This last week Reagan turned the big 9. Just one more year of single digits! Yikes!
Reagan has become very interested in wilderness survival and would love to live outside if he could. He loves to fish, wants to live in a tree and cook his own food by fire. To his extreme frustration, we are not ready to turn him lose in the great outdoors alone quiet yet. But we decided to help him along his path to independence by getting him a compass and this…
Since his birthday a week ago, he has spent every spare minute carving/sharpening swords and spears and daggers in the back yard. Now, to my chagrin, we have a whole arsenal of weapons and are ready for Armageddon itself.
He had to dress in his Halloween costume to show off his first creation. 
Direct quote; “I’m so excited I actually carved a double tooth dagger! This could really hurt someone!”
Oh, great. This was one of those moments where I thought, “Why couldn’t I have been given 3 girls instead.” So I’m trying not to freak out about all those sharp ‘accidents waiting to happen’ now piling up in our garage, but I am. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not one of those mothers who won’t let her children play with guns. I think taking guns and that kind of play away from them would just serve to emasculate our society. But I’m having a hard time with this one. Not so much that I’m afraid Reagan will use them wrong, but that one of his brothers might. Rock insists that having a whole garage full of weapons is no big deal. So I’d like to take a survey. Who thinks I should make him get rid of at least most of the daggers, scythes and swords he has made and who thinks I’m being paranoid???
More Fun with Grandma and Grandpa
Cade and Grandpa have something in common. They both love birds of prey. So we’ve been saving our trip to the Raptor Trust, a refuge for injured raptors, for when Grandpa came to visit. I don’t know who was more excited, Grandpa or Cade. Actually we all were amazed at the beauty and majesty of these amazing birds.
The Bald Eagle 
These birds were HUGE! I forget how truly massive they are. 
Cade finally gets to see a Peregrine Falcon 
The Golden Eagle
The cages prevented many good pictures, but we saw Red Tailed Hawks, Snowy Owls, Great Horned Owls, Vultures and many other kinds of birds at very close range. The Raptor Trust really is a very special place. Nowhere else can you get that close to these majestic birds.
One last peek at the Bald Eagle before it was time to go.
We really packed in as much as we could with G&G. We also went to see George Washington’s winter headquarters in Morristown, NJ.
Washington’s Office
Washington’s room
For those of you who have been to Mount Vernon, this isn’t very exciting, I’m sure. But we aren’t going to Mount Vernon till the Spring, so this was very cool!
We also spent lots of good quality time at home with G&G 
”What’s that in your ear, Liberty?”
Oooh, look what Grandpa found!
And one last fun one Grandma took of Liberty playing with Dad. 
Happiness is being thrown in the air-this was taken just after.
Come back and see us soon, Grandma and Grandpa!
A Fall Festival
This last week we had more fun visitors. Grandma and Grandpa Hymas came for 4 days. We had the perfect Fall festival while they were here.
In one glorious Fall day we picked apples, went to the pumpkin patch, played in the leaves and made pumpkin cookies.
First, we learned about how pumpkins grow…. 
Then we headed to the pumpkin patch. 
Couldn’t you just eat her up!
”Oooh, what IS that thing?” 
”Maybe I will touch it…”
”Um, could I have some help here?”
”Maybe I’ll just eat it!”
Right as we were trying to take a family picture in the patch, Reagan found this caterpillar and all thought of standing still and posing nice and sweet for mom’s picture went out the window! We took him home and he survived a night in the car (he was forgotten there overnight) and he is now happily crawling around his new jar home. Reagan has a thing for finding caterpillars….every time he keeps one it makes a chrysalis and I insist that it’s dead and he insists that it’s not and 3 weeks later we have a moth or butterfly.
Our family picture never did turn out. Oh well.
“I don’t know about this you guys…”
Next was leaf jumping… 
Yes, those are snow shovels and brooms that you see.
She wasn’t very happy with me… 
She started to warm up though, and we even got a smile eventually. 
And to end our perfect Fall day….pumpkin cookies with Grandma! 
Thanks for making our Pumpkin Day so special, G & G!
M&M’s
We had a fun treat last week when Monica and Mike (Rock’s sister and her husband) came to stay with us while they toured New York City.
Saturday and Sunday we all watched conference together and they were very patient with our loud kids. 
Liberty loves to be read to now and Monica was always willing.
The boys are always willing to have a new wrestling challenge and Mike was the biggest they’ve encountered so far. He was hard to take down! 
We finally made it to the Empire State Building while they were here. 
On the train ride into the city 
We only had to stand in a short line for ESB standards, but it still took a while of weaving back and forth around the building. But Liberty had a good time… 
The view from the top! Looking Uptown. You can see Central Park in the background. 
Wall to Wall buildings for as far as the eye can see. 
For Dad
Looking Downtown 
The Statue of Liberty and New York Harbor
Was it worth it? Mmm, not so much. The top of the Rockefeller Center is better. Then you get to SEE the Empire State building AND a perfect view of Central park. So when you come visit us, go to 30 Rock!!
Everyone else stayed in the city and I took all 4 kids home on the train by myself. I bribed them with Krispy Kremes and a movie and we actually did ok! As I walked onto the train people stared and gawked at us like we were a freak show. And one wide eyed woman even said to me, “Wow, that’s a lot of kids.” lol. I wanted to say, “Oh this is nothing, I have 10 more at home!” 
Haunted House
Many homeschoolers recommend a school schedule of (about) 4 weeks on and 1 week “off” and we are trying that. I want to do more unschooling during those off weeks. No structure, just let the boys follow their curiosities. Last week was our first “off” week and they decided they wanted to decorate our house to the hilt for Halloween. So that’s what we did! Most of our decorations were made by the kids.
We turned our dinning room into a bat cave, 
our living room into a gigantic spider web, 
our kitchen grew a pumpkin patch,
we have ghosts hanging and hiding throughout the house, 
and skeletons to scare you when you come visit. 
We learned all the major bones in the body as we put our skeleton together and also learned about bats and spiders, of course.
We also fit in a spelling test…. 
Pudding Spelling! 
Libby, can you spell MESS?
The boys discovered simple machines too…
Libby learned to cook..
.
Or at least to look the part. She pulls this apron out of the drawer at least once a day and drapes it all over herself. 
She especially likes to use Libby’s brand pumpkin in her recipes and walks around the house with it all the time…
The boys practiced their karate moves. 
And they are learning to multi-task.
We spend a LOT of time at the library now and every time we walk out it’s a very slow process…..
Overall all it was a very busy, successful week!
A Progress Report
Four weeks into school, here’s how we’re doing!
Cade is my independent learner. He learns quickly and easily and doesn’t put up a fight. He wants me to tell him what to do and then get out of his way so he can work on his own. He goes well above and beyond on most things. He wants to finish the whole spelling book as fast as he can, do all the hard math problems and last week he started writing his own “math” book to teach Reagan negative numbers. He revels in difficult things and doesn’t worry too much about his mistakes because he knows he can just keep trying. His lessons go pretty darn quick and his work does too. This week he learned the 11th and 12th Article of Faith. The kid is a master at memorization. In math I started him in Saxon 2 and that lasted for about 2 days and I skipped him up to 3. He still needs more challenge than he’s getting so he’ll be doing lots of Kahn Academy I think! Also this week he taught himself all the songs Reagan has been learning to play in piano.
Reagan is a more dependent learner.
In fact you could just take everything I just said about Cade and plug in the opposite. He would like me to sit with him to do all his work, even work he can do without me. The first words out of his mouth are often, “I can’t!” even though he is perfectly capable of doing most things. But he’s a perfectionist first born, so failure scares him. He looks for ways to do as little work as possible if it involves writing. There’s often some point at which he is scowling during every lesson. But he forgets and forgives pretty easily and within a few minutes bounces back. Everything is drama with Reagan. And nothing is ever easy. He LOVES science and history and would do those all day long if he could. He has fallen in love with reading and books on tape and actually looks forward to quiet time for the first time in his life because it means he gets to do one of those two things (or play with LEGO’s, still his biggest love). He is a mover. If he can move during any lesson, all the better. I still make him sit still for some things (just so he doesn’t forget how!) but for the most part I let him wiggle and squirm and run and jump as long as he can answer my questions. I’m trying to find as many ways as I can to make the lessons physical in nature. It is hard for me to let go of the control factor of having them sit still all the time, but that is left over from my school teacher days and when it’s just him and I in a math lesson, who cares!
Levi is learning his letters and numbers. When the big boys are doing their independent work, I work with Levi. He also likes to learn the poems the big boys are learning and if you ask him to, he’ll recite “Six ‘Wittle’ Fishies” for you. He still adores Libby and runs in to see her when I get her up from sleeping like it’s been weeks since he’s seen her. And she always gets a big smile on her face when he comes in. It warms my heart and their little “reunions” are often my favorite part of the day. He always prefers playing with Liberty to playing by himself, though much of the time now his play causes her to shriek more.
Liberty learned to walk this week. I know I said that a few weeks ago, but it wasn’t until this week that it clicked. Now she gets up and toddles wherever she can. If she falls, she just sticks that bum back in the air and hoists herself back up to standing and keeps going. She loves to put on shoes and coats or clothes of any kind. She even pulls down the dish towel and tries to drape it over herself. She’s very much a girl. And I finally can pull her hair back in a way that she doesn’t pull out constantly! Liberty just yesterday for the first time sat in my lap without moving for a whole reading of “Goodnight Moon”.
An Apple a Day
Four weeks into school and I’m not ready to throw in the towel! Hurray for us! We’ve had lots of ups and downs, and I won’t say it’s been easy, but I didn’t sign up for easy, so that’s ok! The first two weeks were great and things seemed to flow pretty well. Then last week everything came to a screeching halt-literally. Liberty was teething and screeched all day every day. It was Very hard to do school with all the hollering… hers and mine! And this week she just decided she wanted more attention and screeched about that instead. She has always been content to crawl around and explore and has been a happy independent baby. But now that she sees others getting lots of attention I think she decided she wanted her share. We had a really rough week because her noise made it impossible for me to concentrate while working with the others and I was grouchier with them which made them grouchier with each other. Unfortunately it’s true-If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy (and no one can learn anything either!)
This week we finally figured out the right timing for her and the boys. While I do a subject with one, the other boy plays with Liberty. She had a blast crawling all over the house, something she doesn’t usually get to do. But with a brother trailing behind her she can climb the big stairs and play in some of the bedrooms upstairs. She loved the freedom and was happy as a clam. And the big brother got one on one time with Libby which is hard to come by with other brothers vying for her attention. Everybody wins! We also do quiet time later so as to do more of our joint subjects like history and science while she’s napping.
This week’s field trip: Apple Picking!
We learned all about how apples grow and then we headed to the orchard. We had a big rainstorm the night before and as we drove to the orchard, I told the boys there would probably be a lot of puddles. Reagan’s response was, “Cool!” and then Cade said, “Coool!” and then Levi said, “Cooool!”. (I hadn’t really meant it to be good news, but boys will be boys I guess. ) 
We went home and had apples and apple dip and apple cider for lunch! Yummy! The boys decided they want to make this a yearly tradition and I agree!
Short n Sweet 