Saturday, March 17, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
UltraSound
I had Arwen's main 20 week ultrasound today. John came. This is the first one he has come to one since I last dragged him to Johnny's. It was so nice to have him along and we both left wondering why we did not bring him to all of the others.
On the first glance everything looks perfect. As long as I do not get a phone call in the next 48hours, we can assume that everything is developing well with little Arwen.
We are so lucky to have ultrasounds. I love seeing my little baby moving around inside of me. I am also amazed at how developed babies are so young. At 19weeks and 5days, she has all of her major organs, all of her body parts, and for the most part they are all functioning. Life is truly an amazing thing.
I look forward to meeting little Arwen in another 20 weeks. As long as everything is going well, I won't get to see her again until I can hold her in my arms.
On the first glance everything looks perfect. As long as I do not get a phone call in the next 48hours, we can assume that everything is developing well with little Arwen.
We are so lucky to have ultrasounds. I love seeing my little baby moving around inside of me. I am also amazed at how developed babies are so young. At 19weeks and 5days, she has all of her major organs, all of her body parts, and for the most part they are all functioning. Life is truly an amazing thing.
I look forward to meeting little Arwen in another 20 weeks. As long as everything is going well, I won't get to see her again until I can hold her in my arms.
A Big Family Phenomena
I am learning that there are funny things that happen in my life just because I have a big family. One of those funny things is loose teeth. Up until last night, I have had three kids with loose teeth. Rachel lost her first tooth just after I brushed her teeth last night. Now she is out of the running for loose teeth, but very pleased with her dollar. Kate has three loose teeth and has lost three recently. Adam's two front teeth are both a bit wiggly. I suspect we will see more teeth coming out in the near future.
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| I still am shocked that Rachel is old enough to loose teeth. I still think of her as one of my toddlers. |
HomeSchool and FHE
For Home school, I have had Johnny and Kate working on a research project of their choice for English. It was mainly trying to get them to do their own research while getting some writing practice in. They had just over two weeks to complete the project. It had to have a written report, a tri-fold board display, and an oral presentation. Kate chose to do her project on donuts, and Johnny chose nuclear missiles.
For Family Home evening last night, Johnny and Kate gave their oral presentations. It was so fun, and so very informative.
Johnny did a great job of teaching us about nuclear fission and nuclear fusion and what it all meant, and Einstein's E=mc^2. He also talked about the history, the cost, and the illnesses associated with radiation. I must confess, I was rather interested and impressed. I think we all learned a lot form Johnny's presentation.
Kate taught us the history of donuts: how the name came around and how the basic shape was formed etc. Kate ended of course with yummy donuts for everyone. (I think that may have been why she picked donuts in the first place.) Kate as always did a good job presenting.
This went so well, I think we will do more project presentations for Family Home Evening. Maybe the next assignment will be something on church history.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Homeschool Update
I feel a bit like I have been neglecting the blog. This is in part due to the fact that I have been neglecting the camera. I like to update with photos. But I think today, I will just update with words.
Life is going along in the ordinary way, which is good. Things out of the ordinary usually means the car broke down again. The car is still running-- few.
This is how homeschool is going for each child:
Ruth likes homeschool now because she has made a lot of good friends. She has spent a lot of time with her friends preparing for mock trial, and now that that is over, she will be spending an even larger amount of her time with her friends getting ready for the Shakespeare Play. As far as school work goes, the online charter school Ruth is on is a lot harder then when she took all honors courses in the public school last year. But she is still getting all A's. Ruth hates geometry and finds it rather challenging, so she quit doing it for a month while she nearly finished up the entire school year in most of her other classes. Ruth is now doing just geometry. I don't think she likes that very well. But, she has a month of work to catch on. So that is where she is by choice. Ruth has chosen to continue home schooling at this point probably until graduation.
