Tag Archives: Jewish homeschooling

Late readers

homeschooling,

When is the right age for a child to be taught to read?  I strongly believe that children learn something when they are ready, and not before, and that pushing before they are ready won’t help them be more ready.  My children have all independently taught themselves to read from the ages of 6 – 8, though some have taken to reading much more enthusiastically than others.

 Being that I love reading, you might expect me to be very disappointed that all of my kids don’t show equal excitement over reading.  But that’s not the case.  I expect all of my kids to love books, but I don’t expect them to love reading.  The visual learner clearly has a strong advantage when it comes to reading, and the child of mine who learned at the latest age was my auditory learner.  Even after she learned to read, she would periodically tell me that she hated reading, it was ‘boring’.  But she loved listening to me read out loud or to book on cd.  I recognized that her comprehension level was far higher than her reading ability, so the books she could read were so much below her interest that they really were boring.  So I waited for her reading level to catch up with her interest level, knowing that when she found something that she felt was worth reading, she would be motivated to read.

Well, that’s what happened.  Several months ago, I checked out a library book called Seven From Heaven, a book for adults about the McCaughey septuplets.  Every time she had a chance, I found her reading this book.  But she still insisted that most books were boring.  This week, though, things have shifted.  I checked out a fiction kids novel, about 200 pages long, and my child (now 11) who claims she doesn’t like reading and isn’t good at, finished it within two days.  This morning, she was halfway through another book by the same author, and had a pile of several other books on her lap while she read, that she planned to read next, and was very excited about them all.  I jokingly asked her, “Aren’t you the one who hates to read because it’s boring?!” 

My kinesthetic learner enjoys non fiction books about areas that interest him, like sports history and investing, and has often spent hours at a time engrossed in a book.  Even when the vocabulary is so unfamiliar that he has to work hard to figure out the concepts (like the time he was reading about different technical ways to finance the purchase of real estate), he isn’t discouraged.  At the same time, he has trouble with the assigned fiction reading in high school and usually can’t tell you what he read after he finishes the assignment.  Does that make him a bad reader?  Of course not – people usually don’t easily spend time on an activity that has no intrinsic value or interest to them. 

Why am I sharing this with you?  Because it’s too easy as parents to get caught up in our child’s accomplishments, or lack of accomplishments, and forget that every child has his own internal timeline that will determine what he does and when he does it.  By recognizing that kids are different, and accepting that they progress in various areas at different times, we can save ourselves and our children alot of heartache.  

Avivah 

Time management and the big rocks

homemaking, homeschooling,

Today was the first day of school for my oldest son – the first official school day in seven years!  He started high school today, and I definitely have mixed emotions about it.  On one hand, I know he will do really well, but on the other hand, it feels like something is missing when he’s not around. 

With his school day being so extremely long, it means that his personal schedule has to change to adapt to his new needs, and I’m now easing everyone else into his sleeping/waking schedule so that they can still see him when he’s around.  If I don’t, he’ll leave before they wake up and get home when they are heading for bed. 

 I also need to change our family chore schedules since he won’t be around for the things he’s currently slotted for.  I find that basic schedules for our daily routine really help keep us all on track and helps us have a more relaxed feeling about our time, since we all know that there’s time for everything and the important things will get done. 

 I was actually talking to a relative about this last night.  She told me “I don’t know how you do all that you do.”  I told her that I find Stephen Covey’s visual demonstration of filling a container with large rocks, small rocks, gravel, sand, and water very helpful.  If you first put in the largest items, and then put in each additional item according to it’s size (ie, largest to smallest), you will get a lot more in than if you haphazardly put in whatever your hand happens to touch first, and you will ensure that the biggest things always fit in. 

 It’s the same thing with our time and priorities.  All of us have the really important things that we need to do – our ‘big rocks’.  And there are plenty of little things that we can fill our days with that don’t really matter much (that would be the sand and water) that could be fit around other things.  What happens when we just do whatever we want to do without assigning priorities to our activities?  Usually, the big rocks don’t get put in – we end up not doing the most important things that really matter the most, because we don’t have time for it – we’ve filled up our containers with the small stuff.

