Domestically Employed

Something about these really warm, sunny days just brings yellow to mind…bright, intense yellow.  I am a bit of a heat wimp, but I am really enjoying the SEASON of summer.  I like when the seasons act like themselves.  I don’t even mind when they are a bit schizophrenic (which Seattle’s seasons often are), but I particularly enjoy the ESSENCE of each season.  For me, that means blustery winds and falling leaves in the FALL, cold, crisp mornings and some (limited) snow in the WINTER, lots of rain and drizzle with sun breaks in the SPRING, and sunny days during the SUMMER.  Can you tell which season is my favorite?  Probably not, because I don’t really have one.  I enjoy each one as it comes, and I love when they switch!  I am a weather-lover, I suppose, and I know so many people who complain about the weather that I make a particular point not to…just to be contrary.

It was a pretty great day.  We got to start out with a lovely Skype with the Chocolate Fam over in Switzerland.  Mrs. C and I enjoyed a little chat first and then she set a timer so the boys could talk and then the girls.  When I came back in a bit, it was time for the 4-5-yr-olds.  We got to see Mr. C’s childhood Lego collection and Beau showed them a baby picture of Kat.  All of this over the internet!  I love it.  My “friend bucket” felt fuller after I got to talk with my good friend!

I did my P90 workout (Sweat 3-4) after our chat…I wanted to get it in before the weather got much warmer.  The workout is called “Sweat,” and that’s what I did.

After the kids did their Latin and Math (yes, Meg, GREAT idea to keep track of that time!) we got our stuff together and headed to the library.  The kids had already passed the halfway point for their Summer Reading Plans, but I just hadn’t gotten all of us there with our paperwork.  Kat “Read 3 for 1 Free,” so she got to pick out a brand new book from the box.  Dane and Beau haven’t finished their plans completely yet (although they are close), so they got the KCLS notebooks.  Geneva actually finished her plan since it was a shorter one, and that meant she got the PEN to go with the notebook.  It fits in a little loop on the outside of the notebook, and Beau is VERY interested in it, so I have no doubt we’ll be headed back soon for Beau’s pen!

Kat reads non-stop, so no motivation is needed.  Dane has always been more reluctant, but for the entire summer, the rule has been that they have to be IN BED by a certain time, and lights out right then…UNLESS they want to read for 1/2 hour (or slightly more, as we sometimes forget to say quit!)  This has helped Dane improve his reading skill so much that he can be found reading for pleasure at OTHER times during the day…to my heart’s delight.  One of my favorite moments from the weekend was when Kat and I headed out to read in our folding chairs on the lawn.  We made sure we had just the right amount of shade, and then we read.  And read.  At one point, I looked up and saw my husband smiling at us, and that made me stop and ponder…A DREAM COME TRUE!!  I have ALWAYS dreamed of reading with my kids…not just reading TO them, but reading WITH them.

I had planned a pasta dish for dinner, but it’s just too warm to want to cook much, so we’re grilling instead.  I’ve got the baked beans on and I’m going to cut up a fresh pineapple to go with our burgers.  I’ll probably steam up some spinach quickly too, and make my kiddos turn up their noses as I season it with cider vinegar.  (I’ve been making baked beans more this summer, since Costco came out with the pre-cooked bacon in a huge package.  I dice up a little and saute it with onion…add a little mustard and ketchup…easy and yummy!)

I saw Beau writing his name with a backwards “E” today, which means I need to get back into our “100 Easy Lessons.”  We were progressing so well through that, but I’ve been slacking.

Time to finish up dinner…we have been eating on the deck ever since the weather turned warm, and I love that.  Thankfully, the bees haven’t been too bad yet.  I feel like I’m signing off in the middle of a mental paragraph, but what’s a busy mom to do?  :)  Happy Tuesday, ya’ll!

I just got the news that my cousin is going to be a mama for the first time!!!  Okay…she is my step-dad’s brother’s daughter.  Is that clear?  :)  So she is the first cousin of my half-brothers.  Ah, family.  Anyway, we are all thrilled for her and her hubby.  Fun stuff!

I am feeling awfully sore today.  I’ve kicked up to the next level with my workouts, and suffice to say…I missed having my rest day yesterday.  I was making up for having taken a rest day last Tuesday…don’t think I’ll be trying that one again.  It’s so nice to rest on the Day of Rest.

Today is piano day.  Time to get the kids moving…just wanted to post about the family expansion…:)

My sisters told me last night that I hadn’t updated my blog since April…I thought the worst and figured it was because of the surgery I had in the middle of the month.  But no!  I actually posted last on April 29, so….why have I been away?  I have no idea.  All I can figure out is that, once we switched to doing more school in the main living area, I just wasn’t sitting in my office at the end of the day any more.  And that’s when I did most of my posting.  Whatever.

It started out as a very grey day…it was even a bit chilly.  Somehow, I really loved the cool air across my face as I went down to collect eggs from the henhouse.  A bit later, as I was driving to pick up my nephews, the sun broke through and made everything bright and beautiful.  It also made me feel way too hot in the TWO (count them) sportsbras I am wearing.  I won’t go into it, but all you ladies probably know why I’m wearing two.  I have been trying to get my workout done earlier in the day, and I dress for it so it can happen at  a moment’s notice…!  However, today I decided to do some cleaning instead of hopping right into the basement for time with my trainer (video trainer, that is).  There is still hope for me, but I just couldn’t face starting my workout with Geneva crying.

Yes, Geneva is crying.  Or she was.  She seems to have stopped.  I think she really just needs a nap, but when she gets one, there is NO getting her to sleep at night unless it’s EXACTLY a certain length of nap.  In my efforts to determine that EXACT length, I have failed miserably by falling asleep myself, so the endeavor is losing steam.

I have been thinking lately about how great it is that my kids love their cousins.  When I was young and growing, my cousins were really like my siblings.  We didn’t really have a bunch of other families with kids who were related to us, like my kids have.  I always THOUGHT it would be really cool, but now I’m getting to experience the coolness firsthand.  They LOVE seeing their cousins.  They love hanging out with them and doing anything or nothing.  Yesterday, we got to have Will briefly.  It was MUCH too briefly, in Dane’s opinion, but then we went to the family BBQ so it was all good.  Today, we have Tay & Ave and the kids are so thrilled.  They already went up to “Riptik Heaven” (Bothell High) to ripstik on the ultra-smooth lot.  They all wore helmets like good kids and stayed together marvelously.  Now they are headed outside for some time in the woods.  Everyone is scheming to have cream puffs for dessert tonight… Oh.  Dinner.  I must put some thought into that.

Summer is going great so far, although June was just a blur.  We have tried to make it to all the family BBQ’s possible.  We went up to Orcas with the Chocolate Family and stayed in their farmhouse (sans electricity and running water).  The kids did music camp at PCCS and we celebrated Kat’s birthday with an ice-skating party.  We are in the process of selling our lake house, which has been a bittersweet experience.  It has been bitter in that we love the house and are sad to part with it.  It has been sweet in that the couple who want to buy it are really, really nice.  It’s kind of like giving your favorite pet to someone you really like, knowing it will be happy with them.  :)  I know that sounds silly, but I do think this is the first time we’ve sold a house (or almost sold, anyway) to someone we thought was really great.  I remember the last 2 houses we sold…the people who bought them were nice, but not people we’d ever want to spend time with.

The other things we’ve tackled this summer is Latin.  And Math.  They didn’t get through as much Latin as they needed last year, so we are making up time.  For Math, they are doing all those silly preliminary lessons that are so review-like in the fall…since they are doing them during the summer, they won’t need the review!  We are only doing Latin and Math on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and only during the weeks we have free of other major activities.  They won’t have any schoolwork while we are away at Eagle Point for our family vacation, for instance.

(Here’s a pic of the kids playing in the backyard pool!)

Aha…the other reason I haven’t blogged lately is because of what has been happening while I’m sitting here…I’ve had to get up and go solve problems for kids 4 times already!  All in a day’s work.  Honestly, though, I miss school!  I like the structure of school days and I really like teaching and learning.  In fact, it’s almost like SCHOOL is this great excuse to “force” my kids to sit and learn things with me!  Some people have kids who choose to do school for fun–my kids are not those kids.  They’d rather be drawing, writing, reading, Lego-building, fort-building, tree-climbing, sword-fighting, baking, rip-stiking…the list goes on.  So when it’s SCHOOL time, they HAVE to sit and spend time with me and learn stuff.  So I just like it.  And for their part, if they HAVE to sit and learn, they seem to like to do it with me.  Woo hoo!

Okay, time to tackle dinner.  And get those cream puffs thawing…:)

Oh, what a good week it has been so far!  Today was another good day.

We started with our Bible verses…I need to put in a couple new verses because the kids know all of them so well.  They don’t know where they are found as well as I’d like, but maybe we can make a game out of memorizing that part better.  We SAY the reference at the beginning and end, but it doesn’t seem to stick well (with me or the kids).  I was filled with delight today when they sang out in unison, “My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.  Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart.  Proverbs 4:20-21.”  I hope they remember all these verses forever.  I have confidence that they will.  Two of my old Sunday School students recently told me they remember the verses I taught them all those years ago.  Wow!

Next, the little ones did their cutting pages and letters while the big kids did Math.  I spent a bit of time with the kids during Math, and that worked nicely.  I found that doing Math in the dining room was less distracting than doing it in my office.  I tend to catch up on emails etc. at my desk, whereas I focused more on Math at the dining table.  I think I’m onto something here…:)  I was able to do corrections as the kids worked, and I spent some extra time familiarizing Kat with her new concept.  I thought I was already doing well with these things, but I am seeing that this way worked even better.  That’s good to know as I look toward next year.  As nice as it is to have a schoolroom, it may work much better to do some school in the main living area.

The kids did Grammar tests (#21) after Math.  The little ones went up to do a “Putt Putt” learning game on the computer with Bailey.  I think they also did some “Pajama Sam.”  Grammar went well–I looked over the classifying and the kids really seem to have it down.  They also did great filling in their pronoun-antecedent charts and changing verb tenses where needed.  They may make a fine pair of Grammarians yet!  :)  Their Vocab cracked me up today–we all learned a new word:  prolix.  (Call me crazy, but I didn’t know the meaning of this word until today.)  Prolix means, “given to speaking or writing at great or tedious length.”   That is so funny.  Now Mrs. Chocolate and I have a new word for our problem-solving sessions (although I would certainly leave out the word, “tedious,” since they are anything BUT!)  ”We have been so very prolix today that our guests shall be kept waiting at the door for us finally to arrive home!”  :)  (That one’s for you, Swissmama!)

We read our last 2 chapters for History next.  It was very exciting to read about the battles that took place near Edinburgh and Bannockburn.  There is one sentence that has stayed with me today…”As the English knight came thundering down, the king touched his palfrey with his spur, and the horse, carrying but a light weight, swerved quickly aside; De Bohun’s lance missed his stroke, and before he had time to draw rein or sword, the king, standing up in his stirrups, dealt him so tremendous a blow with his axe as he passed, that it cleft through helmet and brain, and the knight fell dead to the ground.”  Through helmet and BRAIN!  Dane let out a battle cry when he heard this part.  His very body seems caught up in the story and he moves a bit with the action.  Kat is less enthralled, but I think we all enjoyed this book very much.  The passage I typed out refers to a point in the story when an English earl decided to charge on Robert the Bruce when he was not yet in his battle gear.  Rather than retreat, Bruce decided to take the guy out with his battle axe.  So, as the story ended, the Scots gained every castle and hold that had previously been held by the English, and the English king (son of Edward I) fled for his life in a boat and returned to England.  According to the author, the English army that was gathered for this battle was greater than any before or any since.  Henty wrote, “Thus, at the appointed time over 100,000 men assembled, of which 40,000 were men-at-arms, and the rest archers and pikemen.  For the great armament the most ample arrangements were made in the way of war-like stores, provisions, tents, and means of transport, together with the necessary workmen, artificers, and attendants.”  What an impressive rout.  The Scots were far fewer in number.  Reading about the battle, it was clear that the sheer number of soldiers made things difficult for England.  Once the Scots regained Scotland, they went on to fight against the English in various ways for 14 years.  After Robert the Bruce died, his brother, Edward succeeded him.  He was not married, so when he died, the throne went to Bruce’s son, David II and then to the son of Bruce’s daughter, Marjory.  Marjory was married to the “Steward” of Scotland, which began the line of “Steward”….which became “Stewart”….which became “Stuart!”  Fascinating!  I’m going to dig up a picture of the kids with swords…

Okay, so it’s a Christmas picture.  But the kids look ready for battle, so just ignore the tree.  :)  To celebrate the end of our book, I surprised the kids by going to pick up McDonald’s sundaes…hot fudge.  While I was gone, the kids did Spelling.

Well, and as if it couldn’t get any better, the Chocolate Family came along and we all rejoiced!  Young Master Chocolate came with Dane and me to the foot doctor, and Kat and her good friend watched after the little ones.  We were only gone an hour.  The doctor recommended that Dane not play out the rest of the lacrosse season.  He likely has a “bone contusion.”  The doc is fairly confident that, after a month, the pain will decrease.  Therefore, we are hoping for Dane to do lacrosse camp this summer.  If his pain is NOT gone, the doc will order an MRI to check for fractures that might not show up with X-ray.  Dane’s a bit sad, but it’s not the end of the world.  I greatly enjoyed reading “Brothers Grimm” stories to the boys from my Kindle while we waited for the doctor–another good use for said device.  When we returned, Mrs. Chocolate, her oldest, and I had a wonderful time in our usual, loquacious way.

What  a great day!  (Did I already say that?)

I’m feeling better!!!  My surgery went great, but there were a host of silly little complications that kept me from being “back on my feet.”  I have hardly sat at my computer these last 2 weeks.  What school we have done, once spring break was over, has been done on the fly or from my comfy bed.  The kids managed to do their Math, Grammar & History pretty well, and they even had tests in Math and Grammar.

Drama is finished for the time being.  The kids performed their play, “A Comedy of Characters” for a wonderful audience.  Many of our family members were able to attend!  Kat did well as Prof. Doctor Dr. Von Wilbert, and Dane was Rudolph the Gypsy.  We were very impressed with the final product–it was lots of fun.

So yesterday, instead of going to Drama, the kids did Math and Vocabulary.  Then we had piano lessons, and we finished the afternoon with History.

Today, we started with Math and Literature, then we did Grammar.  Dane’s and Kat’s Grammar lessons have tracked pretty closely until now, so I’ve had to teach their lessons separately for the last week.  Dane is sharpening his skills with classifying mixed-pattern sentences.  I tried to stump him today, but he is pretty good at this whole thing.  His last lessons were on linking verbs, predicate nouns, and predicate adjectives.  Kat had been working on the different adjective forms (simple, comparative, and superlative), and today we continued on to personal pronoun-antecedent agreement.

We had lunch after Grammar, and we had a lunchtime visitor too.  That was really fun!

For History, I don’t even know where we left off.  Suffice to say that our hero, Archie, has married his lady love, Marjory.  They have done much to help Robert the Bruce in his quest to gain freedom for Scotland.  Yesterday, Archie was captured and placed in the cage of a castle far from home.  His wife and another friend freed him by shooting an arrow up with rope and tools attached.  In order to get out of the town, Archie had to take the place of a dead body that was being taken away in a coffin.  The Scottish supporters buried the dead guy under a woodpile and put Archie in his place so they could get through the city gate.  Fun stuff!  Today, we saw the Bruce take all of the south of Scotland and make great strides on the north as well.  In one memorable battle, Archie and 50 men managed to defeat an army of 1500.  Dane was impressed.  Archie’s wife, Marjory, has proved to be a great asset to him throughout.  The author’s perspective is that England (particularly good King Edward) was ruthless and evil in his treatment of Scotland.  Indeed, in reading this story, I was spurred on to read more about Scotland’s fight for freedom.  According to one site I perused, the Scottish parliament is presenting a bill to gain more complete freedom from the UK in 2010!  Currently, Scotland doesn’t have its own army, but rather the military is under UK authority.  If this passes, that would change.  I’m not sure which month this was supposed to be happening…I’ll have to find out more.  The kids will be interested to know, I’m sure.

We finished up with Spelling.  I’ve got to get rolling with some more Science.  I have so many things I could do, but I’m leaning toward using some of the DVD’s I have from “Answers in Genesis.”  I really want the kids to understand the importance of believing God’s Word with regard to Creation.  I am absolutely dumbfounded by how many Christians I know who have been affected by the teaching of evolution.  I ran into it at San Diego State University, and it was a rabid topic then.  Now, so many people have just come through the government-run schools that they don’t even see how it is robbing them of truth.

Okay, enough from my soap box!

I wrote a very lengthy post a couple days ago, and then I forgot to save it when I left the computer for a time…it was lost, sadly.  I wrote about our last couple days of school and referred to the fact that I have been suffering from ill-child syndrome and hubby-traveling syndrome both.  The kids seem better now, and hubby is not slated to travel for the next week, at least.

I had a migraine headache the night before Easter morning, the following morning and evening, and all through the night until Monday.  Mrs. Chocolate was more than kind to me–she gave me special electrolytes to drink, pushed on particular pressure points on my hands and neck, and got me a wonderful natural remedy called, “Migrainistik” or something like that.  What a friend!!!  She’s was my hero for the whole day!  I actually woke with a headache yesterday which worsened in the evening, but today, I woke to renewed health.  I’m back on my smoothies as of yesterday morning…hmmmmm

Bailey is on spring break and we miss her!  There is NO doubt that it is much easier to home school with a full-time assistant.  It is entirely possible to do without, of course, but having Bailey means I’ve gone most of this school year with nary a day of complaint (or nearly nary, anyway).  Haha…  Without help, I have found certain things more difficult.  Also, there are certain aspects I like.  We have another day or two without the Bails, so we’ll see how it goes.

Yesterday, Aunt Gretchen came and taught a Geography lesson to K & D and their cousin, Will.  Will’s mom came too with all her littles.  The big kids learned about using an Atlas and how to identify locations on a map using latitude and longitude.  They also learned about enlarging and reducing maps using graph paper.  She also did a reversible rabbit/duck craft project with them that included a marshmallow (always a hit ingredient!)  I wasn’t present for most of what they did, but that’s what I think they did.  Meanwhile, my sis and I did some preschool papers with the little ones (Beau did Kindergarten Math papers), and then we did some 1-to-1 correspondence work with pattern blocks.  I finished with a “Fairy in my Pocket” story.  The kids were amazing listeners, and I was particularly impressed with my 2 nieces, who knew the answer to every question I asked after the story.

We had a lovely lunch and the kids played while the moms talked.  I will post a couple pictures from our time together.  I really hope Aunt Gretchen comes back again–it was wonderful to have her here!  She told me she likes to teach about graphs…hmmm…I like this!

Today, we began with Math.  We continued with Math for some time.  I didn’t mean to do another “marathon math day,” but it seemed necessary.  Dane had made a number of silly mistakes with his last test (#18), and Kat had some issues with her assignment, though she did well on her test.  I am REALLY glad we are using Saxon.  I think Kat would benefit with extra practice with certain kinds of problems, but I make some up for her when we review in order to help with that.  Otherwise, if it were not for the Saxon method of constant cycling through old concepts as well as new, she would certainly forget how to do lots of things.  Her Math 7/6 book has her doing so much pre-algebra and pre-geometry–it’s rather amazing.  Dane could probably be doing harder Math.  I am thinking about continuing year-long with Math, although it would probably just be odds or evens all the time during the summer.  I just think they’d both do better with some consistency, although we’d surely still take at least one month of break altogether.  Gretchen suggested that we might start school after our vacation week in August and then stop for a break after Thanksgiving until January…I’m rather liking that idea!

After Math, we did Grammar.  During this, I had the little ones do pages from their Pre-K books.  Geneva’s cutting skills are so improved compared with last fall…she independently did 3 lessons today with cutting, pasting and letter formation.  Her motor skills are still rough, but that isn’t surprising.  I am so glad she and Beau love to do their work.  Between activities, they gladly play with blocks and Legos…I think next year will go okay (well, only if I can train sweet Ansley to stay on a training blanket!)  The big kids learned new jingles for predicate nouns and linking verbs.  We learned about classifying “Pattern 4″ sentences, and they also did some work with contractions.  They finished up with Vocabulary; they will take test #19 tomorrow.

