You know you're a homeschooling family when...

... your seven year old begs you all day to be able to get some free time - so he can spend it using your Math U See blocks to build a replica of the Parthenon, from memory.

I may not be doing all I dream of doing with these kiddos as far as school stuff goes, but that event alone today reminds me that I'm doing SOMETHING right.

Five.

Five.

It’s a pretty great number, isn’t it? I’ve never really thought about it too much, but really, it’s very nice.

We have fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot. Each number on a clock face counts for five minutes. Five is half of ten, which in a base ten number system, makes it pretty useful. It’s an odd number. It’s a prime number. It’s a Fibonacci number. It’s a great age – they are suddenly so big, so aware – and yet still so small and sweet at the same time. It’s two pairs and a single. Five arms on a sea star (or most stars for that matter). Five petals on a flower (at least most flowers drawn by little hands). Five love languages. Five star restaurants. On a scale of one to five.

And then there are the many wonderful uses in literature and music. Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. Five Little Ducks Went Out to Play. Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree (teasing Mr. Alligator, “Can’t catch me!” – you know that one, right?). Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (great book). One of my husband’s favorite five allusions… Johnny Five is Alive. Remember that one? ;o) Five Litte Fishies Swimming in a Pool. Five Bears in the Bed.

The list goes on.

Five. It is indeed a nice number. It’s not a number I’ve ever really given much thought to before. I’m usually more of an evens girl myself. I like equal pairs, normally. They just fit nicely in my moments of more linear thinking.

But five is growing on me. I like the idea of it being one more than two equal pairs. Being a little odd is a good thing, after all. One hand full.

Five.

So… Any curiosity as to why I have this sudden fascination with the number five?

Any guesses? Anyone?

Well. I am currently pondering and admiring the number five… because in about 6 months I will be the proud mama of five little blessings.

Yep. We’re expecting another little one, due to arrive in early February, 2010.

It’s a little surprising (though not terribly so…) and a lot humbling. It’s slightly intimidating and hugely honoring. I cannot believe we are being blessed again with a new little person to love, guide and encourage. I get to meet that new little life, and be the first one to hold them in my arms. I get to memorize the face of another little being. I get to see God’s fingerprints all over the creation of another of His most precious creations – a new son or daughter, made in His own image.

I really cannot even find the words to describe all the thoughts that go along with this exciting experience.

I know that for many, five children are A LOT. I get constant comments in public places about how full my hands are as it is, so I can only imagine the looks and comments that are to come with 5 little ones all under the age of 8. But to me, that’s really not at all what it’s about. I do feel like I have less time to just sit around and dream about this new little baby to come than I have with the others. And I have been through pregnancy and birth four times before, so I can’t exactly say I am surprised by the stages and sensations that come along with this precious time of life. But it is still no less miraculous, no less awe-inspiring to consider.

When I sit down and take a moment to consider how far this little life has already come in the 14 weeks of his or her existence, I am amazed all over again, just as I was the first time I pondered these same thoughts 8 years ago while pregnant with Punky. And to think that in six short months we will be welcoming a new son or daughter into our family, a new name to love, a new face to cherish, and new little soul to meet and become acquainted with… well, I really am constantly in awe of God’s power to bring two half cells, just barely large enough for the naked eye to see, together and create from them a perfect little life.

So, clearly it’s not old news to me to do this “all over again.” It’s familiar, it’s comfortable… and it’s still exciting and amazing and lovely.

And I get to have five little wonders to raise and love! Wow.

And they get to grow up together – five of them – as siblings in a big, happy, blessed, uneven and quirky family.

(And, just as a side note, I get to learn how to educate two children while still having three little ones to also love, raise and entertain… it’s going to be an interesting year around here, to be sure.)

So there you go. The joys of five. I can hardly wait! (But really, I’ve got A LOT to do before February… so I CAN actually wait just fine. That is one very big difference from my first pregnancy to my fifth!)

I wish I brought my camera!

We had so much fun today!

I took my four kiddos, plus Mary Grace's three oldest and we headed out to a berry farm about 45 minutes from home to pick raspberries.

The kids were so great at picking and happily stayed nearby on our same "lane" so I could keep an eye on all seven kids at once. They especially loved when I would send them as "scouts" down to different lanes of berries to report which was the most promising lane to head down next. MG's three picked for their family and my crew and I picked for ourselves, and both families ended up with +/- 9 pounds of fresh raspberries. I can't believe how effective those little eyes and hands are at finding and picking berries. Even Finny was really, really great!

Goose was less effective, and most definitely ate more than he collected. But he was so cute as he'd come running down the lane to me hollering, "I got one! I got a beewy! Hewe, Mommy." As he dropped one proudly into my collecting box. I'm sure he collected a total of 20 berries throughout the entire afternoon. But he had a great time, and was very proud of each of those 20 berries.

