Today I had the chance to go out sans children, while they went for their usual long afternoon walk/run/climb at the park with Neil. I could have stayed home and planned next week's school (need to do that tomorrow!). I could have slept! Oh how I could have slept! ;) But I was desperate to go to the high street and check out Poundland (Dollar Store equivalent in the UK, for anyone wondering)! I hadn't been there before, and just wondered if there might be anything I could grab up to use for Montessori-type activities that I'm increasingly getting interested in for my littler ones. Lately I just have a TON of ideas, mainly thanks to Pinterest, but also some that I suddenly think of late at night or something, and then get too excited to fall asleep, haha! I love the DIY aspect, and crafting or making things that my children can learn from and find appealing is so exciting to me! I love a good project, and these are good LITTLE projects, which is perfect for me right now. I am not getting much chance to make things, but I have ideas, and am gradually gathering supplies here and there, as cheaply as I can.

So I went to Poundland, and spent £10! That's all! I bought:

Two plastic mirrors which have deep plastic frames around them, and serve perfectly as mirror-based trays therefore! I like the idea of trays with a mirrored base, for observation and stuff.

A set of plastic coloured Easter eggs. I already have coloured fluffy chicks in the same colours and had a colour-matching activity in mind.

Blue glass decorative beads.

An extra-large 4 inch deep foil baking tray. We need a BIG one for next week's history project (or is it the week after?) - making a model of the Nile with water, potting soil and grass seeds, and irrigating the soil by flooding the Nile, how they used to irrigate their crops. Did I mention I love our history curriculum so far?! :)

A pack of sandpaper. Partly to use a bit for our current history project (a diorama of nomadic mud huts by the Nile), and partly because I want to make sandpaper numbers (and maybe letters if the numbers work), Montessori style, at some point.

Set of 3 little white ramekin pots.

Three less relevant items (two types of packing tape and a double pack of Crunch Cream biscuits, yum!).

I also went to various charity shops in the high street and didn't see anything I wanted, except in the last shop, where I got a little wooden trinket box with a lid for 50p! :)

With the addition of the little fluffy chicks I already had, look what I put together for some little people's school activities this week!



Turquoise mirror tray with two of the three little ramekin dishes, and the blue glass beads (mixed with a few of the shiny clear ones I already had). This is a transferring activity. I put out a spoon and a rubber-grip clothes peg, for the little ones to practise fine motor skills with spooning and squeezing the peg to transfer the beads.



Purple mirror tray (I actually want some wooden trays, but I didn't see any, and I like these as trays too!), with the 50p wooden trinket box full of little fluffy chicks, and the plastic eggs. This activity lets them put a little chick into the matching-coloured egg - there are two eggs and two chicks of each colour.

So excited about my finds so far - and these were "no make"! I still want to find some time to make things too, but that will come in bits and pieces I think! :)

The other day a friend from church who we've known for 15 years came over to change a fuse for us on our fuse box. Such a sweet helpful thing to do, and he's such a sweet guy too. He and his wife were newly-weds when I first started going to church, and by the time Neil and I got married, they had their first baby. They have three boys now - ages 12, 9, and 5. We knew them better when their little ones were really little, and haven't seen so much of them in recent years.

Little frustrations crop up though, and this is an example I guess (along with the fact that this particular friend is the one who cheerfully asks (in a loud voice at church), "Don't you know what causes that?!" when we tell him we're expecting another baby - every time since baby #3). He emailed me the night before to see if it would be okay to drop round at 10.30am or so with the fuse, and I replied to say that I would really prefer to keep the weekday mornings clear for school, otherwise the boys get distracted from their lessons - our full focus is on school in the mornings. I asked if he could get back to me about an afternoon sometime, or even a weekend morning if that would work better.

So we were in the middle of maths at 10.55am when he knocked on the window. I guessed he hadn't got my email, but I'm not sure really. He hasn't replied to it still, and he did say he hoped he wouldn't distract them for too long. As soon as he came in (I promise I was cheerful and welcoming, by the way! He was coming to bless us with something and I was GRATEFUL!), the boys were excited to see him and came away from the table. He asked what they were learning and they said they were doing maths. Right away (why must people do this?!?!) he began quizzing them! He immediately said to Matthew, "What's 2 plus 2?" and to my surprise - I know it's simple but I hadn't known Matthew could do ANYTHING in his head yet, only on paper or with the abacus so far, as he's not catching on so easily as Arthur has with maths - he said, "Four!" with a smile. Arthur was beaming waiting for his turn, and our friend turned to him and said, "What's 7 minus 3?" Arthur's smile froze and his eyes looked searching for a few moments. Poor boy. He hasn't done subtraction yet. Yes, I know he's seven.

He finally said, "Minus ten!" and the guy said, "No. That would be minus seven, minus three. What's SEVEN minus three?" Poor Arthur, you could really see his confidence and happiness fading as the guy waited on his answer. I did not make him wait, I just said to Arthur, "Don't worry lovey, you haven't done minus yet." And then to the slightly aghast look directed at me from my friend, "He hasn't done subtraction yet." Arthur looked visibly relieved, and thankfully he and Matthew started chatting noisily so they didn't get to hear the, "At SEVEN?!" with the slightly disgusted eye-roll, from the guy.

This was two days ago, and I'm FINE about it, but also I'm TOTALLY NOT (lol, clearly one of those statements is untrue!). It's still under my skin so very much, and I can't seem to soothe the feelings it gave me, ugh. I KNOW what I'm doing, teaching my kids! I know what I'm doing with maths. I HATE debating, and quiver at the thought of standing my ground with someone, actually in the flesh. It makes me feel nauseous and shaky and tearful and hot when I do, and I hate it! I am really "good" at doing so in my head, afterwards! ;) But not in person, so then I feel like I haven't stood up for myself/us. And that bugs me for ages afterwards.

I explained briefly to him that Arthur is doing a mastery curriculum. He masters addition (for example) before even beginning subtraction. I told my friend that he is adding thousands on paper, and adding tens, ones and hundreds in his head. Not "look what he can do!" but "look what the curriculum has equipped him with so far!". I told him that he can find the "missing addend" but he doesn't understand it as subtraction yet. The guy said that it made no sense to him - for him, subtraction and addition are part of each other. He also found time 10 minutes later to pick up the boys' abacus and bring it to me, explaining that he doesn't understand why people who make abacuses teach it in rows of ten, and that it should be 1 to 9, and then number 10 on a new row. Or whatever. It frustrated me. He was being very cheerful and chatty, but basically cheerfully picking holes in my efforts and what we're setting out to do. Which upset me a bit.

Arthur is about 2/3 of the way through his second year curriculum of Right Start Mathematics (Level B). By the end of Level B (in a few weeks, at the rate we're going), he will finally begin subtraction. Then he will master that before even beginning to be taught the TERM multiply or multiplication, let alone what it means, and how to apply it - which I think comes at the END of Level C. Another whole year away at least.

I totally love and trust the curriculum I have chosen for them to learn maths with. It does things very differently from schools. I understand that it's not how people were taught, or how their children or grandchildren are currently being taught. I briefly explain the curriculum and why it's different - what the benefits are, etc. But why must people be so negative about it?! I'm not stupid, ignorant, or irresponsible in my decision-making when it comes to choosing how to teach things to my children! I DO MY RESEARCH, week and months of it! I am thorough! And I find it hard when people want to pick at that, or imply that I chose poorly, or that something isn't the best thing for the boys. I know many people think keeping them HOME for school isn't the best thing for them. Maybe it's my perception, maybe I'm too sensitive about it (it would be hard not to be, as both teacher and mummy)? Sometimes questions asked are obviously out of interest and curiosity - you can tell that! But otherwise, questions seem to be to actually find fault with something, or they say they are not against what we're doing, but then they go ahead and compare (negatively) with how we were taught when we were young, or how their kids are taught in school now. That's not conversation! That's directly challenging (or even criticising in some cases) ME as their teacher, and ME as their parent for making the choices I have made!

I just feel a bit attacked and ruffled about it. In the nicest possible way! ;) He was very "nice" and cheery, but ugh. I'm probably being overly sensitive. I wasn't even sure about blogging about it. But here I am doing it anyway. Just to "say" really, not much else. I don't really need to do anything about it, it's just a frustration that is probably inevitable when you go and do something "out of the box" like homeschooling. I felt so frustrated at the time, attempting to cheerfully justify myself over their maths, that I did suddenly get this urge to say to him (as my doula constantly reminds me when I express any concerns like this!), so what if I wasn't even teaching him ANYTHING academic at age seven?!?! Really - So. What. In Turkey, they don't start school at all until age 7. The kids there are all on a level with kids from any other part of the world who start school at various (younger) ages, by age 9. No difference. Big deal. It really doesn't matter that my sons have no concept of subtraction at this age!!!! It just so irked me. And more so that I didn't have the guts or presence of mind to say so at the time.

After he left, I tried to keep reminding myself all day that I am happy homeschooling, the boys are happy, Neil is happy, it's what we strongly believe God is happy with us doing, and we are 100% confident in our curriculum choices right now, that they are the best options for our particular children at this particular time. I LOVE Right Start! They may not know how to subtract 3 from 7, but they learn a ton of other stuff ahead of the school curriculum. Everything evens out in the end, doesn't it? School kids get to learn what the boys have learned within a couple of years, and the boys get caught up with the "school basics" of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, within a couple of years too. I am expecting (from everything I've read and a lot of testimonies to the fact) that they will be equipped with much better mental maths strategies and a more thorough understanding than other children by then, though. Think Asian maths. That's what the curriculum is based on. Asian students are waaaaaaaay ahead of western students in their ability to "do" maths (put simply - my head is just about empty right now, pregnant, sleep-deprived, and up late AGAIN! ;) ), BECAUSE of the way they were taught as younger children.

ANYWAY!

It's not so much about the method of teaching maths to children. I don't care how anyone teaches their children maths, or how the schools do it either! I am just meaning to talk about this example of the conflict I am likely to continue facing with others as we continue homeschooling. I wish I would deal with it better inside, but then I am hoping I WILL, as time goes by. Meanwhile I am blogging. Maybe it will help me. Maybe others will relate. Maybe it will help someone who hasn't got to that stage yet and now when they do, they will know that it's not just them.

Whatever the reason, I'm just saying. It's not all easy! And I wish it was easier. But I know it's the right thing for us, and I wouldn't have it any other way! :)

My sweet little baby is walking! He has been doing 3 steps (no more) every day for a couple of weeks, and had the usual 3/4 nights running leading up to that milestone where he was awake for 2-3 hours in the middle of the night. It's nice how when my littles do that now, I KNOW it's because of an emerging motor skill. I was STUMPED and frustrated and irritable about it when it was my first child. And my second and third, for that matter! Took me four kiddies to finally get with it and realise the link, lol! Now I ride it out with less annoyance over it, and it's nice to be rewarded with the inevitable motor skill or new clever-ness that they come out with, and then the sleep goes back to normal! :)

Soooo he did that, and then started taking 2 or 3 steps at a time. He DELIGHTED in practising it between Neil and I, over and over and OVER again. Or from the sofa to me, a couple of feet away. He beams soooo sweetly, and looks around for his audience (there's never a shortage of encouragers at our house!) before beginning. That's how we know he's about to attempt it - the beaming look as he searches us out with great excitement. So we give him our attention, and off he goes!

Yesterday, all of a sudden, he began walking more than 3 steps. He was having fun walking from me to Arthur, and back again. He would fall forwards on his third or fourth step as usual, into our arms. Then one time, Arthur sat that bit further away from him, and he kept going! Then back to me - 6 steps! He practised more after we finished the game, between furniture. I noticed he was able to stop after 3 steps in the middle of the floor, look around for a bit or even try to pick up a toy, and then carry on several more steps to the next piece of furniture! By the end of the day he was walking across the room, steadying himself (most of the time) when he started to lose his balance halfway there, taking 10+ steps without trouble, and stooping very carefully and slowly to pick up a toy before straightening back up with it, in the middle of the floor. He also started to work on getting up from sitting/crawling to standing in the middle of the floor. He would get on all fours, then to hands and feet, then push with his hands so he was just on his feet. As he CAREFULLY straightened up (he fell on his bottom pretty hard every time for a while at first), he said, "UT!" (up) :) And if he succeeded, he set off walking from there! Clever boy! :)

He is 13 months and 2 weeks old - similar age to Benjamin I think. The others before them were all 11 months - they were all walking by their first birthdays, so Samuel and Benjamin are later than average in our house. I presumed Benjamin was later because he was talking so much earlier than the others, but Samuel isn't talking like Benji was at this age. Benji had TONS of words by 13 months!

