Mom Remembers

We woke up on December 19th to a light and lovely snowfall for Soren's 6th birthday.  I couldn't help but wonder if it was snowing on the day he was born.  Six years is a long time and I find my memories of that "unforgettable" day are getting rather dim.  This year, it really struck me that Soren's birthday (while on the surface is all about him) was for me the "anniversary" of me becoming a mother.  As our family has grown, so have I but it all began on that (possibly snowy) morning: December 19, 2007. This is what we did to celebrate: 1. Scott has been talking for a long time about purchasing the computer game Minecraft for Soren's birthday.  So, the morning of, we downloaded it onto our computer so Soren could play.  He didn't figure it out right away so we invited our neighbors up to help him get the hang of the game.  But it didn't take long for them to realize that his problem was not in playing the game but because he has absol...

SOREN:  You know who is the best? ME:  Who? SOREN:  Me!  I do all the things that you are too lazy to do.

Sven can crawl!  He is doing real bonafide crawling! Up until last night, he would get where he wanted to go using an army crawl.  It looked to me like someone trying to swim the breaststroke on the floor.  Sometimes he would get up on his hands and knees, rock back and forth, and look just about ready to go ... then he would drop his belly to the floor and slither off.  What a tease. But then, all of a sudden, he was crawling .  I saw this (amazing!) feat just yesterday for the first time.  I was laying down on the couch, talking on the phone to my mom, and he was doing his usual hands and knees tease, eyes fixed firmly on a toy a few feet away.  But rather than floor-swimming to get it, he stayed up on his hands and knees and crawled  there.  He was using real cross lateral movement!  (Full disclosure: he was only picking up one knee and kind-of scooting the other.)  He looked almost as proud as I was! I'm afraid I may have g...

1. For date night last weekend, Scott and I went to see "Thor: The Dark World".  There are no words to describe how incredible  it was.  Well, maybe WOW! 2. On Monday, I made up a new "circle" for Kindergarten, similar to the one we did for Michaelmas but all of my own creation.  It was really fun to see how much the kids enjoyed it and to watch them immediately incorporate it into their play.  (It didn't really involve any circular movements or organization so I might call it more of a "pantomime".  It was just a series of songs and rhymes that told a story about St. Nicholas.) 3. I cleaned out my pantry this week.  I have been procrastinating it for a very long time.  We have a problem with our dryer (which is in the pantry) so that area of our house is overly moist.  As a result, all our food cans had rusted and some of our food was at risk for spoiling.  Since we have lots  of food storage, this was a very bad thing.  B...

Dear Sven, You were given a name and a blessing on May 5th, 2013.  It was a perfect day and you were a perfect angel, happy and sweet.  You wore the family dress, the same dress your father wore thirty years earlier when his  father (your Poppy) blessed him.  You were held in a circle of men who love you and hold the Priesthood: your father, your grandfathers, and your great-grandfather.  And the pews were filled with others who love you as well: your brothers, your grandmothers, your great-grandmother, your uncles and aunts, great-uncles and great-aunts, and your mother.  You were our sweet shining angel, bravely come down from heaven to share this life with us. Remembering you on that day, reminds me of the poem by Thomas Traherne: How like an angel came I down! How bright are all things here! When first among His works I did appear Oh, how their glory did me crown! It does seem like all the world was your crown that day.  All God's crea...

Our Homeschool grew by one child this month.  Evelyn, a girl in our neighborhood, turned 3 just a few days after her mom had a new baby.  I offered to take her in my Kindergarten for the rest of the year so that her mom could have some quiet time with the baby in the mornings.  Although she is barely 3, Evelyn transitioned very smoothly into our little group and we really enjoy having her with us. In Kindergarten The Frog Princess  - For the first week and a half of November, the kids were at the Hutchins' house.  They finished their unit on "The Frog Princess".    Carl told me that he liked the story because Ivan had to have the help of all his friends to defeat Koschei.  As far as summaries go, that is probably the sweetest. The Elder Brother  - The story I chose to spend the majority of November on was called "The Elder Brother" .  The text is available at mainlesson.com in the anthology called For the Children's Hour . ...

