2 (.367) months old

I meant to write a blog post when Violet turned 2 months, really I did.  I even wrote an outline, see??

shots and reaction - slept 2:30pm
smiles and coos
In addition to kissable chunky cheeks, chunky thighs
only falls asleep in Ergo - picture
3rd time mom no tylenol
still in cradle
hemangioma
reflux?  dairy free runny nose
saw obama - cried through it
11 lb. 5 oz.

Unfortunately I never finished it.  Maybe one day I will, or maybe you can decipher Violet updates by my notes.  In the meantime, I will let Violet tell you how the past month has gone for her:

Homeschooling - how is it going?

Well, it's going a bit differently than we had planned, which is not surprising.  After all, this is our first time homeschooling, so it is understandable that we might have to tweak our methods.  Our changes came down to two main factors - Ellie needed more structure and we don't have much time to plan activities.  She was getting bored because we weren't supplying her with enough projects to do.

Our new and improved homeschooling style has a name - we are using the Charlotte Mason method.  Basically we read a chapter of a quality book each day, have Ellie copy a sentence we choose out of the chapter, and then draw a picture about what we read.  We have actual "school time" which lasts 1/2 hour to an hour each morning and begins whenever Violet goes down for her morning nap.  Rowan joins along with us and listens to the chapter (we are currently reading Little House in the Big Woods) and trys writing a word if he wants to, otherwise he just draws.  Here are some examples of their schoolwork:

Rowan's drawing.  Not sure what it is, but there are a lot of somethings!

Ellie's copywork



The copywork helps with reading (Ellie reads each sentence before she copies it), writing words, and learning punctuation.  Ellie seems to like having actual school time more than the free style we tried before.

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays (afternoons) Ellie goes to preschool where she socializes, does art projects, and learns during circle time.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays Rowan goes to preschool and I do math or science projects with Ellie.  On Friday mornings the entire family goes on a field trip.  So far we've done mostly outdoor field trips because we know in a month or so we'll mostly be indoors due to weather.  In addition, Ellie is taking ballet and yoga in the community.

Right now this is the method that works for us.  I am sure it will mold and change as we go along!

Nature walk

Ellie led me on a nature walk today.

The leaves are starting to turn bright colors

But not quite as bright as these hairclips I bought for her and Violet to share

She doesn't even care if she looks like Princess Leia with one behind each ear.

On our way back home we found a really neat tree-lined path

Come on Mom!

Look Mom, I'm taller than you!

Aren't the leaves going to be beautiful?

But not as beautiful as Ellie :)

Today was not my day

It was supposed to start out well.  Jason promised Rowan that he would wake up early to spend time with him, leaving me to sleep in with Violet.  Unfortunately, Violet also woke up, but at least she was content to stay in bed with me and gaze around while I dozed until she fell asleep again.  So, I had a late start to the day, but from the time I woke up until just a couple of minutes ago, I have been running nonstop.  Here is a picture that pretty much sums up my day:

I put these dishes in hot soapy water to soak just after I woke up.  They are still sitting there now, in cold scummy water, waiting for me to drain the water and refill so I can wash them.  I just never got a chance to clean them today.  In between snacks, lunch, walking to and from preschool (twice), having a friend over to play, playing outside after school, and running to ballet, we were pretty busy.  Throw in a fussy 5-week-old, and my hands were too full to wash dishes.

I mentioned ballet - today Ellie started another cycle of ballet class tonight.  It is at an inconvenient time for us, but not impossible.  I lucked out and a neighbor volunteered to have Rowan over to play with her boys, but I did have to wake up Violet to race to ballet with Ellie.  Big mistake!  She was not happy with me, and she was very vocal about it.  In fact, I must have looked pretty flustered, because one of the moms at ballet (a complete stranger) kindly offered to pick up or drop off Ellie any time.  Hmm, a little odd, but she was very sweet.  Violet calmed down a little as we sat down to wait for our ballet girls.  Then, she exploded in her diaper.  Ah, that made her feel even better - for a few minutes.  Then she was not happy about the stuff in her diaper.  The problem?  I didn't have any other diapers.  I grabbed one during our rush out the door, but I must have dropped it on the way to the car.  So, I took the screaming baby to the car to hunt for something that could be a diaper.  I found a cloth wipe (and some disposable wipes) and headed back into the school, but I didn't make it there without falling into a small hole in the grass and scraping up my leg.  See?

I totally fell to the ground, but luckily I had a tight grasp on Violet and she was unharmed (she was also unharmed when Rowan brought her to me this afternoon, but that's another story).  So, I went into the bathroom, wiped up Violet, and made a temporary diaper out of paper towels and the cloth wipe.  I felt a little embarrassed going back to the other moms, because I now had another reason for them to feel pity for me, but I asked the helpful mom to hold Violet while I cleaned off my leg as well as I could.  And yes, it was as painful as it looks :)

Then, I came home, put a real diaper on Violet, and put all three kids to bed.  Thankyouverymuch.  I don't really drink alcohol, or I would be having a nice glass of wine or two right now.  Instead, I indulge in gooey treats.  Like warm peanut butter chocolate chip cookies with frozen vanilla custard and nutella on top.

Now, who wants to go reach in the sink and unplug the scummy water so I can wash the dishes???

Baby love... for a little while

One month? Seriously?!?

Violet is one month old today.  When did that happen?  We've been so busy around here that the time has just flown by.  Just look at how much she has grown!

So many people ask me, "How do you do it all?"  The honest answer is, I don't.  The house is usually a mess, the older kids are always fighting, and sometimes I don't shower for 3 days straight.  I just make what is important to me a priority.  For me, that is family, food, and fun.  I'll pack up the kids and head to the library to escape the toys covering the living room.  Push all the dirty dishes into the sink so I can make apple crisp.  Skip a shower and even some sleep if it means game night with the neighbors (as long as they don't mind the smell!). 

Still, it has been a little chaotic around here lately.  I know Ellie is old enough now to start having permanent memories, and I sure hope she doesn't remember holding her screaming sister while I go to the bathroom, playing in pajamas with Rowan while Jason and I try to sleep in a little longer, and spending "mom and me time" cleaning the bathrooms.  Instead, I hope she remembers going apple picking as a family, riding her bike down to the soccer field with Daddy every day for soccer camp, and climbing trees with neighbor friends.  I am being very conscious of not putting too much responsibility on her at such a young age, but it is so tempting to ask her for help when I just need a helping hand, because she is usually my most responsible option. 

 Violet is by far our most attached baby.  I never thought I would let one of our kids sleep in the bed with us, but it has just worked out best to have her stay in our bed.  Actually, Violet is pretty much on me all day and night, except when Jason is home from work and able to walk around holding her.  She is the most content snuggled up in someone's arms (or baby carrier).  (By the way, have I told you all about our trip to my dentist when she was 3 weeks old?  Let's just say, I never in my wildest dreams imagined I would nurse a baby while reclined with my mouth wide open as the dental hygienist scraped away at my teeth.  Fun times.)   As she gets older, she does tolerate lying down to look around for brief periods of time.  Especially if Rowan is entertaining her :)

The next two months are gearing up to be even more busy for our family.  Jason is working full time for the university's teacher assistant union throughout the 2010 election.  The older kids have started preschool again - Ellie going M/W/F afternoons and Rowan going T/Th afternoons - which means we walk to the preschool every weekday.  We'll also be doing homeschooling activities with both of them.  In addition to school, Ellie is taking yoga and ballet and Rowan is taking yoga and soccer.  Little Violet will be busy learning basically everything.  And me, well, right now I'm just along for the ride :)

Newborn days

Ahh, the newborn days.  Sleep, poop, eat, spit up, cry, sleep, poop, eat.  Throw in two other kids (who have taken turns throwing up), and we've had a busy 10 days.  After Mimi and Papi's visit, we tried to lay low and stay home for a while, but it was just too dang hot!  So, we spent one afternoon at a new (to us) library, and it just might be our favorite library in town.  The next afternoon we took a trip to McDonalds to play in the nice, cool play area.  Some of our friends drove down to play with the kids and meet Violet, and we had a lot of fun, but the trip flipped a switch in Violet.  She did not sleep for the entire 3 hours we were there because it was so noisy with the kids running around screaming.  I think she got overtired, and since then it's been difficult to get her to sleep.  Until yesterday, when I decided that I would let her sleep whenever she wanted and not wake her up, even if she slept for "too long."  I feel okay doing this since at her 4 day check-up she was 2 ounces ABOVE her birth weight, when usually it takes babies an average of 10 days to get back up to birth weight.  So I have no worries about her eating enough. Also, I'm afraid to admit this, but she is now sleeping on her stomach.  I know, it's dangerous in regards to SIDS, but she just wouldn't sleep on her back any more.  Rowan was also a stomach sleeper.  So, she is back on track with her sleeping now, but I wake up every half hour to check and make sure she is still breathing :)

I'm going to post a video of newborn Violet that honestly will only be entertaining to either family or those who think it's adorable to hiccup and spew milk.  :)  You won't hurt my feelings if you skip watching it!

