The Dangers of Homeschooling

When I first saw this video, I immediately thought of the relationship Gabe and Bryan have with each other.  Bryan is a wonderful big brother who lets Gabe hang around and climb on him and ask a bazillion questions.  Most days I think Gabe's favorite person is his big brother.  All last summer Gabe would come running yelling with glee when Bryan got home from work.  He was even more excited than he is when Mom or Dad come home.  A relationship that I can guarantee would not have developed if the kids were in school all day simply because the two of them would never have had enough time together to truly get to know each other.

Boy Scouts

Tonight was the final Court of Awards for the season.  Bryan and Sean both advanced to Tenderfoot and each earned 3 merit badges.  This year they have also earned the Ad Altare Dei religious medal.  They head to camp in about a month and I believe they will both be working on 3 badges there this summer.  They both seem to be enjoying scouts and Kieran is waiting anxiously in the wings to join them after his next birthday.

If You Take a Toddler to the Park

This was Ellie at the park:

I know she is a bit of a blur in that last picture but work with me.
This is Ellie right now:

Totally wiped out and sound asleep in her bed.

Monday, Monday

We spent Monday afternoon visiting some friends who live right on a lake near/in a state park.  The kids spent a good portion of the day in the water because it was warmer than expected.  No pictures of Bryan because he was off with the older kids hiking and kayaking.

Happy Birthday Bryan and Sean

We recently celebrated two more birthdays.  Sean turned 13 and Bryan will soon be 15.  This means we have entered a new stage of parenting.  We not only have children in the house, we also have young adults.  There is a big difference in parenting with these older children.  No, I'm not really a fan of the teenager label.  To me that label is just an excuse for allowing people to act immaturely and shirk growing responsibilities.  It's been an interesting ride so far and I'm rather enjoying it.  I'm proud to say we have two young  men who are almost always willing to help out and help to keep things running smoothly around here.  Most of the time.

This year the boys treated us to dinner at Olive Garden.  Since Sean's meal ended up coming out late, we were also given a free dessert.  Everyone behaved wonderfully (as we've come to expect because no one wants to spend the meal sitting in the van with a grumpy parent) and the boys have enough money left over to take their grandparents out to dinner next week.

Happy birthday to two of my favorite guys.  Hope you had a wonderful time.

Generation Next

Those who know us well know that we have been spending the past couple years doing everything we can to get rid of our consumer debt.  Consumer debt mostly caused by stupid mistakes and a lack of commitment and knowledge.  As we've traveled this path, I have become committed to making sure we give our children the necessary information at an early age to allow them to hopefully avoid the mistakes we have made.  Yes, the proper management of money is a very necessary life skill but one that is often not taught by parents because we seem to feel as if finances are something that should never be discussed.  Although finances are a difficult topic to discuss, failing to do so with your children is leaving them without a very necessary life skill.

I have been searching for a program to use with our teens to help put them on a firm financial footing before they leave the nest.  There are many different ideas out there but I was having trouble finding something that was both sensible and affordable.

Many years ago I ordered the book 7 Steps to Becoming Financially Free: A Catholic Guide to Managing Your Money.  Although we were not ready to commit to everything in the book at that time, I loved the common sense approach, lack of excuses, and ready made resources in the book.  When I saw that the author of that book had a similar program aimed at teens and young adults, I was immediately interested in reading it.

Generation Next: A Catholic Guide to Financial Freedom for Young Adults by Phil Lenahan is a wonderful resource for teaching your children about managing their finances.  The book is broken up into eleven chapters.  Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of financial planning.  Topics covered include managing debt, money and marriage, real estate, and financial generosity.  This workbook has examples of resumes, tax forms, pay checks, a credit report, and budgeting sheets. A glossary is included in to explain terms that the reader might not be familiar with yet.

Each chapter ends in discussion topics, many of which help the reader understand how financial management relates back to their faith.  Every chapter also has an activity which is included in the teacher resource guide.  While this guide is inexpensive and will add to the program, you can easily use the workbook without it simply by skipping over the activity sections.

I found this book to be a wonderful resource that covered topics even I learned from.  My only issue with the book is the age guidelines.  I believe waiting until someone is 17 to start sharing such information is waiting far too long.  I believe this book can and should be used earlier.  This book is written in a very down to earth, easy to read style that lends itself to being attractive to younger readers.  I would take advantage of this fact and put the book in the hands of folks just starting high school.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Generation Next - Workbook. This is also a great online Catholic store for all your religious shopping needs, such as gifts for Confirmation and gifts for a baby baptism.

