Monthly Archives: January 2008

We are half way into “push week”. This is a crazy hectic week that is an intentional product of my own scheduling. I worried that, as home schoolers, the children would get lax in taking deadlines seriously…….also, that they would never have the unmitigated joy of finding out that they have a due date in almost every subject, and life, chores, and outside activities that must continue as usual. (Welcome to reality, my child!) My solution to counter this is Push Week. Every once and awhile, we take two weeks of schoolwork and get it all done (well) in one week.

This requires the ability for them to multi task, plan their time, be flexible, and deal with unexpected things like mom being busy with another sibling longer than usual. It is a wonderful way to build character and it forces them to prepare for a life when their college professor does not grant extensions or take into consideration that they stayed up to late, or goofed off for the 1st week and a half that the project was assigned.

The Sarge is working on a major research paper. The project was assigned last week and discussed the week prior. I noticed he was piddling around with doing the research and his notes were sadly BRIEF. As in, some were missing completely, (”Oh, but they are in my head, Mom!”), others were unreadable, and the few pages I did find, had more doodling than actual notes on them. This week he has been amazingly focused. He has been working through double pages of Algebra, Language, Reading, History, and Science this week…….and yes, the paper is still due on Friday to be presented both written and orally to his siblings.

The Gremlin is not working at his potential in his geometry chapter. He has been making silly mistakes and not applying himself. Hubby sat him down and made sure he understood the materials and then got after him for attitude last night. He has also been doing double of everything this week. I’ve been impressed with his work in every other subject and he only had one melt down.

The Imp is joining in on push week too. She doesn’t seem to mind too much, because she likes to do school. I noticed her reading comprehension is improving because she is focused less on the mechanics of reading. (It goes in surges, but the extra practice has helped.) She really dislikes all the extra writing though!

This week we also had the unexpected surprise of all three children getting various forms of a cold from a play date last week. I wondered about re-scheduling for another week, but the rule stands, if you’re well enough to play and be out of bed….you’re well enough to do school and chores. One is coughing, one is snuffy, and one is almost over it, but all are playing JUST FINE. Thank goodness there are only two more days to this week!

I got this idea from another home school mom, because she saw that this was an area that home schooled kids got caught unprepared when they reached higher academia. I see the benefits, but I don’t enjoy the process. I really hope it makes a difference in the long run!

I’m starting to get excited about Co-op. Yesterday, I gathered up some of the supplies and did a field test of the experiments to work out potential problems. I first tried them with the boys, because if there is a way to make it dangerous, THEY will find it! Then I had the Imp try them to see if the directions or wordings were too high for a 6-7 year old. We found a few safety issues that we corrected and the Imp was able to explain the results and why they happen in her own words. Overall……a success!

Today I need to write out the experiments and class outlines for the parents and organize my notes so the flow is not broken. My kids loved the experiments and the discussion style seemed to work best because filling in a worksheet was too busy for the first week. I’ve already found a few experiments that will work with the text in a couple of weeks, so I’m trying to keep track of them so I don’t forget. This is so much fun, I can’t wait to see how it goes!

Week One: Intro to Earth Science
1. Astronomy- make asteroid craters in a container of flour with a marble, dissolve Alka Seltzer tabs in a clear pop bottle of water and discuss how God uses the earth’s atmosphere to act as a protective barrier
2. Geology – bring son’s rock collection and magnifying glass to look at layers and fossils (for flood study later), float a stone
3. Hydrology- center the cork experiment, look at surface tension of water to lead into pressure fronts and rain later
4. Meteorology – “steer” a bubble, look at air currents using a focused heat source and blowing bubbles, discuss how air currents effect weather

Today we had a teacher’s meeting for Co-op. I have finished second guessing and freaking out. I’ve prayed and handed it over to Him. Before I did that, I was concerned that I wouldn’t live up to the teacher that taught it last semester. She is such a sweet lady, so patient, very artsy, and makes everyone around her feel good about themselves. I don’t think she ever raises her voice and she gets the cutest southern accent going when she is flustered. She was constantly revising the lap books for the children and they turned out so neat!

After much prayer and last minute panic I finally got a word. I don’t have to be HER to be effectively used by God. (Well Duh! I know…… but sometimes it takes kicking me in the head before I realize this.) I have settled on the fact that I won’t be able to pull off the level of crafting and such with my class. I like to do experiments and I’m able to explain things to little kids so that they understand. I can also reflect God in all the things that I teach them. THOSE are things I can do, so that is where I will start. I’m not good with the whole art and coloring thing. I’ll come up with something else and figure out how to get it into a lapbook format so that the parents will have something to review at home and to present for their evaluation portfolios. I’ve got some ideas, but they need to be field tested on the Imp since she is only a year older than my class.

We got an unexpected call about Hubby’s sister last night. She went into labor a month early and we now have a brand new baby boy in the family! He was out within two hours and both mom and baby are fine. The new daddy is getting acquainted with his mini sith apprentice and plotting world domination. They warned her that the next one would probably take 1/2 the time! (My goodness, if mine were that easy to deliver, Hubby would have his clone army by now!)

Welcome little man! We can’t wait to see you!

We are gradually getting back into the swing of things around here. Yesterday we accomplished a full load of schooling for all three kids. This included coverage of all group and individual subjects, an intro to microscopes for science, and tackling Algebra issues with the Sarge. After taking a month off, mommy’s mind has turned to mush and my children have all lost theirs! I can only imagine what traditional school teachers have to deal with after taking the summer off. I’m so glad we school year round! (We always take the month of December off as our longest break, it helps to simplify things around the hectic holiday season.)

I am still trying to dig out of our laundry since we did very little in the way of housework this weekend. We hung out together, puttered around the house, and visited a local air museum on Sunday afternoon. It was nice to ignore the “we should be doing ______,” and just goof off.

We are still tv free. (Hubby says that is not accurate to say because we have a tv and it gets 1 channel of snow, 1 channel of Catholic programming, 1 channel of Speed tv, and 1 local channel….. sort of.) At any rate, since we aren’t into Nascar or watching the Pope, tv viewing is greatly reduced. We did get a bunch of movies for Christmas, and we have been enjoying those occasionally. Watching Pride and Prejudice made me want to find the book but our library only had it in a collection of all her works. I intended to only read the one, but got drawn into Sense and Sensibility and now I’ll probably just finish all of them. The kids don’t seem to mind or even notice that we don’t have cable anymore. We didn’t watch that much before and they are still able to play video games for limited periods after all of their work and chores are completed.

We are trying to get back to our morning walking schedule. We walked once since we arrived home. Then the Sarge started feeling like he was getting a cold, the weather turned cold for a few days after that, and we had planned to start up again this morning……… but Hubby’s work called us at 2:30am to solve some grand computer issue, so we missed another morning. Maybe tomorrow. The kids will start up PE class again this week, so that will head them in the right direction, at least.

I am trying to get all my notes and supplies together to teach a Science class in our Co-op. I was very excited and felt honored that they had asked me to help out. (That was before my highly educated sister expressed her shock and dismay that they would allow people of my “training and experience” to teach without a degree. Grrr) I’m sure it will be fine, but that started the whole, “What was I thinking, maybe I shouldn’t teach other people’s children…. It’s one thing to do it in my kitchen, but entirely another thing to do it in a classroom setting!” line of thinking. I promised myself I was going to step out of my comfort zone and go wherever God directed this year. I really felt like He dropped this into my lap, but I keep second guessing myself on it. At least I know that this will be one of the most prayed about Science class ever taught!

I know that y’all must be just riveted to the spot with all my ramblings. But all this to say I am still alive and all are doing well, just been busy and had a bit of writer’s block.

We’re home again! After being caught up in the pre-Christmas parties and packing around home (home being Florida), we piled into the car to spend Christmas with our families in the hometown of our childhood. (17-plus hours of driving North, in one day, mind you.) They had snow!

It was good to see both our families again. Hubby’s sister is glowing and very pregnant which was fun to see. The children were amazed to feel their little cousin kick and move. We saw several cousins we haven’t seen in a while, on my side, as well as siblings, aunts, and uncles. (Mom had about 30 relatives there!) It was both wonderful and overwhelming at the same time.

We were able to visit Frankenmuth and Bronner’s with Hubby’s family. The place looks the same as it did when I went as a child, it’s good that some things stay familiar. We needed some things to be familiar. We drove past our old home and the area that we spent the first 15 years of our marriage. The house looks the same, but nothing feels the same anymore, it was unsettling and a little sad. We attended a service at our old church and it was good to be at home there.

Between parties, gatherings, outings, and trying to see everyone, the time flew too quickly. We returned home having seen many, but not really having had the time to visit with them. (Like watching a slide show that lets you see the changes, how much they’ve grown, how different everything has become, but not being able to connect.) Though we tried to see as many as we could, there just wasn’t enough time to see everyone. I kept feeling like we were always letting someone down. Not enough time spent here. Not able to meet up for a lunch there. We had to take care of some business things while we were there, but I doubt there would have been enough time, regardless.

Then Hubby found a great deal on a vehicle, and we ended up driving both home since we couldn’t get the hitch/trailer situation covered in so short of time and over a holiday. We each drove a car, split up the kids, and rotated vehicles every 3-4 hours or so. We left early in case we needed to stop overnight somewhere. We probably should have, but we got to a point where we were only a couple hours from home, so we pushed on through. Thankfully we missed all the big snow storms and arrived home safely.

We spent the next day sleeping off and on. It’s astounding the difference between driving all night as a teenager and doing it when your children are practically teens! I haven’t been that exhausted in a long time. Anyhoo, we are home and starting to ease back into our routines. (Still not entirely caught up on sleep, but no major illnesses this time around.)