Baby Steps

Last night, Ivey took her very first steps! We started holding her hands and walking about a week ago. Everytime I asked her if she wanted to "walk" she would stand up and reach out to hold my hand... totally excited to practice her new skill. Yesterday, I let go of my hands and she took three whole steps from me to Jeff. Then, she took three more from the couch to me! I'm sure it won't be any time at all before she's running laps around the house. (Once she realizes she can hold things in both hands AND get from place to place, she's going to be so excited!) I don't have any good walking pictures, but I'll work on it!

(Asa laid there and let Ivey poke her fingers in his mouth until his gums bled. Now, that's love!)

Reading Time

Kudos to Mim for picking up the Scrabble version of Cheez-It's for us to use in school! We played lots of spelling games... and had snack! NExt time, I think I'll give Alphabets cereal a try!

I just had to take a picture of all three kids during school time today. When it was time for the boys to do their reading, Ivey grabbed her book and was reading, too! She really really loves books right now, and the Dora counting book is her absolute favorite. I put her down for naps with a few board books in her bed and she reads herself to sleep. When she wakes up, the books buy me a little extra time!

Applause!!!!

So, tonight Ivey learned a new trick. She learned to clap! Now, she is going around clapping to everyone with the biggest cutest "look at me and what I can do!" open mouth smile on her face. I just put her to bed and I guarantee she'll clap herself to sleep tonight! Yay, Ivey!!!!!

The Replacement Pets

A while back, we came across someone who was getting rid of two adorable chinchillas. I knew Asa would be in love with the idea of the adorable creatures, so I agreed to let them come and live with us. The problem? It only took two weeks for me to come to the realization that I am, indeed, allergic to chinchillas. Who knew? The boys took it very well (better than I would have, that's for sure!) and I promised them that we would get another pet. I was hoping for something low maintenance, something hypoallergenic, something easy.... turtles! Man, I have the best kids in the world. They jumped at the idea!

Now, we have a great little turtle habitat set up in their room. We had two goldfish, but after a very National Geographic quality attack, we are down to one. (We knew this would be the case hence the 13 cent goldfish!) It seems that the prices are jacked up on anything that has the word "pet" on it or is sold in a pet store. Turtles need some things... a heat lamp, a basking platform, UVB light... and these things can be crazy-expensive. Why? Because people pay. I, however, being the Queen of All that is Cheap, just couldn't do it. Instead, I went to Home Depot, bought a $7 mountable fluorescent light fixture and a $5 heat lamp fixture... went to WalMart and found a reptile heat lamp for 1/3 of what they cost at PetsMart, rigged up a shelf above the tank to mount the lights to... went back to Home Depot and found 4 suction cups with little hooks for under $1... and made the best Lego basking platform a turtle could ever dream of. The mounted lights actually work great since I don't have to worry about the boys needing to move them to feed the turtles and fish. It's all set up on a timer and everyone is happy! Now, when they grow we'll be hitting Craigslist for a larger aquarium, but that's a long way off.

Write Like an Egyptian

In history, we have been studying about the Egyptians and how they initially carved hieroglyphics in stone, the Mesopotamians and how they made clay tablets for carving cuneiform writings, and then how the Egyptians made papyrus paper out of reeds to write on. We compared the pros and cons of each and then made a couple to compare. We made paper from torn up scrap paper... and then made clay tablets, which are still drying. Needless to say, both projects were a huge hit. Asa and Addison both agree that the cuneiform alphabet is way harder to write use than our own!

Trouble with a capitol T and that rhymes with P and that stands for... Potty

Ivey is a mess. A MESS! When you flush the toilet, she flies as fast as her little hands and knees will carry her, hoping all the way that it will still be open when she gets there. If someone happens to leave the lid up, it takes about .2 seconds to realize it... the sounds of gleeful splashing fill the house. Vile. The only thing that comes close to the toilet is... toilet paper. Oh, what fun can be had if someone leaves the toilet paper a little too close to the edge of the counter!

Ivey pretty much spends her day moving from one cabinet to another, checking each for any vulnerability that she can exploit. The cabinets that hold the dangerous things are locked up, of course, but I actually leave a select few cabinets unlocked just because it keeps her entertained. We homeschool, she rumages the tupperware and cereal cabinets. Actually, the cereal cabinet extraveganza has recently come to an end after she has moved on from simply taking hte boxes out and now must reach in the boxes and rip out the bags in order to entertain herself. She went crawling through the house withher arm stuck in a box of Life cereal today, leaving a train of cinnamon crumbs in her wake. We now have cabinet locks on that one.

Camping Trip

A couple weekends ago, we headed to Lake Allatoona with Mim and Papa. This was our first camping trip with kids... and definitely the first with a baby in tow! One tiny little being requires a heck of a lot of equipment. Jeff had to go to Fayetteville the day before the trip, so I had to pack up for a 3 day 2 night camping trip for 5 and load up the van... solo. Well, solo would have been much easier. Instead, I did it with three kiddos. Truthfully, the boys ended up being a big help, as I my pregnant self couldn't pick up some of the bags and things. They worked together to haul the heavy items to the van for me. What gentleman.