1. It seems that his eyes are always twinkling 2. and it's pretty easy to get him to smile. 3. I love his startlingly clear blue eyes. 4. I like the way he smells.  Like lavender baby oil. 5. I *adore* his soft, chubby cheeks.  Kissing them is one of the best feelings in the world. 6. It is wonderful when he sleeps.  He does it often, easily, and deeply (although he usually wakes up once in the night). 7. This is an exciting time in his development.  He is always on the go!  He is very persistent in getting to what he wants (and then getting it in his mouth)! 8. He does this funny thing where he blows raspberries on my arm. 9. I love to feed him solid food.  He eats pretty much anything with gusto, squawking for more and thumping the high chair in between every bite.  When he is finished, he turns his head away and refuses to make eye contact. 10. I enjoy giving him a bath and a massage every morning.  We give our full attention to eac...

CARL:  I am smarter than any other person who can ride a bike and wear a necklace at the same time. ME:  Oh. CARL:  I can keep my necklace still while I ride my bike. ME:  Oh. CARL:  That's why I am smarter than any other person who can ride a bike and wear a necklace at the same time.

1. On Saturday, Scott made cheddar cheese!  This is our second attempt and it was a huge success!  The first time, we tried to make it with non-fat milk and the curds didn't press together right.  But this time they came together like magic.  It is really neat to experiment with basic human skills.  Like cheese making.  Humans are so cool. 2. Also on Saturday, Scott made a big pot of chili for our ward's chili cook-off.  He put in five different kinds of peppers!  It definitely had a good kick to it.  He was very proud of his chili, which is endearing.  And he was right to be proud; he took home the Best Chili prize!  Our friend John took home the Spiciest Chili prize. 3. Sunday was our ward's primary program.  The boys did their parts and I was not embarrassed, not even a little bit.  In fact, I was very proud of Carl who stood right in the front row and sang beautifully. 4. Scott's family come to visit this week. ...

1. When I ask him to do something, he says, "Of course!" 2. He is (almost) always friendly to (almost) all the kids in the neighborhood.  He really is a friendly kid. 3. He loves to listen to the same stories over and over again then recites them from memory.  I love to watch him "read" to himself by reciting back whole books. 4. He also loves rhymes.  Whenever we read poetry, he points out "That rhymes!" with delight. 5. His favorite book right now is D'Aulaire's Book of Norse Myths .  He asks me to read it for every naptime and bedtime story.  We have read it forwards and backwards at least half a dozen times this fall and I love it! 6. He speaks very dramatically, often accompanying his statements with dramatic poses. 7. Sometimes he spontaneously says sweet or grateful things.  That means a lot to me. 8. For example, every night before bed, he tells me how much he liked dinner. 9. In this mom's totally unbiased opinion, he was th...

SOREN:  Mom, I have a cow.  And when he was a calf, he would make milk and I would give it to people that were fond of milk.  But now he has been treated with rbST.

1. I read three books this week.  They were all YA scifi: suspenseful and very quick.  I'd like to get into something a little bit more grown up next but it was fun to speed through a few exciting stories. 2. We got a big bunch of cubanelle peppers in our Bountiful Basket on Saturday.  I was a little disappointed about that; I wasn't sure how we would use them and wished we had gotten something else.  Now, however, I'm really glad we got them.  I put one in a curry on Monday and another in taco soup on Wednesday.  I saved one for our ward's chili cook-off on Saturday.  But the best was when I made stuffed cubanelle peppers last night.  They were both sweeter and spicier than regular old green peppers and were a definite improvement in the dish.  I felt so proud of myself for incorporating an entirely unfamiliar vegetable to such great effect! 3. Church on Sunday was really good.  With the kids harrying me, I usually have a hard time fe...

