Boo!

We had a fun day today. We got all of our school work done this morning and then headed over to our local greenhouse to go to a Kid Petting Zoo. There were all kinds of animals there, and the kids had a fun time petting them. Carsten was a bit skiddish with them at first, but warmed up after finally touching a soft bunny. After that, we made a scarecrow out of clothes we brought. It was cool.

Dear Journal

Here is Alexis' Journal Entry today, no corrections made.


P/23/10

IN WAN WEK

I AM GOING

TO THE DTROT

ZOO I AM VARE

IKSUTID MY FRIN

EMALE IS KAMING

TO AN MY

GRAM AN GRAPU

AER KAMING

TO LOVE ALEXIS

Ok, in case you couldn't translate -

In one week

I am going

to the Detroit

Zoo. I am very

excited. My friend

Emily is coming

too. And my

Grandma and Grandpa

are coming

too. Love, Alexis

Toads

HS is exhausting in some ways, but not in others. It is in that I have to go back and forth between each kid a lot and sometimes that gets a little crazy. However, I have found though that the house is staying cleaner because the kids aren't running through it all day long like they were when it was just summer break - so that's been easier.


Things have been going good. We're into week 2 now. Tyrus had a big meltdown today saying he felt like he couldn't do some things well any more. He said he always writes a '9' when he's trying to write a 'p'. I tried to give him an encouraging pep talk that he can do it, he just has to set his mind to it. He KNOWS the difference between a '9' and a 'p' he just needs to slow down a bit and write it correctly. I had him shout "I CAN DO IT!" That took the tears away, and the laughter came.

A few weeks ago, I went up to our laundry room only to realize that some how the washer had flooded the room! Now, know our laundry room is upstairs, so you know what that means - water damage came into the ceiling below in our livingroom. Yesterday, a plummer came to put some sort of back flow preventer deal into the drain pipe and now it seems to be working, thankfully. I was tired, I'll tell you, of hauling the clothes to the laundry mat! Today a drywaller came and repaired the messed up part in the ceiling. The kids thought both guys were really cool. I'm just thankful the drain is working now and the ceiling repair is done - all on our builder's dime.

Tyrus said something funny today in response to Alexis' rude comment to him: "I mean it! Don't make compliments!"

The kids are super hyped up about these crazy toads / frogs / whatever they are that they've found near our property. They've made up names for them: Hoppy, Toady and Sticky. They beg to bring them to their rooms as "pets", to which I've firmly said "NO!" And, the other day, they coerced me into taking them to the pet store to look at Frog Cages. Silly kids.

And we're off!

So school has started. Whew. The first day started out rough at first when I wanted to take a picture of the kids at the beginning to record the first day. We went outside into the sunshine and they complained and fussed SO MUCH about the sun shining in their eyes. Lots of tears and eye rubbing, etc made for not so great pictures. Anyway, once that was over, we went in and started our day.


It went very good. I felt a bit disorganized as there are lots of books, manuals, readers, etc between all of us that I need to find a better system to keep track of. But, we did accomplish everything I wanted to do, and the kids were very happy to do the stuff I asked.

Yesterday we worked on a Family Tree and the kids cut out pictures of all of the main people in their trees, all the way back to their great-great-grandmother. That was cool. We talked a lot about all the people. They didn't know that their great-great-grandmother had come over on a boat from Poland, for instance. While we were working on that, Tyrus announced to me: "I like homeschooling, mom." Well, I guess that's good, right?

After that, I read them a chapter out of Henry & Ribsy and when the chapter was over, I told them, "okay, that's all for today" and they begged me to read more! Gotta love that!

Tomorrow we have a Field Day for HS kids in our area. The kids are excited about it.

Bang, bang!

Samson made it through surgery just fine, but since then has had difficulty with recovery. His temp was off (cold in sections of his body and warm in other) and his platelets have also been off. We're still keeping up the prayers.


Last night we went to a local homeschool potluck to meet some new people. It was great fun. The people we were with were super nice and their house was great! The kids loved that they had two cows and chickens running all over. I loved sitting around the campfire singing songs and listening to the people much wiser than I about their stories and experiences with hs. It was cool.

Today, my dear mil kept our kids while Josh and I went out and did something we've never done before. We went gun shooting at his friends house. The guy has 5+ acres and a bunch of different types of pistols and rifles. It was crazy! I shot a .22 and a 9mm and a .45 - and I actually hit some of the targets! Some of those kick back quite a bit, so I had to work through that. It rained steadily the entire time, but thankfully they had a canopy set up and we had ponchos and umbrellas. I'm just now thawing out after a few hours outside.

School starts Monday. I got a ton of stuff ready for it on Friday - moving around books and rearranging things. The kids are geared up. We're ready to go!

Co-op

Tomorrow the kids have their first co-op class. We're doing Ancient History using the Story of the World curriculum. It's cool because the parents all rotate teaching one or two classes during the year for the kids, and then the weeks off we're free to hit the coffee shop or whatever else we want to do. I'm looking forward to having an hour and a half of time with only Carsten.


We've got all the supplies and stuff ready to go. They are excited!

We're starting actual school a week from today - the 13th. I just figure that's a good day to get started!

My cousin Samson who is 2 months old goes for open heart surgery tomorrow.