Sunday, November 21, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Our newly painted room
Before:
After:
Thanks to Nate's mom for coming up just to paint our room before Half Pint is born. Then she also let us go on a breakfast date, took us all out for a belated birthday dinner for me, weeded and weed-whacked our front area, and spent time playing with the girls so we could put our room back together. She's a wonderful MIL!
Before:
After:
Thanks to Nate's mom for coming up just to paint our room before Half Pint is born. Then she also let us go on a breakfast date, took us all out for a belated birthday dinner for me, weeded and weed-whacked our front area, and spent time playing with the girls so we could put our room back together. She's a wonderful MIL!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Revisiting goals
I thought I'd check in on which goals I've kept (or dropped) from the beginning of this year:
I thought I'd check in on which goals I've kept (or dropped) from the beginning of this year:
2010 goals
1. Get to bed by 11pm. (kept off and on... more off than on!--mostly I get to bed by midnight or 12:30 am)
2. Get up by 6am. (lately I've been up around 7ish)
3. Date night with Nate once a week (at home or out). (we do rarely go out, but have had a few dates when visiting family or having family visit us. A couple of times a week we watch our "shows" together.)
4. Pick a homeschool curriculum to use (when Becca is 6). (decided to do a curriculum earlier--picked Sonlight and are using it now)
5. Teach Becca to read. (this is on hold until she is more interested)
6. Memorize one new Bible passage with the girls a month. (we dropped worship times for a while, but are now doing them at breakfast with Nathan too. Right now we're finishing up memorizing Psalm 100)
7. Read one book each month. (If I add up the books I've read this year, I think I've read at least 8, so I'm on track)
8. Physical activity with girls each day. (so bad at this right now... but I'm pregnant and it's been HOT, so I'm not worrying about it)
9. Finish Ally's scrapbook. (YES! I can officially say this is done!!!)
10. Learn to knit socks. (I'm doing this very soon! I have a book requested at the library and have to go buy the yarn, but I'm excited to learn. I've been on a knitting kick.)
11. Catch up on photo albums. (713 photos are on the way from Snapfish (they had free shipping and I was WAY behind) and that will have me caught up to about a year ago. Still many photos to get, but I'm getting closer. Now just need to find a good deal on albums I like)
12. Call grandmothers 2-4 times a month. (One of my grandmothers died a few months ago, so I just have one left to make sure I call. I've probably talked or emailed with her once or twice each month.)
13. Email with brothers and sister-in-law once a month. (Getting better, but not great)
14. Learn to make sourdough bread and starters and such. (This is on hold until a different season, but I did just get an ice cream maker and want to learn to do ice cream, so I'm switching goals for now. :D)
15. Take one day (Saturday, most likely) a month to go hiking as a family. (Totally not doing this, but maybe when kids are a bit older or I'm not pregnant)
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Homeschool update
We've been doing school for almost two months now. Not always consistently three mornings a week, we did take time off to go on a couple of trips or because we were recovering from said trips or to go to the state fair, but I feel pretty good about how much we've done so far. It's one of the things we like about homeschooling, right? The flexibility to take time off when we need it, or even to do school in the car on the way to Texas (which we did and it was a good way to pass some of the long days on the road).
Our Mondays are supposed to be nature walk mornings. We've actually only been to three parks because it's been so hot. One to have a real nature walk, another to visit the nature center and then play on the playground, and the last to play in the creek and then at the spray park and playground there too. On the other Mondays we went to the Children's museum a few times, had a play date with a friend, and were traveling.
We've been not so consistent on our morning walks because we don't often get up on time. And the past couple days we've tried to take walks this week have ended in tantrums from one of us. :) So I'm hesitant to go again this week. We were having a worship time (which includes a short Bible story, a few Catechism questions we're working on, a Bible passage we're memorizing, prayer and sometimes some songs) right before we started our school "work", but the past few days we've gotten up early enough to do a worship time at breakfast and have Nate join us, which has been very nice. I'm hoping we can continue doing that until Half Pint is born.
We start school time with a preschool activity, as I call it, which works on preschool skills**. The favorites have been:
1. Using tweezers to sort craft puff balls or beans.
2. Playing follow the leader to work on gross motor skills--walking backwards, hopping, running, skipping, marching, etc.
3. Playing Go Fish with cards that have alphabet letters on them.
4. Using a dropper to transfer colored water (red, blue, and yellow) to an egg carton--talked about mixing two colors to make a new color too.
5. Playing memory--regular memory game or have used number cards (from deck of cards), cards with colors, shapes, etc.
6. Hammering tees into styrofoam
7. Memorizing address and phone number to the tune of "London Bridge" and then playing London Bridge while we practiced it
8. Using small pitchers to pour water into containers--I took old plastic containers and drew lines on them to practice pouring up to the line. Ally didn't really pay attention to the lines, but Becca did. I recommend doing this outside.
9. Drawing in salt--poured salt into a shallow box, drawer, or baking pan and use fingers or toothpicks or other tools to draw in it. We did this outside today.
10. Bean bag toss and catch--tossed to each other and also tossed into a container from different distances
Next is supposed to be reading lessons with Becca, but we've set them aside yet again. I'm trying to be patient and let her choose when to do the reading lessons. To force her to do it or set up some reward system would be frustrating and not worth it, I think. The reward for learning to read is knowing how to do it and enjoying the books you can read on your own. And I know she loves books. We read plenty and she listens to many books on CD. I think Nate and I both expected her to read much earlier because we do read so many books and it's hard having some friends with kids who have started reading at 4 or even 3-years-old. But I have to just stop looking at other kids and let Becca do it at her own pace. She can read some Bob books and short vowel sound words. So anyway, all that is to say, reading lessons are on hold.
Then we do a math activity. Favorites have been:
1. Sorting and counting M&Ms--then recording our numbers and deciding which is least, most, and equal--and eating them!!
2. Playing with pattern blocks to make our own designs and also using printouts from prekinders.com/pattern-blocks/.
3. Counting and sorting colored pasta or types of pasta.
4. Using rulers to measure different size straws and then measuring other things around the room--we measure to the nearest inch.
5. Practicing counting by 5s and 10s--we did this while sorting coins and by counting nickels from their bed time nickel jars.
6. Playing Uno with just the number cards.
7. Playing War with the number cards from a deck of cards.
8. Playing Go Fish with number cards from a deck of cards.
Lastly we do our read-alouds from the Sonlight P4/5 curriculum. We crunch 5 days of reading into 3, usually. Though this sounds like a lot, it really isn't that much at this level. Becca does a narration from one of our readings and Ally does one every once in a while, and I copy them down into their notebooks. Becca has gotten much more thorough in her narrations as we've gone along. We just read and enjoy the other stories. Then both girls do a few pages from their workbooks. Ally is doing the Kumon First book of Tracing. Becca is doing the readiness workbooks that come with the Sonlight curriculum. Both like doing them a lot.
I've found some of the readings from the P4/5 level to be good. I like the Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book and Uncle Wiggly's Storybook the best.
That's it. It sounds like a lot when I type it all out, but at the most it takes us 2 hours to get through it all.
**So this part is confusing to me. Ally is preschool age, but Becca could really be considered kindergarten age. She has friends in both grades and I'm not sure what to group her in. The curriculum we're using is a pre-k curriculum, but in some ways I'd consider her in K. I guess it doesn't really matter, but it is something that's bothered me.
