In Conclusion

    The boys and I are officially at the end of our home school year. (I should add, I think we are. I'm half expecting to hear from Seton that I forgot to do something huge and important and then I'll have to tell the boys they need to take like 6 more tests or something. hahaha) Last week was a whirlwind of review, test prep, and multiple tests for each of my boys. I'm not going to lie, it got ugly towards the end. Our motivation was pretty low, but their scores are coming back from Seton, and I'm just so proud of the hard work they did this year. Honestly- all students and teachers, no matter if they were virtual, in-person, or homeschooled this year, need a standing ovation. If you know a teacher, give him or her a hug and then maybe buy them a drink. The boys and I celebrated our last day with Dairy Queen Blizzards, and I celebrated by spending several stressful hours scanning and uploading tests and book reports online. 

Just after I submitted the last Seton document!

Our everyday look in the school room. Kids working, a smattering of Legos across the floor.

And the after. It looks a little sad now!

    

    I don't have any deep, profound thoughts about our home school year. I will never ever regret it, and the time I spent with our boys is something I'll cherish for the rest of my life. Yep, there were days we all wanted to pull out our hair, and we for sure got on each other's nerves often. But, all in all, it was a blessing. My oldest wrote this on the whiteboard a couple of weeks ago, and it made me cry. I am so glad that I'm their mom. 

    Today is our first official day of summer, and it's rainy, but the boys are down in the unfinished basement playing a new game they invented that involves a ball, a piece of pvc pipe, and loud grunts and yells. We are all looking forward to lazy summer days. 

    Our summer will look a little different this year, though, because the boys will be helping me as I prepare for my new role as school librarian at a local Catholic grade school. I am SO excited for this opportunity, and it really is my dream job. Maybe I'll start a new blog for that adventure?

    Thank you, friends and family, for your support and encouragement for the boys and me this year. We needed your prayers and they helped us more than you realize. We love you!

Love,

Annie

Boys and Art and Books

    Boys

    Oh my sweet boys. They are 12, 10, 9, and 6. Yes, my hands were full when they were little. But they napped back then. Now they're awake for 13 hours a day. And the brutality! I texted my sister a few days ago that it would be nice to go one day without having someone come up from the basement bleeding. "But, Mom! We were just playing the monster game! I didn't MEAN to scratch his face!" 

    These are the drawings my 6-year-old produces and scatters around the house. I appreciate his effort but the quantity of these is overwhelming and the content...slightly alarming? 

Art

    I'm all for letting my boys express themselves in their art, but occasionally I try to direct their focus a bit. We took a field trip to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO a couple of months ago. We don't go very often because I'm not a lunatic, but our visits are always a pleasure. We stood in front of Monet's Water Lilies for 10 minutes as the lights dimmed and then slowly brightened as though day was dawning. Granted, during our visit we got reprimanded several times for stepping over a tape line or accidentally touching a wall. An hour of fine art was a fantastic way to spend a cold winter afternoon.

    As we wind down our school year, I am starting to dream of reclaiming our front living room as a sitting room and a quiet place for me during the day. (Anyone in KC need desks, chairs, and storage drawers? I know a gal...) As much as I'll be glad to have the room put back together, I am also starting to feel sentimental about our homeschool time coming to an end. I thought it would be nice to have the boys create some artwork for my walls as a subtle nod to our homeschool year. Using water, bleeding tissue paper, and four very distinct artistic styles/attention spans, they created these for me! I'm excited to have my boys sign their canvases, and then I'll frame them for my wall.

Books

    You all have no idea how hard it is for me to pretend to understand and/or care about: Legos, Star Wars, Marvel, Minecraft, etc. It's a constant onslaught of information I never wanted to know, but eventually they won't come to me to share every little thing they built, created, or learned. So I politely nod as I listen and try not to let my eyes glaze over.

    What my boys and I do have in common is our love of reading. I'm stupidly proud of the fact that my boys will ask for a break from school work and then go to the living room and do this:

    Our library hauls are pretty impressive, and I still can't figure out a good storage situation for our books.  To my credit, we (knock on wood) haven't lost a library book in 12 years! Maintaining my library account and researching books for the boys is a full time job that I love with all my heart.

  

    My 9-year-old read an I Survived book about the Nazis a couple of weeks ago. We had grandparents visiting us the day he finished it, and as we were serving dinner, he walked up to me and bluntly asked, "How did Hitler die?" So, that wasn't great timing, but I'm just happy they're reading, loving it, and soaking up hundreds of stories. I wish I had thought to keep track of the books these boys have read over the years.

    Thank you for your love and support!

