James' Preschool and prep for K

 I didn't feel like James needed to go to preschool away from me, but felt like he needed something to do  to keep him occupied while everyone was at school and to help him learn a few things, so I enrolled him in the free online preschool program run by the state called Upstart. It uses the Waterford preschool program and is quite academic. I don't really care if he does great at it, I really just want him to do it to keep him busy.

When I enrolled him I told them that we had a computer he could use to do it on, but then the computer got damaged by the lightening and so when we went to the orientation, I told them about that and they supplied us with a computer for him to use. How nice! He's been very excited to have his 'own' computer. And thankfully the kids have been able to use it for their homework as well. 

The requirement of the program is to do the reading portion for 15 minutes a day. But they suggested we as parents require 20 min a day, which will move them more quickly through the material and have them better prepared for school when they go next year. So I do require James to do 20 min of reading and 15 min of math/science 5x a week. And he is very diligent. It's the first thing he does after eating in the morning. He has progressed nicely through the program and is now reading. He struggles more with the math, but I know that will come as he gets a bit older, so I'm not worried about it. Here are some pictures of James during the last few months, as we have done 'preschool' and helped him get ready to go to the grade school next year.

James had to go with me to the orientation in Blanding and had some evaluations done, 

so they'd know where to start him out.

Working away at his 'own' computer.

His first day using the program. He's feeling like a big boy!

Other parts of James' day and ways he's growing and getting ready to go to Kindergarten...

He likes to watch a little video after doing his computer work.

He often wants a 'picnic' 

He's hard to resist. This day it was a bit early for lunch so he had cookies and milk.

When the weather was nice, he practiced riding his bike, trying to get the pedaling part down.

After the weather got colder, we pulled out the Wii so he could do it for some exercise and call it PE.

running on WiiFit

bowling

Boxing

Way to hit him!

golfing

baseball

Way to go, HOME RUN!!

Sometimes we play games...

this is a consonant as the first sound matching game. He's got them down.

 We did go to a play group a couple of times during the winter so he could meet a few kids who will be in his same grade. He was shy the first week, but got braver the next time. I haven't done a good job providing him with social activities, but with a large family, you get lots of interaction at home.

Its somewhat hard to believe that he will be in school next year. He's really growing up and becoming a boy rather than a toddler. I am thankful for his chance to use this program, as I think it will help him feel 'smart' when he starts. I just hope he doesn't get too bored and shut down. He is now reading and working on a 1st grade level. So fun to watch reading click for my kids. I hope James learns to love learning and school and will be the best student he can be! Watch out MES and world, here he comes!

'School' for James

I decided to do a little preschool with James this year since he and I would have one-on-one time in the afternoons. I found a fun little curriculum at Brightly Beaming. It focuses on learning the letters, shapes, colors, numbers, etc. Sometimes it's been hit and miss, like when apple-processing took over my life, but we have had fun with it. James really likes the number learning because he gets to stick the correct number of stickers on the number pages and he likes the number matching game I made for him. He is doing well with learning the names of the letters and how to write them. He is particularly fond of A and H. Down, down, over! He has gone from demanding that I color his letters and pictures to happily doing his own.

I love this little guy and his quick mind. I have to persuade him to participate at times, but when he finally does, we always have a good time together.....

learning about 'squares' by making square cookies

practicing writing B in rice

we have a little poster that we put all the week's information on as we learn about it. 

James was standing on a stool with a flashlight, turning around to be a 'lighthouse' (not very happily)

learning about stars...did you know there's a star in every apple?...

Good Things:

people willing to share their ideas and hard work 

solo time with James

Just Random Thoughts and Pics to Share

Another of our 'fun' inquiries. The girls were to research and make a "macaroni" hairdo out of shaving cream. You can't tell from the picture but they each had either a 'queue' or ponytail hanging off the back, or a bun. This was tons of fun for them until it came to the clean up part. They had shaving cream EVERYWHERE!!!!