We've been doing school for almost two months now. Not always consistently three mornings a week, we did take time off to go on a couple of trips or because we were recovering from said trips or to go to the state fair, but I feel pretty good about how much we've done so far. It's one of the things we like about homeschooling, right? The flexibility to take time off when we need it, or even to do school in the car on the way to Texas (which we did and it was a good way to pass some of the long days on the road).
Our Mondays are supposed to be nature walk mornings. We've actually only been to three parks because it's been so hot. One to have a real nature walk, another to visit the nature center and then play on the playground, and the last to play in the creek and then at the spray park and playground there too. On the other Mondays we went to the Children's museum a few times, had a play date with a friend, and were traveling.
We've been not so consistent on our morning walks because we don't often get up on time. And the past couple days we've tried to take walks this week have ended in tantrums from one of us. :) So I'm hesitant to go again this week. We were having a worship time (which includes a short Bible story, a few Catechism questions we're working on, a Bible passage we're memorizing, prayer and sometimes some songs) right before we started our school "work", but the past few days we've gotten up early enough to do a worship time at breakfast and have Nate join us, which has been very nice. I'm hoping we can continue doing that until Half Pint is born.
We start school time with a preschool activity, as I call it, which works on preschool skills**. The favorites have been:
1. Using tweezers to sort craft puff balls or beans.
2. Playing follow the leader to work on gross motor skills--walking backwards, hopping, running, skipping, marching, etc.
3. Playing Go Fish with cards that have alphabet letters on them.
4. Using a dropper to transfer colored water (red, blue, and yellow) to an egg carton--talked about mixing two colors to make a new color too.
5. Playing memory--regular memory game or have used number cards (from deck of cards), cards with colors, shapes, etc.
6. Hammering tees into styrofoam
7. Memorizing address and phone number to the tune of "London Bridge" and then playing London Bridge while we practiced it
8. Using small pitchers to pour water into containers--I took old plastic containers and drew lines on them to practice pouring up to the line. Ally didn't really pay attention to the lines, but Becca did. I recommend doing this outside.
9. Drawing in salt--poured salt into a shallow box, drawer, or baking pan and use fingers or toothpicks or other tools to draw in it. We did this outside today.
10. Bean bag toss and catch--tossed to each other and also tossed into a container from different distances
Next is supposed to be reading lessons with Becca, but we've set them aside yet again. I'm trying to be patient and let her choose when to do the reading lessons. To force her to do it or set up some reward system would be frustrating and not worth it, I think. The reward for learning to read is knowing how to do it and enjoying the books you can read on your own. And I know she loves books. We read plenty and she listens to many books on CD. I think Nate and I both expected her to read much earlier because we do read so many books and it's hard having some friends with kids who have started reading at 4 or even 3-years-old. But I have to just stop looking at other kids and let Becca do it at her own pace. She can read some Bob books and short vowel sound words. So anyway, all that is to say, reading lessons are on hold.
Then we do a math activity. Favorites have been:
1. Sorting and counting M&Ms--then recording our numbers and deciding which is least, most, and equal--and eating them!!
2. Playing with pattern blocks to make our own designs and also using printouts from prekinders.com/pattern-blocks/.
3. Counting and sorting colored pasta or types of pasta.
4. Using rulers to measure different size straws and then measuring other things around the room--we measure to the nearest inch.
5. Practicing counting by 5s and 10s--we did this while sorting coins and by counting nickels from their bed time nickel jars.
6. Playing Uno with just the number cards.
7. Playing War with the number cards from a deck of cards.
8. Playing Go Fish with number cards from a deck of cards.
Lastly we do our read-alouds from the Sonlight P4/5 curriculum. We crunch 5 days of reading into 3, usually. Though this sounds like a lot, it really isn't that much at this level. Becca does a narration from one of our readings and Ally does one every once in a while, and I copy them down into their notebooks. Becca has gotten much more thorough in her narrations as we've gone along. We just read and enjoy the other stories. Then both girls do a few pages from their workbooks. Ally is doing the Kumon First book of Tracing. Becca is doing the readiness workbooks that come with the Sonlight curriculum. Both like doing them a lot.
I've found some of the readings from the P4/5 level to be good. I like the Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book and Uncle Wiggly's Storybook the best.
That's it. It sounds like a lot when I type it all out, but at the most it takes us 2 hours to get through it all.
**So this part is confusing to me. Ally is preschool age, but Becca could really be considered kindergarten age. She has friends in both grades and I'm not sure what to group her in. The curriculum we're using is a pre-k curriculum, but in some ways I'd consider her in K. I guess it doesn't really matter, but it is something that's bothered me.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tomato sadness and growing basil
Our basil did fairly well in our Earthbox this summer, though we had some yellowing and something is eating some of it. I've gotten quite a big of pesto, dried some basil in our dehydrator, used some in tomato basil soup, and put some on our pizza, so I'm pretty happy that I've gotten my money's worth. I'm feeling pretty good about how much I've used considering this is the summer of neglect when it comes to gardening (due to being pregnant). You don't even want to see my regular garden, but Nate took a picture of it the other day, so here it is:
Pretty sad, I know. No edible plants left in there, just crab grass and vines and such. It will be quite a job to unearth it and next summer I'll definitely be mulching with something. Not sure what the best thing to mulch with is.
The tomatoes are not doing so well this year. I'm not sure if it is blossom end rot or blight, but we are not getting much. It's sad. I'm going to give it a try again next year and see if we can do better. I need someone to tell me whether it's blight or not, though, so I know if I should start over with new dirt next year. I hate to do that, since I already haven't gotten anywhere near my money's worth for what I paid for the box. Oh, and many of our tomatoes have been splitting too. Sigh.
Our basil did fairly well in our Earthbox this summer, though we had some yellowing and something is eating some of it. I've gotten quite a big of pesto, dried some basil in our dehydrator, used some in tomato basil soup, and put some on our pizza, so I'm pretty happy that I've gotten my money's worth. I'm feeling pretty good about how much I've used considering this is the summer of neglect when it comes to gardening (due to being pregnant). You don't even want to see my regular garden, but Nate took a picture of it the other day, so here it is:
Pretty sad, I know. No edible plants left in there, just crab grass and vines and such. It will be quite a job to unearth it and next summer I'll definitely be mulching with something. Not sure what the best thing to mulch with is.
The tomatoes are not doing so well this year. I'm not sure if it is blossom end rot or blight, but we are not getting much. It's sad. I'm going to give it a try again next year and see if we can do better. I need someone to tell me whether it's blight or not, though, so I know if I should start over with new dirt next year. I hate to do that, since I already haven't gotten anywhere near my money's worth for what I paid for the box. Oh, and many of our tomatoes have been splitting too. Sigh.
Feeding a large group
I'm trying to keep track of what I've been making for dinners since we started a community group with our church. We meet once a week and provide the main dish. Others bring side dishes, drinks, and sometimes dessert.
In no particular order:
Texas Chicken Enchiladas
Pasta with classic pesto (love the classic pesto recipe in The New Best Recipe... I use walnuts instead of pine nuts)
Pasta with homemade spaghetti sauce (tomato-meat sauce)
Breakfast for dinner (my favorite!--we do it once a month)--I mostly make egg casseroles, but I want to do french toast casserole too
Ham and potato soup
Appetizers for dinner (I made two appetizers--deviled eggs and spinach-artichoke dip--and every else brought one)
We have yet to try:
Chili
Lasagna
Lentil and sausage soup/stew
I'm trying to keep track of what I've been making for dinners since we started a community group with our church. We meet once a week and provide the main dish. Others bring side dishes, drinks, and sometimes dessert.
