I Did It!

When I was 15 I had a magnetic earring that I loved to wear in my nose.  Today, a few months away from my 40th birthday I did something crazy--I got a real earring in my nose.  Say what you want but I love it!  

Reflecting on Our School Year

What worked...what didn't. This has been an interesting school year if nothing else. I had some big plans at the beginning of the year, I started some new curriculum that I just knew would be amazing, and I stuck with some old curriculum because it was tried and true. As I sit here a month and a half away from the end of our school year I see that almost everything has changed including many of my own ideas about what home education should look like. Just for fun let's take this subject by subject.
Language Arts--I started all three kids in Rod and Staff English this year and really loved it up until about 2 months ago when I abruptly quit using it. The girls did more than half of their books and I am sure they learned quite a bit but as it got into the second half of the book it became very tedious and had me questioning why anyone would ever have to know this much grammar. Joe didn't make it very far in his book at all...no surprise there. He does know what a noun, verb, and adjective are though as well as basic punctuation so I'd say he's okay. Hannah and Grace have done Daily Paragraph Editing all year and have learned way more from that daily exercise than they ever learned in the English book. I just recently bought Daily Language Review for Grace and Joe and they both enjoy it and it's reinforcing many things they already know. Both of those books by the way are from Evan Moor (my fave). One area that I've totally failed at this year (again) is writing. I was so sure I was going to get a handle on writing this year and I haven't. Towards that end though the girls did most of a workbook called, "Outlining, Notetaking, and Report Writing." We never quite got to Report Writing unfortunately. I am testing out IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) during this last month of school. The girls did the first lesson today and so far so good. I can see us sticking with this and finally getting a handle on writing. Next year is the year, I can feel it. In addition to all of this we have also started the Evan Moor (my fave) unit study on Nonfiction. We are moving significantly slower than I had hoped to move but that's okay. I had planned to do some of it this year and some of it next year anyway. Trying not to stress about that. Next year for Language Arts we will be doing Daily Paragraph Editing, the Nonfiction unit study, IEW, and possibly a literature study, not sure about that yet.
Math--we started the year with everyone doing what we've been doing since Hannah was in 1st grade--Horizons math. I have always loved Horizons math....until this year. Actually, I still love it but my children do not. Specifically, Grace and Joe. They both became very anxious about math (that's an understatement--crying everyday) and so I finally just did away with the Horizons workbook and started having them do worktexts from Math Mammoth. It has been a lifesaver!!! I can't say enough good about Math Mammoth--it's cheap, simple, and solid. I will continue using it for Grace and Joe for next year and Hannah will also be doing a few of the worktexts reviewing fractions and decimals as we end our school year and into the summer. We've decided that everyone will continue math this summer. Grace and Joe both struggle with math and have made great strides in the last few months, I do not want them to forget anything! Hannah was doing fine with Horizons math but as she approached the end of the first of two workbooks for 6th grade I decided to give Teaching Textbooks a try and fell in love. She is currently in the middle of 7th grade TT and will stop for now and resume next year. When she finishes that she will start Pre-Algebra, probably mid-year.
History--We started off the school year with Story of the World Volume 2--The Middle Ages and we are still pushing our way through. We have taken our sweet time and are only on about Ch. 17 but we are now reading a chapter a day in order to finish this as soon as possible. We have plans for the kids to study American History next year so I have to wrap up The Middle Ages. I have done no extra projects but we have read a few books to go along with this--Red Sails to Capri, The Bronze Bow, and we are reading The Door in the Wall. We've done a more consistent history program in years past but I am still happy with what we have done and what we will finish before school is out.
Science--Do I have to talk about Science? It's my blog so I guess that answer is no but in the spirit of "keeping it real," here goes--Again, I had big plans. I had borrowed Apologia's "Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day," from a friend and had heard such great things about it. I even bought the lapbook component and was super excited about science. Well, after almost an entire school year we are only on Lesson 3. I surrendered today and packed up the copies I had made of the lapbook along with the book and have it waiting by the door to give back to Amy. It just wasn't meant to be. One of my goals this year was to focus on Math and Language Arts and Writing and to relax about everything else. I relaxed so much that our science curriculum just didn't happen. Oops. That doesn't mean we didn't do science though--we've watched countless episodes of Nova as well as other science documentaries, read Ranger Rick every month, and done some experiments from our science kits. I would venture to say that my kids know more about science than many of their public school counterparts--at least Grace and Joe do. When Grace took the CAT5 last year she scored 100% on the science portion. With that said...I have no intention to neglect science next year. In fact, I have big plans (I've heard that before)--Grace and Joe will do lessons from my new favorite website--Lesson Pathways. They have some great science units and I'm looking forward to doing a lot of them. Hannah will likely be doing Science with some other kids--Apologia General Science.
Other Stuff--Joe is almost done with his Caldecott Winners Pocket Book, the girls did an Easter lapbook, Joe has read almost all of the A to Z Mysteries--he's on Y, Hannah has learned to cook, Grace has learned to do laundry, and much more. I guess it's been a pretty good school year after all.

