Did you know that if you soak an egg in vinegar for 24 hours it will dissolve the calcium in the shell therefore making it feel just like a reptile egg?
Neither did I.
I suspect that most moms out there share my love-hate relationship with Perler beads. It's a Fun New Thing to pull out every once in awhile to keep the kids occupied. I love the creativity and the peace and quiet it buys me. I don't like how, no matter what we do, the tiny beads inevitably end up all over the place. More than that, I hate how the creations sit around waiting to be ironed while children relentlessly nag kindly remind me to iron them.
Despite my misgivings, I decided it would be fun to break out the beads while we finished learning about Saint Kateri Tekakwitha this week. I bought this book as a birthday present to myself right before the Pandemic Quarantine and have enjoyed using it to stitch saints. She also sells her patterns on Etsy, if you're interested but don't want to buy the whole book. I took her recommendation to use the book with Perler Beads and the boys really enjoyed it.
Last week's outing was more Play Date than Field Trip. Youngest Boy was SO excited to see his BFF and I was equally excited to spend time with one of my favorite mom friends.
Lest you think I'm some kind of Supermom with a clean, organized home, clean, organized children and a "perfect" home school life - you should know that to buy the peace and quiet necessary to even write this blog post I'm letting the younger boys binge watch Phineas and Ferb. Sometimes I make them watch something a little more - educational. Wild Kratts being the favorite, or more recently Mythbusters Junior (science!). My older boys were Mythbusters fans - it definitely appeals to every boy's desire to blow things up.
Basically I had to bribe the six year-old with morning television viewing in order to break his habit of getting in bed with me every morning. Early in the morning. Some could argue the middle of the night. Let's just say that being woken up each night, sometimes multiple times, to the sound of my bedroom door slamming open, followed by a not-so-small child climbing into bed with me and pulling on my hair was making me rather grumpy in the mornings. He's always had this weird playing-with-mommy's hair obsession - sometimes it's adorable, most of the time it's just painful since no matter how many times I try to explain it, he just does not seem to get that my hair is attached to my head. Also it's impossible to sleep while someone is pulling on your hair.
The television habit has continued, but I did make a Video Games Only on the Weekends Rule.
It's all about balance.
I mentioned in my previous post that I hope to get the family out and about to someplace fun and interesting as part of our home schooling each week. My current criteria for such outings is: within driving distance, free/economical, educational and mostly outdoors. My goals for the outings are: driving practice for teens, airing out the children and complementing subjects in our home school studies. We had beautiful weather which was timed perfectly with our field trip plans at the end of week.
We have recently been studying Native Americans and also wanted to do our suggested Observation Walk for science. So we headed to nearby Koteewi Park. This sprawling park is about a 20 minute drive from our house, so we packed a picnic and set off in the late, late morning - thus giving time for one of the teens to join us. The park has several, seasonal activities - archery, horseback riding, zip lining, snow tubing and walking trails. We've been to the archery center several times over the last few years and may be going back next month for a certain boy's birthday. But this time we focused our visit on the small Nature Center and replica Native American Village.
I like to officially start our new school year the first week of September, preferably after a week of vacation. This year, however, we made the disappointing decision to forego our annual trip to the lake. Between financial concerns and logistical concerns (is it really vacation if you have to bring your own dishes and towels?), not to mention the whole pandemic situation, we thought it best to put those plans on hold. I say "put those plans on hold" when what I really mean is cancel. In all honesty, those plans are on hold until we try again next year. But that seems to be the theme of 2020, doesn't it - cancelled plans and disappointment.
Yikes. That was depressing.
Really, my point is that life moves on and I am excited to start our new school year and forge ahead - despite whatever plans Coronavirus has. As I've mentioned before, this is my 13th year homeschooling. It still sounds crazy to say that out loud. I will say that our homeschooling has rarely looked the same from year to year. Sure, there are some constants; some tried and true components that make up our overall learning plans each year. One such constant has been involvement in a co-op. Since our move back to Indiana a little over six years ago, we discovered and joined our local chapter of Catholic Schoolhouse.
If you've known me for a long time, then you may remember that I used to write regular blog posts. This was something I was able to do with greater consistency when the boys were much younger and there were fewer of them. When I look back on those earlier and often harried days of mothering and homeschooling, I'm glad I took the time to blog about our adventures. It is true what "they" say - the days are long, but the years are short. Fast-forward through the addition of more boys, more moving and more busyness, to today.
