Theme Thursday: Spiders

Well, I definitely have fallen short when it has come to doing my Theme Thursday posts.  We still have been doing our theme days, but I have not had the time or energy to post the photos and links and instructions.  Hopefully I will be able to put up a few of these posts in the next week and catch up.  I've got these themes to cover:  spiders, pumpkins, popcorn, pirates, and Thanksgiving.

 

Here on Temporary Insanity, I will be posting Theme Thursdays each week to share what activities we did and what resources we used on our special day. All of the instructions and links will be right here so please feel free to use them. I am including lots of extra ideas as well - no need to do them all, of course! Keep in mind that my activities are tailored to two kindergarteners and one second-grader; you can adjust them to fit your family.  You can find previous themes here.

 

Today's theme is spiders.

Let's get right into the reading.  For this theme day, we spent a lot of time with our books because my children have an intense interest (and fear of!) in spiders.  Oddly enough, the kids are no longer shrieking in fear at every spider they find in the house, probably because they know a lot more about them.

1.  The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Iza Trapani was our choice to begin the day.  It has lots of extra verses so the kids can explore all the places that the spider went.  The older kids helped make up motions for the new verses, and we got our exercise in.

2.  Spider on the Floor by Raffi and illustrated by True Kelley was another action-packed book.  It featured all the lyrics to Raffi's song "Spider on the Floor" and was great for repetition and finding rhythm in a song. As a bonus, it is extremely silly, and all my kids delighted in the outrageous things the spider caught in its web.

3.  Spiders by Nic Bishop is a book full of beautiful photographs and wonderful information on all types of spiders.  We probably spent a good thirty minutes poring over this book and learning all the interesting spider facts.

4.  Spiders' Secrets by Richard Platt was also a book chock full of incredible spider facts.

5.  Freaky Facts about Spiders by Christine Morley was yet another book that taught us new things about spiders.  I let the kids explore this book on their own while they ate their snack. 

 

Some other books that would be fantastic for a spider-themed day would be:

6.  Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti by Gerald McDermott

7.  The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

8.  Ice Cream and Spiders: A Story about Learning Two Times Tables by Professor Paradox





Kitchen Activity:  My original idea was to make these spiderweb brownies with the kids.  We made them the night before because whole wheat brownies are better if they sit overnight.  They were pretty time-intensive so I'm not sure I would recommend them as a theme day activity.  Though, the recipe did give the kids plenty of practice in reading, measuring, and other kitchen skills.  Here's the link to the whole wheat brownie recipe and a link to the method for making the spiderweb on the brownies. 

 The brownies were a bit rich for snack time; so I had the kids help me make these cute little spiders instead.  They are made from round crackers (we like the ones from Trader Joe's), peanut butter, chocolate chips, and small pieces of apple.  You might also want to try making Oreo Cookie spiders following the instructions here.

For our craft, we made these adorable pool noodle spiders.  Earlier in the week, I had used a serrated knife to cut three pool noodles into rings.  I gave them to the kids with long pieces of ribbons so they could string gigantic necklaces and work on their fine motor skills. 

To make the pool noodle spider, you need just one of the pool noodle slices, pipe cleaners or bendaroos, wiggly eyes, and craft glue.  Cut the pipe cleaners into 5 inch pieces.  Loop one through the center hole of the pool noodle piece and twist to secure.  Once your child sees how to do that, let them do the remaining seven legs.  My four-year-old needed additional help with this step.  Then let them choose a set of wiggly eyes and glue them to their spiders.  We actually made these before we did the Itsy Bitsy spider book so we could use our spiders while doing the motions.

Next, I made this worksheet for the kids to practice a variety of skills.  They colored the SPIDER letters and the spider.  All three kids chose to put the red hourglass symbol on the spider to make it a black widow spider.  They learned how to skip-count by eights, and they worked on the phonics sound of "sp in spider".  Finally, they practiced reading all of the spider words that they learned from the various spider books we read.  You can click on the image above and save it to your computer to print out for your own use.

The last thing we did on Spider Day was go exploring.  Since we live in the rainy Northwest, we have lots of garden spiders and house spiders, especially this time of the year.  We had one particular garden spider that had spun a web right outside our kitchen window and had just caught a moth.  The kids got to watch the spider spin its silk around the moth and start liquefying it with its digestive juices.  It sounds gross, but I couldn't have set up a better learning experience if I had tried.

Next Theme Thursday post will be on pumpkins. 

Theme Thursdays - Apples

A few weeks ago, I wrote up my first Theme Thursday, documenting what we do on our theme days in homeschooling.  Here's the next one in the series.

 

Here on Temporary Insanity, I will be posting Theme Thursdays each week to share what activities we did and what resources we used on our special day. All of the instructions and links will be right here so please feel free to use them. I am including lots of extra ideas as well - no need to do them all, of course! Keep in mind that my activities are tailored to two kindergarteners and one second-grader; you can adjust them to fit your family.

This week, the theme is apples.  You can find previous themes here. 

BOOKS:

1.  The Life and Times of the Apple by Charles Micucci.  This read is full of interesting facts about apples and how they grow.  The hand-drawn illustrations are fascinating!

2.  Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins.  Fun counting book!

3.  How Did That Get in My Lunchbox? The Story of Food by Chris Butterworth.  We just read the part about how apples are made into apple juice and put in juice boxes. 

4.  Apples, Apples, Apples by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace.  This is the book that gave us the idea for our craft project. 

     Here are some other apple reading suggestions:

5.   How Do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro

6.  The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons

7.  Apple Fractions by Jerry Pallotta and Rob Bolster

8.  Ten Apples Up on Top by Theo LeSieg     

 I drew up some pages for the kids to make their own apple book.  They colored the cover, and we worked on the pages together.  We reviewed the sound a makes and made a list of words with a in them.  We labeled the parts of an apple on another page and did some apple math problems on the next.  We talked about how the apple tree changes throughout the seasons and colored a page to go along with that discussion.  Just click on the pictures below, save them to your computer, and then print them out for your apple book activity. 

 ART PROJECT: 
     The kids really enjoyed making star stamps with apple cores.  As you can see in the photos above, we cut an apple in half horizontally, cut out the center, removed the seeds, painted the apple stamp with white paint, and then carefully stamped in on colored cardstock.  When the prints dried, the kids folded their paper and made cards for their grandparents.  (handwriting practice!)
Some other apple-themed arts/crafts:
1.  Fingerprint Apple Tree
2.  Paper Plate Apple
3.  Apple Shrunken Heads

 KITCHEN ACTIVITY:
     We decided to make baked apples for our snack.  Simply take your apples (we used Pink Lady apples) and core them almost down to the bottom.  Make a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon and let the kids fill up their apple with it.  Cut some small pieces of butter to top off the apples.  Put a few inches of water in a pan and place the apples in the water.  Bake for fifteen minutes at 350 degrees. 
Some other apple-themed kitchen activities:
1.  Applesauce
2.  Apple Pie Party Dip
3.  Caramel Apples

HISTORY:
    A natural history study for an apple theme is Johnny Appleseed.  There are lots of printables and other activities on the internet that you can use to learn more about Johnny Appleseed as well as many books available.  The Drama Queen happened to have a story about Johnny Appleseed in her reader that she read aloud to all of us, and then we reenacted his story in the living room. :)

Have fun;  our next theme will be Spiders!

When?

I remember life with three littles.  When the Spud was born, I had "three under three."  With a 2 1/2 year old, a 1 year old, and a newborn, the days just sort of blended into each other.  I felt tired all the time without really feeling like I had done anything all day.  Outings were exhausting and required the use of a double stroller and baby carrier.  Memories of this time are a bit hazy, but I am pretty sure that meals were very repetitive and came out of a box more than once a week.  I think it's safe to say that life was very busy. 

Yet somehow, in that first year of the Spud's life, I managed to write 184 blog posts.  Blogging was a kind of release for me, a stress reliever if you will.  I'm not sure when I did all that blogging.  It certainly wasn't naptime, as none of my children have been good nappers. 

I miss that sense of satisfaction that comes from typing out your heart and mind.  Lately blog posts have been sporadic at best, and I long to return to the days of the 184 blog posts. So I took a look at my life to see where on earth I could fit in this once-enjoyed passion of writing. (Hold on a second, I am sending the three oldest downstairs to "play nicely together" and scattering cereal on the living room floor for the baby in an attempt to keep them occupied while I write this...)

Here's my typical day. (and of course all SAHM's know that no day is "typical")  I try to get up around 6:30 am (hopefully before the baby and the breakfast-demanding kids).  If fortunate enough to arise before the flood of children storms the dining room, I make myself coffee and have my devotional time.  More often than not, the kids are already up;  so I find myself making everyone breakfast, feeding the baby, and reading my Bible in snatches in between.  It's not ideal, but at least it's happening.  The kids then "dress themselves" with a lot of help from me.  I also use this time to make bread (if we need it that day) and get some laundry going. 

By 9:00 am, we start school.  The kids are not at the age where they can do most of their school work on their own.  Bible, math, and reading are finished by 10:15 ish unless we get carried away with the books we are reading.  We take a quick break then with popcorn and drinks.  The kids read books or play with toys while I dive into coffee #2 and check facebook or something else equally important.  Handwriting, history, and science follow the break.  I then make lunch and change out laundry loads while the Drama Queen works on her grammar, creative writing, and spelling.

If all is going well, we will eat lunch by noon.  Somehow in the craziness of morning, Little Sprout has hopefully taken a nap as well.  After lunch, I finish up whatever school has not been completed and scramble around trying to "clean up school."  No matter how hard I try during the morning, we seem to make an awful mess during the school hours.  Popcorn and disappearing pencils have a lot to do with that.  By 1:30ish, we are ready to get out of the house, either making a trip to the library, the park, or somewhere with friends for a play date. 

After our outing (s), the kids do their chores while I try to get some housework done and start dinner.  This is the hardest part of the day for me (used to be the Pepsi Moment), and honestly I struggle a lot with motivation and energy during this time.  Dinner happens when the Nerd gets home from work, usually around 6:30 pm.  The evening activities usually are a little playtime for the kids, showers for the oldest three and a bath for the baby, teeth brushing (oh the joys!), story reading, and prayer time.  Once in a blue moon this actually goes smoothly, and the kids are asleep by 8:30 pm.  Ha!  Then I've got dinner dishes to do, laundry to fold, a baby to soothe, and school stuff to go over.  By 10:00 pm, I desperately need some down-time.  I'm too tired to focus on anything, especially writing and organizing my thoughts into a blog post.  The Nerd and I try to spend some "quality time" together before bed. 

