When Life Happens

It's a bit off-topic for my blog, but since this has become my primary means of communication with lots of friends and family, you'll have to suffer me a bit. At the very least, it's an explanation of where I've been for the last weeks!

"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit."
~Albert Schweitzer

Brothers.

"All for one and one for all
My brother and my friend
What fun we have
The time we share
Brothers 'til the end."
~Author Unknown

"Constant use will not wear ragged the fabric of friendship."
~Dorothy Parker

"After a girl is grown, her little brothers - now her protectors - seem like big brothers."
~Terri Guillemets

Fun uncle.

"Blessed is the servant who loves his brother as much when he is sick and useless as when he is well and can be of service to him. And blessed is he who loves his brother as well when he is afar off as when he is by his side, and who would say nothing behind his back he might not, in love, say before his face."
~St Francis of Assisi

Crazy husband.

"Laughter is the shortest distance between two people."
~Victor Borge

"Are we not like two volumes of one book?"
~Marceline Desbordes-Valmore

"Love one another and you will be happy. It's as simple and as difficult as that."
~Michael Leunig

"Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction."
~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet."
~James Openheim

"I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life."
~Rita Rudner

"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person."
~Mignon McLaughlin

"Ah me! love can not be cured by herbs."
~Ovid

"Brothers and sisters are as close as hands and feet."
~Vietnamese Proverb

"My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, both are infinite."
~William Shakespeare

"The highlight of my childhood was making my brother laugh so hard that food came out his nose."
~Garrison Keillor

Before pictures:

Lovely centerpieces, aren't they? Ahem. Thank you.

And, after:

That would be the hors d'ouvres table, in 5 inches of standing water.

This dude deserves a raise.

Ya, you might as well laugh!

I ate 4 a piece of the wedding cake. I detest wedding cake, but this cake was crazy good. There was a chocolate layer. There was a spice cake layer. There was a strawberry shortcake layer. The best wedding cake ever.

Ed dancing with Great-Grandma!

He slept through most of the reception.

She couldn't make it to the end.

But he did!

And the next day, our baby turned 2!

"If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain!"
-Dolly Parton

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

(Favorite trip photo: Desert sunset)

Well, after 2 long, hot, and sometimes wet weeks in Arizona, we're back home in the mountains of northern New Mexico. I'm dealing with the mammoth pile of vacation detritus clogging my kitchen and while I was at it, I emptied my whole pantry and desk area to reorganize.

Why not? It's chaos anyway!

And 2 months after the move, I have ideas of how to make my miniscule kitchen storage work better.

I've got photos and stories galore.

(John Paul turned 2!)

I've got 4 ounces of tea for which I paid $18.00- don't get me started on that story!

But most exciting of all, I've got a big order on the way from Mountain Rose Herbs because it's that time of year!

Over the next couple weeks, barring unforseen children emergencies, here are the recipes, how-to's, and reviews I'm planning:

1) Elderberry Syrup- making your own is very inexpensive and quite simple. I'll be making a batch big enough to see us through to April. I hope.

2) Iron Syrup- Isaiah's blood work showed low-iron in July and due to the move, I just grabbed some Floradix (the natural iron supplement) from the health food store. But the stuff is nasty. Turns even my tough stomach. I promised him I'd make a sweet and delicious brew after he finished the bottle.

3) Echinacea Tincture and Glycerite- a natural medicine cupboard staple. Save about 80% by making your own. Tincture is alcohol based and quite strong. Glycerite is alcohol-free and tasty, safe and easy for kids to take right out of the bottle.

4) Rosehip Jam- Sugarless, raw, and very high in Vitamin C. A perfect topping for winter porridge.

5) Winter Teas- Mix your own teas to chase away the winter cold, without caffeine. Loose tea saves money and waste, and maximizes the nutritional benefits of the herbs.

6) Adrenal fatigue- information and a book review that I hope you'll find helpful.

I feel like a proper hypocrite, though, sitting here on a park bench, having just finished a cocnut milk latte. Ya, Nescafe I found in the back of the cabinet. I should do a true confessions post about all the rules I broke on vacation. Caffeine, sugar in all its forms, more screen time than my little people have had in the last 6 months put together.

It was a great time.

I'll start my detox today. Right after 1 more (weak!) cup of crappy instant coffee.


"If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to what we want to get out of life that we give to the question of what to do with a two weeks' vacation, we would be startled at our false standards and the aimless procession of our busy days."
-Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Little Updates

Well, friends, my following is hardly creeping up in numbers. It may be a looooong time till I get to give away those sweet glass straws... so please, if you're lurking about here, do become a follower, won't you?

