Math Lesson on Money
Oct 12th, 2015 by ECM
Watercolor Painting Like Aunt Jennifer!
Oct 11th, 2015 by ECM
Well, maybe that title was a bit presumptuous. We don’t fancy ourselves professional artists here, but I did ask Jen to recommend art supplies to buy with our charter school money (and bought everything she said was best, despite the kids’ ages). The big order came in this week, and we pulled out our new fancy supplies while Janie was taking her Sunday afternoon nap. I gave a huge lecture on proper use of paintbrushes, we watched some youtube videos and looked through a learn-to-watercolor paint book, and we were all set to start when Janie woke up and demanded to participate. So I pulled out the cheap crayola paints and brushes for the little girls while the big kids and I tried to channel our inner artist (that being hopeless in my case, I stuck with making a nice, grassy hill). Tommy went Virginia Lee Burton on us, painting an idyllic country scene, then a bleak urban one, then asked, “Which place would you rather live in?” Elizabeth did a sunrise and a beach.
California Winter?
Oct 9th, 2015 by ECM
When you ask a Californian child to draw you a picture of winter, you get a snowman at the beach…
Tea to Soothe Sore Throats
Oct 8th, 2015 by ECM
Coughs, Colds, and Fevers
Oct 7th, 2015 by ECM
Did you know that Amazon Prime has a whole season of Reading Rainbow streaming right now? It’s a good thing, because all five of us our seriously under the weather. Tommy and I are too hoarse to do much reading aloud, the kids have an impressive symphony of coughing right now, and Janie woke up from her four-hour-nap to tell me her mouth was hurting. Guess the lunchtime tylenol wore off. I’m not even bothering to take temps anymore–we’re all semi-feverish.
We used DoorDash to order Panera for lunch because we were totally out of fruit and bread. At least everyone ate their $5 sandwiches and apples. I had a sitter come and take the kids out back for some fresh air this afternoon, drugged myself up, and stumbled to the grocery store to pick up orange juice, bananas, vitamin D (which the podiatrist prescribed after Friday’s bloodwork came back low), vitamin C (obvious), and frozen pizzas. Our supervising teacher with the charter school had to pick up this month’s work samples, and I told her I’d pass them out the door so she didn’t have to come in and get exposed. The kids are grounded from playing down at Henry’s until their coughs are gone, though the little girls keep disappearing down there. The last thing 4-week-old Lennon needs is to have her big brother catching this bug from us. Oh, and the kids listened to all four hours, forty-two minutes of The Children’s Homer. Tommy loved it when Odysseus and Telemachus killed all the suitors and cleaned out their home. Lizzie was confused that the beggar and Odysseus were the same guy. The whole Athena-disguising-mortals-as-other-people concept is a bit advanced for a six-year-old, I guess.
Also, we’ve had several of these conversations today:
Janie (crying): Mommy, Susie bit me!
Me: What did you do to her?
J: Susie bit me!
M: Yes, but what did you do that made her want to bite you?
J: Susie–
M: I want to know what YOU did.
J: But Su–
M: No, Janie. What did Janie do to Susie?
J: Susie bit me!
M: I will deal with Susie in a minute. What did you do, Janie?
(Janie looks confused and sullen.)
M: Did you provoke her?
J: Susie bit me!
M: Why did she bite you?
J: Because she bit me!
M: She wouldn’t have bitten you if you hadn’t done something to bug her. What did you do?
J: She wanted to read my book!
M: Ah, so did you take your book away from her?
J: Yes, but she bit me!
etc…
I love two year olds.
My Substitute Teacher
Oct 5th, 2015 by ECM
On days when I’m too sick to teach, I now have a willing substitute phonics teacher who can help his sister finish her lessons until Mommy gets her voice back.
Janie does Geography
Oct 2nd, 2015 by ECM
This week, Janie has been really insistent about coloring along with the big kids when they’re doing schoolwork. Yesterday, it was a map of ancient Greece!
Janie’s Two and Half Year Stats
Sep 30th, 2015 by ECM
Janie had her 30 month check-up today. Everything looked good, and she didn’t even cry when she got her flu shot! Just a quick “ow” of surprise. Her stats:
Height: 36.25 inches (71%) (Susie was 36.5 inches, Elizabeth was 36.25 inches)
Weight: 27 lbs (30%) (Susie was 26 lbs, Elizabeth was 31 lbs)
BMI: 14 (8%)
While Janie’s little, she’s not as little as Susie. Dr. Vallance is totally fine with her growth and development, so I’m not worried to have another eight percentile BMI girl on my hands. With all my medical drama with my foot and all, I am so grateful for our wonderfully calm and wise pediatrician. She knows my kids and noted that since Janie has had chest/wheezing/asthma-like issues in the past, we should give her the inactivated flu virus shot even though the big kids were all getting the mist. She also talked to me about Susie (who has gotten so skinny again that I had us do a weight check just to make sure she was okay–she is, having gained a pound since her check-up six months ago) and we’re going to gently encourage more calories again but not panic. Dr. Vallance does not have a one-size-fits-all default for her patients, and I appreciate the individual attention, since my four are all so different. We love her so much that we’ll definitely be making the hour drive out to her after we move (because of course her office is the opposite direction from Pepperdine)!
No cute 30 month picture of Jane-Bug, because she managed to mess up my monitor so I couldn’t use the computer all afternoon, so I wasn’t able to upload any pictures. She’s also really into unrolling entire rolls of toilet paper and dumping them in the bathroom trash can. Sigh. What a Bugaboo.
Fine Arts Time with Beacon Hill Academy-DenHartog Campus
Sep 28th, 2015 by ECM
It’s amazing how motivated children can be when you tell them they can play with friends after schoolwork is done. Tommy was up before 7 am, working on math, in order to be free to play with James this afternoon! Elizabeth buckled down on her work, too, flying through her phonics, handwriting, and math test. By the time James and Ellis got here, we were done with all of our core subjects, so I read a child’s biography of George Frederic Handel and played clips of his pieces while all six of the kids colored pictures of the composer’s childhood. And Sarah went grocery shopped for both of us. #homeschoolmomsforthewin
What About Socialization?
Sep 25th, 2015 by ECM
Every time someone asks me the stupidest question about homeschooling, I picture this scene from yesterday.
Just a normal homeschool park day. Tommy is in the background, playing baseball with the four other big boys after catching geckos for a while. All the girls, from two-year-old Janie up to 12 year olds Peyton and London, are playing Red Rover. Half an hour before, Peyton, London, Faith, Hannah, Noa, and Elizabeth were taking turns pushing Janie and Eve on the swings. Because that’s what homeschooled tweens do. It was Tommy’s best friend’s birthday, so there was a pinata before several of the other families left. With 30+ kids rushing for candy, Susie and Janie didn’t get any. Immediately, unprompted by their mothers, half a dozen bigger kids surrounded them, dropping candy into their bags. After five hours together (two and a half at CBS, two and a half at the park), we all headed home to get some more schoolwork done. Yeah, I’m not too worried about my kids’ social life.