That Week We Got Some Stuff Done {week 28}

Monday  Monday was a great day.  We didn't have a lot of school to do.  Mainly math (for everyone) and grammar with Jack.  And then we were done!  Easy peasy.  Wish all days could be that easy.


Tuesday  Tuesday was fraught with bad attitudes from two kids.  One kid was able to pull it together and finish out school well.  The other, not so much.  And it is with this particular kid that I've had repeated run-ins with regarding attitude.  Grrrr. 

Jack has found that he likes to work while listening to music. I think it helps him focus as well as drown out the rest of us as we talk about assignments.

Wednesday Wednesday got started off OK.  Attitudes were better and kids got to work.  Cade decided to put on his "thinking cap" on, which is a cut-off green hood I had sewn to make a Lloyd (the green ninja from Ninjago) Halloween costume years ago.  It's never dull around here.

Thursday & Friday  These two days were OK.  Dealt with bad attitudes and whining (some of which Scott got to hear/witness first-hand.  He was not pleased) 


General Thoughts   So we're going to homeschool again next year.  I think.  The goal of this whole school year was to want to do this again.  And I think I want to do it again.

Yes, it's a sacrifice of my time and energy.  No, I don't get enough "me time."   But I get to be there when my kids learn stuff. I get to see the light bulb turn on.  I get to know and see how far they've come.

Cade will be going into the 6th grade next year; I can't imagine sending him to the local middle school.  Not because it's a bad school -- it's not!  But because IT'S A MIDDLE SCHOOL.  Cade is easily a head shorter than kids his age; I'm afraid he'd get eaten alive by the older kids.

That week we finished CC {week 27}

I apologize, Becky.  Last week was kind of a blur to me.  By midweek, I had come down with a super cold, and my head didn't quite feel attached to the rest of my body.  Which would have made for a zoned-out, crazy, incoherent blog post.  So I decided to just forgo my weekly post.  Forgive me?  I'm feeling much more like myself this week; hence this here blog entry.

Monday  Our LAST CC meeting for the 2013-2014 school year was Monday.  Can you believe it?  I certainly cannot.  We made it!  Without killing anyone!  Yea for us!  At the same time, I will miss some of the relationships the kids and I have made recently.  I am terrible about calling people and planning play dates. It's something about introverted-ness or something.  Regardless, I need to make a concerted effort to reach out to my new friends, for my sake and for my kids' sakes.  We must foster these relationships over the summer!

We actually didn't GO to our last day of CC on Monday.  I was still recovering from my cold which I had so graciously shared with Cade.  So Monday was nice and relaxing.


Tuesday  Tuesday was an ok day.  Everyone got to work and finished by lunchtime.  Since Cade doesn't have Essentials anymore for the rest of the year, he'll probably be able to finish before lunch each day.  IF he concentrates and focuses.


Wednesday  Wednesday was terrible.  Horrible attitude problems with one particular kiddo.  Which made things difficult for everyone.  And which in turn put me in a really ugly mood.  I try and not let my kids have influence and control over my emotions.  But some times it's really hard to stay detached from the situation.  By late lunchtime, we were all done with school.  And I was done for the day by 1pm.

Wednesdays are usually a long day for all of us; Scott has meetings in the late afternoon and a Bible study that he leads Wednesday night which usually means he doesn't come home at 5pm but instead gets home from the day around 9pm.  Mercifully, he was able to sneak home late Wednesday afternoon.  I crashed in bed around 5 and took a 1.5 hour nap; I felt much better (aka nicer) when I got up.  Scott had instructed the kids before he left to not wake me up for dinner but to just make themselves sandwiches on their own.

I don't deserve such a caring and thoughtful husband.

Thursday  We took off Thursday so that we could go to a Rangers baseball game as a family.  It was Homeschool day at the Park, which meant that the Dallas Zoo brought animals out onto the field several hours before the game and did a wildlife presentation for homeschoolers.  We skipped the presentation and just went for the game; we didn't want the kids to be bored and tired before the baseball game even started.  Trying to stack the odds in our favor, you know?

Ah.  The Temple.  Ranger's Ballpark. My happy place.

It was supposed to get up to 70 degrees on Thursday.  But for the majority of the game, we were hovering around 59.  Plus it was misting. So fairly cold and wet.  And the rest of my family was miserable.  But Scott warned the kids to not ruin the game for me :) so there was no complaining.

And the boys don't know how to take a normal picture.

 

I may have bribed the kids into "liking" the ballpark experience with cotton candy.

Claire.  Who knows how to have a good time wherever she may be.

Scott was probably the most miserable of all.  He snuggled Claire in an attempt to stay dry and warm.

 I caught a sweet picture of Scott and Claire walking together after the game.

Friday  Friday was OK.  Claire cried several times, lamenting that she was cranky.  Cade had to keep blowing his nose (I had given him my cold), and it was annoying Claire to no end.  Thus the endless amount of tears.  So I banished Claire to her room to finish her math so that she wouldn't be as annoyed with Cade.  Sigh.


General Thoughts 

That week I didn't post anything {week 26}

...

That week that was pretty good {week 25}

Monday  While we had off from CC on Monday, we did meet with the other students from Cade's Essentials class at a local park to listen to their oral reports on famous people from the middle ages (and later).  Cade was extremely nervous about giving his presentation on Claude Monet; he apparently didn't get the public speaking gene from his parents.  But he did fantastic!  And it was nice to sit in the park for an hour (there was a nearby thunderstorm and we could hear rumbles of thunder).

Tuesday  We got started a little late on Tuesday because a dogpile was happening on the couch.  The family that procrastinates together, studies together, right?  I'm not sure that's how the saying goes.

Wednesday & Thursday  Wednesday and Thursday went by pretty quickly.  For the most part, kids got to it and were done by or right after lunch.

Friday  Friday was kind of a half day.  Since it was my birthday, Scott took me to lunch.  Then Cade had an appointment with our children's pastor at church regarding him getting baptized on May 4.  Then I had an eye appointment.  So we needed to get all of our work done in the morning. And for the most part, we did.  Cade only had Essentials to work on by the time lunch rolled around.

After my eye appointment, I came home to work on Essentials with Cade.  Unfortunately I ended up making him cry because I inadvertently made him feel stupid.  Mother of the Year.  Right here. 

This homeschooling gig is really a cover for lots of pruning by my Father.  And boy do I need pruning.