New Introductions in Preschool

I work from lists-many lists. I have just received a large order of Montessori materials and was researching logical orders of introductions, which I placed on a list. I then decided to add some of the other areas to the list. This list would be appropriate to start between 2.5 and 4.5 years. It is not going to all make sense, but for those familiar with the Montessori materials, and some Waldorf materials they may understand it. About one new item is introduced a day. After the item/lesson is introduced it is left out for the child to work on as he pleases. When items are no longer appropriate for the boys they are removed from the preschool cupboards, to be reintroduced later as is, with variations or not at all. Without further ado, here is my list-



Knobbed cylinders
Stacking blocks (pink tower)
Color box 1
“Los Pollitos,” “Lavender’s Blue” 1-3, “Knives and Forks” handrhyme
Art Folders 1-1

Cuisenaire Rods staircase
Tactile boards match-gradation

Fabric Box 1
Storytelling with props
Matching seeds
Baking Bread
Baby to Mother animals matching
Poetry memorization 1
Mozart Mouse 1 Music time

Japanese Painting Board
Pour beans
Geometric shapes
Mozart Mouse 1 Music time
Water Color Painting with yellow and story
Geometric insets
Art Folders 1-2

Nuts and Bolts
Music with parachute etc.
Sorting bears by color
Pouring rice
Classify shells

Wet felting
“Cabballito Blanco,” “A Wise Old Owl,” “Skip to My Lou”
Storytelling with props
Magnetic sorting
Baking
Spoon beans
Color wheel
Mozart Mouse 1 Music time
Poetry memorization 2
Fabric Box 2
Geometry gradation of sizes
Dusting
Leaf rubbing
Art Folders 1-3
Sound cylinders
Set up nature table
Mozart Mouse 1 Music time
Sand and paint wooden animal
Folding a napkin
Sorting bears by size
3-part language cards
Poetry memorization 3
String beads
Knobbed cylinders extension
Is it an insect file folder
Storytelling with props

“Arre, caballito,” “The Lion and the Unicorn” “Little Mice”
Watercolor painting with blue and story

Art Folders 2-1
Sound cylinder extension
Mozart Mouse 2 Music time
Change nature table
Sorting by size blindfolded
Using a large dropper
Modeling beeswax
Walking the line
Stacking Blocks extension
Color Box 2
Baking
“Aserrin, Aserran,” “Good King Arthur,” 2nd version of “Head and Shoulders”
Poetry memorization 4
Tongs

Using a small dropper
3-part language cards
Mozart Mouse 2 Music time
Fabric Box 1 extensions
Art Folders 2-2
Classify quadrilaterals
Carding wool
Linking cubes matched to numbers
Sponge transfer
Setting a table
Color Box 2 memory
Change nature table
“La luna es rednonda,” “Old King Coal,” “Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow.”
Storytelling with props

Pour water
Spindle box
Hand spinning of wool
Color wheel extension

3-part language cards
Baking

Overcast stitch on board
Mix colors with dropper
Poetry memorization-5
Mozart Mouse 2 Music time
Watercolor painting with red and story
Silence game
Hole punch

Straining
Sand Paper numbers
3-part language cards
Art Folders 2-3
“La viejita,” “There Was an Old Woman,” “I Travelled Over Land and Sea”
Storytelling with props
Tokens matched to numbers
Baric Tablets-2 boxes
Bookbinding
Running stitch
Coloring with block crayons
Wash chairs
Quanty Graphing
Knobbed cylinders further extensions
Mozart Mouse 2 Music time
Using a funnel
Sculpey clay animal
Tactile boards-blindfolded
3-part language cards
Hammering
“La Mariposa Linda,” “The Queen of Hearts,” “Show Me Your Handwork”
Scale
Make Numbers out of pipecleaners and beads, Syrendell
Folding paper
Sandpaper letters
Change nature table
Art Folders 3-1
Stamping
Mozart Mouse 2 Music time
Poetry memorization-6
Sounds cylinders gradation
Fabric box blindfolded
3-part language cards
Wash table

