Weekly Wrap-Up ~ My Hands and Heart Are Full

What a Week ~ This week has been filled to the brim with activities. We had 11 out of the home commitments this week which included multiple dance classes, physical therapy for Tom Sawyer, genetics appointment for Goldilocks, interview with new mental health placement for Goldilocks, mental health therapy for son Tim, last day of homeschool tutorial classes, and mental health therapy for Tom Sawyer. Yes, my hands are very full, but my heart is full, too. I feel so blessed to homeschool. How would we manage this life of appointments if we didn't?

Life was busy on the home front as well. We had six more windows replaced. Two years ago, we replaced eight windows. We have been working our way around the house. Now, we just have seven to go to complete the house. I hope we can accomplish the last of the windows by Christmas, but the roof may insist on being replaced first. We also removed and sealed off the old metal chimney that went nowhere and pumped plenty of cold air into our basement during the winter. It feels so good to keep working away at the To Do List. Our house should be much warmer next winter with these improvements.

Highlights from the Week ~ 

Sunday ~ We had a lovely and calm Mother's Day. My husband and kids took my Mom and me out to Boston Market for lunch. We had a lovely lunch and spent the day hanging out. I told my husband that I didn't want to cook or even look at the kitchen all day. He made breakfast, took us out for lunch and then grilled dinner. It was awesome to have a day off from kitchen duty. My lovely white iris that my oldest child, Tim, gave me on Mother's Day last year is putting on a beautiful show.

Monday ~ Monday was filled with big and stressful appointments. The most stressful one was meeting and interviewing a new potential mental health placement for Goldilocks. It went better than expected, and I think the new placement will be a good fit for Goldilocks. We also ended up with a flat tire. Thankfully, we were in a parking lot, my Mom was able to come pick us up and my hero husband changed it that evening. We ended up needing two new tires, but all is well that ends well.

Tuesday ~ We managed to get a full day of school completed before 3:00 pm! I love it when this happens.

Wednesday ~ Between physical therapy and dance classes, we were away from home for hours. However, we got all of our school work done!

Little Red Riding Hood is in pink.

Tom Sawyer in an extra rehearsal.

Thursday ~ This was the craziest day in the week. We had a genetics appointment for Goldilocks, and it was the last day of homeschool co-op classes, complete with parties. When I arrived to pick up Goldilocks from school, the school was under perimeter lock down! I had to go through several check points to make it to the office and get Goldilocks released. Apparently, there was a suspected threat outside and the police with rifles had surrounded the building. It is so hard to let her be in school. It so goes against my principles. Frankly, I have seen nothing that increases my confidence in the public school system in this area.

Friday ~ Finally, we had a catch-up day. We balanced school and errands. We are facing the busiest week of the month next week. It is tech week before the big spring dance performance. Of course, there are lots of other important things going on as well. We are done with our required hours for this school year so the rest of school is all icing on the cake. I have a few more things that I want completed before we rest. We have just three weeks to go. I hope we get all of the loose ends tied up.

What We Did for School Time ~

• Watched the movie I Remember Mama
• Finished The First Four Years
• Started The City of Ember (audio book)
• Read a few chapters from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• Completed many language arts pages (Little Red Riding Hood has 130 pages to go which is great considering that she had over 350 pages a few weeks ago).
• Did Teaching Textbooks daily
• Went to co-op classes
• Read Middle School Astronomy -- three chapters
• Read a lot during independent reading time
• Watched CNN Student News daily
• Read aloud An American Story 100 True Tales ~ 12 stories that were all review of history we learned about this year
• Completed Draw Write Now Book 2
• Made bread, Banana Sour Cream Cake, and chocolate covered bananas

Blessings, Dawn

Inhale...Exhale...All Shall Be Well

As we say goodbye to the first week of May, we feel a bit frazzled. Yes, there is some panic in the ranks. Will the language arts workbooks be completed in the next four weeks...and what about those remaining math lessons? They seem to be multiplying instead of reducing in number! Let's not even talk about end-of-year testing (which I haven't even ordered) or the pollen count! Both my kids are experiencing nerves for the first time about their dances. Neither is feeling particularly prepared for the end-of-year performance. I am sure their dances will come together in the next few days, but they are shaken up more than I have seen them in the past. I think it is just the pressure of being in Tween Company. Little Red Riding Hood is on stage in every scene but one. That is a lot of dances and costume changes! Tom Sawyer has less to prepare for when it comes to dancing. However, there is a lot of prep work for the youth group Sunday (in which they run the entire church service). Yep, we are all feeling the pressure. At least, my Mom came through her surgery well and is doing better. Thank you for your prayers!