First days with Violet

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Welcome Violet Nova!

(Don't worry, I'm not missing sleep to write this blog post.  I was taking a nap until my sister woke me up - ha ha, Nichole!)

Well, it looks like little Violet was waiting for Mimi and Papi to come visit before she made her entrance into the world.  Her official due date was Friday July 30, 2010.  As each day passed after that, I started to doubt my body's ability to do it's job evicting the baby.  Maybe it forgot how?  I had no signs of approaching labor.  Mimi and Papi finally arrived in Madison on Wednesday afternoon, after an overnight journey from AZ including an unexpected bus ride from Chicago to Madison.  The kids and I picked them up at the bus stop (Jason would have come, but there was no room for him in the car!), took them to the airport to pick up their rental car, and then escorted them to Culver's for some late lunch.  All afternoon plans were scrapped with their delayed arrival - them being too tired and everyone being too hot - so we just stayed at home and enjoyed what little breeze there was in the shade outside until the mosquitos chased us in for dinner.  The kids went to bed and the grown-ups followed not too long after them.

I woke up at 1am with a contraction.  This was not too out of the ordinary for me; I had not been sleeping more than a couple hours the last few nights because of being hot, uncomfortable, and having a few random contractions.  But this contraction, this one felt different.  There was more of a purpose with this contraction than just the usual tightening.  So, I stayed awake in bed to see if it was followed by any more.  I almost fell back asleep when another finally came about 11 minutes later.  I told myself, "Hmm, I'll see if one more comes."  I think I did fall back asleep before the next one hit, again about 11 minutes later.  So, I decided to get up and walking, because if the baby was even thinking of coming out, I was going to assist in any way I could!  For the next two hours, contractions came and went, and they seemed so not-intense that I began to doubt if I was really in labor.  Did I just waste 2 hours of sleep in hopeful anticipation?  Eventually the contractions started to form a pattern, and I started considering waking up Mom and Jason.  Since Mom had not slept the night before due to traveling, I hated to wake her for no reason.  I was also hesitant to call my doctor, since I was not completely clear if I needed to call her or not.  During the summer the doctors at my clinic seemed to always be trading vacation times and I never really knew who was on-call when.  So, I made up my mind to wait until 4am to call the doctor, then wake up family if needed. 

The reason this was such a dilemma for me is that Rowan's labor went very quickly.  With him, I had been having almost constant Braxton Hicks contractions for a few days leading up to his birth.  On his due date, I woke up at midnight with contractions, went to the hospital around 2am, and he was born a little after 3am.  I was a little worried that Violet's labor would be even faster, but it turned out that she had her very own schedule.

The doctor told me to go on in to the hospital, so I woke up Jason and Mom.  I think I scared both of them (well, I KNOW I scared mom) by sneaking up to them using my cell phone as a flashlight, but after a few seconds they each caught on to the purpose of my waking them up, and they jumped out of bed to get dressed.  Once we started walking out of the house, I think I finally let my body go ahead into labor.  During the car ride my contractions came closer together, and the walk up to L & D seemed sooo long.  I came into maternity triage about 5am and submitted to the 20 minute required monitoring to check the baby's heartbeat.  This point of the labor was the most painful with Rowan's birth, because with him I was required to lay down in the bed for monitoring, and my body DOES NOT like being flat during labor.  I asked if we could raise the bed to sitting for this birth, and it was a lifesaver!  The 20 minutes went by quickly instead of agonizingly as with Rowan. 

