Abundant Harvest

Wordless Wednesday – Flying High

2010-01-06T05:20:00.000-08:00

Toolbox Tuesday – Vita-Mix

2010-01-05T15:30:00.001-08:00

It’s over at Discovering Nathan again, I guess a lot of my useful tools help in our autism journey!

Weekly Goals – First Week of 2010!

2010-01-03T21:13:00.000-08:00

Here are some of my goals for this week:

Finish going through baby clothes
Finish Final – YAY! Finished paper!
Clean closet – 5 minutes per day
Finish boys room
Finish 2 scrapbooking pages
Fill out addresses for Thank you notes
Be in my room, ready for bed by 10:30 every night

We start back to school again tomorrow. We are on track to have a good day, I just need to make sure that I get to bed on time so that I can wake up in the morning. I finally finished writing my paper and sent that off. I just have to finish the final and I will be done with this class. I don’t think I’m going to take any more any time soon with the baby coming.

I want to continue in my closet and finish up in the boys room that was half done so now it looks like a tornado went through it. In fact, I need to make a path in case someone wakes up in the night and falls down!

I have a secret goal of scrapbooking all of my printed pictures this year. I am afraid to say it is a goal in case it is impossible! :) But I am taking it a day at a time.

I also would like to post our current eating plan because I really like it, it’s based on a diet that the author of my textbook put together and it works well for our family. It’s called the Ideal Diet, but I will go into it later. Right now, I am off to cut oranges for our mornings breakfast!

Those are my goals for the week, what are yours?

Feeling Fabulous @ somewhat simple.com

2010-01-03T09:08:00.001-08:00

I have printed the daily goals, let’s see how it goes!

Our Cleaning Schedule

2010-01-03T09:03:00.001-08:00

My cousin over at Habitual Impracticality has opened a discussion about laundry and what works for everyone. We do laundry on Mondays when we are on schedule and our routines are intact.

Here is our cleaning schedule.

Daily Chores:

Pick up rooms
Pick up bathrooms
Kitchen counters, dishes, etc.
The kids each have living room, bathroom and dining room chores everyday to keep everything pick up and in order. For example, Katie Ann’s daily chores in January might go like this:

Bedroom: pick up
Bathroom: clean & wipe counter
Living Room: put away everything on tables and flat surfaces
Dining room: Clean under table.

Weekly Chores - Heavy cleaning in each room:

Monday: Laundry – wash, fold, put away all laundry

Tuesday: Kitchen Day – heavy cleaning in the kitchen and dining room.

Wednesday: Office & Living room – Clear paper, clutter, dust, vacuum, mirrors, etc.

Thursday: Bathrooms – heavy cleaning in bathrooms, sometimes I rotate showers.

Friday: Bedrooms – ALL the way clean! Dust, vacuum, etc.

At various times I have been more organized and have different jobs in each room for each kid on different days so that they are not doing the same thing all the time. This also works really well. The other thing that I like to have is a before meal and after meal chore schedule. That way I can say do your after dinner chores instead of calling out to each one with each job over and over.

The other reason I like to have the kids have everything spelled out and clear is so that things keep moving even if I am sick or if I’ve just had a baby. I just tell everyone to do their chores and the main living areas are at least picked up.

I have found that, without fail, this all goes fabulously when no one is coming over and each and every time someone has just stopped by it has been during a time when our routines are off. Isn’t that the way it always is though?!

Weekly Wrap Up – Christmas Break

2010-01-01T22:53:00.001-08:00

Monday’s Goals:

~~Catch up on laundry~~

~~Get house back in order~~

Put away Christmas decorations Planned for today

Finish Project Checked my schedule, I wasn’t planning on working on it until the new year. (put off!)

Clean closet – making room for baby! Worked on, floor clean, room to walk!!

~~Grocery Shopping~~ Time to do again!

Rearrange rooms/find places for new toys Worked on, will continue today

Prep for school Worked on, I want to clean off the bookshelf…

We’re re arranging rooms around here. We will have 8 people in our 3 bedroom house so we’re being creative. It’s working out just fine. We got a lot of bags of baby girl clothes from my sister in law and Katie Ann and I went through them today. We had SO much fun! There are cute little pink outfits in the dryer right now.

Good night.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-12-30T05:18:00.000-08:00

School Schedule - 2010

2009-12-29T10:25:00.001-08:00

Our homeschool day is pretty simple. I sometime worry that we are not doing enough, and maybe we aren’t, but we have been through A LOT to get where we are.