Annie

Nearing the End

     The countdown is on. Everyone wants to know when our last day is (May 21), and we are all looking forward to warm and lazy summer days. Remember that song from Les Miserables, "One Day More?" We have five more weeks, this week included, and I keep thinking/humming, "Five Weeks More!" And I realize that sounds rather negative, but it's very good for the boys and me to have an end goal so that we keep up our hard work. 

    Third quarter flew, thank goodness, and now we are in Week 32 of Week 36! Here are some photo updates for you.

This was a big moment, starting the lesson plans for 4th quarter. Each of the boys has a lesson plan book, and I fill it out every week for the following week. It's plenty of work, but it definitely helps keep them on track.

A rainy day walk with the dog and my 6-year-old. For the record, he regretted this immediately because he had to finish the walk in wet socks. But it's just so cute to watch your kid jump in a puddle.

John and I are both tall, and we never figured we'd have short kids. But I just wasn't mentally prepared to see my 10-year-old's feet match mine.

The kid in orange? Absolutely despises doing any school work, without fail, every single day. But if I suggest he help his little brother with double digit addition? SURE, NO PROBLEM, MOM. This is a source of great frustration and pride for me. 

Speaking of double digit addition, my first grader is getting the hang of it! Proud mom! It really is the coolest thing to see your kids learn a new concept right in front of you.

I found this cute workbook to help my 6yo's writing skills. I just love that no matter the animal, he has to add a happy little smile to its face.

Just a 10-year-old, taking a suspiciously long time to "get my pencil." You do you, buddy.

My parents would agree that math was definitely not my strength in grade school, middle school, high school, etc. I'm happy to report that our 10-year-old is adding, multiplying, and dividing fractions with ease! I try to tell my kids every day that I'm proud of them, and that they should also be proud of themselves for the hard work they're doing.

HOWEVER, some kids work a little bit harder than others. Feast your eyes on the psychotic spelling atrocity that is this chalkboard. I had simply asked the 9-year-old to write his words on the board. I mean, he technically did what I asked... MAJOR EYE ROLL.

Finally, Happy Spring and Happy Easter! We made it through the dark days of winter, and we can all rejoice! Pray for the boys and me as we finish our school year. I will be teaching and grading and submitting grades until the middle of May. I'll write one more blog post then as a grand finale to this year. Thank you to everyone who has encouraged us and prayed for us!

3rd week of 3rd quarter!

     When you're stuck at home pretty much all the time and Christmas break starts to get a little long, you decide to start 3rd quarter on December 29th! So that means we're already well into our 3rd quarter now! It feels so good to be in Week 21. I still have kids dragging their feet pretty much every single morning, don't get me wrong. Kids are kids. 

    Religion with my six-year-old this morning with a quick recap of Adam and Eve. I asked him who the first man and woman were. His reply: "Adam and Even." So close! 

    My 6th grader is working his way through the New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism this year. It's SO GOOD, and I have wished so many times this year that I had been required to read this at my grade school and high school. I'm learning with him this year! Today we were reading and discussing Confirmation, and he offhandedly remarked that he wished he could be confirmed sooner than 8th grade. The old school pictures are fantastic. LOL

    The 3rd grader started fractions this week, and the 4th grader is plugging along with long division. Not much else to report! Just wanted to update here for my own memories.

"Diagramming Sentences is Easy Now"

    I'm so proud of my 6th grader! He has worked SO hard at his English this year, and he just announced that diagramming is easy now. He has probably only complained about schoolwork a handful of times this whole semester. He works hard, quietly, and it would be nice if his work ethic would rub off on the youngest two... The 4th grader works just as hard, but he is a perfectionist and stresses out big time over things like writing a perfect conclusion sentence. BUT! He is figuring out how to write a good paragraph! 

    The youngest and I were working on sight words the other day when he read this sentence  and asked what a mop was. After a quick explanation, he said excitedly, "It's been a long time since you've done that!"

    I maintain that I do mop, but it is rare because when you've got 4 boys and a dog, what is honestly the point? I'm not even sorry!

    On my quest to make the somewhat dry Seton material a bit more interesting to the 6-year-old, I rummaged through the toy box to have these guys help him with subtraction yesterday. Turns out, they were pretty much just a huge distraction. Points for trying?

    One of MY favorite games is Scrabble, but John prefers strategy games, so I've had nobody to play Scrabble with for a long time. Now that the two oldest are good readers and writers, I can finally play Speed Scrabble again! At least until they consider themselves too cool to play word games with their mom.

    And now, for a fashion show... I found this sweatshirt on Etsy and now it's mine and I'll be wearing it every day of December. BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIE EVER, HANDS DOWN. 

