A Day In the Life: School in Spring

For Valentine's Day, we did
some candy heart chemistry
experiments!

The sun is shining. The temperatures are breezy. The leaves are budding and the air smells just delicious. 

But none of that matters, because we're doing school!

Actually, we don't have to--but we do need to reach 186 days of instruction according to state law. Plus we need to check all the boxes that count, because the kids have that kind of a mom-teacher. 

Besides, my kids insist on a real summer vacation, and so do I. 

So here's what it's like to school in the spring:

Lately, the kids have been hopping out of bed relatively well most days. In the winter, they would easily lie around for 45 minutes or an hour if we let them. Kalina still tries to sneak in extra reading time (not exactly a crime), but they know they have animals depending on them and it's sunny, so they get up.

A very common scene lately as
Elise says hello to her tiny
critters. In the background,
Naomi has arranged fake
flowers for us. She's always
loved vases of flowers.

Elise has further motivation, which kind of energizes the whole room. She's intensely into freshwater plankton right now, and has set up a portion of kitchen counter as her lab (plus the entire stream). The other girls, fortunately, have not asked where their portions of kitchen counter are and they, being used to Elise, roll with it when she talks of nothing but hydras for basically the entire day. It's been hydras, copepods, daphnia, and not much else for a good week. The microscope gets used hourly, as do the pocket microscopes the girls received for Christmas. This will be a common theme throughout our day, so I'll stop for now.

Everyone completes their chores quickly today. Naomi has her bunny jobs done before I'm even downstairs, and she informs me that Daddy changes the water nowadays since there are usually escaped fruit flies in it, plus hay and fur that shouldn't go down the drain. I'm beyond grateful for this solution, because it's been a problem as Naomi is terrified of all bugs except, amazingly, bees and wasps. The wasps because we've had so many in the house that she's just kind of grown up with them, like siblings. Except you don't usually go after your siblings with a fly swatter or Daddy's special salt gun (even if you really, really want to at times). Once a pest control guy came to our door and was freaked out by all our wasps, dodging and ducking them, while Naomi placidly let them dart around her head, not blinking an eye. So proud! And the bees because they're her favorites. But harmless ants and fruit flies? She's still not using the bathtub in the kids' bathroom because for about a week when the weather warmed up there were ants around it. Just terrified. [Just FYI, the wasp problem was finally taken care of last spring when Matt started working from home...yay!]

Everything is better
with a cat! This
particular one was
caught pin-pawed,
having slept on
Kalina's chalk
drawing the night
before. This was
not her first
offense, either.

Kalina scoops the cat litter (but doesn't refill it, which it totally needs) and Elise empties the dishwasher. Usually it takes her about 20 minutes because she darts back and forth to tadpoles, micro-critters, cats, tadpoles, and any other distraction she can possibly find, but today it's pretty much finished by the time I'm downstairs. So nice not to have to nag on that one today.

 Sooner than usual, we're ready for breakfast, over which we begin a little Bible schoolwork to start our day. I relay the news--the wood ducks who'd been nesting at Grandpa's have flown away and the mask mandate in our county has been lifted--plus I list the girls who will be able to attend Nature Club later (not many this time, but at least one friend for everyone). They're super excited about Nature Club, and so a little more motivated than usual. They choose outfits accordingly, with Kalina in her hiking pants and new peach activewear shirt, Elise in some new shorts and a nature T-shirt, and Naomi in her dark-blue dress that she wears whenever she knows she might get wet or dirty. It's her version of old shorts and a T-shirt, but she always looks totally put-together in it. Sometimes she reminds me of the women who wore full "bathing costumes" for a dip in a lake.

I tell Elise that she has a good 45 minutes if she wants to dress quickly, brush her teeth and run outside to look for hydra (she's obsessed with the idea of keeping them as pets). She insists that there aren't any in our stream. 

"Really, the entire stream?" I challenge.

"Mommy, I just feel like I would have seen them. I look really closely."

"But how long have you been looking for hydra?"

"Just yesterday, but I see everything, I would have found them by now."

"But they're tiny/how can you possibly search the whole stream/I'm not taking you to the pet store to look for them until you have spent a lot longer looking for them here, etc." (She knows they're invasive species and has heard you can find them living on snails and plants at pet stores.)

I ask her if her watch works since she hasn't been wearing it lately and she has to be inside at 9:00. She says the time is off but it's still ticking. When she brings it to me, I reset it from DST and we're good to go.

Later, she concedes that maybe there are a few places she hasn't looked, and I concede that she really might be right, but I want her to give it a really good try, and I'll even go looking with her. She's satisfied for now, but then wonders how she'll feed them because they eat live food. 

In the end, Elise ends up simply staring into space a while and then reading either a Gordon Korman book from the library (thanks, Uncle Tom) or a Diary of a Wimpy Kid which is basically trash, but they have to learn pop culture somehow. She acts surprised when I call her to start school, but I know it's just an act.

Kalina seems ready to start early, and indeed agrees to a head-start on math. Her most recent assignment had some sloppy mistakes, and a few that aren't-so-sloppy, so I bring them to her attention. Fortunately she handles it all quite gracefully for a pre-teen, and quickly figures out the right answers. She's very analytical and doesn't mind math, but by the last two problems I had planned to go through with her, she's tuned me out and instead become fixated on some little thingy she had in her hands. We're in a good spot, so I give up and leave her with her day's assignment. She's been more motivated in math lately because every Monday morning she Zooms with a friend to complete part of an assignment together. Amazingly, they're at about the same level, and we're coincidentally doing the same curriculum, so it's been a great arrangement for both of them. Next year, they'll both start Algebra 1, and we've agreed on to use the high-school curriculum so we can keep it up. 

Kalina's comments from a month or two ago about how effective my help is:

Kalina: "Every time you help it's like that show where you go through an obstacle course and they dump slime on you and squirt you with giant tubes of ketchup and mustard and stuff."

Me, caught completely off-guard: "You mean Double Dare? Huh. Is there a way I could help more helpfully?"

Kalina: "No, it's pretty helpful."

We both cracked up.

By the time I finish getting Kalina started, it was 9:00 and time for Elise and Naomi to begin. I'd been hoping to put through an Old Navy order for a few summer clothes this morning, but it got put on hold in favor of doing math with the youngers.

Naomi has been sailing through her book and working almost completely independently lately, although for the first 3/4 of the year she insisted on my joining her (which was fine!). But the girls' math curriculum is written so well that as long as a child is somewhat motivated, they can pretty much learn it themselves step by step, and now Naomi doesn't always like to wait on me. It's also called Math Mammoth, which is another reason we like it, because we were able to acquire a stuffed mammoth "support animal" to accompany it. Naomi used to take possession of Barney, who would "check her work" amid joyful giggles at the end of each assignment (because Barney is a very majestic, very funny mammoth), but now Elise is more likely to be holding on to him.

Elise is enjoying
candy heart math
around Valentine's
Day! 

Because Elise is just a mess when it comes to math. Not in the sense that she gets the problems wrong, because she generally doesn't, but because she is terrified of doing so. She also doesn't like that each problem only has one right answer, and that it's really dry, and that there are a million other things she'd rather be doing. She hates it almost as much as dentistry. Lately, the thing that works best is for me to crochet while she snuggles up to me on the couch, and I nag her through the assignment between conversations about miniature pond life. It's very relational and sweet, if you can get over the extreme grumpiness, whininess, and self-pity. Tell it to the mammoth, Child. She's currently getting introduced to decimals and frequently shows a solid understanding even while freaking out about them. She hasn't always been this way and I know I need to nudge her out on her own again, but this is working for now, and summer is so, so close. It's like letting a 12-month-old nap in the swing for the nap they'll be giving up really soon.

