Our Little Ones

It is a challenge for a homeschool family to educate the children while the younger ones need constant attention.

Our 4 year old (since September) L, is doing preschool work and is doing very well. This is how she draws a picture of me:

This is how she writes the word "eight". I just think it's too cute how she writes her g's, and her e's are circles with a straight line in the middle. I love how she really dots those i's and they looks like little lollipops. 

L can spell many words, like the names of the people in her family. She is especially good at spelling Mommy, Daddy, and her own name. She writes them so well, I am so impressed! I can tell she will catch onto reading very soon, perhaps within the year, before she turns 5.

When we do our studies, J just crawls around and plays. He is quite curious as babies should be. But we've had to lock a lot of supplies away that once were out in the open. He is eager to grab anything interesting. This makes it a bit of a challenge for our day to go along smoothly.

The older kids love this baby though, they love to see him learn and explore and are eager to help him. Our oldest, W, set J up on the piano bench and let him pound on the keys. J LOVED it. He has a very serious look on his face in this picture, but he is enjoying himself. He is just a very serious baby.

We set up a Christmas tree in our school room. I hope to be able to make some fun ornaments with the kids when we take a long break for Christmas and New Years. 

Merry Christmas to all!

Education in Politics

First of all, the weather here has been very mild. One of our science lessons requested we sit outside, I'm glad we were able to do that. I'd like to see some moisture but it doesn't look like that's coming anytime soon. Meanwhile, we still get to play outside without being too cold. 

We went to a political rally in Salt Lake at the State Capitol last Monday. I couldn't avoid taking the kids so it turned into a homeschool field trip. :) The State of Utah's citizens are having a political quandary over the presidential election. For some reason they find it so very difficult to cast a vote against Hillary and for Trump and find that a candidate named McMullin can give them that clear conscience they're looking for. McMullin isn't even on the ballot in about 20 states but he's telling Utahans that if they vote for him they can make it impossible for Clinton or Trump to win the needed 270 votes, and send the vote to congress where congress will vote for HIM. He has also expressly stated that his determination is to keep Trump from winning (and thus basically asserting that a Clinton victory is a better thing.) In case you're telling yourself, "That can't be!" Yes, it's true, people actually believe this guy who - even if he were a legitimate possibility for president - is a terrible candidate politically. For awhile McMullin was ahead in the polls so Trump supporters in Utah banded together and set up rallies and town halls to educate people about the McMullin movement and try to get people to go out and vote for Trump. When the one in Salt Lake came up I had to go. The kids were excited to go with me and even shouted "Go Trump" a couple of times. I hope to find more opportunities like this to teach my kids about their civic duty to vote and become educated and to educate others through our first amendment right. With all that is at stake this election, I thought this was an important opportunity for them. No matter the outcome of this election, I want them to know their mom believes in the right things and loves America!

Seeping cell

In the mornings W and I read and study scriptures in our library. Our cat Luke just loves to steal the attention and W takes the bait.

The weather has been great lately, so we've been doing some of our subjects outside in the shade. It's really nice and I recommend it for people with busy babies. Our baby could just roam as he pleased and he loves the stop and play with the grass and he was easy to keep an eye on (no furniture in the way to block my view). Whenever the weather is nice we try to take advantage of this.

W constructed a 3 dimensional cell replica. The book called for use of Plaster of Paris. I didn't have the stuff and I didn't want to buy it. So I looked up online if there were ingredients I had at home that would suffice. Many websites had an alternative of 1 part water to 2 parts flour. This seemed to worke quite nicely. We put together our cell and set it out to dry up. It seemed to take a long time to dry up. After about 3 or 4 days it started dripping down the side because I had lifted one side the night before to check it's "dryness". I think that let some air in and then the air tried to escape bringing gobs of the stuff dripping out the side. I waited to see if it would stop and it did that dripping thing for another day. Eventually the oozing stopped and it still looked decent so I decided to let it keep "drying out". Eventually it started to smell really bad. I turned the bowl and saw a clearish green puddle forming in one spot. I asked W if I could just throw the thing out. He said that was okay. I figured, even though it took us probably 3 hours to make the thing together, we could just do it again if we really wanted to. I took it out of the bowl and put it immediately into an old bread bag, tied it up and had it disposed of outside. Underneath the bowl was a slimy clearish green film that I had to wipe up (with an antibacterial wipe of course). It was disgusting! Lesson learned, and note to self: just use Plaster of Paris next time - don't always believe the internet.

