March

Now that it is March, the sporadic cold days are over, and it's been balmy and beautiful. I've been thinking about school ending soon, which leads me to plan for next year. Jacob will be turning 11 soon and starting 6th grade. It's all going too quickly. He'll be in college before I know it.

I found next year's Saxon 87 math on homeschoolclassifieds.com, am debating what to do for science next year, and am eagerly planning our world history study (castles and knights; Norse mythology; Greek, Roman and Egyptian history). I'm positive it will be a great year. Every year for the past 12 years, I've thought the same thought: "This will be even better than last year!" Some were.

Although the time change was surprisingly hard on me (or maybe on my family, since I'm grumpy when I'm tired), the beautiful weather has more than made up for it. My moods are definitely tied to the weather. Jacob says we're like Superman, because we are energized and recharged in the sun. Most of our week has become pretty routine, but not boring. Monday schooltime is from 9-12, then we eat lunch and he goes to band until 3:30. He's still playing the trumpet, but not enthusiastic about playing with the band anymore, which is disappointing. Karate at the Y is Mon and Wed nights. I drop him off with his daddy, who is already there working out. I teach piano every afternoon except Wed. Love having that day open! I would prefer Fri. to be open, but enjoy my piano students even more, and they can't come on another day. Tuesday mornings, Jacob is in a homeschool co-op and takes musical drama and art. Once a month he does outdoor boys ballistics there too. After we come home and have lunch, he has a little time to practice his trumpet and do some chores before piano students come. Wed. is open, and we usually spend the day doing schoolwork in a relaxed atmosphere. Very nice! I've been spending Wed. sitting with a friend who just got a heart pump, and she's too weak to leave alone. Several women from church are alternating staying with her, so her daughter and husband can go to work. This will be my third Wed. with her, and maybe my last. I hope she'll be strong enough to stay alone soon. Thursday, schoolwork and instruments from 9-12, and after lunch I teach piano all afternoon. There are five boys that come over, and their moms let them stay and play all afternoon. Jacob just has a blast, and I don't have to entertain anyone (not my forte!) since I'm busy teaching in the other room. Every other Friday is our homeschool park day. It's on the water, so is almost always cooler and breezy there. Usually I am watching the time so that I'm home in time to teach piano in the afternoon, but they canceled for March because of all their school activities, so I haven't had to worry about rushing back home.

Yesterday was one of these park days, and we could barely pull ourselves away. It was a very breezy, sunny day---just gorgeous! Jacob had so much fun playing with his friends. This week he was looking for special rocks in the river. We finally got too hungry to stay any longer, and went to our favorite little Thai restaurant--crowded as usual-- and got the most delicious food anywhere. Jacob ordered miso soup and green curry with tofu, and I got salad and pad thai. We were full before we got our entrees, so didn't eat much before we boxed it up and left. Then we went to the organic food store. We always have fun shopping there. I called my parents, and they wanted something too. Next, we were so excited to check out the brand new huge dinosaur store! It was just built across the street from the tiny dinosaur store where Jacob has spent most of his allowance. It did not disappoint. We just drank it in. I didn't buy much because everything was too expensive, and I was hoping they had more on Egypt, but Jacob found something different that rocks and fossils; he spent his chore money on mammoth hair. So his home-museum will have a little variety now! I wonder what it will look like under the microscope? We reluctantly left the dinsaur store and went to the mall. I was looking for some things, but honestly was not interested in looking at clothes, so we didn't stay long and went on to visit my parents. Jacob went swimming in their pool and I got a chance to talk with them in person. It's been awhile. The older boys visit them much more often than I do, and usually spend the night. Dad is still tutoring Brent in chemistry.