Just a few pictures from Halloween. If you know me, you know I have an intense 'dislike' for Halloween. Therefore I do not go all out for it and I'm happy(?) to note that my attitude seems to be rubbing off on the kids. All but the youngest two decided not to dress up and go trick-or-treating. (14 year old changed his mind at the last minute and went out with friends). But we confined our celebrating to carving pumpkins, answering the door to trick-or-treaters, and eating the leftover candy--trick-or-treaters were gone by 7:30. We made jack-o-lantern pizzas and watched a movie as well. We did dress up the Soren and Sadie and let them go up one side of our street and down the other. Can't figure out why the girls laid out the plastic and then carved the pumpkins on the concrete anyway. What was the point?

Curtis has been working on building himself a larger shed in the place our old small one used to be. Part of the project included removing the concrete pad that was the floor. It was such a difficult task, he had to recruit some 'help'! Any bets on how effective this 'help' was? It was the cutest thing ever. You should have seen his eyes light up when Curtis asked him if he wanted a turn. (he does have eye protection on, it's just hard to see)

Pregnancy front: Just did the glucose screen last week. Haven't heard back yet, but don't anticipate any problems. I did get a call that my iron was low, so back on iron pills I go. Ick!! I've only had problems with this in these last two pregnancies. Wonder if it's because I'm so "old"?

Mission front: Doing well, from what we hear. Still busy working in several small towns. Has one really good investigator family they are working with. Hopefully, that will lead to some baptisms. He loves that he is within the two hour radius of the temple in Billings so that he can attend the temple once in a while. He was able to go last week. He said it's getting cold, and snow has been seen. Hope he's warm enough. I need to get some Christmas things together for him. 

So excited for Thanksgiving. It is my favorite holiday!! Interesting that it follows on the heels of my least favorite...Hmmmm. Looking forward to time with family and lots of yummy food.

Inquiry Fun!!

We have been trying to make working on our 'inquiries' as fun as possible. Just thought we'd share a couple that have been lots of fun for us. This is 13 Colonies Twister. We (Mom) drew a very lame map of the 13 Colonies on our driveway. Mom had made a card with the name of each colony on it as well as a card for each hand and foot. To play, Mom would read which body part and then the name of a colony, and the player had to try to reach them without falling over. Hannah gets the award for the person most able to contort her body in strange positions and still stay in the game. This was a highly requested game and in fact, it became Math Facts Twister later in the week. We drew a grid on the driveway and numbered it to 24. Then Mom would roll two dice and pick a body part card and the player had to add the numbers together and put the correct body part on the correct number. We only did addition, but will probably do a subtraction one in the future. This is a 13 Colony quilt that the girls made from paper squares. They made a square for each colony and wrote on them the name and how the name was chosen. Then they had to figure out a pattern for the quilt and how many other colored squares they needed to complete the pattern and then tied it all together. This will hang in our History Museum at the end of the year.

Our Noble EPIC Adventure

One of the things we do with each topic is to "mind-map" the Key Points of the topic at the beginning of our study. This is to share pertinent information and excite interest in the kids to do further study. The Key Points are best presented in a way that reinforces the theme. On the sails of a drawing of a ship for the Roanoke/Jamestown topic, by giving each child a kernal of corn for each Key Point in the Plymouth topic, or in whatever way you think will help them remember the information a bit easier. For this one we played a matching game of the 13 colonies and tried to place each colony in its correct place, then we did the mindmap/key points for each of those 3 geographical areas. After the Key points are presented, then it's time for Inquiries. This is the fun stuff. There are inquiries about the topic in 8 different areas, math, language, science, social studies, art, music, etc. We do several as a group and then each child is encouraged to do as many as they would like to do. This is what determines the length of time we spend on any given topic. This is Cambria doing research on the computer for one of the inquiries she has chosen. This was one inquiry we did together. We laid out the dimensions of the little ship Discover (one of the three ships to bring settlers to Jamestown) on the lawn and sat within that area to read a book about Jamestown. It was amazing to see how small that ship really was (the reddish yarn you can see). I can't imagine crossing that Atlantic in that little craft.

