2014 ~ New year

I have been sort of lost when it comes to our 

schooling right now. 

I have been planning, contemplating, and 

analyzing.

Then,

I thought about an old movie line

Tom is always spouting...

"If you don't know where to start,  go back to the beginning"

Here we are...

The Old testament

This is part of the third grade curriculum 

I feel strongly that there is value in these 

pages of stories for all of the kids, now.

I have been bringing it to everyone equally.


Our days pretty much play out as such...

8-10    breakfast, dress, and morning chores

10-12  bible study, paint or draw from the story and recall

12-1    lunch and play outside

1-4      writing practice through a poem everyday (Matthew)

            Wesley does his Teach Your Child How to read in 100 easy lessons

            Matthew will read alone during this time.  Currently he is reading  The Boxcar Children

            we do a group geography lesson and math practice during this time as well.

4-5       clean and prepare dinner

of course there is a lot of horsing around during this time too.

The days are also broken up by home school co-op, violin lessons,

and private hockey lesson with uncle chad.

I try and keep a pretty steady rhythm as I do find it very comforting 

for the kids and myself.

 

Painting creation

Taggert's painting

Wesley's painting "The Chair"

It has been very cold and snowy this year 

so we have been able to...

climb snow "Mt. Elbert"

Create Window art

and conduct science experiments.

of course we still play a lot of hockey!

Matthew's hockey team after finishing third in
their second tournament of the year.

I am slowly trying to find my home school niche
lately, I have been changing it all up. 

I love everything about Waldorf and Steiner is a genius.
Although I am feeling a little defeated.  I am unable to
properly bring this education to them purely.  It is difficult for me
to implement all of his ideas in my home setting.  I do feel that I have
a pretty good grasp on his fundamentals enough to try other ideals and
make them more "Waldorf".  I am very drawn to Charlotte Mason
Lately, I have been researching more from her and tweaking what we have
currently.  Hopefully I'm not messing with them too much.
and hopefully they can make it out of this unscathed :) (unlikely)

until next time...(with more ramblings)

~blessings

Holidays

We celebrated our Christmas this year 

with COUSINS!!!

It was awesome!

I have been waiting for cousins 

and we finally got them.

Of course our holiday was packed with fun

and tons of excitement.

First, we had Christmas eve with my side of the family.

aka...the hockey side

of course they got to play hockey on Christmas.

We also got to hang out with cousin Campbell

After celebrating Christmas day at our house 

with just Tom and me and the kids.

(relaxing)

 

We were on to Brainerd.

This year we stayed in a hotel 

with a water park.

So, that was really fun for everyone.

Grandma Judy with all her grandkids

Great- grandma with Thomas

We had a great time and it is always wonderful

for the kids to see their GREAT-GRANDPARENTS

They are so blessed to know them.

When we returned from our mini vacation we 

hosted Christmas with Tom's dad side.

We had fun with our cousins Izzy and Thomas

The kids had a wonderful Christmas and we were all 

healthy.  They received WAY too many gifts and 

we stayed up WAY too late.

But, I think they know that they are WAY 

LOVED.

until next time

~blessings

update

Since I last posted I feel I have been thrown for a loop!

This leg thing has been really hard on my routine.

Hence the delay of posts...

hence the lack of extra curriculars...

and hence the lack of our usual home school style.

Waldorf is more involved than a typical home school curriculum.

We make our own text books and readers!

We try to make our own everything :)

Sometimes, something happens and you really have to pair it down.

Really get down to the basics. This is what I feel I have had to do 

in the last month.  

We have resorted to....

bare bones homeschooling

Matthew is working on his mathematics through this 

Saxon math book.

Which I actually feel may have been a little bit of a blessing.

Through our Waldorf introduction to math thus far I have not 

introduced traditional terminology (IE. cumulative, addend, sum...)

Now that I had him going through the math book he has had an opportunity

to learn the sometimes complicated terms.  

With Wesley I have been spending the last month learning our 

written language through this book.  It has been 

recommended to me time and time again, but I have always been using 

my Waldorf approach and haven't found time to fit it in. He is picking up on it 

very quickly.  So, I think this is something I may stick with.

Everyday I read a story.

Sometimes it can be hard to find one that will work for all the 

age ranges.  I started out reading the Lion, the witch, and the wardrobe.

This particular story enveloped Matthew and Tillie,

but made Wesley hide in the other room!

So, we switched to Moonintroll.

This turned out to be AWESOME!!

They love these books!

we read the first one quickly and we are on to the next.

I think they were o.k. for Wesley because there is adventure

although there is no "bad guy"

So, this is what a "Bare Bones" 

home school looks like to me..

working on math and reading everyday

then reading a story aloud.

And... Making Christmas Cookies!!!!

We have spent weeks baking cookies 

and they are not pretty!

Matthew has been very involved in his hockey...

He took second in his first tournament of the year

And his violin

His violin teacher is very impressed with him and he loves it.

I never have to ask him to practice.  He walks around the house 

practicing for hours.

He had his first concert this last month

and his first solo!

Wesley has been very involved in his hockey also.

And everyone has been enjoying our home school co-op

this winter as well.

What I have taken away from this new experience

is I need better planning.

If I was more prepared nothing would shake it.

I would be able to carry on regardless of our situation.

 I have spent the last month or so preparing for Matthew's 

new year.  We are going to start with the Old Testament.

I believe very strongly in this foundation and yes, I am planning!

I want to wish everyone a very wonderful holiday 

I love you and hope see you all soon!

Until next time...

~blessings

Broken Bone

Here is the back story and 

update on Tillie's leg....

 

Always a very good helper in the kitchen.

Miss Tillie was helping me with 

dinner one night. 

   I had pulled a chair to the counter and 

she really wanted to chop the lettuce for 

the salad. 

I turned around from grabbing 

something and she had stepped back

off the chair.  Landing on the floor.

At first I thought she hurt her back or tailbone.

Then, she grabbed onto her shin and would 

not let go!!  I waited for Tom to come home

from work.  She had a really hard time 

settling down.  We decided to take her to the 

hospital.  Tom brought her in and sure enough...

 

 

 it is called a toddler fracture, you can 

see it is spiral shaped.

Apparently it is a very common break

and heals really well.

 She got to pick out her own cast colors

Pink and Purple (of course)

She been o.k. so far

Everyone has been so kind 

sending her crafts and coloring books

well wishes and prayers.

She has only complained one time

about "not wanting to have a broken leg."

She can still help me in the kitchen!!!

 She has been making beautiful crafts

and colorings

Next week she is getting a smaller cast that I 

believe she can walk on and is WATER PROOF!!!

These new casts are pretty cool compared to 

the ones I remember. :)

Until next time...

~blessings

Homeschool Co-op

I have wanted to post about our wonderful Homeschool Co-op.

We started the school year with this great group of about 15

families.  We get together once a week to learn and play.

For the first month or so we met at willow river state park.

one of my personal favorite parks and we played, read 

stories, and hiked the trails.  For all of October and now

November we are meeting at Camp St. Croix.

It is a beautiful YMCA camp on the St Croix river.

With them we have experienced some really fun opportunities.

The kids have gotten to play games

explore trails and ponds.

Matthew has gotten to climb walls and throw hatchets.

On this day I took pictures of the grounds and our 

Stone soup day.  It is so great to be a part of this larger

homeschooling community.

Till is chopping kale for our soup

We cooked over the fire and listened to a stone soup story.

 The kids ran around playing games.

This is my kind of recess.

Everything is so relaxed and the kids have so much fun.

The really big news is my baby girl broke her leg!!!!!

Everything has sort of been on hold for the time being.

Now we have resorted to watching TV!

and eating whipped cream most days

Recovery doesn't seem like it will take too

long she has a "nice" break.  She has been a real

trooper.  My house of 3 boys and 1 girl and only

she has had the stitches and now a broken leg!

I will keep posting on her progress.

until next time...

~blessings

Updates

It has been a long while since I have posted

and I want to make sure I'm not missing any of 

our happenings.  Here is how my memory serves me...

(not well most of the time :) )

Dad and the kids created a radio from 

wiring, foil, and cardboard tubing.

Matthew's very favorite thing is to 

create these science projects.  He asks

weekly when he can make more.

So far they have made a robot, a telegraph,

a spinning wheel, and multiple volcanoes.

for read aloud we fished all three Pippi Longstocking

books.  Wesley proclaimed he LOVES everything about Pippi.

They were a hit all around.

Wesley's snail art

We took a field trip to my favorite local greenhouse/petting zoo.

We picked out our pumpkins for Halloween

and ran around the corn maze.

Wesley has been working hard with learning to 

read.  We have gone through the whole 

alphabet phonetically.  Now we are working on

consonant blends and word families.

This year everyone was vomiting on Halloween.

This picture was taken before 

Wesley decided to get the flu too.

  We celebrated Matthew's 9th Birthday

We went to Marine on the St. Croix

Went down to the river and dinner at the Brookside

Until next time...

~blessings

Renaissance

We created a whole main lesson on King Arthur and 

the knights of the round table.  We used stories from

Linda Proud's book, The Knights of the Grail

We followed Mrs M's curriculum to build upon these 

stories.  Here is some examples of his work...

He did copy work of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poetry

Sword in the stone

We finished just in time to partake in Home School day at 

the Renaissance festival.

It fit just perfectly into our theme!

 Climbing walls

and horseback riding

Jousting

Archery

Knighthood

Fairies

This is by far their favorite place!!

 

 

 

until next time..

~blessings