Weekly Wrap-Up: 5/7/2011

Wow I have been so bad about blogging lately.  Thanks goodness I am forcing my kids to blog as a weekly assignment or things would be dead around here!

We had a pretty basic week.  Last weekend we went to visit my Mom in Sarasota.  We went to the beach on Sunday and visiting the Goodwill bookstore on Monday.  Yes I did spend $50 at the Goodwill bookstore, but we got lots of interesting books and found a couple "Harry Potter" books for our collection.

We had a short week of school, just 3 days.  I have been trying to keep our Fridays clear since I have zero motivation after we return from our park days.  We are near the end of our year so I can do a 3 day week and still finish up all of our work.  We are coming to the end of some of our curriculum.  A few, like History and Math, I plan on continuing throughout the summer.  Tyler will finish his Language Arts this week.

I am really looking forward to the homeschool convention at the end of May.  I have several different curriculums I would like to explore for next year.  I can't wait to see them in person.

Today we are off to the community garage sales in a local suburb.  We have gone every year since we moved to Florida.  I hope I find some good deals today.

Weekly Wrap-Up: 4/16/11

Sunday:  A beautiful and relaxing day at home.  J worked in the garden.  I read Harry Potter.  The kids played outside with the neighbor.  Later we watched a family movie.  Great Day

Monday:  I had a little alone time during my first therapeutic massage appointment.  It was helpful, but different than a spa experience.  I was not expecting to undress!  I finished helping Tyler pack for his trip tomorrow.  Then we all went to dinner at our favorite restaurant.  I splurged in anticipation of restarting my weight loss plan tomorrow.

Tuesday:  Today we dropped Tyler and his Grandma off at the airport for their trip to Ohio.  My Mom had to fly home to take care of her taxes so she had planned to take Maggie with her.  Soon after that Maggie started having anxiety issues and we realized it was not going to work out for her.  So Tyler got to go instead (he also went a year ago for his birthday).  Anyway Tyler is very excited to see his Grandpa, the farm, the dog and his cousins.  After we dropped them off, M and I went to the outlet malls.  I was looking for a specific pair of shorts at Lane Bryant, but the did not have any.  I felt like it was a wasted trip, especially since I could not get anyone at LB to help me.  This was a unique experience for me as usually I have several people asking if I need help.  I am wondering if they reverse discriminate against smaller sizes?  Seriously, it was weird.  I do still fit in their smaller clothes, and I would have bought something.  Oh well.

Wednesday:  M and I spent most of the day catching up on school work and house work.  We headed out early afternoon to do some errands:  Wal Mart, eye doctor, etc.  Then we had a girl scout meeting.  We hadn't been in several weeks due to cancellations, rescheduling and vacation.  Maggie did not want to go and started crying in the car.  I always stay in the room with her so I didn't understand her issue with girl scouts.  We did go and she sat with me most of the meeting.  The girls just painted today so she was able to do that sitting at the table with me.  

Thursday:  We had been planning to go somewhere with friends today, but neither of us could come up with anything to do.  It seems like all the activities around our area cost too much money and, with the price of gas, the beach was just too far.  So we decided to just pick up some Happy Meals and spend the afternoon at their house swimming and playing.  M had a great time.  She didn't want to leave.  I explained to her that she can play whenever she wants, but she has to be willing to go to their house by herself.  She wants nothing to do with that idea.  Unfortunately we can't do these constant play dates with only little girls when we have Tyler along with us.  That is no fun for anyone.  But we had a great day today and Maggie was able to relax and play without any anxiety.

Friday:  M and I had another busy day planned with friends.  We got started early and headed off to our weekly play date at the park.  It was a beautiful day.  M did pretty good and actually played after she had some time to adjust.  This is an improvement over last week when she never did leave my side.  We had all planned to have lunch at the park also and ended up staying until about 2pm.  We were grateful for the warm, but not hot day.  We ran a few errands on the way home:  library, Aldi, Wal Mart.  Then, since we give another Mom and daughter a ride to the park, we stopped at their house for a quick swim on the way home.  I guess M had a good day because as we are leaving (after being away from home for 7 hours) she asks "What can we do next?"  I was thinking "nap" but she was not in agreement.  We headed home, unloaded the car, had a quick dinner, bath and bed.

Saturday:  I have been dreading Saturday and the return of the disastrous dance class.  The last time we went to dance Maggie got very upset and would not participate at all.  Today I tried to help her by taking her early and telling her to just have fun today and not worry about the future, etc.  She was doing ok in the lobby but when another class started talking about the recital she started crying and clinging to me.  I did make her sit in dance class but she would not participate.  I am at my wits end.  I am trying to be supportive but, to be honest, my motivation for her to attend this recital is very low.  I had a lot of reservations about signing up for dance class because of the recital and now all those issues I have are resurfacing.  I really have a great aversion to putting my kid in a lot of make-up and dropping her off alone at the performance center where I feel like my kid is being held hostage until they decide to return her.  I do understand the other side of this issue, from the studio's viewpoint.  However the whole experience is just so contradictory to my views as a mother and a person.  I am trying not to let my aversion show, but it is not helping my motivation to have her perform.

Weekly Wrap-Up: 4/02/11

Sunday:  After a week of visitors I really needed some alone time.  We had planned to go visit a Strawberry farm for some treats (shortcake and strawberry shake) and also to visit Dino World.  My DH was nice enough to let me stay home while he took the kids, his sister, and nephew.  They had a good time and I had some much needed recuperation.

Monday:  My Mom is staying for a few days this week so Jeff and I went together to my chiropractor appointment and then enjoyed a date afternoon with lunch and a stroll through the antique store.  It was a nice relaxing afternoon and we enjoyed the alone time together.

Tuesday:  After a week of spring break the kids were not thrilled to be back to the daily school grind.  We have lost our motivation and we need to find a way to reinvigorate our studies.  I am hoping the upcoming homeschool convention will give me a much needed attitude refresher.

Wednesday:  One of Maggie's good friends was had invited us to her birthday party today.  Tyler was lucky enough to get to stay home with Nanny and not have to spend the day with little girls.  Maggie, who is currently experiencing some anxiety/separation issues decided at the last minute she did not want to attend.  I knew she was just feeling anxiety so we headed off to the party anyway.  When we arrived the only guests were the 5 little girls Maggie goes to the park with every week.  Still, she would not play and stayed glued to my side.  Finally after over an hour she managed to venture out of my sight and have some fun.  She even got to hold the brand new baby sister of the birthday girl.

Thursday:  It is always a good day when the kids start off the morning cooperating with each and playing together nicely.  I had to interrupt their game to go to my chiropractor appointment.  After the appointment, I took the kids to lunch and then we spent way too much time trying to find a new ice cream store I had read about.  We never found the location so we just went to Dunkin' Donuts and got ice cream there.  We finally made it home and finished up some school work for the day.

Friday:  Our weekly park day has moved to mornings now that Florida is starting to heat up.  We were all glad of the change today because by the time 12:00 pm hit everyone was pretty warm.  It was a weird day at the park.  Tyler was actually having a great time and didn't want to leave.  This is a total contradiction of our normal Friday.  Maggie spent most of the time sitting beside me and generally not leaving my side.  I hope the poor girl gets over this anxiety soon.

Saturday:  The kids voluntarily started playing outside this morning so that was a plus.  We have some friends coming to visit this afternoon so it should be a good day.

Weekly Wrap-Up: 3/12/2011

Busy, busy week

Sunday:  I met my friend N for lunch and shopping.  This was a fun and much needed day out.

Monday:  The kids and I ran some errands in the morning while J had a dentist appointment.  Then we headed to the Brevard Zoo where I, once again, forgot to bring my camera.  We had a very nice time.  We were happy that Daddy finally got a chance to go before our membership expired.  J and I had wanted to go kayaking, but my back was bothering me so J took T and they had a great time.  M and I hit the snack bar while we waited.  They got to see all of the giraffes and some wild otters while kayaking.  It was a great family day.

