Barefoot Homeschooling

Over the weekend I took down some shelves in the kitchen to make room for a hutch that I've had for ages and wanted to put together. In the process of taking down the shelves, I found a stack of cards from Maggie's old Hooked on Phonics kit that my dad bought her. It's basically a set of 3 letter words in a kind of flashcard format, just the words, no pictures. I kind of saw them and set them aside and didn't think of them till today.

This afternoon I snagged the cards and sat down with Liam and asked him if he wanted to play a card game with me. 'Well yeah!' says he. So I tell him every time he sounds out a card, he can keep one and whoever has the most cards wins. Well, for a 5 year old boy 'win' is A Very Magic Word and he was all kinds of game to play. I walked him through the first few and by golly he caught on, and by the 5th or 6th card he was doing really well at sounding them out. Then he did a couple perfectly and I squealed (yes, squealed) really loud, which made him jump, and I practically shrieked, "You are reading!!!" which made him cavort around the room for a few and then insist on finishing the cards. You know, he got about half of them right with no help and he is sooooo excited. The look of delight and pride that burst out on his face when I was squealing (yes, squealing) will hands-down be one of the coolest moments of our homeschooling relationship- that ah-ha moment that I didn't have to share with anyone. I guess I'm selfish that way.

Egads, what a day! I rolled out of bed at 7 and hit the floor running and I don't think I've stopped till now. We made the Anniston museum and the kids went through it at breakneck speed. It seems like the more kids you have with you the faster they whirl through the exhibits- there's probably a mathmatical equation in there to figure out the kid number/speed of tour ratio. We had a big ole picnic lunch afterwards in the very sunny but chilly wooded area outside the museum. It involved a good bit of eating on the part of the adults and a good bit of running on the part of the children.

After the museum we headed to Wright Dairy where I bought some free range eggs, some yogurt cheese, and a hunk of havarti. While making selections at the dairy it was discovered that the new mom had a dance studio and another mom needed a space to earn her Yoga Kids certification and 1+1=2 and now we're all going to be getting free yoga classes once a week till the Yoga Kids mom is certified. Behold the power of cheese.

I actually got home after Shannon tonight. After the customary smooches and hellos and whatnot I move on to the subject of mail- 'hey, hon, did my Netflix come in? ' 'Oh, yeah.' 'Anything else in the mail?' 'Nah.' So I rifle through just for the sake of doing it an lo and behold there's a Yankee Candle buy one get one coupon! That's not a 'nah'! That's a 'time to go to the mall for more candles and stuff'. Which I will do some time other then tomorrow because if I don't stay home at least one day this week the laundry is going to stage a coup and take over the rest of the house.

I'm listening:
Bunty aur Babli soundtrack

I'm reading:
That same sci-fi collection that I am too tired to remember the name of.

When the teacher in your 5 year old's science class makes a beeline for you whilst bringing the kids back from class, you know it's not going to be good news.
Me, cheerfully: "So how'd it go?"
Her: "Well, he said he was hungry. A lot. He didn't want to participate in 'movement time'. And he keeps complaining that his feet itch. He said that a lot last semester, too."
Me, stammering: "Oh. Yeah. Er, he really likes to eat. I feed him all day. And he hates to wear shoes."
Silence.
Me: "Uh, I'm going to sign him out now."

This girl is fresh out of college and full of Wonderful Ideas about having the kids Turn On Their Ears and scheduling Movement Time (what is movement time?!?) and a Whole Lot Of Seatwork. She's very young. And she's very sweet, and you can tell that she genuinely likes the kids. But I get the feeling that she knows a whole lot of theory and has very little practical experience. Plus I completely freaked her out when I sat in on her class and then wrote a note to the director about letting the kids get out of their chairs for at least a little bit in the one hour class. It's a lot to ask a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds to sit still for a solid hour. But I think my feedback unnerved her and now Things Are Weird. I really miss the old teacher, who was kind of a young, hip Mr. Wizard with a dash of Jerry Lewis and really looked like the male lead singer of the B-52's circa 1990. He was great- always Blowing Things Up and Melting Things and Eating Things and Getting Messy. The kids adored him, and when he left the center, my daughter, who wasn't even in his class anymore, cried all day. I really hope this new girl relaxes a bit and starts blowing things up soon.