And yes, I constantly remind her that scientists need to be good at math. Now that she's decided she wants to be a plankton biologist when she grows up, it's almost working. "Finish these 5 problems and then we can look at another page of your microorganisms book."

Today, she actually begins her math outside for the first time in a while, which I let her do but remind her to come in and get help right away if she needs it, and that she can only work outside if she actually works outside. Naomi wants to work in her room, probably because there's a cat on her bed.

For about 5 minutes I'm living the homeschool mom's dream: each child is actually working on math independently and no one needs help. I finish the breakfast dishes--before lunch! And I reflect that that's one thing I love about school in the spring--the kids have finally learned the routine given up all resistance and have finished a subject or two entirely and really figured out others. It's so much smoother than, say, October, when things are just starting to get hard and they all still remember summer vacation. 

Then Elise charges back inside--which I'm grateful for because it means she's not daydreaming her math time away in the crabapple tree--and demands help. We initiate the couch routine.

Naomi is learning
about perimeter
and area with her
hearts. (Kalina
refused a photo.)

Naomi, who loves nothing more than a checklist she can mark off, unless it's a fully marked-off checklist, zooms through most of her usual 2 pages before approaching me near tears for help with the final problem. At which point I discover two more tiny mistakes that I know she can fix. She tries again, and comes back actually crying because she's not sure exactly how to do it. It's one of those things I know she thoroughly understands, but it just tripped her up today, so I do my best to reassure her and help liberally so as not to shatter her confidence. Elise also helps cheer her up. Crisis managed.

I'm trying to peel Elise off of me now that I know she understands the new concept (something she usually denies, and then proceeds to get all of the problems right while simultaneously trying to hide from them under couch pillows) so I can help Naomi with her language arts when Kalina enters the room, flops down on the schoolroom floor, and announces that if she does any more math her head will explode. I totally understand, so I offer for her to work on something else for a while. In fact, I'm kind of delighted that she has acknowledged this--as I noticed a couple months ago that Kalina and Elise had both developed the (normal, developmentally appropriate) tweenage skill for making a simple math assignment drag on for 1 1/2 or 2 hours, I've been encouraging them to switch gears if they're stuck and return to it later. I feel like focus has been better all around lately, which means a lot less time spent on school and more time for microbiology and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

I get Kalina started on Duolingo Russian, which we just started recently. Matt has been diligently working with the kids on Spanish, and while I hate to slightly compromise his efforts, the kids are all actually excited about the "renegade" language of Russian. I mean, just look at the alphabet! So as long as they're motivated.... Plus Kalina just seems to like languages, and I think secretly doesn't mind learning Spanish, too, but can't let her little sisters know that because they're pretty vocal about their negative feelings. Although I think secretly Naomi might also like it. But Elise is loud, so.... Kalina works for a long time on Russian, even getting the tricky verbal portions right, which I'm glad Elise didn't hear, because she struggles with them. In fact, I even stop her so that she has time for her other subjects. 

We quickly do spelling with none of the usual pushback, and then I send her upstairs for writing. She'd begun a poetry analysis assignment yesterday and finished it today, again without the usual "Why are you forcing me to do this?" or "Can't I just read?" or the sarcastic "Yes, your majesty" that I would enjoy except that I can just hear the eye roll in it. In fact, afterword Kalina even sweetly admitted that she doesn't dislike all poetry (which she'd been leading us to believe as we've all been reading and memorizing poetry this month), but she only likes the really good stuff. I compliment her taste and say that she shouldn't like the bad stuff. Fortunately, the assignment in the book was about a poem she actually does like, even though you'd never have known it on Wednesday when we discussed it together ("The Bells," by Edgar Allen Poe). She completes the assignment and moves on to her "booklist" literature assignment, which is due today and that she's had a month to do.

Romeo and Juliet
was not on Elise's
reading list--it
just happened! She
read it in 2 days and
asked for more. "Do
you think the library
will have A
Midsummer Night's
Dream?"

This is one of my favorite things: every year (for two years now!) I've created a list of quality books I want the girls to read (this was triggered when Kalina read nothing but Harry Potter for about 3 months--nothing against Harry Potter, but she needed a nudge). This year, I put them in 5 different categories (science, history, etc.). They must read one a month for the 10 months of school. For each set of 5, they get to choose a book for me to buy. Naomi's list is more simple because she only started reading really fluently about a year ago, but next year it'll be more in line with her sisters. They also have to fill in a form to prove they read it and supply some insights, vocabulary, etc. They actually appreciate the book recommendations, and love the system, so it's a win-win.

Naomi working studiously on
geography. She used a guide
to draw a whole world map
in one sitting!

Meanwhile, I've completed language arts with Naomi. She learned (a little) about symbolism, worked on rewriting some sentences to make them sound more descriptive (she loves this), practiced a few spelling rules, and wrote complete sentences to answer questions about a chapter of a book (which always stresses her out to the point of tears because there aren't usually enough lines to write a complete sentence). Then we did a little literature lesson together where she learned what a yoke was. She colored a paper yoke and set up a pair of bunnies in it. She also loves this kind of thing. I set her up to copy the poem I'd written down for her yesterday--"Fuzzy Wuzzy Was a Bear"--so she could practice her Z's, which she still gets backward because really, how often do you write a Z? She enjoyed drawing a fuzzy bear to illustrated it--as she also loves drawing.

I'm not going to name names for who my easiest one to teach has been this year.

When she was done, she delightedly wiped these subjects off of her whiteboard list and noticed she was nearly finished, with only piano and history left. I'd purposefully kept the lists a little short today because of the beautiful weather and impending Nature Club, but lately Naomi finishes everything quickly. "Mommy, I like to get everything done so I can have free time, but then sometimes when I have free time I want to do school!" I can totally relate--why do you think I homeschool?

At this point, Elise has completed her math, Russian work, and literature book form. Since I'm available, I seize the opportunity to work on spelling and grammar with her. Or try to, anyway. She's back at her lab, fishing critters out of the cup of streamwater she's keeping them in, and slipping them into the microscope. I realize these are problems you want to have, but even microbiologists need to spell. Eventually I drag her over. She just switched to a new spelling curriculum a few weeks ago, having gotten bored with the old routine. We find we get super bored with spelling unless we switch it up every 6-12 months, and she's a good speller, anyway, so I don't stress about the lack of continuity. Last time Elise kept making really sloppy mistakes, but this time she's more on her game, and only misses the words that are actually difficult and new. This takes a good 20-25 minutes, though, as we keep having conversations in between sentence dictation passages. About what? One guess.

Naomi completes her piano practice independently during this time, and asks me to print off a new practice chart so she can track her time. When we used to attend lessons in person, her teacher would hand out the occasional prize for a completed practice chart, and Naomi hasn't kicked the habit of recording her time. I'm certainly not going to stop her, plus we start in-person lessons again on Monday.

I straighten up the house a bit, but since we did a lot of cleaning up yesterday so it's not to bad. This not only gives me a little more time to work with the girls, but just makes me feel better at life. Most days, it's a constant battle, emphasis on the word battle, to keep the house clean with all of us here all the time. Although I think if we eliminated pencils, books, and couch pillows, that would go a long way.

