Home Ec

I can't believe I'm already slacking on schoolwork. It's only been three weeks since we started and we're scheduled for vacation next week. You'd think I'd be able to keep the momentum 'til the end of the week. But you'd be wrong. I got caught up with cleaning yesterday. I was doing all those jobs that never get done... like dusting the bookshelves and organizing the video cabinet. So, while I cleaned all day, the house doesn't really look much cleaner! I did enlist some reluctant helpers so we're calling that home economics. It'll do 'em good!

We did manage to get spelling done. I'm determined to finish this stupid book so we can actually start this year's book. Only twenty-three lessons remain! I will not get caught up in the four days per week trap this year. We will do spelling every day ... even if Adam still misspells berns (burns) and wile (while) in his daily newspaper. I'm sure the spelling gene will kick in eventually and when it does, he'll have hundreds of Sequential Spelling lessons as back-up!

Band Geeks

We went to the band meeting last night, the one I was a week early for last time. And, just as I predicted, we were late. But it was a planned lateness. Jeff had Evan and Ryan at Ryan's football practice. I had Matthew and Adam at Adam's soccer practice. We stopped at the band meeting after practice. Adam was wishy washy about joining band, at all. He wants to take piano lessons instead. But we're waiting until after his Sunday School teacher's daughter's wedding so he can take lessons with her. In the meantime, he's going to give trumpet a try. Ryan will be playing drums. He's got a head start since he's been working with Jeff. The band director says that he likes to teach mallets to the percussionists too. So Rye gets to learn to read music, whether he wants to or not! LOL

Shall We Dance?

Adam had his first soccer game last night. He's playing in the middle school league and there are some familiar faces on his team, one kid from a previous team, one kid from church, and one kid that used to go to our co-op (and may be back this year). There are amazing differences in these kids. I blame puberty. The little sixth graders stood at least a foot shorter than the older kids. There was one kid with a five o'clock shadow! And apparently, with height and whiskers come some amazing soccer skills. This is not rec league soccer! I'm not sure how Adam will do but I envision the 6th graders playing on the "JV" team that plays on Saturdays. That's fine with me! So, for his schedule... games on Monday; practice on Tuesday & Friday; JV games on Saturday. Tonight, Adam and Ryan both have to be at practice at 5:30 at two different fields in two different towns. Jeff doesn't normally get home until 5:30 but he's supposed to get here early today. I just can't wait to throw Evan's soccer season into this mess! LOL

Oh yeah, were' still doing school, too....

We were reading about dinosaurs in Mystery of History yesterday. We looked up the Loch Ness Monster on-line and were discussing the possibility that Nessie may be a plesiosaur. Both the older boys were really into that, especially Ryan. He used to be a huge dino freak. So we were gathered around the computer having some real discussions... and in comes Matthew.... with poop on his foot. He'd made it to the potty but spilled the poop as he was dumping the the potty chair bowl into the big toilet. You never see that in a classroom! ;)

Evan has finished his first A Beka reader and is halfway through the second one. He's going to be in 2nd grade by Christmas at this rate! But still a 1st grader for Math and a Kindergartner for writing. LOL

Adam wrote a two page newspaper yesterday, complete with puzzles! I remember making search-a-word puzzles when I was little so I loved the puzzle! He seriously needs an editor to check his spelling!

• In the News (spelling and punctuation is his):
  - only Nine days till the beach.
  - Evan's Birthday is only eaght days away
  - a football cup on the ps2 this Sat.
  - Sumer is ending soon enjoy it wile you can.
  - a new game called smarty pants try it out

Football

Well, Ryan had his first real football practice tonight. He's been doing drills and such but had to wait a week to practice with pads. It's a safety thing that I don't understand. He was so very excited to actually play. But he took a hard hit early on and decided football was not for him. I was really heartbroken for him. He loves it so much and then, whammo!, he hates it. He was physically hurting and crying but I was more worried about his feelings. It would be so-o-o much easier if he didn't play but I just knew if he kept at it, he would love it. So, Jeff and I talked him into giving it another try. He finished out the practice but he didn't enjoy it as much as he thought he was going to. He said he's going to keep at it though.

I sat on the bleachers, watching practice and eavesdropping on some other moms. They were going on and on about how they can't wait for school to start. One of them was saying how she wants her day off to be her day off, rather than a day for entertaining her children. So, she works all day and doesn't even want to see the kids on her day off? I understand the need for a break; I really do. But I just think it's sad when parents don't want to spend any time with their children. Needless to say, I didn't have anything to contribute to that conversation, at least nothing they wanted to hear!

Tuesday

Well, I'd like to tell you all the details of the homeschool band where Ryan will be perfecting and showcasing his drumming skills. But instead, I get to tell you how I packed up two kids, sent the extras to football practice with Jeff, and drove to a meeting that is scheduled for next Tuesday. That's right. I was full week early for the meeting. I guarantee I'll be late when I try it again next week.


The rest of the day was wonderful. It was a scheduled day off so I don't have to feel guilty about not getting any bookwork done. We had a park day with our local homeschool group. It started out nice and sunny. The kids were having fun. The wind started picking up and the temperature dropped. Then the rain came. The kids didn't seem to notice. It was coming down pretty steadily and they just kept playing. And we moms, under the cover of our picnic shelter, just kept on visiting and counting heads. Would you call that lazy parenting? or the coolest moms ever?

Monday

Another full day for us! Yay us!

Today we read about Jubal and Tubal Cain in Mystery of History. It points out how they are only mentioned in a couple verses in Genesis but they have an important lesson to teach us. If we don't read our Bibles carefully, we'll miss out on their important lesson (as well as others). I'll admit I'd never heard of them so I guess I didn't read Genesis very carefully. Jubal and Tubal Cain's important lesson is one that helps disprove evolution. They were early men, only a couple generations from Adam and Eve, and yet they were very intelligent. If the theory of evolution were true, early man wouldn't have been evolved enough to do the things these men did.

History was followed by math. The boys are starting to slow down on the review pages. There are some things they need to review so rushing through it won't be much benefit. I know it's wrong but I was so excited when Evan had trouble understanding place value. It gave me an excuse to use the counting frogs and their little logs. We did groups of ten frogs with some singles and he caught on a little too quickly. I didn't get to play with the frogs for long. LOL He was very excited about his eights today. He made a nearly perfect eight and then he didn't want to do anything besides writing eights. I want him to be excited about numbers but it was very frustrating when I was just trying to get through one math page! And yes, he's doing math in his Spider-Man pajamas. :)

For reading, the older boys read the first chapter of Created for Work. This is an awesome book for instilling a Christian work ethic. It's well written, easy to read, and very encouraging. I recommend it for boys in upper elementary grades. Adam and Ryan also did lessons in spelling and language.

Evan is zipping through his first A Beka reader. I'm having trouble keeping up with the book work that goes with the stories. Do we really need to do phonics if he already reads? He just naturally knows the words so I see no reason to stress all those rules and special sounds. I just think maybe he'll hit a roadblock later and we won't know what's happening in our phonics book b/c we didn't do any of it. Would it be too difficult to start the book in the middle if he needs help with new rules later?

The dryer is beeping and I need to go catch up the laundry. Housework is suffering since we started school. I need to work on fitting some cleaning into our routine.... for all of us! ;)

Save Me

I believe I've mentioned Ryan's football fascination in previous posts. He spends a lot of time talking, and watching, and reading about, and playing football. In the past, it's always been backyard football. But now, and this is the part that I need to be saved from, he has actually joined a football team. I'm not worried about him getting hurt. I'm worried about TIME. They practice in the evenings on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. They have games every Saturday.. except the Saturday that Marshall plays WVU. The league is run by football fans, after all! So far, it's doable (actual word?). But soccer starts in September and Adam and Evan are still going to play soccer... which, of course, practices in the evenings (albeit not as many evenings) and plays on Saturday in a whole 'nother town.