In no particular order:
Texas Chicken Enchiladas
Pasta with classic pesto (love the classic pesto recipe in The New Best Recipe... I use walnuts instead of pine nuts)
Pasta with homemade spaghetti sauce (tomato-meat sauce)
Breakfast for dinner (my favorite!--we do it once a month)--I mostly make egg casseroles, but I want to do french toast casserole too
Ham and potato soup
Appetizers for dinner (I made two appetizers--deviled eggs and spinach-artichoke dip--and every else brought one)
We have yet to try:
Chili
Lasagna
Lentil and sausage soup/stew
Protein Bars and Doughnuts
Two recipes to share:
First, the protein bars. I tweak them a little bit.
I don't have a Blendtec blender (yet!) or a powerful food processor, so I skip the dried fruit and make them in the stand mixer.
I also used almond meal (ground up almonds) from Trader Joe's.
I used flax meal, Bob's Red Mill brand, which I keep in our fridge.
I use salted peanut butter (I've used the Smucker's Natural brand the past two times) and omit the sea salt.
I also used the honey and the chocolate chips.
They are yummy and the girls like them too. Nate is not a huge fan, but that means more for us. :)
Second, the baked doughnuts.
I had to cut this recipe in half because it would have made way too many for us to consume in one sitting. Even cut in half, we saved a couple for later. They were still pretty good. I think we'll do these for Christmas instead of cinnamon rolls.
The girls had fun cutting the dough into shapes and, of course, eating them!
Just a note, these are messy to eat. Mostly because of the sugar on the outside. We had sugar all over the floor. Just a warning. :)
Two recipes to share:
First, the protein bars. I tweak them a little bit.
I don't have a Blendtec blender (yet!) or a powerful food processor, so I skip the dried fruit and make them in the stand mixer.
I also used almond meal (ground up almonds) from Trader Joe's.
I used flax meal, Bob's Red Mill brand, which I keep in our fridge.
I use salted peanut butter (I've used the Smucker's Natural brand the past two times) and omit the sea salt.
I also used the honey and the chocolate chips.
They are yummy and the girls like them too. Nate is not a huge fan, but that means more for us. :)
Second, the baked doughnuts.
I had to cut this recipe in half because it would have made way too many for us to consume in one sitting. Even cut in half, we saved a couple for later. They were still pretty good. I think we'll do these for Christmas instead of cinnamon rolls.
The girls had fun cutting the dough into shapes and, of course, eating them!
Just a note, these are messy to eat. Mostly because of the sugar on the outside. We had sugar all over the floor. Just a warning. :)
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Homeschool stuff
This is our basic schedule and what we are doing this year, starting last week. It's very flexible. Tomorrow we are taking a day off because we have other plans. Next Tuesday we have to take off because I have to take the three-hour glucose test. But we'll get through it.
Our basic weekly schedule is this:
Monday:
Breakfast
Worship time (consists of 2 songs that they choose and they can dance and play instruments while we all sing, Bible story that we all sit still for, beginning catechism questions we're working on, memorization--Apostles' Creed right now, and then one of us says a short prayer)
Nature walk and play at a park (BRP, HAP, HP, etc)
Lunch
Rest time
Art/Handicraft (embroidery, collages, painting, weaving)
Etc.
After dinner this day we try to look up leaves that we found on our nature walk
Tuesday-Thursday:
Morning walk
Breakfast
Worship time
Preschool activity (something to work on some preschool skill or fine or gross motor skill)
Phonics/Learning to read (Becca does this--Ally usually sits with us)
Math activity (to work on counting, sorting, calendar, telling time, money, adding, recognizing numbers, patterns, comparing, measuring, etc)
Sonlight curriculum (Read alouds from Sonlight. Also, Becca does a readiness workbook and Ally has My First Book of Tracing by Kumon. Both Ally and Becca narrate to me after I read them a nursery rhyme or a paragraph or two from our readings, and I write what they say in their narration notebooks. Then they get to draw a picture. They are not really getting it yet, and are probably too young to start, but I just wanted to get in the habit of doing it.)
Play
Lunch
Rest time
Play/Computer time (one of the days)
Etc.
Friday:
Morning walk
Breakfast
Worship time
Get together with friends or run errands or clean or bake or just relax
Lunch
Rest time
Play
Library after Nathan gets done with work
Dinner
Etc.
This is our basic schedule and what we are doing this year, starting last week. It's very flexible. Tomorrow we are taking a day off because we have other plans. Next Tuesday we have to take off because I have to take the three-hour glucose test. But we'll get through it.
Our basic weekly schedule is this:
Monday:
Breakfast
Worship time (consists of 2 songs that they choose and they can dance and play instruments while we all sing, Bible story that we all sit still for, beginning catechism questions we're working on, memorization--Apostles' Creed right now, and then one of us says a short prayer)
Nature walk and play at a park (BRP, HAP, HP, etc)
Lunch
Rest time
Art/Handicraft (embroidery, collages, painting, weaving)
Etc.
After dinner this day we try to look up leaves that we found on our nature walk
Tuesday-Thursday:
Morning walk
Breakfast
Worship time
Preschool activity (something to work on some preschool skill or fine or gross motor skill)
Phonics/Learning to read (Becca does this--Ally usually sits with us)
Math activity (to work on counting, sorting, calendar, telling time, money, adding, recognizing numbers, patterns, comparing, measuring, etc)
Sonlight curriculum (Read alouds from Sonlight. Also, Becca does a readiness workbook and Ally has My First Book of Tracing by Kumon. Both Ally and Becca narrate to me after I read them a nursery rhyme or a paragraph or two from our readings, and I write what they say in their narration notebooks. Then they get to draw a picture. They are not really getting it yet, and are probably too young to start, but I just wanted to get in the habit of doing it.)
Play
Lunch
Rest time
Play/Computer time (one of the days)
Etc.
Friday:
Morning walk
Breakfast
Worship time
Get together with friends or run errands or clean or bake or just relax
Lunch
Rest time
Play
Library after Nathan gets done with work
Dinner
Etc.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Everyday stuff
I have apparently given the impression to more than one person that I am some sort of supermom. That we do amazing, creative projects around here every day, or at least every week. That I'm always patient. That we always eat super healthy food made from scratch and have no plastic plates or cups in our house.
I'm here to make some corrections and provide an honest look to our days and weeks.
I'm not supermom
I would love to be supermom and super housewife and super everything...but I'm not. My goal is to change our sheets every two weeks, and I finally had to put it on my calendar to make sure it got done. I don't want to think how long we went between washings. My bathroom often goes a couple of weeks without cleaning. And I rarely dust. Lately we're just coming out of survival mode...not even close to supermom mode.
We rarely do amazing, creative projects.
Yes, I have lots of art supplies. Yes, I have a list of projects to do with the girls. No, we have not been doing many lately. The girls have done a bit of embroidery, but that's it. Most days consist of reading books, the girls playing pretend on their own while I do things that need to be done, feeding my family, playing outside a bit, and having the girls help when I both have the patience and have something they can join in on.
I am not always patient.
Especially at bed time or when we are in a hurry...which is often. I don't like to yell or treat the girls harshly, but it does happen...usually followed my me asking for forgiveness. I've always said I'm not a patient person and being a parent has sent my impatient sinfulness bubbling to the surface more than I'd like to admit. My prayer and my hope is that God would help me to respond to my children and not to react.
We don't always eat super healthy food and we have a good bit of plasticware in our house.