(View from our current hangout.)

We are hanging out down here in sunny rainy Arizona! My new sister-in-law was a great sport when her gorgeous wedding reception got drowned in 5 inches of water. But the food was great and the cake was delicious, honestly the best wedding cake I've ever tasted. And I actually detest wedding cake.

John Paul turned 2 with more good food and lots of balloons.

My sister threatened to do a guest post where she reveals what my kids and I actually eat on vacation. It wouldn't be pretty, I'll admit. I'm a foodie, darn it, and I really can't say no to tasty food if I know someone worked hard to make it. Well, and I get hungry. And fasting? Not really the best option for a nursing hypoglycemic.

Anyway, can't wait to get back to my own computer (I forgot it) and play with pictures of coyotes, lizards, and such. Oh, and all the cute kids, too.


"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person."
~Mignon McLaughlin

Vacation!

Bread with Honey is going on vacation!

We'll be going to Uncle John's wedding,

exploring the Sonoran desert,

and learning all the time.



"Woman at grocery store to group of sisters: Don't you go to school?
Oldest girl, brightly: We sure do, and you're in our classroom!"
-The Tennebrog sisters, told by their mother

"Oh, why can't we break away from all this, just you and I, and lodge with my fleas in the hills? I mean, flee to my lodge in the hills."
-S.J. Perelman, Will B. Johnstone, and Arthur Sheekman, Monkey Business

Montessori-style Activities

Today I'm going to show you some of our Montessori-style activities. I keep a big tub in a closet and when I come across interesting boottles, boxes, jars, corks, boucy balls, beads, spools... you get the idea- I toss them in there. Then, when I have a chance, maybe once or twice a year, I go through and put together a few new activities.

Most of my ideas are pirated directly from Montessori catalogs/ websites. My favorites are Montessori Services, For Small Hands, and Montessori-n-Such. A good book of super-easy, super-fun ideas is Do Touch: Instant, Easy, Hands-On Learning Experiences for Young Children, and another is Preschooler's Busy Book (See all Crafts for Children Books).

There are many books about Montessori and the Montessori method. Many are stuffy and want to make sure that you walk away feeling that only a professionally trained individual can successfully teach Montessori-style. But many are good. I can't really begin to make recommendations here, though, or this post would never end.

Here's what's important with these activities:
-the child can do them on her own after being shown how;
-the activity has natural control-of-error (i.e. yellow botton in red basket: child sees mistake, or, circle lid doesn't fit on heart box, etc.)
-easily set up and put away by child.

Here's what's important with mom:
-DO NOT interrupt child to point out her mistakes, let her find them herself;
-be willing to help clean up.

These first are from "Do Touch," referred to earlier:

Jumbo craft sticks. Pics 1 & 2 are just matching 2 sticks with same patterns. Pic 3 is a simple puzzle.

Also from "Do Touch," sponge sey cut up. One left whole as a control. These are actually quite difficult to put back together!

Button sorting. 3 peanut butter lids with colored paper glued in, heart container with lid to store buttons in the activity's bag.

Flower beads to sort. Three sizes of flower beads (found these on ebay for $1 and knew Rose would love them), 3 peanut lids, tweezers to pick up the beads for fun, pouch to store beads, all in a baby shoe box.

John Paul at work!

These little number puzzles are part of a huge, overwhelming set and were a gift. I rotate a few at a time into a bag with "jewels" to place on the completed puzzles. The jewels make the puzzles much more fun to do.

Letter puzzles. Were also a gift. 26 puzzles are too much for most preschoolers all at once. So a few with objects to match get rotated for this bag. I love that tiny ball of yarn!

Fruit bead sorting, tweezers missing. Sigh. This idea was stolen from the Montessori-n-Such catalog. Fabric covered cardboard, Cezanne picture glued on, jar lids glued on. I like these beads but this tray isn't used very often. I'd really like to replace it with the M-n-S set, but it's definitely a want and not a need!

Lauri crepe rubber toys. Top pic is puzzles that go in a bag together. Bottom is a sorting toy I found for $1 at a thrift store. Lauri toys are great! They are safe, non-toxic, and your toddler can hurl one across the room and it sticks together! They make some cool, inexpensive puzzles for older kids, too. Most of their toys are available on Amazon.

Feel 'n find. A traditional Montssori game. There are 10 objects in bag 1 and their matches in bag 2. Birthday candles, big screws, marbles, thimbles, small spoons, plastic flowers, you get the idea. Make sure the blindfold is easy to get on and off. I actually did buy this one from Montessori services beacause it was cheap and I was feeling lazy, and it is a really nice blindfold!

