Crochet pattern

Since I've had so much time to rest with this pregnancy, I found that crocheting was the perfect way to not feel like such a bump on a log. These hats turned out pretty good, my oldest daughter even made one. It was pretty fun!!

Here's the link!

A great website for young Mormon pianists

I just found this website looking for a simplified version of Once Within a Lowly Stable for my daughter to play on the piano, and wow, they have a lot of the Primary songs in a simplified version ready to download pdf style as well as some original music and other stuff. Just thought I'd share!!

http://www.smurthwaitesong.com/index.php

Make your own lalundry detergent

We had been using products from this website Cal Ben soap products which I do like, but we ran out of laundry soap so I just started using Arm and Hammer and then Sun. Meanwhile, my skin was so itchy and I had a bit of a rash on my back, I thought it was hormones, but then my lower arms started itching too when I wore a long sleeve top and I started to notice that some of my kids were itchy too, so I realized it must have been the detergent. So I did a little research and found this great site on making your own and it is cheap and easy. So far, so good for us. I feel a lot better and my skin is healing although I still itch sometimes.

Here's the site I used from tip nut, but it looked like most the recipes are pretty similar.

This is what I did:

I bought a bar of Fels-Naptha soap and washing soda from Arm and Hammer both found in the detergent aisle.

I grated half of the bar of soap and boiled it in water until it dissolved, then I poured that mixture along with 1/2 c. of the washing soda into a cleaned out honey bucket and added a few drops of tea tree oil and a gallon of hot tap water. I mixed it all together and started using it!! It geled and it was kind of fun. The kids grated the soap and thought it was pretty fun. I'm going to try Ivory soap next time. Pretty cool!!

Lots of time and work Learning Good Stuff-- Our Schedule

Wow!! Now that my kids are "older", we have really been working hard. Homeschooling is a lot more time and work than I anticipated, but I still enjoy it, and I think it will be worth all the hard work. I made up a chart for each kid, so they know exactly what they are supposed to do each day, and they can check it off as they do it each day. When I added up the time I estimated each subject to take, it came out to about 5 hours a day for the 10 and now 9 yr olds, 4 days a week and that didn't include the enrichment of story-time or singing time or art. I limited the 10 yr old to 2 hours a day of math so that she would have time to work on other subjects. She is doing better, and understands the concepts, but we are now working on speed and accuracy. I hope she can move on to 4B soon. Her 9 yr.old sister is just about done with 4A and will probably pass the test and move on to 4B in a couple weeks. That is a little frustrating to the older sister, but that's just how it goes. Maybe the younger one will be able to explain things to the older one or at least motivate her to really focus and concentrate. It doesn't come easy to her, but she still has to and can learn it. It will take a lot more practice for her than it will for the other children.

The great thing now is that the girls are getting up, cleaning their room, getting dressed and ready for the day and starting their schoolwork on their own around 9 a.m. It is so nice!! They are able to do so much on their own and are really learning and doing well. They are realizing that starting earlier means finishing earlier, and I think they are leaning to appreciate the fun of working hard and succeeding at difficult tasks. I am really quite proud of them. They are actually growing up.

The little boys are easy to teach now that I've been through the girls and found the best curricula for everything. They also love computer games and when they finish their schoolwork and their chores, they get 15 min. each on the computer. That has been awesome motivation for them finish and learn. I'm really proud of them too. They are finally getting those simple addition and subtraction facts down and are understanding the concepts. My reluctant reader who is now 7 is really close to reading the Treehouse books on his own.

So the schedule that seems to work best at this point is for me to get up around 6-6:30 a.m., make breakfast, exercise and get ready for the day. Have the kids start their chores, eat breakfast and get ready for the day around 8 a.m. The girls can then get started on their schoolwork with the stuff they don't need me to help them with around 9 a.m. Depending on what kind of house stuff I need to do and what kind of mood the little ones are in, I can read little kid books to the little kids at 9 or let them play a little. I then help them get all their work done by 11-11:30 and they can all take a break and go play outside for a bit. Then we can eat lunch, clean up and have singing time and story time which includes scripture and poem recitations, Spanish practice, Science and some history as well as learning new songs and reading interesting stories mostly from Yesterday's Classics.