When I asked for cups for my children once at a friend's house, she apologized that all she had to offer me were plastic ones. It threw me for a second and made me wonder how I was giving off this impression that I'm completely anti-plastic. We have IKEA plates, bowls, and quite few plastic cups. We also have glass and stainless steel and ceramic, but we use a mixture everyday. I just try not to put really hot things in plastic, and when I rarely use the microwave, I use glass.
As for the super healthy food, I do have to admit having a bit of an obsession with good food. I just read the book Real Food by Nina Planck and loved most of it. I like buying pastured pork, eggs from pastured hens, beef and butter from grassfed cows. I'd love to feed my family raw milk, but we're settling for Oberweis for now (which is truly delicious milk, especially the whole we drink). I try to buy organic produce, especially the most sprayed kinds. I like making my own bread and would like to learn to make sourdough soon, but I have purchased a lot of bread recently from the store. I do feed my family butter and coconut oil and olive oil and try to avoid the industrial oils and non-fermented soy without being obsessive about it.
Having said all that, we don't always eat so well. We eat at Chick-fil-a every once in awhile. We are horribly short on our veggie intake right now, due to my pregnancy-induced aversion to just about anything green. At least we get lots of fruit. For the past couple of weeks we've had Cheerios for breakfast almost every day, and I do buy some crackers and pretzels.
Ally and Becca eating the chocolate chips out of the plastic eggs Becca hid for them to find on their Easter egg hunt today:
I have apparently given the impression to more than one person that I am some sort of supermom. That we do amazing, creative projects around here every day, or at least every week. That I'm always patient. That we always eat super healthy food made from scratch and have no plastic plates or cups in our house.
I'm here to make some corrections and provide an honest look to our days and weeks.
I'm not supermom
I would love to be supermom and super housewife and super everything...but I'm not. My goal is to change our sheets every two weeks, and I finally had to put it on my calendar to make sure it got done. I don't want to think how long we went between washings. My bathroom often goes a couple of weeks without cleaning. And I rarely dust. Lately we're just coming out of survival mode...not even close to supermom mode.
We rarely do amazing, creative projects.
Yes, I have lots of art supplies. Yes, I have a list of projects to do with the girls. No, we have not been doing many lately. The girls have done a bit of embroidery, but that's it. Most days consist of reading books, the girls playing pretend on their own while I do things that need to be done, feeding my family, playing outside a bit, and having the girls help when I both have the patience and have something they can join in on.
I am not always patient.
Especially at bed time or when we are in a hurry...which is often. I don't like to yell or treat the girls harshly, but it does happen...usually followed my me asking for forgiveness. I've always said I'm not a patient person and being a parent has sent my impatient sinfulness bubbling to the surface more than I'd like to admit. My prayer and my hope is that God would help me to respond to my children and not to react.
We don't always eat super healthy food and we have a good bit of plasticware in our house.
When I asked for cups for my children once at a friend's house, she apologized that all she had to offer me were plastic ones. It threw me for a second and made me wonder how I was giving off this impression that I'm completely anti-plastic. We have IKEA plates, bowls, and quite few plastic cups. We also have glass and stainless steel and ceramic, but we use a mixture everyday. I just try not to put really hot things in plastic, and when I rarely use the microwave, I use glass.
As for the super healthy food, I do have to admit having a bit of an obsession with good food. I just read the book Real Food by Nina Planck and loved most of it. I like buying pastured pork, eggs from pastured hens, beef and butter from grassfed cows. I'd love to feed my family raw milk, but we're settling for Oberweis for now (which is truly delicious milk, especially the whole we drink). I try to buy organic produce, especially the most sprayed kinds. I like making my own bread and would like to learn to make sourdough soon, but I have purchased a lot of bread recently from the store. I do feed my family butter and coconut oil and olive oil and try to avoid the industrial oils and non-fermented soy without being obsessive about it.
Having said all that, we don't always eat so well. We eat at Chick-fil-a every once in awhile. We are horribly short on our veggie intake right now, due to my pregnancy-induced aversion to just about anything green. At least we get lots of fruit. For the past couple of weeks we've had Cheerios for breakfast almost every day, and I do buy some crackers and pretzels.
Ally and Becca eating the chocolate chips out of the plastic eggs Becca hid for them to find on their Easter egg hunt today:
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Earthbox
Below is a picture of my Earthbox. We have one tomato plant (Brandywine) and a couple of basil plants (all clustered together) in it. So far I really like it. My favorite part is how to water it. I just fill up the reservoir at the bottom through that tube in the corner every other day. Watering is the trickiest part of gardening for me. I never know when to do it, but the Earthbox makes it easy for me. I'll have to check back at the end of the summer after going through one growing season, but so far, so good.
The only thing I wish I would have bought is the casters so I could roll it around and get it off the ground. I'll see how much I like it and maybe order them for next year.
Below is a picture of my Earthbox. We have one tomato plant (Brandywine) and a couple of basil plants (all clustered together) in it. So far I really like it. My favorite part is how to water it. I just fill up the reservoir at the bottom through that tube in the corner every other day. Watering is the trickiest part of gardening for me. I never know when to do it, but the Earthbox makes it easy for me. I'll have to check back at the end of the summer after going through one growing season, but so far, so good.
The only thing I wish I would have bought is the casters so I could roll it around and get it off the ground. I'll see how much I like it and maybe order them for next year.
Monday, June 07, 2010
First hooping practice video
When I was at my parents' last week, I made a video. They have a great loft area for hooping. I took clips from the video, since it was about 9 minutes long. I included a few mess-ups, just to keep it real. :) I'm a little nervous to put this on here. I'm fearing I look a bit dorky and I'm super-critical of myself as I watch the video. But I am, hooping (while 5 months pregnant):
A little over a year ago I thought I'd buy some hula hoops for the girls to use. As I looked at the ones available, I kept thinking how flimsy they were and how easily they got kinks. So I looked around online, and lo and behold, I found that there is this thing called "hooping" that adults were doing too...for fun and for exercise. And you could make your own hoops. In kid and adult sizes. And they are a lot more sturdy for the same price (about $4 a hoop).
So I bought the materials and made about 10 hoops. We kept 5 and gave 5 away. The girls each have one, and we have one extra kid-sized one and two adult-sized ones. Becca just recently learned to keep the hoop up, but she's been playing with it for awhile. Ally can swing it around herself once, but it will be a while before she is able to keep it up. Our adult hoops are 3/4 inch 100 psi and come up to my belly button when I hold it on the ground in front of me.
As I've told other people that I "hooped", I always got a confused look. So I decided to share on here with a video to show how fun it can be...along with good exercise too. It's a great indoor or outdoor activity, making it a good way to stay active in the winter. There are lots of videos on You Tube, if you are interested in learning more than just keeping it at your waist. I'll list a few at the bottom.
I wouldn't say I'm addicted, but it is fun. I'm trying to hoop 10 minutes a day or so, so keep my core strong and keep me active during this pregnancy.
Just as with yoga or with anything (basketball, football, movies), there are people out there doing things that are ungodly, but I think that we can hoop to the glory of God. It's a fun way to keep our bodies active, learn something new, be active with our kids or friends, and even help us (young mommies who can barely get a shower in) to feel a little sexy. What husband wouldn't want that of his wife. ;) All of those things can bring God glory.
If anyone around here is interested in making hoops, I think it would be fun to have a get together and do that. We could have all the materials and people could just bring enough to cover the cost of the hoops they want to make. :)
Links:
How to make a hula hoop
Where to buy tape to decorate your hoop--I'd like some gaffer tape to make my hoop grippy, but I have the color-coding and harness tape.
What is hooping?
