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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Stories of the Pilgrims

Traditional Maritime Hodge Podge Recipe - Allrecipes.com
We are reading through "Stories of the Pilgrims" by Margaret B.Pumphrey. On PG. 40 the pilgrims made Hodge Podge so my kids made it for dinner. It was pretty Yummy! !!  I added extra chicken base and I used canned wax beans so I just added them at the end. (P.s. my DD was in charge of frying the onions so she put her goggles on.)




Turning girls jeans into a cute skirt.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Love is patient, love is kind......

Sometimes in homeschooling we forget its OK to shut the books and walk away. This year I'm homeschooling 9 kids. I do a lot of combined subjects but then some have to be done individually. Im working with my 8 yr old DD ( who is severely dyslexic) My 6 yr and 5 yr sons with Verbal apraxia ( Their brain doesn't tell there mouth to talk)  on learning to read. My 8 yr old has to use all 3 learning styles to learn. We write some words on the board. We clap through words. Then we will read the sentence all over again. This can be very time consuming and tiring.
     My 6 yr old can be bullheaded! He has a lot of determination if I can channel it in the right direction.
Some days his stubbornness can get tiring. Somedays I have to set my foot down and we are doing it if you want to or not!
     My 5 yr old is all boy and has an attention span of zero. He loves to do school but his speech problems make him hard to understand.  Phonics is a struggle for him. I try to make it as fun as possible. My 4 yr old is all boy and then some. He's into everything! But he also has the same speech issues. My 3 yr old DD doesn't have speech issues but she tries to copy what her big brother's are saying. 
         Phonics on a good day can last an hour and 15 minutes to an hour an a 1/2.  But there are days when my 8 yr old is in tears almost and i get sooooo frustrated because she should "know" this! I want to yell at her to work harder. I want to make her do it over and over until she gets it right. I want send her to her room until she gets it. I want to through the book against the wall. Someone else can teach her! My 6 yr old somedays I just want to make his father teach him! If my 5 yr old could just say the sound better so i want to drill and drill the sound until its perfect and his look in his eyes is saying " Mommy I'm trying."  And if i could just get him and the little ones to sit still longer Phonics would be more productive!
      Somedays I want to just cry and cry. I wish I could just hide in my closet and cry.Teaching a dyslexic child is hard. Teaching a child with verbal apraxia is hard. Teaching wigglely boys is hard.
       But I remember 1 Cor. 13:4a Charity suffereth long,and is kind;
Charity means : love,kindness,affection,tenderness
How am I teaching my children charity for others when I'm struggling to show it to them. How can I be that example according to Deut 6:7 when I'm frustrated  and angery. On those struggling days I put school away and pray for God to forgive me of my frustration and anger. I pray for the Lord to show me a better way or what am I doing wrong. Then I thank the Lord for blessing me with each one of those kids. Rebekah is so full of character and its  really fun to watch her imagination. Nehemiah is bullheaded but is such a softy with his little siblings. Gideon is so lovable and can be a clown. Titus might be curious but so was Ben Franklin!  And I can go on and on of the blessings.
     Sometimes we need to take a deep breath and remember God gave you these children for a greater purpose then we can understand now. We need to show them Christ in everything we do. We can always start fresh tomorrow.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Welcome

Hello and welcome to the daily life of a wife and mother to eleven children.I hope though the days I can be a help or insight through our days.