February 2012 - newsy updates and photos

Little snippets from February (taken from Facebook in part), posted in May 2013 and backdated to the correct month in question, to allow me to have something to look back on here - I have not kept up with the blog well lately!

February 1st:

"The boys are being sheep and sheepdogs! Sweetest part is Benjamin (2.5) spontaneously joining in by being a tiny lamb - his bleating is soooooo cute!!! ♥ They've all lit up at the idea and are currently trying to round up the "lost lamb" to reunite him with his mummy :) Love my boys!"

I posted this photo as part of an actual blog entry (gasp!) in February or March 2012, but I'll post it again here, because these monthly "snippets" updates are going to be my main record of life to look back on here. :)

"Lookie look at what I made for the boys last night out of an old tray!!! I got this idea from Pinterest - I painted it with acrylic paints and matched up cars for them to practise colour-matching. They LOVE it - Benjamin spent 45 minutes playing with it this morning and can name and match all his colours well! One of the zillion reasons why I adore Pinterest (and it was SO much fun to make! Cost? Nothing!!)!"



February 2nd:

"Thrilled to be 24 weeks pregnant (yay for viability!!) but less thrilled to STILL have morning sickness. Much more manageable than it used to be, but I've never had it longer than 20 weeks before (which was long for me anyway!). Only 16 weeks to go if it hangs on till the bitter end! ;)"

"Samuel's first (and last, I promise) bunches! Usually when I do this with their hair, it's pretty much time for the first haircut. Or at least, Neil makes me do it the day after he sees the photo... :) "



"A little snippet of our day. :) Yay for the postman bringing a package HEAVILY covered in bubble wrap! They kept this up for ages!"

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
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February 3rd:

"Benjamin did great with his 2-piece puzzles this week. Today he is insisting on sitting at the kitchen table to do a 50-piece puzzle, lol! He's VERY indignant if I try to help or suggest a simpler puzzle!... Well he's certainly determined! He worked on it for ages, and managed to put together an 8-piece block in one corner, bless him! He took a long time over it so he was happy to stop after that :) "

February 4th:
 

"Neil's late birthday present was finally ready for him to open today! So proud of our work, and wanted to share it! :) Pinterest-inspired - I saw handprint pictures of fish, and thought how lovely it would be to have all 5 boys' handprints in one picture, and frame it to hang properly! Top row (l to r) are Nathan, Benjamin and Samuel's handprints, and the bottom row are Arthur and Matthew's. Ribbons, buttons, googly eyes and sparkly stars finished it off, and Neil LOVES it! :) I bought a frame at eBay - not an expensive present, but a special one! :)"

 

 

February 5th:

 

"So happy that the snow came on a weekend! :) The boys have been out building snowmen, and now they are at the park with Neil while I prepare school for the week. Nathan has developed an intolerance to snow-wear of any sort since last winter - his tantrums were ridiculously off-the-scale about dressing appropriately today! :S Hope he's not giving Neil a hard time at the park! Last time we had snow, I was waiting to go into labour, so the snow is bringing back lovely memories for me this year! ♥"

"Still up at 2am! :S Benjamin woke from a bad dream about "garey bi-ders in my bed dat came from down-dairs an' crawwwd up into my bed an' now they gone but one or two dill here buzzing around tum-where..." After which he said, "You should be in bed at-leep, I think!" I actually LOVE his night-wakings! And now my teeny person is kicking and thumping away in there, which I also LOVE, so although I'll regret it tomorrow, I am pretty happy to be awake right now! ♥" 

February 6th:

"Oh Lord preserve me today! Benjamin had recurrent nightmares and Samuel was awake between 3 and 5am, and then he woke up for the day at 6.20am. I got to sleep AFTER 5am for the first time and now feel.... interesting! :S Did discover by chance that my quiet little baby is actually an extremely vigorous and active little baby, in the wee hours of the night! Hmmm!..."


"Cup of tea - marvellous invention! ;) I know it won't last for long, but oh well. Kitchen chores done and we're ready for school. Need put Samuel down for his nap. Debating with myself whether a double routine follow-up with the physio at the hospital this afternoon is something to cancel or try to attend? Snow is mostly clear, but taking all 5 boys is so difficult even in nice temperatures, and I am likely to have a rotten headache by 3pm..."

"Yes I know I am the crazy middle-of-the-night woman or something (!!) again, but MY BABY HAS HICCUPS!!! For the first time! :) So I'm sitting up with my tummy blipping gently with a huge smile fixed to my face, instead of getting the sleep I soooooooo need! I love being pregnant so much! ♥"

February 7th:

"Samuel walks!! He is 13 months old - the latest of my walkers to date. He has been taking up to 3 steps for a couple of weeks, and suddenly started walking all over the room today!! Clever boy!"

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

February 8th:

"Have marzipanned one of the Christmas cakes!!! Only a couple of months late, hey?! ;)"

"Nathan (in very serious tones, having just viewed the trailers on a children's DVD): "One thing I hope we never have in this house is one of those Barbie DVDs.... I do hope we have that one about fire engines though!" hahaha! They have no anti-girly gender persuasions (they have baby dolls and clothes and Nathan loves pink), but they REALLY don't like sparkly girly-aimed merchandise and entertainment! It amuses me to see! Mind you, even if we had a girl I am pretty sure he would still get his wish - I loathe Barbie (I remember having one as a child and cutting all its hair off and colouring it with felt tip pens, and my mum threw it away!)!"

"Good school day today! :) Matthew is ready to start reading sentences, and Arthur had maths and reading tests today - he scored 100% on his maths, and passed his Year 5 (!!) reading test. Tomorrow he starts reading material for 10-11 year olds! SO proud of them both! :) And yes, we do have ROTTEN school days, like Monday when I think I may have actually despised homeschooling for a few hours! ;) Glad for a good day!"