Hooping videos to buy: Hoopnotica Level 1 and Level 2 (Indy libraries have Level 1 already and Level 2 is on order)
Videos to inspire:
SaFire Hooping in the Sun
SaFire Love the Process (just so you can see that people who are really good practice a lot and do mess up)
Tutorials:
SaFire: Chest-hooping
SaFire Hooping at the Knees
Lift-up trick
Drop down trick
Hooping at Hips
How to Hula Hoop
When I was at my parents' last week, I made a video. They have a great loft area for hooping. I took clips from the video, since it was about 9 minutes long. I included a few mess-ups, just to keep it real. :) I'm a little nervous to put this on here. I'm fearing I look a bit dorky and I'm super-critical of myself as I watch the video. But I am, hooping (while 5 months pregnant):
First hooping practice video from Patricia Froyd on Vimeo.
A little over a year ago I thought I'd buy some hula hoops for the girls to use. As I looked at the ones available, I kept thinking how flimsy they were and how easily they got kinks. So I looked around online, and lo and behold, I found that there is this thing called "hooping" that adults were doing too...for fun and for exercise. And you could make your own hoops. In kid and adult sizes. And they are a lot more sturdy for the same price (about $4 a hoop).
So I bought the materials and made about 10 hoops. We kept 5 and gave 5 away. The girls each have one, and we have one extra kid-sized one and two adult-sized ones. Becca just recently learned to keep the hoop up, but she's been playing with it for awhile. Ally can swing it around herself once, but it will be a while before she is able to keep it up. Our adult hoops are 3/4 inch 100 psi and come up to my belly button when I hold it on the ground in front of me.
As I've told other people that I "hooped", I always got a confused look. So I decided to share on here with a video to show how fun it can be...along with good exercise too. It's a great indoor or outdoor activity, making it a good way to stay active in the winter. There are lots of videos on You Tube, if you are interested in learning more than just keeping it at your waist. I'll list a few at the bottom.
I wouldn't say I'm addicted, but it is fun. I'm trying to hoop 10 minutes a day or so, so keep my core strong and keep me active during this pregnancy.
Just as with yoga or with anything (basketball, football, movies), there are people out there doing things that are ungodly, but I think that we can hoop to the glory of God. It's a fun way to keep our bodies active, learn something new, be active with our kids or friends, and even help us (young mommies who can barely get a shower in) to feel a little sexy. What husband wouldn't want that of his wife. ;) All of those things can bring God glory.
If anyone around here is interested in making hoops, I think it would be fun to have a get together and do that. We could have all the materials and people could just bring enough to cover the cost of the hoops they want to make. :)
Links:
How to make a hula hoop
Where to buy tape to decorate your hoop--I'd like some gaffer tape to make my hoop grippy, but I have the color-coding and harness tape.
What is hooping?
Hooping videos to buy: Hoopnotica Level 1 and Level 2 (Indy libraries have Level 1 already and Level 2 is on order)
Videos to inspire:
SaFire Hooping in the Sun
SaFire Love the Process (just so you can see that people who are really good practice a lot and do mess up)
Tutorials:
SaFire: Chest-hooping
SaFire Hooping at the Knees
Lift-up trick
Drop down trick
Hooping at Hips
How to Hula Hoop
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Becca's birthday present
We decided to get Becca a digital camera for her birthday this year. She's constantly asking to take pictures with my camera, and I wanted something she could use easily to start practicing.
After looking at all the kid cameras out there, I decided on a Polaroid i633. It only has 6 MP, but I figure she's not going to need to blow any picture up large enough to make that matter. The pictures it takes are clear and it uses double A batteries. The only downside is that it doesn't have an eyepiece to look through. You only have the screen on the back, which is hard to see in bright sunlight, but it works for a first camera. I bought it off eBay, new, for around $50.
Becca does a great job getting her subject in the frame.
Ally taking a picture of her stuffed pig.
We also gave her a photo album to put pictures in, once we start printing them, and I made a camera bag to hold her camera. I used some material I had and put padding in-between the fabric. It's an envelope-style messenger bag with a strap sewn on the back.
I also made a birthday bunting that we'll be hanging up for birthdays around here. It's pretty cute.
Lest you think I'm doing tons of projects, those are the first two sewing projects I've done in months, and I don't have plans for any more (besides dolly diapers) for a while.
We decided to get Becca a digital camera for her birthday this year. She's constantly asking to take pictures with my camera, and I wanted something she could use easily to start practicing.
After looking at all the kid cameras out there, I decided on a Polaroid i633. It only has 6 MP, but I figure she's not going to need to blow any picture up large enough to make that matter. The pictures it takes are clear and it uses double A batteries. The only downside is that it doesn't have an eyepiece to look through. You only have the screen on the back, which is hard to see in bright sunlight, but it works for a first camera. I bought it off eBay, new, for around $50.
Becca does a great job getting her subject in the frame.
Ally taking a picture of her stuffed pig.We also gave her a photo album to put pictures in, once we start printing them, and I made a camera bag to hold her camera. I used some material I had and put padding in-between the fabric. It's an envelope-style messenger bag with a strap sewn on the back.
I also made a birthday bunting that we'll be hanging up for birthdays around here. It's pretty cute.
Lest you think I'm doing tons of projects, those are the first two sewing projects I've done in months, and I don't have plans for any more (besides dolly diapers) for a while.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Random update
We planted our garden, or part of it. Two squares of spinach with 9 plants per square. Two squares with radishes (for pest control) and two kinds of lettuce: two black seeded simpson and four romaine. As unexcited as I was to garden this year, I did feel a bit thrilled seeing that just about everything is coming up. I just have to make sure to water it.
We'll also be planting basil, provider bush beans (green beans), and carrots. I'm going to let the girls take care of the carrots. And we can't forget the tomatoes. We'll do a Brandywine plant again this year.
I've recently finished two books: In Absence of Sun by Helie Lee and Real Food for Mother and Baby by Nina Planck. In Absence of Sun was interesting, but I didn't like it nearly as much as Still Life With Rice. It was about the process Helie's family went through to get her family out of North Korea. Half the book was about Helie's emotional struggles through it all. I think I liked Still Life with Rice better because of all the history included in Helie's grandmother's life story. I was just learning so much about the struggles the Korean people have gone through, being oppressed by so many people, but being amazingly strong through it all.
Real Food for Mother and Baby was an interesting read. I happen to love books about food and eating good food and making good choices about where our food comes from, so this was right up my alley. I had actually heard of her other book, which I am now reading, called Real Food, first, but this one came available at the library first, so I read it first. The only weird part was how she threw in information on pregnancy and birth and breastfeeding and attachment parenting, that seemed a little beyond the scope of the book. I didn't have a problem with anything she said, and actually have a lot in common with the author on her thoughts in those areas, but some of the sections just felt a little out of place. Where the author and I do diverge is where I have a Biblical worldview and she doesn't. Primate cousins, attributing how our bodies work to nature instead of God's design, and such. I would still recommend the book anyway. Or I'm sure I'll recommend Real Food once I'm done with that one, if you are not in the position of needing wanting to get pregnant, being pregnant or having a young child.
My pregnancy is going well. I'm almost 15 weeks along and feeling so much better. God has given me such a caring, supportive husband who has really worked so hard over the last 9 weeks or so to care for our family and house. I mostly write about my pregnancy over on my pregnancy journal. If you know me well and would like to read it, email me or contact me and I'll send you an invite.
We planted our garden, or part of it. Two squares of spinach with 9 plants per square. Two squares with radishes (for pest control) and two kinds of lettuce: two black seeded simpson and four romaine. As unexcited as I was to garden this year, I did feel a bit thrilled seeing that just about everything is coming up. I just have to make sure to water it.
We'll also be planting basil, provider bush beans (green beans), and carrots. I'm going to let the girls take care of the carrots. And we can't forget the tomatoes. We'll do a Brandywine plant again this year.
I've recently finished two books: In Absence of Sun by Helie Lee and Real Food for Mother and Baby by Nina Planck. In Absence of Sun was interesting, but I didn't like it nearly as much as Still Life With Rice. It was about the process Helie's family went through to get her family out of North Korea. Half the book was about Helie's emotional struggles through it all. I think I liked Still Life with Rice better because of all the history included in Helie's grandmother's life story. I was just learning so much about the struggles the Korean people have gone through, being oppressed by so many people, but being amazingly strong through it all.
Real Food for Mother and Baby was an interesting read. I happen to love books about food and eating good food and making good choices about where our food comes from, so this was right up my alley. I had actually heard of her other book, which I am now reading, called Real Food, first, but this one came available at the library first, so I read it first. The only weird part was how she threw in information on pregnancy and birth and breastfeeding and attachment parenting, that seemed a little beyond the scope of the book. I didn't have a problem with anything she said, and actually have a lot in common with the author on her thoughts in those areas, but some of the sections just felt a little out of place. Where the author and I do diverge is where I have a Biblical worldview and she doesn't. Primate cousins, attributing how our bodies work to nature instead of God's design, and such. I would still recommend the book anyway. Or I'm sure I'll recommend Real Food once I'm done with that one, if you are not in the position of needing wanting to get pregnant, being pregnant or having a young child.
My pregnancy is going well. I'm almost 15 weeks along and feeling so much better. God has given me such a caring, supportive husband who has really worked so hard over the last 9 weeks or so to care for our family and house. I mostly write about my pregnancy over on my pregnancy journal. If you know me well and would like to read it, email me or contact me and I'll send you an invite.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Books
After enjoying a couple of picture books with my daughters by Sook Nyul Choi, I decided to check out what else she had written and found these two short novels:
Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi--I'm sad to say how ignorant I am of history around the world. I had no idea what the people of Korea went through during the years covered in this novel about a young girl and her family in North Korea. I would recommend it, but would read it with a my girls when they are old enough. There is so much to talk about as you go through it.
Echoes of the White Giraffe by Sook Nyul Choi--I thought this sequel to Year of Impossible Goodbyes was just a tad lighter, not in the author's ability to share the story or engage the reader, but just in content. During YoIG I had this feeling of oppression and heaviness. This book has parts that are a little fun and even hopeful, even though Sookan and her family are refugees waiting to go home. The focus of this story is the innocent, but forbidden, relationship that 16-year-old Sookan and Junho, her friend, have while she is a refugee. I can't say the ending is happy, but it is real has some hope for the future.
A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis--This is the most disconnected of all Lewis's books I've read. There is little flow or organization to it, which makes sense, since it's like reading someone's journal. I am glad I read it, though. Lewis always gives me a new way to look at things, just a different view of the same thing, I guess.
After enjoying a couple of picture books with my daughters by Sook Nyul Choi, I decided to check out what else she had written and found these two short novels:
Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi--I'm sad to say how ignorant I am of history around the world. I had no idea what the people of Korea went through during the years covered in this novel about a young girl and her family in North Korea. I would recommend it, but would read it with a my girls when they are old enough. There is so much to talk about as you go through it.
Echoes of the White Giraffe by Sook Nyul Choi--I thought this sequel to Year of Impossible Goodbyes was just a tad lighter, not in the author's ability to share the story or engage the reader, but just in content. During YoIG I had this feeling of oppression and heaviness. This book has parts that are a little fun and even hopeful, even though Sookan and her family are refugees waiting to go home. The focus of this story is the innocent, but forbidden, relationship that 16-year-old Sookan and Junho, her friend, have while she is a refugee. I can't say the ending is happy, but it is real has some hope for the future.
A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis--This is the most disconnected of all Lewis's books I've read. There is little flow or organization to it, which makes sense, since it's like reading someone's journal. I am glad I read it, though. Lewis always gives me a new way to look at things, just a different view of the same thing, I guess.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Our jumping song
We first heard this version of the Music Box Dancer when we saw a Christmas lights display synchronized with it (it was pretty sweet) while in Texas. We had to look it up when we got back to the house. We like to put it on when the girls need to get out some energy by jumping on the old mattress we pull out from under Becca's bed in the girls' room. We get in on the jumping action too. It's hard to stay still while it's playing. :)
We first heard this version of the Music Box Dancer when we saw a Christmas lights display synchronized with it (it was pretty sweet) while in Texas. We had to look it up when we got back to the house. We like to put it on when the girls need to get out some energy by jumping on the old mattress we pull out from under Becca's bed in the girls' room. We get in on the jumping action too. It's hard to stay still while it's playing. :)
Monday, January 25, 2010
Origami Boxes
I made one of these tonight using some old cards I had in the girls art area. It was easy, especially with the pictures.
I made one of these tonight using some old cards I had in the girls art area. It was easy, especially with the pictures.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Back home again
Last week the girls and I went to my parents while Nathan was in Atlanta at a company meeting. We had a great time with family and friends. We got to see both grandmas, my nephew, sister-in-law, brother, best friend and her beautiful daughter, another friend who has been in my life since the high school, and some good friends on the way up. It was a lot to fit in, but so worth it. We tried to see my brother and his girlfriend too, but he was working.
I received my dSLR in the mail at my parents. I haven't taken it out since we got home, but I used it a ton up North and I love it. It's so fun to take pictures with it. I really never enjoyed using the point and shoots we had, but I enjoy this camera.
I finished Heartfelt Discipline by Clay Clarkson today. While I think he had a lot of good things to say, I had such a hard time getting through the book and I'm not sure why. Three things I got out of the book:
1. To not only teach our children to obey their parents (us), but also to honor their parents. But not just to honor (or to give value to us) us, but to honor other people around them too. AND that we must also honor them (or show them they have value) by being attentive to them and listening to them and spending time with them.
2. Pray for our children and with our children because it's ultimately the Holy Spirit who works in them. Pray before I talk to my child about something, asking the Holy Spirit to give me the words to say and to help me be patient.
3. Read your Bible and hide it in your heart. Sounds simple, yes. But it just hit me (again) that it's hard to really be speaking the words of God into their lives if I'm not interacting daily with His Word. I'll be trying to read through and look up the passages in Concise Theology by J.I. Packer in my devotional time and when we actually sit down to breakfast, the girls and I will be continuing to learn Becca's baptism passage: Colossians 3:12-17.
I started Calendar: Christ's time for the Church by Laurence Hull Stookey today. I kept falling asleep, though. Not because it wasn't interesting, but because it was Sunday afternoon and I was laying down all cozy under a warm blanket. :)
Last week the girls and I went to my parents while Nathan was in Atlanta at a company meeting. We had a great time with family and friends. We got to see both grandmas, my nephew, sister-in-law, brother, best friend and her beautiful daughter, another friend who has been in my life since the high school, and some good friends on the way up. It was a lot to fit in, but so worth it. We tried to see my brother and his girlfriend too, but he was working.
I received my dSLR in the mail at my parents. I haven't taken it out since we got home, but I used it a ton up North and I love it. It's so fun to take pictures with it. I really never enjoyed using the point and shoots we had, but I enjoy this camera.
