Doman Inspired Parenting

Wordless Wednesday

2012-02-08T07:00:00.000-06:00

Completing a 100 Chart

2012-02-07T19:18:00.000-06:00

RightStart Math required Timothy to make a 100 chart. We had to do it over about a week because Timothy didn't have the patience to do it all at one sitting (what five year old little boy would?). I love that RightStart math lets him figure things out on his own isntead of TELLING him the rules. When he got to about 60, he said "Look! This whole row ends with 3 and this whole row ends with 4!" Exactly, Timothy. Exactly!

Floor Babies

2012-02-07T14:47:00.000-06:00

We're moving! The home we've been renting in Arkansas sold and we had to scramble at the last minute to find somewhere to go. With interest rates the way they are now, we're better off buying but we couldn't find that "perfect" house.

As it turns out, we're NOT going to find that "perfect" house but we'll have to make-do anyway!

We strongly believe in floor babies. Timothy and Samuel LIVED on the floor their first year of life and both were crawling by 6 months of age. Babies NEED to be able to move and develop and they can't do that if they're strapped in some device somewhere!

However, we have been a little bit anxious about placing a baby on the floor with "Savage Samuel" in the room. The new house will solve that problem, though! We've got a large sitting area right off the Master bedroom. We're going to partition the room down the middle with bookcases (it's 22 feet each way) and make "Hannah's Corner." She'll have her white crib, changing table, and bed on one side and a "Doman area" on the other side. We'll have black and white checkboard, a 20-foot crawling track, and plenty of good lighting. It will have a permanent gate installed to protect little babies from big brothers. It's hard to describe now, but we hope to have it all nice and finished before Hannah gets here!

House stats: It's 2400sf and on 1.6 acres on a dead-end street in town. The garage has a finished second story that we're going to make a clubhouse for the boys. We're setting up all their trains and cars inside and they'll be able to play without worrying about it being perfectly cleaned up at the end of each day (I hate train tracks all over the place). It's right on a lake and we have probably a 40 yards of lakefront property. We're excited!!

Yes, we're going to have to really work to make sure this move is as stress-free as humanly possibly, especially with me being 6 months pregnant now. It'll all work out, though!

Cut and Paste Page

2012-02-06T19:14:00.000-06:00

Timothy's reading short-vowel words now in My Father's World. One day, he has to read words and paste them on the correct picture (net, pan, map, etc). On another day, he reads a short story like "Ann can not hop. Mom can not hop." He enjoys it!

Homeschooling isn't always sitting at a desk. Sometimes Timothy does his work in the recliner, on the kitchen floor, or on the coffee table.

Handwriting without Tears

2012-02-05T19:21:00.000-06:00

Our Handwriting without Tears box came! We were so excited...it really is a lot of stuff. Of course, we found out we'll be closing on a house in five weeks so we put it right back in the box and we'll open it when we get settled at the new house.

It looks fun...I hope Timothy will enjoy it!

And why is the kid in his AWANA vest and why is he hiding behind the box? The world may never know.

Making Icebergs!

2012-02-04T01:30:00.000-06:00

During our penguin unit to learn about the letter P and animals taking care of one another, we made icebergs! Samuel joined in on this unit, too. We talked about how only a piece of the iceberg shows ABOVE the water but much of it is UNDER the water. We also read a book about the Titanic.

To make the different shapes of icebergs, we froze freezer bags full of water. The kids LOVED playing in the ice and did it for at least an hour!

Fountain Dancing Children

2012-01-30T17:51:00.002-06:00

We thought we were such good parents before we had Samuel! Timothy did what he was supposed to do. He said please and thank you. He stayed where you put him. He sat next to us in meetings. We could take the child to the symphony!!!

Then came Samuel. Today there was a homeschool meeting. I took Timothy, but I didn't want to bring Samuel because he's such a little terror. He stayed home with dad.

Thankfully, a friend posted a link today. Here's an excerpt:

When she was really little I was scared to death I was the world’s worst mom, because Hope was never one to be contained. And I honestly thought all her extra tenacity was a sign of my poor mothering.
One day I took her to the mall to meet several of my friends with toddlers to grab lunch. All of their kids sat quietly eating cheerios in their strollers. They shined their halos and quoted Bible verses and used tissues to wipe their snot.
Not Hope.

She was infuriated by my insistence she stay in her stroller. So, when I turned away for a split second to place our lunch order, she wiggled free. She stripped off all her clothes. She ran across the food court. And jumped in the fountain in the center of the mall.

Really nothing makes the mother of a toddler feel more incapable than seeing her naked child splashing in the mall fountain. Except maybe that toddler refusing to get out and said mother having to also get into the fountain.

I cried all the way home.

Not because of what she’d done that day. But rather because of how she was everyday. So determined. So independent. So insistent.

Read the rest here: http://lysaterkeurst.com/2012/01/i-dont-want-to-raise-a-good-child/

I will admit that I've shed tears over Samuel's....active Spirit? I don't even know what to call it! Samuel is a "fountain-dancing child." He will not and CANNOT be contained. He writes on walls with markers. He turns off the TV Timothy's watching just for attention. He bites. He pulls hair. He uses his potty chair as a step stool to get into things he shouldn't. If there is a certifiable terror, it's Samuel. I've never, ever seen a child like him.

But you know what? That's okay. I'm not raising "good kids" but rather "Godly adults!" We've got 16 more years to teach him to stop peeing on the carpet, anyway. And at least we have a steam cleaner...

Snowflake

2012-01-28T08:30:00.000-06:00

Daddy doesn't normally do the "cutesy" things, but since I've had more time to do homeschool lately I do. We make a snowflake out of a tortilla for the Penguin unit in My Father's World K. Timothy seemed to approve!

Fake Vomiting

2012-01-27T15:54:00.000-06:00

Samuel is a cute child and he does many cute things. You know what's NOT cute, though? Fake vomiting.

I have thrown up nearly every day of this pregnancy since 5 days after I conceived (before I even knew I was pregnant). Sadly, it's not some private affair, either. I've thrown up in the bushes while the kids were outside. I've thrown up in the car as we drove to the store. It doesn't even phase Timothy anymore, but Samuel always follows me into the bathroom to see what's going on.

This morning, I was extremely sick. Samuel stood there and watched as I hugged the toilet. Then, when I finished and grabbed some toilet paper to blow my nose, Samuel started making his cute little "more" baby sign while saying "More throw up? More? More?!" When I got up, he went and told David, "Momma ALL DONE THROW UP!"

The other day, David and I were sitting on the sofa and Samuel carried his potty chair into the living room with a big smile on his face. He opened the potty seat, leaned over the chair, and fake vomited into his potty complete with sound effects. He looked at us with pride as if to say "See?! I can do it, too! I'm like my mom!"

I don't think Samuel remembers all of his time in the hospital and all the months he spent vomiting. I hope not, anyway. And I'm hoping he doesn't remember mine, either. Otherwise, we may have a bulemic toddler on our hands one day!

Handwriting without Tears

2012-01-26T14:46:00.000-06:00

We've got a new baby coming in May. Now, this is only a logical conjecture, but I think this new little girl named Hannah Ruth is going to change our lives a teenie tiny bit. Possibly, she might perhaps change our lives A LOT!

When the "school year" starts back, Timothy and David are also going on a 2-week dream trip across the United States, so that's going to eat into our homeschool time. We've only got 10 weeks left in My Father's World K and 5 weeks left in Right Start Math Level A and we've decided to go ahead and purchase our 1st grade curriculum so we can just keep right on homeschooling throughout the summer, taking a week off here and there for our big family events (Having a C-section baby for one, Pine Cove again for 8 days, and Timothy will attend "Kids College" again this July). Since I'll be off May-August, it will be much easier for me to direct homeschool from a recliner while I nurse and David and chases Samuel than it will be for me to leave for work each day, waving and saying "Good luck!!!" while he tries to handle homeschooling Timothy, Samuel the daredevil child, and the new infant child.

We just can't move on to My Father's World 1st Grade with his current reservations with handwriting. We talked about it and prayed about it and know it will suck all the joy out of homeschooling (for him and for us) if we try to force him to write several sentences per day. We absolutely love My Father's World and plan on them being our main curriculum providers, but the magic of homeschooling is getting to choose what's right for your child when. It's not right for Timothy now.

We made the plunge and bought Handwriting without Tears after so many people recommended it. It seems rather hands on and it should help with some letter reversals he's making. We're hoping that Samuel can sit in on the Handwriting without Tears (HWT) lessons, as well.

To get started, we had to buy:

Big Sheet Draw and Write Paper BSP 1 $6.90 $6.90

Blackboard with Double Lines BB 1 $7.30 $7.30

Capital Letter Cards for Wood Pieces

Unlaminated LC Pre-K 1 $9.10 $9.10

Draw and Write Notebook (48 pages) DAW K 1 $3.00 $3.00

FLIP Crayons® Gift Set FGS20 1 $13.75 $13.75

Kindergarten Teacher's Guide TGK 1 $7.30 $7.30

Letters and Numbers for Me LN K-Gr. 2 1 $7.30 $7.30

Little Chalk Bits LCB 1 $4.95 $4.95

Magic C Bunny Puppet BUN Pre-K-Gr. 1 1 $16.45 $16.45

Mat for Wood Pieces MAT 2 $3.85 $7.70

My First School Book MFSB 1 $7.55 $7.55

Print Alphabet Desk Strips (4 strips per sheet) PAS 1 $1.30 $1.30

Readiness & Writing Pre-K Teacher's Guide TGRW 1 $19.75 $19.75

Rock, Rap, Tap & Learn CD ROCK 1 $13.50 $13.50

Roll–A–Dough Letters® RAD 1 $18.65 $18.65

Slate Chalkboard SLT 1 $4.35 $4.35

Stamp and See Screen® SAS 1 $14.05 $14.05

Wide Double Line Notebook Paper

100 sheets - $3.50 W100 1 $3.60 $3.60

Wood Pieces Set for Capital Letters WP Pre-K and K 1 $31.00 $31.00

Subtotal: $197.50 (with shipping and tax, I paid $230!!!)

Yes, it was a big financial investment, but we're blessed that we didn't have to send one of our children into slavery to afford it.

We'll also have to purchase RightStart Math Level B fairly soon. In addition, we'll be doing Sing, Spell, Read, and Write that we bought years ago at a consignment sale for $12. Timothy already knows how to read short vowel words and I believe SSRW will get him reading independently. Plus, both kids love the catchy songs.

So, for the next 10 or so weeks we'll be finishing up My Father's World K. When we finish our last 10 weeks, we'll replace it with Handwriting without Tears. We'll also be finishing up RightStart Math Level A in the next month or so and we'll move straight up to Level B when we're done with that. In the meantime, we'll continue the Sing, Spell, Read, and Write.

Let me go on the record as saying it isn't always easy to decide what to teach when you're homeschooling! I bet I lost 3 or 4 nights sleep trying to become comfortable with not going straight to MFW 1st grade. There are SO MANY choices out there but, ultimately, we just want him to make progress. It doesn't have to kill his soul in the process and I think moving on to such a handwriting-intensive curriculum will.

