Brain Freeze

I am still here. I just haven't had much to share. Or maybe my brain has just been taxed to the max. My kids seem to be keeping me running and busy. Not that we are out and about doing stuff. We have actually spent a lot of time at home. I just feel like I am pulled in every direction at once.  Each kid needs my attention at the same time and I have to juggle a lot. So that is my excuse for not having much to say lately.  I feel lucky to just make it through to the end of each day when I get to finally lay down, watch t.v. or read a book. My brain needs a rest.

What do we do all day?

I haven't posted a weekly report in ages. My husband loves to read them because then he feels like he knows a little more about what we are really doing all day while he is away. It is one of the reasons he doesn't want me to quick blogging. So, I guess, even if it is only him and my mom that read my blog, I should continue writing and posting about the things we do.

Here is a typical day....

We go to the YMCA at about 8:00 and get home sometime around 9:30. I get an hour of exercise and the kids get to play and do crafts at the kids corner. I have tried doing it in the afternoons but then I just don't do it, something always gets in the way, so the morning it will stay. I need it for my mental and physical well being.

School time starts at about 10:00 and usually starts with The Pledge of Allegiance. Then we do morning scripture study. We are still doing Book of Mormon. But we are reading the actual book and not just a reader or a picture book version so it is slow going but has been really good for us. After we take turns reading our one chapter we have been learning The Living Christ. We did our Family proclamation study at this time during September and we just replaced it with The Living Christ. We are using the visuals and copywork from Discover the Scriptures. We are only at about 2 paragraphs so far but we look up the words we don't know and talk about the phrases we are working on. It is actually going better than I thought.
I have added hymn study here too. We usually review the song they are learning in primary. Sing through a favorite primary song and then sing the Hymn or song I have picked for that month. October's song was Beautiful Savior.  November's Song is For the Beauty of the Earth. I am surprised how much my kids love singing. Molly often participates too. She is a great dancer and joins in with hand motions when we do Popcorn popping or Once there was a Snowman.

After our "devotional" time we usually do some Latin (yes we actually do fit Latin in at least 2x a week) or some Language Arts with English for the LDS child. We have a number of poems from this that we are also working on memorizing. This is then followed up with copywork either from the LA or from the Living Christ.

There is usually a snack about this time. My kids can't seem to go more than an hour without food.

We clear up the snack mess and break out Explode the code. The boys are doing great with explode the code. Henry is really becoming a reader. He is sounding out words and can do a few of the pages of his ETC 1 book each day. Ian finds explode the code a lot easier and doesn't fight it as much now that the reading is very easy for him. He actually prefers the pages with more reading and less writing. They used to be the ones he avoided.

Henry reads at least one Bob book to me and Ian reads two lessons from his McGuffey Reader and one chapter of My Father's Dragon to me each day. He is almost finished with the First Reader and will be going into the Second next week. Sophie also reads two lessons to me from the Third Reader and then narrates to me about each of them.  The reading is too easy for her but she didn't want to move onto the Fourth Reader without finishing the Third. While I work with each child the others often run off and play or read books to themselves or work on something else of their choice.

If we can fit Math in before lunch all the better but often it is first thing after a sandwich or some other choice from the pantry.

During the afternoon is when we do our science or history and also take our walks, bike rides and outings to the library or park.

Right now we are almost finished with our science unit on Simple machines and the 3 laws of motion. My kids have loved building all the different machines described in our Knex kit.

Here is the machine to demonstrate pulleys.  Ian is lifting the stapler with his block and tackle.

This is a crack fan. It really showed us how the size of the gears makes a big difference on the amount of effort you have to put in and the resulting movement created.

This was another one about gears. It is a sawmill if you couldn't tell.

We have also really enjoyed the videos of The Way Things Work. The explanations of each of the simple machines have been great! Thank goodness our library has the complete collection.

I admit it hasn't been all Science. I can't help but get a little bit of history and geography in. I have been reading to them about Helen Keller last week and we started listening to Heidi the other day after we read a few of books about Switzerland.  I have the movie waiting for when we finish the book. Oh and since Halloween was last week we had quite a stack of Halloween and pumpkin books that we read through.

