The Circus Came to Town

We just wrapped up a one week unit on Fun.  Yes, you read that right.  FUN.  This is why we homeschool.  Because we can spend a week studying FUN!  Last night was the biggest FUN of all…. the kids put on a circus, complete with a Ring Master, clowns, jugglers, a tumbler, dog tricks, a princess on a bike, a snake charmer, a kickboxing dog and more!  We ate popcorn, peanuts, cotton candy and hot dogs!  YES!   F  U  N!  Here are some blurry nighttime pictures to prove that we do school. 

The only joke book the clowns found was a Canadian joke book, so the humor had a Northern slant.  But my favorite, hands down, was the knock knock joke that was told backwards.  The “orange you glad I didn’t say banana” started with the orange instead of the banana.  Too funny.  Great job, kids!

It Ain’t What it Used to Be

Yesterday was not only my eldest son’s golden birthday (14 on the 14th) but it was my youngest son’s introduction to headgear.  Eeeegads.  My brother wore headgear in the late 1970s, but times have changed and so has headgear.  I’ve made a solemn promise never to post pictures on facebook…. or my blogs.  A mother’s got to protect the dignity of her children, after all.  I also promised son #1 that if he made fun of son #2 I would make some headgear for him to wear and pictures would be broadcast for all to see.  (I’m the nice mom, remember?)

So, the purpose of the contraption is to pull the entire upper bridge, including attached cheek bones, forward… while holding the forehead and chin where they are.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  At least it’s a pretty blue color.  :o)  Dr. Ortho said that our son didn’t need to wear it to school.  I said, “Oh yes he does!”  Yet another advantage to homeschooling…. cutting headgear time down by two-thirds.  He even wears it to sleep.  Not my idea of a good time, but he’s coping well.

Every time I see Mr. Headgear, I am surprised by the metal bar dissecting his face.  Hopefully I’ll get used to it… it just looks so much like a transformer, or a cling-on, or a muzzle.  I’m the mom, though, so I still think he’s cute.  I told him at bedtime that we actually do need to take a picture of him wearing the headgear so his children will know how we tortured him.  That’s what parents do.

That Magic Moment

When my son started homeschooling at five-years-old, with me as his highly qualified and trained teacher, I came to the realization that all kids are not created equal.  Some are special.  Some are wild.  Some are funny.  Some are charming.  Some aren’t ready for school even if they are five-years-old.  I’m quite the determined individual and figured that I would do just fine teaching the children God gave me.  After several months of working on the letter F…. without any retention or even slight recognition… I realized my son was not ready to read (or name letters.)  Just for curiosity’s sake, I counted in my daily planner the number of days I had shown him the letter F.  It was 62.  It was like the letter F was new every morning…. just like God’s mercy.  Not good if your goal is reading before grade eight. 

We took a year off from trying to name the letter F.  It was a fun year of frivolity and favorite games.  We played football and frisbee and had foot races.  Then when my son was seven, I showed him this funny squiggly mark with two lines and told him that it was the letter F.  He said, “F”.  It made my heart glad.  The next day…. without me telling him… he pointed and said “F”.  :o)  See!  My teaching certificate was working its wonders.  That year he slowly learned the sounds the letters make…. uncompromisingly slowly.  But reading the letters when they were all lined up was foreign to him.  I diligently pressed on.  We sounded out every Bob book written.  I even made sight word flashcards with neatly formed letters….. but retention was out of our grasp.

When my son was nine, my husband was injured and had four months off work while his Achille’s Tendon healed inside a large black boot.  We took advantage of the time off and travelled the Western USA and visited 18 National Parks.  Since it was January through April, we did take our math books along with us in the van and worked our numbers on cookie sheets while we travelled.  Carschool!  I read aloud to the children and we listened to many books on tape: Rascal, Misty of Chincoteague, and The Twits.  Great pieces of literature that held our interest and kept us spellbound for hours.  But we did not do reading, or phonics or sight-word flashcards.  I needed a break too for goodness sake. 

We arrived home from that trip and to my surprise, delight and utter joy, my nine-year-old son could read.  Maybe he hit his head on a stalactite in New Mexico…. frankly, I don’t know what happened, nor do I care.  But something clicked, he could read… and it had nothing to do with me or my outstanding teaching ability.  I wondered how many hours I wasted on the letter F.

So my advice to homeschooling mothers with non-readers is this: hike into some caves, drive through some trees, fish in streams, count cacti arms, watch sage brush blow through fort ruins and climb a few ladders to cave dwellings.  It worked for me and my son.

Two Little Piggies

I’m not sure which of my boys licked the pig first, but both Aus and Keeve are down with the Swine Flu.  Great!  Fevers.  No appetites. Coughing.  Headaches.   I made jello and smoothies.  I bought chicken-n-stars soup and Goldfish crackers.  All should be well soon.

On the brighter side of sickness, homeschooling is canceled for the week!  And the homeschool mother cannot quit smiling.  :o)   And we’re saving money by not having to feed the boys full meals.  AND there were $10 gift card coupons in the paper for EACH prescription filled!  Whoooo Hooooo $20!!!

