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.

I'm back...Transitions

I pulled my blogs off the internet a few months ago. I decided I didn't want the internet at large to have access to family life and I just simply do not have time for much of any thing let alone blogging. Child #4 has killed all time for me. Every moment I might have been able to get away is full of shoulds and needs and keeping my head above water. But I'm also losing myself in there.  I enjoy writing. I think I have gotten a little tired of blogs though, they are just a tiny snippet and I feel like they are either too feely, mushy and frankly, silly. Or too perfect. Life is messy.

I want to continue to blog about gentle parenting, school, I think that is grounding and helpful to me. Not because I do it right. Not because I have some picture perfect or even interesting story to share, but because I need it in my life.

So I'm here.

A little update on us...

Roo is eight and a half and heading into third grade. Last school year was full of incredible changes and growth for Roo. She went from (still at age 8) sounding out words like "was" and "and" in January to reading fluently in March! She was still barely (with much anguish on her part, I never pushed it, but she was clearly frustrated) able to get through the Biscuit books to reading 6th grade reading level books by May. She's currently reading Poppy and Rye and I couldn't be more proud at the strides she is making. She loves reading! It happened just like when she learned to crawl or walk: frustration and struggle. And just like the older homeschool Mom's said would happen, CLICK!!
I think what really helped was enjoying books together. As well as the Reading Rainbow Skybrary App, she would curl up for hours reading book after book with the app (it narrates) and she fell in love with the solitary and relaxing activity that reading can be.

It is so validating to have a reader, it was a scary process but I'm glad we're here.

Friendly will be SEVEN in two weeks. I can't believe that she will be heading into second grade. Friendly is still struggling with some sensory processing things, she's always been my MORE kid and nothing has changed. We will be doing Brain Integration Therapy this school year to address some of her auditory processing issues, hopefully reducing her over all life frustrations as the pathways between hemispheres of her brain heals. I am really hopeful.  She is beginning to read, a completely different process from Roo. She is reading early readers and hungry for information and knowledge. She enjoys playing with numbers and seems to be very interested in math concepts, we will be encouraging that this school year.

The older two have told me they want to study The Middle Ages (we just finished up Ancient Civilizations), and are very interested in diving into our studies of space and earth science. :) We will be using Build Your Own Library again, I really really enjoyed our Ancient Civilizations and World Tour Last school year, we will be combining the girls into one grade and adding and subtracting as they need- it's so versatile and inexpensive enough where I don't feel pressure if we skip things that aren't working for us (no guilt at money wasted). It didn't feel like it at the time, we're so scattered and laid back, but when I pulled together all the things from the school year and wrote our subject summary for the school district: WOW! We learned and did so many things together last school year, it was a lot of fun!

Pip is four and a half and she is a pip and a half for sure. Four. Oh my goodness I don't know how I'm going to survive it again, it is grueling. Some thing about "Four"  in our kids- especially for our more easy going personalities- means they took all that they didn't dish out at two and three and saved it to unleash tenfold at four. It is beyond exhausting. I need a vacation. That said, she loves to have jobs, she can unload the dishwasher and fold a load of towels like a little machine and she loves to "babysit" Ziggy (she plays with him and bosses him around :D ). She is bright and inquisitive and full of ideas and wants to learn to read and do school this year. 

Ziggy. Oh my goodness this bub is amazing. I can't believe we didn't know we needed him in our family. He is just amazing. So far I haven't noticed any real difference in having a boy, except I use on average 2-3 more wipes per diaper changes, it's not as straghtforward cleaning all the things down there. :D He's crawling, cruising, pulling up on every thing. He has 6+ teeth and loves to play "so big". He's really really good at throwing, he loves to play "catch" and to throw any thing he can get his hands on, the older kids get a kick out of it. He is the sweetest little squish.

And that's about that. I hope to start blogging weekly about our school year and life again, I need the outlet.

Postpartum Reflections...

Our squish is here.And I've been doing a lot of this...

The first 5 days I stayed upstairs in bed, sweet Hubby Joy brought me all my food and got me any thing I needed. I nursed, napped, nursed, changed diapers, nursed, and rested. I allowed myself one trip downstairs a day after the first 5 days and this enabled me to get my own food once a day and or just hang out with the kids downstairs a little.

I ate breakfast on the front porch which felt really good. It's been too hot and muggy for the baby so I haven't gotten to do it since.

I love his curly ears.

