New Blog

Hello faithful readers (by which I mean my three family members and two friends that read my blog)
I am changing over to wordpress.  My new blog is littlewomenacademy.wordpress.com.  I plan on blogging more often about my homeschooling adventures and life.  Look forward to reading about this past week with such lovely events including almost selling my house, the stomach flu, running over my cat, and the ultimate math project.  Thanks for reading!

The Unknown

Today I jumped into the unknown.  I have taught string lessons for 12 years.  I have taught cello, violin, and viola.  I am super comfortable teaching these instruments.  A few days ago, my favorite mom of one of my favorite students called me and ask me a question.  "Will you teach Bethany singing lessons?"  I laughed out loud.  WHAT!?!  WHO ME!?!  What a joke!  While singing at a sing-along with my father, and I was feeling pretty good about how I sounded, he turned to me and said, "You have your father's singing talent."  The bottom line is I can't sing very well.  It has taken the better part of my life not to modulate every time I stop for breath.  These are the things that were going through my head.  But, I didn't go with my knee jerk reaction which was to say something like, "No way in..." I listened to the mom's request.  She said things that made sense.  "You teach a lot at IFamily and I am sure it wouldn't be much different."  Yeah, we do solfege and scales in music class.  We do SING scales.  "She just needs a little help to be able to sing a tune".  So no arias...I might be able to handle that.  I told her I would think about it. 
Well, today was my first ever voice lesson experience.  I have been in choirs myself.  I've even conducted ward choirs, though that does not really count for anything.  I seriously jumped into the unknown.  I have been thinking and thinking about this.  I dusted off a lot of books on the shelves of my mind all about teaching elementary school music.  I did learn a lot of stuff in college... if I can remember.  So, today I taught a voice lesson to a sweet tone-deaf 10 year old.  It wasn't bad!  We sang solfege with the hand signs.  She didn't hit anything right.  Which, I can understand.  So, we started aural skills, a mountain I am still trying to summit.  I started simple with a is-this-note-higher-or-lower game.  Bethany did great.  Then we went to interval work.  I picked the two furthest away intervals I could do, the 2nd and the octave.  "Is it Do-Re or Do-Do?"  It was rough but, I feel like this is what she needs and I felt confident and capable (a surprising feeling). 

I may like this unknown.  Don't get me wrong, I am not advertising voice lessons EVER. I just think this could work.  Me and Bethany.  It is a combination that works wither we are playing viola or sadly singing our do re mi's.  So, I am crossing my fingers as I continue this journey through the abyss.  The vocal abyss... ooh, that's catchy.  Maybe I should write an opera.  No way in...

Christmas Prep

I have a feeling like I am at the climax of my Christmas-with-children life.  My eldest is 11 and my youngest is almost 3.  This is the year that we can have all kinds of fun and do a theme!  This year, our theme is American Girl.  It sounds super yuppy but, I am addicted to American Girl.  Namely, the old school American Girl.  I LOVE the craft books, cook books, and stories that depict some time period in American history.  Our girls are all getting things relating to American Girl.

Ready for my brilliant idea?!? Each girl is getting a bag of accessories for their doll, but who wants another dumb gift bag.  They are a ton of money and they are not worth it.  So, I went to Old Navy and got these great reusable shopping bags on clearance for $.50.  They are super cute and perfect for holding their stuff.  LOVE IT!
Next idea that I love is the craft kits.  I found (used, of course) all of the old craft books and am putting together kits so they can actually do the crafts from the books.  Instead of just getting a cool craft book, they will be able to do the crafts because they will have all the supplies.
This is also a great time of year because I spend hours and hours and hours and hours sewing.  I actually heard Emma Lynn talking to one of her sisters, "What do you think Mom is going to sew us this year?" I know that I do not have long before Emma Lynn becomes one of those teenagers that will complain about not getting a cell phone or a car.  I am relishing the fact that she is still excited about a homemade present. Like I said, I have a feeling like this is the climax year.  I LOVE IT!  It is way better to be an adult during Christmas and create the magic for your children than to be a child.  I am so grateful for my life!!

The Math Basket

I have been racking my brain to try to come up with something fun and exciting for math.  During my last performance with the  Idaho Falls Symphony, while my fellow musicians were concentrating and having a wonderful experience, I came up with "the math basket".  Its a simple basket that I can put new things into every day that are different like a game, or flash cards, or marshmallows for the marshmallow game.

Yesterday I put in a piece of paper that said "movie time".  We watched this amazing documentary on netflix called "Between the Folds".  It was all about origami.  The kids were riveted as it connected math, art, and science.  I also put geo boards in the basket that the small ones could play with during the movie.  Then we did a art project involving paper.  (All the supplies being in the basket)  Super fun!

After this, Emma Lynn decided she needed to send us messages in morse code and we had a great study of morse code for a while.  It was the kind of school day to blog about!  It was inventive and relaxed yet full of great conversation and learning.  Aside from a few tears about the paper being not as pretty as someone else's (a situation that wanted me to trade my girls in for boys), it went super well.

Here is a link for making the paper stars.  We used double sided scrapbook paper and an exacto knife.  They used wrapping paper and scissors.  Have fun! Paper Star Project

Emma Lynn turns 11

Changes...  that is what is happening.  My oldest is eleven and all kinds of things are going on.  I can deal with most of them, mainly the things I remember myself like sprouting breasts and mood swings.
The thing about Emma Lynn that I dont remember about my own childhood is having one foot in babyhood and one foot in adulthood.  I have been told by others and myself that sweet Emma Lynn is a little immature.  Maybe its because we homeschool, maybe because she has younger friends, or maybe it is because her favorite companion is my two year old... either way, I am not sad about this.  She will catch up in due time and that is my philosophy with all things that I have no control over.
On Sunday, I get a text from my husband with a texticom or whatever of a seriously distressed face.  Emma Lynn has finally learned the truth about Santa.  I have been hinting at this FOREVER!  She refused to hear me and she wanted so desperately to hold on the this magic.  Well, at church the beans were spilled.  She was okay about it and I just got in her face with my excitement.  "You can be in on this now!!  You can stay up and eat the cookies and everything!!"  This helped the blow but tears were shed.  I truly believe that Emma Lynn LOVES being a child and she is watching her childhood slip away and she sees changes are right around the corner.
I love this about her.  How many of us wasted our childhood away wanting to be older?  I couldn't wait to  date and drive and kiss boys.  All of my childhood play was based on being older.  We played "date" all the time when I would be picked up by some pretend boyfriend to go out somewhere magical.  My barbie even "did it" in my friend's barbie house.   I pretended to be in college or working in a office.  I see my girls pretend house and things where they are mothers and they are nurturers and it makes my heart melt.  What a sweet thing to play?  What was I thinking when I was creating scandalous dance moves with my friends at the age of 9 to the Color Me Bad song "I want to sex you up"?!?

So, here is to my "immature" daughter that actually understands more than I ever did at her age and probably more than I do now.

Halloween 2011

This year, by divine intervention, I decided to go simple on costumes. I usually start planning costumes around August. This August I decided to go simple and in September, I had my appendix out. I am glad I took it easy.

My main shopping this year was to the local second hand store where I picked up a set of red and white striped baseball sheets for $6. This and several yards of black fabric with a 50% off coupon at JoAnn's was my fabric for pirate costumes. Awesome!

We had all kinds of fun with it. We have a group of friends that with which we do history together and they came over for a Halloween party. We were studying Columbus, so we were the pirates who destroyed Columbus' ship the first voyage out. This event left Columbus to swim to the shores of Spain floating on an oar. Rrrr!

My Sweet Pea turns five

Five years ago today, I was just slightly "overdue". I was very excited for the birth of my third girl. I had two wonderful midwives and a doula and I had practiced my relaxation. This birth was going to be different.
With my two older girls, I had been induced. Never for good reasons. My second was a little early and ended up with jaundice. The pain was super crazy and I had an epidural with both of them. I was not satisfied with my birthing experiences and I wanted something different. I knew inside myself that giving birth was a natural experience that did not require the medical interventions that have become so routine today. This time was going to be different.
By the hand of God, I met my doula, Tracy. She and I were in a Thomas Jefferson Education course together and she was looking for a cello teacher. A friendship started instantly. I started teaching her and she, in turn, started teaching me. We met and discussed birth and I decided that, though I was really close to having a baby, I wanted to hire her to be my doula. What a great decision!
When contractions started on the morning of May 3, 2006, I was pretty excited. I listened to my birthing music and took a bath. After a little while, Tracy came. I was using my deep relaxation techniques that I had learned in my hypnobirthing book. Honestly, I did not feel any pain. It was gentle and steady. It was a wonderful, spiritual experience. My body and I were working together. I felt close to God. I felt close to Paige.
I lived just down the street from the hospital and I did not have any intention of going there any sooner than I needed to. Tracy saw the signs of transition labor even if I didn't feel it. She told us it was time.
We arrived at my midwives' office and she checked my cervix. I was dilated to a 9. I was so excited. So excited that when she put the Doppler on and everyone else heard Paige's sweet but very rapid and irregular heart beat, I didn't notice anything amiss.
Being in labor is a funny thing. In order to be one with your body and work with it, you need to go into a world of your own. That is what I did. It was me. I was aware of Jesse and Tracy. I was not aware of the arguments that arose between the midwife and the nurses about a C-section. I was not aware that there was really anything to worry about. My midwife saved me from a c-section. She told everyone that I could push this baby out before they could have me prepped for surgery. So, I pushed. I didn't feel ready to push, I was told to push and I did. That was difficult. The only words I remember are the words of Tracy. "You are a strong woman and you can push this baby out." I did.
Paige Jessica Owen was born midmorning on May 5. She was 8 pounds. She was pink and beautiful and she was life flighted to Salt Lake City within hours of her birth. Paige was born with a heart arrhythmia. Jesse went with her in the life flight plane. I was not able to hold her. I was not able to see her. I was not able to nurse her. But, the bonding Paige had with her Daddy is still evident in the relationship they have today. Jesse went down with her and he held her as soon as her heart was strong enough. He bathed her and he sang to her.
Tracy stayed with me. She rubbed my legs and we talked. She brought me lunch and she took care of me while I fretted over my new born daughter who was hundreds of miles away from me.
The next day, my mother-in-law drove me down to Salt Lake City where I was finally able to hold and nurse my baby. They let me stay on a cot in the doctor's nap room so I could be called when she was hungry in the night. Just a few days of observation, her heart got better all the time and we were able to take Paige home. She would need regular tests and after she turned two, they concluded that her heart was, though on the large side, healthy.
This birth changed everything for me. I started "wearing" my babies in a sling or a wrap. I slept with my babies until they were one and I nursed my babies until they were two (or older). I embraced homeschooling and I learned to love my children more deeply than I had. Just a few days ago, I overheard Tracy talking to a pregnant woman about birth. I heard her talking about Paige and her birth and I heard her say, "that birth changed everything for Jennifer. She became a gentler parent. She talked to her children differently. She was a different person after Paige's birth." Tracy even sewed me a pillow that says, "Birth Changes Things". That is what happened to me. Birth, natural childbirth, changed my life.
That is what I celebrate.