ThadenPierce School

We learned about this website from one of our homeschool groups. Kids can look up books they’ve read, take quizzes and earn prizes based on how they do! It’s called Book Adventure and Christopher’s trying to earn a subscription to Highlights Magazine right now.

We considered joining a newly formed co-op for this fall but they began their semester the week we had Joseph. Realizing the time frame, I knew I would not be up for participating so we passed. Last night I ran into one of the co-op founders and we chatted and I’m thinking we may go ahead and join the co-op mid-year, with their approval. It’s based on the classical approach of education and uses the same history program we are using (Story of the World.) We’re on a different year than them so this year we would leave the day early and skip history, then do the book over the summer and catch up with them next fall for history. Christopher would be in their 1st/2nd grade class, Mo in their kindergarden, Bennett and Emy in their preschool class and Joseph with me helping in preschool or nursery. The kids would get spanish, music, science and fine art (to include public speaking) along with PE. So a lot of classes in the day! We would all have lunch together, too.

I’m excited because I think Emy and Bennett are both ready to try a more structured learning time, similar to nursery. Christopher had a year of preschool with Miss Amy and Moira had two years of APPLES, a speech-therapy preschool program. Both were just one day a week but it gave them some “school” time with another teacher and friends, circle time, group learning, etc. I want Bennett to have that chance this year and Emy wants to do whatever he does. They both are loving nursery at church so a Monday co-op day would be fun for them, I think.

We won’t buy it yet but the spanish class uses Rosetta Stone and we will pick that up at some point. They’ll do chemistry this year and physical science next year. I’m happy to think I’ll have the resource of other teachers to cover these enrichment classes. We’ll still cover language and mathematics at home but for things like public speaking they obviously need a public – this class gives them the group needed for those type of activities. There will also be field trips and holiday parties. We know several of these families already from another group we’re in and several of them are in our stake. The group isn’t one specific religious group, they are diverse but many are members of our church. They meet at another church that’s just down the street from our home.

Plus, I’m excited to think that I even feel up for this possibility. It means I’m getting the hang of five kids!!

Very simple – draw a tree trunk and use colored tissue paper wrapped around the end of a pencil, dipped in glue, stuck to the page to make 3D “leaves” or blossoms. We did fall colors, could do white (snow covered) winter trees, spring blossoms, green in summer, red for apple tree, etc.

Practicing fine motor skills, sensory (texture) play, discussing seasons, and art.

Emy is wearing Joseph’s onesie, size newborn. I felt a need to explain my daughter’s bizarre wardrobe.

We try to do weekly exercises from The Out of Sync Child has Fun because we have some kids with sensory challenges, but also because the activities are just fun. Kit snapped a picture of Mo “painting” her name on the fence, trying to get as high and low as she could. Something about crossing midline? Something-something-scientific explanation inserted here? It was fun.

AND, look what we dug out of the workshop? We had a pizza picnic in it…

Now Mommy has a place to hang out with Joseph and not get carried away by mosquitoes! We decided that was worth celebrating with a rare picture of Mommy AND Daddy? In one shot? Wow, almost like a date (pay no attention to the five children in the tent with them…)

(To answer Abby, realized I should put it up here – ideas for younger kids.)

Our staple one, kids pick what they think looks fun and we write on calendar – one every Monday (in theory.)
Complete Book of Arts & Crafts

Becky got us hooked on this series:
Science Arts

Math Arts

And I found this one, LOVE it to give brief bits about artists and their style then do project:
Discovering Great Artists

Combined with art supplies, Annotated Mona Lisa, an old AP art history book from my sisters, and some sketch pads. We are TRYING to work on building our postcard collection of great pieces of art, but that requires me to get out of the house and hit some museums to build that collection, or buy them on-line, or beg friends to send more postcards. Hint, hint.

Plus two art blogs I subscribe to –
Crafty Crow and Art Projects for Kids

This morning I answered some emails, wrote a blog post while nursing, went running, ate breakfast, sent Kit off to work, read a magazine article, nursed a ton, got Joseph down to sleep in the baby sling and he stayed asleep when I transferred him to bed.

Then at one point I had Christopher working on Saxon 2 (#32) and Moira on Saxon 1 (#3) and Bennett doing worksheets (his request) and Emy cuddling with me while we looked at postcards from Guatemala and Joseph was asleep.

And I thought, “I can do this!! I will get the hang of this five kids thing!!”

Moira just asked, “When I go to kindergarden?” I told her she’s in kindergarden and she said “No, when I go to another school?” I asked if she wanted to go to another school? She said yes. I’m wondering what she’s thinking and remind her, “We homeschool. If you go to another school you have to go every day, from breakfast time until 3pm. Would you like to do that?” (I’m asking in a nice, upbeat tone – I don’t want them to think school is ever scary but I know she would not want to be away from home that long.) Moira says no, but looks a bit disappointed. I’m wondering what is going on when Moira pulls out a paper lunch sack from behind her back. We have these for crafts and made puppets this morning with them. She shows me the sack and says, “They eat at other schools? When I make a lunch in this?”

OH, she wants to go to kindergarden so she can have a sack lunch!! Okay, that makes more sense. I tell her we can pack a picnic lunch in the sack and take it to the park. She’s satisfied, asks if she can write her name on the sack and runs off to play.

Note to self – when kids ask something that seems out of character, find out WHAT they are thinking exactly.

Here is mine, compliments of Jess posting this on her blog. Very fun! You can make one here. This is what happens when you are an Army Brat that has a family that takes super long road trips every summer to explore the national parks and see family. I wish they had one for Europe, that would be fun:

And Christopher’s, but he would like to point out he’s been to Germany and France, too.

Here is Mo’s, I couldn’t remember if we flew through Arizona or New Mexico when we went to Utah for my brother’s wedding. Not that she saw anything of the airport and she was only 5 months old but still:

Kit’s:

On second thought, I’m not positive about North Dakota. Gotta check on that one. And Washington was the very southern border while I was driving into Oregon, so I didn’t see anything. The northern-middle states was family trips. I’ve lived in Arizona, Maryland, Kansas, Louisiana, Texas, and California (and Germany.) Most of them twice (MD, KS, TX, CA.) The rest of the states were either vacations or driving through. Obviously lacking some visits to the northeast and southeast…

Every once in awhile I write up a pretty detailed schedule for our days, down to the half hour. Kit prints it off and I hang it on the fridge. And it sits there. Sometimes I look at it and think, “Hmm, it should be quiet time,” or some such thing but mostly we COMPLETELY IGNORE IT. But it’s there, and it gives me some sense of order or structure for our days. HAHAH. There is no order in our days.

It’s like our budget. We write up a very detailed budget and I know in my head what our bills are, what our cushion is, what savings has, etc. Then we pay our bills and buy as needed and never bother to balance our checkbook (I don’t think I’ve balanced my checkbook and had the statement match up with what I’ve got EVER, so I gave up.) But we don’t bounce anything, we don’t use credit, and we always manage to pay our bills on time and put money in savings, etc. So the budget planning is what we need, even if we don’t ever look at it again. We do try to look every few months to assess things and see if we can cut anything else but mostly we just ignore it until it’s time to assess our financial goals again. That’s how I approach our days…

Back to schedules. Planning it out helps me feel some rhythm to our days, but I don’t follow it most of the time. Here’s our revised postpartum schedule, and there are no half hour increments here:

AM – breakfast & clean up, exercise, Kit to work, playtime, snack at 9:30am (since bfast is by 7am, and we try to shove them in the yard to play in the mornings.)
11AM – lunch & clean up then naps/quiet time. (During quiet time I read with the older kids, play, pick up, do projects, etc. If I’m ambitious I do lessons. Try to get my own lunch and read scriptures.)
PM – snacks, Kit home. Lessons. (M is art, T is music, W is sensory activities, Th is history & Mo horseback riding, F is science. Plus language & math, speech for Mo and spelling.)
4PM – dinner prep, dinner, clean up, family time. (By 7pm it’s quiet time and off to bed. 8pm all the kids except C is 8:30pm.)

That’s it. Much more simple. The only things I attempt to stick to are meals/snack times. Lessons wait for Kit to be home to do with older kids or he wrangles toddlers and I do lessons. But until I’m recovered from this postpartum stage, when he’s at work we are in survival mode so I do no lessons and no cleaning and nothing beyond keeping the kids safe and fed. Not even dressed, just fed and not bleeding.

I know that by January I’ll feel much, much more on top of things and our schedule will be completely different and I’ll be doing more lessons minus Kit. We’ll start some new projects (language binder, centuries binder for history, science projects, and maybe spanish.) For now, I’m just trying to get through the days in one piece.

Moira requested making a snowman out of play dough with Daddy for their date. Having no Playdoh, I grabbed a recipe for them to make some and then play.

Play Dough Recipe
1 c flour
1/2 c salt
2 t cream of tartar
1 c hot water
1 T oil
3 to 8 drops food coloring

Combine all in saucepan and stir over medium heat until mixture turns into ball. Drop onto clean, dry surface (we used cookie sheet) and knead 2 minutes. Cool, store in airtight container.

For next time –

Edible Play Dough
1 1/4 c powdered milk
1 c peanut butter
1 c honey
1 1/4 powdered sugar

Mix and play!