Here are the two younger girls doing a replica of the Plymouth Colony. They made 21 buildings and using a map placed them where the colonists properties were and labeled them. We also have a timeline that we put markers on of each of the topics and events we are learning about. Cambria drew this one. This is our Liberty Tree. Each leaf represents an inquiry done or a theme book read. This tree is a great record of the things we have done in our study, I imagine by the time we are done it may well have taken over the entire wall. For each leaf on the tree the girls earn shillings to purchase things when the Yankee Peddler comes around. He/She is a traveling salesman with various tools/toys to purchase. No one knows when he/she will come, so they are busily storing up their 'shillings' and awaiting his/her arrival. These are some of the theme books we used in our Roanoke/Jamestown study. It's sure nice to have a good library. These are the ones we recently used for our study of the Plymouth colony. We are really enjoying our study this year. All the hands-on work is keeping the girls interested and having the subjects tied to the theme makes them much more palatable. I'll try to share more as we go along.

I have to acknowledge the hard and incredible work of the women who created and shared this EPIC Adventure, Karen Kindrick, Cynthia Black, Jeanne Bradley and Deena Ortiz. So much work has gone into preparing this for our use and I thank them for that. We are learning and loving to learn as we go.

First Day of our EPIC Adventure!

9.10.08
After several attempts to start our EPIC Adventure, we finally had our first visitor of the year and were able to introduce our theme for the year. Captain Moroni was just so busy fighting Lamanites that he kept having to delay his visit. We were excited to finally hear from him about why he was fighting and what he was fighting for. He told us about and showed us the Title of Liberty (Alma 46:12). He then shared with us some food like the kind he would eat when he was soldiering. We had dried beef (jerky), dried fruit (apples), and fresh berries and water from the nearby spring (water cooler).
He got a chance to return home and left all his armor in camp. So we tried it on! It was a bit big on us. But it was fun to wear the armor and hold the sword.


This is going to be a great year when we learn about the founding of this country and the courageous people who defended and championed liberty. Hopefully, we will begin to understand our responsibilities and duties to defend our liberty as well.

Never Thought It Would Happen....

A month or so ago we had a little issue with a child checking a book out of our library that I wish had never come into my home. Let's just say that I was shocked and appalled when I found out. I learned a few things, first, the library will allow anyone to check out anything at anytime.
Second, I better make sure I know what my kids are checking out and looking for at the library.
I had to go in and make some changes so that they are now not able to check anything out without my presence and permission. I also sat down and wrote a letter to the library expressing my disappointment that such a book was in the young adult section and that minor children were allowed to check out such books. I asked them to consider removing it from the library or at the very least marking it in some way that would make it impossible to check out without a parent's permission. I sent it off, never dreaming that they would do anything about it or even respond. Imagine my surprise when I received a letter in the mail this week from them. It stated that they understood my concerns and that they had discussed this book more than once since receiving my letter. The most that they felt they could do was remove its Young Adult designation and put an adult designation on it. Granted I know that in reality that means nothing, since all the YA and A non-fiction books are shelved together, so if a person looks up said book, it's probably still in the same place. I am just amazed that they took the time to discuss the book and the issue of its place in the library, and also to write me a return letter.

And, yeah, we have had a good, long chat with this child about what happened. I hope that now we are clear on what is and what is not allowable in the way of media in our home. I guess up til now I've still been in that blissful place called Naivete'. No longer, I've just had a rough landing in the land of Reality!

On the Primary front: As of tomorrow we will finally have a new Music Leader. HOORAY! I'll be glad to hand off that responsibility! Still working on the secretary and some new Nursery Leaders. Ugh!

Mission front: all's going well. Sent home some wonderful pictures and funny video clips from the MTC. With one of them I didn't realize it was a video until I saw my son walk across the room. That really gave my heart a leap, to actually 'see' him after so long. It was awesome. They were playing tricks on the elders just coming in that day and hiding in the closets! Silly boys!

House front: had our last building inspection yesterday with the city. They passed us on everything except we need to get our cabinets in the office area, to conceal the wires sticking out of the wall. Hooray!

School front: Boys are gearing up for school, we got all their school supplies this week, just need to get a few more uniforms for them. I have lots to do to get things ready for school here at home. Need to get a costume made for our first historical 'visitor' of the year. That's the most pressing issue right now.....getting excited to get going!

Have a great weekend!

Nutso-rama!

