Enjoying vacation!

It is 8:19 am and my children are ALL still sleeping. This is vacation!!! Can you hear the peace and quiet at my house??

We are all ready for a vacation! After working hard at school for four months, we celebrated Christmas.  This was no small task because we had four parties in four days.  It was almost like a marathon!! Yesterday was our first day with nothing to do, and I was exhausted and just wanted to do nothing! To add to it, my feet hurt. :(  I wore my boots for two of our parties and kept them on all day; they aren't exactly gentle to my feet. Then on Christmas Eve, we had a some friends over for dinner, so I spent all day on my feet getting that ready. About 5:00 that night, my feet really started hurting! Luckily by about noon yesterday, they were feeling better, but that was so weird!

As for the next two weeks, we are going to try to get some stuff done around here.

1. Yesterday afternoon the boys and I cleaned their bedroom. Things had gotten out of control in there. :(  We are also looking to buying Christian a loft bed and giving his bed to Micah.  If and when this happens, I don't want a big mess in there!

2.  I also want to get my sitting room cleaned up. This is out of control also!! Megan does her homework in there at my desk, but Matt wants her to move to her room. This means either moving my desk into her room or buying her a new one. She obviously wants a new one!! I also have old curriculum all over the floor that I need to sell or put away for the next kid.

Courtney has also brought all her clothes that don't fit and all her stuffed animals that she doesn't have room for anymore into my sitting room and just dumped them all in a pile. :(

I wanted to do this today, and I may be able to get started, but I signed Courtney up for a basketball clinic today from 12-3, so I need to play taxi driver.  Megan might have clarinet lessons this afternoon, and tonight, and Matt's aunt is taking Megan out for her birthday. Whew!

3.  I also need to get all the Christmas presents put away and the tree taken down. I kind of want to leave my Christmas decorations up though since they are so pretty!

4.  Did I mention I am starting two new curriculums after break? I need to read up on those.  I also need to go through all our homeschooling books and get everything ready for January! Megan is picking up concert band at the local public school (along with her other two classes), so our whole schedule is going to be new! Anybody ready to get up an hour earlier??

I hear children moving around. Time to go!

Living it out!

Today I picked Megan up from school and like usual, she started telling me what happened in her classes.  Finals are starting tomorrow at her school, so they have been reviewing all week.

Today in her biology class, they played a game as part of a review session.  They play games quite a bit as a review, and Megan usually is one of the top placers. She currently has 3 free ice cream cone coupons on our fridge! Today was no different. She said that as they were playing, she could see on their computers who was leading. At one point, it was Megan.

At that moment, she decided that she didn't want to win, but would RATHER let somebody else win, so she entered a wrong answer and dropped herself to 11th place. She said the three people who did win (1st, 2nd, and 3rd) were kids who don't usually get a prize in that class.

On the other hand, she said she also did this because she doesn't want to be known as the girl who always wins the games in biology class.

I was kind of mad at first, "What do you mean you were letting somebody else win??" But then I thought about it again. "Wow! You are thinking of others! Way to live out your faith!" I was proud of her for giving somebody else a chance to win and not just thinking about herself!!! She said she knew the right answer, but purposefully put in the wrong one just to drop herself down in the standings!

Now hopefully she will do a great job on her final tomorrow!!!

It's the most stressful time of the year. :)

I haven't blogged in a very long time.

I am just not into it lately. By the time I get done grading homework in the evening, I just want to go to bed, and I don't want to do anything more!

But this week, we are taking a break. This mama needs it.

Most public schools are out on Friday, including the one that Megan attends. If you are a teacher, when do you have time to get things ready for Christmas, which is the following Tuesday??

I really think school districts should give the week before Christmas off, not the week after. I don't need time AFTER Christmas to get things done. I need the week before!!

We are going to do math everyday this week and if that is all we get to, then that is fine. I am not going to push it.

My poor body cannot handle the stress this time of year.  I have already broken out in a rash, had several allergic reactions (one where my throat was tingling), anxiety, rapid heartrate, was short tempered, and the list goes on. My adrenals are working extra hard this holiday season. I can tell when they are burned out for the day because I lose ALL my energy and I just want to sit and do NOTHING!

People tell me to "control my stress." How exactly do I "control" my stress?  My chiropractor told me to exercise and to journal, which helps, but when I am done, the stress comes back.  I just think about what I all need to get done and my heartrate jumps.

The only way I have learned to control it is by eliminating it.  The main thing I eliminated is school.
Today was the first day that I eliminated 95% of our homeschool subjects, and I was not as stressed as I was last week!! I figured I had to do something before my body went into a full-blown revolt!

