Utopian Plans vs Everyday Reality

I borrowed the title from one of my fave blogs, one of the few I actually follow, The Half-a-Hundred-Acre Woods blog. I get it through email, which I highly recommend doing if you want down-to-earth Godly homeschool inspiration! Anyway, I have corresponded with Brandy (love her name....loved the song by that name when I was a girl) a couple of times, and as I replied to her this morning, I realized that this is what I wanted to say in my own blog as this school year rounds to the finish. So rather than write it all over again, I copied it and will add it in for you all to read.

 {As for my next year of blogging, my *intent* is to blog every Friday, at least, to recap the week, if not more....I started the blog to try out blogging and basically to create a permanentish copy of the paper copy I print out for myself and put into our yearly scrap/slambook (I do scrapbooks old school, which since scrapping became an art medium they now call my style slambooking! Go figure.} 

So here's the aforementioned letter:

 Hi there!
Thank you again!!

This was so encouraging to read as this is the second year that things didn't go so well as I'd planned.
Sara's 1st grade year went fine. Then 2nd grade got started and went south around Christmas...the Holidaze!! ;)
We still got plenty done that "could count" as school but I certainly didn't hit her phonics or math quite as much as I had hoped
and not with the curriculum I had bought for that purpose. Then we powered through that leftovers of a good portion of it at the beginning of 3rd grade...though not all of it....determined not to let it happen after Christmas again, I determined to start the rest in January.

God's hand was on that...it turned out a dear CC friend had been doing a co-op with another friend of hers who suddenly decided to back, leaving my friend with all sorts of stuff ready and no one to co-op with. I jumped in and said I would co-op with her. She had wanted to do some of the same materials I already had so that was my contribution. We did this for months and then another family whom we had known for a long time asked to join....and while it seemed like a good idea at the time, it turned out very very different.

In the end to sum up without gossiping, God was at work and a situation manifested that revealed that this "Christian" family in out midst and hearts was not living biblically, but only picking and choosing what they wanted and re-interpreting scripture to suit themselves....and the outcome if that was a scene of violence and hysteria played out by one of their children with ours. And the parents blamed us for their daughter's behaviour! They left us, saving us from having to ask them not to return....though afterwards sent many emails still blaming us.

We put that past us and rejoined for more co-op....which was blissfully peaceful again....but found our batteries rather drained from the spiritual combat....we decided we would each finish out the leftovers over the summer at our own paces in our homes and rejoin in the fall, freshly charged.

For my friend, that has been great. For me, it only relieved a portion as you see I am living in an arena of spiritual combat....without going into gory detail, which I cannot share here, there are "issues" being played out here as well.
And it's not pretty. Sigh...after one house built on sand situation, I got promised rock but instead it was not even sand...more like quagmire.....and it's going down, slowly but surely, it is going down, and I am trying to homeschool through this, praying and praising God as much as I am able.....

..and this summer will be rough...I already feel it......but I am planning for her 4th grade year nevertheless and will be using some of what I had planned for her 3rd grade year...oh well.....I have been inspired by the concept of Festina Lente from Dr Andrew Perrin and by Leigh Bortins statement that you can never cover the basics often enough.....and you sharing your path has been very encouraging...so thank you for being so transparent!!!

I will be praying for you throughout the summer that your next year, as well as mine!, will be more tame and in line with your plans and His! While I doubt mine will be, cus I know who I am living with, I will have great hope for you!

And now I must ready for church..

Blessing to you in Him,

Cat

Cat Carter,
Sara's Momma

Wibbly Wobbly PLanny-Wanny?

Okay, well, here I am...with a slightly sore throat from sneezing (i hate sneezing)....and it's that time of year when I am thinking of next year so I am once again chasing that personal Holy Grail, the Perfect Planner....which isn't easy for me cus I am eclectic and for some reason hope each year to have an all-in-one (personal/homeschool) planner that I can manage to carry around....hmmm...we'll see....I think I at least have my layout for the homeschooling part done....I am fishing about YouTube to see how others played with the usual suspects (the same free printables) in their planners (many inspired by the beautiful but pricey Erin Condren planners (that I would never have heard about if it weren't for all the videos with them)...they are pretty and to me are worth the price if it spares you the time and cost of printing stuff.....that said...it's not got everything I would want to use and it's got a bunch of stuff that would be unused soooooo....

so I am watching these videos and one caught my eye so I watched what turned into a three part series cus some of these moms talk slowly, at least compared to how fast I'd probably rip through the same topic.....and I found a fair portion of inspiration so when I noticed she had a sister series about her personal planner (I guess I am not the only one then), I decided to watch....and I got to moment 3:20 and knew then I just love this gal!!!

when you get there,if you know me at all, you'll know why....