Magnifying images to match
Watercolor painting with yellow and blue and story
Screws and screwdriver
“La arana pequenita,” “Come Out to Play,” “In and Out the Bonnie Bluebells”
Baking
Comparant graphing
Flower arranging
Geography sandpaper cards
Cutting
Braiding
Storytelling with props
Art Folders 3-2
Smelling cylinders
Mozart Mouse 2 Music time
3-part language cards
Pressure cylinders
Weaving
Comparant graphing with symbols
Baric Tablets blindfolded

Color box 3 gradation
“Cinco Pollitos,” “Cross Patch,” “Looby Loo”
Polishing coins or metal
Baking
Command cards
Mozart Mouse 3 Music time
Watercolor painting with yellow and red and story
Art Folders 3-3
Poetry memorization-7

1-10 in tray, teach odd and even
Knobbed cylinder-memory
Change nature table
Sandpaper letters match beginning sound to words
Baric Tablets extension with 3rd box
Beeswax modeling
Mozart Mouse 3 Music time

Tweezers work
Command Cards 2
Mystery bag
Storytelling with props
Finger knitting
Moveable alphabet
Fraction skittles
“Este chiquito,” “Dance to Your Daddy,” “A Tisket, a Tasket” with dance
Watercolor painting with red and blue and story
Match words to pictures
Hundreds chart-count
Baking
Fingerpainting
Poetry memorization 8
Hundreds chart find numbers
Change nature table
Mozart Mouse 3 Music time
Hundreds chart skip count by 2

Links of Free Resources

The charter school I work for begins Monday. Some of the students do not have there orders in yet, so I am required to give them options that they can do while waiting for the orders. As part of that I compiled some of my favorite links by subject. I only put in the ones that are free. I thought I would share that here, also, in case others are in the same boat or are just looking for something else.

Free Resources from the Web

Language Arts
http://www.englishgrammar101.com/
http://www.childrensbooksonline.org/library.htm
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page Books in the public domain
http://www.mainlesson.com More books in the public domain
http://www.loc.gov/index.html Library of Congress
http://librivox.org/ Free audio books
http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/sitelicense.php?sc=R2OFNK Picture ebooks
http://www.geocities.com/gene_moutoux/diagrams.htm Diagramming sentences

Math
http://www.livingmath.net/
http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm Free complete math program
http://themathworksheetsite.com/ this site is predominately math, but also has worksheets for other subject areas
http://www.mathfactcafe.com/
http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/math/
http://www.mathwithlarry.com/lessons/lesson001.htm Video lessons

Science
http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/
http://www.oplin.org/tree/
http://www.sln.org/
http://www.sciencebob.com/index.php

Social Studies/History
http://www3.canisius.edu/~emeryg/time.html A variety of timelines
http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/
http://cagle.msnbc.com/teacher/ Studies for political cartoons

Art
http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/
http://harmonyartmom.blogspot.com/
http://www.rolandcollection.com/films/ Films on art

Music
http://www.classicsforkids.com/shows/past.asp
http://www.gmajormusictheory.org/Freebies/freebies.html Free Piano Music by levels
http://intelli-tunes.com/free-teacher-resources.php
http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/main.html

Foreign Language
http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=eh

Handwork
http://www.visionforum.com/hottopics/multimedia/enn/archive.aspx Videos

Typing
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/

Complete Curriculums or Eclectic
Complete Curriculum with links to Many books and activities available online free http://www.amblesideonline.org/
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ site for free unit studies, lapbooks etc.
A list of books found online and in the public domain found in all subject areas http://oldfashionededucation.com/
http://www.homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com/ This site offers one new freebie each day that is about anything homeschool related
http://www.easyfunschool.com/
http://www.kidzone.ws/
http://ldshomeschoolinginca.org/gbp.html This describes the Great Brain Project that can be adapted to any subject
http://universitiesandcolleges.org/free-online-college-courses/
http://donnayoung.org/index.htm
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/free_printables.htm
http://www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/


Religion
http://www.christiananswers.net/kids/clr-indx.html Coloring pages
http://www.gardenofpraise.com/bibllnks.htm
http://www.padfield.com/photoindex.html Upper grade Bible Study

Running Record

During my early childhood education I was introduced to the idea of a running record. I have really liked this way of recording a child's actions, and have used it periodically since my oldest was born. All you do is follow the child around for five to ten minutes or so and write down everything they do.