Maggie loved her class, which involved playing sensory tricks on unwitting adults (me and a friend), building an articulated arm with 'muscles', coloring, some kind of scavenger hunt, and the coolest toy I've ever seen- it was a football shaped thing with two cords passing through it. A person stood at either end of the cords holding the ends in their hands and when you have the zippy football shaped thing at your end you move the two cord ends apart really fast- ZING! The zippy football thing moves really fast at the other person, traveling down the strings. When it hits the other end, the other peson yanks his cords apart and WHOOSH! Back it goes. Liam thought it was the coolest thing ever and I want to find one now.

Tomorrow we're off to Anniston to the Natural History Museum there. I'm picking up a friend and her kids and then caravanning with a new friend whom I have spoken with on the phone and know through a friend of a friend kind of thing, but have never met. And we're meeting more friends when we get there. I have packed enough food to feed an army and I have little baby quiches for breakfast in the morning (ah, Costco) and the coffee maker is set for 6am. Thunderbirds Are Go.

I'm listening:
The sounds of my dishwasher

I'm Reading:
A collection of science fiction short stories, I disremember which one.

It rained and rained and rained last night. Got a little thundery, too. I was the only one aware of it as I was the only one awake, so I thought, until I noticed that the bed was shaking slightly. A brief investigation revealed that Lola, my 16 pound terrier mix, had burrowed under the covers and was shivering. She's terrified of storms, absolutely terrified. She succeeded in keeping me awake off and on throughout the night, but I figured her need for comfort was greater than my need for sleep so I just dealt with the odd waking and waited for the storm to pass. I went to bed so late as it was, and then to have interruptions all night, it was a double cuppa coffee morning for sure. Ra ra Jamacian Blue Mountain.

I got up at a decent hour, determined to get my little night owls back on schedule. I was up at 7 this morning and they were up by 8. We ate breakfast at a decent hour and lunch at noon- hurrah! Out for errands, home for some schooly type stuff -Maggie worked in her place value workbook a bit and did some videos and quizzes at www.brainpop.com, and some outside play in the mud and the drizzle. It's still warm enough for shorts. That's Alabama for you- it you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes.

I am a compulsive over-planner. It's January and I'm already trying to put the kids' summer schedules together. That probably meets the criteria for clinical insanity in several countries, no? But I have to mesh schedules, figure out which groups have overlapping camps, do some budgeting, all that jazz. Plus (don't tell anyone) it's fun. I love looking at everything available and figuring out what will be the most fun, or what will offer the most bang for the bucks.

I am anticipating a bit more money this summer due to Shannon's new job, so I'm looking to put the kids in additional activities. I'd originally planned on sending Maggie to her much-beloved summer camp for a week and putting Liam in a day camp (for the first time!) the week she was gone, but now I'm thinking I might have them each in two camps, one day camp and one overnight for Maggie, and two day camps for Liam. The YMCA is offering a kind of swim camp that he'd be delighted with, and Ruffner Mountain usually offers a very outdoorsy camp each summer that he'd probably love. Ah, well, truly I'm jumping the gun but it's a fun gun to jump. Now say that ten times fast.

I'm reading:
Homeschooling: A Patchwork of Days by Nancy Lande

I'm listening:
Tu Hi Re via mydesiradio

It was right here, I swear, I only turned around for a second and now it's gone! I am going to put a picture of it on a milk carton or something.

The kids are still on the night owl sleep schedule and to my horror I'm starting to follow. Do you know what time I woke up today? I was all peaceful under the covers when Liam hopped into bed with me this morning. It was 10:30! I got up and headed downstairs, mentally tabulating Shannon's brownie points for handling the kids all morning and letting me sleep so late. When I asked him what time they got up he said, "Well, they got up with you." WHAT??? I was (and am) completely aghast. I am used to getting up at the latest by 8am and having my day going. My kids have always been morning creatures. I don't know how to handle starting my day so late. We''ve eaten breakfast at no earlier than 11am at least three times this week. The day is halfway gone by then! I am going to have a stroke.

