How do you handle the logistics of a classical education with a large family?

Specifically, this question was addressed with The Well Trained Mind in mind (sorry about the bad alliteration.) Classical Homeschooling may look different in your family during different years and from family to family. Here's some of our version.

I've got 5 children who are presently 13, 11, 9, 7 and 1 1/2.

Things they work on their own :

• Math (Math-U-See and they mostly work on their own)
• Grammar (CHC or Seton Catholic workbooks)
• Spelling (Natural Speller)
• Memory work
• Religion text

Things I pair them up on :

• Prayer memorization
• Latin (2 kids work together on a level)

Things they all work together on :
History*
Science*
Religion discussions
History discussions
History projects

When asking around and trying to implement academic excellence (remember: I said "trying") having a toddler running around dumping the dog's water into the dog's food and all over the floor or/and a baby crying to nurse...it seems incredibly difficult if not impossible. Here's my tip : It seems incredibly difficult because IT IS!! You may look back on this year of toddlerhood or infancy as one of the most challenging (please read - this is *hard*) particularly with several other kids to teach, a house to keep clean, errands, gym class...etc. That doesn't mean you can't get through it. Really, your kids may even learn more than you expected! Hard is not the same as impossible. Hard means life is really sucky right now and you have a lot of suffering to offer Jesus. Hard means He carries you through. Hard means you need carried through.

Back to logistics -

• Every kid takes a turn at "Baby Duty." Some of the younger kids can only handle 15 minutes at a time, but everyone has a turn at my attention (which they may have to stand in line and wait patiently for) and everyone has a chance at doing their seat work and everyone takes a turn on "baby duty." It's like a law at our house.
• I made the preschoolers montessori materials to work with (so they're in the same room as we are) and the toddlers have toys that are just for school time. Here are more toddler tips.
• As soon as a kid can read, he's reading out loud from a book that's on his level, but that we're all on the same topic about - religion, history, science.
• *The big kids read books and have papers due on their own level, but in the same topic we're all covering together. Some of the big kids' books are read aloud (by the big kid to a little kid) -- that's one of the GREAT benefits of living books : The reading level a kid can comprehend being read to is higher than his actual reading level -- so he can enjoy some of the big kids' books.
• *I have one book I'm reading aloud to the majority (if not all) the kids at all times in one topic or another. This is in addition to the books the kids may read to each other. 20 minutes a day gets us further along than we were before. Read aloud time is not always pretty. Some kids need to wiggle quietly, some can draw and others need consistently drawn back into the story with questions directed at them and OFTEN we just quit because I'm too frustrated at kids who can't be quiet or keep their bodies to themselves (boys!) but then we try again the next day.
• This is important : the biggest thing in a classical education is to try again the next day. And wake up and try again the next day. Day to day it can look like you're making very little real progress. A mom gets caught up in wiping noses and cleaning up messes and finding erasers and scrubbing peanut butter out of hair and...then at the end of the day you look at your lesson plans and realize "We didn't get to Latin AGAIN." or, "We forgot to chant our memory items." or even "We haven't hit chemistry in a MONTH." If you wake up the next morning and try again -- it will all come together. A classical education is about the years of learning building on one another rather than looking for accomplishment in the day to day. Don't give in to discouragement (or if you do, find encouragement FAST!)

I take a LOT of cues from TWTM, but I keep in mind what Susan Wise Bauer said in this article : Here is a great article

Quote of the Day

This quote is from me ... to me

This whole homeschooling thing is really interfering with my blog!

Quick 2009 update:

• We got a Wii for Christmas -- Dave's hooked and I spend alot of time sayingto the kids, "No, you're not done with ____, so you can't play the Wii."
• This was a miracle Christmas -- we made it through Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's Eve without anyone being sick!!! We were AMAZED! That's the first time since we've had kids that has happened.

