Glittery Fresas

Our Spanish teacher, Senora Vanessa :), is easing out of maternity leave and back into her official post as Spanish/Art teacher for Ingram School!  She came back strong today with an awesome day at her house for all of our children.  We spent the early part of the morning here doing some reading, writing, and math and then we headed down the hill to our Enrichment Activity.  Vanessa had an art activity ready for us to make fresas (Spanish for strawberry) so that we could continue our F theme.  She had cut out the strawberry shape, the kids taped the strawberry to their papers, then drew a green stem at the top.  She brought out glue and paint brushes to make dots on the strawberry and then came the magic...GLITTER!  Who doesn't love glitter?!?!?!  Glitter is one of those things I miss because it can be such a pain to clean up, so we don't risk it while our house is on the market....maybe when it's warmer and we can go outside, but definitely not an indoor project for us these days.  Our fresas were beautiful and everyone was excited to sprinkle glitter everywhere.  Then, we bundled up and went outside to collect pine cones.  We promised Ms. Dare at story time that we would bring pine cones for next week's project (even if we don't make it to story time, we'll drop them off earlier).  While we were outside, it was a lot colder than we had thought, so we moved to the sunshine and Ruby discovered a stump that we all turned into a Fairy House.  I love fairy houses!!!  We broke the rules a little bit, but it was still fun and exciting.  In the book, Fairy Houses, you learn that you should only build the house out of natural things that you find lying around.  You're not supposed to pick flowers or pluck leaves off trees, but anything that has come off naturally is fair game.  Well, it was too tempting to pick the red holly berries and pointy leaves to decorate the house, so at least it was natural materials.  We told the kids that the fairies preferred to eat the red berries, but humans could NOT eat them.  Amazingly, I didn't see one kid put a berry in his or her mouth.  We played some more and then went inside for lunch and now everyone is napping.  We had such a great morning.  Being with wonderful friends and being able to get outside makes for a wonderful day.  Top it off with some learning and that's how we're living these days.
Oh, and just because I can't write a post without mentioning the potty....Ruby used the potty twice at Vanessa's where she gets a chocolate chip for going!  Her third chart is almost full, so we're hoping to go to the Education Store tomorrow to get a treat.  I'll keep you posted....

2 Hour Delay and Potty Time

Allen had a two-hour delay this morning (you know, don't want to have accidents in all that wintry weather out there!)  That meant that we got to take our time this morning and ease our way through our school work and playing and balance everything a little easier.  I got to take a long shower (!) and not feel rushed to throw on some clothes.  We would have even eaten a little later if we had noticed the delay before breakfast.  Oh, well.  Papa and the kids built their Fort back while I got ready and had some great time playing together.  Ruby started out the day with a poop in her Pull-Up, so she didn't get a sticker on her chart today for that, but the day started looking up when she made it through story time at the library without any accidents and even used the potty at the library!  Then, she had an accident at nap time, so it has been a roller coaster potty day...
We all wrote F words today for handwriting (I think I had a few extra hits on the blog yesterday since this week is F word week...no telling what people will Google!).  Ford wrote FACE without any help.  Rachel wrote FACE, face, FEBRUARY, and February.  Ruby actually traced an upper case F and there were three for real lines!!!  We did a lot of reading this morning.  Rachel even read lots of words out of The Foot Book and Green Eggs and Ham.  Ford read his Thomas books and Ruby chose to hear the funny books we found yesterday about Frog on a Log, Fox in a Box, and Goose on the Loose.  Rachel did a quick math review while we read some more books.  After Allen left for school, we got everyone ready and headed to the library for story time.  I was hoping they didn't cancel since there was a 2 hour delay for the schools and they didn't disappoint.  Miss Dare read a couple of books about birds and then we colored birds and pasted feathers on them.  We got home for lunch and played a little before nap time.  During nap time I caught up on the Biggest Loser (I have to skip through lots of parts if I watch it at nap time, but I got most of the story line).  Then Rachel got up to practice her violin and Ruby woke up soon after.  They are listening to Rachel's Violin CD right now while I type this and I will go wake up Ford soon so that he will go back to sleep tonight!  I think since it's such a yucky day outside, I'll let them watch a quick show (we've been doing a great job of not watching anything for the last few days) and then we're going to make Faces.  I've taken several pictures of F activities that I hope to figure out how to get from our camera to the blog soon (gotta find that cord!).

Skipping on Past the Weekend with F Words

The middle school teacher in me just can't help but giggle a little when I ask the kids if they can help me find more F words....we're doing the letter F this week all together because it's one of the easiest letters to write and it's the beginning of Ford's name.  So far, in our F Bowl on the table, we have a Fork, Fairy wings, Flowers, Five, and some upper case Fs we made today.  I cut strips for Ruby, but Ford and Rachel cut their own big lines and little lines and pasted the lines together to make an F.  Ford loves to cut, so he was excited!  Ruby loves to paste, so she was excited!  Rachel did her math work while they cut and pasted and then did her own F without any instructions or help...such a grown up!  We all drew upper case Fs on their slates (even Ruby!) and I tried to help Ford with a lower case f...not-so-much, but he'll get there one day.  I'm just glad he's doing so well with his upper case letters these days.
We read a few books about farms and a Franklin book.  Ford wished we had a Flynn the fire engine book, but it had been returned to the library.  At least he got the point!  Now he keeps saying, "When are we doing a T bowl?  I can put in Thomas and Terrence and Tidmouth Sheds....."  My main point of doing a letter this week was to make sure that we all know what sounds the letters make and Ford definitely caught on quickly.  Now if I can just reel him back in to F, not T for Thomas or S for Spencer or "Hey, Mama, what does Hiro start with?  He can go in a bowl!"  That would be H for Hysterical!
We took a little Field trip this morning out to our favorite new library and got a gazillion books!  I found several rhyming books for early readers for Rachel to work on.  Ford found a Thomas words book that is pretty cool to identify parts of the train.  Ruby wanted to bring home every single book and then put them all back before we left.  She is totally in Wishy-Washy land!!
I was hoping it was going to warm up enough to play outside today, but I don't think that's going to happen.  We had an awesome time playing outside yesterday with Papa.  Our backyard is pretty fun when everyone's getting along and enjoying their time.  I try to stop myself from only thinking about the future, but I really can't wait to have a yard that we've planned and a swing-set that we've built and places that they feel belong to them where they can explore and imagine and create.  Allen built them an awesome Fort inside this weekend that we all fit into and I hated to take it down, but once again, I just worry that the phone will ring and someone will want to look at our house and how in the world will I get all of that put away and the house cleaned up in time to show this house and get it SOLD?!?!?!  Anyway, just waiting on that one person to decide he/she needs this house.  Come on and buy it!!!  We're ready to go!

Who are these people?

