The Difference Between Boys and Girls

We're reading a heck of great book.  It's a great book for boys but it's a great book for anyone. 

"The Great Brain," by John D. Fitzgerald is set in 1896 in Utah.  The story centers around three brothers and their community.  These boys, in particluar, the oldest boy, play games and pranks, get in fights, do chores and figure life out.

The chapter we just finished is titled "A Wreath for Abie."  In short Abie is an older jewish man who starves to death instead of asking for charity.  It's a very moving chapter.  Most touching is when Abie dies in Mama's arms after they carry him from his living quarters in his store to the boys' home.  I wasn't expecting that outcome.

After reading the passage describing Abie's passing I was choked up and the girls were teary, as well.  Jake had a smirk on his face.

"Jake, what could you possibly find amusing?"

Replies Jake, "I was just wondering about whose bed Abie died in.  The brothers are gonna probably tease whoever's bed it was."

Planning for Next Year...No Plan

I figured I was having the seasonal "homeschool burnout" that begins to hover the house around March-ish.  We just haven't gained much momentum since January. 

Maybe it was the change in evaluators.  Maybe it was trying to work in three different sciences and keep them all interesting.  Maybe it was the angst over my son's recent learning disability diagnosis.  Maybe it was our personal struggles that have plagued us for the past 3 years.  Maybe it was my employment after a 20 year hiatus.

Yeah...it was that life thing.  Life is making homeschooling burdensome.  So burdensome that I considered public school for everyone next year, including a preschool for Luke.  We are attending an open house at the public school next month.  The relief I expected to feel at the anticipation of the open house is not being felt.

It has occured to me that yet another major change...everyone going to school is adding in another stressor.  It has also occured to me that it's not really "homeschool burnout" but it's "life burnout."

We have lots of "stuff" going on in our family.  We are in need of refreshment.  That, of course, means different things to the differing personalities in our home.  We're figuring that out.

In the meantime, we are covering our basics of math and reading everyday.  Surprisingly I am not stressing out over this at all.  We are all carving out a space of the day to give attention to Luke's activities.  Working together like this is working for us.

The workboxes are ideal for us to keep on track and encourage personal responsibility.  However, they take away from the together part of our homeschool that's always been part of our homeschool personality.

And I have found that I just can't pull myself in 4 different directions; not in the middle of all life's recent charges anyway.

So we are reading together, plugging away at the math texts, playing with Luke and getting out of the house to learn in life.  I'm not even thinking about next year's homeschool, yet.  I'm not even thinking about next year's public schooling, yet.  I am keeping myself in the present and choosing live life instead of grinding against it.

History and Hyperboles

Still working from workboxes keeps everyone on task for their independent work and keeps me on task for the things I consider need to be gone over everyday.  Math is moving along : )  Makes me mother happy.  The whiteboard has been a school-saver for Jake.  He works his practice set out on the whiteboard and for some reason, it makes all the difference in his speed and accuracy.  He's even able to catch his own mistakes and asks for help.

Spelling is another workbox filler.  I've seen that working on spelling together, everyday, is helping Jake's & Elaina's overall writing/composition skills and boosting their confidence tremendously.  The word-wall helps, too.

Reading together and reading alone is another must for me everyday.  History is the read together right now.  I just can't seem to fit in any novels to read aloud together with my new schedule.  So, I'm reading aloud SOTW in addition to a short story about the lesson and giving each kid their own stories pertaining to our history to read themselves.  Can I just confide that I am so thrilled Jake finished his reading in one week? 

Having everyone work in their grammar books is another everyday must.  For Jake & Elaina this never takes more than 20 minutes working with me.  For Tara, it's more intensive so we go through together mostly.

Friday I had intended to continue with WriteShop with Jake & Elaina.  To expand it for Tara I introduced Hyperboles and was going to have her (and them) incorporate the use of hyperbole in the writing project. 

It took a different turn.

Everyone gave great examples of hyperbole.  Then we talked about how hyperbole is used in advertising.  Somehow, by the end of the morning, we had three commercials recorded on the iTouch. 

What. a. riot.

I was laughing so hard the tears flooded the set.  (get it?)

I wanted to post them but the actors/directors/writers insisted that I do not!  Insisted! 

I made them show their dad and their aunt & uncle who stopped in Friday night. 

