Our Family Project

As personalities come, these two girls are like night and day. Both are silly at times, and both can be serious at times. And yet, that rarely happens at the same time! We have entered the world of teenagers, and it is quite the dramatic world! My oldest daughter is dealing with all the drama that teenagers bring: ostracism, judging, and feeling friendless. My younger teenager is just full of fun dramatics: silly faces and expressions, acting wonky and crazy, and saying that "everyone is my friend, even their mom and dad!" At any rate, I couldn't be more in love with these two. They fight over their littlest sister ("I get to hold her!"  "You've been hogging her all day!"), fight over who spends more time in the shower ("I do NOT spend an hour in the shower!"), and fight over who gets my MacBook ("She always gets to do her school on your computer!"  "But, all my stuff is on there!").  My world would be quite dramatical...

Just in case any of you wondered whether we love each other over here: Yes!  Yes, we do!

Monday we got our new history curriculum in the mail.  I've been waiting and waiting to get this curriculum.  I wanted to purchase it at the homeschool convention in July, but none of the vendors there had it.  So, I decided to wait until after we finished our old history curriculum, and then also our new science curriculum before getting the new history curriculum.  (Make sense?) I spent some time introducing the method of this curriculum to the children today at lunch.  This curriculum is written for grades 6-12.  So, my littles will probably have a hard time really getting into the curriculum without some help from me.  But, we'll see. This specific curriculum spoke to me two years ago when I first starting researching curriculum for homeschooling.  I loved its approach.  I still do.  Only, last year when we started homeschooling, I went with a different history curriculum with a focus in ancient civilizations.  Which was fin...

I have my own little soux chef.  Yes, indeed.  Well, maybe she isn't a soux chef, but more like my substitute chef.  Frequently, Kate will get up and make breakfast for everyone.  Which has really helped me out recently. You see, recently, I have been having a hard time with fatigue.  It's crazy.  I will go to bed at midnight, and sleep until 8 (so, yes, 8 hours of sleep), then I'll be yawning at 10:30 and ready for a nap at around 12:30 p.m.  I have hardly any energy during the day, but then at about 7 or 7:30 p.m. I will have a ton of energy and want to just get going and do everything I didn't want to do earlier. So, because I am so tired all the time, Kate has been such a blessing.  She'll get up with the littles and play with them, or make them pancakes for breakfast.  It's so reassuring to know that she is up with everyone and taking care of them so I can get a little bit more sleep.  And, frequently, I can say, "...

This last Saturday was our homeschool group's science fair.  Andrew decided to make a lava lamp.  He actually made it at the beginning of January, but didn't have his presentation put together until Saturday right before the fair. Jon sat down with Andrew in the morning and helped him to understand why his homemade lava lamp works: the oil not mixing with the water.  So, Andrew brought our kitchen scale and measured water into one water bottle, and the same amount of oil into another water bottle.  He put them on the scale to show that the same measurement of each liquid had a different weight or density.  Andrew's was the first presentation, and he did such a fantastic job!  You never would have thought that he was nervous. Eliza's and Kate's project had to do with what we've been talking about for science.  We've been studying plants this year, and they prepared a presentation about the parts of plants: the roots, stem, leaves, and flo...

In the beginning of January, we decided to try our hands at recreational sports and activities for our children.  January was chaotic because Adam was in wrestling that met every Tuesday AND Thursday from 6 until 8 and sometimes later.  Crazy, right?  Add that to Andrew's gymnastics on Monday afternoons, Eliza and Kate in their singing group, Eliza in a theatre class, and Kate in a cheer class?  It has been a few crazy chaotic months.  I feel like I've just started to settle back into being at home most of the time now. At any rate, Kate loved her cheer class.  It was hard for me to go to her performance because Kate is not a very sharp person.  She is buoyant and bouncy, fun loving, and go-with-the-flow.  Cheerleading is not only that ... it is about being sharp, loud, and precise.  Kate had the loud part down, but the sharp and precise?  Um, not so much.  But, she did love it, and if it weren't for the fact that her class was ...

