Moments: And Grand Ones at That...

My oldest daughter and hubby have been gone for the last 5 days on a mission trip to Tennessee. I won't bother to fill you in because my dd has kept an AMAZING blog about their experiences. Please go read it....it will validate me as a mom. I guess I didn't raise no stupid kid, and I guess my passion for the 'least of these' was not lost on her. (Prolly should remind you to scroll down and start reading at the beginning, Friday Oct. 26 once you get there. Now get clickin'.)

Two Cent Cup of Coffee

Yeah, I know. She's brilliant.

Moments: Soaping like nobody's business!

Other than schooling B, driving G, S, K, and many of their various friends around Fort Wayne, and slumping on the 'puter, I've been making soap and sundries like a madwoman. I'm preparing for a craft show held at my dds' high school. I hate craft shows, by the way, but the table rental goes to the school, and I was assured they get a good crowd.

Anyway, shown above are a few of the soapies I've made recently which will be available for purchase by the slice at the show:

Top is Sleigh Ride, Blue Christmas, and Crackling Fire (christmas soaps)

Next is Oats, Goats & Honey made with pulverized oatmeal, goatsmilk and raw honey (duh)

3rd is Mocha Divinity...made with brewed coffee and grounds, great kitchen soap!

Fourth is Blue Heaven, which is a dupe of Aqualina's Blue Sugar...men will dig this one and so will the women who love them. (Angie, remember the pic I sent you????)

Next is Dilled Mint, smells divine....

Bottom left is Gingered Lemon & Sage, bottom right is Vegan Virgin....no animal derived ingredients, no scent, no color.

I've got several more to take pics of (just finished 3 more christmas-y scents: Candy Cane, Christmas Pine, and 'Tis the Season, as well as liquid soaps, shower gels, body mists and butters, aromatherapy reed diffusers, lip balms, scented sachets, gift baskets, and much more!

(Do I sound like a commercial yet?)

Stop by and see me on Nov. 17, anytime between 9-3 at North Side High School. (Iffin yer real nice t'me, y'all can run by my abode to buy too.....)

Misadventures: Ah yes, I *do* remember why I put him in school...

We're officially in week eight of the school year, that time when the honeymoon is WAY over and I'm itching for some change. I have this seemingly insatiable desire to mix it up a bit. This means, in technical terms, I'm second-guessing myself (again).

My current focus has been S. who we sent to all-day kindergarten (which I consider cruel and unusual punishment for a 5-6 year old). I took a field trip to the Dekalb Co. Fair with his class, and found myself in a never ending single file line, snaking our way thru the never ending poo piles of various barn-yard animals, hearing the never ending whining of children over the never ending stench of the animal stalls. Anyway, on the bus ride home, half the class fell asleep. Their teacher mentioned that she hates that there is no 'rest time' during the day for her kids. The are allowed a 5 minute head-down-on-table rest after lunch. STOOOOPIIIID.

S. comes home from school rather grouchy and tired most days, often falling asleep on the couch for an hour or so in the most hilarious positions. I feel kinda sorry for him. Hence my apprehension in continuing to send him away each day for glorified babysitting.

Well, yesterday, S. woke up with a stuffy nose and a hacking cough (convenient) so I decided to keep him home. This was a brilliant effort on the part of the Powers that Be for showing me why he will continue on at all day Kindergarten. The nonstop chaos at my house was enough to put me in my psycho mode for most of the day. The jumping, pounding, fighting, yelling, giggling, running and all manner of 'boy activities' throughout the day made it excruciatingly obvious that I DO NOT want days of this on end. B. couldn't get school done because of the distractions his brother presented each nano-second of the day. I couldn't find a few free moments (that I'm getting spoiled with while just having one kiddo home with me) to get anything done, be it work or play.

So, S. will stay in school. And I won't revisit this again. Until another 8-10 weeks passes by and I'm itching to switch things up again.....

Moments: My baby girl is a SENIOR!

Moments: Get Rowdy, Get Tough....

G. cheers for the Lancers!

M. gets it going for the Redskins!

K. screams for the Skins!

The bleachers hurt my hind quarters. Just thought I'd mention that as I spend so much dang time warming them....

Misadventures: Additional perks of public schooling.

Well now, I was wondering what to do with our landscaping....

And wondering too, why my dog wouldn't come upstairs at 2 AM. Hmmmmmm.

Moments: A Sly and Precious Thing.

Go hear my son's awesome music!

Alabaster Fox

If you're round these parts next weekend, you can see him live at the Fire Fly. I'll be there (with ear plugs).

Yeah, I'm proud.

Moments: Here's my babies...

Mumblings: lessons plans take too much time!

Not that I hate doing it....it's one of my favorite parts of homeschooling actually.
After a week using what I'd purchased, I'm already 'tweaking' (a technical term that we school-at-homers use to explain why we're still obsessing over curriculum choices.)

We're dropping Horizons Language Arts (includes phonics, reading, spelling and handwriting) in favor of MCP Plaid Phonics B, Houghton/Mifflin's 2nd grade reader "Silly Things Happen", CLP's Nature Readers 1, and The Beginner's Bible for reading. Spelling and handwriting will be combined in our daily Copywork: quotes, scripture, poetry, grammar terms, etc that we're coming across in other subject areas. I'm also adding First Language Lessons, where we'll derive poetry and grammar terms, and hone narration skills. I'm zipping thru it 2 lessons a day as it's for 1st and 2nd grades and I want to finish by year's end. I've also decided to try a curriculum for our morning bible/devotions time....ordered Beginnings II: Jesus our Shepherd from the Explorer's Bible Study materials. We shall see....I abhor packaged bible studies, but these came highly recommended, highly non-denominational, and I assume highly Western/American Culture-ish, but I'll work with it. (Does anyone know if Rob Bell will ever publish a kid's bible curriculum????? Alicia?????)

I've also arranged our schedule to more closely reflect what's really happening each day. I'm saving after lunch time for World/American History and geography and our science studies. What You're 2nd Grader Needs to Know from the Core Knowledge series is our spine for these subjects, each one given it's own day. We'll also use this time for art and music appreciation (see below for links to our curriculum choices in these areas.)

So here's our revised curriculum and daily schedule (as my readers wait with bated breath):

8:00 Breakfast, Bible and *Memorywork with Sam
8:45 Copywork--quotes, scripture from bible lesson, poetry and grammar from FLL
9:00 Spanish--Speedy Spanish, Learnables, Powerglide, (cds, dvds, activity books...we're going for immersion here, and I'm learning too!)
9:30 Math--Horizons Grade 2
10:00 Break...usually a walk or bike ride with mom the teacher and Bogart the dog! We try to do a bit of nature observation during this time as well.
10:30 Piano practice--Pianimals Bk A
10:45 Phonics--MCP Plaid Phonics Bk B (see link above)
11:00 Language--First Language Lessons (see link above)
11:15 Reading--Beginner's Bible, Nature Reader, Silly Things Happen (see link above)
11:45 Lunch (my favorite part of the day!)
12:30 Rotating Subjects:
Monday-World History (What Your 2nd Grader...) and Geography (Evan Moor Beginning Geography set)
Tuesday-Science (What Your 2nd Grader....)
Wednesday-Artistic Pursuits K-3 (art practice and appreciation)
Thursday-American History (What Your 2nd Grader....)
Friday-Classical Magic (music appreciation)

During dead time in the car waiting to pick up kids: Classical Kids, spanish cds and activity books from the library, and books-on-tape (currently listening to Peter Pan unabridged!) or read aloud (also reading Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin).

Evenings are Family Read Aloud time. This year we're focusing on 1st grade Literature recomendations, again from What Your Second Grader Needs to Know. (see link above). We'll be reading Grimm's Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales, Andrew Lang's Fairy Books (The Red Fairy Book, orange, green, etc), James Baldwin's 50 Famous Stories Retold.

We'll also have a chapter book going for this time as the above stories are brief. I'm using rec's from Books to Build On for the most part. And of course, we won't forget to revisit favorite classic and picture books, poetry, and Hardy Boys with dad!

*Memorywork includes: quotes, poetry, scripture, spanish vocabulary, artists, grammar terms, and math facts. It takes all of 10 minutes, and I use this for organizing all this memory work and review each day. 'Tis fabulous. Highly recommended.

It seems like a ton when I write it out like this, but it's really not. We focus on getting 'readin' ritin' and 'rithmetic done everyday...if that's all that happens, I'm good with saying "We've done the minimum." When we get bible, memorywork and piano in, I'm feeling pretty darn good. And if the after-lunch subjects get finished then, dude, I'm totally, like, flyin'.

Hope you've enjoyed this little foray into my homeschool. I'll take some pics soon of our study area...still working on getting it set up the way I want. And it might be good if I can find the camera.

Back to lesson planning!

Moments: Lots of 'em....and lemonade to boot.

Well, I've managed to get thru our first week of school. The stress over dropping kids off and picking kids up has taken it's toll, though, and I'm wondering if the 6 hours of peace is worth it. I'm constantly watching the clock, and worrying over whether I'll get to S's school before he's in tears again. I've become an angry, agressive driver in the span of 5 days....I can't do that many adrenaline rushes each day without losing my mind (which was already on its way toward mush before school started).

Pretty much at 2:15 my day is over. That's when I start making the rounds to the schools. B and I are done with school and lunch by 12:30-ish, so that leaves an hour and a half for errands and such. After picking everyone up, I'm home just in time to get supper ready, then hubby is home. The days fly by, that's for sure.

On the homeschool front, so far the only dud we've had is phonics/spelling. We're using Horizons, but I don't like all the writing and busywork, and the reader is BORING, with outdated sentence structure and topics. I will give it another week, then decide if it's time to try something else.

All the girls and S are adjusting to their new learning environments as well. Other than the suffocating humidity and buildings with no air conditioning, the younger two are enjoying school. G decided to go out for the 8th grade cheering squad, which makes me just a *wee* bit nervous, and S is meeting new friends and getting invited over for play dates already....which also makes me just a *wee* bit nervous.

Ya know, having lots 'o kids is stressful regardless of the kind of schooling they receive. With homeschooling, a parent can certainly control the environment easier, but then an environment of lots 'o kids all day everyday is stressful. With away schooling, the parent buys a bit of respite from the chaos, but it doesn't go away forever...it simply compounds over the day so that it hits all at once between mid-afternoon and bedtime.

Still trying to recite my mantra...still having difficulty.

Having kids is hard. stressful. work. But I'm challenging myself to see the silver linings moment by moment. I'm going to learn, even if it kills me, to savor the time I'm given whether it's spent waiting in a line of cars at school, sounding out words with a young reader, shopping for the plumpest green pepper at the grocery. These are all divine acts, moments infused with possibilities to make the world a better place. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

And I'm learning how to make a darn good batch of lemonade every day.