Week in Review (well, fortnight!) - June 21st 2013

I forgot last weekend! So I'll try for a general review covering the past fortnight this time! :) I'm not sure if I'll be all that consistent, but I'll try - and thank you for the sweet comments on my first try at this, last time! :)

Week in Review

In my life this week (fortnight!)...

My pregnancy is going well! I'm 22 weeks now. I have had a growth spurt (or rather, the baby has!) and my bump is much bigger than before. I'm feeling well and it's SO nice to have my stamina back. I get tired and breathless fairly easily, but I have normal stamina now - I can stand to sing worship songs with a baby in my arms at church and not feel faint, lol! I have had the MOST joyful couple of weeks since we found out that we're having a baby girl, and I think it's sinking in properly now. :) I have already bought quite a few items of VERY cute girly clothing at eBay, and I'm trying to slow down a bit now because I know that Neil's sister and my brother (who each have a daughter) are passing on ALL their girly baby clothes to us in the coming months! Yay! :) It's so exciting!!!!

In our homeschool this week (fortnight!)...

Well, my memory is now completely hopeless, so I am not sure if I can even remember last week! Arthur had another history lesson with Rosanna (my doula's daughter) which he had a great time doing - he made another part of some medieval armour he's been working on - he has done the shield, and this time he made the breastplate. It's sized to him so he can wear it and have a lot of fun doing so! ;) He does a lot of writing and "book work" with his history lessons, as well as hands-on stuff and crafts, little plays, etc.  He really resists written work for me, so I'm glad he's doing SOME at least, elsewhere!

We've done some conversational maths with Matthew and Nathan this past couple of weeks, here and there - usually as they're getting dressed or ready for bed. They seem most open to it then, and take in more too. Nathan has no trouble understanding any concepts (so far). Matthew struggles with almost everything, in his head, but he seemed to take in and comprehend the addition stuff we were talking about in casual conversation. Hmmm...

I ordered 'All About Reading' Level 1 this week. We have 'Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons' which we used with success, I guess, with Arthur when he was 4-5 years old. He was bored by Lesson 70, and by then I wasn't sure if it would work for Matthew, so I researched and bought Rocket Phonics, which is GREAT! Arthur was away with reading by then and would have done well anyway, but following through with Rocket Phonics made a big difference. We got halfway through the 2nd (and final) textbook, but haven't done any more. There are some grammar tips in the remaining lessons which would be handy to do with him, but otherwise he is reading fluently at almost teenage level so I didn't think it was necessary. He reads for several hours each day (silently), but he likes to read things out to me that he's just discovered and which interests him (nearly everything, lol!), so I make sure I get to hear him read frequently and correct any mispronounciations. He still makes mistakes, but then he hasn't been formally taught some of the more complicated rules of reading the english language. I think I will look for a grammar curriculum at some point soon to fill in the gaps.

Anyway, I have been teaching Matthew with Rocket Phonics, and he loves it, and he IS progressing, but painfully slowly. He's not really reading, even though he can sound out the words and sentences at the stage of the book that he's at, just verrrrrrry slowly - and he retains almost nothing for the next lesson. I have had my eye on All About Reading for many months, coming across excellent reviews, and testimonies from people who have dyslexic children who are something like 9 years old and still not reading, etc. Also we use All About Spelling and it's FABULOUS, so I am already leaning with a bias towards trying All About Reading. I talked about it with Neil and he said YES, buy it and try it out. It's SO expensive, so it wasn't an easy decision! I was going to buy the pre-reader level for Nathan and eventually Benjamin and the others, and maybe to let Matthew fly through first for confidence, as well as Level 1. But the cost was too much, so I ended up going for Level 1 alone. I think he will be fine starting that without any pre-reader stuff. He doesn't know his alphabet thoroughly enough yet, though he has a pretty good grasp of his phonics alphabet - he just doesn't retain much so he may have forgotten half of it already! :/ I need to run over that with him first. And I feel confident doing an overview of the alphabet, uppercase and lowercase letters, and phonics sounds with Nathan before starting him on Level 1 straight off, as well. I have told them both that I've ordered it, and that it will be FUN! :) The bonus is that we're tracking it from Wisconsin (it's on a plane today!!!) and they are loving that each day! :)

Arthur has spent many hours this week (and last week, but more intensely so this week) following his history reference books through the wars and using whatever is at hand to recreate the strategic battle plans, and then acting them out with the pieces. He LOVES doing this right now, and he is learning a TON about the various historical wars. Mainly the First World War this week, but also wars worldwide from hundreds of years ago. He knows so much stuff that I don't know, now! I actually thought to take a couple of photos of him doing this around breakfast time this morning, so I could add it to my review post here! :) He chose to build simple army components out of Duplo this time, to re-enact some of the battles in the first world war.

Arthur has various BIG history reference books that he reads for pleasure, but this one he's using is The Usborne History of Britain. It's HUGE, and absolutely fantastic. My mum bought it for him, for his 8th birthday (if memory serves!), and he has read it cover-to-cover more times than I can count since then, and dips into it daily for his latest points of interest. It covers history from prehistoric times to modern day, and is full of photos and charts and so on, and the text flows really easily for kids to read, from what I have seen. When Arthur reads with interest, he retains pretty much everything, so he has the most amazing grasp of British history now! The things he comes out with when other adults randomly include him in conversation about something in British history from 1000 years ago or something, usually makes them lost for words for a moment, before thinking what to say next. They usually catch up with me at another time when he's not around to express their awe at his knowledge and compliment me (ME! Haha!) on the homeschooling progress! ;)

We've started the Apologia Science curriculum (Zoology 2) on sea creatures! Arthur has decorated a blank workbook by cutting out pictures of various sea creatures, and we've started work on the reading (we take turns reading aloud, but he read today's in his head and told me he remembered what had been read MUCH better that way, so I guess we'll go on like that then!). He is so excited with the material and can't wait to do all the experiments. So far we've done the first little one, creating gyres (circular ocean currents) with Cheerios and a hair dryer (and a brother blowing, since we only have one hair dryer, lol!):

 

 

He is doing some writing and drawing to fill in the various worksheet options (he isn't interested in all of them, but that's fine), and they're being glued into his workbook, along with photos like the one above, to show experiments. Right now we're trying to drink down a 2 litre bottle of cloudy lemonade as fast as we can, haha! We need it for the next experiment with a balloon, to demonstrate deep sea underwater pressure. I am really excited about this new curriculum! It gives tons of ways to stretch their "muscles" learning-wise, and it's FUN! We can record it, that's another plus, because Neil is really keen to have things recorded in case we are called upon to show what we've done at any point (which I know we have every right to refuse, in the UK, but anyway). I really like that aspect!

Arthur's interests spill over onto his brothers constantly. He draws them in with such enthusiasm, into his battle strategy games, sea creatures stuff, archaeology, dinosaurs, weather - any of his interests which flare up at any given moment. He CAN'T be ignored, such is his infectious excitement about these things, and they just get carried along and end up learning along with him, which is wonderful!

I have tried working on colours with Samuel this week - he is exactly two-and-a-half today! Halfway to another birthday already! Yikes! I have a sneaking suspicion that he is colour blind. Arthur and Benjamin are not. Matthew and Nathan are. Arthur and Benjamin knew a dozen colours with EASE (I told them once what a colour was, and therefore they knew that colour from then on) at 19 months old or thereabouts. Matthew and Nathan didn't know their colours, even the basic ones, consistently until somewhere between 2 and 3 (nearer 3), and even then it wasn't a dozen of them until more like 3.5. I only worked on blue, yellow and red with Samuel, and he didn't retain it at ALL, and couldn't tell me which was which afterwards. Soooo.... I know that's very little to go by, but a mama of many boys, some colour-blind, some not, KNOWS! ;) Or probably does. Now for Elijah - it'll be a while before we have any clues with him yet. And our baby girl will NOT be colour blind, but I'm hoping very much that she doesn't carry it (like I did, and which she has a 50% chance of doing).

Samuel has been doing lots of spontaneous practical skills this week, things like pouring water. He likes to go round after everyone has left the table and pour what's left of each glass of water into one empty glass. He is learning the limit and what will make it overflow, and I've noticed his ability to pour carefully without spilling is really good for his age. He likes Montessori activities and gravitates to them constantly, so I think it would be good to set up some of the many Montessori activities I've pinned to Pinterest, for him to do.