Kate loves homeschool. I think she did after just the first week. Kate really enjoyed the Mock Trial competition. She was particularly good at spontaneous arguments in the position of lawyer. Now Kate is thinking about law as a career rather than a doctor. Kate is easy to teach, because she generally likes what she has to do, gets to work, and gets it done early. I like teaching Kate.
Johnny prefers homeschool too and is actually back to his fun self socially. At the end of last year he had been picking up some odd behaviors and was beginning to have trouble with friends. That is not the case anymore. He just needed more academically. I am often at war with Johnny to make him sit and study for more than 2 minutes in a row. But this is a war, I intend to win. I think his inability to study is the result of three years of being completely bored in public school. I give him a lot of difficult and advanced work. When he gets even a little bit stuck, he quits and goes and does something else. I am tough teacher though. I know what he can do and I insist that he learns to do hard things. Johnny doesn't particularly like to write, so I am making him do a lot of it. Of course, he is excelling in math and science. In math he is in the beginning of algebra one. I think once we finish chapter two, he will really start enjoying algebra-- problem solving is next and that is what Johnny is good at. Johnny is also doing well at learning some Japanese. He likes that, so he tries to do some extra stuff with it.
Adam is doing great. He will be completely finished with his first grade curriculum in 4 weeks. So I guess we will move on to the second grade for the last two months of the school year. Adam gets up early, gets to work on his own and finishes up before lunch. He is really easy to teach right now and is picking up his lessons well. However, I am planning on sending Adam to school next year. I think he needs more time with other boys his age, and Ruth , Kate, and Johnny all got a good sense of the consequences of good and bad behavior with their time in the public school. I want the little kids to get a sense of that too.
Rachel is struggling to learn to read. That is not unusual for my kids. Johnny is the only one of 5 kids so far that did not have to work hard to learn to read. But it is hard. I really don't like teaching my kids how to read. Yet, I have taught them all because school alone just doesn't do it for my kids. They need me reading with them for at least a half hour a day, and they need phonics lessons. It is nice to see the progress though. Rachel has an easy time memorizing words, but she struggles sounding out words. She has several books memorized. I have her point to the words as she reads them to help her remember the words for the next book. So far that is working better than all of the phonics and time spent sounding out words. It also seems to help to make her read a small amount in unfamiliar books. I am also sending Rachel to school next year for the same two reasons I am sending Adam. I am also sending Rachel to school because she is very stubborn. I think it will do her some good to have to do what her teacher says everyday even though she certainly will not. But Rachel is shy. If she finds that she doesn't like school, or if I find that she is withdrawing from other friends and family, I will bring her back home.
I am finding it interesting:
How every kid has their own way of learning to read. Ruth was more like Rachel. Kate and Adam had to sound out every word. Johnny, I don't really know, because he moved from having a hard time reading The Cat in the Hat, to reading The Magic Tree House in about a month.
How much better a indivualized education is rather than the public school one size fits all . I have spoken with several public school teachers recently and have been surprised that they agree with me about the one-sized fits all failure in the American public schools.
I am learning that :
I will need to contact universities to find out what I need to do and what records I will keep for high school for my children. I will have to spend a lot of time on that soon as Ruth will start 9th grade in the fall. Kate and Johnny will start 9th grade the year after.
I will need to find out what I will need to do for Johnny to start college at about 16 years old. I have no intention of sending him away from home until after his mission, so we are planning on sending him to a local University.
All in all:
I am glad that I was prompted to homeschool my children. On the whole, it has been a positive experience the and the right thing for my children. We have met a lot of great people and a lot of great kids. I like that my kids have more time to work on their particular talents and can go ahead or stay behind depending on how well they are doing. Johnny was in third grade public school this year except for history is working completely on a 7th grade level. Kate is on level. Ruth is working at a 9th grade level while still in the eighth grade online program. Adam has been working just about 2 months ahead of public school first grade. So he is basically on level. Rachel is probably right on level for kindergarten.
