Cindy's Life as She Knows It

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 ...