Here we go, then!

Aww, Man!

2012-01-25T17:19:00.000-06:00

Just your daily dose of cuteness.

Timothy's 2nd Recital

2012-01-25T15:04:00.001-06:00

Timothy had his second violin recital last night. He's making so much progress! Next time, he'll actually PLAY the VIOLIN! Won't that be special?

Spring Semester

2012-01-24T20:59:00.000-06:00

We have a homeschool group in town, but we've never joined it. Last semester, we were getting our bearings and recovering from Samuel being so sick all the time. We did AWANA at a local church but that's about it.

This semester, we've joined the Homeschool Co-Op that will be held on Mondays at a local church. We live in a small, rural town that's 1.5 hours from the nearest Target. We're in the middle of nowhere. Our homeschool co-op has 70+ children signed up, though!

On Mondays from 9-10 Timothy will take PE with other 5-7 year olds. His second period class is "Educational Games." Afterwards, we might stay for the homeschool choir depending on Timothy's interests. They do have a nursery, but I'm going to leave Samuel home with dad. It'll be much easier for me that way!

So, Timothy will be doing:
AWANA on Monday nights
Co-Op on Monday mornings (2 Classes: PE and Educational Games)
Homeschool Choir
Private violin lessons

Who says homeschool children have no lives?!

New Ticker

2012-01-24T14:58:00.001-06:00

Notice my new maternity ticker at the bottom of the page!!

Hannah Ruth is due in very late May. My official duties at the college for the semester end May 12, nearly two and a half weeks before my due date.

We're going to do a C-section this time because I've already had 2 and I'd have to drive several hours to get the chance to VBAC (and, as we learned last pregnancy, my body isn't the best about going into labor). Since it's our last child that's coming out of this body, we'll just use the doctor here in town.

Will this pregnancy end in severe preeclampsia like the other two? Will this baby be over 6 weeks early like Timothy or only a week early like Samuel? Or will something new happen this pregnancy? What else will we be "blessed" with--is hyperemesis it? Because, trust me, it's enough!

So, so much about pregnancy is completely out of our control. Actually, I think just about EVERYTHING is!

Pop Up Pirate

2012-01-23T20:54:00.000-06:00

Timothy loves games. For a stocking stuffer, then, we got him the game Pop Up Pirates. It's sorta like Crocodile Dentist. You take turns putting swords in until one makes the pirate pop up out of the barrel.

What we didn't expect, though, was for Samuel to fall in love with the game. I mean he *loves* it and wants to play it daily! This morning, he forced our Chinese exchange student to play. I heard a pop and then a squeal followed by "Da-wai did it!!" What a fun, fun life our children have!

On another note, look at that adorable curly blonde hair!! I can only hope this little girl has the same cute hair (though it is crazy at times). I think Samuel is the most adorable looking boy I've met!

Why I LOVE Homeschool

2012-01-20T20:33:00.000-06:00

This winter, we got to feed dolphins right out of our hands. Timothy and Samuel both squealed as the dolphins ran under their hands, looking for more fish.

THAT'S what I love about homeschool.

I love that, if anything cool is happening, we can just take a day off and go do it! I love that we can drive into town and go to Chuck-E-Cheese lunch time on a Thursday. I love that the kids can travel with me to my conferences and we never worry about missing a lesson.

In the grand scheme of things, what will matter more--that Timothy missed doing his phonics worksheet or that he got time with his family to enjoy the wonderful world that God's created for us?

Every single day I tell both of my kids "I'm so glad I had you." Timothy will roll his eyes and say, "Why do you always tell me that?" He knows my answer, too: "Because I love you."

These kids test our patience. Samuel, especially, is the roughest most destructive child I've ever met! But I am so glad I had them.

Handwriting

2012-01-20T10:03:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, I got home from work and I saw a painting on construction paper. I started to talk to Timothy about it but my husband stopped me, saying "Don't mention it!!" Apparently, Timothy had a meltdown while trying to paint a penguin. A BIG meltdown.

What in the world did we do to make our child such a perfectionist? We encourage him so much. There's no stress! Don't worry about it! Just try! It's just for fun! But somehow whenever he has to "produce" anything like a painting or a handwriting worksheet he completely loses it.

Now, Timothy isn't the most average child in the world. I'm sure if he were tested today he would be somewhere on the Autism Spectrum. We don't see a need to have him tested, though, and we're working through all the difficulties he has with life in general.

We have ten weeks left in My Father's World K, and then what?

Timothy's doing great sounding out the letters and reading short-vowel words. Academically, he'd be ready to start 1st grade. Handwriting wise, his letters look like those of an average Ker. Age-wise, he'd be in first grade.

Here's the problem: My Father's World First Grade has whole sentences that children have to write, usually 4 sentences per day. How do I put this so you can understand? I would rather walk over hot coals than endure trying to get Timothy to write 4 sentences. Truly.

So what do we do? Do we try to find another first grade curriculum that doesn't have as much writing? Do we do an intensive writing/phonics program, like Sing Spell Read and Write? If we do that, what about Bible, Science, and History--how do we incorporate those?

Maybe we should just put him on the big yellow school bus and let THEM figure it out!

Some people have suggested the Handwriting without Tears program, but it's hard for me to imagine Handwriting without Tears in our home. It's really bad, guys.

What do you think?

Standardized Tests: Oh My!

2012-01-19T20:01:00.000-06:00

Here in Arkansas, homeschooled children are required to take a yearly standardized test starting in Grade 3. It's really ridiculous, actually. The score only goes to the parent (the school district never finds it out) and the score doesn't matter at all -- even if the child can't answer any questions at all, there are no remediation requirements. All you have to do is take it. It doesn't matter what the score is.

Truth be known, it really isn't fair. What if you've spent the year working on planets in Science, cursive in handwriting, and multiplication in math but the focus of the test is on word problems, life cycles, and creative writing? The test can't measure what your child is learning because it doesn't know what you're teaching!!

Anyway, lots of our friends here are gearing up for the test that takes place in April. I know we won't have to test for 3 more years, but we already do weekly standardized test prep. It helps him learn to listen to questions & fill in a bubble.

There's a teacher's book where I read the question, word for word, only once. Timothy bubbles in the answer and if it isn't right we immediately talk about it and erase it to correct it (Question: What good does it do if you just mark it wrong and move on? None!).

I think in the above question I read something like this: "Molly needed to go to the store. Her mother wanted her to buy grapes, bread, eggs, and milk. When she got home, she had grapes, bread, and milk. What did she forget?"

I hope that Timothy is prepared for the test but that he "doesn't sweat it." After all, the score is like the old Drew Carey Whose Line is it Anyway--"the points don't matter"

Making Butter

2012-01-18T19:59:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago, we made butter as part of our Cow unit in My Father's World. Timothy learned to identify "dairy" products and we had a "dairy party." He also learned the sound of the letter C. Most importantly, he learned that God's word is like milk for our spirit. (We talked a lot about how milk nourishes babies just like God's words nourishes us)

I couldn't be more happy with My Father's World. It's taken Timothy from knowing very few letter sounds to all of them! He's sounding out short vowel words like cat and mat and hot and net and dog...that's not bad for one semester of K!!!

Seven Lies about Homeschooling

2012-01-18T15:26:00.001-06:00

Making 200

2012-01-17T19:41:00.000-06:00

A few days ago in RightStart Math, we had to make 200. Timothy had to figure out that 10 rows of 10 would make 100 and then that two of those would be 200.

Most K programs teach the child to count to 100 and that's it. I love that RightStart Math Level A has him move on to understand that all numbers grow larger!

The first 100 square he made of 4 different colored squared. He wanted to make the second 100 "more abstract."

I have to say that I still love RightStart math. Sure, the kid is 5 and I could teach him to count by himself, but they've taught him so much more in a systematic way! I love how he's adding, how he knows even and odd numbers, how he can easily add numbers through 10, how he's learned to recognize place value, coins....do you know how to teach all of that systematically? If so, you're better than I am! I sure appreciate the help.

We do sometimes have troubles when he has to write but, luckily, there are only worksheets every couple of days. See how cool learning can be?

The baby's a...girl?

2012-01-16T17:16:00.000-06:00

I went for a Level II sonogram last week. I don't know what was more shocking...that this baby is completely healthy with no visible defects despite all the medicines and health problems or the fact that the baby lacks boy parts.

The doctor showed us the tell-tale "hamburger" and said he's done 4,000 sonograms and would be shocked if the baby were anything but a girl. It makes sense...this pregnancy has been terribly, horribly bad in the morning sickness department where the others haven't been.

But adding a girl into this crazy mix....yikes! We don't have a girl name picked out. We don't have any girl clothes.

We'll figure it all out, I suppose! Baby girl due late May, 2012.

Violin

2012-01-16T15:00:00.001-06:00

Timothy's been in violin lessons for awhile now. In these months, I've learned that there's a lot more to playing a violin (properly) than one would ever imagine.

You have to stand the correct way (foot positioning)
You have to know how to move the bow the correct way
You have to know how to move the violin from rest position to playing position
You have to have your fingers in the right place on the bow
You have to know which strings make which sounds

Timothy has just started playing the first variation for Twinkle Twinkle. He can play the A and E strings, but he hasn't got the fingering down for the rest of it.

For his next violin concert, he'll be performing the "AAEE" with his fingers. A and E just help him remember the strings, and then the little finger exercises are the fingers he'll use to play the other notes.

His next concert is in 2 weeks so we're working hard to get ready!!

If I remember, I'll take a video of him practicing tonight so I can show you how he really plays.

What's in a Math Lesson?

2012-01-15T19:10:00.004-06:00

Maybe you have an image of homeschool that you see through rose-colored glasses. I imagined sitting lovingly with my child while he became fascinated with all I had to teach him. *sigh* Homeschool in the real world for a few weeks and you'll have a different view of things!

Tonight, for our math lesson, it went kinda like this.

First, I had to fight Timothy to get him to the table. He was hungry. He was tired. He foot hurt. His pinky finger hurt. I lured him to the table with some strawberries.

His lesson involved writing the numbers 25-40. You would have thought I were asking him to cut his own arm off...truly. He wrote through 28 just fine, but comlpetely flipped out on 29. There were tears. "I can't write a nine! I can't do it! It doesn't look right!" It took both David and I to "talk him down" so to speak.

I ended up writing the rest of the numbers 30-40 so that he could just trace them. Even still, that's a lot of numbers for a 5 year old to trace. He got through three numbers and then asked "What if the whole house were made out of strawberries?"

Then, Samuel climbed onto the table and, before I could grab him, got the entire box of number tiles and spilled them on the kitchen floor. 300 multi-colored tiles were all over the kitchen floor.

I got Timothy writing again and then he fell out of his chair because he wasn't sitting right. There were more tears. Then he started writing again and Samuel turned out the lights. I had to get up and turn them back on. Somehow, we finished the lesson.

