Nikki got to join her younger siblings for more card-making this morning before breakfast while Ben talked to his mom on the phone. Then we all enjoyed our traditional biscuits and gravy together. Yum yum!

If you’d like to see a four-minute video of the three older kids talking about the cards they made, you can click this link: Mother’s Day cards 2012 video

May all you mothers of young ones receive some handmade goodness and hugs, and may those of you with children grown and off on their own enjoy those phone calls today.

Happy Mother’s Day!

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All four children are enrolled in music lessons: group classes for the two youngest and private lessons for the two oldest, who practice at home six days a week, immediately after breakfast. We have chosen music as a cornerstone of our homeschool because it’s an enjoyable way to learn many real-life skills. Also, as with any language, learning it while young is easier than picking it up when older.

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This video is from one of Michael’s recent practice sessions. He knows two rhythms, and he makes up his own fills as part of his official practice time. His freestyle playing is terrific with lots of loud singing, but that is difficult to catch on video since he usually changes what he’s doing when I come in the room. I did catch a video of him working on his rhythms. His goal right now is to play rhythm 1 and rhythm 2 three times in a row each.

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Nikki is preparing for her second AMEB exam (level one) later this year. This video shows her practicing the first, second, and fourth pages of an Allegro by Vivaldi. Although Nikki hadn’t played the second or fourth pages for a couple weeks after her teacher asked her to concentrate on getting the first page right, she clearly wanted to perform a little extra for the video!

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As well as music, Nikki also reads words well, often holding a captive audience of younger siblings while I feed David. When I heard her singing a book, I had to take a video. Here is Nikki singing a page or so of Richard Scarry’s What Do People Do All Day?

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After a break during the upheaval of the past few months, Nikki is now back to her computer math lessons. She has recently added language arts, also through Stanford’s EPGY open enrollment program. Currently she spends twenty minutes on each type of lesson, three days a week, and she is just beginning grade level two in the system.

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The only other thing I add are what I think of as mini-lectures – a bit of extra information I spout off about any current topic of interest the kids mention. Almost always these mini-lectures take place at mealtimes after someone makes a joke that underscores a deeper truth, or in order to explain a choice one of the children is questioning such as why we don’t watch TV or eat (much) sugar. I also use these to confront fears. We often talk about wolves and lions and Satan and demons and spiders and fires. Table manners, parts of speech and better ways to say things are incorporated, and I also love introducing my kids to big words like “sphygmomanometer” and “onomatopoeia“. I’ll only talk as long as I’m holding the kids’ attention, but usually they are quite rapt (since they brought the topic up) and/or they have their mouths full. :)

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We finished studying Training Hearts, Teaching Minds: Family Devotions Based on the Shorter Catechism
earlier this year and began In His Hands, a nature-based devotional highlighting some amazing creatures and feats of nature. We also continue to memorize 8-12 verses from the Psalms each month. This month we’re working on Psalm 3. Ben also reads a section from an awesome chronological Bible each night to the kids before he tucks them in bed. Our whole family benefits from studying God’s word the first thing each morning and right before bed.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers.

— 1 —

Our neighbour is pouring cement for his foundation today.

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I am thankful that my blog remains hacker-free after a programmer cleaned it up. These attacks are automated, but a Google search indicates the vulnerability may have come from a WordPress photo plugin called “TimThumb”. Consider this a public service announcement to go through and delete any inactive plugins on your WordPress site, and particularly TimThumb if at all possible.

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The silver lining in losing almost all my readership is that I am even more thankful for those of you who have stuck with me! I’m excited to see a few new faces around here as well. Welcome!

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Ben went to a corporate-sponsored luncheon yesterday and brought home his complimentary chocolate bar for me. Yum!

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Speaking of treats, Michael earned a new pair of sunglasses by filling a sticker chart – one sticker for each night he kept his bed dry. He got off to a slow start with it, but as he got closer to his reward, the number of dry nights increased in frequency. Unfortunately, now that he has his sunglasses, it’s once again too much trouble to get up to pee in the night. Not sure where to go from here…

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Owning a smartphone has opened up an easy new way of posting candid photos of my kids on Twitter via Instagram. An added bonus is my kids’ renewed interest in having video taken… especially when they get to see the results straightaway!

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On that note, I will leave you with this video I caught of Nikki, Michael, and Vi playing and singing their favourite song, Tim Hughes’ “O Happy Day!”

Enjoy your weekend!
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary.

Evening entertainment requires ingenuity, patience, perseverance, and a sense of humor. It motivates us to prep the kids’ bedroom to accomodate a new sleeper. Ben and I also appreciate and value our alone time together all the more when we’re kid-free in the evenings again.

At the same time, having done this three times before, we realise one-on-one (and especially two-on-one!) time with our youngest, doing what he enjoys best, is both precious and fleeting.

This short video shows the fun David has throwing and crawling after an Aussie rules football while Ben and I sit back and watch. You may notice that David crawls with one leg up like Nikki did at this age. He also has his own unique excited noise.

All of a sudden, the three older kids started shouting excitedly. David is crawling!

David “goes the road” on his back these days, as you can see in the accompanying video!

You can view the video by clicking here: http://youtu.be/W0me_pxR0zw