In April we participated in our homeschool group's Geography Fair.  We went the easy route because we were throwing together our project at the last minute, and chose to do our project on Chile!  It was easy because that's where Jon served his mission.  So, we had a bunch of little items that showcased the culture there.  Jon and I traced the map on a long sheet of paper, and, okay, we colored it too.  We are such control freaks.  Oh well.  The children drew little pictures/icons of exports, produce, and other things that symbolized specific things we learned about Chile.  We got to the part and everything was set up trunk-or-treat style ... which was so great!  Although, our friends in the car next to us did their report on Argentina ... the sworn enemy of Chile! Then, came the presentation!  This was the fun part.  Eliza, Kate and I got together the day before the fair and wrote a rap for our presentation.  Then, we broke u...

I decided since I haven't posted about anything that we've done in the last few months, that I'd go back to Christmas time, at least for a little bit.  Eliza's and Kate's singing group, Shine Your Light Singers, sang at a church's Christmas Party in December.  Outside of the church, they had a small set up of a manger scene, with actors, and a small "petting zoo."  There were donkeys, and sheep, chicks, and bunnies. Poor, Adam stood by the pen for the bunnies waiting and waiting for his turn with a particular bunny.  Finally, when he was given the bunny, he was scratched and it startled him enough that the bunny needed to be put back down.  After that point, he waited and waited patiently for another turn, which he never got.  I was surprised by his persistence.  He stood there for easily 15 minutes waiting for another turn.  While, Andrew held a bunny for probably 8-10 minutes alone.  He sure got attached to that cute furry thing. Eli...

Our Christmas was so much fun.  In the past I've been ready well before Christmas, with present wrapped at the end of October.  Not so for this year.  I was shopping for presents the Saturday before Christmas.  And, after going out there in the masses ... I will not do that again next year!  Traditionally, our children have stocking stuffers and presents from us.  We don't do the Santa thing.  Just haven't ever wanted to.  Also traditionally, all of our children get similar items.  Most of the time it's because they all want what each other wants.  But, sometimes it's not the case.  This year, they all got lapdesks to use for school when we do our science or history in the living room.  (Of course, they each got their assigned color as well.) Traditionally, we all get toothbrushes in our stockings.  This year I got them all battery-powered toothbrushes.  I've never seen so many children get excited over a toothbru...

Last week we hit kind of a road block on Tuesday.  We were all being a little lazy, a little distracted, and a little unmotivated.  So, I packed everyone up and we went to the park!  Maryanne ran off and started playing, while everyone else was told that they needed to get their work finished before they could go play.  Somehow, it worked!  Eliza ran off to a pavilion to do her work in peace, and shortly after, Kate followed.  The boys and I stayed on our blanket and they each took their turn reading to me, then doing their math worksheets. When they were all finished, they ran over to the playground to play for a little bit.  Unfortunately, they didn't last very long.  It's still too hot here to go outside in the middle of the day (by this time, it was almost 12).  So, we packed everything up and headed out for the library ... a spot that has soon become a favorite for our family. In all, I felt that we didn't get much done, b...

Our first science experiment last week was about camouflage, specifically why animals have/use camouflage and how it keeps them alive.  In our science book there is this experiment that my children really enjoyed.  In fact, they asked if they could do it for our next Family Home Evening activity when we invite another family to participate with us. Step One: Dump out some M&Ms onto a paper towel and sort them into groups by color.  Count the smallest group and then take away as many as you need from the other colors to make them all equal.  (So, most of my children had groups of 9.) Step Two: Pick three colors of construction paper that match three of the colors of M&Ms.  Take seven papers from each of the three colors and tear them into six pieces.  Crumple those pieces and throw them into a laundry basket.  Line the sides of the laundry basket with six pieces of construction paper, two of each of the three colors. Step Three: Dump all ...

A few weeks ago, my Aunt Marilyn invited us to her house for a swim party to celebrate some of the birthdays in the family.  My children were ecstatic!  They can't get enough of the water. Maryanne must have known that I was not there to swim, but to take pictures.  She stood there and made faces for me.  Such a cutie! Eliza played and swam with Maryanne, while I couldn't get Andrew and Kate to stay away from the diving board.  They love it!  We haven't been able to do swim lessons this summer yet because we are galivanting all over the place during June, but come the middle of July we will be in swim lessons and my children cannot wait!  This was just a little splash to get their feet wet.