Letters from Pemberley

Our Kindergarten Plans

Jul 23rd, 2012 by ECM

If I hadn’t gotten to do my top career choice of stay-at-home-mom, I would be a schoolteacher. I just love lesson planning, buying and organizing supplies, and looking through curriculum. Now that we’re wrapping up preschool, Tommy and I can’t wait until September to start kindergarten. So we’re making plans now, and we’ll officially start on Daddy’s first day of school (Aug 20). I still believe that children, especially little boys, need to be outside playing most of the day, running around, digging in the dirt, or just using their imagination. I firmly agree with Charlotte Mason that short lessons keep things fresh and interesting. So my plan is to keep this next school year pretty mellow, taking things at our own pace and trying to keep everything under an hour or so unless Tommy wants to pursue something further. (I don’t count read-aloud time as school because it’s just part of our life.) Because we’re one on one, I think we’ll accomplish as much in that amount of time as most kids get in a classroom all day. We slowly moved from 20 minutes of preschool to about an hour’s worth, once or twice a week over the past two years. The only difference with kindergarten is that I’m planning to do it every afternoon while the girls are napping. (Hopefully that will leave our mornings free for Bible study, CBS, errands, and park dates.) I’ll miss having that 1-3 window to accomplish things around the house, but it will hopefully be a good transition year into the reality of daily schooltime.

At this point, here’s what we’re planning to do for kindergarten:

Daily

Bible: Memorize Mark chapter 2. Possibly start Leading Little Ones to God. (5-10 min, depending on if we review past sections)

Phonics: Finish Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading. Read aloud a lot together. Possibly start First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind when we’re done with phonics. (5-10 min, not counting read-alouds)

Math: Saxon 1st grade, going slow. We breezed through Saxon K this past year, but I don’t want to push him just for the sake of being a grade level ahead in math. (10-15 min, though he usually begs to do more since he loves math)

Handwriting: Continue to work on letter formation worksheets or copying words on the markerboard. Lots of coloring (good for fine motor skills). (5-10 min, plus hours and hours of coloring)

Weekly

Art: Work through drawing books for kids (like Draw Write Now). Set aside at least once a week to do painting or other messy art projects. (15 min)

Missions and Geography: Use Operation World and a world map to learn about the countries where our missionaries are working. Continue to play with geography puzzles. (10-15 min)

French: Continue low-key vocabulary acquisition, as time permits. Read French Tintin books regularly. (5-10 min, though he usually will listen to Tintin until my voice gives out)

I’ve decided to wait on history and Latin for another year or two so that Elizabeth can start them with Tommy. Science is going to consist of books from the library for awhile yet.

I’ll be sure to post homeschooling updates throughout the school year so you guys can decide if we’re brilliant, insane, or somewhere in between!

Posted in Homeschooling, Tommy | 2 Comments »

Ballet Class

Jul 21st, 2012 by ECM

Yesterday Derek stayed home with Tommy and Susie while I took Elizabeth to ballet. Since I didn’t need to spend class chasing Susie off the stage, I brought along my camera and took a few pictures of our aspiring ballerina!

We love her teacher, Miss Molly!

Posted in Elizabeth | Comments Off

Susanna at 15 months!

Jul 20th, 2012 by ECM

I feel like Susanna is a full-blown toddler these days. She runs everywhere, as pigeon-toed as you can get. She shrieks when she doesn’t get her way and throws herself on the floor. She loves to dance around the family room with her sister. She has finally started holding my hand when we walk through parking lots.

Susie still tends to smile all the time. She says Mommy, Daddy, Iddy (=Lizzie) and Buddy (=Tommy). She says Uh-Oh! whenever anything is out of reach, and No! usually means yes. She can sometimes sign please, thank you, more, and all done. She can point to her noise, after great pains with instruction from Elizabeth. She doesn’t know any more body parts, though.

