Huhtala Homeschoolers

Today we went on a long nature walk through a local field. It has big hills, lots of wild flowers, and most importantly, birds! (Which we are studying in Science)

We are now quite familiar with the House Sparrow, the American Robin, the Red-winged Blackbird and the Western Meadowlark. It's very exciting to see these birds and know their identification. Today we also saw a few Egrets. It was fun to watch them through the binoculars and watch the kids hunt for their nests carefully in the grass. At the end of our walk we were blessed with a spectacular display of about 10 Red-winged Blackbirds all flying low right in front of us. The kids loved to see the flashes of red mixed with the black.

As we came to the top of a big hill in the field, in the distance we could see our old Elementary school that was just "getting out" for the day. Parents were lined up around the block in their cars, traffic was abundant, and as I looked ahead at my 8yo with a pair of binoculars to her eyes watching the sky, and my 10yo holding my toddlers hand so he didn't fall as he navigated a steep hill, I realized that although I sometimes miss my own personal freedoms, and quite often complain that this is the hardest thing I have ever had to do, that these moments are more important.

And I ponder....I was a little selfish when I wanted them gone at school all the time. Now I find myself feeling selfish for keeping them home to myself. It's a good trade...

I encourage my children to go outside as much as possible when not schooling. They have started to catch on that if they stay outside and play, I quite often don't push the "bookwork" or chores until they are underfoot. They think that they are being sly and quite honestly, I just let them think it! We're not heavy into organized sports so all the fresh air and exercise my kids get on their own is a plus. They are currently practicing a "Youtube" skit called "Super Mario Brothers". The dog is a Yoshi...

When we first began homeschooling, they played outside for maybe 30 minutes a day. Then we bought the trampoline and the time has slowly been increasing. Yesterday, they played outside for about 2 hours sporadically throughout the day. Today, they have been outside for almost 2 hours already and it's just past 10am. AND it's raining!

They started to come in at one point because someone had ruined the game, and I stated: "Oh! That's too bad because I was just going to make you a thermos of hot chocolate!"

They decided to wait :)



In this picture, Payton is under the trampoline with a hose...in the rain. I was not very amused...

So, a few weeks ago, Squish turned 8 weeks old. He is quite big, and we decided he had lived in a box long enough. It was time to go spread his wings and venture out into the real world. (In other words, he was going to Grandmas to live with other chickens.) Some things to mention that we hadn't really considered up to this point:

1.Squishy has always lived in a box, with a heated lamp, only venturing outside for 10 minutes at a time with the kids while the dog was locked in his crate.

2.He has always had his food and water there for him, in the same place.

3.He has never seen another chicken. He thinks he is human.

As you might guess...these things might create a problem in our story.....

So, we pack Squish up in a smaller, travel size box, with his lamp and set on the road to Grandmas. The plan is to bake Christmas cookies at Grandma Debbie's, then go to Grandma Karen's for a Christmas family gathering. When we arrive, we immediately take Squishy around the house and let the other hens out. We then litter the ground with stale, moldy bread, because that's a TREAT to chickens! As the chickens ran up the hill to eat the bread, Squish didn't seem to notice them. I don't know what I thought he would do....maybe flap excitedly and squawk and have a happy, joyful dance with his new chicken friends? Sadly, he just kept chasing after us humans! Whenever we would push him towards the other hens and try to quickly retreat, he would dash after us as if to say, “Where are we going?” Finally, we outsmarted the CHICKEN and escaped onto the deck without him noticing. One of the hens went right up to him as she was eating the bread, and Squish suddenly did a “double take” as if he was thinking, “Where in the world did THAT come from??” He then noticed that this “thing” had an interesting red hangy thing on its head that should be pecked (in case it was edible). As he pecked, the hen indeed noticed him for the first time, and ATTACKED! She reared up and pecked, calling her girlfriends in the meantime. They all ran over in defense and jumped poor Squish! He tried to fight back but didn't have a chance, and when the rooster stepped in, he made a hasty get away. For awhile, the rooster followed him all around the yard herding him away from his “ladies”.