Tuesday:  Today we had our new Homeschool Co-Op at my house.  We had 3 girls attend, plus my two kids.  We started with a cooking lesson and made individual pizzas from refrigerated biscuit dough.  I'm not sure how good they were, but all the kids ate them.  T did not want to participate but I did make him do the cooking lesson.  I had scheduled this lesson for the first hour and it took way less time than I anticipated.  So I let the girls play for a little while before we began the second half.

Our next activity was Language Arts enrichment.  I had planned to play several sight word bingo games and Bananagrams.  This was more difficult than I anticipated because the girls really just wanted to play.  M always likes games so I thought she would be happy to have someone play with her, but that was not the case.

Wednesday:  Yeah a day at home and we didn't even have to go to Girl Scouts!  It was nice to have a relaxed but productive school day.  We are finally back to talking about the Greeks in our Ancient History so Tyler is thrilled.  I have been doing alot of personal reading which has been relaxing.  

Thursday:  Another productive day of school.  I found Tyler's missing Reading Comprehension book yesterday.  It had fallen behind our bookshelf and has been missing for over a month.  Tyler actually likes that particular workbook so he was happy to have a new story to read.  We are also finishing up 2 Harry Potter books and he got another movie from Netflix to watch today so we had plenty to keep us busy.  

Friday:  Today was a lovely sunny, yet cool Florida day.  We were able to complete almost all of our school work before we left for the park today.  It was an odd day at the park.  We had 2 new Moms come, the rest of us were in a low key "blah" type of mood and Tyler didn't have any boys to play with.  When no boys come then the girls like to tease and chase him and he gets annoyed and usually ends up in trouble for lashing out at one of them.  Hopefully next week he will have someone to play with.

Saturday:  As usual I almost forgot about dance so we were rushing around washing M's hair at the last minute.  It never fails.... After dance M had to go work at a Girl Scout cookie booth so I took both kids to lunch in between.  We got to the cookie booth only to discover we went to the wrong grocery store and so had to drive back another 10 miles in the opposite direction trying to figure out where to go.  T and I just ran a few errands while M sold cookies and now we are back home.  I will be catching up on some teacher stuff while the kids are enjoying free time.  I did make them clean their rooms first, though. 

Weekly Wrap-Up: 3/5/11

Monday:  J and I had eye doctor appointments so I had scheduled today as a catch-up day for schooling.  That ended up being a good decision because, as usual, I forgot about the numbing eye drops.  I am not sure why I blank out on this each year, but I seriously couldn't see for the majority of the day and I was worthless trying to read to the kids.  We had picked up the first Harry Potter movie and T was in agony all day waiting for our eyes to clear up so we could watch it.  This was his reward for reading the first book.  He likes to read, but he has a habit of skipping around and reading bits and parts of books.  I decided to read HP with him so that we could discuss it chapter by chapter.  That really worked and also made me a HP convert.  I can't wait to finish all the books.


Tuesday:  Today was supposed to be the first day of the Homeschool Co-Op I am starting, but all but one person cancelled.  The Mom who was coming needed a ride so I just called the whole thing off for the week.  I was very perturbed by the whole thing; mostly because of all the mental energy and stress I caused myself planning for this.  I am not a born educator so I really had to plan and prepare.  I was very close to cancelling the whole thing because it is not worth my stress but have decided instead to just not worry about preparing anything because if having something "super awesome" was that important to the other moms then it would have been more important to commit to the co-op.


Wednesday:  Yeah the kids and I were so happy to stay home almost all day today.  We needed it after yesterday.  We were able to catch-up on a lot of our work and have relaxation time.  My new chore system arrived this week and I realize I need to get paint so the kids can decorate their boards before we start using.  This means a trip to Michaels, so now I have to fit that into my desire to not shop.  Later we went to girl scouts where I accused Tyler of loosing a book when I actually carried it to the car.  Yeah, I had a bad mom moment.


Thursday:  We ran a few errands this morning.  I think someone finally wants to buy my KONOS curriculum from last year so I had to go get a postage estimate.  After that we were able to quickly finish up our school work for the day.  It suddenly feels like we are doing way less per day, but I can't figure out why.  I need to review what our weeks looked like last month to compare.  I do know Tyler switched from Horizons math back to Math-U-See and we have been doing some review in between.  Maybe he is just complaining less and that is giving us more time???  LOL  We also somehow lost his Reading Comprehension book, but I replaced it with another book I found in my stash.


Friday:  Park Day... Yeah!!!  We were all so ready to spend some time with friends today.  We managed to fit most of our assignments into the morning and then we spent 3 hours at the park.  Tyler is happy now that we have some older boys attending.  For awhile it was just him and 5 little girls.


Saturday:  Today we have dance class at 11 am then we are going to help with a car wash fundraiser for the boy scouts.  It is unfortunate that all the boy scouts events take place on Saturday when Jeff is working.  I would really rather not participate, but I was finally guilted into doing something.  Ok I am hoping not to have to do anything, but I am taking Tyler.

Weekly Wrap-Up: 2/26/11

Monday: We were invited to a birthday party today, so we did a few quick school lessons this morning and then headed off to the park. We ended up staying later than anticipated but the kids were having a great time and it is always nice to have some PE time. I also signed up for the "Heart of the Matter" conference this week. It is a 3 day online Christian Homeschooling conference. I was excited about a couple of the speakers, including one talk on "Reluctant Writers" I didn't get a chance to listen to any of the speakers today, but I will catch the MP3s later.

Tuesday: This was just a normal Tuesday for us: schoolwork, chores, etc. I did school with the kids in between listening to the online HS conference. This week I have been writing the daily chores on the white board and telling the kids to go do them. This has been working out pretty well. They are pretty good about doing their chores, but only under direction. I want them to be a little more independent which is why I recently ordered these:

http://www.accountablekids.com/

Wednesday: I had a rough morning and decided to declare an "unschooling" day. Well actually I gave the kids a choice "unschool and no Wii/TV" or "do schoolwork and Wii later." Frankly, I was very surprised they choose the unschooling without hesitation. That was a good sign since some days they both seem too involved in the electronics. I was also trying to finish up my last day of the online HS conference and wanted to focus on that for the day. So the kids spent their time making puppets, putting on a puppet show for me, watching a library video, and reading. Not a bad day. I would post the video from the puppet show but I can't figure out how to get it off my phone.

Thursday: It is a good day when the kids don't even make a comment when I say "let's start school." I have a complainer and it is starting to rub off on his sister. But today was a good day. I actually just had them double up and we completed most of the assignments from yesterday and today. T is obsessed with Harry Potter right now so he also spent alot of his day rereading the first book.

Friday: Today we ventured out to Disney for a DisneySchooling Day coordinated by a local homeschooling group. We had a fun time, but we did not know anyone else in the group. We met up with them for one group ride and the group photo. Otherwise the kids and I rode a few rides by ourselves and went home early. We only spent about 4 hours in the park, but I over-packed my backpack and I was in a lot of pain by the time we decided to go home. I talked to another family that stayed until 10pm. One time, on our first visit, we actually spent the whole day at Disney. Since then I can barely make it 4 hours. But luckily for us, the kids are actually ready to go home by then also. That is the nice part about having passes this year.

Saturday: Mommy is taking the day off from activities and catching up on some of the administrative duties around the house. Currently I am working on my budget and listening to a MP3 by Andrew Pudewa. It is very interesting take on "thinking" and "education." I am one of those people who really like conventions and speakers. The right one always invigorates my homeschooling journey.

Weekly Wrap-Up: 1/1/11

This was a slow week for us. I usually continue with school throughout most of everyone's Holiday break. We don't travel and there are no kids home during the day for us to play with, so I decided we might as well accomplish something.

Monday: Jeff was still home on day 3 of his 3 day weekend. We continued our Christmas celebration with a nice relaxing morning. Then we finished up a few school assignments and caught up on Maggie's reading. She is doing amazing, but it is still difficult for her to finish a lesson in one sitting. The curriculum we use instructs us to do one lesson a day and each lesson is now including a 2 lesson quick review. That is way too much for us. I think now that we have the basics down we will do a lesson every other day. We are still trying to do the grammar lessons also, so will will do the reading and grammar on alternating days.

Later that evening Daddy did a nice science lesson with the kids. I am not totally sure what they are studying, but it involves Chemistry and that is where I tend to zone out.

Tuesday: T slept in this morning which Jeff and I always know is a bad sign. That kid is an early riser and always has been. Very rarely will he sleep until 8am, but if he sleeps past 9 then he is surely not feeling well. So when he finally woke up he did not look well and told me his head hurt. I put him in my bed with my new ROKU and he spent the whole day there. He didn't eat much all day and I finally decided I would not even attempt to make him complete any assignments. I did have Maggie complete her schoolwork, but I totally gave up on completing any history for the week.

Wednesday: No one felt much like doing anything today. The kids both felt good physically, but we were all feeling lazy. I let the kids alternate between playing their new DS game (Super Scribblenauts) and doing school work with me. It actually worked out pretty well. The day did drag on a little long, but at one point T decided he wanted to play on the computer and then it was "let's finish all my work right now." The computer is my only leverage right now, but I would like to decrease the usage this year. I just need a plan.

Thursday: We had a great day with friends at the zoo today. My friend N posted a very nice blog about our trip, but since she is one of the few people who read my blog I won't go into much detail here. It was a lovely day and we were both glad to be out of the house together. Although we did realize at one point that we both wanted to cancel, but we both knew we would have fun once we left the house. N is also nice enough to always drive and we get to spend the long trip talking and catching up.

We had been secretly planning a sleepover for T and N's son, but almost as soon as we talked about it T began coughing and acting tired and even asking to go home. I thought he was completely recovered from Tuesdays illness, but I guess the zoo was too much for him.

Friday: After a few hours of relaxing in the morning the kids finally asked "Do we have school today?" I made them happy by announcing "NO SCHOOL" I had planned a day off for New Year's Eve. We had originally talked about having a kid's party and inviting some friends over. The closer it go to the holidays the less motivated I felt to plan a party. Plus Jeff always works on NYE and I knew I would be home and lonely. It was for the best anyway, since Tyler is still recovering from this cold.

Saturday: We are getting ready to head to the beach for a mini vacation. My Mom has rented a mobile home close to the beach this year and we are going to spend a few days there while she is still back in Ohio. We were hoping it would be warmer, but at least we can play in the sand.

Weekly Wrap-Up

Our week started out hectic and on the wrong foot. I spent Monday afternoon shopping for clothes and having lunch with a friend. Daddy was home with the kids. They did a little school work, but Daddy needed a break, and he deserved one. So I finished up school work when I got home. Tuesday the kids were playing a make believe game when I got up. They didn't want to stop playing when it was time to do schoolwork and, hence, we had a day full of power struggles and punishments. It was NOT a good day. DH and I spent some time talking that night trying to come up with some ways for our days to run smoother.

I actually knew what needed to happen, but I resisted it. I know that when I get on the computer in the mornings, our days do not go well. But I selfishly want to be able to do my own thing while the kids are doing their schoolwork. This does not really ever work in my house, but I still insist on trying to make it happen. So, Wednesday morning I kept the computer off and I kept the kids focused from the moment we got up. We had a great day.. We got our schoolwork done early and even had time for an extended break before lunch. Let's hope I can stay focused on this issue after I return from vacation.

T: T is still having Math issues. I am not sure why he hates it so much. I would think a person would hate something they are bad at, but he really does a great job in the subject. I am really at a loss. I don't want to spend the next 10 years listening to him complain about math. On the other hand, I cannot just let him not do it. I believe he needs to do math daily. Maybe I just need to find the right program for him. This is our 3rd math curriculum though.

M: M is doing really well this week. She is my workbook girl, you know that child who actually loves to do workbooks. I was actually like this as a child, and I really don't know why people don't enjoy workbooks. :) Teacher he about money is frustrating me, but she has difficulty with skip counting so that is part of the problem. I am putting together a couple file folder games to help her.

Mommy: I went out last week and bought myself a new Covey Planner at Target. It is working out pretty well so far. My biggest issues is all the things I think about as I am falling asleep. There is no way I am getting up to write stuff down at that point. I usually don't remember once morning hits.

Once I gave up my morning computer our week went smoothly. Yesterday DH and I went to see Dave Ramsey Live! We have seen him before, but we thought we could use a refresher. DH and I have been stuck on BS3 for awhile, so we needed some inspiration. I think we got it. We really need to finish up our Emergency Fund so we can move on to our investing. It was good because DH has been feeling badly about not investing and this was a good reminder about why we temporarily stopped that. Our temporary has just lasted longer than we anticipated.

I am looking ahead to a VERY busy week as my parents arrive and we prepare for our cruise next week. Happy sailing!

Weekly Wrap-Up

We had a short week this week since we spent Monday driving home from Myrtle Beach. I spent most of Tuesday just trying to get the kids motivated to do anything. It is always hard to readjust after a trip. T complained that he never gets a break from schoolwork, even though he just had a 5 day break. That kid would really love to be an unschooler, and he does read all the time. However he would end up being a 30 year old who couldn't add two numbers together. I know "real" unschoolers would argue that he would learn math when he needed it, but I don't function that way.

I am still trying to figure out a good formula for my weekly wrap-ups. I could go day by day, but when I tried that my week seems boring. I could try subject by subject, but again who wants to hear that we did pages 40-45 in our math workbook? I just need to remember the intention of this blog is to remind myself of the highlights and accomplishments of our school year. So here is our weekly recap:

T: T is back in a "mood" about not wanting to do his schoolwork. We really started off the year great so I am not sure what is happening. Math is always an issue, but he really is doing well with his studies. He just hates math and I am not sure what to do about it. He continues to love history and impressed me this week with some knowledge of Ancient Egyptian Gods. We also finally completed our Egyptian Pyramid and the kids really had fun with that. I am always grateful of his love of reading, specifically science and history. He does a lot of independent learning this way. I have really seen some glimpses of maturity this week in the way T speaks and thinks. That is always a fun thing. He will be turning 9 in January and is really becoming his own person.

M: Ahh M, my darling 6 year old girl. Or should I say, my Whining 6 year old girl, since that is all she did this week? It has been a week full of whining and tattling. I really need to spend some time with her working on these issues, but honestly I was too irritable to be very kind about it this week. I think this is where M needs the most work. Academically she is progressing. She is probably below grade level in a couple areas, but she has improved so much since the beginning of the year that I am confident she will catch-up quickly. This is great news because 2 months ago I was wondering if she had some kind of learning issue. We are finally seeing some real progress. The difference in her reading is amazing. She still tires easily and I need to break up most of her reading lessons into 2 parts, but she is actually READING!!

Mommy: I thought I might add a little of my own update each week also. I am always on the verge of a million goals, activities, or ideas. This week I have been in a "need to get organized" mood. I will admit that I am always on the search for a new way to organize myself and organize/encourage myself to clean. This is why I have about 4 different paper planners, plus 2 electronic ones. I am always searching for something to work for me. Actually my favorite system ever was my Palm T/X. This actually worked GREAT for me. But alas I ended up loosing it right before we moved to Florida. Two years later we found it in the hidden recesses of our couch. But, by that time, smartphones were all the rage and I just couldn't seem to make it work for me anymore. Now I have a Palm Pre which I like, but it does not run on the same software as my old Palm and, frankly, the old way was vastly superior. So I am back to the eternal search to become organized.