This is a whole new kind of busy for me.  I'm still trying to figure out how to get everything in and still remain sane.  Maybe I can blog during lunch?

Theme Thursdays - Pigs



In our homeschooling adventures this year, I am seeking to break free of traditional school methods and curriculum.  As a classically-trained teacher, just the thought of shying away from the familiar and the "normal" frightens me.

 

But we are doing it.

 

And the more we venture out of MY comfort zone, the more relaxed and more excited I become.  THIS, I realize, is exactly why - the intangible reason why - I wanted my kids home with me in the first place.

 

As part of our new adventures, we are doing a theme day once a week in which we abandon our regular activities, take up a theme, and focus all of our activities on the theme.  I plan the day in advance to be sure we will get in mathematics and reading and all the important subjects (all in theme of course).  I also plan a kitchen activity and an art project as well. 

 

Here on Temporary Insanity, I will be posting Theme Thursdays each week to share what activities we did and what resources we used on our special day.  All of the instructions and links will be right here so please feel free to use them.  I am including lots of extra ideas as well - no need to do them all, of course!  Keep in mind that my activities are tailored to two kindergarteners and one second-grader;  you can adjust them to fit your family.

 

This week, the theme is pigs. 

 BOOKS: 
      One of my favorite things about theme days is the amount of books we delve into together.  Here's what we read:
1.  Pink Pigs APlenty by Sandy Nightingale (a counting book - great for practicing math skills)
2.  Piggies in the Kitchen by Michelle Meadows 
3.  Pigs in the Mud in the Middle of the Rud by Lynne Plourde (lots of onamatopoeia and silly words - fun for new readers!)
4.  If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff
And here are some other book ideas:
5.  Any of the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems.  My daughter LOVES reading these books aloud to her brothers, and her brothers think Piggie is hilarious.
6.  Perfect Piggies by Sandra Boynton
7.  Any of the Mercy Watson books by Kate DiCamillo (great for early readers!)
8.  ABC - I Like Me by Nancy Carlson (super cute alphabet book)
9.  Charlotte's Web by E.B. White (just read a few excerpts from this longer book - can't miss with this classic)
10.  Do Not Open This Book by Michaela Muntean
 READING:
     Of course, we read books #1-4 together.  After reading Pink Pigs APlenty, we talked about the letter P and the sound it makes.  The kids helped come up with a list of twenty words that started with P, and the Drama Queen practiced her writing (and spelling!) by putting them up on the white board.  The Drama Queen got to read If You Give a Pig a Pancake  aloud to all of us.  We talked about actions and consequences, and then made up our own "If you...then" story. 
MATHEMATICS:
     The boys are still working on counting and identifying numbers.  So, I told them the story of the three pigs.  Then we made houses out of "sticks" (toothpicks) and counted them, practicing writing the numbers on the paper next to the houses.  The Drama Queen worked on her "skip-counting" with the same project.  I had her focus on counting by twos, fives, and tens. 
KITCHEN ACTIVITY:
   

     We decided to make Perfect Piggie Eggs to learn kitchen skills and make a snack.  Making perfect hard-boiled eggs is a great kitchen skill to learn.  I taught the kids to put the eggs into the pot first before covering them with cold water and a dash of vinegar.  When the water came to a full boil, we removed the pot from the hot burner and covered it for fifteen minutes.  (Science lesson here:  If the eggs cook too long, the iron in the egg yolk and the sulfur in the egg white react to form a grayish-green color.)  After fifteen minutes, the kids helped me move the eggs immediately into ice water to stop the eggs from cooking any further.  Peeling the eggs proved to be too stressful a task for the boys; so I did that myself before we got to the fun part.  We deviled the yolks with a simple mix of mayo, yellow mustard, and salt.  I cut the carrots into ears and nostrils while the Drama Queen cut string cheese into pig snouts.  We put the peas, carrots, cheese snouts, and deviled yolk mixture on the table, and everyone got to creating their pigs.  And eating them. 
Some other kitchen activities to go with a pig theme:
1.  Pigs in a Blanket
2.  Piggie Cupcakes
3.  Pig Cookies

ART PROJECT
     I like to keep art projects simple, especially for the Beast.  He gets easily frustrated with complicated projects.  These paper bag pig puppets were super easy to make.  The kids practiced cutting and gluing skills to make these, and then they had the opportunity to demonstrate their drama skills to their baby sister.
Some other pig art projects you might consider:
1.  Piggy Bottle Bank
2.  Egg Carton Pigs
3.  Balloon Piggy
SCIENCE
     We borrowed National Geographic's Really Wild Farm Animals dvd from the library and watched it during lunch.  The kids learned that farm pigs have relatives in the wild (warthogs) and a host of other pig facts that even I didn't know.
Other science activities in a pig theme:
1.  Fun Pig Fact Website
2.  Experiments based on The Three Little Pigs

The kids loved it.  They can't wait for Theme Day every week!  I usually tell them on Monday what the theme is so they can look forward to it all week. :)

Next week is Apples! 