And since I have very little homework to grade, I can return to my blog. :)

Merry Christmas!!!

It has been a long time!

I am not very good at blogging anymore! It has been almost two months since I have been on here! Googl.e is going to delete my blog if I don't keep something up here!

I think one reason I don't blog anymore is because Courtney films quite a bit around here and makes vlogs. She is great at capturing moments and then putting them into a video. Check her channel out on YouTube- "Courtney's Life". :)

At the moment, Matt and Christian are on their way out to Grand Island for Husker Harvest Days. They are travelling with grandpa. This has become a yearly tradition, and Christian looks forward to it every year. We were even in a consignment store yesterday and he found a pair of bib overalls. They fit great, so I bought them for today. He was pretty excited to show grandpa!

In the meantime, I will be at home with Megan, Courtney, and Micah. It will be quiet here today. Micah will have nobody to fight with, and Courtney will have nobody to pick on. Megan usually gets involved too somewhat during the day, but not as much as the other two. Micah will have all the toys to himself! Christian is really a good kid, but he just needs to listen. :) It is something we work on daily!

Megan and Courtney will go to school like always. We started school about a month ago with these two. We decided to dual enroll Megan this year. She is taking Latin and Biology up at the local high school, so she goes up there in the afternoon. This works out great! We just need to get all her work done by noon. We have been carpooling with another family in the neighborhood, so that has been super helpful.

Courtney and Christian (and Micah) are here in the afternoon, and we get quite a lot done. These two are still at home full-time. Matt says that when they are smarter than me, then they can go to school. There was no way I was teaching Megan Latin!! She is taking biology because science is hard to do at home. It was challenging to find all the science supplies and get everything done. It took Megan two years to get through one book. I told her now that she is in high school, she needs to get everything done in one year. There is also a rule where we live that if you take two classes at a school, then you can participate in extra-curricular activities. I told her to get involved!! She really gets the best of both worlds (public and homeschooling).

Since I only have the girls home today, I am letting them sleep in! I will get through things a lot faster without having to stop to break up fights all day!

I should go wake them up though- it is 8 am! Usually Micah is awake by 7:15 am, and he isn't up yet either.

Off to another fun-filled day!

Productive Weekend!

We finally had a weekend where we had NOTHING planned!

We thought we would take advantage of it and get things done around the house, and boy did we get things done!!

We had two main things to get done- trim the trees in the backyard and clean the basement!

Matt had gotten a trailer from his dad earlier in the week, so he was outside about 9 am with his saw and was trimming branches. Our trees had taken over our backyard! Some of them were hanging down to the ground, some were hanging over the slide, some were in the way of the swings, and the biggest problem was that the grass underneath the trees was dying because it couldn't get any sun!  Matt trimmed ALL the trees so he could stand underneath them again and not get hit by branches!

By the time he was done, it looked like a huge wind storm had come through because we had huge tree branches all over our yard!

Megan and I helped Matt haul them to the front of the house where he cut the branches up even further and put them in the trailer. He ended up making two trips out to the local dump (costing $17 each time!) to dump the branches.

Our back yard looks so much better!!!!

Our other goal this weekend was to clean the basement. Courtney and her slime habit had taken over down there, and it was a disaster!!  Our basement is not fully finished either, and Matt said he cannot work on it anymore until it gets cleaned up.  About 2 pm, Matt, Courtney, and I headed downstairs to work. It was amazing how much slime we found everywhere.  It was stuck to the cement floor in many places, stuck on her table, in the kitchen area, and just in places it shouldn't be!!

We had two HUGE sacks of garbage and everything (various craft supplies, tools, etc.) back in its place by about 5 pm.  Matt had even taken the initiative and put up some woodwork! I was thrilled!!  He only needs to finish the woodwork and then we can put down some flooring. It has been stuck like this for at least the last five years! I would love to make it into a usable space, especially this winter when I will have two boys bouncing off the walls!

We just need another weekend down there, and we could probably finish the cleaning. I am not sure what Matt wants to put down for flooring.  I just want it done, so we can use it...and maybe turn it into a school room??

We are almost done and new beginnings!

My poor kids won't get much of a break from school.

We have been working all summer on math! Megan and Courtney each have about 10 lessons left and Christian has about 40! How did I get so far behind with him?? We have been doing two lessons a day lately just to finish. He has been a pretty good sport about it!

Anyway, one of my homeschooling rules is that I like to be done with our "grade level" curriculum before we start the new year in the fall. I think we will make it!  This is usually math and English. I feel I can just roll over the other subjects, and it doesn't matter!

