So here are just some things that I don’t say.

Personal:

I love my family and friends all of the time, but sometimes I just don’t like some of them. Don’t tell me you haven’t ever felt the same.

It bothers me when people apologize for swearing. Swear, or don’t, but quit apologizing!

Strong opinions formed about something someone knows nothing about irritate the crap out of me.  I’m allowed to be irritated because I’ve done it.    I’m working on it

Sometimes I wish someone would tell me to shut up when I can’t stop yammering.

Apologies are way harder than people think sometimes.

I’ve been finding that reading the bible without thinking about how it lines up with this book that article and what so-and-so said, lovely, and that Christian life isn’t as complicated as some of us try to make it out to be if we leave people’s opinions out of it.  (okay, this is something I’ve said, but only to a dear friend recently)

Eating is less work than dieting and exercising.  I’m lazy.

Online:

I do facebook friend purges fairly regularly and reject friend requests often, for a variety of reasons, and have had the same done to me.  I don’t understand when people take it as a personal insult.

I block facebook apps without mercy.

I have alter egos on the internet.  Some for no better reason than because I can.  (Some of you knew me as an alter ego before knowing this part of me and the fact that you love “both of us” makes me smile. )

I’ve stopped reading “pretty and happy all of the time” blogs.

I’m an internet stalker.  It’s a sick but fascinating hobby.

What are some things that you don’t say?

The 3 oldest have worked alongside me long enough that they know how to do basic cleaning, so we’ve started a rotating schedule.  Nobody cleans the same room twice in a week.  This also means that at least once a week a room is going to look like it was cleaned by distracted 6 and 4 year olds, once by a 7 year old who pays more attention to detail than the big picture, and once by a 9 year old who can do a pretty good job overall, and once by me.   And yes, sometimes the room isn’t cleaned, it’s just picked up.  (The kitchen doesn’t fall into this category though, I just toss it in on top of my chores on those days)

In the kitchen hangs a list with the days of the week and chores after each name:

Monday

Mama: Kitchen

Prince Charming: Family Room, Shower (leave the bathroom the way you found it!)

Dexter: School Room

Little Miss Feisty and Pixie Girl: Bedrooms and Hallway

Tuesday

Mama: Bathrooms

Prince Charming: Laundry. Wash and dry sheets. Put them back on the beds.

Dexter: Kitchen, Shower (leave the bathroom the way you found it!)

Little Miss Feisty and Pixie Girl: Family Room

Wednesday:

Mama: School Room

Prince Charming: Bedrooms and Hallway

Dexter: Bathrooms

Little Miss Feisty and Pixie Girl: Your bedroom, Shower (leave the bathroom the way you found it!)

Thursday:

Mama: Family Room

Prince Charming: Kitchen, Shower (leave the bathroom the way you found it!)

Dexter: Bedrooms and Hallway

Little Miss Feisty and Pixie Girl: School Room

Friday:

Mama: Laundry Wash, dry, and fold clothes. Clean laundry room.

Prince Charming: Bathrooms

Dexter: Family Room, Shower (leave the bathroom the way you found it!)

Little Miss Feisty and Pixie Girl: Kitchen

Saturday:

Mama: Bedrooms and Hallway

Prince Charming: School Room

Dexter: Laundry. Wash and dry the towels and washcloths. Fold them and put them away.

Little Miss Feisty and Pixie Girl: Bathrooms, Shower (leave the bathroom how you found it!)

You might notice that the girls actually DO clean their room more than once in a week, but you haven’t seen it!  Putting 6, 3, and 2 year old girls into a 10×11 room can be disastrous!  One of those room cleaning days used to have them washing the cloth diapers instead (since those don’t need to be folded, just stacked), but we’ve been using disposables lately.

All of the laundry that the kids do are things that the machines can be set on “Kill” for, and I check the amount of soap before they put it in, so there’s really nothing they can do to mess it up.  They don’t need to know how to do various types of laundry or what all of the machine settings are for, they just know how to set the machines for their assigned load.  The sheets go straight from the bed to the machines then back on the beds 90 minutes later, so there’s no folding needed.  The towels are easy to fold and put away.

Yes, the kids showers are on there too, otherwise they tend to “forget”   And no, our kids don’t shower every day.  They’re rarely filthy (and when they are they get an extra shower), and they all have eczema, so they’re much less itchy with 2 showers a week and a quick wipe down with a damp washcloth in between.

In each room is a list of instructions (to be done in order) for how the room is to be cleaned.  That way it’s broken down into manageable steps for the kids, and it’s easy for anybody to check (like when Aunt Dani stays with the kids during chore time).   It’s usually taped to the inside of a cabinet door or another inconspicuous place.  The rule is that after breakfast they work on their chores as hard as they can, as fast as they can.  They don’t HAVE to finish the entire list to be done for the day.  Lunch is the end of chore time.  BUT, if they do finish, then any time left before lunch is free for them to do whatever they’d like.   An example of our lists is this one for the kitchen:

#1. Empty the dishwasher if the dishes are clean.

#2. Put dishes from the sink, counter, and stove, into the dishwasher.

Do NOT put mama’s black pans (cast iron) in the dishwasher. Mama will clean those later.

#3. Put soap in the dishwasher and run it ONLY if it is full. (the dishwasher being full has to be verified by a parent)

Push Normal Wash unless the dishes are very very very dirty.

If they are very very very dirty, then you can press Heavy Wash.

#3. Put any food left over into the refrigerator or the cabinet.

#4. Spray and wipe all of the counters.

#5. Spray and wipe the sink.

#6. Sweep the floor.

#7. Get a cleaning rag and spray and wipe any dirty spots on the floor and any water that got dripped.

#8. Put away the spray.

#9. Take the cleaning cloth to the laundry room and wash your hands.

#10. Hang up a clean kitchen towel.

So far this has kept the house up pretty well.  When we’re sick things can take a dive, but it gets caught up pretty quickly.

Spitfire just turned 2, and she toddles around with the person of her choosing and helps them out by putting things away in bedrooms, throwing things away, putting away silverware, or doing other little odd jobs.  Sometimes she’s given a damp cleaning cloth to wipe whatever surfaces her little heart desires (except for toilets of course ).

The kids don’t mop, but they do clean up any visible dirty marks on the floor.  Mopping happens on the day I clean, along with cleaning windows, cleaning out the fridge, and other things that kids aren’t old enough for yet.  Days that I don’t feel well it’s easy for Rob to tell who should have done what, and help them follow through on it.

Anyway, that’s what works for us!  I’d love to hear what works for you!

I will get your “day in the life” post done, Kristy, but I called school off for next week.  So hopefully the week after   I do have another post plan for before it though.  Yay me, I have a plan!  LOL

Be sure to stay tuned in to exgoatmilker.wordpress.com next week too.  I’m sure she’ll have the results of Peep Wars 2011.

“7 thousands + 6 hundreds + 3 tens + 4 ones = ____ + ____+ _____+____=___________”  is the first problem on the page.  I scan his answers and try not to sigh.

“7 thousands + 6 hundreds + 3 tens + 4 ones = 7 + 6 + 3 + 4 = 20″  I give him a wink and tell him that his math for the answers he’s given is sound, but the numbers that he’s written down don’t match what the book has asked for.  Place value is important.  The tears begin to fall down his face, dripping over the peanut butter smudge that he forgot to wash off of his face earlier.  He moans that the spaces are too small to write his numbers and I agree that they do seem small for the number of digits needed.  It’s even harder when you write your numbers so very large.  But they must be written, and so we’ll do our best to make do with what we’ve got.  His frustration rises and he goes to the next room to calm himself.

A few minutes later he comes out smiling and ready to try again.  He carefully writes his numbers on the lines with his tongue poking out of one side of his mouth.  His pencil pressed so hard against the paper the first time that they numbers, though erased, are just as visible as they were before.  His new numbers are so closely crammed together that they are barely legible.  Yet I can tell that he’s erased them at least once in between to do his best to make them fit.

