Busy Busy Busy

Shockingly enough, Penny takes up a lot of our time. I KNOW! Can you believe such a tiny puppy could do that??? That said, she cuddles on our laps while we read through Narnia, sleeps in the sunshine during math, and gnaws on her bone during the rest of our school work. She's a damn fine dog. Now if we could just get her to consistently poop and pee outside...
Believe it or not, that box caused a ton of strife. "I want to read in it!" "It's my turn!" Waah waah waah. Still, it's pretty nice to see such a clean family room...

Go Kenmore! Thanks for the free vacuum. So far, my floors are cleaner. Especially when I remember to use the vacuum. That helps a lot.... (Corinne reading Harold and the Purple Crayon).
"Take a picture of us, Mama! You can call it 'A boy and his dog'!"

The elusive 12 year old on the cusp of turning 13. He still loves Life of Fred (Pre Algebra right now) but has been asking for books that are more challenging. Be still, my heart.
Snow day! We haven't had many of them, this year. And, when we do get snow? It melts in about a day. What the hell? This is Corinne's serious face for a serious dress creation on her doll mannequin. She wanted a full size mannequin but Nana found this one and I am SO GLAD because a life sized one would be HUGE.
Still loving FreeRice.com for math facts and vocabulary. We've also discovered some cool free typing games online for Evan and Corinne. I hope it helps their spelling and keyboard skills...

And that's it, folks. I haven't been too camera happy lately. Must be the dreary weather. I NEED SUNSHINE.

The Chronic

Evan and I have been reading the Chronicles of Narnia these past few months. It's pretty impressive for him considering how many freaking RUN ON SENTENCES C.S. Lewis likes to use in every single paragraph. It can be a lot to digest for a 9 year old. That said, I have been reduced to singing this song Every. Single. Day. for the past 2 months...

Ahem.

This is not my main blog.

Just thought I'd clarify.

Especially since I can't figure out how to rearrange the order of appearance on my profile page and this one comes up first and I realized that THIS must be why I don't get very many comments anymore! People come to my homeschool blog because it's first on the list and see that it's rarely updated and then they click away before they realize that all of the REAL GOODS are on my REAL BLOG. You know, the one where I talk about puppy obsession and harassing my pre-teen on Facebook.

I am freaking hyper this morning and I haven't had any coffee AT ALL. Maybe my body is weird (duh) and reacts opposite to caffeine?!? THIS COULD EXPLAIN EVERYTHING.

A report card to myself

I hesitate to write this, but...

The year is going excellently!

SHHHH!!!! Don't tempt the Gods and read that out loud! Knocking on wood and throwing salt over my shoulder and looking for a spot to spit as I type this...

But seriously, I'm happy. We're not perfectly timed like a digital clock; checking in and out, ticking this off and filing that. We run loosely and freely. There are issues to cover and details to complete for sure; but those details are most definitely not dictating the flow of our lives.

Justin is slowly wading into algebra this year. Don't tell him, but he's actually doing well with it. He doesn't like to admit that he's able to retain information (one of his favorite phrases) but that kid, on a good and happy day, can learn anything. He just needs to give himself more credit. I keep hoping that the "drive to learn for learning's sake" will kick in. Sometimes, I can see it taking hold, only to slip back again and be hidden behind the "I hate school" mantra. He's a tough cookie to figure out, but he always insists that he never wants to go to public school again. This is a question I pose to him whenever he claims that I am asking too much of him or presenting him with too much work. I remind him of the homework that would take us all into the late evening hours, should he be in public school. I remind him of the earlier bedtime and early alarm clock wake ups that we would all be enjoying, should he go to school. And then he usually grumbles and plods through whatever I've laid out for the day. :)

Evan is still Mr. Active. He likes to stand up to do his schoolwork and sometimes does his best stories while he dictates as he walks in circles. No joke. His mind works way faster than his hand can keep up, so I have him dictate to me, and then have him copy the work afterwards. His spelling and writing abilities are slowly catching up to his grade level and he continues to do well at his math and reading comprehension. I keep meaning to look for a good health/human body curriculum but haven't found something as of yet...

Corinne reads well above her age level. What level does she read at? I don't know. Don't really care. I just know that she is ABLE to read. And that everything we're doing with her seems to be working. I don't set any age restrictions to the math or reading or science that she receives. If the boys are doing it, and she's interested? I pull her onto my lap and she learns alongside them. And she RETAINS it. Not all of it and not perfectly, but WOW. She remembers! It's interesting to think of what she'll be doing when she is Evan or Justin's ages...

And, with that, I have to jet so that I can take them all to our homeschool co-op where they will do a writing class, 2 different history classes, P.E. (run by me!) and a reading/art class. The group has gotten larger lately and there are tons of kids that my children are becoming good friends with. Basically? Our school year (and family year) is off to a fabulous start!

And so it begins...

Evan and Corinne in our "spaghetti garden."

And yes; we've made a LOT of spaghetti this August...

Run-on sentences and improper punctuation, but it's 4 am and I'm tired...

Every year we do this homeschooling gig, I learn more and more about the educational system and fall more and more in love with our current lifestyle. I am so happy that we are able to provide this option for our kids. I remember school. There were some great times. There were some crappy times. But mostly? Mostly I felt unimportant and not as worthy as the other children. High school sucked but for the extra curricular activities. SUCKED.

This girl's valedictorian speech reminds me, once more, that the cookie cutter system available by public school isn't a good shape for my family. My children are thriving and learning and living just fine in our home. I cannot imagine sending them back to someone else for their education! I simply can't. It kind of breaks my heart a little. I try to be flexible and open to the possibility that one or more of them will want to try public school out someday, but it actually sounds quite foreign. Isn't that interesting? I've become more used to homeschooling. Even after my own public education and the 4.5 years we had our kids in public! 16.5 years of public school combined, and I am more loyal to home education!

Wow. I really am exhausted. This will NOT be a brilliant post, heralding the remarkable abilities of me as a home educator. Let it be known that I do a good job. I DO. And I know that I can do AT LEAST as good of a job as a public school system can do. Naturally, my goal is to do BETTER, but since I don't believe in report cards (never have!), you can't prove or test my theory.

Or can you?

Corinne is reading SO WELL and doing math way above what I know other kids her age are doing. And she's doing it independently.

Evan still struggles to put words onto paper, but the words fly from his brain! He has such an imagination! I want this year to be the Year of Imagination for Evan. I want to nurture his creativity. I want to let his talents be the front-runner for everything I offer him to learn. Geography, creative writing, art, history... Why didn't I do more of that last year? I tried, but didn't place enough importance on it.

Justin picks up what he's interested in and surprises me with the knowledge he can retain. Who knew that a big box of National Geographics would inspire him?

Yawn. What was I saying? I really am tired. Need sleep. Can't write anymore...

My New Mission Statement

It's summertime. My kids don't deliberately "do school" in the summer because

a. I am lazy

and

b. they would kill me. Truly.

But my 5 year old, who has never been "to school" but loves homeschooling, has been working like a maniac this summer! Reading all the time, asking to do Freerice.com, randomly sitting at her desk to work on writing and math workbooks and on and on. Just a moment ago, I helped her tug out the big box of Math U See manipulatives and she is currently stacking and counting and building and LEARNING without an agenda.

That's what I hope to accomplish this year: Learning without an agenda.

I think I'll make it my mission statement....