The Things They Say

Nathaniel: Me push you?

Edmund: No! This isn't a slide.


Nathaniel: Not a playground?


Edmund: No, they're stairs.




Oh, my.

Good thing Nathaniel thought to ask if Edmund wanted a push first, instead of just doing it!

Flannel Pajamas and Quilting

There aren't as many clothes patterns for boys as there are for girls, so I don't sew for the boys very often. I sew costumes for them, so far Robin Hood and simple surcoats. (I can't believe I don't have any pictures of them in their Robin Hood costumes on my blog; I'll have to look into that.)

One thing I like making for the boys is pajamas, especially nice warm flannel ones for the winter. I wonder if my in-laws would recognize these flannels that used to be button down shirts? :)

Edmund is always interested in what I make and gives me his opinion on all the things I turn out. Of course he likes it when what I am sewing is for him.

So there is one sewing project done. I have finished most of my mending pile as well. I still have a few things left in that pile, but I have moved on to some new projects that I really want to get done before the baby is born.

Here is the beginnings of one of the new projects. 64 blocks (composed of 9 3" squares of fabric each) to be made into a new, larger picnic blanket. As of the writing of this post I have pieced about half of the blocks. Now to do the rest and then join them all together and find a good backing.

I love to quilt. It is kind of addicting for me. :)

Speaking of quilts, did I ever show you the one that I made with my mother and sisters-in-law for a friend's wedding?This Log Cabin quilt is between a typical king and queen size. We used mostly fabric from our scrap box (we always save every bit of fabric from other sewing projects for quilting). It was so much fun to compare fabrics and figure out the diamond pattern.

I quilted it on my sewing machine.

Then I tried my hand at embroidery. On top, the couple's monogram (AHR) and wedding year. On the back is our signature.

A Weekend in St. Louis

This past weekend we went up to Saint Louis for a family reunion/great uncle's 95th birthday celebration.

A good part of Friday was spent at the zoo. Last time we went to the zoo we stopped to see each animal we passed and consequently weren't able to see the elephants, hippos, or rhinos. This year I had the boys make a list of the animals they wanted to see and we were able to see everyone that was on the list.

It was a pretty hot day, so we really enjoyed getting to cool off while visiting the penguins and monkeys. We took both of our strollers (a double and a single) and I am glad we did.


Waiting to go into the penguin house. As I said, it was hot. Jeremiah was really flushed; he probably drank a gallon of water and iced tea that day.

Nathaniel.

The boys did really well wearing their hats the whole time.

Somehow I never took a picture of Edmund, so instead here is a funny elephant showering itself with water.

Our great uncle paid for everyone's lodgings for the weekend. We got to stay at the Ritz!

The whole Hall contingent at the big birthday dinner.

Left to right, Glenn (Pop), Justice, Kimberly, Mary (Mom), me, Jeremiah, Nathaniel, Jaired (oblivious to the picture taking), Ellie, and Chava. Edmund is sleeping on Chava's lap.

Our Summer in Pictures (So Far)

Mr. Toad (named after Mr. Toad in The Wind in the Willows). This fellow provided Edmund with amusement for a long time. As did a turtle Edmund found and carried around for quite some time, hoping it would come out of its shell.

Mr. Toad doing Jumping Jacks.

The three boys are finally starting to play well in the pool together. Nathaniel actually likes being splashed now (at least most of the time)!

Jeremiah bailing water for all he's worth. I don't think he ever made much progress. :)

Jeremiah seems to take the heat worse than the other two boys. This is how he sleeps pretty much day or night. (Though he usually does have a pillowcase on his pillow.)

Another way Jeremiah stays cool. This is also yet another example of Jeremiah being different from the other boys. Edmund and Nathaniel are terrified of showers, but this guy loves them!

Where's Jeremiah?

Peek-a-boo!

Cicadas

This year the Magicicadas emerged. The link will take you to Wikipedia's page about these interesting insects. A couple things I learned by reading the article: 1) the adults don't seem to eat anything, their sole intention being reproduction and 2) the adult life span is only a few weeks, so they will all be gone about mid-July.

I don't know how it is in other states, or even in the bigger cities compared to where we are, but there are so many cicadas everywhere the noise is terrific!

We first noticed the cicadas coming out about two weeks ago. It was a pretty much overnight thing, one day none, the next day they were everywhere. Then they kept coming for three of four days, I think. What seems really strange to me is that at our house, as I said, they are everywhere, but just about half a mile through the woods at the family's house there are very few. In fact, the family didn't realize until the second or third day that the cicadas where emerging.

