Forever My Daughters You’ll Be

I always love to see pictures of a father with his daughter(s)…especially when it comes to my  husband with our girls.  Please indulge me in a proud wife/momma moment.

Communion Blessings

Thank you all for the beautiful prayers.  It was a lovely spring day and a very beautiful ceremony.   

We’re Pros at This…

We’re been through this three times before but each time is special because it’s that child’s first time ever. 

This was our first, Junior, making his 1st communion some 11 years ago.

This was Princess celebrating her 1st communion some 8 years ago.

This was GameBoy receiving his 1st communion some 6 years ago.  I have a better one of him receiving the Holy Eucharist from the priest but I’m still desperately looking for it.

And today, April 30th, my fourth child will make her First Holy Communion.  The dress and veil are hanging safely in the closet.  The practice went like clockwork, her oldest sister is ready to fix the hair and set the veil.  She’s prepared. We’re ready!   

Please remember us in prayer this sacramental day.

Because sometimes…

…you just need to ride a big yellow school bus to school.

The seatbelts were made of rolled-up newspaper taped to the chairs.

Tea Parties

Spring sure seems to bring out the tea parties in mothers and their little girls.

Alice’s pictures and beautiful tea ideas sure have my girls  and I chomping at the bit to go to our annual Little Flowers Tea Party which is coming quickly in May.  The picture above is from our tea party last year.  We have a pro-life baby shower every year at our tea.  The girls bring a baby gift and open it to show their friends.  The gifts are then taken to the local crisis pregnancy center.

And here is Starr with my hat (because she preferred to wear mine) and DQ helping Starr with her gloves (I think they were my gloves too).

The past two years DQ’s godmother has attended our tea party with us. She does not have any girls so this is a special treat for her.  This year Oma will be dressing up with us and sipping tea and eating petit fours that DQ plans on making from her Samantha’s Friendship Fun book.

And, because I just can’t help myself, here is a tea party the two girls had when they were little-bitty.  Tea times have always been a treasured tradition.

Sudbury Modeled Schools

I seriously think this is the wave of the future.  Parents and students a like are way fed-up with standardized testing and ridiculous guidelines for learning…which is something that the child should take control over…not the schools.

"Somewhere between the ages of eleven and fifteen, the average child begins to suffer from an atrophy, the paralysis of curiosity and the suspension of the power to observe.  The trouble I should judge to lie with the schools." – Thomas Edison.

Fairhaven is a school in Maryland whose Sudbury approach is so characteristically similar to the example that home educators have been presenting that, in agreeance with Melissa over at Here in the Bonny Glen—who I tip my hat to for uncovering this school, I can’t help but wonder why parents would pay $6,680 a year for this style education when we offer the same at home for free.  One wonders.  I found this Sudbury-based school with an annual tuition fee of $9,500:  Brooklyn Free School.  Good Grief!  I had to look twice to make sure the word FREE was in their name.

This approach seems to satisfy parents and educators who admire:  Montessori, Unschooling, Waldorf, Independent Learning, Progressive Learning, even Traditional Schools.  It would certainly make many people happy and cut out all the "socialization" worries of those who don’t really know how homeschoolers operate.  The only ones I think it would not satisfy are home schoolers because, afterall, we school at home…once again, for free.

Of course, I must clarify that not all home educators care for this approach to an independent education.  I have many homeschool friends in the local area that like Mr. Dewey’s system just fine.  They believe in a more *traditional* approach.  I welcome any definitions of *traditional*.

I’m tracking the school’s philosophy by reading various articles on it.  Like this blog entry: John Dewey Run Rampant and this one at Washington Post:  Learning on Their Own Terms

"Is Fairhaven even a school? What is a school?

"The question, too, is what is an education?" replied staff member Mark McCaig. "What is an educated individual?"

The answer could lie in the fiction, philosophy and history lining the school’s bookshelves. Or in the way children play on a seesaw, swing, stage or computer when no one is telling them what to do. Or in their own words.

"I judge whether my day is productive by how much I learn, how much I’ve got done, and whether I do something worth doing," said Alison Everett, 17, of Annapolis, a student there for four years."

Modeled after the Sudbury approach to education:

"Students follow no curriculum other than curiosity and whim. Sometimes they seek out a class or workshop, but they are not compelled to take English, geometry or any other subject."

So what is the Sudbury Model, you ask?  Click here:  OK, So You’re Sort of Like…

Make sure to go to this Virtual Tour link to see a regular day at Fairhaven School.  I really could do without the guitarist with spiked hair but, oh well, you see those on the streets and in the supermarket.   They are definitely in the schools.  Another reason homeschoolers enjoy the home-based approach.

While surfing through the pictures, I took notes on what this expensive private school offers and what is offered in my homeschool:

Silent Room for studying and reading (check)

Books throughout the school (check)

Fun Tables Room (hands-on games) (check)

Resource Room (public library and educational center) (check)

The Nook (little people playarea) (check)

Computer Room (check)

Activity Room (check)

Art Room (check)

Chesapeake Room (Dance studio) (check)

Classes Offered (Co-op and private tutors—I can’t help but realize that even the costs of private tutoring comes no where near the flighty fee of $6,680—even after piano lessons, art lessons, Spanish lessons, and English/Math tutoring we’re still $6,000 in the good and we’ve obtained one-on-one tutoring) (check)

Open spaces/Woods (check)

A Labyrinth (have to check into getting one of those)

Narnia/Hobbit Personality Test

HT to:  Bookworm

I loved Bookworm’s self-made mini-examination:  Are You a Hobbit?

I officially declare myself a Hobbit!

Show-and-Tell

The girls wanted to make sure you all saw their smelly, slimey little…I  mean…cute as ‘Dorrie and Nemo’ little fish.

So here they are…

There are few moments so totally awesome and pleasurable in life as catching the first fish of the season…

…and boat riding with Dad. 

I have decided…

I have decided that I much prefer cooking and preparing supper to the clean-up afterwards.

I hadn’t realized how utterly lax I had become in the clean-up area.  The family seems content that I cook at least five nights out of the week.  The children each have their designated dish week and I seldom (if ever) do clean-up anymore.

My oldest daughter cooked yesterday:  a delicious jambalaya with side dishes of corn and string beans.  She even made a lemon cake with vanilla icing.  And we had company over. 

By the time everyone left and I finished the last of the camping wash and folded clothes, everyone else had gone to bed and supper dishes still littered the countertop.  Appreciative of my daughter for having prepared the meal, I decided it would defeat the blessedness of the moment to grumble and complain about the mess; and so I got to work.  It was kind of peaceful doing it all by myself.  I’m usually at the computer late at night.  This was a different pace but pleasantly so. 

Of course, I don’t think I’d enjoy having to do it every night, but once in a blue moon is nice.

Still, it was messy and required lots of scrubbing and washing and pick-up.  I had to unload the dishwasher beforehand and, in a compulsive decision to have all the dishes washed and put away, I ended up doing the supper dishes by hand until the sink sparkled. 

I decided that—for sure—I much prefer to cook and prepare than to clean-up and put-away afterwards.

Making Memories

We are home after a long, wonderful week in the woods with only one little (rather large) bike fall on the second day (you can see it on Starr’s face in some of the camping photos and Easter photos).

Here she is immediately following the fall with Daddy and Big Sis.  Lots of love and kisses (and much first aid ointment) plus a large Easter basket full of princess jewelry, crown, and fancy gloves from her Nanny and LOTS OF BAND-AIDS cleared up a very nasty-looking skin burn by week’s end.

So, you might ask, what does one do when camping for a whole week?

* Lots of bike riding (didn’t get any pictures of this though)

* Fishing

* Playing games (lots of card games)

* Nature Walks (lots of walks)

* Nature Journaling

* Chalk Artwork on the road

* Fishing (lots of fishing)

* Playing on the beach

* Jump rope and hopscotch and hola-hooping

* Paddle boating on the lake

* Sitting around the campfire telling stories and joking around

* Going for boat rides when there is nothing else to do

* Eating (lots of eating)

And the one day it rains:

* coloring

* reading

*working on crossword puzzles

* watching videos in camper

* hide-and-seek in the camper

* napping

* doing Chinese Calligraphy (ink/stone set found in Easter Basket)

* take a trip to town to eat at Diary Queen

* shop at the only store in the whole town

What do you do camping in the woods for a whole week?

You make memories…that’s what a family does.  Go here to see more Spring Camping Pictures.

Then you come home to find that your big brother has another Easter surprise waiting for you.

The fun and togetherness just never ends.