The National Novel Writing Month Young Writer's Program

This is a great opportunity to get those creative juices flowing! And even mom and dad can write! We have several in this house who will be participating, so let us know if you are joining us!

Here's the information:

National Novel Writing Month starts on November 1. It isn't too late to decide to participate! There is no commitment to anyone but yourself.

The website is http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/


The basic idea is that the student and teacher set a word count goal for a novel, the student writes the novel in one month, and if the student meets the goal, he/she 'wins' and can get a free proof copy of the novel in paper back book form. The website has suggested ranges by grade level for word count goals. There is no fee for any part of the program.
While the actual writing of the novel is done in one month (November), the work for the whole project actually takes most of the school year and can be used as a substantial part of an English/language arts curriculum.

The website has some great (and free!) workbooks available for download. There are elementary, middle, and high school versions, with about 100 pages each. The bulk of the workbook is designed to be done in
Sept-October, before starting to write the novel. The workbook guides the student through character and plot development, setting location, creating interesting dialog, etc.
The actual writing of a complete first draft is done in November. Then, you have until June to edit the novel, do the interior layout, design a cover, and order your free proof copy. (The workbook has some guidance for editing.)

You can find 'writing buddies' on the website and the workbooks have suggestions for sharing and critiquing peers' novels.
_____________________
Thank you for the information Amy!
(This was written by a friend of Amy's, unfortunately i do not know who, so I can not give credit where credit is due...)

38 weeks and counting

Good morning!
Just popping in to say hello.  We are still here, still waiting, still looking forward to meeting this little blessing. 

The family has been busy as usual.  The children have begun FIRST Lego League (well i have too as i am coach for our 4th year running!)  We have been blessed with dear families in our homeschool group who have become friends seemingly overnight.  Seeing friendly, familiar faces at Mass has been a joy after several years of knowing no one as other than familiar faces, with no names. Co-ops are starting up in our homeschool group and life is getting to be in full swing again.
We will begin our new school year after baby is born.  Cat has periodically asked for schoolwork (B is working on stuff daily so it not unusual for her to see him working and ask for her own)  I have managed to throw together a few trays of practical life activities and math work for her.... that seems to be all she needs for now. (Phew!) 
We have been busy as a family preparing for the arrive of our newest little one. We have been through clothes, and washed the bassinet and car seat.  The crib is last to be put together and all should be good!

We have been busy finishing up the unpacking, putting away, and getting rid of, that always seems to elude us at the end of a move.  This time we are actually doing it.  My goal is no boxes!

Nina (my mom) came to visit and helped out for a week.  We also had Uncle Joe, Aunt Jennifer and V. here- Hurricane Irene was kind enough to send them to our door step!

I have been resting, totally unlike me, and it has helped immensely.  One would think i would learn a little something from that...but alas, no.  Feeling better  = up and running in my book.  I do rest throughout the day still, but having spent a full week mainly laying down, my brain is tired of it.

Well, i better run as kids are waking up!
Hopefully my next post will be news of the wee one! 

A Low Week

Definitely a good thing!  After much running around with baseball and horse back riding lessons along with a Confirmation and doctors appointments thrown in, we have about a week of rest.

Our oldest was Confirmed on Monday, May 16th.  The class was huge...and only about half of this year's class.  Some were Confirmed this past Fall and some were Confirmed this Spring.  The other night there were 141 teens!  To put it in perspective - imagine 141 teens + 141 sponsor (give or take a couple of them who sponsored 2 teens) + parents (for 141 teens) + siblings, grandparents, godparents, etc.  Oh my!  : ) it was a full house!  We thought - we'll sit in the cry room (where we NEVER sit), it should be less populated considering its 6:30 at night and most parents will want to be as close as they can....Now i remember why i really dislike sitting in the cry room.  And we had never been in the one at this church so we were in for a few surprises!  But all in all, we had a beautiful Mass, the Teens worked hard to prepare for this amazing sacrament, and we are so proud of our son! 

