First, I'd like to say that I left out something in the previous post on Wednesday, March 17. For his writing that day, he had to write about what he learned that day. Then on Thursday, March 18, while we were driving, I made up a tale about a white-tailed deer named Will who went to go find other kinds of deer. He went across the North American continent meeting other deer and had short conversations with each type after learning their names. He made comments on the differing antlers and such. Then he had to sneak aboard a ship and stay alive by eating grain, as he travels to Europe. That was the end of that segment of "Will the White-tailed Deer's Adventures ," until I can better research the deers of Europe, then he will move on to Asia and so forth. I'll be showing the boys pictures on Google images of different types as we go along.
*Tuesday, March 23: Proverb and bible story. Jade did a reading lesson (about a secret king who dressed up like he was poor to see how his people were), two math pages, and some Youtube videos (including the Omega 3 one which was listed with the last post with previous videos).
*Wednesday, March 24: Proverb and bible story. We went to buy groceries. Jaden has been pushing Liv in the stroller, and I keep Trusten in the kid's seat in my cart. I tell the clerk how much water I'm going to buy, and then we all go back to the truck. I unload the groceries and strap Trust and Liv in their carseats and lock them up. Jade and I take the water jugs back in to fill them. I can watch the truck the whole time through the front windows right beside the water dispenser. I love our grocery store! We shop at Ozark Natural Foods. We are co-op owners there. They are fairly strict about what they carry: no artificial ingredients or things like MSG, no pesticides, hormones, and definitely no GMOs. On the way home, I explained to Jade what was meant by "as the crow flies," when he was asking how many miles we had left to get to our house. I explained the difference in going along the road and "as the crow flies."
Jade had to write out the scripture verses:
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. -Matthew 15:8
For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. -Romans 2:13
And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. -Ephesians 6:4
I had already talked to him about these, but I wanted him to write them, too, and to memorize them. This is because of what I discussed in my previous post. As for the last one, he's not a father, but he is like a father to Trusten, since he's the firstborn. Trust imitates everything Jaden does.
I'm happy to say that Jaden is working on changing his ways. He has a way to go, but he's doing well, and Nathan is also improving as a father. We are both trying to be good parents.
Youtube videos: Red Peacock (animated moral story), visuals of World Architecture, planets and stars size to scale--Our Solar System (Jade loved this one), biography of Amelia Earhart
*Thursday, March 25: Proverb and bible story. Jade did three writing pages (making lists), two math pages (intro to double-digit addition), and a reading lesson (Grimm Brothers). The boys and I read and looked at Jaden's newest issue of Your Big Backyard. In it, we read about different types of birds and the different types of nests that they make, and we read about three-toed sloths and some other things. Then I read to the boys a couple of the stories in the previous issue of Heaven's Family, to remind the boys of what types of things go on in the world and how thankful they should be. One of the stories was about some poor widows and their children, and another was about how thankful some very impoverished families were to have biosand filters in order to have clean water.
Youtube videos: plane and forest fires (computer-generated), California wildfires (2007), giant octopus (Trust wanted more octopus videos), octopus, and a moral cartoon story: "The Beggar's Laugh" (animated tale of wit and wisdom)
Oh! And here are a couple videos that I taped this day, of our flooded yard: creek and yard
*Friday, March 26: Proverb and bible story. Jade also did an Explode the Code lesson. He now has only one book left. The boys played outside in the water that was left from the flood, which wasn't much. It clears out pretty quickly.
Youtube videos: monarch butterfly metamorphosis, another monarch butterfly metamorphosis, a dragonfly metamorphosis, 1948 spiders and other arachnids, Discovery Channel spiders, "Treasure in the Fields" (animated moral story), "Dolls" (animated moral story)
*Saturday, March 27: Proverb and thankfulness lesson, where the boys learned how the Levites praised God. We also listened and sang along praise songs by Fernando Ortega, one of my favorite musicians/singers. Nathan also loves him, and he's practicing "Come Ye Sinners" as sang by Fernando with Amy Grant. He says he wants to get it perfectly. It's really sad that he didn't learn to play an instrument at an early age, because I think he could have, and he sings so well.
Tomorrow night is Passsover, and then after that the week of Unleavened Bread. Jade will be off a week from doing written book work. He may write some scriptures. He will definitely be doing one writing project, and all that will be revealed in this week's blog post at the end of the week. I'm hoping it will be a good week! :-)
Showing posts with label birds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birds. Show all posts
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
State Games, Thankfulness, Spiders, Birds, and Butterflies
Sunday, February 28: Nathan and Jaden went to the storage building to get a chain for the chain saw, and Nathan cut down some small trees to start on a log playhouse for the boys. Jade did Explode the Code, and of course we read our proverb and a bible story.
