Sunday School

I often have my 4- and 5-year-old Sunday school kids help me tell the Bible story by acting it out.  Today we were doing one that involved Jesus' friends having dinner together, when one of the little boys in the class decided to go off script:  "And then they started throwing chicken bones at each other!"  Of course, this was WAY more fun than my version, so I lost a bit of control of the situation for awhile.  ("Hey, now, disciples!  Stop throwing chicken bones!")   Hopefully that won't be the way they remember that story in the future.

A Rant and Something I'm Thankful For

Rant

I mentioned before somewhere here on the blog that one of my big pet peeves is when homeschooling moms tell other homeschooling moms, "Don't worry about it!  He's young!" in response to the question, "I'm worried about my child.  He doesn't seem to be learning to read.  What should I do?"  Argh.  I mean, what the heck?  What do those moms really know?

Today I've got a related pet peeve to share:  Homeschooling moms who answer that same question with, "Have him wear tinted glasses!" or "Have him read through a colored plastic overlay!"  I actually read this exact sentence on a homeschool mom's forum today:  "After I got [a child in my school] colored pencils and pink glasses, her grade shot up to 100% within 3 weeks!"  Sigh.  Really?

Maybe I'm being a jerk or a cynic, but after going through the hardest job I've ever had, teaching a dyslexic to read and write, and having it take YEARS, I seriously doubt this lady's claim.  I think she may be the one wearing the rose-colored glasses.

Something I'm Thankful For

I'm really thankful for YouTube.  Just this week I've used it twice to supplement something the kids were working on in school.  A few days ago Zach wasn't totally grasping the concept of absolute advantage vs. comparative advantage in his economics class, so I found an informative video about it and had him watch it.  It did the trick.  Then today Baylee needed help understanding the flow of blood through the heart, and, of course, there was a great video about that, too.  We're lucky to be homeschooling in such a "knowledge at your fingertips" age. 

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Edited to Add:  Okay, I did some research on my rant and discovered that tinted glasses do help a certain type of dyslexia.  The See Right Dyslexia Glasses website says this:

Visual problems are problems that make seeing words on the page difficult to read or make reading for extended periods of time difficult.  Processing problems involve having difficulty with the meaning or confusion about words.

The website goes on to say that the tinted glasses may help if someone has visual dyslexia, but they won't help if someone has problems with processing:

Most dyslexics have word processing problems that are due to language processing problems that also involve speech. Dyslexics without visual problems that make reading difficult for them will see no benefit from the See Right Dyslexia Glasses.

Some dyslexics do have both word processing and visual problems. These dyslexics will benefit from using the See right Dyslexia Glasses to remove their visual problems so that they do not have to battle the difficulties caused by both language processing differences and visual problems.

I guess, then, I was both right and wrong.




 

Two Fun Things

I ordered Zach's graduation announcements today!  I think they turned out wonderfully.

Also fun is that a couple weeks ago I signed Baylee up for the next level of swimming lessons, which is called "Competitive Skills."  She'll do that for six weeks, and she'll learn things she needs to know to compete on a swim team.  (I think that probably means working on strokes, endurance, flip turns, starting from the block, and reading the clock.)  Then today I signed her up for the Shoreline Rec's summer swim team.  It's called the Gators.  She'll have swim practice every morning, Monday through Thursday, all summer, and there will be meets, too.  She's pretty excited and a little nervous.

Today

"Hey, I don't want to go into the store, because people will wonder why I'm not in school. Oh, wait...never mind. It's fine. They'll look at my shirt and know I'm a homeschooler." ~Baylee
 

(Her shirt says "I heart heart Dr. Who.")

 

PS:  Dr. Who is an alien on a show called Dr. Who, and he has two hearts.

Couple Pics

I took a few pictures this morning.  Most of them didn't turn out, but a couple did.

Drew studying history and Cooper looking cute...

 

Our front yard today...  It looks so nice, because Mike had the day off yesterday and he spent lots of time out there mowing and weeding. 