Homeschooling and Autism

I knew that homeschooling our autistic child would be a challenge this year.  He is strong-willed and very opinionated, and I would be lying if I said I didn't consider putting him in school just so "someone else could deal with trying to teach him."  I feel very inexperienced and unqualified to teach anyone on the autism spectrum.

But I'm his mom.  I know him better than anyone else.  I can sense his mood swings, communicate with him patiently, and use his favorite things to my advantage.  Most of all, I love him like crazy and want him to learn; so you'd better believe that I'll do whatever it takes to make that happen.

I have a college degree in education.  I am trained to teach in a classroom setting.  All of that training has been thrown out the window as the Beast forces me to think outside the box. 

This morning, during math class, I gave him a worksheet in which he had to read the number and then color the same number of boxes above it.  Then, he simply had to trace the number to practice writing it. 

And the drama began.  "This isn't right, Momma!  The number says eight and there are ten boxes!"

"I know, honey.  So just color in eight of them, okay?"

"But there are too many!  I can't do it!  It's too hard!  There are ten, not eight!"

This conversation went on in a similar and very repetitive manner until I finally convinced him to color in eight boxes.  He hates coloring.  I never understood why until I started teaching him at home.  The poor kid is a perfectionist and freezes up when he can't color the object perfectly.  He drew one tiny dot in the first square and stared at it, obviously frustrated.

"Momma, I can't!  This crayon isn't working!  It's not right, it's not right!  Here, you do it for me.  I can't make it right."

"No, you have to do it.  It doesn't have to be perfect.  Just color eight boxes."

"I caaaaaaaan't.  This is not working, Momma!"

And he was right.  It wasn't working.  He was frustrated;  I was frustrated.  Then I thought, "What am I trying to teach him here?  To color boxes?  Or to work on his numbers?"  Did it matter how we got there, as long as we got there?  I suddenly had an idea and fished a few packs of stickers out of a drawer. 

"Here, use these to fill in the squares.  Show me eight."

"But that's not what you said to do. . ."

"I know - it's okay.  Let's just make it easier so you can focus on the numbers."

"Okay."  And he cheerfully and (dare I say it?!) eagerly put the stickers in the correct places on his worksheet.  He did indeed know how many eight was.  For that matter, he was able to easily demonstrate that he knew how many six was, and five was, and ten was.  It just took a different (and perhaps a little unconventional) path to get there.

Now don't go asking me how he did when it came time to trace the numbers.  There just isn't any fun, catchy way to go about doing that.  It's a lot of "I can't do this" and "Yes you can.  I will help you." 

We are in our third week of the school year so far.  I am learning that he learns better when he lies on the floor or hangs upside down off his chair.  I am finding that he digests information in little bites so as soon as I see the frustration becoming too much, I cut the class short and return to it later.  I am seeing that he is an extremely tactile learner and am digging deep to find ways to use this information. 

This is why we chose homeschooling for him - for all of my children.  I have the time and the freedom to teach each child how he best learns. 

Just remind me of that when the Beast and I butt heads again tomorrow morning. 

PS.  Yes, I know the kitchen floor in the picture is disgusting.  Can you guess why he had thrown himself so dramatically there? 

First Day

 Planning, praying, perspiring, more planning, pondering. . . The decision to homeschool our three oldest this year was certainly not easy.  Although I am beyond certain that we made the right decision, it still doesn't take away the butterflies and the "what-if's" and the uncertainties.  Technically last year was our first year of homeschooling, but it was only the Drama Queen.  She is bright and loves school; so it really was an easy year overall.  Being pregnant with Little Sprout did complicate things a little, and towards the end, we were both agonizing through endless worksheets and books.  I am learning a lot about homeschooling though.  It's not "school at home."  You don't have to do every. single. worksheet.  If she can spell all the words on her list without looking on Monday, there's no sense in dragging it out for the whole week.  If curriculum isn't working, I have the power to ditch it and find something that does.  Anyway.

 We had our first official day of school yesterday.  The Nerd had steam-cleaned the carpet in our "school-room" the night before; so I got up early to move furniture back in, look over lesson plans, make pancakes, soothe an unhappy baby, push the unfolded laundry to the end of the couch, etc.

 When I came out to the living room, I found Little Miss Drama Queen curled up on the couch asleep.  As soon as she smelled the pancakes sizzling on the griddle, she shot up from under her blanket and asked if it was time to start school yet.  I was tickled to see that she had gotten up in the middle of the night and changed into her "back-to-school outfit" before going back to sleep.

 Since no day passes around here without some drama, our first day of homeschooling certainly had its share.  Spud woke up sobbing that he didn't feel good and spent all his time at the breakfast table crying that his brother was "looking at him."  The Beast was of course overstimulated with the excitement and difference in schedule.  He spent a lot of time running into walls and causing general chaos.  No one was particularly thrilled to be posing for so many first day pictures, but obviously they did a great job faking it.

The school day went well enough.  It helped me see where my planned schedule didn't work and where I could cut time.  I got the same tingle of excitement that I got every year as a school teacher before I had my kids.  When asked what their favorite part of the day was, The Drama Queen responded with "math class" and the Spud favored coloring the American flag in history class.  The Beast's favorite?  Sharpening pencils and making sure everything was in his pencil box.  Obviously we have lots of room for progress. :)  Afterwards, we headed out to the library to check out books on the topics we are studying in history and science.  Then I took them to the park to burn off some extra energy.  (I had no extra energy at this point).