Fridays...we have a love/hate relationship.  I love that Friday means the end of a week and Allen will be home with us for the weekend.  I love that Friday means one of my good friends bring her son over to play.  I hate that something about other people in our house makes my kids act like aliens have invaded their bodies!
Just to give you one example of what I'm talking about, we usually have a snack during our playdate time on Fridays, so today I pulled out the rest of the huge bag of animal crackers we've been snacking on all week.  Everyone got a bowl and even went to the table to eat.  I was shocked that they didn't want to just throw the crackers all over the house while playing like crazy people and attempting to eat at the same time.  We had a lovely time all sitting at the table and sharing stories.  Then our sweet little one year old guest wanted me to come with him to the playroom. Then slowly, one at a time, the crazy people started descending from their chairs and into the playroom with us.  I should have known that once we were all in the playroom and Rachel and Ford left, we were in for trouble.  Unfortunately, I had left the large bag with just crumbs on the table in the other room.  Ford proceeded to turn that into "chicken feed" and feed the chickens in the living room.  Literally, he just started throwing crumbs around like he was feeding the chickens.  Okay, so that's irritating, I'll be there in a minute to clean it up.  I ask him and Rachel to start picking the pieces up off the floor.  Before I can get in there, Rachel has decided to take one of the little frying pans from the play kitchen and smash all of the bits into the floor.  Seriously?!?!  I mean, what is the fun in that?  Is today Drive Your Mother Crazy Day???  Did someone forget to tell them that our house is on the market?  No, I'm sure I remind them of that every 30 minutes with things like, "Don't smear your peanut butter on the windows!" and "Why are you wiping your nose on the couch???"  I guess feeding the chickens is more important than selling our house or even, Heaven forbid, keeping it clean!  Oh, right, WE DON'T HAVE CHICKENS!!!!  You know, as I type this, though, I'm not nearly as irritated any more, but I just don't get it why they make such bad decisions when other people have my attention for more than 20 seconds.  It's the same way when I'm on the phone or in the drive-through at the bank trying to talk to the teller.  Those are always opportune times to do the dumbest things they can possibly think of!!
The good news is that we made it through school work this morning very efficiently.  I actually have a plan for next week that I can work on this weekend.  Ruby and Rachel filled up their charts completely and Ford only missed two spots for not staying in his bed all night.  I'd say it was a great week over all and I'm glad that it's finally nap time :)

Super Moms and GRACE Girls

What a wildly adventurous day we had today!  We quickly are tiring of the cold/rainy/muddy weather and not being able to go enjoy the park or the backyard or just being outside without coats and toboggans and gloves.  Needless to say, these walls are closing in on us, so we needed an adventure today!  We were able to complete our schoolwork rather quickly today.  Ruby identified all of her shapes.  Rachel made lower case letters out of the "magic c".  Ford was frustrating with his writing today, but he did it!  The biggest news, though, was that Ruby completed her potty chart with 25 stickers!!  That means that in 3 days, she has used the potty 25 times!  I'm pretty impressed that she finally has been sticking (ha ha) to it!  So, we decided it was worth an adventure to go find her a prize.  I keep having this urge to go to Costco and I knew Target would have different, if not better, choices than the plain old Wal-Mart here in town, so we decided to make the 30 minute drive to the big city.  Vanessa has mentioned several times that she'd like to see what Costco is like, so on a whim I called to see if they'd like to go, too.  Two Super Moms and five kids later, we're on our way!  Keep in mind that we have an infant, 2 two year-olds, a 3 year-old, and a 5 year-old during our trip.  The car ride was actually extremely uneventful and we were there in what felt like no time.  We got to Target and I decided to take Ruby to the potty immediately even though she had on a Pull-Up because I wanted her to not use the Pull-Up if she didn't have to.  The girl sat on the potty and pooped!  I decided at that moment she could have anything she wanted in the store :)  Seriously, if you've never been through potty training, this is HUGE!  She picked out a Rosetta doll (one of Tinkerbell's friends) and we strolled around the store.  Once we got to the check-out, she changed her mind and wanted Tinkerbell, so we went and got the Tinkerbell instead (which I'm glad that we did) and finally made our way to the car.  Vanessa had gone to change Hyland and Kingston's diapers and met us at the car.  I think Tinkerbell helped Ruby make it through Costco because there weren't many samples today for her hungry self.  The kids were awesome and did a great job in both stores.  We were able to get everything we needed, plus a few extras that I thought we might wish we had once we got home, and still stayed in our budget.  We decided to eat lunch at Costco which consisted of smoothies and pizza.  Vanessa was brave enough to wait in line for the food while I took all three Ingrams to the potty.  And all three of them actually used the potty!!!  Score another one for the team!  Vanessa was even braver next to sit with all five kids while I rushed the cold stuff out to the cooler in the car.  I was super impressed with how well everyone behaved and how efficiently we maneuvered through the stores without a disaster today.  No one had a meltdown, no one had an accident, and no one cried that they didn't get something.  I thought Ruby and/or Ford and possibly Kingston would fall asleep on the way home, but there was just too much energy for that!  By the time we got home, it was too late to take a nap because we needed to leave for art and violin, so we got all our groceries put away, cleaned the spilled smoothie off their clothes and changed, and packed up for our activities.  Ford did prints with Ms. Lisa at art class and Rachel learned some new things on her violin and then we headed to GRACE Girls.  Allen met us at the church to take Ford and Ruby on the playground while Rachel and I helped make baskets with the girls.  Rachel had a great time getting in a little time with Ms. Lisa and I had fun helping the girls with their baskets.  Long ago before we had kids, Lisa and I started the GRACE Girls to help 6th grade girls who needed a safe place to go after school or who couldn't afford enrichment activities.  It was nice to be a part of that again and feel like I was being helpful, but I definitely don't want to go back to it full time any time soon.  Several of the girls are Allen's students and he needs a break from them after a long day of work, so he was happy to spend time with our kids on the playground!  We came home for an early dinner and early bedtime after a long day of adventures and the kids were all asleep by 7:15!!  I was so proud of them for doing so well out in public and so happy to get home and rest after using all my energy!!

Frogs and Art

Wednesday seems to be the day where we play catch up around here and relax a little bit.  We have no scheduled activities, no reason to rush or get ready to go anywhere, and nothing to worry about.  Today has been a great Wednesday.  Once we got everyone going this morning, we had some issues with Ruby wanting to do her work while Ford was doing his work and Ford wanting to do his work while Rachel was doing her work and so on and so on.  Amazingly, we had done all of our school work by 8:30!  I found some paper with lines for Rachel to start practicing her handwriting on since the book used new lines yesterday.  We just practiced writing her whole name on the lines that have the dash in the middle and she did very well.  She really does pay attention to details so well (honestly, way better than I do!).  Ford and I worked on his upper-case "I"s since he had trouble with that yesterday.  He did them with the magnetic pieces a few times (his favorite thing!) and then wrote them on paper several times.  He was definitely doing much better by the end.  Rachel worked on her math blocks today moving from unit blocks to the blocks that are certain numbers and colors which will help her when we get to addition.  Then, we all read some stories and looked at a lower-level non-fiction book for Rachel and talked about captions, chapter titles, and diagrams.  The book was about frogs and talked about tadpoles and she remembered that we watched a Curious George from long ago about tadpoles.  They had done so well that I promised them if they would clean up the playroom we could watch the quick tadpole episode.  It's pretty cute how George thinks he's lost the tadpoles only to find out that the things he has with legs are the tadpoles turning into frogs!  After all of that, it was snack time.  While they ate their snack, I got out all of the play-doh tools and such and we played play-doh for a good 30 minutes or so.  Ruby made shapes (including her beloved hexagon), Rachel wanted to make coil pots like Ford had done in art class, and Ford played construction with Buster the Power Crane and the brick-colored play-doh.  We are getting really good at doing Play-Doh all at the same time and everyone enjoying it.  I always know it's time to put it up, though, when Ruby starts licking it!!!  After we got all of that cleaned up, we packed up our paints and headed down to Vanessa's for some art.  We painted little rocks all different colors and line them up like a caterpillar.  It was a pretty cute idea that came from a fairy book Rachel got for Christmas.  Vanessa also showed them how to make robots out of construction paper (Ruby put wings on hers so that it was a Robot Fairy).  We inevitably got a little wild...they just love playing there so much, but spinning Hyland around in his exersaucer is not a good idea!!  After some lunch and a little more play time, we headed home, put the sheets on the beds and settled down for a nap.  I actually dozed off myself for just a little bit...amazing how in 5-10 minutes of sleep, I was already dreaming.  Seriously!  I've got to catch up on some zzzzzzzzzz's....It's been a great day and the sun is shining and it's warming up, so I'm hoping the afternoon is just as great and we can get outside and enjoy the fresh air.