1. He really loves the scriptures.  He reads them to himself every afternoon during Rest Time. 2. He knows his own mind and he is not afraid to share it. 3. He talks to me about everything.  I am especially glad that he feels comfortable talking to me about his growing testimony. 4. He has gone through a big growth spurt in the past few months and now he is so tall! 5. He can stick to a job until it is done. 6. He is very good an entertaining himself.  He likes to do his own thing. 7. But he is also learning to get along with others.  It makes me happy when I see him playing with the other 5-year-olds in the neighborhood.  (Most often, they are having a race.) 8. He knows lots of random trivia and he shares it with enthusiasm.  I am glad he knows that knowing stuff is fun! 9. He wants  to wash the dishes.  His chore is usually to dry them after breakfast each morning but he often asks if he can wash them too. 10. A lot of the words he ...

The kids and I were discussing the story of Ragnarok, or the Viking version of the end of the world.  Carl thought it was a scary story and was wondering if it was real.  I assured him that it was not, which was a relief.  But then Carl began to worry that the Aesir (or Norse gods) might also  not be real, which was a little distressing.  Soren responded to Carl's attachment to the mythology with righteous indignation: SOREN:  The first commandment is that we will have no other gods beside Him!  Jesus said that. ME:  Yep.  And that's part of why we don't worship the Aesir like Odin and Thor. CARL:  But Thor is real!  He makes the thunder!

This month, I have been very glad to be homeschooling.  The shine of public school has definitely worn off for all the neighborhood kids.  This means that I hear a lot of temper tantrums in the mornings in the parking lot.  It also means that Soren has stopped begging for something I know he would hate.  We have been able to stop pining and start gloating. I'm gloating because:    * We get to be together.  I love that.    * I don't have to leave the house when it is cold and dark outside.    * The kids don't have homework.    * We have time to go on cool field trips.    * We aren't in a hurry.    * We don't have standardized tests coming up.  (Seriously?  Our neighbors are having standardized tests  for preschool! )    * Soren and Carl help out around the house a lot.    * I get to watch the boys play and observe first-hand how they are incorporating the thin...

SOREN:  I am going to be an adult like you!  I am learning the secrets of adultery!

1. I have enjoyed the sunshine this week.  It has been perfect autumn weather.  Our kindergarten walks have been very pleasant.  I love to see the brown and yellow leaves falling all around me.  I told the kids that when they caught a falling leaf, they caught a wish in their hand.  It's harder than it sounds!  Today, one fell right on my head!  I decided to count that. 2. Monday was my brother Timothy's last P-day of his mission!  We chatted on gmail for about an hour that morning.  I am really excited for him to come home! 3. I made an apple pie for FHE.  It was amazing. 4. Scott went on a father-son date with Soren on Wednesday night.  They went to the U of U parking lot and wrote down all the license plates they saw.  When they got home, Soren was very excited to tell me about the snazzy sports car they saw as well as the license plate from England. 5. I gave myself permission to take a nap every day this week. ...

Wednesday, October 23, 2013 at 10:45 am cool autumn breeze on my face wet dew-covered grass soft, worn cotton comfortable wool sweater goosebumps on my legs warm sunshine on my back maple tree surrounded with wet, golden leaves lemon yellow quilt backing neon school crossing sign mustard-colored Saturn four-door sedan Michael's curly blonde hair pale banana chips a shadow shaped like a rabbit faint smell of exhaust rumbling lawn mover "Do you want to play cy-bugs?" "I do!" "I think I want to look at license plates." screeching buzz saw Sven cooing woosh of passing cars little feet swishing through fallen leaves

Carl has been riding a balance bike all summer.  First it was a bike a neighbor lent to us and then it was a beautiful red bike that Scott's grandparents bought for him.  While Soren was struggling to master his bike, Carl was zipping around with ease on this clever invention: This Saturday, though, he used some of his birthday money (yes, he still had birthday money!) to buy a $5 bike at DI.  It is a little girl's bike with Dora the Explorer on it but he fell in love with it and so we carted it home in the trunk of our car. For his first ride, I held onto the handlebars while he climbed on.  I ran alongside, balancing the bike for him, Sven hanging heavily in the baby carrier.  But I soon found that he needed very little help from me to stabilize the bike.  After he figured out pedaling, he was doing it mostly on his own.  And when he was going downhill, it was a breeze.  Within 15 minutes, he was soon cruising down the driveway all by...

ME: Did you eat my popcorn? CARL:  Mom, did you know that you can share with someone who isn't even there? SOREN:  Yeah!  It's called psychic sharing! ME:  No, it's called stealing!

