ER Weekend

Our weekend started early with Stephen coming home from work sick on Wed. night. He was coughing and said his head was going to explode. Thursday he slept the day away. By early afternoon he had moved downstairs to sleep on the couch and was completely oblivious to 5 kids running and playing right around him. I first realized something was wrong when he rolled off the couch to the floor and didn't even wake up. He was completely checked out and couldn't stay awake. He'd slept for about 17 hours straight at this point. I decided to take him into quick care. We barely made it into the car-- I thought he was going to pass out walking to the car. After that, I was able to keep him in a wheelchair. Quickcare looked at him and did some blood tests and sent us over to the ER. They gave him an IV and ran more tests and sent us home for him to sleep more and said to come in Sat if he wasn't doing better. He has a high bilirubin level, which means his body is breaking down red blood cells. He also has a high white blood cell count, so there is probably some sort of infection as well. Luckily he is not in pain and was promised in a blessing that he will get well, we just don't know how long that will take. He has continued to sleep about 18 hours a day.

Saturday morning I woke up in major pain, and he ended up taking me to the ER with kidney stones. Kidney stones are the only time I've ever thrown up because of the pain. It feels like hard labor, only with labor you get a break between contractions and end up with something positive at the end that you can focus on. :) I'd take childbirth any day! I am feeling much better with the pain medicine, but just have to wait for them to pass. My mom came up and took the 4 younger boys back down to her house, so Stephen and I have just been able to sleep the day away. Hopefully this passes soon and we can figure out what is wrong with him and get back into life.

Oh, and both times at the ER, we had the same nurse. She was nice, but I really don't want to be on a first name basis with an ER nurse. What are the odds?

Latter-day Homeschooling Blog

I love reading about other people's homeschools and gleaning ideas from them and enjoy reading the blog posts on Latter-day Homeschooling. If you've considered homeschooling and wonder if you could do it, or if you think we're all crazy, but want to get a glimpse into why we do it, this is a great site.
http://www.latter-dayhomeschooling.com/ (there is also a link on the sidebar)

Back to School Prep

Homeschooling is an adventure. There are days that I love it (most of the time) and days I want to pull my hair out.

For example, one day this summer I was working with Tyler on order of operations with ( ). The problem was 8 + (4-2)= I asked him to read me the problem. Tyler: "Eight plus parentheses four LINE two parentheses." LINE????? Me: "Try again." Tyler: "Eight plus parentheses four DASH two parentheses." Me: "No Tyler, that means subtract." Tyler:"Oh, I forgot."

See what I mean???? So then Stephen decided to help him. The problem was 1/4 = ____ out of ____. Stephen:"Read what it says." Tyler: "One over four squiggly line thingy." SQUIGGLY LINE THINGY?????? He is 9, how many times has he seen an equal sign???? He was then sent outside to get some fresh air and we tackled it the next day. His response then? Oh, this is easy, I know how to do this. And he did it correctly with no problems. So it did sink in somewhere along the line.

We did a relaxed version of school over the summer. Basically reading, math, and a little writing. On days it was nice outside, the kids knew that if they played outside nicely and were having fun, I would probably "forget" to have them come finish school. But if they started complaining, fighting, or being bored, I would find them something to do. :)

Now as fall is getting close, I've been figuring out the schedule and curriculum for the coming year and reorganizing all their boxes. We will continue using IDEA, the virtual charter school. It involves quite a bit of hoop jumping for me, but gives the kids official school records, money for extra curricular activities, and pays for a good bit of our curriculum. For those who care, here is what we will be using. :)

Ryan will be 6th grade, doing 7th grade work for most subjects and Algebra 1 for high school credit. He will use Life of Fred Beginning Algebra and then move into Advanced Algebra around Christmas. He loves these books and has worked halfway through Beginning Algebra this summer. For science, he is doing Apologia General Science, and for Social Studies he is doing Western Hemisphere. For Language Arts we use a variety of stuff because he is very strong at reading and comprehension, but hates writing and spelling. This year he will use My Access, G.U.M., and 4 square writing along with writing book reports and country reports for geography. I'm still not sure what I will use for his spelling. I like All About Spelling, but it's a bit too mom-intensive for my life right now. I'm trying to figure out a way that the boys can do it with each other. If not, I'll go the workbook route.

