Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Little Helpers

A few months ago, I rearranged our kitchen set-up and moved the dishes to a lower cabinet, easily accessible to little people. The silverware has moved, too, because its former location was squished between the stove and the dishwasher. Now, this is what I see when it's time to unload the dishwasher:




The bigger kids take turns with silverware and dishes, which are Corelle Vive Enhancements (I never thought I'd intentionally buy Corelle, but practicality trumps almost everything when you have small children). They were a huge improvement over our former big box store stoneware dishes (SO heavy, and SO ugly!), and we managed to find 52 pieces -- 12 open stock plates (2 sizes), bowls (2 sizes), and 4 serving dishes  -- for just over $100 with a sale and a coupon code. We've had them for three years, and no regrets! Only one bowl has broken in that time. Sometimes, tile wins... We don't have to keep extra children's dishes, because they are light and durable enough for even a toddler to use. Which is good news, considering that Laddie likes to "help out." That makes my heart skip a beat, partly because he's tottering across the kitchen with our dishes, partly because it's absolutely adorable.

 I'd been wanting to include the littles in more of the household chores, and this was just the ticket. Such a simple adjustment, with such great results.

Monday, September 19, 2016

Success and Failure

This was a success -- leftover steak sliced up, fried in a cast iron skillet with some red onion and smothered in Trader Joe's bacon cheddar. Served over half a naan with some fresh spinach. 




But for every success there is a failure -- and this failure was particularly painful! I realized several inches into the patterning of my White Pine Cardigan that I'd made a mistake with the cabling (I've never read from a chart before...). I decided to go back and repair, rather than rip out. It was kind of exciting to realize that I can now rip out just a few stitches and repair them, rather than frogging back most (or all!) of the project, as I would have had to do when I first started knitting. Then, as I was finishing up the cable repairs, I realized that I had COMPLETELY messed up both side panels. Rather than the seed stitch pattern, I was doing ribbing. It looked awful, and the seed stitch is one of the "features" of this particular cardigan. I was even less thrilled about frogging back all of my pattern work (so many cables!), and decided to tear out just the side panels. This actually "kind of" worked -- I used double-point needles, and had some success with this method. 




But this is a naturally twisty yarn, and by the time I reached the end of each row the yarn was quite taut. Add to that the difficulty of correct tension over such a long section, and it was really just not right. Blocking might help, but then again, it might not. Of course, I only decided this after I had repaired both sections... So after hours of extensive "time-saving" repairs, I frogged back to the beginning of the pattern work. *sigh* 

Fortunately, all of that practice has paid off, and things are going much better now. I'm actually further along now than I was in the "repair" picture above. Quite honestly, I feel that a lot of the problems I've had are due to the way the pattern is written. I actually copied it into a Word document and split up each step, because it's all sort of mushed together in the original pattern, with no clear divisions between steps. There are fewer stitch counts than I've ever seen (which I find very helpful to see if I'm on the right track), and lots of "continue in pattern" when it's not exactly clear what the new pattern is. You're not even told if the first decrease is on the right or the wrong side of the garment! I've spent so much time just puzzling over the pattern (even my revised copy). Right now I'm repairing the seed stitch section (AGAIN!), because I don't like the way the decreases turned out (admittedly, I didn't slip-slip-purl correctly) and I've decided to omit them altogether rather than risk wonky side panels. Hopefully it won't turn out too boxy. I really love this pattern, but between the extensive twisted ribbing and the confusing directions, I'm a bit disappointed. Perhaps I'll feel better once it's done!

Success and failure. There's a balance, I suppose?


Thursday, September 15, 2016

Beginnings

We're now into our second week of "big kid school," as my not-so-big littles like to call it. They were unbelievably thrilled to start "formal" education. Little Man started reading lessons last June, but this is The Real Thing. 





This year will be especially laid back. We sit down together every weekday, but that's primarily because my children would be inconsolable otherwise -- there was almost a mutiny when I explained that we don't do school on Saturdays! We do our work in the early afternoon, because that's when Laddie takes his nap. It's more peaceful that way, even though I'd prefer to have everything done in the morning. 







Now that he's graduated from 100 Easy Lessons, Little Man and I are going through the 1st McGuffey reader (My mom passed on the volumes that I used to read as a child). Somehow I overlooked the primer, but he seems to be handling the 1st reader quite well. We'd encountered some difficulties back in June/July, but fortunately a little break seems to have helped with that. It's been very low stress, and he is gaining confidence with his reading. 





These Melissa and Doug pattern blocks are a new favorite, and I'm using them as a substitute for the manipulative set for Saxon K. I probably should have started with the first grade Saxon curriculum, because Little Man has already mastered many of the concepts -- but we'll focus on the material that's new to him and probably finish the book early.  




Rosa has been showing interest in and aptitude for reading, so we have now started 100 Easy Lessons together -- so far, so good! If the going gets tough, we'll take a step back; she's not quite four yet, so there is no rush!  But as long as she is enjoying it and is mastering the concepts, we will keep going. 

This is what helps me through the (rare) moments when I'm not assisting or giving instructions -- I saw that Ginny does the same, and realized that Yes! Lessons are the perfect time to pull out some knitting. I can usually get out at least two rows during our sit-down session (about an hour in length, I would estimate). Every little bit counts!





Also, the Bible verse sheets (above) have been super helpful. I have a "master checklist" with a checkbox, the verse reference, and the first few words of the verse/passage (mostly for my benefit, if I'm having trouble remembering which verse is which!). There are also empty slots so I can fill in new verses by hand as we add them. Once we memorize a verse, I check it off. I can see at a glance how many we've done. Also, I printed all of our current verses out (in a large font for easy reference), because it's far easier than flipping through a Bible every time we review.

Rosa is doing "preschool" by default, because there is no way I could leave her out -- classic little sibling! Most of her work so far has been some letter-drawing practice and simple worksheets (I love twistynoodle.com, which has a plethora of worksheets that you can customize!). She adores them -- no matter how many I give her, she always asks if there are more. I'm really not much into "busywork" or worksheets, but at this point it keeps her occupied and she is at least getting some practice with shapes, letters, colors, etc. I've noticed that her coloring has improved already.




History and science will be very relaxed this year -- I plan to teach some basic American history/geography, and a few scientific ideas like the solar system, water cycle, differences between mammals/reptiles/etc. I'll be using story books from our collection or the local library as much as possible for those.

And that's it! No complicated lesson plans, no expensive curriculum. The amount of planning on my part will certainly increase as my children grow up, but right now it's pretty basic. I would estimate that I've spent less than $50 on all of our educational materials for the year (that may increase if we move on to Saxon 1 before the end of the year), and much of that was spent on materials that will be re-used for Rosa and Laddie in the future.

I was nervous about starting this year, which turned out to be a ridiculous fear. It's Kindergarten, Shannon, not rocket science. Every day that goes by I gain confidence and come up with new ideas for this year (or next year!). Also, I am fully convinced that children benefit greatly from imaginative play, time spent outside, and the like. Even though we have our little lessons together, I feel like they are learning just as much from building with Legos or the little conversations that we have together throughout the day. We always have an audio book/drama on in the car (usually Narnia! I should probably expand our collection...), and that alone has done wonders for their imagination and comprehension. If by the end of the year their love for learning is as strong as it is right now, and we've learned a few concepts along the way, I'll consider the year a success!