Seafood and chocolate
More of the same today with my family in a productive way. I love crossing things off of the to-do list! It speaks to my love language and puts me in a better mindset for the school year. For example. I’ve been staring at a light switch that didn’t have a face plate on it for the last nine months. I would walk by it every day and think to myself that I needed to buy a cover to hide the wires, but my desire to do so never went beyond that. My dad bought a cover today and put it on for me. You would have thought it was Christmas! It’s those kinds of things that help me mentally for the school year. Weird, I know, but this is how I am wired.
Dinner tonight: boiled shrimp, snow crab legs, corn, caesar salad, and baked potatoes. I bought our seafood at the local market, and it was delicious! My 8 year old son had just finished the book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, so the kids were allowed to watch the old version of the movie with Gene Wilder. It’s an incentive I use with my kids. If they read the book, then usually we’ll watch the associated movie.
Off to clean a really dirty kitchen…
“Back to school” sale
I was flipping through some magazines and noticed all of the fun “back to school items” for kids on sale. I thought to myself that my children won’t experience the new purchases of backpacks or pencil holders or lunch boxes because we don’t need those types of items. Will they be missing out because they won’t experience that rush feeling of starting a new school year with new environments and new supplies and new teachers. Well, I wouldn’t continue our homeschooling journey if I thought those missing pieces would alter their future somehow in a negative way. I still believe that our current path is the correct one for our family. I do think, however, that we’ll go out for a celebratory dinner and maybe a bookstore visit next week once we start back up with academics as our way of acknowledging their new school years.
Today-more projects and hair color:) I spent some time this evening organizing my science supplies. It is essential to my sanity to have an organized home.
Literature
My mind is on books this evening. My oldest 2 children have become quite the avid readers, and I need to provide them with some new choices of literature from the library. This evening I’ve been thumbing through some sources such as “Honey for a Child’s Heart” and “Parent’s guide to the Best Books for Children” for ideas. My youngest two children are still in need of encouraging and teaching good reading skills, so I’m looking for additional quality read-alouds as well as independent books for them. Reading well is an important goal for all of my children to reach.
I was thinking how detached I’ve been from school. I must have really needed a serious break, because I’ve been in full-blown summer mode. I’ve also been using my time wisely to accomplish those home projects that stare at you from September to June. My mother asked me tonight how I get any teaching done with these projects taking up so much of my time. Of course, I told her that those projects simply don’t get accomplished when we’re in hard core academic mode. Almost everything gets put on hold except for the bare necessities when we are studying.
Projects
My parents and I worked on house projects, today. My mother made tablecloths to go over one of those inexpensive wooden tables you can buy at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. The piece came out nicely, and I’m using the table in my foyer. (I’m bias, but my mother is quite talented.) My second son observed my mother sewing for a while. He was interested in what she was doing, so she talked him through the steps as she went. The way his brain is wired I think sewing classes or something similar would prove beneficial and interesting to him- an activity to consider in his future. He has an engineering/surgeon type of mindset. My father worked in the yard cleaning out flower beds and then pressure-washed around the pool. I wish they lived down the street instead of 18 hours away!
I kept my girlfriend’s children during the day to help her. They are moving very soon:( I fed them dinner, and the kids enjoyed their time of free play together. Of course, the kids asked me if they could play video games. You know my answer. “No”. Go outside and swim and jump and run around and shoot basketball, etc. Use your imagination and create something in nature:)
Slowing down to eat
We finished the weekend with some great endings to soccer tournaments. All worth it even though we started our day around 6 a.m. and didn’t finish with games until about 7:30 p.m. I finally made it to the grocery store to buy needed food and drinks. We’ve been on the go so much, so we’ve been eating out quite a bit. That scenario gets old quickly. So tonight my mother and I cooked cubed steak, rice, and sautéed squash and onions. That was served with store-bought cornbread muffins. Yum. Nice to finally slow down to eat a home-cooked meal.
We are now collapsing into bed. This week will officially be our last week of summer vacation. I hope to finish a few projects with my parents’ help and also show them some local sites, Manhattan being a must.
I did notice one of my workbooks is on backorder from Rainbow Resource-ugh, so I need to see if Amazon or another store has it in stock tomorrow. I want to have all pieces in play when I begin academics next week.
Needing a wagon
If you are a sports family, then you can relate to how the games or events can take over your weekend. That was our family today.