Here's to another successful day today.  Hey, I'll settle for a pretty average day.  Also, I need to write in "Teacher Nap Time" on the schedule.

Time to Plug In

I'd say this is a pretty accurate photo of my life right now:

I know I've been a little absent from the blog lately.  Many of my evenings have ended up filled with paperwork and planning and baking bread and catching up on laundry and trying to organize EVERYTHING.  Some evenings I have sat down at the computer with full intentions to write up a blog post and an hour later I am staring at the wall, too tired to think.

This past week, I was feeling especially drained.  I came back from a normal workout at the gym with a little soreness but thought nothing of it.  As the days of the week went on,  the pain in my joints, particularly my knees and my right wrist, got worse and worse.  When my right hand started to go numb randomly throughout the day, the Nerd convinced me to see a doctor.  She determined that I had tendonitis in my right wrist (did something to strain it and then aggravated it with daily activity and probably all the puppeting I did at VBS.)  So now I'm wearing a wrist splint to keep my wrist from bending for at least a week to help it heal.  Yeah, that works out perfectly for a mom of four busy kids. :)  And typing this is rather aggravating, to say the least.

As for the knee pain, the doctor really didn't have any answers.  She suggested that my body might be in the process of fighting off a virus.  I hope she's right - it is not easy to "stay off my feet" around here.  I am taking ibuprofen for the pain and trying to be careful with my physical activity.

We start up homeschooling in one week!  Ack, my brain is exploding with possibilities and schedules and curriculum and blog lists.  I am excited, nervous, a little anxious, and just hurrying to get everything ready before then. 

Our diet plan is great - I love that my family is eating so healthy and get excited every time one of my kids requests a fruit or veggie for a snack.  However, it takes quite a bit of planning and preparing to keep us on this diet.  The only "prepared" snack we have in the house are pretzels.  I have to be constantly thinking ahead and making pancakes and waffles for the freezer, granola bars for hungry kids, bread for lunches, cut up veggies and fruits for snacks, etc.  Don't get me wrong - it's completely worth it - but it can be a time-drain.

In the midst of it all, I am trying to make decisions regarding education and such for the Beast.  I'm reviewing papers and therapists' notes, attempting to see if there is a need for more therapy or classes at the local special ed center. 

Finally, God has cleared the way for me to hand the reins of children's church over to someone else.  I enjoyed being director of children's church, but lately it has become a completely overwhleming task that I have not enjoyed much at all.  Now someone else will handle all the scheduling and organizing and curriculum and such, and I will be free to help out here and there without all the commitments of being director.  It's definitely of God as I will have my plate full with homeschooling starting next week.

I am praying earnestly that God will make a way for me still to post to this blog regularly.  I have so many things I want to share, especially regarding autism and homeschooling, and I hope that it is still possible to do with this crazy schedule.

I need to plug into my Power Source. (Isaiah 32:15)  Be back soon with some posts that have been ruminating for quite some time!

Me Management

The Nerd and I attended our first-ever homeschoolers' conference run by OCEANetwork (Oregon Christian Home Education Association) a few weeks ago.  I went armed with pen, paper, and an open mind, ready to learn; and I left completely loaded down with so much information, ideas, and new thoughts that it was undeniably overwhelming. 

One session led by Heidi St. John (you can find her at The Busy Homeschool Mom - she's hilarious and so real!) was on the topic of time management.  The Scripture she shared at the beginning of her talk has really stuck with me these past few weeks.

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.  Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, I will hearken unto you.  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 27:11-13) 

Having that peace that God promises is certainly enticing.  It's necessary to have a smooth and productive day.  And lately, it hasn't really made an appearance around here.  Four active kiddos and an (ahem) lack of organization have not helped that at all. 

The thing is - Heidi St. John wasn't really talking about time management but rather "me-management."  Time doesn't need to be managed.  It doesn't go faster or slower - it does exactly the same thing every day.  The only thing I can manage is me.

She talked about modern-day "time bandits" - pasttimes that are good in and of themselves but can wile away valuable time if not used carefully.  Heidi encouraged us to think of our own "time bandits", write them down, and then seek God's help in managing them.

God brought these three culprits to mind:  Facebook, blogging, and my Iphone.  When I indulge in these activities excessively, it sucks time away from my priorities.  What are my priorities?  Well, I made another list: 1)relationship with God, 2) marriage, 3) family, 4) home, 5)homeschool, and 6)outside pursuits.  I certainly don't want to be an absentee wife or mom - one who's "there" but not really available or present for her husband or kids.  Even more importantly, it makes me cringe and feel shame that something like Facebook would take precedence over the most vital relationship in my life - the one with my Lord and Savior. 

So I wrote this all down and made a decision to really seek out God's wisdom on these issues.  I have been re-exploring the Psalms in an effort to see the ways that David connected with God.  I am learning that Facebook, blogging, and my Iphone have their places in my life, but they are WAY down on the priority list.  I just have to put the proper parameters in place so they don't crowd their way back to #1 on the list. 

And that's what I've been doing.  I'll definitely continue to blog about our always-crazy life, but it will have to fit in after hubby and the kiddos get their share of me first. 

See you around.

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We Made It!