Life is going along in the ordinary way, which is good. Things out of the ordinary usually means the car broke down again. The car is still running-- few.
This is how homeschool is going for each child:
Ruth likes homeschool now because she has made a lot of good friends. She has spent a lot of time with her friends preparing for mock trial, and now that that is over, she will be spending an even larger amount of her time with her friends getting ready for the Shakespeare Play. As far as school work goes, the online charter school Ruth is on is a lot harder then when she took all honors courses in the public school last year. But she is still getting all A's. Ruth hates geometry and finds it rather challenging, so she quit doing it for a month while she nearly finished up the entire school year in most of her other classes. Ruth is now doing just geometry. I don't think she likes that very well. But, she has a month of work to catch on. So that is where she is by choice. Ruth has chosen to continue home schooling at this point probably until graduation.
Kate loves homeschool. I think she did after just the first week. Kate really enjoyed the Mock Trial competition. She was particularly good at spontaneous arguments in the position of lawyer. Now Kate is thinking about law as a career rather than a doctor. Kate is easy to teach, because she generally likes what she has to do, gets to work, and gets it done early. I like teaching Kate.
Johnny prefers homeschool too and is actually back to his fun self socially. At the end of last year he had been picking up some odd behaviors and was beginning to have trouble with friends. That is not the case anymore. He just needed more academically. I am often at war with Johnny to make him sit and study for more than 2 minutes in a row. But this is a war, I intend to win. I think his inability to study is the result of three years of being completely bored in public school. I give him a lot of difficult and advanced work. When he gets even a little bit stuck, he quits and goes and does something else. I am tough teacher though. I know what he can do and I insist that he learns to do hard things. Johnny doesn't particularly like to write, so I am making him do a lot of it. Of course, he is excelling in math and science. In math he is in the beginning of algebra one. I think once we finish chapter two, he will really start enjoying algebra-- problem solving is next and that is what Johnny is good at. Johnny is also doing well at learning some Japanese. He likes that, so he tries to do some extra stuff with it.
Adam is doing great. He will be completely finished with his first grade curriculum in 4 weeks. So I guess we will move on to the second grade for the last two months of the school year. Adam gets up early, gets to work on his own and finishes up before lunch. He is really easy to teach right now and is picking up his lessons well. However, I am planning on sending Adam to school next year. I think he needs more time with other boys his age, and Ruth , Kate, and Johnny all got a good sense of the consequences of good and bad behavior with their time in the public school. I want the little kids to get a sense of that too.
Rachel is struggling to learn to read. That is not unusual for my kids. Johnny is the only one of 5 kids so far that did not have to work hard to learn to read. But it is hard. I really don't like teaching my kids how to read. Yet, I have taught them all because school alone just doesn't do it for my kids. They need me reading with them for at least a half hour a day, and they need phonics lessons. It is nice to see the progress though. Rachel has an easy time memorizing words, but she struggles sounding out words. She has several books memorized. I have her point to the words as she reads them to help her remember the words for the next book. So far that is working better than all of the phonics and time spent sounding out words. It also seems to help to make her read a small amount in unfamiliar books. I am also sending Rachel to school next year for the same two reasons I am sending Adam. I am also sending Rachel to school because she is very stubborn. I think it will do her some good to have to do what her teacher says everyday even though she certainly will not. But Rachel is shy. If she finds that she doesn't like school, or if I find that she is withdrawing from other friends and family, I will bring her back home.
I am finding it interesting:
How every kid has their own way of learning to read. Ruth was more like Rachel. Kate and Adam had to sound out every word. Johnny, I don't really know, because he moved from having a hard time reading The Cat in the Hat, to reading The Magic Tree House in about a month.
How much better a indivualized education is rather than the public school one size fits all . I have spoken with several public school teachers recently and have been surprised that they agree with me about the one-sized fits all failure in the American public schools.
