I Need Your Help!

Despite having my den turned into Noah's Ark (read about that here)one day and a veterinary hospital another, we still managed to get a lot accomplished this week. We nailed every last assignment on our schedule this week. Which, I admit, is rare. I'm just not that much of a Nazi that I require absolute adherence to the schedule. But it was nice to have a super-productive week. The downside to that is that I was edgy the rest of the time (especially when I can't see the floor in my den!) and the house work suffered. There's a price to be paid either way. A really good week for school means a not so great week for the house, and vice versa. But, thankfully I have a great hubby who, at my mere request, jumped in and helped get the house in tip-top shape today (even recruited the littlest among us to help) so we can start all over again tomorrow.

Now, I would like to ask for help from all of my readers (all four of you, Ok...I'm kidding, I know there are more than four--like maybe five or six?). I am going to write a blog entry answering a lot of the questions I am commonly asked as a homeschooler. So, if you have a question...any question, just leave it in the comment section. You can even leave it anonymously if you don't want me to know your asking. This will be sort of a "FAQs about homeschooling" type entry. So...shoot me your questions!

Letter from the Funny Farm

It doesn't happen often. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times it has happened in my 7 year homeschooling 'career'. But this week it happened, I longed to send my kids to school. If I closed my eyes, I could practically envision the sight of the school bus stopping in front of my house and taking them all away for 8 blissful hours while I sat here watching soap operas and eating my way through a case of Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey Ice Cream in my pajamas. With no one to disturb me, I might even take a nap, or three. And I would be a happy, cheerful, and energetic mom when they came home on the bus hours later. Right?

Ok, maybe not.

It was just one of those weeks. Ben and Luci decided one day to turn the den into Noah's Ark. Which, you might say is cute, or imaginative, or even sweet. But at the time I couldn't see past the fact that this little game required every blanket in my house covering nearly every square inch of carpeted space in the den and required every. stinking. last. stuffed animal in the house. Big or large, from the Ty beanie babies that out-number fire ants in the state of MS to the larger Teddy Bears and Build-A-Bears...they were ALL on the ark. And they needed food, and beds, and on and on...


Oh they had fun, but ask them to clean it up? No way!

The next day, it was an animal hospital that took over the den. And guess what? ALL the animals were sick.

It's a good thing these kids are so darn cute.

Monster Trucks!

My firstborn celebrated his eleventh birthday yesterday. It's hard to believe that eleven years have passed since he made me a mom for the first time.

He celebrated his birthday by inviting a few friends over for pizza and birthday cake and then Brian took them all to the Monster Truck Show.



They had a great time!

Bones

I watched Gavin dissect an owl pellet today. Notice I said "watch". I understand it was safe, it'd been pasteurized and was not harmful at all. And really, I wasn't bothered by the bones. That part was pretty intriguing--watching bone after bone become freed from the mass. Neither did it bother me that this pellet was regurgitated by an owl after he devoured his nighttime meal. What really turned my stomach was the hair. Hair that was once attached to some night crawling rodent like a shrew or a mole. That was too much. Since the dissection, the hair and other pieces of debris have been discarded and the bones cleaned and set out to dry. Tomorrow Gavin will attempt to reassemble the skeleton and identify the animal that became this particular owl's dinner.

A State of Normal

It has really been nice this week and last to ease back into our routine. The hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, and the chaotic rush of our extremely busy fall season are safely behind us and we are finding a new, more comfortable state of 'normal' around here. The demands on our time are far fewer now and we are spending more time at home and less time putting miles on the van.


Luci has been making words on the Word Whammer all week long. While I'm preparing dinner each night she hangs around the fridge saying her letters and sounds. The Word Whammer tells her a word and then instructs her letter by letter in making the word. She does a little dance at the end and is so proud of herself! Today I drew letters on the dry erase board and she could tell me the name and sound of nearly every letter of the alphabet. After that I helped her start to blend two sounds together and before I knew it she was reading words like pig, cat, and bat.


