2013 has arrived.

It's a new year! As with all new year's come new resolutions, plans, ideas. A commitment to make the next year the year in which every move is accompanied with sunshine and musical accompaniment.

For me, on day 7, I haven't gotten into the groove yet.

My Year of Random acts of kindness didn't get started, the way I had hoped with just one act one the first day of the first month. It was a wonderful family day holed up in my aunt and uncle's Poconos house with the Texan portion of my family, my aunt and her triplets, and my kids. It couldn't have been a nicer day, but I didn't get in any good deeds. Maybe next month. 2013 Lesson 1: good intention plans cannot be thwarted by one lazy family day.

We missed several of the kids engagements while we continued visiting. 2013 Lesson 2: Good moms miss events to celebrate time with important people.

Family visiting has led to eating LOTS of pizza and finding several of the pounds I had spent all fall losing. 2013 Lesson 3: Everything in moderation including moderation. This week was light in moderation, but next week I'll back on the moderation train.


My 2013 13 things to do list.
1. Lose enough weight to be footloose and fancy free at my sister's wedding in September.
2. 77 Random Acts of Kindness with the kids (2 on 2/2; 3 on 3/3, etc.)
3. Bring more natural products into my home by learning to make more of them myself including deodorant, hair conditioner and shampoo.
4. Prepare my oldest for his venture to college in the fall.
5. Revive my goal of reading one book every month.
6. Learn about medicinal herbs and plant a garden with my youngest.
7. Find someone to help me with my crumbling body. Fearlessly visit doctors., acupuncturists, chiropractors, whatever it takes.
8. Be willing to try whatever regiment that person(s) recommend, even if it means GF diet.
9.  Craft surprises for my sister's big day.
10. Continue improving my tethering skills (knitting, Crocheting, Tatting, Cross-stitching).
11. Find the right balance between doing it all and doing nothing at all.
12. Blog more than semi-annually.
13. Complain less, do more.

Easy enough, right? :-/ In January, everything is possible.

October

October is the best month of the year!

The weather is beautiful. Cool nights, warm days. The leaves turning offer beautiful views to be enjoyed on the way to the most mundane tasks. 

I love Halloween. Really really love Halloween. I have as many tubs of Halloween decorations as Christmas and every year gets worse.

It's Birthday month! Stepfather, Uncles, Cousins, Son, Friends, and ME. (birthday dance ensues) I will be 39 in 8 days and I'm looking forward to it. No one should dread their birthday in my opinion. There aren't many days that can be all about you. Those fearing age should look at it as a reminder to take time to review all the accomplishments you've had in those years.

The problem is, that with all that I love in October, it's busy!

While trying to make sure that my kids get all the social interaction they want, the education they need, family memories to cherish, I find that our days are packed, and I'm always playing catch up. That's not the October I know and love. The question is what do we do about it. Monday through Saturday each have a scheduled activity, and Sunday is a school day around here. While I vowed that I'd lighten the load this year, it just didn't happen. We all love the activities and communities we've joined. So we plug along and October, my old friend, has had a birthday and matured into something new and wonderful that I hadn't expected. Everyone is entitled to grow and change and make new memories, even October.

Challenge

Recently, when someone noticed that my 6 year old is doing fractions (with horror, I might add), she told me it's really beyond him.  She continued to make assumptions "He'd only be in 1st grade if he was in school, right?" um no, kindergarten.She went so far as to rip a piece of paper in half and say "This is the kind of fractions they do at his level.

It put my insides through the ringer. Anger, defensiveness, and doubt. Lots of doubt.

Anger: Why do you think he's not capable? Who are you to judge what my son is or is not capable of.  Or to judge his level. It was exactly because I knew he was too ahead of Kindergarten that I knew sending him to public school would not make for a good fit.
Realizing I didn't want to be so confrontational, Defensive stepped in.

Defensive: I've worked hard at finding a curriculum he likes and let him go at his own pace.
Defensive was met with woman looking away and shrugging acquiescence.

Which brought in Doubt. Oh my good friend Doubt. AM I pushing? Does he really NOT understand fractions? I'll admit doubt had a little trouble swallowing this as we are on Chapter 22, but not so much that I didn't skip book work in favor of an oral review during which I made him tell me everything he knows. I hope this came off more as conversation than interrogation, but I don't think it's likely. I am looking to live in the balance between challenging and realistic. I should thank this woman for her rude reaction, because after I sorted it all out. I'm feeling we're right where we should be.

10 things I've learned in Year 1

1. I have a lot to learn.
2. I've forgotten so much of what I learned in elementary school. I turned out just fine. I didn't miss it until I tried to pass this important knowledge down. I am capable.
3. If I've forgotten most of this information and still did ok, I won't ruin anyone by missing it in the first place.  Relax
4. I love learning. When I love learning, they love learning (or they roll their eyes and wonder why I find something so interesting, not everything grabs them.) Interests
5. I love my kids and spending time with them.All day, not the crumbs of frustrated, exhausted, lumps at the end of a long day. Contentment
6. I could be out socializing my kids every day of the week at fun activities. In fact I often am. Fun
7. Community college doesn't expect more of you than high school. Realistic Expectations
8. It's harder than it looks, but not as hard as you think. Ambition
9. There's no right way or wrong way, just different ways. Tolerance (I'll admit sometimes this comes with a dose of judgement, but I'm working on it, I really really am)
10. Facts, figures, ideas, come without any teaching at all. It comes without lessons, it comes without nags. it comes without curriculum, grades, or bookbags. Then I thought of something I hadn't before. What if Learning doesn't come from a school? What if Learning, perhaps, means a little bit more?

Hopefully next year I'll have some insight into time management and how to challenge without pushing.

Bored Board & Capitols

Inevitably, despite our full schedule, there are days when I hear "I don't have anything to do." It usually means G wants to snuggle or play a game and sometimes we do. Other times there's just too much on my plate and I need to tackle my own tasks so I've recently created the Bored Board. I pulled unused bulletin board from the basement, brushed off the dust and hung in the hub of our house
(inspiration from http://iblog4boys.blogspot.com/2012/04/do-you-strew.html)

added a little note

and an envelope of ideas he can do on his own

and direct him to go pick something to do.

Ideas include:

1. practice juggling
2. practice chinese yoyo
3. unload the dishwasher
4. find a path from France to Turkey through 9 countries 
5. roller blade around the house
6. write a letter
7. make your bed
8. lay in your bed for 6 minutes and try to think of nothing at all
9. take the dogs out to play in the yard. 

some are fun, some are less fun, but once he picks he has to try it. It buys me some much needed time. 

Right now it's a novelty and he'll ask for something from the envelope instead of play a game with me. I don't know if it will always work so well, but I hope it will always come in handy. Maybe in the future he'll remember a fun idea idea and use it without needing the envelope or maybe it will be a looming threat of a dread that might come from the board that will encourage him to find his own path. Either way I see it as a tool with great possibilities.

Also inspired from (http://iblog4boys.blogspot.com/2012/04/do-you-strew.html) was making use of potty time

We've been learning capitols of states randomly in the car as we spy license plates of out-of-towers, which has been wonderful for east coast knowledge, which we see quite often, but has let a large portion of the country go unnoticed. Now at bath time G asks me to ask him states. I intentionally don't notice when he looks at the nearby map for the answer, and praise him for his memory. He giggles at his secret arsenal of information behind me, but is confident he will be winning future games in the car against his much older brother. 

G's journey

Looking back over the year is amazing to me.
I started here

and am now here:










Ok, I admit that's an exaggeration, if not a downright lie. We do have a variety of activities that we try to make weekly. MBV community center, Circus school, Tae Kwon Do, Homeschool Village Co-op, Soccer, Little League, bowling. Add in playdates, field trips, C activities, and my job and it makes for a very full schedule. How it all happens and I make sure they are fed and clean is somedays beyond me. (It means they may get cut up fruit called dinner, or wash off hands and feet with a washcloth and call it a bath.)

Then there's the "school" part of our life which we squeeze in a couple times a week.  G has worked through the elementary series of Life of Fred and is now in Fractions. After a horrendous First Language Lessons trial run which resulted in real tears before I realized it was not  good fit for us, we discovered Michael Clay Thompson's Grammar Island and are working our way through the series. That's it! No sit down and learn science, social studies, art, music, gym, computers. I can't completely let go of the idea that kids need to be taught, despite being witness to many unschoolers who are learning and growing all the time, but I have been able to dial it back considerably. Partly because I've been blessed to find amazing homeschoolers and unschoolers who offer encouragement and ideas and partly because G reads, a lot.