We brought the Pack and Play and set it up in the tent with us. The boys had a small tent for themselves. At first, they were a little nervous to be sleeping in a tent without a grown up, but they were up gabbing all night long and up at 5:00am romping in the woods together, so I guess they got over any fears they may have had.

Mim and Papa's campsite was on one side of ours and Will, Lucas & Caleb's site was on the other. This made for a perfect situation for two boys. They hopped back and forth between the sites... hanging out with whomever had the most action and food. Needless to say, Will, Caleb & Lucas won hands down. They went fishing, gathered fire wood, and reveled in the glory of boyhood. One night, I after Ivey and I went to bed, Jeff went down to the lake to see what the boys and Will's boys were up to. They were doing some late night fishing... and ended up staying so late that both Asa and Addison fell fast asleep right there in their chairs.

Mim and Papa brought the boat, and the kids had a blast being pulled on the tube. Ivey enjoyed the boat, too... but it was more of a soothing sleeping aid to her! All in all, it was an extremely successful trip. The only issue was when Jeff was holding Ivey a little too close to the Coleman Lantern. She reached out and touched it... leading to screams of pain for the next couple hours. I was able to get her to hold ice for a while, but when she became bored with it I couldn't get her to hold it anymore. It broke my heart to see her hurting, but as soon as the Motrin kicked in she was perfectly fine. She slept through the night and for the next week we kept it wrapped up and covered with a sock to keep it clean. What a tough girl!

Making it fun

In reading/phonics, the boys have been learning their "blends". CH, SH, SM, SN, TH, WH... you get the idea. After a week and a half of studying about 10 of these blends, I gave them some letter cards and had them play a game. The boys each got some select cards with letters on them. I had them work on their own (with a divider so they couldn't see each other) to spell a word. I gave them each a metal bowl, turned upside down, and a spoon. This was their buzzer. It wasn't a race, but just making a noise on a bowl when you're done is enough to make a game totally fun. If they spelled the word right, then they won an M&M. As if the bowl noise wasn't enough... you get an M&M, too!

Yesterday was the first attempt at this game. They tried really hard, but had a difficult time spelling the words (that, shop, chat, etc). They can read these words very well, but to recall it and correctly create it was a whole different story. They did get a few, but it wasn't easy.

Today, after our phonics lesson and review, I decided to try again. Wow, what a difference a day makes! They both did fabulous! We even branched from 4 letter words to do a few 5 letter ones. It was really cool to see them be able to spell the words, but even cooler to see that they were having an awesome time doing so!

(And, yes. Asa decided to go to school today without a shirt. Ahhh... homeschool freedom.)

Why do homeschool families always have so many kids?

Well, I don't know the answer to this question, but I've asked it before. It seems that homeschool families put around in extra large vans full to the brim with their well behaved offspring. In my head I envision the mothers orchestrating individual lessons for her 5 kids while simultaneously pulling one of the planned and prepared dinners from the freezer that she made with her once-a-month-cooking-plan. Of course, each ingredient that she created these meals with were purchased using no less than 2 coupons, which were then doubled by the grocery store, leaving her with a minuscule grocery bill. Somehow, she managed to tote her 5 children to 3 different stores in order to get the deals necessary to feel her entire family of 7 for $150 a month. I know these people exist. I have no idea what planet they come from, but I wish I could visit there and get some pointers.

I do, however, understand how the ended up with such large families. It seems that the act of homeschooling, or even the act of deciding to homeschool, instantly makes you fertile. If I had only known this fact, I could have saved tens of thousands of dollars and a whole heck of a lot of time. It seems that such fertility can be increased further if the homeschooling mother decides to sell all of her unused baby items on Craigslist. Not only is this infertility treatment option affordable, it can actually be lucrative. In my case, I went through and cleaned out all of the boys' old clothes, swings, baby baths, unused toys, all of the clothing Ivey has outgrown... everything that I am not currectly using for Ivey. It sold like crazy. The little that I had left I put up on Ebay. There I was, sitting on a Saturday morning amongst boxes of paid-for-waiting-to-be-shipped packages of baby items when I found out that I was indeed going to need all of those things that I had just sold. Yes, we are having another baby!

I found out of Jeff's birthday, but decided not to say anything until the next day. I expected for the next morning's test to be lighter than that one was... as is typical for me. No need to stir him up for no reason. However, the next morning, I was staring at a very very dark line. I have stared at enough lines over the past 9 years to know what is really really positive and what is barely positive. This was blazing. Sure enough, my beta levels are nice and high, and rose with an excellent doubling time. At 6 weeks, we had our first ultrasound and saw a flickering heartbeat. Now, I am almost 10 weeks along!

So... I've been trucking through the first trimester exhaustion and queasiness while changing (and washing) poopy diapers and having all 3 kids home 24/7! So far, the medical concern is my ability to get in enough calories to continue to feed Ivey and grow a new little peanut... oh yeah, and support myself. Ivey will be a year old in October, so if I can just make it until she is on whole milk I plan to drop down to just a morning and a night feeding and taper off from there as needed. Then, when she's 17 months, I will have a newborn and will start all over again!

