Living with children.

Oh, my poor, dear, sweet Homeschool Blog-- do you still remember me?

Jeez I am so bad at writing anymore. I feel like I had a contingent of readers and surely they must have given up on me by now.

The kids are well, and learning is always taking place. As for the big shot stuff I wrote in August, do I do a disservice to my fellow homechooling Mamas and pretend like we are doing all of that, or do I come out with the reassuring truths that we are not doing any of that right now? How many Mamas had an "impressive" blog the first week of September and then dropped off the face of the Earth besides a few cute Halloween pics? I know I am not the only one.

A lot has changed in my life since late summer, but here we are. The kids are not only surviving, the are BLOSSOMING. New skills are appearing at lightning speed, and new competencies. On the days when it feels like we "didn't do very much", and I think it is time to start reminding myself of the hundreds of days of my life that were spent under the evil tutelage of a "SUB" (substitute teachers, about 20 years old, possibly sober) and their never ending time-fillers, it turns out that the kids had the best day ever and I am still, after 7 years of official homeschooling, having to remind and remind and re remind myself that the majority of all human learning cannot be measured by time spent against ones will filling out paperwork to tape to fridge doors.

Remember "Subs"? The best of them let us play "Win, Lose or Draw" on the blackboard, or told us dirty jokes or let us just hang out. the worst of them came armed with stacks and stacks of "Dittos", everyone knows what a ditto is, right? Some kind of reproduced, often with purplish ink, worksheet or crossword or word search of some kind, which you had to do, but if you finished it they were all mad at you and told you to do another one or to be quiet. These were invariably 5 grade levels too easy and super blurry and horrid. The nice subs let you work with a partner but you still had to be quiet. they might as well have told us to color.

But this is the reality of school, and this is the stuff that children are experiencing and no one gets all freaked out about it--so when we have cozy days where the only thing that can appear to the untrained closed mind that was accomplished that was "Schooly" was reading together or watching Animal Planet or cooking, my guilt is finally becoming less and less.

Do I want our Home-School to be different? Yes. But that is all a part of parenting, and I am working right now on the whole courage to changes the things we can, accepting the things we cant and wisdom to know the difference proverb thingy. I am re-reading The Mother Trip by Ariel Gore, and really getting it about Chaos Theory. I ask myself if my kids would be better off "somehwere else" and I can say NO for sure. Somedays, many days, homeschool can be just living with and raising your children. Making breakfast, cleaning breakfast. Dressing and brushing teeth. Writing a story. Having a race. Doing experiements with one cat, 5 blankets, a big cardborad box, and 55 magnets. Making lunch and cleaning lunch. Nursey and diaper change before naptime. Reading books. Cleaning up toys. Messing around on YouTube. Cutting out papersnowflakes. Watching a show. Recieving a phone call. Giving a bath or 4. Making and cleaning dinner. Laughing and playing. Getting ready for bed. Putting the house back together.

Horrible confessions, or good wholesome human stuff? So there--I said it. And I mean it. Go ahead and freak out, call the cops. Tell 'em you found a family who is just living and having days together, several days a week. I don't feel bad about it anymore. Because we do lots of stuff that is schooly and we do lots of stuff that isnt, and by doing this, we are doing everything we can to see to it that our children are growing up well. Live and Learn.

How is everyone else's fall going?

Thursday updates

http://www.besthomeschooling.org/articles/elaine_edwards.html

Here is a really nice article, tell me what you think! I am babysitting today and have been busy busy busy--sorry I haven't posted in a while, we are in a sort of transition right now. We went to Waldorf Co-Op yesterday, Campfire scouts Monday, and the children are happy and well. Charlie slept through the night last night and the night before, which was a good treat for all of us affected by my exhaustion levels. I like my job and we had fun on Halloween, even if our neighborhood was kind of scanty on the number of houses handing out candy. I have been looking at new houses when I get the chance in the evenings, but so far they are all gross with stinky cigarette carpeting and general grossness and creeps-ville vibes, so I rush home thinking we have the best house in the world, even if it is too big and we cant afford to spend $400 a month to heat it this winter, or the rent. Of course it is cool and pretty and big, that's why we moved here in the first place.

Daddy doesn't ride his bike too much to work anymore, since it has been so cold or drizzly, but this leaves us without the van. Somedays he takes it to work in the morning, then when he comes home for lunch, we can all drive him back and then have a vehicle for the rest of the day.

I still hold strong to my fantasies of more outings and more happy sidewalk cafes with the kids, eating bagels out of town, going to museums and nature centers, new libraries and new adventures, but it hasn't happened too much lately. This is a huge reason we want to move, to be able to afford the things we really enjoy--outings and doing things other than just paying bills and telling the kids "we cant afford" EVERYTHING in this universe.

My children don't care too much about square footage and copper pipes. They care about swim lessons and family trips, art class and camping, ice skating and new paints and brushes, baking cookies and pies, COSI and the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum, having clothes that fit and snowpants and boots that actually keep out cold and water. We are not poor, but we do need to move. For alot of reasons. It would be nice to get into a place where the landlord cared if you had a working cold water faucet in your bathtub or if your 2nd dryer broke or if you needed a copy of the lease to apply for scholarships and financial aid and health insurances.

I haven't gotten a check from my new job yet, I do in a week or so. This will make all my long hours seem like they are actually FOR something, and it will give us a better idea of where we are at for the next few months. But I still say we need to move. We have no car payment, no credit cards, just this big house and its big energy bills, and we know there is a better way.

Very lovely surprise: it is SNOWING! I hope it sticks.

Cozy Friday

So crazy...whereas yesterday morning, before we got out and met our friends, just being here was torturous and bad, today there couldn't be a cozier, sweeter home filled with mild and kind little children on this world. Even Kitty is sweet and cozy today.

We read some stories, the kids did their sizable chore lists without as much as a huff or puff, we had a nice little lunch with Daddy, Charlie took his nap, Casey helped me hang clothes out to dry, Greta and Mickey are working on a big story together at the school table, the leaves are sparkling as they tumble down in the wind.....maybe the name of this blog should be the schizophrenic/multiple personality homeschool.

But that's just it. Life is ever changing. We have seasons of our lives and they have nothing to do with the calendar. Sometimes we even have seasons of our weeks, I know we do here at MapleLawn Home Academy. All of our activities have this thing where at the end of the month, there is a week or two off and there hasn't been Girl Scouts, Campfire, Waldorf Co-Op since the middle of October, it seems. So things have felt a little "off", but I don't mind one bit. I just started a new job, one that keeps me away from the family quite a bit, and it was perfect timing for all of this to happen when it did.

Two afternoons, we went on outings at around 3:30, after Charlie's nap. We went on a far walk to a park, and just played and played, when suddenly, thank goodness, Mickey, the keeper of the time, the wearer of the waterproof (to 160 feet!) digital watch, randomly proclaimed "It is 4:58" I was like "We have to go, guys!! We have to go home, I have to be to work at 6!!!!"

I am not used to this at all! What does 3:30 have to do with my job, which I think of as my "night job"? Apparently budgeting for time will have to start around lunchtime! Sheesh!

I made it to work at 6 on the dot, but missed out on supper. Thankfully it was Monday night and the people who are there Monday night bring in lots of treats, so I got vegetables and chips and salsa and donuts. A lovely dinner, haha.

So we are really enjoying today. Just being in our sunny home. I work tonight at 7 so I think I will go hang out with the kids and see how their project is coming along before Charlie wakes up. Have a great weekend!

Thursday, November 1

We had a great day today, once we got the heck out of here. After a fussy morning and me chasing after a horrible mystery smell (it was pumpkin seeds, still in the pumpkin gloop, sitting in a little bowl, looking as mild and harmless as can be, stanking of death and fish and sewage!!!! who knew?) unsuccessfully and deciding that I never wanted to be back in this house ever again, we got out and things got better almost immediately.

We met up with our fave family at a beautiful local park and played for hours. It was cold in the shade but warm in the sun and the kids truly did FROLIC, as Greta likes to joke. They rolled down the hills and ran and climbed and screamed and shouted and threw rocks and sticks and we didn't have to feel like we were "gonna get in trouble" like we did at the metro park, haha. I got 5 people, 3 bikes and a stroller into my smallish minivan and i am proud of that, everyone got to ride and play. They got to see a ton of mallard ducks up close, and Charlie "fed" them litle wood chips for over a half hour.

As I mentioned on my B+B blog, today is Charlie's birthday, and, for the first time in...well, let me do the math....10+7+4+2=23........twenty three birthdays of my children, not a single card or phone call was made to us or the dear baby. I wiped away stinging tears when I checked the mailbox in front of my friend, after seeing that only pizza coupons and a phone bill had come, and that no-one besides Dada was on the caller ID today. I wonder what mass oversight occurred and most importantly, why.

It was a really nice day, and we had our friends back to the house for dinner. It was so completely adorable to see the seven kids sitting around the table all together--and me and my friend got to/had to go eat in the living room and listen to them practicing their best table manners (LOL) while we snuck in a few adult stories together, if only for 10 minutes.

The day that started out so badly, ended up incredibly fun and as always, fresh air, getting out, and spending time with people who you truly enjoy is always the cure for whatever ails me. (and getting those haunting pumpkin seeds out of the house! PEW!)

If I didnt say it enough times, Happy Birthday , dear Lindey-bean. We love you more than you will ever know.