Things I've Been Meaning to Blog About

Mother's Day. The kids helped Aaron make me egg-in-a-frames for breakfast and brought it to me in bed. Then when I got out of the shower, I found this card/sign they had made. It says, "We love mom" they each made the letter they're sitting under. After church we went up to Salt Lake and had Mother's Day dinner with Aaron's mom, and Aaron sister Stacey and her family, and Aaron's brother Kelly and his family.

Letter Day. Boy am I behind in blogging about letter day. For letter T we talked about trains and teeth.

For letter U we did a bunch of "under" activities. We looked at things that go under water vs what stays on top. We did an obstacle course where the kids had to go under a string, hide under a laundry basket, go up the stairs, etc. And we made these cool underwater pictures, using food coloring and bubble solution. The fish hook is a U.

For V we made vases for violets. The violets are made out of crepe paper and poms.

Suzy did a lot of great water activities for W. We played pin the teeth on the walrus. And using a spray bottle painted hands and feet with water on the cement wall outside. Then the kids tried their best to play water balloon volleyball. :)

For X we talked about x-rays. I had the kids play an x-ray matching game, where they had to take a picture of an x-ray and glue it to the correct body part. I also had them make their own x-ray using black paper and chalk, they traced their hands and drew the bones inside.

We only have 2 letters left and then we'll be done with another round of letter days. I can hardly believe it.

Here is another fun art project I did with the kids. Hand print flowers, which we've done before, but this time I decided to try something a little different than the traditional tulips. Every flower is made using some part of the hand, either the whole hand, just the side of it, 1 finger, or thumb prints. Here are Ivan's and Lincoln's.

Adelia's turned out so well, that we made it into a card to congratulate Stacey and Rob on their brand new twins! A boy, Samuel, and a girl, Claire. Samuel is at Primary Children's in the NICU, because he has a hole in his diaphragm. They have him hooked up to a lot of different machines, but he is making progress towards having an operation later this week. We are keeping our thoughts and prayers with him and his family. Here is a picture of them together that I stole off facebook...aren't they adorable? We got to go down the day they were born and hold Claire, and Aaron got to help give Samuel a blessing.

Also, the last couple of weeks, I've gotten really into freezer meals. My friend Suzy and I got together one afternoon and made a couple together. And Aaron and I did about 10 more one night. So far we've eaten 2 of them, the Chicken Curry, and the Hot and Spicy Braised Peanut Chicken. The Peanut Chicken was excellent, the Curry was not bad, but a little dry. I think when I cook the other packages of that I will add some kind of sauce.

I found these recipes on the Internet, on pinterest. I'll let you know when I try the others and if they're any good.


Hot and Spicy Braised Peanut Chicken
IN THE BAG- 2 cups onions, 2 cups carrots, 2 cups zucchini, 1 red pepper, 1/2 t grated lime peel, 2 T lime juice, 2 T soy sauce, 2 T flour, 4 garlic cloves, 2 lbs. cubed boneless, skinless chicken breast.
TO COOK- Dump contents of bag in slow cooker. Cover with 3/4 cup chicken broth and 3 T peanut butter (whisked together). Cook on low for 5-6 hours. For the last five minutes, add in 1 can of coconut milk and 1 bag of frozen peas.
TO SERVE- To make it spicy, add 1/2 teaspoon of red curry paste before serving (I kept our unspicy for the kiddos). Garnish with chopped peanuts and cilantro. Serve over rice.

Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken
3 medium unpeeled  sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch pieces, about 2 cups.
2 large green pepper, cut into strips or cubes, about  2 cups.
1 large red pepper, cut into strips or cubes, about 1 cup.
2 zucchini, chopped, about 2 cups.
2 cups chopped onion.
2 tablespoon quick cooking tapioca (or flour, or some other thickening agent).
2 pounds chicken thighs or drumsticks.
2 15-ounce can of tomato sauce.
4 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoon ground yellow mustard.
2 clove garlic, finely minced, about 2 tablespoons.
1 teaspoon salt
Divide everything into two, one gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer.  Day of cooking, dump it into your slow cooker and cook on high for 4 to 6 hours, or low 6-8 hours, depending on your specific slow cooker.