After Elise studies her spelling words, we move to grammar. By this time, Kalina is working on typing and is sitting with us, plus Naomi's around for some reason, so I quiz Naomi on her parts of speech, and Kalina gives Elise a few pointers on simple/progressive/perfect-tense verbs, and then goes off to try to finish her book form. Next year for grammar, we're planning to work with our good friends in Pella on the same exact book for our oldest kiddos via Zoom. It'll be a much-needed review for Kalina as this particular grammar book covers everything, and new for the rest--but newest for Elise since she's the youngest. Fortunately, Elise finds grammar fairly intuitive, and is sailing through at the moment, so I think she'll be alright. At least she's highly motivated. Today, she learns that a prepositional phrase works as a single part of speech, plus she practices labeling the verb tenses. I tell her she needs to finish before lunch, multiple times, as she ping-pongs back and forth to her lab. It's taking forever for her to get it done. Finally when she's up again, I actually raise my voice (which I don't do much these days due to overused vocal chords that need a break), only to find that she is done, having completed the final 1/4th of the assignment in the approximately 60 seconds I took to pour a few lunch pancakes with Naomi. I swallow my comment about how much free time she could have if she just applied herself the same way through the rest of her assignments, as she's heard it already.

It's hard to see, but
we made prints on
notecards a week
or two ago as an art
project. Hers
has two bunnies
that are just adorable.

Pancakes are for lunch because we virtually never have them for breakfast and they're something everyone will eat. Plus I make them with with whole grains and protein, so they're fairly healthy. Naomi's finished with all her work and is starting to bug her sisters, so I invite her to help me with pancakes. She mixes them a LOT, and then pours them into the pan, making little baby pancakes, too. Which are really hard to flip, but I don't mind because we're actually running a little earlier than usual for lunch. We round out the meal with fruits and veggies and such, and I heat up some leftovers for myself because I get tired of kid food, amazingly.

During lunch, we always watch CNN-10, our favorite news program. When that's over, we sometimes watch a portion of a documentary, Geography Now, or our new favorite, Tudor Monastery Farm on Amazon Prime, which goes along great with our study of the middle ages. We're all together all day, and this gives us something new to talk about. But today, we work on some memory work songs until everyone starts to wander away.

Generally after lunch we have recess so the kids can get some outdoor time or read if the weather is crummy (plus I can get a breather), but today we launch right into history so we can finish up for Nature Club. Elise wants to do it outside, so we gather everything and head out, with me stipulating that if anyone starts mowing, we're heading in. No one is particularly happy at this point--they mostly enjoy history, but are antsy to be done.  

Sometimes for
history and science
you have to do the
less-academic
projects, like
building a castle out
of Rice Krispie
treats. We kinda
sorta learned
parts of a castle,
but that's really
a stretch.

It goes downhill. Half a paragraph in, Elise recognizes that she went through the exact chapter (Copernicus and Galileo) two days prior in her co-op history class. Which she signed onto anticipating that it would be the "activities" portion of history, and later found out it was the same reading that we do as a family. She still mostly enjoys it for the lively discussions, and knows all the answers. I let her go hang out on her monkey line until we start the questions and mapwork. Naomi immediately becomes jealous, so I semi-patiently explain it in terms she can understand. Kalina asks to sit inside the screen door and pet the cats while I read. Everyone is annoyed with everyone, and Naomi keeps asking if I would tell her what to write on the map so she could just get done with it already! 

Fortunately, we are able to finish even with the general grumpiness, and with only a few arguments over colored pencils. I make everyone grab a history-based book for a little individual reading, and the girls all scurry off to complete their work. I end up reading Naomi's aloud, because I can. Matt arrives home from his second Covid vaccine, and starts working on various projects.

This fall while Kalina
attended orchestra,
Naomi and Elise
did nature study and
other subjects with me
at the nearby park.
We've only done it once
this spring thanks to
weather and general
busy-ness, but it was
great while it lasted!

Soon-ish, it's time to be ready for Nature Club! We are still plastering on sunscreen when the doorbell rings and two sisters from church Elise's and Naomi's age arrive. My girls rush out the door and dash to the stream. It's almost quiet in the house!

The rest of the girls eventually arrive (only a couple more this time), and I step out to chat with Kalina's math friend's mom about some options for next year before she grabs her bike and rides the trails. And then, as Matt has settled into his "home office" (corner of our bedroom), the house is actually quiet. I soak it in. Some chocolate is involved.

I can see the girls from the window, but when I hear a little too much laughter and Kalina suggesting a water fight, I rush out the door and remind everyone that their parents might not want them to get soaking wet. (I also get tired of lending out dry clothes out to everyone--but fortunately several of the girls had brought their own changes of clothes.) Although one has already fallen in, and they insist their parents will be fine, they all agree to tone down the water fight. Later, they come back for walkie talkies and head out a short distance away on the trail. 

It's the blubber experiment,
using Crisco and ice water! I've
been wanting to do this with
them for years. Naomi found
her seal mask for the occasion
and is being a seal.

By the end of it, Elise has needed a band-aid, the two sisters needed their changes of clothes, and everyone got somewhat covered in red clay that kinda stains. But they had an amazing time! I chat with the parents during pickup, but have to leave soon with Naomi. One of her besties who's about to get a new baby sister had invited her over for an outdoor playdate and I figured we should take the opportunity for some playtime. Yes, it's a lot in one day--but it's also April. I have Naomi clean up (she puts on her favorite dress) and I fill a container with soapy water to receive Elise and Kalina's stained clothing in an effort to get the spots out.

After dropping her off, I head up to the grocery store for my own second Covid vaccine. While I'm waiting, I read a fiction story from one of my writing students, text Matt to have the girls soak their clothes, text with Aunt Nancy, and check headlines. After the vaccine, I pick up a few groceries, and, amazingly, it's time to pick up Naomi, who bursts into real tears because "she doesn't want to end on soccer!" We graciously give them a few more minutes, and Naomi shows me their giant hopscotch (they made it to 200!) and shoots some baskets in their hoop. Huh. Naomi's friend's mom and I talk about the possibility of meeting up at the ice cream food truck that's supposed to be at the neighborhood pool that evening.

Our one indoor field
trip this year: the
local aquarium! We
were first inside and it
was practically empty,
but it really
complemented our
marine biology
study!

Back at home, Naomi and I wolf dinner--Matt has already mentioned the food truck to the girls, and we're all eager to go. I also work on the clay stains. Kalina grabs her bike and Naomi and Elise get their scooters--it's only about a 12-minute walk, and a shorter ride. They also each grab money, because Matt and I offer to pay for the cheapest item only. Normally, we'd use after-dinner time for a simple walk, board game, showers, and/or music practice, but the urge to walk/ride to ice-cream with friends and beautiful weather is too strong. 

At the truck, Kalina and Elise both enjoy double scoops (they're humongous), and finish them, and want more. Naomi enjoys her scoop of vanilla on a cone, but even more, seeing her friend again. We all chat way too long, such that our friends have to bike home in the dark, and we ride through our dark woods 

This is the latest we've been out in a long time, and people are ready to settle in when we get back. Matt reads the Tripods books to the girls, and I read the next chapter of our American Girl book to Naomi. we're through most of the girls, and we both thoroughly enjoy the books.

And that's a wrap!

Hatching

We could've watched
these little guys hatch
all day! In fact, I think
we did.

I think the best parts of being a parent are the times when you get to do the things you really wanted to do all along, but have possibly outgrown, "for the kids." Like "finishing off" a bowl of Goldfish crackers, sledding, or, this past March, hatching eggs. (Yes, I know it's April. Hatching eggs is a lot of work, and I'm only now feeling caught up.) No self-respecting 4-H group would ever send home a carton of fertilized eggs with a regular grown-up, but if you have kids? Here, have them. 

