Something Old, Something Not So New

My computer is fried. Makes me mad, too, because I still have pictures I need to get off of it. In time, in time. Anyway, we had to borrow a computer (this thing is so ancient), then we didn't have a keyboard, then we couldn't get the mouse to work. One thing after another just makes me want my computer back! Well, really, it makes me want a new one because I am a consumer. Anyway, while I have a minute, here's an incredibly long run down, catch up, freaking out because school is about to start blog. Grab a drink. You may need one. I know I do! Shall we?

• The last two weeks were incredibly busy. The big girl and I volunteered at church for our Music and Art Camp.The boy and the baby participated and they had a great time. I was exhausted. The next week was VBS. I remember the years when the kids went to at least four a summer. Those were the days! Now I have 2 kids that have aged out and one that only has a couple of years left of VBS. I am so sad. We were all tired when we got home. The great thing about the programs is that they offered breakfast and lunch. The bad thing was the breakfast was some version of toast (buttered, cinnamon, cheese) and lunch was processed to within an inch of it's life. I got to the point that I couldn't feed my kids that junk anymore and took lunches for them. Then Friday morning I woke up late and there went lunch. Oh well, I did what I could. We were all regretting it by the time we got home. It was the thought that counted I guess. And nap time was much appreciated!!
• I have most of my curriculum and two weeks of lesson plans done. I was waiting for two books I had loaned a friend. I got those back and went to planning. Then my computer died. The history I was planning on using for the boy and the baby is on a disc. Kinda hard to use that when you don't have a computer. It's a good thing I had a whole history curriculum I could use with them. I got it when I was given six boxes of curriculum last spring. Now we have a loaner computer so we're back to the original plan. Thank goodness, too, because my back up history was a TON of work. Like I need that this year.
• I've decided to add Latin to our school year. I am nothing if not tenacious. Let's do more work!! Ugh!! I've been thinking about it for the last year or so. The big girl has to have a foreign language for high school. She wanted to take French, but I have no desire to teach or learn French. German, I'm good with. The kids want to wait until after Latin to learn German. Um, ok, whatever. I'll order that in a couple of weeks and get it in the lesson plan. Won't this be fun? 
• I don't get our dance schedule until the Friday before we start school. This should be interesting. The big girl wants to take ballet and jazz. The boy wants to take tap and hip hop. The baby wants to take tap and jazz. Now to get the schedule to work the way I want it to. Please, please, please. I am excited already for recital and it's not even here yet. I'm skipping dancing this year, maybe. We'll see how the schedule works out and when the rest of the classes are. If I can swing a class or two a month, that would be awesome. That's up in the air, but thankfully, not for much longer.
• I have a folder I keep for field trips and activities. I keep mementos like programs or flyers or ticket stubs. We have quite the array right now. When we were in Texas, we got to go to Grossology at the Museum of Science and History. We also got to go to the Rancher's Museum and another exhibit called Risk. They were both very cool. We still haven't made it to the Texas Civil War Museum, but we're working on it. There is a local place that is like a "retirement" home for missionaries to Africa. I would like to schedule the tour and talk and then visit the gift shop. The items benefit the various projects in Africa that the missionaries started. Pretty cool, I think. I'm not real sure when that will happen, but it's on my list. I would also like to visit a local tractor museum and an apiary. They are both relatively close, just in opposite directions. Lots of great ideas but if you have another, bring it on. I'll add it to the list.
• Summer reading was a bust. By the time we got back from Texas and had some processing time, there were only two classes left for the big girl. Pokemon Club was in full swing for the boy, but that's come and go. You don't have to be there for the whole thing. There were also cool science classes on Wednesdays, but we had Music and Art Camp and VBS. Maybe next summer...
• We worked on the garden today. Between hubby working long hours and our volunteering, the house had gone to heck in a hand basket and so had the yard. Thank goodness for our neighbor mowing our front yard. We removed some old cabbage plants and a couple of strawberry plants from the tower. We're going to add kale and bok choy. We've been needing to move the sweet potatoes, so we did. And pulled up 5 pounds of those babies! We didn't treat them very well, but they grew anyway and we are thankful. We've started a new crop and hope to treat these better. We had to pull all of our cucumbers and some of our tomatoes. That was heart breaking. We are starting some beets, brussel sprouts, chard, and carrots. We are looking for okra seeds. We may have to go with seedlings if we can find them. We are babying the strawberries through the heat and are hoping they last until the weather cools down some. I hope the weather cools down this fall. We even have corn. We're still not sure how it lived, but ok. The bell peppers have been loving the rain. They just multiply like rabbits overnight. Now if they would get a little more size to them.
• The heat has been oppressive. It's like having a hot, wet blanket thrown over your head every time you walk outside. Our saving grace is the pool! Hubby worked really hard a few weeks ago and got the pool up and running. It is so nice to have. One day after VBS, I dumped all my stuff at the door, cleared out my pockets, and crawled straight in the pool, clothes and all. It had been one of those mornings. The baby told the big girl I was in the pool. The big girl didn't believe her, so the baby pointed out the window. I think the big girl wanted to put me in time out. She didn't thank goodness! I took the kids down to the dollar store to get pool toys. I let them spend a little money and everybody got what they wanted. I got noodles. What can I say? I like to float.

