We had a pretty good week this week! The older three are slowly getting back into the mindset of “We get up and we do school. Mornings are for working, not playing.” Of course we still have to take care of Little E, but they’ve been much better this week about continuing to work independently even when I’m out of the room and busy with baby. The baby monitor static drives me absolutely crazy, but if it means the baby is actually sleeping in his bed and we’re able to get more work done, then hey–I can tolerate it.
I also think E is getting a little more used to the noise and chaos of having three older brothers around and has been unexpectedly able to fall asleep in my arms in the middle of it all at times. We have a good routine for the baby and it feels like finally his routine and their routine are starting to mesh. So things have gone much smoother than last week.
We added grammar back in this week. A did 3 lessons on past, present, and future tense verbs, and C did 3 review lessons on nouns and pronouns. We spent some time reviewing the first half of the alphabet with D in The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Reading, although he still says, “Reading is sure tricky.”
Math continues to go well. A did exercises 8-11 plus a review lesson on length, using both centimeters/meters/kilometers and inches/feet/yards. C still has the reviews at the end of Singapore 1A to complete, but essentially finished 1A (exercises 57-61) and began 1B (exercises 1-3). D did several more Miquon pages on subtraction. We also spent time playing math games and grouping popsicle sticks into tens.
We spent the rest of our schooltime reading scriptures and doing history. Memory work has tied into history this week. We’re still working on part of the Declaration of Independence and added in the 13 colonies as well as important events in the Revolution. The boys colored the Betsy Ross flag and a copy of the 1755 Mitchell Map of the 13 Colonies.
(Yes, one of them got the stripes backwards.)
We also read Story of the World chapter 22 on Revolution, the story of the Declaration of Independence, A Day in the Life of a Colonial Printer, and two books from our own collection about Washington and Valley Forge (which has especially nice illustrations.) I also picked up the Rainbow Book of American History for about $4 which we’re enjoying as well.
The boys finished up yesterday with dioramas of Valley Forge.
We’re still working our way through the Liberty’s Kids videos. One day I’ll pull out my original school plans and see where we’re at and where we should head next, but for now we’re thoroughly enjoying our meandering journey through colonial America and the Revolution.
And now the baby is crying, so this will probably be my shortest weekly report ever. 
Little E is one month old today!
The past month has flown by, and yet it feels like he’s been a part of our family forever. It’s a paradox. Already it’s getting harder and harder to remember life without him.
What changes a month can bring:
- My body! I’ll forego the before/after pictures, although I finally did change my sidebar photo so I’m not 8 months pregnant over there.
- The house feels much smaller.
- The laundry piles seem much larger.
- The days go by quicker, and yet the weeks seem longer.
- Sleep…what can I say?!
- D has grown into an awesome big brother.
- A, C, and D have all accepted E and loved him unconditionally and have shown new capacities for service.
- My abilities to manage home and family responsibility have increased.
- Once again, we’ve felt the increase in our capacity to love and nurture as we’ve welcomed another child.
And of course, we’ve fallen in love with this new beautiful little person that has come into our lives. He is so incredibly sweet. I never thought beautiful and sweet would be two words I’d use to describe a baby boy, but he truly is both! (All of his brothers were as well.) He’s already grown so much. I’m sad that I’ve already had to pack away the tiniest of his clothes. He’s becoming so aware of things around him and is already giving hints of the smiles yet to come. I can’t wait to watch his little personality really blossom.
Getting to know this little person has made those years of waiting, hoping, and praying for the chance to have another baby, completely worth it.
We still have our ups and downs, but daily life is getting a little smoother. The other three are amazing helpers and it’s been so fun to watch them be excited about my pregnancy and about having a new brother. When I was on my way to deliver C, I cried about the change I was bringing into A’s life and how it would never be the same again. I had no idea! It never is the same again. It’s better. Watching my children become such great and caring big brothers has been one of my greatest joys in parenting so far.
