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birthday, Blog, kai

Wallowing in Birthday Fun

How do you like that title? A good pun can never be resisted. A couple of weeks ago, Kai (our second oldest,) turned 7 years old. It always amazes me how quickly time goes by. I feel like just recently, Kai has grown up quite a bit. Don had asked me to find a picture of Kai to use for the thumbnail for his birthday vlog. But as I was scrolling through the pictures, I realized how much his looks have changed over the past 6 months. Even a picture from 2 months ago made him look so much younger.

With all the birthdays, I have the kids get a picture on the front porch. I totally slacked this year and didn’t take these pictures until last night. And you may notice something about the door behind him. It’s not teal anymore! We loved our teal door but I was wanting to change it up. And my super kind husband agreed to a pink door (though now he’s acting like he doesn’t remember saying that. Too late now 😉 ) I thought it may look like too girly of a background for his birthday pictures but I kind of love it. Anyway, I feel like these pictures sum up his personality pretty well. He is fun, silly, joyful, and so very loving.

On his actual birthday, he requested donuts for breakfast. We drove to 2 different places that he had picked out and neither of them were open. We ended up at Krispy Kreme, which was not as exciting to me but it made him happy so that’s all that matters. We had to take a detour to the doctor for his brother before we went to the park. We had hoped to see pigs but there was only one super fat pig hanging out so we didn’t stay too long. The big deal for birthdays is always the trip to McDonald’s. As we were trying to unload the kids to get inside McDonald’s, the skies opened up and poured all over us (while Evangeline kept saying she didn’t know where her shoes were.) I grabbed her shoeless self and we ran to the restaurant. But not before I got soaked and my eye makeup ran all down my face.

We ended the evening with his favorite, homemade pizza–aka “mommy pizza” and his dessert of choice, this giant scoop cake from Sams.

This is a caption that I shared that night on Instagram. I wanted to include it here too.

At the end of the night, he gave me a hug, told me he loves me, and thanked me for all of the fun things we did today. You guys. We went to mcdonalds (and we even had to make a pit stop at the doctor to get his brother’s ears checked.) We didn’t throw some party that would be worthy of Pinterest (though those are amazing and I wish that I was able to always do that for my kids.) He loved this day because we were present. He loved this day because he felt loved. He loved this day, not because of what we did for him, but because of what we mean to him.”

He loved his birthday and I loved that he loved his birthday. But he had no idea that we were about to make his dreams come true. You see, Kai has a major obsession with pigs. If you want to have an engaging conversation with the boy, start talking about pigs. I had asked around on Facebook to see if anyone knew where we could find some pigs to pet. Multiple people suggested Purina Farms. So a couple days after his birthday, we told him we had one more surprise for him. We asked him “if you could do anything in the world for your birthday, what would you want to do?” His response “See a piggy and pet it!” So he was extremely excited to find out we were going to do just that. Don recorded that whole conversation on the GoPro but for some reason the audio didn’t work–which is a huge bummer because his reaction was adorable. And this look really tells me the whole day was worth it.

Kai and Kingston have a small brotherhood rivalry–Kai loves pigs/hates dogs. Kingston love dogs/hates pigs. They like to make it known to each other that they do not enjoy the animal that the other brother loves. But even Kingston couldn’t resist the pigs that day.

Sorry for the overload of pig pictures but that was the highlight of the day. It brought him so much joy and it brought us joy to see him so happy. But, of course, there were other animals too. Liam was particularly fond of the bunny.

And Desmond really wasn’t interested in much that day (more on that on the vlog.) He’s just at a hard age right now.

I don’t think we’ve ever done Easter bunny pictures before but since it was free, we went ahead and did it. You can just tell from Desmond’s face how much he loved it.

We had so much fun and hope to go back again sometime (maybe on a day that it doesn’t end up raining.) And here is his birthday video–which is pretty adorable

Happy weekend!!

April 22, 2017

Blog, Family, Homeschool, kai, kids, liam

Homeschool (why and how we do it)

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The other day, I texted a friend to ask a question about the math curriculum we’re planning on using. At the end of the text, I added “I feel like I’m the biggest failure when it comes to schooling my children…like everyone else has it figured out (and organized) way better than I do.” When she told me that most of the homeschool moms that she has talked to feel the same way, I realized that it really doesn’t get talked about as much as it could.

Every year at this time, I notice all the “back to school” items filling the stores. That’s when I realize “Oh, I should probably start thinking about curriculum!” I feel very scatterbrained and lost about where to start. So when a mom on instagram (hi @jordynspeakman!) asked me homeschooling advice, I thought I would share a few thoughts. I know, that whole introduction really makes you want to read what I have to say 😉

I thought it would be best to start with sharing WHY we chose to homeschool. But before I start, I want to make sure it’s clear that I am not implying anything negative about those who choose to use a public/private school! Not only is homeschooling not an option for every family, but everyone has their reasons for how they school and I think it’s a personal choice that each family needs to make for themselves. We’ve been asked multiple times why we homeschool so I’m simply sharing why we felt it was best for our family. (These are in no specific order and some thoughts kind of overlap each other)

