I didn’t manage a weekly wrap-up last week. I’ve been ill off and on for the past couple of weeks, and then last week, I broke my glasses!!! All is well on that front though, this week I got a replacement pair, though I’m still waiting on my prescription sunglasses (a needful thing in a state with at least 300 sunny days per year).
Anyway, back on February 7, we had another co-op day with our church homeschool group. This time, it was all about nutrition, manners, and physical activity.
My friend Aimee, one of our fabulous homeschool moms, was in charge of putting this one together, and she really made it fun! Here, she is teaching the kids what would NOT be good table manners, LOL!
Aimee discussed with the kids the importance of good nutrition, and of drinking enough water every day, especially living here in the desert.
The kids learned about the importance of good posture, and in this video, you can see some of them attempting to practice USING good posture!
After all of this, we moved to another room, where we worked on stretching . . .
Exercises . . .
And a game to work on good sportsmanship!
This is one of MY favorite photos of the day, two of our toddler friends! 🙂
So, this was a good homeschool day, in the midst of my not feeling well off and on. My kids really enjoy our co-op!
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Well! This has been a very busy week! Our church had special meetings this week for our Family and Friends Revival, from Sunday through Wednesday. It was so good, too! Our guest speaker was Brother David Hetzer, and he was just wonderful! He has also been a speaker for our youth camps in years past.
We also were treated to The Epleys coming to sing for us! My family had last seen them many, many years ago, back during the early years we spent in Port Huron, MI. They came with their children and sang at the church we attended at that time, and we just loved them! We still listen to their music in the car! Well, now, We are in New Mexico, and they came to the church we are members of here! These days, their kids are grown and raising families of their own, so it’s just mom and dad singing now. I did not get a good video of them during the meetings, but here is one from youtube of them singing one of the songs they did for us. I hope you enjoy it!
It was a busy but good week! Monday and Tuesday, our church provided a meal at 6:00 for everyone who came before the meeting at 7:00, and then Wednesday we did potluck at the same time. Our pastor says we’re “the eatin’-est church in town”, lol!
Before all the business, we had a bit of silliness at our house one evening after supper, when my husband and some of the boys started fooling around with one of “The Puzzler’s” Christmas gifts, as you’ll see in the video below. They were sure having fun!
All in all, it was a pretty good week! 🙂
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It’s been kind of a tough time around here lately, and by Monday I(!) was pretty much falling apart already. No, I’m not going into any details, suffice to say that my anxiety was hitting a pretty high level. By Wednesday evening I was basically falling apart.
So . . . the first blessing . . . my husband took yesterday off and declared he was giving ME a day off! Really, all I had to do was get myself, “The Batman” and “The Artist” to piano lesson. He kept “Mr. Loquacious” and “The Puzzler” at home with him. I spent most of my time before going to piano working on the book launch/review which I posted yesterday. This did help somewhat, but he was nice enough to plan ahead and put in for a vacation day so he could take TODAY off, as well! I did need to take all of the boys to our monthly homeschool co-op at church this morning, which you’ll see and read about later, but once we got home, my husband told the kids that now it’s “Mom” time, and they have to come to him for everything for the rest of the day. He even got supper started for me in the roaster after I told him how to season it (an extra turkey I got on sale at Christmas), since it needed to be started while we were gone. 🙂
Our piano instruction book that our new teacher is putting us into has not yet come in at the music store, so she is kind of just maintaining us with some practice from our old books. It’s been over a year and a half since we had lessons (before we moved here to NM), so this is fine, because I for one, have forgotten a LOT! As they were before, though, both “The Batman” and “The Artist” are WORLDS ahead of me, however our teacher says she believes I will do well. She seems to think she can train me to be a church pianist! We will see. 🙂 Here is a short video of “The Batman” entertaining our teacher’s younger son during “The Artist’s” lesson . . .