I know there's more, but I'll be darned if I can think of it. I cannot stand to type on this ancient keyboard, but at this point, it's better than nothing. Maybe.

Have a great day.        

School Blogging

My computer has gone off the deep end. It is beyond it's last leg. The last few days it wouldn't power on. I get lucky every now and then. Right now I'm lucky and it's on, so I am blogging. We are waiting until it gets closer to school starting so hopefully there'll be a sale. And maybe, I'll have a coupon. Things were pretty dicey these past few weeks so here's the run down of the good, bad, and ugly.

• We are doing science co-op this year. There are 5 families involved. I am excited and nervous all at the same time. I need to put notebooks together for the two big kids. The baby is going to be in a group of younger kids. They'll be using a different curriculum from the olders. It's going to be so much fun. I'll be teaching every 8 weeks I think. We already have a tentative schedule put together so that helps tremedously.
• The baby will be involved in Girls Club again this year. She had the best time last year. I try to let each kid participate in an activity that their siblings aren't involved in and this is hers. My friend M put a schedule together that runs until after Christmas break. Thank you! That helps me get everything on the calendar and in the lesson plan book. The baby is ready to get back to it and seeing her friends on a regular basis again. 
• The kids will get to take two dance classes this year. I think, because we have so many activities, and a couple of new ones, that I may skip dance this year.  It's just one more thing. I might just pay by the lesson instead of pay for a month and not be able to make any of the classes. The kids are ready. We had to skip dance this summer so we could go to Texas. The boy is taking tap and hip hop. He's gonna wear my shoes. He has big feet, but me not so much. I really hope he needs black tap shoes because that's what mine are. The big girl wants to take ballet and jazz. Hair in a bun every week. I have flashbacks of putting a bun in a 5 year old's hair. Thank goodness she can do her own bun now. The baby is taking tap and jazz. She loves her some tap dancing! She has shoes for both of her classes, too. Recital is going to be awesome!!
• I am a little nervous about our upcoming school year. There is so much to keep track of. I have schedules for everything printed out and in at least three calendars. I have my master calendar, my phone calendar, and the lesson plan book. I know at this point what day and time two of our activities are going to be. We don't get our dance schedule until the beginning of August. I am hoping for classes that take place on the same day. Same time would be a huge bonus, that's for sure. Then we have to plan guitar and piano. Chores still have to get done. And the chickens are a huge chore every day. Our schedule is full and we haven't even started school yet. School? When do we have time to do that? Taking a breath, taking a breath.
• We started a youth garden. One of the girls in our youth group wanted to start a garden. So we did. It's taken us a while to get our stuff together, but we finally got the square foot forms together and seeds started. Planting day will hopefully be in about two weeks. I need to keep an eye on the seeds and make sure they're germinating. We started 2 kinds of pumpkins, bell peppers, tomatoes, spinach, snow peas, and something else I can't remember right now. We would really like to get enough supplies to build at least four more forms. That would be awesome.  
• And because I am not crazy enough, I am thinking about flag football and cheerleading in the winter. Our church is going to start a league after the NFL season is over. The boy wants to play and the baby is going to cheerlead. I am nuts. And my kids will be soon. It sounds crazy, and we spend a lot of time in the van, but we only do the activities that my kids want to do. If it ever got to the point that it was too much, we would drop something. We have before and we will again. My kids mean more to me than "Look how much stuff we can do!" But when the activities stop, we all look at each other and twiddle our thumbs. We do not do downtime well.
• We are participating in an Arts and Music camp and VBS that our church is running. The big girl and I will volunteer and the boy and the baby get to participate. The boy asked if he could help with VBS. He is part of youth now, but he will age out of VBS after this summer. I remember when the kids participated in at least 4 VBS's. Those were the days. Homeschoolers refer to it as mom's best friend. Kids are gone for a couple hours a day. We make lots of plans, but really only get naps done. Sometimes, that's the most important thing to accomplish. 

We didn't get all of our summer plans accomplished. We didn't even get half of them accomplished, but we had a rough start. The pool is up and running, we still have our Disney passes, and I'm trying to plan some field trips. I'm exhausted. Is it summer yet?    

Revamped, Maybe

You would think that once I'm done with a school year, I could take a break. But, no, I am nothing if not obsessive. Good grief. The ink is barely dry on their evals and I've already changed half a blog about what we're doing next year. Here's to changes!!

• We may participate in a science co-op. I have a meeting next week with a group of friends to talk about a science co-op for our kids. Most of the older ones are 8th and 9th grade. They are using a different curriculum than the one I have but they are basically the same. I perused them both and the only difference is font and layout. I bought the new one anyway. If I have to teach it, I want to be up to speed on the curriculum we are using. Just makes it easier. We would only meet once a week and we would each teach a chapter and then do some experiments. That's really what I wanted a co-op for- to share the experiments with someone. All three would participate, but they would be seperated into two groups. We're not sure what to use for the youngers, but I have a ton of stuff I'm taking to the meeting. Hopefully, we can get things to work day and time wise. And I miss using the "Co-op" tag for my blogs. 
• No summer dance for us. Mermie has been quite sick and Big Sis is a little overwhelmed. I want to be available in case I need to go. And yesterday, hubby found out that one of my front tires is seperating. My dance money just bought two new tires and a front end alignment. We are all disappointed. I was going to get my tap shoes back on and the big girl was (finally) going to take ballet. The boy was going to get reacquainted with ballet, and my tapping baby was going to hip hop her way through the summer. But in the fall, we are still on track for two classes each. We'll see what our schedule is like if we add science co-op.
• We may only participate in one set of programs for summer reading. I need to get online and sign everyone up at the various libraries. One has two programs that two of my kids would be incredibly interested in. One is a creative writing workshop that lasts several weeks. It's at the biggest of the libraries that we go to. The big girl has always been a great writer. Creative writing was her language arts this past year and she did a great job. I would really like for her to get some input from someone else, though. This is right up her alley, I think. I figure she'll attend two or three and we'll go from there. The other thing is Pokemon club for the boy. It's normally a different day of the week, but I guess for the summer they add it to summer reading. It's the same time as creative writing. And that leaves the baby, who is going to spend some time reading with her mama. I am so looking forward to that. We are working on her reading skills and speech. 
• We changed the baby's math. I had bought a curriculum I really like and have always wanted to use. I got it super cheap from friend. As I was looking at the curriculum when I was organizing the kids' school drawers, I realized that the lessons have no directions with them. It is the lesson pages and that's it. It is totally dependent on the teacher. This is not the year I need that. With three different maths, I needed something that was self-paced and would allow the baby to get started until I can get to her. And in third grade, it's just buildng on skills they already know. I still have some of the boy's math from third grade. I bought replacement workbooks for what the boy had already used when I ordered the new science. I feel much better now.   

I know one thing for sure, I will have to be super organized this year. I'm hoping for lots of dance classes on the same day for multiple kids, music lessons in the afternoons, and gas prices keep falling. We start school the second week of August. I'll have our dance schedule by the first week of August and hopefully everything else, as well. But what will probably happen is that I'll change my mind about something. Again. I know me so well...

Have a great day.

Sweet Summer and Beyond

If I just wrote about our summer plans, this is what the blog would look like.


