More thoughts on math.

After my last post about the way that Kiddo and Dearie do math, I thought a lot about the way Honey’s math works.  Honey is using Right Start mathematics.  It is a program based on Asian Math and really focuses on teaching the kids to THINK.  It is very similar to Singapore Math in the way that numbers are taken apart and put back together.  I really like that part.

Right Start Mathematics is very teacher-intensive.  The teacher has to teach every lesson, and there does not seem to be much that the child can do without the teacher.  (There are some worksheets and some practice sheets, but some of them require the teacher to read directions to the child as there are only blanks on the paper.)  I don’t mind the teacher involvement.

Everything about Right Start mathematics is laid out with exactly what to do each day.  This is the problem that I have with Right Start. 

There is a warm-up section to start each day.  I really looked at how the warm-up works, and they do cover most topics, but there is no customizing it for your child.  If they have been able to count by threes since they were 2, it is still listed in the book.  (The helpful people at Right Start will tell you to skip stuff that they know.  You don’t have to do all the warm-ups.)  The problem that I have been having is that Honey will do the warm-up problems, but it could take us 1/2 an hour just to get through them.  She needs practice with some of the concepts more often than is scheduled.

The next section is the activities section.  This is the meat of the program, and it is really good.  The only problem that I have with this section is that if you already know the material or if you catch on quickly, it is hard to move forward.  It is also very difficult to play “catch-up” if you miss a day or two.

The final section is the games section.  This is the drill that is built into the program.  You might play math war or a memory game to help learn those math facts.  I like this part of the program, but if you have already spent 30-45 min. on the warm-up and lesson, then you might be tempted to just skip it. 

So once again, I am out to tweak things.  I can never leave well enough alone, can I?  (This must be why I like Singapore and Miquion so well, I don’t have to tweak anything.)  I have decided to customize the warm-up section of the program.  I wrote out all of the warm-up problems (for 10 lessons) on note cards.  We will do one problem from the first few cards each day.  Then we will add in new cards when needed.  I think that I will use a timer for a while and keep the warm-up time to 5  min.  Then we will work on the activity section for 10-15 and that will leave 10-15 min. for game time.  I am going to look at each section as independent of the others.  If she ‘gets’ what we are doing, then we will go on to the activity section of the next lesson.  If she is having trouble, then we can stay with that topic until she does ‘get’ it.  We will do the same for the games.  Not every lesson has games listed, but some have several games listed.  We will play the games for the amount of time that we have.  I am not going to try to keep the warm-up/activities/games on the same lesson.  This fits my way of thinking, and I don’t think that it will bother Honey at all.  If I do it right, then she won’t even know what I have done.  They say that a program has to fit both the teacher and the child.  This is so true.  We have found several programs that work for me that don’t work for Honey.  We have also found several programs that work for Honey but not for me.  It is the “do ABC on day 1 and DEF on day 2…’ that really bugs me.  I don’t know why, but it does.  I guess that it is a good thing to have figured out about me, it will help me in future purchases.

A new reading game

For reading right now, Honey is using a spelling program.  I know it sounds weird, but All About Spelling does a great job of teaching the phonics rules.  I have Honey read the spelling words as well as spell them and her reading is really improving.  I would guess that she is getting close to grade level in reading. 

Honey finished All About Spelling level 1 at the end of January.  I gave her a week off from spelling and we have been playing spelling games during that week.  She came up with a really fun one on Thurs.  We used an old cribbage board and the stack of cards with spelling words on them that came with All About Spelling.  Each turn one of us would pick a card and read the word.  Then we had to say all the sounds in the word.  The other person would count how many sounds the word had and that would determine how many moves could be made.  [Hat has three sounds, move three spaces.   Trash has four sounds, move four spaces.]  To make the game more interesting we also used the middle track on the cribbage board.  If a player’s piece landed next to a line then they would move the middle piece one space forward.  If a player wanted to they could move the middle piece instead of their own piece.  If the middle piece landed next to a line then the player gets to move their own piece five places.  I know that it sounds complicated, but it really made the game a lot more interesting.  I also know that saying the sounds of words does not sound like it would help much, but it is something that is hard for Honey. 

After the game, Honey read to me from the new reader that we got from All About Spelling.  Sounding out the words seemed more natural after we had just spent so much time practicing it during the game.  This is a game that we WILL be playing again!

Another math book finished.

With three kids using a great variety of workbooks (some of which are only supposed to last a few months), and when each of those kids finishes each book much faster than the predicted amount of time, it seems that a book gets finished every other week around here.

We make a point to celebrate the completion of each book, and we had another celebration today.  Kiddo finished her math book!  She was pretty excited about it.  Excited enough to do about 3 days worth of math today, just so that she could finish.  I suppose that I didn’t help when I told her that she would have to start her new book a week from Mon. and the sooner she finished this one the longer her break would be.  She wants a looooooong break, so she was willing to work a little harder today to get it.  Maybe I will dig out the challenge math book for her to look at while she is “On Break.”  Dearie always liked that book. 

Sometimes people ask me if it is easy to “work ahead.”  I really have a hard time with that question.  My kids don’t really “work ahead” because they are not following anyone’s schedule but their own.  For math, we work 10-30 min. a day (Kiddo less than Dearie) and do as much as they can in that amount of time.  (Honey is using a different kind of program.  She tends to do one lesson a day.)  If it is review, then they may do three times as much as if it is a new difficult subject.  Is Kiddo ahead in math?  Yes, I suppose that anyway that you could find to compare her to public schooled kids, she would come out ahead.  But if I compare her to where I know that she could be with intense practice, then she is behind.   So my answer to the “work ahead” question is “Work ahead of who?”  Kiddo is right where she should be for her in math.

That’s Soy? Step 1:Learning about what we put in our mouths.

Soy beans and corn.  Even here in the suburbs, I can’t drive more than 10 min. from home without seeing a field of either corn or soy beans.  It is no wonder that they are popular crops to grow, they are in everything we eat.

So, let’s look at Soy.  What is it in and what are some of the alternative names for it?  First of all, soy is in things like Soy Sauce and Edamame (baby soy beans in the pod), but it is also in things like baked goods and chocolate.  It is another one of those things that you don’t want to be allergic to because it is in “everything.”

How about the names of things that contain soy.

Edamame (soybeans in pods) Hydrolyzed soy protein Kinnoko flour Kyodofu (freeze dried tofu) Miso Natto Okara (soy pulp) Shoyu sauce Soy albumin Soy bran Soy concentrate Soy fiber Soy flour Soy formula Soy grits Soy milk Soy miso Soy nuts Soy nut butter Soy protein, soy protein concentrate, soy protein isolate

Soy sauce Soy sprouts Soya Soya Flour Soybeans Soybean granules Soybean curd Soybean flour Soy lecithin Soybean paste Supro Tamari Tempeh Teriyaki sauce Textured soy flour (TSF) Textured soy protein (TSP) Textured vegetable protein (TVP) Tofu Yakidofu Yuba (bean curd)

Check out this website for even more things to watch out for: http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/resourcespre.php?id=51

Soy is on our list of foods to watch out for, but because it is usually in chocolate in the form of Soy Lecithin I have not been able to totally get rid of it.  (I’m addicted to chocolate, I admit it.) 

We eat a lot of vegetarian meals, but because of the problems that the kids have with processed soy (They have eaten plain soy beans straight from the field before with no problems.) we can’t do any of the fake meats or cheeses.  Thats okay with us, if we want meat or cheese we just eat the real thing, but we also often have meals where beans or nuts are the main protein.

Soy is a great food, but why do we have to add it to so many different kinds of foods?

Coming next week…  My very favorite food topic (read heavy sarcasm here): MSG.

So much for getting sap…

We tapped the trees a few weeks ago.  It was a lot of fun and we have 8-10 gallons of sap collected, but then… it got cold.  It got cold and it stayed cold.  The trees haven’t done much in the last couple of days, and I’m not sure that they will continue to run after the weather warms up again.  At least I only tapped half of them the first time around.  I have several more left to tap when the weather finally warms up for real.  I’m hoping to get enough syrup to last us through the year and to have some to share.  We’ll see…

When asked to write an apology…

When one of my children (who shall remain unnamed) was asked to write a letter of apology that included three good things about the other person, this is how the first draft went.

Dear Sis,

I am sorry I hit you. I am glad that you are not twins. I am glad that you are not triplets. I am glad that you are not quadruplets.

Your Sister

It went through several revisions, and the final draft was well received by the victim.  It did include the phrase, “I’m glad that you are not normal.” which had to be explained (I’m glad that you don’t go to school and have 50 Webkins).  But over all, it turned out to be a good thing.

A six-year-old conscience at work.

Last night, after the kids had been in bed for a while, Kiddo came down stairs crying.  She was very upset.  Dearie came down right after her, to explain that she didn’t know what was wrong, LOL.  I sent Dearie back to bed and tried to figure out why Kiddo was so upset.  I didn’t want to suggest things because then she just might decide to be upset about the things I suggested as well (if I didn’t guess right). 

Kiddo really did not want to tell me what was wrong.  She was clearly worried about what I would think.  She didn’t want to talk in front of her dad, so we went in the other room and I tried to drag it out of her.  She said that she would tell me in the morning.  That clued me into two thing: 1) she had done something wrong and was afraid of the consequences and 2) she was not going to get any sleep if she didn’t tell.  I upped the ante and told her that if she told now she wouldn’t get in any trouble, she just had to tell me.  She asked if she would get in trouble if she waited until morning.  I evaded the question and answered that she would not get in trouble if she told now.

Finally it all came out.  There were some foam hearts that she had wanted to use.  She had asked several times and I kept saying that we need to save them to use when we make Valentines.  Well, she didn’t wait.  She used some of them.  Not even all of them, just some of them!  I somehow managed not to laugh when she told me the problem.  I was very proud that she did the right thing and told me about it, but I really didn’t care at all about the foam hearts.  I told her that she wouldn’t get to use as many when we made Valentines, and sent her to bed.  She slept just fine all night long!

Funny from Honey.

On the way home the other night we had an interesting conversation.

Honey:  I have a hair in my nose, Mom.

Me:  What kind of hair?

Honey:  It looks like an eyelash.

Me:  That’s a nose hair dear, it grows in your nose.

Pause…

Honey:  Is that why some men have mustaches?

Me laughing too hard to reply

Lots more laughing

Honey:  Mom, you didn’t answer my question.  Is that where mustaches come from?

Me (still laughing):  No dear…

The good news and bad news about the spot on Dearie’s head.

We saw the doctor last week about the spot on Dearie’s head.  She said that she thought that it had been a pimple or something and Dearie had picked at it until all the hair was gone from the area.  There is hair growing in most of it now (it is about an inch long).  She gave Dearie some ointment to put on it and said come back in a month.  If things don’t look better, then she will do a biopsy to find out what is going on.  Dearie really does not want a biopsy, so she is being pretty faithful in putting on her “headicine” (as she calls it).

The down side of eating healthy.

Yep!  There is a down side to everything, even eating healthy.  I’m feeling a little down myself today, so I thought that I would share the down sides of eating healthy.

(Sorry for missing last week.  Next week, I will go back to talking about what is in our food.)

1. When you start eating healthy, your body gets used to it.  The up side to this is that you get to where you LIKE the foods you eat, but the down side is that non-healthy foods don’t taste so great and they can make you feel not-so-great.

2. Eating healthy takes time.  When you start cutting out all the junk that is part of the SAD (Standard American Diet), it takes a lot more time to fix foods.  We had hamburgers the other night.  Nice easy meal, right?  Well, not if you have to bake the buns from scratch, and peel the potatoes and chop them up for french fries.  We have many meals that take DAYS to make.

3. It is hard to go anywhere.  If restaurant food makes you feel bad, and food from a box makes you feel bad, it is hard to go anywhere for any length of time and not feel bad. 

4.  People in your family will want to eat at least three times a day, everyday.  That means that you will have to fix them something three times a day, everyday.  If some of your meals take DAYS to prepare, you had better be planning ahead.

OK, I’m done with my rant.  Sometimes though, I wish that we could just eat the same way that everyone else does.

That’s Corn? Step 1; learning about what we put in our mouths.

The answer to last week’s puzzle?  Quaker Chewy Granola Bars – Chocolate Chip 

You were right on the money Jen.  You spend too much time reading labels!

Now on to this week’s topic.  Corn.  Corn is in everything.  Well, everything processed anyway.  And to top it all off, unless it says organic, it is probably genetically modified (GMO) corn.  I’m sure that there are good points to GMO corn, but since our country routinely uses us as guinea pigs, I plan to give it 20 years or so before I make a decision as to how safe it is.  (Remember how safe NutraSweet was supposed to be?  It was NutraSweet that started us down the path of allergies and food sensitivities, but that is another story for another day.)

So what are the names for corn?

Acetic acid Alcohol Alpha tocopherol Artificial flavorings Artificial sweeteners Ascorbates Ascorbic acid Astaxanthin Baking powder Barley malt* (generally OK, but can be contaminated) Bleached flour* Blended sugar (sugaridextrose) Brown sugar* (generally OK if no caramel color) Calcium citrate Calcium fumarate Calcium gluconate Calcium lactate Calcium magnesium acetate (CMA) Calcium stearate Calcium stearoyl lactylate Caramel and caramel color Carbonmethylcellulose sodium Cellulose microcrystalline Cellulose, methyl Cellulose, powdered Cetearyl glucoside Choline chloride Citric acid* Citrus cloud emulsion (CCS) Coco glycerides (cocoglycerides) Confectioners sugar Corn alcohol, corn gluten Corn extract Corn flour Corn oil, corn oil margarine Corn starch Corn sweetener, corn sugar Corn syrup, corn syrup solids Corn, popcorn, cornmeal Cornstarch, cornflour Crosscarmellose sodium Crystalline dextrose Crystalline fructose Cyclodextrin DATUM (a dough conditioner) Decyl glucoside Decyl polyglucose Dextrin Dextrose (also found in IV solutions) Dextrose anything (such as monohydrate or anhydrous) d-Gluconic acid Distilled white vinegar Drying agent Erythorbic acid Erythritol Ethanol Ethocel 20 Ethylcellulose Ethylene Ethyl acetate Ethyl alcohol Ethyl lactate Ethyl maltol Fibersol-2 Flavorings* Food starch Fructose* Fruit juice concentrate* Fumaric acid Germ/germ meal Gluconate Gluconic acid Glucono delta-lactone Gluconolactone Glucosamine Glucose* Glucose syrup* (also found in IV solutions) Glutamate Gluten Gluten feed/meal Glycerides Glycerin* Glycerol Golden syrup Grits High fructose corn syrup Hominy Honey* Hydrolyzed corn Hydrolyzed corn protein Hydrolyzed vegetable protein

Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose pthalate (HPMCP) Inositol Invert syrup or sugar Iodized salt Lactate Lactic acid* Lauryl glucoside Lecithin Linoleic acid Lysine Magnesium fumarate Maize Malic acid Malonic acid Malt syrup from corn Malt, malt extract Maltitol Maltodextrin Maltol Maltose Mannitol Methyl gluceth Methyl glucose Methyl glucoside Methylcellulose Microcrystaline cellulose Modified cellulose gum Modified corn starch Modified food starch Molasses* (corn syrup may be present; know your product) Mono and di glycerides Monosodium glutamate MSG Natural flavorings* Olestra/Olean Polenta Polydextrose Polylactic acid (PLA) Polysorbates* (e.g. Polysorbate 80) Polyvinyl acetate Potassium citrate Potassium fumarate Potassium gluconate Powdered sugar Pregelatinized starch Propionic acid Propylene glycol* Propylene glycol monostearate* Saccharin Salt (iodized salt) Semolina (unless from wheat) Simethicone Sodium carboxymethylcellulose Sodium citrate Sodium erythorbate Sodium fumarate Sodium lactate Sodium starch glycolate Sodium stearoyl fumarate Sorbate Sorbic acid Sorbitan Sorbitan monooleate Sorbitan tri-oleate Sorbitol Sorghum* (not all is bad; the syrup and/or grain CAN be mixed with corn) Starch (any kind that’s not specified) Stearic acid Stearoyls Sucrose Sugar* (not identified as cane or beet) Threonine Tocopherol (vitamin E) Treacle (aka golden syrup) Triethyl citrate Unmodified starch Vanilla, natural flavoring Vanilla, pure or extract Vanillin Vegetable anything that’s not specific* Vinegar, distilled white Vinyl acetate Vitamin C* and Vitamin E* Vitamins* Xanthan gum Xylitol Yeast* Zea mays Zein

List taken from http://www.cornallergens.com/list/corn-allergen-list.php

OK, to be fair, not everything on this list always contains corn because some of these things can be made in different ways.  But corn is cheap and these things are often made from corn.  I know some people with corn allergies, and they have a really hard time finding stuff to eat.  People with MSG allergies also have to avoid these things because corn is high in glutamates and when you process it, it breaks down into MSG.  Although some are worse than others, and they can get away with eating some of them.  They CAN eat whole corn  (because it is not processed), how ironic is that?

Time to be me…

I have been struggling with the fact that there is not much time in my schedule to do more than schooling, cooking and cleaning.  There needs to be more to life than work, right? 

It was a comfort to read Andrea’s blog and find that she is going through the same things (though it looks different in her life than mine).  Check it out here:  Andrea’s Blog

It got me to thinking, and I came to the conclusion that if I am doing what God want me to do, then I must be who God wants me to be.  Of course, with kids we go through seasons and next month may look a lot different from this month, but as long as I am doing what God wants me to do right now, then I am who God wants me to be right now.

Then again, it is a lot easier to say, “Do what God wants you to do.” than it is to actually do what God wants you to do.  But for now, my goal is to do what I need to each day and spend time in God’s word.   It is easier to do that than it is to try to figure out what I would like to do with my non-existent free time.

Sometimes Life is just not fair!

I really enjoy watching my girls learn.  It is so cool to see something ‘click’ for them.  Today I was sitting with Kiddo while she was doing a math worksheet.  It was not from her math book, but from a workbook I picked up at Sam’s.  Mostly, the workbook pages are just to keep her busy while I finish school with Dearie.  Today things worked out so that I could sit with her. 

She was doing problems like 14-6.  After she gave the answer of 8, I asked her how she did it.  She said that she took away 4 and then she needed to take away 2 more.  I love how she can break apart numbers in her head so easily!  It is so cool to watch. 

The problem is that watching her do this so easily also makes me sad.  Why is it so easy for her, and so hard for Honey.  Honey can do these types of problems, but there are a lot of tears and frustrations on her part.  She can do it but it is HARD!   There is no joy in it for her.  Sometimes life is just not fair.

The benefits of having a computer expert living in the house.

I fried my computer on friday.  I stood up while holding it and it is so dry that the static got it right away.  It seemed at first that it had only rebooted, but when I finally got it up and running again, it was acting weird!  Turns out that I fried the keyboard.  When I hit the backspace key it add about 5 characters instead of deleting one.  The touch pad doesn’t work at all, but Dh is great.  He has me set up with an extra keyboard setting on top of my laptop and a mouse at the side!  At least it works, now if we can only get the printer issues figured out…

That’s Milk? Step 1; learning about what we put in our mouths.

Last Friday I talked about my three steps for healthier eating.  Today I am going to talk about what it is that we are eating.  Most of those strange things that you see on the label of the foods you buy actually come from something you recognize.  Take milk for instance, it is in a lot more things than you would expect.  Here is a list of things that come from or contain milk:

Artificial butter flavor, butter fat, and butter oil
Casein and caseinates (in all forms)
Cheese flavor
Curds
Ghee
Hydrolysates (casein, milk protein, protein, whey, whey protein)
Lactalbumin, lactalbumin phosphate, lactoglobulin, lactoferrin, lactulose
Nougat
Rennet, rennet casein
Recaldent™, used in tooth-whitening chewing gums
Simplesse®
Whey (in all forms)

Did you know that when you read Lactabumin on the label it means that there is some milk in the product? 

Let’s look at a list of ingredients.  Can you guess what this is?

Modified Food Starch, Sugar, Salt, Onion, Mushrooms, Garlic Powder Spices (Including Paprika and Parsley), Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Whey (From Milk), Natural Flavors (Contains Beef and Pork), Cheddar Cheese (Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Torula Yeast, Citric Acid, Buttermilk, Non Fat Milk.

This is the list of ingredients from “Lawry’s Spaghetti Sauce Spice & Seasonings, Original Style, 1.5-Ounce Packets.”  Spaghetti sauce!  I don’t put milk in my spaghetti sauce, but I suppose that some people do, but do they use Whey?  Of course not, they would use real milk. (I will save how there are at least 6 forms of MSG in this packet for a later post.)  Hmmm, I make spaghetti sauce from tomatoes.  I don’t see any tomatoes on the list, maybe it is  in Natural Flavors?  Now this is a list from a powdered packet that you need to add water to, what about a jar of spaghetti sauce is it any better?

Ragu ingredients: tomato puree (water, tomato paste); soybean oil; high-fructose corn syrup; salt; dried onions; extra virgin olive oil; Romano cheese; spices; natural flavor. 

I think that this is better, it lists cheese and not just some component of milk.  It has real tomatoes (or at least tomato paste) in it.   This seems more like what you would make at home, but I bet that you wouldn’t use HFCS in your spaghetti sauce. 

How about a puzzle?  I will list some ingredients and you tell me what the product is.

granola (whole grain rolled oats, brown sugar, crisp rice [rice flour, sugar, salt, malted barley extract], whole grain rolled wheat, partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oils with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness and/or sunflower oil with natural tocopherol added to preserve freshness, dried coconut, whole wheat flour, sodium bicarbonate, soy lecithin, caramel color, nonfat dry milk), semisweet chocolate chips (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla extract), crisp rice (rice, sugar, salt, barley malt), high fructose corn syrup, sugar, corn syrup solids, glycerin, partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil, sorbitol, calcium carbonate, salt, water, soy lecithin, molasses, natural and artificial flavors, BHT (a preservative), citric acid.

 I will post the answer next Friday.

School is going better.

School has gotten better each day this week.  I knew that it would, but it is always hard to have a rough beginning.  The kids (especially Dearie) have settled into the fact that school has to be done, whether they want to do it or not.  Dearie has even done some writing this week.  Her assignment was to write a letter to President Lincoln.  She thought that was rather dumb, he is dead after all, but she did it and did a good job with it. 

Today Dearie even finished school early so that she could go out and play in the snow.  Then when she was outside, she shoveled the driveway instead of playing!  I went out and helped her finish, but she did most of the work.  That was a big help as there was a lot of snow (with more on the way) out there! 

As long as we stick with the schedule, school will be fine for a while.  If I get lazy and skip a day or even half a day, then the kids get the idea that school is optional, so I guess that means that I am not allowed to skip anymore.   (I did school this morning, even though I had a migraine, so I guess that skipping isn’t as much a problem for me as it used to be.)

I am even doing better with the later part of my schedule.  From the time school is over until dinner, I get to do things like plan for tomorrow, laundry, exercise, vacuum or mop, chores and desk work.  So far this week I have stuck with the program and done what is on the schedule.  I’m not sure it is making that much of a difference, but I will stick with it for a while and see what happens.  It is nice to not have to plan a school day at 7:45 when school starts at 8:00.

First Day Back to School.

Can I just say that I hate the first day back after a break?  It was a long day and it seemed that the girls fought me every step of the way. 

Dearie FLAT OUT REFUSED to do her handwriting.   She was grumpy and mean and no fun to be around.  She didn’t want to do most of her subjects.  (I ignored her until Handwriting time was over, then I just put her Handwriting book away.  She got to do Handwriting for homework. )  The rest of the day wasn’t much better, but at least she did most of her other work.

When Kiddo logged into her Click N Read Account, she made up her own username and password (her name), and get this… IT WORKED!  She got to do lesson 37 instead of lesson 50.  It took me a while to figure out what had happened, but then I e-mailed the company to let them know.  They said that they would fix it, but I really don’t know what they can do except maybe make it so that a password cannot be the same as a username.   It’s not their fault, but at least they can let the other Kiddo’s mom know.

Honey was actually pretty good today, except for picking on her sisters and her usual complaining over math and spelling.  She was the only one who didn’t have homework today.

  I have also tried to stick to my schedule better today.  I did better, but it sure wears me out.  I didn’t get to exercise; had to do crowd control during laundry time.  I’m supposed to be cooking and cleaning the kitchen right now, I am cooking (well… at least the food is), but I had better go clean the kitchen.

Time to feed the ‘Black Monster’

How do you get the kids to do one of your most dreaded chores?  You make it a game of course! 

If you know us at all, then you know that Dh is pretty security conscious.  One of the things he does is to shred just about everything!  However, the shredding always seems to pile up.  The other day he asked who wanted to feed the black monster, and got a chorus of me’s!   So for the last two days, the girls have had fun feeding the black monster!

The Black Monster

Happy New Year!

We had a great time last night.  Yesterday I realized that I needed to do something or the kids would drive me crazy.  They were so excited about staying up to see the ball drop! 

I let each girl pick a room, a game, and a snack.  We spent the afternoon getting each room ready (setting up and decorating tables) and making snacks. 

Dearie picked the schoolroom where there was already a table and a tablecloth (leftover from Christmas, we don’t do school on a tablecloth ).  She did have to put away a bunch of stuff, but she did a good job.  She picked a long Scrabble like game and she made little cheese and black olive sandwiches for her snack.

Honey picked the family room and helped set up a card table for Daddy’s game since her game was the Wii.  She made cookies with hard candy centers. 

Kiddo picked the living room where we set up a game table and she found a red checkered tablecloth and her table was very cute.   She picked a co-operative game that was fun.  She made chocolate peanut butter and apple roll-ups.

My room was the kitchen and for my snack I added chocolate chips to Honey’s leftover cookie dough.  My game was Ticket to Ride (I really like that game).

Dh shared the family room with Dh and his game was Pick Picknick. 

So at 8:00 we started in the kitchen and played my game.  When it was over we went to the school room and played Dearie’s game.  When that was over we took a 10 min. break and I looked at the clock.  It was already 10:30!  It was a good thing that the last 3 games were a lot shorter!  After our break we went to the living room and played Kiddo’s game.  Then it was off to the family room for Dh’s game.  From 11:30-11:55 the kids played on the Wii and then we switched the TV over to watch the ball drop.  We watched TV for about 10 min, before I sent the kids to bed. 

It was a fun way to spend time with just the family!

3 Steps to Healthier Eating

This is the time of year when people think about making changes.  I have made a lot of changes in the way we eat in the last 10 years.  Some by choice, some because the kids just can’t handle some foods.  I’ve talked about these before but never posted them, so here are my 3 steps to eating healthier.

1. Read every label of every thing you buy.

This is an easy thing to do, just read what you are eating.  If the label takes too long to read, then don’t buy it.  Doing this will cut out the things with the most additives, but mostly it just gets you in the habit of being aware of what you are actually eating.  This step should last at least a month.

2. Don’t buy anything that contains High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) or Hydrogenated Oils.

This gives you a starting place.   It does not cut out every bad additive, but it will definitely reduce the additives in your diet.  Most prepared foods contain either HFCS or some kind of Hydrogenated Oil.   Sometimes all you have to do is change brands to get away from the HFCS or Hydrogenated Oils, but sometimes you have to learn to cook it yourself or do without.  This is a hard step and can take a long time to adjust to. 

3.  Don’t buy anything that contains any additive or preservative.

This step is a lot harder to define than the others, because it is almost impossible to get rid of all the additives and preservatives in our lives.    If you can reduce your additives and preservatives by 80%-90% you will be doing a great job.   The best way to complete this step is to focus on what you can eat and not on what you can’t.  You can eat any whole or fresh food.  The produce department just became your best friend.   The less processed foods, the better.

These are very broad steps, but they will help you reach a goal of eating a healthier diet based on whole foods.  Over the next few weeks, I will post more information about each step.  Look for healthy eating posts on Fridays.

Small bald spot.

One of my children, (who shall remain nameless since she is sensitive about it) has a small (size of a dime) spot on her scalp.  There is no hair growing in this spot.  I have been watching it for a while, but yesterday finally decided to take her to the Doctor about it. 

The doctor took a long look and said that it looked almost like Ring Worm of the scalp, but not quite.  It also looked a little like Alopecia areata, but once again, not quite.  She has sent us to the Dermatologist, but it will be three weeks before she can be seen. 

Ring Worm means 6 weeks of oral meds.  Sound like fun?

Alopecia areata means… well I’m not sure what that means.  After reading about it I guess it means that she has a bald spot that might grow back or it might not.  There might be more bald spots or there might not.  It is an auto-immune disease that often occurs with other auto-immune diseases so there would be blood tests to rule out other things.  That doesn’t sound like much fun either does it? 

Maybe there will be a third thing that is easier to deal with…

Would you take this to the rabbits?

Dearie came went to water the rabbits last night and the kitchen sink was full of dishes, so I told her to use the laundry room sink.  She filled the pitcher up and then brought it to me.  She thought something was wrong because the water was cloudy, I told her it was just air and that it was fine.  She didn’t believe me so I told her to ask her dad.  She did and this is what she said, “Would you take this to the rabbits?”  He said, “OK” and started to get his coat on.  She started to cry, “Noooooo!”  I stepped in to interpret.  He heard, “Would you carry this down to the rabbits for me?”  She meant, “Is this water okay to give to the rabbits?”  In the end, he said that the water was fine and she gave it to the rabbits.  I guess we need to work on saying what we mean.

Done!

I think that I am done wrapping presents.  Oh wait, not quite.  I still have to buy a couple and wrap them, but they are food things so I didn’t want to get them too early.  I will do those next week sometime.  All of the kids gifts from us are wrapped.  All of the kids gifts from MIL are wrapped.  All of the kids gifts from Grandma are wrapped.  All of Dh’s gifts are wrapped.  Oh Rats, I just thought of some more to wrap.  Mom and Dad’s gifts are not wrapped yet. 

OK so not quite done, but getting close!

She did it!

Kiddo finished book 6 of Explode the Code (a phonics workbook).  There are an average of 8 pages per lesson in the book and 2 pages per day is what I schedule.  At the beginning of the week, Kiddo had 4 lessons left.  I honestly told her that she wasn’t going to finish the book before Christmas, that she would have to do a lesson per day to do that.  She told me that she was going to finish it before Christmas, and she did!  She did 8-10 pages a day for 4 days!  She plans to finish the series (two more books) this year.

I’m not sure why these books are so important to her, but I think that it is because it is something that her sisters didn’t do.  Dearie quit the series in book 4 (she could read, hated the workbooks, and I just didn’t see the point), and Honey quit in book 3 (the book was beyond what she could do and it was just too hard).  Kiddo realized this while doing book 4, and she said then that she wanted to do all of the books.  I would have let her quit as she was reading well, but she really wanted to finish the series.  I had to buy the last two from a different supplier as Sonlight doesn’t even sell the last two.  They have a lot of comprehension stuff in them and I don’t think that Kiddo will like them, but I am sure that she will make herself do them.  She wants to do all of something that her sisters didn’t.

Now what?

I have known that there was too much in my schedule for a long time, but I couldn’t figure out where the problem was.  I would look at my schedule and think, “It should work, I’m just being lazy.”  And then when it didn’t work, I would stop trying.  It’s better to just not try, then to try and fail, right?  I didn’t really think all of these things in the front of my head, but I’m sure that they were in there somewhere. 

So now that I can see the problem, how do I fix it?  Well, step 1 is to figure out just how long things really take.  I know that I can’t do kitchen stuff in the morning in 15 min, but I doubt that it takes two hours either.  So I am writing down how long it takes me to do the things I have to do.  (Things like getting wheat ready, putting stuff in the bread machine, unloading/loading the dishwasher and cleaning off the counters.)  But I think that I need to be careful not to hyper-focus on this one part of the day.  There are also things like exercising and laundry and vacuuming and mopping and other cleaning chores that need to be done at least once in a while (dusting, cleaning the fridge, and other stuff like that).  The once in a while stuff is really suffering,  school takes so long that there are just not enough hours in the day to do everything!

I don’t want to mess with the school schedule.  It is working for the first time in a couple of years, and I don’t want to mess that up.  I do need to look closer at how the interruptions to our week affect the schedule (things like Bible Bowl and piano), but overall it works pretty well.

You know, I think that I am afraid that if I figure it all out, there won’t be enough time left for any fun stuff.  I have to remember that fun stuff is important too.  I can’t function if all I do is chores all day long…

I think that I have finally figured it out.

I am just trying to do too much, make that way too much.  I have a time for chores in the morning, but if I do my morning chores right it takes three times as long as I have scheduled.  No wonder I feel like I can never get everything done.  I think that it is back to the drawing board for my schedule.

The thing is that I didn’t realize this.  I really thought that I could do it in the time allowed, and when I didn’t I figured that I was just wasting too much time on something else.  When I broke it all down by jobs, I realized that I had scheduled two and a half hours of work in an hour’s time, and I need to be helping kids during that hour.  Of course it doesn’t work, why did I ever think that it would.  Now that I realize it, I can figure out what I want to drop, instead of just dropping the least urgent (which is never the least important) thing.  Maybe some things like vacuuming and mopping can start getting done again!

Some thoughts.

I posted this on the Sonlight Forums and thought that I would share it here too.

If you are given a gift of money from someone unexpected, please just smile and say thank you. Don’t try to give the money back, don’t be embarrassed that you need it, be gracious to the giver and say thank you. If you truly don’t need the money, think about someone you know that does,  and ask (or just tell) the giver if you could re-gift part (or all) of the money to the new person. (Maybe God wants that person to have it and the only way to get it to them is through you receiving a gift.)

When you refuse a generous gift, you may be turning down more than your gift. The giver may feel bad for trying to give you a gift that you didn’t want and it may make it harder for the giver to give to the next person in need.

I know that it can be hard to accept a gift, but when you refuse you are also refusing to allow the giver the joy (and blessings) of giving. You may be refusing to allow them to do what God has asked them to do.

Just some things to think on this Holiday season.

Another sick day.

It seems that I have yet another stomach bug.  Ya know, this can get REAL old, REAL fast!  Mostly I ignored it today.  I wanted to just go back to bed, but sleeping it off didn’t help that much last time, so I though I would try the ‘If you ignore it, maybe it will just go away’ approach.  So far, so good.  I’m tired and ready to go to bed, but don’t seem to be any worse for wear.  It was a busy day that had us running all over town.  I hate days like that, but sometimes there is just no way to avoid it.

A new way to do math!

Did you know that if you type a math problem into google (like 7+8 or 34 X 4) it will give you the answer. 

 My kids know it.  They learned it from another homeschooling friend.  Honey asked me if I e-mailed her friends mom, and I admited that I did.  She said that was good, poor Honey was afraid that her friend wouldn’t learn any math if she kept doing this.  Did you get that!  Honey was worried about her friend not learning math!  Honey who struggles with math, who will on occasion lie about this or that, did not try to use this for herself, but wanted to help her friend.  I am pretty proud of her for that.

There’s a Dead Rat in the Basement Mom!

Yep, thats what Honey said when she came into my bedroom yesterday.  I was still feeling queasy.  So, I did what any good mom would do, I went and got the good dad!  I never saw the mouse, but evidently, there was a dead one in the basement.  (It was a mouse not a rat.)  Now there are three mouse traps in the basement.  Maybe there will be more ‘dead rats’ in the basement.