School Today

Sometimes homeschooling looks like this...

And this...

Blindsided, Take 2

During our phonics lesson today...

Me:  What do we call two letters that come together to make one sound?
Paul: I don't get it.  Why does the extra flesh have to be cut off a penis?
Me:  ...
Paul:  ...
Me:  Did you talk about circumcision in your Bible lesson at home this morning?
Paul:  Yes!

Sigh.  Really???  I just had this conversation with my own kid not that long ago.  This is becoming my spiritual gift.

Hair!

Baylee has been wanting to dye the bottom few inches of her hair for awhile now, but first she had to convince her dad.  Finally he agreed and that was all she needed...well, that and deciding on a color.  She chose turquoise and bought what she needed, and I did the job.  It's not perfect, but I'm pretty proud of it, considering it was my first time.

It was a two-step process.  First I had to bleach the section of hair I planned to color to a light blonde.  If this isn't done, the color won't show up as well.

 
Then I had to wash the bleach out, dry the hair, section it into several pieces, and dye each bit blue.  Afterward I unsectioned it and waited an hour.  Baylee watched Netflix.

 

I dyed myself, too, because I didn't follow the instructions exactly and took the gloves off too soon. 

Finally it was time to rinse and dry again.  Here's the finished product!

She looks kinda like a superhero!  She's Aqua Girl!

New Lately

We really needed new...man...I cannot for the life of me think of the right word for "a set of plates and stuff."   Dinnerware?  China?  I have no idea, but we finally got some.  It's aqua-colored and I like it.  PS:  You can get really good deals on this kind of thing at Marshall's.  Wait.  Do they have Marshall's in other parts of the country?

Yesterday Baylee had a palate expander put in her mouth.  It's meant to slowly push the palate apart, allowing new bone to grow, and it's permanently attached in there for the next 6 to 8 weeks.  That first day was rough for Baylee and involved some tears.  She couldn't talk quite right, it was hard to eat, and (pardon my grossness) even swallowing spit was an ordeal (because it collects.  Sorry!).  All those things are still true today, but not quite as much.  She's learning to cope.  She won't let me get a picture of hers, but here's one I found on the internet that looks just like it.  See that hole in the very middle?  Every day Mike or I have to insert a key-like thing and give it a turn, which widens the whole contraption.  Poor Baylee and others who have one of these can feel the pressure and pain of that all the way into their sinuses, but it fades after a few minutes.

not Baylee's mouth

The last new thing around here is that Drew got an amp from a cool store downtown called Trading Musician.  It's a place for musicians to bring in their stuff and trade for other stuff, or just to go in and buy used equipment.  Remember the Seattle Peace Concert?  That's where we first heard about the place.  There was a big advertisement on the stage...

Anyway, we got a great price and we're considering it an early Christmas present for Drew.  Literally.  He won't get much else when Christmas actually rolls around.  He's more than fine with that, though.  In fact, he's very happy and grateful.  I'm glad for him, but I'm also thanking God for the soundproof room, because that amp is the kind of loud that makes you want to weep and confess all your deepest, darkest secrets.  At least that's how it makes me feel.  Drew said that when he stands right in front of it, it makes him feel like a "warrior of sound."  lol

Here's a couple seconds of him demonstrating it at a reasonable level.

Makes me Smile

Yesterday Baylee was browsing through old pictures and videos on our computer, and she unearthed this one.  She was about 8 years old in it, I think, and she made an imaginary Heaven in the living room.

Wednesday

I hate when I pick promising books out at the library, only to realize they're awful when I get home.  This time I came home with one on audio called Big Girl Small.  Turns out it's about a little person who swears nonstop.  I mean, there's a plot, I think, but I couldn't hang in there long enough to uncover it.

Today during my lunch break I had to go to the dentist for a check-up.

• Bad:  They were running late, so I had to sit in the waiting room for ages.
• Good:  They gave me two $5 Starbucks gift cards for my trouble!   (Even though I, of course, didn't complain.)
• Bad:  I ended up having two small cavities.
• Good:  They decided to just fill them right then, as it would only take an extra 20 minutes or so.
• Bad:  They decided to fill them right then, as it would only take an extra 20 minutes or so.
• Good:  My teeth feel really nice and clean now!
• Bad:  Half my face was numb for hours.  In fact, my chin started to itch (which makes no sense at all, since it had no feeling in it), and when I tried to scratch it was like scratching someone else.  It didn't help at all.  I went around with that itch for hours.
• Good:  Because I was at the dentist for much longer than expected, and because we had gotten a lot accomplished in the morning, I cried Uncle and declared it a half day of school.

