Audra's Meeting

Yesterday morning Audra went to Ben and said, "We need to have a meeting. Claire is being mean to me. She keeps hitting me. Here is what we need to talk about." She proceeded to hand Ben this agenda:

 

Not only did she have an agenda, she had built a fort out of blankets to have the meeting in. I suggested that we could have this meeting for a Family Home Evening or for devotional, and she insisted that was not acceptable.

She was quite upset that Ben didn't stay home from work for this meeting.

We climbed into the tent. I started talking about how we could be nice, and she said, "No, mom. This is what we need to do first." I stepped back and Audra led the whole meeting. She read the book, led the discussion, and even had a craft (#3) ready for us.

She had cut up lots of little squares with circles inside them and we were to use her squares and make presents.

Both Ben and I were impressed. Not that Claire is hitting Audra and that Audra felt the need to hold a meeting, but that Audra created an entire meeting all on her own. How many 7-year-olds write agendas? I had no idea she knew anything about agendas- I have no idea where she got that from. But, perhaps we have a quiet leader in our midst. This will be fun to watch as she gets older.

Walker Castle Hike

After seeing this hike on a friends blog (thanks, Jenny!), we decided to take the kids to Walker Castle Hike. We read some books about castle life and headed out.

It really was a perfect hike for kids- only about a 1 mile hike, and not too hilly. We brought a lunch and ate up at the castle. Added bonus: We ran into several friends while there! It was great!

The fashionistas analyzing the map to figure out where we needed to go:

 Notice Camille clear in the back- that was the story of our hike:

 Where's Camille?

Big Win

I'm sorry that I keep talking about homeschool. But, well, that's our life now- and it's pretty all consuming, so it gets blogged about.

As you read this post, you need to understand a few things:

1. I am only three weeks into this homeschooling journey. I have A LOT more to learn, and everything I write today might be completely false tomorrow.

2. I fully understand that I am turning my children into guinea pigs and that this experiment might fail miserably, regardless of how it goes today. Thankfully, there are a lot of other homeschooling families who have led the way quite successfully.

3. I know I am in the honeymoon stage of homeschooling. There are so many different ways this can go.

With that said...

This week has been a breakthrough week!

On Monday I pulled out our awesome math workbooks. After a ton of research, I decided on Horizons Math- which is similar to both Everyday Math (which is what she used in school) and Saxon Math. They are all pretty much the same. Horizon math books are more colorful and come highly recommended, so I thought they would be great.

I pulled out the workbook and Audra started sobbing- yelling and screaming about how much she hates math.

I knew last year that Audra was struggling with math. Her teacher pulled me aside to ask if he could tutor Audra after school once a week. He noticed that things weren't quite clicking with her- that she would get a "deer in the headlights" look. She was a good enough student and a good enough kid to not get pulled out with the struggling kids, but she needed help. Basically, she was getting lost in the shuffle.

I went in with her for her tutoring sessions, and I realized that her teacher was right. She could make good guesses, but she wasn't getting it. We would practice at home, but it just frustrated her more- leading her to feel stupid.

On Monday, I realized that Saxon or Everyday Math or Horizions Math simply weren't going to cut it. I had to find something absolutely different- something that broke things down into simple segments.

Thankfully, with homeschooling, I can do that! I can actually find a program that WORKS for her! There are so many wonderful curricula- that teach to different learning styles in ways that every child can learn from. Audra can't learn with the classroom mentality- in regards to math, she really needs one-on-one attention and lots of visuals and use of manipulatives.

I pulled out some popscicle sticks. We were working on 10's, something she really struggled with. We put them in bundles of 10 and then I had her make piles with 14, 16, 22, etc- putting the correct amount of 10 bundles together, and then the ones. All of a sudden, she could figure out the 10's place- and she was EXCITED! I had her try to trick me and give me different numbers, which she thought was the most fun! She even came up with a game that we could play using 10's- all of a sudden, she was EXCITED about math! She LIKED math!

This was a HUGE win- I was so happy! I can't stand the thought of my 7-year-old hating math. If the only reason I am homeschooling is to get her to enjoy and understand math, then homeschooling is worth it! That doesn't mean she has to be a mathematician. It just means that she hopefully won't feel stupid and less than the other kids in class and that math is horrible.

After doing even more research, I have decided on Ray's Arithmetic. This is the curriculum that was used in the 1870's- yes, the 1870's. It is a lot of story problems that build on each other. It is recommended by my new favorite home school advocate Ruth Beecher- who teaches that we should simplify our homeschooling, not over-complicate it. She wrote a guide to go along with the text that uses tons of manipulatives and puts math in every day life- not on a worksheet. This is what Audra needs! I don't know if it will work, but we are getting closer. I ordered it from Amazon and it hasn't come in yet, but I can't wait for it to come!

Then yesterday for school we went to the zoo. Ben has every other Friday off, so the plan is to get school done quickly on those days and then go have fun as a family.

(Sidenote: We LOVE LOVE LOVE our library. Audra won a year long family pass to the zoo from them! She and Claire were both automatically entered into a drawing that we didn't know about by signing up for the summer reading camp. They called and said Audra won this pass- and we were ecstatic!)

As we were walking around the zoo, I had the overwhelming thought: Homeschooling is awesome! Why doesn't everybody do it?

I know that sounds ridiculous. Believe me, I know that. This was never going to be my life. But, three weeks in, it is going so well. I love it! I feel really blessed that we can do this.

Of course, it really isn't about me- it's about Audra and Claire. And so far, they also really enjoy it. In fact, last week Audra said, "Mom, how come when I was in school, I had to do school until Daddy came home from work?" No more homework until bedtime. It's nice.

Anyway, back to the zoo.

We did our schoolwork and headed out:

 While at the zoo, the girls chose 6 animals. They counted those animals. Then, when we got home, the girls made a graph of the animals to show what animals had the most and the least.

This was a great week- hopefully we will have more of these!!

Claire's Talk

Today Claire gave a talk in primary. Actually, she got super scared when she got to the microphone- her shyness definitely came out and all the people scared her- so I read her talk for her. She held up a picture of she and her sisters.

Here's her talk (I found it on-line and she helped me modify it to fit our family):

In my family, we sing. We dance. We laugh. We tickle.  I cook with my Mom. I play chase and video games with my mom.

I play with sisters. We have lots of fun.

In the winter, we go sledding. I really like sledding. We also like to go swimming.

In the summer we go to the North Pole, and I love going on the big rides with my sisters. The cars are my favorite.

I love spending time with my family. I know the fun things we do together are important, but I want to be with my family forever.

My family and I read the scriptures, and we have family prayer. I know this helps us to become a strong family. And this will help me to prepare to deal with the hard things that will happen as I grow up. I know my family will always be there for me and love me.

When I think of my Heavenly Father and Jesus, I know they love me like my Dad and Mom love me. Heavenly Father and Jesus gave me my family to help me get back to Them. And I want to. I love Heavenly Father and Jesus and my family, and I want to be with them always.

God gave us families to help us become what he wants us to be. This is how he shares his love, for the family is of God.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

The Shirt

Today we made a trip to Goodwill. They were having their 50% off sale, and I was hoping we could find a black shirt for Ben because we had pictures taken today and he needed one (basically, I have decided that Goodwill is the only place we are ever allowed to buy clothes again- the deals are too good).

Ben assured me again and again that he hates black shirts and he would never wear it again. I didn't care, though, because we really only needed it for tonight.

We found a shirt. He didn't even try it on. We bought it for $1.50- if it didn't fit, who cares?

We came home, I washed it, and then he put it on. Dang, he looked HOT! Even he admitted it looked nice. He actually admitted that he really loves the shirt and he is married to the best wife in the world for picking it out for him.

We looked at the tag and saw that it is a Saks Fifth Avenue shirt. Just for kicks, I looked up how much this shirt cost retail.