A resident came to check my progress and I remember he said, "Let's see if you are really in labor."  I laughed out loud, because I had no doubt, but I understood why he said that.  When I am in labor, I am pretty silent.  The only way you can tell I am having a contraction is because I might breathe a little deeper.  Even near the end, I can still hold a conversation as long as I don't have to move or be touched.  To them, I probably looked like nothing was happening.  But, the resident checked me and I was dialated to six centimeters.  He congratulated me that I would be allowed to stay and be checked into a labor room.  He was about to leave, but I stopped him and told him that I would most likely give birth very soon.  I told him that with Rowan I went from 5 cm to complete in less than an hour.  I'm so glad I told him that, and that all the staff really listened to me and believed me!  He took a quick ultrasound to make sure Violet was still positioned head down, and then they moved me into the huge, beautiful, and relaxing labor and delivery room.  Too bad I wasn't going to spend much time in there :)

It was around 6am that we arrived in the room.  I could tell that the contractions were getting even more intense, but still not even what I would call painful.  When I would have a contraction, I would just relax my entire body and just breathe through the contraction, imagining Violet moving down cm. by cm.  At 6:30 I told the nurse that I wanted to be checked because I felt a lot of pressure down there.  She checked and I was around 9 cm with just a little bit of cervix left.  For the next 20 minutes the contractions were the most intense, and I stayed on the bed just in case my body decided to push on it's own :) 

Finally I felt my body trying to push during the contraction, so I called the nurse back in, and the doctor and resident followed right behind her.  The doctor checked me and gave me the go ahead to push when I wanted.  She told me that if my water didn't break on it's own during the first push, she would break it manually since she did not feel like taking an amniotic fluid shower :)  During the next contraction I gave a tentative push, as I was still trying to remember how the pushing part worked.  After that contraction, the doctor broke my bag of waters and we waited for the next contraction to start pushing again.  Boy I forgot how hard the pushing part is!  It is by far the hardest part of labor, even though it goes by so quickly.  During each push I just chanted in my head, "I can do this, almost done!"  I remembered the feeling of relief once the baby comes out, and I was looking forward to that feeling!  I think it took three contractions before Violet was completely out, and boy did it feel good when she was lying on my stomach staring up at me.  The time of birth was 7:04 am.

My first thought, and I think the first thing I said, was, "She is so tiny!"  And for us, she was.  Ellie was 8 lbs. 1oz., Rowan was 9 lbs. when he was born, and Violet weighed in at a (tiny) 7lbs. 7oz. 

Violet was so kind to me, which made up for her making us wait for her to be born.  I didn't have to have any stitches, and the only time I felt real pain during the entire labor was when her head was coming out.  Oh, and every time after the birth when the nurses would push down on my uterus to keep it contracting - I hate that part!!  Overall, I really enjoyed this labor experience the most.  I really felt like I understood my body, was able to listen to it and do what felt most comfortable, and the hospital staff was very supportive. 

I am really enjoying my hospital stay - much more than the Havasu hospital.  This place is much more like a hotel - with free, on-demand room service!  Let's just say I have been eating well :D  The family is out canoeing the Wisconsin River right now, and I am resting as I can and eating as I can.  Violet is eating as she can and being held as she can.  I have the option of spending another night here, but I'll be going home right after dinner.  It will be nice to be in my own bed, plus the hospital kitchen closes at 7pm anyway :)  Hmm, I better go get the menu to pick out my afternoon snack... maybe a sandwich and a chocolate shake?

My next post will have pictures, although I cannot guarantee when that will be.  This took almost 3 hours to accomplish, and I only have one child to take care of right now.  I'll be using the grandparents as much as possible this weekend - I hope they don't think they are on vacation ;)

Feeling hot, hot, hot

What is with this humid heat wave coming during my last few miserable pregnant weeks??  I feel like I have gone through a rite of passage this pregnancy - swollen hands and feet.  I never experienced this with the other two kids, probably because their birthdays are a little earlier in the summer, and AZ is so dry.  But I've been waking up every morning sweating from the heat, unable to close my hands until they loosen up a bit, and feeling pain with every step I take on my swollen feet.  Luckily most of that passes within the first hour of being awake, but the symptoms are sure to revisit me throughout the day :) 

Despite all this, I have to keep the kids occupied each day.  On rainy days it is a little difficult, but luckily there are lots of things to do in Madison during the summer.  We go to the (air-conditioned) library, the not-too-far-away splash park, or the pool.  The pool is my favorite, even though it takes a lot more planning and packing, but I feel best when submerged in the cool water :)  Now that Ellie is pretty self-sufficient in the water, I can easily handle them by myself at the pool.  She even goes on the water slides all by herself (Rowan can't go because he isn't tall enough and riders have to go alone).  I'm so glad we decided to buy a pool pass this year, because it definitely has been worth the money! 