Not a good start...but I knew that hens often take awhile to accept newbies and so we persevered. At this point, Squish was panting with thirst, but no matter how many times I tried to get him to drink out of a bowl...he just didn't get it. I decided maybe it would be best if he just went into the pen and became familiar with his new home there. We brought him in the hen house, showed him how to get up and down from the nesting boxes, and how to get out of the house into the pen. We then put some corn on the ground so all the other chickens would come in, which they did eagerly. Squish now had a new respect for his new “friends” and stayed quite clear of them. They proceeded to ignore him as before and fill their belly's with corn. I put Squish near their water, and once again, he just didn't get it. Jay just kept saying, “Don't worry, he'll drink when he gets thirsty enough” but I really wasn't too sure. I mean, animals have instincts but what if you've messed them up with a sheltered life? Suddenly, one of the hens noticed Squishy standing in a corner and proceeded to stalk over to him. Squish started to panic and didn't know where to run, then this mean old biddy just started pecking at him! He screamed and squawked a sound I had never heard from him before and proceeded to run circles around the edges of the pen, drawing everyone's attention. I felt so sad, and the kids begged me to let him out, but I told them it was necessary.

We had to leave to our dinner at Grandma Karen's, but we were going to come back that night to pick up goodies, so I told the kids we would check on Squish one more time then. When we came back, it had been dark for some time and the temperatures were dropping fast, I told Jay I really wanted to check Squish. I just wanted to make sure he knew to go into the actual hen house when it was this cold. (Mama was worried!) I didn't expect him to be cuddled up to his nasty new family but wanted to be assured that he was, in fact, under a roof. As Jay and I walked down the hill to the pen, he shone the flashlight into the outside of the pen onto the ground and there, in front of the door, lying in the mud, in the cold, was my Squishy! He was either too afraid to go into the pen, or just didn't know better. I went to the door and opened it and cooed, “C'mere my Squish...” He began to peep like a little new born chick, struggled to his feet and waddled over to me, peeping and chirping. I scooped him up and put him against me inside my jacket, where he promptly buried his head under my arm as if to say, “Mom! It was awful! Don't make me go back in there!” I turned to Jay and said, “He's coming home.”

Jay got his travel box and lamp out of the car, and we put him in the house. He began to promptly clean himself (remember this is the first time he's ever been dirty) and peeped and scratched merrily at his shavings. We put a bowl of water in his box, which he tipped over repeatedly and did not drink. We finally left for home, and when we arrived, we set up a new BIGGER box that we had taken from Grandma. We put fresh food and water in, and he ran over to HIS water, and he began to drink, and drink, and drink, and DRINK! We put a perch in for him which he promptly flew up to and fell asleep under his warm lamp.

The conclusion: Squish is not a chicken, he is a human. Like Mowgli in the Jungle Book, he has been raised by another species with no contact with his own kind. I incorrectly assumed that he was miserable in his cramped box and would be much happier running free all over Grandmas acreage with his fellow genus. As I looked at Squish that night in his box, I realized that he was so incredibly happy to be there. In the warm, familiar surroundings, with the family he knows and loves. :) Sure, I guess you could say we've “messed him up”, but I think he would disagree.

Welcome home Squish!

In the below story, anything that is in Italics is something I see as a joy and benefit of having my kids around me so much, and being able to experience them first hand:

Today my kids were playing outside together quite a bit. When I glanced out the window, I saw my two older kids playing some game where one was crawling around on their hands and knees like some animal, and the other was leading them around the yard. My young ones were animatedly having some make believe discussion on the swing set, with, of course, Bella telling Tyson exactly what to do and how to do it.

A while later, they came inside and continued in their "pairs". Payton and Katrina went to his room playing their "puppy" game and Bella and Tyson asked for some wooden dolls to get down. At one point, I walked past the room where the big kids played and saw Katrina face down on Paytons bed snippedly saying something about how she didn't want to play with him. This has always been a problem with her, she knows that if she whines and refuses to play with Payton when the game is not going her way, it will teach him, and just maybe she'll get her way! Otherwise, she'll absolutely make his life miserable. I have been trying to help Payton lately understand why she does this, and that instead of getting so upset and crying that "Katrina won't play the game now" he should try

a) Walking away and teaching her a lesson that it doesn't bother him (my choice)
b) Talk to her about it and come up with a solution

As I walked by and saw her throwing one of her manipulative fits, I said "Katrina, you just go in your room right now and be by yourself if you're going to act like that!" When Payton, to my surprise, held up his hand and said "Wait Mom, let me just try something." and calmly shut the door. They haven't emerged from their game for the past 45 minutes.

Bella then came out of her room with Tyson in tow and said, "Mom, we cleaned up all the wood dolls, now can we please have the cake down?" A little while later, they cleaned that up and asked to watch a movie. Bella picked Swan Lake. She brought the movie case over to Tyson and said dreamily, "Isn't she so, so, pretty Tyson?" Tyson just *sighed* in the same dreamy voice. :)

I then said they could watch it after Bella swept the floor, she ran and grabbed the sweeper and said, "C'mon Tyson, you sweep and I'll show you where!" Which he agreed to. After they were done sweeping Bella said, "Mom, today Tyson and I are friends!"

I just love when the kids quietly group off and find enjoyment in spending time with each other. (And not just because it keeps them out of my hair) It just feels so right to have siblings getting along and playing like "friends". Now, in about 10 minutes everyone could be worst enemies, and on the floor ripping each others hair out, but for now, I will just enjoy that tranquil feeling of being a happy FAMILY.

My husband and I agreed that at the start of every "term" he would take the kids away from the house, for a weekend, so that I could have some time to myself. During this time, I write out our homeschooling schedule for the next term, organize some parts of the house and just enjoy some "alone" time. Something that you NEVER get with 4 homeschooling children unless you run away. Or die.....

Somehow, for this "break" my husband managed to squeeze himself into the "alone" time and pass the kids off to various relatives. As you may have guessed, I have gotten hardly ANYTHING done and my house is in worse shape than when the kids are here. There is something about having my husband around that makes me want to be generally lazy and spend lots of money. Also, of course one of my children is back home because he came down with a yucky bug and had to be taken to the ER last night, (which could have been completely handled by my husband if he had been WITH the kids). Long story short: Next time, he goes too! :)

Am I selfish to ask for this time for myself? I hate inconveniencing people but I really feel like 1 weekend every 3 months isn't too much to ask. Is it?

This weekend hasn't been totally unproductive. I have scheduled out the next semester and written the term exam. I have also started to write out some ideas and gather curriculum to begin incorporating my preschoolers more into the mix. I plan to start spending at least 45 minutes per day doing activities with just them. I also plan on guiding their activities better throughout the day. They will be given things to color, cut and paste, blocks to build, play-do to mold, and coats and boots to play outside to their hearts content (instead of nightgowns and slippers...I mean no wonder they never stay outside longer than 10 minutes). Hopefully this will distract them from their former activities: Dumping out humidifiers, playing in the bathroom and trying to help "clean" the toilet, rubbing Desitin all over the bed and carpet, and of course screaming, crying and pulling each others hair. Since I've started homeschooling, my older kids have taken my attention away from my younger children. There must be balance!

Another benefit of this weekend has been all of my studying and reading of different Charlotte Mason curriculum's and websites. It has given me a renewed sense of purpose and excitement about why I am doing what I am doing. Charlotte Mason said:


"... We want our children to feel that each fresh lesson gives them an "open sesame" to a fairy palace full of treasures worth the seeking; that they are the inheritors of all the heaped-up gains of past ages, not slaves doomed to a treadmill of weary monotony. We do not want their experience to be that of some "grown-ups" who can tell us of a happy early childhood, when the world seemed all alive with interest, and Nature was teaching them many things, until there came an ever-to-be- remembered dark time when they had to begin to "do lessons"; lessons which unfortunately failed to excite any interest and only became a big, palpable barrier, shutting off the old gracious freedom of the days when they learnt without learning. "

I want my children to find joy in learning. I want them to love the outdoors and feel of Gods goodness and beauty in a world that is slowly burying all of these things. They must have this if they are to give their own children a legacy to follow.

"Children first should be learning about the world as it is- no matter how brilliant and academically gifted children are, they should all have plenty of opportunities to climb trees, play in mud puddles, go for long walks, run in meadows, wade in streams, sort rocks, shells, and acorns, collect bugs, watch butterflies emerge from a cocoon, run, skip, ride, swim, and more.

