This WonderFUL(L) Life

Wow, the weather is beautiful!  Summer up here in the north sure is a treat.  I'm not even going to complain about the mosquitoes lest I sound ungrateful for the sun and the warmth.  

This past week has been a mixture of processing some of the content of the homeschooling conference, feeding this crew, and keeping up with the sweetest baby in the world (I challenge you!!!) since she has decided that she is going to crawl (or if she's in a hurry "army-crawl").

So, about that conference.  I've gone in the past and really enjoyed it.  Because our summer is so full this year I talked myself out of going several times, but in the end decided to go for it.  I'm so glad I did.  I was able to stay with my friend, Margaret (whom I met at the conference a few years ago!).  Emma and Margaret's sweet Felicity (and the rest of her awesome crew) hung out for the weekend while we visited, checked out the vendors and listened to some great speakers.  The blogger's gathering was Friday night and we split the time between the used book sale and chatting with fellow bloggers.

I got to see my friend Heidi which was super fun, even though my friend, Meredith, who introduced us wasn't able to be there (insert sad face).  It was great seeing other friends too, but they don't have blogs so I can't be all fancy and link to them.

Lacy was one of the speakers and came to the bloggers gathering!  Super fun!  I was also able to catch one of her talks on Saturday and was really encouraged and inspired.  Her topic was "Keeping the Littles Busy".  When my house consisted of only or mostly "littles" I was great at providing simple, but fun activities. I'm afraid to admit that now that I have an older core of kids my tendency is to tell the little kids to "go play" while we are doing schoolwork.  Not exactly the way I want our home to be.  

But look, I'm already reformed:

A Pentecost craft that I stole from Lacy.  You should seriously check out her site.  Not only is she adorable and fun, but she has some excellent ideas!

So, to review.  Next year I hope to have more of the above and less of this:

No children were harmed in the taking of this picture.

I'm going to have a bit of time on my hands this summer so I plan to gather some materials and create some easy yet hopefully engaging activities for my littles and medium-sized girl(s). 

Speaking of engaging activities.  What do northern children do on a warm summer day?  They create a water park of their very own.  

And now, the most exciting idea that I've recently come across! Teaching from a state of rest!  Say what?  Sarah's book, "Teaching from Rest" has truly revolutionized the way I (hope to) approach our home/school.  I'm working on a whole post about it, and I can't wait to work out these ideas in this space.  I've done a quick read of the book because I intended to get a post up before the release date, oops.  That allows me more time to really dive in and dig out all of the gems that Sarah gives us.  Get the book!  Read it!  You'll thank me (or more likely, Sarah) later.  

I hope you're enjoying your summer.  I know we are.

A Great Day

Today is a great day.  It's not a perfect day.  Not a day without frustration or challenges.  Nonetheless, it is a great day!

This morning we were able to go to the Thanksgiving Mass of the freshly (as of yesterday) ordained Fr.David!  This 26-year-old young man has blessed our diocese and the Church with his "yes" to God's call.  It was a precious sight as he celebrated Mass with over a dozen newly ordained men alongside him.

I couldn't help but to smile to myself as I observed that Fr.David does, just a little bit, look like a boy playing dress-up in priestly vestments.  He is solid in his faith, and he exudes a sincere joy that can only be from the Lord.  We've been so blessed to get to know him these past 7 years since moving to Wisconsin.  I have no doubt that God has great plans for him as He does for all of us.

Not the newly-ordained, but these two men new each other from seminary.  The Italian on the left is our dear friend and pastor Fr.Andrew! Turns out that this was the only picture I took of the ordination/reception.  

This weekend was full, full, full.  I'm still processing it all.  I was able to travel down to the Cities with Emma and Marci and enjoy a great day and a half with great friends at the Catholic Homeschooling Conference.

In the next few days I hope to write down what's in my head and on my heart.  For now, it's re-entry time.  It didn't take long for me to come down from my cloud to the reality of life with 6 kids and a husband who all have very real, and oftentimes immediate needs.