Another reason I need to get our work done is that I need to get Megan ready for high school this year!  I told her we need to start all her subjects new this fall, and she needs to finish them or get close to the end this coming year. We cannot keep going with them in the fall. We need to start counting credits this year! I can hardly believe she is in high school!

Since it is almost August and school goes back in two weeks, I have been working here at home to finalize our curriculum for the coming school year. I am actually changing a few things and starting a few new curriculums. I hope it won't be too much of a change!

I am also one to pick and chose my books from a variety of curriculum companies. Many people pick one company and do all their subjects; I have never found that to work for me! I usually like one subjects and not the others. For example, I have LOVED Rod and Staff math and English, but I didn't care for the other subjects. I am not sure if I would be labeled an "eclectic" homeschooler because I pick and chose!

Here is what I have lined up for Megan:

Bob Jones Fundamentals of Literature
Writing with Skill Book 1
(NO GRAMMAR OR VOCABULARY THIS YEAR!!!)

Mystery of History Book 2 along with the historical fiction literature from Sonight Core G

Bob Jones Algebra 1
Apologia Physical Science (which she did 1 chapter in last spring)

We are also looking at letting her taking Latin up at the local high school this year.  This would be for her foreign langauge credit.

I am also going to give her a half credit for PE/ Health. I went to a high school seminar last spring,and they said colleges like to see this on the transcript. It shows that the students aren't lazy. :)

She also has been teaching herself piano, so I am going to throw a half credit of piano on her transcript too.

Along with her studies, she will be participating in Homeschool Teen Serve and serving at the Homeschool Learning Center. These will count towards volunteer hours, which I am going to require of her. :)

She also will attend youth group at church.

This should keep her plenty busy!

Actually she is kind of worried that she will be too busy! I said you are in high school now- you are going to have to step it up and just maybe do homework in the evening!

100%!

Micah has been wearing underwear 100% of the time lately. He wears them during the night and day and EVEN when we go out!

Honestly, I ran out of pullups and didn't want to buy anymore. Plus he always did great when we were out and about and never peed in them anyway! 

Being out and about was almost easier than being at home. Since he is always with me, I can always tell when he has to go potty, and I can take him right away. At home, I just let him do his own thing and don't watch him very closely. This is when he has accidents.

At home the last few days, I just take him every few hours, and we haven't had any accidents!

On Thursday, we were at the airport and as we were getting into the car, he started dancing. I asked him if he needed to go potty and he said yes. I was kind of stuck thought because I didn't want to haul him plus the other three back into the airport! I buckled him into his carseat and he held it all the way home!! Yay!!

This may have taken almost a month, but I think we are finally getting it!!!

Amazing!

Micah is still working on this potty-training thing.

Whenever I ask him if he needs to go potty, the answer is always, "NO!!!" 

But yet whenever I take him, he always goes. Hmmmm.

This boy refuses to tell me when he has to go. If I do not take him at home, he will go in his underwear and say, "Mom, I peed on your floor!" or "Mom, I peed in my pants!" This happens every.single.time.  Obviously he knows when he goes potty!  He always wears underwear at home, so he always has to change his clothes.

If I set the time at home for every 2 hours or so and take him, he is great! I literally have to drag him to the bathroom kicking and screaming sometimes, but he goes! It is those in-between times when he just goes in his underwear. :(

As for when we are outside of the house, he is great because I take him every so often. I do not know the last time he had an accident outside of the house.

He is great at bedtime too! I don't think he has woke up wet in the last 2-3 weeks. Last night, I put underwear on him for bedtime, and he woke up dry! He has been waking up in the middle of the night, so I usually take him potty and put him back to bed. This seems to be working!

Good bye diapers!!!

I also only have 1-2 pullups left; I don't think I am going to buy anymore. I think we will just be in underwear 100% of the time!

Side effect of having their own rooms!

I have learned a new side effect of the girls having their own rooms.

They now have room to have friends over for sleep overs!!! I know this is kind of minor, but before, there was no floor space to have any friends over, plus I wanted to wait until the girls were older.

Now, they are having sleepovers almost every week.

We have become pretty close to another family from our church and they have two girls the same age as Megan and Courtney.

Last night, we were at ANOTHER family's house (along with this family from church) and as we were going out the door, the two girls who are always over started begging for a sleepover, since they hadn't had one this week yet!! It was 10 pm!!

My girls came to me and said, "Dad said it was up to you." I just shrugged my shoulders- why can't these girls plan it any earlier?? Courtney took my shoulder shrug and ran off to tell everybody I said yes, which I didn't technically say! They all got excited because they had talked us into it yet AGAIN!

