Tearing My Hair Out

With holidays fast approaching and children who seem to think that since the sun makes it dark near 5pm it's perfectly alright to stay up almost all night ... my frustration levels are on the rise. I find myself almost nightly fighting three munchkins, who may as well be coated with slick mud, to get into bed and stay there. "Back to bed." ... "Go to sleep." ... "Why are you up again?" ... "Would you just go to sleep?!" ... "Jiminy Crickets! You're driving me bonkers! Go to bed!" These things might as well be recorded so that I can save my voice. It doesn't matter what time we begin the bedtime rituals, ever since day light savings time it wouldn't matter if I had an Acme hammer! Every night I want to pull out my hair. Every night they're up and down and all around ... anywhere but their beds! And almost every night for the past week, around the two hour mark, I've yelled.

For those of you who don't know I decided many months ago now to take The Orange Rhino Challenge. And, of course, being the person that I am I was completely convinced that I could go a year without trying too hard and be able not to yell at all. Of course, that's hog wash! This challenge is hard! Harder than you'd think it would be.

I started over several times the first week alone. Then made it a few weeks only to start over again. Repeat that cycle a few more times and you find me about a week and a half ago. I'd decided that I'd just do it this time. Never mind the whole "If I fail I'll just start over it's OK". Nope, I was going to do it darned it ... no matter what the kids did to try my patience.

Yeah ...

Not going so good right now. The kids are going crazy, I'm loosing my mind, and my dear husband, I'm sure, would love to run away some days. I close my eyes after the kids finally go to bed, and stay in bed, each night and pray that I don't yell the next day. The next day usually goes just fine, then it's bedtime ... two hours into "Get your bottom back in that bed young lady/man!" and I'm ready to tear my hair out. That very next child gets snapped at and then they all get told that I will scream at the very top of my lungs at all of them the very next time they open their doors.

Not my finest moments.

I've been told (by my children) that I have scary eyes at night, that they don't like it when Mommy yells, and that they promise that they'll go to bed right away next time. Usually I get told this sometime during the day after a night where I've snapped. My response? "I'm sorry that my eyes get scary and that I yelled. I really do wish you'd go to bed right away tonight so that I don't get frustrated with you. I am trying really hard to not yell at you guys but you're not making it easy when you wage war on bedtime."

They all promise to go to bed. I say that I won't yell. Bedtime arrives and the whole vicious cycle starts over again. 

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, 1) I know that I am not alone in this battle. 2) I need to make myself accountable to someone other than myself this time around in the challenge. And 3) Because I am frustrated again as I type this (almost 9pm) and I am attempting not to yell at this very moment.

All day I've been using the piece of advice that I shared Friday on the weekly wrap-up. I keep telling myself "WAIT" . I refuse to yell tonight. I refuse to yell this week or the week after or even after that. I am tired and cranky, wishing that they'd just go to sleep like they used to. I have already had, in the last twenty minutes alone, two children make a trip to the bathroom because they'd "forgotten" to go before bedtime and one child have a meltdown because she couldn't find her "comfy" (security blanket). 

I keep looking at my orange nail polish, the orange paper we did our turkey hands on, the orange leaves on our thankful wall, and the poster I just made (on orange paper) that simply has the no sign over the word Yell which is now taped to my computer tower. Why orange? Check out Orange Rhino's page and you'll figure it out pretty quickly. It's a visual reminder (especially because there's really very little orange in our home) for me to yell less and love more. 

I'll be re-polishing my nails in the morning and doing the girls nails sometime tomorrow as well. We'll make a few more no yelling zone signs for bedrooms and the like. I will make it this time ... but the goal right now is not for a whole year. Tonight the goal is tonight. Tomorrow I take on the challenge not to yell for the rest of this year, only a 37 day commitment this time. Perhaps a month at a time is what I need to focus on right now. Tonight I will make it through bedtime without yelling.

If, for whatever reason I do yell I'll let you know on the HC Facebook page. I don't plan on yelling, but then none of us ever really do. Check out the page if you haven't already, the kids have a surprise planned for everyone there on Wednesday this week.

**All clip art used here was found on free clip art websites.**

It's Finter?

Fall + Winter = Finter...

