justhomeschooling

Friday Happenings

• Okay deleting things to do list because the lack of things crossed off on it was SO depressing :)

Just when you think....

you have done something great real life comes along and makes you laugh and realize you aren't as great as you think. :0)  Today we had a great day of cleaning. The children worked and helped all day long. No bad attitudes, laziness, silliness. Just "worthy of a big proud mom moment" 2 1/2 hour cleaning by my little children. We worked together, had someone say cleaning can actually be fun, and generally just had a great time. Cleaning can be great fellowship together. Every little moment can be great fellowship together.

So I was standing feeling so proud of how hard everyone had worked, especially Frankie who has been struggling with his work ethic lately. Really I was beaming and for a moment there feeling a sense of pride in conquering the laziness demons we have been fighting. So then Frankie is this sweet voice says "you know why I'm working so hard?"

Now Frankie often says sweet and wonderful things, things so full of insight and wisdom that he gives me hope and lets me see what a great man of God he will become. SO my ears perked up and I was so ready to have him say something great. So I said "because it makes you feel good inside to have done such great work?" (This is the kind of thing he WOULD say so it wasn't as sappy as it sounds) And as my pride bubble grew bigger it burst as he said "well that too. It's because you said I had to EARN my game time on Saturday now instead of just getting it". GREAT.

Here I was thinking that I had done this great thing instilling work ethic for the sake of the love of working hard and it was just to play computer games. Okay so sure he DID learn that you have to work to get what you want, that it doesn't just get handed to you but still. I had been feeling like the best mom ever. Video games? Well it is better than saying something like "I was afraid you'd spank me" I guess. :0)

To Do List For Today

• Make whole wheat sticky buns from Mrs Mo's No Knead Dinner Rolls Dough to test it out
• Have quiet time with Lord before Clay gets home from work
• Make my bed
• Empty my bathroom garbage
• Pull out CTBHHM (book) that fell behind my nightstand so I can read it tonight  Well looked behind the nightstand and it wasn't there. Argh.
• 3 loads of laundry
• fold 3 loads of laundry - 2 loads folded
• put away 3 loads of laundry lol - 2 loads put away
• Read the rest of our Lighthouse readaloud
• Figure out what making for dinner - I'm making quiche. I have a great whole grain pie crust to try and some fantastic free range eggs and non homogonized milk and in general am drooling at the idea of making that. I'll post the pie crust recipe if it is great.
• Call to find out about dental insurance Crossing off only because our lame new phone just died as I was trying to do it. I tried :) Crossed off until tomorrow.
• Call and make dental appointments for children
• Email Shannon and SP
• Children have quiet time
• Frankie do basic schoolwork (math, reading, phonics, copywork)
• Cassie school (math, review letters done in readings books)
• Children new Awana verse
• wipe down toilets
• Do Candy's Quick Clean which includes:
• scrub toilets
• wash dishes
• wipe sinks
• clear floors in all major rooms
• clear all counters
• wipe all counters
• sweep kitchen and bathrooms
• spot mop in kitchen
• Buy batteries for my reading light - I didn't end up having to do this tonight as Clay got a ride home so it'll move to tomorrow's list. Note to self - add get Clay coffee to tomorrow's list
• Write out a note to put in Clay's lunch tomorrow
• Get a bag of Yuban together for Clay to take to work
• An actual bedtime routine :)

Oy. So we'll see how that actually goes. So far the only thing done is the fabulous sticky buns I made (all natural yummy ones. Whole wheat flour, butter, cane crystals, real maple syrup) The children were so happy to have "healthy", as they called them, sticky buns. Off to try and get this list done.

Our Big Saturday

WE had a BIG day here on Saturday. Now of course for some odd reason I didn't have my camera, which upset me a lot actually but that's neither here nor there.

The day started off with the Awana Olympics. The Awana church group that the children are in have an "olympics" each year where all the churches send a team and they compete in the games that they do each week at their own church. First let me explain the annoyance with this church. Bayside is THE BIGGEST church in this area. HUGE. Thousands upon thousands of members. It's where mom goes and where we do Awana. So about 8 weeks before the Olympics they mention about it, how we will do practices, etc. Week after week Clay asks the "director" about it and when we were going to start practices, etc. Clay was really excited about doing it. Week after week, NOTHING. They hadn't even sent in their registration yet. Lovely. So finally the Tuesday before the Saturday of the Olympics they decide they are going to practice, send the permission slips home, etc. Okay so how many parents of 6 yos are going to find out on Tuesday that they are going to spend half their Saturday in Natomas for this thing and actually agree to do it? Basically none. Then they don't get around to practicing until 15 minutes before the end. 15 MINUTES to teach 20 5-7 yos SEVEN games. Yeah well we got through ONE game in the practice. So Saturday rolls around. We get there early and wait. And wait, and wait. No one is there. Finally 2 of the other leaders who have children in Awana show up. We have 5 children total and they're only ones with parents as leaders. And you need at least 10 children to have a team. NONE of the directors show up! All the other churches have matching t-shirts with their church on it, wrist bands, etc. Bayside has THOUSANDS of members and here we are with 5 kids, no shirts, and aren't big enough to have a team. Bayside swamps these churches by thousands of members. Needless to say I was incredibly angry at how little respect they cared to treat the children, how little they cared about the children's ministry and Awana in general. What kind of message did that send the children of their importance to the church?

Anyways.. the Olympics directors hooked us up with 2 other churches that only had a couple kids show up and we form a mismatched team. Our kids didn't know any of the games, but they all had a great time. Frankie was the biggest kid pretty much and did fantastic. He is really quick at understanding the way games work, and rocked. Cassie was just so sweet. She isn't great at the games but it doesn't phase her ONE bit and she just smiles and enjoys herself the whole time. At the end of one of the games the other girl from our church and her held hands and jumped up and down - very sweet. They were just so happy that another girl from their group that they knew was there. I was starting to think that Cassie might be the only girl from Bayside but thankfully she wasn't. They had a fantastic time and got a new patch to put on their Awana Sparks vest and that made them happy. I have to sew them on this week. I did realize that I am NOT cut out to be a sports mom at all. :) :)

Now we did prepare the children for the fact that since they didn't tell the parents until the Tuesday of that week that there was a good chance no one would show up and we couldn't compete. We told them that Plan B was to go to the Jelly Belly factory tour. After Awana we all decided that we should do that anyways. So we went. Honestly the children didn't seem to get much out of the tour. Frankie and Clay thought the robotic arms in the packing department were cool though. Their favorite part was buying all sorts of Jelly Bellies at the end. That's something I guess.

On the way home everyone was exhausted. BUT Mom always tells me about this store called the Rock Shop that she loves. We never stop there when we go to Gigi's so we decided to everyone disappointment but ours to stop there. Once we were in there everyone loved it. It was HUGE inside. And there was every kind of rock you could imagine. Tiny unpolished, giant geodes, everything. There were all sorts of seperate rooms with things like big fossils, enormous crystals, enormous! It was like a huge museum. The children just LOVED IT. The whole time you could hear "Mom come look at this! DADDDDD have you seen this!??" Fun stuff. Mom got them each a little something. Frankie and Adric got a fossilized shark tooth, Cassie got a piece of a geode with purple crystals and I got a little arrowhead that we will look at in school today.

All in all it was a LONG and productive day. I'm tired even talking about it.

Going to make a Wish List.

I think I'm going to start a wish list and keep it linked over on the right side of the blog. I am always finding great things that I want and half the time I forget. And if a holiday rolls around I have an easy list to print off when I get the "what do you want for Christmas?" question :) Plus it has been a big help for me to list what I am needing to get so that I can keep track. For example I thought I had the Core 2 advanced readers for Frankie and he will need them soon. I realized last week that I had decided to wait until I could afford the whole Core 2 since I could get the readers with the core, and well, I was buying Core 2 for next year anyways. If I had a list :) I wouldn't have had a minor freak out when I realized I needed to go to the bookstore and buy something for Frankie to read next week!

The list is more for ME to keep track of what I am wanting and needing to buy then for anyone else. So the next post will be a wish list. Just ignore it HA! I have to start it sometime. I'll just update it as I buy things on the list or find new treasures that I need. And hey if anyone sees any of the books at a garage sale, pick em up~!!

Saving Pictures

Here is a quick tutorial for family members that might not know how to save some of the pictures I am posting here. I hope that I can have higher resolution pictures when I fill the photo albums but we'll see.

Anyways, click the picture to open up the bigger image of it. Then, RIGHT CLICK on the picture. Click "SAVE IMAGE" or "SAVE IMAGE AS" and save the picture to your Photo folder of choice. Now you have it!

Weekly Plan

I have been inspired by AmyKate's weekly plan to post to do a weekly post every now and then when I need to stay on track. I haven't quite sat down and come up with a general list of goals for the children, the family and the year so for now I'm going to just copy AmyKate's model :)

Goals for the Children:

Seatwork:

 - Cassie - three more letters in Get Ready for the Code - make flashcards that we can practice them.

        - Cassie - practice the "teens" everyday along with her normal MUS.

        - Frankie - do all his seatwork 5 days this week (we do normally do 4 days a week)

Bible:  Read Child's Story of the Bible every day

Memory Work: Cassie - 2 Bible Memory Verses for Awana this week

        - Frankie - 2 Bible Memory Verses for Awana, start on Green Jewel verses

Life Skills:

  - No Bickering

      - Regular Morning and Chore Routine

      - Start the day with prayer everyday

Art:

   - Craft - make paper plate masks  

Fitness:

  -  Park 3 days this week

        - WATP with mom for 10 minutes each day

History Notes:

        - History Lesson every week and activity (will have to look at the plan for this week)

Science:

 -Do Balloon Solar System Model

        - Science lessons everyday

        - Have Frankie review planet order

Reading:

 - Frankie - Continue reading Sonlight Readers

                            -  Ask him the comprehension questions everyday. (He told me last night that he likes doing them and wants me to lol)

                            - Have him do a notebook page for House on Walenka Street and for whatever book he reads this week.

          - Cassie - Read some Little House in the Big Woods with her

            - Read Alouds - Start New Read Aloud this week and read it every single day :) I think we may start reading CappyBoppy.

Okay off to start our "normal" chore routine we have been working on everyday and try and get these goals met for the day.

Quote of the Day

Adric just stood up and said:

"MOMMY! I just put kidney beans in my oatmeal and it's SO SO YUMMMMYYY!!!"

A few pictures

Real quck I thought I'd put up a few pictures I took yesterday.

Isn't she a sweetie pie? She was feeling so cute in her hair ribbon that she wanted her picture taken.

There's the team :) Need to fix the color on that one eh? Those cutie patootie chidren. It's HARD to get all three to smile at once. Adric still looks like a goon but cute nonetheless.

I just thought the little expression on Adric's face was priceless. I think he was just about done taking pictures at that point.

Last one coming :) Today I heard Cassie talking in the other room "Then God said to Adam and Eve 'There is one tree that you CANNOT eat from. It is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil'" So I grab the camera and sneak in and take this shot of her. Turns out that she was standing on the dresser "reading" (since she can't read this Bible at all yet) the story of Adam and Eve :)

Nothing more for now. I'll post some pics of the stuff we've been doing in school and so on later.

A socialization ramble

well I don't plan on getting into the myth of homeschooling and socialization, just a little ramble about it quickly during a break from cleaning the kitchen and making dinner.

The other day we were at the laundromat (yes the laundromat - trying to get a big project done) for a few hours. During that time Frankie met a boy about his age that was there and they spent the whole time playing with Power Rangers, drawing a comic book in Frankie's notebook we brought and generally having a grand time. When we got in the car, Frankie said "You know how I made friends with that boy Mom? I just went over and asked him if he wanted to play with me." I said "that's cool Frank. That's how we make friends. Good job." yada yada.

But as we drove home this really got me thinking. First graders, almost second graders most of the time have this innocence in social relationships bred out of them. They are already painfully aware that they  may be rejected or look "stupid" or just generally should stick to people they know. But not Frank. Whenever we are somewhere playing and I see a child no one is playing with I have always told him to go introduce himself and ask them to play. Cassie too. Not too long ago I did this at Awana when a new boy came and no one played with him. Within minutes they were fast friends and still play together every week before Awana starts.

Anyways I digress. The little Laundromat situation reminded me that THIS is one of the reasons that I homeschool and that I wholeheartedly believe in what I am doing. And it is one of the reasons that I think wholeheartedly that the idea that a child needs to be in a room of other children their own age all day long in order to become productive citizens, and most importantly GOOD PEOPLE, is unnecessary and in fact working against my goals of raising my children to be truly good hearted wonderful people. It is not MY children that have problems socializing, in fact they are bold and secure in themselves and not afraid to walk over and introduce themselves. I am SO glad that I am the one shaping this in them, not the 7yo "society".

Not too long ago we got together with some people we know that have a son Frankie's age. The children in this family are often touted to us as great because he gets to do sports, school, etc. and all the things that the world thinks a child needs to become a well rounded person. But in the end it wasn't MY children that were calling bad names, and it wasn't MY children that made fun of someone. Now of course my littles aren't perfect, but when it came to "socialization" the behavior I witnessed is exactly what I am working on teaching my children NOT to exhibit. I can guarantee this little boy didn't learn to laugh at someone calling them chicken from their parents but from the important socializing tool, "their peers".

I pray that I can foster this great personality trait in Frankie that makes him feel he can walk over and introduce himself to people. I was very proud, as I always am, of that sweet boy.