School Highlights - Last week of January

I spent the Holidays totally decluttering my house. The mess from Christmas was too much...couldn't stand it anymore! So I spent the whole week deep cleaning each room. Whenever I do this, I am amazed with how much "junk" I come up with. I probably got rid of 6 garbage bags of trash and 8 boxes of clothes to give away. Whenever I "simplify" like this, I feel a big bound of freedom and energy. It's so refreshing!


Since the big "PURGE" we've had a lot of extra time and effort put into our homeschooling. And we are all enjoying our home education pursuits much more! I thought it would be fun if every once and a while I post some highlights from our week's worth of learning and projects.

It will also make a fun record for me to look back and see what we've been working on!

*We Spent all day Monday fixing up all our dead and dying computers. We now have Windows 7, and will need to relearn a lot of things. The kids got their computer fixed, which will be the one we use for math, typing, and other educational games. And we got a place to back up all our photos...yay! Now if only I can figure out how to post pictures from picasa to my blog...since the "Blog This" button has somehow disappeared on this new version. Dorathy made a Tuna Noodle casserole all by herself, and Courtney baked brownies. If there is one place where my kids are happy helpers...it's the kitchen! Our theme in the kitchen is "cooks get to snitch" and its fun to cook and taste!

*On Tuesday, Dorathy did her "Geo-Trekker" class online, and learned all about the countries of North America. Christopher succeeded in a couple of debates in his "Logic" class online, learning the difference between argument and disagreement. The difference between a fact or opinion...and how to determine a fallacy. Tuesday is letter writing day. We are making an effort in writing letters (since it is a dying art form) and we are all enjoying our new pen pals! Courtney helped me make some homemade caramel. It was an experiment that partially failed...but it made great caramel peanut butter for a fruit dip.

*On Wednesday, regular school took a break so we could do a ROCKETRY CLASS. We signed up for SuperchargedScience...a site where a Nasa Scienstist (and homeschooling mom) has units that covers every kind of science from K - 12. It's a really great resource where you can have your whole family learning chemistry or physics, etc. together and doing fun experiments. Christopher had a blast learning about Rockets and he designed and launched some rockets of his own. We got some great height out of them! Unfortunately, I broke his launcher when I jumped on the booster too hard and it exploded!

The kids went to piano...traveling to and from on their scooters since we've been having this awesome warm and sunny "January Thaw." My kids have made great progress on the piano in the one year they have been taking lessons...I am so excited to hear their new songs. I love hearing them practice. Now I just have to be more regular about practicing myself! My kids compete to see who will get to play the Hymn every morning for our daily devotionals. They play so often, that I am getting rusty!

Wednesday night, the kids started up a new semester of CLOGGING! Hurray! This is a fun outlet for all the girls. This year, Angel is finally old enough to join up!!! She is super excited. But she is also begging for Ballet lessons. $$$$$ Clogging = fun & free; courtesy of my amazingly talented friend, Jaime. Ballet: very pricey...plus how do you put 1 daughter in lessons when you have 4 daughters who'd all like a go? I would have to get a second job to pay for fun things like that...and that is NOT going to happen right now! Maybe this summer she can do some dance camps?

On Thursday we finished the first part of our Unit on the CIVIL WAR. For the last 2 months we've read several civil war books...interestingly, they have all been from the perspective of the South. I think we will now read some books from the North and do a study on the life of Abraham Lincoln and memorize the Gettysburg address. Last week when I was sick, the whole family watched Dances with Wolves together and had some discussion on the Indians and the culture of the times. I have a bunch of documentaries and mini-series on my netflix cue to share with my kids next. I love learning history along with my kids. :)

We also took a nice long break to make a bunch of soft-bread pretzels. Every kid got their own bowl and their own batch. We got the recipe from the friend magazine. We made Pretzels that said CTR which stands for "Choose the Right". Some of the kids also made their names :) We made some butter & salt flavored...but most of the kids chose to do cinnamon and sugar. We all have a sweet tooth!

While they were baking and the older kids were home watching the oven, I took my younger kids to my "Mentor Mothers" group. This is a support group for homeschooling mothers who want to further their own education. We have been studying a different educational philosopher each month...and learning a ton!! This month we did Maria Montessori. I decided that the books I took out from the library I will have to buy. They are just too good not to own. They are written specifically to parents who want to help their young children get a good start in reading and writing. Everything Montessori taught fits in with the model of Thomas Jefferson Education. I would love love love to learn more "Montessori skills" to use in my own home. Next month we are reading about the theory of multiple intelligences in the books by the famous psychologist, Thomas Armstrong

Thursday evening my sister, Mom, and I also got to have a "ladies night out" at Dairy Queen, indulging in a blizzard, and relaxing from the stresses of the week.

