Taking Another Swing at It...

Hi.  My name is Melonie.  I used to blog a lot, and haven't posted in, oh, almost two years.

BUT, some big changes are happening, and I'll need a way to keep people updated.  So I've decided to take another shot at this blogging thing.  Besides, I've kind of missed blogging!  Facebook is quick and easy, but truly writing about something is far more fulfilling than trying to condense said topic into a couple of sentences for a Facebook status update.

So, I have updated the "look," script, captions, etc. to reflect our family as it is in 2013 -- because really, the picture I had in the header before still had Levi at about 18 months old.  The kid will be seven here pretty soon!

That's about it for tonight.  But I hope to be able to do a little more of this in the near future.

Drake's first piano composition

After "shelving" the idea of piano lessons for Drake in first grade and not really making much progress since then, I've finally committed to giving him regular lessons this year. It's been slow, but steady. He isn't a virtuoso, but he seems to be happy making slow and steady progress - so it's been a successful several months. We are using Faber's Piano Adventures (Primer Level), as recommended by my sister, who has taught piano privately, and another friend who is also a piano teacher. I like the method a lot so far. It seems to follow a similar progression to the Music Pathways books I learned with when I was a kid.

Drake made up a song for Levi a couple of weeks ago. He had just learned to read off the grand staff the last time we had a piano lesson, so he asked if he could write down his song. It was easy to find blank staff paper to print online, and then he did it mostly on his own. I helped him figure out the bar lines (he hasn't learned time signatures yet, but bar lines have been introduced). Here's his first composition!

A school post

Since the school year is about halfway over, I'm beginning to think a lot about next year. What do I want to do differently? What do I want to add? What seems not to be working so well and needs to be modified or eliminated? What were those long-term goals for our kids' educations and how well are we working toward those goals? I thought I would write down some of my mid-year thoughts on school so I can remember what January of Drake's third grade year was like someday. ;) Also, if anybody is wondering what curriculum we use and why, or what our homeschooling days really look like, well, here it is...

For Drake, this year has been far more full than any other. He's nine and in third grade. I suppose it stands to reason that as you get older and can do more, more is expected. I feel like I'm finally "hitting my stride" or however that goes when it comes to teaching Drake. A number of factors made the first year or two of homeschooling a bit rocky. Drake is the first; he doesn't have an older sibling to emulate. Drake is also on the, um, free-spirited side, shall we say. ;) He hasn't really ever showed an interest in academics on his own, but would love to be allowed to talk to people and play imaginatively all day, every day. (He'd be a bad candidate for unschooling!) He also wasn't homeschooled completely "from scratch", and I think that also took us backwards a bit.

But this year feels different. For one thing, I feel that I finally have Drake's full respect and cooperation as his teaching parent. For another, his reading fluency and comprehension have taken off and now are solidly at his grade level, and advancing quickly! Mostly, it just seems there's been a shift, perhaps an advancement in maturity, that allows us to do more in a day before hitting maximum mental capacity.

This is what a typical school day looks like for us:

As much as I would like to change this part, I rarely seem to get going with formal schooling before about 9am. But at least we have breakfast, relax a bit, get our teeth brushed, get dressed, and make beds before then! Drake is naturally an early bird. Levi and I are not. In my mind's eye, I envision that progress in starting earlier will probably need to be made in order to maximize Drake's effectiveness/efficiency and my ability to teach many subjects to two different ages in a few years. But anyway...

About 9am (*sigh*) we usually head downstairs to our school area in the basement family room. First we have devotions - right now, we're reading through Leading Little Ones to God, which I'm really enjoying. It's probably written for a child about halfway between the ages of my kids, so it works out - a little on the "review" side for Drake, but definitely in a good way - and some of it is over Levi's head, but he's still learning quite a lot!

Then we work on Drake's Awana verses, although more and more I've been delegating this to him or working with him later in the day on it. Then we can jump right into language arts after devotions. During Drake's school time in the morning, Levi bounces around from one activity to the next, but pretty much stays downstairs with us. Sometimes he sits at the table and works in preschool workbooks, but lots of times he plays with Playmobil, army men, stickers, playdough, paper airplanes, bouncy balls, math manipulatives, craft stuff, puzzles, the balance scale... etc.... etc. Often he makes messes and doesn't want to clean them up. Frequently he interrupts or wants attention and comes to sit in my lap. That's okay. He is learning that the world doesn't revolve around him, he's learning self-control (not sneaking off and making the really BIG messes, because then he gets in really BIG trouble!), and he's soaking up a lot of academics in the process.