E is also learning about cells. This is HER version of constructing a cell, a plant cell and an animal cell. The "chloroplasts" are suppose to be green grapes and not red - I messed up. But I think what saved me was me telling her, "pretend these are green". Ha ha! 

We had the chance to attend an event for Constitution Day with the author David Barton. It was great! I learned many new things. The most interesting thing to me was to learn that America is the only country in the world that has had only ONE constitution, and other countries that have had a constitution have had many, 10 or more. This is God's country for sure, those founding fathers created a solid and inspired country. May He protect it through the right choices of it's citizens.

W was the only child that came with us. His friend was the one who invited him and then we just tagged along. He actually listened the whole time and I was amazed. I know he paid attention because he remembered and picked up a lot more than I did. Ha ha.

Plot Study

Our first week of school, W had a science lesson that involved staking out a plot for a plot study. I noticed in E's science text that it also required her to do a plot study, but for the next week. I decided that I would just catch E up to the plot study lesson so we could do this all together. So we ventured out one Wednesday afternoon, packed a lunch and some water, put on some hats, and walked for quite awhile, probably 1.5 miles. L, my 3 yo was having such a hard time. It was very hot and she wanted to be carried, which of course I couldn't do because I had to push a stroller.

We stopped halfway to eat lunch and battled some wasps. The baby was happy and calm and enjoyed the view.

The kids had their worksheets and observed life for about 15 minutes. The walk back was worse than the walk there. Just too hot! Ha ha! But that's okay, I really feel like it was a great bonding experience as a family. I know it will be a memory for the rest of the lives.

I post about this simple activity because it's just one reason I love homeschooling my kids. It forces us to get out and do stuff together LEARNING. Not just going to the park and playing, but actually learning together.

First day of school 2016-17

Today was our first official day! I tried to get a cute pic of the kids and there were more funny ones than anything. My kids are silly, but good little people.

Back to school night

We decided to have a back-to-school night for the children. It was a huge success. We summarized for them what subjects we'd focus on. We showed them the books they'd be learning out of and they were excited about them and asked lots of questions. We told them how they'd be learning out of the books. We also gave them an orientation on how things will be structured, how they'll be accountable to their mom and grandma and how to organize their work.

In between the official stuff we would stop to play some fun minute-to-win-it games.

Unrolling toilet paper

Tossing ping pong balls into cups

Tossing marshmallows into cups

 We also counted ten coins that equal one dollar and put them in paper bags

And of course we had candy

 After we were all done we had a fun dinner of what the kids like to call "homemade Lunchables". Because I don't like to buy them Lunchables (since they have such little quality nutritional value), I make them this sometimes because they like the style and theme of a Lunchable type meal.

The kids really loved it, W has been saying how much he loved it; a couple times last night and a few this morning.

Monday will be our first day. It will be a challenging and interesting year, but the one thing that keeps my mind eased is the fact that we can take this whole thing however we want. We can relax and take it easy and not be rushed by a schedule of the day and be distracted by 30 other kids. I hope to stick to the work schedule because I'm just a schedule person, but it's nice that we choose not to have so many things going on and we can really focus on their learning for the whole day.

As School Starts

As school starts up for everyone there are a lot of back to school pictures of people's kids and I really love seeing them. I like that parents are proud of their kids and making note of their progress. It's also fun to be a virtual witness to how fast my friends' kids are growing up. It's crazy!

I have seen a couple of posts on Facebook that disturbed me a little though. They aren't posts that my friends posted or shared, they are just one of those posts that show up in my newsfeed as "[so-and-so] likes [such-and-such news channel]" and then it will show that news channel's sponsored Facebook post. The ones that I'm referring to happen to be about parents posting back-to-school pictures for some contest or drawing they were sponsoring, and the ones that won. The photos that won were photos where the parent is celebrating their kids going back to school as a means to get rid of their child, and of course it's being passed off as funny. I just don't think it's funny at all. One in particular showed a woman with her little girl, the woman looking completely overjoyed holding a bottle of wine and a wine glass with perfectly manicured fingernails, and the girl looking sad or angry (I couldn't tell what the posed emotion was honestly) with her arms folded wearing her cute new clothes and backback. Something else in the photo made it appear as if the woman were planning to sip her wine while taking a bath. The mom was also holding a sign that said, "So long [girl's name]!" or something to that effect.