(cricket, cricket, cricket)

That is exciting, let me tell you what! I haven't made many plans at all. Well, a couple, but after June, we are foot loose and fancy free. Most of these things are either a week or only a couple of weeks. Except the last two. They will go on and on. Anyway, here we go...

• Summer dance- I would really like the kids to take summer dance classes. They could take, and I'm asking them to, a dance they may not want to devote a year to. Or take a class they may be interested in to see if it would hold their attention. They cannot take what they've been taking as a regular class. It needs to be outside their normal. And we have to have shoes they can wear. I don't want to buy new shoes for three weeks of dance. Except the big girl. She wants to take ballet. If I have to buy her shoes, she may take ballet as her regular class next year. My hip hop girl in ballet. I have a feeling she'll love it. We just got done with recital and they'll have a couple of weeks off before dance starts. But, for the older two, there's always...
• Summer camp-They will actually miss the first week of summer dance because of summer camp. This will be the boy's first year, and the big girl's third year. They are so excited. The big girl will be sharing a cabin with some friends. The boy, however, will be the only middle school boy going with our church group. The big girl went solo her first year at camp. I'm hoping the boy does well. He is his mother's son. I have had to hear how excited they are since we started talking about camp at church in March. Some days, I have to tell them if they do NOT hush their mouths about it, I may have to beat 'em. And I would.
• Summer reading- This is something we have done every year since the big girl could read. I just kept adding kids as they learned to read. The big girl and the boy will be in the teen and tween program. Good grief, how did that happen? We usually register at a couple of different libraries. We are close enough to four, but we're only registering at three. Even though they're part of the same system, they all run their programs a little differently and have different prizes. It keeps the kids on their toes. And me, too.
• Summer math- Ugh! Who wants to do math in the summer? Me!! But I'm weird that way. I have these fun math books from the makers of Highlights. Math and fun do go together! No, really, they do. I promise. This way, the kids keep some of their skills, it's not a cruddy math book, and I don't have so much to back track on when we start school again. Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
• Summer cooking- See how that tied in to the chicken dinner thing from the last one? I am clever! It is time to teach the kids to cook. The big girl has a few basics down and the boy, too. But they would starve if they only ate eggs, chicken nuggets, and hash browns or french fries. The big girl got a cookbook for Christmas several years ago. I think we may start there, replacing yucky ingredients with good ones. If they can read a recipe and know what it means, they won't starve. That makes me happy. I can throw nutrition in there as well. I smell cooking disguised as a unit study. Shhhhhh!! Don't tell.   

Those are our summer plans for now. Not much really. Just enough to keep us out of trouble. Yeah, I know. I need ALOT more than that! But that's what we're doing for now. 

Have a great day.

It's Over...Mostly

School is done!!! Can I get a woot woot? Now you get the quick run down. Lucky!!

