Birthday preparations

Birthdays come in batches in our house; Atticus and Logan celebrate theirs in a three-day time span, and Jo's falls just after dh's. We're currently gearing up to fete the birthday girl with her very first slumber party.

I had a slumber party once. My parents wre not really big on birthdays in general, so to have a party was a huge deal to me. I made out the invitations myself and my mom had no idea how many girls to expect. Imagine her surprise when 16 of my closest friends called to RSVP! Needless to say, the list was whittled down a bit (to this day I have no idea how she revoked those invitations) and the party went off with only a few minor hitches. The biggest glitch was the sheer lack of anything to do. Left to our own devices, the whole gaggle of 5th grade girls at my party ended up prank calling people all night.

Hey, I never said I was a good kid.

Not wanting to repeat the same mistake with Jo's birthday bash, I've lined up a variety of hopefully enthralling but not-too-structured activities. There are 7 girls--most of them homeschooled--on list. Tomorrow night, we'll be making fleece scarves with fringe, they'll be in charge of rolling out and fashioning their own mini-pizza for dinner, and I've got a movie lined up that corresponds with the horse theme. (Yes, the scarves are horsey, too. They have a horse print on the fleece!) I've even got reinforcements coming in to keep the crafts rolling and the popcorn coming in the form of my best friend J. (Hey, if Jo can have an evening with her girlfriends, I can, too, right? ;-0)

Jo is beside herself with excitement. She realized at the craft store this morning that tomorrow is the big day, and you should have seen the grin on her face. I figure that with that kind of anticipation, the day just can't be a flop.

If it is ... well ... I'll just remember to hide the phone.

A READER!!

Is it just me, or is teaching a child to read about the coolest thing you can do?

Both Jo and Atticus caught the reading bug early and are well above "grade-level" (the public school gold standard for achievement, right?) when it comes to their reading and comprehension skills. I naturally assumed that I'd have at least one dc who wasn't as eager to pick up a book ... but, no. Logan is just as ambitious when it comes to the written word.

He is now reading simple things like "That rat is mad! Scat, rat! Scat to the mat!" and other insipid phonics-based stuff. And while I thought that somehow my enthusiasm for teaching sounds and sitting through those awful readers would have waned by the third go-round, well--it hasn't. Teaching a child to read is one of the joys of my life. Watching that lightbulb go on, seeing that spark as they swing the door open on a whole new world ...

It's better than chocolate. Better than lots of chocolate. And that's saying a lot.

CONGRATS TO "LOGAN"--AN OFFICIAL READER!!!

A three (and a half) hour tour

I am still just dumbfounded at how easy school has been! I'm not sure that any one thing has made the difference--more likely, it's been a series of things coming together to make my life that much easier. In any event, I am praising God for this newfound joy in homeschooling.

Once again, school took us all of 3 and a half hours. When I look at the list of things we got done today, I am amazed.

Jo

Horizons math

A Beka God's Gift of Language A (2 pages)

Rosetta Stone CD Rom, test

Bible reading

Indian Prayer Guide devotional

Lifepac science (rocks and minerals)

"The Corn Grows Ripe," (reader) 2 chapters

The Story of the USA, on echapter, plus all exercises

Easy French, list to voabulary and do a character sketch

Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek! (kappa lesson)

Spelling Power, oral review of words missed yesterday on initial test (3)

Atticus

Horizons math

A Beka Letters and Sounds 1 (2 pages)

A Beka Language 1 (2 pages)

Bible reading

Indian Prayer Guide devotional

"Astronaut" (DK reader), all--I counted this as science, and he also listened in on the rocks info his sister was reading

Make Your Own History book, one page

Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek! (kappa lesson)

Spelling Power, oral review of words missed yesterday on initial test (2)

Logan worked on his Rod and Staff preschool book today, cutting out mother and baby animals and coloring them to make a barn scene. When he tired of this, he moved on to the big blocks his daddy made him from leftover 2x4s, constructing a fabulous barn and yard. Later he dabbled in bristle blocks, before moving on to diggers & rice--an old favorite resurrected when he discovered the tiny vehicles this morning. He also did a lesson in 100EZ, but he was far more interested in playing quietly. You know ... I didn't complain! ;-)

So, 3 and a half hours. Not bad. Not bad at all! Now on to reading a little more "Peter and the Shadowcatchers" and playing in the sun!

Start day

Don't you just love it when the day you have set aside in your head as "Day 1" goes really, really well?

Since we school pretty much year-round, picking any date as the "First Day of School" always feels a little dubious, but I keep at it--mostly as a nod to that warm, squishy feeling the phrase gives me. Reminds me of an undented metal Strawberry Shortcake lunch box and jeans so new they're still stiff. ;-) It's a mystery to me that the phrase doesn't remind me of high school, where I worked two or three jobs over the summer in a scramble to save money for college and greeted the First Day of School exhausted and leery of teachers who assumed I had spent my summer "vacation" lounging at Key West. But I digress ...

Today was (drumroll please) our official First Day. I was determined to swing back into last year's schedule of trying to have all chores out of the way by 9 a.m. Amazingly, God showed extreme mercy on me and allowed that to happen! Not a single catastrophe--broken glass, spilled dirt from potted plant, dog food scattered all over the garage, etc.--occurred before 9 a.m. We finished breakfast in record time and I got the chorepacks going. I even snuck in a phone conversation with my best friend, who also coincidentally chose today as her homeschool start date. It was a good morning!

We retreated to the schoolroom and set about working. I got Jo going on her math first thing--usually a good idea, because she is slow as molasses and needs the lure of the next planned subject to keep her moving forward. Atticus hit the computer upstairs for Rosetta Stone Spanish, something he can do on his own. Logan decided that watercolors were far more exciting than Rod & Staff preschool workbooks and, because he is my third, I thought that was a pretty nice idea, too. ;-)

Thanks to the fabulous planning tools available on Donna Young's website, I had been able to begin synthesizing SL Core 3 with a few components of WP American Story 1. I worked on this while everyone was otherwise occupied. I adit, I was floored that I had ten minutes to sit and work on something on my own. I guess this is what schooling "older" kids is like!

I was able to keep everyone alternating to me all morning--another new thing for us. As their independent skills are increasing, I am seeing that I can spend one-on-one time with whoever needs me while the other two work away. I am amazed to be at this point. Jo worked through a section in commas in A Beka's God's Gift of Language A while Atticus sat with me to have his math corrected. Attticus worked on his A Beka Language Arts 1 while Jo and I looked over her LA. It felt so different from the beginning of last year, when everyone was clamoring for me at the same time, it seemed.

After finishing the "basics," we moved into our Core work. We started with Bible reading and the American Indian Prayer Guide. The first day in a SL schedule is always just enough to tease you! We read a snippet of another book ... and everyone wanted more! (Keep in mind that my dh does the read-alouds as a bedtime story for the kiddos.) I stuck to the schedule today, though, because I really wanted to fit in WP's Animal Worlds for Logan, who had spent the past hour and a half painting his heart out. We did that, then Jo retreated to her favorite hiding spot to start her SL reader, "The Corn Grows Ripe," while Atticus read aloud to Logan and I from "A Mare For Young Wolf" (a WP reader).

We fit in everything I had planned for, and it only took a little over 3 hours. I know that not every day will flow as smoothly, but still ... a wonderful beginning to the 2006-2007 school year!

Tail end of summer

We'll be starting our official "school year school" on Monday. Why Monday? Ummmmm... why not Monday? ;-)

This summer was pretty productive. It isn't so evident by looking at in terms of what I can show you, but rather by what my children have shown me. They have shown that they are extremely flexible little people. They have shown extreme compassion and extreme joy. They have shown a fierce love for this area that I didn't realize they had (I guess it really is their home, even if I don't feel it is mine).

These things alone, I think, are worth calling the summer a success over.

In the book lairnin' department (to quote my Poppy), my three little bookworms have read an astonishing 89 books (combined) this summer. These aren't read-alouds; we managed just six of those, but ohhhhhhhhh, boy ... is "Peter and the Shadow Thieves" loooong!

The older two kept up their work on Rosetta Stone Spanish. Jo started Easy French and flew through "Times Tales." We're half way through "Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek!" level 1. We're worked our way through lots of fun facts and activities in WP Animal Worlds. Jo and Atticus tackled math semi-daily (is that a word?) and Logan is a third through his first Rod & Staff preschool book. Countless plays were performed. We also studied and collected rocks. Lots of rocks!

Oh, and we took field trips.

That's my post-summer wrap-up. Bring on the rain!

Crying ... at the fair

This is a new one, even for me. I tend to get teary-eyed at the drop of a hat. Atticus will look over the top of his book as I walk by and say, "I love you, Momma Bird" (one of his nicknames for me) and I'll feel my eyes well. I walk in the room and see photos of now-4 year-old Logan on the screensaver as a toddler and I get misty. I see a puppy being loved to death by a little girl and I have to look away. No joke: I am a crier.

Yesterday, though, I hit a new low even for me. I started crying at the fair. Really. At the fair. Yep, right in the middle of the Synchronized 4-H Equine Drill Team. No, Jo wasn't riding. She was, however, leaning on the very edge of her seat, eating up every hoofbeat and flash of saddle she could catch. The look on her sweet face ... well ... it brought tears to a momma's eyes.

Avoiding

O.k., enough with the emails. ;-) I am fine. Just been avoiding my blog because I associate it with Gloria ... and the due date was Tuesday ... and I don't have a little baby girl in my arms ...