In the meantime, there was this other family who also has 4 older girls (they have 9 kids in all), and they were all standing there. They have also become friends, so I said, "You can't invite one family and not the other family!" I extended the invite to them too.

Guess how many extra girls we brought home last night? 5!!!!

My girls thought it was great because Matt and I both had cars there, so we had extra room.

The 2nd group of girls ran off to get their stuff, and everybody piled into the cars! I asked them where everybody was going to sleep, and they said they would figure it out! I now had 7 girls sleeping at my house (5 friends and 2 of my own!)

I just laugh about it because if I was 11 and 14, this would have been super fun!!

I told the other moms that they will not be in bed before 1:30 am, and they were both fine with it.

I heard them come upstairs around 1:40 am last night! I am not sure what they were doing downstairs, but they were quiet! How can 7 girls be so quiet that I couldn't even hear them upstairs??

Anyway, they are all still sleeping now and will probably sleep until 10 am!!

There are three girls in Megan's room and four girls in Courtney's room. They paired off by age.

How fun!!!

A Little behind?

Wow, I have fallen off the blog bandwagon! It has been about a month since I pulled this up. Either my life is extremely boring or busy lately; I am not quite sure!

This last week, I entered the stage of potty training with Micah. I wanted to wait until summer to do this AND I needed to do it when I wasn't really teaching school. I kind of forgot how much time it takes. :(

I do believe in putting children in underwear, giving them lots to drink, and then when they start dancing or showing signs they need to go potty, take them into the bathroom.  This works if you can keep an eye on them.  I will say this sort of worked this week!

 We started last Saturday, and Micah went through at least 15 pair of clothes that first day!  This was our first day, so it was ok. Everyday got a little bit better. It has been a week now, and I have learned a few things about him and potty training.

1.  He will NOT tell me when he needs to go. I either have to catch him dancing or just take him every so often. He knows how to go potty now, so that is a huge plus!
2. He will rather have the microwave tell him to go potty than me! He is kind of stubborn and doesn't like to be told what to do.
3. I cannot ask him if he needs to go potty because the answer is always "no." I need to say, "It's time to go potty."  He still usually responds with "no," but then I say, "We say 'ok, mom', not 'no.'"
4. He wants to do everything "by myself!"  He wants to get his pants and underwear off, get on the toilet, get off, and get everything back on. Usually after he goes, I lay his underwear and his pants out on the floor and walk out. He is successful about 90% of the time! Sometimes he gets very frustrated and I ask him if he needs help and he says, "NO!"  Sometimes I just help him anyway!
5. If I leave him unattended while he washes his hands, he dumps my whole bottle of soap down the sink and lets the water run to the top of the sink. He must be supervised!

6. I am still struggling with what to do when we go out in public.  Since he won't tell me he has to go yet, I have just been putting a diaper on him and not taking him potty, but I know this is not the right thing to do! I may give in and buy pull ups just for this training period! I really don't like pullups, but I cannot have him peeing through his clothes while we are out in public!!! Honestly, when he pees, there is usually some on the floor! This CANNOT happen in public!!  (Last night, he was outside riding his scooter and he peed. "Mom, I pottied on my scooter!!"

7. Oh, and going #2 in the toilet. That is totally not happening. I wish it would though!

Hopefully within the next week or two, we can get him trained to the point where he will tell me he needs to go AND I can take him out in public and not have accidents.

Micah quotes!

Last night, we were outside for awhile and our neighbor boy pointed out the moon to Micah.

Our neighbor said, "Is it a half moon or a full moon?" I could clearly see that it was a half moon.

Micah responded with, "The moon is broken!"

__________________________________________________________

Micah also had a late nap yesterday, so he was still pretty wired at 9 pm. I still put him to bed like usual, but after he laid in bed about 30-45 minutes and didn't go to sleep, he decided to get up.

I told him it was not time to play, but time to go to bed! He responded with, "I slept last night!"

Apparently he didn't think he had to go to sleep!

What do you do??

Yesterday we finished up Christian's phonics books. We had been working on these since January 2016, and we finally finished in May of 2018!! 

I have the 2nd grade program, and I asked him yesterday if he wanted to start these. I kind of talked him out of it because honestly, I want to start wrapping school up for the year.

Today when we were doing language arts, he said, "What about phonics??" I told him that we were done, and I just wanted to wait until next fall to start the next book.

He said, "Really? Can't we just start it now??" 

I guess we can! I pulled it out, and we started it!

What would you do????

Everybody is moving!