Several weeks ago I figured out that my camera makes movies too. Who knew? One day I really ought to read the instruction manual. Not that I could find it. But anyhow….
Now the boys, and C in particular, are always asking me to make movies. I recorded C singing to his baby brother and he said, “Now you’ll make sure you put this on the blog?” Yes…
Once I figure out how in the world you do that. Today in a rare moment when E was sleeping, the other three had gone with DH to get haircuts, and I had free hands and some quiet time, I figured it out.
Mainly for the grandparents’ sake, here it is:
Oh my word–my baby is in his bassinet right now, he’s happy, and is going to sleep all by himself without screaming about it…which is so not the way the rest of this week went. I am utterly exhausted and we only had three days of school after Grandma and Poppa took the three big boys to stay at their house for a few days last weekend.
DH started work again on Wednesday, and part of me wondered why in the world we are even attempting any kind of school now. But after yesterday when the boys basically had free unstructured time to play all afternoon and ended up arguing with and teasing each other and generally getting on each other’s nerves, I remembered why. We like school. We like that comfortable, predictable routine. Not that this week has been terribly routine, but we’re all happier when we’re at least attempting schoolwork even though we might not get to our “morning” scripture study until 3 p.m. They love school and I am so grateful for that. It really is easier to keep the general peace around here when they are productively busy with learning.
This week we did scripture study, memory work (still Declaration of Independence sentence), math, and history. I realized last week that everything I had planned was Mom-intensive, so I decided that I would have a lot more things on hand this week that they could work on independently. But then my printer decided to quit talking to my computer and I have been unable to print a single sheet I wanted. It worked last week, but it won’t work this week. Computer problems drive me absolutely crazy as I have no clue how to fix them. DH hasn’t been able to fix this problem either, so it put somewhat of a crimp into my school plans. With a grumpy baby and me functioning on less than adequate sleep (just keep repeating, “This too shall pass…”) maybe it was a good thing. I’m still frustrated though.
In math, A began the section on length and did exercise 6, 7, and a review in Singapore 3B. In 1A, C completed the section on shapes and started the section on length, completing exercises 50-56. D did about 6 sheets from Miquon on addition. He’s quite good at it.
For history, the boys colored maps of Boston and labelled Paul Revere’s ride, the Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill, and the Old North Church among other things.
We also watched more Liberty’s Kids videos and read some good books. I highly recommend Let It Begin Here about the battle at Lexington and Concord, Paul Revere’s Ride by Longfellow, and Sleds on Boston Common. 
C read Ben and Me by Robert Lawson for free reading and A is half-way through Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I started reading The Illustrated Life of George Washington but dropped it in favor of a Brother Cadfael mystery. Maybe when I’m a bit more rested, I’ll have more luck with non-fiction.
Other things we’ve learned and random thoughts from this week:
- The week seems sooooo long now that DH has to work on Saturdays. I should be used to it as he worked from noon to 6 every Saturday in November and December and it felt like he was gone the entire day, but it’s worse now that he really is gone the entire day.
- I thought about making Saturday a school day so Monday could be completely off, but I really need his help with E on Mondays and Tuesdays so more school will happen on those days.
- C loves his baby brother. A lot.
- C’s idea of watching the baby for 5 minutes so Mommy can make lunch goes something like this: Hold the baby. Put the baby down. Wrap the baby up. Go show baby to Mommy. Hold the baby. Put the baby down. Pick him up. Give him to D. Take him back. Put him down. Pick him back up. Wrap him up again. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat…
- The difference between a happy, cooing, content baby and a baby who is so utterly overstimulated that it will take 90 minutes to calm him down enough for a 30-minute nap is about 3 seconds.
- After two such nap sessions, Mommy is exhausted.
- I should really put someone else in charge of lunch.
- Baby E will sleep in the stroller, so when all else fails, go for a walk. P.E. is good for everyone.