Elijah is climbing, being strategic about placing toys, boxes or sofa cushions in specific places to enable him to climb somewhere he wants to be, opening and emptying cupboards, and has finally mastered taking magnetic letters and pictures off the fridge, and having them facing the right way to stick them back on properly again! He spends ages doing this over and over at the moment:

 

The main thing Nathan wants to do right now is draw. He wasn't well last week and the thing that seemed to cheer him up and improve him the most was when I let him have his dot-to-dot colouring book and some paper, pencils and crayons in bed for a while. He builds and creates a LOT, always more imaginative and complicated things than his bigger brothers, and he spends a lot of time and energy doing so. He gets very upset when things are damaged by careless brothers, poor love! I hope he'll be receptive to the reading curriculum, because I'd LOVE to teach him to read now. He wasn't interested in learning to read yet, last I knew - which was some months ago now.

Benjamin plays, draws, (he still scribbles, like his brothers at his age - he'll be 4 in a few weeks, so if he's like they are, he will suddenly start drawing recognisable things overnight pretty soon), builds things, enjoys fine motor activities, spends hours with playdough, etc. Nothing "academic" yet at all - he ISN'T ready in the least, and it astounds me to think that despite being 3 (and NOT READY!!) he would be donning a school uniform and heading off to proper school in just over 2 months if he wasn't joining his homeschooled brothers! Some kids MIGHT be ready, but unsurprisingly most are not, and my summer baby certainly isn't. I have no plans to do anything academic with him this year, and maybe not for the first part of next year, depending on how he naturally progresses over that time. We'll see. NOT on my radar yet.

So much for a quick review post!! :/ I just can't do "quick"!!

Places we've been and people we've seen...

We've been to our old church twice in the past fortnight, with our usual church the middle weekend. Both were special occasions, and the boys have LOVED seeing their old friends and doing fun activities. There were games and fun stuff, and a bouncy castle, etc.

Matthew's birthday was last Friday and now he is SEVEN!!! Nathan came down with a temperature of 100 the night before, and a sore throat, but he seemed fine the next day, thankfully! Rosanna came round and Matthew requested some party games that are for littler children than he is, but he just wanted them so we did them. He wanted pass-the-parcel, pin the nose on the clown, and musical bumps, balloon bobbing, etc. They had so much fun! He didn't want a party with a bunch of kids (which would overwhelm him anyway, even if he was excited - his autistic-type tendencies mean he doesn't deal well with party-type situations in general), but we have almost enough children for a proper party anyway, so it works! ;) He got a kite for his birthday and wanted to go out to a big field (dog-free for Arthur) in the afternoon, and we had PERFECT kite-flying weather so we went! Rosanna came too. I have a ton of photos, which I desperately want to find time to post as a separate post here, for memory's sake, but I know that I've not managed to do that for MANY birthdays now, despite really wanting to. :( So I'm not sure if I will, but I will try!

Nathan was fine over the weekend and then on Monday he was crying with tiredness by 10am and slept until noon. When he woke he was dizzy and nauseated for 3 hours! :( Poor boy was so miserable! He recovered gradually and then was FINE, running about in the garden with his brothers and eating normally again. Weird virus! Then on Tuesday evening Benjamin was flopping about exhausted before he's usually tired, and when I took his temperature it was nearly 101 and he had a sore throat. :( He had chills and aches and nausea overnight and was pretty miserable, but FINE the next day like Nathan had been. A bit more tired than usual, but that's all. Thursday night (last night) he had a temperature of 100 at bedtime, but wasn't distressed with it, and he's been complaining of a poorly tummy (he couldn't define it as nausea or pain so I'm not sure exactly how he felt) on and off in between. It hasn't affected his energy or appetite, so I don't know what to make of it! I'm wondering if tomorrow will be the day he has dizziness and nausea like Nathan did? And if anyone else will come down with it - it seems to have at least a 4 day incubation period before symptoms start, but overall it's just SO WEIRD!!! :/ We haven't seen people because of not being sure of our germy status, these past couple of weeks, so we'll see how we go over the next week.

The boys have been out in the garden a lot because the weather has been gorgeous and warm. The last couple of days have been colder and with heavy rain showers. The boys had water play, chalks and paintbrushes, etc. on the good weather days, and had a huge mud/water fight which necessitated immediate baths upon entering the house, hehe! Fun times! :)

Things I'm working on...

Keeping up better with the housework. I have energy and a slightly less foggy brain again, so I'm trying to tackle kitchen chores at the start of the day and it makes a big difference. I clean up breakfast, start the dishwasher, put the night load of wet washing in the tumble dryer, and start a new load of laundry in the washing machine. On a good day I will sweep the floor! ;) I change nappies and dress little ones, then get myself washed and dressed, and then it's time for Elijah to nap, usually, as all of the above takes half the morning! Once Elijah's napping, the boys have usually been too noisy while I put him to bed, and their well-known consequence for this is 10 minutes of silence (nothing whatsoever to do/read) sitting on the living room floor when I get downstairs. Right after that I read aloud a chapter from Wind in the Willows, which they love, even if the littles don't understand all of the language. Then there is an opportunity for school type activities, and then 'Lijah wakes and it's time to make lunch. Elijah is clingy and screechy if I'm not holding him or RIGHT THERE within sight lately (well, the last couple of months really), which is tedious during times of pressure like getting a meal ready on time! I need to enlist the kids to help with chores and meals and so on. They are really resistant and it's hard work with the Asperger's Syndrome reactions. I need to work on a new way to tackle this. They do entertain Elijah for me as best they can, and often very successfully, while I start lunch. The afternoon is free-flow. I need a bit more structure, maybe. I am working on thoughts anyway. I also want to work on getting back to more focus on God in our days.

I'm cooking...

Who knows!! lol! It's been one of those weeks where I have no idea whether I'm coming or going when it comes to meal planning! Three times I had no idea what to give the kids for dinner (when it was already half an hour late) - they did get fed, by the way! ;) Neil and I have had a takeaway twice after the boys were in bed asleep. I had to throw out two packs of minced beef which I'd planned to make into spaghetti bolonese, because it has been "one of those weeks" and I forgot/didn't think in time before they went past their dates. :( I HAVE baked banana cake twice, and chocolate chip cookies today though! And a chocolate "house" birthday cake, as requested by Matthew, of course! :)

I'm grateful for...

Healthy children. And that this virus seems very mild. And that it's not Lyme Disease - Nathan was bitten by a tick about 21 days before he started being unwell and I was beginning to get worried about that, with how weird the symptoms were. Then Benjamin caught it from him, so yeah - phew! ;)

Kicks from my baby girl! :)

Summer time!

I'm praying for...

Wisdom and patience in parenting my more difficult children.

This virus to go away! We have our annual family gathering for my grandfather's 88th (!!) birthday on July 6th and CAN'T go if we have any sort of virus lurking about, given how old and increasingly frail my grandparents are. I couldn't BEAR that! :(

Something I have my eye on...

Still baby girl clothes, lol! ;)

Shoes that are small enough for my tiny walker (he's a proper toddler this week! Hardly any crawling and steady, faster toddling EVERYWHERE!) - I found two pairs of shoes in size 2F (!!!!) and 2.5F on eBay, so hopefully he'll fit one of those (probably the smaller pair right now) and can actually have some protection to his feet outside now!

That is a CRAZY long Week in Review post!!! Have a good weekend and week ahead, everyone! :)

Benjaminny, and a few other bits and pieces

I can't believe he will be 3 in July! Of course July feels like ages away, because it's still like WINTER outside this week (tsk!) and there's the whole add-a-new-member-of-the-family thing between now and then. But it's only 3 months! My little manny is somehow two and three-quarters! I have about 5,000 paragraphs of sweetness that I could happily sit and write about Benjamin this morning. But whatever I type has to last the length of a cup of tea, while the boys build a Winnie the Pooh fort of some kind in the living room, and then I need to take sweet Samley to bed. I really should write an update on just random stuff about Samuel too, because I know I haven't done that when typing "Samley" is a new thing, even though that's what I call him about as often as "Samuel". I wish I had more tiiiiime to write these special memories down!

