Homeschooling the Oldest

Bella...

~ Precocious
~ Strong-willed (nope, hasn't eased up on this one)
~ Opinionated
~ Intentional
~ Lover of books
~ Picky (particularly with food, clothes, and hair)
~ Silly
~ Sensitive
~ Argumentative
~ Smart
~ Social
~ Inquisitive
~ Lover of bugs, reptiles, or any animal (currently has gecko eggs in a jar in her room)
~ Lover of crafts, art, and puzzles
~ Articulate
~ Courageous

Ah Bella. My first. My girl. 5 years old. She challenges me in more ways than I could have ever imagined. She's feisty and imaginative, and she makes my brain work everyday. We converse all day about all sorts of things. She asks hard questions about God and heaven. She makes up her own words. She'll pretend to speak in a different language. She'll talk with an accent just for the fun of it. She's mischievous, ornery, sweet, adventurous... so much like her dad. She's the queen bee, head honcho, ruler of the castle... whatever you want to call it... that's what she thinks she is among her siblings. We love her. A whole lot. 

I don't know about you, but she sounds like a tough recipe for homeschooling. But I also think she is a perfect recipe for homeschooling. So why homeschool? This is the question I receive a lot. Like most parents, we started looking at school options for her at the beginning of the year in anticipation of her turning five. We looked at the public school she would be assigned to, and they had very poor academic ratings. I taught for a public school for 7 years and loved it. There are some really wonderful schools out there, but the one she would have to go to wasn't one of them. So we re-evaluated and decided to look into a high-rated public school in town that children get to attend based on a lottery system. I called and signed up for the parent informational meeting. We were all set to go. We never made it to that meeting. I had a tug that was telling me that that school wasn't the right choice for her either. Mark felt the same way. We sat down one evening and had a long talk about what we wanted and what we felt the Lord wanted for Bella. This verse came to mind...

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. 

                                                                                                 Proverbs 22:6

I kept thinking, "How am I already supposed to be done training her up when she's only 5 years old?".

I couldn't shake that my responsibility of teaching her, shaping her, molding her... wasn't over yet. I was going to entrust someone else to the care of her 7-8 hours a day, 5 days a week. When did I get to "train her up"? Am I saying that you no longer get to parent your child because they go to school full-time? Of course not. I don't want to offend anyone and their decision for their family. You have to do what's best for your family. And that's what we were trying to do for ours. So we prayed. And prayed. We went to a parent meeting at a NAUMS school. Mark and I both graduated high-school from a NAUMS school, and we felt like this might be the perfect setting for Bella and our family. The school is a private/home school. Elementary students go to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and are home to do their homework the rest of the week. We loved the school we visited, and we went home to talk and pray some more. We knew that financially, sending her there this fall, would be difficult. That is when we started toying with the idea of homeschooling her. I've thought and prayed hours over this decision. As a parent, you just want what's best for your child, and you want to stay in the center of God's will. It was quickly very clear to both of us that homeschooling Bella this year was what we were supposed to do. Now just because I say it was clear doesn't mean that I was confident, excited, or at peace with it. I was nervous and still am. I have a lot of questions and concerns, but I am doing my best to walk by faith.

We live by faith, not by sight.

                              2 Corinthians 5:7

We have some great encouragers that the Lord has put in our lives to cheer us on. And we are so thankful for those individuals. So, we approach the next few weeks with excitement and butterflies. :) I know it will be a learning process for the whole family. And I'll be sure to update on our progress! Prayers are always appreciated. :) 

Biggest Boy

Jack insists on being called the "biggest boy" just so everyone is clear that he is bigger than his baby brother.

I never fully grasped the term "all boy" until Jack hit 2.5 years. Oh.My.Goodness. He is everywhere at once and into everything imaginable. He's pretty awesome. :)

Here are a few fun facts about my Jack...

~ He will be three next month.
~ He is still completely in love with horses. Lives and breathes them.
~ He is still completely in love with Daddy. He is by far Daddy's #1 fan.
~ He has received the nicknames Dennis the Menace and Curious Jack.
~ He loves to be outside and will spend hours out there playing.
~ He loves to swing and taught himself how to pump his legs.
~ He loves to climb, jump off really high surfaces, throw things, and hit things.
~ He can turn anything into a gun or sword.
~ If he's not supposed to mess with something, it is his goal to get to it.
~ His favorite movie right now is Beauty and the Beast.
~ His favorite book is anything that has a horse in it.
~ He loves to sleep and still takes a 2-3 hour nap everyday.
~ He has a really big heart and is very sensitive.
~ He is a cuddlebug when he wakes up. If you don't catch him then, you won't for the rest of the day.
~ He cries every Sunday when he's dropped off in Sunday school. Poor kid.
~ He's starting MDO this fall to make some new friends and conquer his separation anxiety. :)
~ He is still the sweetest, kindest soul you'll ever meet. He just pulls at my heart strings. I love him tons!

See. Awesome I tell ya. :)

p.s. If you're wondering how I'm knocking out these posts so fast, it's because I'm down to one kid over here, and he's asleep. Mark has taken Jack and Bella to La Grange for the evening. :) Also, I'm no longer working on a slower than slow PC. We are an iMac family now. :)

Littlest

I thought I would start from the littlest and work up. So... Max Palmer Van Wart.

We didn't know if Max would be a boy or girl before he was born. It took us a long time to decide on a boy name. Like about 8 months. :) I am big into wanting my children's names to "go together". I know some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. He's named Max because we loved the name and Palmer after his grandpa. Pretty good name I think. :)

He is 8 months old and here are a few fun facts about him...

~ He loves his family. All of us. He smiles and squeals when he sees someone he recognizes.
~ He gets carried around by big sis and loves it. Most of the time.
~ He is mobile. Watch out. He is crawling fast and has just started pulling up to a standing position.
~ He loves to feed himself. He will purse his lips if you try to feed him with a spoon. It's for this reason that he is mostly eating finger foods (cut up grapes, grilled cheese, crackers, cereal bars, peas).
~ He's babbling a lot and gives big open mouth kisses. So sweet.
~ He can be pretty feisty. He's very squirmy and loves to jump. Laid back is not how I would describe him.
~ He loves to nurse and has entered the super clingy stage. I have to admit, I don't mind. :)

We just love him to pieces, and we all gather around him when he wakes up in the morning to ooh and ahh over him. He eats it up! He hasn't been my easiest baby, but I forgive him because he's so cute and gives sweet kisses. Oh and did I mention he loves his mama?

Family of 5

Well, I'm still here. Barely. Just kidding. Not really. :)

My last post was about 9 months ago, right before I had baby #3. Baby #3 turned out to be this little guy.

Max Palmer Van Wart

Who now looks like this...

Isn't he a cutie?!

I'll do a separate post about this little guy. He is soooo sweet. :)

I've been away from blogging because long story short... I've just been trying to stay afloat. Having three kids really turned my world upside down. It was hard. Really hard. There's not really any one reason that made it that way. Bottom line is I had a 4 year old, 2 year old, and a newborn. All day was spent treading water- trying to maintain the house, unload the dishwasher, keeping clean clothes on the kids, nursing (a lot), feeding the bigger two, trying to squeeze a shower in, making my hubby dinner, running errands, having playdates, looking desirable to my husband (insert delirious laughter here)... did I mention Max would only take cat naps for the first 6 months of his life? How much can you get accomplished in 30 minute increments? Not a lot. I thought three would be no big deal. I think for a lot of people, any number after two is easy. Not for me. I was getting my hiney handed to me on a daily basis. :) I know I just painted a pretty dark picture, however, there were plenty of good times mixed in. :)

Things are better though! Whew. I was just talking to my SIL about how the 6 month mark after having a baby is the real turning point for feeling normal again. And the Van Wart house has a good groove going on! Max takes 2-3 long naps a day. Thank you Jesus. Jack is potty trained. Hallelujah. Bella...well... that deserves a separate post of it's own. I plan on writing an update post for each of the kids. We had a great summer FULL of swimming... some at the beach, some at the waterpark, but mostly at HoneyPop's house. Bella and Jack took swim lessons and both are swimming like fish. Swimming is the best thing ever. The kids will swim their hearts out, fill their bellies up, and sleep like newborns. Brilliant.

We are getting ready for the busyness of the fall. Jack is enrolled at MDO one day a week, we are all signed up for BSF, AND drum roll please.... I am homeschooling Bella this year. Yes, I know you're saying, "Bethany, you might want to read about two paragraphs up where you were talking about trying to stay afloat." Don't worry, a post is coming about homeschooling too.

*I sure am getting over-zealous in my commitments to new posts considering this one was 9 months in the making. Anyways ~ I'll end this way over-due post with pictures. You know, the good stuff. :)

Tick Tock

This baby is almost here and I have done NOTHING to prepare for his/her arrival. Seriously people, we are talking probably 6.5 weeks here, and I can't name one thing I've done in preparation. This is sooo not like me- I am a planner all the way. I have a few theories though as to why I have waited till the last minute to get ready for this baby.

Theory #1- I have no idea what I am having. When you don't know if a boy or girl is on the way, it's hard to envision the room, the crib, the clothes, etc. So, you do nothing. :) Actually, we did move Jack to a big boy bed, so the crib is free. Yahoo! I took his bedding out of the crib, and I'm going to wait on bedding for baby #3 until we know what it is. Bella did feel it necessary though to put an owl blanket in the crib that a sweet friend made for the baby. :)

*Funny sidenote- Our crib has yet to be converted to a toddler bed because everytime we move a baby out of it, we move another one into it. :)

Theory #2- The baby is sharing a room with Jack, so there's no room to get ready. It's done. Which is actually really nice. I do, however, want to spiffy up the room once the baby is here.

Theory #3- No baby showers. Now I don't say that in a poor poor pitiful me way. Trust me. I've told more than one person that we have everything we need for this baby. We have a crib, carseat, stroller, bumbo, highchair, pack-n-play, bottles, blankets, burp clothes, diaper bags, clothes... really everything. I'm so glad that I chose neutral colors for the big items when we had Bella. They're about to get use #3 out of them, which is awesome! So, when you aren't bringing truck loads of gifts home, you aren't forced to organize or put anything away.

It all of the sudden hit me though that this baby is coming soon, and I might want to get a few things in order. :) So here is my baby to-do list for the month of November...

- Buy diapers. I think I'm going to grab a package from now on when I'm at the store and that should last me awhile.

- Buy basics such as diaper rash cream, baby shampoo, lotion, pacifiers, baby detergent, etc.

- Wash blankets, burp clothes, sheets, and neutral baby sleepers.

- Sterilize bottles and nipples and make sure my breast pump still turns on. :) It should- it's a really nice one that we bought when Jack was born.

- Have Mark get the boy newborn and girl newborn bins out of the attic. I want to pick out and wash one boy and one girl "coming home" outfit for the hospital. I also want to leave both bins down so I'll have easy access to whichever one I end up needing.

- Also have Mark bring down from the attic the swing, bouncer, and carseat. They are all covered, but I still need to take off all the padding and wash it.

- Grab the little cradle from my in-laws that we are borrowing for our room for the first few weeks.

Am I forgetting anything?

As much as not knowing what we are having is out of my comfort zone, the anticipation of the surprise is SO exciting!!! I love my family, and I can't wait to welcome another little baby VW into it. What a blessing.

A sweet Bella story: Every night for the past couple of weeks Bella has been having me lay down on her bed, so she can feel and talk to the baby. She puts her little hands on my belly and puts her mouth really close and talks so sweet. Most of the time, the baby will give her a little nudge or kick which elates her. I think she is at a really good age for this baby to be super exciting to her. She's even finally come to terms with the fact that the baby might be a boy and not a girl. :) I'm so proud of her.