Catch-up

This last Tuesday, I decided to take some time to update my blog from the past week.  Unfortunately, as I got up from the computer, in one graceful movement, I caught my foot on the cord that connects the keyboard to the computer, and yanked on the cord hard enough as I was walking away, that  I broke the keyboard.  Hubby saved the day, and I can now type again!  :)  This will most likely be a long post that covers the last two weeks.  Sorry, you have been warned.  :)

On the 17th, our family celebrated Constitution Day.  Two of my kids are studying early American History, and I think one of the themes for me of the upcoming Presidential Election is following the Constitution.  We had never Celebrated Constitution Day before, and so we asked the kids how we should celebrate.  They suggested chili-dogs and cupcakes.  I'm not sure that is exactly what the founding father's would have chosen, but they sure enjoyed it.

We have been studying the first 3 presidents this week.  It is kind of interesting to see how some views and philosophies have endured.  John Adams felt that the role of government was to save people from their own greed and faults.  He felt that people needed to be governed in order to save them from themselves.  He was a Federalist.  Thomas Jefferson felt that the role of the government was to get out of the way and let people govern themselves.  He belonged to the Democratic-Republican Party.  We have had a lot of fun reading about how opposite these two presidents were, but in spite of their differences, they were still best friends.  They both died on the same day, July 4th 1826, exactly 50 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed.

For Music we have been focusing on patriotic songs, and on songs that will help us remember things we are learning.  We have been working on learning basic sight singing skills, chord progressions and some guitar and xyolophone skills so we can accompany ourselves.  We have been learrning This Land is Your Land, The Star Spangled Banner, and this little gem.  I have a whole new appreciation for the Animaniacs now. 

This week we discovered that Larry is now tall enough to reach stuff on the table tops.  He is pretty excited about his newfound skills.  We have also discovered that he likes slimy things, Vaseline and Butter were favorites for this week.  (Vaseline is VERY hard to get out of hair!)  He loves playing with washcloths and diapers (clean ones luckily!)  He thinks he is a dog.  He growls when he is talking to Max, and he stands at the front window with Max, and barks at cats, dogs and neighbors. 

We have been doing some fun lessons these past few weeks.  In Art, we have been studying pointilism.  We read several book about George Seurat, and studied several of his paintings.  I have a large box of mostly used crayons, and the inspiration for this lesson came from Pinterest and this blog here.  I am not an artist, and so our art lessons scare me quite a bit.  I always wanted to be good at art, but I'm grown up enough to know that I am really not good.  I do have fun creating things though.  Here are a couple of our pointilism projects.

Hubby teaches the kids Science every Tuesday and Thursday evening.  I love seeing him work with the kids.  They have been studying Life Science, and they have been talking about animal adaptations for the last few weeks.  He pointed out examples of animal adaptations in nature, and then the kids had to create imaginary creatures.  They had to explain where the creature lived and what adaptations it had that helped it live in that environment.  They even made a skeleton of their imaginary creatures using chicken bones and clay.  This is what our science class looked like this week.

 

I love this last picture!  That is what I pictured when I pictured homeschooling.  For this Science lesson, they needed to have a birdfeeder that would hold 4 different types of birdseed.  Hubby looked at several different ideas, did a little research, and designed this one.  The kids have science journals, and Hubby has them taking data to analyze.  We bought 3 different types of bird food, and then the kids each got to come up with a food they thought the birds would like.  They are supposed to record what types of seed the birds prefer, and what types of birds visit the birdfeeder.  So far, we haven't had any customers.  Hopefully, we will soon.

The last two weeks have been pretty brutal schedule-wise.  Michael has been doing 12+ hours of school almost every day.  We have been medicating him, but it has become less and less effective as time goes on.  He is as frustrated as we are.  Last Thursday, I finally sat him down, and showed him the recommended times for each class.  He was taking 3 to 4 hours to accomplish a 60 minute class.  He has classes called "Class Connect" sessions.  For two to three hours each day, he attends virtual classes.  Then he has to get all the work done for all his classes.  On Friday he doesn't have any virtual classes scheduled, and he usually has less work scheduled.  I am pretty sure they do this so the kids can get caught up.  Last Friday, we tried setting a timer for each class that he worked on to see if he could accomplish the work in the recommended time.  For most of his classes, he finished the work in half the time, or less!!  He was very excited, and so were we.  Hubby brought him home a timer, and so we will see if this trick continues to work for him next week.

