Trampolines, PE and Music

Over the summer I found a little trampoline at Goodwill for $5. I have been wanting one for a while to keep indoors for those long winter months of limited physical activity. In the last week or so, it's been hard to get outside and my kids discovered the trampoline. My 4 year old son likes to jump while shouting out is ABC's. The older girls shout out the Greek alphabet. They are trying to invent games that involve bouncing on the trampoline (kind of like an obstacle course in our basement).

My favorite has to be when they get on it and sing their favorite songs. Today, ds4 was singing "Big House" by Audio Adrenaline and "Yo Ho Hero" by the Newsboys. Here are a couple of pictures of ds4 with dd10 getting in on the action.

This was $5 well spent.

Dirtbikes and Habit Training

One of the things I love about my husband is that he works very hard to provide for us. He works really hard. He is a professional firefighter and works 24 hour shifts. During his shift, he may get a couple of hours of sleep and be out at all hours of the night helping people. While we are snug in our beds, he is out there taking verbal abuse from those experiencing drug overdoses, those who made a bad decision while driving or from those who have been in pain for the last 12 hours and thought that 3am is a good time to call for help.
He also sees stuff that the rest of us couldn't even imagine. I realize he censors what he tells me and that is all bad enough.
All of that said, he loves his job. He gets off at 7am and drives about 1.5 hours to get home.

I try really hard to convey to the children that daddy deserves to come home to a house that is straightened up. He works hard and the least we can do is make sure he has a clear path to the bed so he can rest when he gets here.

Somehow, last night, I missed our dirt bike that was sitting out on our sidewalk. The kids had it out yesterday and failed to put it away. They also failed to pick the helmets up out of the yard. This morning he came home and found our dirtbike out on the sidewalk. That made him really angry.

I feel that I talk until I am blue in the face and the children just don't seem to be listening. I think the problem is the lack of consequences for bad habits. So this morning, the dirt bike was the straw that broke the camel's back.

When I first thought of grounding them, I thought that would be the best thing to do. Then I remembered all the stuff on our calendar for the next two days and started to reconsider. Here is another great thing about my husband, he helped me to see that they may just have to miss these things this time.

Although I am following through with this grounding for two days, my heart is breaking because of what they will miss. At the same time, I'm thinking, "Woohoo! I don't have to drive anywhere today!"
Is that wrong?

My Camera

A little mommy aggravation here.

Yes, I'm going to vent.

My camera had been missing for days. I looked high and low for it and even asked the kids if they had used it for anything. Of course the little angels knew nothing of the whereabouts of my camera. My 2nd daughter's birthday was Tuesday and that morning, I was looking feverishly for it all up until the moment we walked out the door for her party.

That evening, I started looking for it again. Dh got irritated that I couldn't find it ( I guess I complained a little about the camera being gone.)
Well, he found it. Guess where.

It was in the chicken coupe out back buried in straw.

Here are the last pictures taken on it.

When I was looking for the camera, I specifically asked the children if they took pictures of the chickens and they insisted that they hadn't. Hmmmmmm.
So my conclusion is that while we were gone, those chicken broke into the house, took the camera and just had the time of their lives taking pictures of each other out there. When they heard us come home, they quickly buried the camera in the straw and said they'd blame the kids. Pretty amazing considering they don't have opposable thumbs.

Grrrrrrr. Crazy chickens.

Mount St. Mary's Grotto and mosaics

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been preparing for a Charlotte Mason Discussion Group that I will be hosting at my home. It's good to read back through CM books and notes I've taken previously and websites, etc. It reminds me of where I should be in educating my children. Last Friday I had the thought that we needed to take a field trip. We are studying Ancient Rome and I kept trying to think of a way to get mosaics in. I have a hard time with the construction paper cut in squares glued onto other construction paper. I guess it gets the idea across of making a picture with little squares.

In the back of my mind, I remembered that Mount St. Mary's University in Emmittsburg, Maryland has mosaics in their Grotto of Lourdes. So last Friday, I checked the weather for Monday - Perfect! - and we were off on Monday morning. It's only about a 30 minute drive from my house, but well worth it with no admission fees for the grotto.

We took our lunches and picniced at the Grotto. That part was so nice that, after an hour, we were still sitting there eating and chatting. I had to force the children and myself to get up so we could go see the rest of the Grotto.

It was so beautiful. We were able to stop at the different mosaics and the children narrated the bible story that was depicted.

Here are some pictures from our day.

This is DS4, exploring a seed pod that had fallen from a tree. This is nature study at it's finest.



The mosaics:

It was tricky to get photos of the mosaics because there was plexiglass over all of them. I was surprised at how interested the kids were in them. They got up close and studied the individual tiles. Also, these pictures don't do the mosaics justice.


This mosaic stands about 10 feet tall.

Risen Jesus

Dd9 next to the Baptism of Jesus


Gabriel visiting Mary


Ds4 looking at the Nativity


This is a spring in the Grotto. The verse on the stone says:

"Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink......rivers of living water will flow from within him." John 7:37-38




This is a beautiful field trip and I would recommend it to anyone. We were able to cover art, nature study (science) and narration (languagle arts- oral language).

Niagara Falls

Isn't it amazing how when you return from a vacation, even if the vacation was only a couple of days, that it takes time to "recover" from it? We went to Niagara Falls, Canada two weeks ago for four days and I feel like our household is just now getting back to "normal". Weird.

Our vacation was great. It was sunny and 70 degrees the entire time. We stayed at Embassy Suites that overlooks the falls. The price of the hotel was a little more that what we might normally pay, but we got so much. We stayed in a suite that had a living room area, a small area with a microwave and refrigerator and a bedroom. With 3 children, that was nice because the oldest slept on the pull out sofa in the living room. Plenty of room for everyone.

The hotel included a breakfast buffet that was out of this world. There were omelet chefs and you could get eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, fresh fruit, yogurt, etc, etc. We took the kids to eat breakfast around 10 or 10:30 and that lasted through lunch. For dinner we went to a local grocery store and got frozen dinners and stuff for salads and sandwiches and sat in our room looking at the falls while we ate. Since we did that, we didn't feel the need to go up in the Skylon Tower and have dinner. That was $35 a person!

Yes, we did go on the Maid of the Mist. "Maid of the Mist" sounds so delicate, but it was quite the adventure. Despite the perfect weather, when we got to the base of the falls, the boat rocked and we were pelted with rain. My 4 year old son will tell you right out that he hated that ride. The rest of us loved it. My daughters brought home their blue ponchos for souvenirs.

We also got to see a rainbow on the falls every day.

We had plenty of opportunity to stand and look at the falls and just marvel at the enormity of it all. We were reminded of God's power every time we stood there and heard the thundering of the water pouring over the edge to the depths below. In his own words, my 4 year old son explained to the rest of us that God spoke the falls into being because that's all God has to do if He wants to make something.

I could go on rambling about this trip. It was one of the best vacations of my life and it was one of those where I didn't want to leave. So I'll just add a few more pictures here and stop typing.

Hubby got a picture of me doing what I always do - taking pictures.

Wordless Wednesday

Children's Literature

One of my favorite classes in college was Children's Literature. The professor would actually read excerpts of good children's literature to us. I was always transformed back to being a little girl while I was listening to her read. It's a shame, but for the life of me I can't remember the professor's name although she was my favorite teacher in college. She exposed me to many children's books that I had not previously ever heard of and she taught me about what reading should be for elementary aged children - that it should be an enjoyable experience and not one of drudgery. She told us of a time when she taught in public schools and the school system she worked for bought new basal readers. She totally disagreed with the use of basal readers and didn't want to use them. The administration in her school told her that they spent a lot of money on these books and she must use them. Her solution was beautiful. She told the kids to take the basal readers out of their desks. Then she told them to stand up, place the books on their seats and sit down. She looked at her administrator and said, "There, now we are using the books."




Charlotte Mason advocates using whole, living books. Basal readers take one tiny excerpt from a book and ask a ton of questions at the end of the reading to "check for comprehension". This robs the child of the opportunity to have a relationship with the characters or to ruminate on what was read. Instead of asking a lot of quiz-like questions, CM suggests to have the child narrate to check for comprehension. When you ask questions, you are checking to see if the child caught what the teacher wants the child to get. Through narration, you find out so much more about what the child "comprehended" from the reading. Narration also opens the doors for further discussion. Can you see how this helps the literature to stick with the child so much longer? If you ask a bunch of specific questions, the child thinks, "Oh thank goodness that's over with. Now I can get on with my life." There is a risk that the child won't retain what was read.

To start narration, read a paragraph (or a chapter) and ask the child to tell the story back to you in his own words. Sometimes, I will take a history reading and ask my 11 year old to tell the story to her 4 year old brother. That works beautifully. It may be difficult at first, but after your kids get the hang of it, it can be a lot of fun.