It is a bittersweet day in our house today. Everybody is switching bedrooms.

My nursery is being turned into a teenager room.

The room that Megan has slept in for TEN years is being turned into a little boys' room.

Courtney is finally getting "her" room back after being gone for about seven years.

We are also going to move  Micah into a toddler bed.


This is all started because Courtney has been begging for her own room for about the last six months.  Megan and Courtney have been sharing a room since Megan has been in kindergarten, but about six months ago, Courtney decided that she wants to go to sleep early.  This means that she wants the light OFF.  Megan, on the other hand, likes to sit up and write in her journal and read.  To compromise, Courtney would go to bed with the light off and Megan would sit in the hallway and write and read.  When I went to bed, I would turn the hall light off, so Megan had to go into her bedroom. At this point, she would pull out her kindle and continue to read a book until whenever she went to bed! Well, even though Courtney was in bed, she would often lay awake until Megan came in and then she still struggled to get to sleep with the kindle light on.

For the last three months or so, Courtney would often gather up all her bedding and go down to the couch to get to sleep. She was always in her bed in the morning, but this really became a nightly issue as of late.  She felt like she was being kicked out of her own bedroom, which she was really not, and she started begging us for her own room.

We told her that we have four children and three bedrooms, and someone has to share! I told her the only option was to put the boys together and when Micah had a consistent bedtime, the boys could go together.

This brings us to last Sunday. Matt went to Seattle for five days, and I was alone for bedtime.  I told the kids we would try some switching around while Matt was gone. I took Christian's mattress and put it on the floor in Micah's room. I wanted to see how they would do together.  I then took Courtney's mattress and put it on Christian's bed.  She now had her own room, and then Megan got her room to herself to stay up late at night.

Needless to say, there was NO drama at nigh for five nights!! There was nobody in my room crying because she couldn't sleep. There was nobody sitting in the hallway until I went to bed. Nothing! Bedtime was peaceful!!!!

On top of that, the boys played all week in Micah's bedroom together. They actually got along!!

Is this a win for everyone?? Even mom and dad?

Christian and Micah work on their relationship.
Courtney gets her own room.

Megan is not so happy about the whole thing. She has slept in that one corner of her room for ten years, but I think she is willing to move.  She said she doesn't want a blue room; I don't blame her, but we are not going to paint  it. :(

I took them to Hobby Lobby yesterday and we got some new room decorations to help them.

So that brings us to today- moving day!

End of School is in sight!

Just like every other student and teacher in Omaha, I am anxious to wrap up school for the year! I know my children are itching to be done too, but it looks like we will be going at least until the end of May and maybe into June a little bit.

Even though we homeschool, and we can quit when we want, I don't just pick and a day and call that our last day. I like to be at a good "stopping point" in our books.  I rarely finish a curriculum in one year, so I just need to stop somewhere (like a unit break), and then I pick it up again next fall.  I will continue in math and English though until we are done. I really do like to finish our "grade level" items, so we are ready to go on to the next grade level in the fall. I think by looking at everything, we have about six weeks at the most.

Megan starts high school next year, so I am trying to get things lined up there.  

Prealgebra- She has about four chapters left, so we will be trucking through that book for awhile yet. She will start Algebra I in the fall.

English- She is on her last chapter of her 8th grade book!! Her last chapter is on reference sources, such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, and atlases. I am always torn whether I should teach her these or not. I want her to know what they are, but honestly, will she ever use one??   On anther note, she is disappointed that she is done with grammar and has asked that she can continue to diagram sentences next year! She is crazy (but in a good way!)

Greek/ Latin roots- She will continue with this book next year, and then do the next book in the series. I am going to give her half credit for high school for this vocabulary study.

Writing- She finished her writing book awhile ago, so I said we would replace that with the writing assignments in her English book, but we haven't done them yet. We will get to them before the year is over! She really wants to go over the poetry section.

Reading- She has been reading books to go along with our history, and she will probably get a couple books in yet before we quit for the year.

History- She just started the 2nd quarter in her history book. I told her when she gets to the semester break that she can be done for the year. I think she has about six weeks to go. Very manageable!

Science- She is FINALLY finishing up her science curriculum that she started at the beginning of 7th grade! She is set to take the last test tomorrow. I have her next book all ready to go. She wants to start it this last month, but honestly, I wish she would just wait until next fall to start. She will be doing physical science her freshman year. 

Courtney is kind of right beside Megan in many things.

