321!-PARTY

HI 321’S!  JULIA HERE! HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!

STAR Testing Results

I received Julia’s STAR test report yesterday.  This was the State mandated test that she took last May (the first day of which was her birthday).  As a second grader last year, this was her first time in taking the exam.  It was split up over two days, about three hours each day, and a few hours after she got home on the first day (her birthday) she started vomiting.  She felt much better the next day so I took her back for the second half of the exam.

So, how did she do?  Great!  She ranked “advanced” in both English-Language Arts and Mathematics.  This isn’t too big of a deal to her, but for me, as her teacher, its super duper!!  Whew!

Day One

Well, today is mostly done.  That is, Karley is finished.  Julia is procrastinating to get her math finished.  This morning I got up early and made a special treat, chocolate chip muffins.  Somehow even the smell of baking muffins didn’t get them out of bed.  Being the nice mom that I am, I let them get up on their own accord.  At least that was my plan until Quigley heard the neighborhood school kids walking past our house up to the school.  Then he went into wild-man mode and ran up and down the stairs protecting us all from the elementary school students.  That did it.  The girls were awake and not happy about it.  So on the fly I borrowed an idea from Julia’s former school and came up with the “on time ticket.”  That spurred Julia on to eat, get dressed, brush teeth and hair and be ready to start the day.  Karley, on the other hand, also got ready to go but when I told her that we would raffle off prizes for the on time tickets she lost it and cried and cried.  She said the raffle idea was dumb and that it would mean there would always be a loser (smart girl).  She made such a fuss that I sent her to her room and took away her on time ticket.

The tears were contagious and it wasn’t long before Julia was crying too because “math is so hard.”  Aye Aye Aye.  Luckily I’ve had a nice long break and I didn’t lose my cool.  Karley got over her “thing” on her own and recovered nicely.  Julia timed out on her math, completed her other work, and has her math to finish or no dessert (and yes that means I won’t give her a piece of my birthday cake tonight).  Whew!  Only 179 days left!!  (Just kidding)

School Starts Tomorrow!

I would love to say that the loft is tidy and the pencils are sharpened and everything is all set for tomorrow, but the truth is I’ve been too busy to be this organized.  Our desks are buried, there are a few random toys that need to be put away, and we are still missing some of our books.  It seems this summer has been packed with too many fun activities to be ready for the new school year, but here it comes!

It’s so hard to believe that this is my fourth year homeschooling my girls.  Julia is a 3rd grader and Karley is a 1st grader…where has the time gone?  I’m anticipating some complaining this first week or so, but one thing I have done in preparation for this year is to read a LOT of books on teaching difficult kids, motivation, gifted kids, etc.  I’m really hoping that I can use some newly-acquired skills to keep us moving along smoothly, but I guess time will tell.

I’m hoping for a good night’s sleep, a kid-free hour or so first thing in the morning so I can have my coffee and read my email in peace, and two cheery, energetic kids ready to learn.  Well, a girl can dream can’t she?  Besides, tomorrow’s also MY birthday!

Ok, I’ll try this again, but no promises!

So, it has been a year since I gave up trying to do the blogging thing.  For the most part I have not read any of my previous posts, but I browsed through them a bit this afternoon.  I realized that if I don’t record some of my thoughts that I’ll forget things over time (some of which would be just fine with me!).  Plus, this is a way to vent without putting it all over Facebook.  So, I’ll try, but we’ll see.

We have just a week left of school.  Today was PACT’s Arts Festival.  Julia’s County Fair drawing was on display, along with artwork from art students at school.  There were so many to display that they had to improvise and make false walls so they could display them all. 

Karley and her Music Appreciation class performed first for the large audience.  Karley was super cute and did a great job with her singing and dancing.  Shortly later Julia and the rest of the choir performed.  The choir performed alone and along with the violin and guitar classes.  They sounded great and Julia did very well.  She has developed a really nice singing voice and it is fun to watch and hear her sing.

So, just one more week…at least for Karley.  It will likely take Julia longer to get to where she is supposed to be!  grrr!

Oh! Forget It!!!

Ok, I give up!!! I can't do the blog-thing! I have too much "homework" already. Let's see there is the first grader work, the preschooler work, the train the cat to use the toilet work, the take care of the old lady dog work, the laundry work, the shopping work, the clean the house work, the pay the bills work, the tortoise work, the new puppy work and dog school homework, piano recital work, the volunteer for the big end-of-the-school-year work, the mother work, the wife work, gee....did I leave something out????

Kid Art

by Karley...."lion", mama and baby kitties, butterfly, "fly" by Karley..."Nemo fish family". Mama fish is swimming at you, Daddy at the top, two baby fish.

by Karley....Queen standing outside her pink castle. I think that is a flag or flagpole on the castle.

by Julia. This was created with soft pastels (very smudgy and hard to use in my opinion).

Spring Is in the Air

And apparently that means puppy love...BIG TIME. Our six year old is "in love" with Dennis, a boy in her music class. She first told me about him last week. She was all flustered and excited to tell me about this boy in her class and how he is not like other boys that bug her. She said that they sat near each other and talked and that she was a bit annoyed that another boy was trying to occupy some of Dennis' time. She was saying things like, "Can you believe I have a boyfriend?" Of course I thought that she had most of this made up in her mind and that Dennis probably thought she was just another girl in the class, but today when I picked Julia up from class she was flushed and excited with BIG NEWS. She said to me,"Do you know what Dennis said to me?" I told her I had no idea but I'm beginning to wonder if I really want to know by the look on her face. She told me that he leaned in and whispered in her ear "you're beautiful." She almost had tears in her eyes as she was telling me this. I asked her how she responded to that. She said she whispered back "thank you." When I asked later how she felt about him she said she thought that he was a "handsome prince" and that she plans to go out to dinner with him when she is 16 and he is 17. Are we seriously already planning future dates????

Fruits of Labor

Yesterday we had our meeting with our academic advisor. Because of the craziness this year with the school moving, Julia had not had a reading assessment done since the end of Kindergarten. Yesterday we had some time at the end of our meeting so Karley and I stepped out of the office and Julia had her first reading assessment of the year. When they finished her advisor came out and told me that she gave Julia a total of 5 tests and was doing well but decided to end on a high note and that she had had enough "tests" for one sitting. Julia tested at or possibly above (since she didn't get to a point where the words were too hard for her) 4th grade level (she is in Grade 1) and she tested also in the 4th grade level for reading comprehension. These results were great to hear, but not unexpected since I'm with her all the time and I kind of already knew she would test somewhere in there. BUT, the cool part for me was that the advisor said during the reading comprehension testing Julia gave all her answers in complete sentences. The advisor was really surprised and pleased by that. THAT was great news for me because it is something we have been working on a lot this year and I feel like I am constantly reminding her to use complete sentences. It's nice to know that it is paying off!!!

So, my challenge now, pull some of my time and energy out of working with Julia on her language arts lessons and put MORE time into Karley's. This may be tricky since I don't really see Karley particularly WANTING to know how to read.

But for now, I'm going to enjoy these successes, knowing that it is probably only a matter of days or weeks that my frustration level will peak yet again!

What have we been doing?????

Ummmm......well, trying to catch up from our bad weeks. We are only a day or so behind, really, but of course it is not one calendar day on my nice little weekly planner. It is a lesson here, a lesson there, half a lesson here, etc. At least we have the next two Mondays off, so that should come in handy. We are also trying to decide if we are going to enter a project in the science fair. I gave Julia two choices and she won't choose. She says she wants to do both. Other than that things are about the same. This week we are studying echinoderms and finishing up the Roman Empire. If I remember I'll try to post photos of the clay bowls we made this evening.

It's Official

Karley is signed up for Kindergarten....and she couldn't be happier (unless she were starting tomorrow!). I'm not quite sure how I'm going to homeschool both, but I do think Karley will be a lot easier in many ways (and probably harder in other ways). But at least my pile of Kindergarten forms is gone off my desk!

It's a New Semester

It's a new year and a new semester. Too bad we are having the same 'ol problems! All of last week and much of this week (although it seems to be getting slightly better). Julia has had the attitude of a 15 year old girl who pretty much hates the world around her (yes, she is only six). She has been difficult to teach, difficult to mother, and sometimes flatout difficult to LOVE. I'm sure this is one of her "phases" and that she will come out of it and we will all look back at this time and say, "Remember when...", but for now things are pretty tough. You ask what kinds of lovely words come out of this dear child's mouth? Oh, things like "you Poo Poo Head" (referring to me) or "you ugly BEAST!" (me again). She has tried to come at me with a sharp, pointed toothpick in order to hurt me (I think she got the idea from reading about a character (girl) who enjoys fencing). She has carried on again and again about our terrible home and her terrible life and "That's it! This time I'm leaving for real!" She only made it as far as the mailbox. She hates the food I cook, doesn't see the point in picking up things after herself and she is fed up with the idea that SHE WILL HAVE TO DO MATH FOR A VERY LONG TIME. Is it possible that she is as exhausted as I am with all of her drama????

Sparrow in a Pine Tree

This is a drawing that Julia brought home from her drawing class this week. She says they drew with a black marking pen and colored it in with crayons. Maybe I should take this drawing class! I don't think I could make a bird look this good!

The Assignment: Make a Contour Drawing

Julia was asked to get a stuffed animal, prop it up on the table in front of her and to keep her eyes following the outside edges of it while her hand drew. Anyone who knows Julia well knows that this in one of her favorite teddies. In fact this teddy was just upgraded from "Daddy Teddy" to "King Teddy," hence the crown.

"James and the Giant Peach"

This was one of Julia's recent art assignments. She was to use only red, yellow and blue watercolor crayons to create something that communicates. When I asked her what the title was she told me, "James and the Giant Peach." I asked where James was in the picture. Her reply, "In the peach, of course!"

What have we been doing?????

For starters, I have been doing a LOT of interference between kids and the new cat. Julia seems surprised that Friday doesn't behave they way her stuffed animals do. There have been arguments, some hissing, a few scratches, etc. I have to watch them very, very closely. Yesterday was an all-time record. Friday sat on Julia's lap for probably 10 minutes and they both seemed content and no one got hurt.

I've been to the gym three times so far this week! Another all-time record. I started taking a yoga class on Tues and Thurs mornings. Kind of strange at first, but I'm sure all the stretching, balancing, relaxation will be worth it. I'm also trying to get in two to three days a week of cardio. Hard to find "extra" time this time of the year for that though.

Saturday is our piano recital. I'm a bundle of nerves. I'm performing Canon in D (Pachelbel)with three other beginners. Two of us per piano. We have been working on it for 6 weeks or so and in the beginning I didn't think there was a chance that I could get my part down, but I have to say that my fingers have really, really improved the last month or so. I just hope my nerves don't take over on Saturday. In addition to the group piece I'm also performing a solo piece, Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (Bach). This piece I started working on in June. It was really, really hard in the beginning. At first I could only do the right hand and it seemed impossible to do both hands together. I left the piece probably in July sometime deciding that it was a longer range goal and moved on to something else. Well, last week my piano teacher told me to pick a new thing for the recital and I picked this piece up again. I have to say that I have worked on it a LOT during the past week and as of TODAY I can finally get through it, without breaking tempo and without mistakes. Now, I'm not sure that in two day's time I will be super confident in performing in front of 100+ people, but I have to say that a few months ago I would not believe that I could play it as well as I can today. Yippee!

School is going ok. Julia is finishing her human body study this week. Then we move on to animal classification and then hopefully some plants late spring. In history we are working on early Roman times. We should finish our ancients book probably in February and then will start in on Medival times. In phonics Julia has just 3 more lessons before the book is complete. She is reading some tough words, even words that she doesn't know (synagogue, etiquette, etc). She is also wrapping up her penmanship book and she and I are considering beginning cursive writing (although her printing is not as neat as I would like. I think she can do it, but she gets lazy).

Everything else is moving right along: spelling, grammar, vocabulary, math. She is currently more in favor of math, but that can change daily.

Our exciting news is that KARLEY IS BEGINNING TO READ!!!!! Karley read her very first two books earlier this week. I think she is pretty proud of herself, but she is at that stage where reading each word takes a lot of work. And after reading the second word of the sentence she has already forgotten the first word. At least she has a good attitude about it.

Karley's dance recital is a week from Saturday. I'm really looking forward to that one (more so than this piano recital!). I signed up to be a parent volunteer to help the girls in her class get dressed, find their way back stage, costumes off and turned in, trips to the restroom, etc. It should be really, really cute.

So, even though it seems as though this blog has been quiet. We have actually been really, really busy! That of course, is not to mention the big holiay at the end of the month with all the bazillion things that come along with it, or the fact that I'm attempting to toilet train the cat, or......

Meet our Friday!

The girls did it! They earned all their tokens and this past Sunday we went to the local SPCA and adopted a terrific cat. Friday is a one year old female. She was surrendered to the shelter as a "stray" either very pregnant and ready to have her babies or with very, very young kittens (I'm not sure which). Friday and her babies were sent to live with a foster family. Her kind foster family made a photo book for us to show us a glimpse of her mothering days. Friday is so, so sweet. She purrs and kneads constantly. She is also very confident and trusting. She seems completely comfortable with the girls and she is fine with Shelby too. If anything Shelby is slightly afraid of her, but only because that is Shelby's nature not because the cat is growling or hissing at her.

Julia is very happy, but is learning that cats are not dogs. Since we have not had a cat in so long and she really only knows dog behavior she is perplexed why the cat doesn't "play fetch", etc. I think in a couple of weeks they will have worked it all out.

Karley adores the cat too, but unfortunately she appears to be allergic to her. Karley has the habit of rubbing her eyes and when she does so without washing her hands after petting the cat, her eyes get red and puffy. I'm hoping that Karley's body will become less sensitive and that Karley will get a little wiser in keeping her hands "clean from the kitty."

Of course a lot more has been going on around here.....Halloween.......Karley's Birthday........Hopefully I will get another short quiet time so I can write about those too (I now have photos).

Blog, What blog???

Yes, its true I have been ignoring my own blog. Maybe its because there have not been too many blog-worthy events lately. More likely it is because I have just not felt like it! It does sometimes feel like it is my own homework assignment and we all remember what it was like when we had homework.

Anyway, to briefly summarize:

I believe after tomorrow we are one quarter of the way through the school year. Things are still going well. We are getting things done and we are still enjoying it.

Julia and I have managed to create a workable arrangement. It means that most of the time when I'm reading to her I'm looking at her rear end. I guess because she is such an auditory kind of kid as soon as she hears the reading rhythm of my voice she almost always goes duck-like on me. We're talking head down in the seat and bottom up in the air. It used to drive me absolutely crazy (and some days it really still does), but if you ask for retention or comprehension she is right there with you. (I do realize this would never fly in a traditional classroom) I guess she does it without really thinking about it because when I'm explaining something to her that she DOES need to see I have to remind her to sit up in her chair. For the most part I've learned to relax about it and allow her to be her goofy self because she is still paying attention. However, I do threaten to draw a big smiley face on her tush so I have something else to look at!

Karley is progressing through her ABC flashcards. It is really strange though. One day she will do really well and only miss one or two, but the next day she might miss 5 or 6. She is much different from her sister and I'm not sure yet how to help her out. She does enjoy workbooks and is making good progress with both her phonics and her early handwriting skills. So far math seems to be fun to her, but she is a bit weary because she has heard so many negative math comments from her sister.

The girls are SOOOOOO close to earning their kitty cat. They have earned a bag of kitty food (ok, so they earned a certificate saying they earned a bag of kitty food) and they are half way to earning the kitty bed. Then it is on to the cat itself. We are beginning to look at cats available for adoption at the various shelters around us. Julia and Karley are getting excited. Ok, maybe I'm getting a little excited too.

A week ago Wednesday the school sent out a recorded message stating that their was a strange odor in the building and that they evacuated the building. Well, here it is over a week later and the school is still locked up and as far as I know they still don't know what the odor is, what the cause of the odor is, or if it is harmful. At this point there is no estimate as to when it will reopen or when classes in that building will be held again. This, on top of all the other things I've previously mentioned, makes for a very confusing, disjointed school year. I'm so glad this is not our first year homeschooling or our first year at PACT. I sure hope they get this whole mess cleared up soon so life can go back to the way we knew it last year.

Oh, another thing that is driving me crazy right now. My fancy, schmancy wireless digital photo card doesn't seem completely reliable and I don't know why. Not all of my photos are making it to the computer. That's the excuse for the lack of photos, and I'm sticking to it.....

Karley's drawing

Any guesses what she drew? Note: she drew this on recycled paper, so you can see through to the other side. Karley is becoming quite the artist herself.

The Respiratory System: Julia's Chest Vest!