- When Mommy is the only adult at home during the day she gets to do all the running around so E also gets to sleep in the car as he is schlepped about to C’s Kindermusik class, to D’s Kindermusik class, to take A to scouts, and to pick him back up again. It’s no wonder the child doesn’t like his bassinet.
- Although he has gotten a lot better about sleeping in it at night and going right back to sleep after eating. That makes a huge difference as I’ve been dealing with all the nighttime feedings, burpings, and changings myself as DH really needs to be alert and rested as a matter of safety when he goes to work.
- A and C really don’t mind having school in short, interrupted sessions throughout the day.
- D, however, does mind having his play interrupted unless it’s for his FIAR book.
- I’m not sure this was a real smile, but it sure is cute.
Today was DH’s first day back to work.
When all was said and done, it really wasn’t that horrible. Of course, after last night, there was really no where to go but up. We were up about every two hours with the little one who had taunted us with hopes of a good night’s sleep by going from 11:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. the previous two nights. Sometime during the day you realize that while four hours of sleep really isn’t sufficient, you can actually feel human again after such a (relatively) long stretch of uninterrupted rest. Other days, you will not be so blessed. Like today.
Not only did DH start work again, he started in a new position, with a new schedule (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday off–can’t wait to see how that affects our schooling), and a new time to be there: 6:30 a.m. No sleeping in if you’re up half the night with the baby. This should be interesting. Although the upside is that he’ll be home at 4:30 each afternoon, which means more family time at that end of the day. Hurray!! (Except for today because he had to go pick up his car–his brand new car–which had to be repaired as the fan on the heater runs and runs and runs regardless of whether the car is running or not, thus wearing down the battery. Luckily it’s his work car so we don’t have to foot the bill and it gets repaired in a very timely fashion!)
So in addition to getting very little sleep, feeling slightly nervous about the new work situation, DH also had to jumpstart his car with our van before he could even get in to work this morning. He apologized if that noise woke me up. It didn’t. I was so dead, I didn’t even hear him leave.
Eventually I dragged myself out of bed too, only because E was screaming again, and set out to face the day with four boys on my own. It was a real change especially as the other three had been staying at Grandma and Poppa’s since Saturday morning. We brought them home last night. They had a great time, but also missed their baby brother, and have been making up for all the kisses, hugs, and holding that they missed out on. I don’t think they mentioned missing me at all.
We missed them though. The house was so quiet, which was nice for a while, but it felt wrong. I really do enjoy much of the craziness and chaos that comes with raising boys. I miss them when they’re gone. We needed some time to focus on E though and his needs.
I don’t know if it was the excitement (and noise) of having three doting brothers around again, or what, but E had a terrible morning today and cried and cried and would not go down for a nap. I needed a nap myself, but couldn’t exactly take one if he wouldn’t. I did get a shower though! That was nice and went a long way toward helping me feel more alive. I’m taking advantage of having big brothers around who can keep an eye on baby for a short while. A really does do a good job and likes having that responsibility.
We managed to do some math today during a very short nap, and after lunch when Screaming Baby emerged again (it’s kind of like Jekyll and Hyde, he’s really quite an angel usually) we went for a walk instead of insisting on a nap. He got the much needed nap anyway, and the rest of us got much needed exercise and fresh air, if you can call it that.
It’s amazing what schooling you can squeeze into opportune moments. A practiced piano, we read scriptures, did a reading lesson with D, and watched some more Liberty’s Kids now that we have the DVDs. And I fell asleep, sitting upright on the couch, through the last episode while I fed E. Then we took C to Kindermusik class and found out that grumpy babies are not helped any by listening to beginning recorder players. C’s excited about learning the recorder this semester though, and I’m excited that E had a great evening (after that) both food wise and sleep wise. I’m crossing my fingers that it will last and that tomorrow will be a better day.
(What I learned this week: There are many things I can do one-handed while holding a baby. Typing, and therefore blogging, is not one of them. Sorry for the lack of posts lately…)
Last Sunday, D told me, “We need to do school again. It’s been sooooo long.”
