Cindy's Life as She Knows It

Today's co-op Around the World class was an especially good one.  We began with an Eyewitness video about the rainforests and the kids loved it.  They all sat quietly, commenting occasionally on the spectacular sights and animals.  Afterward, we had a guest teacher, Mr. Tim, who is a sciene buff and homeschool dad talked to the kids about the rainforest and the liana vines and did a great job.  When I took over we reviewed the four layers and talked about their differences and then made a Rainforest Animals wheel, which proved to be much more difficult for the kids, who were ages 5 to 8, than I anticipated.  I really enjoy teaching this age group.  They are still sweet and young, but they are very curious and they enjoy learning about new things and they are so proud when they can give you the feedback you ask for.  I am going to be leaving this co-op in May and, while some of these kids will also be doing my co-op in the fall, several of them, some who I have had for three years,

I got an email a few weeks ago from a website that tells you about local businesses that do field trips.  AC Moore, a craft store, offered a free hour tour of their store for the kids and some craft time.  They didn't give much information, but I couldn't see what could be wrong with it so I booked it and seven moms and their children met Dakota and I there and we signed in for our tour.  Melissa, our tour guide, was great with the kids, keeping their attention and reigning them in when they got a little unruly.  Not only did she show them many sections of the store, but she asked questions and got them talking about how they could use various craft items to do things they enjoyed.  They stopped after about 20 minutes and did a simple chalk and black paper craft, talked and toured for 15 more minutes and then teamed up to do some die cutting and then went into the classroom, where they got to use various mediums to color and create a dream picture.  Then, as if that weren't

Today all the hoopla from the weekend was over and we got back into the groove of things around 11:00am.  I had planned on starting early, but my niece had a major personal setback and I felt it was important to be there for her when she called.  She lives far away and none of our family is there.  I am glad I could at least be an ear to listen and a sounding board for her.  As soon as that call ended I had a nice surprise when my stepfather brought me a brand new wireless printer.  What a treat!  That had to be put aside, however, if I was going to get anything done!  We didn't do anything out of the ordinary today.  He did his grammar text with workbook pages on contractions, wrote in his journal and practiced his handwriting for language arts.  We worked on fractions for math and we read a general overview of water habitats in our Harcourt Science book, followed by a few worksheets from the coordinating workbook.  I let him do his own reading today, which was a first for him. 

My pregnant daughter returned to North Carolina with her husband today.  She took with her my granddaughter to be...and I won't see them again until the baby is on her way into the world.  That's two months of my daughter changing as my granddaughter grows that I'm going to miss.  I'm hoping to make that 6 hour drive in time to see the baby born and then we are hoping to spend a few days there helping out.  Then we will come home...leaving them there.  They will visit in a few weeks and then probably again in July as they look for a home here in the area.  We will return around the 1st of August to bring them all home to live.  That probably sounds optimistic and I am so lucky that they are coming home, but, while I try so hard to count my blessings, it is literally breaking my heart to be separated from my daughter during this important time in her life and I can't even imagine how I'll feel leaving both my daughter and granddaughter there when we have to come

Tonight we had ten of us playing Cranium in the livingroom.  It was a rowdy, fun loving time where we all really connected with each other and everyone was laughing with everyone else.  I think it's a great way for younger kids to know who they are, in terms of being part of a group larger than themselves.  We are family.  On a daily basis that means mom, dad, sisters and brother for us.  But on family game nights uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, aunts, grandmoms and brother in laws can all be here to laugh and play and create lasting memories.  I am so glad our family started this tradition and is expanding on it now.  It's a shame we didn't do it years ago!  I hope that years from now we are still playing games and laughing together...being a family and keeping us close. 