I had a meeting this morning that I had to almost rush out of so that I could get home in time to change for the soccer tournament. I quickly scooped up the family, ice chest, chairs, canopy, cameras, sunscreen, hats, a folding table, food, and drinks, and we headed to the tournament. (I’ve decided I need to find a yard sale wagon to tote our items from the car to the fields that are usually a long walk away). The hour and 10 minute drive took almost 2 hours because of turnpike traffic. We finally arrived at the event and were able to enjoy watching some quality soccer playing. Our day went from noon until we arrived home around 9:00 in the evening. This was for my second son. My oldest son had already played in a different soccer tournament this morning to help out another team. His games were an hour south in the opposite direction, so his day had started around 6:30 a.m. with my husband taxi-driving.
We may be a bit nutty choosing to do these kinds of activities on a volunteer basis, but I’m still a big believer in sports promoting so many healthy things for children.
We’ll do this all over again tomorrow, and that’s just 2 out of the 4 kids. Maybe we can have a sit-down, home-cooked meal tomorrow evening. Hoping my mother is game for cooking:)
Shopping (and more shopping)
More of the same today for the kids’ schedules. However, my mother and I were on a furniture shopping mission. We spent approximately 9 hours running in and out of stores. I am in need of a breakfast table and chairs along with a few other smaller home items. Because I’m a homeschooler and mother of four young children, I have durability and practicality high on my list of priorities for dinette selections. My children do lots of crafts and art projects at the kitchen table, so I need a surface that can handle that kind of wear and tear.
Of course, the weather decided to downpour rain upon us off and on as we shopped, and I had no umbrella to help us stay dry. By the end of the day, we found ourselves in our second Home Goods store being physically and mentally exhausted. You know the kind where you start to think that everything is funny, even when it’s not, because you are so tired. At one point we found ourselves laughing uncontrollably in the restroom, and I don’t even remember what we were laughing at. I’m just thankful that no one else was in the restroom because they probably would have thought that we’d gone mad.
Shopping took a great deal of time and work. Once we resume normal studies, I will not be able to have such a day as this again. 9 hours is a long time, but I’m grateful to be crossing things off of my to-do list!
Happy Birthday
The day was filled with moving furniture, decorating, cleaning, and my usual taxi driving to robotics camp, soccer, and gymnastics. The kids had an especially fun time today as my parents gave each one an allowance to spend on themselves at Target. My youngest son chose some Hot Wheels toy and seemed to love it. That was until we arrived home where he decided he no longer liked his gift. He wanted to return it for a different toy after he’d already opened it. Too bad, I explained. He was stuck with that toy. Unfortunately, that was not the answer he wanted to hear, so big crocodile tears and drama erupted until I put a stop to them. We discussed life lessons: choose wisely and be thankful…
More work tomorrow. I’m taking advantage of my parents’ many gifts:)
We will likely be traveling around the local area next week on various field trips. The time always goes too fast when they are here. Full-blown academics will follow after they leave, so I’d like to visit several bucket list items while they are in town so that they can enjoy them with us. We celebrated their birthdays this evening. Any excuse to eat ice cream cake!
The Parents
I’ve spent the last day working on a few more home summer projects along with cleaning the house. My parents flew in from Mississippi today to spend some time with us. We’ve talked my father into helping my husband with some odd projects, and my mother and I will be shopping and decorating. She has quite the touch when it comes to home decor. Someone from HGTV should really discover her:) We enjoyed burgers and toasted marshmallows this evening by the pool. A great start..
The older boys are attending a local robotics club all week that’s associated with their FLL group. Soccer and gymnastics are also back in the mix. As we continue our visit with my parents, I’ll be putting the finishing touches on our upcoming academic year making sure I have all necessary materials and a decent game plan in play for academics. I’m still ironing out extracurriculars, as well. I work much better when I have everything organized. I’m feeling pretty good that I am at this point, but trial and error keep me from becoming too confident!
Home improvements
We arrived home early yesterday morning after driving through the night. Thankfully, traffic flowed smoothly. I slept for only about 5 hours after our arrival, because I had to be at the University of Pennsylvania to attend a coach’s workshop for our robotics club. Needless to say, I sipped heavy coffee on the drive in.
I spent the morning to include lunch at the workshop, and then spent some time in the afternoon visiting with one of my girlfriends who’s moving soon. Finally, after pausing back home, I put on my work clothes and worked in the yard with the kids trimming shrubs and pulling weeds. By the time midnight rolled around, I was moving furniture. I’ve put my dining room back together. It is no longer the schoolroom. Now, I’m setting up shop in the office with books and such. My plan is to have work stations in separate rooms, so the kids can have quiet environments to study in.
Today involved church and helping my husband with more house projects. My youngest child told me he did not want to wear the pants i had picked out, because they made him look like he had two butts. Help me…That was followed by a dinner for another girlfriend who is also moving:( a Walmart topped off my day-Uggh. An unpleasant but necessary adventure.