Monday, March 1: Jade did 3 writing pages plus a paragraph on a tablet page, 2 math pages, a reading lesson. I read a proverb, a bible story, an entry in the prayer book, and read the chapter in God's Design for animals on the introduction to invertebrates to both the boys. I've been reading more books to Trusten. I've been reading at least one book nearly daily to just him.
Tuesday, March 2: Jade did 2 writing pages; we did a proverb, a bible story, and an entry in the prayer book. I read a chapter in Swiss Family Robinson, and I reviewed where we were in Prepare & Pray. Then I found a free animated movie online for the boys, and the boys and I watched it together. It was called Meet the Robinsons. It had a nice moral to the story, I thought, and it also gave me the opportunity to briefly explain that a person cannot travel in time to the past and go back and forth from the present or past to the future and back.
Wednesday, March 3: We went to town on this day, and I didn't have Jaden do any book work this day. We just did our usual...proverb, bible story, and book readings.
Thursday, March 4: I am sick of getting too many catalogs in the mail that are only good for recycling. I hate that so many trees are cut down for this nonsense. I canceled seven catalogs, and since then I have remembered two more I need to cancel. If I want to buy something from any of these people, I'll go online and find their stores! I reminded Jaden of how so many trees are cut down for all this excessive advertising. Some of these companies give a catalog once a week or more! At least that is the way it seems. We get some of them a lot.
Anyway, Jaden William did 3 writing pages, a reading lesson, and 2 math pages. We did a proverb and a bible story. I got out the metal detector for Jade to use in the yard while I sat out on the front porch and read and Trust followed him around, and he unearthed some hunk of something. I'm not sure what it is. The boys and I raced out on the road a few times. That was fun and good exercise. Jaden also made a slingshot. He wanted to play Funschool after we came in, and I told him to try out the states games that he hasn't played in well over a year. He did well. This also reminded me that his Clever Island account should be canceled soon. I am going to assign him to work on his time, addition, and maybe a couple other things on there, and then it will have served its purpose. My dad gave him the subscription to that.
Friday, March 5: Jade did Explode the Code. I took away his toys and gaming privileges. I want him to have a heart of thankfulness, love, respect, and obedience. I reminded him and Trust how they should treat each other and us. Jaden has become unthankful, and I think it's because he has so much and doesn't realize how good he has it. We also looked at the pictures of me in my school yearbooks, and I discussed and demonstrated how prison schools...uh, I mean U.S. government [public] schools run, and Jaden thought he was being tortured. I told him that we had to actually go through it, including being punished for having to go to the bathroom!
Saturday, March 6: We did a proverb and thankfulness lesson out of the Choosing Thankfulness book. We spent much time outdoors. We all went walking through our woods, including Liv being held by Nathan. I held Trusten's hand. When we got back Jaden and I looked through the spider field guide and the bird field guide. We had seen a spider's empty egg sac on the the ground. The bird field guide was looked through mainly because Jaden decided he wanted to look at that, too. Oh! I've seen a bald eagle flying twice recently while out and about driving, both times in the same area.
Sunday, March 7: Nathan and the boys worked on the playhouse in the afternoon, but then the chainsaw cord broke. That figures. Jade saw and described a butterfly, so I took out the field guide, and we discussed the possibilities of what it could have been. I later taught Trusten about caterpillars, chrysalis, and butterflies, as well as patience when when I dry him off after bathing. He was wet and pretending to be a butterfly wanting to leave, impatiently. I said that butterflies had to be patient while emerging and drying off their wings. And of course I read them a proverb and a bible story.
Monday, March 8: We read Jaden's March issue of Your Big Backyard magazine. Some of the things the boys learned were about the ears of different animals and the different functions ears served for animals (hearing, cooling off, etc.), as well as the different locations and appearances of ears; the difference between hares and rabbits, shapes in nature, and bluebirds.
We looked through and discussed my latest issue of Arbor Day news. The night before Jaden expressed an interest in wanting to learn more about sea stars (sometimes called starfish), and Trusten has been asking about octopuses, so we looked at some pictures in a book we have called All About Animals by Childcraft. I then read the lessons in the God's Design for Science for animals on mollusks and echinoderms.