If you are thinking that the girl in the photo is looking entirely too grown-up these days, I am in complete agreement!  The Drama Queen is 6-going-on-16 some days, I'll tell you!

We started off our first year of homeschooling as a kindergartener.  I took photos of her on her first day of kindergarten, because that's what grade she was supposed to be in.

However, I had purchased first grade curriculum since it seemed a more appropriate subject level for her.  The girl flew through the curriculum with ease.  Therefore, we are considering this past year her first grade year after all.

Her favorite subject was arithmetic for sure.  She learned about money and measurements;  she memorized addition and subtraction families up to 13.  She learned how to carry when adding large numbers, but most importantly, she learned how to apply all her new math skills to real-life situations.

Her least favorite subject was handwriting.  (I love handwriting, but I am pretty sure I am in a very small minority there!)  I had decided to teach her cursive mainly and work on her manuscript on the side.  In retrospect, I think I might have skipped the whole cursive thing.  It was taxing, trying, and agonizing to say the least.  But hey!  The girl can write in cursive now.  Her manuscript letters do need some work; so I know what we will be focusing on this summer. 

The best part of the year for me was watching my little reader blossom!  She started off the year faltering through her favorites like Amelia Bedelia and the Berenstain Bears;  now she eagerly devours anything readable in her sight.  Yesterday she read several pages to me from her new book about the human body, pronouncing words like immune, system, and disease with no trouble.  I know that learning her special sounds in phonics helped a great deal; but I would be remiss if I didn't mention video games as an important tool also.  If the Drama Queen had a productive (and non-whiny) day of school, oftentimes the Nerd would reward her by playing some Legend of Zelda with her in the evenings.  For any of you that may have played this game "back in the day," you will know that it involves a lot of reading the screen to find out what you have to do next.  At first, the Nerd mostly read the directives out loud as they played; now she reads them and excitedly tries to solve whatever problem Link is facing.  She adores the Legend of Zelda (hence the shirt in the picture!) and has branched out to other games as well.  Our local library allows us to borrow select titles for the Wii - I think she has benefited most educationally from the Build a Bear game and the Jump Start game. 

For our first year, I mostly stuck to the curriculum (A Beka Book) that we had purchased.  Now that I have had a little experience with this, I plan on branching out, putting together a curriculum that works best for my three oldest and trying to be a little more creative with my resources.

I plan on having the kids do some review in math, reading, and writing over the summer, but for now we are on "vacation."  Of course, the Drama Queen is busy right now rounding numbers to the nearest ten on her Jump Start game...

(Just realized that it might look like this post was sponsored by the game companies I linked to.  No such luck - I just put the links up in case anyone reading this post wanted to find the games we use.)

May Brings...

I can't believe May is already in session. This collage is a glimpse of our May last year.  The Beast was just then starting to learn how to overcome some of his sensory issues.  The Drama Queen had just graduated from preschool.  The Spud was getting ready to be three.  (Yikes - what a year three has been!  And he still fits into that shirt!)
Part of my disbelief that it is already May stems from the fact that there is no spring-like weather to be found around here.  I'm sitting here typing this in my flannel pj's while sipping hot tea.  Well, that and I feel pretty sick, so maybe I'm not such an accurate barometer.
What does May bring for us this year?  Well, hopefully some flowers eventually, but I see an IEP meeting, a Mother's Day without Grandma Millie this year, some much-needed family time, some major decisions to be made, and the finish of our first year of homeschooling.
Happy Cinco de Mayo...

Potpourri of the Week #1

I used to have this beautiful bowl of potpourri that smelled like warm spicy chai tea.  It sat on the dining room table, and the kids would come around and point out the variety of objects in the bowl, like pinecones, seed pods, flower petals, leaves, and more.  The Beast, enamored especially with the sticks and stones in the bowl, would sneak them out of the bowl and into little hiding spots around the house.

Now that we are trying to be as fragrance-free as possible for the Beast's sake, the potpourri has disappeared, and a boring old vase has taken its place.  (I'm working on that!)  I miss seeing the variety of things in the bowl or absentmindedly rearranging them in various patterns.  However, I can certainly bring a little variety to the old blog!  I have been voraciously finding and reading all sorts of things on sites and blogs and plan on using "Potpourri of the Week" to share my favorites in the hopes that you will find them interesting and helpful as well. 

First, I have been thinking about making my own yogurt for a while now.  My kids love it and go through a quart of plain yogurt very quickly.  The Frugal Girl has an excellent tutorial with lots of pictures and easy-to-follow instructions.  I did it yesterday and now have a gallon of yummy homemade yogurt divided into cute little canning jars in my fridge.  It saves me a lot of money and makes me feel good that there are no extra preservatives going into my yogurt.

Speaking of yogurt, another favorite blogger of mine, Kitchen Stewardship, posted this interesting read on the benefits of eating yogurt a few years ago.    It confirms why I'm willing to make a GALLON of yogurt for my family.

We have our IEP meeting with the Beast's teacher and other specialists next week.  I will be letting them know that we have decided to homeschool him this coming school year.  I am anticipating protests and general negativity, especially along the lines of "but how on earth will he learn socialization skills?"  I have been doing a lot of research - we didn't just make this decision on a whim, after all!  This article in Everyday Education hit home with me and shows exactly how my child will be "socialized."  :)  I should probably just print it out and hand it to them. 

