Homeschool October

October has been a good month of homeschooling. I feel like this is one of the really sweet spots of the year. Everyone has gotten the routine down and you're pretty much feeling the rhythm, but it's right before the holiday busyness starts throwing things off. 

Lucy's IEP was officially transferred over to My Tech High, which is now called OpenEd (the school we use for funding and state resources in our homeschool) and she has started receiving services once a month through zoom. They mostly work on tracking with her and I feel like they are a good resource if I have questions (and good familiarity with the computer for Lucy). 

We have stayed pretty consistent with our Fairy Tales (Monday), Nature (Tuesday) and Country (Wednesday). Thursday mornings are busier than I anticipated so poetry has kind of gotten lost, and by Friday we are all happy to have a free day. However, the three Family Study areas we have kept have been amazing! This month we are learning about 

Nature: Ocean

Country: The Netherlands 

Day of Creation: Dry Land and Seas  

Character Trait: Charity and Love

We also have been using the Seasons Afield Science Study for an extra nature study this month. (Nature is the Mothers of Influence topic) 

Nature Study Objective: To learn how to nurture a child’s natural love of nature and how to give them eyes to ‘see’. -Mothers University “Nature Study”
https://www.librariesofhope.com/2-nature-study

The Netherlands has been SO fun to study this month. I can't believe I don't have pictures of the Delft Plates that we made or the paper Klompen. We've read lots of stories and learned a lot about tulips. Lucy's middle name is Holland and she particularly loves the Netherlands and Tulips - but our whole family has loved this study. 

One of the things that I love so much about homeschool is the time that we have to just be together (and how being together so much of the time feeds the relationships between these siblings - they are such good friends and are so good to each other.) Lucy really wanted to have a fancy Tea Party, this is something that we do regularly in our house, however this tea party was extra fancy. I love that our kids have time to play together (but note that Lydia is reading a book as she participates, ha).  





Utah History 

We are learning about Native Americans/the Indiginous people of Utah. The first week we learned about the 5 different tribes that inhabited Utah and how they still live hereThe second week we learned about how important stories were to the peoples. We read traditional stories and then created rock art of some of our stories.  




Field Trips: 

This is the Place Indian Village (Utah History) 

Pumpkin Patch (Kids Choice) 

Star Dome (Field Trip Group) 

Biggest shoutout to the kids Uncle Sam (@rencher_smile) for bringing a star dome to share with our homeschool group so we could learn more about stars and constellations. We had such a great time and are grateful for the time and effort that went into this activity.

As a follow up activity we woke up at 6 am this morning and spent an hour stargazing in the chilly fall nighttime air so we could see Orion. We spotted a couple other constellations (Taurus) and even saw Jupiter and Mars. It was such a neat application of the things we had learned.

Because we had more kids than could fit in the dome at a time, we broke into two groups and I put together a constellation activity in the primary room for the kids that were in the off group. It turned out great, with a little improvising for the younger group with a physical star activity because they were losing interest! 

Bonus Field Trip: James and the Giant Peach/SCERA Field Trip

We watched James and the Giant Peach at the Hale Orem last year and it was one of my favorite plays of the whole year. I didn't expect this one to top that one, but we thoroughly enjoyed it! It was extra fun because we went to the play on Monday, and then on Friday we came back and got to go on a backstage tour with our homeschool group.(Technically in Novemeber, so the pictures will get posted with next month.) 

Sewing Classes

Other things that are happening in homeschooling news, I am teaching three different sewing classes right now. After Utah History (every other Tuesday) the three girls stay an hour longer for a small sewing class. We made quilts and are working on little crossbody bags.

This is Ava's third year sewing with me and we have been making some fun projects! She comes over on Wednesday mornings from 11:15-12:30. She just finished a pool bag out of canvas. She learned some fun skills like fusible web batting and iron on appliques. 

My third class is my biggest endeavor yet. I am teaching a 6 week "service sewing class" to a group of 16 middle school aged homeschoolers. This is for Lydia's Middle School Coop and it's been so fun. There are 10 boys and 6 girls. I have broken them into groups of four and each group is making a quilt to donate to Wrap the World with Quilts. I am borrowing a machine, in addition to the 3 of ours (2 of mine and 1 of Lydias) so that each group has their own machine to work with. It has been such a blast to be teaching a full class of students again - not just small groups. I have loved it so much! 

I also added this picture of a Flyer I made for the Blue Moose Elementary coop because I thought that I should note that I have taken on the duties of Financial Admin for both the Elementary and Middle School coops. This means collecting fees, providing receipts, paying teachers, and keeping track of the finances. When MyTechHigh started rejecting our coop receipts, I had to pull together this flyer so that we could prove we qualified under CORE. I stepped down as the director of SPARK coop and almost immediately stepped into this role, but I have no regrets. This is exactly where we are supposed to be this year and I couldn't have helped in this way if I was still trying to fill that role. 

Christmas Day at the Peaden Home

As soon as we finished our Christmas Morning celebration, we hopped in the car and headed to West Jordan to spend the next couple of days with the Peaden Family. There was much present opening, treat eating, game playing, and quality-time-spending. We are so grateful to be able to spend Christmas with these people that we love and who wholeheartedly love and support us. I think that one of the greatest gifts of our life is how well we get along with each other's families. When I am at the Peaden home, I do not feel like an in-law, I feel like a cherished part of the family unit and I hope David feels the same. This is especially notable during the holidays when we truly want to be with our extended families. 

We love it here. Love this home, love this family. 


Lydia has been asking for a robot dog for years. When it was still the first item on her Christmas list this year and I saw it come on sale for Black Friday we decided we should do it. She will eventually grow out of this stage and the fact that this is still the thing she wanted most of all is really really sweet. She's loved learning to play with "Bailey". 

These family pictures we took in October look even more gorgeous blown up on canvas. What a treasure. 

We had a wonderful couple of days together. Canasta tournaments, nertz battles, and laughter-and-bruise filled rounds of Santa Cookie Elf Candy Snowman. 

Merry Christmas to these wonderful Peadens. (and Renchers).  

#cousinsmakethebestfriends & Baby Molly

My sweet sister Jenna just had her baby, Baby Molly. She's perfect and we love her so much. Adding one more to this cousin crew is just what we needed. I'm grateful that even though we don't have a LOT of cousins the same age, these kids are developing good relationships with their cousins. 

I got to go by myself to meet Baby Molly and it was such a special night. As I held her in my arms the first time, I couldn't help the tears springing to my eyes with how wonderful she is. She's got a special spirit in the tiny body and I'm so grateful I will get to be part of her life. (Maybe not favorite Aunt status, because she will have a LOT of Aunts, but hopefully a loved and supportive role in her life.) 

We loved having the Haderlie kids at our house while Jenna, Kevin, and Molly were at the hospital and afterwards. This crew of 7 (now 8!) really are the greatest little friends. 

And we can't forget little Juniper! When Matt and Brooklyn came to visit this summer - we spent some time with Juniper. Lucy and Juni playing together is just the sweetest thing. They could be twins. 

 We also were able to go and celebrate Zachary for HIS birthday! We have some set traditions that we do with Zach and I'm grateful for that relationship and the time we get to spend with this family, too. We are looking forward to our annual Gardner Village excursion this fall. 

Thus summer we were also able to get together with 

Renchers + Indiana Peadens

We love having the Renchers so close and even though their kids are older than our kids, they are always attentive and loving to them. The Renchers play with them and entertain them and our kids adore them. Even though we don't see Matt & Julie's kids very often, the boys play together really well and we are grateful for them, too.

Even though we aren't close to all of the kids cousins, we are grateful for the relationships that we do have any we try to nurture those relationships (both as adults and for the children). These kids are lucky to have such wonderful cousins because #cousinsmakethebestfriends