Horrible Science, Horrible Geography, graphic novels, fantasy stories, poems. In the car, in the bed, all together, alone instead. It doesn't matter he loves books. I love that he loves books.

  (A smattering of the books laying around)

Someone a long time ago told me "Reading is overrated." I was horrified and retorted"If you can read, you can learn anything!" There we have it folks. The core of my educational beliefs. My avid-reader chicklets can now read and learn anything they want and need.Why do I need to teach them? Well, I still need to teach them so that I don't feel like I've missed something and failed them in some way. They are going to be just fine no matter what I do or not do.

One year on the trail

This blog was meant to chronicle our first year of homeschooling. It has been untouched for over a year. DOH!

The short of it...

It has been eye-openingly wonderful, amazing, fun, enlightening, and difficult. Let's not forget difficult.

C started his first homeschooling class while still in public school. 52. A challenge to read and blog 52 books  (of mutual choosing) in 52 weeks and keep a blog on them. We revised, amended, extended, and finally completed this project. I feel good about the conversations that resulted from his books, and I'm proud of his dedication. I would not recommend this project to others! 52 books in 52 weeks is intense even for voracious readers, add blogging in and it's a rough schedule. It left little time for him to read books of his choosing. Toward the end I wondered if I was killing his appetite for books altogether. I was relieved when 2 days after his reading was complete he had completed 2 novels of his choosing.


C signed up for English Composition at Community College on campus in the Fall '11 semester. I took on role of detective when C told me he had gotten an email from his professor:

1. dont worry about our views coinciding or not - you'd be amazed at the variety of views i am capable of accommodating without hurting myself 
2. your writing is so good i dont really know whether i can teach you anything within the framework of this syllabus. as i said, i would like to talk to you more and see if there's anything i can do to help you
3. write journal only if you have time and/or desire. in your case, it is absolutely not a requirement. unfortunately, you do have to turn in the regular essays for me to justify your (almost inevitable) A at the end of the semester.

It seemed unlikely to me that a 15 year old would do so well on 2 assignments that it would warrant this rave from a professor even at community college, and very convenient that he would be given a pass 1/2 of his written work. The mail was sent from a gmail account not a college assigned .edu. Ultimately, I determined this was a legitimate email. Towards the end of the semester, C complained that the work was too easy, it was like 3rd grade. Surely, he was exaggerating. Except he wasn't. I spied worksheets in his folder on when to use its or it's, and there, their, and they're. I'm horrified by the education system. I remind you this was not an English skills get you up to par to take on the college credit courses. This was college level credit. YIKES.

The other problem I had with this course was it was twice a week for an hour and 15 minutes. Not enough time to do anything while I waited. I often brought Gideon and spread out in the back of the minivan and did his lessons. Thankfully, a mild winter made this possible without running the car unnecessarily.  C is currently taking Business Law and Business Organization and Management with MCCC Spring '12 and 3 more courses in the Fall. All online! Next Spring he can do what he wants, he'll be able to drive himself over there as many times as he feels the need. I however think once more for registration will be plenty for myself.

He started Trig with Life of Fred, but quickly found this method not suitable for him and has taken on Math U See Precalculus, a much better fit.

Physics Demystified served as science with field trips.

Japanese with FREE Livemocha.com

He studied Macroeconomics and hopes to take the CLEP exam.

American Government is a free class run by another mom. A handful of kids come together and discuss politics, policy, current events. They started with a dvd lecture series but decided to start learning through movies such as The People Speak, Separate but Equal, Thrive, Monumental.

About a month ago we got the call that the e-cubed group for which Caleb had been put on the waiting list had an opening. It's a great teen led group that meets weekly. They have book club, art, science, music, and country classes that rotate throughout the month. I am very impressed with them and Caleb seems to be open to trying things and joining in. It's been a great addition to our hectic lives.

He's been involved in a guitar meet up once a month showing off the efforts of his daily practice,  Tae Kwon Do  lessons weekly, and writing fan fiction or card games at the homeschooler meetup at Minnie B Veal Community Center. Plus soccer will be starting this week. It's a jam packed week for us. Next post will cover the evolution of G's first year.