A Week Flying Solo

We made it!

When I returned from a two-day absence, our family had one Sunday together before Chris left for seven days. I took almost no pictures during his absence because I was busy living life--there's a shocker!

I found I held things together really nicely, actually, mostly because I carefully stuck to our routine and didn't go on many adventures--and I let the children watch only three television shows the whole time! Our week was filled with:

doing a short bit of school each morning,

playing in the back yard often,

attending Latin choir practice,

and going out to lunch with friends afterwards at a fabulous newly discovered restaurant,

splashing in our kiddie pool,

accepting an invitation to swim at a friends' home,

enjoying many Mama read-alouds indoors during the oppressively hot afternoons,

running around squirting each other with their very first water guns ever,

praying our evening Rosary while walking around the neighborhood

for a change of pace (pardon the pun),

spending an afternoon cleaning the house top-to-bottom for Daddy's return, and

and giving as a treat for the children's cheerful work a dinner out at a pizza joint.

Grown-up Mama got to enjoy staying up (too) late reading a novel or doing home school lesson planning (which is fun for me) and leaving the children with a babysitter while attending a friend's baby shower. I survived Sunday Mass alone with four little ones by reaching out to a lovely and gracious teenager at my parish who agreed to sit with my older children while I kept the two smallest in the cry room.

We are glad to have Chris home again!

Even in this blurry photo, one can see the delighted grins on the faces of three children being held by Daddy, who had just walked in the door. Shrieks of joy echoed off the walls!

Discipleship through the Word of God

I have been intending to write about Wise Words for Moms for a whole year. I bought Ginger Plowman's book "Don't Make Me Count to Three!" last year at a Catholic homeschooling conference. Rarely are Protestant resources sold at Catholic homeschooling conferences, but I knew and trusted the seller, plus asked her why she was selling something Protestant: It's a very useful Biblical tool that can be easily adapted by Catholic parents.

Plowman's basic thesis is that we parents often do well enough with punishing misbehaviors but don't do nearly enough discipling about good behavior. She advises parents to respond to sinful behavior by asking "heart-probing questions," providing Scripture references against the sinful behavior, providing Scripture references supporting the virtuous behavior, and then punishing as needful. This appealed to me very much because I find too often that I tell the children not to do a particular bad behavior because of how it affects me, when I should be telling them not to do the behavior because it is against the will of God. He's a bigger authority than me! The children and I should all be inside His will.

After reading Plowman's book, one can buy her quick Scripture reference chart in calendar form. I keep this chart on my white board in the kitchen (the "brain outside my body").

"Wise Words for Moms" reference chart

I have only six years and four kids' worth of parenting experience, but I have noticed that explanations and discipline is not heard in the heat of the moment--true of adults too! When the child is rebellious and angry and I have lost my temper and raised my voice, any teaching I'm providing falls on deaf ears. Do I try to explain things to children in the heat of the moment with a loud voice anyway? Yes, way too often! I am a work in progress.

Over the last year, I have found the above tools very useful in calm and quiet moments. As an example: Lately John and Mary have been boasting to each other--getting pretty mean at times until the other one cries. I have noticed that various sinful behaviors come in waves with children, not just the individual child, but within the family unit. I have been making immediate corrections to the boasting--standard items like time out, separation of playmates, loss of privileges. But this morning when the children were playing together really sweetly, I gathered my things and asked them to sit with me on the big bed and chat.

We talked through Plowman's chart about boasting for about ten minutes, which is a good, long attention span for children four and six. We read three lines of Scripture, which led to us defining some great vocabulary words: praise, haughty, arrogant, endure, humility/humble, pride. As we defined words, we came up with examples of that thing (e.g., a "haughty look") and the acting out of these things brought levity and warm-heartedness to our chat.

The Child Training Bible

The Bible I used was a favorite Catholic bible marked up with the (Protestant) kit entitled the Child Training Bible. This kit comes with great charts showing subject matters (e.g., "laziness") with up to ten Scripture quotations concerning the subject. They are color coded on the chart, and the parent marks each Scripture line with matching color highlighter pen and matching color tabs.

The copy work is ready to go, as I'm sure I'll need it soon enough!

I ended our lovely chat telling them that when I hear them boasting again, they are going to be assigned copy work: "Let another praise you, and not your own mouth."

On the subject of character education, I am quite excited about a program we are going to be employing this upcoming school year: Program for Achieving Character Education (P.A.C.E.). This Catholic program covers nine virtues, one per each month of the school year. The lesson plans are flexible and are to be used over the course of an entire month.

Here is the gist of how it can work: At the beginning of the month, the parent(s) sits down with all the children and introduces the virtue of the month (e.g., Perseverance). The virtue and its definition is written on a white board or poster that will be up all month. Then, over the course of the month, the parent reads various classic stories, Scripture, quotations from famous historical people, lives of the saints, and examples from Our Lady that exemplify this virtue. The lesson plan provides lists of all these things, including the stories divided up by age (e.g., certain stories are best for children ages 4-6, ages 8-10, and so on). I plan to weave in this reading and discussion of virtue into my read-alouds throughout the month. (Bonus points because all the stories cited in the curriculum are from William Bennet's collections: "Book of Virtues" and "The Moral Compass," so now chasing around the library to obtain books in time.)

The lesson plans also provide so many more ideas, such as how to teach the virtue through enrichments, history, nature studies, and more! I'm not even planning to attempt to do that much with this flexible and adaptable curriculum.

Cork Boards and Check Lists

For this upcoming school year, I am trying the organizational system designed by Shower of Roses. I used that mother's template for designing the curriculum with quarterly goals (which goes in my teacher's binder) and the generalized weekly check lists.

While at Target, I saw inexpensive little cork boards, so I got one for each child, then had the children decorate their own name plates. On the cork boards, I will tack the weekly check list of lessons we hope to complete in order to stay on track. Based on the suggestion at Shower of Roses, I have kept the check lists general, such as "one reading lesson per week plus daily practice" instead of specific, such as "Reading Lesson 12."

John (first grade) is the only one who will really need a check list for his lessons,
but I also made one for Mary (preschool) because is of the age to want to copy everything John does.

Achieving Quiet in the Vehicle

As long as we're on the subject of achieving quiet (while homeschooling), would mothers like to weigh in on achieving quiet while driving?

Last week, I had a close call while driving (thank you, guardian angels!) which I attributed to the cacophony of noises in the van distracting me.

What is very typical is that two or three of the children are trying to talk to me simultaneously. I can barely hear the two little voices emanating from the third row of the van, what with the distance the road noise, and the whooshing of the air conditioner. A fight will likely break out because somebody looked at somebody else, or somebody interrupted the other one, or perhaps because one child saw a bunny/excavator/bird/sign/whatever that the other child didn't see. Meanwhile the baby is very probably screaming his lungs out because we are four-for-four on babies who hate the van.

Through all this, the one child whose car seat is closest to mine (so can be heard by me) is going on about centaurs and how strong a dwarf is and what the difference is between a bird's wing being pinioned or simply clipped--unceasingly until we reach out destination.

What is a mother to do? 

I had just assumed that having children meant that car rides would be extremely loud and chaotic, basically forever. Last week, after my heart stopped racing from my near miss, it occurred to me that perhaps just like we taught John at two-and-a-half to stop kicking the back of the driver's seat, maybe we can start teaching the children as a group to be quiet (silent?!) in the car.

And is this one of the reasons why I've heard numerous homeschooling mothers say that they use their car time for schooling, such as playing audio CDs of world history, Latin to memorize, or the Baltimore Catechism? There is no point just adding to the volume by playing those CDs, so the mere practice implies that the children are silent and listening.

Have any of you successfully taught your children to be quiet, to not talk, while in the car? Or perhaps you've heard of a mythical mother who achieved this? How was it down? Advice?

Achieving Quiet While Homeschooling

Today I noticed a really lovely quiet stretch during our abbreviated summer schooling. This was notable compared to the cacophony I am usually correcting, so I took a photo.

John was doing his math lesson and Joseph was quietly playing in his bouncy seat . . . 

. . . while simultaneously Margaret was stacking blocks
and Mary was having a turn on Starfall while wearing the noise-cancelling headphones.

The quiet stretch was glorious and I wondered: How can I achieve quiet during schooling more consistently? How attainable is this goal or is it one of those unavoidable distressing aspects of homeschooling in general?

While at the homeschool conference, I listened to one suggestion that seemed a relic of yesteryear (several decades past). The speaker was reminding women that having a baby doesn't just sneak up on us, we know it is coming! So, we should plan for it, "Next year I'm going to have a toddler, and toddlers are really tough while homeschooling. What will I do?" She suggested putting a baby gate or a playpen in the back yard and leaving the toddler (read: 1- to 3-years-old) out there by himself to play during morning school time. That seemed like a suggestion totally unfeasible to me and she made no other suggestions for how we are to keep the toddlers quiet and supervised, which is what I consider my greatest challenge right now.

Personally, I have a 400-square foot bonus room in which to school, so I keep all the children with me under supervision. This is great for supervision but bad for noise control. Later, I expect older children will get to school at the kitchen or dining room tables away from me for some more peace and quiet, but that isn't something John will be doing this coming year in first grade.

I'd love comments, experiences, and suggestions about how you keep quiet with the toddler set around! (By age four and five, I have found so far, in my limited experience, that I can teach and discipline in order to obtain quiet.)

National Homeschooling Conference

Over the weekend, I left to attend the national IHM homeschooling conference in Virginia and was gone 55 hours--which is about 52 hours longer than I want to be away from my children. This was my first time attending and I caught a ride with some friends of ours who were going just with their nursing baby in tow. Chris stayed home because we thought it would be a lot easier for him to care for the children in our home than in a hotel room. But having seen how many spouses and children were there, as well as the family-friendly accommodations of the hotel, I'd reconsider that for next year. It was difficult for me to leave Margaret, her being only two years three months old.

I was aching with missing the tiny tots so couldn't believe the precious surprise I found when I unpacked my suitcase. Chris had planned this cute "I love you" photo triptych and days ahead taken photos of the children spelling it out in pseudo sign language. Then he had the children write on the note as well. This one is a keeper, a yellowed piece of paper I expect someone to find in my belongings when I am long dead.

Although I missed them all terribly, I did manage the first night to enjoy staying up till midnight watching real estate shows on television and eating hot buttered popcorn in bed--just because I could!

Joseph at five months was a good traveling age: very portable, still quiet, requiring no solid foods yet. Nonetheless, it was quite hard on my back to wear him for two days, never able to set him down anywhere until we dragged back into the hotel room at night. I've been home for 12 hours and my back is still aching.

I noticed that Joseph missed the constant stimulation of his siblings, always in his face. In our quiet hotel room in the evenings, he would fuss at me if I wasn't right in front of him making googly faces. The moment I stepped away to do my makeup or get a cup of coffee, he was crying again. It was so different than his norm at home and I realized that he is used to being entertained--just not by me!

Back at home, the children did well. Chris was generous in response to my request that he email me many photos of the children's goings-on. Here they are eating a snack, here they are playing, here they are sleeping . . .

Daddy bought the children a little cheapie pool for the summer, and they are having a blast splashing in it.

The children crowding around to talk to me on one of my phone calls home

There was only episode of drama while I was gone but it was a big one . . . the punch line is that we no longer have our pet box turtle Boxer. One sibling was boasting to the other sibling about the turtle in particular. That corrosive emotion Jealousy set in. The other sibling in question sneaked out of the house and intentionally set Boxer free over the rear fence into the woods. Then an entire day later when another sibling tiff broke out: revenge was served cold when that jealous sibling announced: "Well, I set Boxer free!" The initial boasting sibling cried for an hour and a hunt through the woods ensued, to no avail.

As I heard live-time reports of all this going on, my heart was heavy for the crying child, as I remember in childhood when I lost my pet kitten and I spent the entire summer riding my bike around the neighborhood searching for clues as to the cat's whereabouts. Praise God, Chris had a good talk with the child, as did our pastor, whom they went to visit that very afternoon. What kind of busy priest takes seriously to give sincere advice to a child about necessary Christian forgiveness for such a true wound as the setting free of the pet turtle? Our wonderful priest does.

The photo Chris emailed me while I was on the drive home

The conference itself was very edifying. About 1,500 people attended and there were 34 talks given, as well as about 75 vendors showing their curricula. The hours were long and I tried to attend as many talks as I could in order to make most efficient use of my time for which Chris had supported me so much to attend. Any single talk was meaty enough that one could hear it meditate on it all day, so it really overloaded my mind to hear so many talks in two days!

But I wasn't going to have discommoded my family and spent money on a hotel and gas just to tucker out and not learn as much as I could. I take this homeschooling business seriously and try to obtain ongoing training and education as well as wisdom from homeschooling mothers way more experienced than I. When I was an employee, when I was running my own business, and when I was in law school, I sought training to do the best job I could do, so I don't know why I wouldn't do the same now. When I hear mothers remark to me that they could never homeschool because they lack the skills, I point out that I lacked (lack!) the skills too, which is why I'm trying so hard to learn how to do this endeavor.

Humorous Moment . . . almost as funny as when I walked into a hair salon with no children in tow and was asked almost immediately, "So, are you a homeschooling mother?" Here we were, on the drive home yesterday, and four hours into it we stopped at a Subway sandwich shop. I was standing in line when a woman (wearing an ankle-length jumper) approached me and asked, "Are you coming from the conference?" No, she hadn't met me or seen me before. I must have looked so much like A Long Skirt-Wearing Homeschooler that she felt confident in approaching me! Not sure how I feel about that, but one's got to laugh if nothing else.

Now I am back to home sweet home!

Summer Days Are Beginning

The summer heat has finally hit us, such that we hole up indoors during the afternoons. In response, I am trying a swap of our normal routine (schoolwork in the mornings, outdoor play in the afternoons).

This morning we tumbled outside to play by 9:00 a.m. Already the humidity was thick and mosquitoes swarmed. In summer I enjoy reading many more books because I use my time supervising outdoor play to read books . . . especially now that I have two children old enough to push each other or the toddler on the swings!

John with a mighty stick.
Later he occupied himself at length with target practice: throwing tree nuts and pine cones at tree trunks to practice his aim.

Mary swinging hands-free

Margaret swinging, long since having ditched the baby bucket

I took a minute-long video of the manner in which our six-year-old boy typically swings. Can you imagine what it's like to try to teach him school when what he'd like to be doing at that particular moment is swinging like this? We muddle through with tricks like starting the day with a "trampoline jumping contest" (how many times can you jump in a row?) and doing five jumping jacks in between his reading each sentence.




We've been eating outdoors in the sun room or on the lawn often these days.

I may not win prizes for Health Nut Mom of the Year--peanut butter on white wheat bread and Oreo cookies--but I hope the kids bask in my little attempts at love messages--on paper plates that will decay in our landfills and perhaps destroy planet Earth.

At this time of year, I am thick in the midst of planning curriculum for next year and re-organizing the school room to best meet our needs. I filmed a two-minute video of my latest arrangement of furniture. This stuff is so fun for me!



When I allow the children to do some educational computer games, they tend to fight. The child who isn't at the controls at any given moment seems to have a hand controlled as if by an alien being, slowly, creeping forward, reaching for the other child's mouse . . . . Said child keeps shouting out answers, thereby causing the child whose turn it is to scream and wail as if pierced by arrows.

So, I bought a pair of noise-blocking headphones and am trying out the rule that it is only one child's turn at the computer, the others may not linger behind his or her shoulders, shouting out answers. So far, there is an improvement! Unexpected benefit: Mama doesn't have to listen to the whizbang sound effects!

Mary trying the new headphones

Over summer, we are doing some basic "summer school" activities for about an hour daily: math, reading, and Bible stories, plus fun crafts that perhaps we don't have as much time for during the school year.

Painting with tempera

Mary: "I am painting a trumpeter swan!"
John: "I am painting a war truck!"

Joseph is newly five months old and able to sit in a booster for a short while till the effort tuckers him out. I've noticed lately that he is less content in his reclined bouncy seat. Who would want to stare at passing ankles? When I tried putting him in the booster, he perked right up and enjoyed being part of the action up high.

Joseph content as "part of the gang," watching the children color-by-numbers.

Our Little Copyist

Mary enjoys copying words that she sees around the house. Lately this has resulted in some quite humorous words that I have found copied carefully on the edge of newspaper or journal articles left about, words whose definitions Mary does not know: they're not bad per se, just adult subject matter, things we would not discuss with a four-year-old. I think nothing of leaving a newspaper lying about and it's just occurring to me now that we have burgeoning readers in the house so I'd better be more careful!

A lengthy period of Mary being quietly missing today did not mean she was doing mischief but that she was copying these words out of "The Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints" . . . and then from the Sony stereo (see toward the bottom).

Father's Day 2013

We are very blessed as a family that Chris makes his fatherhood deliberate and one of the highest priorities in his life. I noted on the very morning of Father's Day that he had shown the night before one more way in which he is a caring father: John had been sick for the prior 24 hours, so when I heard another "incident" in the middle of the night and stumbled to join Chris (first on the scene) in yucky clean-up, he told me to go back to sleep and he would take care of it--with patience and kindness toward the sick child, no upset at the boy who couldn't help it. On top of that, two-year-old Margaret had a very strange night in which she screamed for several hours falling asleep: it didn't matter if we sat with her, ignored her, lay with her, sang with her, left the room . . . she just screamed. Then she screamed much of the night, our completely losing count of her wakings. Very unusual for Margaret. Chris patiently and lovingly responded to all of her wakings also. I'm sure he was utterly exhausted this morning, but I had to leave for Mass at 7:30 a.m. (in order for us parents to split Masses today) and he got up to take care of the kids so I could leave, offering no complaint or mutterings.

Thanks for being devoted, honey!

Daddy and his bunchkins!

John made his daddy two rockets "with real windows made of tape" so that they can play rocket together.

It gave me pleasure to notice that we have finally moved beyond all cards being pictures of stick figures: the children are really starting to draw things at a new level! John (6-1/2) drew a horse. Mary (4-1/2) drew a ballerina walking a tiger on a leash next to a tree. Also, Mary decorated the 'R' in her name as a little girl.

So Long, Tree

Today I made popovers for tea time. Based on the positive reaction, it is possible this is the first time I've made popovers for the children. John asked me, "Mama, would make these again tomorrow? Would you write on the board, 'MAKE POPOVERS'?" See, if it's on the white board, it's really official.

We had a tree fatally cracked apart during tornado warnings and storms a few days ago (not yesterday's storm that scared Margaret). Today the tree men came out to fell what remained. This always provides fantastic entertainment for the children--I only wish it were free entertainment but, lo, it is not.

View of the action from the bonus room window

Margaret watching from the safety of my lap in the garage: ears protected from the noise!

Just the first branches falling: there was so, so much more after this!

The bright side (ha ha, pun intended) to losing such a large tree is that perhaps it will open up that part of the yard to sun and I can plant some sun-loving plants, of which I have so few on our property.

Summer Storm

During dinner, the light changed to an eerie grey and the leaves began shaking in the wind, so we knew a storm was brewing. It hit as I was washing dishes. Chris suggested that we might enjoy sitting in the screened-in sun room while praying our rosary during the summer storm.

Holding her rosary and getting misted through the screen from the pounding deluge of rain

John was holding Joseph for me.

Flash of lightening! Boom of thunder!

Margaret skittered over and crawled into my lap.

Flash! BOOM!

Joseph began crying so I scooped him up.

Buh-BOOM!!!

Mary ran to join me and snuggled in tight.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Yup, that is genuine terror on the two-year-old's face.

And then Margaret burst into wailing tears, so we bustled them inside to pray in the perceived safety of our four walls.

Worth So Much More Than 79 Cents

I'd like to offer a 79-cent tip that I think is worth far more than its cost.

Our children's godparents gave them a mirror cling Morning Offering prayer card as a tiny giftie for some recent gift-giving holiday . . . perhaps Easter?

Eight years into being a Catholic, this little prayer card is finally getting me to (fairly!) consistently pray a morning offering. I have tried many tricks, but this one is working. Pray for me that I continue to be steadfast. Why is such a small thing so difficult to maintain? Because we humans are frail.

The prayer card is on our family calendar on the white board above our kitchen table
--right next to the reminder to feed the boxer turtle. 

When the children are assembled for breakfast, we now pray the Morning Offering in addition to the Angel of God prayer and Grace Before Meals which we had been praying for years. This all takes about 90 seconds. I should time it. There was brief revolt from the children about How Long This Takes and Whyyyyyyy Do We Have To Do It? but that passed within days.

Ideally, each Catholic should pray a Morning Offering as his or her feet hit the floor in the morning. For now, after eight years of fumbling and bumbling with this one, I will be grateful to be saying it with the family about an hour after we all wake up. Baby steps, baby steps.

One gets so much bang for one's buck with this prayer: those few seconds then apply to the whole day, giving more value to all one's works, joys, and sufferings!

Fintastic Field Trip

I like field trips that are free and require no planning. On Tuesday we visited a local aquarium store called Fintastic. It was a super way to spend an hour only ten minutes from our home!

Apparently they feed the sharks every Sunday at 4:00 p.m., which would be a neat event to witness.

Afterward a friend met us for lunch: between us we had eight children ages baby to seven.

Walking from our car to the restaurant: nobody asked if we were running a daycare, but the sweet waitress overwhelmed with her single 18-month-old told us that we were super heroes. We told her that she is at one of the hardest phases of motherhood!

Why yes, I did dress Joseph in a fish outfit because we were visiting an aquarium.

Book Lists by Month

It is possible that my readers are laughing just as hard as did my husband when today I approached him with excitement, "Look honey, did I show my new list of books?"

"Really?" (mock surprise) "You have a list?!"

I say that if there is anything to make this girl more giddy than books or lists, it is a list of books.

* * * * * 

The Catholic Church traditionally assigns a devotion to each month, as in the following list (source here):

Month	Dedicated to:
January	The Holy Name and Childhood of Jesus
February	The Holy Family
March	St. Joseph
April	The Blessed Sacrament
May	Mary
June	Sacred Heart of Jesus
July	The Precious Blood
August	Immaculate Heart of Mary
September	Seven Dolours (Sorrows) of Mary
October	The Holy Rosary (and, less formally, the Holy Angels)
November	Poor Souls in Purgatory
December	The Immaculate Conception

I took said list, sat down in front of the children's bookshelf, and assigned nearly all my Catholic books to an appropriate month. (One could also include in the list secular books, such as one on Thanksgiving to November.) Now, when I am assembling my weekly book baskets to read to the children, I will have a list of Catholic titles which would be especially appropriate for that month (and I will continue to include literature as well, which is outside the subject matter of Catholic devotions). I don't consider myself limited by this list--as if it is a required assignment--but that this is a list of useful ideas. Anyone could do this with their books at home!

I tacked the list above the children's bookshelf.

A close-up of book titles for this month of June devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Also, I can write the devotion of the month above the family calendar I keep on the giant white board in the kitchen.

Our Sweet Monasteries

Is it a third-child thing or a Margaret-thing that she can sleep in such an uncomfortable and noisy place as on two metal folding chairs in the cry room during Mass? Whatever it is, Daddy and I like it.

Sound asleep during Mass

Bonus Reading: "Our Lady Has Stopped for Tea" by Dessi Jackson. I couldn't agree more with Mrs. Jackson's desire to "occupy her home" in her role as an "intentional homemaker." This essay is not about trying to convince working mothers to stay home if financially feasible, but about convincing homemakers the value of staying home more often, not living a frenetic life in a "movable home on wheels." In this bountiful time when there are approximately 837 fantastic local options for supposedly enriching activities for homeschooling children, God, please spare me from succumbing to the temptation to enroll in over many of them!

"For how do we teach our daughters to love home if we are never at home? How do we show to them that in a mother’s life Our Lord and Our Lady have set their altars in our cottages? How do we show them they are there waiting for our daily tasks of prayer and work if we are not home?

"Sweet mothers, go back to your sweet monasteries and made them fragrant with work and prayer. Go home and put the kettle on for Our Lady and her Son. They have been waiting for you there in your home where you belong."

"Go back to your sweet monasteries and make them fragrant with work and prayer." I will be meditating much on that line alone!

R.I.P. Noise-Making Toys . . . Make Noise in Another Home!

Hear ye, hear ye . . . 

The final three electronic noise-making and light-flashing toys in our home have been donated to Goodwill. None remain.

Because, last I checked, four children ages six and under are Very Loud all by themselves.

So far, children's musical instruments (true instruments, not electronic doohickeys) have survived the clean-up, but they may not last long. Once I can locate a screwdriver, the next victim on my list is the baby's bouncy seat, which makes blaring electronic noises when the baby moves. I will be "fixing" it.

The End of Our School Year

Yesterday was the last day of our school year and today we celebrated! We began by attending Mass for the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

Margaret (2), Mary (4-1/2), Joseph (4 months), and John (6-1/2)
who will tell anyone who will listen that he is a "rising first grader!"

On our drive home, we picked up doughnuts to celebrate the end of school (which ended up being superfluous--we ate way too many sweets today!). There was a very long line because it turned out to be National Doughnut Day.

Back at home, we had our second annual End-of-Year Program. Chris and I had created a document, for which each child has a section including photos and lists of their achievements in the last year broken down by subjects, such as Religious Studies, Virtue, Math, Physical Education. I sat down with each child one at a time (including tiny Margaret! and even Joseph had a page!) and told them what they had achieved with their hard work.

Then Daddy-Principal handed each child a certificate, John's saying he had completed Kindergarten.

