Jake is 10!

My little Jakey-boy is growing up! On Oct 20, he turned TEN! I am in total denial that now three of my children are in their double digits. 

We love Jake so much! He brings us so much laughter and joy. Out of all our children, Jake has the most tender heart. He is always the first to  notice if someone is upset. He's the first to give up his toy for someone else. He's the first to offer a hug or snuggle if someone is sad or sick. He has an uncanny sense of feeling what other people are feeling and knowing just the right thing to do to make them happy. So often he is the peacemaker of our home.

Also, this kid has a contagious laugh. He loves a good joke and once he gets started giggling, you just can't help but go along with him. He is the one that gets me laughing while I'm trying to discipline him!

Jake also loves little things. No, really little things. I rarely find him without some little toy or trinket in his hand, mouth or pockets! I learned very early on that he is my tactile/kinesthetic learner. He always needs to be touching, moving or bouncing! So often I'll go to put clean sheets on his bed and out roll a dozen little "treasures" he has collected over the past week! I love it though. One day I know I'll miss all of the little things!

For a while, Jake has loved using my camera to take nature pictures. (He also loves taking random photos of disgusting odd things, but I digress.)  So it was a no-brainer when we were deciding what to get him for his birthday. A Camera! He had NO IDEA! Total surprise! He's already had a great time taking some really fun nature shots. Now, we just need to follow up with some photography pointers!

This past year, we have really noticed some changes in Jake's understanding of the gospel. He is beginning to be directed by the Holy Spirit on his own and not just through mommy and daddy's direction. That is so exciting to see! It is our prayer for him that he grow into a strong man of faith that would impact God's kingdom greatly- no matter the cost to his earthly pleasures. We pray that he will store up treasures in heaven and that he will persevere in following Christ all his days!

Our school year

I really need to post about Jake's 10th birthday, but I haven't downloaded my pics from my camera yet!

So in the meantime, I'm going to write about our school year.

The past two years we've used Tapestry of Grace. I have absolutely loved the depth and biblical focus of it. I learned a ton. However, the past two years have been the absolute craziest two of my entire homeschooling career. 2008 held 2 sick pregnancies and 2 second trimester miscarriages and 2009 was consumed with mission trips to Mexico and beginning the adoption process in Mexico. Needless to say, I just couldn't keep up with the weekly prep work that Tapestry demanded. It's a shame since it is such a wonderful curriculum, but instead of it helping me, it was making schooling harder.

So, after a lot of indecision (Tara and Mel, I'm so sorry for all my agonizing phone conversations!) I finally chose to go a simpler route.  With the upheaval of the Mexico adoption and the beginning of the Colombia adoption and knowing we will most likely travel for a month in the middle of our school year, I decided to make this year a more "independent study" type of year.

I really felt like I needed to focus on preparing my middle schoolers (7th, 6th, 5th) for the upcoming high school years by solidifying the skills they need to succeed. I did a lot of research to figure out which skills I wanted to heavily incorporate and which ones we already had a good handle on. In fact, instead listing out our yearly line up of subject curricula, I decided to list out the skills I wanted them to work on and then picked and chose our books based on that.

Our list of products we are using hasn't actually changed but I think it helped solidify in my head my purpose for each one. Maybe everyone else already does this naturally, but for some reason it all just clicked in my head this year, and school suddenly became stress free. I think I'd been allowing the curriculum to control us instead of allowing it to serve us.  It's all perspective, huh?

The older 3 are doing most of the same skills, just at the age/developmental level they are in. Makes things easy! Oh, and not everything is done every day!
So, here's our line up:

Memorization- Scripture memory, Science Facts, History Timeline, States and Capitals

Discussion, Inductive Bible Study, Logic- Morning Bible discussion time using inductive method, The Fallacy Detective with real life "debates" since 3 of them are in that phase of life!