Here is one I just did of Seth at 2.5 yrs:

Seth was getting into something, his sister said, “No, no Sethie.” He looks up at her innocently and says, “I Fred.” Then he came in and told me, “I Mom.” I said, “No, I’m Mom.” His response was, “You Seth, I Mom.” So I began to pout and said, “Mommm!” He says, “Yes, sweetie,” in the cutest high-pitched voice. I told him I wanted my nana, “I get it, sweetie. You tired?” He ran off to get his blanket, but soon got distracted by a book. All of the characters in this book have noses. This is very exciting. He points to several noses and says, “a nosey, a nosey, a nosey.” He shouts, “Nose!” in delight. He sees Thomas the Train in a picture and says, “Thomas! Thomas where are you?” He begins commenting on other pictures, “He’s going swimming. Ooo, what shall he do? He hab a train, Thomas. Thomas! Thomas? James, where are you? Come here Thomas. Shoo, shoo, choo.” He looks up at me, “You want a milk? You want to go to sleep?”


The nice thing about these records is they can show how many words the children are using, what their interests are, and how often they move around. It is like a little snapshot in words.

Artist Studies

This term our artist is Casper David Friedrich. He is not someone I had ever heard of before, but I tend to pull my artist from previous years Ambleside recommendations, so that I can glean from the archives, and because we often start school before the current terms works are selected. Over the summer the older two learned cursive, so I used the idea from Queen Homeschool and interweaved artist study with cursive. I had the six paintings printed at Walmart as 8x10’s. I then typed in a cursive font a sentence about the painting or the artist for them to copy each day. I put all of this in a pronged folder. On the first Friday of a painting study the children are asked to do a blind placement sketch of the painting. This is when the children draw as much about the painting as they can remember without looking at it. On the second Thursday and Friday the children are asked to attempt to recreate the painting as best they can with whatever art medium they choose. They may look at it this time.

This was the painting from the first two weeks:

Here is Aubrey's recreation:

Brennen is doing our typical method of study which is to once or twice a week study the painting and then hide it and tell me all he can remember. To this we occasionally add some other form of narration such as sketching, acting out the painting or discussing it. For him it is a short ten minute a week study. He spends two weeks per painting, six paintings by one artist. The older children have done this since the beginning and we love the collection of beautiful paintings that are now familiar friends, which we have gained.



This is the painting we began studying last week and are continuing this week. Brennen's blind narration was, "There's a guy on a rock and there is fog, and mountains. There's two mountains in the fog. It's light and there's a little tiny bit of yellow in the fog."

For the younger children we use the “Childsized Masterpiece” program. This is a Montessori type approach to art study and builds from matching paintings, to recognizing paintings by artist to learning to recognize the different schools of art throughout history. These are kept in folders and worked on as the child desires or as I reintroduce them, so there is no schedule. Even Seth is able to work at the second level with these, which is to match different paintings by the same artist, and differentiate them from paintings by other artists. We work with six pairs at a time as any more does overwhelm him.

Baby Sweater

I have almost finished a sweater for the baby, whom the doctor thinks is a girl=). I still need to pick out and add the buttons. I also made a matching one for Aubrey's doll-it also needs buttons. She will get it for Christmas.

