How do you homeschool with a new baby?

Well, you don't.=) Or at least not up to the same speed as before the baby or in the same way as one would think of schooling to begin with. People keep asking me, "How do you do it?" And my simple answer is "we don't." Right now, we're doing what we can when we can but the kids are still constantly learning.

Some things we've done this past week:

1. Play, play and play. The weather has warmed up (except the past few days got rainy and chilly, but the new game Izzy created still got these kiddos outside playing). The backyard has been very appealing. There are multiple climbing cherry trees in the backyard that I'm truly going to miss. I'm so amazed at how high even Alex can climb. The other day, from 8:30am-5:00 pm (I finally had to make them come in) they played Izzy's game called Treetops and Bushberries. They did take a lunch break, but quiet time was skipped so everyone could go back outside to play. Riding bikes around the house, making swings with ropes. Their imaginations has gone crazy lately.

2. I started watching a movie called Veer-Zaara. It's one of those cheesy Indian musicals with a fun love story, clean as anything and all with subtitles. I'm not sure which arabic language it was in but the kids joined for part of the movie and were keeping up with the reading. Izzy kept asking me questions like "What are ashes?" So we talked about cremation and stuff like that.

3. Izzy's in charge of the dishes this week and last night turned lazy so nothing got done. This morning, I didn't feel like cooking so I told them to take care of their own breakfast. (Lazy, I know.=) All the bowls were in the sink so I told Izzy it looked like she needed to do the dishes. Instead, she asked if she could make waffles. What? I guess she's been in the kitchen with me enough to know where things are, how to measure, etc. but I usually supervise. This morning, it wasn't going to happen so I told her to just go for it. She asked for the recipe (we only do from scratch waffles around here) so I wrote it down. (Maybe I should've had her write it down. Note to self for next time.=) Then she went and made the waffles. I did end up helping with the waffle iron. I'm not sure why because her first waffle came out perfectly. But by then I was so impressed, and it was fun to be in the kitchen watching her cook.=) She's 7. Holy cow!

4. We had some books at the library ready to be picked up. (Now if you haven't heard of being able to check out your books online, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND CHECKING IT OUT (excuse the pun.=) Being a homeschooling mom, I have my lists of books for the kids to read so I get online and reserve them. The librarians do all the hunting, put them on the shelf by the checkout counter. All I have to do is walk in the door, pick up my books, checkout and go. 25+ books took me less than 5 mins.) Anyways, since I didn't have the 3 little kids with me, we had a library search lesson. Andrew wanted to read some more Magic Treehouse books (he finished all 7 that day after we got home. Sheesh! Can't keep up with that boy.) and Izzy wanted to find some books that were in the same series as the "Faeries" book she got for her birthday. So we had a lesson on how to use the computer to find specific books and books on the same subject since they didn't have her series. We learned how to figure out if the books were available at that particular library and then learned how to go and find it. (Can't make the librarians do all the work.) Izzy found a book called The Book of Dragons. The part I thought was hilarious is that it was in the Children's NONFICTION section. How a book about dragons gets into the NONFICTION section is beyond me.=) Anyways, this is her new favorite book. She takes it everywhere and reads when she can't be playing outside. This is a girl who knows how to read, but will only do it if she's interested in the subject. She is enjoying the first Harry Potter book but is savoring it while the Book of Dragons is almost being memorized.

5. Lots of board games go on in this house. Andrew especially LOVES games. Settlers, Ticket to Ride, Battleship, Card games, you name it. Some of these games I'm amazed that these 2 big kids of mine can really play them. Looking forward to Alex being old enough to play too and then they could enjoy these 3+ player games and mommy can go read a book.=)

6. We did do a history lesson this week, except that it turned away from the original lesson planned. With each history chapter, the kids get their own black and white map that they label. This week, the chapter was on the Ancient Americas. The map had the 2 American continents and Antarctica at the bottom. I checked to see if they knew what these continents were called and then we checked to see if they remembered all 7 continents (that's where playing the game of Risk is handy, another favorite game of Andrew's.) When mentioning Australia, I told them that I used to live there so we pulled out the globe and I showed them Alice Springs (smack dab in the middle of the continent.) Then we talked about flying from there to Hawaii, then to Florida where I lived after that. Then we saw Cape Canaveral on the globe so I mentioned the Kennedy Space Center and how I watched the Challenger explosion from the playground in 1st grade. So we got on youtube.com and watched how a normal shuttle launch should look and then the Challenger launch. I was amazed there weren't as many words of shock and horror as I was expecting. The radio control tower or whatever it's called just said in a very calm sounding voice, "We've had a major malfunction." NO KIDDING!!! Anyways, see how our history lesson veered way off the subject. But it was fun and interesting and learning was taking place.

6. And of course there's reading. Right now our library book shelf is filled with books on Machu Picchu. There's also a couple of books from the Ambleside book list (a Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling. Check out http://amblesideonline.org/ for booklists by year level.) Since I didn't get around to reading as many of the books out loud as I wanted this year and it doesn't look like I'm getting to them very fast, I went ahead and checked out a bunch from Year 1 for them to peruse at their leisure. Columbus, Buffalo Bill (Andrew enjoyed finding dress up clothes and became Buffalo Bill for a few days), Peter Pan, the Velveteen Rabbit (which we did end up reading out loud.) Glen also reserved a bunch of books for Andrew to read so he can stop rereading Harry Potter (although he's on his 4th time reading through the series. Lots of spells going on around this house.)

7. We've been blessed to start attending field trips again. Last week we went to the Fish Hatchery with CVA (Columbia Virtual Academy). Tomorrow we're going to see Jarom Watts and his bubble show. He'll teach us a little about bubblology (google it and you'll find that Jarom set a record in 2009 for making the longest chain from interlinking soap bubbles) I'll post more some other time. Along with field trips, the kids have a once a week drawing class and gymnastics class. Andrew is also taking piano lessons and somewhat tries to practice everyday. Some weeks are not as good as others, but he's doing very well and Izzy is interested in starting after we get settled into our new house.

I guess this post was more for me than for you. Even if our days aren't looking like we're getting much done, a lot is still going on around here and learning truly is taking place. Looking back on this time later in life, we won't miss not doing one more history lesson or science lesson. We won't miss that we missed multiple days of piano practice because the house needed to be quiet for the baby to sleep. We won't miss that we forgot that we're supposed to be working on flashcards. But we will miss that we didn't enjoy this precious time with our little baby. Yes, the time I have to teach them is short, but if I can't fit it all in, life will go on. I've heard multiple times that it would be easier to just put them into school. Trust me, the thought has crossed my mind, but we do have our reasons. As long as my children know how to read, know how to learn math, and continue to love to learn, then I will have succeeded as a teacher. The most important thing for them to know is that they are children of God and that Jesus is their Savior, then everything else will fall into place.