{Addendum to week 15}

Suffice to say, I had a breakdown last Wednesday, requiring Scott to don his cape and be a superhero and come home so that I could temporarily run away.  It wasn't pretty folks.

The Week That Everything Fell Apart {week 15}

Gah.  I had finished this post... saved it... or so I thought, before navigating away from the editing page.  And now half the post is gone.  GAH.  Well, I'm not gonna finish it.  So there.

So here it is.  Week 15.  And you'd think that I have my stuff together, right?

Monday  Scott preached the previous day so he took Monday off.  So we did too.  Since CC is not in session, we're only schooling four days a week.  So no biggie that we took Monday off.

Tuesday  Sometime between 7 AM and 8:30 AM, our router died.  After 40 minutes on the phone with Verizon tech support, it was determined that, yes, our router was in fact dead.  This normally would not be a big deal; we've got smart phones that have internet access.  BUT.  My lesson plans are on an online program called Homeschool Tracker Online.  And I print out each week's lessons on my wirelessly networked printer.  So that was a problem.  But Scott, the Idea Man, said to go up to church, use their wifi and printer.  Genius!

So i lugged all three kids (who needed to get out of the house after being cooped up during the ice storm) up to church and set up my stuff in the atrium and got to work.  An hour later, I was still trying to get my lesson plans up to date.  Working in the atrium wasn't the hottest idea I've had.  One person after another would stop and talk to me for 15+ minutes.  Which was GREAT because I don't get to talk to these friends very often.  But BAD because each conversation was delaying our day.  After I finally got our lesson plans in check, a staff member graciously printed my 4 pages for me.

By the time we got home, it was already 11:30 AM.  Where had the time gone????  Unfortunately the kids had been kind of wild while we were up at church (specifically while we were in the atrium and I was working/talking).  So I was D-O-N-E by the time we got back home.

No school was done on Tuesday.  Kind of a biggie that we took that day off.  Because we'd have to play catch-up the rest of the week.

Oh, and our router started mysteriously working Tuesday night.  Humph.

Wednesday 

That week after Thanksgiving {week 14}

It's SO hard to get back in the swing of things after a break!  We took off all last week (as I assume you already knew).  So Monday morning was full of groans and whining.  "But Mom, we don't have CC today. How come we are still doing school?"  And, "But I don't wanna do school!!!".  That last quote was from me.

Monday  Scott worked from home on Monday and laid down the law with the kids.

1. they should get dressed, go to the bathroom, and brush their teeth before coming downstairs or doing anything else in the morning
2. they should be in their seats and ready to go by 8AM each morning
3. they are to thank me each day for the privilege of homeschooling and to express gratitude to me for being willing to homeschool them.
4. watching TV and playing video games is a privilege that they earn each day.  Good behavior, good attitudes, clean rooms, and finished chores will allow them to watch TV and/or play video games each day.  They should assume that they won't be able to do those things until the above behaviors are completed.

I am SO thankful for Scott.  He is a great father and husband.  :)

We also took our annual family picture on Monday.  We're not sure we are going to do Christmas cards this year (it's so expensive with the number that we like to send out!).  But we still wanted to get a family picture.  It turned out pretty good!  I'm very pleased.

Scott & I even got a picture of just the two of us.

 

I tried to get a few pics of the kids...

And finally...  

 Tuesday One kiddo had a TERRIBLE attitude on Tuesday.  So TV was taken away for the day from that kid.  Things did get better that day with that particular kid.  I think they were frustrated that they didn't know how to do something and things quickly got out of control.

I also quasi-started Christmas decorating on Tuesday.  I don't know why I'm not into it this year.  Bah humbug.

Wednesday & Thursday We managed to do school and get everything done.  A big ice storm was to come through on Friday, so I ran quite a few errands (in the very cold) on Thursday.

Friday  We woke up Friday to a quasi winter wonderland.

But instead of snow, it was practically all ice.  Our poor trees.  They are so weighted down with ice; I hope they make it.

We were iced in all day yesterday, which wasn't terrible.  We kept our power the whole day (many of our friends didn't have power) and were warm and toasty inside.  And Scott was home too!  Later in the day, a neighbor took our kids sledding over at the local elementary.

