Our Wizard Of Oz Party

Well, today we had a Wizard of Oz party. I have been reading the book to Kyle, Noah and Lacey in school and since Kyle and Lacey had never seen the movie so I told them when we finished the book we would have a movie party. It was so much fun! First let me say that I love the movie but dreaded reading the book. But I think the book is even better than the movie! I highly recommend reading this book to your child. But anyway back to the party. Anytime I throw a party I go to this site

http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/party_ideas.html it has ideas for almost any theme imaginable. Anyway I bought some green decorations ( to represent the Emerald City) not alot just a few to give the place a party atmosphere. And we had a green theme to our snacks- green jello, green kool - aid and green cupcakes. We played "melt the witch and get her broom stick". This was a frozen cube with a popsicle stick decorated like a broom stuck in it. They loved this game. And we played follow the yellow brick road ( musical chairs with yellow poster board to stand on instead of chairs to sit in). And we popped popcorn and watched the movie. Even the older kids joined us in the party- just to get out of school I suspect. But Donna and Ash had never seen the movie either. We all had a great time. BTW- we don't do this every time we finish a book but I just thought it'd be fun especially since my kids Had never seen the movie. And it worked out perfectly with this being our last day before break.

The site I mentioned before had so many great ideas I think I may throw Lacey A Wizard of Oz birthday party in May!

I need Christmad ideas!

Ok, I'm going to try to get as many responses to this as possible. PLEEEAAASE send me ideas, links whatever. I need help thinking of gift ideas for my kids ( g, 16, g,12,b, 8,g,4,g,2), nieces, nephews, and the rest of the various family. First let me say that I LOVE Christmas time. I love the holiday, the season, the joyful spirit, the songs, everything. And I don't stress Christmas because I've always felt that Christmas isn't about the gifts it's about Jesus and remembering his birth and spending time with family. I love the traditions we have as a family. So it's not that I'm stressed about Christmas or anything. It's just that I hate the idea of buying a bunch of toys that probably won't get played with. I'd like to this year think of things other than toys I could get. One idea I had was maybe give tickets for like Six Flags or something. I thought maybe instead of spending $40 or $50 on individual gift for like my sister's family and my brother's family I could get 1 thing for the whole family. Something nice that they could all enjoy. But BOY is that hard. What can you get that everyone will like? I thought maybe tickets to the zoo, but the 15 year old won't really like that. Am I making sense? Any one else have this problem? I mean my daughter has probably 20+ dolls the last thing that child needs is another doll! But more than likely between her and her little sister they'll probably get 5 or 6 more! At least. And I know people will come up with all kinds of things like give some of the toys away donate them, have a yard sell, etc... And I do donate a good many but I can't see giving away perfectly good toys just to buy more. You Know? But I don't mind buying toys I just thought I could mix up the toys with maybe educational games or movie tickets... something? Anyway I'd love to hear any and all ideas.

I need gift ideas more than activity ideas, but I welcome any ideas you have to make the holidays more meaningful. These are some things we do:

• we go to the same tree farm every year. I really like this place. we have gone every year for the last 9 years. It is very nice, it has a petting zoo and hot cider and roasted peanuts ( all free) and it sells plates of cookies that we sometimes to but to eat while we decorate the tree.
• one tradition that I came up with is me and the kids made minature stockings and we hang them on the tree and everyday until Christmas I hide a little prize in their stocking. Usually something like a piece of candy or a foreign coin ( for the older kids), stickers or a pair of sunglasses. I usually get party favors and use them. The kids love this tradition. Even my 15 year old still loves it. This year I plan to throw in notes also. Like story time, or free pass on 1 school subject for the day, etc.
• About 2 years ago we hosted a foreign exchange students from Holland so now we incorporate some dutch traditions.
• I host a cookie party for all my nieces and nephews. I love doing this. I make the cookies with my kids and then we invite everyone over to help decorate them.
• We usually buy a gift or make a donation to the church. If we buy a gift we all pick it out together.

This is a few things we do to make the holiday special. I'd like to try to do something with the Angel Tree Ministry this year. I'd love to hear what your family does to celebrate.

Another School Year

Well, we are in our 6th week of school and it's going soooo good. Of course I love the books we are reading ( mostly Sonlight, naturally), we are doing several things different this year. The first big change I gotta mention is that this year I'm teaching my sister's 2 kids also. So I'm teaching 5 kids ( ages 15,15,12, 8 and 7) plus I got the 2 little ones (4 and almost 2) running around. I thought it would be really, really hard and some days it is, but most of the time it's great. I found out the key to schooling so many especially since they share alot of subjects and I have 2 separate group times, 1 with the older three and another group time with the younger 2, plus separate reading lessons with the younger 2, in organization! I'll post more about that in another post though.

The second big change this year is we are trying out a new schedule. We are going to try out year round schooling. So we will school for 6 weeks and then take 2 weeks off. I know normally it's 6 weeks on 3 weeks off but I'm doing it this way because for one thing we didn't start school until September, also I want extra time off in the summer. Actually the kids want extra time off in the summer. I decided to try this schedule for several reasons: 1- I don't like going anywhere like zoos, museums or parks in the summer because it's too hot and crowded. So this way I can plan that kind of things during our off time. 2- The kids get bored with so much off time and then they get to bickering and arguing or nagging me half to death to take them somewhere. 3- I thought with schooling so many this year I might need several mini breaks for sanity sake. Which brings me back to the point of this post. This is our last week before our 2 week break. And I'm very excited about that.
I already have several things planned for our break.

1.I plan to have a fancy tea party with Lacey and my sister Becca and her little girl. We are going to go all out- dress up, make fancy finger food. I think it will be so much fun!
2. I plan to go shopping and out to lunch with a friend ( and maybe a movie)
3. Me and my mom and Becca plan to go to dinner and a movie.
4. If I happen on a pretty day go to the park
5.Maybe the zoo.

But that's it I don't want to spend the whole 2 weeks running and busy.
Well that's it for now. I'm off to read The Wizard of Oz to the kids!

Sonlight

We finished core 6! It was really a great core and we learned so much! I was tempted to rush through the end so I could hurry and get to core 7, but I felt like I would be leaving out to much important information. We did end up skipping a few of the readers and read alouds, which I hated to do, but we took our time on Story of the World.

Next week we get to start Core 7. I've been dying to start these books! I'm especially excited about the Bible portion. I didn't really like the Bible in Core 6 and we dropped it about halfway through. It wasn't that it wasn't good stuff, just that my kids have been raised in church and they already knew so much of it that they found it kinda boring. The Bible portion in Core 7 looks really good though. I think it will focus more on discipleship, which I think they need.

Last year and this year (so far) have been the best homeschool years we've ever had! I'm a little surprised because both years I've had little ones underfoot. Last year we had a two year old, plus I was pregnant AND we took in a foreign exchange student. With such a full house and so much going on it would seem that schooling would be a little.... difficult? This year we have a three year underfoot plus a 9 month old baby. Both little ones are very demanding. I mean I always read about families with these perfect little kids that play or color contentedly while the mom homeschools her other 8 kids in perfect peace. Yeah, not so much at my house. Usually the littlest one is crying to be held or trying to color on the older kids papers, yelling at the top of her lungs "No! I don't want my own paper! I want to color Ashley's!!!!" or (as Lacey is doing this year) repeating EVERY word I say because "I'm teaching too, Mommy!"
But even with all the distractions these have been the best years! I think part of it is that I'm more organized and experienced but I have to say I think most of the credit for the great year has to go to Sonlight. WARNING! THE REST OF THIS IS GOING TO SOUND LIKE A PAID ADVERTISEMENT FOR SONLIGHT! ONLY PROCEED IF YOU ARE PREPARED FOR A LONG SONLIGHT GUSH! First of all, I just love this curriculum! I love the fact that my days are all planned out. I used to want to design my own lesson plans ( I can't remember WHY I wanted to do this. Surely I had a reason?) but then real life would get in the way and I'd end up behind. Not so with Sonlight! I just open my Instructor Guide and start teaching. Everything is laid out for me. And the books are so interesting! I love the discussions we are having. I love that the kids aren't just filling in blanks in a workbook but reading about interesting people and places. I like that they aren't just learning what happened, but why it happened and how it affects us today. In the past it seemed I struggled so much just doing the basics, math, language, spelling, that we didn't even get to the other stuff like history or science. Or I'd get frustrated and ignore the basics for more fun science and history projects. But with sonlight it just seems like everything comes together so perfectly! I think a big difference is that I'm so excited about what we are learning that I stay motivated to teach. Even on bad days when the kids are rowdy I look forward to sitting down with the kids and reading and talking together. Sometimes our discussions turn very serious and we talk about abortion, the need to put Jesus first in their lives or the current presidential campaign and other times we can't hardly keep reading because we are laughing so hard about something we read. I think it's drawn our family closer together and given me such insight into the personalities of the children God has blessed me with. I love that Sonlight is unapologetically Christian. I love that the goals they have so closely matches the goals I have for my kids. And they don't just set goals for you they back their goals up with real life ways to reach those goals. For instance I want my children to develop a heart for missions. Well Sonlight introduced me to a India mission project that will help teach illiterate women to read. I really, really love their support forums! I have learned so much from them, even though I mostly lurk.
I love their super fast shipping and their friendly customer service. I wish I had started using Sonlight years ago. Back then I just couldn't see spending that much money on it. Now it seems like such a small price to pay for all the benefits we get from it. Out of everything we are doing or have done in the past Sonlight is the only curriculum I have ever used that I totally love. I'm really so thankful that God lead me to Sonlight and that is honestly the end of my gush- for today. Anyway we have revival tonight and I gotta get the kids ready. I want to post about Hurricane Ike and how we fared the storm but I need to load some pictures- maybe tomorrow?

Our new van!

Hey Ya'll!

God has really blessed this week. I know I don't deserve his blessings but I an so thankful for every gift He's given me. This gift is a 12 passenger van! I've wanted one for a long, long time but didn't really expect to even try to get one, we were still paying on our other van. But God just worked it out. Isn't it fun when God just gives a blessing totally out of the blue that you didn't even expect? I love gifts ( I mean who doesn't?) but the best gifts are the ones you get unexpected, for no reason at all. And that is how this van is, an unexpected gift. I really do feel spoiled! I wanted to take a picture with all the kids in front of it but I couldn't get them all rounded up at the same time.

Our First Week of School

Well, we started back to school Tuesday. We had a really great week! I was so nervous about teaching 2 Sonlight cores, but it wasn't a problem. We started each day by 9:00 ( Lily has decided to be an early riser). As the kids ate breakfast I would review the 21 Rules of This House. This book is great! I especially like rules 4, 5, and 6: We consider one another's interests ahead of our own. We speak quietly and respectfully with one another. And we do not hurt one another with unkind words or deeds. I think it made a BIG improvement on the attitudes and especially on how the kids treat each other. This only took like 10 minutes each morning. We are using Sonlight 3 for Science. So I also read that while they ate. I worried this would be to easy for Donna but I think I'll be able to adjust it to her level. By then they were done eating so we did our spelling. We are using Sequential Spelling. I like it but it takes my son WAY longer than the girls and they get a little bored waiting for him. I don't want to have to teach this twice so they'll just have to wait. I have to use a dry erase board to teach this so I bought Lacey a small board and she does her "lessons" on that. Her lessons consist of her drawing lots of 0's on the board. I tried showing her how to make a little a but she was so not interested!

I did learn a neat trick to keep Kyle from mixing up his b's and d's. I got this tip from the Sonlight forum. I told him b has a big belly and d had a big derriere. I had to explain a derriere was a big butt, which of course he thought was hilarious. So now he likes going around saying d has a big butt. At least he hasn't mixed his letters up again!



After Spelling the girls went off and did their seat work while me and Kyle worked on his Sonlight. Lacey sometimes listened in to the Bible and both kids liked Curious George and Make Way for Ducklings. He enjoyed The Boxcar Kids, which I was afraid he wouldn't like. Thankfully the chapters are pretty short so he doesn't get bored with it. Kyle likes Hero Tales okay. He likes it way better if I let him interrupt and talk about everything that's going on. That's a little hard because by now Lily is getting cranky and ready for her nap. After his Sonlight, we work on phonics and his reading lesson. By this time Lily is usually taking a bath so we sit on the bathroom counter while he reads to me.



After her bath he does his seat work and I nurse Lily while I read SOTW to the girls. They color a page from the activity guide while I'm reading. Lily lays down for her nap and we do our map work. Then I read I, Juan de Parajo to them. This is a good book. I don't like it as much as Catherine Called Birdy but it's pretty good and both girls are (pretty much) enjoying it. After that they go finish their seat work. And I correct Kyle's seat work. I know once we start Core 7 it will take me longer because then we'll have Bible and hopefully language. This week for language I just had them start a journal. I'm trying to establish a nighttime routine of them reading a chapter in their Bible and writing in their journal each night before they go to bed.

Well that was our week of school! Hopefully next week will go as smoothly.

Lily's been busy!

This has been a busy week for our Baby Lily! Monday she pulled up by herself! We were so surprised because she STILL can't sit up by herself yet. She can sit fine but if she falls over, she's like a little turtle on it's back, and can't get back up! With all her sisters and her brother it's amazing she can do anything we all hold her so much! LOL! So when she grabbed ahold of the side of the bed and stood up we were just shocked. Of course, then we all started clapping and cheering and it surprised HER so much that she fell back on her bottom. Then she figured out it was a game and she'd stand up and we'd all clap and cheer, she'd sit down and we would get quiet. Then she'd stand up and it would start all over again. Now how smart is that! She's just brilliant, I tell you!Then yesterday I thought she had a piece of paper in her mouth and while I was feeling for that I discovered a TOOTH! Her first little baby tooth. It's so beautiful too! And she's really been practicing her crawling technique. She has about mastered the combat crawl and has started developing the hand- knee maneuver. Once she's on her hands and knees though she tends to just rock back and forth. We aren't worried though, I'm sure she has some brilliant plan in mind. Lily is the last of six kids and she takes her job of keeping us entertained very seriously!