Samuel is saying, "Ut" (up), "Det-dahn" (get down, for when he wants to get down from the table after meals), "Dat!" (that - this accompanies a graspy out-stretched hand action at pretty much anything and everything!), "Buh" (birds - he says this when looking up at the birds flying over our house from the window), "Nah-nahhh" (night night, when waving at the boys and about to be carried in my arms up to bed for nap or at bedtime - they all call out "Night niiiiight!" to him when he's about to go up), "Dah" or "Dada" for Daddy, "Mummummmumm" or something along those lines for Mummy, lol! Mostly a long mmmm sounds broken here and there by a tight little 'u' sound. He doesn't use it for me at all really, but will say it when Neil's cuddling him and asks him, "Where's Mummy?!" or "Do you see Mummy?" He sometimes says, "Buh" for bye-bye, and waves so sweetly. Love him so much!

I can't think of any more words. Oh he just started to say, "Nuh" for no, with a very clear shaking of his head (he's been doing the shaking head for no for several weeks now), notably when he doesn't want any more milky, or food, or in answer to a question (Do you want any more?). He does a precious little bob for yes, but with his whole body and his neck all squished into his shoulders to tense it up, hehe! I love that - he'll grow out of it way too soon! It's the joyous look on his face and his eyes all shiny that goes with it which makes it so lovely to behold :)

I am not really making much milk any more, now that I'm 25 weeks pregnant. Benjamin and Samuel still breastfeed - Benji usually once or twice as he asks to, during the day, and always at bedtime. Benji doesn't nap any more, so he doesn't have any "before nap" milky. I haven't nursed Benjamin at night for a very long time, except if he has a particularly bad dream and wants the comfort to settle down again, but that's rare. Or if he's ill. Samuel nurses before his only nap (which he takes during the latter part of the morning before lunch, also - not coincidentally - our homeschool time). He sleeps right by my side and sometimes breastfeeds on waking, but more often than not he is eager to get up and go downstairs instead. He tells me during the day if he wants milk by climbing onto my lap (or crying with outstretched arms to be picked up) and once there, immediately sucking his thumb whilst "twiddling" at me with his other hand! ;) That's been his sign for many months, and at least it's a good clear one! Might bother me more if we did more stuff in public, but we don't, so that's fine. The "public" we do see are extended-breastfeeding-friendly and think it's very sweet! :) I do too!

So he nurses maybe a couple of times during the day. I actually find I miss it if he hasn't reminded me (if he's being particularly busy) by late afternoon, and scoop him up for a cuddle on the sofa and that usually triggers his little sign and a breastfeed. Otherwise I offer it to him anyway, and he usually goes for it. He doesn't nurse for long (a few minutes at most) and then pulls my top back down whilst shaking his head. He's nothing if not clear! ;)

He nurses on demand after he goes to bed, all through the night. I haven't done anything about night-weaning him yet, and it's much easier not to, but it WON'T be easier when Elijah arrives, so I will get to that sometime. Probably should think about that soonish, as there are only 3 months to go! :S Right now Samuel probably breastfeeds once or so in the evenings, although he often sleeps through the evening now. He usually wakes between 11 and 11.30 and Neil is still up at that time and rocks him back to sleep. He loves doing it, and comes downstairs again saying, "Aw, he's so sweet when he's just gone to sleep in my arms!" :) Yes, yes, we're not exactly helping him be independent at sleeping, but he does resettle himself countless times over the evening and night-time, as well as the odd breastfeed once I'm in bed next to him, and that evening cuddle with Neil. Also, he's our FIFTH. They've all been the same, and we've learned to give up the whole DRIVE to get them sleeping, and just enjoy the genuinely lovely aspects of a waking toddler/baby - sleepy cuddles, getting to see their cute little faces as they're asleep again, night time tummy-to-tummy breastfeeding. I would love a full night's sleep every night, but we never managed to get there even with a TON of effort and basically every method I'd read about trying, and lots and lots of stress over it all. So we're much much happier now, just going with it - it does help that we've seen that they eventually do sleep through the night consistently, lol! For our children that starts anywhere from age 2.5ish, but is already happening 50% of the time after age 2. So three of our children sleep through every night, predictably. One rarely wakes, but still does sometimes for a drink (with some fussing), or from a bad dream, etc. Sometimes Benji can be quite wakeful for no apparent reason, and get annoyed and noisy about wanting to go downstairs in the middle of the night, which is difficult with a bunch of sleeping children in the same bedroom! But they rarely get woken by anyone else awake, even if they are SCREAMING their heads off! Amazing for my babies who once woke at the slightest tread from socked feet on carpet, lol!

So it's just Samuel, and he's definitely not the worst of our babies for night wakings. He wakes to nurse once perhaps between 11pm or so and 6ish in the morning when he's up for the day. Sometimes I think he wakes more than once (or even twice?) but co-sleeping allows me to know very little about it as he nurses right back to sleep while I barely come round :)

Samuel has 6 teeth still - it has been months since he last got a tooth! He has four at the top, and two sweet little bottom ones, like all his brothers before him. Going by their patterns, I am pretty sure he's due his first molars next (they seem to get those at the same time as the RIGHT tooth next to the bottom middle two, so that should come soon too. The LEFT tooth down there doesn't come through in my children until about 18 months old!! Strange but true!). He seems a bit teethy-looking in the cheeks this week, and is drooling lots, but no sign of anything in his mouth yet. Benjamin's teeth didn't come in until around his first birthday, like Nathan's, so he is later than the "schedule" for teeth. He's 2 years and 7 months old, and I have been keeping an eagle eye out for his 2-year-old molars for some months now. Yesterday at bedtime when I had cleaned his teeth, I asked him to look up and open his mouth (mine tend to get top teeth before bottom teeth), and was surprised to see the first corner of his top right molar already through! No others looked ready to come through, and he said it wasn't hurting him. So Benjamin has started cutting his 2-year-old molars - hopefully they'll be easy enough, and we won't end up with 4 molars coming through for two children at the same time! :S

What else about Samuel? I wish I'd kept up with the "part two" post I started in draft, about Samuel, from months ago. I did part one, from 3 months old, but had to stop before I'd got to his second 6 months I think. Now there's a bit gaping hole in my blog records, photos and everything, of Samuel during that time. I still want to go back and finish it, but I can't keep putting off getting new stuff about him here while I wait to "get around to it" - I might never make it!