I’m moving much closer to getting everything on place to begin hard core academics. Being and staying organized is crucial in homeschooling. Purging at times is absolutely essential to a sane environment.
Off to work some more before the fatigues hit me..
Turtle Watching
Our vacation time is coming to an end shortly. I have a few house projects to work on before we leave and get back to reality, but today was a lazy day of family time. I appreciate those moments when you can just stare at your children and make those mental Kodak pictures. We ended our night observing newborn turtles making their way from the nest to the vast ocean. Our beach has a turtle patrol, and they take their job very seriously. I appreciate their dedication, but some of the volunteers we’ve encountered over the years could use some brushing up on their people skills. One of the ladies tonight all but yelled at my son for having his flash on while he was taking a picture of the baby turtle. I could tell he was a bit upset when she snapped at him because he’d meant no harm. I know the flash can disorient the turtles but geeze, Louise. It’s all in the delivery. It really is..Who knows. Maybe I’ll be one of those bitter turtle patrol ladies one day barking at the crowd-ha! Then you can make fun of me.
Ben Nelson and Minerva
My eyes are watching closely to what’s going on with higher education. Knowing that we have four children to possibly enter that world keeps me glued to the happenings of combining technology with education.
See the below article on Ben Nelson and his project, Minerva. He’s likely making some enemies in the old establishments since he’s wanting to shake up how we’ve viewed college education for centuries.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324110404578627712224845012.html
Homework
I’m spending some time this evening learning more about Evernote. Our robotics club is using Evernote to help with organization of data and so forth. You really have to be proactive to stay connected with technology development.
My daughter’s first black eye below. She and her younger brother ran straight into each other while playing around the water slide. The sound was like that of a bat hitting a baseball. A bit unnerving..
Riding the bicycle
After an early morning run and shopping at our local beach stores, I worked a bit with my oldest son on reading. I really wasn’t sure how our first “session” would go. We haven’t been officially studying for about a month now, so I thought he might give me a bit of an attitude, especially since we are on vacation. But, he actually did quite well as we discussed the subject of reading and what that will look like for him over the next year. I wondered also how I would do with teaching him. Not only is he rusty at receiving information, but I am rusty at teaching information. I thought about how much our homeschool experiences resemble that of learning to ride a bicycle. You’re nervous initially and wonder how you’re going to accomplish the task. Then, you actually start riding and determine that you like the experience and want to do it again. Later, you become a pro at what you’re doing and can teach others. That’s similar to how I felt today. Unsteady at first but eventually and thankfully found my groove.
Our academic time was cut short as cousins arrived to enjoy the water slide. Dinner was held at “Planet Fun”. Now it’s after midnight, so I don’t see teaching any more for now:)
Morning run
I’m going for an early morning run today, so I’m posting quickly in hopes of getting some sleep soon. Nothing with academics, today, other than reading a few academic articles on the web. My husband and I were discussing the kids’ college funds. How much is enough? What amount of money is ideal given the fact that college as we knew it for us may not exist for them. Will everything be online?
Off to sleep..
Not crafty but will give it a go
Making crafts have never really gotten my attention, whether they are for me, a friend, or my family. However, I was visiting Martha Stewart’s website this evening and noticed her section on kids’ seasonal crafts. I noticed a few crafts featured for the summer season that actually looked to be fun and interesting to make with my children. So, breaking away from my norm, I hope to try several of these crafts with the kids this week. I especially liked the seashell projects. Easy and memory-makers. We’ll see how they turn out..
http://www.marthastewart.com/275581/kids-summer-crafts/@center/276975/marthas-crafts-kids#273438
The Readjustment Period
I’m up alone this evening, again. The beach house is quiet, and I can hear the faint, moaning sounds of the ocean in the distance. I love the nighttime where I can sit quietly and think. My mind is racing a bit on random thoughts of China’s human trafficking to where to live/retire to owning a business to fields of future study for my children. If I could choose the future, I would choose one where we owned our own business, and the kids would work and grow the business. I guess I’m one of those parents who really enjoys having them around. My kids are like mini-science experiments. You start with some problems, form a few hypotheses, then undergo lots of trials and errors and hope and pray you come out with the right results and conclusion! And really, I think I’d make a pretty good CEO of a big company. I read somewhere that Martha Stewart operates on very little sleep. I already do that, so fatigue wouldn’t be an issue. Yes, maybe I’ll run a large company like Martha one day, only without the jail time:)
I’ve now been through all four children’s curricula and have their plans in place. My next hurdle is how to juggle all of the subjects with the varying grade levels. I’d like to employ my older 2 children to read to the younger children for starters on things such as poetry. Such reading would benefit all involved. Really, though, our academics are so teacher-dependent on me that I have to decide what each child can study independently while I’m one-on-one with their siblings. Of course, free time can beneficial.
