Nov. 21, 2009 All we have to do is crawl under the kitchen table
This week my dishwasher broke, and it turns out that I broke it (so don't be like me- rise or scrape your plates really well!) and so we paid the landlord for the new dishwasher. In addition to breaking the dish washer, the day he delivered it was the day I left the mess in the kitchen so we could visit the used kids clothing store/Target and grocery store before K's nap time, so he REALLY noticed the state of the kitchen floor while he was lying down installing the new dishwasher.
I've mentioned before that I hate criticism? Especially when I deserve it? Well, he was very kind, and I'm trying to be a grown up.
DH took the kids with him as he passed out invitations to church door to door, and I scrubbed the floor, then walked downtown to the hardware store to buy floor wax, a new mop head, and contact cement - the rubber toe kicks have come down from the kitchen cabinets. One has come loose again, so I'm going to try my hot glue from the crafts desk - not so stinky.
The first coat of wax is drying, K has not yet woken up. M was delighted to crawl under the displaced table to get his snack, and no one has left tracks.
Now if only my landlord would come by while it looks good.
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Nov. 18, 2009 We got Outside today...ahhhh
M and K cannot function without lots of exercise outside. Getting them outside enough is a big challenge; because how can I cook, tidy up, wash laundry, and do sit down school outside? The weather is less of a challenge; they have good coats and can usually find hats and mittens. Working around nap time and now the early sunset is another problem. We stop kitchen table school at 11 most mornings and go to the play ground.
I've been realizing lately that I also need to get them into natural spaces too, as Annie was thinking, and the Circe institute lectures mentioned. So, Today, tataratare! We got outside in nature.
We walked a few more blocks than usual and went to the Larsen Purchase of the Attleboro Land Trust. M and B grabbed their long neglected nature notebooks (long neglected because Mom has not taken them along on walks in a very long time), some colored pencils, and a field guide to New England wildlife (it's even got sharks in it).
K walked most of the way there, I carried her home on my shoulders, which are now a bit stiff, so that must count as weight training. The boys ran past the waterfall, paused to watch a mallard swim to the falls, then fly down over the rough bits. This used to be the beginning of a lock leading to turbines in the basement of the mill building DH works in. Then the boys ran ahead to the sandy point on the mechanics pond. Two swans swam up, probably looking for bread. I cautioned the boys not to get too close (I got a really impressive bruise off a swan bite once, for not forking over my sandwich I think. It chased me up a picnic table. Yes, where you imagine the bruise to be is where it was...) They got to watch the swans feed, drink by scooping water into their bills then tipping their heads back, and see the silvery color of the juvanile's bill.
K began to want her dinner, so I started her home, while B finished his drawings. They caught up with us pretty quickly though, K didn't want to walk very much. I was playing the "Oh look, there is a Canada goose dropping, there is a goose track in the sand, there is a lawn mower..." K played along and said what could have been truck, or duck, I'm not too sure which right now, either could fit.
I need to do this more often: the boys loved it, I didn't make them draw or write, and they did both, they looked up swans and ducks and geese in the book, and didn't want to come home, even though they were hungry.
They did drop very strong hints that as long as they had the backpack with them, some unlined drawing paper would be welcome, and some cookies and water.
Gotcha boys, anything to get cheerful voluntary note taking!
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Nov. 18, 2009 Strawberry Popcorn
On a whim, this year we grew Strawberry Popcorn in our three sisters patch. I think we planed the pumpkins too late, we never did harvest any, but we did get lots of beans. We got about 7 ears of corn. a spoon made it easier to get the kernels off the cob.
 The flavor was delightful, but not all of the kernels popped, I think I need to soak them in water to refresh them.
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Nov. 18, 2009 Photos of the kids all dressed up for Sunday: waiting for Mom to get Dressed too Nov. 18, 2009 Three Kinds of Mess
There is the ever popular Making Something Mess
The Little Sister Was Here Earlier Mess
And the Moving Bookshelves to Access the Phone Jacks and figure out which one is corroded Mess (If you tried to phone us this weekend and got a busy signal...you now know why.)
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Nov. 18, 2009 I have Now Thrown a Birthday Party Again. Phew.
And I think I can do this sort of thing some more.
We had hide and go seek
 computers available in a public space
 Lots of Chinese Take out
 Parents and younger siblings hung out all over the apartment. We did "electronically sedate" them with the movie "UP" when they got really excited though
  That was not too bad. I haven't even tried a party since M was born. But now I know I have to do something like it in March for M. Somehow 7 year olds seem scarier than 12 year olds plus family...but that's quite a while away. |
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Nov. 18, 2009 OK, Where is my coffee?
B was giving "A very Bad Concert." his description, in the kitchen, I was making the pizza dough for tonight's supper, when I lost my coffee. M was grinning at me, so of course I suspected a gag, but no, I had set it in the sink. I must be loosing my marbles.
A very friendly green and red blob just oozed up to my ankle for patting: M is one contented boy today.
Blobs grow up to become Energy Griffons; they also love babies. This one is lonely because K fell asleep finally, and is not available to play right now.
Oh, there goes the kitchen timer, the "Very Bad Concert," is almost over. He is up to the chromatic scales now. |
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Nov. 13, 2009 I'd still Rather Get a Funny Story than a Perfect Event.
A friend whose sister was getting married once said to me, "When you plan a wedding, there is so much work because of course you want everything to work perfectly." I confidently replied that I hoped something WOULD go wrong at my wedding, because then I'd have a funny story. She was sure I'd grow out of that attitude.
Well, nothing really did go wrong at my wedding, so I didn't get to test her theory. But attempting to have a Surprise Birthday Party for B? Now that was funny.
Apparently, our voices sound alike on the phone. One of his friend's Mom phoned this week, and on hearing his greeting (the same one I use) began right away to ask about "B's Birthday party on Saturday," He was in a fix, because he wasn't sure how to interrupt an adult politely! Eventually he interjected, "Umm, I'm B."
He was excited because it was good news, and a party is a party, even if it isn't a surprise. And knowing why he had to help vacuum was easier today.
But our poor friend is so embarrassed. |
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Nov. 13, 2009 I Found My Camera! So here is the Halloween Costumes
 The Bat and Mr Spock knew all about Halloween, but K only knew that she didn't want to be left out of a walk with the guys. So M found his lion mask from Hong Kong, and she was all set. DH let her hold some candy, and she was content. |
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Nov. 12, 2009 K's Vocabulary Update
up-f-f-f-f (pronounced with lots of spit.)
dow' (down)
Hi
Bye
Momma, Dada
Mommy (seems to be a verb, not my name, she calls DH Mommy if she wants him to pick her up)
Ben
'Thew, 'Atty (Matthew)
Dolly
Duck
Doggy
Kiki (the neighbor's cat)
side (her side, and outside)
GO!
Whee!
ch' (cheese)
rairai (raisins)
mik (milk)
some
shoe-ies (she loves her shoes, she plays with them a lot, they even have a theme song)
NO - said lots of ways.
bed - often said in connection with NO
sad - often mentioned in connection with bed and NO
baby - as in baby sad.
cry - baby cry momma - said very reproachfully when NO bed doesn't work.
eye (especially when the sun is in her eyes as we are driving)
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Nov. 10, 2009 So, how do I know if it was a good day?
At the moment, I'm pretty cranky. Tthe kids are watching a video (Oh the shame) dinner is in the oven, the dishes are in the dishwasher and it's running, the bags are unpacked, but I feel decidedly rumpled. All the kids are sick - sore throats, productive coughs, fever. That means that B can't watch K for me, and M and K didn't run around outside today. Add in Halloween candy - and M can't follow directions and remember not to pounce on his brother (who is sick, grumpy and beginning to act like a preteen who wants space.) So, they got underfoot today, but were not so good at helping, or amusing themselves, or getting along with each other.
This day was hard. No nap for Mommy, K fell asleep before lunch, and woke up just as I'd finished reading the Bible to myself.
I did get to answer e-mails, listen to the Circe Foundation mp3 recordings I'd downloaded, and begin to make samples for the Christmas Crafting Fair - but right now I'm so crinkled that if I were wrapping paper I wouldn't use me.
You know what those lectures were about? Getting your kids outside, including beauty in your homeschool, and not using a to-do list as a rubric for your success, seeing how far your students and yourself have become Wise and Godly as a rubric (though teaching them to take standardized tests too so they don't get really nervous about them.)
So, today I did chores, tried to stop quarrels, encourage my kids to play kindly - yelled a lot - and did unpack things. If it was hard, was it good? If it was necessary to have a check off list, was it un-spiritual? Were they talking about different things and I'm conflating the issues because I'm tired and feel bad about scolding?
Yeah, probably.
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Nov. 10, 2009 "Are we There Yet?" Math
M knew that we had passed the McDonalds at Hamonasett, because he'd finished dinner. He knew that was the half way point to MomMom and DadDad's house, and he knew that it took 3 1/2 hours to get there from our house (ignoring the variables Daddy mentioned like rush hour traffic and accidents that M always does ignore and DH always does mention.) And I knew that M knew all that stuff, because DH and I had told it to him over and over again. But he really surprised me when he announced that we had 1 3/4 hours left to go as we passed the gas tanks at the Hamonasett rest stop, about to merge into traffic on rt 95 South.
So I asked him how he knew that.
"Well, we are half way there, and the trip is 3 and 1/2 hours, so we must have half of that left to go. 3 is an odd number, so half of 3 is half of 2 plus one half, so I took that part off of the 3 and one half, then I divided thehalf that was left in half, which is a quarter, and I stuck it back on the one and one half from the 3, and that gave me two piles of 1 and 3/4." He said.
It sounds like the hours were a log he was sawing and moving pieces around visually. It's so fun to find out how he thinks! |
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Nov. 8, 2009 Our First Conversation
K was very fussy last night. I asked her almost teasingly, "K, what is the matter."
She calmed down immediately and enunciated carefully, "Mamma, Goo."
"Goo?" I asked
"Goo." she replied.
"Is your diaper poopy?" I guessed.
"Goo."
I picked her up from her crib, checked her diaper, and while it wasn't poopy, it was very, very wet.
"Dan!" I called DH, "She talked to me!"
Well, you know, talked, sorta kinda...better than crying.
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Nov. 4, 2009 Three interesting moments in Today's Homeschool
M and K were up by 5AM this morning which would not have been so early last week. In the process of the day, K asked DH if he would take her "side?" pointing vigorously at the front door. It was a glorious fall morning, golden leaves, golden sun, burnished sky. I usually wait until the hour before lunch to go to the park, but I packed some lessons we could do outside. had B pack a snack, skipped non-esential chores and hustled the kids into shoes. Then I realized that I wasn't dressed yet.
For M and B, chalk to review cursive letters and phonograms on the sidewalk, for M by himself, the first chapter of Everyday Number Stories, an e-book I downloaded from Homeschool Freebie of the Day. (That particular math text from 1915 is not on the website right now, but you can find it at Google Books.) The first chapter has lovely vintage illustrations, after that it gets more text book-y, but still cute. For B, we packed his next chapter of the Fallacy Detective. We had to review the Logical fallacies we've come across so far, because M was getting frustrated (and I couldn't remember them either.)
We enjoyed the sunshine, K got to run around while we got some things done that I had meant to do this week anyway, and she did sleep at nap time and has gone to bed without complaint! So I felt like a cool mom who knew how to flex.
But,after nap time, with a headache from the whatever cold I've got, I asked B what independent work he had finished in the 2 1/2 hours he's had sibling free, only to hear he'd done what I estimated to be only about 3/4 hours of work! (Thinking it over again, it was more like 1 1/2 hours work). I asked in a very wailing, immature way why he put so much emphasis on other teacher's assignments, but not on mine. He thought carefully, and said, "the other assignments come with deadlines, yours don't."
Well, you ask a question, you get an answer.
We decided to meet daily to set goals and check off accomplishments. It's not really that it's too much for me to do, it's just that I don't really want to do it! I do believe that teaching him to get organized is as important as anything else he's learning, I'd just been hoped thatI had done that already.
However, if he still needs this scaffolding from me, he still needs this scaffolding from me. He can't learn everything from experience if the results are this important. I just feel like I'm drowning in his assignments. He must feel that way too, he called it a nightmare.
So much for being the cool, flexible Mom from this morning.
Then B asked me if he could talk about his speech for Friday. He'd picked a topic that was unwieldy, and needed a new one. "Why not call your teacher and ask if you can change?" I asked.
B's face lit up, then fell. He didn't have another topic in mind. By this point, K had woken up, my soup was not on the simmer like I'd planned, and I hadn't had any coffee after nap time. I took a deep breath, and told B we needed to ask someone infinitely wise for another topic idea, bowed my head and prayed about it.
Once K had nursed, and been changed, B took out his mp3 player and recorded our brain storming session, we set the oven timer for 5 min. I cut up an apple and some cheddar cheese for the kid's snack. B picked the topic he liked (good thing he remembered, the conversation didnt' record very well). Then I phoned his teacher, explained the situation, and put Ben on the line with her. I was pleased with his phone manors.
Then I got to make myself some tea, it was too late in the day for coffee.
So, this morning we did some of our school at the park instead of the kitchen table, this afternoon we realized that we once again had to re-calibrate B's school organization (Ugh), but he also asked for help winsomely, and solved his own problem graciously. We also practiced brainstorming. So I'll count that as organizational scaffolding.
Check off one spot on the new goal.
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Nov. 3, 2009 Not so bad, sometimes, not to be able to sleep
My third most embarrassing open secret is that I can be high strung. I have a dreadful time sleeping once I'm awake, especially if K woke me up while I was dreaming.
Last night after getting her back to bed at 3:30, I was totally awake. Totally awake, and cataloging things that scare or hurt me. I prayed, I forgave the people who had bothered me( probably repeats of other nights forgiveness), I confessed my worries, and tried to plan them without worrying about them. I got cranky again at the people who have hurt me, confessed that (again)...What an embarrassing cycle, I'm reading great books to my kids, I'm reading my Bible daily (through the Bible in one Year is up to Ezekial - kind of weird racy stuff some of it, my eyebrows hit the ceiling when I read it in Pioneer Girl Camp during nap hour) why do I think of that stuff when I can't sleep?
Then I thought of the big sloped meadows of Huntersfield, that smell of hay and wild thyme. I remembered the verse "Be completely humble and gentle, the Lord is near." and for once did not ask snarkily, if that is a warning or a comfort but got out of bed, stretched my sore muscles, and thought productively about my worries:
I don't have to have finished scrapbook pages to present my trip to China to my geography class, it is enough that I tell them the story with the photos secured to the cardstock with nothing but the tension of the page protector. In fact, looking at the calender, this is the last class I have to lecture in because the kids present their project on the last two days of co-op, so this is the last week I have to prepare any sort of lecture or activity for them. What a relief. Researching and Preparing a lecture in one week is just too short a time. Note to self; re-read this before attending the next planning meeting for anything.
K woke up again at 6AM, DH got up with her, listened sympathetically to my brain dump, and took K for a walk to the convenience store for some milk. I wrote our menu and grocery list.
There, my two big worries done before breakfast. It may be embarrassing, but it was a blessing too.
How did the rest of the morning go? (not that its completely gone yet, it just feels that way from daylight savings) I can't think of proper nouns, I can't get my kid's jokes, and we finished kitchen table school already, so I must have cracked the whip, though nobody cried but K - and isince she wanted to play with the paring knife, oh well, she can be thwarted. M is sick, so we stopped his school early - we really weren' t getting anywhere. I pulled out some art supplies and M drew with K while B and I caught up on adverbs. None of my formal schooling ever got to adverbs, so I'm into new territory.
I wonder if maybe I'm also getting sick, in which case, I'm not neurotic, I'm feverish. Much more respectable. ;-)
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Nov. 2, 2009 Congress, What are you doing to Me?
Bet you thought this would be about taxes. Nope. Daylight Savings Time.
I do like waking up and finding that the clock says it's early, but by early evening, my happy girl is having poison hour, and I have to make dinner with her clinging to my knee!
Daylight Savings Time is...Well, I'm a lady, so I don't have words for it. |
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Oct. 30, 2009 More numberbonds
We still haven't gone back to worksheets yet: M is playful and engaged with the manipulatives, and not frustrated with himself. There doesn't seem to be such pressure for him to write things the right way the first time if he's finding patterns, and learning vocabulary by talking about his rod trains. We need to practice forming the numberals in handwriting time a bit before getting back to written work - I'm looking forward to written work, a chance to do the dishes, or work with B, or read to K for 15 min or so... |
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Oct. 29, 2009 Pretty Dress from Aunt M
k enjoyed her new dress, she swirled  and played with her hair band, until it would not stay up anymore. I don't have a head band head either. |
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Oct. 29, 2009 October Leaves: Mechanic's Pond
 Grandma threw acorns in as well as M.
 Miss M, visiting our church from the Philippines was a great asset
 K so took to Miss M that her first words on Friday morning were, "Ah wan tah see Ninana."
 Where was I? Napping in Mom's guest bedroom. |
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Oct. 29, 2009 Mother's Night Out Party: Apple Themed
This Summer I was so excited to talk to grownups after resting at home from my foot surgery. Not that people weren't around, the deaconesses and my family certainly visited, I was just thrilled to be at the LIFE meeting planning fall fieldtrips. So I volunteered to host the Mom's fellowship.
Last week very little kitchen table school happened last week, because I was tidying up the house for Miss M's visit. It needed some major work! So the house was still pretty good this week for the party Tuesday night, but it is amazing how ambitious having no laundry spread on the floor made me to create beauty and order; not much kitchen table work this week either. In fact, once the party was over, I discovered that I'd been ignoring the boy's requests to get their Lego Brickmaster contest entries mailed, and they were due in the office in 4 days. Then the printer became ill, and my computer confused me.
Homeschool was hijacked.
However, this blog post is not really about my inability to do it all: hosting a mom's fellowship night was fun. Four friends showed up, from the LIFE group, and from other groups. Each lady brought an apple dish (I'd made regular pizza, and my Dad's Bisto Pizza dish from a cool cookbook he liked) That had olive oil and sauted garlic first, then a mound of fresh spinach, sliced granny smith apple, mozzerella, parmezagne, and blue cheese. yum. The ladies brought apple spice cake without the apples, apple dumplings, apple strudle, and apple doughnuts from Dunkin' Doughnuts. One family also brought their son - who hung out with DH, M and B in the workshop playing computer games online, the kids introduced each other to their favorites.
Us mom's laughed, compaired curriculums, commiserated, laughed some more, and drank mulled apple cider.
I'd set out some 3x5 note cards, a new apple punch, and an edger punch. I'd made myself a name tag. K finally quit crying and went to sleep when I let her wear my name tag. She wiggled her shoulders and giggled in bed after that.
She really likes to imitate me. |
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