    PE yesterday was a trip to a local park on a gorgeous 55 degree day and some good old fashioned hill rolling. So many giggles and no broken bones! We're so thankful to God for sunny, warm days.

    I'm off to go practice flashcards with a kid!

First Week of Advent

    I thought I'd share this beautiful quote on the blog. It's especially fitting this year. 

   Lesson planning has been especially nice lately as I listen to my favorite Christmas music while I work. The other day, the 75-pound dog came and wedged himself under the desk right by my feet. He makes a nice foot heater.

    It's no secret to the boys or anyone who knows me that my math skills are...adequate. Luckily, we haven't had too many issues yet this year. Except for figuring out how to go from 5/8 to a percentage. I missed that day in grade school, sue me. Good old Google to the rescue!

                                                  

    Four boys at four reading levels = so many books. Take a look at my "system" for "organizing" our library books. I'll never ever complain about having to make yet another library run.

    The first grader has been working hard on addition and subtraction. I felt like a genius Mom when I had the idea to have him use M&Ms for his problems. The brothers were especially interested in helping with this activity! But seriously, the three older brothers have been surprisingly helpful with their little brother. It's nice to see glimmers of kindness in our days.

PSA- I found straight Hot Wheels tracks at Dollar Tree yesterday. Hours of entertainment and a Physics lesson to boot!

    Just two weeks of school until Christmas Break! Our Advent wreath is out, everyone fights over who gets to blow out the candle, and the hope of Jesus' coming is alive in our hearts. May your Advent be blessed and filled with joy this year.

A Thanksgiving Break

     The boys and I took a 4-day break from school for Thanksgiving, and we really enjoyed our lazy days! I had to fight the temptation to have them work ahead or practice flashcards, but they needed a mental break from school. However...this morning was a ROUGH re-entry. Three more weeks until we finish the first semester! 

    We had to have our Ash tree removed this fall. Most of the Ash trees in our area are diseased and dying. I hated to lose a big tree, but it was time. We were plugging away with school last week when the tree crew returned to take out the huge stump. ZOOM- all 4 boys were glued to the front window. Admittedly, that machine is pretty cool.

    Every now and then, one of the boys has a sudden inspiration for a game or activity, and the four of them race off to accomplish said game. Yesterday, I had 4 SWAT team members stomping through the house. Last week, they were in teams of two creating their own countries. I found this list of rules on one of the country's maps. I didn't really see the last one coming.

      Our Christmas decorations are up! John insists on proudly displaying a singing blue Christmas dinosaur on the mantle. That dinosaur drives me crazy and scares the dog, so it is not getting on this blog. I prefer to go with the Pinterest overload. 

    Lastly, we scored a free ping pong table this weekend! We live right behind our church, and the dumpster is right across from our back gate. On our way back from a walk this weekend, we saw that someone had dumped a ping pong tabletop in the dumpster, and we weren't too proud to haul that out and set it on our sawhorses! A quick trip to Academy, and we had the net and paddles! The boys are a great age for ping pong, and it'll be a fun activity this winter. John has mad woodworking skills, so I showed him a picture of a paddle and ball holder and he whipped up one for us in a day!

    Thanks for reading! Have a happy and blessed Advent!

Is That a God Bird?

     "Is that a God bird?" asked my 6-year-old this morning as we worked through his Phonics pages. Here's what he saw:

To his credit, the Seton dove and gull do look a lot alike! 

    My biggest two boys followed a Betty Crocker recipe for apple pie the other day. Everyone always loves to help peel apples with this fun toy, and I'm glad my kids are getting more experience in the kitchen. It's fun working together on projects like this!

    This has been a great fall, honestly, and it's just really cool to see where each of my kids shine. The oldest is a 6th grader and he loves to read and sketch. The 4th grader is happiest cooking in the kitchen or sitting with the dog and reading. He's also a perfectionist. The 3rd grader has to be moving all day long. He's currently racing a wheelie car as fast as he can in the loop in our unfinished basement. He comes up the stairs dripping sweat. He is not a perfectionist and schoolwork is not his favorite part of the day. Our 1st grader loves to draw and create with trash he finds in the recycle bin. He recently lost his two front teeth and just today he learned how to ride a bike with no training wheels!

I'm constantly finding random creations like this.

It took him a long time, but the 4th grader did a beautiful job!

Not a bad way for either of them to spend a morning.

    Our Monday was rough this week, so I decided to shake things up and move out of the school room for a few days. We've been doing the bulk of our school work from couches and chairs in our living room, and it's been relaxed and great. I'm so glad because I really do want our boys to have good memories of our homeschooling this year. I sit between the 3rd and 1st grader, and this position has helped the 3rd grader's mood exponentially. I love it. What a gift this year has been. 