I think that might be all I've got.  Life around here is full (and sometimes it makes me grouchy), but it's not blog-worthy.  We've mostly been busy getting through this last month or so of school.

Car-Related Embarrassing Stories and the Cat

The other day something I read on FB reminded me of an embarrassing moment that I don't think I've ever shared here:

One time, back when we lived in MI, I went to the mall.  When I was done with my shopping I walked back out into the parking lot and I couldn't find my car.  I looked and looked for ages, but it was hopeless.  Finally I had to have mall security drive me around to help me find it.  I'm special.

Oh, another car-related embarrassing moment just occurred to me.  I don't think I've told this here, either, but if I have I apologize for the repeat.  ("I'm repetitive.  I repeat myself.  I say things over and over." ~Cliff Clavin)  One time when I was in high school my dad asked me to take the family car through the car wash.  I'd never done that before, but I figured it probably wasn't that hard.  I drove to the car wash, got in line, moved forward when the man signaled me, and then...well...things went downhill.  I didn't line the wheels up correctly, and one of front tires hit of the edge of the track and popped.  I sat there in the driver's seat, kind of at a loss, until the attendant walked over and motioned for me to roll down the window.  I did.  He calmly said, "You popped the tire."

"Umm...yeah..."

Okay, get out."  I got out and he backed the car up a bit and parked it.  Then he said, "Do you have a spare?"  Turns out I did, so he changed the tire and sent me on my way, back to my dad, without even washing the car.  ("Hey, Dad, you'll never guess what happened...")

Baylee took this picture today.

Happy Easter!

We had a nice day, and I hope you did, too.  We started out by going to church, and, man, that was a wonderful service, music-wise.  It made me cry.

After that we went to Patty's for Easter dinner.  I dropped the ball almost completely when it comes to pictures, unfortunately.  I got these...

Baylee had a really cute Easter dress on, but she quickly changed into this before we left for Patty's.  It's one of two new Dr. Who shirts she bought for herself with some of her dog-walking money.  She's my little geek.

Patty's neighbors have this going on in their yard.  I ask you:  In what universe does that look like a good idea???  (Oh, wait, never mind.  They've got a safety net, so everything should be fine.) 

Finally, I tried to snap a nice picture of our dinner on the table, but I ended up capturing the moment when Baylee was explaining to the boys what elbow skin is called.

The "Band"

I mentioned before that Drew is in a "band" that he and some other boys from the SoR started.  I said it was 3 other boys, but I got that wrong.  I think it started out being 3 others, but then when it came down to it there were only 2 other kids besides Drew.  Drew's on guitar, another kid is on bass, and the third is on drums.  (They still don't have a singer.)  They always practice at the home of the kid who plays the drums, since drums aren't portable.  It works out, though, because that kid's parents built a very small (closet-sized) soundproof room in part of their garage, then they stuck the kid's drumset in there as a way to survive and not go crazy.  lol  Anyway, so the 3 boys cram into that little room and play to their heart's content every Saturday morning for 3 hours.  I have no idea what they're accomplishing, but they're having a great time.

Speaking of that kind of thing, I read an article this morning about a real band that's becoming successful, and 3/4 of its members met each other and started playing together while they were still students at the Seattle School of Rock several years ago.  Cool!  The article explains the SoR by calling it "Montessori-like."  Huh.  I've thought before that Drew's musical education has been somewhat Suzuki-like, in that he learned to play by ear before he learned to read music, but I never considered that it's Montessori-like.  Interesting.  I think there's something to that, because the kids at the school learn by doing.  That is, if they're in the performance program they're always either preparing for the next show or playing in it.  They learn in order to perform.  Also, they follow their own interests.  That's how Montessori schools work, from what I understand.

Mike's Story

Today Mike went out to run a couple errands, and when he got back home he had quite an interesting story for us.  He told us that he had pulled into a parking lot and gotten out of his car, when right in front of him two other cars pulled out of their spaces at the same time and backed into each other.  Mike watched while the drivers each got out of their vehicles and started arguing about whose fault it was.  They both happened to be women who looked to be in their mid-to-late sixties, and they both had thick accents.  One sounded Eastern European and the other sounded East African.  Mike thought about offering his services as a witness, but then he noticed that somebody else was coming over to help, so he just made his way into the store instead.

