Lifesong

Tales of a Fourth Grade Something

We wrapped up our school year this week, which means we officially have a Fifth Grader and a First Grader. One more year of elementary school is just crazy to me!

I'm going to do Ansley's end of the year wrap up and then Christian's next. Because I like to be all orderly and topical, but mostly because I took a picture of Ansley at the end of the year, but haven't been able to get a (normal) one of Christian yet. Really it has nothing to do with being orderly. Orderly left me years ago, or quite possibly she was never here to begin with.

Ansley had a great Fourth Grade year! I always love to see the areas of interest for my kids, watch what they really enjoy doing, see what they struggle with, and observe when things all come together. It's such a joy! It's not without many challenges and some heartache, but overall, there's joy. For now, I can't imagine not homeschooling, because it is a great fit for our family, and it isn't something I am burdended by. I enjoy teaching my kids. (I am burdened by my two year old, but that's not what this post is about.)

(September 2012. Ansley's favorite pastime.)

By far, Ansley's favorite subjects are Spelling and Language Arts. They always have been. She loves them, and they seem to come naturally for her. She consistently does well in both these areas. This year, we used A Beka for Language Arts, which is very thorough. Ansley learned all about subjects and predicates, nouns, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, diagramming sentences......to name a few. It was a lot, but she kept up and did a great job. We use BJU for Spelling, and Ansley loves it. We play games with spelling words during the week, and this combined with the work from her spelling book is all she needs to almost always get a 100 on her spelling tests. She loves spelling!

(October 2012. Apple tasting, graphing, sorting.)

Ansley has always loved to read, so while we don't necessarily have Reading as one of our official subjects, Ansley reads a LOT. She also did several book reports this year, as well as research papers.

Next on her list of favorites would be Science. This year we did Apologia's Astronomy course, and the kids LOVED it. Christian listened in on most of the lessons, and they both could be overheard discussing the planets, how far away the sun is, how the moon controls the tides, and lots of other interesting facts. This was a super fun curriculum for us. We really enjoyed it!

(Ansley in July 2012 and May 2013.)

Not so high on Ansley's list would be math. She has struggled to find her groove in math, and as a result, I struggle, too. We use Teaching Textbooks because it is an online program (I can bake some mean cookies and pogo ten times in a row on a good day, but I cannot teach math). I sympathize with her, because I am a fellow math-struggler, although my struggles came later, and not in elementary school.

(November 2012. The Volcano, AKA The Best Day of School, Ever.)

We started out the year using Winter Promise's Children Around the World program. I had such high hopes for it, and I still think it will probably be a fun curriculum to use, perhaps in a few years when everyone can get into it. I really want to love Winter Promise, but their customer service is just so terrible that I have been forced to stop using them. I didn't receive the full curriculum until January of this year, so we had to stop using it halfway through the year. I am still holding on to it (now that I finally have it all) but we were unable to complete it. Instead, I found some printables online on various geography subjects, we discovered a wonderful Stack the States app (and Stack the Countries) that has been really great for Ansley, and we read a TON of books on some great Americans from history.

(December 2012. Must be Math. Not really. Trying to drown out the noise. I really don't know, but it made me laugh. Some days are like this!)

Ansley also does a co-op through our church one day a week, on Tuesdays. We absolutely love it. It's been so good for her to get some extra enrichment classes that build her knowledge, boost her self esteem, and allow her to develop sweet friendships with girls whose families we already know.

She takes three classes, so she is at the co-op from 9 am to 2 pm. Each class is an hour and a half, with lunch in between. Her first class is art. (Christian is also in this class with her.) I love art! It has been so fun to see their projects, and hear what all they have learned each week. They learn about different artists, and then copy their styles with their own artwork. So fun and creative, and she loves it! We enjoyed seeing her favorite projects at the art show this week.

(Ansley's artwork.)

I love the pink flower! I'm going to frame that one.

(January 2013. Our very first Homeschool Support Group. Possibly my best idea ever. I really love this group!)

Her next class is Writing. Ansley loves to write, but towards the end of this year, she really started dreading her writing class. It was a good lesson for her to persevere even when things aren't going well, and I was proud of her for sticking with it. This writing class uses this writing program, and it's more formulaic that Ansley prefers. She loves to write creatively, and will often write her own stories, letters, and poems. But in this class, she had to follow a certain structure, and add, say, an adverb or adjective, in a particular spot, and she just wasn't digging that.