One thing the teens do while preparing for Confirmation is choose a saint to take the name of.  They research and write a report on that saint and explain why they chose him or her.  Our son chose St. Ambrose.  You can find out a bit about this amazing man from my brother's blog as he too had chosen St. Ambrose for his Confirmation saint and discusses why on his blog.  There is more there than B. was even able to find.  Very interesting information.  Funny, B. Chose St. Ambrose forgetting that his uncle had too...and then he asked his aunt (Joe's wife) to be his sponsor!  Ah, well .... just one of those things.

Baseball is finishing up in the next few weeks.  Riding lessons are over.  We have been slowly going through boxes, one at a time from the garage.  School is getting back to normal.

On the subject of school, once the new catalogs come out, the conferences start, etc don't you find yourself looking more toward next year than focusing on finishing this year?  I do. I need to remind myself that yes, they do need to finish the science, math, whatever in order to start the next year's materials.  yikes! 

Right now i am trying to focus on materials for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd as opposed to next year's stuff hoping that will keep me focused on the finishing of the year. 

B. is flying through things now...we were so far behind but he will end up finishing by the end of June.  Once he found what worked best for him school has progressed quickly.  The next two in line after him need to finish math definitely and well, i'll make them keep working at the other stuff until B. is done -  i'm mean like that. : )

Bear is working only on math and reading right now.  When they are learning to read, that is always the most important, greatest focal point of their year.  But for him, math is a favorite and he is already halfway through next year's book.  I am getting ready to add in science and geography for him in a more montessori style as well as Catechesis of the Good Shepherd  (CGS) for religion.  The funny thing about religion is that they are surrounded by it and so daily they are learning and living their faith...but there is more to learn and CGS is by far the most wonderful way to present the Truths of our faith. 

My brother is slowly making his way home from Afghanistan - thank God for his safe return!  We hope to see him and his family sometime in the next few weeks.

And last, one more bit of news!  Wee dunphy #6 is due to arrive around the 16th of September!  We are all very excited about his arrival.  Yes - this is really late to be handing out the news but so what.  I am about 23 weeks! 

Well i best run as the kids will be making their way downstairs soon and i have yet to do much of what i really should be doing!  (that translates into cleaning, cooking, going through boxes...etc)

Have a beautiful afternoon!

Catching up...again

Wow, 10 days without a post - well, we have been busy.  Our biggest time taker is baseball.  This weekend we have a 9am game, a 10:30 game, and a 11am game ... all in different locations.  Maybe the weather will help us out a bit. :  ) 

The kids are back to doing some school work, i am still pondering what else we really need besides finding the griddle cord and the crock pot, Cory is working hard as usual. 

We just celebrated Cory's birthday - i won't say how old he is because then you'll know how old i already am!   We managed to put a little aside through this move so we could get him a new grill for birthday/father's day. For mother's day i got a new, movable garden .... actually 2, but due to the cost of the 'dirt mixture' i opted to only use the larger one.  I have seeds for most things, i just need to purchase a few tomato and pepper plants and we will be good to go. 

Gardening is one of those things i have really missed these past 2 years.  Being homeless really puts a stop to gardening. : )  The kids have put in their requests for carrots and cherry tomatoes.  I am looking forward to the snow peas and fresh herbs...if they will actually grow.  

Over the years i have done quite a bit of research on gardening and have recently found Square Foot Gardening, which pulls together many of the things i have learned since we started our garden adventure about 5  years ago.   Our last neighbor used to give me a hard time about my gardening methods of raised beds and spacing.  She owns a farm and everything is done in rows.... the garden we had was huge and i could have gotten a lot more out of it than we did, i just never got all my ducks in a row.  She would be amazed now if she knew how much we are about to grow in 24 sq ft.  Its a little absurd. 

