I am way too flakey

LOL Yes I admitted to being a total flake. I flip-flop on everything, can't keep my mind made up for too long, and it pretty much runs my life. I thought I had this whole schooling thing figured out for next school year. Then I really spent some time this week looking at what I had lined up. I no longer feel so great about unschooling for the most part, however I do want to be relaxed about schooling for a while. So I started looking at my Sonlight plan to do core K and P4/5, along with science K, this year. I went and got out the books for the core and science, only to hear Lydia protesting about listening to those books AGAIN. So, looks like I'm back to buying that used guide for core 1+2 from a friend of mine to do instead. The kids both want to do world history, especially Melissa. She wants to spend more time on ancients than what we spent this year, and is looking forward to really digging in deep. So, I guess I'm going to piece together 1+2 using the library and a $100 amazon gift certificate.

Another thing that I'm hoping to change is in math. As you know, my kids are really good with math. We are just at a rough spot for 2 digit addition and subtraction with Melissa. So, I was going to run through Miquon math with the girls this fall and just go their speed through it (3 school years of math, 6 workbooks total, I figure they'd both finish it in 2 years likely, maybe less) Its a fairly affordable option, and then I could choose just about any program starting at 4th or 5th grade level. Well, then I discovered that Teaching Textbooks has a 3rd grade level program. I started looking it over, and printed off the placement test. I have discovered that once Melissa masters 2 digit addition and subtraction, and we brush up her money skills, she'll be able to go into Teaching Textbooks 3. I think I'll be going that route with the girls instead, we'll spend time putting together a foundation of basics to give the foundation for them to start TT 3. The program itself is $120 or so, but it is computer-based with a workbook (that I plan to take apart and put into a 3 ring binder as a non-consumable workbook until my last child uses the level, which is when the workbook will be written in) so it is pretty much self-taught and reusable (except for the workbook as its made, but we can make some minor modifications to allow it to be reused) Scott and I are still discussing this option for math, but I have a feeling that once he gets a look at the samples online that he'll like it.

Other than that, I literally have NO clue what we'll end up doing with the kids. I'm just too flakey to stick with anything for too long until we get going. I'm going to keep changing my mind up until the day we start, and then I'll probably second-guess myself regularly once we've gotten started.

a new approach for next year

Well, I've done a LOT of thinking and praying, and feel confident with this decision I think. We are indeed continuing to homeschool, but our homeschool will look much different from how it has ever looked before in our home. We had plans to use Sonlight for our curriculum this year (in fact I have all the stuff for core K, science K, LA K, and LA 1) but as I started preparing all my instructor guides for this I felt like it was just wrong for us at this time. At least, wrong in a FORMAL sense. So, I'm mixing it up a lot. Yes we are going to use Sonlight for core and some science, however we are doing it much differently than anyone would have seen. We are going to fall more toward the category of unschoolers for a while. Melissa's reading is just starting to take off, and Lydia's starting to get there as well, so we will have them do Explode The Code workbooks at their pace along with having a TON of readers handy for them. For math I'm planning on just going with the flow and letting them do Miquon at their own pace, we'll work together one on one as they are interested but I'm not going to stress over it. We're going to get involved in a garden, and study the night sky. We'll read the books in core K casually, as the kids are interested in them.

Now here's the thing. I really REALLY dislike the term "unschoolers". To me, it implies that I'm not teaching my kids anything and that I'm not allowing them to learn and develop skills they have and want to learn and develop. In my opinion, a MUCH better term would be "lifeschoolers". We are using our everyday life to learn and grow, and taking opportunities to learn in ways that many other kids wouldn't get to because they are at school. The kids will have a couple of workbooks that I'd like them to use, but I'm not going to force the matter. If they don't want to do a page of Explode The Code one day, that's fine. I know that eventually they will decide to do a dozen or more pages because they think its fun at that particular moment. Same with Miquon math and Handwriting Without Tears, if they want to do it then they can but if not then no biggie.

Talk about the total polar opposite of OHVA and the k12 curriculum............. lol And yes, I still plan on us doing art projects and such, just that I plan to let THEM choose what and when on stuff. Hopefully this doesn't completely backfire. And if they want to do a lapbook or two (we've done some in the past) then I'll go through the work so they can do it as long as there is a lapbook unit available free at homeschool share. I refuse to pay for materials so they can do a lapbook.

my smart little cookie

I have a 2 year old. Her name is Jordan, and I have literally ZERO expectations from her on schoolwork. I don't even really do anything but read with her and play dolls on occassion and stuff like that. We don't spend much time going over shapes or colors, or trying to teach her to do anything except keep her clothes on.

But despite this lack of working with her, Jordan has managed to learn her colors, shapes, can tell left from right, sings her ABC's, and can recognize a few of her letters by sight. And she can count to 10 on occassion if she's in the right mood.

So, you don't actually need to spend time daily dedicated to teaching skills to preschoolers. I have spent a few minutes a couple times checking to see what she knows, but really we've not done anything. I think Melissa has been teaching her this stuff instead, when they "play school" once in a while.

Isn't it amazing what a child can learn through osmosis?

Sonlight, FedEx, and my hormones

So, I love Sonlight. Its pretty obvious I think. LOL However, I do *not* like their shipping through FedEx.

Our homeschool group is doing their yearly curriculum share tonight. I offered to bring my Sonlight preschool cores, as well as lang. arts K and the Fun Tales readers that go with it. There are a lot of families who have kids starting preschool and I find Sonlight to be a fun way to do preschool. So, I volunteered almost 2 weeks ago for this, and then the same day ordered a new copy of my instructor guide for core P 4/5 since mine is all marked up and well-used (and its a couple years old and missing a few books that are in the core now) I get a 50% repurchase discount since I originally bought a new P 4/5 instructor guide through them (a cool little perk of theirs for people who buy a program new) so instead of costing me $25 the guide cost me $12.50. Then, I did some quick calculations on how long it would take to arrive by media mail from Colorado to Ohio, and opted to pay $10 for 3-5 day FedEx shipping instead of risking the $5 media shipping since I wanted it by a certain date. Cool, when my order shipped the tracking said that FedEx would deliver it to me on Saturday (giving me a couple days to go through it before I take it to the curriculum share so I'm semi-familiar with it) Well, Saturday we were all sick, so I chose to keep us home from soccer (just colds, the big kids could have gone to their games but still, you know what I mean) and figured that I'd be able to get my guide that way straight from the delivery truck. Deliveries in my part of town happen by 10am normally, so when it was 2:30PM and still no truck showed up I decided to track my order online and see what was up. Imagine my surprise when I saw that it was still in Cambridge for some reason, and that it would be here on Tuesday.

YES I called FedEx and pitched a fit. I've been dealing with 4 sick kids all week so I'm a bit grouchy myself lately. The lady I spoke with on Saturday said that she couldn't do anything because that distribution center wasn't answering (she called 3 times) and that I'd have to call on Monday to find out what's up. So I seethed through all of Sunday, and as soon as I was awake enough to see straight this morning I called back. I yelled LOUDLY into the phone about it, to two different support reps. Then I pitched a fit at the distribution center's top guy. They have no clue why it got routed as it did (its marked as a home delivery but somehow got routed through the business deliveries *sigh*) So, as a result of my pitching a fit over this and going off on all the bad service I've gotten from FedEx the past 3 years that I've been ordering from Sonlight (out of 10 deliveries I've gotten ONE on time and not damaged, usually I have a damaged order or it is 3-4 days late and it was always delivered to the wrong house before we moved, but that one I understood because of our address being a 1/2 one) they are having one of their business delivery trucks that is going to Columbus swing through Newark today to specifically drop off my order.

I also have been pitching a fit about this at the Sonlight forums, and got a personal call from one of their people about the matter. Karla personally looked into the matter while I was dealing with it also, to see if she could get it cleared up as well. I was also told that while they do ship through FedEx, if I refuse to ever use FedEx again after this to just request UPS in the comments box on future orders and they will take care of it for me. They do truly care about the satisfaction of their customers, and they've proven this to me a few times in the past (missing item in one purchase, they automatically sent me the item as soon as I mentioned it, and then there is this today along with being very fast to answer questions when I have them about their products and service) I've said it before in my blog, and I'm going to say it again. This company knows how to take care of their customers, and they have definitely secured a permanent customer in my family with their service for as long as we homeschool. I love Sonlight so much, and the curriculum they carry is top-notch as well.

But I pity the people at FedEx that had to deal with me the last couple days while I yelled at them repeatedly over this matter, and I wonder if their driver that they tracked the mix-up down to will still have a job after this..............

icky sickies!

Allergy season is in full swing here. I've been to the doctor already for my allergies, and am now loaded up with my annual allergy prescription along with a long-lasting inhaler and a fast-acting inhaler both for my breathing problems (the long-acting is just a temporary measure that we do every spring when allergy season starts because that's the only time I get really bad off, normally just the fast-acting is all I need and it is rarely used) In the morning (oh wait it IS morning lol I just can't sleep) I need to call the kids' doctor to see if I can get three of them in for allergy meds, the stuff we were told to use last year just isn't working this year and those 3 are absolutely MISERABLE now. I have crying, whining, sniffling children ages 7, 4, and 2 right now who have snotty faces, watery eyes, low-grade fevers, and sore throats from coughing and sneezing and the sniffling. I am going through at least 2 boxes of Kleenex a day (well there's a company that loves me right now) and we're hoping that it doesn't get *too* much worse for them because the oldest one has a soccer game at 9am on Saturday, complete with team pictures being taken just before the game. *sigh*

I am going to need a LOT of Lysol and Clorox wipes to get rid of all the germs in this house when we finally get over the hay fever part of our allergies (usually at least one of the 4 of us with allergies will get seriously ill from all the allergy issues, and that's NORMALLY me with my breathing problems which is why I'm on the 2 different inhalers and a stronger dose of my allergy pills than usual). Dang I hope this part of the year goes by fast so that we can just relax and enjoy the dust allergies that summer brings before the corn pollen of fall and harvesting. LOL Its going to be a long allergy season for us I think.................. lol

But on a positive note, Melissa read an entire chapter of a Magic Treehouse book to me Thursday afternoon with only a little help with some of the trickier words. She really has progressed a lot with her reading, since I figured out how to best teach the child and help her with it. Phonics and sight words as a combination along with magnetic letter tiles that she can move around really are just what she needed to get grounded in her reading. Oh, and she can now officially ride a bike without training wheels, as long as she doesn't have to turn LOL Turning still gives her a bit of trouble, but she'll get it in time.

so not everyone likes us, big deal

Well, my girls learned a valuable lesson today that not everyone is kind, and in the most obvious way possible.

We have lived here almost 2 years now. We are literally the ONLY family that is under 65 years old. As you can imagine, that makes life rather difficult at times for us as a homeschooling family. There are no other kids for my girls to play with on our street, and we don't have much in common with our neighbors in general.

However, there is one couple in particular that we don't get along with. I have maybe spoken two words with them in the time we've lived here, and my husband has had maybe two briefs chats with them. The majority of our contact has been in the form of letters from the city to notify us that we are in violation of codes for this or that and to fix these things within 30 days or be fined. At least, that was the extent of our contact until today.

This afternoon, I decided while we were out walking to stop and ask them if they had any objections to us putting up a fence out back (merely a formality since we don't really CARE what they think) Well, first off he was fairly hostile to me and kept glaring at my girls (who were standing quietly behind me, except Jordan who was sitting on my hip smiling cutely) The conversation was fairly brief and VERY uncomfortable for me. I said to him "We're hoping to get to it this year, but if not then definitely next year, but would you have an issue with us putting up a fence...." which he promptly interrupted with "we're ROOTING for one, preferably the privacy variety."

OK first off, I don't disrespect my elders. It is NOT something that I do normally. Secondly, my children were there and I pride myself on setting a good example for them on how to interact with all kinds of people of all ages in a respectful manner. So I pretended to not notice the blatent RUDENESS and disrespectful manner in which he spoke down at me, along with his body language and how he presented himself (as we approached his home, he stepped outside and to the edge of the poch so that I couldn't take the step up, placing him higher above me than he already was because he's tall and I'm a little on the short side) I chose to use this as a perfect example of teaching by example when confronted by disrespectful and rude people.

So I gave him a sweet smile and replied, "oh yes, we have been looking at this lovely white 6ft privacy fence that has a sort of trellis style at the top. We were thinking that a white fence would be a perfect backdrop for the roses we would like to plant on the street side of the fence. I hope my children haven't been wandering into your yard at all, we have spent a lot of time trying to teach them to respect other peoples' property." To which he replied "oh if they were you'd know in a New York minute" in a condescending tone.

Then he proceeded to question my parenting by allowing my children to ride their bikes on the dead-end side street that rund by my home (the little road they live on). Now, granted we do live on a busy main road in a small city, however the road I lived on as a child had more traffic than this little dead-end side street with 4 houses on it. In the hour and a half that my girls were riding their bikes on the street, we saw a total of ONE vehicle that they had to get in the grass for. They are well aware of the dangers of riding the street, and we have gone over the rules of safe street riding very carefully and I have checked to be sure they had them memorized before I allowed ANYONE to set a bike on the street. So, yes, I am comfortable with letting them ride on a small portion of this side street (from the end of the tree line in my yard to the driveway of the neighbors behind us to be more precise) as long as there is a responsible adult supervising them.

I think it is safe to say this neighbor hates us, particularly because we are young and have children. Of course, I'm certain that it didn't help any when my father told the wife that if they ever spoke to us or caused us any more trouble that he'd burn their house down. *smacking forehead* I'm thinking that it may be time for the girls to have a short cooking lesson to make some cookies to take the neighbors this week, and perhaps we'll invite them over for a cookout this summer. I am going to make an attempt to be neighborly and show them that we have good kids and are good people. If they decide to not give us an opportunity, then that is their choice. We will have made a fair attempt, and that is all that matters. To hell with them if they decide to judge us by my father and how he was, and the fact that we are young and have children.

first day of co-op

You know its a big day when you send your child off for the first time to their first class without you there. Well, that day for Lydia was today.

Recently, a lady in our homeschool group posted about a montessori-style co-op. It is 1 1/2 hours every Monday for 7 weeks, and kids as young as Kindy age can take the class. So, I signed up my girls for the co-op, just Melissa and Lydia. The lady teaching has a rule of parents can help but not if they have younger children to care for at the same time (those parents, which I fall in that group, drop their kids off for the class) It is an outdoor survival-type co-op, and today was the first class.

We signed up to do the 12:30-2:00pm classes because it just works better with my schedule. We had a list of things we needed for them: a water bottle, notebook, pencil, sweatshirt, hat, and hair tied back with supplies in a backpack for easy carrying. So I prepared two backpacks this morning with the big kids' help to be sure they had everything (they searched for their item that I said to go get and then they put it in their individual backpack) and right after our lunch we headed out. This is the first time we've ever participated in a co-op, so this is a totally new experience for us. I signed them up because I'm not too good at this kind of stuff, and I knew that they would enjoy it.

When we got there, Lydia hesitated at first, but once we got her to sit down on the blanket with the other 6 kids (big class huh? lol) and she started participating, I knew she was sucked in and would do great. So, I took the little kids with me to run a couple errands that we needed to do (library trip, gas for van, just piddly stuff I never get to with all 4 kids normally) while they were in co-op. The little girls both fell asleep while we were running errands, so I was really limited to just doing the errands that I didn't have to get anyone out for (yes, our library is awesome and has a drive-up window to check out reserved books with drop slots for returning books and movies right next to it so that makes library runs AMAZINGLY simple if I remember to log on and reserve books a few days ahead of time) But I got everything done before we had to be back to pick up the kids, so I even had a chance to call my mom and chat for about 20 minutes.

When I went to pick the big girls up, I got there about 10 minutes early like I always do for stuff (I'm either 10 minutes early or 20 minutes late for everything LOL) I chatted with the host mom for this week (first week only is being done at her home, the other 6 weeks will be at the nature preserve) and the little kids wandered off to play with her 3 1/2 year old girl. When the kids were done with class (about 20 minutes AFTER she said it would be over lol but I don't mind) they were just chattering up a storm about all the neat stuff they learned in co-op.

This is a full list of what they talked about in co-op this afternoon:

first aid in the woods without a traditional kit (using a safety pin and bandana)
edible flowers
ticks and Lyme Disease
venomous spiders in our area (black widow and brown recluse)

Yep, major topics for kids their ages, but man they got a KICK out of it. They can't wait to go back to class next week, and they've already done today's part of their homework (spend 20min daily outside observing nature, taking notes or drawing pictures or gluing plants and such into their notebook, also they need to create a small basic first-aid kit that is the right size for their backpacks for the next class and we're supposed to talk about different ways we can use a bandana and/or safety pin for emergency first aid) They truly LOVED co-op today, and I feel great about choosing to sign them up for it.

Future topics that I'm aware of right this moment for the co-op (I have a very basic syllabus the teacher e-mailed me, she said she'll add more in class and see where it leads but will for sure cover these topics) include building a shelter, starting a fire without matches (emphasizing the need for an adult at ALL times when trying to do a fire), further instruction on first aid, basic knots (Lydia won't do too well at that one with her motor delays), and animal tracking and behavior. Hopefully, this co-op series will give the girls a love of nature and maybe I'll get little girls who want to spend their free weekends camping and hiking as they get older.

And to top it all off, I'm getting some badly-needed recharging time each week while they get the chance to learn to interact with authority figures other than their parents, and they are getting around other kids as well. Oh, and they are telling and showing me all the stuff they are learning, and I have a feeling that I'm going to learn a LOT from them over the course of this class as they tell me all about what they are learning.

should homeschooling be considered a "real job"?

I was reading at the Sonlight forums this morning, and a mom posted about this very topic trying to work it out in her own mind (I think, I didn't really read all the replies) She compared her homeschooling to her husband giong to work every day. A lot of things she said really made me stop and think, and I thought it may be an interesting thing to discuss here.

My husband works 10-15 hours a day, depending on the time of year. Some weeks he even works on Saturdays. He's been at his job for 15 years, and he's not entirely thrilled with it. He likes the work itself, but HATES the people he works for. However, he started at the ground level and worked himself up into a position that normally requires an engineering degree, so getting a job elsewhere is not an option at this point in time for him. He spends all week looking forward to friday night when he clocks out, and then Sunday he spends moping around because he has to go back Monday morning. When he has a vacation week coming up, he starts counting down 4 weeks beforehand and is in heaven the last week before his week off. Then the last 2 days of his vacation he starts moping because he has to go back.

His work record is pretty good. He doesn't call off normally unless he is seriously ill, and he has a strong work record at his job for low breakage and high quality output (he cuts eyeglass lenses) He is good at what he does, and everyone there knows it. Management also knows that he is the sole source of income for our family with 4 children, and they use that to their advantage. Mandatory overtime, treating him badly, and holding him to different rules from other employees are just a few things he goes through.

If he were to call off every time he didn't want to go to work, he'd have been unemployed YEARS ago. If he didn't do as much as he was supposed to at work daily, he would be fired. So why is it that when I don't feel like sitting down and doing lessons with the girls, I just take the day off?

Homeschooling is just as demanding as most jobs out there. I'm juggling multiple tasks, managing others to be sure they stay on task, training people in skills they don't know, and trying to maintain high standards with what we do all on top of keeping things fairly neat and tidy at the same time. I am officially teaching 2 children, while casually working with 2 little ones at the same time. I don't WANT to do lessons at this time of year, it is so beautiful outside and we want to spend that time in the yard, playing and doing yardwork. I find myself giving in to this desire too much lately, playing instead of working. We spend our time playing in the yard and tearing out old nasty garden stuff and cleaning up debris from the people who owned this house before us (yes I'm STILL finding broken pieces of clay pots all over the yard) but we neglect history and science on occassion.

What kind of example am I giving my children by doing this? I have no excuse for allowing this, other than a lack of self-control. Its that simple. I like doing what I LIKE instead of what I need to do. This is one area that I've always struggled with. I lack motivation when it is something that I'm not in the mood to do right then. If I don't feel like getting up when the kids do, I turn on the tv and go back to sleep. If I don't want to clean up the living room when its messy (which is a constant) then I don't. I find other stuff to do instead of the tasks that I need to do. This includes sitting down and doing lessons with my girls. If I am frustrated and not feeling like continuing to try and explain 2 digit addition to Melissa (the current struggle for her) then I will find other stuff to do instead so I can avoid the frustration.

I admit it. I am a lazy person. I don't like doing some things, and I do whatever possible to avoid doing them. Here I am, a homeschooling mom, and I don't want to do lessons at some times of the year. When it gets too hot for me (June-ish most likely) then I'll be more motivated to do lessons because I don't like to sweat. I like sitting in air conditioning in the summer, looking out the window and seeing the pretty world around me. This is one of the times that I'm most likely to read to my girls and spend time doing activities and experiments with them. Then in late September when it cools off again we spend time outside until late October or so instead of doing schoolwork. I'm a seasonal schooler, which allows me the chance to enjoy the beautiful temperatures that I like without worrying about formal lessons. I don't know if that's really FAIR for the kids, but it works for us.

If I am to consider homeschooling to be my JOB though, just as Scott goes off to the optical lab every day, then I need to suck it up and do lessons with the girls even during those times that we would rather be out in the world. We need to do our math and science instead of being on the swingset in the mornings, and doing phonics and history in the afternoons instead of digging in the gardens. Every bit of my being fights that though, and when we attempt to do this kind of schooling we don't learn anything and we are miserable. So while homeschooling is my JOB, I still get vacation times like everyone else. Teachers get the summer off, so I take an equivilant time off at different times of the year that tend to work better for us. We don't take off inservice days and any holidays where Scott is at work anyway, so it allows us more flexibility than traditional schooling. If I want to take from Thanksgiving until a week after Christmas off lessons, I can do that because we don't take the smaller holidays (like the day before thanksgiving, the second week after christmas for break, spring break, etc) But I don't follow a formal schedule.

This may buck the system as far as what others think a homeschool family schedule should look like, but then I don't keep a daily schedule either. LOL I only insist that lunch be around noon and that bedtime is around 8-9pm depending on how the kids are acting and if there's something on tv that they want to watch and have earned the priviledge of watching by good behavior, attitudes, and getting chores and any schoolwork done. I don't have anything set in stone, although I do have a schedule posted on the wall in my home for anyone who is watching the kids so they can take over if needed (the kids do well with schedules if I'm not the one caring for them)

I consider my homeschooling to be my real job, even if it doesn't even REMOTELY resemble what others would consider a job. And I do darn well with it too I think, even if there are times that we take off that others think we should be doing lessons LOL So I guess I have my own particularly interesting view of what a "real job" entails. And if you ask Scott, I have a feeling he'd agree with how I do our schooling because he has seen how much the kids have grown over this school year.

finishing up with OHVA

Well, I have figured out what to do when we finish OHVA, thank goodness. Now I just have to actually FINISH with OHVA so that we can get started. This week I'm working with the girls on their writing samples that we need to submit to our teacher for their portfolios, and I'll mail them out as soon as we get them finished. Since we took last week off for Spring Break, I have to spend a day or two reviewing 2 digit addition and subtraction with Melissa before we can keep going forward in that unit. She's been really struggling with this particular math unit, so I figure that a few days of extra practicing before we move forward again won't hurt her any.

As we finish a subject in k12, I'm going to pick it up in our materials that we'll be using this upcoming school year. So, here in a couple weeks when Melissa finishes k12 phonics K, we'll start Sonlight LA 1. When they both finish their k12 history we'll start core K. I'm getting all our materials ready now since we are so close to starting our new materials (which I already have on hand thankfully for the most part) and I can tell the girls are starting to get excited by the change as well.

This year with OHVA has been great, and it has taught me a lot about how each kid learns best so that I can accomodate their individual learning needs better. But I'm ready to move on now.