Homecoming 2013 Stats
Date: Gary
Dress/Shoes: Borrowed from MK
Hair: by Haley
Dinner: Maggianos
Biggest Admirer: Ellie
54 Month Clinic - 4 1/2 Years in Remission
11 years ago
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Thursday, October 17, 2013
The Bane of her Existence
A·P· cal·cu·lus
ay-pee ˈkalkyələs/
noun
1.
the branch of mathematics that deals with the finding and properties of derivatives and integrals of useless functions, by methods of torture originally based on the summation of infinitesimal differences of mathematicians with OCD. The two main types are differential calculus and integral calculus, neither of which will ever be used in anyone's life, unless one were to make the inexplicable decision to become a high school torture inducer math teacher someday.
2. a particularly cruel method or system of depriving innocent teenagers of sleep and oft by default also their parents
3. bane of her existence (see Exhibit A)
_______________________________
EXHIBIT A:
***********************
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Adam's Birth Story
This is a tad long and most likely not very interesting to anyone else but my family, but in honor of Adam's eleventh birthday today, I've finally written down his birth story in more detail (by far the most memorable of all my birth stories):
I remember thinking when I found out that our fourth child was due on October 8th, that I hoped he wasn't born before the school deadline at the end of September. I'd seen friends waver in their decisions whether to send their boys with late birthdays forward to kindergarten or hold them back a year, and I knew that that kind of choice would be hard to make.
Turned out to be a non-issue though when not only did the school deadline pass, but my due date also came and went with nary a centimeter of progress. After three kids, I knew well that babies are much easier in than out and I was not stressed at all by his lateness. I do remember trying a few old wives' tale tricks to get him to come on his own, but alas nothing worked and eventually my OB scheduled me to be induced on the morning of October 16th.
In general I've always had somewhat easy pregnancies. I had had some very minor morning sickness in the first trimester, but it had otherwise been a very easy and uneventful pregnancy. I don't remember where my comfort level was during those last few weeks of being pregnant with Adam, but I do remember well what was going on in the news at the time.
October 2002 was the month that the DC snipers were terrorizing our area. No one knew where and when they would strike next and so the whole area went on lockdown. The kids' sport's seasons were canceled, school field trips were postponed, and everyone was jittery. Being nine months pregnant, I was more than happy to put myself out of the target zone and hibernate away at home as much as I could. Every day though I was glued to the news and would cringe every time I'd hear sirens.
During the evening before my scheduled induction I started with the signs of early labor. I am a slow laborer, so I knew not to panic or rush, but we did start counting contractions. My mom was there and she helped us put the kids to bed. Around midnight I knew that this was the real deal and we headed to the hospital.
After three previous uneventful deliveries, I expected this one to be no different. Once again, Adam had his own plans.
Sometime after they started monitoring me, it was discovered that Adam was not tolerating labor very well. His heart rate would dip dramatically during contractions and when my water broke, it was filled with thick meconium.
This is when everything kicked into high gear. Suddenly the room filled with doctors and they put an oxygen mask on me. It was smack dab in the middle of the night and I was exhausted and scared. Luckily I was progressing quickly enough at that point that they did not need to do a c-section.
Finally at 4:04am Adam was born into the world limp and blue. The cord had been wrapped around his neck and the doctors were worried about him inhaling the meconium, so he was intubated before he could take a breath. His APGAR score at birth was 2.
Those first few silent minutes of his life were endless for me. They'd told me that they wouldn't let him go past a certain time without breathing, but the clock that was closest to me was not working, so I couldn't tell what time it was. I was convinced that the doctors were referring to my broken clock, so I kept telling anyone who would listen that it had been longer than they thought it had been and they needed to let him breathe. Finally a nurse reassured me that they were using a more accurate clock and that he would breathe when it was time.
Finally after a few minutes (maybe 3 or 4 minutes...I can't remember) I heard his precious cry for the first time. It was a weak and raspy mew, because the tubes they had placed down his throat had temporarily damaged his vocal cords, but I couldn't have been happier to hear it.
At five minutes old, his APGAR score was 9 and the worst was definitely behind us.
They let me "hold" him for about 5 seconds (for this picture) before they whisked him off to the NICU for a gazillion pokes and prods and I did not see him again for about 24 hours. Finally after a little over a day, they let me go to him, hold him, and start nursing him. He weighed in at 8 lbs. 12 oz. and was quite literally the baby giant in the NICU.
I am also convinced that he was also the most stubborn baby there.
Despite only being less than a week old, he completely and utterly refused to take bottles. Normally I do not want my newborn babies to take bottles, but once I was released from the hospital after the standard 48-hours after delivery, I no longer had a bed at the hospital. We would go to visit him from 6am-midnight every day, so that he could nurse whenever he wanted, but since we had to go home at night to try to get a little rest, it was a bottle or nothing at night.
It would break my heart when we came back in the morning and the nurses would complain that he'd cried the entire night and never taken more than a sip or two of breastmilk from the bottle. After a full week of this exhausting routine of driving back and forth (all the while, still on edge about the sniper) he was finally released and we all went home together.
Unfortunately that difficult early week of life took a toll on Adam and he spent the next year-and-a-half recuperating from it. We are convinced that that week of oxygen tubes, IV's (in the arm and head), nights without his mommy, and countless heel pokes, made him a little insecure about what this world had to offer him and he needed a lot of extra reassurance that this life was going to be okay. I am certain that he cried more than our other four children combined ever did and we pretty much held him 24/7 until he could walk. Not surprisingly my memories from his first year of life are embarrassingly few. (thank goodness for our very crappy camera)
I like to think, though, that all those kinked necks and sore arms from holding him day and night paid off. In amongst the oft relentless screaming, he had a smile that could light up the world!
Adam is eleven years old today and has long ago outgrown his baby neediness. He is now even-keeled, quick-witted, and genuinely fun to be around. I love the extra time I'm getting to spend with him this year while he is being homeschooled and I am grateful every day for the light and joy he brings into our family.
And in honor of Adam's eleventh birthday today, here is a glimpse at Adam in NUMB3RS:
1st and only of our kids to walk before they were a year old (11-months old)
2nd of the 2 boys in our family
3 sisters means he knows how to get along with girls
4th kid in our family
5-weeks old and he ended up in the hospital for another week
6 x 53 = easy mental math for Adam
7-days in the NICU
8-lbs. 12-oz. birth weight (2nd biggest in our family)
9 months old when he started talking ("uh oh" was his favorite word to utter as he threw things off his high chair)
10 times a day he asks a "What if..." question
11-years-old today!
********************
I remember thinking when I found out that our fourth child was due on October 8th, that I hoped he wasn't born before the school deadline at the end of September. I'd seen friends waver in their decisions whether to send their boys with late birthdays forward to kindergarten or hold them back a year, and I knew that that kind of choice would be hard to make.
In general I've always had somewhat easy pregnancies. I had had some very minor morning sickness in the first trimester, but it had otherwise been a very easy and uneventful pregnancy. I don't remember where my comfort level was during those last few weeks of being pregnant with Adam, but I do remember well what was going on in the news at the time.
October 2002 was the month that the DC snipers were terrorizing our area. No one knew where and when they would strike next and so the whole area went on lockdown. The kids' sport's seasons were canceled, school field trips were postponed, and everyone was jittery. Being nine months pregnant, I was more than happy to put myself out of the target zone and hibernate away at home as much as I could. Every day though I was glued to the news and would cringe every time I'd hear sirens.
 |
| the newspaper headline from the day he was born |
Sometime after they started monitoring me, it was discovered that Adam was not tolerating labor very well. His heart rate would dip dramatically during contractions and when my water broke, it was filled with thick meconium.
This is when everything kicked into high gear. Suddenly the room filled with doctors and they put an oxygen mask on me. It was smack dab in the middle of the night and I was exhausted and scared. Luckily I was progressing quickly enough at that point that they did not need to do a c-section.
Finally at 4:04am Adam was born into the world limp and blue. The cord had been wrapped around his neck and the doctors were worried about him inhaling the meconium, so he was intubated before he could take a breath. His APGAR score at birth was 2.
Those first few silent minutes of his life were endless for me. They'd told me that they wouldn't let him go past a certain time without breathing, but the clock that was closest to me was not working, so I couldn't tell what time it was. I was convinced that the doctors were referring to my broken clock, so I kept telling anyone who would listen that it had been longer than they thought it had been and they needed to let him breathe. Finally a nurse reassured me that they were using a more accurate clock and that he would breathe when it was time.
Finally after a few minutes (maybe 3 or 4 minutes...I can't remember) I heard his precious cry for the first time. It was a weak and raspy mew, because the tubes they had placed down his throat had temporarily damaged his vocal cords, but I couldn't have been happier to hear it.
At five minutes old, his APGAR score was 9 and the worst was definitely behind us.
Despite only being less than a week old, he completely and utterly refused to take bottles. Normally I do not want my newborn babies to take bottles, but once I was released from the hospital after the standard 48-hours after delivery, I no longer had a bed at the hospital. We would go to visit him from 6am-midnight every day, so that he could nurse whenever he wanted, but since we had to go home at night to try to get a little rest, it was a bottle or nothing at night.
And in honor of Adam's eleventh birthday today, here is a glimpse at Adam in NUMB3RS:
1st and only of our kids to walk before they were a year old (11-months old)
2nd of the 2 boys in our family
3 sisters means he knows how to get along with girls
4th kid in our family
5-weeks old and he ended up in the hospital for another week
6 x 53 = easy mental math for Adam
7-days in the NICU
8-lbs. 12-oz. birth weight (2nd biggest in our family)
9 months old when he started talking ("uh oh" was his favorite word to utter as he threw things off his high chair)
10 times a day he asks a "What if..." question
11-years-old today!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM!!!!!!
 |
| his "coming home from the hospital" outfit |
Monday, October 14, 2013
Better Late Than Never
What happens when two forgetful parents drop the ball on teaching their fourth child how to ride a bike? Then the fifth child comes along and has a health condition that makes riding a bike a potentially dangerous activity?
In our case, you get an eight- and an almost eleven-year-old who have never learned to ride a bike.
We never meant for them to go so long without learning, but when Ellie started having seizures when she was five, we just figured it was easier to not make biking a very important part of our lives rather than us holding her back from participating.
All the bikes but Glen's have been put away for three years now.
Recently, though, they both started showing a lot of interest in learning and we figured it was time to put things right. We brought them to the place where we'd taught the rest of the kids to ride their bikes--a gentle grassy slope at our local park--and let them give it a try.
This is how they started out....
and there was a fair bit of falling at first (thankfully only on the grass)...
but it wasn't long before they were both zipping along the trails and having a great time!
Adam is excited to practice a little more and start going on Saturday bike rides with Dad...
and while we'll still need to be very cautious with Ellie and not let her ride near streets or busy trails, it was so fun to see her delight as she gained momentum!
The only problem with all this new biking fervor in the family....
is that I'm feeling like it might be time to get me a bike too
and I'm not sure our garage is ready for that!
Saturday, October 12, 2013
A Hole in the Roof
With weather that has looked like this for days on end....
and with Glen out of town all week...
it wasn't a great time for a branch like this to fall on our roof....
and poke a hole that looks like this....
so that when it rained it poured down through the attic, soaking the insulation, and started dripping through the dining room ceiling right on top of our hardwoods, a box of cabinets, and our brand new fridge....
Sounds miserable, right?
It certainly could have been, but through a whole series of tender mercies it turned out to be much less stressful than it sounds.
All this happened in the middle of a drenching rainstorm, within an hour of me leaving the house for what was intended to be a 5-hour outing. Thank goodness it was the one day of the whole week that the kitchen workers were there to do some work. They caught the leak very fast, located the hole in the attic, set up a bucket, and even called a roofer to come do an emergency repair.
All before they had even called me to give me the news.
By the time I rushed home, they had even mostly already mopped up the mess. The cabinets and floors were wet but fine. Our fridge was almost directly underneath the leak, but somehow the water missed it completely. I was shocked at the amount of water there was after such a short time away from the house and can't even imagine what the damage would have been had that same scenario happened on a day that the workers weren't there....or during the middle of the night....or any other time when it would have taken longer to notice.
And how stressful it would have been to figure out how to locate the leak myself (in the darkest, furthest corner of my attic), clean up the mess, and find someone to come fix it in the middle of a drenching rainstorm.
The only downside.... the fact that we not only need a new roof (something we'd been hoping to put off until springtime), but that we also need to trim our trees. Both expenses that we hadn't quite figured into our kitchen remodeling budget.
Still, you won't findany much complaining here.
Nor will you find me complaining about the fact that Glen got out of this place....
within a couple of hours of one of what is predicted to be one of the most powerful and devastating cyclones ever.
#prayforindia
it wasn't a great time for a branch like this to fall on our roof....
and poke a hole that looks like this....
so that when it rained it poured down through the attic, soaking the insulation, and started dripping through the dining room ceiling right on top of our hardwoods, a box of cabinets, and our brand new fridge....
Sounds miserable, right?
It certainly could have been, but through a whole series of tender mercies it turned out to be much less stressful than it sounds.
All this happened in the middle of a drenching rainstorm, within an hour of me leaving the house for what was intended to be a 5-hour outing. Thank goodness it was the one day of the whole week that the kitchen workers were there to do some work. They caught the leak very fast, located the hole in the attic, set up a bucket, and even called a roofer to come do an emergency repair.
All before they had even called me to give me the news.
By the time I rushed home, they had even mostly already mopped up the mess. The cabinets and floors were wet but fine. Our fridge was almost directly underneath the leak, but somehow the water missed it completely. I was shocked at the amount of water there was after such a short time away from the house and can't even imagine what the damage would have been had that same scenario happened on a day that the workers weren't there....or during the middle of the night....or any other time when it would have taken longer to notice.
And how stressful it would have been to figure out how to locate the leak myself (in the darkest, furthest corner of my attic), clean up the mess, and find someone to come fix it in the middle of a drenching rainstorm.
The only downside.... the fact that we not only need a new roof (something we'd been hoping to put off until springtime), but that we also need to trim our trees. Both expenses that we hadn't quite figured into our kitchen remodeling budget.
Still, you won't find
Nor will you find me complaining about the fact that Glen got out of this place....
within a couple of hours of one of what is predicted to be one of the most powerful and devastating cyclones ever.
#prayforindia
Friday, October 11, 2013
A Drama King
As part of our kitchen remodel we ended buying a behemoth refrigerator. And when I say, "behemoth," I mean this thing is a beast in every sense of the word. It's 48-inches wide, 84-inches tall and is purported to weigh over 1200 lbs. While purchasing the beast, Glen and I unanimously agreed that we wanted no part in trying to move it even an inch and that paying the extra $200 for delivery would be worth every cent to us.
A couple days later the delivery guy shows up. Built in approximately the same proportions as the fridge, he very much looked the part of a guy who makes his living delivering fridges. Too bad the beast was too much even for him. He'd only brought one skinny guy to help him and he took one look at our stairs and blatantly refused to even try delivery. The next half-hour was spent in this odd sort of negotiation process as he tried to get me to agree to just leave the fridge in our garage for us to move upstairs ourselves (I said, "No way!"), then to sign a waiver that he wouldn't be held liable if he damaged our floor, stairs, railing, or fridge during delivery ("Not a chance!"), then he offered to come back another day (not ideal), then a few minutes later told me he'd called for back-up.
Why he didn't do that in the first place I have no idea.
He then caught sight of the men working on our kitchen and tried to persuade them to come help him. They didn't feel comfortable with the heavy lifting, which immediately sent Fridge Guy into a fury, calling our workers lazy and stupid.
Next thing I know he and skinny guy are trying to get the fridge out themselves without waiting for their back-up. They hoisted it up our steep driveway and into the backyard, huffing, puffing, and moaning every step of the way. They were about to try to get it up our deck stairs themselves and one of our kitchen workers felt sorry for them and did come join them.
It took about 10 minutes for the three of them to get it up the stairs, after which Fridge Guy collapsed flat on his back on our deck and demanded (no exaggeration) that I bring him water immediately. After bringing water and a pack of Oreos as a peace offering, I hoped that the hard part (and the dramatics) would be over. Alas, it was a misplaced hope as now he seemed encouraged by my concern for his well being and made a huge show every time he touched the fridge. After moving the fridge to the doorway, he put on an Oscar worthy performance where he grabbed his arm, writhed in purported horrible pain, and said he needed a hospital. Thirty seconds later he was fine. Then, after moving it another couple of feet, he showed me a small cut and started rambling about how he hoped it wouldn't get infected.
By the time he finished--right about the time his backup showed up -- he had changed his tune and instead of complaining, had started bragging about how strong God had made him. Finally, after more than hour, the show was finally over, our Oreos were gone, and our fridge stands proudly as beacon in our dining room....
reminding the kids, amidst their giggles and constant quoting of Fridge Guy, the merits of higher education.
*******************************
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Politics
I grew up in a house where politics were discussed passionately and often. I knew exactly where my parents stood on the issues and looking back I think that their similar views on political issues was one of the contributing factors to their marriage longevity (41-years and counting).
As an adult, I like to be at least somewhat versed in what's going on in the political world, but being married to someone who distinctly dislikes talking politics--even though we tend to agree with each other--has made it more difficult for me to find someone to talk to about political things. I am still drawn to study about it, but I generally keep pretty quiet about how I feel.
Except for now.
With all of the crazy partisanship and garbage going on with the government shut-down, I am up in arms. My poor kids get daily rants at all that I think is wrong with the way the government is doing things and today I got so wrapped up in an issue that made me particularly upset that I decided to try my hand at political cartooning minus the cartoon.
It's not destined for the Washington Post or anything, but at least it made me feel a little better about this kind of garbage....
I've been to the Martin Luther King Memorial and the other DC memorials a gazillion times before and only rarely ever have seen any park employees in them. The monuments are generally open night and day. So why, with countless people going without paychecks, is the government PAYING so many police officers to keep visitors away?
It makes no sense on any front, other than proving that my "cartoon" isn't too far from the truth.
*NOTE: I'm intentionally staying coy about my political leanings, so as not to stir any pots beyond where both parties are doing their best to keep them stirred.
****************************
As an adult, I like to be at least somewhat versed in what's going on in the political world, but being married to someone who distinctly dislikes talking politics--even though we tend to agree with each other--has made it more difficult for me to find someone to talk to about political things. I am still drawn to study about it, but I generally keep pretty quiet about how I feel.
Except for now.
With all of the crazy partisanship and garbage going on with the government shut-down, I am up in arms. My poor kids get daily rants at all that I think is wrong with the way the government is doing things and today I got so wrapped up in an issue that made me particularly upset that I decided to try my hand at political cartooning minus the cartoon.
 |
| Photo Source: Yahoo News |
I've been to the Martin Luther King Memorial and the other DC memorials a gazillion times before and only rarely ever have seen any park employees in them. The monuments are generally open night and day. So why, with countless people going without paychecks, is the government PAYING so many police officers to keep visitors away?
It makes no sense on any front, other than proving that my "cartoon" isn't too far from the truth.
*NOTE: I'm intentionally staying coy about my political leanings, so as not to stir any pots beyond where both parties are doing their best to keep them stirred.
****************************
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
To Camp or Not to Camp
Sometimes I feel bad for my younger kids. Instead of the "fresh-I-have-energy-and-everything-is-so-exciting-mommy", they get me in my "tired-I've-already-done-that-a-million-times" state and they miss out on things we never would have missed with the older kids.
Take the ward camp-out for example. Every fall for an entire decade, we went without fail. We let the kids play until late, roast s'mores, guzzle hot chocolate, camp on the hard ground, and then we'd go home the next morning filthy, achy, exhausted, and sugar-high and would have 5 loads of laundry to do in addition to still having a whole Saturday's worth of activities to attend. But the kids loved it and looked forward to it all year, so we did it.
Fast forward a few years to an older, tireder version of Glen and Lara, who despite still having the best of intentions seem to find those road-blocks a little harder to tackle these days .
Like when the traffic was really bad on the way to the camp-out last year, instead of persevering for the sake of the kids, we decided that it was just easier to turn around and go home rather than fight our way through rush hour. The kids were only slightly appeased by Glen's gesture of setting up the tent and camping with them in the backyard.
This year was supposed to be much better.
But once again, life got in the way. First Cami found out that she was running in a race early Saturday morning, which meant that one of us needed to stay home with her. Then Glen had a crazy day at work and couldn't get off early to take them like he'd intended. So it fell to me to take the kids up there.
Too bad my poor sense of direction got the better of me and despite having been to the park a million times before, I randomly got very lost and could not find the campsite. After 20+ minutes of driving around in the quickly approaching dusk, my dread for finding a spot for our tent in the first place, let alone setting up the tent in the dark, was increasing by the second.
Then when, already completely flustered at being lost, we did eventually did find our group, I was annoyed to find that there were no parking spots anywhere nearby. It was at that moment I unilaterally declared that we would only stay for a few hours and definitely would not be spending the night.
The kids were initially pretty disappointed not to sleep over, but after playing hard in a 3-hour long pyro/friends/sugar fest, I think they were about as ready to head home as I was.
And as a side bonus, sleeping in my own bed meant I actually stayed awake through General Conference the next day.
uh....make that mostly awake.
