Melting My Heart

"Knock knock?"

"Who's there?"

"Hug."

"Hug, who?"

"Hug for my mommy!"

That's how Baylee said good night to me last night. 

Some Subjects Are Harder To Teach Than Others...

And for me, teaching writing has been the hardest!  The thing is, I've been told I'm a pretty good writer, but I'm finding out that doesn't necessarily translate into being able to teach it.  Maybe it makes it harder come to think of it, because "what sounds right" is largely intuitive.  I can look at a piece of writing and think, "That's clunky," but how do I explain that to someone else?  "Zach, sentences and paragraphs are like music in a way.  They have a rhythm.  They flow."  Blank stare.  And then there's the whole issue of killing a budding writer's spirit.  What do I point out and what do I ignore?  I'm here to tell you, the subject has been a thorn in my side.

This year alone I've tried three different approaches to teaching writing.  First I tried a "paragraph starter" approach, which worked fine for awhile, then Zach and Drew both got sick of it.  I think they got a little tired of always having to answer outlandish questions like, "You're a giant!  What do you do?!"  Besides, I always understood it wasn't a long-term solution.  It got the boys a little more comfortable with the process, but didn't really teach anything.

Next I tried just letting them write whatever tickled their fancy for fifteen minutes each day.  That was okay, but eventually it devolved into, "I'm looking at the vacuum cleaner.  There it is.  Mom vacuums with it.  Is my fifteen minutes over yet?"

Finally out of desperation I dug out the writing program I bought last year and then shelved, Writing Strands 3.  Isn't it interesting how something can be totally wrong at one point, then later exactly fit a need?  We've been using Writing Strands for several weeks now and I appreciate it.    I'm not using it for Drew because I sense he's not ready, but for Zach it's been wonderful.  He's learning to organize his thoughts, write meaty sentences, and create work we're both proud of.  I see myself continuing with this series for a long time to come...knock on wood.

Grandpa's Hotrod

One of the neat things for the kids about living with Grandma and Grandpa is visiting grandpa down in his shop.  He's retired, so he spends some part of every day out there restoring a 1936 Ford sedan.  He's been working on it for eleven years now.  I told him after that long the car should be able to travel through time.  He got a good chuckle out of that.

Zach in the "street rod."

Holy Slug!

Did I mention it rains a lot here?  It does.  And the weird thing is that all the Washingtonians seem to be so used to it that they walk around as if every day was the nicest, sunniest day ever...as if the rain wasn't completely ruining their hair!  I'm telling you it's rare to see an umbrella.

And here's another thing:  They grow their slugs BIG around here.  As in, "Holy cow, that's the mother of all slugs!  Get the camera!"

That's Drew's almost 9 year old hand next to it for size comparison.

Don't worry, though.  I'm never going outside again without looking down.  Yuck!

Family

A few days before we left Michigan, my brother and sister and I and our families got together at our parents' house for dinner and good-byes.  My mom decided that family pictures were in order, and I'm so glad she did!  I just love these pictures.

Here's us:

Drew, Mike, Baylee, Sue, and Zach

Here's my brother (3 years younger) and his family:

Eric, Olivia, and Becka

Here's my sister (9 years younger) and her family:

Lindsey, Mykala, Travis, and Aiden

And here's my mom and dad with all of their grandchildren:

I miss them!

The Family Bed

Mike and I aren't the "family bed" types.  Nothing against people who are, it's just...we're not.  Unfortunately, Baylee seems to be a devout follower of the philosophy.  At some point every night she sneaks in and climbs under the covers with us, and the next thing Mike and I know we're waking up to find ourselves clinging onto the far edge of the mattress for dear life.  And that Baylee's a sprawler.  A sneaky sprawler!  And a cover hog!  And we're downright sick of it!

A few days ago we received this letter, hand delivered:

Dear Mom and DaD

I am sore [sorry] for Getin in to yowr beD evre Dae.  I shod stae in my own beD.  I Love you and I dont wont DaD to fol off.

Baylee

It's hard to be mad at a kid like that.  LOL  Anyway, here's hoping she's not going to sleep with us forever.

We Made It!

It took us a solid week of travel, due partly to a huge blizzard that we ran into in Iowa which completely shut down the highway, and partly to a very nice couple days we spent in Wyoming with Mike's sister and her family, but we made it.  Actually, we've been here in Washington for almost two weeks now.  Here's a few pictures taken during the trip.  The first two were snapped by Zach through the car window, and the third was taken at a gas station by Mike:

Now we're here and settled in with Mike's parents until we move into our own house, which is going to happen on April 1st.  We found a cute little house that we all like, and I'm counting down the days to get into it.  In the meantime, though, Mike's parents have been very gracious.  Here's a picture of the kids homeschooling up in the loft of Grandma and Grandpa's house:

They get to sit at tables that Grandma uses to teach art classes, which is fun because there's vast supplies of crayons, colored pencils, markers, and other crafty type things immediately at hand.  Baylee is in coloring heaven.  lol

Now that I'm back in the saddle again with blogging, I'll update more regularly.  Thanks for reading and wondering how the move went!

Sue