselves pushing, we back off and try a new tack."

And from The Three R's by Ruth Beechick


"Practically every item in the first grade curriculum can be taught using real-life methods.  In fact, they are better taught in real life, including games, than in daily sit-down arithmetic lessons.  ...As a homeschool teacher you do not need a workbook and daily written assignments such as a classroom teacher might use.  Your one-on-one teaching can accomplish more.  But if your child likes it, occasional use of a workbook is all right."

And this really interesting article:  Kids Learn Math Easily When They Control Their Own Learning

And this one:  Just Do the Math

As I'm reading all this Ezzy and Jude begin to argue over some toy monkeys.  They each want the set of three monkeys.  So Kai says, "Well, if we had 6 monkeys they could each have three."  The Ezzy says,

"What if Koa wanted three too?"

"Then we would need 9."

"And what if mommy wanted three?"

"12."

And they went all the way up to 21 calculating if our whole family and God each wanted three monkeys.  Kai said each answer without missing a beat.  I looked at him in wonder.  If I had written 9 + 3 =  on a piece of paper and asked him to solve it, he could do it but he would agonize over it.  But here in a real life situation that was interesting for him it was very easy.

This is what Ruth Beechick talks about when she says, "Don't throw away your opportunity by imitating school too closely.  Use real life for teaching."

"...use real-life situations to teach bits of arithmetic and to build a 'need' to know arithmetic."

"Most arithmetic should be mental.  It happens in conversation, not in written assignments."

The last thing I want to do is kill his curiosity and spirit of adventure and joy in learning through a series of workbooks which are ineffective.

treasures

"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly;
it is dearness only that gives everything its value."

Last week a really good friend came  to visit and bring a missions team to serve with us.  She used a full 50 lbs of her luggage space to bring things just to bless our family.  She brought really fun snacks that we can't get here, board shorts for me and Scott and lots and lots of books.  I feel so blessed. If you're reading this, thanks John and Laurie!  We love you guys!

I Cried Three Times Last Week

And here's why.  I love it when written words bring out emotions and touch my heart in such a way to bring tears.  I love the way fiction can do that through a story.  Sometimes the power of a story touches my life and changes me in ways nonfiction books never can.  Here's what we've been reading.


  The Family Under the Bridge

Kai and I just finished reading this aloud.  It's a story about a homeless man in France whose life is touched by three homeless children and their mother and how the children manage to get inside his heart to the point of changing his life in a profound way.


Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs

My husband read this one aloud to the boys and could hardly make it through it.  It is such a sweet story about a boy and his relationship with his two grandmothers.

The House of Mirth

I love classics.  I've read almost everything by Edith Wharton.  I couldn't figure out where this one was going at first.  It was really hard to predict the ending, but once again it was beautifully tragic.  The main character, Lily, is finally able to see a deeper meaning in life and her discovery is so simple, yet profound, due to the depth of the story and character development.

Just wanted to share three great reads with you.  What have you been reading?

a blessed life

Counting my blessings...

86.  A fun, spontaneous, unexpected father's day fishing at a tilapia farm with new friends. (wish I had pictures!!)
87.  Laughing together.
88.  Screaming with excitement.
89.  Church
90.  Knowing that my kids have the best dad EVER.
91. "Ice cream" snacks which are really frozen chocolate milk!
92.  Hospitality from friends - which is saying a lot when it's our crazy family of four!
93.  Tropical treats.

94.  Laughter on swings.
95.  The way Koa is mesmerized by his brothers.
96.  Getting out of the house.
97.  An afternoon at the park - such a simple thing can bring so much joy.

98.  My children learning lessons at the river with daddy each week.
99.  An amazingly blessed life.
100. Giggles at the kitchen table.
101.  Koa napping so I can do this quick post!

speaking of schedules...

here's a post about scheduling in family time, something I haven't really thought of before.  I'm a pretty spontaneous person.  But, sometimes my expectations don't line up with reality, and perhaps scheduling can help to make those things happen - like quality family time.  Now if only I could stick to my schedule! ;)

Scheduling in Family Time

Throwing my schedule out the window!

I recently posted about my amazing new schedule with Kai and how well it's going.  Well, it is going well.  I love the productivity of a good schedule.  But even in that, sometimes you just have to toss the schedule and mix things up.  That's the beauty of homeschool.