On Friday, Christopher did his two hour online Biology course. This has been an awesome class for him. The teacher is talented, the kids in the class are fun, and it has made learning the biology of the cells, animals, and plants a big adventure! It is especially cool that he assigns documentaries off of netflix for the homework assignments. ;) The rest of the day was dedicated to getting Christopher ready for his big Wilderness Survival Camp out. This is the merit badge his troop has been working on for months. 2 weeks ago, Christopher and Sanford built a giant SNOW FORT out of all the snow that fell in Mary's yard. They were actually able to sleep in it for a little while, despite the POURING RAIN that was slowly melting everything. The drip drip drip of the snow roof got to be too much for them, however, so they spent the rest of the night dry inside. :) They are learning some awesome wilderness survival skills!

So for the campout, I had the rest of the Bassett kids over here for a big sleepover..which was fun and surprisingly not too noisy. We watched the new Annie movie from Disney and ate pizza and donuts for dessert...which gave me a raging migraine headache. Ever since I started eating healthy 2 years ago...my body DOES NOT LIKE IT when I indulge in nasty sugary/white flour foods. Oh, and we have been thrilled to go and visit my sister's new baby goats! They are super-duper adorable. My kids often wish that they lived on the Bassett farm!

On Saturday, my older kids had a choir practice for a concert for Stake Conference in two weeks. Then we picked up poor Christopher who dragged all day because he only got 3 hours of sleep in "shelter" he built himself for the big Scout campout. We spent the rest of the day CLEANING HOUSE for our big LORD OF THE RINGS PARTY!!! I have a Colloquium where we meet once a month at my house with our families for a potluck dinner and book discussion. This time we did Lord of the Rings. We made Stewed Coneys and herbs in honor of Samwise...and a BIG POT of mashed TATERS. heeheeheehee. Too bad we didn't think of Mushrooms in honor of the hobbitts. But I did make Rice Krispie Treats for the Elves waybread "Lembas". We didn't have any orc food, of course. But we did have a fruited green salad worthy of any elf! The kids watched the Hobbit movie while we discussed the trilogy and bashed the movie versions. Then we played a LOTR Trivia game...which was quite challenging.

The Happiest School improvements this week are:

***Christopher is doing awesome in his spelling and has a new friend to email from his biology class. He is reading LOTR for the first time. Hurray! He is really into Military History right now, too.


***Dorathy has started retyping one of her stories on her blog, editing it and polishing it up. The story is called "Friends". I will have to post a link to her blog here if any of you would like to follow her progress: http://ayoungwritersmagnumopusdorathy.blogspot.com/



***Courtney's reading is getting more smooth. She has had a VERY bumpy road to mastering reading because of her dyslexia. Christopher overcame his enough to read by 4...but Courtney is only now getting comfortable with reading outloud here at 8 yrs. She can now read at a 2nd grade level (which is her grade level)...but it is not easy, and it is not a past time she will voluntarily go to. I had her read me a chapter books about Sharks. She is crazy for Science, that she handled that okay, but could only do one chapter a day before she got burnt out. Courtney loves math and is enjoying memorizing her math facts.

***Angel is practicing and enjoying her writing. She has improved greatly and is just beginning to read! She is about to start 1st grade level work. She loves school time. We do lots of reading games and learning games together while the older kids do their classes online. Angel has started drawing "still life" pictures...Studying a scene, and then portraying it on paper with as much detail as she can. Very cool!



***Julianna has officially started "school" here at home on pre-K level. She has started code book and now that she knows all her abc's, she is learning their sounds. She is lots of fun to play with! She is learning how to follow directions...and loves any "hands on" projets we do...especially play-doh and painting! She has started drawing people with faces...very fun!

Practice what you Preach!

So, one of my goals with my kids is to practice what I preach. I don't ever want to be asking them to do something that I am not willing to do myself. As the parent and teacher I should always be setting the example, and be showing them what it is I am asking them to do/perform.

Therefore....if I am asking them to practice piano every day, then I should too. I don't have as much free time as them, but I can at least make an effort. Even 5 minutes is better than nothing.

Also, if I am asking my kids to write in their journals everyday, then I should have a journal too! (and post more often on my blog, eh?) So last week I bought myself a journal...my first one in over 4 years! That tells you how often I write these days! I used to keep a daily journal.

This is sad because I have always wanted to be a writer. As a child and as a teen it was my fondest wish and desire to write books, novels, and poems. I filled notebooks full of story ideas and story outlines. The summer I was 14, I lived in front of the computer for hours and hours each day writing my novel. I think I'd still like to write it someday. I have kept a large collection of my childhood writings...but I have only occasionally taken the time to write as an adult.

The last time I wrote regularly was when I was attending BYU. I was an English Major, so I had several opportunities to write all sorts of things! I have really really missed that! Whenever I have written a poem I have wondered to myself, "why don't I do this more often?"

One of the most obvious reasons why is my family. Raising kids is exhausting and time consuming even if it is the most rewarding adventure in life. And frankly, it sucks my will and creativity right out of me. So this has been my excuse for years for why I don't write.

It is important, however, for anyone who wants to write well to do it daily! I remember my creative writing teacher saying over and over again that the most important thing for a writer to do was to write something every day...just to keep "in shape" as it were. Whether it was a journal, brainstorming, poems, short stories, exercises....one must actually physically write SOMETHING.

So I've decided to give writing a try again! My life doesn't have to be bare of creativity! I don't find joy in hands on projects like sewing, etc. I'm not naturally "crafty". But creating things feeds the soul and the spirit...and I have really missed that joy. I want to reopen the outlet of creativity.

I am very rusty after years of not writing much...except for my occasional entries on this blog! ;)

But it has been super fun for me this past week. I made a goal for myself to write a poem everyday...long or short...any kind of poem...even if it was a bad one! I don't have time to write a novel or even a short story. But poems? I can do that! :) It's been very enjoyable so far.

I am considering starting a new blog to collect my writings in just to have a place to put them all. It won't be fancy, it won't be professional, and I'll be doing it just for me. (But I am happy to share and get feedback! ;) I'll post here when it is up and running.

Here are two shares from this week's musings:

The first is a collection of Haiku-like poems. (They don't follow the exact format, but they are reminiscent of that style.) The second was written on the same day in a similar theme, but in a different format & style.

Moments with Children

Children are honest

Their faces clear as glass-

They speak no guile.

The young tread lightly

not glancing at their feet-

wondering at the sky.

My sweet ones smile,

not knowing how it hurts-

innocence cannot last.

She speaks with jewels,

casting pearls at my feet

I reap what I have not sown.

Purity, love, and trust-

God's divinity shines

in my child's eyes.

The Gift

The sweetest gift was entrusted me today:

Soft chubby arms around my neck.

She clung--without a fear,

without a care she sung.

The brightness of those cheeks,

The clarity of those eyes

The knowing looks

and winsome quirks

took my by surprise.

The sweetest gift was entrusted me today:

A child's wiles.

Odds and Ends

Weird projects are going on around my house! Whenever my kids don't obey or are slothful in completing their assignments...they are often alloted EXTRA chores....oh, joy for Mom and Dad! Clean house, here we come!

Well, Christopher was vaccuming out our couch which DESPERATELY needed to be done....when he asked me if he could vacuum the dog as well. "Sure, I said, why don't you see if she likes it?"

And silly as it was, Lucy LOVED being vacuumed. She went crazy with delight, and all the kids were laughing in hysterics.
Bad news for us, last month Lucy got some fleas...not a bad infestation, but enough that Julianna who is potty training and naked half the time has quite a few flea bites on her. This upsets me greatly, and we're working hard to make sure that the problem is taken care of. It's happened once before years ago, but back then nobody got bitten. For some reason, Julianna is the only one with any bites. I think it must be because she is the only one in our house allowed to watch TV during the day, and she's on the couch more than the rest of us.

Lucy is making sure that she helps Christopher with his chores. Not a crumb of bread will be left on the couch!!! Yum Yum, Lucy loves the life of a dog...especially when there is FOOD involved! Frustrating story: Lucy has been breaking in to the Garage because the door to our backyard is very hard to close. This last year, our house has settled some making my two back doors difficult to close completely. So when she's tired of being outside, she bangs on the door with her paws till she nudges it open. Then she happily gets into her dog food, gorging and gorging. Lucy has gained so much weight, she looks about ready to pop open! But no matter what we do, she's always managing to find extra food somewhere! She is destined to be an overweight dog. I hope it gets better when I start taking her on jogs again!!!
One of these days, I am going to have brand new brown leather couches...but since it is at the bottom of my priority list, who knows when that will be? Christopher needs braces before I buy new furniture.
Julianna LOVES to eat and is constantly eating and drinking throughout the day. Since we drink a lot of green smoothies, she demanded a cup of my greenish black MUD JUICE (a nasty but healthy concoction of spirulina and chlorella powders mixed in juice). So I gave her her own cup and straw, and she sat down satisfied to have herself a treat....and then got a nasty surprise!!! "YUCK!" She declared, "YUCKY YUCKY YUCKY! Julie no drink it! Mommy's drink, mommy;'s drink!"
My girls idea of playing with their American Girl dolls are posing them for pictures. One day I bought a bunch of miniature banannas for a treat...and my girls were so excited!!! Did they want to eat them? No, not really, they just loved them because they were perfect DOLL SIZE!!!