And being iced in meant that I could no longer ignore all the Christmas junk that had taken over my living room.

It wasn't pretty people.  And I had put decorating off long enough.

It took me practically the entire day to finish.  But... drum roll please... I finished.

There's more; I just didn't take pictures of all that I did.

Saturday's temp isn't supposed to get above freezing, and the streets re-iced overnight.  So I don't predict we'll be getting out on Saturday either.  Scott, who is preaching Sunday morning, usually likes to practice up at church the day before he preaches.  I'm trying not to cringe at the thought of him driving up to church (it's only 4 miles or so). 

That Week That Had Thanksgiving (and no school)

We were off school this week, people.  Halle-freakin-lujah.  This mama needed a break.  Kids probably did too.


We did a lot of hanging out this week.  On Tuesday, the kids got into an epic candy trading session.  Below is just Cade's stash of Halloween candy.  

I'm thinking that the Candy Fairy might need to come steal some of his stash, little by little.  Unfortunately, Cade knows exactly what is in his inventory; any missing candy would be noticed immediately.  I see big dental bills in our future.

Thursday, there was much food.  Good thing for elastic waistband pants.

Friday we did our annual hunting of the Christmas tree out at Wintergreen Tree Farm.

The place we go to is pretty neat.  They have a big play area for kids that includes a maze made out of pallets, swings, a big pile of hay, a tire swing, a slide, and the like.

I tried for a cute picture of all three kids.  But Claire was sulking.  So this is what I got.

Friday night, Scott and I got to go to the Dallas Stars game with some friends.  SO. MUCH. FUN.  I love hockey.

Saturday was spent taking a nap (I am recovering from a cough & cold) and decorating the house for Christmas.  The kids wanted to help decorate so badly.  And I have huge creative control issues.  So I tried to be a big girl and let them help.  I really did try.  Alas, I shooed them out of the room so that I could get it done (right).

That week that was the last week of CC {week 13}

Monday  Monday was the last day of this semester for CC.  Can I get an hallelujah!?!
 
Here is Jack playing the tin whistle in class. 

Each week, a portion of class time is given to fine arts.  For the first six weeks of CC this year, we focused different elements of drawing.  The most recent six weeks have been learning basics of music and playing the tin whistle.  Next semester, we will study famous artists and art periods.

And here is Claire starting to chase Cade in the parking lot at CC.  And no, we don't make it a habit of running around parking lots.

 

Tuesday  I felt a little off on Tuesday.  Not quite dizzy, not quite a headache. Just not quite right in the head (no jokes, please.  I KNOW I'm not right in the head).  But we managed to do some school anyway.  Around 5pm our time, Scott left New Delhi, India, to start his trip home.  YEA!

Wednesday  It was hard for me to concentrate on doing school when I knew Scott was in the air on a 14 hour flight from Abu Dahbi, UAE, to Chicago.  I was so excited that he was coming home.  Even though he had only been gone for 12 days, it seemed like a lifetime.  He's definitely my better half.

But we managed to do school anyway.

Thursday  Didn't really want to do school on Thursday.  Scott was home!!!  But he had a lot of emails to catch up on, so we did a modified version of school and worked with Scott, side by side.  We got quite a bit done actually, but were done before lunch.

Friday  Scott was still home, recovering from his loonnnnggg airplane ride home.  But we did school anyway and got quite a bit done by lunch.  So early release day!

General Thought #1  I am relieved that CC is over for the semester.  Not only because Mondays can be so draining and long, but because it's information overload when we are there.  I (and I'm sure the kids too) am finding it SO difficult to keep all of the information we have learned in my head.  And I feel a little bit guiltier each week as I realize this is just more information that I may or (more likely) may not remember.

I'm also relieved that CC is over because it gives us a day off each week.  We can go on a field trip, catch up on work, or just rest and relax on that extra day. 

Or take crazy pictures.

General Thought #2  Having Scott home with us two days this week revealed that the kids' attitudes still aren't where they need to be.  The attitude problems can manifest themselves in very subtle ways.  But it's still rebellion.  And Scott, who is on the "outside" of your school, can easily pick up on it and say something.  Whereas I, who am on the "inside" of our school, tend to sweep it under the rug in the name of getting work done. Which isn't a good thing. I want to be more concerned with my kids' character than them learning how to multiply 2 digit numbers.  I mean, sure.  I want them to know how to multiply.  But their character is FAR more important.

So I will need to be extra vigilant going forward.  I will need to stop what we are doing and address the issue(s) at that moment in time.   Not just rush on, in order to get work accomplished.  And doing this, I'm sure, will be a constant battle within myself.

That Week When Scott was Gone {week 12}

Scott was gone this whole week in India.  He's having a good time.  Well, as good of a time as one can have while visiting and playing with orphans who have been saved from the slums.  I mean, he's not on vacation.  I think the jet lag and long days has been brutal for Scott.  But the team is doing well and doing good work.

Let's go to it, then.  And I may have been a little picture-happy this week.

Monday  CC.  Long Day.  Blah blah blah

This is my girl and me as we were waiting for CC to start.  Notice I'm smiling?  It's because this was taken in the morning.  BEFORE the long day.  I might resemble Linda Blair in The Exorcist by the end of the day.

Tuesday  We got a late start.  Blah blah blah.  Although we also got to FaceTime with Scott in the morning; that was great! 

Tuesday night, Jack's front tooth (finally) got knocked out while he was wrestling with Cade.  Because of some sensory integration issues, losing a tooth for Jack is a traumatic experience.  Once we got beyond the actual "pain" of losing the tooth, Jack was quite proud of his new look.

Wednesday  brrrr.  It was C-C-C-O-L-D Wednesday morning.  So of course we got a late start because WHO WANTS TO GET OUT OF BED WHEN IT'S BELOW FREEZING? Plus I got to text with Scott for quite a while and that takes priority over starting school in my book.

Speaking of Scott, here is a pick of him with brothers in Christ at a church on the edge of the Mumbai slums.

These people are so sweet.  They wanted to know our names so they could be praying for our family by name. And they wanted Scott to bring us all the next time he visits!

Wednesday was actually a great day.  I woke up feeling refreshed (for which I was thankful; Tuesday night was a difficult night emotionally).  And we got quite a bit of work done at school.

Thursday  Thursday got off to a good start.  Claire is working on using dimes and pennies in math, so we set up a pretend grocery store so she could buy a few items with her change. 

Thursday's Throwback Thursday pic is of Cade and Jack in 2007.  They were 4 and 2 years old, respectively, and on their way to Mother's Day Out.  Weren't they cute little guys?

Friday  Oh glory be.  Friday!

I finally looked up some YouTube videos to coordinate with what we're learning through CC in history, science, and art.  Jack became mesmerized by videos on the Mongols and the French Revolution.

General Thoughts  I'm undisciplined.  Seriously undisciplined.  It takes all of my will power to launch myself back upstairs after our lunch break to get started back on school.  I'm not exercising.  I'm not having a consistent time in prayer and God's Word.  I'm not eating nutritiously.  And it all comes down to discipline.  I have no discipline in my life currently.

I used to be a very disciplined person.  In my senior year of college, I got up at 6am and worked out 5 days a week; most of those days, I had to be on campus at a job by 8am.  I always got my studying done.  I ate well. 

So I know I have it in me to be disciplined.  I'm thinking I need to start small.  I need to take some area of my life and apply discipline to it.  Make that a habit and then expand from there.

What do you do when you realize you have no discipline in your life?

The Week After We Went Camping {week 11}

Camping was so great.  Even if it was just for only one night.  Scott preached on Sunday at Woodcreek, so we had to come home Saturday afternoon.  But a little camping is better than no camping.  And the weather was BEAUTIFUL.  I didn't take many pictures (because I was enjoying myself so much).  But my favorite is:

Monday  We skipped CC in the morning because Scott was at home (Mondays are his day off).  He would end up leaving on Friday for India for 12 days. He and four others from our church are doing a mission trip there, putting on a pastor's conference and helping out with some other projects there.  So the kids and I wanted to spend some time with him before he left, and skipping the morning part of CC seemed like the best way to do it.  I'm not gonna lie.  I was excited at the prospect of skipping CC. 

Tuesday  On Tuesday, I wanted to go hide in a hole.  The kids were wild, loud, and crazy.  After threatening them with taking away privileges, things finally simmered down a little.   But I still wanted to go climb in a hole after lunch.  It didn't help that the weather was severely overcast, which I'm sure affected my mood somewhat.  And we (mostly I) found out that skipping CC and teaching your own kids that week's memory work is a LOT harder than it sounds.  Ho hum.

Wednesday  Scott worked from home Wednesday morning; it was fun to have him home with us!  The kids' behavior was  (obviously) better since he was home.  Which made it SO much easier for me to teach them!  Funny how that works.  Wish he could work from home every day. 

Wednesdays are somewhat difficult days because the boys have piano lessons in the early afternoon.  We are rarely all finished with school by the time we have to leave for lessons (around 1:30pm).  Which means we have to come back home and finish up school.  And that is hard to do.  After being out of the house, and possibly running a few errands, coming home to finish up school sucks.  But there are no other open lesson times with their current teacher (whom we like very much).  So we're kind of stuck with our schedule.

On a light note, I checked out Stuart Little by E.B. White for Jack to read this week.  Unfortunately, I checked out the Spanish version of the book.  Kind of hard for Jack to do his reading this week.  Oops.

And this doesn't need any description, does it?

Thursday  Thursday.  Ahhh Thursday.  Yes, Thursday is when everything fell apart.  I became overcome with sadness to the point of (many, many) tears Thursday morning.  Probably has something to do with the fact that Scott would be leaving the next day for two weeks to a far away foreign country.   Just lots of stress probably built up.  So needless to say, we took the day off while I rested and pulled myself together.  My kids are so sweet though.  They each gave me voluntary hugs and pats on the back.  I'm thankful for my compassionate kids.

I also, incidentally, finally learned on Thursday what the fox says.  Don't bother finding out if you don't already know; it's completely inane.

Friday  Friday morning saw us get on task and get to work.  Yea!  We worked hard in the morning.  And about midday, I took Scotty to our friend's house so that they could go to the airport for their flight to India.  (By the way, it's approximately a 24 hour flight... with layovers here and there)  Since the local school district had early release, and I would get tired of answering the door only to tell kids that my kids can't play, we ended school right after lunch.

General Thoughts  I was lamenting to a friend that I feel like, especially when it comes to the Essentials part of our homeschool, we are barely keeping our heads above water.  She was quick to point out that if our heads are above water, then it also means that we're not drowning. Hey!  What a way to look at it! 

The Week That was Short {Week 10}

This week was a short week.  We did CC on Monday like usual and homeschool Tuesday through Thursday like usual.  But Friday we took off to go camping... even if it was just for the night.

Monday  CC.  Long day.  Again.  Ugh.

Tuesday  Tuesday was my Mom's birthday.  She turned 71!!!  So I rushed to Target at 8am for some essentials plus some pretty flowers for my mom.  Which means that we got started late with school.  Oh well.  Seems like a troubling theme in our school.

Here is Cade pretending to be deep in thought about something in math.  Notice the Nerf gun sitting nearby?  It was questionable whether actual school was happening here.

Wednesday  I woke up grumpy on Wednesday morning.  But we managed to get school done anyway.  AND we got rain on Wednesday, which is completely not homeschool related. 

Also not homeschool related are the chores that the kids are doing now.  Here is Claire happily vacuuming (this was Jack's job, by the way; she commandeered it from him)

Thursday  We started on time Thursday (hallelujah!) and managed to get quite a bit done in the morning.  And that was a good thing because I had a LOT to do Thursday afternoon to get ready for our camping trip on Friday.

How do you stay organized?  Because I know you're dying to know, here are some organizational tools I use to keep us (somewhat) on-track and organized.

I use Homeschool Tracker Online to keep up with what assignments the kids have done and still need to do this year.  Here is an example of what a detailed listing of weekly assignments a kid (in this case, Cade) needs to complete. 

I got tired of hearing, "How much school do I have left today?"  So I typed up these simple lists for each kid. I then put them in page protectors so the kids could mark out with a dry erase marker once they had completed that subject for the day.

And here is our daily schedule each week.  We follow this pretty much to the letter to keep us on track.  If a kid hasn't completed a subject in the allotted time (usually because they were playing around and not concentrating), then it'll be finished as "homework"  later after everyone else is done with school.

General Thoughts  Regarding trying to fit all of our schooling in to normal, doable hours... Well, I think I've managed to find a few minutes during the day that was not being used in a productive way.  So at least this week, we managed to get Essentials done too.  Which is a miracle. 

I spoke with Cade's Essentials tutor about some of the problems we have been having.  And she was very helpful in a couple of different ways.  She reminded me that I can scale the work to what we can handle.  The more advanced students, who have been in the class multiple years, can handle more work.  But since we are first year students, it's OK if we're not doing the same level of work.  Also, she gave some practical tips on working with Cade.  One of the problems was that I felt like I was doing some of the work myself (in regards to proofing and editing Cade's writing).  She offered that it might feel like that for a while.  I'm MODELING how to edit and proofread for Cade.  So it's OK that I am doing some of the work alongside Cade.  At some point in the future, Cade will understand what is necessary when editing his writing and will be able to do all of it himself.  He's just not to that point yet.

And Scott reminded me of this first semester's goals:

1. to get out of the semester alive
2. to want to do homeschooling again next semester

And the goal of this entire school year is to want to do it again next school year.  So pushing ourselves too hard and making ourselves miserable just to finish assignments the way I think they should be done is NOT in our best interests.  The kids will get there.  They'll eventually be writing, thinking, problem-solving, etc how I want them to.  They're just not there yet, and it's not our goal to make sure they're at that place by the end of this semester.  Or the end of the year. 

Grace: it's what's especially for homeschooling moms.

That week that I had another spiffy name for the week {week 9}

Monday  CC was a long day (as usual).  But I was able to sit in Jack's class.  And his tutor is phenomenal.  I have told her over and over again how wonderful she is.  I was able to retain most of the information that was presented in class and never got bored once.

Tuesday  Tuesday was kind of rough. Bad attitudes abounded, and there was some defiant behavior as well. 

Wednesday  Wednesday was a lot better.  Attitudes were better, and as a treat, Scott stayed home and worked from home.  This is probably why attitudes were better!  Scott was able to see some of what I deal with on a daily basis and was able to address the kids in the moment.  He was also able to offer some suggestions on how to do a few things differently -- Scott IS the idea man.

Wednesday started out a little cool (temperature-wise) upstairs in the morning, so the boys were snuggled under a blanket. 

Of course Claire couldn't stand to not be a part of the action... (check out the boys' faces in response to Claire joining them)

Thursday Thursday was a little wild and wooly to start out with.  But we managed to "simmer down now" and get to work.  Here's Claire and I working on her math:

Jack was in rare form on Thursday, cutting up and being crazy.  He apologized at the end of the school day (unprompted by me).  So I take it that *his apology is a sign that he cares somewhat about his behavior.   :)

Friday  Bad attitude.  Kid apologized for said bad attitude (without prompting from me!!!)  But this episode with this kid put me in a bad mood (I know... I shouldn't allow my kid that much control over my emotions).  I was just done.  D-O-N-E.  But Cade and I still had Essentials (grammar and writing) to do.  Sigh.  And a good smack to the forehead for good measure.

And because we needed one more picture...

General Thoughts  I'm still having a hard time cramming everything in.  We've already dropped Latin for the boys.  I've also temporarily (or maybe not temporarily) dropped a formal writing program with Jack (and Claire had been tagging along).  All the other subjects seem to be non-negotiable (Bible, math, grammar, spelling, etc).  We are doing as much as we can together (science, history, Bible, CC Foundations memory work). 

But Cade and I are still continually working past 3pm most days, which is exhausting for both of us.  Cade has the most work to do of all three kids, and while most of it is fairly independent work, the subjects we are supposed to be doing together, but which have been getting dropped, are grammar and writing.  Which we are paying for at CC.  In the eloquent words of Charlie Brown:  ARRRGGGG!  Something has to give. 

Cade is adamant about not doing any school work on the weekends.  And I'm a pretty big fan of that idea.  BUT.  We may have to move Essentials (the grammar and writing portions of Cade's work) to the weekend.  Because right now, it's hardly being given attention.  And that is a travesty of a mockery of a sham.

And because I like to sometimes always waste time on the internet, go here to view high-speed shots (still & video) of dogs shaking water off of themselves.  Really.  Go watch.  And enjoy.