Ups and Downs

I saw something similar floating around on facebook, so I made my own for Homeschooling Moms. What do you think?

I often feel like I am herding cats. There is an awesome blog www.phoebeholmes.com by the same name. I thought it was appropriate. I think some people consider us weird because not only do I homeschool, but my husband works from home. Yes we are that weird. In reality, he goes to work each day as anyone else. He closes the basement door and comes out for lunch. The kids know to leave him alone while he works. I spend my time teaching. It is a challenge with a 3 year old let me tell you! I'm currently hobbling around because my son hyperextended my kneecap. NOOOO not now! I have an Upward Cheerleading Pom Pom routine to lead in front of the whole local high school!! I will do my duties. It really does not hurt very much. I just have to keep it from slipping out of joint! Such is life with a little boy!

Sesame Street videos

Ok, this is my first response to anything on the net. I read a recent article on yahoo regarding Sesame Street addressing breastfeeding. I watched the comments and all of the stupid comments out there were awful. Now I only tried to breastfeed a few times in public, because honestly I did not have the hang of keeping myself covered. I didn't have one of those neat nursing covers. Maybe I should have! Thinking back, and I know this gets a little tmi, but there were times I nursed on the toilet!! Can you imagine? I, of course, pulled down my pants because I did not want them to get all wet. Sitting on a toilet seat in my jeans just didn't seem like a good idea. Then imagine having to sit there and nurse a baby in cramped quarters which stink and sounds coming from the next stall over that are not appetizing or helpful in relaxation with my baby. I won't go into how I had to go in a week after having my daughter to fire someone. My bosses wouldn't let me out of it. I'm not sure I can describe the stress I went through at that job. I barely had enough milk for my dear daughter! The stress of trying to juggle other parts of life and nursing a newborn can be hard on a girl, which is why people need to get over it and leave a poor momma alone. We're just trying to do the best for our babies ok? So in response to the yahoo article, I made my own little banner. Most of the arguing was regarding women taking their breastfeeding into the public restroom. So, here is my response. Yeah, I know I'm not artistic, but it gets the point across.

Happy New Year!

Ok I know it's been a while. I really wanted to post more, but life keeps me going along. Hannah had a good appointment for her ears. We are waiting to see if they heal on their own. That would definitely be a God thing. The doctor said she would be lost in a classroom at this point, so it's a good thing we homeschool!
So far we have enjoyed learning about American History. I recommend watching Liberty's Kids on You Tube. It is educational and the kids like it. I never knew so much about the Revolutionary War! Over the Christmas break, I noticed that Hannah is more into her memorization for Classical Conversations. It takes a while, but the information is beginning to stick! I really enjoy this program and highly recommend it. Her reading skills continue to become more sophisticated and her math is taking off. We are skip counting up to the 11's so far. I'm guessing that multiplication will not be too difficult when we get to it.

Another great thing is that I'm beta testing a new website called Duolingo. Check them out. Maybe you can get in while they are taking new testers. Hannah and I are learning Spanish this way. It's a fun program. I'm learning a lot. I guess it's paying off to because she asked for milk in Spanish.

Things are settling down after Christmas. The kids were spoiled a little at grandma's, but that's part of the fun. I hope you had a great Christmas everyone.

Amy

So we continue to chug along. We went down to my parents' house for Hannah's birthday. All was great (for the most part). Hannah had a blast. You know we really do not notice the hearing loss unless we are in a situation where it is obvious everyone is hearing things she can't. Example, a plane flies over head. Noah got all excited. Hannah on the other hand had a look on her face like "huh?" She was confused and thought he was teasing about the plane. Yeah, she has hearing loss alright.

There are moments I get discouraged or just lack of motivation regarding homeschooling. We really like our Classical Conversations classes. Check them out at www.classicalconversations.com It's awesome. My husband expects her to know so much, but at this stage we are just absorbing information. We have officially gone through all 50 States and capitals. It's cool to watch them learn. We are starting Upward Bound Basketball. EEEkkk. I think Hannah will give up. She is not a sports person, but dad signed her up. I'll report how that goes. It should be interesting.


Try Burt's Bees. I did as a bzzagent. I'm loving their products. This is just another way I'm earning some freebies for my family!

A New Chapter

Ok ok folks I know we've been absent for a while. Life continues you know. The biggest thing going on right now has to do with Hannah's hearing. Well you see when she was born she did not pass the hearing test. We chalked it up to fluid in her ears and since the hospital did not make a big deal of it then we didn't. About a year later, it started nagging me a little so I went in for a follow up. She squirmed so much that a reading was not done. They, again, showed no concern. We moved South, and when Hannah was about 2 her new doctor was concerned about her speech. So we had tubes put in and did about 6 months of speech therapy. It helped a lot! At 5, she needed her tubes replace along with tonsil and adenoid removal. She was such a trouper! All this time, we thought the tubes were going to be what we needed to get over the hump. Wrong, we had a 6 month check up back in early fall. Both tubes were out, ears looked good, but her hearing was not reading at normal levels. This past week we went for a second opinion. They confirmed the first doctor's opinion. She has mild hearing loss in both ears. His best guess is Otosclerosis, but we won't know much more until December when we see the ear specialist.

You know what? We'll take it all in stride. And we are so blessed to be homeschooling.

Spring Fever

I am feeling anxious about the end of the year. We have already finished math and reading for the year. I have been trying my best to supplement without going into next year's information. One of the things I am doing is going through the library finding books that will push Hannah. We are reading the Junie B. Jones books right now. They are challenging enough to keep her on her toes. The past few months, I have checked out books on her level, but she finishes them in the car before we get home! At least, these little chapter books have enough bulk to eliminate that problem.

I've been using online supplemental material as well. We have been doing online math work and following the eaglets that have hatched in Iowa. Wow! They are amazing to watch. I found some online evaluation tools as well.
One is The Factor Tree. I received a trial membership through bzzagent, and it was well worth it. You should check it out sometime. www.bzzagent.com

Hannah did well on the evaluations, but they cover material I have not. It gave me the idea to start her on what they cover. Basically we are now going over rounding numbers, and learning greater than and lesser than. They have great tools for helping kids, and Hannah seems to like it a lot.

As of right now, we plan on continuing homeschooling. I have looked into using Classical Conversations next year. There is a group about 40 minutes away. It would be a once a week class. We are going to check it out in a few weeks. I hope that Hannah likes it. I will be starting Noah in on preschool next year. I hope he sits down long enough to do some of the work. He does very well with numbers. He has picked up so much this year. I hear him counting to 10 quite often, and I am so proud!!

Now that it is Spring, we will be doing a lot of outdoor activities. Until I write again, I hope everyone gets out and enjoys the sunshine!

Birdies and Bubbles

We've been spending a lot of time indoors lately. The snow did not stop us from playing, but the bitter cold has put me in hibernation mode. A few Saturdays ago, we did make it out to the local state park. They had an eagle watching event. I did not get any pictures, but a bald eagle did fly about 100 feet in front of us. It's amazing to watch! Did you know that their wingspan is over 6 feet? Wow.
I'm a part of some online yahoo homeschool groups, and they have posted recently about wanting to do a science fair. The kids have to present their own material. It got me to thinking of what we could do, and I came up with a unit on bubbles.
One of the experiments is testing different shapes of blowers. Could we make a square bubble? Well the pictures speak for themselves.



There are a few more experiments to do before we are finished, and we are having fun making a mess.

Speaking of messes, Hannah wanted to complete a birdhouse. I found an empty carton, and she went right to work. I'm not sure what kind of bird we will attract, but this will be the gaudiest birdhouse ever!


I guess overall we are surviving the winter, and having fun being together. Today it is supposed to be over 50, so we are going outside this afternoon to play. (more snow is on the way this weekend)



Amy