He's so giggly and assertive and chunky around the chest (since he was born - he has some really defined chest muscles, this boy!) and snuggly. He is usually being a little "cweature" who squeaks and makes cute faces and wants his mummy! He snuggles such a lot, and still breastfeeds in the day time. If he has a nightmare (rare) I will nurse him at night on occasion too. He is SO PRECIOUS!!!!! I love my little Benjamoo.

I just planned to post two things about Benjamin today, so I'll get on with it! A couple of weeks ago, Benjamin and I made brownies - actually Nathan did as well, but Samuel was napping and the older two boys were experiencing the consequences of poor behaviour choices by sitting in corners, so they missed out unfortunately! Nathan did not want to taste the batter, when the brownies were in the oven, so he went out of the kitchen, and Benjamin gladly took on the whole responsibility of cleaning the bowl! ;) He LOVES anything sweet and was very pleased with the batter! He made me laugh because the more he tasted, the more giggly and silly he got! It was almost as though it went to his head or something, lol! I took some photos of my sweet silly boy tasting brownie batter. He was showing me his "taste" on his finger and then eating it while giggling like crazy around his finger! ;) He eventually gave up on the slow scooping method, and started licking the bowl, hehehe! He got brownie batter in his hair big time. Sweet in even more ways! :)











The other night I got into his bed to breastfeed him. He sleeps on a shorty mattress on the floor underneath Matthew's cabin bed. We decided on that when he moved out of his cot, as a makeshift "bunk bed" that would be safe for him with nowhere to fall out of bed. It's a full sized cabin bed width-ways but shorter by about 6 inches (or is 9?). Anyway, we found it on eBay. Did I ever post pics? The big bunk bed is still there and the cabin bed matches it exactly - it was a great find! :) They've been happily installed there since May 2011. Arthur is on the top of the main bunk bed, Nathan below him, Matthew on the top of the cabin bed, and Benjamin below. I found the photos that I took in May, but Blogger is being extremely annoying and refusing to let me open any picture files to upload right now! >:-/ So I can't do that, but I will try to find time to update on the bedroom changes, since I can't find any evidence of having posted about it here before now!

Anyway, so the routine at bedtime is still that I get into Benjamin's bed and breastfeed him. He nearly always falls asleep nursing, which is precious, and I cherish it because I know it won't last much longer! He loves his milky. After he's asleep, I go to Nathan who has usually already fallen asleep, and kiss him goodnight. If he's still awake I get in with him to snuggle him and give him "back-a-rubs" as he calls them! :) Then Matthew, then Arthur, except now that I'm huge and pregnant, the boys who are up ladders have to come down onto the futon bed on the floor (where Neil sleeps for ease of dealing with night-wakings and less disturbance to his sleep than if he was co-sleeping with Samuel and me) for their snuggles. I pray for each boy as I do their snuggles and back-rubs.

Anyway, the other night I got into Benjamin's bed with him as usual, and he didn't go straight to breastfeed, which surprised me. He was just looking at me with a little smile in the semi-darkness, big round eyes all shiny. He looked so happy and secure, and it was wonderful to see him look at me that way. I waited and he didn't do anything different for a few moments, and then in a soft little voice, he patted me and then himself, saying, "Das you, an' das me!" I said, "Yes, that's right." and he said it again, almost to himself, "Das you... an' das me", did a big happy sigh, and lay down to nurse. Typing it out, it doesn't seem so special as it was, but I HAD to record it somewhere because to me that was an absolute Memory Treasure. It was an example of Benjamin expressing his security in our sitation. Him and Mummy. He looked so happy with the world around him, and his voice was so soft and.... something, I can't put my finger on. It was a lovely moment and I don't want to forget it.

He has so very many cute little sayings and ways of pronouncing things, and I SO want to make note of them all! I haven't got time now, but my current favourite is, "I 'pose so, Mummy..." when considering something I've suggested, usually when it's not what he originally agreed with. I love his use of the phrase, "I suppose so" and his way of pronouncing it. He uses such a grown-up, serious expression when he says it, and it's a moment to support him in his seriousness, but I have to work hard to fight the urge to sweep him up off his feet and smoosh his soft little cheeks with kisses for 5 straight minutes! ;) He's such a cutie pea pie and I love him so much!

He has a strong and assertive personality, most similar to Arthur's (out of all the boys) but without the tendency to be anxious and fretty and fidgetty that Arthur has. He is very confident and takes charge easily amongst his brothers. I could see that in him even when he was a baby, well before he was old enough to act on that potential with them! ;) He DOES have typical shyness of new people though, but warms up quite quickly now - much quicker than he used to. He is TERRIFIED of dogs. Shaking, sweating, screaming, TERRIFIED. Of even the tiniest dog in the distance. He even gets like that on occasion when he sees a dog on the TV, so it's more than the anxiety one or two of the boys have had over dogs at the park. Dogs do bound up to them and act playful at the park, and Benji has had a few experiences where he was totally taken by surprise, and once a dog bigger than him pushed him down and even with Neil there shooing it, it would not go away until the owner (SLOWLY) sauntered over and took it. He is so very scared of them now, poor lovey. We have been considering getting a dog to help him with his fear, but the thought of adding a pet with lots of care needs to a large bunch of very young children plus homeschooling is overwhelming right now. Also we need to ascertain if anyone in our household is allergic to dogs before we do that. Neil is allergic to cats (since we met actually, he wasn't when we first met) and has various other triggers to his asthma and hayfever that we don't even know the source of, so it's possible I guess. We've never been in a home where there's a dog, or spent any time with a dog, so I suppose we don't know if any of the boys might be allergic either. But the general thought amongst us all is that we will probably get a dog at some point in the future. The boys actually think it's a great idea, even though all of them are nervous to varying degrees about dogs.

With his assertive personality, Benjamin also tends to be pretty in-our-faces with grumpiness or defiance when he disobeys us. He has phrases like, "I not listnin'!!" with his hands covering his ears and his best frown on. He has been saying, "Stupid Mummy!" a lot in recent months, when he's cross with me, but I've noticed he hasn't said that much these past few weeks, since I have been RIGHT on him to discipline every time he does it. He is sweet-natured in general and loving and kind towards his brothers. He is very concerned when somebody is sad or hurt, and tries to make them better, as all of them do.

I love his little chipmunky voice and the little quirks and mannerisms of his speech, different from all the others because they are unique to him. I can't even get those across in type, so I will have to try to take some video of him to record it for prosperity. Our "video" is a fairly basic point-and-shoot camera and the audio is really poor. Even right up close, the sound is distant and fuzzy, which is such a shame. Our really old point-and-shoot camera that finally died when Nathan was born, had a MUCH better microphone and their little voices were crisp and clear when recorded with that. Oh well.

Benjamin knows his numbers but not letters, though he holds up our fridge magnet letters on a daily basis at the moment and asks me, "What this one?" over and over, and I tell him. I don't know if he's retaining any though - I guess he must be to some degree? He's only 2, and my 2, 3 and 4 year olds learn through osmosis generally, now that I have two homeschooling at school age. I don't task myself at ALL with teaching the littler ones anything at all. I provide activities that they might learn from but they are meant to be independent activities for the most part. They're fine. Nathan learned his numbers and some phonics sounds without any attention on it from me, as Matthew began his school lessons last year. But I have no concerns with a 5-year-old knowing absolutely NOTHING of numbers or phonics or letters when they start school. The curricula we have are excellent and they'll pick it up in no time when they're old enough to actually do school work. Before that, it's play play play and stimulating activities. If they learn as they go, great! If not, no big deal. They are learning though! :)

One thing we do as a group is Bible time at the beginning of school every day. It's first because God is first. We are in Romans now - a chapter a day straight from the Bible. We started with Matthew's gospel at the beginning of the New Testament. After the chapter, we do Bible Memory Verses. We have a system, which I think I mentioned before but have no time to check/link right now. They have learned a lot of verses. We never do a verse or two. They learn whole passages, and with ease too. People usually assume little children (or even older ones) are only up to the task of a single line to memorise as far as Bible verses go, and think it's amazing when they do! They can learn SO MUCH MORE. I have taken a few videos of Arthur and Matthew reciting their memory verses, quite a while ago so I haven't got record of their more recent ones, and again - no time to find and post right now! What I really want to do is get Benjamin on video, but it's hard to clearly understand his pronunciation and he sometimes just acts silly when he's being videoed! ;)

He has learned the whole of Psalm 1 - probably about 8 months ago, just after turning two, and since our system means we go over ones we've already learned regularly, I have him repeat that quite often. He knows it well, but mumbles a lot of the words together. If I can help him say the words clearer then perhaps I'll video him doing it. He LOVES saying it! Nathan won't join in at all, though he sits with us, but Benjamin has been eager for his turn since he was tiny and not really able to say stuff yet!