Handwriting is REALLY hard. There are tears anytime he has to write anything. Math is rough because it's always something different. My Father's World is much better because he knows the routine (they do the same thing everyday) but, even though tonight's lesson on penguins went smoothly, I still heard him say "I can't do it!" several times. He's easily frustrated!

Somehow, we're making it through homeschool, but it isn't always easy. In fact, most of the time it's rather messy indeed!

Christmas: Win!

2012-01-15T17:11:00.000-06:00

This was, perhaps, the best Christmas ever. Not because of our amazing trip (although that certainly helped) but because of what happened after Christmas. Our two boys have played with the toys they got every single day! I mean it. We're a month out of Christmas and they still play with everything we bought them. As a parent, that sure makes me feel like a winner!

The first gift that they got was a trampoline. Yes, I know they're dangerous. However, if you'd seen the boys doing flips off of the back of the sofa onto the cushions they've piled on the floor, you'd actually call the trampoline fairly tame. We have the safety enclosure that keeps them in and covers up the springs and we haven't had an accident yet. Samuel is a bit afraid of the trampoline, but Timothy will spend HOURS in it. That's great, especially since he's not very athletic and doesn't want to play any sports.

We also bought them a car they can drive. It was extremely expensive, at nearly $300 shipped, but I'm so glad we bought it for them. It drives over gravel, grass, dirt, leaves...the kids drive it through the flowerbed and over small shrubs. Samuel LOVES the thing and often he'll drive it when Timothy tires of it and heads for the trampoline.

Finally, the kids got the TAG reading pens. Timothy has the TAG while Samuel has the TAG Junior. Timothy's reluctant to play with his and we set the timer for 10 minutes for him to do it everyday after homeschool, but Samuel grabs his and plays with it several times a day. He's learned several words from it and LOVES the little songs it sings. I would have paid double for the TAG system--it's awesome!

We've always felt disappointed when we bought all these toys that ended up collecting dust. This year, we focused on money on larger gifts that will grow with the kids. I'm glad we did!!

Life in the Frat House

2012-01-06T13:33:00.000-06:00

I found this on http://www.suburbansnapshots.com/2010/06/10-reasons-having-toddler-is-like-being.html and I have to agree with everything that's here!

Why having a toddler is like being at a frat party:

10. There are half-full, brightly-colored plastic cups on the floor in every room. Three are in the bathtub.

9. There's always that one girl (or, in our case, boy), bawling ~~her~~ his eyes out in a corner.

8. It's best not to assume that the person closest to you has any control over their digestive function.

7. You sneak off to the bathroom knowing that as soon as you sit down, someone's going to start banging on the door.

6. Probably 80% of the stains on the furniture contain DNA.

5. You've got someone in your face at 3 a.m. looking for a drink.

4. There's definitely going to be a fight.

3. You're not sure whether anything you're doing is right, you just hope it won't get you arrested.

2. There are crumpled-up underpants everywhere.

1. You wake up wondering exactly how and when the person in bed with you got there.

Life is crack around our house! Samuel bites, hits, and pulls hair. If he gets bored and Timothy's on the floor coloring, he'll walk over to him and pull his hair just for something to do. Timothy normally retaliates by punching him in the face.

Timothy's doing great in some areas, but if you tell him "no" he does run away to a corner and cry. Samuel has a "crazy" period each day (that normally lasts several hours) where he slams into the wall repeatedly. He calls it "boom boom." One day I think he'll hit it with enough force to knock the wall down.

It might not sound like the ideal life, but I think we'll keep those kids. I'm thinking about it, anyway.

A Survival Guide to Hyperemesis

2012-01-05T13:24:00.001-06:00

I can officially say that I've survived having hyperemesis!

I can't believe how many people find the blog searching "hyperemesis help" or "surviving hyperemesis" so I feel obligated to offer my best advice possible.

First of all, hyperemesis is the worst thing I've been through (and I've had fainting spells, my gallbladder removed, and 2 C-section). It will absolutely make you feel like the world is ending. There is nothing wrong with you if you find yourself regretting the pregnancy--that's normal! Who wouldn't regret a pregnancy that's causing them to vomit 70 times a day?

Throughout most of my last 19.5 weeks, I haven't thought about the baby. I haven't thought about baby names or nursery decorations. When I did think about the pregnancy, I was pretty much just thinking about survival. "Will I get through this?" Then, later, "I'm never doing this again."

Here are my best tips I can offer you, though I wish I could take it away!

Find the right doctor. You should be seen every week--I have been seen 2x a week to every week this entire pregnancy. The doctor should take you seriously--he should test your keytones and specific gravity every time you come in.
Between doctor appointments, test your urine at home. I paid $20 for urine test strips on Amazon.com and I'm quite glad I did. If you start having high keytones in your urine, call your doctor. My doctor gave me his home number and told him to call him anytime, even on the weekends. If you have keytones, you need IV hydration--period.
Try the normal morning sickness stuff. Go ahead and buy the seasickness bands at the drug store. Buy Preggie Pops from Babies R Us. Drink ginger ale. Eat saltine crackers. But then...
Know that the normal morning sickness stuff probably isn't going to work. I'm sorry, but hyperemesis isn't regular morning sickness and sucking a ginger lollipop likely won't make it go away.
Become okay with drugs. Your doctor is not going to prescribe you something that isn't in your best interest to take. Some of the drugs, like steroids, may cause birth defects--but if you're dead, the baby dies. You have got to take the medicine you need to SURVIVE this pregnancy. It's all about survivial!
Take stool softeners like they're skittles. Pop one in your mouth every few minutes. My doctor didn't tell me to do this but I was on three different drugs that all caused severe constipation. If you're on zophran, you need stool softeners (and probably more). It got so bad that I took a BOTTLE of mineral oil over a day, over 30 stool softeners, and tons of glasses of mirilax and, when it was time, I thought I was going to die. It was the most painful thing I've been through. Let's just say my husband deserves the husband-of-the-year award and leave it at that. Don't wait until you're too constipated to do anything--the day you're prescribed zophran or phenergan, take the stool softener.
Try to grow the thickest skin you can. I was in the hospital severely dehydrated. I had been vomiting for weeks. I hadn't been able to keep anything down--not even water--in days. And well-meaning friends asked me, "Have you tried saltines?" Or, when I was finally able to eat things, people kept telling me, "Eat crackers." Yuck. Have you ever vomited saltine crackers? Because I have. It's awful. I finally decide I would slap the next person who told me to eat crackers and, by the grade of God, no one did. You'll also notice that when you say you have hyperemesis which is severe morning sickness that EVERYONE will say "Oh, I had that!" Just smile and nod.
Fight the insurance company. If you have true hyperemesis, your pregnancy is going to end one of two ways: 1) with a feeding tube or 2) with a zophran pump. I am thankful to have had the zophran pump, as the feeding tube has to be surgicially installed. My insurance company didn't want to pay for it so my doctor just said he'd keep me inpatient for the next several weeks. They changed their tune rather quickly after that!

I am almost 20 weeks and things are finally...FINALLY...starting to get livable again. I got rid of my zophran pump last week and I'm just taking zophran and phenergan to get through everything. I still feel sick and I still do throw up some, but it's nothing like it was.

So, you can do it! Hang in there! There will be hope for you one day!

2011-12-24T20:34:00.000-06:00

We went to San Antonio on vacation this past week. We went to SeaWorld, Fiesta Texas, saw the Alamo, and explored a cave. Overall, we had a nice time!

When the lady at SeaWorld was looking for our photos on her computer, she asked me, "Do you have a brown-haired boy...and an Asian....a Mexican...and a little blonde kid?" Yep. Yep, that's us.

Foreign exchange students. Hysterical five year olds who play violin. Little blonde curly haired boys who hit, bite, and are addicted to a bottle at nearly two. Yep, that's us. We may not be picture-perfect, but I think I'll keep the family I have.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-16T14:00:00.003-06:00

Samuel chose not to sit on Santa's lap this year, but Timothy sure didn't mind. Merry Christmas!

An Update!

2011-12-12T16:37:00.002-06:00

Mom: I'm 16 weeks pregnant with what looks to be another boy. I'm still on a zofran pump for nausea and I'm still under my starting weight. I'm not able to eat much with any nutrition, but I'm doing the best I can. I still fit in my pre-pregnancy jeans and I'm not feeling the baby move yet.

Timothy: Timothy has completed 12 out of 26 units in My Father's World. He's learning letters well and starting to sound out short-vowel words. He's also halfway through RightStart Math and we cannot believe the amount of math he's learned this year! He still enjoys playing outside, building traps, and watching insects.

Samuel: Samuel knows his letters and letter sounds, thanks in part to Little Reader. He absolutely loves watching his lessons on the computer! He's also taken to Sesame Street lately. He's eating much more even though he's still on a bottle. He still wakes up at least 3x in the night for a bottle too, boo!

It's the end of the semester at the college for me, but look for more posts regarding our adventures soon! We are all still alive!

Oh, Nausea!

2011-11-29T15:20:00.001-06:00

It's been bad, guys. Bad like I wanted to die. Bad like I spent 8 nights in the hospital. Bad like I was completely depleted of all my vitamins.

But, things are now getting better!

I'm on a zofran pump with a large needle in my stomach at all times. I'm still taking phenergan around the clock. However, I'm able to eat and keep liquids now. Things are getting better!

I'm 14 weeks and the baby is doing GREAT!!

Looking forward for to some wonderful days ahead. :-)

Happy Halloween

2011-11-03T10:27:00.001-05:00

I was in the hospital Tuesday and then Thursday-Monday. I wasn't able to enjoy the Fall Festivals with the kids, but they had a great time anyway (I don't think they missed me). Samuel was a dog (Scooby Doo, but he doesn't actually watch Scooby Doo) and for some reason Timothy wanted to be Super Mario. He's never played the video game, but he's seen the Redbox DVD before. He didn't want to wear the mustache.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Just an Update

2011-10-29T11:48:00.001-05:00

I am still in the hospital and I'll remain here until Monday at the earliest! I am truly, truly going stir crazy.

In addition to hyperemesis gravidarium, it certainly looks like I also have gestational diabetes.

Hyperemesis Gravidarium was featred on "The Doctors" last Monday. I had never heard of this condition, now it's taking away my life!

Hyperemesis Part II

2011-10-27T12:59:00.001-05:00

Did you know that you could be so sick during pregnancy that you lose up to a pound a day? Did you know you could go WEEKS without food or drink? Did you know you could become dehydrated, malnourished, and have large amounts of ketones that could harm the baby? Now you do.

I've been admitted into our local hospital on IV fluids and a zofran drip. The doctor also wants to do steroids. Steroids are controversial, especially since I'm only 9.5 weeks, but he said my ketones will cause more harm the steroids.

He's also discussing tube feeding, which doesn't sound fun AT ALL.

Go and educate yourself on this terrible, debilitating form of morning sickness.