She loves to pull dvds and books off shelves, clothes out of drawers, cans out of the pantry, small pieces out of board games, and examine the contents of trash cans and toilets. She likes to help pick out her clothes, and matching her big sister is always a plus! Lately, both of them have been very into headbands and bows again. Her favorite toy is the play kitchen. Tea parties with Elizabeth are always fun. This week, she’s been cooking things and bringing them over for me to taste. She’s also a big fan of her blanky (named Pink Blanky to distinguish it from Blanky, which belongs to Elizabeth). If Daddy sits down on the floor, she immediately takes it as an invitation to grab a book and sit down in his lap to read. She doesn’t hold still for very long, though.

At the park, she loves to climb, swing, and go down slides. I think she’s eating a little more this summer, though some days, her diet consists almost completely of zucchini and grapes. We’ve discovered she loves hot dogs and will eat two in one sitting. (She also likes chips, ice cream, cookies, and most any kind of barbeque or potluck food that’s really bad for you. It’s amazing what a third child gets exposed to–my younger self would be appalled.) She’s barely drinking anything, even at bedtime, but she does have wet diapers.

She’s definitely flirting with giving up the morning nap, but it hasn’t happened much yet. She still naps a solid two hours in the afternoon and usually 12 hours overnight. She has developed the trademark Muller child “Bugs Meanie Smile,” though I think she’s taken it to a new level…

Posted in Susanna | Comments Off

Splash Pad Fun

Jul 18th, 2012 by ECM

Posted in California, Elizabeth, Susanna, Tommy | Comments Off

Homemaker In Training

Jul 16th, 2012 by ECM

I think it’s a combination of watching Cinderella and just being at the stage where she wants to do everything Mommy is doing, but Elizabeth is way into helping around the house. Every time I do a load of diapers, she asks if she can please fold the wipes while I stuff the diapers. Um, yes.

And she loves dusting–especially if wearing a fancy dress at the same time!

Posted in Elizabeth, Homemaking | 1 Comment »

Kitchen Renovations!

Jul 13th, 2012 by ECM

One of the worst things about this rental house (well, besides the moldy showers, filthy walls, and smell of dog urine in the carpets) was the nasty kitchen. (Okay, the wall-o-mirrors is pretty bad, too, but our bookshelves largely cover them.) We’ve dealt with the cleanliness issues, and when we renewed our lease this month, we asked the landlord to consider doing something about the broken tile counter with missing grout and the stained, chipped sink with worn-out enamel. The same week that he said he’d pay for renovations, my parents were dying in the 107 degree heat back home. When I called and mentioned that it was 72 degrees here, my parents decided last minute to fly out here for my birthday so my dad could redo the kitchen for me!

What followed was an intense week in which I learned that a) I don’t have it in me to ever own a true fixer-upper house; b) my dad is the best dad in the world; and c) he can do anything! Here’s the grand reveal:

BEFORE: Chipped, filthy tile countertops with disgusting grout that made it impossible to ever truly wipe my counters clean.

And places where the grout was missing. No matter how much bleach solution I scrubbed in those cracks, I had no idea what was festering and growing in them.

Lovely enamel sink with chips and so many worn-through spots that it always looked filthy, no matter how much I scrubbed. Oh, and the hot and cold pipes were connected backwards, so you had to push the faucet right for hot and left for cold–incredibly frustrating when you’ve spent the first 30 years of your life with standard left=hot, right=cold faucets.

DURING: First we (meaning my parents) had to tear up the old tiles and cement underneath.

Lots of sawdust, and several days without a sink and oven!

AFTER: Clean, smooth counters that I can wipe up and sanitize easily!

Lower backsplash, scrubbed walls, and a fresh coat of paint…

New, easy-to-clean stainless steel sink (with hot and cold pipes standardized!)

Now excuse, me, I’m off to bake in my “new” kitchen!

Posted in California, Family | 6 Comments »

Pretty Bows

Jul 11th, 2012 by ECM

So we’ve fun into a little issue with finishing the kitchen–the old paint cans we were going to use to touch up were left open and are all worthless. So today I’m going to have to go try to match 15 year old paint. While you all wait with baited breath for our kitchen reveal, here’s a picture of my second girlie-girl, who got into the hair stuff bin and asked me to put this pretty bow in her hair this morning. Wow, she is definitely related to Elizabeth!