(Pic below -- 13 month old baby petting the dog in front of our $12-after-Christmas-tree from last year)

• Baby still isn't sleeping through the night. He eats dinner before bed, but he HATES sitting in his high chair and doesn't have the patience to sit there long. We'll have a couple of good nights and then a couple of weeks of him wanting to nurse in the middle of the night. He's getting skinnier because he's walking and climbing and moving more -- which I knew to expect. I just can't bare the thought of denying him food if he's hungry.
• I'm much busier with kids and homeschooling now that we have a toddler. I'm still sort of shocked how busy I am with just everyday stuff! I really love it, but it feels like I hardly have 2 seconds to grab and think my own thoughts. That's not exactly true, but that's how it feels. Maybe that's why I couldn't sleep at 3:30am and got up -- I realized I could actually use my brain for my own purposes rather than answering the 1,002 questions during the day the kids and phone and e-mail and Dave throw at me.
• I've been fairly anxious about teaching highschool. It's not even that I'm afraid or anything, but -- when we're not getting as much school done as I think we should, now, let alone making things a little more challenging to get ready for highschool...it all seems a little overwhelming -- like I'll never get it all done. I know I'm not supposed to get it all done, I'm just supposed to give my best and let God worry about the outcome...

I'm better at stressing than I am trusting.

• I've been keeping the house cleaner, lately -- that's been quite an accomplishment and it's been no easy task!
• We're supposed to have Dd#1's 13 birthday football party today (we had to reschedule it from last week due to illness), but with the snow and the below zero windchill, I'm not sure if we'll have to reschedule again.
• Our computer is filled up (almost no memory left) so the 42 pictures I've taken over the last month and transferred to the computer and deleted from the camera...didn't get saved by my computer and were lost -- there was a horrible picture of Dave I was going to post on my blog, too -- now I'll have to find a different way to humiliate him.
• We've gotten a slow start back to school from Christmas. I was sick the week we should have been back, so we just did a few things here and there. I feel like we're not home enough to get intensive school done, but I also don't think I'm very efficient when we're home

1. please get the baby out of the toilet
2. I haven't gone to the grocery, so you can't have (fill in the blank)
3. When I said, "put away your coats" it means I shouldn't have to make you stop your reading to put away your boots and gloves, too
4. what do you mean you "lost" your math book -- you haven't taken it out of the house!
5. don't let the baby eat the dog food
6. don't sit in front of the space heater when you have a short sleved shirt on. put a sweatshirt on and if you're still cold, THEN you can sit in front of the space heater.
7. I know you have a sweatshirt in your drawer, I'll come look as soon as I finish reserving the library books for next week.
8. please don't tackle your brother while your sister is trying to read history to you
9. no, you can't make cookies right now, we just started school
10. you'll need to clean up all your school books off the floor because the baby scooched the chair up to your desk and climbed on it and tossed everything out of it
11. shhhhh you can't practice your trumpet while the baby is alseep
12. no I haven't graded your language arts, I'm nursing the baby and I can't manage the book and the baby
13. I don't know what we're having for lunch but it isn't raemen noodles

...none of that gets us any closer to getting school done!

However, at the end of the day when we're discussing a great book we all shared and laughing over the antics of the baby and congratulating one of the kids for their effort in overcoming long division and singing a song we made up and filling Daddy in on our shared day...it's been a wonderful day, afterall.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, BABY!!

He took one step the day of his birthday party, but noone saw it but me.

We went to his Godparent's house and they threw a Birthday Brunch for our beautiful boy!

He can say more, please, cookie & kiss in sign language (well, his version of it). With words, he can say nurse, more, bye, bath, Daddy, Sissy, Mama, Jesus and kiss and he says one of his sister's names.

He can blow a kiss and he said "Mama kiss Jesus" (because we have him kiss Jesus each time we walk by the crucifix).

When anyone sings or he hears music he dances by bouncing up and down and swaying his head back and forth.

Basically, he's the most adorable baby anyone could ever have -- and we're so in love with our wonderful gift from God!

Lunchtime snooze

Once the kids were settled into lunch, I ran to get Palin tickets. The girls had wanted to document lunch while I was gone, so I came to this picture on my computer. An exciting morning of homeschool is too much for a baby to be able to stay awake for lunchtime.