Yesterday was my daughter's baby shower and it went off without a hitch.  There were about 65 people there and the food was good, the children adorable, the family in a good mood and the young friends of the expectant parents full of excitement.  My daughter and her best friend, both very pregnant, sat together and opened Kris' gifts and looked like women....not the young girls I remember, but women in their mid twenties who are raising families or about to.  When did that happen?  The "kids" are now teens, the babies are rambunctious kids and their are new little lives that weren't here just a few months ago.  My mom is near 80 and looking fabulous.  My mother in law and her sister there too, all being the matriarchs of the family, and my husband and I were the proud grandparents, the "next generation"...no longer THE generation that was getting the attention.  I was okay with it all.  I had a wonderful time!  Then we were back at my house and my dau

We are taking a break from homeschooling for a few days.  My oldest daughter is home and we are having her baby shower tomorrow!  She got in at 6am this morning, just as her dad and I were getting up so she went in my bed to take a little nap before her baby brother got up.  He knew she was coming today, but not that early.  When Dakota woke up I led him into my room and he could tell someone was in my bed, but I think he thought it was his dad.  When I put him up next to her and pulled back the covers the look of pure bliss on his face brings tears to my eyes even now.  He and I miss her so very much.  She is so close to us and her absence is felt deeply by my little son and I.  I watched them snuggle under the covers, my first baby and my last, twenty years apart, with my first granddaughter snuggled away inside and squished between the two of them.  She was a little performer too, kicking on cue when Dakota and I put our hands on Kris' tummy to feel her move.  I can't wait f

Today I had the first meeting for those people interested in my new AAHE Cooperative.  Oddly enough, or maybe not so much, I knew 3/4 of the women and children there well.  All of us are looking for something a little different either in place of or in addition to what we have now.  Presently I belong to a co-op that has served me well for three years.  I have made many friends there, as has my son.  It has given me the opportunity to teach, which is my passion, and the children that I have taught there have a special place in my heart.  On the downside, I have chosen to teach two classes and I am serious about my lessons so the planning can be very time consuming.  Dakota and I are exhausted by the lunch break and we choose to go home instead of staying for lunch and socializing.  I just don't have anything left by that time.  Looking ahead, I know that my life will be very different for the next school year.  My granddaughter to be, Natalie, is due May 31st and by the end of Augu

Common ground...that special something that creates a bond between parents and child or husband and wife.  We have alot of that in my family, especially with my husband and I and the boys.  We like sports, nature, family movie nights, country music and board games.  We like to travel, but we love home just as much.  We like rainy days in pj's and football Sundays in the fall.  Common ground.  Tonight we got in the car, my husband, Dakota and I, and drove to the state park in Elkridge.  We didn't have long, only about an hour before dark.  All we were looking to do was spot some deer and maybe walk by the water.  Nothing "special", I suppose, but something that we enjoy doing and that can be easily shared without much planning, time or money.  We were rewarded tonight with about 12 deer sightings and we even got to see a beaver.  He was swimming upstream and making no ground, but it gave us time to appreciate him, since beavers aren't a very common sighting for us.

Today our schooling went very quickly!  I had to work in the morning so I gave Dakota his geography homework from co-op, which is a follow the instructions map of South America.  He worked on that and watched a movie so I could finish up.  Afterward, we played a cute game called Put It In The Bank that I got at the dollar store a few months ago.  You draw cards and add up the money on the card.  If you get it correct, you move a spot.  This took about 30 minutes and I decided we had worked hard enough to skip a structured math lesson for the day.  Science was a continuation of habitats, learning about the 4 ground habitats today from our text and doing a few workbook pages to go along with it.  We are going to follow through the text and then break it down and learn about each area a little more in depth through the next couple of weeks.  We did handwriting and grammar, working on N,V,Adj, N structure today and on compound words.  Koda came up with his own rap song about Mario for musi