Which is how I found myself tenderly driving home a grocery-store egg carton filled with relatively normal-looking eggs wrapped in a towel the first day of our spring break. (Isn't cute that they rode home in an egg carton?) I heard about the program from a Facebook group and, despite the fact that I didn't want to drive 30 minutes to a random spot in Missouri (twice) at very specific and somewhat inconvenient times to participate, I bit the bullet and signed up. Or, should I say, bit the pullet? Get it? Get it? (No pullets were harmed in the telling of that horrible pun.) 

 I didn't tell the girls until they caught Matt setting up the ol' incubator. Yes, of course we own an incubator. Doesn't everyone? Even our friends seem to know this about us, as once one called us just to see if we had one, because they'd found a random egg on their lawn and wanted to see if it would hatch (it didn't). Their excitement wasn't diminished by the fact that we also happened to have two types of tadpole eggs in a Tupperware on the kitchen counter, apparently the only place for science experiments in our house full of biologists. 

It's like a schoolbus for eggs.

 At any rate, I was to pick up the eggs Monday afternoon. I was so excited to be handed a dozen chick-nurseries that I forgot to ask what type they were. No matter--we'll love them anyway. Back at home, the girls helped me carefully mark x's and o's on them to help us keep track of the rotation schedule. The eggs were on day 13 of incubation, and would likely hatch around day 21. Naturally, we made all kinds of rookie mistakes--possibly adjusting thing incubator too high, and adding cold water instead of warm to increase the humidity, which of course made the temperature dip quite a bit. This was all within about the first 12 hours, and I was convinced that we'd already ruined everything. Omelet, anyone? But we kept on, possibly just because it would've been a huge shame to just give up. 

Naomi, who is grossed out by anything "human body," (which includes chicken body, apparently), helped turn the eggs once or twice, but began opting out the first time we candled an egg. Which was unbelievably cool, by the way--we could see veins, the air sac, and, eventually, movement! She also opted out of candling eggs once she got her first view of veins but, fortunately, stuck around for the hatching and the holding of chicks (spoiler alert).

We all quickly got into the habit of watching the eggs, as though they were going to do anything before about day 20-ish. [To be honest, I was watching the temperature, which Matt kept bumping down based on something he'd Googled, and I kept pushing up based on what the care sheet I was handed said.] I personally was surprised by how much time this took. Our first week of chicks happened to land on our spring break week, so ogling a bunch of eggs was no biggie. But the second week...it was a good thing we're ahead in most of our work, because nothing much other than math and writing got done.

This was partly because, as a part of the program I didn't quite understand at first, we actually had to prove that we used the chicks for education, and not just as temporary pets. In truth, I was pretty motivated to dig in anyway, and grateful for the excuse to make the project more academic--even more so because someone else required the work ("Girls, if we don't write papers/stories/etc. about what we learned, they might not let us have chicks next year!"). We spent hours watching chick (and salamander, and frog, and baby) development videos as Naomi closed her eyes, covered her ears, and hummed; reading about chickens and a lonely hawk who raised chicks; labeling the parts of an egg; looking at egg parts under a microscope; learning about chicken breeds and farms; and finally, writing up our projects. 

We learned a ton, but the most memorable experience was probably the video entitled "The Natural History of Chickens." What would you expect from this video? Possibly something about how chickens began as wild junglefowl and ended up in virtually every cooking pot, at some time or another, across the globe? Maybe something about different varieties of chickens, and their interactions with chickens? But not, perhaps, a woman who bathes her rooster daily, dresses him up and takes him on car rides, or a man who literally is able to sound exactly like a rooster? I guess we still learned a lot... and I'm glad to say it was too much even for Kalina.

Chick #1, newly
hatched!

Finally, after turning, candling, fretting, and then, most difficult of all, leaving the eggs completely alone, we were rewarded Monday morning, day 20, with a single hole in one egg--a pip. We hadn't wrecked them all, at least! But we did worry a whole lot more. By that afternoon, the pip had been extended, another egg had been seen to wiggle and, most adorable of all, we heard the cutest little peep from the pipped egg. What's more, the girls and I all were able to watch the egg get "unzipped," and observe through the tiny incubator window as a damp little chick pushed its way out of it's egg, and landed on the mesh floor of the incubator.

We immediately worried. It still had a little piece of egg on it! Would it cut itself on the mesh? Could it walk okay? It's running into other eggs--shouldn't they be left alone? Can it cut itself on an eggshell? It's lonely!!!

When you have 
chicks at Easter,
you take Easter
pictures. Grateful
to my neighbor for
the suggestion!

The only thing we actually needed to have worried about was the last one: our chick, instinctively looking for someone to imprint on, was indeed lonely. After the first hour or so that it spent stumbling around on its brand-new legs, he would meet our gaze when we peeked in on him as if to ask, "Are you my mother?" Even worse was the intense, freaked-out peeping. We felt pretty miserable for the little guy, but couldn't do anything about it--he would just have to wait for his brothers and sisters to hatch. One had already pipped, in fact!

We temporarily solved the problem of loneliness but dimming the lights, which seemed to help the little guy get to sleep. Still, it was probably a rough night. The next morning, Little Peep gained two new friends, which only created more problems, as he acted a bit rude, as though having been able to walk for 12 hours already meant that he could pick on those who had only been walking for 30 minutes or so. 

Our instructions directed us to remove him from the incubator when he was dry and fluffy. But the copious amounts of water I'd added to the incubator to help with hatching prevented Little Peep from drying out. Do I remove him?!? I sent a frantic email to the coordinator and, upon not hearing back within 15 minutes, decided to remove him anyway to our pre-warmed bin. Because of course we own a heat lamp, too.

Once the cats realized they 
couldn't eat the new chick,
they decided to befriend it.

Little Peep clearly missed his friends, as his gentle peeps became loud, troubled peeps again, but the cats soon helped with that by nestling up to the bin and keeping him company. Actually, at first they tried to attack him through the plastic, but quickly learned that they couldn't get in (they're used to bird feeders so they know this game). What's more, we were able to hold the little guy, which seemed to help as well.

Chick-babysitting is
hard work, plus it
was naptime.

Throughout the day, and up until the next morning, 7 more chicks hatched, for a total of 10. (*sniff* It was a sad day when we turned off the incubator.) We were able to observe most of them. We became accustomed to their gentle peeping, and then the real fun began as we gained confidence in holding them. Only about the first 4-6 received names and birth stats, though, as pretty soon we couldn't keep track of them. Little Peep, Snow White, and Pipsqueak were some names. We tracked their first pip, the time they started unzipping, and the hatch time. 

Although they weren't supposed to need food for 72-ish hours after hatching, we put some in, seeing as they kept pecking around. Soon, they'd all learned to eat and drink. 

Chick naptime--but I think I
woke them up.

And being flock animals, they quickly adapted to each others' habits. We'd frequently peek in and see everyone napping in little clumps around the bin, only to all wake up like dominos if any one did. 

The date set to return the chicks arrived all too soon in all but one respect: their cage needed a good cleaning. We said difficult goodbyes and assured Naomi that they would be taken to nice farms or given to 4-H kids as pets. 

I think I was pretty much awarded Mom of the Year for this project, a label quickly forgotten the next time they opened a math workbook or something equally odious. But still, I'm pretty sure that somewhere, somehow, it counts.

COVID-19 Self-Isolation Day 1 (or 2, or maybe 3)

I only took this picture
because I wanted to let Matt
know how hard I was trying.
:)

Today was a day of crises. Of pajamas that weren't washed and won't be wearable tonight. Of bumped arms, of people not liking bunnies enough, of brown paper Easter basket crafts that didn't turn out right and now the smooth dark brown paper is mostly used up and there's only "fuzzy" slightly lighter brown paper left. Of worms, scattered across the sidewalk on this damp day, frequent enough that with almost every step you could see one. Oh wait, those were only one small person's major crises (and, by default, mine). But you'd have thought they were the whole world's....

