Holy Family Classical Academy

2011: A Quick Review Through Pictures!

2012-01-12T20:51:00.019-05:00

2011 was another great year. There was a new family member born, baptisms, parties and just many memorable time spent with family and friends. To catch everyone up on the happenings of 2011, here are some of the highlights. Enjoy!!

Our year always starts with a celebration. If you are thinking, "Yea...it's New Years!" You are wrong! Our year starts with the celebration of the birth of Isabella!! She turned 7 years old just as we started 2011. Wow...time sure flies!

Roses are Red, Violets are Blue. Sugar is Sweet and So Are You! St. Valentine's Day in 2011 meant making lots of cards to give to friends! My sweet bunch of kids and I got a rare photo together, since I'm usually the one holding the camera!

March brought more moments, like losing another tooth for Isabella and having fun with our science experiments. Homeschooling remains the main component of our day.

With a house full of kids, it seems like it always someone's birthday! Marco turned 9 years old and made a huge leap in maturity. He continues to surprise us with wonderful accomplishments and we feel so blessed to have him!

Easter in 2011 was also an awesome day! Mass, Easter baskets, flying kits, cascarones and a fun day full of celebration of the resurrection of our Lord. It was such a memorable day!

May turned out to be an extra special month in 2011. It began with Isabella's First Communion, which happened to fall on Divine Mercy Sunday and was also the day that Pope John Paul II was beatified!! It was absolutely awesome!

You can't end the school year without a field day. 2011's field day was full of fun! From donut eating to relay races and even 1st place! The entire Catholic homeschool community came together to give our kids a fun and memorable event!

The highlight of May was, of course, the birth of Evangeline Elizabeth! She was by far the biggest baby I've had, weighing just over 9 pounds! Of course, all the children were elated when she was born and it was nice to finally give Isabella a little sister. We were so blessed to have our family grow by one...a little piece of heaven right in our home!

The year continued and led into summer. With piano recitals, vacations with old friends, Marco's first tae kwon do belt graduation and just playing in the rain.

Hosting Vacation Bible School in my home was also a great memory from 2011. My kids had a blast with all their friends and learned some valuable lessons along the way! My family visiting, playing with Legos and just being silly were also fun events of the summer. It's almost impossible to document all the awesome moments we had.

The end of summer held some nice moments. Evangeline was baptized and welcomed into the Catholic Church!

And you can't end summer without a trip to a baseball game! All this just in time for our first day of school where we continued the annual traditions of marching through the house and opening schultutes!!

Back to school always means it's back to co-op too! And we started the year on a great foot! The kids continue to love going to their weekly classes and seeing their friends.

More birthday, friends visiting, family and even a new dog! There were field trips, fall weather, pumpkin carving, Saint Day celebrations and Halloween. Art classes at home, end of year programs, traveling and more. So many moments to capture...so many memories made!

Hope everyone's year was as great as mine was. There were bumps along the way, but nothing that we didn't get through. Praying for another wonderful year!

*And if you notice my pictures got a little sparse and mixed up towards the end...yeah. Too many pictures to go through and not enough time in my day!

New Year!

2012-01-11T15:48:00.002-05:00

It's been a couple months since I last checked in and it's just family time keeping me busy. Which is the perfect excuse to take a break from blogging!! I've been watching baby Evangeline grow, homeschooling the kids and just spending time with the family in general. We've travelled, recovered from colds, finished our first semester of co-op and just been chugging along as usual.

For now I'm just trying to get things in order and really put time into organizing my projects for the new year. There is lots to be done on many levels. Personal, spiritual, home, family, etc. Home projects are what I'm starting with this year as opposed to organization...although that comes with the territory of daily living. The main goals for the year are finishing off some rooms in the house, brightening up some rooms and making some furniture.

Anyways, I'll have to keep everyone updated with what's going down in our home. I'm looking forward to a wonderful new year!!

Dia de los Muertos.

2011-11-02T11:59:00.003-04:00

October has come and gone and so has Halloween and All Saints Day. We had wonderful celebrations for both and now we are finally relaxing and trying to catch up with all the other stuff that we have to do. Mainly school work and rotating all our clothing to match the weather!

Not only that, but today we celebrate Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. We remember deceased loved ones, tell stories about them and pray for them. It's a great way to introduce the subject of death to kids in a fun way. Dia de los Muertos is certainly not a sad holiday. It is a fun day full of food, games and crafts. It is a day to make fun of death and to remember that just because our bodies cease to live, our souls do not! Death is a step from this world into the next, where we will come together with our heavenly Father!

I hope everyone out there is surviving this time of year. It certainly is busy for us and I'm trying my hardest to keep my head above water. It's always busy around here with little time for rest. But as my dad always says, "I'll rest when I die!" And he is certainly right about that!

Gifted Children.

2011-09-26T08:53:00.004-04:00

Recently, I've been hearing a lot about gifted children. Through friends who are trying to get their kids into the gifted programs at their local public schools, from homeschool moms who are seeing giftedness in their children and in the local news where they've been highlighting the gifted programs and what they offer. I thought this was a great subject to talk about!

First off, I don't know if my kids are truly "gifted." I think all children possess giftedness in some way or another. Some are great at math, some are great at reading and some are great at art. Most children excel in some subject or other. But true giftedness? That would probably mean across the board, above level performance. Which led to me to thinking....what exactly are all these moms prepping their kids for in public schools?

Not too long ago I met a mom who was getting her son tested in order to for him to qualify for the gifted/talented program at a school. She had been prepping him for the test for a couple of months with lots of workbooks and practice tests. At first, I thought she was crazy. I kept thinking, "Hey. If you're kid is really gifted...it won't matter if you prep him for the test or not. And if you have to prep him, then he probably isn't truly gifted."

But them she went into why she wanted him to test into it so badly. The gifted classes were smaller. They offered things like Latin, chess club and more hands-on "real world" learning. When she got to talking about all the perks, I realized that I would probably want the same for my kids, if they were in school.

Of course, homeschoolers don't have that problem. We can teach our kids Latin (and we do!) even if they aren't "gifted." We play chess, our class size is small and there is plenty of real world learning going on all the time. I get to speed things up in any subject I see my kids excelling in and I can slow things down if I have to. There is no need for me to test them!

All my children are covering more than one grade level, which makes it soooo hard to label them. Are your kids in 4th, 2nd, and kindergarten? Well, yes. BUT...not one of them does all their work at grade level. And that is one of the greatest perks of homeschooling. You tailor what you teach to the student...not the class.

So if you happen to be reading this and you happen to send your kids to school. Give homeschooling a second thought. It's really not so bad being around your kids all day. And you'll be happy to know that you won't ever have to fight with a school in order to place your kids in a "gifted" classroom.

Keeping Things Simple.

2011-09-14T21:36:00.010-04:00

I still haven't posted my daily schedule and have been working on tweaking it a lot this week. We switched phonics and math, we added a new activity to Fridays and I'm trying to squeeze more time in with Christian's preschool work. Things look chaotic on paper! But it really is coming along and our MOTH (Managers of Their Homes) method is what still continues to work for us. Click here to see some of my previous advice on creating a schedule.

Of course, we know that with a large family it's important to keep things simple if you want to stay sane. It's all about prioritizing. Not too long ago I experience my first burnout. We were doing school, co-op, swimming, dance, piano, soccer and who knows what else. I wanted my kids to be exposed to different activities and to have fun. What I got was a not so happy family. I was chauffeuring kids around 4-5 days out of the week. We were rarely eating dinner together as a family and we were always in a rush. I was cranky so that meant that everyone was cranky. So what happened? I got burnt out. I grew so tired that I dropped every activity besides school and co-op.

It took me almost a year to recover, but I vowed to never do that to myself or my family again. Now I'm learning to keep a healthy balance. My kids are allowed to do 2 activities each. One that benefits them physically and one that benefits them mentally. I combine wherever I can, take shortcuts and NEVER sacrifice family time. The results are working out well so far.

Our extra curricular activities this year? Here's how I have it set up so that I'm able to get all the kids' activities squeezed into our week without sacrificing our family priorities.

Karate fulfills our physical requirement. This is done together so that I don't have to go back and forth with different sports. They get to help each other and they love it!
Piano is also done at home. Our piano teacher comes over once a week and takes turns doing the lessons with the kids. That means I don't have to take time off from teaching; so while one child is doing their lesson, the rest are working on their school.
Art is our new activity this year. It's once a week and the kids also do it together. While they are in class, I walk down the street to the library and load up on books for the week. It works out great!

But what about the littles? I can't take credit for toting around 6 kids with me all the time. I have a nanny who comes in 3 times a week. She mainly takes care of little Jimmy and Christian, unless I have to go somewhere and I leave the whole crew with her. I am hesitant to admit to having this help, but I don't want to seem like super woman. One thing I will add is that to have her over means that we sacrifice in lots of other areas. Again...priorities.

So how do you keep things simple for your own life? Here are some tips.

Make a list. Grab a piece of paper and make a column for each child. Under each name, list all the extra curricular activities you would like for each of them to have. Don't be afraid to include yourself and your spouse! It's important to keep in mind all the things you want to accomplish as well when making a schedule.

Prioritize and Rank. Rank your activities. Take into consideration all the things that are important to your family when ranking. Are weekends together as family important? Then perhaps soccer might not rank high because of all the Saturday games. Is having dinner together a top priority? That might weed out all evening activities.

Minimize. Look over your list and trim wherever you see an activity that is not in line with your family priorities.

Pencil it In. Look at your calendar with your new activities penciled in. If your calendar still looks too full, perhaps it's time to go back and minimize some more.

Pray. Prayer is a powerful tool when deciding what activities will benefit your family.

In the end, don't be afraid to say "No!" There is absolutely nothing wrong with keeping our kids at home and enjoying our families. It's important not to fall prey to the materialistic culture that plagues our society. More is not necessarily good and our children will not benefit from having a full schedule that keeps them away from family. We have to remember that in teaching our children, we want to prepare them for heaven above all else!

Family Time, Happy Kids or Over-scheduled, Cranky Kids

9/11

2011-09-11T09:29:00.002-04:00

Today marks the 10th anniversary of 9/11. My prayers are with all the victims of that horrific attack, both living and deceased.

So many lives lost, so many affected. We will never forget.

Early Winners.

2011-09-08T21:39:00.006-04:00

We are coming upon mid-September already and school is in session for mostly everyone. For families that started early, like ours, we are already figuring out what the winners and losers are for the year. Here is a snippet of what's working so far, what's not, and what we're on the fence about.

Winners...So Far.

Saxon Phonics. We are using this phonics program for Anthony, Isabella and even Marco! I love that it's scripted and the kids haven't complained yet! It combines phonics with spelling, which I find helpful in getting the kids to understand their phonics rules. For Anthony, this is his core program. Isabella and Marco are both using the Saxon Phonics 2 program and it is completely review. It's working fantastic, although sometimes I wonder if coding all those words is helping them read proficiently. But if they are showing success with it, I can't argue!
Famous Men of Greece (Memoria Press). We are using this for history and following Angelicum Academy's lesson plans. So far the kids love it. It's colorful and interesting to them and I like that it covers vocabulary and reading comprehension, among other things (the suggested activities are great).

Poetry Memorization from IEW. This is super easy to do and the kids LOVE it so far! The kids recite their poetry in the morning, during lunch and then for their dad over the dinner table. It's great fun for them!

A Nature Walk With Aunt Bessie from Queen Homeschool. This is the science I'm doing with all the kids together. It's completely from a Charlotte Mason Approach and completely fun for the kids! We do this everyday and it is something the kids look forward to. I love that it's compatible for all the kids, from Christian in preschool to Marco in 4th grade.

Runner Up. Still sitting on the fence.

Latina Christiana. Perhaps it's my own insecurities with teaching Latin that make this program so difficult for me. Marco and Isabella do this together and they are doing well, although I'm always unsure about how well they have grasped the vocabulary. I'm hoping that as the year progresses, I'll be more confident in teaching it and the kids will continue to do well with it. For them, this is not a favorite subject...but it gets done! We are taking it super slow!

Map Essentials. This is another Angelicum course that I have loved over the years. But now that Marco is doing his 4th grade book, it's getting more rigorous (which is great!) but less fun. And I'm all about the kids having fun when it comes to geography. Why shouldn't it be fun? It's a solid program...it's National Geographic! But I think I was hoping for something that would make learning cartography and geography more hands on. Perhaps I'll supplement if we have the time; after all, this is done only once a week.

Losers.

Vocabu-Lit. We followed Angelicum's suggestion of using Vocabu-Lit for 4th grade. The workbook is great and it uses literature to teach new vocabulary. But as we were progressing through the book, Marco began to get more and more frustrated with the work. "It's too hard! I hate it!" So I did further reading to see what the problem could be. Well, it turns out that the book that Angelicum is recommending for 4th graders is actually a 6th grade book!! That might be fine and dandy for kids who are great readers, but for the average kid...this might be a little too much. So I abandoned Vocabu-Lit and am going back to using something more grade appropriate. So I guess in the end, it really isn't the program that's a loser...it's just a loser because we were using something that wasn't suited to our grade level.

That's it! Looks like we don't really have lots of losers this year. All other materials are straight from Angelicum and we are enjoying them all. I hope that all you homeschoolers out there are having luck with your curricula. It's always a mystery as to what will work, but thank goodness that we have the luxury of tailoring our teaching to what our kids need!

Scholaric Review.

2011-09-06T12:38:00.012-04:00

When I find something that I love, helps me and is easy to use...I want to tell the whole world!! I'm a chronic planner, organization junkie and all around nerd when it comes to homeschooling. I'm constantly looking for ways to make my life easier and more streamlined. With 6 kids, keeping our homeschool organized is a top priority.

Before the beginning of our homeschool year in August, I decided that I needed an easier way to organize lessons for my 3 grammar stage kids. Fitting everyone's schedule in my planner just wasn't working and adding any more kids to it was just not realistic. So I decided to give the electronic planner a try.

I started with a popular, downloadable "Tracker" program. It took me a whole weekend to type everything in, understand how to use it and get the ball rolling with it. I was on the brink of throwing in the towel with it's learning curve, but decided to stick it out because of all the time I had already invested in it. But then something wonderful happened. I got rid of my dinosaur PC and upgraded to an iMac.

Upgrading to an iMac is awesome...but not so awesome for Tracker users. I found out that not only could I not transfer my Tracker files, but that I couldn't even start over with Tracker because it is not compatible with Macs!! All that precious time wasted! I nearly cried with frustration!

Thus began my search for a homeschool planner that was Mac compatible. Luckily, it didn't take long before someone recommended Scholaric. Could it be that I had found something I could download to my Mac that would save me from a planning crisis? Read on.

It turns out that Scholaric doesn't need to be downloaded into any computer because it's web-based. That means all your planning stays online and not your computer. I wasn't sure I liked this. My lesson plans floating around in virtual space? I didn't buy into the hype until a light bulb lit up over my head. My lesson plans....accessible from any computer!

Once I realized that I could plan my school week not only from my desktop, but from our MacBook from anywhere in the house, I got so excited! Not only that, but you could use it on your iPad too! How much more convenient and terrific could this Scholaric program be? I signed up for the trial version immediately. After all, not just because you can have easy access to something does it mean that it's easy to set up or use, right?

Well...Scholaric is extremely easy to set up and use. If you like to spend hours typing information into a planner before you actually get to use it...this program is probably not for you. But if you like to get started right away, Scholaric is perfect! Setting up our homeschool account on Scholaric was a breeze. It's like opening a notebook planner and just filling in the days with what you are doing. You can schedule repeating lessons, record time spent on a subject (necessary in some states), reschedule lessons easily and even share lessons if you have more than one student.