Next is spelling. We are using All About Spelling with Drake this year, and truly, I wish I'd started it earlier. MUCH earlier. Drake's reading and spelling are improving by leaps and bounds with this very rule-based spelling method. (Orton-Gillingham based, specifically.) He is not a natural speller, but is becoming much more proficient as he "takes out" words and word families, rule by rule. Spelling always just made sense to me. I never knew why words are spelled the way they're spelled, I just knew how to spell them! Now I am learning why. I'm blown away now by how orderly the English language really is! So many words that I thought "broke the rules" really don't break them at all. There are just a lot of rules, and I didn't learn them all. So this is definitely a great program for a kid like Drake, and a huge improvement over what we've used for spelling in the past, which felt more like spinning our wheels.

After spelling, we do writing. We're using Writing with Ease, Level 3. This is the third year of a four-year writing program which relies mostly on copywork, narration, and dictation to teach a student to easily summarize and identify main ideas, hold long thoughts or passages in his mind, and write them on paper in a well-organized manner. This is an explanation for anyone really interested in the whys of teaching writing the way we're doing it, as opposed to more common, creative-writing-based methods. (WWE uses passages from classic children's literature to teach writing, so twice a week Drake reads aloud to me as part of this program, as well. I don't typically have him read aloud to me outside of those passages, but I probably should be doing that more frequently.)

After writing, we do grammar. We're using First Language Lessons, Level 3. Again, really loving this program. Drake has memorized quite a few poems, as well as many grammar rules, definitions of all the basic parts of speech, and long lists of certain parts of speech which are better to just "know" than to have to figure out from a definition. For example, we have a prepositions chant, a helping verbs chant, etc., and even Levi comes running and joins in when we practice them! This year Drake has begun diagramming sentences. I am enthralled with this latest development, and I'm learning along with him, because that's something I never learned in school. (Most of my English grammar knowledge comes from learning Spanish.) In case you're wondering, the purpose of studying English grammar formally is basically to increase proficiency in writing and to aid in the study of foreign languages. (More thoughts here.)

After grammar, I assign a page of cursive handwriting practice (we are almost done learning cursive, finally!) and a page from our phonics workbook (MCP Phonics, Level C) that is good for all-around language arts practice and review (phonics rules, a little spelling, reading comprehension, syllabication, using prefixes/suffixes, etc). I put both of these pages on a clipboard for Drake to complete on his own time after lunch.

Then we usually have a snack. :)

Then we tackle math. Which usually isn't very difficult. Drake is naturally a mathematical thinker, which is a huge blessing to me (because I'm not)! We use - and truly love - Singapore Math, as it's usually called. (Check out that last link if you want to know the benefits of this method - the short version is that it emphasizes mathematical reasoning over memorization of formulas/algorithms and that it masters one topic before proceeding to the next one, rather than "spiraling" with constant review.) Primary Mathematics is the true name of Singapore's first through sixth grade curriculum. This is Textbook 3A (that we just finished) and Textbook 3B that we're starting for the second semester. There are also a student workbook and a home instructor's guide that accompany each textbook.

So our "math time" could look different, depending on what's being taught. If it's a new or confusing concept, we work through it with manipulatives (counters, pop cubes, or a base-ten set), then with pictures in the textbook, then with numerals. (Concrete - pictorial - abstract.) Usually though, we just read the textbook, do some sample problems, and that's it for math time. Drake gets a workbook exercise assigned for his independent work time in the afternoon (usually two to three pages) and often a "Mental Math" worksheet to practice basic operations in his head.

At this point, it could be nearing lunchtime. Or maybe we have enough time to squeeze in some history. If we're really on a roll, maybe we can do history and science before lunch.

For history, we use The Mystery of History. This year we are in Vol. III: The Renaissance, Reformation, and Growth of Nations. I could go on and on about this one - we really love it. Ever since we started Vol. I in first grade, Drake has said that history is his favorite subject. He loves the way the lessons tell a story and weave familiar Bible stories and the stories heroes of the Christian faith into all the rest of history. (Which is, of course, how it actually happened, but we're not accustomed to thinking that way!) I have learned so much from these books - they are truly fascinating! For more info on the series, click on the links above.