There is just no way not to feel happy watching that! 🙂
Last night, since we knew my husband would not be going to work today, we let the boys stay up just a bit later than usual, and watched Iron Man 3. I had not seen it, so that was pretty good. The kids kept almost slipping up and referring to stuff from the Avengers movie (which I’ve not yet seen), things that had a bearing on what was happening. So, now I’m wanting to see the Avengers movie as soon as we can borrow a copy, lol!
This morning, we had co-op with our church homeschool group. We’re doing something a little different this semester, in that we’re trying to do some more educational things as opposed to just social things. For the next few months, we are having what we are calling the A&W group, for Art and Writing. We began with some beginning art lessons . . .
First, making sure the kids know what will be happening, and what is expected!
here’s the agenda . . .
If you can’t quite read the sign in the middle of the board (the one where each line begins with the letters R O C K S),
it reads like this:
Raise hand, silent mouth
Obey right away, all the way
Concentrate and stay focused
Keep your stuff to yourself
Show consideration
All good things, I’m thinking!
Miss Erica, beginning some easy lessons . . .
Here are some shots of the group, paying close attention to Miss Erica . . .
And some close-ups of my kids, hard at work!
“The Artist”
“The Batman”
“Mr. Loquacious”
“The Puzzler”
Here is a picture of the pre-schoolers, they had their own activity going in another room!
One of the things they worked on was the basics of drawing a lego mini-figure, and they’ll be working on their own personal one, which is to show something about their own personality, to bring back to co-op in February.
After art time, we made root beer floats, then watched a video segment from the “How It’s Made” program (shown below) about a factory where they make pop.
After the video, our group split into two sections, early readers/writers, and more advanced. The younger group worked on a little art/writing project on how to make a root beer float.
The rest of the kids worked on brainstorming their own stories about “A Crazy Day In A Soda Factory”, and began working on their stories. They’ll write them over the next month to bring back to co-op in February.
Working on their stories . . .
They all seem to have had a good time, so I’m glad we’re taking the co-op in this direction! We plan to have a “Creativity Fair” in April, where they may display any creative projects they have worked on during this time, either things from the co-op time or something creative they did on their own. I think it’ll be fun, and my kids are happy, since they totally missed the literature fair last year, because I had surgery the day before.
So, I’m going to go now and finish my “me” day, designing and working on some cards.
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You’ll find me sharing about homeschooling being a lifetime commitment, as opposed to a “season in my life”, and I sure hope you’ll find it interesting and informative. 🙂 To go and check out what I have to say on this topic, please click below, and while you’re there, check out the rest of the site as well!
As always, I’d love it if you join me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! Just go and enter your email into the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, and never miss an update! And if you do enjoy “My Journeys”, please, go to our Facebook Fan Page and “like” it. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂
We started out the week with me singing another special at church on Sunday evening, which you can hear in the video below . . .
Then, “The Batman” had a birthday on Monday, his 21st! We got one of his favorites for supper, Dion’s Pizza, and I made his favorite cake, chocolate/peanut butter (aka, “Totally Bad For You Cake & Frosting”).
As you know, he is “The Batman” because he loves all things Batman, so he loved the card I made using my cricut! Here he is, waiting to open the card and gift . . .
And now a better look at the card . . .
I had ordered the next five books in the original Hardy Boys series for him at the beginning of the month, the delivery to the bookstore was delayed, and I was getting very nervous! They did arrive finally, on Monday, the actual day of his birthday! So, after a doctor’s appointment I had in the morning, I zipped over to Barnes & Noble to pick them up. He now has 40 of the 65 or 66 books in the series, and boy was he happy!
Tuesday was kind of a rough day all around, with kid issues, and a husband coming home early because of it, and then on Wednesday my husband ended up staying home from work because he was feeling very rough with what looked like a bad cold or something coming on. In fact, he came home early today and is needing to sleep and try to fight it off.
