Saturday, November 06, 2010

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Things are Going Swimmingly

Our first year of homeschooling came to an end last week with shouts of joy and raucous celebrating. OK, so we gave each other high fives and went to America’s Incredible Pizza Company. But it was all good. Actually, it really was all good. I am still surprised at how well this inaugural year went. And, despite my lack of attention to the blog, I wasn’t buried in books and work like I thought I would be. Things were manageable. The kids were cooperative. That wasn’t to say there weren’t complaints. There are always complaints. But we were never “behind on work” as I have often heard other homeschooling families say. Maybe I wasn’t giving them enough to do. Hmmmmmm.

Immediately after we finished school, we took a “Staycation” for a few days. On Thursday night we went to a Rascals Game. They won!! We spent the bulk of Friday at the City Museum, and we stayed at a hotel downtown where the kids could swim. We had dessert at Ted Drewes that evening, and ordered a midnight snack from Imo’s before turning in at the hotel. On Saturday morning we went up in the Arch, we visited the Brewery, and had a snack at Gus’s Pretzels before heading to the country house for a quick stay. We finished up our staycation on Monday with lunch from White Castles. It was a fun trip!

This is the only week of June where there is not something planned for every single day of the week. Next week Big D will attend Cub Scout day camp and Miss M will go to vocal camp. The following week is Girl Scout day camp and the big boys will go to basketball camp. The two weeks following will be VBS for the three oldest. Banana is also starting ballet classes, something she’s wanted to do for a while, but I couldn’t manage it during the school year. And don’t forget that three kids are playing ball and those same three kids are playing instruments with lessons once a week. We’ll be taking a road trip to visit my grandma the first week in July, and the hopefully it will start to feel like summer vacation after all that. My calendar barely has any more room on it, but I’m trying not to freak out. I take it one day (sometimes one hour) at a time. As Dory says in Finding Nemo, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…”

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Happy Homeschooling

I realize that my kids’ Halloween pictures were the last thing I posted. On the one hand I feel badly about that. But on the other hand I accept that homeschooling comes with certain sacrifices. This blog happens to be one of those sacrifices – along with afternoon naps.

But the sacrifices are well worth it. I am very happy homeschooling.

Today is an ugly, soggy day. I am extremely thankful that my children and I are warm and dry inside our house. Most of us are still in our pajamas. My morning coffee is perfectly complemented by the Ludwig Van Beethoven Station we created on Pandora. I feel happy.

Banana is in the other room trying to build a house for her dollies out of dominos. She lets out a frustrated shriek every time they fall down. David takes a break from his schoolwork to help her, announcing, “I am a domino expert!” Any other time I would probably ask David to get back to his work, but he was actually being helpful to his sister. I am happy about that and wouldn’t want to interfere with it.

Miss M is working on spelling. Today’s lesson calls for dictionary work – NOT her favorite. She has the dictionary and her papers spread out in front of her, writing each word in a different shade using her 4-color pen. She is doing all of this with a feverish toddler on her lap. I am happy to see him smiling at his big sister, even though he’s not feeling so well this morning.

C.B. and I are sounding out long U words to fill in a story about Sue and her pet mule that eats fruit. We are enjoying the story and it’s making us laugh. I am happy about this because only moments ago he was complaining about having to work on this story.

Today is definitely a good day. My days aren’t all like this one, believe me. That’s why it’s important for me to record days like this one. I tend to focus on the negative instead of on the positive. Writing this post will highlight this day in my memory. I can also go back and read about it when I’m having a different sort of day.

Have a happy day!