And Girly Pie happily walked up and down the dusty, dirty lane following the procession of poking, picking, hollering, laughing and chatting children. Every once in a while she would find a promising branch of berries and squat down in that cute toddler squat to indulge herself. I loved watching her dirt and berry stained face as she would smile and nod, mouth full of berries, and say, "Mmmmm."

By the time we were finally loading up in the car, every single pair of feet was completely covered in fine dirt, and every pair of hands was coated a sticky brown, highlighted of course with berry juice. Goose and Girly Pie had completely brown and red faces. Girly Pie even had some chunks of berry in her hair.

It was great.

So home we drove, with seven happy little people all buckled in and chatting away the 45 minute ride home. Girly Pie and Goose fell asleep quickly and slept through more laughing and jostling than one can imagine. The sleep of exhausted, happy babies with berry-filled bellies.

14 filthy hands. 14 socks encrusted with dirt and most likely beyond saving. 7 smiling brown faces. 18 pounds of raspberries. 1 filthy car. An uncountable number of smiles.

And one happy momma and friend.

It was well worth the $36 for the berries. Today was a day I will not soon forget. I just love days like this.

And I can't BELIEVE I didn't bring my camera. I guess I'll just have to keep those mental snapshots and hope they last forever. Somehow, I think they will.

Unit Studies!

So for the first time this year I am throwing out all semblance of following a curriculum put together by someone else and I'm going to give homeschooling a try via a unique mix of unit studies and some workbook-type stuff (for the kids and topics where that works well, but in minimal amounts).

It's all very new, and I admit I'm still quite vague on what our year will look like, but last night I was able to come up with (or be divinely inspired with, still not sure which, though I have been praying hard for direction!) a very, VERY vague outline of my unit study plans for September through December.

I'm just so excited to see some sort of goals in writing that I just had to post them here. My plan is to set aside a few nights for each unit and pull appropriate books from the library, good crafts from the internet, and even throw in a field trip or two to places that will help cement the ideas we'll be learning. We'll still do math and some basic language, spelling and other fundamentals separately, and Punky will be listening to some Story of the World CD's to follow along in history at his own pace without my having to pour as much into teaching history as I have been (which is hard with so many littler ones who really can't participate in something that became the bulk of our learning). But I think that at least for this first part of the year this unit idea will be the bulk of where our time and interest are invested.

So without further ado, I give you my basic plan for what topics we'll be covering for the first 4 months of our 09/10 school year.

September:

• Study on caves, caverns, etc.
  o Possibly can lead to study of rock, sand, salt, etc formation.. just see where it takes us
  o A topic I know nothing about, so I have no idea where it could lead! Maybe even a local trip to some caves to explore?
  o Found a cool diorama idea that makes real mini stalactites. How cool is that!?
• Study on the history of WEAPONS (of all things. I must really love my sons…)
  o Boys wanted to know how boomerangs and bows & arrows worked
  o Seems a good time to learn about all things weaponish.
  o If nothing else Punky will want to do school every. single. day.
  o Hubby can cover my behind on the physics behind how they all actually work. I have no clue. ;o)
  o Make a few homemade weapons
  o Maybe a nice time to go over some of the Story of the World CD's Punky will be listening to in more detail
  o Could buy one of those little wooden siege tower or catapult kits… fun stuff!
  

October:

• Fire preparedness
  o Tour local fire dept
  o Go over the some emergency sheets in the October section of The Old Schoolhouse's planner (good ideas for home safety and preparedness)
  o Make and practice new fire escape plans with the kids
• Planet/star study
  o Good time of year with time change to get out in the dark and actually see stuff without keeping the kids up until 11pm!
  o Will need a good friend with a telescope we can borrow…
  o Lots of potential here, will need to work to pull together stuff I will really do
  
  November:
• Little House in the Big Woods unit study (Nice to follow weapons with Little House, huh? We want to be well rounded around here, after all!)
  o Using some resources from a friend with lots of Prairie Primer goodies, Little House recipes and crafts, plus even some fun folk music
  o Lots of opportunity for crafts and holiday coziness
  o Fun recipes to try
  o Make some homemade Christmas gifts for people
  o Listen to the music from the time period during craft and baking times, and for fun
  o Possibly learn some music with recorders or some other intro instrument
  
  December:
  
• Time for our annual Advent month
  o Jesse Tree again (my boys love it every year, and I’m sure Goose will want to do one this year too)
  o Crafts, cooking, all that
  o Possibly find a different theme for Advent readings… I’ve never gone "out of the box" here, so we’ll see

So that's it for now. I have done no real planning on the individual topics, but I am excited to have the ground work laid for what we'll be studying for a few months. I think that leaves me plenty of room to explore, but not so open ended that I fall into my trap of doing nothing due to the overwhelming pressure of a completely blank slate. I think the topics are perfectly age appropriate, and that my kids will really be interested in all of them, but that I can still find information to stretch them to learn outside of their complete realm of current interest. Plus, I can easily pull fun books for the little guys on the topics, so that everyone can do something topic-related.