• When we started this school year, we were coming off a not so stellar year before. The year before I was depressed. Meds probably would have been appropriate, but you know how stubborn I am. That was during the whole moving, holding, not moving stage of our lives. I wanted this year to be different, so it was. We got alot accomplished, even a new schedule and some new extras. We are exhausted.
• We had to make some rules. Blech!! Up by 8, working by 9:30. We still need to tweak that. I have a hard time remembering that what could take me 10 minutes to do will take the kids a while longer. I'm hoping over the summer to get rooms cleaned, maybe move a piano, and get the kids a good work space in their rooms. There was too much distraction some days and giggling galore when there should have been work going on. Hopefully, we can change that.
• Our schedule got harder to manage when we added music. It has been worth every second. My kids are such great musicians. You should hear my sweet girls play piano. The boy gets better and better every day at guitar. Those lessons will continue over the summer. We've changed the time of both piano and guitar and I think the times now are great. Hopefully we can keep them when school starts back in the fall. We also added a weekly bible study that I facilitated. That threw us for a loop at first, but I feel like we hit a groove eventually.  
• The baby finished a grammar workbook, 3 reading comprehension workbooks, and a logic workbook. That may not sound like much, but for a 2nd grader, it's a bunch. She worked ahead with some of her stuff. She follows the lesson plan unless she likes what she's doing, then she goes ahead. She really likes to read. I was afraid I would run out of reading comprehension for her. Have you seen how many workbooks I have for that? She got further with the math curriculum than the boy did when it was his. But once again, when she enjoys the work, it's not work. I wish I could get her to like cleaning her room.
• The boy finally ran into math that was a little harder than he was used to. He is my math smarty. He got frustrated a couple of times, and this is what makes me glad we homeschool. Don't understand the way it's explained, let's try this a different way. And it works. Yea! For his language arts, we used the rest of his workbooks from the year before. The curriculum we were using comes with 10 workbooks and a teacher's guide. Last year he only finished about half of them. See what I mean about slacking? He finished the rest this year. Next year he starts a couple of book studies. 
• We changed the big girl's math twice. The math we started with just didn't give her enough info to do well, so we moved to something else. It was good, but there was not enough review of previous concepts. Ok, there wasn't any review except the chapter test. I did like that it showed the solution instead of just the answers. The last one seemed to be much better for her. She also finished her language arts. She did creative writing this year. We found she has quite the talent for poetry. Who'd have thought? Then she started her curriculum for next year. It was a great preview of what to expect. 
• No science this year. We just couldn't get to it. I had high hopes, but it didn't work. We did art instead. I had downloaded a freebie about cartooning. I was a little leary at first. It was so much fun. The kids did an awesome job. We supplemented with an art DVD that had four or five lessons and those corresponded with our cartoon study. We could actually see the concept work and understand it a little better. It's easy to fit a 10 minute art lesson into our day, but not always easy to find a half hour to 45 minutes for science. Next year, though, I get to teach science twice in one day. Good thing I like science.
• We ditched our history curriculum and studied American history. We had the best time. We started by watching America: The Story of Us. We would watch an episode, then build lessons from that. One of the best parts of the day was watching our history while having lunch. We learned so much this year. We took a little time to do a unit study on some Indian tribes. I even found some movies based on each tribe we studied. Sometimes they had a lot to do with the tribe and sometimes it didn't. Indian in the Cupboard doesn't have much to do with the Iroquois except that the Indian was Iroquois. But it was a cute movie. 

Next year is still up in the air. We have to get our dance schedule to know what our other schedules will be. I hope the baby will be able to participate in girls club again next year. She had the best time. The big girl's style is cramped a little. The boy is now in youth with her. This should be interesting. We have a few summer plans, but not much. The big girl is teaching herself calligraphy. That is perfect for her. My two oldest will go to camp for a week. This will be the boy's first year at camp. The baby will be spoiled rotten. We may do summer dance this year. I have fun math for the kids. Just a little, to keep their skills up. And we always join the summer reading programs at the local libraries. We are close enough to three libraries that we could join them all. And lots of lazy. OK, probably just a little lazy. You know us, we don't sit still for long.

Have a great day.

TRUE. STORY.

The last park day started like any other. It was a balmy 80 degrees, the sun was shining with a few puffy clouds. When we arrived at the park, there were only a couple of families there. The kids helped me unload our lunch bag and various scooters and ripsticks from the back of the minivan. Children ran and played and their joy filled laughter filled the park. If we had known it would be so short lived, we would have treasured every moment of happiness.

Shortly after her arrival, my friend JK was gracious enough to go to her car and retrieve some ibuprofen for me. I had started to develop a headache, and didn't want it to ruin a perfect day at the park. As a courtesy, and because we were in the middle of a conversation, I decided to accompany her. The headache should have been my first clue that danger was imminent.

As we were nearing her vehicle, we heard screaming coming from the other end of the parking lot. As we look up, we see a giant brown bear running out of the woods. And straight towards us. JK was stricken with fear. Mothers were gathering their children and running for the safety of their vehicles. My friend KS shouted "Please, someone help them!!" Those words seemed to spur me into motion. I quickly dashed behind a tree and donned the uniform of my alter ego- Super Homeschooling Mom!!

I sized up the situation using my super intellect. I realized that the bear was actually running in fear itself. While every one else heard "Growl, roar, growl!!", the poor bear was really screaming "Rabid squirrel!! Rabid squirrel!!" My arch nemesis had arrived. No way was I going to let him ruin a great day at the park. With a flick of my cape, with matching shoes, belt, and a too cute purse, I flew across the park.