OK, so that is a little lame. But, what else should we call this transitional time of year when it's the last few weeks of Fall but it sure feels like Winter? It's the time of year we know that any morning we could wake up with snow on the ground despite what our well intending weather people might tell us the night before. Our cars frost over just about every night, making them sparkle in the street lights. It brings to mind scenes of toasty fires, hot chocolate, and children snuggled up warmly with Mom in a chair listening to The Night Before Christmas. 

The reality is that even if there is only a flake or two of snow on the ground the children wake up ready to rush outside and build snowmen. There's wet boots, coats, gloves, scarves, etc etc ad nausium. Red runny noses with rosy cheeks and blue lips who protest that they're not cold. Well wishing mothers who know that their children would love for them to join them in the fun, but they'd rather stay inside with the heat blowing on their already numb toes.

"Milk Pods" Nov. 5th

"Milk Pods" Nov. 20th

A few weeks ago the farmer's fields were still standing tall and everywhere you looked was green. It seemed like it took only days for the leaves to go from green, to golden, to a brown crinkly mess under our feet. The future of the next few weeks is mainly a brown, wet, drab landscape to look out upon or be a part of. Which will, in turn, give way to a few days of crisp white wonderland before foot traffic and cars turn it to gray dirty slush. A northern winter is pictured in almost every book that deals with winter, those who've never experienced one will tell you that it sounds like a beautiful thing. Those who have moved away from them will remember the snow with fondness, and when they visit they will be so happy to go back to warmer climates. As for those of us who are here we know that snow and winter are wonderful things, if they only lasted a couple of weeks we'd be all for it. The reality of constantly shoveling snow, drivers suddenly forgetting how to drive, and high heating bills have us all dreaming of spring just about as soon as Christmas passes.

Those same trees in Sept.

Trees 2 weeks ago

Trees now...

I still intend to take my children out as much as I can during the next few weeks. And, yes, even into winter itself. I've asked Santa to bring us all warm underthings so that we can continue to go out of doors even when our world is white (or dirty gray slush as the case may be). I've a week or two before it gets too chill for me to want to deal with the out of doors without many more layers. Which will leave me with another couple of weeks before Santa comes down that chimney and (hopefully) brings me warm snugglies.

Snow ... cold white snow ...
on trees

Making snow angels
March 2013

Bundled up and
wishing for spring

We did end up getting in a few hours this week of outdoor time. Which surprises me because we've had rain, wind, and dropping temperatures for the last half of the week. I woke up to Peanut running into my room, announcing at the top of her little lungs, "It's snowing, Mommy and Dada! Can we go out and play?!?!?!" My dear husband peaked out the window and confirmed that it was indeed snowing. Poor Peanut, however, because Mommy shook her head said, "It's too early..." and dived back under the covers head first. Winter is NOT my favorite season. I do NOT like cold and snow. Yet, Peanut has been dreaming of snow angles and snowmen since Easter. 

I know that soon we'll all be trudging out of doors, bundled from head to toe, to build wonderful snow creations. To make those snow angles. We'll get white washed, have snow ball fights, and generally have fun. We'll also come back inside to large quantities of hot chocolate, dry robes, and slippers. 

Outdoor time total for this week: 5.75 hours
Total, year to date, outdoor time: 136.25 hours

For information about the 1000 Hours Outside Challenge (of which I take part), how to go out in nearly all weather, and support for us Winter dreaders ... please check out 1000 Hours Outside. I cannot say enough about all of the wonderful ladies there who are willing to inspire us daily to get outside with our kids.

Over the next week or so there will be a couple of things that will only be shared (here) on our Facebook page. So, if you haven't already, come on by and check us out. 

**Confession: This post was written inside my nice warm house, with hot coffee at my elbow, slippers on my feet, and a wince on my face every time that cold wind blew past my window.**

Getting Back to "Normal"

This week in our home Mommy and Daddy got a little fed up with dust and clutter and began to really clean the house. Now that it's beginning to look like a real home again since we're finally in our own bedroom (yes, I'm still loving it!) we look around each day and see something else that we can do to straighten and clean up. We sort of started this last week by getting around to some of the dusting that really needed to be done, and we've just kept going from there. Our room had been being used as a storage room almost since the day we'd moved in and we finally got around to decluttering it. I still need to go through all of my clothing and dresser drawers but that will be tackled in the next day or two. All the animals got another bath this week (well, other than the bird) and for the moment that means three clean and content furries wandering around the house. My kitchen is clean, the counters are again mostly decluttered, and I'm loving how it's set up. The goal is to have the entire house clean and organized by Thanksgiving and at this rate we'll make it.

In our school we've continued to make progress with our lessons. ECJ is learning at a very decent rate and is currently in his own room again at his desk. He starts his days out at the dining room table with the rest of us to do the daily binders and then moves to his own room. We made a small school room type area in the extended part of our living room and this is where the girls and I move to after our binders are finished. This has made for rapid progress of each day for us. Peanut likes being at her big girl school desk and moves through her lessons mostly without complaint. Once she's finished with her book work and goes over to Mommy's computer to do some learning YCJ is able to get more of my undivided attention without distraction. This helps her move through the tougher subjects (for her) quicker and makes sure she is less stressed out. She's also able to do her computer work right at her desk as her netbook fits neatly, case and all, right inside of it for storage. 


We'll be concentrating on nature/ecology studies for the next couple of weeks in all "grade" levels. This means more nature walks, nature journaling, identifying plants, learning what the animals are doing to prepare for winter, etc. And I'll again be attempting to get our MI and KY state units finished, tying in as much nature and history as I possibly can.


We also used our first coupons for Book IT! The children absolutely loved getting their own pizza with the topping of their choice on it and Peanut said it was just the right size. The also received their reading passports when we picked up the pizzas, they'll be filling in the first part of the passport today and then one a month as they get their new stickers. I can really see how this is going to help them stay on track with their reading goals. Free pizza, stickers, and continued trips to the library (which they like) ... all combine to make happy reading children, which in turn makes Mommy happy. Win win situation. 

Before we cleaned
her room...

In preschool Peanut is just finishing up with the letter I. We've been working really hard all week on getting 0-10 mastered: saying them in the right order, counting ten objects, recognising the numbers when she see them, and the abstract idea of 0. We've made 0 into a super-hero imaginary friend for all numbers to help with this idea and she's really liking the imagery. We'll be making a story for each number at least until 29 over the next several week/months and may just continue on from there. This really helps her to remember them (I'll be sharing some of them at a later date). We made toilet paper tube people for 0-10 and she spends time playing with them almost every day. She's still right on track to move onto Kindergarten in late winter or early spring.

In third grade YCJ is chugging along nicely. Some days are like pulling teeth to get her to read and write but she'll fly through math with no issue. We're working as often as we can on her reading skills, even when she's helping me in the kitchen she will read out the next instruction for me if we're using a mix. The light green paper is really helping her keep her words from getting mixed up so I'm really glad I was able to find some note cards at the dollar store with the exact shade of green that works for her. Her favorite things are still anything to do with crafts or creating so we're making sure to incorporate a lot of them into our weeks.

Identifying leaves.

In sixth grade ECJ is doing nicely in his studies. Thoroughly enjoying Apologia General Science and is pleased that we'll be using Apologia again next year for him. We've found Little Women! Which means that after he turns in his report for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy he'll be moving right along to Little Women. He does claim that he doesn't know how it could have possibly ended up under Peanut's bed. I'm guessing that he'll be starting to read it, from the beginning, December 2nd. He's ready to be challenged more in History and that means I may just have to get a research paper assignment made up for him on at least one of the major points of American history.

Two tips I can share this week:

Tip number one: A friend of mine who's son is already doing Kindergarten work shared with me the following little song she made up, to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:

The numbers 20's start with 2, I know my 20's how 'bout you? The numbers 30's start with three, The 30 numbers are easy The numbers 40's start with four, Forty numbers aren't a bore

Thank you very much Miki Friend Chambers for sharing this with me and allowing me to share it with everyone else.

Tip number two is a piece of advice I heard/read recently that I wish to share with all of you. I'd give the lady who shared it to begin with all the credit for it if I could only find her name and ask her permission. Instead I'll simply thank her here and ask God to bless her for reminding me to think before opening my mouth.