We started out super structured, super pushed and super stressed. After autism, OCD, threats to set oneself on fire, holding a knife to one’s chest and more… let’s just say we had to try another way.

Then there was the year and a half in private Christian school where they learned that everyone does school and they could do so much WITHOUT crying or complaining as well as learning some foul language and the art of girls treating girls like dirt… our journey has been long.

What we are doing is working, our days are peaceful and our kids are learning - so here we are. Charlotte Mason was the best thing I ever stumbled upon and I haven’t looked back since.

So, here is how our day looks. All times are approximations!

8:45ish to 9:00 AM: Family work

This is where we do literature, any science or history reading and narration, picture study, music study, scripture memory, hymn study, nature study, geography, etc. What we do in this time is different based on the day of the week. We do a lot of different subjects, spread throughout the week.

9:30: Independent Work

Bible study, copy work, math, typing grammar, guitar, Spanish, life skills, personal development, dictation, reading, WordSmithery etc. – all stuff that they can mostly do on their own with a little guidance.

10:00: Break

At 10 we take a 30 minute break. I exercise during this time and we eat a snack. Right now the kids have a show on PBS that they watch during this time. In the past and when the weather gets good again, we take a walk during this time.

10:30: Back to work

30 minutes isn’t enough time to finish all their independent work so this goes until around lunch time.

12:00: Lunch

And that is our day. Sometimes it goes fast, sometimes there is more to do after lunch. This is our first year integrating our most difficult child back into homeschool so I have taken this first half of the year pretty cautiously and will start to push more and more as he can handle it.

Our littles know that they have to play quietly during family work time and they come in and out of our school time during the independent work time. Nathan has started getting out his “math book” and doing some work in it. Maury likes to color and mostly do whatever. They also do puzzles, play with blocks and generally just enjoy themselves. :)

I use the Charlotte Mason Organizer from Simply Charlotte Mason and I love it. Everything is in there and set up, I just click on today's work and we are ready to go. Our curriculum choices also mostly follow the SCM Curriculum Guide.

Toolbox Tuesday – Fit & Fresh Portable Drink Mixer

2009-12-29T05:59:00.000-08:00

Things that make my life easier.

Fit & Fresh Portable Drink Mixer

Today I posted on my Discovering Nathan blog about this cool supplement mixer, go check it out.

2010 Huy Family Schedule

2009-12-27T19:50:00.001-08:00

This is so much prettier in my color coded Excel document, but here is our schedule for 2010. We basically keep this schedule loosely right now, I just haven’t written it all down before.

In the free time before bed I go over the next days schedule and make sure all is ready and in order. Some time I will post our chores, cleaning schedule and our new menu plan.

No wonder I feel like I don’t have a lot of time to spare, with school and cooking 3 meals a day, I don’t have a lot of time to spare!

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6:00	Parents	Parents	Parents	Parents	Parents		Parents
6:30	Up	Up	Up	Up	Up		Up
7:00	Kids Up	Kids Up	Kids Up	Kids Up	Kids Up		Kids Up
7:15	Bible	Bible	Bible	Bible	Bible
7:45	Cook	Cook	Cook	Cook	Cook	Cook	Breakfast
8:00	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Tony to
9:00	School	School	School	School	School		Church
9:30	School	School	School	School	School		Church
10:00	School	School	School	School	School		Church
10:30	School	School	School	School	School		Church
11:00	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
11:30	Prep	Prep	Prep	Prep	Prep	Prep	Prep
12:00	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
1:00	Chores	Chores	Grandma's	Chores	Grocery
1:30	Chores	Chores	Grandma's	Chores	Grocery
2:00			Grandma's
2:30			Grandma's
3:00			Grandma's			Cook
3:30			Grandma's			Cook
4:00	Cook	Cook	Grandma's	Cook	Cook	Dinner	Cook
4:30	Cook	Cook	Grandma's	Cook	Cook	Dinner	Cook
5:00	Dinner	Dinner	Grandma's	Dinner	Dinner	Family	Dinner
5:30	Dinner	Dinner	Grandma's	Dinner	Dinner	Church	Dinner
6:00	Family	Family	Grandma's	Family	Family	Church	Family
6:30	Family	Family	Church	Family	Family	Church	Family
7:00	Family	Girls	Church	Family	Family	Church	Family
7:30	Family	Crafts	Church	Family	Family	Church	Family
8:00	Kids Bed	Kids Bed	Church	Kids Bed	Kids Bed	Church	Kids Bed
8:30	Free	Free	Church	Free Time	Free	Church	Free
9:00	Time	Time	Church	Free Time	Time	Kids Bed	Time
9:30	Free	Free	Kids Bed	Free Time	Free	Free	Free
10:00	Time	Time	Free Time	Free Time	Time	Time	Time
10:30	Bed	Bed	Bed	Bed	Bed	Bed	Bed

