The last one we did was from an actual poem that Sarah wrote last year. None of us have ever heard it before. She has it memorized and with our encouragement, she recited the whole thing for us. One of her friends from 6th grade used to share her poems between friends and Sarah said they were kind of depressing and emo, but one day this poem just came to her. She said I could blog it.

Drops of rain fall to my face.
I wipe them off to leave no trace.
People drive by thinking I have no fears,
But they can’t see
That the rain’s really tears.

Another flash of pain strikes through my chest.
I stumble back inside, thought I know
I can’t rest.
In this house I turn away from everyone I know
I hurry to my room to pack up everything and go.

“I don’t know where to flee”
Thinks the voice inside of me.
Then I find
That I can’t.
‘Cause the hatred’s pointed at
Not him,
But only me.

We were pretty impressed, and I made a mental note to read more poetry to my children. Zack and Seth became inspired and started rhyming about poop and stuff. They thought they were hilarious. I asked Sarah to write her poem down with the date so that I could have a record of it. The boys decided that they would write theirs down, too. Here’s Seth’s:

Poo fell on my face. I Die.
Chicken’s Die, too.
(this dosn’t Make Sence)
Chickens poo on my face
From this day on…

After that, he wrote another nonsense poem, crumpled up the page to make it look old, and then gave it to Josh to read aloud. It went like, “Ugaa Ugaa tuagar par ma. are tee pee po pa.” Silly kid. We thought it was funny that he tried to make it look old, but then the date he had written at the top was 4-25-10.

I thought Zack’s was going to be just as silly, but it wasn’t bad. Josh said, “What’s it about?” and he answered, “It’s about a guy who comes in the house and shoots everybody.” Josh said, “Ok, now read it again.”

I heard footsteps on the floor.
Then I heard it on the door.
It was at a bad time.
And it was no friend of mine.
I tried it slow at first,
but it ended with a big burst.
I can not write any more.
I just lay here on the floor.

After hearing it in context, there was a little silence after he read it, and then all at once we said things like, “Whoa” or “Wow” or “Holy cow”, and then, “Good job, Zack!” It didn’t have a title when he read it to us, but after typing it up, I noticed that he put a title on it, “Just a Man”.

Now there is just one thing I would like to know… where is he getting his inspiration? He wrote it in ten minutes and then drew a cartoon picture on the back that had nothing to do with the subject of the poem. As Zoe would say, “What heck?”

We finished reading a chapter in our history book about Ancient Africa last week. Because Ancient Africans left few writings and artifacts, what we know of the time period is based mostly on oral history passed down. A favorite character in many stories is Anansi the Spider. We read a couple of stories, but the one that stood out is Anansi and the Make-Believe Food.

Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

Anansi’s village has no food, so Anansi decides to leave in hopes of finding food for the village. He walks a very long way until he sees a pillar of smoke. When he finally arrives in the far-off village, the cassava are there asking him how he would like to eat them (roasted, boiled or fried). He tells them he’ll eat them however he wants them to, so they all yell, “Roasted!” and jump into the fire. Before he can eat them, he sees another pillar of smoke from another far-off village. The cassavas tell him that it’s the village of the plantains. Anansi decides that he likes plantains better and heads off before eating the cassava. The plantains in the plantain village are all the eager for Anansi to make a meal of them and decide to be, “Fried!” but, yes, he spots another pillar of smoke from a fire and is soon leaving for the village of rice without eating a plantain. When he gets to the rice village, they yell, “Boiled!” but Anansi leaves for yet another pillar of smoke from a far-off village. When he gets there, he is dead with exhaustion and finds that he has returned to his own village. They boil up a stew of fish bones for him since that’s all they have. No one ever finds the three villages again and the moral of the story is “Don’t be greedy, eat what you’re given.”

My moral would be to eat a bit from each village before going to the next one, but I can see how no one would really learn anything from that. Also, could there be anything more gross to eat than fish bone soup? I think they called it right when they chose something so universally disgusting to compare with the other three foods.

While reading the story, the kids laughed about the food coming to life and asking to be eaten, choosing how they would be prepared, and then preparing themselves to be eaten. When I pulled out the plantains I bought from the grocery store to surprise them, Seth said, “Wait. Plantains are real?” We all laughed and Zack yelled, “Fried!” We tasted them before frying them and they all agreed that they were kind of like a hard banana. After frying them, they decided they tasted more like potatoes. That explains why Seth didn’t eat more than one. He can’t stand potatoes.

Sarah decided that if you could fry a plantain, then why not a banana? I thought they might turn to soup, so it was a good experiment to see how they held together pretty well. I’ve had cooked bananas before, but they are usually in some kind of batter and turn hot liquid-like on the inside. The bananas cooked faster and got a little burned, but Sarah liked them better than the plantains. I really like plantains, so I got to eat a fair amount today.

Everyone was feeling pretty good after this object lesson, so I decided to give them their tests on this chapter. They cheerfully took them with their plates of plantains beside them and I thought, ‘This doesn’t happen in public school.’

Wow, it’s really dusty here. Glad I just picked up some Pledge to take care of the mess that has accumulated in my absence. (No really, this stuff works great and smells really good, too.) I just took care of 71 spam comments. People find me whenever I post something to Friendfeed or Facebook and then my poor blog is attacked. I still haven’t figured out how to disable comments on some of the pictures I have saved as their own entry. I don’t know how I did that. I don’t know why I did that. I just write here from time to time. Hopefully, now that things are straightened out a little, I’ll get back into more regular posting.