But on Thursday, “The Batman”, “The Artist” and I began our long-awaited return to piano lessons! I am so happy to be back into it after being out since before moving here to New Mexico! We really loved and miss our teacher back in Michigan, but of course, it was inevitable that we would need to find a new teacher out here. Our teacher is the wife of the youth pastor at our church, and is also the pianist who was playing in the video above. She is really, really good, and believes she can train me to be a church pianist one day. She asked the boys what kind of goals they have for piano. “The Batman” says he wants to learn to play classical music really well, and “The Artist” wants to compose music. Our teacher is putting us all into a beginning adult course, with the understanding that “The Batman” may need go back to they kids books for a while if he runs into trouble with he new curriculum. We are very excited about being back in lessons! Of course, the boys are not terribly thrilled about practice time, nor are they thrilled that they will be giving up about half of our Thursday homeschool park day in order to get to lessons on time, but I feel it’s an important part of their education, so it’s what we’re going to do.
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I am taking part in a month-long link up series called “The Virtual Curriculum Fair”, and this week, our theme is “Playing With Words: The Language Arts”.
When my older kids, “The Batman” and “The Artist” were little, I had no idea how to homeschool, and had no confidence in doing it on my own, so I went with a pre-written curriculum, or as I like to call it now, “school in a box”. While this DID give them a good foundation in phonics, it did NOT give “The Batman” the love of reading.
He has several disabilities which have always affected his ability to sit and just read for any length of time, and since it’s important to me that my children learn to love reading for pleasure, I backed off as soon as I was sure he COULD read.
Many years later, when he was a teen, “The Batman” discovered a Hardy Boys book in the library of the church we attended at the time. He began reading it and fell in love! Nothing would do but having all 66 of the stories eventually. In fact, that Christmas, he asked for a set of the first six books he’d seen at Sam’s Club. Of course, he asked for this about 3 days before Christmas, well after he’d made his wish list and I’d finished shopping. Add to that, we had a horrible snow/ice storm, which caused downed wires on our street, keeping us from leaving our block, as the city had it blocked at each end for a few days. Fortunately, I could go from our driveway directly across the street, into the parking lot of the Salvation Army Church, and go around the building, coming out on another street, allowing me to get to Sam’s Club. I made it there just in time to purchase the very last boxed set they had! Well, “The Batman” was thrilled! Ever since then, for each and every birthday, and sometimes Christmas, I have gotten him the next 5 books in the original series. We ONLY buy the original series. I really feel that the ones which came out as a result of the Hardy Boys TV show are not the books we’d like him to be reading, they are not, in my opinion, as wholesome as the originals, and definitely kind of dumbed down in comparison. Occasionally, I also order them randomly during the year as well. I order them from my local Barnes and Noble, to be delivered to the store, where I pay for them using my educator discount card. (You other homeschooling moms DO have a Barnes and Noble educator discount card, right? Because it gives you 20% off your educational purchases). In fact, “The Batman’s” 21st birthday is next week, and just yesterday, I ordered books 36 – 40 for him. Hopefully, they’ll all come in before his actual birthday!
In “The Batman’s” case, leveled readers did not work well to keep him interested and progressing. When he discovered the Hardy Boys, he was hooked, and now reads a large variety of things, from the Hardy Boys, to Star Trek novels, to Star Wars chapter books he’s been finding in our local library. He can now very often be found sitting for long periods, just reading for fun, something I had despaired of him ever doing!
One of our twins, “The Puzzler”, was eight when we adopted him and his brother. They could not read much, other than their names. While his brother “Mr. Loquacious” really is not all that interested in reading (although he can read better now than he lets on), “The Puzzler”, after the curriculum in a box pretty much failed him, ended up virtually teaching himself to read, using the Sunday comics. No, I’m not making that up. He wanted to read them so badly that he would sit and puzzle over them for hours. he would occasionally ask what a word was, and we’d tell him. Sometimes, he’d ask the same word again the next time, and we’d tell him again. Now, he reads them on his own, rarely asking for help with a word, and reads many books, as well, including books which are really beyond where he is. He simply puzzles out the words, and asks for help when necessary. He LOVES to read now. 🙂
“Mr. Loquacious” is still not interested in reading much on his own, but I know he’ll get there, when he is ready. In the meanwhile, we do lots of read-alouds. 🙂
“The Artist”? Well, once he learned to read, I never had to worry about him enjoying it again. He will sit and read for hours, either fiction or non-fiction, as long as it’s within his interests. For non-fiction, he just loves anything science related, especially natural science. He has also developed a love of writing stories, a very good off-shoot of loving to read.