Morning Sickness	Hyperemesis Gravidarum
Weight loss is typically less than 5 pounds (2.3 kg).	Weight loss is often 5-20 pounds (2.3-9.0 kg) or more. (> 5% of prepregnancy weight)
Nausea and vomiting do not significantly limit eating and drinking most days.	Nausea and vomiting greatly reduce food intake and cause dehydration if not treated.
Vomiting is infrequent and the nausea is episodic and not severe, but may cause discomfort and misery.	Vomiting is frequent and may contain bile or blood if not treated. Nausea is usually moderate to severe and constant.
Dietary and/or lifestyle changes result in improvement most of the time.	Fluid rehydration through a vein and/or medications to stop the vomiting are typically required.
Improvement is typically gradual after the first trimester, although occasional queasiness may occur.	Improvement usually occurs by mid-pregnancy, but nausea and/or vomiting may last until late pregnancy.
Work and household tasks may be difficult at times, but usually can be completed when nausea is less severe.	Outside employment and home responsibilities may be impossible for weeks or months. Self-care may also be very difficult.

Hyperemesis

2011-10-26T11:57:00.001-05:00

I should have known this was a different type of pregnancy. A week and a half before I ever got a positive pregnancy test, I threw up daily for five days. Somehow, I just knew I was pregnant then.

I've had nausea off and on and I've lost 15lbs so far. I'm 9 weeks along. This week, I had to go into the hospital and get TWO LITERS (imagine a 2-liter of soda) of fluids to get me rehydrated.

I feel so sick. My body is literally starving. Everyday I get on the scale and see I've lost more weight. Today, I hoped to see my weight go up a bit since receiving the fluids (water weighs something, right?). Instead, I've lost another quarter of a pound.

I'm on phenergan suppositories every 6 hours and oral zophran every 8 hours and I still haven't kept any type of food down since a granola bar last Friday.

I'm miserable!

The baby, on the other hand, is doing great. He/She has DOUBLE the normal amount of pregnancy hormone (hcg). We looked on a sonogram yesterday and he/she was kicking up a storm. Healthy baby, healthy heartbeat.

I go back to the doctor and we'll devise a "plan" tomorrow. I never knew that pregnancy could make you so absolutely sick!

RightStart Math Celebration

2011-10-24T13:41:00.002-05:00

As of today, Timothy is officially halfway through his RightStart Math curriculum for the year! He's learned so much these last few months--even and odd numbers, shapes, addition and subtraction, place value, money. I'm thrilled with our choice in curriculum!

He's only Lesson 7 of 26 in My Father's World so we still have a good ways to go there.

We're making progress, though, and that's special!

And then there were 3...

2011-10-15T12:22:00.000-05:00

We're expecting another little Doman baby in May!

We had the first sonogram last week and saw one perfect, tiny little baby nestled firmly in my uterus (we were worried it might be ectopic, but it's not). The heartrate was in the 130s!

I've been sick--extremely sick--but about seven months from now it'll all be worth it when we welcome another blessing into our household!

Money

2011-10-14T08:16:00.000-05:00

In RightStart Math, we started learning about money last week. We taught him that pennies were ones, nickels were fives, and dimes were tens. Dad would enter a value on the abacus and then Timothy would have to show the amount with coins. After that, the book made it harder by saying, "Can you show this value (12) with only three coins?" Timothy learned that there were multiple ways to represent value.

Most math programs use drills and worksheets. Our uses hands-on learning with tally sticks, games, an abacus, and a geoboard. On average, we might do 2 worksheets a week and he's LEARNING MORE than he would otherwise!

Go math!

Wordless Wednesday: My House is a Circus

2011-10-13T08:04:00.000-05:00

N is for Nest

2011-10-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

Last week Timothy completed the N unit in My Father's World. He learned that God will provide for us, just like he provides for the animals of the field. Our truth was "God takes good care of me." He learned about animal habitats, built a nest and a bird feeder, and did lots of worksheets. The one in the bottom picture is a cut and paste worksheet where he had to match the letters he's learned with the objects that start with that letter.

I can't say enough good things about My Father's World! Timothy's learning so much and homeschool K is turning out to be a fun, hands-on, interactive, enlightening year for all of us. I love that Samuel can tag along, too!

Violin

2011-10-10T21:19:00.000-05:00

Timothy will soon be learning to play Twinkle variations on the violin! Before he does, though, he has to learn the finger numbers song so he'll know which finger will play which part of the song. I'm thrilled with his teacher. She's doing great!

A is for Apple

2011-10-09T21:37:00.000-05:00

We did an A is for Apple unit last week. The focus was on the Fruit of the Spirit and our truth was "If I stay in Jesus, I will have much fruit." We never had a chance to go the library before this week and we didn't have much time for supplemental activities, but we did make applesauce (that was very good) and play a Oh My, Apple Pie rhyming game. I've kept that game in a ziploc bag in my purse to play when we're at restaurants or a waiting room since then. It's fun!

I wish we could have visited an orchard or something, but sometimes it's okay to just learn the material without all the bells and whistles.

Why We Homeschool

2011-10-08T15:09:00.000-05:00

This is why we homeschool. Samuel's always watching, watching, watching. The other day while Timothy was doing his homeschool Samuel got out the violin practice materials and graced us with his own "recital." I can't wait until he's able to start lessons at 3! He'll start much further along than Timothy is now!

Fall Festival

2011-10-07T21:08:00.002-05:00

It was a dreary day last week. I had been busy at work, the kids were bored, and our exchange student had too many tests to study for. The overall mood in the house was dismal. What do we do? Throw a family fall festival!

We began by carving pumpkins. We made Timothy "scoop the guts out" this year. Although he wasn't too happy about it, he did it and did it well. It was David from China's first time to carve a pumpkin.

Then, we played a game of "pumpkin toss." Whenever I need a quick game, I get a container and a bouncy ball. Therefore, we tried to bounce a bouncy ball into our now-carved pumpkins. Daddy was the only one who scored any points, but we all had fun trying!

We made pumpkin cheesecake muffins. They were from a mix, but they were fairly advanced. I didn't eat any but the boys said they tasted delicious!

Timothy colored a picture by candlelight, then we finished the evening making salt dough ghosts. These are so easy, cute, and take about three minutes to make. Look for me to post the recipe in a couple days!

Our "Fall Festival" totally changed the mood of our household, and it cost less than $10.

Chitty Chitty Stop Stop

2011-09-30T08:18:00.000-05:00

Timothy's also been working on bow holds and bow movement in violin lessons. He has to practice his "Chitty Chitty Stop Stops" at least 5x a day. Samuel will grab the bow and do them perfectly, too.

AWANA

2011-09-28T19:40:00.000-05:00

I love AWANA. If you're not familiar with the group, visit http://www.awana.org/ where you can search and see if there's one near you! Basically, AWANA is scripture-memory club for children.

In our city, AWANA meets at a local church on Monday nights. Most children who attend AWANA don't go to that church (we don't), so it's a really nice electic blend of children from different backgrounds.

Last year, Timothy was in the Cubbies class. This year, he feels much more mature because he's in the Sparks class. He had to memorize John 3:16 and, when he did, he was awarded an official Sparkies membership card. He was so thrilled about it!

Isn't it wonderful to see a small child so excited about learning God's Word by heart?

First Violin Recital

2011-09-28T08:15:00.001-05:00

Timothy had his first violin recital last night! Even though he didn't actually touch a violin, I'm so proud of him for working on getting the right foundations and for standing up in front of 45 people without being scared. The whole "taking his shoes off" thing was unexpected--we normally practice on the foot chart barefoot, but we didn't expect him to do that at his recital!

This is after 5 weeks of lessons. He's now ready to move on to playing an actual violin now!

Little Reader

2011-09-26T13:23:00.003-05:00

We were traveling late last night and I didn't quite want to get out of bed this morning when Samuel awakened at 6:30am! Samuel tried to get me up then walked away (I assumed to play). He came back carrying my computer, wanting me to play the day's session of Little Reader. Who says babies don't enjoy learning? It's the first thing he wants to do when he wakes up!

Writing the First Sentence

2011-09-23T12:38:00.000-05:00

There was much excitement in our house today!

You see, handwriting doesn't go over very well in our household. Timothy hates handwriting, and even getting him to write the basic letters is sometimes a struggle. Today, however, we told Timothy that he was going to write an entire sentence! He was nervous, but we prayed over and reviewed Phil 4:13. Timothy took his time and HE DID IT! Actually, I think he did a pretty good job! He wrote our words to remember: I will live and grow in Jesus!

To finish up our leaf unit, we also played parts of a plant memory. Timothy learned: plant, stem, branches, roots, leaves. Daddy also surprised us by making leaf cinnamon toast for breakfast! Warning: Do not eat cinnamon toast before you have a meeting with the Vice President or else you will have to try to hide your Shrek tongue.

See how proud Timothy is in that first picture? I love that we've been with him every step of the way. I love that we've seen him go from scribble-scrabbler to writer. Homeschooling is so awesome (most of the time).

What If?

2011-09-22T16:46:00.000-05:00

Our exchange student is from China. In China, education is king. Students in primary school spend hours at night studying in "extra" classes trying to jump ahead of their peers. A score of 2 points can mean the difference between getting into a mediocre middle school or a good one, which then determines your high school, which then determines your college.

David from China, then, has a hard time understanding homeschooling. He asks a lot of questions, like this one: "What if you spend 2 hours a day on math but another family spends 3 hours a day on math? Then Timothy will be behind the other kid."

You know what? He might. Or he might not be. And what if Timothy is two months behind in math? Or three months ahead? What if he makes As? What if he makes Bs? Is it really all that important?

My "What If" questions are different. What if Timothy gets in a class in public school where a disruptive student takes all the teacher's time and he doesn't learn what he needs to learn? What if Timothy grows up to think that life is all about him instead of all about Him? What if Timothy has a passion for something but has no time to learn it because he's too busy standing in line waiting for the rest of his class to finish washing their hands in the bathroom?

In the month and a half we've been officially homeschooling, Timothy's grown so much as an individual. His work ethic has improved--he knows what needs to be done and he gets it done! I've watched him tackle difficult subjects and grow in so many ways. What if he were two months behind in math (he's not)? Does it really even matter?

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-21T13:50:00.000-05:00

RightStart Math

2011-09-20T12:25:00.000-05:00

We had a great time learning in RightStart Math this morning! I cannot recommend this math curriculum enough! When we started homeschool this year, Timothy had NO numeral recognition beyond the numeral zero. Now, he can recognize every number.

I *love* how hands-on the curriculum is! Before the child ever learns the terms or the rules, the child learn the concept. For example, today we worked on addition but we didn't call it such. We put five tally sticks in a part and whole chart and I said "We have two dogs: Toby and Sampson. We have five treats. How could we divide the treats between Toby and Sampson?" We made a chart and showed all the different ways we can "add" 5 - but we never even said the word "add!" Timothy understood the concept perfectly.