What I try to do is assess what my personal big rocks are – my husband, my children, their education, regular meals and chores to keep our home running smoothly – and schedule in time for those things.  For example, I make sure to hit all the academics with my kids first thing in the day, because I know that if I take care of everything else first, the day would be over and I would never get around to working with them on the academic stuff!  All the other things I need to do I schedule for later in the day.

Avivah

The girls’ baking business

homeschooling,

People have sometimes asked me (and the girls) about what kind of business my daughters have, and how old they are.

One is 12.5, and the other will be 11 in August. They have been cooking and baking for five years, so despite being relatively young, they know their way around the kitchen!

Their business is pretty small at this point, but I think it’s good to encourage my kids in their business ideas. It builds a confidence that they can follow through on their ideas and be successful. They offer a rotating menu of cakes and side dishes available for pick up every Friday. Regular customers are on their email list (they set up a business email account just for that) and get a message about that week’s selection at the beginning of the week, and have until Weds. night to finalize their orders. They did some paid advertising in a local supplement that comes out twice a month a couple of weeks ago for the first time, and were quite disappointed that there was no response, since it seemed like a lot of money to spend for no results. I told them that advertising doesn’t usually pay off until people see it a number of times; I don’t know if I will encourage them to continue advertising because they could easily spend the bulk of their profits on it, without any definite payoff. That’s a hard thing for kids this age! They also once made colorful flyers which were distributed by a friend who works in an office close by (she offered since she thought it was a service her co-workers would appreciate). There was also no response to that (though I met someone from that office in line at Baskin Robbins a couple of weeks ago who said she had heard all about us)!

So their business has come from word of mouth, and that’s a gradual process. I think they have mixed feelings about the amount of business they have – it’s exciting but a lot of work for them on the weeks they have lots of orders, and kind of a relief on the weeks that there are very few orders. I do regularly meet people in the community who tell me they heard that my girls are very good cooks, so I guess the word is slowly getting around!

This week my house was smelling delicious – cheesecakes (marble, vanilla, and non dairy), quiche, lasagna, and spinach cheese casserole were some of the things on their list of offerings. This week their schedule was a bit different than usual, so they have pickups today instead of Friday. Fortunately, there is only order left that needs to be picked up – it takes up my fridge and freezer space so I’m happy when it’s in their customers hands!

Avivah

Keeping the house in order – with kids around

homemaking, homeschooling,

“Have you managed to train your kids to keep the house tidy as they go? ”

The house stays in reasonable condition if I stay on top of things and make sure everyone does what they’re supposed to do when they’re supposed to do it. The last couple of weeks I’ve been mentally very preoccupied with a business project I’ve been working on, and when I don’t actively manage, things don’t run as well as usual. So things don’t look as good in that scenario as they should.

I don’t spend much time daily on regular cleaning. I aim for a generally orderly home, not spotless, and your standards might be much higher than mine. Usually if someone were to come in to my house, they would find most of the main floor (living room, dining room, kitchen) in process, because those are constantly in use, since that’s where we spend our time all day long.

What I do is the following: morning chores for 15 minutes – this means wiping down the breakfast table and washing dishes for the child whose turn it is, and three times a week the kids do the bathrooms, 2 kids for each bathroom. There is also a quick pickup of the main floor, I usually have my 4 yo or 6 yo sweep all of the main floor. Whoever I feel like nabbing takes out the garbage.

Sporadically, I give them rags and have the younger kids wipe down the walls, which can get grimy over time with fingerprints. I expect them to pick up their bedrooms before they come downstairs in the morning (but honestly, what isn’t regularly inspected isn’t regularly done – so I often send them back up to finish what should have been done earlier:)) Before dinner, I usually have another quick pick up. The kids take turns during the week doing breakfast and dinner dishes (I cook and do lunch dishes, also Saturday and Sunday dishes). I do picking up and putting away through the day, I don’t really schedule that in or think about it – for example, if I see the stove top needs to be wiped down, I just do it. Some people find it more helpful to have schedules for all of the necessary tasks, but I tend to feel overly burdened by lots of schedules.

