Cindy's Life as She Knows It

Yesterday was another cloudy, cold day here at the ocean until about 4.  We got in a round of putt putt and hit Walmart for Easter goodies and groceries and then came back to the condo.  It had gotten nicer out, cold still, but not rainy, so I let Dakota convince me to take him onto the beach.  That boy loves the water and the sand.  He ran all around, kicking and throwing wet sand into the ocean, daring the waves to catch him and losing the bet!  I took pictures and tried to soak up the memories.  They grow so fast and watching my kids at the beach has been one of those constants in my life.  I can remember the girls in their little bikinis, Brian David with his beautiful blond girls gleaming in the sun and Dakota at three and four jumping the waves.  Yesterday he had on a warm gray sweatshirt, rolled up blue jeans and "his feet".  He looked so young and strong and healthy.  Thank you God for that.  He is the epitome of a litt...

This weekend our family is enjoying a few days at the beach and, while Dakota thinks he is on "spring break", I know that we will be learning through our experiences here and I plan to make every day count!  Yesterday we didn't do much by way of education because my older son had a college visit at Salisbury University.  We had big plans to do the zoo while we were there, but we were exhausted after walking the campus for two hours and decided to call it a day and save the zoo for the weekend.  The guys(husband, both sons and teenage friend/"adopted" third son) played a video game tournament while I took care of dinner and then we all headed to the beach for some football and frisbee fun.  I got to walk a bit along the shoreline where the water was coming to meet the sand and the serenity of it all really hit me.  The same motion of the water, the horizon, the beautiful cotton candy colored sky as the sun set...God is good.  He will show us his presence if ...

When Brian David was first homeschooling (we began at age 8), we didn't know anyone.  We got involved, started our own group and made new friends.  At one point, our AAHE homeschool group had a core of about 8 or 9 boys, all his age, and they and their moms became a crucial part of our homeschooling adventure.  Over the years, some of the boys went back to public school and some moved away.  We lost touch and, in our last few years, had many acquaintances, but we lacked that tight knit feeling you get when you can expect the same friends again and again.  When Dakota was born I didn't know anyone with young children.  All my friends had older children and I felt out of place being an older mom in a sea of perky young moms lol.  Brian David went off to high school and Dakota and I joined a co-op and began our own homeschooling adventure.  Over the past two years we have made many friends and acquaintances, but still not that core group I was lookin...

My first son attended elementary school through the second grade before I began homeschooling and he was pretty regimented in his expectations of when we were supposed to do school.  He is a creature of habit and feels secure with routine and he liked his homeschool day to begin at 9am, continue until lunch break from 12 to 1 and then we were finished at 3.  He played alot of sports, which kept our evenings busy and we traveled and had lots of fun on the weekends.  On our unconventional school days, walking through the park catching bugs or letterboxing at the state park, he would always comment on how great it was to be a homeschooler and get to do these things during the day, but come 3:00, he never really considered anything to be "school".  Son #2 has never attended public school.  He thinks that "school" is either the time spent at the table working on writing and math etc, about 3 hours 3 days a week or the hours we spend at co-op on Thursday mornings....

My daughter sent me some pictures of herself today.  She turned 26 years old this past week and she is 33.5 weeks pregnant with her first child.  I cannot pull myself away from the pictures she sent.  She is so blissfully happy and at peace.  I know in my heart how much my child has wanted to have a baby all her own, but the look on her face really does say it all.  I cannot think of anything more beautiful than my daughter, pregnant with my granddaughter. 

After so many days of gray skies and rain, today's beautiful sunshine and blue skies were a welcome change.  We got to school in plenty of time and Dakota and I set up the room for our class.  I had twelve out of the fourteen there today and four of them still had reports to do on their Amazon animals, while the rest had Amazon Gazette "make up your own animal" mini reports.  We breezed through them rather quickly and then sat together on the carpet while I taught them how to sing The Rainforest Grew All Around song that went with my book.  After the first time I gave them all index cards with their "part" and when we sang through again and their part was mentioned, they had to stand up and put their card over their head.  Then everyone standing turned round and round for the verse.  This was a big hit and the kids had alot of fun with it.  Afterwards, we worked together on an Acrostic poem, with just about everyone participating well and we came up wi...

I had high hopes for today, but unfortunately, some days it's just not in the cards to have a good homeschooling day.  I had to work early so I allowed Dakota some time on the computer to play a new hidden object game...about the Amazon.   Okay, that's somewhat on topic, but I'll just add it as computer time.  Then, as I finished my work, my boss called and asked me to research going from our current microcassette system to a new digital one.  This would be very beneficial to me, not having to drive in to the Lutherville office every week, so I had Dakota sit down and watch Magic School Bus, All Dried Up about the desert for science.  I planned on doing several things after that, but the research for work wasn't going at all well and I was on hold on the phone for an IT company.  I drug out two "children of the world" pictures from his Around the World binder that he had not colored and had him do those.  Still not finished the research!  Now...

Today we focused mainly on Science and Social Studies.  Dakota was sick on Thursday and didn't finish his classwork so he finished that this morning, doing his word search, Amazon Gazette and passport.  We talked about South America and rain forests some and then moved on to science, reading out of our text on how plants and animals help one another and doing the corresponding workbook pages.  Leaving rainforests, we moved on to our next habitat, quickly covering deserts and watching an Eyewitness DVD that wasn't half as good as the last one we watched.  Then Dakota went onto the computer and did some online coloring of desert animals.  We read a factual sheet on deserts and found where they are located across the globe, as well.  Since it was completely gorgeous outside, we took our math out to the deck and battled a good breeze to do some measuring.  His mind was elsewhere, however, so we decided to break for lunch.  Afterward, we finished our M...

Twenty six years ago today, after three days of induced labor and what the military doctors in Wurzburg, Germany told me was 43 weeks of pregancy, I gave birth via c-section to a 6lb 14oz baby girl and my life would never be the same again.  I was nineteen, barely more than a child myself, but that little girl gave my life purpose!  We were buddies, Kris and I.  We were in Germany for three months together and then, after a short visit home, we spent the next year in Colorado.  I remember taking this tiny little baby to restaurants, museums and zoos, talking away to her like she could understand what I said.  I would hold up clothes for her to pick out her favorites.  We spent all of our time together, watching the flowers grow and the sun rise and set.  She was my world.  She was a good baby, sleeping well, barely crying and walking by the time she was nine months old.  For her first birthday I blew up balloons and spelled her name with them...

Have you ever visited a curriculum fair?  Did you like it?  I wrote an article today for my new freelance position as the Baltimore Homeschool Examiner at Examiner.com about the MACHE curriculum fair next week at the Frederick Fairgrounds and wondered what goes on there.  I've been homeschooling for eleven years and have never been to one.  For the most part I am an ecclectic educator, writing my own curriculum using materials from the internet, the library and the thrift store, but I also use texts from Houghton Mifflen, Harcourt and A Beka.  Saxon Math is a staple, as well.  My main issue with curriculum fairs is that I'm afraid I will be overwhelmed with the choices available.  I would most certainly want everything I see!  On the other hand, Dakota is so young, only in kindergarten, and if there are awesome resources available, I would love to know about them.  Last year I discovered Moving Beyond the Page and begged my husband to let me ...

We are fortunate that our family seems to be quite healthy.  We get your usual winter colds and spring allergies, but for the most part, we are a hardy crew.  Yesterday my little son was stricken by the wicked old stomach bug.  We were at co-op when he got sick and he was sick again as soon as we got home.  He spent the day in bed, miserable and pathetic, begging to drink his water, but unable to even keep ice chips down.  He went on and on about the injustice of it all.  "It's not fair!!  I'm thirsty!!  I don't want to lay in bed!!"  I tried to get him to relax and just watch some tv and nap, but he was having none of it.  Finally, around 7:30, he fell asleep and actually had a good night.  By this morning he thought he was feeling fine and my words of wisdom to rest and don't overdo it fell on deaf ears.  By lunch time he was exhausted and ended up taking a two hour nap.  I found that to be a wonderful treat!  When ...

Everyone can use a good deal now and then and in these days of tough economic times, we can use as many of them as we can get.  As a homeschooler who tries to make every cent count, I enjoy finding websites that help me make the most of my money. We are a busy family and we like to do fun things on the weekend together.  Thanks to sites like Groupon.com, Eversave, Certifikid and Living Social, you can get tickets, memberships and admissions at deeply discounted rates!  You can visit the website, sign up for email or Facebook notification and you will receive daily deals in your area from local businesses and venues.  Recently in the Baltimore area there were half price fairs to Pirate Adventures at the Inner Harbor, deeply discounted rates for go cart riding in White Marsh and two movie tickets and two small popcorns for $12 at the Regal Cinemas.  Some deals are only available for purchase for 24 hours and some are good for several days.  You have several m...

Today was one of those days when life was getting to me, but once I shut those doors to the outside world and settled in with my little man, all was well with my world.  We went to the library first and then brought our books home and I let Dakota take his and look them over for 30 minutes.  After that we did his math lesson, working on subtracting half, and then read in our science text about animal adaptation and did the corresponding worksheets.  Dakota read a Diego Rainforest Race book to me and I read 5 chapters of our new Magic Treehouse Book, Afternoon on the Amazon.  Dakota sits well for chapter books, but he still doesn't love them.  Give him picture books any day!  Sometimes I worry because I feel like he should be reading them or at least enjoying them more than he does, but I know that will come eventually.  I like how the MTH book allows us to do our reading while still tying into the rainforest theme that we've been doing for a few weeks ...

Today we had a special treat that we surely would have missed if we had been at work or at school.  My husband isn't busy at work and he took a ride down to the park next to our home.  He called and told me to bring Dakota down to watch a momma fox, so Koda and I jumped in the car and went down to see what was going on.  We turned off the car and watched in fascination as a momma fox ran across the road in front of us, stopping to check us out, then ran into the trees, across the field and up onto a raised mound of dirt, into a rabbit hole and came back out carrying a baby rabbit.  Back across the field she went, through the trees, across the road and into the woods on the other side.  My husband saw her do this twice before we joined him and we saw her go through the whole cycle twice, once with a baby rabbit and the final time coming up empty.  It was sad for the baby rabbits, yes, but we explained the circle of life to Dakota and how this momma was worki...

It's Opening Day here in Baltimore and there is a definite buzz in the air here at our house.  Both the Brians, Jr and Sr, took the day off of school and work to go to the game and Dakota and I will be watching on TV.  I let Dakota enjoy the morning hanging out with his brother and going to the dump, a very coveted trip!, with his dad.  We didn't get started til after lunch and Dakota wasn't really feeling ready to school since no one else was working, so I tickled his fancy with a few baseball books I had gotten out of library last week on baseball, including Dad, Me and Jackie Robinson.  This was a very good book told from the perspective of a young boy in 1947 who's deaf father knew nothing about baseball, but became a huge Jackie Robinson fan and, after a visit to a Brooklyn Dodgers game, asked his baseball loving son to teach him the game.  This gave us a chance to talk about baseball, but also about segregation and revisit our lesson on Rosa Park...

Anyone who knows my family can tell you that youth sports has been a huge part of our lives for the past fifteen years or more. And before anyone jumps on my case, my children are highly competitive, active kids who ask to play these sports. It's either in the blood we all share or the air we breathe in our home.  Maybe both.  The girls cheered, we coached them in softball and basketball, they played high school sports.  My older son was a year round talented athlete.  He started at four years old and played baseball, basketball and football, doing select and metro baseball and traveling around the country, winning championships and having a blast. My husband was the one who coached the girls in softball and started their basketball league, which is also where my oldest boy started playing.  Brian was also Brian David's coach for his entire baseball career until high school and his football coach for all but one year. We started and...

There sure hasn't been much home to our homeschooling lately!  We had the circus on Friday and then this morning Dakota had baseball pictures at 9, we went to breakfast at Dennys together and then Daddy took him to football practice at noon.  He did come home for a bath and then MomMom picked him up for a "date" with her and Auntie Diane to see the new movie Hop.  Now he's finally HOME and in bed, getting ready for his first arena football game tomorrow morning.  We have to be there at....8am...on a Sunday morning.  Home schooling really needs a different name.  We may school together as a family, but we surely don't do it all from home!!

Today Dakota and I went to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.  We went with alot of other homeschool friends and my friend Leigh and her granddaughter.  The kids were excited, the arena was packed and the preshow was hyping everyone up.  It started right on time and right away you could tell that the circus had joined the 21st century.  There were lots of screens, lasers and glitzy sets.  The costumes were modern and the songs very hiphop and cool.  Dakota was sucked right in, waving and smiling.  We had excellent seats, 3 rows off the floor, and each act brought a bigger smile and more shine to his eyes.  I really wasn't looking forward to the day, but we ended up having alot of fun and, while I enjoyed the show, I enjoyed watching Dakota more.  Now we are home and he is in his room building a circus with his legos and using his little people and animals to make his own acts.  Gotta love his ingenuity!  Next y...