A cute picture of Baylee and Rachel, taken by Rachel...

SoR Events Weekend

Drew got to be in two different events with the SoR this weekend.  The first was at the Wallingford Wurst Festival.

And the second was at a really cool thing called Skate for the Cure.  It was a huge skateboard competition to raise money to help find a cure for a childhood disease called ALD.

The house band debuted a new-to-them song called "Ace of Spades," which went well.

Also, the Hair Metal kids got to play a couple of their songs, and Drew was in one of those.  Here's just the ending of that one.

Friday Misc.

Before Mike left for work today, he and I were talking in the bedroom while he got dressed.  He had a nice, button-down shirt on and dress pants, and he looked spiffy and ready to go.  Suddenly, realizing his zipper was down, he said indignantly, "Look what you almost let me do!"   

Tsk.  That totally wouldn't have been my fault.  I didn't notice, of course, because I was looking at his face.  #MarriedALongTime 

Baylee and I are about to walk out the door to go to the Wallingford Wurst Festival, which I'm guessing is a celebration of bratwurst...and probably beer, seeing as how it's put on by a Catholic church.  The house band is playing at it, and Drew left already.  He got a ride with Ben the Drummer.

The Other Song That Was Really Fun

I already showed part of this one, called "Yankee Rose," but Miranda's dad's video has much better sound quality.  This song was good enough that the kids get to play it again at a big skateboard competition this upcoming weekend.

Thursday

I'm wearing contacts again today after a week of not being able to.  (I had to order more.)  Woo hoo!  I don't mind glasses, but I HATE having to wear them for days on end.  They've always given me a weird "I'm trapped in a glass box" feeling.  Plus they give me a headache.

Yesterday I was doing American history with Drew, and we came across this in his textbook:

By means of the sword, thousands upon thousands of unbelieving Indians were forced to accept the Catholic baptism of sprinkled holy water.  The result was not converted Indians but merely thousands upon thousands of slightly damp, but still unbelieving, natives.

Miranda's dad was able to get some good videos of the show last weekend!  I'm so glad, because what I got was almost worthless.  This is my favorite song of the night.  It's called "Decadence Dance."  (The ending, starting at about the 5:05 mark, is the most fun.)

School Lately and A Lot of TV

Conversation during math today:

Me:  Okay, we're going to do some "order of operation" problems.  You remember the little saying, right?  Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.
Baylee:  Yeah, but I saw a different way to remember it on Instagram.  Can I tell you?  It has a swear word.
Me:  Umm...okay...
Baylee:  Please Excuse My Dope *ss Swag.
Me:  [blink]

I'm still really enjoying homeschooling this year.  There's just something about it being only the two of them, Drew and Baylee, that makes it so much easier.  I think it's a combination of 1/3 less work and...well...(don't take this the wrong way)...the fact that it's Zach who graduated.  I love that kid more than I could ever tell you, but he was hard to teach.  School just wasn't his thing, and I ended up feeling a lot like Sisyphus a lot of the time.

We had such a busy weekend with the Hair Metal show and two overnight guests in a row (although both Patty and Todd are extremely easy and enjoyable to have over) that yesterday was about relaxation as much as possible.  We still did school, I made stew for supper, and I cleaned the whole house, but around and between all that I watched as much mindless TV as I could.  It was wonderful!  Now I'm totally caught up on Dr. Who and Castle.


PS:  I can say "Yes, homeschooling is easier," and that's nice for me, but what really matters is that Zach himself is so much happier now.  He's working.  He's using his hands.  He's doing.  And he's thinking, but about things that matter to him.  That's the kind of person he is, and I wish he could've had that all along.

Parenting

Last night I picked Drew up from his SoR house band rehearsal, and when he got in the car he wasn't his usual self.  He was quiet and serious.  I asked him how it went, and he told me that he and a few other kids were pulled aside after the rehearsal and given an ultimatum:  Learn everything perfectly by next week, or you won't be in house band in the fall, even if your audition is amazing.  (They have 2 or 3 rounds of house band every year, with new auditions each time.  The next auditions are next month.)  Anyway, so this handful of kids had the boom lowered on them.