Tyler is 4th grade and will be using Singapore math, ALEKS, and possibly Critical Thinking Math. (I've ordered the Life of Fred Elementary series and if those click for him like they did for Ryan, we'll go that route. If he needs more practice, I'll add the Critical Thinking Math.) For science, he'll use DK books and other living books and science kits to study by topic, plus Critical Thinking Science Detective. For social studies he will do Idaho History this year. For Language Arts, he will use GUM, My Access, 4 square writing, Reading Detective, and Handwriting without Tears. He will also be reading stories to the younger kids everyday.

Eli is 2nd grade and Jeanisha is 1st, but the school is working to skip her to 2nd, so they will do many of the same things. They both will do Singapore Math and the new Life of Fred Elementary books or possibly Critical Thinking Math. Science and history will be living books. I'm going to try Story of the World with them and see if they are ready for it. Both of them will finish Explode the Code and Beyond the Code this year and use Reading Eggs online program. For readers I like the Pathway Readers, but we don't use the workbooks that go with them. They'll also do Handwriting without Tears.

It's always a lot of work to put together the new school year, but it's also fun as the new books start coming. It's rewarding to see how far the kids have come, which makes up for the days I wonder if anything is sinking in.

Cumorah is here!!!

She actually arrived over a week ago, on Aug 1st at 10:12 pm, but I just didn't get the blog updated. She weighed 7 lbs exactly and was 20 inches long. She is a beautiful, sweet baby and very much loved! I'm amazed at how well she sleeps through the noise and busyness and how well she tolerates the kisses and loves. She had her days and nights mixed up at first, but seems to have it figured out now. The last 2 nights she only woke up twice.

I'd been having contractions since about 33 weeks and taking it really easy, so once we passed the magic 38 week mark, I was ready to be active again. It just happened that Ryan is getting close to having a birthday and to finish his Webelos badge for Cub Scouts, he needed a 3 mile hike. So on Sunday, the 31st, I told Stephen we were going to take the family "hiking" along the Green Belt for 3 miles. Sure enough, as long as I was walking good, I would have contractions. They were pretty consistent, but not super hard. We went to bed that night and I kept having them occasionally until about 2 am. The next morning once I got moving again they started right back up and got more consistent and harder as the day went on. We went into the hospital about 2:30 pm and when they would have me lay on the bed, nothing would happen, but if I was walking they were consistent. The nurse said she thought the dr. on call would send us home since I had an appt the next day with my own dr, but that I should come prepared to be sent right over to the hospital from that appt. As she walked out of the room, contractions started regular just laying there, so the dr. on call kept us there and came in and broke my water.

When I was able to keep walking around the contractions got harder and stronger, when I would lay down they would ease up. When I got the epidural her heart rate started dropping, so they thought for a minute that I would need a cesearean, but then they checked and she was almost here. Once I relaxed it was only about 30 minutes to go from a 5 to "here she comes, wait for the dr." Her delivery was quick and easy and she was born wanting to eat! We stayed in the hospital overnight and came home Tues afternoon. Stephen took the rest of that week off of work, (and was very ready to go back when Monday rolled around. Now life at home is getting back into the regular routine but with everyone jumping at her slightest whimper. One little cry and all the kids run over to help. They also come in from playing often to hold her, even if it only lasts for a few minutes at a time (except Jeanisha who will hold her for hours).

Easy Summer Dessert

This is my "fake" key lime pie recipe. I double it, put it in a 9 x 13 pan and put it in the freezer. It is SO yummy and so easy!

Easy Key Lime Pie

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (Or make from food storage with 3/4 cup powdered milk, 3/4 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup hot tap water blended in blender)

1/2 cup key lime or lime juice (1/2 of one of those plastic limes of lime juice)
1/2 pkg. (small) lime jello
1 (8 oz) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 (6 oz) graham cracker pie crust (or just layer the pan with graham crackers)

Beat condensed milk and lime juice and jello in bowl or blender until smooth and thickened. Fold in whipped topping. Spoon into pie crust. Cover and refrigerate an hour or until set or freeze. Wonderful frozen or slightly thawed.

Lincoln with Bubble Wrap

This video makes me laugh. It's a little dark, but hopefully you can see it. Why do we buy toys? The bubblewrap is just as fun.