The Way of a Child

My husband and I were talking about someday renting a cabin in the woods for a week in the summer and spend that time working on our various writing projects. My children overheard and asked if they could come. I said yes they would come, and they could go have adventures in the woods when Daddy and I were writing. My four-year-old started crying, "I don't want you to leave me in the woods." I assured him he could come in the cabin any time. He said, "No, the woods are scary." After a thoughtful silence he asked, "Are there hyenas in the woods?" My helpful daughter said, "No, there aren't any hyenas, but we will probably get chased by bears." Tears again broke forth, until I told him that it would probably be at least two summers before we could do it and he would be six. The tears immediately stopped and he looked at me, "Oh, okay, I will be able to beat the bears up when I am six." And he happily ran away to go play. Such is the way of the four-year-old.


The younger species in our home, the two-year-old has become increasingly friendly, not just with strange men sitting on park benches. Oh, no, why stop there? He has decided to spread his friendliness to cars. Yes, cars. He waves to them as we drive or walk. When Daddy gets home he greets Daddy and proceeds to aks him about his car, did he drive it? Is it good? When we get out of our Suburban he refuses to come in the house until he has walked around to the front grill, stroked it lovingly and said something to the effect of, "hiun fren vana un oon." Of course, all I can think of is, "ew, bugs!"
The other day we went on a two hour walk to feed ducks and meander. We stopped to look at bouncy little ball thingy's under oak trees(my husband says they are worm eggs, which I was glad to not think at the time). The kids were running their hands over them to see them bounce and just watching them. The older kids that is. My little one saw nothing interesting in bouncing little balls, but he did see a friendly car and so wandered over to it and smiled and began to carry on a rather one-sided conversation. His little hands were behind his back as he prattled away. He seemed content with his conversation and told the car goodbye with a most affectionate air. And with that we will leave the glimpse of the way of the two-year-old a delightful world where talking to cars is as normal as dragging your favorite blanket around, so as to always be prepared for a nap.

Organizing this School Year

We are the second day of the second week into the new school year. Kamron is in Year 6, Aubrey in Year 4, and Brennen is in Year 1. We are mostly following the Ambleside Online Curriculum, with some additions, subtractions and substitutions. This is a heavier year for both of the older two than ever before as I am attempting to work in all of the goals we have for them. We have begun Plutarch, Form Drawing, the actual Shakespeare plays, Kamron is studying business and economics and Aubrey is taking a cooking and home economics course.

About three weeks ago someone on the Ambleside Yahoo group brought up workboxes. I had never heard of these, but I began researching them and then deciding that the basic idea might be very good as an organizational method. The system which I began implementing does not look anything like the original as I only use one box per child rather than twelve. The part I latched onto and love is to have all of the child’s work in one place along with all of the supplies they will need for school that day. That way they can wake up and see how much work they have to do, they can see a few fun things sprinkled throughout and as they get done they get to see the items remaining in the box begin to dwindle. This has been working great. At first the amount of work made both children balk, but Kamron has begun really buckling down and working hard. Aubrey still usually dawdles and was still working at 3:45 yesterday.

Logan has also decided he is too old for preschool and is big enough for real studying every day. So we have dubbed him in four-year-old school and at first I had set up a box for him with some of his projects, but as I lean towards many Montessori ideas for the young children I wanted him to be able to pick many of his activities. So this week I set up a cupboard of activities that will periodically/weekly change depending on his mastery and interest. He has enjoyed this so far. Brennen also likes to use this cupboard. I will do a separate post on what is in it later.

I am pleased with the progress we are making and the amount of serious study the children are getting done. We are also missing so much less, the form of narration I would like is also in there, so even that is getting done consistently.

We have also opted to do school for six weeks on, one off throughout the year with an additional week off here and there. At the end of each term we are also going to attempt the oral examinations Charlotte Mason recommends, as I want the children to retain the information and ideas while also learning to express themselves well. This schedule will allow me the prep time I need, the children the time for free explorations and play. It also builds in a buffer in case we get behind.

Bible Lessons Learned by One Brother at Least

Brennen, 5yrso, was doing some punch work. He left his tack on the floor and his older brother stepped on it. His older brother, 10yrso, screamed in pain and glowered. Brennen said he was sorry, but after a minute his naughty older brother picked up a tack and poked his arm. Brennen screamed and said through tears, "Do good to those who hurt you!' pause, "That is what the Bible says. I know it is hard but you should not hurt others even if they hurt you."