*********************
Take the ward camp-out for example. Every fall for an entire decade, we went without fail. We let the kids play until late, roast s'mores, guzzle hot chocolate, camp on the hard ground, and then we'd go home the next morning filthy, achy, exhausted, and sugar-high and would have 5 loads of laundry to do in addition to still having a whole Saturday's worth of activities to attend. But the kids loved it and looked forward to it all year, so we did it.
Fast forward a few years to an older, tireder version of Glen and Lara, who despite still having the best of intentions seem to find those road-blocks a little harder to tackle these days .
Like when the traffic was really bad on the way to the camp-out last year, instead of persevering for the sake of the kids, we decided that it was just easier to turn around and go home rather than fight our way through rush hour. The kids were only slightly appeased by Glen's gesture of setting up the tent and camping with them in the backyard.
This year was supposed to be much better.
But once again, life got in the way. First Cami found out that she was running in a race early Saturday morning, which meant that one of us needed to stay home with her. Then Glen had a crazy day at work and couldn't get off early to take them like he'd intended. So it fell to me to take the kids up there.
Too bad my poor sense of direction got the better of me and despite having been to the park a million times before, I randomly got very lost and could not find the campsite. After 20+ minutes of driving around in the quickly approaching dusk, my dread for finding a spot for our tent in the first place, let alone setting up the tent in the dark, was increasing by the second.
Then when, already completely flustered at being lost, we did eventually did find our group, I was annoyed to find that there were no parking spots anywhere nearby. It was at that moment I unilaterally declared that we would only stay for a few hours and definitely would not be spending the night.
The kids were initially pretty disappointed not to sleep over, but after playing hard in a 3-hour long pyro/friends/sugar fest, I think they were about as ready to head home as I was.
uh....make that mostly awake.
*********************
Sunday, October 6, 2013
General Conference of the Storm Troopers and Orcs
Ahhh, it's that time of year again.
The first weekend of April and October each year, church is canceled and we have the privilege of staying home and listening to modern day prophets and apostles testify of Christ and give us guidance for living in these days. We call it General Conference and it is something that we look forward to all year long for the opportunity to step away from our busy Sunday responsibilities and spend the time together as a family to be fed spiritually for two days.
Despite the appearances in the picture above that my kids are attentively sitting and listening, it always proves to be a struggle to keep everyone engaged through the four two-hour-long sessions spread over Saturday and Sunday. We are not a family that is used to sitting still for that long, so our efforts usually involve lots of food, spot quizzes, quiet toys, note taking in our General Conference journals, and a fair amount of nudging sleepy parents and teens.
Yesterday Adam and Ellie decided to use the time to recreate a session of conference with Legos. At first Adam was annoyed that he didn't have very many "normal looking" Lego people for his scene, but then he decided that Storm Troopers, Orcs, Legolas, and Gimli need General Conference every bit as much as we do.
Here's Ellie's version with Gandalf, Luke Skywalker, a race car driver, a surfer, and some headless dude that clearly needs a gospel message as well.
Despite the grand efforts that it takes to keep everyone engaged though, it is a lovely feeling to spend the time together and to be fed spiritually.
And talks like the one in this link or the one embedded below....
are exactly what this tired old Orc needed right now...
****************************
Friday, October 4, 2013
Homeschooling Adventures
I am a homeschooling mom now.
I make lesson plans, muddle my way through daily math, do science experiments, and tote my kids with me wherever I go. On the one hand it's far more challenging than I expected to keep two very different types of learners challenged and engaged every day, but on the other hand it's also been far more enjoyable and satisfying than I expected as well.
I thought I would struggle with the kids' being home during the school day and would feel like they were consuming my time to get things done during the day, but so far I have been quite surprised at how much I genuinely enjoy their presence.
I love being a part of their conversations. I love watching as they get excited about something we're learning. I love being able to pause when Ellie has a seizure, so I can confidently know that she's not missing any important instruction. I love our morning devotionals. And I especially love feeling like my time with them is no longer jam-packed into a few short hours a day.
So far we've learned about the Middle East, Asia, and the different parts of the solar system and I think I am learning as much the kids are. We have weekly co-ops for science and social studies, which have been very fun for the kids and a relief for me not to have to teach them everything myself.
For field trips, we have visited the Air and Space Museum, stargazed in West Virginia, and visited the GMU observatory to look through their gigantic telescope. Last week we participated in a homeschool cultural night with our science/social studies co-op. There was a whole spread of delicious middle eastern food, a presentation from an American woman who had lived in Syria as a child, and a number of real artifacts from the Middle East that they got to touch and feel. It was a fun way to wrap up our studies and I loved that the kids had each been assigned to give their own presentations as well. It was really good for them to have a deadline and a motivation to push themselves outside of their comfort zone.
As an addition to our PE I was pleased when the gym teachers at their former elementary school allowed them to join in the after-school running program despite them not being students this year. Twice a week they see their school friends and are now training to run in a race next month. I think this little addition to our schedule was the final seal on the deal that made them 100% excited about homeschool!
After about a month now, I'm happy to say that no one (including me) has asked to go back to school yet, so I'm counting it as a success!
***************************
Here's a glimpse at some of our adventures:
Ellie gave her cultural night presentation on the sun (the only one to give a non-social studies report).
Adam gave his on Ancient Egypt. He, especially, needed the deadline as writing projects are definitely not his favorite thing to do!
Here is the woman who gave the presentation on Syria.
We had hummus, falafel, taboulleh, figs, stuffed grape leaves, and really fancy baklava! (Thanks, Ashley!)
We aren't studying rocks and minerals....yet...but the kids have been doing their own backyard studies lately!
This was at our stargazing activity in West Virginia. They looked through the telescopes for about 10 minutes and played night games the rest of the time!
This is a common sight in our house these days!
One of the co-op families lives on a mini farm. Ellie is completely in love with everything about farm life and would love nothing more than if we sold our house and moved to the country too.
I make lesson plans, muddle my way through daily math, do science experiments, and tote my kids with me wherever I go. On the one hand it's far more challenging than I expected to keep two very different types of learners challenged and engaged every day, but on the other hand it's also been far more enjoyable and satisfying than I expected as well.
I thought I would struggle with the kids' being home during the school day and would feel like they were consuming my time to get things done during the day, but so far I have been quite surprised at how much I genuinely enjoy their presence.
I love being a part of their conversations. I love watching as they get excited about something we're learning. I love being able to pause when Ellie has a seizure, so I can confidently know that she's not missing any important instruction. I love our morning devotionals. And I especially love feeling like my time with them is no longer jam-packed into a few short hours a day.
So far we've learned about the Middle East, Asia, and the different parts of the solar system and I think I am learning as much the kids are. We have weekly co-ops for science and social studies, which have been very fun for the kids and a relief for me not to have to teach them everything myself.
For field trips, we have visited the Air and Space Museum, stargazed in West Virginia, and visited the GMU observatory to look through their gigantic telescope. Last week we participated in a homeschool cultural night with our science/social studies co-op. There was a whole spread of delicious middle eastern food, a presentation from an American woman who had lived in Syria as a child, and a number of real artifacts from the Middle East that they got to touch and feel. It was a fun way to wrap up our studies and I loved that the kids had each been assigned to give their own presentations as well. It was really good for them to have a deadline and a motivation to push themselves outside of their comfort zone.
As an addition to our PE I was pleased when the gym teachers at their former elementary school allowed them to join in the after-school running program despite them not being students this year. Twice a week they see their school friends and are now training to run in a race next month. I think this little addition to our schedule was the final seal on the deal that made them 100% excited about homeschool!
After about a month now, I'm happy to say that no one (including me) has asked to go back to school yet, so I'm counting it as a success!
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Here's a glimpse at some of our adventures:
Ellie gave her cultural night presentation on the sun (the only one to give a non-social studies report).
Adam gave his on Ancient Egypt. He, especially, needed the deadline as writing projects are definitely not his favorite thing to do!
Here is the woman who gave the presentation on Syria.
We had hummus, falafel, taboulleh, figs, stuffed grape leaves, and really fancy baklava! (Thanks, Ashley!)
We aren't studying rocks and minerals....yet...but the kids have been doing their own backyard studies lately!
What cooler way to learn about space than to take a trip to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum? Man, I love living near DC.
This was at our stargazing activity in West Virginia. They looked through the telescopes for about 10 minutes and played night games the rest of the time!
This is a common sight in our house these days!
One of the co-op families lives on a mini farm. Ellie is completely in love with everything about farm life and would love nothing more than if we sold our house and moved to the country too.
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