She is on lesson 107 of 170 in her math book. We will keep going all summer. She really wants to move in prealgebra next year because 6th grade math is too easy, according to her! I am not sure if she is ready for prealgebra, so we may just combine the 7th and 8th grade math books for next year. Megan does not want her only a year behind her in math! I guess I will see how the rest of the book goes. I really thought 6th grade was harder, but apparently it isn't for Courtney!

On the other hand, she only has two chapters left in her English book. She is a great sentence diagrammer!! 

She also finished her writing book awhile ago, and we are doing the writing lessons in her English book for writing. She doesn't have near as many as Megan, and they are pretty easy for her. 

She is currently reading "Ginger Pye" for reading. She will probably read one more book before the end of year. I need to figure up something for next year. 

History is also not a favorite subject for her. She is a week behind Megan in history, and I also said that when she gets to the semester break, she can be done for the year! I think that means there are about seven weeks left for her. 

As for science, she is finishing a unit on plants and will start a five week unit on invertebrates next week. Again, when she is done with that unit, she can be done! She is about in the middle of her book.

The same goes for her spelling. She is on week 31 of 36. When she finishes, she can be done! 

Christian has completely different subjects.

He is even further behind in math because at the beginning of the year, he was only doing half a lesson for awhile. I think he just got to lesson 85 of 170. We might need to double up on lessons or skip a few to get done before we go back in August!! 

He has also been working on a 1st grade phonics program since January of 2016!! He has four more lessons and we are done with this curriculum! I will probably pull out the 2nd grade program and have him start that in May. Might as well get ahead!

He is only on week 21 of 36 on spelling, so when we get to a review lesson (24), I said he can be done for the year. I won't make him continue spelling over the summer.

Next fall, I am going to start the same type of writing book for him as I did for the girls. He is going to finish up his sight words in about a week, and then I thought we could work out of a 1st grade one that Courtney started when she was in 1st grade! We will only go until the end of May and then put it back on the shelf. I will start him in the 2nd grade one next fall. 

As for reading, he has been reading short excerpts about animals and answering comprehension questions. I may just keep using this for next year. I also have a curriculum in my basement that Megan used in 2nd grade. It uses chapter books; I may pull that out for him for next year. 

AH! I think that is it!!!  

Princess Shoes?

Since it has been nice out lately, Micah wants to go outside ALL THE TIME!1

I am usually teaching a kid, and he has learned that Megan will usually take him out.  I hear "DeeDee, outside little bit?" all day long. (DeeDee is Megan.)

The other day, Micah was begging to go outside and he knew Megan was upstairs doing homework. I saw him go over the door and get her brand new sandals I bought her for church. He took them all the way upstairs to her, so she would put them on and take him outside.

Megan came down a little bit later and said that Micah had brought her her "princess shoes" because he wanted to go out!  They are a little fancy to play outside, but Megan thought it was cute that they called them her "princess shoes!" I haven't heard that phrase in this house in a long time! They do look like "princess shoes," don't they?

Sleep Much??

I am really hoping Micah sleeps through the night tonight. I don't know what is up with him, but he has been up the last THREE nights! This is not funny anymore!

This all started Monday night. He fell asleep on my lap in front of the TV, and I put him into bed about 8. This happens frequently, and is not a big deal. I was just ready to turn my light off at 10:30 pm and I heard him crying. I went in there, got him a drink, and he went back to sleep pretty easily.

He was up again at 12:30 am! This time though, he had woke Courtney up and she came into my room looking pretty irritated! I think her exact words were, "Are you going to do anything about him?"  I looked at her and said, "You are up; you can take care of him! I am tired!" She didn't think I was so funny and just continued to glare at me! Finally I got up and got him back to sleep again.

2 AM came and here he was crying and screaming again! What this time??  I just let him cry and cry and cry. I was tired!!! I am not used to this anymore! Courtney was also up again, but I heard her shut her door. He was saying, "Time to get up! Time to get up." After awhile, I finally went in there and rocked him a little bit. He really thought it was time to get up! It was about 3 am before he got settled back down in bed.

7:00 am came too early for me Tuesday morning!

He fell asleep on my lap Tuesday night again while we were watching "A Case for Christ."  I put him into bed again and hoped he would sleep all night. Well, I was wrong. He woke up about 2 AM again and Matt jumped up right away to deal with him. He said he gave him a good "talkin' to" and he went back to sleep. Thank you for letting me sleep! :)

Last night was round 3. He fell asleep at 6:15 PM on our way home from dinner. I held him on my lap until about 8.  I was kind of hoping he would wake up for an hour or two, but he didn't. Eventually I put him into bed and said good night.  Again, I had just turned my light off about 10:30 PM when he woke up. I could hardly believe it! Again, "Time to get up!" I went in there and said, "No, it is NOT time to get up. It is time to go to bed." He had already been sleeping for four hours.  I rocked him and eventually got him back to sleep. I went back to bed about 11:30 pm. I didn't see him until 7:30 this morning. 12 hours! NICE! 