Chicken Curry
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons curry powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1.5-2 pounds chicken thighs, or breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces.
2 cups chopped peeled sweet potatoes.
2 cups baby carrots.
2 cup coarsely chopped mango.  Or 2 cans of chopped mango.
1 cup chopped onion.
1 zucchini chopped, about one cup.
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 chicken bouillon, one per bag.
.5 cup raisins (for garnish)
.5 cup peanuts or cashews (for garnish)
Divide everything into two, one gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freeze. 
To cook, take out of freezer and set on counter for about 30 minutes, then dump contents of bag into slow cooker. Cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 8 hours.

Orange Chicken
IN THE BAG- 2 cups carrots, 2 cups bell peppers, 1 lb cubed boneless skinless chicken breasts, 3 cloves garlic, 1 t salt, 1/2 t pepper, 8 oz. orange juice concentrate (orange pineapple will work as well)
TO COOK- Cook on low in crock pot, 4 to 6 hours
TO SERVE- Garnish with clementine slices (use 4 clementines) or mandarin oranges (two cans) and green onions (two, chopped). Serve on rice. Stir fried veggies make a great side.

Coconut Chicken Curry by Martha Stewart
IN THE BAG- 3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, 2 lbs. of chopped butternut squash, 2 medium onions,chopped, 8 minced garlic cloves, 1 oz fresh ginger, 2 T curry powder,1 t ground coriander, 1 t ground cumin, coarse salt
TO COOK- Add the contents of the bag and a can of coconut milk to a slow cooker and cook on low all day. 25 minutes before serving, add another can of coconut milk and a bag of frozen peas.
TO SERVE- Garnish with chopped cashews and cilantro

Inspired by Tindy

So this post was inspired by my great friend Tindy. She emailed me and asked me for an educational book list of the things I am doing, and have done, in the past with my kids, as well as the books that helped me to acquire my personal philosophy on education. I have no idea if this list is what she was looking for, but I do get people asking me that question, or a similar question, a lot, so I thought I'd make a nice list for reference. :)  

This is what I'm using with Lincoln right now (Kindergarten):
-Math U See- http://store.mathusee.com/catalog/general-math/primer/
-AIMS books- http://store.aimsedu.org/aims_store/books/math-activity-books-k-2/
-Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons- http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Your-Child-Read-Lessons/dp/0671631985
-Explode the Code- http://www.amazon.com/Explode-Code-1-Nancy-Hall/dp/0838814603/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1337627317&sr=1-1
-Handwriting Without Tears- http://shopping.hwtears.com/product/LN/HWT
-Writing with Ease- http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/the-complete-writer-writing-with-ease-instructor-text.html
-BOB Books
-The Story of the World by Suan Wise Bauer (We are listening to the CDs in the car)

These are books that I have read that helped me decide that I definitely wanted to homeschool:
-Creative Homeschooling by Lisa Rivero
-A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille
-Why Gender Matters by Leonard Sax
-Boys Adrift by Leonard Sax
-Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto
-Why Parents Matter by Nigel Barber
-Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein
-Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka

Here are books I've used before, and still use bits and pieces of, and love:
-Marshmallow Math by Trevor Schindeler (math games for little kids)
-Unplugged Play by Bobbi Conner (things to do for all ages that don't involve electricity or batteries)
-Science is Simple by Peggy Ashbrook (pre K and K science activities)
-The Absolute Best Play Days by Pamela Waterman (fun theme days for preschool and older)
- Peak With Books by Marjorie R Nelsen (pre-k and K reading activities)
-The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease (list of great read alouds for toddlers-9th graders)
-Everything Your Preschooler Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch Jr.
-Everything Your Kindergarten Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch Jr.

Books I plan on reading in the near future:
-Deconstructing Penguins by Lawrence Goldstone
-A Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer
-Why Johnny Can't Read by Rudolf Franz Flesch
-Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv


**This is my disclaimer, especially for the books that helped me decide to homeschool, I don't agree with everything in them whole heartedly. Mostly, I just take and use the bits that I like, or that apply well to my family, and forget the rest. **

Book Review: The Read Aloud Hanbook

By Jim Trelease

rated: 5 out of 5 stars

I bought this book mostly because the back half of it has a long list of recommendations of books to read a loud and each listing comes with an appropriate listening age range. Which is exactly what I've been looking for so I can get some new ideas about which books would be appropriate to read to Lincoln.

And if that were all that was in the book, it would have been well worth the $9 dollars I spent on it. The selections will keep us in reading material for a LONG time. :)

But I also really enjoyed the rest of the book. It's nothing too unpredictable. Mostly he just uses a lot of research and real life experiences to back up his belief that reading aloud to kids is the best, most efficient, and cheapest way to give them an educational boost. And he has tons of stats to back up his claims. Which, I think is pretty cool, because it's something I've always known intuitively, but I had no idea that the actual numbers would stack so highly in favor of reading aloud as a family. Not only does it create positive family bonding time, but across all ages and grades levels, kids who are read aloud to do better in school and on tests than those who aren't.

I've always loved reading, and I was always read to as a child, so this wasn't a very hard concept for me to absorb, but I think everyone, whether they like reading or not, could really benefit from some of the ideas in this book. And like I mentioned earlier, the book is worth it even if you only use it as a reference for it's list of books that make good read alouds.

“Happiness consists in getting enough sleep. Just that, nothing more.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

I'm Going to Run Away

I seriously need a girls' weekend away somewhere...anyone want to plan one? I've been feeling a lot boxed in. Maybe it's too much going on, too many time commitments, too much on my social calendar, or something. Maybe I feel boxed in because everywhere I go, my darling children come too. That must be it. They need to learn how to mind, or even listen, or at least, if they can't listen, just acknowledge the fact that I have spoken sometimes. I swear I walk around the house all day sounding like a raving lunatic and repeating myself over and over and over and over and over. I feel like I have no control. And motherhood seriously requires too much energy most days. I had a fun day planned today. Some great active/outside school activities, a bike ride, an art project, sitting and reading quietly together....and nada. Not a one of those things was done happily by my children. They whined, cried, and complained about EVERYTHING we did today. But I couldn't let them just have free play time, because they kept fighting and making each other cry. I should have duct taped them all to the ceiling and read my book. 

By the time bed time comes around I've pretty much had it. Aaron keeps reminding me to be nice to them, and I swear if I have to hear it one more time I might throw something at him. A gal can only take so much in a 24 hour period. Why can't they be nice to me once in awhile? Why do I have to beg and threaten and bribe and cheat my way through the entire bedtime process every single night? Why can't everyone just calmly get their pajamas on when asked, and brush their teeth without getting water all over the bathroom? Why can't we just pick a freaking story and have everyone hold still and listen while we read it? Why can't we all just agree on the song we want to sing? And why can't they just lie down and be quiet and go to sleep when they're supposed to? They are exhausted. I know they are, they've been cranky all day. But oh, no...they'll be up laughing and rough housing and playing in their room until I go to bed. And they'll be up early in the morning and crabby as ever.

And so I want to run away. Not permanently, just for a little while. Take a breather and a shower without being interrupted. Avoid any kind of activity that might lead to having more children. Oh, and an uninterrupted adult conversation would be nice as well. It's website season again, so I keep company with people under 4 during the day, and books at night. Sometimes I wonder if I could even have an intelligent conversation if the opportunity presented itself. I'm so out of practice. And I seem to be incapable of a complete audible thought.

That's how I know I'm getting dumber. Or maybe I'm just too tired to care. I don't know. But I do know, that if this head cold/allergies doesn't go away and let me breath, I might hurt someone. I am soooooo done today.

Can I Tell You Something Without You Thinking Less of Me?

"Can I tell you something without you thinking less of me?" I asked Aaron the other night after the kids went to bed. A little too reluctantly he said, "I'll do my best not to think less of you?" To which I admitted, "I think I might read the Harry Potter books." And Aaron burst out laughing.

I think he was expecting something more serious. But in a way, it is serious. I have boycotted reading Harry Potter for years. I've seen 2 or 3 of the movies (one of which was all in German), and thought they were dumb. But the biggest reason I haven't ever read Harry Potter is mostly just because everyone under the sun and their dog told me I just HAD to read Harry Potter because it was the BEST book ever. I'm not one to read a book just because it's the latest craze. In fact, I usually purposely avoid the latest reading crazes. And I highly doubt that I'll think Harry Potter is the best book ever. Besides, there are WAY too many titles on my list of to-reads that I would consider to be of a higher quality than Harry Potter, so why waste my limited amount of reading time on that, when I could be using that time to read other things?

