I came across this interesting article the other day and I thought it was worth sharing. Scientists have discovered a way to use a fungus found in cheese to make a plastic that cleans itself.
I am simply amazed at the things that scientists are coming up with these days. This was a very interesting read and generated an interesting discussion in our homeschool today.
What are you discussing in your homeschool these days?
Honey
In light of the recent teacher’s job action in B.C., I have been thinking about some of the reasons our family has chosen to learn at home. This list is not exhaustive by any means.
What are some of the reasons you homeschool?
I am linking up with Top Ten Tuesday which has moved to Many Little Blessings.
Honey
With spring just around the corner, my thoughts are turning to the garden. We live in the city, so we have a tiny backyard garden and we need to make the most of our space. In the six years that we have lived in our row house, we have had some variety of garden just about every year.
I love having a garden. It gives us an excuse to get off technology and get out side. I have a secret. I like playing in dirt. I love running the dirt through my fingers and breaking up the clumps.
I even enjoy finding knotted worms
and funky snails.
What I really enjoy is planting things that my family can eat. The most common things that grow well in our garden are tomatoes, snap peas, and beans.
It is time to dig out the garden/seed bucket, develop a plan with the kids, and then get outside.
Honey
I have thought a few times recently that I need to write about weaning the twins. I wrote here about breastfeeding twins and what it looked like from my perspective.
I read this article that Meg wrote about weaning her baby and I wanted to respond in the comments, but my response would be too long for a simple comment.
The twins are going to be 4 in May. We have whittled our way down to a morning and evening nurse (on a good day). We only nurse on my bed. There are days where they will ask for more. There are nights when they will ask for more. It’s a work in progress.
During the day, we go through a list now:
Most of the time we find something on the list that works.
During the night, it is harder. It’s harder to say no at night. They cry and I want them to go right back to sleep and not wake up the rest of the house. I am trying to wait a few minutes before giving in and it is working (sometimes).
I want to completely drop all night waking and nursing first and then move on to the last two feeds. We are so close.
I will be honest, I had no intention of nursing beyond three. Hosanna had so many allergies and needed the comfort when she woke with itchy eczema feet and ankles that it just worked for us. It was easier to nurse and go back to sleep. Well, with twins… what one wants, the other expects.
I am just spent, done, ready to quit, but I have learned from past nursing experiences (3 older boys) that FOR ME dropping the feeds slowly and making the experience end well is what I really want. I don’t want to quit in frustration (which I totally have been tempted to do MANY times over the last little while).
I want the end that I had with Malachi. It was a gentle wean and one day I realized it was over and it was okay. Malachi and I nursed through many changes and transitions in our family and it worked really well for us. He nursed until around his third birthday. I remember sitting on his bed one day trying to remember the last time we had nursed and then I realized it was over, but it was okay.
I also think about if the twins will be our last babies (yes, I know they are not babies any more, humor me). I am nearing 40. Elisha keeps reminding me that I will be 40 in the year he turns 13. Oh, isn’t that lovely! It makes me feel a little old to realize that next year I will have a teenager. Where did the time go? So, I have been thinking about the twins possibly being our last babies and while I am tired and only just now getting my brain back, I am a wee bit sad.
Babies are so much fun. They bring life and energy to any home, but they are also a ton of work and wrought with sleepless nights. I would love to have more babes, but that is not up to me, it’s up to God.
Back to the article that Meg wrote on her blog. I loved it. I also wanted to offer hope. She mentioned that she was recently diagnosed with PCOS. I was diagnosed with PCOS a very long time ago (I was in my late teens) and we have had 5 beautiful babies. We have also had 3 very emotional miscarriages. I don’t know if the miscarriages are related to the PCOS or not, but it is not the doctor or the diagnoses that decides if you have more babes or not. Just keep that in mind.
I would love to hear your breastfeeding/weaning stories if you want to share them in the comments or leave a link to blog posts you have written.
Honey
We have been playing with the blog this weekend in the hopes of making things better. Along with renovations there often comes a bit of a mess (okay, big mess).
We are trying out new plugins and attempting to attached graphics, featured images, categories, and tags to all 1438 posts from the last 7 years (that doesn’t count all the posts on draft, don’t ask).
We are trying to make things easier for you, honestly. If you have a few moments, I would love for you to come to the site and have a look around.
We are so thankful for our readers, all of you. It has been so exciting connecting and building new friendships over the past few years. We look forward to continuing to grow in those relationships and make new ones as we move forward. Thank you for continuing to visit Sunflower Schoolhouse.
If you notice anything odd or out of place, please let us know.