Sven cut his first tooth this weekend.  It's his lower right incisor and it is sharp! He also had his first cold.  And since I had it too, I know how bad it is.  It's a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad cold. He's been a bear.

This year all of Soren and Carl's friends went to public preschool and kindergarten.  So although education is still not legally mandated for my boys yet, I feel like this is the year we are officially homeschooling.  After all these years of dreaming and planning, I realize that this is it!  We are homeschooling! This is the first of my (hopefully) monthly homeschooling records. In Kindergarten Since this is my first time writing about it, I should explain our Kindergarten routine.  First, we have a Circle Time.  This includes (but is not limited to):      * a welcoming song - Usually "Here we are Together" or "Come to the Circle"      * nursery rhymes - Everyone gets a turn to share one.      * a story - I tell the same one from memory every day for two weeks.      * a hymn - I choose a new one each week that seems thematically related. After Circle Time, we take our quilt, the snack basket...

I have been looking forward to Michaelmas so much this year!   Michaelmas is a season for courage, something our family has been feeling a need for this past month.  The children especially have been struggling with the encroaching darkness, both in the night that comes earlier each day and, at least for Soren, in his own awakening mind.  We needed to celebrate the gifts we have been given by God: strength and power to slay our own dragons! * In my excitement, I started decorating as soon as September began.  We brought a toy shield back from Nan's house that I hung on some invisible wire.  I put some of the boys figures up on our shelves and made some cool transparencies of St. Michael and the dragon.  We also picked lots of Michaelmas daisies! * I began preparing the kids for Michaelmas two full weeks in advance by telling the story of Michael and the Star Children during our Kindergarten.  It's the same story that I told last year in Kindergart...

Sven can do it.  And he doesn't fall over.

Goals for Soren: * learn visualization and relaxation techniques * practice loving his "enemy" * help to cook breakfast Goals for Carl: * learn to put on his own shoes * help to cook breakfast Goals for Sven: * sleep * play independently in the crib for 10 minutes every morning Goals for Carolyn: * get up at 6:30 every morning * exercise with Michelle 3 afternoons a week * read fiction Goals for Mom: * talk less, sing more * respond consistently and lovingly to Soren's distress (grown-up PUPD) * safeguard regular wake-times and nap times for Sven * use a calendar--don't over-schedule our family!

Last night was the first night that Sven slept from sun down to sun up. Of course, it was also the night that my neighbors had a huge screaming fight on their porch at 2 in the morning.  So, although Sven  slept through the night, I  sure didn't. I'd like to hope for another try tonight but I'm not sure that it's going to stick.  Two nights ago, he woke up at 12:30, which is pretty normal for him.  We've been doing one night feeding around then since the middle of August, when I dropped the "dream feed". Once a night is very do-able, so I won't be too disappointed if he wakes up tonight.  I can't say that about a repeat performance of my neighbors' fight.

We're driving in the car to Provo for the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival.  It's a hot afternoon and Carl exclaims: CARL:  It smells like hell  in here. Scott and I just look at each other, amused and surprised.  We don't say anything, hoping that Carl will elaborate.  Thankfully, after a pregnant pause, he does: CARL:  It smells like fire and that's what hell smells like. (A comment on this: I don't believe in a fire and brimstone hell and I definitely haven't taught my boys to believe in one.  I believe in a hell that is like fire and brimstone.  It is more a state of the heart than the body.  But Soren likes to read the Bible to himself and his interpretations are much more literal.  Then he tells Carl about what he reads.  So they are getting some ideas of their own ...)

We celebrated Carl's fourth birthday in Illinois with Scott's family.  In fact, Carl thought that his birthday was the whole reason for the trip!  I'm glad that he felt special, even though we didn't plan it that way at all. Here are some of the things we did to celebrate: 1. Very first, he opened some presents.  When my parents came to visit in July, they left presents for Carl's birthday, which have been hanging out in our living room ever since.  Because of their constant presence, Carl has been very excited to open them.  We packed them up in the car to take with us and he finally got to open them first thing in the morning on his big day.  There were 3 sets of finger puppets and books to go along with them!  He promptly went to play with them in Nan and Poppy's den. 2. When Nan woke up, we went to Krape Park.  There we met up with Aunt Rachel, Uncle Ash, and Maddy.  Scott pushed Carl on the swings for a long time. 3. At Krape...

