Options Homeschool Picnic

It was somewhat amazing to see how many homeschoolers attend this little one day a week program called Options that our kids have begun going to this year. Technically it's a two day program, but some families go Mondays and some go Fridays. We're on Fridays. The picnic was about getting to know other kids and families who will be attending on the same day before school officially started.

There was a scavenger hunt so the kids could break the ice a little. I was surprised at how quickly all our kids made friends. Even Shane, who had trouble communicating, found a group of boys who wanted to dig in the dirt with him. They began their first classes this past Friday and all the kids came home raving about how much fun they had. Brianna made bubbles and did experiments with them in science and excitedly told us that next week they are making play dough. It's a "CSI" themed science class and she loves it.

Danya is stoked about her journalism class. She says that the name she came up with for the school paper was the most popular one and will probably be chosen as the official name. She spent this weekend on the kids' computer downstairs working on articles to submit next week. Meanwhile Gloria loves snap circuits and her drama class. Apparently P.E. was also a hit with everyone except Danya. She said her class is mostly calisthenics. She's got it rough because she's been put in with much older kids and she is one of the smallest in the class. Her choir class was apparently very fun. Danya keeps singing songs from her warm up music. It's jazz music, so I've been talking to her about how notes are stressed differently in jazz.

I was worried about how Shane would do in his first all day Kindergarten class, but he seems to have done well. The assistant teacher fell in love with him and came outside after school to tell me how adorable he is. He really is a charmer. And it sounds like this program for homeschooled kids is going to work out for our family. One really nice benefit is that Kevin and I now have a one-on-one learning time. He worked on adding and subtracting clothes pins and we played games with finding and counting chalk shapes outside on the side walk. We also got to read lots of books at the library. Katie thought it was great, too.

African Masks: Elliott Style

We were reading about African dynasties that flourished just South of the Sahara in our Story of the World book recently. The girls had fun creating their own "African Masks" but I think I made a mistake by not showing them pictures of African masks ahead of time. They made what amounted to cute little animal puppets with fringe. I'd like to take them to the Denver Art Museum to see if they have some authentic masks so the girls could get a better idea of what we were talking about. It just isn't the same looking at a picture.

Absolutely Beautiful

My friend Glenda's daughter, Liliana, is so beautiful. She makes the sweetest little shy expressions. Now that she's getting older she also speaks in an adorable little voice. She's just such a little lady. With so many brothers you'd think she'd be more rough and tumble. She can climb a rock wall with the best of them, and then quickly turn around and play house with my daughter, Gloria. She's the kind of little girl that everyone loves to watch in movies. I can't wait to see what she's like as she grows into a young woman.

The Next Generation of Friends

Christina, Glenda, and I have been friends since just before our Senior year in high school. Over the years we've seen each other get married and start families, change jobs and homes, and even prayed for Christina's husband as he went off to war multiple times. I hate that I don't get to see them as often as I'd like since we live so far apart. It will be worse now since Christina is moving to Virginia at the end of this month.

This past week in Oklahoma we were able to spend Monday with both families and say goodbye to Christina and the kids. We went out to eat at McAlister's which has become our traditional spot over the past few years. It's right next to Strickland park so we can walk over to play there after lunch. Seeing the kids play together is so much fun now that they are all getting older. The girls were pretending that they went to McDonald's and Hope was the cook. The boys were showing off how high they could climb. Shane and Qorban both made it to the top of the rock wall. Poor Kevin got stuck climbing some bars and ended up hanging by his elbows and yelling for help. Danya just followed little Christopher around as he toddled and crawled up and down the ramps.

The rest of the week we had opportunities to go to the library and the park with Glenda's family. She also let us check out some kids' bible videos she has and the workbooks that go along with them. Daniel and I are considering getting some of them next year as part of the kids' bible curriculum, but we aren't sure yet.

A Week with Grandparents

The trip to Oklahoma with just me and the kids went fairly well. We had a few crazy days, like Shane regressing on potty training at the worst possible moments and Kevin tearing up Grandpa's garden and throwing the dirt in Brianna's face just when we were trying to load up to leave.

