School's Out 2014-2015

June 2015

180+ days of school completed, graded, recorded, and submitted.
Our 2014-2015 school year is done!

This year got off to a bit of a late start due to family and travel circumstances, and we ran a little later than expected due to the blessed arrival of our new baby.  

This year we had 6 registered students, 6 readers (!), 2 kids started a new math program, 2 kids started Latin, 3 kids started spelling lessons, and 3 kids worked on daily devotionals; we memorized lots of new poems, read the entire Laura Inglis series, played lots of games, and implemented a new daily schedule to help us get it all done. 

Each year we learn new things - some of our plans work well, sometimes changes are needed, and somethings happen as welcome surprises - and we're learning to roll with it.  We goal is to allow ourselves flexibility, constantly reassess, and let each year evolve.  It's humbling, growing, trying, and so incredibly rewarding.  God has truly blessed this schooling experience for our family. 

It's been a great year. (And, oh my, how the kids have grown!)

Our plan, as we look forward to the next school year (with 7 students!), is to move to a year-round schooling model.  We'd like to avoid the long stretches of solid school and last minute push to finish.  The plan: 6 weeks on, 1-2 weeks off, 6 weeks on, 2-3 weeks off . . . etc.  We'll see how it goes :)

Before we jump into our next year it's time for vacation and our annual "School's Out" donuts celebration breakfast!

September 2014

School 2014-2015, month 8-9

With a final push of school in the end of May and June, we finished our school year before July 1st . . . quite impressive considering our extremely late start to the year, and the addition of sweet Addison May 27th. 

Our 2014-2015 year, 180 days of schooling, are complete!

We worked for 2 "normal" weeks, and then finished out with weekends and evenings (with the help of daddy) as we were all adjusting and enjoying our new precious baby and staying busy with the fun of Summer camps and activities.  It was a bit unconventional end to our year, but that's one the the beautiful things about homeschool - life happens and we have the flexibility to experience that together. 

This final month-ish, we finished up our study of the Roman Empire.  Next year we'll pick back up with the fall of the Roman Empire. 

We've been listening to beautiful pieces of music and studied gorgeous pieces of art: Holst's The Planets, Bach's Orchestral Suite 2 in B Minor, "The Great Wave" by Hokusai, and "Sunflowers" by Van Gogh.  The kids also worked several weeks to memorize the poem "Dutch Lullaby" (Wynken, Blynken, and Nod). 

We finished reading "By the Shores of Silver Lake" - the fifth book the the Laura Ingalls Wilder series, listened to the audio telling of Henty's "The Young Carthaginian,"  and started "Lord of the Rings" - read by daddy. 

The kids created original artwork, wrote and sent letters, competed a "draw and caption" of the historical figures we studied, read, and plugged away at math and language arts. 

All in all, we're very proud of the work we completed, especially considering our incredibly busy year-end. 

Looking ahead to the next school year, with SEVEN students, we're planning to move to a year-round schooling model.  We want to build in more breaks throughout the year and avoid the end-of-the-year push.  Our plan: six weeks on, 1 week off, six weeks on, 2 weeks off (with our weeks off being incredibly flexible as needed).
Shifting to this model doesn't allow us to take a drawn out Summer break, so we'll actually be starting back to school in just a few short weeks - after our beach vacation (!).  But, we can look forward to lots of break built into our school year! 

We're looking forward to this next year!
(And we're going to thoroughly enjoy our next few weeks of break . . . and celebrate our completed school year with our annual donut breakfast!)

Artist

Our 3-year-old, Miss Maclaren, is becoming quite the prolific artist.  In recent weeks, her drawing style have evolved and grown through much practice.

Her preferred media: marker and pen
Subject of choice: girls

In just a few weeks time, she went from drawing only faces to drawing entire bodies: head, torso, legs, arms, hands, and feet.  Each picture has a story:  "this is me and you and you are brushing my hair." 

With such an abundance of art being churned out by our artist-in-residence, her everyday look is covered in marker.

Not only does she do detailed faces on her pretty girls: eyes with eyelashes, noses, red lips, ears and earrings, and rosy red cheeks; she also signs her "name" to each piece.  (Or incorporates it into the hair).  For being just 3-years-old we are very impressed that she is actually drawing real letters.  Her letters of choice:  M, I, S, T, R. 

