Super Daniel

This is what happens when Daniel turns into Super Daniel.  This is also the noise he makes when he is being teased.  I no longer respond to the sound because I cannot tell the difference between the two.  This boy is so different than my other two.  I love all their personalities.

Who's Up for Round Two?

I only made it three weeks into this school year and I'm already pulling our family out of the new school program.  One week before school officially started, I placed an order with the school district for our materials.  One month later, they still hadn't received anything.  They have all items shipped to them, they enter each book into their library system, add a sticker, and reship the items to me.  By this rate, I wouldn't receive my school materials until mid October.  I cannot waste another day.  Especially since the school wanted me to write an in depth review of every learning activity I have patched together and they wanted each activity matched to an Essential Academic Learning Requirement created by the state.  Sorry, I don't have a degree in education.  I don't feel like I need to jump through those bureaucratic hoops.

Equilibrio: A critical thinking game involving blocks, balance, and symmetry.

Mark is the bestest husband ever.  I offered to pay for all the math curriculum I needed for Ian and Shane if he could front me enough to cover language arts and history for them.  He added in Rosetta Stone to sweeten the deal and we dug into savings.  I already own the girl's curriculum, thanks to Grandad's assistance when we were planning on leaving our last program a few years ago.  And thanks to my dad hiring me to work for him, we will be able to stay in Homeschool Fridays for the rest of the year.  So, look at us! We are independent homeschoolers using the classical, literature-based ecclectic notebooking style I have always dreamed of!

Signs of a Good Day

I treated my family to a day at the Puyallup Fair yesterday...

Shane is awesome.  He totally posed by this sign for me.

 ...I don't even want to tell you how much it costs to take a family of nine to the fair, but the memories are priceless.

How many Downens does it take to milk a cow?

Lula loved the farm animals

 My plan was to check out the rides and decide whether to buy tickets or bracelets...and when I saw that each ride was between $4 and $6, I went the bracelet route for the four older kids and Mark!

Evie's first ride...She thought she was going to DIE

 The weather was sunny and HOT!

The baby was hot!

Lula was hot!

Daniel was hot!

All I needed to do was ride the Ferris wheel with the girls...

 ...and Daniel.  I haven't been to the fair for twenty years.  I've never been on a ride with my kids. 

Holding on to Daniel for dear life.

I didn't know how terrifying it would be to take Daniel on the Ferris wheel and watch him wiggle around and try to stand up.  One would think the Ferris wheel is the safest, tamest ride at the fair, but it had NO seat belts and was wide open.

I couldn't enjoy myself while Daniel was peeking through that opening with all the warning signs around it.  Children and riders with developmental limitations must be accompanied by a supervising person to ensure that the rider remains seated properly during the ride.   That is what that little white sign says.  The sign that is right above Daniel unseated head.  These Mama instincts are not suited for Ferris wheel riding.

Those are my other babies up there.  Upside down.

I also didn't enjoy watching my boys on the Kamikaze.  But they loved, loved, loved the rides.  They went on that one FOUR times.  Even Mark went on that one...

This is where I waited to meet my boys.  No one actually got lost, it was just shady here!

Before we left, I wrote my cell phone number on a piece of masking tape and placed it on the inside of the middle kids' shirts.  That way if they got lost, they could ask someone to call me.  I coached them to ask a mom with kids first, a lady second, and a fair employee at the ticket booth third. 

Lula loved the bubbles.

Lula was a trooper.  She went on zero rides, unless you count sitting in a sweaty stroller in the blazing sun a ride.  I left Mark in charge of Heidi and Lula (and the stroller) while I took Evie, Fiona, and Daniel on the carousel.  While we were waiting for the ride to start, I watched Mark try to talk on his phone (he was kinda working), bottle feed Heidi, and watch Lula.  But while he was looking down at Heidi, Lula saw us and took off running toward us.  Mark wouldn't have been able to hear me calling him, so I tried to sign to Lula to stop, go, and Dad.  Luckily Mark looked up before Lula gate crashed the ride...and he had to make that choice of leaving the baby in the stroller to rescue Lula or stay with the baby and let Lula gate crash...

