Joseph Starts Job Internship at Architectural Woodworking Firm

The schedule of Joseph is at follows:

5:45 Wake up

6:00 Depart Home

7:00 Arrive at Workplace and start Schoolwork: Saxon Math Advanced Mathematics

9:00 -3:00 Job Internship on being a Receptionist and Administrative Assistant

3-5 Continue Schoolwork: Reading/Literature

5:00 Go Home

I will let you know how it is going.

Teaching a Child to Cook

It really depends on a family's values but when I was kid, I was not allowed in the kitchen. For some reason, my parents did not think I would love cooking. The truth is I do not like cooking. I feel it is a waste of time when I can buy food somewhere else. However, I have much respect for those who love cooking.

I taught all my children to cook. Family meals are now the responsibility of the older children in our family. Here is Joseph learning FAJITAS for the first time.

Read article "Top Questions Asked of Large Families"

Our Lady of Fatima Visits our House

Raising Catholic kids is one of our mission in life. One way to do so is to form traditions in your families. I had fond memories of the status of Our Lady of Fatima visiting our house when I was young. I am so glad that I can provide the same memories to my children.

Read article o n "Form Your Family Traditions With Your Blended Families"

Noah and Chronicles of Narnia

Noah, 3rd grade, is currently reading the Chronicles of Narnia series.

So far, he has read the "The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe". The second book that he read is "The Magician's Nephew".

We cannot find the third book so I let him read a book of Laura Ingalls. He likes it.

The Robinsons were not able to get a copyright of the Chronicles of Narnia but they highly recommend it.

Read about the ROBINSONS CURRICULUM REVIEW here.

Noah was St. Ignatius of Loyola

A priest costume is very easy to make. Use a white short sleeve shirt and turn it around with the button side at the back. For detailed instructions, read my article at associated content.

Rose was Joan of Arc

We used the knight costume available at Walmart. It looked good on our daughter.

Read the article "Catholic Costumes for Halloween"

Faith was St. Philomena last year

St. Philomena costume would entail a pink, feminine skirt, a long sleeve blouse, some flowers as a head dress and a pink sash.

Read my article "Last Minute Halloween Costumes for Catholics"

Priest Costume for Toddlers

All you need is a black shirt of Dad and a white shirt inside.

Read my article "Last Minute Halloween Costume for Catholics"

Washing Dishes as a Chore

Small for his age, 11 year old Cris is assigned to do dishes everyday, every meal. He procrastinate but does it very well. He has devised a system.

Potty Trained at 3

Our 3 year old is starting to be dry when he wakes up in the morning. He usually tells us when he needs to go potty. But, there are days that he just feels lazy to tell us. He is still afraid to go to the big potty chair though there are some days he insists on it.

We are not in a hurry. He is the baby in the family.

Great Study Room

Noah is very antsy. When we began homeschooling, it was difficult to find him his quiet space. He either distracts everyone or gets distracted easily.

The laundry room is a great place for him. It is a small room with no distractions unless I am in Mt. Washmore.

Piano Lessons and Homeschooling

I'm going to incorporate "piano lessons" in our curriculum soon. I need to spend 30 minutes each child every week.

Sunday Nap

We were watching a Lord of the Rings movie marathon last weekend. Guess who fell asleep?

My Girls and Taylor Swift

My girls are into Taylor Swift these days. Faith drew a picture of Taylor Swift last week.

I really do not know if Taylor Swift is a good girl to emulate. I still have to find out her bio.

Meanwhile, I am hoping she is a good girl.

Sunday Nap

We had a movie marathon this weekend. We watched "Lord of the Rings" to "Return of the King". We started at 5 pm and ended at 11:00 pm.

Chris is reading Tolkien books while Noah is reading C.S. Lewis books.

What Every Homeschool Mother Dreams About: A Bookshelf

Women can never stop appreciating a bookshelf. For one of his romantic surprise gifts, my dear husband made me a bookshelf out of mahogany last Friday. He spent hours and hours making it beautiful. At around 11 pm, he stopped to have his dinner. He had a glow in his eyes. Beside him was "my bookshelf".

We still have one teen in rebellion

Jude is still quite rebelling with our homeschool program. He definitely wants to go to public school. His reason is he wants to wrestle. At least, he thinks he wants to wrestle. He even made an essay about it. I'm waiting to read it. He is an excellent writer.

Being a good kid, he is reading the books in our curriculum. Diligently? I really do not know. Probably just those he thinks is "worthy". He wants "chemistry" or "biology" as one of his subjects.

Jude doesn't trust his father nor he trusts me. I already had a heart-to-heart talk with him. But, he is a strong-willed child. The trust issue is coming from some "attachment issues". His biological mother failed him. His father failed him. He learned to depend on himself as he was growing up. He took care of his siblings and fed them while they were with their biological mother. When I married their father, he was assigned to cooking because he loved it. The bad side to this is he thought, that he is already grown up and can take care of himself. He thinks he already knows what he needs in his life. So, when his Dad and I made a decision to homeschool, he violently opposed the move. He said, it was nothing personal about us. He just wants to go and reach his dreams "his own way".

We are waiting for the right moment to talk to him again and spend time with him. He is a good kid. I know he will come around. I promised him I will offer some sacrifices and intense prayers for his intention this week.

I wrote an article on "Public School versus Homeschooling: Which is Better?" Read it here.

JJ is working on SAT and AP English Language and Composition

JJ is in 11th Grade. He joined our homeschool this October. A late starter since coming out of "teen rebellion", after a heart-to-heart talk he decided to join the homeschool bandwagon. Since then, he was very diligent and a great example to his younger siblings.

I am currently exposing him to Economics literature. We are starting with "Economic Sophisms" by Frederic Bastiat. In the beginning, he is unable to "get it". The language and topic were different. I had to sit with him as he read aloud the first four chapters. Now, he is independent and near completion.

He is also doing Advanced Math (Saxon - Precalculus). There are exercises that he is confused about, so we have to ask the Saxon Math help desk. The Saxon Math help responds very quickly to our questions. They are very helpful.

JJ also enjoyed the "Screwtape Letters" of C.S. Lewis. I am still currently reading the book. He finished it in one day. That is how interested he was on this book.

He wakes up at 9 am and starts work at 9:30 and ends up finishing work at 4 pm. He is required to also do AP English Language Review. Today, he will start with SAT review too. So, this will add aditional 2 hours in his 6 hours daily schedule.

His essays are fun to read. It can be quite humorous at times. But, often, I do not see any "usage and mechanics" problems. Even, organization and coherence are excellent.

To find out more about our self-teaching homeschool curriculum, read it here.

What the Kids are reading currently

Currently, the children are reading the following:

JJ is reading "Economic Sophisms" by Frederic Bastiat.

Rose is reading "The Boy Knight" by G.A. Henty

Elijah is reading "Do and Dare" by Horatio Alger, Jr.

Cris is reading "Lord of the Rings" by Tolkien

Noah is reading "The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe" C.S. Lewis

Jude is reading "Don Quixote" by Cervantes

Faith is reading "Captain Courageous" by Kipling

For their Religion Studies and Character Formation, the kids are reading the following:

JJ is reading "The Screwtape Letters" by C. S. Lewis

Rose is reading "Don Bosco"

Elijah is reading "The Virtues on Honesty", by William Bennett

Cris is reading "Padre Pio"

Noah is reading "The Virtues of Honesty, Selected Stories" by William Bennett

Read about our curriculum here "The Self Teaching Method of Homeschooling"

Shroud of Turin

The children was excited to hear a talk on the Shroud of Turin. The author presented new evidences in his talk at our parish last week.

Alex wanted the kids to post in front of the Shroud as if "Jesus is embracing them." I would have wanted them on the side. But, for whatever purpose he deems necessary... here are some pics.

Reading Books to One Another

One of the beauty of homeschooling is when an older sibling bonds with a younger one. In this pic, 11 year old Cris wanted to distract Pio from me. He got a binder with pictures of wild animals. He ended up getting engaged to the book. In the process, he got 3 year old Pio excited too.

Living Rosary

A Living Rosary is a rosary done with "children" acting as the beads. The rosary contains "beads" that represent the "Our Father", "Hail Mary", "Glory Be".

Each child in the Living Rosary will lead the group in the prayer that is assigned to them.

Last Sunday, my family participated in one. It was so awesome to hear my children say it. I can recognize their voices even if I was far from them and I cannot see them up close.

Noah Got an A in his Saxon Math Test

It is very difficult to get an "A" in Saxon Math, that is, 100%, no error. However, that is the goal of Saxon Math: accuracy.

For my Noah, it is not easy. This is his first year to take Saxon 5/4. Pretty much he is doing ok except when he gets very distracted.

I let him do one lesson of Saxon Math. I tear off the page from his notebook and let him do the entire lesson again. Then, he checks those numbers that resulted to a different answer. It takes him 2 hours to do this. However, he started to get perfect scores. I wish to do this only until he feels some achievement in getting 100%. The goal is to really find out for himself, what he needs to be accurate or get a perfect score.

It is too bad that other students think that a perfect score is unattainable.

Perfect score is attainable with hard work more than intelligence.

I've seen children who are so intelligent who is satisfied with mediocre scores. My 17 year old is this way. It is enough that he gets most of the problems right.

How Blogs Can be Time Consuming

It is not right. I just spent 3 hours blogging. It used to be therapeutic for me but it is consuming my time. I have to rethink my goals.

I am maintaining several personal blogs. One blog is my life as Mrs. Treasures. It is my scratch pad for ideas as a writer. The second one is my piano practice blog. Third is my blog on Catholic homeschooling and Catholic Blended Families. Fourth is my blog on Catholics with family members needing healing.

I also am pressured to write articles for Associated Content just to ensure I gain some writing skills. I am not a natural born writer. I am a writer -wannabee.

I am an Economist, I need to translate "time lost" to monetary outcomes. However, the opportunity cost for writing blogs is the time I can help other people through my experiences. This is the one that makes my life fulfilling.