Kai woke up in sort of a grumpy, whiny mood.  He wasn't "hopping to it" with his schedule with any form of enthusiasm.  He was resisting every form of work.  I went to put Koa down for his morning nap and just sat and prayed for a minute. I prayed for a strategy of how to turn this day around and make it a good one. I immediately felt that I needed to let go of the schedule and do some fun, creative stuff with our unit on Ocean we've been doing.

So I gathered the boys around and did the good day cheer.  Then we played "Dive Under the Ocean."  To play I put some sea creature toys under a sheet and called a child's name, "Jude, dive under the ocean."  He "swam" under the sheet and picked one ocean toy and named the animal he picked.  We did this several times and they would have kept playing all day!

My next suggestion was to use the new paints that my mom brought us.  So we each picked an ocean creature to paint.

Next we did a really fun craft.  We sat and tore up little sheets of construction paper.  We put them into a trash bag.  Then we cut out a sea animal shape and painted it with glue.  We dropped the gluey creature into the bag and shook it up.  They had a lot of fun shaking the bag up.  Then we pulled the creature out and were amazed at how the little papers stuck to the creature so perfectly.

Then we made this little project - you fill a bottle half way with blue colored water.  Fill the rest with oil.  It makes waves in the bottle.  

After all the crafts and games we went outside to have a snack and story.  This is "Quiet Fox."  He has his ears up and his mouth closed!  My friend Ellen, a second grade teacher taught me this one!  It works!

And after story a good run with the ball - kicking it soccer style, or futbol as we say here, before the rain came.

I think everyone felt refreshed after this morning and the next day Kai was ready to get back to his schedule with renewed energy and enthusiasm!

Making Changes

I'll confess something.  Sometimes it's hard for me to leave the house.  I know that sounds crazy, but it's just the effort of tearing myself free from my children and chores and when I do have a chance to go out I'd usually rather just rest and read and be quiet.  But I know my hermit tendencies are not healthy and in reality make me unhappy.

I read this article last week called "The Trouble with Motherhood" and it brought me to tears.  It made me realize I need to make some changes.  So I sat down and just sort of wrote out how I was feeling and what I thought would help. Basically it involved sitting with my hubby and making a more detailed schedule of our lives.  We're at a phase of life where if it's not "scheduled" in, it won't happen!  So now I have 7 a.m. - 8 a.m. scheduled for me before Scott goes out the door at 8.  Scott does breakfast and Bible with the kids and I get to have a little time.

This week I went walking on the beach, just me and God.  I played tennis with a friend.  I even went to a women's fellowship Saturday night, even though I didn't want to and I was tired.  My husband actually prayed for me going out the door!  Isn't that silly, but so sweet?  I ended up staying until 10:30 pm and laughing so hard I was crying.  I feel better, I feel more alive, I feel more creative and joyful.  I think for us moms it's the little things.  Small choices can make such huge difference.

Steady Mom's 30-minute blog challenge 

Still counting...

66.  I rearranged my furniture and feel like I have a new home.
67.  I cut off some pants into shorts and feel like I have a new wardrobe.
68.  The way my husband makes me laugh til I cry.
69.  The amazing feeling of riding a bike to pick up some groceries.
70.  Free health care and medicines.
71.  Kind doctors.
72.  I needed to take two children to the clinic and right when I was trying to figure out what to do two friends stopped by right at that moment and were able to babysit, making a stressful situation un-stressful!  I love that.
73.  The way my kids are so snuggly when they're sick.
74.  Blood tests for dengue coming up negative.
75.  Fevers breaking.
76.  Waking up to see the sleepy sweet face of Koa gazing at me.
77.  Conversations with Kai covering so many different topics.
78.  Feeling sore from exercise.
79.  Fevers breaking.
80.  Learning patience.
81.  Koa's little bald spot.
82.  Ezra's amazing imagination.
83.  Jude transitioning from his little potty to the real toilet - finally! phew!
84.  An afternoon with bubbles, hermit crabs, umbrellas, a hose and warm drizzling rain.
85.  Feeling so much better - probiotics and rest seemed to do the trick!

The Intensity of This Season

When things seem hard, I look at the stage of life my husband and I are in and I think we are probably at the very peak of intensity level.  In terms of the ages of our kids (7, 4, 2, and 7 months) and their needs this is probably one of the most physically demanding and exhausting times in our life as parents.  We're still waking up at night several times, I'm still nursing, and the children need our help to do even the most basic tasks.  Sometimes just realizing this fact helps me to take a deep breath, suck it up and know that a day will come, probably sooner than I imagine, when there won't be four little people constantly needing something from me.