A Few Things of Note

Two posts in the same month?!?  Perhaps it's a sure sign that things are starting to normalize around here.  Last August was full of me trying to hide the fact that I felt nauseous and gross all day and still make tiny, feeble attempts to connect with the world (which usually failed) while also hiding the fact that I was pregnant.  I actually remember very, very little of last August...

But THIS August is proving to be busy, and fun.  And busy.  Did I mention it was busy?   Oh, what's in a word anyway.... we're always busy!

So, we started homeschool August 1st, a slow start, to get us slowly acquainted with our materials and schedule.  I occasionally blog about our homeschool here.  We did a week or two strong, then we loosened up a bit, and of course we made sure to have lots of friend time in the last dear days of summer.  These last 2 weeks we have scheduled a ton of friend time, jamming it all in before most of the friends go back to school this Monday.

Shelby Joy is 4 months old and a nice, healthy 16 pounds and as cute as ever.  She is a grabby little girl, wanting to sit up and play all the time and getting held way too much, as usual.  But of course, there is no such thing!  Soon enough she will no longer want to be held, and so, for the fleeting moment, we will hold her.

Riley holds.

Indy holds.

Sometimes we put her down so we can stare at her. 

She loves going swimming with her family.

Sometimes she sleeps.  

And then she plays.

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And gets grumpy at her toys.

And eats her toys.

And makes insanely cute faces at us.

So in other, non-baby news, Chase got a summer job.  Some neighbors noticed that he has been taught to mow the lawn and weed-whack, so they hired him to do theirs through mid-September.  A young man making money is a happy one, indeed.  Chase has some other, big news.  He is enrolling in the USNSCC, the United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps, Liberty Bell Squadron.  He has attended orientation and the paperwork is in process.  He will have drill one weekend per month, and prepare himself for his TWT (two week training) next summer.  The Sea Cadets are a non-committal program, meaning he is not required to join the military upon turning 18, but he will get considerable life experience from the program regardless.  He is beyond excited to start, and I'm beyond proud of him for signing up.  Chase and his Fedora and his hormonal attitude are mostly absent from my picture roll... 

...but here's one.  He's holding.  And... take a long look at that fuzzy blonde hair and kiss it goodbye, the Navy requires a haircut...

Indigo is nearly 11, and continuing to learn to mow and take care of the yard.  Yep, that's our big thing this summer... we obviously need to get out more!  Which we will absolutely do once everyone else goes back to school.  It's our privilege as homeschoolers to get to avoid the crowds.  So, on her very first mow, she had hit a rock, which came up and bit her on the leg, so she developed a fear of hitting things with the mower, and shed a few tears over it and traded dish duty with her brother to get out of it, and begged and cried a bit about it.  But she got back out there like a trooper, one time in her pajamas, as they were long pants, and once more with long socks pulled up.  She and I recently crashed the 5th grade orientation at the middle school so that she could learn the building to get to Strings lessons.  We've also poked the district a bit about connecting it's Home Education students more through it's technology systems so that we can easily partake in some of the things we are legally entitled to.  I think it's a good thing, as a homeschooling family, to be connected and to be known.  So I introduced us to the principal (who of course knew my name from my email campaign for connection) and the guidance counselor for Indy's class.  We plan to maintain as many working relationships within the school as we can.

Mowing like a boss

Practicing violin along with the music on the computer

Riley bops to her own beat, as she always has.  Though she does well mixed in with her siblings, she also can often be found playing alone, with some in-depth scenario or scene.  We recently purged a bunch of stuff from the attic, and one of the small boxes contained some trinkets that I had as a kid.  She played with them on the side of the tub for hours.  

And in early July, this 5 year old..

Turned into this 6 year old!

Even at age 6, we still read her a book each night before bed.  We've had to get creative with the larger books she desires, or else we'd be in there all night!  She's now onto the Animal Encyclopedia, and we *try* to limit her to going over a 2-page spread at night.  But sometimes we get caught up with her.  It happens.

RJ loves to be outside and is having "swimming lessons" with Mom.  He can swim nearly all the way across the pool without "sinking" and really just doesn't tire out or give up when he has his swimmie off.  He just keeps going and going and going.  He can also ride a 2-wheel bike without training wheels, but since we live on a busy road with a crappy bumpy sidewalk, he doesn't get much opportunity to ride.  Mom still makes him ride his balance bike if we do go out, which makes him quite cross.  Playing for hours in the dirt pit or mud pit (when it rains) is also a favorite activity, and he MUST have his sun hat on.  DO NOT forget the sun hat, Mom!

This 3 year old...

Carefully marked the days on his steam train calendar

And turned into this 4 year old! 

He went with sibs to Jungle Wonder and opened his presents, Thomas rain gear and blinky sneakers, what else?

Sometimes he picks his own outfits.

He rocks that tie.

And he still sleeps soundly in grocery carts. 

A well-timed Science Kit birthday gift from Avia and Coolpa happened to coincide with our Kinder Art lesson on the Primary Colors.  Boy, was this ever a hit!  

Building a machine for the "newseum" with his Tinker Toys

So with all the summer kid birthdays, we basically visit the doctor once a month for their annual physicals.  And I go in with my typed list and we go over everything and then she drops the bomb.  A question.  For me.  What do I do for "me time?"  Ummmm.  Uhhhh.  Well.  There's at night, after the kids all go to bed... for a little.  And... well.  That's it.  And I try to explain to her, that's okay.  I signed up for this.  I actually LIKE my kids and I don't spend all day thinking about how I can get a break from them.  I'm really actually okay with it.  

I enjoy when my nights and mornings look like this... 

And when my afternoons look like this.  

Homeschool Happenings Around Here

Last year, which was our inaugural Homeschool Attempt, I had given myself the goal of Having My Shit Together by the end of October.  And, low and behold, we somehow did.  

We found our groove and held onto it for dear life and continued strong into November and December, made it through the holidays unscathed and past January and the snow and even through February, that dreary month where Homeschool Blogs warn about "the February Slump" and discuss that just about everybody falls off in February, and somehow we didn't, we just kept going into March, and by then, we'd trucked through enough days of real, actual learning to know that we could slack now and then and still be done (according to the law) long before June.  And so, as it warmed up, we took more days off and explored the backyard, and then came back and hit school hard and mixed that up for a while until it was June, and we (I mean I) put together the portfolios that were no longer legally necessary in PA and had our wonderful evaluator come by and then, wham!  It was done.  

And now it's another end-of-October and, I can safely say, We Have Our Shit Together, again.  I have mentioned previously that we started light, in the summer still, here and there when it was disgusting hot outside or when it just felt right to crack open the books.  September brought a slacker week that we spent doing Not-Back-To-School activities with our Homeschool Group.  And, we even had two road trips in between now and then, a weekend and a week, where we did No School.  I had quite an enlightening moment in the beginning of the year when I realized, not by thinking of it the first time as it was information that I knew already, but I guess actually realizing, that instead of just teaching Riley "kindergarten" around the big kids' schooling last year, that she was actually in the mix, the real-deal mix this year as a Bona-Fide 1st Grader, seeing how we had clearly finished Kinder last year.  It was a real Oh Shit moment, let me tell you, to now have 3 "real" homeschoolers to keep tabs on, instead of 2 and a pretty-easy Kinder and a toddler to keep underfoot.  I quickly threw together a 3rd portfolio binder and ordered a 1st Grade math program and off we went.  

I was not concerned about RJ and any "preschool" in the least.  Honestly, just being in this family, he gets enough homeschool off-gassing that he is just fine.  I think the "Homeschool Preschool" curriculum out on the 'net is, a crock of shit, for the most part.  I much prefer natural exposure to learning for that age of children.  But, as a natural consequence of being the 4th in a homeschooling family, he was like, "Where the heck is MY school, Mom??"  So I printed him some stuff, grabbed some workbooks that Riley had never used, and sat him down when he requested it, which was pretty often, I must say, and as he already has letter and number recognition down pat, worked on letter and number writing, tracing shapes, sorting, classifying, identifying and all kinds of other wonderful things. 

