Halloween and everything else...

Halloween was much fun this year.  Here's our Tom Thumb Dragon getting ready to trick or treat.  I tried to upload some other photos, but my blog is refusing to load them...maybe later.  Halloween was loads of fun.  That night "The Sugar Sweet Fairy" came and picked up their excess candy (we let them each keep 5 pieces) and traded it out for a Tangled doll for Red and a Percy train for Tom Thumb.  Well worth it as far as I'm concerned.  We're trying really hard right now to keep a cavity at bay for Red.

School is still going well for Red.  We're still plugging away at OPGTR and we're at lesson 113 now.  Yay!  We're doing some writing practice and a wee bit of math.  I wish I had more to report, but we've had some sickness going around in our house that has been holding us back from doing much. 

Happy November to all!

Coming up on Lesson 100 in OPGTR!

Yesterday we finished lesson 98 in The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, which was about the long O sound of OA .  I feel really strongly that reading is the most important thing Red should be doing academically right now.  Since she is going to 1/2 day afternoon kindergarten five days a week, we have dropped doing math and writing at home (except for practice work that is sent home by her teacher).  We have continued plugging away at OPGTR for about 15 minute per day.  Although she doesn't come to the lesson enthusiastically everyday, we are making progress and she's fighting me about it less and less.  There are 231 lessons so I'm hoping we finish it by the end of her kindergarten year. 

I really can't say enough good things about that book!  What I love is that it systemically teaches phonics in an order that makes sense and is easy to understand.  The only bummer is that so many "easy reader" books that are out there depend on the child's ability to memorize sight words in order to read the book.  My plan right now is to keep working away at OPGTR, and then when we finish it to have her start reading to me 10 minutes per day from a book of her choice.  Currently, Red has no interest in reading aloud to me.  She will do so when asked, but not of her own choosing.  On the other hand, she will sit there and listen to me read all day.  Today she stayed home from school because she was feeling ill.  She took a two hour nap this afternoon (she napped?!?!  That's when I definitely knew she was sick).  She watched some television, but over the course of the day I must have read aloud to her for about three hours.  We finished reading Charlotte's Web (what an outstanding book!  I can't wait to read it to Tom Thumb when he's older), we read a whole bunch of Mr. Putter and Tabby books including this one (love 'em!), and started Twenty and Ten.

School overall is going well.  I signed on with another mother to be co-room parents.  Our duties are to plan crafts and activities when there are holiday parties at school.  Red can't wait to go to school everyday.  She's only had to sit at the "peace table" (AKA the naughty spot) twice so far---yay!  My only complaint is that the teachers haven't really hit their stride as far as organization goes yet, but I think once they get that all worked out it should be fine.  One thing I really like is the "Friday Folder".  Every Friday Red brings home a folder in which the teacher includes comments about what she's working on currently and her behavior.  It's nice to have some sense of what's going on on a week to week basis and not just hearing about it at parent/teacher conferences--- which by the way are coming up around Thanksgiving.

Tomorrow the kids start back to swim class.  Tom Thumb will be a Tadpole (the first level after Parent Tot classes) and Red will be a Sunfish (her first time in the lap pool learning how to do the crawl).  While Tom Thumb can't wait to go tomorrow, Red is very scared about not being able to touch the bottom of the lap pool.  There's no shallow part.  The shallowest area is about 4.5 to 5 feet deep.  It's just shallow enough for me to have my shoulders above the water and I'm 5' 11".  Red is only 41" tall.  Our regular babysitter Colleen who is also a lifeguard there is going to meet us a few minutes early so she can help Red get acclimated to the lap pool before her teacher takes over.  Luckily, the teacher is Colleen's boyfriend so we already know him.  I hope that helps matters.  We'll see how it goes.  Fingers are crossed that there's not too much crying.

Tom Thumb is 3, a princess tea party, and Old Car Festival!

Last week Tom Thumb turned 3.  Yay!  It was such a great day.  He was so happy and loved all his gifts and his Thomas cake.  We bought him a big set of Magna-tiles which he adores, as you can see here:

It was a pretty big week.  Red also went to a friend's birthday party,which was a princess tea party.  We took a pink limo to the party (the mommies were invited), the girls had their hair done and got to wear ball gowns, participated in a fashion show, and ate ice cream sundaes and other treats.  This all happened while a group of women dressed like princesses and ladies in waiting sang and danced.  Needless to say, the party was over the top!

Here's the princess welcoming them to the party!

Here are all the little princesses.

And introducing Princess Red!

And just to top off another busy week, we took the Model T to Old Car Festival. 

We had a great time driving around the car, seeing friends, and participating in car games.  The funniest one was the Chinese firedrill when Red got out of the car and just kept running to the finish line instead instead of getting back in!  We stayed for the fireworks and dancing to 1920s music that night, and Andrew danced with an older woman.

...and danced with Natalie.

I also drove the car for the first time and very appropriately won the slow car race. 

Cheers to another great week!

Our First Day of Public School and forget China

Red started public school this week.  She only had two days because our district had off two days for Ramadan, but so far she really seems to like it.  What's working for me is that she always required a lot of extra attention while Tom Thumb was down for his extended afternoon nap.  Now she's not here.  It's like a 3 hour break when I can actually do some housekeeping and stuff.  Have I done that yet?  No, but I have good intentions.

One thing that does bother me though is that she will not tell me what she did at school during the day.  It's probably a control issue on my part.  When I've asked her what she did, her response has been, "I don't know" or "I forget".  I told the Cobbler that I'm just going to start grooving next week with what I originally planned to do (i.e. our read aloud list, OPGTR, Rightstart A, a bit of Getty Dubay A) so have some idea what is actually going into her little mind.

Now as far as our studying China plan went...well, it didn't really go.  We did watch Big Bird in China, which the kids really liked.  We read a couple of books.  Then, when I took out something else to do that was Chinese the reaction was, "Another thing about China? (sigh)"  I guess I learned my lesson.  When the path of study is not child led, it can be too much especially at age 5.  Now that I'm writing this Red just walked in with a piece of paper and said, "Look Mom--- I wrote in Chinese!"  And she had!  She copied characters out of one of the library books about China.  Then she said, "What do these say?"  Of course, I have no idea and really no way to find out.  (Big sigh)  I guess something did sink in.

What's the big deal about "Stuart Little"?

That's right, people.  I thought the book Stuart Little stunk.  I hardly ever say this about a book, but I liked the movie better.  The book was very disconnected, the characters weren't very likeable, and even Stuart made some decisions that I completely didn't understand. 

In the spirit of full disclosure, I saw the movie with Geena Davis first.  I thought it was cute and heartwarming, a bit cheesy, but overall a good family flick.  The only parallel I can draw between the movie and the book is that the main character in both is a mouse who lives with a family named the Littles.  That is where the similarities end.  In the movie, Stuart is adopted; in the book, he's born to Mrs. Little and just happens to be small and look like a mouse.  In the movie, a main plot point is about Stuart's parents and what happened to them; in the book, the main plot point is Stuart pursuing his friend who is a bird.  They are nothing alike! 

One very weird part in the book is when Stuart comes to a town during his road trip in pursuit of the bird and he asks a 2 inch tall girl who happens to live in the town out on a date.  When his plans to take her on a canoe trip are thwarted when some kids ruin his souvenier size canoe, he throws a fit and doesn't even want to hang out with the girl so she leaves.  The book ends with him driving off into the sunset (okay, actually he's driving north) still looking for the bird Margalo.  That's it.  Did E.B. White just get bored with writing the story?  That's how I felt when it ended.

We had a Trumpet of the Swan lined up to read next.  I had some qualms about it after the Stuart Little experience, but we read through Chapter 2 yesterday and so far so good.  Let's just let it be known that I'll read Tom Thumb Charlotte's Web and I'll probably read him Trumpet of the Swan (based on what we've read so far), but we'll pass on Stuart Little as a read aloud.  Bring on the movie and some popcorn.

This week science---next week China!

Red is in science day camp right now.  She was in it last week and this week.  She seems to be having a good time, but I'm convinced that she won't be doing it next summer.  Going the full day seems to be too long for her (she's kind of crabby around dinner) and she really wasn't into going at the beginning of this week.  One week probably would have been enough.  Too bad they didn't offer that as a choice.

We bought a pass for the month of August to our city's recreation center so we can use the pool.  Red has been scared of water for quite a while, despite the fact we had her taking parent-tot swim lessons at 6 months old.  She has taken swimming lessons fairly consistently since then and still has a lot of fear.  We have set up with our regular babysitter (who also is a lifeguard at the center) to give her lessons twice a week for the next three weeks so we can work through some of her issues.  We've gone swimming there three days in a row now and she seems to be a bit more comfortable.  She actually put her face in the water yesterday!  That's a HUGE improvement.  Her first swimming lesson is next Wednesday so we'll see how that goes.

Unfortunately, we're not jetting off to China next week; however, Tom Thumb and I went to the library this morning to check out some books on China. We'll be doing some reading, DVD watching, crafting, and cooking this coming week. I'll put up a more detailed post once we get underway.

Now that Red's going to be home again all week, I want to get back in our groove.  My plans are to have breakfast, go to the pool, come home and have a snack, do some housekeeping, have lunch, put Tom Thumb down for his nap, and in the afternoon do some fun projects with Red.  I'm hoping to do our geography stuff (can't wait to cook!), some reading lessons, a bit of math (I want to cruise along a bit so we can get to some more math games in the book), and work on lowercase letters.

On a separate note, I have gotten mixed reviews from friends and family about our choice to have Red attend 1/2 day afternoon kindergarten.  My family (who were skeptical of homeschooling) has obviously been very happy.  The reaction of my friend who is a homeschooling mom of seven was "OH NO!"  Most of the other responses have been somewhere between those two extremes.  My stand on it is we will take it one day at a time.  I do not view it as a permanent decision and we will see how it works.  If it doesn't, I am strong enough to bring her back home.  No qualms.  If it does, I'm not going to let what other people think influence our decision.  What I have learned through this process is that I am not going to let my personal pride get in the way of what will be best for each child in our family. 

See you in China!

Some changes--- what am I doing!?!?

So this week has been very tumultuous.  Here's the story:

On Sunday, I was approached after church by a mother of one of my friends from college.  Here's, in essence, what she said:

So Katie told me that you are planning on homeschooling in the fall.  I think that's great, but I wanted to let you know that I'm coming back as principal at the Montessori school and there are open slots in the afternoon kindergarten.  There will only be ten kids in the class.  Of course, it's free and the kindergarten teacher is fantastic.  I thought you might be interested.  If you are, let me know.

That short conversation sent me into a tailspin.  The Montessori school she is referring to is public and is usually the most difficult school to get into in the district.  They hold a lottery every year in April to see who gets in.  I have never met a single person who has been unhappy with their experience there.  Quite the contrary, everyone seems thrilled to be getting what they perceive to be close to a private Montessori experience for no money.

The top three reasons I decided to homeschool for K were that I didn't want full day kindergarten (every public school in our district is full day except this one), I was concerned about class size, and I was concerned about teacher quality.  Everything she said neutralized those concerns.  Red has been asking to try kindergarten and go with her friends.  Her two closest friends from the neighborhood lotteried into the afternoon kindergarten class there.  I had told her that she couldn't go with them because she couldn't get in.  That's not the case now.  I have trouble keeping her busy in the afternoon usually because Tom Thumb is asleep from 1-4ish usually.  Kindergarten would be from 1230-330PM.

The Cobbler and I talked it over.  He said, "I don't see a downside.  And if it doesn't work out, you can pull her out."  It all seemed to be coming together so perfectly.  Then why was I unable to sleep at night?

I had planned to be her mother and her teacher for so long.  I had spent hours researching and selecting curricula not just for this year but for future years.  I had put together a list of books we would read for our geography study.  My whole plan was in jeopardy.  If I'm not homeschooling her full time, who am I? Am I now a public school parent? What?!?! That doesn't feel like me.  It was then I had to stop and think---who is this really about?   I didn't want to let her go to school because my identity was at risk.   

I was going crazy and at the time emailing back and forth with the leader of the homeschooling group that I'm in about whether or not I could or would stay in the group.  Here's a quotation from one of her emails.  In that moment, it helped me so much:

You are still a homeschooling parent- you have a preschooler at home to work with. Don't forget that. And just because she is going, doesn't mean he will. I have had to deal with that a lot with both kids- one may want to school the other may not, and you might always be homeschooling one, or you might have a year or two off of it, who knows. I really think, in the end, you just have to revisit it every year, and it sucks for planners like myself, and probably you, who want to have it all planned out in advance, but parenting just isn't that way, nor is homeschooling, if you are going to follow your kids lead, and do what is best for them- and that's what you are doing. You aren't following any dogma, and it's harder I think at times to do this- well, no, I KNOW it's harder to parent that way- but it's worth it. You teach them to fly this way.  I wouldn't try to get caught up in the labels (public school parent/homeschool parent, etc.). Just be their mother- that's who you are. That is what matters, none of the rest of it.

So we're going to let her go and see how it goes.  Sigh...   We're going to do what I planned too, but be flexible about it and do things as they make sense.  I'm not going to be a slave driver.  It's kindergarten for goodness sake! 

Will she stay in public school for first grade?  We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.  For now, we're still homeschoolers afternooning as public schoolers--- ha ha!  I'm done with playing the label game.  I'm going to do what makes sense for our family and see what happens along the way.