WAIT ... It stands for "Why am I talking?" Before you open your mouth to yell, or lecture, or otherwise berate somebody tell yourself, "WAIT". IF after you have thought about why you're talking it still makes sense to say whatever it is you wanted to say remind yourself to be gentle in doing so. Yelling does not get your point across any better.

Reading from Woods Walk
right before we identified
leaves...

 * Nope, I have no sense of fashion today obviously ;-)

Reading about KY
while the campers identify
leaves

YCJ reading a Winter
book to Peanut

What we're reading this week is almost everything and we're doing it all over the house. Normally I am the only one who reads in the living room, for some reason all week long there has been reading being done by almost everyone in the living room. They're still reading in their bedrooms, but now they are branching out to different rooms ... including *ahem* the bathroom. And when I say we're reading almost everything it seems like this is the week where I have somewhere around five books I'm reading at the same time, ECJ has two or three books he's reading right now (Oops, make that two, he just finished The Lord of the Rings trilogy!), YCJ even is in the process of finishing up a book as I type this so that she can move on to her new library book. Everyone, has spent the entire day listening to her read this book. 0f course Peanut's favorite is still Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.


Our Thankful leaf wall continues to grow each and every day. I had planned on them only adding to it on week days but they do it every day. I guess they've figured out that they have a lot to be thankful for! I can't figure out how to get this picture turned right side up for this unfortunately. With less than a week to go before Thanksgiving we're running out of room!

Plans for next week are only shared on our Facebook page each Sunday. However, I will say that next week aught to be exciting and different for us.

Holiday planning is coming along wonderfully. Our next decorations for Christmas will be going up sometime right before Thanksgiving and we won't be done decorating until sometime during the first few weeks of December. I'm making some plans for Advent in our lessons and our days for next month. As for Thanksgiving, we'll be going to Grandma's house for dinner and enjoying her wonderful cooking again this year. Of course we'll be watching the Macy's Parade on television and I'm sure the guys will be watching sports on Papa's big TV.


This week we're linking up with Homegrown Learners and Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers  AND Faithful Mom... , one more at Great Peace Academy for:

Posts you may have missed this week:
Bucket List - Science Projects - and 0-10
Dark Decembers - Be the Light
Marvelous Menu Mania
Meet the Campers - The Rest of Us
Important Reasons to go Outside
Returning to an Old Favorite
Stirring It Up

Stirring it Up

I spent hours this week trying to figure out what I wanted to share today. I knew it was going to be about something that was working in our home/school this week but I didn't know what I wanted to share. I knew I'd promised to share about our math manipulative cubes but I keep forgetting to take pictures. I thought about sharing how well being outside works for us, but I've talked about that a lot this week. I contemplated talking about not yelling, but this week that just doesn't seem right. So what did I end up with?

Cooking as a family works for us.

From littlest (Peanut) to biggest (Daddy) we all enjoy cooking. Sometimes we only like to make certain things, sometimes we just want to help out, and sometimes we aren't really enjoying it but we're still doing it. The kiddos have not always helped out in the kitchen. I just figured that I could get it done faster myself if they'd just step out of the kitchen for even a few minutes. This changed a few years ago when I decided that ECJ, then around 8, could certainly make his own lunches for the most part and definitely get his own cereal in the mornings. I taught him a few simple things like pouring cereal, making toast, making sandwiches, we taught him how to use a microwave (although three years later this one still escapes him from time to time). This helped me a lot when Daddy was having one of his in bed ill times because if ECJ could get one sandwich made than he could make YCJ one while he was at it.



Doing those little things sparked a wild fire of interest in cooking for ECJ. He is now often found in the kitchen no matter who is making what and asking a TON of questions. "How do you make ... ?" and "What is ... ?" are some of the most common questions he asks. As YCJ noticed this happening and us calmly answering if not actively allowing him to help she began asking as well. And slowly over the years each child has learned more and more of the how and what's involved in the kitchen.

Around age five we begin with cereal pouring and drink pouring. Sometimes it's late in the year the kiddo turns five, sometimes it's early in that year. It depends on the child. We move on to sandwiches, the toaster, the microwave oven, and helping us stir and sprinkle as the need arises.



