Reflection

"Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life." --Charlotte Mason

I know I started my last blog post with that quotation, and today I want to offer a reflection on it as it pertains to my own life. Much of what I have learned about Charlotte Mason and home education in general is from the book Real Learning by Elizabeth Foss. (She's really wonderful and I may have a weird obsession with her--don't judge.)

In her book, Elizabeth asks us to look at our atmosphere for home education. For me, this was a great exercise. At this point in our lives, we live in a two bedroom apartment. We have three children and a tight budget. We do have a small yard. We live over an hour from both sets of relatives. We have made many good friends in this city.

In my head, I always had a big separate room for homeschooling, with comfy couches and millions of bookshelves. The shelves would lined with math manipulatives and educational Montessori style toys for the baby. There would be a large space for art projects like painting and sculpting and open ended art. Outside, we'd have a couple acres with some goats and a big garden. I would be a fabulous housekeeper and my children would love learning and each other. In my head, this was the way to "homeschool."

Elizabeth Foss and Charlotte Mason are helping me to learn that my atmosphere of learning is PERFECT because this is our God-given atmosphere.

Our baby is really destructive--she is clearly here to give us all lessons in patience and creativity.

My husband is not often home for supper--forcing me to plan better and be more creative in meals and nutrition. We will learn to appreciate our time with him even more and be grateful for the freedom that home education gives us.

My upstairs neighbors sometimes make "bad choices." God will give us all grace to learn from that and love them and witness to them.

Our tiny yard is no place for goats, but it is a great place to collect bugs and watch the clouds.

There is no need to unnaturally contrive a perfect setting or go into loads of debt trying to MAKE an atmosphere. I have one already.

If my kids have to share their learning space with laundry folding, it's because God knew best for them. And He knows best for me. It's as much my education as it is theirs.

What is YOUR atmosphere?

Our First (Official) Day of School!

"Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life." --Charlotte Mason

Well, today was our first "official" day of our homeschool! I say official because we try to learn every day--the world is our classroom! I'm trying to get John Paul to say that more often, instead of him telling everyone that we're on "spring break."

We started with a little Math-U-See, followed by some copywork.

Copywork is NOT John Paul's favorite....so we do it early and get it done! He's getting better and better at it, though!

We decided to go outside for a little nature and bug catching. We got some strange looks with our nets and bug collectors...or maybe they were looking at me clutching a cup of coffee in one hand and a wriggly 18 month old in the other. We caught a moth in the back yard! They live in the grass--John Paul hypothesized that they live there because there is food and ALSO to hide from birds so they don't get eaten.

Joey found some crabapples and put them in his container. He hypothesized that bears eat them. Maybe not in suburban Wauwatosa...but probably somewhere.

We found some ants and compared how some were bigger and some were smaller--Daddy ants and Baby ants, of course. (I guess we'll save species sizes for another day!) I love this picture with all three of them being "scientists."

And we found some lovely black eyed Susans and stopped to enjoy them!

We came home and journaled about our nature walk.

We read about God creating the world for us in Tomie de Paola's Book of Bible Stories.

Joey drew some pictures of the sun and John Paul played with dinosaurs.

We read 2 Chapters of Charlotte's Web--Wilbur learned that the Zuckermans plan to kill him at Christmas--traumatizing, but also exciting. Reading Charlotte's Web aloud really has the boys listening closely--they don't want to miss a part about how spiders paralyze the flies before they suck their blood, or where Christmas ham comes from. The language is a little higher level, but it's really in line with the Charlotte Mason curriculum from materamabilis.org--go there for more info!

And I'm pretty sure THIS girl had the best day of all...our little explorer. :)

Whew! A big day, and it's only 1:00! I had a BLAST and I think the kids did too. Thanks for coming along with us on our first official day of school...hope to see you again soon. :)

Learning to Use Scissors

Due to having three kids in the house under 5, and my generally distractable nature, I tend not to let the kids have a lot of scissors practice time! So it was really no shock to me that John Paul is not a natural with the scissors. I found this book at an educational shop (Don't you just love those stores?) and I grabbed it. The book is called My First Book of Cutting by Kumon. I wish I could upload a picture of the book, but that is beyond my technical abilities--for now. It cost around $7--pricey for a book, but it has been REALLY helpful. Each page has a different theme with levels of cutting difficulty that increase very gradually each day. I have John Paul do a page a day to get ready for Kindergarten--so we can do lots of fun crafts without tears and (God forbid) blood. :-) I recommend it!!