The first day, Edmund was a little wary of these scary looking insects. He said they looked like red-nosed dragons. After a little science lesson, during which he learned that the brown skins where empty, he began to inspect the cicadas more closely. It started with collecting the skins and looking at them and how they where open on the backs for the adult to climb out. Then he started using leaves to pick up the cicadas (similar to how you would use a pot holder to pick up something hot). Now he is very free with them and likes to collect them in buckets, or even just care around one or two and let them crawl on him as he plays with them.

Nathaniel is not nearly so friendly with the cicadas. He likes to look at them (and squash them), but is almost paralyzed if one gets on him. He will pick them up now, but very gingerly, and he doesn't hold them long.

Jeremiah, on the other hand, has no fear whatsoever. One of the first things he does when he goes outside is pick up a cicada. He carries them all over the place. The poor things get somewhat tortured, but not on purpose. He has put one in his mouth before, but didn't eat it.

I like this little picture sequence from one of the first days:

Nathaniel watches nervously as Jeremiah touches a cicada.

Then, just as nervously, Nathaniel finally touches a cicada.

Finally, for whatever reason, Nathaniel feels it necessary to help Jeremiah touch the cicadas, though Jeremiah would rather do it by himself.

These Hobbits Love Strawberries

There is nothing quite so yummy as a freshly picked, homegrown strawberry.

This is our strawberry patch the last couple of springs. Rather overwhelmed with weeds. Very hard for strawberry picking. Not to mention choking those poor strawberry plants.

This year, with the help of a proverbial kick out the door on Jaired's part, I buckled down and weeded the strawberry patch. I think it took me most of three weeks of at least fifteen minutes a day to get it all done. And it isn't really done yet. There are a few patches that don't have any strawberry plants growing where I went ahead and left the weeds, I'll go pull them eventually. Then, of course, the weeds are still coming up, so I have to weed more. BUT the bed is actually predominately strawberry plants now!

It sure is easier to pick the strawberries. For the first time since we moved into this house our strawberry patch looks more like it is supposed to look. I know the pictures may not make the patch look like much, but there is a big difference.

Back in March, when strawberries first came out in the the grocery stores, I fed some to Jeremiah. Considering that the rest of us all LOVE strawberries, it was a bit of a surprise that he actually spit them out! I predicted that he wouldn't be able to say no to the little lovelies that came out of our own patch, and I was correct.

He would eat all the strawberries if I let him.

Not Much, But Life

Today wasn't our best day for sure.

Thankfully the sun was shining this morning. After a grey weekend the sun was a good boost. The usual Monday housework went pretty well. But then school time came.

The word "pat" proved to be A Very Hard Word To Read. Edmund would read it correctly, then get stuck on saying "pap". It was very frustrating, but I knew that he could read the word properly if he actually took the time to think, instead of just saying the first thing that came to mind. In the end I had to feed the other boys lunch and take them outside to play, leaving Edmund to sit and clear his mind.

Once that hurdle was past the day flowed more smoothly, though right about that time the younger boys started getting really cranky, but then, thank goodness, it was nap time.

I took time to hang the laundry outside today. It smelled so lovely when I brought it in; I really need to hang the laundry more. Partly because of the rain I haven't hung the laundry out as much I usually do in the spring.

My sewing projects are coming along well. I won't bother you with all the mending details, but I should be able to get up some pictures of the new things I am making. I will be making a quilt (and maybe curtains) for Miss Cook's nursery, and the fabric for that came in the mail the other day, so now I am trying to make a final decision on what the quilt will look like. I won't start that project until all the mending is done. I find quilting to be rather addictive, so I need to get the less fun stuff out of the way first. :)

And a couple random pictures from the weekend.

Nathaniel...speed reading? He is our literary child. We had friends over on Friday, and Nathaniel and their little girl brought our entire collection of children's books into the kitchen and read them all while we played games.

We went to a Renaissance Faire near St. Louis on Saturday. This is one of the only pictures I took. A fire-dancer. She was pretty good, nothing fancy, but then I don't know how long she has been doing this. Besides this two ended pole she also has some torched chains and a little torch that she did fire eating with. Edmund was quite fascinated.