Let's think, also, about the message that sends to the husbands and fathers.

I could really go on about how sad I think it is, this picture, and also for society by the fact that a news media outlet would be promoting the notion that there's something okay about portraying your incredible enjoyment over getting rid of your kid for 6 to 8 hours a day five days a week right to their face.  But I won't, I'll spare you, because I think that one sentence I just constructed sums up my feelings about it. I'll just ad this: Poor child.

There is a difference between being proud of your children and excited for their learning adventures and viewing the public school system as a means to get rid of your child so you don't have to deal with them for half their childhood. They're still your kid, get involved, volunteer at the school, lobby to make changes that you think are good for your child! Parents need to be more involved. I'd love for my children to grow up in a world where parents care about their kids education. There is a difference between needing a break from your children now and then and basically telling them you can't wait to have them gone, away from you, the one who birthed them and chose to have and keep them. I just don't get it. Even if you think it, why would you tell it to your kid?

On that same note I do find myself completely confused by people who choose to send their children off to public school (again, NOT CONDEMNING THIS CHOICE) and then are surprised when the government steps in and demands personal data, or tries to dictate medical choices, or family life. This really should be EXPECTED when you choose a form of education run by the government, it should not be a surprise or a shock at all. Do something about it! Stop the madness, don't sit idly by and be upset while conceding to it. Talk to your law-makers, opt-out, get your education degree and get a job at the district, run for office. Take a stand. They're your children and if this stuff angers you, make it known and don't accept it. If you believe in the public school system enough to send your precious minds there, then don't accept anything less than the best. And if you're already following my pleas I admire you so much! I'm not strong enough to do that, that's why I just take it all into my own hands for my own kids.

However I'm praying for the public education system all the time. It matters for our world what happens in those schools. All children deserve the best education. Otherwise, I don't want to think what the heck is gonna happen to our world in 20 years?

The Story of the World Volume 1 & 2 36 week schedule

As I was trying to get ready for the new year, I found it a bit difficult to get a 36 week schedule out of The Story of the World Volume 1 for E. I did search online for one and found some, but they weren't really what I wanted. After many weeks I finally decided that I would just sit down and put one together myself. I will post it here for anyone else that is looking for something similar and save you the trouble.

TSOTW has 42 chapters, so doing one chapter per week would put you well into summer break. What I did here is put the chapters that have only one section with a chapter following it or preceding it for the corresponding week.

We'll see if this works. If it doesn't work well, I'll have to adjust the schedule as I go. I'd like to come back to this post and mention any thing we had to adjust. Sometimes a certain topic might be really worth diving into more and spending more time on.