"I don't know how other parents tolerate messy play!! :S Even "dry" sensory play drives me crazy - now there are red lentils all over the kitchen floor!!! Obviously they can be swept up, but why is it like nails on a blackboard so much?! Never mind the blue finger paint that I managed to spill over the HOB an hour earlier! :S"

"Still awake! AGAIN! Sooooo cold tonight. And why can't I stop thinking about crafting something?!?! A skewed version of nesting?! I have virtual baskets FULL of craft materials and novelty buttons and textiles and collage bits and it's all so thrilling, lol!!! VIRTUAL though. Just window shopping, sadly! Come on sleep!"

February 9th:

"My boys are all watching out of the window for my doula, who is not coming to visit for another hour! ;) We all love her sooooooo!"

February 11th:

"Inexcusably excited about going for a trip to POUNDLAND in a minute, lol!!! Can't wait to see if I can snag any bargains for montessori-ish DIY projects! :)"

February 12th:

"Pretty big milestone in our house this morning - Matthew stayed dry overnight for the first time!!!!! He's 5 and a half so it has been a while coming (Arthur was 3) but he wasn't ready to potty train until 4 and a half in any case. Yay Matthew! :)"

February 13th:

"Little Benjamin (2 years, 7 months old) just came over to me with a pencil in his hand, saying, "Dis dange-wus for Samuel MOUF!!! I better put it up high!" and put it up on a shelf he can just about reach, but which Samuel can't! ♥ Now he's back with the TV remote control, saying, "I foun' the MOTE! Where shy put it?" Such a funny, busy little boy!.... He's on a roll tonight! At dinner he saw the stack of tins for recycling and said, "WOAH Mummy! Dose tins should be goin' in der reshyclin' lowwy, cos they EMMTY!!" Very serious declarations, left, right, and centre - that was the first of at least a dozen observations in the kitchen, all beginning with, "WOAH Mummy!" lol!"

February 14th:

"Tired, hormonal and needing a maaaajor refocus already this morning! Trying to do so to this beautiful song whilst at least 3 children scream and fight over the melody is NOT working! Am taking 5 minutes - 3m42s for the video to play with headphones on, and the remaining 1m18s to pray! Although I can still hear someone yelling "MUMMY!!!!!" even with headphones on... :S"




"Have already had to restart my 5 mins twice!!!! Aaaaaargh!!! FIVE MINUTES, children! Just FIVE minutes!"

"Aaaaaand focus! :) Five minutes makes such a difference, focusing on God. I did have to pray with my fingers in my ears, lol! But ahhhh I feel much more centred and calm. I shall now embark upon a round of nappy changes, get the boys dressed, clean up breakfast, laundry, dishwasher, and the kitchen floor, and then hopefully get that done in time for Samuel's nap in - oh dear - 15 minutes, hahaha! Oh well! ;) Might have to skip some of that as school is happening after he goes down for his nap... I can do it after school but the problem is that the kitchen table IS school at the moment, for the big boys, so I need to clean it up first! :S Clearly I should not still be chatting away on Facebook when I've got all this stuff to get done!!!! ;)"

February 15th:

"Matthew is going to the theatre to see The Gruffalo with my grandparents today! He's so excited! We've never had even an afternoon without Matthew around, so we'll miss him!! Hope he has a lovely time :) He has "come of age" for a big boy treat that my grandparents sweetly give to their great-grandchildren. They take one of them who is somewhere around age 5 to the theatre by themselves for a children's play, and ride the top deck of a double decker bus and get an ice-cream and such like! Arthur's was a couple of years ago, and now it's Matthew's turn! Once they've had their turns, they'll get to go in pairs sometimes - but my grandparents are both 86 and although they managed just fine (and said he was a delight! :) ), I'm not sure they can keep the tradition up for however many years I have a 5-year-old?!! Such a sweet idea - I am thinking we'll carry it on all the same :)"

"Matthew had a lovely time at the theatre this afternoon! He said he really enjoyed it - there was more singing than he expected, and he didn't find any of it scary, etc. He had fun! :)  After he'd been gone an hour or so, Nathan said very solomnly, "Matthew's out. So now there's only me, you, Benji, Samuel, and Arthur...." He sighed and shook his head, "Not many of us left..." lol! ;)

February 16th:

"I LOVE this picture that Ella sent me!! In response to it, for OUR family - Pic 1) IF ONLY!!! My kids are up at 6am if not before! Pic 2) lol! Er, not quite! Pic 3) This one makes me laugh so much! I do have a brain, and am thus perfectly able to teach my children (thanks also to awesome curricula!) Pic 4) Juuuust beginning fun science projects! Pic 5) Yeah baby! We get to go out and have fun when everyone else is in school! ;) Holidays in the off-peak season, no crowds, empty playgrounds, cheap tickets at the zoo. We don't do this as often as all that, though. Pic 6) It's true. I collect books, curriculum items, and books. Also books. And long for more bookshelf space. It must be a characteristic of the homeschooling mother!! ;)"

 

"Samuel napping, boys playing. Just attempted to stop the boys playing, telling them it's time to start maths, THEN realised they are playing shops with real money, and Arthur is teaching the littler boys how to count their coins, how to recognise what things cost (he's written labels), and how to make change for a pound! Realised there's no need to stress about maths this morning and to let them play instead! ;) Going to clean in the kitchen until they're bored and then move straight onto science!"

February 17th:


"Freaked out a bit earlier on when Benjamin shouted, "Oh no! I got poo on my finger!!" When I got to him, he said, "I got it from my ear!" I explained it was ear-wax, and 5 minutes later he said, "I got some eee-watsch from my nose!... Oh, iss justa bogey." lol! Mind you, half an hour ago he was spot on when he shouted, "I got poo on my finger, and dis time from my nappy!" Ew."

February 21st:

My 36th birthday!

