Back At It

Today was our first full day since before Thanksgiving. I'd planned to start back Monday but got distracted by on-line shopping. Who knew there was such a thing as Cyber Monday?

Tuesday was our co-op day followed by roller skating. I guess that was technically a full day since we did everything we had planned, but we didn't do anything bookish at home.

Evan is loving his Handwriting Without Tears book. I never did make the big wooden letter pieces (though I was going to use something easier to cut) but he's whizzing right through the book without them. I guess it helps to wait until the writer is six year olds. LOL

I found a box of beginning reading books in the attic. Evan has been devouring them. He even found a few Pooh Bear books in there and has been reading them to Matthew. So cute!! Ryan is enjoying the books too. He pulled out all the science-y books, mostly dinosaurs and sharks, and has been reading those even though they're way too easy. He has a new admiration for the whale shark, so big and yet so nice. I'm glad to see he's shifted his focus from his previous fave, the killing machine known as The Great White.

Note to Self

No matter how good a mood he seems to be enjoying, do NOT attempt to give the two-year-0ld a hair cut at nap time. Not.a.good.idea.

Crunch! Crunch!

Be careful what you wish for! Today was definitely not a boring day and I'm eating the words from yesterday's post. LOL

Matthew was up crying all night. He has an infection in both ears but the doctor would not accept my diagnosis so I had to take him in. Of course, by the time the appointment rolled around, he'd finally fallen asleep and I had to wake him up! He has a double ear infection and possibly a perferated ear drum. Antibiotics, here we come! And since we were already there, how 'bout flu shots for everyone? The boys were not happy at the prospect. Adam and Ryan took them okay but Evan was crying at the very thought. Oh well, five minutes of crying is better than weeks of pain and puke.

We went to Kroger after the doctor's office. I needed to fill the prescription and pick up some groceries for Thanksgiving pies. Apparently, all of Putnam County also needed to shop for Thanksgiving b/c there was wall to wall people in that store.... on a Monday afternoon!!! Every old person in the store felt the need to ask my sweet little angels about their Thanksgiving vacation. School age kids in Kroger on a school day must be on vacation, don't ya know! This led my little "vacationers" to give me a lot of accusing stares since they'd already done several subjects this morning. LOL I'm sure the elderly population is wondering why my kids hate vacation so much!

We also had Band today so it's been a busy day. I'm looking forward to being bored again tomorrow. ;)

It's the Weekend

This is the first weekend since August that I haven't had somewhere I had to be. I wanted to sleep late Saturday but dh had orchestra practice so I had to get up with the children. I ate some breakfast, surfed the web, read some magazines... and still, it wasn't quite lunch time. The boys weren't interested in playing with me. Saturday is their Playstation day and I was not invited. I hate to admit it, but I was BORED!


Today was not much better. I did have a reason to shower (can't say that happened yesterday, LOL). But after church, dh and the boys plopped down on the couch and watched football. Snoozeville! I watched a movie and then drug them all out to the park. Again with the football. Dh and the boys were throwing the football. Ugh. That left me to push Matthew on the swing and dig pea gravel out of his shoes. Then we headed up to MIL's for dinner. Of course, we had to listen to a football game on the radio. What's more boring than watching football? Radio football.


I would wish fervently for the end of football season, but that just means we'll be watching, listening to, talking about, playing - either real or on video games, and dreaming about basketball. SIGH

Dear Neighbor's Visitor

Dear Neighbor's Visitor,

Please get out of your stupid car and go to the door. It's clear to me and the whole neighborhood that they are not going to respond to your honking horn. Continued honking will only result in the waking of babies and barking of dogs. I would pray that your car battery dies a quick and painful death but that would leave you stranded in the MIDDLE of the street. Please, just pull into the driveway and knock on the door like a civilized human being.

Sincerely,
Annoyed Neighbor

Thursday

Adam started piano lessons today. He loved it like I knew he would. His piano teacher is also his Sunday school teacher so he already loves her and she loves him. It's just a big piano playing love fest!

Piano lessons didn't start until 3pm but we still couldn't seem to fit all our subjects in today. I'm going to blame our low productivity on the whining 6yo and crying 2yo. I really do sympathize with Evan. He spends his free time waiting for Adam and Ryan to finish their school work so he can play with them. But when I finish with them, he has to do his stuff while they play. Of course, he "does school" for less than an hour a day and usually in 15 minutes increments, so it's hard to work up a huge amount of sympathy. Matthew, on the other hand, gets NO sympathy at all. He will not entertain himself while we do school. Any other time of day, he'll play legos or watch Pooh Bear, but not when we're trying to get something done. It's like he drawn to science experiments and Bible lessons. Arrrrgggg!

A Day in the Life

I typed up this sample schedule for a cousin of Jeff's who's been interrogating me about homeschooling, but in a good way! She's thinking of homeschooling her son so I promised to send her some information. This is just part of the stuff I sent her but I thought it would be neat to look back next year (or next week) and see how much our day has changed. So, here's the schedule that's working for us now, along with the typical disclaimers that must accompany any homeschool schedule. ;)

8:30ish - wake-up, eat, play, do chores
10:00am - Evan starts Bible Lesson and Reading/Language
10:30am - Adam and Ryan start Bible and History or Science (Evan entertains Matthew)
11:00am - Evan starts Math
11:15am - Adam starts Math; Evan finishes his paper independently(Ryan entertains Matthew)
11:30am - Ryan starts Math; Adam finish his paper independently (Evan entertains Matthew)
12:00pm - LUNCH
1:00pm - Adam and Ryan start Spelling and Language; Matthew naps
1:30pm - Evan starts handwriting

disclaimers: Although this schedule is written with specific times, we don't always follow them exactly. The times are just to give an illustration of how long we spend on school work on a typical day. Not all of the time spent doing school work either. The boys take breaks as they finish their assignments. For instance, Evan starts Bible/Reading at 10am but that doesn't mean he works until the next time on the schedule. He works until he gets done, could be 10 minutes or could be 30 minutes or more if necessary. Some days we may start earlier or later or not at all and we don't always do every subject every day. It's all flexible and that's one of the major advantages of homeschooling.