Even more to update about

Just so I don't forget to include this, I want to mention that both the girls have really been into fixing hair lately.  Mostly it has been Ailey that really has the fascination with Brea following along because she wants to do what her big sister is doing. ;)  Ailey has been more concerned with her hair looking nice and she has consistently worked on my hair.  Right now, they are each brushing and "fixing" one side of my head of hair each.  Its very interesting trying to type in the process. :)

Okay, on to more happenings in this household.  We basically had a lot of things transition and shift around the same time within the last three months.  Its been a very interesting and challenging time.  Lots of good has come out of it all, for sure, but some of it had the pain of a birthing process.   For a while now we have been a part of a house church located in Round Rock.  It has been completely AMAZING!  We pretty much got adopted and adopted them right back.  They are fantastic peeps and I am soooo blessed to call them family AND friends.  The fellowship and relationship is so rewarding and compelling and it feels like home.  In addition to being part of that, I was also going to a church also located in Round Rock.  Round Rock is a good hour away, so were doing a bunch of driving on Sundays. ;)  The other church, True Life Fellowship, is also completely wonderful!  The atmosphere that they have invited there is also like coming home, but in a larger setting.  God is doing amazing things in both places and being a part of both families has been such a good thing.

Recently Sam shared a desire for a closer place to go and build relationships.  I told him that if he could find something similar with like hearted peeps, I was all in.  I believe Daddy God has a heart to see his kiddos all be like hearted despite having different purposes and callings in life.  I have a dream of sorts that someday, no matter where on earth a family of believers happens to be located, that anyone that is part of the larger family of believers or someone who has never met Jesus can walk into that place and it feels like coming home.  So, he had been introduced to a church through some different people over the course of several years, but it hadn't worked out to visit and this seemed like it was the right time.  We walked in and by the end of it all, it felt like coming home.  We are loving where God is leading and the amazing things He is doing and it is just exciting on a whole new level we didn't even know was possible!  While we won't be able to go to True Life very often, we will still be going to house church on a regular basis.  The cool thing is, I believe we are supposed to be connected to each one of these families for specific reasons and God is making a way for it to happen.

Something else that has been in the works since the beginning of last fall is the process of me going back to college.  I found out that my education benefits had been changed and that I had 5 more years than I had previously.  Much of the framework has been done.  I still have a bit more to get turned in and then will have to wait until registration for the fall semester.  The biggest question was what was the best option for the kids.  There is a Christian school not too far from our house and not too far from the college and seemed like the perfect answer.  In pursuing this option, I knew it would be a bit of an uphill battle because we were so far behind this year in home school.  We started out at a great pace at the beginning of the year, but between holidays and sickness from Thanksgiving on, we were limping along on into March. It felt for a long time that our days were chaotic and ruling us instead of orderly and time being used wisely.  This was also around the time when I got fed up with being tired all the time.

There were two things we had to do before the kids could be enrolled in the school.  We had to come in for a family interview and then there would be a follow up evaluation to place the boys in the appropriate grades.  The girls were no problem because Ailey would be starting Kindergarten and Brea would be in pre-K.  The family interview went well and though I noticed some personality differences, I wasn't overly concerned about anything at that point.  Rather than being concerned with my kids being able to do the learning part of being in a school, I was way more concerned with how they would handle having to sit in a classroom and behave in a very structured system since that really hasn't been their homeschool experience.  They've always done well in their co-op classes and at AWANA and VBS, but I was still a little concerned about that transition.

When we came back for the evaluation, I again informed the person we were meeting with that we were way behind and that we were in the process of catching up.  There was also a rather large difference in curriculum and the way the information is presented.  It all just went downhill from there.  There was definite personality conflict with the evaluator with both the boys and lots of irritation with the boys not being able to do the things she was presenting.  While I did listen to the whole process, I was outside the room and did not interfere.  I wanted to see how the boys would do with someone else instructing them.  Since, I had not had any sort of reference pertaining to dealing with a Christian private school and the whole process, I didn't know what should be normal procedure and what should be a warning flag.

After the evaluation was done, I went in and spoke to the evaluator by myself and it was the first time any sort of irritation and disdain has been aimed at me for homeschooling and not doing it someone else's way.  It was a very surreal situation.  After the person explained to me that the boys were no where near where the kids in the school were, being at least a year to a year and a half ahead of public school kids, that she could not place them in the school.  The girls were still welcome, but the boys would not be.  I asked about tutoring, reminding this person about us being behind in our schedule, as I thought there might be a curriculum presentation difference as well and if we could have someone get the boys familiar with their curriculum it might make a big difference.  That was shot right down with a short statement of, "We don't do tutoring."  It was suggested we might try sylvan learning center, though this person had no experience with them or how they operate.  I was nearly in desperation mode with trying to find some way to make it still work out.  I came home trying not to cry and be completely discouraged and got online and looked up the curriculum they use to see if it would be feasible to maybe switch over to it at the point.  There was also no guarantee that there would be openings in the school for them if we went back in the summer to re-evaluate.  Honestly, I was a bit beside myself and asking God if I had gotten it wrong about me going back to school.

I felt immediate peace about that and then decided to get some advice from someone who had home schooled and then put their kiddo into Christian private school.  I called my sis-in-law and asked her what she did to get her kiddo ready for that kind of transition.  I ended up explaining what had just happened and instead of giving me a plan of action dealing with curriculum, she informed me that she was very concerned that the evaluator (who also holds a position of authority in the administration as well as being a teacher there) responded to the kids with irritation and impatience as well as being unwilling to work with me at all with any other options.  She said that the school her kids go to wanted her kids there and wanted their family to be a part of the school and they were willing to go to great lengths to support the transition of getting them to where they needed to be.  There are teachers who tutor in the summer months for extra money and there were book lending options to get familiarized with the curriculum and several more things that really made me ponder everything about my experience.  After that, I felt a lot better and instead of wallowing in discouragement and self-pity I decided that things needed to change as far as the way I operated on a daily basis and that though the school I was aiming at for my kids to attend might be completely fantastic for other families, it was just not a good fit for ours.  It was God giving me a definitive no for that place.

Several things happened over the next few days.  I asked God to give me creative ideas of what to do about the kids and school.  I also downloaded an app called Daily Routine and put our entire home school schedule complete with alarms when each subject starts and when it is time for breaks including meal prep and meal time.  I also made a commitment to get myself out of bed an hour earlier with the goal of shifting that to an even earlier time at a later date to begin to mimic how the schedule will be in the fall.  This is also right about the time that I changed how we are eating so I also downloaded a meal planner and am steadily working on incorporating that into daily life.  The routine app has been a wonderful thing!  Because I was able to compartmentalize our day, I have been able to do double days of school and we have done about 7 weeks worth of school in the last 4.  We are almost where we should be and should be done with school mid-June.  Its a relief and I'm loving the orderliness of it all!

The kids are learning a ton and retaining it and for the most part, aside from disliking how regimented it is ;p, they are thriving.  So good.  The most ironic thing is that a good chunk of the things that they didn't know at the evaluation because they hadn't been introduced to it yet in our curriculum was in fact introduced within the next couple of weeks. :)

God also very much answered my plea and gave me the idea of having someone come in and sub for me 2 mornings each week while I have to be in class, so we will still be homeschooling.  We have someone who is praying about taking the job.  It would be a very good fit for our family, but we want to make sure it is a good fit for her as well.  I just know as soon as that was an option, all the craziness just calmed down and there was peace again.  Putting the kids in school would have had new challenges for us and been a lot of work in its own way.  Home schooling while I'm going to school will have its own challenges as well, but we really think its the way to go for our family.

Another idea was putting them in a Christian school that is much farther away.  I called to find out more info and shared what had happened in my earlier experience with the other school.  She said they test using the Stanford Achievement Test and that they do have teachers who tutor in their off months.  She also asked if we would be willing to have the kids repeat their current grade.  At first, my pride took hold and I didn't even want to consider it, but almost immediately I squashed that down because I want what is best for the kids.  Sam and I talked about it and he didn't have a problem with that option.  In the end, I felt I could really get us caught up and it wouldn't even be an issue. While we don't think putting them into this school is right for this next year, it is still an option for future ones if it is a good fit for our family.

Today's pictures brought to you by the letter F

Zekes and Lerlu are learning the letter F and they made a frog and also a fox....here is the artistic process in action:

this is super blurry and completely out of focus, but still conveys the idea...this is what Brea looks like on Blue's Clues a.k.a. crack for babies.

My Husband is A-Mazing!

We are gearing up to start our school year in a couple of days and I had an epiphany...well, of sorts.  The kids usually end up all bunking in the same room, so I thought to myself that it would be nice to turn the other bedroom into a homeschool room.  As usual, I'm flying by the seat of my pants trying to get it done and I've been toying with the idea of a triple bunk bed for a while.  So, Sam went to help our friend move this morning and when he came home, he found me eye deep in pondering how I could possibly turn the boy's current bunk beds into a triple bunk.  Didn't want to spend any money, you see.  Just wanted to use what we had on hand.  He said I was crazy.  He's starting to come around to my upcycling obsessiveness.  Well, after much collaborating together, we came up with a plan and we (read mostly Sam) went to work on it. :)  Poor man is now pooped, but looky at what he built!

