Homeschooling with a Newborn

Lately I've realized that I am in denial about what school (and everything else) will be like around here when number four comes.  I imagine us peacefully having school while I nurse the baby.  I think I need to be more realistic and allow myself a month or two of doing nothing or just the bare minimum as far as school goes.  I guess this is one of those things where I wont know how it will be until I'm experiencing it.  Does anyone have any multitasking tips as far as homeschooling with a newborn???

Look What We Grew!

Joey and I were just discussing the fact that I use the word "me" when I am selfishly trying to take credit for something that is really "we" and then I use the word "we"  when most of the time it was just all Joey and I selfishly try to take credit for as well.  Hey, I feel like it is a cute endearing quality of mine, I am sure Joey doesn't quite feel the same.  SOOOOOO it should be, "Look what Joey grew!"  He is our master landscaper and is always so good help the kids plant new fruits and vegetables in our garden!  Who knew such a great watermelon could grow in Las Vegas?!  Good job Joey!

We had a really busy school day today.  After Sylvia's dance class Luke and Isabel had a science class with other homeschooled kids at a fellow homeschooler's house.  They learned about classification of animals and had a really good time in the group.  After lunch they worked on their school lists and then had their running class at 3:45.

Tonight for Family Home Evening, Joey had Luke and Isabel pick out a parable to read and talk about from this lovely book, Parables: And Other Teaching Stories by Robert L. Millet and James C. Christensen.  James C. Christensen is usually known for his fantasy paintings and so the pictures in this book are certainly more down to earth compared with his other work, but still have his colorful and graceful style.  After a page of the actual parable from the Bible, Robert L. Millet breaks down the story and clearly describes the meaning.

Echidnas

Last night the boys went to cub scouts and us girls went to a sibling class at the hospital.  A sibling class is to teach children what it might be like with a new baby in the house.  There were just four little girls in the class (including Isabel and Sylvia) about to be big sisters.  The teacher read the book, What Baby Needs by Dr. Sears.  She showed them how to hold their babies (all of the girls had baby dolls) dressed the girls up in nurse and doctor clothes, and took us all on a tour of the hospital.

Joey making an outline for our week has really been helping.  It makes it so easy for me to create a school list each day for Luke and Isabel to do.  One quick story about school today.  I was reading from our science book about how mammals differ from the rest of the animal kingdom and after reading the line that says they don't lay eggs, Luke informed me that some mammals do, like the echidna.  I said, "I don't think that's true."  Sure enough, the very next line explained that some mammals called monotremes lay eggs, such as the echidna and duck billed platypus.  He said he saw it on T.V.  ....thanks T.V.!