"Trying to think what to do with the boys this morning. Having a bit of a DIY birthday, as Neil has gone to work, I have no presents as yet, and two cards in the post as my grand total for the day. :S I made myself a Christmas cake for my birthday cake though, and covered it in PINK stuff and tiny flowers, yaaaay! :) Also my doula is coming round this afternoon. To do school or not to do school though... I've prepared it but not sure if I feel like tackling maths and handwriting battles today. Would really like to feel spoiled but trying to stay cheerful about not being so, otherwise it will make for a grumpy birthday! ;)"
"Had a good day! :) Did a craft session with the boys and now have 4 sweetly wonky and overly-gluey birthday cake collages on my wall to smile at every time I see them. My doula came bearing gifts and made me a cup of tea, my birthday cake is pink and flowery (love that!), and now I get to watch a movie with my sweet hubby over a take-away with my sweet hubby, who came home from work with flowers and chocolate! :) Didn't find time for pancakes on the only time I can remember Pancake Day coinciding with my birthday, but oh well! DID find time to cut my sweet little 14-month-old's hair for the first time (sniffle) - he still looks like a lil baby so that's okay!"

February 22nd:

"Benjamin let me cut his hair for the first time EVER!!! He has always had to be asleep before now, lol! Two down, three to go..."

In response to a question about how I manage to cut toddlers' hair when they are asleep:

"If they are tired enough to sleep, they are really zonked for the first 20 mins, so I get straight to it, lol! Usually he falls asleep on his front on the sofa or something, and is asleep enough to lift him off onto a towel on the rug in the same position. I work on the back/side (around his ear and to the middle of the nape of his neck) and then physically turn his head to face the other way (still zonked, lol!) and do the other side. There's a risk he might wake at that point, but so far he never has. I have to turn his head back and forth a couple of times to be sure things are even enough, and then I roll him onto his back and try doing the fringe at the front. If it's a baby trim then I need to get the front straight (which is pretty much impossible when they're lying down - tried and tested unfortunately!), but if I'm lifting and cutting to layer it then it's easier. Still not always even at the front when he wakes, but I try and get the odd snip in while he's waking up to fix it. Sometimes his hair isn't perfect, but at least it's CUT for another month or two! ;)"

February 23rd:

"My washing machine isn't spinning. :( Thank goodness I'm on top of the laundry at the moment! Repair man (who is practically a member of the family now, lol!) is coming tomorrow.... Not having the easiest of mornings :S"

"Afternoon going better - the weather is soooo lovely! Washing machine is miraculously spinning again! I have come down with a cold that hurts my sinuses and ears like crazy since this morning, so maybe that explains why the morning was feeling so overwhelming?! Nothing like adding illness to the mix! ;) Feel better just knowing what it is!"

February 25th:

"So if my 14-month-old eats some wild rabbit poos at the park, should I expect any particularly unpleasant consequences?!... Poo is the best source of immune system "workout" around, more so than viruses even! Endotoxins, specifically (looooads in poo). Matthew is similar (though he doesn't have a penchant for rabbit droppings), and as a baby had a real thing for licking the cracks in floorboards wherever we went! He has a much stronger immune system than the others and gets illnesses much more mildly in general, so I'm interested in the theory! Hopefully this might mean that Samuel turns out pretty healthy too! :)"

February 26th:

"Possibly over-did it with Davina McCall's prenatal workout DVD this afternoon - now awake with a really sore pelvis and a very kicky baby! ;) And apparently I have arrived in my third trimester! How in the wide world did that happen?!?! Can't wait to meet my little manny! ♥"

"It's time for another big carseat purchase! Taking a deep breath and pulling in the bank account! :S Thank goodness Neil gets a bonus in March - those things are so expensive! Nathan will be moving into a new age 4+ seat, and his old seat is going to finish its days with Benjamin (who is using Matthew's birth-to-4 seat which is now around its expiry). Samuel is rather late for a move from his infant carseat into a brand spanking new birth-to-4 seat, and then the infant seat will be ready for Sausage in May! :) Can't believe we're already at the "getting things in order" stage before another precious new baby!! :-O It's going so fast!"

"We use Concord Ultimax car seats for our 0-4 year olds. We absolutely couldn't find anything better, or more comfortable, after experimenting a bit when Arthur was tiny. When they're 4-ish they move into a Maxi Cosi Rodi - the older two have an 'XR', but Nathan will have the newer 'Air Protect' model. Those are brilliant seats, and we chose them because there weren't any car seats scoring higher for safety at the time. We love our choices, so I thought I would share in case it helps anyone!"

February 27th:

"Found my eldest and my youngest in a sweet quiet moment together. Arthur is a wonderful biggest brother, and I love how they LOVE these moments together, any pair of them together. ♥"  



"Put a farming DVD on for Nathan and Benjamin a couple of weeks ago, and went to make the lunch. It went soooo quiet that I checked on them, and saw this! :) Not sure why they grouped themselves on the crafts chest like this, but I loved the spontaneous "bunch of brothers" pose! ;) Even little Samuel had stopped playing with the curtain. I think it was a combine harvester and a tractor that got them! ;) "



"Just before bedtime this evening - funny little boys! They put themselves "to bed" on the living room floor, insisting on camping out there (Arthur put Samuel in the middle). They were laughing at Daddy in this picture :) Four of them seem to have their hands in their mouths! Two are teething, and the other two are nail-biters, so are often caught hand-in-mouth anyway! ;) "



February 29th:

I set the camera to take this photo (Neil was at work) and bribed the children with chocolate, haha! This was my 28-week belly picture for my pregnancy blog, since I was 28 weeks exactly. The boys were all around so I thought I would include them, and it turned out great! I love this photo of me with all 5 of my little boys around me, and the 6th snug inside me! :)

Poundland!! :)

Today I had the chance to go out sans children, while they went for their usual long afternoon walk/run/climb at the park with Neil. I could have stayed home and planned next week's school (need to do that tomorrow!). I could have slept! Oh how I could have slept! ;) But I was desperate to go to the high street and check out Poundland (Dollar Store equivalent in the UK, for anyone wondering)! I hadn't been there before, and just wondered if there might be anything I could grab up to use for Montessori-type activities that I'm increasingly getting interested in for my littler ones. Lately I just have a TON of ideas, mainly thanks to Pinterest, but also some that I suddenly think of late at night or something, and then get too excited to fall asleep, haha! I love the DIY aspect, and crafting or making things that my children can learn from and find appealing is so exciting to me! I love a good project, and these are good LITTLE projects, which is perfect for me right now. I am not getting much chance to make things, but I have ideas, and am gradually gathering supplies here and there, as cheaply as I can.

