Awakenings - Homeschool Blogger

Spring Has Sprung!

Tue, 20 May 2008 06:59:00 -0500

Wow! As I sit to write, and see it has almost been two months since I've done so, I am shocked that it has been so long. But we have been busy with a capital B.

After spring break we finished with the last weeks of co-op classes for Spanish, drums, and drama. Then the drama group performed the play they'd been working on, a comedy version of the Odyssey, the beginning of May.

My thirteen year old son finished up with his last weeks of first year confirmation class. Then the weather warmed a bit, the grass started to grow, and he is now keeping up with a booming lawn care business. He has made his own business cards, keeps an account log, has made customer survey sheets he hands out at each job, and has already invested (with his first profits) in his very own lawn mower and a utility cart to transport all of his tools to each job.

My oldest daughter turned sixteen in April. She has started to work as a busser at the restaurant where my oldest son had worked. We went this past weekend to open her own checking and savings accounts. When not working, she is busy finishing up with her last weeks of high school.

My two youngest have been busy just playing outdoors after school- bike riding, jump rope, baseball, soccer, playing at the park.

So then besides still trying to get in a full schedule of school, and all of the above, we have had youth group activities, park days, 4-H meetings and workshops, have taken time to work on 4-H projects, and have been working on our own yard work and gardening. We had my mother-n-law's 70th birthday party, my ten year old's first communion, my daughter's 16th birthday party, a few cousin's birthday & baptism parties to attend, and we and have taken on the task of running my father to the store & such each week.

I am definitely looking forward to June, when we will cut back to only reading for school and I will be done teaching Sunday school too. Then I might actually get to work on some of the projects I have put on hold so as to get everything else done. :) I have five months worth of pictures to scrapbook, kitchen curtains to finish sewing, a shadow box to make for my oldest son, some painting to finish in the living room, and a list of books & mags that I would like to read.

Not So Spring Break

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:29:00 -0500

This week we are on "Spring Break", and though the calendar even says that spring has sprung, it doesn't feel so much like spring around here. The temps are a bit nippy and it has been very, very windy as well.

I like to take this week each year and do some good cleaning and reorganizing of school stuff, so we're good to go for that last sprint of school before summer. Usually it is at least warm enough to open the windows a bit and feel the clean crisp air as I clean. Then when I have put in some time around the house, the kids and I can head to the park. That is just not happening this week. They are even predicting some snow by tomorrow, so maybe we just might go sledding! LOL

The big plus I can see is that this cleaning and organizing will be all done when those first warm days do start creeping in, and we can just pack up and go to the park for the whole day.

Addition & Subtraction In Real Life

Thu, 6 Mar 2008 06:41:00 -0600

The birth of a first-born begins the addition factor in motherhood and homeschooling. Babies are born and added to the family. Then schooling begins with the first, then a second is added, a third, a fourth, a fifth, etc. Then the subtraction begins, as the older ones finish with school and start to move on in their lives. One by one the numbers decrease again.

Yesterday in our house, we began the subtraction. My oldest son has left the nest. He has moved to Arizona to work and go to college. He will be living with my brother once again, as he had done two years ago when he went there for five months, so I'm glad for that. He will still have family and some positive guidance close at hand as he begins his journey of independence.

I knew just how hard it was going to be for me, as a mom, this letting go. Us moms work hard from day one to raise children who will one day fly off on their own as responsible, caring, young adults. We think about it from day one, just who that tiny little bundle will become when they are "all grown up". But of course we also will always have that part of our hearts too that wants our child to stay with us forever. The more they grow, the more we love them, as we learn more about the person that they are.

The one thing I hadn't thought about at all, until yesterday, was just how hard this was going to be for my son's siblings, just how the family dynamics would change on a day to day basis. My oldest daughter has lost her best buddy, the brother she's spent 16 years of her life with. Now their friendship will be by phone and visits. My two other boys have lost having a big brother around the house. My youngest daughter will eventually barely remember a time when big brother was at home. She will spend more than half of her growing up years with him not living here with us. Wow!

As we were all giving our hugs and kisses goodbye yesterday and everyone was crying, I couldn't help but think just how much I was grateful for homeschooling and how it has affected our family dynamics over the years. My children are close because they've had the opportunity to be close. They have always spent their days together. They love their brother for more than just his being their brother, they love him because they truly KNOW him, through and through.

Today, we will go on with our routine just as we have always done-though minus one, while my oldest adds a whole new dimension to his life.

'We didn't do school today."