Back!

Hi friends!

I am back to blogging after A LOT of time off and much reflection. Even though I'm an extrovert by nature, it's been a little bit difficult to put myself out there for the world to see. And I struggle with the direction of this blog...is it an education blog, a Catholic Mommy blog, a wonderfully random blog??? This, among other thoughts pecked away at me and begged me to take a bit of a bloggy break.

I am not a writer. But this year, I am going to attempt at being an 'official' home educator. I hope to chronicle my year of homeschooling a kindergartener. I plan to share my thoughts on resources I use, fun things we do, and why I feel called to this home educating life. :)

Thanks for reading!
Krissy

Small Successes

My small Successes for the week:

1) I was really diligent about school this week. The boys had a lot of fun, and so did I. If only the schedule were always this clear...

2) I wrote down a fitness plan for myself. Next step: actually doing it!

3) I am going on an overnight retreat this weekend! It's rare for me to spend so much time away from home, but I have a wonderful husband who knows it's worth the extra effort to get a happier, 'holier,' and recharged wife. I can't WAIT!!!

Haiti

What a tragedy they are facing in Haiti. Maybe it's because an Archbishop was killed, or maybe it's the horrifying pictures, but this tragedy is hitting close to home. We should all think about donating. Click Here to do so. And today, I'll hug my babies a little closer.

Daybook

I love reading these, so I thought I'd do one too. :)

Outside my window…

It's 1:25pm and snowing lightly--hooray! The grass is still poking through and the houses across the street look like a Christmas card. Now, don't get me wrong. I will be the first to complain about the snow when I have to travel anywhere or do anything. But it's sooo nice to look at.

I am thankful for…

The many years I got to spend with my Grandma Sue...My three wonderful babies and their super handsome and holy father. He's such a blessing, really. Oh, and that Brett Favre fell on his face (several times) during the Viking game last night. That was classic.

From the kitchen...

A delicious sausage dish for the Packer game tonight, homemade egg nog, and molasses cookies. I love me some Christmas food. :)

I am wearing...

An apron, among other things.

To Be Fit and Happy...

The good news--I went on a jog this morning! The bad news--it's my first jog in several (or more) weeks. I really am going every day this week though. Pray for me--the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Especially at 6:20am)

I am Pondering:
The depth of love between siblings--my own siblings and my children. And making blogging a bigger priority because of how it makes me think about my life on a grander scale. Oh, and listening to my kids more--really listening.

I am Reading:

I confessed last week that I'm not reading anything! Well, that's not entirely true. I just finished this book and am paging through its companion, "Beyond the Birds and the Bees." Highly recommend both, although there is some major overlap. I also am plugging through The Forge by St. Josemaria Escriva, and am reading several of his homilies for spiritual reading. I also highly recommend these.

I am Thinking:
St. Nick brought me some gum, but every piece has been unwrapped. Not chewed, just unwrapped. Thanks Joey...

I am Creating::
An updated order with a better cleaning schedule. Trying to sanctify my duties, and smile about it.

Towards a Real Education::

We've taken a break from any preschool lessons and are just filling ourselves with the books and music of the season. We're enjoying each other, trying to grow in virtue, and trying not to yell so much. ;)

Towards Rhythm and Beauty:
Beauty...we'll get our tree tomorrow on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. It works out nicely since Pete has the day off, so we're REALLY going to celebrate, and make a day of it. And we'll even go out to eat. I'm SO excited.

To Live the Liturgy:

We had gingerbread pancakes for the feast of St. Nicholas, and we'll have chicken enchiladas for Our Lady of Guadalupe this weekend. Yum. I love liturgical feasts.