I'll be back soon!  (I promise this time.  I was reminded by a friend at the conference that I sorta just left you hanging after that last post.  Sorry!!!!!  Felicity is doing fine.  Still running some tests, but she's healthy right now and that's a huge blessing.)

Easter Week

Happy Easter!  

 Coloring Easter Eggs is serious business.  

What a blessing to get to know our seminarians.  These godly young men are the future of our diocese and we love getting to spend time with them.  

"You mean I get to go to a Mass that starts 30 minutes after my bedtime?  No way!!!!!" 

Here we are, all ready to head out to the Easter Vigil Mass! 

A bonus picture of the baby, because…she's the baby, and those arms…do you see those arms?

We had a great Holy Week and Easter celebration.  That stress that I mentioned in my last post?  Still there, but I'm feeling at peace with it.  You see, our sweet Felicity has been undergoing many, many, many tests to see if there's a reason she gets so sick, so often.  We have a big appointment this coming Monday (please pray).  Some potentially scary stuff, but I am feeling much better about it.  I'm confident that God's got this.  

The ground is almost fully exposed.  I'm hesitant to even say it, but I think we have some grass!  This winter was killer.  

Many blessings to you all this Easter Season!  My Easter celebrating is going to have to end before the liturgical season does or I'm not going to be able to fit into the spring/summer clothes that I just pulled out of storage.  Let me assure you, I've celebrated plenty.  We have plenty to celebrate!  He is Risen!!!  Alleluia!!!!

Spring is Here!

Made ya look!  Spring isn't here silly.  It came for a couple of days, took one look at all the snow we have and went back south.  It stayed long enough to fool the chickens.  It must be a "bird thing" because we have a lot of birds at our feeder these days.  Unfortunately, the bird feeder is also attracting flying squirrels (ew, ew, ew) so it will need to come down.  We need to take it down anyway because the bears, or as people around here say, "the bear", are waking up and I have a feeling they will be hungrier and crankier than most years.

While we wait for spring to arrive (and stay or preferably turn into summer, but we won't hold our breath) we've been keeping plenty busy.  One word...cheeks!  Delicious.  Scrumptious.  Should be illegal to have cheeks that yummy!  Countless hours are spent loving all over this soft and squishy baby.

And since we are completely running out of things to do, we decided to chop some hair.  Actually, ever since Emma donated her hair last spring these two have been growing theirs out to do the same thing.

This week we are working hard to prepare our home and most importantly our hearts for Easter.  Lent isn't over yet, but will be soon.  Just like I was ready for Lent to begin (I can't believe that's the last post I wrote...I honestly was not giving up blogging for Lent), I'm ready for it to end.  We have a couple of stressful things going on right now (more later, I promise, I won't just leave it like that forever), and I'm clinging to the hope and the promise that comes with Easter.

Hold the phone- It's Lent Already?

Penance?  Sacrifice?  Fasting? Abstinence? Almsgiving? What?!?!

My family has been through some trials recently.  Nothing major. Okay, an almost-week-long hospital stay with a sweet little one with pneumonia and a grandma with a broken hip/leg could probably count as major.  What about the baby with an ear infection and a 12-year-old with an allergic reaction to an antibiotic?  Probably not too major.  A snow storm and a dead chicken?  Minor.

We've had trials before.  Three Mardi Gras ago our family endured one of the most challenging, faith testing, scary times.  It was the night before Ash Wednesday when Felicity silently came into our lives. Everything around me was busy, but she was silent.  Not crying, not breathing, on her way out of this world.

The date of Mardi Gras changes every year, but I always remember, maybe too clearly still, everything I was feeling as the day went on.

Felicity Perpetua was baptized on Ash Wednesday.  Our amazing priest could hear the concern in Brett's voice and came right to the hospital after Mass that morning.  He's relayed to us just how accommodating the nursing staff was that day.  It is not unusual for a baby to be baptized in the NICU. However, to have the certificate filled out, the water ready, the witnesses on standby.  They were all too prepared.

Three years of this girl.  She is, to date, the most challenging (in every way) child we've ever had.  She has a demanding presence.  And yet, what an absolute miracle she is.  She'll throw a fit, and I'll think to myself, "At least she's here to throw this fit."