I'm glad it happened.  It turns out, these kids, who are some of the most talented in the school, have been screwing around.  Knowing that they could probably pull a decent performance off by practicing at the last minute, they were wasting time and not getting their stuff learned.  Then, to make it worse, they were using their off-time during rehearsal (time when the director was working with other people, and when these kids should've been working on what they needed to know) to go into another room and jam together on music that had nothing to do with their set list.  It drove Zeke crazy.

Now it's up to Drew.  He either uses this week to work his butt off and learn everything, including new material, perfectly, or he doesn't.  Either way he'll have to live with the consequences.  On the plus side, at least he was honest, contrite, and he owned it.   And he wants to make it right. 

This is one of those times when my head sees clearly that this is a good thing and needed to happen, and it's better to learn this lesson in responsibility at 16 rather than as an adult.  Deep down, though, in the pit of my stomach, I feel pretty dang crappy, too.  Sometimes parenting feels a lot like failing.

Hair Metal Show

Umm...parts of it were good!  Sigh.  I'll be honest.  There were some major issues this time.  A couple little problems:

• At least one of the songs ("Sweet Child o' Mine") should've never, ever (EVER) been allowed onstage.  It was a disaster.  Nuff said.
• I didn't love a couple of the singers.

A big problem:

•  The Hair Metal show, which is what Drew was in, was paired with the History of Metal show.  It was like a double feature.  This made the evening really long for those of us (parents) who don't love metal.

When we got home last night Patty and I were in the kitchen, exhausted, ears ringing, still kind of in emotional pain from having to listen to that much metal, and I said, "Well, that's three hours of our lives that was taken from us.  Literally.  It was carved out of our flesh."  Then we stood there and laughed and laughed.

All that said, Drew was in some really great songs!  He, Miranda the singer, and the drummer named Ben made a great team.  Everything they were on together was fun.  Unfortunately, this show was so loud that my camera wasn't able to handle it, and so my videos are terrible.  I'm bummed.  I'm hoping that Miranda's dad, who has better equipment, was able to capture some of those songs, and I hope he puts them on YouTube.

I did get this.  It's a piece of a song called "Yankee Rose."  This is the one that has the "talking guitar" part in the beginning.

And here are some pictures.

 

 

Saturday

Zach was in a bike accident yesterday evening.  He was going around a wide curve in the road, when his bike hit gravel and slid out from beneath him, so that Zach fell to the side and skidded along the pavement for about ten feet.  He's pretty banged up and he's got a lot of road rash, but it could've been a lot worse.  There was a car coming around the curve at the same time and the woman driving it had to hit the brakes hard in order to not hit Zach.  (Yes, that freaks me out.)  After that near miss the woman got out of her car and asked if she should call 911, which was kind of her.  Zach declined and limped home, about 3/4 of a mile at that point.  I would've picked him up, of course, but his phone was dead and so he couldn't call.  Anyway, he's okay!  That's what counts the most.  I went to the store last night and got lots of first aid stuff...hydrogen peroxide, nonstick antibacterial pads, and bandages...and I doctored him up.  Poor guy.  He's pretty sore today, but he still went to work.

Baylee started swimming classes again today.  She's back to doing Competitive Skills.

One of the Shoreline high schools was practicing at the pool right before Baylee's class started, and it made me excited for her to possibly start high school swimming next year.  I think we'll have her try out for the team of the school by our house.  (In WA public schools allow homeschoolers to come in and participate in any class and/or activity they want.)

Friday

Last night I was lying on my back in bed, reading a book that I had downloaded onto my phone, when I dropped said phone right onto my face and gave myself a fat lip.  #winner

Speaking of reading things on my phone, I recently discovered an app called Overdrive, which allows me to borrow eBooks from the Seattle library.  LOVE!!!  I went a little crazy with it at first and ordered almost too many books, so now I'm trying to read them all before they disappear.  (That's what happens when they reach their due date.)   It's a good problem to have, though.