After that the younger kids are pretty much free to do anything constructive or fun while I help the older kids with Spelling, Greek, Science and Math. It is fluid from day to day, but that is the goal. We try hard to be done by 5, but with activities scheduled during the week, we usually have to finish up in the evening. I try to leave the required reading and instrument practice for the evening and have them do those last. For a couple weeks, I wondered if I was pushing them too hard. But we seem to get done a little earlier each week as they get better at focusing and realizing that they have to finish even if it's late. So I think it is paying off.

I am finding that consistency is very important. We seem to be making great progress because we have been consistent. Doing a little bit each day seems to be better than cramming a bunch of info in a short period of time. It has been very rewarding to see my children work hard and grow and learn so much. Not that I am never frustrated and wonder how many times I will have to explain estimating and rounding. But overall, I'm feeling good about our academic homeschool. There is always room for improvement, but I think we are on the right track. Here is the chart for the oldest. The numbers are the estimated time for each activity, mostly 4 days per week. We are now doing spelling each day and the emphasis is more on goals accomplished rather than time spent. The time spent thing doesn't work well for us, because I have some kids who are masters at sitting at their desk and accomplishing nothing, but it is helpful for them to know about how much time each subject should take.

(Sorry the chart isn't more legible, but I don't want to take the time to fix it. You can still get the idea!!)

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
Clean room
Get Dressed
Eat
Brush teeth
15 min. Clean
Scripture 10 10 10 10
Journal 10 10 10 10
Grammar Practice 5 5
Word Study 5 5
Sentences 5 5
Spelling 15 15 test
Poem 10 10 10 10
History Report 30
Composition 30
Book Report 30
Math 120 120 120 120 120
Science 15 15 15 15
Greek 5 sec. 20 20 20 20
Spanish 10 10 10 10
Music 15
Drawing 60
Piano 30 30 30 Lesson 30 30
Violin Lesson 20 20 20 20 20
Required Reading 30 30 30 30
History Reading 15 15 15 15

What to do with Halloween Candy?

We have a bucket where the kids can put candy and treats throughout the year and when it's full, we leave it outside for the "Toothless Fairy" who takes the candy and leaves books, toys or movies in its place. We usually let the kids have one small piece of whatever they got and put the rest in the bucket. That way we don't have to make anyone feel bad for giving us candy, we just say thank- you and then put it in the bucket when we get home. We always leave the bucket out on Halloween and this year the fairy left a coupon to go to the skating rink and to the children's museum. I felt guilty throwing the candy away because there were some whole candy bars in there, but I think I will donate it to the food bank or a Christmas stocking project this year. I know some people who can't have any candy at all will have their own party or go out to dinner or to a movie to avoid the whole trick or treat thing. Around here it is a neighborhood thing and lots of people wanted us to be sure to come to their house, and it is fun for the kids, so I'm glad to have a plan of goodwill for the candy. Some houses gave out toys or pretzels instead of candy. I think most parents don't like all the candy. It's just too much for anybody especially our little kids. There also seem to be more and more diabetics and allergies and autism, that maybe eventually the candy will be replaced by something healthier!! Maybe it is wishful thinking!!!

Mosiah 3:19

We just finished memorizing and using this scripture for copy work. It is a pretty deep scripture and longer than most of the ones we've done in the past, so I let the younger boys just trace half of it each day instead of the whole thing, that made it a little more doable for them. The older girls pretty much have it memorized, the boys don't really, but at least it is familiar to them now and maybe they will understand it as they mature. They do like the part about how we need to be like a little child. Here's a link to the whole chapter online and here it is:

19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

Terrible side effect from the flu shot

This is really really sad. A Washington Redskins cheerleader had a sever reacction to the flu shot and now has some strange neurological disorder. I think I'll risk being sick for a week rather than play Russian roulette with some vaccine. Very,very sad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4MIm1mB7GM