December Doings

It's that month again! The Advent-ure month....when you add the holidaze doings to your usual controlled chaos! That's how it seems even when i do my best to plan, structure, limit. It didn't help that in addition to the Twirly-Whirly being part of a 4-day concert series (of which she only performed in 3 of the 4 because one of the days we also had soccer awards banquet and two birthday parties!) I and my 17yo got a case of food-poisoning from a shared burger. blech. (oh yeah...almost forgot we finally had our first trip as a family to Journey to Bethlehem, the living history event our own church puts on. They loved turning the grindstone!)

There are still events to attend, but at least as we're not performing in them it's a bit less stressful/demanding. Our church is doing a Winter Wonderland this coming Saturday. Sunday will see a Violin Holiday Potluck Party (have to make a casserole) followed by a GEMS Ice Skating Party. 

The next two weeks are winter break (includes a recycled gift exchange party!), but we still have a few things to cover today and tomorrow, namely the letter J and Friday Fun at Madrona Marsh about clouds. She did some copywork today by creating some Christmas and birthday cards for some friends. I love that homeschooling means such flexibility.

However, homeschooling does come with its disappointments, too. We had the news yesterday that TUSD is cracking down on its volunteer regs. After 3 years of having paperwork properly submitted and TB test taken etc, Twirly is no longer allowed to help out in her brother's classroom even if the teacher is cool with it. I understand...seeing one child coming along with her mom to help out in a sib's class triggers other moms to bring multiple younger children along and then there's no helping getting done...just crowd control. 

Still....it's a total bummer...it means I can't help either as we come as a pair. And it means missing out on what Best Ever gets up to (it's a new nickname around here for him...long story)...it's fun watching him. I am sorry her community service activities will not include her brother. Sigh. We'll just to look for other opps. That's all we can do thus far.

 

Advent--ure Ahead?!

Nov 30, 2011

Mood: scrambling, if you can call that a mood!


So What's the Haps?


I am typing quickly in hopes of finishing before the Boo-man's bus pulls up in front of the house. It's a hectic afternoon with AWANA tonight.
It's already the last day of November! I am behind a tad with schooling as there has been both illness and some vehicularly-related turmoil in the house.

Rather than recount all that, first I shall speak of how quickly the Twirly is growing up. She has reached the Steiner milestones of being able to reach over
her head and touch her ear.

She has also had her first visit from the Tooth Fairy!

This is her little Tooth Fairy Box:

What I am contemplating this December Eve (as in Night Before December) is Girl Scouts....no not in the way you think!

I am not thinking about joining her up with GSA. My opinion of GSA and indeed the parent world org and its
pro-abortion agenda remains unaltered. It's just that as satisfying as GEMS and Keepers at Home both are as programs,
I am finding them both sorta falling short as scouting-alternatives in terms of scouting.

 Some time back I found at a thrift store a book title Pixie Scouts. It turned out that before there were Daisy Scouts,
there were Pixie Scouts (based on stories that are rooted and intertwined with stories used back when Brownies, now termed
Girl Scout Brownies were first created). Later the group was changed to Daisy Scouts to honor one of the initial GS founders
from way back when. Anyway, I loved the name and activities in the book and had hoped to use some of them as Hearth Keepers
activities (before our group broke up due to too many time conflicts for the fellow moms.)

I also could not shake the idea of having the Twirly-Whirly scout (verb here, not noun). But of course actual GSA was out of my
ethical and spiritual bounds. Sooooo...there I am poking around on eBay looking for other Pixie Scout info. And what I turned up
was a bunch of really cool badges/patches that used to be used by Canadians Brownies (and almost all Brownie Scouts I later learned).
They were cute little things so along with bidding and winning some I started looking for other info and items related to vintage
Girl Scouting (the way Lord Baden-Powell envisioned....as a die hard fan of BSA and former Scout leader I think he and his wife etc
would be appalled at the way it's turned.)

I have decided, using books, patches, some clothing, of the good ole days to scout with Sara as a homeschool patrol, if you will, much
the many brick-and-mortar schools, public and private, have mascots and school spirit programs and what-not. We will be true "lone
scouts". I toyed with saying Rogue Scouts but that makes it sound like we went Robin Hood or such and that's not quite it...not quite. ;)

So I have begun collecting things...some easily, some doing a bit of battle with actual collectors (I intend to use what I buy!) In fact some
of the books etc arrived today while I was still writing this blog. They are so cool! Did you know Brownie leaders in the UK Girl Guides used
to be called Brown Owls? I even found a Brown Owl patch! (We will have sashes for some badges....perhaps even a "brag vest" for activity
patches. I also toyed with getting a vintage Brownie uniform but since we're doing this as part of homeschooling she would have to wear it
nearly every day. I know some homeschool moms have their kids wear uniforms with their school logo on them, but that would be too strict
for me. I wouldn't mind wearing one to school or a job but not around the house. The idea of one for field trips or such might not be a bad
idea though.)

Anyway, I am stoked! The pixies, fairies, brownies, owls themes all work well with our very fairy/nature-oriented homeschooling. I am not certain
what to call our little "group" tho....lol...there are some Cub Scout patches using the term Gnome Patrol! LOL! But we will be exploring more than
gnomes....so that's why I don't want to say that exactly...or pixie or brownie exclusively. Might be uncreative and just say Acorn Cottage Scouts.
We'll see.....

Sometimes you win; sometimes you lose...but it's okay!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Mood: lol....not certain!

Sometimes you win;sometimes you lose, but it's okay...

or so Yo Gabba Gabba tells me!


I'm glad cus it's certainly been two steps forward, one step back for a couple of months now. Every time we get close to what I had hoped for this school year, we get bounced off sideways some, be it ant attacks, rough mornings, etc etc. One thing I definitely plan to do is look at more streamlining for the next trimester, now that library storytime is done till January I will have some time to ponder better, more effective uses of time in our day/week/what-have-you! We are not off-track...that's one beauty of being Waldorf-inspired: it's rhythm to the day not schedule so when school ended up done in the afternoon instead of the morning we still got the important things done. But i still want things better managed so we don't get shoved out of the morning time. When am becomes pm, the pm fun/chores go out the window! I had plans for more cooking and what-not and they have not materialized. The house is also not quite together as I prefer either. Another item on my to-do list is a clear-out of unnecessaries....since Christmas is approaching, this will be a good time to do it, if only under the "making room for new bigger kid things" label. ;) It can be tricky with such a wide range between she and her brother with special needs.

Still...it's been more forward than anything else so I am so grateful for that. Today we went on a nature walk around the block (which just so happens to be a 1/2 mile so we do one trip almost every day as part of the Marathon Kids program), and she stopped me to point out a letter she found...that is to say, a letter shape made by nature. We had read Discovering Nature's Alphabet last year, and now she is noticing letters in nature herself. Her penmanship is improving daily and the only copywork she does is of her own choosing when she decides to make a book or write a letter to a friend (or idol like Keith Harkin of Celtic Thunder!) It almost makes me sad cus she is growing up so fast. One day she'll stop pronouncing it "dirl" and that'll break my heart.

*i* think i'll close here... ;)

Unexpected Home Ec...

10-17-11
Mood:

Unexpected Home Ec, or It's apparently been that kind of month..

Sigh.....I keep hoping we'll get back to being on our right feet again, but Life has those other ideas, doesn't it?

Today's "Home Ec Lesson": why you really shouldn't open up one of those multi-color ink pens and then pull off or cut off the
pen tip and then hide it under the bed. Twirly-Whirly is bright, inquisitive, and has a penchant for playing with scissors. So this morning
is filled with some new activities like cleaning under the bed to find the ink cartridge (found it along with a number of "missing" Hot Wheels),
scrubbing her brother's mini-pillow pet Morsel (Lil bro to Chocolate Chip Cookie aka Chip, the full-sized one) and his brand new bedspread
(might not have been so bad had the one she cut been the blue one but it was magenta!) as well as the previously unstained pair of pants
he was dressed in for school before he sat in a puddle on the floor (yup the wood floor is stained now too).

If we get to the Library Storytime and Park Play today...well....I told her we would still have to do the whole Circle Time and Main Lesson before we went out,
but honestly I already feeling like just doing lessons later after lunch. I think we will both need the fresh air. We have had some good days and are on top of
our lesson plans so it's been pretty good so far. We still have to get started with yoga, but we've also registered to do Marathon Kids this year. And I need to
be firmer (with myself) about practicing violin (for her;cello for me) before I add the pennywhistle lessons. We are still fighting back the six-leggers on a many
times a day level so I guess we are not doing so badly considering. Still.....I look forward to smoother days to come (I do believe they exist!)

At least I have all the photos downloaded and uploaded! And now I have blogged as well! I'll take whatever victories I can claim! Ciao!

Not problems...challenges...

It's been that kind of week....but we have gotten some circle times and schoolwork done...of course by work i mean coloring and painting and copywork that the Twirly-whirly initiates herself like mailing letters to Captain James Hook and what-not.

Here's another bit of "work" she undertook herself:

 I hope to have better blogs up soon....i have had my share of challenges this past week or so....ants everywhere all the time it seems....sick kids on and off..not mention the parents...continued unexpected computer malfunctions (can't wait till the gamer kid is a full-fledged graduated geek and can retrieve photos we accidentally formatted over). sigh...that which does not kill us etc etc....but we did file our very first CA PSA this week...that was very exciting! 

And we are pretty much caught up, with the exception of most of today's lesson as "teacher" came down ill partway through the day. We have been busy with Gems and Awanas (have to get Hearth Keepers going again soon!). We have returned to library storytime/park playdays and to Friday Fun at the marsh. We have been doing violin lessons along with new friends we made through a local homeschool network. :) Life and learning have been rolling along despite the obstacles. :) That's it for now.

Spoon!!!!! (er) School!!!!!

Sorry...the Tick fan in me...lol.

I *thought* I would have had a better grip this Autumn than last year. Note to self: do not allow the chaos of August to run so far into September. ;)

Though in a way Twirly-Whirly got her start on First Grade back on September 4th when she began free violin lessons at a local park, we had out first day of instruction on the 19th. It was a lovely beginning sandwiched between some hecticity in our family. 

I drew her a welcome sign, we had  a nice nature walk around the block, did Circle Time, and then she did some copywork (as seen in photo). Since that first day, we have begun GEMS again (AWANA began the week before), and have been back to Friday Fun at the Marsh. We are also doing soccer (ballet will wait till next session), and found out that though our local library is under renovation, they are still holding storytimes so we have added that back to our schedule...which may mean I will need to let go of a Bible study I began in order to have the right amount of time throughout the week for school. (It sorta knocked me off track. I think I will just hope they do the one I signed up for on a Sunday morning someday. Mid-week stuff just doesn't jive for us.)

We also have been busy at some day park days with a homeschool group. Very fun! 

 We have had a few adventures this week too, but I am going to save those for tomorrow to recount...it's late, but I just had to get something posted!

On the Eve of First Grade

We open our school~house Thursday when the Boo-man goes back, We generally spend our first week of school getting the place in order after a month of the menfolk being home. ;)

We are keeping 1st grade fairly simple too somewhat along Waldorf-Charlotte Mason lines. 

ABCs with the Flower Fairies and Beatrix Potter. Lots of storytelling and read-alouds too, of course.

123s with Gnomes and Gnumbers. Also Living Math for math history.

Copywork from a Christian copybook program.

History with A Child's History of the World (used by Calvert Christian Schools).

Art with Little Lambs (Christ-centered)..this along with the art activities from Waldorf which includes wet-on-wet watercolor, block crayon drawing, and modeling clay fun.

Music is penny whistle, ocarina, and violin (we got hooked up with a free violin lesson program.)

Foreign Language is some easy-peasy Latin booklets plus a preschooler French program (we'll be using Memoria Press Latin books and Hey Andrew! Greek in 2nd grade next year.

Phys Ed is yoga and a kids gym kit during the week and soccer on Saturdays in the fall and ballet on Sats in the Spring. (Twirly-Whirly has aged out of her weekday classes.) and potentially ice skating on 3rd Tues of the month....there is a homeschool skate day. Oh, and we may also be joining a kids ballroom dance class in the near future (or spring whichever occurs first....lol.)

Nature study/science is Friday Fun at the Marsh on alternate Fridays.

Handwork is finger knitting, hand-sewing, and chopstick needle felting.

Domestic Arts is cleaning our house, cooking, gardening, and keeping chickens (potentially..still not a done deal.)

Bible study is a girl's devotional.

Clubs: GEMS (Girls Everywhere Meeting the Savior) on Mon eves.
          Awanas on Wed eves
          Hearth Keepers at Home (1st Fri/3rd Thurs)...I may reduce this to once a month
          all of the above are Christ-centered.

          SpiralScouts...a non-exclusive alternative scouting program so she and her special 

           needs brother together can have a scouting experience. 
           We are making our own group so we can do it any
          time we want...no day commitments! :)

Meet-ups: 3rd Tuesdays at the  Botanical Gardens there is a homeschool meet-up.

That covers it pretty well. Sounds like a lot but it's actually less involved to do than to write out! Lol!

Oh and I plan to use our CC materials for memory work. Almost completely forgot to mention that!


"It's never too late to have a happy childhood."