In addition to drastically changing our diet and lifestyle this past month, we have also been working hard as a family to pay down debt, Dave Ramsey style.  Eating healthier, non-packaged meals is not as cheap as buying a bunch on manufactured foods with sales and coupons for sure.  I was inspired by this post on doing a grocery spending audit in Good Cheap Eats and am doing everything I can this month to lower the grocery/household/toiletries budget while still eating good, healthy food.  (Yet another reason to make my own yogurt!)  Our budget for all household items, including food, diapers, toiletries, stamps, and anything for the house, is $400.  It's pretty tight, but I am determined to make it work.  Hopefully near the end of this month I will be able to write my own post about how we are achieving that goal. 

And on a much more fun note (all those previous links are a lot to read and digest!), enjoy this humorous take on birth order and how it's all your mother's fault from Five in Tow.  She's a fellow Northwest blogger and a very talented writer, in my opinion.

And that's my gatherings for this week!  Hope you find something useful or enjoyable in the mix!  

Makes Me Sick

No doubt many of you have heard of the heart-wrenching tale of Stuart Chaifetz, his autistic ten-year-old son Akian, and the bullying Akian endured at his school.  If you are not familiar with the story, here's a brief recap.  Akian had always been a quiet, sweet, easy-going kid until this past school year.  Not long after school started, Stuart started getting calls and notes from the school that Akian had been acting violently in class, hitting teachers and screaming with rage.  This was so unlike Akian that Stuart arranged for several meetings with the teacher in the class as well as the principal and specialists to help try to figure out how they could help Akian.  Nothing seemed to work, and Stuart felt frustrated that his once-happy kid was struggling so much.  He realized that something at school was really setting off his son and decided to send Akian to school with a hidden wire to record everything that happened that day.  When Akian got home from school that day, Stuart listened to the recordings and was sickened and angered by what he heard.  The main teacher and her aides in this all-autistic class told Akian to "shut up" and called him names.  They threatened him when he talked to himself (a very normal activity for an autistic child) and discussed very inappropriate topics in front of the students in the classroom.  The teacher even admitted to her aides that she had drunk a lot of wine the night before, and that "the wine was teaching the class today." These teachers took full advantage of their situation - a class of children that could not express to their parents what went on in their classroom.  What made it worse was the fact that these specially-trained teachers were supposed to protect these kids from other kids teasing and bullying, when in fact they were doing the bullying themselves.  Stuart submitted his recordings to the NJ school district, who after reviewing the evidence, fired one of the aides and moved the main teacher to another class.  Upset that a teacher who had treated his son so badly was still allowed to teach, Stuart Chaifetz made this video to spread the word and help alert other parents that this teacher was still teaching in the district. 

The Nerd sent me the link to this video last week as he commuted to work on the bus.  The contents of the video made me physically ill;  the Nerd later told me that he had no ability to focus in his first two meetings of the day after watching the video.  It bothered me so much that I couldn't stop thinking about these teachers who were entrusted with the care of autistic children - teachers that abused the children with their words and actions.  It made me angry and sad that kids who have a hard enough time being heard and understood were being taken advantage of in such a way by adults who should have known better.  It felt personal, because I knew the same situation in theory could have happened to my Beast.  Although he has better vocabulary skills than many autistic children, he never tells me about what happened at school.  Never.  His teacher gives me a list of things that they did in class to use as a conversation-starter with him.  If it were not for that piece of paper, I literally would have no idea what went on in his classroom that day. 

We recently made the hard decision to homeschool the Beast this upcoming school year.  Watching this video only confirmed this decision for me.  I am not generalizing this horrific behavior to all special ed teachers, as we have been most blessed by some amazing teachers and therapists for our Beast.  Still, you want to protect your children all that you can.  Sometimes, that means taking an alternative road to what others are doing or what the experts tell you you should be doing.  And sometimes, it means spreading the word so that parents will be alert and involved enough in their child's schooling to prevent this kind of thing from happening again.

Changes

Did you all see I finally have a blog button? You can use the code in the box to the right to grab my button and add it to your blog if you like. Let me know if you do, and I'd love to add yours to my blog as well. We'll call it "Trading Buttons"...

More changes are coming to the blog as well as I am trying to switch directions a little, if you will. The main focuses of the blog will be our journey with autism, recipes and crafts, and homeschooling. If you're trying to find a previous post or label, use the "buttons" on the right side of the blog to find what you're looking for. I hope you'll stick around for all the changes!

Speaking of changes, there is a very unhappy and very stinky baby making eye contact with me right now...

Something's Cooking in the Classroom

Today the Drama Queen helped me make a fantastic homemade potato salad and bake hamburger buns. We worked out problems with fractions as we measured the flour and sugar. We talked about the parts of an egg and where eggs come from as I showed her the proper method to hard-boil an egg. She practiced her reading with the recipes we were following. As we rolled out the dough, she tried to think of as many adjectives as she could to describe the texture and appearance of the dough. "Squishy, sticky, smooth, tan, stretchy," she chanted as she used an empty tuna can to cut out the buns. We practiced important life skills, such as cleaning up the kitchen as we used various utensils and being aware of the dangers of hot stoves and sharp objects.

