Toddler Fun - Introduction

People almost always exclaim in amazement when they hear I have eight children. The comments usually run along these lines:

• You are so brave. (whatever that means - I talked about what I think about that statement here.)
• You must be busy. (really? I thought that's what being a mom whether you have one, two, eight or fifteen is all about.)
• How do you do it? (I love this one. Do they really want a rundown of my day.)

To the last question I usually reply that I only add one baby at a time so I just work them into our schedule. That being said some are easier to work in than others. And let me tell you Baby #7 was challenging from the very start. Here I thought I was a seasoned mother who knew everything. Baby #7 taught me differently. From the very beginning he hated change of any kind. He's getting better as he get oldesr but this will always be an aspect of his personality. When I say he hated any kind of change that includes changing from being awake to asleep and vice versa. Think about how many times a baby goes to sleep in his first year. I walked and walked and walked because that was the only thing that kept him calm - falling asleep next to me. My standby of nursing didn't help because as the nursing soothed him to sleep he would start to cry because he didn't like that feeling. Walking was more soothing to him.

School was hard too. My older children would often finish an assignment then walk the baby while I marked it. Now he's toddler and he does not particularly like toys or playing by himself. That has made school very challenging. I started to see on the internet moms who were planning activities for their toddlers while they homeschooled older children or just to get some learning in with their little one. I started to collect ideas and implement them. This week I'm going to share with you the things we like to do and a giveaway to get you started on a set of activities for your little one(s).

Please feel free to share any activities you and your toddler or preschooler enjoy. We are always looking for new activities.

The Benefits of Training Our Children

Recently I had a day that demonstrated to me how important it is to teach our children how to help around the house.

It started with a headache when I first woke up. I had planned to get up early and have some quiet time to myself to think and organize my thoughts for the week/day. The best I could hope for was to have breakfast more or less on time. Thankfully my children have known for quite a while how to put together a hot breakfast - eggs and oatmeal. They all take turns doing this. My older boys know how to make a pot of coffee - everything's good. So I meandered downstairs and started printing up papers we would need for school while behind me breakfast preparations went on smoothly.

I forgot we needed bread and remembered too late to start some for lunch. Thankfully we have a recipe for a fast yeast bread. I started it, but later in the morning my nine-year-old daughter finished it.

After breakfast I still wasn't feeling great (in spite of two tylenols, I might add), but thankfully I fill in an assignment book every Sunday night for my children's schoolwork for the week. So the children all got on with it and started getting their schoolwork done. Now I'm not saying it was perfectly quiet and all sweetness. There was talking; there was even the occasional squabble, but by and large we were going forward.

However, by the time I started my school day I was running behind in marking papers and kind of stayed behind all morning. So when my oldest daughter asked me what was for lunch, I could hardly face it. I wanted to do diet, but I didn't have it in me to make anything. Thankfully my oldest daughter took over. She picked a menu, made the meal and served me, as well as feeding her siblings.

I tried to nap when the baby did, but couldn't fall asleep. Talk about frustrating. So after my "nap" my oldest son walked to the mall with the baby and I to pick up something I need for a giveaway here on the blog that I'll be announcing soon (I'm really excited about this.). When we came home the house smelled so good because my nine-year-old daughter was making cookies. Yeah for teaching her how to bake.

So I kind of took it easy for the rest of the afternoon. When it came time for supper I read out the menu to my children while they did the work. My headache was gone by then. I started to feel bad about not accomplishing much, but then I realized how much I had to be thankful for. My children had made life so much easier for me today because for the past weeks/months/years I've been training my children how to work in the kitchen. It can be hard sometimes to be patient enough to do this, but today was the payoff. So if you're wondering should I have the children help me in the kitchen today I would say a hearty "YES".

first bread making lesson over a year ago

And, oh, the baby. He was his usual adorable self. So many people at the mall commented on how cute he was. And I have to agree. Then before he went to bed tonight he and I had some fun playing a game of chase. You know how babies are. You offer to chase them and they come right towards you. Lots of giggles and kisses.

adorable without a doubt

Today could have gone so much worse. I'm glad I got up and I'm glad I taught my children their way around the kitchen.

What have you taught your children to make them more self-reliant?

Sleep Deprivations and a Birthday

This has been a busy week with what seems like an abnormal amount of errands. As well, the baby has taken to nursing a lot at night which leaves me functioning on partial brain capacity during the day. I usually like to get up an hour before the children. The house is quiet and I can get so much done. However, when you're not getting much sleep it's kind of hard to convince your body to get up. The baby is really starting to take a lot of independent steps so I'm thinking that's why he's nursing more than he usually does.

I felt like I haven't made much forward progress on my to-do list, but at least my children ate 3 or maybe 6 or 7 times a day, they had clean clothes and a reasonably clean house. We also had a good week in school. My kindergartener is going forward with his reading which is always exciting to watch. My high school daughter is doing algebra this year - try explaining algebra when you have a sleep-deprived brain.

I made some more dishwasher tabs this week. Last time I made them they were too soft. The recipe said to let them cure for twenty-four hours. What I found though was that they needed about a week to get really hard so they would just pop out of the ice cube tray. This time around I made another batch long before I needed them. It's been a couple of days. I haven't checked them yet, but I'm sure they'll be fine. I love that they are made with truly non-toxic ingredients and they work. I'm working on a price comparison with commercial detergents. I'll let you know when I figure it out.

My fifth baby turned eight today. Honestly, where does the time go? Maybe someday I'll do a series on all my birth stories. Every birth is so unique. My fifth birth was my easiest. Seriously, if they were all like hers I'd be up for another few births. ☺ We have a neat thing in our family. We have three sets of cousins that share birthdays. One set even share the same year. My sisters and I could not have planned this if we tried. It is just really special and today is one of those shared birthday. My daughter's cousin is fourteen today.

then and...

now

Do you have any special shared birthdays in your family?

Focusing and Visiting

Another great week. School - for some reason sadly unknown to me - is going so smoothly this year. I've thought about it a lot and have come up with two possible reasons for this.

 

First, my second son has always had a problem focusing. This slows him down in his schoolwork which frustrates him. It also makes me nag him a lot which irritates both of us. Apparently this is not an isolated problem among boys. This summer I was reading one mom's solution. She has her son wear an ipod which is playing classical music. So in desperation but not holding out much hope I asked my husband to load an ipod with classical music. The theory is that with the music playing directly into their ears through the earbuds it helps to drown out other distractions, and listening to classical music is good for brain development.

 

Well, let me tell you - it works. About a week into school the ipod battery ran out so we had a day without it. I could not believe the difference. I was back to nagging every five minutes, and it took my son so much longer to get through his work. I'm sold. I'll be interested to see if his overall average this year is higher than last year. I think it might be. Even though he's finishing faster, his marks are the same or better than last year so I know he's not finishing faster just because he's rushing through to be done.

 

Secondly, I've come up with some activities for my toddler that he can do on his own or with minimal input from me. This is important. My toddler is a high needs little guy. I'm going to do a post soon on all the activities we've come up with for him to do. He's so much happier this year - less tears = less stress. Now if someone could only tell me how I can cut his hair without him acting like he's enduring unspeakable torture.

 

My baby is working hard to grow up faster than I think he should. He pulls himself up now next to furniture and occasionally lets go to free stand. He's also climbing the stairs so we have to keep an ever watchful eye out for that. He's also in the middle of his first cold. True to his nature, he's the happiest sick baby I've ever seen.

 

I've lost 24 pounds now on my diet and I'm seeing numbers on the scale that I haven't seen in about eight years. It feels so good.

 

My oldest son is still visiting cousins, and I miss him a lot. It's so wonderful though that he can have this time to cement his friendship with his oldest cousin (on my side) especially. I know he'll come home with a lot of good memories, and I can hardly wait for that day.

 

Pretty soon I will hit the 100 posts mark. My husband and I have been talking about what we can do to make this special - since I never thought I would make it this far. So be on the lookout for that announcement.

 

That's about all for now. A great all-round week. How do you help your children focus? Does your toddler scream when he gets his haircut (at the same time he was assuring us that it didn't hurt. I ask you then - Why scream?)?

Recap from this week:
  Library Time Week 9
  Triple Twist Bun
  Tradition, Tradition

School and Grace

Homeschooling, as I have been finding out to my great surprise, is not for the faint of heart. Actually, nothing about motherhood is for the faint of heart. Sometime in the dim past I thought being a mom would be so easy. I loved babies and children. I had lots of experience with babysitting. I knew how to cook. I had this down cold. Then I had my first baby. Suddenly I realized that I knew so very little, and that while babysitting is good experience it doesn't even come close to preparing someone for being a 24/7 mommy.

 

Flash forward fifteen years and eight babies. I know so much more, but the most important thing I've learned is how little I really know. Baby #7 was and still is a huge challenge. Adding him to our school life took so much energy because he only wanted human arms - no swings, baby rockers, etc. Thankfully I had long since been comfortable wearing my babies so that helped. Still though it's tiring to teach five children of various ages, keep a preschooler happy and wear a baby. By the end of the 2011-2012 school year I was a little tired of school. Of course, my newest pregnancy was probably contributing to the fatigue.

 

I started school a couple of weeks earlier than usual in August 2012 so we could take extra time off when our new baby arrived sometime around the end of the year. Things were going pretty well until I started having complications with the pregnancy in late October and had to severely cut back on outings, housework, any activity really. After a difficult two months we finally welcomed our new little one just before 2013 started.

 

at 10 pounds they're still small

 

 

Baby #7 was not impressed with our new addition, who incidentally has been our easiest baby. He is happy and laid back with a beautiful dimple in each cheek. However, I was tired - tired of school, tired of always trying to figure out why my toddler was crying this time, tired of marking papers and being on a schedule, tired of never having time to sew, just plain tired. I don't know if this was burnout or just some heavy post partum fatigue due to a difficult third trimester.

 

check out the dimples

When school ended in early June I think I was happier than all of our children combined. Usually we do a little math three to four days a week just to keep up on the basics. This summer I decided that we'd just do some extra review in the fall. Then the reading lessons I was doing with my kindergartener slowly petered out over the summer. It was only about twenty minutes in the morning, but it started to feel like a burden.

I finally decided I needed to give myself some grace. It's okay if my children forget a few facts over the summer. It's perfectly fine if it takes my third son a little longer to learn how to read than it did his older siblings. If I want to sew because I enjoy it that's okay too - especially since so much of what I make is for my children anyway. I needed to try to not be so perfect for a while.

You know how it is. You read this and that blog. Their lives look so perfect and you think you have to implement ideas x, y and z to be the perfect mother. But that is such an unattainable goal. I needed to give myself the grace to quit trying to be perfect or to implement every idea that I thought would make our lives easier. I needed to relax and enjoy my family. So that's what I did this summer.

 

I did so much sewing. I love to sew and was surprised at how much I accomplished when I gave myself permission to just go at it. I went on errands with my husband when he was off work...something I can't do during the school year. Who knew grocery shopping could be a date? It was fun. We enjoyed lots of time together this summer. I let thoughts for a new chore system perk in my brain until I came up with something workable the week before we started school. And I slowly here and there started preparing for a new school year but without much enthusiasm.

 

one of my sewing projects

About two days before we were to start school I was finally getting excited. The children were excited to start a new year. My toddler is settling down so much. He's easier to keep occupied and the baby has worked into our school life quite easily.

 

So I've come to the conclusion that I should have given myself a dose of grace a long time ago. I'm so much more relaxed now than I was just a few months ago. I feel like I've had a fresh start. Our first week of school has been the best week I remember having in a long time. I had been feeling like I couldn't go on with homeschooling, but now I think I'm ready for another good long while. That's a good thing since I probably have almost another twenty years of it.

 

getting set up

 

starting her Bible lesson

 

 

 

Next time I'm feeling burned out I'm going to step back and see where I need to introduce some grace into my life.

 

How has homeschooling gone for you? Have you felt burned out and what helped?

Homeschooling High School

High school is where we really become free-wheeling in our curriculum choices. By the time children reach Grade 9 their likes and preferences for what they study are really coming out and you can tailor their schooling to these desires.

 

So far in Math we have done a general math course and a business math course from Rod and Staff. I cannot recommend the business math course highly enough. It was very thorough and came with a workbook full of ledgers so the practice was really hands-on. My daughter did quite well in that course and math is not her strongest subject. This year we're going to be doing an algebra course from Christian Light Publications.

 

 

English Grammar has been a lot of review and I think it's all finally beginning to sink in. I here my daughter helping her sister and think, "Ah. She's finally getting it." :) Sometimes all the concepts can be daunting until you teach someone else and then it all comes together.

 

Literature is our "fun" subject. One year we did the Iliad - lots of fighting and gore. I'm sure the boys will enjoy it more than my daughter. Last year we did Silas Marner. I love that story. This year we are doing A Tale of Two Cities and Ivanhoe. Next year we're going to do something from Shakespeare and something from John Milton - Paradise Lost or Samson Agonistes. This is by no means a static list. I'm sure our course will vary sometimes according to the student.

 

Our Science has been whatever caught our fancy. One year it was a general look at the universe. Last year was Creationism. This year we are going to look at the science behind the Trim Healthy Mama diet one semester and a study of astronomy the second semester. This study comes from Rod and Staff.

For History we used the Rod and Staff Grade 9 text. In Grade 10 we studied Canadian History up to Confederation. This year we will do Canadian History from Confederation to the present. This course is from Christian Light Publications and is very thorough. We are also going to do a course on "Collectivism" - a study of all of man's attempts to bring about a one-world government. Next year we will be studying Canadian government.

 

For my girls we do some sewing, cooking, baking, etc. Actually, I also give my boys basic lessons in cooking and sewing as well. And my children are all the time doing in-depth studies on the things that interest them. My oldest daughter is a Jane Austen expert as well as all things Les Mis. My oldest son enjoys medieval warfare.

 

What do you do for high school? Do you follow a set curriculum or do you pick here and there according to your interests?

Homeschooling Junior High

Now we're getting into the grades I really enjoy teaching. I taught in these grades before I was married and loved it. In Grades 7-8 I still use mostly Rod and Staff.

In Grade 7 I start teaching Literature. That is not to say that up to that point my children have not been doing a literature class. I am truly blessed because once every two weeks my children go to school with my mom, and she teaches them Literature, Spanish and Art - subjects that I don't shine in.

However, when my children reach Junior High I take the literature class back because I love it. They still go to my mom's school for Spanish and Art and a computer class is added in.

So far in Grades 7 and 8 we have studied Anne of Green Gables, Amos Fortune-Free Man, Swiss Family Robinson and most likely Uncle Tom's Cabin this year. I try to pick books that will interest myself and my child - not always easy.

 

 I really expect a lot more from my children by this point. They should be able to do most of their work without supervision. They should be able to write short essays and do research. We also use an online programme to supplement their Spanish class, and they are responsible to see that they do that.

 

What do you teach in Grades 7-8, especially in your literature class?

Update - I don't think I should try to post on a Monday. I knew I was forgetting something. For Grade 8 history I do not use the Rod and Staff curriculum. It's all about North American history. Here is my reasoning. They have already had a solid introduction to North American history in Grade 5. They will be getting a minimum of two years of Canadian history in high school. So in Grade 8 they do British history. It is such a rich history and we are a part of the Commonwealth. God Save the Queen.