Childhood

Except for some Tostitos and a cookie or two, this was his dinner.

There was way too much fun to be had.  Eating was the last thing on his mind.

When you have your best buddy and your best girl beside you on a tire swing, what else matters?

Six Degrees of July 3rd

Today I picked up a copy of People Magazine, with Chace Crawford on its cover.  Chace is the new Kevin Bacon in the re-make of Footloose.  Kevin Bacon played Jack Swigert in Apollo 13.  I saw Apollo 13 exactly 14 years ago today.  My friend, Mike, sat next to me at the theatre.  365 days later Mike sat next to me on a grassy field* in front of a fireworks show and asked me to marry him.

I love July 3rd.

*bonus: that field is now inhabited by a lovely Chick-fil-A.

What’s New

1. Scratched cornea again.  Let’s have a collective ‘cross the internet sigh.  SIGH.  It was the other eye this time.  Due to dry eye.  Trying new drops and fish oil tablets.  Any and all other advice is welcome.  Because, OUCH, it hurt like you would not believe.  I planned my funeral again including the slide show.

2.  I am going to be fine.

3.  Max is at Vacation Bible School and he’s loving every minute of it.

4.  Mini was picked up by her Pops and Nana Posse this morning and whisked off to BWI Airport where she will get to board a plane to Arkansas for 6 glorious days of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and watermelon.  Add a few cows mooing in the pasture too and it’s almost too much fun for a toddler to take!

5.  Max gets to be the center of attention here at home.  Something tells me he’s going to love that!

6.  The hardwood floors got mopped.  It took me a month to do it, but I finally mopped the entire floor this morning, moving furniture out of the way and everything.  Vision is a little blurry but if you ask me, the sheen is incredible

7.  Have a wonderful 4th of July.  Do not take your eye health for granted.  Sign your child up for a week of VBS.  Make sure you marry someone who has cool parents.  This has been a public service announcement.

Blueberries

We ventured out to pick blueberries today at our local orchard.  The heat and humidity made today’s trip a short one, but it was still lots of fun.

After a little research, I noticed something.  I’m wearing the same shirt that I wore blueberry picking two years ago.

That’s what fashion experts call a consistent look!

There’s No Crying in Swimming

Last night Max swam two races in his first meet for the Mini Team (6 and under) and received a 1st place ribbon for a 25 meter kickboard race

Max was in the middle lane competing against two girls (super fast competitive girls, of course!)  Watching the Mini Team’s races are comedies in slow motion.  I love how they look at each other the whole time. Max pulled out early on for the clear lead but then he started looking back at his competition.  Uh-huh, he got a little cocky.  Then he’d look over to Mike and me with this huge goofy grin on his face knowing he was going to take this race home and build a Lego set out of it.  But lo and behold, Super Fast Girl #1 closed in and the crowd went wild.  America loves to cheer for the underdog.  However, my boy kicked it into gear and won the race.

He got out of the pool.  Eventually.  And we enjoyed the moment of seeing Max beam with pride and self confidence about his accomplishment.

Then the 25 meter Freestyle Race happened.

5th place.

The reaction was epic.  You would have thought he was bleeding out and needed medical attention.  But it was only a brief, highly public, flashback to the terrible two’s.

The ride home was one big teachable moment.  We talked about what really matters in a competition, how to be a good sport when you win or lose, and then we used our favorite family word: do-over.

The next meet is on Saturday morning.  I’m approaching it with a measure of fear and trembling.  25 meters to be exact.

Homeschool Review Part II

Warning! This is a crazy long post.  Feel free to just leave now and have a good weekend.

Our homeschool umbrella group (through our church) has been an established organization for over 15 years.  I think there are around 60 families (about half go to other churches in the area) and with that large size, social opportunities and support are plentiful.  It plays a huge part in the decision for us to homeschool, actually.  It’s always nice to see a good number of “normal” people you know homeschool their kids and they do, in fact, turn out to be normal too.  I can only wish for that in our own family!!

Now, notice I said normal but not “in the box.”  Privately Mike and I talk about “the box” a lot and because I stay-at-home with the one in our family who lives MORE often on top of the box rather than in it, I can easily get frustrated with his learning style differences.  I tend to forget how he’s wired.

Mike reassures me each time and reminds me that we don’t want him to be in the box.  We feel that public school would expect him to spend 6 hours a day in there and he would be miserable.  Not saying that school is out of the question for the future, but for right now, homeschooling is the best thing for him.

We’ve been homeschooling for two years – one on our own for pre-K and one under the Umbrella for kindergarten.  I had my semi-annual review the other day from a seasoned homeschooler representing our Umbrella group (Umbrella means they cover your legal documentation requirements and provide ongoing support).

Every state is different, but in Maryland you must be reviewed at the conclusion of each semester by either a county school system official or by the Umbrella.  Maryland dictates what needs to be checked: a year’s worth of regular, thorough instruction in the studies usually taught in the public schools to children of the same age.  The 8 subjects that need to be covered are: social studies, math, language arts, science, health, PE, music and art.  The local school system is not allowed to impose additional requirements. (Incidentally, high school guidelines are different.)

Before the review, I had a couple of records to fill out to be turned in.  I needed to give Max a grade for each subject.  Of course, in kindergarten this is totally hard to do for any teacher but I gave him all Outstandings based on his effort.  I know the areas that he needs to work harder next year (respect for other people’s space, ahem) but in my preparation for the review, I saw the pages and pages he did all year and I want him to be proud of his Outstanding work.

He is reading on his own, too, which I now know is developmental but takes a great deal of effort all the same.  Yay Max!  You can even read out loud without being too distracted!

My reviewer came over and we sat at the kitchen table and after some chit-chat, we got started.  She asked me how she could specifically pray for me and we started the time in prayer.  Then we went down the list and talked about each of the 8 subjects I covered.  I showed her my planning book and Max’s workbooks.  We discussed handwriting at length and she encouraged me to relax about it yet keep going in 1st Grade with a structured program. (I quit the Handwriting Without Tears book mid-year because we were both tearfully short-tempered every lesson).  She’s been there, she said, and it does get easier.  I needed to hear that.

I’m pumped about next year (which starts in approximately 3 weeks).

I realize that this may be the longest post I’ve ever written, but I wanted to answer Ann’s question about why I like Shiller Math for Max.  We completed Book 1 (they say it’s for ages 4-5 but puh-leeze! Montessori methods are known to brag) and a bit in Book 2 (ages 5-6) . In 1st Grade we will continue in Book 2 and move right into Book 3 (ages 6-7).

It’s a Montessori (learn by doing) style.  I like the jump-around-to-different-things about it.  I like the song CD.  I like all the toys – the measuring cup, play money, dominoes, place value cubes, etc.  I even like how the workbook tells you exactly what to say.

It doesn’t require a lot of written work, which makes it less stressful.  There are no pages with a list 10 or 20 math problems but instead there might be 4 or 5 problems then a few pages later another set.  The randomness (though not random at all since the concepts are building on one another) works.  Max remembers what he learns.  He knows basic addition and how to write the equation but he doesn’t have to write it a lot.  He can do math in his head pretty well.  And on paper he and can add some big numbers. But don’t ask him to do 10 of them in a row!

The negative thing about Shiller is that there is so much stuff.  I have everything in a big box and keep it in my kitchen to trip over all day.  But it did feel like we were playing and Max was always engaged, not distracted by the stuff.  I only took out what was needed, though.

The Kit I costs a fortune new ($400) so I bought my stuff used from a friend.  It was a pain in the butt to erase her child’s answers (sometimes I’d just tape a blank index card over entire sections) but I’m not sure I would’ve purchased it if it wasn’t for a fraction of the retail cost.  Luckily, my friend switched to something else in the middle so from here on out it’s blank pages for us.

Okay, if you’re still awake, thanks for reading all of this.  Our homeschooling adventure continues…

Do you homeschool?  How would you describe your child in relation to The Box?

Homeschool Review

My end-of-year homeschooling review is on Wednesday so I’ve been sorting and stacking examples to show my reviewer the work that Max completed since our last meeting in January.

For kindergarten, at least, the review isn’t so scary.  It’s a bit like Show and Tell and can serve as a needed shot in the arm to a weary homeschool mom (who me?) that things are going well, education is taking place here, but don’t fret; the SATs are still at least a decade away.  

So while Max earned Super Stars (my made up grading system I just put in place this very minute) for every subject (with the exception of handwriting but we’re going to get there someday), I’m not sure I would give myself the same grade.  There’s so much I could improve in my own disciplines as his teacher.  I’m way too fly-by-the-seat of my ruler.  

For starters, next year I’d like to get up before Max and Mini.  Greasy-haired, pajama wearing days are fun every once in a while but I resolve to get up, shower, have a quiet time, and eat breakfast before 7:30.  Do you believe in miracles?  Well, I didn’t say anything about exercising.

It would be nice to type all this and say that I have all summer to sleep in because school won’t begin for us until September.  But, no, it was my genius idea to start First Grade in July.  It’s because we ended early in May and I’d like to take a 6 week break in December and January, but I should still whack myself in the head or something.

Another area for improvement is to be a better planner.  I started off this year great – used a planner that I loved - but didn’t fill in one page after late January.  As I prepared for my review I literally went through all the books (phonics, math, etc.) and thanked the Lord that I wrote the date on each page. It took a sweet forever to fill in my calendar to fake like I was planner.  I vow not to do that again.  I bought the same planner from Jolanthe (her blog is a great resource) for next year.

I need to sit down in the next week and map out the school days.  I have my curriculum ready to go.  We’re continuing with Shiller Math (a Montessori approach that I love) and Explode the Code for phonics.  We’re also going to use Write From the Start (vol. 2 because that’s all I could find), Galloping the Globe for social studies (includes lots of activities), Sonlight Science, attend our weekly co-op for art, music, and PE, go to Awana, and sign up for a sports clinic.

It seems like a lot but with the cool planner, a shower, and an Energy vitamin every morning, we’ll find our Super Star groove and make it to Thanksgiving.

Father’s Day

Our Father’s Day weekend festivities began with a phone call.  It was Mike calling from his cell phone asking me if I just tried to reach him.  No, that’s weird; it wasn’t me.

It didn’t take but a second to realize that Mini must have hit the redial button on our phone.  Apparently she really wanted to talk to him because, from this end, they had enough of a conversation that I had time to get the camera to take a picture.  

She was very excited about Father’s Day.

A few hours later we packed our bags and headed north to West Virginia to have dinner with my dad and Barbara, then headed farther up the road to spend the night at Pops and Nana’s.  

I didn’t take one single picture of us at dinner (ugh!) nor did I act fast enough to take out the camera when Max was presenting his Father’s Day presents.  He decorated plates for Dad, Grandad, and Pops with magic marker.  His creations were definitely thoughtful – for Mike he drew a scary monster, for Grandad a train (some passengers were aliens with four eyes and two mouths), and for Pops he drew a haunted house.  All made with love.

When we got to Pops and Nana’s house, no one was home.  Now how do you like that?  I’m just kidding, we knew they would be a dinner party.  We walked in and Max was excited to see a new Bionicle (latest obsession) on the counter waiting for him.  

The next day we grilled steaks (I use the term “we” loosely), and relaxed all day enjoying each other’s company.  We had the BEST homemade peach ice-cream, too.  Mini was in heaven over the ice-cream.  (As we all were, it tasted like the inside of a creamcicle and I could’ve eaten all 2 gallons without any shame.  That’s exactly how I picture it to be like in heaven.)

Mini was so funny eating the ice-cream.  She took her first bite while she was walking around so it was “on the go” but as soon it hit her taste buds she stopped in her tracks and came back for more.  Then she’d open her mouth real wide like this.   

Want.  Want.  Want more ice-cream.

Seriously!  Look how wide she is holding her mouth open!  This is not a usual occurrence when I feed her.  This girl looooves her ice-cream.

Ohhh.  So goood.

I had to get some video coverage of this.  It was so funny!

Today we are back home (and having homemade peach ice-cream withdrawals) and wrapping up a great Father’s Day weekend.  We picked-up Outback for lunch and Max informed us that his Sunday School teacher said he needed a special outing today.  I suggested that they go see Up at the movies and before I turned around they were out the door.  Then tonight we watched The Express after the kids went to bed.  Great movies and a great weekend!

Instinct to Mother

Which came first?  The little mommy or the little hen?  

Roller Coaster

Since he was two, I have heard people predict numerous times that Max would be a kid who’d love roller coasters.  The other day we went to Hershey Park (mmmmmm chocolate) and he rode his first coaster, The Comet.

Yep.  He loved it!

Surprisingly, he didn’t want to go on it again.  I think the long line made it less appealing.  He was just as happy once he discovered rides with a shorter wait.  

Plus, riding with your weirdo mom is really fun when you’re six.