He's so precious! Every mother says it, I know! ;) And all my children are so precious to me! But awwww my baby! He's GORGEOUS!!! He is truly a blonde blonde baby - the first I've had, and his hair is curly! He is currently blue-eyed, and has such a lovely shaped smile, very much like Arthur's actually, now I think of it. He's so soft and cuddly and sweet-natured, and has a smile on his face almost all of the time. He is soft-voiced as well, a bit like Matthew, but less husky. He sucks his thumb a lot when he's sleepy or wanting a calm time. I ADORE him, seriously ADORE him. It doesn't matter what else is happening or what my mood is like, just to look at him melts me and fills me with joy and love all over again. Love that baby! All the boys love him so much. They all give him so much attention and desire his attention back for their entertaining antics that they put on for him. They love his funny sweet things he does, that all little ones do. They get so much enjoyment out of their baby brother, especially Arthur and Matthew, who are quite funny themselves now with their "grown up" fondness of him and the things they find funny just like Neil and I do!

Anyway! I meant to just quickly come here to post a little video clip I took yesterday of Samuel walking. I took several, but only edited one to put here. I used the longest one because it's of him walking the furthest, but Neil pointed out to me that I should have shared some of the shorter ones because he's so eager and excited and smiley in those. In this clip, he looks kind of forlorn and sad at one point in the middle, and doesn't beam and squeal with glee when he arrives at me like in the other ones. But I haven't got those ones edited and uploaded, so this one will have to do! Just imagine that he's usually way more smiley and excited than you see in this video!



Samuel's hair gets SO curly after it's washed, and the curls go sort of limp by several days later (they don't get hairwashes more often than once a week usually, unless there's mega food in there!). After I washed his hair one evening in the bath, it went curly as usual after it had dried, and I took some photos, mainly to send to my parents (my father's gene is responsible for his beautiful curls!). These were taken during "teeth time" and are not very recent. He was 12 and a half months old here, so just over a month ago.











His hair has grown quite a bit longer than this now, so much so that I am able to do this, in my less sane moments, haha!...



Cute though he is, I probably won't do that again. Probably. ;) When I put bunches in their hair, Neil usually insists that I give them The First Haircut the very next day, lol! But he hasn't done that yet. I can't bear to cut his hair because I'm scared his curls will all go away when I do! :S Nathan had some sweet curls before his first haircut, though just at the ends, not like Samuel's curls, and they went away after I cut his hair and never came back! :( I'm hoping Samuel's will be permanent curls (Arthur's hair is wavy and Benjamin's is somewhat as well, but none of the boys have had curly hair like Samuel's as a baby/toddler). When the curls go limp, his hair looks long enough to need a cut to tidy it up, but when it's freshly washed and curly, it looks PERFECT and I can't bear to cut it! It's short enough when it's curly. *sigh* I love every tiny thing about that sweetie pie!

And on that note, he's starting to fuss a bit in the living room where they are all playing pretty well with toys and stuff ALL over the floor, so methinks it's time to snuggle him on the sofa for a breastfeed, and then get the living room tidy and start some sort of activities with them for a change of pace before dinner.

I'm glad to be blogging again! :)

Another post where I want to blog RIGHT AWAY to make sure I actually do it, lol!

Neil's birthday was on January 25th - he was 38! And his brother turned 40 in November, so we are now really starting to feel like we're heading for our 40s - you know how if there's a group of siblings over a couple of families, and the eldest one of the lot sort of heralds the next decade as they enter it first?! Neil is next eldest at 38, and I will be 36 next month - Neil's sister is also turning 36 this year. My brother just turned 33. Neil's much younger sister is 25. So all of us 30-somethings are realising that the first of our bunch has left the 30s behind and begun the 40s! I can't believe how fast my 30s are passing by, seriously. They are the BEST decade by far, so far! :) Having babies, bringing up sweet little ones, starting to homeschool and see them grow and learn, having more babies. My 40s will bring and end to the child-bearing which makes me feel sad, but the parenting will intensify and the season will change and bring new challenges and joys. I should have plenty of littles still to keep me going, and a whole decade of homeschooling to fill my days! :) I will be homeschooling well into my 50s, and I'm so happy and excited about that thought!

Anyway! So Neil turned 38, and I had a project in mind to make him a special but not-expensive birthday present. Unfortunately it took ages longer than I thought to find the time and do each stage with the boys, and we couldn't work on it at all when Daddy was home. Finally it was ready today, and when Neil popped out to get some milk and bread, we wrapped it up and had it ready for him to open when he got home! The boys were sooooo excited, and I have to confess, I was equally so!

I saw some handprint fish pictures at Pinterest while searching for pre-school crafts, and it struck me how lovely it would be to have a picture with all 5 boys' handprints on it, maybe as a special thing for a card or present. Then I realised that, obviously, 5 handprints would be waaay too big for a card. The more I thought about it, the more excited I got about the idea! I didn't get to this point early enough before Neil's birthday, but I HAD to make it his present all the same!

So we went to our craft supplies chest, and chose a piece of A3 white card. The boys painted it blue with kind of watered-down blue paint. When it dried, it was a bit chalky (which I didn't expect!) so some of it brushed off and made it look uneven. But never mind. Then another day, I cleaned Samuel up after lunch and wiped the table while he was still in his booster seat at the table. I got out the finger paints and a brush, and painted his little hand in several different colours. He looked at me like he didn't know quite WHAT I was doing, but he didn't seem to mind, hehe!

I printed it in a corner of the piece of card, because I had already planned out where to put each boy's handprint. Then I called in Benjamin and did his handprint. He chose plain green for his, and wasn't overly thrilled about the process, but at least it was over quickly! Nathan had a screaming meltdown over having his hand painted and printed, and it was hugely traumatic. He's obviously one of those children who does NOT like messy play and stuff like that! I won't do handprints or finger painting with him again, if he really is so against it. Anyway, then Arthur and Matthew came and chose their colours and very happily did their handprints.