Time. Public and private schooling take up many hours in the day. In my opinion, too many hours! When the child comes home, they often have to spend many more hours completing homework. Homeschooling for us right now only takes an hour or two, max, depending on distractions that day. That leaves us more hours to play and encourage them to develop any interests or hobbies.
Family. We feel that (especially in these early years) we want our children to be home with us, learning from us. If we send them to school somewhere, they would be spending a good chunk of the day away from our family, under the teaching of someone else. I believe that in order to “train up a child in the way he should go” (Proverbs 22:6) that we should be the main influences in their lives. As the parents, we want to be the ones shaping their worldview. (That’s not to say that there aren’t wonderful teachers out there!)
Curriculum. Not only do I not like some of what is being taught in public schools, but I also love that I can cater to each child’s needs at home. Children learn differently and at different paces. I love being able to choose how to teach each child, based on their personalities. For example, my oldest is a grade ahead what he would have been in public school, just because he was eager and ready to start school at 4 years old. On the flip side, my current 4 year old is a wild one (to put it nicely) and I think if he was in public school, he would likely be “labeled” when I know he’s just a normal, active kid.
Peers. I know not every child out there is a bad kid. But we’ve been on playgrounds enough to know that there is plenty of stuff that young children are being exposed to that I don’t want my children exposed to. But don’t worry, my kids are not suffering from lack of socialization. We are actively a part of a church where the children interact with people of all ages without a problem. And at the playground, they are always eager to make new friends and treat them with respect.
Flexibility. When we want to take a vacation, a sick day, a field trip, or simply just sleep in, we are free to do it whenever we want (and in our pajamas haha.) I love being able to take the kids to the zoo and use it as a learning experience for our Science class. We are able to use much of our days focusing on life skills rather than solely on book work.
Safety. As a mom, I want to do everything I can to protect my children and their hearts, souls, and bodies. And no one with access to the news can deny the amount of stories that are popping up all over the country with heartbreaking, sickening things. I know we cannot and should not live in fear, but just as you would lock your doors to keep out intruders, this is one way we can guard our children from some of what is happening in the world. That may seem overprotective, but my children mean everything to us so we will do what we can to protect them.

I could go on and on with reasons, but I will spare you since it’s already super wordy. While I don’t always feel like the most qualified teacher, I do believe God has equipped me with just what I need to teach our children. Certain subjects may not always be taught by us, but we will always be active in deciding the next step. So while I sometimes feel like a failure, I know that this is what we have been called to do for our family. If you want to homeschool but don’t feel qualified, just know that you are not alone! And if I can do it, anyone can do it.

And for anyone curious how we do it and what curriculum we use, keep on reading!

Like I said, I am definitely not the most organized person. I feel like I’m constantly in a state of feeling scatterbrained. I also am not big into activity based teaching (hello, more organization and prepping!) But my kids love it so I know I need to get over that.
We don’t have a set time to get up in the morning. Basically, I try (and usually fail) to convince my children to let me sleep until 8am. But they know the rule is that we won’t be eating breakfast until 8.
When we finish eating, we immediately start schoolwork. I currently have 2 who are officially schooling. Because of Missouri’s laws, I only have to log for my oldest until the next school year. I usually have Liam (the oldest) working on all that he can do independently while I work with Kai (usually I just have to give him instructions and he is able to do some work independently as well.) On a good day, we can get this all accomplished right away. But with 3 other children (and soon a newborn) we sometimes have to wait until the youngest takes a nap. We also do some subjects together as a group, which I love! We are always done by lunchtime and we’re able to enjoy the rest of the day together, doing whatever needs to get done. Except, of course, on those days when things just get crazy and I finally just call it quits for the day. But remember, flexibility!

As far as curriculum goes, I LOVE Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It is scripted (which is perfect for me) and usually takes 15 minutes or less for each lesson. It is the book that taught Liam to read at 4 years old and the book I continue to go through with Kai.

For math, we have loved using Horizons for grades K-2. This year Liam is ready to start grade 3 math and we’re super excited to try Teaching Textbooks (a computer based math program that starts with 3rd grade math.) I have heard many, many good reviews from good friends and after looking at a sample lesson, I know this will be perfect for our children.

For Science, we use Apologia. It teaches a Biblical perspective (which is very important to us, especially in the world of science!) We just read the textbook together as a group and sometimes do the experiments and activities suggested in the book. We also like to look up extra information online to make it more fun. Last year we learned about Astronomy. It was amazing how much my boys retained and how eager they were to do it every day. By the way, this year we will only be doing it twice a week! Last year we overdid it and were finished with the book within months.

For handwriting, we used A Reason For Handwriting. Each week they are practicing letters/words and by the end of the week, they will have learned a Bible verse. My oldest was the only one who did it last year (Kai will do it this year and he’s really looking forward to it!) and he loved writing out the verse at the end of each week and coloring the page.

This year for History, we will be using Mystery of History. Again, it’s from a Biblical worldview. We haven’t used it yet but we plan to also do this as a group.

For Bible, we have been going through Long Story Short. The lessons are short (as the name implies) and easy for my kids to understand.

As far as the rest of the subjects go, we are still undecided. I just haven’t loved some of the other stuff we have used in the past. My goal is to do math, reading/language arts, handwriting, and Bible every day. History and Science will be alternating and only done twice a week. We also plan to incorporate art, typing, and coding..along with any developing and skills or interests that they have. And of course, working on life skills (cooking, cleaning, chores, etc.)

For the younger kids (pre-k) I would say–DON’T STRESS! They have plenty of time in life to learn. Just focus on teaching letters, numbers, colors, shapes, etc. But make it fun! Do art projects, use chalk, play outside, sing, read to them. Don’t worry about workbooks or doing something every day. If you incorporate learning into everyday activities (counting as you take steps, pointing out letters as you look at books) they will be ready for kindergarten when the time comes!

I know this post was long, wordy, and not very thrilling. But I hope it helps for anyone who may be interested in homeschooling but doesn’t feel qualified or know where to start. If you have any questions (or advice) leave it in the comments! I know everyone homeschools differently (we are the laid back type) so this may not all apply to everyone. But someone may have advice that could be helpful to someone else–so share away!
***I also want to repeat that I am nowhere near qualified to give out advice! Do your research, ask around, shop for the lowest price, and do what suits your family best! Thanks for reading!

August 12, 2016

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