He has not had a nap today, so hopefully I can put him to bed like usual. I enjoy reading him books before bed and going through our night time routine. He is still awake at this time, so that is good. Maybe he will sleep all night tonight?? I sure hope so!!

Reading time!

To finish up the school year, Courtney is just reading some various Sonlight books to make it to May. We finished up "Drawn into the Heart of Reading" program about a month ago, and I didn't want to start anything new in April. This was the reading curriculum that went with our Heart of Dakota curriculum. I want to start something new next fall, so we just need to finish out the year.

Today, Courtney finished up the book "Island of the Blue Dolphins" that she had picked to read from Core F.  I read this book to them right before Micah was born, so I didn't assume she would remember much and she really didn't! She read it and enjoyed it.

After we finished discussing that book, I asked her what she wanted to read next. I am not being too picky, but I prefer that she picks a book from Sonlight since they provide comprehension questions.

She looked at me and said, "You know, that one about a dog! I want to read that one!"

I responded with, "A dog? I have read many books about dogs in the past few years. Which one are you talking about?"

"You know, the dog one. He gets saved in the end. That one was my favorite!"

At this point, I was thoroughly confused because the only dog book I remember was "Old Yeller" and that dog dies in the end!

She ran downstairs and I saw her go into the storage room where we store our old Sonlight cores. By the time I got down there, she had found the book. She said, "This one!" She had pulled out "Ginger Pye."

I looked at her and said, "Ginger Pye? Sure you can read that book."

Do you know when I read this book to my girls?? It was when Megan was in 2nd grade!!! It was the first year of homeschooling! Courtney was 5, and she is now 11!

How in world did Courtney remember this book out of ALL the books that I have read in the last seven years?? And to say that it is her favorite?? I will never know!

A little distracted??

Today we had a full day of school. I started where I left off yesterday (we do a "loop schedule"), so the first thing up today was Christian's math.  Once we were done going over his lesson, I set the timer for a 5 minute break, and then I expected him to sit down and get it done.  I always encourage him to get his homework done as soon as he can, and then he can have the rest of the day free.

Well, apparently, I didn't keep close enough tabs on him after his five minutes because he didn't have it done by lunch time. I sent him back up to his room after lunch to finish it.

I continued going through lessons with the girls and after I had gone over his language arts, it was nearly 4 pm.  I asked him if he had his math done yet, and he said no.

At this point, he started telling me about all the plans he had for the hole in the backyard that he was going to dig.  I said not until your math is done!! My motto lately is, "No fun until your homework is done."  I sent him back up to his room to finish his math, again.

I ended up making a few phone calls, and I kind of forgot about him. The kids were outside and all was well.

I just went to tuck Christian into bed tonight (at 10:15 pm) and Megan says to me, "Hey, did you know Christian snuck outside today. He said he had to sneak out because his math wasn't done yet."  SERIOUSLY!!!! This is while Christian was sitting there doing his math at 10 PM!!!

This made me upset; he deliberately disobeyed me! I went into Matt who was already half asleep and told him what Christian did. I asked him what I should do and his response was to take his perler beads away. He has LOVED these lately and this would hurt! So I did!!! I cleaned them all up right in front of them and put them in my bedroom. Then I told him he needed to GO TO BED! He went, but he wasn't happy!

Tomorrow will be a new day.  I need to find a better way to force him to do his homework. Having him take it up to his room to do it is not working; he gets easily distracted. But sometimes I have to have him take it up or else he and Micah are constantly fighting.  He also gets easily distracted downstairs and bothers everyone else. It is a no-win situation!

New Chores and Chart!

As part of a family, we expect our kids to help out around our house, but some of my children don't like being told what to do (who does, right!).  I can really use the help, but I got complaining every time I asked them something. This just became a circle of arguing, and Matt came up with a solution!

He said he could write a program that gave everyone their chores, and he would use the program Trella, which they use at work to divide up tasks.  He bought a new computer, and he mounted it on our wall in the kitchen. He then wrote this program, and he assigned certain chores to certain children. The kids can now EASILY walk up to the computer and see what tasks they have to do for the day WITHOUT ME TELLING THEM! Yay!  When they are done with their task, they go to the computer and move it to the "done" column.  If it is not done by the time listed, it goes to "uncompleted" on its own.  They kids have required tasks, such as bringing down the laundry,  and optional tasks, such as helping with Micah.