We let those dry over a weekend (couldn't do any more with Neil home!), and then I ordered a beech wood frame from a frame company I found through eBay. I wanted one with acetate instead of glass, because we have NO pictures hung around the house in frames, and I am pretty sure that someone will pull it down eventually (thus the need for something light-weight and non-breakable!). I chose one that was big enough for an A3 picture with a small mount around it.

This week we did the collage parts of the picture. We found green shimmery ribbon, and some patterned ribbon, in our craft supplies. I cut the green ribbon in a wavy shape, long ways. We glued it all on as seaweed. We used little buttons to make the air bubbles coming up from each fish, and googly eyes for the fishies! They loved doing the eyes for their own fish. I used a Sharpie marker to make the smiles, which ran out just as I was doing the last smile (Benjamin's) - thankfully it's acceptable because that was our last Sharpie marker!

We found some sparkly holographic star sequins which we glued on here and there, mostly in the seaweed, as tiny starfish - they particularly liked that part too! We had to use LOADS of glue for the collage parts, to keep them from falling off. It dries clear so that's fine.

Then we let it dry! The frame arrived, and I put it in there yesterday. Today we had chance to wrap it, and voila! I wrote on the back of the picture, "Happy Birthday Daddy! January 2012" and then underneath I wrote "Arthur - 7, Matthew - 5, Nathan - 4, Benjamin 2 1/2, Samuel 13 months" because I wanted to record their ages for when we have had it on the walls until they have their own children (I love the picture so much, I think we probably will!) and then wonder how old they were when we made that picture.

So here is a photo of our finished product! It has come out a bit darker than the wood and paint colours actually are. The top row of fish are (left to right) Nathan, Benjamin, and Samuel's handprints, and the bottom row are Arthur and Matthew's handprints. Neil LOVED that all the children had put their handprint on the picture. It's so pretty to look at, makes me smile every time I glance over at it, and is a wonderful keepsake. I am SO proud of it, and thus wanted to blog it right away before I lost track of stuff and didn't get around to it.



After I found the handprint picture at Pinterest and had my idea, I searched the web for images of crafts that people had already done like it, so that I could see some examples of what I wanted to create. I am SURE people must have done it already, but I didn't find anything. NOT to self-promote in any way (!!), please feel free to pin this picture if you want reference to something to make with your own littles, because it would have helped me to have a picture like this to work from, if I had found one on Pinterest at the time. There are so many great projects out there, and I'm finding myself inspired almost constantly in one crafty way or another these days! :) So much fun!!

These days, I am totally in love with Pinterest, as many people seem to be! ;) There are just SO many ideas out there, and if I find anything, anywhere on the internet, that I'm interested in, I can pin it in a second to a categorized virtual pinboard. This REALLY helps me with my foggy pregnancy brain, because I can't remember a thing I found or where I found it these days, lol! So it's great to go to my "ideas for the boys" or "school ideas for my 1-4 year olds" boards (I have LOTS of boards!), or even my "recipes" board, and see my options for new things to try that I already love the look of. Or a new recipe - never going to lose that once it's pinned! :)

Pinterest is really inspiring me to MAKE stuff for the little ones' school time. There is so much out there, so many crafty mamas have made some awesome stuff for their littles - particularly Montessori type stuff. I love the things I'm finding! I am itching to get crafting, but just don't really have much time for it. I just love the idea of making things that my little ones can use and really learn from, and which can be passed on to other toddlers as we have them. I especially like the frugal ideas, so as to make great stuff for them to learn from AND save money! :)

Last night I finally got chance to repurpose an old tray we've had for years, and don't use. It's a chrome-edged, wooden-based tray, and the wood was pretty stained and cracking a bit. We have other bright coloured trays and never use the old wood/chrome one. I saw this coloured car playmat that someone made for their little one to practise colour matching with, and LOVED it. I pinned it right away and forgot about it. Then a month later I saw this colour match car parking activity in exactly the same style, but this time placed inside a tray for a Montessori "tray" activity for a pre-schooler, and I pinned it immediately.

Finally I have made my own! I originally planned to make a card/paper coloured car park like the examples, and use it as a tray liner for this old tray, but when I got the tray out to measure it, I realised it would be really cool to paint it in there permanently with acrylic paint! I LOVE painting in any form, so I was thrilled to get the paints out last night and start mixing colours! :)

Here is the finished article. I am SO pleased with it! :) I matched it up with cars for an activity for Benjamin's workbox today, and ALL the boys were so excited when they saw what I'd made! Benjamin had no trouble matching the colours and naming them all, and loved playing with it for about 45 minutes after initially doing the matching!



I'm so pleased with it that I wanted to blog about it right away, and knew I needed to just DO IT rather than hope I found time later! I should always blog this way! Mind you, now lunch is running late, so I had better go and get that done! School is already finished for the day :)

So. Very. Behind. With this blog! I have so many posts in draft, started but nothing much more, and even those are well out of date now! I think I am going to have to follow someone's wise advice (can't even remember who now!) and copy and paste the odd snippet from Facebook if I feel they're relevant to the blog. I really want to keep track of our lives - of the boys and how they are growing and changing, and of me on my journey as a mother (and my other roles!).

We are just beginning our third year of homeschooling, which is hard for me to believe! We follow the calendar for our academic year, beginning by the end of January and going through to December - this started when I was behind with the work I was doing with the boys when pregnant with Samuel, having taken 3 months off from school when I was morning sick, and then knowing he'd be born in December. I figured it was better to just catch up the months we'd missed in the autumn and call our year finished at the end of the calendar year instead. That would be great for a long break over my immediate postnatal period, and then I also realised how much better it would work for the way my little ones have their birthdays. Instead of half my kids starting school RIGHT after turning 4, they'd be at least 4.5 in January. And those who have winter birthdays would start school as they turn 5. I much prefer my little ones not to do anything academic until they are five, rather than four, as the schools do it in the UK. Anyway, so it worked. Samuel was born in December, and we started school loosely from February. We haven't been consistent really, this past year, but it has been Matthew's first year of school and he has not been as ready as I'd thought he'd be, so it was fine to go slow.

