This past week has been super chill for us. We are elbows-deep into school, Lily celebrated her 11th birthday, we are re-vamping the chicken coop, Eric has been building in his shop, the weather has been GORGEOUS, the boys have had several visits to the orthodontist, we are doing some serious garden planning for winter and next spring, we are also doing major weeding and potted plant clean-up and we are living and loving life!
School - I love all of the emails, texts and calls we have been getting with questions about school, curriculum and schedule. I certainly am no expert and am literally going day-by-day. I also am no expert on curriculum. I am shooting from the hip there, too. But, we are loving the Good and The Beautiful so far. I am going to list out here what we have decided to do because I think my last post was a little confusing and a lot of info at once...
-Language Arts, Grammar, Reading, Writing, Art Appreciation, Literature, Phonics, Spelling, Vocabulary, Geography (and all things that go with those things) - The Good and The Beautiful.
-Math -- Math Lessons for a Living Education.
-History -- 1776 Curriculum from Hillsdale College AND the newest release from The Good and The Beautiful -- US Constitution and Government (and we will need to add another that includes Ancient History, etc).
-Science -- The Good and The Beautiful and some home experiments.
-Life Skills and Practical Skills -- Home life. Cleaning, cooking, woodworking, crafting, farming, gardening, etc.
The Good and The Beautiful has nearly ALL of their curriculum available on their website as a free download .pdf file. Just download it and print it yourself if you have the capabilities. I wanted color copies and I like paper in my hands (sorry??) so I elected to do it that way and it was free. You can buy the items from their website and they will come in full color (if that is the format of the item) and bound. We bought supporting Space Science materials, two more full Science units and handwriting books from them and it was super affordable. Two Science units are a free download also; Space Science and Marine Biology. Both are super informative and engaging. For a limited time, the US Constitution and Government course book is a free .pdf download as well and we will purchase the supporting materials from them to go with it. It looks fun.
The 1776 Curriculum is a free download as well. Hillsdale College relies on donations. It is a little less user friendly so, luckily, Eric is super smart and can kind of make up his own schedule and lesson plan for the day and go with it.
The Good and The Beautiful literally lays it all out there each day and each lesson. It gives you the entire lesson plan and guides you very thorough directions. I needed that. Each of my kids is on a different level right now but I have a feeling that Lily will be catching up to Tristan about 1/2 way through the year. Each kid has teacher/parent guided lesson at the beginning of the day then individual lessons after. My plan is to work with each kid individually while the others start with morning work then alternate to the next kid and so on. I am also focusing heavily on reading individually with each kid this year and continuing read aloud.
 |
| Tristan's shelf that Eric built... |
 |
| Lily's shelf for supplies... |
 |
| This is Nico's shelf that Eric built... |
 |
| Science - Marine Biology Unit. |
 |
| Level 4 and all of the supporting material. |
 |
| Phonics cards. |
 |
| Level 1. All of the books will be on loose binder rings... |
 |
| Level 3 - it has ALL of the supporting material with it. |
We are getting excited for school this year now that we have a good idea of how to manage the year.
Decorating - We finally hung curtains in our bedroom and in the craft room. I think our bedroom looks so cozy now that we have the curtains up and I love it. The craft room needs one more curtain rod that I cannot locate at the moment and then it'll be done....
Critters - Callie was laying out on the front hillside a few days ago and I looked out and Miss Kitty was out there rubbing all over her! I could not believe Callie allowed it to happen. I had to video and photograph it (as best as I could in the moment)...
Little Black Hen hatched 10 out of her 15 eggs. They are thriving and she is as protective as can be. They are all eggs from her so they are all Australorp mixes...
Kids - Harlan fell asleep in Eric's shop after swimming yesterday. He was worn out and couldn't even finish his sandwich...
Random - Another thing I "stole" from my sister while I was in CA was her adorable countertop compost bin. She had a similar one and I loved it. We were using a bucket that was open on top and it was far too stinky and collected flies and gnats. So, I ordered a new one and had it waiting for when we got home. I also ordered these compostable bags that are made of corn fiber.
While I was in the craft room/office printing all of the new school material, I allowed the twins to watch a show in my bed. A little while later, this is what I looked out to see...
Nico had to get a spacer in his mouth and the thing is quite the contraption. Eric has to turn it one turn each night to spread his pallet apart to allow room in his mouth. He is starting to get a gap in his front teeth and is so proud of it. Lol. We have to make a gap big enough to fit a tooth then he will need braces. Lily will likely need the same thing.
Garden - Tristan went out and picked a bunch of peppers from our garden and Eric wants to make a batch or two of hot sauce. Speaking of the garden, I am less than thrilled with our layout and set up. The garden basically produced okay (not stellar like we're used to) so we are back to the drawing board. I don't like the grassy paths (and therefore grassy beds) and the low level of the beds. I think we may drag the land where the garden is to help with weed control and lay plastic down throughout all of the walkways then cover it with arena sand or rocks. OR, we will clean it up and plant bulbs in all of those beds and start from scratch on another part of the property (closer to the house) and do raised beds that are like 2.5 feet high and 18 inches deep (or something like that)...
Our patio citrus trees are doing amazingly well. I am nervous for the winter and we need to fashion something to drape over them to keep them warm so they don't freeze.
Weekly dinner menu...
 |
It's pretty obvious that we don't get out much; my kids always pick Chili's for their birthday dinner restaurant. Right now, we don't discourage it because it's predictable, family friendly, inexpensive and close to home. Plus, the twins are at that special age where volume is difficult to control. Lily also changed her mind on Manicotti for her home birthday dinner so we moved some things around on last weeks menu.
|
Sunday was Lily's 11th Birthday! We had a great day of swimming (maybe my last time of the year), gifts, calls, texts, messages, piñata, a nacho bar and cake! Our friends, Ivann and Andrea came over and we had the best time with them as usual. Thank you so much to everyone who called, texted, emailed, sent gifts, cards and for all of the loves! She feels very special and said thank you so much to everyone for thinking of her. She is maturing quite a bit and showing a little more responsibility and respect. It is really nice to see the changes in her. I am becoming more and more proud of the young lady she is becoming and although her changes are a little slow, they are definitely positive changes and we are excited and proud. Both Eric and I cannot believe she is already 11 years old. We have a little pre-teen. The years sure do fly by. I would be remiss if I didn't mention how well she is also doing in school. She is nearly always the first to complete an assignment and usually has it done correctly and she rarely has to get talked to for being off task or disruptive. It is very refreshing and a nice change that I am enjoying with her. We love our girl and are so happy that we get to raise one girl out of five! We are thankful she is the one that was picked (by God, nature, the universe, whomever) for our family. We are blessed beyond measure.
 |
| Aunt Nancy, Uncle Ben, Kaden and McKenna sent the most adorable things from Claire's. |
 |
| Lily ended up breaking her piñata at the top by the string so both Nico and Tristan didn't get to try to break it but they all enjoyed gathering up the goodies. |
 |
| Harlan was super into breaking the piñata this year! |
 |
| Nolan is always all business where it comes to destruction. Lol. |
 |
| Gramps wanted a photo op with his party hat on... |
 |
| Junie B. Jones audio books. |
 |
| Painting supplies. |
 |
| Barbie barn/farm from Auntie Kelsey and Uncle Martin. |
 |
| Money. |
 |
| Necklace from the Williamson Family. |
 |
| Lily requested a mermaid cake with these decorations we had saved from a previous cake. So, I thought "super easy!" Eric bought a Sam's Club cake and I pulled off the flowers, mixed them up and put the frosting back on the cake. Then I decorated it how she had requested. |
 |
| I let her pick out her piñata this year and ordered it in plenty of time. It came several days before her party and I had time to fill it full of little toys and very little candy (tic tacs only). |
Sunday was also Grandparents day. I am encouraging my kids (now that they are old enough) to celebrate their grandparents. I always did a little something for my grandparents on this "holiday" and I want the kids to at least acknowledge the day with their grandparents as well. They filled out the grandparent questionnaires and mailed them to each of them. For some reason, I don't have a picture of Tristan with the one for my Dad, his Grandpa but it was actually funny. On the part where it says "my grandpa always says"... He wrote "that I have a tapeworm". Lol.
In the piñata was a bunch of Paw Patrol tattoos. Both Harlan and Nolan thought they needed them all over their bodies and we allowed them to cover themselves. Luckily, they are all washed off now...
Lily is super into big cats right now. She wants to start collecting little figurines of them. She also painted a tiger a few days ago...
That is it for us for now...
-We want to wish my sister and the kids' Auntie Kelsey a very happy birthday on Friday! We love you so much and hope you have the best day! We all can't wait to see you again; hopefully soon!!!
-Happy birthday to Eric's brother and the kids' Uncle Jason as well! We hope your day is awesome. We hope your girls took great care of you on your big day!
-Happy birthday to our nephew, and the kids' cousin, David! He celebrates at the end of the month. We sure do miss you and hope you have the best day! We love you.
-Happy birthday to our good buddy, Jake! He shares his birthday with Lily but is a bit older. We cannot believe you are already 16!! Holy smokes! All of our love to you big guy!
-Happy birthday to Coach Vicki! She also shares her day with Lily and is always so good at remembering. Have the best day! Lily misses you.
We hope you all are doing fantastic. We miss you all. We are sending all of our love to our friends and family who are facing surgeries, are sick, recovering and facing big life changes!!! You are in our thoughts and we love you all so much!
Take care!