A child who has splashed in a puddle has a richer understanding of a pond. A child who has climbed a tree has a broader grasp of what was involved when explorers first climbed Everest. A child who has collected stones or shells has a deeper grasp of what is involved in scientific classification later." Charlotte Mason

I am now designating every Friday as our families "Wild Days". We are going to do most of our schooling Monday through Thursday, and each Friday we are going to take a field trip together and make great memories. We'll pack a picnic and just spend at least 3 hours away from home. Generally, it will be outdoors, at a new park, lake or trail. Sometimes, it will need to be indoors and we will visit a museum or maybe even just some friends or family member. The idea is, I want my children to find some privileges and excitement in homeschooling. Some grand thing that they will remember fondly when they are older and say, "Wasn't homeschooling the greatest?"

The Huhtala Clan, while always incredibly grateful for all they are given, has never done very well in the thank you card department. We had soooo many good intentions of sending out cards after birthdays and Christmas. We'd even go so far as to "write down what was received" next to the persons name on a list. As if by this act alone we were committed to sending a thank you card....right. Sadly, it rarely happened because I refused to be one of those Moms that did it FOR my kids, which meant of course, it was NEVER going to get done.

Now however, thanks to Homeschooling, things have changed! We have sent out more thank you cards in the past 2 months than we have mailed in a decade! Here's how I accomplished this.


1. Get a cute box or basket and designate it just for letter writing.

2. Fill it with a variety of blank thank you cards (I look for ones at the dollar store or on clearance), envelopes, stamps and a list of addresses of "the regulars" when it comes to needing to write family or friends.

3. If someone sends you a birthday card or gift, cut out their return address and add it to the list.

4. Designate one writing assignment during the week for notes of gratitude. This is flexible. Today for instance, instead of having them do grammar, I had them write out thank you cards because they had just received some birthday gifts in the mail.

I have found because I have made the process so manageable and organized, my kids are actually the ones to mention that they need to write out a thank you card! They grab the thank you box and off they go! My only requirement is that they write a rough draft first and I have to proofread it, as they often end up crossing things out and making a mess when they try to just write one immediately onto the card.

Hurray for developing the habit of writing letters and showing gratitude!

Out of the more than a dozen eggs we put in our incubator we recently had ONE of our eggs hatch! Don't be too sad for us. We had almost given up the whole lot of eggs as a failure and thrown them away! I'm sure glad we didn't or we might have lost our little squishy (that's what we're calling her/him/it).

A few nights ago J called me into his office to tell me he swore he had heard a chirping coming from one of the eggs. I was skeptical, (I had no idea they could do that!) but he brought the incubator out to the kitchen. Sure enough, I soon heard it myself...a little cheeping coming from one of the eggs! I couldn't pinpoint which one but it was sure exciting! The next day our little squishy chirped all day in his egg, and towards late afternoon, I started hearing one of the eggs moving on the metal of the incubator. I stared intently for awhile and finally pinpointed a little green egg in the center that was doing little movements. I called the kids in and decided to rotate the incubator so I could get a view of the whole egg, and lo and behold, there was a little piece of shell on the backside that had been worked away! We all watched, mesmerized. Then I rotated the incubator even further, and there was an even bigger hole! This one had a little beak that could be seen going in and out. So cool!















Well, our little squish never took a break (and he chirped like crazy the whole time!) He tirelessly worked at that shell and membrane and then rocked and rolled until he finally threw himself from that egg! Then he proceeded to stumble all around the incubator walking all over the other eggs as if to say "Wimps!"
















I feel so bad for the little guy because he is all alone! He loves attention and will stand up on his little teddy bear we've given him and chirp super loud and frantically until I come and poke my head over the box. Then he rushes to my side of the box and does this excited little "pleasure chirp" like he's talking to me. He completely holds still while we stroke him and talk to him.
















We are going on vacation and I tried so hard to convince Jay that we could bring him for an 8 hour drive to So. California in his little incubator and just plug it into a car adapter or something, but he won't let me :( I'm so sad that he's going to be calling for someone to come and won't have any attention except for the neighbor girl changing his water once a day. I hope he doesn't forget me.....