Where did we ever get the crazy idea that in order to make children do better, first we have to make them feel worse?
-one of my favorite lines from the book Positive Discipline

This goes for adults too.  Duh!

*Note:  C wasn't picking her nose here.  She was scratching as I took the picture.  :)

Jenna's Minecraft Mansion

Jenna was the designer of this house and Maddox and Caroline helped her build it. Here are some of her photos:

Front view:

Side view:

Standing inside the front door:

Another view of first floor:

Upstairs:

Inside one of the domes you can see on the sides of the exterior of the house:

Looking into a dome:

Some Learning and Playing Going On This Week

Learning and Exploring this week

Monday

*Project Time:  Jenna worked on adding straw, ashes, feathers and feed to the chicken "hide-out" while Caroline brainstormed ways to make a tall cat scratcher-thingy.  We ended up watching a youtube video of how to make a simple one and then we headed to the barn to gather wood.  Since I didn't know what wood was off-limits, I asked if she would like to make a small version as practice with the scraps on the floor. She ended up building this:

The only part I helped with was the hammering. 

*Had promised Caroline I would take her to the horse barn to see our friend, Grace, taking care of her horse.  The girls both loved it.  They got to brush him and clean his hooves.  Both wished they could ride him.

*Jenna and I played the violin together during Josh's lesson.

Tuesday
Got out our word boxes we made last week (consisting of any words we like) and made up sentences with them.  Caroline liked it okay (although I think she would have really liked it had I helped her more).

Buddy Math with Jenna

Read with Caroline


Wednesday
*We are reading the second Red Pyramid and we did a bit of map work after reading this morning (Caroline:  locating Africa and North America) and Jenna locating (Egypt, England, Russia, Canada and Alaska).  
*Swamp Math and even/odds activity with Caroline.
*Jenna graphed November temperatures
*Both girls practiced a sentence of dictation.
*Caroline played people for an hour while I focused with Jenna on her project time.  We came to the computer to make more chicken trading cards, but we stumbled upon piktochart and she made this infographic instead.

*Girls are now both playing castle with Egyptian Gods and Star Wars characters.

Encouragement

Homeschooling is wonderful.  It's fun and engrossing and fulfilling and it's absolutely the best job I've ever had.

It's also tough.  Crazy tough.   Because this work matters to me more than anything I will do in this life, I can get more than a little upset when I don't get it all "right." 

But maybe it's really quite simple...

I came across these words today on the Simple Homeschool website, written by a seasoned, wise homeschooling mama.  She provides the long view...

"My children are not grown yet, but my oldest is in college and gives me hope that my idea of “maintaining your heart for your child” is on the right track. He believes parents are the key to successful kids. Among the people he knows at college, only a handful are confident and positive about life. Being smart is secondary. All his friends are smart, but few are emotionally strong. Of course, I had tears in my eyes as he said these things. 

 My next child turns 18 soon. I think her Terrible Twos lasted 12 years, then flared up again around age 15. But I tried to keep my head and maintain my unconditional love, sacrificial giving and unwavering confidence in her. Today she is self-controlled, competent and confident, and we enjoy a close relationship. She’s excited about college and ready to move into adulthood. 

My third child just turned 16, and I am still thick in the battle for my mind and attitude sometimes. But our foundation of deep love and respect has made these teenage years not as difficult as they could be. Let’s be realistic–even parents who do “everything right” can have a child turn away and follow a destructive path. We can’t guarantee our kids will turn out okay. All we can do is control our own behavior, living a life of no regrets–full of love and hope for the little ones in our home." 

Picture of Buns taken by Caroline after the three of us finished lying on a pallet in the morning October sun, watching the chickens and writing back and forth in the kids' journals. 

This moment

 One of the sweetest moments of my day (other sweet moment was tickling and chasing 

One tired little girl. 

She spent 2 nights in a row with grandparents. 

It's 5:00 pm and she just had her second very uncharacteristic meltdown of the day. 

Do you need a hug I asked as she cried about the kale I was putting into her sausage risotto. 

Yes, she did.  It took about 2 minutes of her curled in my lap to go to sleep. 

Halloween Memory Lane

I've been sifting through hundreds and hundreds of digital pictures trying to organize them and decided to put together a little post of Halloweens past....

2009

2010:

 

2011:

 
 2012:

2013: