Delight

I just spent a delightful winter evening with my three older children.

Daddy is at the library hard at work.

The Baby is in bed.

We made English muffin pizzas.


And then they pleaded (and pleaded and pleaded)
to read another chapter of Little Town on the Prairie.
(We already read one during school time today.)

And then another.


We were snuggled up on the couch for over an hour,
the kids crowding in to get a view of the pictures.

I love my life.

I love homeschooling.

Hasty Pudding

But for supper Grandma made hasty pudding.
She stood by the stove, sifting the yellow corn meal from her fingers into a kettle of boiling, salted water. She stirred the water all the time with a big wooden spoon, and sifted in the meal until the kettle was full of a thick, yellow, bubbling mass. Then she set it on the back of the stove where it would cook slowly....
Then Uncle George came with a smaller bucket of syrup, and everybody ate the hot hasty pudding with maple syrup for supper.
(from Little House in the Big Woods)

We had it after supper.

Fath'r and I went down to camp
Along with Captain Goodin',
And there we saw the men and boys
As thick as hasty puddin'.

Can you tell who liked it?

And who didn't?

Even with loads of maple syrup.

Must be a texture thing.

Three Things

First, for those of you who have been eagerly awaiting the answers to the questions in last Wednesday's post, I apologize. Deciding at the last minute to go camping kinda threw my schedule off. As a keen observer noticed, the pictures were taken in one "heck of a garage," owned by "a great hunter" and, truly, "a great man." In fact, this garage is the meeting place for the Young Adults of Bismarck. We were listening to a great talk by a great priest and having some great fellowship time. in a garage. surrounded by deer antlers. How great is that? (Incidentally, the owner of this garage also provided the venison for our supper last night -- we were inaugurating the school year with a pioneer meal, since our curriculum this year is based on the Little House series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Thanks much, J! It was delicious!)

Second, we started our school year yesterday -- yes, Labor Day. I know it's a national holiday and all, but, really, it couldn't have been better. Daddy joined us for Mass and brunch, which was wonderful in itself, but the readings also struck me as very appropriate for a beginning-of-the-school-year Mass -- the Psalm response, especially, echoed in my ears all day and became my prayer for our year -- "Give success to the work of our hands, Lord."

Finally, today was our first full day of school. Among other things we studied density and made butter, which we ate on homemade bread with our soup this evening. I had to share pictures of all the shaking and smacking going on!

All that work for the little butter we ended up with ...
the kids decided they'd rather go to Sam's Club.

Even The Baby helped!

the finished products

Delicious!
("Better than the stuff from the store, Mom!")

But they'd still rather buy it than spend a whole afternoon shaking jars!

New School Year -- Decisions Made

“The attainment of heaven with the greatest possible sanctity is our ultimate goal for each of our children. That has been the fundamental, guiding principle in the education of our children. We measure and choose everything -- every book, every activity, every opportunity -- with that end in mind. After that, we’d like to see our children lead happy, productive adult lives, lives that in some way contribute to the building of a Christian culture. Confident that God has a plan beyond comparison for each of our children, we make every possible effort, fueled with much prayer, to provide enriching opportunities for forming gentle, humble hearts; disciplined wills; selfless, trusting attitudes; and enlightened minds. Whatever their chosen vocation might be, we hope that when they’re called, their hearts will be ready.”

Cynthia Blum "Character-Building and Academic Readiness: The Early Years"

I just finished putting together my plan for our new school year and ordering what I had left to order in the way of books and resources. (Yeah!)

The Girls are very. excited. to start this year. We are using this:

We really enjoyed doing another literature-based program for all of our language arts subjects last year, but The Prairie Primer will include not only our reading, comprehension, spelling, vocabulary, handwriting, and creative writing, but also our science, history, geography, art, music, and some religion and virtue study. What better way to start our new life on the prairie! And who doesn't love the "Little House" books?

The Prairie Primer does not include a formal grammar study, and learning and using proper grammar is important to me and to my husband in the education of our children. It is difficult (for me, too!) to speak correctly when few others seem concerned at the butchering of the English language. I am often appalled at the mistakes I notice in professional writing and correspondence and every day speech. And my husband often laments the poor writing quality of his college students. In order to reinforce good grammar skills, The Girls are going to spend a few minutes each day doing a Daily Language Review and some Daily Paragraph Editing.

We will also continue to use ShillerMath as we have the past two years. (I love this program because it's Montessori-based with lots of manipulatives, and it's also scripted!)

We'll supplement the Bible and virtue study in The Prairie Primer with some Catholic lapbooks and our normal liturgical year celebrations. We're also going to take a break from the Faith and Life series and focus on the saints this year. I've purchased a study guide from Race for Heaven for Mary Fabyan Windeatt's saint biographies and also the Once Upon a Time Saints books.

Speaking of lapbooks, we've never done any before, but I think it's something my kids will really enjoy. In addition to religion, we'll also supplement our geography and history with a North Dakota lapbook and a Lewis and Clark lapbook -- getting to know our new home.

The Girls, since moving, have each decided to get an e-mail address in order to stay in touch with their friends. Both are eager to learn to type faster, and so this year we are incorporating some keyboarding practice into their daily routine. I was very excited to find some on-line keyboarding games (and I only wasted half an hour trying them all out!).

Finally, we'll continue with our Latin studies, moving on to Latina Christiana I. We'll also start more seriously studying Italian (though I'm not sure how yet), in the hopes of an extended visit to Italy some time in the next couple of years.

The Boy will join The Girls for many subjects this year, but he'll do his own math (Shiller) and his own language arts program, which we sat down and looked at together yesterday. He wanted to start right away! That's a good sign, right?

To all you homeschooling mommies out there, you are in my prayers -- may your school year begin with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, may you find peace in the many decisions made, and may love and joy abound in your homes!

Night Picnic and Language Arts Field Trip

As I mentioned in a previous post, we are using Total Language Plus for language arts this year. One of the things the integrated curriculum does is provide extra "enrichment" options to supplement the language arts lessons. These enrichment activities could be in the form of a geography or science lesson, for example, or an art project.

Last week The Girls read the first two chapters of The Courage of Sarah Noble. The book is about an eight-year-old girl who travels with her father from Massachusetts to Connecticut, where he is going to build a house for their family. Sarah volunteers to go along to cook for her father. The rest of the family remains in Massachusetts because the youngest member of the family is an infant and not strong enough to make such a long journey through the wilderness yet.

There are many times on their journey that Sarah finds herself feeling afraid, and she has often to remember her mother's words as they were departing, "Keep up your courage, Sarah Noble." In the first chapter, for example, Sarah is sleeping outside with her father and is scared by all of the unfamiliar noises.

One of the TLP-suggested enrichment activities for this chapter was to sit outside at night and listen to the sounds. So, Saturday night, after we were done with our work for the day, we drove to a State Park and had a picnic dinner while we waited for it to get dark.

We had a great evening! As soon as it started getting dark, the picnic ground cleared out -- we were the only ones there. Unlike Sarah, we had a nice campfire to enjoy while we listened to the sounds of the night.



Sarah had heard an owl, a fox, and a wolf. We heard crickets and frogs and birds (and an occasional motorcycle and some fireworks in the distance). One of The Girls was a little nervous about the darkness, and I reminded her of how dark it was for Sarah and her father -- no lights, no campfire -- it was so dark Sarah couldn't even see her father sitting next to her.

In addition to our field trip exercise, we also enjoyed ...

... glow-in-the-dark bracelets,

s'mores,

roasted marshmallows,

star-gazing, and

sparklers!

I wish this picture of The Baby's souvenirs from the evening had turned out better. We woke up Sunday morning and she had two matching mosquito bites -- one on either cheek -- and one on her nose. It was hilariously cute! (If you look closely, you might be able to see them!)

The First Week of School

We've made it through three days of school!

This is the first year I've had more than one set of lesson plans because The Girls, being so close in age, have always done everything together. But now The Boy is a kindergartner. He joins the girls for some subjects, but for others, like reading and math, he's on his own. I was a little apprehensive about fitting everything in, especially since The Boy tends to only want to do what he wants to do when he wants to do it. But so far, so good. (I'm hoping the novelty doesn't wear off.)

My children, like their mother, thrive on routine. I think everyone is happy to have one again. The kids know when they are supposed to be doing school work, and what they are supposed to be doing, thanks to our lesson plans. They know when they're supposed to be doing chores, and they know what those chores are, thanks to the posted daily schedule. And they know when they can play and when they can rest and when they can eat. They even know what they're going to be eating, thanks to a weekly menu on the refrigerator. Tranquillitas ordinis!

And, so far, it's working. It's a lot of work, and I don't know if I can keep this pace up all year, but I have looked at my beautiful children working together and sighed contentedly numerous times this week. I have observed them from a distance delve enthusiastically into a new book and I have smiled. I have watched The Boy's face light up with pride as he sounds out a word he's never read before. I have been happy to have a clean house and a hot meal ready for my husband when he returns from the University. It is a lot of work. But I love it. (Most of the time.)

Tuesday evening one of The Girls said to the neighbor, "I love school time!" (I smiled, patted myself on the back, thanked God, and gave the neighbor a thumbs-up.)

I do have a few rough spots in my curriculum and in my schedule that need smoothing out. And so I pose these questions to you other Catholic moms (or dads) out there, especially you homeschoolers:

First, what do you do for religion class? I have used the Faith and Life Series in the past. I like it, but the kids aren't nearly as excited about it as they are about their other subjects, so I'm looking for other options. I really don't want them to groan when I say it's time for religion. And I don't really know what the problem is. I don't know if it's the way I'm presenting the material or the material itself. I've tried asking them. They tell me they like it, but I'm afraid they think if they say they don't like religion class it means they don't like God. Poor kids.

Second, since I work full-time and homeschool, I have to run a very tight ship. Each day is very structured in order to get everything done. We have been attending Mass daily. Our parish is within walking distance and Mass is at 10:00 am, the perfect time for a break in our schoolwork, some exercise, and, most importantly, time with our Lord. In the past, we were gone for an hour, from the time we left the house to the time we were back in the house and ready to start again. We just got a new pastor, however, and Mass is now twice as long as it used to be, which means another half an hour out of our already full day. I love taking the kids to Mass, but I just don't know if I can make it work. Suggestions?

Finally, what's more important for mom -- an extra half hour of sleep in the morning or a half hour of exercise?

Thanks everyone for your help! I'm praying for all you homeschoolers out there! Blessings upon you, your families, and your schools!