I am Hoping and Praying:
For my newly pregnant best friend. She's so wonderful and all my prayers are with her and her family in this JOYFUL time. :) For the soul of my Grandma Sue, and for our family. For a number of friends who are expecting or have newborns. For my sweet little brother. For a friend reovering from surgery, and another dealing with matters of the heart. For attentiveness, patience, diligence, discretion, and generosity for myself.

Around the House:
After nearly a full week out of town, the house needed a rescue. Pete came through and did five loads of laundry and deep cleaned the living room. What a guy. Still trying to follow FlyLady so I can keep my head above water!

One of My Favorite Things:
Maria shrieking with excitement every time she sees her Daddy. She really is a Daddy's girl, and it's so precious.

A Few Plans for the Rest of the Week: Packer game tonight, play group Wednesday, and lots of peppermint bark from the kitchen. It really is the most wonderful time of the year...

Restless

Today, I'm really in the mood to write but I lack direction. So, I'm going to do 7 Quick Takes Friday and blurt out all my randomness in one post.



--1--

My Grandma Sue died last weekend. It happened more quickly than I thought it would and although I got to say goodbye, there was no time to linger and enjoy the last precious moments of lucidity that cancer patients often have. I am sad about that. But I am confident that she knows how much gratitude I have for her and the sacrifices that she made for her family. And I pray that God grants her eternal rest.



--2--

I did a really awesome Advent schedule for the kids and assigned each day a letter and an activity. We're on the sixth day of Advent, and we've done two activities. Elizabeth's Article helped me feel better about that. You should read it.



--3--

I need to get back to my morning jog. My pants are begging me. It's a good thing I don't have the budget to buy new pants every time I go up a size. That could be catastrophic.



--4--

I am so grateful for the many dear dear friends whom God has placed in my life. I wish I could talk to them every day. However, that is clearly not my calling, and so I thank God that they are forgiving and loving and don't mind when I don't immediately return phone calls or emails.



--5--

My baby girl is so much less "into things" than my baby boys were. That's pretty great. I hope the trend continues. Oh, and she's so cute. I am crazy in love with all three of my kids. Even when they're naughty.



--6--

I'm currently not reading anything right now (gasp) except for my St. Josemaria devotional. It's because I have a fine at the library. I can't even go in there because I get all anxious that everyone knows how irresponsible I am. Overreact much? Yeah, I do.

--7--
I'm going to family holy hour tonight, which is great because I get to see Jesus and many of my friends. And because everyone brings their noisy, rambunctious kids, I don't have to worry too much about mine. It's a judge free zone. If you don't have a family holy hour at your parish, you need one. Really.

God bless (and thanks for reading)!

Wordless Wednesday--Cow girl

Wordless Wednesday--Padre Pio and St. Josemaria

Kiddo Updates!

It's been said about parenthood that the days are long, but the years are short.

I'm finding that SO true. First of all, my little bitty baby Maria who I swear was just born last week is CRAWLING! She's eight months old and babbles and claps and now...she's mobile. Paper, small toys--nothing is safe. But it sure is cute.

Joey. Almost almost almost potty trained. Except when he's not. We go through a lot of underpants around here. Good thing he's so cute.

John Paul. He's learning more every day, not as a result of much effort on my part! He loves sounding out words and tries to read anything he can get his hands on. Unfortunately, that also means the supermarket magazines are fair game. So I've been on a mini crusade (inspired by my friend Katie) to get certain magazines out of child's eye level or covered. I think the Pick'n'Save people are tired of me, but they're finally getting covers! Woo-hoo!

And as for me, I'm enjoying life, trying to follow my order, trying to pray more, trying to love better, and all in all--trying. A work in progress. :) That's me.

The Family Rosary

First, I'd like to start with a disclaimer. I really love praying the rosary. By myself. Or with other adults.

A few months ago, I was chatting with a friend about wanting to do a family Rosary. Well, actually, about NOT wanting to do a family rosary. My reasons:

1. I have too many little kids.
2. My kids are seriously rambunctious.
3. We're pressed for time in the evenings.

So while I'm chatting with this friend, I start to realize a few things.

1. She has just as many little kids as me (about the same ages, in fact)
2. Her kids are seriously rambunctious.
3. She's even more pressed for time in the evenings than I am.

So my excuses were nil, and I begrudgingly brought it up to my husband. He, of course, was REALLY excited about it. (Not kidding.) We made a firm resolution to start it that very night right before bed.

So we are on month three of the Family Rosary. I have to admit, we don't do it EVERY night--we reduce to a decade when we have been out or it simply gets too late. But for the most part, we pray an entire rosary each night.

Here are some things I've learned:

1. Provide religious books to look at. Most kids DO NOT have a long attention span for listening, but if they have a book they can flip through, the Rosary becomes much easier for them to pray.
2. (I got this one from a friend) Do the rosary right before bed, after teeth brushing and pajamas. That way, their choices are "Go to sleep" or "Pray the rosary." Every kid I've ever met would rather get the extra 20 minutes with Mom and Dad instead of going to sleep. (Note: We don't actually verbalize this choice...but some day, a rebellion may arise, and that would be our solution)
3. Try to relax. I've found myself in this scenario: "Hail Mary, full of grace, JOHN PAUL, SIT DOWN! The Lord is with thee. Blessed--JOHN PAUL, HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU??--art thou among women, and blessed is the--JOHN PAUL, DO YOU NEED A SPANKING?--fruit of thy womb Jesus. You get the idea. Don't be that Mom.
4. Pray! Sometimes, it's the most obvious thing, and you forget anyway. You might be focused on a little guy sneaking a Winnie the Pooh book instead of his Blessed Mother book, or trying to make sure that the baby doesn't eat the broken arm of a football action figure. But offer those little inconveniences up to God and ask Him to give you the grace to handle them like our Lady would have. And when things are melting down, skip a few Hail Mary's and say them later!!
5. Just do it. It's half the battle.
6. Get ready to see some FRUIT. Our Lady always delivers. Stay tuned for part 2 of this post to see how it's worked for us!

Wordless Wednesday--The Sweetest Thing...

Some things I've learned...and need to remember

Some things I've learned in the first two months of homeschooling...just randomly putting my thoughts into words!

1) I love to be creative.
2) I don't have time to be creative.
3) When I don't have time to be creative, I do nothing at all.
4) So next year, I think I'll be buying a curriculum so I don't have to be creative EVERY DAY. Because it's hard. And I don't want to. (I mean, I think God may be calling my energy elsewhere--yeah, that's it)
5) BUT. I still love to be creative, so I'm thinking of doing my own science or art or history or something, like unit studies or something great like that.
6) Any input would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to start my curriculum research early. I need to fit the needs of an energetic, scientifically minded choleric little boy. Let me know what you've got!

Overheard--John Paul

After a well-deserved time out in his bedroom.

Me: How are you, bud?
John Paul: I have no God.
Me: What?! What do you mean? (It wasn't THAT long of a time out)
John Paul: My feelings are broken. When you're crying alone in your bedroom, you feel like you have no God.

Seriously? Dark night during time out? ;)

This one never ceases to surprise me.

Painting with Yogurt

I saw this on several blogs and thought I'd give it a try. We used a bit of plain unflavored yogurt and food coloring and went to work on our paper plates. It was really fun! The boys love plain yogurt, so they did a lot of licking. I intended to have them work on forming some letters with their 'finger paint' to work on how a letter is made. After a couple frustrating encounters with my firstborn, I just let them have fun.

Of course, the little scientist he is, John Paul mixed the colors together gleefully and told me all about what new colors were appearing. Easy to make, easy clean up, and good pre-writing practice (in theory).

Saying No

Recently, after a church event, my husband and I decided to take a little drive through the city. It was a weekend night, and the streets were filled with couples and groups of people, all dressed up and going out to eat at the cute little restaurants with outdoor seating, fancy menus, and what looks to be great atmosphere. I stared (a little wistfully) out the window of our 13 year old van and wondered aloud, "I wonder what that life is like." My wonderful husband smiled and looked at me and said, "You know, that's the life we said "no" to..."

I looked at him, and then at our three little ones buckled into car seats in the back. And I smiled. Because the life we said "yes" to....is so much better. Thanks for reminding me, God.

Bits from Books--Ready, Set, Count by Marlene Barron

Ready, Set, Count--60 playful math activities for you and your child to share.

