Day 23

It is clear that piano isn't my priority. I seem to be getting everything else done consistently, even French listening, but not piano.

Panda science stuff was on the table this morning so I let her finish that assignment first. Her job had been to read a book about pandas, which she did yesterday and write things she learned on a paper plus do a drawing. She finished that this morning first thing.

CC#1 read her scripture reader and since she has her own scriptures now she reads from those, too. She read from The Friend magazine and we sang and recited the AofFaith.

Math lasted a long time as usual but CC#1 really enjoyed herself. It was so nice outside today that I let the kids spend a lot of time outdoors. She still got everything done. She even did a journal entry.

I cleaned all day today so of course I had a lot of chores for them to do also. CC#1 was good about that: emptying two dishwasher loads, folding/putting away laundry, taking laundry and bedding to laundry room to be washed and remaking bed (with help) after. She also washed the couches and picked up toys and stuff. CC#2 did similar chores but spent almost all day outside.

Before dinner tonight we did History as well. WE read two lessons for our Egypt section and looked things up in the encyclopedia. She started her coloring pages. I reviewed things we learned when we did Egypt before (a long time ago).

I reviewed all of the word on the Word Wall with CC#2 and we reveiwed letter sounds. She played with her WOrd Whammer for a long time today as well and we reviewed letter sounds. WE read an Alphatales book for the letter "n", which is her selected letter of the week. She's doing such a great job sounding out words that I had her try to read an Itty Bitty reader for the letter N. IT's so repetitive and easy that she felt like she was reading it all by herself.

I only read to CC#3 before bed because CC#1 was extremely hyperactive. SHe went for hours that way....I don't know how it happened. She didn't have one bit of sugar today and she played outside a lot. She even exercised with me a little. SHe was bouncing off the walls so much I had no chance reading to them.

Day 22

Rough night with my asthmatic angel and can you believe NOra didn't go to sleep until 1am? IT was a tad frustrating. I was tired and discouraged this morning. Mark, Daciana and Aslinn came over at 10ish. The house hadn't been picked up from Sunday.

They stayed until 2pm, I think. CC#1 did her math while they were here and while Aslinn and I did a workout tape she did her handwriting and spelling. She also read and wrote about pandas. She watched a movie about pandas over the weekend. At gymnastics she read two animal books.

CC#2 practiced her three letter words and picked a new letter for the week. We did very little review with her. She mostly played today and colored pictures.

We're almost done with Spiderwick, thank heavens.

D21

Today CC#1 did math. We had some visitors today and then she spent the afternoon and night tonight with her cousins.

D20:I've got to get to bed!

I stayed up way too late last night and today kicked my butt.

I had to drag...really drag...myself to the kitchen this morning while banging into walls from lack of balance. I barely fed the kids and didn't feed myself. I gave CC#1 a stack of papers to do and the kids had a play day.

CC#1 did do all of her basic work today, which was great. I did a big shopping trip this afternoon and then had dinner at my sister's since hubbie working late. Glad this month is almost over.

I got the kids home and read to them after they were in bed. The kids also did chores today. I love it when they do chores. :) And speaking of chores, I've got some waiting for me. GG

D19: No one wants a good education. Everyone wants a good degree. ~ Rudolph

(I didn't say it, that guy did.)

When we got up this morning all of the dinosaur stuff was still on the table...what we call the "big table" because the kids actually all eat at a little kids sized table. Bad, I know. It's a long story how that started and once we got the table it was too hard to quit.

So anyway..back to the BIG table. That's where CC#1 does all of her school work. The littler kids do their coloring and such at their little table procurred at Target. This morning, like I said, it had this dinosaur problem. We spent some time reading about Hadrosaurs while CC#1 finished some drawings, constantly interrupting with ideas about them in relation to herself. On one drawing she made up a puzzle game with drawings you had to figure out where the dinosaur actually did them or not, such as a question mark meaning "did hadrosaurs ask questions." She had to go through about 10 of those with me. NOne of them made sense to me.