Anyway, I'm counting today as Day 1 of our coronavirus lockdown, even though Elise's musical last Friday was postponed, and we watched church from home. This is the day when it feels real, facing a week of cancellations, cold and rainy weather, and not much hope for things improving anytime soon. Plus the very real worry that people might actually get sick, jobs might get lost, and we might be in this for a long time.

We took a moment to celebrate Pi Day
in the middle of everything. Yes, we
did have some delicious banana cream
pie, in addition to the angel food cake
Kalina and I were already planning to
make. No one is suffering as we self-
isolate.

Thankfully, one thing stays the same in our household: we can still do school!!! While my heart is light that we won't have any major interruptions, and we can in fact buckle down and possibly even be finished with school when the weather is warm again, lockdown is eased, and the worms aren't as plentiful, the girls, who were anticipating a bit of a break this week as we welcomed guests, don't whole-heartedly share my feelings. They've also caught word that most schools are cancelled for the near future and possibly the long, and can hardly believe their bad good luck that they get to continue, even while their peers conquer whole video games and watch movies until they are unable to function without screens.

As an aside, I have to admit I'm delighted that the general public gets to try their hand at homeschooling! Maybe this makes me an evil person, but I'm at least a real person who gets very tired of hearing, "You must be so patient, I could never homeschool my kids." Now everybody gets to do it! And guess what--they totally can. Patience is a skill we all have to build and besides, if we're too patient our kids never get their math done. The fact that they're all now asking my advice on homeschooling schedules and such makes me feel relevant for about the first time in a decade. Thanks, coronavirus!

You can see how important it
is to Naomi that her Easter
baskets are just right.

Matt's always up for stockpiling, and so, several weeks ago I found myself forcing needing a "wide load" sign for my shopping cart as I heaved it up and down the aisles of Wal-Mart, cheeks flushed from both effort and embarrassment as I realized that for the first time since college, I was the crazy person in Wal-Mart. Why, oh why, did I begin with canned goods?!? Don't worry--we didn't buy more than we would use within a couple weeks. We homeschool, stockpile and own a lot of weird pets, but we're not that crazy.

On Thursday, in a rush to buy yogurt (after Elise's recent orthodontia work, this was one of the only things she felt comfortable eating), I brought Kalina to the grocery store with me, hoping to show her the life-altering, drastically reduced shelves I'd seen at Wal-Mart that morning (yes, I had to go to the store twice in one day--super annoying). But they were fine. I consoled myself that this was an expensive grocery store, and I probably saved an easy $100 by stockpiling at Wal-Mart instead.

Better memories than today:
a field trip to this amazing
reptile zoo where they open
all the cages and wake up
the critters! Matt told me
after that this wasn't safe.
But I didn't know at the time,
and look how happy she is!
The second time she held it,
it thrashed its tail, and Kalina
couldn't have been more
delighted.

But back to today. It's always a rude awakening that while I love cracking open the books on a fresh Monday morning, getting ready to check some boxes, the girls don't share my delight. Nowadays, Kalina puts on a good face and tries hard to focus, sometimes managing, and Naomi complies as long as she can turn every number and letter she writes into a bunny. Sunny Elise acts as though her pet has died, her mouth is full of uncomfortable metal that makes it hard to eat with no end in sight, she hasn't been getting quite enough sleep, and she's turned into a sea slug in a polluted ocean, when only three of those things are true. This morning, however, Naomi completely melted down over brown paper while Kalina and Elise helped each other with spelling, amazing children that they are.

Amazingly, it was not the ultra-productive day I'd dreamed about, and we were excited to break it up with a walk, and then quick outing to go pick up some science supplies from our co-op. The girls were hoping others would've brought their kids, and so were super disappointed to find only a group of moms standing at arms'-length from each other, chatting. No one lingered long.

Matt also said (later) that this wasn't
safe.

Back at home, we quietly finished our work before ending with a typical evening, minus music practice because technically we're on spring break from piano. Kalina listened to classical music, Naomi played with bunnies and crafted, and Elise read--plus they all helped Matt with the frog cage they're building.

Elise liked it too, although
even she had her limits and
didn't hold everything.
Naomi touched some
animals!

The girls are starting to get tired of hearing about coronavirus, but aren't super worried--except for Naomi, who's worried someone will cancel Easter. Unfortunately, there's not much else to talk about, so we find ourselves rehashing old memories, which isn't the worst way to spend our time.

And this, also, was not safe.

What's ahead for the next week or two? Movie nights, game nights, some online school with one of our co-ops, flexible cooking/baking with our stockpiled goods and whatever else we pick up, outdoor time whenever we can, and some creative schooling so no one gets burned out. I definitely plan for us to head to outdoor spaces for walks in new surroundings when we can. We'll also run across neighbors, but not run away from them, and we'll need to go to the store at some point. We can certainly use a few quiet weeks, although we may run out of construction paper entirely even before we run out of another type of paper everyone's concerned about....

We saw Swan Lake on
Valentine's Day!

Way back in January, but
worth mentioning: Kalina
and I performed in a multi-
piano performance! Lots of
pianos and pianists played the
same duets all at once. It was
so fun, and she got a trophy!
(Where's mine?!?)

Bucket list: watching
penguins waddle freely!
Dampened only by the fact
that Naomi didn't want to
be outside because she was
so cold. She had a point, but
by the time I figured that out,
it was too late to watch from
inside. Besides...penguins!!

A day

Twizzler DNA

Today I woke up in a semi-panic. My to-do list:
1. Naomi to ballet. Do not forget; take the poor girl, who missed 3 out of 4 January classes, to ballet.
2. Kalina MUST work on her two papers. MUST.
3. The upstairs cleaning that was supposed to happen yesterday still needs to happen.
4. Make meringue cookies for the co-op's Valentine party on Wednesday, because time is even shorter tomorrow and Kalina's been begging me to let her make these.
5. Compile a total of 88 valentines spread across three girls
6. Have Kalina and Elise practice piano for the first Kansas City piano lesson tomorrow.
7. Meals + snacks
8. Clean downstairs, too, if at all possible. And vacuuming would be totally amazing.
9. At least 2 loads of laundry, maybe 3.
10. Snow play?
11. Routine cleanup, dishes, refereeing, playing baby bunny, etc.

Plus the usual amount of schoolwork.

I began by shaving my sweater. The girls were curious, as was Matt: does that thing really work? How? Can I try? Can we empty it out and can we see what the sweater fluff looks like? Do we have to throw the fluff away (okay, they didn't actually ask that, but I know they were thinking it and I was surprised it didn't come up)? Although this item wasn't on my to-do list, it proved to be as satisfying as pretty much the rest of it. Progress!! Immediate, visible progress that doesn't get immediately undone!! It's like a drug.

At the time of sweater shaving, the girls were all in various stages of the routine called "getting ready for the day." I reminded those who needed reminding (seriously, don't we do this every day?) and helped those who needed help, with reaching outfits, brushing hair, etc. When I woke the girls at 7:15 (before the sweater), I found Naomi carefully lining up small stuffies on her bed rail. Apparently, there was already drama: one animal refused to admit that it was the bunny's turn to be line leader. Fortunately, Naomi is as good at solving her animals' conflicts as she is creating them. She was dressed in good time, and soon busy lining up all her animals, this time through her doorway and into the hallway--this time there were no line leader negotiations, as they had been fully resolved earlier. The older girls had a chuckle when I mentioned the hallway needed to be cleaned as part of morning routine. "Um, Mom, I think that's going to be a challenge!" they smiled. Soon, however, the troop of stuffies had somehow made its way downstairs, possibly by being tossed individually, and the hallway was clean shortly after breakfast, thanks to good moods and the fact that I'd whisked away not-cleaned-up possessions in a laundry basket, not to be seen again for a week, in recent memory.