The kids are giddy with excitement!  They are loving it.  We have a few more boards to add after some more money gets allotted for this project.  I'm also going to put up curtains on rods for the two lower bunks and a tent for the top.  We had all that wood on hand and the two upper bunks are the same metal bases from the previous bunk beds...Now, I need to figure out what to do with the head and foot boards from the other bunks.... ;)
I so wanted to paint the kids' room today.  I have some paint out in the garage and was sorely tempted, but I figured I could get to that another day.... I might paint the school room first since it will be mostly empty for a split second before I start setting up shop in there...  All I know is that it will feel better in both rooms once the unfortunate colors get hidden under much more soothing neutrals.  I think almost 3 years is enough time spent with those colors. :)

Busy Bag Alooza!

I am involved in a busy bag swap and I am super excited!  I had the opportunity to be a part of one back in the winter, but I just couldn't get myself together enough to participate. :(  Now, I find myself NEEDING busy bags for my two middle kiddos.  NEEDING, I say!  So, I am going to put a list of as many busy bag ideas I can find on here.  Its gonna get all crazy up in here, so watch out!

#1 - Art bag - small notebook, short colored pencils or crayons and stickers.  Here is a good example.

#2 - I spy bag - no sew tutorial here, but I would just run a stitch along the inside edge of the zipper to make sure little fingers can't open it....or you can glue a ribbon over the zipper.

#3 - dry erase kit - example found here

#4 - popsicle stick puzzle

#5 - sensory balloons

#6 - felt faces

#7 - felt dress up dolls

#8 - button snake

#9 - pipe cleaner activity

#10 - felt monsters

#11 - #a lot:) - this blog has bunches of options!

Okay, maybe not so crazy up in here per se, but that last link is a doozy!  I just got tired of posting it myself.  Why do that when someone else has already done all the leg work?!  Well, should you choose to accept this mission....it should at least prove interesting! :)

Braden's First Six Weeks

Whew!  We made it through the first six weeks of school!  Braden is really doing well and I am starting to get used to being lots more structured in how we do school here.  I decided a certificate was in order, so I made one up and printed it out on card stock and presented it to him.  We got a shot of it.

I'm going to rework the certificate a little bit...I'm not quite satisfied with it, but I like adding this to the reward system.  I hung it on our dining room wall, since that is our school room, too. :)  Sam is really doing an excellent job being Braden's math teacher.  I am so glad he's doing that subject with Braden instead of me.  I learned math in a round about way and I'd rather Braden learned it way better than me!  I'm pretty sold on Sonlight and intend to start Zekes on it next year for Kindergarten.  Braden was having issues holding his pencil and writing.  He was holding it using all four of his fingers to guide the pencil and he was moving his whole arm and wrist to write.  I had my mom and Aunt Kathy (both Occupational Therapists!) take a look-see and my Aunt Kathy had him try a few things and then I implemented one of them pretty strongly at home every time he writes and it has made a huge difference!  Right now, he puts the pencil between his first and middle fingers with his thumb supporting from behind to train him to set his pencil on that middle finger and to use those three fingers to guide his pencil.  He tried writing with his first finger on the top of the pencil in correct form and he did really well for a bit, but still wasn't there all the way yet.  I think it will be soon, though!  He also remembered another technique that Aunt Kathy had him try that he wasn't able to at the time and when he tried it again without any sort of prompting from me, he was able to do it very well and was extremely excited about it!  I really enjoy that about him!

Right now, Zekey is doing a great job of learning his letters.  He's already got his numbers 1-10 down and we are working on 11-20.  He knows all his colors and shapes and matching and sorting and all that good stuff.  He enjoys doing school work, too, only in smaller increments.  He's really funny because he'll have hardly done anything and he'll ask if he can take a break.  He so loves to do what Braden does.  Ailey goes into stealth mode and will take a page out of Zekey's workbook and draw on it.  She likes doing school, too. ;p  Here are some pics of her using a particularly interesting writing technique:

That's my girl! :)

Homeschool Mania, Week 2!

I don't know if I'm actually going to keep up with this topic from week to week, but I did feel compelled to do another post about it. :)

This week has been super-duper crazy.  We had our two round-trips to Georgetown to get the 'puter fixed, which totally disrupted those two days, Monday and Tuesday.  We ended up doing school work well into the first evening and then the second we had to stop short because we had a home group to attend.

Somewhere in there Zekey's curriculum arrived in the mail and I worked on and off printing out all the workbooks for him for next week..... He's very excited that he has his own school stuff. :)

Wednesday was kinda off because I woke up and couldn't really talk.  Sonlight has LOTS of reading involved for the parents and....yeah, you get the idea.  I still read what I could, but I couldn't do any of the different voices for the characters. :(  Sam, had to read the next chapter in The Red Sails To Capri that we are reading for part of Braden's history lesson.

