2017-2018 Homeschool Curriculum Choices

I started sharing our homeschool curriculum choices last year, and I think I like the "record" of where we are and where we're going. So here I am again posting our curriculum for my many (ok, very few) readers.

Nora | First Grade (age 6)
Nora just finished three subjects: spelling, phonics, and handwriting. She was doing all of these at a first grade level, because I thought she was capable, and she proved me right. She did very well. We're still working through her first grade math curriculum, as planned. But, it's not her favorite, and since she's already working ahead of her brick-and-mortar-schooled peers, I'm not pushing her. I don't want her to come out hating math. Though, she did get really into some of the units, like the one on time, so we moved a little quicker with that unit. Once she finishes the first grade level, we'll move onto second grade right away.

This year we're continuing on with the same spelling and phonics programs, but we're dropping a formal handwriting program. She does fairly well with handwriting, so I don't feel like she needs much more instruction. However, we're going to take another area, which I'll discuss more in a minute, and focus on handwriting.

We're adding history this year, and after much research, I chose Connecting with History (RC History). We started a couple weeks ago, and since it involves a fair amount independent reading (though at her level it's suggested that the parents read to the child, but since she's completely capable of doing it on her own, I'm letting her), she's loving it. Another part of it is either copy work or memorization of a poem or verse that fits the time era we're studying. At her age, I'm having her do copy work, and we're using that as her handwriting. There's also projects to do, which I'm excited about starting with all the kids. It incorporates many different books for reading, fictional and non-fictional, which I think will make history a much more interesting subject. (It's my least favorite, so I had to find something that, at the very least, made me excited to teach it.) On our way up north to go camping, we listened to C. S. Lewis's "The Magician's Nephew," a story about the creation of Narnia.

She also went to a free soccer camp this summer with her cousins and some friends. She seemed to enjoy the games they played.

Phonics: MCP Plaid Phonics Level B
Spelling: MCP Spelling Workout Level B
Math: Math Mammoth (finish Grade 1 as planned, then move onto Grade 2)

History: Connecting with History (RC History) Volume 1 Beginner Level
Science: Elemental Science Biology for the Grammar Stage

Nate | Preschool (age 4-5)

Nate is really starting to like reading. He's teaching himself a little, but phonics are tricky in English. We started working through the McGuffey Primer from All in One Homeschool and we're not quite halfway though it. Considering a little over a year ago when I posted, he wasn't even grasping letter sounds, but is now on Lesson 24, and reading many easy readers on his own, I'd say he's come a long way! Once he had an interest in it, he wanted to learn it! 

I think math will be a strong point with him. If he's sitting at the table when Nora is working on her math, he is often answering the questions with her. I don't plan on starting anything formal with him at this point, mostly because I haven't found anything I like for his level. If I run across something I think would fit him, I might start him on it.

I think I would also like to start working on handwriting with him. I'm sure at some point I'll order him the one of the Handwriting Without Tears workbooks. I think it worked really well with Nora, and I'm sure Nate will do well with it also. 

He still has some speech issues, but I think he's pretty close to other kids his age. The /th/ and /r/ sounds still seems to be tough for him, but given that he couldn't touch the tip of his tongue to the roof of his mouth when he was 2 years old in speech therapy, he's doing okay. We still remind him often of how to properly make the /th/ sound, but he can't seem to make the /r/ sound yet. Reading has helped with it a little as we're properly sounding out words.

One of the highlights of Nate's summer was being on a soccer team: Green Monsters. They had a 3-game season, and Grandpa Jack took him to most of his practices and games. 

Sam | Preschool (age 3)

I intended on working through Year 2 of ABC Jesus Loves Me with him this past year, but I other than making the creation story book with him, we didn't do much. Even without using a formal curriculum though, he now knows all his colors (his favorite is orange) and can recognize most of the letters of the alphabet, and most numbers. He doesn't know most of his shapes though (star and heart are pretty easy!). He knows the names of the different Magna Tile shapes just by playing with Nora and Nate, but hasn't translated that to other objects yet. He does know circle and line though, because he can write the "a" in his name (a circle with a line next to it).

Lily | Toddler (age 1)

She's already been learning a lot through playing with her siblings. I have found that with both her and Sam, I haven't read to them as often as I did with the other two. I feel bad about this and hope it doesn't affect their passion for reading as they grow. Lily seems to be really interested in books, and will often bring a book to someone expecting him/her to read it. I am very thankful that Nora reads to her sometimes. She is also a talker like Nora was (okay, still is!). She has so many words: ba-be (baby), mama-me (mama milk), pa (up), da (down), wawa (water), mak (milk), Ra-ra (Nora), Nee (Nate), and Me-me (Sammy). I think she tries to say sentences too, but most of the words we don't understand. However, with her inflections, we can sometimes figure it out. (There it is and Where is s/he? are two that we know she's trying to say.)

2016-2017 Homeschool Curriculum Choices

I've seen some people posting their curriculum choices each year to share their favorites, so I figured, what the heck, I'll do it too! Plus, I'm super excited that I just clicked that "buy" button and our books will be arriving next week! So without further ado, here's what I've picked for our kids this year.

Nora, Kindergarten
Nora is a veracious reader (she's probably at a second grade reading level, but she doesn't like to read in front of me, so it's hard to know for sure), has been able to write all of her letters and numbers for a while, but doesn't have much interest in math, much to our dismay! Since I don't think she knows all of the phonics behind reading, I wanted a phonics program for her. Along with that, I know she can sound out and spell many words, so I thought I'd try a spelling program with her, but if I'm finding it's too challenging for her, I won't sweat it. Then, of course, I wanted a good, solid math program for her. For faith formation, Nora will continue in our church's faith formation program at the kindergarten level. I also picked out a saint or feast day for each week of the year that the whole family will learn about. Then at the MN Catholic Homeschool Conference I won the Family Formation's Little Lambs Home Lessons, so we will be doing that with Nora, Nate, and Sam. Nora is also signed up for swimming lessons over the summer and has moved up to the "Bobbers" class.

Phonics: MCP Plaid Phonics Level A
Spelling: MCP Spelling Workout Level A
Handwriting: Handwriting Without Tears My Printing Book - Grade 1
Math: Math Mammoth Grade 1 (we will likely work through this very slowly and take 2 years to do it)

Nate, Preschool
Nate hasn't had much interest in "doing school," and I haven't pushed it with him. He's a little over halfway through Year 3 of ABC Jesus Loves Me, and so we will continue on with Year 3 then start Year 4 when he is through it. While we have talked about the sounds that different letters make from "A" through "P," it hasn't yet clicked with him. Year 4 of the curriculum goes through the letter sounds again, so I'm hoping maybe the second time through it will click with him. I am continuing to work with Nate on some speech issues (currently the "th" sound and the "l" sound, as he calls his baby sister, "Willy"). This will be Nate's first year in faith formation at church with me as his teacher, and he will also be doing the Little Lambs program. Nate is signed up for swimming lessons as well, and even though he's not quite old enough, his teacher was okay with him moving onto the "Turtles" class, so he will be in the water without a parent!

Sam, Pre-Preschool
So far I have been coming up with color and shape activities for Sam to do while the other two are doing school, because he wants to do everything that they are doing. He knows a couple shapes that we talked about, but I'm not sure colors has clicked with him yet. I think I will really see him blossom while working through Year 2 of ABC Jesus Loves Me. He's eager to learn, and is always saying new words.

Lily, Baby
She'll just be hanging out with us while we're having all the fun. I'm sure she'll be busy learning to sit, crawl, and maybe even walk (God help me!) while I'm working with her older siblings.

Samuel David's Birth Story: A VBA2C

Since I was having a vaginal birth after two c-sections (VBA2C), and not all doctors and nurses are for that, I wanted to make sure that I had everything set up ahead of time that I could to ensure a successful VBA2C. At one of my appointments a few weeks before I was due, I brought a copy of my birth plan for my doctor to sign, so that if any nurses had questions or problems with it, they could see that my doc was okay with it. (For example, I wanted to be able to eat and drink during labor, but I guess it's against hospital policy for a VBAC momma. My doc was okay with it though.)

We also kept going back and forth as to whether or not we would use a doula to support us during labor and delivery. We were originally going to just use the volunteer doula at the hospital, but my friend convinced me to get a doula outside the hospital in case the volunteer on call was with another momma. We ended up finding Nancy Pone a few days before I went into labor, and she was wonderful, as you will read.

Well, onto the start of birthing our fourth child, Mr. Samuel David. As with Nora's birth, I started having contractions early on, but (luckily) this time it wasn't only at night for a week straight, leaving me near delirious come birth-time. It was on and off, and quite often during the day. On Friday, as per usual, my cousin, Linda, came over to visit. I started having contractions around 2pm before she came and started timing them on and off. At that point they were anywhere from 5-11 minutes apart, and were a little stronger than before, but I could still talk through them just fine. She didn't stay too late so that we could get some rest that night though.

We went to bed, and I started timing them again around 9:30pm, as they were getting more painful, and I couldn't sleep though them, and since they were coming anywhere from 6 to 15 minutes apart, I wasn't really sleeping in between them either. Adam slept most of the night, except for the two times Nora came in at 4am and 5 am to tell us she had to "go potty in the potty." I kept timing them on and off throughout the rest of the night and into the morning. When we got up that that Saturday morning, I told Adam to call my mom to come get the kids. I didn't think it was time to go in yet, but, I knew it would be at some point that day, and I wanted to be able to labor at home without a toddler or two crawling across my aching belly.

We spent the morning watching Doctor Who and relaxing at home. Adam actually ended up re-wiring an outlet in the office and setting up some internet thing in the office while I sat and watched. He kept wanting to retreat to the office to play video games, since there wasn't much for him to do at that point. They were starting to get stronger to the point where I couldn't talk though them, but there wasn't anything I wanted him to do at that point to relieve any pain. I just wanted him near me. Just his presence made me feel more at ease. He brought me peaches to eat and water to drink as I asked, and that was all I really needed. Shortly after noon, I decided to stop timing them, as it was getting annoying and difficult for me to get the timer on my phone started and then try to concentrate and relax my way though a contraction. So at 2pm when I started feeling like I wanted to be at the hospital, I don't really know how far apart they were, or if we were at the "5-1-1 rule" to go in or not. But, I started to get the shakes, and thought that was a good sign to go in. I texted Nancy to let her know that we were heading in, and Adam texted my mom to giver her an update, and then we were off!

I remember having a contraction as I was trying to walk down the couple of steps from our laundry room to the garage, but on the car ride to the hospital (not that it's that far!), I think I only had one. I'd heard that sometimes changes in surroundings slowed labor, but I was hoping it wasn't going to slow it down too much. I also remember walking though the ER doors and a security guard coming up to me asking if I wanted a wheelchair. I held up with "one-minute" finger, and he said something about waiting until the contraction was over. Once it was, I decided to take the wheelchair up to the L&D floor, which I remember deciding against with Nora, but the pain was worse this time around.

Once we got up to our room, the nurse, Barb, hooked me up to the monitors, and said she needed a 20 minute strip on the baby, then she could take me off the monitors. She checked me, and I was at 3cm, which kind of disappointed me, especially since my "purple line" had said I was at 10 cm (ha!) a couple days ago. I thought I would at around a 6 and be closer to active labor instead of still in early labor. So we focused on trying to get a 20 minute strip of the baby's heartbeat so that I could get off the monitors and move around more easily. This we found to be a difficult feat, since the bands that they use to hold the monitors on my belly didn't actually keep them in the right places. However, Adam was a pro at holding them in place through my contractions (and when I wasn't contracting), and getting a solid 20 minute strip in just over 20 minutes.

Once the monitors came off, Nancy had us start some belly dancing to help labor progress. She really wanted me to get my hips into it swinging and swaying them side to side. Adam danced with me and held me through contractions. They were painful,but manageable at this point. We found this really helped me progress, because when Barb came back to check me, less than an hour after she checked me before, I had gone from "thick" and 0% effaced to 80-90% and 4 cm.  Hearing that brought my spirits up after the disappointment I had from the first check.

We kept dancing and moving to help shake the baby down and out of me. We did have to take a break to get an IV placed so that I could get some antibiotics since I was Group B Strep positive. Part of my birth plan stated that they could not do any blood draws, and that if they needed any blood it needed to be taken when the IV was placed. Adam mentioned this to Barb. Nancy mentioned this to Barb. I mentioned this to Barb. Serveal times each. She insisted that she didn't know why they would need to draw any blood. "Are you sure?" was repeated several more times. She doubled checked, and still assured us that the hosptial did not need any blood samples.

Since I wanted it numbed before the IV was placed, Barb had another nurse come in who was more familiar with placing IVs when numbed. Well, the numbing didn't work in the first spot, and the vien didn't cooperate either. So they numbed another spot, and tried there. That vein wouldn't cooperate either. I don't do well with needles and was trembling (on top of the contactions) before this all started, it didn't get any better after having been poked so many times either! They finally decided to call in, I kid you not, the SWAT team. Yep, the SWAT team. I don't know what it stands for. I never asked, but they were pros. One try, and the IV was placed without a problem.

Once that fiasco was all over, and my nerves were calmed a little we continued to dance, but I got tired of that quickly, and Barb suggested I get in the bath once the first round of antibiotics was finished. I liked this idea a lot. I knew I couldn't have a water birth that I dreamed of since I was pregnant with Danielle, but at least I could have some relaxing labor in the tub. It did help me relax through the contractions more, so much so that I had to tell Nancy when they were coming so she could time them, because she couldn't tell by my demeanor. I wasn't in there too terribly long though, because I started feeling too hot and almost suffocating-like.

After I put my lovely gown back on, Nancy would squeeze my hips through contractions while Adam helped me stand, but it was this point that the contractions started getting to be much stronger than I ever remember with Nora. I worked through several on the verge of tears, thinking in between the contractions that I could handle it. But, eventually told Adam I wanted the epidural I couldn't do it anymore. The nurse, now Shelly, of course, wanted to check to see how far I was to make sure I wasn't past the point of being able to get one. I wasn't. I hadn't changed much since the last check. The baby was lower, but I was still at 4 cm and 90% effaced.

The contractions were getting much less manageable, and I knew the epidural would take a while to get with paper work and waiting on the anesthesiologist to make it up, so I asked for phentenol right away in my IV. Plus, I knew it would help me relax through the epidural placement, since each contraction I was trying so hard not to cry and be miserable.

This is the point where all hell broke loose in anger from not only me, but Adam and Nancy as well. Shelly, the nurse that had taken over for Barb, realized that Barb missed in my chart that I was a VBAC mom. That meant that the needed blood. And while, I think they let me go a while without bringing it up, once I asked for the epidural, they said in order to get it, I needed to have blood drawn. I was beyond livid. I don't think there is a word in the English language to describe how furious I was! I cried tears of anger and fear of going through what I went through with the blood draw from Nora. While Shelly tried to apologize, she didn't seem to understand what she was asking of me. She wasn't there when the lab tech butchered my arm at Nora's birth leaving me with a welt for days. She wasn't there when it took two nurses and a SWAT team to finally get an IV placed only hours earlier. But she had the upper hand. She had the epidural. She said the anesthesiologist wouldn't even come up until labs were drawn. So I consented. But, I said they had one shot at this. I said if they didn't get it the first time, there was not second chance. I said I wanted the phentenol first. And I said they better call in the SWAT team the first time. And she did. And it was actually an okay blood draw.

Shortly thereafter, the anesthesiologist came up to place the epidural. He must have been the same one from Nora's birth, as from what I understand, there's only one anesthesiologist there that likes his patients laying on their side instead of sitting up. I was thankful for that, as I think it made it easier on me. Now I could just lay and relax in bed. It was getting late, past our normal bedtime, so I was tired.

Eventually, Shelly came back to do another check, and to give me my second dose of antibiotics. Looking back at my notes from Nancy, I was at 6 cm and 100% effaced. With that I decided to try to take a nap. With Nora, Adam had kept coming in and out of the room, and each time he would, I would kinda wake up and look for him. This time he just laid on the couch and watched House, while Nancy and I took naps. I remember at one point Nancy asking Adam to turn the volume down, which helped me be able to get more rest. 

After about an hour and a half, Shelley came back to check me again. She said I was at 8 cm, and my bags of waters was bulging. She asked if I wanted her to break it. I said no, but then through the epidural, I felt like I was suddenly peeing, and I heard Shelley say, "Oops." I wasn't upset though, as I figured that if it was bulging that much, it would probably have popped soon anyway. But, then she changed her answer on how dialated I was. Apparently, the water breaking pushed me up another cm to a 9. I was definitely okay with that! 

Shelley went to her computer next to my bed to update my file or whatever, and within a few minutes, I told her that I thought I felt the urge to push. It wasn't something I expected to feel at all! With Nora, I was told that it was time to push, and then I was told when I was having a contraction, so that I knew when to push. But this time, I could feel my son actually decending into the birth canal. It was amazing! I could feel lots of pressure, but no pain. By the time Dr. Nelson, the on call doctor from my clinic, arrived, my baby was just about ready to be born. She was amazed that as he was crowning, he was turning his head side to side, and commented on his strong neck muscles. It only took about 10 minutes of pushing before Samuel David entered the world! He cried loudly, as he was placed on my chest, and I tried to nurse him. At first he just wanted to cry, but he soon found my nipple, and started nursing like a champ. 

These are the notes that Nancy took for me during Sam's birth. I had to refer to them a couple times for the order of events since I finally finished his story over a year after his birth, but I still remember those moments very vividly. 

Sarah gibson
Conx occ night
9:27 830, 3-12 min
215 leave hosp, strong shaky
3:50 -tight cm 3cm, "thick" cont monitoring 20min
440 - 80-90% eff, 4cm, baby stn 0 nurse: Barb
545 nurse alicia IV
Trembles starting
Pee
630 - bath!
715 Pee -standing hip squeeze - Shelly on
730 90% 4cm baby low
800 fentinol/IV/labs
830 ep
930 pencill #2, check: 6cm, 100%?
NAP! (Or stay up and watch House for Adam :)
11 - switch to left side...check, cervix soft 7cm
1130 checked 8, water broke during check 9 bleeding
1150 dr nelson in
1212 pushing

1222 born