All of this was my attempt, in part, to rethink my homeschooling methods and make school "fun again" for my little girl. In the past few weeks, I have received a lot of resistance from the Drama Queen when it came down to getting schoolwork done. Math papers that should have taken minutes stretched out over hours, with tears and sighs and lots of distracted behavior. I would get frustrated and try everything I had in my arsenal to "hurry her along" and get the schooling done for the day.

But I came to realize that the success of homeschooling is not measured by how many worksheets a child does in a year, or how many books she has read, or how many painstaking sentences she has written. No, one of the main reasons we chose to homeschool our daughter this year was so that we could capitalize on her passions and help prepare her to live life armed with the skills that God has already put inside her. My daughter loves helping out in the kitchen - who knew it would be such an easy and natural "classroom" for us today? And with this new restrictive diet that our family has undertaken for the Beast's sake, I am spending more time in the kitchen anyway preparing the foods that we are able to eat.

Tonight, our entire family sat at the dinner table, savoring homemade ranch burgers and delicious potato salad, while the Drama Queen regaled us with all the details of just how she had made the buns and how Momma had let her use a knife to cut up the potatoes. I smiled at her eagerness and watched her little legs swing away under the table as she polished off all her food and asked for more. "Momma, I hope I get to go to cookery school again tomorrow," she announced. "It was so much fun!"

Figuring Out the Puzzle

Key words appearing in my Swagbucks search engine recently:

homeschooling an autistic child

how to make a weighted vest for autism

spiderman toys for gift ideas

how to help your autistic child adjust to new baby

My not-so-little Beast has been on my mind a lot lately, probably because he has evaluations later this week and because my little man is turning five in a month! It can be so overwhelming, treading the territory of "autism spectrum" and relearning everything you thought you should do as a parent.

I am so thankful I serve a God that is never overwhelmed and can guide us through this new stage in our lives. Psalm 32:8 is testament to that: "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go; I will guide thee with mine eye."

Valentines Scavenger Hunt

What is one to do to ensure that her homeschooled daughter receives a whole pile of Valentines on the holiday of love? Have a Valentines scavenger hunt, of course. All you need is a bunch of valentines, candy, paper, and a pen, and you're set to make this a tradition in your house. (The Drama Queen loved it so much that she asked if we could have a scavenger hunt for every holiday!)

Anyway, the night before Valentines Day I went around the house and hid sweet little valentines and candy for the kids, three of each in each hiding spot so no kid was left out. I then wrote out a series of (easy!) clues for the kids to use to find all their treats. Here is a little glimpse into the action: (disclaimer - our hunt took place first thing after breakfast. The Drama Queen had already gotten dressed, but somehow the Beast had become Spiderman during the night and the Spud had lost his pajama pants. I took photos anyway.)

Homeschool - First Day

Well, we took the plunge and started our year of homeschooling the Drama Queen on Tuesday. This decision to homeschool our daughter did not come without its share of inner turmoil, fears, anxieties, and general "What-if?"s. Still, I know it is the absolute best thing for our family this year, and I looked forward to the first day almost as eagerly as our little scholar. I was nervous about time management and little-boy-wrangling on the side, though.

The Drama Queen started the day off by posing for a bunch of first-day photos and exploring the writing instruments and shiny new textbooks in her desk. Although she is technically in kindergarten, her academic skills are far beyond that of a kindergartener; so I purchased first grade curriculum to teach to her this year.

I wrote out some rough lesson plans for our first day for each of her subjects, not knowing how much time it was going to take to teach one child each of these things. I am used to planning out lessons for classes of 15 or more students! During our first day, I recorded how much time it took for each subject to use for future lesson planning. Disregarding sibling interruptions and other distractions, actual class time was about 2 1/2 hours - much faster than I anticipated. We made time for a "recess" break and a snack as well. The Drama Queen soaked it all in, especially science class, which is her favorite by far.

We set up a large white board in the dining room for the teaching times. I have always enjoyed "board work" as a teacher and would take hours in the evenings to set up my boards for the next day of school. now I get to do that again - on a much smaller scale of course, but it is so fun to see the Drama Queen's reaction when she comes out for breakfast in the morning and sees the exciting things we will be learning that day.

Of course, we don't want to leave the Beast out of all of this. As I mentioned before, he has been approved for a blended class at the local community school this semester (a mixed class of both "normal" kids and kids with autism or attention deficit disorder.) He started his first class with his new teacher, Miss Alison, today. He went right into the classroom but then the shyness and nerves took over. He headed straight for a chair in the reading corner and hid behind it. When I picked him up two hours later, he kept hugging and kissing me and asking me to hold him. I tried to talk to him about what he actually did in school that day, but as usual the vague little man left me hanging. All I know is that there is a class pet turtle.

In the meantime, the Spud tries to horn in whenever he can. I caught him singing today, "A,E,I,O,U, I can sing my vowels to you." I do try to include him in Bible time as well as art time and other activities as much as possible.

Of course, we are in the midst of first-week-of-school-euphoria. I am fully expecting a stubborn Drama Queen to melt down at some point in the future, crying that she can't do it, and also anticipating that this growing-ever-more-tired-by-the-day preggo momma will have a day or two when I just don't want to do it. Welcome to real life, peeps!

And with that, I had better get some rest. We are facing basic addition in arithmetic tomorrow!