I finished Heartfelt Discipline by Clay Clarkson today. While I think he had a lot of good things to say, I had such a hard time getting through the book and I'm not sure why. Three things I got out of the book:
1. To not only teach our children to obey their parents (us), but also to honor their parents. But not just to honor (or to give value to us) us, but to honor other people around them too. AND that we must also honor them (or show them they have value) by being attentive to them and listening to them and spending time with them.
2. Pray for our children and with our children because it's ultimately the Holy Spirit who works in them. Pray before I talk to my child about something, asking the Holy Spirit to give me the words to say and to help me be patient.
3. Read your Bible and hide it in your heart. Sounds simple, yes. But it just hit me (again) that it's hard to really be speaking the words of God into their lives if I'm not interacting daily with His Word. I'll be trying to read through and look up the passages in Concise Theology by J.I. Packer in my devotional time and when we actually sit down to breakfast, the girls and I will be continuing to learn Becca's baptism passage: Colossians 3:12-17.
I started Calendar: Christ's time for the Church by Laurence Hull Stookey today. I kept falling asleep, though. Not because it wasn't interesting, but because it was Sunday afternoon and I was laying down all cozy under a warm blanket. :)
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Books to read in 2010
Number seven in my list of goals for this year was to read one book a month. While sitting in Nate's office today reading, I started looking over his bookshelf and before I new it, I had a stack of books next to me to read for this year.
This stack only contains non-fiction. I may insert a fiction or two in there, but those will be unplanned.
In no particular order:
1. Heartfelt Discipline by Clay Clarkson (almost finished--from library)
2. Concise Theology by J.I. Packer (hoping to read this during devotions and look up reference passages as I read.
3. Calendar: Christ's Time for the Church by Laurence Hull Stookey
4. The Mark Experiment by Andrew Page (Nate has talked about wanting to memorize the gospel of Mark again like we did at SLT)
5. Against Christianity by Peter J. Leithart (a re-read for me)
6. Knowing God by J.I. Packer (a re-read for the second time--one I like to re-read periodically)
7. My Life for Yours: A Walk Through the Christian Home by Douglas Wilson (another re-read)
8. Keep in Step with the Spirit by J.I. Packer (can we see a pattern of authors here?)
9. The Baptized Body by Peter J. Leithart
10. When Children Love to Learn: A Practical Application of Charlotte Mason's [Education] Philosophy for Today edited by Elaine Cooper (a re-read I thought would be good to read at the same time we are working on choosing curricula)
I think it will be some sort of miracle if I get through all of them. I'd like to at least get through 3/4 of them, though.
Number seven in my list of goals for this year was to read one book a month. While sitting in Nate's office today reading, I started looking over his bookshelf and before I new it, I had a stack of books next to me to read for this year.
This stack only contains non-fiction. I may insert a fiction or two in there, but those will be unplanned.
In no particular order:
1. Heartfelt Discipline by Clay Clarkson (almost finished--from library)
2. Concise Theology by J.I. Packer (hoping to read this during devotions and look up reference passages as I read.
3. Calendar: Christ's Time for the Church by Laurence Hull Stookey
4. The Mark Experiment by Andrew Page (Nate has talked about wanting to memorize the gospel of Mark again like we did at SLT)
5. Against Christianity by Peter J. Leithart (a re-read for me)
6. Knowing God by J.I. Packer (a re-read for the second time--one I like to re-read periodically)
7. My Life for Yours: A Walk Through the Christian Home by Douglas Wilson (another re-read)
8. Keep in Step with the Spirit by J.I. Packer (can we see a pattern of authors here?)
9. The Baptized Body by Peter J. Leithart
10. When Children Love to Learn: A Practical Application of Charlotte Mason's [Education] Philosophy for Today edited by Elaine Cooper (a re-read I thought would be good to read at the same time we are working on choosing curricula)
I think it will be some sort of miracle if I get through all of them. I'd like to at least get through 3/4 of them, though.
Monday, January 04, 2010
Homeschool curriculums
edited to add something else we are considering
Nathan and I are checking out homeschool curriculums. I don't think we'll start anything formal until Becca is 6 (she'll be 5 in May). We'll just continue living life and maybe teaching Becca to read when she is ready. Ally will keep learning her letters, as she seems to be picking them up as she goes without any help from me. That's what's nice about having a big sister. She's also started drawing people way earlier than Becca ever did, which I think is from seeing Becca draw them all the time.
Anyway, the following is the curriculums we're considering and what we're looking at. We've already crossed out Tapestry of Grace mostly because Nathan was totally annoyed with their site and how locked down they were. He couldn't even find out what was one their booklists because they are so secretive. He didn't like how you had to do everything digitally using their special reader and could only use it on one computer.
I'm open to more suggestions. I've seen Sonlight, Math U See, Sequential Spelling, and Handwriting without Tears in person. There are a lot of things I like about Sonlight and would be willing to go with that one, but I wanted to make sure we checked out our other possibilities.
Here are the things we're considering as we look at each:
1. How much planning is needed each week?
2. What is the Biblical worldview that is woven into the curriculum (mostly in the main curriculums)?
3. How does the curriculum fit in with the Charlotte Mason philosophies? (narration, good literature, shorter subjects periods, etc)
4. Does the curriculum use good literature throughout?
5. What is the cost for each year's curriculum? Can we use the same curriculum for more than one child?
6. Can we teach the curriculum in 4 days instead of 5 days a week?
7. Fits or can be adapted to our teaching styles and our children's learning styles.
Any others you can think of?
Main curriculums:
Sonlight
Tapestry of Grace
Ambleside Online
My Father's World
Winter Promise
Math curriculums:
Math U See
Right Start Math
Singapore Math see also this site
Other:
Sequential Spelling (for later)
Handwriting without Tears
edited to add something else we are considering
Nathan and I are checking out homeschool curriculums. I don't think we'll start anything formal until Becca is 6 (she'll be 5 in May). We'll just continue living life and maybe teaching Becca to read when she is ready. Ally will keep learning her letters, as she seems to be picking them up as she goes without any help from me. That's what's nice about having a big sister. She's also started drawing people way earlier than Becca ever did, which I think is from seeing Becca draw them all the time.
Anyway, the following is the curriculums we're considering and what we're looking at. We've already crossed out Tapestry of Grace mostly because Nathan was totally annoyed with their site and how locked down they were. He couldn't even find out what was one their booklists because they are so secretive. He didn't like how you had to do everything digitally using their special reader and could only use it on one computer.
I'm open to more suggestions. I've seen Sonlight, Math U See, Sequential Spelling, and Handwriting without Tears in person. There are a lot of things I like about Sonlight and would be willing to go with that one, but I wanted to make sure we checked out our other possibilities.
Here are the things we're considering as we look at each:
1. How much planning is needed each week?
2. What is the Biblical worldview that is woven into the curriculum (mostly in the main curriculums)?
3. How does the curriculum fit in with the Charlotte Mason philosophies? (narration, good literature, shorter subjects periods, etc)
4. Does the curriculum use good literature throughout?
5. What is the cost for each year's curriculum? Can we use the same curriculum for more than one child?
6. Can we teach the curriculum in 4 days instead of 5 days a week?
7. Fits or can be adapted to our teaching styles and our children's learning styles.
Any others you can think of?
