Goodbye, Baby

So, when does a baby stop being a baby?

Is it when he no longer nurses to sleep at night? Or when he stops needing his morning nursey snuggles?

When he asks to use the potty instead of pooping in his diaper?

When he starts drinking juice with one hand out of a lidless cup?

When he starts sleeping in his own bed for half the night and then doesn't wake up the minute I get up in the morning?

When he uses complete sentences? Sings songs? Counts to four?

Cause if those are all clues of my baby growing up, I'm thinking Jason isn't a baby anymore.

Regionals 2017

Genevieve scored very well at regionals this year.  She competed with 26 other girls in her level.

She had two team events: compulsories and barrel freestyle.  The team placed first in compulsories and second in freestyle and second place overall. The fairgrounds scheduled a heavy metal music festival at the EXACT SAME TIME as the vaulting competition. The "music" definitely interfered with the competition.

Team Compulsories (Genna is the last to go):

Team Barrel (heavy metal and f-bomb starts again around the two minute mark):

The Shannon Class is a just for fun event named after a vaulter that got sick with meningitis and died.  The music is randomly assigned and the vaulter has a few hours to come up with a good routine.  Everyone walks so everyone can compete together.

In Copper Individuals she scored third place for compulsories and FIRST PLACE for freestyle.  This mama had a few tears over THAT.  She has one team mate that is incredibly talented in freestyle that is very hard to beat.  But the team mate had a little slip, just enough to lose enough points for Genna to win by 0.03 points.  Genna came in second place overall in her group of 26.  She lost to her friend by 0.008 points.  A sliver.

Copper Individual Compulsories:

Copper Freestyle:

Salem, Oregon

I'll have a post just for Genna's competition videos, but this post is just for my funky pictures of the trip.  I brought Jason and Fiona along and we camped in the parking lot with some team mates (they had an RV).  The temps reached 90 degrees and there was a day-long heavy metal concert right next to the arena.  The arena was built 98 years ago and was beautiful.

 This was the view from my tent

 The arena was completely built of wood.  Wood beams, wood seating, wood stairs.  It was 90 degrees outside, but nice and cool inside without any air conditioning units or piping of any kind.

 We found a quiet corner for Jason's naps.  The heat and the constant running knocked him out.

We survived our first out of state road trip and had a great time. I almost had to bring seven kids with me to this one, but at the last minute I sent Genna down with another family, sent Shane to spend the weekend on a sailboat, and came down a day late all so Mark could take his 4th degree black belt test.  Hopefully I will get some pictures of his test to share. Next year, this competition will be held in Moses Lake.  Will I bring everyone? Hmmm....

The Annual Test

Homeschoolers need to be evaluated every year by Washington State law.  The method of evaluation is chosen by the parent and does not need to be submitted to anyone.  We keep the evaluation on file, "just in case."  I use the online version of the SAT10, a standardized test.

Shane's results were quite satisfactory.  The test gives results in three different ways: percentile based on national average, grade equivalency, and average (below or above).  He scored higher in math and science than he did in the language arts, which is nothing new.  He grade equivalency was either high school or post high school.  Now, I love Shane and all, but he is not post high school in anything.  So either the standardized test has a weird grade equivalency standard or this country is going to hell in a hand basket. And since this test is widely used....sorry America.

Genevieve is a good test-taker, just like her mama.  She has a dad-inspired trait too...she writes the words she doesn't know in the margins of her notes so she can find out what they mean later. She would easily get into a gifted program with her scores. She struggles only with spelling and social "science."  I don't understand how they can get away with changing social studies to a science... but she's never had "real" history, so I'd say that a middle school grade equivalency is pretty good.

Sadly, Fiona didn't do too well.  I sat by her the whole time (knitting cotton dish clothes-the best thing to knit while feeling stressed) and she missed many many problems.  She is just a late bloomer.  I wouldn't test her this year if it weren't the law.  She falls squarely in this category:

But guess what? She is right at the 50% percentile in most subjects, right on grade level for all subjects (except science), and below/at average in all subjects... except science.  Science she is on a middle school level and above average... I'd say that's pretty good considering I have never ever used a science curriculum with her.  Simply observing life and watching Curious George/Magic Schoolbus when she was younger taught her everything she needed to know (haha).  But I know that Fiona is going to just shoot right up and by the time she is in middle school, no one will ever know how low she started.  Just like her brother.

Public schoolers have it so much easier.  It's the teacher's fault if the kid doesn't do well.  Here at home, I take all responsibility.

Homeschool Diaries

Dear Conveyor Belt Diary,

School can sometimes be a drag.  I have to really push my kids to do what they are supposed to do.  Some of them think that math lessons should be all games, all the time.  They don't have the patience to learn the game before they play, which ends up in us arguing.  It's exhausting to work with this one particular child I am writing about.  All they ever do is sneak away and play instead of waiting for me to have time to answer their questions.  Today when I went to get started for school, some of my kids were less than organized.  One in particular couldn't find her geography book nor her science workbook.  I gave her her two quizzes without letting her study because of that.  I graded her Latin quiz and she got 100% plus the bonus.  She finished up Chapter 6 in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and filled out the workbook.  She worked on her composition re-writing fables. Another student sighed over a math workbook with calendar questions.  She can't remember calendar anything to save her life.  I checked a few boxes in my teacher's guide and...

"Go see how many different kinds of grass you can find in the pasture."
She's supposed to be doing her schoolwork.
"This is schoolwork."

Dear Leadership Education Diary,

Today was awesome.  In fact, this whole week has been pretty great! Shane hit a wall in algebra, but he refused to give up or take a break until next fall and kept right at it.  He got all the answers right on the second set of questions.  He knows why he struggles in algebra and he is working on what he needs to do: simply write slower and bigger and waste paper!  He decided to further work on his fine motor skills playing the violin.  He asked me to print off the sheet music for Mario Brothers theme music.  When he couldn't figure out what the different symbols meant, I spent some time explaining 8th rests and 16th rests, natural notes vs flats and sharps, and how E and F are a half step apart and E# is F and Fb is E.  He figured out the fingering on his own from there; my knowledge begins and ends with the piano.  I bought Q*bits the game this week and the older kids have been having a great time playing it.  Shane says that it helps him with fine motor skills and Genna likes how it helps with her memory.  Fiona is really working on pattern recognition.  It's a great game!  Daniel was busy reading one of The Magic Treehouse books when I called him to learn a new math game: Addition War.  He and Fiona played one round before Genna joined them. While they mobbed the kitchen for lunch, I showed Genna the edge I'm knitting onto a shawl and the complicated math I had to use to perfectly center the pattern with increases on each corner. The calculations kept me awake for a few minutes last night... The rest of the day they spent outdoors: riding bikes, crushing leaves in water to make "scented waters," playing catch with Jason, building a fort with a swing in the woods, and finding owl feathers that matched exactly one other owl feather in our collection.  I taught Fiona the difference between a barred owl call and a mourning dove call.  I played sound clips of owl calls for Genna and Daniel.  Based on what I've read in the online groups of homeschoolers, my kids have a pretty sweet life.  Fifteen acres in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and a mom that will let them play? And then stay up late reading in bed with their flashlights?  They will be strong and healthy and ready to buckle down and study hard when they are no longer children.  They will grow and have strong relationships with their siblings.  They will know who they are, what they believe, and that they are loved.