Soaring Mountains Academy

My friend, Tammy, has a great post about the UK homeschooling situation.  Thanks Tammy!

http://www.justenoughblog.com/?p=1547

Our weekend was great.  We got the new door frame for the door on the shed installed on Sat.  Now we have to do a little modification on the actual door to get all the rotted pieces gone to seal it back up again.  We used cellular pvc for the door frame like we did with the window trim.  I think it is a great product and should work so that we don’t have to keep replacing rotten wood.  Next up is the garage door frame on the shed.  We’re going to have to rip some pieces to get the right width.  Tyler was a big help.  Of course, he’s always about 10 steps ahead so he was talking painting while they were still doing demolition.  Trent was sending me the pained look, but the only way for Tyler to learn is to actually be around and helping while we are doing the projects.  Trent got Tyler a new pair of work gloves since his hands have grown since last year.  But did you know our Lowe’s didn’t have size small in men’s or women’s gloves?  So he ended up with a women’s medium.  They are a little big so they should last this year.

In the afternoon, Tyler took a break from helping to paint some of the scrap pieces.  He’s turning them into cars and a boat.  He did a great job and it gave Trent a little break while finishing things up.  Then since we had to return the saw to my dad, we played in the pool and had dinner over there.  Of course, we rewarded Trent & Tyler with some Flavor Freeze ice cream for all their hard work (I only had a little of Trent’s Reese Cup Flurry.)

Sun was a relaxing day – groceries, cleaning, etc.  We got a fan to help circulate the air downstairs.  It’s been a wet spring so it was getting musty smelling down there, as I haven’t been able to have the windows open.  We also got 3 replacement lights for down there.  They didn’t get installed because Trent’s back was hurting him, but I’m sure they’ll go up soon.

My dad had a doctor appointment this past week and we’re pretty sure he has diabetes.  He has most of the symptoms, but he still has to go through all of the tests to make sure.  His blood sugar number wasn’t as bad as my brother-in-law’s, but it was still in the high 300s.  He seems to be taking it pretty good and he’s checking books out from the library to understand it more.  He’s also checking out recipe books, which I hope he will decide to follow.  Not sure if he will actually make changes in his lifestyle to reduce his dependence on drugs or if he will be like other people we know with diabetes that just keep the same lifestyle and expect the drugs to do it all.  Of course, diabetes runs in the family and now my mom is starting in on me that I’m going to be the next one.  Why me and not my brother, I’m not sure.  Especially since between the two of us, I’m healthier.  I exercise regularly and I eat nutritious meals almost every meal (sometimes you just have to splurge.)

There are times when I worry about all the medical crap that is getting passed down from my family.  Especially since there are times when I can’t be as active as I would like with the CFS.  I am getting better from my last flare up.  The joint pain is mostly gone, but I’m still dealing with the fatigue, muscle pain, sore throat, lack of ability to concentrate, and a few other little things.  It’s a good thing that Trent loves me and pushes me to stay active.  He really is my rock and I appreciate lots.

First, I now have a pic of Tyler’s batik hanging from the start of the month.  I think he did great.

Batik Hanging

Fri & Sat – We attended a family reunion for my side of the family.  It was a new location this year and even though we didn’t camp or stay at the cabins, I like the new location a lot.  Seems like everyone else did, too, because we are heading back there again next year.  We’re still not staying at the cabins or anything.  We’ll just visit during the days.  My bed & shower are just too close to make me want to stay at the campground.  Tyler made friends with some cousins and played with them lots.  I was so happy because he usually hangs back and doesn’t make friends quickly.  I do have a new item to add to my camping list.  Not that we’ve camped in a while, but my current list precludes us from camping where we are at now.  The new item is that I want to camp in an area where campfires aren’t allowed.  I should have realized this before because we’ve camped when there were burn bans and loved it.  But it really sunk in this past weekend when I came home smelling of smoke because everything is so wet (and we did get rain) and my allergies to smoke seem to have gotten worse.

Sat – We also participated in the 10th annual Pumpkinvine Bike Ride.  It was the 2nd year for us and we did do the 15 miles again.  No pics have been posted, but we didn’t see anyone taking pics of us this year.  The weather was really wonderful (overcast to help it stay cool) except for the wind.  I swear we rode into the wind the entire ride.  Took us 2 hours this year.  We were the first riders out for the 15 mile ride and 1 person caught us at the SAG stop.  Trent & Tyler got homemade cinnamon rolls made that morning by the amish lady where the SAG stop is.  I had a bite and they were awesome, but I wanted Gatorade and the taste of that didn’t go well with cinnamon roll.  Tyler & I had apple pie and Trent had cherry pie at the end.

Sun – We rested for Father’s Day.  Trent is an amazing father, and I tell him that every day.  We also worked on some 4-H stuff that had to be done by Tues.

Mon – We had the last TKD class before our break for Worlds.  Tyler is glad that there is a break so I have a feeling it will be hard for us to get him to go back next week.

Tues – Tyler had a class at the library on pop art.  I took pics to stare.  It was an OK class and Tyler mostly had fun, but this is where my rant (that is later in this post) comes from so I’m not totally happy.  We also had our last regular 4-H meeting.  We have been working with Tyler so that he was basically done with his projects by this meeting.  I’m pretty sure we were the only ones from the group that have actually started, let alone almost finished, their projects.  We got our passes to the fair so we are set.  Here are the pics from the art class:

06-23 Pop Art

Wed – We ran some errands to Mishawaka and then in the afternoon we went over to Grams & Grandpa Randy’s so that Tyler could go in the pool.

Today – Trent took a vacation day and went fishing with Grandpa this morning.  I figure we’ll see him around lunch time.  This afternoon we have to go shopping for 4-H stuff.  We need some things to display the model & the rocket and we need posterboard & supplies for the fishing club project.

And now for my rant, so if you want to skip this part, you’ve been notified.  If you looked through the art pics, then you would have seen the 4th pic was a sheet of the same girl.  The concept was supposed to Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe.  Tyler did the bottom 4 and then started from the right hand side of the middle row.  Unfortunately, the rest of the picture was messed up by another kid at the class.  At this point, I don’t care what your excuse is for why your kid can’t act appropriately.  Lately, I’ve heard “He just has a mind of his own”, “It’s the summer and they’re excited”, “She doesn’t mean any harm”, “He has ADHD”, “She’s autistic”, etc.  I SERIOUSLY DO NOT CARE!  Your child’s rights do not take precedence over my child’s rights.  My child was attending a class, he sat there quietly, followed directions, helped some younger kids by getting supplies for them that they couldn’t reach, and did not make a mess.  If your child can not act in an appropriate way, then do not bring them to the activities.  If you don’t not know what appropriate behavior is, then do not bring them to the activities until you find out and are sure that your child can handle acting appropriately.  If your child decides to act inappropriately once you have him/her at the activity, then take them away because the rest of us don’t really want to have to deal with you or your child.

Yep, yesterday I finally hit the wall and spent the day in bed.  I knew it was coming, all the signs & symptoms had been there, but I decided to ignore them.  Ignoring them doesn’t work and so now I’m going to have to recover.

Fri – In the afternoon, we went and helped with the set-up for EnviroFest.  Lots of moving of tables, heavy lifting, etc.  I was glad I was there helping, but man did I hurt.  I had already had muscle and joint pain and weakness, but I tried to not it affect me.  Tyler was great and helped out lots.

Sat – EnviroFest.  I went early to help with set-up and then I volunteered for stations for a few hours.  It rained and there wasn’t a very good turn out while I was there.  It was too bad since there were a lot of awesome things this year.  Then we came home and I rested.

Sun – We decided to stay home and do chores around here.  Tyler picked up sticks and clipped the grass around the fence.  Trent & I fixed a couple sprinkler heads that weren’t working.  Then he started cleaning out and filling the cracks in the sidewalk and driveway.  He made lots of ants very mad.  I was doing laundry and supervising Tyler.  We basically wore ourselves out.  Tyler also started one of his new chores – emptying the dishwasher and putting everything away.  He can’t reach everything yet so I’m still helping, but he’s been doing a good job.  It was interesting to learn that he thought we ran the dishwasher once a week and in reality we run it almost every day.  Seriously, we eat 3 meals a day at home (except Trent doesn’t come home from lunch) and snacks and we cook our own food – makes a lot of dishes.