December 2009
Descanso Gardens

Christmas School Schedule – December 18

2009-12-17T21:31:00.001-08:00

You get the prettiest and most natural smile from him if you bring up a girls name…

Family Work

Scripture Memory
Literature: A Christmas Carol
Map Drill: Fill in outline map of Africa
Wisdom and the Millers

Independent Work

Bible: Awanas
Copy work: Christmas Copy work
Math: Abeka
Reading

Christmas Class:

About.com Advent Dec. 20

LAST DAY!!! 2 WEEK BREAK!!!

Grandpa’s Candy Jar

2009-12-17T09:59:00.001-08:00

My Dad loves to give candy to the kids and they run to reach in his shirt pocket each time they see him to see what treasure is waiting for them. Nathan, my 4 year old, gave me the idea of making him a candy jar for his birthday. Here it is, it’s was very simple and I think it turned out really cute!

I started with these sparkly stickers:

Attached them to the jar I bought at Target:

I filled it with candy:

All done! I might cut a paper into a circle and stick it in there so that you can see the words with candy still in the jar, we’ll see!

Christmas School Schedule – December 17

2009-12-17T08:28:00.001-08:00

Timothy & Tony at Descanso Gardens

Family Work

Scripture Memory
Literature: A Christmas Carol
History: Moses
Nature Study – Nature Study Notebooks: ? See what we discover outside!
PE: Baseball
Science: Exploring Creation with Astronomy

Independent Work

Bible: Awanas
Copy work: Christmas copy work
Math: Abeka

Christmas Class:

About.com Advent Dec. 19 – Hopefully today we can do the craft and take some pictures for my mom & get to those filled cookies!

Christmas School Schedule – December 16

2009-12-15T22:18:00.001-08:00

3 days left till Christmas break!

Katie Ann & Josiah at Descanso Gardens in Los Angeles

Family Work

Art: Watercolor Christmas scenes
Scripture Memory
Literature: A Christmas Carol
History: Moses
Music Study: Chopin

Independent Work

Bible: Awanas
Copy work: Christmas Copy work
Spanish: Online Spanish Lessons
Math: Abeka
Reading

Christmas Class:

About.com Advent Dec. 16 – TODAY We’re going to make Filled Cookies.

Christmas School Schedule – December 15

2009-12-15T07:08:00.001-08:00

Wow! The 15th already! Christmas break begins December 21, 4 more days to go!!! Just think of the baking we can do then!

Family Work

Picture Study: Raphael
Scripture Memory
Literature: A Christmas Carol
Science: Exploring Creation with Astronomy – The Moon

Independent Work

Bible: Awanas
Copy work: Christmas Copy work
Typing: Online Typing Lessons
Math: Abeka
Timothy: Music – Guitar

Christmas Class:

About.com Advent Dec. 17 – We’re going to make Filled Cookies.

Our Reading Journey – Child #3

2009-12-13T21:34:00.001-08:00

Josiah, our 3rd child, has just about got reading down. He is reading easy readers on his own for fun now, so I’d say he is well on his way. I took a different approach with this one, letting him take his time and not starting with him until he was 6. My first 2 were reading by 4 & 5 years old.

We used Frontline Phonics as our reading program. I have used this with all 3 kids and have been really happy with it. I think the reason I like it is because the kids are reading books right away and that boosts their self-esteem while they are still learning. I’m reading REAL books!

The idea behind starting so late was from Charlotte Mason and her principle of letting the younger ones spend their days learning and exploring the world around them rather than putting them in front of the books early on. I did this with my first child, starting him super early and he learned to read, but it was a far less pleasant experience as compared to the one I have just had with Josiah. I also found that Josiah caught on faster and didn’t struggle through each word in each book like the older ones did. I think this comes in direct result of waiting until he was more than ready.

Frontline Phonics starts with letter sounds, so we skipped that because he knew them already. We basically just read through the books for level 1 and 2. We took a little time to learn things like the 2 vowel rule and special sounds, all of which are taught in the Frontline Phonics program. I didn’t follow the rules or teachers guide so much with this child, mostly just taught him what he needed to know for the current book we were reading.