The kids made a Viking village from a paper kit.

Screen-Free Week ~ Yikes! As if we didn't have enough on our plates, I decided to have the kids join the challenge of screen-free week this week. A few local stores have some great incentives if they can hang in there and resist the lure of the screen. They are almost miserable about it, but they are struggling through. I have been limiting my time on the computer to writing this post and taking care of email and Ebay. It has been eye opening for all of us. I see there are certain hours when we all (some of us desperately) want to crash and chill out in front of a screen. However, I have seen a great improvement in reading for Tom Sawyer. In fact, he has read two chapter books and six graphic novels this week (so far). Little Red Riding Hood has been struggling with the lack of screen time much more than I thought she would. I definitely think this is something we should incorporate into our life more often!

Tom Sawyer bought this Lego set with his birthday money. It came in handy during screen-free week.

A Goldilocks Update ~ I haven't talked much about Goldilocks lately. There hasn't been that much new to report or at least that I feel is my place to report. I have a lot to say about her school experience. However, I want to wait until the year is out and make a complete report of her experience. Unfortunately, it has been extremely eye opening and in a very negative way. As for her mental health team, we are about to experience some big changes. She is going to be moving to a new mental health home in the next few weeks. Her current provider is beyond done and we are interviewing a new home next week. Hopefully, it will be a good placement. We are having a very difficult time finding someone who is qualified and is willing to do an in-depth assessment of her mental health. The team suspects a major diagnosis is coming and no one wants to be the one to give it to a child. We are probably going to have to travel across state to get services for her.

What we accomplished "school wise" ~

• Went to writing class and math class
• Almost finished reading The First Four Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Completed five more chapters of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• Completed five more lessons Teaching Textbooks 
• Watched CNN Student News daily
• Completed PowerPoint on Vikings for Culture Club
• Completed report on Norway and Vikings for Culture Club
• Kids made two strawberry apple pies
• Completed two lessons in Draw Write Now
• Listened to survey of 1960's folk music (post on our music exploration coming soon)
• Spent lots of time doing independent reading
• Built a paper Viking village from a kit
• Attended Culture Club
• Spent 30 minutes a day doing workbook pages

The kids also attended all of their dance classes and extra rehearsals. We made it to the library twice this week. We are looking forward to a fun and peaceful Mother's Day. I am hoping to do some kind of fun outing but haven't had the time to wrap my brain around what we could do. I hope all of you have a wonderful Mother's Day!

Blessings, Dawn

May is Here ~ Now the "Crazy" Really Starts!

The last week of April was a whirlwind. My youngest son turned 13!! This week there were parties, appointments, out of the home classes and lots of sugar. My son received some awesome presents that have kept our homeschool fun and educational this week. We are finishing the week off with a bang! My mother is having surgery today and we would appreciate your prayers. Since I am short on time, this will be more of a picture post than a word post.

Tom Sawyer on the far right invited four friends and his sister to go roller skating. 

They had a wonderful time.

We decorated the house with caution tape as a joke. Everyone says the teen years are so hard. My experience has been that some years are hard and some aren't, all the way from infancy, through childhood to adulthood. Actually, my 11 year old is giving me more issues currently than my 13 year old.