We also worked on tens today. In RightStart Math, you say "2-ten" instead of "twenty" and "4-ten" instead of "forty" to emphasize place value. We worked with the tile cards today and I couldn't believe how quickly Timothy picked up on these concepts! I was so thrilled!

We're already only lesson 23 out of 74 total lessons for Level A. I'm glad we started here--Timothy's learned numeral recognition, how to write the numbers, place value, addition, using an abacus, tally sticks, shapes, parallel lines, quadrilaterals, and probably a lot more than I'm forgetting!

P.E.

2011-09-19T14:52:00.000-05:00

We don't do jumping jacks in a line, but we DO go hiking! We live in a area with mountains and lots of hiking trails, so a few weeks ago we went hiking in the Ouachita mountains. Samuel made it the entire mile without having to be carried. Timothy did, too, but his feet started hurting about halfway through.

Who needs to do grapevines in some gym? This is much more fun!

Wonder Place

2011-09-18T14:56:00.000-05:00

Years ago, we took Timothy to the Wonder Place in Little Rock on our way to St. Louis, MO. We had to be in Little Rock for Samuel's doctor appointment last week so we went again. I love that Timothy's homeschooled and we can go off and do things without having to worry about make-up work! What surprised me, too, is how little the place has changed over the years. It's still just as clean and fresh as it was in 2008! Look how cute Timothy was in the above link. Wow, how time has flown!

Product Review: Playfoam

2011-09-17T13:43:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, I won some Playfoam by Educational Insights. Timothy was so excited when it came in the mail! We spent hours making flowers, snowmen, and letters out the Playfoam (which has the consistency of Rice Krispies without the stickiness).

The Pros:

Playfoam literally never dries out. I don't know how or why that is, but we've left ours out for days and it's still exactly the same.
Playfoam cannot get stuck in the carpet! It doesn't have the "sticky" factor of Play-Doh and even when Samuel ran off with it and stepped it into the carpet, it didn't stick!
Playfoam is wonderful for tactile activities. If we make a letter, Timothy can trade it to get the "feel" of the letter.

The Cons:

Playfoam isn't like modeling clay. It's pretty difficult to make anything but the simplest of structures.
Once the colors mix, they're mixed permanently. However, unlike Play-Doh, the mixed colors are actually rather pretty instead of a solid brown.

I'm not sure I would pay the retail price of $20 for Playfoam, but I'm thrilled to have some to keep in the diaper bag for when we're at a restaurant and pull out for "busy time."

WallCandy Arts

2011-09-16T15:28:00.001-05:00

Remember my review on Smarts from WallCandyArts? If you don't remember, Smarts are wall decals developed to help an infant with visual stimulation. I firmly believe in Doman's visual stimulation programs and the need for black, white, and red in the infant's environment. Timothy was born premature and his eyes did not contract and dilate at all like they should, but within a few weeks of Doman's infant visual stimulation programs he was able to see detail and his eyes were fine!

The wall decals at WallCandyArts have cute contrasting colors and they completely change a room easily! When we went to move, we simply pelled them off & stuck them to wax paper for if we ever have another baby!

I noticed today that they're having a sale throughout the month of September for 15% of all wall decals with discount code sept15.

Who doesn't want easy, cute removable visual stimulation decorations for their children?

First Unit: S is for Sun

2011-09-16T13:26:00.000-05:00

Our first unit, several weeks ago, was on the sun and the letter S. Here's a recap that I never had time to upload!

Pine Cove

2011-09-15T13:20:00.002-05:00

Right now, I'd say our life is pretty good, indeed! We went to Pine Cove last weekend for the Labor Day conference. I know I've said this before, but Pine Cove is the most wonderful place for families on this planet. They have sweet, energetic staff members to help you out at meals and wonderful food. They came and cut Timothy's food for him and they held Samuel if he got fussy.

More importantly, everything at camp is completely family-centered. We did a family scavenger hunt where we all had to play LeapFrog across a path. David & David from China did the giant swing. We all went on the paddleboat. Timothy show BB guns. Overall, it was such a nice time!

How is it having another Chinese teenager live with us? It's wonderful. David (or DC as we sometimes call him) is one of the sweetest 15 year olds I've met. He is so kind and gentle with the boys. He's taught Samuel "eyes" and "nose" in Chinese. He helps out as needed. I love that we're getting that exposure to another country and, more importantly, I love that we're able to share with him the truth of Jesus Christ!

Edited to add - When Timothy was shooting the BB gun, he kept saying "I just hit the 50!" "I just hit the 100 target!" In fact, I don't think he actually hit anything but he thought he did! Also, Samuel did much better in his class and he loved his teacher. She said that he kept humming the "This Old Man" song and we had to tell her that was the O-N-E song from homeschool. She was homeschooled herself, as were many of the staff members.

Ll Leaf

2011-09-15T13:09:00.002-05:00

I had a friend ask me, "What does homeschooling look like on a daily basis?" Well, it sort of looks like this. Timothy does an art project while we get the materials ready for the day. Samuel normally lays at our feet drinking a bottle while we do a lesson. On the crazy days, Samuel will paint his whole hand with fingernail polish or pull all the books from the bookshelf. Some days, too, Timothy will whine the entire way through homeschool. We have ups and downs, but that's part of life!

This week in My Father's World K we're learning about the letter L. Our theme is leaves and our truth is "I will live and grow in Jesus." Timothy took a photo of a plant (see above--that's his) and I told him that all the leaves on the plant get all the water and nutrients they need. But one leaf wanted to go away from the plant and live his own life. We cut that leaf off. Through the week, we've watched the leaf turn brown and die. Our lives are like that! As long as we're connected to God, we'll get everything we need. If we stop worshiping him, reading our Bible, and praying, we're like the leaf who wanted to go on his own--we'll shrivel and die!

We worked on the letter L sound, practiced writing it in salt, practiced writing it on paper, did the Alphabet unifix cubes, made a leaf rubbing, read books about leaves, painted around a leaf, played phonics games with our painted leaves....again, I'd say it's been a great week!

Suzuki Violin - Week 2

2011-09-14T14:28:00.000-05:00

Timothy's finished two weeks of suzuki Violin lessons now (we had to miss a week due to Samuel's medical appointments). He contines to do violin practice joyfully, even though he has yet to hold a violin. We're still working on foot positioning, holding the violin under his chin, bowing, taping fingers, and now the teacher's added bow practice with a dowel rod (not shown).

The Realities of a Tetanus Immunoglobin

2011-09-14T12:45:00.000-05:00

Samuel hurt his foot Sunday morning. Because he isn't vaccinated, the hospital thought that he needed the tetanus immunoglobin but they couldn't do it there so they told us to go to the health department on Monday.

On Monday, we went to the health department and they were closed, so we had to go back later that afternoon. When we went back, they told us we'd have to go to a private physician so we made an appointment with the doctor. When we went to the doctor, we had to wait an hour and a half for them to tell us they didn't have the tetanus immunoglobin either but they'd order it from WalMart pharmacy and we could pick it up tomorrow and bring it in for them to administer.

On Tuesday, we went to WalMart to get the prescription for tetanus immunoglobin that our physician had called in. They didn't have the prescription and acted like they had never heard about it. We argued with the WalMart pharmacy techs to no avail.

On Wednesday, I called the doctor to ask about the immunoglobin at Walmart. WalMart called them yesterday to tell them they couldn't get it in, but they didn't bother to tell us. They ordered it through the hospital and it should be in on Wednesday or Thursday, they said, and we'll have to go to the hospital to get the shot.

What? The ER is where we started!!! Aaaahhh!!!!

2011-09-13T11:51:00.001-05:00

We've had some drama going on around here lately! I know, I know. What else is new?

Samuel has started biting--hard. For absolutely no reason and out of nowhere, it seems. On Sunday morning, we were getting ready for church and Timothy and Samuel were playing in Timothy's room. Then, Timothy starts SCREAMING that Samuel bit his face. We step in and scold Samuel and go back to getting ready. Samuel tries to go back into Timothy's room but Timothy slams the door on him, scraping several layers of skin off the bottom of his toe!

We had to go to the ER for X-rays. They initially thought he needed stitches but once they got it clean they realized it would be ok. Since our kids are not vaccinated, we have to get Samuel at tetanus shot and we're working on that.

Poor Timothy's face looks awful and bruised where they bit it, and Samuel's still hobbling around like a crippled child on his foot.

*sigh* What are we going to do with these two?

Moon Unit

2011-09-12T14:28:00.001-05:00

We're enjoying My Father's World K! If the Moon Unit seems familiar, it's because we've done it before! When Timothy was two, we went through My Father's World K once. Now that he's five, we're doing it again and we're adding in the worksheets (most of which we skipped when he was 2).

His truth for the week: The light of Jesus reflects through me.

His letter of the week: M

His science for the week: moon, planets, making craters, gravity, etc.

One thing he really picked up on was that the moon doesn't have any light of its own. It gets ALL of its light from the sun. We went in the dark and shined a flashlight on a globe and a ball to illustrate how the moon changes shape from shadows. We also shined a flashlight in the mirror to show how light can be reflected to make something look like it has its own light when it doesn't. Overall, I'd say it was a productive week!

EEG

2011-09-07T00:46:00.000-05:00

Samuel's having an EEG this afternoon. An EEG is meant to detect abnormalities due the electrical imuplses in the brain. Please say a prayer that he's still for the test and cooperative!

Happy Labor Day!

2011-09-05T08:55:00.006-05:00

Happy Labor Day to all our loyal readers!

We're spending this Labor Day at Pine Cove Family Camp. The focus on Christ and family completely meshes with our belief system!

Today, I encourage you to focus on what's important in life. Is it your career? Is it getting a nicer house or better car? Is it rising to the top in your field of study? What values do your actions illustrate?

RightStart Math

2011-09-01T12:51:00.000-05:00

(Timothy dresses himself. I'm not sure why he chose shorts and a wool puppy dog sweater on this particilar summer day....)

We do RightStart Math Level A with Timothy.

If you've been following us for awhile, we struggled looking for the perfect homeschool math curriculum for him. We didn't want anything that was too worksheet-based and we wanted something that would introduce advanced concepts.

RightStart Math was the perfect curriculum, actually better than we expected! We're 25% done with Level A and we haven't made any changes to the curriculum at all. Timothy's learned to use an abacus, count to 100, even and odd numbers, quadrilaterals, parallel and perpendicular lines, 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional forms, etc.

Overall, he's loved it. It's been so HANDS ON that he thinks he's playing, not doing school! However, the last couple lessons have involved writing numbers and he's not a big fan of writing.

If you're looking for a math curriculum that is hands-on and introduces concepts before rules (the child learns HOW to add by adding, not by you introducing "addition") then you might want to look into RightStart.

Experience with Suzuki Violin

2011-08-31T12:40:00.003-05:00

Timothy is doing Suzuki violin with a wonderful local teacher. Before he can ever pick up the instrument, though, he has to learn proper positioning. His teacher told him, "To play the violin, we start with your FEET."