Jaden has talked a lot about numbers. He often asks the same questions over and over and tells me the things he understands over and over, just in different ways. He's clearly fascinated by math and numbers, which is great, but it's funny (or not so funny) for me, because that is a weaker subject for me. I am average in math (ranging from below average to above average in subareas). I can teach him all the basics of arithmetic, accounting, algebra, geometry, and more, and then beyond that he'll have to take online classes or go take a class or whatever, if he needs more math, because he's sure not going to get anything beyond the basics of math from me.
He also sometimes talks about states and various places at bedtime, because he has a world map and a U.S. map hanging on his bedroom wall. This is something he did this day.
Tuesday, March 9: Jade started off the day adding numbers and asking and telling Nathan about sums. He counted and counted while I nursed Liv before bible time. He did two writing pages, and we did all the usual other things.
Wednesday, March 10: Jade did two writing pages, we read our normal things, and we left to Arkansas this day to go celebrate my mother's 50th birth anniversary the day afterward. We chased tornadoes while traveling! So, we talked about tornadoes and funnel clouds and such.
Thursday, March 11: We read our proverb (didn't take the bible story book), and we went out to eat for my mother's birthday. The place we went had a carousel and lots of games and things for the boys to play. I'm sure Jaden liked that, since he has all that taken away at home currently. Then we went to a rodeo, which is something I'd never even been to myself. It was at the White County Fairgrounds where my dad is the fair manager. The rodeo participants were college students from ten different states. I feel sorry for those calves that are roped and slammed to the ground to have their legs tied. Jaden seemed to think it was great, and Trusten just kept climbing up and down the two stadium seats between my sister and me.
Friday, March 12: We ate lunch with my mother and aunt, and we traveled back home. We read our proverb.
Saturday, March 13: Ah! The sabbath was so welcome after such a busy week. I was so tired, though, that I didn't even do the boys' lesson today. I did do a little writing myself, and the boys started off the day watching the movie Solomon and Sheba. LOL! Trusten actually picked it out.
I think I have pictures to share, but I can post them next time.
Monday, March 1: Jade did 3 writing pages plus a paragraph on a tablet page, 2 math pages, a reading lesson. I read a proverb, a bible story, an entry in the prayer book, and read the chapter in God's Design for animals on the introduction to invertebrates to both the boys. I've been reading more books to Trusten. I've been reading at least one book nearly daily to just him.
Tuesday, March 2: Jade did 2 writing pages; we did a proverb, a bible story, and an entry in the prayer book. I read a chapter in Swiss Family Robinson, and I reviewed where we were in Prepare & Pray. Then I found a free animated movie online for the boys, and the boys and I watched it together. It was called Meet the Robinsons. It had a nice moral to the story, I thought, and it also gave me the opportunity to briefly explain that a person cannot travel in time to the past and go back and forth from the present or past to the future and back.
Wednesday, March 3: We went to town on this day, and I didn't have Jaden do any book work this day. We just did our usual...proverb, bible story, and book readings.
Thursday, March 4: I am sick of getting too many catalogs in the mail that are only good for recycling. I hate that so many trees are cut down for this nonsense. I canceled seven catalogs, and since then I have remembered two more I need to cancel. If I want to buy something from any of these people, I'll go online and find their stores! I reminded Jaden of how so many trees are cut down for all this excessive advertising. Some of these companies give a catalog once a week or more! At least that is the way it seems. We get some of them a lot.
Anyway, Jaden William did 3 writing pages, a reading lesson, and 2 math pages. We did a proverb and a bible story. I got out the metal detector for Jade to use in the yard while I sat out on the front porch and read and Trust followed him around, and he unearthed some hunk of something. I'm not sure what it is. The boys and I raced out on the road a few times. That was fun and good exercise. Jaden also made a slingshot. He wanted to play Funschool after we came in, and I told him to try out the states games that he hasn't played in well over a year. He did well. This also reminded me that his Clever Island account should be canceled soon. I am going to assign him to work on his time, addition, and maybe a couple other things on there, and then it will have served its purpose. My dad gave him the subscription to that.
Friday, March 5: Jade did Explode the Code. I took away his toys and gaming privileges. I want him to have a heart of thankfulness, love, respect, and obedience. I reminded him and Trust how they should treat each other and us. Jaden has become unthankful, and I think it's because he has so much and doesn't realize how good he has it. We also looked at the pictures of me in my school yearbooks, and I discussed and demonstrated how prison schools...uh, I mean U.S. government [public] schools run, and Jaden thought he was being tortured. I told him that we had to actually go through it, including being punished for having to go to the bathroom!