When Less is More: The Case for Teaching Less Math in School - This is the original article that got me thinking, there must be a better way to teach math! Doodling in Math Class: Connect the Dots  - This video also begs the question, why are we doing it this way?!? The Mathematician's Lament  - This is an absolutely beautiful  (albeit lengthy) article that I read much more recently.  It brought me right back were I started: thinking I should take a more laid-back approach to mathematics in the early years.  If you read anything, read this.  Although you might have already.  It apparently went viral on facebook. Why Math Instruction is Unnecessary - I love TED talks.  The title of this one is pretty provocative.  John Bennett recommends playing games instead of teaching higher mathematics.  I'm pretty convinced. Unschooling Tools: Math Play  - I love this mom's list of games and puzzles that explore mathematical ideas. ...

When Soren was a toddler and Carl just a wee babe, Scott emailed me an  article about math .  It's not a particularly scholarly article and I certainly don't think its conclusion is particularly sound, given the scope of the "research", but it was certainly provocative.  It's basic conclusion was that children didn't need to be formally taught mathematics in elementary school and could catch up (even surpass!) their peers very quickly at a later age.  Scott attached some comment indicating his frustration with the years he wasted hating  math in school. I emailed back: "It almost makes me want to homeschool our boys."  And thus our homeschooling journey began. Since then, I have thought long and hard about the best way to teach mathematics to our children.  It seems obvious to me that most public schools are not doing a good job and that something radically different is needed.  Here are some of the ideas that really speak to me: * playing g...

I am so excited about homeschooling my boys. I am excited about the benefits to them: personalized pacing, one-on-one instruction, freedom from government indoctrination, a rich feast of subject material, a preserved love of learning, opportunities for hands-on experimentation, and more free time. I am excited about the benefits to our family: flexibility, friendship between siblings, preservation of parental authority, time to enjoy each other, and transmission our family and religious culture to the next generation. I am also excited for myself.  I am excited about the creative challenge of designing and leading my own homeschool. I have enjoyed daydreaming about homeschooling for the past few years.  I have explored lots of different ideas and peeked in on lots of other homeschooling families via blogs and the internet.  I have flirted with running a Waldorf-pure, simply Charlotte Mason, strictly classical, or wildly unschooled classroom and spent many hap...

Scott went to see a movie a few weeks ago about giant robots fighting giant sea monsters (or kaiju).  He loved  it.  The rest of our family really loves the game he made up, inspired by the movie. First, all able-bodied members of our family make towers and houses out of kapla blocks. Then the fun begins.  Scott holds up Sven, talking in his gruff baby voice, and makes him say menacing things in Japanese.  (Watashi wa kaiju!)  He helps the baby to walk through the kapla buildings, smashing them as he goes.  Scott makes the sound effects as well: giant rumbling footsteps and horrible roars.  The older boys laugh and I snap pictures. We have played this game for the past two FHE nights.  Scott, Soren, Carl, and I really get a kick out of it; Sven doesn't seem to care much either way.  But he seems to be getting into the spirit of it here in this picture: Tasty Tokyo!

In April, a new boy moved into our neighborhood.  He was 5 years old and could ride a bike faster than the wind.  Soren was inspired.  His big boy bike came out of the storage shed and began to see use. He learned (painfully) to ride with training wheels in May.  But he relied on the training wheels too much and they became loose and wobbly.  He hated that so we took them off.  But then he had nothing  to lean on, which he hated even more.  So we put them back on.  But they still wobbled, so we took them off.  We tried putting on new training wheels but by then he was just too nervous for anything to work and we just ended up taking the new ones back off.  They went on and off over and over again for a couple of months before I said, "Enough!" and just gave up on the whole endeavor. Then one morning (July 19th, to be exact) he figured out how to balance his bike. It was currently in no-training-wheels mode and he scooted it ...