My mom told me our grey kitty (Victoria) died. We got her in 1994. After I bought my house in Zephyrhills, I had promised the boys a pet. I worked in Orlando and picked her out from the SPCA there. She was a weird kitty and would alternate between acting desperate for affection and then suddenly bite. She preyed on the boys when they were little, and would pounce on their bare ankles when they walked by. I thought it was funny at first, but they were scared, so I didn't encourage her. When I married Conrad and moved here, a neighborhood cat kept attacking her. We tried to keep her inside, but with four boys, she always got out again. I took her to the vet twice, and finally asked my mom if she would take her, so that's how she ended up over there. I guess my mom was afraid she would get beat up again, so she kept her on the back porch for the rest of her life. She seemed happy there.

It's Bike Week!

Life has flowed around homeschool this week, but that's normal for us. Conrad finally went to the doctor and got meds for pneumonia. He stayed home with Jacob Wednesday, and I went to Tampa General with a group of five other women to learn about how to handle our friend's new heart pump (LVAS). We enjoyed the trip and all felt comfortable with the pump by the end of our training session. Driving around Tampa was nostalgic for me, since I lived in nearby Zephyrhills for three years and spent two years going on dates with Conrad. We had Busch Gardens passes and frequented Ybor City, Hyde Park, Museum of Science and Industry, Aquarium and Lowry Park Zoo, with two or four boys in tow.

I left a stack of books and list of duties for Jacob. I was surprised that he quickly and easily completed everything without me. Maybe Conrad will make a good homeschooling dad when he retires later this year! Conrad took Jacob to the dermatologist to get his stitches out. It was really too early to remove them and was splitting, so they put sticky tape over it to hold it together. I wish they had just left the stitches in a bit longer. We haven't let Jacob get his hair wet and I can't remove the tape without hurting him. It's been a couple of days now, so I think I'll have Jacob get his hair wet to try and soak off the sticky tape so I can put a butterfly on it.

We don't have our new books yet, but Jacob told me he loves the crossword puzzles in Wordly Wise. Last year I put away the Easy Grammar that Jacob struggled with in fourth grade, and decided to give it a try again. Now he thinks it's easy and fun. Teaching is such a breeze when your child thinks it's fun!

Brandon is babysitting Jake today, so I'll need to get out the list of schoolwork from Wednesday. Brandon cleans our church for gas money, so Jacob will be helping him today. Conrad took off Friday to take me to my very first Daytona Bike Week. Thank goodness it has warmed up! I've only ridden on the motorcycle a couple of times, so this is a special event. It's been too long since we've had a date. I love having Conrad to myself every now and then.

Where's the Balance?

I bought the grade 5 achievement test from seton.com, and administered it to Jacob at home. I found it a perfect introduction into "fill in the dot, multiple-choice" type testing. I graded them before mailing them back for official results, and there were no surprises. This has been a very positive experience, and as his teacher, I appreciated affirmation of Jacob's academic strengths and weaknesses. He aced reading comprehension, but struggled with punctuation because I have stressed creative writing over grammar. I dug out my Easy Grammar and bought Editor In Chief, and will use those once or twice a week to improve his skills. His vocabulary is very good, but I bought the next Wordly Wise vocab book, since he enjoys his current book. Jacob has always been at least a year ahead in math, so aced the math concepts portion, but didn't finish the math computation in the allotted time. Instead of quickly figuring out the answers in his head, he was slowly and carefully numbering and showing all his work on his scrap paper. I didn't notice that until the end of his time, or I would have encouraged him to work out as many as possible in his head. THAT was a great learning experience for him! That was exactly why I decided to test him this year, in as relaxed atmosphere as possible--for the experience.

Each homeschool style is unique, and mine has changed over the years. I'm between the unschooler and the schedule-happy mom that re-creates school in the home. We do have a sort of schedule, I do have goals and I love books, but I try to find materials that are as interesting and child-friendly as possible. If teaching a subject is stressful to him or to me, something is wrong and I need to put it away until I can find a different approach.

I was worried that we were spending too little time at home with the books, because we go on so many field trips, he is in time-consuming classes such as band, art, musical drama and karate, and I teach piano three afternoons a week, but I feel much better after testing him, and just need to continue to keep an eye on that "balance". But isn't that what life's all about?