So I went to Poundland, and spent £10! That's all! I bought:

Two plastic mirrors which have deep plastic frames around them, and serve perfectly as mirror-based trays therefore! I like the idea of trays with a mirrored base, for observation and stuff.

A set of plastic coloured Easter eggs. I already have coloured fluffy chicks in the same colours and had a colour-matching activity in mind.

Blue glass decorative beads.

An extra-large 4 inch deep foil baking tray. We need a BIG one for next week's history project (or is it the week after?) - making a model of the Nile with water, potting soil and grass seeds, and irrigating the soil by flooding the Nile, how they used to irrigate their crops. Did I mention I love our history curriculum so far?! :)

A pack of sandpaper. Partly to use a bit for our current history project (a diorama of nomadic mud huts by the Nile), and partly because I want to make sandpaper numbers (and maybe letters if the numbers work), Montessori style, at some point.

Set of 3 little white ramekin pots.

Three less relevant items (two types of packing tape and a double pack of Crunch Cream biscuits, yum!).

I also went to various charity shops in the high street and didn't see anything I wanted, except in the last shop, where I got a little wooden trinket box with a lid for 50p! :)

With the addition of the little fluffy chicks I already had, look what I put together for some little people's school activities this week!



Turquoise mirror tray with two of the three little ramekin dishes, and the blue glass beads (mixed with a few of the shiny clear ones I already had). This is a transferring activity. I put out a spoon and a rubber-grip clothes peg, for the little ones to practise fine motor skills with spooning and squeezing the peg to transfer the beads.



Purple mirror tray (I actually want some wooden trays, but I didn't see any, and I like these as trays too!), with the 50p wooden trinket box full of little fluffy chicks, and the plastic eggs. This activity lets them put a little chick into the matching-coloured egg - there are two eggs and two chicks of each colour.

So excited about my finds so far - and these were "no make"! I still want to find some time to make things too, but that will come in bits and pieces I think! :)

Other people and our school choices...

The other day a friend from church who we've known for 15 years came over to change a fuse for us on our fuse box. Such a sweet helpful thing to do, and he's such a sweet guy too. He and his wife were newly-weds when I first started going to church, and by the time Neil and I got married, they had their first baby. They have three boys now - ages 12, 9, and 5. We knew them better when their little ones were really little, and haven't seen so much of them in recent years.

Little frustrations crop up though, and this is an example I guess (along with the fact that this particular friend is the one who cheerfully asks (in a loud voice at church), "Don't you know what causes that?!" when we tell him we're expecting another baby - every time since baby #3). He emailed me the night before to see if it would be okay to drop round at 10.30am or so with the fuse, and I replied to say that I would really prefer to keep the weekday mornings clear for school, otherwise the boys get distracted from their lessons - our full focus is on school in the mornings. I asked if he could get back to me about an afternoon sometime, or even a weekend morning if that would work better.

So we were in the middle of maths at 10.55am when he knocked on the window. I guessed he hadn't got my email, but I'm not sure really. He hasn't replied to it still, and he did say he hoped he wouldn't distract them for too long. As soon as he came in (I promise I was cheerful and welcoming, by the way! He was coming to bless us with something and I was GRATEFUL!), the boys were excited to see him and came away from the table. He asked what they were learning and they said they were doing maths. Right away (why must people do this?!?!) he began quizzing them! He immediately said to Matthew, "What's 2 plus 2?" and to my surprise - I know it's simple but I hadn't known Matthew could do ANYTHING in his head yet, only on paper or with the abacus so far, as he's not catching on so easily as Arthur has with maths - he said, "Four!" with a smile. Arthur was beaming waiting for his turn, and our friend turned to him and said, "What's 7 minus 3?" Arthur's smile froze and his eyes looked searching for a few moments. Poor boy. He hasn't done subtraction yet. Yes, I know he's seven.

He finally said, "Minus ten!" and the guy said, "No. That would be minus seven, minus three. What's SEVEN minus three?" Poor Arthur, you could really see his confidence and happiness fading as the guy waited on his answer. I did not make him wait, I just said to Arthur, "Don't worry lovey, you haven't done minus yet." And then to the slightly aghast look directed at me from my friend, "He hasn't done subtraction yet." Arthur looked visibly relieved, and thankfully he and Matthew started chatting noisily so they didn't get to hear the, "At SEVEN?!" with the slightly disgusted eye-roll, from the guy.

This was two days ago, and I'm FINE about it, but also I'm TOTALLY NOT (lol, clearly one of those statements is untrue!). It's still under my skin so very much, and I can't seem to soothe the feelings it gave me, ugh. I KNOW what I'm doing, teaching my kids! I know what I'm doing with maths. I HATE debating, and quiver at the thought of standing my ground with someone, actually in the flesh. It makes me feel nauseous and shaky and tearful and hot when I do, and I hate it! I am really "good" at doing so in my head, afterwards! ;) But not in person, so then I feel like I haven't stood up for myself/us. And that bugs me for ages afterwards.

I explained briefly to him that Arthur is doing a mastery curriculum. He masters addition (for example) before even beginning subtraction. I told my friend that he is adding thousands on paper, and adding tens, ones and hundreds in his head. Not "look what he can do!" but "look what the curriculum has equipped him with so far!". I told him that he can find the "missing addend" but he doesn't understand it as subtraction yet. The guy said that it made no sense to him - for him, subtraction and addition are part of each other. He also found time 10 minutes later to pick up the boys' abacus and bring it to me, explaining that he doesn't understand why people who make abacuses teach it in rows of ten, and that it should be 1 to 9, and then number 10 on a new row. Or whatever. It frustrated me. He was being very cheerful and chatty, but basically cheerfully picking holes in my efforts and what we're setting out to do. Which upset me a bit.