More bead sorting. We're kinda heavy on bead sorting these days!

Butterfly toss. Just a target and some plastic butterflies. Less dangerous to your breakables than a bean-bag toss.

Bendaroos shape making. I need a laminator, see my bent control card? This is much tougher than it looks.

Boxes and lids. Really fun for 2 year olds. These boxes are usually $1 each, but stock up when Hobby Lobby puts them 50% off.

Hands down favorite! Opening and closing activity. Random assortment of containers, each requiring a different skill to open. Usually each one has a frog or lizard who lives inside, but I'm down to 2 frogs at the moment. JP gets this out at least 3 times a week, and so did my older kids from about ages 14 months to 3 years. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT put child=proof pill bottles in here. They will figure them out quickly and then you'll have a serious problem on your hands.

Transferring activity. Jars of different objects (with tight screw-on lid!), variety of tongs and spoons to use, 2 pails to transfer to and fro. John Paul likes to pour, which is ok, too.

Some of Rosie's activities in a deep basket which sits on a shelf in the dining room.

OK, friends, I am too tired to photograph my science kits. But you can see them at either catalog website mentioned above. We have a sink or float set and a magnetic/ non-magnetic set, plus a rice play box.

I hope this peek into a selection of our Montessori-style activities inspires you!


"It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself."
~Joyce Maynard


"Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you."
~Robert Fulghum

The Banquet, Part II

"You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives."
~Clay P. Bedford

The materials out on our shelves don't get used every day. Obviously, that would be impossible. Like trying to eat a few bites of every single thing on a big buffet. That wouldn't make a very satisfying meal! But the feast is spread. An important concept in a Montessori classroom is that every material be always accessible, so, say, a child who long ago mastered a certain skill, can go back anytime and work with it again. It often happens that when a child is struggling to learn something new or is stressed and lacking in self-confidence, he goes back and puts together a puzzle he knows how to do well. To remind himself of success.

That's a great benefit in the home when you have a baby and/or toddler and/or preschooler all the time. The older children always have their toys and puzzles about to use, even if sneakily and when no one is watching.

This is a wall in our dining room. This buffet is full of art supplies, board games, and Montessori activities. On top is a rotating set of oversize art books, 1 book on a display stand- Da Vinci at the moment, plus a stack of piano books with a lap harp on top and a tape recorder in front. We really enjoy our lap harp (it's the $28 cheapie in lots of catalogs). These belong in the music center, I suppose, but I just rearranged and didn't move these yet.

I really enjoy the serendipity of 'finding' or being handed down manipulatives, books, and such. You never know what is on the menu when you go snooping around the clearance box at vthe used bookstore. In Kansas, the used book store by my house would often have pallet crate boxes of children's books, $5 for a grocery bag! MANY of our favorite books came out of those crates! A helpful suggestion is to keep a booklist of intersting titles you've seen in catalogs or on blogs, and always have it in your purse or wallet. That way when you happen on a garage sale or a used book store, you are ready!

"In the spider-web of facts, many a truth is strangled."
~Paul Eldridge

Music center. This keyboard replaced our antique piano, which we had to leave behind in Kansas. It also is a pretty cheap model, but it is a Yamaha and it is touch-sensitive (very imnportant in a keyboard and worth the extra $10). The baby piano was a gift many years ago, and toddlers love it. Ours is getting a little sad-sounding, but it works. Box on top has a toy xylophone, drum, harmonicas, music box, whistles, etc.

"I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught."
~Winston Churchill

Little reading center. Basket of easy readers, handwriting books, book rings, Montessori alphabet (which rarely gets used), poetry books, picture books, board books, and several toddler Montessori activities, in bags, that he must bring to Mommy to be opened. That keeps me sane.

Book nook in use:

"The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers."
~Sydney J. Harris

Generally, I find it better to make things rather than buy them. I worry less if they get broken or ignored, and often the children can help, which makes the thing much more interesting to them in the end. Anything I want/ need and can't make I try to buy in a sturdy, unbreakable form. Man, I'm in love with our stuffed globe!

Random little bookcase with our paper supply, trays for Montessori activities, children's 5 volume atlas, dictionary, and encyclopedia (vintage, USSR timeframe, but they were free and the kids love to pour through the set), set of National Geographic photo books of nature and architecture, red box of preschool Montessori activities, jar of beads.

"The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn."
~John Lubbock

Atrium shelves:

The atrium is a term from Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, a Montessori-style program of religious education for the young. I use both the home Catechesis manuals by Moira Farrel and the book Young Children and Worship, aka Godly Play.