(Ansley's writing folder with all her stories from the year. This is the title page.)

She did really well in the class, and she became very quick with distinguishing the parts of speech as a result!

(Playing a game in writing class.)

Her third class was Science, and she really loves Science, so it was a great class for her! She would come home with all kinds of knowledge to share on the weather or atmosphere, and often have different experiments to do together. Now that I'm writing this, I really wish I had taken some pictures of her with her teachers. It really is such a great co-op, and she had such great teachers. It's also a fun day for Ansley to look forward to each week!

(February 2013. I couldn't help it, the same thing two months in a row. Our HSG at our Valentine's Day party. SO cute.)

All in all, a really great year. Lots of learning, lots of fun, new friendships, growth, and maturity. I can see so much growth in Ansley this year. When she loves a certain subject, she is a delightful learner. She throws herself into those subjects, wanting to learn more and know more and immerse herself in that subject.(I'm talking to you, insects and animals.)

(March 2013. 100 Days of School.)

When she doesn't love something, she really.doesn't.love.it, and it can be quite challenging. There have been many tears, pencils thrown, harsh words, and stomping off over math this year. There has also been much prayer. Every day, I learn more about my kids, but I also learn a bit more about myself. I grow in love and grace and know that His mercies really are new every morning. The most frustrating day can sometimes lead to the best conversations, and the struggles that we face (such as division) are great lessons for my kids to learn to lean on Him more.

(April 2013. School outside.)

These are such sweet days. They can certainly be frustrating, and when Avery is throwing a tantrum and my house is a mess, I can lose it. I don't want to paint this completely rosy picture of our days together. But after the tantrums are gone, and the house is cleaned (with effort by all), and we bake cookies together and snuggle on the couch with a book, I think these are good days. And most of the time, they really are. Learning together about God's grace is so much more important than math facts.

So that's my Fourth Grade wrap-up. I will do Christian's next, if I can ever get him to sit still long enough for a decent picture. We are going to soak in these lazy, do-nothing days of summer, because I know before I know it, school will be back in session!

Just a Swangin'

This girl loves to swing! So quite often her Mama swings with her.

(And apparently, we both love stripes.)

6:42 pm

Celebrating Mimi's birthday and Mother's Day today. We enjoyed dinner at Mimi's house, but I made strawberry shortcake for the birthday dessert. Celebrating the wonderful gift that Mimi is to our family! Moving to Knoxville has been such a wonderful blessing for all of us. I love the close relationship that she is able to share with each of our children - picking them up for special dates, having them over to spend the night, or taking them to various activities and spending time with them. Mimi helps out so much - picking the kids up from co-op every week, taking Christian to karate, watching one or two of them while I take one to a doctor's appointment, watching all three of them so I can get my hair done. She comes over just about every day, even if it's just a quick visit or to stop by for lunch. As a result of this, Avery LOVES her Mimi! Every time the door bell rings or she hears a door open, she yells "MIMI!!" (And half of the time, she's right!) As soon as Mimi arrives, she is the first to go running and tell her about what's going on. I love that we have her so close, I love that she gets to share in the daily ins and outs of our daily life. It isn't always pretty, but it's definitely worth it! For all these things and so much more, we are so happy to celebrate Mimi and all she means to us.

Outtakes

I love the digital age. You know how so often when things change, you can hardly remember what it was like "before"? It's so great that you can just snap off 500 pictures until you find the perfect one. But I do remember the excitement of getting your pictures back from the roll of film you'd dropped off, only to find that all the pictures were blurry or of the sky or something random.

Anyway, I love the one picture I captured the other evening of my family jumping off our porch, but here are some of the other ones that didn't make the cut. (You can see the one that did in the Project 365 album.)

I'm pretty sure she had just knocked Christian over (playing, of course) because she always thinks that's funny. He's usually a pretty good sport about it though.

Yeah, that's a bummer about John's head. (Oops.)

It looks like Christian hit Avery in the face, and the look on Christian's face here makes me laugh.

Love this silly crew!

Me Myself and Why

That clever little title just popped in my head, even though it really has nothing to do with this post. So you either get a clever title but nothing in the post, or a boring title with a little more something in the post. That's the way I work.

Maybe I'm having a mid-life crisis. Except it's not really a crisis, and just the word mid-life makes me have a heart attack because I think I can't possibly be mid-life while I still feel so young!

Right?