Mark and Evie...but you can't see Evie

Evie was too old for the kiddy rides and a little too short for the fun rides, but she was just right to ride the Wild Cat roller coaster with her dad.  The Wild Cat has been there my entire life.  I hope they maintain it.  I was worried that Evie would get motion sick...

"That was AWESOME!!"

Although Evie was too old for the kiddy rides, she enjoyed them and was a great help with getting seat belts on herself, Fiona, and Daniel.

We were wondering why the sign at the top of the slide was facing out....

Helicopter ride

Car ride

By the time we got to this part of the day, we were roasting.  Ian and Shane had gone off with a friend from scouts and Mark and I were getting tired.  Lucky for us, we got a call from the friend letting us know that the boys were finally hot, tired, hungry, and thirsty enough to take a break.  We got our boys and hit one more ride on our way out...

The haunted house...is it too scary for Fiona?

We needn't worry!  It's just as corny as it was 20 years ago.

Shane (maroon shirt), Evie, Ian, Mark (pushing the stroller), and Daniel running up behind, ready for Dairy Queen

We really did "Have a Great Day."  I'm thankful we don't do things like this very often.  When we do, the memories last.  But next time? I'm going on a cool day.  And leaving the stroller babies at home.

Friday Funnies

"Mooooommmmmm! Daniel's calling me a tattletale!!!"   Can you guess which dramatic child of mine said this?  And when it was pointed out that she was, indeed, a tattletale because she was tattling, she burst into tears.  Hilarious for us, soul-crushing for her.

And how about a Daily Daniel?

Daniel (banging his fists on the table): I want food!  I want food!  That's the way baaaaad boys ask for food, isn't it Mom?
Me: That's right.  I'll never feed boys who act like that.  Now, can you use your nice words?
Daniel: Can I please have some food, please?
Me: Very good!
Mark: What would you say if she said no?
Daniel (in his demanding voice): Well, DON'T!  Don't say NO! You CAN'T!

But first place for Friday Funny goes to Lula.  She went outside while I was downstairs sewing Ian's merit badges on his Boy Scout sash.  She started screaming, but it was her annoyed scream, not a scream of terror or pain.  I asked Ian and Shane, who were sitting in the schoolroom, what Lula was screaming about. "Nothing.  She's just screaming because she is a girl."  The screaming stopped shortly after it started and I didn't give it a second thought.  Ten minutes later Mark found her like this:

Lula, who is in the I'm-two-years-old-and-I-don't-want-to-take-a-nap phase, fell asleep on the porch.  I've had kids in this phase fall asleep in the strangest places, but the porch takes the cake (so far).  After I took the picture above, I realized she fell asleep outside because some idiot sibling of hers locked the sliding glass door and she couldn't get in.  It was probably Daniel because I don't think Ian or Shane would do that and then not know why she was screaming.  Because it was obvious she was screaming because she wanted in the door. 

Happy Friday!

Haley Cove

Another weekend, another Boy Scout adventure...

This time Mark had his own kayak

Ian and Shane

Camp Site

Swamping Canoe Practice

Shane doing all the work by himself

Ian

This was the first time in 15 years Mark has been out in his kayak.

Water (Homeschool Friday)

The weather was perfect for a day of boating and swimming at Camp Seymour!

Craters on the Moon

I really like photography and someday I'm hoping to upgrade to a nice camera without having to dip into our savings account.  Mark's dad always wanted us to get a telescope so the kids could see the craters on the moon, just like he did when he was younger.  You can see the craters in these pictures; they were taken with my old broken point-and-shoot.  I did use the manual setting, zoomed in as far as the camera would allow, and used the corner post in the chicken yard as a tripod.  Every time I see those little craters, I can hear Grandad's voice... 

First Day Adventures

On Monday night, Ian asked, "Mom, can we start school tomorrow?"  He was fresh home from a four night, five day trip to a black powder rondezvous where some of his Boy Scout peers gave him a hard time about homeschooling.  Of course we can start.  Why wait? I was going to wait until I had all my materials and they were all perfectly lined up and ready to go...  but that isn't reality for me.  If I waited until every thing was perfect, I would never start.  And sure enough, the first morning brought Lula spilling her smoothie all over the counter and needing a bath.  Messy Adventure #1.

I got Evie started on her Teaching Textbooks (the boys are still waiting for theirs to show up) and put Fiona in charge of watching Heidi...  "Mom, Heidi is leaking poop all over the floor!!!"  And sure enough, not only was her diaper leaking, but as she crawled across the floor toward me, she left little, ummm... "tracks" every time her bum hit the floor (she crawls in the one knee scoot style).  Messy Adventure #2.

Kai was supposed to go get neutered on Tuesday morning because we qualify for the free program.  The only problem was they don't accept reservations and only accept dogs under 70 pounds.  Plus, it was at 6:45 AM on a day where Mark had to leave early and I cannot transport Kai and babies in the same car.  So the neuter was cancelled and I didn't get a day off from Kai-os (that's a joke: get it? Chaos? Kai-os? Okay, nevermind).  And sure enough, he barfed up a chew stick, not too much longer after I cleaned up Heidi's mess.  And barfed again on his bed.  Messy Adventures #3 and #4.

Standing on the trampoline??? Noooo!

I should have just quit right then and there, but I really wanted to prove to myself that I could keep my cool and not let chaos throw me off.  After all, my whole year could go this way and little kids/dogs make messes.  We need to just go with the flow and have peace like a river.  Enter A is for Apple, my PreK lesson.  Daniel knows the letter A, so we talked about foods that start with the letter A.  Apples were the obvious food since Evie brought in three bags of Apples the day before.  Why alligator meat was number two on his list is a mystery.  Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind, I knew of a project that involved cutting apples in half and using them as paint stamps.  It only took a few seconds for me to regret starting this project.  Messy Adventure #5.

Apple Stamping: FAIL

What we did accomplish for all four was reading (I Can Read It, A Lion to Guard Us, Indian in the Cupboard, and Lord of the Rings), history (reading Pedro's Journal), creative writing (design a LEGO structure and describe it), and cultural studies (watching The Lego Movie and discussing human behavior/communication).

Perfectly socialized, thank you.

Today, we did a little more of the same.  Ian and Shane started their own history lessons and it was Lula who leaked a nasty diaper on the floor.  I had to run into town for milk and bread and ran into a few people I know.  We homeschooling moms face a lot of questioning, some critical, when the homeschool topic comes up.  Especially on the first day of school for the local school district.  Most of the questions revolve around "socialization" and "sheltering."  The parents of my boys' fellow Boy Scouts are no different.  Some even believe it is their job to "socialize" my sons.  And some of the Boy Scouts give my sons a hard time for being homeschooled and pressure them into behaving badly as part of their "socialization."  Well guess what (getting on my soapbox)???  My boys are socialized by your stupid definitions.  They know all the bad words and how to not rely on them to express themselves.  They know what pornography is and how to walk away from it plus they know how damaging it can be to their minds and their futures.  They know all about girls and how to respect them as human beings.  The italicized parts are the homeschooling side of socialization; your sons won't get that at public school from their peers because it isn't "cool" to have morals or standards.  And guess what else, you judgmental parents who think you know what is best for my children, and just shrug off bad behavior because boys will be boys???  I completely reject your idea of socialization.  If what I see and hear your boys doing is being "socialized," count us out!  For us, "cool" is another word for "lame."  Rant over.

Peace like a River.... peace like a river....watch out for the rapids and the large rocks....peace...peace....