Scholaric makes it easy to record grades too and even generates a report card if needed. What I really like about Scholaric, beside all these great features? I can print out a daily or weekly assignment for my kids that they can check off. Here is a quick screenshot (sorry it's blurry).

Is Scholaric perfect? Probably not. There is no perfect planner, although for me it's as close to perfection as I've ever had. Sign up for a free 15 day trial to find out how easy it is to use this amazing online planner. It's only $1 per month, per child after that!

Check them out and become a fan! They post tips and updates on their FaceBook page.

New Pup?

2011-09-04T13:28:00.006-04:00

We are finally settling into the routine of being back to school. Co-op started this past Monday and it was great. The kids were so excited to be back! It was a great first day and I was happy to see all the kids and my friends!

Of course, things are never dull around here with school, co-op, a new baby and just our daily routines. But I decided to throw in a little curve ball this past week. We are fostering a dog!! I know it's crazy of me to even think of adding a dog to a family of 8, but I couldn't justify not allowing my kids to get a pet. After all, I have very fond memories of growing up with pets myself.

So enters Sierra. This little pup is a year old and the sweetest thing. We actually weren't planning on adopting a dog just yet. We were waiting to see if we could swing buying a nice poodle mix so that I wouldn't have to add vacuuming dog hair to my list of chores. But as I took Anthony on a mother-son lunch date, we decided to stop by the humane society just to look at the puppies. And there was Sierra. More timid that my own little Anthony (he's a shy one!), but just so sweet. We fell in love with her! Now we are fostering her for a week or so to see how she adjusts to living with our family and how our family adjusts to having her around. So far, things are going great!

Yea...she sheds. She's not a designer dog. But the kids love her! I'll have to let you know if we decide to go through with an adoption and having her become one of the family!

She was so shy at the shelter. She was almost afraid to be pet.

As soon as we got home, she opened up. She loves the kids and is excellent with them! She is not one bit shy anymore!!

With 6 kids, she gets plenty of attention. Here she is taking a nap after a long walk.

FaceBook. Bringing Out The Worst.

2011-08-22T21:59:00.002-04:00

I remember a couple of years ago I kept getting invitations to join Facebook from family and friends. "What a time suck!!" was my initial response. How could anyone waste their time reading all the mindless posts from friends they hadn't seen since high school? And not only that, who cared? If someone really wanted to be your "friend" why didn't they give you a call or send you a letter?

Well, here we are 2 years later and I'm constantly checking my Facebook home page. Did my sister update her status? Is my aunt in Chicago doing well? How about my cousins? Don't forget all my old friends who live far away. What are they up to? Oh! I better update my status and let everyone know that I just gave little Jimmy the third bath of the day because he decided to pour maple syrup on his head...again.

Yes. This is what part of my days look like. Granted, I check in for only about a minute and then I'm off. But add those minutes up and who knows how many hours I spend a week on Facebook. How did I get sucked into this? And why is it so difficult to stop?

Today I finally made a realization. Facebook brings out the worst in me. As I sat checking everyones updates on my phone today, I caught myself doing something. I wasn't surprised or suddenly appalled...I was just AWARE of what I was doing. I was judging. Criticizing. Forming bad opinions. Snickering.

And as I read a friend's post, I realized just how addictive Facebook is. And addictive is not good. Sure, I get to keep in touch with friends and family. My dad looks forward to all the pictures I post of the kids. It's the way I message our babysitter. But is being on Facebook really bringing out the best in me? Probably not.

This past Lent, I remember talking with a friend about our sacrifices. Giving up Facebook was one of them. I remember her saying how difficult it was going to not check in and asking if it counted to just read and not post. Wow. Talk about the incredible grip that Facebook has on our daily lives! Even more recently, another friend gave up Facebook as a prayerful cause. But of course, it's impossible to really "give it up" and you can still see where she checks in daily and Sundays don't count.

Is it that hard to stop? I say yes. After choosing to go without it for Lent, I realized just how tempting it was to "drop in." The first week was the hardest. My husband kept saying, "If you even visit the FB page, you are breaking your fast." So I didn't. Not even on Sunday. I went the whole season without even opening the FB page. It was a little liberating.

But now here I am again. Should I "give it up" as my friends say? I'm not sure. On the one hand, I love keeping in touch with my family. On the other hand, I'm sometimes creating negative thoughts and bringing out the worst in me. Which way to go?

Back to School 2011!

2011-08-17T12:43:00.011-04:00

Is it August already??!!! Of course it's August. I've known that for the past 17 days!!! But really...here I go again. Life gets in the way of blogging...blah, blah, blah. Let's get down to the nitty-gritty.

We actually started school on August 1st! Yes we had our first day of school celebrations and all. It was a fantastic day and the kids had the best time, like always. I won't say that it was easy, as I wasn't ready to start school at all! But I sucked it up, planned as much as I could, gathered whatever materials I had and got to it. The first two weeks were a MESS!! I couldn't find all my materials, our old books were still on the shelves while our new books sat in piles all over our school room. Not only that but our daily schedules weren't set up, my lesson plans weren't organized, the kids' planners were nowhere to be found, and our school room was a disaster.

Sounds like a nice start to the school year, huh? Well, I finally got my act together. Every night last week I stayed up late organizing and planning. It was painful, but now I can say that I'm mostly done! The only thing left for me to do is get our daily schedules done. I have a tentative schedule, but I'm still experimenting on how our days are going to flow best with 4 kids doing school, a toddler, and a baby.

This week we are well into our 3rd week of school and it's going GREAT! Our lessons are getting done, the kids are happy (for the most part), and I can finally find all our books. I'm sure that this year's beginning isn't going to scar the kids. They have been having a wonderful time since our new school year started. Our first day of school traditions helped, of course.

As you may know, every year we celebrate the first day of school with schultutes or school cones that I usually spend a couple of weeks working on. It's like Christmas around here! The cones are full of school supplies, candy, and toys. The kids get to spend half of the morning playing with their treats before officially starting their school work. Check out the celebration!

Language Arts Decisions and Reviews.

2011-06-23T12:27:00.007-04:00

It seems that if you are a homeschooler, this time of year is mainly focused on curriculum decisions, planning, organizing, and hunting for reviews for new products. It's my favorite time of the school year!!Of course, we are using mainly Angelicum Academy for our homeschool. But after having tried out their language arts curriculum for the past 3 years...I just don't like it!!

(Photo from Habits of a Happy Home blog)

Shurley English was not only torture for me to teach, but Marco totally hated it. So we ditched it and switched to Rod and Staff English. It's rigorous and boring, but I actually like that it's straightforward to teach. Marco doesn't like it, but he doesn't hate it either. I like that there's tons of review, which is important for him. Isabella used it this past year and she flew through their 2nd grade book. She loved it! But she's just that kind of student. I plan on using First Language Lessons for Anthony's 1st grade and then jumping into Rod and Staff for him too.

Well, that's grammar. But how did our year go with using Angelicum's recommendation of Hooked on Phonics for phonics instruction? I totally dislike the program, but the kids loved it. In the end, we're ditching this too. The program might get your kids reading, but it completely lacks phonics instructions. There is no explanation of phonics rules and I felt it was more like teaching word families. So in the future, when your child comes across a more difficult word, he won't be able to apply any phonics rules to learn to read it because none were ever taught!! Come on!! Even I remember learning things like "When 2 vowels go a walkin', the first one does the talkin'." HOP consists of watching a video, repeating the words they say, and then reading the same words in the workbook. Not my idea of a solid phonics foundation.

Anyways...we're switching to Saxon Phonics this year (click for a Cathy Duffy review). After reading review after review, I made up my mind and have received Saxon Phonics 1 for Anthony. It looks fabulous!!! It's completely scripted like their Saxon math program, and I love that! It has lots of review, explains all the rules, teaches coding, and comes with manipulatives. We are starting this next week!! I'm even tempted to do Saxon Phonics 2 with Isabella. She completed HOP 2, but I feel that she needs a better grasp of phonics rules.

And although Saxon Phonics covers spelling, we are still continuing with All About Spelling. It really is a great program and Anthony is doing well with it. Marco and Isabella are also moving along and enjoy the program. By the time the kids are done with Saxon and AAS, they are going to have such a great grasp of phonics and spelling!

Did I cover writing?? Well, after much consideration and back-and-forth, I took the plunge and bought the Institute for Excellence in Writing program. The IEW program always looked pretty awesome, but the price always seemed a little steep. But after hearing Andrew Pudewa speak at the homeschool conference, I was completely convinced! I bought the Teaching Writing: Structure and Style set, as well as two of their themed-based writing books: All Things Fun and Fascinating and Fables, Myths and Fairy Tales. To top it off, I'm also starting poetry memorization using IEW's Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization.

Is that all for language arts? I think so. The wonderful thing about homeschooling is finding what works for you and your children. I am completely thankful, however, that there are programs out there that lay out a plan. Most of the thinking is done for you and you know that you won't be missing on any core subjects.

Get Ready For Some Books! Angelicum Sale.

2011-06-21T08:10:00.003-04:00

If you are planning on enrolling with Angelicum Academy or just purchasing their lesson plans books...now is the time to do it! They have their summer sale going on until July 5th.

We decided not to enroll this year and will just be purchasing all the lesson plans that we need for the kids. Perhaps when Marco is older and we feel it more necessary to have grading services and support, we'll enroll him again.

For now, I'm getting all our lesson plans in order, our books ordered, and new school materials organized. It's something that I'm sure will take a while to accomplish.

On Vacation.

2011-06-19T08:59:00.000-04:00

It's been a great time bonding with the new baby lately! She is 4 weeks old now and it seems like she's been with us forever! Recently, I've been on vacation (as is obvious by my lack of posts). I first spent some time by myself (but with Evangeline) travelling with friends to the annual IHM Conference in Virginia. It was a great time, although I wasn't too thrilled with the vendor accommodations. It was hard getting around to see all the wonderful Catholic curricula. But I did come away with some gems and have been busy ordering and organizing our books every chance I get, since I've been back.

Soon after I arrived home after a long conference weekend, our best friends came to town for a week. We had a blast! Day trips to museums, parks, and playgrounds were all the kids needed to get away from our usual day to day routines. We also spent some of the week at the Great Wolfe Lodge (highly recommended!!) and camping in our backyard by the fire. We were sad to see our friends go, but are looking forward to our next vacation with them!!

All the kids together for a picture!

Hanging at the Great Wolfe Lodge.

The wave pool was awesome!

Our backyard campsite.

Evangeline!

2011-05-31T21:00:00.007-04:00

So I've been missing again, but this time I have the best reason ever....our baby girl, Evangeline, was born on the 18th of May!! My biggest baby, she weighed just over 9 pounds!! Sweet little baby; we've been busy cuddling, feeding, loving her, and trying to get some sleep in between.

She is lovely and all the kids constantly hover around her, wanting to hold her and kiss her. She is our littlest angel. My biggest adjustment has been trying to keep the younger kids from loving her too roughly, as our little Jimmy gets so over-excited with the baby that he wants to hug her and never let go.

And even with her being so new and all, it feels like she's always been a part of our family...she fits right in! We have taken the last two weeks off, spending time with grandparents and just being a big family. It's been great! But now, we must return to the daily routines that make up our little domestic church. Chores, school lessons, and our daily routines.

Evangeline...our newest addition!

Marian Artist Trading Card Swap 2011.

2011-05-10T21:02:00.003-04:00

I read about this last year and was bummed that I had missed the whole thing. So this year, I've been keeping an eye out for it. It's the Marian Artist Trading Card Swap 2011! Head over to Pondered in My Heart to get all the details.

I have never done this before, but thought it would be so much fun for the kids to participate. You can also read more about it at Jessica's blog, Shower of Roses.

I'll have to keep everyone posted on how it goes for us.

Catching Up on Past Events.

2011-05-04T11:53:00.016-04:00

April was a pretty busy month. There was our end of year program for our awesome homeschool co-op, Marco had his birthday, and we celebrated Easter. In an attempt to keep up family and friends with our April happenings, here is a brief recap of what we were up to. Get ready for pictures!!

End of Year Program for our Holy Family Homeschool Enrichment Co-op.

Thanks to the volunteer efforts of all our co-op moms, our end of year program was a huge success. This is a time when all our co-op students get to showcase and present what they have learned all semester. There's food, drinks, a performance by our bell choir and lots of fun!

Isabella with her gal pals.

Three lovely ladies smiling for the camera!

Christian performing with his preschool class.

Anthony with his Blue Knights class. They were all knighted and got to show off some of their handy crafts!

Marco reading about his saint for his saints class.

Father Tri gave a wonderful opening talk and prayer.

Marco Turns 9 Years Old!

It was a great day in early April as Marco turned 9 years old!! I don't know how time has slipped by us so fast, but we are so blessed to have this guy in our family. It was a low-key birthday with just the family, and Marco didn't care in the least.

My "little guy" is beaming!

A rare picture with me in it!!

Ready for his present.

I'm not sure he liked his new IPod Shuffle.

And that Pokemon game? Lame.

Easter!

Of course, it was just us for Easter. I can't remember the last time we had family come in for the holiday and we've grown accustomed to having it be a laid-back family day. This year was not too different, but I must say that the kids said it was the "best day ever." Why? Not exactly sure, but I'm sure the Holy Spirit was with us! And as the kids have gotten older, holidays just seem more fun, too!!

On our way to Mass.

Hubby with the kids. I love my boys and my baby-girl Isabella!

In our home, no one gets Easter baskets until after we come home from Mass. It just works for us and give everyone time to enjoy the moment without having to rush the kids to get ready to go to church.

After baskets are done, we usually eat lunch and then have a craft and activity set for the kids to do. Here, Anthony is making Easter egg holders.

Marco is working on a Lego creation.

After crafts, we fly kites!

We play outside!

We fill our cascarones and get them ready.

So much fun!

After our Easter egg hunt, we cracked cascarones over each others heads. So much fun!

So that concludes some of my catching up with tons of pictures. Hopefully I didn't get carried away! I hope that everyone's April month was just as fun!

First Holy Communion.

2011-05-03T10:42:00.006-04:00

This past Sunday, Isabella received our Holy Lord for the first time!! It was a wonderful day to celebrate and she was happier than ever! Not only that, but she got to mark this special day with two of her good friends as well.

To celebrate the special occasion, my friends and I decided to host a little party at my home. It was a great success with both grown-ups and kids having a wonderful time!!

So Many Things!!

2011-04-20T20:30:00.005-04:00

There have been so many things going on just this past month! Birthdays, co-op events, Easter and 1st communion. Even the day to day seems to be full of noteworthy activity. So perhaps this week I'll just be updating with pictures for everyone to enjoy! We've had a great year so far!

Preparing, Purchasing, Planning.

2011-04-19T13:47:00.009-04:00

So it's the time of year where most homeschool families start making lists and checking them twice. I'm not talking about Christmas (although for some of us, it almost seems like it)!! It's the time of year when homeschoolers get geared up for purchasing new materials for their upcoming school year. I know it. I've made the lists. I'm starting to get that planning itch. This year I'll be teaching a 4th grader, 2nd grader, K/1st grader, and a preschooler. On top of that I'll have a toddler and a newborn. No pressure. Nothing to worry about. I'm just keeping it cool.

6 KIDS!!! Really, people. I'm starting to get worried. Am I losing my mind? How can all of this possibly get done?? Ok....I'm keeping my cool again.