And my above stated positions mostly still stand. I think I might mildly enjoy Harry Potter, but I think it will be a brainless, lite, fluffly read. I usually like to read something that leaves me thinking hard about it after I walk away from it. The kinds of books that don't wrap themselves up into neat little packages at the end. Ya, I'm that nerdy kid whose most favorite books include Lord of the Flies, The Grapes of Wrath, and Frankenstein.

 But it did occur to me the other day that, although it probably won't qualify as classic literature any time soon, there might be some kind of historical merit to reading the series. Harry Potter has caused a pretty big stir, and inspired lots and lots of other series of the same kind. I like the idea that the author wrote the books at a level that matured with it's audience. I don't know if that's ever been done before, so that's a point in it's favor. Not to mention that Harry Potter has inspired a lot of people, who normally wouldn't be caught dead reading a book, to read thousands of pages, and that's a pretty big feat. In other words...

My jury is still out...so be prepared, I might be doing the unthinkable one of these days. :)

6th Year Postcard

Every year since our honeymoon, we've taken a "postcard" picture of what we do to celebrate our anniversary. Every post card is of our feet in front of whatever we did that year. It's fun to flip through all the years and see the different things we've done.

 Here's this year's postcard at the Salt Lake Bees game:

And here are all of our other postcards from years past:

Happy 6th

On May 6th Aaron and I celebrated our 6th anniversary! Yay. Actually, if you want to be technical, we didn't do much celebrating on the actual 6th, because it was Sunday. But last night Aaron surprised me by having Ryan and Melissa watch our kids, and he took me to Salt Lake, out to eat at Olive Garden, and then to a Salt Lake Bees game.

Dinner was really good, and the baseball game was excellent. The Bees came back from being behind by 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th to win it. It was intense. :) And I always love to relive the good 'ol days, which I get to do because Aaron asks me all kinds of questions about the game and the rules, and what's going on. I think he does it more because he knows I like to talk about it and less because he cares what's going on, but that's ok, because that just means he loves me.

We walked through the Galivan Center on our way from the restaurant to the car before the game.

It was really nice to be away without the kids. I love Aaron, and I'm glad we've had 6 very happy years together.

Cinco De Mayo - Mom's Birthday Fiesta

I have the best mother in the world, and that is a fact. One of her main goals in life is to make sure that our family stays close and connected. And she has her job cut our for her, let me just tell you. Some of us are more or less cooperative than others at times in helping Mom with her goal.

Last year, when Mom turned 50, no one really made a fuss over it or her like they should have. As the oldest child, I'll take the responsibility for that one. My bad. So, I tried to make up for it this year. And I thought thing that my mom would want the most for her birthday was to have her family all around celebrating with her. So we siblings planned a party. And since Mom's big day also happens to be Cinco De Mayo and my mom's favorite food happens to be Mexican, it wasn't very hard to come up with a theme for the party :)

Everyone pitched in a brought something, we had fresh mango salsa, Hispanic music galore, awesome decorations, 7 layer bean dip, Cafe Rio pulled pork burritos, and the most delectable dessert I've ever tasted in my life, but can't remember the name of, but basically it's fried tortillas sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and boiled sweetened condensed milk on top. It was to die for. All the food was. It was grand fiesta, and I may never need to eat again.

We also had a pinata...to spice things up a bit. :)

And the big boys enjoyed helping Gramma Tam blow out the candles on her cake.

Ivan, Gramma Tam, Graham, Lincoln

Happy 51 Mom! Here's to 51 more.

Lincoln Liners and Ivan-isms Return

It's been a long time since I posted these. I've been really bad at keeping track of them, but here on the ones I have written down in the last, oh, six months or more. :)

Lincoln Liners

"Mom! Daddy bought you a Sprote (Sprite) to make you feel better!"

Aaron: "Linc, what do you want to talk about for family home evening?"

L: "How about evil men? Can we talk about evil men?

I: "I'm super fast!"

L: "Um, Ivan, actually, I'm the fastest in the world."

Me: "Linc, you're kind of a silly boy, ya know?"

L: "Nope. I'm a man child."

 "My mouth, it can't get unspiced!"

"Lotion stays on for a long long long long time. Like 30 minutes."

"Ivan, stop it! You're being disastrous!"