Summer Activities

As with my other pregnancies I have hit that point where I feel the need to finish my half done projects before the baby comes. Sewing projects are the main thing on my list. But there are also a lot of things that still need to be done in the basement that I would like to do before Miss Cook comes. It would be nice to get the schoolroom completed and ready for the new school year, as well as getting the bathroom down there up and running.

For now, I have started on my sewing projects. There are many, ranging from mending to new projects and as I sat and looked at my boxes I started feeling overwhelmed. So I closed all but one box, and from that one box, pulled out the first thing and finished it. Now I have gone through an entire box, fixing what I could and making a list of necessaries for the other things. Some of the projects were so easy and quick that it is ridiculous that I took so long to do them.

One of these was Jeremiah's name sampler. I have made these for the other boys, always finishing them up while pregnant with the next child. After I finished Nathaniel's I started Jeremiah's and had it almost done before he was born. Then I never picked it up again. Well, I finished it the other day, and when I said it was almost done I meant it. It took me all of maybe four hours spread over a few days to finish it. Wouldn't it have been nice to have finished it back when Jeremiah was a newborn?

Here it is: finished, washed, and framed.

And a close-up.

It would be nice to get Miss Cook's done before she comes, but I do think I should finish all the other half done projects I have going first. We will see what happens.

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On another note. We have the pool out and the boys have been in it pretty much every day for the last week and a half. Some of the days were really too cold and they didn't last long, but Sunday and yesterday they were in it a lot.

They all love the water, but of the three fish this one is the fishiest:

Neither of the other boys liked the pool much at this age, but Jeremiah loves it! It doesn't matter how cold it is. In fact, last month when we went to the river for a picnic Jeremiah actually crawled right into the river. Not only is the river always rather cold, but below the spring (where we were) it is ICY!!! But Jeremiah didn't care. As you can see, he loves to splash!

While Jeremiah sat down right away, it took Edmund a little while to get acclimated.

But it didn't take him too long. Oh, the life jacket? I don't know, maybe he was afraid he would be out of his depth. :)

Nathaniel was sleeping when some of these pictures where taken, otherwise he would have been in there more, too.

On Narnia, Imitation, and Walking

Harper Collins has a great unabridged audio book set of The Chronicles of Narnia. Jaired and I discovered it at the library when we were back in Virgina Beach. Recently, Edmund has become really interested in listening to audio books. He started out with some Jaired made for him, just reading books into a voice recorder, then burning them onto CD's. A few months ago Jaired brought home The Magician's Nephew and Edmund has since listened to all the books several times. He loves them and can recite all his favorite parts.

Last night, the evening wrestling matched somehow evolved into a game of Narnian kings fighting giants on the western border. Then Edmund got his "magic U" (a plastic letter magnet U) and transported us to the little country train station where the book Prince Caspian begins. He proceeded to give us a blow by blow account of the story and what each of us, as the different characters, was doing. We were then transported to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, where we went from listening to his accounts to actually acting out the story. Particularly one of his favorite parts, where I, as Lucy, had to go read the magician's book, and act out all the events related with that.

It was very amusing and fun to be able to participate in and encourage his imagination. He was so serious about it and was so pleased every time I was able to insert the correct Lucy quotes for each event. The evening ended with him asking me to read him a story from "the magician's book". When he climbed into my lap I asked him how is was that the magician (for that's who he was playing at the time) was able to sit on Lucy's lap. He said that he was a small magician. :)

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"Me, too!" For everything. Nathaniel wants to be like Edmund and do what Edmund is doing. Even when he doesn't know what we are talking about, if he thinks it sounds good, "me, too!" Even if Edmund is excused from the table and Nathaniel is still eating he wants to be excused too, though he ends up being hungry and wanting to come back to eat more.

Nathaniel is definitely in the unenviable position of middle child. He tries so hard to do all the things Edmund does, and at the same time is trying to stay ahead of Jeremiah. It's not fun. But that little, "me, too!" sure makes me smile.

And after saying hello to the baby, he always point to his own tummy and says, "me, too. Baby!"

Oh, and he has started volunteering kisses. He has the cutest little pucker.

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Jeremiah has finally started walking. He is so funny. Sometime last week, he started by walking up to something with his walker and stopping a couple of steps away, and then taking those last steps alone. He would hold his hands up above his head and as he reached his target bring them down onto it with a triumphant crash. Yesterday, we again had a fire going in the fireplace, so we spent most of the late afternoon and evening in there. Jeremiah walked back and forth between the couches or people, trying further distances as he went along. Today, he got up to halfway across the room.