So for the past couple of weeks, I've worked on creating book lists for each of the kids. We are using Angelicum Academy, so it's nice to not have to make too many decisions on what curriculum to use. For the most part, we are using their recommendations and switching a few things with what's been working for us (mainly language arts and science). It's nice to be able to reuse so much of our curriculum and only have to purchase the worksheets or tests.

But I am starting a new wish list that doesn't include books or curricula. It's a schoolroom/supply wish list. And having it has meant keeping my eyes open for great deals and snatching them up when I can. As homeschoolers, I'm sure that you all realize how much it can take to get stocked up for school and how nice it is to have a fully functional and well supplied school room. Here are some of my wish list items.

PrismaColor Pencils Set of 120

My kids (mainly Isabella) are drawing and coloring fanatics. They go through crayons like there is no tomorrow. And colored pencils? Well, that's their favorite. I'm a big fan of PrismaColor and have used them since we began on this homeschool journey. I've been through quite a few sets and my kids have become quite snobbish because of them. "But these aren't the good pencils, Mami." Drives me nuts. But then I saw this set...so pretty! I figure we need them since they tend to last us a while. Just don't look at the price tag!!!! Lucky for me, I bought them for 50% off the retail price. Still a little steep, but well worth it!

Binding Machine

The amount I've spent at Kinko's getting books bound would have already paid for 2 of these machines. This year, I decided that my binding needs aren't going to decrease any time soon so purchasing a binding machine would probably be a smart choice! I'm actually super-excited about getting it (should arrive tomorrow!)!! I already have a bunch of stuff ready and lined up to be bound! The particular one I ordered will actually bind up to 500 pages!! Awesome!

Ikea Trofast System

Ok...so this one is a big more difficult to convince my hubby of letting me get. The system is actually not that expensive, but I think that sometimes I tend to go a little overboard in buying furniture to "outfit" our schoolroom. Regardless....it's on my wish list and I foresee me making a trip to Ikea by the end of the summer! Why do I need this awesome little organizing system? Because I've been inspired to use it for the kids' school and possibly start implementing a workbox system. I've been loosely doing it for a little bit and it's awesome! Here is a picture on how I would like to use them. I would love to tell you from whose blog this is, but I can't find it! If you know, please post a comment so I can credit them.

Apple MacPro Computer

Ok...so this one is really pushing the limits. But you must understand that I have computer envy due to my hubby's awesome MacBook Pro. I don't need a laptop, but I do need a new desktop. My computer is older than most of my kids!!! It still works, although pretty slow, so I can't complain completely. But eventually I will need to get it replaced. I'm just holding out until my computer blows up...which it is on the verge of doing. I'm surprised I can even post all these pictures. I have a caveman computer (although I got the screen replaced, so at first glance it looks newer).

I'll stop there for my wish list. It seems like every item keeps getting more and more expensive. Next thing I'll post for my wish list is a Porsche....what mom doesn't need an awesome little car from keeping her from feeling like she's turning into one of those homeschoolers. Wait....isn't being in your early 30's too soon for a mid-life crisis?

Elementary Planner.

2011-04-07T16:55:00.004-04:00

How has your organization been going this year so far? I know many homeschoolers are coming to the end of their year. In our home, we homeschool year-round with our new school year beginning usually in early August. We've been doing this since the beginning and I love it. It just works for us. Taking weeks off as we need them and having a longer break in July. I find that it keeps the kids sharper and my house less chaotic. Does that make sense?

Anyways. I am a big believer is having a daily schedule. We use Managers of Their Homes to help us manage our day to day activity. It works wonderfully! I tend to be flexible with it, however, as I find that you kind of have to be when you have a lot of little ones running around. But things usually get done in the same order every day, whether we start at 8:30am or 9am. If you want to check out my post on my schedule, click here! It's been tweaked a bit since we have added and taken activities away, but the basics are the same.

Now this year, I had decided to give my kids their own planners to help build responsibility and good habits. I ordered some cute student planners from Pflaum especially for the primary grades. We used them quite a bit, but stopped about half year. Although great planners, they were too busy. A place for notes, spelling words, and all sorts of extra activities were causing havoc in my mind as I would write down their assignments for the day. And since they was little space for all their subjects (the planner is in a weekly format), I was getting frustrated.

So I began using my own lesson/assignment planner and the kids had been checking off everything in that. But it got old with the kids fighting over who my planner and I was ready to let them each have their own planner again. After searching high and low for a daily assignment planner that met our needs and always coming up short, I decided to make our own.

So if you need an elementary planner for your kids, feel free to use mine! Or easily create your own using mine as a template. I don't mind!

Elementary Planner

The subjects on our planners reflect our use of Angelicum Academy. If you want me to email you an editable copy, just leave a comment and I can send a Word document. I had our student planner bound, so the kids each have their own books.

That's my homeschool help for today! Enjoy!!

Looking for a New School? Check us Out!!

2011-04-06T11:31:00.007-04:00

Is your school year coming to an end? Well, we here at Holy Family Classical Academy pride ourselves in providing continual education to all our students! A year full of rigorous academics, extra curricular activities, and character formation are the basis for our success. Class sizes ranging from 1-5 kids guarantees one on one instruction. We focus on developing the best curricula for every child depending on their learning style and approach. We offer classical montessori based activities, art and nature based learning, and a traditional classical education approach. We offer a wide range of cultural experiences for every child including (but not limited to) foreign language study in Latin and Spanish. All this intertwined with a constant formation in the beautiful Catholic faith!

Seriously.....

I love our homeschool. I don't think I could ever find any school, public or private, that offers what we do at home!!! Being able to homeschool is a blessing and I'm forever grateful for it!!!!

Lunch and Dinner Dilemma.

2011-03-24T09:48:00.006-04:00

Seems like I've finally reached my breaking point in the lunch and dinner menu department. Frequent trips to the grocery store (like 4 per week!!), too many meals at the restaurant, and scrambling to make something quick before the whole family melts down...this has been my life for the past couple of months. It's driving me to insanity!!!

So after a meal of leftovers and cheese pizza, I decided to get my life back on track in the cooking department. I've always done menus and it has been a wonderful help to me. I'm a BIG buyer and believer of organic and natural foods, so planning my shopping trip is important if I want to buy the kinds of foods we eat and save money. Believe me, buying prepared meals at Whole Foods is not cheap!

I began by taking a look at some of our favorite family meals for both lunch and dinner. I love allrecipes.com and I have most of our favorite dinner recipes stored through their Recipe Box feature. My next step was to download an empty dinner menu planner from Donna Young's website. Finally, I just filled it in for the whole month. (I did the same for a lunch menu.)

I started with our Friday meals, since we don't eat meat on those days. After that, I planned our Wednesday meals since we have faith formation on those days and having slow cooker meals is most convenient. The rest just fell into place. Leaving the weekends open for leftovers or family trips to the restaurant works well for us too.

I opted for doing a whole month of planning in advance. I think this will prevent my weekend rushing around of trying to come up with something. And once the month is over, I can just start at the beginning again...maybe switching some recipes for others. But at least I don't have to think about what's for dinner (or lunch!) for a whole month!!

My grocery shopping trips are now being planned for every two weeks, with perhaps a small trip in-between for fresh produce. This will give me so much more time for when I have our babysitter watching the kids...and I'm sure she'll appreciate knowing what to make for lunch whenever she is here!

I have included a link to both my dinner and lunch menus. All my lunch meals don't require a recipe, I just make them off the top of my head. If you want the recipes for my dinner menus, a quick search at Allrecipes.com will help you find what you need! If not, just drop me a comment and I'll send it over!!

Monthly Lunch Menu

Monthly Dinner Menu

It feels good to go back to having a plan, especially now that I have a new baby on the way in less than 2 months! Now to start organizing other parts of my life...... :)

Thinking About Easter Already?

2011-03-21T21:02:00.005-04:00

I know Easter is still some time away as we are barely a couple of weeks into the Lenten season. I wanted to post this, however, because sometimes getting ready for Easter (much like getting ready for Advent or other liturgical seasons) can take some prep time.

For many, Easter Sunday is a day for gathering with family and friends...egg hunts, chocolate bunnies, pretty baskets filled with brightly colored eggs, toys for the kids, etc. It's almost like Christmas day! All these things are wonderful memory-makers for not just the kids, but parents too.

For me, Easter always reminds me of traditions that I grew up with. My favorite being Cascarones!! (Or Confetti Eggs). This has been a family tradition since before I was born. Many of my fondest childhood memories involve getting together for Easter with my entire family...cousins, aunts, uncles, friends...and having the funnest time cracking cascarones over each others heads. It was the funnest time because it was fair game for everyone to take part in the celebration, not just the kids.

Of course, having such a big extended family meant that we needed LOTS of cascarones. I remember my mom carefully cracking eggs for weeks before Easter to collect the eggshells. She would crack the tip of the egg, slowly peel away the tip of the eggshell, and then empty the egg into a bowl that she would use to make us scrambled eggs, pancakes, etc. She would then rinse out all the empty eggshells and place them to dry in an empty egg carton.

Some time before Easter, we would take out all the now-full egg cartons in order to color and dye all the eggshells. When that was done, we'd fill them up with confetti and glue colored tissue paper over the openings. (Of course, I had sneaky cousins who would fill some of their eggs with flour...not something I'm recommending).

Now that I have a "big" family of my own, however, I find that collecting the eggshells for Easter is not as hard as it used to be!

Want to learn more about this Mexican tradition? You can read this article from Highlights with your kids and get them excited about it! Need some detailed, step-by-step instructions? Check this article from eHow.com.

Commentary?

2011-03-17T11:31:00.003-04:00

So lately I'm scurrying around, looking for my NFP (Natural Family Planning) book and reviewing what I can. I have a class I'm scheduled to take at church for a brush up soon and I'm wondering how on earth I am going to get back into the swing of using NFP.

Which brings me to the use of actual birth control (AKA, the "pill") and how the number of Catholics who use it seems pretty staggering. I've read anywhere from 60% to 75%!!!! Now I can go on and on about why it's wrong (besides being an abortifacient). But the fact of the matter is that it is AGAINST CATHOLIC TEACHING! And for excellent reasons!!!

I guess making up our religion is the easy way to do things. Being one of those "cafeteria Catholics" might seem OK to many. Let me see...I'll take Mass on Sundays and some Holy Days, the Holy Trinity, and even some of the Sacraments. That was easy! Picking and choosing is fun!!!

But seriously...do most Catholics realize what they are putting in jeopardy when they do this? By choosing to take contraception (AKA the "pill), they are committing a mortal sin!! The only way to remove that mortal sin is by going to confession. And how many of those people who are committing this mortal sin go to Mass on Sunday and receive the Holy Eucharist??

Hello out there! You are not supposed to receive communion if you are in a state of mortal sin!!!

Ok....call this a rant or commentary. But perhaps this stems from all the crazy comments I get for choosing life. Maybe it's my raging pregnancy hormones. Perhaps it's personally knowing people who choose to use birth control every day and still go up for communion. Should I even care? Am I being judgmental? I don't know and I don't let it stop me from praying about it.

But at least I know I'm not wrong.

2011-03-09T12:44:00.005-05:00

Today marks the beginning of Lent! I've actually been really excited to start this season, which has been the case more and more each year. The reason for this is that every year my kids get older, their understanding increases, and they are more fully able to participate! It's really wonderful to be able to celebrate Lent as a family with mostly understanding persons (as opposed to celebrating Lent as a family of mom & dad with a couple of toddlers who don't know the difference between wearing diapers and wearing underwear!).

We started the day with our usual morning prayers/offerings. But we added a few more things into our religion. We started our Lenten learning with "The Reading of the Strips"...or at least that's what one of the kids yelled out when I told them to gather around the table so that I can read all the Lenten Deed tickets to them. "Guys!!!! Mom's gonna do the reading of the strips!!!"

Now our Lenten Deed jar is full and the kids are all itching to see what deed they get to work on for the week. "Can we switch tickets if we don't like what we get?" NO!!!

Another fun addition to our day today was the beginning of our Lent Lapbook from Lapbooks for Catholics. We worked on the cover and the kids were coloring and cutting while I read to them the history of Lent and asked them questions. We'll be working on the lapbook for another week or so and then I'm planning on taking it out during our religion time to review from it.

Of course, Isabella will be working on 2 different faith lapbooks. This past Sunday, she had her Sacramental Prep class and they went over the things we see in church. This was perfect since she is currently working on "The Things We See in Church" lapbook from Lapbooks for Catholics. It's so much fun to be able to do all these fun and educational things with the kids!

But what about the littlest members of our Catholic crew? Well, lets just say that they have plenty on their minds to keep them busy. Ummm....yea. That's little Jimmy with a box on his head. He was pretty adamant about putting it on and walking around. The kids and I got a good laugh from it!

And let's not forget about our little school room altar. Our Father Nick just got a change of vestments to go with the season! And you'll notice that we have yet to change the color of our tablecloth. I know I put that purple "altar cloth" somewhere!!

Good Deeds for Lent.

2011-03-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

I've been working hard on making some preparations for Lent not only for my children, but also for my 5th grade Faith Formation class. It's nice that I can use the same resources for both! A Lenten activity we have done in the past is making a sacrifice/good deed jar. It's a great way to get kids more involved during Lent.

So I decided to go ahead with this activity for my 5th grade class as well. In the past, I would have my kids put a bean into a jar for every good deed or sacrifice they did. This year I am changing things up a bit to make it easier for classroom use. I created "Lenten Deeds" tickets to put in a bowl instead. Each ticket has a certain deed that has to be done in a week. The "deeds" correspond to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Whether it be giving up video games for a week (fasting), reading from the Bible (prayer), or collecting food for the needy (almsgiving)...it's something that kids can do and feel good about.

The tickets have a space for the kids to sign their name once they complete their deeds as well as a space for the parents to sign as well. Coming up with good deeds and sacrifices was a lot harder than I thought!! But I think I have a good mix to keep things going all through Lent. Take a look at my tickets below!

I'll probably be printing this on some light purple, colored paper. But I'm loving that it's done and am excited to have it out for both my Faith Formation class and my kids at home!

Love it too? Well, just click on the links below and you can print them out for personal use! I made 3 different pages. Yes...I'm just that nice. ;)

Lenten Deeds Page 1
Lenten Deeds Page 2
Lenten Deeds Page 3

Fun Science From Co-op.

2011-03-02T20:38:00.007-05:00

I've been neglecting taking pictures of a lot of things we do in our homeschool. Not only do I forget to charge the battery to my camera, but I constantly leave my camera where it's not supposed to be. So if I'm in the school room, the camera is in the keeping room downstairs. If I'm downstairs, the camera is upstairs in the school room. In my state of pregnancy I have grown lazy when it comes to going up and down the stairs.

But I did manage to take some pictures of some fun experiments we've been doing at co-op and bringing home. I teach our co-op science class using the Mind Blowing Science Kite for Young Scientists. It's fun and the kids love it! Anthony and Isabella are in my class and they are constantly asking "What are we doing in class next??" This week we made colorful crystals using the kit's polyacrylamide crystals. They've been playing with them all week and even Christian is having fun with them.

The science kit is an awesome little addition to any homeschool. It's perfect for my crew and the experiments are easy and fun for them to do. Best part is that everything is included (except water and some other easy to find stuff)!

Co-op is always fun for the kids and we are blessed to have such a great group of families that help make it such a success!!

Approaching Lent and Preparing Activities.

2011-02-26T11:26:00.007-05:00

So last year, we did a Lent lapbook. It was fun, educational, and the kids loved it. But for the life of me, I can't find it!!! I can't even find a picture!! So sorry to all who have been asking if I could post something. I'll keep looking!

