The Comprehensive List: The Things I Couldn't Do Before I Had ...A Boy.

Ziggy Joy will be a year old soon...a year since I was waiting for him

Just about Exactly a Year ago...

This time of year is so bitter sweet for me, it's a big turning point in the year, after a busy summer full of adventures, change is in the air. The last few summers late August has me feeling pensive and a little sad, another wonderful summer of their childhood has turned the corner looking towards Autumn. The books are on the shelf waiting for our First Day of School, full of possibilities And yet the flowers are still in bloom and the weather is warm and waiting for Autumn's turn.

This too...

I can't believe how fast the year has flown his birth was so different and so...almost nonchalant in how he was so quickly with us...I mean the birth wasn't nonchalant, but his arrival almost felt that way. A hint of his personality perhaps.

His Birthday.

It is hard to believe he wasn't always part of our family. Over the past year I've gotten a lot to "finally got your boy!" comments, not a huge deal...I nod and chuckle and say "Oh well we sure do love him." But some times it bothers me too, I feel defensive for my daughters. Honestly the thought that a family is only complete when they have both genders is ridiculous. We were perfectly complete with our girls, but yes- we feel beyond blessed to have this Laughing Joy in our lives, he made us realize how much more our life could be. A part of our story was missing and has so much more to it than we imagined!

 He's almost a year old and I'm still waiting to see how different he is, I've gotten a lot of comments about that too. "Oh a BOY! Watch out!" or "Oh a boy, I have to tell you they are the sweetest. My girls were rough, but my boys were a dream."
 People like to make boxes. Again, nod and smile, whatever chit chat is what it is. He does have the easiest temperament of my babies. He is (so far) my best sleeper. He is chill. But my diet is really good, I've avoided foods that bothered my other babies. I think that lends to his personality as well: he's not living in constant pain.

So far he's exactly as different and unique as the others were. I've been trying to come up with a list of all the things I've gotten to experience now that I" finally have my boy" and it is shocking, you won't believe it.

 Here it is The Comprehensive List as a Mom of a Boy...

 1. Since he was born I may have uttered the words "cute" and "penis"in the same breath (just saying... TMI, Absolutely. But it's not some thing I ever thought before...I'm not alone on this one.).

 2. Use on average 2 more wipes per dirty diaper change there are more angles down there.

 3. Worry about somebody's penis health on a regular basis...is that rash okay? If I let some one new change his diaper are they informed on intact care or will they mess with his foreskin and cause adhesions and pain?

4. Use the word penis more than I ever thought necessary (and you're probably feeling that way too at this point...)

5. Kiss another person with male genitalia more than I kiss my husband (it's his cheeks, I can't help myself).

 

 There it is, 5 things I never thought I would experience. Does he like "boy stuff" more than the girls or seem wired differently? He does seem a bit more dirty some how, he seems to attract it and eat it more than I previously recall...Then again I didn't take the others as many places as I take him. And also their babyhood is a blur. I do recall Friendly licking things I couldn't believe she would lick, Ziggy seems to follow that trend. No stone, or disgusting colored patch of sidewalk goes unlicked. Healthy microbiome for the win!

 He just loves people, anything people related he locks in and needs to join in. The kids are all talking? He starts babbling as loudly as he can over them. As an introvert this does not bode well for my bubble...As a Mother? It is cute.

 He does tend to be very interested in loud noises and mechanical things, always points at planes overhead and has to stop and watch a noisy truck pass by. He already plays with cars a lot. But he also rocks baby dolls he finds and kisses them, loves to talk on the play phone, is super into books, is very gentle and mellow and empethetically connected with the people in our family.

He is definitely much larger than the girls were, he weights what they did at 2-2.5 years old (again my great diet and hearty appetite, I haven't restricted or tried to lose the baby weight this time)! And he's quite tall for his age, he also has hands almost as big as the 4 year olds (he's going to be a big handsome man some day, or just have abnormally large hands and feet and a sweet kind face ;)

He carries his own energy and reminds me of pieces of all of the others but he's his own person, with his own lessons to teach me and stretch me. I'm so thankful he is part of our world. I can't believe it's been just about a year since I finally looked into his eyes for the first time. I am so happy he is part of our world.

