A week without the girl

Ivy left for a week long mission trip in Chicago with some pretty stupendous people.

  She spent the week helping to fix houses, she specifically spent most of her time helping to build a fence.

Meanwhile little Liam had to spend all week without big sister.  I cannot express how much he missed her.  We daily went over how many days were in a week, how many days she had been gone and how many days until she got back.  Not that he spent the time twiddling his thumbs. 

We worked on school, we went lots of places including Grandma's house, the grocery, even Jungle Java, a fun indoor play area. He started summer speech, which he loves.  I got a box of curriculum books, thus a super fun box and paper to play with.  He even looked through the microscope, a totally self-directed activity.  He wanted to look at a dollar bill, then a flower petal, then a leaf, then he wanted to see what crayon on paper looked like under the scope.  Seriously, he spend more than an hour looking at all kinds of things.

Well Ivy finally came home.

We had a lovely reunion over spaghetti where she told us all about her time in Chicago.

Happy Father's Day

We were in the kitchen a lot this week.

  Which got me thinking about the great food my dad taught me about. Here is a short list:

1. BBQ chicken, and how to make it properly
2. Lebkuchen, I still eat it every Christmas
3. Garden fresh veggies, especially strawberries and tomatoes.
4. Deviled eggs
5. Oyster Dressing and rhubarb.
6 Bratwurst and brotchen.

The last couple of times I talked to my dad he asked about this blog and when I was going to update.  Well, dad here is your father's day gift:  I am going to try my very hardest to post weekly right here, so you and mom can keep up with everything we are doing and learning. 

Happy Father's Day 

 

 

He Won!

The Little Dude graduated from preschool (finally), last week.

As part of the celebration they have a Rain Gutter Regatta.  The first year the Little Dude was in the hospital so he couldn't even attend.  Last year he just did not get how to work the boat so did not advance past the first heat.  This year.....
 

HE WON first place.  Dad was proud, so was this momma.

Broken

My week was hijacked by a moment.  That was all it took for the Little Dude to tumble down the last few risers of our staircase.  It didn't swell up and he could wiggle all his joints, so surely the arm was not broken.  He went on with the rest of his day, favoring it a bit but otherwise just fine.  The next morning when he woke up it was swollen and hurt so I took him into the doctor, who immediately sent him for x-rays and sure enough he broke both bones in his forearm.  He got a splint from his pediatrician then a cast from the orthopedic doctor who says he will probably be in a cast for 6 weeks, but needs to see him again for x-rays in 2 weeks to be sure it is healing properly.  Looks like a water free summer for the Little Dude.  Oh and I need to go shopping for more button down shirts.

A Weekend Project

This weekend we started a new gardening project.  We lifted the strawberries in gutters attached to the fence.

Little Dude made his own yard work project.  He decided to put some odd rocks around the trees in the back yard.

Homeschool Plan 2014 - 2015

I am pretty sure that I made this way harder than it should have been, but, at long last, we have a plan.

Zippy:
Classical Conversations Challenge A - this is a total curriculum that is as the names states challenging.  We decided that Zippy is going into grade 9 this year.  Challenge A is geared for grade 7, fortunately there are some minor modifications to make this high school appropriate.  A good example is math.  Zippy is doing Algebra instead of 7/8 grade math.  I love that students can work on the math that is appropriate for their learning level and still discuss math concepts on the community day with their fellow Challenge students.

Extra Curricular
Those fun, social activities during the week.  This year kind of turned service oriented, but it is what she chose to do:
American Heritage Girls - She joined AHG last year and made some really nice friends. Her first badge she wants to work on is cooking.  Look forward to seeing lots of yummy badge requirements here on the blog.

The Animal Shelter - She started volunteering during the summer.  You have to be 13 to volunteer and she has been bugging me about it for a while.  She is really impressing me with her desire to help the animals even though the job is sometime kind of stinky.

The Library - She is also volunteering once a month for an hour at the library as part of the teen advisory group.  Basically they discuss things they can do to help in the library and community and work on projects. This summer they helped out with a program where they one on one read to a small child.

Church - This year our church is trying something a little bit different.  There is not a normal Sunday School class for the teens.  Instead they are encouraged to participate in a small group of teens on a different night and serve on Sunday morning.  I think Zippy will be part of the team that greet people as they enter the church.  It is right up her alley.  There is also the fun youth group meeting once a week as well.

Little Dude
This was where a lot of the thinking and rearranging came into play. I really had to figure out what the goal needed to be for this year and plan accordingly. The goal, in case you were wondering is to get his speech well in hand.  That means practicing, practicing, practicing, and not just with me.  So I had to find places for him to go where there would be other people to talk to.  We already decided that we are going to homeschool him because of his medical issues so finding a place was a little more challenging than just putting him in kindergarten.

Preschool - 3 half days so he can practice talking with the other children, and also work on all those preschool skills, like holding a pencil and letter recognition, that he still is working to master.

Speech Therapy - One time a week through our local public school.  While I have had serious reservations about our public schools, the speech therapist that we started working with last year is super helpful.