But in keeping with making things education and fun, we'll be working on another Lent Lapbook using Lapbooks for Catholics, Lent: A Journey Towards Easter. You can click on the title and it will take you to the webpage where you can purchase the whole thing for only $10!!

Other things that we are getting ready is our "Walk the Lenten Path" countdown to Easter. Last year we used this cute one from Catholic Icing and the kids loved keeping track of the days. Here is a picture of the ones the kids colored last year. They loved them!

This year, however, I actually made my own to use with my Faith Formation 5th grade class. I'm going to be letting my own kids choose which one they want to print out and color too, and so far they like the look of the new one!! I made one in black and white for my older kids to color and I also made one with the pictures already colored in to make it easier for my 3 year old. (You can see my color one below).

To countdown the days, they just put a sticker on each square every morning. But you can leave your squares blank and have your kids color them instead...my kids just love stickers, so I went that route. If you want to download a copy for yourself here are the links!!! Just click on "File" on the left side and then print.

Color Lenten Path Countdown
B&W Lenten Path Countdown

Also in the pipeline are some Stations of the Cross booklets for the kids to color and use on Friday's when we do the stations together. A picture posting of that once we get them printed and colored!!

So in the mean time, I hope these ideas get you started on your own Lent preparations! I also apologize for all the emails and messages in regards to my Lent lapbook from last year. Once I find it, I will be sure to take some pictures and post them ASAP!!

Valentine's Day.

2011-02-23T21:58:00.006-05:00

How does the time go by so fast? Well, we've been staying busy doing some hard-core learning!! Of course, we have fun along the way too! This past month, we spent much of our time getting our St. Valentine day cards ready to trade with friends. Although it's so easy to just buy them, the sentimental touch is lost.

The kids really wanted to make their own and since I "hate" crafting (please insert sarcasm), I obliged and we spent a week making around 50 cards! They turned out great, although I've failed to take a picture of a finished product. You can, however, see how wonderfully messy our table got!!

It was a blast to get the kids' creative juices flowing in such a heart-felt way! And we were lucky enough that this year we were able to share the celebration at our co-op! The kids had a blast trading valentines, eating treats, and playing together. Getting home was part of the fun too as I could hear the kids reading their cards in their seats.

Isabella with her good friend Hannah.

I'm trying to help Anthony pass out his cards on the K-1 table.

I hope everyone out there had a great Saint Valentine's Day too! My kids are already excited about making valentines for next year! I think we'll tackle St. Patrick's Day next first, however!

A rare picture of me with my kids! Love them!!

Sewing and Crafting!

2011-01-24T14:22:00.004-05:00

These past couple of months, I've been spending some of my free time sewing up a storm!! Mostly pajamas for the kids from fabric I've had in storage. It's been fun and a learning experience, since I don't really know how to sew.

My last two accomplishments, however, have taken a lot more time than the kids' pajamas. They have been a couple of colonial style dresses for Isabella. She is still well into American Girl and loves her dolls. Since we have started reading about Felicity in our AG Club, she had been asking for some dresses just like hers.

So I decided to make her a couple, complete with cap and scarf. They turned out nice, although the first dress (in blue) took me longer to make and is not as well made as the second. I have enough fabric to even make her a third, so that should take up some more of my time! Anything to keep the age of innocence going!

It's the Thought That Counts!

2011-01-10T11:03:00.002-05:00

So maybe I spoke too soon when I said, "I'm back!" November thru January is possibly one of the busiest times due to all the holidays, traveling, and wrapping up for school. What was I thinking?

Well, now it's a new year and we're still in full swing here at Holy Family Classical Academy. The kids are getting their lessons done, we're reading, crafting, and cleaning the house all at the same time it seems!! But that's the great thing about homeschooling...getting it all done and doing it all together as a family. Love it.

For now, I'm finally downloading pictures from the holidays, organizing them on my computer, and hopefully printing some out. While all that gets done, I have a little birthday party to prepare for...Isabella turned 7 on New Years Day! Such a big girl!

Back From My Break!

2010-11-13T10:07:00.009-05:00

Wow...has it really been that long since I last posted? Well, I want to thank everyone for their emails of concern! But I am happy to say that I'm back and feeling better than ever! It's been quite a busy last couple of months!!

Our household has been buzzing with homeschool, co-op, field trips, and the fabulous news of a new baby joining our family in May!! That's right...baby #6 is happily growing! With that, I'll add that I've had the most horrible morning sickness ever. Which has kept me from doing what I normally do around the house (blogging being one of those things). To bed at 8pm for me, with an afternoon nap thrown in. That was giving me minimal time to do anything else!

But my morning sickness has improved so much since I've headed into my second trimester! I'm only at 13.5 weeks, and it's exciting to see that I'm already showing. News of our little peanut has made everyone quite excited!!

So of course, morning sickness will never stop a homeschooling mom from doing lessons or toting the kids around to fun things. We've kept busy with everything from trips to the pumpkin patch, to making fall crafts, and even hosting our annual Halloween party!! Check it out! And I plan on fully coming back to the blogosphere to share all our adventures!

We created a fun coffee filter, fall tree in our school room window. Looks lovely with the light coming in!! **This craft idea was from the Frugal Family Fun Blog. You can see that post here.**

We took a field trip to our town's fire department with lots of our friends!

A trip to the pumpkin patch with the kids included a ride on a little cow train. Here I am with the kids waiting our turn.

Our 7th Annual Halloween Party was a blast!!

These past couple of months have been fun, busy, but most of very difficult with all that a first trimester pregnancy brings. But hooray for our growing family!! We are blessed so abundantly!

Sacraments and Feast Days.

2010-09-28T13:11:00.009-04:00

Isabella is preparing for her sacraments of reconciliation and communion this year! Although only in 1st grade, she has been working a year ahead in religion since the beginning and I felt that she was completely ready for this! She is also an older 1st grader, with a birthday in January, so she will be the appropriate age when receiving the sacraments.

As with Marco, we'll be doing so much more extra "stuff" this year to make sure she is ready! Besides our regular religion curriculum (Faith and Life 2), we are doing the St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism, reading King of the Golden City (for the 2nd time!), making Catholic lapbooks (we purchased all of these), and of course participating in our parish's faith formation and sacramental prep classes. I suppose we'll also throw in even more extras into the mix, but only because we love it!!!

A fun project we did, which didn't really start as a project, was the making of a Mass Journal. During the first sacramental prep class, students were handed a Mass Journal to keep track of all the Masses attended. It contains fill in the blank questions for the kids to fill out...who was the celebrant, what color vestments were worn, what were the first and second readings, etc. It's actually a great way to get kids to pay attention during Mass.

Of course, the journal they passed out was just a bunch of pages stapled together. So Isabella and I decided to make an actual book out of it. We followed the directions on this video. Really simple. No music, no talking...just shows how to make a book!

After making our own book, I made copies of the Mass journal onto pretty paper that Isabella picked out. Each little form was then cut out and then glued to the Mass Journal book we made. Isabella is even working on illustrating the book. It's super cute and I know she will love taking it to Mass more than a bunch of stapled papers. Of course, none of this is necessary. But it was fun!!

Isabella picked a pink cover with yellow paper.

Isabella holding her Mass Journal.

As for celebrating feast days....we worked on some super cute bookmarks this week. An archangel on the front and the prayer to St. Michael on the back! I'm planning on doing this little craft with my 5th grade faith formation class as well.

Fabulous coloring by Marco and Isabella!!

Little Jimmy has enjoyed playing with our bookmarks.

A Little Occupied.

2010-09-26T07:43:00.009-04:00

It's been a while since I've blogged and in my defense, I'm shouting "Life Happens!" But I do have some pictures to share to keep you updated on some of the things that have been keeping us busy.

School Lessons

Of course, our school lessons take precedence over much of our lives. Here we have Marco working on some map skills as he memorizes the continents and oceans of the world. This is part history and part geography and lots of fun! If only history and geography were our only subjects to study...but we still have math, science, reading, Latin, spelling, grammar, and all the rest!!

Family Fun Nights

So you wonder how we spend our weekends around here? Well, movie night is at the top of the list (In this case we were watching "Zoom"). So it's either blog the night away or spend some time with the hubby and kids with lots of popcorn and drinks. I think you know which won! But since we've been without cable for quite some time now, we all look forward to watching a movie together on our giant wall. It's a movie theater experience!

Vacation Time

We have been known to take a few days off here and there. This time we decided to go to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. Perhaps this wasn't the most perfect family vacation....lots of walking, not many hands-on activities and little children don't mix too well with us. But we still learned a bunch and got to see some really neat things. Do I recommend at trip there? Ask hubby and he would say, "No!" Ask me and I say, "Try it with older kids." Ask the kids and they'll say, "Go to Disney World instead."

Field Trips

There's lots of opportunities to go on field trips around here. This time we settled on taking the kids to the apple orchard. Fun? Oh yes. The kids loved it!! Fun for mom? Not in 95 degree weather with a fussy baby. We'll try again next year and pray for cooler weather. Until then, I'm up to my eyeballs in apples! Any recipes??

American Girl Club
We are still going strong with American Girl Club. Isabella loves it and I love getting to do fun crafts with the girls. This time we hosted. Kaya was the inspiration for our corn husk dolls...a fun craft!

Birthday Fun
With 5 kids in the house, it's only a matter of time before it's birthday time for someone. This time we celebrated Anthony's 5th birthday!!! It was a blast and my little guy had a great time. He is a blessing to our family! And we all loved the cake too! Happy Birthday big guy!

Chores, Allowance, and Financial Responsibility.

2010-09-09T14:54:00.003-04:00

Lately, my kids have been asking for a lot of new things. Yugi-oh cards, Pokemon cards, charms for a bracelet, gum, etc. It's been while since we reviewed finances with them, so I thought it was time to go over money with them once again.

At the age of 4 or 5, my kids have started getting an allowance. The age here has been right when my kids have shown some kind of responsibility in taking care of money. For example, Marco and Isabella started getting allowance at around 4 years of age. They would keep their money in their piggy banks and I wouldn't worry about it getting lost. Anthony, on the other hand, got started on allowance on his 4th birthday and then I took it away. He kept misplacing his money, giving it away, and just wasn't mature enough to handle it responsibly. Now, however, at a couple of weeks short of 5, he has proven that he is ready and he will start getting an allowance once again.

My math for allowance is simple. $1.00 for each year of age. So a 10 year old would get $10, and a 5 year old would get $5.00. I have heard of other parents giving $.50 for each year. What is best for each child is really up to the parents and their financial situation. At a young age, I don't think it matters so much how much you give, rather than what they are learning from receiving an allowance.

Many also ask about bank accounts. When should kids get one? Our kids get their own bank accounts once they turn 6. It's like a birthday present for them. Dad takes them to the bank and they get to deposit all their saved money from piggy banks, plus a little extra gift from mom and dad. Turning 6 years old also comes with a right to learn how to pick and purchase stock. My DH helps the kids research a company and shows them the very basics. After that, their first stock purchase is on us!

It's great to get kids interested in money and how to be responsible with it. A great tool for kids learning about money, is this piggy bank. I first got this for Marco when he was 4 years old. It has 3 compartments: spend, give, save. We usually do the 10% donation, but to make things easy for our kids, $1.00 of their allowance automatically goes to church. The rest they get to divide between spending and saving money. Once their allowance hits the higher numbers, then the giving amount will increase.

Is your allowance tied to chores? For us...it's not. Chores are what you do because you are part of this family, because you share in this house, and because it's a way for the individual to contribute. Each child has their own daily chores to do, which they get nothing in return for. Allowance is also not based on grades or behavior. Good grades are a benefit to the student, so that should be reward enough. Good behavior is always expected as well, we don't use money to bribe it out of the kids. We do every effort not to attach any external value to money. Allowance, for our family, is a learning tool and a way to teach the kids financial responsibility.

How about earning extra money? I keep a list of things my kids can earn extra money for along with their pay. First I determined how much I was willing to pay them per hour. For me, it came out to be $5 an hour. After that I divided how much time it should take them to do the job by the hourly rate. Here are some example of how my kids can earn extra money. Keep in mind that these aren't available for them to do all the time.

Raking the front yard, 30 minutes, $2.50
Cleaning the kitchen (floors, counters, sink), 30 minutes, $2.50
Cleaning extra bathrooms, 15 minutes each, $1.25
Washing/cleaning van, 1 hour, $5
Pulling weeds, 20 minutes, $1
Babysitting little brother (I never keep the kids alone with the baby. This would include keeping him entertained while I'm preparing for company, showering, etc.), 20 minutes, $1
Laundry helper, 15-30 minutes, $1.25-$2.50

At this point, only Marco and Isabella are really able to do these extra chores. Which is fine, since they are the ones who are the ones asking for extra things! But it is nice to see the kids sharing and learning together.

Last week, we went to Costco and Isabella took her purse. She figured she had $5 extra to spend. She did the math and bought each of the kids a smoothie! She's a sweetheart!! It's nice to see them learning how to save money, but also spend it...especially when it's done so unselfishly!

And just to leave you with something. Here is a clip that was a great lesson to my kids from the TV series Arthur. A great intro to saving, giving, and how getting everything you want can turn you into someone no one likes.

Another Year of Faith Formation.

2010-09-08T10:15:00.005-04:00

This year I'm back to teaching faith formation at our church. I'm a little nervous, as I'll be going into a 5th grade class, but confident that I'll be able to do well. Volunteering as a catechist is something that I never thought of doing; but when the "opportunity" presented itself, I thought it would be a wonderful way to share any talents I might have.

In the past, I was a 2nd grade catechist, which I really loved! Teaching kids during a sacramental year puts a little pressure on you, but the rewards are great. I've been spending the last week preparing and going over our lessons and we'll see how it goes!

For the time being, here is the parent's letter I'm sending home with the kids. I post it mostly because I'm always looking for a good letter and I can never find one. So hopefully, this will be able to help someone who is teaching faith formation (or CCD) at their church.

Letter to 5th Grade Parents of Faith Formation or CCD Students.
******************************************************************

Dear Parents:

It was a pleasure to meet your child at our first day of Faith Formation. I am excited to work alongside your family in teaching your child our Catholic faith. My goal this year is for your child to further cement the teachings of the Catholic Church, as well as developing a deeper love and understanding for Jesus Christ. We will be reviewing prayers learned in years past, as well as introducing and learning new prayers, including the Prayer to the Holy Spirit.

Our faith formation class is the only hour a week that I have with your child. It is a time when your child gathers with other children to concentrate on what it means to be a Catholic, a follower of Christ, and to learn what the church and gospels teach. It is my pleasure to be able to participate in the education of your child and I will be using the issued Catholic guide each week for our lessons, as well as involving them in prayer and faith-building activities.

As a parent, you are the primary educator of your child, and the best teacher. Your example at home speaks volumes and teaches your child far more than I ever could. I ask that you review each week’s lesson at home and share in any activity that your child may bring. Attending Mass and praying together (especially in the morning, before meals, and at bedtime) will solidify your child’s experiences as being part of a worshipping parish community and Catholic family.

Once again, thank you for participating in the Holy Family Faith Formation program this year. Please feel free to stop by and ask any questions you might have or call me. I also ask that if your child is unable to attend a class to please contact me or the Faith Formation office in advance whenever possible so that your child’s absence may be excused.

I look forward to working with you, and I appreciate your prayerful support.

******************************************************************************

I would love feedback!

Thinking About Our Goals.

2010-09-05T21:08:00.001-04:00

Sunday's reading (Luke 14:25-33) and our priest's (Fr. Michael) homily was such an answer to my prayers! It's amazing how God works through others to let us know that He is listening and that He cares.

