Over the last few months, I've had people find my blog as they're investigating Anna Buck's Neuro-Developmental Delay Therapy that we've had my son in since last January. I had meant to blog regularly about his progress, but it appears I haven't written much (if anything) about it since shortly after we started. So I thought I'd update with some of the changes we've noticed in him since beginning:

• Reading: Before starting NDD therapy, he had a hard time reading anything more complex than a simple picture book with a few sentences on each page, even after months of Vision Therapy. However, last summer he became interested in novels written for his age level (he's 10 1/2) and started reading books like The Lightning Thief. His eyes still tire after 4 or 5 pages, but it's a huge step over a short period of time.
• Clumsiness: Many friends have told me they noticed he's much more aware of his body and a lot less clumsy than before. He's obviously much more aware of his body, and much of that change shows in drawings of people - he started drawing pictures of people with features like ears and hair and the occasional neck.
• Panic/Anger: He was always the kind of child who would fly into a panic or get overly angry over small things - losing something, getting surprised, things not going as expected. Wow, he is so much more calm as the "startle" reflex has inhibited over the last several months. If he loses something, he will just look for it and persist until he finds it instead of screaming in frustration and impatiently expecting me to look for it.
• Hyperactivity: Much of this has decreased, but I'm beginning to notice a pattern that couldn't have been obvious when he acted hyper and impulsive all the time. Now it appears to be related to his diet, and we're making some small changes (agave nectar as a substitute for sugar, for example) and considering more significant changes (like significantly reducing carbohydrates in his diet).

We still have a way to go, but it's so exciting to see the changes in him. And we started taking my daughter to see Anna as well. She didn't have as many of the obvious reflex problems that her brother had, but she has had auditory processing and brain integration difficulties that have really interfered with her reading ability and memory. Since she started in September, she is beginning to read much better than before. She has another 3 weeks of "Listening Fitness Therapy," after which the auditory processing problem should be pretty much resolved. Perhaps I'll remember to update about that when she's done!

I wrote this a couple of years ago as a fun parody of Hamlet's famous soliloquy - it isn't meant to make any kind of judgement on whether or not we chose to participate in the activities of Halloween but simply to muse whimsically on the choice. I thought it might be worth posting again for your amusement. Enjoy!

To treat or not to treat -- that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The rings and knocks of outrageously-clad neighbors

Or to turn off the lights against a sea of begging

And by opposing end it. To hide, to flee --

No candy -- and by fleeing to say we end

The toothaches, and the thousand natural knocks

A door is disposed to. 'Tis a quietness

devoutly to be wished. To hide, to flee --

To flee -- perhaps to eat out: ay, there's the rub,

For in that escape from home what chance may come

When we have shuttled off in the minivan,

Must give us pause. There's the amusement

That makes savage such young lives.

For who would bear the nicks of pumpkin-carving knives,

Th' oppressive weight gain, the proud child's costume

The pangs of despised sugar, the delayed arrival,

The insolence of teens, and the forced thanks

That persistent merit of the giver takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a darkened porch light? Who would Snickers bear

To walk and walk under a heavy coat,

But for the dread of chill on an October night,

The carefully planned costume, now hidden,

No treat-donor guesses, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather compliment the unknown

Than offer them hot apple cider?

Thus conscience does make givers of us all,

And thus the expense of bags of candy

Is compensated with the sticky return of children.

And creative enterprise of the moment

With this regard our apples throw away

And lose the chance for health. Quick you now,

Fairy Princess, Knight, Mermaid, Pirate --

Be all my Skittles remembered.

(c) 2007, Karen Dittman

with apologies to Wm. Shakespeare.

composed by my very clever and understanding husband as we sorted post-vacation laundry

Laundry, laundry, so much laundry -

This is my eternal quandary.

Some's been worn and some has not

(My children do forget a lot).

Down to wash and up to fold:

So does my whole life unfold.

Wash it now and wash it later.

I am the laundry elevator.

