Cricket in Times Square and LibriVox

We finished Island of the Blue Dolphins and have been studying The Cricket in Times Square for the last week or so. We're doing a lapbook, like we did for Island, and we're also using this wonderful site to find activities and English lessons that relate to the book: http://www.mce.k12tn.net/reading24/cricket_in_times_square.htm. One thing I've learned is that Simon doesn't have the stamina for writing that Isaac does, so I try to have Simon do some of his work on his own, then I take over as his "secretary"; he tells me what to write, and I write it. It's amazing how his attitude instantly changes once I start helping him.
So, at one point, Mario takes Chester (the cricket) to the soda shop and gets him a strawberry soda. It's lemon/lime soda, vanilla ice cream, and strawberry syrup. We recreated these at home, which was a much-needed reward after a busy Monday. We also learned early in the story that Tucker the mouse loves liverwurst, so the kids and I had crackers with Braunschwieger with our strawberry sodas. Believe it or not, Simon and Esme had their Braunschwieger eaten before I even had a chance to beg them to try it. Isaac ate it too, and of course, so did I. I tried to take a picture of all of this, only to discover that our newer, better camera is broken. "Grace dropped it" was the story I was told. So, I need to start using the old one, but I was too annoyed to go and find it yesterday.
In unrelated news, I was digging around for a kids' church lesson for Wednesday and I came across this site: http://librivox.org/. It's a collection of free audio books (you can even volunteer to do some recording, if you want to). I didn't look very hard, but in the A's and B's I found Aesop's Fables and the Bible, and I looked a little farther and I found Little Women and Little Men by Louisa May Alcott, so I think this is worth investigating. I'm listening to "The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg" right now, and it's pretty cool.

Paper, Paper, Paper

We are so un-green at my house when it comes to paper. We probably use 30 sheets of paper a day, and most of those end up, eventually, in the trash. My kids are huge doodlers; Simon alone can easily use up a notebook in a day or two, and he gets very testy if I try to get him to use the back sides of the sheets or the edges of the page. I print things off the internet that I know I could just use electronically, but there's something in me that has to see it on paper. I go through an ink cartridge every couple of weeks. In fact, right now, I've been out of black ink for two days and it's killing me. I also have a thing for books. I love buying books, and even though I know that I'm not likely to read them more than once, I feel like I need to buy them rather than get them from the library (although we usually have at least 20 items checked out from the library at any given time). John and I have been drooling over the Kindle forever, and I have a friend who just got the Kindle Fire and refers to it as "the best homeschooling investment" she's ever made. Would this solve some of our paper problems? It would mean that we have three "computers," so Isaac, Simon, and I could all look at the same things online at the same time...that would solve some of our problems. But I'm afraid of giving myself that much easy access to Amazon.com. Would I go nuts buying and downloading stuff? I looked up some of the books on my wish list, and they are a lot cheaper as e-books, so maybe I'd save money...or maybe it would just be so easy to buy/justify things that I'd waste money. Sigh. I think I'll just daydream about it for a while. And maybe start a recycling bin for all of our doodles.

Art Sites and Other Stuff

I just got an email with a link to a cool art site for kids: http://nmoe.org/gallery_art/index.html. I clicked the "Art Zone" link from the home page and just made my own collage online using the "collage machine." It was inspired. There are a bunch of other cool activities there too, although I kept having to install Adobe Shockwave Player stuff and was too annoyed to keep exploring. I blame this on my laptop, not the website.
I also found a great book at the library that is supposed to be about learning styles but is really more of a practical guide to using creative methods to get your kids engaged in school: The Big What Now Book of Learning Styes, by Carol Barnier. My plan is to write down a bunch of her ideas and use them on my kids...the first one I'm trying is like a scavenger hunt:
1. You make up a bunch of clues to direct your kids from place to place in the house. For example, the first clue might lead them to the washing machine, and then at the washing machine is another clue that leads them to the bathroom, etc. I made my clues rhyming poems in an attempt to make it a little more fun.
2. Once the kids get to the first spot, they find a list of review questions to answer or an activity to complete. When they finish it, they open the next clue and move on.
I'm also going to use her suggestion for teaching kids to tell time - have them lay on the floor in pairs and use their bodies (one is the minute hand, one is the hour hand), to create the times I give them. Isaac is pretty good with telling time, but Simon has no idea, and I saw it coming up in his Math book. 
Finally, in my quest to learn more about Charlotte Mason, I've decided I need to read her original writings. Fortunately, there is a site where you can read these translated into modern English - or even in paraphrase: http://www.amblesideonline.org/CM/toc.html. 
And now, to get ready for a full day of church stuff. We have church this morning, then we head back at 3 to set up for our annual meeting, which runs until 6 or 6:30. Maybe there will be some time for knitting and napping in between?

Piano

I used to really enjoy playing the piano. I took piano lessons for years, and I even have a piano in the living room, with a bench full of music. I hadn't played it FOREVER until yesterday, when I got sick of looking at the book that I had staged on the music stand, so I dug through the bench looking for something else. I think I still recognized most of the notes and started practicing a song, but it was hard without a metronome (you know, the thing that ticks so you can keep time). Then, it dawned on me - I bet there are a zillion online metronomes out there! Sure enough, I found one right away: http://www.metronomeonline.com/. How cool is that? There was a cell phone version too, but I think you had to buy the app for it. You can buy metronomes too, although a lot of them are digital, which I don't think existed back when I took lessons. I like the old fashioned ones with the stick that ticks back and forth. There are plenty of both kinds for sale online: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=metronome&x=0&y=0. If I can manage to master a song, maybe I'll post a video of it. Give me a while...I don't want to embarrass myself.
Today, we're studying the second fruit of the Spirit - joy - in kids' church. Here's our "joy" memory verse:

Psalm 28:7 - The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.

We're going to make shields, which the boys will love, and give thanks to him in song, which the boys will pretend to hate but will secretly enjoy. Have I shown you our favorite fruit of the Spirit song? Here it is:

Videos

I got a cute little video camera for Christmas - only $20 - and I'm trying to figure out how to put things on YouTube and embed them in this blog. So, as a test, here's a video of Grace eating. This is not very exciting or amusing, but if it works, fascinating video will be forthcoming.


Here's my concern - this is currently "public," so anyone can view or share it. Does that matter? I don't know. Lots of people do this, don't they? Will anyone who doesn't know me care or even be able to find this? Am I exploiting my children if I put videos of them on the internet? I'll do some research on this and see if I can figure out the smart/safe/best way to do it.

Allison's Vocab Search

I think I have created a vocabulary game with a magical combination of fun, physical activity, and education - at least, until I try it out on the kids and they scoff at its lameness. For now, anyway, I am feeling like a creative genius. Here's my game:
1. I made a huge wall of vocabulary words using the roll of paper I bought for our easel that doesn't actually fit on our easel. There's a space to the side of each word for taping up the definitions.



2. I put a picture of each word on an index card with the word written on the back. Then, I taped the index cards (picture side out) around the house. I think this one is a picture of "sinew." (This is Island of the Blue Dolphins vocab.)



3. Next, I wrote a simple, one- or two-word definition for each word on another index card. Example: my definition for "ponder" is "think."

The point of the game is that they run around the house looking at the cards, then they come downstairs and tape the definitions up next to the words, based on what they've learned from the pictures. So, looking at an index card with a picture of a guy thinking and seeing the word "ponder" on the back should give them the clue they need to tape up the definition "think" next to the word "ponder" on the big list. I'm thinking about giving them 60 seconds to run around looking at words, then 60 seconds to tape up definitions, and alternating that until they get tired or bored.

Here's Grace, wishing she were old enough to read (or run, or use tape) so she could get in on this game:

Nature Study

I am not an "outdoors person." I remember being a kid and my stepmom getting so disgusted because I could go the whole summer without getting any hint of a tan. Given a choice, I would rather sit inside with a book or some Barbies than play outside. What do you even play outside? I remember being shooed outside and having no idea what to do once I got there. I've gotten better as I've gotten older; I like to go on walks and runs (although I have to say, I'd just as soon be on a treadmill), I like the pool and the park in the summer, and I like to sit on a lawn chair in my backyard. But I hate bugs, I hate wind, I really hate being cold, and I'm a huge fan of climate control. There are windows in my house that have not been opened since I've lived here. But a big part of homeschooling, especially if you use the Charlotte Mason method, is to teach nature appreciation. I found a cool book from 1911 called Handbook of Nature Sutdy, and a blog that offers lessons to go along with the book. And here's a Squidoo page of stuff on Charlotte Mason nature study: http://www.squidoo.com/cmnaturestudy. And another one called "Nature Tales": http://www.squidoo.com/naturetales. Maybe this will help me change my ways?

