I'm Experimenting...

with telling the kids consequences for choices and letting go rather than constantly nagging the kids to do what I want them to do.

One thing I am trying is telling them that we can have kindergarten when their chores are done or when the family room is clean. It's just not cutting it yet. Lately they have often just not gotten to have school. Today was one of those days.

I really don't like how often we are missing school because of things not getting cleaned up. It's not that we're missing something or getting behind. Frankly, they often do just as good of things when we don't have school as when we do. And school this year is to practice and figure out what works well for our family, how flexible/ rigid we want to be and the routines and schedules we want to have (at least until the family dynamic changes, which seems to happen pretty often with this age of kids. Their schedules and needs change often.)

My goal is to help my kids be self-governed. I know we'll need to work on that for years, but we're trying to put some things into place.

Anyway, no school today.

A Real Kindergarten Day Again

For Mom Class today we read from our 2007 Blog Book. So we saw lots of pictures of Amy when she was a baby. Amy asked lots of good questions. She was adorable.

Then Amy chose sliding down the stairs in a sleeping bag over and over. We had so much fun. I think Eliza liked it the most.

After the oldest one felt a little too old to slide anymore (I wonder who that was), we took a break. Amy chose a New Testament story to read with pictures. The first part of the book talked about the premortal existence and showed pictures of Jesus and Satan. We've talked a lot about them before, but Amy had more questions and thoughts about Satan. We talked more about Heavenly Father's plan and Satan's plan. (As I have been thinking about liberty and self-government lately, it was interesting to consider what the essence of God's plan was (agency) and why Satan's plan of force was not a good one.) We got from there to talking about heaven and the judgment. So I just drew the Plan of Salvation diagram on the white board, and we discussed it. Amy was familiar with many aspects of it and knew some answers and also asked some great questions. She did not know what the veil was or the Celestial Kingdom. (She insisted that she can remember the pre mortal world.) Amy really wants to go to the Celestial Kingdom REALLY REALLY bad. Me too.

At this point we returned to sliding down the stairs.

Then Noel woke up as we were working on Closing Routine and wanted to choose an activity. So we went outside. She's been sick so she was a little lethargic out there but had fun. We climbed the apple tree, played on the swing set, and played with a big ball. Eliza ate snow till her hands were too red. We made pictures in our garden box in the undisturbed snow using our hands and our feet.  Very fun.

Patriotism, Family, Memory, and Movies

I'm afraid I'm a little behind on here. I hope to catch up soon. For now, here's what we did today.

I asked Amy if she wanted to do a family history story, a project of making Joy School binders, or read a story of my choice for mom class today. She chose story of my choice. And then proceeded to reject my choice. She pointed my attention to the Power Tales books, and I happily chose one of those. We read about "The Power of Patriotism" with the story of Francis Scott Key.

Then Amy chose a story of her own - The Princess and the Pea

Next activity was play "Family". Amy was the mom. I was the dad. (I think the mom may have been a more natural part for me. I was expected to use a deep voice and speak Spanish.:) Amy requested that we watch a movie first to give us ideas for our pretend play. (We did this once with Mickey Mouse, and she loves it when she can get away with it again. Not that she needs ideas for how to play family.) We watched some mormon messages that had a family walking together and another with a mom and dad playing with their baby. Eliza was more or less agreeable to playing the different recreations of the movies we watched. Then Amy told me to play with the baby while she made lunch. (Is it that fun to play with the baby while someone else makes lunch in real life? That was awesome.)

Then our little family transitioned to having Family Home Evening. I conducted. Luckily I knew most of this script in Spanish as I've heard Matt conduct FHE lots of times. THE was in charge of song. Amy said he chose Nephi's Courage so we sang it. Then Eliza did trick. Kind of. About like she usually does. Then comes show and tell. When it was my turn, I went and got a game thinking it would be fun to play. (It's always hit and miss whether or not Amy's activities will be entertaining for me so I sometimes like to nudge her towards something less boring than some activities.) It worked.

So we played Memory. Amy's very good at it.

Then Eliza insisted on the next activity. Snack time.

Noel wanted to go on a bike ride, but I was tired and feeling a little yucky so they went outside by themselves for a small moment. Then she suggested a movie for her activity. We watched a few little youtubes and called it good.

Fun and busy kindergarten.

Now Amy's practicing songs along with one of her Alexander's Amazing Adventures CDs. It's pretty cute.

Is It Too Early to Start Neighbor Gifts?

I don't think so - I hope not.

The girls wanted to continue making cookies as we started yesterday. We are going to share some with our neighbors for Christmas. Mom class was making little labels "Merry Christmas from the Parks'". Then we rolled, cookie cut, and decorated cookies forever.

A quote from Amy:

"Dear nice Santa. You are the loveliest in the whole world. I love you."

"My first best person is Heavenly Father. Then Jesus. Then Santa... and the people who act like him."

Lesson learned: Sixlets are gross on sugar cookies. M&Ms much better. Sorry to our sixlets guinea pigs. I hope others like them. It might just be because I don't like sixlets.

The girls did pretty well once we got going. They hung in there a long time. (Amy got bored first.) We probably made close to 40 cookies.  I was proud of the way they shared and talked to each other.

Amy decided she didn't want to have closing routine today so I will put pictures of today up tomorrow (I hope.) I at least wanted to write about what we did so we don't forget.

Cookies Cookies Cookies

Mom Class (at Amy's request) - Spanish lesson

Amy's choices:
reading marathon - consisted of one book - "The Man Who Didn't Wash His Dishes" - we talked about how we didn't want to be like that man

hide and seek - Amy's rule was you had to say "ready" when everybody was in their hiding spot. (Noel joined us by this point.)

Noel's choice:
make cookies with cookie cutters. (The dough is in the fridge. We still have the cookie cutter part to go.)

We enjoyed eating some of the dough. As soon as we're done with closing routine, we'll go clean up the mess. Eliza was just ready to come down and play.

Back to School

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving. We took the whole week off for Thanksgiving break. We spent 4 days at my sister's and had so much fun.

Today we are back on with kindergarten. Eliza and Noel were with us most of the time today.

Noel asked this morning during my homework time to play with her, so we started the day unofficially with Noel's activity - kids yoga on yoga mats.

We finally had lunch after that in which I ate and did a ton of dished in the time it took the girls to have their meal. (That always takes a long time.)

Then we had recess. Amy chose to play astronaut/ space super hero pretend playing. We also had mom class of helping THE rake leaves while we were out there.

Inside we had a parade with instruments.

Finally opening/ closing routine - drink of water and prayer we never did at the beginning so we threw them in here and read our scripture story.

Daddy Kindergarten

I took a day off today because I was pretty wasted and achy last night and wasn't feeling all that energetic this morning. I'm not "sick" with anything, but my body needed a rest.

Bonnie had an appointment to take the van in this morning to get some work done as well as get it registered and such. She was going to do Kindergarten while there because there is a field and a McDonalds play place all close by that could offer room for some fun activities. However, Amy was rather, well, defiant this morning, including at one point kicking Eliza in the stomach. She wasn't going anywhere.

We agreed and Bonnie just took Noel. After she left though, Amy changed her attitude and was behaving wonderfully! She did chores right away, she did her morning routine, etc. It was great! So I told her we could do at home kindergarten still since she was having such a good attitude.

We did opening routine which included a neck exercise, drank some water, and for Daddy class we learned the first verse of "Oh Christmas Tree."

For activities we played horsey and astronaut. Then we went outside to play pretend hiking a mountain on our rock and in the back of my truck. After that we came in and had snack time, then closing routine, which was a drink of water, writing in a notebook about what we did, reading a couple pages in a scripture story book, and finally, me posting on this blog.

While writing in this book, Bont came home. Perfect timing!

Mom Class was a Spanish Lesson. We read the last story in our Smurfs comic book. Next Spanish lesson we'll start a new Smurfs comic book. We had fun laughing in today's story about a smurf who was really confused and kept asking everyone if they knew where his chicken was. (I'm sure you had to be there, but we thought it was funny.)

Amy chose snack time for her first activity, requesting that we play "Don't eat Pete." My neighbor taught her and other kids that at her house, but I never saw the little boards or saw it played. We decided to go ask her how to play, but she wasn't home. We'll have to do that another time.

Next Amy chose "Reading Marathon." I love reading marathons (as long as the books aren't boring ones.) (In fact, Amy and I had just been talking before we started that when I am pregnant again (not imminent but hoped for at some point), we would probably have a lot of Reading Marathon days at home school because I would need to rest a lot, especially at first. That may be why she thought of that for today.) We each chose some books. I found "The Little Prince" on the shelves which I've never read but have wanted to. We started with "Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch (which is funny) and then started "The Little Prince." I had to take a little pause to help Noel on the potty. When I came back, Amy was asleep. haha.

I offered to Noel to pick an activity for kindergarten, but she wanted to continue sitting on her potty in front of the Christmas tree. (We set it up last night. I am glad that Matt and I see eye-to-eye on the issue of Christmas before Thanksgiving. It is so allowed at our house.) So I think that's the end of kindergarten for today. But I may be wrong. Either Amy or Noel could request more, and I would be fine with that. Funny Amy. She can be so intense; I think she tires herself out. Fun day!

Good Energy

We have been struggling now and then with some intensity in our home lately. This morning was some good and some bad. I prayed at the beginning of school that we could enjoy our time together and be nice to each other and love each other. I feel like we were very blessed. There was even one point where Amy was telling me how I was her second favorite person (second to Jesus sounds good to me.) She kept saying "I like you sooooo much!" I loved it.

Our brain exercise today involved writing lower case letters on top of each other. Amy decided instead that she wanted to write all the capital letters. She can do most of them without looking at anything but needs some reminders. They're pretty legible, too. When she wrote the Z it wasn't quite how she wanted it. She seemed surprised. She looked at what she had just written and said, "Uh, 3?" Like she was asking the 3 what it was doing there. Pretty funny.

Mom class was preparing a Joy School binder, printing, laminating and cutting. Amy likes this mom class a lot. She helped quite a bit and played quite a bit. At one point she sang a song to the picture of Jesus on the wall. "Oh yeah, I like you. I like you. I like you." She was shaking her hips. And I was laughing.

Amy's choice of activity was typing lesson. She likes to type her name. Today I showed her how to hold shift to capitalize. She then wanted to play a computer game, so she played 5 rounds of hearts. The first round I let her do whatever she wanted so she got 23 points. Then she wanted to try to win so she had me tell her every card to play. At the end of round 4 she was actually in 3rd place (and feeling pretty smug that she wasn't loosing.) After round 5 she was loosing again. 

By that point her sisters were awake again so it was Noel's turn to choose an activity. She thought about doing finger tricks (idea from our list of possible activities) but changed her mind. She picked Twister. We each took a turn spinning. Their attention span was pretty good while right and left totally eluded them. While I was playing and Amy was spinning, Eliza climbed on me. Didn't take long before Twister was over and we had Eliza's choice of activity: climb on Mommy and bounce. The girls all like that game. 

Now Noel and Amy are playing with the twister mat and being heroes or something. (I've heard something about dragons including "The dragon is nursing." Eliza must have been the dragon.)

I love that kindergarten sometimes brings us together instead of riling us up (like some other choices of activities.) Yay for kindergarten!

This is the one finger trick I got a picture of. Amy declared, "Whoever can do a finger trick that no one else can do, wins." Then she proceeded to do something like this. I was pretty close, but when I asked if I got it, she said no. Pretty tough judge I bet. The funny thing is she was changing the trick the whole time.

A Calmer Day

Today we did the double doodle exercise with chalk outside again.

Then Mom Class - Spanish lesson. We finished one story from our Smurfs comic book. Amy can go forever.

Noel chose Battledome for her activity.

Amy chose snack time for hers. They are now eating trick-or-treats while we doing closing routine.

And though I was babysitting through most of that time, the babies slept a lot. The bulk of kindergarten today was Spanish lesson. That seemed fine with me - to have most activities short.

What Really Happens

I have an idea of how the ideal would go with our home school. It looks like this:

We eat lunch in our house between 11:30 and 12:00. The kids eat constantly until they are done and then clean up their dishes. They go straight to the potty (a rule after each meal at our house.) They choose books and let me know that they are ready for me to read to them. We read. I snuggle Noel and Eliza one at a time and put them to bed.

