(And All My) Work Be Praise

My dear Levi, Meeting the Mississippi River for the first time at age 6. This has been an incredible year for you. Together we set goals, some driven by me, some by you, and you achieved them all. You finished elementary school math. You read the entire Bible in exactly one year (and we celebrated with rainbow pancakes at Perkins). You completed Mensa's Excellence in Reading K-3rd grade reading list, plus a host of other classics besides. Over the course of three months in the spring, you made a list of twenty piano pieces you could play from memory at a moment's notice. Then your piano teacher moved away, and you spent the next two weeks transposing The Happy Farmer into every key imaginable, major and minor. You have made individual friends here in Minnesota, something we hadn't quite managed in Ohio, where all of our time with friends was done as as a family. You learned cursive and got your own library card and proved yourself a worthy opponent in both  Settlers...

Fact: we have probably watched more TV in the past nine months than in my children's entire lifetime up to this point. Once upon a time, my littles-who-are-now-the-bigs watched one episode of Daniel Tiger (that's 22 minutes on Netflix) once a week. Once a week! Man, I had it together back then. Well, then third child came along, and we settled into one episode of Daniel Tiger every day while Mommy made lunch (and took a breather from the morning). Then , we discovered that all of the Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood seasons are on Amazon Prime, and they started watching a show in the afternoon sometimes, too. Not every day, maybe, but more weekdays than not. This is the period of time in which I felt guilty over screen time, but 1) not enough to cut back, and 2) not enough to feel judge-y of other parents whose kids watched TV. So here we are now. It turns out that having four kids under seven years old, and moving twelve hours away from home, and being pregnant again, altogeth...

What I'm Cooking Chicken scampi . Half a cup of butter AND a quarter cup of olive oil . . . this is delicious. I saute yellow peppers along with the chicken and serve over thin spaghetti. Toffee brownie brittle , for small group. You can buy this at the store, but it's surprisingly simple and just as tasty to make at home. BBQ pork sandwiches on homemade buns . Pork roast in the crockpot with about half a bottle of Montgomery Inn sauce, still in my cupboard from Cincinnati. For the buns, I use all white whole wheat flour, not a mixture of white and red ("regular") as the recipe calls for. Chicken spaghetti . I guess I was craving pasta-chicken dishes this week. Peanut butter chocolate chip banana bread . I have two favorite banana bread recipes, and this is the preferred among my children. (The other has blueberries and walnuts: healthier, but not as indulgent.) I always double the recipe and do half as muffins, the other half as a loaf. The days are quickly ...

What I'm Cooking Navajo fry bread , to take to a friend's house for dinner last night. I didn't make the beans this time around, because she was supplying the taco toppings. We ate leftovers with cinnamon and honey this morning for breakfast. It's a lot of work, but soooooo delicious! Mega scones . It's taken me a few tries to make this well, where the jam doesn't leak out all over the place. This week I finally had success! I don't have any real pointers, though . . . it was luck. Mine don't look anything like the picture on the recipe site. Roast chicken and vegetables . If you've never roasted a chicken before, don't be afraid! It's so easy, and so delicious. I never have twine on hand, so I never tie the legs back, and I'm fairly certain that I forget which side is "breast up" about 50% of the time. It never matters. With enough fat (I used coconut oil this time, but I have used bacon grease before!) and salt, the ...

It's been four years now since I did a unit on creation with my kiddos, and it's fourth child's turn to do some preschool crafting! You can see Levi's day-of-creation crafts from four years ago here . His are definitely more involved than Toby's -- such is life with four kids instead of two -- but we did change things up a bit this time around. DAYS ONE and TWO Day one: Toby's first experience with a glue stick (black paper to white). Not terribly successful (think, half a glue stick smashed onto the paper . . . ).  Day two: The picture doesn't look like much, but he colored the clouds and water with chalk. I was hoping it would have a more dramatic effect on paper, but it didn't. Truth be told, I had intended to use cotton balls for clouds, but we didn't have any, and I didn't make it to the store before week's end. Keepin' it real. Day two is Toby's favorite to say out loud: "God separated the clouds and the water!...

This is extremely simplistic and almost too stupid to mention, but you never know what ideas will work for someone else, so I'm going to share anyway. I have downloaded a dozen (at least) free homeschool planners over the years, and never really fallen in love with one. We don't use a boxed curriculum, so my days aren't planned out for me, and several of my chosen curricula aren't scripted at all. Keeping track of when to do what, and knowing how long each book is going to take, has been a constant struggle . . .  . . . UNTIL I started using my very own grocery-list system! Last time I ordered from Rainbow Resource , they were kind enough to send me one of those magnetic pads of list paper. (I imagine you can probably always find them in holiday themes in the Target dollar spot, too.) A few months ago, in trying to figure out Owen's journey through the Miquon math program , I put one day's activities on each line (for about a month's worth of school days...

Despite my last post on crayon etchings , art is not a subject we deliberately cover often. In the fall/winter of 2014, when we studied animals, Levi and Owen practiced drawing animals Ed Emberley-style , and all four of the boys draw and color every day of their own volition, but that's pretty much it. Now that we've moved to Minnesota, we've become dear friends with a young couple at church. Silas and Angelina took to each other in a special way from the very beginning, not a small matter for an introverted three-year-old. She sits with us in church (and her husband, too, when he doesn't have to work), making my job of training children to sit in the pew while Daddy's preaching much, MUCH easier. Her sermon notes are works of art, and Owen especially loves to copy her drawings. Twice now Angelina has spontaneously asked to bring over art supplies and do an activity with the kids, and we are thrilled to have her! Silas is currently obsessed with drum sets, so f...

Some of you know how obsessed I am with gathering free homeschooling resources. On our desktop computer, I have an intricate system of files, separated by subject and grade level (and anything else that helps me find things). The vast majority of my digital stash has come directly from the daily email sent out by Free Homeschool Deals . The owner of the site is meticulous about publicizing free resources, free samples, free promotional materials . . . you get the idea. Any time something looks like I would ever even remotely  consider using it, I download it and file it. Copywork (cursive and manuscript) on holidays, hymns, Bible verses, historical speeches. Templates for reports on biographies, mammals, constellations. Unit studies on plants, blood cells, ancient Egypt. Preschool and kindergarden packets full of tracing, cutting, matching, do-a-dot marker work in any theme your heart could desire. Letter-of-the-week activity bundles. Printable planners in various colors and styl...

As I've mentioned dozens of times, but some of you (I've met new friends since last year!) probably don't know, I'm a big fan of the ABC Jesus Loves Me preschool curriculum. You can buy workbooks, but I never have; the weekly lesson plans are all available for free online. The author, Heidi, now has curricula available for one-year-olds (though I'm skeptical of the point) through five-year-olds (which can be supplemented to be kindergarden, depending on your state's requirements). She has suggested activities for a 36-week academic year, including Bible stories, Bible songs, character development, finger plays, nursery rhymes, classic children's books, shapes, colors, numbers, letters, pre-writing skills, letter and number formation, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, literacy, social sciences, self-care . . . seriously, everything. I've never done it all! We tend to be a bit ahead of the game in academics in my house, but I would honestly NEVER thi...