Book of Mormon Camp

Throughout the school year, we do a homeschool co-op with about 20 other families (80 kids or so) on Friday. The kids love it and have made some awesome friends over the past 4 years. But then summer comes and we see these friends much less often, so this year I decided to host a Book of Mormon Camp with a few of these families. We have 5 families and a total of about 30 kids ranging from 15 down to 2. We split the Book of Mormon into 10 sections and each mom is coming up with the activities for 2 sections and we (the moms) get to just visit the rest of the time. We've been doing 2 sections each Thursday and have 2 weeks left to go.

The first week, Krista set up a tent at the far back of the yard and as we talked about Nephi's journey, the kids trooped out there carrying blankets, bags of wheat, water bottles, and other provisions. It was cooking hot that day, which was perfect for a desert trek, but also led perfectly into murmuring from some of the kids. :) We journeyed back to the house and she had the kids act out getting the plates, then we went back to the tent. When she said we were going back for the girls, several of the 8-11 year old boys cheered. They were really cheering because they got to go back into the cooler house for a bit, but it was pretty funny since this same group covers their eyes for a kiss on a movie. (And I'm happy for them to stay at that stage for a good while longer.)

After all the trips out to the tent and in the heat, the kids came back in for my part. I started with Nephi and the broken bow. We made "wooden" bows out of pretzel rods and peel apart licorice and arrows from mini pretzels and marshmallows. Then they headed back outside to the burn pile of sticks with a couple rolls of duct tape to make tools. It was fun to see what they came up with using sticks, rocks, and duct tape. We had some pretty dangerous looking tools, including several pickaxes that were even sharpened by a pocket knife one of the boys had with him. Next we came in and made juice boxes into boats and floated them across the wading pool "ocean" while getting plenty wet in the process.

Week 2 started with Jacob and Melania did an awesome job teaching the parable of the olive tree using celery as the good olive tree and asparagus for the branches of the wild tree. The kids enjoyed cutting off the bad leaves to be burned and sticking in the asparagus with toothpicks. She had the celery standing in a bowl of sour cream and when it was time to "dung around" and fertilize the tree, she had the kids sprinkle in and stir in ranch powder to make dip. Then they got to eat it all. They also made prayer rocks for Enos.

Next up was Mosiah, and Tami used the playhouse in the backyard as King Benjamen's tower and later the kids built towers. The younger ones used playdough and popsicle sticks and the older ones used a fort kit made out of PVC pipe. It was probably over 30 feet tall.

Last week, we did Alma. Patty first had the kids become missionaries and put on missionary nametags as they talked about Alma the Younger. Then she let the kids become Lamanites or Nephites and they had a tug of war, then the Lamanites "marked" themselves with a red L painted on their foreheads. Next they became Anti-Nephi-Lehi's and colored swords which they then took out and buried in the backyard. It was kind of funny to watch how difficult it was for the kids to give up their weapons. Even though it was just a piece of paper that they had colored, some of them really didn't want to bury them and a few even snuck back later to try to dig them up again to find theirs. All in all, it led to some great teaching moments and was lots of fun.

Melania took the kids outside and they made a title of liberty and talked more about the stripling warriors and the battles between the Lamanites and Nephites. I don't really know much about her activities because I was inside visiting with the other moms, but I know the kids thought it was fun and loved the candy she gave out when they could answer questions.

Next week we will do Helaman and 3rd/4th Nephi, the the last week I get to teach Ether and Krista will do Moroni. So if you have any great ideas for Ether, please send them my way. So far, I am planning to build towers with spaghetti and marshmallows for the tower of Babel. And then to paint rocks with glow in the dark paint for in the boats. Beyond that, I'm still piecing it together, so I need a couple more activities.

It has been a great experience for the kids and I hope it will help them remember these stories even better. Plus they get a full day of friends and I get time to visit and just hang out. Krista has been coming over in the morning and her son has been teaching Bubble Science to the kids while we hang out. They have had some pretty impressive bubble creations! Then we go to lunch in the park for an hour and come back for the 2 hours of Book of Mormon camp. Usually after that, friends stay and play for another hour or so and then it's time to clean up for dad to come home. The kids have been great about helping get and keep the house ready for all their friends to come over and cleaning up again afterward.