Yeah, my thoughts exactly.
So we tried, we really did. Tuesday was a complete miss, but we at least did something “schoolish” every other day this week when we could squeeze it in around nursing, diaper changes, doctor appointments, trying to teach a baby to not scream whenever he’s laid in his bassinet, and trying to catch up on sleep. Last week we had a pretty good sleeper. This week…no. Tuesday we went to the doctor for the two-week checkup. That’s all we did. I don’t know how that took the entire day and all of my energy, but it did. I have no idea what the other three boys did that day. I really don’t. We also had to deal with mad baby on Thursday after E was circumcised. That was fun…
Some days it seems to take two adults to care for one small infant, the other three get to fend for themselves, and somehow in the end it’s ok. Everyone’s pretty happy, everyone’s needs get met (for the most part), and the house isn’t quite a total wreck. Yet.
The boys have even been learning quite a bit on their own as they said they had already gotten through several of the books I brought out to read today. “But we still want you to read them, Mom, so you know what happened!” They’re so thoughtful and I’m so thankful for our history book basket! It was nice to sit and read together again though and have some of that school structure back in our lives, even when we didn’t get around to it until after lunch and even though we’re still missing half of our subjects.
We managed morning scripture study three days this week and practiced their new song for Primary. We reviewed math facts and as I predicted, it was pretty dismal. Math is a priority for next week. We’ve taken far too much time off of that subject. Along with flashcards, A has been reviewing multiplication facts with 100-problem sheets from math-drills.com and C has done several addition/subtraction pages from Miquon.
We began memorizing just a part of the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
I was going to do more, but I think we’ll be lucky to get this one line down. We’re out of practice with memory work. Come to think of it, we’re out of practice with just about everything right now. Except reading. We’re always good with reading. So we mainly read for history this week. We read SOTW chapter 21 about the French and Indian War and George Washington. They did the mapwork and colored pictures of Colonial Williamsburg and the Boston Tea Party. Our longer read-alouds are still Johnny Tremain and The Bulletproof George Washington, and we read a lot of shorter books on various Revolutionary War subjects and people as well.
We’re also enjoying the Liberty’s Kids videos on Youtube (until the DVDs come into the library) and we watched National Treasure. That counts as history, doesn’t it?
I think that’s about it as far as formal schoolwork goes. I also remembered to send D to Kindermusik this morning, which was quite the feat considering C did not have class this week and the days have kind of blended together. D also went to a friend’s birthday party, Grandma and Poppa came to visit, and on Monday when I was feeling especially stir crazy, we drove down to Cabela’s so DH could spend a gift card. I stayed in the car with E who napped and nursed while the other three went in to see the fish and stuffed animals. Then we stopped at Border’s so I could get some books with one of my giftcards. It was nice to get out, although it also wore me out. It’s been so nice to feel pretty great again (instead of pregnant, huge, and uncomfortable) that I forget that I still have quite a bit of healing to do myself. I have to consciously make an effort to take it easy and let DH do more for me than I usually do. He’s sleep deprived as well though and with my up-and-down emotions this week, we’ve made quite the pair.
This kid is cute though, so it’s all worth it!
Hopefully next week, I’ll be functioning on a little bit more sleep and we can DO a little bit more than just read. Although DH goes back to work next Wednesday after being home for 2 1/2 weeks, so we’ll just see how things go…
Let’s try finishing the post this time before hitting Publish, shall we?
It’s time for a new reading list. I never came close to finishing my 999 reading list for 2009, nor did I accomplish my revised goal of 52 books in 52 weeks. I did finish 42 books total though, which is pretty good considering that instead of reading, I spent most of the summer curled up in the fetal position on my couch trying to keep something, anything, in my stomach. So pregnancy wasn’t good for my reading goals. I didn’t think having a newborn would be good either, but so far he sleeps a lot, eats a lot, I’m relaxing a lot, and getting in quite a bit of reading!
I’m sure that will change here soon, but I still wanted to have a reading list for 2010. I really enjoyed reading a variety of books last year due to my different categories and just knowing I had a list of books I wanted to read was a good reminder to sit down with a book a lot more often than I used to (or than I used to think possible with small children.)
So for 2010, I found a reading challenge started by a mom on the Well-Trained Mind boards that looked interesting. It’s the 20/20/20 challenge:
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Read 20 books–2 each in 10 categories/authors
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Read 20 books–10 each in 2 categories/authors
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Read 20 books–in any category
That’s still 60 books and while I don’t expect to read 60, my goal is to at least read the first 30 books, which include a lot of titles that have been on my list the past two years, but for some reason or another I haven’t gotten around to reading. I’m still looking for a few titles to complete the list.
What are you reading this year?
20 BOOKS in 10 CATEGORIES
1. History/Government
2. Historical Fiction
- Prelude to Glory vol. 9
- *Johnny Tremain (read aloud with the boys)
3. Biography
- *The Illustrated Life of Washington by Joel Headley
- John Adams by David McCullough
4. Parenting
- So You Want to Raise a Boy by Cleon Skousen
- Raising up a Family to the Lord by Gene R. Cook
5. Homemaking
- It’s Here…Somewhere by Alice Fulton-Osbourne and Pauline Hatch
6. Religious
- *Jesus the Christ
- *Read the Ensign magazine every month
7. Scripture
8. Music
- Joys and Sorrows by Pablo Casals
- Song of the Righteous by Darwin Wolford
9. Young Adult Fiction
- Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
10. Nonfiction/Travel/Food??? Not sure about the last category yet. Maybe travel plus food so I can read Julia Child and Calvin Trillin.
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2o BOOKS in 2 CATEGORIES
Well-Trained Mind Literature recommendations
- Dante’s Inferno Cantos I-V
- Shakespeare Henry V
- Don Quixote retold by Martin Jenkins 1/16 349 p.
- Gulliver’s Travels
- The Pilgrim’s Progress
- Robinson Crusoe
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle
- Perrault’s Complete Fairy Tales
Mysteries
- Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie 1/5 253 p.
- The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie 1/19
********************
20 OTHER BOOKS IN ANY CATEGORY
(read alouds with the boys, other school books,
and anything else I find fun or interesting)
- Secrets of the Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg 1/13 276 p.
*Titles in bold are what I’m currently reading
I miss writing weekly reports. I’m weird, I know. But I miss looking back over our week every Friday and writing about all the things we’ve accomplished. The past four weeks have been kind of a blur however.
First the holidays, then we had a baby, and well, things have changed. In a good way though. The baby is doing great. He’s a champion nurser, and we’re actually getting a routine to our days together, although I’m still pretty exhausted.
The other three boys? They’re a completely different story.
They’re going on four weeks with no real routine and it’s really starting to show. Some days they’ve really been creative and have found ways to entertain themselves. Other days they’ve gone a little crazy. While they’ve showered the baby with affection, they’ve not had much for each other and have been playing a new game called “I’m bored, so I’ll pick on my brother.” I suppose it’s not really a new game, they seem to start it every time we take too much time off from our school routine. But this time, I’m functioning on a lot less sleep than normal, have understandably been focused mainly on baby, and have had a harder time directing their energy into positive activities some days.
The weather hasn’t helped either. We’re trapped under an inversion layer at the moment and the outside air is just gray, thick, and yucky. So we haven’t been going out in it much. That’s starting to take its toll as well and the house suddenly seems much smaller than it did two weeks ago. I’ll be so glad when the air clears and the sun comes out.
For now, here’s what we’ve been doing inside the house. (In weekly report format just to show how life is school right now. )
P.E.:
- Run and get me a diaper!
- Run and bring me a burp cloth!
- Run and get this, run and bring me that. They’ve been very helpful as I’m trying to heal.
Spelling: Learned how to spell E’s name.