Volume 1 Ancients

Week	Chapters to cover
1	Introduction: How Do We Know What Happened? - 1. What is History? 2. What is Archeology?
2	Chapter 1: The Earliest People – 1. The First Nomads 2. The First Nomads Become Farmers
3	Chapter 2: Egyptians Lived on the Nile River – 1. Two Kingdoms Become One 2. God’s of Ancient Egypt. Chapter 3: The First Writing 1. Hieroglyphs and Cuneiform
4	Chapter 4: The Old Kingdom of Egypt 1. Making Mummies 2. Egyptian Pyramids Chapter 5: The First Sumerian Dictator 1. Sargon and the Akkadians
5	Chapter 6: The Jewish People 1. God Speaks to Abraham 2. Joseph Goes to Egypt Chapter 7: Hammurabi and the Babylonians 1. Hammurabi’s Code
6	Chapter 8: The Assyrians 1. Shamshi-Adad, King of the Whole World 2. The Story of Gilgamesh
7	Chapter 9: The First Cities of India 1. The River-Road 2. The Mystery of Mohenjo-Daro
8	Chapter 10: The Far East: Ancient China 1. Lei Zu and the Silkworm 2. The Pictograms of Ancient China 3. Farming in Ancient China
9	Chapter 11: Ancient Africa 1. Ancient Peoples of West Africa 2. Anansi and Turtle 3. Anansi and the Make-Believe Food
10	Chapter 12: The Middle Kingdom of Egypt 1. Egypt Invades Nubia 2. The Hyskos Invade Egypt
11	Chapter 13: The New Kingdom of Egypt 1. The General and the Woman Pharaoh 2. Amenhotep and King Tut
12	Chapter 14: The Israelites Leave Egypt 1. The Baby Moses 2. The Exodus From Egypt
13	Chapter 15: The Phoenicians 1. Phoenician Traders 2. The Founding of Carthage
14	Chapter 16: The Return of Assyria 1. Ashurbanipal’s Attack 2. The Library of Ninevah
15	Chapter 17: Babylon Takes Over Again! 1. Nebuchadnezzar’s Madness 2. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
16	Chapter 18: Life in Early Crete 1. Bull-Jumpers and Sailors 2. King Minos and the Minotaur 3. The Mysterious End of the Minoans
17	Chapter 19: The Early Greeks 1. The Mycenaeans 2. The Greek Dark Ages
18	Chapter 20: Greece Gets Civilized Again 1. Greece Gets and Alphabet 2. The Stories of Homer 3. The First Olympic Games
19	Chapter 21: The Medes and the Persians 1. A New Empire 2. Cyrus the Great
20	Chapter 22: Sparta and Athens 1. Life in Sparta 2. Life Athens Chapter 23: The Greek Gods 1. The Golden Apple
21	Chapter 24: The Wars of the Greeks 1. Greece’s War with Persia 2. The Greeks Fight Each Other
22	Chapter 25: Alexander the Great 1. Philip and His Son 2. Alexander’s Invasions 3. The Death of Alexander
23	Chapter 26: The People of the Americas 1. The Nazca Drawings 2. The Heads of the Olmecs 3. Rabbit Shoots the Sun
24	Chapter 27: The Rise of Rome 1. Romulus and Remus 2. The Power of Rome
25	Chapter 28: The Roman Empire 1. The Roman Gods 2. The Roman Builders 3. The Roman Gladiators 4. The Gladiator School
26	Chapter 29: Rome’s War With Carthage 1. The Punic Wars
27	Chapter 30: The Aryans of India 1. Life on the Ganges River 2. The Castes of Ancient India 3. Siddhartha
28	Chapter 31: The Mauryan Empire of India 1. The Empire United 2. The Jakata Tales
29	Chapter 32: China: Writing and the Qin 1. Calligraphy in China 2. Warring States 3. The First Emperor and the Great Wall 4. The First Emperors Grave
30	Chapter 33: Confucius 1. China’s Wise Teacher Chapter 34: The Rise of Julius Caesar 1. Caesar Is Kidnapped 2. The Consuls of Rome 3. Caesar and the Senate
31	Chapter 35: Caesar the Hero 1. Caesar Fights the Celts 2. Caesar Crosses the Rubicon 3. Caesar and Cleopatra 4. The Death of Caesar
32	Chapter 36: The First Roman Prince 1. Augustus Caesar Chapter 37: The Beginning of Christianity 1. The Birth of Jesus 2. Jesus Crucified and Resurrected
33	Chapter 38: The End of the Ancient Jewish Nation 1. The Destruction of the Temple Chapter 39: Rome and the Christians 1. Nero, the Evil Emperor 2. Christians in the Catacombs 3. The Emperor Is a Christian
34	Chapter 40: Rome Begins to Weaken 1. The British Rebellion 2. Rome Divided in Two
35	Chapter 41: The Attacking Barbarians 1. Attila the Hun 2. Stilicho, Roman and Barbarian 3. The Coming of the Visigoths
36	Chapter 42: The End of Rome 1. The Last Roman Emperor