I read about a book online, Odd Boy Out, and really liked the premise.  I did not, however, read it before I introduced it to my son.  Likewise, I printed the grade 1/2 packet for the story unit and assumed all would be well as I've done them before.  When I sat down this afternoon to do Social Studies we read the book and, while I thought it was very well written, it was over Dakota's head.  I changed the wording a bit and kept going.  Then when I sat down to do the paperwork, it too was at too high a level for my son.  Sigh.  Not the best lesson in the world. I know better.  This is not the first time it has happened. Note to self...be better prepared!! For science we did start a very modified version of the animal habitat unit.  We went over the vocabulary in his Harcourt text (Grade 2, found at the thrift store for less than $2!) and read Part 1 of Chapter 1 then did the corresponding worksheets.  We read some fun books today, did a math unit and worked on the basic languag

Today we will start new units in science and social studies and I always love the anticipation of that.  I am not, by nature, a hardcore Science fan.  I leave that to my friend Lavender!  I am more of a nature person, enjoying the animals and plants units, which we will do all spring.  Today we start our Spring unit, encompassing all things warmer, blooming and green and then add in the start of our animal habitats.  This is a wonderful time of year to take long walks and look for places where animals make their homes in the parks near our own home.  After than will be animal babies.  By next month they should be arriving in the area as well.  For Social Studies we are studying Albert Einstein for a few days.  I found a great book called Odd Boy Out and a book unit on http://www.edhelper.com/ and we will be learning about who the boy was and what accomplishments he achieved as a man.  So off I go to start my Monday.  My plan is to keep it laid back for the this rainy Monday morning, g

Yesterday Dakota spent the day with his grandmother and she took him to bowling so I could take a much needed break and have lunch with my sister.  After I picked him up we went home to relax for a bit and then my husband and I took the boys to the restaurant where our daughter is a waitress and had dinner.  It was a beautiful early spring evening and we decided to spend the evening at the state park instead of going home.  Dakota practiced riding his new skateboard and I was taken aback a bit to realize how tall he's gotten and how lanky.  He did not look like a "little boy" at all, but a sturdy elementary aged child who had confidence in his abilities and a swagger in his step.  As the sun started to go down we put the skateboard away and went down to the water's edge where my husband worked with Dakota on skipping rocks.  It really was the perfect night, weatherwise, and we stayed awhile, me taking pictures and the two of them pitching rocks.  I got some really

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  All week we have been thinking green and by the time we got to today, we didn't have as much enthusiasm as I had anticipated!  Thursday is our "school" day when we go to our co-op in Columbia.  After a very late night last night, I was prepared to be a grump this morning and dread going to co-op, but actually, I've had a pretty good day!  It's 2:15 in the afternoon now and I'm wearing out quickly, but the high energy demanded by my co-op classes didn't fail me when I needed it and I actually had a good time with the kids.  My Around the World geography class is made up of 14 boys and girls ages 5 to 8.  We do mapping, flags, cultural lessons, word games, crafts, playground games etc on the country we are studying at the time.  Today we returned to Europe to have some fun with Ireland.  How could I pass that up when we met on St. Patrick's Day?  Dakota is in this class with me and he had a good day as well.  We read about S

Today I had alot to get done, but I knew there was alot I needed to get in a fun homeschool day so I was determined to start early.  Dakota and I started the day, after dropping off my older son at school,  by driving down to the park by our house and looking for signs of spring.  We found fresh shoots of very green grass in an area recently burned by a fire.  We saw buds on the trees and colors starting to revive a little.  We rolled down the window and listed to the birds.  I told him how to identify the calls of the red winged black bird and the crow.  After his bath, I made him a green shamrock pancake.  We started our seat work by doing the St. Patrick's Day packet from SchoolExpress.  Lots of language arts in there including writing a poem, doing a cloze activity and word games. It also had the history of St. Patrick, who he was and why we celebrate his life.  Social Studies.  When we finished we moved on to finish our Australia unit.  We made an Australian Animal Safari Mobi

My two daughters are "grown ups" by the standards we set in society.  One, at 26, had a rough start right out of high school with a lack of motivation and then found the man of her dreams, only to have to wait for years for him to come back from overseas with the military.  During that time she found herself, getting a good, steady job and living with us at home, but she still wasn't "grown up" living here.  Momma cooked, momma cleaned and momma did everything while the daughter lounged and read and played on the computer.  Now she is married, pregnant, living in a different state and is definitely an adult.  She has a good husband, 2 dogs, a nice house and a baby on the way.  She does all those things that classify one as an adult like paying bills, grocery shopping, taking care of a home, cooking dinner.  She made it! and I am proud!  Then there is daughter number two.  She had a very tough time during her last year of high school and moved out of our home to

Yesterday I was all gung ho about the St. Patrick's Day plans working out, but the best laid plans can be sidetracked by life!  Today Dakota was playing really well building a Lego family that he wants me to submit to the Lego magazine.  He's made quite the creation and I thought that while he did that I'd get some of my work done for my job.  First mistake!  Work called and there were issues and they were sending a messenger with a rush job.  Great.  So I tell Dakota he has 10 minutes and run to check my email.  Second mistake!  There are several things that need my attention there AND I get two phone calls, one from my mother, who is on her way Dakota's still playing well so I figure I'll make the calls and send the emails while we wait for my mother because she will disrupt things anyway.  It's now after 11.  As my mother walks in my husband calls and says he'll be home for lunch before noon.  Okay.  This is why we homeschool, right?  We can handle chores

Today we began our countdown to St. Patrick's Day.  I always said I'd be prepared to do crafts and baking all week and this time, I was actually prepared!!  Today we made cut and paste leprechauns, a glitter glue pot of gold and read Jack and the Leprechaun.  We got out our decorations and made the diningroom/classroom look festive and we planned out the rest of our days for the week.  After journaling about our Baltimore Blast soccer game that we attended last night, we worked on our Australia unit for social studies, doing a mapping question and answer and making a musical instrument called a digiridoo.  For science we did our workbook pages from Harcourt Science and reviewed forces before playing with some cool magnet toys, a favorite part of Dakota's day.  Math was measuring with one inch squares and then we did our reading, two books read to me by Dakota and two books read by me to him.  Plenty of physical activities this weekend to cover our PE requirements (bowling,

We have always played games as a family, but this new "offical" game night has come upon us in the last few weeks and it has been very pleasant (most of the time!)  Our current games are Buzzworks and Apples to Apples and my four kids, both young and grown, really enjoy them.  We have invited my sister in law over and that is tons of fun, but tonight we decided to expand and invite my sister in law and her husband, my brother in law and my mother in law.  That made eight of us at the table and a mix of different personalities that I wasn't sure would be conducive to good gaming.  I was pleasantly surprised, however, when everything came together quickly (after two hands of mass confusion) and we got in two solid hours of game playing and belly laughing, each of us laughing til we cried at some point in the night.  It was definitely good for the soul and I love having everyone close and happy and involved.  I think it's a wonderful experience for my sons and I know it&

I'm  a picture person.  Ask my children or my husband and they will tell you that at any given minute the odds are good you will find me taking pictures, editing pictures on my computer, putting pictures into frames or looking at the pictures in the many frames throughout my house.  Pictures take me back to the time when a child was still tiny, my husband and I were young, to our first home, to my childhood.  Pictures give me back my father and my grandparents.  They connect me with my past and bring the memories soaring back so that I can enjoy the movie clip in my mind over and over.  Digital photography has been such a blessing.  I have literally thousands of pictures of Dakota and they are all photoshopped to perfection, cropped to bring out the details.  How I wish I had digital cameras when my daughters were little!!  I can play my pictures in a frame, watch them come up one by one on my computer or even pop them up on my giant tv screen.  Thank you technology!  My babies hav

One of my very favorite things about being a homeschooler is that when it's pouring rain outside, we get to stay inside, snuggling under blankets, playing games or just having a lazy day and hanging out.  Currently, I have a junior in high school who I homeschooled for eight years.  Taking him to school usually negates the ALL day inside plan but today, since he didn't get in from a sports game with his dad in DC until midnight, I used my motherly powers to declare it a NO SCHOOL day for him and we all hid behind the curtains, being lazy and doing a whole lot of nothing for the first part of the day.  Dakota is working on building a Lego family so that kept him busy and then he decided to lay on the sofa and watch a movie, a wonderful rainy day luxury.  I got some of my folders done for my job and then around 1:30, when we were good and ready, we sat down and did a math lesson, learned about forces and magnets and went around the house on a hunt to find what magnets do and do n

All parents, but especially homeschooling parents, devote a ton of time to their children.  They sit by for hours on end listening to piano recitals, watching budding gymnasts flip and tumble, fanning themselves in the summer  heat while their child runs the bases...  I've done lots of watching and waiting over the last twenty five years of parenting, but tonight was one of those memorable ones for a not so good reason.  I sat tonight in freezing cold, windy conditions on a muddy football field in Andover watching my six year old practice for arena football and getting pushed around by the other boys because my little spitfire of a boy, who doesn't take any crap from anyone and will knock his teenage brother to his knees with a good hit, is a pansy on the football field.  He stands there and lets the other boys nail him over and over.  He gets in place to do his own tackling and tiptoes toward his opponent, wrapping him in what looks like a hug instead of a beastly knock down. 

Today was an okay homeschooling day for my son and I, though my frustration tolerance was low.... very low.  I'm a bit under the weather from allergies, feeling prickly about my lack of time to do anything to completion and angry that my day wasn't progressing as I had hoped.  None of this was my kindergartener's fault, however, and I tried to remind myself of this while we did our work this morning.  We started out with our language arts basics - journal, handwriting and grammar text.  We went in to read, Koda to me and me to him, but again, I was prickly and his constant ooching and scooching all over made me grumpy.  Math was an easy lesson and we completed this before lunch.  After our break, which I felt was no break at all since I didn't get to put my bottom in a chair for more than 2 minutes at a time, we started a new science unit on Forces and Motion.  My son really likes that kind of thing, but he had to demonstrate pushing with his open bottle of water....all

Today we had to go to the DMV early to get Dakota a photo ID for arena football.  He spent the short wait practicing his shading technique when writing letters.  He was so proud of himself because his older sister showed him how to do this weeks ago and he finally mastered it.  Errands had to be run and we decided to meet up with our favorite friends and have lunch, a short playdate and then do some Mardi Gras school work together.  We read to the boys about the celebration of Mardi Gras and what it is and where it originated.  We did some mapping to see where the celebration is held, did a cloze activity and colored a masquerade mask.  Both boys did a math lesson separately and then we played a very quick game of Disney Apples to Apples before heading out to pick up Dakota's brother and pick up our car from the shop, as well as swinging past the library to pick up our books on hold and let Daktoa get two comic books. The neighbors were waiting for him when he got home and off to r

When you have a child, it really is a forever thing.  Anyone who tells you that you will worry until they grow up does not have a grown up child.  My first baby is carrying my first grandchild just now.  She will be 28 weeks pregnant tomorrow and that is very significant to me because I had toxemia and gave birth to her brother Brian when I was 28 weeks pregnant.  He weighed 2lbs and was 13" long.  He was in the NICU for 69 days and I remember every one of them.  His life was so fragile and he held mine in the palm of his teeny tiny little hand.  Now my daughter has reached that point in her pregnancy and is not feeling well today...weak and dizzy and confused.  I want to be with her...but did I mention that she lives in North Carolina, a six hour drive from my Maryland home?  Her husband has a few more months in the military before he is discharged and they are living near Fort Bragg.  Now my baby and my grandbaby are possibly in danger and I can not do anything about it but worr

Today lacked the motivation and organization of last Monday.  We muddled through today while I tried to catch up on chores, emails, work and everything else that needed to be done.  I read some stories and Dakota read a few to me while we snuggled under a blanket on the couch.  We got in our math lesson on vertical, horizontal and oblique lines...a concept that wasn't half as difficult as remembering and pronouncing those words! A breakthrough today was Koda's journal entry.  It was excellent and he wrote for nine whole minutes!  A little grammar workbook, some handwriting, two Scholastic News magazines and we called it a school day.  All in all, I suppose it wasn't too bad, but it left me frustrated and feeling like I really should have done more.  We can get in what's needed, but where was the fun?  When I take the time to plan things out we do more art, cooking and games and the lack of tension is notable.  Unfortunately, life has been chaotic and I can't always

It's all the rage now to stay in and have family meals and play family games and spend time as a family....  Well, it's always been all the rage here at our house, but with Dakota getting older, things are starting to get alot easier.  We have always been a very traditional family.  I've stayed at home with the children, making extra money where I can babysitting or currently doing transcription and dad has brought home the bacon (while I fry it up in the pan lol)  We have two girls and two boys and two dogs and a cat and a fish.  We have dinner together every night, made by me and not ordered in, and we have played games and watched movies together ever since the girls, now age 25 and 23, were small.  When the girls were teenagers they were no longer interested in our family time, but now, as adults they have come back into the fold.  Brian, our older son, is almost eighteen and very involved with the family.  The trouble came, however, when all the older people in the fam

Do you ever have one of those days where things are so crazy and your kids are so out of control that you wonder what in the world you are doing homeschooling???  Can't I pay a bus to come and get him??  Luckily, those days don't come around very often, but my little guy was more than a handful today!  He had an agenda and I did not have the time to entertain it, so there was our problem.  The only homeschooling we got in on this Fun Friday was bowling and some computer time, but nothing more educational than Nick Jr.  Oh well.  Some days go like that.  We are looking forward to an extremely busy Saturday with baseball clinic starting tomorrow and errands and grocery shopping to do, but Sunday....I can't wait for Sunday.  I'm going nowhere and doing nothing outside of the house.   Love those kinds of days. 

Today was a co-op day and this usually makes for a crazy Thursday.  Dakota's allergy meds made our life pretty interesting, but we did get in our Around the World class, taking care of Social Studies with a cultural movie on our new continent, Australia and a few important facts read together from a shared worksheet.  We made our passports and Aboriginal flags, taking care of art and played a game of Australian animal bingo, taking care of science with the animal info.  I gave him the afternoon off and made him rest because he wasn't feeling well and no sports tonight for him, so it wasn't a terribly productive homeschooling day, but we did cover a few bases.  Tomorrow is "Fun Friday" so, for the next three days, we will combine whatever we get in to make one full homeschool day for our records.

Today I had many, many things to do but I wanted to make sure we got in at least the basics in school.  We have enough PE and Art to cover a few days ahead, but I wasn't willing to call it a day and not do any work at all.  I work from home and my "office" is my desk where I also homeschool from.  Dakota sits at the table by me and I can print and search while he's doing a little independent work.  Today I was all about having him do what he could on his own so I could finish my folders for work...not an easy task for a kindergartener!!  He did well, though, and finished his George Washington packet with the word games, did his math lesson and addition practice, colored his homework for our co-op tomorrow and then we went in together and read The Cat In The Hat and did the cloze activity that went with that.  Thankfully, MomMom picked him up at noon to take him to Chuck E. Cheese and I got to finish my folders and drive to Lutherville to drop them off and pick up the

Today was a field trip day for us.  Our group went to Port Discovery and Dakota played soccer endlessly with his buddies and enjoyed pretend play in the diner and the Royal Farm store.  After three hours we are both tired.  It was a nice time for both of us, hanging out with friends, but it's so nice to be home for the rest of the day.  This afternoon I have to work and he's relaxing with a Dr. Seuss Horton Hears a Who movie and doing his coloring homework from his co-op class.  Not much for the books today, but a full one none the less. This evening we played regular Apples to Apples and Disney Apples to Apples.  Dakota worked with alot of unfamiliar vocabulary in this game as well as practicing his reading skills.  Afterward we sat as a family and judged all the male vocalists on American Idol.  My son is a very opinionated young man when it comes to his musical taste!