Main curriculums:
Sonlight
Tapestry of Grace
Ambleside Online
My Father's World
Winter Promise
Math curriculums:
Math U See
Right Start Math
Singapore Math see also this site
Other:
Sequential Spelling (for later)
Handwriting without Tears
2010 goals
edited to add two more goals
1. Get to bed by 11pm.
2. Get up by 6am.
3. Date night with Nate once a week (at home or out).
4. Pick a homeschool curriculum to use (when Becca is 6).
5. Teach Becca to read.
6. Memorize one new Bible passage with the girls a month.
7. Read one book each month.
8. Physical activity with girls each day.
9. Finish Ally's scrapbook.
10. Learn to knit socks.
11. Catch up on photo albums.
12. Call grandmothers 2-4 times a month.
13. Email with brothers and sister-in-law once a month.
14. Learn to make sourdough bread and starters and such.
15. Take one day (Saturday, most likely) a month to go hiking as a family.
edited to add two more goals
1. Get to bed by 11pm.
2. Get up by 6am.
3. Date night with Nate once a week (at home or out).
4. Pick a homeschool curriculum to use (when Becca is 6).
5. Teach Becca to read.
6. Memorize one new Bible passage with the girls a month.
7. Read one book each month.
8. Physical activity with girls each day.
9. Finish Ally's scrapbook.
10. Learn to knit socks.
11. Catch up on photo albums.
12. Call grandmothers 2-4 times a month.
13. Email with brothers and sister-in-law once a month.
14. Learn to make sourdough bread and starters and such.
15. Take one day (Saturday, most likely) a month to go hiking as a family.
2009 Goals review
I really should be unpacking and I'll do it after this, but I'm motivated to review my goals after reading everyone else's New Year's posts.
Here is my original post on my goals for this year. It was a little ambitious. :)
Goal #1: To read God's word to and with Becca and Ally everyday
We did pretty well. Over the past few months the girls and I have memorized four good size passages from the Bible. It's such a joy to hear them reciting scripture. I hope to continue this in 2010.
Goal #2: To be active with my kids for at least 30 minutes a day
Not so good. The girls did enjoy gymnastics once a week from September to December, though. Now that it's really cold, I have a hard time getting outside, but I hope to take them out once we get some good snow.
Goal #3: To read living books to Becca and Ally everyday, throughout the day. We already do this, so we want to continue it.
It seems to me that I don't read to them as much as I used to. We do sit down at least twice a day and read a couple books/chapters at a time. And Becca listens to audio books during her rest time.
Goal #4: To "do art" with the girls at least once a week--painting, drawing, paper mache, cutting paper, embroidery, etc.
Not so great on this. I hope to have an art day on off MOPS Wednesdays starting in February. We'll see.
Goal #5: To get up early enough in the morning for both Nate and I to shower and our family to eat breakfast together before Nate goes up to work.
I was doing really well with this in June just after my miscarriage, but starting in August, I started sleeping in again and then had a brief time again in November when I did well.
Goal #6: To attempt to call our parents once a week, our grandmothers twice a month, our siblings once or twice a month, and my close friends once or twice a month.
I've done this off and on. The most important ones I try to get in are my grandmothers who both live alone.
Goal #7: To find spare moments for prayer.
This is all really depressing to not meet any goal. Anyway, I have been trying to pray in the moment, like when I first read or hear about a prayer request. Trying to pray on the phone with people when they mention something to me that needs prayer. It feels awkward at first, but I know it's a good thing to do.
Goal #8: To do at least one thing each day that serves my husband and nurtures our marriage.
I think this goal could actually be listed as met. Maybe it's not perfectly done every day, but I really think our marriage is being nurtured right now pretty well.
Projects:
Project #1: Ally's baby book of her first year.
I did make some headway on this, but it's not done yet. Scrapbooking is just not my thing. When I finish this, I'm sticking to photo albums with hand written notes and baby books with fill in the blanks and places for pictures.
Project #2: Catch up to the present on my photo albums...this is after Ally's book is done.
Obviously not done with this, since I'm not done with number 1.
Project #3: Put together our wedding album...we've been married nearly six years and still don't have an album since I didn't order one from our photographer. I have all the photos, just not put in an album.
I don't think I'll ever get to this one. :)
Project #4: Plant a garden.
This one really needs a post of its own. I did this one! Yay, one goal met. :) I'll be planting another one next year. Putting the tomatoes in a separate container since they tried to take over my small square-foot garden. Becca wants to plant some of her own seeds too.
Project #5: Landscaping the front yard.
We have this about 1/2 done! We planted a burning bush, maiden grass, a Black Hills Spruce, tulip and daffodil bulbs, and transplanted the geraniums. We still need another maiden grass, a globe Blue spruce and something else on the right side that likes shade (ferns?).
I really should be unpacking and I'll do it after this, but I'm motivated to review my goals after reading everyone else's New Year's posts.
Here is my original post on my goals for this year. It was a little ambitious. :)
Goal #1: To read God's word to and with Becca and Ally everyday
We did pretty well. Over the past few months the girls and I have memorized four good size passages from the Bible. It's such a joy to hear them reciting scripture. I hope to continue this in 2010.
Goal #2: To be active with my kids for at least 30 minutes a day
Not so good. The girls did enjoy gymnastics once a week from September to December, though. Now that it's really cold, I have a hard time getting outside, but I hope to take them out once we get some good snow.
Goal #3: To read living books to Becca and Ally everyday, throughout the day. We already do this, so we want to continue it.
It seems to me that I don't read to them as much as I used to. We do sit down at least twice a day and read a couple books/chapters at a time. And Becca listens to audio books during her rest time.
Goal #4: To "do art" with the girls at least once a week--painting, drawing, paper mache, cutting paper, embroidery, etc.
Not so great on this. I hope to have an art day on off MOPS Wednesdays starting in February. We'll see.
Goal #5: To get up early enough in the morning for both Nate and I to shower and our family to eat breakfast together before Nate goes up to work.
I was doing really well with this in June just after my miscarriage, but starting in August, I started sleeping in again and then had a brief time again in November when I did well.
Goal #6: To attempt to call our parents once a week, our grandmothers twice a month, our siblings once or twice a month, and my close friends once or twice a month.
I've done this off and on. The most important ones I try to get in are my grandmothers who both live alone.
Goal #7: To find spare moments for prayer.
This is all really depressing to not meet any goal. Anyway, I have been trying to pray in the moment, like when I first read or hear about a prayer request. Trying to pray on the phone with people when they mention something to me that needs prayer. It feels awkward at first, but I know it's a good thing to do.
Goal #8: To do at least one thing each day that serves my husband and nurtures our marriage.
I think this goal could actually be listed as met. Maybe it's not perfectly done every day, but I really think our marriage is being nurtured right now pretty well.
Projects:
Project #1: Ally's baby book of her first year.
I did make some headway on this, but it's not done yet. Scrapbooking is just not my thing. When I finish this, I'm sticking to photo albums with hand written notes and baby books with fill in the blanks and places for pictures.
Project #2: Catch up to the present on my photo albums...this is after Ally's book is done.
Obviously not done with this, since I'm not done with number 1.
Project #3: Put together our wedding album...we've been married nearly six years and still don't have an album since I didn't order one from our photographer. I have all the photos, just not put in an album.
I don't think I'll ever get to this one. :)
Project #4: Plant a garden.
This one really needs a post of its own. I did this one! Yay, one goal met. :) I'll be planting another one next year. Putting the tomatoes in a separate container since they tried to take over my small square-foot garden. Becca wants to plant some of her own seeds too.
Project #5: Landscaping the front yard.
We have this about 1/2 done! We planted a burning bush, maiden grass, a Black Hills Spruce, tulip and daffodil bulbs, and transplanted the geraniums. We still need another maiden grass, a globe Blue spruce and something else on the right side that likes shade (ferns?).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