Forward Rolls

Let's just all move on past yesterday's post where I was clearly still in a fog from the crazy weekend!
Today we had a much more normal day (if there is such a thing around here!).  We were able to get some chores done like laundry and cleaning rooms and vacuuming before we started our school work.  I love that all three kids can now play together on their own and come up with games to play while I get something done even if it's only for 5 or 10 minutes.  It's so cute to listen to them while I'm in another room.  Ruby wanted to make a bridge in the living room which means we took all the cushions off the couch and put them on the hearth so she could climb between the chair and the now cushionless couch.  Rachel and Ford were playing with the "Little Thomas Trains" and saw that Ruby was playing on the bridge.  I was drying my hair so I couldn't hear them but I could see what they were doing and it was cracking me up.  Rachel was trying her best to get the trains to slide down the side of the bridge, however, the bridge is flat and the trains have no wheels, so she was getting very frustrated!  Ruby was climbing up on the chair and jumping down onto the bridge and laughing hysterically.  All of this was going on while Ford was talking non-stop and when I turned off the hair dryer I caught the end of "This Episode of Thomas..."  I can only imagine what Henry and James and Percy were doing....
Like I said yesterday, we are working without a theme this week.  The ladybug didn't make it to the end of nap time, as in, she has disappeared, so ladybugs were out.  I thought about talking about the circus because that is what story time was about today, but we've never been to the circus, so that can wait for another time.  I thought I'd see what kind of books they were into today, but we ended up with more fairy books and I just can't make everything be about fairies and Thomas for goodness sake!!!  Anyway, Rachel started a new math lesson this morning, so we watched her friend, Mr. Steve for a couple of minutes and did her work.  Then she practiced writing periods, question marks, and exclamation points and even wrote a few sentences!  It is beginning to look like Kindergarten for real!!  Ford practiced writing his full name and I was shocked that he did a G without any help!  Strangely, though, he had a lot of trouble with a capital I for Ingram....we'll get there.  Ruby worked on the shape puzzle today and told me on her own which shape was the Hexagon...made her Mama proud :)  So, I guess we're just working on some basics this week and that's fine with me.  We're planning to have some art time with Ms. Vanessa tomorrow and I think we're just going to let everyone make whatever they want to make and use whatever they want to use.  Sometimes it's fun to just be creative and sometimes you need more direction, so I'll try to have a couple of ideas in my head when Rachel tells me she doesn't know what to do!  I'm not worried about Ford, he'll make Thomas.  And Ruby will just make a mess, but have a blast!
Oh, and story time!  Big news!  Mr. Jason had set up a circus at the library and you got a ticket to go in and everything.  He read a couple of books and at one point was talking about acrobats.  He asked if anybody could do any cartwheels or somersaults and Ford actually walked up to the front and did a forward roll in front of everyone.  I was so proud of him.  Last summer he wouldn't even talk to anyone in the library and now he's doing tricks!  As much as I want to go try out that other library, I just don't think I can take him away from the comfort zone of this library, so maybe we'll just make a trip out there to check out books some day soon.

Back in the Swing of Things...

Going on a weekend adventure with three kids means there will be lots of laundry and lots of sleep to catch up on when you return.  Luckily I was able to do a load of laundry before we came home so there was less to catch up on.  Unfortunately, on Saturday night, a group of crazy teenagers turned me into a crazy person who thought I could stay up until 1 AM and sleep only until 5:30 AM and then function the next day!  I think next time I'll switch and sleep instead of trying to get ahead of the game on laundry!!  Allen and I both were in a fog all day yesterday, but now we're home and back to somewhat of a routine.  I had an appointment this morning, though, so our day started out differently.  While I was out, I ran to the grocery store by myself (!) and was able to get groceries for the week.  I'm not sure how to describe how it feels to be alone in a grocery store by myself.  You know, alone, but not really alone.  I ended up with all kinds of good, healthy choices because I could think and I could process information (despite the sleep-deprived fog) and I didn't have to answer questions while debating choices at the same time.  CRAZY!
Back to school, though...When I returned home, I unloaded the groceries, got everyone to the table (with Allen, too :) and got our school work tackled.  Rachel did math while Ford and Ruby worked on forming letters with Allen.  Then Rachel's next handwriting assignment included Mat Man (go to www.hwtears.com if you want to know more about him), so we all made a Mat Man together and talked about body parts.  Rachel finished up her writing and Ford and Ruby picked out some books to read with Allen so that Rachel and I could practice her violin (we were behind on this, too, from this weekend!).  Rachel read a couple of books out loud to me and then everyone helped with some chores and their charts were basically complete.  Rachel added to her chart this week that she wants to try not to bite her fingernails.  So far, so good.  Ruby's chart has been changed to say that she's going to not wear a pull-up while we're at home.  She had one accident at lunch, but it's all little steps, right?  I'm over the potty fight this week.  Maybe I'll tackle it next week?  Maybe not.  Ford's chart includes staying in his own bed all night this week and he's already got one night of that down!  Woo-Hoo!  After doing all our work this morning, we were able to eat lunch with Allen because he didn't have to leave for work until 11:30, so we had an early lunch with all of us here.  After he left and lunch was cleaned up, we returned all of our ski clothing to the Hollifields and played there for a little while with Kingston and Hyland.  Then, we came back for nap time.  While we were getting books and potty breaks and such, the kids found a lady bug and they have decided her name is Stefney and she is their new pet.  I'm not sure how long Stefney will make it, but maybe we should do some ladybug exploring this week while she's here.  I'm behind on planning on a theme for the week, so we will just go with this!  They were all pretending to be animal fairies and take care of her and it was pretty doggone cute.  After nap time, we'll go to music class today and that will pretty much take care of us.  Now it's time to rest...

Snow Day at the Pool

We started our day at 5:30 today...believe me, you can't stay up late and expect to sleep in, it just doesn't work!  By 7:00 we were all a little stir crazy!  We bundled up in our best snow gear and drove into town to the park.  A snowy slide is just as awesome as a sledding hill :)  The kids had the best time making snow balls, playing on the park equipment, sliding, and enjoying the snow.  We were hoping to stay in town until lunch, but it just was too cold!!  So, we drove back to the house and played indoors for the rest of the morning.  After a picnic lunch we decided to try out the indoor pool that's a part of the neighborhood.  Oh my goodness these kids had so much fun!  How crazy to be swimming in the pool and watching the snow fall at the same time!  True to character, Ruby was crazy in the pool and had fun pretending to be a scuba diver, Ford took his time, but warmed up to jumping in and swimming on his own (with a puddle jumper on) and Rachel stayed in the area where she could stand and swam like a dolphin (if dolphins swim with their feet touching the ground??)  It didn't take long for everyone to crash for a nap and now we just enjoy the calm and await the noise and chaos of 20 more people in this house!!!
What a great Saturday :)

