Sick babies

So, I get a call at work at 2am (I work nights at a local hospital), the baby is sick with a 104 fever and both baby and dad (who has to go to work in the morning) are miserable. By the next day all four kids have a head/chest cold. Know how Dad got baby back to sleep? He wrapped her in my pajamas (for momma scent) and snuggled with her on his chest. She fell asleep nuzzling into the cloth of my pj's and muttering, "momma momma momma ...". How sweet is that?
As awful as it is to have a sick child, something amazing happens when you are snuggling their fevered bodies close to you, kissing hot little heads. Big innocent eyes look up into yours like you are the only thing in the world that matters and a pudgy fist wraps around your finger. As they relax into your arms, you can feel sleep creep in to heal. It makes me appreciate my purpose as a parent, to love, cherish, guide, teach, and mold this precious gift that I have been entrusted with. But also to realize how fragile human life can be and that we need to care for it and not abuse our bodies so that we can be available for all we a purposed to accomplish. All that insight from a nasty little virus.
OK, all done being sappy (for a while at least).
Of course, sick kids put all my grand plans for trying lapbooking on temporary hold - on the bright side it gives me more time to make sure I have all the information prepared. To be honest I could probably use the weekend to compile and try out everything we will need.
DS is all upset because I wouldn't let him go to Drama practice today.... "I don't feel THAT bad (cough)(cough). Can't you just drop me off? (wheeze)" Umm .... No. I'm sure all the parents would really LOVE me to share our germs. "Aww, mom, your so mean." Yup, that's me... Meany Mommy. Anyway, another day chillin' will do them all a world of good and hopefully we can have a productive weekend. We'll do fun stuff like catch up on cleaning, and grocery shopping ((just kidding)). Actually, the three older ones have to finish their projects to be entered in the Fair next month, so they will probably work on that.... much more fun than cleaning & errands. :)

Discovery of Lapbooking

I have been researching alternative projects to stretch my curriculum budget and to keep my kids interested in longer research projects. I was thrilled to discover lapbooking and notebooking! Why had I not discovered this before???
When I started homeschooling four years ago, I used The Well Trained Mind as a guide. I still love this book as a resource. However, I found that we were unable to follow such an extensive program exactly. Slowly, I morphed to using The Well Trained Mind guidelines for grammar, spelling, and math while allowing history and science to be covered by independent study (reading, art projects, nature observation, etc.) This worked very well for us. Because I garden and have animals, we thoroughly covered all aspects of biology. Since my daughter loves bugs, she would spend hours creating 'Bug-topia' (a little town made of recycled materials to which she would move bugs she found). Now, she also likes historical novels. My son developed a love of history. He read (and re-read) all our history books and then took out library books on the cultures that interested him. He also likes creating 'machines' and loves his K'nex and Lego's. They both did art and took music lessons. I later discovered that I had fallen into a Charlotte Mason type of schedule (sorta). Who knew? Being the overwhelmed mom that I am, I never did thoroughly research Charlotte Mason (it is still on my "to do" list) which is probably why I did not stumble across lapbooking before this.
I have spent the last couple weeks researching this and we have just started our first lapbooking project for science -Space. I am hoping that focusing on individual aspects of the subject will help the kids to have a stronger/longer interest so that we can go into more detail. My plan .... have DD10 and DS11 each take a planet per week to research, make a mini book, and then present findings to each other. Together we can make observations of the moon and record its' phases. Hopefully, we will still have momentum to research Red/White giants, black holes, nebula, cluster habits, etc. Meanwhile DD4 can do a Creation lapbook (plants, animals, heavenly bodies).
If this goes well, we will probably do State books next. Starting with North Carolina (current home) and Vermont (home state). I have a gazillion ideas on other subjects as well.
I have the feeling that my children will be all grown up and finished school before I have discovered all the cool things that we could do together. I am getting more organized though - quite a task for me. :)

Kids say the cutest things

Kids come up with the funniest things sometimes. My son was asking about how to make Chicken and Dumplings (he loves to cook). My DD4 was listening in, and got to thinking about what she wanted me to bake....
"Mom, I like those Apple Dumb-things." Dumb things? "Yes, Apple Dumb-things with cinnamon."
We just broke out laughing. After coaxing her on the correct pronunciation, I added apples to my shopping list. Guess you know what I will be baking Saturday!

Old Salem

Our home school group toured Old Salem in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on Friday. What a great day! Since it was a "Homeschooler's Day", they had several activities set up, and there were re-en actors present to give tours and answer questions. I was delighted at the extent to which the children enjoyed it.....They would like to go back to complete the things they missed the first time.

My favorite part? Learning how to make buttons from thread. I plan on trying it out this week and will post a photo of the resulting button. We also did a workshop on Cyanography. Now, I am looking for a place to buy the solution so we can repeat the project at home.

It is definitely a great tour if you every happen to be in the area.

Introduction

As the title of my blog suggests, I am a homeschooling mom. We have four wonderful children, ages DD 15 months, DD 4yr, DD 10yr, DS 11yr. I love watching "the lightbulb turn on" as they learn new concepts and expand their creative minds. I combine Classical goals and Charlotte Mason sensiblities with daily craziness to achieve "reality based homeschooling".
We enjoy using our 2 1/2 acres to garden, and experiment with a variety of farm animals. Our chickens and pygmy goats free range the the back yard. We have turkeys (for another month or so), a horse and few rabbits in addition to the household cat and dog. Herbs and roses dominate my garden selections. Perhaps next year I will have more time to transform my vegetable garden from weed patch to productive land. :)
I thouroughly enjoy the time I get to pursue my love of the arts....I just wish I had more time for it. ....only 24 hours in a day, you say?.... I know, sigh. I have replaced painting and pottery with fiber arts like knitting so that I have something portable for when I only have a few minutes to spare. I am thrilled to have joined my eldest two during their violin lessons this month. Now, I have an reason to bump music toward the top of the priority list! I have to set a good example filling out my practice sheets, you know. ;)