Mon – Tyler had Science Sleuths.  It was about turtles.  Can’t say that he really learned anything new, but it was good for him to get out and socialize.  I stayed around because Science Sleuths is usually just homeschool kids, but now that it is summer time there were lots of kids there.  I liked it better when it was just homeschool kids, but that’s because I like the smaller groups.  Anyways, Krista was going to let all the kids handle the turtles and with 20 kids, it seemed like a little much for her keeping track of all the turtles and make sure they didn’t get dropped.  A little into the program, Krista thanked me for staying and helping because most of the kids didn’t listen to the instructions of how to handle the turtles so there were lots of issues.  We got to hold a baby snapping turtle, painted turtles, red-eared sliders and a box turtle.  We got to see a big snapping turtle, but she’s still learning to be handled and doesn’t always cooperate so we had to be careful with her.  I got to meet a new homeschooling mom.  She’s very nice and I look forward to seeing her at future activities.  Then Tyler had a slight issue because Krista feed the box turtle so they could see it eat and Tyler couldn’t see it because all the other kids got way too close and were blocking.  Also he was pushed out of the way and when he asked one of the kids to move over a little so he could see, he got shoved again.  So he came over to me upset.  It isn’t like he hasn’t seen a turtle eat before, but I think his feelings got hurt.  Luckily, the next activity was taking a quick walk down to the river to see if we could see any turtles.  We spotted some on the other side of the river sunning themselves.  The maintenance guys found a map turtle and were going to take it back to the shelter for us to look at after our walk, but then one of the kids spotted one.  They are up on land right now to lay their eggs.  So Krista took it back thinking that the maintenance guys had left it there instead.  Turns out that now they had 2 map turtles and they only need one for the fair exhibit next month.  So I volunteered Tyler & I to take one of the map turtles back to where we found them.  Tyler was glad that he got to get up close to a map turtle.  She was very docile and not a problem to carry at all.  When we got back, we helped Krista pack up everything so that meant Tyler got a little extra time with the turtles.  He’s like his mom – he loves wildlife.

Tyler also had TKD and then after dinner he had to empty the dishwasher again.  He isn’t sure that he likes doing it.  But we did talk about how he’s going to be getting some new chores coming up.  He is going to start helping mow the yard.  We’re pretty sure that he’s big enough and it is a self-propelled mower.  Not the whole yard, but about 1/2 of the back yard after Trent has done the outline.  Then the next one is going to be learning to do his laundry.  Right now he puts it away and makes his bed, but it’s time for him to learn sorting and running the washing machine.  Not sure how I’m going to get him to hang the laundry on the line instead of using the dryer, but I’m thinking one of our step stools is tall enough for him to use.  We’ll have to see.  He’s really sure that he doesn’t want to do all that, but he’s going to have to learn it sooner or later because I’m not taking care of him forever.  And as he gets older, he can contribute to the household more.

Tues – We had a mostly quiet day since I spent most of it in bed.  But Tyler did work on his 4-H projects and record keeping.  He has to show those things to his leader next week so she can sign off on them and give us our tickets to the fair.  They aren’t due until 7/13, but we are not waiting until the last minute.  He only has a few more steps on his model and a few on his rocket.   Then we’ll have to figure out how we are going to display both of them.  Then onto the fishing club poster.  He hasn’t started it, but we don’t have to show that one to the fishing club leader for a few more weeks.  So we have some time, but not much.

We have a family reunion this weekend and the Pumpkinvine Bike Ride on Sat.  It’s been raining, but I hope the rain holds off for our 15 mile ride on Sat.

I realize that my blog posting has been slowing down.  I have started an affair with Twitter and FaceBook, and have been really enjoying both of them.  It’s not that I’ll stop blogging, but I’ll just be doing it less frequently.  So if you really want a more up-to-date look at our lives, then send me a friend request on FaceBook or start following me on Twitter (FYI – My Twitter status updates my FB status.)

Sat – Trent & Tyler went fishing with Grandpa in the morning.  They didn’t catch much but it sounded like they had fun.  I had a morning all to myself.  I decided to relax and enjoy it.  Also did some chores, but that’s the way it goes.

Sun – We went kayaking in the morning.  It was our first time out and we had lots of fun.  The sky was overcast which kept things cooler, but a little less wind would have been nice.  Took us most of the afternoon to grocery shop and stuff like that.  I hate going when there will be lots of people, but it seems like there are lots of people all the time.

06-07 Kayaking 1st time this year

Mon – I got a call to remind me about a program at the library that I signed Tyler up for.  It was a good thing because I didn’t have it on the calendar.  This isn’t the first time lately that I’ve missed something, so I decided to go back to using a planner instead of trying to rely on my brain remembering everything.  So I’m in the process of getting one put together.  I’m pulling bits and pieces of planners that I like together into one that hopefully work well for me.  As for the library program, it was a mystery one.  So the kids had to find clues in the library until they found a cookbook, then they made “campfires” (melted chocolate, chinese noodles and red hots from what I could tell.)  I have not been impressed with this librarian and I’ve mentioned it before.  She just has no control over the kids and when she gets frustrated she tries to just shout over them.  But her voice goes really shrill and it is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.  Tyler says the program was only OK.  Tyler also had TKD that evening.  Class looked like it went fine and he didn’t really have any complaints other than the fact that he didn’t get a high 5.  The reason given was that so many of the kids had turned in bad attitude reports from their parents that the instructors decided that no one should get a high 5.  So my kid got punished for something he didn’t even do and something totally out of his control.  I’m more upset about it than him though.  Since this isn’t the first time it’s happened in the past few weeks, he now thinks that the attitude reports and the resulting high 5s are a waste and doesn’t take them seriously anymore.

Tues – I had lunch with a friend at Panera.  Good conversation, good food and her son is adorable.  In the afternoon, we set up the tent in the backyard because Tyler wanted to camp.

060-09 Tyler camping out

In the evening we had a 4-H fishing club meeting.  Can you say unorganized???  I hate meetings that start late because people can’t get themselves and their kids places on time.  And I hate that other people feel the need to cater to those that show up late.  They are having a group fish on Sun afternoon at an 8 acres pond.  We’re torn about going.  We really don’t want to spend hours in the heat of the day standing on the edge of a pond fishing, but the flip side is that there would be the social aspect.  No telling what we’ll decide at this point.  A lady from the extension office came and gave tips and tricks to putting together good posters for the projects.  Then they handed out tickets for the fundraiser.  The kids all stood in line, got a group of 10 tickets, then had to tell the other adult up there their name and phone number.  It took forever!  There are much simpler ways of doing this, but I won’t get into that.  What I will comment about is the fact that my son (you know, that “unsocialized” homeschooler) was about the only kid who could stand in line nicely.  The other kids were pushing one another, jumping on one another, hitting/kicking one another, etc.  Is there something wrong with teaching kids to stand in line nicely and keep their hands/feet/etc to themselves?  I guess it is just too much to ask.

Wed – Tyler had a computer safety class at the library.  I wasn’t worried about his knowing computer safety since we’ve already talked about it here at home (seriously, he’s had his own computer and internet access for years now.)  But he needed the class so he can take other computer classes at the library, like the computer art class at the start of next month.  After lots of confusion over whether we were supposed to wait in the kids section for the librarian to come get us (this is the same librarian as the Mon class) or whether we were supposed to head upstairs to the computer lab, the class finally got started about 10 minutes late.  I went and found a couple books on art and writing.  They spent 15 minutes talking to the kids about safety and getting them to sign an agreement.  Then the rest of the class (1/2 hour) was spent showing the kids how to navigate around the library’s website.  Tyler says that the safety part was boring, but the part where he learned how to access his own account and save lists and searches was interesting.  Then I headed off to an EnviroFest mtg to make sure we were ready for Sat.

Today – Tyler had a class on batik hangings at another library this morning.  In the past I haven’t liked this library because of the kid’s librarian, but it turns out they have a new one and she is really great.  Tyler had lots of fun.  The hanging is still drying and then we have to do some final assembly before I can post a pic.  We have the rest of today to relax and enjoy the rainy weather.