Arthur and Matthew can recite Psalm 23, Psalm 121, Psalm 1, Psalm 100, Psalm 9:1-2, and then shorter ones that we started with at the beginning - Romans 8:28, Philippeans 2:14 and Ephesians 6:1-3. We are about to start Philippeans 4:4-9 because it's such a useful passage to have in your head when you need it, about anxiety and worry. Arthur knows some of it already because I use it to help him when he is having trouble with panic or anxiety. He has some issues - I haven't had chance to write about it, but yeah. He's very like me, unfortunately! Poor boy with his genes! He's phobic about vomiting and has many many other frets and worries. It's a personality thing, and my mum and I are the same way. Overcoming it is such a HUGE battle, and it's the single most complicating factor in my entire life, not easy to live with. I don't want that for Arthur! :( But I am praying for him and trying to help him, and at least I understand him.

Anyway, getting off-topic and taking too much time on the computer now, so I will stop! Must get my little tiny to bed - he is stumping around on his sweet little toddly leggies right now, with a pirate hat on his head that is way too big, saying, "Maowwww? Maowww?" because when I say the word "cat" he says "maowww?" in such a cute little high-pitched baby voice, associating cat with meowing. He hasn't cottoned on yet that hat isn't the same as cat! ;) It sounds the same, I can see his reasoning! Cute little beep! Going to snatch him up and try not to eat him on the way to bed now :)

April homeschooling update! (long!)

I have changed the weekly schedule a bit for homeschooling. Matthew was finding daily maths too frustrating, and there's no actual NEED to do maths every day for a 5-year-old (or even a 7-year-old), so I decided to try doing the basic "maths, handwriting and reading" routine on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, instead of every single morning. The idea is that on Tuesday we do history, handwriting, and reading, and then on Thursday we do science (astronomy) which incorporates handwriting. So far the reduced maths is much better for both boys, though last week was a short week because of the long Easter weekend and we just did 3 days straight of maths/writing/reading, and the boys were fine with that too. I think it helps that Matthew's maths has changed in this past week - he's getting fairly near the end of Right Start Level A, and there's no more number work for him until Level B! Number work really frustrates him, even the easiest stuff that I can't break down to be simpler! I am definitely seeing improvement over the weeks all the same. But now he will be learning to tell the time; measuring lengths, weights, and liquid volume; learning some basic fractions; working a little with geometric shapes and tesselations; and also geometric solids. He is REALLY looking forward to all of that! By the end of Level A, which I am hoping we'll finish before the baby is due in 6 or 7 weeks (SIX OR SEVEN WEEKS, PEOPLE!!!!! How on earth?!?!), he should be able to tell the time, and the "prize" for completing Level A is a watch from Nana :) He's excited about that too!

Arthur has just finished a fairly intensive section on mental strategies for adding two 2-digit numbers together. It has meant he actually has to use his brain and be challenged, which apparently is "RIDICULOUS!" and "SO UNFAIR!!" and just "TOO FRUSTRATING FOR WORDS!!!!!" This has made maths with Arthur just soooo much fun lately! ;) He has grumped about saying he can't do it (because he doesn't want to try, or make mistakes, which inevitably happens when something is a challenge and you're new at it) and generally taking absolutely ages to complete his maths work. I have found it so hard to keep my cool with him - it is not easy! But he has just sat there until he has completed it, and eventually he reaches a point where he decides to actually tackle it, struggles with the first few equations, and then gets the hang of it and has a real sense of achievement at the end. I always remind him of that pattern the next time we have the same issue, but he does the same thing anyway - albeit acknowledging that I was right just before completing his work! ;)

He is moving onto other stuff next week, and he's thrilled about that (me too!)! I have to look ahead a bit to see what's coming up for him, but I know he has some calculator work for a couple of lessons, and he LOVES using the calculator - it's used very very little in this curriculum so far, as equipping with mental strategies is the main focus. He revisits fractions and geometric shapes soon, and then he's adding thousands and FINALLY beginning subtraction! :) He has begun subtraction last week without me being allowed to teach him the terms "minus" or "subtraction" just yet. He calls it "take X away from" and finds it easy, so hopefully he'll have no issues with it once it's formally taught. He also starts the "times table" (or skip counting) with the multiplication cards next week, but he's not going to be doing multiplication itself until near the end of NEXT year's curriculum.

Talking of which!! We have some funds this month to enable me to buy curriculum, so I have had THE MOST fun shopping for curriculum items that I had been researching and bookmarking for the past year. I bought Right Start Mathematics Level C!!! Exciting!!! I got the Level B to C add-on package, because we have most of the manipulatives already. There's a note in Arthur's maths book (Level B) this week that says there are 20 lessons left and it's time to order the next Level, but since we're in the UK I thought it would be wise to order it ahead. It hasn't arrived yet. I am pretty sure we won't finish Level B before Elijah is born - if he is born at/after my due date and all is well beforehand, I plan to homeschool up to the week before my due date anyway. We will be taking a big break after he is born. He's due May 23rd and if he comes around that time, the earliest I would be looking to restart homeschooling would be the first week of July. I am definitely thinking of taking the whole of June off school, but I'm relaxed about when we start back - I don't have a set date at all. Benjamin's birthday is July 9th (a Tuesday), so maybe we won't even start back until we get a full week free, the following week? Or maybe Elijah will fit in with our days so smoothly and we'll be chomping at the bit to start in the last week of June? Who knows. But I'm not worried about it anyway - I will think about it a few weeks after I give birth and go from there. The boys seem a bit put out to be stopping school for allll those weeks! ;) I told them they can still do workbox activities to keep them busy, and Daddy will be home for the first two weeks after Elijah is born anyway, so they'll go out and such, quite a lot.

So when we DO start back, Matthew will hopefully begin a fresh new curriculum, starting Level B before Arthur has quite finished it. Arthur shouldn't have more than a couple of weeks or so left of Level B lessons, and then can go straight on to Level C from there.

I also ordered Morrell's Handwriting Book 2 - there are two books of photocopiable worksheets, and we have been using the first one this year. Their handwriting is improving, more noticably with Arthur. He needs a little more work on how he's forming his letters, though the finished product of his sentences is getting really neat and tidy now. He is eager to do joined-up writing, so I have bought the second book (which focuses on cursive writing) in anticipation. I think he'll move onto that sometime over the summer or autumn, but I am not sure about Matthew starting that with him yet.

Arthur is doing great with his reading! He is near the very end of the Rocket Phonics curriculum, which is roughly a 2-year course (though you go at the child's pace for however long, basically) from knowing no phonics sounds, to reading at secondary school level. He was better challenged by the last section he did in the book, having to use the "helpers" to decipher some of the words for the first time since the early months with the curriculum. Words that stumped him without the helpers were things like "colonel". At the end of that section he had another test, which I wondered if he would struggle with a bit, since he had been more challenged in that section. He had a list of 100 words (or so) to read straight off as I pointed to them. I thought he might be okay because he had to get 85% of them correct to be ready for the next section. He got one word wrong! I was so surprised! :) He has moved onto stories at a Year 7 reading level (6th Grade) in the next section and is learning about 'ph' sounding like 'f' and 'eu' sounding like 'yoo', that sort of thing. He reads on and off throughout the day, just picking up one of several books that he might have on the go, and reading on the sofa or floor (oblivious to the many small boys gallavanting around him!) for a while and then suddenly hopping up and joining in somebody's game or activity, or starting something else of his own. I sometimes suggest he takes a book upstairs to flop on someone's bed to read, but he rarely does. He prefers to just be amongst everyone and read! I think that would drive me crazy, if it were me, but he prefers it anyway.

I recently put his reading books in a more accessible place for him - they were next to our school bookshelf already, but in clear plastic boxes stacked up, and they looked messy and were not easy to pull books out of when he wanted them. I just wanted them out of the way of the littlest boys (the smallest of which eats paper for a hobby, lol!). I saw an idea on Pinterest for using wooden spice racks from Ikea for little bookshelves, and LOVED it immediately. I love how it's such a space-saving idea, and we need that kind of thing desperately in our tiny house! I kept a look out on eBay for ages, and finally won a lot of 4 Ikea spice racks for a few pounds plus postage! :) They've been here months, but I only got round to getting out the power drill and installing them last weekend. I wish I had a "before" picture, but here is the "after" picture all the same!