I am learning that :
I will need to contact universities to find out what I need to do and what records I will keep for high school for my children. I will have to spend a lot of time on that soon as Ruth will start 9th grade in the fall. Kate and Johnny will start 9th grade the year after.
I will need to find out what I will need to do for Johnny to start college at about 16 years old. I have no intention of sending him away from home until after his mission, so we are planning on sending him to a local University.
All in all:
I am glad that I was prompted to homeschool my children. On the whole, it has been a positive experience the and the right thing for my children. We have met a lot of great people and a lot of great kids. I like that my kids have more time to work on their particular talents and can go ahead or stay behind depending on how well they are doing. Johnny was in third grade public school this year except for history is working completely on a 7th grade level. Kate is on level. Ruth is working at a 9th grade level while still in the eighth grade online program. Adam has been working just about 2 months ahead of public school first grade. So he is basically on level. Rachel is probably right on level for kindergarten.
Monday, March 5, 2012
A Lovely Day
We had a lovely warm springy day today. So of course, I sent all of the kids outside. I even took a few to the park while Rachel had her dance class. And of course to celebrate the good weather, we all had to get an icecream cone!
My Answer to a Big Question
I was asked the question: What if after you have this baby, and you get pregnant again, you have another girl? This of course is in response to my post about how I know there is one more boy that is supposed to come to our family.
Here is my answer to this difficult question:
First, John and I have been told, through personal revelation that there is one more boy that is supposed to join our family at some point. Both John and I believe this to be true and from God. I first received this answer after I quit praying and asking to be done having children. I think that this answer really was an answer to my question, "Can I be done?" I think the answer that there is one more boy, is letting me know that when there is one more boy, our family will be complete.
So what if I get pregnant again after this baby and it is another girl? Then I know that my family is not yet complete, and I am not done having children.
Second, I do not think another pregnancy resulting in a girl means that I received incorrect revelation. It is true that it can be hard to separate revelation from emotions. But, I have found through experience that the more I act on the impressions I receive, the more sure I am about an impression the next time. I know that if I go through my life doubting personal revelation, then I will no longer have the privilege of receiving it. By not doubting, but by exercising faith, I have become more sure about what is from God and what is not from God. I love President Monson's story on this topic about who he should call on to speak during a Temple dedication. You can read the talk here.
Heavenly Father expects us to have faith in Him, in His Son, in the revelations given to us in scriptures, in the revelations given to us through the current day prophets and apostles, in the revelation given to us through our Bishops and local priesthood leaders, and faith in the revelations He gives to us about our personal lives and families.
Elder Russel M. Nelson said, "For each of you to receive revelation unique to your own needs and responsibilities, certain guidelines prevail. The Lord asks you to develop “faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God.” Then with your firm “faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, [and] diligence,” you may ask, and you will receive; you may knock, and it will be opened unto you."
In one of my favorite talks, Elder Richard G. Scott, in Octpber 2009 said, "Father in Heaven knew that you would face challenges and be required to make some decisions that would be beyond your own ability to decide correctly. In His plan of happiness, He included a provision for you to receive help with such challenges and decisions during your mortal life. That assistance will come to you through the Holy Ghost as spiritual guidance. It is a power, beyond your own capability, that a loving Heavenly Father wants you to use consistently for your peace and happiness." and in the same talk Elder Scott said, "What may appear initially to be a daunting task will be much easier to manage over time as you consistently strive to recognize and follow feelings prompted by the Spirit. Your confidence in the direction you receive from the Holy Ghost will also become stronger. I witness that as you gain experience and success in being guided by the Spirit, your confidence in the impressions you feel can become more certain than your dependence on what you see or hear."
I know that a loving Heavenly Father is there and willing to tell each us about our own families. We are instructed that how many children and how far apart a couple has their children is between the couple and God. I am very grateful that we are not left to ourselves with these difficult decisions, but that we are offered revelation and assistance from a loving Heavenly Father.
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