Homeschooling: Year 7

It appears my blogging has been cut back to twice a year.

I'm not even going to go into my lack of solitude or "free time".  Blah blah blah. That is old news.  Instead, I'll pick up where I left off.

We are starting our seventh year of official homeschooling.  It feels amazing, this complex structure, built over the years.  I couldn't have imagined it, but each year truly builds on the last and the elements come together quite naturally.

This year is a big difference from any other year, as Diego, now 13 years old, is reading at level.  This means that I am actually assigning him to read his own books.  Up until this point, I have read everything aloud.

This is perfect timing, because with Jamie in Year 2 this year, I wasn't sure how I was going to juggle reading 25 books aloud.  It was a fairly heavy load for me last year, which was easier than this year.

As it is, I am letting Diego ease into it slowly, and have assigned seven books for him to read to himself.  I am reading the other five aloud for the group.  In addition, I've always had Diego and Truen in the same year, so with this, I am having Truen listen to two of the books on audio . . . and have totally fallen off the bandwagon with three of the other books.  (I've got to get on that.)

With that preface, here's what we're going this year:

Modified Ambleside Online Y6
Diego (13), Truen (11)

1. The Story of the Greeks - H.A. Grueber
2. Augustus Caesar's World - Genevieve Foster
3. Ben Hur - Lew Wallace
4. Never Give In - Stephen Mansfield (Diego)
5. Never Cry Wolf - Farley Mowat
6. Material World: A Global Family Portrait - D'Alusio & Menzel
7. What the World Eats - D'Alusio & Menzel
8. The Mystery of the Periodic Table - Benjamin Wiker (Diego)
9. The Sea Around Us - Rachel Carson
10. The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom - Theodore Gray (Diego)
11. Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity - Robert Cwiklik (Diego)
12. Myths Every Child Should Know - Hamilton Wright Mabie (Diego)
13. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien (Diego)
14. Poetry of Robert Frost (Diego)

Modified Ambleside Online Y2
Jamie (7), Eliah, in on the ride (5) (read aloud)

1. The Story of the World, Vol. 1: Ancient Times - Susan Wise Bauer
2. This Country of Ours - H.E. Marshall
3. The Little Duke - Charlotte Yonge
4. Never Cry Wolf - Farley Mowat
5. Tree in the Trail - Holling C. Holling
6. The Burgess Animal Book for Children - Thornton Burgess
7. Tales from Shakespeare - Tina Packard
8. Understood Betsy - Dorothy Canfield Fisher
9. Poetry of Walter De La Mare

Circle Time
Everyone (read aloud, sung, recited together)

1. Shakespeare: Henry V
2. Plutarch: Julius Caesar
3. OT/NT Bible
4. Folk Song: Cockles and Mussels (Molly Malone)
5. Hymn: Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
6. Book of North American Birds
7. The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse - Thornton Burgess
8. Getting Started with Latin - William E. Linney
9. Oxford First Ancient History
10. Earthworms - Dorothy Childs Hogner
11. Artist: John Constable
12. Composer: Carl Maria von Weber 

Morning Lessons
Everyone

1. MEP Math: Y2 (very end): Diego & Truen
2. MEP Math: Y1 (very beginning): Jamie
3. Piano Adventures Primer Level: Jamie
4. Phonics: Jamie & Eliah
5. Nature Study
6. Drawing Practice
7. Copwork/Cursive

Oh my garsh, no wonder why my head is spinning every day.

I can't even believe it, all written out. But is is happening. And almost every day.

Insert wink-emoji here.

Ta ta for now!

Quick check-in

It's been more than two month since I've posted . . . oh my.  Since then my grandma has died, our new little nephew Otto was born, I mothered my first mother as a doula, and we took a 3+ week trip to WA.  There's more, but it will have to wait.

Meanwhile...

 Jamie had a birthday: six years old

 We made a quickly-planned January visit to Western WA

 We met a new cousin and celebrated Late Christmas

The fellas looooove their cousins

 LOVE. (....we found them like this)

 And love-love-love their cousins

The fellas love their aunties and uncles too

 

 So many uncles to wrestle with

 This was 4-against-1 and Unky Erik still beat 'em

Uncle Andrew was Eliah's special buddy

We spent a lot of time at the beach

 Playing on driftwood, walking along the beach and pier

 

 (Truen is so engaged, he's hard to catch)

It was a lovely visit

Blaine even came at the end . . . the first time in seven years
It was so good to have him there.