Awesome Learning ~ 

• Thinking Putty was a popular gift that has been experimented with all week.
• The Snap Circuit Rover is awesome. The kids have performed eight experiments with it so far.
• We finished up our Tinker Crate box about polymers. The kids made plastic out of milk and expanded the polymers in a gummy bear (the before and after is in the collage photo above).
• They love the Plus Plus building set Tom Sawyer received.
• We continued with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and started The First Four Years.
• The kids did reading, CNN Student News, math and language arts daily.
• We started reading about the 1960's.
• We enjoyed a "taste" of 1960's music (a list of songs will follow in a future post).
• The kids did four lessons in Draw Write Now.
• They attended all of their out of the home classes.
• Dissected a rose under our stereo microscope.
• Tom Sawyer made mustache cupcakes for celebrating his birthday with his dance class. Aren't they cute?

Making plastic out of milk

This is just the beginning of our busy season. The kids will be logging 59 hours at the dance studio before the month of May comes to an end. There is end-of-year testing and a host of subjects to wrap up. But the end of the year is within sight ~ not that anyone is actually complaining about doing school. What a blessing it is to homeschool! 

Blessings, Dawn

Family Room Tween/Teen Makeover ~ Homeschool Style

Tomorrow we will have a teenager in our home. I can hardly believe that I only have one remaining child under 13! The years race away! I am so blessed to have these years at home to train and enjoy my kiddos. This year I have seen the kids let go of many toys. Things that used to be permanent fixtures in our home, such as Lincoln Logs, Playmobil and Polly Pockets, have given way to guitars, computer time, reading and crafts. They are growing and preparing for adulthood. With that in mind, it is time to rethink our family room. This room has been utilized much less than I expected since we moved to this house. When we moved here, I thought this room would be the hub. Instead, the kitchen/dining room is by far the hub of our home. The library room in our home is very popular with adults, but not used by the kids much. They take their books to their beds. I wanted to give the kids a place to explore their interests and a public place to hang out with friends. We do not allow friends of the opposite sex into bedrooms ~ NOPE ... NO WAY ... NOT HAPPENING!

First, I will share an overview of the room from opposite corners. We are blessed with ample space in our home.

As you can see, we have lots of seating space for family or friend movie nights. Now, I will go around the room and show you all the highlights.

I bought this sewing machine a few months before we became foster parents and immediately brought Tom Sawyer and Goldilocks home. I haven't touched it in 13 years. It has been living at my mother's home, getting an occasional workout. I've been really busy. However, I have great hopes that Little Red Riding Hood and I will be sewing on it by the end of the summer.

This is our microscope corner. We are blessed with two different types of microscopes. Grandma gave the children a stereoscope (on the left) for Easter. It took us some time to figure out how to make it work with our old computer, but now it is a great tool. I will show you how we use it in a future post. The compound microscope on the right was purchased for Tim (our oldest son) when he was in homeschool high school.

Our Lego corner. Lego's are the most played with "toy" in our home. They seem to be retaining their popularity into the years of puberty.

This is our media area. The kids play on the Wii, watch DVDs, and listen to music and audio books on the CD player. They occasionally watch a cooking show on cable. 

This is our overflow cabinet of science and math manipulatives that are not part of our current lessons. The bottom shelf also holds games that are not currently in use or require floor space to play. 

Below our science/math cabinet are Tom Sawyer's physical therapy supplies. The Bosu ball is used to train midline strength and stability, as well as for balance and coordination. The blue beam next to it is for him to lie on to stretch his chest wall.

Lastly, we have our multipurpose wall. On this wall is our "getting ready to leave the house area" (coats, shoes, etc.), Tim's microwave, library book area, the guitars (one has wandered to my son's bedroom), and a bookcase filled with all of our kids's medical records, continent boxes and seasonal books.

We are really fortunate that the room is large enough that there is still plenty of floor room for gymnastics, dancing or putting together a project that requires lots of floor space. 

What would you add to a tween/teen space?

Blessings, Dawn

Lots of Science Fun

Our season of "extreme busyness" is well underway. The kids performed in the Tween Company showcase last weekend. They did a great job and the show was really well done. They explored lots of different movements and spaces. They even had the audience move onto the stage while they performed in the seats. Unfortunately, the show's lighting was especially dark this time, so my camera was not able to take high quality photos.

Here is Tom Sawyer posing in one of the dances.

Little Red Riding Hood is on the far right siting up.

Tom Sawyer is on the left and Little Red Riding Hood is on the right.

Another Birthday ~ We had a lovely birthday dinner for Grandma. Little Red Riding Hood bought her a ticket to the showcase as a gift.

A Science Adventure at the Library ~ We attended a fantastic program at our local library where we learned all about liquid nitrogen. It was taught by a man who gave a wonderful presentation, including pouring the liquid nitrogen on the floor several times. It made a cold wave of gas that came over our feet. It was so cool! We followed up with this video to reinforce the concepts he taught.

Life Skills ~ We have been working on life skills and budgeting for some time now. The kids are being given $50 to pick out their own clothes for this summer. I told them that I would provide a swimming suit and two or three outfits of my choosing beyond what they could purchase with their own clothing allowance. Little Red Riding Hood shopped for her clothes this week. She asked to go to a local children's consignment shop. I think she did a good job for her first budgeted shopping spree. She thought carefully about what she had at home that still fit from last year and what would coordinate nicely. She got four complete outfits, an extra shirt and a pair of sandals. Tom Sawyer will be doing his shopping in the next week or two.

Our School Week ~ 

There was lots of learning this week. I love weeks that go smoothly. Here is a list of our learning:

• Read Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring ~ a lovely book about Martha Graham
• Did research for their next paper which is on Martha Graham
• Watched Appalachian Spring, which is a delightful play created by Martha Graham
• Finished two language arts workbooks this week
• Completed four Teaching Textbook lessons
• Started our lotus seeds that will turn into lotus flowers
• Started reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 
• Read five more chapters from the book, The Pushcart War 
• Watched three hours of the DVD, A Story of Us, which gave us a nice review/overview of World War II to September 11, 2001
• Spent several hours in independent reading
• Completed four lessons from Draw Write Now Book 2
• Watched CNN Student News daily
• Finished Lesson 3 of Minn of The Mississippi 
• Learned about the International Space Station
• Explored out latest Tinker Crate box, which is about polymers
• Attended writing and math classes at homeschool co-op

The kids made slime, putty and a bouncing ball with their Tinker Crate box. They conducted lots of experiments with their creations. There are a few more great creations to make next week. 

The last picture in the collage is the Mindware catalogue. There are some great science things in there. My dream list for next year is getting really long. What a blessing to homeschool!

Blessings, Dawn

Our Plans for the Last Seven Weeks of School

We decided to go to a 40 week schedule this year. Our state only requires 36 weeks. I am very pleased that we added on the extra weeks. We had some catching up to do, and learning truly is the focus of our days. My kids have never thrived with free time. They do so much better with structure and parent-led activities. This is our last week off before summer break, and my son has already been on the verge of tears twice because he can't figure out how to entertain himself without media. Ah, I digress. Here is the plan for our final seven weeks of school.

Literature ~ 

We will be reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Elijah of Buxton, and  Childhood of Famous Americans Mark Twain. We will also be having two poetry teas and learning two new kinds of poetry.

Science ~ 

We will finish reading through Focus on Middle School Astronomy and make a solar system model. We will also be doing numerous experiments from Exploring the Solar System. In addition, we will be attending some science days at the library and going on a few field trips to science museums. Lastly, we will be exploring our Tinker Crates as they arrive in the mail.

History ~ 

We will be focusing on the 1960's through present. We have already covered the Civil Rights Movement and the Space Race so these parts will be review. Our spine will be The Century. We will be using library books and DVDs to supplement. We will also be focusing on the Kennedy family.

Art ~ 

We will be completing books 2 and 3 of the Draw Write Now Series. We will also be having Art With Grandma. 

Geography ~ 

We will be picking up where we left off in our study of Minn and the Mississippi. We will also be studying Norway for our last Culture Club of the year. Lastly, we will be learning a little bit about Maryland in anticipation of our trip there this summer.

Math and Language Arts ~ We will be finishing up Teaching Textbooks 5 (Little Red Riding Hood) and 6 (Tom Sawyer). The kids will be finishing all of their language arts workbooks. Little Red Riding Hood has about 200 pages to go in three different workbooks, and Tom Sawyer has about 100 pages to go in several workbooks. Lastly, they will be writing a weekly paper. 

