"Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." (Elizabeth Stone)

Friday, March 16, 2012

A Truly Sweet Heart

We started noticing it in BC.  We watched "Kung-fu Panda 2".  In the middle of it (after multiple kung fu parts and some scary people), the panda has a flash back and remembers his mom being chased away by the wolves.  His mom puts him in a wagon full of turnips and then runs away to save her baby by sacrificing herself.  Of course, it's a very moving part, but Jaymeson burst into tears and needed to be held.  I was pretty sure that it might be because he didn't like the idea of her dying, but I thought he may have gotten hurt or something because he had seen scarier things in movies, and he'd NEVER done that before.  He's always a "super brave boy" and he's always telling me that he fights the bad guys just like daddy (especially dinosaurs).

The next day, we were watching "Megamind" and within minutes, Megamind is sent away by his parents to a new world.  As soon as he parts from his parents, Jaymeson ran to me crying and buried his face into me.  Strange occurance #2.  I was fairly certain at this point that he didn't like the idea of a baby being separated from his parents.

My kids often watch a movie on Sunday morning while I get ready and Jarett gets the breakfast taken care of.  There have been times where I hear the kids breaking out into a fight Of course, we all know the story of Moses and the Bulrushes.  His Mom put him in the basket and put him on the Nile River.  From upstairs, I could hear Jaymeson burst into tears and start running up the stairs so that he could be with me and have me hold him.  This confirmed any suspicion I had.  He really does NOT like the idea of a Mom and Baby being separated.

Today, without knowing it, the girls put on Hercules.  Jaymeson had never seen it.  I didn't think anything of it really.  It's a hero fighting the bad guys.  This is right up Jay's alley.  But, at the beginning, Hades sends his little bad guys to kidnap Hercules and make him mortal.  This is when Jaymeson walked in the room.  He began to cry, and climb up me before I had a chance to notice what was going on.  He was jumping up and down and just panicked.  He couldn't stand it.  Finally he calmed down when I told him that he got a nice Mom and Dad and he beat the snakes up.  Jaymeson even laughed for a second (although he wouldn't let me put him down), but when he saw that Zeus and Hera were his real parents and they were so sad because he was gone, he lost it again.

Can I just say how much it yanks at my heart strings when I see my little boy so deeply affected by the idea of a baby and his parents being separated.  Especially because it is going to so deeply affect me when my sweet little boy is going to leave one day.  I'm sure I'll be glad and proud of him as he leaves on his mission or off to school, but I'm not going to lie, I'll miss my little boy.  He's just the sunshine in my life (and pretty much anyone who really knows him feels the same, I'm sure).  I'm glad he feels that special connection with me too!!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

What Home Schooling Looks Like

Well, I confess, I only have time to take pictures on the smoother days, so it doesn't always look like this.  But, as I get a lot of questions as to what goes on and how I balance things.... here you have it.  Some pictures that I took two days ago.  (Saryn is always happy to model for me!)

We each have a Math Workbook that we do a section out of daily.

We also have a workbook which covers maps, writing, grammar, science and social studies.

Music Lessons daily

Saryn pointing to the country we studied that day out of "Story of the World"  We talked about the Nazca Drawings found in Peru.  The kids thought that was pretty cool.

The girls all pointing to some of the fun places we've studied.  Of course, the boys sometimes get in the way.

Favorite places that we have studied thus far!  (Jaymeson doesn't get in the way quite as much.)  He just wants to be a part of things.  Jaymeson pointing to Calgary, Kaia to Peru, Saryn to Africa (supposed to be Egypt) and Kienna to China.  If I was on there, I'd be pointing to Mesopotamia, because I've found that fasc inating.

Art Class

Bookmarks we made yesterday


One of the things Jaymeson does, while we're in school, is fly around with his super capes and watch for bad guys.

Our bead creations from last weeks art lesson


What Jaymeson did for art while we did the bookmarks.

Kaia doing music lessons


On of the main questions I'm asked is "What do you do with the younger kids while you're with your older ones in school?"  Thus the pictures of Jaymeson.  He keeps busy, enjoys the stories, loves the art and has his own math book which he LOVES because he feels like such a big boy.  Benson, on the other hand, frequently gets in the way, but is starting to enjoy coloring, reading books and crawling around to discover stuff while we're in school.  Generally, he naps in the morning and we're done by lunch time, so it's rare that he's there for it, but when he is awake, he's doing better!

We still are loving home school.  It definitely has it's rough days, but overall it is so wonderful to spend time as a family.  This afternoon, we'll be heading to the zoo for phys ed and for science class!  Maybe a post about that will be soon to follow!