Arthur is about 2/3 of the way through his second year curriculum of Right Start Mathematics (Level B). By the end of Level B (in a few weeks, at the rate we're going), he will finally begin subtraction. Then he will master that before even beginning to be taught the TERM multiply or multiplication, let alone what it means, and how to apply it - which I think comes at the END of Level C. Another whole year away at least.

I totally love and trust the curriculum I have chosen for them to learn maths with. It does things very differently from schools. I understand that it's not how people were taught, or how their children or grandchildren are currently being taught. I briefly explain the curriculum and why it's different - what the benefits are, etc. But why must people be so negative about it?! I'm not stupid, ignorant, or irresponsible in my decision-making when it comes to choosing how to teach things to my children! I DO MY RESEARCH, week and months of it! I am thorough! And I find it hard when people want to pick at that, or imply that I chose poorly, or that something isn't the best thing for the boys. I know many people think keeping them HOME for school isn't the best thing for them. Maybe it's my perception, maybe I'm too sensitive about it (it would be hard not to be, as both teacher and mummy)? Sometimes questions asked are obviously out of interest and curiosity - you can tell that! But otherwise, questions seem to be to actually find fault with something, or they say they are not against what we're doing, but then they go ahead and compare (negatively) with how we were taught when we were young, or how their kids are taught in school now. That's not conversation! That's directly challenging (or even criticising in some cases) ME as their teacher, and ME as their parent for making the choices I have made!

I just feel a bit attacked and ruffled about it. In the nicest possible way! ;) He was very "nice" and cheery, but ugh. I'm probably being overly sensitive. I wasn't even sure about blogging about it. But here I am doing it anyway. Just to "say" really, not much else. I don't really need to do anything about it, it's just a frustration that is probably inevitable when you go and do something "out of the box" like homeschooling. I felt so frustrated at the time, attempting to cheerfully justify myself over their maths, that I did suddenly get this urge to say to him (as my doula constantly reminds me when I express any concerns like this!), so what if I wasn't even teaching him ANYTHING academic at age seven?!?! Really - So. What. In Turkey, they don't start school at all until age 7. The kids there are all on a level with kids from any other part of the world who start school at various (younger) ages, by age 9. No difference. Big deal. It really doesn't matter that my sons have no concept of subtraction at this age!!!! It just so irked me. And more so that I didn't have the guts or presence of mind to say so at the time.

After he left, I tried to keep reminding myself all day that I am happy homeschooling, the boys are happy, Neil is happy, it's what we strongly believe God is happy with us doing, and we are 100% confident in our curriculum choices right now, that they are the best options for our particular children at this particular time. I LOVE Right Start! They may not know how to subtract 3 from 7, but they learn a ton of other stuff ahead of the school curriculum. Everything evens out in the end, doesn't it? School kids get to learn what the boys have learned within a couple of years, and the boys get caught up with the "school basics" of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, within a couple of years too. I am expecting (from everything I've read and a lot of testimonies to the fact) that they will be equipped with much better mental maths strategies and a more thorough understanding than other children by then, though. Think Asian maths. That's what the curriculum is based on. Asian students are waaaaaaaay ahead of western students in their ability to "do" maths (put simply - my head is just about empty right now, pregnant, sleep-deprived, and up late AGAIN! ;) ), BECAUSE of the way they were taught as younger children.

ANYWAY!

It's not so much about the method of teaching maths to children. I don't care how anyone teaches their children maths, or how the schools do it either! I am just meaning to talk about this example of the conflict I am likely to continue facing with others as we continue homeschooling. I wish I would deal with it better inside, but then I am hoping I WILL, as time goes by. Meanwhile I am blogging. Maybe it will help me. Maybe others will relate. Maybe it will help someone who hasn't got to that stage yet and now when they do, they will know that it's not just them.

Whatever the reason, I'm just saying. It's not all easy! And I wish it was easier. But I know it's the right thing for us, and I wouldn't have it any other way! :)

Samuel is walking!

My sweet little baby is walking! He has been doing 3 steps (no more) every day for a couple of weeks, and had the usual 3/4 nights running leading up to that milestone where he was awake for 2-3 hours in the middle of the night. It's nice how when my littles do that now, I KNOW it's because of an emerging motor skill. I was STUMPED and frustrated and irritable about it when it was my first child. And my second and third, for that matter! Took me four kiddies to finally get with it and realise the link, lol! Now I ride it out with less annoyance over it, and it's nice to be rewarded with the inevitable motor skill or new clever-ness that they come out with, and then the sleep goes back to normal! :)

Soooo he did that, and then started taking 2 or 3 steps at a time. He DELIGHTED in practising it between Neil and I, over and over and OVER again. Or from the sofa to me, a couple of feet away. He beams soooo sweetly, and looks around for his audience (there's never a shortage of encouragers at our house!) before beginning. That's how we know he's about to attempt it - the beaming look as he searches us out with great excitement. So we give him our attention, and off he goes!

Yesterday, all of a sudden, he began walking more than 3 steps. He was having fun walking from me to Arthur, and back again. He would fall forwards on his third or fourth step as usual, into our arms. Then one time, Arthur sat that bit further away from him, and he kept going! Then back to me - 6 steps! He practised more after we finished the game, between furniture. I noticed he was able to stop after 3 steps in the middle of the floor, look around for a bit or even try to pick up a toy, and then carry on several more steps to the next piece of furniture! By the end of the day he was walking across the room, steadying himself (most of the time) when he started to lose his balance halfway there, taking 10+ steps without trouble, and stooping very carefully and slowly to pick up a toy before straightening back up with it, in the middle of the floor. He also started to work on getting up from sitting/crawling to standing in the middle of the floor. He would get on all fours, then to hands and feet, then push with his hands so he was just on his feet. As he CAREFULLY straightened up (he fell on his bottom pretty hard every time for a while at first), he said, "UT!" (up) :) And if he succeeded, he set off walking from there! Clever boy! :)

He is 13 months and 2 weeks old - similar age to Benjamin I think. The others before them were all 11 months - they were all walking by their first birthdays, so Samuel and Benjamin are later than average in our house. I presumed Benjamin was later because he was talking so much earlier than the others, but Samuel isn't talking like Benji was at this age. Benji had TONS of words by 13 months!