Gardening always amazes me, as the kids are willing to help plan and sometimes work, knowing they will have the joy of pulling cherry tomatoes and snow peas from the vine and just popping  them in their mouth.  The coolness of knowing something is hiding under the dirt that is nothing like the plant on top has them excited about the carrots.... they loved the years we did potatoes (with several other families)... such a treasure hunt is hard to beat.  Kids and dirt go hand in hand ....even with those kids who prefer to stay clean.  We have several of those and well, its totally my fault. : )  Even as a toddler i would make mud pies but cry and ask to be washed off if i got any on my clothes. 
I have always hated being dirty, which cracks me up because i am the one who threw pots through most of high school (a V-E-R-Y dirty activity) and i love to garden.  But then we must wash.  ah, to be clean.  I will be the first to jump in and get my hands dirty but don't ever stand in my way when it comes to cleaning up! :  )

I will try to get pictures up soon.  We have confirmation coming up for B. and pictures of the new house, baseball, new montessori materials, projects and the garden, which i am sure you all are dying to see. 
As always, please bear with me as things are crazy right now.... i'm looking forward to the middle of June!...when it all comes to an end - for the moment.  Geesh! : )

Quick Resource Note - Montessori

For anyone interested - Oriental Trading has plastic activity trays on sale, 6 for $7.99.

14.5" x 10.75" in size.  Perfect for little hands!

Here is the Plastic Cool Craft Trays link!

Enjoy!

Hello!

Well, here i am, its 5:44am.  Are you up? Probably not! How lucky for you.

Sorry it has been so long since i've posted!

We are 'moved in' but far from moved in.  Over Easter Weekend (i know, don't even say it) we unloaded the 23' truck of many of our possessions that have not been seen in 2 years.  This was after spending the week (through all the rain!!!) retrieving our belongings from NJ and 2 locations in PA.  We still have things in both PA places!

So now we wonder, as we sit here in our new (rental) home...how much of this STUFF do we really need? 

Have you ever really tried to separate yourself from your belongings?  We did some prior to leaving the farm house almost 2 years ago...but not much.  And note to self - when you live in a huge house people give you things you a)don't necessarily need, and b)don't necessarily want.  (the same is true when you have children - this problem has been following us for over 14 years now! : )  ) But people are so generous and for that we are truly thankful.  What is an extra, occasional trip to goodwill or the St.Vincent De Paul society...nothing.

So currently i am wading through boxes, trying to make myself be reasonable - how many colanders does one family really need???  Holy smokes!  : )

Now the ultimate goal is to get as little extra stuff into the house as possible...not easy with children  -especially when all the toys are in clear buckets!  Thankfully, we have weeded through those numerous times over the years and honestly, only the best (for the most part) are in the buckets... see how that mentions nothing about all the gift from the past two years?  We have a ways to go yet.

On to other news....
My computer is still out of commission.  Its not a huge problem as you can see from the fact that i am currently writing you : ) but still - photos and addresses would be nice to retrieve.  I may be able to salvage some of it but if i tell you how you will laugh so i'll save that for AFTER i try.  Fair?

No sewing, crocheting, etc has been done in way too long....and no i never got the Easter dresses done by Easter.  We were lucky to make it to Mass as we were all exhausted by then!  But my husband and i pulled ourselves together enough to hold on to our family traditions even through the mess of a Lent we have had. (but only for Easter, Lent is a whole other ball of melting wax!)

School is on hold (and the children are SO upset - teeheeehee!) They can't seem to find their books!  I, of course, know where they are, but i'm not talkin'!  ...ok, we start back monday,whether i like it or not.

In other school news - our oldest has taken it upon himself the task to teach himself computer programing. I am very impressed.  So i went online to see about online classes at the local community college but you have to take 2 real life classes before you can enroll in the online stuff...and  you have to be 16 to enroll in the college.  SO, i started looking online and found (quite unintentionally) a site that has several free computer programing courses.  One set is through MIT.  I looked at it a bit and i think we'll add that to his daily schedule after his actual school work is done...if he wants.  Or he can continue on as is, but with the blessing of an hour of extra computer time just for teaching himself something he seems to really enjoy.  I love homeschooling!

Well, that about sums it up for now... i promise eventually i will get back to blogging about school and home in a more beneficial to you sort of way, with photos etc as well.

But please, bear with me as the stress is high and the tasks many - and most are not part of our normal life.  Moving can be both a joy and a stress at the same time .... much like life in general. : )

So i will try to get back here more often than not from here on out...but please say a prayer for us as we try to decide what is really necessary to keep and what we can drop, to better follow Him....

Have a Blessed Sunday!