Charlotte Mason

We've been using curriculum this year that is somewhat Charlotte Mason, meaning it focuses on reading real books (as opposed to textbooks), being in nature, drawing and art, and letting the kids pursue (to some degree) their own interests. I've been looking online at a couple of websites that focus on Charlotte Mason methods, and it makes me want to try a little harder to figure out how to be even more in line with her teaching style. One is a blog: http://www.momentswithmotherculture.blogspot.com/, and one is more of a normal website: http://charlottemasoneducation.com/. Both sites promote books on the Charlotte Mason method: A Charlotte Mason Companion, by Karen Andreola (blogger), and A Charlotte Mason Education, by Catherine Levison (normal website). One thing I have learned about my kids is that they LOVE to be read to. They love love love anything I read to them, especially if it's got a storyline. And, the more I read to them, the more interested I see them becoming in reading to each other and on their own. And what we read, they remember. If only I could teach them math by reading to them. Or can I...?

Island of the Blue Dolphins

The kids and I just finished reading Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O'Dell, and we did a cool lapbook project along with it. I did not make this project up. (Ha! As if you were wondering.) We got it for free from Hands of a Child, a lapbooking website: http://www.handsofachild.com/freebie.html. I was surprised by how much the kids loved the story, because it is, after all, about a girl...but they were fascinated. I was fascinated too. The book is based on a true story of a girl who lived alone on an island for 18 years! She was finally "rescued," but by that time, no one knew her tribe's native language anymore (the tribe had all died, mainly of disease), so no one was ever able to get the details of what she did all that time. She could only communicate in signs. So it's historical fiction, and it's awesome. We want to watch the movie (circa 1964), but it looks like we'll have to buy it. Here's a link, if you're interested: http://silveragemovies.com/island-of-the-blue-dolphins-1964-p-255.html.
We did find a movie called End of the Spear on Netflix - also on Hulu - also at this website (http://endofthespear.com/%29, which is a great movie about Nate Saint, the missionary pilot who died trying to help the Wuaroni tribe in Ecuador. We read about him for school a few weeks ago and just happened upon the movie while searching the "faith and spirituality" category. There was a documentary about him too, but we haven't seen that yet. Be prepared to read a bunch of subtitles to your younguns, because all of the dialog between the Wuaroni natives is in the Wuaroni language. If you'd rather read the book, here's a link to that; it's written by Nate Saint's son, Steve Saint.
Our other big project right now is studying and memorizing the fruits of the spirit, which are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Even Esme has these memorized, although demonstrating them consistently is another matter. For some great songs about this verse (Galatians 5:22-23), check out my YouTube playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFE7E25DA3AC5CB32.
And that is homeschooling for this week.

Money?

The number one objection I hear from moms & families about having a parent stay home is money. It's tax time, and for the first time ever, I'm attempting to do our own taxes, so I've been looking at our income and expenses. It's not as scary as you might think. We've had one job now for 13 months (not counting my job at church, which doesn't pay very much and really doesn't count), and I'm telling you, it is totally possible to live on one income. We have a little bit of an advantage because of my kids' child support, but even without it, we'd be doing just fine. Last year, we paid off several thousand dollars in old medical bills, plus several thousand dollars for Grace's birth/delivery. We tithed. We supported a couple of other missions & charities. We bought gifts for all seven kids at birthdays and Christmas. We paid to fly David and Jennifer here and for a car for them to use. For a few months, there were 9 people living (and eating) in our house. We kept up on all of our bills and don't have any credit card debt. We all have plenty of socks, underwear, and food. Amazing? Yes, it is. I truly think that God is blessing us and our finances because of the decision we've made to reject the "it takes two incomes to survive" mentality that has infested our culture. I'm not trying to brag. We are not perfect. I waste money on dumb stuff ($20 yarn, the expensive yogurt, adorable baby shoes for a baby who doesn't walk yet) and make stupid decisions. I get crabby and yell at my children. I get mad at my husband for breathing funny in his sleep. We skip school once in a while because all of us are dreading it. I daydream about owning a huge house and a brand new minivan with those stow-and-go seats. I am, at best, just a normal person. This is all the more evidence that YOU - whoever you are - can do this to, if you want to. And if you don't, it's not as if I don't understand that too (and who would I be to judge your choices anyway?). I worked full time for the first 12ish years of my "adult" life and didn't even consider staying home until about a year and a half ago. I went back to work 4-5 weeks after each of my first three kids were born. Eagerly. I spent every bit of the two incomes we had, and sometimes more. At least once a week, John says to me, "I don't understand how we're doing it, but we're doing it." So we "only" have one car and rent our house and are the only people I know without a flat screen TV. If that's all it takes to have the incredibly rich life that we've got, how awesome is that?