If you've been reading my blog long enough you know that spelling was one of Ben's very troublesome areas. He has done a complete 180 degree turnaround and now looks forward to doing his spelling assignment for the day. What's different is that now he gets to do spelling on the computer through SpellingCity. He plays an assortment of word games including crosswords, word searches, and a hang-man type game. This is a great website for spelling. And it's not just for homeschoolers. Parents can enter the spelling list provided by their child's teacher and use it to help them practice. Ben's confidence in spelling now is really going a long way towards improving other areas of his school work. He will write sentences on his own now whereas before he did 90% of his work by dictating to me. This has been a huge improvement!


Gavin is currently spending a lot of his time working on his research paper. He is utilizing a Report Wizard that comes as part of the World Book CD ROM he uses for Eastern Hemisphere studies. For some reason this has given him a huge boost in confidence in his ability to do this. The Wizard breaks the research paper into manageable chunks for him and it does not seem nearly so overwhelming. I tried that with him myself last year, but he couldn't see through the fog of "I have to WRITE!" Thankfully he has a much better outlook on it now. His writing skills overall are improving a great deal and for this, I am very grateful. This has been the one area that Gavin has consistently struggled with.

Until next time...

Garage Band

Gavin and his best friend, who lives next door, are both taking music lessons. Gavin has been playing guitar for about a year and a half now and Brett is taking drum lessons. Our neighborhood is fill now, on many afternoons, with the sounds of a garage band. Their music is really taking shape too. They are learning to play together, to pace the music, and most of all they are having a blast! I uploaded a video to youtube. You can play it by clicking the link at the top right corner of my page.

Karate Kid

Ben "officially" became a full-fledged karate student yesterday. He attended the 'free' classes just before the holidays but we officially enrolled him yesterday. He is very proud and excited to be taking karate! Part of the registration process required us to indicate what our reasons were for wanting Karate lessons. Fitness and fun are two great reasons, but our primary reasons for karate with Ben are self-confidence, self-control, and self-discipline. I am anxious to see the benefits!

Quiet Time

Luci does not enjoy quiet time. Mom, however, needs Luci to have a quiet time. I don't expect her to sleep. She hasn't napped in a year or more except on the rare occasion when she's been ill or has some other reason to sleep in the middle of the day. But I do need her to stay in her room, sit quietly on her bed and read books or play quietly without making a mess of her room. After about an hour she will come out, peek around the corner and ask if she can get up. Today, this is what she choose to do with her time. She has adorned herself with as many hair accessories and pieces of jewelry as she can find. She looks somewhat like a "girl-pirate" to me, she says "am I beautiful?" Of course you are dear! The most beautiful 4 year old I know!

Pluto: the Celestial Object, not the cartoon character

Ben is studying Pluto (which may or may not be a planet) this week. This is what he has to say about the mysterious planet/not-planet Pluto:

It is VERY cold! Pluto has a different orbit than any others. It is unusual. The Kuiper Belt has lots of rocks. Some scientist think Pluto came from there. Pluto changes up places with Neptune every 248 years and is the 8th planet for 20 years. Pluto is my favorite because it is interesting and unusual.

Luci's contribution: My favorite planet is Earth because it has our city on it!

Routines Rock; But Be Prepared to Throw Away the Schedule

This past summer before we started our new school year, I spent two weeks customizing the perfect schedule for my kids. I was convinced that adding my 4 year old daughter to our school day was going to be nothing short of chaos and the only way to make it work was to schedule everything. Using Managers of their Homes, I scheduled us right down to the quarter hour and knew where each of my three children would be and what they would be doing at any given time of the day. It looked great--on paper. But just a few hours into our first day and I knew there was no way that we could keep up at that pace. I hadn’t accounted for all of the little things that drew me away from the schedule. I found myself bouncing between my children answering cries for help, giving praise and reinforcement, helping the littlest go to the bathroom, cleaning up spilled milk, fixing a broken toy, and on and on... None of those things were on my schedule and I found myself stressed out because I wasn’t progressing through my day like I planned. It dawned on me that I had done this same thing last year. And the year before.

So here is my big confession of the year: I am a compulsive planner, a list keeper, and a schedule maker. My husband jokes that I even keep lists of my lists and schedule time to work on the schedule. It was time to accept that there is a distinct difference between a schedule and a routine. What's the difference? A schedule requires that we do specific things in a given block of time. In other words, we become a slave to the clock and the schedule becomes a source of resentment. A routine means we have a list of things we do, we do them every day, and we usually do them in the same order. We all know what to expect from our day, and we have wiggle room for the unexpected interruptions that will inevitably come our way every day.

Ready For the Second Semester

I spent the day today sorting, organizing, and otherwise preparing for school to start back tomorrow. Part of this involved plotting the various activities and events on our calendar. Remembering how overwhelmed we were last fall I eliminated some of our activities, like the art class. It's still a full schedule however, and it seems like we'll be on the go almost every day of the month! All three of the kids will be taking the homeschool PE again. This course is just such a good thing for them that I can't see not doing it. Gavin will be continuing guitar lessons, Ben is taking Karate, and Luci will soon be starting ballet. Add to that the occasional homeschool park day or field trip and it's a lot!

Brian and I revised the kids' Accountable Kids routine and chore cards today and agreed on some specific behavior problems we need to target with the boys. We had a family meeting and discussed the changes and what's expected of the boys (and Luci too!) in order to obtain privileges and allowance. They'd gotten pretty laid back about their responsibilities and had their allowances suspended for the last part of the year. I think they have the incentive they need now to stay on top of their chores and routines--at least for a while. It seems we have to do this every 4 to 6 months to keep their interest.

Academically the kids are all doing great. Luci is picking up on letters and numbers so quickly now! She surprised me in the store the other day. She spotted a "B" on a sign and told me that Ben's name starts with "B" and it says /b/. She is one smart cookie and I expect her to take off reading very soon, much like her oldest brother did.

Ben had a good 2nd quarter, making near perfect scores on all of his math tests. He groans a lot when it comes to actually sitting and doing any of his other school work, but usually once he's put pencil to paper he does well. He has a great imagination and does very well dictating stories to me. Ben is still not medicated for his ADHD. Being off of his routine these last weeks has not been good for him. I am hoping that starting tomorrow we will see some improvement once again. We are planning to see his doctor soon and are hoping to learn some more ways we can help him without going back on medications. Right now his biggest problems are his impulsiveness and tendency to anger or get frustrated quickly. He also has difficulty listening so we are having to make sure he is looking directly at us in order to make sure he hears what we say. The hyperactivity has not been a problem like it was in the past.

Gavin has a busy third quarter coming up. Beginning tomorrow he will be completing a 6 week research project. His research paper will compare and contrast two societies/cultures from the Eastern Hemisphere. I have a feeling he may be contacting the world travelers in our family once he decides on the societies he will study.

I remarked on my FaceBook page today that I was spending the day preparing for school to start tomorrow. One of my FaceBook friends, who did not realize we homeschool, misunderstood my statement and agreed that she too was glad for school to start back as she was ready for someone else to have her kids for the day. I had to laugh reading it because it's such a reminder of just how different our life is from most families.

The Notebook

While we were in Walmart today I needed to pick up a couple of notebooks for the boys for school. While they were sifting through "Cars" and "Spiderman" notebooks Luci noticed the "Disney Princess" notebooks on the shelf, so of course she HAD to have one. I'm not in the habit of buying my kids everything they ask for, but when the other two were getting a notebook it seemed harsh to tell her no when it was just a $1.50 we're talking about. She hugged her new notebook to her chest like it was the best thing she'd ever received. (Wasn't Christmas just last week? Hello?? And she's this excited about a stinkin' notebook! Imagine the money Santa could've saved! ) When we got home she announced her notebook was for recipes. That's MY girl! She "wrote" several recipes in her notebook and then proceeded to carry it around all evening. While I was preparing dinner she got her notebook out, opened it to a 'recipe' page and proceeded to instruct me in cooking dinner.

I love being a Mom :)

New to Blogger

I'm new to blogger, but not to blogging. I am in the process of moving my blog entries here from .Mac. Unfortunately, the formatting is a little different so some of my entries that were full of photos will be different.

Welcome :)