“7 thousands + 6 hundreds + 3 tens + 4 ones = 7000 + 600 + 30 + 4 = 1334″

This time I can’t help it.  I let the sigh out.  He overhears it and the tears start again.  He’s sure he’s right.  He’s written down the numbers and added them together.  But somehow that 7 ended up above the 6 instead of one place over…

I write the numbers into a vertical addition problem, reminding him to be careful that the place values line up properly.  He leans over my shoulder, bits of candy stuck on his shirt wafting up the scent of chocolate, to watch me write the numbers and look at how to line them up.  He goes back to his desk with my written out problem and returns proudly.  “I did it this time!” he happily declares as the book crashes down on the arm of my chair.  I pick up the book, sure that he’s correct.

“7 thousands + 6 hundreds + 3 tens + 4 ones = 7000 + 600 + 30 + 4 = 4367″

I’m not even sure that I can break it to him.  He’s still smiling and waiting.  “Buddy…”  This time he’s the one to sigh.  He checks his work, then explains to me that he’s correct.  He shows me the problem that I wrote out and his correct answer.  I agree with him, that he did write his answer correctly there.  Yet he copied it down completely backwards in his math book.  He half laughs because it’s funny but it happens often enough that it’s losing its humor.

We repeat the above process for the next 3 problems in that section.  Only 29 more math problems to go!

Relieved to be done with those 4 pesky problems, he sits down to complete the rest of the page.  Multiplication is new and fun and he gets it done quickly.  He comes thumping back across the house to me.  I try not to giggle that he’s forgotten to zip up his pants, again, remembering the songs I learned in school to sing at kids that did the same and glad that he hasn’t ever been subjected to them.  I check his work and give him a high five for getting them all correct.

On to the next problem.  An image of four $5 bills is shown and he’s asked to write the total.  He begins flipping backwards through his book.  I ask him what he’s doing, and he says that he’s looking for the lesson that taught him to count money.  I stop him and ask him how much money four $5 bills is.  He answers “Twenty dollars” yet continues to look for that past lesson.  I stop him again and explain to him that he doesn’t need the past lesson.  He knows the answer.  He only needs to write it down.  Aggravated at me, he writes down his answer, nearly breaking his pencil from writing so hard.  Our pencil sharpener lives a hard life.

Now the next problem, four $10 bills.  Again he begins turning pages to find past lessons.  I ask him what the total is of the cash pictured.  He answers “Forty dollars” and the page turning goes on.  I tell him that he can look for that lesson as long as he wants… AFTER he writes down his answer.  He writes it down and continues to look for that lesson, finally finding it and fulfilling whatever unknown need it was to see it.

He decides to complete his lesson on the ottoman, not 10 feet from us.  The kids have left out their rugs that they sit on to watch television, leaving colored polka-dots in a random pattern across the floor.  He jumps from one to another, then another, he can’t stop now, he just keeps going.  He lands with a thud as one of them slides out from under him.  Standing up he starts back on the rug he’d been on previously and lands on the rebel rug conquering it.  Proudly he struts off to work on the next few math problems.  He pauses between each problem to tell me something about a game he likes to play, or a new Lego set that he wants.  Then runs off to show them to me in a catalog.  After what seems like ages, he comes back across the rugs the same way he came, taking 10 minutes to cross the space of the room.  I scan his work and hand it back to him with another high five.

He does his rug island hop across the room, only one section left to answer.  This time he settles on the floor behind a chair.  He sits back there talking to himself.  He can carry on entire conversations without anyone listening in.  His communication skills will take him far if they don’t get him into too much trouble first.  I lose it and yell at him to stop talking and get his work done.  He’s SO CLOSE!  At last he hop-skip-jumps across the room.  This time cheating by sliding one of the rugs a bit because it’s now slid too far from the others.  I check his answers.  His numbers are the height of half of my finger and nearly as wide as they are tall, yet somehow he’s managed to fit them all on the line given.

