broken nose and other joys

Well the last few weeks have been REALLY busy for us here. Kimmy is now a 4 year old, which is probably the biggest thing for us. That is the age that I've always started working more on beginning phonics so they are starting K sounding out cvc words. So we're really buckling down more on that than we have in the past, and she's getting there slowly. We'll have her reading probably within 6 months, just simple books that we have (we especially love Sonlight's Fun Tales series that goes with their language arts K program, which is what I am loosely basing Kimmy's lessons on right now) I know it will be a great time for her, getting more formal with her school time like her big sisters. She's been after me for a few months now, and we've slowly been building up to mofre formal lessons with her so that we don't overwhelm her or me with it.

Another great excitement is with Melissa. Poor child has GOT to be the clumbsiest kid on earth, I swear. Just before Kimmy's birthday, I was lying down after supper so she helped daddy with the dinner dishes. Nothing major, she was just bringing him the dirty stuff and helping load the dishwasher (she loves doing the silverware basket) So, she's bringing him a plate and stops to grab an empty soda can to throw away as she walked by the trash can (smart kid, already knows how to multi-task) Well, that was her mistake because she can NOT walk well with something in both hands. lol She tripped over her own two feet and fell face-first into one of our heavy solid wood dining chairs. Her nose bled for about 10 minutes (and the screaming got me straight out of bed too despite a crippling migraine) and she ended up at the doctor's office the next morning because it just looked ugly and was still bleeding a bit whenever she sniffled and she was complaining of it hurting a lot. The verdict? A hairline fracture on the left side right by her nose. Poor kid, she's been a real trooper though and is doing schoolwork in short spurts while she's on pain meds for it (we only do a little bit when the meds are kicked in and she's still alert) We've amazingly not fallen too far behind with her lessons, I know that if I were in her spot I'd just be lying on the sofa refusing to do anything until it quit hurting all the time.



She took that herself a few days ago (busted kid! swiping the camera again without asking first LOL) and it looks much better than it did when it first happened. Her entire nose and left eye were dark purpley black with bruising, and it was so swelled up she couldn't even wear her glasses comfortably.

And we're going to be adding another fun element to our schooling that will make time even tighter. I am going to be picking up classes again to finish my Bachelor's in psychology, hopefully I'll be starting again by the middle of March. This will add a VERY interesting element to our homeschool since I'll also be juggling my own lessons on top of their stuff, but Scott is going to pick up the slack where I have to give up doing as much. He's already starting picking up more of the housework and is doing math with the kids on some days. So, I'm planning on reworking our scehdule and routines to allow a maximum of time for me to do my schoolwork and still be able to teach the girls their lessons. Hopefully we can manage the juggle things successfully, we are going to attempt it the remainder of this school year and if it doesn't work then they will enter Newark local schools in the fall, and the preschoolers will go to Head Start so I can have a few hours a day to really focus on my schoolwork without interruptions.

Yep, exciting times here lately. lol Hopefully the rest of the school year goes smoothly, I don't know how much excitement I can take on top of all that has happened so far this year.

the end of a second quarter

Wow, this school year is flying by. We have worked hard and had some struggles with things, but things are going really well for us. We've been learning lots, and did a lot of neat things. So, yesterday was the end of our second quarter, maning we are already halfway through this school year. WOWIE! Here's a breakdown of how we're geting through the curriculum:

Melissa:

math- 48%
phonics- 62%
language arts- 59%
history- 46%
science- 38%
art- 38%

Lydia:

math- 61%
phonics- 42%
language arts- 59%
history- 33%

The numbers this quarter are a bit better than they were at the end of last quarter, but I need to really buckle down in a few subjects to get us up to speed again. According to OHVA, I need to do history, science, art, and music two days a week. I tweaked our schedule to have us doing those subjects every day until we get where I want us to be at, and am adding a couple extra lessons a week to math and phonics for the girls. I really would like to get us up to the next grade in all subjects by the end of March if possible (ok won't happen for Lydia with phonics but I can dream right?) I'm really feeling good about this school year and how we're doing with it all. They are definitely making a lot of great progress and I've been way more successful homeschooling this year than I was last school year.

When I finish homeschool next week, I will have officially homeschooled longer than I did last school year. OHVA has definitely helped to give me my confidence and empower me to be successful. I don't know where I'd be this year without OHVA, I'd probably not have done even close to as well as we have done this year. It really has given us what we need for consistency.

welcome to 2010

Wow, 2009 went by in a flash. We've had a lot happen last year, and a lot of good came from it all. I realized that I need to slow down and think more than I do sometimes and sometimes spend less time sweating the small stuff. We discovered that our local public school is the WRONG place for the girls, especially Melissa. We even found a homeschool option that is working well for us and have stayed very consistent with it for the most part. All is going well here for the most part when it comes to the big things involving the kids. So, I have high hopes for 2010 that we will continue to experience the same kind of positive growth in our decisions that we've had last year.

To celebrate 2010, we are setting some goals for the girls. Melissa, we want to finish history, science, art, and phonics before the end of March so that we are able to move her up to the next grade level in those subjects. Math we want to finish whenever it gets finished (the other subjects, Melissa's so far ahead in phonics that she can do it easily if we are consistent and the other ones are only scheduled twice a week so I'm going to do lessons from all them daily until they are done) Lydia, our main goal is to get her to finish phonics on time. She's under 40% through the level right now, so having this goal will take some extra work with her. Also, we want to finish math and history before the end of March so that she can move up in those subjects also. For the little kids, I'm just working on consistency of doing some activities and reading to them daily.

Now for my own personal goals for 2010. I am determined to lose weight and look good in a swimsuit this year, and am *hoping* to get the opportunity to fly down south to visit my mom in Texas (and maybe skip down to Mexico for a couple days to visit a dear friend of mine that I haven't seen in 10 years now) I want to be able to feel and look great at the beach when I fly down, so I'm setting a goal to lose 25lbs before Scott's next vacation week in I think its July????? I have to double-check that week he's off so I can better plan (and get a passport just in case we have the funds for my side trip) I also am planning on becoming more consistent in a few areas of my life where consistency is sadly lacking (that would be keeping up with my laundry pile lol) I know that my children thrive on routine and consistency, so I am going to force myself to create some sort of a consistent routine and actually stick to it despite my anti-conformity personality and my hatred of all things that involve me following a specific order and pattern for things. Those are some big goals, but I think I can do it.

indoor PE fun

So its quickly coming to that time of year when we just DON'T go outside much, right now its somewhere in the 30's and I know its supposed to rain or snow or something equally nasty like that. Sooooo, I am coming up with creative ideas to give my ADHD crew some PE without going outside. The girls all are very active, they usually play at least 3-4 hours a day outdoors on nice days (yes that is on top of schoolwork done indoors lol) So you can see why the winter is such a problem for us, we can't spend that much time outside playing in the snow (well, some people could but the girls and I get way too cold too fast for that) Well, today during lang. arts with the girls I saw something that made me say "ah-HA!" in my mind. I took a roll of extra tape from our indoor painting (still have lots of painting to do still but we're waiting until spring to finish so that we can open doors and windows for ventilation) and did a bunch of tearing and taping, and voila! In my entry I have a nice blue-tape hopscotch on the floor, just the right size for Melissa and her tall 6 year old self, but small enough that Kimmy can do it too (Melissa is teaching her how to hopscotch now) I have pictures of the kids in action on it, eventually I'll get around to uploading and sharing them.

The next project will be making some bean bags so that the girls can toss them into laundry baskets I think, and I'm hoping to teach the girls some yoga to help them stay flexible. They need a LOT of physical activity daily, and one can only take so much of them climbing onto the top bunk in their room and jumping off onto the floor or Kimmy's twin bed below you know....................................... lol And most of my ideas don't have the potential for broken necks like their bed jumping does.