Little tabernacle with candles, censer, incense boat, gold parable boxes (each box holds materials for acting out one of Jesus' parables), creation story box, globe with Holy Land marked (sitting on top of an atlas of the Holy Land), basket of holy cards, box of Rosaries, stable, nativity set, all our saints and "holy" kids books. Next to the shelf is our little altar which stores a Mass kit, and our credence table.

These materials take up so many shelves... every now and then I wonder if it's worth all the work and space. Then Rosie will spend an entire evening going through every set, or I will find John Paul with all the (faux LED) candles lit, head bowed, jibbering prayers, and ya, I think it's worth it.

Most of our materials and books have been
a) gleaned from free boxes at curriculum fairs and the library (our library always has a free box of odd books),
b) made by us,
c) bought on clearance, or
d) been given to us as gifts. When you don't have to buy 50 new consumable workbooks every year, gathering up a few new things you'll keep and use forever is quite doable. This year we bought our huggable globe, built the new shelves, and the keyboard. Plus a few books that I couldn't find anywhere for free.

If you come back here tomorrow, I will show you some of our Montessori activities and how to make them. These are very fun for toddlers, increase their attention span, and keep them happily occupied for a few minutes when you need to mix up a batch of x, help a bigger person, distract from a temper tantrum, etc.

Have a great holiday!


"The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives."
~Robert Maynard Hutchins

Preparing the Banquet

Thou shalt prepare a banquet for me
Amidst them that trouble me...
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.

-Psalm 23

This week I am going to take you through my main living area (no, I did not clean it first)

and show you how our learning materials are set up. I am an extremely visual person; if it's outta sight, then it's outta my mind. My children seem to be pretty visual, too. They rarely get bored, and I think the way our toys and materials are set up helps with that. I keep things where we can all see them, which makes things get used a lot more than they would otherwise.

I spread the banquet, but each child fills his or her plate.

(Math shelves: Miquon math workbooks and cuisenaire rods, origami and tangram supplies, rulers and measuring tape, subtraction machine, cuties box of fill-able geometric solids, teaching clock, number balance, pattern blocks. Shelf below holds loops for fingerweaving- yep, that's a math activity! We also have tons of math-ish games like SET, Quirkle, Farkle, Connect 4, etc.)

They way I set up, operate, and record-keep in our homeschool reflects my basic philosophies about education:

"What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child."
~George Bernard Shaw

and

"Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves."
~Abbé Dimnet, Art of Thinking, 1928 (Have you not read this book? It is fantastic!)

and the quotation I intended to put here in the first place:

"Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire."
~William Butler Yeats

(Math shelves on right, history and geography shelves on left. Atlases, history and geography story books/ fun facts books, unbreakable stuffed globe- finest $19 you'll ever spend, unceremonious stacks of random books we've read recently. The Infant of Prague, in appropriate colored vestments, watches over from above.)

Perhaps the most pervasive influence on how we do things around here is Mari Montessori. She was my original inspiration to homeschool. Although I find that many things about a Montessori classroom do not translate well into a home setting (at least not my home), much of her philosophy can be applied to whatever material or situation is at hand.

(Science shelves: my resource books on top shelf, next shelf has picture books, flash cards, bug catcher, leaf press, rock and bark specimens, flashlight, nature journals, next has more books, nature guides, experiment kits- storebought and homemade, next shelf holds fish box- books, models, shells, puzzle, books, magnetic rod with fish magnets, etc, sink or float experiment, lacing cards, next shelf dinosaur and rock collection box, rice play box for toddler.)

My children are not required to work with their 'school things.' They choose them. If Isaiah wants to play math games for days on end, fine. If he wants to draw for a whole week, fine. Over the course of a month or two, like a toddler with his food, I find him to be balanced in his choices.

It's been a long process to let go of the mental picture of more traditional schooling, and it's been quite an effort. But the joy and self-motivation I see in my oldest, at the time when many of his peers are losing these very qualities, is satisfying.

The little booklet I used as an inspiration to gather all our materials together is "How to Set Up Learning Centers in your Home" by Mary Hood, author of "The Relaxed Homeschool." It's available from Rainbow Resource for about $5 and $1.50 shipping. It has checklists of items you could include in your centers.

Tomorrow: art, music, atrium, and Montessori activities.



"Can you do Division? Divide a loaf by a knife - what's the answer to that?"
~Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

Untitled, for a friend

"Of all the people I have ever known, those who have pursued their dreams and failed have lived a much more fulfilling life than those who have put their dreams on a shelf for fear of failure."
~Author Unknown

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little course, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark; professionals built the Titanic. ~Author Unknown