"W"

School 2014-2015, Month 4

Happy New Year, and welcome to the second half of our school year!
(With our late start this year, we've just now passed our half-way point with 90+ days completed!)

First semester grades have been submitted and we're ready to roll . . .

It's always hard to get going after a break - we took two weeks off for Christmas and travel - this month we're relearning our school schedule and trying to recall what we learned before the break.  Impeding a "big" restart, we also re-painted both bathrooms, got a new puppy, were sick for 2 weeks, and then had a week alone at home while Mike traveled for work - yikes!

Hopefully things will settle down for next month, although crazy times like this make me so grateful for the flexibility of homeschooling. 

This month we played lots of games (our new favorite is sleeping queens), read "Little House on the Prairie," listened to "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief," assembled a HUGE puzzle, built a box fort, focused on math and writing each day, learned about John the Baptist in daily devotionals, and had lots of independent reading time.

Our readers have been busy: Hendrick has read through the "Brotherband Chronicals" (each book nearly 500 pages), and then picked up and re-read the "Percy Jackson" series, Tesfaye recently discovered "The Boxcar Children," and has read through the first 6 books (!), Davis has been enjoying "Geronimo Stilton" books; and the girls have been reading "Junie B. Jones."  Burke is still working on mastering his phonics skills, but is an eager reader.  Kolpin is beginning his learning-to-read journey.  I am so proud of our readers!

Our history studies have taken us to Ancient Greece - we have especially enjoyed reading Greek Mythology.  These imperfect, jealous, and highly-flawed gods, made in the image of man, have inspired some wonderful stories. But studying these entertaining myths is also a wonderful way to talk to our children about the true, perfect, all-powerful, all-loving God.  Our God is always perfect, always faithful, and always good.  Praise God!

Box of Babies

Our girlies are sweet baby mamas :)

Maegli and Hiwot spent hard-earned chore money on a few more babies to add to their collection, and very sweetly shared them with their little sisters. 

All week, using a dishwasher box (we got a new one!), the girls have been playing "orphanage," taking care of their precious orphan babies.  It's been quite a big job caring for so many. 

I'm so proud of my girls and their big hearts, taking care of babies. 

Karate

Wanting our boys to learn strength and discipline, the boys' "big" gift this year was Karate lessons. 

This month, the boys began their training at a local Dojo in Kenpo Karate, a martial art from Japan focusing on self-defense and quick movements.  These classes are tough!  They are lead through conditioning exercises to build strength, agility, concentration, and cardio, as they are being taught the fundamentals of the Kenpo style. 

The boys have been working hard and finish each class sweaty, sore, but very proud of their accomplishments. 

Students at the Dojo each wear a  black Gi.  Kenpo has a belt ranking system like Karate and Judo - the boys are already very eager to advance. 

This is a great way for them to learn defense and control and gain confidence.  We've been attending two classes each week - one being a private lesson with the head sensei.  They are expected to work hard AND do outside homework: stretching, practicing blocks and hand strikes and researching the history of this martial art. 

Sharing Illness

We've been staying home, coughing on each other rather than coughing on others.

We are grateful our household was healthy over the holidays, but getting sick in the winter was inevitable, especially with the nasty flu/bug going around.  We are praying for healing in our household.

For the past 10 days, we have been passing a fever and coughs around (I guess I should be thankful the kids are so good about sharing), despite our best efforts to sanitize, sterilize, diffuse, and boost immune systems.  We've all been on a B.R.A.T. and soup diet - we are so thankful for the many friends who have kept us well stocked in soups! - and have done our best to rest and recover.  The little ones have been napping extra, and the big kids have set up pallets of blanket and pillows in the living space. 

Sickness traveling through a family of 11 is no fun, and it takes time to allow things to run their course.  Ten of us has been hit by the fever/flu/bug . . . we're hoping Mike can avoid this mess. 

We seem to be over the worst and on the road to recovery (no one had a fever this morning!).  Today, we'll limp our way through another day of "sick school," then curl up and watch a few movies.  I'm thankful it's Friday. 

Despite feeling puny, Maclaren has been really excited about drinking "alligator," aka: Gatorade :)

(When I said to the kids "hold your horses," Maclaren informed me that "horses like running!".)


Layla has been really sweet with everyone being sick.  She's been generous with her puppy kisses, going outside by herself, and snuggling with the kids on their blanket pallets.  She's also taken to burying bones in our couch. 

Layla at Home

Our sweet Layla has been home with us for over a week and transitioning beautifully.  She seems to be a perfect fit for our family.

Layla arrived a little shy but is blossoming at home.  As far as we know, this is the first home this beautiful girl has ever had - we're leading her through lots of "firsts".
While she was kennel trained at her shelter, house training is a whole new ballgame.  But after a week, she seems right at home: going up and down stairs with ease, sleeping at the foot of our bed, and pottying outside.  We have set up a wireless invisible fence and she is enjoying the freedom of an acre of run space.  We've seen both "collie" and "hound" sides come at as she sniffs and chases squirrels and herds the kids.  She's still a bit jumpy around new sounds, and a little scared of the TV, but she's calmed significantly.