Yesterday, I felt the kids & I REALLY needed a break from the books. We're wrapping up our 7th week of school, and we can't usually make it more than 6 weeks without losing motivation and needing a break. (That's part of the reason I start in late July/early August - so we have freedom to take breaks fairly often and can still finish in mid-May.) Since we haven't had a break other than Labor Day, I decided to do a field trip day and take a hike. Living in Colorado, I reasoned, it makes no sense to sit indoors all the time and not enjoy the beauty all around us. We ended up at a creek not far from us. While there, we enjoyed seeing a couple of beaver dams (but no beavers around - the dams are old), a man-made dam with water flowing through the sluice gate, and a woolly bear caterpillar. We don't see woolly bears around here very often - this may be the 2nd I've seen since living in Colorado for 12 years - so it was cool to explain to the kids how we used to predict our winters by the woolly bears we saw when I was a kid growing up in Maryland.

Then today, my son & I took the dog out for a walk, and she found us another very cool item:

I think the snake must have finished shedding its skin not long before we found it because the dog kept reacting like it was a live animal. And it wasn't totally dried out. So we brought it home, did a little internet research on why and how snakes shed their skins, and put the skin in a jar to preserve. Gotta love how great learning opportunities show up on the days when we're taking a break from school!

This is the text of a speech I delivered at my Toastmasters group this morning. It seemed to do a good job persuading my audience not just toward my opinion, but that it's something they should be well-informed about.

Just over a year ago, a judge in California caused quite a stir within the Homeschool community. In a case that had to do with parental neglect issues, he ruled that parents did not have rights to determine their children’s education choices and ordered the children into a public school setting because neither parent was a certified teacher. Now, as shocking as that ruling was – and it was eventually overturned by a higher state court – it probably seems irrelevant to most of you since you’re not homeschoolers. But I believe it is important to be aware of the issues surrounding homeschooling for two reasons. First, education is always a hot-button political issue. If you want to make intelligent choices in voting or communicate intelligently with your political representatives, it is important to be well-informed on the issues. Second, a court may be ruling today about appropriate educational choices for our children – and tomorrow the judge may be ruling about appropriate health-care choices for your children, your parents, or even you. When we allow the government to interfere in personal choices that don’t matter to us, we risk allowing them to eventually interfere in personal choices that do in fact matter.

With this in mind, I want to share with you this morning four reasons why homeschooling parents can be highly successful teachers without state certification. Much of what I have to say today springs from conversations I have had with certified teachers who now Homeschool their own children. They have given me insight into the teacher education process and how it helps – or doesn’t help – in teaching their children at home.

One of the reasons critics believe homeschoolers require state certification is for accountability to be sure they really are educating their children at home and not sitting around watching TV. I agree with that. Colorado law does provide that accountability. Just like children in public schools take the CSAP test, our children are required to take a nationally standardize test or be professionally evaluated every other year beginning in 3^rd grade to demonstrate they are making adequate educational progress. With this kind of accountability, no homeschooled child will be “left behind.”

Second, if you think about some of the things that help students succeed, one very important element is how well the teacher knows their student. When a teacher understand their students’ learning styles, likes and dislikes, and status of their home life, then that teacher can customize lesson plans to help individual students. Now, I ask you, who knows a child better than the parent who spends every day with them, year after year? A Homeschool parent has no “learning curve” where the students are concerned. Before the school year begins, I already know I have one right-brained, visual learner who learns best in the early morning and is highly motivated by opportunities to play on the computer and a left-brained, auditory learner whose favorite subject is Art and does best if allowed to sleep as late as possible. I can anticipate how my children will respond to new material and structure the day to best fit their personal styles. So if some of the best teachers are those who know their students best, then homeschoolers certainly fit the bill.

And if good teachers are those who know their students well, then even better are those teachers who care about their students’ success. The current emphasis on testing to provide teacher and school accountability attempts in part to motivate teachers to be personally invested in their students’ success. This kind of motivation can work to a certain point, but it can never create a loving relationship between teacher and student like that of mother and child. Allow me to read you a quote from Elizabeth, a mother who is homeschooling her two children, one of whom is high-functioning autistic: “I am not going to give up on my kids…a teacher might think that they have tried everything but they don’t know how to reach my son, and after one year he won’t be their responsibility anymore, but I am his teacher and his mom and I will always keep trying.” Homeschooling parents are much more personally invested in their children’s success than those who teach one year at a time.