This has been the month of dentists and orthodontists.  We all happen to be due for our 6-month dental check-ups, Baylee is being seen by the orthodontist 3 different times to get set up for braces (She needs pre-braces work done.  For instance, they're going to install a spacer that she has to wear for a few months.), and the boys have their regular ortho appointments.  I feel like we should set up a 2nd and 3rd home in those offices...or at least some cots.

This week Baylee had an assignment where she had to write the same scene twice:  once subjectively and once objectively.  Then she had to write the whole thing again, but from a different point of view.  I think she did a good job!

It was awful seeing the poor, lonely white rabbit try to struggle its way out of the trap. He was alone, cold, and afraid. His little foot has been injured, for it was the part that has gotten caught in the trap, and now he felt pain all through his leg. The more he tried to escape, the more he wounded himself. Finally his body gave out, and he couldn’t move. The sad, small rabbit was trapped like that for days.  (subjective)

Yesterday a rabbit was caught in a trap.  The rabbit tried for quite awhile to escape, but he was not able to do that.  Eventually he gave up.  (objective)

——————————————————

As I walked out of my warm, cozy cabin, I heard one of my sweet little girls say, “Bye, Daddy! I hope you caught something in your traps!” I hoped so, too, but there was only one thing I wanted to catch:  the thieving rabbit that had been stealing our crops for months. Every night that bunny comes and takes all of our carrots, leaving me with very little to feed my beautiful family. As I entered the forest, gun in hand, I started walking around very slowly. I looked for my trap, and there it was, with the thief struggling for its life! I was so excited! I took the rabbit out of the trap and carried it back to my wife. Supper was great that night!   (subjective)

As the hunter walked out of the cabin to check his traps and look for some game, there was a rabbit trapped a few paces away. The hunter was glad, because this rabbit had been eating his crops.  He took the animal from the trap and carried it back to his wife.  That night they had it for supper.  (objective) 


This was our lunch break today.  It seemed like Drew was playing a game of Simon Says with himself, using the echo thingie on his amp...

#firstfullweekofschool

This has been a long week.  In fact, every day since Tuesday has felt like it should actually be Friday.  I'm tired.

A Little Something About Everyone

• Drew's taking French 1 this year, along with Baylee and me.  Of the three of us, he's the least happy about it, mostly because he thinks it's a girlie language.  In spite of that, I overheard him saying a couple phrases to himself in French today when he thought no one was listening, and his accent is great.  Apparently I've got the enthusiasm, and he's got the natural ability.
• Yesterday when I was doing a phonics lesson with Paul, we were going over the short sound of the letter o.  Of course, being a native Washingtonian, he pronounced it completely wrong, like everyone else who lives here.  That is, he said, "aw."  Sigh.  I just tamped down my desire to correct him (What good would it do?) and moved on.
• Mike has had to go into work early the past couple days, because he's been interviewing people.  That means that while we're trying to do school in the morning, he's up and around, having breakfast and getting ready for work.  The problem is that the more he tries to be quiet, the louder and more lumbering he seems to be, especially since his paleo breakfast smoothie involves prolonged usage of the very noisy blender.  Oh well.  I still like him.
• Zach bought a car.  I think it's an Impala, but don't quote me on that. 
• Baylee has been using the beach inner tube as a TV chair.

Paul and Vikings

Paul joined our little homeschool for the first time today!  He'll be here for a couple hours every Monday and Tuesday morning, and during that time my main job is to work on phonics with him.  Today he was here for about 4 hours, though, and so I was able to get through his entire school day.  I'm totally not used teaching younger kids anymore, and I'd forgotten how much actual "I'm sitting right next to you" time it takes.  lol  He was a willing, happy learner, and that made it fun.

Doing math...

Playing Go Fish during a break...  (Baylee was so helpful.  She tried to take her breaks at the same time as Paul, so that she could play with him.)

Paul and his mom brought me a dozen roses this morning as a way to say thank you.  *smile*

During Drew's American history lesson he and I were talking about the Vikings, and I was reading aloud about a Viking woman named Freydis.  She was the half-sister of Leif Ericsson, and she led an expedition to start a colony in North America.  Anyway, so we were reading along, and I was kind of impressed with her, you know?  I mean, a woman leading an adventure like that is pretty cool.  Then we read on and found out that her colony had problems from the beginning, not from native Americans (like previous colonies), but from each other.  They argued a lot.  Finally we read, "During the long harsh winter, the somewhat unbalanced Freydis literally went berserk and committed brutal mass murder with a battle-ax."  Blink.  She did what now???  I think it's safe to say she's a little more than "somewhat" unbalanced.  Vikings.  I tell ya.

