Making Progress on Summer Projects Already!

 Well know, it's not even March and I'm making progress on my summer list. 

I've been working under the sink today. My arthritis says I'm done.. My time says I'll probably be done til the weekend...  But I got it cleaned up under the sink, the first step to replacing the faucet.  

This side of the underboard has some water damage- doing this properly and replacing  the cabinet bottom are above my pay grade.. So exploring options on patching and working with what we have to prevent further damage. 

Oh let me count the pipes..... 

One capped off, one hot water, one cold water.  Tap into the old dishwasher (the silver), drain for the dishwasher, main drain, Culligan tap... and the broken sprayer (cause of aforementioned water problems. 

My curious cold water line......  Any ideas of the aluminum duct taped on?  My dad says the white is a air tap.  

I know nothing.  

But I do know process is being made-and that's encouraging. 

-Tabitha 

Making Summer Plans

 Well, here I go feeling over enthusiastic again.  Making plans to fix things, attempting to plan a garden-at least I don't have a tree in the way again! 

So I'm keeping it small.  My two oldest love to help with the garden, so I can pretty much put them in charge of that and we'll be set.  

I want to redo one of the rock gardens in the front...  So pulling out as much vegetation as possible, probably replacing (that's a BIG probably) and making the faucet able to be winterized. Grading the dirt away from the house. Taking the tiller to it, laying down something to help block the weeds and putting the rocks back over that.  There are some lilies and tulips I would love to save and  replant, but I'm also not against just tearing everything out and rebuying the bulbs for those two plants.

Now, as much as I would LOVE to do more than one garden, I'm not planning on it.  There's still general yard maintenance that takes a lot of time so I'm taking things slow.  The vegetable garden is a must to help with the grocery bill and the kids will love to be in charge of that. 

My other big project I'm enlisted my parent's help, which will probably be more of a "sit and tell us how to do it" kind of help. Which is just fine with me.  I learn better if I have to physically do, and so does hubby.  This project doesn't have to wait for summer, but it does have to wait for funds.. Most of the rock garden redo just take the ground the thaw and time, we have almost all of the supplies needed. 

My poor kitchen needs help.  The whole kitchen really does need help, but we can only focus on a bit at a time, so focusing on the worst first-the faucet is leaking and the dishwasher needs to go for storage.  We're saving up for a new faucet.  Under the cabinet needs replaced, the bottom of the cabinet is not fit to use.  The dishwasher is finally coming out, it's been broken for 9 years.  As much as I would love to replace the dishwasher, we simply do not have the money so shelving of some sort is going in for storage.  I'll try to work on getting the green stick on tile up without ruining the linoleum underneath, that's a project I started 6 years ago and am still working on, though every time the floor is mopped (so....daily) a little bit comes up by itself.  Everything from the corner on the left to the set of drawers on the right needs worked on.  I would love to do more, but we cannot right now.  So I will be satisfied with what we can do.  

As far as the healthy changes we've been making. Dennis is losing weight and feeling better.  I'm not losing, but I am starting to feel better until I eat excess sugar.... Then I feel horrible-go figure.  

I'm also saving up for a bucket or two of paint to start painting walls so they are white again.  It's a plan anyway.  

~Tabitha 

Starting Again

I'm sitting here attempting to meal plan and write a grocery shopping list. 

Failing.

I know I need to do this, not just for my sanity, but for the budget. 

But I can't.  I can't even eke out 3 days of meals.  

It's so overwhelming trying to figure all of this out.  This is the 5th time I've attempted since school started and I can't get it done.  

What is going on in my mind?  

I'm also binging Jordan Page YouTube shows. Reminding myself how to do things....

This is the best way to help and to save us money but I can't make myself do it and I don't understand why.  