When we found out that we were having Ivey, it was a little sad to us that she would not have a buddy. The boys always had each other, and we love the fact that they can play and talk and learn together. Well, it seems that Ivey was supposed to have a buddy after all! Now, I just keep thinking of all the craziness that will come about from having a family of 6. We won't fit at a booth with a chair on the end... I have flatware for 8, which will only get us through 1 meal... we already go through almost 3 gallons of milk a week, so that will probably increase to 4 or maybe even 5... but think of all the fun and laughter and crazy Christmas mornings we will have!

Steppin' Out

Today was the first full blown day of school. We had reading, spelling, writing, math (the boys got to work on "number bond using M&M's... good call on my part!), and history. We will work violin tonight. I was so pleased that Asa and Addison are loving history. The Story Of The World is so well written. Today's lesson was "How Do We Know What Happened?". Instead of just explaining how civilizations leave behind artifacts for us to learn from, the book reads like a story of a family who lived in a village along the river. The mom dropped a pot, the dad's knife blade broke in the field, and the little boy was playing with a toy clay ox and cart. It told the story of how they had to move when their was a drought... and the things they left behind were covered with mud and dirt and then grass. It went on to tell a story of a man who found the grass field and discovered there was a village there long ago. I was floored at how well this way of teaching worked for them. They were fascinated! They drew pictures of things in the story and had a totally complete concept of archeology and how we learn about the past. Success!

After our lessons today, I took the boys and their friend, Ethan, to a home-school art class! Today we learned about Alexander Calder, an American sculptor. He used a lot of wire in his art and was the inventor of the mobile. The kids made wire fish... and it was a hit! It was a little tricky to twist the wire around, but with a little help, they were able to make it work. Here are the boys with their sculptures!

If I had a rule about too many tiny toy pieces, think of all the brain power that would be lost!

Here are a couple videos of Asa and his Lego creations from the last two days. The video quality is bad, but I think you can get the idea. In one, he used red yarn to connect his Lego motor to a windmill like contraption. Next, he managed to talk me out of two of my bobbins and some thread and hooked them up so that his motor will wind the thread from one to the other. I guess my current sewing project inspired him. After the bobbins he came down and asked me to cut a long strip of material and sew the ends together. So, I did. He took it upstairs, mounted it on a few fat tires and created a conveyor belt Lego launcher.

1st Grade, Here We Come!

We had a very successful first day of school! I started on Friday so that we could spend today learning the routine, getting our notebooks together, creating our History folders, practicing handwriting, getting our spelling word list, etc. The boys absolutely loved it! Addison said that he likes not having a big class so he doesn't have to "wait all the time"! I let each one go at their own pace, separately, and it worked very well.

They especially loved the chapter book that we started today. It's called "Stink!" and much to my surprise, it is full of really great hidden lessons. For example, today the boys learned what an "idiom" is, just because Stink explained the meaning to his sister. Excellent!

On Monday, we will really kick off in each subject. I need to go in the attic and find some new toys for Ivey to keep her occupied while we have class. Today she did very well at the beginning and then went down for a 2 hour nap. I think some new things to just bring out at school time will help keep her happy while she's awake. Luckily, she is a very good girl!

Let me just say that the personal whiteboards with 1st grade writing lines that I picked up at Target for $1 a piece was a great buy! We were able to practice writing our spelling words and do lots of handwriting practice without using tons of paper. I'm pleased!

(Yes, Addison is using a colored pencil in each hand. He needed brown and green to color his eyes!)

Teacher Work Night

I was up super late getting my plans in order for school to start! We are going to start on the 17th (actually, on the previous Friday to get the boys prepped). I am still working on lessons plans for History (waiting on one of the books), but I have all of the other subjects mapped out for first 3 weeks! I need a couple more nights in order to finish up and get all of my handouts all ready to go.

I fluctuate between being excited and being terrified for my sanity! We are going today to meet a homeschool group at Fort Yargo for swimming at the beach there. I've been part of their email group for a while now and I'm excited to go meet some of them face to face! We have a friend who is also homeschooling, so hopefully we will have plenty of activities and events to keep the kids (and me) engaged and social.

The plan for the year is:

(Daily)
Spelling - 1000 Words for Spelling Success
Creative Writing Journal
Reading/Phonics using the Hooked On Phonics 1st Grade Curriculum
Singapore Math 1A and 1B

(M/W/F)
History using a modified History Odyssey, which uses the Story of the World, The Encyclopedia of World History, and various other books... I'm also adding the Story of the World Activity Book and History Pockets. We will be learning about Ancient Civilizations for the entire year... The First People through The Last Emperor of Rome.
Violin (I may add some music theory or use piano, too)

(T/Th)
Science using Real Science 4 Kids Pre-Level 1 Chemistry to start and then Biology later in the year. Very cool!!

(Floating)
Art
Spanish using DVD
PE/Health (come on, I'm a health teacher!)
Social Studies