Mommy Blogger. Suddenly.

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”
― G.K. Chesterton

I'd been lamenting my monotonous life lately.
Mostly because it's February, I'm sure, but cleaning, cooking, schooling, and farming had me weary of the sameness of everything.
Then I read this quote by one of my favorite authors and have, for the moment at least, a new outlook on life.

Here is Katie at math today.
I decided to picture lessons through the warm, cheerful candles in rebellion to the bitter gray and dismal gloom seeping in from outside.

Yeah, I can "Do it again" tomorrow.

Classy Kitten

When she was seated in her English class today, Katie told me, "This is Tom's first experience of starting a new chapter with me."
Tom promptly fell into a sleep so deep that it seemed more like a coma.
He's never going to have good grammar.

Sunny and 74

I'll try to recreate the weeks I didn't blog. These pictures may or not be truly representative of the week I have in mind, but there's no rain and no snow in these, so close enough.
We've had a mild winter till January, and the highlight of this mild winter was a week of warm weather with a high of 74 for us.
Here you see the girls enjoying the time to catch some sun and activity.
One of the many blessings of homeschooling is the ability to spend your days flexibly, and we took advantage of that during our heat wave.

Katie's Notepad

This, I love.
Becky bought a little white board to hang Katie's schoolroom so she and Laura can write messages to their little sister.
Every morning, there is a loving good morning from early bird Laura to Kate.
Then the not so loving response from Katie back at Laura...

Here is a translation:

Did you really have to erase my poem, "Stinkbug Invasion" just to write, "good morning tootsie roll?"

Katie

You may be able to imagine what's happening with the stinkbug population of Central Virginia by the title of Katie's poem.

Reading is Fundamental

Katie didn't used to like reading, but this year has been the turning point for her. Our latest read-aloud was Nancy Drew, The Secret of Shadow Ranch. It was so much fun to feel her little kid head, smelling that summer smell of sweat, resting on my shoulder as I read, having her beg for one more chapter, since as you probably know, Nancy always ends a chapter in a cliff-hanger. The western ranch theme of the book inspired tonight's dinner: cowboy casserole. Beef, beans, onions, peppers, and salsa covered with cornbread. What a joy it is to be able to share books from my childhood with my daughters!

Back to School

Monday was an exciting day as UPS pulled up to the door. 14 boxes of school have arrived! Becky's a Junior, Laura's a Freshman, and Baby Katie's going into 6th grade. So far the subjects are better than ever. Soccer starts this week. Life is back in full swing.

Cozy

Waking up to a sister and a book under a down comforter last winter.

Fun Schooling

One of my students was not in the mood to expend the energy to memorize her math facts. I was struggling to go over multiplication and division facts till she was fluent, but I was getting nowhere fast.
So I typed into google "math video games," and found this gem.
Reflex Math.
You can have two weeks free, which I did. Then I bought a year for my three students because they like it so much.

http://www.reflexmath.com/go

Priorities

I want new leather furniture in my living room. And I want a complete new bedroom set in both girls' rooms. I also want to finish painting my walls. And the landscaping, that needs more money poured into mulch again this year. I feel a definite urge to get the upstairs finished and have a bathtub big enough for me to soak comfortably. (Yes, FSD, I know there will be a comment about this sentence.)
Deep sigh.
But would that bring fulfillment? How much better would my daily life be if I traded our financial margin for these things? I don't know the answer, and may never know the answer.
I do have enough experience by now to know that in the past, more often than not "stuff" doesn't change my life for the better.
If we were swimming in cash and didn't have a list about two feet long (in small print, to boot) of things that urgently need to be paid for, it would be a very good thing for my house to be more beautiful and classy.
For now, I'll get out a bucket full of hot water and Murphy's Oil soap, throw in a few microfiber cloths, and scrub the old, dog-scratched leather couch. Then I'll pile some youngsters onto said couch to read some of the free books we've just acquired.

BJU, I Love You!

Here are two of the three monkeys working on school.
I'm becoming completely and utterly dependent on BJU Press's distance learning. With them, I get teachers in every subjet, plus all the books and teacher's editions.
Now I wonder how I ever homeschooled without their help.

Reading Class

Maybe I would have succeeded in school had I been surrounded by Barbies lounging on my desk.
In this photo, Mrs. Walker is walking (hehe, pun) Katie through a chapter book about a dognapped cat. I love having tutors for the girls!