I think the greatest challenge for me postpartum is knowing where to set the bar in relation to what my body needs, not just now but in the long term. As some one with adrenal and autoimmune challenges it is a fine line to walk. Generally I feel great, my health challenges have drastically healed and improved thanks to dietary changes and T-TAPP.  But the unfortunate thing is that my body does take a little longer to bounce back from things, particularly birth. And I feel so great, I often miss signs that I've over done it and then crash hard. And "over done it" is so frustrating, what exactly did I do that was so taxing? Often it was just a combination of a little too much activity and a few stressful situations (kids fighting, baby crying and not calming, raising my fight or flight reflexes), mix it in with postpartum hormones and a bad night of sleep: CRASH.

What does a crash look like? Complete and utter exhaustion mixed in with achey body and a shorter fuse. It's frustrating, but I've learned and I am learning how important it is for me to rest during times of transition and stress. Not only for me but for my whole family, that I focus on resting when I need it...And giving and being present as much as I can. Babies are precious, and they don't happen too many times in your life time...They are a gift.

This recovery has been a lot harder in some ways than it was last time. I will share the full birth story in another post soon, but suffice it to say it was a long hard labor. From the time my water was broken (more on that too) until birth it was 14 hours of HARD contractions. It was probably my hardest labor physically, though mentally and emotionally it was great. It just kept on keeping on like a freight train, no questions that this baby was on his way and my body meant business. Which in of itself, given his position, so empowering! That said, if it weren't for medical interventions I think it would have been a pretty traumatic birth.

As it was the birth was fantastic and I can look back at it with a mix of gratitude and relief that it all went the way that it did. It was deeply redeeming in many ways. I bled a lot, tore a little, and had a (give or take a smidge) 9lbs baby with a 14inch head come out asynclintic (cocked ear first). I felt pretty beat up the first several days.

I am 10 days out and feeling almost normal, but if I'm on my feet too much or do too much bending or twisting I feel like my pelvic area has been beaten badly. And unfortunately,  "too much" doesn't really hit until I've sat down and rested and then tried to get back up.

 It's harder to stay down this time, I am! I am sucking the marrow out of this babymoon. I can't say how thankful I am to Hubby Joy for all he's done to make this possible. He has been an absolute gem. But it feels so good right now not to be pregnant. I also love this time of year, I want to be at parks with the kids, taking nature walks and watching them play. Walking with Hubby Joy and enjoying the late-summer weather.

But I'm home mostly, nursing more than I ever remember nursing before (though I know it's not true, I just forgot) and snuggling and sad that these early days will fly so fast...What do I want to remember about them?  Stress over a messy house? All the places we went and things we did and how much I hurt afterwards?

Or the smell of his head. The softness of his cheeks. The way his squishy little body felt sleeping against mine. The way I know his face so well from hours of staring at it. That I drank him in and we had every thing together for his first week or two.
I am so grateful for this babymoon we've enjoyed and for new ways of learning balance and seeing how my body has healed in the last 4 years.
That said, having 3 other kids there are things that must march on...We start school tomorrow, and while I still plan to rest heavily the first month, life can't stop for that entire time. So I've been pondering what are some ways I can continue to focus on rest and self-care as I move out of our babymoon and into the rest of the 4th Trimester.

1. Shower every morning... As soon as I can. I feel so much more human when I am clean, especially after a night of nursing and leaking and diaper leaks.

2. Make my bed every day... I've never been one to make my bed, not since I was a kid. But it really does feel good to know that it is waiting there for me to rest on with out getting the sheets crumby (because I am always eating).

3. Treat Myself... Nothing crazy, but finding little ways to pamper myself. I did this a lot the last month of pregnancy...painting my nails...giving myself a foot soak...Eating a special snack. It's going to be hard to get out alone with this little one, he has been taking a really hard core nap from 8-11ish every morning, but pretty much from that point on he is in arms non-stop. I know it'll change and he won't be so intense forever. But I do have a feeling getting out of the house for more than an hour at a time is going to be tricky. I need to find ways to treat myself at home.

4. Get Outside Daily...This has been tricky because the past week has been nasty muggy. But as Autumn and Winter roll around I plan to take advantage of the fact that Hubby Joy is here during the day and sneak out for a brief walk during morning nap- even on the most bitter cold days.

5. Read More Books...While there will be plenty moments of nursing on the go, there are even more of us snuggled up and what other opportunity am I going to have to read once he gets mobile? I've really been enjoying my kindle paperwhite e-reader, it has a small back light so I can read at night...That has been wonderful.

Well a certain little guy is squirming and I think he just filled his diaper...Time to go!

Operation Baby Prep!

We're 2-6 weeks away from meeting this sweet little one and I'm in full nesting mode.

36th week!

Some Friends came over yesterday and we had fun crafting a banner for baby Ziggy. He won't have his own room at this point, but I wanted to do some thing that we could put in his room down the line, and just some thing to do to celebrate a new baby.

They also helped me puttogether 6 batches of biscuit mixes and 3 batches of banana muffin mix!!!!