And just for fun:

Sunday

We went to church this morning and started our new peer group.*  Because of how small the group below us was, that group was disbanded.  They came up to join Adolos, which was our group, except that most of Adolos was told to move up to the next one.  To be honest, I'm sad about it.  I liked things the way they were.

Baylee and I taught the 4's and 5's today.  We'll be doing that once a month for another year.  Also, I volunteered to help the Children's Choir put on another little play.  I'm excited about that!

I think that's about it, except that I watched a great little CBS news video called "Lessons to be Learned from a One-Room Schoolhouse" this afternoon.  You should watch it.  Go Here to do that.  The teacher that's interviewed, the one from the Divide School, echos what's in my own head about why I'm homeschooling.  Being able to individualize education is priceless.

By the way, a great documentary on the same topic is called To Be and To Have.  It's French, so you're reading subtitles the whole time, but it's worth it.  It's lovely.  It shows one year of a working one-room schoolhouse in France. 

*Our church divides people into age groups and has them meet for about 20 minutes or so before the Sunday school hour.  It's a time to connect with friends, find out prayer and praises, and get to know new people.

Article and Bus Story

Today I was sitting at the dining room table, surfing the web on my phone, and I came across a link to an article titled "10 Ways to Make Your Homeschool Day Run Smoothly."  It got me thinking about the advice I would give on that subject, and, before I even looked at what the article had to say, I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and wrote down my own 10 ways.  (Except I couldn't think of 10, so these are my 8 ways.)

The first two are broad...

1.  Before you do anything else, you have to have "who's in charge" firmly established in your home.  You don't want to be fighting an uphill battle against argumentative, naughty kids all day.

2.  Also before anything else, you need to have chosen curriculum that works for your family.

The next 6 deal with the day-to-day nitty-gritty.

3.  Go over the day's work the night before.  That way you'll know what's coming, and you can plan ways to teach things.

4.  Try to make sure everyone gets enough sleep.

5.  Get up early enough to start school at a decent time, otherwise you feel like you're behind the 8 ball all day.

6.  Have a basic routine.

7.  Enforce respect for each other and for the situation.  For instance, you can't have one kid being loud and annoying while other ones are trying to work.

8.  Have a system of correction in place for bad behavior.  Make sure everyone knows what it is.  Follow through.

After I made quick notes of my 8 I opened up the article.  I was pretty close to what the author said!  I forgot to mention "smile," but I do that.  We have fun.  And I didn't mention "Keep Your Schoolroom Tidy" but I do that, too.  I can't focus in a mess.

Zach had something weird and funny happen on the bus yesterday.  An old Asian woman stepped onto the bus with a huge carpetbag-on-wheels.  She had a rope tied to it, and she was pulling it along.  Anyway, when it was time for her to get off, she looked at Zach and said, "You!  Boy!  You big and strong!  You carry my purse off bus!"  Zach got up and went to pick up her bag for her.  He said it must've weighed 80 pounds.  He could barely lift it!  He finally got it into his arms, though, and staggered along behind her until they were off the bus.  Then she went on her way, dragging her...bowling ball collection?...behind her.

Hiccups and the Phantom

This morning it was really quiet as the two kids did schoolwork.  Suddenly Drew murmured, "I like hiccups.  They're like little surprises."  Baylee giggled and Drew smiled, and then they went on working. 

I think this makes me weird, but I LOVE it.  It's a heavy metal band from Finland doing a cover of "Phantom of the Opera."  (If you're not suitably impressed, just remember that this is live!)

It seems like I had more to say, but watching that video made me forget what it was.

Edited to Add:  I just remembered the other thing I have to talk about.  It's this:  Last night I had a dream that I met Cesar Millan, the dog-trainer guy from TV.  Seeing my opportunity to find out something about Gibbs I said, "Cesar, why does my dog have such a short-term memory?  We feed him, then an hour or so later he's standing by his bowl again wanting more.  It's like he can't remember that he already ate."  At that moment, though, before Cesar got a chance to answer, I woke up.  Dang it!  Now I'll never know.