Long, Snowy Day

At one point today the weather was 62 degrees and sunny and at one point today the weather was 34 degrees and snowing....pretty crazy if you ask me!
We had a great morning of doing some quick grocery shopping, some quick school work (Ford is now able to write Rachel and Ruby!), and some quick packing.  Then we played with our buddy Wyatt and his mom, Kristin.  They are our usual Friday morning playdate buddies and are super fun!  I fed everyone some lunch and got them settled in front of the laptop for a little bit of show watching while I loaded the car and cleaned up (you never know if those people will call and want to see the inside of our house instead of just walking around the yard!).  We dropped off Goldie with Vanessa for the weekend, picked up a cooler full of food for the youth group kids, and got Allen from school.  Luckily Ford and Ruby slept most of the way on our trip and woke up in time to see the mountains coming into view.  The kids were super excited to see "snow clouds" and mountains all around.  After we got settled, we had some dinner, played in the clubhouse, and then got bundled up to catch some snowflakes!  Rachel, Ford, and Ruby were so excited to be standing in snow.  It's supposed to snow all night and all day tomorrow.  I really hope it's a winter wonderland for them while we're on this short vacation.  Allen's youth group comes tomorrow to go skiing and everything will get wild!!  We will probably go into town tomorrow or just adventure around here depending on how treacherous the mountain roads are.  I have stayed up way too late, but have enjoyed some quality time with my dear husband.  Now I need to tiptoe into our room where all three kids are sharing an air mattress...cutest thing I've ever seen...if I wasn't afraid it would wake them up, I'd take a picture.  I guess you can sleep anywhere when you're exhausted.  Any bets on who is still on the air mattress in the morning?  My bet would be only Rachel!
Good night...I think I'm getting delirious :)

Valentine Madness

We have had a whirlwind of crazy Valentine's Day adventures today!  We started the day by sharing our homemade cards with each other before breakfast.  After Allen left for work, we actually got a little math/writing/reading in and had a normal 30 minutes or so.  Then, the madness began!  We loaded up the car at 8:45 and dropped off our first Valentine.  Ford needed a hair cute pretty badly, so we swung into Mr. Brandon's and got a quick handsome cut.  Then we went out to Rachel's godmother's office and took her a Valentine.  From there, we headed out to Grandpa's office and dropped off a Valentine.  At his office there was a table set up with all kinds of candy and treats.  The kids definitely helped themselves.  We followed that with a trip to G.G.'s where they had even more treats and played trains with G.G.  We passed Ms. Lisa on the road, so we called her and flagged her down and delivered her Valentine.  We were going to stop by Ruby's Godmother's office, but she wasn't there, so we called her Godfather and caught him at the kids' school playground to deliver their Valentines.  Finally, we came back to our house and had a quick little lunch with Vanessa, Kingston, and Hyland.  While we were eating lunch a pick up truck stopped in front of our house and couple literally got out of the truck and walked around our yard!!!  I was so excited that they were so interested in our house :)  We weren't sure if we should go talk to them or not, but I decided against it.  You just never know the legalities of that kind of thing.  They looked around for a good 5-10 minutes and then drove down the street a little bit, turned around and slowly drove back by.  I freaked out that they might call our realtor, so I started cleaning like a mad woman.  Vanessa took the boys home for a nap and I got a movie started for Rachel, Ford, and Ruby.  They did a pretty good job just sitting here and resting and watching a movie while I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned.  So, hopefully this afternoon while we're gone to violin and art the people will call and want to see the inside of the house??? Or nothing could come of it and we have a clean house....not too bad of a deal, I guess!
The best Valentine's gift of all would be to sell this house so we can get closer to the country!!!!!!

Finger Knitting

We have had a great time inside today despite the dreary weather outside.  One of our favorite people, Ms. Lisa, came over today to show Rachel how to finger knit.  I couldn't believe how quickly Rachel caught on and she already has a cool new purple scarf.  Ford and Ruby were mesmerized by the balls of yarn that Lisa brought and had just as good of time throwing them around and unraveling them.  Lisa also quickly knitted Ruby a little headband that was just way too cute for words!!  My children love Lisa so much.  Rachel was actually in tears when she had to leave.  She is Ford's Godmother, but Ruby and Rachel know that they are just as important to her.  We would say she fills the role of additional Grandmother, but she's not old enough for that, so we'll say she's like another aunt :)
Before Lisa came, Rachel practiced her lower case "z"s which gets her through all of the lower case letters in her book!  Ford wrote the word LOVE for some writing practice.  Ruby (with some help) wrote the letters H and K for Hello Kitty.  She said, "I write Hello Kitty, Mama!"  Rachel did some more counting to 20 and review of place value and then read a couple of short books aloud to me.  I am continually amazed at how quickly she is able to decode words.
I think this afternoon we'll go ahead and get our Valentine's Day cookies made so that we can deliver them early in the morning.  I feel sure we'll stop and visit at lots of places and will need the whole morning to get those all over town.  It should be a great morning to catch up with people that are important to us.  School work may have to take a backseat, but that's part of the beauty of homeschooling :)

My Sleepy Valentine

Tuesday means story time, so we had an eventful morning here (and there!).  We started off by finishing up our Valentine Cards.  Some were for us to take to our friends at the library, some were to mail, and others are for delivering on Thursday.  We counted this as handwriting since Rachel and Ford wrote their own name twenty times each!  Then Rachel did her math quickly while we gathered up all of our library books to return today.  We read a few Valentine-themed books and re-read any books they wanted to hear again before they returned to the shelves (re: every.single.book).  We did so much reading, I wasn't sure if they'd even be excited about going to story time, but today was the big Valentine's Day party, so they were ready!!  They had a blast listening to Mr. Jason and then another girl came and read a book, then they got a stamp and watched a short Donald Duck Valentine's video.  Then the real fun began....snack time!!  It's hysterical to see these kids get cheese doodles, cookies, chex mix, chocolate, and JUICE BOXES!!  Poor deprived things attack that stuff like they don't know when they'll ever see it again!  Our new favorite part about story time, though, is the puppet theater they've added.  After everyone else left, Rachel, Ford, Ruby, and Kingston played puppet theater while Vanessa, Hyland, Mr. Jason, and I watched (and set up barriers so they couldn't run all over the place).  It was at this point that I discovered that Ruby had a MAJOR accident in her pull-up and I had not brought any pull-ups or wipes (And the Mother of the Year goes to....).  Thank Goodness Vanessa came to story time today, we "borrowed" one of Kingston's diapers and some wipes on our way out the door and got cleaned up before the drive home.  I really didn't think they'd want any lunch after all that junk, but, little did I know....Actually, the girls just wanted some fruit and Ford wanted a peanut butter sandwich (I also forced him to eat some grapes).  After a rousing game of Jake and Smee steer the ship, we read three more stories and headed to nap time.  The big news here is that RUBY actually put herself to sleep in her crib today!!!  I covered her up and told her I'd be back after I got Rachel settled and when I came back, she was asleep!!  I love that she can do this sometimes now.  I mean, my goodness, she's over 2 years old!!!  We probably took the side off her crib way too early, but she could climb out at about 13 months and I was really worried she was going to get hurt, so she's never been trapped in there and forced to put herself to sleep.  I swore with the third child, I was going to keep her in the crib until she was 3, but she stubbornly changed all that.  Hopefully, she'll get better and better, though, at not needing someone to sit in her room so that she doesn't keep getting out of bed or screaming and crying for someone to be in there.  Every day things get easier and everyone learns more and we just keep plugging along.