So when it's history time, I read the lesson out loud (usually four to six full-sized pages of fairly small print). Meanwhile, Drake colors a figure for our history timeline on the wall and then draws a picture on the blank side of a 5x7 index card of anything he wants that corresponds to the lesson or will help him remember the lesson. After I'm done reading, we talk about the main ideas we learned about that specific person or event, and then write a brief summary of the lesson on the lined side of his picture index card. (I write the summary. He gives a narration or we come up with it together if he's already done narration in writing or grammar and his brain is getting fried.) The picture card gets filed in a small binder for him to look through or mix up and put back in order for periodic review. The MOH text has all kinds of cool ideas for projects and additional assignments, but sadly, we rarely do any. He seems to understand and remember history fairly well without them, and our school days are so full as it is. I like having the timeline and the picture cards for review.

Science. I probably should have mentioned this earlier in the post, as it's kind of an important detail - but we're loosely following the classical method of education. The classical method teaches a lot of things in specific ways, dividing education into three major "stages" - grammar, logic, and rhetoric. (Read the link above for more info.) History is learned in order and repeated in cycles every four years. Science is learned in four parts and repeated as well: biology, earth and space science, chemistry, and physics. We devote one year to the study of each in a four-year rotation. But science is the subject that, honestly, is my least favorite. Drake likes it pretty well, and really, he'd probably like it a lot more if we did more experiments and things. We do some. I try to act enthusiastic. ;)

Science is also the subject I've had the hardest time settling on a curriculum for. We haven't used the same series for more than one year. The program we're using this year is called God's Design for Science (specifically, the Chemistry and Ecology books), and I think it's probably about the best we can do...for a mama who doesn't love science experiments! It actually has quite a few of them, but most are pretty simple and we don't do them all. A program with no experiments is not going to keep a kid's interest, and a program with too many time-consuming experiments is going to get seriously chopped (by me!) or abandoned altogether. I envision someday that Drake could participate in a co-op or something and get some more "cool" science in that way. Also, when he's older (more self-educating, with spelling, phonics, and grammar mostly under his belt), perhaps science could be pursued more fully.

In the meantime, we're doing a science lesson (almost) every school day, and the occasional experiment. As far as science curricula go, I do like this one, and I'm learning a lot too. We will probably use the Physics books by the same company next year.

Okay, so if lunch hasn't been eaten by this point, it's probably 12:30 and the kids are about to mutiny. Off to make lunch. Drake gets a wiggle break and Levi comes upstairs to "help" make lunch. ;)

Lunch is consumed.

After lunch, Drake usually tries to convince me that he needs to do _____ instead of finishing his schoolwork. I usually tell him "too bad". Occasionally, he gets another little break after lunch, but I've found that letting him take very many breaks usually makes it all the harder to concentrate when he comes back. (I know, that sounds contrary to logic, but it's really true for him.) The earlier in the day he can finish his work, the quicker - and better - it gets done. And then it's not hanging over his head, either.

So after lunch, Drake does cursive, phonics, and math. He also practices piano (or I give him a lesson if he's ready for one) and does timed math fact practice on the computer for about 10 minutes with XtraMath.org. Then, ideally, he reads for at least 30 minutes. I say ideally because it doesn't always happen. We're working on this. There are occasional days when he reads for a couple of hours on his own and days where he doesn't read at all, outside of his schoolwork. Trying to be more consistent with this.

The flip side is that during this afternoon independent work time for Drake, I'm now doing kindergarten stuff with Levi. Levi will be five next month, and he seems to be "wired" for academics. We're working through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Seriously cheesy title. And they lie - the lessons are not so "easy"! ;) But the content is good. We are on Lesson 44 now, and we've had to slow down, often repeating lessons or supplementing with other books, but he's making progress! Since the beginning of December, Levi has also been working on handwriting (Pentime 1), phonics (MCP Phonics), and a math workbook (Liberty Mathematics). We are planning to start him in Singapore 1A at some point, probably within the next year, but we didn't want to buy the expensive Singapore kindergarten curriculum. :) And really, there's not much that must be mastered before Singapore 1A, but I know 1A will progress too quickly for Levi to start now, so that's why we're using the Liberty Mathematics workbook - just some practice writing numbers and getting used to concepts before starting first grade math. I could talk some more about Levi and school, and I probably will at some point...but not in this post.

And I mentioned Awana. Both boys are in Awana, Drake in T&T and Levi in Cubbies. Both play baseball (in the spring). Both will be taking that art class this spring that Drake has taken for the past two years and loved. Drake is also involved in 4-H this year, and is doing one "project" (really more like a class) as an independent study, called Wildlife Conservation I. He's also doing three shooting projects for 4-H: air rifle, archery, and BB gun. He had eight weeks of air rifle shooting this fall, he's just started eight weeks of archery in January/February, and he'll do eight weeks of BB gun this spring. We go to the library every two weeks, and roller skating with the local homeschool group about once a month. I'm thinking of having both boys take swimming lessons this winter if we can manage it. Levi, especially, should really have them.