Samuel is saying, "Ut" (up), "Det-dahn" (get down, for when he wants to get down from the table after meals), "Dat!" (that - this accompanies a graspy out-stretched hand action at pretty much anything and everything!), "Buh" (birds - he says this when looking up at the birds flying over our house from the window), "Nah-nahhh" (night night, when waving at the boys and about to be carried in my arms up to bed for nap or at bedtime - they all call out "Night niiiiight!" to him when he's about to go up), "Dah" or "Dada" for Daddy, "Mummummmumm" or something along those lines for Mummy, lol! Mostly a long mmmm sounds broken here and there by a tight little 'u' sound. He doesn't use it for me at all really, but will say it when Neil's cuddling him and asks him, "Where's Mummy?!" or "Do you see Mummy?" He sometimes says, "Buh" for bye-bye, and waves so sweetly. Love him so much!

I can't think of any more words. Oh he just started to say, "Nuh" for no, with a very clear shaking of his head (he's been doing the shaking head for no for several weeks now), notably when he doesn't want any more milky, or food, or in answer to a question (Do you want any more?). He does a precious little bob for yes, but with his whole body and his neck all squished into his shoulders to tense it up, hehe! I love that - he'll grow out of it way too soon! It's the joyous look on his face and his eyes all shiny that goes with it which makes it so lovely to behold :)

I am not really making much milk any more, now that I'm 25 weeks pregnant. Benjamin and Samuel still breastfeed - Benji usually once or twice as he asks to, during the day, and always at bedtime. Benji doesn't nap any more, so he doesn't have any "before nap" milky. I haven't nursed Benjamin at night for a very long time, except if he has a particularly bad dream and wants the comfort to settle down again, but that's rare. Or if he's ill. Samuel nurses before his only nap (which he takes during the latter part of the morning before lunch, also - not coincidentally - our homeschool time). He sleeps right by my side and sometimes breastfeeds on waking, but more often than not he is eager to get up and go downstairs instead. He tells me during the day if he wants milk by climbing onto my lap (or crying with outstretched arms to be picked up) and once there, immediately sucking his thumb whilst "twiddling" at me with his other hand! ;) That's been his sign for many months, and at least it's a good clear one! Might bother me more if we did more stuff in public, but we don't, so that's fine. The "public" we do see are extended-breastfeeding-friendly and think it's very sweet! :) I do too!

So he nurses maybe a couple of times during the day. I actually find I miss it if he hasn't reminded me (if he's being particularly busy) by late afternoon, and scoop him up for a cuddle on the sofa and that usually triggers his little sign and a breastfeed. Otherwise I offer it to him anyway, and he usually goes for it. He doesn't nurse for long (a few minutes at most) and then pulls my top back down whilst shaking his head. He's nothing if not clear! ;)

He nurses on demand after he goes to bed, all through the night. I haven't done anything about night-weaning him yet, and it's much easier not to, but it WON'T be easier when Elijah arrives, so I will get to that sometime. Probably should think about that soonish, as there are only 3 months to go! :S Right now Samuel probably breastfeeds once or so in the evenings, although he often sleeps through the evening now. He usually wakes between 11 and 11.30 and Neil is still up at that time and rocks him back to sleep. He loves doing it, and comes downstairs again saying, "Aw, he's so sweet when he's just gone to sleep in my arms!" :) Yes, yes, we're not exactly helping him be independent at sleeping, but he does resettle himself countless times over the evening and night-time, as well as the odd breastfeed once I'm in bed next to him, and that evening cuddle with Neil. Also, he's our FIFTH. They've all been the same, and we've learned to give up the whole DRIVE to get them sleeping, and just enjoy the genuinely lovely aspects of a waking toddler/baby - sleepy cuddles, getting to see their cute little faces as they're asleep again, night time tummy-to-tummy breastfeeding. I would love a full night's sleep every night, but we never managed to get there even with a TON of effort and basically every method I'd read about trying, and lots and lots of stress over it all. So we're much much happier now, just going with it - it does help that we've seen that they eventually do sleep through the night consistently, lol! For our children that starts anywhere from age 2.5ish, but is already happening 50% of the time after age 2. So three of our children sleep through every night, predictably. One rarely wakes, but still does sometimes for a drink (with some fussing), or from a bad dream, etc. Sometimes Benji can be quite wakeful for no apparent reason, and get annoyed and noisy about wanting to go downstairs in the middle of the night, which is difficult with a bunch of sleeping children in the same bedroom! But they rarely get woken by anyone else awake, even if they are SCREAMING their heads off! Amazing for my babies who once woke at the slightest tread from socked feet on carpet, lol!