I have a feeling this is all related to the post-partum anxiety I was dealing with last year... But that doesn't mean I know how to combat it. I mean, I can't exactly go to the doctor and say "hey, I think I'm dealing with anxiety".....  They threatened to take my kids away over a slight risk of my baby having markers for possible jaundice (she didn't have any high amounts, nowhere near it even the lab techs couldn't figure out why we were there), but they threatened because I wanted to take her home and get her in sunshine.  If I tell the doctor I'm having anxiety attacks, what would they actually do?  

I know  my only hope is The Great Physician (God).  

I need to stop trying and give it up to God.  

I learned something this morning while reading in Joshua 1.  The original meaning of 'courage'.  Today, we think of it as having bravery and valor... it's original meaning was more the state of the mind.  God kept telling Joshua to "be strong and of good courage".   He was reminding and reinforcing to Joshua that not only did he need the physical strength to lead the people into the  land now known as Israel, but to keep a good attitude, demeanor and treat people in a way to show them he was God's man.  

I keep finding things in the Bible I would love to put on the wall and make posters or something out of... the problem is, I only have so much wall space. 

Sorry, this was a little scattergoried this week.... I don't know if my brain being everywhere is a result of unseen anxiety, or a result of trying to cut back sugar and carbs (as I stare down a homemade chocolate chip cookie)......  but it's getting on my nerves. :/  

~Tabitha 

Change of Diet

 My husband has been on a weight loss journey for about 6 years..  He's trying to lose the weight through lifestyle change, not something fast.. He did slip up in the middle of it and give up.  But he's trying again and doing awesome.  

He has stalled for the past 8 months, but hasn't gone over 440.  Which is awesome (he started at 520).  Now, he is ready to try hard again.  So here we go.  

He has decided to try the carnivore diet-it is what it sounds from everything I can gather.  Just meat, very little to no anything else.  

Quite frankly, I'm a little intimidated.  

We're trying to keep grocery costs down as much as we can, and now to add in more high cost items such as meat, I'm a little intimated.  However, from everything we've been reading and hearing about it, Once his body gets used to eating the meat, he won't need to eat as often. One to two times a day instead of 3 and feeling like he needs snacks in the middle.   

So, I'm going to take what I know about grocery sales and do my best.  We're told the first few weeks the "worst" because he's used to eating so often, so he'll go through more the first weeks while his body adjusts.  

This week so to start him off for lunches while he's at work, I've made chislic, boiled eggs, bacon and drumsticks with garlic and onion.  

We have no idea how much he's going to eat, so we'll see if I'll have to make more midweek or not.  

~Tabitha 

Sometimes..Simple IS Better

 Why do we have to make things so complicated? 

Books can open up a whole world to the reader.  

The Three Musketeers, while fictional, does open the reader up to a little bit of life as a king's guard in the Middle Ages. 

Little Women (and the rest of the series-did you know it's a 4 book series? I didn't...) can show you what life was like for the family left behind during the Civil War and Reconstruction period in the Northeast United States. 

Little House on the Prairie  series shows you what life was like for those brave souls who ventured into Indian territory and unsettled lands to find a new life on the Plains. 

Shakespeare. Just any Shakespeare.  You can use it to help pronounce, to be goofy and act out some scenes.  There's even history, geography and myths thrown in by the Bard of Avon.

The Bible.  A timeless book.  Read it for the literature, for the history, for the poetry at the very least, but as God-given scripture, it is truly an amazing work of God to teach you how to live, and how not live, of the coming days, the days of Christ, and the hope we have if we are God's child. 

I could go on. So many books.  Classic literature was so rich not only in the words used, but also in morals, stories, history, grammar, language... 

Modern-post 1960-"literature" changed that.  No longer are the books rich in grammar or morals or much else.  In fact, it could be argued they are the opposite.  And then we wonder why it's so hard to teach our children basic grammar and sentence structure.  Science fiction authors thought they were coming up with crazy stories, 40 years later how many of our inventions have come about from science fictions (AI, robots, cell phones, video calling to name a few).  Spoiler alert-it never ended well in the books, it won't end well in the real world.

And a question-why in the world do we need to learn to deconstruct sentences and identify every part of the sentence. Ah yes, the "books" we now read. 

Maths. 

First off-yes, that's how you say it-Maths. or Arithmetic.

Math shouldn't change. 

1+1 should always equal 2.

55-20 will always be a simple 35.  Not the whole Base 10 math where you tick off the 10s until you manipulate it enough to find the answer. 

Math used to be basic accounting principles.  How many bushes of apples at $0.05 a bushel do you need to sell if you need $10 to pay the bills?  Because that's the kind of math kids needed to be able to survive as adults. 

When was the last time you used Calculus? And the high school class doesn't count.  For the most part-calculus isn't used after high school. Now if you can prove me wrong, please do.. But take your average Jo Schmo, working a blue collar job.  Geometry, yeah I can see that.  I could even see some Trigonometry being used.  But it's mostly filler classes.  Because Heaven forbid you let those perfectly capable teenagers get out of a building with their brain being crammed full of things to pass tests and encourage them to work at a job to gain them true life skills.  

Do I personally see the point of higher maths? No I don't.  Will I end up teaching my kids the higher maths?  Probably, because it's expected to go so high in math to succeed. It's expected to fill your head with useless knowledge... Especially after I know they understand and know-without my help-how to budget, how to balance a checkbook, how to make something and then figure out how much to charge to make a profit, how to convert a recipe to bigger or smaller.  How to plan a quilt based on how big you want it versus the size of squares you want to want.  How to take a patch of land and plan out a garden for optimal growth for the plants (tomatoes don't like onion, potatoes don't like peppers but corn and squash are best friends).  

History.

History shouldn't change.  It gets added to, yes.  But you shouldn't look up the same thing in four different resources and get four different answers.  

HISTORY SHOULDN'T CHANGE.  

But it does.  I have spent 7 years trying to find a good history that didn't change *much*.  Just when we thought we had it, we found we were wrong.  

So back to the basics. The best possible way to teach true history is to find autobiographies of the people who lived it.  Project Gutenberg is an awesome resource for that.  I say that as I'm also editing a history course for my kids from 1776-1900.   Why?  Right now, I have no idea why.  Right now, I just want to find the important people presidents, generals, inventors, the founding fathers, the Federalist Papers, the Anti-Federalist papers and read the books with my kids.  Teach them why we came to this new land in the first place and learn how we got so far from the ideals we set out to have.  

We had started using the Robinson Curriculum with our kids.  How I understand it, Dr. Robinson's entire theology behind homeschool was to teach the kids the basics-how to read, math facts-then let them go.  Give them a guideline until they learn enough self-discipline you are comfortable with.  Once they learn to teach themselves, the sky is the limit.  They can teach themselves whatever science they want.  

What in the world is the problem with teaching kids to THINK?!! 

Yes, we need life skills. Yes, we need maths, yes we need to learn to read... When was the last time I broke a sentence down into parts? (I didn't because my public school "teachers" told me I was too dumb to learn.)  But I was blessed with an awesome history teacher who made sure we learned the truth. Who let us ask questions.  Who guided us through civil discussion-even when 9/11 happened.

It's natural when you teach, to teach your ideals.  What ideals do you want your kids learning? 

God instructs us to teach our children his ways in Deuteronomy 11:19 and Proverbs 22:6-and many others.  

As you're planning your school year-no matter what your school year looks like.  Think about it.  Not just the spiritual, not just the morals, not just the academics. Every bit of it.  What do you WANT your children to learn? What ARE your children learning.  How can you change it if it doesn't match? 

As you can tell, I'm struggling right now.  I'm having a hard time reconciling teaching my kids useless dribble that they need to get a GED to show "they can study to pass a test".  While knowing Galileo invented the first flying machine is an awesome little factoid.. Unless you're a mechanic-why? What purpose has that served me other than being able to answer random trivia questions? No purpose. At All. None. 

~Tabitha 

Simplifying Homeschool... Step... 3?

So this is the first true step we have in our simplifying (and making sustainable) our homeschool. 

Now, if you haven't been reading my blog, you should go back and read at least the past one.  

Do I have you back now?  Ok.  

So honestly, this journey started when I realized what price we would have to pay for 3 kids in the ACE PACE Program..  I love the PACEs, they are so simple for me as mom and the kid LOVE them.. but it's simply not sustainable for a big family on a very limited income.  

So we sort of looked into making our homeschool more sustainable last year, but really hadn't found great solutions.  When I did the figuring for how much things would cost for the coming school year, it just wasn't going to happen.  So we looked for different solutions.  

Now, I knew it was possible to homeschool for free-and not use the public school books and curricula to do so.   But I didn't want every class online, I didn't want my kids sitting in front of a screen for hours on end to do their school.  I know they will have to learn the computer, but I do think it's a skill they can master once they are older.   

My original plans had me caving on that for more classes than I wanted.. Now, I'm still caving on that a bit, but not as much.

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm learning how to do the Robinson Curriculum correctly.  It's not just reading and Saxon math, there's a method and it's a very sustainable and affordable way to homeschool.  

But, since I spent 4 months searching, printing and binding, then we're going to use most of what I did.  

So let's start with the oldest...and work our way down. Settle in with some coffee, this is going to be a long post. 

My biggest worry with piecing together was grammar..  I can write well, but don't ask me to identify parts of speech.  I've also come to the realization...  WHEN have I EVER used parts of speech in real life?  Now, honestly.  Somebody tell me when, because I haven't.    The next obstacle was math..  We were just going to put the oldest in Khan Academy, but since learning about Robinson, we're going back to Saxon.  

Ok.. So onto Andrew's school.  Andrew is going into 5th grade and like any boy his age is extremely interested in how things work.  

Math-Saxon 5/4 and flashcards.. Part of the Robinson Curriculum is having ALL math facts memorized before they started Saxon 5/4... Now, I have been a horrible teacher and haven't required them to memorize math facts-so we're fixing that.  Andrew is going to do both simultaneously because for some reason he's great at division and subtraction (somebody explain that to me).  You don't see Saxon 5/4 because as of right now, I cannot afford the physical textbook, but I was able to get a PDF file for free, I do plan on buying the physical edition as soon as I'm financially able. 

Grammar-this will come from a Scott Foresman Grammar book and reading. 

Spelling-again, reading.  Whatever words he doesn't know along with whatever words are the in the vocabulary list for the book he is currently on.. He will not only learn spelling, but how to use it and what it means.

Modern History (1900 to 2020)- This is coming from Write Bonnie Rose.  She put some awesome work into her workbooks and I am grateful she puts the entire thing on freebies for her subscribers.   

Geography- Again, coming from Write Bonnie Rose... It looks like fun.  lol

Science- I made a workbook from the Institute For Creation Research books we purchased last year.  These are great books, full of great information-but I would not recommend them for elementary science.   But.... it's information Andrew needs and since we couldn't replace them as I wanted, he is using them. 

Reading- Tuttle Twins, Rifles for Watie and Robinson Curriculum.   My husband found the Tuttle Twins Books and purchased them.  They came with a study guide.. I have yet to look through them, though I need to.   They teach government through fun stories for children.  Rifles for Watie is a book I read many times throughout my youth, it's about the Civil War so I thought Andrew would enjoy it.  After he's done with these, he will start on the Robinson book list.  

Writing- copy work, vocabulary, and essay writing.  The essay writing we'll start with a paragraph, teach him sentence structure, then move onto paragraph structure and we'll move on from there...  The topic? It's going to depend on the day.. Anything from what we learned during service at church....to something they see out the window or something from their imagination.  The purpose is to get them writing to teach them HOW to write correctly. 

One day out of the week he will do typing, one day he will do Spanish.  Both of these are done online. 

That's my plans, then I'm starting to incorporate Robinson Curriculum.  2 hours of math, then move on to everything else..  The end goal is going to be 2 hours of reading per day of school books.  We'll work up to that.  

Second oldest, Eva, is going into 4th.  She struggles a bit with the English language, but we'll work on it. 

Math-work pages and flashcards.. I had already printed off at least a semester worth of math for Eva, so we might as well use it.  Other than that, it's flashcards.  Once she's done with the worksheets, she goes into Saxon 5/4.  

Grammar- another Scott Foreman book

World Geography-the same one Andrew has from Write Bonnie Rose.

Modern History-again, the same one Andrew has from Write Bonnie Rose. 

History-state history... This is the one I wrote last year for Andrew, I tweaked a few things so it should be a bit better this year. 

Anatomy-Eva REALLY wants to learn how the human body works, so I found I had a coloring book on my shelf-but it was partly colored... So then I found it online (sorry I went to find the link for you and it's gone). But it's close to this one.  There's a simple explanation of what a few certain parts do, then you color the part. I took out the sections she's not old enough for. 

Writing-copy work, essay and spelling words. 

Spelling-just like Andrew, vocabulary words from books.

Reading- Eva is actually going to start with the Robinson list and then move on to the Tuttle Books once Andrew is done. 

Eva also gets typing and Spanish on the computer

Grace-the third oldest, she is going into 2nd. Grace is still trying to find her place.  I am starting Grace more in the Robinson than anyone else, simply because I didn't gather so much for her yet. 

Math-I did print off a full year of math worksheets-though I wasn't too happy with what I did have.  But she will do worksheets and flashcards. 

Grammar-again, a Scott Foresman book

History-I believe my husband found the website called Miniature Masterminds, it has A LOT of great things on there.  One of my friends has been using it to keep her 5 year old's mind busy while he anxiously awaits school this fall.   But they had a history on there that was already planned out (day 1, day 2 etc).  So I printed that off and that's what Grace is getting. 

Geography-This is from Write Bonnie Rose, it's more of a copy work kind of book, but I think she'll have some fun with it. 

Science-honestly, Grace's science is what I'm excited for (I'm a geek).  Through a giveaway at one point, I received the workbook for Science Shepherd's Introductory Science.   After looking through it, I realized it was not only young earth creation based, but I also needed the DVDs to be able to do it. This is the one thing  we spent money on this year.  So this is Grace's one class on the computer, she needs to get a bit older for typing and Spanish. 

Reading-Grace is starting at the beginning of the Robinson list, will she blow through some of the books? I'm sure.  But that's ok. 

Spelling-again, anything she has to look up the meaning to and words from the Robinson books.

Writing-she's going to improve her cursive with copy work from books and from the Bible. 

Hannah. Hannah is in Kindergarten.  The original plan was Abeka-because we have Abeka...   Then I realized how abysmal the Abeka phonics was...  They teach the spelling....and that's it.  So we're using the Abeka math, the Abeka phonics ladders.  She's going to read using McGuffeys then take off on the Robinson list.  Hannah is also learning cursive this year.   Once Hannah gets going on her math, we'll start the flashcards with her. 

Elijah has some "coloring books" to keep him busy, along with a box of fun toys that he only gets during school.  His coloring books are the collection of misprinted papers I gathered.  Somebody might as well use them.  

The baby, Dinah.. She's the wild card.  We'll see what happens with Dinah. lol 

Well, are you still awake?  Told ya it was long!! Thanks for sticking with me, let me know if you have any questions.

~Tabitha

 

Simplifying HomeSchool Even More

 I realized this week that I have been very foolish with my curriculum choices for next year. 

You see, I have spent the last 4 months planning and scouring looking for what I think we need.... when I have an entire curriculum-I just have no idea how to use it.

Let me rewind. 

When I was homeschooled (back in the day😂😂), my mom tried the Robinson Curriculum. 

This is very much a self teaching curriculum.. In the ideal setting, you teach your child to read, the math facts.... and then pretty much let them loose within given boundaries.  When you buy the CDs (or, apparently now, they have an online version), you get the how tos, and this HUGE book list.  The idea is that the child learns by simply reading.   Instead of reading the very much flawed, rewritten history books, they are reading about the life of the person or the event by people who lived through it-or told their story to somebody else.  You are also encouraged to use Saxon Math (not newer than 2nd edition ideally).. The website explains it all-I'm still learning.  The child does math first, a set number of problems a day and then moves on to reading.  Once they get past the basics of learning math facts and learning to read, they are essentially on their own. 

I've been watching videos on YouTube from Our House.  She does an awesome job at explaining exactly what to do with the curriculum.  

Now, since I've spent SO MUCH time getting curriculum together for next year-and I'm mostly done with it... we're are going to go ahead with my plans-next time I get a chance, I'll give you a run down and the plans.   A few things I'm going to implement is the reading list from Robinson and the method of doing math... We do not have the Saxon but we can use basically the same way... Give them the tools to learn it and let them figure it out.. As long they have the basic tools, they are good to go-let their minds figure it out.. They can do this!!! And, quite frankly, I'm going a bit insane with the messy house and having to repeat a math word problem 10 times until it "clicks".  I love my kids, I love homeschooling, but there's only so many different ways you can explain something, sometimes they just have to work through it. 

Now, Robinson is very much a reading-heavy curriculum.  All of the books on the list are open source, meaning their copyright is expired so they are public domain... Meaning you can print them (explained on RC website and Our House linked above), or if you are lucky you can find them at a thrift store in good condition.  Or if you are ok with your kids using Kindles, Amazon has a lot of classics as free Kindle books.  I pulled out my Robinson set when I realized I didn't have reading comprehension for Grace...  Now, they do have some books with reading comprehension and end of book test questions, but really the easiest way to know they learned is to have them write a book report.. So we're learning that next year as well.  

I can easily say right now we can't do everything as Dr. Robinson created his curriculum (no TV, no sugar, school 6 days a week)...  BUT I can say we'll do most of it.  Winter might be different...but we'll see... Next year will be sort of our transition year...  Getting the older kids especially used to doing everything on their own.  I grade papers for grammar, spelling and grade math.   They learn grammar and spelling through reading because they will be reading the classics, which have correct grammar and spelling.  RC does have spelling list and vocab words-I'm still learning... 

Well... That's everything for now.. 

~Tabitha

Summer Project Number 2

 I have a few summer projects on the list for this summer, I just have to wait for summer.

Number 1 is the garden.  Well out of the 20 something  tomatoes we planted-9 have survived so far...  We'll see if they make it another month.

Number 2 is the girl's room.  

This is the biggest project I think-even with the mess in the backyard.

When Dinah was born last year, we knew we would have some major rearranging done within the next 12 or so months.  

Honestly the first project is getting the toys out of the room.  Hubby is working on that-cleaning out an unused office room.  

I'm working on organizing the girl's room.  We've gone through toys a few times.  Now it's time for clothes... I've been reading blogs, watching vlogs, working my way through Pinterest.  Trying to get ideas. I finally decided to buy cube shelves-4 for each girl-that would hold everything but their dresses. I bought some for the boys and they are working great.

Well.

Plans are great-those plans did not work out. 

I should have bought the shelves before the lockdowns.  Because apparently being stuck in your house makes you organize... The price has not only shot up, but they are actually hard to find.

So now we have moved to plan number two...  I bought two wire utility shelves.  They are coming.  So here's my plan.  I'm going to make cardboard cube boxes from our excess boxes and make them pretty with excess fabric.  They will all be labeled and be able to be used as drawers to help keep them organized.

The shelves will be here next week, the second bunk bed will be down the road this summer.  But hubby and I sat down with a room plan to figure out where the new bunk bed will go-because I don't want to move the shelves if I don't have to. 😆

Now that I've gotten my plan laid out... that's all for now.

Have a great Easter!

~Tabitha