Thanksgiving 2012

Our Thanksgiving plans changed unexpectedly on Tuesday night when Isaac came down with the stomach bug that has been making the rounds in our circle of friends.  What was supposed to be a huge family dinner with cousins and aunts and uncles galore quickly turned into a small, intimate affair.  And, I'm not going to lie, it was awesome!  No stress, no frantic cleaning of the house, no worrying if the food was going to be done on time, no hoping that everyone likes the food you made, no feeling obligated to taste some of everything everyone brought, no sitting around feeling like you have to entertain everyone, no being hostess.  I. Loved. It.  No offense to our relatives that were planning to come.  I would have loved to have seen everyone and spent the day with family.  But it was also nice to just relax!

We let the kids take turns being the photographer, so things got a little...interesting.  Here is a bit of our day in pictures.

I am so thankful for my crazy little family!

Our School Room

Well, despite the extremely saddening election results, the show must go on.  Someone has to teach the future of our country things like fiscal responsibility and how to stand on their own two feet and not rely on the government, and I guess it will be me.  :)  Wow, did I just actually voice a political opinion out loud???  It's true, I have opinions, and I'm sad and concerned for the future of our country.   So I guess it's good I have something else to focus my attention on. Anyway, here is our school room!  I found a before picture of the playroom...

And some afters...

Same view, new room!  I wanted to brighten up the space, which doesn't get a lot of natural light since it's in the basement.  So I went with a pale yellow and Ryan added lots of extra lighting as well.  The last thing I want is to spend all my time in a cave!

The stage now doubles as a chalk board area.

The girls' desks.  Thank you craigslist!


The toys are all now in Lincoln's room and put up into those cabinets from Ikea.


A view of the custom bookshelves Ryan built us!


I bought these adorable vintage prints at a craft fair a few months ago, but never knew where to put them.  They are now right above one of our little reading nooks.  Perfect!

I love the way it all turned out.  I still have a few more things I want to add, but for now I'm pleased.  And I don't want to spend any more money, ever.  This process has been exciting...and expensive.  And, ahem, overspending isn't cool.

Never say never

So, while the rest of the free world is obsessing over things like electoral colleges and exit polls, I'm uh...not.  And not just because I'm not particularly politically-minded or because I already voted early, but because I have other things weighing heavily on my mind.

I have decided to pull the girls out of public school and start homeschooling them.  Something I have sworn multiple times that I would never, ever do!

My thoughts and emotions are running the gamut on this one.  One minute I am excited and ready to jump in feet first and get them up to speed and started on Latin as well.  The next minute I am terrified and worried that I am going to forget to teach them something important like cause and effect or where the Great Lakes are.  I believe that this is what they need right now.  For whatever reason, public schools have just not been giving them what they need academically.  We are spending so much money on extra tutoring and judging from their most recent report cards, it's just not enough. And this has really been an ongoing problem since kindergarten.  I can't let it go on forever. I have to do something.  I don't know what else to do.

There are a myriad of other reasons we are doing it as well.  Chloe is struggling emotionally.  I don't want her dislike of school to turn into a dislike of learning.  I get concerned about the kinds of things that kids are up against in schools these days.  It was hard enough when I was young, but it is so much worse now.  I want to protect their sweet little spirits from the filth that is out there. I don't want them to have to worry about being sexually harassed in middle school (it's happening, people!)

Yet I still have mixed feelings.  I love our neighborhood elementary school.  I feel like I am being a traitor or something by pulling them out.  We live in an incredible school district.   I really have loved and appreciated their teachers and all the work they have done in the girls' behalf.  I don't want them to feel like this is a reflection on them.  The fact of the matter is--no teacher can possibly meet all of the needs of all of the students in their class when they have 25+ students!  And I do feel like the math curriculum that the school district uses is awful.

I feel blessed to have some really stellar examples of what homeschooling can be in my life.  A friend whom I admire greatly came over and talked with me for over an hour about it and gave me some great sources and insights.  She also invited us to a little get-together of her homeschooling group. I also got some suggestions from my cousin-in-law (I don't know what else to call her!), who I also really admire and is a great homeschooler.  I have read a couple of incredible books that have not only made this seem feasible (albeit overwhelming) but really exciting as well.

I also feel blessed to have a truly supportive husband who goes along with every random idea that pops into my brain.  And one true friend, who, when I told her my plans said, "I think you will be great at that!"  She probably still has no idea how much that meant to me!  At least one person thinks I can do it and I can do it well!!

We will be working within the school district's homeschooling program, which seems like a great fit for us.  One day a week the girls will go to a school with other homeschooled children and have classes like art, music, science, p.e. and language arts.  The other 4 days a week they are with me.  So for all of those naysayers that are concerned about their social skills (or lack thereof), they will be socializing in a school-like setting once a week (not to mention church and other activities they are involved in.)

The girls are ecstatic--they really can't wait to get started. We are going to be doing a very formal, classical education.  So I wasn't kidding when I mentioned Latin.  We will also be doing math, science, reading, history, penmanship, critical thinking, a ton of writing, art and music.  (I think I missed a few--it's quite extensive.)  The goal for now is to get them up to grade level.

So I have spent the last few weeks filling out paperwork, picking through curriculum, ordering books and completely re-doing our basement to turn it from a playroom into a school room.  It's almost ready.  Today I took the girls to visit their new one-day-a-week school, where they will be in a class with 7 other 3rd graders every Tuesday starting in December.  Now if I can just stop having panic attacks, we will be good to go.

Happy Halloween!

The girls and I have been planning this one for months...

Hopefully no one in our neighborhood is related to conjoined twins...

After a night of trick or treating, the girls are grateful to be separate.

He Who Must Not Be Denied Candy

Lincoln changed his mind about 50 times, from a ghost, to a fireman, to a rock star, to a skull (skeleton) to a zombie...I finally said, "Rock star it is.."

It was a strange night.  In our first 7 houses, three people said "Sorry, I don't have any candy," (?????), three houses were not home and the one house that did give the kids something forgot Lincoln and he immediately burst into tears.  So Ryan packed up the kids and took them to a better neighborhood while I stayed here and passed out the candy to the few trick or treaters we had.  

Our weird dog.

Isaac found a book about Golden Retrievers at the thrift store today and it said that if you like to vacuum, you would love a Golden because you will be vacuuming up their fur.  A lot.

I'm not sure this is what it meant by that.

Kirby loves to be vacuumed.  Every time I turn it on, he comes running and wags his tail and gets right underfoot until I give him a turn.  He is so silly.

Happy Birthday!

My little ladies turned nine on Sunday!  I sure do love them.  I really love that they are older and not nearly as difficult as they used to be!  :)

On Friday we brought cupcakes in to the school and their classes combined to sing to them.  I think it made them a bit nervous to have 56 kids singing to them!

Here they are passing out cupcakes.  Their little friend, Amelia (in pink)  stuck to them like glue.  I'm not sure if she was motivated by friendship or by the possibility of seconds, because as far as I know, they aren't normally that close to her.

Lunch time!  They love it when I eat with them--and I haven't had a chance to do it at all this year!

Instead of a traditional birthday party, they decided to have their best friend, Avery come stay the weekend with us.  She is the one who moved about 1.5 hours away from us this summer.  We met up at a McDonald's half way on Friday afternoon and the fun weekend was afoot!

p.s. It was college day at school that day, or they might have dressed a little more festively for their birthday.

Pizza for dinner...

Cake and ice cream...

Look at the camera, Chloe.

Opening presents!

Audrey wanted that wheelchair for her AG doll more than anything...when asked why she said it's because they always play that their dolls are breaking their backs.  Um, okay.

Ready for bed...

The next day they just played and played and played.  They never even got dressed!  We also carved pumpkins...

And watched a Harry Potter movie while drinking butterbeer (without the beer.)

It was a wonderful birthday weekend!!

Fabulous Fall

We have been having some wonderful fall weather this year (although it did finally get pretty cold this week.) A few weeks ago Lincoln and I got to go on a field trip to the pumpkin farm.  I sure love my little man.

Thoughts. Big ones.

Isaac had a super-fun project that we worked on for school.  He had to design an island and create a 3-D map of it.  As a family we had a blast brainstorming ideas for his "Isle of Potter."  And then we got to build the map...

I say "we."  This was definitely a joint venture.  All of us worked on it.  And had fun.  It got me to thinking...

Lincoln has been begging for his own homework everyday after school while the kids are doing theirs.  So I wrote down some math problems for him and look what he busted out:

Okay, so he can't write all his numbers yet, and some of the digits were transposed, but he got them all right!!  He is four!  That also got me thinking...

The girls have really been struggling this year.  Chloe, who has always had the most loving, sweet teachers has gotten one this year that is not quite so...approachable.  She isn't mean per se, but certainly not warm and fuzzy, either.  I don't know if this is the reason Chloe has had such a hard time this year.  She doesn't want to go to school (well, what kid does, right?  But most don't throw fits so violently physical that you have to carry them into the school.)  She has also been having other issues that I am not going to go into in this forum, but let's just say we are kind of worried about her.  Worried enough that I am going to talk to the pediatrician tomorrow.

And then sweet Audrey who is literally failing third grade if that is even possible and cries and tells me she is the "worst in the class."  We are now forking out literally hundreds of dollars a month to get the girls tutoring. It's gotten me thinking.

And the petty little issues that the girls are starting to run into with other girls.  You know.  "Mean Girls."  It's starting.  And I don't like it.  Still thinking...

I remember the first kid I ever met that was homeschooled.  Let's just say it was NOT  a good impression.  The child had absolutely no social skills (and it's not like my kids are great socially, but this girl was downright rude.)  Through the years I've encountered more and more homeschooled children and I'll be honest--most of them are/were WEIRD.  Dressed like pioneers.  On. purpose.  Walked around with a holier-than-thou attitude.  In their pioneer dresses.  Took tap dance lessons.  (THE BOYS.)  Weird.

But I have also come across some incredible, well-rounded, self-confident kids that I would be thrilled to have my kids turn out like.  (That sentence probably negates any confidence anyone has in my ability to actually teach my children anything, but oh well.)

I want my kids to learn at their own pace.  I want them to love learning.  I want them to be able to learn without the distractions of things like bratty, stuck up girls not including them or worrying about someone teasing them in gym.  I like the idea of our family working together and learning together like we did on "The Isle of Potter."

The more I research it, the more feasible it seems.  I don't know.  Maybe I am totally crazy.  I never thought I would ever homeschool.  But I also never realized what kind of a world I would be sending my kids out into every day.  I can't shelter them from everything, but I can choose when I want to expose them to certain things.

Well, I am seriously considering it.  As scary as it seems.  As crazy as it seems.  I live in the best school district in the state, for heaven's sake!!  But these days, I just don't know.  More than anything else, I want to do what is right for my kids.  And this might be it.  Gulp.