Out of the Home Classes ~ It is crunch time in their out of the home classes. In the next seven weeks, Little Red Riding Hood will be on stage in 11 shows in two different productions, and Tom Sawyer will be on stage in 12 shows in three different productions. There will be extra classes in preparation for all of these performances. Also, there will be out of the home math, drama, and writing classes. Lastly, Tom Sawyer belongs to our church youth group, and they will be running the entire service one Sunday in May. Yep, it is going to be a very busy Spring!

 UPDATE ~ I decided to make two changes before we even started the last seven weeks of school. I had a heart-to-heart discussion with Tom Sawyer about his drama class. He really hasn't enjoyed it this entire semester. I usually make my kids stick to their commitments. However, I decided to let him switch to the math class which is held at the same time if the teacher felt that his part could be easily replaced. She agreed and he switched to math. He is much more contented. 

Secondly, the kids received guitars off of Freecycle. They are both super excited about learning to play the guitar. I would normally say that our plate is full and that we will take up lessons in the fall. However, I have seen their interest in musical instruments lost when in the past I haven't encouraged them immediately. I really want them to know how to play an instrument, so we are fixing the guitars today (they need new strings) and starting lessons within the next two or three weeks. A teenage boy at our homeschool co-op has already offered informal lessons while we get formal lessons established.

Blessings, Dawn

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Egg Drop, Birthday, and Learning All the Time

Easter Egg Drop ~

We attended an Easter Egg Drop at a local private school. The crowds were huge and overwhelming with thousands of kids encircling an area the size of a football field. Tom Sawyer and Daddy decided to stay in the car at the end of the field, since they dislike crowds. They ended up having a fabulous view of the drop. I took Little Red Riding Hood up on a hill to get a good picture of the scene below. We decided that getting eggs just wasn't going to happen. In the end, a few eggs fell almost at our feet and Little Red Riding Hood got five. I had a few friends out in the crowd and one of them lost her child for several minutes. I am glad we stayed on the opposite side. It was enough of an adventure on the hill side. We were with all of the press and the helicopter came very close a few times. We all ran down the hill a few times to get away from the whirling blades!

Easter Morning ~

We had a nice Easter. The kids each got either a chocolate bunny or chicken plus one gift. Little Red Riding Hood received Bon Bon the dog; Tom Sawyer got some magnetic thinking putty; and Tim received some much needed socks. We sat in the balcony at church. It was a full house with standing room only for many.

Tim's Birthday ~

Tim turned 25 years old this week. How is it that I am a mother of a 25 year old? I know I started early. But, really? 25! He wanted a quiet time at home with BBQ from a local landmark. We had a nice dinner with cake and enjoyed watching him open his gifts.

Stem Activities ~

I was concerned that I wasn't getting enough STEM activities into our homeschool. Now, thanks to Tinker Crates, we are having lots of great STEM activities. This week Tom Sawyer made a crane. He did lots of calibrating to get it just right and was soon able to pick up very small items, like this miniature marshmallow.

Homeschool ~ We had a really good school week. I love it when it flows smoothly. The kids attended Culture Club this week. The country we learned about was Russia. The kids' presentation was about Faberge eggs. Their PowerPoint presentation came out well, and they are really improving in their speaking skills.

Here is the rest of our week ~ 

• Finished reading Mama's Bank Account
• Did 6 lessons in Draw Write Now Book 2
• Worked at Teaching Textbooks lessons daily
• Painted secret compartment wooden boxes
• Made wrapping paper
• Watched CNN Student News daily
• Watched Space Shuttle Columbia DVD
• PowerPoint presentation at Culture Club
• Read Keeping the Promise a Torah's Journey  (A great book about a Torah that was handed down from a Rabbi in a concentration camp and went to spSpace many years later)
• Lots of individual reading
• Lots of crafts
• Drama, writing, and math classes
• Dance classes

Tom Sawyer's Viking Costume ~ Tom Sawyer is going to a Viking costume party this weekend. Grandma worked with him on his costume. He also completed his metal sword with the help of one of his dance and theater instructors. It all came out great.

Blessings, Dawn