It was wet but warm so a good chunk of my (missing) weekend involved shooing kids outside then cleaning them up once they decided they'd had enough. I've had the kitchen door open both (missing) days enjoying the breeze and listening to the kids play. As my computer was co-opted by Shannon's final project as a free-lancer, the kids decided to watch some educational DVDs I snagged at the library. I got a DVD on the food chain for Maggie, my biology-oriented daughter, and a DVD on the planet earth for Liam, my 'loves space and fiery looking things' son. Guess which one liked which DVD? I swear I'm going to stop making assumptions about who is interested in what. Liam must have watched the food chain thing 6 or 7 times and he hated the one on Earth. Maggie enjoyed both but prefers the one on Earth. Go figure.

My dear hubby took me to dinner last night for my birthday and it was extremely yummy. We went to his pet restaurant and had more really foofy, fancy, incredibly delicious food. I got a couple of hours of good conversation with my hubby, which is gold. I'm really nuts about him and he about me and that always makes for a lovely time, no matter what we do.

Shannon managed to get Maggie's bed canopy put up this (still missing) evening, after cooking a really yummy dinner of beef stroganoff with extra mushrooms. So kudos to him. The kids are upstairs right now playing fort or tent or somesuch on her bed, enjoying the new imaginative element that the canopy lends to their play. I hear them up there, goofing around, fully an hour after their normal bedtime.

I have no idea when I'm putting them to bed. Sigh.

I'm reading:
The Crate & Barrel 'best of' catalog
February's BH&G

I'm listening:
Rang De Basanti via MyDesiRadio (I need this soundtrack)

I have a serious prejudice for having the kids outside. When the weather is nice we're out there as much as humanly possible, and at this age I'd rank being physical and outdoors as being as important if not moreso than schoolwork. It's not just the whole 'relationship with nature' that I'm talking about, either- it's just getting outdoors and running or playing or making believe. You only get one glorious shot at childhood, just one chance to invent those worlds and to explore the science of the backyard from a fresh and innocent perspective. We can catch the 'school' stuff up later- childhood is all about the business of play and exploration, and I'm all about giving my kids space enough to let it happen.

The weather today was absolutely perfect for being outside. I was really loathe to suggest doing anything at all this morning other then putting on some shorts (yes, shorts!) and going outside. The kids spent the morning playing in the backyard, where they found a cicada skin, chopped down the last remaining corn stalks from the garden (they found an ear of strawberry-corn and have brought it in to be saved and planted this season), harvested pumpkin seeds from their halloween pumpkins and set up an experiment with them to see how they'll grow in very wet half-composted leaves, climbed the dogwood, and ran around like crazy people. I'm pretty sure they were playing a combination of 'I'm no Muggle' and Hank the Cowdog out there, too. After lunch we went out front and they rode their bikes and scooters and ran off a lot of energy.

Once things started getting chilly outside, they came in and practically fell upon the computer and played Studydog for hours. They took turns- Liam has decided that the letter identification stuff is beyond boring and has jumped ahead in the lessons to doing things with words- changing them up and whatnot. He's breezing through it, so I suppose that he is ready. Maggie split her time between level 1 stuff and level 3 stuff (note to self, download level 2 for goshsakes) and worked on everything from phonemes to compound words. I made an attempt to bring a little math into the picture (a few minutes of Cyberchase and a math facts computer game), but they were both completely focused on phonics and language arts so I let well enough alone. Math will come another day.

Above and beyond the kid stuff, I managed to get about 8 loads of laundry done and folded and put away, get a load of dishes run and put away, sweep the floors (which I mopped yesterday but thanks to a fresh infusion of outdoor play and dogs in and out all day still managed to be gritty by lunchtime and have I mentioned how much I hate gritty floors? Ew.), read a couple of chapters of Homeschooling: A Patchwork of Days by Nancy Lande, and balance the checkbook. I am on the ball today, ladies and gentlemen.