Recently, I've been pondering and praying over extra-curricular activities for the kids. With 5 kids to tow around, it's not as easy for me as I would like it to be. Should all the kids be enrolled in an activity? How do I handle different times for different kids? Is keeping the kids from participating hindering them in any way? Should I aim to keep the kids together? These are the main questions I've been asking for the past month.

If you've been following along, you'll know that last year was SUPER busy. Dance classes (2 separate ones), swimming, piano, and a quick stint with soccer was keeping me busy. That was on top of school lessons, co-op, and faith formation. Add all that to having a newborn, hospital visits/stays, and moving....you see where I'm going with this. I was drowning.

It was too much and I was stretched out so thin, that it affected my life in many ways. I was constantly cranky, my house was a mess, I started being late for important functions, my drive for many things was gone, and the worst thing of all is that I feel I failed the kids in their education. So soon after we decided to put our house up for sale and move, I gave up. I took the kids out of swimming and dance. No more team sports and no more unnecessary activities.

And just like that...a GIANT weight was lifted off my shoulders. We could finally enjoy a family dinner again, not just 2 nights out of the week...but every night! No more rushing, no more juggling schedules. It was great! And it's been great since I kept this simple way of life all through summer.

But now, fall is knocking at our door. The kids are asking about swimming and dancing and karate and everything else. What do I do? Do I try it out again? Well this is what I did. I prayed. For wisdom to make the right decisions for my kids and for our family. But I was stuck without an answer. Until now.

Our time is like GOLD. Actually, it's more valuable than gold. How to spend it? We know that our main goal as parents is to educate our children. So at least we know that most of our time will go to that. But what about all the leftover time? That was my dilemma, and thank you Father Michael for making it click for me!!!

In everything we do, God has to be our center. For school, work, and play. He has to come before anything else. As educators of our children, we know that our school days are centered around Our Lord. That is our goal. Having a family that is centered around Christ is also our goal. Growing together, learning from each other, creating bonds, and loving our family are also all goals that are Christ-centered. But that doesn't mean that we can't take the kids to swimming class or to dance class. What it means is that when those extra-curricular activities begin hindering, clouding, or getting in the way of achieving those most important goals...then they should be taken away.

So here is my answer. My time is precious. My family life is precious. I am going to treat every minute with my children and family like a God-given gift (which it is). I know what an overworked schedule looks and feels like. I'm not going back to that. I'm going to enjoy my children and have fun with them. For now, maybe enjoying them and having fun will include swimming or some other sport. Maybe it'll be a year full of fun field trips instead. I haven't made up my mind yet. But I'll never lose focus of my goals again.

And even if the answer is plain at daylight, things were never as clear as they are now. There were countless thoughts and doubts in my mind that were miraculously answered this Sunday. All of which I can't go into; but this one being the main one.

I'd love to know how you other moms and dads out there handle extra-curricular activities with your children. How you make time, how you keep sane!!

Getting Ready for Back to Co-op.

2010-09-02T18:29:00.006-04:00

My kids have been excited about finally being able to start another year with our fabulous Catholic co-op, and so have I!! This year we're beginning a little later than usual, but it works out since it gives us plenty of time to adjust to being back to school first.

I know I've written about our awesome little group before and it's still just as great! This semester we have some new families joining us and I know that they will love it as much as our family does! All the families in our group are super nice and I'm glad that I can call them all friends. It's really great to be able to catch up with everyone once a week and have the kids learn and play at the same time.

Of course, our co-op is truly a cooperative in every sense of the word. Unlike many homeschool co-op's out there that seem to function like schools with enrollment fees and class fees on top of supply fees...our group remains free except for class supplies. It's not a "drop your kids off for the day" type of group either. Everyone participates in some way or another. In my opinion, this is what makes it so great.

Parents have so much invested with the group time-wise, that mediocrity is not common in our group. Every mom either teaches a class, assists in a class, or watches kids in the nursery. Everyone works together! It's like a little bee hive!! This year, I'm teaching 2 classes! Before Five in a Row and K-1 science. I'm really excited about it.

Lucky for me, with BFIAR, I've not only taught it at co-op last semester...but I've used it with my own kids 3 times already! This has made my prep time a breeze and I know what's going to work with a group of preschoolers and what's not. I've even got all my activities set out already.

As for science for the kindergarten and 1st grade group, I'm going to be using The Magic School Bus: Back in Time with the Dinosaurs science kit. Everything I need is in the kit and each child is going to have their own kit. And if you want to look at either one of my syllabi for the semester, they are here.

But here I am veering off course as to what I really wanted to write about. The excitement of a first day back at co-op! We usually just leave the "first day of school" celebrations for our actual first day of homeschool. But this year my good friend, Tina, gave me an excellent idea. Why not make the first day of co-op just as special? After all, it's the closest thing the kids have to going back to "school."

Tina mentioned buying a back to school outfit for her girls (who are absolutely adorable!). It got me thinking...what a great thing to do! Why not expand on this and make a little more of it? Seeing old friends, teachers, and new classes is certainly something to celebrate and be excited about! So here is what we are doing!

Back to School Outfit.
I fell in love with the Gap's American in Paris and True Colors collection! Perfect for a back to school outfit! I remember getting excited about putting on new clothes and shoes for back to school...now my kids will get to do the same!

Backpacks.
Yea...they've been in the same backpacks for a couple of years now. This year why not get a new one? And their "old" ones (they're not even really used!!) can go to some needy kids. And no backpack would be complete if it wasn't stuffed with all their new books, binders, and supplies! **Just a quick note about supplies....we usually separate our homeschool supplies from our own school supplies. This means that their backpacks and supplies for co-op really only get used at co-op.

Back to Co-op Picture.
Every kids needs a picture to look back on!

School ID.
Great for clipping on your backpack or on a field trip. Yea...homeschoolers don't really need them, but I have actually found them to come in handy! From getting student discounts to using as a basic ID; our school ID's are fun! I've been printing them out for the kids since they began their homeschool journey.

A Walk to the "Bus Stop."
I thought this was hilarious. Marco recently asked me, "Will we ever ride in a school bus?" as we drove next to a yellow bus full of kids. I told him we already do...it's called our van! So I told them that on the first day of co-op they could go to the "bus stop" (aka, the end of our long driveway), and wait to be picked up. They loved the idea!!! We do drive a 12 passenger van after all and that seems to be good enough!

It's funny how as a homeschool mom, I keep trying to recreate a "real school" feeling for my kids. I think it's not because I think they are missing out on anything; but because I feel like I am. And it's only the little snippets that I miss. Having always gone to public school, I still clearly recall getting those butterflies in my stomach as I walked into a new classroom. Or how I would be so excited the night before the first day of school, that I couldn't sleep. When I was young, I always imagined those feelings would come back once I had my own kids go off to school.

But I am so thankful that I do get to teach my kids at home. They are getting the kind of education and lifestyle that I would have loved as a kid. The best education and the best family life. I wouldn't trade this for the world! So if I can just recreate the fun parts of a "real" school, then I'm all good! It's all about making lasting memories for both them and me.

Updates on Good Books.

2010-09-01T11:58:00.005-04:00

We started reading our books from the "Good Books" list this week. So far, things are going great! What really got me excited was this awesome new literature guide that Angelicum Academy just printed for 3rd grade! You can get it at their website. If you are enrolled with AA, it's free! Otherwise it's $19.95. So far, I think it's a great addition and help to our reading.

For updates and news at Angelicum, you can also check out their blog! Now you might wonder why I'm going on and on about Angelicum. It's just that when I get excited about something that's working well, I want to tell everyone!! So check them out!

And also as a side note, if you are not enrolled with Angelicum, or even if you are not doing classical education...I strongly recommend looking over their "Good Books" list. They are fabulous selections that every child should read! Don't get discouraged if they seem too difficult. You will reap the benefits once you get to reading!!

Our good book readings are always done out loud, as they are too advanced for my young readers. The language has been a challenge for some books, but we keep going (at a snails pace if we have too!); and by the middle of the book, my kids are asking less and less about definitions (what does that mean?) and asking more and more why's and how's. It turns into a great discussion!!

So tonight we continue with The Princess and the Goblin, Aesop's Fables, and Perrault's Fairy Tales. Happy Reading Everyone!!

Random Pictures.

2010-08-29T09:25:00.009-04:00

I thought I'd post some random pictures of what's been going down in our house lately!

Owl Pellet Dissection.
We invited some friends over to discover what was hidden inside of some owl pellets. Bones, skulls, and even larvae!! This was fun, especially for the older kids (and us moms).

Museum of Natural Science, Raleigh.

Birthday Boys!
Little Jimmy and Christian's birthday are only 2 days apart. This year was low key, as it usually is for the little ones. We celebrated with cupcakes and presents for both, each on their own day.

Happy Birthday Christian!!!

Happy 1st Birthday Jimmy!!

School is Great!

2010-08-26T17:28:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I blogged, but we've been busy with school and fun!! We are officially almost done with week 2 of school. So far I'm amazed at how our schedule is working out PERFECT so far! Does that ever happen?? Well, this is a first for me. Of course, I'm sure that as we get deeper into the school year things might change, so I'm remaining open-minded and flexible.

I personally am loving our Angelicum materials, as well as our other hand-selected curriculum. Everything is flowing wonderfully, the kids are doing well with all our materials, and school is exciting even for me! Here is a run down of what we are doing and some neat new things we are incorporating into our school year.

Religion: Before our school lessons officially begin for the day, we pray the rosary and recite some prayers chosen from our prayer wheel. Our prayer intention jar is also a big hit and they have been adding new prayer intentions every few days. To keep things fresh, I have also been alternating reading short saint stories after our prayers. We are working our way through "Once Upon a Time Saints" and the stories are perfect! Interesting for kids and short! Of course, this morning time doesn't comprise of our religion curricula, Faith & Life and the Baltimore Catechism. Faith and Life is still in the afternoon and lunch has become a learning time for us as we have been doing the Catechism questions together while I prepare lunch.

Language Arts: This year we are doing language arts mostly on our own. I decided to keep on our path as opposed to using Angelicum's suggestion of Shurley English, and so far I'm glad I'm doing what works for the kids. Rod & Staff English is such a solid program that I wanted to continue using it after Marco did so well with it last year. We are keeping Angelicum's recommendation of Hooked on Phonics and handwriting with Zaner Bloser, but I'm also adding Writing With Ease and All About Spelling.

Math: Saxon has been our math curriculum from the beginning and we are not straying from this choice! One of the reasons that we chose this program in the beginning was Angelicum's recommendation, as well as the recommendation from hundreds of other homeschoolers who have found it to be effective. Personally, I love it. It's thorough and has plenty of review!

Latin: Prima Latina for Isabella is going well so far. Marco has moved up into Latina Christiana and he is also responding well to it (aka...he's not complaining about it!). I've begun quizzing the kids on their vocabulary during lunch and it's become a fun game between them.

History: We haven't begun history yet, as I wanted to ease into our schedules the first couple of weeks. But I am looking so forward to using History Odyssey once again. My kids love "A Child's History of the World" as well as "Story of the World" and I'm glad that this program uses them both! But we are also using Angelicum's history lessons. Egypt studies are once a week and I'm anticipating a fun time!

Science: I am not planning on beginning science until our co-op starts in September. Although Angelicum's science plans are wonderful...I fully appreciate and love the science we do through co-op. It's a huge help to me as well. The kids read at home and then they do the labs at co-op!

Some neat new things I'm using this year!

Personal DVD player. Using Hooked on Phonics requires the use of a DVD player. Instead of having the kids use the computer or the TV, I broke out our personal DVD player. It's great and it prevents the kids from taking up the computer or having to leave the school room to use the TV. I also use it to play videos for Christian to keep him entertained from time to time.
Dividers. I found these nifty dividers at our local school supply store. I saw them and instantly knew they would work great for us! I don't take them out for every subject...only for those that require concentration. In our case that's phonics for the younger kids and writing for the older kids.

I'm so happy that we are off to such a good start this year! We have already done some fun stuff along with school, too. A trip to the museum one week and owl pellet dissections another week! I'm trying to keep things interesting and fun...but that's another entry for another day!!

First Day of School 2010!!!!

2010-08-17T10:34:00.006-04:00

Our first day of school was a huge success!! The kids loved it, I loved it, and my hubby loved it!! It was nice to have the whole family together! Get ready for a picture filled post!

Schultutes ready to go the night before. What's in them? Small school supplies, candy, toys, new Prismacolor pencils, backpacks, pencil cases, art supplies, love!

Christian was so happy to get his own cone!

Anthony loved it! A cone just like big brother.

Bella keeps my life in balance with all my boys.

Marco requested St. George and the Dragon for his cone.

Bella starting with math.

Anthony LOVES doing school work. "School is my favorite!"

Marco working with his Master Reader. The computer is helping everyone out.

We were really relaxed with our schedule on our first day of school, but all work still got done. This gives me so much hope that our schedule is right on target with me sharing my time with all kids and all the kids having time to finish their work. I'm sure that the next two weeks will really help me to determine if I need to make any changes.

A wonderful day all around! I love that we will always have these great memories of being together as a family....laughing, loving, learning!! I love homeschooling!!!!

Do You Know Pope Benedict XVI?

2010-08-15T00:06:00.003-04:00

Love this video!! Please watch it and pass it on.

Choosing Our First Reads and Other Thoughts.

2010-08-13T15:49:00.007-04:00

So we are only "3 sleeps" away from our first day of school (as my kids would say)! Today I spent the morning getting the remaining of our school supplies, as well as getting some treats for the first day of school schultutes! Want a sneak peak at one of them? Here it is!

This particular one is for Christian. Yes...it will be his first year getting a cone and he is super excited!!!

Other preparations underway are filling in our planners with assignments. As usual, I like to plan for 2-3 weeks at a time. This gives me plenty of room to adjust things if I need to. I must add that it's been nice having all the lesson plans in front of me to just add to our planners. I'm thankful we are going with Angelicum Academy again.

One thing Angelicum doesn't do, however, is tell you in what order to read their literature suggestions. This year I'm starting with The Princess and the Goblin for Marco. We will be turning in his book report for grading for this book, so I'm thinking that by starting it first, it will give Marco plenty of time to work on it.

Interested in reading a FREE, online copy of this story? Just visit The Princess and the Goblin and start reading!

As for Isabella, we are going to start with The Aesop for Children. We have actually read this book several times, but this will be the first time that we'll be doing short book report to go along with it. If you are interested in reading this book online for free as well, check out the Baldwin Project.
This weekend will be full of preparations for our first day of school traditions. I'm just as excited as the kids! I have schultutes to fill, crowns to make, and a new route to take to our school room. Check out our first day of school from last year!

New Chore Packs.

2010-08-11T17:40:00.005-04:00

I am feeling more and more relieved every time I look at our new schedules! Things have been hectic ever since we made the move into our new home. I will admit that some things are still messy and unorganized, but it's a work in progress. One thing that was definitely put to the wayside was the kids' chores.

In the past (aka...before we moved), the kids did a pretty good job completing their chores. I started using Managers of Their Chores a couple of years ago and loved it. It took me a little while to train my kids as to what they were supposed to do, but once it was done, they didn't even need their chore pack to know what they were supposed to do. Well, since we moved back in April, the whole chore thing kind of went out the window.

Since moving, it has been a big obstacle in deciding what chores to have the kids do. First of all, we are in a much bigger house (6500+ sq.feet!). This means more stuff to keep clean and more rooms to clean. Second of all, we are still in move-in mode. Some boxes are still unpacked and there is lots of organizing to be accomplished. How to do it?

