Break Time?

Gosh, I'm really starting to wonder if we're not supposed to take a better break than I was planning. 

The boys recovered from strep, and Jacob starting feeling better from the possible mono.  I took them to an open gym at the place where they take gymnastics (since they missed their class for two weeks, they were able to do two hours as makeup), and while I was paying for Zeke's competitive classes for the summer, he evidently had a failed backflip and he landed on his hand.  He finally told me after 15 or so minutes, and I told him if it hurt bad enough to where he couldn't participate, he should ask his coach for ice. 

He never did, and worked on back whips for much of the rest of class.

Zeke's not a complainer.  He told Craig about what happened and Craig put a brace on his hand, just for stability.  Our thought was that he'd jammed it pretty good.  The next day, mid-afternoon, Zeke to the brace off and his hand was swollen.

We went to Urgent Care, where they confirmed a break.  She called it a transverse break and it runs the length of the bone. 

Of course, it's his left hand.  He's left-handed. 

Time to figure out another plan for Summer School.

Gold!

Ezekiel started team gymnastics in January.  All the boys have done rec classes in trampoline and tumbling for a few years, but working on form and all the little details is new.

His gym held a small meet, and Zeke won gold on trampoline!  It's amazing to see how far he's come.  When he first started classes, he couldn't really even do a cartwheel.  Now he flips and flies and it brings him such joy.

 

It's a New Year!

Craig heads back to work today, so it's time to take down the decorations, find homes for the gifts, and figure out our spring semester.

Some of the changes on the horizon:

• Luke will finish up robotics at the high school.  They have two teams, Junior Varsity and Varsity.  We've decided to only do JV this year.
• Ezekiel has started team gymnastics (tumbling & trampoline).
• Luke will start drum lessons.
• I'm considering a change for grammar.  I love Rod & Staff, but find it works best for us when I'm teaching it.  I'm looking at Get Smart Grammar from English Grammar Revolution because she has diagramming & teaching videos. 
• I'm also considering going back to Visual Latin & Lingua Latina.  I haven't had the time to teach Wheelock's well.  I think Dwayne is a great teacher, and I'd like the boys to take his online class in the fall.

I'm still figuring out how to balance all of my responsibilities.  A new year is a great time to evaluate old systems and figure out how to run things more efficiently and intentionally. 

Happy 2014!

Halloween, a Decade Ago

Oh, how I'd love to be able to go back in time and squish them and squeeze them at this size....

Ezekiel, Jacob, & Luke c.2003

Zeke's Favorite Pastime

Ezekiel Turned 13

For Zeke's 13th birthday, he decided to go see the Redwoods with Craig.

Homeschool Humor, Monday Edition

Micah's been learning about apostrophes in grammar.  He's gone from calling them "the line that hangs in the air" to calling them "assTROphies".  Can I count that as progress?


One of the words on Nicholas's spelling list this week is "but". He doesn't understand that it is the conjunction, not the body part.  So far he's tried to use it to answer the question "What is the opposite of bottom?" and to fill in the blank in the sentence "Joseph feeds _____ dog every day."




While discussing the difference between fatalism and predestination with Luke and Ezekiel, Ezekiel piped up with "That reminds me of a Calvin & Hobbes strip."  At least we've moved on from relating these discussions  to Phineas and Ferb.


We moved along to discussing paragraph unity.  During this discussion, Ezekiel told me he had a 10 watt idea to unify his paragraph.  A bit later he told me he's going to write a book titled Thirty Watt Thoughts.  Finally, he told me that he's considered his audience and he shouldn't write using any of his 50 watt ideas if he wanted anyone to understand him.

Weeks 6 & 7 in Review

Oy!  These were a rough 2 weeks.  Week 6, we were fighting colds & sinus infections. I don't remember who wasn't feeling well, but I was on an antibiotic and was just kind of fuzzy headed.  Week 7, we had a follow up with Jacob's neurologist because his headaches have been worse (requires almost 4 hours of driving roundtrip), I had an eye appointment that took up 3 hours (they'd had an emergency in the morning, so there was a longer wait time), Ezekiel fractured his hand (required the trip to the pediatrician to be sent to x-ray, and then a trip on a different day to the ortho for casting), and finally I had a follow up with my rheumatologist.  I counted the days they weren't at their enrichment program as half days, so we got about 5 days of school work in over the two weeks.  But this is life, right?

I will not let perfection get in the way of the good.

We got bits of math and Greek and reading and grammar and Latin and spelling and phonics and history done (I almost typed science, but I'm 95% sure no one actually did any science, unless you count studying the x-ray of Zeke broken hand).  We did spend one afternoon finishing our read-aloud book, Escape Across the Wide Sea.  I haven't had as much time to read aloud as I did last year, and I miss it and the boys miss it.  I miss the shared stories, but we're so busy that is is hard to justify it.  I listened to a lecture by Andrew Pudewa, though, and was reminded of the importance. Craig will be home in the evenings more now that he's out of class, so we'll restart family read-alouds in the evening (we've all missed it), and I'm going to try and read-aloud during the day on Thursday and Friday.  I figure that's better than not at all.

I will not let perfection get in the way of the good.

As I sit here surrounded by piles of incomplete assignment sheets and stacks of papers to check, I'm reminded that my boys learned lessons that weren't in textbooks.  I'm also reminded of a great benefit of having them home together.  Zeke's hand was fractured when he and Luke were play fighting on the couch.  Luke kicked, they heard a pop, there was a lot of pain.  Luke felt awful.  Zeke's biggest concern was that when people heard how it happened, they would think Luke did it on purpose when they were just playing.  His mind wasn't on revenge, as many people we encountered speculated, it was on the fact he didn't want his brother to be mischaracterized. Sure, they fight and argue (this is bound to happen when you're together as much as we are), but they love each other and are very close.  All five of them.  When we started this adventure 9 years ago (10 if you count preschool), it was for academic reasons.  That is still a very high priority, but now that they are almost7 up to just13, their relationships as brothers and our relationship as a family is at least as high a priority as academics.  It's such a blessing to watch these relationships grow and develop.  

So, I will not let perfection get in the way of the good.

Green & Gold cast in honor of the Packers

Feel like an early Christmas celebration?

Luke (to Craig): Dad, does anyone celebrate Christmas early?

Ezekiel (before Craig could answer): Yes. They do in Alaska and North Kentucky.

It's been 10 days since I blogged because...

The boys have done nothing interesting or amusing. Yeah, right. Actually, the screen went out on my laptop so I've lost the convenience and portability that make blogging so...well....convenient. It's still not fixed, but I'm using Craig's laptop because....

Craig received a call this morning from a friend inviting Craig and "one of his offspring" to the Air Force/Notre Dame game this afternoon. Craig was going to take Ezekiel (because Ezekiel says his favorite game is football, Luke loves baseball), but after getting Ezekiel ready, Ezekiel realized this game would take until at least dinner time. He evidentially didn't feel like he could commit 6 hours of his life to a football game, so Luke got to go. This made Luke very happy and I hope they're having a great time.

My birthday was yesterday and after work Craig took the 4 older boys on a mystery mission, which I later found out was a trip to Target so each boy could pick a gift out for me. Micah chose a short pillar candle, Jacob chose a taller pillar candle, Ezekiel chose a set of pillar candles (can you tell I like candles?), and Luke chose a yellow bath towel. Craig later informed me that Luke scoured the entire store and when he saw this yellow bath towel it all came together in Luke's mind. After I opened the towel, Luke told me that he thought I needed a nice big towel to clean up their messes. Nicholas didn't go, but he somehow picked out a pair of very warm, very soft green socks for me. In addition, Craig remembered that I mentioned a few weeks ago that I'd like to have a Christmas wreath for the front door and surprised me with a beautiful wreath. Earlier in the day Craig and Jacob had decorated the dining area with yellow balloons, streamers, a bouquet of flowers, and a small indoor yellow rose plant.

Oh, Thomas II passed on to the great puddle in the sky on Thursday; it appears he died of natural causes. This was Jacob's birthday betta fish. You might notice that this was Thomas II. There was a Thomas I, but he didn't survive very long, although his life was, er, eventful. Here is his story:

We took Jacob on his birthday to pick out his fish, which he named Thomas after Thomas the Tank Engine. Thomas I was a beautiful fish. We left Thomas I in his original bowl floating in the top of the tank overnight. The next day I was in the school room teaching Luke and Ezekiel when Jacob came running downstairs telling me that Micah put Thomas I in the tank. I ran upstairs to find Micah sitting in the kitchen sink holding the empty bowl. My heart sank as I prepared to tell Jacob that Micah had just washed his fish down the drain, but thankfully I didn't have to because Micah had dumped Thomas I into the tank before he climbed into the sink. Whew.

I put Micah down for a nap, and put on a Leap Frog video for Jacob so I could finish some school with Luke & Ezekiel.  Of course, Jacob wanted Thomas I to watch the movie with him. I moved the fish tank (a small one gallon) over to the coffee table and left the two happily learning about the alphabet. Around 30 minutes later Jacob came downstairs and his pants were wet, and informed me that he'd "done something very bad". I quickly realized these two clues meant that something had happened to Thomas I. I ran upstairs to find Thomas I swimming in about 1 inch of water. Jacob then explained that Thomas I couldn't see the video, and in an attempt to move the tank he knocked it over, spilling almost all of the water and Thomas I. He demonstrated the pincer grasp he used to pick Thomas I up off the carpet and put him back in the tank.

The next day I found Micah on the counter again holding my cup. It was empty. I looked at Thomas I's tank, and the water looked to have a greenish tint. Micah had indeed emptied a full glass of Diet Mountain Dew into Thomas I's tank. I quickly commenced cleaning and arranging the tank for the 3rd time in as many days.

A week or so later I had the idea to take the boys on a picnic and to a park. While I was in the garage getting a cooler (I was out there for less than 5 minutes), Micah climbed on the counter (yes, again) and emptied an entire container of fish food into Thomas I's very small tank. There was approximately 1 inch of food covering the bottom of the tank. I didn't want to leave Thomas I in those conditions, but I didn't have the time to clean out the tank. I placed Thomas I in a tupperware bowl on the fireplace mantel, to which M complained, loudly, "But I can't reeeaaaachhh hiiiimm". Exactly the point, my boy. I was secretly proud I'd outwitted the 2 year old, if only temporarily.

We went on our picnic, and when we returned home Thomas I was lying on the living room carpet. Yes, he jumped out of the bowl on the fireplace mantel and landed on the living room carpet. I later read that Betta fish will do this if they are looking for clean water or if their tank changes. Personally, I think Thomas I was terrified of living another day in the same house as Micah.

Logic 101?

A conversation at the lunch table:

Ezekiel: Wouldn't it be funny if we told Golem he could have the Ring for $1?
Luke: Yeah.
Ezekiel: He doesn't have any money!

Enter Mommy into the conversation...

Mommy: How do you know he doesn't have any money?
Ezekiel (laughing hysterically): Because he'd have to keep it in his underwear!