Math
Cait and Grant- Prepare for Pre-algebra and begin AlgebraTeaching Textbooks 7 and begin TT Pre-alg. (This has been my best purchase this year. Highly worthwhile!)
Jake- Solidify mult/div facts, grade level math- Teaching Textbooks 5


Independent Study Skills/Test taking skills/Lab Report writing- Apologia General Science for Cait


Writing
Various writing genres- IEW Student Intensive Continuation Course A (she could handle B, but we're doing it all together with the boys so she's getting her assignments beefed up)
Current Event Reports- biweekly 
Beginning Literature Analysis Essays- reading lots of classic lit from a list I compiled, weekly literature analysis papers based of the questions in Well Trained Mind, Figuratively Speaking worksheets on literary techniques.
Outlining other people's writing- Kingfisher History Encyclopedia or other books from the shelf or library
Notetaking- Apologia Elementary Anatomy and Physiology (The boys are doing this in more of a "notebooking" fun format but Cait is doing more normal bullet point notetaking)
Research-short and frequent!- Mostly on history topics. We're all listening to the Story of the World chapter on audio and then each choses a topic to research and write an essay. They do this 2-3 times a week. Each child has varying lengths the essay must be.
Diagramming, Grammar fluency, Spelling accuracy- Christian Light Language Arts (just the grammar portion- LOVE this program!) and All About Spelling, Cait- Spell to Write and Read Wise Guide

Reading Speed, Reading Accuracy, Learning to appreciate varied genre, Vocabulary- 1 hour of reading required a day from a booklist I compiled (also includes lots of discussion time!), Vocabulary from the Classical Roots

Master the Spanish language- No! Just kidding! I'll just be happy if they can introduce themselves to their new siblings!  I do think that Spanish for Children, Spanish for Adoptive Families, and living in Colombia for a month will take care of this important skill! LOL!




Wow, that looks like a TON! But it's not really! In fact we are finishing our days earlier than we ever have in the past. I think it's because I don't have a different curriculum for each subject. It's more integrated. I don't think I could manage complete integration like some curricula do, but for us, this is working really well.

We are almost 4 months into our school year (started beginning of July) and already I'm seeing tons of progress. And attitudes toward our school time have improved tenfold. They all love the research part of the day and go crazy with wanting to report on every nugget of info they find.


And, to end this super long post, Here's Quinn's line-up:

Math- Christian Light 1
Copywork/Narrations- Writing With Ease
Spelling- All About Spelling
Reading- every book he can get his hands on, and Phonics Pathways
Trickle down effect- he tags along with everything else!

Spring 2010 Catch up

Cait and Daddy went out with her girlfriends and their daddies for a nice dinner and a browse through the bookstore. They are all getting so grown up. I pray that she sees her daddy's example when she looks for a Godly husband one day.

Being silly!

Caitlin learned how to make the famous Mexican dessert- Tres Leche Cake. Mmmm deliciouso!

We had fun fishing in the neighbor pond and catching frogs and other critters!

There is a dilapidated old farmhouse with barns and outbuildings on the same property. We had fun going exploring in the buildings and traipsing through the fields around the farm.

Presentation Night display

A trip to the Washington Zoo was full of fun!

The Panda bear entertained us for quite a while- up close!

Pine Wood Derby

The highlight of February was the Stockade Pinewood Derby. The boys had been dutifully working on their cars each week in clubs. They decided that they wanted their cars to be a surprise for mom so I was banned from the work area of the basement and was pushed away whenever there was talk of colors or stickers or names. It was so cute!
The big day arrived and I finally got to see their cars that they had done ALL BY THEMSELVES! They did a great job. So many of the other kids had fancier, more perfect looking ones, but it is obvious that the parents did most of the work. That's fine, but I was super proud of their work that they had created without much assistance.

The races started and boy, do these kids and parents really get into this thing! There have even been issues of parents helping their kids cheat just so they can win! WHAT? I just don't get it. It's just so...so...so TEMPORAL! I mean- it is great to have fun, make a car, race, laugh- but come on, it's not something to succumb to cheating over! Ah... I digress...

Jake had created his car sleek and streamlined and painted it silver-calling it the Silver Bullet. And, he did really well! His car was in the top running for a while. Then during the last set of final races, they allowed the boys to re-graphite the wheels and I think (I'm not fooling anyone. I have no idea. I'm just repeating what the men said.) that it bogged down the wheels because he suddenly started to slow down. It's ok because he still did well and won a trophy! Pretty cool for his first year!

Grant's car didn't do as well on the track but it did place in the finals for design. Even though there were other more ornate cars, the judges were looking for creativity in design. He called his Wrath of God and painted it a bright fiery orange color! Isn't that hysterical! You couldn't miss it either. It was BRIGHT! And he did win a trophy for good looks!

Since Jake came in high enough in the ratings we got the "priviledge" to attend the Regional Derby Car race. Oh Joy! This event is really a test of Brent's and my commitment to parenting. We love our kids and are excited about the things they are excited in, but going to two of these races a month apart was a true test of self denial. (I feel utterly ashamed of myself, now.) Unfortunately, I forgot our camera and I don't have any photos of the Regional. Lets just say it was a LONG day. It was more fun helping serve the food with Wendy- for the kids, too.
Oh, well, I will have recovered by next year and will have renewed vigor and enthusiasm! LOL!

5K

In order to keep up with the requirements of his job, Brent runs regularly. It has gotten difficult to find time that isn't taken away from family time to do this, so he started taking Caitlin along with him. She loved the one on one time and actually found that she liked the challenge.

Recently, she attended a "Do Hard Things" conference where she was challenged by some older teens to "rebel" against the low expectations that culture has for teens. She was encouraged to try new things and do things that she would consider hard. Brent suggested that she push herself and train to compete in a 5K race. Her first reaction was "NO WAY!" but after she considered the "do hard things" mentality, she decided to step out of her comfort zone and go for it. In addition, she decided she wanted to go even further and try to collect $500 worth of pledges to help raise money for a health facility at River Valley Ranch.
This was even further out of her comfort zone as she would have to actually write a letter to family and friends and ASK them for donations! Definitely, not her cup of tea! She learned a lot about trusting God and gaining confidence in Him.


We were so proud of her determination and her ability to raise, not only$500, but $790!!! Tons of family and friends, even people she didn't know but had read the letter, supported her in this unusual plan of hers to "do hard things". What a faith builder!

And, she ran her personal best time! She completed the 5k (3.2miles) in 31 minutes and 30 seconds. That's a 10 minute, 10 second mile! Way better than I could even dream of doing!

As a reward for her efforts, she won an ipod, and for raising the most money in her category, she won a BIKE! She was beaming and I'm so glad she was blessed by her ability to trust God in this circumstance.

In addition to the 5K, Grant and Jacob participated in the 1 mile, Kids Fun Run. They can't wait for their turn at the 5k next year!

Ordnance Museum

This past fall Jake and I were able to sneak out for a "Mommy date". After a fun meal at McDonalds (his restaurant of choice) we headed to Aberdeen Proving Grounds to the Ordnance Museum. I was a little nervous since I'd never been there by myself. I did end up going through the "restricted" gate, but the guard was very nice and gave me directions to get to the correct entrance. We got lost there too, but a nice truck driver in a Frito Lay truck showed me the way!
All around, it was an adventure!

We roamed around the grounds admiring all the various tanks and rockets. About as much as I understood was "Ooo, look at the big green one, or Oh, boy, it's tall"! Jake didn't care though. He was happy just to have some one-on-one time.

Inside the museum we saw lots of weapons and other gear that army men have used in the past.


Actually we both were pretty bored and we were both relieved to get to the small gift shop. I think we were in there longer than the whole time we spent outdoors and indoors! After MUCH indecision and lots of Mommy input, he decided on a small green army pouch to play dress ups with.

Jake is really growing up! Too fast! Here he and Daddy were sharing a silly moment that I just had to catch forever!

Jake's History

Here's what I have written on a paper about Jacob.

All our kids were cute as babies and toddlers, but Jake was the cutest. He did nothing wrong until the exact week he turned one!

Would NOT hold still for nursing even as a newborn. This has not changed at all.


A conversation to remember (age 3 1/2)
Dad- "What do you want to be?"
Jake- "A Policeman"
Dad- "Swat policeman? K-9? Sniper?, which?"
Jake, after contemplating a while... "I want to be a FAT Policeman!"

A few weeks later, sitting across from a LARGE man in uniform (I think a firefighter) at the dentist's office....
Jake, staring in awe at the man- "Dad, THAT's what I want to be. A Fat Policeman!"



Age 4- becoming very close to George Hayes (and Chip Bauer since Grant hangs around him all the time)

Age 4 says "onside down" for upside down

Lost 1st tooth Oct 2005 Before Grant! He was quite proud
Lost 2nd tooth on 5th Birthday