I love how they match the beech furniture we already have, and how clean and attractive the look is, with the books facing out. Arthur is so excited to have his books stored there, and takes a book down from there many times a day, replacing it carefully not too long after. I think it's a novelty effect, but he is loving using the shelves! There wasn't room for all four shelves there, but I used three of them, and they store just under 40 of his reading books, which is not bad! His main choices at the moment are Roald Dahl books (lots of giggling from behind a book!), and he has recently picked up Tom's Midnight Garden for the first time. He LOVES Matilda at the moment. He has read all the Roald Dahl books many times, like the Enid Blyton ones, but he never tires of reading them over and over again, sometimes the same book twice in one day! I'm thankful that he's not bored with a book he has already read, because otherwise I would be starting to panic at keeping up with supplying books for him to read! He reads the Little House books and occasionally has a go at the Paddington Bear books as well. I recently added a couple of things to his collection - a compilation of Mrs Pepperpot stories (which he read in a day) and also a box set of the first four Boxcar Children Mysteries. Those are American stories that I had never heard of, let alone read, until recently. But the reviews from friends and Amazon customers alike persuaded me. I am going to read them first though, but they look lovely!

Arthur reads a lot of reference books outside of the story books, mainly geography and history, but some science stuff as well, and nature. Whatever takes his fancy really. We have quite a few good reference books for older children that we've been given, which are just right for him when he is interested in something.

The black boxes on top of the school bookshelves in the photo are our workboxes. I can't remember if I've put a photo of them here before (or even taken one?!). We buy nappy wipes in boxes of 12 packs at a time (I have three full-time in nappies - soon to be four if I don't do something drastic like potty train someone! ;) ), and those boxes seemed perfect for repurposing. I just covered them in black sugar paper and made labels for the fronts with each boy's name. Samuel doesn't have a workbox - he's only 15 months old, but I made them before he turned one and now at 15 months he is VERY eager to be involved with workboxes, and if there was space on the top of the shelf I would add one for him now. It's the perfect size for 4 boxes, so I just put extra in Benjamin's box at the moment and give Samuel one of those when we start workbox activities, so he feels involved! It's usually something like a container of plastic safari animals or something like that. I cleared out the mess under the school table recently and have used several more nappy wipes boxes to contain baby toys and things under there. Ideally I would like a piece of slim-fitting furniture to go at the back under the table, to contain stuff, but I am biding my time on eBay! ;) I added some toddler jigsaws (the lift-out peg type), their yellow giant peg board, and a couple of other toddler activities that Samuel is really interested in, to keep at his level. He plays with those things a lot at the moment.

The TV is another eBay win - our house is starting to be made up of mostly eBay wins, haha! Our old TV broke, and we had no money to buy a new one. It wasn't a big deal since the boys haven't watched ANY TV other than DVDs since March 2010! Two years of no CBeebies - I can't tell you how overjoyed I am about that! ;) They were so hooked on it before. They have times where they watch too much TV (DVDs) but I am trying to limit it. In a good patch, they rarely watch any, but we haven't had a good patch for a while... Anyway, I found a flat screen TV the right size to sit in front of the school bookshelves (conveniently blocking little hands from getting into the games and puzzles inside the cupboard doors!) at eBay for £30! :) It was local enough for Neil to go and pick up, and it seems barely used to us. Yay!

Oh this isn't very "school update" ish, is it?!

So I bought one other curriculum item that I had been watching and wanting for a long while - All About Spelling! I am really excited about it! So far I haven't done any spelling at all with the boys, and I like this programme a lot. But it uses its own phonics alphabet, and it differs slightly from the Rocket Phonics alphabet, so I didn't want to confuse the boys by using the two side by side, before they were confident readers. I decided to get to the point of completing Rocket Phonics and then replace the time spent on that during school with All About Spelling. So Arthur will start spelling lessons soon, and Matthew will not for a while. He is now reading sentences and doing well! He's much more motivated and excited about reading now that he can actually read things that make sense to him, but his progress is much more slow and steady than Arthur's ever was. He isn't slow, he just isn't Arthur, and that is fine. The whole thing is a big learning curve for me. I know how to teach an "Arthur" so far, and that is all! Matthew isn't like Arthur, he's just different, and so I must learn all over again how to teach.

We are not really getting history done every week, nor science. I am not stressing about it really. The boys are eager, and if we have chance we do those subjects, just working through the lessons. Sometimes they behave horribly during the main part of school and the consequence of that is they don't get to do the fun stuff that would have followed if they had behaved better for me and not delayed things. I reeeeally hope they're learning from this! If they are, it's a slow process, but sometimes Arthur seems to make the connection.

I actually decided to split lesson 2 of the Apologia Astronomy course (The Sun) into four different lessons, and made a lesson plan for each one with some extra activities. I like a more relaxed approach and it allows us to explore the subject more thoroughly anyway. I like adding craft projects where possible, so it helps me fit that in as well. The boys are on the young end for the course, so breaking it up and adding crafts is good! :)

In history we have done two projects that the boys have really enjoyed! Using 'The Story of the World: Vol. 1 - Ancient Times', we're learning about the ancient nomadic people of Egypt who settled at the Nile where the land was fertile. I didn't go for the activity suggestions that were made for the first chapter, so we started on one I made up. It turned out great, and it has taken us weeks to complete it, adding bits and pieces here and there where we've found time. I decided it would be fun to make a diorama with "mud huts" - which we had just been learning about the nomads building by the Nile.

We started with a piece of thick cardboard (unbendably thick), and drew a wavy line near one end to mark the edge of the River Nile (I keep typing Neil, haha! I guess those letters are normally arranged that way when I type them!). The boys painted a sheet of aluminium foil with blue acrylic paint, and after it dried, we cut it to the wavy line shape on the board, and glued it on. While it was drying, the boys built their mud huts! I cut wide strips of corrugated cardboard and bent it into a "hut" shape, and cut a doorway on one side. Then I cut a square for each flat roof, and hot-glued them to the huts with my trusty glue gun! ;) The boys LOVED watching me use the glue gun! They tore up strips of kitchen roll and used watered-down white glue to paint layers of glue and kitchen roll onto their huts for some texture:





That was the end of that session, because everything needed to dry. The acrylic paint had dried really fast though, so we could cut the river to shape and glue it onto the board:



We had to wait a while before getting a good chance to do another "messy" session! The next stage was gluing sandpaper to the rest of the board (cut to the shape of the river edge) for texture. After that was dry, the boys painted most of it green with acrylic paint, leaving a little bit of "sand" for the edge of the river. They also painted the dried mud huts brown, and then we left that all to dry:



On the next session, the marvellous glue gun came out again, and I hot-glued the huts to the board. The boys glued on some shiny fabric fish that we had in the craft chest - a pile of "caught" fish by the river, and one still swimming (Matthew begged! He really feels for creatures being caught!). They tore up a couple of cheap green scouring pads to glue on as bushes and shrubs, but that was unexpectedly hard work for little fingers, so the bushes are rather square looking! That's all we got done that session, but I didn't get a photo.

Over the next week or two, every time we went to the park, the boys picked up a few little stones and twigs to add to the mud huts diorama. Finally we gathered them all and since they were small enough, we didn't need the glue gun, so the boys used white glue to stick them all over the land. They had so much fun making the diorama, and the only change I would make is to try and gather everything before starting, and then focus on getting it done in a shorter time-frame. They enjoyed it anyway, but doing it over a week or so would have been better than a month or so, I think! Arthur is going to write a label to go with it, saying what it is, and then we need to find somewhere suitable to display it for a while. Here's the finished product!




The next history project we worked on was an activity straight out of the curriculum activity book - I LOVED this idea! It was about farming the land by the Nile. They learned about flooding and irrigation, the way it happened seasonally. I bought a big foil baking dish for the project and some potting soil. The instructions called for grass seeds, but those take 3 weeks to grow and we don't have the space to have soil and manky water sitting around for 3 weeks without flies and smells bothering us! So I bought cress seeds instead. Those can be harvested within a week, and you can eat them! :) Real crops!