After spending lots of time thinking and planning, I created new chore packs for the kids. I stuck to many of the same chores they used to have, but now it's understood that instead of cleaning a small space, they'll have to help clean a big space. And it's working out great!! Granted, I'm in the process of "training" the kids on how to do things the right way; but they catch on quick.

I can't take any credit for my success, however. Managers of Their Chores has provided me a wonderful base for making this work. I would be lost in a filthy mess without that book! And I love that the kids are held accountable for their messes and their things. They are also beginning to feel a certain amount of ownership over the spaces they clean. Just the other day I hear Isabella telling Marco, "Please don't make a mess in the school room. I just cleaned it and I want it to last."

I'm thinking that after about a month or two of wearing the chore packs all over again, the kids will once again become "pros" at their chores and will eventually not need to wear them. Keep in mind that they are always responsible for the same chores. I don't switch around on them.

So YAY! for getting our schedule done and our chore packs!! We are so ready for school!!!!

Schedules!

2010-08-09T07:34:00.004-04:00

So I've been tweaking and working on our schedule for the past couple of weeks. It has been a huge challenge for me, since I'll have three kids doing school and one doing nursery work. As I have in the past, I use Managers of Their Homes to help me organize my day. Last night, after a few more hours working things out, I have our final daily schedule!

The first thing I must say is...it looks so full and huge!!! But I'm always willing to be flexible. My thoughts have always been that this must be the most difficult time in homeschooling....when you have a bunch of kids who are still completely dependent on your instruction. Luckily, Marco is easing into a more independent stage and I'm relishing the day when the oldest two can do more things for themselves. But at the same time, I'm enjoying the time I have to spend with them!

I am embedding a copy of our daily schedules for you to see! I put schedules because there are actually three! We run on a five-day schedule; but because we have co-op on Mondays through the year, this turns out to be a six-day schedule. Yes...we do school on Saturday mornings. This actually works out well for us, as we did that this whole past year. I also created a "Fifth Day Schedule" because we don't do our usual subjects on the fifth day.

To view my schedules, just click on the title below.

Monday Schedule

Daily Schedule (Usually Tuesday-Friday)

Fifth Day Schedule (Usually Saturday mornings)

So now you see that I haven't been completely slacking off these past couple of weeks. It's exciting to finally have some things set and ready to go. And just so you can see how our schedules are posted...here they are all together on our board!

Start Your Engines!!

2010-08-08T18:30:00.002-04:00

I know....we are well into August and it seems that I've been ignoring this blog. But I haven't! I've been working diligently on preparing for our first day of school. August 16th is the big day and I have planners to fill in, lesson plans to organize, and funnest of all...schultuete's to make and fill!!

To say that the kids are excited is an understatement!!! But I promise a week full of updates and photos. We are inching ever closer to our start date and that leaves me scrambling to finish things both in the household department, as well as school.

Hope everyone is getting excited about a fresh, new start!!

The Good Books.

2010-07-30T09:36:00.000-04:00

If you noticed, I've recently changed our reading list found to the left of the page (it's linked directly to Library Thing). I have now included our new kindergarten, 1st, and 3rd grade reading list for the 2010-2011 school year. These are all books found on Angelicum Academy's website.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around how on earth I'm going to read all these books to the kids. Last year, we did the 2nd grade good books list and the kids all sat in together. This year, however, I decided to give each child their own reading time. This is not only because they each have book reports to write on them, but because not all the kids will want to listen to each other's books. For example, those books on Marco's 3rd grade list are too advanced for Anthony.

Also, now that we are starting kindergarten again, I feel like Anthony really needs to have these wonderful books read to him. After all, I haven't read them since Marco was in kindergarten and I'm excited to share these classics with the him too!

For the mean time, I'm trying really hard to decide how exactly I'm going to split our reading time. Perhaps do some before bedtime, some during quiet time, and another during our lunch break? It's a challenge, but I'm confident that I'll find a way to work around it.

And if you haven't read any of these books to your children, I highly encourage you to do so!

Gathering Books.

2010-07-29T11:37:00.005-04:00

Well we are almost at August and I still haven't gotten all my books!! This year has been a very different one from the past. Usually, I've had all our books and supplies by the end of July...along with lesson plans, planners, and our schedules. This year is different in many ways.

First of all, we have this giant new house to completely settle into. All the unpacking is mostly done, expect for a few boxes here and there. But the organization is NOT DONE!! There are still bedrooms lacking curtains, painting, decorations, etc. I'm not feeling like I'm in a hurry to do it all. After all, we plan on staying here for a very long time and I want to take things slow so that it comes out just how I want it to. But regardless of how slow I take things, it's still a new house that has put a big dent into how I manage my time.

Then there's our guests. We have been so fortunate to have friends and family visit us in our new home! And this is NOT A COMPLAINT! But having visitors does take away time from planning our school and getting things done. We have been living in our home for almost 4 months now...and we have had guests staying with us for 7 weeks out of those 4 months!!! And as little as my duties to host may have been, I let it interfere with my plans to work out our new school plans.

And why am I still gathering books? Well...it's expensive! Purchasing books and supplies for 4 children quickly adds up. Add that to the expenses of buying a house and moving in (well, actually settling in has been pricier!). I've never been one to limit myself in what I need to buy for the kids' education...but let's just say that I'm a lot more aware of how quickly all the expenses add up. It makes me feel like I need to space things out more.

In the end, I should hardly complain. Our books are 95% purchased. But there is still so many lovely books that would be so fun to have!! I'm actually making a list. And if I ever see anything on my list at a good price...I'm snatching it up!

How do all of you with large families gather your books? Is it a one-time spending trip? Or more of a gradual thing, like what I'm doing this year? And let me tell you....I don't like the gradual buying. I'm a need it and get it kind of girl.

Creating a Home Altar.

2010-07-28T10:20:00.000-04:00

We often (and for the past 4-5 years) have used our piano bench as a teaching spot. Not only does it seat my kids for piano practice, but it has served as a make-shift altar for when they play Mass. In the bench they store an altar cloth, a little missal, and other small necessities used to play Mass. And every time I hear the kids say "OK...I'm going to be the priest today. Let's go play," I start daydreaming about finally having the perfect little altar in our home.

Now that we are mostly settled in our new home, I've decided to just do it!! Visions in my mind abound with the many home altars I've seen, especially those found in Mexico. Since we moved in, I've been using our entry table from our previous home to house some statues, rosaries, and holy water.

As you can barely see, there is a drawer that holds prayer cards, a rosary booklet, and some rosaries. What the table is missing is a little table cloth to coincide with the liturgical season, a bible, and perhaps a candle.

Now when we do our morning rosary and offering, we are usually upstairs in the school room. It's a great start to our school day and the room is sunny, bright, and uplifting. Not only do we do our morning prayers in our school room, but we often read our Bible there before bedtime. So my new goal is to create an altar in our school room.

After searching for images of home altars, I have come to one important conclusion. Home altars vary from home to home and anything from family photos to holy cards can be placed on them. Home altars aren't usually fancy and any table, bookcase, or space will do. It's really what works for your family.

When thinking "What's going to work for us?" I came up with a list of things that I absolutely wanted in our altar prayer space.

An interactive space. I wanted something that can be a hands-on area. A place where the kids can feel that they can come to and touch things.
I want to be inspired and I want the kids to be inspired. Sometimes looking at something beautiful or hearing beautiful music, inspires us to think about God.
A learning space. Some books are usually left unnoticed unless I take them out. Perhaps highlighting a saint's book on the altar or prayer space would encourage a child to ask about it or read it.
A showcase. An altar with room to display what the kids are learning about in saint and religious studies, as well as crafts dedicated to our beautiful Catholic faith.
Flexibility. I want to be able to switch things around easily.

Not too difficult of a list, is it? Well, after rearranging books, finding appropriate art, and visualizing where things should go...our altar is complete!! Lucky for me that I have lots of pretty frames of Jesus and Our Lady to choose from as well as a number of holy statues; all of which I plan to rotate.

So following is a little "tour" of our new school room Catholic altar, complete with picture by picture descriptions!!

I decided to go with what I had and used two bookcases for our altar. All the books seen here pertain to our Catholic faith, lives of the saints, etc. The area is in a little corner by the window and offers lots of natural light. Also, if you notice that I'm keeping the altar cloths to go in conjunction with the liturgical season...these are just pretty napkins that I was able to get of all the liturgical colors (mine are from Pier 1 Imports).

A picture of what's on top of our home altar.

And a close up.

To the left I decided to hang the kids' rosaries and put a statue of Our Lady of Fatima. I thought this was perfect because it has the three children (Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta) kneeling before her. A great example to any child.

In the center I placed the kids' bible. Behind the Bible there is a makeshift altar upon which our crucifix is and our "Father Nick"is on the side. This is part of the interactive part of our altar in which the kids can change the liturgical colors on the priest paper-doll, as well as on the little white altar. Currently we have green for ordinary time. And it's nothing fancy either. The altar is a small box covered with white paper and the "altar cloth" is actually a piece of construction paper.

On the right side, I hung our St. Michael holy water font. I also have our saints book, "Saints, A Year in Faith and Art." This book features a saint for every day of the year. The glass container is like a prayer jar. Every time we pray together, like the rosary, we take out all the little papers from the glass container. Each paper has an intention for us to pray for. It might be something like an end to abortion, a prayer for a family member or friend, or for any other intentions we come up with. This is an excellent way to teach your children how to pray for others and it keeps us from forgetting someone or something that we meant to pray for. Also notice that the kids have put their cootie catchers there too.

Above it all is a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This particular piece of art was a gift from my mom about 10 years ago. She got it in Mexico and I have always loved it. In the future I plan to rotate with other religious art that I have, perhaps to coordinate with the liturgical year.

I thought I would post a picture of this too. It's the book cases I use for our little home altar. I keep all our children's religious books here. From lives of the saints, to Catholic homeschool resources. It's a place where the kids (or I) can go to get a book and be uplifted.

The top-most shelves are for the sole purpose of the kids. On the left I keep a pretty picture of Our Lady, a candle for the Sacred Heart of Jesus and two books that I pick out for the kids to read to themselves or for me to read aloud. Currently we have "For the Children" and "Once Upon a Time Saints" (laying on the shelf). These books will also be rotated with others.

On the right side, I keep a bin full of rosary books, liturgical vestments for our priest paper-doll, napkins in the liturgical colors to cover our altar, construction paper for the little paper altar, our prayer wheel, and other little things for the kids to play with and do. I will be taking paper activities from our liturgical box to keep this somewhat stocked.

And that concludes the tour of our new school room, home altar. I love it and it works for our family's needs. From being interactive and inspirational, to being a great learning space with flexibility. I'm sure that as time passes, this space will evolve and continue to change along with our needs.

Angelicum Academy's TouchPebbles.

2010-07-27T14:47:00.003-04:00

Beginning in 3rd grade, Angelicum Academy offers a good books, online discussion. The students "meet" weekly online, and a moderator guides the students through the reading and assignments. These online discussions are based on the Socratic method and help the younger child transition into their Great Books program.

This year I was extremely close to enrolling Marco for these classes. But the enrollment fee for Angelicum is separate for the online classes. That means an extra $295. I'm not saying that these classes are not worth it, as I'm guessing they probably are; but I do not know whether we'd fully participate, so that kept me from signing on.

I did however, order the text and teacher's book they use for the online class. They recommend following their lesson plans, even if you don't enroll for the discussion group. This is what I'll be attempting this year. If it goes well, then I will probably enroll Marco in the discussion group for next year.

You can read more about Touchstones Discussion Project on their website. If anyone has ever had their child be a part of the Socratic online discussions with Angelicum, I'd love to hear about it!! It really does look like a worthwhile class and I'm kind of excited to try it out here at home, although it won't be the same as if he was part of a class.

Catching Up.

2010-07-24T08:56:00.005-04:00

I promise I haven't gone missing!! We are still having fun with my mom and dad and I'm excited at all the fun we've had. On top of that, I'm trying to get some organization done around the house. Marco is moving into his own room and little Jimmy's closet needs to get some kind of system put in. And please, lets not mention all the school planning that I was supposed to have been working on, but have been neglecting.Things are definitely not "same as usual" around here.

Our schedules have been out the window for 2 weeks! But all of that is in a good way. What kid doesn't want to help their grandfather build a tree house? What kid doesn't want to hang out with their cousins? And what fun its been going out to the museum, Lego store, restaurants, and antique shops!

So as the fun continues here, I hope all of you continue to check in on me! Eventually, I'll have to start posting about planning our lessons, preparing for first day of school, and revealing that nice little spot in our school room. But until then, I'm posting random pictures of my family...love them!!!

My mom and Christian.

Dad with Isabella and Anthony.

Allie caught in a moment.

Samantha. American Girl Club.

2010-07-16T16:42:00.005-04:00

Isabella is going on week 3 of this round of American Girl Club. They are reading Samantha and we are enjoying it quite a bit! Today, the girls got to make gingerbread houses to go along with book 3 of the Samantha series. Isabella had a blast and I'm planning for next week's club (which I am hosting).

Take a look at the fun!!

And on another note, my family is visiting from Texas and I've been busy hanging out with them...which might explain fewer blog posts. But I am also diligently working on my homeschool plans, which I will be writing about shortly!!

Thank You Familia Catolica!

2010-07-11T06:44:00.004-04:00

I received this award from Xhonane at Familia Catolica (Catholic Family). Thanks!! This prize is awarded to blogs that spread "values such as art, literature, ethical and cultural values. " Wow and wow! I'm glad to be considered among those!

Thanks Xhonane!! Now all you go get to her blog (click on the Google Translate button if you have to !!

Prayer Wheel.

2010-07-07T10:19:00.005-04:00

So I've been talking religion curriculum with a friend lately and trying to revamp some things. While trying to get things in order for the new school year, I came across our handy, little prayer wheel and thought it would be something you might all find useful!

Last year, Marco made a neat prayer wheel at one of his sacramental prep classes. It had a few prayers on it and the assignment was to have him "spin the wheel" and recite whatever prayer the wheel showed. I thought it was such a fun way to practice that I decided to make one with all the prayers that the kids know (or should know!).

Of course, the prayers didn't work on one wheel so I adjusted it and made it into a double wheel. It's not fancy, the words aren't centered, and they even might be a little crooked....but it worked for us!! I printed them on card stock paper, inserted a fastener to what looked like the center, and then I made cut-outs for the prayers to show through.

Simple, easy, and a fun way to work on prayer recitation. Feel free to print out my version or you can even make your own. Replace prayers for the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, poems, or anything you need your kids to recite.

Yea...it's a bit crooked as you can see. But it's fun way to practice!

Keeping Busy.

2010-07-06T14:44:00.005-04:00

So we never got around to doing all the wonderful things I had planned for the weekend. My fun, 4th of July crafts are still in my drawer and we missed out on fireworks with friends. Plans can never be set when you have sick children! But I'm glad that some of them are getting better. Unfortunately, little Jimmy has caught whatever bug they had and now he's pretty miserable.

But we keep moving forward!! I'm working on a little space in our school room that I'm excited to share with you. I can't blog about it now since it's not ready and I want to have pictures and everything. BUT...I will let you know what we did today that can maybe give you a clue!

We spent the morning reviewing lessons and then finally got to some fun stuff. And if you wonder, we have all the Teacher's Helper CD's from Nippert & Co. Artworks. We love them and have most of their books and other products!! Anyways...it was nice to depart from our regularly scheduled activities to have a bit of fun doing crafts.

And like I mentioned earlier, these crafts go along with what we've been preparing for our school room! I think you can guess the theme of what we are working on!