So it's just Samuel, and he's definitely not the worst of our babies for night wakings. He wakes to nurse once perhaps between 11pm or so and 6ish in the morning when he's up for the day. Sometimes I think he wakes more than once (or even twice?) but co-sleeping allows me to know very little about it as he nurses right back to sleep while I barely come round :)

Samuel has 6 teeth still - it has been months since he last got a tooth! He has four at the top, and two sweet little bottom ones, like all his brothers before him. Going by their patterns, I am pretty sure he's due his first molars next (they seem to get those at the same time as the RIGHT tooth next to the bottom middle two, so that should come soon too. The LEFT tooth down there doesn't come through in my children until about 18 months old!! Strange but true!). He seems a bit teethy-looking in the cheeks this week, and is drooling lots, but no sign of anything in his mouth yet. Benjamin's teeth didn't come in until around his first birthday, like Nathan's, so he is later than the "schedule" for teeth. He's 2 years and 7 months old, and I have been keeping an eagle eye out for his 2-year-old molars for some months now. Yesterday at bedtime when I had cleaned his teeth, I asked him to look up and open his mouth (mine tend to get top teeth before bottom teeth), and was surprised to see the first corner of his top right molar already through! No others looked ready to come through, and he said it wasn't hurting him. So Benjamin has started cutting his 2-year-old molars - hopefully they'll be easy enough, and we won't end up with 4 molars coming through for two children at the same time! :S

What else about Samuel? I wish I'd kept up with the "part two" post I started in draft, about Samuel, from months ago. I did part one, from 3 months old, but had to stop before I'd got to his second 6 months I think. Now there's a bit gaping hole in my blog records, photos and everything, of Samuel during that time. I still want to go back and finish it, but I can't keep putting off getting new stuff about him here while I wait to "get around to it" - I might never make it!

He's so precious! Every mother says it, I know! ;) And all my children are so precious to me! But awwww my baby! He's GORGEOUS!!! He is truly a blonde blonde baby - the first I've had, and his hair is curly! He is currently blue-eyed, and has such a lovely shaped smile, very much like Arthur's actually, now I think of it. He's so soft and cuddly and sweet-natured, and has a smile on his face almost all of the time. He is soft-voiced as well, a bit like Matthew, but less husky. He sucks his thumb a lot when he's sleepy or wanting a calm time. I ADORE him, seriously ADORE him. It doesn't matter what else is happening or what my mood is like, just to look at him melts me and fills me with joy and love all over again. Love that baby! All the boys love him so much. They all give him so much attention and desire his attention back for their entertaining antics that they put on for him. They love his funny sweet things he does, that all little ones do. They get so much enjoyment out of their baby brother, especially Arthur and Matthew, who are quite funny themselves now with their "grown up" fondness of him and the things they find funny just like Neil and I do!

Anyway! I meant to just quickly come here to post a little video clip I took yesterday of Samuel walking. I took several, but only edited one to put here. I used the longest one because it's of him walking the furthest, but Neil pointed out to me that I should have shared some of the shorter ones because he's so eager and excited and smiley in those. In this clip, he looks kind of forlorn and sad at one point in the middle, and doesn't beam and squeal with glee when he arrives at me like in the other ones. But I haven't got those ones edited and uploaded, so this one will have to do! Just imagine that he's usually way more smiley and excited than you see in this video!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
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Samuel's hair gets SO curly after it's washed, and the curls go sort of limp by several days later (they don't get hairwashes more often than once a week usually, unless there's mega food in there!). After I washed his hair one evening in the bath, it went curly as usual after it had dried, and I took some photos, mainly to send to my parents (my father's gene is responsible for his beautiful curls!). These were taken during "teeth time" and are not very recent. He was 12 and a half months old here, so just over a month ago.











His hair has grown quite a bit longer than this now, so much so that I am able to do this, in my less sane moments, haha!...



Cute though he is, I probably won't do that again. Probably. ;) When I put bunches in their hair, Neil usually insists that I give them The First Haircut the very next day, lol! But he hasn't done that yet. I can't bear to cut his hair because I'm scared his curls will all go away when I do! :S Nathan had some sweet curls before his first haircut, though just at the ends, not like Samuel's curls, and they went away after I cut his hair and never came back! :( I'm hoping Samuel's will be permanent curls (Arthur's hair is wavy and Benjamin's is somewhat as well, but none of the boys have had curly hair like Samuel's as a baby/toddler). When the curls go limp, his hair looks long enough to need a cut to tidy it up, but when it's freshly washed and curly, it looks PERFECT and I can't bear to cut it! It's short enough when it's curly. *sigh* I love every tiny thing about that sweetie pie!

And on that note, he's starting to fuss a bit in the living room where they are all playing pretty well with toys and stuff ALL over the floor, so methinks it's time to snuggle him on the sofa for a breastfeed, and then get the living room tidy and start some sort of activities with them for a change of pace before dinner.

I'm glad to be blogging again! :)

Special fish handprint craft

Another post where I want to blog RIGHT AWAY to make sure I actually do it, lol!

Neil's birthday was on January 25th - he was 38! And his brother turned 40 in November, so we are now really starting to feel like we're heading for our 40s - you know how if there's a group of siblings over a couple of families, and the eldest one of the lot sort of heralds the next decade as they enter it first?! Neil is next eldest at 38, and I will be 36 next month - Neil's sister is also turning 36 this year. My brother just turned 33. Neil's much younger sister is 25. So all of us 30-somethings are realising that the first of our bunch has left the 30s behind and begun the 40s! I can't believe how fast my 30s are passing by, seriously. They are the BEST decade by far, so far! :) Having babies, bringing up sweet little ones, starting to homeschool and see them grow and learn, having more babies. My 40s will bring and end to the child-bearing which makes me feel sad, but the parenting will intensify and the season will change and bring new challenges and joys. I should have plenty of littles still to keep me going, and a whole decade of homeschooling to fill my days! :) I will be homeschooling well into my 50s, and I'm so happy and excited about that thought!

Anyway! So Neil turned 38, and I had a project in mind to make him a special but not-expensive birthday present. Unfortunately it took ages longer than I thought to find the time and do each stage with the boys, and we couldn't work on it at all when Daddy was home. Finally it was ready today, and when Neil popped out to get some milk and bread, we wrapped it up and had it ready for him to open when he got home! The boys were sooooo excited, and I have to confess, I was equally so!

I saw some handprint fish pictures at Pinterest while searching for pre-school crafts, and it struck me how lovely it would be to have a picture with all 5 boys' handprints on it, maybe as a special thing for a card or present. Then I realised that, obviously, 5 handprints would be waaay too big for a card. The more I thought about it, the more excited I got about the idea! I didn't get to this point early enough before Neil's birthday, but I HAD to make it his present all the same!

