Brothers Banter

B16, who has been snarling a lot lately about his school workload, was in a good mood the other morning.

He was dressed in silky gym shorts and no shirt.  A fluffy Christmas blanket was draped around his shoulders as he fried eggs, over-easy, for himself.  His brother sat at the dining room table, school laptop open in front of him, engrossed in Garfield strips on GoComics.com as he ate cold cereal from a bowl.  His attire was identical to his brother's, but his blanket was black, a fake fur affair that is his constant companion.

"Y'know, Mom, I know I complain a lot, but there are a lot of things I like about being homeschooled," B16 told me.  "It's kinda cool that I can wear whatever I want."  He grinned down at his blanket and silky shorts.  "I can get up and make myself something to eat whenever I want."  He nodded at the skillet in front of him.  "And I can put on Christmas music while I study."  He gestured cheerfully toward the stereo, where his iPod rested, pushing Michael Buble's silky voice through the speakers.

"And I get to hang out with B12."  His eyes traveled across the kitchen and connected with his brother's.  "That's one of the best parts.  We joke around a lot.  And I can beat him up whenever I want."  He made punching motions at B12's head.  B12 didn't bat an eyelid, just kept his eyes glued to Garfield as he replied, deadpan, "Yeah, that's my favorite part too."

"It's a pretty good life, y'know?"  B16 summarized, picking up his plate.  He paused, fork in hand.  "Except for the school part.  Now if I just didn't have to worry about THAT...."

It's not the first time that B16 has told me that one of the best things, for him, about homeschooling again, has been reconnecting with his younger brother.  They really do have a good time together, and their laughter and joking around are contagious.  And hard to stop!  It becomes my unpleasant duty to constantly call them to FOCUS. Sometimes they have to separate, just to get anything done.

It even extends to Facebook, where they tease each other, and their sister, Blondechick, at college.  I give you the following interchange:

B16 posted on Blondechick's wall:
Mucho PU ablo?


Blondechick:
Okay so I have to admit, I just put that into google to see if it actually meant something and google asked me "Did you mean, Michel Pablo?" STOP you're just trying to mess with me with yer fake spanish words.


B16: 
Haha you got me. On a brighter note. "That fart smelled like the fart I farted a couple farts ago." The wise words of B12.


Blondechick:
Oh, how-I-miss-you-two.  Monotone, bro.


B12:   
Never art thou weak too strong as for the weak are the weak and the strong the strong. Some more wise words that won't do you any good.


B16:
Wise words, my friend!


Blondechick: 
Thanks B12, I'm proud to say you have officially become your father's son. Only Dad [linked to her father's wall] has that kind of humor.

So there you have the culprit.  My dear husband.

If only he was around to break up the joking during the school day.  But he would probably just join in--leaving me with not two, but three unruly males.

I guess there are worse problems to have....

Fall Educational Plans...and a Sabbatical

Is it time to be blogging about our back-to-school plans?

Feels like it's time...and yet, there's not as much to say as usual.  I'm taking a sabbatical from homeschooling.

I've homeschooled for 14 years straight, and since we moved here three years ago, I've been stretched thinner than I ever have before.  It was a lot easier to homeschool when all my kids were at home and on the same schedule.  But our move came just as our three oldest were embracing teenager-hood with a vengeance and without the safety net of Christian friends and friendships that we had in our old community.  The three of them--especially #2 and #3--seemed to require a lot more time and attention than they had previously, with enrollment in a public high school and then the Christian school...and all that came with it:  rides to school, help with homework, sports, a social schedule, a social life (a.k.a "drama"), driver's ed, driving, jobs, college visits, graduation, and transitioning to college.  So much new stuff in three years.

Not to mention homeschooling the younger three, planting a church, starting a Christian youth theater group in Kenosha, staying on top of laundry and errands, and keeping groceries in the house!

No wonder I am out of steam.

So the plan is for Bantam6 and Chicklet8 to go to the local elementary school for first and third grades next year.  I have a good feeling about that school and the adults that I met there during the half-year that Chicklet attended, two years ago.  I think they will do well there.

Bantams12 and 16 will both be at home, but enrolled in iQ Academy, a virtual charter school here in WI.  I may have to do some nagging, but they will receive instruction, deadlines and grades from iQ Academy teachers, not me.  I'm sure they both can handle the workload and the curriculum pretty independently, and I'm looking forward to playing a supportive role, rather than a directive one, with them.

Blondechick18 leaves for TIU (Trinity International University) on Saturday.  I expect she'll be high-maintenance for her first few weeks away, but then she'll settle in.  She's been so appreciative of her family, lately, especially with the breaking off of her engagement and subsequent complete break-up.  She senses God working all things together for good in her life, though, and she is super-excited for college!

B20 will be living at home and hopefully working.  He's had two interviews recently, which was encouraging--finally.  One didn't work out, and he is hoping to be called back for a second interview at the other place.  Prayers appreciated!

So those are the educational plans...which shouldn't be too stressful or demanding on me.  It's the extra-curricular activities that are going to fill my time, I suspect.  But there are enough of them to fill a separate post!

Lessons Behind Us

Though the private Christian school that B16 and BC18 attended has been out for two weeks, B12, Chicklet8 and I have been pushing hard to complete their end-of-year projects and assignments for the virtual schools they attended this year...and we are DONE!

Ahhhh, it feels so good.

Overall, I really liked the virtual charter school option that we have here in Wisconsin.  It's been great for B12, especially, to report to someone else besides Mom and receive "for real" grades.  With Mom, it's an A every time because she works with you until you understand the concept (not a bad thing, but the burden is on Mom).  With a teacher, if you miss a lot of problems, you get a bad grade or even fail...then it's up to you to get the help you need, or fall further behind--a needed "reality motivator" for B12.  He did a great job of tackling the assignments on his own and completing his work with hardly any help--I was so proud of him!  He often needed help with time management, since his deadlines were rarely hard and fast, but it was a great opportunity for him to begin to develop those skills that many of us adults struggle with.  (Like what happens when you procrastinate, and how it's better to tackle the unknown assignment early in the week.)

For Chicklet8, I appreciated the accountability more for myself than for her.  I just don't enjoy teaching these early skills, like math facts and handwriting and sounding out words.  When I feel stretched thin by time pressures, as I have these last couple years, it's just so hard for me to find the patience for these kinds of lessons!  So it was good for us both to be pushed along by the school's assignments, and she ended up learning so much this year.  I was very pleased.

For inquiring minds, B12 was enrolled in iQ Academy, through the Waukesha public school district, and I really recommend this program.  In addition to interactive material to absorb, he had a wide variety of assignments that require higher-level thinking than just memorizing for the test, and his teachers were accessible and accommodating.  Chicklet was using the Little Lincoln Interactive curriculum through Wisconsin Virtual Learning, a charter school of the Northern Ozaukee School District.  (I think Little Lincoln is available to anyone, though--maybe not for free, as it was to us.)  Every day there were online lessons in entertaining video form from Mrs. Walden, the writing teacher, Mr. Reed Moore, the reading teacher, Ms. Triggle, the math teacher, and Chicklet's favorite, Dr. Algae, the science teacher. There were also optional games online, at the end of each five-minute video lesson, and workbook pages, as well as art and science activities. You didn't have to turn in everything, just certain assignments, so often we didn't complete every single activity, but I thought that overall, it was a fantastic program.

B6 was my one purely homeschooled student, in kindergarten, and he was done about 3 months ago, I hate to say.  We're still doing a lesson here and a lesson there in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, but that's been about it for formal education lately. Lots of unschooling going on for him, though, as he spent hours drawing, then began writing strings of letters and numbers, and eventually began phonetically spelling out words and teaching himself simple math facts.  Not every day, mind you, but I was thrilled to see him being his own teacher!

As I've been thinking and praying about next year, I feel great peace about the decision at which we've arrived.  We are going to put B6 and Chicklet8 in public school for a year or so--we'll see how it goes.  I'm calling it a sabbatical, after 14 straight years of homeschooling!  Chicklet went there for half a year last year, you may recall, and we both really liked it.  It was just a long day for a sweet little girl who missed her family, and I didn't make her go back after Christmas break.  But she's so excited about going back as a third grader, and B6 will hopefully get the same Christian teacher that Chicklet had for first grade.  He's ready for more structure and mental challenge, and I think he'll get it better there than from me.  As I said, I just don't enjoy these early lessons, creating motivational challenges for me.

I also long to give Chicklet the lessons she is begging for--cooking, sewing, and art.  I hope if someone else is in charge of the essentials, I'll have more energy for the extras!  But I am realistic.  They will be gone from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with an earlier bedtime than we are used to, plus they will have homework and piano practice, and AWANA and theater will start back up again...and I'm afraid I won't get much time in the evenings with my little ones, unless I am creative and intentional, which is something I can't wait to think more about.  I just know that the rest of my family needs me too, Mom has been stretched too thin these last couple years, and the younger ones' education is something I can delegate next year, at least.  This plan just feels right, and I feel peace from the Lord about it.

Only B12 will be at home, and he'll do iQ Academy again, since he's able to work so independently and it was such a good experience.  We don't feel that the public middle school would be a good option for him, and the Christian school is a big expense.  So it'll be just him and me next year, unless B16 decides to do iQ Academy instead of the Christian high school--unlikely, but a possibility he's praying about.  It would give him more time to focus on guitar, voice, song-writing, and brushing off his piano knowledge--all things he's really desiring to do--but he wouldn't be able to play sports or see his friends as often, so it's his call.  He's got the summer to decide.

Blondechick will be at Trinity International University, we are nearly certain.  Still financial details to work out, and in two weeks she has an audition to see if they will give her a music scholarship for voice.  We've been told that there is still money there, if they need her in one of their vocal groups, and she doesn't have to major in music, so she might as well see what happens, eh?

B20, Lord willing, will be working.  The job search has been progressing at a snail's pace so far.  Prayers appreciated!

For now, it's just great to have the school year behind us and the summer looming.  Ahhhhhh.....   Bring it on!

Virtual School Report

So what's new with the younger set?

Both Chicklet8 and Bantam11 now have one semester of virtual schooling under their belts.  Both finished strong, with straight A's.  No surprise for Chicklet, since I work closely with her every day, but for B11, it was quite an accomplishment!

As a final project for both Social Studies and Language Arts, he had to write a dialogue between a famous character in history and one other character, as if it were a scene from a play, complete with stage directions.  It had to be something that could have happened--no cars or aliens in ancient Greece, for example.  B11 created a scene in which Alexander the Great and his top general argue vehemently about whether to keep fighting the Battle of Granicus or surrender to the Persians. The scene ended with them both being killed, thus settling the question--and changing history forever!  It was well done and humorous, but I was concerned that his teachers didn't mean for him to rewrite history.  He argued that it could have happened, and it was better to rewrite history than to rewrite his whole assignment.  We added a few lines to show how history might be changed if they lost the battle, and we were both delighted when he got full credit from both teachers!

I have been very pleased with the kind of projects, like this one, that he's been assigned through iQ Academy.  They are creative and engaging, and they require the student to think and use what they've learned.  For sixth grade, it's been a comfortably challenging level of work for B11.  He can read material and answer questions independently, but occasionally he has these bigger projects that require a little more of him--reading directions carefully, checking over the grading rubric ahead of time, drawing information from several sources, having someone proofread. I like having just that much involvement, but I love it that someone else grades everything!

I also like how they give him the week's worth of work on Monday of each week, although nothing has a drop-dead due date until the end of the semester.  He has had little difficulty staying "on pace," but it's been great for him to learn how to manage his time to get it all done.  Occasionally he's gotten behind by an assignment or two, and he's learned how much easier it is to stay on track than it is to catch up--a valuable lesson if there ever was one!

Chicklet's program--the second grade Little Lincoln curriculum through Wisconsin Virtual Learning--is similarly flexible.  They tell you what day you should be on, but it's fine if you submit assignments late or early.  We'll be taking advantage of that flexibility during the run of Willy Wonka, I'm sure!  Her workload is a little heavier than I like for second grade and her abilities, so I modify assignments in order to stay on track (with the blessing of the supervisor who checks in with us every few weeks).  For example, I'll let her answer questions verbally instead of writing out them out--if comprehension is the point of the exercise, not grammar or writing--or I'll write down her ideas as she brainstorms possible topics to write on, conserving her limited handwriting energy for the actual composition. We only have to submit a few assignments a week, so we have that leeway.

I must say that I've been happy with our choice to use these virtual schools this year.  It has really been good for B11 to be working so independently, and it has been good, this year, to have the accountability to force me to spend a great deal of time investing in Chicklet.  I chafe under it sometimes when life gets crazy, missing the days when we could just cancel school and make up in the summer.  If she gets two days behind, due to sickness or other activities, it's a LOT of work to make up.  And we rarely have enough time or energy left over for art, cooking or sewing, to our continual disappointment.  But she's learning a lot and becoming more independent as we go.  I'm planning to re-enroll them both for next year.

And B5?  For kindergarten, he's not in a virtual school, so I'll include his activities in a different post. There more than just academics going on around here!

On Writing and Blogging and Home Education

I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything personal or devotional.  The main reason for that is lack of time, of course. This year has been better than last year in terms of stress--I am not spread so thin, trying to do so many different things--but the things I am focused on this year have been just as time-consuming.  I am spending many hours a day with my three home-taught kids, especially on the tedious tasks of teaching one to read, bringing a beginning reader up to speed, drilling math facts, helping my 6th grader with writing projects, and sitting at the piano with one or another, lending confidence or help as new songs are learned. I have done this before, of course, but there is more required work and more accountability this particular time around, with the virtual schools that two are enrolled in, and the desire to please our fabulous piano teacher and continue the wonderful progress that B11 and Chicklet are making.

So I am thanking God for the time and energy I have right now to do this, and the patience He is giving me...because I'm not sure I'm going to make it through the whole school year this gracefully! It feels like so many other things in my life are piling up while I invest this time, which I trust and pray will pay off with more independent abilities as the school year goes by. I really don't like this beginning-level stuff, and I can feel the impatience and frustration under the surface sometimes. And I know that my biggest need is time for me.

I used to use blogging as an outlet, a creative escape, and even a way to get in touch with things I didn't know I thought or felt until I started exploring them in writing.  I used to find time to take one morning a week for a "sanity break," or stay up late to write a blog post or catch up on tasks.

But it just hasn't been happening for me lately. None of my kids are in a theater production this session, so I'm not taking the time while they are at rehearsals to write, as I used to.  Instead, for the last six weeks, I've had lesson plans to write and examples to find for the writing class I've been teaching at our homeschool group's enrichment classes, and I've had a few Sunday School lessons to plan, too.  Spiritually and emotionally, I have been preoccupied with cares that aren't really bloggable--meaning "able to be shared with the whole world." And I just had to quit reading other blogs nearly two years ago, so I'm lacking that inspiration.

Then a friend suggested we start meeting once a month to talk about our writing goals.  Though a part of me laughed at the thought of having any, I knew it might be an opportunity to stir the pot, so to speak, and I certainly wanted to encourage her.

What it's done has got me thinking about me, especially the part of me that has gotten lost somewhere in the busyness of being a mom, a homeschool teacher, a wife, a pastor's wife, and a church leader. There are so many demands on my time coming from all these roles; it's ridiculous to think about time spent on anything else.  But suddenly I am feeling urges to develop talents I was only beginning to discover, once upon a time.  I had promised myself that I could always go on and study further the oboe, the saxophone, piano, singing, drawing, painting, speaking, teaching and writing--all things I enjoyed and was good at.

It seems impossible, right now, to find time or money to sign up for classes or lessons. I don't know if I could even choose one of these things that I really, really want to pick up again. Writing seems the obvious one to keep developing, right here on my blog.  I know there is so much more I could do with it, if I really wanted to develop my identity and make a place for myself as a blogger, but that takes time, as much as it would to develop myself as a free-lance writer, novel author, screenwriter, playwriter or poet--all forms of writing I've considered trying.

