Sarah Turns 5!

My only daughter is 5 years old! I'm in shock! The whole family went to Applebee's for dinner (her choice) with Gram, Grandpa, Aunt Heather and cousin Will. Grandmother and Granddad planned to be there, but Grandmother ended up in the hospital requiring emergency surgery. Thankfully, she is okay. Sarah received so many wonderful, princess presents! Where has the time gone!

"Can you take me to bed?"

I know Leila told me that she was impressed with how well Isaac went down for bed. He just hops up in his bed (it's a trundle) and lays down. He has a ritual. He wants his 3 certain stuffed animals (teddy bear that Gammy made, red dog that he inherited from Micah and this tiny little rabbit). He wants the sheet thrown over his head so he can pull it down and sometimes the blanket if it's cool in the room. Sarah and Isaac go to bed at the same time and sometimes the 2 older boys get to stay up a little longer, but not always. And while she goes without much complaint, she would like to stay up with the boys and feel bigger. Well, last night, it was a little past their bedtime and Sarah came to me and said "Can you take me to bed, I'm tired?" I was quite surprised. I can't recall her ever doing that. She had had a big day. It was her date day with daddy, so she skipped her nap. She had a warm bath earlier in the evening and she was just worn out.

Ladies First!

We had a busy house today. My friend, Jessica and family, came over to pick up a few things we are getting rid of and they could us. I love to "pay it forward". Well, between their first trip and their second trip, another friend of mine, Janine and 2 of her children, came by to help me pack and to sort some Saxon Math worksheets that she was sharing with me. I was in the middle of preparing lunch and it was actually a hot lunch, spaghetti with meat sauce! "All right" is what Caleb said when I told him what we were having. Actually he asked for it, and I was initially reluctant realizing I had 2 sets of company, but it actually sounded really good to me after not having anything to eat all day. So, lunch was in the making and it was late, at least for my kids. And, Jessica and family came back to help us move a counter to our neighbor's house. A very heavy island counter. Isaac was having a melt down in the middle of the kitchen because 1 - he was tired and over due for a nap, and 2 - the food was not ready! My sweet, little Isaac arrives in the kitchen as you are cooking believing that the food should be ready and on his plate. He has no concept of preparation time! So I began to serve Isaac first in hopes it would stop the echoeing crying. Echoeing because now that the kitchen walls are packed and the island was just removed, it sounds very echoey in the house now. So, I finish serving him when my darling daughter just realized she was not served. "Hey, why aren't you getting my food?" Okay, I realize this is not the way she should speak to me and she was corrected, but I knew why she had said it. So I asked her, "why do you think you should be served first?" To which she promptly replied, "Ladies first!" It got a chuckle from our visitors and even me. You see, we've been teaching the boys etiquette and manners around other people - opening doors, waiting for others to enter or exit first, etc. Table manners are still a challenge around here. Then my friend, Janine, said to Sarah, "Then your mommy should be able to go first." You gotta love it when you're kids are listening to what you're saying/teaching even when it's not for them. :o)

Creative Homeschooling

While packing an entire house in 2 weeks is in full swing, making last minute appointments with familiar doctors and dentists; trying to squeeze in all those visits and playdates that should have been occurring all along, and wanting to see as much of Tennessee before we leave it, homeschooling is going to be very creative, to say the least!

Yesterday was no exception. While I love spontaneity, I would classify myself as a person who thrives in a scheduled oriented atmosphere. Homeschooling for our family pretty much has a routine. It gets changed up a lot. How can it not when there are younger siblings! But, when we're all in a groove, it's pretty routine around here.

So, what I'm about to tell you may occur in your homeschool everyday. And it probably occurs in our homeschool more than I recognize, but yesterday was an epiphany for me.

We just returned from a week long trip to buy a house in Texas. You all know how trips go. No one sleeps in their own bed. The long trip (13 hours) home trying to sleep upright. Well, we rolled into the driveway about 930pm on Sunday night. We had to be home by Monday morning for a series of dental appointments on Monday morning.

The kids woke up the same time they do every morning. I was in hopes that the long, tiring day would help them sleep later, but not a chance! They wanted to watch some TV, something we don't do on school days until all school is finished. I said my usual no and informed them all that it was a school day and we were getting back into our routine. Micah scans the playroom and tells me that the school table is a mess. I turned to look and saw boxes on top of the school table, and various school books everywhere on top. It was discouraging to see the table and realize we had to leave the house in an hour for dental appts. Okay, it wasn't going to be routine today! I wasn't even sure, at this point, that school was going to happen at all. But, I was not going to tell the kids that!

With only minor frenzies, we made it to our dental appointments on time with clean clothes on and brushed teeth (very important if going to the dentist is why you're leaving the house) :o). It was a new dentist for our family and to top it off it was Sarah's first time to the dentist. She was very familiar with our old dentist's office, but now she was going to be the patient and it was a new dentist on top of that. This little tidbit is not part of the story, but I added it for a little more drama!

We waited, and waited and waited for our names to be called. We were there for over an hour before they called any of our names. The funny thing is, we really didn't even notice how long it had been. This is why. Right when we got there, we found a magazine on the chair next to where we were sitting. It was the only magazine (or so I thought) in the waiting room. It was a Town and Country. If you aren't familiar with this magazine, it is very thick. It was a travel edition. Sarah and I proceeded to look at the magazine from front to back, looking at each page carefully. I would ask her questions about what was on each page. After about 15 minutes or so, both boys (Isaac stayed home with daddy) started to get interested in what we were doing and wanting to contribute their observations and answers. Then I started to notice the people around us in the waiting room. I could here a few giggles from some of the teens that were listening to our conversation when one of the kids would make a comment about something on the page. We continued to look through each page and talking about where this or that was located, where do you think such and such is, would you want to go there. You get the idea. I continued to occasionally look up or around and noticed that we had become the center of attention in that entire waiting room. It was a long, somewhat narrow waiting room with about 10 people or so. Mostly younger teenagers with a parent here and there. These people had obvious facial expressions that told me there utter amazement at all the things my children were discussing and answering. I even heard one girl say to her friend when Micah answered what continent a certain country was located, "I didn't know where that was."

It finally came time for the 2 boys to go back for their appts. Sarah and I found the magazine rack which we did not see at first and looked through several more magazines before her turn finally came.

I don't know about you, but it really made me feel good to observe people observing us. I feel as if we may have positively affected some of those people in that waiting room. Maybe those parents will go home and read more with their kids. Maybe it will inspire some of those teens to want to learn more in school. I don't know! I do know one thing. I left the house thinking that the school day was already shot! But when I returned home, we had already had a full day of school! All from just a few magazines in a waiting room.

Now THAT'S the beauty of homeschooling!

BTW, Sarah did fantastic at her first dental appt.! A few gags trying to get the film in her mouth to take mouth pictures. But she didn't panic and was very brave. She had her teeth poked, polished and shined! And no cavities! Yeah! Both boys had a "no cavity" day also!

Explorers and Pirates and Soldiers, OH MY!!

School started on Monday, August 13th. For the first few weeks we will be exploring the early Explorers. Both Micah and Caleb are studying American History. Each boy will be making their own scrapbook. Sarah started her phonics lessons. She already knows most of her letter sounds. We're concentrating on her writing.

Stay tuned for more adventure - I think this year is going to be fun-filled!

Frog Guttin' Time!!! YUCK!!!!

WOW! Thanks soooo much to my great friend, Leila Cook, for braving the task of teacher of our homeschool dissection class. Everyone had so much fun and it was so interesting. The kids shared in dissecting a frog, a perch and a few stuck around to dissect the clam. While, we didn't dissect the "Plague of Egypt" sized grasshopper, we did exam the exterior and determined the gender. It was so much more fun to do this with many of our homeschool buddies!