taco bell

P is awesome.  Last night he brought home a huge bag of taco bell.  He had bought practically one of everything on the menu for the children to taste and experience.  I love him.

TMI

I was using the bathroom today and as soon as the door closed my baby started to cry.  I hear stories like this a lot and often the children are banging down the door or worse.  I think we like to tell these stories to sort of one-up each other.  "My children are such monsters!" followed by "Mine are literally vampires!"

I like my children a lot.  Sometimes I'm frustrated by things they do.  Most often I am frustrated by things that apparently I have not been successful at teaching them not to do.

As a parent, it's nice to know that other folks struggle with similar issues.  And I think it's ok to teach your children to behave, if you can.

important events

This month has been very busy.  We drove to Alabama, then back to the beach then out to Gtown then home in a 4 day span. 

L and I were not sleeping so I decided to night wean him.  After the first night of continuous caterwahling, things have gone well.  On the second night he woke me up by tapping on my arm so sweetly. My poor kids, they never learn to sign milk until about 15+ months and that is right about when I am DONE!  So we don't have that sweet communication.  But L is an adorable chatterbox.  He's the most verbal baby I have.  I don't really remember anything but the present, so I can't say if he is more or less chatty than the other children were.  It seems that he is, but I don't remember.

B is potty trained and goes places without a diaper.  It's amazing how quickly that happened.  I actually feel sad that he's growing up.  Having had G as my first child, I am inclined to be dismissive of sadness at children growing up.  Hallelujah they're growing at all!  But B is so darned cute!

HOMESCHOOL

I love creating tools to help my children understand things that I never did.  And then I am amazed at 

how the children use the tool in ways that teach me even more! 

I made this paper for M to use at her desk to help with alphabetizing her spelling words and for math.  One day I saw her counting down a row for tens then across.  It blew my mind!  And you're wondering how I graduated from high school...

So G is working on rational numbers, so I created a numberline that can be manipulated in 2 dimensions.  I think it's pretty great.  And I'm so excited to see how he uses it!

 

Sunday Dinner

Today I outdid myself and made 2 batches of PBcandy while Phillip took a nap.  Sunday dinner at it's best.

privacy

off facebook.  It's nice to talk to people instead of have "did you see that post?" conversations.  And when I tell people something I am more confident that it's not something I already posted about.  Nice!

good place

We are in a good place.  The children have a lovely co-op to participate in.  There are over 50 children involved in this group.  On the one hand it is hard to manage that size of group.  But on the other hand, my children are getting to be a part of a larger group than they've ever been a part of before. 

3 of the children are good readers.  We need to play Apples to Apples.

Our car works!  It generally does, and has for the last 3 years.  And I am grateful for that.

We have delicious fresh food every day.

We are so fortunate.

homeschool fashion

B and lP were dressing up fancy last week and wearing their backpacks.  "We're playing school!" they cried.  Yes, this is how you dress for school children.

Growing up in public school, fashion was a thing.  I was never very good at it, but at least I knew that I couldn't pull off these fabulous looks.  Whenever we saw a kid in sweat pants and and a turtleneck, we assumed they were homeschooled.  I wondered why homeschool moms only dressed their children for comfort and durability.  But now I know that those are the 2 most important factors in dressing children.  And when you aren't sending them off to fend for themselves in the cruel world of school, it doesn't matter if they aren't wearing cool clothes because nobody cares!

Presenting our 2016 coloring page!  G asked to be making the bunny ears.