Btw, I call my computer My Tardis and my iPod Melody Pod....lol....

I love it when a plan comes together....

especially when it wasn't the plan you had to start with!! 

When I began this past year of schooling, I had no clue I would be doing a major shuffle cus I would end up in a co-op with a friend! But while it made everything very loopy, it also straightened out some hiccups I had been having with the lessons and timings and such. The one day a week (Wed) co-op was so successful (covering Latin, History/Geography, Greek, and Drawing), we added a Friday component with other material (Classical Writing's Primers, Classical Conversations PreScripts, Memoria Press's Prima Latina and Greek Alphabet books too), and that was so much fun for both kids and moms (and dads who wanted to see paperwork) that we even made a small Monday one as well (the kids learn poetry for recitations via some fun activities while drilling plus beginning French and come summer tinwhistle too)....(this will run thru the summer, as we will all be spending Monday afternoons this next year in the Essentials portion of our CC group.)

and now with another family that has joined us for the Wed co-op day, Twirly and I will be renewing friendship with that family plus another one we used to hang with on Friday afternoons by doing a Tuesday co-op in which we have our Chinese lessons again! (storytime plus easy character drawings using Chineasy).

So sometimes it doesn't take an entire village (like CC feels, hee), but it takes a co-op!

{and sometimes it may take a charter as well...I never thought I would go that route cus I am such a rebel and rogue and like to call my own shots....but I have heard great things about SkyMountain being very very accommodating to parents' desires for how and what they school (they support Waldorf fams and unschoolers too) and the budget would be breathing easier if we got charter money to cover ballet lessons for instance. So I am looking into this aspect.....will keep you all posted!}

A year?????!!!! A whole year!!! Yikes!!

and to think i remarked in the previous post, I'd only missed a month and it felt longer....way to go vice versa!

Time flies when you're not having fun? It has been an overwhelming year owing to things
not homeschool-related, and that's one good thing, tho 2nd grade didn't go exactly to plan...but it always goes to His plan so things worked out..(even while the other issues are still in play).

and the same may be said of 3rd grade so far.....not exactly as planned, but better! To cut to the chase, we're doing a co-op with friends these past several months. It began as a Wed thing, and it was so successful that we've expanded to Mondays and Fridays as well. I'll type more about that another day. 

Other things going on...well, Boo-man (who is taking growth hormone shots now and ha grown an inch since beginning them in Dec, Praise God, cus he's 10 and in 5th grade (Steps class) and still a head shorter than TW!) has joined Twirly-Whirly in her homeschool ballet class! He's loving it! (and it's how we came to doing the co-op...again...the tale another day).

We managed to decorate for St Pat's (celebrating anything has been hard for me this past year), and owing to the only a few days gap, we asked the Ostara bunny to come tomorrow morning instead....and we'll leave Grady and the other fey their treats tonight...
they understand! 

Well, she is working on some of the co-op work right now so I am bowing out for the time being.....I promise to finish out this year's blog..esp as this is the last year of Primary School....more on that later too...Ciao!

Springing all over...

It's only been a month since I last blogged...felt way longer...been a lot going on, I suppose to make it feel like more time has passed than just one month..

We are continuing to feel the new violin class is the right fit. I have been told I can even bring my cello and learn to play with the little cellist there. I have to get my cello into Sam Ash for tuning and tape markers for fingering.....learned we have not been properly rosining the bows too! I wish I had known of this resource a long while back, but whaddya gonna do? We had fun at the other class too...

CC is nearly over! How do more than 24 weeks (including the break times) go by so fast?
I am definitely tutoring in the fall..not only does it pay for Twirly's tuition but it's soooo much fun!

We goofed and forgot to leave Grady his drop of the dew on the night before St Pat's so we did it on the night of....by that time he must have really been sauced cus instead of leaving a small treat, he left TW a whole bunch of little candy bars and Boo-man got 3 huge McDs cookies! We had Ostara egg hunt indoors this year as it would seem The Rabbit couldn't see as well as last year and the grass was super wet...don't want the colors to run!

This month also saw what is for this Mom the Mind-Blower...my eldest turned 21...sigh...I can still feel what I felt that first time I got to see him...how I felt a hole in my heart of which I had been previously unaware was suddenly and gloriously filled, and I thought, "Whoa!!! I'm a MOM!!!! Squeeeeeeee!!!"

