May is the Month for Birthdays

Sir Lancelot turned 30 on Monday.  Thirty has never looked so good.  I'm honored to be his wife and the mother of his children.  He is such a wonderful father and a hard worker.  He is definitely the bread-winner for our home and I love him for it.  I can't wait to spend eternity with him.  Love you so much Mr. Hostetter!

Good Reads

I get a lot of comments like, "I could never homeschool."  Or, "I don't know how you do it."  Well, I have to be honest.  I don't know how I do it either.  I DO know, however, that this has been a long prayerful decision and I know that it's what Heavenly Father wants me to do.  The task is daunting.

When I first began homeschooling, I bought an all-in-one bundled curriculum.  Everything was included, everything lined out for me.  It was a blessing.  It was a wonderful beginning.  Now we're getting to the end of our second year and I've felt the need to spread my wings a little bit.  After some research, I bought some books as guidelines.  Let me tell you- I don't entirely agree with everything these authors have to say, but I have found a wealth of information and guidelines on how to organize my own homeschool and home in general.

The Well-Trained Mind- This book outlines all ages, from birth to college.  I mostly use this book as an outline.  I really like it's scope and sequence.  I'll use science as an example.  Year one- you teach about physical science.  Animals, the human body, plants.  Year two- Earth Science and Astronomy.  Magnets, space, etc.  Year three- Chemistry.  Molecules, chemical reactions, atoms, etc.  Year four- Physics.  Simple machines, sound, light, energy and power.  All of this outlined for you and then the next 4 years, when they're in 5th grade to 8th, you repeat the same year subjects but in more depth.  Genius!  On top of the core subjects, Susan Wise Bauer adds in foreign languages like latin and greek, religion, music lessons, etc.

A House United:Changing Children's Hearts and Behaviors by Teaching Self-Government- What a title!  So far, I have really enjoyed this book.  I just started it, but I can already recommend it to families who may struggle with communication.  Right now, Nicholeen Peck recommends having a family vision and mission.  Vision is the "what" and the mission is the "How."  I will have to give a more in-depth review of this book when I finish it.  So far, it's pretty fascinating.

Parenting with Love and Logic- some may have heard of love and logic.  Sir Lancelot took a couple courses in College to renew his teaching license.  Their main focus is teaching children responsibility.  One thing I got from them is that a lot of times, parents make their children's problems, their problem.  The moment you raise your voice, you have made it your problem.  "Mom! I can't! I won't! I don't want to!" Instead of responding with a yell back or upset tone, you simply state, "I'm sorry you feel that way." etc.  Another thing that I've learned it that children respond better when they feel they have a say in their situations.  Give them a choice.  This has especially worked well with Ferdinand.  He's one stubborn little boy, and won't eat his food a lot of times.  We give him the choice to eat his food, or he can sit on his bed for a little bit.  One day, he refused to eat so we said, "You can eat your food or you can sit on your bed."  He chose to sit on his bed.  After whining a few minutes, he comes out of this room and says, "ummm.... I want to try my food now."  Problem solved.  He made a choice, which led to him making an even better choice AND it didn't become a power struggle between child and parents.

A Thomas Jefferson Education- Teaching a Generation of Leaders For The Twety-First Century- Another mouthful.  This was probably the most controversial of the books I've read.  It works for some families, but not so much for others.  Oliver Van DeMille's "vision" is to inspire children and read classics.  Read, read, read.  You can learn mathematics, grammar, life long lessons through reading classics.  When he says classics, he doesn't just mean Plato, Shakespeare, and the Bible.  He inludes Newton, Einstein, Darwin, Freud, Galileo, Copernicus, etc.  I imagine a lot of these classics may be hard to read.  I may not agree with reading Newton to my elementary aged child, but the biggest thing I got from reading this book was that you have GOT to inspire.  How many of us remember what we learned in school?  Honestly... what do you remember from your 7th grade english class?  I don't remember much because I was just going through the motions.  However, I DO remember my research about children and ADHD, anxiety, essential oils, supplements, animals, biology, botany, WWII, Schindler's List, Hans Christian Anderson, Goats, (yes goats....) and even some truly controversial subjects, etc.  Why would anyone do this?  For me, I was intrigued, inspired, and I wanted to know.  Any doctor studies day in and day out... why?  Because they want to know how to help.  They're inspired.  Any lawyer studies government.  Why?  Because they're inspired.  Get my drift?  Children are the same.  They need to have a small fire lit, even if it's barely burning, you are to be their mentor and turn that flicker into a bonfire.  This is something from this book that I agree with 100%.  Anything that your children are interested in, grab that idea and run with it.  Take them to the library, watch documentaries, there is a wealth of information out there.  Curly girly is obsessed with the ocean.  She knows so much about these little water animals and I never would have found out about them without first reading or watching about it.  A lot of it is very fascinating!

The Book of Mormon- Probably the most important book that I've read.  None of these other books matter if it wasn't for the time that I spend in this single book.  Spending time with God, praying and studying His word, is what keeps me going with homeschool.  These little Spirits that have been entrusted to me need the best mom that they can have and I'm honored to be that person.  I know for myself, that I can't do any of this without the influence of the Spirit.  I need that Spirit, I need to always be on a spiritual "high" if you will, if I am to guide my children to be functional adults.  I'm not perfect, but I do try to do what is best for my kids.

These books are just the beginning of my journey.  I'm sure I'll always be reading something about how to be a better parent or have a more organized home.  But that's the joy of it.  There's always something to learn and through example, my children will realize that the world is full of things to explore and figure out.  I'm not shooting for mediocrity.  I'm shooting for the best people they can become.  I want my children to be problem-solvers, active members in their community, happy and honest parents, but the way that I see it, it begins with ME.

Work and Play

Whenever Dad is home, we try to spend as much time with him as we can.  The past while, he's been putting up a fence around our yard.

 

 

These kids just love working with their dad.  They even make a few dollars.  I can't wait for the fence to be finished!  It's almost there!

Math-U-See may have lost some spark to it, but it's still working for us.  I just think Curly Girly doesn't like math as much as reading.  She loves using the manipulatives, but if the lessons go longer than 20 minutes, she starts getting really bored, distracted and it takes her a long time to do her worksheets.  So, we try to make the lessons a little shorter, then on to bigger better things like Charlotte's Web.

Little Elf just keeps getting bigger and bigger.  She's learned how to roll over, so most of the time, I find her like this, with a big wet spot on the ground from her drool.  I'm pretty good at remembering to put a blanket under her, but it escaped from my mind this time when I took the picture.  Tummy time is getting better, now that I think she's realized that there's so much to look at and "get to".  She's reaching for toys and loves her rattles.  I love this age!

Curly Girly's Birthday

Ever since Christmas, Curly Girly has been excitedly anticipating her birthday.  About a week ago, she asked Sir Lancelot, "How many more days til my birthday?" To which he responded, "5 more days."  Her eyes lit up and she says, "Oh, I'm going to start getting exciting!"  She's a hoot!

She had a good day.  We woke her up and sang happy birthday.  We had cereal for breakfast, pancakes for lunch, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner- with green beans.  What an amazing combo, let me tell ya!  Then we had cake and ice cream and opened her presents.  I can't believe my oldest is now 6 years old.

Happy Birthday Curly Girly!  We love you with all of our hearts!!!  XOXOXO!!!

What happened this week?

Every Monday evening, we gather together as a family to spend time with each other.  We call it Family Home Evening.  We sing songs, we pray, and we talk and teach our children about important things.  A while ago, I mentioned that we talked about emergency preparedness.  This week, we added a few more things to our 72-hour kits.  Pocket knives, fishing line, hooks, and bait, chapstick, sunscreen and other things.  Lance found some really cool whistles online.  They can open up to store matches.  Curly Girly was able to get 15 matches into her whistle.

I also did a little rearranging.  Costco had some large maps and I finally got around to putting them up.  Once we get a homeschool room, they'll be relocated, but for now, I think this is suitable.  CG loves asking where Grandma's and Grandpa's, aunts and uncles are.  We also learned a little bit about Egypt, so we looked that up on the map as well. (Don't mind the half eaten apple on my kitchen table... life happens)

Underneath the maps, we have a calendar.  The kids love putting the weather cards on each day.  At the end of each month, I plan on making a grid and learning about how to make a chart.

Little Elf is 4 months old today.  She's getting way too big, too fast.  It's been so fun seeing her little personality come out.

Tomorrow is Curly Girly's birthday.  I'll be sure to post pictures!

Ferdinand's Preschool Program

Last week of preschool for us!  Last night, Ferdinand performed as a monkey from the jungle in the last song they sang as a class.  I have to admit that I am excited to be able to let them sleep in, without having to yell, "Get up, ya lazy bums!" like my father did growing up.  Haha.  So proud of my little boy and the progress he's made this last school year!

A big shoutout to his teacher's Mrs. Campbell and Miss Vivian.  Ferdinand and I loved working with you this year!  It was a pleasure for sure!

New Beginnings Began a Little Late

I'm super excited to announce that we have actually done some formal learning.  It's been a while and the kids are a little distracted from all the lack of structure, but after Monday and today, I feel like our homeschool structure will come easily. 

 

Curly Girly and I finished level one of All About Reading and we are now moving forward to level two.  She was so excited to put those last few stickers on her progress sheet and put them into her notebook.  She also got a Certificate of Completion.

 

Math-U-See is also going well.  The very first lesson talks about place value.  CG loves using the manipulatives.  We have single green "units", blue "tens," and red "hundreds".  The instructor from the CD makes her laugh.  He talks about how the "teen" numbers are super tricky.  So to help remember how to "see" it, we will call them, "onety-one, onety two, onety three, etc."  So when I help her count, I remind her that the "ty" means "ten."  I think after a week or so, we'll get it down.  So far, it's been really nice to put aside only 10-20 minutes just for math.  After today's lesson she finally said the magic words, "Math is fun!!!"  Hallelujah!!!

 

As a family we chose to read Charlotte's Web by E.B. White.  It's a personal favorite and I've been impressed that Curly Girly is really good at knowing what is going on in the story.  We've reached the part where Wilbur finds out the farmer's plans to butcher him (it's a cruel world) and Charlotte then says that she will find a way to save him if she can.  This is a wonderful book, and I'm so glad that we are reading it together as a family.

Ferdinand will be finishing his last week of preschool this week.  Little Treasures has been a blessing this year and I've been very impressed with his teachers.  His speech has greatly improved and he has made some great friends that I hope will be able to come play one of these days.  There is a small program tonight so I will be sure to post pictures.  Stay tuned for those!