So life is busy, but good! We get plenty of family time, and we take lots of days off when Adam is home. :) We (almost always) read aloud before bed, picture books for Levi and a chapter or two in our current read-aloud for Drake. Sometimes we read aloud earlier in the evening, too, just for fun.

I would say that this year, we're pretty much on track to accomplish what we planned, Lord willing. I have curriculum decisions to make for Drake next year in science and history, and I'm thinking about a foreign language. That whole foreign language thing might mean I'm crazy. And I'll probably wait until Drake is in at least fifth grade. But aside from when to begin teaching a foreign language, I also have to decide between Spanish and Latin (at least which one to teach first). But that's fodder for another post. This one is more than long enough!

So that's what life - through the lens of school - looks like right now.

I've wondered before if God really loves me. Knowledge tells me that the answer is yes. However undeserving, I am His child. But am I just a big, fat disappointment to Him? Does He see some shred of hope that I could actually amount to something useful someday? As I tangle and struggle with issues I wish I could have shaken ten years ago, I wonder what the eternal implications are for these constant failings. I long to be that good and faithful servant. I wonder with tears if my heavenly crown will have any jewels, or if I'll slip into eternity justified by Jesus' precious blood, but with nothing to offer back to my Lord.

It's easy for me to keep a godly perspective on, well, anything . . . for about two minutes. I have the attention span of a labrador retriever. I appear to be genuinely focused, and then Oh! A tennis ball! and I come back hours, days . . . years later to that character trait or assignment or ministry or question or whatever it was. I set my heart to focus. I pray. And then somehow I become distracted by just living life.

I am a seriously flawed individual. And at the same time I am amazingly discontented. How can both of those ideas coexist in a human heart? I am deceived! I can somehow admit that I do not, by my own merit, deserve any good at all . . . and in the same moment somehow feel that my circumstances are not good enough for me.

If only ___, then I could be happy.

If only ___, then I could be more obedient to the Lord.

If only ___, then I could have this difficult conversation without getting angry.

If only ___, then I could be a better wife, a better mother.

God, You know exactly what goes in those blanks, and yet You are all I need. Expose my foolish self-deception! Let me never forget the depth of my sin. Humble my heart. Be always before my eyes.

I do not deserve Your mercy! You pursued me through my wandering away and you continue to pursue me through my crippled attempts to serve You. Your love is real, as hard as it is to understand. How loving and patient You are, my Savior! I know this not because somebody told me so, but because I can see it when I look back. Thank you.

Father, never let me go!

Trampoline!

Since we moved in, we've been trying to figure out whether we wanted something for the kids to play on in the backyard, and what. We had a slide and swingset combo in Florida (that had been given to us by some neighbors when they moved away), but we decided to leave it with another neighbor rather than move it to Montana with us. It had been nice in Florida, but Drake (who's going to be 8 this summer and is getting pretty tall) had really outgrown it already. We thought about buying or making a really big swingset, or getting a big slide, or building some type of play structure, and finally, after weighing lots of pros and cons, we decided to get a trampoline instead.

Yesterday was the big day - we went to Sam's Club and bought one, and got the bottom part put together. This morning, we got up and put together the net part, and attached it. I realized that trampolines are a lot more time consuming to put together than I had anticipated! But it was worth it! Look at all the smiles...

Levi doesn't like to stand on it when other people are jumping, because at barely 30 lbs., he gets tossed around a lot!

But he loves to be held while Adam or I jump!

So much fun!!

But very tiring. I'm so out of shape. This is good for me!

Drake can really jump high!

Levi decided he doesn't mind jumping like this either (holding on with two hands, facing out, and being held close to Dad or Mom's body).

Jump boys, jump!

. . .

So who wants to come for a visit?

Art class pictures, continued

Okay, so here are some pictures I took last week at art class when they were doing sculpture...

Drake and Levi showing me their favorite wagon from the huge wagon display at the museum.

.

The art class was held at a western art museum in town, which is an awesome museum, by the way. (We toured it last week after class, and it's got all kinds of Native American stuff and early European settler stuff, and much of it is hands-on.) The class was held on Thursday mornings, and was specifically for homeschooled kids. The price was awesome, I just have to mention that, because I still can't believe how much it cost. $10 for all 5 weeks! And the instructor gave us permission to tour the museum for free while we were there! It has been really fun for Drake; he's looked forward to going every week. The instructor mentioned today that she's hoping to offer another class in the fall, so we'll definitely be watching for that!