There are 4 sets of books that get increasingly difficult. When they’re done, they’re read to cast off and venture out to new books.

Josiah chose to go on to With Jack and Janet and in that theme we have stuck with all of the older books that my mom has collected over the years. He is reading With Jack and Janet on his own in his free time and before bed. We read Here and Near together and have now moved on to Under the Tree.

I want to be sure and listen to him read still so that I can make sure he is not skipping words, guessing words and also so that I can tweak anything that still needs to be taught.

I like these old books even though they are mostly sight reading. I have yet to meet anyone who was taught to sight read that enjoys reading. Except perhaps my aunt, I will have to ask her if she was taught to sight read.

Anyway, now that he knows phonics and has the tools to figure out words, the sight word books are good because some words you just need to memorize! They introduce one word every so often and then it pops up throughout the book.

Josiah loves these old stories and cracks up laughing at the predicaments the characters get themselves into. I don’t know, there is just something fresh and wholesome about these old books.

And that, in a nutshell, has been our reading journey with this guy. It was a very pleasant experience and I’m glad I waited until he was ready. He is a sensitive one and I think if I had pushed him as hard as I did the other ones he would have struggled a lot.

Besides, he was my spoiled baby and old habits die hard. ;)

Christmas School Schedule – December 11

2009-12-10T22:52:00.001-08:00

Katie Ann Turned 9 on the 9th!

Family Work

Scripture Memory
Literature: A Christmas Carol
Map Drill: Fill in outline map of Africa
Wisdom and the Millers

Independent Work

Bible: Awanas
Journal Entry
Math: Abeka
Reading

Christmas Class:

About.com Advent Dec. 11

I need to go an buy supplies so we can actually make some recipes and do some crafts next week!!!

Nature Study - Poinsettia

2009-12-10T17:25:00.001-08:00

Today, for nature study the kids drew and painted our new poinsettia. It was cold outside so we brought it in and worked at the table.

Timothy

Katie Ann

Josiah

Maury

Nathan doesn’t usually join us for anything unless I make him. He did color one stocking coloring page this month and it’s the best coloring I’ve ever seen him do. He struggles some with fine motor skills, but I don’t know if it’s that or laziness that keeps him away. Maury on the other hand, is always in the thick of things!

Christmas School Schedule – December 10

2009-12-10T09:05:00.001-08:00

Me, My mom & my sister Christmas 2008
Oh and some other family members… :)

Family Work

Scripture Memory
Literature: A Christmas Carol
History: Moses
Nature Study – Nature Study Notebooks: Poinsettia
PE: Baseball
Science: Exploring Creation with Astronomy

Independent Work

Bible: Awanas
Copy work: A Christmas Carol Vocab
Math: Abeka

Christmas Class:

About.com Advent Dec. 14

Christmas School Schedule – December 8

2009-12-07T22:30:00.001-08:00

If you’re wondering why I am posting these, it’s because we are doing something different for December and I didn’t want to have to change my school organizer for the month and then change it back. So ignore the school assignment lists if you’d like, we use them to work off of.

Family Work

Picture Study: Raphael
Scripture Memory
Literature: A Christmas Carol
Hymn Study: O Come, O Come Emmanuel
Science: Exploring Creation with Astronomy – The Moon

Independent Work

Bible: Awanas
Copy work: A Christmas Carol Vocab
Typing: Online Typing Lessons
Math: Abeka
Timothy: Music – Guitar

Christmas Class:

About.com Advent Dec. 10 – We’re going to make Grandma’s Ornament craft.

Bon Bons Gone Bad

2009-12-07T22:20:00.001-08:00

We made the recipe for Christmas Advent Day 8 – Loretta’s Bon Bons, but we couldn’t use nuts and we couldn’t use sweetened condensed milk so we used coconut milk and water. We added more shredded coconut, more sugar, Koala Crispys, GF whole oats, GF ground oats and even some corn starch. They were just a little watery so I put them in the fridge and in the freezer.

They turned out ok.

They are WAY sweet and still a little goopy. The kids loved them. What’s not to love, they’re dipped in chocolate!

Oh, and we didn’t use the paraffin either, food quality or not, I’m sure chemical wax stuff doesn’t fly in our house. Melted gfcf chocolate chips worked just fine.

Some of them turned out looking decent too, but I just could bring myself to take a picture. In fact I still have the bowl of goopy mixture in the fridge and some balls of goop in the freezer waiting to be dipped in chocolate… I’m waiting to see how I feel about them tomorrow.

We also lit a fire in the fireplace tonight and played Go Fish as a family. It was fun, the first time we’ve had the whole family play.

We’ll see if we have any frightened middle children tonight, we watched A Christmas Carol musical today. We are reading the book and decided to find a not too scary version to watch. We wanted Mickey, but he wasn’t available so we found a different one. It was still scary, but the kids liked how some of it was word for word what we had read that morning.

Christmas School Schedule – December 7

2009-12-07T09:29:00.001-08:00

School Plan

Family Work

Scripture Memory: SCM Scripture Memory System

Literature: A Christmas Carol

History: Moses

P.E.: Baseball – rain today, maybe sock catch

Poetry: Emily Dickenson

Independent Work

Copy work: Copy vocab from A Christmas Carol

Reading: Chapter books

Math: Abeka Math

Life Skills:

Timothy: Photography
Katie Ann: Crochet Project
Josiah: How to change a light bulb –someone better show him how to do this so we can move on!

Christmas Class:

About.com Advent Dec. 8

Christmas School Schedule – December 4

2009-12-04T08:47:00.001-08:00

Does this look a lot like Dec 3? That’s because I had a problem in Live Writer and accidentally overwrote Dec. 3rd’s post. Oh well.

School Plan

Family Work

Scripture Memory: SCM Scripture Memory System

Literature: A Christmas Carol

Personal Development: Wisdom and the Millers

Independent Work

Map Drill: Africa

Copy work: Copy vocab from A Christmas Carol

Reading: Chapter books

Math: Abeka Math

Life Skills:

Timothy: Boyhood and Beyond
Katie Ann: Crochet Project
Josiah: How to change a light bulb

Christmas Class:

About.com Advent Dec. 5

Christmas Plans Week 1 (Nov. 30 - Dec 4):

Ship gifts (done)
Mail Christmas Cards
Get Supplies for Christmas Crafts & Baking

Opening Christmas Presents!

2009-12-03T21:54:00.001-08:00

We’re opening Christmas presents over here! :) Today, the 2 big boys went out to play with the neighbors and the two little boys were wandering around not knowing what to do and thinking about watching ANOTHER video. We’ve been cooped up here for over a month now, so I decided we needed a new toy!

I had found a bag of 100 mega blocks at Target for $10 the other day and I bought them for Maury. I’ll buy him something else, we were desperate! This entertained them for a long time and Maury for the longest which means it would have made a good present for him. :)

We even ended up playing with these for an hour or so tonight as a whole family! I challenged the older kids to try to make a creation out of only 5 blocks and they had fun with that.

Oh, for Bridgett, here is the list of everyone:

Timothy 10

Katie Ann 8 (9 on the 9th)

Josiah 6

Nathan 4

Maury 2

Baby Girl – Due April 21

That’s us!

Sick – Again

2009-12-03T10:18:00.001-08:00

Today Nathan woke up and refused breakfast and then threw up. Katie Ann is sick and ran a fever yesterday. Timothy has some sort of cough, I’m still sick and Tony is sick but still going of course. That man never stops.

For a few days I though Maury was coming down with the measles, his eyes were red, he was running a little warm and he was really cranky. He seems fine now. I told everyone that no one is coming or going from our house, everyone is sick.

For school, I printed out their assignments, including the Christmas stuff and handed it over to each of them. They like that once in a while, just having their own list and getting to decide what they do when.

Katie Ann glittered her coloring page today.

The big excitement of the day is that we’re going to watch Home Alone 2 because we are reading about Pigeons in nature study and I’m pretty sure there’s that pigeon lady in that movie. When we watch it I’ll see again the bad language and bad attitudes that the kids have in that movie and declare that we aren’t watching the movie again. Until, next year when I forget about all that and suggest it as a good Christmas movie! :)

So, here we are again, sick and stuck at home. I have to open the blinds to let some fresh light in otherwise the walls start to close in on us. :) I’m a homebody at heart so I’m happy to have an excuse to stay home, I’d just appreciate full energy while I’m here!

Christmas School Schedule - December 3

2009-12-03T08:52:00.000-08:00

School Plan

Scripture Memory: SCM Scripture Memory System

Map Drill: Africa

Literature: A Christmas Carol

Personal Development: Wisdom and the Millers

Copy work: Copy vocab from A Christmas Carol

Reading: Chapter books

Math: Abeka Math

Life Skills:

Timothy: Boyhood and Beyond
Katie Ann: Crochet Project
Josiah: How to change a light bulb

Christmas Class:

About.com Advent Dec. 5

Christmas Plans Week 1 (Nov. 30 - Dec 4):

Ship gifts (done)
Mail Christmas Cards
Get Supplies for Christmas Crafts & Baking

Sick

2009-12-02T09:35:00.001-08:00

I went to bed last night and woke up today feeling really sick. I don’t think we’ll be baking today, especially since we’ve run out of sugar! :)

I think I’ll go ahead and continue going through our plans for the day, but slowly and relaxed. The kids decided to read some books about animals so they are doing that now. I like to pair a big one with a little one so that the big one will read and teach the younger one and also be learning without knowing it! :)

I’ll post later about what we ended up doing.

Technorati Tags: sick days,science

Christmas School Schedule - December 2

2009-12-01T19:54:00.000-08:00

Scripture Memory: SCM Scripture Memory System

History: Moses

Literature: A Christmas Carol

Copywork: Copy vocab from A Christmas Carol

Music Study: Chopin

Math: Abeka Math

Drawing: Watercolor Christmas Cards

Reading:

Timothy: Jotham's Journey
Katie Ann: Kit's Surprise
Josiah: Christmas Easy Readers

Spanish: Christmas Spanish

Christmas Class:

About.com Advent Dec. 3 (we're jumping ahead so that my mom can use our photos)
Christmas story book

Christmas Plans Week 1 (Nov. 30 - Dec 4):

Ship gifts (done)
Mail Christmas Cards
Get Supplies for Christmas Crafts & Baking

Oatmeal Gingerbread Cookies

2009-12-01T14:12:00.001-08:00

Oatmeal Gingerbread Cookies

Our other project today was to make some cookies, I substituted flours and added Xanthan Gum to make them GFCF and they seemed to turn out just fine.

The hardest part was getting the oldest to take turns, but he got to roll out the dough so that made him happy. :)

They looked a little bit like dog biscuits before and after baking.

We added some icing and some chocolate chips and they weren’t Martha Stewart perfect, but they sure are yummy!

It was a great and successful day, we definitely got to spend a lot of time together having fun. All of this hands on interaction makes the kids happy and the mama worn out! :)

Gingerbread Man Ornaments

2009-12-01T14:02:00.001-08:00

Gingerbread Man Ornaments

Today we did Advent Day 1 and made these gingerbread man ornaments.

First, we traced gingerbread men onto cardboard and cut them out.

Then, we painted them with glue, which turned out to be the neat part of this activity.

We shook cinnamon on them to make them smell good. Some people shook more cinnamon than was necessary.

Then we decorated them with construction paper and sequins. Did you know that glue doesn’t stick to cinnamon? Well, it doesn't.

Some of these turned out really cute, some of them turned out looking a little deranged but we had fun… mostly. :) 5 kids, glue, cinnamon, sequins… we had fun – keep telling yourself that! :)

Christmas School Schedule - December 1

2009-11-30T22:14:00.000-08:00

Scripture Memory: SCM Scripture Memory System

Literature: A Christmas Carol

Picture Study: Raphael

Hymn Study: Oh, Come, Oh, Come Emmanuel

Science: Exploring Creation with Astronomy

Copywork: Christmas themed copywork sheets

Math: Abeka Math

Christmas Class:

About.com Advent Dec. 1

Christmas Plans Week 1 (Nov. 30 - Dec 4):

Ship gifts (Done!)
Mail Christmas Cards
Get Supplies for Christmas Crafts & Baking

Tangled Up with Bundles of Love

2009-11-06T23:08:00.000-08:00

"Children tie the feet of the mother"
- Tamil Proverb

I have been reading a biography about Amy Carmichael written by Elisabeth Elliot (does it get any better than that?) called A Chance To Die. Amy was a missionary to many places including Japan, China and especially India. Reading about her life and what she did has been amazing. She had such a high standard for Christian living and she lived it out so well. She also made many mistakes as she was learning and growing of course.

I began reading this book at a time when I have been trying to find my place in ministry - juggling supporting my husband who is a youth pastor and also fulfilling the huge call of being a mother and home keeper. Things that I was going to be able to do are not options anymore now that we have a new baby coming.

Our life revolves around two things, our family and our church body; I like to have a handle on my place in each area at all times. I find that if I don't have a clear vision for my "place" then I have a hard time functioning. I need order.

So anyway, back to Amy Carmichael. She was this amazing woman and missionary and as I'm reading her story and trying to identify with her life and implement her amazing traits into my own life, I came upon a joyful discovery! Amy Carmichael eventually came to a place where she was a mother and had (use that word "had" loosely and consider replacing it with "got") to minister in a totally different way.

She was no longer able to go out and do the things she could do before. She was not married, but rescued children from a terrible lifestyle. Here is a paragraph that made me laugh with joy:

The Indian girls did their best to care for the children, but Amy's itineration became less and less feasible. By August she wrote, "Oh, I am getting so hungry for another child!" and was beginning to see that she must allow her feet to be tied "for the sake of Him whose feet once were nailed."

I was so happy when I read this. To know that someone who had a passion to serve God, and the opportunity to do it full time, also had a season of having her feet tied. Tied to do a work so important, it was likely the greatest calling in all her life.

As for me, we are on a nice schedule right now and we're having a good time. I am going to be overseeing some things in ministry that won't require week by week attention, unless I want it to. Things are running smoothy and I feel at peace with where God has me.

So even though you might hear me comment on how impractical little babies are, I am content to have my feet tied for this next season that God has me in. As for Amy Carmichael, lets just say I am glad that we don't sleep under bug nets, but we could use some of her creative wisdom as we go along.

Tanaka Farms Field Trip

2009-10-10T13:51:00.000-07:00

The Cousins

Cutie Pie

Riding in the wagon

Riding in the Wagon too!

Exploring Nature

Vegetable Fields

Corn Maze

Picking Carrots

Picking More Carrots

Picking Onions

Pumpkin Boy

Pumpkin Boy #2

Pumpkin Boy #3

Huy Pumpkins - 1 not cooperating!

Boy with Hay in Mouth
(Take my picture mom!)

Using VeggieWash

Washing Radishes

Dirty Vegetables

Clean Vegetables

Josiah with his clean vegetables

Nature Study - Butterfly

2009-10-04T00:17:00.000-07:00

Every week when Thursday rolls around, I realize that it is nature study day and I wonder how I am going to pull it off. I have a hard time because we are on a green belt in the city and there is not a lot of nature and not a lot of privacy. Last Thursday, we hit the jackpot. This poor Monarch Butterfly was injured on our lawn and being the homeschool mom that I am, I grabbed the chance to make it a learning opportunity.

For Katie Ann, drawing comes naturally while Timothy has to work harder at it. I have seen a huge improvement from him since the beginning of school in his ability to draw and his willingness to try to draw. He also got out his Audubon book of Insects and verified the species and read the information aloud to us all.

Josiah's Butterfly & Narration

Katie Ann's Nature Journal Entry

Timothy's Nature Journal Entry

Timothy's Drawing

It turned out to be a very fun and successful lesson. I think all of the kids enjoyed it. Timothy and I had a talk about being in the 5th grade and using more than one sentence in his descriptions, but even that went well.

Why I Love Charlotte Mason

2009-09-18T01:21:00.001-07:00

Katie Ann Doing Nature Study
Nevada - April 2009

There are a few things about the Charlotte Mason method that I really love. This way of homeschooling is so different than what I have done in the past, it's so much more peaceful and it's rewarding too. I love it when my kids stop what they are doing to run and show me a famous painting they recognize or when they watch movies and make connections from the books they have read. Those moments are so rewarding. Here are some of the things I like most about CM:

Short Lessons- You dig in and try your best for a short amount of time, depending on your age (10-30 min) and then you put it away and move on before you are pushed to your (and your mother's) limits.

Narration - These can be written or oral depending on the age of the child. I have Timothy and Katie Ann do a written narration about once a week or so. You do a lesson and they tell back in their own words what they remember from the lesson. You get instant feedback as to what they remembered, what stood out to them and they can even interject their own thoughts. We get more out of this than we ever got out of some chapter checkup questions.

Term Exams - This is fun. We take what we have learned in the term (12 weeks) and have exams, most of them oral. Again, instant feedback as to what they are retaining in all subjects.

Picture Study - This is fun and easy. They study a picture for a few minutes then we cover it up and they describe what they saw. They share the people, the colors, the style of painting, whether or not they'd like to be in the scene, etc. When everyone is finished we look at the picture again and talk about it. Sometimes they act goofy, like the time Timothy gave the following narration of one of Edgar Degas's ballerina prints "A bunch of people in tutus doing the hokey pokey!"

Hymn Study - I didn't think we'd ever like this, but I thought it would be nice if someone sings a hymn sometime that they at least be familiar with it. I am cheating a bit I suppose because I find modern versions of the hymn and we listen to those while having the words in front of us. I only pick modern versions that keep the same words and just update the music. Timothy doesn't particularly enjoy this, but he tolerates it. :)

Map Drill - This is so easy and so effective. We take a blank outline map, and the kids fill in every state or country, etc that they know in that area and then afterwards they check it with a wall map and fill in a few places that they didn't know. That's it, put it away. Next week we get it out and do the same thing for the same map and they learn more and more each week. Right now we are doing USA, but usually it will coincide with our history study.

Lots of Subjects - Since the lessons are short, we are able to study many things in one day. And no day of the week is the same as another. I like that, it brings variety and breaks up the monotony of day after day of school in your living room.

Well, those are some of the things I enjoy about CM, I think next I will tell you about our subjects and schedule.

Introduction

2009-09-14T11:34:00.001-07:00

I have things I would like to share about, but I feel like I cannot just jump in without a proper introduction. So here is my introduction post, I will keep it brief.

We are a homeschooling family of 7, soon to be 8. We are using a Charlotte Mason approach this year and loving it immensely.

The kids/grades we have this year are:

Timothy - Grade 5

Katie Ann - Grade 4

Josiah - Grade 1

Nathan - 4 years old

Maury - 2 years old

Join us for our good days, bad days and in-between days!

Abundant Harvest

Wordless Wednesday – Flying High

Toolbox Tuesday – Vita-Mix

Weekly Goals – First Week of 2010!

Feeling Fabulous @ somewhat simple.com

Our Cleaning Schedule

Weekly Wrap Up – Christmas Break

Wordless Wednesday

School Schedule - 2010

Toolbox Tuesday – Fit & Fresh Portable Drink Mixer

2010 Huy Family Schedule

Christmas School Schedule – December 18

Grandpa’s Candy Jar

I started with these sparkly stickers:

Attached them to the jar I bought at Target:

I filled it with candy:

Christmas School Schedule – December 17

Christmas School Schedule – December 16

3 days left till Christmas break!

Christmas School Schedule – December 15

Wow! The 15th already! Christmas break begins December 21, 4 more days to go!!! Just think of the baking we can do then!

Our Reading Journey – Child #3

Christmas School Schedule – December 11

Nature Study - Poinsettia

Christmas School Schedule – December 10

Christmas School Schedule – December 8

Bon Bons Gone Bad

Christmas School Schedule – December 7

School Plan

Family Work

Scripture Memory: SCM Scripture Memory System

Literature: A Christmas Carol

History: Moses

P.E.: Baseball – rain today, maybe sock catch

Poetry: Emily Dickenson

Independent Work

Copy work: Copy vocab from A Christmas Carol

Reading: Chapter books

Math: Abeka Math

Life Skills:

Timothy: Photography

Katie Ann: Crochet Project

Josiah: How to change a light bulb –someone better show him how to do this so we can move on!

Christmas Class:

Christmas School Schedule – December 4

Does this look a lot like Dec 3? That’s because I had a problem in Live Writer and accidentally overwrote Dec. 3rd’s post. Oh well.

School Plan

Family Work

Scripture Memory: SCM Scripture Memory System

Literature: A Christmas Carol

Personal Development: Wisdom and the Millers

Independent Work

Map Drill: Africa

Copy work: Copy vocab from A Christmas Carol

Reading: Chapter books

Math: Abeka Math

Life Skills:

Timothy: Boyhood and Beyond

Katie Ann: Crochet Project

Josiah: How to change a light bulb

Christmas Class:

Ship gifts (done)

Mail Christmas Cards

Get Supplies for Christmas Crafts & Baking

Opening Christmas Presents!

Sick – Again

Christmas School Schedule - December 3

School Plan

Scripture Memory: SCM Scripture Memory System

Map Drill: Africa

Literature: A Christmas Carol

Personal Development: Wisdom and the Millers

Copy work: Copy vocab from A Christmas Carol

Reading: Chapter books

Math: Abeka Math

Life Skills:

Timothy: Boyhood and Beyond

Katie Ann: Crochet Project

Josiah: How to change a light bulb

Christmas Class: