classical conversations

educating classically has become more than i expected - in a good way! i had read the well-trained mind when jojo was 3 and we were just beginning to research homeschooling. classical education seemed too difficult for me. it seemed like a lot of work and as i have come through life mostly taking the easy road whenever given the option, i was not about to choose to educate using the classical model! the outcome sounded good, but really what was the point when you only have to be a little more than mediocre to be "smart". my kids could be labeled "smart" and have the pieces of paper to prove it with far less effort on my part or theirs than classical education demanded.

enter classical conversations...

this past september, we started "going to school" once a week. this had so many benefits:

• consistency!





• science experiments every week


• art projects every week - not in my home


• my kids practicing "public speaking" by giving a presentation every week to people other than their family!


• legitimizing my kids education to so many friends because now we "go to school" even if it is only one morning each week (and hopefully helping them to see that they too can educate their children at home!)





• and the list goes on

educating my kids (the academic part) has become more to me than getting them each a piece of paper. i am motivated to give myself the education i never had. sure, i was a 4.0 student, national merit finalist, got into college with the SAT score I got during my freshman year of high school and graduated college in 3 years with a double major... BUT i had only read 3 of the 60 literature books my kids will read through CC, and i am equally lacking in most other subjects!

I am so excited about the education my kids are receiving - and me too! I am up to 7 of the 60 books already - afterall, i'd like to know a little more than my 8 year old!

happy 5th birthday ky!

5 - not as hard to deal with as 8, but still, i am a little shocked.

how did 5 come so fast??? based on jojo's thoughts, is ky now a kindergartener? do we have to "start school" now? even the ladies who teach the boys at CBS said - "we get your daughter next year!" can't she stay with the other little ones in the 5-year-old class? are we so known as overachievers? :) i suppose the day she took a stack of 100 sight words on a ring to class with her didn't help! she doesn't even know them! she just likes to carry them around. (apparently, just carrying them makes one smart.:)

this past year, ky's grown so much! she wants to be like her brothers. soccer was a bit of a flop, but this year she has friends who are going to play so she wants to play with them - we'll see what really happens.

ky started working out of a little book called Little Keepers at Home - it's a scout-type set-up where you work on different "badges". She has worked on sewing - and can thread a needle. She enjoys baking and is currently working on a Bible memory portion. she asked if she can do a little each day for her "lessons" like the boys do lessons.

just this week, she is riding the little bike we have with no training wheels & no pedals. we suggested this last year, but she didn't want to do it and suddenly, she really wants to! i think it has something to do with the fact that she can't cross the street from our driveway to make a complete circle of our cul-de-sac until she has no training wheels - that's our rule.

ky still LOVES shoes! takes after her daddy! i think this might be one she doesn't grow out of. :)

in bigger news, ky has one loose tooth! and is very excited about it. she plays with it daily and asks me to pull it out, though we're not even close. still another sign that she's growing up.

happy 8th birthday jojo!

8 - that's a rough one for me. that means you have to round up to 10 and not down to 5.

we had a fun day as a family with jojo's favorite things. then the next day grandma took jojo whale watching!!! super fun! he had a blast - didn't even get sea sick on the boat! thanks grandma!

a few days later - i was introducing myself to another mom and telling her i had a 2nd grader, a first grader, etc. when jojo interrupted me to remind me that he is in 3rd grade now. i must have looked confused because he clarified that just a few days ago he moved into 3rd grade - you know - on his birthday!

apparently that's his homeschooler's view of when you change grades. :)

happy new year... late

for the holidays, we traveled to Arizona. our whirlwind tour included, the grandparents' house in phoenix, roller skating (the kids' first time), motorhoming, the grand canyon (and many sites along the way), snow play, cracker barrel, scott's birthday, a children's museum, mission san xavier, a wedding in tucson, cave explorations, hiking, waffle house, celebrating the new year, and bowling. did i miss anything? it was only an 11 day trip!



fun facts:

• we left our home at 11:30pm and dropped off gifts on our way out of town. thankfully, the grandparents had already agreed to entertain the kids while we slept once we got there


• when we got to phoenix we realized ky had brought no shoes! luckily the cousins had just visited and left some hand-me-downs (including appropriate shoes for the wedding!) - thanks kim!


• jojo whacked his head on the roller rink floor and now prefers ice skating which only bruises his buttocks and legs!


• we brought home 4 children - nobody fell into the canyon!


• 36 candles left burning too long can melt an ice-cream birthday cake!


• hanging tons of pool noodles in a 15'x15' area gives hours of entertainment


• there are missions outside of california


• dave got married!!!


• there were crazy-horrible, anti-earth-worshipping people who cut stalactites from a cave to take home as souveniers (gasp!), BUT the people who cut/covered stalagmites and laid the path for us to tour the cave on were good, hard-working people serving our nation through a wonderful government program


• we had to do new year's at 10pm instead of our usual 9pm because we were on mountain time

all i want for christmas is my 2 front teeth!

jojo gets to sing it this year. he lost the first front tooth just before thanksgiving and the second one yesterday at Bible study. (what are they doing with those kids???)

he is also missing one of his bottom almost-front teeth, so he's looking pretty fun!

the big 70!

grandpa joe celebrated his 70th birthday with a huge sombrero! we took him to the whole enchilada for birthday dinner. the food was yummy and there was ice cream to celebrate (not the dreaded flan i thought may be coming!) hooray for celebrating 70 years of my dear dad's life! happy birthday grandpa joe!

thanksgiving 2009

grandpa, cousin shawnie & auntie tiadra came over to spend some time eating with us. we (i mean they) relaxed and watched football & throwball (american football). i spent most of the time in the kitchen - but i love the traditional thanksgiving meal! although it was just the 8 of us, we had all the yummy foods we love at thanksgiving time - turkey, mashed potatoes, candied yams, green bean casserole, corn, rolls, cranberry sauce, olives and jello! shawnie brought some pilgrim & indian decorations. we talked about the first thanksgiving and what they had to be thankful for. then what we had to be thankful for. everyone was really full so we had to wait a few hours before having pumpkin & apple pie! lastly, we painted handprints on our thanksgiving tablecloth and wrote what we're thankful for to remember for years to come. it was amazing to see just how big our kids hands have grown over the past few years and it was fun to look back on what they were thankful for. sy said he was thankful for "God" both when we went around the table at our mealtime and when we painted hands later. either he's really spiritual or... he's got the sunday school answer down already - and he's never been to sunday school! only time will tell. :)