Finding a Flow ...Anchors and Flux

I know how important it is to have rituals in life. "To every thing there is a season.." rings with the deepest truth of life, we humans feel centered and happier when we have rituals and seasonal times of reflection.

 This is something I have been trying to build into our family over the last couple of years.

In Spring we get the yard ready. We go to our places and have a celebratory picnic. We take a lot of nature walks, reveling in the new warmth (even if it's still chilly), looking for signs of green at every turn and when it truly arrives, we revel in the green and flowers.

Summer means popcicles, fireworks and lightening bugs on the 4th of July, playing in the sprinkler together, picnics by the creek, the Summer Reading Program, playing outside all morning and resting in the heat of the afternoon. Grilling and pickles and garden veggies. Summer Ends with The Fair...

Autumn means Leaf Walks to collect colorful leaves and crunch all that will be crunched!  Making our Seasonal Window Hanging- we make at least 4 a year out of wax paper and leaves, glitter, or paint.

Autumn Means hours at the park playing under the trees, reading books, early evenings, and the tinge of sadness that another year is winding down.

 And then we swing around to the Holidays and winter...The Holidays means a new window hanging, The Christmas Tree Hunt, decorating the tree, the Advent Elves and their secrets and surprises and letters of encouragement and Advent Projects...

Can you see Clemmie and Calvin nestled down on the window sill?

Decorating the Tree

Winter means Long days at home. Winter is dark and cold and the days feel long and people feel crowded. There is sickness from the lack of sunshine. But there is coziness and time for creativity. Snow fun and lots of time for books and school and sewing projects.

Playing with their friends next door after a blizzard.

sewing with a sleeping Ziggy on my back.

  I see all that we've built into our life, the way we try to honor and embrace the season we are in, to take the time to say "We can't do this any other time of the year, this is special."

School, newborn Ziggy, reading our Language Arts out loud while Ziggy nursed.

So when it comes to the year, yes I feel like we have an ebb and flow and definitely anchors. Some thing I want to write here while my kids are still young so I remember. I think the one thing I have done pretty well is to set my bar pretty low. The things I do with the kids aren't things that are hard for me to do, or take a ton of work. I enjoy them, they add a sense of stability and rightness to my life.

I have been fairly intentional not to build things around things that feel like work. They are important to my kids but I want to continue doing them for me.  Even when my kids are too old or uninterested I want to take time to make a new window hanging for that year in each season, or at least have a specific window hanging we've made back up. I want to take time to revel in leaves that crunch, I want to enjoy the ritual of decorating the tree and sitting in it's light with a warm beverage. I want to take the winter days to read and sew and enjoy quiet days at home. I don't mean any judgement to my Mom, she did what she needed to do, and she did a million things I am so grateful for, but as one of "the babies" I felt a huge sense of loss when she started to drop traditions because she was so busy with the older siblings who were teenagers.

I know down the line my kids are not going to want to join me, but I know that we lose so much when we stop honoring the seasons in small simple ways. And I hope to always offer that haven and safe feeling to my children. I don't cook fantastic meals or make Holidays all about the foods, that stresses me out. But I try to find ways to honor the seasons in simple ways and I hope I always will.

Tree night, store bought cookies and cider by the tree

So that's how we honor the season of the year...Now I want to talk about how we honor the times of the day and the ebb and flow and flux we need in life. That will be the next post...

Wrapping My Head Around the Coming Year...

It's hitting me that July is almost over, that we only have a month or so of summer weather left. I went out to the garden this afternoon and despite my dismal efforts we have vegetables growing all over the place. It's been a very busy season, summer means hours at the park and pool and any moment I'm home is either me crashing in exhaustion or rushing trying to clean up from the kids that have trashed the house while I was resting from the hours of carrying/chasing/watching busy baby in the summer heat.