When I started homeschooling this school year, my blog turned into a weekly update for how things have been going. Our education goals have dropped off a little. You know how life happens… first it was the visit from Nana Koko that wreaked havoc on the daily grind and we played a lot and did a lot of field trips, then it was Thanksgiving when we fried a turkey, and then Christmas break came and I only let the kids take one week off while we were at Grandma’s house. Since the new year began, we have gotten back to the daily grind. And it’s fun! I still take a few days to get my work done during deadline week, but for the most part, things have been back on track.

The most exciting change that has happened in homeschooling is that the HEART homeschooling group and Juergen’s Gymnastics have finally cut a deal and the boys will be doing gymnastics once-a-month. I know the sessions are few and far between, but I’m hoping to keep the boys doing their stretches daily so to keep them progressing forward between sessions as much as possible. And they have the Wii Fit. And they play outside on their bikes/razor scooters/ripstick on nice days, like today.

So… other than homeschooling, I’ve been reading books. Even though I have less time now, there is always time for reading. Like when the football game is on, I sit next to my husband in the living room and read. While he is bouncing up and down and yelling about Brett Favre throwing an interception, I’m in another world altogether. These are moments that I truly enjoy. Especially when the laundry’s done and the kitchen sink is clean and everyone is fed and watered or put to bed.

Other things have happened, like Seth turned eight in December and got baptized in January. It was such a peaceful and smooth-going baptism. Everything and everyone was nice. During “intermission” we asked everyone to write a note to him and it was great to read what people wrote. Many of them referenced Grandpa Randy’s talk on baptism (Randy and Niki were both able to attend which was an incredible blessing and miracle considering their unique circumstances). Seth has a nice collection of encouraging words from those who attended. I like that it is also a record of all who attended because I know from experience that when you’re the reason for an event it’s nice to go back and see who was there cheering you on. Seth is currently awaiting his very own set of scriptures which we forgot to order until about a week ago. His set is going to be green. He’s excited to be getting his own pocket hymn book, too, which will also be green. We somehow forgot to get one for Zack, so he’s getting a black one to match his scriptures. These are traditional gifts that we give to them when our children turn eight and are baptized.

As is the custom in our church, Seth also became a new Cub Scout. He could hardly wait to get his uniform. He wears it so proudly. And the Wolf Handbook was devoured in the first hour of it reaching his hands. He had the Bobcat Badge taken care of in his first week of scouts. He has slowed down a little since, but he is still very excited to be a Cub Scout. His enthusiasm has brushed off on his older brother who is a Webelos. Zack has quite a bit to do in the next five months in order to get his badge and Arrow of Light award. It is part of our homeschooling goals to give more time to these scout goals. I have given them a project of learning about the Food Pyramid and presenting it to the family while also taking inventory of our own eating habits from a week of recording everything we ate. I haven’t seen any more action on this, so I’m making a mental note to get out my whip. What? Indiana Jones has one. It’s for cracking, not whipping.

Speaking of whipping… I made another yummy dessert topped with homemade whipped cream tonight. Ever since Zoe’s 2nd birthday (just about two weeks ago), I’ve been craving another yellow cake topped with vanilla pudding, whipped cream, and blueberries. It is so good and so light. You could eat the whole pan in one sitting and not hurt a thing. I’m guessing. I didn’t really do that, but I have a feeling that I could. Everyone just had one piece for dessert/refreshments for Family Home Evening. We played Uno tonight. The first game lasted about 30 minutes. It was so long that we only played two games. The second one was quick. And we were able to dig into our desserts at a decent hour.

Come to think of it, we had dinner at a decent hour, too. All thanks to Josh – he reminded me to put it in the oven around 2pm and also gave me the idea on how to cook the pork I defrosted. I rubbed a pork tenderloin with minced garlic, poultry seasoning, and celery salt, threw it in a foil bag, and roasted it in the oven for about three hours. It was falling apart when I took it out. It was the easiest thing ever. I threw some potatoes on the rack to complement the pork. I got the loin half price, so dinner tonight was about 10 bucks for our family of six. Zoe held her own, too, she ate everything. I kept looking at the floor to see if she was throwing it down there, but no… the times, they are a-changing when the toddler gets more food in her mouth than everywhere else. She even ate the rosemary-salted carrots. The rosemary was grown by Randy and Niki’s neighbor down in Port A. The neighbor mixes it with sea salt and puts the mix in little jars to give as Christmas gifts to the neighbors. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time and scored our own little jar since Randy and Niki still haven’t used up the one they got last year.

Health-wise, we are taking turns with the sore throat and headache cold. I believe it was Zoe who started it. Then I got it last week and now Sarah is really starting to feel it. So at church yesterday we barely got through singing Aloha ‘Oe to a dear friend who is moving to Indonesia. While sitting in church the week before, I felt inspired to sing to her despite my lack of singing voice. I recruited Sarah to sing it with me in the Young Women room after their opening exercises. Since the YW President served her mission in Hawaii, she knows all about this custom of singing “Farewell to Thee” to members who move out of the ward. We sing and then bring lei to give and show our love. Everyone cries. You tell yourself that you’re not going to, but the beauty of the music (even when I’m singing it) creates a portal to your heart and allows all that feeling to come up and out. While practicing the song, I even told the girls not to cry, but everyone was crying by the time we were done with our singing. Arwen, our friend and former YW President, was crying before we began. Instead of flower lei, we gave cookie and candy leis. It was a very nice day at church yesterday. We came home very uplifted.