Today included more beach time, bikes, and burgers. Tomorrow promises kayaks and fishing, and I may work with each child in short bursts to begin our reentry into academics.
More Prep work
Today was filled with more fun in the sun. The kids and I visited some local beach shops hunting for possible kayak rentals and floats. I decided not to rent kayaks, as the price was steep for our length of stay. We bought a variety of swim floats instead, and the kids had fun riding the floats over the waves. The riptides have been rather strong these last few days, so we’ve had to be especially careful in the water. Not relaxing when you have to watch their every move. I selfishly like it when they decide to sit on the sand and build drip castles.
I’m up late again accomplishing more academic prep work. I think I’ve got a decent schedule in place for my oldest 2 sons. Now, I need to review curricula for the bottom 2 children and plan out their schedules. We will be covering a great deal of material, especially when you combine all four grades together. My current line of thinking is to cover subjects in block increments, and I’m trying to devise the schedule so that I’m covering the same subjects for each child at the same time minus their core subjects which will be studied daily. Not sure yet how this will go, but it looks good on paper.
I have no idea
Everyone’s asleep in the beach house except, of course, me. I’ve begun the descent into landing back into academics. The first action plan is my own prep work. I’ve ordered more consumables from Rainbow Resources along with multiple Calvert Test series. In addition I’ve decided, at least for now, that I’m not subscribing to Calvert’s ATS. It’s just simply cost-prohibitive with four children, and I’m not sure the investment benefits would outweigh the costs.
Currently, I’m going through my sixth grader’s materials and getting my mind around what his year will look like. I’m appreciating the fact that he will need to be a strong independent learner this year. Along with that comes emphasis on good study and organizational skills that I will have to teach him. I’m considering setting up his own workspace in his room. Having multiple children poses challenges on providing quiet places to study with minimal distractions, so I need to rethink our logistics when we return home from vacation.
My other three children are still in that window of core academic emphasis, the 3 R’s. That set-up will require a great deal of my time and focus, yet another big challenge.
I don’t know how I will juggle it all. With the exception of math and reading, I’m leaning towards studying our subjects in blocks of time versus shuffling various subjects on a daily basis.
Off to plan again and maybe sleep..
Opportunity for your junior?
I’ve been reading the “College Board” site today and noticed this posting below. I’ve no idea if they would consider a homeschooler for the position, but it may be worth asking the question.
http://about.collegeboard.org/governance/advisory-panel-student-opportunity-seeking-representatives
Bingo!
Last night around midnight I drove into town to go to Walmart. It is only a few miles from our little island. Frequent Walmart trips are one of those family traditions we have while on vacation. This particular trip I was on a mission to buy new board games since our old ones needed replacing. I bought quite a few, and the lady behind me in the check-out line asked me if I was a school teacher. I said, “Well, yes, but only to my children. We are a homeschooling family.” She paused in her response. I could see that she was processing what I had said, so she just smiled at me politely with the head tilt. I’m not really sure what her opinion was of me.
So, anyway, besides beach time we played lots of games today: Monopoly, Clue, UNO, Phase 10, Trouble, Sorry, Bingo, and some Angry Birds game. No one in our family likes to lose, so there’s quite a competitive environment once the games begin.
Huffington Post article on summer enrichment and wasting your money
Interesting article from Bev Taylor:
Common core standards
I was reading a bit from HSLDA tonight about the common core standards. If I’m understanding the facts correctly, implementing and enforcing these rules upon our children and in our institutions will not prove to be beneficial for anyone. I hope America is not sleeping on this issue. There is no one-size-fits all, especially when it comes to education. These CCS only look to potentially threaten individual choices and freedoms, especially those of homeschoolers and private institutions. Can you feel the wool being pulled over your eyes? Best to stay alert on this issue..
The kids put on a talent show tonight. Good times. I laughed so hard until I hurt.
Planet Fun
We finally arrived at the beach house around 7 in the morning after driving all night. We slept a few hours before heading to the water.The kids played for a couple of hours, and then we showered and spent the evening at a family place that offers laser tag, bowling, put put, playgrounds, arcades, and bouncies. I’m sure I was half asleep walking around since we haven’t really covered from the drive down. Looking forward to sleeping late in the morning. The kids were given strict instructions to not wake up early and then not to disturb those who might still be asleep.
Ivy League Homeschooling 