We followed the instructions and made a foil river bed in the soil, and weighed it down - instead of using pebbles and stones, I chose to give the boys some of the blue glass pebbles that I had bought at Poundland recently, because I thought it would give the water a nice blue look.



We made the river fan out into a delta in the north, and the boys put rocks on the south-east part of the Nile to represent the mountains from which the floods would come. They sprinkled all the cress seeds over the soil, and then they took turns filling the river with water.



The idea is to flood the Nile and irrigate the soil like in ancient times, and then wait to see how the crops grow from that episode of flooding. If we used grass seeds, we would re-flood every week, but a one-off flood was all that we needed with the fast-growing cress seeds! They were SO excited to flood the Nile that they were just squealing by the time the river was near to overflowing! After the land was flooded, they got to work adding a few plastic animals from our collection that were appropriate for Egypt - just some gazelle type creatures and a few hippos! Apart from flooding the Nile, I think their favourite part was making the hippos wallow in the mud! ;)




The seeds started to sprout within 36 hours, and ALL the boys were really excited to check them many times a day. There was always a noticable difference between breakfast and lunch, and then again from lunch to bedtime. I'm really pleased to have chosen the cress over grass, because it was much more satisfying to them with how fast it grew. It was great fun to do! And I was GLAD to harvest the cress and clean up/throw away the project after only one week. The river went down as expected over the week, right to the pebbles, and it became kind of yucky with a film over it. It didn't smell too great as we were cleaning it up either! I am so glad not to have kept that hanging around for another couple of weeks! Here's their Nile project exactly one week after starting it, just before we harvested the "crops" and cleaned up. You can see the water looking kind of yucky. And look how tall the cress grew!! The animals were hard to find! :)





Phew! That's long enough for one entry! I think I covered everything I wanted to, for now, so that's good! :) I will post photos when we do a project for history or science, because it's fun to keep track of what they are doing and we don't have a printer so I can't print out pictures to put in their history and science workbooks :( So it's good to have a place to record it all, until we eventually get a printer.

I will hopefully be back soon. I have sooooo many other things that I want to be writing about here, but as always, so little time to do so! I have lots of photos to post. I will try to update again soon. I know I am WEEKS behind at my pregnancy blog, so I need to update there next, when I get chance!

New Academic Year, 2012!

So. Very. Behind. With this blog! I have so many posts in draft, started but nothing much more, and even those are well out of date now! I think I am going to have to follow someone's wise advice (can't even remember who now!) and copy and paste the odd snippet from Facebook if I feel they're relevant to the blog. I really want to keep track of our lives - of the boys and how they are growing and changing, and of me on my journey as a mother (and my other roles!).

We are just beginning our third year of homeschooling, which is hard for me to believe! We follow the calendar for our academic year, beginning by the end of January and going through to December - this started when I was behind with the work I was doing with the boys when pregnant with Samuel, having taken 3 months off from school when I was morning sick, and then knowing he'd be born in December. I figured it was better to just catch up the months we'd missed in the autumn and call our year finished at the end of the calendar year instead. That would be great for a long break over my immediate postnatal period, and then I also realised how much better it would work for the way my little ones have their birthdays. Instead of half my kids starting school RIGHT after turning 4, they'd be at least 4.5 in January. And those who have winter birthdays would start school as they turn 5. I much prefer my little ones not to do anything academic until they are five, rather than four, as the schools do it in the UK. Anyway, so it worked. Samuel was born in December, and we started school loosely from February. We haven't been consistent really, this past year, but it has been Matthew's first year of school and he has not been as ready as I'd thought he'd be, so it was fine to go slow.

Arthur is now 7, and will be 8 by the end of the academic year. He's THRIVING in school. I can't gauge his reading level yet, but we're working through Rocket Phonics at his pace (which is as fast as I'll let him go with a daily lesson/reading session from the curriculum book) until it's finished. He's 3/4 of the way through, and currently reading 4th grade material (Year 5 for the UK - if he was attending school right now he would be in Year 2). He is reading it fluently with inflection on the speech and so on, the first time he sees it, and not using the phonics helpers ever, so I'm pretty sure he's beyond this grade level. We will keep on until something challenges him or until he finishes the book. I think it finishes at 7th grade level (Year 8, age 12/13), but I'll have to double check. Pretty sure he'll be challenged by then though! He reads a LOT in his spare time. He has been reading anything by Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl that he can find - so far I've given him the Faraway Tree stories, the Wishing Chair stories, George's Marvellous Medicine, James and the Giant Peach, etc. He has been reading the Little House series and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I think there are other books I've seen him with his nose in, but I can't think off the top of my head what they are right now. He has no trouble with any of the aforementioned books and they are just a fun read to him. I love seeing him sit around so still and quiet and then suddenly giggle like crazy as he comes to a funny bit! Sometimes Matthew looks up and goes over, and then Arthur reads the part to him, falling over the words because he's laughing! I can't wait until Matthew is doing the same, and I know Matthew can't wait either.

Matthew is 5 and a half now, and will turn 6 in June. He has been doing the early phonics games most of the year, and in the last month or so of our school lessons (November mainly), finally seemed ready to start blending the sounds together to read simple words. He just did not get to that point until then, and I was happy to wait and continue the games. He loved the games anyway, but he was becoming impatient to be able to READ, especially seeing Arthur take off like he did last year. So this year (today!) we are starting the actual reading section of Rocket Phonics for the first time, and he read all the words on the page without much trouble! He was SO proud of himself, and *I* was so proud of him too! :)

The boys haven't got the best grasp of handwriting, and I obviously wasn't doing too great a job of that with them last year! ;) So I bought a British curriculum with rave reviews (same handwriting style that they'd be learning in school if they went) called Morrell's Handwriting - Right Start. It's photocopiable worksheets, and whilst it's a bit dull for them to do, it's really good at getting their handwriting correct. Matthew doesn't have great control with his handwriting yet, but Arthur's is improving quickly. They are not joining their letters yet. I have them doing worksheets on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and on Tuesday they write something about themselves, or "news" about their week, or an interesting thought or memory - I help them if necessary by writing it out first as copywork - and then they illustrate it. Thursdays we do science (or will do from this week), which has a built-in handwriting page! :)

They are still working through last year's maths, which is fine with me. Matthew is working on Right Start Mathematics Level A, and is about halfway through. He is doing fine! Sometimes he enjoys the lessons, sometimes he doesn't, but he's progressing fine. Arthur is halfway through Right Start Level B, and mostly enjoying it, and finding it very easy so far. He doesn't have any trouble spots, except that he finds it tedious to repeat anything. He likes to "get it" immediately the first time he learns something, and gets irritable about going over it again for review, or another way of finding the same solution. I TOTALLY get him, as I was the same with learning as a child, but it's rather exasperating as the teacher! ;) He is both frustrating to teach and a delight to teach, as nothing is a struggle for him except for his attitude!!

We are beginning history and science this year, for both Arthur and Matthew. The curriculum we chose for science is Apologia Science - Exploring Creation with Astronomy. I have been so excited about this curriculum for a couple of YEARS, but knew I had to wait a bit longer to start them on it! Now finally I can! :) I have the textbook and both the notebooking journals (the normal one and the "junior" version), to cater for older and younger children as the need arises. We will do science once a week on a Thursday afternoon, and the read-aloud part will be something any of the boys can listen to. The activities will be just for Arthur and Matthew, and the bigger projects and experiments are going to be reserved for Saturdays here and there, for Neil to be involved (the boys LOVE it when Neil is involved in school!). The astronomy course should last us at least the whole school year, and after that I will probably go for the botany one :) So much fun to see them learn, and love learning! And I'm learning too!

I chose 'The Story of the World - History for the Classical Child' for our history curriculum, starting with Volume 1: Ancient Times. The boys are so so so excited about history and astronomy! History is going to be every Monday afternoon (today!), once a week, just like the science, and I guess we'll work through it until we finish the book (not sure how long that will last us), and then move on to Volume 2 (there are 3, I think). There is no hurry at all with this curriculum, and we can linger on certain topics as much as we like if the interest holds or we have a ton of projects and rabbit trails to follow on that particular subject. I LOVE the flexibility of homeschooling! :) History is very much like the science curriculum (Bible-based as well) - a big part of it is read-aloud, which any of the boys can take part in, and then activities, map work, and crafts/projects for Arthur and Matthew. Big ones will be weekend projects with Daddy's involvement, as well :)

This year I am getting more organised on records. I don't need to be - there are no checks, and no requirements in the UK at the moment. But I am starting to really want to record their progress, and save their work as the year goes along. I already made them maths workbooks (blank exercise books), into which I stick every worksheet they complete or every geometric shape pattern with card stock that they create, as per the lesson plan, etc. I am even going to photograph Arthur next to his Thousand Triangle that he made over the course of several lessons last year (it's waaaay too big to put in the book!) and stick the photo in there too. Matthew has one as well, and when they get filled up, I start another one, and keep going.