Yesterday, in addition to TKD testing, Tyler also had his first summer library program.  It was on comic drawing.  Great program!  They learned different terms, perspective, time movement and lots of other things (I can’t remember it all.)  Then they practiced drawing their own comic before they were given nice paper to draw the final version or ink it.  I’ve taken a pic of Tyler’s final version, though it is not done nor has he inked it yet.  He had a great time and I always love to see his face when he is drawing.  The look of concentration is something to behold.

He got his blue belt tonight!!!  He was nervous about this testing because it was the first one with a board break, but he did great!!!  He even got the performance award again tonight.  This is the 3rd one he’s gotten.  Here’s the pics:

06-04 Tyler TKD testing for blue belt

Tyler got his last stripe on Monday at TKD so he’s testing tomorrow.  

I adjusted the homeschool schedule a little bit.  I’m leaning more and more towards unschooling.  A few comments Tyler has made lately lead me to believe that he thinks he can only learn during school time and I want him to know he can learn anytime, anywhere.  I also think he needs to start taking a little more responsibility for his learning instead of just relying on me to tell him what to learn and how to learn it, etc.  

Two wonderful things today that support my decision to homeschool:

1 – Tyler just finished “all about love” by bell hooks. I got a big hug, kiss and “I love you!” from him. Love books with positive effects.

2 – Tyler drawing deer tracks “It looked opposite in the book since I decided to draw the left hoof instead of the right hoof.” I love him.

First, yesterday was interesting.  We had the septic tank pumped.  It had been almost 2 years since we moved in so we thought it would be a good idea just to get it done even if we weren’t having any issues.  It was about time so it all worked out.  We had them locate and dig it for us as well.  At the end, the guy tried to convince me that I could save $ if I dug it myself next time, in about 2 years.  I asked how much and it turned out it was only $20.  I told him that Trent was more than willing to pay for them to dig it, especially since it was only $20.  We then had to do some shopping in the afternoon.  First stop was Sam’s Club, where we got some food and Tyler got the last book in the Percy Jackson series.  Then to the pet store for some dog treats.  We buy out of the bulk bins and Tyler has to be able to read and know what all the ingredients are before we buy it.  It helps that some of the fav treats for Hershey are 100% human grade and say so on the bin.  Last stop at the grocery store.  It took us almost 2 hours to do all that.  I was so exhausted.  Probably because I hate shopping and I hate doing it when there are lots of people around.  I did have to get some wine to cook with for a few meals, so I picked up some from Banrock Station.  I opened the Chardonnay and I really like it (not that I know much about wines.)  Also like that they give $ to help wildlife and wetlands.  But the best part was that it helped me relax and Trent’s snoring didn’t bother as much last night.  Don’t think I need to start a wine habit, but it was nice to get some sleep.

This morning we headed over to Cook’s Bison Ranch in Wolcottville, IN for a tour and meal.  It was so much fun!!!  I highly recommend it.  I took 110 pics, but I have 21 of them to share here.  Most of the buffalo that you can get in our area comes from Cook’s.  Buffalo Pete’s is own by the family (Cook’s is a family operation).  You can also get the meat at Martin’s and at Yoder’s in Shipshewaka.  Good to know I’m supporting local when I buy it.

05-30 Cooks Bison Ranch

On the way home we stopped at Yoder’s and picked up some buffalo jerky and buffalo summer sausage, which comes from Cook’s.  We also stopped at E&S, the bulk store there going into Shipshe, just to look around.  I’m going to have to go back there.  They had great stuff for amazing prices.  Wish both of these places were closer to us.  We did some chores around here (like mowing the lawn) and Trent made me German Chocolate cake.  It’s one of my favs!

Tomorrow we are going for a bike ride on a portion of the Pumpkinvine.  Got to get ready for the big 15 mile ride in a few weeks.  Thinking about doing around 8 miles tomorrow.  Then we are going to stop in at Grandma & Grandpa’s in the afternoon (Grandma & Grandpa, if you are reading this, no Tyler probably won’t be coming with us, we were thinking adult conversation.)

Off to rest so I’m ready for that bike ride in the morning!

This week has been quiet (thank goodness!).  Not a lot to share.  So I’ll leave you with some pics of plants around the house.

05-29 Plant pics