We started off with colored pencils and a print-out for a "cootie catcher" featuring the Beatitudes.

Here is a finished product! These are great!! A Beatitude Cootie Catcher!

Pick a number.

See if you can memorize all of the Beatitudes!!

While we colored, Christian got a little bored and decided to play with "Father Nick"...another clue to what our little project is all about!!

"Father Nick" is a paper doll that helps the kids learn their liturgical colors. Each one of the kids has their own and although I was waiting to use them once our school room project was done, they couldn't wait and I couldn't resit letting them play with their paper dolls. They each colored and cut their own, after all!

Any guesses? Little by little it's getting done and hopefully by next week, my little project will be done!! It will, however, always be a work in progress.

Moving Slowly.

2010-07-01T12:02:00.003-04:00

It seems that we were ready for full steam ahead, but are now moving at a snails pace. We are officially on day 6 of having sick children. The kids have been sick with a stomach virus, ear infections, fever, cough...you name it!! Luckily, everyone is recovering and today we started doing more.

History is waiting for us and I've postponed it until tomorrow. We also have some other fun crafts planned for 4th of July and I'm hoping everyone will feel as close to 100% as possible. In the mean time...here is a picture of little Jimmy with his cousin Sebastian!!

Finishing History.

2010-06-23T16:14:00.003-04:00

History has been a whirlwind! We have sped through some units this year and focused more on others. We are using History Odyssey and we really enjoy it!! Their recommended texts are great and it's step by step lesson plans (which I love). Leave what you want and add if you need it.

This week I finally decided to wrap history up. We learned about the middle ages and I feel that we are good to go! Perhaps I didn't focus as much as I would have wanted, but the good thing about a classical education is that we'll come again to this!

For the time being, I have one more thing that I want to finish before really wrapping things up. A study of the Native Americans. We'll be using History Pockets for that and the kids jumped up when they saw me take out the book! Tonight I'll spend some time making copies and I'll organize the unit through the weekend. Then next week, we'll get started!!

My kids LOVE History Pockets, by the way. We've been doing them since preschool and it's right up my kids' alley! I was excited when I saw that History Odyssey included them as part of their curriculum.

For now, I'm off to load up our copy machine with paper!!

American Girl Club. Josefina.

2010-06-22T06:12:00.001-04:00

This spring, we became part of an American Girl Club with many of our co-op (and non-co-op) friends. It was a fun and perfect activity for Isabella, who is a giant American Girl fan. The club consisted of choosing a historical AG doll and reading her books (there are 6 in each series). We would then rotate hosting the AG club at our homes. The hostess would have a craft, game, snack, or other activity to go along with the book that was read for the week.

Our first AG doll that we picked was Josefina. It was a great time and I collected what we did each week in case anyone out there wants to start their own American Girl club!! Ideas were collected from the AG books, from Jamin's blog, and from our own brainstorming.

Week 1
Meet Josefina, Book 1
Made rebozos, flour tortillas, and salsa. Watched Fandango dancing on YouTube and discussed parts of the book, Welcome to Josefina's World - 1824.

Week 2
Josefina Learns a Lesson, Book 2
Made waist pouches, learned weaving with a cardboard loom, played a matching game, and ate goat cheese, chips, and grapes for a snack.

Week 3
Josefina's Surprise (A Christmas Story), Book 3
Made tissue paper flower garlands (ramilletes), bookmarks with quotes from the book, and went around the neighborhood for a pretend posada. Mexian hot chocolate, oranges, and Mexican cookies were served as a snack. Mantillas were shown and read a Mexican cinderella story by Tomie dePaola.

Week 4
Happy Birthday Josefina, Book 4
The craft for this meeting was planting seeds and the girls brought things to barter. A game of "find the button" was played and Mexican cookies with herb tea was the snack.

Week 5
Josefina Saves the Day, Book 5
The girls made a memory box and a journal book. What Can You do with a Rebozo? was read and the books were discussed. Snack was Mexican hot chocolate made by the girls and pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread).

Week 6
Changes for Josefina, Book 6
The activities for this meeting were making a 3-d map of the Santa Fe Trail, making handprint flowers, making necklaces (for girls and dolls), and making straw brooms. The girls also made bread and ate watermelon and cupcakes for a snack. House keeping was discussed and the straw brooms were used. There was also a discussion of the Santa Fe Trail.

End of Josefina Series Celebration.
We all met at a Mexican restaurant for lunch. The girls each got a picture to take home.

Next week we will start a new series of AG Club meetings. We will be reading all about Samantha. I will make sure to have my camera handy each week to take plenty of pictures so that I can post all about them.

Brainstorming for First Day of School.

2010-06-21T05:23:00.001-04:00

If you caught my first day of school post last year, you probably know that I started giving my kids schultutes as a celebration of the new school year. This year, we'll continue with the tradition and I've started racking my brain as to what theme each cone will have and what will be inside of each one.

Since I'll be adding one more child to our school (Christian is doing nursery level work through Angelicum), I have to plan 4 different schultutes! Images are plenty on the internet, so I can get some ideas there. But I like to personalize them with what each child really likes. I have some ideas, but I really have to narrow them down.

As for what will be inside...that shouldn't be so hard to fill them up! I'm planning on some school supplies, candies, and a small toy (much like last year).

In the mean time, I also have to decide when our first day of school is going to be. From the looks of things, I'm thinking that we'll have our celebration sometime around the beginning of August.

Never seen a schultute? Here is a picture of some super cute ones that I found.

Fun Gift.

2010-06-20T15:19:00.003-04:00

Last week, a good friend came over with a surprise. It was a hand-made, heirloom rocking horse!! And although it was a belated baby gift, the kids are all enjoying it immensely!

It's beautiful!!! Thanks Carol and Tom!!!

Some Organizational and Planning Thoughts.

2010-06-19T12:08:00.003-04:00

For many homeschoolers, this is the time of year where we pour over new curricula and start planning our new years. It's the highlight of the year!! For us, this year is especially exciting (in planning terms). Not only do we get to plan our new daily schedule, but we get to do it in a new house! That means that a lot of our chores and habits have to be re-evaluated.

If you haven't read my previous post on how to set up a schedule, I highly recommend it! Click to read Homeschooling Scheduling Tips. A "How To" Guide. I might not be a planning expert...but I know what works for me as a homeschool mom of 5 young kids.

Because we have so much more house to clean and more kids doing school this year...revamping our schedule is a big "to do" item. I have a bare bones schedule that I've been tinkering with for the past month. I still use MOTH and Managers of Their Chores to help us out and they work!

As for using a planning book...I'm considering trying to decide between using my own again this year or getting the planner from Family Centered Press. The children will be getting their own planners to encourage responsibility and accountability. After looking through many student planners, I chose these from Pflaum (I got the primary version for the kids).

So planning and organizing my thoughts is the next phase of my homeschool life. We still do daily lessons with some fun thrown in the mix, so this keeps me busy all day long. As I get closer to finishing our plans, I'll make sure to let you know how it's going!! For the time being, here is a sneak peek at our daily schedule that we have posted on our board. Not the clearest picture, but we are in a work in progress anyways.

New Look.

2010-06-18T22:44:00.003-04:00

Well, today I decided to change my blog up a bit. Try something new. Hope everyone likes the new template!! I'm still working on my heading...but I like it!

Also, I hope everyone got an opportunity to make some Father's Day cards and crafts!!

Getting Ready for Father's Day With Crafts!

2010-06-17T14:11:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted any "how to's" in a while. So I figured that since Father's Day is right around the corner, I could post about what my kids are doing for their dad!

Isabella settled on a doctor bag card! It seemed fitting, since DH is a doctor, and it's very easy to do. On the inside she put her "Happy Father's Day" message.

Marco wanted to do something different, so we searched until we found this fun, spinning card from Martha Stewart. It's super cute and not to hard to do. He also added some paper cups in which he stuffed with tissue paper and some candy. Tutorial for that is on this post.

Anthony wanted something totally different from the other kids. It was hard to come up with something because he didn't want a printable to color in. Finally we found this cool measuring tape card from Family Fun (in their current issue). I had to help him along the way, but he is very proud of how it turned out!!

Lastly, I wanted to give my husband something I knew he would treasure. In our home, he is the story teller. He loves telling the kids stories, and he is so good at it too! There is one story in particular that the kids love to hear, all about a special rock. So I got the grand idea of altering his story to send a father's day message to him.

I started out making a bound book (see below). Then I printed out the story lines and cut them with decorative scissors. Each of the kids illustrated a page and it was then all glued into the book.

The back of the book has the father's day message. I thought it turned out really cute and I love the fact that all the kids worked on it together!

To Make the Book: you need paper, scissors, and a ruler.

1. You take two sheets of paper and fold them in half.

2. Measure 1 inch from each side of the folds and mark with a pencil.

3. On one of the sheets, cut up from the bottom to your mark from both sides.

4. On the other sheet, you want to cut a sliver out between both of your pencil marks.

5. Go back to the first sheet you cut from the bottoms and fold it lengthwise. Slide it through the 2nd sheet's sliver opening and open it up. Fold the pages and you have a book!

If my directions for this are confusing...you might want to check out the Big Book of Books and Activities by Dinah Zike.

If you are still searching for more ideas, check out these links!

Crafty Crow Father's Day Cards To Make

Catholic Icing (we'll be doing something for our priests this year as well, thanks to the great idea from Lacy!)

Summer Sale at Angelicum Academy.

2010-06-16T22:09:00.004-04:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know that Angelicum Academy is having their summer sale now until July 6th. Everything in the bookstore, including enrollment and online classes, is 10% off.

Also, remember that they offer family discounts. That discount is significant at 50% off the second child or beyond that you enroll.

School Room All Done!!

2010-06-15T18:22:00.010-04:00

It's Tuesday, and due to some technical difficulties, I was unable to blog about my school room progress yesterday. But I'm glad to report that I stuck to my schedule this weekend and finally accomplished my goal! Our school room is completely unpacked, organized and clean!!

It's amazing how much stuff you accumulate as a homeschooler! From paper clips and art supplies, to books and more books!!! I'm posting pictures of our awesome room. I really do love it and it was one of the rooms of our new house that I was excited to complete.

What you won't see in the pictures below is our huge bonus room that is attached to the school room. It is currently unfinished, but I have put our utility shelves there to hold bins of arts & craft supplies. Also not included in the picture is a closet located by my desk. I store all our craft paper, preschool bins, manipulatives, school supplies, and miscellaneous items there.

Overall, I love our school room! A big plus of our new house is that it has LOTS of living room space (3 living rooms, 1 den, and a keeping room), so I was able to dedicate one of those rooms to our daily school without giving up space for other things (if you remember, in our previous home we used our dining room as our school room).

I love the open feel of the room!

Our lawyer's bookcases still hold our curricula as well as maps, charts, and other educational materials in the bottom, pull-out drawers. These kinds of bookcases are great when you have little kids because they can't get to the books.

Opposite our bookcases is a matching curio cabinet that I used to keep in our living room at our old house to hold figurines and china. Now I use it to hold our daily supplies in pretty jars and baskets (pencils, colored pencils, etc.)

Our bulletin board holds our daily schedule (we use MOTH), calendar, counting straws, and whatever we want to display on a particular day. My rolling cart bin has been re-labeled. Each child has their own drawer to hold math, language arts, and other subjects for work completed or work to be completed. The bottom of the cabinet is used for storing binders, computer paper, and language arts manipulatives. I kept our wooden shelves (from A.C. Moore) for teacher's manuals, BFIAR books, writing paper, and homeschool resources. On top of one of the shelves I have our letter writing box (contains addresses, stamps, envelopes, and paper), our notebooking box (for the kids to use when they need to embellish their notebook pages), and our art box (contains drawing paper and supplies).

I really do prefer that my desk and computer are not technically, in the school room. It keeps me from getting distracted. Oh...please ignore the messy cords...I didn't quite get to getting those under control!!

Upon closer look, you'll see that I have another wooden shelf by our bookcase. I keep our music player on this with CD's nearby. It also holds picture and reading books. Our dry erase board hangs between the bookcases too. The maps are on a rolling, flip board. This is great because I can change them out as I need. When I use the dry erase board, I just roll the flip board out of the way. The door on the side leads to our bonus room where I keep more supplies. I hang the kids' reading progress charts on the door as well.

Most of all, I love the windows and all the wonderful light they let in!!

Hope you enjoyed the "tour"!!!

**UPDATE**
Just a quick note if you are wondering if these are the only places we put our books in. Our school room holds only the books we use for school. Luckily, each child's bedroom has built-in bookshelves that hold more books. There are also built-in bookcases in our keeping room, which we have recently been calling our reading room. The master bedroom also has large built-in bookcases where DH and I keep our own books. In the lower living room, I also put some bookshelves to hold even more books. If we kept all our books in the school area, I don't think we'd have enough wall space to hold them all!!

I'll Be Back!

2010-06-12T15:31:00.002-04:00

I've locked myself in and will be diligently working hard on our school room this weekend!! I have all kinds of Catholic homeschool talks on CD playing in the background, so it's my personal conference.

I'll be back in a couple of days!!

Getting Organized for Liturgical Seasons.

2010-06-09T22:49:00.004-04:00

This time of year is all about planning and organizing! With a new house, you can bet that all my planning and organizing is ten fold! Besides trying to decide where the bookshelves should go and where the baking dishes would be better stored; there is the excitement of putting books in order, hanging our calendars, planning curricula, and organizing for the liturgical year.

I will tell you that my goal of having a finished school room is still yet not a reality. There are still books and supplies to put away and I have come to the conclusion that it will be a work in progress for the next few weeks. But I can live with that! Better to go nice and slow and get things right, than to hurry up only to want to rearrange things again.

Anyways...back to my planning and organizing. Organizing the liturgical seasons is a fun way to spend a day (well, at least in my book it is!). I recently unpacked a box and found my liturgical year file box. I've cleaned it out and have realized that I'm missing out on some great print-outs, books, and crafts. I'm planning on getting all my resources together and keeping my file box handy!

If you have never had a system for organizing our wonderful Catholic year, I suggest you read my post, "Organizing the Liturgical Year." You will find some great ideas, a list of materials needed, and step by step instructions on how to make your own file box (I have a picture too!).

Extras

2010-06-08T18:54:00.001-04:00

Beware of homeschool conferences and conventions!! Their book fairs are so amazingly full of wonderful materials, that you will be tempted to try everything!! This year has been no exception in me getting overwhelmed with cool, new things. Some I know I can't do, but still think are awesome (My Father's World)...others, I will be incorporating into our school year (see below).

Our schedules are already hectic enough with 5 children and 3 of them doing school. Adding more than I have to is not the best idea all the time, but sometimes you just got to give it a shot! Here are some things I couldn't pass up and how I'll be incorporating them into our homeschool year.

Mind Benders by Critical Thinking Co.

Use during quiet time and free time. A great way to get your kids ready for logic. These are fun and age appropriate.

Wordly Wise 3000

Use during language arts instruction. An updated Wordly Wise is a great way to expand your child’s vocabulary skills.

Owl Pellets

One time use. We are planning a summer unit with friends. Each child gets an owl pellet to dissect.

My Father’s World Toddler and Preschool Kit

During school time. Mostly Lauri puzzles that are great for entertaining little ones while I do school with the older kids.

History Through the Ages Timeline Book and Figures from Homeschool in the Woods

Along with history. We’ve had the timeline figures CD since last year, but never used it. This year I got the timeline book and think that it will complement our studies nicely!

So any new, fun extras you've found this year? I'd love to hear about them!!