Matt has also written the program so that each task is assigned a dollar amount, for instance, they earn a quarter when they empty the dishwasher. When a task is moved to the "done" column, the program will give them their set amount of money.  This has been the biggest motivator! Now the kids can see how much money they have earned as the time goes along. We have been doing this about three weeks now, so they have a running total until we pay them. 

Everybody that comes over to our house sees the computer on the wall and asks what it is about. We show them and then everybody says, "Hey, I love it. Can you do that for my family??" We have yet to have a family seriously ask Matt to make one for them, but he should really sell it! It has been amazing!!!

One a side note, Matt just added another part to the program.  It will take money away from the kids if they do not do their required tasks. Hahahaha!! This is because they have been doing about half the chores and leaving me to do the rest. The whole point of this was to help mom out!!! 

It's been a long time!

I think I am falling off the "blog" bandwagon. I haven't blogged in about two weeks.  It isn't that I don't want to, I just get to the end of my day and don't have the energy anymore. I spend my time in the evenings grading papers and by the time I am done, I just want to go to bed. But guess what? Tonight I am not grading papers! Tomorrow is Wednesday, and we are only having two hours of school, therefore, I don't need to have anything graded for tomorrow. Of course, I will spend tomorrow night grading everything for Thursday.

We have been chugging away in school lately. Just last week, we hit the midterm in Megan's and Courtney's math books. I know, it is kind of late in the school year to be hitting a midterm, but that is just where we are! I know there are only about two months of school left, and there is NO WAY we are going to get through our books before then. My children get the lovely privilege of going to summer school at the Ruwe Home Academy! I don't mind stopping history or science at the end of May, but we will keep plowing through our math and English until we are done.  I always like to start the next school year at the correct grade level.  I also know that I do *not* need to finish our books, but I like to. I find that there is material at the end that is important.  Last year, I had to just stop where we were because we went on vacation. I think we will keep going this year! Christian just hit lesson 70 of 170 lessons in math- 100 more to go!

As for English, Megan and Courtney are getting closer to the end of their books, much closer than math! I have been skipping the writing lessons to do later, so it looks like we are further than we are.
It is also nice that English has 40 few lessons than math!  We have been using Spectrum Writing books all year, and the girls are on the last assignment, which is a persuasive essay. When these books are done, I will go back through our English books and do the writing assignments.

As for history, we recently switched to Mystery of History Vol. 2, and the girls are enjoying it! We finished our Heart of Dakota Curriculum, and it is already sold and out the door. I am not sure if I will use Heart of Dakota again, but it was perfect for the last couple of years. Along with Mystery of History, we are reading the literature from Sonlight Curriculum. I really missed all the great literature of Sonlight, so we are back! (I used Sonlight for five years before switching to Heart of Dakota, and now I am switching back!) At the end of May, I will put history on the shelf until next fall. Megan has mentioned that she wants to keep doing it through the summer, so we will see what she decides.

Courtney and Christian are also enjoying their new science curriculum. I was teaching them together out of an Apologia book, but it was too hard with such an age gap. Courtney is now working through Biology on her own, and Christian is doing Earth Science with some help from me. Even though Courtney told me she would rather do NO science, she is still learning quite a bit! She is on a 6 week unit study of plants, and today she learned about ferns. I don't know nothing about ferns, so I am glad I get to help her through it. She is not as thrilled about learning about ferns as I am, though. Christian LOVES earth science. Our next unit is on weather, and he is so excited. This boy could watch the weather station all day if you would let him, but since we don't have cable anymore, that isn't an option. :(  He is currently wrapping up a unit on the planet earth, which includes volcanoes and earthquakes. This is perfect for him!

As for Micah, he is FINALLY to the stage where he can entertain himself during the day. He likes to take our bucket of crayons and put them in the blender and make "apple juice." He will then get a cup for everybody and give us "apple juice", which is really a cup of crayons.  He will also get out my pans and make "sausages" with the same crayons. I love how he plays pretend these days. The other day, he had taken his baby outside for a walk. It was nice out and the baby only had his underwear on. I was inside on the computer and all of the sudden, he came running in saying, "diaper change, diaper change!" He went up to his room and got a diaper and took it outside to the baby. Apparently the baby had pooped in his underwear and he needed a diaper change! I followed him outside and he had already taken the underwear off the baby, and the underwear were sitting on the driveway beside the naked baby. Once we got the diaper on, Micah took the "dirty" underwear and put them in the washing machine. I am so glad we got that taken care of!!!  I wish I could bottle this stage up and keep it around!