Surprise!  Free ice cream sundaes at the pool today

These diving rings were extremely popular, and we ended up sharing them with lots of other kids

Silliness at snack time

Playing outside to dry off before heading home

Musical Ellie

Jason is working this weekend on his prelims to enter dissertator status for his Ph.D. program, so yesterday the kids and I spent all day out of the house (library, Walmart, Sonic, splash park) and today we spent the afternoon at the pool and Trader Joe's.  But this morning, Jason took time out of his work to watch Ellie perform at the church where I work.  She attended a music camp at the church this past week, and the kids showed off what they learned during the service today.  The church is episcopalian, and even after working there for 2 1/2 years, I had yet to attend a service.  It was really interesting to experience the rituals that are so different from the churches I was raised in.  We were so proud of Ellie, not just for her performances, but mostly because the kids had to sit on the stage for the ENTIRE service, and they were so good!  Here are a couple videos from the service:

Swimming

Our family has found a new love: swimming.  The kids LOVE the water, and they especially love that we bought a membership to our local pool for the summer.  Before this summer, they both enjoyed playing in water, but we can see a huge difference in their braveness in the water.  Ellie swims fearlessly (and very enthusiastically, everyone behind her gets soaked!).  Yesterday I taught her how to do a cannonball, and she also loves that she is now 2 inches above the height required to go down the water slides at the pool.  Rowan doesn't really swim, but he loves jumping into the pool at the 2 feet deep ledge (by himself, no catching allowed!).

We don't get many pictures, since we are in the water with them, but Jason did capture a couple videos.

Swimming today:  you can see Ellie in the pink swim outfit on the left side starting to swim away.



This is not a great video, it's just us after the kids' last swim lesson for the summer. I'm just posting it so you can see my 36 week pregnant belly in action :)

Father's Day and Rowan's Birthday

Most of this will be a repeat for my Facebook friends, but since I use my blog as a family scrapbook of sorts, I feel I need to enter everything in the blog as well. So, here come all the pictures from Father's Day and Rowan's birthday!

For father's day, the kids and I planned a super secret canoe trip on the Wisconsin River.  Of course the same day I told the kids about our super secret trip, Jason told me that Ellie told him all about it, but that he couldn't tell me he knew because it was secret.  Now I know I can't trust Ellie (or Jason) with my secrets :)  Seriously though, I knew Jason would find out, so I wasn't too worried. 

I reserved the canoe (using Groupon, have you checked if your city has Groupon?  It brings a new amazing deal every day!), packed a couple days' worth of food, and drove the family 45 minutes away to begin our adventure.  The canoe company picked us up at the ending point of the trip, shuttled us to a location 10 miles up river, and left us with a canoe, life jackets, paddles, and instructions to paddle down to just before the third bridge to where our car was parked.  I expected a little more instruction than that, but I guess navigating canoes is not too difficult.  We made it out alive at least!

We really had a blast!  Ellie was whining a lot at first that it was too scary and we were going to tip (which we never did), but the nice thing about the Wisconsin river is that most of the river is shallow enough to reach the bottom.  There are so many sandbars that create little islands perfect for a stopping point to eat and splash in the water.  Jason and I came home with sunburned legs and random other spots on our bodies, but other than that, it was a great day.  Definitely worth doing again.

We're ready!

Our navigator.  Although we realized halfway through that the person in the front does twice as much work at the person in the back for half the results.  So, Jason switched to the back and I just did pretty much nothing :)

Look, from behind I don't even look 7 1/2 months pregnant :)

Ooh, Jason caught a fish

Rowan's birthday started off with him waking me up super early.  But how can you get annoyed with this adorable 3 year old smiling at you?

We went out to lunch at Noodles and Company, shopped at Border's so he could spend some birthday money on a toy he picked out all by himself, and ran into the grocery store for some supplies to make his brachiosaurus birthday brownies he requested.  I found an easy tutorial online on how to make this fun dinosaur, although I made it even more fun by coloring it bright blue instead of dino green and adding colorful M&M spots.  And Rowan made sure to point out that it wasn't really a brachiosaurus because the "cake" has spikes, and brachiosaurus do not.  Whatever, the spikes were too cute to leave off.

The bright blue frosting and chocolate ice cream left wonderful mustaches on all the kids

Homeschool Q & A

Just to start, I'm going to list the three main reasons we decided to homeschool.

1.  Quality of education.  I have no doubt that a child can get a great education from a regular school.  I LOVED school, and I think my education was incredible.  From what I know of it, I really like the elementary school that our kids would go to here in Madison.  The main thing we don't like about public education is that it is really difficult to tailor the education to each child.  A teacher has to do his/her best for the entire class and cannot feasibly give each student completely different tasks dependant on what level they are at or what interests them.  This is one benefit we see from homeschooling.  With only 3 kids (for now)  ;D  that we will be teaching, we have a lot more time to spend with each child.  We will learn from years of experience how each child learns best and can use that knowledge in helping them learn as much as possible about the world.

2.  Freedom.  Freedom in what we teach, when we teach, and where we teach.  We will not have set school times (as you can read below), so our kids will be learning when they are most ready.  Unless we have a scheduled activity, I will not have to wake up my kids to get ready to school.  As far as subjects, our kids can learn about whatever we want to teach them or they want to learn.  Fencing?  Car Mechanics?  Russian?  If any child shows a great skill or interest in a certain subject, we can help cultivate that skill with basically no time constraints.  If we ever have a normal income, we would love to be able to travel.

3. Social.  There are some things about society that, although we know our kids will need to learn someday, we don't feel like they need to learn them so early.  Things like grades, tests, rankings, cliques, "mean people."  We will enroll them in extracurricular activities and they will have friends, so they will deal with all that to an extent, but we will have a lot more control over what they are exposed to at an early (impressionable) age.  I'm sure I'll get some criticism for this reason :)

The Porters said...


I don't have any questions (yet), but I do have a request. Can you teach Ellie how to type and upload pictures so that she can keep the blog posts coming when her Mommy is busy with Violet? Just a thought! Computer class would be awesome and very productive! :)

That would be a great idea - if I wasn't so possessive of my computer :)  We do let the kids use it sometimes, but I'm always afraid they will do something to it and I won't be able to figure out how to get it undone.  If we had space, I would set up an old laptop for them.  Hmm, good project to get started on...

Nichole said...



Sorry if you have multiple posts with questions from me, but I'm very curious about homeschooling things. The one thing I still REALLY want to know is what curriculum you're using, and what are you planning on teaching as far as subjects go? Will you teach all the subjects they'd learn in public school? Are you teaching whatever the child is interested in that day (I've heard this is sometimes done with homeschooling) or making sure they meet the standards they'd meet in a public school? Are you planning on home schooling all your kids or just the ones that you think would benefit more in that setting? Ummm... let me think some more. I know I had more questions than that, and not because I don't like homeschooling, but because I'm very curious about your personal plans. It's the teacher in me!  Another one... if one or more of your kids tells you they'd rather go to public school, would you let them?


We will not be using a set curriculum.  Our homeschooling style will be classified as "eclectic." The different teaching styles are explained here.  Ours will be a mix of Unit Studies, Living Books (or Charlotte Mason), and Identity-Directed.  We are using a method of organization called "The Workbox System;" this method is described really well here.  We are planning on buying these storage carts as soon as they come back in stock.  During the evening, I will fill each drawer with an activity for Ellie (and Rowan will probably end up with his own, since he'll want to do anything Ellie does) to do.  Since there are 6 drawers, we will do 6 "subjects" each day.  Reading and math will most likely be daily activities, but the other subjects will be: history, geography, science, music, spanish, art, P.E, possibly others.  Our goal is that every activity in the box will be something fun that Ellie will enjoy doing.  For example, for math we might play Monopoly or one of her ThinkFun logic games.  For science, we'll do a cool science project.  There are sooo many homeschooling blogs that provide great ideas for fun activities. 

The one difference (from many traditional homeschoolers) that we will have in our homeschooling plan is that it will be a great deal child-led.  Ellie can work on any box whenever she wants, and she might not even choose to do all the boxes each day.  If we see that there is a certain subject or activity that she never chooses, we will have to work hard to think of enjoyable ways to pursue that subject.  We will have no set school time. 

We will aim for at least one field trip a week.  A lot of times our workboxes will focus on the same idea, explored through different subjects.  One big project we are planning on is studying different countries around the world.  We will learn geography, history, language, cooking, art, reading, and maybe even more through studying one country.  Or we'll study all aspects about a certain place nearby, and then go to visit. 

We will keep our eyes on the standards typical public school students would be learning, but not follow them strictly.  We don't want to completely miss out on a certain skill/knowledge, but it's not crucial to us that our kids know them exactly when other kids do. 

From our experience in teaching Ellie so far, we think this style will be good for her.  She is self-motivated and loves to learn.  One good thing about homeschooling is that we can change what we do at any time if it doesn't work out for us.  Rowan (and Violet) may not learn in the same ways, so we may have to tweak our system for them in the future.  But our goal for now is to homeschool all the kids, as long as we find it beneficial.  If, in the future, one of our kids tells us they want to go to school, we will evaluate the reasons why they want to before we make a decision. 

aliciajill said...



hmmm, let's see. What curriculum are you using? Is Ellie excited? How long do you plan to homeschool for (just the lower grades? or through high school?)? Does your district offer online classes, or the option for homeschool kids to participate in certain activities/field trips? Are you going to join a homeschooling group? I know there are some out there that offer special opportunities for kids to socialize/do special things. I think homeschooling is great, at B's gymnastics school a lot of kids are homeschooled and I have often pondered it. I can't wait to hear how it goes for you!



Ellie is excited.  When we first mentioned homeschooling to her, she was upset that she wouldn't be going to the same school where her neighbors go.  But the more she learns about what you do in school, and what we'll be doing at home, the more she likes the idea of homeschooling.  Plus, where we live she will see her friends after school a lot.  She will also be going to her preschool three afternoons a week.  We enrolled her there just for fun, and she has a friend in her class who will also be starting homeschooled kindergarten.  We figured she enjoys it, she'll still be 5 for almost all of the school year, and Jason's school subsidizes most of the tuition, so we will hardly pay anything for her to go.

I've heard that the nearby elementary school lets homeschoolers join in P.E., art, and maybe even more.  We'll have to look into that soon.  There are a lot of homeschooling groups in Madison, but I haven't check out any of them yet.  I'm hoping that if we move after Jason graduates, it will be another homeschool-friendly city like Madison is. 

Mindy said...



Hey! We will be homeschooling too, but not until next year! It's really big here in Middle TN. I am going to use Ambleside Online since we did a little of it for preschool stuff and it's practically free if you have a good library and computer/printer setup. Also, there are a lot of co-ops here, so Kyle will attend electives once a week at one of those, which will be great for all of us! Can't wait to hear about your homeschooling adventure, tips, and tricks since you'll be a year ahead of us!

I hadn't checked out Ambleside Online yet, but that looks like an incredible resource!  I think as the kids get older, our style will switch to more of a Charlotte Mason approach.


Additional info:

None of our plans are set in stone and will most likely change as the kids get older and we see what works and what doesn't. 

This is completely written by me (Kirsten) and Jason has not read it yet, so he could have differing ideas on some points. :)

We would love to have a regular volunteer project that Ellie can do, does anyone have ideas for something a 5-year-old can do on a regular basis? 

Homeschooling

I have had tons of questions about homeschooling, but unfortunately I don't remember a lot of them.  And I can't go back far enough in Facebook to find them :)  If anyone has any questions, please post them as comments and I will answer them within the next couple days.  Thanks!

The past month in pictures

In the past month...

Rowan has fallen in the lake

Ellie hatched butterflies from caterpillars

Ellie mastered riding with no training wheels

We've eaten a lot of salads!

We've played a little bit inside...

but mostly outside.

Jason and I went to Milwaukee (without kids!)

And enjoyed many evenings with the neighbors

We've spent tons of time in the garden

Violet Nova Tatum has grown enormous :)

We tried moving Rowan to a toddler bed, but we've been unsuccessful

And Ellie has been practicing for (homeschooling) kindergarten

Whew!  As you can see, I have been much too busy to blog (at least that is my excuse)  ;D