Montessori Give Away!

Montessori Print Shop has a great give-away!!

There are new give-aways listed every day!  I know I would like to win this because of my lovely children.  They LOOVE all things Montessori!

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Beautiful Day!

Today we went with our homeschooling group to  the Blue Army Shrine in Washington, NJ for a May crowning. The day was absolutely gorgeous! We started out with noon Mass at the shrine and then took a small statue on a liter to the Holy House and crowned Our Lady followed by a procession through the rosary garden praying the Joyful Mysteries.

Here is what greeted us when we made the trek up the big hill when we were done:

As my friend Viv said:

“That has GOT to be a sign!”

Yes, Viv, it does!

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In Just 3 Hours…

In just 3 hours I managed to do this with the middle children(9 and 10) and the younger children (age 4 and 6)

• Morning Devotions
• Pledge of Allegiance

• Baltimore Catechism chapter 9: Holy Spirit (they seem to have it all down pat..will quiz tomorrow for snacks 😉

Sing Come Holy Ghost and discuss what the words mean.

• Each child (except 4yo) read from American Cardinal Readers and discuss new words…also stressing speech skills projection and enunciation
• Character building/Virtues Training:

Mind Your Manners Dick and Jane (from Library)

Read the rest of chapt.1  Children and I take turns reading text and discuss. (it is a rather “light” book but it is a good conversation starter.  We laugh over the fact that Dick and Jane now have a computer…)

• Geography: Yo Sacramento!

Go over Midwest states and quiz all info memorized up to this point (mental note to play a “mother may I” type game with the facts memorized up to this point tomorrow)

• Middle aged Math (for 9 and 10yo):

Review times tables up to and including 5…quiz for speed and acuracy

• for6yo: Standard Bible Story Reader

Read “In the Temple”

while 4yo colors St. Scholastica stained glass coloring from yesterday’s saint story.

• for 6yo: Language of God for Little Folks

Do 2 pages Titles of Respect and Period and Telling Sentences

Laugh over the definition he gives for Mrs. :

“a martyred woman” (supposed to be “married woman”) [LOL]

• 4yo works in phonics workbook for short e and short i

spells words, reads Little Angel Reader “A Cab”, letter practice

• 6,9,10yo Copywork:

Poem: “Little Jesus” by Francis Thompson (worked on better handwriting at the same time)

• 6yo finishes pop-up book of Jacob’s Ladder (started yesterday) and narrates the story to me while I record it on his little booklet…immediately placed in page protector in his binder
• Science:

Read What is a Lifecycle? by Bobbie Kalman

• Computer time: to drill math facts, play Carmen Sandiago, and watch EWTN kids shows 4-5pm

For tomorrow:

put out Montessori cards for Punctuation Stories

print out graphics to be used in lifecycle books to be placed in binder until other parts can be assembled in a lapbook

Notes:

We do pages for a lapbook or scrapbook every other day in one subject or another.

Right now we have a scrapbook going for Religion studies (parts of the Mass, items used at Mass, and  Discovering the inside of the church are pages we are working on right now).   I am marrying this into some COGS work in those areas. ….s l o w l y…we are still trying to get work consistent here and we don’t want to burn out.

In addition, we are working on some lapbook pages for Science exploration on several topics.  These hands-on works really seem to cement new topics and help us to retain more of what we read.

I have been alternating math days with the younger two (4 and 6) so we can really “play” at math for an extended period of time.  I also alternate history and science days with the younger 4 so we can focus on it more…it works for us!

meanwhile…the older 3 were working on independent studies…math, bible study, copyywork/poetry study and more…

Dinner is veggie barley soup with fresh herbs and is bubbling away on the stove…time to hit night speed-clean up and prepare for tomorrow followed by a long refreshing 5 mi walk with good friends after the younger ones have been tucked in….I will be the slightly harried mother nursing in that blue chair while I direct traffic around me. ..I can’t believe that:

1. This is MY job!
2. I am old enough to be a grown-up.
3. I am actually accomplishing amazing things…(it doesn’t  always seem so whenever I start out, however…talk about FAITH!)
4. I actually have a job I don’t mind getting up in the morning to do.
5. I am still vertical without caffiene.

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mmmm…

You Are an Ice Cream Sandwich

You are well grounded, reliable, and very balanced. You love to work hard, but you also know how to take it easy. People might be surprised to know you have a very goofy side to you. You like to let loose and have fun. You just don’t let yourself go too crazy!

What Frozen Treat Are You?

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In the space of twilight…

I had a rough night with some mild PMI (insomnia) and a teething 9mo and just when I would go to sleep, he would think it was a great opportunity to get up. If I got 3 hrs total that would be a generous estimate…

I was supposed to lose my 2 bestest helpers to my mom first thing this morning as they wanted to help her re-organize her school stuff(she is a teacher) I begged one of them to stay so I could get some shut-eye.

I was finally able to hand him off to someone and then I heard a ..bang! A huge branch fell in front of our house into the road and did NOT hit any cars!! (rush hour) …the road was loaded with them..how did that happen?? The branch ripped all of the electric and phone lines out of the house though.

About a half hour later my 4yo accidentally scratched the cornea of my 13yo ds. and he wasn’t a very happy camper…it was a beauty!

After several hours I finally got my twin that was out of the house back (thanking God that one of them stayed home with me) I was able to borrow my mom’s cell phone and call the eye dr…could I come now?? sure. no shower, no sleep…sure I can drive.

When I got back the power came on but the phone was off. I ran out before they left and asked them when the phone company was coming. “Well lady, we are the power company. We don’t really communicate with anyone…”

I managed a cat nap and now I am out to the garden store to pick up plants for our church garden which I was supposed to plant (last month!) but due to rain and lack of funds due to some re-structuring at the parish, I just got the money…oh! and my name is on the “the person in charge of the garden is” list. (I don’t know how THAT happened…) “They” (the people who don’t help but are great at gossip) think ‘I’ am a slacker! LOL!!

So, my 13yo is sleeping and the kids are full of dirt and I am going to just transplant them to the garden down the street…dirt is dirt. and I am dirt tired!

How was your day?

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Wow! How cool is this?….

Thank you so much Cara!

She is so cute!!

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Win a Rosetta Stone Latin Program!

**Rosetta Stone is the fastest way to learn a language and has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while — and you can WIN the *all new* version 3 Rosetta Stone Homeschool LATIN program… FOR FREE! This is the first year you can get Latin in the brand new Version III update.

This is a $259 program (and believe me it’s worth every penny!)This is a computer based curriculum and Rosetta Stone will also include a headset with microphone, and a supplementary “Audio Companion” CD so you can practice lessons in the car, on the go, or where-ever! Students participate in life-like conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone incorporates listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing along with speaking and pronunciation lessons. For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program to allow parents to easily enroll up to ten students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, grade completed work (the program grades the work automatically as the students progress- I love that!), and you can view and print reports for transcripts. Homeschooling a lot of kids at your house? This program is designed to enroll and track up to ten students (five users on two computers) and will work for nearly all ages — from beginning readers up to college students.

To win this most excellent Latin program copy these paragraphs and post them in (or as) your next blog post, and/OR link to the contest from your facebook page and/OR email the information to your homeschool support group – Then go to the original page http://Jeneralities.com and leave a comment saying that you’ve posted about, or have linked to, the contest. Please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post.

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Amazing Annunciation Art

Tapestry with the Annunciation, ca. 1410–1430
South Netherlandish

“Seated in a spacious room of the elaborate type first represented in Northern Europe by the illuminator Jean Pucelle, the Virgin Mary looks away from her book on the reading lectern, startled by the sudden entrance of the archangel Gabriel. He holds a scroll with the words “Ave gracia plena” (“Hail [Mary] full of grace”). In the sky, God the Father sends the infant Jesus bearing a cross toward the Virgin, preceded by the dove of the Holy Spirit. They descend in the direction of the Virgin’s ear, as it was believed that her ear (emphasis mine)  was the opening through which she conceived. Other imagery in the tapestry, such as the enclosed garden, emphasizes her virginity, and the single white lily placed in an elaborate pottery jar symbolizes her purity.”

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New Beginnings…

And so we begin another school year. It is chaotic…there is a mess in neat little piles everywhere…books, papers, school supplies…

even though we try to keep up with the dishes, the meal times seem to come on us faster and faster and we just can’t keep up! the kitchen could use a fire hose cleaning… got a hose I can borrow??    I guess it would help if I had a drain in the floor….

I am very visual and clutter drives me nuts…especially when my arms are too short to reach the kitchen sink with any degree of comfort, not to mention that I have to do all my cooking on the back burners of the stove to prevent accidents and a burnt pregnancy belly….short arms hinder there too.  Trying to get the kids to do their chores without evaporating into thin air is a challenge, (they can smell weakness) and I don’t know how so much stuff seems to collect on the floor…  where does it all come from?! I can’t reach it. Dh has joked about putting a nail at the end of a pole to help me…

but! somehow we are doing it. 10 ring circus style…and the more we do it the better we get at it, but we have to be willing to have all we know turned on its ear for awhile until it finds its own level of normalcy… (the mysterious element of life that has no definition really, it just is an imaginary goal of mine…)

As for school…

I so much want to form connections with the children in all subject areas. I want to help them bookmark in their brains the things we are covering. I want the precious time we have together to count.  I don’t want to waste anything.  I want it to MEAN something to them. The funniest times I have with the younger set are when we attempt to give them a grasp of things, most specifically  the passage of time.  Sometimes this works…sometimes it doesn’t…

Yesterday we were covering the beginnings of Salvation History with the 8 and 9yo…. When trying to elicit the response to the question “Who was it that was the father of many nations?” I got the answer:

“OOh! I KNOW THAT one! Abraham Lincoln!

gulp. ok…time to add pictures… lol

I am trying to get my 8th grade son and twin 9th grade daughters to be more independent. I want them to polish their writing and communication skills in oh so many ways. I find that the largest success comes from letting them choose their time to study any given subject area and I try to get them to write about the things they are engaged in and not be afraid of having to polish and re-work things a few times to accomplish a well written and well thought out piece.   I don’t mind if they do a weeks worth of American History at once and just a few other subjects in any given day as long as they are spending that time in concentration and not in idle exposure. For my one dd in particular, this has proven to be a great antidote for her retention issues. She really needs to immerse herself in only a few things every day to do them well instead of spreading herself so thin that she gets overwhelmed with the workload.

They have discussed ‘pegs’ on the 4Real board and on sweet Melissa’s blog many times.  Great idea! It is working.  I find myself musing about them in a different way though…. I think the best peg to pin my sons to lately is the one that attaches to the seat of their pants and hooks them to a dining room chair so they will not flee in fear from the gray substance that comes out of the center of those sharpened wooden sticks they call pencils and forces them to actually START to scribble  on pages of paper that are much too white and daunting.

This has got to be the hardest year yet.  Maybe it is the thought that I have older children that will only be with me for a few more years.  I have a baby coming in 5 weeks.  My house and my budget are too small for all of my wonderful ideas.  Who knows why, really.

and yes, I am praying, a LOT!

…For God’s balance.  …His kind of connections and ….His Wisdom in everything.

My puny wisdom doesn’t stand a chance around these children, their being made in God’s image and likeness and all… otherwise I just feel like a sitting (very pregnant) duck.

His is the only force that will reckon with them.  Good thing HE is perfect.  at least I am willing to keep on trying to steer this ship anyhow despite my limitations and hormonal weaknesses…lol!

I believe they call this the beginning of spiritual growth….

I haven’t had any good chocolate in months.  I am feeling its loss…

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double oops!

I accidentally published a rough draft of the post about time….
then allllll of the links that I added aren’t working….
*deep sigh*
I HAVE to clean and can’t fix it now…I will try again later….anyone want to help me go through myriads of homeschool books and simplify them?? anyone?? no sell? ;o)

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