Starting in Homeschooling

We have started more formal homeschooling in our house.

It most certainly helps that Baby Pear has developed a consistent napping routine at 9, 12:30 and usually 4ish. ~~~~happy dance~~~~

Our first step was to get ourselves back into a reliable morning Bible reading routine with the girls. It is not fancy, but it works. We eat breakfast, I feed Baby cereal while Miss Pear colors at the table, then I clean up Baby and give her something to play with in her highchair while I read first Five Minute Devotions for Children: Celebrating God's World As a Family and then our Bible chapter for the day. I do start with a devotional book because I find that when I am reading I just need a little something to focus my heart and still my brain, so I would rather the girls miss part of the devotion due to lack of attention than part of the Bible reading. We decided to skip to Matthew this week and are planning on reading our way through the Gospels.

And while this may make me a horrible mom, we were having trouble with not interrupting the Bible reading for silly things, so now, when Miss Pear sits through the whole reading without interrupting I reward her with a sticker. It works, and once she can do this consistently I will show her the last sheet of stickers that will be rewards and once the are gone, this will be behavior that is just expected, not rewarded.

While I don't count Bible reading as homeschooling, but rather something our family does out of our love for God, I do keep track of it in the homeschooling book just so that I can see what we did and when. It is also something we felt needed to get on track before we tackled anything else as it is the most important in our view.

Our second step was to get a morning schedule going so that it would work and not be a lesson in craziness!

So our loose schedule is:

1. Wake up, cleaned up
2. Breakfast
3. Bible Reading
4. Read Aloud and play if there is time or while I am reading a book without lots of pictures.
5. Baby Pear for her nap, Miss Pear 1/2 hour television while I accomplish this (and I am looking to cut this TV out over time).
6. While Baby naps we start our schooling and often get through a fair bit of it.
7. Baby wakes up and nurses (Miss Pear plays or colors)
8. We all go back downstairs and either finish up where we were in schooling, do some house stuff (Miss Pear helps/plays as applicable and Baby plays while I talk to her about what I am doing), or read.
9. Lunch
10. Naps all around (Mommy too for a short break).

After naps it is still a hodge podge of getting supper ready, finishing any schooling that did not get done, housework, play time for the girls etc. But with the morning plan in place we get the bulk of what we want to get done accomplished. Hopefully as we progress a reasonable afternoon plan will develop too.

Science Lesson

The best book we found at the Library for Miss Pear about veins was on the entire circulatory system including blood. I was a bit concerned because it is geared to Grades 3-5.

Yesterday after calling to check on a sick friend of Miss Pear's she asked me if I told her friend's mom that, "the white blood cells are going to eat up all the sickness and make (her friend) feel all better!"

Clearly I had nothing to worry about!

Beans and Rice

This is something I am trying to get more into our menus. Beans and Rice. But all the blog recipes I read are basically cook beans, add seasonings, serve over rice. Or some variation with no more details than that.

I love y'all, but you are making me nuts. Really.

As a girl who was raised by a family who ran a restaurant, this was not standard fare.

You want a fancy steak dinner - I am your girl. Fancy fussy meals? That too!

Simple fare? Not so much. But I am trying to learn.

I read menus and recipes on different blogs that assume I know all about beans and rice.

Umm. No. But I would really like to!

So please help me out!

Can you recommend some delicious bean and rice recipes? I know that a lot of them are simple, but for the sake of argument, please assume that I am eternally dense. I only have 1 bean and rice recipe that works. (From the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook).

I do have More with Less and Extending the Table if you want to just site page numbers and recipes.

But if you could help me out, I would really appreciate it.

Free Book Money

As a family just starting on the road of homeschooling we have quickly realized that feeding our daughter's voracious appetite for books is hard...even with the library. So I was thrilled when we discovered Swag Bucks. As you search the internet with their site you accumulate points, or swag bucks, which you can cash in for rewards such as Amazon.com gift cards. I have to admit, I was skeptical - afterall, just because you can get points and gift cards does not mean it will not take forever and a day, and who knows how good the search engine is!

Well, the search engine is powered by Google. Who I usually use.

