With Grandma and Grandpa M here, we’re celebrating all three girls’ birthdays this week! Susie and Janie enjoyed getting to blow out another candle, and Elizabeth is happy to start her birthday celebrations early.
Strawberry Shortcake
Apr 28th, 2014 by emilym
This Week in Our Homeschool
Apr 25th, 2014 by ECM
Thought I’d give a few more pictures of what our school days have been like…
On a normal school day, Elizabeth is tracing her numbers, Tommy is creating a map based on descriptions in his geography book, and Susie is playing with the math rods.
And then there are days like yesterday! PJ called me first thing in the morning to tell me a bunch of the CBS homeschoolers had decided last minute to go to the Sea Center in Santa Barbara. In just over an hour, we were in the car, school bin and all. It’s amazing how much I was able to do orally with Tommy on the drive up and back. He just had to finish up a bit of copywork when we got home!
After we got home, Q pulled out her birthday finger paints…
…and Janie immediately crawled over to her new favorite play area!
Janie at 13 months
Apr 23rd, 2014 by ECM
With everyone’s birthdays so close together, I feel like I’m doing constant updates all spring. On Sunday, Janie turned 13 months. She still only stands when she doesn’t notice what she’s doing, she’s extra clingy to Mommy (unsurprising considering how yucky she’s been feeling), and she’s totally weaned to a sippy cup. She’s starting to fight her morning nap (though I’m not sure if that’s due to being out and about too much), but she’s not quite ready to drop down to one. When she falls asleep at 11, she can’t last from 1 pm until bedtime. I think we’re just destined to have that uncomfortable in between phase for a while. Fortunately, Susie is pretty flexible about when she takes her nap, so I’m experimenting with moving both the girls earlier so that they’re still fairly coordinated.
Janie recently decided that the little rocking chair from Great-Uncle Raymond is her favorite thing in the whole wide world. It’s been fun to see all four kids enjoying this chair!
She is getting into everything!
Homeschool Math
Apr 21st, 2014 by ECM
Ben is staying with us for a couple days, so I’m having to make Tommy’s schoolwork preschooler-friendly. Today we learned greater than/less than/equal to with duplos!
Susanna at 3
Apr 19th, 2014 by ECM
Once upon a time, we worried that Susie wasn’t very verbal. That was silly. She is her big sister’s shadow in everything, and if Elizabeth wants to talk about something, Q does too. Her vocabulary and sentence complexity have grown a ton, though she’s still saying “I goed” and “you comed.” It’s not uncommon for us to be in the car or at the table with everyone talking over each other to tell Derek or me something: “No, I have something to say! Let ME talk!”
The terrible twos really settled down the past 2 or 3 months as we stuck at home more. Q just doesn’t handle day after day of outside activities very well. While she loves (and is loved in) the CBS 2 year old room once a week, I think more frequent preschool would bring out the worst. On calm weeks, we have tantrums more like every 2 or 3 days instead of several a day. She’s mostly potty trained, though her desire to go still seems tied to earning prizes. Poopy training pants are way too common still, so she’s not wearing big girl panties yet. She told me that now that she’s 3, she’s not going to suck her thumb anymore, and I haven’t seen her do it all day. (That’s probably too good to last, though.)
She had a tiny appetite, a more daring personality than her big siblings, and a cuddly nature. I tried to take pictures throughout the day, but there are a lot more on facebook.
Although no one was able to visit on her actual birthday, she got to video chat with Uncle Jason and Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Matthew, and Grandma and Grandpa W as she opened their presents.
Her big birthday present from Mommy and Daddy was going out to tea at Tranquility Tea Room, a little girls’ paradise–complete with an armoire full of dress-up clothes, suitcases and baskets full of hats, tiaras, gloves, boas, masks, wands, and shoes. Elizabeth had taken me there for my birthday last summer, but this was Susie’s first visit. She was in heaven.
Elizabeth is learning how to use my camera!
Underwood Farms at Easter time, or How Tacky Can We Be?
Apr 18th, 2014 by ECM
Since Ben’s birthday was yesterday, we joined them at Underwood Farms for a playdate party. Unfortunately, it was also spring break, so Underwood decided to jack up their prices and strew tacky Easter eggs everywhere for the week. (Somehow I don’t find enormous pumpkins tacky–I just object to minivan sized Easter baskets.)
The farmhand yelled at the boys who were actually playing with the balls, er, eggs. They were JUST for taking pictures!
It was sunny.
I got this stupid idea that since everyone else was taking pictures of their kids with the huge fake eggs, I should too.
The kids did not cooperate.
I found myself screaming at the girls to hold on to their eggs while Tommy fought a losing battle with Janie.
Susie was not amused.
And just when they all sortof looked toward the camera, I realized I was taking a picture of them next to a huge, tacky Easter basket.
I gave up. Ben wanted to ride the train, so I shelled out $12 for the kids to ride the train. After $24 to get us in the front gate!
The kids spent the most time looking at the psychotic robotic singing chickens. At least that part was free.
I’m staying away from the farm until fall…
Sword Fighting Tea Party
Apr 17th, 2014 by ECM
You can tell that Susanna has a big sister AND a big brother–this morning she set up a “grils-only tea party” but made sure to include “a sword for killing bad guys.”
This Week at Charis Classical Academy…
Apr 16th, 2014 by ECM
We love, love, love Susan Wise Bauer’s Writing With Ease program. This week, Tommy’s narration and copywork passages are from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (via Green’s King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table). The girls always love listening in on his stories and helping answer the questions, and I decided they could color along while he copied his summary of the passage.
Sewing Lessons
Apr 15th, 2014 by ECM
Elizabeth’s favorite part of “school” is sewing time with Mommy.
Her children rise up and call her blessed…
Apr 14th, 2014 by ECM
I’m in a mom’s group reading through Sally Clarkson’s The Mission of Motherhood, and last night’s meeting was uplifting and convicting. One thing that we discussed was wanting to invest in our children’s hearts so that they’ll want to come to us even when it’s no longer about kissing boo-boos and wiping bottoms. I am so incredibly blessed to have grown up with a mommy who was and is this to me–who has talked to me for tens of thousands of hours about everything going on in my life, from skating to boys to college life to pregnancy, breastfeeding, and raising my kids. She’s got my best interests at heart, and since she knows me better than I know myself, I truly value her words (even when they’re not what I was expecting to hear). How I hope that I’m able to have the same level of respect and trust with my kids that we do! I’ve shared before that my sense of purpose as a full-time mother is rooted in the quarter century my mom spent pouring into the three of us kids, and I don’t think the boys and I could even fathom how formative that was for us. She certainly has my heartstrings firmly attached, and I’m so grateful that she’s still available to help me figure out how to disciple my kids (sharing her wisdom with me on a nearly daily basis, because the older I get, the more I realize I don’t have it all figured out!). My CBS lesson last week challenged us to tell people in our lives how they’ve encouraged and helped us, and I need to do this more: I know that I would not be the woman, wife, mother that I am today without the patience, love, wisdom, and encouragement of my Proverbs 31 mom!