Curricula Chosen. Angelicum Academy Wins!

2010-06-07T00:43:00.005-04:00

I've finally committed! My research is done, my plans are set. We are enrolling with Angelicum Academy this year again!! I know you probably already knew this; however, I'm tweaking the system to make it work for us. The great thing about Angelicum is that they are flexible and I can borrow from not only different grade levels (as you'll notice I'm doing for Isabella), but also from outside sources. There really is no "one size fits all" curricula out there, which is why homeschooling is such a wonderful thing!

I'm sure if you've looked at what we've done in the past, you'll notice that we are not straying far from the path. My biggest failure this past year was spelling. Spelling Workout was a huge bust and Click n Spell was fun, but not producing results. After much research, I'm giving All About Spelling a go and I'll be combining Marco & Isabella together. I'm excited about using a multisensory approach, which is what I think will produce a better speller for me.

History was my biggest conundrum. Should I continue with History Odyssey or go with Angelicum's history cycle? After much thought, prayer, and back-and-forth emails with Angelicum...I decided to stay with what was working. History Odyssey (HO) is great to use with several kids and all the planning is done for me. My plans are to finish the level 1 cycle with HO and then switch over to Angelicum's cycle. But I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Language arts has been going well for us this past year too, so switching over just didn't make sense to me. Rod & Staff is a super solid grammar program that we enjoyed and I plan on keeping up with it. Writing With Ease has also been producing great results, but I am planning on doing Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) with Marco mid-year, perhaps sooner.

As for religion, we have the most fun with it! I believe that Faith & Life is a great program and combining them with Angelicum's recommended saint books has been a big success. This year Marco made his own saint book and I'm planning on having him continue with another one for this year as well as starting Isabella with one of her own (she is looking forward to it already!). Add some Catholic lapbooks on top of that, and we are set!!

I'm happy that I won't have to worry about making my lesson plans, keeping grades, or even grading some of the kids' writing. Interested in Angelicum? Check them out at www.angelicum.net You can also join the Angelicum Yahoo Group (the button is on the left bar).

Marco 3^rd Grade
Religion	Faith & Life 3, Baltimore Catechism, Saint Stories, Catholic Lapbooks
Math	Saxon 54
History	History Odyssey Level 1 Early Modern Times
Literature	Good Books from Angelicum
Phonics	Hooked on Phonics Master Reader
Grammar	Rod & Staff English 3
Writing	Writing With Ease 3, IEW
Spelling	All About Spelling
Handwriting	Zaner Bloser Cursive 3^rd Grade
Music	Piano, Stories of the Great Composers
Art/Nature	Misc. Art Materials/Handbook of Nature Study
Unit Studies	50 States Geography, Animals, anything fun!
Science	Apologia Astronomy with co-op
Cartography	Map Essentials 3

Isabella 1^st Grade
Religion	Faith & Life 2, Baltimore Catechism, Saint Stories, Catholic Lapbooks
Math	Saxon 2
History	History Odyssey Level 1 Early Modern Times
Literature	Good Books from Angelicum
Phonics	Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read 2^nd Grade
Grammar	Rod & Staff English 2
Writing	Writing With Ease 2
Spelling	All About Spelling
Handwriting	Zaner Bloser 1^st Grade
Music	Stories of the Great Composers
Art/Nature	Misc. Art Materials/Handbook of Nature Study
Unit Studies	50 States Geography, Animals, anything fun!
Science	Apologia Astronomy with co-op
Cartography	Map Essentials 2

Anthony Kindergarten
Religion	Who Am I?, Saint Stories, Catholic Lapbooks
Math	Saxon 1
History	Dinosaurs, History Pockets Ancient Civilizations
Literature	Good Books from Angelicum
Phonics	Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read Kindergarten
Spelling	Spelling Connections K
Handwriting	Zaner Bloser Kindergarten
Art/Nature	Misc. Art Materials/Handbook of Nature Study
Unit Studies	Anything fun!
Science	Dinosaur Study with co-op

Christian Nursery
Religion	Who Am I?
Math	The Shoemaker and the Elves Numbers 1-10, Number flashcards
Literature	Good Books from Angelicum
Language Arts	Alphabet Flash Cards, A Apple Pie by Kate Greenaway, Snow White and Town Mouse pre-writing workbooks
Art/Nature	Rumpelstiltskin, Cinderella, and Pinocchio workbooks

Get Your Little Children to Mass.

2010-06-06T14:01:00.003-04:00

This image is from "My Jesus and I" from Our Mission House Publications.

This book has such lovely images that both my children and I love. I was reminded of this particular picture this morning as I was dressing my 2 year old and I was telling him that Mary wants us to get ready to visit with Jesus. I immediately took the book out and showed him!

Little children have such a natural love of Jesus and Mary that we have to continue to nurture and instill that love in them.

In the Wee Hours...

2010-06-05T22:36:00.004-04:00

Ok...so it's not the wee hours of the morning. But 10:30pm in my house seems pretty late! Just so you know that I'm working hard at getting ALL our books unpacked and our school room fully functional. Deadline? Monday. I'm tired of seeing boxes.

With Mass in the morning and other household duties taking up my Sunday morning, I'm hoping to get as much accomplished as I can by midnight tonight. When the clock strikes twelve, I turn into a pumpkin!!

In the mean time....please enjoy this picture!

Is God Talking to You?

2010-06-03T12:52:00.004-04:00

Sometimes I seriously wonder how He does it. How does He, right in the middle of Mass, find a way to talk to me?? With everything going on (the praying, the singing, the reading, the learning), He takes the time to talk with little, old, insignificant me. Not that this happens every Sunday...or maybe it does, but I choose not to listen. But it happens enough that I wonder what I ever did deserve to hear Him speak to my heart.

I don't know if you know what I'm talking about. But attending Mass is a powerful thing (well, of course you all know that!)! And last Sunday, the heavens parted for me and I was like "Duh!" Of course He can talk to me! He talks to all those who are willing to open their hearts! What's funny to me, is that He always says what I need to hear at that moment. Whether I hear it being read from the Bible, or if it's coming through the homily. It's like a big slap in the face (in a good way!)...WHAM!! "Here ya go, Liz! You got questions...I got answers!"

I started getting suspicious when 2-3 times out of the month, it felt like Mass had been rearranged and said specifically for me, my worries, my thoughts, my questions. Seriously. It was too much to go unnoticed. I'm a cry-baby to start with and I tend to get emotional at Mass to begin with...this made it all the more reason for me to bawl like a baby. But this is crying in a good way. "THANK YOU!" How can you ever say that enough to Him?

I'm not usually all about my feelings and emotions on this blog. But I have to get the word out.

LISTEN!!! He is talking to all of us!!! We just need to listen. And perhaps I should take my own advice, for I know that I don't need to wait until Sunday Mass to strike up a conversation with Him. He's available 24/7. My thing is that sometimes...I just go off and talk, talk, talk. Perhaps on Sunday's He's like, "OK...I've listened to you all week long. Now it's my turn and here's what I have to say."

I'm in constant awe.

School is Going!

2010-05-31T20:28:00.000-04:00

I realize that it's almost summer and we are still going with school. With so many friends finishing up their school year, I feel like that is a far-off thought in our home. Quickly coming to an end, however, are a few subjects. Grammar, saint studies & religion, writing, reading (from our Good Books list), and science.

But on the other hand, I feel like we are just getting started as well. Math is a subject we do year round, so there is no end to it. History is still going strong as we will be doing some fun History Pockets in the weeks to come. On top of that, I'm planning on just plowing through the summer with new material. We are definitly a year-round homeschool family. I like the flexibility of it and it's nice to beat to your own drum.

One thing that I am looking forward to is unit studies. We'll be leaping into the new school year with a study on the 50 states. The kids are excited after seeing all the neat new books we'll be using. I'm also planning on doing some fun science units (dissecting owl pellets, anyone?) that hubby really wanted to get involved in. On top of that, we have the collection of Catholic lapbooks available through Lapbooks for Catholics that I'm dying to do with the kids!

Sounds like a fun, schoolish summer is ahead of us! I plan to keep it fun-filled for the kids.

What are your plans?

Getting Married.

2010-05-30T19:10:00.001-04:00

There is some news in our neck of the woods! Our fabulous babysitter, Melissa, is engaged and getting married next year!! Yes...I was totally expecting this; and we are so happy for her! She is a pretty amazing girl!!

She looks so young, you say? She's a baby (only 18!)!! But she is one of the most mature young women I know. I'm so glad that we found her almost 2 and a half years ago. She's been coming over twice a week since then and we love her. A homeschool graduate and college student, she is so wonderful with the kids and is a beautiful, Godly girl. {And no....I don't share her number! ;) }

So I wish her and her future hubby, Jeremy, the best! Congrats "Missa"!!!!

Getting Ready for Convention Book Fair!!

2010-05-25T16:25:00.002-04:00

Well, this weekend will be the NCHE Homeschool Convention and I am completely ready to go! I normally skip out on the talks/sessions and head straight to the book fair...but this year, some of the talks are looking like they might be of interest to me! Whether or not I get to attend them is a different story.

If you've never been to a homeschool conference/convention...I highly recommend going to one! Not only do you get to attend sessions and talks given by veteran homeschoolers, but many times there are vendors who showcase their products through talks as well (one of my favorites is the talks given by the Hazell's for My Father's World). Take some comfortable walking shoes, a notebook to write with, some snacks and you are ready!!

Of course, my favorite part of any homeschool conference/convention is the actual book fair. This is the perfect time to peruse through the all the books you might even think of getting. There is something to be said for being able to thumb through books and compare curriculum. It's great! Be beware of wanting to get everything!!

Tonight I'll be spending some time really thinking about all our options for curricula. I'm still deciding what we'll be doing for history and whether or not to continue with what we are doing (most likely, yes!). It always helps me to write things down, make a list, and revisit what we have used in the past. I'll make sure to post my thoughts on curricula tomorrow!

Preparing for Co-op...In Advance!

2010-05-24T14:47:00.005-04:00

Our planning meeting has come and gone, and it seems that we are all set for our co-op to start it's fall 2010 term. I'm blessed to be able to say that our co-op has a wonderful group of women! For the upcoming year, I will be teaching a preschool version of Before Five in a Row (BFIAR) and a science class for the kindergarten to grade 1 kids using The Magic School Bus Back in Time with the Dinosaurs science kit.

Lucky for me, I've been doing BFIAR in a row with my own kids, so changing things up to fit a small preschool class is no problem! This will also be my second time doing BFIAR in a co-op setting, so I know what to expect and how to make things smoothly. If you are interested in looking through my old BFIAR links, just click under BFIAR under the Labels section to the right. Or click here!!

In the past, I have had several moms ask for a copy of my syllabus and what materials I use. Just to make things easier for anyone who might be curious, I use lots of materials from HomeschoolShare.com. You can see my syllabus for the class below. Super simple!!

The Magic School Bus science kits are a great way to introduce science to your co-op as well. Each kit comes with everything you need (minus a few ingredients you get from home) to explore a science topic. We chose dinosaurs for our co-op's kindergarten through first grade science class. Each child will get their own box full of experiments (which I will hold until they are needed). This makes it easy for everyone in that kids don't have to share materials and everyone gets to take their experiment home! The kits also come with a teacher/parent's guide and the experiments themselves don't seem difficult to do.

So "YES!" I'm all ready for co-op! But for the time being, I'm glad I get to enjoy the summer without having to plan anymore for my classes. I'm having enough of my time going into planning for our new homeschool year!

Field Day Fun. Updated 05/24/2010

2010-05-14T14:29:00.007-04:00

We just have settled down from our 2nd annual field day. It was a blast and I must send the most wonderful thanks to all the moms who made it a success. The kids had a wonderful time and I'm beat. Is it time for a nap yet?

On the down side, regardless of how late I stayed up last night downloading old pictures onto the computer and cleaning my disk for field day pictures today....I don't have anything to show for it. My camera decided not to join me today and stayed at home sitting neatly on the shelf. Perhaps it thought the weather would be too hot. This means I'll be waiting to steal some pictures from my friends once they get posted. I would hate for the memories of such a fun day to be forgotten!!

Anyways, I'm blessed to count myself as part of the amazing group of Catholic moms who make so many awesome things happen in our community! Homeschooling is definitely more fun with all of them around! If I never brought this up before, I suggest that if you would like to be inspired to start your own Catholic homeschool group of any sort, you should read Haystack Full of Needles by Alice Gunther.

**Update**
Here are finally some pictures that show off the fun everyone had!!

Find more photos like this on ARCH-Triad

Catching Up Part 2.

2010-05-13T09:01:00.006-04:00

My dear friends and family, it seems that Tempus Fugit (time flies). Here we are in our new home, boxes still lining up many of the rooms. School lessons are piled up on my desk and many books are still lost in our temporary storage room. Appointments and meetings are abundant this month and we have been stricken with one illness or another. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner still need to be fixed and the house just isn't cleaning itself. On top of that, we have had the privilege of hosting family and friends from a morning play-date to an entire week.

My apologies for not posting updates! But today I have made it a point to take some time to catch you all up on what's going on in our neck of the woods. First off, I want to say that we had a great time with my sister, brother-in-law, niece, nephew, and mom. They all visited for a sacrament filled weekend and it was truly a blessing to be able to celebrate together!!

Dearest hubby and I are now the proud GODPARENTS of two adorable babies!! My sister's twins, Sebastian and Sophia, were welcomed into the Catholic church on May 1. It was a whirlwind of a morning getting all the children ready, but we made it on time and the celebration was beautiful!

Another wonderful event was MARCO'S FIRST COMMUNION!!!
It was so exciting to see him reach this milestone in his life and we are sooo proud of him! After learning and studying the importance of it for 2 years, we knew he was really ready to receive Our Lord. We are truly blessed!

Of course, with all the celebrations there has also been lots of bumps along the way. Christian was sick with croup, who then passed it on to Little Jimmy. Not only that, but we missed our co-op's end of year celebration because of it. And there has also been a case of "Where's Liz?" going around; that although I know where Liz is...seems like there are some who don't.

With all the good, the bad, and the ugly, I come to think of a saying that might seem to fit where I am in this time in my life...El tiempo da buen consejo (Time is the wisest counselor of all).

**A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults.**

Researching Curricula.

2010-04-26T13:01:00.006-04:00

It's that time of year again, where we start evaluating how the past year went and if the materials we chose worked out. I'm happy to announce that we really liked all that we used this year for 2nd, kindergarten, and preschool!!

There was a lot of putting things together, combining, and hodge-podge...but it worked out! Big hits for the year were 2nd grade Rod and Staff English grammar, Writing With Ease, and History Odyssey. I was actually most surprised that Rod and Staff grammar remained a favorite subject throughout the year.

Now the time has come to start looking and deciding on curriculum for next year. The familiar saying of "If it isn't broke, don't fix it," will stand around here. We are keeping a lot of the same: Saxon Math, Rod & Staff English, Writing With Ease. But my new conundrum lies in the time I have to invest in putting things together. With 3 kids in "school," Christian in the throws of preschool, and baby Jimmy sitting in on everything...I really want to simplify my life. So here comes...Angelicum Academy once again.

Angelicum Academy has totally redone their website and updated their curriculum. I love the look and the materials they are offering! So the next week or so I'll be researching and coming up with a plan. Angelicum is looking strong to us since they utilize much of the curricula we will be using (we, of course, also do stuff not included). History and grammar have been the only differences between what they use and what we use. But I'm starting to lean towards just doing history their way.

We'll see. But I do suggest that if you are looking for a Catholic, Classical program...check out Angelicum Academy!