Well, he's all growed up now and I am very proud of him! If I stay on this thought any longer I'm gonna tear up sooooo...

...Himself is off work this week so there are no lessons...just her usual activities...so in the meanwhile today I am going to catch up on the memory books and set up the Holy Week display I didn't do Tuesday cus I thought we were going to the cabin but it's getting painted soooo now I have to catch up....again....lol.....as my former FiL used to say, "I'll be finished when I'm dead."

Ciao for now!

Happy St David's Day!

Okay so I have no clue as to what the Welsh do today, but it seemed like happy way to begin instead of say, "Oh my stars, has it been a month already????"

Due to a number of reasons I have been very "unschool"ish this past season...I am so hoping to grab the reins on this runaway horse and get back to the trail proper so we don't lose summer to catching up. 

Some news: we found a new violin lesson resource right at Twirly's brother's school! Much less expensive and some of her friends signed up the week before so she won't be alone in being new there, and all the kids get to play afterwards on the school playground. 

Since we now have that on Tuesday afternoons after school I am planning on removing library/storytime from the Tuesday morning line up. (I have discovered lately that if I don't do lessons in the am, I probably won't and the warming weather doesn't help either..lol..) Instead we will be swinging by the local branch on the way home from ballet on Wed and have a lunch and playtime there as they are both on the way home from dance anyway.

In the interests of more economical use of time and gas, I am also going to quit the Chinese storytimes because they are all up (or up and over) the hill. Considering how many Asian cultures live in and around Gardena I can't figure out why there are not any closer!

I wish Twirly's dad would consider working for a local Chinese school since he is part Mandarin himself and speaks, reads, writes it etc! Or maybe even starting his own school someday?

I am trying to keep the runs up the hill down to Monday nights when we have GEMS and choir.

CC is going well...lol....people keep asking me how it's going and do I still like it which of course is a resounding YES!!!!! I am superstoked there will be a practicum at our location in August and it looks like their dad may even be able to be home with them so we won't need to pay for their care while I attend. 

Friday parkdays are going to be at Alondra, I think, instead of rotating various parks with a local homeschool group. It has a playground, water play area and pool (not open quite yet but should soon)  and a lake with ducks and such to feed old bread to. She can play on her scooter there too. and it's just minutes from home so we can stay longer and still make it home for her brother's bus. 

Lol...we had some fun with ducks at Madrona Marsh the other day...I miss the Friday morning format. I have to concoct some method of squeezing in more nature walks...

Well, that's what's on my mind right now....just wanted to make sure I posted *something*...lol...now to work out when I am going to get the physical journal/memory book caught up! Meanwhile I'll just have to settle for this and uploads at the FB page.

Time waits for no one!

02-04-13

OH MY TIME DOES FLY!

So here it is already into February of 2013 and the last time I wrote was Yule last year! Well, I can't catch up absolutely everything we have been up, but here goes:

We had some very nice holiday days and some rough ones too, but all in all it wasn't bad. Maybe next year, the Twirly-Whirly will make it all the way the movie The Hogfather instead of halfway but she seemed content to leave it at after dozing off. In any case she enjoyed all the activities we did manage to do over the winter break. We skipped her choir and violin concerts due to illness but were able to make the ballet recital and Journey to Bethlehem.

Upon returning to the new year and schooling we had some change-ups. Her violin instructors finally had to give in to their own financial needs and raise the price of classes. They were reasonable but all the same, it was decided that at least for now we would simply continue with her cd's and dvds here at home. I know a number of TW's friends were no longer going to be active in the classes either and that was a big deal to TW. I have to say while I enjoyed going for the expert tutelage, I do not at all miss scrambling up and down the hill into RPV on my Sunday afternoons! At last a seeming day of rest! 

TW also decided she would like to hold off on choir as well and if she decides to do so again, it will probably be at our own church this time. (Part of this too based on her dear friend in GEMS and choir also no longer doing choir). GEMS continues to roll along as per usual. The same goes for AWANA. No changes, just moving forward!

 

As for Classical Conversations, I got my first actual sub job some weeks back and loved it,which was good as TW's regular tutor not long following needed to step down and now I'm the regular tutor! This is a real Godsend as it will pay for her tuition next year! I am very much hoping to return in the fall as a tutor! I am totally digging it! It's even more fun to lead the activities than to watch and help! I just need to make sure I get another mom to take pics and vids now cus my hands are full during the sessions (more on those another time.)

I'll do more catching up soon, I hope! Meanwhile I got some pics and videos uploaded to the Facebook and YouTube sites.