I do have permission to share that the products being presented in an exaggerated form were:  Doggie Love Dog Food that will make your dog's heart explode with love, Shake & Boom Pancake Mix that is so golden you would think your teeth will break (but they won't) and Demented Scented Nailpolish with scents like "Oh My Gosh, I Burnt My Toast" and will fill the entire house!

 

What We've Been Up To

Our daily rhythym has shifted with an underlying hint of anxiety from withing myself. 

Luke just celebrated his 3rd birthday recently.  Three.  It really hit me like a fist!  I swear he just got here last year!  But....the pack of diapers seems to last for weeks because he's really wearing underwear most of the day now.  And he laughs out loud with intention to people, happenings and things that strike him funny.  His communication is developing so that he says things like, "uh...maybe not!" and "...well, let's see...." and "stop! That's annoying!"

He also needs his own time for learning and play with me.  He stands at the little chalkboard hanging in the kitchen and tells me it's time to do math.  Then he draws lines and circles on the board and tells me there's lots of 4's and 5's.  His brain is begging for new things to see and do and that requires the time from me. 

So we shifted our school schedule to just the afternoons leaving mornings to go outside, play with Luke, read together, do chores, etc.  At first this schedule just came about in a natural way and I would worry that the older kids weren't getting what they needed, or I would worry about Jake or Tara slacking off of stuff or not getting something done at all. 

But that hasn't happened.  It helped that I formally "announced" this was how it was going to go down here for awhile.  This formality was really for myself.  Doing that somehow gave me permission to school that way. 

I'm surprised at how consistent we've been with things; religion everyday, math everyday, spelling everyday, reading.  I'll be reinstituting our Friday fun writing projects tomorrow.  I am also still keeping to alternating weeks with science and history...they've both been so, so much better studying these subjects on that schedule.  This week and last has been history.  I've even managed to work in the composer/music study I've had forever. 

The kids have enjoyed reconnecting and working at the table together and I feel relieved that if Luke takes a nap, then am getting uninterrupted time with the older kids, if he doesn't, than he will either sit with us and be a manageable nudge, watch a movie, play with Tara's iTouch, or sit in the classroom and play with his trucks and trains...in other words, he's easier to deal with and distract because he's had a morning of appropriate stimulation and attention.

I still can't take him to the library, though.  Maybe when he's four ; )

Making Adjustments

Is change and transition smooth for any human?  It's not for this human. 

There's been a fair share of upheaval in my world.

I've had to get a job.  Having to get a job presents itself with its own set of adjustment challenges.  Check.

Adjusting to working outside my home after a 20+ year hiatus will have adjustments, too.  Check.

Reorganizing my entire life around a new schedule is just about putting me over the edge.  Not checked.  Still working on that.

Experiencing mother-guilt from a toddler before I leave for said job.  Pure agony.  "No purple shirt, mom.  Take it off."  (My "uniform" involves a purple shirt.)

Resisting the temptation to chuck the ever-comfortable homeschooling style I have adapted and give ourselves over to radical unschooling.  Checked, as of this morning.

The Planets, Consonant blends, Home Ec., Bubbles

This week has gone off course in a good way in our homeschool.

We are studying History and Science on alternate weeks.  This allows for a better flow of focus on our history/science topic and allows for more in-depth study of anything interesting that comes up, as well.  Elaina has discovered the overlap between history and science these last two weeks.

Last week, our History week, we read about Copernicus and Gallileo.  Learning that Copernicus is referred to the "Father of Astronomy" she took an interest in the planets.  She's pulled some books off our shelves about them, googled them and is creating a poster display to hang on her ceiling following the activity in Story of the World.  She's been working on this all week, our Science week, and so has put her animal study in Apologia aside.

I came down this morning and she had her work space all set up for herself.

Her planets painted and labeled, ready to be hung.

On Wed. the kids attend an art class for 1 1/2 hours.  This is the highlight of our week.  My mother-in-law graciously offered to take them to and from and then have them at her house for the day.  (One reason is the class takes place close to her house and far from mine.)

Because their classes are at different times, one in the AM and the other in the PM, Mom-Mom decided to give Tara some cooking lessons on her stand-by delivered meals; i.e. Shepards Pie & Chicken and Rice.  She wants Tara to write down the recipes and then print them out and create a recipe book, "Grandma's Cooking" or something like that.  There are so many things I love about this!  The Home-Ec., the special time with Mom-Mom, the creativity and the prospect of what the final result will be, and having all our favorite home-cooked meals from Mom-Mom in one place!  This is homeschooling at its best.