Lent was picked for us that year.  I've said before that I haven't prayed that much in my entire life.  God and I have had this understanding...from now on?  I pick my Lent.

So we begin.  I'm welcoming Lent with open arms.  I'm in need of a transformation.  I'm ready for the sacrifice it will involve.  I've learned from years past that I need to write down "my list" and then pick about 3 items that really need work.

If I can pray for you this Lent, please let me know.  Pray for me?

P.S.  The picture of Sweet Cheeks is just because there are not enough cute baby pictures in all the world.

Winter Days and Celebrations

I've started writing this post 4 times now.  No matter how hard I tried, every word was wrong.  I wasn't writing about anything profound, but found myself getting whiny and complaining and that's not going to work.  I'll just say this:  I'm cold!  There, that should do it.

This sweet love thought I had lost it one day when I bundled her up to take her outside.  She looked at me with absolute horror and then the wind took her breath away (literally) and we decided to head back inside.  Desperate times baby.  It was finally above 0 degrees, I had to get out, even if only for 2 minutes.

This little critter doesn't mind if she never steps foot outside.  After all, while the big kids are out freezing their tails off, she has free-reign of their rooms.  She thought she would try out the Troll mask.  Scared?

Cold weather and an absentee, recital-gettin'-ready-for husband has made our days pretty long.  Someday I'll get to hear him play again, but it wasn't meant to be this time around so we planned a surprise "Daddy's-done-with-his-recital" party.  I love that we're a party just by ourselves.  

HIs recital is over and we're just about to start "birthday season".  We have 4 birthdays in the span of 2 1/2 weeks.  The exciting part?  Only one of those birthdays falls at the beginning of Lent (sorry for the reminder, but yes, Lent is really that close). I've had the first of those birthdays on Ash Wednesday before.  Of course, as always, I'll hold my sweet Felicity closer than ever on Mardi Gras, even if it isn't her birthday this year.  But, no need to go "there" just yet.  We'll just plug away, nurse these colds away, and wish the cold away!!!

More on Homeschooling- Curriculum Choices (What we're currently using)

First, my opinion about choosing a curriculum.  Repeat after me, "Choose what works best for my family, choose what works best for my family, choose what works best for my family, etc..."  Got it?  Okay, I'll begin.....

Math:  All of my older children (7 and above) are using Math-U-See.  We've used this program for the past 2-3 years and I love it.  The kids watch a DVD, taught by Mr.Steve (that's what my kids call him...well, not to his face, it's a DVD..lol) and then they have workbook pages for that week.  I have them do two pages per day, plus a test page at the end and then they correct any mistakes on Friday.  We don't do grades in our family.  If it's wrong, they fix it.  If I notice on day one that a child is just not "getting it" then I watch the DVD with them and we work together.  

Why I Chose This:  I've used almost every Math program out there.  Math-U-See made the cut because it didn't require an enormous amount of my time.  I don't prep a Math lesson, Math is not a mom-lead subject anymore.  I needed to "farm out" this subject because we were spending way too much time on Math and I didn't feel like it needed to be that way.  Math is a short, sweet, and to-the-point subject.  The kids get their work done and we move on.  The one downfall about this that I've found so far is that I'm not always certain how the kids are supposed to be working out certain problems.  "Mr.Steve" uses a little bit different of a method than I grew up using so I have had to relearn in order to help the kids.  But, I'm really happy with this approach.  I don't plan on changing, just plugging away.

English: Okay, so I have a degree in English.  I minored in Education.  I don't teach English...at all.   To be fair, I should clarify that we have a heavy "language arts" homeschool.  When I say that I don't teach English I really mean that my kids aren't using workbooks that ask them to circle the nouns, verbs, etc...  From the time they were born I've read to them.  My awesome mentor, Amy (I've mentioned her before), really encouraged me to always read "above" the kids' level.  I try to read really good picture books when they are itty, bitty.  I am "that" mom that says, "Uh, no" when a child finds a "Dora" book at the library and wants to bring it home.  We read chapter books when they are small.  One of the first things we do during the day is spend a good amount of time reading aloud (Read-Aloud list will be posted soon-ish). I believe 100% that reading to your kids is one of the best investments of your time.  