Margaret clutched her little certificate, so pleased to have her piece of paper just like Big Sister and Big Brother.

I have a list of goals for the summer, listed out for me and for the two older children. Some items are pragmatic, like I want to teach John to launder towels and pass on that chore to him and to teach him how to make a simple lunch for all of us. Some goals have to do with virtues one or another of us needs to improve. Some goals have to do with hobbies, like I want to pick up sewing again. As far as schooling goes, I intend to have us continue with math and reading almost daily.

We added to our children's library some Usborne books for summer fun: one teaching chess and an atlas, both of which will more interest John, and three books on how to draw, which will most intensely interest our "artist in training," which Mary calls herself. We handed these out at the end of our program and the children were so excited.

In the afternoon, we proceeded to the final art class at our parish homeschool co-op, followed by an end-of-year celebration. There were probably 100 children there, from babies to teenagers, and a fabulous time was had by all racing around the gym on scooters, dribbling basketballs, and blowing up and popping balloons. They even dragged out the theatre costumes and put on an impromptu play.

The potluck spread of snacks, cookies, and cake

The cake celebrating another year in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary:
the entire group prayed the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus before we ate.

John wearing his theatre costume!

I'm all about simplicity these days and I confess that I didn't notice it would be the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus till a couple of days before. I think I'm doing great if I can stay just one step ahead most of the time. I was so busy preparing for our end-of-year program that I didn't think of celebrating the actual feast day. One beautiful fruit of our attending Mass more often than just on Sundays (even though we are far from a daily Mass family) is that the children don't mind it and even like it--so as we studied the Sacred Heart of Jesus earlier in the week, John was the one who asked me if we could attend Mass on the upcoming Friday. Then on Friday afternoon, my husband graciously dashed to the grocery store for me, picked up a pre-made cake (he chose a chocolate chip cookie "cake," which turned out to be perfect since our children don't like standard cake), and I used my handy dandy can of whipped cream, strawberries, and blueberries to make a Sacred Heart of Jesus cake. Five minutes is all it took, but it was so special to the children.

My much simpler version of a Sacred Heart of Jesus cake,
far less "Martha Stewart" than some I've seen online, but just as tasty!

I am feeling so positive about how this school year went! I want to share--not to make myself sound fabulous but to encourage that if I can do it, you can do it! If there is anyone reading this blog who is in even earlier years of parenting than am I, it is you I want to encourage.

I am still in the thick of the Early Years, my eldest being only six years old. This year of Kindergarten for John and preschool for Mary we got through with great success even though I was pregnant (and miserable) for most of it, then juggling a newborn, plus I lost my nanny (previously three afternoons per week) and I lost my house cleaners. If you had talked to me earlier in my life, I never would have thought in a million years that I could have four children six and under, use no other child care and have no local family, keep my own house clean, get meals on the table, and homeschool the children successfully. But if I could learn how to do it, so can you!

I received what I believe was fantastic advice from an experienced homeschool mom when John was two or three years old and I wanted to launch a complex preschool program. She told me to focus on establishing obedience and order first, academics a far second in those earliest of years. If my eldest were to reach Kindergarten or first grade, but my house was falling apart, and my children were disobedient and wild, I would be unable to teach them anything academic. She said something pithy like, "If you can't get your son to pick up his room, you certainly can't teach him to read." I took that to heart and I think Chris and I did establish a lot of beautiful routine and a solid foundation of obedience--a virtue that will always be a work in progress, of course. It served us so well this year!

I have learned to simplify, simplify, simplify, and I will continue to work on that. When I lost the nanny, I didn't increase television-as-babysitter time, instead I cut out more activities from my life and I taught the children to self-occupy more. When I lost the house cleaners, I taught the children to do many more chores, with me and independently. I'm trying so hard to remember that the basics in the home are food and laundry. Do food, laundry, and homeschooling and you are doing so much of God's good work in your vocation.

Having had so many conversations with homeschooling mothers further along the journey than am I, I am well aware that there will be years I do not feel positive about how it is going, in no uncertain terms. But there are phases, seasons, bumps in the road, outright tragedies, and we rely on God during those times and discern His will for how to proceed. In the meanwhile, I am basking today in how good I feel about this wee first year of my firstborn's Kindergarten experience.

Bonus Reading: "Report: Homeschooling Growing Seven Times Faster Than Public School Enrollment" (and how fantastic homeschool students are performing!)