mmm....looks like these american girl dolls need to wash their table more often! ;)

Homeschool 2011

Homeschooling for me this year has been very hit and miss ever since I was called to be Primary President. We've almost turned into unschoolers, which I'm not too happy with. I am a person who likes structure and rules, but my kids have had to be left a lot more to themselves than I am used to. As a by product, my kids have had more time to do their own projects. Christopher above has invented a lunar base, each portion part of the model with a specific design and purpose.

A lot of Christopher's schooling this year has been through getting boy scout merit badges. He has been working a lot with his cousin Sanford. They've earned so many merit badges, I've been loosing track. Sanford and Christopher also do monthly classes at the Evergreen Science and Aviation museum.
Angel, who is now 5 years old has been officially declared old enough to begin formal school work. She is now starting our "code books" which have taught all of our kids how to read. She is learning her letter sounds, and enjoying every minute. I fully expect that within the year, Angel will catch up to where Courtney is in her reading and writing...maybe not in math, though. Courtney has a natural feel for numbers and speeds ahead of me constantly coming up with answers to things I had no idea she knew how to do. Courtney is enjoying taking her sweet time in regards to reading and writing, which I do not feel in a hurry to press on her. Her dyslexia makes it very difficult for her to read for extended periods. She gets exhausted and has to rest. I've always felt she needs a little more freedom than I've given my other children. She has a very delicate and sensitive spirit and she is very in tune with nature and the world around her. She is slowing blooming in her own way. She is currently reading me a magic school bus book...but she can only handle about 4 pages a day. That doesn't stop her from learning, though...I feel like because she doesn't read fluently yet, she is forced to pay closer attention to details that the rest of us literate folks just pass on by. I am often surprised by her memory for detail, her keen observations, and her clever wit. Courtney's favorite subject to discuss is nature...if you were to look at Thomas Armstrong's theory of 7 intelligences, in addition to spatial intelligence, inrapersonal and logical/mathematical intelligence, Courtney has strengths also in the 8th intelligence....Naturalist Smart. Check out his theory and ideas here. I admire all the work done by Thomas Armstrong and try to read as many of his books as possible.
Dorathy's latest project is typing. Both my older kids have completed a computer typing program. Christopher enjoys using his new typing abilities on his computer games, computer programming lessons, and emailing Sanford.

Dorathy as a reward got to create her own blog, which she enjoys adding to. She's really only just begun, because I don't let her get on the computer as much as she'd like to! You can check out her first blogging attempts here.

Currently, her passion for blogging has been preempted by a strike of inspiration. She has been working on typing up her first chapter book. She first wrote it out on paper, and now she is perfecting and editing it into the typed manuscript. Who knows what project she'll choose next?

Education at Home!

Everyday, we begin our homeschool with scripture study and other family devotionals. It helps us start our day off right, and we get to take the time to have great family discussions. We've begun starting with "scripture chases." Each person takes turns saying a scripture reference, and then everyone "chases" through their scriptures to try and be the first one to find it. Whoever finds it first gets to read it aloud and then give another scripture clue. It's lots of fun and helps us get in the right mood to read.

Our Bishop in our congregation has challenged us to read the entire Book of Mormon by Easter. It is a challenge for our large family with small children to read that more than a chapter at a time. We've been blessed in so many ways for our efforts. The biggest difference I've noticed between when we read scriptures regularly and when we don't is the level of peace we enjoy. When we don't read God's word together, there is more contention and selfishness. When we do, we enjoy more unity and love. It makes the importance of it pretty clear!

We enjoy our scriptures with our family breakfast every morning.

The younger kids draw and play quietly while the older kids read scriptures. That way we are all included and can enjoy being together around the table. Much of our schooling is like that. The older kids work to their capacity, the younger kids hangout and play on their own, while learning by observing and joining in what everyone else is doing. My younger kids may not read, but they do listen...it's amazing how much they pick up and understand! It's fun to hear my 4 year old join in on the discussion with the 12 year old! It's part of what home education is all about!