But time I don't have...and time is also running out, in a sense.  My life is halfway over. I'm trying to live it as faithfully as possible, and I will never regret the hours I have poured into my children.  It was such a pat on the back to attend parent-teacher conferences at the Christian school, for Blondechick17 and B15. Teacher after teacher went out of their way to assure me that I had really wonderful kids.  They had good things to say about their academics, but it seems the main thing they wanted to convey were positive comments about their character, peer relations and work ethic.  Several times it came up that BC and B15 had been homeschooled up until last year, and each teacher registered surprise--they hadn't realized that--and then approval--"Well, you did a really good job!"

I hope that doesn't come across as bragging, but I need to record those words, for me. All the years of doing my best and worrying that it wasn't enough, it wasn't as thorough as it should have been or as comprehensive as they would have had in school, and knowing how much more I could have done if there had only been more time, or fewer younger siblings. And they are turning out all right academically and in more important ways. That's huge.

B15 encouraged me recently, too.  He's become friends with another family who homeschooled until this year; they just put all their kids in the Christian school, and he just commented on what good friends the siblings were, and then remarked that other students are always surprised at what good friends he and Blondechick are.  She has noted the same thing.  And it gives me another reason to keep putting in the time with their three younger siblings.

It's all a balance between gifts, callings and time.

Time is short, and I am out of it now.

How do YOU balance the three?

Fall News

Pictures, or story?  I don't have time for both this morning. I guess we'll go for narrative--it seems like updates are overdue in many areas!

Bantam19, 30 minutes away at Trinity International University (TIU), is doing very well.  He's so happy, really enjoying college life, independence and new friends.  I went to visit him for Family Weekend.  I suspect that his friends are not deep friends, but acquaintances that he feels comfortable sitting with at meals.  But he has a lot more of those than he ever had in high school--and you have to start somewhere with any friendship--so he's happy and so are we!  He's found a church, a sister Anglican parish nearby, and he's getting rides from a seminary student; it sounds like a lot of Trinity students worship there.  He's attending all his classes, says he's keeping up with all his assignments and thinks he's doing fine on them.  He's enjoying the food a little too much, but is taking some corrective steps.  That's probably my biggest prayer request for him--that he can really own the responsibility of managing his diet and exercise now that he's away from parental help in that area.

At home, our virtual schooling is getting easier, now that we've figured out how it all works and fits together.  Bantam11 will tell you that he is really enjoying iQAcademy's 6th grade.  It seems pretty challenging, but the lessons are just short enough that he finds it manageable. Some of the more creative assignments ask for a good amount of critical thinking, vs. regurgitation of facts, so I'm really pleased at how engaged he is.

Chicklet8 has blown me away with how quickly she's caught up to second grade level work! I honestly don't know how she would have tested at the beginning of the year, but we really did not spend the time last year that one needs to spend with a first-grader, so her reading and writing were not quite up to the level that seem to be expected by the online Little Lincoln curriculum (although I now know that she's not the only 2nd grader to find it challenging).  We were spending many, many hours a day for the first couple of weeks, because her reading was slow, and she was reluctant to read much or especially to write much. I was even helping her with some of it, just to keep things from being too overwhelming.  But she's made huge leaps in both areas, and now is reading much faster and more expressively.  She's hardly reluctant at all now about her lessons, and is even reading and writing independently, just for fun (and for computer time). I'm very proud of her.

Blondechick17 is lovin' her senior year at the Christian school, and B15 is enjoying being her freshman brother. He took one of her friends to Homecoming last weekend, and she went with the same boy she's been dating for the last year or so. She's continued to work at her restaurant job on the weekends since school started.  This weekend she took off, so she could go to a statewide choir conference.  Her director was allowed to bring only two girls and two boys, so it was an honor to be invited!

B15 played JV soccer and was the high scorer for the season! Okay, he tied for high scorer with 4 other guys.  They each had one goal. Their team won one game. It wasn't a fabulous season.  But he learned a lot, and there's always next year!  He also joined the cross-country team halfway through the soccer season.  He's only run in two meets, and isn't really enjoying it. He likes running, but cross-country, the sport, is a whole 'nother thing.  Still, he's learning a lot, and I'm so glad he's had the opportunity, even at his small school, to try different things.

B5 and B11 continue to play soccer on Saturdays; B11 is learning fast, to catch up with the boys who've been playing every Saturday, spring and fall, for years--but B5 was born to play soccer, I think.  I have a whole post in mind about that...but now, I want to go catch a little of his game!


Pictures next time, perhaps...!

Yes, We Started School...

...and that's about all I have time to say!

Bantam11 is enrolled in an online public school, iQ Academy.  So far, so good!  He's been able to work independently, for the most part, and he has really enjoyed his two virtual classroom sessions so far.

Chicklet7 is doing the Little Lincoln second-grade program through Wisconsin Virtual Learning (another public online school), and overall, I am impressed and pleased with it.  (I was really delighted with the large bin full of school supplies that they sent to go along with it, including math manipulatives, a microscope with mounted slides, a wooden geometry 3-D set, markers, colored pencils, paper of all sorts, letter and blend cubes, maps, workbooks, reading books, scissors, an ink pad, thermometer, calibrated scales--and waaay more.) However, it's been a challenging amount of reading and writing for Chicklet, who is a little behind, I know.  So this is really good for her, and she's enjoying it, but it's been time-consuming.

Bantam5 is just starting kindergarten, and he's been working through a numbers workbook, and coloring, and watching Chicklet's Little Lincoln videos.  I'm eager to spend more time with him once we have the hang of things with the online schools. 

Blondechick 17 and Bantam15 both started school last week and are settling in nicely to their senior and freshman years at the private Christian school they attended last year.  B15 is playing soccer on the JV team, and Blondechick is on the chapel worship team as a singer.  She was excited to also be selected to co-lead the worship team that ministers at the elementary school chapel time.  She decided to do show choir again, and she managed to convince B15 to do it too, which I could hardly believe. (When he stopped doing musical theater, I think he thought he was done with choreography forever!)  They are both in regular choir together and think it's fun to have one class together; they've started fundraising together for a March choir trip and competition in San Diego.  Blondechick is driving them back and forth to school and bringing B15 home after practices, and I am sooooo grateful.

Bantam19 is doing well at college--yay! He hasn't missed a class or an assignment yet--yay!  He's making friends and he sounds so happy--YAY!!!  He's coming home for Labor Day weekend, and we are eager to see him and hopefully hear more from him.  ("It's going well" is about as much as he volunteers, without my stream of questions.)

Well, back to school....

Life

Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans. 

~John Lennon

I have been busy making plans for our last-hurrah, final family-vacation-with-all-of-us, trip to Washington, D.C. next month!  I've always wanted to take our kids.  Next summer, we'll be looking at two leaving for college and hopefully working at summer jobs, and we are thinking hard about selling our trailer...so the time has come.

It sure makes sense to use the trailer for this trip, since we have it.  Hotel rooms in DC aren't cheap, and we'd have to get two of them.  Gas is going to cost us an arm and a leg--our rig gets 8 mpg, which has deterred us from many a long trip--but we'll still come out far ahead over getting hotel rooms, I realized when I crunched the numbers.

I've been crunching a lot of numbers lately.  With the college bill looming and finally a little free time this summer, I've been scrutinizing our budget and all our accounts, including savings accounts we set up for kids years ago.  Turns out the bank didn't get the address changed on all of them...and other problems have needed to be ironed out as well.  We set up college and high school checking accounts for B19 and Blondechick17, and I've been gleaning advice on paying for college.  Even with a financial aid package, that bill is daunting!

It's enough to raise one's blood pressure, but praise the Lord, for the last month I've been completely off medication, and my blood pressure readings have been perfect.  I think now that stress was most likely the main reason my b.p. was up.  The slower pace of the summer, having another driver to help with some of the running around, dealing with things that have been piling up, not homeschooling or working...it's taken time, but the layers of stress have been melting away, a little more every day, so that at last, I feel like I've regained some internal equilibrium.  Actually, this feels like the first time in 3.5 years--since we began thinking about moving--that I can truly relax, and I am so grateful!

