I LOVE the old-fashioned "Little People". My mom gave us some a few years back and I bought some on ebay. Luckily Avery loves them as much as I do. We just leave this little house open most of the time and he sits just the way he's shown in the picture to play with them.
Avery learning to cut the grass: (train 'em young, I say)
My three youngest kids in their footed sleepers. Ashlie wishes she had some too. Avery didn't want to cooperate for the picture because he was over-tired.
Just eatin' some lunch:
Alex is a great help around the house! Avery likes to "vacuum" with his little toy, so he follows around whomever is vacuuming and copies their motions.
Lately when Avery gets sleepy he just finds a piece of carpet somewhere and starts drinking his milk with his blankie. I ask if he's ready to go nigh-night and he nods, then I carry him in to bed. So sweet!
Avery loves this old stroller of Olivia's. He carts his teddy bear and sippy cup around in it many times every day.
Avery is such a hat boy! His very favorite (by far) is his brother's baseball cap. He wears it around all the time, usually with his head tilted up so he can see out. Alex is wonderful to share with his little brother, almost always taking it right off his head and giving it to Avery. He is an amazing older brother, always showing him how to do things and sharing his stuff (which he hates to share with anyone else).
My amazing husband somehow got the notion to organize the game closet tonight! (This is really out of character.) I am so excited! I've been meaning to get to it for some time and now I don't have to! We had way too many games, so all of us weeded out the ones we could do without, then Rob loaded it back up. I wish I had taken a "before" shot. Here's the end result:
I decorated Mrs. Higley's bulletin board for May. In the center is a "bookshelf" with titles and authors on all the spines in different fonts to represent books that are favorites for fifth graders. Around the bookshelf I hung some great quotes about reading, along with a few small pictures that had to do with reading. I wish my picture had turned out better, but you get the idea.
Oh, how I love Marjorie Pay Hinckley; she is one of my heroes. She just makes me want to be a better person. Here are some of her quotes I received via email from a friend that makes me want to "Try a little harder to do a little better", as President Hinckley used to say. "Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."
"The family is eternal. Love must be nurtured. It must be spoken. We must put away our pride, our hautiness, our shyness, our misunderstandings, and with humility say, 'I love you. Is there something I can do to help you?' You can never be completely happy under any other circumstances."
"We women have a lot to learn about simplifying our lives. We have to decide what is important and then move along at a pace that is comfortable for us. We have to develop the maturity to stop trying to prove something. We have to learn to be content with what we are."
"There are some years in our lives that we would not want to live again. But even these years will pass away, and the lessons learned will be a future blessing."
"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."
I've decided to home school Olivia next year. I've thought about this for quite some time and feel it is in our family's best interest.
Let me answer some of your questions here:
Why on earth would you want to do that? .
Well, like most people, I am innately lazy. I don't want to do hard things and I am very comfortable having 3 out of 4 children attending school for six and a half hours each day. However, my goals as a mother are only partly being realized because there simply isn't enough time for all the things I want to do with them in addition to going to school, music and other lessons, sports and friends.
I am feeling my time with my children slipping away from me and think this will allow me to better reach some of my goals as a mother. When I consider how much I want to teach them and how much time I want to spend with them, I realize that what we're doing right now isn't going to give me enough time to do it all. I am keenly aware of how quickly children grow up and I want to spend more time with them while I still can. I find it extremely difficult to teach my children much of anything with their very busy schedules. I am also discontent with the miniscule amount of free-play time left after doing the things they are responsible for.
The best solution I could come up with for our family was to home school them because then I can combine my teaching of religion and morals with the secular education they also need.
“We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they…strengthen our families. Most of us have more things expected of us than we can possibly do…as parents…we face many choices on what we will do with our time and other resources.” Dallin H. Oaks.
Why Olivia?
I decided that I would commit to home schooling each of my children for one year. Because Ashlie's the oldest and my time with her is the shortest, I gave her the first opportunity. She is going in to 6th grade next year, so I figured that if I were to home school her this would be the year. She respectfully declined! :) Next I gave Olivia the choice. After thinking about it for about two weeks, she came to me and said she had made up her mind and that she did want to be home schooled. She is particularly needy right now and doesn't get nearly as much one-on-one time as she wants so home schooling will help to meet that individual need of hers as well.
Reading and comprehension can be studied at the same time as the scriptures. Math can be practiced any time we go to stores or when I pay bills (in addition to book-learning). I can help them choose books that are worthwhile to read rather than some of the dumb books that are readily available at school. There are so many really wonderful books to read that it seems a pity when kids spend their limited time reading lame books. These are only a couple of examples, but there are many more.
Why only one year?
That's all I can commit to at this point.
Will it be easier? NO!
Will it be worth it? If I didn't think it would be, I wouldn't bother.
Won't it be difficult to have Ashlie at one school, Alex at another, Olivia at home and a toddler under foot?
Duh! Of course it will be difficult. I think Alex will be particularly difficult when he has to get ready and go to school without his big sis.
What if after one year they want to continue being home schooled?
We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
What does Rob have to say?
He's not really on board yet, but he mostly leaves the instruction of the children to me, because I'm The Mother. Although he won't commit to being supportive, I think he'll eventually come to see the benefits. I think his apprehension is primarily because he doesn't know much about home schooling yet.
The kids' schedule now:
Get up, get ready, off to school.
Home from school, snack, start homework.
Go to soccer (2 days/week), swimming (4-5 days/week), baseball (3 days/week), piano (1 day + practicing)
Eat dinner.
Get ready for bed.
Finish homework.
Sleep.
Repeat.
See? Not enough time. By the time they are done with the things they have to do, it's too late to play with friends and I'm too exhausted to teach. Scripture study suffers. Social skills suffer because playtime helps develop those skills. I've even stopped asking them to do daily jobs (they do Saturday work instead) because there just isn't time for a 15-minute job.
But how?
I will have to keep a fairly regular schedule in order for home schooling to work for me. I'll probably have her do what work she can do independently while I clean up the house in the morning, then we can work together when Avery goes down for his nap. Errands and outings will probably have to be in the afternoon. My plan is to follow the public school system's curriculum fairly closely so that she will be able to re-enter public school for 6th grade (unless, of course, we all love it!). I've looked up the curriculum and I'm excited about the 5th grade content. 5th grade is a fun year - especially in social studies - because we study American history.
Do you have a problem with public education?
No! If I did, I'd be yanking all my kids out at the same time! We have had marvelous teachers and have loved Tolman Elementary (and Ashlie at Valley View). I have, however, been disappointed to hear that class sizes could be around 34 kids this year and think that is absolutely absurd!
Are you qualified?
Of course I'm qualified! People have taught their children for centuries. In fact, I'm uniquely qualified because I am their mother and know them better than anyone else one else on earth. I have a college education, complete with plenty of math. Of course I'll have to re-learn a ton of stuff but I am capable. (But I'd still love the help of grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc. that want to help!)
Note: For those of you who are opposed to unconventional methods of educating children, please know that the decision has been made and is not up for debate. Please be respectful of my decision and refrain from planting "seeds" of discontent with my children. I strongly believe that they will be well-rounded individuals and what they miss out on in the public school will be more than compensated for by things of greater value.