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 08:46:00 -0600

We have had more sickness in these past few weeks than we've had in a few years! Everyone has had a basic cold; but we've also had two diagnosed sinus infections, four cases of pink eye, and just yesterday I was at the clinic for the fourth time in three weeks with my oldest daughter who was diagnosed with strep throat.

The sickness in itself puts a kink in schooling. Those with pink eye couldn't do much when they couldn't see and those with sinus couldn't concentrate for the pain. So then the others didn't want to do much either, or at least not follow our regular routine. Then add in the hours we spent sitting at the clinic and it's seemed as though we've missed much of what we'd do here at home. I would find at the end of a day, however, that despite the interruptions there was still learning going on.

I felt it was great timing for us that the Homeschool Minute yesterday was all about "a day in the life" and that many of the writers talked about how school does not look much like "the perfect homeschool day" in their homes much of the time. They talked about how school goes on around and within the rest of their daily living activities, the kinds of activities that in public school would not be considered learning at all.

The one day that we had been at the clinic we had a two hour wait just to see a doctor. I brought a magazine to read, but the kids 'conveniently' left the worksheets & books I had brought for them in the car. Oh well, I wasn't well and I wasn't going to pick a fight about it. If they wanted simply to be bored, then so be it. So they spent a good hour just people watching, watching the goings on of how the clinic operates, and my youngest daughter occupied herself with counting how many times the automatic door opened and closed. Then brother chimed in and they began to count the door openings in Spanish and by skip counting. Soon all three kids were hovered around me and my magazine(American History Magazine) and asking questions as to what I was reading. The two boys then began reading sections of the pages over my shoulder and asking more questions. My youngest daughter then began to look for words on the pages with the phonograms that we had been working on at home. When I was finally called in to see the doctor, and I went to put the magazine away, they were all saying "Wait! Wait! I didn't finish!" And ironically, when dad came home that day from work and asked how school went for the day they all said "We didn't do school today." Hmmm? Spanish, math, social studies, history, and science(one article in my magazine was on double exposure photo fakes from the Civil War).

Then yesterday when my daughter was at the doctor and diagnosed with strep, he told her she was to be out of school for the next two days. She replied that she homeschools and that she'd even been doing her grammar while in the waiting room just minutes before! He jokingly told her that today she should just not study as hard then, "doctor's orders".

Life goes on, day in and day out, with the good and the bad, and learning goes right along with it!

I've been tagged!

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:22:00 -0600

Pick a book of at least 123 pages, go to the 123 page, recite three lines-

"The goat stared unblinking through the reading session. The Lady had more or less told him the story of Dick Whittington up to where the cat was. Willy didn't care about reading, but an adventure story he'd stand around for. If you don't read, you don't get many adventure stories"

Well, that was more than three! But I love those lines anyway! They are from the book we've been reading aloud with my 7, 11, and 13 year olds entitled- Whittington by Alan Armstrong. All three kids have fought for a spot on the couch next to me each night we've been reading this book. I believe it will be one of those special books that we won't even want to come to the end of, and will most likely read more than once or twice!

Back to Blogging :)

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:23:00 -0600

I took a hiatus from blogging for a time. I was feeling that I just needed more time for other pursuits, especially over the holiday months. I had felt like maybe I was the only mom who took a break from blogging in November & December, but now as I read other blogs I see that was surely not the case!

We had a good holiday season and a wonderful short break from our schooling routine. I indulged in our time off from schooling by reorganizing the house as the kids played with friends.

My youngest daughter now has a room of her own what with big brother getting ready to move to Arizona in a few short months. Since he only used the room to sleep in at night, it made more sense for her to have it. She now has a space all her own to play in. Over the holiday break we had painted the room and she got a new dolly station (a doll bed with a cabinet underneath to store doll clothes & such) There wasn't room for that when sharing with big sister. And she can spread her barbies out on the floor to play and it doesn't interfere with big sister having friends in her room. We also put up a tall five shelf bookshelf in there as well. I am certainly enjoying that! We were able to do away with three small bookshelves that were in other spots around the house. That gives us a little more space here & there and keeps all the paperbacks and picture books in one spot too. No more guessing where, on which bookshelf, a certain book may have ended up!

Well, today is quiet day here today. I led a LaLeche meeting this morning. My two girls went with me. Then they went to bake at a neighbors house. The two younger boys were home doing some school on their own, under big brother's supervision, while we were gone. Amazingly, they got everything done that they were supposed to before I even got back home! That was a first! So then they were off to go play with friends and shovel some snow. I even managed to get a scrapbook page done before leaving to take my oldest to work! Wow! Now I am up to starting on pics from August. If I'm diligent enough, I just might get to the Christmas pics by Easter time.