He is so proud of himself. Of course we are proud of him, too.

(No pictures, I know. I'll try to get some in the next post.)

School with Edmund Part 2:

After about two months we moved on from letter recognition to phonics. Jaired’s family used Sing, Spell, Read, and Write for their children, and Jaired still remembered the phonics song that is used in that curriculum. We taught Edmund how to sing it, and, using images from the Internet, I made a visual for him to look at as he sang it. At that point I was able to use the same letter flash cards I had already made to drill him in his phonics. For each card he would tell me the name of the letter and the sound it made. I also started him writing the alphabet, usually a letter a day, first in uppercase and now he is doing lowercase.

Around the same time that we started phonics, I started him on other memorization besides just songs. We are working on both Scripture verses and various poems.

Throughout all of this I keep up with regular reading to him, from picture books as well as picking up chapter books and educational/informational books on topics that interest him (like castles).

As Edmund becomes more familiar with everything he learns he starts, of his own accord, to use it in his every day play:

Ø He writes his name on his own, practices writing random letters and numbers, or he draws a picture, then asks me how to write what the picture is.

Ø Once he learned the concept of counting past twenty he taught himself to count higher, just asking for help with the tens.

Ø He likes to sing to himself or recite nursery rhymes as he plays, so all the songs and poems he learns go into his repertoire.

We started using Saxon Math K in January. Both Jaired and I grew up on Saxon Math. Back then their lowest grade was 4^th, but now they have down to kindergarten. For the most part the books are non-consumables, so Jaired’s parents were able to save all of Saxon books once their children were done using them, with grandchildren in mind. For Saxon Math K we are able to borrow their teacher’s guide and only had to buy the booklet and manipulatives package that goes with the program. (And the manipulatives are used all the way to 3^rd grade, so they are well worth the 60 something dollars they cost, not to mention we can use them with the other children as well.)

Edmund and I both really enjoy the Saxon Math. Though it is a kindergarten book they start out with very easy concepts, much of which Edmund already knew. The book is designed to be used three times a week, with reviewing past lessons on the off days. I didn’t notice this until after we were a few weeks into the book, but, because Edmund was easily understanding each lesson, we have continued going through the book at a lesson a day.

The math book is designed to take up a full school year, but since we are doing a lesson a day we will be done with it in less time. I haven’t checked how many lessons there are, but I don’t plan to take off any official summer break, so we will just go until we are done and then probably move on to the next grade, keeping pace with what Edmund is able to understand.

Back to reading and writing, Edmund now knows all the initial sounds each letter makes and recognizes both upper and lowercase letters, though I have not yet taught him when to use which case.

Last month we started reading three letter words. I just use a notebook and devote each page to one type of words. So far we have done words ending with –an and –ot. I don’t know yet when I will teach him letter combination sounds, but once I do I can always go back to each page and write down the longer words that have those same endings.

I love the challenge and flexibility of home schooling. I can go as fast or as slow with a concept as Edmund is able to understand and not worry that he is going to “fall behind” or “get ahead.” If he is not in a very teachable mood we can skip our sit down school and just play. I don’t have to get stressed out trying to make him learn, and he learns that school is fun.

I learn and understand more about what I am teaching as I have to look at the topic/concept from different angles trying to find the way Edmund will understand it. And it is not just the way I explain things to him, but the way a lesson is presented to him.

For example: as I gave him new words to read he began to be overwhelmed by all that was going on. He would look at the list of words, which probably appeared long to him, and his mind would shut done, so much so that he would not even be able to tell me the sounds of the letters. You may think I am making excuses for him being stubborn and not wanting to read, but I think that it really was just too much at once for him to handle. My approach now is: each day I tell him if we are going to just do a review of the previous day’s words or if we will be learning new words. Then, I make sure that he feels confident with reading each word, and at least understands the basic meaning of the word before going on to another one. Finally, even if I want him to read three or four new words I write them down one at a time, that way he can concentrate on each new word one at a time, instead of seeing all of them at once and wondering how in the world he is going to be able to read them. This approach has worked really well. We are both much more relaxed about reading, and he is excited and confident about reading. He even gets the notebook out at other times during the day to read the words to himself.

I look forward to sharing more of our home schooling journey with you. I would love to hear your comments.