*We are currently not using a writing program.  My kids are all writing books.  Books that I thought were just for fun, but have turned out to be really well written.  The kids take turns reading them to each other and to us.  We're all falling in love with the characters and can't wait to hear what comes next.

*I've used Andrew Pudewa's "Writing Intensive" for the older two and we really liked it.  It's another program that is taught by DVD.  Due mainly to budget reason (that darn chicken coop!) I didn't get anything this year.  It was a strong program, the kids liked it, I liked it.  "Bob" as the kids called him (they couldn't remember his name) reminded me a lot of my comp. teacher in high school.  I found editing their papers to be a little hard to keep up with, but I would use this program again for sure.  Except I want to try something else for next year, just because.  

History: "Connecting with History".  Love it.  This is a Catholic worldview history program.  It follows the Classical style of education's approach to history.  It's very heavily literature based.  Didn't use it this year because we are focussing on Scotland (since we're going there in a handful of months!), but we will use it again next year.  

Science: Noeo Science!  I can't say enough about this program.  Seriously.  I had tried every homeschool science program out there.  Nothing worked for us.  My kids hated science.  I hated science.  Noeo science uses a mix of non-fiction books and biographies to teach.  It also uses a Classical approach having 3 levels of 3 different "subjects".  For instance, we started with Biology 1 and Biology 2 two years ago, did Physics 1 and 2 last year, and are doing Chemistry 1 and 2 this year.  Next year, back to Biology, but it will be levels 2 and 3.  The kids keep a science notebook and do one or two pages for every day they do science.  They read the assigned pages, do the experiment if there is one (the materials for the experiments come with the program), and write or draw (or both!) what they learned.  

Spelling: Spelling Power. A neighbor told me about this program.  Instead of learning a list of words for a week and then having a test at the end of the week, this program has a daily test.  The words you spell correctly you "pass" for that day and the words you miss, you study using a specific technique.  The program does not repeat those words the next day, but rather it's designed so that the child will be spelling them again on a different day.  My oldest was such an awful speller that I have always had the kids repeat those words on the next day's test.  It works for us.  It's a solid program, takes about 5-10 minutes a day. 

What else do we do?  

-For "Ora Time" we start by reciting our "Sacred Heart" prayer, and read the daily Mass readings.  

-I have the kids memorizing different character qualities so we work on those.  I've been on the fence about this, really.  I like it for now though.  

-The kids practice piano every day.  For now Brett is teaching them (a benefit for having a Music Professor for a husband) and they are doing well.  

-Every once in awhile we memorize poems.  The kids did an "Oral Interp" style rendition of "The Children's Hour" and it was fun.  A couple weekends ago we memorized the last stanza of  "Address to the Haggis" by Robert Burns.  Have you ever tried simply reading Burns?  Did not have a clue how hard that was going to be.  The kids did better that I did.  

-The kids practice karate every day as well.  

-Every day after lunch is rest time around here.  Since we're all together all the time, I've found that it's really helpful for every one if we take a break from one another.  The kids either read or write or work quietly on something.  Occasionally I'll let the big kids work together on something while the little ones nap (and they nap at the same time which is a miracle because I'm not a big "sleep trainer" type mom).  The goal is that they are doing something alone.  Naptime around here can be bliss, really.  

****The more we develop our homeschool, the more we've become fans of the Classical approach to education.  I don't think we'd be seen as "hard core" classical educators, but we try to stick to that style as much as we can.  On tap for next year will be Latin!  We tried it once a long time ago and it was not going well.  We used "Prima Latina" because I had heard great things about it.  I think the program is solid, it just didn't work for us.  

To Recap:

Math: Math-U-See

English: Grammar is taught in the context of the kids' writing.  We've used "Institute for Excellence In Writing" and liked it.  

Spelling: Spelling Power

History:  Connecting with History

Science: Noeo

Oh, I could just talk about homeschool forever.  I really am happy with what we're doing for the most part.