In the meantime, we were watching my same-RJ-aged nephew on Tuesdays and Thursdays while his mama does her student-teaching locally.  This nephew goes to preschool part-time from 9 to 12, so here we are, walking him across the street to preschool and picking him up 4 times a week.  So then, I had this brilliant idea to let RJ go to school WITH him during that same time.  Mostly so he can hang out with his cuz, but also to have an opportunity to see what he is like in a school setting (since the other 3 all had something at some point) and lastly, it does allow me to devote some real hardcore time to office work during those hours, as the other 3 can be set up to work independently during that time.  Much to our surprise, and despite my 3-minute long speech to the teachers of potential RJ disaster areas, he is, at school, a perfect-behaving little bean.  So far.  Really, he could be just getting warmed up.  Time will tell...

RJ and Cuz on RJ's 1st Day of Preschool, wearing a Steam Train shirt and Thomas hat, of course. 

And so here are a few pictures of Us and School to add to my boring verbage about how our Homeschool Has Its Shit Together this year.  Sadly, and I must take note of this, there aren't any pictures of my completely independent and totally responsible 7th grader doing his work.  

We really like Riley's new math program.  It's interactive and uses counters a lot to show how the math works, checks skills and has tests.

RJ still hasn't chosen one hand or the other yet, he uses both interchangeably. 

Indy needs non-traditional "seating" to do her best work...

Sometimes, when you're 5, your writing for the day is copying sentences about How To Behave Properly in public.  And not embarrass the living shit out of your mother. 

Sometimes, Art Class is outside.  The Person She Loves the Most, as drawing is entitled, is Me.  Yeah, my kids Rock.

Sometimes, all those Amazon boxes can be used for projects. 

Play-Doh is great for school breaks. 

Working hard... on something that is NOT school!  You're busted, Riley!

Sometimes, school involves chores first, like putting away the dishes. 

Or, doing the dishes. 

Riley the Distracted got her desk moved to the living room in hopes that she can concentrate better...

Although she still does best with Hands-On activities, like creating, with Mud and Dirt.

This guy had quite the surprise in store for us, when he sat down and colored, pretty much for the first time ever, and whipped out this Multiple-Color-Usage, Stay-In-The-Lines, Appropriate-Use-Of-Colors set of Masterpieces... we never knew, dude!  Mostly because you Just. Do. Not. Stay. Still!!

And here he is switched back to the left hand (see right hand use above).  Amazing, bud, simply amazing!  That plus your love of singing, and that crying-if-Chase-doesn't-let-you-play-his-trombone thing you do, you are gonna be one Artsy, Musical Guy!

And then, if we weren't busy enough, because sometimes God is a Laughing God, and because just when Everything's Great, and your back-up vehicle fits just the 6 of you and no more (for those days when your Daily Driver Diesel decides it needs a little Engine Attention), and you have reached that point of Travel-With-No-Bags-And-Strollers and "Go Potty, Getchur' Shoes On and Get In The Car is a reality, well, then this happens:

Riley says it's an Alien, and RJ took the 3D pic into preschool for Show-And-Tell for Letter D, for Dinosaur... but it's most likely either a Boy, or a Girl, due to arrive in early April 2016.  

Homeschool Wrap-Up 2014-2015

As beginner homeschoolers, we did a lot of what beginners with anything do.  We tried stuff, we did it more if it worked, we did it less if it didn't.  That sounds pretty simple, right?  And sometimes it was.  Other times, it wasn't.  The process of "deschooling" (described pretty well here, and she has a Tips link that is helpful also) was difficult for all of us.  It was clear that both older kids, who had 6 years and 3 years in public school under their belts. struggled with creative independence (they were used to being given very specific instructions) and with seemingly simple things like how to find out what the date is (the teacher is just supposed to write it on the board, duh!).  

My personal goal was to start slow and gradually build up our routines, having some sort of groove by November.  And we did.  We hadn't quite figured out all of our learning resources yet at that time, so it was still a little hodge-podge, but they were learning every day.  For me, a huge part of my own deschooling was shooing away that guilty feeling that we weren't doing what the public school kids were doing, and that sneaking doubting suspicion that my kids were actually learning less at home than their public school counterparts.

 Have no fear, I'm WAY over that now.  The more time that passed, and the more we got away from sit down, paper-type stuff, trying to at least tackle what the district's master curriculum listed for that year, the more our confidence grew, and the more my kids learned and retained.  It was amazing to watch.  Yet still, in that first 6 months, I had continued to feel "wrong," like my kids were missing out on something.  I didn't know quite what, but that's how I felt.  