Escaping from Karate

While the older five attend karate class, I have to find something to do with the younger four.  Usually I also have two other kids that I need to watch as well.  Normally occupying a few kids would not be a big deal for only an hour.  But for some reason during karate class, the kids always get out of control and loud.  We are allowed to hang out in the back room at the karate studio and they have a wonderful area for the kids to play.  Unfortunately, the room also tends to echo a bit and get loud.  Add to that one child who is a wee bit sensitive to everything so he gets upset easily over what we consider normal not even worth noticing bumps and such in our family.  And for the last 15 minutes, the older folks have a private lesson so all of the other kids converge on the back room bringing the noise and chaos level much higher than I like.

Yes, all normal ideas have been tried to contain the sheer chaos of the back room during karate.  Snacks, toys, games.  Nothing seems to work and I frankly do not at all look forward to karate class because I do not like dealing with the back room of chaos. 

Over the past few weeks I have started taking the younger kids for a snack instead.  Between the walk to the store, having a snack, then walking back to the studio, the kids are kept occupied and we usually only have about 15 minutes left in class.  Last week we actually sat and quietly watched the last of the class instead of having to go to the back room at all.  I loved it because I feel like I am missing out on what the older kids are doing since I never get to watch the class.  Granted, part of the different feel last week was a few missing kids but overall, taking the younger ones out for a walk/snack has made a difference.  Can't say I love hanging out during karate class yet but at least I'm not dreading it every week anymore.

Little Flowers

We had our last formal Little Flowers meeting of the school year last week.  We studied fortitude at this meeting and the girls painted sun catchers. 

Next month we will have everyone and their families over for a bonfire night. 

We had a wonderful group of girls this year.  With such a wide age range, it was sometimes hard to figure out craft activities that everyone could handle.  Thankfully whenever a younger girl needed help with anything, there was always an older girl ready to jump in and help out.  This made things run much more smoothly than I was expecting.

I think the girls have enjoyed themselves this year.  Now to figure out what to do for next year since things will be a bit busier and I'll have a little one to tend to for part of the time.  No, I'm not a babysitter type person for infants. They stay with Mom for their entire first year because that is what is best for them.  While this makes things just a tad more complicated with regard to meetings such as Little Flowers, it is more than worth it in the long run.  So here's a hint: it does not help me if you try to insist on helping me by taking/holding the baby or try to force me to give you the baby because you don't get to see them often.  Nope, not helpful. Just not how I operate or what works for our family.

Art Class

Today was the final art show for the class the kids were taking at one of our local colleges.  I had 5 kids enrolled this year, everyone from kindergarten to eighth grade.  These classes are very affordable way to provide the kids a chance to work with higher quality art materials and ideas. The classes are taught by art education majors working on getting classroom experience. This means all we have to pay for is materials and the rates top off at 3 kids, any others are free.

Because most schools are cutting their art classes and art departments, the teachers are being taught how to incorporate art as a part of other disciplines. The projects usually focus on cultural awareness in some way or computer graphics.

I did not manage to get pictures of each kid with their individual projects but I did take pictures of most of the projects.  Sean carved an Enterprise which most folks at the art show loved.  Kieran worked on computer images.  Katie and Liam did sculpting projects.  Abby's projects focused on animals this year.  There are 3 sessions during the class and each session focuses on making one single large project so everyone brings home 3 completed items.

The Marian projects were made by Gabe today at his preschool class.  He'll join the bigger kids next year but this year he just had preschool once a month.  He seems to have loved it.

A Boy and His Bike

Katie taught Gabe how to ride a two-wheeler.  Please excuse the not so great picture.  Shortly after this, Liam actually took the training wheels off for Gabe rather than just having them pushed up.  He still can't quite turn that well but Gabe is doing rather well.  Now to convince Abby to give it a try.

Fun With the Holy Family

Do you have kids who love to color? Who are constantly clamoring for you to print out a picture for them to color, please!  Kids who will go through a case of printer paper faster than you can turn around? If so, then I have a book for you to put into your budding artists' hands.

Fun With the Holy Family is a coloring and activity book from Pauline Books and Media.  Every other page in this 64 page book is a wonderful picture depicting a scene from the life of the Holy Family.  The other pages are various activities and games to help the child learn more of the Holy Family's story.  These activities include mazes, word games, drawing activities, and craft ideas.

When this book arrived, most of the kids were begging for a chance to use it first.  Today I opened the book to a coloring page showing the Annunciation and gave it to Gabe.  He was very thrilled to have a chance to color someone with "his name" and spent quite a bit of time showing the book to his older sister.  I know, I should have cute pictures to share with you but I am a bit of a slacker mom who is battling morning sickness and just thought to myself "Hey, look.  They are sitting so quietly and seem so happy.  I'm going to enjoy the quiet for a bit and sit down," and only realized that pictures would have been awesome after they were up and running again.

Fun With the Holy Family is a perfect book for kids in the 5-8 age range.  Younger kids will love coloring the pictures but the older kids will love the activity pages.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Fun with the Holy Family. They are also a great source for a baptism gifts or first communion gifts.