Just having "one of THOSE days"

All things being relative, today wasn't terrible. No one ended up in the hospital...nothing earth shattering happened. Just normal bad day stuff.

• The baby was up 4 times between 1am - 7am. (which meant I was, too)
• Dd#1 fell behind in school and continued to waste time. (not awful, just discouraging for me)
• I'm fasting from sweets during the 40days for life (and it's REALLY TOUGH!!) [and i'm feeling guilty that it's this hard]
• The baby was fussy and only wanted me (he was probably as tired as I was).
• It was my turn to teach science in the co-op (I do NOT like science).
• The baby cried when I tried to leave him with another mom at co-op so I could teach, so I had to try and teach while holding him (just a hassle).

and the icing on the cake was...

When the baby cried so much for the other mom as I took him in my arms he threw up all over he and I just as I was supposed to teach the co-op. I washed him up in the bathroom and took off his outfit. When I looked in my purse for another outfit for him, I realized I brought clothes to put in the diaper bag that morning in preparation for co-op...but they were still on the stairs, so he didn't have a change of clothes. I was soaked, too, so I had to take off my t-shirt and wear nothing but my button-up sweater to teach in.

It's only 4pm and I can hardly wait until I can go to bed so that tomorrow can be better. Just one of those days....

Bath Boy (pics)

" A frog in the mouth is worth two in the tub."

Splashing is so fun.

Time to let the water out! BRRRRR

Filling our day with hugs

I know I haven't been blogging much, lately. Our moments are filled with lots of school, trying to keep up on the house (failing, but making a valiant effort) and passing the baby back and forth while we try and get things done.

All the kids have commented on how SWEET it is to pick up the baby and have him hug you. I squeeze him everytime I pick him up, so he's taken to squeezing each person who holds him...it's soooo cooool!!

While I can hardly plan day to day and each day is so different, our days have been so much the same...filled with effort and baby hugs.

Dd#2 is the fabulous photographer of these treasures.

Baby's First Trip to the Zoo

Dave loves the zoo. I do not. We wanted to do something cheap with the kids this weekend and since we have a zoo pass and since I got out of going all last year due to the pregnancy...I needed to ante up and go. The baby did really well and it was a nice time. Maybe I'll go next time, too!

I love having pictures of my babies with the baby goats. I've got a picture of me when I was little with the goats, too...

Upward Mobility

THE BABY IS INTO EVERYTHING!!! This is enough to make a mama go maaaaddd! Pulling everything out of the way every moment he's awake! We have things with this baby we've never had with the other babies...

• Legos
• Marbles
• DOG FUR
• 4 kids cutting, sharpening pencils...
• I've even fished pieces of the dog's rubber bone out of his mouth!!
  

Homeschooling is definitely more challenging with an infant! I guess God figures I'm up for the challenge - who am I to say different?

Baby Milestones

The baby got his first 2 bottom teeth at 6mo (he started teething at 2mo.) and his top teeth are just popping through, now. We just recognized them. We had some biting issues with nursing last week, but we're doing better, now.
The baby started crawling FORWARD this weekend. He's still not great at it, but unfortunately he'll get better FAST. My other kids didn't start crawling until 10 months (Ds#5 is 7mo.)

Dd#2 was about to crawl at 8mo, but I fell down the steps while I carried her and broke her ankle, so she crawled at 10 mo, too. Here she is at 9mo. in her cast -- one of the sweetest, saddest most precious pictures of my heart.

More baby cereal pics

This is one HAPPY baby!!