more hurdles

Well, yesterday I had that teleconference with our supervising teacher. We went over how Melissa did on her 1st grade diagnostic testing. She did really well in reading and writing, she scored just below grade level. It was a much higher score than her teacher and I both thought she'd get, so we are very happy with it. The intervention that we have going with reading has really paid off, I'm so happy that we started right away with it. However, her math score was really low. Her teacher knows that she can do the math that was tested, she had been doing some of it in the elluminate sessions that Melissa's been in. In general, Melissa is way ahead in math. One of the questions, the testing teacher read her a word problem and Melissa had to write the math problem and then solve it. She wrote the problem correctly, except for her numbers being upside-down, and was able to tell the teacher that the answer was 16. Then she wrote the answer 91 on the paper. Soooooo, our teacher and I discussed how to proceed with this. She wants me to get Melissa tested for dyslexia, and I completely agree with that. I've suspected it for over a year now, and the teacher said that she's so confident that we'll get that diagnosis that she'll file paperwork for services as soon as I get a referral from the pediatrician to get her tested. So, I have a dyslexic child with ADHD and auditory processing issues, what a combination. I wonder what the end result of all this testing we're about to start will be. She has an appointment next week to check her weight (she's having some issues with losing weight lately since starting the ADHD meds) and discuss how her meds are working, so I'll get the referral that day.

Tis the season!

For yummy goodies, that is. Every year I do some baking and such for Christmas, and this year is no exception. Today I'm planning on making fudge and buckeyes, and I may make some sugar cookies too if I feel up to it (and have enough butter lol) Now I already know, what are the recipes I use for these goodies? Well, I'll share now.

Buckeyes

3 lbs. powdered sugar
2 lbs. good creamy peanut butter (I use Jif)
2/3 slab paraffin (aka Gulf Wax)
1 lb. butter (or margarine sticks), softened
1 large package semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine the powdered sugar, peanut butter, and butter in a large bowl. Roll by hand into small balls, you'll have about 200 balls (about the size of a golf ball, maybe a little smaller) Chill them overnight. The next day, melt chocolate chips with a double boiler (I use a big pot with a small metal bowl as a makeshift one, it works) and then add paraffin. Stick a toothpick into each ball and dip them about 3/4 into the chocolate, leaving a cirle undipped around the toothpick. Place on a cookie sheet to cool, and chill until hard. They should look kind of like actual buckeye nuts.

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Peanut-butter fudge

18 oz. jar creamy Jif peanut butter
1 small tub marshmallow creme (cheap stuff is fine)
2 sticks butter, softened (NOT melted)
12 oz. can Carnation evaporated milk
4 1/2 cups sugar

Put the peanut butter and marshmallow creme each on a plate for easy adding when its time. THEN get a heavy saucepan out. Combine milk, butter, and sugar in the pan without heat and mix well. Then put on heat and cook on medium-high heat until boiling, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Set a timer for 7 minutes as soon as it starts boiling and continue to cook, stirring constantly, for that 7 minutes. Immediately remove from heat when timer goes off. Whisk in peanut butter to creamy, then add marshmallow creme and whisk until fully combined. put in greased (or cooking-sprayed) 9x13 pan and refridgerate FLAT overnight. (Oh yeah, when you pop it in the fridge you MUST hand that sppon to the husband for him to lick clean, or to the kids or yourself to lick clean in his honor if he's unable to do it because he's at work like mine or deployed like my little brother)

I've not made the fudge recipe before, but it looks really promising to me. My great-granny used to make some awesome fudge when I was a kid but never taught me her recipe for it, so I've been searching since she died in 2003 for a recipe that is really close to hers. This one from the looks of it may be a very close match, but I'll know for sure tomorrow when the fudge is chilled and ready to eat. I have soooooo much butter on my counter getting soft right now, its not even funny lol And I still have to hit the store for more butter and a few more things to make the fudge, but my father is going to come over so that I can do that. I caught him early enough in the day that I know he'll be sober for it, so I'm taking advantage (I was planning to go tonight after Scott got home from work but I don't need to now)

preschool galore week 1

Well, its official, miss Kimberly is in panties full time now! She's been wearing them for a week with no accidents, so we have officially graduated her to preschooler status. She starts lessons today. Here is her preschool lessons for this week:

letter Ff
number 1
counting to 5
color red
fishies is our theme

Sooooo, we'll be doing a variety of activities this week that all surround the above topics. For the letter, we're going to learn how to print the capital F and recognize capital and lower-case Ff, learn the sound, and find objects that start with /f/. In math, we'll learn to recognize the number 1 and model what 1 obect is, and work on counting to 5 (she can already do this one so its a review for her) For the color, we're going to learn to recognize the color word, find red objects, and color pictures of red things. For fishies, we'll learn about some of the different kinds of fishies, count fish crackers (and then eat them lol), color different fishies to make unique ones of our own, and visit the pet shop to look at some of the different kinds of fish that you can have as a pet. Oh, and I may also try and get a hold of "Finding Nemo" to watch, and we may look at different exotic marine life online and such. I'm not sure how far we'll go with fishies yet, we're going to play it by ear.

The big kids are having a different load of work. In history, Melissa is still in ancient Egypt, currently studying Judaism (I probably totally misspelled that but am too lazy to look it up lol) and Lydia is in Asia learning about China and Japan. For science, we are *finishing* our unit on the states of matter, today Melissa has her unit test. I haven't looked yet at the next unit, but I think I remember something about weather from when I pulled the student pages for it a couple weeks ago. In math Melissa is working on counting patterns and skip counting while Lydia is working on measuring distances and comparing lengths of objects.

In a half hour I have a teleconference with our teacher, and we'll be discussing how Melissa BOMBED the 1st grade diagnostic testing. She did ok in everything except her math, I was very happy with her reading and writing scores. But math, the girl totally froze up and couldn't even count, which is why we are taking a little time with counting right now. I want to be 100% certain that she knows how to count as well as I know she can, so that we don't have her freeze again at testing. Poor kid, she doesn't test well. But the meds for her ADHD are working great, as are the tricks that the doctor suggested.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! preschool galore!

Well, its that time. At 3 years old, we start watching each child to show signs of being ready to learn their letter sounds and begin some easy reading at their pace. Nothing too major, and we always go at their speed. Well, last week Kimmy started spending more time listening to her big sisters' phonics lessons, and has learned how to say the alphabet. That is the sign we look for, so I started thinking about her lessons in this area. I always pick a theme for the child who is learning her letters, and this particular child's theme is based on her favorite book of all time, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. So what is a homeschooling mom to do with THIS theme? Well, allow me to share some pictures and tell the tale..............................

I started by telling little miss Kimberly that she is going to be starting her own school lessons next week, and THIS was her response to it.


Yep I think she's happy. So next I got our supplies for the project out..........................

Its hard to see, but that green paper does have some drawing on it. I drew a leaf outline on several sheets of green and cut them out.


This is where the theme is centered at, before I put it up. Yes, that is a part of my huge fireplace that we are looking at right there, and unfortunately it is painted brick (what a wate of such beautiful brickwork, but we had to paint over it because it was originally LEAD BASED paint)

And this is the result, a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree! I just need to add a few coconuts to it and we'll add a letter to the top of the tree as we learn its name and sound. Notice the beyond thrilled 3 year old there standing where she's not allowed to stand normally LOL

Now, for how I'm going to do this. I am a FIRM follower of Sonlight language arts K for teaching reading. There are great activities and we learn one letter a week, following a specific order that will enable the child to start reading after learning just a few letters in week 9. I also intend to add in activities from the Brightly Beaming site for each letter from the preparatory program. And NEW for us this time around, I am going to be doing the alphabet lap-n-tote from Homeschool Share to give us a record of all the letters we've done as we learn about them.

Every Monday, I will try to remember to post that week's letter and what my activities for the week will be. We will explore a variety of different things each week, and just have fun with it all. I only spend typically around 20 minutes or so a couple times a day at the most on lessons with preschoolers formally, doing worksheets and crafts. So this will be sprinkled through the days and we'll prepare foods starting with that letter, read stories that go with the letter (using daily and weekly themes like fish and firefighters and flowers for letter F week)

Now, doesn't that just sound like a barrel of fun and games? Preschoolers are my favorite students so far, I always look forward to lessons with my preschool children.

vacation

Scott had this past week on vacation from work. The last time he was on vacation we didn't do squat for schoolwork, and I spent 2 weeks catching back up again. So I set myself up with a plan to do 4 days' worth of schoolwork during the time he's on vacation (this includes the 2 weekends) and just be happy if I get that much done. So how did it go you ask?

Well, Melissa finished 6 days of math, which was 2 days more than anticipated. Lydia kept up with her math as well. We stayed on target with lang. arts completely with both kids, although we did skip a few more activities than usual. I don't think the kids really noticed. We did only half the history we needed to do (one lesson each instead of 2) and I don't think we even touched science with Melissa, but that's ok. Phonics, well we were planning a week more of no lessons for Melissa for this week anyway and Lydia is still working on making a connection that she needs to make before she can move forward at all. So we spent time just reading together, they spent time playing at www.starfall.com and we just had fun with it. Oh, and Melissa did a few pages in her Explode the Code workbook that we add to the phonics to help cement things better.

Yep, I'm ok with how this week turned out. Last time he was on vacation I had soooooo many lessons to catch up on, so having just a few to catch up isn't really a big deal. Its really easy to add extra art, history, and science to my days because the kids like those subjects and do really well with them.

well that went out the window lol

I posted that I was going to give FlyLady another shot. Well, I did. Unfortunately, I'm so flaky that I can't keep focus on anything for very long really. I gave up on day 3 and just hired someone instead LOL My father has been looking for a way to make some extra money, and I got Scott's blessing, so now dad comes over a couple times a week to do whatever I didn't get to with my regular chores, plus he gives me the opportunity to go out shopping or running errands if I need to without having to drag 4 kids with me. He promises to be sober on the days he comes over, and I don't let him in the front door if I even suspect he's been drinking, so we're going to try it for now. If that doesn't work, then I'll come up with something.

LOL I told you I was flaky..........................

FlyLady hmmmmmm

OK so I've been thinking about this a LOT lately. I'm not what anyone would call even a halfway decent housekeeper. OK I will admit it, I stink at housework. I'm disorganized (no, I know where everything is until you put it away on me lol), life is cluttered, and I'm always behind on the basics like laundry and dishes. There, I admitted it. I'm a housework flunkie.

So why am I mentioning FlyLady, you ask? Well, my friend Janis is doing it herself now after moving into a new home and having no real routines for housework there (and no desire to reinvent the system she had at the old place, I don't blame her!) She's on day 5 or 6 now of FlyLady and is doing well with it. Oh, and she has 6 kids, one being a baby and one being an ornery toddler LOL Now, I've attempted FlyLady many MANY times in my parenting lifetime (6 1/2 years and counting) and every single time I failed miserably. I lack motivation and focus to do it, even in the 15 minute sessions she suggests tackling things in. Its really a MAJOR discipline issue that I have with myself, I know this. The only thing that I have kept is my control journal with my routines in it and a few extras that I felt compelled to add. So, I'm thinking that since we've managed to be 99% consistent with doing homeschool lessons daily like I need to, its time to tackle another consistency issue that I have. I'm going to begin to tackle the disaster that I have created with my housekeeping skills. I'm going to go shine my sink now. lol I won't post a pic of it because quite frankly, you'd be horrified at the piles on the counter around it. But at least I'll have a shiny sink. Tomorrow, I'll keep at it, and instead of the 15 minute session she suggests, I'll try doing 5 minutes at a time. We'll see how this goes..........................

I may end up failing for a 23rd time, but hey I gotta keep at it until I find something that works for me. So far, nothing is working (and that includes trying to get the kids to clean up after themselves a couple times a day, since Scott feels it is his job to teach them that a woman's job is to stay home, take care of kids, and clean up after every person that lives in the household like a darn maid) I have no help around here that doesn't throw a royal hissy fit (including the 35 year old man I married LOL) but nobody really complains with my lack of housekeeping skills either. I dunno, I personally don't like it but don't know how to approach it myself. Maybe I'll figure it out as I go along.

lol we caught up

Well, last week we caught up on Melissa's hours. She's now 3 hours ahead as of last week. I'm thinking that I'm going to take today off to do some stuff around the house, then we'll pick up extra lessons each day to make up for skipping today. They will get their technology time for the week today, and Lydia has soccer. I say that's good enough for today, especially since they are playing educational computer stuff. We'll see though................. I'm just tired and need a break, those extra hours happened over the weekend when we wrapped up some extra lessons to make up the time we lost.