This picture is actually Tara in our kitchen making caramel apples....but it fits, doesn't it?

While they're at Mom-Mom's I put together some schoolwork for them to take.  Usually it's just a math practice or a brain teaser puzzle with their library books or science/history reading.  One of these puzzlers I packed used consonant blends as the focus.  This was just a really fun way for Jake to practice his spelling using blends.  He picked up on the pattern of the puzzle pretty quickly.  It's like we unlocked a box with new ways to combine letters; str, skr, scr, spl, spr. 

Now why at 11 1/2 years old is Jake just seeing these combinations?  Because even though he has been shown these before he will still spell the word "spray" s-p-e-r-a-y.  His learning difference is two-fold when it comes to writing.  He's an excellent decoder therefore he can spell any word phonetically.  He knows all the various sounds of the English language (ala The Writing Road to Reading).  However, his dyslexic tendency is to mix up the letters when he writes them, for ex., "scratch" might look like s-c-e-r-a-c-h-t or "increase" might look like i-n-c-r-a-s-r-e.  Though if he read them he would know they were incorrect.  He could verbally spell them correctly, as well.

The other reason these consonant blends seem "new to him" is because his processing is such that he needs lots of model and practice of the same material over and over.  However, once he "sees" it, once he knows it, it's never forgotten and always applied. 

So, this silly little worksheet puzzle about 3 letter consonant blends did the trick...or at least all the stars were aligned and he was in a good frame of mind and he got it that day.  So, I'll just give him more fun puzzles to practice other three letter combos and he'll notice it himself in his own writing.  (Look Mom!  There's a three consonant blend!)

While we've all been busy with these things Luke also wants to be busy, too.  Making colored bubbles, suggested to me by my friend whose homeschool is Montessori-based, saved many of our mornings!

Not sure if I execute as she does as I am not trained in Montessori.  But I put dishwashing soap into a bowl of water, he mixes it with a wisk to make bubbles then he takes droppers (I have pipettes) and transfers the colored water onto the bubbles. 

This was so fascinating to everyone that as you can see in the picture, Elaina waited her turn and then I caught Jake in the kitchen at the end of the day:

uh....could you just ignore the mess?  yeah, thanks....

That's our week and I'm glad to be back on track with my online homeschool record!  (Please give me back Be Not Afraid, Google!!!  Please????)


Linking up with Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

What Week is it?

Well, I see that I have relied a wee bit much on "Be Not Afraid" for my homeschool record-keeping.  I started to enjoy keeping track of it so much on my NON-SPAM blog that I stopped writing things down in my actual planner.

Now I don't remember what week I'm in and I need to sit and figure it out.  I think I'm at about week 18 or so?

I'll have more clarity when I can sit by myself and figure it out...when can I sit by myself?

The weeks are filled with regular outings for different kids.  It's been that kind of school year...everyone needs seem to be so spread apart that we haven't done too much together stuff.

Tuesdays are Jake's writing workshop and Elaina's guitar...that puts me in and out of the house between 9 and noon.

Weds is art for everyone and I am hanging with Luke for the day since my mother-in-law has the children at her house for the day and does the drop-off/pick-ups...though since Cassie's been home from college, I've had a couple Wednesdays to myself (sure wasn't looking over my homeschool planner, that's for sure!)

Thursdays, Elaina has a regular ice skating date with a friend that last week my other kids crashed, and would like to continue to do so.

That leaves Monday and Friday where we are all in the house together able to do some focused schoolwork.  I am struggling to make this work for everyone as, like I stated, they all seem to be in a state of needing one-to-one attention/instruction/guidance/etc.

Throw into the mix that I need to pick up my Michele from high school by 2:35 everyday and the days feel crammed. 

Yesterday, Monday, we accomplished the necessaries.  Michele went to Washington D.C. to participate in the March for Life.  I was hopeful that not having to pick her up would open up more time for us to do some fun stuff. 

But by about 2:00, I was feeling done.  They were acting done.  We were done.  (Sounds like dictation sentences.)  If I were talking to another mom and she was telling me this my next comment would be, "Sounds like you got alot accomplished today."  But I'm not feelin' it.  Because if I were the mother on the receiving end of that comment today I would be thinking "You're full of baloney."

Well, I'm hoping to have it together by Friday, in time for the weekend.  Right now I have to bake no-sugar banana muffins for Jake's writing class at 9:00 AM....I guess I could've done that yesterday afternoon...why rush...