Ten More Days of Two

    In ten days my son turns three.  I never thought I would have a son to turn three!  I had five little girls and they were everything.  I didn't want anything else.

    Then I had Darin.

    I had no idea what it was like to have a son.  I actually wondered if I would be able to love a son as much as my girls.

       He got pneumonia when he was born and had to spend ten days in the hospital.  As a result of the antibiotics he spent a huge portion of his first year fighting off one bug and then another.  We spent probably a quarter of our nights sleeping in the La-Z-Boy. 

    The nights we weren't sleeping in the chair we were waking up to nurse every two hours.  For ten and half months.  The poor guy dealt with chronic diaper rash  and was so irritated he would scratch his head bloody.  I actually sewed socks on the ends of the hands holes on his pajamas so he couldn't scratch himself in his sleep.

    Through it all, we were having the time of our lives.  The girls were in heaven, Daddy was a proud as possible, and I was, well, so in love my heart felt like it was in a permanent vise grip.

  He was a delightful baby.  He was so funny.  So sweet.  So adorable.

We truly cherished our baby.  We enjoyed our baby.  Then one day my heart stopped as it realized,

My baby wasn't a baby anymore.

Every day he seemed more and more grown up.  Daddy became his whole world.  You could see him puff up whenever he got to do the man stuff!

All of the sudden I had a little man.  100%.

And even though Daddy is his world, he likes his mommy!!!  He is still a supreme snuggler, a super slow dancer, and showers me with kisses.

        My heart can hardly bear the thought of not having a two year old Darin.  It's pretty overwhelming to be honest.  But knowing how much he has rocked one and two, I'm pretty sure three and beyond will be pretty grand too!  

      "Don't grow up too quickly my sweet boy," Mommy whispers through her tears!

Home School Year 2017-2018

   Today started our second week of school so I thought I had better get on and update otherwise I may never get to it!!!

    David and I were both home schooled so making the decision to home school our children came pretty easily.  I could give you a very long list of the reasons this is the best choice for our family but I'll spare you today!.  Every year when the school bus starts driving by again my heart overflows with thankfulness that we have the freedom to keep our children home with us.  The thought of being away from them every day literally makes me hurt.

     Here are our little scholars this year!

      Darin is almost three so he's in that magic pre-Pre-School year, meaning that school only happens if its fun and wanted.  I've learned the hard way that pushing school on a little one doesn't ever pay off.  Learning is a gift and one of life's most exciting adventures.  At ages two, three and four they learn to either enjoy and anticipate learning or dread and despise it.  Darin has been DYING to do school so this fall his school consists primarily of several Usborne books that are fun, beautiful and great learning tools.  Here are some of his favorites!

 

Esther- First Grade

Ella- Second Grade

       While Ella and Esther have their own Math, Handwriting, and Reading, the bulk of their school they do together following Ambleside Online's curriculum plan.  I discovered Ambleside Online two years ago and have found it to be an excellent fit for our family.  It is a Charlotte Mason style curriculum and there is actually nothing you buy from the site.  It's merely a booklist with a detailed schedule of what should be read when.  Most of the books are older books that can be found for free for the Kindle.  I'm not a huge Kindle fan so I've had good luck finding them on Thriftbooks and Amazon.  

       With six children doing school at the same time it works beautifully to put multiple girls doing the same level in this program.  They progress at their own pace in Math, Writing and Reading and then together they read beautiful books each year.  Our favorite book this term is by far Pilgrim's Progress.  Even these young girls are LOVING the story and I am just relishing this time reading aloud such a tremendous story with such great discussions added to it. I'm amazed at what they are able to pull out even with the difficult language.

Havilah- Fourth Grade

Bethany- Sixth Grade

       Bethany and Havilah are also doing their own math, writing, and reading and doing an Ambleside year together.  This term they are reading about Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, 20th century world history, wonders of the world, creation science and more!  

Lydia- Seventh Grade

      Lydia's school year is a little different this year.  High school is just around the corner so we figured it was a good year to dig a little deeper into her specific interests so we can have a little better vision into what her high school years should look like.  She is doing about 50% of what Bethany and Havilah are studying.  In addition she is studying Anatomy and Physiology, European geography and history, typing, Spanish, and creative writing.

We're only on week two, but so far the year seems to be going wonderfully.  This is my absolute favorite time of the year (except maybe Christmas...) and a huge portion of that is starting school and regaining some schedule with my kids.  There are hard days, (in fact I have someone crying about math right now), but I love that overall, from pre-pre-school to seventh grade, they all have a zest and excitement for learning!!!