This will save so much time and mess and energy after he arrives!

Which leads to other preparations...

The menu planning worked so well to get us through the first trimester I've decided to give it another go for after baby is born. It was a little more fun this time because I didn't have to worry about keeping things on the bland side or worrying about smells wafting through the house making me miserable!
 After having two unexpected rough births and subsequent long and hard recoveries (and starting back into real life too soon). I learned with my last baby to take it easy the first week. Full bed rest that first week made a world of difference in my overall feeling of well being and my recovery time. Even after my rough births, I tend to feel really good the first week, flying high on adrenaline and the thrill of not being big and pregnant any more. The joy of snuggling that fresh new squish. I'm done with the waiting and ready to dive back in to LIFE!
It's HARD to stay in bed, but seriously it made a world of difference last time and I'm hopeful it will help this time as well. I am trying to set every thing up so that I can literally stay horizontal in bed with my baby that entire first week.

My personal postpartum rules (and recommendation of my MW) are...

• WEEK #1: IN the bed, up only 5 minutes at a time to use the bathroom or take a quick shower (or do some gentle stretches once a day). Rest restores the body. No stairs. It's one intense, some times monotonous week in bed. ONE. If you need company ask friends to come hang out with you in your room. I spent most of my first week in bed with Pip staring at her, it was heavenly. If you can set things up to do this (as I am with meal plans and Hubby Joy and my Mom being around to take care of the big kids), revel in it. It's amazing and you will not get down time like that ever again (or until you have another baby ;)! And? It helps your body recovery on every physical level. Rest is a gift and it is worth it. Nursing baby and taking care of baby is the only thing you need to worry about in week 1. I plan to have snacks in my room and Hubby Joy will bring the meals I've planed out up to me after he's fed the kids.
• Week #2: ON the bed the second week. Limit stairs (hard in my home). Camp out on the couch. I don't have to stay indoors or in bed, but I need to be limiting time on my feet and care of other children. I need to be laying down in bed for at least 3 hours in the afternoon resting. Stay reclined at least half the day and limit time on feet carefully! No cleaning.
• Week #3: more freedom. Take it Easy, for every hour I am up I need to take an hour to rest. Shoot for 2 hours laying in bed with baby every afternoon. When I have a chance to rest, do it. No cleaning! But cooking easy meals is fine...Short outings are fine if you have a way to sit down and rest and there isn't a lot of time on your feet involved.
• Week #4 through #6: return to light Mom duty. When there is a chance to rest, DO it! You don't need to sleep, just lay down with baby. Get quiet when you need it. Close your eyes and take deep cleansing breaths to get more energy.  Baby's first year isn't a sprint, it's a marathon. The better you treat your body the easier your adrenal glands and lymphatic system (helps your liver function and cortisol levels, quality of sleep and so much more!)  recover and deal with the interrupted sleep you'll likely be dealing with for many many weeks and months to come!

Pretty much the goal the first 6 weeks is to have the house run as smoothly as possible with me curled up with the baby as much as possible. My goal is to see how much I can stay off my feet. NOT how much I can get done. NOT how fast I can get back to normal. NOT to feel bad about doing this for myself. I'm worth it and so is my new precious baby, you only get to do this once with each kiddo, it's worth it!

School Year on the Horizon...Realities

Okay to the school year...

My oldest is getting to the age where I'm feeling like I'm needing to push a little. Roo will be turning 8 this school year and I feel like it's time to have some daily requirements. Traditionally speaking kids wouldn't start school until they reached the age of 7, and studies have shown it is to their benefit to wait. So at many times in history and in many countries today, this really would be Roo's first year of school.

Thus far with school I have been very hands off. I haven't been stressed that she's taken her time with reading, that it hasn't "clicked" into voracious book love. I haven't pushed handwriting or math or really any thing. I love the idea of "child directed" learning and "delight directed" learning. In my heart I would love to un-school. In my reality I know it's not going to work with Roo.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think I've been doing any thing "wrong" so far.. This whole parenting thing is really just flying by the seat of your pants anyway. You research, you give it a shot, you celebrate when you find some thing that makes your child's life better, and you lick your wounds when you make mistakes. You learn, you grow...you try other things. And it's all very fair and good because when you think you figure "it" out, you have another kid that it doesn't work for, and you have to start all over. It is fun though, and it is amazing to watch how they grow and change and they help you do the same.

 Okay back to this school year, I feel like with this child [Roo] and her unique personality she'd happily float along for a very long time. She doesn't really mind that she doesn't know schooly things. Reading? It's a lot of work! She can do it, but why bother when she can listen to books and watch documentaries. Writing? Why? When she can draw fantastic pictures to communicate a story!