Allen has been asked to do MANY things this year that have been very hard for him.  Most kids with Aspergers have a very hard time with summarizing and inferences.  In the past, when he came to an assignment that was incredibly difficult for him, he would simply choose not to do the assignment, and take a 0 on it.  He has had many classes this year where he has been asked to do things that he really didn't think he could do.  We have spent many hours sitting on the couch trying to talk out our frustrations.  I think we are both learning quite a bit.  It is really hard for me to see him struggle so much, but I know that the things he is being asked to do are not optional.  He needs to power through and get them done.  I have seen a lot of maturity in him lately.  There have been several experiences this week where I was able to share with him struggles that I have had in my life.  I think that he is seeing that everyone has trials in their lives, and by powering through them, and learning something in the process, we grow and mature and become better people.  He is learning to do the assignments that he is asked to do, and he is learning to do them in his own way.  I am learning to step back, and let them be his assignments.  I have learned that we can talk through assignments, and we can talk out ideas, but his ideas are what make the paper, or assignment his.  I'm having the kids post their assignments on their blogs to publish them.  Allen has an autobiographical paper that he has posted on his blog.  I love how his personality comes through in it.  He has also been working through social skills with his speech therapist.  She is working on getting him ready for job interviews and dating.  I've gotten to do a couple of role playing assignments with him, and I really love the Allen that I see coming out.  He is gaining confidence, and trying so hard.

This past month of homeschooling been incredibly tough. I am learning that many things in life that are worthwhile are.  I think I have experienced equal amounts of frustration and satisfaction. I think I am growing as much as my kids are through this process.

It's finally coming together!

I need to get on and get my blog entry done for last week.  I planned to do it on Sunday night, but a couple of hours before we went to bed, I realized that I forgot a HUGE part of my weekly planning. 

Last Monday was ROUGH!!  We had Allen's first speech session, and that ended up taking a lot of time out of our day.  The kids didn't work as well as they needed to in order to get done at a decent time, and we ended up doing 14 hours of school!!  I was pretty discouraged by the time we went to bed.

On Tuesday, we decided that we needed to do a 9/11 activity.  I decided to homeschool because I think education is so much more than just "school."  I love giving my kids real world opportunities to show them what their education is all about.  We decided to go to the Healing Fields to view the flags.

 

We had an amazing experience.  On the way to the field, I told the kids my story from 9/11.  It was so odd to be telling Makenzie about my day, and then realize that I was three months away from giving birth to her when this all happened.  The kids were pretty somber as we walked through the display.  We got to a section of state flags and looked at them for a while.  They each had tag with a soldier's name, where they were from and where and when they died in the war.  As we were looking at the flags, we noticed that there were a few that had flowers and pictures on them.  I was showing the kids one of the pictures and talking about the people who had loved that soldier and their sacrifice when two women and a man walked up behind me.  The man let me know that I was looking at a picture of his son.  I started crying, and then all of my kids walked away from me, and I found each of them privately crying and mourning this soldier in different parts of the field.  There was a man in the section of state flags when we got there.  As we were getting ready to leave, he asked me to take a picture of him standing next to a flag.  He said that he was sending it to his sister-in-law.  He wanted her to know that her husband was important, and being honored in Utah.  I asked him if he knew the soldier, and he let me know that it was his brother.  It was a touching experience.  We had a good talk on our way home.

Tuesday, we also decided to medicate Michael. He had not been able to concentrate at all, and he was really struggling to get his work done in the 5 1/2 hours he was supposed to do school each day. It was a great day!! Everyone was finished with school by 3. Michael's teachers finally put up pacing guides on the school's website, and once I found out we are on track, I felt much better. On the schedule, I saw that they give us one day a month for what they call a K-8 Activity. On that day, we need to find something educational to do, but there are no lessons scheduled. Our first Activity was scheduled for last Friday. We desperately needed it.

We decided to go and visit the Copper Mine.  Michael has been studying the Geography of our state, and the effect that people have on the environment.  It was the perfect field trip.

 The kids had so much fun, and they were so interested in all of the different displays.  Larry loved roaming the visitor's center, and all of the displays were behind glass, so he couldn't get to anything.

We decided to finish off the field trip with doughnuts.  It was a great way to end the week.

 



 

We are finally getting the hang of this schooling thing a little bit more.  The kids were able to get their work done, and get their jobs done most days.  Things are finally starting to come together.  It is still a lot of work, but we are starting to see some results.

This week has been full of school, school and more school.  We have had some very long days this week. 

We have had a few successes- Morgan finished his Family History book.  He is writing better, and somedays, he whines a little less. 

Makenzie is passing off her multiplication facts, and she is becoming more confident at math.  Her math lessons take quite a long time, but she is able to do the difficult problems that our curriculum presents.  She is having lots of fun studying science with her dad.  She can play a G chord on the guitar, and accompanies us when we sing "This Land is Your Land."

Michael has had fun with his science lessons.  He got to do a fun lab this week with boiling water, and air pressure.  He is getting better and better at language arts, and he is finally starting to figure out what he needs to do to get his work done on schedule.

Allen has figured out how to get his work done is the fastest, most effecient way possible.  He does a great job of keeping track of all the stuff he needs to do.  He has an image design class, and he is working on his first project for it this week.  He wrote a poem for us this Monday when he was supposed to be getting his jobs done.  He called it "It takes an hour to do my jobs".

It takes 10 minutes for mom to explain,
And then 5 minutes for me to complain.
20 minutes spent trying to stall.
15 minutes to get started at all.
19 minutes playing around with the broom.
And then just 1 minute for cleaning my room.

Reminds me of the Mary Poppins quote, "Well begun is half done." 