Amy and I go downstairs and quickly clean up the family room. By one o'clock we start kindergarten. We happily do each activity, starting with our opening routine and then mom class, have fun with a variety of activities Amy chooses including snack time, recess, and rest time as well as a few others. Have a lovely closing routine with Amy sitting by me while I blog, helping me remember all the things we did and all the funny things she says.

A little while later, Noel and Eliza wake up and we do dinner and our evening routine, with a little play thrown in because there's plenty of time before bed.

What really happens:
Most of those activities take way longer. Kindergarten rarely starts before 2, sometimes 3 or even 4. Things are interrupted, and the kids sometimes fight.

Today I decided Noel could stay awake just long enough to have mom class. I wanted to print and laminate some things for Joy School. Eliza had just gotten up and wanted to nurse. Noel had pooped in her pull-up and was whiney. Amy, Noel, and Vidalia got in Vidalia's bed and were squishing each other. I printed some stuff, and then the printer jammed. Then THE called twice and wanted me to find something for him. It was getting a little crazy. I finally got Vidalia changed and put to bed, Eliza nursed, and Noel snuggled and put. I came downstairs to finish mom class and start school only to find out that Amy had kept Eliza from eating bad things and had cut Eliza's hair. So we talked about that.

Finally we started cleaning up the family room to officially start school. That was taking forever but making progress when I realized Eliza never got lunch. So we went upstairs and had snack time, also working on dinner a little so it would be ready when school was over. We finally got back downstairs, prayed, drank our water, and looked in our book about brain exercises to determine what we were going to do for the day. It was a drawing with chalk activity.

So we went outside and looked all over for the chalk. Couldn't find it. Visited with a neighbor. Asked around for some chalk. Finally found a couple pieces. Drew with sidewalk chalk for our exercise.

First activity (I guess that's what it was) was bikes. Noel woke up. They rode around. Eliza pooped. Eventually we made it around the block.

Noel's activity choice was tic-tac-toe (which was really draw on the whiteboard) and dance and sing a little. It has turned into a free play free for all which is fun. Finally I'm blogging and wrapping up. It's now 6:15.

Even though kindergarten (and the rest of my life) almost never goes according to the ideal I pictured, I am working on going with the flow. Obviously I can't ignore my other children and their needs. We are not going to always want to do all the things each family member wants to do. Still somehow we learn some stuff and have fun. Today was fun too. I am glad that the chaos didn't stress us (read:me) out too much to have fun.

The Napping House

Today we were a bit tired starting school so I chose rest time for Mom Class. Before I knew it, we were all asleep. (I don't think Noel actually ever slept but was in quiet time at this point.) Eliza woke up a short time later, but Amy slept for 3 hours. So I took the "Time for home school. Please come back later" sign off the door and worked on my homework.

I found out Amy was awake when I heard crying from the fouton downstairs. She was worried that we wouldn't have kindergarten today. Since we had no other plans, we started kindergarten at that point. It was like 5. haha.

The girls decided they wanted to play in the front yard (despite Eliza's shorts and Noel's swimming suit). Suddenly, we decided to play at our neighbor, Lincoln's house. Noel chose to play princess, and Lincoln and Amy chose to play pirate, both games requesting that I play too. I played a little with everyone, then comforted Eliza when she was sad.

Our last activity turned out awesome. We got out yoga mats, and took turns leading stretches. But mostly Noel led us and is still going strong, long after Amy's done. She has a talent, my little yoga instructor.

And now it's almost 7:00 pm, and we're almost done with school.

Spontaneous Visit to Grandma and Grandpa

Ok, it's not what you think. We didn't up and go to Farmington. Today we were at the soccer field riding bikes and scooters for recess when Amy suggested we go to the cemetery and see my grandparents' graves. It was a lovely idea, and we had a good time. They are interested in seeing the graves and learning the names of the people who died. We had a great discussion about heaven, how we felt at the cemetery, and how we want to be good so we can be together forever. It is easy to feel the Spirit there, and I was grateful for that chance to talk.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Mom Class today included looking at pictures from my dad's album. Mostly we saw pictures of his parents who are the grandparents we went to see. (I don't know if that was why Amy thought of the cemetery or if it was just because we were right there.)

Amy's first activity was to play food. We were on a date. (I was the boy.) We ate some food and talked some pretend kind of talk. Then we left for the activity of our date. I suggested a bike ride at the soccer field, and she liked the idea. We noticed Noel was awake when we went to get Amy's shoes, so she came with us.

I was impressed with Amy's skill and endurance. She did a couple laps on the bike and a bit of running. We had a good time doing mini races and just riding around.

Then came the cemetery as I mentioned.

At home we had a snack and then played on the swing set and trampoline.

Lots of good exercise and enjoying beautiful autumn weather. I enjoyed the time with my girls. At one point I was walking holding hands with both of them. Amy told me that she liked me and hugged my arm while we walked. It was just what I needed too, this nice time with them. Just before we started I was starting to feel anxious and a little discouraged - nothing big, just ordinary feelings. I am glad we had this great day to help me shake that and enjoy my girls.

Lots of Pretend

During our brain exercise today, Amy got to color on whiteboards. She made a person and made up a new word with a unique spelling. Then she told me all about it. I took a picture of it (and of many other things today), but the computer is having issues uploading. Hopefully I can do it later.

lelal (pronounced like scowl or scowel) - people who only wear dresses. They are main characters. Pretty nice with funny arms. Pretty nice with funny arms. They aren't real, just people dressed up like them. They are like clowns, but they are funnier. They do funny things every day and night.

Today's mom class was organizing a cupboard that I've wanted to get to for a long time. It holds music, scriptures, and primary supplies in our living room. It's been out of control for so long. I have before and after pics too that I want to post but can't now. (See reason above.) Happy to have that done.

Noel was with us after that point. (We started school while she was at Joy School today and finished after she got home. We did it in the morning because Amy has a doctor's appointment this afternoon.) She chose an activity playing with chimes.

Next Amy chose snack time featuring trick-or-treats.

Noel chose recess which went on and on. We had so much fun outside. We played on the swing set, ran around playing tag, and then went crazy with pretend play.