We are quarantined for 5-10 days depending on their fevers.  I felt like the neglectful mother in the doctor’s office.  (Not the first time that has happened.)  He asked when the last Tylenol was administered.  Um, 8 hours ago.  And yes, both boys had fevers over 102.  Rick was left in charge for the afternoon …. but I should have checked on them when I got home.  We’ll do better from here on out.

So, can you say eBay?  I should be able to get ALL of the adoption media drive donations on eBay this week.  :o)  Another silver lining to the pink piggy cloud.

See you next week.  Don’t bother coming by the house.

Has it Really Been a WEEK?

Hello Friends!  I feel like Madame Blueberry singing her song, “I’m so busy, busy, dreadfully busy, you’ve no idea what I have to do.”  It’s such a catchy, annoying tune.  Too bad I don’t know how to video tape myself singing it for you.

Scrapping in the Pines was fabulous as usual.  Four days of resting, eating, taking walks (shopping counts in there!), watching movies and chatting with the girlfriends.  It comes at such a great time of year too, right after school and sports have started.  Ahhhhhh.  The soothing memories occasionally last for almost a month!  It was an exciting time filled with centipedes, a skunk and Veronica’s four clothing changes per day.  Highly amusing!

My son, Austin, turned THIRTEEN on Monday.  I’m officially a mother of two teenagers.  I can’t be that old.  He is slowly catching up to his sister (who has only grown 1/8 of an inch in three years…. ) and me.  I’ve still got 5 inches on him, but it won’t last long.  His birthday request was a street hockey game with his homees.  It will be Friday night… pizza, hockey, cake and ice cream.  Makes for a good teenage induction evening.  Here is the most recent picture I have of Aus.

My husband’s mother and brother are here visiting for a week, so there is more cooking going on and less homeschooling.  But the visits are always full of laughter and good times.  They are already all sunburned from extended pool time… including my children.  How many times does a mother have to say, “RE-APPLY Sunscreen?”  Oh well.

Exciting news is that my Laughing in the Midst of Marriage book came hot off the press yesterday!  I should have a hot little copy in my hot little hand by Saturday!  So exciting.  This sort of crept up on me and I need to rock-n-roll to get it available on my website.  When I told the kids that it came out, Larisa said, “Congratulations!  You’re a published author.”  And Keeve added, “Again.”  So it’s not as thrilling as the first time, but thrilling nonetheless.  I’ll be sure to post pictures of the cute little purple books when they arrive.  Oh!  And I need to go buy a cute little purple shirt to match!… or a cute little purple jacket… at least good purple jewelry.  Any excuse to accessorize will work.

No adoption  news to report.  Please stay tuned.  I know I am.

I’m gearing up for the D6 Conference in Frisco, TX next week.  Not only do I get to speak, but I get to meet all the people at Randall House who work so diligently on my book!  I’m so excited!  And I just can’t hide it.  I’m about to lose control and I think I like it.  Like it.  I’m also looking forward to seeing Tim Hawkins.  He totally rocks my socks.  He’s so stinkin’ funny.  It’s not too late to join the festivities!  www.D6Conference.com Sept 23-25 just north of Dallas.  Come and be blessed.

Over and out.

THE Hike

Yesterday we hiked West Fork Trail 108 in Sedona.  It is past Slide Rock, for those who know the area.  It is a four mile hike that crosses Oak Creek seven times…. on rocks, logs, mud patches and twigs.  Twigs were my personal favorite. Well, it’s actually 14 crossings if you count in and out.  Only one kid fell in from our group.  We did witness another kid fall in twice.  It’s not deep, just FRIGID!

It was an absolutely beautiful day!  Sunny and breezy.  Perfect for hiking.

There was an abandoned homestead on the way to the creek and this was their chicken coop.  Keeve thought it was a barber shop.  Not sure what’s up with that?  Oh, Larisa took all of these pictures.  I carried the sandwiches.

The beauty God mixed together in this valley is sublime.  Red rock, green trees, blue sky, white snow…. yes, you read that correctly… SNOW.

My niece, Whitney, came with us too.  We went with two other families, the Fooks and the Browns.  All together there were 3 moms and 11 kids ranging in age from 6 to 19?  Not sure about that last one.

What a groovy day.  :o)

Kickin’ Off Spring Break

We just finished a unit of Floating and Ships which we wrapped up by renting a boat and spending the morning on Canyon Lake.  It is amazing to me that there are beautiful lakes only an hour outside of Phoenix.  Canyon Lake is one of a chain of three man-made lakes that fill steep canyons bordered with cliffs, cactus and even mountain goats.

This is the perfect time of year to go because it’s not too hot yet.  It was 65F when we arrived and 80F when we left.  I’m not sure who loved it more, the moms or the kids?  We decided we needed to plan some more units that would involve boating…. like animals of the Southwest, plants of the Southwest, classification of rocks, water conservation, gas propulsion, the sun’s effect of exposed skin, etc.  As you can see, there are plenty of times we can return to the calm waters of Canyon Lake.  It was a relaxing morning to kick off Spring Break.  On the way home, we stopped at a ghost town of an 1893 gold mine.  What a tourist trap…. but the kids had fun kickin’ up the dirt and talkin’ like cowboys.

Spring Break is a sweet gift to homeschooling moms.  Makes me smile.