Pictures

I know this is the third place I've posted these pictures but I think they are the most accessible for the future. 

I love Jack's smile in this first picture because it's his "I have to smile" smile. He actually has one of the cutest natural smiles but it's hard to capture. He saw this picture and asked, "Is that how I really smile?" 

First picture of our 5 sons.

I forgot to put this picture in my last post. Here is Rick with Luke. I still can hardly believe he has 7 children!!

Luke Everett Hutchinson

Our dear son Luke Everett was born on October 21, 2014 at 12:52 pm. He weighed 9 lbs and 8 oz and was 21.5 inches long. He has dark brown/black hair like Claire and Sims. His eyes are blue for now but I'm sure they will change. He is the sweetest little baby and we cannot imagine our lives without him now. He is so new but it's like he has always been with us.

The delivery was the hardest one I've had and he broke his collar bone but we are both on the mend now and feeling better every day.  But I would take the pain again and again to have Luke with us.

Luke means light in Greek and Everett means brave. Our prayer for Luke is that he will point people to the light of Christ and that the Lord will strengthen him to be brave in doing what the Lord has called him to do.

Thanks be to the Lord for His many, many blessings. 

Thanks to our wonderful parents who have helped us tremendously with our other children during the past 9 days. We are all back together again and I hope to get a picture of everyone soon. And also, "Luke" was a character on LOST. :) He was an "Other" in 5 episodes of season 3. The LOST name streak lives on.

School 2014/2015

This year I will have 4 children to teach:

Kate - 4th grade
Claire- 3rd grade
Henry - 1st grade
Jack - K4

I will also have:

Sims-3
Miles-18 months (right now)
Baby 7-due in October

I do a little for K4 only because I think it's good practice for both of us. I don't think K4 needs to be taught. However, most children, especially those with older brothers/sisters, are itching to start "school" like everyone else. It's good practice for me to slowly get used to teaching another child. I can see what it will look like and how it will effect our schedule. We do handwriting, phonics, and basic, fun math. I do also include them in our Science reading but do not require them to do anything and most of the time do not require them to sit and listen the entire time.

With that being said, here is what we'll be using this year:

Jack- K4

Math-Singapore Essentials
Handwriting - ABeka
Phonics/Reading - Reading Made Easy (I really love this book but obviously I did not pay $1000 for it at amazon-more like $5)

Henry-1st grade

Math-Horizons 1
Grammar-First Language Lesson
Writing-Writing with Ease
Handwriting-ABeka
Phonics-Explode the Code
Reading-Heart of Dakota Emerging Readers set and selections from Veritas Press
Science-Apologia with Claire
History-History for Little Pilgrims - we will just read through this together

I don't really start official spelling until 2nd grade

Claire-3rd grade

Math-Horizons 3
Grammar/Writing-Rod and Staff
Handwriting-Classically Cursive - Veritas Press
Spelling-Rod and Staff
Reading-Selections from Veritas Press Literature and History
Science-Apologia with Henry
History-Veritas Press self-paced online course-Explorers to 1815

Kate-4th grade

Math-Saxon 6/5
Grammar/Writing-Rod and Staff
Handwriting-Classically Cursive-Veritas Press
Spelling-Rod and Staff
Reading-Selections from Veritas Press Literature and History
Science-Apologia Anatomy
History-Veritas Press self-paced online course-Middle Ages, Reformation, and Renaissance

Together-

Bible-Veritas Press
Greek-Song School Greek, and other products from Classic Academic Press


We've made a few changes but kept our favorites too. We LOVE Veritas Bible and the reading lists. We also love the history but this year the girls are doing their own separate courses online. So far, they have been very interested in them and I don't have to do anything which makes me excited. They include map work, quizzes, tests, and outside reading.

Kate is becoming more independent which is why she is doing her own science this year. I let her pick it out and she picked Anatomy. I do love Apologia but was having a hard time combining children so I think this will work out well. She has finished up her first section and loves it so far. She reads by herself and then comes to me to narrate. After that, she works in her notebook to record what she has learned and does the experiments. I have had to help her very little.

I switched math for everyone this year and I think it will be a good switch. I haven't found a math I love yet but I really like the look of Horizons for K-3 so I think this may be the keeper. I then plan to switch the kids to Saxon at whatever level they place into. Kate placed into 6/5 this year. I almost pulled her back to 5/4 but I just decided to let her do 6/5 and slow it down if needed. It lends itself to independent learning as well so I think she will thrive on it. Rick and I both love math and so we're not afraid to "teach" it though.  And yes, I have looked at Teaching Textbooks but so far I am not interested in it. I might change my tune at some point.

I think that's about it! I'll post about our schedule/routine on another post.

Where have we been?