As for the youngest brother, who is two. He is full of terms of endearment lately. When he says thank you, he says, "Thanks, hon." When he wants me to come with him he says, "Come on, sweetie." What a precious little one is Sethie.

It Is Bedtime and...

After the children put on a Calapp Comedy show, it is time for bed. But Logan has one more joke. “Well, I was sitting next to this frog and… someone ate it.” And I laugh. He runs to hug me. We say prayers and I tuck him in. Then I tuck in Brennen and Sethie, who want hugs first, and that car, and this blanket just so. Then Aubrey wants to talk. “Why did her skit about the girl whose favorite animal was a seashell fall flat, when almost everything Kamron said was funny and made everyone laugh. He’s always so funny, and he’s handsome and everyone likes to watch him and be around him, including me, and I don’t have any talents at all.” She says her prayers and prays for talents. I remind her of her artwork and she brightens jumps up and says what should I draw? With Logan’s joke still in my head I say “a frog.” In no time she has a beautiful frog drawn on her page. She smiles, and then frowns, “but that talent isn’t on a stage and nobody is watching me and clapping. I want people to watch me and clap.” We talk more and I hug her and tuck her in. Kamron is in the bath, so I go to my room. Pretty soon he knocks. He doesn’t have much to say just a little more about Twilight Camp-he did CPR again today, and lots of archery, and well, good night. He’s not too old for a hug and then he goes off to bed. It is 10:30 and I stop to think and it occurs to me, I am that lady. I am Mom. This means little to some people but when I say Mom, I mean like my mom. The lady who sat for hours listening to my questions and concerns, stories and joys-feeling them, sharing them and making me feel all was right with the world. When I think of my mom, it seems almost sacrilegious to say that I am Mom, and, yet, I can look through the eyes of my children and I can see it. To them I am that lady. I am Mom.

Nature and Habit

Truth be told, I am a rather lazy person, or at least I have a very strong natural inclination to be so. Many days I just want to sit and surf the internet, or sleep-or lay there if I can’t sleep. I often can not fall asleep at night, and falling back to sleep is a nightmare, if I am ever woken, and lets face it- how many young mothers are not woken up at night? So, I want to use this as my excuse, while knowing that being lazy exasperates my insomnia. Yet, even while I desire to be lazy, I love productivity. I love to make lists and get things done. I just have an inner struggle daily making myself get started or keep going. Charlotte Mason said that habit is ten times as strong as nature. And there is the key. I must build within myself contrary habits to my laziness.

I have been home with my children for a month. There were things I immediately began to address-new habits I desired to establish, because I felt I must. And there is another of Miss Mason’s gems of wisdom.

“The sense of must should be present with children; our mistake is to act in such a way that they, only, seem to be law-compelled while their elders do as they please. The parent or teacher who is pestered for 'leave' to do this or that, contrary to the discipline of the house or school, has only himself to thank; he has posed as a person in authority, not under authority, and therefore free to allow the breach of rules whose only raison d'être is that they minister to the well-being of the children. Two conditions are necessary to secure all proper docility and obedience and, given these two, there is seldom a conflict of wills between teacher and pupils. The conditions are,––the teacher, or other head may not be arbitrary but must act so evidently as one under authority that the children, quick to discern, see that he too must do the things he ought; and therefore that regulations are not made for his convenience. (I am assuming that everyone entrusted with the bringing up of children recognizes the supreme Authority to Whom we are subject; without this recognition I do not see how it is possible to establish the nice relation which should exist between teacher and taught.)” Volume 6, page 73.

And I do feel I am under authority. I must not let my children be quarrelsome, I must regularly instruct them in the scriptures, and I must provide wholesome foods to nourish their growing bodies. These are the three things which I have been endeavoring to work towards this month. Only in the second has habit won out over my nature already, probably, because that is where I feel the must most keenly. The other two are improving, but I still feel as if I have to concentrate and force myself to redirect the quarrelsome pair, and even more so, to plan and prepare large and varied, wholesome food. If I can be more diligent in these two things over the next month, I am confident habit will win out. And, to paraphrase Charlotte Mason, when habit has won over nature I will have secured easier days, at least in these things.