As quickly as I could, and with all the super strength I could muster, I scooped up the frightened bear just as it reached my friend! I deposited the bear inside the dog park. Thankfully, there were no dogs in the park at the time. Just as quickly, I rushed back just as the squirrel was jumping at JK. I snatched the squirrel out of the air by it's tail. I spun it around several times and threw it far, far away! As I turned in triumph, my friend JK, overwhelmed by the whole ordeal of being attacked by two animals, fainted. I flew to catch her but misjudged the distance. As she fell, I had to turn my body to cushion her fall. I didn't want her to hit her head on the hard asphalt of the parking lot. I turned my body, landing awkwardly, stepping into a hole. And that's how I scraped my knee and sprained my ankle.

TRUE. STORY.

Have a great day. 
 

Inspired Reading

Mermie has always been a huge fan of reading. As long as I can remember, and that's a long time, she's had a book in her hand at almost all times. That instilled a love of reading in me. And I am trying to pass that to my kids.

The boy and I have a book that we read while the girls are at piano. We go to the book store up the road and find a nice comfy chair. Our current book is Sign of the Beaver. So far, it has been a great book. Next school year, he'll be using two literature studies. One is for Mr. Popper's Penguins and the other for The Whipping Boy. In our current book, Robinson Crusoe plays a big part in the story. I've read the abridged version to the kids as our after dinner book, but they haven't read the whole story. Suddenly, the boy wants to. I think maybe when he gets a little older. I'm just glad he is inspired to read. For awhile, he would only read graphic novels, which are like comic books. I really wanted him to read something that didn't have pictures. At the library one day, roaming the aisles, he found a series he liked. And the books don't have pictures. And it has nothing to do with Pokemon. Even better.

I tried to read to the girls while the boy was at guitar lessons. That desn't work nearly as well as reading with the boy. We sit in the middle of a music store that is busy with customers and we are frequently in the way. Well, that was a bust. My new plan of action is to read to them when school's over. We are going to start with the Little House series. I may alternate between that and Anne of Green Gables or maybe even the Christie series. It's definitely different from what they usually read.

Our library has started carrying DADs, or digital audio devices. They are like a plug and play. You add a battery and headphones. I checked one out for me, but I never got the chance to listen to it. I've added it back to my list to rerequest over the summer when I may have more time. We'll see how that works, though.

Our after dinner book is Old Yeller. I figured that if I have a captive audience, I might as well take advantage of that. I want the kids to know what great books are. I think our next one will be The Witch of Blackbird Pond. We just finished Bud, Not Buddy as our book on CD. We listen to those when we get in the van. I'm never sure how the kids will like a book, and we've taken a couple back to the library after listening to it for a couple of minutes. Sometimes, it's not the book as much as the person reading the book. Our next two books on CD are Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator and R, My Name Is Rachel. I have been trying to pair our books with what we are studying in school, as well. We read The Drinking Gourd after studying slavery. One of our history curriculums has a list of books that go along with each time period. I'll be using that, thank you very much.

I was at a friend's house yesterday and was browsing through a stack of books that she had sitting on a table. I took pics of a couple so that when I got home, I could request them from the library. When the boy and I are done reading during our weekly trip, we sometimes have a few minutes to wander the aisles. I'll take pics of whatever books may interest me to request those as well. I also read through the flyer I still get from the Literary Guild even though I will never again join their club. And don't you join, either, or I will knock some sense into you. Talk about a rip off. Our big box bookstore has a newsletter that has reviews or upcoming releases. And I love my book club. I always write down the books that are recommended for the next meeting. Some of them are really not my style, but it helps expand my reading horizons.

For the first time in our homeschooling journey, each of my kids has a book list that is the front and back of two sheets of notebook paper and we are still reading. The boy may fill one sheet of notebook paper. Maybe. The big girl always has multiple pages. The baby has increased the number of books she's read as well. Previously, her list has been full of quick read books. Now there's a nice combination of quick and fluffy and chapter books. And the chapter books are ones she's read and not just the ones that were read to her.

I want my kids to be inspired when they choose books. I want them to know that there are great classics out there for their enjoyment. I want their brains to be active and engaged. Of course, some days, it's a miracle my brain is active and engaged, but still.

Have a great day.