Saturday, March 6: We did a proverb and thankfulness lesson out of the Choosing Thankfulness book. We spent much time outdoors. We all went walking through our woods, including Liv being held by Nathan. I held Trusten's hand. When we got back Jaden and I looked through the spider field guide and the bird field guide. We had seen a spider's empty egg sac on the the ground. The bird field guide was looked through mainly because Jaden decided he wanted to look at that, too. Oh! I've seen a bald eagle flying twice recently while out and about driving, both times in the same area.
Sunday, March 7: Nathan and the boys worked on the playhouse in the afternoon, but then the chainsaw cord broke. That figures. Jade saw and described a butterfly, so I took out the field guide, and we discussed the possibilities of what it could have been. I later taught Trusten about caterpillars, chrysalis, and butterflies, as well as patience when when I dry him off after bathing. He was wet and pretending to be a butterfly wanting to leave, impatiently. I said that butterflies had to be patient while emerging and drying off their wings. And of course I read them a proverb and a bible story.
Monday, March 8: We read Jaden's March issue of Your Big Backyard magazine. Some of the things the boys learned were about the ears of different animals and the different functions ears served for animals (hearing, cooling off, etc.), as well as the different locations and appearances of ears; the difference between hares and rabbits, shapes in nature, and bluebirds.
We looked through and discussed my latest issue of Arbor Day news. The night before Jaden expressed an interest in wanting to learn more about sea stars (sometimes called starfish), and Trusten has been asking about octopuses, so we looked at some pictures in a book we have called All About Animals by Childcraft. I then read the lessons in the God's Design for Science for animals on mollusks and echinoderms.
Jaden has talked a lot about numbers. He often asks the same questions over and over and tells me the things he understands over and over, just in different ways. He's clearly fascinated by math and numbers, which is great, but it's funny (or not so funny) for me, because that is a weaker subject for me. I am average in math (ranging from below average to above average in subareas). I can teach him all the basics of arithmetic, accounting, algebra, geometry, and more, and then beyond that he'll have to take online classes or go take a class or whatever, if he needs more math, because he's sure not going to get anything beyond the basics of math from me.
He also sometimes talks about states and various places at bedtime, because he has a world map and a U.S. map hanging on his bedroom wall. This is something he did this day.
Tuesday, March 9: Jade started off the day adding numbers and asking and telling Nathan about sums. He counted and counted while I nursed Liv before bible time. He did two writing pages, and we did all the usual other things.
Wednesday, March 10: Jade did two writing pages, we read our normal things, and we left to Arkansas this day to go celebrate my mother's 50th birth anniversary the day afterward. We chased tornadoes while traveling! So, we talked about tornadoes and funnel clouds and such.
Thursday, March 11: We read our proverb (didn't take the bible story book), and we went out to eat for my mother's birthday. The place we went had a carousel and lots of games and things for the boys to play. I'm sure Jaden liked that, since he has all that taken away at home currently. Then we went to a rodeo, which is something I'd never even been to myself. It was at the White County Fairgrounds where my dad is the fair manager. The rodeo participants were college students from ten different states. I feel sorry for those calves that are roped and slammed to the ground to have their legs tied. Jaden seemed to think it was great, and Trusten just kept climbing up and down the two stadium seats between my sister and me.
Friday, March 12: We ate lunch with my mother and aunt, and we traveled back home. We read our proverb.
Saturday, March 13: Ah! The sabbath was so welcome after such a busy week. I was so tired, though, that I didn't even do the boys' lesson today. I did do a little writing myself, and the boys started off the day watching the movie Solomon and Sheba. LOL! Trusten actually picked it out.
I think I have pictures to share, but I can post them next time.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Back to Work After Baby
While I had two weeks off of schooling after the birth of my sweet baby girl Liv, Will did some spelling lessons out of his Grade 1 Complete Curriculum book and some Explode the Code lessons. He's on a new Explode the Code book now, he's nearly finished with spelling, nearly finished with language arts, and he finished math this week.