Over breakfast, we chatted about our upcoming presentations for Classical Conversations, and reviewed the schedule for the day. Everyone was quick and cheerful, and I was able to whip off a couple emails while they cleaned the hallway (albeit breakfast dishes still on the counter), trying to reserve a TV for the writing class I'm teaching Wednesday and signing up for a field trip to a bakery (which I knew would be full by lunchtime). I also communicated some details about a field trip to the art museum I'm planning for Classical Conversations. Then I finished most of the breakfast dishes, and brushed my teeth and braces, which just takes a while. I put all the couch pillows back on the couches, even though they never stay there long.

As the hallway was nearly clean, I headed upstairs to let the girls know I wanted to vacuum, and pushed them to also straighten their room. They amazingly put up no fuss. Soon enough, however, Elise was hiding in the playroom because, "It seems like Kalina always takes Naomi's side when we have arguments!" Not wanting to begin a she-said she-said while I was on such a roll with cleanup, I hugged her for a while and told her she could hide out for a bit. Kalina and Naomi were all smiles, but actually got the room clean, so I finished my vacuuming. Except the playroom, which might not actually get cleaned, ever, between Christmas and spring break.

I figured Elise could use some more time, so I told Kalina to grab 10 Skittles from one of two gigantic boxes of Skittles (seriously?) her Nutcracker buddy had given her during the Nutcracker and sent her down to practice "the tricky part in Fur Elise" 10 times. She joyfully trotted off, and I finished breakfast dishes, threw in some laundry and cleaned up in the schoolroom, not only to start the day but also because my hopes were up for getting to vacuum another level today.

Back in the fall, we made blood out of
kitchen ingredients! They will
remember this one forever.

Naomi made her way downstairs with some stuffies and started dragging out blankets and couch pillows to make beds for all of them. I reasoned that Elise could probably use a visit, and I found her standing in a wooden cradle and gazing out the window. We went downstairs together, no more mention of the argument. By this time Kalina was done, so we all began school with a little Bible verse study, Valentine's-Day themed. Kalina and I then dove into her writing work, outlining a report on Sacagawea, which went pretty well since the interruptions were minimal and I was actively participating. Elise worked independently through some three-digit, subtraction-with-renaming word problems, grumbling all the way but getting them all correct. I then gave Elise 10 minutes to "see how much of this math review you can do," and she breezed through most of it, needing my help with an old-concept, new-approach problem they threw in 3/4 of the way toward the end. She decided to have her "banana break," as did Naomi, and then we worked through spelling together, while Kalina kept plugging away at her outline, still making real progress.

Not sure anyone could be
terrified of this princess
monster! I think she forgot
she was wearing a crown.

Naomi, meanwhile, was knee-deep in the project of cleaning out and reorganizing her play tent, wearing her ballet slippers. Out came brownies, pancakes (with toppings!), Lego Snow White, an assortment of necklaces, blankets, and more. She kept the couch pillow she'd claimed, along with a blanket, and added a nice doll/stuffie bed with handles, a doll and a baby bottle. She then put together a similar setup for her purple stuffed bunny.

Rather unfortunately, Naomi was also listening to the piano's "demo" feature, which plays a loop of mostly horrid songs. We all get annoyed with it, but Naomi adores turning it on and letting it run. The first song is pretty and she doesn't notice the rest, so she could listen all day. The rest of us couldn't, however, and Kalina's very reasonable suggestion of turning it down completely disrupted Naomi's peace. No agreement could be reached, even after Mommy set the limit, so the piano went off and Naomi pitched a major fit more annoying, by far, than the piano. Fortunately, she ran out of steam after just a couple minutes and returned to a placid, cheerful state.

As Kalina's progress was coming to an end, and it had been nearly an hour, I moved her to cursive and spelling, while I worked on Elise's writing assignment with her (which is mostly a simple mix of listening, answering questions in complete sentences and copywork). Today we got to read a poem, which Elise liked, and Naomi readily sat through, still tired from her meltdown. After that, we  read Madeline, which Naomi had waited patiently for and which worked well alongside Elise's poetry work. Elise then headed off to copy a stanza of the poem (capital letters at the beginning of each line!), and I played Mommy and baby bunny with Naomi for a couple minutes before helping her get ready for ballet. Then she wanted a bun, so I did the best I could with a ponytail holder and 4 bobby pins--which was enough to not fall completely out during class, only partially.

On the way to ballet, we reviewed our Classical Conversations memory work, using the CD with the songs on it. Naomi happily danced into class, where she gleefully fulfilled the all-important role of Line Leader, and actually followed the teacher rather well, despite all her missed classes. Soooo cute. Kalina dug into Captain's Dog, a book about Lewis and Clark told from the dog's point of view (totally up her alley), taking a break only to work on a periodic table scavenger hunt I'd printed off for her. Elise read a chapter of her latest Sophie Mouse book, but soon preferred to discuss imaginary animals that could live in Eliseland instead. Besides, she likes to savor her books one chapter at a time, lest she finish them too soon (don't we all know that feeling?) Fortunately, she'd brought paper and pencils, so we could draw the animals we thought of, and then name them, and next discuss their characteristics, as well as the general governance of Eliseland. I'd been anticipating using the time to plan the Wednesday writing class, but, well, imaginary animals are more fun anyway.

Sometimes Naomi still naps at
downtime!

Back at home, I gave Kalina the task of de-bunning Naomi and helping her get changed while I made lunch and Elise helped/tasted. Or tasted/helped--her favorite task. During lunch we chatted a bit, and then reviewed more memory work. Afterward, Kalina was sent off to practice piano and Elise to do handwriting while I quickly cleared dishes, brushed my teeth and took Naomi up for downtime. On this particular day, the older girls were so engrossed in whatever they were doing that they didn't sit in on stories. Naomi had chosen a ballet book and was able to very sweetly try all the moves uninterrupted. She also chose Madeline again, and I was able to answer all her questions and we were able to count all the girls in the two straight lines, several different ways, again with no interruptions. Shortly after, however, Kalina breezed in with her book and planted herself on her top bunk, not wanting to come down even for her own story (Olga Meets Her Match, by the author of Paddington), I think still upset from a question she'd gotten wrong earlier. No problem--I enjoyed reading Elise's choice to her--a humorous book about becoming president (she does not want to).

After the story, I let Elise grab a box of Valentines and get started assembling them, and since Kalina was still upstairs and Elise is such a companionable little being, I let her sit beside me and work on them during downtime. She tried her best to keep conversation to a minimum (but not a complete lull--a nice amount), respecting the fact that I had more emails to answer, math workbooks to order and planning to do (for that writing class), and did a great job putting together a fraction of the 43 valentines she's responsible for.

About 20 minutes before the end of downtime, I began to hear a few too many noises from upstairs. Apparently Kalina was feeling better and she and Naomi were playing--which usually means Kalina has created some huge inventive scenario and there's going to have noise and hilarity and stuff all over. And it was true: as I found out later, Naomi's bed had become a boat, and they needed provisions, among other things, which was somehow related to the reason there were stuffies all over the floor. I let them go because this doesn't usually happen, but I literally heard them bouncing off the walls. Kalina: "Naomi, bounce off the walls!"