Weekly Wrap-Up: The Week My Schedule Fell Apart

Week 3 started out unusual for us. Monday, as I previously posted, was the day DH took the kids out for part of the day. That left us playing catch-up in the afternoon, but we got our list accomplished.

Tuesday we had a low-key day at home. This was also our first day of Science for the year. We are using a new science curriculum Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry. I do not enjoy science and I thought this was a very simple yet attractive curriculum that might help ME. T loves science so I'm not sure it matters what curriculum he uses. So far the beautiful colorful books haven't helped :)

Wednesday we left early to meet M's friends at the park. We started doing this last year after I realized most of our outings were boy centered. We created a "Little Girl's Playgroup" within our local HS group and started meeting weekly at a local park. M loves it as she is the most social member of our family. I enjoy meeting with the other Moms, but truth be told, I'd rather stay home. I see it as an interruption of our schedule. However I feel it is important for her to have the social time. No, I didn't say socialization! ;) Also, it is an opportunity for both of the kids to get a little PE time. The little girls like T to chase them and anything that gets him to voluntarily run is a hit for us.

Another new opportunity for us this year is local homeschool enrichment classes. I have a friend who helps facilitate the classes and she has been trying to get me to join for a year. I was reluctant for several reasons: driving distance, cost, and the time it will take out of my weekly schedule. She finally made me an offer I couldn't refuse and now our Thursdays will be spent with other kids learning karate, self-esteem, magic, and print making.

After a busy week, our Friday was catch-up day. Since we did not intent to be gone on Thursdays I had scheduled a full day of lessons. We did get a few things done on Thursday, but we did double up on a few lessons on Friday. We started our year slowly, so this was not a huge burden on the kids. T had lost his computer privilege for the day anyway, so this kept him busy for a little while.

Overall we had a pretty successful week. I now need to readjust my own schedule to include our "extra" activities and hopefully settle into a new routine for the first half of our year.

Weekly Wrap-Up: Week 1

I would say we had a fairly successful first week of homeschooling. Of course, how would anyone know since I haven't posted on this blog for a week! I have a mental hangup because every time I decide to post, the "photo" issues I have with blogger stop me in my tracks. My friend Nathalie posted about this last week, so at least I know I am not alone. Apparently though she actually knows how to fix it. :) I don't really enjoy reading blogs without any kind of clip art or photos, so it is hard for me to post this without an accompaniment. I will try to drown my anal retentiveness for a moment and continue with this posting.

Last week:

1. My son did very minimal complaining. If you lived in my house last year you would understand what a HUGE accomplishment this was.

2. My son did not complain when given his math assignment and actually did it!! (See #1, math being our most hated subject)

3. My idea of getting DD6 (our social butterfly) a CD player for her bedroom is working out great. When I am busy with DS and she starts getting restless I am sending her to her room to straighten up while listening to books on CD or accompanying CDs to her lessons.

4. We had a great Thursday: Our HS friends came over to swim with us and then Ts friend N got to spend the night while I got to got to MNO with my friend (N's Mom). We had a delicious steak (for me) dinner and some light shopping at Target.

5. Friday we met with our homeschooling group at a bounce house and the kids had a great time playing. Ok, it wasn't a great day for me. The noise in the bounce house was excruciating and I left with a killer headache. I am also a classic introvert, so the overwhelming chaos of the situation left me in shut down mode. I think I went to bed at 8:30 that night.

6. Saturday (our normal veg day) was a busy morning of running errands and activities. T had a horseback riding outing with his Cub Scout group. This was his first time on a horse and he LOVED it. I was surprised, since he is my child who is more reserved about trying new things.

7. Sunday I had a full day of shopping planned. I had a few items I really needed to return and I also wanted to take advantage of tax-free weekend for school shopping. I was reluctant to leave the house, but after I got started I enjoyed my day. I called a friend to meet me for lunch and we ended up spending the rest of the day shopping together. We probably bought alot more supplies than we needed, but we had a great time.

I am thankful that our new school year is starting out on a positive note. I hope we all can keep the positive attitude thru the winter.