Then I wanted her to have a really quick math day. She still managed to draw it out for two hours. I got really ticked at one point when I came in from the living room and she'd doodled ALL OVER her calendar book. I know I should let it go...but I just can't. It's her book and maybe she should be allowed to express herself, but I say there is a time and a place. HEr book is to remain neat and we've been over it a million times. She also doodled all over her handwriting page and I almost lost it. (I know, I know. I'm a perfectionist and I expect her to be neat, even if she doesn't expect it of herself. At least in certain circumstances) If she's doodling she's not doing her work. End of story. Doodle on your own time and not on presented work.

I read them lots of stories because it's library day and we hadn't read all of the books we were turning in...that just reminded me, it's after midnight and I forgot to renew the books we didn't turn in today. Dang it all!!!

Okay...so story time over. She was SUPPOSED to do handwriting from yesterday over again and a new page for today. She struggled with my expectations. Finally I said HANG IT!! and we all got ready to go. Oh but wait. Guess what!? WE did French today. Amazing, I know. WE actually did several lessons during lunchtime. But back to later when I got frustrated: then we had some errands and then BAllet.

AT Ballet I gave her a spelling page to do while CC#2 was in class and she struggled. I went over Language with her and gave her a reading assignment. She was so distracted that CC#3 was watching a DVD on the portable and she wasn't allowed.

Admittedly she's had this recurring sickness and even though she did take antibiotics she hasn't gotten over it completely and every once in awhile her tonsils swell up. Today was one of those days. Any time she didn't want to do something she brought up the tonsils. Whenever something good happened she mentioned that her neck felt better. Coincidence? I don't think so. (I'm a believer in the mind-body connection.)

AT Ballet CC#1 also got her first Ballet injury. I warned her about big toe damage in ballet, little did I know it would happen stubbing her toe on some equipment whilst flitting around the room. Sad.

We did go to the library which lasted about five minutes, enough for me to grab the reserves and herd them out of there, CC#1 crying and protesting.

Dinner over I promised to read to them and we did, but after I enjoyed a riveting Nova on PBS about stress and its affect on the body. IT made me cry. YEs it did. YEs it did.

This day is not all about me and CC#1 but we're the major players. CC#2 spent time in her room today fake whining because she didn't want to fold her clothes. CC#1 did hers early in the morning and I finally gave in and "helped" CC#2 before dinner. In my defense I did "get her going" on it, but she is sooooo stubborn and didin't want to do chores today. Oh, but she did unload the dishwasher later.

CC#2 did review her words on the Word Wall (I named it that just now while typing.) She is getting better at reading. She has the advantages of an older sibling. We reviewed a bunch of things like seasons, months, days of the week, counting, vowel sounds, alphabet sounds, and shapes. HEr new shape is a hexagon.

CC#3 runs in the room whenever we do recitations. That reminds me. WE did do scriptures, song, story from Friend, and ARticles. That's CC#3's fav. He is way into the rhymes and memorization. He's cute about it, hopping and enunciating only the biggest words, sometimes shouting. REminds me of the Sunbeam song.

D18: Imagination is more important thsn knowledge. ~Einstein

(says the man with a vast amount of knowldge)

Ok. So...what happenned to yesterday?

This morning the kids cleaned up the house before breakfast and made their beds, got dressed. Breakfast over, excitement to begin...

glitter color letter page for preschool along with the usual reviews.

scriptures, songs sung, Articles recited

math for a wopping 2 1/2 hours

breaks

giggling

spelling test, mistakes corrected, and new lesson

finish language narration of hen who laid golden eggs, recite poems, two new lessons on nouns

handwriting

read stories to preschoolers

snacks, breaks, lunch, play

history material reread, Anansi coloring, map, test on Africa

dinner

dinosaurs: Hadrosaurs

read aloud book: more Spiderwick

done? never done

Why Try?

I guess I'm idealist at heart. I grew up with an understanding or at least some awareness of my potential. That's a blessing and a curse because of course I could never reach my potential and that's depressing.

When I was growing up the oldest in my family, I was the one my mom wanted to fill her visions of what life she didn't have, or in other words, I was pressured to reach the potential that she saw in herself and couldn't reach.

I didn't respond well to pressure, especially when it wasn't coupled with support and loving relationships. But it was a blessing. I was able to grow as an idealist who has chosen to develop high standards, even when not able to reach them always. I also determined that I would be a devoted parent because...well, let's just spit it out...mine weren't. Sure they had dreams and love for us kids...but we describe our parents as "hands off," oh, and emotionally unavailable.