It's nice to be past a crisis point in my own life, because in the last week, I've been able to go spend whole days back in Illinois, helping out some friends in crisis.  It's felt so good to have the margin in my own life to be able to serve without stress and with joy in the giving.  One day, I joined a team of friends to do a "Clean Sweep" makeover of areas of a mutual friend's house that had years of accumulated clutter--due to issues that go deeper than the layers of stuff.  We sorted stuff into garbage bags and garage sale boxes, vacuumed, dusted, took before and after pics, laughed, joked, and sank into exhaustion at the end of the day--it was great!  Currently, I am watching a friend's youngest kids, two boys about the ages of Chicklet7 and Bantam5, for a few days.  We are going to go to the beach, ride the trolley, maybe do the Jelly Belly factory...gotta keep little boys busy!

One thing about my cleaning experience that struck me was how efficient and energizing it was to clean with 3 other women.  We all were able to look around, see what needed to be done, figure out a way to do it, work non-stop for an entire day, laugh and joke while doing it, and amaze ourselves with how much we were able to get done!  That has not been my experience cleaning with teens, with kids, or with husbands.  And we all noted how much easier it is to be objective about someone else's belongings.  So my takeway is:  Ladies, consider teaming up for a Saturday of deep cleaning or decluttering.  Set your goals, send the kids and the husbands to somebody else's house for the day, and see how much you can accomplish!  Rotate houses and Saturdays, and I'm certain you'll get more done and have a better time doing it than if you chip away at it by yourself.

Besides college, I've also been thinking about our next year of homeschooling.  I can't make too many decisions yet, because the big one has been made.  I've taken the plunge and have B11 and Chicklet7 signed up to participate in a virtual school, free through the state of WI.  Purists would say that I'm technically not homeschooling them, because they will be e-students of a public school system, but I need the schedule and the accountability for this next year.  The last 3.5 years have been filled with the chaos of selling a house, moving, resettling and more, and though we've done well with a relaxed approach, we need to have a solid year, especially with B11 entering middle school.

And I just need a program that I can show up for every day.  This will be my 14th year of homeschooling, and I have grown weary.  I did not enroll B5, who will be starting kindergarten, because I was afraid it would be more work for him than it was worth to me.  I want to spend most of my time with B11 and Chicklet, and I want time for reading aloud together.  But I'll start him on Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, which I've used with all his siblings, and my favorite kindergarten workbooks: Get Ready...  Get Set... and Go For the Code workbooks.  Maybe I'll even let him write in them.

So, life.  Making plans, while the clock keeps ticking away.  Life keeps on happening.  And it's been good.

Unemployed

Tuesday night was the final Showcase performance that wound up our spring session of classes for our new theater group here in Kenosha!  I was so proud of my teachers and of the kids.  Each class performed so well; every number was entertaining and impressive.  I emceed the evening, and made the announcement to our families that I would not be coming back in the fall.

Afterward, we had a fundraiser/social event at Culver's (a Wisconsin restaurant chain), and many people thanked me for my service and especially for bringing this children's theater organization to Kensoha.  They are so delighted that there is something like this for their kids, and they are enjoying the community aspect themselves.  One teenage girl who is graduating told me how God had used the experience to bring about much growth in her life.  It reinforced to me, once again, what a ministry this program is, and how all my time--and the occasion hassle--has been worth it.

Yesterday, I went out to the home office for my final Area Coordinator's meeting, over an hour away--I've had these meetings every other Wednesday all year long, and though I've always enjoyed them while I was there, I will be glad to have the time back.  It was bittersweet to say goodbye to some of the other AC's and the office staff that I will rarely, if ever, see again.  But it also felt good to turn in my supplies and manuals, and let go of the responsibilities I've carried all year.  I feel God's approval--His "well done, good and faithful servant"--for all I have done this past year.  But now I know He is asking me to shift my priorities and pick up a different weight, the education of my younger three kids, and invest myself in homeschooling them, just as I invested in my oldest three when they were younger.

From a homeschooling standpoint, this past year hasn't been great, and not just because of the part-time job.  It was also the transition to a private school, and the driving that comes with no school buses (about 1.25 hours/day), plus all the homework that clogs up our evenings.  (When they all were homeschooled, we could count on evenings free.)  Primarily I had to let things go for Chicklet and Bantam5.  Bantam11 was able to get through a lot of material on his own, though I would have liked to spend more time with him.  But it actually wasn't a bad year to have invested in the theater group.  Chicklet spent the first half of the year in public school, in first grade, and B5 technically isn't even in kindergarten yet, though he's ready for first grade work next year.  With no job, and hopefully a teenage driver or two by then, I look forward to spending lots more time on education next year!  Having more or less taken this year off from homeschooling may have been a good change for me, as I already feel a renewed interest and enthusiasm.

Today is the last day of school for B15 and Blondechick17, and B19 only has four more days.  But we can't relax into summer yet:  We have grandparents coming to stay, and a graduation party for B19 to host, so we have to clean house...and I mean all the nooks and crannies we've been overlooking for months!  Sometimes we need a reason.

So I'm happily enjoying my unemployment today, in this present moment...thankful for what is past, and looking forward to what is to come!

Family News

What's new?

Bantam19 just brought home his cap, gown, tassel and a box of graduation announcements, prompting me to call up the place that took his senior pictures for the yearbook and get that order in for wallet-size pics to include in his announcements. This is coming up too fast!

Blondechick17 just tried out for the girls' soccer team at her Christian school, knowing that everyone makes it and assuming she'd be on the JV team. (She hasn't played since 5th grade.) To our surprise, she did well in tryouts and was put in as a floater between the varsity and junior varsity teams! Then she got the bad news that because she was a transfer student, she's not allowed to be on varsity until next year. (AS IF they had recruited her to play soccer!) So--only JV games for her this year. A bummer, but not an entirely bad thing, her parents think, given our busy schedules, plus now she'll start every game on JV. We are so proud of her for trying something new and pushing herself athletically!

Bantam14's big news was getting his braces off! Now he can't stop smiling. But also, with BC17 busy at soccer practices, Bantam14 had a decision to make about their biweekly guitar class, which she had to drop. The "class" would now consist of just himself--would he continue? Bantam14 and the teacher had a frank conversation, and the outcome is that they are both excited about B14 continuing alone--in fact, the teacher offered to extend the biweekly lesson from 45 minutes to an hour, at no extra charge. They are both there anyway--he waits for his next student, and B14 waits for B11's tap class and Chicklet7's jazz class to finish up--but he offered because he likes B14, who is now psyched to spend more time practicing, in lieu of doing theater this spring. He's already made great strides!

The youngest three just started taking a gym class for homeschoolers, taught by the PE students at nearby Carthage College, and they love it. It was so fun to see B5 exuberantly playing all the parachute games. (Wasn't that your favorite day ever, back in elementary gym class?)

B11 and Chicklet7 are beginning a new session of classes with our Christian kids' theater group, but B11 did not audition for this session's production. (Because Mom needs to free up some time and mind space--gotta focus on taking B19 and BC17 to look at colleges and apply for summer jobs!) But Chicklet auditioned, "for experience only," a courtesy the group allows 7-year-olds who've been in the program, who will be old enough to audition "for real" next time. She sang "Tomorrow," from Annie, and despite her butterflies and shaky knees, she introduced herself and sang loudly and clearly just like we practiced! She stayed right on pitch and didn't forget any words. She forgot to smile, she was so nervous, but we were so proud of her!

I am keeping close tabs on my blood pressure. I just bought a nice digital home monitor at Aldi, of all places! We realized that another medication that I've been on has "high blood pressure" listed as a possible side effect, so I am hoping that once it completely clears my system, mine will go back to normal. It could take a few months, and meanwhile I'm on blood pressure meds. I have to watch not to get dehydrated, but otherwise, I'm feeling fine physically. A little stressed, a little too busy this year--with a part-time job, all the driving to and from school, and continuing to homeschool as well--but the end is in sight, now that spring is upon us: Blondechick17 will be taking her driver's test in just a few weeks, the part-time job will end, and we have the whole summer to catch up on school!!