Finally, if you still believe that anyone who is involved in educating the next generation should be well-trained, then I assure you that homeschooling parents do seek out all kinds of training resources. I know homeschoolers from coast to coast across this country, and Ido not know a single one who does not read books, attend conferences and seminars, seek out and evaluate curriculum resources, and ask questions of other homeschooling parents in order to do the best job possible in educating their children. Even my friends who have education degrees from college and state certification say that they are constantly doing these things to fill in gaps related to their current situations. They agree that the resources available to homeschoolers are quite comparable to what they learned in teacher training. Since homeschooling parents are personally invested in their children’s education – not just because they know their children will be tested but because they want their children to succeed – they do take advantage of all kinds of training resources.

With the training that homeschool parents seek out, their personal investment in their children's success, their knowledge of their students, and their accountability to the state, they are well-equipped to teach their children without the additional burden of state certification. Are they good teachers for their children? Yes! Do they need a piece of paper from the state to prove it? No!

We gave the kids a couple of Oreos yesterday evening. Watching them - especially my daughter - eat the cookies, I started wondering, "What does this say about their personalities?" I thought surely someone has come up with some kind of quiz to tell you about your personality based on how you eat Oreos, and, sure enough, this quiz is all over the internet:

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Choose which method best describes your favorite method of eating Oreos:

1. The whole thing all at once.
2. One bite at a time
3. Slow and methodical nibbles examining the results of each bite afterwards.
4. In little feverous nibbles
5. Dunked in some liquid (milk, coffee...).
6. Twisted apart, the inside, then the cookie.
7. Twisted apart, the inside, and toss the cookie.
8. Just the cookie, not the inside.
9. I just like to lick them, not eat them.
10. I don`t have a favorite way because I don`t like Oreos.          

Made you choice?          

Your Personality:          

1. The whole thing.     

This means you consume life with abandon. You are fun to be with, exciting, and carefree with some hint of recklessness. You are totally irresponsible. No one should trust you with their children.          

2. One bite at a time.     

You are lucky to be one of the 5.4 billion other people who eat their Oreos this very same way. Just like them, you lack imagination, but that`s okay, not to worry, you`re normal.          

3. Slow and Methodical.     

You follow the rules. You`re very tidy and orderly. You`re very meticulous in every detail with every thing you do to the point of being anal retentive and irritating to others. Stay out of the fast lane if you`re only going to go the speed limit.          

4. Feverous Nibbles.     

Your boss likes you because you get your work done quickly. You always have a million things to do and never enough time to do them. Mental breakdowns run in your family. Valium and Ritalin would do you good.          

5. Dunked.     

Every one likes you because you are always up beat. You like to sugar coat unpleasant experiences and rationalize bad situations into good ones. You are in total denial about the shambles your life is in. You have a propensity towards narcotic addiction.          

6. Twisted apart, the inside, and then the cookie.     

You have a highly curious nature. You take pleasure in breaking things apart to find out how they work, though not always able to put them back together, so you destroy all the evidence of your activities. You deny your involvement when things go wrong. You are a compulsive liar and exhibit deviant, if not criminal, behavior.          

7. Twisted apart, the inside, and then toss the cookie.     

You are good at business and take risk that pay off. You take what you want and throw the rest away. You are greedy, selfish, mean, and lack feelings for others. You should be ashamed of yourself. But that`s ok, you don`t care, you got yours.          

8. Just the cookie, not the inside.     

You enjoy pain.          

9. I just like to lick them, not eat them.     

Stay away from small furry animals and seek professional medical help - immediately.          

10. I don`t have a favorite way, I don`t like Oreo cookies.     

You probably come from a rich family, and like to wear nice things, and go to up-scale restaurants. You are particular and fussy about the things you buy, own, and wear. Things have to be just right. You like to be pampered. You are a prima donna. There`s just no pleasing you.

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But here's the funny thing: neither  my daughter nor I fit any of these. My son is an "eat it all at once, live life with abandon" kind of person, no question. Or he dunks sometimes - and that fits his "messy" lifestyle, too.