After lunch, the kids did chores and piano practicing.  Then we gathered again for a Moody Science film about bees.  I could hardly believe how many new things I learned with that video!  We will definitely watch it again.  I’d be glad to loan it out, too, if anyone is interested.  Just let me know!  It’s only 28 minutes long, and it was made years ago, but we have it on DVD.  It reminded me of films I used to see when I was in grade school, except that the message is decidedly Christian.

After dinner, I read some more of our Henty book.  I can’t remember where we left off, but I know that I didn’t blog about the dog yet.  :)  I’m not sure if it’s truth or fiction, but in our story, the enemy was using Bruce’s life-long dog companion to find him.  Finally, Archie sneaked into a camp and managed to get away with the dog and return it to its owner.  Bruce then managed to win some significant battles against the English.  And then, of course, came our romantic interlude…Archie left the camp because he found out that his lady love, Marjory (of the enemy MacDougall clan) was being held in a convent against her will.  So tonight, we read about Archie rowing a boat out and fishing in the waterway near the convent.  He managed to communicate with Marjory and get her to his boat.  They were seen, but they were fast.  At the end of our chapter, Marjory was traipsing through the woods with Archie’s band.  She was happy to get away since she didn’t want to marry the guy her uncle intended for her.  She was worried about how it looked to leave secretly with a knight, but Archie assured her he would behave honorably.  (If she only knew she was in a Henty novel, she would have every assurance she required! )

So tomorrow…lighter Math day, Grammar tests, History, reading time, and book club.  After book club, we get to go to the Chocolate Chalet for a birthday party.  What fun!

Oh, I just loved the sunshine today!  We had the flu recently, so I gave Bailey a couple days off to ensure she didn’t get our germs.  She could easily have come back today, but after a disastrous Tuesday, I really wanted the chance to have a good day without help.  And, praise God, today WAS a better day.  It was a great day!  Bailey will be back tomorrow, and then she’ll have next week off for spring break.  We will soldier on through next week without her, and then we will take our break later in the month when I have my surgery thing.

(I’m inserting some pics in this post–they are all from St. Patrick’s Day!  The first one is of the play-doh people the kids made…the “St. Patricks” are fishing and have pots of gold nearby…then, there is Bailey, holding Ansley–I LOVE this picture!  Geneva painting, Mama wearing orange like a good Protestant…haha…and the older kids at the play-doh station.)

My hubby traveled 3 times in March and we got lots of sickness, so my blogging went by the wayside.  Yesterday, I was all bummed out and didn’t want to write.  We got a bit derailed yesterday by issues of Math.  Instead of doing Math for 1 hour, we ended up doing it for 2 1/2 hours or so…my poor daughter had a headache and low blood sugar (which I didn’t know until too late), and so….that’s about all there is to say about that!  Dane had lacrosse practice, and that was it for our day.

Today, we started with Bible memory.  Next, the kids did Math while the little ones drew pictures.  After Math, the big kids did  2 sets of Vocabulary while I read to the little ones.  After they finished, I set the little ones to playing with blocks in the family room while I taught 3 lessons of Grammar on verb tenses.  The big kids then did 4 practice sheets pertaining to that topic while I started lunch and played a game with the little guys.  After lunch, the kids did their chores and I tidied up a bit, and then we started History reading.

Archie was in hiding with Robert the Bruce, and while there, he befriended a local fisherman and his sons.  He went out in some bad weather with the fishermen and got caught in a storm.  After trying to get back, they decided to run ahead of the wind and put in at Colonsay.  They took refuge with monks there and headed home after.  Everyone had given them up for dead, so it was a happy return.  Bruce decided to task young Archie with a mission to Ireland next.  At the end of the 2nd chapter for today, Archie had a guide/interpreter with him and had landed in Ireland.  When they got a fire started, they found they were surrounded by Irish natives.  They befriended these men, and the men pledged their help toward the cause of freedom from England.  Bruce had given Archie permission to ask for assistance in exchange for help later.  His plan was to distract England by forcing them to deal with the Irish and Scotch simultaneously…