Sweet Maclaren also loves coloring books - she draws pink cheeks and red lips on every person :)

1 Month Old

One month ago, we got the call that our precious Addison was born.  Our lives changed in an instant with the arrival of a beautiful new baby to our family.

We are incredibly blessed.
Addy is incredibly loved.  
We marvel at this sweet baby girl.

settles down quickly with soothing talking and singing ("Moon River")

fussy fuss - especially 10pm to 2 am

prefers to be held upright

likes to walk - we spend a lot of time walking together ;)

loves to be held close in the sling carrier

9 lbs. 10 ounces

starting to smile :)

strong!  - holds her head up, moves her legs, stiffens her body

gassy (poor baby)

nurses (!) - we're supplementing with 4 oz. formula/day

loves her paci

sleeps best tightly swaddled

bright eyes
likes to watch baseball with daddy

tracks voices and sounds

sweaty
now our 10-fingered girl ;)

eats 8x/day (every 2-3 hours during the day, and every 3-4.5 hours at night)

long feet (she doesn't fit newborn shoes)

hairy ears :)

blond patch of hair behind her left ear

baby acne
tooty

hardly ever leaves our arms - thankfully we have a lot of arms willing and wanting to snuggle her

We've kept things pretty quiet our first month.  The focus has been bonding with our little one.  Her first week was spent snuggling in bed with Amy in Atlanta.  We've been home 3 weeks and settling into a routine with the crew - working around feeding schedules and broken sleep, we're making progress towards finding our new normal.  Addy is a wonderful baby and can be a fussy fuss (she has every reason to be a fuss - a lot has happened in her world in such a small time).  We're playing with dietary changes (breast milk) and trying out different formulas (for supplement), probiotics, gripe water, and soothing oils - and holding, walking, dancing, and singing to her lots.  Little Miss likes to be held and we are perfectly happy to oblige.
We are crazy in love with our little girl.

Events this month:  Chattanooga Aquarium, Memphis Zoo, neighborhood beach x2, church, date with mommy and daddy x3, book club, visit from Gramma (Amy's mom), visit from Grandpa (Mike's dad), plus accompanying us to a number of appointments and errands - with 10 kids, even life slowed down is hardly slow :)  

Summer Heat

When it's 97 degrees with a heat index of 108, the only relief is water and popsicles.  It's on these crazy hot summer days that we are especially thankful for our neighborhood beach. 
Welcome Summer - whew!

Self Cut

Miss Maegli became a little too impatient waiting for a haircut, so she cut herself some bangs - oops! 
A few days later, we evened it up and cut off the wispy ends.  Ta-da! 

(And thankfully this cut came after her dance recital, where she needed her hair in a bun and ponytail.  We have 11 months until the next recital - grow hair, grow!)

Maegli has the most beautiful golden hair, but it's very reluctant to grow.  As much as she wishes for long flowing locks, her fine hair just doesn't seem to cooperate.  Maegli's hair has patches of texture and is very prone to breakage.  We trim it every 4 months to help the ends stay healthy, use a sulfate-free shampoo and conditioner for color treated hair (intended for dry damaged hair), and help to smooth it with CHI Silk Infusion. 

We've seen a lot of growth in the past year . . . her self-cut didn't help.  But her new cut is super cute and super healthy :)

Dancers

A week before the big show, we tried on costumes so I could get a few pictures of my gorgeous girls.  This year they danced two routines in the recital: a Ballet I routine to "Love is Blue" - dressed as brides, and a Jazz I routine to "Wake Up Little Susie" - wearing pink poodle skirts. 

Hiwot:  Our teacher was Miss Kim.  For our dance we held bouquets because we were brides.  Our costume has a veil and it has a white dress and it has a ribbon on the back.  Our dance was called "Love is Blue."  We made a wedding chapel with our hands in a group and all of us walked through it.  We skipped around the stage and we did echappe', pique', and releve'.  I liked the dance because I liked the costumes and I liked the music. 

