The End of Another Year

We are unofficially done for the school year. We have accomplished everything that we needed to accomplish but we still need to get a few more hours in. It's been a long school year. Annie was really good at doing most of her work alone but Noah and Clair needed a lot more help. That was challenging, to say the least, with two little ones running around. We had to try and fit a lot of work in when they were napping. Another challenge was that we had so many extra classes outside of the house this year. I think we will be cutting those down this next school year. Running here and there nearly every day was too much.
That being said, I am looking forward to next year. The twins will be 2 1/2 and I am hoping for a little more cooperation from them. I hope that is not just wishful thinking, because honestly, it seems a little like it is. We are looking to join a new co-op in our homeschool group. I think it will be really good for Annie and Noah to have someone else teaching them. Grammar is not my favorite and I notice that I do not push them as much as I should because I don't enjoy it myself.
Annie will be in 6th grade. She has done very well in 5th grade and will be skipping 6th grade math altogether and moving on to 7th grade math. She whizzed through the placement test I gave her earlier this spring. She really loves nature and wants to have a career in either conservation or state parks when she gets older. Now that we are approaching middle school and high school we will be focusing a lot on science.
Noah will be in 3rd grade. I think that 3rd grade is always the year that the work gets a little harder. It's gonna be tough for him because we are adding a lot more work and he will have to be more structured. He has done really well in his reading this last year though and I think he will be able to handle it. He took an art class this year and we really saw him shine in something that was just his.
Clair will be in kindergarten/1st grade. She has been doing kindergarten work here and there all year and has even started reading. She understood the concept immediately. I gave her a placement test earlier this spring and she placed average on math and above average in English for a child going into 1st grade. When we start the school year she will only be 4 but will be doing 1st grade work. We will still be calling it kindergarten. In church classes and other things I don't want her to be out of place. If she went to public school she wouldn't even be starting kindergarten until next year. This is just one of the many things I love about homeschooling. If Clair was in the public school system she would either be stifled or out of place. Here at home she can just be Clair, with no labels or levels stamped on her.
We are going to start some subjects in July. Every year, when the regular schools get out for the summer, I become a mean old woman. I love being able to take my children somewhere and it not be crowded by a bunch of unruly children. By starting in July I hope to be able to finish in April, giving us all spring to go places and have fun without the crowd. Also, if we get behind, we have plenty of time to finish before the school year is over.

Valentine's Day

Every year our homeschool group has a bowling Valentine's Day party. We haven't made it for a couple years because of the twins but I decided to brave it this year. It went pretty well, hectic, but well. Clair had a really good day. She was the only one to get a strike and her valentine box won a prize for creativity.

The twins found the opportunity to perform a dance for us. Everything is a stage for my children.

Violet decided this was a good place for a nap.

An Epidemic of Cabin Fever

Sickness has hit our house. Thank God it's not the flu, yet, but we are still feeling icky. My littlest one caught RSV (or respiratory syncytial virus. Yeah, I googled it). She is old enough that she is outside of the danger zone but it has still been hard on her. It caused her to also get a double ear infection, which has been very painful for her. She is normally my wild child but she has mostly been wanting to lie on the couch. If you know anything about RSV you know that it is extremely contagious. All seven of us currently have some form of it. None of us feel like doing anything and we don't want to go out and spread our germs so we have been stuck in the house for several days. We don't have a tiny house but it is starting to shrink on us. The craziness has started to set in. The fact that it is cold, windy, and very cloudy doesn't help. Today I decided that enough was enough. I gave them a project. Now my children would like you to know that I am the coolest. I'm sure it won't last but, hey! I can enjoy it while it does last.

Watch Me Fly

 I often say that God knew my Clair was going to be a middle child, even when we didn't, so he gave her a personality that would keep her from getting lost in the shuffle. She came out feisty. If this gives you any hint to her personality, I was scheduled to be induced with her but when I went into the hospital they told me I was already in labor and didn't need to be induced. She has always done things her own way and on her own schedule. By one year old she already had a vocabulary of a couple dozen words and was speaking whole sentences by eighteen months old. She has an incredible memory. She can hear a song once and remember almost the whole thing. She has a crazy imagination and can tell you the most dramatic story. She is also the sweetest girl I know. Everything is always answered with a "yes ma'am" or "thank you". She loves to give out compliments and cuddles.

 We started out the school year, having recently turned three, doing preschool work pages. She insists on doing school work with the big kids. She breezed right through those worksheets and wanted more. Then we moved onto some old kindergarten books that I had in the closet. She did those without a problem. This fall she will be turning four and will be officially starting kindergarten. I think my only real challenge will be remembering that she is still little and that she has a little person's attention span.

 My two biggest fears with Clair are that I may squash this amazing potential that God has placed in her or, on the flip side, that I may expect so much out of her that she feels pressured to be something she isn't. Don't you ever wish as a parent that you could see the future? Maybe it's better that we can't. I've come to the conclusion with this precious one that my job is to give her the strong roots that she needs, steer her in the right direction, and then just watch her fly.

A card she wrote, by herself, for her cousin's birthday. I just told her how to spell it.    

Our Unconventional School Day

It was a lovely 75 degree day here in St. Louis on the 14th day of November. How can anyone spend a day like today indoors? Especially when we are heading into winter.

We packed up all five kids and went to the park. Annie and Noah recently joined the Missouri Conservation Department's "Conservation Frontiers" program. They brought their binders to the park and went on a nature hike. We stopped to throw rocks into the lake and observe the wildlife. This is their element. My kids would live here if they could and I love that about them.

They even made little leaf boats with rock passengers and we watched the wind blow them "out to sea".

Daddy helped them do the ropes course. They did pretty well, but then again, it may be because he bribed them with animal crackers.

I think the girls had a pretty fun time too.

These are just a few of the things I love most about homeschooling, family togetherness and freedom to explore the world around us. No, we didn't finish our math worksheets and we didn't read the prescribed chapter in our history book. But that's what tomorrow is for.

Hope

My son is a perfectionist, to put it simply. If he can't do it perfectly he won't do it at all. I remember one day, while he was in kindergarten, he messed up writing the letter B so he tore up the paper and threw it away. We struggled trying to learn how to read. He wouldn't try. All summer he would put on the most pitiful face and tell everyone that he didn't know how to read. So imagine my surprise on the first day of 1st grade when we sat down to sound out some words and he did it perfectly with no hesitation. I guess I should have known he was holding out. That's his way and I supposed I am just going to have to learn how to teach that.

Life-Changing Times

The last few months have been very busy months. We have been trying to adjust to our new normal. My very difficult pregnancy was followed by a very difficult birth. I will spare you all the details, but on March 25, 2011 Violet Grace and Caroline Angel made their glorious debut. They are very good babies but the fact that there are two of them makes things complicated. The first time they were both crying and I was home alone... Let's just say that mom's should have more than two arms.

Right now most kids are going back to school. We would normally start about the third week of August but this year we will be starting after Labor Day. I have already started logging hours

though. Annie has already read three classic books. You homeschool moms know that you log everything that you can. We have done some art projects and the kids have been watching science shows on Netflix. I think with our crazy year it will be easier on us if we ease into our school year. It should be fun. I may need to change the name of this blog from The Happy Homeschooler to The Crazy Homeschooler.

Caroline-left, Violet-right