Bad, bad blogger

I was reading someone else's (is that not a word? why is it underlined in red?) blog the other day, and I couldn't help but notice that not only was the writing much better than mine, but the content was actually organized, meaningful, and useful. There were metaphors, there was style, there were long words that I didn't recognize...research was apparently done beforehand in order to provide the reader with helpful tools and resources. I bet this woman even got dressed before she blogged. Or, at least, she wasn't wearing a robe with baby snot on the shoulder (I try to wash it regularly but it takes up so much room in the washer.) Anyway, it made me feel inadequate and hence, I have not blogged for a while. I'm over it now, though, and surely my goal is not, in the immediate future anyway, to be the most literary blog out there. Or the most useful. Maybe some of those bloggers look at blogs like mine and it makes them feel good. I've decided that this is my niche...along with sharing photos and the occasional useful tidbit with my close friends and family. So, that being said, this is the end of birthday week in my family: Alyssa Thams on the 9th, Isaac on the 12th, Grandma on the 13th, Grace on the 14th, Great Grandma on the 16th, and me today. I am now 34 and I suppose I have to admit to being in my mid-thirties. Here are some birthday photos (Isaac celebrated at least 4 times and had a sleepover that involved almost no sleep, for anyone):

 Birthday Breakfast

 The "Sleep"-over

 John and all of the girls

 Jen, David, and Grace at the Schoonover Christmas/Birthday Bash

Come on, Grace! Blow! Yes, I know the cake looks like a 10 and Isaac is actually 11. I didn't have enough room in the bundt pan for all of the angel food cake batter. Should have done this one last year.

A New Song

I'm excited to go to my Wednesday morning bible study today, because we're starting a new book and I think I might actually get caught up on the reading beforehand. We're on our second book in the A New Song series, which is a Lutheran study based on the book of Psalms. Each book in the series studies 6 psalms over the course of 6 weeks. It's very cool, and several of us are not even Lutheran. There is a lot more focus on baptism in the Lutheran church than in mine, but that's the only thing I notice...and I guess it doesn't really bother me.
Here's the verse I'm studying right now from Psalm 9: "The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know Your name put their trust in You, for You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You." Yeah!
I take all of the kids with me, and the older two get $2 if they do a good job of helping with the kids in the nursery, so we ALL look forward to this study. If you're in Carroll, and you're free every other Wednesday at 9 a.m., come and check it out! Oh, and you have to be a woman.

Back to School

Well, the holidays are over, and we're going back to school today. I need to start writing down everything the kids ask that I don't know (which is lots and lots of stuff), because I always say we'll look it up and then I forget what it was that we were going to look up. I know we're looking at the map today to see where South Dakota is, because we went there yesterday to visit Kristin and Nick, and the boys were pretty sure that not only was it right next to Canada, it was several states away from Iowa. And we just studied - and memorized - the U.S. map, dang it. We also have to figure out when electricity was invented. I'm not even sure which century it was - 18something? It was somebody with a key and a kite, right? Ben Franklin? That can't be right. Oh my goodness. I shouldn't be publicly admitting this. See, you do not need to be smart to homeschool your children. Just willing to humbly look everything up for them and let them see how little you actually know.
In knitting news, I made John some mittens last week, to go with his birthday cap. Here he is unwillingly modeling them:

Angry John in his new mittens:

Happy John in his new mittens: