Day 40

I've been wanting to say more than just what we're doing for school in my blog posts. You know, say something insightful, make a comment about life as a homeschooler. So tonight I asked my kids what they thought I could say something about. I don't think anyone had any ideas for me, but we fell into our usual late-night talk around my bed. So I had to laugh when Sarah said something like this, "Something's been getting on my nerves. Maybe I shouldn't mention it because it's about parenting and I'm not a parent, but it really bugs me when people sit in church and fuss with their toddlers. It just gets the kid going and they have to take them out in the hall, and everybody's crazy."

Then we recalled times when we have heard parents telling their kids to stop talking during the prayer, but they're doing it DURING the prayer! We decided it would be less distracting to others to just set the example of not talking during the prayer.

Just model the behavior! I know it's not completely foolproof, but generally it works pretty well. It works amazingly well at my house. For example, I hate doing dishes and I often leave them to do later until we run out of dishes. My kids are masters at following my example. You can imagine. Or how about staying up late? None of my kids have decided they need to get to bed and just gone. No way! No one ever goes until I go. Or if I watch movies all day, they are not about to do school no matter how much they know they need to. But just as often, they're doing good they've seen us do too.

So staying aware of the example we set is critical. There, that's my comment on life.

Today, I explained a lot of math to everyone, they all picked books for a quickie book report, and the girls took science tests while Sam was preparing for the one he's taking in the next day or two. Sarah got an 89% and she wasn't too happy with that. I think I've mentioned before how funny they are about grades--because I couldn't care less about that. So then Rachel came in and said she got an 89% which made her perfectly happy. It's all about point of view, isn't it?

Tomorrow, we're going to paint again. I'm pretty sure this will be the last time, and we can clean up and get ready to put in carpet or have the floor refinished. I wonder which one is cheaper. Maybe I'll get a picture when we're done and post it tomorrow.

See you then!

Day 39

We got started a little earlier today because Jeff was here--and not leaving for work in the middle of the morning. Also, we needed to get plenty of school done before lunch so we could go paint the other house again. And again. And again. We decided we'd get a better color since we had to get another can of paint anyway. It's much better. But I was a little grumpy over there today. It's getting less and less fun to keep painting the same walls and trim. It was hard to tell before we left, but I think we won't need to do another whole coat, just another coat on the trim. My shoulder is tired of doing that. It's above my head, even standing on a ladder. I'm so short.

We're reading The Making of America: The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution this year, and today we did a freewrite after we read. It is so much easier to listen closely to fiction than to non-fiction. So I stopped pretty often to talk about what we were reading, to help us focus. The freewrites weren't the most exciting ones we've ever done, but I think everyone got the idea. 

What we read today talked about the fact that the founding fathers knew that we all have good and bad in us, and they wanted to let the good have freedom, while keeping the bad in check. It also talked about the things that needed to exist in order to be able to have a free people. Some of those are: a group of similar people, relative isolation from other countries, being united against a threat, and a couple others I can't remember right now. It was good.

They did copywork from the books they're reading. We need to get a writing project started. I can't decide whether we should start with a group project or research papers. I'm thinking it's better to start with a group project. Or maybe one with Sam and Sarah while Rachel gets started on her research paper. I also haven't decided positively whether Rachel's going to do a Brave Writer class. She really loved the one she took in the spring. She did so well, too. I loved it, because she found out she's doing much better with her writing than she thought. She thinks I can't be objective. That's one of the reasons for MyWritingCheck.com. So that not only moms, but kids can see how well they're doing and not just think their moms can't be objective. Well, that's probably true, but most of the time we're just not sure, right?

We did math right before leaving to go paint, and I was telling Rachel how to do it wrong. So I went over it in the car and figured it out, but I forgot to have her do it when we got home. I can't believe I really thought we'd do it after painting. It's really hard to do anything after that. I should start being realistic. But I've always been a dreamer and thought I would or could do more than I ever have done. I guess that's better than thinking I'll never do anything!

See you tomorrow!

Day 38

Well, the person that was interested in the house changed her mind. So no offer. That means I didn't spend the day talking to the realtor and thinking about whether to accept it. So what did we do today? I'm not sure I know. We've been so tired, nobody had much energy for school. We hung out doing whatever we wanted most of the day.