Sculpting a bar of Ivory soap.


All the sculptors hard at work.

This class has been a great introduction to various types of art!

Art class pictures

Betcha thought we dropped off the face of the earth, huh?

Almost, but not quite. Here's a brief synopsis of our lives for the past, oh, 8 or 9 months:

• Packers and movers came and got all our stuff.
• We drove two vehicles for 5 days and finally made it from Florida to Montana. Fun trip, actually!
• We stayed in TLF (Temporary Lodging Facility) at the base for a month while we purchased our first home. (Short description: built in 1948, hardwood floors on main level, almost 2,000 s.f., counting the partially finished basement, 2 bedrooms upstairs and one down, 2-car garage, breezeway connecting house and garage, corner lot, fenced backyard, nice older neighborhood with lots of big trees, across the street from a Catholic school. I know, I know, I should post some pictures of the house, but that will have to wait until another day!)
• My mom came while we were still in TLF and watched the boys while we closed on our house, and stayed to help us unpack. (She even painted our living and dining rooms before our household good were delivered. It was such a blessing to have her help, and her company, on Adam's first tour out in the field!)
• We found our wonderful new church.
• We moved into said new house.
• Both of Adam's sisters and their (7 total) children visited for Thanksgiving, a couple of weeks after we moved in.
• Drake started Awana here.
• We started our first remodeling project - adding a 2nd bathroom in the basement.
• My parents visited for Christmas.
• We pulled out gobs of hair over the bathroom project.
• Adam and the boys fished all winter. A lot!
• We learned to finish drywall and texture walls.
• Drake took swimming lessons.
• Levi turned 3 in February and had a dinosaur birthday party with lots of new friends!
• Adam's dad visited for a few days.
• We learned to lay linoleum tile.
• More (plumber-oriented) bathroom drama.
• We moved 8 smallish poplar trees from our backyard to our friends' yard to make room for a garden. Fun day!
• Drake took more swimming lessons.
• My sister and brother-in-law visited at the end of March.
• I was diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and have started wearing wrist splints and going to physical therapy twice a week. Not my favorite thing, but I am really thankful that the pain is decreasing after almost a year!
• Drake started a 5-week art class at a local art museum.
• Drake had his awards ceremony for the close of the Awana year, and was awarded for finishing his book, his review, and his extra credit for the year. Excellent work, Drake!
• We tilled and fertilized our new garden space, and realized that it was probably an old garden space, once upon a time, because the soil is excellent!
• We had warm, gorgeous, spring-like weather.
• We drove to our hometown in Washington for a few days. (Drove...wow...it's awesome to be so close!)
• We decided that we hope to never see our plumber again. Ever.
• We got snow at the tail end of April. And just when it had all melted and started trying to warm up again, we got more in May.
• We took the first few showers in our fully-functional new bathroom. Yay!
• We took a trip into the Rockies with some new friends and saw all kinds of animals and cool stuff, discharged weapons, built a fire, etc.
• I just discovered the showerhead is leaking, probably from where it connects inside the wall, after probably 4 or 5 showers. Grrr...did I mention how much I love that plumber?
• And through all of this, my daily life has consisted of homeschooling Drake, childrearing in general, meeting new friends and getting involved in stuff, and getting used to Adam's schedule, which most of the time hasn't been too bad. The good thing about his new job is that he really likes it!

So, that was the Reader's Digest Condensed Version. Drake's art class ended today, so I'm going to post some pictures of that, hopefully getting back into the swing of blogging occasionally. So without further ado...

Drake at the kitchen table with all his projects from art class. (Except the soap sculpture...I forgot to include pictures of that. I'll post again in a few minutes with some of those pictures. I am NOT about to try to add them because I've been fighting Blogger for over an hour already, and it doesn't want to let me move any pictures or text around!)

The cover of Drake's portfolio

Drake's collage, made from a rubbing of the sole of his shoe and magazine clippings. (Drake says the shoe rubbing is a monster and the magazine clippings are his habitat.)

All the goodies he made. Each week was a different topic: drawing, collage, painting, sculpture, and then today was supposed to be pinhole camera, but because of the weather it had to be changed, so the kids got to paint a ceramic bison!


Another view

Cool bison!

Making a charging-bison face.

And this one is totally unrelated, but I just wanted to throw it in anyway! I took it this afternoon after Levi woke up from his nap. They were playing Lego Star Wars together in the basement, very intent on their game!