She is extremely affectionate and very generous with her puppy kisses: licking the kids faces, fingers, and toes.  This past week, while our household was battling illness, she rarely left the side of our sick kids.

Layla is a treasure.  

She is the family dog we had been hoping for: snugly and sweet. 

Birthday Girl

Maegli put a lot of thought and planning into her 7th Birthday day:  French Toast for breakfast, apples with peanut butter for a snack, family dinner at Red Robin (she had pizza, fruit salad, and Dr. Pepper), a blueberry "Frozen" birthday cake, and a family movie night.  It was a very special day for our little girl.  

But the highlight and biggest surprise of the day:  her siblings chipped in together to buy her the unicorn of her dreams (!).
She's thrilled :)

7

Maegli is our fancy, sensitive, made-up-song-singer, creative, dramatic, silly, artist, emotional, active, ballerina, fingernail-painter, dress-up wearer, easily stressed clean freak, snugly, giggly, feisty,  "Frozen" loving, tough, princess . . . and she's seven.   
Happy  Birthday Maegli!

"Hi, I'm Maegli and I'm 7-years-old.  I really love unicorns.  I always like to be fancy and I like creepy stuff.  I dress up in pretty dresses and I put on jewelry and lip gloss.  I like Gollum and scary movies.  I haven't seen Gollum in a movie but I've seen the movie cover."

Maegli's favorites:

food:  strawberries

drink:  pretty much everything, except black coffee.  I love coffee with sugar.

dessert:  pretty much everything . . . cake

movie:  princess movies and fighting movies

restaurant:  Red Robin, even though I don't go there very much

school subject:  handwriting and my Explode the Code book

sport:  baseball

superhero:  Wonder Woman

inside activity:  coloring 

outside activity:  pretty much just walk around.  I like to look at stuff and think about things.

sister activity:  we make believe games.  

Last night we had a game where we were orphans and there was an evil witch and we killed the witch and broke the spell and got the golden hair, because whoever kills the witch is the specialest girl in the world and all the animals love her, and I got a mother and a father.  

brother activity:  talk and play sometimes.  We play games in their room.

activity with daddy:  talk with him and hug him

activity with mommy:  talk with you and cook with you

place to visit:  Toys R Us.  Yeah, I've been there before.  I'd like to go back sometime.

vacation spot:  the beach, or just campsites

toy:  unicorn

music:  Toby Mac

book/ story:  princess stories

 color:  pink

flower:  rose

animal:  cow - they give you milk

future aspirations:  singer.  I want to be a dancer and singer on stage and I'll sing for everyone who comes, and even you if you come.  

my life in 20 years:  I'll have to practice my dancing and singing everyday.  I will do a performance everyday.  Do you get money for singing?  I'll be married but I'll work with my dancing and my singing and I'll get money.  I'll live in a house and maybe I'll have kids.  I don't know because I don't know if I'll get a husband.  I don't even know how old you have to be to get married!  

best thing about me:  I love God and my mom and dad and Jesus.  

my gifts:  singing and romance.  I really like romance, but I also really like creepy stuff.  I am brave, but not when I'm in the dark alone. 

people like about me:  I'm kind and silly, but I don't make people laugh when I'm silly.  I draw pictures for people.  

dislikes:  disgusting stuff, tomatoes, chicken, math, sorting laundry, when people bug me - I get so angry

ultimate favorites:  pink unicorns, dancing, singing, birthday cake, hugs, gifts, surprises

Our sweet girl brings so much color and spirit to our lives.  We are proud of her and thankful for her.

Dabs

Little Miss Dabs is feeling mighty big on her rocking horse (which she can climb onto herself).

As excited as her big sister was, Dabney was not too keen on sharing her rocking horse :)

Layla

Adoption has grown our family!  We are thrilled to have a new 4-legged friend in our home.

Please, allow us to introduce "Layla."  Layla is a super sweet 36-pound, nearly 2-year-old Foxhound/Smooth Collie mix who has joined our family via adoption from a local animal rescue.  We knew she was ours when she started "puppy kissing" all of us.

We have always given our dogs place names with some significant meaning to us.  We named this pup "Layla" as a tribute to the orphanage home of Hiwot and Tesfaye.  Layla is an Arabic name meaning "dark beauty" - it seems to fit her. 

We're smitten :)

Ice

The kids are hoping for snow, but a rare week of temperatures under 30 brings fun too: a (semi) frozen lake! 

Our lake didn't quite freeze enough to walk on - despite warnings, the kids all learned that lesson the hard way.  But shooting sticks across the frozen expanse, sliding along the edge, and playing with broken ice provided lots of entertainment.