Nature Geeks...or Should I Say Freaks...

So yesterday on our way home from Mass we spotted 3 baby deer in our neighbor's yard.  Even though we deer practically every day or evening, I still get excited.  "Oooohhhhhhh......look!  There's deer!!!!!," I squeal, as if this is the first sighting of live deer I've ever experienced.  My younger kids still share the excitement and hop up to look.  The older ones roll their eyes and shake their heads.  Cassie, the young adult, at least grants me a laugh, as if I'm the child and gives me a polite, "oh, yes, that's nice."

But yesterday, oh, we saw these babies and then we saw a baby fox running amongst them.  Well!  My husband pulled the car right over as if we were on the Great Adventure Safari.

"It has something in its mouth!"  We watched the fox eat a....something.....maybe it's a mouse!  "Uh-oh....the neighbor's cat is in the driveway....do you think the fox will get it?  What about the deer?"

This exclaimed by the parents in the front seat.  The kids in the back were begging, "Please, drive!  This is so embarrassing....we are literally staring at the neighbor's house!  We look like creepers!  Go home! "  They were sinking down into their seats.
 
Across the street we spotted the doe.  "Look!  There's the mom!"

Then my husband spotted a fourth baby deer.  "Wow!  There's four of them!  That's unusual."

Luke and Elaina were the only ones still with us.

Later on in the afternoon, we were all gathered to watch Project Runway.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge bird land on a tree outside the window.  Look!  A hawk!  My husband rushes to the window.  No, that's a falcon!  Wow!  Look how huge that bird is!

Another one flies to the limb.  They begin fighting for the space.  These two huge birds, fat legs, vast wingspans, flapping around this tree right outside our window.  Bill and I were ecstatic.

Michele pauses the program.  She patiently waits for the excitement to pass.  She's too cool.

We run to the other window across the house to watch the raptors fly across our yard into the thicket the lines our property.

"Wow, did you see them?  I hear them every morning...the chicks sqawking....wonder what they're feeding them?"

The kids may think they're too cool for this nature in suburbia, but their sense of wonderment and excitement will return when their sharing the natural world with someone they love.

Homeschool Planning, 2012-2013 school year

Uh.....just getting around to figuring out the homeschool year......

I usually start by a mass classroom clearout.  So right now there's a heap of crap on the floor and empty shelves and that's as far as I got.

From the dollar shelves at Target I picked up a planner, a desk organizer for Elaina and some United States Geography cards.  I'll use the cards in conjunction with About.com's bi-weekly 50 states study sent to my email all summer that I planned to use all summer but, well, you know how that goes.

One might think with the drop in enrollment at the homeschool it would be a breeze to plan.

Moving on.....

I still have good ol' Saxon Math 5/4.  I always think I want to switch, and I kinda do but I don't.  There's something about the MCP (Modern Curriculum Press) books I like, and they're reasonable, so maybe.

My wish is to do a year with Five in a Row.  I think Elaina would really enjoy this and it would be a nice change for me.  I love that Elaina is at an age where I'm not panicking about where her gaps are.

Michele shared an observation with me one day while driving her home from high school.  She opined that all the worrying people do about grades and academics is pointless because none of it matters until about Junior or Senior year when you want to decide about college.  She offered that one could be a sub-standard student by school system standards until those last years.  If a student isn't made to believe they are sub-standard then they could do what is required to get good grades in the 11th & 12th grades and go on to college.  All the obsessing by parents and kids about school in the elementary years is unnecessary.  All this to say that her observations gave me a break from the worrying and questioning "am I providing enough (academically)"

Five in a Row appears to be fun, engaging and doable with Elaina.

For History we'll continue with Story of the World.  I just like it.

Because I love Science it's unavoidable that it will be passed by.  I know FIAR covers some but I don't really know to what degree because I've never worked with it.  I've used Behold and See by Catholic Heritage Curricula and I loved it.  As a focus, though, we'll go over anatomy and the like as I see fit and she seems interested.

Writing and Grammar:  Well, I just don't know yet.  Elaina loves to write.  We'll start there.  I love Primary and Intermediate Language Lessons.  We'll keep with that.

I considered enrolling Luke in a preschool.  I still might for two mornings a week but finances may keep me from that.  Because I function better with structure, hence they will function better, I'll just structure Luke's morning around Hubbard's Cupboard outline.  Basically, stories, bible verses and letters, numbers and shapes.  I also plan to have a bin of "school toys" that will be his to play/work with while Elaina and I are doing whatever.

Just a plan....we'll see how it plays out.

Elaina will be in an art class and continue with guitar lessons.  I'll continue doing what I've always done and doing art and music once a month or so or see what FIAR brings us in those areas.

Now I never plan "gym."  My kids have always played sports and outside, etc. and I call it gym.  This year, however, I am planning to include Elaina in my runs, if she wishes.  Moreso to teach her proper running form. In maintaining proper running form one's posture and gait improves naturally.  Elaina's posture and gait are compromised due to her brachial plexus injury.  My hope is she experiences confidence in being able to see how these small adjustments in her movements improves some of the discomfort she experiences as a result of the imbalance the injury presents.

Did I miss anything?  I may have because I just started thinking about it.

Because of the older kids being in school, we'll just follow along the school schedule with modifications.

The Power of Mom

While riding in the car yesterday, Luke was playing a game on my phone.  As I turned a corner Luke asked, "Mom, will you turn off the sun?  I can't see this game."

Homeschool Dropout

I could subtitle this What are You Really Afraid of?

So I almost have two kids enrolled in public school.

Excuse me while I pause for a reality check...............................

Just rereading that last thought has me asking my buck-the-system-self, "Who are you?  Really?"

I'm a homeschooler.  I've been a homeschooler when I had my first daughter; unmarried, young, irresponsible, misguided, lost at sea.  Disconnected from most of my world and myself but instantly connected to the little life that was handed to me in 1992.  That connection freed me to tap into myself.  The Who of who I am.

Let me reign myself in, here.  Before I go too existential I am referring to not a conscious decision to attachment parent but just a knowing and an awareness of my responsibility towards this life...and the other lives that have been shared with me.

....and so this connection gave way to homeschooling, or, the mindset to homeschool.

For me, public schooling was the opposite of this mindset.  Putting the kids into the local catholic school felt "safer" and okay because I had the illusion of control and also because I felt secure knowing that the Gospel is taught.  I felt secure knowing that everything taught was from the perspective that there is a loving God always  available through Jesus Christ.

But the things of this world have placed me into a position where I am living in Bizzaro:  working near full time, crockpot dinners, siblings minding the store, adjusting the priority of commitments to such a way that what I once thought of was most important has become, well, pushed aside for "later."

So am I still a homeschooler?  Well, I still have a 5th grader and a preschooler at home.  We'll still homeschool.  But there's been a paradigm shift in what I think is "best."  Truthfully, it's a shift in facing my fears and setting worry under a rock instead of my faith.