Art: C and D have drawn, colored, and painted many pictures for E and for Mommy. The wall around his bassinet is a veritable art gallery.
Music: C likes to sing lullabies to E. We’ve also introduced E to Mendelssohn, Mozart, and the Bach solo cello suites so far. DH took C and D to their Kindermusik class. A continues to practice the piano although we’re getting really sick of his assigned Christmas pieces.
Logic (or lack thereof):
- A, C, or D: “Why is E crying?” DH: “He’s _______(hungry, tired, cold, etc.)
- A, C, or D: “Why is Mommy crying?” DH: “I don’t know. I’m not sure Mommy knows either.” Ahh, new mommy hormones…
Science: This has been the subject of the month!
- Extensive labwork in human anatomy and development with all manner of accompanying questions:
- What’s that thing sticking out of his bellybutton?
When will it fall off?
Why is his head soft in places?
Why is his skin dry and peeling?
Why do I have to support his head?
When will he talk?
How do you feed him?
How does your body make milk?
Why does he eat so often?
When can he eat toast?
Can he have ice cream yet?
Why is his poop so yellow?
What does jaundice mean?
Why did they take blood from his heel?
Why doesn’t he like to take baths?
Why does he sleep so much?
When will he wake up?
Can I hold him again when he wakes up?
- What’s that thing sticking out of his bellybutton?
- My body gets to reverse all the physical changes of the past 9 months.
- My taste buds have returned. Chocolate tastes good again. Oranges and tomatoes taste good again. I’ve missed them so.
- Why do my taste buds totally change when pregnant anyway???
Language Arts: Primary focus has been adjectives such as:
- Squooshy–Mommy’s tummy is squooshy now.
- “He’s so cute!”
- “He’s so tiny!” Mainly said by D along with: “His_______(fill in the blank: legs, toes, fingers, hands, eyes, ears, fingernails) are sooooo tiny!
Latin: D tells E frequently, “Ego amo te, E.” (I love you.)
Math:
- Count how many times E sneezes. He has these killer sneezes and the other three think they’re hilarious.
- Count how many days Mommy can go without a shower or washing her hair.
- Not to compare children or anything, but the baby that weighed 6 lb. 7 upon coming home from the hospital eats a lot more than the one that weighed 4 lb. 9 which means more sleep for Mom! Although…
- 2+3+3=8 So why don’t I feel like I got 8 hours of sleep last night?
- Comparisons again: D seems huge to me now, especially his eyes.
History: We looked at D’s and C’s baby pictures on the computer and talked about their birth stories. A’s pictures are unfortunately pre-digital and are sitting in a box somewhere in the basement.
We did have our moments of what you could seriously classify as school. We watched a video about big cats and a good adaptation of The Sign of the Beaver. A has spent hours and hours poring over the new National Geographic Atlas of the World we got for Christmas. He also spent hours sorting all the stamps he got for Christmas for his collection. We’ve been pretty consistent about piano practice, scripture reading at bedtime, and quiet reading time most days. A finally finished Harry Potter 2, then read Harry Potter 3 in two days. C is reading The Borrowers, and we’ve read about 38 pages of Johnny Tremain together. We also have an overflowing book basket with about 47 books on the American Revolution that they’ve been reading independently here and there.
I thought I’d do a lot more reading aloud once the baby came with all the nursing time and all, but so far I’ve been feeling selfish and wanting to read my own books instead (I’ve finished three so far in 2010). I also think we need a bigger couch if I’m going to hold a baby, a book, and fit the other three boys in.
Yes, I know the baby IS the lesson, but next week we’re going to attempt a little more structure in our lives. We need it. No, I’m not going to be super mom and jump back into our full school routine. Honestly, I have no idea how to fit that all in again anyway (or maybe my brain’s just fuzzy still.) But I do want to get back into our morning scripture study, review math facts all around (I’m scared to think about how that will go), and read some more of our history books together. That shouldn’t be too stressful, but we’ll see how it all works out.
Favorite pictures from tonight:
