Many people have asked me how I keep the younger children entertained while I teach the older kids. First let me tell you that my opinion of schooling may differ from some. I consider schooling more than sitting down at a table or a desk for hours learning what any school could or would teach my children. (although academics are important to function in this world!) I don't formally start my children's "school" until much later than some. My 8 year old can not read yet, not because I am lazy, because I can see he is not ready yet, although getting closer. It would only frustrate him and cause him to look at reading as a joy only a struggle. (My oldest son was the guinea pig for this!) To this day, reading is not something he enjoys! Now my 5 year old can read better than some 2 or 3 years older than him and he spells EVERYTHING out loud. I have really not formally taught him to read. He just has a passion for it and started himself. Not the norm in our family. Usually I have had to guide the previous readers through our wonderful phonics curriculum that has worked so well. The whole goal for my husband and I from the very beginning of our homeschooling journey was to teach or children to teach themselves. If they can learn that skill, they can learn anything and my guidance is all they will need. So, to continue on with the topic question, what do I do with the younger ones while I am busy with the older ones. Because we are a little more structured as far as educating our older kids, I do have to be creative with the little ones while I GUIDE the others. Here are some tips I hope you can use:
1. Monday's are the busy day because that is when I sit with the oldest 3 and give them their assignments for the week. I allow them to work at their own pace and THEY decide when they accomplish their assignments. I have one that has a hard time planning ahead but a couple times of taking away a privilege because work is not accomplished makes a BIG impact! So on Mondays, my 4th child gets the joy of planning an activity for them. (I usually help her Sunday night come up with a little lesson and simple craft.) Usually they do things lots quicker than I need them too, but then they can read books quietly until we are done.
2. The baby naps in the morning still, so the younger 3 after him, have blanket time. I have a certain activity that they do on their blankets, chosen by me, that they must stay on their blanket to do. After one half hour, they can rotate their activity with their brother if they wish. Some things I give them are a box of Legos, potato heads, blocks, wooden trains and track, play cars, Lincoln Logs. This does take a little time to train them to stay on their blankets, but it is worth the effort and it teaches them to focus. That is what their school is at this age! I have even been known to reward them with watching a movie of my choice as long as they stay on their blanket. I do not do this often, because it really would defeat the whole purpose.
3 Play-dough, need I say more?! Not on their blankets by the way!
4. Creating a simple snack with the oldest that is not busy with mom.
5. Books on their blanket is set aside for Fridays. Sometimes they end up playing with them instead of reading them, but as long as they are on their blankets and quiet, let the creativity flow!
6. Wonder Markers and the books that go with them. If you are not familiar with them, they can be costly, but a good investment. They color only on the paper you buy for the special markers and are invisible on anything else. Great for toddlers! The older kids enjoy them also.
7. Old fashioned crayons and coloring books work well too. I do have some that just don't care for coloring much however.
8. I have one rubbermaid of toys that I only get out about once a month for the days when I need a little more time than normal or just a change. It is hands off unless mom says!
I don't feel real creative but these are some of things I use. Blanket time works the best and it usually allows me just enough time to complete what I need to do. Start young and work your way up and there will be less struggle. If you are starting from scratch, be patient and consistent.
I would love to hear your ideas! Post them on my comments page if you have any good ideas!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
In spite of Me!
As a mother I wonder so many times what kind of impact I am making on my children for the sake of Jesus. I see so much my flesh and just wonder if I am being the example God really desires me to be for my children. Well, yesterday I had what I call a camel moment from God. (Those are the moments I use to get through the "dry" days. They carry me through just as a camel stores up fat in his humps to get through the desert.) We were sitting in our usual places for our morning bible time and I was talking to the children about Luke 9:23-26. It is about denying yourself and taking up your cross daily. I was telling the little ones it might mean sharing a toy that you want to play with or giving your last favorite piece of candy to somebody who had none. To the older ones, I said maybe it might be doing something that is right that you may lose friends over or they might laugh at you. You put someone else first instead of only thinking about yourself and what you want. I sometimes wonder how much they all listen. Some mornings it is like we are all on the same page and other times I feel all I really do is talk to myself.
Earlier that morning my mom called and said there was a lady from Bosnia at her church that came up to her and asked if she knew of anyone trying to get rid of a cat. She really wanted one. Immediately we came to my mom's mind. My oldest son has an 8 month old kitten that he took in. He paid for her to be spayed and all of her shots, buys all of her food and anything else she might need. I never said a word to him about giving HIS kitten to her. After bible time I was in the kitchen, and he came in and said, "Mom, when you praying during bible time, God told me I was to give Midnight to the lady in Bosnia and to buy everything she might need to get her started with the cat. " He started crying and I started crying. It was a very special time! My first thought was, I'll find another way! It is so hard to see my son sacrifice something that is so important to him! It was not only something he loved, but something he had spent quite a bit of money on! It was then that I realized the prayers I have prayed for him to have an encounter with God and for my children to hear God's voice was being answered! How could I even think of stopping something so valuable in my son's life? Through my son's tears, I reminded him of the sacrifice that God made for us when He allowed His only son to die on the cross for us! I'm sure He did want to see His son suffer. He could have let the cup pass from Him, but He knew what was best. Now, my son is just sacrificing a cat, but it was such a great moment for us to look and appreciate the cross and all that our Jesus has done for us! It is all about our hearts. Are we willing to deny ourselves and pick up our cross daily? The cross was not just a little thing that he could carry in one of His hands. He had to carry and drag it on His back in the heat, on dirt roads while people were laughing and mocking Him! Sometimes the things He asks us to do are not easy, but if we are looking to Him, He will be there to pick us up and strengthen us. When my son hands that kitten over to the Bosnian lady, it will not be easy, but God will be there and I take comfort in knowing that whatever God asks of my children, no matter how difficult, He is right beside them. This has eternal value! It also reminded me, that no matter how my humanness comes through so often, God is faithful, and He DOES use me to teach my children about Him in spite of me!
Earlier that morning my mom called and said there was a lady from Bosnia at her church that came up to her and asked if she knew of anyone trying to get rid of a cat. She really wanted one. Immediately we came to my mom's mind. My oldest son has an 8 month old kitten that he took in. He paid for her to be spayed and all of her shots, buys all of her food and anything else she might need. I never said a word to him about giving HIS kitten to her. After bible time I was in the kitchen, and he came in and said, "Mom, when you praying during bible time, God told me I was to give Midnight to the lady in Bosnia and to buy everything she might need to get her started with the cat. " He started crying and I started crying. It was a very special time! My first thought was, I'll find another way! It is so hard to see my son sacrifice something that is so important to him! It was not only something he loved, but something he had spent quite a bit of money on! It was then that I realized the prayers I have prayed for him to have an encounter with God and for my children to hear God's voice was being answered! How could I even think of stopping something so valuable in my son's life? Through my son's tears, I reminded him of the sacrifice that God made for us when He allowed His only son to die on the cross for us! I'm sure He did want to see His son suffer. He could have let the cup pass from Him, but He knew what was best. Now, my son is just sacrificing a cat, but it was such a great moment for us to look and appreciate the cross and all that our Jesus has done for us! It is all about our hearts. Are we willing to deny ourselves and pick up our cross daily? The cross was not just a little thing that he could carry in one of His hands. He had to carry and drag it on His back in the heat, on dirt roads while people were laughing and mocking Him! Sometimes the things He asks us to do are not easy, but if we are looking to Him, He will be there to pick us up and strengthen us. When my son hands that kitten over to the Bosnian lady, it will not be easy, but God will be there and I take comfort in knowing that whatever God asks of my children, no matter how difficult, He is right beside them. This has eternal value! It also reminded me, that no matter how my humanness comes through so often, God is faithful, and He DOES use me to teach my children about Him in spite of me!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Things that never cease to amaze me (and some things that are just a complete surprise)
Being a mother of 10 children, soon to be 11, I am amazed many times a day at the things I observe and find in my home. Yesterday was a little heavier, today I decided to find some humor in my little "blessings". Maybe you can relate, hopefully for your sake, you will be amazed at my surroundings too! ;)
5. How urine gets everywhere BUT in the toilet!
6. How the creative side of boys is used for unuseful things such as where to urinate. (examples=registers, in the seats of big wheels, garbage cans and brothers) I know maybe to much info!
7. When my husband says, "the older kids never used to do those things." I must remind him that they did not have 9 other siblings to observe. They just had sensible adults to watch!
8. How dried milk can end up ON THE CEILING!
9. How we can have all the laundry caught up and then the toilet overflows using 3 loads of towels. 2 for the bathroom on the 2nd level and 1 for the kitchen floor from the leaking roof on the 1st floor! OR all the laundry is caught up and the stomach flu makes a grand entrance into our home.
10. Why the older kids look at things such as cleaning and vacuuming as a "chore" and the younger ones look at it as a privilege.
11. When they use clothing for napkins and kleenex when we are fully stocked on both.
12.. How little boys really don't care when and IF they change their underwear.
13. Why nobody can flush a toilet.
14. How the human alert complaining system goes up when the baby needs a diaper change but nobody will change him.
15. What moms did before wipes were invented.
16. How closely related IT SEEMS that dads and kids are related to the ape family when it comes to interacting with bodily sounds and wrestling with each other.
17. If I decide to sit or lay on the floor, in a matter of seconds, boys come and climb on me or tackle me.
18. Life can stop when I have sick kids because all I want to do is sit and cuddle with them.
19. When my kids are healthy, I don't appreciate it!
20. How much joy and simplicity babies bring into a home.
21. How much I love being a mommy!
1. Toothpaste- how do globs of it end up on my bathroom mirror, cabinets, floor, walls, doors, and the toilet? How is the lid always missing, and when I do buy the kind that has the flip tops, why is it that 1 day after using the new tube, there is so much of it globbed on the top that it won't close? And how does the tube disappear at least once daily AND how is that when my husband and I were without children, it took us months to go through one tube, and now, I feel like I buy a tube weekly? (I guess that might have something to do with the artwork all over the bathroom)
2. How little boys can find mud to track in the house even when it has not rained or snowed for 6 weeks.
3. How windows get broke IN our home!
4. How food gets on my walls and baseboards when the dining room table is in the MIDDLE of the dining room!5. How urine gets everywhere BUT in the toilet!
6. How the creative side of boys is used for unuseful things such as where to urinate. (examples=registers, in the seats of big wheels, garbage cans and brothers) I know maybe to much info!
7. When my husband says, "the older kids never used to do those things." I must remind him that they did not have 9 other siblings to observe. They just had sensible adults to watch!
8. How dried milk can end up ON THE CEILING!
9. How we can have all the laundry caught up and then the toilet overflows using 3 loads of towels. 2 for the bathroom on the 2nd level and 1 for the kitchen floor from the leaking roof on the 1st floor! OR all the laundry is caught up and the stomach flu makes a grand entrance into our home.
10. Why the older kids look at things such as cleaning and vacuuming as a "chore" and the younger ones look at it as a privilege.
11. When they use clothing for napkins and kleenex when we are fully stocked on both.
12.. How little boys really don't care when and IF they change their underwear.
13. Why nobody can flush a toilet.
14. How the human alert complaining system goes up when the baby needs a diaper change but nobody will change him.
15. What moms did before wipes were invented.
16. How closely related IT SEEMS that dads and kids are related to the ape family when it comes to interacting with bodily sounds and wrestling with each other.
17. If I decide to sit or lay on the floor, in a matter of seconds, boys come and climb on me or tackle me.
18. Life can stop when I have sick kids because all I want to do is sit and cuddle with them.
19. When my kids are healthy, I don't appreciate it!
20. How much joy and simplicity babies bring into a home.
21. How much I love being a mommy!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sailing on the Sea of Me
Have you ever been to a point in your life that you just wonder what this thing called life is all about? As a mother, I sometimes feel from the time I get up, I am defeated. I can wake up to a child running in my room telling me his sibling did something to upset him or wake up to the question, "can we eat yet mom?" (Which in our home is a ridiculous question because we eat at the same time every morning!) And sometimes I wake to total silence and want to just push my pause button and start the day when I AM ready! That is probably why God did not give me a pause button because I may keep it there far too long! As you are reading this, I can imagine you are thinking, does she have any joy in her role as a mother? Does she see her children as gifts or as a chore? Well, to be brutally honest, I have at times thought both. Lately, more of a chore than a blessing. So, I decided it was time to take inventory on my life and my heart. I told my husband one night, I would not trade my "job" for anything, it is what God has for me and it is my passion, but right now, I am really struggling with enjoying and appreciating my role as a mom! It is hard! The same story for decades of mothers can be told- Very rarely appreciated for anything, usually everyone can find the faults you have whether it be the meals you spend time and effort on or the decisions you make because you love your children and all they see is why they have it so unfair. I can get lost in a sea of selfishness and self-pity many times. I am in a boat right now on the sea of ME! It is a very lonely place to be! It's amazing how nobody is there to rescue you! No one listens to your crys. It is like, hummm, you are all alone! Well, I have found one who does care. My Jesus! And the great thing is, he won't get out His violin and just sit and let you wallow in self, He will gently tell you of the reason you are where you are and how to change it. I am where I am because I have lost the joy of my first love, HIM! I have decided to love myself more than Him. So my focus was me when it should be Him. If my eyes are on Him, then I won't see my children as a chore, because I will see them through His eyes. They won't be something that are in the way because He is guiding me His way and He will supply me with all I need to do and the daily tasks He has for me. Although this job of mothering is so demanding and just plain hard, Jesus knows about that. He was on this earth and did nothing to deserve any punishment, but He suffered! Physical pain and emotional rejection! Who did even Jesus have to turn too? God! If Jesus knew His need, then I need to realize my need, the one true God!! So those days when it's hard, and you feel like all you are is a burp rag, diaper changer, behind wiper, umpire, unappreciated chef, errand runner, and really not sure what all this is about. Remember, Jesus knows and cares and if you find your worth in Him, you will realize your life is really all about Him! Then that boat will sail upon the shore, and you can get out of the boat and wipe the tears and continue the journey HE has set for you!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
A day away from home
We decided to go a little road trip for the day. We stopped at a fun pizza place with grandma, grandpa, and uncle. A good time was had by all!!
I love the monster trucks!
I want to be a fireman!
I love my uncle!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
I am back, for a short time anyway!
Well, it has been awile. Really no good excuse. Partly because our computer crashed for awhile, then we lost internet for awhile, and then, maybe just laziness. So to update you here are a few things that have happened. Since our hunting trip, we found out we are adding another baby to the clan, and the arrival date will be the end of June sometime. I had 3 turn another year older. So we now have ages 15, 13, 11, 9 (in six days that will be 10), 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 13 months in our home. We are enjoying the return of spring because the last 6 weeks we have been batteling some form of illness in our home. Dad has been spared so far. He has been very helpful helping me take care of the sick ones in the overnight hour. Being seven months pregnant does not help my stamina! And with the exception of a trip to Grandma and Grandpa's out of town and some to The Grandparents in town, that is about all. Hopefully, there will be fewer days in between from one blog to the next. Have a happy spring!
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