Britblog - Homeschool Blogger

Home schooling Jack

Thu, 7 Feb 2008 14:09:00 -0600

I'm linking to our newest homeschool member..his name is jack and he is our 100 pound Lab. He is smart but strong willed. However after a few days of actually getting his schooling done he is responding fairly well.

Jack....

smg.photobucket.com/albums/v666/Britmom/

smg.photobucket.com/albums/v666/Britmom/

smg.photobucket.com/albums/v666/Britmom/

stay tuned for more Jack updates :0)

I am hopeful that in a week my ds will be able to take over his training.. Jack is his dog after all!

To kniternity and beyond

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:33:00 -0600

In a spate of over confident generosity I gifted my sister in law with three matching sweaters.. one for my niece, one for my nephew and one for my "to be announced early in December."

She chose the wool and I chose the pattern, I casted on.. I loved the wool and the pattern all through the babies sweater back, I liked it all through the nephews back and I am down to enduring it all through the nieces back. If they would be happy with just pinning the backs of their sweaters on to a t-shirt I could quit now... but alas, the concept of a sweater is a whole garment not just a back. SO I will press on.

Casting on always gives me that surge I need to get me through the first few rows. Then I start to play games with my self.. how many rows before the baby wakes? How many rows before the water boils? How many rows until the sheer mental energy required forces me to run screaming from the room?

The fact that I frequently play these games should have been enough to warn me off such a magnaminous gift. How many math problems can I go through with my emerging learners before the baby wakes, how many phonics lessons can I endure before screaming.. "it's A..aaaaaaaaaaaaaah..a..a...a. it was a yesterday and the day before and hte day before that...." I reinvent school on a periodic basis, I reinvent house work.. if I could reinvent the repetitive work of breathing I probably would try.

For now I remind myself of the joy the sweaters will bring.. joy for me as I cast off and hand them over, joy to my sister in law as she unwraps them, joy to my niece, nephew and to be decided as they wear this proof of my unswerving love for them. And while I'm at it I will look forward to the joy of reading and knowing a, of the click, the light that shines, the OOOOH and AAHHHH as the children unwrap the next school adventure. I'm not quite at reveling in the housework but maybe that will be my next wheel to reinvent..

Sometimes mothering and teaching and living is one big rerun and I have to remind myself that it is only a rerun for me in the semantics, the little people who are trusting me for guidance don't know I have done this before they only care that I am doing it for them.

Wendy

My life was crazy..

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 07:58:00 -0500

The children are watching a home movie we made in Germany. I can not belive the chaos that goes on around me :0) OK I can believe it! I am like a British Barney.. an all singing, all juggling moving momma. The chidlren are 6, 4, 2 and 1 we make birdseed apple treats for the brids, go to a zoo, make paper bag puppets and go through the alphabet one activity at a time. I miss those simple days of total exhaustion, where every day is an adventure and circus act.

I am so glad I have the video because it reminds me of the fun times. My brain appears to have blanked most of the childrens childhood, I am too busy in the moment of now.. managing the rest of their childhood.

The toothless grins, the sticky faces, the digging in the dirt, the simple crafts and complicated explanations. I miss those moments of togetherness. Somewhere over the years I went fom being in the middle to orchastrating from the outside, conducting rather than being in the band... YET hearing my children remember those times and talk of their days now, it would appear they haven't noticed.. maybe..just maybe I could sneak back in, take up my part and keep on playing.

So along with my summer challenge to myself.. to speak more postiviely to my children I am going to add, have a circus moment regularly, play in the dirt, get in the mele, laugh more and not forget the camera! After all I will need something to remind me of these fun days in a few years :0)

Wendy

Where has the time gone?

Fri, 1 Jun 2007 05:36:01 -0500

December, DECEMBER! That was the last time I sat down and blogged. Where does the time go? I suspect to the same place the odd socks flee and the sanity vacations during phonics lessons.

We have had a busy few months here in homeschool land.

In January we add a little one to our home through the foster system. She is a joy and delight and we have now had her in our home for over half her life. We don't know if she will be here permanently and are praying for her biological parents and extended family. It has been a deep learnig time in trust and peace. God is good and we trust Him for her outcome.

February was spent adjusting to life with a baby and taking her to mutiple doctors visits, some over an hour away. Praise God all testing came back negative and in the process I learnt a lot about the head and brain development!

March was spent gettingthe garden ready and saying good bye to our good old Bulldog Henry. He had been with us for 11 years but was sick and in pain. Another hard life lesson in saying goodbye. A few weeks later we said hello to our energetic lab Jack. A puppy he is full of fun and as cute as a button! We also said good bye to Kristy as she headed off to her next adventure in W.VA

April saw my husband interviewing for a job workig in the White House fo rhte President. It was a bit intense as he got the the final two. Anotehr great experience but he will not be working there as another capab;e candidate was chosen. It would have been a wonderful opportunity for him but this way he will be home more :0)

May saw two birthday's and a visit from my parents from England. We took our "Spring break" while they were here and visited many tourist areas in the locale. It was nice to get out and explore and the children ate up the attention!

And here we are in June, another birthday month and more visits from family and friends planned. The sixth month and I'm back to bloggin. We will hopefully see another blog here before January.

So that is our update, testing is upon us and then Summer!!! Laxy days spent weeding and tending the garden. (Compared with teaching reading for the fourth time battling bugs and weeds seems like a breeze :0) ) I forgot to mention my knee surgery whch I am recovering slowly but surely from, it makes getting down a bit hard so it is a truly family affair getting the garden weeded.

Now i am off to catch up my blog friends :0)

Wendy

Where has the time gone?

Fri, 1 Jun 2007 05:36:00 -0500

December, DECEMBER! That was the last time I sat down and blogged. Where does the time go? I suspect to the same place the odd socks flee and the sanity vacations during phonics lessons.

We have had a busy few months here in homeschool land.

And here we are in June, another birthday month and more visits from family and friends planned. The sixth month and I'm back to bloggin. We will hopefully see another blog here before January.

Now i am off to catch up my blog friends :0)

Wendy

School Part 2

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 20:44:00 -0600

My school day began with a bell... as did every event at boarding school :0) The ushering into our seats, locating the right desk. Sometimes finding your desk could be a problem. We had the wooden desks with lift up lids. All our school work resided inside to be used through out the day. Soemtimes teh school girl pranksters would get it into their head to move a desk and if you weren't ready it could prove disasterous. Lifting you lid to get your math book out only to find you are sitting at someone elses desk.. or all your stuff is gone but there is a bowl of water, a lilly pad and a frog in your desk.. or somone taped an egg to the desk and lid so as you opened it the egg cracked .. that was no yolk I can tell you! And of course you don't say a word.. to tatle tale would be social death! While the concept of no one talking to me for days at a time seems like adream come true now, as a nine year old it was enough to keep you quiet and blundering through the best you could :0)

I'm sure I learnt lots of other things at school but surviving children was #1 lesson learnt!.. that helped a lot when I was a high school teacher myself and makes me appreciate the learning enviroment my children have now... though I have to confess to an itching desire one in a while to tape some eggs to chairs/desks or throw wet toilet tissue on the cieling so it can dry out during the school day and randomly drop on the childrens heads as they study ..

My school day

Fri, 1 Dec 2006 21:27:00 -0600

Our school days look different every day. some mornings we are reading stories on the couch in our jammies and other days we are up, dressed, chored and sitting at desks. Some things however stay constant.. we are together, as a family, and we are at home.

My school days looked different from my mother of homeschooler days (as I am sure many can relate to). I schooled at home and home was school but I was not with family and I was not "at home" I was at boarding school.

My day started with the ringing of a BIG brass bell as a house mistress proceeded down the hallway opening doors ringig the bell in each dorm and turning on the lights. Then if you can imagine 50 girls trying to get through bathrooms and showers in half an hour you have a very vivid imagination :0) and an idea of the aftermath of the bell ringing!

The bell rings again and it is time to get out of the house and walk to breakfast. My house was about 1/2 a mile I think from the main school building which is where all our meals were served. Come rain, snow, sleet ot heat we wlaked to breakfast. We took our name tag off a large baord and walked through the buffet line having breafast put on our trays as we did so. At the end of the line a housemistress took our tag..checked we had enough food (anorexia ran rife) and we were free to seek out a space to eat. Imagine school cafeteria three time a day, who should you sit with? Who were you not going to sit with if you could at all help it?

Breakfast swallowed you took your tray out into a long grey hall and scraped the food off, put your plates in their stacks and filed your tray. Later in my school life we ended up doing kitchen duty too and then you had the joy of loading and cleaning everyones plates inthe huge dishwashers.. you got clean plates and a facial at the same time.

Then it was the long walk back to the house to make beds, clean the dorms and get ready for the next bell.. school time.. and the walk BACK to the building we had just left. I did a LOT of walking :0)

... to be cont.

MRI tomorrow

Fri, 1 Dec 2006 21:25:00 -0600

To cut a long story short.. I got my MRI moved upand I know have to go to the next town to get it rather than the next State :0) God is good!

I'll let you know as soon as I know what the results are.

Wendy

Done it again...

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 22:10:00 -0600

A week ago I knelt to plant some bulbs in the front garden and heard and felt my knee.. spludge .. not a good feeling but finished the plantings and get up to get dinner ready. Walking accross the kitchen my knee shot backwards and hyperextnded. Seriously not good feeling followed by shooting pain!!.. I deployed my "labor natually through pain" techniques..which worked until I could get to the docotor. Now motrin and tylenol 3 are my new best friends.

I think I have torn up my miniscus again. I have had two surgeries on this knee already. An MRI planned the week before Christmas will give us a better idea of what is going on. Meanwhile it HURTS to sit, bend, do anything on uneven ground or up and down hills/steps. I'm getting a LOT of knitting done!

I'll not be on the computer much because just sitting for this short periood of time is like having knieves pushed through my knee cap.. andI can't think a straight thought on the tylenol! whicih is why I only take it when Steve is home.

Wendy

A study of a house and a home

Wed, 8 Nov 2006 00:02:00 -0600

I realised I hadn't bloggeds about our home study.. so here it is :0)

The house was reasonably ready.. it's usual state of several things needing to be picked up but school needing to be done was more important. I had the timer on and the plan in place. School, baking, lunch, pick up, study..

School migrated from the school room ot he dinning room table so I could give instruction and dispose of several pounds of apples into an experiment cake and apple sauce. I LOVE it when school work sticks together and you could literally eat it up!

Jacob was on a mission to finish as much history as he could, Emma was finding several ways she needed help so she could come over and get instruction and apple slices, Benjamin and Hannah were pretending they could play Othello and making up a game all of their own .. and for once NOT arguing. I had just got eh cake out of the oven and while it was cooling had popped into my room to dispose of the pile of cloths on my bed that had been washed between peeling, teaching and listening that morning. The last sock had been thrust into a door and the buzzer had gone off to let me know the cake was cool and I still had time before the study to feed the children and pick up when the door bell rang.

Jacob burried in school work called out.. "She's here.. quick.. look like you are working!" I passed him on the way to the door and reminded him that he WAS working :0) "oh yes.. " he said as he put aside yet another sheet of history facts.

On the door step was the social worker and one dog torn between giving her a true labrador/shepherd welcome or rushing off to chase the cars that were passing.. she opted for entertainment choice two , for which I was extremely grateful and rewarded her with not buzzing her for chasing cars! Anne the social worker was most apologetic. She had been int eh main town near us and was on her way back to the office, she was very early, she is never early she told me. but she was passing .. I told her to come on in and not to worry about it. So she walked in to our home, little ones had discareded the game and were sitting at the counter munching celery sticks, peanut butter and apple cakes, Older ones surrounded by history work sheets and colorig pages and so the visit began.

The children shook hands and introduced themselves adn then told her they were ready for her to ask them questions. Anne was a little taken aback and told them that children were usally at school when she came to visit. The children were quite disappointed as they knew why they liked each other, they liked me and they wanted to be foste brothers and sisters. Anne told them that if she were to place an older child in our home they would have to go to public school. Hannah began to cry and Benjamin told her he didn't like that idea. She asked why? Benjamin told her that if a child was going to come into the home he wanted that child to stay at home and enjoy all the fun things they got to do during the day and be part of the love of the family, he didn't like the idea of them going off without their new brothers and sisters. :0) The social worker looked a bit surprised and we explained that that was the rule, Jacob then asked what if the family was already homeschooled.. what then. Once again she looked a bit surprised and told us that teh homeschooled families didn't usually need foster care and she had never thought about that before because it had never been an issue. Meanwhile Hannah is still sobbing LOL! Anne starts to look a little uncomfortable so I cheerfully joked with ehr.. "way to go Anne, come early, traumatise my children.. would you like some apple cake or shall we look at the house." Then she spied my spinning wheel "oh do you spin?" andwe find out we both love to knit, she looks at my yarn, we swop information in projects we are working on right now. Hannha stops crying and we go to look at the house.

Again to cut a long story semi short.. Jacob give the grand tour of his room.. complete with opening his closet for inspection and telling her that he has some special things he'd rather a child not break so he will be putting them up in a chest we are going to get with is nameon. The other children will have special thing chests too and we will have spares to fill for other children who come to stay with us, These will be their's if they stay a day or a lifetime. Again Anne looks astonished and comments on what a nice idea that is and that this is obviously a family project. I tell her what we ahve done to try to prepapre the children for what may be ahead.

We go into the girls room, again a guided tour of speical things and Jacob opens the girls closet. Emma had actually had a cleaning spat that moring and organised her closet of her own accord.. Jacob steps back in amasement and says "wow it is amazing how much tidier girls closets are than boys".. at that point I manage to encourage them to other activites or this is going to take all day!

We look at our room (Ididn't show off my closets!) and then head down stairs. She just wants to see what room we have and states that we have plenty.

She asks me a few questions about why we want foster children, she specifically asked if we are trying to build a large family. I told her that I thought we already had a large family and that we were open to as many other children in it as was meant to be. I explained that I had wanteed to adopt since I was 8 years old and that the thought of little ones not having someone to read to them, play with them and love them unconditionally was a hard thought to have and not do something about.

She seemed happy with all our answers, kept saying how vibrant and socable the children were and that any little one would be happy to be part of our family. I thought that was a nice thing for her to say.

As she got up to leave the children came to the stairs and asked if we had passed. She told them we had indeed. "So are you going to give us children now?" they asked. She said she would try to place children in our home that would be a good fit here.

We have told her that for now 0-3 year olds are what would work best with the home schooling and ages of our children.

And so now we wait....

OH and she actaully commented on our path way!!!! She said it was fun how it curved and snaked.. I told her she needed to come back after we have planted the lavenders and lemon grass.. :0)

So thank-you for praying, it was a great visit, she got to see our house and our home and the hearts that reside here.