I’m here to tell you that you don’t ALWAYS need a pre-written reading/writing curriculum. Some children do thrive on those, but if yours doesn’t, perhaps a looser, more relaxed method, such as what we have been doing, would work wonders.
All four of my boys love our regular trips to the library now, and choosing their own books their books, even “Mr. Loquacious”, who usually won’t sit and read.(though I retain veto power over choices), and all four of them love to come home and read
To find out more about the Virtual Curriculum Fair, and to read what other participants are doing, please click the graphic below . . .
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How well do you relate to them? How well do your KIDS relate to them? Here’s the thing . . . when these kids are little, they are cute, and their “issues” are much more easily overlooked. A child born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and mental retardation, who is also on the autism spectrum, gets lots of understanding when he or she is a toddler. Believe me, I know. My oldest, “The Batman”, IS that child. He was adopted at age 2, and he isn’t a cute little toddler anymore. It’s so much harder for him now, because he KNOWS he’s different now. He regularly asks me (yet again) if his “friends” know he has these disabilities, hoping (yet again) that maybe they don’t, that somehow, he has successfully hidden it. And yes, he does try, so very hard, to act like the other kids who are teens, not really understanding that it isn’t working. He wants to be accepted so very badly, as do all kids like him, as do, in fact, all kids, whether disabled or not.
So. Do you have a kid, or kids like this in your church? Do you know how to treat them? Do your own children know how? Because if not, you need to learn how to accept them where they are, and for the person that they are, even when that means cutting them some slack if they are annoying. Most of the time, they truly do not understand that they are annoying.
If you have a family like this in your church, here are my suggestions:
Befriend them. And I mean for real, not just in the superficial way that so often happens. Befriend them. Spend time with them. Have dinner with them. Take part in other activities with them. We’ve been fortunate enough to find friends in our church here who do want to spend time with us, people who have been to our home for dinner (on holidays, no less!), or who have had us to their homes for dinner. But, we’ve also, in years past, been part of churches where we felt very excluded.
Learn about the disabilities their children deal with. You may find yourself surprised to discover that an awful lot of the time, what you think is bad behavior, annoying behavior, etc . . ., is directly attributed to the disability, or multiple disabilities working together against the child. I cannot even begin to tell you how many times over the years I’ve been told, either directly or in a round-about way that my child would be more pleasant to be around if I would “just discipline him more”.
Don’t just befriend the child/children, befriend the parents. Do they ever get to go out without their children? We all know how important things like regular date nights are to a marriage, but do you realize that most couples with children like this RARELY get regular date nights? Do you know that there is a higher rate of divorce among couples with these children?
My child has battled these disorders for 20 years now, almost 21 years. He has problems when it comes to communication, he has difficulty with timeline, and definitely with social interaction. He is also, when you really take the trouble to get to know him, to befriend him, and help him to feel that he is safe to “be himself” with you,  one of the kindest, most giving and loving people I have ever known, in my whole life. But, if he feels unsafe to “be himself”, he becomes anxious. He will pull his eyebrows out, and has, at times, pulled large patches of his hair out of his head. He doesn’t “get” social cues most of the time, and often, when someone is “joking around”, he doesn’t get that, either, and thinks they are serious. Sadly, sometimes they actually AREN’T just joking, because they themselves don’t “get it” when it comes to kids like this.
There are children like mine in many, many churches, and if they are fortunate, they are loved, accepted, and have friends. Is this the case in YOUR church? Are these kids included, loved, and treated as though they truly are your children’s friends? Are you teaching your children to be kind and caring, even if those children are “weird”? Because you do your children a disservice if you aren’t teaching them this. In all of their life, both now, and later when they are grown, your children WILL have interactions with people who are “different”. Will they be kind to them? Or will they be intolerant of the differences? Will they stand up for them? Or will they join the bullies, because they themselves fear being bullied?
I have other kids who do not have as significant disabilities as “The Batman”, and it is my goal, which I hope I’m being successful in, to make sure they are learning to help their brother, and other kids like him. To stick up for them, to befriend them, to care about them. I believe this will make a difference in THEIR lives, even later, when they are grown and on their own, which I believe some of them will be able to be. I want my less disabled children to grow up with empathy, and caring hearts.
As believers, I think we need to be aware of these things. My kids, just like all those other kids who are “different”, will never be “safe” to just be themselves in most settings, but more than anything, if you are a believer, I want you to know and understand that outside of their own home and family, the one place they should never, ever have to worry about being able to “be themselves” is when they are with their church family. Look around your church. Are there kids like this? Are they REALLY safe to be themselves? With you? With your children? With their Sunday School teachers? With ANYONE? Because they should be, and if you’re not sure you agree, then maybe you need to read more about Jesus, and how He was with children. The church isn’t just a social club. It is a family.
This week, we had our mid-week service on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. We had a potluck fellowship at 6:00, followed by the service at 7:00. Two of the boys at our church are home from college for Christmas, and they, along with two of the boys from the teen group each were given the opportunity to preach for about 10 minutes each. I thought they did an awesome job! The service ended around 8:30, and we went home to get the boys to bed. In fact, my husband and I did not stay up late, either, because he had to get “The Batman” and “The Artist” up very early, so that he could get them back to the church in time to leave with the youth group for winter retreat, in Colorado.
On New Years Day, the rest of us kind of had a lazy day. I wasn’t feeling real great, and napped off and on, but was better by that night.
On Thursday, friends from church came and got “Mr. Loquacious” and “The puzzler” for an overnight with their kids. I ended up with most of the day yesterday and today to myself!
I told you yesterday what I would be doing with the time, and I did. As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve decided to join in with the Pantry Challenge posted by fellow blogger Jessica Fisher over at Good Cheap Eats. As I told I would, I cleaned out and inventoried my pantry, fridge/freezer and deep freezer. I’m embarrassed to say I had to throw out a bunch of stuff. That’s the other reason I’m doing this, so I can learn to keep track of what we have, and use it up, thereby being a better steward.
So, I have rather a lot of odds and ends in the pantry, but very little meat, veggies or fruit. So, before I head out in the morning for groceries, we’ll be going over what we have and figuring out what we need to go with it.
I will update on the pantry challenge at least a couple of times a week. Not necessarily every day, because I have other things scheduled for posting too, but I will keep up to date on this. 🙂 You can find out all about where I got this idea by clicking the graphic below . . .
Today while the kids were all still gone, I worked on my ministry cards. I have my own tiny ministry at church with my hand-crafted cards. So far, I have eleven ladies and one family on my encouragement list, and I make them a card every week. I bring them to church to give them on Sunday. I really enjoy it, it feels good to encourage others!
I also worked on getting my blog planner printed out so I can either get it into a notebook or have it spiral bound at an office supply store, and printed out the words to the song I’m singing next Sunday evening, so that the pianist and I can practice it.
Then, it was time to go pick everyone up! We got back a little while before my husband got home, and then he cooked supper, hamburgers and hot dogs, the extras we didn’t use on New Years Day. We also had the rest of the potato salad, coleslaw, and some potato chips. It was nice. 🙂
How was your week? Why don’t you write about it and then link up with us over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers? Click the graphic below to read about the guidelines . . .
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So, you already know that this past Sunday night our two older boys, “The Batman” and “The Artist” were in our church’s annual Christmas play. On Monday and Tuesday, I concentrated heavily on laundry and working on finishing up our Christmas cards, which I was making, so I could have them done to bring to church Wednesday. I made it, yay! 🙂 We also needed to be at church early that night, as “Mr. Loquacious” and “The Puzzler” were singing special music as part of the newly formed group “Cadets For Christ”. Here is a video of their song . . .
Thursday morning, I worked on addressing cards to be mailed out, so that we could get them mailed on our way to homeschool park day. Along with that errand, we stopped at the library to pick up a DVD I had on hold, Mary Poppins. Can you believe, my children have never seen it? Well, since we left the house before lunch, I did stop at McDonald’s near the park and got everyone burgers from the dollar menu. Except for me, I can’t eat them, so I got a grilled honey mustard snack wrap. 🙂
Ah, park day! It is so grand living someplace where we can go to homeschool park day, on December 19th, NOT wearing winter coats!
Here is “The Batman”, he was playing catch with someone, and between throws . . . and do you see the beautiful mountains in the background? 🙂
And here is “The Puzzler”, also playing catch!
“The Artist” was wandering with friends, and “Mr. Loquacious” never stopped moving, so I failed to get pictures of them.
“Mr. Loquacious”, who I suspected was catching a cold, but had insisted he was “fine” and wanted to go to the park, definitely has one now. He’s sneezing some, but he’s still running around playing and acting normal, so I think he’ll be just fine.
Today is Friday. Do I have my Christmas shopping done? No, I do not. 😦 So, this evening, “Mr. Loquacious” and “The Puzzler” will be hanging our with their dad. I will be dropping “The Batman” and “The Artist” off at their Youth Pastor’s home, where they will join the rest of the teens caroling, and then having their Christmas party. Since I do all of my grocery shopping fairly near to their home, I will get groceries while the boys are there, then pick them up. That way, I have them handy to unload the car at home (smart, yes?). This frees up tomorrow, when I will be able to shop alone, and get the Christmas shopping completed.
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You know, I ALWAYS forget how busy it gets this time of the year, until it DOES get busy this time of the year, lol!
In between planning for Christmas day (we have invited a large family from our church for dinner on Christmas), doing regular household STUFF, trying to figure out the best way to give each of our kids at least one thing they really want, and then fill in around the edges, we have had a church homeschool party, I have had a reviews due, had an order of cards to complete, and am even now waiting for a FedEx delivery of materials to do a new order for the same person!
Tuesday evening, the kids and I FINALLY decorated the poor naked tree that had been standing in the living room for several days . . .
In the midst of it all, I try to keep in mind the real reason for this season. We still have things going on at church. Sunday night, my younger kids, “Mr. Loquacious” and “The Puzzler” sang with the Sunshine Kids Choir for the special music, as you can see in the video below . . .
Wednesday night, I was on schedule as back up for toddler nursery, and one of the ladies on the schedule had sick kids, so I took her place. I like nursery on Wednesday nights, plus, I was working with a young mom with whom I very much enjoy spending time in conversation, so, win-win! 🙂
Yesterday, we had another homeschool Christmas party, this one with our Thursday park day group. We really had fun! We did potluck, I brought pizza casserole and Totally Bad For You cake (chocolate/peanut butter), for which I was a finalist in the Flint Journal (Michigan) “Merry Indulgences”bake off way back in 1995.
The cake . . .
and the extra frosting to snack on later!
I love potlucks here in New Mexico, we are getting to try lots of stuff we’ve never had before! Some of the things brought were sopapillas, black beans, tortilla rolls, some kind of chili that was really good, and bunches of other wonderful tasting things! We find this variety in our church potlucks as well, and are enjoying it!
As you can see, there is an abundance of food here (and I THINK I took this picture before more people arrived with even MORE food! . . .
Doing what they do best . . .
“Mr. Loquacious”
“The Artist”
“The Batman” and “The Puzzler”
Making ornaments . . .
Here are the final products!
Later on, we had a white elephant gift exchange, which is always a lot of fun!
All in all, though this is a busy time, we have been having lots of fun! I hope you are finding time to have fun, yet still keeping your focus on what we are really celebrating here, the birth of our Lord, without whom there would be no salvation.
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My Journeys Through Life . . . Herding Cats In New Mexico! 