We Have a Winner!

This month's Practical Homescooling magazine arrived, and to our satisfaction, Laura's envelope art (as seen in this post: http://providence-farm.blogspot.com/2010/09/envelope-contest.html) had been chosen for printing.
After I had seen it in the gallery, I was pleased to see that she was the example in the table of contents as well.
In the gallery, Laura's masterpiece is the third from bottom, left hand column. Also, if you read the text on the page, Laura's envelope is mentioned as an example.

Library Weekend

Here are two out of four library volunteers.
The girls and I get to open the library and read for three hours one Saturday a month. This was our first week.
We sure know how to party here in Charlotte County!

Envelope Contest

Here are Laura's and Katie's entries for Practical Homeschooling's http://practicalhomeschooling.com/ envelope art contest.

Cross your fingers for them because the competition's stiff!

School and life are moving along steadily and happily on Providence Farm.

Becky's missing from our family circle since she's helping out family friends who are busy with mom recovering from surgery and moving to a new house simultaneously.

She is sorely missed at home. All of our games and private jokes are just a little lonelier without our big sister. I think big sisters are the most awesome siblings in a family, actually.

But while she's been away, the rest of us have been busy just the right amount. I've been reading the book "Margin" by Richard Swenson, which has caused me to deliberately slow our schedule down and give us plenty of time to do each thing we want to do. The results have been phenomenal! I feel like I have so much more time, now that our days are more deliberate.

The fall weather is hot this year but still enjoyable- at least in the mornings and evenings! The smell of the planted pine wafts past me while I hang out my laundry, and at night, the stars seem so close and bright.

Sisters

Plural possessives are more fun with two, don't ya think?

If you're a facebook friend of mine, you've heard me rave about BJU Press curriculum.

The whole grade shows up mere days after your order is made, and it's many, many boxes of books and videos. The excitement of unloading the UPS truck in itself is worth the astronomical price I think.

Most of the teachers are excellent and the course material is interestingly presented.

I was hoping that I could have nothing to do with their school since I paid for the pros to come in and do it all for me, but it's still a full day's work as an administrator for me. Nowhere near the work of teaching though.

Katie is using the hard drive, Becky is using DVDs which are the only option for high school, and Laura is using textbooks only this year.

Next year Laura will get 8th grade on hard drive.

I hope that they start to provide high school on hard drive since it's cheaper and easier to keep track of.

If I could start over, I would use the whole grade solutions from the beginnning with the girls.

http://http://www.bjupress.com/page/Home

Laura's Project

Here's a pretty little homemade picture frame.
One of many, now that Mrs. Walker taught them the method in reading class.

Projects

Here are today's projects (some of them, anyway.)
Katie had the idea to make a pop-up basket in the Nile for baby Moses. For those of you on facebook, this explains the status update where I talk about getting hot glue in my hair.
Becky made book ends with deer antlers. They lend a rustic feeling to the room.
Laura made picture frames which are very pretty, but I didn't think to photograph them. Maybe next time.

Reason # 318 to Homeschool

The naps in homeschool are more comfortable than the naps taken in the classroom with your head on the desk.

Actually, Katie had been up half the night with an earache besides studying hard all morning.
Aah, if only 3rd grade was the hardest it got...

Planting Out Young Cabbages

Inspired by Mr. McGregor of Peter Rabbit fame, Katie helped me by planting out young cabbages today.
She declared that if a bunny came through our garden she wouldn't put it in a pie, she would snuggle it.
We also planted broccoli, onions, and six more raspberry plants. I've got more peas to plant and four blueberry bushes, since I (once again) killed the blueberries last year.

Laura was sick all last week with a raging fever and terrible cough. Becky's been sick since Friday. Now Katie, just since this photo, is up to a 102 fever.
I'm very thankful that by now I know what to expect, and I don't have to go through the panic I experienced with Laura's illness.
The doctor thought it might be bacterial, but it's definitely a virus. I suspect swine flu, but I'm not taking anyone back in to confirm my suspicion.

Thank You, Teaching Textbooks!

This is Becky working on a math lesson with an audience.

She and Laura are still in the review phase of their math programs, and are moving quickly through the lessons and quizzes.

TT grades all the lessons and quizzes for me, so I can just pull up the gradebook, make sure they aren't missing lots of problems, and let them keep speeding through the book.

I love this math!