So we went to our craft supplies chest, and chose a piece of A3 white card. The boys painted it blue with kind of watered-down blue paint. When it dried, it was a bit chalky (which I didn't expect!) so some of it brushed off and made it look uneven. But never mind. Then another day, I cleaned Samuel up after lunch and wiped the table while he was still in his booster seat at the table. I got out the finger paints and a brush, and painted his little hand in several different colours. He looked at me like he didn't know quite WHAT I was doing, but he didn't seem to mind, hehe!

I printed it in a corner of the piece of card, because I had already planned out where to put each boy's handprint. Then I called in Benjamin and did his handprint. He chose plain green for his, and wasn't overly thrilled about the process, but at least it was over quickly! Nathan had a screaming meltdown over having his hand painted and printed, and it was hugely traumatic. He's obviously one of those children who does NOT like messy play and stuff like that! I won't do handprints or finger painting with him again, if he really is so against it. Anyway, then Arthur and Matthew came and chose their colours and very happily did their handprints.

We let those dry over a weekend (couldn't do any more with Neil home!), and then I ordered a beech wood frame from a frame company I found through eBay. I wanted one with acetate instead of glass, because we have NO pictures hung around the house in frames, and I am pretty sure that someone will pull it down eventually (thus the need for something light-weight and non-breakable!). I chose one that was big enough for an A3 picture with a small mount around it.

This week we did the collage parts of the picture. We found green shimmery ribbon, and some patterned ribbon, in our craft supplies. I cut the green ribbon in a wavy shape, long ways. We glued it all on as seaweed. We used little buttons to make the air bubbles coming up from each fish, and googly eyes for the fishies! They loved doing the eyes for their own fish. I used a Sharpie marker to make the smiles, which ran out just as I was doing the last smile (Benjamin's) - thankfully it's acceptable because that was our last Sharpie marker!

We found some sparkly holographic star sequins which we glued on here and there, mostly in the seaweed, as tiny starfish - they particularly liked that part too! We had to use LOADS of glue for the collage parts, to keep them from falling off. It dries clear so that's fine.

Then we let it dry! The frame arrived, and I put it in there yesterday. Today we had chance to wrap it, and voila! I wrote on the back of the picture, "Happy Birthday Daddy! January 2012" and then underneath I wrote "Arthur - 7, Matthew - 5, Nathan - 4, Benjamin 2 1/2, Samuel 13 months" because I wanted to record their ages for when we have had it on the walls until they have their own children (I love the picture so much, I think we probably will!) and then wonder how old they were when we made that picture.

So here is a photo of our finished product! It has come out a bit darker than the wood and paint colours actually are. The top row of fish are (left to right) Nathan, Benjamin, and Samuel's handprints, and the bottom row are Arthur and Matthew's handprints. Neil LOVED that all the children had put their handprint on the picture. It's so pretty to look at, makes me smile every time I glance over at it, and is a wonderful keepsake. I am SO proud of it, and thus wanted to blog it right away before I lost track of stuff and didn't get around to it.



After I found the handprint picture at Pinterest and had my idea, I searched the web for images of crafts that people had already done like it, so that I could see some examples of what I wanted to create. I am SURE people must have done it already, but I didn't find anything. NOT to self-promote in any way (!!), please feel free to pin this picture if you want reference to something to make with your own littles, because it would have helped me to have a picture like this to work from, if I had found one on Pinterest at the time. There are so many great projects out there, and I'm finding myself inspired almost constantly in one crafty way or another these days! :) So much fun!!

Pinterest love!

These days, I am totally in love with Pinterest, as many people seem to be! ;) There are just SO many ideas out there, and if I find anything, anywhere on the internet, that I'm interested in, I can pin it in a second to a categorized virtual pinboard. This REALLY helps me with my foggy pregnancy brain, because I can't remember a thing I found or where I found it these days, lol! So it's great to go to my "ideas for the boys" or "school ideas for my 1-4 year olds" boards (I have LOTS of boards!), or even my "recipes" board, and see my options for new things to try that I already love the look of. Or a new recipe - never going to lose that once it's pinned! :)

Pinterest is really inspiring me to MAKE stuff for the little ones' school time. There is so much out there, so many crafty mamas have made some awesome stuff for their littles - particularly Montessori type stuff. I love the things I'm finding! I am itching to get crafting, but just don't really have much time for it. I just love the idea of making things that my little ones can use and really learn from, and which can be passed on to other toddlers as we have them. I especially like the frugal ideas, so as to make great stuff for them to learn from AND save money! :)

Last night I finally got chance to repurpose an old tray we've had for years, and don't use. It's a chrome-edged, wooden-based tray, and the wood was pretty stained and cracking a bit. We have other bright coloured trays and never use the old wood/chrome one. I saw this coloured car playmat that someone made for their little one to practise colour matching with, and LOVED it. I pinned it right away and forgot about it. Then a month later I saw this colour match car parking activity in exactly the same style, but this time placed inside a tray for a Montessori "tray" activity for a pre-schooler, and I pinned it immediately.

Finally I have made my own! I originally planned to make a card/paper coloured car park like the examples, and use it as a tray liner for this old tray, but when I got the tray out to measure it, I realised it would be really cool to paint it in there permanently with acrylic paint! I LOVE painting in any form, so I was thrilled to get the paints out last night and start mixing colours! :)

Here is the finished article. I am SO pleased with it! :) I matched it up with cars for an activity for Benjamin's workbox today, and ALL the boys were so excited when they saw what I'd made! Benjamin had no trouble matching the colours and naming them all, and loved playing with it for about 45 minutes after initially doing the matching!



I'm so pleased with it that I wanted to blog about it right away, and knew I needed to just DO IT rather than hope I found time later! I should always blog this way! Mind you, now lunch is running late, so I had better go and get that done! School is already finished for the day :)