Weekend Fluff: Week 2, Saturday/Sunday

Weekend:


Kids did a whole lot of nothing on Saturday. A re-watching of the new "Witch Mountain" movie remake. There are more words in the title. It is sci-fi. That's as much as I can remember. They played on their Webkinz and Ty Beanie Baby Land on-line games. I think at one point puppies may have been tended to on a Nintendo DS. Daddy saw some sci-fi movie at the movie theater with his friend/co-worker. I think it is District 9. I think I should get a cookie since I think that is indeed the correct title.

I went to see Julie & Julia. I rather enjoyed the movie. I came straight home (via the grocery store for some boring groceries) and got onto our library web site. I then proceeded to order/hold a DVD of Julia Child's cooking shows, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her book about living in France which I am highly looking forward to reading. The good news is--I'm first in line on the DVD. The bad news--I am #10 on the waiting list for one of the books and #3 on the other. But I can be patient! (Those who know me would laugh at this point, but I'm about tapped out on my Barnes and Noble budget.)

We did not do ANY school this weekend. Though I hope to incorporate our Read Alouds throughout the week. My kids shut down and just want to play all day long and do nothing that resembles school work on Saturdays. I can't say that I blame them. It's like having homework ALL...DAY...LONG!! Okay--this would be hyperbole! I do let them break for meals and potty breaks and to go to bed. HA!

Sunday is Mass and I am not sure what in the world we will do after that. The girls will get paid their meager commissions (This is in lieu of allowance as they have learned in their Junior FPU storybooks by Dave Ramsey.) I say meager when it isn't THAT bad. However--they didn't do all their tasks. This means their plans of purchasing the planned items won't happen unless we hit a 90% off sale. Hopefully the life lesson that you get paid for doing work will sink in sooner or later.

Start the day with Recess and LATE to the schoolwork

Yep--the beauty of the homeschool schedule.

I have abandoned my resolve to get things moving early in the day and get them done quickly.

We don't fret if dinner isn't until 7. (When I relaxed this...it removed my anxiety of rushing to get dinner done quickly. We actually enjoy dinner prep right now!)

And we don't fret that school didn't start at 8 or 8:30. (Though Celery is quite suspect when it is 9:23 and he wonders why I am still on my computer and the kids are playing and not learning. Engineers!)

Our schedule looks something like this on paper:

6/6:30ish: Morning prep--which is our morning chores that take us through breakfast and looking like we can leave at a moments notice as our teeth are brushed, hair is combed, and we have legitimate clothes on.

Then Piano and Scripture memorization (no time since it just follows morning prep).

Then at 8:30 it is school or if it is running club we are at that.

At 11:30ish or so it is lunchtime followed by a half hour of reading zone/quiet time.

Then on Mondays and Wednesdays we continue our school work in our larger subjects (like science and social studies).

Tuesdays and Thursdays are our car time going to various lessons and activities. So the in car school work is music appreciation and Spanish during transit and wait times.

Friday afternoons are totally leisure time.


Today is the inauguration and despite my medications, I am highly distracted by the pomp and circumstance. A CNN reporter standing in a crowd at 5:45 this morning said it was like Obama-stock. I privately chuckled because I had thoughts that this was "woodstock-ish" in nature. Then my brother called with a snafu in their "ticketed" plans in the district for which I now have another distraction. That's for another post though.

We will do a little bit of school work and read a wonderful book on the Presidency about a Mouse president that we just love. It is called Woodrow, the White House Mouse written by Peter W. Barnes and Cheryl Shaw Barnes. (There is also an electoral version called Woodrow for President that we read a bit in the fall as well as in the voting line on election day.) We purchased these books at the Museum of American History when we were in Washington, DC a couple of years ago when we happened upon Woodrow himself with the authors as they did a book signing. We have never regretted this purchase and their non-partisan approach and rhyming have been a cute way to learn about our voting system and the events we will be watching today.



But the sum of this post, the girls are rewarded with recess prior to the school day provided they have completed their tasks.

We have mainstreamed our process so well for our family, that I do not get concerned when we are "off schedule".

Well--sometimes I have a bit of anxiety, but that is to be expected from a homeschooling parent.

Now that it is well after 10am, it is time for us to do some of our written work so that we will not miss the swearing in ceremony.

And hopefully--my mother doesn't miss it either. I'll have to post that later when I finally hear from them once again.

Happy New Year

It is 1:15 am on the first day of 2009.

After dealing with droopy eyes all evening to stay awake for the ball drop for my kids and their friends, I am now wide awake. Perfect time to begin a blog.

I am a mom of 3 pumpkins who I will call Rutabaga, Butternut, and Sprout.

Rutabaga is an 8 year old 3rd grader. She is a voracious reader. She just cannot read enough. Anything and everything she must READ! She claims that math is her weak subject. As much as I have tried to explain that she does not possess an academic weakness in this area, she still enjoys claiming she is just terrible at it.

Science is her favorite subject. It is not mine. Nope. Not even close. You can tell me all about the science experiments and discoveries in the world. My response: That's very nice. But math--I could spend everyday for the rest of my life with math problems of most any kind. Though, advanced math and calculus has left my brain completely since the last I dealt with a COS was in 1993.



Butternut is my 6 year old Kindergartner. She loves to : write, produce, direct, choreograph, costume, act, dance, sing, and otherwise perform in any performance she can imagine to any audience willing or unwilling. She is a diva in training. I have tried to cancel training. But yet it continues. She contends she will be a star someday.

All I want to do is teach her how to read. I did it with Rutabaga. After a shaky concept start, she took off--easy peasy compared to Butternut. Butternut is...well...how do I put it? I can't tell if she is having trouble or faking her abilities or lack thereof. She's a stinker sometimes. She picked up math like noone's business. Reading? Well, I suppose she will get there eventually. It is priority one this coming semester. Sound out a three letter word at random. I would be quite thrilled for this to click. In the meantime, butternut is happy being taught sight words and is enjoying her new Tag Reading system. Maybe the magic pen will help this phonics thing...click. Perhaps if I started her reading lessons with Macbeth or Death of a Salesman...

Alfalfa Sprout is my little boy. He's 1, but not for much longer. He spends his time playing and nursing. He loves his mama. He loves his dada. He loves to say maaaaaaaaaa maaaaaaaaa and dada and shhhhhhhh. And that is it. Little Sprout is in speech therapy. This is not my doing. This is the doing of a well meaning pediatrician. Okie dokey fine. He can do lots of things--talking is not one of them. But he began his therapy in December and after 3 sessions--he is babbling a bit more....we've got some lalalalalala's out of him. Too bad we are trying for p's and k's. Oh well. In his own time like his sisters.

His sisters were slower to speak. And no big surprise, once they started talking--they just don't...not talk. I predict the same for Alfalfa Sprout. He does some signing. Some ASL and some made up. I don't know which is which as the therapist does them both. His "please" and "more" are ASL. He now nods his head for "yes" and "no". Warning! He wanted something once and I asked him "Can you say please?" Instead of doing the sign--he shakes his head in the affirmative. A genius and possibly a developing smarty pants. So now we just tell him to say please, at which time he circles his open hand over his heart. "Open" is a knocking motion and I forget what else we are supposed to do.

My goal with Alfalfa Sprout in January--please babble in therapy. I'm beginning to think the Speech therapist thinks you’re mute.


We use the classical model to educate our kids. I can explain more of that later. I have to look it up. I am not great at quoting from memory. When I got it, I got it. When I have to get other people to get it, I freeze.

I use the Mother of Divine Grace syllabi as our "skeleton". I substitute Math-U-See for their suggested math. (I don't recall what they suggest, I just happen to adore M-U-S and choose no other). And we do some other things.

Our goals for this coming semester:

Rutabaga: More science and less of Mama avoiding the subject. Complete Gamma Math. Get diligent with our spelling.

Butternut: Read, read, read, and did I mention read?

Alfalfa Sprout: Talking would be good so that the pediatrician will quit wondering about you. All his other tests appear normal so at this point we don't believe we have to worry about a disability or disorder.

More in the New Year! Blessings to all and may your 2009 be better than 2008 in all ways possible.