Matthan's Favorite Photo

Here is a really neat picture that Matthan took from outside of the house looking through the glass door to the inside of the house where kitty was. It looks like a double exposure but it’s not. The light was behind Matthan so everywhere his shadow is you can see the inside of the house and kitty. Everywhere else you can see the reflection of the outside. You can see our outdoor UT welcome mat and then our indoor Persian rug. I like how you can see the white house bricks and then the inside tile. We thought this was a really neat ‘inside and outside’ picture!

Field Trip to HEB

We went on a field trip the other day to H.E.B. Plus. It’s our latest and greatest supermarket. You may wonder, “A field trip to your grocery store??” But, it was really nice! When we arrived the lady gave each child a crown, a buddy buck, and a balloon. Then we all got free cocoa. It was a very cold and rainy day – flood warnings even – so the hot cocoa really hit the spot. My son was the first to spill his all over the floor. We then toured the produce area and learned to use the scale to weigh our produce. We then learned about where some of the snow crabs, fish, and other seafood came from. The children got to see a live lobster up close and listen to some facts about them. They got to go inside the store’s main cooler and the milk cooler and then each got a group picture over in the photo area. Then the group ate lunch at chic fil a so that the little ones could go crazy in the play area.

Matthan's Photographs

I'm impressed with my son's pictures that he has taken for his photography class. I am also impressed with his subject. His little brother is such a camera hog:

New Year's Eve

The children love smoke bombs on New Year's and July 4rth.

Organization

The one thing that has eluded me in my 10 years of homeschooling is organization. Wait, two things: organization and consistency. Coincidentally these are the two most important prerequisites to my peace and sanity. One I can't control. Children change and grow; interests wax, wane, and morph. Maybe consistency will, understandably, forever be elusive. We have tried everything to remain organized here in the home but nothing has "stuck."

Our home doesn't have much storage and we have no built-in book shelves for my obsession - BOOKS! Giving each child a crate for their materials worked very well because if we ever had to leave the house and stay with a family member we could just grab our crates and go! The little one had blocks and coloring books to tow. The downside was that the high-schooler's crate could only be lifted by Hercules.

One year I emptied out part of the pantry and put all of our most used books, games, and materials right by the dining room table for easy access and clean-up. This was wonderful until our family grew, or we acquired more junk, and we needed the WHOLE pantry for food and kitchen materials.

One year I decided that each child's room could house their learning materials and books but that was the same year we lost many of our educational investments to the abyss of the toy boxes or closets.

For this new school year I cleaned out our laundry room-mud room and lined one side of the room, floor to ceiling, with bookshelves. I gave each child their own level of shelves to store their own books, educational games, and writing utensils. This worked beautifully for the first few months but you can imagine the chaos that eventually resulted! You have probably already wondered, "MUD and BOOKS are you a paper wasp??" We would find missing books under the pile of dirty clothes.

Since we do most of our learning together as a family we have morphed into a system I can only describe as rotating learning stations. We seemed to all gravitate to the cozy couches in the living room while learning about history so I have put all of the books we use for history in the living room. I also placed the globe in the living room on the coffee table so that we can easily spin it to find the country or region on which we are focusing. We seemed to all sit at the dining room table for math so I put all of our Math materials in the dining room: a little television for our videos and a dry erase board to solve problems. The supplies and manipulatives can quickly and easily be removed if the President comes for dinner. Science seems to happen in the kitchen but that will change when we have specimens to dissect and store. Maybe Biology will happen on the picnic table in the back yard!

Only one thing has remained the same in those ten years - CHANGE! Maybe two: inconsistency and disorganization. Maybe three: inconsistency, disorganization, and insanity! That's not good when your three most prominent character traits start with "in" and "dis."