Overall, though, it was a lot of fun. We were able to see friends and family and enjoy some small town fun. We took trips to the park, swam in the lake, enjoyed library story hour, had a girls' night out, went to church, and had breakfast at the school so that we could see Grandma working in the lunch room. We even got to take a tour of the schools where Grandpa works as head of maintenance and see all the projects he's working on and those he's recently completed. Despite running out of pull ups, missing my turn onto I-70 and driving a couple hours out of my way, and Brianna getting hit in the head with a wooden swing that she fell out of, it was a good week.

Half a Decade

We celebrated Shane's 5th birthday with a big party this year. It was his first birthday with us, so we did it up right. We rented a bounce house and hired "Mr. Ron the Magic Man" (my trombonist friend from church) to do a magic show and balloon animals for the kids. He even researched online how to make Spiderman out of balloons. Shane was ecstatic. The party went well. The rain stopped just in time. Shane especially enjoyed his Spiderman cupcakes. Overall, I'd say it was a birthday party to remember.

Adams County Fair

We got discount tickets to the Adams County Fair and a TON of free food tickets, so Daniel and I took the older kids while Sarah babysat the younger ones for us. It was a beautiful night. We ran into a friend of Gloria's and her family. We let them take Gloria with them for an hour or so. She felt so grown up being off without us. Daniel and I were both sad about saying goodbye to Miss Lady and Thumbelina, so we kept finding fun things to do just before they went home. We rode almost everything at the fair. The worst one the kids talked me into was one of those rides that lifts you straight up into the air and then plunges to the ground. Never again. Not ever. Seriously.

Sunday School Teachers

Since the children's church leaders recently announced that they were in need of some new Sunday school teachers for the 3 & 4 year olds' class, Daniel and I volunteered. We figure since two of the approximately 14-20 kids in the class belong to us, we were sort of obligated to help. So now on the second Sunday of each month, instead of playing in the band, Daniel and I teach Shane and Kevin's class. We've only done it once so far, but it was fun. Shane and Kevin really seem to enjoy having us there.

Old Thrills

We finally took the kids to Lakeside. We've been meaning to go for almost three years now. It's sort of an icon here in Denver. The rides are ancient, the prices are crazy, but the kids loved it and so did we. It's sort of like a giant version of the fairs that come and go every year, but it's been in the same location for ages. The best two rides in the kiddie section were the Frog Hopper and the roller coaster. In the grown up section we loved the bumper cars. We rode them repeatedly, smashing together and chasing each other in circles. It was great.

Movie Walk

Here's a photo of Daniel and the older girls on are loooong walk to the Cinnebar movie theater to see the Harry Potter movie. We went on the same day that we did the dentist photo shoot. It's a pretty little trail with lots of flowers, giant trees, and too much of steep hill at the end. We had to move fast to make it to the movie on time.

I'm trying to catch up on some of the photos I had prepared for my blog and then never got around to uploading. So there will be several that are out of date. I'm working on photos from July right now. I miss my girls!

Our Brief Modeling Career

I don't know if I've mentioned previously that our family was chosen to be in publicity photos for our dentist's office. They called us up one day and said they wanted to have a professional photographer come out to their office and take photos of some of their patients. Several of the office staff recommended our kids. Probably because we have so many. They offered us a free family portrait and a copy of whichever photo they use. They plan to blow it up to poster size and hang it on the wall of the waiting room.

Normally, we would have had to refuse because of the privacy rules for foster kids. We were in a unique situation, however. By the time the photos were published, none of our four foster children would be in foster care any more. So we were able to get written permission from the dad of two of the girls, and we got approval from the county for Brianna and Shane. The photographer emailed me this group photo so that I could identify each kid in the photo.

They also asked for personal information about the kids' teeth and their experiences with the staff at Small Smiles. I think there's going to be a small bio at the bottom of the poster. I can't wait to see it on the wall.

My Nemesis

The ever present enemy: laundry. It lurks around every corner in my home, ganging up on me, waiting until that moment when I think I've conquered it to surprise me with a hidden pile in the downstairs bathroom or a monstrous stash horded for weeks under Brianna's bed or in the dark recesses of Gloria's closet.

Sometimes, I'm lured to the downstairs bedroom by a strange malodorous smell that I slowly track through the basement, sniffing the air like a hound, until I locate it coming from some exotic new location like the bottom of Danya's toybox, or hidden inside a board game that was roughly tossed into the closet.

On the days when I am completely overwhelmed, rather than surrender, I and my family gather up every single article of clothing of vaguely suspicious cleanliness and outright dirty status and pile it high in the back of the van. Then we haul it off to the laundry mat where we can line it up as if in a firing squad and attack it all at once for the price of some laundry soap and my life savings in quarters. But despite my best efforts, the laundry always wins in the end. For even though I have succeeded in washing it all, we are then too tired to put it away, or there is no room in the drawers. So there it sits, gloating in the laundry baskets, as it slowly transfers from the clean piles into the dirty hampers, reminding me that, when it comes to the war on laundry, the only true winners are the happy people on nudist beaches.

She Likes Carrots

Katie has been trying out quite a variety of new foods lately. Some of her favorites are bread, marinara sauce, and any kind of fruit. She also likes carrots, but they don't seem to agree with her. I'm not too thrilled about the orange diapers.

She's also been working on foods that she can hold and bring to her mouth like biter cookies and graham crackers. She's a good eater. Sometimes she's too good. We have to watch her carefully to make sure she doesn't tear off a piece of whatever she's eating because she might choke on it. She still doesn't even have any teeth yet, but she can gum her food ferociously.

OK or Bust!

I'm taking my courage in my hands and attempting something I've never tried before. Tomorrow morning I will load up all six kids and make the ten hour drive to Daniel's parents' house in Oklahoma. We'll be near Stillwater. Daniel has always been the driver on all of our trips. I don't think I've ever driven longer than about three hours on my own before.

We talked it over and we just can't pass up the opportunity. Although Daniel can't take the time off of work right now, this week is a perfect week for the rest of us to travel. The kids' Friday school (Options) doesn't start until the following week. Neither does AWANA, gymnastics, or Brianna and Shane's new speech, counseling, and OT/PT appointments. Now that we've adopted them, we don't have to get anyone's permission to take them out of the state either.

One more good reason is that the kids' godparents are moving to Virginia soon, and this may be our last chance to see their godmother and her two kids before they go. Finally, it's possible that Daniel's sister, Robin, who is in the hospital eight months pregnant with her eighth child, may have the baby any time now. And it's her birthday, too. And even though I said "finally" I'm going to also tack on the fact that my oldest friend and my sister both have birthdays in September, so I'd like to visit them while I'm there. The kids really want to see their cousins, although, since they don't homeschool, we may not be able to be up where they live at a time when they aren't in school. Anyway, wish me luck on the trip. I'll be praying that I can stay awake and focused for that long!

Recording Keeping & Lesson Planning

This is our 5th year of home schooling. You'd think we'd have it all figured out by now. Actually, the one thing I've learned for sure about home schooling is that every year is different. Why? First, because our kids are all different and what works for one kid at a certain grade level might not work for the next kid. Secondly, I'm still trying new things and seeing what fits our family. It's fun looking back over my old blog posts seeing all the different ways we've kept track our home schooling progress over the past four years. Since we're trying something new this year I thought I'd create a post about it. I know I personally love getting a peek at other mom's lesson plans and record keeping, so here's a glimpse into mine.
If you click on each image you'll see a larger, readable version of our lesson plans. There's one for Danya and Gloria since they share a lot of subjects, one for Brianna, since she's mostly on her own this year, and one for Shane and Kevin. I'm attempting to teach them together even though Shane is older by two years. Kevin is advanced for a three year old. He already knows all but two of his colors (he mixes up pink and purple) and can count to 10 and do simple addition. Shane is working on counting past five and knows some colors. They both know some of their letters and can recognize their names.
The basic concept with these lesson plans that I created is simple. I wanted to have a quick overview I can glance at to see what to work on next in each subject, and I wanted to be able to record when we got it done. So I gathered up all the books and things that I wanted them to work on and put them into these spreadsheets so that I can see the next 20 days worth they'll be doing. Obviously this is not a comprehensive list of everything they will do. I didn't include games, flash cards, videos, or any of the extra things we'll do. I also didn't include a place for independent unassigned reading. This is just the basics. Also, we won't work on every subject every day, so it's not literally the next 20 school days worth of work. I guess if I wanted to I could have made two pages worth of assignments for each kid. I was trying to keep it simple. Now, as we complete each section, I just note the date (or the older kids do) in the box next to the assignment.

We've been using this for about two weeks now. I printed them out and keep them in a small binder. I've got dividers with tabs for each month in it and I hope to add more pages as we complete these. Originally I didn't have a sheet for Shane and Kevin. I didn't think they needed one. Then I realized that they really do have quite a bit of work they do. I also wanted to set aside specific books to read to them and keep track of what we've read. I'm going to do this with library books, too, so that I'll have a record of just how often I'm reading to them. I figure Katie doesn't need a record sheet yet, lol.

The Mini Homeschoolers 11: The "S" Word

Danya and Gloria have added another video to their Mini Homeschoolers series. This one is about the dreaded "s" word: socialization. If the video doesn't work yet, here's the direct link.

Finally Ours

Introducing the new and improved Elliott family (version 6.0) ! We're so happy to finally be able to show pictures of ALL our kids. For the record, Snow White's real name is Brianna and Brother's name is Shane.

This family photo was taken on adoption day right outside the courtroom. We also took pictures with the judge, the caseworkers, and the GAL (kids' attorney). Unfortunately, I didn't get very good photos since I wasn't the one taking them. I've also included a recent photo I took of Brianna and Shane close up. They are some seriously beautiful kids. But then, biased as I am, I think all my kids are pretty cute. I love having some brunettes in the family. Finally, children that look like my side of the family tree! The first thing we did after the adoption was call and leave my mom a message. She agrees that Shane looks a lot like my dad, Clint; dark hair and gorgeous baby blues.

To celebrate we took the kids out to eat and then went swimming in the South Platte River. The kids had a great time and got a nice sunburn. Danya and Gloria had an exciting moment as the current started to pull them away, but Daniel saved the day. Afterwards he said, "I'm pretty sure this activity wouldn't have been approved for foster kids." We're enjoying the freedom we have right now to do whatever we want as a family since we don't have any foster care involvement right now. We're taking a two month break while finishing up our training hours so that we can become a specialized "emergency intake" home.

Since Miss Lady and Thumbelina went home about a week and a half ago Brianna is deciding which room she wants to sleep in. She could be the big sister of the room if she shares Katie's room. She could stay with Gloria. Currently it looks like she's going to move her things into Danya's room. I hope that works out since Danya has been very lonely in her room since Thumbelina left. Gloria is adjusting to the idea of having no one to help her clean her room. I'm just loving the "just us" feeling right now and enjoying the peace and quiet.

American Symbols

One of the things the kids are learning about right now are the symbols of our country. Snow White really picked up quick on the meaning behind the stripes and stars on our flag. I'm also trying to incorporate plenty of craft projects into our school days because it keeps the kids excited to learn and gives them a goal for when the book work part is done.

This time the girls made paper flags and the boys made star mobiles. I think the girls were a little bit jealous of the boys' mobiles. We hung all of their projects up around the house. They really enjoyed showing them to all the caseworkers and other people who've come to visit since then.

Superman turns Three

If Kevin was a foster child instead of our biological child and I had to come up with a nickname for him on my blog I would definitely call him Superman. He loves to sing along with that song on our Kids Bop CD, although he gets the lyrics slightly wrong. He runs around stores and everywhere else singing, "If I go crazy will you keep calling me SUPERMAN!?" And he's constantly informing us that he's "superhuman". Then he tells us to look at his muscles and says, "Yeah. That's cuz I'm really strong."

For his birthday we took him back to the Children's Museum. We had originally intended to have a party at the local outdoor pool, but after trying the place out we didn't feel up to trying to keep multiple 3 year olds safe in that environment. In the end none of his friends were able to come anyway, so it didn't really matter. He really likes the museum and had a great birthday. Some gifts we gave him were a train set, Lincoln Logs, and big dinosaurs. His favorite gift was probably his Speed Racer car. He calls it "Feed Racer", but that's alright.

Yankee Doodle Girl!

Katie was so cute in her Fourth of July outfit. She actually had two different outfits since the one I'd been saving for her for months now was what she wore on July 3rd when we celebrated at Sarah's house. This is the outfit she actually wore on the fourth.

I can't believe she's already 5 months old. She can do so much more. She getting really good with her hands. When she's hungry she can even get some foods into her mouth after a few tries all on her own. For some reason she thinks it's hilarious to bang rattles against her diaper. Best of all, she mimics everyone around her. If we smile, she smiles. When anyone laughs, she giggles and wants to join in whatever the fun is. She's so ticklish, too! When the doctor was examining her for her check up she was giggling on the table. Of course, she stopped smiling when the nurse gave her a shot. But she was back to her happy self again within a few minutes.

Pool Boy

We let Kevin open one of his birthday presents early on the fourth of July. We thought he'd get a kick out of having a little wading pool. What we didn't anticipate was how difficult it would be finding a suitable spot in our yard to set it up. I told Daniel to put it in the front yard first, but the slope was too steep and the water wouldn't stay in. It ended up in the backyard next to a tree, but not before I got some fun photos of the kids playing in it out front.

It's not big enough to actually swim in, but the kids have enjoyed being able to get wet and splash each other on super hot days. Right now it's looking a little green, so I guess I need to send Daniel out this weekend to clean it out. One thing we discovered is that bath toys transition well to use as pool toys!

Fireworks and Friends

We had a great Independence Day this year. We bought way too many fireworks, as usual, and I forgot to take our yearly photo of the entire pile. Our babysitter, Sarah, and her family agreed to let us light our fireworks at their house. Our city has a policy now that you basically can't do any fireworks at all. Sarah lives in Westminster where you can do smaller fireworks. We had our traditional tank wars and races with anything on wheels. All the kids enjoyed the sparklers and smoke bombs. Some of the best ones were these little things called Zips that made a quick zipping sound and took off into the air.

We let each of the kids pick out about $10 worth of fireworks that they didn't have to share with anyone (unless they wanted to) which made their day. We had an interesting time trying to find actual fireworks stands, as opposed to warehouses within city limits. Sarah's dad decided to go all out and turn the evening into a cook out. He grilled up all kinds of delicious things and sliced some fresh watermelon. It was great! We brought our own diet pop and baked chips so that we could stay within our Weight Watcher's points. Sarah's brother and his friends helped our youngest kids light their fireworks since Daniel and I couldn't be everywhere at once. It was a really fun night. The only tough part was that we ended up staying up WAY too late!

New Creations

Danya and Gloria have both given their lives to the Lord. Danya had made a commitment when she was five and was baptized at that time. However, she feels now that she was too young then to fully understand her decision and wanted to rededicate her life to Christ. This was all new for Gloria.

Grandma and Grandpa were able to be here for their baptism, which made it extra special. They were baptized by their TruthQuest pastor, Mike. He said that he could see changes in both their lives and that they were a joy to have in the kids' program. They both wrote a short personal testimony that Pastor Ed read out loud before they were dunked. We're proud of both of them.

3 John 1:4 "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."

Eating her Veggies

Katie is learning to eat baby foods of all kinds. She really loves sweet potatoes but doesn't much care for green beans, peas, or carrots. She'll eat any kind of fruit blend. Katie makes the cutest faces when she first tastes something new.

When we are eating something soft we usually let her have a taste. So far she's gotten excited and actually growled and whined when we paused after feeding her some cheese sauce and also some marinara sauce. I just know she's going to follow after me in loving all sorts of Italian foods.

She also gets to occasionally chew on bread sticks, pizza crusts, and biter biscuits. I'm sure we're breaking all the doctor recommended guidelines but our other kids survived it, so I'm guessing she will, too.

What I'm not so sure about is what I plan to do in regards to her vaccination schedule. My friend, Deanna, took me to a seminar that discusses childhood vaccines, what's in them and how they are made, and also the potential side effects. I was properly shocked and horrified and now I'm concerned about which vaccines I should allow her to receive. At her recent check up I talked it over with the doctor and we're going to spread her vaccines out over a period of weeks instead of letting them give her several all at once. We're also skipping a few. I'm not sure what else we'll do since, as a foster family, we're required to have all our kids' vaccinations up to date.

The Denver Children's Museum

While Daniel's parents were visiting in June we decided to make our very first visit ever to the Denver Children's Museum. Daniel's parents surprised us by offering to gift us with a family membership for the year! We are excited to say the least. We've gone twice more since then and still love it.

The kids really enjoyed getting to dress up and pretend to work in a veterinarian's office, a theater, a supermarket, a diner, and various other places. They especially liked painting, but their absolute favorite area was the construction site. They got to paint a room in a house, build with giant LEGO's, and play with a conveyor belt.