Home Is Where Summer Is

Now that I got our obligatory Homeschool Wrap-Up out of the way in my last blog post, we can move on to what our summer is looking like.

We've learned over the years to not go crazy in the summer and sign up for all kinds of stuff.  It definitely seems to be the norm to be doing all kinds of stuff in our area, as indicated by all other Moms asking us what our kids are doing this summer and then staring at me blankly when I answer that we didn't really make any plans.  We generally don't do any camps, classes, clinics, or whatever else they're called in the catalog, although we have in the past done some things that were relevant to current interests.  Indy does have summer softball, but it was more like two teams' coaches having such a great season that they threw together a skill-building team and are running practices and scrimmages on their own time, which is pretty cool and not taking up a lot of our time.

We don't pay $600 to go to the local Swim Club (I'd rather keep the Home-Field Advantage when chasing my toddler, thanks), we didn't plan any vacations to anywhere where butt-loads of other people will also be, we probably aren't going to the beach in July or August, and we aren't feeling bad about it either.

We have our YMCA pools as an option, but we asked them to hold our membership from mid-May to mid-July, because we knew that in reality we would just be too busy to make it up there.

Too busy doing what?  Well, having fun at home.  We have an above-ground pool that goes on our back patio every summer.  It serves its purpose fantastically.  Yes, it is smaller than any pool we could pay to go to, but it sort of forces the kids (and any friends that are over) to come up with creative games to play.  It keeps them in close quarters, which means they are endlessly running into problems that need solving and interpersonal issues that need work.   It helps with their closeness to each other.

 If they don't want to be in the pool, we still have our mud hole in the back of the yard which is ultimately popular with all ages.

Beyond that, there's:

 backyard wiffle-ball pick-up games
 having a catch
 kicking a soccer ball
 don't forget the zipline
 bug-stalking
 gardening with Mom
 tire swing
 scooters
 bikes
 BB gun target practice (supervised of course!)
 treasure hunts
 bunny-watching
 bunny-chasing
 playing in the rain
 digging in the dirt pile
cardboard castle-building
 splashing in the baby pool (trust me, it's not just for babies!)
 and so much more

gardening

ziplining across the yard

cardboard castle

wiffle-ball in your underwear

And there's inside stuff, too, like:

building train tracks
 making car ramps
 using recyclables for robots
 playing store
 board games we all forgot about
 playing trains
tower building
being goofballs
 Play Mobil sets from craigslist
 soldier set-ups
 making cardboard helmets
baby doll parades
sibling hugging
 Play-Doh kitchen
 crafting
 writing
 reading new library books
 drawing another picture of your family
 visiting our favorite neighbors
laughing together
snake holding
 pretending
 playing dress-up
 conversing with each other
and way more

Riley loves making helmets

car ramps

towers

snuggling brothers

snake-loving

train tracks take over the Master Bedroom

I kinda feel like if we were out DOING stuff elsewhere, we wouldn't know all these wonderful things we have RIGHT HERE at home.

Of course, if none of those things are appealing to the kids and they indicate they are stuck in ultimate boredom, there's always:

dish doing
 laundry washing
 room cleaning
 carpet vacuuming
 laundry drying
 furniture dusting
 furniture polishing
real food cooking
 hardwood floor sweeping
 ceramic floor mopping
 bedsheet changing
 pillow fluffing
 laundry folding
 window washing
 corner finding
 pile sorting
 office working
customer calling
estimate making
toilet scrubbing
 school planning
 sofa vacuuming
 and lots of other things Mom can come up with...

Well, anyway, that's our summer so far!  No, I don't sit down very often.  Yes, I drink coffee nearly every morning.  Yes, it's exhausting sometimes, and No, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

We hope to take some small vacations once everyone else goes back to school in September, like visiting Grammy and Grandpop in NC 'cuz it's been a long while since we've been there, and maybe, just maybe, Thomas Land in Boston, which I hope is as fun as it sounds.

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

Is Anybody Out There???

Yeah, it's been two whole months since I've been here.  It's more than a little dusty.  Coincidentally, the blog drop-off and the start of baseball season have a significant correlation...

This is what late April and May looked like:

Softball practice, softball game, keep smalls engaged without getting into poison ivy or falling off bridge into creek or blowing $30 at the snack stand or losing my mind, softball practice, softball game, run into field after bolting toddler, redirect, redirect, redirect.   Repeat.  Girls' Minors' Coaches were awesome, they all learned a lot about the game and true sportsmanship.  Softball players are boisterous, cheering, chanting little ladies and it is a joy to watch their togetherness.  I love when everyone cheers for everyone.

And our First Year Majors Player, "Bulldog."  Some of the kids' games were at the same fields, at the same time, or only an hour overlap.  Some games were at the same fields, but hours apart (which in parent terms, means your whole day is F'ed anyway, because you're either getting ready for baseball, waiting for baseball again, or recovering from baseball).  And some fabulous-o games were at DIFFERENT fields at the same time.  These were terribly fun.  Chase made some great plays in the outfield this year and enjoyed being on the White Sox with a super-fun coach.  Majors Baseball Players are serious about their game, they have mad skills (most of the just-for-fun kids have dropped out by now) and make some really awesome plays from all angles of the game.  At the end of the season, the team went to one of the coach's Karate studios, and Roger drove them all in the bus, which either made us the Cool Parents, or the Really Weird Parents, we're not sure...

But the crazy baseball season was worth it....

Because, in June:

"WE.... ARE..... THE...... CHAMPIONS.... MY FREH-END..."  Sing it, Freddie!  

Yeah, both teams won big.  Very exciting stuff.

A few other things happened in May:

 Our peas and other things started to grow.  This made us very happy.  We watered them everyday, since none of that stuff was coming down from the sky at all... 

We tried (and tried and tried and tried) to patch our animal-in-the-shed-eaten pool.  The kids enjoyed the 10 inches of water for a while before we gave up.

We grilled.  Until the grill caught on fire.  Then we nabbed another one out of someone's trash.  Then we caught that one on fire, too.  There's usually a reason when people throw their grills out.

There was some of this.  I would tell you what "this" was, if I knew... 

We played in mud.  Okay, correction, THEY played in mud.  I just got stuck with laundry duty.  For the ones wearing clothes, that is.  That RJ, he's just so thoughtful...

This one pottied his heart out, and his pee and poop out.  He's completely independent some days, and doesn't care at all on other days.  All this time I thought that was a hat on his head, it appears to be a pair of underwear... I have no explanation.  

And in early June (besides a shit-ton of play-off games and bringing home 2 championship trophies): 

We supported by brother's non-profit by participating in the 2nd Annual Glo Run in Harrisburg, which raised money to replace street lights in the city.  It was a late night for us with the race starting at 8:40 (so we could all GLOW, duh!).  Riley at 4 was the youngest runner and got a time of 66 minutes.  She ran some, she walked some.  She stopped to watch the fireworks three times.  She stopped to watch the band play.  She stopped to make it echo under the bridge.  I guess we'll have to work on continuity...