I was really thinking that our summer was going to be so laid back. We didn't have any grandiose plans to go anywhere and with the cost of gasoline, we were just going to kick around at home. Oh, well, yes, there are a couple of scout camps in there. . . . and a youth conference. . . . . and a trip to see some plays at the Shakespeare Festival, but that's not much. HA! I'm starting to feel like this June was a repeat of last June. We didn't go big, fancy places, but one or another of us has been gone to something, somewhere for the last 4 weeks. Montana and Ford have been gone to Youth Conference since Tues and should be home sometime today. It's been rather strange and VERY quiet around here. Next week Ford heads off to one last Scout Camp at Entrada, near Moab. I think he's about worn himself out. On the missionary front: Jordan is now in his first area; Helena, the state capital. He likes his companion and had dinner with some people who knew his Grandpa Welch, but that's about all we've heard. He's never been one to use too many words. (roll eyes) We miss him a lot, but are getting used to only having six kids at home and all fitting around the table for meals. On the Addition front: We are this close to getting our addition done. Siding is on, not painted yet. All the lights and outlets are connected, just need to do one more thing in the breaker box, or something, not sure I understood what he was saying to me. The wood floor is gorgeous, I love it and I'm so glad I got what I loved rather than settling for something cheaper. We will have to wait a bit on cabinets now, but I'm okay with that. I'm looking at cabinets for my scrap/office area. Just the cheapest white ones at IKEA. I am going to get the upper ones now, and just use the long banquet tables til we can get the base cabinets and countertops. So excited to get all this stuff out of my bedroom! On the Homeschool front: After learning about EPIC Adventures and how they can work within a TJEd framework and heeding the feeling that I really needed to concentrate on the Founding of America this year, I am excited to have found at a bookstore in Cedar City a pre-written Epic Adventure called A Noble Birthright, Defending the Title of Liberty. I had looked at purchasing a downloadable version but really wanted to see what the inside looked like first, as I already had a type of US History format I was going to use. I was thrilled to find it at Classic Books in Cedar City and to find it for $10 less than the download price. I have read through it twice now and yesterday I took the time to plot it all out on the calendar so I could see how it could all fit in the Sept-May time slot. This will be mostly for me, I have felt so strongly the need to study this subject more, but this will be such a fun way for me to do You, Not Them and Inspire, Not Require and just invite them to come along for the fun with me. I have also already come up with some ideas for another Adventure, maybe for the following year? Not sure I feel up to writing my own, but maybe I'll feel braver about that after doing this one. The kids are doing well, the youngest girls are gearing up for their birthdays in the next 2 weeks. Hannah will be 9 and Sadie will be 7. Then Montana will turn 16 in August. He just got his wisdom teeth out plus another tooth for some orthodontic work, so that will put back his Driver's Ed for a while. Even with ins., the dental work was spendy! Ouch! He was such a cute little chipmunk! Thought we got a picture of him, but can't find it on our digital cards. Oh, well. Soren is getting to be quite the 2 year old. He is getting very ornery about helping out or picking up messes he's made and is so bold as to tell his parents "NO!" when asked to. He's learning to sit on his bed until he's ready to do what he's asked to do. So fun! He's still such a joy, though, and he makes us laugh all the time. He's just testing out his limits a bit and we know he's really a sweet kid, somewhere under that two-year old cover. Whew! If you made it that far, give yourself a smack on the forehead! You've got better things to do than read this.

Swiss Family Robinson Day~

We finished up our reading of Swiss Family Robinson a couple of weeks ago. We spent a few days planning and preparing for our Swiss Family Robinson Day. The girls were really excited about this and worked hard to make it happen.

(Tree Climbing Contest)

Did you know that in the book the Robinson Family has four boys??

Disney always has to change things.

(making candles)

Did you know that they are never attacked by pirates?

(picnic lunch of bread, fruit and cheese)

This is an action filled book with tons of animals, boys would love it!

(cracking open our coconut)

No one but Mom was brave enough to try the coconut milk, but the fresh coconut was delicious!

(Here is "Fritz", with his eagle, Pounce, on his shoulder)
(Here is "Franz" with his flamingo, baboon and dog)
(Here is "Jack" with his pet, Master Knips, the monkey)
(Archery contest underway)

It was not as easy to make that arrow go where it should as we thought it would be.

(slingshot contest)

We were a little more accurate with the slingshot. At least we could hit the barrel!