Right after the 6 month mark, I had my Hallelujah moment - the doubt was gone, the confidence was there, and I no longer gave a shit what the kids were doing over at school.  This was right for us, so right, and my kids were really learning, and we were all joyful about it.  It may not be right for everyone, and believe me, I have met some of the people who truly should NOT be schooling their children (hey, someone's gotta say it), but for us, right now, it's completely right.  

I realized that I most likely held my big kids back instead of allowing them to find their true ability level.  I kept them either at their grade level, or just one above.  This was my safety net, just in case homeschool didn't work out, then they could just go slide right back into public school right where everyone else was.  I did this despite the fact that one of the major factors in choosing to educate my children at home was that they were literally at the top of their classes, both of them, and needed more challenging work.  It's only been very recently that I have learned to list their academic achievements, and the district's lack of programming available for kids like them, as a reason for homeschooling when asked.  It took a few conversations with people I respect to affirm that it was okay to publicly validate their intelligence and academic talent, rather than hiding the truth and  feeling like everyone would just end up thinking I was bragging or exaggerating.  Chase did all of his work without issue, and reported that it was very easy for him, so this coming year he is ready to be challenged more.  Indy did work a grade ahead, because I was fearful of missing some of the foundations in math and language arts if we had skipped her too far up.  She was still bored and moved through the work fast and without issue, and so moving forward we'll probably just put her solidly in middle school level stuff while backing it up with some of the foundational information.  For subjects beyond math and language arts, the two of them seem to really enjoy working together, so we've combined social studies, science, and now even grammar to be a small group effort and will continue with that.  

Riley, who spent the whole last homeschool year as a 4 yr old, moves through material at a fantastic pace.  I had totally planned to have her do kindergarten level work (already a whole year ahead as she cannot start K here in our district until after she turns 5) as part of our homeschool, but I did not expect her to take off at a such a pace that I had to scramble and quickly put together all 1st grade level stuff or higher.  Once she started actually reading (beyond memorizing the books like so many smart kids do in their toddler years), she completely blew through all the reading materials I'd collected for her which puts us at the library each week for more and more and more.  She went from Easy Reader Level 1 to 2 in a month, and is now on level 3's and into chapter books like The Magic Tree House Series.  Her memory has always been uncannily fantastic and quite detailed, and I imagine this is why she learns new words by having them read to her just once.  With math (it makes me groan, truly, because I am a psychology major who can do math, but would really be satisfied leaving it to those who like it) she didn't need to be taught things like skip-counting (by 2's, 5's, 10's, 3's and 4's - the last 2 categories by her own insistence), the fact that multiplying is just "adding groups of things, Mom" and even the basic concept of negative numbers (which she explained to me early, early one morning while lying on top of my eyes-still-closed trying-to-sleep self after she had climbed into my bed).  She just knows this stuff already, and while we are obviously pleased to call such an intelligent little girl our own, I wish she would wait until after I've gotten out of bed to debate these things with me.  I do feel, 100%, that it will benefit her greatly to be educated at home, where we are able to nurture her individual talents with complete support.  

 

We can't forget RJ, who I thought we'd just have to keep entertained.  He wanted to be a part of school a lot more than expected, increasingly so as the year went on and he got farther from his second birthday.  Although I definitely don't agree with all the Pinterest boards and Mom Blogs on PreSchool Homeschool that are filled with tons of parent-made set-ups (more often then not just Type A moms getting their craftiness on, really), we are calling this coming year his "PreSchool Year" because he will essentially be learning alongside us, just probably not the things that kids normally learn in 3 yr old preschool.  He is a kinetic kid and loves moving things and moving parts and let's not forget all things Steam Engine, so the more we do with building, making, creating, and experimenting will please him so (and make life easier for me since he won't be building, making, creating and experimenting with stuff he shouldn't be touching!).  

 

And, because we can, we've already started our new school year.  Slowly, of course, just enough to keep our brains fresh and certainly not every day.  Here's a flashback photo to this time last year, followed by this year's start of school shot.  

July 2014

July 2015