Happy Valentine's Week

There are very few holidays, including birthdays, that just get one day of celebration around here.  We are starting off Valentine's Week today and we have already made 20 homemade Valentine Cards.  It started off as such a team effort, but let's just say I understand now why so many moms end up just doing their kids' work for them :)  I had Ruby use Dot-Dots (as we like to call them) and decorate some pink construction paper with red dots.  She definitely did the most work percentage-wise of the crowd...that girl loves to Dot-Dot!  Then, Rachel cut hearts out of that paper. I'll say she cut one-third of the hearts??  I finally told her I didn't want her to ruin her violin fingers when she kept complaining that her fingers couldn't cut any more and sent her on her merry way.  Ford stepped up next to paste the cut-out hearts to red construction paper.  I'm not sure they make a fraction small enough to explain how much pasting he did.  I think he got tired of the glue stick getting on his fingers while he held the heart, but he managed to stick several hearts to paper.  I finished up the pasting while they watched a cute little video on Rachel's Leap Pad about vowel sounds...at least it was informative as well as entertaining!
We started new charts today and as a Valentine's Day addition, I put that they needed to do one nice thing every day for someone else.  Ford built a beautiful cake out of Legos for Ruby and was so proud of it.  Ruby shared her snack with Ford without having to be asked.  I can't even remember now what Rachel did, but by lunch they had all earned that sticker.  We actually had a great school day.  Math is super easy right now and Rachel is just counting and writing the numbers 1-20 which she had already mastered, but I'm making her keep practicing those numbers.  Ford worked on his capital "V"s and wrote the word DAY.  Ruby worked on drawing hearts for her shape of the day.  We also found lots of hearts in the book we read today for her.  Ford and Rachel read a couple of books out loud to us and we all played Legos together and, of course, played Jake travels to the Winter Woods...the fairies are here to stay!
That all sounds so sweet and cute and fun, but believe me there was also plenty of crying and "Don't touch her!" and "Please, just hurry up and finish your snack so we can get the construction paper out!"  It's been a pretty great day for such a yucky day outside.
This afternoon we go back to our music class and all three kids say that they are ready to return.  Ruby and Rachel loved it back in the Fall, but Ford was not so much a fan.  I think he actually liked the class, but he doesn't like new people and he couldn't stand it when he could lead the circle every time.  The group dynamics are a little different this time around and I think it's going to be all girls which will actually be better for him, so wish us luck!

Made up Meatloaf

As part of the headmistress job at Ingram School, I must ensure that all students and faculty members eat healthy meals and snacks.  Believe me, that's no easy job!  We eat three meals a day plus two snacks here at home.  Allen eats lunch at school, but it's usually leftovers from dinner the night before, so technically I am responsible for 35 breakfasts, 35 lunches, 35 dinners, and various snacks every single week.  We strive to be healthy and eat right and teach our kids about proper nutrition, but just like everything else, there are times where we fail.  February seems to be the time of year where we really get back on track.  We've made it through Thanksgiving, Ruby's birthday, Christmas, New Year's, and Rachel's birthday.  We're all pretty tired of junk food at this point!
One thing I've learned after having three kids is that even thought kids need to make choices, mealtimes are simply easier when there is no choice.  We've got a pretty standard rule that you get what you get, so don't pitch a fit!  The more I offer them choices, the more confused they get.  Rachel gets stressed out because she's afraid she'll make the wrong choice.  Ford gets offended that you would offer him something that he would never eat.  Ruby thinks you're giving her a list of everything she's going to get.  So.....I just stopped offering choices!  Yesterday on our shopping craziness I let each of them pick something they would like for a snack this week, so they know that at some point they'll get a choice they made.  That's good enough for me (and them).
Allen and I have decided to stick to the 4 hour body plan from now until Spring Break which means we are basically eating lean meat and vegetables with one day off a week.  The kids get a little tired of not having a pretzel here and there or a piece of fruit or some yogurt, so they don't always eat the same things we do except at dinnertime.  We pretty much eat eggs with some sort of vegetable and/or meat in the morning and I let the kids have a day or two each week where they can eat cereal or oatmeal instead even though I'm not crazy about the amount of sugar in that stuff.  At lunch, they eat a peanut butter sandwich (no jelly) or chicken nuggets and some fruit.  Snack time in the morning is usually a yogurt or a fruit and in the afternoon they get the good stuff they picked (rice cakes, pretzels, and chex mix were there choices this week).  They love reading the Bernstain Bear book about junk food and are quick to point out if they know something is not good for them.  They giggle a little bit like it's something wild and crazy they're doing to eat that stuff!!
I say all this to tell you that meal planning is hard and eating all of your meals at home is hard.  When you don't eat processed foods, there is a lot more prep work and a lot more clean up and those are hard things to do with three little kids around and a kitchen that is walled off from the play room and living room.  Don't forget our house is on the market, so I can't fix anything that will stink up the house (made that mistake already once with collard greens in the crock pot!).  When you put all of that together, I quite frankly just get tired of thinking about eating sometimes!
So, tonight, I'm making something up for dinner.  We can have meat, but we can't really have meatloaf (no bread crumbs or carbs or anything to stick it all together).  Here's a rough recipe of what I threw together if you're interested:
2 pounds of grass-fed ground beef
2 green peppers chopped up very small
1 onion diced very small
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
a few shakes of Worcestershire Sauce
some more shakes of Soy Sauce
I stirred all of that together and tried to smush the black beans up a little bit
Then I lined a casserole dish with a little a few squirts of ketchup so that the meat wouldn't stick
I smushed the whole thing down into the dish and put 5 slices of bacon on top
I'm going to cook it at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes and take it out when it's done (pretty scientific!)

We'll have a little salad on the side and call it a meal!

Saturdays....

We pretty much follow the same routine around here on Saturdays every week.  We hardly ever go out of town, so it's pretty easy to stick to what we need to do.  Every Saturday I go on a long run while Allen plays all kinds of adventure games with the kids and gets the sheets washed.  I used to call it Sheet Washing Day when I tried to do that by myself on a week day, but it's pretty challenging to attempt washing, drying, and remaking the sheets on the beds of all the kids between the time we wake up and nap time (And you better make sure their blankets are dry and warm or they will refuse to lay down for a nap!)  So, now that has become Allen's job while I go out and get some exercise and a mental break from the chaos of Ingram School.  I love coming home from a run and finding out what the kids have done with Allen because this is their day off, too, and they come up with some pretty crazy things to do!  One week they took all the dirty sheets/blankets/pillowcases and made a tower where the girls were princesses, Ford was a knight, and Allen was a dragon.  The tower slowly dwindled as things made their way to the wash because I wouldn't let them use clean stuff.  Today they worked on (surprise!) a Lego track to go around the Pixie Hollow houses and also watched some old movies we found of Ford as a baby...so cute!  On warmer days they've been known to go hiking and come back covered in mud and dirt--which means they have to strip down before they come in and/or take a nap on clean sheets!  I love that they get this special time with their Papa and have a chance to just play and do things I don't do with them and explore places I wouldn't think to go.  I'm also thankful for the time this gives me to get out of the house, clear my head, and get some exercise.  This is really the only time I have to myself (or with a good running buddy) during daylight hours.  I don't feel like I have to be away from my kids to re-energize myself, but it is easier to think and have a conversation without three small people talking to me at once.
Saturdays are also a good time for us to do meal planning and grocery shopping and get stocked up for the next week.  Allen had to go out of town this afternoon, so I took all three kids grocery shopping.  Normally, we do okay, but today was more or a challenge.  I'm glad the shopping is done, though, including chocolate for Valentine's Day this week.  Then we went to my parents' house so that they could watch one more Tinkerbell movie which was their reward for doing so well on their charts and their first week back in a routine.  We ate dinner at Mom and Dad's, then came home and everyone went to bed fairly quickly because they were exhausted.
Tomorrow we go to Sunday School and then rest and relax the rest of the day.  Allen will go for a long run before Sunday School and I'll spend nap time or time after bed getting new charts made for next week and planning what Valentine's activities we will do.
Weekends are more relaxing, but they're still full of plenty of activity!

A Few Pictures

I really wanted to get some pictures of the kids in their various fairy costumes that they made this week, but no one would humor me, so here are just some random pictures from the week:


                    Ruby reading books to herself while wearing her tutu and surrounded by Kapla blocks:

Our project from today:  building Pixie Hollow from Legos...we sorted them into different colors to make a pixie dust tree and a house for Tinkerbell, Periwinkle, Terrence, and Rosetta:

Our charts for the week (nothing fancy):

And finally, the Ingram School Pyramid:

Meet our Spanish Fairy, Vanessa

Since it's Fairy Week I'll go ahead and call Vanessa our Spanish Fairy.  It's time that you know about our dear friend, Vanessa, who lives down the street.  Allen and I met Vanessa and her husband, Russell, a couple of days after I came home from the hospital with Ruby.  They had a newborn son, Kingston, who is 10 days older than Ruby and we were all at a neighborhood Christmas party.  Since that time their sweet family has become a huge part of our lives and our school.  Vanessa is a talented artist (check her out here www.vhglass.com) She speaks Spanish fluently and has improved the Spanish vocabulary of the students at Ingram School.  Kingston and Ruby are best of friends and Ford and Rachel love all of Russell's magic tricks.  Vanessa and Russell have also welcomed Baby Hyland to their family, so when we're all together it's a wild time!!  Somehow we began the tradition of Pizza Night on Friday nights and almost every Friday we eat pizza, hang out, and unwind from the week together.  During the week Vanessa and I usually get together a few times with all of the kids and play and eat lunch or go to story time.  When the weather warms up, I'm sure we'll all be at the park or in our own yards again playing.  Our children love Vanessa so much and trust her because they know what a kind person she is.  We are truly blessed to have such great friends right down the street.  Even Ford, who thinks everyone is a stranger, has only ever ridden in a car with me, Allen, and Vanessa!!  Even if it was the half block from our house to theirs, that is a HUGE DEAL!
Today is a special day for Pizza Night because this week was Vanessa's birthday and last week was Rachel's birthday, so it's a combo-birthday celebration time!  Rachel will be performing what she calls her first ever violin concert as her birthday present to Vanessa and we will all laugh and hang out and have a great time.
This morning we were able to go to Vanessa and Russell's house and play and get out of these same walls for a nice change of scenery.  I'll save another post for more about what we did today (and hopefully add some pictures...it's a pretty cool wrap up to the week).
I'm hoping Vanessa will add some posts here at some point because she's technically on the staff of what we call Ingram International School (or IIS if you need to shorten it).
We love you, Vanessa!

Finding a new place

In a small town like ours there aren't many choices.  Sometimes that's good, sometimes that's bad.  We discovered a new place today that I knew existed but never sought out because I thought what we had was good.  Usually we go to story time once a week at our library in town.  It never occurred to me that the libraries out in the county might have children's rooms or story times.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I love our city library and the people who run story time, but we discovered some exciting stuff today.  Allen has a meeting in Greensboro this afternoon, so he took the day off work.  He needed a DVD for his graduate class that is only available at one of the county libraries, so we decided to take a family adventure out together and see what another library was like.  The children's room there is AMAZING!  Ford sat down in the Thomas section, Rachel couldn't decide between the Fancy Nancy section and the learning to read section.  Oh, and the picture dictionary section and the Disney section.  Oh, and did I mention the Eric Carle section?  That girl loves to read!  Ruby found some Dora books and puzzles and all kinds of books that she just wanted to pull off the shelf.  Everything was so well organized and labeled so well, I was kind of afraid to let Ruby near the shelves!!  She has a bad habit of just sitting beside a shelf and taking every book off and reading them one at a time until someone stops her!  I think it's actually kind of cute and don't mind putting all the books back, but at this library they'd have to go back a little nicer than what we're used to!  They also had up a sign that said they are going to have Fancy Nancy Tea Party in a couple of weeks.  I so wish I could take Rachel to that, but it would be cutting it close after violin lessons.  We'll see....  It was just nice to see a room that was so kid-friendly and put together so well.  I have to think that story time there would be pretty cool, so we may go try it next week (it's at the same time we go in town).  It's definitely a little bit of a drive, but when the content is better, I think it's worth it!
With Allen home this morning, we didn't get to have our regular routine, but I did get some extra cleaning done, so that was extremely helpful.  You just never know when someone might want to look at our house.  Seriously, someone come look at our house!!!!
Allen left after we had an early lunch and then we were able to get some math and writing in for the day.  I think we've definitely covered reading this morning!!  Rachel made a cool discovery while crossing yesterday off her calendar.  She was trying to read the year 2013 and told me that there was a 20 in the hundreds place.  When I told her that there was actually a zero in the hundreds place and a 2 in the thousands place, her eyes got so wide.  She said, "We are already in the 2000 year????"  Quite a discovery for a five year old!!  Let's just say, she found a new place today, too :)
Everyone is resting or sleeping now and when we all get up, it will be time for Ford's second art lesson and then we are taking snacks to the GRACE Girls.  Luckily, the GRACE Girls meet right outside of the room where Ford has art!  I think since Rachel's violin lesson was switched, I might take the girls up to the girly boutique down the street and spare Ford from that trip!!  Maybe Ruby will find a new place, too!

Wonderful Wednesday

I'm not going to lie, Wednesday started out as WTF Wednesday!  Thank goodness that all changed.  It's amazing how much potty training can affect homeschooling, but after Ruby peed on the floor, then later pooped in her underwear during math, I wasn't sure we were going to get very far today.  I admit it, I threw in the towel and just put a pull-up on her after that and amazingly, there were no more accidents today!  We also had to do a lot of reminders early this morning about Ingram School Rule #1:  KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF!!  I literally watched Ruby push Ford down because he wouldn't give her the toy he was playing with.  So much for place value...time for redirection.  Luckily, Rachel and I were finally able to play a place value game and she quickly told me where all the places are and what their values were and so on and so forth.  I had Ford practice his As and Ys today because those gave him the hardest time yesterday when he wrote FAIRY and Rachel did a page in her handwriting book.  After deciding that I would speak to Ruby again, she crawled up in my lap and we wrote some straight lines together and turned them into capital Rs to which she would yell, "For Ruby!!"  Like I always say, it's a good thing that girl is so cute!  Rachel read us one of her books with repetitive words and did a great job.  Ruby actually picked a book with fairies in it that didn't have Tinkerbell.  We took some balloons and used Sharpies to decorate them for our friend, Vanessa's birthday today for our art project.  After all of that I decided I could take them all out in public again and we went by the dentist's office for an insurance form and to Wal-Mart  for more pull-ups...one day pull-ups won't be on my list!  By the time we got home it was lunchtime so everyone actually played nicely together while I fixed lunch.  Then we worked together to make cookies for Vanessa's birthday  and the GRACE Girls (I'm sure you'll hear more about Vanessa and the GRACE Girls at some point, but I won't elaborate now.)  Ruby fell asleep quickly for a nap, thank goodness!!  Ford and Rachel rested quietly and after one quick show and a taste of our homemade cookies, we played outside for a couple of hours.  Ruby started feeling kind of feverish while we were outside, so she sat on my lap in the swing while Rachel and Ford played an awesome game of pirate ship.  They used funnels for their telescopes and made the sandbox below the fort be their pixie dust stash so that they could fly the ship.  These kids know how to stick to a theme!!  We really had a great day after we got past the potty crap (pun intended!).