I don’t do laundry daily. This doesn’t work for me, since it seems there’s always laundry waiting to be put away in that situation. All the laundry is done on Sunday (though often it drags through to Monday if the loads aren’t moved through promptly enough). My two oldest (ds13, dd12) alternate weeks for doing laundry, the younger kids are responsible for bringing the dirty clothes to the basement. I sort the clean stuff into piles (often grabbing a work buddy but just as often not). Then for several hours on Sunday evening, there is a pile of clothes on the couch that steadily grows, and I send each child to their room two or three times with their stuff to put away. (I put it on the couch because I won’t allow it to stay there; the problem with clean laundry is it’s very easy to just shove it to the side and it builds up in clean piles in the spare room.)

When I feel more serious attention is needed to their rooms, on occasional Sunday mornings I gather everyone and tell them we need to get things back in order – I find that things tend to pile up over time. I hate clutter. Hate, hate, hate. I take a garbage bag or two of things to the Goodwill almost every week – yesterday I took four bags. I can’t figure out how I regularly have so many things to pass on, since I’m not an excessive shopper or accumulator in any way. I have seven kids and limited space, and don’t feel I can afford the luxury of keeping things around that aren’t being used, if I want to keep a reasonably tidy house. Cleaning around lots of stuff is just too hard, and there’s plenty of stuff left to clean around even with my constant decluttering. For me, decluttering is an ongoing process.

So to sum up, I spend maybe half an hour daily on home maintenance; what’s most important for me is to use the systems I’ve put into place and remembering that it’s because I have those systems that things run smoothly. Sometimes things seem to just happen on their own, and I forget to give myself credit for creating and maintaining that environment, and then I lapse and don’t do the necessary maintenance. Times like that are actually helpful, though, because it reminds me that the house running smoothly is happening because I’m there to make sure it happens.

Avivah

Schedule getting back to normal

homemaking, homeschooling,

I’m back! I’ve really missed blogging these last few days; I feel like I have so much I want to write about!

So why wasn’t I blogging if I wanted to? Well, two weeks ago, I was asked to be a contestant in a motivational speech contest being held at my Toastmasters club, which was scheduled for tonight. I told him I really didn’t have any interest in competition, but I would be happy to speak – but also that I was really, really busy, and didn’t know when I would make the time to prepare. (Not that I usually prepare much before I speak, but for a contest I felt I should.)

Anyway, the first week and a half was so busy that I couldn’t even think about it. These last few days, I have been feeling really pressured at the idea of speaking, getting more and more pressured as the contest was coming closer, and my opportunities to prepare were quickly disappearing. And every time I thought about writing something on my blog, I felt guilty that I wasn’t using the time instead to prepare my speech, so I didn’t blog or prepare. 🙂 Finally, I thought of what I wanted to speak about at 5 pm today – and the contest started at 7. No, that’s really not ideal. 🙂 Anyway, I quickly typed out some thoughts, and tried to put them together into something coherent. The goal I had for myself was to give a good speech that would offer value to the audience, it wasn’t about winning at all – just not humiliating myself next to the other two speakers, who put weeks of preparation and practice into their speeches. I’m glad to say the speech was quite good, even though I didn’t win; I was pleased with how well it went over. I got some very nice feedback from a professional speaker in the audience.

And I’m even more glad that the contest is over and I can go back to blogging and other things without any feelings of guilt!

To update you:

We reupholstered all seven chairs (we got eight, but in the business of bringing them all in from the van to the house, as well as all the groceries from our huge shopping trip, it apparently was left outside – and someone driving by must have thought it was being given away), and then went on to reupholster a three piece bench set in matching fabric. We were working on them Wed/Thurs. nights, and then on Friday. It was a very big job, but they all look great (dh insisted on taking before and after pics of the benches, he was really sorry I hadn’t taken of the chairs before they were done because it was such a huge difference). It was very empowering for the kids to see how their effort resulted in something that substantially enhanced the look of the room. I would love to post the pics for you to vicariously enjoy, but haven’t yet learned how to post pics on a blog. Probably like everything else computer related, not a big deal when you can have someone show you, but since there’s no one to show me, and figuring it out for myself hasn’t yet made it’s way onto the list of things I want to spend time on, you’ll just have to take my word for it that the chairs and benches all look very nice! It works out well that one chair was taken, actually, since otherwise it would be too crowded around the table. As I said, it is a large table, but the new chairs are 1.5 the width of the old ones, so we don’t gain as much seating space as we would have if we kept all the old chairs. The benches are great – they really maximize space. We have a bench that will fit three youngish kids, and one that fits two kids or one adult, so that compensates for the wider chairs and leaves us with the same amount of seating we would have had with the narrower.