Montessori Language Cards

When I was student teaching the resource room was throwing out a bunch of curriculum and supplies. I saved a box of English Language Learner(ELL) cards. It has photographs on both sides and the word in english on one side. When I brought them home I didn't know what I would do with them, but I figured I would do something. Then I started thinking about the Montessori Language Cards. These would be perfect! My 5-year-old is studying insects and flowers, so I took out the insect and plant pictures, printed up labels, and then introduced him to the cards. He read the word and matched it to the picture. This was perfect for his level, but to make it harder later I will let him have all of the words and give him one picture at a time to match to the words. I may then print up spanish labels and then have the children label the objects in spanish, though it would not have the control of the english word that can be checked on the back, and would then be a paired activity rather than an independent one. Unless, I taped the spanish word to the back, too. Oh, and what if I give him loose letters to spell the words with and then he could turn over the card to check if he spelled them correctly. Hmm, I'm seeing possibilities here.

Pregnant?

So I'm making baby clothes and am queesy-I must be pregnant, right? As a matter of fact, yes. I am about eight weeks along. Of course, I don't know if it a boy or girl, but I already have boys clothes and I have no girls clothes, plus girls clothes are just funner to make than boys, hence the girl stuff.

Melissa's Ramblings: Attitudes Toward Homeschooling

Melissa's Ramblings: Attitudes Toward Homeschooling

Multiplication Art Book

We finished our multiplication/skip counting books today. I did these with my oldest three children and my nephew and niece. The children bent a number line in a circle and then counted by multiples, drew either straight or curved lines to the number in the units place and then colored the resulting pattern with various mediums. They did ten pages and were required to use at least seven different art mediums. The three older children then wrote the accompanying multiplication problems, while the younger two wrote their skip counting numbers. The children were able to see various patterns and also how the skips of one number relate to another. Below are some that I liked from each of the kids collections.
Multiples of one in tempera paint.
Multiples of two in marker.
Multiples of three in colorix, which is a beeswax medium.
Multiples of four in crayon.
Another multiple of four in colored pencil.
Multiples of five in watercolor paintbrush pens. It is interesting that most of my nieces colorings were done in complementary colors. I don't think she even realized this.
I didn't end up with a six, but it comes out to be the same pattern as the four.
Multiples of seven in watercolored pencils, but not blended.
Multiples of eight in colored pencils.
Multiples of eight in broad pen.
Multiples of nine in chalk.
Multiples of ten in colored pencil.

Creating

As a daughter of God I have a desire to create. Even with little ones hugging and kissing and climbing all over me. As a daughter of my mother I saw how it was done. My mom was always making something. She had a sewing room that she worked in, a place perfectly organized to make her many projects and that also had spots for her children to come in and talk to her as she worked. I can also remember her sitting on our fuzzy brown couch with patterns of brown twigs and other things all over it with her feet pulled up to one side or resting on our very ugly brown foot stool. She had a light next to her and a bag of supplies and as we watched movies she would be making something out of plastic canvas, cross stitch, embroidery, crochet or knit.

I have enjoyed taking advantage of the little moments. I am blessed with a little boy who needs someone to listen to him read and to generally be near as he works which is a perfect time for handwork. I have also been queasy this last week and been doing a lot of sitting, so it has been the perfect opportunity to crochet. I have finished a little jacket, and am nearly done with a dress. I’ll post a picture of the latter when I have it done.