I have energy returned, now that I'm no longer pregnant. We're not planning any more children as of now. I will concentrate on these three wonderful blessings that I have. And I want to get the FULL joy of mothering back that I had for Will's first two years. (Side note: I may use Jade/Jaden and Will/William interchangeably. I call him Jaden, usually, but I've been calling him Will when I talk about him to Nathan and others. Nathan calls him William, regardless of whether he likes it, which I think is his right, since he's his father and decides. Anyway, SAME fellow! :-) Anyway, it's just been one thing after another. We lost our son Asher in late 2005, when Will was nearly 2.5. I'd had a horrible third trimester of pregnancy, and then I felt great afterward until we dealt with his death a couple weeks after. When I was finally managing to get back to normal, I became pregnant with Trusten, and I'm never 100% during pregnancy (though I usually do well in the second trimester). Things were pretty good, though, again, for awhile...until he was born. I had the worst postpartum period with him. I hemorrhaged after birth and was white and weak for weeks afterward. I was also sleep-deprived, b/c he never slept well. He woke up numerous times each night for over a year, plus he was very difficult in many other ways. I survived it all, though.
But, I hold my self to really high standards, and I just did not function the way I wanted for so long. I started lacking in my mothering skills, lacking in cooking (didn't have as much time nor energy), etc. Now, Trusten got better as he aged, and he's now fairly easy to deal with (for ME, especially compared to what I dealt with in the past with him...he may still be difficult for others). But, I was pregnant again for nine months. I became somewhat grouchy during this last pregnancy. Okay...in my opinion I was just a bitch to my children many times. That is just putting it bluntly. That's just the way it was. I HATE that. I strive to be perfect in all things, but I certainly haven't felt perfect in that...just so different than what I have been like in the past. Now maybe the world still thinks that I've been a good mother, and maybe compared to the average mother that's true, but I don't live to the world's standards; I strive to live to higher standards. So, regardless of how I've compared to the average mother, it's still been bitchy in God's sight...and in my own.
With the birth of Liv, combined with returning energy levels and boosted confidence after so many times in prayer, I really feel like I can return to the days of extreme motherhood happiness that I had with Will during his first 2 to 2.5 years. Of course, it doesn't just happen. It takes effort on my part.
As I know I've mentioned in the past, I don't deal well with rigorous scheduling. On one hand, there are many things that I need to have a somewhat schedule for, and I even keep a planner. BUT, in the LIFESTYLE OF LEARNING, one cannot schedule everything. I don't wake up every morning knowing each and every thing that I will learn that day or will desire to learn. There may be some things that I pre-planned to learn about, but there are other things that just happen to come up during the day, and I then seek out what I need or want to know.
THIS is how it is...at least in my world. All the days of my life I've always been a person of study and observation. I love to grow in knowledge, and the only enemy is time. I believe a person is meant to grow in knowledge until the day he's no longer able to do so, usually at death. I've been asked by several persons over the past few years, "How can you do everything you do?" The truth is that there is so much more I'd like to be able to do and cannot because of time restraints or lack of knowledge or experience. But, to all those who wonder how I do everything I do, I think it's probably because I don't spend several hours each day watching doomsday news programs and vulgar dumbing-you-down sitcoms...or I guess it's the reality tv shows that dominate tv now. We don't have television programming in our home and haven't in several years. We actually went w/o a television set for 2.5 years and then decided to buy a new one to watch dvds of wise choosing. Because, you see, I often ask myself the following question: "How do people have the time to watch that much tv?" It's not that I have any more time than the next person. I'm under the same curse. It's just that my priorities are radically different. My priority isn't to be entertained with utter stupidity but rather to be enlightened with absolute knowledge.
Now, for the most part, as I've mentioned before and most people know, I hated the public school system. Of course, it was probably delightful compared to now. My early years weren't so bad, and there were parts I liked all throughout school, but overall I hated it. That system destroys the natural love of learning with which children have. Thankfully, I didn't lose mine. My time outside of school was spent studying and playing. I had a great imagination and so engaged in a lot of imaginary play and invented several games for my sister and myself to play. I liked to explore outside. I also loved to read and research. These things haven't changed.
I want my children to be able to live that kind of life ALL the time, because they do not have the enormous chunk of time stolen from them from the United States government school system. All I really want them to be concerned about is God's appointed government over them, namely their parents. I don't want to destroy their love of learning. Kids naturally want to learn! They ask what seems like a million questions every day! So, since I'm "back with the program" so to say, I'd like to spend most of our time just following their interests from day to day and teaching them the basics like reading and researching so that they can more easily find out what they want to know themselves.