I took the kids on a tour of the State House yesterday, where we got to sit in on a session of the Senate, and were able to see where the House of Representatives meet. It was a lot of interesting info, but something that’s I’ve noticed that is unfortunately very common is this: the tour guides, who know they are talking to children and presumably are used to talking to children (especially since in the 4th grade in our state is when these topics come up in public schools and a lot of groups that age come through), don’t speak appropriately for their audience. There are very interesting things to learn, but they speak too fast, use vocabulary that is too high, and try to cram too much information into the tour instead of giving the kids more time to look around and absorb what they are learning. My kids have a very strong vocabulary, and they are interested in lots of things, but a tour like this is, frankly, a turn off to learning. To my kids’ massive gratitude, I told the tour guide that I wouldn’t be staying for the entire program- after an hour and thirty minutes, I felt I had enough (and I knew they had)! I told her that they needed a chance to take in some of what they learned and that we would have to come back at a separate time to do the second part.

Then an hour after getting home from the above, we spent the afternoon at a homeschooling gathering, getting home late in the afternoon and rushed to get dinner on time. First thing this morning, two dds went to a class at the science center, which they enjoyed. Every week used to be filled with days like this, doing trips, activities, lessons, getting together with friends – but now it’s an exception. Personally, I’m glad everyone has enjoyed what we’ve done in the last two days, but I really enjoy the days more when everyone is home together and there isn’t such a fractured, rush-from-here-to-there feel about it all. I used to do a lot of trips and activities for the kids, and every year, I gear down. And every year just gets better and better, as I cut out more and more of the extraneous stuff that doesn’t contribute much to the quality of our days. It’s simply more sane. The pace of life today is so fast that I think parents need to make a very conscious effort to change that, or they will get swept up by it all.

I ended up writing most of this and then interrupted myself because I had a chance to talk with my mom (for quite a while), which was very nice. But now I’m really ready for some sleep and I’ll have to get back with all of you tomorrow. 🙂

Avivah

Our algebra curriculum choice

homeschooling,

After lots of mind numbing review (to me, anyway), I finally decided what algebra program to buy for ds. He was working on a pre-algebra text that neither of us were happy with, though it’s a popular choice. I decided to skip him up to algebra, since he was halfway though pre-algebra – it didn’t seem fair to start him at the beginning of another text, but with most programs, it’s really difficult to start in the middle.

The new program arrived yesterday, and I hope it will be a good fit for him. There are so many choices, and honestly, reading algebra books to figure out which is better just wasn’t much fun for me. Neither was reading endless reviews online of the various different choices a relaxing way to spend my time. It’s great to have so many choices, but in a way, it just makes it so much harder than it used to be – there used to be two or three main math programs, and you just had to choose the one you disliked the least. With so many choices now, it leaves you feeling you can match your child’s personality perfectly and should make the effort to spend as much time as necessary until you find the perfect match. That feeling isn’t productive after a certain point, and I definitely reached that point. So what I told ds, after all my exhaustive reviews, is that this is the program and that’s it. It’s a good program, I’ve done all the research into it I’m going to do, and if he doesn’t love it, well – he doesn’t have to love it. He just has to do it. 🙂

For those of you homeschooling older kids, and who may be interested, what I chose was Teaching Textbooks. I like texts that are written to be read by the child, and are user friendly for them. This seemed to have a pleasant, non intimidating tone to it. They also have cds available to supplement the main text, and the cds have lectures for each lesson. You don’t need to use them, but it’s nice to have to help a child help himself when he gets stuck on something. It’s not cheap, but then again, most textbooks at this level aren’t! (The book on it’s own is $80, including shipping; it’s over $100 more with the cds.)

Avivah

Young children and outside activities

homeschooling, parenting,

It’s interesting to look at what is the typical schedule of a young child now, and what it was twenty years ago. Now, it’s very, very common for even 2 – 4 year olds to have structured activities outside of the home, such as ballet, soccer, gymnastics, music. Many parents feel they are giving their kids a head start on their future, helping them to be competitive when they are older by starting younger. Others feel that the social aspect is what they are most interested in.

For now, I’m just going to address the social aspect. How much do children need outside activities, or even play dates, to develop social skills? My position has shifted over time on this question. When my kids were very young, I didn’t even question the necessity of young kids spending lots of time in the company of their peers. That’s what everyone did, and I never thought to ask myself what kind of interactions young children were having, or what they were learning from one another.

When I started homeschooling, I started thinking a lot more about what the benefit to kids is from their playmates, since my kids weren’t having the typical school experience. I didn’t want to deprive them – so would it be necessary for me to duplicate the social group opportunities found in school for my kids so that they would develop appropriately? Where do good social skills come from? Once I started thinking about that question, I realized how ridiculous it was to assume it came from being around lots of kids – obviously if that was the answer, every child in school would have fantastic social skills and loads of friends (which clearly isn’t the case).

Generally group dynamics tend to be based on the pecking order, with kids competing to be the most popular, cool, etc, and minimizing others to raise their own standing. Parents and educators know that it’s what kids learn as part of a group that end up being the things you have to deal with and correct at home! If good social skills aren’t being learned from the group, how are they developed?

Well, how do we learn anything? We need to know the basic principles involved in being successful and have lots of opportunities to watch someone successful use those skills. The ideal is to do something on our own, while having someone who is skilled in that area close by to guide us, and show us the tips along the way. Think of the apprentice/mentor model, which is amazingly effective.

Now think about how a child can use the apprentice/mentor model to learn social skills. He needs to learn what good behavior/good social skills are, and see healthy social skills being practiced in a wide range of settings, while simultaneously being able to practice his fledgling skills with someone experienced close by to guide him. This means that the ideal place for a child to learn to interact with others is at home, not with a bunch of equally unskilled children.

A child spending lots of time with his parents gets to see them model getting along with others in wide variety of situations. He gets to see mom on the phone, in the store, chatting with the supermarket checker and other customers, handling a difficult situation with a plumber, responding to telemarketers, relaxing with her friends, and of course, interacting with other family members. She shows him by her example what healthy social skills look like. Throughout the time a child is growing up, he is absorbing all of this, and trying it out for himself. The mom who is close by can immediately correct a child who isn’t acting in the right way, or positively reinforce the actions that she wants to see more of.

A child in a group is getting feedback about how to act from others his age. Yes, there are some kids who are amazingly well balanced, but I wouldn’t put odds on those kids being the ones who are going to guide your child to becoming a healthy adult. And the social messages they are getting from the rest of them? No, thanks. I would much rather be the one guiding my child, wouldn’t you?

I don’t believe a young child (6 and under) needs any outside social activities or even playdates, if his mother is home with him and interacts with him during the day, and especially if he has another sibling. We have been fed the idea that kids need to be around other very young children from the time they are babies. It’s become the norm since so many moms are at work and need daycare, and the philosophy to support it came along afterwards – ie, “Don’t worry about being away from your kids all day, because they are better off in their playgroup/nursery instead of being with mom.” Very simply, it eased parental guilt. The first problem is, studies don’t support this contention, and the second problem is that lots of moms who are at home have bought the myth.

What kids do need (and this has been repeatedly established) is to be with their families; it is the custom made environment to help your child grow in every way. It doesn’t matter if the sibling is two years younger – he is learning important social skills by interacting with him. One young mother told me recently that she feels bad for her 3 year old son, having to play with his 2 year old brother, because they are such different personalities. She was wondering if she should move to a different neighborhood where there were more young children close by so that her oldest child would have his emotional needs met. I told her, his emotional needs are being met! He is better off in every way by being in a healthy home environment than by spending his days in nursery or preschool. It’s true, siblings many times wouldn’t choose each other as friends. But they are going to spend many years of their lives together, and all of those years will be so much better if they are taught how to be friends. That begins by giving them lots of opportunities to interact with each other, staying close by to moderate their behavior. (It isn’t fair for an older child to repeatedly have his tower torn down, his picture ripped up, or his hair be pulled – that’s why you need to be there, to stop behavior like that from the younger or older child, and keep their time together on an even keel.)