I am so tired now from it all though, we just need a day off to relax. Heck with anything that's not household related, I'm going to do practical life skills day today. It'll be fun, doing laundry and dishes, heck we may even do a little baking if I feel up to it. I had too much happen last week and over the weekend to allow me the luxury of just relaxing............................. We'll pick up where we left off tomorrow I htink, unless one of the kids actually asks to do some lessons.

Melissa and phonics- Oh, my!

Well, moving her down to K phonics has been a really good decision. Tomorrow she'll do her last bit of 1st semester of phonics. She's really grown and developed a huge amount of confidence in her skills with this move down like that, and is quite fluent with her reading at the K phonics level. I'm very happy with the progress she's made so far. So, I thought I may give her a week or two (or maybe even 3) off phonics instruction to just enjoy her reading abilities. I'm thinking she can play at starfall, I'll get out all our earliest phonic readers that she can read and leave them where she can readh them, and we'll focus on another subject for the time she's taken off (I certainly have enough science that she can do, she likes science so I'm sure that taking time off phonics to do extra science will NOT bother her one bit) She's just done so well with phonics that I really can't think of a reason to jump straight into second semester work right off. If I encourage her to read daily and write daily, and we practice the sight word flashcards a bit each day, she'll do just fine for the little break I'm thinking we should take. There are a lot of really cool science labs in the upcoming unit that I think she'll want to do, so we're going to definitely add some extra science into the mix for her. Today's experiment has us blowing up balloons to different sizes and weighing them to see how much air weighs, and the one after that has us working with the stove, ice, and other frozen goodies (can we say ICE CREAM!!!!!!) lol I have a feeling that she'll really like the upcoming science stuff...................

Now if only I could get Lydia past this hump in her phonics, she got to the unit that has her reading words and it made her screech to a stop. So I'm going to be backing up with her for a week, doing some practice from lessons we already did in the past to help build her confidence again and help her make that connection. We'll do that for about a week I think, and then pick up unit 9 again.

another Monday, another week

Well, this morning I had a teleconference with our teacher. Now, let me first say that she is a WONDERFUL person and is extremely relaxed about things, and always has a lot of great ideas for presenting something to the girls when the OLS suggestions don't work and my mind isn't working too well. Anyway, we had our meeting and then the girls had a short session with her on the computer in the online classroom. Today she went over rhyming with Lydia and did some reading with Melissa. Lydia mixed up rhyming words matching and matching words by their beginning sounds, but that's my fault because we've spent a lot of time on distinguihing the individual sounds within a word. I don't know hwo the child learned to read because she can't pick single sounds out very well at all. Melissa, she did so well with reading that she was waiting on the teacher to type out sentences so that she could finish reading them to her lol

We also discussed Lydia's KRA-L test that she did last month. Lydia flew through it, working right on grade level with everything. She only missed the letter Nn in the whole test. That's a consistent thing here lately too, she somehow forgot the letter N exists lol We also discussed how Lydia's doing with her writing letters and numbers. She has gross and fine motor delays from being born a month early, and it is especially apparent with her schoolwork that involves her writing. Her hand gets tired easily and she has a lot of trouble with forming her letters and numbers correctly. She just doesn't have full control over her hands yet for this particular task. Her teacher is perfectly fine with me doing almost all of the writing for her at this point, especially since she knows I'm working with her daily for a couple minutes on printing and on developing her fine motor skills.

Overall, we had a good teleconference. The next one will be November 30th at 10:30am.

Our first quarter- DONE

Today marks the end of the first 9 week grading period for us. I know its not a major thing, finishing 1/4 of the school year. But for us it is a huge milestone, this is our first year of homeschooling and we have been really nervous about sticking to it. So here are the stats, are you ready?

So far this 9 weeks, the girls have each completed...................

Lydia-
44% math K
22% phonics K
18% lang. arts K
15% history K

I know not all those numbers are great, but you can definitely tell her strong point. Her numbers are going to change a little bit, as we are probably going to do a history lesson today and Scott is going to do a lang. arts lesson tonight (he does the read aloud part of it at bedtime and I do the actual seatwork during lessons the following day, so we usually have 2 or 3 lang. arts lessons done at one time)

And now for Melissa-
25% math 1
39% phonics K
18% lang. arts K
22% history 1
8% science 1
10% art 1
sufficient progress in violin lessons

OK so some of her numbers aren't close to being as good as Lydia's are. We had a few things get involved that caused us some difficulties. Melissa has ADHD and we had some nasty viruses run through here a couple times this school year, so we're playing catch-up still. I anticipate that by the end of 2nd quarter we'll have everything caught up (you can tell which two subjects are not my strong suits LOL) Melissa is doing some of the behind subjects this weekend, so those numbers will go up a little as well. Math is right on, but we are just happy that she's at the place where she LIKES math and she's good at it too so doubling up math lessons hasn't been much of an issue (some days she's even done 3 math lessons because she likes it that much) I'm going to play around with how I teach each subject, we'll see how my idea works.

But honestly, I think we've done pretty good with lessons and being at least semi-consistent with teaching the girls. Especially when you consider I have a 3 year old and a 2 year old to work around............... lol

high hopes for this week

Well, last week was a total waste for us. We got sick and a whole host of other stuff happened. So, no biggie we'll just get on and pick up where we lest off. I'm really hoping that this week we can start to make some progress with getting things done and caught up again. The girls spent a lot of time playing on their computers and watching tv and listening to me read. Not really much, but hey its better than lying around picking at their feet I guess LOL If yesterday is any indication, they are almost at 100% again after that round of illness, so we resume as normal today. I may try to squeeze a second math lesson in on Melissa today, we'll see how she responds to it though. I'm just going to play it by ear and see what happens.

Now, we do have one interesting thing I want to share. Last week, Melissa also started meds for ADHD. Its a pretty clear-cut case too, and she resonded quickly to meds in a positive way. However, I feel like it is working just flat out TOO well. She's calm and able to focus, but unfortunately she doesn't really want to do much of anything now. It may just be her starting them and being sick that was causing it, but she literally has been lazy and clingy the last few days. I can't seem to get her off me, she's constantly hugging and kissing me and right up by me watching intently everything I do. I think I may be calling the doctor this week to see if that is even close to normal. I may just try to keep working with her unmedicated until she's older, just to see if she does improve on her own like I keep hoping she would do. I'm not sure I like the child she's turning into with the Adderall, although it is really helping her to focus a lot better.

This week, in addition to the mountain of schoolwork we need to start catching up on, I have to catch up on a LOT of laundry and dishes, along with getting the house cleaned back up again. I really am not looking forward to this week, there's just so much to do and I don't know if I can get things back under control with cleaning our house and doing lessons and just everything that's involved. Oh, and I have to take Melissa to get her new glasses today, and Lydia has soccer practice tonight. I don't know if she's really up to it yet, but I'm going to take her anyway since I had a parent who obviously thinks that a soccer game is more important than a healthy kid because he ripped into me Saturday for keeping my sick kids home, making it so that Lydia's team didn't have enough players for the game and they had to forfeit. So, I'm going to make a point and take them all to her practice today, she's the only one that I don't think is really fully recovered yet. I figure her sisters can all bundle up and play on the playground while I sit at the picnic table and she is lying there on me bundled up watching practice. I just hope that the other parent gets my point with that, especially since we'll be doing it again on Tuesday with Melissa's practice. I am NOT amused, some people take peewee sports way too seriously...........................

oh no, tv's down lol

I hate getting up in the mornings before 8am if I'm not feeling too great. I've trained the kids for htis in fact. They know that if I'm not up when they get up, they are allowed to QUIETLY go out to the living room and watch tv (usually Disney or PBS depending on their mood, sometimes Noggin) Well this morning I got the RUDE wakeup of Melissa climbing all over me, bouncing and yelling that the tv isn't working. Our satellite isn't working properly. So we suffered through some ceral with a barely-functioning mom, and I then called our phone company to find out what's going on. My first thought was that we forgot to pay the bill, but its not that. Our bill is 100% current with no balance. Apparently, Dish is having issues right now and they are working to get their programming up again, everyone is without tv right now. Its a good thing I already gave Melissa her meds or I'd have a very angry child bouncing all over the place yelling about it. Instead, I have kids playing in the bedroom. They are pretending to run a restaurant. I'm really starting to like Adderall at the moment..........................

