Gulp! I hadn't realized the time would go by so quickly. I've been thinking, "Cheryl, you need to write a post, it's been a while." Then I'd get into something else and the thought would quietly disappear. Before I share what we have done this past month, let me share what we're doing tomorrow... but first you must understand the 'behind the scenes' story.
Out of our 3 children, two are thumb suckers. Katlyn and Levi. We forced a pacifier on Jessica for the first 5 months and then took it away. She never found her thumb. But then for the other two we decided to encourage the thumb. It seemed like a great idea since they can find it for themselves and don't need us to stumble around in the dark with eyes half open patting around the crib looking for the nookie to stop the fussing. So when they really found that yummy thumb themselves we didn't stop them. I know parenting books may say not to allow that habit but they didn't know it was a matter of survival right then!
Anyway, Katlyn was about to turn 8 years old. We thought it was time for the thumb sucking to stop so we used positive reinforcement (a.k.a. a bribe!). The thing she loves most is going to the water park soooooo... one night before bed we sat her down and told her that when she stopped sucking her thumb - we'd go as a family to the waterpark. Well, she's one determined little girl. I think it just took one week. When she told me she'd stopped I could hardly believe it. After all, the parenting books said we'd need the yucky tasting nail polish, or some strange thumb contraption that doesn't allow thumb sucking, or hypnotism, or something. So I would tip toe into her room at night and check her once in a while to see if she really did stop (she used to sleep a good part of the night with that thumb in her mouth). Sure enough - thumb sucking was over. No nasty nail polish, no strange thumb wearing devices, nothing. Katlyn had put her mind to it and was done.
Well, this all happened right before our Texas adventure began. To make a long story short - we never got to the waterpark but promised we'd do it once we moved. Tomorrow - is a day of reward! Tomorrow we are off to the waterpark. Russ is taking the day off, we have a cooler of food packed, swimsuits and towels, plenty of sunscreen, and the alarms set for 6:30 AM. We meet some friends at 7:30 and have around a 2 hour drive to what they consider "the best waterpark around." When our children woke up this morning they couldn't wait for bedtime so tomorrow would come faster. Yippee!
To be honest, going to the waterpark has been nice to look forward to this weekend since we had planned to be at Jewel and Kevin's wedding. Friday I was a bit sad not to be getting on a plane and flying out knowing we'd see all the family for the weekend. I hope it was a perfect day for them and we look forward to hearing about all the good times.
Now for the past month.
My nephew was supposed to stay up until this past week but his Mom missed him so much he went home 2 weeks early. LOL! Actually, I think he really missed being home even though he had a wonderful time with us. It WAS his first time away from home after all.
I don't remember if I wrote that Russ got many large orders the week we arrived back from Edmonton. It was wonderful to have the work but also too bad because to get the orders done he had to work about 2 weeks of 7AM - 10 PM days. He didn't get much time to just hang out with Emery - but they did manage to shoot some guns and do some fishing. Emery was a huge help in the shop too. He kept Russ company many hours actually doing 2nd operations on parts.
I had planned to start school early August but that's all changed. We'll start next week. I'm going to be teaching the children using the Charlotte Mason method of schooling. I don't yet feel adequate at explaining it very well but I'll take a stab at it. The biggest thing is we don't use and textbooks, except for a regular math program. All history, grammar, spelling, etc. will be learned by reading 'living books.' Living books are books that are written by an author with a deep appreciation and excitement for a particular topic so when reading them you catch the excitement and it's more like listening to a great story while learning at the same time. Many of the books are unabridged classics, and some are much above my children's level - so I'll read those to them. We read just a few pages each day, or chapters in some cases and the children will narrate back to me what they remember with as much detail as possible.
This year we'll be studying world history with the main text being A Child's History of the World, and then American History using This Country of Ours. We'll be making a time line of the events, along with the children copying - perfectly - passages from those books. For our first term we'll be reading Pilgrim's Progress - the regular, old english version. I have to laugh because I've actually had to practice reading this out loud to Russ so I have a feel for the language when I start reading it to the children. LOL! We'll be reading the biography of Michelangelo and studying his paintings, memorizing a poem from Songs of Innocence by William Blake, and reading Tales From Shakespeare along with other less intense books. For science we'll do nature study but also have a science class at our homeschool co-op where the children do experiments and then have readings assigned for the week.
WHEW - all that sure seems like a lot. BUT - my friend Linda, who has been teaching me and leading me into this has home schooled this way for 13 years. She has 4 children and I can SEE and HEAR that her children HAVE learned this way. Plus - they LOVE school and she still loves teaching them! It's baffling really - it's pretty much the opposite of how I was trained to teach in University. If your curious about this method you can check out her website at charlottemasonhelp.com. I also mentioned her blog in an earlier post I believe. She was having some troubles with it being user friendly so she's transferred the information over to a website.
Habit training is another HUGE part of Charlotte Mason education. Good habits include worship and bible study of our wonderful savior (which I must mention I LOVE the gentle way Linda introduces bible study to her kids - you mom's should really check it out!), exercise, chores, manners (which it seems much of today's generation severely lack), and developing a love of learning. Certain habits will be my biggest challenge. The habit I have managed to keep is drinking my favorite tea with breakfast each morning. He he he! Keeping to our schedule each day usually goes well for about a week or two and then a couple weeks later I have to give myself a pep talk when it seems the house is falling apart - but I'm determined to develop better habits myself to accomplish the goals I've aspired to.
Other than preparing for this school year and book hunting at Half Price Bookstores, I've been PURGING our house of unnecessary items. Linda's blog inspired me. One of the posts were about organization and cleaning. Here are some examples I've taken to heart:
1. Have 7 outfits for your children plus 2 church outfits. That's it. Also buy them each a package of socks that are one color. Each child has their own color, therefore no more matching problems.
2. Clean out your linen closet. Put one extra set of linens under your mattress so when you change bedding you can put on the new one. All you really need is 2 sets per bed. I did cheat here and put 2 sets under each bed - one extra for summer and a flannel set we already had for winter. I LOVE warm sheets in winter!
3. Spend 30 minutes cleaning each day - that's it! Set a timer if you have to! Vacuum and dust twice a week (one day upstairs & one day downstairs). The other 3 days a week - work on a Zone.
Zone's are from flylady.com. She suggests dividing your house into sections and deep cleaning each section for about 20-30 minutes one week at a time. You start from the top (ceiling fans and cobwebs) and work your way down to scrubbing the floor and baseboards. This should delete the need for deep cleaning at any other time of year.
So basically, your house should stay pretty clean all the time. For those of you who know me well - THAT'S A BIG BIG PLUS! :) The sun shines on a cloudy day for me if my house is clean and picked up.
Her blog has many more tips, with daily chores for the children and such, to make life easier that I won't get into right now. I WILL tell you if this all works. We start the cleaning/chore routine on Tuesday.
Oh, and one of the most exciting changes that have happened in our house!!!
**** The children are now responsible for washing dishes after all meals! *****
Some time about a week ago I just decided that I didn't want to wash dishes anymore. Especially since the kids eat, disappear from the table, and are off playing while I spend another 1/2 hour cleaning up the kitchen. And that's after I had been cooking the whole meal! So I decided that each day one of the children will cook with me. Then we all clear the table, and the child that didn't help cook washes dishes. Of course Levi is excluded from the washing dishes part until he's a bit older. I'm happy to say that the girls enjoy cooking with me. Actually Levi does too. And I love having them help me. It's funny how I'll assume they know what size pan to use to saute onions and then add ground beef to cook - but they don't. This will be such a great way for them to learn to cook.
Well, I've gone on and on and on. Hopefully this hasn't bored those of you to tears whose children are all grown. At the stage of life I'm in - this is all terribly exciting!
That's enough for now. Good night.