We saw our dear friend Sam & family, the first time in eight years

(He's stationed in Western WA until this summer)
Lovely, just lovely.

More shifting

It has been 90 degrees F for the last two days, which prompted me to finallllly start the seasonal clothing shift and get the boys' summer clothes out.  Until now, they've been making do with a pair of shorts and a few t-shirts.

First I stowed all the clean snowsuits that were waiting for me.  Then I pulled out the 5T for Jamie and the size 7 for Truen.  Easy.

Then I spotted the 18-24 months on the towering clothing storage shelf and thought, "That's it. Taking up space."  Enough.  But when I pulled it out and started sorting?  A river of tears. I couldn't help it. It had to come out.

Both Diego and Truen were very tender and concerned with me when the found me crying. Their sweetness.  I choked out my explanation as I spotted the little maroon 12-18 month sweatpants that Truen wore when he was 2 because it was the only thing that fit his tiny little frame.

Ah. How can it be?

I haven't gone through baby clothes yet, nor the toddler clothes.  But it just doesn't make sense to take up precious storage space.  I've been telling myself that I will sort through them, keeping the precious outfits, but passing the rest to a friend in our homeschool co-op who has a 2yo and newborn baby boys. (Her older kids are girls.)

Honestly, giving them to someone I know has been a big comfort to me in the process of even thinking about it.  I felt that comfort as I started the actual sorting. As I sifted, I found myself making two stacks: one for the friend, one for my SIL.  The second stack contained the pieces that I couldn't bear to part with and/or hold oodles of nostalgia for a particular babe.  Each stack was about the same size.

Then Eliah woke up and needed to snuggle.  I still need to pull down the 3T for Yiya and sort through the miscellaneous Big Stuff for Diego.  He's the ice plow: I have to "break on through to the other side" every year for him; then store it in nice, neat boxes marked "9" or "10" for future reference. I even have it bagged within the boxes marked "5T Summer" or "8 Winter" for my convenience.

I'm so sthmart. (So why does it take me to the middle of June??) (Good question.)

We are lucky - we have many, many hand-me-downs from cousins. So most of Diego's clothes are just a matter of sorting and identifying what fits. The rest are thrifted.  I've found that pants generally last two boys before the knees are totally blasted (sometimes one boy), so I still need to fill in here and there.

But yes: another shift away from the baby years. It hurts. I've thought it will be easier to let go of  clothes as they get bigger, but we shall see.

Rambling pictoral update

 Truen snuggling with this year's goslings.

Sadly, they all vanished one sunny Saturday morning.

We are almost positive it was coyotes.

 Our pigeon, Mr. Squealy.

Diego caught a fledgling pigeon this spring.

This was pre-haircut for Jamie and before Squealy learned how to fly.

He still likes to land on our heads.

Seriously. Pigeons: The best.

 The North Garden. (Three of 'em now.)
It is nestled in our front four acres, currently planted in oats.

Blaine was prepping the onion bed.

We planted, and I'm not kidding, 1,800 onions. 

It was insane. Twenty-four rows, approx. 75 onions in each row.

Garlic is on the right, melons and squash will be to the left of the onion bed.

Qualifications for North Garden admittance: deer will not eat it.

 Our patchwork quilt of a house this spring.

We had to re-roof it last summer due to a leaky roof. (Eegads.)
 We chose tin instead of shingles for a long-lasting investment.

We are very pleased with the end result: cozy, attractive, more cohesive.
(This picture is from the beginning of May.)

Have I talked about the native planting along our driveway?

The old stems and seed heads are so lovely when it rains --

they turn red and have a sweet, floral grassy fragrance.

A prairie planting was perfect for this gravelly weed-infested patch of ground.

It is thriving where lawn grass could not. (And we don't have to mow it!)
In the summer, it is loaded with flowers and the birds and bugs love it. 

Beautiful year-round. And an extremely functional snowfence.

LOVE.

One of our three Prairie Fire crabapples.

The wind affects everything on the rolling prairies --

See how it is growing bending toward the north? 

The south wind blows hard.

Diego is in braces now . . .

Or more specifically, "utility arches".

Phase two of widening his palate.

All our boys will need a palate expander.

(A legacy of the generations.)

Jamie has the most severe crossbite of the four.

See how his top teeth are inside his bottom teeth...? Not good.
And isn't he just the sweetest?  I am really enjoying his little 5yo self.

I gave him his summer buzz a few weeks ago.

 But this fella?  We just can't cut the curls.

I've been putting it in a top-pony in recent weeks.

In this pic he wanted to "climb the tree" by our chicken coop,

but was very concerned once he got up there.

Quick peek

Our Little Guys: Eliah and Jamie 

They were watching the heating guy check out the furnace.

I love their sweet faces and Jamie peeking out from behind Mama's apron.

The furnace had stopped working from the chicken bones

Diego had inserted into the venting system "two years ago".

Good grief.  Thankfully, everything panned out just fine.

Truen turned eight the week before last.

He had a whole day of special meals, snacks, and desserts planned out --

He was very excited about his special day.

His favorite present from Da? Snap Circuits. Obsessed.

And finally, Diego's recently-invented pose for pictures --

This is what most snaps look like these days.

 In this case, he was dressed up to play "the old man" 

in a musical production of an old Chinese folktale

with our homeschool co-op: Tikki Tikki Tembo

Group shot

I love these pictures . . . the colors, all of us together, Blaine's beautiful hair, Truen's sweet face, Jamie and Eliah's little poses, Diego's quickly-disappearing little boy years.  My grandma took them with her iPad, so they're a little blurry.  But sweet nonetheless.

We were in Wisconsin last weekend to visit my grandparents, see my cousin's new baby, attend Blaine's grandpa's 100th birthday celebration, and spend time with my SIL and the cousins.  It was a 4-day weekend and very nice to spend time together away from the onslaught. We definitely enjoyed ourselves. 'Twas good.

Gigantic blow-out catch-up post for the entire month of July

July 2015 . . . holy smokes . . . what a month.  What a doozy.

It started off with Jamie's plunge into a secondary infection from a minor cold, which took him out for three weeks.  Including the initial cold and in-between time where he never quite "came around" (he seemed tired and lackluster), it was an entire month.

It started with waking up from a nap with a fever on Thursday, 7/2.  My parents were supposed to come that Friday, but delayed arrival until Sunday (they were visiting with my grandparents in Wisconsin, so they were settled in nicely anyway).  The entire week they were here, he was completely subdued and touchy - going to bed at 7:00 PM, napping by 10:30 AM - he was a non-factor in almost everything.  It was sad.

Saying goodbye - Jamie wouldn't be in the picture

The secondary infection was in his lungs and sinuses - all the usual tricks I employ to treat such issues were useless against it.  It seemed as if I couldn't get anything to drain.  It just took time.

The week after my parents left, the congestion in his lungs slowly cleared, but not before a double ear infection manifested itself.  That week was spent focused on ensuring that Jamie took warm baths with rosemary oil to promote drainage, administering garlic oil and applying a hot water bottle to his ear three times daily to nix the ear infection, and making sure that the vaporizer was running with eucalyptus oil in the room while he slept so he could breathe more easily.  He was pale and thin, but sleeping and playing more normally in spite of the pain.

Eventually the pain subsisted and the congestion s-l-o-w-l-y cleared.  Amazingly, Blaine, Diego, Truen, and myself all had sore throats that week (and Jamie and Eliah never got it, thank the good Lord).  He still had blood in his nose from his sinuses and, toward the end of the week, we noticed that several lymph nodes in his neck were swollen and tender.  And still are.  Un-un-un-un.  Will it never end??

We are starting to move outside the house again - we were able to attend the last Park & Rec of the season this Monday and go swimming afterward.  Finally! Swimming, imagine that. The boys reveled in it.  I'm starting to think that I'll need to take the boys swimming for an afternoon each week in addition to our all day Beach Day extravaganzas on Fridays to make up for lost time.

Otherwise, life has been a whole lot of this --

Collards and broccoli

Black currents, kale, peas, turnips

Beautiful Cylindra beets

Our gardens are MAGNIFICENT this year.  It is truly "the best year ever".  Though we've said it before, it honestly tops everything we've accomplished in the past.  We've caught our groove.  The years of experience have dovetailed with our vision and enthusiasm and culminated with an amazing creation.  Blaine, of course, is the mastermind.  Without him, I would be just "pretending to garden" as a friend put so aptly.