And you know what? She's not wrong, she does know how she learns best. She is very much a person who knows where she's comfortable and how she likes things to be, and until she's made uncomfortable by it, she's not going to change it.

She was the kid who couldn't dress herself with out help until she was 5. She did have some slight suspected fine motor delays (thanks to diagnosed vision issues). But really it was mostly a, "Why bother when I have loving hands to help me?"  or more, "I am the most comfortable this way, I just won't get dressed at all unless some one makes me." She lived her underwear or footie PJ's unless I force dressed her to take her places.
Once she was told that at her age (at 5 I had had more than enough!), she had to be do it herself, and she had to do it every day, she did. Some slight push back initially, a few meltdowns and then she got used to it and it was no big deal.

And I'm thinking that's again where we've landed. I see she can do it, I see she needs to be able to do it better, it's time to set her up to be a bit uncomfortable until she see's how "not a big deal" it can be.

I've had "rules" during the school year, "nothing but PBS shows" or "no TV before lunch" rules. Especially with the childcare kiddo, her parents didn't send her here to watch TV! And all except for my worst morning sickness days, the TV stayed OFF. And this year I think we're going to institute some slightly uncomfortable Bigger Kid Rules and I'm trying to decide what would work. It has to...

1) be possible to enforce with a newborn in the house.
 2) be a positively enforced rule that sets us up for success and help us meet our goals (in other words, proactive "this is the positive thing that happens when you" not reactive, "You didn't do it so now you will feel bad and miserable").

I am thinking our Rules for Second Grade will be some thing like...
 1. No TV, ipad, or minecraft until you've completed your...

• Reading assignment (read 7 pages from reader to Mom [these "pages" have about 2-3 sentences on them each).
• Writing assignment (write dictation assignment for the day, one brief sentence using a vocabulary word from our read aloud, OR complete a Grammar worksheet, OR Spelling You See workbook page [also includes handwriting]),
• 30 minutes of outside time 
• One Morning Chore

 I want to add "AND History, Science and Language Arts" but unless Hubby Joy takes on assignments I just don't know.
I can sit and listen to her read for 15 minutes every day. I can dig through 10 minutes of writing a sentence or completing her Spelling -even with drama. I can help her complete a work sheet or read Life of Fred with her. I can't guarantee I'll be up to all the reading every day of the week in history or Language Arts, at least until Ziggy is a few months old. I'm trying to be realistic...

I have a feeling some of the new rules will make Roo uncomfortable, she likes to do her thing and do it her way... I also think second grade is going to bring a lot of new growth for her as well! I am hoping in making it so that she has to practice reading daily (and not just with me, but in the day to day things she'll skip because it's too much of a bother) she'll start to see the NEED for it in her life and start to push past the plateau she's sat at for the last  year or so. It's comfortable to just avoid the need to read...This year, we practice and make it more of a focus.
Honestly, I don't know that Roo will ever be one of those kids to LOVE reading. I would be absolutely delighted if she does! But I've been trying to be realistic and not set expectations too high for her. She's got some vision issues that makes reading tiring. Vision issues that we haven't been able to fully address and are still unsure exactly how we will address them.
 It doesn't mean she can't overcome them and go on to be a book worm. But it could mean that she sticks to her strengths, auditory learning. And that is okay. I just want her to work past the struggle part, and master the concepts so that she can function on a more average level. I want to be able to leave her notes with simple directions, especially with the new baby coming. There are many days it would be great to write saying "Please make sure Pip gets a snack, if I'm not up by 8 please quietly come get me." She doesn't have to love it, but she needs some fluency to survive.

Oh, And here are the work sheets I promised in my last post! I've been using a few of these (especially the first and second grade grammer/phonics worksheets!) to fill in gaps or when the kids ask to do "school" and they mean do worksheets. :)
KINDERGARTEN 

READING BEAR (Learn to read with reading bear Free online Phonics program!)

Dynamically Created Kindergarten Worksheets MATH   (PDF's free printables!)

My Number Book (kindergarten printable number book)

Multiple Grade Levels
Make your own Handwriting Worksheets 
(a program to design and print your own handwriting practice sheets)

Free Dinosaur Worksheets (many different coloring pages multi grade level)
 Free Character Building Bible Lessons (multiple grade levels)

FREE Math Worksheets (K-6th)

Math Worksheet Factory (Free math worksheets)

FIRST GRADE
 First Grade PHONICS workbook (free printable workbook 258pages!)

Learn To Read Phonics Program (phonics concepts, printables)

First Grade Spelling Practice Book (Free printable workbook 128pages!)

SECOND GRADE
Second Grade Earth Science (full printable text book 112pages!)
Grammar Practice Book (free printable text book 158pages)

I found all of these on FREE Homeschooling 101 give them a follow they've been awesome!

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!!!!