Now I just need to get myself woke up and functional so we can do lessons while we wait on the tv to come back up again. When it does come back up, I'm going to sneak off to take a nap while the kids watch it for a bit since I got up a couple hours earlier than I needed to this morning (I didn't sleep well last night)

illness and a broken nose *lol*

Yes that is an interesting combination, isn't it?

Details aside, Scott and I were goofing around last week and it ended in my nose bleeding all over the place. Total accident, I promise. Anyway, I have a broken nose now as a result. But on a positive note, I'm no longer snoring at night................... lol So no more sore throats in the morning YAY Have you ever tried to do lessons while slightly foggy from pain meds or while distracted by the pain of an injury? It ain't fun, I'll tell ya. But we're surviving.

And on top of it, I had the pleasure of taking Lydia to the doctor today for a sick visit. All 4 kids are sick with the same virus. With her symptoms, Scott and I were worried about the possibility of the flu, and with H1N1 in particular. We don't do flu shots and are opting out of the H1N1 vaccine as well for our own reasons, but today has me at least starting to reconsider this stance. Especially with Kimmy and me having asthma, we are both prone to lung infections and have both almost been hospitalized from complications of infections. Well, thankfully its not H1N1, and its not the flu. Its a nasty chest cold that we need to watch to be sure it doesn't turn to bronchitis or worse over the next few days.

So what does all this have to do with our schooling the kids? Easy, it means that we're not going to do too much in terms of lessons for a few more days. Now I'm going to go lie down on the sofa for a bit until Scott gets home in a few so that I can retreat to the bedroom.

aaaaaahhhhhhh the joys of soccer

I swear, when this school year is over I am never signing up Lydia for soccer again. She is really good at it, and she enjoys it. So what's the problem you ask? She refuses to play or practice if I'm not literally on the field with her. That works fine for practices, her coach doesn't object to it because its an extra pair of hands that actually are semi-familiar with playing soccer. But at games, well lets just say it takes a lot of bribing and coaxing to get her on the field for any of the second half. The one time we got her there at the beginning of the game, she stood there and HOWLED at the top of her lungs like it was the most horrible torture on earth. She is definitely more of a ballet kind of child, soccer was NOT a good idea for her.

At least Melissa gets out there and plays though. Even if she is kicking the ball into her own goal and stops to chase butterflies or pick flowers during a game LOL

The only really cute thing about Lydia's soccer is when Jordan runs out during practices and starts playing with them (like she did today, they used the extra balls to mark goals until she took one and started playing soccer like the big kids *oops*) I have a feeling she'll do great at soccer in a couple years, she sure loves it right now (just like Melissa did, heck Melissa we bought a soccer game for her for Christmas a couple years ago to play on our PS2 and she was in heaven playing it with daddy's help)

Wrap-up time, Jordan is licking my computer desk again to get my attention LOL

well, we're close on hours at least

So, every month our OHVA teacher sends us a calendar with the rough guidelines for weekly hours to log for our students in K and 1st grade. It also has diagnostic testing listed on it and stuff like that, so there's more than just hours guidelines listed. It has a spot to the side to list supplemental attendance if we want, and a couple ideas under it for some fun supplemental activities to do with our children. I print this calendar off EVERY month for the hours guidelines so I can see where we are. Well, since Scott was on vacation last week we didn't do all our schoolwork, so we've got a bit of making up to do this week and next week. Lydia's fine, she's 35 hours over the guideline (she loves schoolwork and wants to do extra assignments, it'll even out at the end of the school year probably) so I'm not worried about her not meeting guidelines. But Melissa, she's 10hrs short after last week. She usually stays right at guideline, so all that missed time is from last week. Guess the next couple weeks I'll be adding one extra assignment in for her to play "catch up" in hours, we're short in music and science so those will be the areas we add in extra for sure.