Quote of the Day

My good friend Julie told me

"You seem to be enjoying this baby so much."

I would have to agree. I had always hoped without the stresses of parenthood, I'd have the grace to enjoy -- get a tremendous, sunshining joy, from my grandchildren. The stresses of being a good parent are heavy on me, such that I tend to wear the stress around like chain mail. Things really are a little lighter with this baby. I don't love him more, I'm just older and open to the graces that God has for me. I'm having more fun this time.

First Food - Icecream

Dave just couldn't help himself. Each of the other children's first food was always icecream. It's a family tradition. I've been mulling over starting the baby on solids. The recommendation now is not until 6mo. old, but when Dd#1 was a baby, they said 4mo. Dd#1 wasn't interested until she was 10mo. old and Ds#4 would have been thrilled at 4 mo. So, it really depends on the baby. I was not going to give this baby icecream, however. This is the kid that has kept me from milk for the last 6 weeks! He even broke out when I tried to sneak and drink reconstituted powdered milk! But...Dave is his dad, so he gets to do things I'd rather he not. The baby survived (and of course LOVED chocolate icecream -- at least it was Breyers!)

Classical Homeschooling

I have a friend (Hi, Kerri!) who asks me at least once a year to explain what my understanding of the "Classical" method of homeschooling is. I've written posts about it and we've talked on the phone.

This "Lost Tools" Chart from Logos school (click on "PDF Sample") gives one of the best synopsis I've seen for the stages of children and what this means for teaching them.

Another corollary to the Classical Method is the thread that weaves through the subjects in your school to tie everything together. Some classical schools are Latin based. Some schools are literature or science based.

Our school is history focused, so when we study the ancients in history, we study biology for the year (because that's what they would have studiied). So our science is driven by our history study. We also do much of our writing, vocabulary, dictionary skills, literature & religion studies to go alongside what we're studiing in history. Our math & grammar are about the only subjects we study independent of history. This can be done with whatever thread is important to your school.

Any questions???

Quote of the Day

Ds#4

Mama? How did you learn to speak dog language and baby language?

I had to have him repeat the question. It took me a few minutes to figure out why he thought I could speak dog. It's because I'll ask him , "Have you fed the dog, like I asked?" He'll have to say, "No, how did you know?" The dog will have been following me around for the previous 10 minutes and just sitting looking at me when I stop moving, "Because Maggie told me she's hungry."

So...apparently I speak dog and baby! Wow! I'm an impressive mom!

Seeds & Fertilizer

I took Dd#2 to get her hair cut this morning while I got mine cut. We stopped and got a hot chocolate, coffee, and split a sweet roll. I thought this would be a lovely mother-daughter time for us. Dd#2 didn't like the hair cut she got and had to clean her room when we got home (which happens every Saturday) and she threw a royal temper tantrum. She was screaming about how mad she was at me : mad that I let her get her hair cut, mad that she hadn't gotten to see her neighbor friend for the 2 weeks she's been sick, mad that her room was so messy. I laughed at her because I didn't think any of that was really my fault and I thought she was being silly to cry and scream about any one of those silly things. Then she was really mad at me for laughing.

Later, as I was talking to my good friend, Julie, and telling her how much I'd wanted to have a sweet morning with my sweet (or not so sweet at the moment) little girl, she told me that the memories I want to give Dd#2 really are planting seeds of sweet memories. Someday, she'll cherish these moments and feel loved. The rest of her behavior is just fertilizer for the seeds. I sure hope so -- it smelled like fertilizer to the sweet morning I had planned.

Baby loves books

Ds#4 discovered that the baby is ready to be read to. I don't usually read to my babies the way people recommend -- I'm usually just walking around in a daze with spit-up all over me trying to decide if it's worth it to change my clothes for the 3rd time that day. When we were all laying around sick, though, it was really hard for Ds#4 to leave the baby alone -- so he was coming up with ideas to get to spend time with his brother. This one was a hit and the baby really liked it!

On The Mend

This has been an exhausting, concerning and expensive illness these last few weeks. We had Influenza A and a few kids had Strep Throat along with it. Dave and I being so sick and having all 5 kids down at the same time -- whew! Now that everyone is better I feel like I just ran a marathon -- exhausted but exhilerated that we're through the worst of this! I hear this has quite a long recovery, so we'll be easing into regular life.