The Beginnings of Our Home Schooling Adventures

I intended to write a full post of how our home schooling evolving and progressing, but I am currently only about halfway through writing up a post and it is already two pages long. Instead of one post I have decided to divide it up into a two or three, so:

School with Edmund Part 1:

Edmund and I started doing “formal” schooling in October of last year. I say formal, because we always try to incorporate learning into everything we do; making a point of using the names of shapes and colors, referring to an item’s position by right or left, counting things, and singing the alphabet. But please understand, our lessons are not at all what you would probably find in a typical school. I started by mainly just making up each day’s lesson as I went along, without really any curriculum, any particular consistency in daily school, or even necessarily a flow from one day’s lesson to the next.

You may be thinking at this point that it can’t really be called school. What I was going for was getting into the school mode, both for Edmund, and myself, as well as trying to find what kind of learning system would work for us. Sure, I could have figured out all the curriculum details before we started, but then who knows when we would have started, and how much actual curriculum do you need for your preschool/kindergarten student anyway? Our curriculum is definitely still a work in progress, but I would like to share with you what I started with and how our schooling is going right now.

I did several Google searches for preschool resources and found a lot of free stuff online. Our first few months of school I did a lot with just printed worksheets and coloring pages that focused on whatever we were learning in a given day.

The first weeks was mainly “review” work with Edmund to figure out what he already knew. As I said before, we sang, counted, named colors, etc in daily play, so Edmund already had a good foundation in those areas. To begin, we did a lot of repetition of numbers and the alphabet, straightening out the ones that he had mixed up or was missing altogether.

Once he was fairly good with saying both his letters and numbers I made some flash cards, to work on recognition. I just used Microsoft Word and made a template then printed out two of each number or letter (for the letters I had both upper and lower case on the same card). We worked with the flash cards every day, as well as using them to play games of Memory.

By this time our lessons consisted of:

Ø Reading the Bible, I started with a regular Bible, abridging as necessary for his understanding, now we have a children’s Bible that we read. I ask him questions about the previous day’s reading, we read the current day’s reading, then talk about it.

Ø Singing a song, we have Edmund memorize songs (we started with Christmas ones). Once he has a song memorized we move on to a new one, but periodically we have him sing past songs to keep them fresh in his mind. He also likes to sing when he is playing, so all these songs go into him repertoire for that as well. (In fact you can tell when he really is starting to “get” a song, because he will start singing it throughout the day.)

Ø Numbers, first counting then moving on to recognition

Ø Letters, first singing the alphabet properly, then moving on to recognition

To be continued....

Edmund -- 4 Years Old

Edmund's birthday was last month, the week before Thanksgiving. He has really been able to understand about his birthday and age change this year. The whole week after his birthday he would use his age in conversations whenever he could. Like saying, "Mama, can I have my four years old boy's Legos to play with?" (He got some Legos for his birthday, and we have to keep them up high when he isn't playing with them, so that Nathaniel won't get them.)

His birthday meals this year were: Blueberry Pancakes for breakfast, Spaghetti with bread and salad for dinner, and Chocolate Cream Pie with whipped cream for dessert. The whipped cream was very important to him. Before he had even decided on a pie he knew he wanted whipped cream on it. :)

We had a lot of fun baking the pies together. He is getting really good at helping with stirring, adding ingredients, and getting out everything we need for the baking process. Jaired taught him how to crack an egg, but he doesn't like to do it because his fingers get egg white on them -- he is such a particular little boy.

Here is the final result. It was pronounced a great success.

Singing "Happy Birthday."

He blew out each candle individually!

Opening presents.

This book is The Wind in the Willows. We read it together the next week and he really enjoyed it. The pictures are beautiful.

Jaired and I got him a sleeping bag. He is so excited, because he has been asking for one since the summer. He sleeps in it almost every night.

In fact, that night we lit a fire in the fireplace and camped out in the living room.

The birthday shirt, made by Aunt Kimberly.

It is crazy that my first baby is four years old now. He is such a sweet, particular, funny little boy. He loves to help me around the house and to play with his little brothers.

We started school with him this year. He has really taken off with writing the alphabet, though he still doesn't remember the names of all the letters. He continues to love drawing and has recently been making "books." He will draw pictures on several papers, scribble "words" on them, then staple the pages together. It is always interesting to read these stories to him. He expects me to know the story, so I have to ask him questions to figure out the general plot and then make up something off of that.

Edmund likes to tell me about his wife, whom he hasn't meet yet. Her name is Aba-baba. He is always talking about her, how many children they are going to have, how she is going to to have a sewing machine just like me, or be like me in some other way. He is so serious about the whole thing.