an ordinary mom

30 Days Hath September

Alison — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:22:55 +0000

Our 3, 5, 7, 9, & 11 yr olds got their September calendars all numbered and adorned with their own personalities and they are each now ready to be 3-hole punched and added to their big 3-ring binders that will hold the evidence of what they do this year in our homeschool. Writing samples, artwork samples, math quizzes, pictures from field trips, with just about anything and everything having to do with the things they learn and the things they experience, these binders can end up, well, rather plump.

I let them loose with markers (washable! after years of many young children I’ve learned that washable markers are worth the extra dollar…) and colored pencils and no artistic guidelines, unless you count “Draw whatever you want!” Hopie cracked me up when she started right out with a blue snowman. We did have about a 20 degree shift in our high temps, but I think she may be jumping the gun a bit with the snowmen pictures… We’ll have to talk a bit more about seasons, and the difference between fall and winter, but then, with our Frozen Tundra weather it could start snowing right after I convince her that fall comes first and that it’s all about cooler temps, changing leaves, and apple orchard trips.

I don’t know if you can see it, but to the right of the snowman there is a treasure chest, some swirling paths above it (like on a treasure map), and X to mark the spot, and a sword to warn the treasure hunters that there are pirates in the area. I’m not sure what that all has to do with snowmen, but let’s just say that the variety doesn’t surprise me one single little bit, especially coming from this child.

She also started writing her name correctly with a capital “H” and then an “o”, then she paused and crossed it out before writing her entire name in lower case letters. I think she just likes the look of a lower case h better…

We’ll work on that.

Grace set to drawing the sweetest picture of a little girl with a delightfully patterned fall sweater and set of matching mittens, surrounded by falling leaves. Delightful.

Before you jump to the conclusion that our boys are obsessed with violence, let me tell you that we had just watched Davy Crockett and Jaron had Bowie knives on the mind. Our boys are not violent in the slightest, but they are all boy and they do carry some handy pocket knives, which comes in quite useful when I can’t get a package open without breaking another fingernail.

I’d seen the knives before, but before watching Davy Crockett for the 1st time I had no idea who Jim Bowie was. I must’ve missed that lesson in American History way back when I was in school. No matter, I’ve just added it to the list of the many things that I didn’t know but happened to learn right along with my children!

Liberty, our oldest daughter is so much like me it’s scary sometimes. The open-ended “whatever you want” directions were too much for her this day. After several minutes, when each of the other children were eagerly drawing away, Liberty was still sitting there tapping her pencil. I told her not to worry about picking the perfect thing to draw, to just draw anything that came to mind, maybe even just draw her name with fanciful colorful letters. “I know, but…” I told her that if she didn’t hurry up and decide, that I was going to assign her something random and goofy to draw, like, um, uh, a purple fish.

She grinned and told me”You’ve just given me an idea!”

And she drew a fish.

I just love 3 yr olds’ drawings! I could fill dozens of scrapbooks with these treasures if I kept every one of them, which I am often tempted to do.

Working on our calendars is more than an art time for our homeschoolers. It’s a time to review the months of the year, to learn their order (things we take for granted, like just knowing that September is 9 when we write out the date with only numbers and slashes), to learn the number of days of the months, to review the days of the week, and practice counting to 30 (or 31, or 28, or even 29) and writing the numbers.

Fun stuff.

I’m excited to watch the September sections of their binders fill up with all kinds of goodness!

1st Field Trip of a New School Year

Alison — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:24:01 +0000

Can you tell what those little hands are doing?

eta- HINT- that is not wheat

It’s not even technically a grain, but a grass…

Free Printable Calendars, September 2010

Alison — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:48:20 +0000

I mentioned yesterday that I’d have calendars for you (really for your children!) today… lo, and behold, I do!

There are calendars with simple black frames as well as more decorative fun frames for those who like more flair, and I designed each type with or without traceable numbers for those youngers who may still need some guided practice.

You should be able to click on each image to download the pdf

Enjoy!

August Is a Wrap

Alison — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:56:25 +0000

Really. It’s done. Gone. In the bag.

It’s about this time every year that the panic sets in. The walls of impending doom (snow and ice) seem to come closing in on me and I feel an urgent need to “seize the day”, this day and every last one of them until the snow comes in all of its wind-chill advisory glory. Dramatic? Yes, but it’s true. I go through this every year.

According to every calendar around here, this is the last day of August. The last one. We don’t get any more, not even any make-up days. It’s just full-speed ahead and on into September… like, tomorrow.

Today seemed like a day for seizing.

After dropping the teenager off at the bus heading down to his 1st soccer game of the season, the rest of us grabbed some snacks and headed to the park “in town” for some running, jumping, swinging, climbing, and mostly sweating in the still-hot sun. There will be baths tonight!

Did you read that last line in the voice of Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride when he declares “There will be blood tonight!”? No? Go back and read it again, ’cause that’s totally the way I typed it and if this were a podcast, it’s totally the way I would say it.

We’ll be making September calendars tomorrow that each schooling child (which, for us, is down to the 3 yr old) will keep in their big binders for records of our year of exploring and learning to learn. Check back tomorrow for some free printable calendars with room for your child’s artwork!

For today, we’re just enjoying that it’s still August, for a few more hours.

30 Days Hath September

Multitude Monday 516-530

Alison — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:14:07 +0000

Better late than never, right? It’s still Monday for a few more minutes…

The counting of the multitudes of His blessings continues, as if I could ever actually count them. I may have lettered on my high school Math Team, twice, but I could never count high enough to count my blessings in anything close to entirety, and yet, just the exercise of the attempt to notice them more and to list the ones that stand out to me at the time has been so good for my heart.

If you’ve never spent time in intentional thankfulness, I encourage you to do so. In the midst of the raging of the world in every direction around you, there are blessings to be counted, you just have to notice them.

516. believers taking a step in faith
517. our Liberty standing tall among them
518. waters that don’t save, but that symbolize so much

519. a 5 yr old’s earnest prayers to the only One who can save her soul, after days of hearing so much talk of death and life and salvation, she prayed more fervently than I’d ever hard a child pray before, it moved me as a mother, as her mother, more than words can even say…
520. peace (and even joy) that passes understanding permeating the atmosphere of the funeral of a man who loved the Lord, a man with a colorful past whose life was changed unmistakably by his encounter with the Savior
521. juicy peaches at the perfect peak of ripeness
522. pear juice dripping from the hands and elbows of the toddler enjoying an abundance of fresh fruit
523. time spent processing (in more ways than one) in the kitchen
524. new books, notebooks, paper, pencils, pens, markers, crayons…
525. children eager to learn
526. listing and planning a fall full of field trips
527. an asthma episode (Grace) passing quickly, without requiring an arsenal of meds or a trip to a doc
528. time spent with my nose in a good book
529. reading a story for pleasure, not for any requirement
530. true stories of the hand of God moving in the lives of His children, stories that inspire as well as convict