Beeswax

I got beeswax awhile ago and tried to use it but found it tricky so I set it aside. Then recently I needed a duck for a story and did not have one so I thought of the wax. My hands bother me sometimes so I was reluctant to try to mold the hard wax, but to my delight as I got going with it it became warm and pliable. Then as children do, my daughter wanted to make something. I think her projects turned out very well.














For a good video on creating with beeswax see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu0MYGZlr48 .

Montessori Work

Seth has been asking for "activities" lately. My Montessori materials are not all set up yet, but I have a few that he is able to use. Of course when he does them the other children want to also. It is interesting for me to start over again with these activites. Logan worked through them and Seth is only my second to start at the beginning. He has a hard time following them through to completion, but I get to see that focused attention peek out every once in awhile. When he spills beans for his pouring activiy he immediately stops to pick them up. I find the order within the Montessori activities is very enjoyable and calming even for me as I teach them. Now I just need to get everything organized for the rest of them.

End of Summer Adventures

We went to Fairy Tale town with my sister and mother-in-law. Then for Brennen's birthday he wanted to go to the zoo. He said it was the greatest birthday ever. It was a lot less work than having the 13 boys over to have a nerf gun war for Kamron's birthday, but they also had a blast. Kamron was so excited to have so many of his friends together at one time.

Mother's Are the Heart of the Home

I know that my position in the home is powerful-I know I am the heart of the home, and sometimes I feel like since this is so my home must be on its deathbed. We are having an unorganizational heart attack currently and I am grumpy, which makes for unhappy children and husband. I wish I could say it was a mild unhappiness, but it is not-I have seen my kids look a little insecure, which is the absolute opposite of what a home should be. But I am going to repent and get organized and learn to pick up my own stuff so that my kids can at least visualize what it is and my section, which is an awfully large part of it, will be clean.

Today I am caught up with all of my work, work and have no appointments until Wednesday. Tonight I am going to fold the mountain of laundry and clean, and tomorrow I am going to create a memory with my children with a nature walk and outside game, making yarn dolls and a mathematical puppet show, because that is the subject that needs the most spark right now. Did I mention that I just had my kids tested? The three older are all above grade level in reading and language arts, two are not doing so hot in math, so we are going to declare Tuesdays math days and pull in puppet and chalk stories, Montessori manipulatives and good old fashioned drill to see if we can get them to understand numbers more intuitively, so that when asked what 2.3 and a half are they would never choose 24, because it simply doesn't make sense.

After all that study, I am going to organize something-not sure what yet. It all needs done, except the kitchen, which was done last week. And while I am doing all of it, I am going to pray and repent and pull those rhythms in to create that structure and security that is non-negotiable for our family to function.

Philosophy of Education

I travel and work with families who homeschool. One mother asked me what philosophy I follow. Umm, well I pull a lot of my book choices-what I read to the kids, and what I offer them for their own reading-and ideas from Charlotte Mason inspired programs. At one point I was pretty close to a purist with this method. My younger children do a lot of Montessori type things, and some Waldorf. Our handwork is often very Waldorf inspired. Aubrey,10, and Brennen, 7, are going to a Waldorf school one day a week for handwork, wet-on-wet watercolor, spanish and eurythmy and Kamron, 12, is going to a TJed Lemi trained co-op one day a week for Key of Liberty and Shakespeare, very excitedly and all of his own accord I might add-just how the TJed philosophy says he should. So what philosophy do we use? We use what fulfills my goals and my children's goals. I find that many of the philosophies overlap and so I use parts of several of them. For instance, you will find that handwork is a key part of Charlotte Mason, Waldorf and even Montessori. CM and Montessori ask that this work be practical and teach real skills. Waldorf asks that this work fill the need of mastering something difficult and be beautiful and natural. All ask that the hand be trained. The ideas dovetail and work well together. All three teach the skill of attention-just in different ways. They each respect the child as an individual, in what they take from what is offered, so does TJed. Perhaps, this is the philosophy I follow-one of respecting individuality, but with very high expectations. I like to know about all philosophies and help my little ones take whichever parts will best meet their needs.

Wool Birds

Kamron went to an LDS homeschool youth conference last week. I didn't want to do any lessons in our regular schedule, so he wouldn't miss anything. I thought a poem and fairy tale might be fun for the younger ones as our group lesson. With this we made birds out of wool and then flew them outside. Then the children created a puppet show and told me the story.

Calvert Art Class

We are really enjoying Calvert's video based art class this year. I like that everything needed is included in the kit. We try to watch and then do a lesson about once a week. We have studied about contour lines and inner lines. We have drown blind self-portraits, line drawings and etchings with ink. This is a really good program for a mixed age group.

Wool Painting

I am trying a wool painting. Here is where I am so far-

Starting Over With History

We finished modern history last year and so we are beginning the history cycle over again this year. We are using "Story of the World" and "Children's History of the World" and will pull in "Our Island Story" later for the younger set. The older children and I are reading "The First Two Thousand Years," by Cleon Skousen. These are our spines and then the studies will be fleshed out with atlases, topic specific books, Veritas Press cards, www.discoveryeducation.com videoes, timeline and activities. One of our first activities this year was an archeology dig to answer the question what is one way we learn about ancient civilizations and what can we learn. All the kids had fun with this, even Seth who had no idea why we were scraping a clay block on our table=).

Computer Studies

Let the dismantling begin.

When not riding horses, little Millie finds her big brothers' many cars to suck on.










Sometimes this makes her quite sad, after all she is a girl and she is sure that there must be something a little softer to play with.














So her mom uses this pattern http://s93855831.onlinehome.us/knotteddollinstructions.html to sew a little doll.














The next project is a little larger.

Aubrey's Recital

Aubrey took tap and ballet this last year. Loved it and hated it depending on the day, what the other kids said to her and how often she was corrected by Miss Nancy. It was a good experience for her, but I do not think we will be doing it again.

Photo of new house

I have been cutting roses twice a week since we moved in.
























And here is a photo if the new house.

New Life for an Old Desk

I inherited my Mom's antique sewing desk. It is built to hold the machine in the whole so the material can be level with the desk when one works. I liked this desk mostly because it was hers. My husband was frustrated with moving it yet again knowing that I rarely sew.






As you can tell it needed work. So I decided to attempt my first furniture redo.










I emptied it and found this cute pattern stuck behind a drawer.











It was my mom's. I love that there is a story to tell there. I also found a scrap of paper in the desk with her signature on it that I will be putting back into it.















Isn't it pretty now.
I sanded, primed and painted twice. I intended to get new handles for it, because after I polished the originals they came out such a shiny brass which I really did not like. Apparently the size of these handles is very rare, none of the local stores carried them and the ones I could find online were ridiculously priced, so I got satin nickel spray paint and went to work. I like them quite well.

The list grows.. and stuff

If you came to visit and pressed this button last week,
We would have heard one short ding
If you came on Tuesday and pressed ever so lightly
We would have heard an insistent nonstop ring
Today you will find it has been disconnected,
so if you do not knock you may wait on our porch for quit some time undetected.



If you see this notice on a door, you have found our house. Inside you will see this notice-


"A home for everything and everything in its home. We have found ours, our stuff has not.(It doesn’t seem to be looking very hard either, you’d think it was on summer vacation)."

Okay, not really, but it should be there.

Moving is harder on me than it used to be. My husband finds it amusing though, in fact he was doubled over with laughter last night. Why you ask? Well, I turned off the light and ran straight into the wall, fully into it... with a thud. You see, the walls, they are not in the right places. It didn't hurt as much as falling down the stairs, which I did in the daylight. Just call me Grace.

Speaking of summer vacation, we were just talking about that right?, my kids have never had one before. Nope, never. We've always just schooled year round. Not this year. They are in their third week of it. Aubrey and Brennen have learned to love reading for pleasure, both read five books yesterday, but today... Aubrey says, "Mom, my doll is on her horse see."
"Very nice."
"Can I have a banana split?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because you don't like bananas."
Pause... "can I feed Mila mushed bananas?"
"Why?"
"Because, I'm bored."

Welcome to summer vacation. Hope yours is going great, and that your kids get to experience boredom, at least once.

New House

If my camera was working I would post a picture of a beat up duplex, and then one of a two story, three car garage with a large pine tree out front, a walk and rose bushes and simply say, "Yea!"

Since my camera is not working you will just have to imagine it.