New Kittens!

 

So much has been happening here! Around December 1st, we decided on a date to get kittens.  We got busy cleaning the kids' rooms in preparation for kittens, which we brought home on December 15th. These new additions have meant a new need for flexibility, as the cat litter is in the guest bathroom! These little sweeties have been such a blessing and we are thoroughly enjoying our new pets.

Introducing...the black kitty is a female and she belongs to Daniel (and the whole family) and he named her Shadow. Sarah named her boy kitty "Oreo". Shadow is really sweet and has this velvety, silky fur and Oreo has the cutest little face and expressive eyes. Both are bundles of kitten energy!

These photos are from the past two weeks, they've already grown! What FUN (fun, Fun, FUN!) we've been having getting to know these sweet little critters. It has been a great time to have a less rigid routine so we have lots of playtime with the kitties before they start sleeping all day! What an education we're all getting!

Free Bible Lessons-Adventures in the Holy Bible

I was looking for a family Bible study that isn't a "study"...something a little more simple and I found it! Your Story Hour offers free Bible lessons called "Adventures in the Holy Bible". I'm loving it! Because we follow history chronologically, we happen to be moving into the first century and studying Jesus' life. Just what I was looking for on two fronts!

One page story for easy reading at Table Time and then a quiz we fill out together. There are 52 lessons. You get FREE audio CDs for lessons completed. When you finish all the lessons, you'll have the entire "Life of Jesus" CD set - for FREE! If you already have the "Bible Comes Alive" series, these recordings are found on albums 4 and 5. You can do the online version, or send your lessons through the mail and have them mail back new lessons. We chose this version so we can receive some mail! And we all enjoying getting our free CD! After finishing all 52 lessons, they send the case to hold all the CDs. Fun!

If you do the FREE Bible program via mail, please consider sending a donation to help cover postage if you are able.

Thanksgiving Read Alouds

Finally, I got my act together and brought home Thanksgiving books BEFORE Thanksgiving! I think the last week of each month is a good time to reserve books for the next month's holiday! All these must be returned tomorrow because each one has a hold on them...someone new will enjoy them before next Thursday!

"The Thanksgiving Story" by Alice Dalgliesh*
"Thanksgiving Day" by Gail Gibbons (for under 6 years-ish)
"The Turkeys' Side of It" by Janice Lee Smith
"Thanksgiving Is-" by Gail Gibbons*
"Oh, What a Thankgiving" by Steven Kroll

*these were my favorites

LOLACHE Videos-3D Design

We watched a video on the LOLACHE site (Informal Learning/3D Design) together this morning. It inspired some experimentation in blender.org for Dan.

More Chores-Index Card File

For quite awhile, I've printed a daily checklist for each child with responsibilities and individual chores. Included with our normal routine and meals are chores and daily things "to-do" like brushing hair and teeth along with independent studies like math. But I realized as I wanted to increase our responsibility by doing more chores together, it was becoming difficult to fit everything on the daily sheet.

Since the sheets have become habit, I decided to move us over to a card system to accommodate my growing list. I first read about this in Sidetracked Home Executives and then found that my friend used this system successfully in her home.

I made a spreaadsheet of all the things we do now and then added things I want to start doing. I coded each item according to who does it and on what day. Then I started making cards.

Each of us has a stack in the front for our daily items. Weekly chores go behind the day tabs. On Thursdays we vacuum, so there's a card in the Thursday section that reads "vacuum". In Monday, there are four cards...one for each bathroom and a card for the showers. Week 1 is bathroom 1, week 2 is bathroom 2, week 3 is bathroom 3 and week 4 is for cleaning the showers. We've already done two bathrooms!

Each bathroom requires seven steps (done top to bottom):
-dust lights/fan
-mirror
-sink
-counter
-inside toilet
-outside toilet
-floor

Breaking down the steps, like I did with the laundry, makes this seems really simple!  Sarah has been doing the mirror and counter, Dan does the dusting, fan and lights, inside of the toilet bowl and sink, I do the rest-we go top to bottom. Just like with making lunches, someday they will be skilled to do these things on their own. Maintaining this chore box helps me stay on task, not letting myself off the hook when something needs to be cleaned!

How did we get here? The process has been organic and very gradual. I've been noticing what we ARE doing and also taking note of what we still NEED to accomplish. It is AMAZING how the laundry is just a NON-issue now that we run a load every morning and fold a load every morning. We start our day with a load of laundry while yesterday's load is fluffing in the dryer. Then we fold that load. I rarely have to do laundry on the weekends and rarely do more than one load a day. We have our system in place and it is working-hooray!

I'm eager to get systems in place for the bathrooms, cleaning the car, washing a few windows, sweeping, etc. I've never in my whole life been able to conquer this area in my life, so this is really exciting! We've just kept adding little things as the days and weeks and months go by.

When we started homeschooling over three years ago, my children weren't responsible for any chores. I had never taken the time to train them how to do things. As I've become more loving, our relationships have healed a lot and I have much more influence over my children as we endeavor to do real life together...and chores are very REAL!

History Read Aloud

Started "The Bronze Bow" by Elizabeth George Speare today as part of our chronological history reading.

Sarah's Cartwheels

Sarah has been delightfully diligent to practice over and over her cartwheels...she's really improving! I'm so proud of her!

Trains and Legos

Trains and Legos this week...lots of creativity and problem solving goes into their play.

Quick Read-Pyramids by David Macaulay

I'm doing some purging and don't want this hardback taking up space...I purchased this when I was buying curriculum three years ago...so we read it! Excellent book! My library has 25 copies of "Pyramid" by David Macaulay...if we want to read it again sometime!

Literature For Lunch-All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor

Well isn't this delightful!?!? A family of five girls growing up in New York City in 1910ish. What's kind of fun is my Mother's aunt was born in 1913. Tales of scarlet fever, Jewish holidays, city neighborhoods, hard lessons, sisterly love...all woven into mini-chapters that are easy to start and stop (audiobook). There seem to be more books, I'm guessing the kids will want those, too! Really enjoying "All-of-a-Kind Family" by Sydney Taylor.

Pumpkin Patch 2012

Our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. We left as it started to rain. :) My nephew is two!

Literature For Lunch-James and the Giant Peach

This is simply FANTASTIC on audiobook! Narrated by Jeremy Irons (Scar from "The Lion King", among others). The kids were delighted and I loved revisiting this story from my own childhood.

Literature For Lunch-The Cricket In Times Square by George Selden

Sweet story of Mario, Tucker, Chester and Harry. Enjoy "The Cricket In Times Square" by George Selden! This could have been read at much earlier ages...charming!

Sarah's Halloween Decorations

Sarah LOVES to decorate. We didn't do any decorations this year and even overlooked carving pumpkins! She made a ghost out of a white trash can liner and a witch out of black trash bags along with some items with pipe cleaners. I LOVE the black spider! She positioned these around the house for decor ala Sarah!

Literature For Lunch-New Lunch Read Aloud-Little Britches by Ralph Moody

LOVING this so far! "Little Britches" by Ralph Moody!

Loads of Learning, Profusion of Play

I spent this week in a very loose routine. Daniel picked up "Story of the Orchestra" by Robert Levine and has really enjoyed listening to the CD and reading about composers. Interestingly, I had purchased this for us to do as a school subject early on when we started homeschooling. That didn't go well. Now here he is digesting it on his own!

Sarah wants to build a pallet playhouse outside, so I had her draw plans and make a prototype, which she is doing with matchboxes. She also is playing a game with herself which involves dressing up and doing her hair. Oh, and she was cleaning out a box of her stuff and found some Silly Putty and hence, the snake.

What We Did This Summer

 

Last year, we started hiking and camping. Here's a reminder of what we did this summer:

Rasar State Park (Skagit cabin), Rockport SP, Steelhead county park, Chuckanut Drive, Larrabee SP
Library Walking Tour (July, August and September)
Arch Cape/Cannon Beach, OR (Labor Day)
Book covers took us all over King County on many weekends...Maple Valley, Black Diamond, Enumclaw, Federal Way, Vashon Island, Skykomish, North Bend, Renton, Kent, etc
Lighthouses: Point-No-Point, Browns Point, Point Robinson, Skunk Bay, West Point
Yurting at River Meadows (August 4-6)
Lake Padden hike, Bellingham (picnic with Gramma) and Little Mountain Park
Stimpson Nature Reserve hike, Bellingham
Magnuson Park, Seattle
Driving in Olympia and Roy
John MacDonald park in Carnation (picnic with Gramma)
Potholes State Park (cabin)
Mount Rainier (Ohanapecosh and Grove of Patriarchs)
Horseshoe Bend hike, Silver Lake Park and drive to Mount Baker (awesome!)
Rasar State Park (picnic with Gramma)
Squires Lake hike, Bellingham
Camano Island SP hike (picnic in rain with Gramma!)
Kanaskat-Palmer SP yurt/campfire (Mother's Day)
Beaver Lake hike, Darrington
Coal Creek Falls hike, Newcastle (Easter)
UW Cherry Trees, Seattle

Daniel's Days

I love my boy! Dan at Rasar State Park, on the library walking tour, on the Skagit river, on his (my!) bike, climbing at Larrabee State Park,  roasting marshmallows at Arch Cape in Oregon, yurting at River Meadows, swimming with Dad in the Stilly, viewing Browns Point lighthouse and perusing the stacks at Federal Way library.