"Mom, did you know what? I keep secrets!"

"Mom can you read this? It says Ppaglio. Ppaglio is another word for table."

"I don't want to take a bath! I took a bath last year!" 

“I wish the lettuce was yellow…or purple.” 

Ivan-isms

"I love cameras and new diapers."

"Oh, I live on Earth, and Lincoln does and Daddy does and Delia does."

Every time I drain the bathtub, I: "The water's going down, it's going down!" I'm sure that's from Nemo.

Me: "Ivan, what should we have for dinner?"
I: "Adelia Mae Swan."

"Oh no! A big monster's coming and it's gonna eat us up for supper! Get in the cave!"

Me: "Ivan why are you crying?"
I: "I don't know!"

"Oh, my pumpkin turned into a quesadilla."

One morning, Aaron and I woke up to Lincoln yelling, "Dad, we're afraid!"
I: "We're afraid of the wolf!" And then they both giggled their little heads off for a minute, and then
L: "Dad, we're afraid!"
I: "We're afraid of the wolf! It's going to eat us!" More giggling. They kept up more of the same for about 10 minutes.

"At least no tears got on my sunglasses."

"Stop acting like an alien."

"Mom! Don't ever talk to me again while I'm drinking my milk!"

"Watch. If I take a bite of spaghetti, it makes my eyes blink."

I: “Mom will you make me some lunch?

Me: “It’s almost 5:00pm we already had lunch!”

I, sagging his shoulders and sticking his lip out really far:”I just don’t have enough food to grow big like you.”

I: “Mom I don’t like this Salmon. It makes my eyes shut and open.”

I: “Mom what day is it?”

Me: “Wednesday.”

I: “C’mon! Let’s get ready for Wednesday!”

Me: “Ivan what can you see out the window?”

I: “Letters, and numbers, and *gasp* a food place! Look Mom, it’s a food place! Where we can get food!”

“Mommy, I won’t cut myself in the hair.”

“I can eat a whole pickle, with a zebra in it!”

Lincoln's Self Hair Cut

Lincoln cut his hair during quiet time last week. This picture does not show the half of it. All down the center of his head, and two really big patches, one over each ear. I'm just glad he did it to himself instead of to Adelia. I can shave Lincoln's head. And I did. But I would have cried maybe if it had been Adelia's.

Lincoln was not happy about having his head shaved either. But I like to think of it as a natural consequence.

School Mood

I've been in a school mood lately. Which means that yesterday, when we didn't have time to do school, I was irritated and cranky. (I was irritated and cranky for a lot of reasons yesterday, but I won't go into that yet.) I think it's kind of funny, I hear lots of people who can't wait for summer so they can be done with, or really relaxing their school requirements, and I feel like I spent the last 3 months not in a school groove, and I'm finally in one, and that's all I want to do right now.

We've been loving our new Getting into Geography book. It has lots of fun activities to help the kids understand their shapes. I like it, because it's working on two levels...Ivan is just getting an introduction to shapes and what they are and how to describe them, and then Lincoln, even though he already knows his shapes, gets to explore WHY certain shapes are what they are and what their properties are and aren't. So we get to do the activities all together, and both boys get to learn at their own level, that's what I'm loving about it. I especially love that there are a range of activities and none of them involve pencil and paper. We do enough pencil and paper. The activities take about 10 minutes, and I've been doing them as our big "together" activity right after devotional, before I split the kids up to work with them on individual things.

So far in the book, I've given the boys each a set of the four basic shapes, and we've talked about them, and described them, then we graphed them, first according to color, then according to number of sides, then according to number of corners. Then I described a shape, "I'm looking for something with 3 straight edges.", or whatever description, and then they had to find it in their pile and hold it up. They really liked that game. And today, we made shape models using straws, play dough, and yarn. This was more challenging for them than I thought it would be, so I think it was really beneficial. We are having trouble with the differentiating between a rectangle and a square. If I hold up a rectangle they can correctly identify it as a rectangle, and same with a square, but they have a hard time explaining to me why a rectangle is different than a square. So I think these activities are going to be good. The next few coming up are going to be kinesthetic, and I'm excited to see if that is helpful for my kids or not. And after that we have multi-sensory activities too. All involving two dimensional shapes. After that it goes into composing and decomposing shapes, symmetry, three dimensional shapes, spatial relationships, and then fun games to practice the things we've learned. All through activities and movement and not pencil and paper. So you can see why I'm so excited about it. Or maybe you think I'm nuts, either way. :)  

Ivan has been working on writing his name. It's been a good learning experience for me as a teacher, because Ivan is not the same type of learner as Lincoln and does not have the same interests in what he wants to learn about as Lincoln has. Linc is a bit of a people pleaser, and will gladly do anything mostly, as long as it means he can stay in the same room with me, and he'll do it even better if I'll stay right next to him and give him continuous feedback. Plus he was really interested in letters, and reading and writing at a pretty young age. And he's pretty good at setting the pace of his education. Meaning, you can tell by his body language and attitude if he's moving too slowly or to quickly with certain material.

 Ivan is different. I was surprised one Sunday when his nursery teacher said to me, "It's pretty cool that Ivan can spell his own name. You must work with him a lot." Excuse me, what? Ivan can spell his own name? This was news to me. I mean, yes, all the time we'll go around the table at dinner and spell out everyone's name, because that's just the kind of dinner conversation you have with a table full of small children. But Ivan had never spoken up, he'd never said anything about spelling his name. I'd never overheard him trying to spell his name. Nothing. Same kind of thing with the alphabet. Somehow, out of no where, Ivan knows the entire alphabet AND all the sounds the letters make. We found all these things out several months ago, before we started doing letter days for the second time. ANYWAYS, all this leads me to believe that Ivan is going to be somewhat of an independent learner. Which isn't a bad thing at all, it just means I'm going to have to be on my toes a little more so I can pay attention to what he's learning and what he needs to work on. 

So a few weeks ago, Ivan insists that he too wants to have a reading lesson. And I figure what the heck? Might as well. I mean, I'm not ready to start Teach Your Child to Read with him or anything, but if he wants "a reading lesson" then he and I can take some one on one time every day and do something for his educational benefit. I decided we'd start by teaching him to write his name. He's not as interested in writing the letters as Lincoln was at his age, but he was willing to try. We've been working on it for about a week now, mostly with him tracing over top when I write the letters. I haven't been able to get him to try writing anything but an I on his own. Until today. I was in the middle of a reading lesson with Lincoln, and Ivan asked for something else to do, so I said, "Get a marker and go over to the white board and write your name, you can do it. And when I'm done I'll come help." I figured he'd just draw until I got there, but he didn't. He marched right over to the white board, and, for the first time ever, wrote his name very clearly in about 10 seconds, and then decided he was done for the day. He did a good job too. Sure, his A looks like an H but for a three year old whose never written his name before, I'd say he did awesome. I made him go get the camera so I could take a picture. You know me :)

And seeing that white board reminds me, I went on a drilling streak, and hung up a bunch of things in the school room that I've been waiting for Aaron to get around to hanging up. I barely know what to do with a drill, but I got tired of waiting, and I needed the white board, quark board, calendar, and devotional schedule up on the wall and out of the reach of a certain 21 month old, who likes to tear down papers and generally reek havoc out of any order I try to create. So my school room is almost all the way set up now! I just need Aaron to build me a book case and a couple of shelves so I can organize all my material and have a space to keep things out of reach of children, and then the school room will be in business. Oh ya, and a couple more small chairs to go around the table too. 

I'm getting really excited to start Kindergarten with Lincoln. Not that I have any plans on stopping and then starting up again in the fall. Mostly I just plan on keeping on like we are and continuing to move on when he's ready. So there won't really be an "official" start of Kindergarten. But just knowing that we are doing Kindergarten things, I think, will make it feel like I'm a "real" homeschooler :) If that makes any kind of sense, I don't know. And really, since Linc already knows all his letters and sounds, and can count well passed 30, I guess, technically we're already done with Kindergarten, but you know what I mean. I'm excited to finish up a few of my scheduled weekly morning commitments and just block off all the time from when we wake up until after naps to strictly school stuff. Once fall is here, I plan on really limiting the activities and plans we make in the mornings. A public school Kindergartener would be in school for a certain amount of time each day, and they wouldn't miss here and there and everywhere because their mom had other things scheduled. So I feel like we need to give our Kindergarten a time frame and stay with in that, and not plan play dates or grocery shopping trips or whatever, in that space. And I realize that the idea of homeschooling is that you can be flexible, and I definitely intend to be flexible. But I also feel like it's important to put a certain amount of priority on school time. And starting in fall, with Kindergarten, school is going to move it's way up the priority list, more than it has been in the past when it was just preschool.

There are still a few curriculum items I want to get for fall, but maybe I'll save those for another post.

A Hiking We Will Go!

Saturday was a beautiful day. A perfect day, really. And we decided to make the most of it. I've really been wanting to take the kids on a nature scavenger hunt. And a co-worker of Aaron's told him about a cave up Rock Canyon, that Aaron's been really wanting to go see. So, we doubled up. We printed out our nature scavenger hunt, and packed some snacks and Subway sandwiches, and headed up Rock Canyon.

Keep in mind, that none of my children have ever gone on a hike longer than about 10 minutes. I had no idea how this little adventure was going to turn out, or how long it would last. But the kids did fantastic. They really were champs! Adelia rode about 2/3rds of the way in the hiking backpack and walked about 1/3 of way (not all in one chunk, she'd get down and walk 'til she got tired, then we'd put her back in the pack. It worked out.). But my boys were awesome. They walked the entire way. (I did carry Ivan piggy-back the last 100 yards to the car, but that doesn't count, because technically, we were done hiking by then.) And when we got home and mapped it out, our rough guess it that we went about 3 miles. It took about 4 hours. And we had fun! (And yes, Ivan carried his "baby rabbit" the WHOLE time.)

We stopped pretty often for rests, water, and snacks. But mostly those were just excuses so I could take pictures. :) And yes, I dressed my kids in bright colors on purpose so I could spot them very easily, should they wander too far ahead. I'm a little bit paranoid like that.

It was so beautiful, and so nice to just "get away from it all". I think I need that a lot more frequently than I get it.

Cave #1, not the cave we were looking for, but we decided to stop and check it out anyway, just in case we couldn't make it as far as our goal, then the kids would still get to see a "real live cave!" and not be disappointed. The entrance to this cave is narrow and goes down first. I did not let Adelia go down in it. She and I stayed behind while Aaron took the boys down.  She was not happy about being left behind.

 We stopped for lunch in a nice spot by the stream. The kids threw rocks in the river, and had a grand old time. All three of them scarfed up their sandwiches like nobody's business without me having to beg them to eat. We should probably go hiking more often. :)

We had decided to start heading back down after lunch. We didn't know how much farther the cave was, and we wanted the kids to make it back down the mountain. Then another hiker came past on his way down, and Aaron asked if he knew how far away the cave was. He said we were about 25 yards from it. So we decided to keep going. And sure enough, we found it!

I'm not gonna lie, the cave made me super nervous. Not because I'm scared of caves, I actually really like caves. But the impossibility of holding three small hands and a flash light in the dark, where at any moment one of them could fall off some unseen edge into a never ending pit of darkness, was a little bit unnerving for me. At one point there was a small hole, and Aaron was standing in it, lifting our kids over the edge onto the other side, and he set Adelia down, and she immediately got up and made as if to continue on down the path deeper into the cave...and I about lost it. I demanded that Aaron hand me Adelia and that she and I would wait outside. At that point Ivan wanted to come with us too, he was scared because he thought it was a bear cave, and he didn't want to meet the bear. So, Ivan and Adelia and I came out, and Lincoln and Aaron finished exploring the cave (it wasn't much deeper than we'd already gone, so they were only a couple of minutes behind us). In my mind there is nothing more terrifying than feeling incapable of protecting my children. This isn't the only time I've felt it, but I hope I don't have to feel it too many more times. I think maybe we should save caving for when the kids are a little older, even the little caves.

After the cave, we headed back down the mountain. The boys found walking sticks (or bear killers, depending on who you talk to), and had fun using them to get down the trail. Down always goes faster than up, and we didn't have to stop nearly as many times.

Oh ya, I almost forgot. This is what was on our nature scavenger hunt. We found everything, and the boys loved it.

Something Fuzzy
Two kinds of seeds
Two pieces of man made litter
Something straight
Something round
Something smooth
Something Rough
Two different types of leaves
Something the makes noise
A chewed leaf
A beautiful rock
Something you think is beautiful
A pine cone
Something green
A stick
Something you think is a treasure
A butterfly