I have a meeting tonight at church, so then when I get back from that we'll have read aloud time before bed. My youngest already has her stack sitting by the couch and the boys are eager to know what new book I have planned to read with them. I told them I am keeping it a surprise!

Fraction Debate

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 08:07:00 -0500

First, a little background info- we have called our ten year old son "the attorney" since he was two. He is quite the mediator, loves to use large eloquent words, and debates EVERYTHING. Well, yesterday I was sitting with him while he was working on math. He was doing some fraction review. It was dealing with improper fractions and fractions equaling a whole such as 5/5, 3/3, 12/12, etc. He was certain that nothing cut would still be a whole. Giving him the example of a pie cut into pieces, with no pieces eaten, I was trying to explain that it would still equal a whole pie even though it was cut. My son insisted that the pie would NOT still be a whole pie since when you cut a pie there are crumbs on the knife so part of the whole was gone. OK, I then gave the example of a puzzle. He still insisted that, once cut, the puzzle would not be the same exact size as it was before cutting(tiny parts, splinters of the wood or paper, would be gone) I felt was fighting a loosing battle at that point! How could I disagree with his logic? It actually was true, no matter how minuscule the missing pieces would be! The only example I gave that he agreed with was that we are a whole family, 7/7, whether we are all standing together or not. Whew! We could get on with the figuring!

The blog challenge over this past week was to write about pencils. Since we are on the topic of my ten year old, this fits right in!

Pencils in a homeschooling household? Pencils are everywhere, right? We purchase those zip up pencil holders to go in the kids' notebooks and yet there are never pencils in them. There are pencils on the desk, next to the coffee pot, in the drawers, in the couch, under the couch, under beds, in the block wagon, in books, in the car, in the pockets of jeans ready to be washed. Just when I think we need more pencils, because there aren't any in notebooks or in the pencil holder on the desk, we clean house and find dozens.

Well, back to my son. Pencils left in the open are not safe if he is around! LOL He has always had the habit of taking off the erasers and also of tapping the newly sharpened leads off of the ends. I have learned not to sharpen many at a time to go in the holder, because they won't be sharp when you need to use them. "Sharpen as needed!" has become my pencil motto. I also have learned to hide extra erasers around the house. Everyone seems to have a favorite pencil, or pencils, that they like to use. But if the pencil monster has found the fav lying in an open book, it will not long have an eraser! Being able to pull out a spare eraser for the child who is then terribly upset that a favorite pencil is no longer of use, ruined without an eraser, can be a lifesaver!

Hmmm? If my son does decide to become an attorney, I think I know just what gift to get him when he passes the bar. You guessed it! A box of pencils, unsharpened of course, and a set of spare erasers!

Happy Homeschooling!

Extreme Nature Study

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 07:15:00 -0500

Our family has always enjoyed nature. We would be lost if we lived where there were no trees, and nature was not on our doorstep each day. We hang bird feeders and have a bird bath in our flower bed. The kids, even the oldest ones still, go to the window each morning to see what's going on outdoors.

This year, as part of fall decorating, I put two pie pumpkins on the porch to sit beside corn stalks. The squirrels loved the ears of corn still on the stalks. Unfortunately, they loved the pumpkins as well! They dug right in and had a feast. Oh well, we just left them to it. And when the pumpkins were scraped clean, we put the shells in the compost and left the stray seeds on the porch for the squirrels to gather up in time.

Yesterday, my ten year old son and seven year old daughter raced to the window to watch the squirrels. They wanted to see if all the pumpkin seeds were gone yet. Then I was called to the window to see a tiny female stuffing her cheeks with seeds. We oohed and ahhed and watched her make a few trips up the tree to her nest with her bounty. Then on one trip, as she got to the bottom of the porch, a neighborhood stray cat jumped from behind the tree and our fluffy-tailed friend became the cat's breakfast.

We were horrified at first. With indoor cats who eat their meat from a can, it can be easy to forget that cats are hunters. My daughter became angry even, and then she cried. It was truly sad from our perspective.

It was certainly the time for an impromptu lesson in in the hierarchy of nature's creatures. We talked for a while about how all things that live do eventually die, about how those animals that eat the plants are then eaten by meat eaters, and so on and so forth.

The morning was not the usual joyous celebration of the beauty of nature, we witnessed the darker side as well. But the lesson of how God's circle of life works beautifully, and for the benefit of all in the long run, is a lesson I don't believe I will have to explain again to my daughter. It has been imprinted on her heart. She has gained a deep respect for the value of life in each moment in time, and for the design of each of God's creatures.

Back To School?

