Miriam Is Reading! (And Angela is too.)

A LONG time ago, I was a new homeschooling mom.  I had a 4 year old daughter, Naomi.  I wanted to teach Naomi to read.  And it was very intimidating. I had never done such a thing!  Could I?

 We had our bumps in the road because I tried to start too soon, but yes, I did teach Naomi how to read.  She was actually quite fluent by age 5!  Lydia, the next child, also learned to read early.

 Then came our boys.  They didn't pick up reading quite as easily.  But they did learn. I was on the lookout for dyslexia but I don't think either is dyslexic.  Isaac is a very fluent reader now and Joseph really is too, though Joseph still struggles a bit.  Both boys often pick up a book and read it for fun, which is an important milestone.  For a long time, reading was more "work" than "fun".  That's over!

  Miriam will be 7 years old in a few months.  She is a quick learner.  As you may recall, this is the sweet girl who memorized the entire times tables in a couple of weeks.  (As an aside, she couldn't remember 8 X 4 yesterday, so the multiplication facts are not embedded in her memory forever.)

  I think if I had worked with Miriam more, she would have learned to read fluently a year ago.  Like our older girls, she has done well with phonics.

 This week has been fun because she has "turned the corner" with reading fluency.  The first 5 kids have all been somewhat the same. When they first learned to blend words, every single word was a struggle.  They had to think about the sounds of each letter, and then put the letters together to make the word.  It could take 10 minutes to read a book with only 4 or 5 simple words in it. 

  With practice came more fluency, but for each child there has been a magical week when reading really seemed to "click".  Miriam had that week last week.  She is reading a Pathway Reader Pre-Primer and the words are flowing from her mouth in a moderately effortless way.  Yes, she occasionally runs into a word she can't sound out, but in general she is just READING without agonizing over the words.

  I love it.

  Angela learned to blend together a few simple letters in the last couple of weeks.  She read "MAT" and "SAM" on her own.  I'm excited.  I love every momentous step in the journey of learning to read

Hmmmm....

...there must be SOMETHING interesting in this trash can!

I love my little bald boy

Money, Part 1

A few weeks ago, one of our children was in a fast food restaurant with Kevin. I don't know exactly where they were (in line or at a table) but the child said (loudly), "Dad, if you didn't have SO many children, you'd be rich!"

We chuckled about that.  From the perspective of many of the world's citizens, we ARE rich. We have a roof over our heads, money in the bank, and we've never missed a meal.

But I'll admit I don't FEEL rich.  Rich, to me, is being debt free, and we are not debt free.

And I hate debt. I am just one of those people that really dislikes being in debt, ANY debt.  The distaste is to the point of being illogical, because sometimes a debt will allow us to do something that is right and sensible.  Scripturally, I don't think that all debt is bad.  It is good to get OUT of debt when possible, but debt isn't inherently evil or sinful.

I've lived with debt for 13 years now, as it was almost exactly 13 years ago that we moved down to Ohio and bought a house.  Yes, our ONLY debt is our house and it is (I hope) worth more than we owe on it.  So in the grand scheme of things, we are doing fine.  We are doing well.

I think a lot about about personal financial matters. I am a born saver.  I have my areas of weakness.  I find myself stressing out quite a bit about how to spend money because I want to use it wisely.  I tend to hoard money instead of using it as a tool.  As Kevin says frequently (and he is right), money is a TOOL.

I think too about our children. We live in a culture which gives us a million options in terms of spending. Now if we can't go to the store, we can order things online!  And we can use credit to buy things that we really can't afford yet.

How do we teach our children to use money wisely?  I pray a lot about that because I know I have my hangups about money and I want to give godly, wise advice...not advice based on personality or fear.

The big thing I'm thinking about these days is that for us, money matters are all about lifestyle choices.

We are fairly well off.  Kevin makes a lot.  We are in that enviable place of having enough money to supply all our needs and quite a few of our wants. But we can't have EVERYTHING we want.  We say "no" to our desires every single day.  I'm a saver, but I still see a lot that I want that I can't or choose not to get.

We have a big house.  A really big house. It is about 3500 square feet PLUS we have a big basement!  Of course, there are 10 of us!  So having a big house is really nice for our family because we can spread out and have room for personal space and items.

The house is expensive.  It takes a substantial portion of our income.  We don't have any trouble "making the mortgage" but we've said no to some things that other people put a priority on. We don't have cable TV.  Our cell phones are simple Trakfones that are very bare bones.  We don't have Ipads or Kindle Fires or neat gadgets that let us check the internet when away from home.  We go on cheap vacations, or don't go on vacation at all.

I'm not complaining about those things.  I have a friend who said they chose to live in a small home so they would have more income to do fun things outside the home.  I totally appreciate that they thought through that decision and decided it was best for their family. For us, having a big house with a big yard with a swimming pool has been a good investment for our family.  We are "homebodies" and being home is a good place for us to be.  I find taking the kids anywhere to be quite a project and I am thankful that our home is big enough and entertaining enough that we are fairly content at home.

I think I'll write a few more blog posts about money in the future, but for now...a baby needs me :-).

On a Rock

New Blog Look by...

Naomi!

Yes, our talented eldest has done it again.  This picture of the whole clan was taken by a professional photographer friend of ours and I love it.  It's nice to have it at the top of my blog.

BRRRRR....

  It was COLD this morning.

And yes, the picture looks weird.  The thingie that pulls the pictures off of our memory card isn't working right.  We bought a new one, but Kevin hasn't installed it yet.

AND, our sweet Sarah grabbed the camera, dropped it, and broke off a hinge for the battery aperture.  We're making do by wrapping a rubber band around the door of the aperture to keep it shut.  The whole "taking pictures" thing has been a bit tricky lately.