A day of firsts....

I was trying to make cards for Algebra 1 battles with Taylor, but Trevor wanted to practice writing. That is not a first; he always wants to do whatever I do, and he has been asking to "write" things lately. But, this time he wanted to try by himself. He kind of made an "A" on his own, and kept trying until the 6 index cards I had given him were full. But, he wasn't satisfied with his results. So, he asked to draw a monster. I didn't want to give him any more index cards, so I gave him his first notebook and pencil. He was thrilled! And, his favorite thing to do is put the pencil in the spiral and take it out again. Followed closely by scribbling then erasing. Very funny! Then, Jewel figured out how to pull the lever on the See n Say, all by herself. Then, Mommy realized that if she wants to do her work she needs to do it on her own time, uh, she's on the clock now, right! I guess I'll finish the cards tonight.

The saga of the yard....

Well, not really a saga. I think it would have to occupy more of my time than it does to be a saga. But, it is becoming an interesting transformation story. First, the grass. So far, no chemicals have touched the lawn. Mission accomplished. And, weeds haven't taken over, although along the side by our neighbors who do spray their yard, you can see where the weeds will grow (our side) and where they won't. Someone (the lady I met via Hogan when we first moved in) moved into the house next door, from a home they were renting 5 houses down. So, I don't know yet what they are going to do to their yard. It is mostly weeds. But, all my weeding hasn't made the grass fill in. At least not yet. I can see that it is trying to spread, but there is a grass like plant that is also spreading. While I didn't initially target it for weeding, I am going to now. I guess it will just take time for the grass to spread to the dead areas. I know it will (contrary to what my neighbor says) spread, because I am constantly twisting runners of grass from my beds and the concrete back into the yard. If it will spread there it will spread anywhere. So, I have, with little effort avoided the yard treatments, for now. I need to say, I would gladly put more time and energy into the yard and the garden, if I had any to spare. As it is, I already have a double load of work (and things are about to get worse), so I don't really have time to create a garden that requires daily attention. But, I have confidence that seeds in the ground with adequate sun and water will grown whether there are weeds nearby or not, so I will just try with the "spare time" I have. Right now there are some beans and peas coming in and the broccoli and greens look fine, too. I have a few more places to insert beds around the yard. Also, I have discovered a few places that will not get enough sunlight, but I will try to find seeds that need less sun for those places. Also, lately I have noticed that this yard is not as inviting as our previous yard. It shows, too. Before we moved we spent hours in the yard, doing almost everything. I will have to try to make this yard more comfortable. Except for the trampoline, we hardly even go out into it anymore. For now, here are the pics.

Teaching Taylor....

My teaching method is pretty straightforward in some respects. I simply try to gather as many resources as possible about the topic of the week(or day or month) and we explore them. I periodically check the math, science, and writing that he should know for the grade level he is technically in and make sure he is up to par, but I let him just run with it, where he is ahead of the curve. I suppose I do the same thing with the babies, in a way. I am quick to tell anyone that homeschooling Taylor is easy because he loves to learn about anything. And, there isn't much that he can't learn, if explained from the basics up. Unschooling is easy with him because there is so much that he wants to know more about and so much that he wants to try to do. But, he does have this obsession with games, and earning levels, and developing characters. He has been creating his own card games (like the trading card games of Pokemon and Magic) since he was 8. It was my desire to include this element in his schooling that caused me to start designing the game. So far, I am surprised at the results. It really isn't that bad and the "fill in the blanks" style will make it easy for other moms to use. But, we both feel that it isn't ready yet. It was too planned and structured to fit with the unschooling style that we enjoy. I could tell it was headed that way, but I wanted to test it out anyway. I knew there would be changes, but just couldn't see what to change. All the changes could be written into the plan without scrapping the current game until now. Right before Christmas, I started seeing what wasn't right. Then, during the week Taylor was out of town, I figured it out. But, it is kind of a big change and then several little ones. After Taylor and I started discussing the changes, he agreed that we could scrap the game and play again from Day 1. He said, "I still learned from it, but get a new character." Now he is coming up with a bunch of new ideas to add, and they are all really great ideas. I will be using most of them in the rewrite. In the meantime, we are going to study the Chinese New Year, Ninjas, lasers, and origami until we get bored and then we'll move on. And he is about to get a great introduction to college because I am going back. He has already witnessed the application process and is going to learn all about financial aid next. And, he's helping me review Algebra for the CPT. I am so excited to be going back, and really glad that Taylor gets to watch and learn with me. It is going to mean a little adjusting for our family, but we are all ready and excited. Trent has been teasing me that I will become a professional student, for good reason. Oh, I so could, if we won the lottery. ha ha He says that because, with the exception of the 3 years after Ethan died when I was occupied with grieving, I have been regretting not going and wishing I could go back. I cried with joy when we finished discussing it and decided that it was time. Now I am reviewing Algebra and biting my nails until the next semester (in May). The goal is a degree in Engineering on the way to a degree in Physics, and within 10 years (we might as well make use of this time, while I am "not working"). Here we go! So, (in conclusion) Taylor rocks, the game is getting a rewrite, and mom is finally going back to school.

Unschooling....

He said he didn't want to play Reader Rabbit or Dora. He asked to play the "paint game". I suppose he was watching Morlynn and Taylor do this a few weeks ago. This was Monday, I think. He really stayed focused on it and had really good control of the mouse. I remember that before we moved, he was just learning to use it more precisely. Wow, time just keeps tickin', right! He is already covering topics that are usually covered in Kindergarten, so here we go with another one to "school".

domestic violence....

I have a black eye. Not a bad one, just a little bruise around the bottom of my eye socket. No, I didn't get punched by an angry stranger in a bar. And, no, Trent didn't get fed up with me saying, "That's not where your dirty clothes go", and snap. He hit me with his head, accidentally of course. It was just as the alarm went off (a few days ago) and we just rolled into each other, his forehead hit my eye just right. It really wasn't that visible at first, but it has gotten more obvious over the last two days. The sympathetic and "tut tut" looks I get are really very entertaining. I think the guy at the gas station wanted to give me advice, but couldn't quite say it. Very funny! I tried to take a picture of it, but it just doesn't show very well. But, here are some funny pictures of Trevor (and me). He didn't understand that the shoulder pads were part of the football outfit. He said, "I'm a knight football player!" I said the helmet wouldn't fit me, but he proved that it would.

Whew!!!

After a very sleepless night, where I could have sworn I heard his collar jingling outside several times, Hogan returned home via the front door at 7:13 this morning. He scratched at the door and I jumped and ran. He's covered in dew and sand spurs, but otherwise fine. And, he looked almost surprised that I wasn't mad at him. All of the kids came running from bed, and Trevor said, "See, I told you he was at his mom and dad's". Oh, we will be filling in the holes under the fence today!

scared and sad...

Hogan went under the back fence and has been MIA for 6 hours. He's never been gone this long, and we didn't notice until he'd been gone for about an hour (we think). We are all so sad, we have called and called and looked for him. I just hope we get him back! He is micro-chipped and has tags on, so maybe we'll get lucky. I just can't believe it.

tidbit about Jewel...

She is getting very clever! She often grabs Hogan's ball and throws it for him or just waves it around and laughs when he grabs it. I watch them closely to make sure no one is bullying or getting dangerous, of course. But, this morning, she took the ball and barricaded herself behind some chairs and hid the ball behind her. Hogan found a way around and as soon as he got close she snatched up the ball and put it up as high as she could (the window sill) and sat in front of it. Very cute! Hogan was a little confused for a minute, but then decided he could just play with his rope.

learning during the weekend?!!

Taylor was very resistant to any obvious educating on the weekends when we first began homeschooling. But, I guess the long vacation in the woods and all the fun unschooling we do has shaken that notion from him, because he willingly participated in "school" stuff all weekend. He didn't even mention that it was the weekend. Maybe he didn't notice? We started the day watching Kung Fu Panda, and not because it kind of goes with what we are studying. Taylor did ask if he could count the movie as a lesson and get points for the game, but I had to say no. He also found a laser gun in one of the presents and played with it for a while. Reflecting it across the house from mirror to mirror to clock to tv, etc. That led to a little research about lasers that, it seems, is not finished yet. (Great, I don't know that much about them either, and I am very curious, too.) We also read to each other from a great new book he got for Christmas. It's called The Name of This Book is Secret by Psuedonymous Bosch and so far is pretty funny. We had to read because a short errand to our hometown turned into a long wait in the van. Luckily Jewel slept and Trevor got dropped off at Mimi's. By the time we made it home I had a few things that I had to do, so Taylor explored his new Christmas presents. This year he finally got some Knex, so he built a scorpion, it's on his blog. Then, we started some modular origami. This morning while we watched Batman Tech on the History Channel (DVR actually) we finished the final and biggest project in the book. It was a kit that I purchased for him last christmas called Amazing Geogami. We finished the day building a roller coaster from his Knex kit that Aunt Jamie got him. I'll get a video of the coaster when it is complete. But, here are some pics and a video of the modular origami. Try not to get lost in the related videos links. We (Taylor and I) did, and ended up watching laughing baby videos for 16 minutes. I added some of the funniest stuff to the favorites videos at the very bottom of the page. But, we did find some great origami that we want to try, too. Man, youtube was a great idea! two angles of the same piece Jellybean and the cookie jar....

Being busy, but happy....

I am constantly in awe of how quickly life moves. I barely have time to enjoy a new "thing" one of the kids have learned before they are learning something else. And, with 3 of them, that process starts to feel like a whirlwind. And, although learning is a large chunk of what goes on around here, it is not the only thing I am watching and trying to enjoy. Being in the moment for me is easy. Capturing the moment, not so much. Usually about the time I realize that I should grab the camera, the "it" is over. And, before I can get to the computer or notebook to jot down what happened, I have something else I need to do. And, even the "to dos" are getting behind again. Trent is working all day, everyday again, so lots of projects that normally get cleaned up by the weekend are getting ignored through several weekends. I found some great blogs focused on the activities you do specifically for educating the toddlers in your home. Several families have gotten in on it and the posts are really cute. We do "educate" our toddlers with coloring sheets and 10 minute spurts of explaining "things". But, I suspect that trying to capture it would result in a poor sampling of the activities. We did finally convince Trevor that he has bones and a brain in his body. And, that the brain is kept inside the head. He refused to believe it for the first two weeks of the anatomy studies. We didn't get him to fold properly for origami, but he did wad up some paper and stick it on the origami tree. But, I don't remember any other specific moments now. And, I don't expect that I'll get much better at capturing all the great moments that go flying by us. We'll just have to be content to enjoy all of them, in between learning to restring and tune guitars myself, and building a backyard garden, and keeping the house at least clean enough that it doesn't smell bad. Whew! I have some things to do. I have to go!