Simply put, I didn't meet theirs and they didn't meet mine. Expectations. Sometimes those are the very things that define relationships.

With my kids I can see lessons I've learned and traditions I'm mired down in.

What I have done is made a choice with my husband's support for my life and my kids. I have been blessed with a confirmation to know it's the right thing for us, or at least one of the right things that we could have chosen. And we've been blessed to be able to do it. I've been blessed with a supportive and like-minded husband. I couldn't do it alone.

So even though I am so far from perfect, I was able to make a good decision. And I am committed to it. So even when we don't have great days, I stick with my decision. I have never regretted it. I like our lifestyle. I can see how it's been such a great benefit to our family. I am a believer.

That's why I try. Every day.

D17: I'm going to have to start putting inspirational thoughts here for my titles because I'm running out of things to use to title my days.

Blur....

It was good.
Scriptures & reviews?
Piano?
Math Lesson> check.
Spelling> check.
Handwriting> check.
Language?
Reading> check.
History> check.
Science> check.
French???

Preschool?
REview of letters so far: vowels and short vowel sounds, letters g,m, & k. Read a book about "k." Reviewed counting, calendar, weather, etc. Lots of coloring.

D16: Doing Fun Things

It only took less than 2 weeks for CC#1 to change her attitude about school. My visiting teacher came by today to check on me and asked CC#1 if she was doing school and CC#1 replied "No, I'm doing fun stuff." But she was doing school work. She had done more than 30 math problems and two more math worksheets along with Logic Safari, Logic Links, Venn Perplexors, Dr. Dooriddles and she was begging for more.
Amazingly, yesterday when she was doing her Saxon math worksheets she asked if she could do both sides of the worksheet (the second side is basically the same as the first) since I usually only have her do one side. She said, "because these worksheets are really fun for me." Boy is that a change from last week.

I could have played a lot of games with her today but I was enjoying reading a book too much.

She did her handwriting and spelling and reading. She did some more Africa work for history. We'll finish up everything for the week tomorrow and I think we'll go to another museum. WE'll see. I kind of liked staying home today. I can give them an art lesson at home.

CC#2 begged for school stuff to do all day today. I had her and CC#3 do coloring and we reviewed her letter sounds but that was about it. WE didn't go all out today. I planned to read to them more and that didn't happen since I was selfishly reading for myself. :)

D15: I am so grateful for dividends that will pay out for years to come....

WE did everything today except French. CC#1 even did extra reading. She was reading out loud while waiting her turn for Ballet class and got some compliments.

CC#2  did a letter craft and practiced their letter sounds.

We made it to the library for a 15 minute grab and dash after ballet. It was a very crazy afternoon. We actually started school earlier than usual this morning. CC#1 had trouble finishing her spelling work..which was some corrections. She was doing school right up until 3pm doing a narratioin of Anansi stories for Africa study. WE had to dash to get ready for ballet and from there to the library and from there home to change. They literally had ten minutes to clean up the house and about ten minutes or less to eat and then I took them to my sister's while I went to a meeting from which we returned home at 9pm. They were in bed by 9:15 and then I would have gotten to eat dinner except for baby crying. Finally I got to eat and now here I am. I kind of love the days like this but kind of not because then I feel worn out the next day. I like to read to my kids to relax more.

D14: Rockin' Day!

So the house was trashed from my downer Monday and I had to get it all clean for a BBQ at my house tonight plus get school done with the kids.

We skipped some things, such as piano and scriptures, because I didn't get the kids up on time. I actually heard complaints about mission piano! (I was amazed.)

The preschoolers did a lot of coloring today. CC#2 and #3 colored many coloring book pages and CC#2 did a maze since she didn't want to do handwriting. She practiced her words and vowel sounds and counting. When CC#1 did her animal coloring pages, CC#2 did many as well. ( of all kinds of birds)

CC#1 did an excellent job on math...adding up a bunch of two digit numbers with carrying. Great job. She has also improved her memorization and counts with her fingers far far less.

She did handwriting, language, and spelling with almost no complaints. She didn't read today. I need to add another hour to our schedule, I can see, to make this happen. She did a narrative page about birds and some coloring pages. Good work!