Maegli:  Our teacher was Miss Pat.  We danced to "Wake Up Little Susie."  It was a fast song.  We weared poodle skirts and ponytails and a scarf in our hair and on our neck.  It was a really fun dance.  We did lindy steps, and jazz squares, and we did front - back - wiggle wiggle.  My favorite part was the "Oh la la!" - we were allowed to make faces. Our neighbor Keylee was in our dance class. 
This was our second dance and we had to change costumes by ourselves.  Miss Shelby helped us on the first one.  One of the girls there, a helper, helped us get our hair done.  It was a fast time. 
I love being on stage but the floor was hard when I was sitting backstage. 

The Recital

When we learned that we would possibly be welcoming a baby into our household, we realized it was a potential reality that I would have to miss the girls' May 30th dance recital.  The dance recital is a big deal - these girls have worked hard for 9 months preparing for their moment on stage.  I love being with them for the dress rehearsal and show: costumes, hair, and makeup; backstage snacks, videoing, pictures, and flowers . . . and being their cheerleader.

The girls were incredibly understanding:  "Mom, I'm sad you won't be there, but it's more important that you're with the baby."  - I am so thankful for them.

As difficult as it was for me to miss their show, our decision was clear - a baby and her mama needed us.  Mike and I left town early the morning of the dress rehearsal to drive to Georgia and meet newly born baby Addison.  

We set up a wonderful sitter to help the girls through the dress rehearsal and recital.  She was fantastic: arriving at the house early to do hair and make-up, driving them to the civic center, helping them get dressed backstage, setting them up for their costume change, and treating them to milkshakes afterwards.  I also had several dance mamas watching out for the girls, one bringing them bouquets of flowers after the show(!).

I am sad I missed their performance, but I was where I needed to be.  Thanks to the incredible help of many, the girls had a wonderful experience for their 4th dance recital - they did a fantastic job.
(And Mike made it back to town just in time for the show!). 

I am also thankful for pictures!  We didn't get pictures from their jazz routine, but thanks to backstage mamas and our local newspaper, we got some beautiful shots of our girls in their Ballet, "Love is Blue" dance. 
I love my gorgeous, graceful, generous dancers!

Happy Father's Day

Mike, the incredible daddy to our crazy crew of kids, Happy Father's Day!

He's an amazing leader, teacher, encourager, and provider.  He is a tireless worker, brings so much fun to our days, and loves us so well.  The kids are lucky to have him as their daddy, and I am blessed to partner with him on our wild journey as parents.  He's pretty incredible.  We love him!

What do you love about Daddy?
hats. - Maclaren (3)
He picks me up a lot. - Kolpin (5)
He's kind. - Tesfaye (10)
He's kind to us and he helps us with schooling. - Hendrick (11)
He's a good father. - Davis (9)
He's a good man. - Hiwot (7)
He does good things for me. - Maegli (7)
He likes to play catch with us. - Burke (8)
Me. - Dabney (21 mo.)

What makes him a good Daddy?
He kiss you. - Maclaren (3)
He picks me up a lot. - Kolpin (5)
He takes care of us. - Tesfaye (10)
He helps us obey rules. - Hendrick (11)
He works and gets money for us to buy food and stuff. - Davis (9)
He reads us a story at night. - Hiwot (7)
He loves us. - Maegli (7)
He works so he can help us with our house. - Burke (8)
Dada. - Dabney (21 mo.)
 
What makes Daddy laugh?
Dog. (giggles) - Maclaren (3)
Me pouring water on his head. (?) - Kolpin (5)
When I do funny stuff. - Tesfaye (10)
Funny things the kids do. - Hendrick (11)
When I tickle him. - Davis (9)
When I do belly flops in the water. - Hiwot (7)
When I blow bubbles, they tickle his skin. - Maegli (7)
Jokes. - Burke (8)
Me. - Dabney (21 mo.)

What does Daddy love?
Dog. (giggles) - Maclaren (3)
Me jumping and hugging him. - Kolpin (5)
Baseball. - Tesfaye (10)
Us. - Hendrick (11)
You. (Mom) - Davis (9)All of us. - Hiwot (7)
Me. - Maegli (7)
Wrestling. - Burke (8)
Me. - Dabney (21 mo.)

Daddy and his TEN kiddos:

9 lbs 6.5 oz

Addy's growing!