What this means is that I'm probably about to can grade levels. Well, perhaps I shouldn't say I'm going to can them, but what I mean is that I won't say that A, B, and C need to be finished before a specified date. Besides, there are things that we've already done that already fall into that category. For example, the plant binder that we started this summer is an ongoing project. We'll keep adding to it.
Soooo...I'm glad about this. I'm sure my kids are, too. We've had some fun, but it's been mostly not fun the past few months, as I just wasn't in a "fun" mood during the pregnancy and just needed Jaden to sit down and do book work.
Now, to sum up what we did over the past week:
As I said, Will has finished a lot of his book work this year, and for math the remainder of this month (reckoned by the moon in this case and not Roman time, so in other words until mid-December) we'll be practicing adding and subtracting using rods, blocks, and other objects; practicing time on a play clock; practicing money and buying by playing "Store;" and practicing measuring by having him measure various objects around the house with a ruler, using both inches and centimeters.
We've been going through lessons in his animal science book in the God's Design series. Trusten participates in these lessons, too. We're finished with mammals and have started on birds. Will drew feet and beaks for several different types of birds, since God gave them different beaks and feet for different applications. We also learned about the different kinds of feathers: down, contour, and flight.
I made a cover for Jaden's animal notebook that we'll be working on together. I asked him what animal picture he wanted on front, and he said he wanted a picture of two penguins, so we found one. He has cut out some photos of animals from two or three old Wild Animal Baby magazines that were falling apart and that Trusten helped along. I'd collected the pages to save back for this. Here's a picture of the front of his binder:
We read the November issues of Wild Animal Baby and Your Big Backyard. One of the things discussed in the latter this time was the differences in antlers and horns and identifying deer by their different antlers. I thought this was interesting, since it was less than a month ago when I read to Jaden the differences between antlers and horns and let him play a game of matching horns and antlers to the correct animals. The game is found online here.
We baked a pumpkin so that I could make pumpkin pies. We even took guesses as to how many seeds were in the pumpkin, and then we counted them. I can't even remember the exact number there were, but it was just over 500. Will helped scrape the pulp out and put it in the food processor.
Trusten got to study the shells I keep in my kitchen while I helped Will with language arts one day. When Will was Trusten's age he asked me all the time to get the shells down for him so that he could look at them. When we talk about shelled animals, I'll get them down so that we can all study them closely together. There are several different kinds that I have.
I had bought a Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? game for William a few years ago. I decided this week that it was time to get it out and play it with him. Well, there was one part that kept messing up, and it appeared to be screwing up our computer! I decided to just stop before we lost something important. I told him he could try it in his computer if he wanted. LOL! Anyway, I told him I would try to find a download for the DOS original Carmen Sandiego game...the one I played as a child. That was one of my favorite games. I learned so much from that game. I love geography, and I love playing a detective. I was probably about eight years old when I started playing, and I taught myself. I would use our encyclopedias to look up what I needed to know. I found the game and was able to download it! Yay!
We're nearing the end of Matthew in the bible, and we're still reading a proverb each day...that doesn't change. ;-) Sometimes Jaden grabs his own bible and opens to where we are, and he sometimes decides to read a bit. Awesome! I have not yet ever made him read, but I let him when he wants to do so. He decides to do so himself. He does a pretty good job, too.
Oh, there was one day I was sick over a week ago...before I started doing any school again. I couldn't do a whole lot of anything, so the kids watched videos almost all day. They watched some Blue Planet, some Reading Rainbow, and then got on the computer and watched some "How It's Made" videos on the Science Channel website. Jade loves those, and he learns!
That's it for now. This was a LOOOONG post, and I couldn't even finish it in one sitting.
I'll end it with a picture that I like of Jaden William looking at a Wheels and Wings book (planes, helicopters, monster trucks, etc.):
I have energy returned, now that I'm no longer pregnant. We're not planning any more children as of now. I will concentrate on these three wonderful blessings that I have. And I want to get the FULL joy of mothering back that I had for Will's first two years. (Side note: I may use Jade/Jaden and Will/William interchangeably. I call him Jaden, usually, but I've been calling him Will when I talk about him to Nathan and others. Nathan calls him William, regardless of whether he likes it, which I think is his right, since he's his father and decides. Anyway, SAME fellow! :-) Anyway, it's just been one thing after another. We lost our son Asher in late 2005, when Will was nearly 2.5. I'd had a horrible third trimester of pregnancy, and then I felt great afterward until we dealt with his death a couple weeks after. When I was finally managing to get back to normal, I became pregnant with Trusten, and I'm never 100% during pregnancy (though I usually do well in the second trimester). Things were pretty good, though, again, for awhile...until he was born. I had the worst postpartum period with him. I hemorrhaged after birth and was white and weak for weeks afterward. I was also sleep-deprived, b/c he never slept well. He woke up numerous times each night for over a year, plus he was very difficult in many other ways. I survived it all, though.
