Who Knew?

We've decided to slow things down to a crawl this week with our home-schooling. My original plan had been to begin everything right after Labor Day, but I got pressured into starting early...... my kids just got too excited by all the piles of books, workbooks, etc. that had taken over my dining room table and den floor. While we had a great first week, I just never felt like I had a good plan in place...... we were just a little too loose for my type-A-control-freak liking. So for the past couple of days, we've done the bare bones: math, some grammar, Bible, and our Little House read-aloud time. For the remainder of the time, the kids could do pretty much what they wanted (within reason) as long as it didn't involve a screen (no TV, computer, or Nintendo) and as long as they didn't interrupt my working (unless someone was "bleeding from the ears") on organizing the rest of our school year. I am slowly but surely beginning to feel like I've got what I hope will be a flexible road map that we can follow. Flexible, because I love where those "detours" can take us, too. Take today, for instance........

Maggie asked if they could make Play-Doh to use while I was working this afternoon. The four of them organized all the ingredients, so all I had to do was supervise the boiling water and then mix the dough while it was still too hot for them to touch. They spread out wax paper, colored their portion of dough, and then had a blast playing for the next hour or so at the kitchen table. But because something has changed in the way my brain works now, I just HAD to do a little research to make even Play-Doh time a "teachable moment." Here's what we learned..........

The McVicker family owned a business that made soap and wallpaper cleaner. (Stick with me.... it gets better) One of the sons, Joe McVicker recognized the potential of the cleaner as a toy and removed the detergents. He and his uncle, Noah, applied for a patent in 1955 and formed their own company, Rainbow Crafts. After naming the product Play-doh, the two men tested it in select schools and began selling it. The first Play-Doh was off-white and sold in 1 1/2 pound cans, but in 1957, they introduced three more colors (yellow, red, and blue) and made smaller containers available. Unable to afford a national marketing campaign, Rainbow Crafts formed an informal deal with Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo) to have Play-Doh featured on his show twice a week. In return, Bob's production company received a 2% cut of Play-Doh sales. Joe McVicker became a millionaire before his 27th birthday. Play-doh can now be found in more than 6000 retail outlets in the U.S., as well as 75 other countries and online markets. Factories in China make more than 95 million cans of Play-Doh a year!

I know first-hand that FBC, Tuscaloosa, AL, was a big consumer from 1967-1969. I know this because I was a big consumer...... literally. I ate more Play-Doh during those pre-school years than one could possibly imagine. I liked the salty taste. And I loved to wash it down with my Orange Hi-C...... but that's a story for another day. Here are a few pics of my kids enjoying their Play-Doh time today:

They're all laughing..... and had no idea I was taking a picture. Love that.

Reese DID know I was taking this one. He wanted me to document his "bowling."

"Strike!" (wonder if ate any of the pins when he was done?)

Little House in a Big Mess

I'm sitting here looking around my den and it's a big ol' wreck. A blanket where the kids ate snacks tonight is still spread out on the floor. Piles of books, notebooks, and papers are surrounding my chair. Laundry needing to be folded and put away is piled in a chair. And that's just the den. But you know what? I'm more at peace tonight than I've been in a long time and all of that "disorder" is just not bugging me at all right now.

After much prayer and many, many conversations last year, Lee and I decided to bring all four of the kids home for school this year. In too many ways to mention, God began to confirm that decision on almost a daily basis. Because of that, there has honestly not been a lot of stress around here as we moved toward the start of school. MY plan was to squeeze every last drop that we could out of summer and worry about school after Labor Day. (Hey, it worked fine for me as a child) But my kids had a different plan. The more books, notebooks, and school supplies that I bought to have ready for September, the more excited they became about diving in. They literally begged me to "please start teaching" them this past Monday morning. I mean, how do you say no to that? I wasn't anywhere near organized enough to do anything structured, so we called that first day a Teacher Work Day and after breakfast we just sat around the kitchen table and talked about the year ahead. I made lists of what the four of them wanted to do this year and we brainstormed some ways we could incorporate some of those things into the things that we HAD to cover. We planned what time we would get started every morning (and based on that, we set a reasonable bedtime). We talked about what a typical day would look like and then talked about how much we all wanted to have NON-typical days, too. The kids came up with field trips they'd like to take and service projects they'd like to do. If we get to do half of them, we're going to have a busy school year!

One thing that I really wanted to make part of our school time, was to read the Little House series together...... 9 books over the course of 9 months. I knew my girls would love the stories, but wondered what my boys would think. Well, Tuesday after we'd finished with our class work, we all sat in the den for me to read to them. First, I told them a few things about Laura Ingalls Wilder. It still amazes me that she didn't have her first LH book published until she was 65 years old! I read the first chapter and they all loved it. When I got to the part where "Pa" built a smoke-house out of a log and used hickory chips to smoke the meat he'd butchered, the boys were hooked. Fast-forward a few hours and we're all in Wal-Mart grabbing a few things for supper. As we walked past the meat/cheese section, the kids were SO excited to read "Hickory Smoked" on a package of bacon. They knew the process involved in making it that way. So, of course, we had to buy some for breakfast the next morning. Later that night, when I got home from a meeting, the boys couldn't wait to tell me that they'd been watching the TV show "How Do They Do It?" and it was on making a smoke-house. I mean, come on, what are the chances?

So, there you have it. 3 days in, home-educating our kids was definitely the right choice for us for now. Life is good, even if the house is messy. Now, I'm off to clean up the kitchen....... we made butter tonight! (Just call me "Ma"...... no...... don't.)