NO French and no exercise either. TOmorrow for sure!

D13: I had a major urge to move the furniture around but didn't/couldn't because I already had a sore back.

Since I didn't post this yesterday I'm having a hard time remembering what we did yesterday. That's why I have to post daily. I seriously can't remember what we did? I remember I was up most of tne night with the baby so I didn't take the kids to gymnastics so I could take a nap instead.

I did get the kids up on time and told them to make beds and such, but I didn't apply my usual attentiveness. I just said, "get your beds made, room straightened, and then you can have breakfast." Well, it didn't happen. I probabaly should have just gone back to bed and gotten up around 10 more rested. We likely would have had a much more productive day.

CC#1 did her math and I gave her a stack of things to do before my afternoon nap but she didn't do them as well as I would've liked. She had to finish most of it, or correct it today. That put us "behind."

It's funny though that CC#2 wasn't at all motivated to clean or make bed in order to get breakfast, but she did ask to color her letter for the week the moment she got up. I think it's because she gets to use glitter and she really likes glitter.

So the whole house didn't get cleaned like I usually do on MOnday and I was really down, but in my defense I did have a sore back and tension headache. I have bad shoulders and if I don't use the wrap carrier to carry Leonora, my shoulders and bad swell and I'm in bad shape.

D12: Amon Carter Museum

We didn't do anything today other than the art museum. Sometimes we don't have school on Fridays. Today it was a good day to skip since Case got out of a conference and we could all go together.

The kids love art museums. I think for them it is like looking at picture books. We took a post card tour today and they had to find the art in the museum from the postcards we showed them when we got there. Then we talked about each painting/sculpture and they also picked favorites in each room.

The highlight is always playing outside afterwards.

D11: On the 11th

Today was much like any other school day.

chores
scriptures
piano
math Oh, except for math we didn't do Saxon today. CC#1 did Dr. Dooriddles, Logic Links, Math Start, Addtition Adventures, Venn Perplexors, Logic Safari books.
CC#2 did a number coloring page and we went through all of the counting review. We reviewed vowels and short vowel sounds. We played with the Word Whammer! and reviewed shapes and calendar info. CC#3 played with the shape blocks and pattern animal pages.

CC#2 and #3 also finished their "Macaroni MOnster" crafts.

The kids did their exercise and I even did some with them until I hurt my back doing downward dog. I know, sad. I'm in pretty bad shape.

Then came lunch after which CC#1 did spelling, handwriting, language, and a writing exercise.

After that we pulled out the China Treasure Chest and explored its contents. I felt really bad for not reading to the kids today and not having CC#1 do any reading practice. I had someplace to go tonight and the night didn't go as smoothly. I took a nap at about 3pm and everything I wanted to do, particularly for History, didn't get done.

We also skipped French. I didn't forget, I just didn't do it. Bad bad bad.

D10: A Tired Cloudy Rainy Day With Lots of Whining.

The first thing I heard when waking CC#1 today was "I don't want to do work today." What do I say to that? If I whine about her complaining or complain about her whining it isn't going to help. Luckily she was only speaking in the moment and has done a lot of great work today.

THe lots of whining today is really from me. I wasn't happy with the crying and spilled milk, if you get me.

The girls did their chores and breakfast happened a bit late, but we were on time for school. CC#1 zoomed through 3 piano lessons today. She finally got a skill down that I was waiting on. Scriptures were great and their memorization is going well.

For Math CC#1 had catch up and review to do so we didn't do a new lesson but she worked for an entire hour and a half with minor distractions. She had mistakes to correct on worksheets and a few lessons to finish.
For the preschool kids we practiced all of the counting stuff and CC#2 learned about even and odd numbers. We read Missing Mittens and played with counting bears.

Language, Spelling, Handwriting are done. CC#1 did an excellent writing assignment that she enjoyed (talking about things she likes, ironically.)
CC#2 reviewed vowels and had storytime. For the "m" review we did a craft with macaroni. I wish I had mini marshmallows, but we'll have to do that next time.

The chosen animal for science was waterfowl, so they learned about swans, geese, and ducks. They read the encyclopedia pages and did their coloring pages (we use lots and lots of Dover coloring books. They are excellent!) After dinner they watched "Fly Away Home," one of my favorites. The kids loved loved loved it, too.