We ended the evening by playing one of their favorite games that is so easy for anyone to play if you have a loop in your house.  Basically, they run two laps around our house (our loop goes from the living room, through the dining room, down the hall, through their bedrooms and back to the living room).  Then they sit on the rug and complete a puzzle.  Then they run two more laps, then complete a puzzle, then two more laps, and so on and so on until they just decide to stop.  Tonight our puzzle was using Kapla blocks to make designs.  I would set up the design while they were running, then they would sit down and make the same design with their pile of blocks.  You could do the same thing with Legos or actual puzzles or even silverware.  I don't know why, but it keeps them occupied for a long time and uses up all their energy before bedtime.

This too shall pass...

I feel like I need to write a separate post about Ruby's day.  She is absolutely going through the terrible twos stage.  She becomes so easily frustrated when she wants something she can't have or doesn't understand why she can't do something.  She and I argued, fussed, and fought today about everything from using the potty to getting buckled into her car seat to whether or not she could have more than one piece of chalk.  At one point, I was trying to quickly move the laundry from the washer to the dryer so we could get on with things when she was standing behind me in the laundry room and screaming at the top of her lungs.  I honestly don't even remember now why she was upset, but I clearly remember thinking, "I'm going to just let her scream until I get finished because she's going to stop eventually."  Some days I get so frustrated that I just walk out of the room while she's screaming and some days I scream back at her, but today I just kept thinking, "This too shall pass...."  And the more I thought that, the less frustrating her tantrums became.  We are never going to have a perfect day and no one is ever going to get everything they want.  I'm just working really hard to make sure that I don't get angry with the people in the house who aren't throwing the tantrums and I really don't want to get angry with whoever IS throwing the tantrum.  It all goes back to the fact that these kids are 2, 3, and 5 and when they're tired, hungry, or frustrated, we're going to have a hard time, but we work through it and I try my best to find a distraction, but ultimately the only behavior I can 100% control is my own.  I'm going to do my best to keep my cool and remember that these tantrums shall pass....

Story Time and Violin

We had a great morning today at Ingram School.  We were able to start our work early and were already at the table doing handwriting by 7:30!!  These kids love putting stickers on their charts!!  Since we've made Fairies our theme for the week, I had Rachel write "fairy" in lower case letters and Ford was able to write it in upper case letters.  I was really proud of Ford's writing, because he usually sticks to F-O-R-D.  I also had Rachel write "Tuesday".  I like having her practice her days of the week and practice using a capital letter and the rest lower case.  Then, Ruby and I made some T's for Tinkerbell.  She actually did a pretty good job doing a straight line today, once I told her we were writing a T for Tinkerbell!!  Rachel and I did some more place value work and she did a great job.  I think tomorrow we'll try a game with it if we get a chance.
Tuesday is our day for story time, so we went up to the library to hear about bears and made a cute little bear that goes in and out of a styrofoam cup like his cave for hibernating.  I figured that counted for reading and a craft :)  Oh, and speaking of reading....my friend, Amanda, who teaches elementary school brought us some early reader books yesterday.  Rachel read FOUR of them today without much assistance at all.  I was so proud of her!!  It was an extraordinary day for Rachel.  After we left the library, we went to our church and ate lunch.  Then she had a violin lesson today instead of Thursday (her teacher had to reschedule this week).  Her teacher could tell she had been practicing very hard and decided she could put the bow on the strings today....Oh my goodness, that little girl's face LIT UP!!  She played that violin so well and was so proud of herself.
The day went downhill from there.....I guess being out of the house so much this morning, threw Ruby and Ford off because they would not settle down for a nap.  I finally gave in and just had them get up.  It was a super nice day outside and I thought we'd benefit more from getting out in the sunshine.  We had a great time playing fairies (of course!) and pirates and swinging and using machines in the sandbox, but these kids were EXHAUSTED by dinner time!  Allen and I decided after dinner, we'd just have a little movie night (I was kind of hoping they'd fall asleep during the movie, Ruby had already fallen asleep while he read her a story before dinner!).  They all managed to stay awake for the entire hour of the movie (another Tinkerbell, of course!) and then pretty much went straight to sleep after that.  Poor Ruby just crashed, though, and had one of those fits that people don't write about because it makes things seem kind of crazy in your house.  Let's hope they all get some good sleep tonight and take a nap tomorrow!!

Back to School

Well, we did it!  We managed to make it through the morning in a pretty organized fashion and complete all but two items on the charts.  (Rachel practices violin during nap time or in the evening and Ruby has to make it to the end of the day with no accidents...so far, so good, even with a trip to the library!)
It was a crazy morning and I wasn't super organized, I knew I just wanted to try to get some things done at the table all together.  We did handwriting all at one time...Ruby drew straight lines which looked like circles, so we decided to talk about what a circle is instead of a straight line (seriously?!?!  I thought a straight line would be the easiest place to start!)...Ford did a review of all his numbers and finished his first time through the green handwriting book (he wasn't really ready for it when we got it, but I wanted to see what he could do with it and now he's ready to start from page 1 and really focus)...Rachel did lower case b today and wrote the sentence "B is for backpack."  I love that there is a sentence to read on every page and Rachel practices writing it starting with a capital letter and ending with a period.
Then we decided to have a little art time.  On Friday night, we watched a Tinkerbell movie and now are on quite a fairy kick!  So, our art time consisted of drawing fairies, making fairy crowns, making fairy wings, and looking through Rachel's fairy book.  Art time is hard because our supplies are in one room and our table is in another and even if I brought everything to the table, somebody would ask for something else to use.  It wouldn't be so hard if Ruby didn't try to climb on the table every time I walk out of the room for five seconds.  We'll get there....you know, to the house in the country where everything's laid out better :)
Ford and Ruby managed to entertain themselves for a little while so that Rachel and I could work on her math.  We attempted twice in January to start this new book and she really wasn't understanding place value, but today, she really got it!  I love watching that light bulb come on!!!  She gets the tens place, the units place and even the hundreds place!
Then we played Pixie Hollow for a little while and blocks and run around and crazy games...you know, play time!  As we were starting to get a little antsy, though, I thought maybe a trip to the library would be fun.  It's too cold to go outside and we don't get a lot of time to look for books when we go for story time, so we packed up and went up to the local library.  We got lots of help from our super nice librarians to find all kinds of Tinkerbell and fairy books....we've definitely all done our reading for today!
It's been a pretty great day, so far.  As I type this, though, not one kid is asleep and they all three need a nap today!!  We didn't get home until late last night, but that didn't stop anybody from waking up bright and early this morning, so if no one falls asleep soon, we could be in for an early night!!
I'm sure there are things I've left out of today (like Ford reading us his Blue Mountain book or Rachel crossing off her day on the calendar), but that's pretty much a typical day at Ingram School for now.  Who knows what the afternoon holds???

10 Things you should know....

There are probably some things you should know before I dive into telling you what we're doing and how we work.
1.  Our house is currently on the market.  This means I don't get to put up my fun word wall with letters of the alphabet that Rachel and I carefully made together.  This means I don't get to put the kids' art work up and let them admire all that they've done.  This means that there is a lot of frustration around keeping the house ready to show at a moment's notice.  Unfortunately, we've only shown the house one time, but we've spent many many hours trying to keep it ready to be shown because we are so ready to sell this house and move on to.....