We've found recipes that they can help with or make themselves. One of the biggest hits in our home is homemade pizza night. These are just soft taco shells (or burrito shells) with a spoon or two of sauce, sprinkled with cheese and toppings of the child's choice. Each kiddo gets to make their own and they only take about five minutes to cook in a 350 degree oven. These make for wonderfully thin crusted pizzas that are personalized to each person and everyone always eats theirs because they got to make it.

YCJ began seriously helping out this year and is now in charge of making lunch for everyone usually (hopefully) once a week or so. One of her favorites to make are roll up lunches. She prefers taking those same shells we use for so many things and spreading them with peanut butter (or some other yummy spread), adding a little surprise (once it was raisins), and rolling them up. She even once tore a couple extra shells up into quarters and asked me to cut the rolls on a diagonal for her. Coming up with a rather cute plating idea.

ECJ is now 11 and even though we have a gas stove he gets to help with actual cooking quite a bit. He's a bit short for his age and so we're always right there to keep an eye on him but he does very well. It's one of the activities that he knows he must concentrate when he's doing it, and that makes it one of the ones that he doesn't let his ADHD interfere with.

Having three kids, or sometimes even one kid, in the kitchen with you while you're cooking doesn't always work. But, by and large, it works for us. It teaches them important life skills they will need as they grow older. It teaches them responsibility and nutrition. And it reminds us all that we're a family first and families are teams.

*We can be found on Facebook here.

** Linking up today with both Our Busy Homeschool and Squishable Baby

Returning to an Old Favorite

So, what do you do when the lessons your children have planned for them in a curriculum you're using just doesn't sound appealing? You go back to something you have done before and you know it and you love it, yet you change it to make it "new" again.

Maybe, as in our case, your science curriculum choice has you making yet another lap-book. Maybe, again like us, you don't really enjoy lap-booking or your children just don't learn that way. Maybe it's something else, something you've covered before or something that doesn't coincide with your beliefs. 

I ran into this problem a few days ago. ECJ has two science curriculum this year, one is Easy Peasy and one is Apologia General Science, and so if I had had him skip the lap book/presentation he'd have been just fine. However, YCJ is only using Easy Peasy this year as her main curriculum for science and I attempt to teach Peanut something along the same lines as the older two are learning. Needless to say there are many things that I could have done here. I could have found their science curriculum from last year and expanded on some of the material. I could have changed the actual assignment from Easy Peasy and yet kept the topic. I could have given them the next ten days or more off of science and just picked it back up when that lesson was over. I could have simply skipped that lesson and gone straight to the next science lesson planned.

Here's what I am doing. At our last trip to the library I grabbed a couple non-fiction nature books from the children's section and brought them home with the intent of writing out a few notes from them and just plugging in some of the information from them when we took our nature walks, or whenever else it seemed appropriate. It dawned on me when I ran into the lessons for the next ten days or so for the Cracker Jacks that I could make the next two weeks or so an intensive nature study. This is something all of us enjoys doing. Our nature walks end up with a purpose again and the children are reminded to explore more and draw or write in their nature journals. I also get to put in more information than I previously knew (and some activities) because of the books I picked up. I'm writing out a loose lesson plan based on these books and what we find while we're walking and that's what we'll be doing for science. There's no need to bring this down to Peanut's level or simplify it at all, what terms she doesn't "get" right now don't much matter because she'll learn them with repeated use. 

This also means that our postponed (a couple times now) Michigan state unit and our Kentucky state unit for history can be worked on during this time as well. We have done a couple small things for both units already but not spent a good deal of time on the. I'll be able to make a lesson out of the nature, ecology, of each state (2 lessons yay) to include with the state history and any other thing I can think of. I can use pictures that we took while on nature walks in KY to help with it's ecology since right now we're in Michigan. I also picked up a couple books from the library about both states intending to make sure we got the units finished before Christmas. Their history lessons for the next two weeks looked pretty light as well so they'll be able to do both the state units and their regular history without too much issue.

Tomorrow we'll be identifying some of the leaves found on our nature walk today and adding them into our nature journals. We'll also be talking about the types of forests that are around our part of the country and what is happening during this transitional time between fall and winter.

*I'll still be taking a lot of notes from both of these books as they cover things for each season. That means I will be able to dedicate some time each season to nature study specifically in case this issue crops up again.*

Here we are on Facebook, check us out when you get time!

