Homeschool, Etc, Update

So I know I've been so bad about keeping this poor blog updated, but life has been crazy. And just to warn you, this will be a long post, so grab a cup of coffee or tea and sit back and relax. Hopefully life will settle down a bit now, but I'm not holding my breath. I actually tried to update this once before, but of course I chose the one time that blogger was down and it wouldn't let me write a new post. Ah, well. I'm here now typing, so let's just get down to business!

Monday, March 15, was my first official day homeschooling. Although I pulled Aiden out of the public school system, we chose to go ahead and leave Mikayla in her preschool program - 1) it's free (well, our taxes support it), 2) it's in a great private preschool being taught by wonderful ladies, and 3) Mikayla absolutely loves it. So on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I have to drop her off at school at 9:00am and pick her up by 2:00pm. Not a big deal - except for that silly naptime I have set up for two of my kids. Back to Day 1. That first Monday (most, actually) Philip was still home and so I could just drop Mikayla off without toting three other kids along.

My homeschool area is the roughly six by six foot area directly in front of the front door in my living room and I had been slowly getting a carpet, table, bookcase and books for when we were to begin. When I walked in the door after dropping Mikayla off at school I was greeted by Aiden's hard work, as well, to bring in some aspects of what he had in his classroom at the public school:

Note the desk off to the side for the student who has been disobedient and needs to be separated from the rest of the class, and the pictures on the wall behind that separate desk and Aiden's seat. He also had pulled out each of the three older kids' coloring boxes, little notebook and favorite coloring book or blank paper and placed it at each students chair.
The kleenex and trashcan were also Aiden's addition, as every functioning classroom must have these two essentials. I was remiss in some of my classroom set-up!

Needless to say, they were just a wee bit excited to begin homeschooling. I have a daily and weekly schedule set up, and lesson plans made to finish Kindergarten by mid-summer-ish knowing that we would probably move faster than that. By the end of the first week we were already weeks ahead, so I made a tentative decision to slow down a bit regardless of how much fun everyone was having. Even Tristan has been sitting at the table for most of our sessions. He just assumed that he was required to be there as well, and he seems to be getting quite a bit more than I was expecting him to understand. I am not really teaching him to read, yet - two at once is more than enough for me! - but I would not be surprised if he was reading within the year. I'm certainly not going to push him to it.

So anyways, I decided to slow us down a little, and then the Navy among a few other things decided to help me with that. I have done so much running around and searching the internet and copying stuff and I don't remember what all else, but life's been crazy! I'm hoping and praying that things will settle down a little bit now, though. Philip, in theory, has done his last major thing for the Navy until his CARE Board. That was initially scheduled for April 13, but due to other delightful circumstances which you can read about at his blog, which he did update today (link on the side), it has been postponed until May. So, in theory, I won't have anything Navy related that "HAS to get done by noon today or we're in trouble" for another month at least. Which is good because we've gotten so little schooling done that, though I'm not behind, I'm certainly not ahead anymore.

As for the schooling itself, Aiden is doing great with the reading. I was really concerned back in February I think it was, when I sat down with him to have him read me a fairly simple book and virtually all he was doing was guessing at what the words were. The school was supposedly teaching phonetically, but I guess with a class the size of Aiden's (20 or so), he just wasn't getting the phonics, just word recognition. He still defaults to guessing once in a while, but almost always catches himself immediately and tries to sound the word out.

Mikayla's doing great, as well, but definitely doesn't learn quite the same way Aiden does. The book I'm using has the kids just looking right in the book for the words and sentences, etc, they are to be reading and learning. Aiden does just fine with it, whereas Mikayla gets totally distracted by all the other cute little letters on the page. And boy was she getting frustrated!! It only took me two lessons to try writing the words she was to sound out and such onto flashcards and we are having much more success and less tears.

As I'm typing here I'm remembering Aiden a year ago and realizing that some of what Mikayla is struggling with is almost certainly age-related (which I assumed, but didn't have "proof") because she is fifteen months younger. A year or so ago, I remember having more issues with Aiden getting frustrated really quickly when he didn't get something immediately. If Mikayla doesn't get it perfect and immediately she gets really upset and tries to give up. As I mentioned, now that I'm typing I do remember Aiden acting very similarly about a year ago which is normal. Everything for the past five years that Aiden has gone through, Mikayla seems to go through exactly one year later. Which in a sense is nice because I'm close enough to Aiden's dealing with whatever that I usually don't get as frustrated and hopeless feeling because I remember vividly that I did get through it with Aiden so I'll get through it with Mikayla, as well. No, I don't necessarily recommend having children really close together, but there are also some HUGE benefits to it if you do!

As for the rest of our Kindergarten curriculum, we are doing math, handwriting and Bible. All three kids are doing great with math and Bible, and the older two are doing great with handwriting. I didn't get a handwriting book for Tristan, but I probably should have the way he is constantly trying to "write" his name and other letters. He'll make one really squiggly line and announce, "Look at my T!" Too cute!

On a lighter note, we try to do a family movie night once a week with the kids where we eat finger foods in the living room for dinner while enjoying a movie together. Most of the time we (ummm, Philip) do (does) pretty good with picking out a movie everyone enjoys. We know it was a great choice when the first thing that happens the next morning is the kids dress up and start acting out the movie. Case in point, we watched Planet 51 with the kids a couple weeks ago and the next morning Aiden walks out of his room after breakfast and responsibilities dressed as the astronaut Chuck Baker:
And because mommy pulled out the camera to take pictures, Mikayla had to go and get a princess dress on to be photographed with Aiden:

Tristan is his own little man. He loves playing and learning with his older brother and sister, he more than the other two, will just go off and play by himself, with his cars usually, for hours on end. He just doesn't care about keeping up with others so much like Aiden and Mikayla are - he's so laid back. It's very refreshing at times! He loves being a big kid and doing school with those two, though! Poop training is driving me bananas!! He's been pee-trained for over a year now, but refused to go poop in the potty (don't you love reading a mom's blog). What I wish I had tried and found out a year ago: if he's in a pull-up he goes potty in the toilet about half the time and never poop in the toilet. If he's in underwear he always goes potty in the toilet (well, say ninety percent of the time - he's barely three), but never poop in the toilet. If I make him go naked on his bottom half, he goes potty and poop in the toilet. In the past week I've been able to let him go naked four or five days and every day we've had no accidents and poop in the potty every day. So now I ask, how long will he have to been naked before pooping in the potty is habit? Soon, please!!

Bethany is just a sweetie. Talk about laid back!! She never fusses - and I'm serious when I say never. About a week ago, I gave in and called mom, not stressing, but looking for another brain to pick for ideas about why Bethany was screaming. When I called mom Bethany had been fussing for about 15 minutes. That's how little she ever cries. Fifteen minutes and I'm calling for help because holding her and bouncing her and cuddling, etc, were not making a difference. If she cries, especially if just picking her up for two minutes doesn't settle her right back down, I know something is really bothering her because she never cries. Which is so wonderful - Thank You, Jesus! - because with a 6, almost 5 and 3 year old, the house is rarely quiet. That night and a couple since it's been teething issues as far as I can figure. One tooth up top finally broke through a couple days ago and number two up top is trying to. So tylenol before bed and she's good to go. She's starting to walk - when she feels like it. It's still quicker to crawl, so she'll take six or eight fairly steady steps and then calmly lower herself to her knees and take off to whatever her destination happens to be. In another post (hopefully tomorrow or Sunday) I will have some pictures of her and one of her favorite destinations.

So in all, apart from Tristan's poop-training, I have the sweetest and smartest children in the world!!