General Update--Fun in July

I have two more blog posts to do--one on new plant ids and another on our Missouri study--but first a general update on the four children, and pictures will be last:

Jaden:  The only regular workbook work he's doing right now is math, because he's still only on "Grade 3" level.  I only intend to take him through all the basic arthimetic and basic algebra and geometry, and beyond that, if he's interested in more math (which I seriously doubt), he can enroll in online classes.  If in the end he can do everything I can do in math, then he'll make it just fine.  If he somehow transforms into a math genius, then he can choose to take it to the next level.  Getting him to do his math and advance in it is a true task. Some of it he's very good at, though, thankfully.

He used some of his saved up money to buy an iPod.  He's downloaded many apps, including several games, but some of the games are educational (and interactive so that we and other friends and family members can play with him).  He has also downloaded things like a level, a dictionary, a language translator, and other educational and useful tools.  He is able to send iMessages and use Facetime, which thrills him to end.    This has also led to working more seriously on teaching him discipline, especially when it comes to the topic of the previous paragraph (and his household/outside duties).

He and I have started at the beginning of the bible again, and we just finished Genesis yesterday and started on Exodus today.  Trust and Liv kind of hang around while we read (outside).  I still read a chapter of Proverbs to all of them, but I haven't been strictly doing it daily, though I should again.  The younger two have mostly been getting bible stories and activities done with them on Sabbath, though as far as spiritual training and scripture-quoting goes, that is done every day, all throughout the day, and I am always using events that happen as opportunities to teach them spiritually.

Jaden loves chickens and is so happy that we have some again.  His latest big plan is to build or buy an incubator for eggs.  The inexpensive ones he found on Amazon are cheap junk, so he has watched some Youtube videos on how he can make his own better-constructed one and still keep the price down:  Incubator Playlist

He's still writing his friend Young in Kenya and recently sent some pictures of himself with one of our chickens and awaiting his newest letter that is in transit.

Jade is also making extra money by taking the fan blowers from the furnaces to the front yard where our neighbor Kenneth picks them up.  Kenneth sells them, and Jade earns a portion of the profit.  This is in addition to what his daddy pays him for scrapping out the copper and other metal.  His weekly allowance has also been raised, because he's got a new job:  spraying out the chicken house daily and giving them fresh water, as well as collecting the eggs.

Trusten:  He's a little rhymer if I've ever met one.  He goes around making up rhymes, and he's very quick-witted.  He also has been one of those to easily remember movie lines or lyrics to songs, and he likes to throw them into his conversation, and at other times he likes to change song lyrics up a bit.  He gets this from his daddy.  I'm trying to incorporate more rhyming books and games into his learning.  With some of his birthday and other money he's been given recently by family members I got him a couple really cool books that just came in last week.  I'm especially excited about the one that shows how a made up street changed through 12,000 years of time.  It's called A Street Through Time by Dr. Anne Millard and illustrated by Steve Noon.  It starts out by telling the story of a street and then starts with the stone age hungers at 10,000 B.C., then the first farmers, Iron Age, Roman times, and on and on until we get to the "The Street Today." 

This will be good for Jaden and the others, too, but I think it will be a great thing now for Trusten.  The other book is called All Around the World by Geraldine Cosneau, and it has "8 fold-out scenes with over 400 resuable stickers!  Plus 24 huge animals to draw!"  It's got the African savannah, the Sahara Desert, the Amazon rainforest, the tropical sea, the Arctic, and more.  He'll get to learn about different kinds of animals that live in different places.

I signed him up temporarily for Clever Island, which is an online educational game community at which Jaden was a member for years. I'm not sure I'll keep the subscription, though.

He's doing well (on most days) with his reading lessons with the Learn-to-Read Bible.  Some days he jokes around and acts goofy too much and won't take it seriously enough, and I get frustrated.

I'm planning to buy him Inchimals which are a set of 12 wooden animal rods in differing lengths that will help him learn to measure, add, etc.

He's got one or two more days worth of work to do before he's finished with his first of the Get Ready, Get Set, and Go for the Code books.  I've not been making him do them very often lately, but we do a reading session almost daily.

Olivia:  I can tell Liv is learning to be a mother.  Even when she does not have a baby doll with her, she makes do with an invisible one.  The three main things she says and does?  Kisses and asks whether I want to kiss or pet her baby, says her baby is drinking her milk, and that her baby is sleeping.  She has been going alone with me on first day each week to get our groceries.  The boys do something with Nathan, and I nurse Elizabeth before I leave, and she sleeps part of the time we're gone.  Liv absolutely loves that she goes with me by herself and "not the boys." 

She definitely understands the concept of two, maybe more.  If I ask her to get two cloths for the baby, she'll bring me back two cloths, but if I ask her to get a cloth, she'll bring back one.

She plays on my iPad sometimes.  She plays National Wildlife Federation's "What Did Snakey Eat?" to practice shapes (where a child must choose between three objects after seeing the shape in the snake's belly) and some princess and pony memory card game.  She loves horses and ponies!

She helps me with Elizabeth, doing little tasks like fetching things for me or taking dirty clothes to the laundry basket or just snuggling with us and playing with her.

Elizabeth:  She may very well be the sweetest baby I've had.  She's laid back, and I think she may be a deep thinker (as deep as a child at that age can get, I guess).  She smiles a lot and laughs. She's almost to the point of sitting well unsupported.  She has been rolling more and moves forward and of course in circles.  There seems to be nothing at all wrong with her neck anymore, and her head is much better.  I'm still taking her to the chiropractor, and we have started using an energy technique of placing a hand on the front left side of her head and cupping another hand on the back right side that leaves space between the head and hand and then just using energy (without pressure) to realign things. I think I will buy another door jumper (gave the last one away), because I think that activity will be good for her (and fun).  She's not putting a lot of weight on her feet yet, but I'm not worried at all, because she's at the same point Liv was at the same age (seven months).

Okay, now for a slough of pictures that highlight some of the fun we've had this month, and I probably won't post my other things until tomorrow.

From l to r: Trusten (5y), Jaden (9y) and Elizabeth (7m), and Olivia (2.75y)

L: Two squash from our garden that grew together; R: Two tomatoes from our friends' garden that grew together

Jade making "snow" with just a blue scoop's worth of white powder and some water in a beaker

Our friends' earth bag home bedroom

Bottles for decor and lighting

My babies snuggling with Elizabeth and then posing for me again

While making their breakfast (apple cinnamon muffins on that day), Trust and Liv check out Jade's iPod on the kitchen table

Trust and Liv floating down Roaring River

L: Liv with arock; R: Jade looking for who-knows-what

Kids with a couple of the chickens

Elizabeth and Olivia playing on our bed. Liz nearly toppled over onto Liv, and so Liv pushed her back

A possum Nathan caught one night, which Jaden William also inspected

Sabbath afternoon fun in Roaring River

Showing off their grasses during a walk (which is always more than just walking)

Pictures I took of myself and Liz

A caterpillar in its chrysalis climbing up the tree (Trusten's discovery) and a leaf-looking wing from a [missing from the scene] insect (Jaden's discovery)

Stay tuned for more soon.  Until next time...