Ten or fifteen minutes later he came back out and the women were still going at it.  That man who was trying to help was still there, too, but it didn't look like he was having much effect.  The other store Mike needed to go to was right next door, so he walked over there.  Another twenty minutes or so later he was back outside again, and...yep...the women were still arguing.  In fact, now they each had reinforcements in the form of other family members.  Oh, and that guy who tried to get involved?  He was off to the side playing blues on an electric guitar.  He gave up mediating and started busking instead.   Mike made his way around all these people who were yelling and gesticulating, put his bags in his car, stood there and thought about it for a second, and finally decided that he should probably let them know he was a witness.

He walked into the middle of the group.  "Hey!" he shouted in order to be heard, "I saw what happened!"  Everyone stopped and looked at him.  "Neither of you was looking, and you both pulled out at the same time and hit each other.  Did you exchange information?"  The women said that they did.  "Okay, then.  It's over.  Shake hands and go home."

Mike told me that he didn't truly expect anything to happen.  I mean...come on.  Who would listen to some random dude who walks up and takes control of the situation?  But they did!  They totally listened to him!  They actually shook hands with each other, got into their cars, and drove off.

My husband is kind of a super hero.   

Geometry

For another $100 I could've purchased a video teacher to teach geometry to the boys this year.  In retrospect, I should've probably done that, not because I haven't been able to handle the job myself, but because I hate math.  Oh well.  Live and learn.

Aside from the hating-it thing, though, the only real issue I've had with the course is that once in awhile I can't immediately grasp a problem.  I have an answer book, so I do know the answer, but what I don't always know is how to arrive at it.  The answer book doesn't work the problems out for you, you see.  If you want that, you have to buy the video teacher.  Sigh.

All that to say, I'm proud of myself, because any time I can't figure something out, I sit with it and stare at it, and try this and that, and stare some more, and gnash my teeth, until the lighbulb comes on.  That happened the other day with this problem, number 18 at the bottom of the page:

The answer is 36 degrees.  Most, if not all, of you won't care, but here's how I figured it out:

First I had to understand that this is an isosceles triangle (because it told me that TU = UV), which means its base angles are equal...so angle V equals angle T.  Angle T is y+y, so angle V is 2y as well.  Then I had to see that, according to the rule which states that the exterior angle of a triangle equals the two remote interior angles added together, 2x = y+x.  (2x is an exterior angle of that top half.  x and y are the measures of its remote interior angles.)  When I broke that down with algebra by subtracting x from both sides, I discovered that x=y.  So anywhere I saw a y, I could substitute x.  It was easy now!  That bottom half has angles that measure 2x, x, and 2x...or 5x altogether.  The angles of a triangle always have to add up to 180 degrees, so 5x=180.  I did the algebra and divided 180 by 5, and I got 36.  x=36.  Voila! 
 

Stream of Thought

I feel like I need to clarify that Baylee didn't get upset in front of the woman who cut her hair.  She acted happy with the haircut and thanked the woman very nicely.  It wasn't until later, at home, that she reacted.  She is Dutch, after all.  We have our meltdowns privately.

Because of one thing or another, Zach didn't get around to starting Silas Marner until last week.  He's more than halfway finished with it now, and he absolutely hates it.  I finally had to throw a bit of a fit myself just to get him to stop complaining and realize that he's reading the thing whether he likes it or not.  Sigh.  Maybe it'll get better, though.  Maybe it's one of those books that takes time to ramp up, like...umm...14 chapters.

Today is another gorgeous day.

We discovered another one of those cute little community library things about three blocks from our house.  It looks like this one...

...only it's not connected to a fence.  It's on a pole.  Baylee asked if she could swing by there and check it out while she was doing her dog walking job, and I gave her permission.  I also gave her one of our books to put in it.  I hope somebody out there in the neighborhood enjoys Dispensational Theology, by Charles Baker.