Wire Sculpting

My kids love to make things out of pipe cleaners, and have become quite adept at it. My son has an entire sweater box under his bed filled with all of his pipe cleaner creations-people, dragons, animals, the Cinderella characters etc. I thought it was time for them to take it to another level, so this week we began a study of wire sculpting. Kamron immediately began creating people, dragons, etc. out of wire, but I did get him to create a leaf for me today. Aubrey's scupltures are much more abstract. We're slowly going to broaden the scope of wire sculpture creation. Tomorrow we will do a project where we wrap an object in yarn, sketch just the yarn and then attempt to recreate it in wire. We'll see how that goes, but for today here are some of our creations. If you are interested in seeing any professional sculptures here is a neat page, http://www.wirelady.com/.




Logan and Seth wanted a picture of their tower too. Yes, Logan dresses himself-no I don't let him go out in public like that... most of the time.

Changes

One phase is ending. I finished student teaching today: we move into a short term rental tomorrow. Another phase is beginning. I will begin training as an Educational Specialist to help others home school. I will be finding us a long term home, and most important of all I will be home with my children. I have missed them so much over the past nine weeks. I have my work cut out for me, though. They need some retraining, a lot more time away from the TV and involved with the family. A lot of their babysitters have used the TV as a helper and I am so glad that with this move we won't even have one in the house. I can't believe the phrases and attitudes they have picked up over the last nine weeks. After moving my first step will be to add back gentle rythms to our days. A half hour devotion time with the older children in the morning, a little bit of family study and cleaning, some quiet time after lunch, games after dinner and scriptures before bed. I'm hoping that this gentle schedule will heal some issues with the children and in our family. I pray for God's blessing on our summer phase.

I Got the Position

As most of you know I have been working on getting my teaching credential for the last three years with the hope of getting hired by South Sutter as an ES. I had my interview Thursday and they offered me the position yesterday. Some of you have expressed interest in having me as your ES next year, and I am so excited to be able to do this. I love home schooling, love to talk about it, give ideas and get them. I am aware there are many ways of teaching the same thing and so hope to be able to offer alternative ideas if you get stuck. I am adept at taking life experiences and turning them into the “educationalise” required by the state. I also realize that sometimes this can get hard, after all, next weekend will be our third move in less than a year, I have been attending full time school, working full time, and juggling home schooling three different ages of students while have their younger siblings in tow. Of course, this has not been our best year, but some years aren’t. So if you hit a rough patch I hope to be able to encourage you to keep going. I feel strongly that the benefits of home schooling are worth the effort it takes. I also feel that the goals for your child’s education should not be designed by the state, but by the parents, the child and God. I love the individuality that comes when we can look at a particular child, pray and then say, for this semester this child really needs to learn to use poetry as an expressive outlet for her emotions, or he needs to learn to lead some time of group or she needs to learn to care for a younger child. Then we are free to find the best resources and methods to achieve these goals, and this is where I hope I may be of service to those who need it.
So for those who would like to go through South Sutter to home school and want me as their ES, I have 15 spaces available. If you are signing up for the first time, go to http://www.sscs.cc/ and click on the application form under the How To Enroll tab. On page 2 under the optional information section, it says requested ES. That is where you put Melissa Calapp=). If you are in the school already and wish to switch ES’s you can go to the Parent information tab, click on parent forms and then parent requests for change of ES. If love your current ES, don’t switch though, because it is awesome when you find one that you can click with. The school has said they will only assign me students who specifically request me for the next six weeks, after that they will begin filling in my spaces with other students.
I am so excited for next school year. If I can help in anyway prior, don’t hesitate to drop me a line.

Nanny Throws a Birthday Party

Tomorrow is Aubrey's birthday and Savannah's was a couple of days ago, so their grandma wanted to have a party for them at Girlfriendz. I thought this was more of a princess and tea party place, but it ended up being geared towards popular music, etc. They got to pick out outfits and then have their hair, makeup and nails done.

Here's Jenna getting her hair done.
Aubrey's hair is so thick it took the lady forever. She eventually just braided and wrapped the rest.
Aubrey preforms a solo, but since we don't listen to any of the music they had there she didn't know any of it, but she still had fun.
All of the girls pose.
Aubrey and her friend Heidi.
My dramatic daughter.

After they changed again, they got cute cupcakes and blew out candles.