Nothing's really new with Papa/Father Rooster--he just continues to balance both roles so well, even when things get stressful at work and ministry places demands on him too. He handles difficult situations with such love, diplomacy, honesty and tact--I am continually amazed! He is uniquely gifted to manage all that he does, and he does business and ministry both so well. He was a favorite presenter at the San Antonio conference--as he usually is at these events--and it was fun for me to see him in his business context, so different than the usual Sunday morning ministry role that his family is accustomed to seeing him in. He is such a gift to our family and our church.

And that's the news...for now!

A Week in the Life

I keep feeling guilty that I'm not blogging more. Okay, guilty is the wrong word--I'm feeling SAD because I MISS blogging. So many unrecorded stories and thoughts! But I guess my blog will reflect that I was truly in a season when I had far less control over my schedule than I enjoyed for years previously.

I wish I could say that last week was an unusual week, but with the exception of Saturday, it was pretty typical.

Last Monday:

day--homeschooled, cooked and cleaned, two trips to school and one trip to the orthodontist (result: B11 can get started with braces any day--and B14 gets his off tomorrow!)

night--had a newer family from church over for dinner

Tuesday:

day--one trip to school, homeschooled, prepared for theater classes, caught up on emails

night--theater classes, stopped at Mr. and Mrs. A's (the couple who started our church) for a little "Fat Tuesday" celebration, stayed up late with B14 doing homework

Wednesday:

day--meetings at the home office of our theater group, over an hour from home (5 hrs total); two trips to school and one to tap, jazz and guitar lessons (all at same time, fortunately!)

night--quick dinner and on to the Ash Wednesday service

Thursday:

day--homeschool, laundry and too many necessary phone calls. Ran to Walmart during B11's cornet lesson; two trips to school, including stops at library, Target and Sally's Beauty Supply (black hairspray for Mulan).

night--stayed up late with B14 completing science project, research paper introduction, Bible project, and history project--most not due till later, but our only block of time to work on them!

Friday:

day--Papa Rooster drove kids to school and met me at B19's school for an IEP meeting with his team--we met for 2+ hours to talk about transitions ahead (great meeting). Back at home, on computer for an hour completing open enrollment registration process to keep virtual school options open for Chicklet7 and B11 for next year. Trip to Aldi during B11's piano lesson, pick up BC and B14 at school.

night--5 to 9--Mulan rehearsal for B14 and B11. I brought Chicklet along and experimented with makeup designs to show the directors (lookin' good!).

Saturday:

day: woke up with a headache that got worse as I drove boys to 9 a.m. Mulan rehearsal. Decided not to stay but to go to Panera and see if coffee would help, in case of a migraine. Stopped at Walmart on way to check my blood pressure, which had been high on Thursday, and it was higher. Coffee didn't help and headache got worse; I felt nauseous and unbalanced and couldn't keep eyes open. Didn't think I could drive myself home; called Papa Rooster to come and get me. We decided with my blood pressure up, we should go to Urgent Care instead. UC sent me to ER. CT scan of my head was normal, blood work was normal, blood pressure came down after they knocked out my headache with an IV cocktail, which put me to sleep for several hours. Need to follow up with doctor regarding my blood pressure (After extensive testing over the past six months for various other medical concerns, one more thing! At least I now know that all my major organs seem to be in good shape.)

night: through the narcotic haze, I somehow managed to help B14 write outline for his research paper we've been working on together for weeks, on the Harry Potter controversy. (Had to check it again on Sunday to make sure it made sense, but he's good to go.)

Sunday:

day--woke up feeling better, but still with a residual headache. Went early to church for rehearsal; sang with Blondechick on worship team. Lunch at friends' home, helped B14 finish one more homework project before driving him to an activity and running a couple of quickie errands. Home for a movie with friends--it was good to relax and watch a really redeeming, sacramental story: Henry Poole is Here. (Check it out if you haven't seen it!)

This week IS an unusual week:

--Mulan dress rehearsals Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
--Mulan school day shows: 2 Thursday morning, 2 Friday morning
--Mulan public performances: Friday night, Saturday night, Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon

I'll be there every time, doing makeup...and then, maybe I'll get a week off!

Pray for my health, if the Lord leads you. I am making changes--doing less with the theater group next session and probably next year as well. And in late April, Blondechick will hopefully get her license--Woo-hoo! That will return HOURS to my week.

Chicklet Comes Home

Chicklet7 decided that she was not going back to school after Christmas break.

Actually, it began before Thanksgiving break when she missed several days of school and didn’t want to go back. Then over Thanksgiving, she asked if she could be homeschooled again, and I said I would think about it, but she certainly would attend school at least until Christmas. (She didn’t want to miss the Christmas party, did she?)

Since then, I’ve been entertaining the idea of homeschooling her again at some point, but she seemed happy enough during December. I had a nice parent-teacher conference, too, which reassured me that she has a good teacher, a Christian, who has a low-pressure philosophy of education for first-graders. It seemed like confirmation to leave things alone.

On the last day of school before the break, she came home all excited about the party they had at school, the present she made for me (a picture frame with her school picture in it), her treat bag, and the gingerbread house she made as a craft. Then she pulled library books out of her backpack and her face fell. “Oh no!” she exclaimed. “I shouldn’t have brought these home!” I assured her it was fine for her to have them over break—the library and the school would be closed, and she could return them when she went back. “But I’m not going back, remember?” she insisted.

Oh. I didn’t know she was counting on it!

So. I have been praying in earnest about this. It’s not so much a question of giving in to her wishes or not. It’s more about my own sense of calling and purpose.

Honestly, I’ve been floundering a bit on this. So much has changed, since we moved—it feels like I’ve just been managing one transition after another. New home, new neighborhood, new church, new friends, new schools, new homeschool group, more new schools, more new friends, new theater group, new job—no wonder I feel unstable and ungrounded.

When I prayed about sending Chicklet to school, it seemed like the right decision. I didn’t know how busy I would be with my part-time theater job, and I was feeling tired of homeschooling. It seemed time for a change. If Bantam10 had wanted to go to school, I might have sent him too.

But with the break and a little perspective, as I now consider bringing Chicklet back home, it makes me cautiously excited.

I see a number of advantages to homeschooling her. The biggest thing is that we would get back to a daily read-aloud time, which I completely dropped this fall. I miss it, the coziness and the fun of enjoying good books together, and I am a firm believer in its educational benefits, so it would be great to give that gift to my younger three as I did to my three oldest. We always did Bible reading and prayer as part of that time too, and that instruction and modeling is something Chicklet needs too.

Another nice lifestyle piece would be not having to get Chicklet up and off on the bus at a certain time. I could actually get a few things done or written in the quiet mornings before I woke the kids up, and on the mornings I have to drive the carpool, I could stop at the grocery on the way home, instead of having to get straight back to get Chicklet off.

Also, having her at home would be motivating to me, to actually plan homeschool activites, field trips and unit studies. For Bantam10, who has a math textbook, a grammar workbook, and reading lists for history, geography, science and pleasure, I haven’t been too creatively inspired—or needed to be. But he would benefit if I were.

So I guess I am going to do it—but I am a little afraid of the commitment! I am still basically tired, and the emails, phone calls and meetings related to my part-time job require a good bit of mental space.

But then there is my little girl begging me please to homeschool her again. I asked her why, when she enjoyed school so much? She agreed that she likes music, art, gym, recess, friends—all the extras. She’s glad she went. But it’s a long day and she gets tired (we’ve noticed that she’s crabbier, in general.) She feels like she misses out, sometimes, when Bantams 10 & 4 do things and she’s at school. And the bottom line: She doesn’t like to be gone all day. She just misses being home.

And I’m glad to hear it. Her older sister is the opposite, a total extrovert who hates quiet days at home as much as I love them. When she went to first grade for part of the year—January to May, a longer time—she couldn’t wait to go back! (Although she didn’t, as it turned out.)