Sophie has also been working on her Presidents lapbook. It was supposed to be her project for October but she just didn't finish it for the deadline so has been getting the last few things completed this week. We have also read a bunch of books about presidents. My kids now know all sorts of great facts about the presidents like Taft got stuck in his bathtub, Ronald Reagan loved jelly beans (coconut flavored were his favorite) and even the strange pets some of them kept. I should have snapped a picture of all the books we read before we returned them but in my hurry to get our library shelf cleared on library day it didn't happen.

That sums it up I guess. We haven't really been doing any art or music study recently. I guess we will need to fit them in somewhere too. For now I am pretty happy with the work we are doing and the learning that is going on.

I Read Signs and Symbols

 I love Tana Hoban's books. They are just photographs, no text. I remember getting these books long ago as a go along with a FIAR book. I think it was Katy and the Big Snow but I can't remember exactly. We looked through this book and then suddenly Ian noticed all the signs around him. He would come to a door and he would read Push or Pull and he started to tell me which was the Exit and which the Enter.

I put these in my library bag a week or so ago while at the library. I remembered what a change they made in Ian and was hoping to try it again with Henry. We stared with the I Read Symbols book. He knew most of them but it helped him get used to the idea of looking at the signs and symbols around him. We then looked at the I read Signs and he loved reading what was on each sign. As we were driving down the road later that day he was telling me all the different signs he was seeing. He realized how many signs there are all around us.

It is always fun to see these little guys suddenly see things they never saw before but had always been there around them.

When Halloween is on Sunday......

We did Halloween on Saturday.
Here they are dressed up in their costumes for our church's Trunk or Treat.

Sophie just reused the witch costume I made her last year. Henry could just barely fit into the skeleton costume which he wore a year or two ago and for Ian we found a Harry Potter robe at Goodwill and some big round glasses at the dollar store. All were happy with their costumes. Molly was not so happy with her costume. She was supposed to be a kangaroo. It is the 2T costume each of the kids has worn but she wouldn't wear it. She didn't like it over her head so we improvised with the tu tu. She could handle that so it worked.

One the kids jumped out of the car at the trunk or treat we hardly even saw them. They ran from carnival game to carnival game winning little toys and candies. Henry stopped just long enough for me to draw a skull and crossbones (his choice) on his face.

Then it was time for go outside for the big candy getting. Again, we couldn't see our kids as they ran from car to car. I was surprised by how quickly Molly picked up on the idea that she could go up to each car, hold her hand out and wiggle her fingers and soon a candy would be put in her little hand. 

She even figured out that the bag was useful to hold her stash. It was very cute to watch.

So even if my kids don't get to go door to door asking for candy they still got quite a haul.

Happy Halloween!

A Funny Nose

A week or two ago Sophie made a "Journal Jar" at her weekly church group/activity. This jar is filled with topics to write about in your journal that day. Evidently the lesson on keeping a journal struck a chord and Sophie has been writing in it. I wouldn't say everyday but often, and totally on her own. The other day she brought me her journal so I could read her entries.  Most of the entries were about her favorite things and some of the typical events of the day. One of the topics, obviously from the jar, was about things she didn't like. She listed a few things like oatmeal and scrabbled eggs but then she added she doesn't like her funny nose. That is all she said. She didn't elaborate any farther.

I know she doesn't like that she is different than others. She is at an age where those things become more and more important. And I have heard her say many times that she wishes she hadn't been born with a cleft. When we were expecting Molly she was very worried that Molly would have a cleft too. I don't know if it would have made her feel better that her sister also had a cleft. She just feels a bit singled out I think. She is the one for whom we often have to go to doctors appointments. She is the one who has to have braces and ear tubes. A lot of these feelings are especially pressing right now because her braces are coming off next month and that means she is ready for surgery.

We met with the cranial facial doctor a few weeks ago to talk about this next surgery. This is the big one. The one where they take a bone graft from her hip and insert it into the space in her upper jaw. And if that doesn't sound bad enough, the doctor explained that they pretty much have to do a nose and lip reconstruction to do that. Since Sophie was right there in the room with us, while we were talking to the doctor, she knows exactly what is ahead. She is scared, and rightly so. It doesn't sound fun.

Today at our homeschool co-op there was a mom there with her newly adopted little girl. The baby has a cleft and is just starting the whole process. She is having her lip surgery next month and the mom was asking me questions. I know it was always nice to talk to other moms who had been through this too. It brought back a lot of memories to see her pull out the squeeze bottle to feed the baby. In fact it was the bottle that clued me into the babies cleft in the first place.

I was also sent a link to a blog where a mom who has recently given birth to a baby with a cleft and had just had her first surgery.  She has taken so many pictures of her little girl. I was a bit jealous that she has so many. When Sophie was small we were still using our regular film camera. We got our digital camera when she was almost two years old. I remember taking picture after picture of her trying to capture the smile. The night before her lip surgery I took a bunch more but since I couldn't see the shots until I had them developed, I never knew if I actually got them.

Digital cameras are such a blessing! I not only can check to make sure I captured what I wanted to capture but I can take as many pictures as I want and print only the ones I really like or as I need them. I wish that had been available back then. Digital was still new and so expensive not that long ago.

Here is Sophie with her face all swollen after her lip surgery when she was 3 months old.

She hated the "No-No"s but what person would. Doesn't that face just look traumatized!

Here you can see her black eye and stiches just a few days after lip surgery.

This was the day she got her stitches out.

This was taken on her first birthday. It was about 2 weeks after her palate surgery. It is amazing how quickly they bounce back.

This was taken when she was 5. Sophie was hamming it up for the camera but the close up really shows what a great job her plastic surgeon did. There is a scar and a funny little dip to her nose but when you see the before picture and compare, it is amazing!

I was a little sad to read that one line from Sophie's journal. She knows she looks a little different. I just don't want her to feel like her "funny nose" is some sort of punishment, or that she needs to feel ugly as a result. I have a feeling the coming years may be difficult as she goes through these preteen and teenage years.

My Little One

One of the things that has been taking up a lot of my time is this little one.  I know I post pictures of her all the time and she is very cute. She is also my constant companion. When I sit down to read a story to the kids she is right there hitting the book out of my hands. If I try to read my own book she quickly decides she needs a drink or a diaper change or has made a mess that I need to clean up.  If I sit down to practice the piano she is right there hitting the keys and screeching to be allowed her playing time.

We keep hoping the screeching and the desire to play the piano will pay off one day and she will be a great musician. For now we often call her "Seniora Castafiore", who is the opera singer from the Tintin books. This screech must be good for something. She doesn't seem to be growing out of it. It is growing with her and she is using it quite often. Perhaps when there are words the high pitched vocals will subside but for now they are always there and always very nerve wracking.

Molly loves to get into everything too. She is constantly rearranging my cupboards. My pots and bowls are banged about and filled with all the treasures she finds in the pantry.  Oh, the pantry is her absolute favorite place to play. She can find bottles of all shapes and sizes there. For some reason she likes to carry around the big bottle of vinegar while making sounds like a weight lifter.

Last night she sat on my kitchen floor and played with some steal cut oats for a good 20 min. I was busy grinding up wheat and rice to make flour as well as watching a pot of oats that I was cooking to go in oatmeal bread. Molly got a hold of the oats and dumped out a bunch. My first reaction was to get peeved but then I thought about how easy it was going to be to clean up. Just a quick sweep and all would be well again. Even her clothes wouldn't be covered with anything, they would brush off and all would be swell. So I let her play.

 

She made oatmeal angels laying on the floor and swinging her arms and legs through the oats. She picked them up and put them in the bowls and then dumped them out again. She would have stayed longer but I was done and needed to move on to other things. I will have to remember steal cut oats as a good "clean" fun mess for her to play in. Luckily she didn't have that much in the can to dump out. 

So yes, Molly keeps me busy.  Maybe I am just getting old.

Since I haven't posted in almost a week......

I don't know what my excuse could be or what problems I am having. I just haven't been motivated to blog recently.  There are all sorts of things going on in my life right now, some good and some challenging. I guess I just don't feel like talking about them. Or else I am too busy dealing with things, I just can't find a moment to write about them here.

I haven't even been taking many pictures lately. I finally took the camera out yesterday to take pictures of my kids because it had been a week or more since I took any pictures.

 

So even if I don't post anything meaningful right now, at least here are a few cute pictures of my kids.