In the month and a half we have have been using Swagbucks we have requested 2 $5 Amazon gift cards. You can get an Amazon gift card with 45 points, and with the amount I search it is not that hard!

There are other prizes, but to be honest, I saw book money and stopped right there.

So if you have voracious readers in your house, or just love Amazon.com, can I recommend Swagbucks to you? We have loved it!

Oh, and if you do decide to try it can you click through this post so we benefit too? I would recommend them regardless, but extra points is always nice!

Adventures at the Library

Today we took Miss Pear to the library. Not exactly a banner day, or rare event. Except for one thing. We left the librarians somewhat flabbergasted.

We went looking for a book for Miss Pear on a specific subject.

The cardiovascular system.

Or, to quote Miss Pear, a book on veins.

This past week Miss Pear noticed the veins on her wrists, and it kind of snow balled from there. So we went to get her a book to help her and to feed her curiosity. Apparently at the ripe age of 3 and 3/4 years old you are not supposed to notice these things, and there are no books at her age. So we left with books for 3-5th graders. You know what the scary thing is? She understands them just fine.

Do you think the librarians will remember us next time we are there?

In other news the lady at the education store thought we were nuts too, but we did find a small poster that now graces the wall on the hall way to the garage. It is for grades 3-5 too. Miss Pear loves it and has been explaining it to her little sister. Baby appears to be exceedingly interested as well. (Never mind that Baby is exceedingly interested in everything...)

Homeschool Classroom Giveaway

I have been reading the Homeschool Classroom since it started, and it has really encouraged me! They are currently having a giveaway for a $25 Amazon gift card, and is there ever such a thing as enough books for homeschoolers?

A Thoughtful Gift

Lately I have been thinking more about really thoughtful gifts.

Recently I made a set of correspondence cards for a friend and thought you might enjoy seeing them. I made sure to stamp the envelopes with her initial too.

Just call me the Scarecrow

You know, from the Wizard of Oz? The one who sings, "If I only had a brain."

I don't know if I am just trying to do too much, or if I am just lacking in concentration, or if I am just tired, but it feels like I am alternating between spinning my wheels and running in circles. Yes, there is a difference, and I have discovered it.

Between caring for our family, caring for our home, and starting to home school preschool it seems like something is always falling down.

And unfortunately when one grandma comes to visit she does not say no and encourages Miss Pear in bad behavior. When I step in I am the bad guy and am being too strict. It came to a head this weekend after blatantly bad behavior learned from Grandma coupled with a cheeky comment about Grandma says it is okay and Grandma was told it will not continue...by her son who never gets upset and is always the voice of calm reason but put his foot down firmly and with no discussion allowed. But really, it felt like we were left with no alternative, and I feel bad about that, but gently discussing it got laughed off and more pointed discussions got brushed off. Hopefully this will make a difference because I hate using time outs to correct bad behavior taught by Grandma.

So all things considered we are a bit overwhelmed.

Which is where I have been.

And I cannot come up with anything more to say.

Why is it sometimes so hard to do what you know is best for your kids, for your family?

Miss Pear's Theology

Last week, out of the blue, Miss Pear just broke out with:

"Can you argue with God? No! It's all about loving Him and doing what He commands."

Ummm. I know a lot of adults who have not figured that one out yet....

Nurse Mommy...again

Both girls are very sick with colds, and Miss Pear is down right grumpy about it (but the way she is sneezing and coughing it is easy to understand why.)

Mr. Pear is starting to feel yucky like he might be coming down with it, and my stomach is a very unhappy camper, so I think I will be disappearing for a bit to nurse my family to health.

Good thing I made a full crock pot of Tortilla Soup yesterday! (There was a great sale on chicken breasts - I got just over 3 lbs of them for $2.99 and that was the perfect amount of chicken for my soup!)

A Very Happy Monday

Our week is off to a great start! Even both girls being sick with colds cannot dampen the joy in my heart!

I just feel very grateful for stuff today - my family, our home, our car, our little garden, the soup simmering in the crock pot, even the cloudy day we are having. It is one of those days with the little things delight me, and I love it!

We took Baby to the pediatric orthopedic surgeon this morning for her 13 week check in, and it went great! Her hip test is completely normal, and she is now allowed 12 hours a day out of her harness, which means she just wears it at night! I don't honestly think there are words to express how happy and thankful we are! The Lord has been so good to us through this and is healing her through what feels to me to be a slow and steady miracle!

We don't have to go back for 4 weeks, and when we do it is entirely possible that she will be done with her harness! Please excuse me while I do my dance of joy! .........

.....okay, I am back!

Both girls got sick with the cold going around. Baby got sick Wednesday night/Thursday and Miss Pear got sick Saturday, so things are very slow going right now around here, which is great, slow works.

So while both girls are napping, I think I will rest too, just in case it is a bit of a long day!

Thank you to so many of you who have been praying us through Baby's treatment, the Lord is blessing is in big and small ways through this, and is helping us along wonderfully!

A Busy Night

Baby is sick with a cold...again. For those of you counting this is cold #3 for 2009. Yes, I know it is only March 6! No matter what precautions we seem to take the germs just find her! On the plus side she will have a rock solid immune system when she is bigger!

To celebrate cold #3 we gave her the first of many meals of cereal. As always we started with rice cereal and most if it ended up on her. It was hysterically funny!

And because that is not enough to keep our family busy, we decided that in all likelihood, if we forced the issue, there is a really good chance that Miss Pear could indeed go through the night without a diaper. So tonight she is in Imsy Vimsy training pants. We thought that seeing as we are already exhausted from Baby being sick and having 3 bad nights we might as well just go for broke seeing it is the weekend...

Will let you know how it goes. So far since the start of bed time about 45 minutes ago we have had 3 potty runs....

Being a Blessing when life is Crazy

There is a family we kind of know about a block over from us. We know them well enough to stop and chat, and hand off hand me downs too. But not really socialize a lot with, partly because we are far enough away not to fit into that tight fit of neighbors, and partly because we really have not made a huge effort with the craziness of life.

Any way, they had a baby last week, and we wanted to do something to bless them. The only requirements were that it could not cost a bunch and could not demand time in bunches.

So I went with my tried and true method. I made them supper by simply doubling what I was making. Actually I just made a batch of my Spaghetti Sauce and portioned a meal for them (this recipe gives 3 meals with leftovers for us) and made 2 Italian Cheese Breads. So a bit of extra work, not much, no extra mess, and voila, an extra meal!

I froze both the sauce and the bread, and will deliver it tomorrow with a bag of pasta. The thought being that there are lots of meals being delivered right now, but this one will be stashed in the freezer for one of those "You have GOT to be KIDDING ME!" days. Or am I the only one who has those??? :-)

Too Funny

If you are a fan of Precept Ministries and Kay Arthur, you have to check this out! It is so funny!

Gardening in March

I wanted to let you know that I actually waited until March this year to start my summer garden. Okay, so I waited until the 1st, but technically it was March!

Yesterday afternoon after the nap to recover from Church (Baby always needs a long one), we went to the nursery and we bought strawberries! 8 plants of everbearing and 4 plants of June specific. We also picked up 2 more gerbera daisies for more color in the back and 3 ostesporiums for color in the front.

When we got home I put baby down for another nap while Mr Pear and Miss Pear prepared the soil. Then we planted the strawberries, sweet potatoes (apparently here you can just go the store, buy the potatoes and quarter them and plant them...who knew you did not need seed potatoes) and gerbera daisies. Then this morning I took the girls out front to quickly plant the ostesporiums before the rains come.

I did not pull up my pepper plants from last year and they are still growing peppers, albeit small ones, but still!

I do have to call the seed people today and order basil, carrots, pickling cucumber and tomato seeds to be planted the end of this month along with a hearty laying down of slug and snail bait!

Usually this is the end of our rainy season, but we need rain so badly that I have been praying fervently for more rain than expected and for additional storms through April or even May! While I know many areas need rain, California is not called the country's salad bowl for nothing, so I remind myself that as I pray for rain for us, it is also something that will help keep food prices down in other parts of the country and bless others too! Plus, storms that hit us tend to just meander across the country hitting those other dry areas too!