So Chicklet is a homebody, deep down. I think I’m willing to cater to that. Maybe she’ll be a bookworm, too! It would be nice to have another one in the bunch, besides Bantam18. Hmmm, I wonder if she can learn to make muffins….

School Year So Far

You would think that I'd have had more to say about our school year so far, with so many changes! Overall, it's going smoothly, but let's see what else I can think of to add to that.

Let's start with Chicklet7, who just started first grade at the local elementary school. Chicklet tells me that her favorite things about school are recess, gym, music, library and computer, sounding pretty much like my other kids who put in time in lower elementary school. She doesn't have much to say about her academic subjects. She is learning some sign language, because there is a little deaf boy in her class, and she thinks that's fun.

We notice that she is a lot more whiny and tired after school and in the evenings. I think it is a really long week for her. She is gone from home from 8 to 4--those are long days, aren't they? I have felt so glad I didn't send her to all-day kindergarten last year...until I got her mid-quarter evaluation and nearly every box was checked with an X for "needs improvement." Then I was beating myself up for not working harder with her last year during our homeschool kindergarten, until I talked to another mom whose son had been in all-day kindergarten last year, and he had the same number of X's on his evaluation. So I decided to stop feeling guilty and be happy that she is enjoying recess so much! According to another mom, they will be covering the same ground for the next few years anyway.

And my sweet 7-year-old is a chatterbox! She "...does a great job participating in class discussions...has difficulty working quietly." For some reason, I find this more amusing than concerning; actually, what concerns me is that she might stop being her delightful little chattering self if we leave her in school long enough. But for now, it's probably good discipline for her.

I had thought that Bantam4 would be lost all day without her, and he has surprised me by being able to go off and play alone for long periods of time while Bantam10 does his schoolwork. From the sound effects, I don't think he feels alone; he is surrounded by a whole fleet of aircraft or spaceships, or he and a posse of imaginary good guys chase the pretend bad guys all over the house. He is the most "all boy" of all of my boys! He also likes to join me and B10 at the table to do random pages in preschool workbooks, but only for a little while before he has to get back to saving the world.

B10 is having a good year at home. I am making him do every question in his Saxon 54 math book lessons, which means he is spending a lot of time on math every day. But he's getting faster, and he's getting better at math, which actually comes more easily to him than it did to his older siblings. It is at their recommendation that I am focusing so much on math this year! They disliked it so much and complained so loudly and frequently about the repetition and drill of the Saxon program, that I often let them just do odds or evens...and now they say they realize they needed the drill, and they say we should have done all the TESTS! I had no idea, at the time, that I was such a softie. You'd have thought I was General Ghengis Khan Schmitz.

B10 also reads every day for at least an hour, and he practices piano every day. He has a new piano teacher who is really inspiring him! He also just started cornet lessons once a week at the public school where Chicklet goes. He is reading his way through some Usborne science books and answering questions about his reading. For history/geography, he is reading Holling C Holling books aloud to B4. He is also taking an hour of tap dancing a week, as well as a 2-hour singing class through our theater group. And of course, he's attending weekly rehearsals and learning songs and dances for his part in Seussical!

For writing, he is taking my writing class at our homeschool group's 6-week enrichment class session, and on his own time, he is working on a chapter book about a superhero and trying his hand at cartooning as well. At enrichment, he's also taking a hands-on science class, a history class in which they are constructing lapbooks with pockets, flaps and booklets of Civil War facts, and an architecture class in which he is learning classical forms and structures using Legos! Isn't that awesome?

And I guess I'll leave my three teenagers' educational antics for another post. Stay tuned!

Am I A Homeschool Dropout?

Well, Blondechick15 is not the only one switching schools this year. Chicklet6.95, who was homeschooled for kindergarten last year, is going to the local elementary school for first grade! I just got her enrolled last week. It's been a mad frenzy of educational decisions around here lately, and I still have to plan what we're doing with the homeschooled kids this year.

One at a time...

But I feel like a wimp of a homeschooling mom. I will only have Bantam10 and Bantam14 at home for 5th and 8th grades this year, and B14 is taking Pre-Algebra and Art at the private Christian school where Blondechick is going. Bantam4 will be hanging out with us too, of course.

I have been so ambivalent about sending Chicklet6 this year. But I do have my reasons:

--she's BEGGING to go, and it's not because she knows anyone there except a 3rd grade neighbor. The idea of it just has great appeal to her. She's a school-y girl.
--I am starting a new job, you may remember, being a part-time administrator for our Christian youth theater group.
--I have never enjoyed teaching 1st grade. Of all the grades, it requires the most patience, and I confess that I am often so short of that.
--My hope is that if someone else is teaching her the academic stuff, I can spend more time with her doing the fun stuff. She wants me to teach her to cook and to sew, and she loves to play games and be read to.
--I have often bemoaned the fact that my homeschooled kids don't have a better work ethic, and it's not for lack of trying everything under the sun (except maybe chaining myself and them to the kitchen table). I have often wondered, if they'd had a few years of school under their belt, if they would appreciate the freedoms of homeschooling more? I've jokingly said that I think the ideal thing would be to let someone else teach them all the basics, and then give them back to me once they are equipped for learning more independently, and maybe a little burned out from the long days of school followed by more homework at night. Then they might really be motivated to work hard in the mornings and be done by noon. So, I may finally be trying that experiment, with one, at least!

***

In other news, I have been busy interviewing and hiring and explaining how things work to six teachers for our fall session of theater classes. We have a voice teacher, two musical theater teachers and two drama teachers...but not a dance teacher in sight, yet. We over 40 kids enrolled, with two weeks until classes begin, so that is a great start. Just two weeks ago, I had ZERO teachers and about as many leads, so it has been awesome to see God provide a great staff. I am confident that He will send us a dance teacher too!

***

Blondechick and B14 start on Monday at their new school, and B18 and Chicklet6 start the week after that. We have spent over 4 hours and hundreds of dollars at Walmart in the last two days...buying school supplies, some fall clothes, and other sundries. I can't remember the last time I took all six kids shopping with me at once. We accomplished a lot in a short time, but I'm glad it's a once-a-year experience!

Next week:

--work out a carpool for the private school runs (I fear all the driving, but have faith that it's the right thing we've chosen)
--get Chicklet's immunizations (typical homeschool decision--not to worry about it last year when she "entered" kindergarten!)
--settle on curriculum/approach for B14 and B10's homeschooling (I own lots of options)
--check references on theater teachers
--plan party?/something for Chicklet's 7th birthday
--register B14 and B10 for enrichment classes
--plan writing class I'm teaching for 6-week enrichment session

Hmmm, maybe after everyone is finally in school, things will settle down a bit!

The Wheel on the School

The Wheel on the School, by Meindert DeJong is one of those children's books that I had always heard about, but never read. I expected it to be good--it was the 1955 Newbery award winner after all--but beyond that, I didn't know what to expect.

I sure didn't expect these lines in the first paragraph:

In five of those houses lived the six school children of Shora, so that is important. There were a few more houses, but in those houses lived no children--just old people. There were, well, just old people, so they weren't too important.

My boys, 7th and 4th grade, cracked up at this. They didn't agree, but they thought it was hilarious that an author would say such a thing!

Little did we know, but the rest of the book is about how those unimportant old people became special, indeed, to the school children in the Dutch village of Shora.

I also didn't expect a story about school children and storks to be so full of action and adventure--but it is! Gently so, but enough to keep my boys' attention and enjoyment.

I didn't expect the illustrations either...by Maurice Sendak! Just delightful.

For not expecting much...this story was a winner.

Well, Where Were We?

Blondechick16--

Blondechick's charter school requires all the sophomores to give a presentation called "Sophomore Passage" to 2-3 teachers or other school staff, their parents, and a community member that they have invited. BC had to make a portfolio of her work and Powerpoint slides to outline her talk, which had to include certain elements explaining how she had progressed through her sophomore year.

