Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Regular goings on

Our lives are quiet and comfortable we're getting things done, the house is cleaner, we're going to bed earlier, it's just a really nice season for us.  We only have 3 1/2 years til #1 will leave for college and then it will just keep going, kids leaving, and our lives will change dramatically over time, so I am just enjoying every minute with all my kids home.  Plus #1 may want to go to full time high school next year or the year after, so all the more reason to enjoy this season.  Our church group is fantastic, #3 is going on his first overnighter this weekend with scouts.  The girls are going to a girls' night out when he's gone.  I'll just have a house of little boys to myself.  Not sure what we'll do.  

The state of New Hampshire has an online charter school that is fantastic.  The girls are both taking online classes.  I am so glad they'll have an official transcript and grades, and they have a teacher that will correct their work.  I have been working daily with #3 on Greek and math, he is doing so much better at focusing and getting the work done.  11 yr old boys sure know how to push buttons and waste time!  The worst is piano lessons, I can't express the amount of patience and energy this boy's lesson takes.  But as with everything, he is finally realizing the quickest way out is to just get it done.

We have had to eliminate screens- all gaming that is during the week.  It is tempting to let the boys play when they are done with school and chores because they work so much better when they have something like that to look forward to, but it is such a hassle keeping up with everyone's time and inevitably after the computer and wii have been on for over an hour and they all need to go do something else, someone will cry because they didn't get their turn yet.  So we're back to screens only on Fridays and Saturdays.

We had a book club last week on White Fang.  The girls wrote really great papers on it and the kids had a pretty good discussion.  The kids performed for choir at a nursing home last month and did a great job and #1 got to play the violin with her ensemble at church.  I also took the girls for a trumpet and clarinet lesson.  We can't do regular lessons til moving expenses are settled and I think I'll try to find another teacher.  Also our huge propane heating bill is a big damper on lessons and classes, maybe our house will sell soon, that will help!

We have had a ton of snow, we still have a bunch of boxes to unpack, plenty to keep us occupied, I have been looking at museums, I can't wait to go!


Wednesday, February 12, 2014

How far we've come!

I found an old homeschool journal I kept of our schooling from 2005-2008. It is really interesting how much the same I am, the journal really mirrors this blog, what we've done that week, and writing something about each child. We did a lot back then, my oldest was just 6, it was really fun to remember some things and to think about everybody as babies.  It was also interesting to see that as babies my kids had a lot of the same personalities and tendencies now that they had then. Recording things is such a good thing to do.

 It feels really good to get back in control of my life, we had so many difficult situations coincide with the birth of our twins, that we essentially just survived, but did not thrive and sometimes we weren't sure if we were even going to survive. But we did and it was nice to read and remember some really good times in our lives before all the craziness hit.  And school has been going well here on the home front, it takes a ton of patience and work, but we are beginning to thrive and I just can't express my gratitude enough. I will post more about that later, for now I want to type in this funny occurrence in from our church primary program, FYI-- the primary is our church's children's organization and the program is done once a year for the entire ward/congregation.  I was the primary chorister for this program.  It was nice to remember I had good times at church there too!

This was written by me on Nov. 6, 2005

Sunday was the program.  The girls did a great job singing and saying their parts.  #2 had 2 parts and was so cute quoting Moses 1:39 from memory, it was really sweet how she said the same things at practice that she did at the program.  It was kinda hard because her 2nd part ended with Heavenly Father's plan which rhymes with eternal life of man from Moses 1:39, so it was a little mixed up, but very cute.  #1 needed only a little prompting but then she said her part perfectly and must have looked just adorable because there were a lot of sweet laughs.  I lead the music and all the children sang well.  #3 joined us for some of the songs, (he was 3 at the time and not in primary yet), and then he tried to climb up on the pulpit.  He finally went out to foyer with his Daddy, so my husband missed a lot of the program. 

It was really spiritual and very sweet.  Some funny things happened which I am sure not many people noticed. The primary pianist was just cleaning her glasses and they broke right in half.  She was really panicking and tried to put them on so they'd stay, but of course they didn't.  I had to stop looking at her so I wouldn't laugh.  She called to another primary person to come play for her and then she taped them together with blue tape, but finally got the attention of her husband who got a spare set out of the car, so it all worked out.  Then one of the Sunbeams (3-4 yr old class) threw up at the very end, but it was already over so no big deal!


Saturday, February 8, 2014

Some Great Booklists!

Ok, so I've heard about Sonlight curriculum, but yesterday while waiting for choir, I got to discuss books with some other homeschool moms and they said throat Sonlight has great lists, so I checked it out and wow, they do!  All those books look great, I am excited to get some and get started! www.sonlight.com

Monday, February 3, 2014

book list I don't want to lose

I still love New Hampshire, it is so awesome! That last post was actually supposed to go on my venting blog, I try not to complain too much on here, oh well!! I will write more about that later as well as school which is going well. We've been to a science class taught at an environmental center in our town divided into 5 age groups, we have joined a choir and we joined a book club and a teen activity group, unfortunately the book club and teen group are going to coincide, so we will have to decide. There is a good online charter school that I will be signing the girls up for a couple classes. The high school turned out to be lame, so we are homeschooling everybody this semester again and won't be doing any part time. We have been doing aerobics and yoga videos for fitness instead of organized sports for various reasons. We will in the next month find some good music teachers and ensembles for the kids, hopefully start some karate or at least join the YMCA. scouts at our church is the best we have ever seen. All the scouts meet together as one group with the various classes being quorums. Young Womens is so much better than what we had anytime in Utah. The leaders are mature and have teens of their own, and the girls are all really nice and have been very welcoming to my girls. This is an extremely good move for us. I love our location, we have 3 acres at the end of a wooded lane, with tress everywhere, total privacy, cute little towns with a corner market and gas station, awesome local cafes and excellent variety of stores for furniture as well as the standard big box stores, the grocery stores all carry organic foods and high quality foods with few preservatives and chemicals. There is also a co-op I can order from weekly to get better prices!!! so far, I just miss my mom and the scenic Utah views, the weather is about the same as Utah so far, although it does get dark an hour earlier here than in Utah, that is a bummer, but spring is coming! I do appreciate the new scenery, I like the little roads and trees everywhere and cute little houses, everything is colonial style, I like that too. The people are fantastic, I have been welcomed to New Hampshire by every person I tell that I am new, restaurant people, gas station people, corner store people, people at church, at homeschool groups, even the guy who picked up the moving trailer. School is going well, unpacking is going slow. We've just left everything in the garage and it will take a while, we have a couple bookshelves up now so we can start putting books away. But the kids really needed to get back into their studies and I think they like it. I just got on the computer to print out their lists of assignments for the week and I found this booklist I wanted to remember and ended up writing a novel, oh well. Here's the list: http://info.infosoup.org/lists/ClassicsForTeens.asp this site has a bunch of great books listed I want my kids to read and that I want to read also. The girls read the Bronze Bow for a book club last week and they are working on reading White Fang for next month. I really liked the book club, parents were invited, but the kids were encouraged to do most the talking. It was a great discussion, hopefully we'll be able to work out a decent schedule, if not we may have to start a new book club.