Thursday, I was supposed to go to worship practice, but thanks again to these allergies 'o mine, I didn't think a croaking frog was going to help with the harmony there. ;)

Thursday was a bit better, but my voice was still playing hide and seek.  We didn't get anything done that morning, but did manage to get all the way ready for Co-op.  My 6-8 yr old science class went really well.  I way over-prepared just to make sure we weren't all twiddling our thumbs for 10+ minutes at the end of the hour.  I am so very blessed to have my friend and co-conspirator co-teaching my classes with me!  Thanks, Ali!  The 3-5s was chaotic to say the least.  We attempted to do an eggs on spoons race with plastic eggs on plastic spoons with 29 kiddos in a small space and well...we just didn't accomplish that feat.  I felt so bad because several of the kids didn't get a turn because we just stopped and did snack instead. :(  Oh, well!  AND, I had a new song to sing on my phone and with all the noise in the class we couldn't hear the words and it was nearly like a comic routine.  I definitely learn what NOT to do a little bit more each week.  I should have it down pat by the last day. :)  Anyway, I definitely want to tweak for next week.

We also had a birthday partay to attend and went to get some silly things for the gift.  Mission accomplished!  We went to the party and stayed out way later than we had intended.  (Good company will do that, you know! Happy Birthday, Jason!:)

Friday, a whole lot of nada got done!  I was exhausted and my voice was still being sketchy.  I did, however, get the house in some sort of order.  My "fang shooey" was constipated so I had to get my groove going again for the sake of my sanity!  Saturday was just a huge blur and Sunday we chilled (at least for a little bit until I decided the living room needed to be rearranged!), so we get to do a double day of school this week.  Whew! Basically, I've decided that I will be doing only minimal extra activities this week and possibly next week.  Need a break and I need to get back in a routine!

I now understand why certain homeschool heros of mine do not answer their phones during the day or after a certain age participate in co-op!

'Til the next installment of Homeschool Mania...

Homeschool Mania! Week 1

This week was our first week of school.  I originally was going to begin last week, but decided to hold off for another week to see how the first day of co-op was going to go.  This semester I decided to go for extra craziness and teach two classes.  Here's a breakdown of how it goes.  There are 3 hours of co-op.  The rule is you have to either teach or assist.  You can teach one and assist one, teach two, or assist two.  Theoretically, you get one of the three hours off.  Many times there is a need to fill in for someone who can't be there.  Okay, so there was a need and I decided to go for it.  Yeah.  I'm enjoying the teaching part, but the prep part is challenging.  I got one of my classes' itinerary finished completely, while the other one is still in rough draft form and I'm finishing up the guts of it each week.  On the plus side, I've started going to the library lots!  I haven't been to the library for about 5 or 6 years.  I never really needed to...the internet is so stinkin' handy at times.  Anyway, I'm enjoying using the library resources and hopefully, the kiddos will get to where they enjoy going, too.

We went with Sonlight for Braden and Cait's Curriculum for Zekes and possibly Ailey....  I am waiting to start Zekey's next week because I ordered his curriculum late and I am grateful for the reprieve to get Braden in a groove first.  Its been a crazy week, but its been good.  Braden stays busy almost the whole day.  I've got to figure out how to plan play/down time into our day, but we'll get it.  The Sonlight curriculum is VERY structured and I'm going to have to tweak it a bit to fit us a bit better, but so far, I really like it lots.  I like how it is set up and the kinds of info that is integrated all together.  I love how I didn't have to put any of it together, though I must say it would have behooved me to study the instructor's guide quite a bit more before the first day instead of just diving in.  You kind of have to figure it out.

The reason for getting Zekey started later is I really thought that the My Father's World curriculum that I have was pre-k.  Its Kindergarten.  So I got online and did a thorough search for Chrisitan pre-k curriculum and came across Cait's Curriculum.  It is a cd-rom that has all the stuff on it.  You can print out however many you need.  No limit.  You can use it with as many children as you want, which was a plus for us!  It is comprehensive and all set up as far as structure and scheduling.  All I have to do is print the stuff out.  It was also not much more than I paid for the MFW, which is good, but not the way I wanted to go this time around.  I want something that I don't have to keep purchasing the consumables with and that is a much more put together for me.  I intend to have the littles go through this curriculum and then Zekes will start on Sonlight next year, too.  By the time Zekey hits second grade, we'll only have to buy the full curriculum for Braden each year and only the consumables for the other kiddos as we go along in each grade.  LOVE that!!!