2022: What did we do? Part 1

Today I was looking through old posts looking for pictures of my early knitting projects and realized I should probably do a recap of this year for the sake of posterity.  I didn't even do a Back to School post.  Shame on me. How am I supposed to know what we did for school in ten years if I don't write it down now?

Anyway.

I went through my photos on my phone and since it is such an arduous process to move photos from Apple to Google platforms, I will probably do our year in three parts!

Last January, we still had to wear masks wherever we went.  We thought the pandemic was starting to wane, but Omicron was just getting started on the heels of Delta.  I rarely took the kids to the store because I just didn't want to have to deal with anything.  I didn't want to manage finding kid sized masks or deal with weird strangers or anything.  So the picture above was when I took Heidi and Jason into the market and they were like kids who had never seen the inside of a store.  It's amazing how much they forgot being left home for a couple of years. January was also when we had covid come through the house for the first time.  How silly I was to think it was one and done!

We had the opportunity to get into some physical activity when a special "wrestling camp" started.  Peninsula Youth Wrestling is the program Ian and Shane used to be a part of.  In 2022, they were allowed to operate a modified season as long as the coaches and kids followed covid conscience rules. Daniel, Lula, Heidi, and Jason all spent a few weeks working out and learning some skills. Our season was cut short when we had covid come through a second time.

Ian moved out of our house and in with a couple of friends at the end of 2021. We missed him terribly, but moving out is just what happens when children grow up (as I've learned to my sorrow-I do not regret a single minute I let him nap on my lap when I was supposed to be cleaning instead). When Fiona and Genevieve started bugging me to take them to Starbucks and Target for weekend shopping and we started running in to Ian out and about, I entered a whole new stage of parenting.

Fiona, Daniel, and Lula were playing in the Peninsula Youth Orchestra and had a Winter concert.  They had to wear masks on stage, but at least everyone wore matching black masks.

The picture above accurately represents my four youngest kids during these months. Grey, dark grey, and video games.  There wasn't much else we could do... except go to Great Wolf Lodge!

We took two back to back trips to GWL, one at the end of February with Julie and her kids and one mid March with my sisters and their kids! Because GWL is on tribal lands, they don't have to follow Washington State laws, so masks were optional.  It was the first time we felt like normal people for a long time. And it was really fun getting all the cousins together again!

Spring of 2022 was gorgeous and sunny and I have hundreds of pictures of trees and dogs and LingLing and kids and chickens and geese.  When we weren't on these random little trips, we just hung out in our yard.  I actually enjoyed this past spring.

Mid March is when Genevieve and I started our vaulting travel season, and what a season it was! Our first trip was up to Vancouver Island, Canada.  This was our first time crossing the border with covid regulations in place.  We had so many rules to follow and it was overwhelming and stressful.  But we did it and returned to Canada five more times in 2022! Some trips are worth mentioning on their own, so look forward to that in the next installment.

In between trips I enjoyed my stay at home kids so much!

Jack and Mazzy have developed a nice relationship.  Originally I thought Kai would outlive Jack and he needed another puppy to play with, but we lost Kai to the horrible heart issues that dobermans are cursed with and Jack was stuck with an ever younger, more energetic pup.  Jack has had some tangles with wildlife this year.  He's just not as fast as he used to be and got chomped on the behind by coyotes this past spring.  Poor fella.

In April, we really started a marathon.  Daniel turned 12 years old:

And then Genevieve and I hit the road to go to Oregon for the first competition of the year: The Mozart Memorial Classic

This vehicle is called The BAT.  BAT stands for Big Ass Trailer.  It holds four big horses and has a tack room, a bathroom, and living quarters that we hang out in. 

Genna got first place at Mozart Memorial and then the very next weekend we took a trip up to Canada for the Canada Cup

She had a pretty significant fall in her third round, so she went from first place to third.  Learning how to pull yourself up and smile and bow to the judges is the very definition of indomitable spirit.

The worst thing about the spring vaulting competitions is that they are at the same time as Fiona's birthday.  I had to miss Fiona's birthday this year because covid laws wouldn't let Genevieve enter Canada without me.  Fiona was able to spend her 14th birthday at one of her favorite friend's house and I will forever be thankful to the other moms in my life that help me out when I can't be there.

Walk Like an Egyptian

These are the topics we covered in homeschool today: Middle Ages exam, Robin Hood Exam and the first chapter in King Arthur. For science we had the brain, animals, and hurricanes. We read Dangerous Journey, Little House in the Big Woods, Jason and the Golden Fleece, and Little Bear. In math we had algebra, turning fractions into decimals and percents, long division, time, and subtracting half. The Wright Brothers. Also, Jason had a dentist appointment (no cavities!) and Daniel had an orthodontist appointment (he popped a bracket after 11 days of braces). 

And for fun we read about Thutmose I and Hatshepsut

We colored TP tubes and glued black yarn to them to make fake beards

In my spare time, I finished a sock I’ve been working on this month. I’ve become aware that I’m squinting more when reading or looking at small things close up. These little sock needles are going to have to retire at some point and I still have at least five hanks of sock yarn to knit up. 

I better stay focused!

Orchestra

 Why do we make our kids participate in orchestra? Because I like having my own personal concerts every day 

He’s Right, You Know

 

Back to School 2021-2022

 Time for my annual curriculum round up! We are a week into our school year and things are running as smoothly as it did last year. I’ve upped the amount of work we do because these kids are so good at their routines and we have so much extra time without outside activities.

Jason is finishing up his kindergarten work with Memoria Press before he starts on the First Grade level. He is such a young first grader with a July birthday, so I’m in no rush.  Math is MathUSee Alpha. He is also using Bookshark’s new science program, completely redone!  I’m so glad I still have kids young enough to use their revamped program.

Heidi is in second grade.  She loves drawing and reading the best but she is also very good at cursive, Latin, and math.  She is still very bouncy and needs to take lots of breaks to change position and run around.  She is using Memoria Press for all subjects except science.  Bookshark Level C science is what she is using, but because it is so new the program is in backorder. Still. She is also using MathUSee Beta.

Lula loves building and inventing things. She is using Memoria Press’ Fourth Grade curriculum along with Bookshark Science D and MathUSee Delta. She is also reading  Story of the World volumes 1&2 with Daniel and Fiona. She is also joining them in orchestra this year!

Daniel and Fiona are my middle school crew. How that happened so quickly I do not know. It seems like yesterday Fiona was having her first day of school. They are a great team and balance each other out.  They are using Memoria Press Sixth Grade plus a modified version of  Bookshark’s Level G. They are using Real Science 4 Kids Middle School Geology and MathUSee Zeta. Science is too easy for them, but they have a lot of their plates with the rigorous Memoria Press package. They also participate in orchestra.

Genevieve is heading into her second year of high school. She is learning valuable time management skills with working 20 hours a week, elite level vaulting, and doing enough schoolwork to satisfy me. It’s a delicate balance. She is focusing on the Middle Ages through renaissance times in history. She is mostly using Memoria Press (I’m a big fan, can you tell?) and using Novare Earth Science and MathUSee Geometry. I’m bulking it up with actual field trips. Okay, you got me. She just hikes with Mark when she’s not vaulting or working.

Shane and Ian are taking online classes at Tacoma Community College and working. Once upon a time they only wanted in person classes, but now they know how much it costs to drive around and how inconvenient it is to plan work around classes. They like to do their schoolwork in the evening after working a full day. Both boys are workin go full time and have shown great money management skills. I’m so proud of them.

Shane Graduates

 And just like that, Shane is done with school.  

It doesn't really seem like yesterday Shane started Kindergarten.  But it does.

I don't know if he appreciates what an interesting education he has had.  Maybe someday he will understand why I was so hands off with him.  I never really needed to come down hard on him or set boundaries or ground him from fun until he was caught up.

Here is a link to the Washington Homeschool Organization graduation announcements.  You can scroll down to see Shane's.

I'm so proud of him and can't wait to see what he chooses to do with his life. 

Next up, Tacoma Community College!

Great Wolf Lodge

 It’s been a long time since I’ve taken the kids anywhere. Partly due to life and mostly due to Covid19. I’ve become quite the homebody over the last few years and taking young kids in public is no longer the adventure it once was. One of my friends talked me into going to Great Wolf Lodge with her family for her youngest child’s birthday and... we went!

Yesterday, I packed Fiona, Daniel, Lula, Heidi, and Jason into the Big White Van and we hit the road. When we got over the Purdy bridge, the Little3 got super excited. I didn’t realize it had been at least FOUR months since I had taken them into town! 

We had so much fun. I resurrected my Large Family FUNctioning spirit and was super organized. We worked on how to walk politely up and down stairs and hallways and how to not block other people. “We walk how we drive!” I kept reminding them. I wish other people walked like we do haha. 

Heidi is a free spirit wild child. Is anyone surprised? The very first thing she did at the water park was wander off and get lost. It was so loud in there no one could hear anyone calling, so it just had to be that way. I made sure she wore a life jacket and trusted the staff would keep her relatively safe. 

Last time we went to GWL, I didn’t get to have much fun. This time was different! I actually got to go on the water slides! I had other parents to help keep track of my kids! I had kids that could keep track of themselves AND were willing to watch Jason. But I still had Heidi. 

Her two biggest incidents were leaving our hotel room to visit our friend’s room without telling me she was leaving and going to the deep end of the wave pool without a life jacket.