    I should also note that my oldest is better at math than me. It's a humbling situation to be in, but I'm not too proud to admit it. We sit and do his Saxon math together every day; I work on my paper and he works in his notebook. When we get different answers, we double check to see who was correct, and more often than not, H is right and I'm pretend-yelling at him for laughing at me. I figure I'm just increasing his confidence in mathematics. You're welcome, buddy.

    May God bless each of you and may you be as happy as our dog with this huge stick.

Flexibility LOLOLOL

     It's been a relatively uneventful couple of weeks, but I figured I should update here anyway. I swear the boys are on some kind of secret schedule for their moods. Are they in their bedrooms at night plotting whose turn it is to test Mom's patience the next day during school hours? If so, it is an incredibly unpredictable and varied schedule! Mom never knows who is going to show up ready to work and who is going to cause Mom to sprout a few new gray hairs. Exciting!

    I asked John what I should blog about today. He said, "Flexibility," and I laughed because if there's anything I am, flexible is not one of them. I can probably place some of the blame on my being an oldest child, but honestly, having 4 babies in 5 years is probably what caused my rigidity. Nap times, meal times, John's work travel schedule for so many years in a row... I relied on routine and normalcy to maintain a bit of sanity. 

    2020 shot routine and normalcy to heck, didn't it? The entire world is upside down right now, so I don't need to blather on about how our little family's life has changed. But since we're homeschooling and John is still working from home, we have been able to take advantage of the copious amounts of time together to do some fun things in the area that we would have never had time for otherwise.

Cave Spring Park

Located in Raytown, Missouri, just 20 minutes from our house, is a plot of land that was once owned by a family and operated as a stop for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. Now it is protected as Cave Spring Park and has 4.5 miles of hiking trails as well as a cave to explore. The boys and I hiked there one afternoon last week and loved the trails and history. I figure we could check off History and PE that day.

For anyone in the KC area, here's their website for more information. I helpfully forgot to take any other pictures.

https://cavespring.org

Konza Prairie Biological Station    

    My dad has hiked here for years, and we finally got an opportunity to hike with him yesterday! John had the day off, so we road-tripped an hour and 45 minutes west of Kansas City to the Konza Prairie Biological Station. It is located in the beautiful Flint Hills of Kansas, near Manhattan. We hiked up and down the hills and enjoyed some beautiful vistas.

       We had such a great time, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to get out of the big city and breathe some fresh air! Also, the 3-mile loop completely wore out our boys. 

    So, I may not be terribly flexible in our day to day operations, but I do love that homeschooling is affording us these kinds of opportunities for adventures. We are especially thankful for every single day of nice weather, as it is one less day that we will spend indoors this winter.

Wednesday Update

     Hey there! Coming at you tonight from a wild and crazy night at the Smilie House. I'm in my robe and ugly socks, and the boys, John included, are watching Minecraft videos on YouTube. And a special shout out tonight to John's younger brother who told John he really likes reading my blog! Tom, I think it's so funny that you enjoy reading this. But, thank you!

    Good news, everyone. The Smilie boys did not fail any subjects in our first quarter! I love Seton because they do some grading. I have a really good idea of what the boys are or are not understanding since we're all up in each other's business all day every day. But, to send in some tests and writing samples and receive grades from actual teachers is very affirming that we aren't getting terribly off track. Our oldest is more of a Reading kid than a Math kid, but he was so proud of himself for earning two A's and a B on the Math tests we sent to Seton. Scanning in the documents was a challenge for this gal, but I DID IT. Check out this nightmarish setup:

    So we are forging ahead into the second quarter! Topics currently being taught/learned include direct objects, indirect objects, possessive pronouns, multiplying large numbers, beginning subtraction, the 10 Commandments, and weather. That's all that I can think of off the top of my head, and I'm too lazy to walk into the school room to see what else we're doing this week. Teaching a 6-year-old how to subtract is harder than you'd think... The other day he boldly announced, "I don't need to be teached!'

    We carved a pumpkin the other day, and I'm going to go ahead and say that it was our art project for the week since everyone chipped in. It snowed the day we carved this guy, and while I love snow and I love Halloween, I do not love snow before Halloween. Stay in your lane, Winter.

    Another "art" day. We enter into art projects with a huge amount of enthusiasm, and then we get distracted by shiny objects and abandon the original plan. And this pile of junk just does not go with my decor. I honestly have no idea what they were trying to achieve here.

    Like I said, it snowed. So at 7:45 am on Monday morning, I was digging through four boxes of winter gear looking for matching boots that fit the boys well enough. The younger two helpfully shoveled the front yard. Whatever. PE- check.

    

        That's all our news for now. Thanks for checking in!