The girls are entering photos in a "photo challenge" where they take pictures of people taking pictures. We just happened to have one they each took on our road trip. They didn't know about the challenge at the time, but the pictures are so good. Especially Sarah's. I love how you can see what Rachel's taking a picture of on the iPad screen but not in the actual picture.



I had to take Sam to see the surgeon that's going to take out part of his colon. He's having some test next week, then they'll schedule the surgery. They're hoping to do it laparoscopically. Sam's hoping for that too. Shorter recovery, less pain, smaller scar.

The girls had some sister time while I took Sam to the doctor. They were supposed to do math and science, but I called after I left to have Rachel look at google to make sure I was getting off the highway at the right place; and after that, she and Sarah decided to look at google maps at Saltzburg to see if they could find the place they filmed The Sound of Music. Also, the looked at Venice, but I'm not sure why. As Jeff would say, "They're always doing school." Just not always math and science.

Today I started a Facebook group called Homeschoolers in Business so that homeschoolers can talk about the businesses they have started or want to start, and help each other out. A lot of homeschool groups don't want people talking about it because they want to protect their members from solicitation, which I totally agree with. So I decided we need a place to talk about it. I honestly don't know how to get the word out to homeschoolers about MyWritingCheck.com without something like this, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels like that. Hopefully, the people in the group can give each other advice and encouragement. I'm excited about it. Go check it out; it's just for homeschoolers, but not just homeschoolers with businesses.

See you tomorrow!

Day 37

And more painting! We went today to put a second coat on the trim and cut the grass. As soon as we got there, some realtors and a man looking at the house pulled up. They were there a long time, and they asked a couple questions. And then tonight, our realtor called and said we're going to get an offer in the morning from someone she showed the house to this weekend. After all these months! I hope it actually happens. We really need to stop having to go over there all the time to cut grass and scrub toilets!

We also had the carpet guy come back and show us samples. They were ugly. It's cheap carpet, and they say that on their website; but really, I don't think I can put carpet in that's THAT bad. Maybe this lady that's making an offer tomorrow won't want carpet.

I told the kids first thing this morning that we're all adults (some cultures consider 13 yr olds adults right?) and we can go work on the house and then come back and have school for a few hours. It was a total lie. I meant it when I said it, but we didn't do it. School all day tomorrow though, except the time I'll have to spend talking to the realtor, talking to Jeff, deciding about the offer, taking Sam to see the surgeon for his colon, cleaning the unreasonably messy kitchen, etc. I just hope we can stay home all day Friday and let everyone forget we exist.

I'm so excited! A lady at church started homeschooling this year. Well, she's trying to get a charter school set up and they're being a pain. I told her she would hate it and invited her to come over and look at my stuff, because I know she'd prefer to do it on her own. I love telling people what we've done for school and what works for us. She's coming next week. I should make some notes. I don't want her to get overwhelmed and not remember anything she looks at. I have so many things I want to say when I'm talking about homeschool. I guess it's good that I'm writing a book about it then!


Here's another cute baby picture of Eliza from our trip.

See you tomorrow!

Day 36

We had to put the first coat of paint on the living room of the other house today. We're excited about how bright and big the room looks. We wish we had done it years ago. We're going to have to do a second coat in a day or two, because there are some thin spots. Then we'll get the carpeting scheduled. The realtor says she has someone that might be interested. They've asked a couple questions about the house anyway. Cross your fingers!

Wilson is taking some psychology classes this semester, and he sent me and Jeff a survey about a photo of a baby. We were supposed to rate our reactions to the baby on things like does it seem timid or gentle or alert. I got all excited when I opened the email; I thought it was going to be a picture of Eliza. It's been 2 days since I saw her on Skype. Thank goodness for Skype! I miss them all very much.

We didn't have much school today because of the painting, and we went straight from the old house to church for youth activities. Sam played frisbee outside with the other boys. They probably had some interesting rules or twist or something. Rachel's group of girls took turns standing in front of the chalkboard, and they all wrote nice things about the girl standing there and took her picture with all her nice qualities written around her. It was cute. Sarah's group was painting! She finished her painting last week though, so she sat and talked to them. I sat there too and talked to some of the adults helping out. It was nice.

Math wasn't nice today though. We were all tired and not looking forward to painting--actually to going to the other house. We didn't mind the painting once we got there. It just seems so far away. It's only just over half and hour. We have to go back and cut the grass this week on top of putting on another coat of paint though. And Jeff is working a long week, so it's without him. So I don't want to talk about math. Let's just say there was complaining and yelling. Why is school so hard? It seems like it should be so easy. Laugh, love, learn; right? They did copywork too, but I didn't even look at it. That's ok, I'll have another chance to look at copywork.

See you tomorrow!

Day 35

Saturday school! We went over to our empty house we're selling and started a project today. We have paneling on the bottom half of the living room, and we decided to paint it. Pulling it off and resurfacing the walls is way too much work, so painting it is. We sanded it and put primer on today, and Tuesday we're going over to do the painting. Also, a carpet guy is coming to measure the room. The floor is hardwood, but it doesn't look very good; and we're not going to resurface that either. Our time and ability to do that sort of thing is extremely limited. The kids learned a lot about fixing walls and painting a couple years ago when we took a couple months and remodeled the entire kitchen. That was ridiculous, since we've never done anything like that before. We all learned a lot actually. But since we don't live there any more, it's really not that fun. We're just trying to get someone to buy it.

Yesterday (I neglected to post), Jeff took Sam and Sarah down the street to play basketball before school. Rachel doesn't like to go first thing in the morning. She doesn't feel terrific when she wakes up sometimes because of allergies. They laugh about playing with Jeff because he's like a rock, and they just bounce off of him. He always played everything growing up, and the kids and I aren't so much like that; so he's always beating them at anything physical.

After basketball, we had to try to fix a little chip in the van window that we got on our long road trip. It was quite a process, but we followed all the instructions to the letter. You can still see it though. We've never done that before either. Stuff like that never works exactly right for us. Kind of like science experiments!

Rachel's Math U See was delivered yesterday too, so she got going on that right away. Actually, she had listened to at least 3 lessons online, but hadn't really done many problems until she got her book. I think she'll be able to blast through quite a bit of it.

Last night right before bed, Jeff was showing the kids an app he got that shows the stars and planets if you point the iPad anywhere, basically. You don't even have to point it at the sky. If you point it at your feet, it shows what's one the other side of the earth. It's pretty cool. I told them they had to learn a lot about observing the sky since it's so easy. They saw Mars and Saturn. They looked like stars in the sky, obviously; but when you point the iPad at them, they look like themselves on the screen. Jeff said there are 5 planets you can see with the naked eye. Mars was actually red in the sky when we knew what we were looking at. Very fun! Next time, I'm going to get the telescope out and see how much we can see that way.

See you next week!

Day 34

Today Rachel worked on the cover for her book. She decided to use a photo instead of a drawing or painting. She put on my wedding dress, fixed her hair and had us take pictures of her from the back, looking thoughtful. She'll have the title across the top above her head. Can you tell it's a wedding dress? Jeff asked where the dress came from. I guess 27 years is too long to remember. He's so funny.

We spent most of the morning on this project. She emailed it to her grandpa, and he asked if she was supposed to be forlorn, thoughtful, or just sad. She said that it was perfect that he couldn't tell and apparently it's perfect that people didn't necessarily realize it was a wedding dress. I really need to get in gear and edit that book. I haven't read the whole thing yet. She keeps going over it, but it's finally ready for my editing now. And since my head's not killing me tonight, maybe I can start on it before I go to sleep.

Sarah's been working on a simplified version of Moonlight Sonata. It's sort of a surprise for her grandma. Jeff just got home and she asked him to play it for her so she can see if she's doing it right. He says she's doing well, but there are a few little things she needs to do. She showed me the difference between her version and Jeff's version. It's all the same to me. I think it's amazing that people can play more than one note at a time. I played the flute in junior high, but you can only play one note, you know. Also, when a piano plays with an orchestra, the pianist has to memorize the music while all those one-note-at-a-time instruments have their music in front of them! Why is that? Pianists are just impressive, I suppose!

Sam started on his science study guide today. He's pretty cute working on that, talking about how many definitions he has to memorize. I think I'll have him take the in writing this time. He doesn't know that. I don't think I'll tell him while he's working on the study guide. That seems like a lot of writing to him already. He really doesn't love putting his pen to the paper, unless it's to draw. In fact, Rachel asked him to illustrate the first page of each chapter of her book with a tiny drawing. He's been working on another stop action lego video today. He does that while I read aloud. He usually needs to do something while I read. It helps him listen. I have recently realized that I can't listen to someone reading aloud. I pay no attention at all. Maybe
I've always been that way. Good thing I'm usually the one reading!

See you tomorrow!