Organizing with Children

Yeegads! My house always looks like a tornado blew through it!!! No matter how much I clean up one room, when I head into the next room, the tornado has touched down again!!! It moves from room to room as I move like a geriatric behind it.

Probably my most difficult hardship as a homeschooling momma is keeping my house clean. I admit - I come from a long line of pack rats who have a hard time throwing anything away. My Gran used to sweep up her driveway using my Grandpa's old license plate as a dust pan...when she'd get a run in her nylons, she'd cut that leg off and wear one leg in the hose and put on a second pair, also a survivor of a run with one missing leg - problem solved - voila! With the excess panty hose, she'd cut them into strips to tie up her boxes with - everything and I mean everything can be reused one way or another!

Well in comes the next generation of pack rats who find a use for everything...a recipe for disaster, among a lot of creativity...

Finally...finally...finally...my husband ran out and bought us some very, very (did I say VERY) cheap bookshelves. $15.00 a pop! Yep, we really splurged. With homeschooling expenses, I just couldn't justify spending more on one bookshelf than on the entire curriculum for next year. They aren't real wood, of course, but they'll do.

And now, my baskets are off the floor...


Everything has it's place...my house appears organized and clean...

And then my babies get up and start to play, discovering a nice clean spot to set up and have some creative free play...

Flashing through the house like little tornadoes from one room to the next...

And next thing I know, my house is an instant mess again...

But creative genius' are at work here...

And now I have my bookshelves...(and more are on the way...)

Something Beautiful to Share

I am so excited, I wanted to post about this gorgeous wool picture lovingly made by a very talented artist in New Zealand. This is her needle felted picture of the wise magician Merlin carrying away the legendary babe, King Arthur, the future king of chivalry and goodness, to safety.

My husband majored in history and is an amazing storyteller. The stories he has shared of the many adventures of King Arthur and Sir Kay, Sir Lancelot, Sir Percival, Sir Galahad, and others have captured the hearts of my two fair maidens. I am so excited that Marie has so beautifully captured the beginning of this amazing story. I presented it to my husband and the girls last night and we are planning on hanging it in their room. They were so excited!

Marie has a wonderful blog where she features many of her beautiful creations and writes lovely poetry and verses to accompany them. She also is having a giveaway, so be sure to enter soon!

She has a lovely etsy shop which can be found here. I have been so enchanted by her beautiful pictures that I had to share it on my blog.

Thank you for sharing your beautiful gifts with us, Marie!

Maths Block II: Gnome Share (Divide)

Last week, I introduced the girls to the character of Gnome Share through an extensive story here. We continued through the week with various exposure to the concept of division. Here is some of what we did that tied into math...

In our first Maths Block, I had several stories going for the qualities of numbers that I thought I would weave number stories into this block. So for the number One, I told the girls the story of "Offerus the Giant" by Jakob Streit found in "The Easter Story Book" (the legend is actually of St. Christopher and is found in many books by various authors. Here is a very short version of it more appropriate for young ones, which takes out the devil section and the section in the end where St. Christopher goes Home to Heaven.) One represents God.

We then went into the living room and Gnome Share revealed his sign in nature.

I showed the girls the chalkboard drawing and read the verse to them. We then drew it in our main lesson books together.

Gnome Share told the story for number 2, which was "The Two Kings' Children" by the Brothers Grimm.

For number 3, he told, "The Three Sons of Fortune" by the Brothers Grimm.

All week we've had fun *sharing* things together. For the first exercise, I took the basket of eggs we painted and counted out 12 of them in one basket. I presented two empty baskets next to it as follows:

I told Elena that I'd like her to count the eggs and then divide them evenly so that she and her sister would have an equal amount.

She loved this! I then made up a story of some squirrels who were hungry and gathered around her, hoping she would share some nuts. So she worked within the confines of the story and was dividing them equally among the squirrels. I then would increase or decrease the number of squirrels so that she could see that 24 divided by 4 equals 6 and 24 divided by 6 equals 4. Or 24 divided by 2 equals 12, etc.

Then Charley finished what she had been working on and came to try, too.

I started her with the 12 eggs divided into two baskets, then told her I wanted some eggs, too - so she divided 12 by 3. And then Daddy wanted some eggs, as well so she divided 12 by 4.

They had so much fun with this and started to see some patterns. I wrote down the equations on a dry erase board. And we made a second MLB drawing to represent our equations.

We also worked with bean bags and rhythms. We were counting by two's and passing our bean bag to the next person on the 2's and then jazzed it up by alternating the bean bag from hand to hand while passing on the 2's. That was a bit of a challenge for them as it involves the thinking and the movement on the appropriate number. I wrote down the numbers on a board so they could see a pattern.

2, 4, 6, 8, 10

12, 14, 16, 18, 20

22, 24, 26, 28, 30

32, 34, 36, 38, 40

etc...

When they could see the pattern emerging, they could count by 2's up to 144 (and then they kept going even though we're focusing up to 144)...

This week, we'll be meeting the next process gnome...

Friday Book Review: Wild Child by Lynn Plourde

This week's review is for a fun spirited and moving book that every mother can relate to. It is perfect right now for the Southern Hemisphere as it is a book about autumn. The book is called, "Wild Child" by Lynn Plourde.

It is a fairly simple book about Mother Earth attempting to put her Wild Child to bed. The child, of course, refuses by trying to draw out the time, asking for a song first, then a snack (chestnuts, pumpkins, apples, etc), then pajamas, and then finally a loving kiss. The words are vibrant and expressive, popping off the page with a lovely crackle! The illustrations take us through the orangish/reddish/yellowish colors and scenes of fall and when the Wild Child finally goes to sleep, she is gently covered by a soft blanket of white snow. Her mother lovingly says,

"Only sleep for a while,

for I shall miss my wild child,

my wild child called Autumn."

Mother Earth finally rests her own head, but just for a moment - before her next child, Winter, is wide awake, bouncing on her bed because he "can't sleep!"

How lovely! The finishing touch to this book just spoke so beautifully to the depth of motherhood; whether it's *Mother Nature* or Mothers of Earthly children. It is that gentle call (or screaming cry) in the middle of the night or just when we lay down to nap ourselves and then our little ones need us. We rush to their aid without a giving it a second thought. Our exhaustion is pushed aside to tend to our precious offspring.

This book is very sweet and a perfect read as late fall transitions to winter. As of this book review, this book is available at Amazon as part of their 4 for 3 promotion (buy four books marked with this promotion and get the lowest priced one for free). I've seen it available elsewhere, but not for this nice price!

It is a lovely read for preschool on up with gentle imagery and a dreamy storyline. Nice for bedtime reading, as well. It gets lovely reviews and I think it well deserves them!

My First Giveaway: And the Winners Are...

Mother Nature and Mother Earth

Oh this was SO much fun! My two helpers couldn't wait to do the drawing :D Charley closed her eyes and reached into the bucket to draw the first name for Mother Earth...

And the winner of the Mother Earth Doll is...

PATZI!!!!!

Patzi said: "Wow they are so pretty. I wish I could do so pretty ones. I think both are adorable, I would love either one of them."

And Elena pulled the name of the next winner...

And the winner of the wild Mother Nature Doll is...

GREMLINA!!!!!

Gremlina said: "so cute! I'd love to win. & I'd like Mother Nature too. Congratulations on your shop. giving things away is fun (getting not so bad either ;) )"

Gremlina has two lovely blogs open to readers:

~ http://turtlestostart.blogspot.com/
~ http://roundhousefarm.blogspot.com/

And she has a gorgeous vintage etsy shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/gremlina

Congratulations Patzi and Gremlina! Please email your addresses to my shop email (ancienthearth@yahoo.com) and I will ship off your prizes! These lovely Mommas can't wait to go home!

This was so much fun that we'll be hosting another giveaway soon so check back again! And thank you to all who entered! I loved reading your comments! Here's the original link to the giveaway.

Friday's Book Review will be posted a little later on today!

Love, light, and blessings to you all!