Seeing an opportunity, I asked the calm, obedient child if she wanted me to send her sisters outside to play with her in the snow, and she did. Kalina and Naomi, who usually only go outside if forced unless the weather is tropical-island perfect and/or there are popsicles, couldn't argue: they knew they'd been bouncing off the walls. I told them if they stayed out long enough, they could have hot chocolate, and then pushed them all out the door. We got out the sled, and they took a few passes down a very shallow hill in our yard. Soon enough, though, I heard crying and saw a snowy Naomi being walked by her solemn sisters up the super-shallow hill toward the house. She'd fallen off. I accepted the youngest inside ("Yes, Naomi, you'll still get hot chocolate!") and denied the other two--it had been all of 15 minutes and we don't usually have snow.

I'd been using the time to clean up (because there's always cleanup to do), and make progress toward my goal of vacuuming the main level. I put a now-just-fine Naomi to work with a few minor tasks (getting the markers and paper out from under the piano, for instance) and finished the job just as the oldest two were trying, again, to see if they could come in. As it had been 30 minutes, and I wanted to move on, I let them. We did have hot chocolate. I cleaned up the kitchen while they drank and dipped graham crackers, dripping all over themselves and the clean tablecloth. As Kalina was finishing, I broke the terrible news that although she'd finished her old math workbook last week, I had forgotten to order her new one until today! I didn't mind too much--she was delighted at my mistake, and the teachers' guide told me how to begin teaching decimals, which was something Kalina was motivated to learn anyway thanks to a math game she's been playing. In 25 minutes, I managed to get some lightbulbs turned on and introduce some new concepts that would probably need another lesson anyway before she dove independently into the workbook. I sent her and her sisters upstairs with valentines while I thoroughly vacuumed downstairs. Triumph!

Kalina emerged with completed valentines just as I was finishing, and I used the opportunity to rope her into a grammar lesson. We discussed object complement nouns and direct objects while Naomi made stuffie beds on the clean slate of a freshly vacuumed floor, with couch pillows. Our lesson was cut a bit short by the fact that I really, no really, needed to start dinner, but we got the main points. I tried to start Naomi coloring a seal picture she'd wanted (she was really into seals for a while), but she refused it, saying the seals both looked like boys. Although clearly it was a mommy and baby seal, right up her alley, I was in no mood to argue beyond offering to draw eyelashes (she was having none of it). I found her a puppy coloring book and she set to work on one that was "too cute," and that I had to make a copy of before she would color it, apparently the original being too sacred. She then cut it out and I eventually wrote down a story she made up about it after dinner. I began to brown meat and chop veggies for tacos, while Elise worked on her piano, trying one piece from memory.

Matt arrived home and one or more of the girls trailed after him to chat. I finished dinner and let Matt carry the conversation, which he thankfully did. After dinner, we still had meringue cookies to make! I quickly cleaned up a few things and got out the supplies. Matt read to Naomi, and Kalina and Elise switched off on separating egg whites, with only a few mishaps. Kalina then piped the cookies into the shape of hearts (roughly--it was challenging) , while Elise sprinkled them, until she got her hair into the batter one too many times and needed to be sent up with Naomi for a bath. Kalina, who had been stressed out by the pressure of piping hearts, was only too glad to step down to the role of sprinkler, while I finished piping. Into the oven!

While the younger two were bathing, Kalina and I stole 20 minutes to work on her other writing assignment: a hopes and dreams paper. (Kalina, in class: "All my dreams are disasters and all my hopes are unlikely." Pretty often true, actually....) She wanted to write about owning a farm someday and about becoming a gem cutter. We got her thoughts down--enough for a rough draft--and then looked up beautiful photographs of waterfalls and mountains for a few minutes.

Matt had the girls washed, so I simply had to unload Naomi from the tub and coax her into pajamas. I had Kalina help clean up the room, which was still a disaster from the downtime escapades, and then Elise joined us for stories because she didn't like the book Matt's reading to her and Kalina (again, about Lewis and Clark). Miraculously, Naomi didn't put up a fuss that Elise got to choose one of the stories, as it's very rare for Elise to join us. We read peacefully, braided hair, arranged stuffies and hugged goodnight. All very good-naturedly.

I said goodnight to Kalina, too, and then began the rest of my work for the day: finishing dinner dishes, and some more cleanup to the sounds of Matt's new guitar. I sat down to a pile of laundry and Matt and I chatted a bit before he headed upstairs and all was quiet for the first time today.

Quiet! Heavenly, blessed quiet! Most nights, I finish emailing, ordering, planning, etc. Tonight, as I didn't have more pressing issues, I wrote this blog.

Then I noticed that the meringue cookies were still a bit squishy in the middle, which resulted in a flurry of Google queries regarding soft meringue cookies, salmonella, and what to do. I decided it couldn't hurt to stick them back into the oven for another try in the morning, and then reevaluate.

And Matt wonders why I rarely turn out the light until 11:30.

Learning at home

The Eiffel Tower in our
basement! After this, Elise
saw Eiffel Towers all over
town, especially when any
radio towers were in the
vicinity. Also, one of the
good things about
homeschooling is that you can do
it in your swimsuit or your
nightgown.

Although not so much around here, a lot of people out there think that homeschooling is a strange concept. What? Learn at home? I thought that was where you watch television! You know, like Dora! It's educational! They're learning! At home! Oh, I get it.

This is not us.

Others think they would spend the entire day trying to force spelling and subtraction on their kids and generally making the whole house miserable.

This is also not us (most of the time).

Still others can't imagine spending that much time with their kiddos, and their kids spending that much time with their siblings, and believe that everyone in the house would suffer if such a thing occurred.

This is definitely not us.

Homeschooling, for us, is a grand combination of spending lots of time together, doing cool projects and activities, studying what we want (sometimes) and, oh yes, worksheets. We also enjoy sleeping in when we need to (those of us who are allowed to, anyway), participating in extra extra-curriculers since we're not too overbooked, and visiting the library several times a week, it seems.

Many people ask how its going, so here goes:

Kalina's first day of
Kindergarten, which soon
became Kindergarten/1st
grade.

August
We began the day the neighbor kids went back to school, because the kids were officially bored and squirrely from summer break. It was clearly time to do something. On our first day, I had all kinds of wonderful systems in place: systems for helping the girls keep track of the schoolwork and house work (even for Elise--we didn't want her to feel left out when it came to cleaning the sink!), systems for helping me keep track of assignments, systems for storing the stacks of books. I spent a lot of time managing the systems, a lot of time explaining to Kalina why we were doing what we were doing, and the rest of the time leading Kalina and sometimes Elise through various activities. We'd started with fun stuff: studying the book Madeline with help from a simple curriculum perfect for the girls' ages.

We learned about France, health, number pairs, art and much more. We read a lot of fun books while the baby napped. Yay, homeschooling! Look, I'm doing it! By the second week, we introduced some regular math activities, and began Language Arts. It got less fun.

Elise's first day of actual
preschool (not homeschool).

September
My nicely set up systems started to fall into "occasional" use, as they were hard to stick to (babies tend to throw a wrench in well-laid plans) and were not always convenient enough. I was disappointed, but not surprised: I am less organized than I look. I was glad I had purchased the system supplies from a dollar bin.

We took our first field trip to the St. Louis Arch and its pioneer museum after constructing a covered wagon out of a baby gate and loading it with supplies we would bring. Having forgotten to pack medical supplies and any food other than brownies and ice cream, the girls wouldn't have made it past the neighborhood.

