Homeschooling Update

Year 2 of homeschooling!  Whew!

Homeschooling is a constant and ever changing process.  Which is okay and good because it means you are adapting and perfecting for your child and this is helping your child grow in the direction they need to.  I wanted to document what we are working on right now - for me to look back on when Melanie is at this stage and to just have and remember.

First Grade:

Handwriting - I wasn't crazy about last years handwriting and actually stopped using it.  So this year I tried a new one and I like it.  Mallory struggles with handwriting.  She may not think she does, but she does.  She likes to rush and get done so letters end up backwards and squished together and words run together.  She doesn't follow the "normal" way of writing letters.  She starts from the bottom to form letters instead of starting from the top like they teach.  I don't get on her too much about that as long as I can read what she wrote and it is neat.

Math - Again a learning process for us.  I did not do math every single day last year.  I did it only twice a week.  Which means she did not finish her book last year and just finished it this week and will be starting her new "first grade" book.  Although I feel like she is still right on point with her math skills and is not behind the norm.  I am not crazy about her math, but I am hesitant to switch her now because the math curriculums out there are so varied and different.  Going to do my best to keep trucking on this one.

Science - This is the first year with science and I absolutely love it!  I did not like science as a kid and took no interest in it.  So I was not thrilled about having to do this as an adult and teach my kids.  I found a program that is completely scripted!!!  Yay!  So it tells me EXACTLY what to say and teach.  Love it!  And!  I love the curriculum.  Spot on for her age!

History - Going from Kindergarten to First Grade was intimidating to me.  Adding a whole lot more subjects and time and responsibilities.  So I didn't pick a huge history course this year for her.  We are learning about different countries.  The kids seem to be enjoying learning about all the different cultures out there and the animals that go with that country.  With this course I bit off more than I can chew.  I am having to be really selective in what we are able to do because of time.

Reading - When we ended last year I was so frustrated and broken about Mallory's reading.  I even just gave up and stopped doing her reading.  She was fighting me.  She absolutely did not like it.  She wasn't getting it.  I quit.  Not my best moment, but it is what I did.  I was even starting to question if she had dyslexia because she was reading and sounding out words completely backwards.  So I really worked hard on finding her a better program.  A more interactive reading and not just a sit and read program.  I even took her to the eye doctor to make sure she could see correctly.  (She does have a slight astigmatism, but nothing to correct at this age.)  This new reading program is 5 stars!  It is by far the best thing of our year!  She took off!  She is closing in on finishing her first grade level curriculum in the next few weeks and will be starting the second grade level immediately afterwards.  Plus she is reading with such confidence and efficiency now.  She reads her own assignments and work.  This week she had a science test and she just took it and read it and turned it in.  I never had to say anything to her!  Just incredible to me.  Which is where my reward and joy is because I taught her this!  I feared teaching our children to read and now she is doing it!  She is reading books like crazy and enjoys reading.  She is even devouring big kid chapter books!  So proud!  I do want to give a lot of credit to this reading program!  It is wonderful!

Spelling - I started her on spelling a couple months into school because she was ready.  It is the same program as her reading and so far I think it is great.  Teaching her great concepts.

Bible - We have the kids in AWANA at church and that is what I am using right now.  It feels like too much to toss in another Bible curriculum.

Pre-School:
I never did pre-school before.  I sent Mallory to public school twice a week for preschool.  I didn't do that for Max and so I am having to teach him everything from scratch!  Eep!  Not going to lie, it has been a rough year.  He is such a goof-ball and ham that he doesn't take anything serious so it appears to me that he isn't obtaining anything I have taught him.  But he has to be.  I hope.  I see glimpses of him knowing new things every now and then.

We are just doing a letter a week.  I started out hardcore with him and had 4 days of work and piles of stuff each day.  As we come to a close on our first semester he is battling headaches.  Which we then decided his headaches were from exhaustion.  I was pushing him way too hard.  He wasn't getting breaks and naps like most 4 year olds did because I needed him to keep working to finish all that I had assigned.

It was a hard lesson to learn for me.  I feel so super bad that I was causing him exhaustion and stress to the point of my little 4-year old battling headaches!  Feel horrible about it!  So I have taken a new approach with him and we are just doing one lesson (3x a week) from 100 Easy Lessons and he does one letter activity (4x a week).  Which he loves so much more!  He is now more willing to do that one activity than before when he had 4 things to do.

Getting him to rest and be still and quiet is still hard.  It helps him so much when I am able to do that.  I have made Mally & Max such buddies that they have a hard time doing things without each other.  So he doesn't want to have quiet time by himself while Mally still gets to do school.  If I get him to rest two days I call it a lucky week.