The statistical likelihood of their nursery school playmate becoming a major part of his future is very, very tiny. The skills he learns even in guided play with a friend (which is a rare situation, unless you set it up yourself) are those even more effectively taught at home. I don’t know about you, but I feel that my time and energies are limited, and I want to invest my time as effectively as I can. That means using it in a way that brings me the highest returns – and teaching siblings to be kind to one another, interact respectfully, and get along in spite of their differences definitely brings high returns.

I strongly suggest that if you do want to have play dates, a) you limit their frequency, b) have your kids’ friends over to your home, and c) keep them in your eyesight or earshot at all times. I don’t allow my young children to have friends over and to play in a different room with a door closed, or on a different floor of the house. It’s not a lack of trust; it’s simply the understanding that it puts them in a situation that they don’t yet have the inner reserves to handle well. And I’m not referring to more extreme examples, like kids acting out sexual behavior (which is becoming very, very common, even among young kids). I’m talking about a child impatiently raising her voice to her friend, threatening not to be her friend if she doesn’t do what she wants, or even taking every toy off the shelf and leaving the room they are playing in a disaster zone.

When a child gets away with this kind of behavior at select times, like when she has a playdate, goes to a group activity, or goes to someone else’s home, it will influence them at other times, even when you are supervising closely. Be careful about providing lots of social opportunities that will undermine your goals as a parent. Most parents do it because they really believe it’s in the child’s best interest. I couldn’t disagree more.

Avivah

A Busy and enjoyable day

homeschooling, nutrition, parenting,

I often think at the end of a day what a wonderful feeling it is, knowing that your day has been productive and your time well spent. Today was another great day – not only did we get lots done, but we had fun, too!

I’ve been working on varying breakfasts more – I’ve gotten into a boring routine of cooked breakfast cereals, which my kids have been finding tiresome. This morning I made raisin oatmeal scones – sounds elegant, doesn’t it? My kids really liked them, and I liked getting something healthy into them.  I made them with whole wheat flour and oatmeal (of course!), but for the first time I soaked the flour overnight to remove the phytic acid, which binds with the nutrients and keeps the body from utilizing them properly. I learned about this from Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon – a great book, filled with recipes and info. Then in the morning I just had to add in the other ingredients, pop them in the oven, and served them fresh and hot. The raisins added sweetness – there was no added sugar. I also made a couple of large pans of banana bread while I had the mixer out, and that will be for tomorrow’s breakfast.

After breakfast I had a ping pong marathon at the community center with one daughter. I usually reserve the mornings for homeschooling, but she wanted to use her gift coupon (I mentioned them here already) for a session of ping pong with me, and the last two days things kept coming up. My husband was home this morning to hold down the fort with everyone else while I was gone, so we were able to go, and had a great time – we played five games, and she won the last one. She really loved that!

We got back and I did academic stuff with everyone who still needed help. Afterwards, some of the kids took advantage of the unusually warm day and roller bladed and biked. My oldest son did a major reorganization of the garage – he worked really hard and it looks fabulous now. He had to move at least 50% of the stuff that was in there to a different part, but now the things we don’t use much are to the side and the workbench is in the center, with lots of room to actually use it. One daughter cleaned the oven while another prepared the pizza dough for dinner. I decided to do my own major reorganizing of the kitchen cabinets. I had been planning to replace all of the kitchen cabinets, even though they look fine, because I needed more cabinet space and I can’t buy cabinets to match what we have since they are ten years old. Today I moved a bunch of things around, and have managed to use the space so efficiently that I don’t think we need to replace the cabinets any more (which is really good, since I like my kitchen as it is for the most part)! The space wasn’t efficiently organized, which is important to me, but I used my frustration about the current inefficiency to think about the space differently and find a good solution. We now have a baking center, where the mixer, bowls, flours, sugar, etc. are all in one location, so I won’t have to go back and forth anymore from one end of the kitchen to another. This is so helpful since I do a nice amount of baking. For a while this afternoon, when we were all working in the kitchen, it looked pretty disastrous, since I’ve often found that things look worse before they look better (eg, I emptied the contents of a number of cabinets onto the counter, but was then able to clean the inside of all the cabinets and reorganize). But now it looks great.

Then I took one daughter to her piano lesson, then took my son to his tutor, and after I picked him up, decided to do some quick shopping after taking care of business at the post office. I enjoyed shopping with him – I love being with all of the kids as a group, but it’s really nice when I get time with each one. We stocked up on a bunch of baking supplies, which are always good to have around here, especially with the bas mitzva for dd coming up. Fortunately while I was doing this, my older girls were on the ball and had the pizza in the oven while I was out (although I hadn’t told them to, since I hadn’t planned on shopping then) so we were able to eat dinner on time.

We haven’t made pizza for dinner for ages – I used to make tofu pizza, but then stopped using tofu when I learned about the hazards of soy. For many years I avoided dairy almost entirely, using it just once in a while. About a year ago we changed that, and for tonight’s pizza we used cheddar cheese. A couple of nights ago I discussed the new menu plan I was preparing with the kids, and we decided to have a weekly pizza night. Tonight was the first time – they loved it!!! We made 4- 9×13 pans, and it was just the six older kids eating it – and they still all wanted more!

I also spent some time researching the craft activity for my daughter’s upcoming bas mitzva. We really wanted it to be something that could be donated to charity, and got some good suggestions from a homeschooling email list I am on. One of the suggestions in particular appealed to my daughter, so tomorrow we will go shopping for all of the supplies.

After dinner, my almost 8 yo son asked if he could go with me to my Toastmaster’s meeting. Toastmasters is a public speaking organization, and I go twice a month. This son had accompanied me for the first time several weeks ago, and apparently enjoyed it because he really wanted to go again! So then we got to enjoy the night out together. He voted along with all of the adults for the best prepared speech, impromptu speech, and evaluator.

When I got home, he headed straight for bed, while I took the opportunity to chat with my mil, who had come over while I was out and stayed talking with my mom. We haven’t had a chance to talk in a while, so it was probably 11 or 11:30 before we finally said goodbye. As soon as I post this, I will be very ready for some sleep!

I’ve often found it’s not the days we go out on trips that fill me with a sense of peace at the end of the day, but rather the days that we stay home, enjoying one another and making our home a place we feel good to be.

Avivah

Fun with oobleck

homeschooling, recipes,

A few days ago we went to the library and one of my younger kids chose a book called A Hatful of Seuss – it is a collection of Dr. Seuss stories. One of the stories is Bartholomew and the Oobleck, in which the kingdom in invaded by sticky slime. The kids loved the story, and when we found a recipe for homemade goop that we made up a couple of days later, we decided to rename it oobleck, since it resembled the Seusslike stuff.

This is a fun and easy activity to do with kids. I remember stuff like this being sold in little plastic balls from the vending machines in the front of supermarkets when I was a kid – they probably still do. It’s almost magical for kids to see it created in front of their eyes! The recipe uses just a few common household ingredients – I bought a box of Borax quite a while ago and now have it on hand for recipes like this (it’s useful for laundry, too :)). Here it is:

8 oz white glue
3/4 c. water
food coloring (optional)
1 t. 20 Mule Team Borax
1 – 2 T. water

Combine the first 3 ingredients in one bowl; combine the last two ingredients in a different bowl. Add borax mixture to the glue mixture, stirring until a blob forms. Remove the blob from the mix, add a new batch of borax and repeat until glue mix is gone. Knead all blobs together; store in airtight container (we use ziploc bags).

My kids discovered that they could blow bubbles with it, which was really fun – until my youngest daughter (with hair almost to her waist) had the bubble pop right into her hair. Supposedly this doesn’t stick to anything – but when I saw her, with orange slime entangled throughout her hair on each side of her face, my first thought was to just chop it all off. It looked like a wad of bubble gum that had gotten smooshed in. She looked ready to cry, so I got to work on one side while I told her not to touch the other side – but unfortunately, I was so focused on getting it out that I didn’t realize she was rubbing it in more on the other side as I worked (trying to help get it out). It was a painstaking job, getting it out tiny bit by tiny bit and I finally thought of using a brush to get it out. That worked really well, and I was able to brush it all out pretty quickly (it fell out in lots of crumbles all over the floor).

Now you’ve been cautioned – don’t let your kids eat it or rub it in their hair, and they will have an amazing time with it (and so will you)!

Avivah