Arthur is now 7, and will be 8 by the end of the academic year. He's THRIVING in school. I can't gauge his reading level yet, but we're working through Rocket Phonics at his pace (which is as fast as I'll let him go with a daily lesson/reading session from the curriculum book) until it's finished. He's 3/4 of the way through, and currently reading 4th grade material (Year 5 for the UK - if he was attending school right now he would be in Year 2). He is reading it fluently with inflection on the speech and so on, the first time he sees it, and not using the phonics helpers ever, so I'm pretty sure he's beyond this grade level. We will keep on until something challenges him or until he finishes the book. I think it finishes at 7th grade level (Year 8, age 12/13), but I'll have to double check. Pretty sure he'll be challenged by then though! He reads a LOT in his spare time. He has been reading anything by Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl that he can find - so far I've given him the Faraway Tree stories, the Wishing Chair stories, George's Marvellous Medicine, James and the Giant Peach, etc. He has been reading the Little House series and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I think there are other books I've seen him with his nose in, but I can't think off the top of my head what they are right now. He has no trouble with any of the aforementioned books and they are just a fun read to him. I love seeing him sit around so still and quiet and then suddenly giggle like crazy as he comes to a funny bit! Sometimes Matthew looks up and goes over, and then Arthur reads the part to him, falling over the words because he's laughing! I can't wait until Matthew is doing the same, and I know Matthew can't wait either.

Matthew is 5 and a half now, and will turn 6 in June. He has been doing the early phonics games most of the year, and in the last month or so of our school lessons (November mainly), finally seemed ready to start blending the sounds together to read simple words. He just did not get to that point until then, and I was happy to wait and continue the games. He loved the games anyway, but he was becoming impatient to be able to READ, especially seeing Arthur take off like he did last year. So this year (today!) we are starting the actual reading section of Rocket Phonics for the first time, and he read all the words on the page without much trouble! He was SO proud of himself, and *I* was so proud of him too! :)

The boys haven't got the best grasp of handwriting, and I obviously wasn't doing too great a job of that with them last year! ;) So I bought a British curriculum with rave reviews (same handwriting style that they'd be learning in school if they went) called Morrell's Handwriting - Right Start. It's photocopiable worksheets, and whilst it's a bit dull for them to do, it's really good at getting their handwriting correct. Matthew doesn't have great control with his handwriting yet, but Arthur's is improving quickly. They are not joining their letters yet. I have them doing worksheets on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and on Tuesday they write something about themselves, or "news" about their week, or an interesting thought or memory - I help them if necessary by writing it out first as copywork - and then they illustrate it. Thursdays we do science (or will do from this week), which has a built-in handwriting page! :)

They are still working through last year's maths, which is fine with me. Matthew is working on Right Start Mathematics Level A, and is about halfway through. He is doing fine! Sometimes he enjoys the lessons, sometimes he doesn't, but he's progressing fine. Arthur is halfway through Right Start Level B, and mostly enjoying it, and finding it very easy so far. He doesn't have any trouble spots, except that he finds it tedious to repeat anything. He likes to "get it" immediately the first time he learns something, and gets irritable about going over it again for review, or another way of finding the same solution. I TOTALLY get him, as I was the same with learning as a child, but it's rather exasperating as the teacher! ;) He is both frustrating to teach and a delight to teach, as nothing is a struggle for him except for his attitude!!

We are beginning history and science this year, for both Arthur and Matthew. The curriculum we chose for science is Apologia Science - Exploring Creation with Astronomy. I have been so excited about this curriculum for a couple of YEARS, but knew I had to wait a bit longer to start them on it! Now finally I can! :) I have the textbook and both the notebooking journals (the normal one and the "junior" version), to cater for older and younger children as the need arises. We will do science once a week on a Thursday afternoon, and the read-aloud part will be something any of the boys can listen to. The activities will be just for Arthur and Matthew, and the bigger projects and experiments are going to be reserved for Saturdays here and there, for Neil to be involved (the boys LOVE it when Neil is involved in school!). The astronomy course should last us at least the whole school year, and after that I will probably go for the botany one :) So much fun to see them learn, and love learning! And I'm learning too!

I chose 'The Story of the World - History for the Classical Child' for our history curriculum, starting with Volume 1: Ancient Times. The boys are so so so excited about history and astronomy! History is going to be every Monday afternoon (today!), once a week, just like the science, and I guess we'll work through it until we finish the book (not sure how long that will last us), and then move on to Volume 2 (there are 3, I think). There is no hurry at all with this curriculum, and we can linger on certain topics as much as we like if the interest holds or we have a ton of projects and rabbit trails to follow on that particular subject. I LOVE the flexibility of homeschooling! :) History is very much like the science curriculum (Bible-based as well) - a big part of it is read-aloud, which any of the boys can take part in, and then activities, map work, and crafts/projects for Arthur and Matthew. Big ones will be weekend projects with Daddy's involvement, as well :)

This year I am getting more organised on records. I don't need to be - there are no checks, and no requirements in the UK at the moment. But I am starting to really want to record their progress, and save their work as the year goes along. I already made them maths workbooks (blank exercise books), into which I stick every worksheet they complete or every geometric shape pattern with card stock that they create, as per the lesson plan, etc. I am even going to photograph Arthur next to his Thousand Triangle that he made over the course of several lessons last year (it's waaaay too big to put in the book!) and stick the photo in there too. Matthew has one as well, and when they get filled up, I start another one, and keep going.

I just started a handwriting workbook for each of them as well, and I'll be sticking in all their handwriting worksheets and "news" pages with illustrations, over the course of the year. I am also going to start each boy with a workbook for science and history, to keep track of their work on those individual subjects as well. It feels better having a record of it, for them to look back on and enjoy, and for me to flick through on BAD DAYS and feel some encouragement, and also in case things change with the law and I need to provide evidence of their schooling. Plus, I am one of those people who has a slight passion for school supplies and new exercise books in particular! ;)

Before we started school this week, we did two weeks running up to it of "practise school". I wanted to test out the workbox system to see if it would suit us, and get the boys used to the routine of school (having had NO routine of any sort before then!). Honestly I needed the practise more than they did, to get myself in gear for all the preparation, and seeing how it might work to plan activities for their workboxes. I should write more about workboxes and what they are (for those who don't know about the system) and how we use it (loosely!), but I have run out of time. I do have quite a lot of photos of the boys doing their workbox activities from the past two weeks (especially week one) as I wanted to record it HERE! Yes, I do still think of my blog a lot, and LONG to update, but just never ever (ever) get the chance or the energy. Or else I forget at the only available moment, and then that moment is gone.