Important Reasons to go Outside

Every week for the past little while I've been attempting to join up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers on Tuesdays for List It {Tuesday}. Some weeks are harder to come up with topics than others. A couple of weeks ago a dear friend of mine over at Learning Life with 3 Sons was kind enough to let me pick her brain for some new ideas. She gave me enough ideas that I can do this for a little over two months and not have to think of a single topic on my own! (For those of you who haven't checked out her blog I think you simply MUST! She's an awesome friend and single mother of 3 boys who keep her on her toes who always seems to have some fun/new thing for them to do as a family.)

And as many of you who follow my blog are aware I decided several weeks back to join the 1000 Hours Outside Challenge (another great place to check out by the way). In the 1000 Hours Outside Challenge you strive to get your children, and hopefully yourself, outside for a grand total of 1000 hours a year. This really sounds hard at first, even broken down to approximately 20 hours a week it still sounds kind of hard. But, if you consider the fact that the average American child spends about 1200 hours a year in front of a TV screen you end up a little more motivated.

Some weeks I've done better than others, but most weeks we still end up with a decent amount of outside time. Our year to date total as of the end of last week is 130.5 and I still have until about mid September to get the other 869.5 hours! 

OK, now that I've rambled and shamelessly plugged other sites I love, it's time for ...

5 Important Reasons to go Outside:

1. Charlotte Mason recommended many years ago that children between the ages of 0-7 spend 4-6 hours outside a day! Ok, so I'm not a true follower of Charlotte Mason. I love her work, the concept, and everything attached to it but it's just not for me or my family (at least not all of it). However, Charlotte Mason is revered for her work with children and her practices (as many of you are fully aware) are still used today. (Just a quick peak of what 1000 hours outside reminded us of about Charlotte Mason's outside theory found here. ) You could (and a lot of people do) simply take your preschoolers outside for this amount of time each day and read a story or two at bedtime to them and call it preschool. There is no reason not to and a lot of reason to simply do that and leave the formal learning until the child is a bit older.

2. It's free science lessons! Yes, you heard me right. Yes, this is another Charlotte Mason theory with nature science and nature walks. (For those of you not familiar with Charlotte Mason you can go here to find out more.) This is one thing that we try to do at least once a week. There are so many ways to teach nature all year round just by going outside. Nature includes animals, plants, rocks, and you can even tie it into your State studies. My children and I have had long conversations about Native Americans while on our walks, they've attempted to reproduce many things that Native Americans used to do while remaining outside after those walks. This could be done with pioneers and other groups as well. Can anyone say History lessons outside?

3. It burns excess energy. Let's face it, we spend almost all of our time with our children and you know when they've been cooped up for too long in the house because you're certain if they jump/run/flip/etc just one more time your walls are coming down. Send them outside! Let them play, run, jump, flip, and go nuts all outside. By the time they come back in they're more than likely going to be calmer and more relaxed. When you get antsy go out into the yard with the kids and get as active as you can with them! Burn that energy (and calories ;-) ) off!

4. There are free toys outside created by imagination! We've all been guilty of saying things like: "Put that stick down!" "Stop running with that!" and, my favorite, "Your sister DOES NOT want to sword fight with branches!". However, under careful supervision, sword fights are wonderful things. Safety first all the way. Earlier this year, before I took the challenge, my friend and I were amazed at the creativity of two of our children who took it upon themselves to build a bird's nest! They did a wonderful job of it and I made sure that no one bothered it afterwards, we let nature take it's course and it took over a week to finish blowing away (well, some birds did take advantage of some of the material as well as our resident outdoor large rodent).

One of the "J boys" (from Learning Life... )
and YCJ building a bird nest.

5. You never know what you're going to find. Many of our walks have had us come across wonderful things we would have never seen otherwise. Insects that I had no idea looked so neat (I am NOT a bug person), old shacks in the woods that hunters had once used (or other people), we've seen deer up close and other shy creatures. The list is endless and every time we see something new it sparks the children's interest, causing several Internet searches to figure out who, what, why, how ... You could almost build an entire curriculum just on what you find outside!

Homeschool Camper is on Facebook here.