Summer Fun

Mountain Climber

Happy BIrthday Austin!

13 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!

Camping with my girls

Nyah, Olivia, Jolie, & I went camping with our commonwealth group. Kurt & Sophie stayed home to get Austin to his scout campout.

 

My little vikings

Kurt's work did a preview of the new How to Train Your Dragon 2 for all of its employees & their families a day before it came out in theaters. 

The next morning my little vikings demanded a viking breakfast - I hope vikings ate toast :)

Sophie

I spend most of my time being Sophie's shadow, and she's a highly entertaining child. 

Two shirts are better than one

I think I can...I think I can...I think I can

Mom, I want some money

Lost in her imaginary world

Sophie often goes missing when she should be asleep in her bed- fortunately, she's (mostly) easy to find

Not a relaxing spot for a nap

A favorite babysitter getting married

Horse Horses Horses

Nyah has the amazing opportunity to work at a horse farm in exchange for riding lessons. Which, of course, is throwing more fuel on the horse obsession of a few little girls. Imagine that. 

Homeschool Revolution

I don't really know how to describe it, except that we are, in many ways, radically changing how we homeschool. No more school at home. No more pushing agendas from outside our family, whether they be state standards or someone else's ideas or a curriculum.

We are focusing on our family values. Our passions. Our agency. Our learning styles.

Some things that I've been reading over the last year:

Free Range Learning - book website facebook Laura Grace WeldonA Thomas Jefferson Education - book website facebook blog

Agency Based Education - website
Teach the Children (book)

What that means for our summer is that we are focusing on daily reading and working together to build our core values.

We are currently reading: The Book of Mormon, Little Britches, and the 7 Habits of Happy Kids series. Looking to add in some math classics

Our daily work: Cleaning up when we're done playing and eating, and building routines and systems for the rest of the housework; and meeting Olivia's needs (speech, regular exercise, etc.)

And lots of time to live and play and explore around us.

What does this mean for the future? I'll let you know when we have a better idea!

Interesting Thinks

What's Lost as Handwriting Fades @ NYTimes

'How Not To Be Wrong' In Math Class? Add A Dose of Skepticism @ npr books

What the success of one Harvard grad, my home-schooled daughter, tells us about Obama's economy @ FOXNEWS

What College Profs With Freshmen Knew @ Small World at Home

Math Inspirations blog

Does childhood freedom lead to socially successful adults? @ babycenter

Lectures Aren't Just Boring, They're Ineffective, Too, Study Finds @ Science Insider

How to Get the Most Out of Music Lessons @ Signature School of Music

Back to our regularly scheduled program

Field Tripping: Utah Children's Theater

I took the kids to see The Three Musketeers and we had a blast. 

Sophie's favorite part was the mini working toilet in the family bathroom. She's asked for one for her birthday, so if anyone has any idea where I can get one, let me know!

All for one and one for all!

Eggs

I went to make breakfast and the eggs were missing. 

Apparently the parrot is thinking of adopting. 

Eruption

It worked. 

Austin's Piano Recital

I put the wrong time on the calendar, but thankfully we were only 30 minutes late. Oy.

Austin played very well. Such an awesome kid. 

These girls were, well,  I've often thought Herding Monekys 101 would have been much more applicable class to take in college than any number of other classes I took. 

Olivia's chin

So the day after Sophie's elbow, I figured we'd stay home, keep things nice and quiet and rest. Naturally, my kids all strongly disagreed. Even Sophie. So after much asking on their part and much no-ing on my part, we finally settled on an activity. Austin was hanging out with his friend and Nyah was going swimming with her friend. Olivia and Jolie wanted to go swimming, and Sophie was willing to hang out with me poolside. I thought, "Yeah, right" but figured we'd at least try. At the very least, it would be better than sitting at home listening to Sophie whine and beg to ride her bike, right?! Ha.

We were at the pool for less than 5 minutes when Olivia showed me this:

"I was jumping up out of the water and I hit my chin on the edge and it hurts." 

Confession: I wanted to cry. 

After yelling at Jo to get out of the pool, which of course she didn't want to do because we had just gotten there, we headed back to the Instacare.

Hi, yes, I'm back, but with a different daughter who needs stitches and please don't call CPS.

The doctor finally came in and glued her back together- while making a liposuction joke after trimming off some of her fat in the cut- um, ever heard of bedside manner?!

So far they both seem to be healing well, if all their biking, jumping, scootering, and constant need to always be doing something are any indication.

Sophie's Elbow

Sophie sprained/dislocated her left elbow. I didn't see it happen. Sophie says she was sliding on the trampoline..... Jolie says she accidentally kicked Sophie's elbow..... Neither of those tales make much sense, but it's all I got. 

Sophie frequently dislocates her left elbow. After taking her to Instacare a couple times when she was a baby, I learned how to pop it back in, but it didn't work this time (and after all the x-rays and exams I'm not sure it was dislocated in the first place), so off to Instacare we went. 

On a Sunday evening when the wait time was over an hour and a half. 

When Kurt was sitting in LAX waiting for his flight to Australia. 

And Austin was in the middle of baking lemon bars. 

And I came home to find my kitchen like this:

But it is AWESOME having wonderful, responsible older kids to watch younger kids in times of hurt-elbow-nitis.