For us, because of lack of space, "workboxes" are four reclaimed nappy wipe boxes (the ones that have 12 packs of baby wipes in them - we go through a lot of those, lol! And the boxes are a good size and sturdy). I covered each one in black paper, made a vaguely decorative label for the front of each one, and put each boy's name on the front. So we have workboxes for Arthur (7), Matthew (5.5), Nathan (4 - he turned FOUR this month, can you believe it?! My tiny Nathey!!), and Benjamin (2.5). In each boy's box I put three activities - that's all I started with, planning to move it up to 6 by the time we started "real" school, but it hasn't been necessary to increase them, because I am not planning to put academic subjects in there now. These are fun activities, and mainly for the preschoolers to feel like they are taking part in school - and they ARE, because their activities challenge them too. The workboxes also serve to give the bigger boys a break from the more challenging academic stuff.

The first week, I just used whatever fun manipulatives or interesting activities we already had around the house, or locked in the school cupboard (and thus not used for a while - great for novelty effect!). Here are the boys doing some of their workbox activities on Day 1 (Jan 16th):

One of Arthur's activities that day was a Kumon workbook (pasting) that he had started at age 5, and then it got put away for some reason and never completed. It's age 4-6 but he was excited to finish it off, and had this activity in his workbox several times over the two weeks until he finished the book. He enjoyed it so much that I am getting him the jigsaw puzzles workbook that comes after it, just for him to have fun! :)



Matthew was in a similar position, with a couple of early Kumon workbooks unfinished - cutting and pasting ones that he started a couple of years ago. They are easy for him but he enjoyed doing them again. He hasn't quite finished them yet, so he's still getting those in his workbox.



Most days, I gave Arthur a big reference book that he hadn't seen before, to read and explore. A friend from church gave us a big pile of fantastic children's reference books from when hers were younger! They are history and geography mainly, much to Arthur's delight! He spent ages reading those.



Nathan had not had much interest in the preschool manipulatives the last time we used them regularly (a year ago maybe?), and was TOTALLY into them this time! He was by far the most thrilled with school over the two practise weeks, and kept saying how much fun he was having! He will be turning 5 as we start the next academic year, so will start proper school then. This year I am just watching him for readiness on any areas that he's interested in (phonics games maybe?), but otherwise not encouraging him to do anything academic. Pre-writing skills though... and cutting and sticking, and fine motor skills. Just play otherwise though (sometimes geared towards getting ready for next year!).

His activities on Day 1 of the practise weeks were, Melissa and Doug's See and Spell, lacing numbers, and drawing with crayons. He was still just scribbling with different colours whenever he did any drawing, but by the end of the first week he was drawing an excavator with caterpillar tracks (!!!) and a tornado with rain and puddles!! I could not believe the transformation! I guess he was just ready to move on?! You can see his Day 1 scribbles in the photo (and Matthew beyond him doing the Melissa and Doug geometric pattern blocks).







Benjamin's activities were, the giant button board - he LOVES this one! We got it for Nathan for his 2nd birthday and it was a big hit. Nathan still enjoys it for fun sometimes, and has had it in his workbox now and then, though it doesn't stretch him at all any more. Benji also had easy lacing beads, which he really could not lace yet and so that activity didn't last long, but he enjoyed acting out stories with the pieces, bless him! :) He also had paper and crayons, but decided instead to have a meltdown tantrum. Such is the life of a 2-year-old! ;)





And Samuel woke up just before we finished the workbox activities, and generally made a cute monkey of himself, eagerly trying to get at all the stuff! We had some activities taking place at the kitchen table (gated off from the living room), so anything with small parts or puzzle pieces went in there. He's such a cute little peep! I can't believe he's 13 months old already! :-O



I have a ton more photos from our activities that first week, which I still want to post! But this is long now, and I've run out of time. I also wanted to copy and paste a reply to someone at Facebook about how we do school, in terms of lining up the lessons, etc. It's not very long (by this blog's standards, lol!) but it's there in a nutshell, so I wanted to paste it here for safe-keeping!

"Right now we are doing Bible, maths, handwriting, reading, history and science as set lessons, and following their interests in other areas. We only started history today, and science will start on Thursday (once a week for both). Basically I have to work around the little ones so that we have minimal disturbance. The current "hope it works" plan is Bible with all 5 boys on the sofa (read aloud, memory verses, etc), Samuel down for his nap in the morning, then 2 and 4 year olds watch an educational DVD, something preschool curriculum approved or whatnot for maybe 30-60 mins while I teach maths to Matthew first (Arthur does handwriting then is free to do his beloved weather searching on the internet), and then Arthur (Matthew does handwriting and explores starfall.com). Back all together for a snack, then we start workboxes (all 4 boys have a box with 3 activities each in them - jigsaws, cutting/pasting/colouring activities, logic games and puzzles, fine motor skills stuff, montessori do-dahs, etc.). Matthew's first item is always phonics/reading with me. Arthur follows right on from Matthew with his reading, then they are free to do their workbox activities as they like, while I get Samuel up (usually by now) and spend time with the little two doing their workbox activities. History and science will be afternoon lessons (no particular scheduled time) and the read aloud parts are for any boys who want to listen. We're done by somewhere between noon and half past. :) It actually flows very smoothly, but the hardest part is the work put in to prepare everything. I do the general week-ahead prep at the weekend (photocopying, lesson planning, preparing crafts, etc) and then need to plan and fill each boys' workbox the night before every week night, and also prepare the older two boys' maths lessons for every week day the night before as well. I think it will get easier with repetition and time, but for now I am DONE IN, and going to bed! Thankfully the lessons are basically laid out for me from various curriculum options we've chosen, so it could be worse! :)"