An Assortment of Pictures From Our Weekend

Just Shootin' the Breeze

1. Last weekend I got to be an honorary sister and go to the beach for the weekend with 4 crazy ladies. On the way there we loaded up the back window of the car with all things feminine--pads, tampons, coupons for pads, an ad for a bra and a book about women's hormones. It was pretty funny and started our weekend off with some good laughs. One of the sisters, Keri, lives about 15 minutes from the beach so we all stayed at her house. Their momma, aka Granny, came along too to take care of the babies (there were 3) while the rest of us played. We went to the beach, out for every meal, shopping, to a spa for pedis (I got my eyebrows waxed since I just had a pedi a couple of weeks ago), out for ice cream, to the beach at sunset, to a park, church, Wal-mart, watched a chick flick, stayed up too late, and all around had a great weekend. I came home refreshed and exhausted. Oh and I also got myself a new tie dye dress (didn't have one of those yet) from Keri's next door neighbor who also sells tie dye at the beach. In the picture below you can see the bottom of my dress--my toes are the ones without a flip flop on.

2. I'm numbering my thoughts for Gabi's sake. He doesn't like when I type one big paragraph. Does this make you happy Gabi?
3. Today at Racetrac "Take Five" candy bars were just 50 cents for a king size. I bought two and they are hidden in the back of my freezer as we speak.
4. Hannah is still cooking. Last week she made 4 meals and tonight she made spaghetti with bolognese sauce. She's a really good cook and I only have one complaint--she totally trashes the kitchen! I usually do clean up duty when she cooks but I'm thinking that may have to change. I'm sure she would make less of a mess if she knew she had to clean it up. I am loving having someone to share the burden of planning and cooking dinner with. Tonight I went to the gym while she cooked, if I had been the one to cook I probably wouldn't have made it to the gym.
5. Speaking of the gym and exercising...I'm really finally motivated to exercise more and get to the gym more. This week I did nothing Monday but walked for an hour on Tuesday morning and then biked to the library later that evening and then went to the gym on Wednesday and today. I'm planning to go again tomorrow and hopefully Saturday as well. This weight will come off, it will. And, maybe before I turn 40. :0)
6. So, I am getting almost no comments lately. It's not that big of a deal, I'm pretty sure people are still reading but sometimes I wonder. I can't help but think I've gotten too boring for most of my readers. I think I had better posts when I first started blogging, I had a lot more posts about specific topics. I've tried to go back to that but it doesn't work very well these days. Usually the best I can do is empty my brain. When I am reading blogs those types of posts are actually my favorites. I love people and truly enjoy hearing about their day to day life. Fo rizzle. I know, I'm weird.
7. The kids dyed easter eggs tonight. Unfortunately most were cracked--I was a big stupidhead and after boiling them I dumped them into a colander and they all bumped up against each other and cracked. I wasn't boiling 18 more eggs though so they dyed them all anyway. I'm hoping Hannah will make us some deviled eggs this weekend.



8. Joe has decided that he wants to try to like math. He's dying to learn multiplication but he's just now getting good at adding and subtracting and we haven't even started borrowing and carrying yet. But, to appease him I am going to teach him the 1s, 2s, and 5s times tables. He's really smart and I know he can get it but math often really stresses him out and so we have to move at a snail's pace in order to keep us both sane.
9. As I've mentioned before I have made some changes with school and am not requiring a whole lot from Joe that is assigned. Consequently, he has more free time while the girls are still doing school. I've been pleasantly surprised to find that he finds educational ways to occupy himself. He's written two books this week and keeps wanting me to give him spelling tests. If he was an only child he'd make a good unschooler.
10. After watching some of the talk about the upcoming royal wedding tonight at the gym I've decided that I'd like to read a biography of Princess Diana. Any recommendations?

Home

It seems like we have been super busy the last month and a half or so. We've had two rounds of company, a show, dentist appointments, and just stuff that takes us away from home on almost a daily basis. It feels like I am always rushing through school so we can leave. We finally had a full day at home today and even with a late start we got a whole lot done and felt relaxed while doing it. Hannah babysat two different toddlers--one in the morning and one in the afternoon and did all of her school and practiced her lines for Camp Rock. Grace got through all of her school, did laundry, and helped Hannah babysit. Joe did school and wrote a book. His little friend, Jake, is creating a library in his room and Joe is eager for his book to be in the "Friends of the Librarian" section. Noone can read it until it is in the library and they check it out. I got to read it because I typed it up for him. He did a great job and my favorite line is, "he brushed his teeth because they were yellow." School is going well with Joe these days--I'm not pushing him to do much and he is using his free time productively and even educationally. He reads a lot and also creates little projects for himself that he ends up learning from. He usually needs my help and that's another good reason to be home all day. Today I had the time to type up his book right then and there and hand him a "published" book that he is incredibly proud of. I have cancelled a field trip that we were supposed to go to tomorrow so that we can have another full day at home (at least until theatre at 4). And, we should have another full day at home on Friday. I'm going to really protect next week as well and make it a habit to protect at least 3 days a week so that we can get into a groove again. I'm planning to school right through the middle of June and there are a lot of things I'd like to do between now and then to round out our school year. This time of year is always hard for me but I really want to finish strong this year.

Happy Birthday to Grace...One More Time

Grace had a pool party with some friends on Saturday. They had a great time, I think the pictures speak for themselves.

Hannah and Madi Sing "What is This Feeling" at Relay for Life

Grace Sings "Home" at Relay For Life

Seven Quick Takes

1. It's Friday afternoon...I can't believe another week has passed, the days and weeks go by much too quickly these days. I really need time to slooooowwww down. We had a very busy week but managed to fit in 4 good school days. I think I am finally getting back into the groove after Spring Break. I'm hoping for a not so busy week next week. I want and need more time at home.
2. Hannah has gotten really into cooking. She's been sort of into it for a while now but she checked out a few cookbooks on Tuesday at the library and has been wanting to cook ever since. She made lunch two days this week--one day was deviled eggs and the next day was Asian Chicken Noodle Soup. Last night she made Pad Thai and it was really good. She has asked if she can make dinner every night next week except for Monday and Wednesday (when she has theatre). She is going to plan the menu and make a grocery list. I could get used to this. Last night when she was making Pad Thai she even invited her siblings to come and help. Joe peeled and chopped garlic and chopped cilantro and Grace peeled the shrimp. All of these years I've sort of beat myself up for not letting my kids help me in the kitchen more often, we have a tiny kitchen and I prefer to work alone. Now it seems that despite my unwillingness to let them help much they've still managed to learn some skills.
3. I'm glad I'm not on The Maker's Diet
4. The girls are both singing tonight at a Relay for Life event. Hannah is singing a song from Wicked with her friend, Madi and Grace is singing a song from Beauty and the Beast. Should be fun!
5. I can't say enough good things about Math Mammoth. It's a math curriculum that is cheap and presents each lesson in such a way that Grace and Joe have both advanced significantly in math and all without the stress and tears.
6. I'm a bipolar gym goer--it seems that some weeks I go 4 or 5 times and I'm all motivated and into it and other weeks I barely make it. This week I've barely made it. I think I've gone twice and that's it and one of those times I was barely even there a half hour and just rode the bike and didn't even break a sweat. I'm hoping next week will be better, one thing is for sure--if I have a busy week getting to the gym is what gets dropped first.
7. In spite of not making it to the gym I have moved my body quite a bit this week. I'm trying to walk places more often if they are close enough as well as go on bike rides more often. We have bought the kids all running shoes too and they are enjoying going on short runs either with Ollie or just alone around the block. The girls are especially into doing this for their breaks during the school day. The weight is hardly falling off but I think I am getting more physically fit and healthy and that's important too.
Have a good weekend--this is a busy one for us, I should have some pics and video to share on Sunday or Monday.

Happy Birthday Gracie!

Gracie celebrated her 10th birthday on Wednesday but the fun began on Tuesday night with her birthday dinner and presents. Per her request, we had cubed steak, mashed potatoes, lima beans, and macaroni and cheese. The picture above is of Joe's card for her, it came with a paper balloon and everything. Pretty snazzy.
She was very excited about her donut maker and her gift card to Dunkin' Donuts--woohoo! I hope she shares. :0)

She and I made donuts for birthday breakfast. I love, love, love this donut maker. After one time of me helping just a little, Grace has mastered the making of donuts and has made them two more times completely alone.
Wednesday afternoon we picked up one of Grace's BFFs, actually her oldest BFF (they've been buddies since they were babies) and we went to the mall to get Grace's ears pierced. She did great and only almost passed out after it was done. She got woozy and had to put her head between her knees for a few minutes. She got over it fast though.
We loved the sequined bunny mask.



After the mall we stopped at Sonic for some frozen treats and then took Abby home, picked up Hannah and Joe and went to theatre. Later at home after dinner we had ice cream sundaes for birthday dessert. I'd say Gracie had a great birthday and she still has a party to look forward to!