I just started a handwriting workbook for each of them as well, and I'll be sticking in all their handwriting worksheets and "news" pages with illustrations, over the course of the year. I am also going to start each boy with a workbook for science and history, to keep track of their work on those individual subjects as well. It feels better having a record of it, for them to look back on and enjoy, and for me to flick through on BAD DAYS and feel some encouragement, and also in case things change with the law and I need to provide evidence of their schooling. Plus, I am one of those people who has a slight passion for school supplies and new exercise books in particular! ;)

Before we started school this week, we did two weeks running up to it of "practise school". I wanted to test out the workbox system to see if it would suit us, and get the boys used to the routine of school (having had NO routine of any sort before then!). Honestly I needed the practise more than they did, to get myself in gear for all the preparation, and seeing how it might work to plan activities for their workboxes. I should write more about workboxes and what they are (for those who don't know about the system) and how we use it (loosely!), but I have run out of time. I do have quite a lot of photos of the boys doing their workbox activities from the past two weeks (especially week one) as I wanted to record it HERE! Yes, I do still think of my blog a lot, and LONG to update, but just never ever (ever) get the chance or the energy. Or else I forget at the only available moment, and then that moment is gone.

For us, because of lack of space, "workboxes" are four reclaimed nappy wipe boxes (the ones that have 12 packs of baby wipes in them - we go through a lot of those, lol! And the boxes are a good size and sturdy). I covered each one in black paper, made a vaguely decorative label for the front of each one, and put each boy's name on the front. So we have workboxes for Arthur (7), Matthew (5.5), Nathan (4 - he turned FOUR this month, can you believe it?! My tiny Nathey!!), and Benjamin (2.5). In each boy's box I put three activities - that's all I started with, planning to move it up to 6 by the time we started "real" school, but it hasn't been necessary to increase them, because I am not planning to put academic subjects in there now. These are fun activities, and mainly for the preschoolers to feel like they are taking part in school - and they ARE, because their activities challenge them too. The workboxes also serve to give the bigger boys a break from the more challenging academic stuff.

The first week, I just used whatever fun manipulatives or interesting activities we already had around the house, or locked in the school cupboard (and thus not used for a while - great for novelty effect!). Here are the boys doing some of their workbox activities on Day 1 (Jan 16th):

One of Arthur's activities that day was a Kumon workbook (pasting) that he had started at age 5, and then it got put away for some reason and never completed. It's age 4-6 but he was excited to finish it off, and had this activity in his workbox several times over the two weeks until he finished the book. He enjoyed it so much that I am getting him the jigsaw puzzles workbook that comes after it, just for him to have fun! :)



Matthew was in a similar position, with a couple of early Kumon workbooks unfinished - cutting and pasting ones that he started a couple of years ago. They are easy for him but he enjoyed doing them again. He hasn't quite finished them yet, so he's still getting those in his workbox.



Most days, I gave Arthur a big reference book that he hadn't seen before, to read and explore. A friend from church gave us a big pile of fantastic children's reference books from when hers were younger! They are history and geography mainly, much to Arthur's delight! He spent ages reading those.



Nathan had not had much interest in the preschool manipulatives the last time we used them regularly (a year ago maybe?), and was TOTALLY into them this time! He was by far the most thrilled with school over the two practise weeks, and kept saying how much fun he was having! He will be turning 5 as we start the next academic year, so will start proper school then. This year I am just watching him for readiness on any areas that he's interested in (phonics games maybe?), but otherwise not encouraging him to do anything academic. Pre-writing skills though... and cutting and sticking, and fine motor skills. Just play otherwise though (sometimes geared towards getting ready for next year!).

His activities on Day 1 of the practise weeks were, Melissa and Doug's See and Spell, lacing numbers, and drawing with crayons. He was still just scribbling with different colours whenever he did any drawing, but by the end of the first week he was drawing an excavator with caterpillar tracks (!!!) and a tornado with rain and puddles!! I could not believe the transformation! I guess he was just ready to move on?! You can see his Day 1 scribbles in the photo (and Matthew beyond him doing the Melissa and Doug geometric pattern blocks).







Benjamin's activities were, the giant button board - he LOVES this one! We got it for Nathan for his 2nd birthday and it was a big hit. Nathan still enjoys it for fun sometimes, and has had it in his workbox now and then, though it doesn't stretch him at all any more. Benji also had easy lacing beads, which he really could not lace yet and so that activity didn't last long, but he enjoyed acting out stories with the pieces, bless him! :) He also had paper and crayons, but decided instead to have a meltdown tantrum. Such is the life of a 2-year-old! ;)





And Samuel woke up just before we finished the workbox activities, and generally made a cute monkey of himself, eagerly trying to get at all the stuff! We had some activities taking place at the kitchen table (gated off from the living room), so anything with small parts or puzzle pieces went in there. He's such a cute little peep! I can't believe he's 13 months old already! :-O



I have a ton more photos from our activities that first week, which I still want to post! But this is long now, and I've run out of time. I also wanted to copy and paste a reply to someone at Facebook about how we do school, in terms of lining up the lessons, etc. It's not very long (by this blog's standards, lol!) but it's there in a nutshell, so I wanted to paste it here for safe-keeping!

"Right now we are doing Bible, maths, handwriting, reading, history and science as set lessons, and following their interests in other areas. We only started history today, and science will start on Thursday (once a week for both). Basically I have to work around the little ones so that we have minimal disturbance. The current "hope it works" plan is Bible with all 5 boys on the sofa (read aloud, memory verses, etc), Samuel down for his nap in the morning, then 2 and 4 year olds watch an educational DVD, something preschool curriculum approved or whatnot for maybe 30-60 mins while I teach maths to Matthew first (Arthur does handwriting then is free to do his beloved weather searching on the internet), and then Arthur (Matthew does handwriting and explores starfall.com). Back all together for a snack, then we start workboxes (all 4 boys have a box with 3 activities each in them - jigsaws, cutting/pasting/colouring activities, logic games and puzzles, fine motor skills stuff, montessori do-dahs, etc.). Matthew's first item is always phonics/reading with me. Arthur follows right on from Matthew with his reading, then they are free to do their workbox activities as they like, while I get Samuel up (usually by now) and spend time with the little two doing their workbox activities. History and science will be afternoon lessons (no particular scheduled time) and the read aloud parts are for any boys who want to listen. We're done by somewhere between noon and half past. :) It actually flows very smoothly, but the hardest part is the work put in to prepare everything. I do the general week-ahead prep at the weekend (photocopying, lesson planning, preparing crafts, etc) and then need to plan and fill each boys' workbox the night before every week night, and also prepare the older two boys' maths lessons for every week day the night before as well. I think it will get easier with repetition and time, but for now I am DONE IN, and going to bed! Thankfully the lessons are basically laid out for me from various curriculum options we've chosen, so it could be worse! :)"

And there it is. FINALLY a blog post actually covering a decent amount of stuff about our lives at the moment!!! :) So pleased to have it written down, and I will try to come back and post the rest of the photos soon, before they are old news. TRY. I'm also behind on the pregnancy blog so I need to catch up there too! I'll be 24 weeks pregnant this week with my 6th baby boy! I can't believe how fast it is going. I'm so relieved to be getting nearer to a time when he would survive outside the womb if he had to, and I can't wait until May to meet him! His name is Elijah Douglas. I don't think I mentioned that here yet? But please don't share that news until he's born! :)

My boys....

.... are growing up so fast! I took a few photos of them this evening, having finally found my camera charger (though I have lost my special lens!!!), because the light was nice just before sunset and they were playing around near the window. Looking through them makes me really see how each boy is getting "older" as well as bigger, even though they're all still so little.

Baby Samuel (not at the window, but still from today! :) )...