:: THE EAST GARDEN ::

Florence fennel, parsley, celery

 Onions (left), garlic (right), then summer squashes, cucumbers

Lettuce gone to seed, broccoli; behind that, the raspberries

:: THE WEST GARDEN (from the south) ::

Corn, cauliflower, and cabbages

Scallions, green beans, peppers, tomatoes, beets

:: THE WEST GARDEN (from the north) ::

Turnips and rhutabagas

Salsify, parsnips, kale, collards, mustard, peas,

Lettuce, carrots, winter squash, sunflowers

(the giant mass on the right is bittersweet)

The West Garden is our main kitchen garden this year.  In the past, it was for summer and winter squashes, melons, and garlic; but we made the switch out of necessity to starve out the grasshoppers that were plaguing the East Garden.  (And succeeded! They are not an issue this year at all.)  We doubled its size, fenced it, and hit the ground running.  It has been an enormous success.

How do I love thee, West Garden?  Let me count the ways.  First and foremost, it is so lovely to look out the window and see such ordered beauty, tangible results of a lot of hard work.  The East Garden is tucked behind the garage and much less visible.  The West Garden also gets much more sunlight, from morning to dusk, with no trees shading it at all.  The soil seems to be rich and fertile, the weeds, not a problem.  And I don't mind the walk one bit.

We also carved out a section in what I call "The Front Four": four acres along our driveway on the north side of our property.  It is currently in alfalfa and will be planted with oats this fall.  We are experimenting with The Front Four and planted winter squash there this year.  It is growing beautifully and plan to use it for squash, garlic, and onions next season.

Our geese this year: five white Embdens

They are so funny!  They are curious and like to follow us around the orchard,

which is exactly what they were doing this lovely morning.

The boys have been housebound pretty much the entire month of July.  Other than our houseguests, we haven't gone anywhere, gone swimming, and missed all the Story Hour and Park & Rec activities for the month.  Such a bummer.

They've still been outside a ton, however.  The big excitement last week was catching frogs.

Truby, pretending.

He caught the hugest frog of all! 

Diego, not pretending.

This is so him: always taking it to the next level.

("No frogs were hurt during the making of this video.") 

Jamie, hopping on the bandwagon.

See how pale and thin he looks?  Ugh.

And Yi-ya.  I still use my Ergo every. single. day.

We've also had a lot of tea party action going on in these parts. Truen has been the main promoter.  It is so cute - they set up the table upstairs and we drink tea or kombucha, eat dried fruit and nuts and toast, and sit with a lighted candle.  It is oh-so-cozy.

Truen and Jamie
 

Eliah, Truen, and Diego

We also had more friends to visit last week - Lyndi and Jen with her girls.  

The entire tempo of the household tamed with girls present. It was amazing.  They set up house in the bedroom upstairs, pulled out their coloring books and markers, and colored.  Jamie sat with them, almost transfixed, sometimes coloring, sometimes just sitting and watching.

A sweet crew
 

This is what happens when I ask Diego to take pictures.

I end up saying, "Will you please take a picture of all of us...?" 

as he hones in on all of our faces one at a time and snaps away.

The pictures always end up so funny, but it is stressful at the time as we w-a-i-t

and there is usually baby fussing or howling to add to the commotion.

The ladies: Shawna, Jen, and Lyndi.

Me with my exasperated and impatient face

"Will you just..??"

And finally, Jamie the Chef with his little helper Eliah Len.  Jamie has been keenly interested in working in the kitchen in the last couple of weeks.  Per his request, we've made pancakes twice, french toast, scrambled eggs, and . . . something else?  I can't remember. He's been begging to make a frozen banana-chocolote-peanut treat that I think we'll probably end up making tonight.

And Yi-ya is always right there, 

insisting on being right in the thick of it.

Unseasonably warm

 E-yi-ya has gotten into the bike craze too.

Bbbbbb-bbbbbb-bbbbb (this is a motor-tricycle)

 Puddle-stomping on a sunny morning --

The boys are outside before breakfast most days.

 Examining the interesting swirls and patterns in the drying mud.

Posing with their spears --

I can't get boots on Diego to save my life. 

 Truen, the threatening monster.

Eliah dipping his finger in the mud and sampling it like melted chocolate.

They were waiting for Blaine to come home at the tree-line on our driveway.

They often wait for him to come home,clambering into his vehicle and asking, "Any treats??"