I struggle to read his answers, remembering a teacher in school that used to do the same for my own work, then crumple it up, throw it in the trash, and tell me to redo the entire lesson again.  This happy-go-lucky child would never make it through the public school system.  Not without becoming completely broken down and bitter.  I can only imagine the notes home from the teacher.

I give him another high five.  He’s finished his lesson.  It’s now 4:30 in the afternoon.  He moves on to his next subject, but not before racing around the room and stopping to tell me something he wants to check out the next time we’re at the store.  He has handwriting next but his pencil has disappeared again.  Nevermind that in the next room is a gross of brand new pencils.  None of them are his pencil and the search must continue until it’s found.  At last it’s recovered and his handwriting is completed.  He can do better, but I have no more energy left.  It’s good enough today.

He reads his bible and a book on the California Gold Rush next.  As he reads learns how to use the dictionary and to pronounce hard words like tabernacle and Mokelumne.  After struggling to learn the basics of phonics for so long, I’m glad that he’s determined to tackle these books and look up difficult words.  He’s so proud of what he’s overcome that he asks to read out loud.  I should be cooking dinner now, but he still has 3 chapters to go and the sizzling of the pans on the stove is nearly impossible for him to focus through.  He’s a growing boy and food of any kind is a distraction.

I don’t have the patience to homeschool.  I don’t.  Some people might, but not me.  I wish I did.  It wasn’t until I wrote this post out that I saw myself in that little boy.  Asking God for help through the lesson of patience.  Sighing, rolling my eyes, yelling, and each time my own Father saying “Okay, let’s try it again.  You can do this!”   One day I’m gonna get the most awesome high five ever!

Yes, we’re wimps.  Here in our part of California if one drop of water falls from the heavens we get “stormwatch” updates every 30 minutes on the radio and television for the rest of the day.  However while one part of our state may be sunny and warm another may be experiencing snowstorms!  This year, after a week of storms, we headed up, up, up, into the mountains.  Our weather deprived children wanted to experience snow.  Why, I have no idea.  My goal in life is to never live anywhere that gets snow.  So far I’ve been successful.

Anyway, up, up, up we went.  Hours upon hours of driving, and, oh yeah, we didn’t tell the kids where we were headed!   We stopped for lunch in a town where, if you looked carefully, you could see little blobs of white in tree shadows.  Then on and on we drove some more, finally coming to the first snow park we’d seen listed online.  We were pretty sure we wouldn’t stop there, due to some bad reviews, but figured that it was worth a shot…

We exited the freeway and turned onto the 2 lane road.  Well… what was usually a 2 lane road.  Instead it was a 1 lane road with cars parked on either side of it.  As we crept up the snowy hill we noticed what the reviewers had mentioned.  Most of the park was now private property.  So we decided to leave.  That was easier said than done.  We were on the side of a hill, with no chains, on a road that had not been cleared properly, and our wheels started spinning…  And spinning, and spinning, and spinning.  There was no way to get further up the hill to turn around, and there were cars parked on either side of us, and by now other cars had also stopped to check out the snow park, so there was a line of 4 cars behind us!  But we had no choice, so Rob threw the big ol’ 12 passenger van into reverse and started creeping down the hill.  One by one the cars behind us realized that if they ever wanted to get anywhere they’d have to back up too.  So one by one everyone backed back down the hill until we could leave.  So we got back on the highway and headed further up the mountain.

Good mother that I am, I made sure that every potty trained child had used the restroom before we left home.  Then checked again when we’d stopped for lunch.  But now we were in the mountains, moving further and further away from civilization, and I had to go!  We followed signs to a gas station and I hopped out, along with half of the kids.  Off on the other side of the parking lot was a man with a sign saying “Tubing here!”, so my husband went off to see how much they’d charge us to go play in the snow there.

I stopped inside the gas station to buy gloves for the kids and a sled to haul the 2 littles around in.  (I hate using the restroom at a place of business without buying something, especially if it’s a remarkably clean restroom!)  Then we slipped and slid our way across the icy parking lot back to the van.  I asked Rob how much the guy wanted, then we both laughed hysterically at his “$10 to park and $8 per person not including tube rental.” as we pulled back onto the freeway.  More driving, driving, driving.  Our children, who had begged to go play in the snow for months, were now losing hope.  My husband knew where he was headed now though, so we kept driving with the promise that at the next stop they could go play!

We finally pulled off of the freeway, and after a quick stop to buy a parking permit, we were finally there!  The 4 oldest had on their layers and coats before I could even pull my boots on, and were headed up the snowy hill to check out the snow park!  Rob, awesome dad that he is, introduced them to snow by pelting them with snowballs as soon as they stepped out of the car!  I stayed behind with Spitfire and Mr. Personality to get them bundled up.  20 minutes later, after being absolutely certain that they were wearing enough layers to keep them from bending their arms and legs, I wrapped Mr. Personality in a couple of blankets and laid him in the sled.  He thought it was GREAT!  He laid there and laughed at the pine trees and the sounds of the kids playing.  Then I sat Spitfire in the sled.  She shrieked as if I’d just set her on fire and would. not. stop.  Of course if she was crying something must be wrong, so Mr. Personality started up too!  So Rob grabbed her and I grabbed him, and we headed up the hill hauling an empty sled.

At the top of the hill the boys were throwing snowballs, Little Miss Feisty was running aimlessly and laughing, and Pixie Girl was rolling, sliding, and wallowing in the snow.  She was determined to have as much contact with the snow as possible.

Rob tried to set Spitfire down at the top of the hill.  Dressed in her 87 layers of clothing, and her knee-high waterproof boots, she refused to stand in the snow.  Nope.  Not happenin’!

The boys grabbed the sled and headed down the slope first.  They laughed the whole way down, and laughed even harder when their sled tipped over and they were dumped over the side!  Little Miss Feisty and Pixie Girl thought that looked great!  So they hopped on the sled next, with their daddy in the back to keep things under control, and down the hill they went, screaming and laughing the whole way!  I was next, and deciding that there was no way she could possibly cry any harder, I popped Spitfire onto the sled in front of me and away we went!  She was not amused!

Rob met me at the bottom of the hill to hand Mr. Personality to me.  The older 2 girls wanted to go down the hill again.  They got away from us though.  Before he could even start back up the hill to go with them, the 2 girls were sledding down the hill on their own!  The snow was well packed on this hill, which made for fast sledding.  Combine that with the fact that both of my girls combined weigh maybe 75 pounds and their hands and feet were completely inside the sled.  This means that there was no drag…  My two little girlies, all by themselves, came rocketing down that hill like lightening!  They didn’t ever slow down, they just came to a screeching halt as the front of their sled plowed into a bump in the snow flinging Pixie Girl headlong into a snowbank!  She was less than impressed with snow at that point.  Brushing the snow off of her scraped up face, and out of her hair and mouth, she tried her best to recover, and soon she was headed with the boys to a longer, but less steep, sled track.

Up that hill we went, first the boys, then the girls, then Rob with Mr. Personality, then me carrying Spitfire.  I got halfway up that hill before the boys sat on the sled and from all appearances seemed to be ready to push off and come hurtling down the hill at me!  No problem, I thought, I’ll just step to the side a little and move out of their…

That’s about as far as I got in the thought process before my foot and leg sank into the snow.  With both arms holding Spitfire I had no choice but to just let myself fall and hope that my leg wouldn’t snap.  I’m pretty sure that I almost died that way once before when I was little.  I’d gone behind a rock, for reasons that any child would go behind a rock while on a trip to the snow with no restrooms nearby, and taken a step off of a tree branch that I had no idea had been hidden under all of that snow!  Down I’d sunk between branches, screaming, until a family friend who was nearby pulled me out.  I was a lot smaller then.  I knew that sinking into the snow now my family would just leave me to die.  So I sunk, and I fell, and Spitfire screamed even louder, and I prayed that my leg wouldn’t snap as my foot twisted sideways between branches of a pine tree, and then I landed.  I laid there half upside-down on the side of the sled track and laughed so hard!  My husband and children (boys still on the sled) stood at the top of the hill staring down at me and that made me laugh even harder!  Spitfire laid on my chest with a death grip on my arms and would NOT let go, so there was no way for me to move, and I began laughing so hard that I could barely breathe!

I finally pried her off of me and extricated myself, then swung her back up onto one hip and trudged the rest of the way up the hill.  Now Pixie Girl was crying too.  Somehow during all of that she’d managed to get her boots full of snow.  Between that, the forced tasting of snow, and seeing the frozen landscape try to eat her mother alive, she was done.  She’d had enough.  No amount of reminders of how much fun she’d been having would console her.  I turned to ask Little Miss Feisty if she was ready for her turn to sled and found her crying too.  The adrenaline had worn off, reality had finally hit, and she realized that her -5% body-fat was causing her to slowly freeze to death through her 75 layers of completely dry clothing.  At some point during all of this I’d set Spitfire in the snow and Mr. Personality had been handed back to me.  Rob and the boys trekked off to find taller, faster, steeper hills, and I stood with the cryers.  Mr. Personality was now crying too.  If everyone else was then that was a good enough reason for him to start!

So there we stood at the top of hill #2, 4 crying and me trying to explain to people that they really were fine.  I decided to take them all back to the car, where the screams would be contained.  Down the hill we step-slid-slogged, me in front with Mr. Personality, dragging Spitfire along by one arm (she had been convinced long before that the snow had rendered her incapable of moving), with Pixie Girl and Little Miss Feisty close behind.  Rob met us at the bottom and helped us up and over the snowbank to our car as I watched my boys climbing up, up, up, up, up, the side of a mountain that their mother would never let them climb up, or slide down, on their own!  After all, they might step off a branch and be lost forever!  Two or three times I pointed to my 2 little boys, who were rapidly becoming specks on the side of a mountain and asked if Rob knew they were that far up there.  “They’re okay” was the only answer I ever got back.  I finally stopped asking when he began heading in their direction.  At least if they sunk he’d know where they dropped and we could start searching the trees there during the spring thaw!

I got in the car and began peeling layers of wet clothing off of the little ones and dressing them in dry clothes.  They continued to scream the entire time.  I got them all into their carseats and the screaming continued.  Finally I remembered the bag of M&M’s Rob bought me at a gas station on the way up the mountain, so I started divvying those up.  It didn’t silence them, but it did bring the wailing down to a dull roar.

We sat in the car on the side of the road and watched the cars go by and after a while our manly men came over the hill.  Dexter was now crying because as soon as the fun was over he realized just how cold and wet he was!  After they’d changed (huge vans with dark windows are wonderful!), we headed back down, down, down, the mountain.  All but Prince Charming as determined as their mama to never ever live anywhere that there’s snow!

Mission accomplished!

Beth said:

I would love to hear your thoughts on homeschooling curriculum!

Teaching our kids to read we used no curriculum. I used a white board and a dry erase marker. Instead of learning the names of the letters we learned the sounds. I started with “T” and the short “A” sounds. From there we learned other letters that could be placed in front, so right away they were reading which really encouraged them and made them excited to learn more. On days when cabin fever was setting in I’d have them race to see who was fastest bringing me something that started with whichever letter I called out. At the end of every phonics lesson we’d go around taking turns saying a word that started with each letter of the alphabet (Me “Apple”, Prince Charming “Ball”, Dexter “Cat”, etc.)

When they had the basic sounds down we added the Bob books and the Victory Drill book. The Victory Drill book is just lists of words. They each got 3 minutes and we would see how many words they read correctly in that amount of time (I never stopped them or corrected them during those 3 minutes, we did that afterward). It became quite a competition! They would learn letter combination sounds as we came across them in those books. We read through the first 3 sets in the Bob series, then graduated to picture books until they decided that they were ready for chapter books. From time to time they read aloud to us now and we correct pronunciation, but for the most part they’re independent readers!

Many people start introducing set subjects to learn shortly after reading is established (and sometimes before). We’re still not there yet, but we will be adding that in soon. Right now we would rather they learn to love reading than worry about whether or not they are covering every subject. So on top of math and handwriting we require 3 things per day. 1 chapter of bible reading (NIV pew bibles since they’re nice and sturdy, plus the pages are thicker than other bibles), 1 chapter of a fiction book of their choosing (or a set number of pages in books without chapters), and one chapter (or a set number of pages) of a non-fiction book of their choosing.  Occasionally one of them will start a book and find it either too difficult (The 5 year old choosing a biography on Sacagawea ) or not as exciting as they hoped it would be. That’s okay! We just shelve it for a while and choose something else.

For math we use Horizon’s Math by Alpha Omega publishing. I’ve found it inexpensively through christianbook.com. The lessons are very well laid out and repeat just enough to grasp a concept without becoming boringly repetitive.  Click the links below for a larger image.  The photos (in order of appearance) are from 1st grade book 1, 2nd grade book 1, and 2nd grade book 2 respectively.

The pages are colorful and interesting without being distracting. While the concepts in the books are well ahead of what I remember learning at my kids ages, the books blend the concepts together so easily that we haven’t had any difficulties. I’m looking forward to some of the higher math and maybe finally getting a grasp on the things I never could figure out when I was in school! (we used Saxon growing up, which I refuse to use with my own kids.  It was torture!)

For handwriting our kids all use “A Reason for Handwriting” They all LOVE it! We’re currently in the kindergarten book and Manuscript A. The kindergarten book begins with just practicing straight and curvy lines, then moves on to practicing one letter per lesson and includes one coloring page. Instead of doing that I break the lesson up over the course of two days (because she takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R to color sometimes ). Manuscript A has 4 lessons per week, with 2-3 words per lesson.

On the fourth day the words practiced are given in a bible verse to copy onto a coloring sheet.   Once I’ve checked their work then they get to color the page.

My husband and I both used this growing up and remember enjoying it, and our kids do too! (Okay, so as much as someone can enjoy handwriting practice )

For a while we used this great (and free!) resource for spelling lists: http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/, but right now we just correct spelling mistakes as we run across them.

For P.E. we either kick our kids outside, on not-so-pleasant days they join me doing my exercises, or we’ll use the Tony and the Kids workout DVD.  My kids LOVE the DVD.  Where else will you ever find a grown man acting completely insane like a little kid?  There are several exercises including pretending to be a surfer, a ninja, and a bunny. Our only complaint on it has come from Dexter who was disappointed in not looking like Tony Horton after completing the workout for the first time.   While the exercises are good for all ages I wouldn’t recommend this video for older kids.  Even my 7 and 8 year old’s think it’s over the top silly sometimes   We’ve also used the Wii Fit and Biggest Loser exercise games on occasion.

I think that about covers it for what we use!  The most important thing is to do what works for you and your own kids.  It keeps homeschooling enjoyable for everyone.

**Living in California our homeschool laws are not nearly as restrictive as they are in many states, so our way of homeschooling may not be legal where you live. You can check your own homeschool laws at the Home School Legal Defense Association website.**

Hmmmm….. A little underexposed… Just a sec…

TOO BRIGHT!!!

Do you have any idea how hard this is???

So, as I was saying, my name’s Mr. Personality. I like to drink. I like to drool. Sometimes I pass out on the floor.

Okay, let’s be honest, I drink a LOT and usually pass out on the floor. Sometimes more than once in 24 hours.

Sometimes I just lay there on my back yelling until someone comes to help me.

Ummm… yeah…

So…

Oh! Hey! I heard a great joke the other day! It made me laugh so hard that I wet my pants! (that happens often)

It went “Shake your boot leg! Shake your boot leg! Boot leg to the ground!”

Guess you had to be there…

I’d like you to meet my second cousin three times removed Gladys!

Gladys was allowed out to visit with the family because she reached a new milestone!  She put both socks on all by herself!

(Yes, we also noticed that they didn’t match,but we can accept that and love her anyway.)

Gladys bears a striking resemblance to my sister Dani…

But Gladys just doesn’t have moves like this…