Honey
I have not done a workbox post for a very long time. Too long. We are easing in to a new way of doing workboxes and I have not figured it all out yet. What I can tell you is that the kids have crates now. The bottom shelf is missing from the picture above (it contains my mama crate and Zion’s crate).
Right now the crates are acting as a storage bin for each child’s work, but I want them to be so much more. I am scouring through the Workbox Blogroll to see the ways other mamas are modifying their systems to work for them, hoping for something to truly inspire me.
Here are some mamas who used crates for the workboxes system at least at some point (and some may still be using them):
I am not married to the crates, but I have them and I would like to give them a good try because they fit our space (aka lack of space) nicely. Now that we have taken a little break from the Workbox System and rearranged our main working room a million times, I am ready to revisit workboxes with our family.
And…
I am really excited.
What are you using for your workboxes?
What are you putting in your workboxes?
How are you using workboxes with your special needs children?
Honey
Way back when we had preschoolers before, we explored lapbooks and had loads of fun. Now that we have preschoolers again, I started exploring lapbooks again recently and decided to give it a try with all the kids. (More on those lapbooks in another post).
I had been wanting to explore things that would be more fun and incorporate the different learning styles of all the kids. I thought the big kids might be ready for notebooking, but there is still too much writing, so I opted to try the lapbooks again.
My kids absorb information from videos, books, and through discussion, but they have a hard time showing what they know. Enter lapbooking. I thought lapbooking would be a great way to include all of the kids at whatever level they are at.
I made it as easy as possible. I cut out the papers. I even wrote on the papers (I figured we could ease into them doing the writing, eventually). All they had to do was discuss and then glue. Wouldn’t you know it, my 11 year old (Elisha – with autism) doesn’t like gluing either? Well, he did it after a bit of prodding.
Note to self, we need:
I found this series on Lapbooking With Special Needs Kids that I found particularly inspiring. I encourage you to check it out.
You can Lapbook on a Shoestring as this post suggests by providing a ton of resources.
Lapbooking is:
Jimmie (from Jimmie’s Collage and Notebooking Fairy) had this great idea to prepare all the mini books ahead of time. She also has an amazing lapbooking Squidoo Lense that is just loaded with resources and I highly suggest you check out if you are even the slightest bit interested in lapbooking.
Do you use lapbooks or notebooks in your homeschool?
Do you use lapbooks or notebooks with your special needs kids?
Honey
I recently read this article about dysgraphia.
In the past I wrote a list of resources about dysgraphia and I wrote about our struggles with writing and how I thought that Moses might have dysgraphia.
The article that I mentioned earlier about dysgraphia has been up in the tabs of my browser for several days now. I have read it over and over.
What I love most are the “Real World” helps that Kim suggests. She has some really great ideas. While we have tried some of the ideas in the past, there were many new ideas that I am eager to give a go.
The three ideas that stood out the most to me (and there were several more) were:
I am very thankful that I found this blog post before I start thinking seriously about materials for next year.
What adaptations do you make for your homeschool students?
Honey
Honey
What is it with my kids and noses right now? Zion injured his nose recently and I wrote on Facebook about how Malachi stuck a Skittle up his nose.
This morning Hosanna stuck a tiny round lego up her tiny nose.
Zion came into my room and asked me to wipe his nose (we have colds) and then Hosanna came in and asked me to wipe her nose.
As Hosanna was leaving the room, I heard her say, “What about the Lego?” I shot up straight in bed and started freaking. Lego in the nose? Oh please let this be a dream.
Jonah tried the tweezers, but her nose is so tiny that it was next to impossible.
I called my mama because she has experience in dealing with things up noses. No, she didn’t stick anything up her nose, I did. I stuck a crayon up my nose when I was little.
My mama took me to the doctor and the doctor said, “I’m going to plug her nostril and blow in her mouth.” (or something like that). And it worked.
Apparently I didn’t learn because when I got home I told my mama that I stuck another crayon up my nose. She told me it would just have to stay there because she wasn’t going to the doctor again. (to the best of my knowledge I don’t still have a crayon up my nose, so I must have been joking – my poor mama).
Okay, back to Hosanna.
We tried a couple of times with the tweezers and thenI had called my mama. Now it was time to try plugging one nostril and blowing in her mouth. I tried that a couple of times and then Jonah tried the tweezers again. Then in one last ditch effort I tried blowing in her mouth again. And out flies this tiny round Lego covered with boogers and just a tinge of blood (from the tweezers I think).
I called my mama back in relief. I did not want a doctor’s visit this morning…
And I wondered what I would find to blog about today. So what exciting things are happening in your life today?
Honey
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