Let's see, in the past 3 months, we:

1. Finished soccer season
2. Had 3 ballet recitals
3. Took the kids on a SURPRISE trip in Disney World
4. moved to a new city 50 miles away (4 days after we returned home from Disney)
5. unpacked our new home
6. drove back and forth between new and old home to get old home ready to rent out.
7. paid $$$$$$$$$$$$$ for a new A/C unit at our old home
8. started some of our schoolwork

So, we've been just a little busy. We have now finished our work on the old house so we're hoping things will start to calm down just a bit.

I'm currently 26 weeks and feeling good. I am starting to get heartburn at night occasionally, but it's not that bad yet. I cannot believe it's almost the 3rd trimester-this pregnancy has completely flown by. Hutch 7.0 still is nameless but hopefully not for long. I go back to the doctor the first week of August and then it's every 2 weeks until 35 weeks where I'll go weekly. Time tends to speed up at this point until about 36 weeks when it slows WAY down. I'll be interested to see how these last months go this time.

My next post (hopefully tomorrow) is going to be our new school curriculum/year.

On one of our many trips to Home Depot/Lowes :) Good thing we have a lot of helpers. 

 

Baby Seven is....

a BOY!!!! We were all able to go to the ultrasound today, which is a first. Normally just Rick and I go but this time everyone tagged along. The room was huge and it had a few toys in in for the children to play with. Jack and Sims played with those toys the entire time. Miles sat with Rick and looked confused, and Kate, Claire, and Henry seemed pretty interested to see what was going on. The tech asked for last minute guesses and all of the kids guessed GIRL. We could tell right away that he was in fact, a HE and everyone was happy - even Kate and Claire. :)
We are thrilled to know and thankful to be having another little boy. That will make 5 boys, 6 and under! How fun will that be?? We will have our own boys' basketball team. It's a good thing I have Kate and Claire - they will help soften up our home. :)
We are praying the Lord will continue to knit him together and that we will be able to meet him in time.

Baby Seven

Well, I'm bringing the blog back to announce that we are expecting baby seven in October! I think most everyone who reads this blog already knows this, however, since this is mainly a scrapbook for our children, it seemed fitting to write this post. We are thrilled and so thankful for our new little baby. All of the children are so excited and ask daily when we will find out if this baby is a boy or a girl. :) Hopefully, we will find out ON MONDAY! :) I'm having an early ultrasound done and if the baby cooperates, we will know then!

I've mentioned before that the baby's heart rate at 14 weeks has correctly determined the gender of every one of our children. The girls' heart rates were both in the 170s and the boys' were all in the 150s. Well, I had my 14 week appointment today and the heart rate was 138! I'm going to assume that means BOY.
Another interesting predictor for us has been the year in which the baby is born. The girls were both born in even years and the boys were born in odd years. This is an even year so that suggests a GIRL. So, we're back to square one with the predictions. Maybe we will know on Monday. I'll come back with the results then.

Here's a picture of seven at 10 weeks:

Brothers and Sisters

A friend posted this quote earlier today on Facebook and I had to borrow it.

"To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time."
 -Clara Ortega 

Our children are all still young but it made me go back and look at the past 9 years. Here's what I found:






















So very thankful they have each other.

Our new school room!

Rick has been suggesting for years that we move our school room downstairs and we finally did it over the Christmas break! I LOVE it. Previously, we had everything in our dining room and while it was perfectly fine, I was shuffling stuff all day long. We eat every meal at our dining room table so we would eat breakfast, clean up, get school stuff out, clean up, get lunch out, clean up, get school back out, clean up, eat dinner, and then clean up. Whew! I know it is a luxury to have a separate place to keep our school books and work on our formal lessons and I am very thankful for it. I don't have a picture but the other side of this room is our playroom so I can have everyone down here with me and occupied. :)

Miles is 1!

Miles turned 1 on January 3rd and I didn't even cry. :) His birthday was on Kate's birthday party night but don't worry, he still had cake and a bunch of little 9 year old girls to sing Happy Birthday to him.

1 year ago

1 year old

He is a climber and loves to climb up on this chair. 

His other favorite activity is to put on these hulk gloves and box. I am not kidding. It's hilarious!

Kate is 9!

Kate's birthday was on December 22nd! She had a spend the night party on January 3rd which also was Miles' s first birthday. It was a very exciting and fun filled day. I never imagined that I would have a spend the night party because they are not my thing. However, we had a great time.

The best part of the night was the comment we overheard, "Kate's dad is actually funny!" Not surprisingly, Rick is open to have many more spend the night parties. :)

 Eating Pizza

Here are 4 of the 8 Rainbow Looms we had in our house that night.

I think she was having fun!

The gang. :)