His first two lessons, he's worked on:

Suzuki foot positions (rest, duckie, playing)

Brining the box violin from a tuck position to under the chin

Holding the box violin under his chin

Bowing

Finger numbers (bringing thumb to numbered fingers)

Bow positions

He's supposed to practice everything daily and listen to his CD with Suzuki Twinkler 1 daily, as well.

I post this video not so much to show Timothy, though, but to show Samuel. Samuel's in everything we do. If we say it's time for Timothy to practice violin, Samuel will press play on the CD. When we're doing homeschool, Samuel's sitting right next to us with a big fat pointer trying to reach the letter of the day. I worried so much about homeschooling with a preschooler and a toddler. I looked into Mother's Day Out programs for Samuel so that we'd have uninterrupted time with Timothy. Now, however, I realize that Samuel's benefiting from Timothy's homeschooling to.

Children are a gift from God. I think our society has become so worried about the perfect spacing of siblings and the "right time" that we're missing out on just enjoying our kids!

Homeschooling Plan

2011-08-30T14:08:00.002-05:00

We continue to educate our children at home, and we're loving it just as much as ever!

Right now, Timothy is an official homeschooler in the state of Arkansas! His K curriculum is as follows:

1) My Father's World - this is his core curriculum. Right now we're doing a unit on the Moon and letter M.

2) Right Start Math - this is his core math curriculum. Right now he's learning tens up through hundreds and even and odd numbers.

3) Time4Learning - this is a supplemental curriculum, but we love it so much we're continuing it along with everything else. Surprisingly, it continues to reinforce concepts we're working on at home and it required NO preparation.

We also do violin lessons on Tuesdays and we'll be doing Awana on Monday nights!

When Timothy isn't doing schoolwork, he likes to play educational games on the Mobigo, color in his coloring books, do art projects, build tents, and play on his new swingset we bought.

Samuel is learning right alongside Timothy! How do you homeschool a toddler, you might ask? Like this!

1) Little Reader - I cannot say enough good things about the Little Reader program. Samuel has seen literally hundreds (perhaps thousands) of words because of this system, and it requires absolutely no preparation on my part. At 18 months old, he will sit and happily watch an entire lesson and then ask for more. He can manipulate the computer to make it play his favorite sections again. He especially loves Pattern Phonics.

2) Little Math - Samuel watches Little Math once a day. We've just got to the addition and subtraction stages. I'm not sure he likes it as much as he likes Little Reader, but we do it between sessions of Little Reader and he'll sit through it without complaining.

3) Monki See Monki Doo - Samuel is absolutely in love with Monki See Monki Doo. We've tried to get him to watch Sesame Street or Dora the Explorer just for variety's sake, but he's in love with the puppets Skip and Howie. These DVDs teach basic concepts and reading words and he actually learned to identify all of his body parts from them!

When Samuel isn't "doing school" he likes to climb up brother's bunk bed, jump off the sofa, run the vacuum, lay on the middle of the kitchen floor while Daddy cooks, and play outside in the waterhouse. He also likes to watch Sparkabilities, Baby Mozart, and Your Baby Can Read.

So here we are, teaching two boys and loving it!

Samuel the TV Junkie

2011-08-18T09:18:00.002-05:00

Samuel loves TV.

We were so anti-television with Timothy. We wanted him thinking creatively, building with blocks, and experiencing the world. With Samuel, life has been much more chaotic!

See, Samuel loves TV.

The moment Samuel wakes up in the morning, he walks into the living room and points at the TV. We have to play Monki See Monki Doo or Sparkabilities immediately or endure his rage. He won't watch Sesame Street or Barney--the only shows he likes are the ones with words (like Your Baby Can Read and some of the Baby Einstein or Baby Bumblebee, too).

We pretty much keep the TV on constantly, playing his shows for him. It keeps him happy, so we do it!

Well, yesterday we decided to get down some cards from our Doman Advantage kit to show him. Timothy's homeschool curriculums, RightStart Math and My Father's World, are going well enough that we think we can add something else in for Samuel. When we pulled down the cards, the word card "Daddy" was on top in big bold letters. Samuel went to it, pointed, and said "Dada!"

We haven't done cards with Samuel like we did with Timothy. With Sam, life has been pretty much "survival mode." It's good to know that a child can STILL learn to recognize words without you showing a single flash cards.

I don't love constant TV, but it's saved our sanity. Apparently, it's also taught Samuel a thing or two!

Exchange Student

2011-08-17T10:13:00.005-05:00

We never can leave well enough alone!

I am happy to announce that, for the third time, our family has opened up our home to a boy from Asia! We have a fifteen year old boy from China living with us for the 2011-2012 school year and we couldn't be more thrilled. He's been here almost two weeks now and started school yesterday!

It is just such a great experience for our children (and for us, too). Timothy's learned several Chinese words since "David's" been here. More importantly, I think, he's also learned how to explain foreign concepts! I heard him in the bathroom the other day explaining to his Chinese brother what mouthwash is and how to use it. "You just swish it around to kill the germs and give you bad breath, okay? You don't swallow it...." We're opening ourselves up to a new part of the world to experience new ways of thinking and knowing. And we're giving a student a really great opportunity!!

We're thrilled to have "David" come join our family!

Scary, Scary, Scary

2011-08-05T19:18:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, Samuel was on top of the kitchen table (he's a climber). He was standing still and then something (possibly a seizure) caused him to fall absolutely backward, hitting the back of his head on our linoleum floor.

After it happened, we knew we had to take him to the hospital because it was a BIG fall, but we thought everything was okay. He was crying in David's arms while I went to get Timothy to tell him we had to get to the hospital. By the time I grabbed my keys, Samuel stopped breathing in David's arms.

There was hysteria--David wanted to lay him down and do CPR but I wanted to get him to the hospital, so we called 911 and started driving to meet the ambulance down the road (we live about 15 minutes from the hospital). Samuel was limp and lifeless in David's arms for awhile and, once we got in the car, David forgot about CPR and we just drove. He kept yelling, "Just go, Brandi. Go. You've got to go!"

Samuel regained consciousness by the time we met the ambulance, and by the time he arrived at the hospital he was 100% normal and happy and playing.

I have never, ever been more scared (and we've been through a great deal with this baby). I still haven't shaken the fear I felt when I saw my baby not breathing in my husband's arms. Frankly, it was horrifying. He's had 4 seizure-like episodes in the last couple of days, so we have a new battle now that's not just his stomach.

God is ever faithful and gracious and we are so blessed to have him with us still! Thanks, guys, for your continued prayers for complete healing for our baby.

RightStart Math

2011-08-03T15:19:00.002-05:00

We're really homeschooling--and we're loving it!

One of my favorite things that we're doing is RightStart Math. Timothy looks forward to it everyday, mainly because instead of doing worksheets he gets to use manipulatives. In fact, we're 10% finished with the Level A curriculum and we have yet to do a single worksheet!

I also love that it stays interesting. Today, he worked on showing the number 9 with his fingers. We sang the number 9 song. We made 9 with Tally Sticks. Then I would show a number with my fingers and he would have to write it using tally sticks. Then I would call out a number on the abacus and he would have to show it to me. Then I would make a number on the abacus and he'd have to show the right number of fingers. Then he worked on parallel and not parallel lines using the geoboard. The lesson takes about a half hour each day, but it moves so fast and changes directions so often it doesn't seem that long!

Our teacher preparation time is pretty much nill, so RightStart math is perfect for us. Dad will get down the box about 3 minutes early, review what he's supposed to do, and he's good to do. We have found that sometimes you need additional materials (straws cut into different sizes, etc) but, overall, everything you need to teach is there for you!

I'll post a video of him doing it when I can. It's the perfect curriculum for our active now FIVE year old and we love how hands-on it is!

Seizure

2011-07-25T21:36:00.002-05:00

Samuel had a seizure tonight. I can't verify 100% it was a seizure, but it sure seemed like one. Since then, he's had intermittent screaming fits and is limping.

The doctor said we could stay home if he doesn't have ANY other symptoms, but otherwise we'll be making a trip to the ER.

The new medicine he's on can cause seizures, so I'm praying it's just a side effect.

Fantasy

2011-07-21T10:04:00.001-05:00

Timothy's been coming with me to Kid's College. He's a year younger than the other children, but he's been doing just fine.

One day, we talked about Fantasy books in class. On the way home, I asked Timothy what Fantasy books were.

His response?

"It means they're not real and they couldn't happen. I guess they're faux or artificial."

Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth

2011-07-21T09:47:00.002-05:00

Well, we got the results back of Samuel's endoscopy & colonoscopy. He is continuing to malabsorb lactose, frucrose, and sucrose. Whatever lactose, fructose, or sucrose he gets sits unabsorbed & undigested in his small intestine. It just SITS there.

Bacteria feed on the undigested lactose, fructose, and sucrose, so he's got this HUGE amount of bacteria feeding on "stuff" in his small intestine.

To fix the problem, we have to eliminate the undigested "stuff" by watching his diet AND we'll have to do many rounds of hospital antibiotics.

At least we're getting answers now. That feels very good.

Why We Don't Do School

2011-07-19T10:03:00.003-05:00

I'm teaching "Kids College" at my college this week. My class name is "The Wonders of Reading" and I have students from completed K through completed 3, but the college has 105 students from grades K-6. They switch classes, just like in college, and overall have a really nice time.

Timothy's not actually old enough for Kid's College but I've been having him come to my K-1 class in the mornings. Here's what our days at Kid's College have been like:

Wake Timothy up for a peaceful sleep. Argue with him that he has to wake up.

Rush to get dressed. Rush to fix hair. Argue about the clothes he wants to wear.

Eat breakfast on the drive there.

Timothy sits in the "holding area" for 20 minues waiting for all the kids to get there.

I do a short lesson, but I'm interrupted fifteen times by kids trying to share something with me or behavior issues.

Timothy waits in line with the class for a bathroom break. While in the line, obnoxious boy tells Timothy he talks like a baby.

Go back to class. Try to get students to play. The kids won't share. Obnoxious boy starts sharing his knowledge of Osama bin Laden. Timothy asks about Osama bin Laden and if he was really shot in the head....

When Timothy went home at 1 yesterday, he slept for a full 2 hours. He's only 4, yet the school system would want him to go to ALL-DAY K in August (and they don't take naps). Samuel cried all day yesterday, missing his brother. Who in their right mind thinks this is a good idea? It's not.

Homeschool is like this:

Timothy wakes up on his own whenever he wants to. He eats a liesurely breakfast while we discuss the book we're reading. He normally does math in his pajamas.

After math, Timothy takes a bath and gets dressed into whatever he wants to wear, even if it isn't matching.

We do circle time as a family with Samuel joining in.

We read the chapter book of the week. Sometimes we read it while Timothy's on the potty going poo-poo. Sometimes we read it snuggled together in a chair.

As the day progresses, we leisurely do handwriting worksheets in between playing, cooking and cleaning together, and the like. There is no stress. If we need a break, we take it. If Timothy's feeling overwhelmed with something, he'll go chill in his room for awhile and watch Veggie Tales.

If you were a child, which day sounds better to you?

Samuel's First Haircut

2011-07-10T20:51:00.005-05:00

Samuel's had a big week this week! He had a colonoscopy, endoscopy, and now his first haircut! His poor hair looked like some crazy blone Medusa hair. Now, however, it still looks pretty crazy. he has 6 cowlicks in various places on his head. We asked the barber how she would style it and she said "I'm not really sure. I've never seen this many cowlicks" Basically, Samuel is relegated to a live of forever-crazy hair, I guess.

Yes, he slept through most of the haircut. Once he woke up, he was pretty ticked off.

Endoscopy & Colonoscopy

2011-07-06T19:16:00.002-05:00

Samuel had to report to the hospital yesterday morning for a colonoscopy & endoscopy. They were performed under anesthesia, once right after the other so we didn't have to put him to sleep twice. They took biopsys for dissacharide malabsorption and celiac disease as well as a plethora of other "stuff." His esophogus and colon looked the best they've ever looked!

This was his 2nd colonoscopy and his 3rd endoscopy since January!

We saw a Fish!

2011-07-03T21:22:00.001-05:00

Timothy and I went to WalMart the other day (our only grocery store in town). Yesterday, he was telling David that when we went to WalMart we saw a fish. "Not a fish to keep as a pet, dad. One to eat. It was no longer living, but it had its eyes and everything. It was hermetically sealed!"

The weird thing is that I did no even know what hermetically sealed meant (I had to google it). Where did he learn that? I have no idea!

Summer Fun

2011-07-01T14:33:00.004-05:00

A little bit of shaving cream in muffin tins and a few drops of food coloring makes a terrific bath paint! You can paint the walls or yourself. It wiped off easily with a washcloth! Bonus: Timothy no longer smells of lake water!

Changing

2011-06-29T19:43:00.003-05:00

Timothy hasn't been "getting" phonics. (I have to admit though, I have a PhD in English and I still think phonics is a bit questionable. How do you explain the o in women?) I've been so worried that he'll never be able to phonetically sound out a word...then, the last couple of days, he just "got it" and it's been awesome to see!

There have been many things over the last five years that we fretted about for no reason.

We worried that Timothy would never talk. We did a year of speech therapy. Today, we worry that he never STOPS talking!

We worried that Timothy would never walk. When he was 14 months old, he did!

We worried that Timothy would never stop needing a diaper to poop in. We literally feared he'd be 15 years old carrying around a pull-up for when he needed #2. A couple months ago, though, he used the potty no problem and has been doing it since.

We still have fears for our kids. Here's what we tend to fret about now:

We worry that Samuel will always be on a bottle. We worry that he'll have to be on special GI-impaired formulas for the rest of his lfie. We worry that he'll always refuse food. We worry that he'll never sleep through the night. We worry that he'll be sick all his life.

With Timothy, we worry that his handwriting will always be sloppy. We worry that he'll never hold a pencil properly. We worry that his speech won't be clear ever.

Why do we do that, as parents? Samuel's not going to be 14 putting Sprite in a baby bottle! Timothy's going to learn to hold a pencil! Somehow, it'll all work out. It always does!!

Sagging Diapers

2011-06-25T14:15:00.002-05:00

Have you ever seen a child swim or play with a waterhose in a regular diaper? The diaper sags almost to the kid's knees, completely full of water.

Yeah, Samuel looks like that ALL the time.

You know, Samuel's nutrition is still pretty much entirely liquid. He'll take a bite of food here or there, but he's still drinking 8-10 bottles a day (maybe more) to keep himself alive.

We change his diaper very often (like twice an hour) but it still never fails that his diaper looks like it weights about ten pounds. Yesterday, David changed his diaper. Five minutes later, his diaper was completely full again!

We've tried many different brands, but they all do the same. Besides putting a cathedar in the kid, is there a solution? Surprisingly, he doesn't get diaper rash!

And thank goodness for Amazon diaper delivery. We've had six boxes shipped in the last week and they might last, I don't know, two weeks!

Kinesthetic Review

2011-06-23T15:04:00.001-05:00

I think if Timothy were in a traditional classroom, he'd come home with a diagnosis of ADHD and a prescription for ritalin. In homeschool, however, we work with his learning style to allow movement. This is how they review the letters for the Junior Phonics Game. Timothy always does the shooting and they take turns calling out the letter the bullet sticks to. Why not? I've been reading several articles on the kinesthetic learning style and it's often labeled as the "wrong way" to learn. Is something inherently better about learning at a desk? I think not.

After the letter review game, Dad sets up a base with the train table lid and Timothy hides behind his easel and they have an all-out Nerf war....'cause that's how we roll.

Speechercize

2011-06-23T02:14:00.000-05:00

Timothy's speech still isn't exactly clear, but the Speech Therapist said that he's making "Age-Appropriate Sound Errors" and it will just correct itself with time. He's a little lazy with his speech. (Coincidentally, I took "Speech" when I was in elementary school for lazy speech)

One of our goals for our homeschool is for everything to turn back to God. We study history because we want to see how God has provided for humanity. We study reading so we can read God's word. We speak clearly so we can tell other people about God. I think Timothy's understanding it somewhat.

We do a Speechercize CD each day that has different little exercises. They really work out your muscles, too! My lips will be so sore when we're finished sometimes!

Absorbing

2011-06-22T21:33:00.004-05:00

Samuel was sick tonight so I let him stay up way too late so I could keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't get sick again. He was sitting on my lap messing with my phone so I opened a "Learning Letters" ap. It has 4 choices of letters and says "Find the N." I thought he might mash on some buttons and enjoy the noises. Samuel listened to what the guy said, though, and chose the right answer! I ran him into the bathroom to let David see. We were both truly astonished.

See, we haven't really spent much time teaching Samuel like we did Timothy....and Timothy's still struggling to learn the names of some of the letters! Samuel won't sit still...we can hardly read a book. Actually, I'm not sure he's ever even sat through an entire one-word-a-page book. He is truly physically superb in every sense of the term (running, walking, climbing stairs without support, climbing sofas and jumping off, brachiating) but the child never stops. He won't sit and play with a toy, he's just always running, pulling stuff off a shelf, then moving on to the next room. I wish I had his energy!

Somewhere in there, though, he learned his body parts. He'll point to his nose, mouth, hair, ears, belly button when prompted. I don't remember us teaching him that, but one time when Timothy's ears hurt we saw Samuel point to his ears and we realizes he knew. Now he apparently knows his letters, too, without us ever teaching them. I guess he absorbed them as we taught Timothy. I also think it's from Meet the Letters DVD that we play often when he awakens.

Our main focus has been on keeping Samuel alive, so we honestly haven't taught him that much. It makes me feel good that he's still learning!

It Works for Us: Homeschool/Playroom

2011-06-22T13:13:00.004-05:00

We're living in a 1800 sq ft house now, much smaller than our last house. Because we are renting, I was really disappointed thinking we wouldn't be able to get anything we were happy with. While we don't have as much room, we've still managed to turn a den into a homeschool room/playroom. It isn't perfect, but it works for us!

And while you're watching, does anyone know why Timothy always has such dark circles under his eyes? They're almost purple!

Product Review: Sing Along Read Along

2011-06-21T19:52:00.004-05:00

I'm anti-television. We don't have cable or satellite in our house and Timothy's only television-viewing comes from the videos we own and show occasionally (normally during Samuel's nap time).

Sometimes, though, it's really nice to have an educational video to show while you're, say, cleaning up baby vomit or on the phone with the gastroenterologist or doing whatever parents of normal toddlers do.

With that said, I really like Sing Along Read Along by LeapFrog. For $20, it comes with a dozen little phonics books (like the BOB books) and a corresponding music DVD with songs from the books. It's nothing special or revolutionary, but it is quite catchy. For example, they'll introduce the letter a and then turn out the lights and scream, making the short /a/ sound. Even Samuel has picked up that a says /a/!

The songs are catchy (though weird tunes) and I find myself humming them at strange times. My favorite is "Izzy jogs. Izzy jogs. Stop, Izzy, stop. There's a log."

In a phonics rut or just want a short video for your own sanity? Sing Along Read Along gets a good review from me!

Time4Learning

2011-06-21T17:58:00.003-05:00

We're still doing Time4Learning Kindergarten with Timothy. Overall, it's going very well. Timothy experienced some frustration with some of the lessons, but I decided he needed to go ahead and do them. I'm glad he did. We finished Chapter 4 in math and are on Chapter 5 that deals with the calendar now. This is much more appropriate and he's enjoying it a lot more! There are only 6 Chapters in K math, so we'll likely be done with K math before his official K school year even starts!

I love all their phonics activities (or, as they're called in Time4Learning, language arts activities). I want Timothy to have a firm foundation in phonics and Time4Learning provides it. Timothy's just starting Chapter 5 in Language Arts and there 18 total chapters, so clearly it will take longer to finish this.

My favorite part of Time4Learning is the "Student Records" section. I love being able to see what lessons he did when and what score he made on each of them. If he didn't do well, we just do it again! I guess the teacher in me really needs to see a list of everything we've accomplished.

Our main homeschool curricula are My Father's World and RightStart Math Level A, but Time4Learning does a good job of reviewing key concepts.

Science Tuesday

2011-06-21T12:06:00.001-05:00

Samuel was supposed to have another endoscopy tomorrow so we should have been preparing for that, but we postponed it until the beginning of July to test for more things so we're doing this instead! Much more enjoyable!

On Kinesthetic Learners

2011-06-20T19:33:00.002-05:00

We've been out of town for several weeks, so we just got home a few days ago to get back into our routine. (Actually, we might be having an endoscopy and colonoscopy for Samuel on Wednesday, but I won't know until tomorrow).

As we got back into our homeschool routine, we decided to really teach more towards Timothy's learning style. He's an auditory learner (difficult with his hearing issues) and a kinesthetic learner.

We've started bouncing on a big red ball while we do our recitations and it seems to help out tremendously! Timothy can concentrate so much better when he's moving! Why didn't I think of this before?

I'll post a video when I can! I've taken one, but our internet isn't fast enough to upload it.

On Hearing & Such

2011-06-14T20:31:00.003-05:00

Timothy's struggling with learning his letters. Many he knows with no problems, but others he struggles with. The hardest letters are the sound-alike letters for him.

I'll tell him that a letter is B.
Timothy: G?
Me: No, B.
Timothy: P?
Me: No, B.
Timothy: Oh, C.

We were concerned about that and his speech still isn't as clear as it might be so we went and had a very comprehensive hearing test today at one of the colleges in Dallas. Timothy did GREAT hearing high-pitched sounds, but the lower sounds he struggled with. For the two on the lower end of the spectrum, his score was sitting on the line between normal hearing and hearing loss for the right ear. It was a bit unnerving to watch the audiologist press a button to create a sound and have Timothy sit there with no recognition whatsoever. I watched his eyes--he wasn't hearing some sounds.

If you've been with us since Timothyw as a baby, you'll know that our neurodevelopmental evaluation revealed that Timothy struggled greatly with hearing. Today, he STILL has problems, but I don't think they're as severe.

We need to go back and have his hearing tested once a year. For now, we'll make sure he makes eye contact with us when we tell him something and we'll have patience as we continue to learn! We'll have to keep that in mind with discipline, too. Sometimes we get so frustrated with him for not listening, but we need to make sure he's actually hearing us before we punish him for not obeying!

Exhaustion

2011-06-13T22:21:00.003-05:00

We're tired. Not like the "I really need a nap" type of tired that we all occasionally get sometimes, but like the baby's-never-slept-through-the-night-in-16-months type of tired. Actually, worse than that.

You know, when you're feeding a newborn a bottle you can just take shifts. I'll get up at three in the morning and give him a bottle. You take the midnight shift. But this isn't like this. It's like at 3 in the morning he starts screaming and doesn't stop. Everyone in the house is up. David and I are stressed, tired, asking "Should we give him the hydrocodone? What if he gets addicted?" If we let our baby write in pain in the middle of the night, we're loser parents. If we give our baby a narcotic pain medicine that's potentially addictive, we're STILL loser parents (but we're done it before, tonight in fact, and we'll likely have to do it again).

Sometimes David and I look at each other and ask, "Is this real life?" Is it?

I remember when Timothy didn't sleep through the night. We told ourselves "Well, by six months for sure he will. That's only, what, two months away?" We can't do that now. Today I told David, "When he's thirteen we can just put a mini-fridge in his room full of bottles of Peptamen Junior, right?" It's that ridiculous in our mind...like it's never going to end!

Classical Conversations

2011-06-13T18:20:00.002-05:00

Both kids enjoyed their days at the Classical Conversations Practicum.

The classical method of education is based on the idea that young children in the grammar stage need lots of information. They memorize to build a good foundation of knowledge. The next stage is the logic stage of learning, where the child begins to learn how to apply and understand the knowledge he's learned in the grammar stage. The final stage is the rhetoric stage where the child can grow in wisdom.

I like their ideas about specialization--we don't want to raise children who are specialized in one field but rather children who know about philosophy, geography, politics, literature, math, history, so on and so forth.

We saw several young children recite a 160-point history timeline from memory. If you're interested in seeing it yourself, check out YouTube.

Classical Conversations has a tutoring program (or so they call it) where students get together once a week and, under the director of a teacher "tutor", memorize Latin, history, math facts, grammar rules, etc. When children are in middle school years, they begin to focus more on debate, apologetics, and writing.

We, however, decided 100% that Classical Conversations is not right for our family right now and here's why:

I think that the skill of memorization is important. However, I believe that Classical Conversations puts too much focus on memorization in the early years. Today, I heard seven year olds recite Newton's law of motion. It appeared that they had memorized the law with no real understanding of what it means. (By the CC philosophy, understanding would come years later). What good is that, I ask you?

Classical Conversations seems based on the idea that students cannot reason or grow in wisdom until the later stages of learning. The early years (grammar stage) are a time for sheer memorization of facts that can be built on later. I believe that younger children can learn to reason. I've taught my 4-year-old and I've seen him truly come to understand complicated concepts. I've seen him demonstrate wisdom and understanding. I would rather him reason through a concept than recite it.

I have a PhD in English Composition in Rhetoric so I think I feel qualified to talk about their emphasis on English grammar. Classical Conversations is extremely grammar-heavy, with students memorizing lists and lists of grammar rules in the early years and diagramming sentences in the later years. In my experience teaching college English, I've learned that the best way for students to improve their mastery of the English language is to read and write more. Drilling the facts doesn't improve ability and, for most students, is rather boring.

I love the idea of teaching Latin, though, as much of the English language is based on Latin roots. I also like the idea of exposing students to a wide variety of subjects.

Classical Conversations is certainly the thing to do if you want to impress your friends by your child reciting a pre-scripted sentence about who was President in the War of 1812. However, for my family right now, we're going to read, write, do unit studies, and glue noodles to construction paper. Maybe some finger painting in there, too....

Classical Conversations Practicum

2011-06-12T20:47:00.003-05:00

Are you familiar with the Classical method of Education? I'm familiar with it but certainly not an expert. Classical Conversations is having many free 3-day Parent Practicums across the United States and we'll be attending one for the next three days.

Their mission statement is this:
Our purpose is to lead the home-centered education movement by equipping parents and students with the classical tools of learning needed to discover the order and beauty of God’s creation and to inspire others to do the same.

We believe parents are their children’s primary teachers not because parents know everything but because each child is uniquely (and wonderfully!) made and because the people who know and love a child best are the ones most motivated to help that child succeed.

We empower and support parents not only through our Classical Conversations Communities across the country but also through our specially designed C3 online community, Parent Practicums, academic retreats, and our Certified Instructor Program. All of these services ultimately equip parents to educate their children with the classical tools of learning and a biblical worldview so that they might impact the world for God’s glory.

I'm not sure how much it will benefit us or if we'll use the Classical method of education, but I'm excited to learn more! I'm also excited that Timothy will get to go to their Science Play Camp all three days. Samuel will be in the nursery. May God have mercy on those poor nursery worker's souls...

I'll update when it's over!

Sick Kids

2011-06-08T18:17:00.004-05:00

I've had medical bills piling up for weeks now and I haven't even known where to start in organizing them (let alone in paying them). Today, my aunt came over and, together, we compared bills to explanation of benefits.

I realized something: our insurance company has paid $152,477 since December on Samuel. That's right! Insurance has paid over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars! That's very real money. That could be a house (a nice house in our area). That's enough money for a middle-class family to live for 2-3 years. And insurance has paid that for Samuel's tests and procedures in six months!

And you know what? Samuel's not any better than he was in January! He's still having pain. He's still having the same symptoms he had previously. I think I truly want a refund on that money!

This Boy

2011-06-07T20:46:00.002-05:00

This boy has really thrown our family for a loop. We've laughed, we've cried (well, really, we mostly cried). Health-wise, he still isn't where he needs to be.

The doctor wants to do another endoscopy, which means putting our infant under full anesthesia for the third time in less than 6 months :-( Something's wrong. He doesn't eat. If it weren't for his GI-impaired formula, the child wouldn't be alive. He screams and writhes in pain. We just filled a prescription for Tylenol 3 with Codeine for him today, which is basically a narcotic like hydrocodone! He still vomits. The diarrhea is better most of the time, but not always.

We're talking about driving to Houston to Texas Children's Hospital. We just need better answers, a better plan! :-(

Pine Cove Family Camp

2011-06-05T19:40:00.005-05:00

Having small children is difficult. If you're wanting a vacation to go to with your small children, let me highly recommend Pine Cove family camp. We went to the Bluffs. We've been to DisneyWorld (twice) and we've been to San Antonio, Hot Springs, and normal vacation destinations. However, never have we got to DO more and connect with our children more than at Pine Cove!

This week, we got to eat 17 meals that we didn't have to cook! When we went into the dining hall, we sat down at a table and were served drinks and (really good) food. Staffers cut up the kid's food and were careful about Samuel's diet. If the children started fussing at the table, a staffer would come and help them out or take them outside to play in the giant sandbox! It was truly incredible to be able to eat meals in peace!!!

They had a speaker session for the adults on how to strengthen the marriage. The speaker, Bob Maddox from Oregon, gave us several excellent tips on how to help our expectations of marriage come closer to reality. We've been married 8 years, but we took away many tips that will make our marriage stronger and more intimate!

While we were in speaker session, our children went to Cove Kids. Everyday they had special activities planned, like playing with shaving cream, riding horses, or visiting the bubble princess. I never had to worry about Timothy or Samuel--I knew they were very well cared for! Samuel was pretty unhappy being away from mom & dad for the first time, so he got his own counselor who pretty much let him do whatever he wanted! Timothy memorized 1 Timothy 1:15 this week and got to see Christ's love demonstrated in the actions of the staff.

Twice, staffers came to our room at 6:45 to stay with the kids while they slept so that David and I could go out and enjoy activities. We went jet skiing one day, we rode on the boat that was pulling the banana boats, we went on a sunrise trailride that ended at a made-to-order breakfast, we had an awesome picnic dinner that ended in a sunset cruise on the middle of the lake...Pine Cove spoiled us silly!!

We also had great times together as a family. We did crafts (that were very reasonably priced). We played games, we played on the playground. David and Timothy got suited up to the do the zipline, but Timothy got to the top and decided he didn't want to. David still did the zipline! We spent a lot of time at the pool (even until the middle of the night). We met great families. We played in the sandbox. It was just, overall, a very fun time!

This week reminded us that our whole purpose in life is to glorify God! We were reminded that, ultimately, our job as parents is to teach our children the truth of God's word. Our marriage will be stronger, we'll be more patient with our children, we'll serve more (in fact, David's going to Joplin this week), and we'll be closer to God because of our week at Pine Cove. All it cost was a week of our time and a little bit of treasure!!

Family Camp

2011-05-29T10:35:00.002-05:00

We're off to family camp!! David and I could not be any more excited. We won't have to cook for the next 17 meals straight. We'll get some time together as a couple and also time together as a family. We're participate in games, skits, and watersports.

Watch out Pine Cove--here we come!!

Field Day

2011-05-20T10:20:00.004-05:00

Subtitled: Silly ramblings of an ever-concerned momma

I come from a public-school mindset. I don't think I even knew anyone who was homeschooled growing up, though I had heard of homeschoolers. Because of this public-school mindset I must admit: sometimes I feel sorry for my kids.

I don't know why it happens. My children have a wonderful life! They spend hours each day digging in the sandbox, swinging on the swing, and looking for animals on our two acres. They have a huge playroom full of toys. Dad stays home with them, and mom is home way more than she's at work. Timothy's been to DisneyWorld twice and Six Flags countless times. We read books, we make up games, we build fortresses out of dominoes...

Why do I feel bad, then, when I drive past and see an elementary school having Field Day? I hated Field Day as a child (I never won an award). And I know it's a lot of waiting around for other kids to compete in a race so that you can run. And I know it's really not that fun. Yet, I still sometimes feel a little tinge of guilt that Timothy won't have that "normal" experience.

What's normal, though, anyway? It's "normal" in our society for brothers and sisters to spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week (40 hours a week) away from each other, sitting with strangers and soemone who doesn't love them, learning what the government says every single child must learn at the same time. That doesn't seem so "normal" to me! I'd rather Timothy see staying at home with people who love him, having a 1-1 student/teacher ratio, and building a stronger bond with his FAMILY 40 hours a week as normal. Not field day.

The Greatest Guy in the Whole Wor-Orld

2011-05-19T20:27:00.002-05:00

Timothy goes by "Tim" at times now, something that breaks my heart!! Here's a little gem to show what absolutely low self-esteem he has. I love the funny face he's making. He's SOOO camera-shy, too!