Fort Clatsop

On Friday, October 29th we took our first BIG field trip of the year to Fort Clatsop near Astoria, Oregon. We left before 8 a.m. but hid bad traffic at the bridge towards Salem. We had numerous traffic difficulties, but we were very blessed to be only about 30 minutes late! It took us over 3 1/2 hours to get there! It made me grateful for our nice big van and our mini-tv screens.

We were met by rangers who gave us a nice orientation and a good hour tour. In this picture Dorathy is answering a question.

We had perfect sunny weather for our field trip! The rangers "aplogized" for not having an authentic "Lewis and Clark Rainy day". We told them, that was quite all right!

We went on a fun nature walk. The kids are all hunting for different species of trees and plants. Here is Courtney contemplating a squirrel chattering in the trees.

Here is my friend Ann who came with us and our older kids on the long trip. We both left our young kids at home with her 14 yr old to babysit.

Nature Bingo!

The boys pretend to be soldiers in the fort.

Here is our great group of homescooled kids!

7 of the older kids are in my boys class. A few kids were unable to make it. One was sick, and the other was moving to a new house.

We had to get a picture of Lori with her baby, just like Sacajawea with her son! We women can do almost anything with a baby strapped to our backs!

Courtney had a very important question about this Display: why didn't those Indians have any clothes on?

All the kids finished their Jr. Ranger packet and earned Jr. Ranger status with badges and certificates.

Dorathy poses by the big statue of Lewis, Clark, Seaman, and Sacajawea.

After the tour at Fort Clatsop, we went to the Tower at Astoria. It is Beautiful! A mural wraps all the way across the outside of the tower, with historical figures, stories, and dates drawn over it.

There's our crew at the bottom!

We ran up the spiral staircase inside to the balcony on top, where we had a perfect gorgeous view on all sides. We could see the Ocean, bay, lakes, rivers, forests, and mountains. It was an incredible day! The kids were very impressed. Only a few were scared of heights.

The boys made paper airplanes to fly off the top. You could buy gliders to fly off the top for 75 cents, but paper airplanes work just as good.

Those tall three handsome young men in the middle took the day off of work to take their two little brothers on our field trip. It was touching to see their family love and loyalty. They took very good care of their younger brothers. Kudos to their mother for raising such fine young sons!!!

It was a long dark drive back home. We went a different route to avoid Portland traffic. When we got to Mcminnville, we took a short break to give everyone cold stone creamery ice cream.

It was a very long, very wonderful day. We were gone for 12 hours! It was so good to get back home!

Cauliflower Power Party

After our field trip to learn about horses in Silverton, we played at friends house, then we carpooled together to a great service opportunity.

This year, we got involved in a new organization called SalemHarvest. It is a grass roots effort to end hunger. This group finds people who want to donate their produce. They find everything from commercial sellers, to UPICK farms, to private owners. We then gather volunteers to work. The volunteers get to keep up to half of what they pick for their own family and friends. The rest is donated to local food banks and charities. We joined them right away and picked cherries, blueberries, apples, pears, and more.

Salem Harvest has donated a total of 23, 563 pounds of produce. They have picked about 49, 326 pounds of produce...and that is NOT including the Cauliflower since we processed over 200,000 pounds!

These cauliflowers were bigger than I've ever seen in my life! Many of them weighed up to 16 lbs and were difficult to lift. They were as big as our heads...or as a whole baby!

The kids were cheerful helpers.

Everyone was excited to be a part of this big effort.

We couldn't believe how big the mountains of Cauliflower were. And we arrived towards the tail end of the harvest party!

Our job was to load the heads of cauliflower into the boxes to be shipped to Washington, throughout Oregon, Arizona, and Utah.

The adults were very impressed with our "kid army". So was I! The leaders there said our kids worked faster than the adults did the day before. The kids were very pleased with all the compliments.

For the boys, it was like playing football. Cauliflowers were being thrown everywhere! Towards the end we had to be careful since the heads were being launched from all directions. We mostly tried to do brigades, passingthe heads from person to person. The kids preferred throwing them like spaceships, of course. A few people had Cauliflowers land on them instead of in the box!

My favorite picture is of this little 3 year old with the gloves. She was determined to help, too!

Trying to get a shot here of just how steep and tall those cauliflower mountains were! And the tarps they were loaded on were slick. Lots of us were slipping and falling on them.

I am grateful that some of my kids got the chance to do some service for others and work hard. Everyone had a great experience and felt really good afterwards. We got ice cream at Costco afterwards to celebrate!