Okay. I love this book. It's from the libary, but I'm seriously considering buying it.

I love it. Really.

Marlene Barron is the head of the West Side Montessori School. I have been intrigued by Montessori, but this is the impression I've gotten of it.

1. You must do everything in order or the window will close and your child will never learn a thing. He will be on the street for the rest of his life. (Obviously, I'm exaggerating--a little).
2. You must always let the child lead the activities, or you'll make him hate learning. Once again, you might as well buy him his card board box and prepare him for street living.
3. You should probably have a million dollars to buy all the materials.

This book changed all of that. Really. I am a recovering math phobic, but I'm trying to change my way of thinking. Read this quote--it's awesome.

What if you're not good at math? What if you hate math? What if you can't even balance your checkbook? Relax. You're not alone. Many of us can't. (It's not real math anyway, it's arithmetic.) ...People who say they're bad at math are often talking about computation. But if you can figure out which bag or bowl to put the leftovers in, you're good at math. If you can estimate how long it's going to take you to travel to your nearest national park, you're good at math. And if you can get all the different parts of a meal ready at the same time, you're exceptional at math. ...Put away those notions of being good or bad at math.

Isn't that amazing? I thought you'd think so!

Watch for some posts on this book until the ladies from the libraries wrench it out of my white knuckled fists. :)

Bits of Books--Growing a Reader from Birth by Diane McGuinness

Lately, I've been reading books like nobody's business--just the ones I pick up from the Parents shelf in our library. I thought since I was reading them, I might as well let you all know what I'm learning about so you don't have to read them! :)

The book I'm working on now is Growing a Reader from Birth by Diane McGuinness. I am about half way done and wanted to share some interesting tidbits.

Children learn to speak in two different ways. The first way is word by word, like building a house brick by brick. They learn each part of speech separately and then learn how to put them together. Other children learn to speak by "frozen phrases," kind of like building a house with modules already put together. The first child will painstakingly say "Daddy bye bye" after much practice with both of the words, while the second will rattle off, "Daddy go bye bye in car," without much thought. The single word learners almost seem to be late bloomers, but studies show that vocabulary evens out later for both types.

Studies show that there is a higher percentage among girls of "frozen phrase" learners, so this may account for the reason that girls seem to learn language much more quickly than boys.

My two boys represent each of the learning styles. John Paul seemed to be a "late bloomer," putting each word together slowly and not speaking in full sentences until well past the age of two. Joey was a "frozen phrase" learner. When he looked at me at 17 months and said "Do it again!" I nearly fell off my chair! He learned words in strings, and was able to separate them if necessary, but had no trouble saying them as a group. I was constantly shocked at his development, and now it all makes sense!

At (nearly) four, John Paul is very adept at most types of speech, but it is clear that sometimes he struggles with some stringing together. ("Joey is being mad to me.") However, his vocabulary is very extensive and I don't worry about his future ability to read or comprehend. Joey is very adept at grammar for his age. ("I want John Paul to go away from me.") However, it is clear that much of his comprehension is still at a two year old level. He has had a leg up on communication, which has resulted in less stress for our family, which is great.

It was so interesting to read this, being the 'word nerd' that I am! I hope you learned something about your little chatterbox from this post! More to come...

The Artist and The Scientist

We recently did a painting project and I had to take this picture. The differences in my two sons' personalities was SO perfect in this project!

Joey (2) had a wonderful time painting--trying different brushes and brush strokes, seeing how things looked on the paper, and swirling the colors around to make pretty patterns. It really relaxed him, and he worked with both hands, my little ambidextrious (sp?) fellow. Meanwhile...

John Paul didn't want to use the paint for painting. He took the palate I gave him and didn't even try to paint a picture. Instead, he dipped the brush in all the colors and watched to see what the results were when he added a color to his water glass. "It changed, Mama, it changed!" What a little scientist he is!

Sometimes I can be tempted to treat them similarly because they are both boys and they are so close in age. However, it's good that I have little reminders like this to help me remember that God gave them DIFFERENT gifts to grow into very DIFFERENT people...and to use their gifts to magnify His Glory!