Blogger slowdown

It's not just a blogger slowdown -- (I'm a blogger and I've slowed way down in how often I post), it's a whole life slowdown. Last week the baby had a relapse of his Influenza -- I've heard that if you have the least cold symptom left, you can get hit again with fever and sever cold symptoms. Well, he did. So, for the last 2 weeks he's been congested, struggling to swallow at times, etc. (Which means I'm getting less sleep and also contributes to not spending time on the computer). This week he's been particularly fussy. As of Easter morning I've added milk drinking back into my diet (and been LOVING it!). I guess I'll cut it out and see if that helps him calm down any. It's so hard to tell whether it's his teeth, or boredom as he becomes more aware of his surroundings, or my diet.... I honestly thought with my 5th baby I'd be better at this. I'm just less stressed about my own inadequacies, but it hasn't made them better.

4 month old baby

Several people have commented that they come to my blog to see pics of my baby. Here you go...

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!)

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!

First Giggle

As many of you know, we've had some horrible broncial & sinus infection this week. High fevers, a cough that rips out your throat. Dave feels like he has ribs broken from coughing and his chest being so tight. After his apendectomy 2 years ago we tease him about "crying like a little girl." He's been threatening to do that again after every sneeze & cough.

2 days ago the baby had his first fever 103.5F -- not a pretty thing. At 11:45pm I called the Dr. at home and woke him up to see what the dosage would be to get his fever down. (THAT'S a wonderful doctor!)

Yesterday, he'd felt so bad that he'd cry himself to sleep in my arms hour after hour. Then, after 20 hours of piggybacking ibuprophen & tylenol which kept the fever down, the baby's fever finally completely BROKE. We were all very happy about that. Apparently, the baby was the happiest because while his daddy was playing with him we heard his first giggle (without any hiccups). It was so cute and such a welcome sound after all that crying.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us. It's been so difficult for me running a fever myself and trying to take care of the 5 kids and Dave and myself. Dave's still in terrible shape, but the kids have all started responding to the medicine as of this morning. I'm hoping they're all on the upswing, now.

Happy Baby

This is what has been taking up all my time. When I'm not feeding the baby, changing the baby, consoling the baby, or keeping the kids from waking up the baby, I'm trying to make him smile. When I'm not doing any of those things...I'm trying to keep the kids attention on their school and trying to stop them from making the baby smile. We're still waiting on the first giggle. Each time we think he's going to laugh, he gets the hiccups.

A blogger slow down

I've been getting a few comments about the fact that I'm not blogging as much. I'm typing one-handed at this moment.

So here's the highlights from this & last week:

• The kids are under Martial Law for not being diligent during school time (serious problem). It's much more work for me to have them on Martial Law - but it'll be worth it eventually.


• The baby's diapers have been changing and last week he went 6 days between poops. He doesn't appear uncomfortable with it - but it'd disconcerting.
  
• Nothing too exciting around here -- but I'm praying heartboken after reading this article about Romanian Orphans.
  
• We're studiing the time of the apostles this month and I found St. Peter with Omar Shariff at the video store - his acting was captivating. The dubbing was a litle distracting, but the kids didn't seem to notice at all.
  
• Another great Catholic kids book on the topic was The Man Who Never Died: The Life and Adventures of St. Peter, the First Pope

How can I keep from singing?

Reflection:

Along with slowing me down to point that I'm not moving...this baby has brought song back to my heart.

For the last 2 years or so I couldn't figure out why my kids walk around the house making constant noise. It took me several months of being annoyed to recognize that they're always singing. I knew some moms would find that a validating sign that life in our home is a happy one. It just really annoyed me that there's almost never any quiet. Even when I'm standing over them with a whip to make sure we're schooling in silence (writing project or something), they're tapping their pencils or break out in a whistle or some other noise. I wanted to squash the noise and make it all stop.

I realized today that I've been singing little songs to the baby constantly throughout the day. Is that why my kids walk around singing all the time? Did I sing to them as infants? I must have, because it seems the most natural thing to sing rather talk to this baby.

It does make me happier, to sing my frustration at the red-faced screaming child. It must be some form of grace that I'm not mentally aware of. The kids' noise still bothers me (plus I'm constantly yelling in a whisper "SHHHHH!!!! The BABY'S ASLEEP!!!"), but I understand how their hearts well up and overflow as music escapes from their mouths.