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 07:29:00 -0500

After today, we will have completed one full week of school in our normal fall through spring routine. it was a little bumpy, to say the least. Normally, we start a few weeks earlier and just do more reading than we do in summer and start our math curriculum. This year we put off starting to finish up those couple of household projects that never seemed to get off the "to do" list. Great! We got those done! But then our back to school week was full routine and also "back to co-op", "back to bowling", and "back to Sunday school/ regular church hours". It was a true test of adjustment, even for me.

I figured yesterday would actually be our first smooth day, that we'd have gotten settled in a bit more. I was confident it would go smooth and be one of those enjoyable days of living and learning that I love. Then I woke up late, never hearing my husband leave for work or my alarm, so there went my morning time for myself and to start house stuff. The neighbor then came and asked if we could drive her daughter to preschool at eleven. Fine. We'd still have a few hours uninterrupted once back home. We went for our walk around the pond, spent time reading, and then took the neighbor girl to school. We only got math in once back home and then my dad called (he can't drive anymore) and asked for me to run and get him some things from the store. So we headed out to do that and then back home once again. When we finished with most of the day's schoolwork, I figured I then had time to get dinner going and get caught up on what I hadn't done in the morning. Then my other neighbor showed up reminding me it was Bookmobile day. Oh my! I hadn't even gathered my daughter's books. I ran around frantically trying to find the library books within the piles of other books as she asked me questions about homeschooling. It was probably not a good time for that! In the back of my mind I was thinking "Just send your daughter to school, you'll be less weary!"

So here we are today. I'm refreshed, and I got up on time. I've had an hour of quiet time to reflect on what we did learn yesterday, despite interruptions, and because of them. I am thankful that most mornings I'm not harried searching for school papers and backpacks only to send my kids away for six hours where I can't watch them grow, or teach them life lessons, or enjoy nature and life with them.

My kids are now rising and getting on with what they know they should do every morning, and without arguing. Even my teens are moving (last week they still wanted to sleep most of the day). I am confident that today, whether it continues to go smoothly or if there are still some bumps in the road, I will have joy. I may get weary, but I won't remember it ten years from now. Selective memory will only allow me to look back see the good!

Rain, Rain, & More Rain

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 09:30:00 -0500

We have had rain off and on every day for the past week. Yesterday was the clincher. I was taking my oldest son to work. We left the house and the sky was sunny. In fact, I had just finished sweeping up the drive and walk from the previous days' rains. I figured if it hadn't rained all day like they had said it would, then maybe we were finally in the clear. As we were going down the road, just a couple miles down the road from home, we could see the sky in back of us become a wall of black that was moving in our direction. Then we could see the rain as well, like a waterfall. The radio weather broadcast announced a tornado warning. No tornado touching down had been reported, but there was rotation. They were reporting sixty mile an hour winds. We sat at a stoplight and had branches, paper signs, and garbage blowing past us. It was too late to go back home, we'd be going right into the storm. I figured we could all go into my son's workplace if we needed shelter. (I had my youngest daughter and her neighbor friend in the car) I had my son go to the back of the van and get the blanket just in case. Then I had him call home and make sure my oldest daughter was safe in the house. She was home alone as the other two boys were at a friend's and my husband was still at work.

We reached my son's work just as the rain caught up with us. They announced on the radio that the tornado warning was over, but that there would be severe thunderstorms all evening and into the morning. I waited with the girls in the car until the rain subsided a bit and then we headed back home. Along the same road that we had just came down to take my son to work, there were trees down and branches in the power lines on fire. At home here there were trees down in yards all over the subdivision, some people had damage to siding and skirting on their mobiles, the streets were full of water, the gutters blew off of our shed, my daughter's little tykes house was apart, and there were leaves and branches all over my freshly swept drive. It didn't look like the same place I'd just left 45 minutes ago!

It was truly scary that the storm came up so fast and that we were all, my whole family, in different places. We are usually all at home here together, listening to the weatherband radio, during storms like that. I was surely glad that the outcome was minimal. It did continue with thunderstorms all night though, and so the kids and I were all together in the living room and sleeping lightly off and on until about two in the morning. Then we finally fell into a deep sleep until eight.

All week we have been painting between two bedrooms, the girls' room and the younger boys' room. I have to admit I was grumpy about it a bit too. We've wanted to get it done for two years, but it is messy and somewhat chaotic to say the least, especially when teaching a seven year old how to paint. I said quite a few prayers last night and this morning though that we still have walls in rooms to paint, and that everyone will be safely tucked into beds in those rooms when all is done. This past week of storms here in the midwest have cost the lives of several people and left many without homes to return to due to flooding. We have been blessed, and my heart goes out to all who have been not so blessed due to this wave of weather.