We did not make it to Montgomery to get the guinea pig- looks like it'll be early next week before we can make it. I've got to check my schedule for next week as it's filling up fast- the kids start the new semester of science classes at the McWane Center on Tuesday, I *think* that Wednesday is Homeschool Day at the Anniston Museum of Natural History and were also going to try and hit Wright's Daury, and I want to take at least one day, weather allowing, to hit a trail at Oak Mountain and do a little light hiking.

I'm reading:
Homeschooling: A Patchwork of Days by Nancy Lande

I'm listening:
The sound of Liam prodding his electronic keyboard into alternately warbling 'I Love you Just the Way You Are' in about 30 different synthesized sounds and making it make random sounds against a snaredrum backbeat.

Shannon got the job, and they made him a very nice offer. He's starting Monday and is feeling pretty confidant about things. His position title is Senior Network Engineer which sounds great on a resume, LOL. He's trying to wrap things up with his clients, inform them of the move, and see who is going to be coming along with him. The new company charges $15 more per hour for calls than Shannon did, but honestly, when it comes to your data most places will pay what it takes to make sure it's all running smoothly. Shannon once had a client that told him they didn't care what it cost, they just wanted X done in a certain timeframe- they were a nice client to have! He and I are also trying to generally put the company to bed. We've got to get the paperwork to the accountants so they can close out the tax year, he's got one client to finish up with, and so on. He's also got to sort through his phone numbers, cell plan, and a bunch of other sundry details. It's going to be a VERY busy couple of weeks.

This morning I need to get some housework type things done. Hopefully this afternoon we're getting together with some friends, but I've sworn to myself that the housework has to be done first. I've neglected it all week and I need to vaccum and mop and scrub down the bathrooms.

We hit the library yesterday in search of a National Geographic video on Egypt. Maggie was watching a Nat'l Geo video on white wolves in northern Canada and it had an ad for the Egypt special at the end of the video. So we snagged it and and A&E special on King Tut and Maggie is good to go. In the last couple of weeks the kids have been leaning more towards computer work and documentary type stuff instead of paper work, so I'm rolling with it.

We were on the go all day yesterday and when we finally got home both kids dove into studydog with both feet (www.studydog.com). They spent at least 2 hours working in turns at it and really had a lot of fun. Liam in particular is enjoying it more now that he is familiar with his letters- I think he found the program annoying and frustrating before he reached a certain degree of mastery. While we were on the go, we started Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. They are captivated by it and I'm loving revisiting it (I've probably read it 5-6 times but it's fun to listen anyway).

I got the local science center's summer camp schedule yesterday and it looks GREAT! The two camps that I think the kids will most be interested in are on the same week so I will have a week of having half days all to myself. I hardly know what I'll do with myself, LOL. For Maggie they ahve a Hogwarts camp, and for Liam they have a 'Cool Kids Creativity Camp' which is all about building. Right up his alley- he LOVES to build things. I'm going to have to check and see when Maggie's week-long overnight sumer camp session is going to be this summer- I could put Liam in a camp that week so that he'd not bored without Maggie, and he and I could still have dates in the afternoon. We shall see.

Tomorrow we're off to Montgomery to pick up a guinea pig from a shelter down there. I've got to make sure that the Leapsters have fresh batteries and that we have snacks enough for the trip.

I've got to get off the 'puter and get moving. The floor is not going to mop itself.

Yesterday when Shannon came home, he was convinced that he'd flubbed yesterday's interview. He'd spent about 2 hours in the interview, only about 10 minutes of which were spent on technical assessment. The interviewer asked him a series of questions designed to show if Shannon knew his stuff. After about 6 questions one came up that Shannon didn't know the answer for. The interview wrapped pretty quickly after that and Shannon felt that he'd screwed it up.

Well, guess what hit his email inbox first thing this morning? They have an offer for him! He's going to go by this afternoon to see what is what. I am both excited and terrified- I really hope this is going to work out well. The base salary will be very good, and he'll get a percentage of everything he bills on top of that. And to top it all off, they want him to get his MCSE (which is a certificate from Microsoft that will increase his employability and his income factor). They have the study materials, which would have been expensive for us to buy, AND they'll pay for the exams! This is a major goal for Shannon and is one of the things he wanted to fund with the money from a new job. They'll also give him a certain amount of money per month to purchase study materials for continuing education, and they might pay for additional certifications! They'll pay mileage, they'll let him bring and manage personally the clients he wants to keep, and the person who is leaving the position will hand Shannon his clients as well. He's going to be doing what he does now, but without having to drum up sales or deal with deliquient clients or complicated taxes *and* he'll get paid well for it. I am so excited!