Life Skills

Saturday, if you looked for us, you would have found us in Greensboro, NC at NC A & T University.  NC A & T hosted this year's NC FLL State Tournament.

FLL or FIRST Lego League "introduces younger students to real-world engineering challenges by building LEGO-based robots to complete tasks on a thematic playing surface. FLL teams, guided by their imaginations and adult coaches, discover exciting career possibilities and, through the process, learn to make positive contributions to society."  Oh, but it is so much more...

Not only do they build lego robots but they program them, they research the year's topic, they come up with an original solution to a problem, and they present all these things to judges.  FIRST Lego League teaches many life skills far beyond the science and technology.

My husband and i like FLL because on top of academically challenging our children it helps teach them about teamwork, team spirit, communication, interviewing, courtesy, on the spot and critical thinking.  They learn to trust their ideas and question them as well.  They learn to push themselves beyond their initial ideas to look further up and out.  They learn to ask for help, teach others, find solutions or create your own quality one if none exist or are appropriate.  And they learn to do all these things while still working within rules and guidelines, while being good sports (FIRST calls it gracious professionalism). Gosh, and there is so much more....

Its definitely NOT about the Legos.

Anyway - the kids had a very long, very tiring, very educational day.  But they enjoyed it.  It was actually a pretty tough day as many things did not go as planned. 

 We left Raleigh around 5:00am so Dad could be there for the volunteer meeting (each team has to provide one in this particular state's events.) Team check in started around 7am.  Once checked in we headed to the Pit - the area set up for teams to use as their 'home base' for the day.  We get a 6 foot table and four chairs.  If you're lucky you're next to a wall and can then spread out a bit more ...we were lucky.

The kids and i spent the morning running around between the practice runs, teamwork interview, robot design interview, and project interview. 

We had our own small cheering squad....

and photographer (hopefully one day we'll get the pictures! :  ) )

The afternoon was spent practicing, 

queueing,

 and competing.

Overall it was a good day.  They did not win any awards but came away happy with their presentations and a little frustrated with their table runs.  The best part of the day was...

Ladybug: "the break in the afternoon" (they got to shoot hoops and play skeet ball)

T: "Just being there." (Not everyone goes to state.  They won 2nd place Robot Design at their qualifier to earn a place.)

B: "The robot design interview, because that was our best chance of winning something."

Me?  I liked spending the day with my kids! 

What do you do with the little ones when the older ones are doing school?

This is a question i have gotten a lot over the years.  Now, after homeschooling for almost 12 years, i can honestly say i finally figured it out! : ) 

Early on the little ones would ask for their own school.  We tried left over workbooks, coloring books, paper and stickers ...the list goes on and on.  But what i have found with all those things is that they are done quickly and/or they need or want your help with them constantly.  Now, there is plenty of time for each child, but if you are teaching one to read, preparing one for a sacrament, and trying to figure out why another is not doing well in one of their subjects, sitting down for 2 hours with the toddler/preschooler is  not a doable option.  So you want to know the answer?

One word - Montessori...

Ok, before you start shaking your head, and telling me its too much work, too much stuff, blah, blah, blah, let me explain.  Really, Montessori at home is the absolute ideal solution to this question.  Your toddlers and preschoolers deserve just as much prep time from you as the others do (all relevant to age and grade of course.)  And many things can be done very simply and inexpensively....The most important thing here though is that they LOVE doing the work, they can do things on their own after you present it to them, and they will do the activities for a good long while.

The other night i finished making color cards for Cat.  She was still up with us so we did them for about 15 minutes before i told her we needed to stop.  It was just matching colors.  Nothing elaborate. 
I did find that she has a hard time separating and setting out the 1st set of card so I am going to make a single sheet that she just puts out and then matches the individual cards to.

This morning i made sequence color cards but they are so small that it was hard for her to go back and forth and not lose her spot.  So i am making larger cards (with less colors to start with) later today.  But either way - she loves them!  And she was very excited to show her Daddy and her brothers and sister.  And she can do it all by herself  (well, she can once i get things redone - my fault, not hers or the materials.) 