Aloha `Oe by Lili`uokalani

Ha`aheo e ka ua i nâ pali

Ke nihi a`ela i ka nahele

E uhai ana paha i ka liko

Pua `âhihi lehua o uka

Hui:

Aloha `oe, aloha `oe

E ke onaona noho i ka lipo

One fond embrace, A ho`i a`e au

Until we meet again

Translation:

Proudly sweeps the rain cloud by the cliffs

As onward it glides through the trees

It seems to be following the liko

The `ahihi lehua of the vale.

Chorus:

Farewell to thee, farewell to thee

Thou charming one who dwells among the bowers

One fond embrace, before I now depart

Until we meet again.

We took a field trip to the Children’s Museum of Houston. We used to have season passes when we first moved here and it was one of our favorite places to go. We haven’t been there in a while and I thought that it would be more of the same stuff, but I was pleasantly surprised and amazed to find it renovated now with three floors. There was way too much to see before they closed and the five hours we were there went by very quickly.

We finally moved away from the puzzle area and found a lab room. Zack donned a lab coat and safety glasses to assemble different molecule models.

Seth assembled a few also, and this one is just so appropriate for him.

The lab coats didn’t fit Sarah, but she put it on anyway along with a silly pose.

I left the big kids with Nana and took Zoe to the second floor where the Tot Spot was located. It was my favorite spot in the whole place. It was toddler heaven. I think if we were there during the summer time then it would quickly change to more of a hell when crowded with kids, but the day we went it was wonderful. Zoe had plenty of room and space to explore.

Kids love to flip the switch! This little exhibit is dedicated to the simple act of turning on and off a light switch.

This one makes the real sound of a toilet flushing. It was my favorite. I got Zoe to do it more than once and tried it a few times myself. The little underpants sitting on the floor below the bear on the potty made me giggle.

Zoe really liked the flowers. I had no idea that they spun and it’s such a great little display since kids can and will touch everything. It was an excellent discovery.

Crawling through the tunnel merits a bit of tongue concentration.

This was Zoe’s favorite. She walked over this tactile walkway over and over again.

I can’t believe I got a picture of the two little boys (Zoe’s looking down on them in the plastic ball pit) that we played with. This was before the little one decided that I was trustworthy. He followed me around with his arms uplifted like he wanted me to pick him up. So I did. He kept doing it, so I did more than once. His dad was there and laughed about it. The big brother and I got into a war with the little plastic balls. He started it and then my Zack got into it. The big kids took a break to see Zoe in her element and were told they couldn’t play. So… the lady came to stand by us and frown disapprovingly at us just as the war was winding down. I thought we were going to get kicked out. We left shortly after that to give the poor lady some peace.

This is what the boys were doing while we were upstairs… they were in a giant climbing thing that was all three stories tall (Lower Level to First Floor to Second Floor). They had a blast. You have to be at least five years old to go in it.

Back to the Tot Spot… here’s another display that is pure fun. The door bell rings, the light switch turns the porch light on and off, and the doors swing open to reveal a mirror.

We went outside for a little tricycle and rocking fish play. It was a nice day, so not too hot. Plus, most of the outside area was in shade.

We had to let the boys paint their faces. Sarah didn’t, but I sat Zoe in front of the mirror to do simple flowers on her cheeks and nose. She cried because I wouldn’t let her take the bowls with sponges out. We calmed her down and Sarah ducked inside a little puppet theater. She put a bird out and Zoe was absolutely mesmerized. She thought it was all real until Sarah lifted the curtain.

They had stations set up throughout the museum for Trick or Treating. Even though we didn’t have costumes on, we got bags from the front and went throughout the museum collecting candy. After we had gone through the line at one station, a camera began shooting near us and a lady asked if we would go through the line again so that the camera could capture Zoe.  The Channel 2 News was there with the weather man, Frank Billingsley, doing live shots.  I took a picture of Zoe with him, but she was tired and wouldn’t stand by him or smile. He was great, though. Josh scoured the news later that evening, but he didn’t find any footage of her.

We discovered the craft/invention room on the Lower Level. Zoe’s eyes popped out of her head that there were so many Lego blocks and she was allowed to touch them.

The last thing the kids did was check out the changes that were made outside.

Well, there is actually one last thing you must do as you leave the museum… you have to put your sticker (the one they give you to wear and show that you paid) on the pole across the street. Sarah helped Zack to get it at the highest point they could.

Our first time visiting the Downtown Aquarium Houston was pretty fun. There is a lot to be said for going during the off season. We went through the inside exhibits almost completely on our own. There was an Asian guy there by himself and my mom kept having to take pictures of him with stuff, but once we got outside, we were able to ditch him. I was extremely curious why he was there on his own. We later sat behind him on the train ride and talked all through his video recording of the tour. I don’t think he spoke English too well, so it’s kind of funny that we’re rattling off in a foreign language.

The kids had to pick out a favorite creature while there and be able to tell us about it when we got home. They also had to write in their journals the things that they most liked about this day and the things they saw and learned.

There were a lot of built-in photo ops at the Aquarium. I liked the swamp one and Zoe’s face. She’s imitating the sound I make when I want to get her attention for a picture.

Blue Poison Dart Frog

What’s an Aquarium visit without the token silhouette shot?

Seth came face-to-face with a Tarantula!

Sarah demonstrating her ability to follow the rules – touch with one finger only!

I’m not sure how aware Zoe was of the creatures in the petting tank. She just got more and more upset that she couldn’t go in the water.

I took at least twenty pictures of this little tank trying to get a good shot of Dory and Nemo (or is it Marlin?). They just kept swimming, swimming, swimming, swimming… You can see the reflection of my mom’s camera next to mine. We both spent a good three minutes trying to get the perfect shot. This one will do.

Zoe climbed back under the petting tank and then the boys joined her one by one.

Zack and Seth took several pictures with this fake tiger. There was a button on the wall to take the picture, and then the picture was shown on the wall right below. The idea is to buy the picture as it is listed with a reference number. Of course, they milk you for all you’re worth by this exhibit exiting through a gift shop. It was very Disney, only without the crazy pictures of you screaming down Splash Mountain or other ride.

Zoe finally got to touch water at the outside fountain. In fact, we let her go all out ending with us stripping her and sitting her back in the stroller covered by her jeans. We booked it to the car to put her in a nice, dry diaper and her sweatshirt. We also probably broke some public indecency law by letting her naked self get into the fountain at the front entrance while on our way to the car. My mom took that picture, so I don’t have it. Probably best not to post them anyway. I will say that her face was completely lit up when I put her in the fountain and she cried bloody murder when I took her out.

Week 3 Highlights

A highlight for week three was opening a care package from Josh’s friend in Brisbane Australia. Johnny and Rachael Worthington went nuts filling the box with Aussie (pronounced Ozzy) paraphernalia (flag, pens, stickers, boomerang, slippers, a size 2 Aerial Cricket Set, stuffed kangaroo and koala, and a bright orange jersey of Johnny’s favorite football (soccer) team as a present for Josh’s birthday). Oh, yeah, they sent us Vegemite, too, and left out the instructions on how to eat it. I made toast and slathered it on. Josh took pictures while we ate it to get our reaction. A fellow FriendFeeder even used the pictures as a drawing exercise. I doubt the children will ever misbehave again as we’ve threatened to feed them this stuff if they get out of line. (If you think this sounds like a good idea and would like to try it, the UK version is called Marmite and they sell it in the International aisle at HEB.) The Worthingtons also sent “tim tams” and we instantly aborted the air strike we called after tasting Vegemite and they were thus cursed and exalted all in the same box. We didn’t take a picture of us eating tim tams because the camera would not have been fast enough in capturing us wolfing them down anyway. They are cookies unlike anything I’ve ever tasted before and I have an eye toward visiting Australia for the sole purpose of eating every kind of tim tam available. (I mean, like one of each kind since I’m told there are different flavors. I have no intention of eating every actual tim tam in the country which is what it sounded like when I reread that last sentence.) There’s that new goal and the fact that Rachael’s parents own a strawberry farm combining to make Australia my new dream vacation.

See how much learning went on just by getting a box of goodies from another country? I love homeschooling—ever aspect of life becomes a teaching moment. The kids are supposed to look up Cricket rules and then teach the family how to play it. We will definitely post pictures on FriendFeed for Johnny when that day comes.

Another highlight – I introduced Spelling Power. Sequential Spelling is good and has a neat approach, but I wanted to make sure that I was also keeping up with words that the kids should know in their grade levels. After giving them the Survey Test, it led me to the level of Placement Tests they should take. The levels are given as letters of the alphabet from A through K. Sarah tested into level I (ninth grade), Zack tested into level D (fourth grade), and Seth tested into level C (fourth grade). Sarah and Seth are both above their actual grade by two levels and when they took their Placement Tests they were advised to stay in these levels. Zack tested one level below his actual grade level, but when he took the Placement Test, he was advised to move up a level. I’m not surprised by these findings as both Sarah and Seth were in the Gifted program at their schools before we pulled them out. Zack was in the Gifted program in our previous school district, but did not test high enough (missed by one or two points as I recall) when we requested the test after we moved here. I attribute it to his inability to process data quickly in his head because he is focusing on other things and thinking deeply about them. He has a hard time deciding, too, so if you ask him what he wants for dinner he will take so long to answer that he forgets the question. During the summer, Zack told me that his favorite subject was spelling, so I’m not all that worried about him.

Week 4 Highlights

It was Josh’s birthday on Monday, so even though we didn’t mean to, we took the day off school to clean the house. Sarah mopped the floors on her hands and knees while Zack and Seth cleaned the kids’ bathroom. Their rooms were also cleaned and I took care of the kitchen. Everyone helped vacuum. We ended up having our neighbors, the Kendricks, over for the birthday dinner, and it was nice to have the house already cleaned and ready to receive them. It was a really fun day and it was nice to declare Daddy’s birthday a national holiday.

The next day we made clay tablets and practiced “writing” Cuneiform letters as part of our history class. I let the kids make whatever sculptures they wanted after that, and we had a great time. It was Seth’s idea to carve little Tiki figures, so I helped out. By the time I was done with his, the other two were making/requesting one, too. They have requested to play with clay many times since this lesson and we still have a lot of clay leftover. Ten pounds of clay is only $7 at Michael’s and I used the weekly 40% off coupon.

Because week four fell between two of the Jewish holidays, we spent some time learning about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We know a Jewish family (met on FriendFeed and then had lunch with them when they were in town) and we were able to read the things they posted on their blog— like what kind of menu they were planning and how the food came out. It was nice to learn about something so foreign to us and to be able to see the examples of friends, the Moskovitzes, living a faith that is not our own. (Here’s one of my favorite posts of their daughter which was “LOL-catted” or captioned by a favorite FriendFeeder and homeschooling dad.)

Week 5 Highlights

Sarah played her first band performance at a football game on Tuesday, October 6. It was exciting for her and for Josh. She came home filled with stories about what she got to play, where she was able to stand as a percussionist (in front of the whole band able to hear everything blasted directly at her), what she ate during her twenty-minute concession break (nachos), and how fun it is to ride the bus to the local high school and back. There was an annoying boy who kept asking her out which totally grossed her out, but I’m sure it boosted her self-esteem, too. I was secretly glad that she was grossed out.

Zack and Seth started their Art Classes with Nancy Peterson and drew pictures of bugs in jars—both real bugs and bugs they made up. I like how she gets them to draw details and they were able to explain why they gave certain characteristics to their bugs. I see the natural tendency to narrate about what they learned when they come home and want to tell me everything about what they did. We timed the bike ride, and Nancy’s house is only eight minutes away. It’s nice that Zack is able to attend with Seth (who took the class alone last year) and they are able to ride bikes there together. We are grateful to Josh’s parents for helping fund this fun class for both boys. Thank you Grandma Niki and Grandpa Randy!

After the boys got home, we went to the old part of town for Humble’s first Farmer’s Market. I have been looking forward to this and didn’t plan a meal for dinner in the hopes of finding some yummy vegetables to buy. I was disappointed since I was picturing glorious Northern California markets with several farmers showing up with their different crops. They close the street and hire musicians… it’s like a party. Here, there was only one farm with a really long line of people and all I could see were cucumbers. The rest of the vendors were selling specialty items like lavender oil, goat milk soaps, beeswax candles and other products made from honey, and orchids. What saved the trip was finding a pumpkin patch being put on by the church hosting the Farmer’s Market in their parking lot. We took some pictures and picked out one pumpkin for each family member. The only bad part is deciding when to carve them. We want to wait until it’s closer to Halloween, but how long will these babies keep? I’m also looking forward to toasting the seeds.

One last highlight of the week was more like a lowlight. We discovered that Sarah was missing a required meningitis shot and would not be able to attend band at the public school if we didn’t get it taken care of. We spent two and a half hours at the clinic to avoid paying a doctor visit fee and $140 for the shot. We ended up getting the shot at the clinic for $4. After having paid and while we were with the nurse getting the shot, she determined that Sarah could get her second dose of a different kind of shot (I’ve already forgotten which) with the next one due in January. We decided to go for it and walked out having paid $4 to get both shots. Zack was ready to claw his eyeballs out after the first hour even though he was reading a book, Zoe slept for the majority of the time, and Seth and Sarah also read books (without complaining). Sarah also took a turn holding Zoe who is already at 30 pounds—felt like 50 at a dead weight. There was also the exposing of my children to an abusive mother to three small children. I didn’t actually see her hit her children, only threaten to do so by raising her hand to them as a stream of threats came out of her mouth, but Sarah told me after that she did hit them. If I had known, I wonder if I would have had the guts to speak out at her. Sometimes being hearing impaired is a blessing, but all of my children have really good hearing. I was bummed that I put them through that, but they were all glad to have me as their mother when we were back in the car and heading back home.

Week Six

Week six starts today and we’re only reading scriptures and writing in our journals for today since it’s Columbus Day. We’ll talk about the holiday and maybe later I’ll get a call out to my favorite Canadians and see how/if they are celebrating Thanksgiving today.

I already know a highlight this week will be a visit from Nana Koko. She is coming from Guam and staying for three weeks. While she is here, we plan on hitting various museums and places of interest as she will be paying for City Passes. We didn’t have a whole lot of fun during her last visit which was during Hurricane Ike, so we are going to make up for it. She might also fly out my oldest brother to come along with us. Hopefully, we will not get a replay of any kind of hurricane or other natural disaster while she is here this time. We are looking forward to spending Halloween with her.

Other News

I got asked to be on a volleyball team playing at QLS and have been playing for a few weeks now. It makes Tuesday nights interesting as Sarah has Young Women, Zack has Webelos, and Josh has gone back to working at the office and barely making it home in time for all of this to begin at around the same time. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to try the child care they have there at the gym. Zoe walked right in and started playing. There was so much to see and lots of kids, that she didn’t turn around to say goodbye. So I played for an hour thinking that she was having the time of her life. When I went to pick her up, however, the kids were all gone and she was being held by one of the caregivers sitting on the floor. Zoe held a stuffed animal and was leaning her head on the girl. She looked so sad, and when she saw me, she immediately started to cry. I felt so bad. I could hear her disbelief that I had abandoned her and how she had not expected to ever see me again. I haven’t taken her back there since, but even if I tried, I don’t think she would let me. Sometimes getting to play my favorite sport makes me take desperate measures.

Having older kids to help watch the baby is a wonderful thing, and I believe we are moving off into new territory. Josh and I were able to go to the temple on Saturday and had such a wonderful experience. I feel like this is a step in the right direction to visit the temple regularly. It has been years since we have gone together, and it is such a blessing to leave all the cares of the world at the door as we go in. They were right there waiting for us when we walked back out, but it seemed like the bags had been emptied of very heavy rocks. Going to the temple makes life easier and I think just getting there is the hardest part of all.

As it turned out, yesterday was Fast and Testimony meeting at church. I had forgotten a tithing check that I had left at home and I wanted to print a coloring sheet for my Nursery lesson, so I drove back home (we only live a minute away) and got back as soon as I could. Josh had already born his testimony about our temple visit, so I missed it, but lots of people were commenting to me about it throughout the day. I was bummed that I missed it, but then Zack got up and bore his testimony to the whole congregation. It was the first time he had ever done that in a sacrament meeting–even his older sister has not had the nerve to do it yet. It was short and sweet and was mostly about how he was glad that he could pray to Heavenly Father anytime whenever he wanted to. I was so touched and had a really awesome family day yesterday.

I apologize for this long overdue update. I know that it’s better to give my reports a week at a time because then my post wouldn’t be so long (Sorry, Betty). I will do better in the future. Don’t leave without leaving me a comment about how long you think pumpkins last. I could probably google it, but I don’t want to get distracted. I’ve got some work to get done now. Have a good week everybody and Happy Columbus Day!

What is this?

What do you think this is?

Here’s another view.

C’mon, you got to know it by now. Here’s more of a clue.

Yep. Now you’re getting it. That’s the driver side window of my van. It looked kind of pretty in its shattered state, so I got a little artsy fartsy.

Here’s another question for you… What did this? The police officer who came by my house to file a report said that it looked like a pebble got kicked up by the lawnmower guys or just a big truck driving down the street and it hit my window. I admit that it looks like an accident because nothing was taken and the doors were still locked. The “pebble” was not found when I was sweeping out/vacuuming glass out of the van, however, so I’m not convinced. What could have happened between the hours of 12:30pm and 2:15pm?

For the last few days, I have been parking my car at the end of our driveway to keep the playground ball (and little kids) from bouncing out into the street. We chalked up a four square court and have been playing for recess.

Yesterday, Josh came into our room with a big question mark in his look and said, “Our cars are in the street.” I told him we had been playing four square, and got up to get my keys so that we could move the cars back. Josh still looked confused by my reply and I discovered that he has never played. So we postponed the car moving and got the kids outside to give Daddy a lesson. Once he caught on to the rules, he was like a little kid. He loves playground games. It was a lot of fun.

Getting my window smashed in, however, was not.

The biggest highlight of our second week of homeschooling was the integration of a working Macintosh G4 computer. It was given to us by Jason Huebel of FriendFeed out of the kindness of his heart. He is also a fellow Texan and homeschooling parent. Josh met him for lunch when he happened to be in town and was able to ask him a lot of questions about homeschooling. I had texted him “homeschooling?’. It was the only thing he had to go on and he had no idea that I had been talking with my friend Susie who had decided to teach her children at home. Jason had a hand in preparing Josh to receive my enthusiasm that would rain down on him that night. If you’re reading, thanks Jason!

Macs are cool. (Can’t wait to get one of my own in laptop form. Just waiting for that big job to come in.) We are still getting used to the operating system and finding our way around. It was nice for the kids to be able to look up definitions and subjects that we were working on or that just came up in conversation. They also found neat science experiments. We let them play with it, but I had not got around to assigning computer work.

Continuing with highlights of week two…

We had two holidays to learn about, Labor Day and Patriot Day. Labor Day was just a scripture reading and journal day and I read to them the history of Labor Day. For Patriot Day, I found pictures of the World Trade Center Towers (without flames and devastation), the Pentagon, and the White House with flag flown at half staff. I told them that it was such a huge day in history for our country that I remember where I was on September 11, 2001. I told them where they were (Sarah and Zack were asleep and Seth was inside my tummy.) We had received a call from Grandma Niki and she told us to turn on the TV. We were watching when the second plane hit the second tower. It was scary. We talked about how so many people went to NYC to help, how the brave men of the NYFD and NYFD had died to help others, and what we did to help in the aftermath. I had designed a flag t-shirt and with the help of the Young Women in our ward, we sold them at their high school. Half the profit went to a NYC high school that they had picked, and the other half of the profit went to a family in NYC who had lost a loved one. And then I told them that President Obama wants next year’s Patriot Day to be celebrated with some kind of service to those still serving our country in the military. They wrote in their journals what they would do to serve. Later, Josh showed them all a documentary (with flames and devastation). Sarah said she didn’t quite grasp the magnitude of how people died on 9/11. So, I guess the flames and devastation were good at getting the point across.

We did everything I wrote about in a previous post and then added more. I introduced The Story of the World, Volume One: Ancient Times to all of them and Writing Strands Level 3 for Sarah and Zack. All three have started their Easy Grammar workbooks appropriate for their grade level. I also introduced Sequential Spelling and we did the first five days since it was so easy for them. We were laughing because it was so easy, but I know it will get harder, and I’m hoping that they will stick with it long enough to see the patterns emerge from this approach.

I picked up some more books at the library for Sarah on the Salem Witch Trials, one of which in a CD set called The Shape of Mercy (the link will take you to a blog that continues the story — pretty neat idea.). I am learning so much about that time period and maybe the next time I visit Salem, Massachusetts (my mom insists that she took me there) I will remember it better. I’ll take Sarah and we’ll understand a little more of the madness of what went on there.

Some issues that had come up were taken care of. Sarah caught up on her worksheets for reading (The Witch at Blackbird Pond) and Seth cried when he didn’t understand what was going on in Cheaper by the Dozen. He didn’t get the humor of “Does anybody have to visit Mrs. Murphy?” or what it meant. So we switched the reading to Johnny Texas. While reading, we learned that the main character was from Leipzig, Germany — Seth jumped up to get the dictionary to look it up. I didn’t think it would be in there, but we waited for him to find it. And it was! We learn something new everyday, even the teacher does.

Indeed, I had given the boys three words to look up for CBTD and one of them was “quoth”. Sarah recognized that it was from Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven. One of her friends from last year had printed it out and given it to her to read.  I looked it up on my laptop and read the whole poem to them. I loved it. My only experience I can remember with Poe is The Tell-Tale Heart which I did not love. Anyway, in a rash and foolish moment, I offered the kids $100 if they could memorize all 18 stanzas of The Raven by the end of the school year or sooner. Sarah has taken the challenge to heart and has the first stanza memorized. I’m trying to memorize it with her. The boys were excited for two seconds, but have not pursued the work needed to gain the treasure.

And finally, one last highlight that I am excited is signing up for homeschooling workshops at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. I happened to be up really late, like 2:00 am on September 8 when registration opened and was probably one of the firsts to sign up. I had checked my email and found notification from HEART that someone had posted the link to register. I look forward to taking the older three to these workshops… gotta find a babysitter for Zoe because she’s not quite ready for these kinds of outings. We are signed up for Ancient Voices, Tell Me a Story, and Time to Travel.

And that’s a wrap. We are all still liking homeschooling and all of the children yet live.

For starters, we joined the Texas Home School Coalition and receive email updates on what they are doing to preserve the rights of Texas citizens to educate their children at home. I felt this article was particularly noteworthy for those of you with questions about State Requirements and it also contains a link to a particularly entertaining exchange between THSC president and a “concerned individual”. If you don’t care to read it, that’s OK, at least I don’t have to waste words describing something already said well elsewhere. At any rate, I feel good to support an organization that actively looks after my rights and keeps me informed.

Another great organization that works on the national level is the Home School Legal Defense Association, and they had a short article that may ease your mind on what we’ve gotten ourselves into. We have also joined the Southeast Texas Home School Association and receive newsletters via email that are a great resource for what’s happening in Houston, Dallas, and Austin that make for great teaching moments and field trips. There are also conferences and classes and, and, and, way more information than I have time to go into. I am still sorting through it all.

And finally, we have joined a local support group (mostly because joining this group gave membership discounts to the aforementioned organizations) called Home Education And Responsible Teaching or HEART in Kingwood. There are classes and other activities to join with this group, but we are keeping a low profile this first year. So far, the biggest benefit to me has been the online calendar and the online forum. It’s nice to have an experienced community to turn to when questions come up. I look forward to meeting some of the families in person in the future, but for now, I just want to get my bearings without over-scheduling too many activities outside the home.

As it is, I take Sarah to Symphonic Band every public school day right smack in the middle of the day. That might cramp our style a little, but for now, Sarah is very happy to continue her percussion education. Just in the first two weeks of school she has learned “The Hey Song” and “We Will Rock You.” She is holding her own in a band with both 7th and 8th graders. It’s nice that she has a couple of friends playing other instruments in there, too. We plan to let her stay for lunch on Fridays for good behavior and keeping up with her school work.

Our first week of homeschool was four days long. Two out of the four days, we woke up on time and started at 6:30am and were done before lunch. The other two days we woke up late because of going to bed late the night before. We still managed to stick with the schedule, just started later and continued into the afternoon. Even though I am a night owl, I prefer to change my schedule in order to wake up early. It just feels better to get things done earlier instead of starting later in the day and feeling perpetually late. I have yet to go to bed at what most would consider a reasonable hour, but I’m working towards it.

Many have asked what curriculum we are using and how it is going so far. So I will give details, but the more you research homeschooling, you will find that as there are unique families and no two are exactly alike, so are there no two homeschools exactly alike. You can try to duplicate what we do, but without Zoe, you won’t get the authentic Haley Homeschooling experience. Zoe’s main job is to distract and detract from any kind of gathering or learning at the kitchen table. She is relentless and it’s a good thing she’s so cute or we would have sold her to the gypsies by now. I’m resolved not to stress out this first year until we gain some experience on what works for us and what doesn’t.

We begin with scripture reading and journal writing. After the first day, I realized that Seth should be allowed to draw a picture and write sentences underneath it for his journal. Since we have made that change, he doesn’t worry about trying to keep up with the older two, but works diligently. Another revelation came when I saw Seth falling asleep during our Citizenship lesson (we’re doing the Citizenship badge out of Zack’s Webelos Handbook) and thought I might have to make a change, but the next day, he knew all the answers. It shocked me that he had absorbed the lessons from the previous three days. Zack, on the other hand, forgot the answers which shows that I have to do something to help him retain the information. After we’ve said The Pledge of Allegiance and short lesson on Citizenship, we move on to English From the Roots Up.

English From the Roots Up is a spelling program that teaches the Greek and Latin root words. The first week we covered the difference between “definitions” and “derivations” and their root words. They are slowly understanding how to look up a word in the dictionary to determine the etymology of the word. We spend the time finishing flash cards with the definitions and derivations on the backs. We get through a card a day. Sarah is always rushing ahead, and I’ve given her permission to read the manual and work ahead if she feels like it. She is making connections between the root words and the magical spells in the Harry Potter books and the names of Gods and Goddesses in the Percy Jackson series as well as characters in the Fablehaven series. It makes it fun for her. I also have a few books from the library as examples of where they can read more Greek and Latin which they have cracked open on their own time after we finish school.

The Mathematics curriculum that we have invested in is called Math U See. Each book covers one concept at a time and claims to help children visualize what they are doing when working math problems. They have a good website for generating extra worksheets, have CD’s with a math teacher telling the parents and the children how to use the math manipulatives, and allow children to move along at their own pace. We have teacher manuals and CD’s bought used from Homeschool Heaven, but no student workbooks yet. They are ordered and on their way. I printed out placement tests from the websites so I could see exactly where my children are. And then on different days, I let them each watch the CD for their level. There are roughly 30 lessons in each book. Zack watched up to Lesson 20 and complained that it was so easy. Sarah watched up to Lesson 26 and said it was too easy, but that she couldn’t remember if she was supposed to multiply or divide at one point in the formula. Seth watched up to Lesson 5 and reported that it was so fun. I decided that I needed to get the book that I think they’re supposed to be in and the one before. While it is easy for the older two, I want them to have a firm grasp on the concept before moving up because on their placement tests they couldn’t finish the ones at the end. So likely, Sarah will review which operation she is supposed to do in the last four lessons of her book, master the concept, and then move to the book she is supposed to be in. We’ll see how they do once all the materials come in.

Zack had the notion to make banana cookies, so we turned it into a science/math lesson. He had to tell me the correct measurements for a double recipe. He and Seth did it together while Sarah put Zoe down for a nap. I just supervised and asked questions. Later that night, we gave some to our bishop as a thank you. I saw him today, so either he ate the cookies and survived or he didn’t eat the cookies. OR he gave them to someone else who may or may not have died. All I know is the boys had a blast having sole control over the cookie production. Seth wants to make strawberry cookies, but I kind of think that’s a waste of good strawberries. A strawberry is perfect as it is! Just pop it in your mouth! But I don’t think he’s going to let me off so easily. I have a few books from the library filled with Science experiments, and bought a used “Backyard Scientist” book to try out. Josh’s scientist father, Dr. Haley, will also be coming up with curriculum appropriate for their ages. Grandma Niki sent an extra credit assignment via email on Jupiter. The full moon was a couple of nights ago and Sarah went outside to find Jupiter (we forgot and the boys were already in bed), but said there were too many clouds. For extra, extra credit they are to explain the difference between astronomy and gastronomy.

Reading is next. I’m a fan of the Progeny Press Study Guides for Literature and found a bunch of used ones at The Homeschool Store and Homeschool Heaven. I mapped out for the first nine weeks, Sarah would read “The Witch of Blackbird Pond” and each week would have a set of worksheets for her to do. I figured that I would give her the option of doing one sheet per day or turning them in at the end of the week. She read the book through the first two days, did half the worksheets for the week on Friday, and still hasn’t finished them. I will have to retract and require a sheet per day. I’m still going to give her the worksheets and if she can get them done before the nine weeks is up, we’ll move on to the next book. In the meantime, I’ve picked up at non-fiction book “Witch-Hunt, Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials”. She doesn’t prefer non-fiction, but she may enjoy this since it is written with teenagers in mind about teenagers. The other books I have in mind for her are “The Giver” (she read it already, but I want her to do the worksheets to cover anything she may have missed on reading it on her own, “The Island of the Blue Dolphins”, and “Frankenstein.” I’ve got others ready to go that I may need to add to this year’s plan. I thought a book a semester would be enough.

The boys’ reading time consists of me reading to them “Cheaper by the Dozen.” I loved this book when I was young, and I remember being astounded when I learned it was true. So far, I think a few concepts are over their heads just because they are unfamiliar with certain terms and there’s plenty of sarcasm. We’ll see how they do. I’ve also got “Charlotte’s Web” (I still remember my third grade teacher reading this to the class after recess and I figured we could compromise between the 2nd and 5th grader) which Zack claims to have read already. They both love being read to that I don’t think he’ll mind. I plan to keep a bin of library books for them to read on their own. We haven’t decided what day will be library day because we pretty much go whenever I get an email notification that they are holding a book for me. We can always go when Sarah is at band. With Josh home all week, I have not had to take the other kids with me everywhere I go. It has been nice for them to go outside and ride their bikes for recess while I am out running errands for the hour between drop off and pick up Sarah times.

There are a few subjects that I have not introduced yet just because I’m not ready to present. We are using The Story of the World, Volume 1: Ancient Times and plan to go through each volume as the years roll on until we reach present day. I’m also a fan of the Green Leaf Press books, but have not purchased anything from them yet. I have a Texas History book that I plan on integrating into our Citizenship lessons and we’ll also cover State and Federal holidays. I’ve got a bunch of books from the library that have to do with Health that I will let Sarah read on her own. She will also do free keyboarding lessons in order to learn to type with all her fingers instead of just one on each hand. I also have Easy Grammar, Gram-a-Day, Writing Strands, and more books for reading assignments.

Other resources available to me that I plan to use are Church related. Maybe I’ll save that for another post. I’m falling asleep and it’s only midnight! Times, they are a changing. The long and short of it is that we are all fans of homeschool thus far. I will keep you updated on how things go. Feel free to leave a comment, ask a question, or visit my feed on FriendFeed where I get the most interaction on my posts.