Cindy's Life as She Knows It

Yesterday we had scheduled a trip for our co-op to go to Fort McHenry, home of Francis Scott Key and the Star Spangled Banner.  It's only about ten minutes from us and it offers lots of educational opportunities, but also has wide open spaces for the kids to run and play in.  Of course we woke up to impending rain, as is the case almost every day here lately in Maryland.  The skies were gray and most of those who did say they were coming backed out.  My friend Kelly had never taken her three little girls there and she had really planned for this day, so she said she was packing her raingear and they were in.  Since it was close and Dakota and I had planned to go as well, we packed up the baby and our own rain gear and headed to the Fort.  Once there we were met by another friend, Barb, and her three young sons.  Dakota and I have a Passport to the Parks book and we got to put our first set of stamps inside.  Then our three families...

Today is Johnny Appleseed's birthday, one of my favorite "Today's Specials" to do as a homeschooler.  This morning we started by reading about apples and about Johnny Appleseed then went in to slice and apple and find the hidden star.  We went to this website, http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1713,144191-253197,00.html  to get an easy recipe and made some tasty homemade applesauce.  Dakota was old enough now to help with the apple parer and to use a plastic knife to slice the apples and put them in a pot.  We let them simmer while we made an apple tree from tagboard and construction paper, using his traced arm as the tree trunk and his stamped thumbprint as the apples.  By the time we were finished it was time to add the cinnamon and nutmeg and turn up the heat on our applesauce.  I love extending a simple lesson this way.  The house smelled wonderful and my son felt very accomplished, having made a nice treat for the family (even though he won't to...

Every September I start off with a bang, loading the homeschool schedule and asking way too much of my child and of myself.  I want to fit it all in, cover every subject and have everything go smoothly.  I do this EVERY year (for twelve years now!) and you would think I would know better by now.  I end up very stressed out with a stressed out child and I doubt my decision to homeschool at all.  And then I breathe.... The past two weeks I have felt like a spring pulled to capacity and ready to sproing off into the atmosphere!  I know that my hormones were raging as well, which didn't help things.  I was tense this past Wednesday morning, even though it was the first time in four years that I did not have to teach a class at co-op.  I hadn't followed up on the classrooms being open.  I got a late start.  Dakota was on my last nerve.  Same old, same old for the past few weeks, but I really felt like I was losing it.  So I get the kid...

Friday was the last day in the craziest of September weeks.  I had to be out the door, supposedly, at 8:20 for a field trip, but at 8:15 I still had a friend, my daughter, my husband and the two little ones in the living room.  We got a late start to the Anne Arundel County Fair Children's Day, but by divine intervention we made it there on time.  I only had one family do a "no call/no show", which is better than most times, and my sister, great nephew, Dakota, Natalie and I began our day.  There were the usual displays and animals and a new treat, a camel ride, that the boys really enjoyed.  We got to the pig and duck races just in time to see them and Dakota got picked as the "cheerleader" for the duck race, which made him happy.  I love spending time with my sister, so it was a real treat.  We got lunch and watched a police dog demonstration and then headed over to the rides.  My sister said that she would meet me at the rides after taking her ...

Today we got a late start to schoolwork because I got caught up in trying to rearrange the playroom, soon to be Natalie's nursery only, and Dakota's room.  We got going about 10:30 and got in our ladybug packet and our work on Delaware.  I have lots of fun books and coloring books for the states and I am looking forward to sharing them all with Koda.  We got a call from our friends who were going to be in the are and, in true homeschool form, changed the schedule and had an impromptu playdate.  I got to chat with my girlfriend and Koda and his buddy got to play for a good 90 minutes before they left and we resumed our work.  We didn't have long before we had to take Brian to get his truck, so we squeezed in a little language arts basics and then I hooked up Dakota's car movie player and he watched a Rock N Learn Spanish DVD.  Rock and Learn videos are awesome.  They are fun and interesting and have always been a favorite for us.  When we got back,...

Whew!  It's Hump Day and I knew that if I made it this far, I would be exhausted.  This was that one week in September that comes every year that seems to be jam packed with activities and wears me out when I even glanced at the calendar.  In addition to my regular life, which is always quite busy, we had many activities to do this week.  Monday morning started with a trip to the pediatrician for Dakota's 7 year check up.  He did fine, had grown well and was even a good sport about getting a treatment for a wart on his knee.  When we came home I tried to get some reasonable semblance of a homeschool day going, but that wasn't really on Dakota's "to do" list.  At 3:00 we had our friends visit while their mom went to work and at 6:00 we had a make up baseball game in Catonsville.  Tuesday morning, bright and early, we got Natalie and got all our stuff ready and headed out to the Maryland Science Center for Homeschool Days and classes.  We wen...

Today is the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States.  New York, Washington, DC and Pennsylvania all took direct hits, but an entire nation will never forget the events that played out that day.  Where were you when you heard the news about the World Trade Center buildings?  What were you doing?  I will never forget that day either.  It was my first year homeschooling my oldest son, well, my only son then and he was my youngest child, eight years old.  My girls were 16 and 13, in high school and middle school respectively.  It was a normal morning and Brian was at the table doing his morning work, getting himself ready for the day.  I went outside to take out the trash and when I came in I saw the first tower in flames and the announcers were saying there had been an accident.  I wasn't afraid then, just thinking what a terrible thing to have happened.  I called my mom and we were talking about it when I happe...

Today we all got up early and my husband and older son left at 7am to go to the team breakfast before the big football game, the Patriot Classic, at Navy Stadium.  My oldest and her husband and baby and my mother in law all met here and with Dakota and I, we squeezed into my car and off we went.  We had to travel about 40 minutes into Annapolis and we had just arrived when my son called frantic because they all needed their red jerseys and I had to go home and get it.  We turned around, headed for home, got the jersey and headed back and got to our seats just in time to see the boys run through the tunnel to start the game.  It was a nice day for the game, thank goodness, because it took all of three hours.  Our Spalding Cavaliers beat the Potomac Wolverines 15-12 in a down-to-the-wire match.   The next game was starting immediately so we couldn't go onto the field to see the players or coaches.  We all piled back into the car, after a last...

Today was a nice, normal day.  My granddaughter came in and played and did her thing until 9:30 and by 10am Dakota and I had started our homeschooling day.  We read some, did some assignments and then had fun with our Adam and Eve religion lesson where we made a chain loop serpent to depict the "sneaky snake" in our story.  I am surprised by how excited he is to write in his Super Sentence book.  He doesn't like to write normally, but coming up with the details and the who, what, where and when of things for a good sentence seems to be something he takes pride in.  We have changed up our math, but it is too easy so we are changing to Harcourt and then eventually, after a thorough review, we will return to Saxon 2.  We found a great new spelling site that Koda thinks is lots of fun.  Visit at http://www.spellingcity.com/ and put in your own spelling list and your child can test, play games and hear his words and sentences to put them in context.  ...

Today was the first day of my new AAHE Cooperative, a co-op venture I started with my friends Kelly and Lavender to help meet our needs for our homeschooled children.  The location is less than 10 minutes from my home and it is small, with a less intense teaching schedule for the twelve families involved to help lessen the load that we all are under.  Yesterday I did a combined class with the sixteen children, ages 5 to 9, on the United States of America. We started with a video that talked about our country's patriotic songs and then played the songs for the kids.  They were quiet and focused, always good.  To officially begin the class, we did a KWL chart about the US and what they knew was impressive.  What they wanted to know seemed to center around the wars our country fought, which I thought was a little odd, but hey, I asked!  We then made a list of all 50 states and I got some cute answers, but all in all, they knew what they were talking ...

Today was one of those days in every homeschooler/stay at home mom's life when she says "why?".  Why am I putting myself through this?  Why don't I use public school and daycare?  Why don't I just enjoy a quiet house where there is no contention? You know the days.  We all have them.  I had alot to do and it was weighing on my mind.  I got up on time, got the laundry done and the house straightened, took my shower and poured my coffee all before 8am.  My granddaughter came and she seemed pleasant enough.  I had all my work, school items and co-op class papers nearby and I was ready to tackle my day. I'm not sure when things started to go south.  My son was not at all focused and while I tried to get him to do a few easy tasks, he fidgeted, talked back, took way too much time to color simple things and just, in general, didn't want to do much.  My granddaughter, who usually sleeps from 9 to 12:30, wouldn't go down until 9:30 and she w...

Sunday was the day chosen to host Dakota's family birthday celebration and he wanted to have a cookout/bonfire.  We had the family over, which I have realized now means quite a few people, and the festivities kicked off at four.  We had good food on our new grill and lots of family conversation and laughter.  We had enough tree limbs, courtesy of Hurricane Irene, to make a bonfire early and keep it going all evening.  Dakota got some really great gifts, including his own DSLite, his first game system that wasn't a hand-me-down, Mario Wii Sports and Jack Sparrow and an awesome pirate sword.  He toasted marshmallows and made smores then he and his cousin played some basketball and spent the evening inside playing Wii.  The adults got to chat, pass the baby around and enjoy fairly quiet time.  The young adults really enjoyed themselves and I got alot of satisfaction watching them and remembering when they were the children.  The festivities wrapped u...

Today is Monday, Labor Day, and I can't believe that I started our homeschooling year last Tuesday and haven't even been on to post!  Not only is my son now an official first grader, but he is also a very proud seven year old!  It has been eventful, to say the least! On Tuesday we started our homeschooling year.  We had a wonderful morning, working at our table on the deck outside in perfect weather while my little granddaughter slept the morning away in her room.  We got in all the important subjects and then some and had fun in the process.  Tuesday evening the 7/8 Rockies played the Red Sox and Dakota had a great game.  He played alot of second and third base for his fall ball team and I think he shows alot of promise.  Baseball is definitely a good fit for him and he has a strong arm and good fundamental knowledge.  I wonder if we will be able to take the same exciting path with him that we did with his brother, traveling with our metro te...