What Are We Doing????

I admit, there are moments I raise my hands in defeat and ask that question. But this time, I mean it literally....this is what we're doing:

Our math curriculum repeats concepts over and over, so in one day's lesson, they're each doing several different things. Right now, Alana is doing 3-digit addition with re-grouping (in the olden days, we called it "carrying") along wth some time and money. Erin is doing time, money, simple fractions and 2-digit addition and subtraction, without re-grouping.

We're still working basic phonics with Erin, but her reading ability is really improving. Alana insists she doesn't like to read (pretty sure she inherited that from her father) but does very well. We're struggling with our Language curriculum....I think it is wonderful, but the format just isn't us. I've been adding more grammar (parts of speech) that may be pushing her a bit, and I'd really like to do more writing work with her. She just tends to rebel against that.

We do science and history together, which I think I'll continue to do for as long as I can. However, I'm thinking seriously about adding a more formal science curriculum. I think I need more than the "guidance" I get with our current curriculum. We have just wrapped up talking about dinosaurs and are now moving into life cycles.

With history, however, guidance and library books work just fine! We began the year with North American explorers, moved into the colonies, and are now at the pilgrims.

Then, based on the calendar, I throw in bits and pieces. Yesterday, for example, was the death anniversary of Harriet Tubman, so we read about her. Today is the celebrated birthday of Johnny Appleseed, so we'll discuss him. Alana is a bit of a tv geek....forget cartoons, she goes for Nat Geo, History, and Discovery! I swear, she could watch that stuff all day! I try not to promote tv, but she really does learn a lot. Sunday night, for example, we watched a 2-hour show on the people of 10,000 BC. Yep, we're geeks! :)

I personally can't wait for spring to come. We love to take nature walks and I can just imagine the projects and studies that will follow!

Anyway, THAT'S what we're doing!

New Experience

On Friday night we had the opportunity to stay in an Eau Claire hotel for free...a gift from Barry's employer for 20 years of service. We were staying in the Presidential Suite...a $230 value. Now seriously, who pays that much? The most we've ever paid was $75 (in the Twin Cities) and we hated paying that! So we expected the beds to be made of gold!

The room was fairly impressive...a living/dining area with a fireplace and flat screen tv, a separate bedroom with a whirlpool tub, and a kitchenette area with a frig and micro. We immediately changed and headed to the pool area ( the main reason for our stay). The kids had a blast and even mom & dad took a dip. Unfortunately, the later it got, the more kids entered the pool. My girls are pretty "low-key", so obnoxious, splashing kids really bug them. So, they were ok with leaving. We took a bath in the big ole tub, and then ordered Pizza Hut. We concluded our night with tv. I should mention that the girls were really not impressed with this whole hotel experience, save the pool and elevator. They'd have rather been home at this point, as would I...

Whenever the heat kicked in, it made a sound similar to our tv turning on, so it generally woke both of us up. The girls were sleeping on a HORRIBLE hide-a-bed. And then around midnite, Barry and I were woken out of a deep sleep by a very loud noise. Barry jumped out of bed to see if the tub or shower was running. Nothing. It was loud. It eventually stopped...it was some other room filling their tub, I think. Definately not my idea of a $230 night's sleep!

I may be picky, but I wasn't even impressed with the continental breakfast! At least now we know not to spend our own money on a night out! We were all very happy to go home.

On another note...I'm praying fervently for my lil sis. She's due in just over a week and is immensely sick. She is completely congested and miserable...and has been for over a month. She suffered with the same stuff when she was pregnant with Avery. I'm just hoping that she has the babe soon, and that she quickly recovers to enjoy her new blessing!

Our First Test

We had always sorta planned on sending Alana to visit her class for the Valentine's Day party. We had been signed up to bring a treat, and I thought it may be a good time for a visit. Partly, it was sort of a "I hope this will make you feel better as I pull you out of school" kinda thing.

On Monday, we got an email from her teacher saying she had gotten permission for Alana to visit all day, if she chose to. Of course, she did. I was SO nervous all week. I knew she'd have a good time....everyone would be very nice and welcoming to her....and then she'd want to go back. Lots of praying, I did....lots.

As I drove her to school, she said it was the best day of her life. Great.

