Being at Home

January comes and between illnesses that creep in and the winter chill it truly becomes a month of being at home.  Although we sometimes feel restless and I sometimes realize that it has been days since I have been out of the house we have really learned to love just being together at home.  The blessing of homeschooling during these early years is that the structured school time of workbooks, etc only takes 1 - 2 hours per day.  That truly allows us the rest of the day to play, rest and explore together.

We started piano lessons this past fall and I adore having our home filled with the sound of music throughout the day.  I feel like someone is constantly playing, and honestly there is sometimes fighting about who's turn it is.  Our oldest two sons have started playing duets together, and it is adorable.  Even my husband and I are playing the piano a lot more with the children's new interest.  When someone isn't playing the piano we have been loving to listen to The Maestro Classic Collection.  I love how the classical music goes along with wonderful storylines and how our children do not even realize that they are learning; they are just enjoying beautiful music.  We also recently got a handful of Westco Educational Products musical instruments.  We had been working on learning how to keep a beat and tempos.  They have been a lot of fun for our entire family.

We have been playing lots of games and doing lots of puzzles.  We have moved up from the toddler/kid puzzles of 30-50 pieces to the regular puzzles of 350-500 pieces and although they take all day and a joint effort to complete I love doing them with the kids.  We have been playing Candy Land with army men (since we have lost all of the regular game pieces) and our oldest two sons are both getting very good at playing Chess (as am I, as I never played before teaching the two of them).

There has been a lot of football!  Coming from a gal who NEVER watched sports growing up this has been a big change for me, but I wouldn't have it any way.  We go to Mass on Sunday mornings, get donuts, come home and spend time together in the afternoon and get ready to watch the game.  All of our boys, even Peter our 1 year old loves playing football.  We were sad that the Packers lost in the playoffs, but overall they did a great job this season.

Ryan, who is now 7 spends most of his day reading or "playing army" (or combining his passions by reading about the Army and war history).  He loves to explore nature and be outside.  He and I just finished reading The Swiss Family Robinson together and I am pretty sure that now he just wants to live in a tree house.  We have been limiting electronics and TV time but he loves Popular Mechanics for Kids.  He has the biggest heart and loves helping with his brothers and playing with his dogs.

Connor, who is 5 years old has really grown up this past year.  He has matured so much emotionally and surprises us every day with his compassion for others.  He is our sentimental and appreciative child.  He is always incredibly helpful and loves to learn.  Homeschooling him is a breeze and he since he loves reading so much he directs his own learning so much.

Our Luke, who is 3 1/2 years old is a spunky, emotional, loving pre-schooler.  He loves his momma and for anyone else can be quite a handful at times.  His favorite word is "HUMPH", which he says whenever he just doesn't want to talk about a particular topic.  He loves to cuddle, as he would sit and listen to books being read to him for hours.  Just this past month he came to me to tell me that he wants to learn how to read.  I thought it may be a bit early, but following his lead we started How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (which our two older sons used) and he is on lesson 15 already and doing fantastic!!  He loves to paint and do Dot to Dot Markers which he calls his "ink projects" while his big brothers are "doing school". 

Oh, our dear Peter.  He is now 14 months and a ball of joy, fun and energy.  He is a walking, maybe I should say a running machine.  He is all over the place and so, so, so much fun!  He is babbling all of the time and already says a handful of words, "Mama, Dada, Cup, Ball, Up, Hi, Bye-Bye, This, Uh-oh, Moo (which he responds for ANY animal sound), Go, and probably a few more that I cannot recall right now.  He adores his big brothers, and does such a great job with not needing constant attention.  He will walk around and play while we are doing school working on peg puzzles, driving around cars or trains and more.  He is incredibly cuddly and loving.

We have been going out every now and again for fun field trips to the zoo or museums, but most of all I am just loving this phase of life with these young men and adoring just being at home!