A Mermaid Castle the kids built in a creek.

It's been a really fun summer though...We've squeezed in a beach trip, fire works watching, many picnics, and tons of pool time. We also spent a lot of time at the library. Everyone took part in our local Summer Reading Program and the ones that could take part logged well over 2,000 minutes reading. I'm especially blown away by Roo, she logged so many books and reading time, all the prizes she won got to be a little obnoxious.

But August is around the corner, Friendly turns seven in 9 days. We're starting to make Birthday plans. And with that my mind starts to turn to our school  year and wondering if I'm covering all the things well enough.

Breakdown

Core Spine: Build Your Library: The Medieval World technically this is "Grade 2" I think it will be a perfect middle ground for Friendly who falls some where between 1st and 2nd grade and Roo who falls some where between 2nd and 3rd. 

What we will be covering (and some of the books we will use):
History
Story of the World Volume 2

Language Arts will be intertwined with history, we'll be reading about Medieval times and The Middle Ages from the Build Your Library Book Store (and supplementing whenever possible with Library Audio options, When researching for the year I was excited to find that our local Library has several of the required books available as Audio Books- less reading aloud for me.)

Science
We'll be using BYOL's Science doing Earth Science and a Study of Space
I'm feeling a little ridiculously excited to get started. Last year when  we did the Ancient Civilizations the Science study was Nature studies (and nature notebooking) I wanted to study it so badly. I did some of the activities myself because I felt like making the observations, some times the kids would join me but generally it was a "oh That's nice, Mom.". Roo wanted to study Physiology and Anatomy, good stuff We used Apologia's program and Jr. Notebooking Journal  which is fantastic. But I don't know, maybe because it wasn't technically in the Teacher's Guide or maybe I just found it hard to squeeze in because there was so much to it, but I had a hard time consistently offering opportunities to work on it- or knowing how much to do. It was fine, the kids enjoyed it we got a few chapters of the book done and will pick it back up as interest dictates.

Okay so Science is covered.

Grammar and Spelling
The BYOL also offers opportunities to do dictation (so technically grammar, spelling, and handwriting if you want it to be). This format (using dictation from language arts that day) hasn't worked well with Roo. I think it feels too vague and unofficial for her. So we were using Spelling You See Jack & Jill I'm unsure whether she is ready to move on to the next level. Her reading comprehension and skills have jumped several grade levels in the last 3 months alone. When we started Jack and Jill last school year it was a bit too much for her. Now the spelling words are beyond easy for her, but it gives lots of practice in grammar as well as some handwriting practice. We've been skipping and doing a 5 or 6 grammar exercises in one day and 1 spelling practice and then moving on. We jumped ahead at least 10 levels in 2 weeks that way...We could quickly finish up and move on I suppose. I'm just unsure if that would be the best use of the curriculum? We can erase and use it again for Friendly, perhaps.
Which leads me to Friendly, I'm not sure if Spelling You See is the best fit for Friendly though. Due to her Auditory Processing challenges she gets really frustrated and turned around when she has to spell words from hearing me say them. She does better with concrete pictures and building the word visually. I thought about maybe going back to Explode the Code with her (we used it briefly with Roo in pre-K age, haven't used it with Roo). But I feel so in over my head in where to place her. I think we will be leaving spelling alone for now and using the Brain Integration Therapy exercises and phonic sounds flash cards to unlock her blocked learning gates and then re-evaluate at mid-year.

Math
We've really been enjoying and learning a lot from Life of Fred  And the kids have picked up a ton of math from it! I think we're going to stick with that until we get through Edgewood and then see where the kids land. I have been really leaning towards wanting to do Teaching Textbooks with Roo, but I think I'd rather save the money and reconsider at mid-year as well. I go back and forth on this. The only thing I don't like about Life of Fred is that it's more reading out loud. It's not that I dislike reading out loud, but when you have little ones reading out loud means interruptions, constant interruptions. And that's part of life and it's part of homeschooling and it's part of reality but it annoys the heck out of me. :D I have been trying to work through scheduling stuff to reduce interruptions, but infants are infants, preschoolers are preschoolers and they are to interruption what bees are to nectar. I did begin recording myself reading chapters aloud on a private youtube channel so I can set kids up with a chapter on the ipad....

So Did I cover every thing?

Oh Bible. 

I will be doing Heart of Dakota Little Hearts for His Glory again (did it with Roo in 2013) with Pip, that has daily Bible stories and Memory verses. I think we will also be using Our 24 Family Ways every morning, or some mornings at least.

Sheesh when I type it all out I feel super overwhelmed! But then I remember, It's not all these things every day (except for Brain Integration Therapy, that's 15minutes daily). We're definitely going to have to think through a morning flow that works better than what we currently have. One that doesn't make homeschooling feel like a chain weighting down the relaxed days we want to have. But some thing that insures we're getting things done and every thing feels like they have enough structure to thrive and accomplish what they want to.

There's the rub.

More on that next time.

A Summer Recap...Learning All the time

 Six months seems like a good enough time to start blogging again. I'm feeling like I need some thing to help me get my head back in the "School Year" zone. I consider us "year round" homeschoolers, but our summer schedule is very low key...Especially this summer. I'm 8 months pregnant and since our child care kiddo's school year ended, I have allowed myself to wallow in enjoy this pregnancy (I really am enjoying it mostly, but not having to push through the tiredness and "fake it til I make it" like I did the first 8 months...a pleasant relief).

Our summer schedule has been so haphazard thanks to a 2 week trip, involving 3000 miles of driving,

 

This is how we eat dinner on the road...

They were fantastic travelers!

a ton of fun in the sun and with family...

New Smyrna

Sunrise over Lake Monroe

We had a lot of fun trying to spot alligators in the lake

Sunrise walk (A "Day walk" as the kids call it) on the board walk by Lake Monroe

 

and a 2...3...4? week recovery from the trip!

You can often find me in bed or curled up on the couch with some stuffed animal that Pip felt Ziggy needed to have close..

Mostly our summer has been the kids being fantastic, creative, and generally awesome. Seriously, they watch a lot of TV and have been working hard in their mine craft world, but they also play outside a lot and are incredibly creative. They've kept themselves busy and have let Mama rest quite a bit. I feel a mixture of guilt and thankfulness...

"I don't really know how to get the car to jump, I'm still working on that..."

Building ramps for their car with scrap wood

The house often looks like a paper goods recycling plant and crayola factory blew up, but they craft create, and play indoors and out with their creations...Together and apart. I can't complain, it's been a good summer of learning.

I love 3 year old's...I find things like this a lot!

5 year old knee art, or should I say scab art? The eyes there are scabs. Some times the messes stay...contained.

Dress up play...Apparently being 7 means you make pathetic faces when being photographed (she was grinning 2 seconds later, stinker).

This is my favorite, they played for over an hour and a half under these trees

Same day same place, this literally turned into a circus show, with chalk tight ropes and clowns arguing over where their tight ropes were....They've never been to a circus, so it got a bit irrational. A good time was had by all, until it wasn't. :D

This is is her T-TAPP Bal-la-lette  dance sheet. It's a game she created. You tap a color and do a ballet move...I think.

On days I have energy or they ask to "do school" (usually this is Friendly asking) we pull out work sheets on a concept we came across and I realized they weren't familiar with it (Oh, some free work sheet links in my next post!).
Some times it means a chapter or two of our math book (Life of Fred), some times it means we take a stack of picture books to the park and a "picnic" snack and we enjoy our books together.
We're also doing a Family Summer reading club...

For every book they read to me or Hubby Joy they get a sticker on the chart. For every chapter book we finish together they get a sticker on the chart. We have about 10 stickers now (this was taken shortly after we started). When we complete the chart (hoping to before the baby arrives) they win a new Lego set or an ice cream party...or some thing! Maybe both?

Hey, we're having a baby we're going to celebrate books and babies! :D

Favorite places...

 And SUMMER!!!!