I ended up taking Erin to the Valentine's Day dance they have for the Kindergarten thru 2nd graders at the end of the day....she was bored and missed Alana a lot. I knew she'd have a blast with her friends....and she did.

Alana, not so much. She was NOT happy to see me there with the camera. She hates dancing...at least in front of people (gets that from her dad)...she just looked miserable. When we picked her up at her class, her "best friend" McKenzie started crying because Alana was leaving again. I told M that we'd have to set up a time for her to come over and play...I felt so bad for her. As we walked out, it was like being transported back in time...to the Alana who went to public school. She was quiet, angry, sad, and wouldn't talk. We had to stop at the library... she wouldn't come in.

After about 5 minutes at home, she finally warmed up. I was convined she hated me and wanted to go back to school.

"Alana, are you mad at me?" "No."

"Did you have a good time?" "Yes. Except I hated the dance."

"Do you want to go back?" "No."

(Mommy does invisible happy dance) Yes!!!! Well, I must be doing something right, after all!

Bad & Good

Sometimes in life, and more often, seemingly, in homeschooling, you just need to learn to take the bad along with the good. Alana was in one of her "moods" again this am. Yesterday, she had been a little lazy and hadn't finished all of her work...so it got put into this am's folder, along with today's work. Well, by the time I was done with my "work" she was over the edge....crying, whining, accomplishing NOTHING! So, in one of my guilt-trip pouts (which usually occur when I'm being too mature to throw a temper tantrum myself) I say, "Fine. We'll send you back to school on Monday." It was an empty threat, of course, and luckily it didn't backfire. She started crying harder..."No, Mommy, I don't want to go back!" See, good....she likes homeschooling better than public. Bad...she still gets in those moods! :)

And you know how God just seems to know when you need him? And sometimes he doesn't answer your prayers in the way you ask him to, but He answers them just the same? I've been feeling discouraged, alone, lonely. Always questioning my ability to do this. Then a friend, Paula, who I luckily ran into at hubby's Christmas party (which I did NOT want to go to) puts me in touch with Julia, a 5-yr veteran of homeschooling. When I called her she was SO friendly and supportive...just what I needed. She's a keeper for sure!
And then last night, after a long day of school and a church meeting, when I usually read homeschooling books or Christian books, I decided instead to spend a few minutes with my "Organization for Scrapbookers" book...an easy read. And there I found (well re-found) a spread featuring Kelli Crowe...a very talented scrapper AND a homeschooler! So, this am I did a search, found her blog,
http://kellicrowe.typepad.com/kellicrowe/random/index.html
and discovered another place for inspiration and encouragement. Yeah God!

Growing Pains

Yep, I admit, despite all that I've read about the typical homeschooler' first year (tears, bumps, more tears, etc) I really thought we'd be different. Welcome to reality...we're not!

By the end of our third week, the girls were angry and in tears, and I was very dissillusioned. Their biggest (and basically only) complaint was that I was being too hard on them...too much work that was just too difficult. It was a wake-up call for me. Erin's in Kindergarten...she's used to counting, learning letter sounds, singing, cutting, gluing and playing. Just because I see untapped potential in her, doesn't mean I should tap it all out at once. Time to relax, Mom. I had fallen into one of the homeschooler's first year traps...trying to prove my (and my children's) abilities to the world. I wanted to show how successful and smart we could be by pushing them.

This attitude to my complaint. I had pictured homeschooling as being snuggled on the couch reading great literature in our jammies. Going for nature hikes with a notebook, camera and magnifying glass. I imagined a slower, less scheduled, more relaxed way of life. And here I was, dictated by a self-created schedule, screaming at my stressed out kids to hurry up and get done with their math cuz it's time for science/math! First of all, do you know of a Kindergarten, or even 2nd grade class that teaches science or history. Right.

So, last week, I tried to relax. I dumped the schedule and stopped watching the clock. If we didn't get to science or history, then so be it. My girls are still getting more one-on-one attention than they would be in school. Academically, they'll be fine.

I also had a wake-up call from God. These are His children, on loan to me. I had already realized my responsibility to educate and protect them...hence me bringing them home. However, with all of this science and history work, I had been neglecting the most important subject...God. Time for me to refocus.