When we were in our own place i had 2 shelves just for Bear that held several activities and books to read that he could do alone.  Stringing large beads and sorting frogs and numbers to name a couple.  Cat also has a spooning tray where she moves pompoms from one bowl to another.  Sometimes she sorts them by color (black and red). 
My hope is that i can set out and present something new each week, at the least, that will inspire her to work alone, along side her older siblings. 

But also, i should mention, i am working to incorporate more Montessori style learning for all the kids into the school day.  For the older ones  we will have a theme each week (probably based on Bear's science) that i will set a shelf up for.  Then they can work on things as they finish up or take a break from their other work.  The first week is  the Universe - Stars and Constellations.  We have a wonderful telescope i would like for them to use more (especially since its still gets dark early.) Knowing how it works and the different parts of it are an important part of using it! This along with learning a few constellations and more will be a fun endeavor for us all.

We are going to learn together a few things we have all missed but would like to know more about.

I encourage you to take some time and look into making a few baskets or trays of activities for your little ones.  There is a large wealth of information concerning using Montessori at home so please do not get too overwhelmed.  Start very simply with one or two activities and work your way in.

I plan to write more about this as our journey begins again with this wonderful learning method.  Its one of those things that i keep going back to and continue, every time, to see benefits abound from.  Its well worth your time as a parent and teacher. 

Eclectic Homeschooling

I gave myself a good laugh yesterday while looking back at what all we have done for school.  People always ask "what curriculum do you use?" and i have always replied "well, we're a bit eclectic." ....."OOOOOh....."
But now, what does that mean really?  I think this year is really an eclectic year which is what caused me to laugh.  We usually use a jumping off curriculum of sorts (at least we have many of our homeschooling years) and then i change things and adjust things and voila! Eclectic.  But these past two years have been very different in that my husband was laid off in Dec of 2008 and we just had no money for the 2009-2010 school year.  That year i basically scoured my parents bookshelves (they homeschool too) and was rewarded with all that my mom has kept on hand.  Even though the youngest is now 15 she still has something from just about every grade.  Most was religion and art but there were other gems in there as well. Then i started borrowing...from her friends and from my friends, it was quite a year.  Very eclectic.  But then we hit this year.

2010 found us with some savings to purchase books and actually enroll our 9th grader in OLV (Our Lady of Victory homeschool) - which by the way, for high school, we love!  We started off using a lot of their curriculum for the younger ones  but as the year has progressed things have changed. 

The 6th grader is using some OLV, some Kolbe, some other. 

The 4th grader is using some OLV, some Kolbe, some CHC, some other. 

The Kindergartner is now using what i have found works best for that grade and age - it just never changes does it?   Why do we continually wonder if there is something better?  He is using - in a workbox style - Little Angel Readers, Math -U-See (which is our newest "everyone in our house uses it" program,) Montessori, and Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, plus some small science and history books. 

And then there is the 2 year old....my "Why?" girl.  She has (due to space and limited budget) a few Montessori trays. 

This year everyone is doing something different.  There is no real base curriculum - you might say OLV but really its not, then there is no 'the same' in how things are taught.... We are eclectic within our eclecticness - kinda goofy.

But that is one of the great things about homeschooling.  You can cater to the child ...and yes, each child is different.  There are some things that one kids can use and another cannot.  But there are exceptions... Little Angel Readers has taught all three older kids to read - we love this program.  Bear is using it now and he is the first one i have thought to add some outside influence to (the Montessori movable alphabet)

Little Angel Readers and workbooks by themselves are great, but if you need more hands on activities the teacher's manual is full of activities and ideas.  Some people feel you have to do it all, i am here to tell you no you don't! It can be very overwhelming if you think you need to do all that is in the teacher's manual, use just what you need! 

Our other 'everyone uses' program is Math -U-See.  We have tried numerous math programs (as we had with reading programs!) and we have finally found a winner.  Bear uses the number blocks, but the older kids do not.  They just watch the lesson video (a minute or so) and then do a lesson a week which includes practice pages, systematic reviews, and test. The kids all love it!  We range from the Primer (which Bear has basically finished!) to Geometry.  They all now love doing math!

I'm sure you have heard these things before from me but i felt like saying it again!  : )