(I'm totally kidding!  LOL  I gave away The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks.) 

 

Monday

Have you ever noticed how pretentious hand soap scent names are?  For awhile we were washing up with "Coconut and Warm Ginger."  Tsk.  Really?  The ginger's warm?  Why is the ginger warm?    Now that bottle is gone and we've moved on to "Lavender and Twilight Jasmine."  That's dumber than warm ginger.

It's such a beautiful, warm (I want to say "ginger" here really badly) day that it feels like summer!  I'll keep that to myself, though, since my friends and family in West Michigan got snow today.  Poor things.

I took this pic this afternoon.  We have one random tulip that grows every year.

And I snapped this of Baylee and the cat, just because I thought they looked like twilight jasmine cozy.

It's hard to tell from this picture, but Baylee got a significant haircut.  The bottom several inches were all frayed and yucky, and now that's gone and everything is thick and healthy again.  And it only took her a full 24 hours to get over the shock and grief of losing that length.  She may or may not have actually cried and threw a fit, in fact, and I may or may not have had the strong urge to spank her.  lol  (I didn't.  She's too old.)  Luckily, after some time passed she realized her hair is much nicer, and now she likes her new look.

Sunday

You know that feeling you get when someone asks you to do something you don't want to do, or when you've got to make headway on some sort of job you've been putting off, or when you know you're about to have an uncomfortable conversation?  That feeling that makes your mind start to cast around for an escape route?  That's how I feel every day when it's time to do geometry with the boys.  Once we get started it's okay, and once we're finished it's always such a great feeling, but beforehand?  Ugh.

Yesterday I mentioned that we were going to a barbecue with a bunch of families from church.  That turned out to be so much fun!  I smiled and laughed so much that my cheeks hurt.

On a related note, I didn't see this happen, but at some point during the barbecue Drew had an incident involving a lawn chair and some shrubbery.  I know this because his friend Ethan posted this picture on Facebook, along with the caption, "Wow, Drew."

LOL!  Poor guy.  He comes by that clutziness honestly.  At least he's smiling about it.  

Saturday

Lately something very unfortunate has happened:  I've turned into a morning person.  That is, I wake up an annoyingly long time before my alarm goes off, then I can't get back to sleep, so I just get up.  Argh.  This morning Baylee and I were the only two people up and about for ages, so we had breakfast together and chatted.  Okay, that was actually kind of nice.

After hanging out, we went to her swimming lesson, where at the end all the kids got their papers telling them if they passed to the next level or not.  I'm proud of Baylee (and kind of shocked!) because she skipped level 7 completely and got moved right into Competitive Skills!  That's the last level!  It's an hour long instead of 30 minutes, and it's about training and getting ready to compete.

I haven't mentioned this, because...I don't know...it hasn't come up, but Drew and three other boys from the school formed their own band and they've been getting together on Saturdays at the drummer's house to practice.  They've got a guitar player (Drew), a bass player, a rhythm guitar player, and a drummer, but they don't have a singer, because none of them can sing.  LOL  Oh well.  They're having a good time.

Tonight our family and several other families from church are going to someone's house for a big barbecue thing.  Should be fun.

Never Would've Guessed It In a Million Years

My friend Beth and I took some of our kids to the pool, as we often do on Friday nights. We always spend the whole time talking together up in the bleachers, while the kids hang out and swim.  It's great.  Anyway, so we were talking tonight, when suddenly Beth said, "Oh!  I have the perfect story for you!  You'll appreciate this like nobody else could."

"Alright..."

She dug around in her pocket and pulled out two five-dollar bills.  "In fact, I'm going to start by asking you a question.  If you get the right answer I'll give you ten dollars."

"Okay!"

"Here it is:  Today I was at a clothing store, just looking around, when another customer, a woman, came near me.  In her hands she had two bags.  For ten dollars, what was in the bags?  You can have two guesses."

"Wow.  Let's see.  Rolls of toilet paper?"

"No."

"You gotta give me a hint.  Was it some sort of food?"

"I'm not giving you a hint.  I've got ten dollars riding on this."

Okay, fine.  Tampons?"

"No.  They were filled with hamsters!"

"..."

"Yes!!!  Hamsters!!!"

"What do you mean?  Like...living hamsters?"

"Yes!  There were several living hamsters running around in the bottom of two different bags!  She had one bag in each hand."

"Why?"

"I don't know!"

"You should've asked her."

"I'm afraid of crazy people."


In summary, my friend Beth has officially seen it all now. 

Friday

Mike spent hours (and hours and hours) power washing EVERYTHING last weekend.  He did the driveway, the deck, both sides of the fence, and, I think, the house.  Look what a difference it made on the fence.  It looks brand-new now!

After...

Before...

Baylee took this picture of her and Connor, a kid from down the street.  She sometimes babysits for Connor and his little brother, Ollie, but more often she goes over there just to play with them like a big sister.  (She loves little kids and is really great with them.)  She's been teaching Connor how to play Minecraft lately.

We've been working hard to finish school.  I'm kind of proud of us, actually, because lately everything is running like a well-oiled machine around here.  It's partly out of necessity, because we're so close to the end of the school year and need to get things wrapped up, but it's also because I'm finally used to Mike's 2nd-shift schedule.  Honestly, it took me several months to come to terms with him being gone all afternoon, all evening, and far into the night.  It means that I have to do 95% of the running around/errands by myself, and it means that I never quite get enough sleep (because I can't sleep well, if at all, until he's home, but I still have to get up early).  3rd shift was easier.  Anyway, within the last month or so everything clicked, and now we're really powering along.

Last night at rehearsal Lori, the director of the show Drew's in right now, announced the school's upcoming summer shows, and one of them is "'80's Hair Bands."  I guess she told Drew, "That's the one for you."  lol  I'm wondering if she said that because of his hair or his music style.  Whatever the reason, I really hope he does choose that.  If he got to play Slash's part in a Guns N' Roses song, THAT WOULD BE SO AWESOME!!!  ('80's geek alert)

Zach got a summer job!  He'll be working for a little company that makes gears for airplanes.  I'm really so happy and excited for him.  It's starting to become real that he's almost done here in our homeschool.     

Wow!

Drew got his braces just before Thanksgiving.  This is what he looked like right at first.  You can see that there's a big gap between his front teeth.

This is him today.  The gap is gone!  He went in for an orthodontist appointment yesterday, which took twice as long as usual and hurt twice as much (and according to him still hurts a lot right now)...but! whatever they did, it made it so that the gap closed overnight.  Seriously.  There was still a gap there yesterday and today there isn't.  Is that amazing or what???

An Excuse and a Picture

I know I've been totally lame here lately, but I have a good excuse:  I'm re-reading my way through the Harry Potter books.  It's been so many years since I read them the first time that I've forgotten a lot of the little details and even some of the big ones, so it's been fun.  I've laughed...I've cried.  I'm on book 6 of 7, so at some point soon I'll get back to regular programming.

In the meantime, I leave you with this picture of a raccoon in our backyard.  (I didn't get as close as it seems.  *shudder*  I just zoomed in with the camera.)

Another Birthday

Happy 16th to Drew!

Birthday

It's my birthday!  While it was really nice to wake up to lots of birthday wishes on FB this morning, I'm probably not going to end up being much of a party animal today.  lol  I've got a gross cold...the head-going-to-explode/coughing/nose leaking/fatigue kind.  I don't even want cake, even though Mike offered cheesecake from Central Market.

Blah.

Beautiful

Today was the most beautiful, warm spring day!  We even had the windows open for several hours. 

The magnolia tree in our front yard is blossoming.  Soon all those petals will be making a huge mess on the ground and all over our cars, but for now they're pretty.

Baylee made this VERY pink cake today.  She bakes probably about once a week now, and it always turns out great.

The neighbor kids have been playing four-square again lately.  The squares are a combination of cement cracks and chalk.

This is Rachel's littlest sister.  She was a baby in diapers when we first moved to this house.

The boys took Gibbs for a walk in the sunshine, too.