swimming

We went swimming last night, Greta and Mickey and I at the local high school pool open swim. It was really fun. It was good for my back, although it hurts the same today. Mickey could touch the bottom and that made all the difference, me not having to carry him around. We played and raced and just hung out. We are going tomorrow night, too but we are taking Casey with us. He is a bitty thing and I will defintely have to hold him in the water. I am looking forward to it.

When we got home Casey asked us "did you swim in the sea?"

Greta and Mickey 2-26-07

Our studies for the week of February 26, 2007

Primary Language Lessons 1-5
Seven Times The Sun pp 57, 77,95,112,130
Folk and Fairy tales p.99 Frog story
Ancient Greece: Finish worksheets, start to read some of the myths
discuss architecture in Q+A book p 72

Science book: p50-55 energy and motion (spinning rice bags, hitting balls)
Solar system book: Moon (painting project, worksheets)
A Child's Garden of Verses: pp 10-15 (re-enactment, puppet or toy play, dance, music and drawing)
French book: Les Mois page 11: (craft/by week's end--recite from memory English and French)
Fun with Nature: Bird study: The Cardinal p. 58 (art, copywork, memorization/Friday quiz)

Any pages from our new books that Mama assigns

Casey 2-26-07

Casey's work, week of February 26, 2007

Miffy's Counting book everyday
I Like Stars everyday
Let's Cut Paper! everyday
Letters Aa and Bb, numbers 2 and 3:
worksheets
new book
manipulatives
painting
find in the environment
flashcards
play-doh

Join the big kids in: Child's Garden of Verses activities
French Months activities
Cardinal study
Moon craft
Energy experiments

Sunday hopes

My back is alot better---2 tylenols and 2 motrins does the trick, so I am happy to be mobile again. Daddy has a kidney stone and he is now the one who can't do much physical with the children, we all are on pins and needles thinking about him in so much pain, and hoping for him to pass it quickly.

I got three new homeschooling books from a lady on my local list--
Primary language lessons by Emma Serl
The Story of the World volume 3 by Susan Wise Bauer
and
A Literary Education by Catherine Levison

These are books I have wanted for a long time and was vey pleased to have the opportunity to buy them so cheaply from a fellow homeschooling mother.

We also bought 3 huge Complete Curriculum books from Barnes and Noble this weekend. We got Pre-K, 1st grade and 4th grade. They have over 700 pages each book. The subjects covered are Reading, Math, Spelling, Language Arts, Writing and Test Prep.

To round this out, we will be adding Literature, French, Music, Art/handiwork, History, Geography and physical education.

I own a homeschooling program called FiveInARow, and one called BeforeFiveInARow. I really never used them but think I want to start to. I really want Casey to be happy and productive and I think he might really enjoy the BeforeFiveInARow program. You read the same book for five days, and do little activities and answer thought provoking questions about things that are in the book.

Steve and I have come to recognize the very real need for me (and him) to have our days be wound up at 530 pm, not 830. It is too much, too long, too difficult to chitter and chatter and tussle and struggle from 6am straight until 830pm, with no vehicle, cold icy weather, poor health.....so we have devised several changes of plans for how we run our family.

If I can have the kids fed supper by 530pm, (instead of starting to mosey through the cupboards at 630 or 7) then the evening will have officially begun.

The evening choices will be different combinations of Swimming, walking, errand running (me by myself) or watching movies. We want to get way more into movies, like we used to be when Greta and Mickey were small. It was such a nice way to unwind, watching Fantasia, Melody Time, Aristocats, under a quilt with popcorn....and that was before netflix, when we would have to drive out in the cold and pay 4 bucks....now it is even simpler and much cheaper to get into some really cool stuff as a family, with a theme of Days End apparant by the low lighting and gentle (Im hoping!) camraderie of the cozy family.

I ordered a well-fitting bathing suit online which has arrived, and so we will begin Monday Wednesday Friday swimming at the local high school pool. I will take one or two kids with me each night and Steve will stay home with whoever doesnt come.

Today is laundry catch up and curriculum planning, and for Greta and Mickey, the watching of the second Harry Potter movie. Greta has read the entire first book and most of the second one, and her and our friend Amanda are avid fans now together---I must catch up!

Casey will be helping me in the other rooms with housework, while Daddy rests and drinks water. Charlie is toddling about and as long as he doesnt stop and stare at the screen, he is kind of free to roam today.

Looking forward to starting our new school books tomorrow morning.

broken mama

Things are hideously bad today and yesterday.

You see, I hurt my back. And in this household, like I predicted on my Heart and Soul blog, when something happenes to Mama, just watch how fast stuff falls apart.

I hurt my back loading the babies into the Volvo. I am 73 inches tall, and the Volvo is about 23 inches tall. I have bad knees, a bad back, split and bisected stomach muscles and was wearing a long tight skirt. The hobbling effect of the skirt forced me to contort in an even awkwarder motion than would be necessary anyhow to place a 30 pound baby into the center back spot.

It feels as though an iron girdle is around me, with venemous snakes that pulse and shimmy thier fangs into my upper right hip. The pain is so bad that I have stopped taking very deep breaths and now have a tickly cough. But I wont cough because that would hurt too bad---I sneezed this morning and screamed.

But this isnt some matter of "have Greta help you out"--because this is about not only the up-and-down-and-up-and-down-and-up-and-down of parenting 2 toddlers, this is about diaper changes that Steve and I can barely do together, this is about Casey being so insane lately that I have "tabs" open on my computer that are preschool searches, herbs for ADHD, child psychology links, and anti-depressants-safe-for-breastfeeding........there is nothing that can be done with this child that doesnt take immense physical prowess---fetching him out of inapprpriate locales, the garage, the fridge, the scissors shelf, the paints, the poisons, the bathroom, OH THE BATHROOM......chasing him down from hitting and terrorizing the borther, the sister, the baby, the furniture---didnt I just write some huge blog entry about him being all good now? Pfffft erase that one.

I am okay laying and okay sitting. But to get up is PAINFUL oh my god and it takes along time. So what the hell am I suppossed to do?

The only thing that would help me would be for someone to come and take Casey for a little while. WHAT AN UNREALISTIC GREEDY LAZY HOG I AM TO WISH FOR HELP EVER EVER EVER EVER.

and SO i start to wonder about drugs and that hot patch thing they sell, the big sticker you put on your back? Steve works everyday except Sunday this week, so I can look forward to that....

Chiropractic is right out, as we have no car---and I can tell you from personal experience, to go and get an adjustment and then haul a bunch of little ones out to the car, collapse the big stroller into the trunk, go home and unload them all---well there went your adjustment, obviously.

So, I have no tribe. We knew that. I am stupid, I am dumb, how dare I get a minor injury, how dare I "fail", how dare I need help, I shouldnt have had kids, I cant homeschool, Im a loser, all that stuff that I used to hear is all coming at me now in my motrin-burnt tummy ache.

Somethings got to change. I am scraping at ideas, the only little tiny xmas bulbs that are going off in my head are, when I am better, to take a yoga or pilates type of class to strengthen my back muscles.

Greta does help and so does Mickey. and no it isnt sad or pathetic to help people. But they cannot change a poopy diaper and they are not allowed to discipline Casey.

Im going to go microwave my rice-in-a-sock. I don't even know if heat or ice is more appropriate but heat seems nicer in February.

In other news, we are learning about the Moon. It is waxing crescent right now. I never knew about waxing, waning, gibbous or anything so I did a worksheet, too, today, and I wrote Joy on top. The kids were impressed!

Snow

Casey reluctantly let his icicle melt in a glass to see if Mama was indeed telling the truth about the water being yucky from our roof. The kids played out for an hour and the sparkling sun streaming in speaks for itself. Beautiful, beautiful Michigan---sometimes I don't hate you at all.

Introducing Sonic the Cat

We have adopted a neutered male kitten from our dear friends Jeff and Paul this weekend. Sadly for them, it wasnt working out to keep the kitten with their dog, and we were looking to get a cat this summer and this all just worked out for us so well!

He is an amazing gregarious outgoing kitty and we love him so much!

Todays themes

Greta, Mickey and I have started a big Unit Study about GREECE! I am excited to see how far we can take this....So far we are filling in a basic downloaded PDF file book from Enchanted Learning called Greece. We rae planning on a looooooong unti about Greek Culture and I cannot wait to do the Gods and Goddesses and of course, the Myths, my absolute favorite stories of all time!

Casey is doing a theme of the letter F.

how it happens on a good day

How do I come up with such fabulous lessons for the children? I dunno...I dont think that I necessarily do....take yesterday---the kids watched a show with us about the Bermuda Triangle and we looked it up online, and then our conversations just GO! We end up drawing and writing and hypothesiszing and running over to the computer...I guess just like adults do. Or college students. Or anyone. Intelligent wide open connections. Thought provoking would be the best word, for sure. Because I dont shush them and punish them for thinking thoughts, their minds are expanding at an exponential rate--they dont have as a majority of their days that terror of being "wrong" or being "embarassed" in "public",therefore, like any true scientists or great thinkers, mistakes mistakes mistakes are made and tested and rethought and reworked and beautiful branches and roots and tangents form.

....and without bells to tell them "art" is over and "history" has begun, they can spend hours mixing and working with REALITY, which is not parcelled out for us in odd broken tidbits, but the World in its wholeness and fullness--with excitement and revelry (most days) instead of yawning and resentment, clock watching, daydreaming and anger.

I also dont have to "worry" about going "off topic" too much because sometimes where we end up is far more interesting, relevant or "educational" than the original topic. Bermuda triangle wasnt some big THING, it was just something we were curious about, and in discussion, we got into all sorts of other things, and a choice was presented to me: to chastise and rebuke them for wanting to study about poseidon and seismology because it wasnt Bermuda Triangle, or to cheerfully and warmly go over to Google and Cosmeo with them and start downloading.

This is what works for us and when we have the most learning going on and the most positive open minds with gears turning. Yes we do drill stuff too but I have found that homeschool depends much more on the interpersonal relationship between the child and parent than regular school which is almost exclusively dependant on the ability to short-term memorize disconnected facts for the quiz Friday.

lovely tangents and fantabulous connections

Today we talked about the Bermuda Triangle. It was just me and Mickey and Greta. We had a good time, with me reading something I found online, and them asking one trillion questions and us off shooting off shooting so much that we had to actually stop and write down all of our tangents! Some tangents that came of our planned talk on the Bermuda Triangle:
What does octopus eat?
What animals were sent in space before humans? How did they fare?
What is Bermuda like?
Why is it called Florida Keys?
Why the globe is to scale and the flat-map is not...
Do sailboats have a motor?
Are there gas stations at sea?
How did they doctor that photo of Nessie way back then?
Who was Poseidon again?
Is believing in God considered superstition? What about believing in Nessie?
Why are all these ships called the "SS" such-and-such?
Are there waterspouts (water tornados) in small lakes?
What was in the lifejackets back before they invented foam?

In school, I am sure the first two of these questions would have been met with a tight smile and a shhhh shhhh and the third would have gotcha out-in-the-hall for INTERRUPTING.
We didn't get past all of this Bermuda Triangle stuff today, but thats what I kind of always wanted the homeschool to be. A respectful fantastical infinite round-table discussion group where no question is stupid, where nobody is the only Knowledge-Dispenser, and only by virtue of the natural authority of being Mom, do I get the right to gently steer the whole event.

If this is "unschool" then so be it. But all I know is that the gears were really turning and I had another day of protecting my children's minds from being shut down, squelched, or discouraged from thinking thinking thinking.

Well, they want the computer again so I must log off! We have to look up Poseidon before Casey gets up from his nap--he has been promised the use of the computer if he stays in his bed, and this is day three of him doing so!

Valentine's Day walkin'

Charlie Linden officially walks!
He is fifteen and a half months old, so certainly our oldest baby to start walking--but every time it is so funny to see your carpet-dwelling little crawler being-and staying- upright!

Charlie started crawling at 7 months old and so has been crawling over half of his life. I have read that crawling is extremely important for babies' brains, and so if this is so, Charlie will be the smartest kid in the UNIVERSE!

He has taken a few steps before, but just plunked back down to his knee-walking that he has been doing since he was 12 months old.

Congratulations, baby Lindey---and for the rest of us living with TWO toddlers, wish us luck!

Ann Arbor trip

Yesterday we got to borrow the in-laws' minivan so we hightailed it to Ann Arbor Hands on Museum for a fun get away to oneof our favorite places to hang out and spend time:







Casey and the hot air balloon.














Greta and the 3-D tennis ball puzzle.
















Even with the diagram, none of us could do it beside Greta.
















Rubber band art.















Climbing the rock wall.

















Green screen technology.


















Fun floating head!















Charlie at the pin-pixle thing.












Cracking up with the binary-message balls.














Water table.















Lunch break! There is no restaurant so we bring our own...including the blankie for tablecloth! Tres chic.












A kiss from baby Casey















Charlie chillin in the ambulance.






















Baby face.


























































Water table fishie rescue game was promptly invented, of course.

Pouring all over the place, Casey is finally in his happy place.

Casey and the Human Body velcro guy.

Mickey driving the ambulance.

T E E T H

Ok fine, I'll ride the gyroscope thing!

More body guy.
















The water table room.

Delayed Speech microphone game.

Greta's on TV!

Charlie in the baby part.

Casey fake hurt on the Ambulance.

Casey in the Old-Tyme general store.

Mickey doing sand art with the pendulum.

Can Pikachu play too?

slow wierd times

We are taking it one day at a time lately, because it seems so much is weird and I dont feel guilty, although I definitely will be glad and refreshed to see this "season" of our lives come to an end.

Our van is dead and we are locked in forever.

Our vacuum is dead and the floors are so nasty I have a lump in my throat to look at them (and shoes on my feet)

Our dryer is dead and laundry for this family of six has come to a standstill, which is NOT hot.

Our printer cartridge is out of ink so no more cutey worksheets from Enchanted Learning.

So we read books. We draw. We talk. We sing. We watch TV shows. We cook. We paint. We boardgame. The kids play their videogames. We make forts. We create. We lounge. We discuss. We do our own thing.

The days are loooooong. The baby is sick and wakes at 10 12 2 4 5 and 630... The temperature was 1 degree yesterday and so playing in the snow is out. Nobody calls me, but they havent for months, really. I could sleep all day but then at night I insist on watching TV with Steve just to feel like there was a stop-point in the nurserynurserynursery days/nights.

MONEY will fix the dryer the vacuum the printer and buy us a car. We will be out and about before I know it. So I try to appreciate the cozy hibernation. But its getting hard.

Valentines party

Last week we got to borrow my in-laws minivan and go to a Homeschool Valentine's Day Skating party at a local fun-zone type of place. This was organized by one of the Homeschooling web groups we belong to, and there were 71 children who participated!

This place had inflatible bouncy-type things, an indoor slide, arcade games, laser tag and roller skating. Since my kids dont really roller skate, it was only 12 dollars for the whole family, total! nice!

Each family made Valentines for 71 kids, and just signed their own names without filling in the "to:" portion. Each child was to make a large gift bag or shoebox, decorated with Valentine's flair, to be their official InBox.

Around halfway through the skate-day, us adults all joined forces and lined up everysingle bag and box (some of them were SO cute! tons of other artisitc homeschooled kids, for sure!!) all snaking through the main hallway of the place. When they were all lined up, then each child took their 71 Valentines they filled out, and dropped one in each bag or box!

71 is alot of kids and alot of Valentines, and boy did some of these people really go out of their way to make cute special things! We got a butterfly made out of smarties candies, little homemade ones with lace and glitter, lollipops tied together with curling ribbon, tiny ziplock bags with stickers and tattoos---it was so nice!

Because it wasnt certain whether or not we had use of a vehicle until the night before the event, all we did was buy some Spongebob Valentines from Kroger and write GretaMickeyCaseyCharlie on each one late into the night. Not my style, but again, time constraints! Good thing others were more creative or else how boring and lame would a bag full of those be?

Charlie can now handle a lollipop supervised without doing anything besides consuming it appropriately. So cool! He loves them and they last him forever and we got a lot of them. Precious baby head.

We didnt necessarily make new best friends, it was far too loud to even talk, which I found to be rediculous, especially with so many babies there. But it seems like yesterday that my own mom thought Great Skate was too loud and I thought she was showing her age---haha!

The biggest hit of the day, BY FAR, was the Crane Game success that Greta, Mickey and Casey had in catching stretchy flashing gummi Koosh balls. they won SEVEN of them and were sooooo ecstaticlly proud (my feigned shock at their prowess helped I think) that they werent even upset to go home because they were planning all the fun things they were going to do with them.

This event definatly makes me want to go do more things with this particular group of families, the few people I did get to talk to were super cool, and Greta and I were really impressed by the "look" of the teenage girls. (no, not long hair and mormon dresses) They were absolutley hip stylish and cool, as far as crazy chunky haircuts, black eyeliner, saggy jeans----but none of them looked slutty or half naked whatsoever. They wore things like Japanese Anime t shirts, various "dragon" type of stuff, maybe a skull or wizard....but no pink sparkle, and I know Greta is thirsting to see girls that look like the way she plans on when she is older. She talked about it extensively on the drive home, and I tried to be pleasant and a bit neutral (lest I scare her out of this plan which I am ECSTATIC about!) Greta is a fanatical observer of people, and I love her more each second. There were also ALOT of boys and girls talking and hanging out in what, to the casual observer, was geniune conversation, and when a toddler ran up, both the teenage boys and the teenage girls would kiss them, answer their question, or pop them up on their laps without even breaking eye contact or the conversation. I LOVE SEEING THIS, nice kids who love little kids, because they were not brainwashed to hate people younger than themselves. NORMAL FAMILY INTERACTION NOT BEING EMBARASSING---also extremely rare in the non homeschooled populus.

NOBODY looked like they were going to commit suicide if Mom or Dad talked to them, and really, there was just a lack of angst and extreme scowling that seemed to color me and my peer's teen years. EXTREMELY cool.

Mickey loved the arcade games best, and Casey loved the bouncey things. Casey loved the super loud music, he was dancing ( really well!) the second we opened the main doors, and never stopped until we left.

Charlie was pretty happy once lollipops were obtained, but I know it was too loud for him.

Fun!