I (like my mother, interestingly) like to take the cookie apart, eat one cookie half, and then nibble through the other cookie half with the filling. That doesn't fit any of these categories - maybe the slow, methodical personality. Or maybe a mixture of several.

But my daughter is the one who is totally off the chart. She takes the whole thing apart into 3 layers. Then she slowly nibbles away at the cookies while occasionally taking a small nibble or lick of the filling. It can take that child 10 minutes to eat one Oreo! I think it shows her complete artistic personality - she absolutely marches to her own drummer. You can see it in how she chooses to dress (often with a swath of fabric wrapped around somewhere just for a little "splash"). And she always wants to do something musical, crafty or arty. But at the same time, she has a tendency to be very methodical and perfectionist in things - this is the child who used to sort her M&M's by color before eathing them. I don't know if it shows that she's a crazy, mixed up person or not - but it's how God made her, and I find it refreshing.

So, be honest, how do you eat your Oreos?

When I was about 13 years old, my dad & I went with a church youth group on a ski trip to Wisp Mountain in Western Maryland. At the time, Wisp was well-known for The Face - a run on the face of the mountain covered with moguls. Huge moguls. Moguls as tall as me (I was pushing 5 feet at the time). But Dad skiied well and helped me learn to ski the moguls, so I learned to make it down The Face alive and uninjured.

Fast forward about 30 years. I've been up and down The Face of life a number of times and hit some pretty rough mogul fields: infertility, depression, marriage and parenting struggles. Sometimes I've made it over the moguls with grace, and sometimes I have completely wiped out. And sometimes when I wiped out, I created obstacles that made the track harder for others around me. I have rarely picked myself up after crashing - usually someone has come alongside me and extended a hand of grace to help me get up and keep going.

Lately I've seen a lot of people I love hit some pretty big moguls. Some are falling because someone else wiped out in front of them. Others are seeing a mogul coming and don't know how they're going to get over it. I wish I had the right words to help them through these tough times. The best I know is to listen, pray, and offer support and encouragement.

"You, my friends, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 2:1)

"If anyone lacks wisdom, let them ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to you." James 1:5

What do you do when you see a person standing on the side of the road holding up a sign telling you they need food and money?

I usually drive by, wishing I at least had a granola bar or something to give them, but unwilling to hand out money. And then I have a looooong conversation with my kids about why that person is standing there in the median and why I didn't give them any money.

One of the moms from my homeschool group got a great idea from her husband for what she started calling "Bags of Blessing" to help homeless people. (Shout out to ya, Angela!) Several families got together last week and put together ziploc bags (gallon-sized) filled with very helpful items that we can carry around in our cars and hand out to people we see in need. The bags include:

• water bottle
• 2 pkgs of vitamin-enhanced flavor powder (to add to the water)
• granola bar
• toothbrush (generously donated by a local dentist)
• toothpaste (ditto on the donation)
• hand sanitizer
• lip balm
• tarp or rain poncho
• Bible

I also hope to buy a roll of bus tokens to put in each bag as well.

Very simple and not very expensive (without the bus tokens, they're about $4 each) - and a ton of fun for a group of families to do together. And now I don't have to feel quite so helpless to help the homeless.

My son is driving me crazy.

"There's nothing to eeeeaat," he whines. "Nothing good, anyway."

I have just returned from a third-world country where children are quite literally starving to death. Malnourished babies aren't getting their prescribed nutritional supplement because they have to compete with other family members for it (and a baby can't stand up and say, "That's my mamba! You can't eat it!") People of all ages live on a staple diet of rice and beans and maybe some goat or chicken day after day after day.

And my son stands in front of a pantry and refrigerator fully stocked with a variety of nutritious food (some of which he begged me to buy for him) and complains about his choices.

I can't get that kid to Haiti fast enough.

cross-posted from the "Pneumas in Haiti" blog

Haiti gets into you.

It gets under your skin and up your nose and all over your feet.

It pours over your head like a cold shower and drips out of your pores.