Larry is now walking more than he is crawling.  He seems to learn new words every day, and communicates well through sign language and his speech.  My two new favorite words this week are chicken and bubbles.  Unfortunately, he can now ask for all kinds of things he can't have.

I had the chance to help out with a project at church, and I got go practice my photoshopping skills.  It was fun, and I learned quite a lot.  I've also started running with a friend in the neighborhood.  I don't think I am running enough to loose much weight, but hopefully, I will be able to maintain the weight I have lost, and someday, I will figure out a way to jump start my weight loss again.

We have learned many things this week.  We have learned that we need to wake up on time, and get started on time if we want things to run smoothly.  I have also learned that I need to have a camera handy and ready if I am going to capture any of the fun things we get done each day.  We have not learned how to get jobs and schoolwork done on the same day.  This week was still incredibly stressful, but it did go more smoothly than the week before.  Hopefully, we can learn even more this week.  I don't think this will ever be easy, but it is fun and fulfilling. (and challenging and exhausting).

Larry's Latest Accomplishments

I've never uploaded a video before, so we'll see if this works.  If it does, you will see how desperately we need to redecorate.  Maybe someday.  Here is a video of Larry walking across our living room.  He loves seeing the video camera, but seriously, what kid doesn't.

Here is a video of Larry reciting some of our phonograms.  His cute little voice is one of my favorite things in the world!!  He ran out of patience at the end.

First Week of School

I thought I would jump on and give a quick update.  I feel like my life is now devoted to school, and if anyone happens to call, I usually get down to business, and get off the phone as quickly as possible to finish up all that I have to do right now.  No chit chat.

This first week has been very overwhelming.  Right now, my two oldest are attending a virtual academy that follows the K12 program.  They are required to do 5 1/2 hours of school a day.  One of the biggest issues we have had, is getting enough hours of school in each day.  When we first looked at the amount of school required, it looked like we would be doing less school.  So not true!  We log every minute that we work on each class.  When the kids are attending school, there is some time spent goofing off, or wasting time, and with this program, there is none of that.  The lessons require the the kids to do the work in order to understand the concept, and then they are graded on the quiz that shows their comprehension, not on the actual assignment.  We are still trying to work out the balance.  Hopefully we will get it soon.  Allen is also taking seminary at our local high school a few times a week.  He has several friends from school who go to class the same time as he does.  He said it made it hard to homeschool, and he really wanted to go to high school.  He is also starting speech services in a couple of weeks.  He will attend once a week.  His sessions are 20 minutes away from our house, and they are during our schooling time.  That is going to be another tricky scheduling problem to work out.

I have really enjoyed teaching Makenzie and Morgan, but it has also been overwhelming.  Some of the programs that I am using are programs that I LOVE, and some are just things that I am doing because I am not sure what else to do right now.  Morgan HATES to write, and he also will not do anything unless I am sitting right by his side guiding him along every step of the way.  I have some definite goals with him.  He is most likely going to be my most time consuming student this year, but hopefully by the end of the year, we will see some real progress with him and he will be set up to be much more successful in the long run.  In spite of how overwhelming this first week has been, I am loving it.  It still definitely feels like the right decision, and although it is definitely not going to be the easiest thing I've ever done, we are having fun, and learning a lot.

We also canned peaches this week.  We got our first peaches off our own tree, and my mom gave us some from her tree.  It was a horrible week to try to can peaches, but we made it through and we now have 76 quarts of peaches.  I still have to get my kitchen cleaned up, and get my house back in working order, but it feels so good to get done with the canning.  Now I am glad I have a 3 day weekend to catch up with things before we get back to school.

We worked very hard this summer to get my kids to help out with the house jobs.  By the end of the summer, they were helping out so much.  It was great to have a clean house, and it was great to see them take pride in their work.  We have not figured out how to do schoolwork and house jobs both in the same day, but hopefully as we get better at scheduling, that will come.  I'm also hoping that this next week will seem super easy since we won't be dealing with canning peaches and homeschooling.

 

Guess who learned to open the flour container?

Larry has been pretty uncooperative this week.  He spends his day spreading school supplies from one end of the house to the other.  He always wants to be working with the exact supplies we need at the moment.  He has becoming very good at repeating the phonograms, and he is adorable repeating everything in his little one year old voice.  He is 15 1/2 months now, and he finally began walking this last week.  He is very uncoordinated, but determined.  He can say quite a few words, and he signs like a champ.  He is pretty good at getting his needs taken care of.  He will even ask to take a nap when he gets tired!  Sometimes.  He loves bananas and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and we can no longer use the word cookie in our house.

Finally, some big news.  Allen got his learner's permit this last week.  He had his first driving experience yesterday in a local church parking lot.  Hubby said that he did really well.  It is kind of scary, but kind of exciting to have an almost driver.  He has grown up so much, and is such a great kid.  I'm so glad I get to be his mom!

Overall, we are doing well.  But we won't be planning ANYTHING but school for a while.  Hopefully, I will get a chance to update again next week.