At almost 6 weeks old he is getting so big and sociable lately! He is smiling (contrary to the above photo, hehe!) and cooing all the time. He is outgrowing his 0-3 month baby clothes and I have started to put him in 3-6 month baby clothes in the last few days (like the outfit he's wearing in this photo). I have no idea what he weighs right now but I guess I'll find out in the next week or two. He's BIG! That is all. He's GORGEOUS, and ohhhhh I love him!



Little Benjaminny is 18 months old. I love him completely completely completely. He's still breastfeeding a LOT (not at night though) and is very giggly and cuddly. He is lately spicing that up with a lot of stubborn screeching, hitting his brothers, and full blown tantrums. Fun times! ;) He is cutting his first set of molars right now - the top ones are through and the bottom ones halfway. For a month now he has spent ALL DAY LONG with one hand or other in his mouth, whether he's talking, playing, even eating sometimes, poor love! He's very cheerful though, and not too symptomatic other than that. He has only got 2 little bottom teeth other than the molars, and 4 at the top in the middle. Sweet baby! He plays with vehicles non-stop:



Here he is at the window, looking at birds (they were all flying west for the sunset - Arthur calls it "the evening line of birds" - and they enjoy seeing them every day):





Laughing at Mummy! :)



"Helpfully" trying to put the lens cap back on my camera as I take his photo! ;) Yes, that is a small part of a day's laundry folded on the school table.



Benjamin and Nathan play together a lot now. They all play together, and there's no particular cliquiness between any pair or threesome. They just play, sometimes individually, sometimes all four, and sometimes just three of them or in various pair-combinations. Nathan and Benjamin have lately been doing a lot of rough-and-tumble play and do NOT know when to stop, being so little and inexperienced! Urgh! Here they are looking at a CD case together for some reason!



Nathan is 3 (I still have to say it to believe it!), and he's just precious. VERY stubborn these days, and although he's small for his age, and such a very LITTLE one for a 3-year-old in many ways, he is very strong-willed and assertive with his brothers (and parents!) and has no problems standing his ground during play times. He is testing the waters a LOT lately with saying no and refusing to obey and things like that. He is also whining like crazy which drives me up the wall, but unfortunately for Nathan, I simply do not understand a single word spoken in a whiny voice and cannot do a thing about it unless he uses his "normal voice". So that helps! ;) He's picky picky picky with food and has the sweetest mannerisms and STILL such a tiny chipmunky voice (much to my delight!). He still keeps his monkey and blankie near him most of the day, and walks around the house with them sometimes too. He is lately very shy about having his photo taken - either he stubbornly WON'T, or else he gets bashful to the point of being upset and doesn't want me to even point the camera at him. I am not getting many photos of him these days therefore, so the ones today were actually taken by whipping the camera in his direction, focusing and clicking in a split second! I have a few from today where I took about 2 seconds to click, and by then he had already dipped his head shyly, started saying, "Nooooo, I don't wannnnnt you tooooo!!!" or moved away from the shot. So these few were QUICK FIRES, haha! They just happened to come out nice, which I am happy about! :)




His little feeties! :)



Matthew-Binks, ohhh my sweet little Matthew! He is growing up too fast! He is 4 years and 7 months old, and suddenly growing longer - I don't mean taller, although he IS growing taller at a faster rate now, but more that his arms and legs are having a growth spurt, so his porportions are becoming so much more BOY than little one. He's a serious monkey and life is never ever dull with Matthew around. He's energetic verging on the "that can't be normal!" degree, and I frequently have to give him quick fire exercises to do just to take the edge off, you know after that 3 hour walk he just came home from! ;) He will jog on the spot for 5 minutes and giggle the whole time for some reason, saying he will NEVER get tired, lol! He's difficult and delightful. I do not know what to DO with him, but I do not know what to do WITHOUT him. I love him! He starts school tomorrow and he can't wait! :)

Matthew NEVER lets me take a decent photo of him because by default he pulls some appauling face and won't make any sort of normal face. The only chance I have is when he's laughing so much about the face he just made! So I have lots of laughing photos of Matthew! ;) I sometimes bribe him and Arthur (ohhh they are a real pair, those two!) to give me ONE normal face if I take a bunch of photos of them turning their eyelids inside out and that kind of thing (yeurgh!)! Sometimes that works. Today I just about gave up - the nice light was almost gone, and he was still just making crazy faces. I got a couple of him looking at the birds, and then that was about it!




Silly sausage! :)



Arthur - look at my BIG boy!!! How did he get this grown-up and big?! He looks even more grown up after the haircut I gave him last week. He seems so tall lately too (even though he's still little really). He is 6 years and 2 months old, just about the best big-brother-to-many in the world, and beginning to be ever so helpful around the house. He thrives on housework, lol! I should have known he would - there were early signs! ;) He is excited to start back to school tomorrow, and is basically just enthusiastic about everything, except obeying (unfortunately). He continues to be VERY difficult, behaviour-wise, and we just find ourselves at our wits end, but everything about him is intense, including the GOOD stuff. He is so lovely! I'm excited about his next year of learning, to see how he grows and develops. He also does not let me take nice photos very often, and the best ones of him are usually the ones where he's laughing at Matthew (this constantly occurs at our house!):



After that, the sun set, and it was so pretty tonight! I wish we didn't have so many BUILDINGS in the way of seeing a beautiful sunset! This was the best view we could get, from the front window. When we move, I hope we'll find somewhere somewhat less built-up and with more green space outside. Anyway, pretty sunset! :)



Oh what a hard job it is right now, to raise alllll these little boys who are still so young! But I wouldn't change a THING, not one tiny thing. Well, except that if I could go back and do it again I would be more effective and consistent with discipline starting much earlier than we finally got around to it. We are reaping the consequences and it's so so so much harder to try to nip things in the bud now that they are older. Heed the warning! ;) I LOVE my job! It's the most rewarding thing in the world, and ohhh the bonuses and perks are like nothing else! I feel so blessed right now to have all these different stages of childhood under my roof. I have an inquisitive 6-year-old, learning and growing at a fast pace, excited about getting his first wobbly tooth (not happening yet!) and so on. But I don't have to just remember the earlier stages that I loved. I still have a fun, energetic 4-year-old who is excited about starting school, loves painting and gets into all sorts of mischief. But I don't just enjoy these two and remember wistfully the sweet earlier stages they went through. I still have a precious little 3-year-old who pronounces things soooo sweetly and comes out with funny phrases, who snuggles and loves his Monkey and Blankie, and still looks like a baby when he sleeps.

How blessed I am right there!! But I don't just enjoy my three treasures and think back to the baby days and miss them. I still have a darling 18-month-old who squeals with glee at games of peek-a-boo, and his favourite story books, still snuggles up to me to breastfeed, and is busy cutting teeth, starting to do that cute bobbly toddler run, and say all sorts of new words. Such a precious stage! Growing and changing so fast and not so much a baby any more. But I don't have to feel wistful about that because I still have a sweet newborn baby to cuddle and smell, and nurse and dote on, and enjoy all the smiles and coos, and look forward excitedly to when he learns to do all the things his big brothers are doing at their various stages.

I. Am. Sooooooooo blessed. Seriously, I can't get my head around it. I have to pinch myself sometimes, and wonder that God has chosen to bless me this way, with five children, five sweet little boys. I feel sort of guiltily greedy praying for more, but ohhhhh I do! With everything in me I am longing for more! I love this journey so much, I love being mummy to each of my boys so very much, and I can't wait to start the journey all over again with another sweet little boy (really, I can't imagine we'll start having girls all of a sudden, now - can you?!). I don't know what lies ahead beyond a 6-year-old, having no experience of parenting children older than that, but I'm excited about it! And wonder what fun it will be to be enjoying all these stages with my little ones and to throw a 7-8 year old into the mix as well! :)

Well, it is getting late and I need to make sure I have everything ready for tomorrow before going to bed. Samuel is 41 days old tomorrow and by law I have to register his birth within 42 days. I completely forgot!!! I did have the odd reminder from the Health Visitor and such, but promptly forgot as soon as she'd left, so whoops, I need to go to their drop in appointment when they first open in the morning! Then on Tuesday morning, Samuel and I have osteopath appointments at the same place where Benjamin was treated. Just an assessment for him, and HELP! for my pelvis and back for me. So very glad the time for our appointment has arrived! I will try to update again soon! :)