She did a super job. Her "gift of gab" serves her very well in these situations! One comment she made, which was so funny in its frankness, was about how she had applied the scientific method to real life: "I chose 'high school drama' because that happens to me." She went on to describe how she collected data and discovered that certain friends, before they knew her, thought that she was glaring at them and disliked them, when actually she liked them. She began experimenting with her facial expressions and made a special effort to smile more and even at people she didn't know. She concluded that people found her more approachable as a result. (Three cheers for the scientific method!)

Their next end-of-year passage, which illustrates this charter school's connection to the organization Outward Bound, is a 5-day camping trip without any luxuries, like toilets. As in, dig your own hole. No hair dryers or straighteners or makeup allowed. Should be quite the experience for Blondechick!

Bantam18--

B18 somehow did not get registered for the ACT next month. I am perturbed. I thought his advisor was handling this, because he needs modifications like extra time to complete the test.

It's a good thing he's not applying next fall to colleges that need his ACT scores! After his senior year, he'll go either to a community college or his first choice: Flashpoint Academy. I was told about it by a teacher who works with autistic adults, and she said Flashpoint had approached her, telling her not to hesitate to encourage students with autism to apply, that Flashpoint would work with them and that many of them had giftings that would be a good fit there. It seems perfect for B18, and he is starting to get excited about it!

We still haven't met his girlfriend, and they only talk at school. So it's been a nice, manageable relationship for us, at least.

Bantam14--

B14 will be taking a standardized test next week, his first ever. I am "teaching to the test" this week; specifically, we are blitzing through a workbook on reading maps and charts! That's one thing you miss when you don't use many textbooks, and it tripped up Blondechick when she took her first and only standardized test in the same grade, 7th. We are also covering some material from a test prep workbook I have which covers basic question types and test-taking strategies. All new to B14!

His robotics team competed a few weeks ago and had a disappointing frequency problem in the first event, where the 'bot wouldn't communicate with the controller. It appeared that another team had the same crystal (whatever that means--fortunately B14 understands it!). Since it was the sumo wrestling event, their 'bot was damaged and unable to compete in the other events. B14 and Co. didn't seem to mind too much; the pressure was off and they could relax. He learned a lot, and that's what counts!

He also just finished up a Film-Making class through the theater group. He was right about their film being pretty lame, but again, he learned from the experience.

and Bantam10--

Both boys have been taking a homeschool track class, which met for a manageable 7 times in a 3 weeks, for 1.5 hours at a time. They've had the chance to try hurdles, long jump, shot put and other track events as well as running various distances. They're both pretty fast for their ages, they discovered! B14 pulled a quad muscle in the 3rd class, though, so he's been hampered with that injury ever since. Today is the last class.

B10 is progressing nicely in piano and we are planning to start him on an instrument next year, in the public school 5th grade band program. He's thinking of trumpet or sax, and we already have one of each, so that works out. He just finished up a dance class through the theater group, and he is psyched to take tap dancing this summer!

Chicklet6--

C6 is also going to take a dance class this summer--it's tap and ballet, and we were delightedly shocked to find both tap and ballet shoes in her size and the right color for the dress code (pink) at our neighbor's garage sale last weekend! I spent a whopping $4 on both pairs, and the tap shoes were never worn. A friend passed on a pink leotard to us too, free of charge, so we'll just have to buy pink tights and she'll be set. (Now all I need are black jazz pants for B10!)

Poor girl, her education has been sadly neglected for the past month or so, but she's been learning anyway. I'm planning to do "summer school" with her to move her along with her reading, particularly. It's coming along beautifully and she's going to take off as soon as I can find the time to spend regularly with her.

Bantam4--

B4 is a constant source of amusement and delight, everywhere he goes. The kids and adults at The Wizard of Oz were all captivated by his cuteness. He's just a funny character, with the most impish expressions and great exuberance about life. "He's like a bull in a china shop!" one woman exclaimed to me as he shoved politely past her. Yep.

His latest accomplishment is perfecting a number of consonants, including and especially the letter C, which made possible this sentence just yesterday: "I can come in the car with you." First he said, "I tan come in the tar with you," but when I asked him to say it correctly, he could! He's going to be more ordinary without his funny mispronunciations, but understandable is good too. He and C6 play so beautifully together for hours on end, which is why it's so easy not to do lessons with her!

All for now...!

Natural Learning: This Year

In yesterday's post on natural learning, I mentioned that we lost steam in some areas this year and picked up in others. So what have we been doing this year?

Consistently, we have been reading aloud in the mornings, as I described in this post: the Bible story book and a chapter book every day, and most days I also read poetry or the Shakespeare stories. Occasionally we'll add in a picture book, or a few pages a day from Eight Ate: A Feast of Homonym Riddles. Bantam10 has consistently practiced piano right after breakfast each school day, as well.

(The preschooler and kindergartener color and listen in on our read-aloud time, or not; I read aloud to them separately too. I wrote about their activities here.)

For math, last fall we focused on flashcards and math facts, and then both boys started in a Saxon math book. B13 is doing Saxon 87 (for 8th graders or advanced 7th graders) and planning to finish it sometime next year, as an 8th grader. B10, a fourth grader, is in Saxon 54. They both do a lesson a day, skipping the easy problems that they know how to do and checking their own answers. They like being responsible for gauging what they most need to work on, and I only help them when they ask.

They read for an hour every day. This year, to build their enjoyment in reading, I have let them choose the book, as long as it is a chapter book (vs. picture books or comic books). So they both read Harry Potter books and A Series of Unfortunate Events. Once he finished those, B13 was open to suggestions; he read Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Dahl), Hatchet (Paulsen) and Loser (Spinelli). Right now he's reading The Cross and the Switchblade and is really enjoying it!

Last fall we were busy with enrichment classes (described here; they learned so many cool things!). When they ended, we picked a couple of other subjects to add. Both boys began doing one page a day in their Easy Grammar workbooks, and B13 agreed to try a 10-volume American history series, Joy Hakim's A History of US. Now he looks forward to reading two chapters daily and sometimes interrupts his reading to say, "Hey, Mom, did you know this?" (In fact, one reason he didn't want to do the virtual school next year was because he wants to continue with the Hakim texts!)

Most recently, we've added some map skills and geography to our morning reading time. I have flashcards, that I picked up at a used curriculum sale, that have outlines of each continent and all the major countries, within their continental settings. They're really great and the boys have learned them quickly--except they're old enough to include a flashcard of the U.S.S.R. (which the Bantams think is cool because, hey, that's a Beatles song!). We started learning some of the capital cities of various countries too, after B10 wouldn't stop guessing "Paris!" for any country he didn't know.

Those have been our "bare bones" requirements for the year, but learning opportunities continue:

Bantam13's robotics class from the fall ended up extending through the whole school year, as building the 'bot has turned out to be quite a complicated undertaking! He hasn't minded, though; it has provided a lot of bonding time with the other homeschooled boys in the class. The competition, in which their 'bot has to navigate an obstacle course, pick up a ping-pong ball and a styrofoam cup, and "sumo wrestle" another 'bot out of the ring, is in two weeks!

They've taken theater classes as well, for the fall, winter and spring sessions. B10, who likes to move, chose a dance class every time, and this session he insisted that he have his own tap shoes, not borrowed ones--so we are signing up for tap lessons this summer! B13 took Magic, Advanced Drama (the class that performed Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker), and this session he's taking Film-Making, which has exposed him to some documentary and film excerpts that have really made him think and ask me questions in the car on the way home. The film his group is making is pretty lame, he says--but we'll see.

B10, meanwhile, had many rehearsals this spring in his role as the Mayor of Munchkinland in The Wizard of Oz! (In fact, dress rehearsals have been every night this week, with Opening Night on Friday!)

The only thing that I've been disappointed with this year has been our writing project. Both boys have blogs (links in my sidebar), and my intention was that they write, re-write or polish and post something daily, but it has turned out to be more of an occasional thing. B10 enjoys it, if I get him started, but for B13, I may need to teach a writing class for his age group next year, to provide more accountability.

Into the Woulda Been Nice category fall handwriting and keyboarding, which we just haven't got to formally this year, although both Bantams get by passably well. B13 needs to put guitar back on his daily list, too.

All stuff to think about for next year!

Natural Learning

I mentioned natural learning, interest-led learning and unschooling in a previous post. As you may recall, this year we have been experimenting with a slower pace of homeschooling.

A New Approach
Unschooling Update
Oh Yeah...Homeschooling...

If you read these posts, you may wonder how our year is ending up? Well, we have lost steam in some areas and picked up in others. But overall, our new "less is more" approach has been working really well. In fact, I think we have decided against the virtual school options I was considering for next year for B13. Little things keep reinforcing to me the beauties of natural learning--and what we'd lose if we returned to a highly structured model.

Natural learning assumes that learning is happening all the time, that informal learning is just as important as formal academics. When we are driving to a piano lesson and we talk about life, attitudes, their discoveries and questions, that is learning--perhaps the most important kind. It can't always be planned, and it is driven by the learner's own questions and motivations rather than by a curriculum. And that's why it sticks!

As a teacher, I am amazed at how much I "teach" that my kids quickly forget. I am shocked at how little my older kids remember from their early years of homeschooling! They are most likely to remember experiences we had and people we met, including memorable characters from books. And skills, of course, like handwriting or piano chords. But facts? No.

Of course I believe it's all in there somewhere. But the point is that I'm worrying less with my younger children about "getting it all in" or "covering all the bases" with curriculum. If they read a lot and are read aloud to--good books--they are exposed to history, science, grammar, vocabulary and good writing models, without a lot of extra worksheets, textbooks and projects that take time away from reading! If there is one thing I could go back and do differently with my older kids, especially Blondechick and B13, it would be giving them more time for reading.

My children are reinforcing this notion, too. The other night at dinner, B13 complained about the time he had to spend every morning listening to our read-aloud. (He was in full teenage-boy, Mr. Negativity mode.) Blondechick16 (who entered public high school this year) cut him off. "Listen, bro, that is the best thing about homeschooling! I can't believe how bad the other kids in my class are at reading aloud. Their reading is so choppy, they can't pronounce words, they don't know how to pause at the right places--and I just naturally know all that because I've been read to so much. You don't know how much you're learning, but you really are!"

Thank you, Blondechick!

Then the other day, Bantam10 laid down his book with a contented sigh. "Mom, it feels so good to finish a book. I love that feeling. I love reading. It's my favorite subject in school."

Now, B10 was the one that used to groan every day, at the beginning of the year, about my new requirement of reading for an hour a day. I didn't even require one whole hour straight! But now, he reads solidly for a whole hour with great enjoyment.

He has always been a bathroom reader, but I discounted his interest in The Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes and Garfield until recently. Now, I am beginning to realize that even comic books can be educational! Often, B10 will ask me about the humor or the science in a Far Side situation or about a vocabulary word he encountered there--when he's nowhere near these books. So I know they've made him think!

More tomorrow...about what we've actually been doing this year!

Preschool/Kindergarten Recommendations

After many years of homeschooling, I have figured out a few things that I really, really like for this age group. Here they are!

My Very First Bible: Old Testament and My Very First Bible: New Testament by L. J. Sattgast, il. by Russell Flint

I didn't initally like the illustrations in these books, but it ends up that that's what we love most about them! They are exaggerated and dramatic, but realistic, not cartoon-like (which I hate for Bible story books). If someone is pointing, their whole body points. If someone is surprised, their facial expression is hugely surprised and their hands are clapped to their cheeks! The stories are brief and well-summarized, and my kids always begged me to keep going to the next one. I also used it with our 3-5 year old class at church, and the full-page illustrations really grabbed them.


Teach Your Child to Read in One Hundred Easy Lessons

I have to admit, teaching a child to read is NOT one of my favorite parts of homeschooling. Listening to w-o-r-d-s being slowly s-ou-n-d-ed ou-t sets my teeth on edge and requires more patience than I usually am able to muster!

This book has worked for me for 5 kids now. It's so simple and easy to use that my husband or an older child can help me out by giving a reading lesson! The lessons begin very simply and build slowly to longer words and stories. Each lesson reviews sounds, sound combinations, word reading and ends with a quirky little illustrated story. (My older kids have all enjoyed teaching a younger sibling to read, and it's partly because they like revisiting the silly stories in their old book!)

I recommend a couple of modifications. You can go through the first 10 lessons or so very quickly. I had two kids that really hated the beginning exercises of rhyming and "stretching out" words, so we skipped a lot and I just taught those skills as they came up in the lessons we picked up with. I also ignored the "script" a lot, after the first child.

Secondly, I always start a lesson by reviewing the story from the previous lesson. We get more mileage out of each little story that way, and it's a good way to start out, since they remember it from the last time, which gives confidence and reinforces what they already learned.

Third, I never ended with the last exercise that teaches them to write letters. Instead, even though it doesn't teach the letters in the same order, I used...

Get Ready for the Code, Get Set for the Code, Go for the Code

These are the primers to a series of phonics workbooks called Explode the Code, which are good too, though we've barely needed to use them with 100 Easy Lessons doing such a good job. These, on the other hand, I have used with every child!

These primers teach all the consonant sounds with very fun little workpages, filled with cartoon-y drawings, and include letter formation as well as recognition. All my kids have enjoyed these, and here's my big frugal secret--we have used the same workbooks with five kids, because instead of writing in them, we cover each page with a plastic report cover and use a dry erase marker. (I think using colored markers on a shiny page is half the appeal, honestly, and when they eventually get their own workbook that they can write in with a pencil, they feel like such a big kid!)

My only complaint about this series is: I wish there was a fourth book that taught all the vowel sounds! The first Explode the Code book does that, but in combination with consonant sounds instead of in the single letter format we love so much in the primers. Oh well.

Learn to Read at Starfall.com

I don't think this website was around when my three oldest were little, but I have allowed my last three children to poke around on it as much as they want! It's really well-designed. Go look.


Picture Books

We read lots! Some favorites:

anything by Eric Carle
Flower Garden by Eve Bunting
Owl Moon
Yonder by Tony Johnston
Make Way for Ducklings
Blueberries for Sal
The Old Man Who Loved Cheese by Garrison Keillor
Tomie dePaolo books, especially The Clown of God
Henry and Mudge books
Frog and Toad books
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Engine
anything by Dr. Seuss
fairy tales and fables
anything by Jan Brett (fabulous illustrations)
Go Dog Go
Beatrix Potter books
The House at Pooh Corner and Now We Are Six
Little House in the Big Woods
[forcing myself to quit!]

Activities:

Duplos--be sure you have some people and a big foundation mat
puzzles
watercolors
coloring books
sewing cards
bath toys
"indoor swimming pool"--fill a tub or sink with water and let their little dolls or people go for a swim. I can't believe how long this game always lasts!
Playmobil


What's missing? Math! We don't sweat it at the younger ages. Counting just happens with life--setting the table, for example--and they naturally learn to count higher and higher. We work on writing their numbers sometimes, but not often before first grade. They catch on very quickly once we start.

With older kids to worry about, I haven't had as much time to work with my younger ones. I felt guilty until I began reading more about natural learning, unschooling, interest-led learning or whatever you call it. Now I feel that I am doing myself and them a favor by delaying formal academics with them. The only thing I try to do every day is read aloud to them. It's a blessedly relaxed lifestyle!

Spelling Woes

To kick off National Poetry Month, here's one I've been been meaning to post. It'll give you a little empathy for your kids who are struggling with spelling!

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough.
Others may stumble but not you,
On hiccough, through, lough and thorough.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps.

Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird,
And dead--it's said like bed, not bead.
For goodness's sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat:
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.

A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's dose and rose and lose -
Just look them up - and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart.
Come, come, I've hardly made a start.

A dreadful language? Man alive,
I'd mastered it when I was five.

Quoted by Vivian Cook and Melvin Bragg 2004,
by Richard Krogh, in D Bolinger & D A Sears, Aspects of Language, 1981,
and in Spelling Progress Bulletin March 1961, Brush up on your English.



There are more fun spelling poems here, including this one that begins:

Eye halve a spelling checker
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques for my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

For more Poetry Month posts, visit Semicolon's Celebrate Poetry Month round-up!