And there it is. FINALLY a blog post actually covering a decent amount of stuff about our lives at the moment!!! :) So pleased to have it written down, and I will try to come back and post the rest of the photos soon, before they are old news. TRY. I'm also behind on the pregnancy blog so I need to catch up there too! I'll be 24 weeks pregnant this week with my 6th baby boy! I can't believe how fast it is going. I'm so relieved to be getting nearer to a time when he would survive outside the womb if he had to, and I can't wait until May to meet him! His name is Elijah Douglas. I don't think I mentioned that here yet? But please don't share that news until he's born! :)

It has been SO very long since I posted photos of Samuel (or anyone else, for that matter, lol!). I currently have EIGHT posts in draft form, to catch up here, but none of them are complete. I am adding to them as I get time, and will post them as I finish them, hopefully in some vaguely useful order, hehe! The first thing that occurred to me though, is that the last time I posted photos of Samuel was to compare him at age 3 months with my other boys at 3 months old! I also posted a set of photos of him sitting up with Neil one evening watching sports on TV, but he was only about 3 months old then too! Now he is a precious 9-month-old baby boy, and I could probably write about him FOR EVER. I adore him.

Samuel is slender and lightweight like Matthew was - what a surprise! ;) He is SO like Matthew, as he has been since day one. He is BLONDE!!! And blue-eyed. And just yummy yummy yummy. He is easy-going, happy and laid-back. He loves his brothers and thrives on attention from us and them. All of the boys completely love Samuel, and play with him often. They love to tickle him to hear him laugh, because he has the most precious baby laugh EVER! :) He plays happily on his own amongst them, without attention, too. He crawls and pulls up to stand, and cruises around the furniture. He cut his first tooth (a top one, like Nathan and Benjamin, but earlier than they did) last week with no particular trauma. His brothers always send him off for naps or bedtime with a loud chorus of "Night niiiiiiiight!" whilst waving at him as I start up the stairs with him in my arms. Now he waves back and has started saying, "Rah-raaaaah!" back to them! He babbles and today finally got around to babbling "mamamama" instead of the usual "dadada" or his favourite, "rararara". He nurses day and night on demand (but not at all "demandingly" like one or two of my other babies - again like Matthew!). He sleeps by my side and has never slept in a cot yet, though he needs to move there soon :( He sucks his thumb such a lot of the time, during sleep, play, when sleepy, bored-looking, hungry - Samuel loves his thumbie! He only sucks his right thumb and has never sucked his left one. I love his thumb sucking right now. It is so helpful when he wants to settle himself, so helpful to me sometimes, and also SO. INCREDIBLY. CUTE!!!

And I love him!!! Did I mention that?! Oh my heart strings! My ovaries! I love that baby boy incredibly! *sigh* I am just bliss-filled to be his mummy.

Let's start where we left off - I guess the first ones to post would be from when he was about 4 months old:

Precious baby!






This next one was his first cold - all the boys caught a couple of colds in a row in April. They were not super poorly, but felt a bit under the weather, so I put a DVD on for them in the afternoon. I sat Samuel with them (always RIGHT in front of him, except to quickly take this photo!) for a little bit and he was so happy there!



These next photos are also from when he was 4 months old. When he wakes from a nap on my bed, I like to take photos of him if the light is good. I haven't done this for AGES and I really must again soon! The boys love to come upstairs when Samuel wakes, to see him (Matthew and Arthur especially) because they love him so much! I took these photos one time when Matthew came up to play with him on the bed. After a while Arthur came up too, and I took some more photos:





Samuel loves Arthur's watch, and Arthur was showing it to him in these next photos. He started to laugh at Samuel because he kept trying to plonk his open mouth on it, hehe! I love these two photos! :)




More 4-month-old photos! :)






Five months old! See the first glimmers of his new glittery blonde hair showing through his leftover newborn hair! I was so excited to see this when it appeared! :)







At the park on Matthew's birthday in June, aged 5 months and 3 weeks - happy baby! Benjamin loves him too! :)




These three photos were taken the day Samuel turned 6 months old, with his most devoted and adoring brother, Matthew :) I love these photos, both for Samuel and his sweetness, and for Matthew and his quiet, loving way that he has with babies, especially "his" babies. I did not set these photos up, I just grabbed the opportunity when I saw them sitting together.





More Samuel-at-6-months photos! The first one was taken right after the little photo session with Matthew, above. He went for a nap, and zonked right out. I couldn't resist another photo of his sweet little sleeping face.



Nap time on a different day:



My beautiful baby! :)



Pausing to have his photo taken whilst doing his latest favourite thing: scooting! He started scooting - army-crawling - along the floor using his elbows to pull himself along, at 6 months old. At first he only used his left elbow, so that he could reach and grab toys with his right hand (he is very right handed, so far!), but after a few weeks he was using both elbows and getting about pretty fast. It was such an efficient method of getting about that he didn't bother with actual crawling until he reached 9 months old!



This is an attempt to get a photo of all my boys together - I took a few that didn't come out great, and then the boys suggested I sit in with them, and that one came out okay! Well, as okay as it can with little monkey boys pulling faces, lol! ;) Samuel was 6 months old here too:



I love this next set of photos. Still with Samuel at 6 months old (this is going to be one LONG entry, lol!). The boys were playing with the wooden railway and trains one afternoon, and Samuel was lying on the floor, happily examining and chewing on a piece of wooden track. Predictably, Matthew became distracted from a fun game by his baby brother's presence and could not resist coming over to love on him. This is how Matthew is with Samuel, and has been since he was born. Matthew is SUCH a loving and tender big brother to all the little ones, but he's especially fond of Samuel. He told me a couple of months ago that Samuel is his best friend, and that he hopes we have more babies because he loves baby Samuel soooo much! (he got his wish! 7 weeks into a precious new pregnancy here!) I happened to have the camera handy, and just sat back taking photos of him. See how much he loves his baby brother!...








Look how smiley!!! These photos were taken on Benjamin's 2nd birthday in July, so he was 6 and a half months old here. He discovered the mirror behind the big chest for the first time, and has since spent many a happy time looking at himself in it and touching the image of his hands and face, etc. Sweetie pie! :)




Well this is SO much longer and more photo-heavy than I expected it to be, so I think I will have to split the Samuel catch-up into two seperate posts! I will go ahead and post this now, and gradually add photos (if I can find them!) to the final part and then post that when it's finished. Hooray for actually POSTING though! With photos! :D