2.  a house in the country.  We've dreamed for a long time about building a house out in the country with lots of outside space for our children to explore.  We want to use that space to build a garden, maybe some day start a small farm of some sort, and have fairy houses and forts and any other magical spaces our kids want to use for imaginative play.  We have a house plan, a piece of land ready to be bought once we sell this house, and the best future-neighbors in the world.  So, now we wait and wait and wait and hope that soon (and I mean REAL soon) we sell this house and start our house-building adventure.

3.  My husband, Allen, and I spend a lot of time talking about how we parent our children.  We talk to each other, we talk to our friends, we talk to our mentors (which is really just a fancy word for our friends that are older than us!).  We want to find a balance between being too much on the helicopter side of parenting and too far on the hands-off side of parenting.  Some people would say we are attachment parenting.  Some people would say we don't let our kids do enough without us.  The most important thing, though, is that we learned long ago to stop worrying about what other people say and do what feels right with our children.  You get one shot at being someone's parent and we want to savor and enjoy the small time we have as the parents of these children.  Only too soon will they grow up and move on to adulthood.  We see our job as preparing them to be independent adults, but allowing them to enjoy their childhood at the same time.  So, yes, we're going to shelter them from some things and yes, we're going to stay home with our kids instead of going out with our friends.  We've made a conscious effort to surround ourselves with other people who put their children first.

4.  We attend church and are spiritual people, but we are not homeschooling strictly for religious reasons.  I know that many homeschools are created because of religious beliefs and I have no problem with those who choose to do so, but I just wanted to let you know that's not our reasoning for homeschooling.

5.  My husband is a public school teacher and I currently have no income, so we are completely homeschooling on a budget (I think most people are!).  I will probably spend lots of time talking about how to do things frugally, but I also like doing things simply, so I'm not always just looking to save money.

6.  Our oldest child would be attending kindergarten in the fall if she were to enter public school, so we technically have 3 preschoolers right now.  I do feel pressure to be more academic with Rachel in the fall so that she is not behind in the education she would receive at a public school.  However, with homeschooling, I know we can go through things more quickly together and I love the fact that we can go at her pace (not the Standard Course of Study or Common Core or whatever they decide to use next).  She is already using the Kindergarten Handwriting book and we are starting the Kindergarten level of math book this week.  So, we'll see how that goes....

7.  I feel that it is important every day to let my kids be kids.  I want them to just play.  I want them to just explore.  They learn so much this way.  They also get better and better at sorting out their own disagreements this way.  Believe me, there's plenty of socialization going on in this house!

8.  I attended a Homeschooling Conference last year that was very beneficial and researched two specific programs to use in the beginning.  I had heard about Handwriting Without Tears (hwtears.com) and was very impressed when I saw the materials in person.  My kids LOVE this program.  I had also heard about Math-U-See (mathusee.com) and spoke with them in person at the conference.  So far, this program has gone well with Rachel.  We worked our way through the Primer together and will start the Alpha book tomorrow.  She is excited about math, but not very hands-on, so the manipulatives are kind of lost on her (I see Ford using them a lot more often, in fact he already loves playing with them while she does her math work).  This program starts with Alpha then goes to Beta, etc. all the way up to Calculus.  I'm hoping it's a program we can stick with all the way through.  I like how even though I call it her kindergarten math book, it's not based on a grade level of any sort.  You just keep going until the student masters it and then move on to the next level.

9.  I have no idea what I'm doing!!!  We're just taking it day by day and hoping that we get reading, writing, arithmetic, love, manners, exercise, fun, and I guess a little science and social studies, too!

10.  On the days that are hard, I sometimes just have to walk out of the room, take a deep breath, and start over!  Believe me, a stubborn two year-old can wreck a math lesson in a heart beat, but we figure it out and we've got all the time in the world!!

Here We Go....

Why not start a blog about our homeschool?  Maybe it will help me be more organized or more thoughtful, or maybe it will just fizzle into nothing, but why not?  If I can get myself organized, this would be a great place to keep track of all that we've done and how much we've grown and what resources I've used.  Every great teacher knows you need a great place to store things that work, so that when another kid comes along with the same need, you can find that story/website/game/song/whatever....
I'm going to try keeping track of what we do at Ingram School, so to start let me say who we are and where we are at our starting point:
I am a stay-at-home Mom to 3 children ages 5, 3, and 2.  I am going to do my best to homeschool these children all the way from elementary to middle to high school.  I was a middle school teacher for 9 years and am realizing quickly that middle schoolers are just bigger versions of toddlers!!  ha!  I'm not going to be perfect, but I can at least hope to be good (maybe even great some days!).  I get asked a lot why I'm choosing to homeschool and the best answer I can give is that it's what works best for our family.  Could that change someday?  Sure, but for now, this is awesome!
Rachel is our oldest child, she just turned 5 and actually went to preschool for 2 years.  She loved going to school and I loved that she made friends and had fun, but I felt like she needed more.  At home we have been able to tackle upper and lower case letters, addition, telling time, and a little bit of reading.  She has attended an art class and is on her 4th week of violin lessons.  She is a true introvert and does not want the spotlight on her.  I joke that one day she will make a great stage manager when her brother and sister are on stage soaking up the spotlight!!  She is kind, loving, and has the highest metabolism of anyone I've ever met!
Ford is in the middle.  He is 3 and a half.  He went to preschool for two days and I am pretty sure it traumatized him (sort of kidding, not sure, though!).  He still some days will say, "You know I'm not going to go to preschool, right?"  He is learning a lot from Rachel, but does things in a very different way!  He loves to use his hands to build and has taken quickly to building letters with blocks and can write his own name and many of the upper case letters as well as numbers.  He loves going to story time at the library and has just started taking art lessons.  One day he wants to play the banjo!  He is a true Gemini and can go from affectionate to obstinate in a split second.
Ruby is the youngest (don't call her the baby!).  She loves to draw and paint and sing and dance and do anything dangerous and daring!  She is stubborn and strong and too cute for her own good!  I know she will learn quickly because she spends much of her day trying to keep up with her older siblings.  She can count in English and Spanish, she knows her colors in English and Spanish, and she can tell knock knock jokes with the best of them!  She hasn't decided yet if she is right-handed or left-handed and there's no way I'm going to make her choose any time soon, because she will just change her mind, so we just go with whatever hand she likes at the time!  She is trying to use the potty, trying to get rid of the sippy cup, and doing anything she can to lose the title of "baby"....she just wants to be a big kid!
So, here's who I have in my class and on Monday we're going to start as organized of a system as I can with everyone doing what they need to do each day.  In a typical week, we have music and movement class on Mondays, story time at the library on Tuesdays, Violin and art on Thursdays, and playdates on Fridays.  I call all of those things our enrichment activities and they give us a chance to socialize as well.  I've made each kid a chart for this week with what they need to do and it varies according to their needs.  Rachel's chart includes math, writing, violin practice, reading, art, and cleaning up her room.  Ford's chart has writing, reading, art, and helping with a chore such as the dishes.  Ruby's chart has reading, art, a learning activity, and no accidents.  I know they won't be perfect and I don't expect them to be, but I told them I would reward them with a dollar for the week if they have a completed chart (we're going to put a sticker each day for each activity they complete).  However, since I don't want them to have the pressure of being perfect, I also will break it down into 20 cents a day for completing all of their activities that day.  This is not meant to be a bribe, because they do these activities without complaint, but a way to teach them to save money because it will go into their piggy bank, not directly to the store.
Hopefully I will be able to post some of the activities we do this week, but I want to at least follow up with a post at the end of the week to see how our first official week of Organized Ingram School has gone!!
Bear with me, this is going to be quite a journey!!