We hit Ballet today as well. CC#3 was even more upset about it than usual. "I want to dance! I want to dance!" It's a really good thing he gets to do gymnastics with the girls.

Under Construction: Why a Homeschool Diary?

This site is new for me and still under construction. Most people don't want to see what we do from day to day but this a great way for me to keep track. I used other methods to keep track last year and I think this blog will work better.

For everyone who visits I plan to put my favorite websites and blogs on this site in the hopefully near future.

I don't know if this site will every be inspiring to anyone, but maybe someone will find it useful...besides myself.

Thanks for visiting.

D9: Grreat!

It's so funny to me, on a side note, that CC#1 isn't a bit freaked out by the Spiderwick Chronicles and yet had tons of nightmares after we read Gentle Ben. I think I understand why. The perilous scenes, though really benign by today's standards, were described with such rich language that it made the story so much more real and vibrant. Spiderwick is hopelessly cartoonish and flat by comparison, despite the creativity. I hope all kids get the chance to read some classics like Gentle Ben and so many others.

Today we started on time. We're listening to Five Children and It by E.Nesbit on tape in the morning.
We read out of the OT reader and the girls are doing well with our review of the Aof F memorization. Even CC#3 stood up today and tried to recite one. (so adorable)
In Piano CC#1 is still perfecting Lesson one. She is doing really well and skips ahead on her own. I don't like to move on with lessons until the last one is perfected. (We recently switched from violin to piano because CC#1 found it too tedious)

Math CC#1 had some catching up to do on lessons but she is through L85 Saxon.
CC#2 did all of the counting exercises and successfully counts beyond 20. She's learning to count by 2s and 10s. CC#1 needs work counting by 5s, but oddly enough she can carry when doing addition. Her skills are varied for sure.

CC#2 for preschool colored her alphabet page and she chose lower case "m" to work on. WE read "M" related stories and we practiced the short vowel sounds.

CC#1 did her language lesson, spelling, handwriting and I read stories to them. CC#1 read on her own but I did not practice with her.

We also did 30 minutes of exercise.

After lunch the kids did a French review.
For History we worked on Ancient China, reading books, doing a coloring page, and finishing the main lesson.

I did housework all day and after all of this I dropped for a nap. We were supposed to go to the library but I didn't wake up in time.

We read more of Spiderwick tonight.

D8: Back in the Saddle?

We had a most excellent morning and our schedule went great despite me being sick and CC#1 is still fighting it as well. I plowed through school even with my flaming headache. I did have a lot of housework planned, but school comes first.

Piano practice, scriptures, stories, math and games. Then I quit to sleep in the afternoon with the two younger nappers while the elder two didn't watch TV, oh no. They did their usual craft activities and played board games.

We haven't given up!

I am very thankful that my kids don't get sick very often. Well, CC#2 does, but that's because she has allergies. Right now they happen to be sick. Sick timing, I know...right at the start of school. Well, best to get it over with. Right now the kids all have strep and I'm tired and need to rest anyway.

We have the weekend off and we'll pick things up again on Monday...no matter what!

Day 7: It's already day 7?

Someone in the family was less than cooperative today: ME!!! Well, CC#1 wasn't much help either, but she did read a load of books I requested her to. NO luck with the other work I gave her to do, not that I gave her much time in which to do it. She was insisting she didn't know what the year was. That was possibly the most frustrating education moment of the century. "You don't know what year it is even though you've written it for school during your last 80 lessons AND it's right on the calendar sitting there in front of you?" (AHHHHHH!!!!!)

We went to the library and I finished reading Gentle BEn to them. I think the language and writing were stimulating and "classic" and I recommend that book to young boys, perhaps under age 10 and able to read chapter books. Admittedly the plot was less filled with peril as today's books are, but it was still a good story.

Unfortunately the kiddos got into such a world of trouble for their behavior at the library, they are all grounded from life. It was mostly CC#3 doing the running around, but they all contributed. I'm considering tossing the TV into the garage. I was so tired earlier that even though I had told them no TV today, I begged them to watch Dumbo so I could get a nap with the baby. Bad parenting 101, I know. Don't have me write any magazine articles.