1st Week

Everything was wonderful! I know that means I’m going to jinx it for future weeks, but seriously, I’m excited about it. We finished everything that I planned for us to do and more.

We are supposed to have rain this week (it started yesterday) so it may take a little more creativity to vent some of that energy this week, but I think we can manage. It has been so nice to just send him outside to run around when he gets too much energy.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that my lunch getting duties have gotten less. Last week Tyler finally decided to learn how to work the microwave to heat up his lunch. He’s been using the toaster for awhile to fix his breakfast and I think that the microwave is easier than that, but it’s taken a while to convince him. So now he when we have leftovers, he puts them in the microwave and sets it for 30 seconds. 30 seconds because he doesn’t like his food too hot and if it needs to be warmer then he can just do it again. It’s been working out really well and he was excited about learning a new thing and getting more independant.

Well, it’s time to start school for this week and someone is impatient about getting started, so off I go.

1st Days of School

I know it will be hard for you to imagine, but our first 2 days of school went really well. There was no complaining, whining, etc. In fact, he was excited about school starting.

Monday, he just zipped through everything and thought everything was easy. Math was telling time on the hour. Reading was asking and telling sentences. Science was about Earth.

Yesterday, things went more slowly. Math centered around learning about minutes and how the hour numbers on a clock are 5 minutes apart. Reading was starting to learn about dictionaries. Social Studies was about maps. We had a lot of interruptions because he saw the fake money that we will be using on the next math unit and he want to play with it. I wouldn’t let him so he decided to make his own fake money. He found 1 of each of the coins in his piggy bank and was tracing them so they were the right size. Then he was drawing the pictures on the coins. Seemed very educational to me so I let him go. Maybe it will help him with coin recognition. The only problem is the Quarter. I think he finally settled on a non-State Quarter to use for the pictures since all the State Quarters are different.

While we have been starting school around 9AM, today we haven’t started yet. He tells me he isn’t ready to do it because he has too much energy. So he is running around the house with Hershey – up and down the stairs and every where. He’s even taken Hershey out to run around the house 4 or 5 times. I’m thinking he probably does need to calm down some before we can do school succesfully.

Art!!

I’ve finally seen everything that he’s worked on. I’m very impressed (but I’m not biased or anything). So here are the pics so that you can see them:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=140t864y.8daigjxe&x=0&h=1&y=tyownv

The first couple are from the art show yesterday. Then following each certificate are the projects that he completed in either the Mixed Media Class or Art Camp. The last 2 pics are ones that he’s painted at home this past week with his new supplies.

We start doing regular school work on Monday so I’m sure I will have updates then. In the meantime, enjoy his art work.

Art Camp con’t

I will tell you want I know of art camp – though I am reminding you that he is being secretive about things still. And, yes, it is a little disconcerting to have my child gone for 4 hours and then get 1 sentence of what he did the entire time. Tues, they painted. And he said something about my birthday or Mother’s Day, whichever came first (though they are the same day in 2008, just like in 2003), that Daddy would have to go get him something before he could give me his present. Considering that it is 9 months away, I’m not sure he’ll want to wait that long. There are times when he takes after his mother when it comes to patience. Wed, they painted again. Now I think that they must have done some type of aboriginal painting because he brought home some sheets of paper where they had examples, but he didn’t tell me anything more. Oh, he did tell me that they use regular paint like we used to paint the walls (latex) instead of the tempura paints that they usually use because he got to clean up with a different sponge.

We did find palettes at Hobby Lobby that are exactly like the ones he uses at the Elkhart Art League and they had 10 spots for paint and a big spot for mixing, so a couple were purchased. He did a painting on Tues afternoon and then another on Wed afternoon. I’ve seen the one from Tues and he has a campfire and smoke (different colors of smoke.) It is very good. I was not allowed to see yesterday’s painting because it was still drying. Hopefully today it will be dry enough for me to look at.

I’m almost done with planning out the curriculum until Thanksgiving. I have it planned so we can finish up the 2nd grade level stuff by then and that will leave the rest of the year for 3rd grade level, which is more than enough. We will be starting all of it on Monday, though I’ve planned a lighter week for the first week so that we can ease back into it (seeing as we’ve taken off so much time.)

Art Camp and other stuff

Tyler started art camp yesterday. 8-12 without my kid – still feels weird. You would think that I would be celebrating, but I did the typical stuff (groceries, laundry, errands, played with the dog, etc.) Tyler had fun at camp. They did masks yesterday. I did get some details (this did not happen while he was taking the mixed media art class.) He told me that he took the longest to design his mask and that they will get to paint them sometime. That’s it. When I got there to pick him up, they were playing on the playground so they must have cleaned up really fast. Ben (his instructor) and I were talking about art that Tyler does at home. I was telling him how Tyler just started something new, but that he wasn’t showing us what it was. It turns out that it is a magazine (this is not his first one of them) and he told Ben that it would take at least a week to finish it because he has to draw all the pictures and write all the words. Ben was impressed and told Tyler he can bring in art work to show him anytime. He also told Tyler that his dedication is more important than anything else. I really like Ben.

Now for the slightly upsetting news. Yesterday when I dropped Tyler off for art camp, Ben told us that the City of Elkhart cancelled the Art Festival that was scheduled for Saturday. They are scrambling to have it at the Art League instead of downtown. But who cancels things that have to do with children? This Art Festival was kids only and it would have been a big deal for all of them. I’m glad they are still going to have something for the kids because Tyler was so looking forward to it. I’ll still take pictures to share.

In the afternoon we went to Target because Tyler got a gift card from Uncle Chad for his birthday and we asked him not to spend it so that we didn’t have to move something else. Well, now we are moved and he wanted to spend it. He chose paints, drawing paper to paint on, and a manetix transformer (car transforms to robot.) Then came the problem. There are 10 colors of paint and we did not have 10 little containers to put the paint in (no, we don’t have dixie cups in our house – they are wasteful.) So I promised that today we would go to Hobby Lobby or Michaels and get him a palette. But he does have specifics in mind for what he wants so we will see if he can get everything that he wants in one palette. He also reminded me today that he wants an easel and I reminded him that he has to stay doing art for awhile longer before I would consider it and that he should put it on his Christmas list – so those of you who ask what would be good for Christmas, remember that he wants an easel and art supplies.

Today they are painting at art camp so I know he will have a good time. Then we’ll go get his palette and run a couple other errands.

Getting Organized

Yesterday I, at least, worked hard. I spent the day packing away last year’s school stuff and organizing this year’s school stuff. Last year we had a variety of different things and I’m so glad it fit in 1 box for storage. For me it is a stroll down memory lane to look at the work and remember the activities that we did for school. Curriculum-wise we started out with Connections Academy (man, that didn’t work out) then to things I developed and designed then we finished the year with Calvert School. We didn’t finish the Calvert School since I didn’t get it until Jan and we took off so much for the move, so that’s what we are starting this school year with. I always keep a planner so I remember the co-op classes, zoo classes, classes at Carson Nature Center, and free activities that we did throughout the year. We did a lot before we moved, but it was so conveniently there to be done.

I did get the rest of the Calvert School curriculum organized into 3-ring binders since I like the portability of being able to take just what we need instead of lugging a bunch of heavy books and notebooks with us.

Today is for leason planning. This is done in pencil because it seems that no matter what I write down, it gets changed at some point. I try to plan a month ahead, but then I find out about a class or an activity and the schedule gets changed. There is no reason to do 4 hours of school work in addition to 2 hours of a class on something, so things get modified that way. Since Indiana doesn’t have very strict laws when it comes to homeschooling (which in some ways is a blessing), I decided that I’m going to keep to the minimum of 180 days and about 4 hours of schooling a day. Last school year I just made the 180 days, which was weird since I was well over 200 for the previous 2 years. This year I’m going to try for over 200 again.

So this year starts with finishing up the 2nd grade level curriculum and then moving on to the 3rd grade curriculum. I’m considering this his 3rd grade year since it is our 4th year of “official” homeschooling.

What has Tyler been doing, you ask. Well, staying out of my way as much as possible, which means playing downstairs with his toys, watching tv and playing outside. This week has been Shark Week on Discovery so he’s been watching those shows and then building sharks with his Legos. We have male and female sharks and female sharks with live babies in their bellies. We have sharks migrating to mate because one show told about how one shark migrates from California to Hawaii to mate (the males and females swim together to Hawaii, but different ways back.) We’ve had lively discussions about what sharks eat (again being built with Legos so that his sharks can eat) and what makes them attack humans. They even had a show on the other evening that was talking about why there was a huge amount of shark attacks in this one area of Brazil and one of the things they are attributing it to is the fact that pollution has made the water murky so the sharks can’t clearly see what they are biting like they can when the water is clear in other areas where this shark lives. That made for some interesting talk around here – especially since you all know I don’t pull any punches when it come to nature and the environment. Tyler has known from an early age that things die, things get eaten by others, etc, etc, etc so these shows don’t upset him at all.

Well, I guess I should start on that planning stuff. Wait I hear the laundry is washed and ready to hang on the line, better go do that first.

We’re back!!!

OK, so I said I was going to take a few weeks off and then it turned into months – I’m sorry! Though the months have been busy. Let’s do a quick overview/update.

We moved to Goshen, IN and stayed with my parents for a few months. Then we bought a house of our own. Then we spent the next month moving in, painting almost everything, unpacking and getting settled. Now we just need to finish painting and start on that long list of projects: carpet for the basement, put in a garden, finish fencing the backyard, trim trees, weed, etc, etc, etc. (it never ends with a house.) I’ll share some pictures yet as soon as we get everything painted. Tyler’s room is back to his favorites (like in TN.) He has Spring Lime on 3 walls and Nautical Navy on 1 wall.

Tyler played baseball and I coached. It was machine pitch and was very demanding. His skills improved over the season, but we won’t be doing that again – too much hassle. He took swim lessons a couple times this summer and has improved greatly. He’s jumping off the diving board and is comfortable in the deep end, which puts my mind at ease. He’s also been taking art class and has art camp next week. Then they have an art show after art camp in downtown Elkhart for all the kids. I’ll make sure I take pictures to share. He’s also been doing the Lowes Workshops. They have lots of kids here at them.

Trent’s working and I’ve been busy with all the house stuff. All of our pets successfully made both moves without hassle. So yes, we still have 1 dog, 2 cats, 1 turtle and 2 fish (well, we had 3 fish, but Raffy, the turtle, decided a few days ago to eat one of the feeder fish that has been in there for months, so that’s why I say 2 fish.)

Tyler lost his first tooth a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, it was while we were eating dinner and he swallowed it. He so wanted to keep his first one so we had a time calming him down on that. The tooth fairy brings $1 now. She probably wouldn’t have brought that much, but now Tyler has older cousins and they are more than willing to share information on their tooth fairy visits – so he knew the going rate.

Tyler’s been enjoying spending time with his cousins and making new friends.

Our new school year officially started on July 1st. So far, I still have to put last year’s stuff away and plan this coming year’s stuff (although I already have most of it.) He’s done swim lessons and art class. We went on a little (and I do mean little, probably about 1/3 of a mile) hike yesterday at a local nature center. The building wasn’t open but the trail was. It is in the middle of the city and we saw 2 squirrels, 2 birds and lots of spiders and bugs. I didn’t even see signs of other animals. So we’ll have to start going to some other ones to find one we like the best.

Last night Tyler spent the tent “camping” in the backyard. I don’t know why he decided he wanted to do it since every time Trent & I even try to sit out on the deck after Tyler’s bedtime, he gets upset until we come inside. But we set up the tent and piled in the sleeping bags to make it nice and soft for him and he slept out there last night with no problem and wants to do it again tonight. I’m glad he got a good night’s sleep because I sure didn’t. I was too worried about things and couldn’t sleep. Tonight we’ll put the tent up on the deck since the sprinklers will kick off in the morning and with temps in the 90s with no rain in sight, the grass needs the water.