Extra Activities:
Choir - I found a homeschool choir program for Mallory.  It has been so much fun.  She goes once a week for a lesson.  She gets to be part of a giant homeschool group of kids.  We get to meet new families and see that we are not alone in this adventure.  There are so many homeschool families in our area - more than we ever imagined.  The choir is real!  They are teaching techniques and reading notes at first grade!  It is not just some kids screaming out a song!  They are in-tune!  They had a Christmas concert and I was so excited to show it off so I invited both grandparents.  I knew it would be hard for them to get to it because it was late at night and a good 1.5 hour drive for them.  I prayed it would be worth it and boy was it worth it!  They all left blown away!  There is a spring choir coming up and I will more than likely signing her up again because it was just so good and Mallory loves to sing.

Phy. Ed - The college puts on a phy. ed. class for homeschoolers with their students who are going to school to be phy. ed teachers.  We haven't started yet, but I am very excited about it.  Max will be able to participate in this one.  He has sat on the side lines long enough while Mally has done ballet and choir and now he gets to do this one.  We will participate in this once a week.

Local Co-Op - A local homeschool mom decided that we needed a co-op that was local.  Everything else we do we have to drive 45 minutes away for.  There is such a big group of us here, why not start something here.  So she did!  She is amazing at it too!  She has a big house and a big yard and we get anywhere from 5-10 families to show up.  And homeschoolers tend to have 2-6 kids!  You can about imagine how many kids show up!  The first trimester we did an outside phy. ed. class.  So they did baseball and basketball and obstacle courses and who knows what else.  This mom just doesn't say, hey today we are playing basketball.  She teaches them the correct terminology and makes them do it correctly.  She is awesome!  This trimester we are doing lego challenges along with speaking. The third trimester will either be art or more phy. ed depending on the weather.

Story Hour - we still participate in the weekly story hour at our library.  Mallory is too old, but they don't get a big turn out and she likes it yet and they have said she can still come.  I just remind her every week to let the little kids go first.  This week we were the only ones that showed up so my kids got their very own private story hour.  Which they loved.  Plus we get so many library books for our schooling that we are bring 30-40 books home with us each week.  Yes, we do read that many in a week.

Mom's Goup - The same homeschool mom that does our local co-op started a mom's night.  Moms only, go to her house once a month to ask questions and talk about our schooling highs/lows.  We get a great turn out and it is so encouraging to talk to these more seasoned moms.  We even have a few moms with kids that have graduated and are in college!  She usually has a theme for us each month to get us going and to guide us back to if we get carried away.  : )

That about sums up our schooling right now.

Refreshed & Ready

We are on our last day of Christmas Vacation and a few days into 2016.  I have lots of goals and plans for the new year.  One of them is to try and start my blog again.  To do that I thought I would give a recap of each of us and where we are at right now.

Jesse.

He keeps the fun in our family.  The first one to jump into playing these crazy games with the kids.  I like to sit on the side lines and capture the moment. 
Jesse is the chief psychologist at the prison.  He also does disability evaluations for the State of Wisconsin when they need them in our area.  Alderman Frey has become a new hat for him, as he is on the city council board.  Oh and he is on the board for building us a new library!  When the dress clothes hit the laundry basket and his blue jeans come out you can find him in a jeep, on a tractor, or giving the kids rides on the three wheeler. 

Me (Lynn).

I stay home with the kids and we also homeschool.  I am the nursery director at our church.  Fancy name for we hunt down willing volunteers to watch the 0-3 year olds so the parents can go to church.  Being a homeschool family I am constantly on a mission to make this place a smooth and organized operation.  I fail at it most of the time which is why it is a constant mission.  Most of the time you can find me in the kitchen (I joke with Jesse that I do leave the kitchen – he leaves in the morning and I am in the kitchen and he comes home and  I am in the kitchen.) making meals and meal planning and meal prepping.  In the warm months I am gardening and canning.  In the cooler months I am planning and thinking about gardening and canning.  I am also constantly planning and thinking about our schooling and doing prep work for it.  Homeschooling has been my hardest job to date.  When I took it on I had no idea how consuming it was truly going to be.

When I am in the kitchen I usually have a side kick, Melanie.  I think she might be the chef of the family.  Or she has attachment issues.  Or she is hoping I will give her a sample of whatever I have cooking.  She is certainly not content unless she is on my hip looking down into the bowls I have going.  I think she is looking for food handouts. 

Mallory.

Our first grader.  The oldest.  Mallory.  Oh Mallory.  She is growing into such a little girl already.  She is my biggest helper.  When I need something done, she is the one I run to.  She is such a great big sister.  Mallory is also competitive, hates to lose, and highly dislikes being timed.  She is very artsy.  Constantly drawing or making things.  She also has some hoarding in her as she can not get rid of the items she draws and makes.  I found 3 diaper boxes she snuck off with in her room full of stuff!!  They were her “toy boxes” even though she has a toy box.  Or that piece of paper on the floor was her doll’s bed.  Just this weekend she spent the night at her grandparents and she found a stick that became her gun and she was insistent on keeping it AND taking it the tub with her.  Then she was trying to convince them to let her go paint it yellow.  (Grandma Connie if you ever need an apprentice – Mallory is your girl.)  In school she is doing absolutely amazing!  My most proud moment for her is reading!  She is devouring chapter books already!!  Big chapter books too. Like the characters in the book are third graders!  I am so proud of this because at the end of last year she hated reading and I couldn’t get her to do it without a fight.  Now she is sailing.  Her memory is out of this world too!  Her favorite things would be art, stuffed animals, her doll Freckles, and Hank the Cow Dog Audio Books.

Maxwell.

Oh Mr. Max!  He is in Pre-School.  More like I have to trick him with school.  He is all boy.  He needs to run and play and not sit still and learn.  Hunting!  It is his jam!  He can tell you anything you want to know about guns and hunting.  He checks out hunting books at the library and actually makes us read them to him.  He gets the real hunting magazines and I have to read the stories out of it.  He also loves to learn about animals.  Any kind of animal.  He knows more animal facts than any kid I know.  He is also the one with the tender heart.  A thing we battle with Max is that he likes to get out of work.  If something needs to get done he will find an excuse as to why he can’t do it.  His leg hurts is a very over used excuse.  He loves any moment he can get with Jesse.  After hang out all day with a house full of girls he is ready for that boy time! His favorite things are hunting, Indians, Hang the Cow Dog, Hunting Stores and watching shows when we let him. 

Melanie.

Coming in at 18 months and the baby of the family.  She has us all jumping and doing what she wants at the slightest grunt.  She climbs on everything.  Gets into every single drawer.  This week she figured out how to open doors (Big doors – the pantry door specifically).  Getting in the bathroom and getting the toothbrushes is a very happy moment!  I swear she has a radar and knows when we left it open and she runs (literally) and looks to see if anyone is watching and gets in there and starts sucking on everyones toothbrush. 

She doesn’t play toys much.  She would rather follow me around and do what I am doing.  Whether it is helpful or not.  I have her doing laundry and resorting it.  I have her unfolding laundry.  I have her in the dishwasher loading and unloading.  If I am vacuuming she is right there to turn it on and off for me.  If I sit down to write a menu she has to be on my lap with a pen of her own.  We already talked about how she needs to cook with me.  Shower!  Oh she has to be in the bathroom too if I want a shower.  And now that she has figured out how to open doors I need to remember to lock them when I need to hide from her.
 
If I can get her to play toys (usually I have to sit on the floor with her) she plays with her dolls, kitchen toys, or reads books.  About once or twice a day she will play with the big kids.  It usually ends shortly because she ruins something or she gets hurt and needs my healing kisses.
She is working on potty training, not needing a nuk all day long, independent play, and using words instead of grunting.

In a nutshell that is us and what we have been up to.  We are all very ready to get back into our routines and get this new year started.  Well… except Max!

All the Crazy

I just got back from a conference this past weekend.  It was called Hearts at Home.  A conference for Moms!  A fellow homeschool mom asked a close knit group of us if we wanted to go and we all said YES!  We signed up this summer so waiting for November felt like a lifetime.  It was so worth the wait.

The conference was nothing short of perfection!  We laughed.  We cried.  We laughed until we cried.  I ruined my contacts on the first day!  I didn’t bring my contact solution.  Thank goodness for my contact wearing friend who brought an entire big bottle of contact solution and brought it to the conference with her.  She had been to one of these before and knew all about the ruining of contacts from crying!  Next time, if there is a next time, I will be wearing my glasses.

So I left Friday afternoon with a whoo-hooo lets go ladies!  A giddiness in my step!  We were free mommas!  We could be Lynn, Jenn, Rebecca & Wendi! We could finish our thoughts and conversations without an interruption of so-and-so hit me! 

We get to the conference, we get our goodie bags, and we find our seats.  Open up our goodie bags and there is a package of kleenex in our bag.  Huh?  What?  Why do we need kleenex?  Oh and chocolate!!  Good chocolate too!

They start the conference with a video showing little kids at a park playing on the swing.  CRYING!!!  Why in the world does this make me cry?  I now feel like a horrible mom for being at this conference and not with my kids.  I now feel like a horrible mom because I don’t take my kids to the park enough.  It has only been three hours and I miss my kids terribly.

Then they sing a hilarious song about Moms and I am laughing one minute and crying the next.

Anyway, this crying and laughing goes on and on.  I took some great classes.  One of them was finding my mothering style.  I am an introvert-innie-structured momma!  Which means I am refueled by being alone, I have well organized color-coded calendars, and I can’t break away from color-coded calendars.

You know what?  I was not like that until I had kids.  I couldn’t stand to be alone.  I wanted that group of people.  I was still very organized and geeky about my calendar but I was spontaneous and I could totally break away from my calendar.

Something happened when I had all these kids.  And I became crazy structured and to-do list centered.

Each class drilled into me – be more present.  Stop the to-do.  Sit and enjoy these kids.  They will be grown up and gone before you know it and you don’t get this time back.

This is my first week back with a new outlook.  I have been much more relaxed this week.  I have changed my style a bit.  I try to listen more and be present with the kids.

I have laughed so much this week and I want to remember all the craziness that went down.  Max was a riot this week!  And maybe he is always like this but I don’t pay attention – I will do better at paying attention.

I had to do a grocery run this week and I have my semi size cart.  You know the one where I can haul all my children in one cart and still get a mega load of groceries.  Where you can hardly turn it towards the end of your trip.  Yeah, that cart.  So Melanie sits facing me and the two big ones sit facing Melanie.  Works great for the first 3 minutes.  Then Max gets restless and he starts tugging on Melanie’s leg.  She squeals.  Mallory tries to make Melanie happy and gives her the toothpaste.  Melanie chews a hole in the box and now the big kids think we are going to jail.  Then Max says… Melanie has a grass stain on her head, she needs a bath!  Ah, that is not a grass stain.  That is a bruise.  {{She fell down the stairs last week while I was on the phone with the insurance agent.  A whole other scary heart stopping story.  But she is fine only left with one heck of a bruise.}}

Eating lunch another day.  Max is talking about the chores they have to do and how his chore is so much harder then Mallory’s.  Max has to push out the chairs so that Mallory can vacuum the floors.  Max says, “My job is so much harder.  Seriously!  You have to watch out for your feet so you don’t run them over {with the chair}!”  Mallory and I laugh and he gets mad and says, “It really hurts!”

Last night we had a family game of wii golf going.  We all tend to get a bit competitive when we play wii and Max and I are not the competitive type.  I start making fun of Jesse because he is not feeling well and he gets really… I don’t know… we all know how guys are when they are not feeling well.  So I am razzing him and Max just finished his round of golf and he is NOT happy.  He got a really bad score and Jesse says to him, “Max don’t you feel sorry for Dad?  Your momma is so mean to me.”  To which he responds without skipping a beat, “I can’t.  I am too busy feeling bad for myself.”

Tonight!  Doorbell rings and there are two young girls selling chocolate bars to raise money for their concert choir to go to New York.  Mallory heard the word chocolate and she is running for her money.  I ask Max if he wants to go get a dollar for a chocolate bar and he tells me no.  I think that it is odd and I ask him if he doesn’t want one or he doesn’t want to spend a dollar.  He says he doesn’t want one.

Mallory and I are eating our chocolate and Max now wants to have a bite.  I am sharing mine with chow hound, Melanie, so Mallory offers to share with him.  Well now he wants half the candy bar!!  Mallory tells him for .50$ he can have it.  He fights her a little bit but she is firm and he finally agrees to the .50$.  Now he wants her to come with him downstairs to get the money and she starts telling him how he has to put that money right in the center of her palm. 

I could go on for days about Miss Melanie.  But I will share only this week.

Melanie is a handful.  She is constantly on a mission.  She wakes up wanting her shoes and jacket on.  Thursday mornings we take Mallory to choir.  While Mallory is in her class the rest of us sit in another room waiting.  Melanie paces around that room stealing all the baby dolls.  I have had to tame a few fights from breaking out.  Usually Max finds joy in chasing her and keeping her in the room we need to stay in.  This week Max was tired and didn’t want to chase.  So I did.  One of my friends says, “Your super power is chasing!  And with a smile!”

Melanie had a doctor appointment this week and we are sitting in the waiting room and all the kids are circled around the table with magazines and they are flipping pages.  A little old lady is next to me and she starts making wrapper noises.  It sounds like a candy wrapper.  Melanie stops what she is doing.  Walks over to that lady.  Stands in front of her.  Sticks out her little baby hand and grunts.  Now in Melanie language that means – hand over the candy I want some.  The lady keeps making her wrapper noise and looking at Melanie.  I start laughing and trying to corral Melanie back to her table of magazines which she no longer wants any part of.  I tell the lady that she thinks you have candy.  The lady laughs and says it is my cloth to clean my glasses.  She tucks it into her purse and says to Melanie “all gone”.

Melanie found a black marker today and colored on the wall.  Mallory told me.  I came down to find her little baby hands covered in black marker and a whole lot of swirls of black on the wall.  When I would ask her if she did that she would say “aaaahhhh” like she wasn’t sure how to answer.  She is real good at nodding yes or no… but when drilled about the incident she wasn’t sure what to say so she said “aaaahhhh”.  Later on when asked she is quick to say “No.”

That was my week of slowing down and enjoying.  What is crazy is I still got everything done!  No idea how it happened, but it did.