Things are going well. The girls seem happy. They appear to be getting along much better than they did when in school...even after being together all day. And they don't hate me either...most of the time anyway. And, now that I've relaxed a bit, I'm happier, too.

We went on our first field trip on Friday...the EC Children's Theater production of "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day". I love that book! I'm always threatening to move to Australia! The girls won't let me, though. (They have crocs, you know.)

Just keep swimming....

Four days into it. How am I feeling? A bit overwhelmed. Still nervous and scared. A tad disappointed. But not ready to throw in the towel. I promised myself I'd stick out this year no matter what.
It's really not that bad. The days have litterally flown by, so I guess it's not "drudgery". It's simply just a matter of adjusting to a new life...all of us. I admit, so far it's not what I imagined. I had dreams of snuggling on the couch, reading classic literature to two adoring and totally absorbed girls. Instead, I have one who "hates" handwriting and phonics and wants to do harder and harder math (Erin), and another who rocks at spelling, but is sooooo slow at math and copy work.
It's mostly me. I have to figure out where they are in their learning, and then come up with a way to meet them there with the curriculum I have on hand. I have to figure out how schedule our day, making sure I am able to do one-on-one time with each when needed. And as soon as I figure this all out, Tony will go back to school and I'll have to go back to working in the mornings, and then I'll have to figure out the schedule all over again!
I'm realizing, though, that I need to carve out "me" time very quickly. For the past two months, this is all I have focused on. Not scrapping, organizing, exercising, reading for pleasure...just schooling. I had an "aha" moment last night regarding my time management. When the girls were in school, I had sort of "stopped everything" at 3:30 when they got home from school, so that I could be with them and available to them. Well, if I spend all day with them, there's really no reason that I can't have "my" time once we're finished with school. Hence, me here now. :)
Bottom line is that I'm grateful I read as much as I did before beginnig this journey. Learning from the experience of others, I know that this feeling passes, and things eventually do get easier.
Until then, just keep swimming...

Baptism by Fire...

I've spent the last two months barely thinking of anything else. Tons of reading, research, planning and prayer finally put into action. I finished my daily schedule on New Years Eve (exciting life, I know!). Today was our first day homeschooling.

We stayed pretty much on schedule. I had planned to start at 10am with Dad in charge til 11am when I'm usually done with work. But with Tony home on vacation, I've given him my working hours, freeing me up in the morning. But thanks to a late night watching Dirty Jobs, I didn't get going til 10am anyway.

We began with a half hour of "Calendar" time, consisting of today's date and then important people or events of this date (or in today's instance, yesterday's date), such as Austrailia becoming a Commonwealth, the opening of Ellis Island (both providing a bit of map time), and the birthday's of Paul Revere and Betsy Ross.

This was followed by a half hour of math. Erin was bored. She went through her first two 1st Grade lessons and a wad of worksheets. But she still wasn't happy....she want's "pluses & minuses". So, I may have to push her through faster. Alana, on the other hand, took much more time than I had figured. I had thought her first few lessons of 2nd Grade math would be very easy for her, but she only made it through one lesson and half of a worksheet. I'm not sure if this is due to the lesson being too difficult, or Alana being slow and methodical. I'll have to watch that.

We then spent an hour talking about the Vikings and how their childhoods differed from ours for History. It was a little boring, I admit, since I had to use material printed from the internet as my library books haven't come in yet.

Then lunch break. We next tackled Language Arts for Alana, Phonics for Erin, and handwriting for both. Erin was bored again. She claims she already knows what we're talking about, but I really don't want to take any chances....I'm trying to teach her to read, for Heaven's sake! We read a book, had some free play before Daddy left for work, and then wrote stories.

Overall, probably a success. Both miss their friends. Erin was a bit dissillusioned and bored. I realize I need to change things for her. She wants tougher math and more artsy-crafty stuff. And more "mom time". I admit, I had pictured more cuddling on the couch with a book...and we had barely none of that. And Alana just wants more art. So, we have a few kinks to work out, but that's expected, I guess. No worries....I'm not giving up yet! At least the day flew by for me!

After dinner I'll reassess my plans for tomorrow. I need to anyway, as we're going to visit the Kindergarten tomorrow at 2... for a project and much-needed social time. Hopefully, Erin won't refuse to come home!