First Noel was the mom, Amy the brother, and me the sister. Mom drove kids to preschool with their lunch boxes. We almost forgot the toys to share that we were supposed to bring, but Amy had tons in her pocket and shared, and Mom went inside to get some more. We got to preschool and had rest time and then shows. The shows kept changing. Each of us had different parts. Amy and Noel both kept trying to tell me who I was and what I was supposed to be doing. It was pretty funny. It all worked though (meaning no one got mad.) Sometimes someone was an audient. (That's singular for audience in our house.) At one point I was a singer than a talker than a princess. Sometimes Amy was the witch and later the dragon. Noel was the prince who saved me.

Some funny highlights from our pretend playing were when Noel was in a show and waved to the audience and said "Buenas Noches" and when we had a discussion about the princess being at a ball. I started dancing saying that I was at the ball. Noel said it's not a dancing ball it's a basketball.

After all the shows, we rode home on the bus (including the mom) and then realized we forgot to eat our lunches at school. So we got them out and ate. Our lunches were filled with Halloween candy. (I wonder what was on the brain today. :) Suddenly Amy was a dog who had 3 puppies.

I told the kids we only had time for one more activity (in order to do closing routine, lunch, put Noel to bed, and get ready for the doctor.) Amy chose doggies. The dogs went to church (but had to stay in the car because dogs don't go to church), played in strollers, ate oatmeal, and went trick-or-treating.

What a fun day we've had at kindergarten!

It's a Beautiful Day

The girls and I had a hard time resisting the beautiful air outside. So much of kindergarten was recess. We couldn't even wait until after lunch. We played in the leaves, on the baby swing, climbed the tree, jumped on the trampoline. So fun. Eliza found a few apples that somehow got on our side of the fence. (They aren't from our tree or even a tree that hangs over our fence.) We were also letting our paper mache balloon dry. (It's for Amy's helmet for her costume.)

We finally came in and did lunch and then opening routine. Today was a Spanish lesson day. Amy loves those way more than I thought she would. She's even patient as I look up unfamiliar words in the Spanish/ English dictionary. We got out puzzle books and colored and worked on puzzles next. Amy likes word searches and kid puzzles and coloring and writing quite a bit these days so little puzzle books are a good match for her. I love today!

Back to School

We are back to having school. Today we:

• looked at Amy's baby book and our blog about when she turned one.
• made a paper mache astronaut helmet for her Halloween costume. (She wasn't that interested for very long.
• had snack time.
• Amy and Noel got distracted from kindergarten and just started playing cheetah and frog. We're just having closing routine and calling it good. They'll probably just keep playing how they were.

Due to Some Medical Concerns...

It has been an interesting week for school. Monday we left Noel and Eliza with Aunt Melissa and had a service day at kindergarten. We went to a friend's house to help her. She has 5 small children and recently had surgery that makes it impossible for her to lift her twin babies. So she has had help from the Relief Society for every minute her husband has to be at work. We enjoyed our turn, cleaning, talking to Jehovah's Witnesses and playing with the kids - one is in Amy's class.

Amy also saw a doctor yesterday who put us on a pretty time-consuming regimen to help her overcome some long-standing, non serious or threatening personal difficulties she has had. Because of that, we had no school Wednesday.

Yesterday I wasn't sure if we could pull it off; when we finally started it was pretty late, and Amy was only halfway into it. So we did a couple games on the lds friend website and worked on her Halloween costume. She wasn't too interested in Mom Class or exercise though she had already done one hour of exercise, double the requirement in her regimen.

I just asked her if she wanted to do school today, and she was only half hearted. She just wants to work on her costume more and maybe color.

Depending on how next week goes - we got some tests done today that we'll find out results for Monday - we may or may not be ready to start back up.

Rest Time, Snack Time, Recess

Those were the activities today. I think Amy was feeling lazy. We made some charts that we needed for Mom Class. And that's all we have to report for ourselves today.

Tag Team

Today Matt came home early enough for me to go to an appointment. So Matt finished kindergarten for me. This is how it went:

Mommy
Mom class today was more work on organizing the Joy School project. Today was putting the lessons for the year two curriculum into the correct binders.

Our first activity was wrapping a present for Amy's cousin Lillie whose birthday party is tomorrow. Amy wrote "To: Lillie" and "From: Amy Noel Eliza" - copying them from the white board where I wrote them.

Daddy
I came home and we had snack time. I gave Amy an old fun-size crunch bar she had from who knows when (for the record, whoever named "fun-size" candy bars doesn't understand the word "fun" - those things should be like, twice the size of king-size! Now that's fun size!) Then we had nachos.

After that we came down stairs and she wanted to play Astronaut. She got on her Astronaut costume (Halloween costume in progress as I understand it) and we watched the original movie on youtube of Niel Armstrong landing on the moon. That was kind of boring for her because the quality wasn't that great. Then we watched one about how Astronaut's train, including the plane they go in that goes up high, then dives to create artificial zero gravity. They call it the "vomit comet." Awesome! Then came the time to act that out, so we pretended we were going up high, then floating as the plane dived down low, over and over. And we talked about why they would float and how there's gravity that makes it so we can't fly. We also talked about how air helps things like planes and birds fly.

Then it was time to go play on the swing set. Then we came back in and had "free play time" in which we started with a "toe war." Amy was on the love seat and I was on the floor and we would play hitting the bottom of our feet (soled shoes) together. Somehow in the midst of that, I became a horse and had a cowboy on my back. We played all sorts of horse game. She would tell me all sorts of things to do. Sometimes I would obey, sometimes not. Then she would say "Dad, pretend that you are a horse that always obeys!" Loved that! "Pretend you are a kid that always obeys!" - I'll have to try that one next time!

I was about to try putting Eliza down (she was with us the whole time and not the happiest of babes), then Mom came home and we are now doing closing routine!

Kindergarten with a Substitute

Today we:

• got ready for tomorrow's Joy School lesson for Mom Class
• colored (Amy gets carried away with coloring easily right now. She says it's her favorite play.)
• played with babies. That was fun. :)
• did a word search. I found the words; Amy circled them and crossed out the matching ones.
• listened to books read by Grandma Kathy - Vidalia's grandma. (This is what I meant by a substitute. It was just a few minutes, but the kids were totally engrossed. I took advantage and changed the laundry.
• played outside.

Reading Marathon

Today I felt tired and overstimulated after a late night and then a morning teaching Joy School. So I requested of Amy that we do a reading marathon day.

We did opening routine with Spanish Smurfs comic book for Mom Class. Then we sat on the couch eating popcorn and reading books. That was the whole thing. We started a chapter book and read a couple chapters, read some picture books, and even read a Winnie-the-Pooh story from a large collection of children's stories. It was a lovely kindergarten day.

Pick Yourself Back Up and Try Again

Today after a family history mom class that Amy not-so-patiently endured, we were off on a walk to the park for her choice. (She usually has a great attitude about mom class but not today.)

She rode the scooter, and Eliza rode in the stroller. Noel was asleep and stayed home with Aunt Melissa. It was a beautiful day, and we had a good ride. Amy got confused about why it is October and Fall/ Autumn at the same time. I tried to tell her about months and seasons, but she didn't really want to listen. So I dropped it. We smelled some beautiful flowers on the way to the park.

On the way she kept telling me that her thigh was bored. (Haha!) I think she meant that it was getting sore and tired from riding her scooter. Every now and then we would take a break, and she recommended we practice our lazy 8 exercise we've been doing during our opening routine at each break.

I was so proud of Amy at the park, and she was proud of herself too! And she said some funny things like:
A: Brave and scared rhyme.
M: They rhyme?
A: They match. Sometimes you are afraid and not afraid at the same time.
That was when she went down and then back up the little climbing wall. She did great. Then she told me to do it and volunteered to be my spotter.

We rode down a slide together that was dumb. It had curves that were kind of sudden, and both of us rubbed our elbows on the side and got little burns. Afterwards, we were comparing what hurt and Amy said, "That slide was terrible!"

The theme of the park was picking yourself up and trying again. She climbed a few things she hadn't climbed before (which fact she told me proudly). She decided she was too scared to slide down the firemen bar and would wait until she was six. A little later, she decided to try it after seeing how I do it. I spotted her, and she got on the bar and clung to it. She didn't want to slide down. Eventually she made it to me, and I helped her off. The great part was she decided to try it again after that! She did it quite a few times although she was never totally not scared.

She tired the monkey bars quite a few times, always having me catch her. She could hold on a long time though and move through a few bars. She would even do it when I wasn't right there to spot her (and the yell for me to hurry and get her.)

We did some underdogs and some pumping on the swing. Eliza LOVES the swing.

Eliza climbed the playground thing and then slid down with me a few times. She would go on her tummy. I let her go right behind me, but she cried after a while. I realized that part was too hot.
so proud of herself for doing things she never did before.

On the way home, we talked about dandelions and why we don't like them and why other people do. I informed Amy that other people don't. We also talked about more pretty flowers and how we like pretty things. Amy said, "Everything is pretty but not boys." It took me a minute to understand what she had said, and then I laughed.

She remembered that the Calls (our previous next-door neighbors) had their going away party at the bishop's house which she pointed out (though she picked the wrong house.) Her memory impresses me.

Also on the way home, she tried to catch an ant to bring home and keep as a pet in our yard. The problem was she saw the ant walking and got excited, but by the time she got down to the ground to pick it up, I had ridden over it with the stroller. I don't think she realized it was dead. Whoops.

While we are talking about funny things kids say, earlier Noel requested I sing "Prophets Day-Latter" instead of "Latter-day Prophets" haha.

And one more. Yesterday, after the primary talk given by 5-year-old Gavin, the primary president was talking about priesthood. She said, "And did Gavin talk about priesthood in his talk?" Gavin looked up at her and said, "Probably." I loved it.

Anyway, back to kindergarten. At home, Amy had a candy bar for snack time and then Noel chose "Babies" for activity. We watched a video of babies playing (just because the kids wanted to, not because they didn't know what babies do.) Then they napped, had songs, read stories, and ate pretend baby food in pretend high chairs.

It was such a wonderful day of kindergarten!

Noel got to come to Kindergarten (she wants to every day.)

After - was it Elder Scott's? - conference talk about finding our family names, I decided that I wanted to incorporate that into some of our Mom Classes. Today was a freebie Mom Class day (meaning we already did a family history story day, a spanish lesson day, and a project day) so we played the Ancestor Game. My mom made up this game and gave her children copies. Pretty much, the board is a bunch of pieces of cardstock making a big pedigree chart. Then the ancestor's names are printed on pink and blue papers. The game is putting the papers where they go. Mine was incomplete, so we were adding some of the missing names today. Pretty fun. My brother rocks at it.

Then we had snack time - gummy bears. Awesome.

Then was recess. Noel was awake by this point and joined us. We played on the swing set. I think that baseball has moved down a notch in interest since buying a swing set. They worked on hanging on the rings, and Amy learned how to do a back flip.

Noel chose the next activity - play Mickey Mouse. We watched a little youtube movie about Mickey Mouse and acted it out.

We finished with rest time, and did our scripture story part of our closing routine snuggling together on the couch.

A is for Amy

Today's Mom Class was organizing the office closet. That involved pulling things out, boxing some things up, labeling boxes, and taking them to the garage. Amy wrote "Matt" a bunch of times on boxes after I wrote it once on the whiteboard for her to copy. She also helped me carry the lighter things up the stairs. I am always amazed at how helpful Amy is during Mom Class projects. Sometimes I think that if we were doing the same activity or job not during Mom Class she would not be interested in helping.

For our first activity - and the one main, really long one - Amy colored in a book she got from Grandma and Grandpa. It's an activity book with activities to help letter recognition. It's very doable and very interesting for Amy right now. She did great and seemed to love it. She didn't want me to watch her although she would show me her pictures and ask questions occasionally. She told me I could do my own book, so I worked on a number puzzle. (Awesome - that's one of my favorite things to do anyway.)

Then we had a clarinet lesson. She likes to play my clarinet from time to time. We talked about breaking and discarding old, chipped reads, and I let her do it. She played for a while, mostly squeaking. She thought that was hilarious. Then we realized that Eliza was terrified of the squeaking. I told her the rest of the lesson was without a reed. She kept arguing and begging to try again, insisting that now she wouldn't squeak. I finally had to just put it away. So that ended sad.

And We're Back

Last week Matt and I were in California for a business trip so Amy had - I guess you could say Fall Break from kindergarten. She and Noel spent the week at their grandparents' house and had a blast. The Thursday before that we spent our kindergarten day at Grandma Anne's (my mom's sister) making homemade laundry detergent, toothpaste, all purpose cleaner, and rash cream.

So today we are back home and back onto kindergarten. Today we:

• read a life story I wrote about myself when I was in college for Mom Class
• took Amy to the doctor for a urine sample - not the most fun, but we needed to do it
• made cookies for FHE treat and for my neighbor whose birthday it is today

Amy and Noel were good fun helpers with the cookies. They played on the swing set while the cookies were baking. 

We've been brainstorming some other ideas for kindergarten that we may do later this week. Should be fun.

Holy Smurfin' Spanish Lesson

Today for Mom Class we started a new Spanish comic book. It's about smurfs. Amy did not want to EVER stop reading it. We finally went outside for recess. When we came back, we grabbed a snack and kept reading the comic book. I think we could read the whole thing in one sitting if I let us.  That's all I have to report about home school today because that's all we did.

With the Swing Set!

Today we:

read old Joy School books for Mom class

played on the swing set

played baseball

had a snack (oranges and crackers)

colored a picture

had to take breaks to deal with diapers and children not staying in bed, etc.

Yesterday's Movies

Here are some pictures and videos of yesterday:

Day 10

Last Thursday we bagged school to go to Logan to buy a swing set. (See post on pelicanparks.blogspot.com for pictures.) Or you could call that school that day, whichever way you want. Friday I was undecided about whether or not to have school. If you counted the Logan trip, I had done four days. I was very tired and had quite a bit of homework to do by the next day. I ended up not doing it. (I share these things to catch up and keep the record, hopefully not out of justifying my choices as I want to find a good balance between disciplined and flexible about doing school.)

Today was another experiment: inviting cousins to kindergarten. Didn't go so well. I think the kids had fun. We made it through our opening routine and had a good mom school bringing toys out of Melissa's closet into the storage room so they had more space for their stuff. The kids were cute and helpful.

We then let the cousins each pick an activity and did it as we usually do kindergarten. Dress ups and dancing, lots of fun.

After the dress ups, kindergarten fell apart. Kids didn't want to clean up costumes. (Costumes seem to explode around the room.) Everyone wanted to just go outside to play. Amy didn't even want to call it recess or doing our closing routine, just go play.

I want to mention that I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting to just go play with cousins. I could have gone to play and called it recess and kept up school. But it just wasn't kindergarten as I think of it. It became less about Amy and about our relationship and more just play time. I realized that in the future, when cousins come to play I just want to have cousin play, not kindergarten. Either we do kindergarten after cousins leave or have that be our off day when we don't do school.

Plus I was SO TIRED. We've had a lot of late nights talking about finances. (Matt and Melissa mostly.)

Still, we had fun today.

I have some good pictures and videos to put up here. I'll do it another day during closing routine. I just wanted to get this down.

Day 9

Today we did:
For our exercise today we did a lot of dancing to music. We got carried away and had a great time.

Mom Class - Spanish lesson. We finished the comic book we started a couple weeks ago. It had a little fairy tale story. This is what I wrote to Matt on chat about Amy doing her lesson:

Two times I asked Amy if we should be done, and she declined.
We even read an extra short story and 3 poems at the end.
Also, she was trying to guess the meaning of words.
One Spanish word sounded sort of like patio so she guessed that's what it meant.
There was a word in the poem called la luna that we didn't know,
so Amy guessed that it was shined.
It was a great guess in context.
I think she even picked the right part of speech.
She also looked ahead at the pictures to guess what would happen.
We did a lot of guessing.
Her attention span was great and I was impressed with our comprehension.
I'm so proud of both of us but especially Amy.
We finally finished Mom Class at 4:00.
(Noel and Eliza had required a lot of attention, and the first two activities went way long.)
Next baseball, so we all went to the soccer field to play. (Noel's choice.)
It was sunny and warm.
We played a little baseball and a little frisbee, and Melissa and I talked about marching band.
Then I took the kids to Walgreens
(Amy's choice after I said Trafalga was a no.)
We picked up the picture I ordered yesterday. It's on the wall now. :)

Now that it's 6:30, we're doing our closing routine with Amy whining about wanting snack time. I told her that the next thing we eat will be dinner. She's mad. It was a long and fun day of school. I LOVED exercise, Mom Class and the soccer field.

To Answer a Question or Two

Many people ask me similar questions when they find out that I home school or when they find out what I do to home school. So I thought this would be a good place to put down a few thoughts about what I am wanting to do.

I decided (tentatively) to home school almost a year and a half ago when I read A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille. I continued to read a few other books that are the basis of the Thomas Jefferson model of education. I felt excited and terrified as I read them, full of anxious thoughts wondering if I'd be able to do it, mixed with a vision of the benefits that could come to my family if we had this kind of education. I spent the next year thinking A LOT about it. Things started falling into place in my mind. My anxieties pretty much went away. And I got excited. I planned one piece at a time the idea of how our kindergarten would look. Matt and I sought inspiration and felt that this was a great choice for our family.

So that is how we got there.

As to the future... I do not know what it will hold. I am hoping that I can have a similar experience as the last year of my life where ideas fall into place about my family's needs in the upcoming year. I hope to home school beyond this year, but I plan to take it one year at a time. My opinion is that I do not even know the questions to ask God about my family for five years from now right now. So I will take it a year at a time and be prayerful. One idea of Thomas Jefferson Education is that the parents are the experts for their own family and get to choose what is best for them. I love this. I intend to do that with God's help.

TJed - as it is commonly referred to - is a philosophy of education rather than a specific curriculum or method. I like it quite a bit. I know there are tons of other philosophies, curricula, and methods out there, and I have only become familiar with a few. I imagine I will learn and adopt other things as time goes on. For now, I am following some principles taught in TJed applied to my family situation. Also, we do things the way we do because what we are doing is good for my mental health - an important consideration. I can think of how I would have been likely to try to implement home education principles a few years ago, and it would have been stressful. This does not feel stressful to me at this point. I want it to stay that way, and that is another reason for me to try to plan one year at a time. I have a few thoughts for next year, but really they are very few at this point.

Another thing that I have learned and developed opinions about is proper timing for academics. This is my opinion, and if you do not agree with it, I respect that. I am trying to come to a place of not judging others, so please do not be offended that I might think differently than you do. Every parent is the expert in their home, so if you do something different than this, that's fine. OK, there's my disclaimer.

I have read things and heard others speak about the potential harm of too much structure and too much academic emphasis on young children in their education. I believe that sitting at desks doing worksheets and pushing children to learn to read can be harmful for children. I think many children are not ready physically, emotionally, socially, on many levels for the rigors of school.

I also think that there is a plague (if I use that word, do I sound extreme? I can just say problem if you like) of children hating school and therefore hating learning. As a student myself, I was motivated and somewhat interested, but I wouldn't say I looked forward to going class and doing my homework, even when I got to pick my classes in college. And I know many children hate school and schoolwork far more than I ever did. This is something I am hoping to avoid by home schooling if possible.

For those two reasons, our home school this year focuses on fun, on Amy choosing, about having just enough structure to know we will have school time and to follow a pattern. (I love routines and not schedules.) Amy and I are getting into the habit of school which will serve us well in the future when we get more structured. I do want Amy to learn things this year, and I think that she learns a lot through playing, through choosing, through pretending. I also think one of the most important things for young children is to get love and attention from their mother. We all know how difficult it can be to make time to focus on our children - not just their physical needs but just being with them. I now have scheduled time to be really present with Amy, playing with her and teaching her. And the other kids join us in that environment when they are awake.

In the future, there will be more structure. I don't know what that looks like, and much of that will be up to Amy (and other children as they get older.) I have no specific time frame when I hope Amy learns to read, write, add, etc. I DO know that I do not want to push any of that on her. If she is uninterested in reading until she's 8 or 9, that doesn't concern me, at least not at this point. I may do things to introduce her more and see her interest; I may not. We will see. If she takes an interest in learning to read and wants to work hard at it starting today, we will start today.

I hereby reserve the right to change opinions and ideas in the future. :) That will likely happen. For now, this is where I stand. I am very happy with things as they are in our family now. I feel we are on a good path and are doing what God wants us to do. That is a huge comfort for me.

I am very excited in my own studies right now. One tenet of TJed is You, not them meaning parents requires rigorous education of themselves and set an example that older children will follow. They require things of themselves while seeking to inspire children. I am taking part two of a class I took in the spring that is AMAZING, teaching me to study looking for truth, finding principles and pondering how to apply them in my life. I learn study skills that help me mark books in a way that I can return to them and remember the great things I learned and can discuss them well with others. I am also attending seminars and other classes. (Just finished a four week course called Building a Mind of Steel - it was great.) I still go to therapy and sometimes to my support group to help me continue to improve my mental health. Matt is also studying and doing some awesome things to work towards his dream and fulfill his unique mission in life. These things are important and exciting to us. We have learned a whole lot, and it has blessed our family.

I am so happy to share resources and principles I have learned with others. If anyone who reads this blog is interested in learning about any of the things I have shared, please ask me. If we are friends or family, let's get together and talk. If you aren't at all interested or think I'm completely nuts and that you would never do the stuff I'm doing, I can respect and appreciate that too.

I will give a few references here as there are a few things that have impacted me a whole lot. I think they are very valuable.

The website for Thomas Jefferson Education is www.tjed.org.

The website for my class I take (and others that she offers) is www.tenboominstitute.com. (Even the website is exciting to me.)

You can learn about Building a Mind of Steel and many other things that this company has to offer at www.3keyelements.com. I think they have some wonderful things to offer.

My support group has been the single most helpful thing to improve my mental health and help me cope with my tendency toward anxiety. It is WONDERFUL. I am convinced it could help every person on the planet if they would apply the teachings. They have many meetings all around. If I know you and you live close by, I would be happy to take you along on Wednesday nights. I don't always go, but I am happy to go to introduce someone and help them get comfortable. Even though I don't go often, I apply the principles almost daily, and they help so much. Their website is www.lowselfhelpsystems.org.

Of course, let me not forget my favorite and most life-changing source of truth. Many who read this share this view. I seek to determine with everything I learn, if it is in harmony with principles of the gospel for me to decide whether to bring it into my life.
www.lds.org

Please comment here or talk to me personally if you want to learn more about any of these things. I am so happy to share what I have learned - I really want to in fact. If you have questions or even criticisms, I am open if you are respectful.

Day 8

I missed posting yesterday as at the end of school I was - as I say - bonkers. A bit overstimulated and ready for a breather. And Amy promptly fell asleep beside me. So we didn't do our closing routine. But we did have school. It looked like this:

Mom class was a chance for me to get a few things done on the computer. Originally I had planned to find and order a picture from Walgreens that I've been wanting then go pick it up with Amy, frame it, and put it on the wall. That would have been the Mom Class. And it would have been a good Mom Class. Turns out, THE and Melissa needed to leave, and I became babysitter making it not possible for me to leave my kids with them to take Amy to Walgreens. So we ordered the picture and did a few other things on the computer. As it turns out, it was not that informative for Amy as I mostly just clicked on stuff and typed in my information. So I decided I don't want a Mom Class of me doing computer work very often - unless I'm teaching Amy how to do the computer or it's somehow more interactive. Still, I can't complain about the things I got done that I wanted to do.

For Amy's first activity, she decided she wanted to pick a swing set. I told the kids that if they wanted to, they could all contribute their birthday money this year, and we would buy a swing set. They agreed. (We assume Eliza would agree.) So we looked on ksl and found a swing set that Amy and I both really like at a very good price. Now I want to see if we can get it.

By this time, I think we were both ready for some activity that made us move. Eliza and Vidalia were awake, so we all went outside for... baseball. :)

Then we had snack time. Amy's hoping to remember snack time every day. (I think she likes being in charge and is hoping to get away with more snacks than I usually let her have - or maybe more sugary ones. I really don't mind her having an afternoon snack if she had a good lunch or especially if it is healthy.)

Finally, Noel joined us and we played Sorry! again. That's where things went crazy. Eliza and Vidalia both wanted on my lap. Eliza was being a dangerous monkey or crying. Those were the only two options. Noel was rather touchy. She was disappointed if she didn't get what she wanted, and she's really not old enough to remember the rules of Sorry! and stick with it. But Amy is. So that was a tricky balance. I finally won. THE and Melissa finally got home, and we all took a break.

My favorite part of yesterday's school was outside. That was a good one. And I hope we can get that swing set!

Day 7

Today's Mom Class was a Family History day. We looked at more of Amy's baby book (same as last week.)

Amy chose baseball first. It's a beautiful day.

Then she asked Aunt Melissa (who is staying at our house with her family) to babysit sleeping Noel so we could go to the park. She invited her baby cousin Vidalia to come, and we brought Eliza too. That was a little crazy but still fun. Eliza tried to dive on her head out of the swing, and Vidalia had no fear climbing to the top and sliding down.

We finished up with a game of Sorry! Amy wasted me. She had one guy in home when I had all my guys in start. (She sorryed me when I was barely out with one guy two different times. It took me 36 turns after Amy was done to finish.)

Fun day of school!

Day 6

This week the entire class of the Parks Family Home School (aka Amy) got sick. Tuesday she put herself to bed. So much for kindergarten. Wednesday she stayed in bed all day. Thursday she was better, but I still thought she should have a nap. So... today we're  back! Wahoo!

Today we set up a bed for Mom Class. (Uncle THE and Aunt Melissa and Cousin Vidalia are coming to stay with us while they look for an apartment.)

Amy's choices today were:
Baseball
Nice pirates. Our neighbor, Lincoln joined us for that one.
Sprinklers. Lincoln and his sister, Quincey, and Eliza joined us for that one.
We finished up by watching Dr. Seuss's The Sleep Book movie. It nearly put us both to sleep.

More next week!

Day 5

These post titles are not very interesting. We'll see if I come up with something better.

Today we had:
Mom Class - look at Amy's baby book
Activities -
Play house
Build a foam castle Amy got for her birthday
Recess - baseball as usual

This is the castle we made. We had to buy a hot glue gun to put it together (which we did we we happened to be at Target last week.) We lost the instructions, so we made it up. Some things we did different than intended, but Amy kept saying, "This is just how I wanted it." So she's happy. That's what matters to me.

And this is Eliza trying to get the camera:

Day 4

Today we were off to a late start. After a late night last night, I slept some this morning which delayed my studies which delayed everything else. That's allowed.

We also had to wait until Amy cleaned up the mess she and Noel had made in the family room where we have school.

We finally got going.

In all of Amy's prayers at kindergarten this week she has prayed that we will be able to find each other if we get lost. It's awesome.

Today's Mom Class was pulling weeds. There were bees around the weeds so Amy was hesitant. She thinks she's more help than she is at weeding at this point. She mostly stayed by me, though, so that was good. Noel joined us at this point.

Amy and Noel both agreed that the first activity after Mom Class should be "Ladies" although Amy added "Superheroes." She sang a song she learned this summer from her cousins:
"Hero of the day, save my life, save my life."
As the super hero she saved people in the following situations:
near a dragon
touching a volcano
stuck in a window well
went into the kitchen and got flat because the person got in the "cuvurd" (cupboard)
went in the oven
lived by bears

I was amused. :) During "Ladies" I took another little nap. It's not how I really want to do kindergarten, but I was having a rough time of being awake. (2:30am was bedtime last night. Glad I don't do that often.) The girls just kept playing and were nice about it.

Noel chose stamps next. Before we were too far into that activity, I left to take Eliza to bed. This home school day was rather interrupted.

Getting the girls to clean up after stamps was a little crazy so we had another little break.

Finally - baseball.

I'm grateful for the things kindergarten is already helping us to do - clean up after ourselves, play together, teach skills, keep good records of what we are doing, get around to projects (a little anyway. Those weeds have been calling my name forever.)

Day 3

Today during mom class, we read part of a Spanish comic book, texting Daddy the words we didn't know. Amy's attention span was impressive, and the story was fun to read.

Baseball I think is a daily feature. Today it was Amy who threw the ball over the fence. Whoops.

We played Ladies again today. The main feature of the game was my birthday party. We also read some books as the ladies.

Noel joined us part way through "Ladies."

Noel chose Show and Tell for the next activity.

Finished with double activity - snack and "Do Bunnies Lay Eggs?" During the Summer, Amy asked my mom if bunnies lay eggs. That was on the day she was brainstorming kindergarten activities, so Grammy wrote it down. So today she made up what that means. We all sat on M&Ms with a bunny on our laps. We chanted "Bunnies, bunnies, hatch." Then we at the M&M. Awesome.

Quotes of the day:
A: I have to walk on tippy-toes so I look 6.
M: I don't have to do anything to look 16. [Amy had told me I was 16 in "Ladies" today.] I already look 16.
A: Yeah, cause grown-ups don't grow.

I think she meant I could be 16 because I would already be grown up. I was glad and amused. I had really meant that I look 16 because I get that a lot.

In the following discussion, all quotes of Noel's are said with a whiney voice.
N: Mom?
M: What?
N: I burped.
M: You burped? And then what happened.
N: I whined.

Haha!

Another fun day of at-home kindergarten.

Day 2

Today was day 2 of kindergarten. This is what Amy chose to wear:

Here is Amy doing a stamp activity:

Things got off a little slower today so we had less time for kindergarten because of some choices the kids made. We still had fun.

For Mom class today, we did a project. Amy helped me print papers for Joy School.

Amy chose stamps, snacks, rest time, baseball, and playing "ladies" for our activities today.

Grand Opening

Yesterday was the Grand Opening of the Parks Family Homeschool. [lots of cheering]

We had a great time. Amy said some funny things, and loved doing the activities.

This is a video of Eliza dancing.

I wrote this yesterday, and then the computer freaked out so I couldn't post:


Today is the Grand Opening of the Parks Family Homeschool. It was the first day of Amy's at-home-kindergarten.

Quotes from Amy:
A: Let's do swords.
M: Ok
A: Do we have swords?
M: I don't think so.
A: Let's build some right now.

A: Sorry, Mom, that you are kind of bad at making the swords that I want.

Today we started with our opening routine:
prayer
water
exercise

Then comes Mom class. Today we looked at Mom's baby book.

Then Amy gets to choose.

• Baseball
• Make swords.
• Sword fight. (Lots of giggling.)
• Rest Time
• Snack
• Dancing
• Act out Mickey Mouse story
• Act out pirates

Finally we do our closing routine. Record what we did. Hang up art on art wall or put in binder.

Amy asked that today we finish with a Bible Story.