New Behavior Chart

Last year, I made a behavior chart to motivate the kids to have good behavior. You can see it here.

This year, it needed a little updating.

Here are the changes I made:

1. My son is very literal. He hated that I would say, "Change your behavior or you are moving UP a color." As common sense says, moving up should be good and down bad. Since my old chart was an actual rainbow, it was backwards. My new chart is the rainbow colors but inverted to work better with logic.

2. I have FIVE kids now. My old chart only had spots for 3 on it. Ellie is old enough to understand and use it now. I decided to go ahead and make 5 spots now so I don't have to re-do it again next year! LOL!
(The baby does NOT move on the color chart while she is a baby. The kids didn't want her left out, so her face stays on blue.)

3. I made it MUCH bigger! I had to cut and tape a few pages to fit the size photos I wanted.

Here is a picture:

A Father's Day Tribute to Two Men We Miss

This will be a bittersweet Father's Day this year. 

My husband is 4,000 miles away, back home in Ireland, to bury his father this weekend.

The kids and I miss him so much and he hasn't even been gone a week yet, and will be gone another week longer. This Father's Day, I want him to know how much I appreciate all he does to support me, lift my spirits, and help out with all the family daily life stuff. I feel so blessed to have him as my husband and love what an amazing father he is. I thank God for the amazing husband and father my husband Brian is and thank God for the man who showed him by his own example, Brian's late father, Michael.

My father-in-law was one of the most caring, giving, loving people you could ever meet. Your life was better by knowing him. My heart breaks that the world has lost him. For those that know the Irish expression, there is great craic taking place in Heaven now that Michael is there. He has made my life so much fuller and happier because of how he raised his son. Michael also welcomed me into the family and loved me like a daughter always. He is my daughter Grace's Godfather and her heart is so sad loosing him. 

My heart breaks for us all, especially for my husband and his sister who now have both parents in Heaven.

My heart is with you, Brian, this Father's Day. There is much sadness over the great loss of such an amazing man, your father. Yet also, celebration of the life he lived and the father he was and the father you are.

And to Michael, looking down on us from Heaven. Thank you for your example and your love.

               
                       

Subjects 2014-2015

A look at last year:

Here's a link to last year's subjects.

Overall, I was very happy with all the subjects and the publishers I used last year. I sure did miss going to the national homeschooling conference and getting them almost all there for last year! It took me forever to price and order them all separately from curriculum book warehouses or directly from the publishers, if they didn't sell elsewhere, for this upcoming school year! 

A look at the changes for this year:

• Cian and Grace did great doing the same History last year and Cian kept up fine. We are doing that again and switching to a Catholic publisher: Catholic Heritage Curriculum for History.
• I am switching their Religion AGAIN! I liked the Image of God series, but want something more in depth for Grace and something less parent-led for Cian. I am keeping Image of God for Zoe and Ellie.
• We will be adding a Bible course in addition to Religion.
• We switched to real piano and voice lessons last year instead of the Piano Is Easy series.
• I WON Supercharged Science and am excited to try it this upcoming school year!
• I'm adding a Health Curriculum.
• Book reports didn't happen last year. We do better with a set curriculum so we are adding Into The Heart of Reading by Heart of Dakota. I also love that it will have the kids venture into all types of books. I'm most excited about adding this!
• I'm switching Grace to Teaching Textbooks for Math. We liked the Math Mammoth, but I think Grace will enjoy the computer teaching her math instead of her mom. She tested into 6th grade math.

Here are their subjects for 2014-2015:

Grace - 5th grade:

Religion - Catholic Connections & Student Workbook by St. Mary's Press

Bible- The Catholic Children's Bible & Workbook by St. Mary's Press
Math-  Teaching Textbooks 6
Grammar- Daily Grams 5
Grammar- Editor In Chief A1

Spelling - Building Spelling Skills 5
Reading- Drawn Into the Heart of Reading Level 4/5
Reading Comprehension- Reading Detective A1 
Reading Comprehension- Stories of Saints 1 (CHC)

Writing- The Creative Writer
Writing- 1001 Writing Projects for Students

Science- Supercharged Science: Forces and Motion 1
Science- Science Detective A1
History- Our United States of America: Catholic Social Studies

Geography- Map Skills D (CHC's that accompanies the above social studies text)
Geography- Cantering the Country

Health- Developing Good Health (abeka) 
Health- Health 5 for Young Catholics (Seton)
Spanish- La Clase Divertida 2
Critical Thinking- Building Thinking Skills CD
Critical Thinking- Red Herring Mysteries
Art- local art class
PE- Tumbling & various dance classes
Music- Voice lessons

Cian - 3rd grade:

Religion- Faith in Life Grade 3: Our Life with Jesus
Religion- Gospel Trekkers book series

Bible- The Catholic Children's Bible & Workbook by St. Mary's Press
Math- Singapore Primary Math 3A & 3B

Grammar- Easy Grammar 3
Reading- Drawn Into the Heart of Reading Level 2/3
Reading Comprehension- Reading Detective CD Grades 3-4 

Reading Comprehension- Reading 3 for Young Catholics (Comprehension) 

Spelling- Building Spelling Skills 3

Writing- Complete Writing Lessons for Primary Grades

Journaling/Writing- Daily Writing Prompts
Handwriting- D'Nealian Handwriting Cursive ABC Book (Grades 2-4)

Science- Supercharged Science: Forces and Motion 1
Science- Science Detective (Grades 3-4)

History- Our United States of America: Catholic Social Studies

Geography- Map Skills D (CHC's that accompanies the above social studies text)
Geography- Cantering the Country

Health- Health, Safety & Manners 3 (abeka)
Health- Health 3 for Young Catholics
Spanish- La Clase Divertida 2

Critical Thinking- Building Thinking Skills CD

Critical Thinking- Red Herring Mysteries

Art- local art class

PE- Tumbling class, Tap dance class, soccer
Music- piano lessons

Zoe - Kindergarten:

Religion- Image of God- Grade K

Bible- The Catholic Children's Bible 

Math- Horizons Math K

Phonics & Reading- McRuffy Kindergarten

Handwriting- McRuffy Kindergarten

Journaling- Daily Writing Prompts TBD

History- Our United States of America: Catholic Social Studies (listening only, no workbook)

Geography- United States of America Sticker book during Cantering the Country

Spanish- La Clase Divertida 2
Art- Seasonal Art Projects

PE- Tumbling, various dance classes
Music- piano lessons

Ellison - 3-year-old Preschool

Religion- Image of God - Preschool A
Bible- The Catholic Children's Bible
Geography- United States of America Sticker book during Cantering the Country
Letter of the Week Preschool Curriculum from confessionsofahomeschooler.com
Art- seasonal art projects
PE- (hopefully) tumbling, dance class
Music- Boomwhackers
also:
Kumon Let's Sticker and Paste
Kumon Let's Cut Paper

Goodbye Pacifier!

I am late in posting this, but I really need to give this little gal credit for (finally) ditching the pacifier. People say you get more lax the more kids you have, and this was the 1st time I found that to be true.
Since Grace was born, our "rule" on pacifiers was at age one they were only for nap and bedtime and age 2, they were totally gone.

Well..... Ellie switched to nap and bedtime only at 1, but we couldn't get it away from her at 2. We tried picking out a new toy at Walmart and leaving her pacifiers for "a little baby who needed them." After 2 hours of crying that night I just took away the new toy and gave her back her pacifier. Then, since she loves stuffed animals: see this post, we let her pick out a brand new dog stuffed animal to give them up. It actually replaced all the animals in that post, but sadly did not replace the pacifier.

Here is Ellie and her favorite stuffed animal, Robin:

Well, fast forward to April and the new baby is born. We decided a month prior to my due date not to even attempt to get her to give them up, since kids often regress when a baby is born. However, at 2 years and 9 months, LITERALLY THE DAY WE BROUGHT FIONNUALA HOME from the hospital, when I put Ellie to bed I couldn't find her pacifier in her bed. I said, "Ellie, I can't find your paci." She replied, "That's okay, I don't need it." And that was it. She never used one again! So proud of this cutie pie!

Summer Goals 2014

It's that time again! June = Summer Fun List

Last year, I posted our summer goals list. Here is my post from last year - click here.
We didn't complete all our family goals (I started to have morning sickness and didn't enjoy being outside in the heat much), but we did accomplish all of our individual goals with the kids.

Doing one-on-one time is something that we have done since Cian was born. We have always felt that it is important to do one-on-one things with the kids. I think by blogging it, it becomes a little more planned and has given the kids more time to look forward to their on-on-one times. I think it is even more important now that we have five kids!!

2014 Summer Fun Goals

Family Goals:

*everyone go bowling
*everyone go for ice cream     x
*attend a fireworks show     (all but mom and baby) x
*zoo trip      x

One-on-one Goals:

Grace and Mom: go for milkshakes 

Grace and Dad: go bowling      x

Cian and Mom: go eat at Sonic drive-in     x

Cian and Dad: go to the playground     x

Zoe and Mom: get Hawaiian shaved ice

Zoe and Dad: go to the park     x

Ellie and Mom: go get ice cream     x

Ellie and Dad: go to the park     x