First Snow of the Year

It has been a warm and mild winter thus far, with very little snow. Actually, we had a LITTLE at the end of last year, but not enough in which to play.

Last Monday, we got some snow. Not a lot, but we had significant flurries off and on all day and probably an inch of snow settled on the ground.

The children made a small mound of snow.

We have a small sledding hill next to the house and yes, they did some sledding.  It wasn't great sledding, but it was better than nothing.  We have a much larger, nicer hill in our back 3 acres but I didn't want them trekking out there, nor would it have worked as well as the grass is taller back there.

I have rather enjoyed the mild temperatures and dry roads, but I pray we have at least a couple of good snows this winter as the children enjoy it so much. And white snow is glorious.  I am not a major winter enthusiast, but looking out back at snow topped grasses and frosted trees makes me praise God for making an Earth that is not only functional, but beautiful.

And Then, a Miracle Occurred

Today was glorious. We got FOUR eggs. FOUR!  Our chickens are coming online!

Stay tuned for tomorrow!  We are hoping they won't just STOP like the last time we got excited.  We got 3 eggs one day, and not another one for 2 weeks.  We do think the light in their coop was malfunctioning and that messed them up.

Birthdays Galore!

The end of December is a busy, busy time for us. Not only did we celebrate Christmas, we celebrated THREE birthdays.

Here is our lovely 12 year old daughter, Naomi.  She is growing up to be a beautiful young lady, and we are very proud of her.

And this handsome fellow, Isaac, just turned 9.  Kevin and I were just talking today about how he is maturing and growing into a fine young man.

Last, but not least, Miriam turned 6.  She's our 5th child and a sweetheart. 

When I was young, I used to think that having a Christmas birthday would be very hard.  Well, none of our children were born on Christmas, but they came close. And it is delightful.  We relish that we had 3 of our kids during the darkest days of winter, and of course Kevin gets extra time off near Christmas so we can celebrate as a family.

A Strange and Weird Thought...

Yesterday morning, a strange thought came out of the blue.

And it was this.  Next school year, our older SIX children would be able to go to the local public school if we wanted them to do so.

Our 6th child will turn 5 in August, so legally could attend kindergarten in the fall. She'd be one of the very youngest children, but she could do it.  For that matter, I started kindergarten at the tender age of 4 because my birthday is in October and the cutoff was later in those days.

And IF we did that, I'd have a toddler and a new baby at home with the other 6 gone at least a few hours of the day.

Weird thought.  I'd have time to clean and cook and do laundry.  Wow.

It is not on the table, though.

It is interesting how various families approach homeschooling.  For some, it is something the family evaluates year to year.  There are some families who choose to homeschool one child and have the others attend public school. Others homeschool some years and send their kids to ps others years.  Some homeschool through a certain age, like junior high or high school, and then send the children to public school.

We made the decision to homeschool when Naomi was a baby, and as the years have gone by, the commitment to it has grown stronger.  Public school is not on the table for us.  Private Christian school isn't really either because of finances and the difficulty of transportation.  And really, many of the things about public school that I don't like exist in private school as well. One BIG issue for us is that we think it unnatural for young people to spend most of their day with a bunch of people their own age, with only a few teachers to provide a more mature prospective on life.

I have been feeling overwhelmed about next year, I admit it.  I'll have a 7th grader, a 6th grader, a 4th grader, a 2nd grader, a kindergartener, a preschooler, a very busy 1 year old, and a new baby!

That is CRAZY.

One thing I am doing is praying for wisdom.  It may be that I need to change how we are doing things, maybe especially for Naomi.  She is, as I've said, an excellent student.  She will be entering 7th grade, though, and her academic requirements grow more rigorous every year.  Perhaps I need to consider a computer based curriculum for at least some subjects.  A dear friend has her 2 children taking courses through the Potter's School, an online Christian academy. 

So, Lord, please help me to know what YOU want me to do.  Help me to be willing to change what I am doing if I should, and stay the course in areas that are working well. Help me to know and trust that our children can and will thrive at home spiritually, emotionally, and academically.

Baby Update

I've referenced the pregnancy but have not discussed it directly in a while.

I had an OB appointment on Tuesday.  I gained 2 lbs in the last month and the heartbeat is strong and healthy.  I'm starting to feel our sweet baby move fairly often, which is such a delight!

I had an ultrasound at 13 weeks that showed I was off in my dates, but my OB hasn't officially moved my due date yet. So the result is that while I am (I think) 18 weeks, she only has me at about 17.  That means that my "20 week ultrasound" will be closer to 22 weeks.  Which is fine.  That's scheduled for the end of this month.

We will, we hope, find out the gender at that point.

I still work at being at peace with this pregnancy in a number of ways.  I am 42 years old, and thus at higher risk for chromosomal issues.  I used to really fear Down Syndrome...I pray against it now, but I know if the Lord brings us a T21 baby, we will take good care of him or her.

But of course I do pray that our child is healthy without chromosomal problems. DS children and adults are blessings from the Lord but they are at much higher risk for some serious health issues.

By the way, we chose not to do any blood tests to check for DS or other chromosomal abnormalities.  All those blood tests are "screening" tests, which means that there are quite a few false positives for problems. The definitive answer comes from an amniocentisis, where a long needle is inserted into the uterus to draw some amniotic fluid to be analyzed.

I have no issue with needles, but amnios are not safe.  Babies die from amnios at a rate of about 1 to 2% of the time.  That's too high a risk, in our view. And I wouldn't want a screening test to show I have a "high risk" and then have to live with major uncertainty the rest of the pregnancy.  (And I know of 2 older moms whose blood screens came back positive for Down Syndrome, and neither child had it.)

The 20+ week ultrasound will search for DS markers and I welcome that, but don't want any testing that could endanger our child.

Homeschooling: What's Working, What's Not

One good thing about a break from school is that it gives me time to step back and evaluate how the year is going.

Things have been tough as I've not felt well for months.  However, I am past the pregnancy nausea and exhaustion and feeling quite perky.  It's exciting!  I am hoping to have a very productive 3 months of school, while realizing that there will be frequent interruptions. We never get quite as much done as I hope, and that is fine.

So, really most things are going well. 

Naomi is doing well. We are working together to keep her challenged, while she also is diligent about some material that is somewhat dull.

I can see progress in Isaac's handwriting, and his bad eye has improved significantly in the last year.  Lydia has made significant progress in math, and can now do long multiplication problems.  Her big issue is that her handwriting isn't very neat and sometimes she makes silly mistakes when lining up numbers.

I have been doing midline exercises with both boys because they are "mixed dominant" and their handwriting has issues.  Mixed dominant means that they are left eye dominant, right hand dominant.  Actually, that's not true -- Isaac is right eye dominant, right hand dominant -- but the way he writes his letters indicates he's a natural lefty who chose to use his right hand. When he was younger, he would switch between hands.  Now he has settled on right, but he draws "o" counterclockwise which is typical of a lefty. And his handwriting still isn't good.

Ok, let's talk about this mixed dominance thing.  According to Dianne Craft, a teacher who has worked extensively with right brain/left brain issues, 80% of the world's population is right eye dominant, right hand dominant, or left eye dominant, left hand dominant.

Naomi is right eye/right hand.

And the next FOUR children seem to be mixed.  I don't know about Angela and Sarah yet.

What's with that?  We are WAY out of the statistical norm.

Actually, I'm going to give Kevin the credit.  He is fairly close to being amnidextrous and is a skilled drummer. I think there is something in his gene code -- his sister and father are lefties.

So anyway, there we are.  Mixed dominant children have a higher chance of struggling with handwriting and sometimes other things as well.  I believe we are seeing improvement in several areas after months of doing exercises, so we'll keep on keeping on.

I haven't done much school with Miriam (just 6 this week) and Angela.  And that is Ok.  Next year Miriam will officially be school age and I'll need to be more focused.  She is already learning to read a bit, and has some obvious math gifts.  I think she'll be relatively easy to teach though she may also have handwriting struggles.

Update on Joseph's reading

First, let me say I hoped to blog a lot more than I have this Christmas season. The last few months have been busy and while I've posted occasional blogs, I've not talked about HOMESCHOOLING much, and this is a homeschooling blog!  But this holiday has flown by and we've been busy.

So, Joseph.  He is 7 and a few months.  He is not a fluent reader yet. That is no real problem, but he is behind where his older siblings were at this age.

When I got pregnant with Baby, I knew that I'd have to slow down.  During Sarah's pregnancy, I was so ill that I stopped formal school for 6 weeks or so during the first trimester.  I did better this time, probably because the older 3 are able to work more independently now.  But I didn't have the energy to work through all the phonics materials I wanted to with Joseph.

An older mom of 9 suggested to me that I focus on doing a little reading work with Joseph every day.  I thought that was a good idea, and turned to a series of short phonics books by Nora Gaydos.  The first 30 books or so only use short vowel sounds; the later ones in the group include "th" and "sh" and "ch" plus a few sight words.

I have introduced long vowel sounds to Joseph as well as "ing" and "ee" words, but these Gaydos books didn't have those so those phonics rules fell by the wayside.

However...Joseph really improved his basic reading in the last few months using these books!  2 months ago, he struggled through almost every word.  He also was mixing "b" and "d" a lot, and often mixed "m" and "n" as well.

A few weeks ago, he seemed to turn a corner.  Now, I am confident he has not memorized the books.  There are a lot of them and he's only read them 3 times at the most.  And his reading is MUCH more fluid.  It is really encouraging!

So I'm delighted and grateful to God.  I was stressed, once again, about falling behind with schoolwork during my pregnancy.  Once again, the Lord showed me that doing something different for a season can work just fine.

I am feeling much more energetic, and will soon go back to Alpha Phonics and Explode the Code so we can make some progress on other phonics rules.  Joseph is a long long way from being a fluent reader, but I believe we are making steady progress.

One very encouraging thing is that I don't think he is dyslexic.  We have a relative who is severely dyslexic and while he is doing well, I know it has been a struggle.  If one of our children has dyslexia, we will find a way to teach that child with God's help. But I believe that Joseph is not ... in spite of the mixing of "b" and "d" and "m" and "n".  Actually, all my kids have mixed up "b" and "d".

So, whew, I think we're well on our way to fluency for Joseph.