Today

I don't want to speak too soon, but I'm loving this homeschool year so far!  Two students are easier than three.  Also, Drew and Baylee are both working at a high enough level that I'm only involved in what they're doing here and there.  It's great!

This isn't going to mean anything to most of you, but the other day Baylee did an impression of Miranda Sings, a YouTube sensation.

Here's the real Miranda...

And here's Baylee...

She borrowed (without asking) Mike's shirt to do it, though, and he wasn't happy to find it all crumpled and wrinkled when he got home from work that night, especially since it had just come back from the dry cleaner.  Oops.

The Hair Metal show is coming up in just a little over a week.  I think everything is ready to go, except for one song.  Do you remember that little guy from the Led Zep show who stood near Drew and played the guitar?  Remember how that was his very first time on stage?  Well, he's in this show, too, and the director decided to give him Slash's part in "Sweet Child O' Mine."  Drew said it's good for someone with moderate ability, because it's fun without being too difficult.  For whatever reason, though, this kid just isn't pulling it off.  Drew, who's in the song, too, as the bass player, said he's not sure if the boy isn't practicing or if it's just too hard for him.  Either way it might get pulled from the line-up, which is a bummer.  I LOVE that song.

First Day of School

11th grade

8th grade

Today went well!  The only snag was that I tried Baylee's computer-based pre-algebra program last night for...ahem...the first time (I borrowed it from a friend in May) and found out it's too old to work on our computer.  It was definitely a "Son of a!" moment.   I ended up going all the way to Kirkland this morning to buy a different math book at the used homeschool curriculum store.  Oh well.  I'm happy with what I got there.

Should Be the First Day of School But Isn't

Everyone else around here is starting school today, but I decided to save my sanity and start tomorrow.  Today is going to be spent cleaning, grocery shopping (it's like Mother Hubbard's cupboard at our house), and running errands.  Luckily I did all the school-prep stuff before I left for MI, so that part of life is good-to-go for tomorrow.

Speaking of Michigan, before I left, while I was supposed to be packing but was putting it off, I took this video.  I had asked Drew if he could still finger pick on his acoustic guitar, like his first teacher, David, taught him all those years ago, and he showed me he could.  Then he humored me with a couple other little things.

And then while Baylee and I were gone the house band had an event at a bookstore.  A woman who's an author and whose son used to be in the Seattle SoR wrote a fictional novel that has something to do with a teen being in the School of Rock.  Her book was being featured at the bookstore that day, so the house band came to support her and to play several songs.  It was different than their usual stuff, because it was low-key and mostly acoustic.  Here's a little piece of that.

Family

Baylee and I are back from Michigan!  We had the best time with family.  We got to spend lots of time with my parents and that was so much fun...my mom cooked and baked her head off and we ate like royalty all week...but we also saw my brother and his family, and my sister and her family.  I especially loved all the time I got to spend with my sis, Lindsey.  That was my favorite.  And Baylee had an blast with all her cousins.

I have so many pictures, but here are the best ones.  PS:  Lots of them were taken at Lake Michigan, because we swam there almost every day.

sunset from the plane window on the way there

 

Lake Michigan

  

 

 

 

This is the dune that my brother, sister, and I used to sled down in the winter when we were kids.  You can't do that anymore, because now there's a scenic walkway and a bunch of fences on it.  Boo.

More Lake Michigan...

 

 

(taken by Baylee)

 

 

It rained one day, so the cousins stayed inside, played games, and worked on a puzzle.

 

The puzzle actually took the whole week to complete.  My mom and the kids chipped away at it every day.

 

 My mom also gave Baylee a knitting lesson.


One night my sister, me, and our friend Trish went out to eat and catch up.  That was a ton of fun.

 (taken by Trish)

On another night we went to Trish and Dave's house for a campfire.  Their daughter Ellie used to be Baylee's best friend back when we lived in Michigan.  They haven't seen each other since Baylee was five and Ellie was six.

(taken by Baylee)

Part of that evening was spent shooting marshmallows at each other out of blow guns.  This picture captures the exact moment when Dave just about shot my eye out with a mini marshmallow, and I was like, "Auuuuuugh!  My eye!"  Apparently it was hilarious.

There was a trampoline there, too, and the kids had a good time on that.

 One of the the days we went to Lake Potawatomi for a big family picnic.

Long story short:  We had a great time!