But lately I've just been all overwhelmed with life. Do you ever get that way? And not necessarily in a bad way, just like I'm becoming more aware as I get older of the fleetingness (I'll make it a word) of life, and how quickly everything is going. Yesterday we were newlyweds, today we're a couple with young kids, and then tomorrow we'll be empty nesters. Perhaps that's a little dramatic, but that's how my mind is working these days.

I'm on Prednisone.

I just felt like I should throw that out there.

And I have so many things I want to do with my kids, ya know? I want to make sure we play, and that there are fun crafts for them to engage their artistic sides, and of course memorize Scripture. And we need to make time for friends, and have parties and sleepovers, but also family nights, and I want to make sure they learn to love their neighbor. We need to bake together and read more books and we need to show them how to love Jesus with their whole hearts. And really none of the other things matter if they don't learn that. To be Jesus to a world who needs him so badly. Jewel used to sing one of my favorite songs that said "In the end, only kindness matters." I loved that song. But it's not true, it's not kindness that matters, it's teaching them, showing them, pointing them to Jesus, over and over and over and every day. And then again. And even when you're tired, then, too.

(I read this after I posted it and had to correct the bad verb tense. I'm sure Jewel still sings this song, so I shouldn't have said she used to sing it, I should have said it used to be my favorite song.)

And then pointing yourself in the same direction.

It all gets conflicted in my head.

I love baking and when my kids grow up I want them to bite into a chocolate chip cookie and instantly remember the day that we baked all afternoon and spilled flour everywhere and Mom laughed. (This hasn't actually happened, because who laughs at spilled flour? Crazy people, that's who. But I'm just saying these are the memories I want for my kids.) Hooowever, we need to be balanced and eat healthy and from our garden and cut out sweets and for the love of my soul, stop baking so many chocolate chip cookies.

How do we balance it all? I want to cultivate great friendships, for me and John and for my kids, and we can only do that by having people over, getting together on a regular basis, having fellowship. But I also want to reach out to the lonely and lost. It's good, it's so good, to make meals for those who have new babies and bless a friend with cookies, but I want to show my kids that we need to love others, too, not just the people who are just like us. Sometimes life is consumed with the people that are just like us, though, that it doesn't leave room for the people who are nothing like us.

Education. It is important, and I want my kids to love to learn, and read a lot, and be intelligent children who grow up to be intelligent adults. But education isn't everything. And it pales in comparison to teaching my kids what really matters in this life.

I want to reach out to the lost and lonely and hurting ..... but what does this look like in my life, that is so far removed from the lost and lonely? How do I become Jesus' hands and feet in the middle of my comfortable life, filled with baking and art projects and people like me?

I constantly have all these ideas and desires bouncing around in my head, and I'm just not sure what direction to move. I want so much for my kids before they are gone and out of my realm of influence and sometimes that can overwhelm me. And by sometimes I mean every day of my life.

How do we keep the focus on what's important, and let all the silly little things that don't matter slide away? What am I doing now that five years from now I'll think "why did I waste my time on that?"

You know how you read some blogs that pose all these tough questions and then answer them so beautifully at the end? Yeah, this isn't one of those blogs.

I don't have the answers. I'm looking to you, dear blog readers. I know two of you are out there.

I know, it's like a huge bottle of Prednisone threw up, and this is what came out.

On that note, I guess I'll leave you with that lovely imagery.

And if anyone has any insight or wisdom, I'd love to hear it!

 

Zoo Fun

We haven't been to the zoo in over two years, which is shameful. We really have a great zoo, not only in the amount of animals but in the huge play area for kids. We all had a blast today!

The two mini moms pushing their younger siblings. Until Avery started screaming "NOOOO!!! MOMMY PUSH!!!" so then I took over. Have I mentioned that girl has strong opinions?

Avery on the carousel. Oh my goodness, this girl LOVES carousels and slides. She had a HUGE grin on her face the entire ride. (This was just before the ride started.)

Avery checking out the rhino. If it seems I have more pictures of Avery, it's because the older kids were running off together (Anna Kate and Ansley and Christian and Hunter) that I couldn't keep up with them. But I must point out that this rhino made us a little uncomfortable because of our proximity to it. And also that I absolutely love this outfit on Avery. Toddler shoulders and backs are SO CUTE.

Avery also absolutely LOVED this slide. It was huge - you had to go up all these steps and then slide all the way down. She did it about a dozen times, all by herself, since all the big kids were doing other things. I waited at the bottom for her and she had a blast.

Christian and Hunter playing in the huge sand box.

It was such a fun day, and my kids were SO tired by the time bedtime rolled around!

Right Now

Our garden is growing! It's so exciting!

Ignore the sock on the stone. I don't even know where that's from, since it isn't Christian's. I just noticed it in this picture. Strange.

Now that the weather is so nice, the kids play outside every day. Avery always wants to go outside if the older two are out. This picture was taken while Avery was napping, and they were running toward the swings. All my kids love to swing, and LOVE being outside!

We may have overhandled the bunny. He was really so tiny and cute, and everyone wanted to hold him. I read on the Google that bunnies can die of fright, but I also know you can't believe everything the Google tells you, otherwise I'd have several serious but rare diseases by now. I like saying the Google for some reason. It makes me laugh. Anyway the poor bunny died, and it was very sad. We aren't sure if we caused it or if he was already sick, but he was cute and that's what we're remembering. We always have to have some type of animal tragedy each spring.

These two get some quality time together while Ansley is at her co-op. It's so cute to see them play together, since most often it's the three of them, and Christian tends to play more with Ansley than Avery. And have I mentioned how much I love toddler legs? They are SO CUTE I can hardly stand it. I should point out that Christian thought he matched. (He's color blind.) And this also reminds me of a hilarious Avery story. Avery is very funny. She can be maddeningly not funny, like when she's screaming no, but when she's happy, she's downright hilarious. She has this raspy voice that I tend to forget about because I hear it so often, but then when we are out places, people will comment on it. And the white hair - people always comment on her hair. It's at the out of control stage, all over the place, curly and big, which suits her perfectly.

But back to the story. We were at karate, and Avery was sitting next to me when she released some gas that had been cooped up, apparently. She looked at me with a shocked expression and said "MAMA! My hiney burped!" And we really haven't stopped laughing about it since then.

Christian loves to ride his bike, which I allow him to do in the street as long as I'm in the driveway watching. He does a great job on his bike, no issues there, but he doesn't always watch for cars, so he makes me nervous.

She's running. She loves to run! We are spending lots of time outside these days!

This post is lacking in Ansley pictures, I know, but that's because most of them were taken today and she is at her co-op from 9 am to 2 pm, and then Mimi picks her up and they go back to her house for a few hours. So she was hardly here today!

That's what's happening around here these days!

Playing Hooky

Yesterday we surprised the kids with a trip to Dollywood. I love surprises! John took the day off (we planned it out last week) but we decided we would wait and surprise the kids that morning. They were very excited!

It was the PERFECT day to go. The weather was beautiful, there was hardly anyone there, and we enjoyed the entire day there. The park was filled with old(er) people who ooohhed and ahhhhed over our kids, even when the two year old was screaming "NO-WAH!!!!!" (that's No with the Southern two syllables). There was something for everyone, and we each got to enjoy what we wanted. It was perfect!

Ansley is our fearless one. Right away, she wanted to ride the Wild Eagle that she'd been hearing about. It's where you dangle by your feet and go upside down and sideways.

She is tall enough to ride everything in the park. She rode this with John, and then with me, and then again with John at the end of the day. It was her favorite ride!

Christian is tall enough to ride most things, but not all. He is not as fearless as Ansley though. He rode one roller coaster and then he was done. But he did enjoy lots of other rides, and he was sweet to ride with Avery on her rides.

The older kids were very patient while Avery got to enjoy her rides. It was so sweet! She could ride many of them by herself, but her brother wanted to ride with her. So sweet! Here is John with her on the elephant ride.

See how excited she is? That was her on EVERY ride. And Dollywood has lots of rides for her age. She was in heaven!

We wrapped up the day with Cirque Shanghai, which was really cool and kept all the kids attention. By the time we got home, it was 8:30 pm and our kids were falling asleep in the bathtub. It was a full day, but LOTS of fun! We decided we would definitely have to do this again before school gets out!

 

 

4:44 pm

Christian breaking a board at his belt graduation today.

Post-Nap Cure

Sometimes (more often than I'd like) Avery still wakes up extremely grumpy from her nap, even after 2 or 3 hours. But on this day, Mimi brought Frostys for the kids, and for some strange reason, Avery was super happy. She is a wide open eater. She has always opened her mouth so big, even for small bites. Cracks me up.