A few days to catch up

Every time I think about blogging I imagine a post filled with jumbled ramblings, due in part to the rarity of my blog entries, and in part to the three little people who seem intent on calling my name every 4.2 seconds. It's hard to keep my train of thought going, let alone write it down. But I have received a little encouragement of late to keep it up, and so here I am. And I do miss you, my bloggy friends!

My kids are sitting at the table having a tea party with pretend food and real tea. The real tea is a result of a full teapot and my resolve to switch to tea vs. coffee. The coffee seems to be tearing up my stomach and while I'm certainly not vowing off coffee for life (I miss it already...I miss the caffeine jolt, too), I'm at the point where it's worth it if I will feel better. We have a great selection of loose leaf teas on hand, so I'm not suffering (much).

So, the tea party will buy me a few minutes to catch up and, if all goes well, I plan to spend the next several days in the same manner. I'm an eternal optimist...

First- family

Next Monday is Coop's 5th birthday, and we are looking forward to a cowboy party. He doesn't know it (despite asking me 10 times a day if I can please tell him what he is getting for his birthday), but he has this to look forward to (they were having a great sale). I'm trying to move more towards the "tools for exploring, not toys for adoring" mode when I think about giving my children more "things." Toys that help them pretend and explore are welcome...we're just trying to avoid more stuff that doesn't have much of a purpose. Coop spends hours with Playmobil, legos, and even more hours outside. Sweet A is all about her dolls and kitchen, and coloring...typical girly stuff. She is less inclined to be outside and even prefers to help me work if it will keep her inside. There is the mandatory outside playtime, but I'm happy to encourage her to work with me if she wants!

Baby T desperately wants to be potty trained; I'm trying to psych myself up for the task. With his eagerness, it probably won't be as much of a drag as I expect, but he is only 21 months and I just don't want to draw out the process. I keep telling myself he's probably not really ready, but that's not true. He has used the potty on multiple occasions and there is no fear and he's all excitement. I need to jump on board, stay home for a few days and just get 'er done.

I finally finished Teaching the Trivium, and to my great pleasure it turned out to be a philosophy of homeschooling with which I readily agree and can easily embrace. It's not the latest greatest in the world of homeschooling ideas, and actually, most of their ideas are old-fashioned (i.e., circa 850-1700). After much reading, and evaluating our own personal homeschooling experiences, WH and I were interested in making intense academics an important part of our curriculum, but not at all in the early years. I wanted to be ordered in my laid back attitude toward the early years, with a clear idea of where I would like to be and what we need to have accomplished by the time we reach that more intense schooling stage. This book gave us just the plan and outline we needed. As with any book or system, there are aspects we will omit and ways we will adjust to fit our family and children, but all in all I was very pleased. Our goal- especially in the early years- is not academic superiority but training our children up in the Lord. We don't want them to be numskulls, either. But if they gain the whole world of knowledge and lose their souls, I hardly think I will have accomplished the work I've been given to do. Here are the 10 Things we plan to focus on during the next few years (read the entire article here):

1. Reading and Writing (phonics, reading, dictation)
2. Oral Narration
3. Memorization
4. Hearing and Listening (with a goal of reading for 2 hours a day)- they include history in this section, keeping a history notebook and a time line and map
5. Family Worship (we also have a separate Bible story time)
6. Arts and crafts
7. Field trips
8. Work and Service
9. Discipline
10. Play and Exploration

Over the last few weeks I've tried to implement a new element of our "school" schedule every few days so we don't have to jump right in and then fall on our faces because we tried to make too many changes at once. I can't say it's been a smashing success, but there have been some extenuating circumstances (we'd better get used to that!) and also some small successes.

Here's Baby Little T working on his new morning chore assignment:


The tea party has long since been abandoned in favor of outside playtime. I'm still finishing my second cup, hoping for the caffeine to eek its way to my brain and give me some energy. Maybe I should down the tea and THEN blog next time.

Tomorrow: House update