Classical Conversations Foundations - This was probably the hardest bit of the puzzle to fit together.  I had this mental block that said he is not is kindergarten so he should not be in classical conversations, right?  In addition to that because I am tutoring Challenge A I did not want to just throw him into this new, slightly more rigid class environment.  However an opportunity came up for me to tutor Essentials on a different campus.  I take him with me to give Zippy the time to work on her work (and the responsibility to get it done withing a set time frame).  Essentials meets in the afternoons and Foundations meet in the morning.  It dawned on me that he could attend class and the work at home - all oral memory work since he does not read yet - would provide a perfect opportunity for him not only to learn more words but practice saying them as well.  He gets to hang out with the younger siblings of my Essentials class.

The road is set before us, and in truth we have been traveling on it for a couple of weeks, but I am now comfortable in saying this is the direction that we are going this year.

Hospital Days

Two weeks out of the hospital and I think, maybe I might be back to normal.  The Little Dude is doing fine, as he continues on this journey of health and well-being.  Here is a collage of hospital pics.  You will note that there are none of the exhausted mom. {smile}

Motor Muster

Last weekend was crazy!  Zippy went camping and canoeing with her American Heritage Girls troop.  There are no photos but I heard that she had a wonderful time. There were pit toilets, a raccoon, and they cooked hot dogs by putting them in a milk cartons and setting them on fire (I'm sure there was more to that one).  They also went canoeing and fell out of the canoe, on purpose.  I do not see how any of this can be qualified as a good time, but I am so very grateful that there are good women who do and share that love with my daughter.

While Zippy was off having a fabulous time in the woods, the Little Dude and I were left at home.  I asked him what he wanted to do, he said he wanted to ride the train.  So he and I headed over to Greenfield Village.  It was Motor Muster.  That is where all the vintage cars and hot rods line the streets.  It was a beautiful, sunny day so there was about a bizillion people, but that was ok.

We did go on the train...and the (carousel) horses...and the pedal cars that they have out special for the Motor Muster.  We also saw some sheep, cows and lots and lots of cars.  

The Village stayed open much later than usual so we went back with the hubs when he got off from work.  We rode the train and carousel again, and looked at lots and lots of cars.  I don't really understand the whole looking at the engine thing, but I do like some of the hood ornaments. Oh, and we got ice cream from an old fashioned Good Humor truck (I don't think Little Dude let any fall in the hub's hair).

This is my favorite picture of the whole day:

Preschool Graduation and Rain Gutter Regatta

I never know what to call it, is it a graduation, or a promotion ceremony, or just an end of year award assembly?  I don't know.  But I do know that the Little Dude was there.  I really like the way that they do it at his preschool.  Each student gets a moment to shine in front of all the parents.  The teacher says some nice things about each student and they get a certificate of completion and a book that they worked on all year.  The book is the kind of thing that makes mom cry and goes into the keepsake box.  The whole thing is really low key. 

 Then there is a yummy meal and the Rain Gutter Regatta.  The kids race a breath powered boat down a rain gutter.  (There were lots of really proud dads with the boats.) Fun is had by everyone, well mostly.  Some tears were shed when the more competitive did not win.  

And here are some random kid pictures:

A Field Trip to the Village

Last week we got temperatures in the eighties for the first time this season.  I thought it would be a great day to take a field trip to Greenfield Village.

We walked to the Village.  It is a bit of a long walk so we took the wagon for the Little Dude to ride in.  Zippy and I took turns pulling him.

They have a really nice, new playground in the Village.  Including a couple of water features that Little Dude loves.  This is the "boiler"  the kids turn knobs and switches and every so often it "blows" with sprays of water.

The wagon makes a great seat to eat a cookie after a hard afternoon of playing.

Zippy is Cracked

An end of year Celebration

We all enjoyed Classical Conversations this past year.  Zippy gains so much knowledge and confidence through the experience.  The last day was full of fun and excitement.  Zippy's speech was a top ten list of things she liked at Classical Conversations

A Top 10 List of Great Things About Classical Conversations, by Zippy

1. The presentations on food by fellow classmates (these included a pi pie, homemade doughnuts, and beer bread).
2. My mom tutoring for a day
3. The family presentations (topics included maple syrup, camping, and India)
4. A presentation done by sisters including a star poster they made.
5. A presentation on a bow and arrow by a fellow classmate
6. The time line song
7. Playing with others after lunch
8. Eating lunch at Classical Conversations
9. Learning new things
10. Making new friends

The Part where Zippy is cracked

One of the fun aspects of Classical Conversations is the weekly science experiment.  The last two weeks of class was all about building an egg protector and the last day they tested them by dropping first of the grass then on the hard pavement of the parking lot.

 

Most of the eggs came out intact.  One boy's egg was broken and Ivy's egg was cracked at little bit.

Then there was lunch

One of the things that I love about Classical Conversations is the fellowship.  The last day we had a potluck with lots of great conversation, laughs and tons of healthy food. 

It looks like Zippy will be continuing with Classical Conversations next year with the Challenge program.  It look just about perfect for her needs and she (and I) are looking forward to another outstanding year.