After the Intermission: Reading, 'riting, and 'rithmatic

This one may be a repeat but it was cute.
Jubilee dressed herself like this. Two shirts that fit her big sisters, a bow, and some giant boots that fit the big girls too.

Abby was reading "Changes For Felicity" which is an American Girl book set in the colonial period. Every night before going to sleep, she'd read some of this book. I told her she had to read in the closet so that the big light would't disturb Maddie and Jubi when they are trying to fall asleep. She and Emma actually like this idea of a reading nook before bed and I find them often reading a chapter for a bit after we send them to bed. It hasn't been a problem so far with them staying up too late. ;) (I can't imagine children staying up to read too late. *wink*)
But after she finished the book, she was dressed up like Felicity.

We were going to go to the mountains and go hiking or have a picnic or something but it started raining in the mountains so we went into town and played at the park and ate our sandwiches there.
Of course the bathrooms were locked up and a few kids had to go so we switched parks half way through (we hadn't eaten yet, so we still had to do our picnic!) and found a park where they'd opened the bathrooms already.
Park 1

Park 2 (bathrooms opened and picnic and of course, more play time)

Jubilee, Noah, and Isaiah were all asleep in this little pile but I took the picture after Noah was called back to a job he didn't finish. What mean parents waking up those kids to finish a job at bedtime.
Anyway, I'm wondering why we even own beds when they all sleep on the floor anyway.

Maddie was standing up talking to the baby in the reflection of the stove.

The girls really enjoyed their Sacajawea book so I found them a craft to do for it in school.
They made a baby with a baby carrier. The boys wanted to do it too, but only had patience for coloring the baby. Jubi colored her baby but I did most of the rest of it for her.

This one is quickly leaving baby-hood and entering toddler-hood. She's not quite walking yet, but she's enjoying being more mobile and independent.

Abby found one of Jubi's outfits and was dressing up like Sacajawea.

Abby likes to apply her reading to dress-up afterwards, can you tell? She's already got plans to be Sacajawea for Halloween.

Brandon got me a tea set for my birthday.

He says, "This tea set is the best gift I've ever given you for me." Hahaha
Seriously, though, we've had a lot of fun drinking the exotic teas he got and using our pretty cups and stuff. The kids always want to have tea too. :) Jubilee, especially, LOVES tea.

One night, Maddie kept crying and crying but just in short bursts, so I'd think, "Well, maybe she bumped her head on the crib side or something." Finally, I went to look and this is what I found.
Madeleine isn't fond of sleeping anywhere but this crib. She doesn't do well in the pack-n-play either. Just this crib. Madeleine also doesn't do well with others around her. She was not enjoying all the extra company in her bed on this night. On the one hand, I'm like, "You need to get used to this because you can't sleep in the crib forever," but on the other hand, I'm like, "I kind of understand. You are little and don't want to be squished/kicked and feel vulnerable all night."

Brandon also got me some really pretty, especially long lasting flowers.

(Seriously, this particular batch of flowers has outlived every other batch he's ever given me.)

He also gave me some Sardines and Oysters because he said, "These are pregnant foods, right? Things you are craving?" I told him, "I'm not craving them, but I'll try anything." The kids and I tried it one day together with crackers. The sardines were pretty much like tuna and the oysters were like chewy, smoked, slightly spicy tuna. The kids and I loved it. They gulped it down and asked when Daddy would "buy THEM this special treat again." They were even trying to drink the olive oil but I was like, "Okay, that's enough of this."

Abby was reading the Lord's Prayer in school and this is how she was reading it.

Bear cupcakes. :) Sooo easy and fun!

Math
I tried Saxon Math for Kindergarten and hated it. It was sooooooo much reading on my part and the book for the students was 20 pages long. That's all. So mostly, it was like "Take 12 toys from your toy box. Line them up and count them." I really didn't like it. It was so much prep work for me and it was pages and pages of reading every night and then locate all the toys it suggested or whatever and I just hated it. I thought, "I might switch back to it in an older grade, but for now, this isn't working for us."
So then I did Bob Jones Math.
BJ Math is a lot of colorful pictures. There are Bible verses and Bible pictures too and it was really inviting and friendly and the kids loved it and it was much less prep on my part. Basically I taught them the concept, then I read the instructions for every 3rd problem or so.
But that was the problem. I was having to read the instructions to them every 3 problems because their pages didn't have many instructions. So it might want them to circle the 5th duck in the row, but they wouldn't know that because I had to tell them. Every three-ish problems were like this and I had 4 of them in BJ Math... The first one I'd read the directions to would be coloring the margins or painting the walls or something by the time I got back around to them to read the next 3-ish problems.
In the mean time, Madeleine and Jubilee would be eating trash or something. So I needed something different.
I looked back into Saxon and discovered it's much better in the higher grades. The BOOK tells them what to do, not me. And even though it's not colorful, they are enjoying merely being able to soar through a lesson without waiting on me. So I bought the Book and answer book (and found that there's a copy of the book online so they could use their Dragon Touch Tablets (which makes Math more fun too) and I let them go. They LOVE this. They are excelling. And I have more time to peel babies out of the trash can.

Isaiah is learning his various addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division tables. He's soaring through this too. These electronic flash cards are WAY more fun than paper ones.

Jubi and Noah usually sit on the stairs up here where I can keep an eye on them but they won't be so distracting to the others. Noah's got some ABC and 123 games he's working on. Jubi uses her "computer" or sometimes she uses another kid's Dragon Touch with an ABC or 123 game on it for her. Mostly, she and Maddie go on adventures and get thwarted by the mean Mommy monster.

She also wants her hair up....for about 5 seconds...

Emma really does like Math. These are the funny expressions I caught one day though when she was doing her Math.

I have asked the kids to write things on the shopping list before.

This is what I found one day. Apparently, they were in the mood for Almond Cheesecake Brownies.
Also, I thought it was funny that they decided to "correct" my ground beef to ground beefs.

Um thanks!
(Brandon bought the stuff for the Almond Cheesecake brownies for them and then they told him that's what they wanted me to make for my birthday, so that's what I had for cake this year. ;) )

I found this on my camera.
I don't know which aspiring photographer took this or why, but here it is.

Tea party for 9 anyone?
We put a cup for Maddie and November Baby even though they couldn't participate.

Emma was telling me Maddie looked like a boy in these clothes.
She asked Maddie if she thought she looked like a boy.
Maddie responded, "Rock rock!" (She hadn't learned yet how to do a nice smooth, steady rocking motion and so Emma was rocking her and she was telling Emma she didn't have time for this...get back to rocking me!)

Something about Jubilee on this day was reminding me of Abby at this age and pictures of myself at this age.

The kids are really liking this new curriculum. I gave them a schedule and they basically do it by themselves. I maintain order, check work, make sure no one's cheating or something, but they move from subject to subject by themselves, setting the timers and going. They don't really have to wait on me for almost anything and it's more self-guided. When I first heard of it, I thought *I* could push them faster than they'd push themselves and that we'd be lagging behind. I didn't like the idea at first, but honestly, having the freedom to sail through your own school work or drag your feet and be stuck on one thing forever has made them more efficient workers and they are learning more than I had been teaching before mostly because they aren't waiting on me for each thing to be fed to them. They just move on to the next subject and feed themselves and get a hundred more spoonfuls than I could have given. I don't know why I didn't do this before!

We actually end up doing about 30 minutes MORE of school every single day with this curriculum but the kids keep saying, "We like how school goes so fast now!" and I think this is because they are reading their own lessons and their own science and history and stuff. Before, I was reading Science and History to the group. When I had to put a baby down for a nap or pull someone out of the trash or something, (can you tell what Maddie has discovered lately???) school stopped until I got back. We had a LOT of stops and starts like this. But now, if I have to leave the room, they just keep reading/doing math/whatever. I've set them at the table and done dishes and cooking while they were working and it was as good as at the school desk.

I really can't say enough about this. They LOVE having more control over their own day and when they aren't working, they finally grasp how that slows them down and makes their day longer. They feel like it goes so fast because they are just going on without waiting on me and I am having more time to peel kids out of the trash (again) or to listen to reading or explain a concept that was hard to grasp. Freeing me up like this, really let their learning take off. :)

Madeleine is in the "I hate water" stage. She HATES baths and showers and hand washing and face washing and pretty much all forms of water except for that that comes in her cup with ice. After a bath one day, I was cuddling her and she just kept crying, "Night-night. Night-night." so I took her up to bed and she woke up happier, but with this dandelion fluff head. ;)

Occasionally, a few of our toys watch us do school. I don't know what it is, but there's just something fun about "teaching" your doll to do Math. (Of course, those dollies/dinosaurs have to read your mind because talking might give someone else the answer. hahaha)