Look, I'm homeschooling! And we're going to learn! I became a bit overzealous, and tried to teach a million things at once. I began to discover that there's a limit to the learning even a bright 6-year-old can do, and tried my best to back off. But it's all so exciting! We covered weather this month, and managed to track daily weather patterns for almost two weeks, including during a tornado warning. We tried to add plenty of activities to our worksheets, as although Kalina learns well from books, she is only 6, and her sister is newly 4. The girls therefore twirled around the family room like tornadoes to music that sounded like rain and thunder.

We happen to have a
large, famous structure
near us: the Arch! We
visited it instead of the
actual Eiffel Tower.

Also, Elise soon became super-annoyed that I was monopolizing the time of her favorite playmate. She spent our school time languishing in the recliner, counting the minutes until Kalina could play again, or snacktime, whichever came first. We all looked forward to preschool days.

October.
By October, we had found some homeschool friends to meet up with somewhat regularly, plus Kalina had joined American Heritage Girls. Preschool activities were in full swing, and Naomi was still perfectly happy taking two naps a day. We learned about Carnival of the Animals (even Naomi pretended to be a lion!) and then attended a Symphony performance, and did a mini-unit on instruments and sound. We learned about maps, and studied trees for a week (who doesn't study trees in October?) before getting a jump start American history to correspond with the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, because there's a lot of American history before the pilgrims even at the kindergarten/first grade level. We also made it to several homeschool library programs that were enjoyed by all.

Kalina learning with a number balance.
She learns differently than many people.

November.
We all loved studying pilgrims (and Native Americans, and Christopher Columbus), thanks especially to the help of a couple books Kalina latched onto, plus a certain "pocket" book of folded construction paper that simply made everything more fun. Add to it the Magic Treehouse book about the era, the corresponding children's museum exhibit, and the national holiday, and we enjoyed the month quite a bit

I also realized that some tweaking was in order. The comprehensive Language Arts curriculum that I was so excited about ("I won't even have to think about it, I'll just open the book!") was a bit too comprehensive, such that Kalina was ahead in reading and comprehension, but needed a better introduction to spelling and handwriting (it's a second-grade-feels-like-first-grade course). And our math program, which I was trying to do cheaply without the teacher's guide, was boring and repetitive (probably more my fault than anything else--but we clearly needed something different). We tweaked, and things improved until we got to double-digit subtraction, which is a different story.

A cold, windy, fun trip to Cahokia
Mounds to learn about a really
fascinating Native American culture.

December.
I asked Kalina what she wanted to study leading up to Christmas, thinking we'd keep it simple. She chose Jesus, which I altered a bit into an over-arching study of the Bible, because I can't actually keep anything simple. Plus, if you type in "homeschool" and "Bible," you can find thousands of really cool crafts and activities to teach even about even the minor prophets, and it's all free out of the goodness of peoples' hearts. A song sung by chipmunks helped the girls memorize the books of the New Testament, and they had fun stumbling over the minor prophets in the Old Testament. A little too much fun--Habbakuk became Huckabadoxin, for example. We also visited the nature center to learn about winter animals and about woodpeckers, both of which we really enjoyed.

It was a mostly lovely month, but got a bit busy toward the end, as it did for the entire Christian world. Even the fact that another homeschool family had admitted, "We basically take the month of December off" barely kept me from dragging Kalina to the bus stop a couple days before our Christmas break was planned to start. Instead, we saved the rest of our Jesus materials for Easter and limped through math and language arts.

Our Russia work, including an original
Kandinsky imitation by Kalina, and
some Faberge imitation originals, too.
And a snowman Elise made.

January.
By now, we have curriculum and routines that work for us (although no magical systems), good friends we see regularly, a homeschool gymnastics class that doesn't mess too much with Naomi's nap to look forward to, and enough other programs and activities and such that I can't picture us getting bored anytime soon. Because two weeks off over Christmas were hard to come back from, we spent the first two weeks in January studying Russia and playing with my Russian souvenirs. Next, we'll be embarking on a study of the human body, complete with tons of activities, hardly any worksheets and some life-size human body cutouts--perfect.

Our current system of learning is to practice math, handwriting and language arts daily, and study one other subject for anywhere from a week to a month at a time. It works really well, as we all love diving into a "fun" subject, which is usually motivation enough for Kalina to stay on task with her drudge work (that isn't always drudgery, but often seems like it compared to determining how much oxygen one's lungs can hold). We make regular attempts at art, music (piano lessons help), character development and PE, and make chores, socialization, crafts and playtime priorities as well. And it works!

Elise, by the way, has learned how to either just rest patiently, join in a bit, or do her own thing while we homeschool. These are all important lessons, plus the amount of actual instruction is probably less than 45 minutes throughout the day (the rest is activities that Elise enjoys, or crafts and worksheets that need about 1 minute of explanation). She has become, of her own acclaim, "Supergirl," and "Crafter girl," and in this way has discovered superpowers in self-entertainment and gluing things onto paper. I am also learning to incorporate preschool learning, which Kalina also enjoys.

Amazingly (to me, but probably not to anyone else), Elise is actually getting excited about learning, and has been practicing writing all the letters of the alphabet, plus she practices reading whenever I ask her to and even sometimes requests more reading practice. She's quite good at reading, and was the only one in her preschool class who could read the words I spelled out using alphabet Cheez-Its the other day.

Babies love sunglasses!

Naomi is a different story--literally. By now napping only once a day, and for only a little more than an hour, she is often awake and participating in her own way in the learning. Good thing she loves books! The problem being that the big girls already know that a cow says moo (although they sometimes try to convince Naomi otherwise...), and that the bunny feels soft. So while the big girls are learning that Lake Baikal, in Russia, is the deepest in the world and also home to the world's only freshwater seals, which happen to also be the world's smallest seals, Naomi can usually be found attempting to claim my lap and my reading voice with one of her sweet little stories. Although the toddler and her books are adorable, they don't get to usurp every book I read to her big sisters--the knowledge of which usually leads to great distress, which gives rise to shout-reading, and then often the crumbling of the idyllic story time we'd all been looking forward to as I race toward a good stopping point. Occasionally Naomi does consent to sit on my lap and join in--as long as we stay on any page with a dog on it. Forever. Maybe we should just do a unit on dogs?

I didn't want to get too close
lest I spoil the moment, but
Naomi, wearing a toy chef's
 hat, is learning how to
slice wooden food.

She makes up for it, though. And especially in the cute little way she asks, "Where?" "Naomi, where is your puppy?" we ask her. And she looks around, puts her palms up and squeaks "Beah?" I will probably never be able to capture it on video, but I can't imagine forgetting it.

Naomi also continues to learn words, especially from her big sisters. "Who wants graham crackers for a snack?" I ask. "Me!" says Elise. "Me!" says Kalina. "Me!" says Naomi. She can also say, in baby language, things like raisin, bird, water, bubble, balloon and bath, including sometimes putting two thoughts together, such as when she says "rai," which means raisin, and points to her tray: "Raisin here, now." She meows, woofs and roars very well now. As I mentioned before, Naomi adores books and being read to, even consenting to listen to the entirety of some of her board books in one sitting. She loves finding the animals and making their corresponding noises. I think we could do that all day long, if it weren't for the pesky big sisters getting in the way (Naomi's thoughts, not mine! :) ).

For the sake of posterity, I should also note that Naomi recently had to relearn how to sleep through the night, preferring instead to wake up in the middle, call Matt or I in, and slowly, slowly fall back to sleep with us beside her, preferably standing. Now, she only requires us once, in the 5:00 hour to tell her it's not yet morning. She also likes the door left open, and possibly a nightlight. Whatever it takes, right? I guess Mommy and Daddy still have a lot of learning to do, too.