The kids have shown great progress with Life Skills.  They have been able to assist with some dinner prep lately, and their bathroom cleaning has gone well also.  We need to start up our Science and Geography again.  We have some cool Science kits that would be fun, and Aunt Gretchen has offered to come do some things with Geography soon.  I am also REALLY happy because I found a writing program I purchased over a year ago.  It looks very practical and fun, and I’m confident it will help us do more writing.  I have really wanted to have the kids write more (Kat writes plenty, but not in an organized way), but sometimes I have trouble fitting it in.  I’m learning so much as we go along this year, and I’m excited about next year!  I just bought Kat’s Math books and DVD for next year (Saxon 8/7!) and I already have Dane’s.  I’m hoping to do some work “for fun” during the summer…shhhh….not sure how the kids will feel about that!

Our dear friends, the Chocolate Family, came to visit–it was a blessed time indeed!  Mrs. Chocolate and I got to chat and solve things while the kids played outside and in.  As always, the time flew fast, but that is always the case where good friends are concerned.

Tomorrow, school will be “as usual.”  In the evening, I have a co-op birthday dinner to attend.  I believe we will celebrate Easter with our extended family, which should be wonderful!

I really have no idea what happened to my blogging self this last week.  My hubby was out of town, and we had sickness lingering, so I suppose that explains it.

I’ll get the school stuff down quickly, since I don’t think I have many moments to spare this afternoon…

Monday, the kids did Drama, Piano & Math.  They received the 2nd half of their scripts–so exciting!  Yesterday, we did Latin, Math, Grammar, History, Spelling and Cursive.  Today, we did Math, Grammar, Latin, History, and Spelling.  Both days, we did our Bible memory also.

The kids took Math test #16 on March 16, and today, they took Grammar tests for Chapter 17.

For History, we are halfway through In Freedom’s Cause.  We were dismayed yesterday when William Wallace was killed in a horrifying manner.  Tortured, drawn, quartered, beheaded…blech!  But today, Robert the Bruce was crowned King of Scotland, and that must have been a difficult step to take after what happened to Wallace.  I am beginning to find Bruce pretty inspiring.  He gave up his comfortable life and became a soldier king.  When we finished today, he was laying low on an island between Ireland and Scotland.  His army was too large to feed “on the run,” so he had only a few with him.  The whole story is so interesting–makes me wonder how modern Scots feel about the whole thing.  The kids and I have enjoyed talking about how it might make US feel to be in the situation ourselves.

We are sadly missing the Smythe family today–they are down with lots of sickness.  Hopefully, they didn’t catch it from us….

It’s SUNNY!!!!!!!

Beau just told me I was making my voice sound like a monster.  :)  I told him it was because of my cold, and he said, “Oh!”  I’ve been told not to blog on weekends since people don’t read them then (which is sorta scary, considering that means people mostly read them while at work…not mine, of course, but other blogs), but since that doesn’t bother me a bit, I’m writing when I CAN this week.  After many cram-packed days of not feeling well, I had the extreme luxury of staying in my bed for almost 13 hours.  I slept, and then I slept some more, my hubby brought the baby to me to nurse, and then I rested some more.  I remember how awful I felt yesterday when I had to carry a pack n play up 2 flights of stairs twice at co-op…I was thinking….”I need some rest.”  Well, thankfully, I got it!  My husband is one in a million.

The school week ended with Math and Grammar tests.  One funny thing I realized is that I had prematurely given the kids Math test 15.  Sadly, Dane didn’t do so great on that test, and I thought there was a real problem.  Well, it turned out that he hadn’t even learned some of the info yet.  So when I copied off test 15 this week, it seemed oddly familiar to me!  They took it again, and Dane did MUCH better.  Kat did better too, although she had done well the first time also.  I found free online grading software, and I’ve entered in the kids’ Math grades to date.  They are both getting A’s!  I love that!  I have been teaching Katarina the mantra, “I am good at Math.”  I ask, “Who’s good at Math?” and she’s supposed to answer with that statement.  It is really hard for her to do, sadly.  She spent so much time in “real school,” sitting next to boys who were Math whizzes that she became convinced she wasn’t very good at the subject.  I beg to differ!!!  I myself thought I was bad at Math, but I found out in college that it really was something I could do well.  I was never cut out to be a Calculus queen, or even a Trigonometry ace, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t be GOOD at MATH.  So I’ve been trying to teach my daughter this too.  She is doing the same Math in 5th grade that my friend is teaching to 6th graders at Cedar Park.  And she is getting an A.  And we are ahead of where they are.  (An interesting note:  my friend is teaching the girls’ section for 6th grade Math.  In that grade, they split the genders out!)

They both did very well on their Grammar tests.  I am very impressed with how well Dane does in Grammar.  He is excelling!  One place he struggles is with the vocabulary.  He does pretty well, but some of his mistakes show he just doesn’t understand the definitions he had to look up to explain the meanings of the words.  I think we should do Vocab review in class–that will help.

Bailey read a little from King Arthur, but the rest of our time was spent getting ready for the Science Fair.  Speaking of which, the kids did GREAT!   It was so much fun to be there with the Smythe family and lots of other friends.  Kat and Dane got 11/12 on their project (and actually, the 12th point was there, the judge just may have missed it).  They got blue ribbons and really beautiful certificates!   I will post a picture, but I only had my phone, so the quality isn’t great.  A woman from the fair is going to send me some digital pics, but they haven’t come through yet.

Co-op was difficult for me on Friday, but the kids had a blast.  I just wasn’t feeling badly enough to cancel, or well enough to enjoy it.  The kids raved about one of their classes where they actually got candy prizes for knowing the correct idioms and such.  (Kat got a king-sized KitKat, which I thought was apropos.)  I just got an email from one of the teachers who said Kat gave the best impromptu speech in her class.  Here is a quote from the teacher:

“Yesterday, the students each got a type of shoe to discuss for 45 seconds before the class. Katarina got hiking boots.

She decided to “become” a sales person and was describing this type of boot to buy.  She is so entertaining.
She even made up a special compartment in the heel which would carry an extra granola bar for the hiker.
…Maybe you should tell REI about that idea.”

I thought that was cool!

Next week, Dave will be gone again.  I tend to kick into “super-organized” mode when he is gone, and then I collapse into a heap when he gets back.  I will try to stay away from those extremes.  (I actually didn’t collapse after this last travel, because it was so short, but I made up for it by being in bed those 13 hours…:))

Yes, I am sick. My voice has been leaving me from time to time. My Kat girl is coughing incessantly. But since we have illness that will likely be gone soon, I will thank the Lord for that. Some are not so fortunate.

School has been interesting this week. We have done Math and Grammar both days so far, but have devoted the afternoon to Science (and more Math, today). The kids got to go back and correct Math errors for the last 2 weeks (what fun), and we finished up the Science Fair Project. I will try to get a photo and post it here. We are participating in the REACH Science Fair in Bellevue, which is being chaired by Mrs. Smythe. I think the kids were more interested in the fact that they would be getting to see their buddies at the Fair than they were in the Science, but that’s not too surprising.

On Monday, Kat and Dane got the first half of theirs scripts for their Studio East play. I’ll post the date here soon so people who want to come can come to it. It will be a Monday in April, and it will only be a 1/2 hour long. The location is in Houghton, right near the Starbucks. The title of the play is, “A Comedy of Characters.” (I believe the title was Kat’s suggestion.) She is playing Professor Doctor Dr. Wilbert, who is making grape soda, and the brew goes awry. Dane is playing a book-character-come-to-life called “Rudolph the Gypsy.”  Should be really fun!

The kiddos are starting Swiss Family Robinson, and I’m going to prep for co-op. I’ll be doing 2 weeks of prep this week since I’ll be taking Friday the 19th off to celebrate my mom’s birthday.

Little Ansley has been breaking in some new teeth. She is such a little angel about the whole thing, but I feel bad for her.

Science Fair is Thursday night–I’ll have to post the results. I think the kids are competing with themselves–that certain kind of judging, which I forget the name for.

Where’s my Sudafed????                             Okay, click on the image below to see the whole thing.