But, I hold my self to really high standards, and I just did not function the way I wanted for so long. I started lacking in my mothering skills, lacking in cooking (didn't have as much time nor energy), etc. Now, Trusten got better as he aged, and he's now fairly easy to deal with (for ME, especially compared to what I dealt with in the past with him...he may still be difficult for others). But, I was pregnant again for nine months. I became somewhat grouchy during this last pregnancy. Okay...in my opinion I was just a bitch to my children many times. That is just putting it bluntly. That's just the way it was. I HATE that. I strive to be perfect in all things, but I certainly haven't felt perfect in that...just so different than what I have been like in the past. Now maybe the world still thinks that I've been a good mother, and maybe compared to the average mother that's true, but I don't live to the world's standards; I strive to live to higher standards. So, regardless of how I've compared to the average mother, it's still been bitchy in God's sight...and in my own.
With the birth of Liv, combined with returning energy levels and boosted confidence after so many times in prayer, I really feel like I can return to the days of extreme motherhood happiness that I had with Will during his first 2 to 2.5 years. Of course, it doesn't just happen. It takes effort on my part.
As I know I've mentioned in the past, I don't deal well with rigorous scheduling. On one hand, there are many things that I need to have a somewhat schedule for, and I even keep a planner. BUT, in the LIFESTYLE OF LEARNING, one cannot schedule everything. I don't wake up every morning knowing each and every thing that I will learn that day or will desire to learn. There may be some things that I pre-planned to learn about, but there are other things that just happen to come up during the day, and I then seek out what I need or want to know.
THIS is how it is...at least in my world. All the days of my life I've always been a person of study and observation. I love to grow in knowledge, and the only enemy is time. I believe a person is meant to grow in knowledge until the day he's no longer able to do so, usually at death. I've been asked by several persons over the past few years, "How can you do everything you do?" The truth is that there is so much more I'd like to be able to do and cannot because of time restraints or lack of knowledge or experience. But, to all those who wonder how I do everything I do, I think it's probably because I don't spend several hours each day watching doomsday news programs and vulgar dumbing-you-down sitcoms...or I guess it's the reality tv shows that dominate tv now. We don't have television programming in our home and haven't in several years. We actually went w/o a television set for 2.5 years and then decided to buy a new one to watch dvds of wise choosing. Because, you see, I often ask myself the following question: "How do people have the time to watch that much tv?" It's not that I have any more time than the next person. I'm under the same curse. It's just that my priorities are radically different. My priority isn't to be entertained with utter stupidity but rather to be enlightened with absolute knowledge.
Now, for the most part, as I've mentioned before and most people know, I hated the public school system. Of course, it was probably delightful compared to now. My early years weren't so bad, and there were parts I liked all throughout school, but overall I hated it. That system destroys the natural love of learning with which children have. Thankfully, I didn't lose mine. My time outside of school was spent studying and playing. I had a great imagination and so engaged in a lot of imaginary play and invented several games for my sister and myself to play. I liked to explore outside. I also loved to read and research. These things haven't changed.
I want my children to be able to live that kind of life ALL the time, because they do not have the enormous chunk of time stolen from them from the United States government school system. All I really want them to be concerned about is God's appointed government over them, namely their parents. I don't want to destroy their love of learning. Kids naturally want to learn! They ask what seems like a million questions every day! So, since I'm "back with the program" so to say, I'd like to spend most of our time just following their interests from day to day and teaching them the basics like reading and researching so that they can more easily find out what they want to know themselves.
What this means is that I'm probably about to can grade levels. Well, perhaps I shouldn't say I'm going to can them, but what I mean is that I won't say that A, B, and C need to be finished before a specified date. Besides, there are things that we've already done that already fall into that category. For example, the plant binder that we started this summer is an ongoing project. We'll keep adding to it.
Soooo...I'm glad about this. I'm sure my kids are, too. We've had some fun, but it's been mostly not fun the past few months, as I just wasn't in a "fun" mood during the pregnancy and just needed Jaden to sit down and do book work.
Now, to sum up what we did over the past week:
As I said, Will has finished a lot of his book work this year, and for math the remainder of this month (reckoned by the moon in this case and not Roman time, so in other words until mid-December) we'll be practicing adding and subtracting using rods, blocks, and other objects; practicing time on a play clock; practicing money and buying by playing "Store;" and practicing measuring by having him measure various objects around the house with a ruler, using both inches and centimeters.
We've been going through lessons in his animal science book in the God's Design series. Trusten participates in these lessons, too. We're finished with mammals and have started on birds. Will drew feet and beaks for several different types of birds, since God gave them different beaks and feet for different applications. We also learned about the different kinds of feathers: down, contour, and flight.
I made a cover for Jaden's animal notebook that we'll be working on together. I asked him what animal picture he wanted on front, and he said he wanted a picture of two penguins, so we found one. He has cut out some photos of animals from two or three old Wild Animal Baby magazines that were falling apart and that Trusten helped along. I'd collected the pages to save back for this. Here's a picture of the front of his binder:
I have planned for just Will and I to take some nature walks through our woods on a few sabbaths this winter while Nathan stays in the house with Trust and Liv. We'll take the camera to take pictures...including pictures of animals to add to the notebook, I hope! I've taken some pictures of squirrels over the past couple of weeks, as we see a lot of them. I got a couple pictures of a chipmunk yesterday. What a joy that was!
And check this out....
A hornet nest! Will spotted this and was so excited to show it to us.
We read the November issues of Wild Animal Baby and Your Big Backyard. One of the things discussed in the latter this time was the differences in antlers and horns and identifying deer by their different antlers. I thought this was interesting, since it was less than a month ago when I read to Jaden the differences between antlers and horns and let him play a game of matching horns and antlers to the correct animals. The game is found online here.
We baked a pumpkin so that I could make pumpkin pies. We even took guesses as to how many seeds were in the pumpkin, and then we counted them. I can't even remember the exact number there were, but it was just over 500. Will helped scrape the pulp out and put it in the food processor.
Trusten got to study the shells I keep in my kitchen while I helped Will with language arts one day. When Will was Trusten's age he asked me all the time to get the shells down for him so that he could look at them. When we talk about shelled animals, I'll get them down so that we can all study them closely together. There are several different kinds that I have.
I had bought a Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? game for William a few years ago. I decided this week that it was time to get it out and play it with him. Well, there was one part that kept messing up, and it appeared to be screwing up our computer! I decided to just stop before we lost something important. I told him he could try it in his computer if he wanted. LOL! Anyway, I told him I would try to find a download for the DOS original Carmen Sandiego game...the one I played as a child. That was one of my favorite games. I learned so much from that game. I love geography, and I love playing a detective. I was probably about eight years old when I started playing, and I taught myself. I would use our encyclopedias to look up what I needed to know. I found the game and was able to download it! Yay! It won't work on a Mac, so I unzipped it on our computer and then transferred it to a cd and burned it so that he could play it on his computer. It works! How fun. I have just recently started teaching him dictionary skills, so playing this game will aid in that, b/c he needs to use dictionary skills in order to use our set of encyclopedias. That's right. I'm making him use the hard copy encyclopedias. Regardless of our computer age, he needs to learn how to do it the old school way. Now, they are out of date, so we've had to come to this computer to access the Internet a couple times. But, I want him to use those first. I also showed him one of the atlases that we'd bought for him; it has all the flags for the different nations in the back. I'd used an encyclopedia for that when I was a child. Anyway, it's a great way to learn capitals, flags, and all sorts of other things about different countries and cities around the world. AND it's fun!
We're nearing the end of Matthew in the bible, and we're still reading a proverb each day...that doesn't change. ;-) Sometimes Jaden grabs his own bible and opens to where we are, and he sometimes decides to read a bit. Awesome! I have not yet ever made him read, but I let him when he wants to do so. He decides to do so himself. He does a pretty good job, too.
Oh, there was one day I was sick over a week ago...before I started doing any school again. I couldn't do a whole lot of anything, so the kids watched videos almost all day. They watched some Blue Planet, some Reading Rainbow, and then got on the computer and watched some "How It's Made" videos on the Science Channel website. Jade loves those, and he learns!
That's it for now. This was a LOOOONG post, and I couldn't even finish it in one sitting.
I'll end it with a picture that I like of Jaden William looking at a Wheels and Wings book (planes, helicopters, monster trucks, etc.):
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