It slams your vision with images of people - faces you may or may not remember, but in places you will never forget: thronging an open market, picking through a garbage heap, lying alone in a crib reaching up to be held.

It won't be silent, filling your ears with beeping horns, crowing roosters and enthusiastic music at all hours of the day and night.

As it jostles you down rutted roads, it jolts your expectations with startling contrasts: tin-roofed concrete block houses surrounded by lush mango trees, a beautiful home that lacks running water, families bathing and washing clothes in a muddy river minutes away from a clear blue ocean.

And, somehow, while you are distracted by all of its sights, sounds, and smells, Haiti creeps and seeps into your soul. Compassion for its people wraps around your heart and squeezes until you weep for the overwhelming multitude of needs. Who can fix it? No amount of money seems sufficient to satisfy all the starving children, build the necessary infrastructure, and educate millions of illiterates. You begin to understand the mindset of people who live only for today because there is no hope for tomorrow.

But there are bright beacons of hope shining with the love of Jesus all through Haiti. No one can fix everything, but each can help some. Offering hope to a handful of people at a time, they follow God's call to bring up a generation with hope beyond today or tomorrow ... hope into eternity.

Pray for these people who are committing their lives to serve the Lord in Haiti.

And pray for Kris, Andy, Linette, Rebecca, Shane, Michael and me as we seek how God wants to use us in and for Haiti's people. We can wash off our bodies, but we can never rinse Haiti's hold out of our hearts.

A friend of mine set up a blog for our Haiti team to blog about our trip. If you'd like to follow us, check it at http://pneumasinhaiti.blogspot.com.

I thought I'd pass on a few updates to some things going on in my life & family:

* Mom called yesterday. Because her lungs are still healing from the radiation treatments, her pulmonologist said it would be ill-advised for her to take a trip to our altitude. We're kind of bummed that she & Dad won't be able to make it for our daughter's music program graduation next week. And I'm praying hard for a full recovery so she will be able to visit us in the future. She loves our mountains!

* Speaking of music, yes, my daughter is finishing a 3 1/2 year program through Children's Music Academy. In that time, she has learned to play piano (very well, actually), read music, and understand basic music theory. The program has also provided fabulous ear training as well as instruction in singing, guitar and recorder. I am so proud of all the work she has done and especially that she has learned a very challenging piece of music (Hayden's "A Minuet Trio") all on her own.

* What a difference a diet change can make! My husband AND daughter are both living a dairy-free lifestyle, and both have seen significant improvements in their allergy-related asthma. My daughter had been coughing all the time for over a month, and now her cough has completely cleared up. But even better, I have noticed a huge change in her attitude. She has always had a "budding control freak" streak, and I have had to push hard for respectful speech and behavior from her. In the last 2 weeks, she is almost a different person. The sweet side of her personality has come out, and she tells me she feels much more rested all the time. My hubby has also found that eliminating all forms of dairy from his diet has significantly improved his digestion. So our family life is really improving - even if I have to change some of the ingredients I cook with and we have to be super careful about eating out.

* I leave for Haiti in a little over a week. Hard to imagine! God has already poured out His blessings on our trip preparations and provided abundantly for the financial needs. I'm really excited about the team who is going as well as the people standing behind us and praying for us. I will try to post some specific prayer requests before we leave.

Yesterday evening I had a wonderful time with my dear friends Dawn and Angela wrapping up our study this year of Sally Clarkson's book Seasons of a Mother's Heart. And, as you might expect, our discussion hit all kinds of tangents. As we talked about endurance, perseverance and encouraging one another, we got to talking about prayer. Dawn used a phrase that has gotten under my skin in the past: "the power of prayer." That phrase bugs me because I have heard it so often in the context of using prayer to get what we want. But Dawn spoke of submitting ourselves to the Lord as we pray and of prayer as a way for us to allow the Holy Spirit to intercede for God's will when we don't know how best to pray.

That phrase that has always bugged me took on new meaning last night as I realized that the real power of prayer is not that we use it to somehow manipulate God into doing what we want - but that God uses our prayers to change us as our eyes are opened to doing what He wants. It is through prayer that God has moved my heart towards adoption and compassion for the poor and now serving in Haiti. I didn't set out to ask for these things. I started by praying to have children, and God showed me the timing to adopt. I started by praying for friends serving in other parts of the world, and God opened my eyes to the needs of the poor and oppressed. I started by praying for God to show me something to do with that newfound compassion, and He moved my heart one day when I heard a simple statement about Haiti.

Yes, the real power of prayer is not that it changes our circumstances but that it changes us. I dare you to try it!

My husband had a philosophy of life: "You can never have too much cheese."

Now it seems he needs to change that to "Any cheese is too much cheese." After struggling with serious bouts of asthma and arthritis this spring, he decided to try some diet changes and see if they made a difference with how he felt. For the last week he decided to eliminate dairy products from his diet.

We were both surprised to see how quickly his asthma cleared up. He is still doing some research on connections between dairy allergies and asthma - and he'll ask about further testing for the dairy allergy when he goes for an allergy shot tomorrow. If it turns out that he does need to go permanently dairy free (DF), then we're already making some changes. It's not too hard to cook DF meals for dinner - I don't do many casseroles, and I can leave out cheese or have it on the side. But breakfasts are a challenge for a guy who has always loved his bowl of cereal every morning!

In the meantime, he has decided on a new philosophy of life: "You can never have too many hugs!"

             … a country where 80% of the population lives in abject poverty with average wages less than $2 per day for the few who can find work

            … a place where escalating food costs leave many unable to afford any food other than mud “cookies”

            … a population that buries one in eight children before the age of 5, children taken by malnutrition and preventable diseases

            … an island nation where nearly every water source has become contaminated with human waste

            … a home to more than one million orphans

… a country that lies less than 700 miles – only a 2-hour flight – from the coast of Florida

                                             … You have imagined Haiti.

Yet in the midst of such destitution, many are giving their lives to share the love of Jesus in meeting the needs of the Haitian people. Children’s Homes (crèches) care for and protect the most vulnerable children, finding adoptive homes in the US and Europe for children who have no hope for a future life in their home country. Others care for malnourished and sick children whose parents cannot afford any medical care, hoping to return healthy children to their families. Many missions organizations employ Haitians as nannies or train them in skills such as sewing that can provide them a living wage. Christian-funded schools provide free education for children who would otherwise remain illiterate.

  In June I will join a team on a one-week trip to visit Haiti, seeking ways to partner with those who are working to bring relief to its people. We will visit 6 orphan-centered ministries, bringing 500 pounds of life-giving supplies and making connections for a long-term ministry in Haiti. As I prepare to leave on June 10, I am looking for partners to join me in praying and to help with the costs of the trip. My travel and lodging costs will be about $800, and beyond that, I will be gathering supplies (food, clothing and other necessities) to donate to help Haitian orphans.

 In the next week or so, I will begin sending specific prayer requests and information about our contacts in Haiti by email. If you would like to receive that email, please send me a note at 3rsandahug@gmail.com. If you would like to donate supplies or help with the cost of the trip - or if you have other questions I can answer - please email me.

“I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me.” Jesus (Matthew 25:40)

DON'T PANIC! (Immortal words from The Hitchhiker's Guid to the Galaxy)

My daughter didn't have an unhappy pool experience ... quite the opposite, really.

We were swimming at our local rec center the other day, and the head lifeguard asked if she'd be willing to play a victim for a potential lifeguard who was interviewing for a job. She got to pretend to be a victim of all kinds of water emergencies: broken neck, floating on her belly, down at the bottom of the pool, and one or two others.

After all of her rescues, as the new lifeguard did the swim test portion of his interview, I spent a few minutes talking with the head lifeguard, and she commented that my kids were really good swimmers.

That was a shock, but I realized it was true!

See, back in February, I started taking the kids over to the pool a couple of times a week. They hadn't been in swim lessons for 4 or 5 years, but as a former swim team member myself, I felt I could teach them some basic swim skills. Amazingly, with just a few minutes of instruction out of one to two hours of playing in the pool, they started learning skills like treading water. Both have progressed from fear of deep water to happily jumping into the deep end and trying to reach the bottom. Neither could swim more than 6-8 feet back then - and my son can swim a full lap (2 lenghts of the pool) without stopping!

Three months ago, if my daughter were in the deep end of the pool, I would have been certain she would need a real-life rescue. It amazes me to think of how far she has come - how far they both have come - from children who would never leave water where they could stand up to children who really enjoy swimming and need only basic instruction in specific strokes to be proficient swimmers.

As we bring this school year to a close (only 13 days to go!), I'm starting to evaluate and pray about changes to make for next year. I know, I know, I'm a little late to this - most of you probably already had next year planned by mid-March!

One thing that I've realized is that as much as I enjoy having my kids at home with me and building our relationships with each other, all that time at home isn't really productive. My son gets bored and just wants to watch TV. And, to be honest, I'm not entirely cut out emotionally for 24/7 with the kids. When I get stressed and overwhelmed, I don't model the best attitude. A friend recently commented to me that she is building better relationships with her kids since putting them back in school because she is more emotionally able to handle the time with them. I understand what she's saying, but I'm not led to put my kids in school. (I recently joked with friends that God roped me into homeschooling, and He won't let me out of it.) There has to be a middle ground - one that allows me to keep my sanity and give them some productive activity without me feeling like I'm punishing my kids for the 3 of us not being perfect. Some of my friends accomplish this by putting their kids in a one-day-a-week school program, but when I had my kids in that program, it was just a huge stress on all of us. My son in particular finds the long day to be too much and utterly exhausting. And I was running around every morning getting lunches and backpacks put together, rushing my daughter out of bed, and then pushing everyone through breakfast so we could get out on time. So for now, I don't think that's a good option for us.

I'm praying about other options that might reduce our day-to-day stress. I thought about a 4-day school week, but that could drag our school year out a lot longer than I'm willing to do - and then we also have one full day of "what to do," so it wouldn't solve the boredom issue. I may look into enrolling them in one or two classes at a local homeschool-support program. Or I may look into the Christian school where my son attended Kindergarten - at the time, they were very supportive of homeschoolers and open to having kids attend one or two classes instead of a full day.

When I step back, I really do feel blessed to have my children at home with me. But I want to do what's best for all of us. So I'm thinking and praying about the next year and what changes, if any, I need to make.

We got home just over a week ago from a trip to Maryland & Washington, DC . My husband is doing some work with NASA, and he spent most of a week working at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. While he was working, the kids & I hopped on the Metro each day and headed into DC for fun sightseeing. Here are some of the pictures from those days:

I have been struggling to teach my son multiplication since September. Every curriculum I have used (and I'm on my 3rd math curriculum in 4 years) teaches multiplication based on skip-counting. For him, this method just doesn't seem to help him actually master and memorize the multiplication facts. After months, he still can't do multiplication by 3's or 5's without having to think through the skip counts. We have barely touched 4's and not even started some of the more complex multiplication like 6's, 7's and 8's.

Realizing that this approach wasn't working - and that he doesn't have any patience with manipulatives either - I searched online yesterday for "teaching multiplication facts" and ran across Timez Attack. I had heard of it in the past through one of the homeschooling Yahoo! groups I'm part of, so I thought it might work and went ahead and downloaded the free version. Little did I realize how much it would help him because it engages learning with something he loves - an adventure video game. In the course of playing one level yesterday, he easily memorized the 2x multiplication facts. Now, I realize the 2's are one of the easiest groups of multiplication facts to master because it's just a matter of doubling a number (using simple addition). But this morning I quizzed him on some of the facts, and he was able to answer from memory - not by doubling the number in his head. So I'm willing to let him play his way to learning multiplication facts. And, to be honest, it's really nice for me that he is working on this independently!

We have been learning about Russia in the past week, and today we learned about Faberge eggs. Then we did a little art project where we painted our own eggs (on paper, not actual eggs). And I had the kids name their eggs.

My son's eggs:

Dead Man Egg

Gate of Confusion Egg

Road of Chaos (not exactly an egg, though)

My daughter's eggs:

Noisy Puppy Egg

Magnificent Falls Egg

And I did an egg, too, titled September Egg: