A Baker's Dozen: Daily Life in a Large Family

The Inventor

Enoch (11) has always been mechanically minded. He was the type of toddler than was into everything. He's the type of kid who will expend more engery avoiding something he doesn't want to do, than it would actually involve to do said task. So I suppose I shouldn't be suprised by his latest invention.

By the way, how cool is this triple bunk? I designed it and Chuck built it a few years back. 

Anyway, Enoch rigged up this awesome light-turner-offer so he doesn't have to get out of bed (or argue with his brothers) about turning off the light.

He's had it set up for several weeks.

And it still functions perfectly.

Enoch doesn't fit into the picture of sterotypical good student. But his brain is always active, always thinking of something. I think God has big things in store for this boy.

Survive-O-Pedia {Product Review

The Survive-O-Pedia is our latest product that we are reviewing for Timberdoodle. I knew as soon as I saw this book it would be a hit with my kids. Seriously, what kid doesn't love to read about natural disasters, wild animal attacks and flash mobs?

This books is full of photos, colorful artwork and small digestible chunks of information.

I don't know any kid (or many adults) who don't love this type of book. The topics range from seriously life-saving (how and when to walk on ice and what to do it if you fall in) to slightly less likely disasters such as how to survive the Bermuda Triangle or a gorilla attack.

I can almost guarantee that if you hand this book to your kids...

...you living room will soon look something like this.

{I was given this product free of charge in exchange for an honest review. I have recieved no other compesation. I don't work for Timberdoodle...they haven't offered me a job yet.}

 

The Winner and Edible Cells

The winner of the Lilla Rose give away is Anna who left this comment:

I love the Lilla Rose flexi. I see them on other blogs I follow and I've been wanting to try them out myself!

Anna please email me (bergerondozen@yahoo dot com) and I'll get you in touch with Linda. 

Thank you to everyone who participated!

Don't be fooled by the photos- these were taken over a month ago. It's downright chilly now.

I have done a terrible job of planning activities for school so far this year. It's been bookwork heavy with very few fun projects sprinkled in. I plan to change that. I must change that. 

Here is one of the few fun projects we have done. Making edible cells. I honestly did very little prep, and the younger kids in particular would have learned a whole lot more if I would have planned better, but it was fun and making school and learning fun is an end in itself. 

Adalia, Judah and Tilly are all studying Biology this years so this was a great way to help them remember the parts of a cell. 

The plans for this are here on the blog Spell Outloud. A great little blog if you are looking for some hands on projects or unit studies.

What are you up to these days? Please, inspire me. I need it.

 

The Seventh Week

Instagram photo taken on my iPhone

An off hand comment by a friend this summer led me to decide to try something new this school year. Six weeks of school and one week "off". I put off in parentheses because it isn't exactly vacation week. It's a week to catch up on all those projects that get left undone during the school year, a week to re-evaluate how things are going and make changes as neccessary and a week to make six weeks worth of copies, weekly schedules and request books for our upcoming projects. 

Yesterday was day one of our first Seventh Week. We did a thourough cleaning of the living room (move furniture, vacuum cushions, return everything to where it belongs, etc). Tilly scrubbed our dining room floor, Adalia scrubbed our kitched floor and Enoch and I scrubbed the fridge (inside and out). 

Today we will tackle our utility closet, entryway and game closet. I also plan to start making copies for our next six weeks. One thing I can tell you is once again my little ones have been getting the short end of the stick when it comes to school time. I plan to have more projects and activities for them these next six weeks...maybe even a day or two a week dedicated to helping them. The older kids have been begging for more unit studies, so hopefully I will have time to get a bit organized in that department too.

I also hope to have a day or two of fun at the end of our Seventh Week with a special activity or two.

Any hot tips for you fellow homeschooling (or not homeschooling) moms?

House Swap or: the Large Family in an Average House

Our house is 2,900 square feet. A nice size house. No matter how you look at it however, it requires some creativity to fit eleven children ranging in age from 1-15 and two adults to fit into the four bedrooms. With different personalities and special needs it's a bit like that logic game: you have a goat, a wolf and chicken and they have to cross the river in a raft one at a time...or whatever.

We have had all six girls (five since Keziah left) into the master bedroom of our house. It's worked pretty well over the years, but recently we realized that Adalia and Tilly needed some privacy...after going over every possible (and impossible) room configuration, we began a four room swap that has consumed all of my waking hours for the past week.

{Please excuse the following iPhone photos...I've been far too busy to take real pictures}

We decided to give Adalia and Tilly our room. So we moved all of our belongings down to the playroom:

Then we (meaning Judah and Enoch of course) had to disassemble a set of bunk beds and reassemble them in the girls' new room.

Yes, I realize that is actually a photo of Enoch of Chuck.

Next came rearranging the furniture in the little girls' room.

Then came emptying Chuck's new office...and our new bedroom...this room happens to be 6.5 x 9 feet.

Yes, it's a wee bit small...so small we had to ditch our futon frame so Chuck could build a custom bedframe to accomodate our bed.

And may I pause for a moment to brag about how brilliant my husband is? He had no plan- except for the one in his head...he designed, bought the materials and assembled this in one day...

It's cozy to be sure...I've affectionately dubbed it The Yellow Submarine...I am now debating between doing a Yellow Submarine theme in here...or painting it a robin's egg blue and going with the minimalist look...

And as a final step, I've been transforming our playroom into a Study Hall...

This room is for my students ages 10 and up..a quiet place for them to study and do their schoolwork while the little one's hang out upstairs.

This project is about 90% complete. We still need to set up a desk for Chuck and find a home for his office supplies...but so far it feels good.

And speaking of finding homes...I am purging my shelves of books and only keeping what actually fits in our space. This means my entryway if FULL of books free for the taking. Mostly kids books, all ones we love but no longer have room for. If you're interested in them (and local) send me an email.

 

 

 

Driver's Ed

Adalia (15)

We're in the midst of Driver's Ed Take Two over here (Keziah took it last year). And once again I am facing the schism between those born and raised in Alaska and those not. I have no idea what the current driving laws are in Alaska, but when I was a kid it was a simple  process. Take you written test and get your permit at 14. Take your driving test and get your license at 16. No Driver's Ed. No "graduated licenses". No recording driving hours. No restrictions. So this whole Driver's Ed thing is a bit overwhelming. Adalia has classes Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 6:45-8:45. And since we live 20 minutes from her driving school, it means a whole lot of hanging out in town each week. Plus, her scheduled drives with an instructor.

Yes we're proud. And excited. And tired of the schedule already.

The Not Quite Top Blogger

I'd love to be upbeat and witty this morning but I can't. My heart is heavy because I learned that a woman I know has just been charged with Homicide by Neglect (along with her husband, who I've never met) and assault of a child...and it's hard to be witty after waking up to that. This lady is an acquaintance, one I've met on several occasions. We've chatted about homeschooling and large families. I am friends with several of her friends. What is there to say?

I am sick for her dead child. For her living children. For her and her husband. For her adopted child's birth family. I am sad and worried for about the bad name this gives to large adoptive families. I have no doubt there are naysayers right now spreading the word that this is why large families shouldn't adopt. Why they shouldn't be allowed to homeschool.

Yes, I'm much too saddened by this to be witty or even halfway intellegent this morning. So instead, I will direct you to people who are.

I just discovered this hilarious blog about parenting: Crappy Pictures. It  might even need a warning label: blog covers topics such as exrement, bodily fluids and contains swearing. It may persuade you to run to your nearest drug store for some form of birth control. But if you're already a parent, you'll love it.

And here are a couple of great resources for Montessori at home. I haven't posted about Avi and Tucker's school activities yet (as promised) because I haven't actually gotten around to planning anything yet.

*ahem*

The Wonder Years

What DID we do all day?

And a HUGE thank you to everyone who voted for the Circle of Mom's Top Big Family Blogger. As it turns out, Smiles and Trials beat me by about 60 votes. I guess that makes me the Not Quite Top Big Family Blogger. But I'll take what I can get :) I, along with the other top 25, will be featured on their round up with a photo and interview. Thank you again for all of your votes!

And keep coming back, because I have a couple of fun giveaways coming up soon!

A Funny thing happened at the Library...

Hezekiah, 7, reading Eragon

If you've are a regular reader here, you are well aware of my children's love of the library. 

Yesterday at the library I ran into my midwife/naturopath. We got to chatting and I caught her up on Apollo's visit to Children's and his weight gain. At some point during the conversation he coughed.

"Does he have a cold or is that how he normally sounds?" she asked.

"No, he's fine". 

"Have they checked out his heart yet? He needs an ecocardiogram."

Now keep in mind, Apollo is a patient of hers and she's up to date on his health struggles (he was just in to see her last month). 

His doctor thinks he needs a bronchoscopy, his naturopath thinks he needs a bronchoscopy and ecocardiogram...I can only hope that the pulmonologist looks at his weight gain and says, "great, let's do that brochoscopy now!" instead of "great, let's see how he is in another 3 months!" 

*sigh*

And since we're on the topic of the library, Tilly came home last week and told me that while they were there picking up holds with Chuck, she observed this exchange:

A couple girls and there mome were at the library and the mom was ready to leave, but one of the girl's said something about wanting to get a book...to which the mom replied, "Why do you need a book? We've got a whole stack of videos!" Apparently the girl was rather tenacious though, as she argued until her mom finally said, "fine, just go get the blankety-blank book".

Why am I sharing that with you? Um, cause I was amused by the irony. 

And here's some irony about books I wasn't so amused by...when I was in Mordecai's classroom the other day I told his teacher that he had been reading to me from Fox in Socks. I let her know how very impressed I was...after all, he's only been in school for, what,  three weeks? And I think teachers are often undervalued and I wanted her to how much I appreciated her work with him.

She smiled politely until I was finished and then said, "Yes...and did you know he actually came to us with those skills?"

*sigh*

{Okay, friends, after three days in the lead, I'm now down over 100 votes. Only four days left, the contest ends October 3. Please vote like crazy until then. Vote from your computer, iphone, ipad, your brother's computer, your sister's phone, your great-aunt's cousin's son-in-laws ipad....you get the idea}

 

 

Books and Breakfast

I don't quite know if I'm cut out to be a "school" mom. I feel like I'm always three steps behind and never quite know what's happening. Yesterday Mordecai's school hosted a Books and Breakfast event. The idea was to show up and enjoy breakfast and read books with your child. No problem. Where the confusion came in was that the flier said the event was from 9-10 am...okay...but Mordecai doesn't get on the bus until 8:50. So was I supposed to send him on the bus, then rush off to the school the second it left? I sent a note to his teacher asking about it and the response was: "You can bring him or have him ride the bus. He gets here at 9:15, so if you want you can just meet him here". Maybe I'm a bit dim witted, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense to send my son on a bus at 8:50, immediately drive to the school so I could be there by 9, then wait for him to show up at 9:15...so I drove him to school, along with a small sampling of brothers (siblings were invited).

At any rate, I like his school. It is small enough that you could know everyone by sight and has a small town community feel to it. I was able to chat with the mom of a boy in Mordecai's class who, it turns out, I met back in my La Leche League days. That would have been more than ten years ago! Small world. This mom asked if Mordecai was autistic. I immediately realized it was because she was trying to figure out why he is in the Intensive Learning class...out of seven kids he is the only one who's disabilities aren't outwardly visible. 

Poor Mordecai apparenlty did realize yesterday was a school day, because once we were done with breakfast and reading, he had his coat and backpack on and was ready to leave. Poor guy. He was in for a shock when I told him it was a school day and he was staying.

And speaking of school...have I ever told you my children are hilarious? And I love them immensely and pretty much think being a stay-at-home homeschool mom is the best thing ever? As part of our parent partnership program, my children have to answer an email survey every week to keep up with their supervisor. The older kids do this entirely themselves and I either type for the younger ones or have an older sibling help...because of this my children's answers are sometimes a suprise to me when I recieve the response from their superisor. Check out this sampling from this week's questions:

This was from seven year old Hezekiah's survey:

Think of a problem you have learned about in social studies lately and an action that was taken to solve that problem. Do you think the problem was solved in a good way or could there have been a better solution? Please explain.

Rasputin was a big problem, at first they tried to put poison in his wine and food, and then they tried to shoot him, and then they threw him into the river. Someone could have distracted him, and they could have just chopped his head off. 

And here's one from Kalina, age 10:

Pretend that you are a scientist who has recently made a discovery. What did you discover? How will you let the world know about your discovery?

I discovered a cure to the black plague, I will test it and release it.

Give an example of something you learned about in science that has surprised you.

That you have to squeeze so hard to get the milk from the goat's teats.

What I wouldn't give to be able to see the look on their supervisor face as they start reading my children's answers... 

{Don't forget to vote! I've just barely been in the lead for the last two days! Voting ends October 3}

The Living Room

Tilly (13) is allowing me to share this paragraph she wrote for school last week. I asked the kids to describe a place using at least two of their senses. I thought you blog readers would enjoy this peek into our life, right now. Please excuse the pics, I didn't have any of our living room. So you'll just have to imagine.

The Living Room

By Tilly Bergeron

I hear Hezekiah and Tucker playing jousting.  "All clear the jousting arena!"

I look at the clean floor that my brothers are playing on. I can smell the delicious fresh out of the oven cinnamon rolls that Adalia's making in the other room. I feel the Autumn sun shining on me and the soft couch beneath me. I watch my brothers conversing and bouncing, rolling to their placing for the "jousting tournament". I hear them say they're going to start a sword fight. I hear my own pencil scratching this paper.

Can you guess which sister is the loud, flamboyant outgoing one and which is the quite, reserved one???

{Don't forget to vote for my blog. Just one more week to go! I am currently only 15 votes behind. You can vote once a day each from any device you have (computer, phone, ipad, etc) }