So has anyone else out there done much in the way of homemade unit studies? Any helpful suggestions or advice on pitfalls to avoid? I'd love to hear ideas from fellow unit study families.

Goose's Bulldozer Cake

Oh my. It does seem hard to find the time to sit down at the computer for much of anything these days.

But I have finally managed to get here to put up the pictures of Goose's cake. I do hope to write a nice post about how wonderful his birthday was and get some pictures of our happy little three year old man up for everyone to enjoy. But for the moment, here is the little how-to on our favorite family bull-duh-zoder cake... uh, I mean bulldozer cake. ;o)

First, prepare one box of your favorite flavor cake mix. We prefer white cake around here, but for the actual bulldozer, you can get whatever you want. Divide the batter up into two mini loaf pans and one regular size bread loaf pan. If you don't have those handy, you can just use a 9x13 and do some creative cutting later.

And while you're in the cake making stage, you should prepare ahead one 9x13 chocolate cake and one box of chocolate pudding. You'll use these later.

Once the loaves are baked and cooled, cut the rounded tops off of all the loaves. I then put the big loaf upside down on my tray for the main dozer, and use one mini loaf for the cab, and one mini loaf for the scoop - that scoop one I like to cut at a bit of an angle to make it look scoop-like.

Voila!

The next step is to decorate the dozer. We like to make yellow frosting, use chocolate donut wheels and licorice tracks. I get a little tube of black decorating icing for the details.

Now it's time to get out that chocolate cake and chocolate pudding, for the "mud." I used about half of the cake, and maybe 2/3 of the pudding, though you can use as much as you want to make as much mud as you want. Personally, I think the mud is the tastiest part of the cake! Toss some chunks of the cake into a bowl, and spoon globs of the pudding on top. Then mix it all up until you are happy with the consistency (and taste!) of your mud.

Then start putting the mud around your decorated dozer. Have fun and make it look good. Dirt is always a good thing. ;o)

And that's about it. Now you should have a cute little bulldozer in a nice bed of muddy goo. We stick a few plastic construction figures around and add some finishing touches like the age and name of the birthday boy...

And the final result is one very happy three year old boy! The cake was by far the highlight of Goose's entire birthday. He was so stinking cute about it!

And just as a suggestion, we found that taking bites of the chocolate mud at the same time with bites of our favorite raspberry sorbet was REALLY good. Gourmet good. But that was just our grown up preference. The kids were happy to slop bites of all and every little bit in their mouths without differentiating between flavors.

So there you go. Bulldozer cake. It's a good thing.

And the birthdays are coming to an end...

In our home we do all our birthdays in the first part of the year. We start in January with Finny, then Punky comes in February. My Man gets March, then we take a little break in April (just in time for Easter) before Girly Pie gets her day in May. I get June, and then - last but certainly not least - little Mr. Goose gets the last birthday of the year in July. And then we get to take a little breather in between all the gifts and fun and specialness while we wind up for the holiday season. And then of course two weeks after Christmas we start all over again with Finny.

So tomorrow is my sweet baby boy's big day. Goose will be "free ears owd" tomorrow. But if you ask him, he'll most likely tell you he'll be "free ears owd on my birfday cake."

Goose is over the top ecstatic over the prospect of his big cake. I like to do big, special cakes for the kids every year, and Goose has requested a bulldozer cake (actually he wants a "bull-duh-zoder" cake) for his third birthday. I made just such a cake for Punky's third birthday actually, so I find it pretty sweet and endearing that Goose wants the same thing his biggest bro did way back when. ;o)

I'm already in the baking and building process. I'll post pics of the final product when it's all done.

But needless to say, we're very, VERY excited around here for our little man. And he's very, VERY excited for his bull-duh-zoder cake. Oh, and to turn free ears owd, too. Of course.

Birthday round two...

And did I mention that this last Sunday, almost a week after my actual birthday, my super sweet and sneaky hubby - with help and support from my best friend and my mother - threw me my first total surprise party!?

Just when I thought my birthday was totally over and behind me. It was great. I don't think I've ever been as surprised as I was when I walked into my own kitchen after church and saw all my friends standing there yelling "SURPRISE!" to me. It took me a minute to figure out what was going on. ;o) Poor Girly Pie and Goose were completely shocked and confused.

So thanks guys. I've now been humbled. I didn't really think I could ever be totally surprised like that.

For once, I am happy to say I was wrong. ;o)