Volume 2: Middle Ages

Week	Chapters to cover
1	Chapter 1: The Glory That was Rome 1. Wandering Through the Roman Empire 2. The Fall of Rome
2	Chapter 2: The Early Days of Britain 1. The Celts of Britain 2. Barbarians Come to Britain 3 Beowulf the Hero
3	Chapter 3: Christianity Comes to Britain 1. Augustine Comes to England 2. Medieval Monasteries 3. Writing Books by Hand
4	Chapter 4: The Byzantine Empire 1. The Beauty of Constantinople 2. Justinian, the Just Emperor 3. The Empress Theodora 4. The Church in the East
5	Chapter 5: The Medieval Indian Empire 1. A King Named Skandagupta 2. Monks in Caves
6	Chapter 6: The Rise of Islam 1. Muhammad’s Vision 2. Muhammad Flees to Medina 3. The Koran: Islam’s Holy Book
7	Chapter 7: Islam Becomes an Empire 1. The Fight for Mecca 2. The Spread of Islam 3. The City of Baghdad 4. Sinbad in the Valley of Snakes
8	Chapter 8: The Great Dynasties of China 1. Yang Chien Unites North and South 2. The Tang Dynasty
9	Chapter 9: East of China 1. The Yamato Dynasty of Japan 2. A Tale of Three Countries: Korea, China, and Japan
10	Chapter 10: The Bottom of the World 1. The First People of Australia 2. The Long Journey of the Maori
11	Chapter 11: The Kingdom of the Franks 1. Clovis, The Ex-Barbarian 2. Four Tribes, One Empire Chapter 12: The Islamic Invasion 1. Islam in Spain and Africa
12	Chapter 13: The Great Kings of France 1. Charles the Hammer 2. The Greatest King: Charlemagne
13	Chapter 14: The Arrival of the Norsemen 1. The Viking Invasion 2. Eric the Red and “Eric’s Son” 3. The Norse Gods 4. Thor and the Giant King
14	Chapter 15: The Firs Kings of England 1. The Vikings Invade England 2. Alfred the Great 3. The Battle of Hastings
15	Chapter 16: England After the Conquest 1 The English Language 2. Serfs and Noblemen 4. Stone Castles
16	Chapter 17: Knights and Samurai 1. The English Code of Chivalry 2. The Samurai: Japanese Knights
17	Chapter 18: The Age of the Crusades 1. A Command from the Pope 2. Recapturing Jerusalem 3. Saladin of Jerusalem 4. El Cid and the “Reconquest of Spain”
18	Chapter 19: A New Kind of King 1. Richard the Lionhearted 2. John Lackland and the Magna Carta 3. Robin Hood. 4. Robin Hood and Butcher
19	Chapter 20: The Diaspora 1. The Scattering of the Jews 2. A Tale of the Diaspora 3. The Clever Rabbi of Cordova
20	Chapter 21: The Mongols Devastate the East 1. Genghis Khan, Emperor of All Men 2. The Mongol Conquest of China
21	Chapter 22: Exploring the Mysterious East 1. Marco Polo Goes to China 2. The Forbidden City of the Ming
22	Chapter 23: The First Russians 1 The Rus Come to Constantinople 2. Ivan the Great and Ivan the Terrible
23	Chapter 24: The Ottoman Empire 1. The Ottoman Turks Attack 2. The Sheep-Rocks 3. The Capture of Constantinople 4. Suleiman the Lawgiver
24	Chapter 25: The End of the World 1. The Plague 2. A New Way of Living Chapter 26: France and England at War 1. Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt 2 Joan of Arc
25	Chapter 27: War for the English Throne 1. A War of Roses 2. The Princes in the Tower Chapter 28: The Kingdoms of Spain and Portugal 1. Ferdinand and Isabella Unite Spain 2. Henry the Navigator, Prince of Portugal
26	Chapter 29: African Kingdoms 1. Gold, Salt, and Ghana 2. Mansa Musa of Mali 3. The Songhay Empire
27	Chapter 30: India Under the Moghuls 1. The Mogul Dynasty 2. Akbar of India 3. The Bad-Luck Servant
28	Chapter 31: Exploring New Worlds 1. Christopher Columbus 2. Vespucci and Magellan
29	Chapter 32: The American Kingdoms 1. The Mayans of Central America 2. The Marvelous City of Tenochtitlan 3. The Incas
30	Chapter 33: Spain, Portugal, and the New World 1. The Slave Trade 2. Cortes and Montezuma
31	Chapter 34: Martin Luther’s New Ideas 1. Martin Luther’s List 2. Henry VIII’s Problem Chapter 35: The Renaissance 1. A New Way of Thinking 2. Gutenberg’s Great Invention
32	Chapter 36: Reformation and Counter Reformation 1. The Spread of the Reformation 2. The Council of Trent Chapter 37: The New Universe 1. The Revolution of Copernicus 2. Galileo’s Strange Notions
33	Chapter 38: England’s Greatest Queen 1. The Queen Who Almost Wasn’t 2. Good Queen Bess
34	Chapter 39: England’s Greatest Playwright 1. William Shakespeare 2. Macbeth 3. Macbeth’s Decision
35	Chapter 40: New Ventures to the Americas 1. Walter Raleigh and the New World 2. The Lost Colony Chapter 41: Exploration in the North 1. The New-Found Land 2. Jacques Cartier’s Discoveries
36	Chapter 42: Empires Collide 1. Spain and England’s War 2. The World at the End of the Sixteenth Century