As rainy as it is outside, I'm going to be walking around with sunshine in my heart for the rest of the day )

Give me a blender and a microwave and a smidge of leftovers and I'll give you dinner. We had raspberry/Banana/yogurt smoothies, leftover chicken, spinach-artichoke dip with baked pita crackers, and to top it off after his bath Liam had spinach-cheese nuggets and a stick of mozzerella. Shannon spent the whole weekend cooking -I am married to a foodie- and I spent the whole weekend washing up after him so I am perfectly happy to cook absolutely nothing today and thus wash fewer dishes. I'm not much of a cook, and I don't particularly care to do it, but Shannon is a magnificient cook and loves cooking, so when he cooks I do the washing-up and it works out for everyone.

Today the co-op visited the local Golden Flake potato chip factory. It was partially closed due to MLK day but we got to tour the parts that were open. Liam was really keen on the conveyor belts and Maggie was really keen on the chips ;o) We had a lot of fun.

We've almost finished the third Harry Potter book on audio- we're on the last CD. The series really has lit a fire under Liam- he asks about what words mean all the time, he wants to play Harry Potter with his sister, he's full of questions about the characters and what they are doing. I can't wait to start on the 4th book- the kids haven't read them and neither one has seen the movie as I felt it was a bit much for them to handle on the big screen. It'll be new, fresh territory for them (they've seen the first 3 movies) and I'm excited to hear how Maggie and Liam will enjoy the books . It certainly has made riding in the car that much more fun! What on earth would we do without audiobooks? They are upstairs right now listening while waiting to fall asleep. Liam has a Magic Treehouse going, and Maggie has a Hank the Cowdog (her particular obsession). For those of you not familiar with Hank the Cowdog, he is the star of a book series intended for boys aged 9-12. My 7 year old daughter has been obsessed for the better part of a year and a half. The only lapbook Maggie ever completed was a Hank the Cowdog lapbook. I LOVE to lapbook, and am a frustrated lapbooker as my children want nothing to do with them, but that's another story for another time.

Anyway, I've got to get off this computer- I've got things to do and they're not getting done any faster by sitting here.

Griffin is doing really well- he's been taken off the ventilator and is breathing just fine on his own. He still can't take nourishment by mouth as he gets a buildup of air in his stomach and he is still unable to process the air through his system. I *think* that translates to, until he learns to fart or burp, he can't eat. Which is really excellent storytelling material for when he's 21 and bringing home that someone special ;o)

Yes, mama needs a new pair of shoes. (No, the irony of that statement in light of my blog title does not escape me.) If you have some good mojo lying around send it my way- Shannon is interviewing for a position at a local company that would make him happy and pay very well. He was laid off almost 3 years ago from a job he positively loathed, and we decided to make a go of self-employment. He loves what he does, and makes okay money at it, but due to his clientelle (small business owners) getting paid for the work he does is often hit or miss. It makes life very hard sometimes, not having anything resembling a dependable income. It's either feast or famine. He and I have some medium and long term goals we frankly can't meet at this rate, so he's been on the lookout for a good position. This one has just fallen into his lap- it's PERFECT and the odds that they can find another candidate with the particular experience they are looking for (and that Shannon has, abundantly) is unlikely. So cross your fingers that Monday's interview blows their socks off and that they offer him the job.

And when he gets that job, I am by golly gonna buy a new pair of shoes. Somewhere out there there's a pair of black Keen 'Sydney' Mary Janes with my name all over them.

I'm listening:
www.mydesiradio.com
and the sounds of pre-bedtime 'tickletime' coming from upstairs

I'm reading:
Best Science Fiction Short Stories of 2004 edited by Gardner Dozois