Are you ready for this? $150!!!!!

Ben says it feels like a $150 shirt.

He says when he wears this shirt out he is going to want another one. I told him we weren't going to buy a t-shirt for him that costs more than his wedding tuxedo.

The shirt is officially the most expensive article of clothing in his wardrobe.

We decided we are now part of the 1% because we only paid 1% of the original purchase price- that's our kind of 1%!

Anyway, that's just our fun story about our VERY successful trip to Goodwill- we LOVE that place!

Odds and Ends

It's been a ho-hum week. Nothing too exciting to report, so I'll just post a couple of cute things the girls have done.

The other day Audra and Claire worked very hard to do make this:

It is a closet for their doll clothes. They are both absolutely OBSESSED with their dolls at this time! They both take their dolls everywhere- feed them, change their diapers, put them to bed every night, change their clothes morning and night. And if Camille touches their dolls- watch out!

They came up with this idea all by themselves. They were very proud. Here's the conversation we had last night:

Audra: "Dad,  look what we made! We made it all by ourselves!"

Dad: "That looks great!"

Audra: "Yeah, mom didn't even help us. I took some scissors and I stabbled holes in the box for the hangars."

Mom: "I probably should have helped them."

I love that they are using their creativity, however.

And, here's some of their latest artwork:

 I think the one above and below are Claire's

 And, I think the butterfly is Audra's, but it could be Claire's:

Fuzzy Giraffe Elementary

One week down, 35 more to go.

Here's some first day of school pictures.

Claire, kindie:

 Audra, 2nd grade:

 Camille- Audra labeled her sign "Mess School" because she is so good at making messes:

 We started school off on Tuesday. After devotional (which consisted of reading a story from The Friend, a song, and reciting an Article of Faith) I sat the kids down to name our school and create a banner. After some discussion, the kids decided on "Fuzzy Giraffe Elementary." This might be why 5-year-olds are not allowed to name regular brick and mortar elementary schools. I think I will make us all some Fuzzy Giraffe Elementary t-shirts.

Here is their banner. Camille's poster is on the bottom:

 Fuzzy Giraffe Elementary: Develop and learn through nature and authentic opportunities as a family knit in love and unity. (That's a lofty mission statement. We'll see how it turns out)

 I also asked the girls what they would like to learn and do this year. Here are their answers:

Claire
-Catch butterflies
-Catch worms
-Explore nature
-Learn to read
-Pick flowers and put them in a cup
-Do crafts
-Learn to bake

Audra
-Do crafts
-Have music and dance
-Play games
-Learn to flip pancakes


Overall, the first week went well. Not great, but well. There are definitely some things I need to figure out! The biggest challenge so far is keeping Camille entertained. I have learned that if  I spend 10 minutes just with her first thing in the morning, she does better the rest of the day.

It is taking us awhile to figure out our rhythm. I wouldn't say the days are running smoothly quite yet. But, we are figuring it out and it's OK. The first day we pushed through, but I realized it was too much. The second day we had more breaks- we read books while eating snacks outside, which was WAY better than just reading. Also, I need one-on-one time with each child every day. I found some on-line games that one can play while the other works with me. They love being able to be on the computer- even though it is only for a few minutes- and I get time with each kid. Basically, we're figuring it out.

So far, the girls seem to like homeschool. We were eating lunch one day and Audra was saying how much better it is to eat lunch at home because she wasn't rushed and wasn't getting yelled at. This was validated when I met with one of my friends that same night and she talked about how she met her daughter at school to eat lunch with her. It was the second day of school, and she said the lunch lady was yelling and screaming at the kids to be quiet, and they only had about 13 minutes to eat lunch. She was upset, but it made me happy because Audra wasn't there.

Plus, we do get done by around 1 each day. Unless it is a park day with friends, where we switch and go to the park in the morning and then do school later in the day (which works out really well because then Camille is taking her nap!). I love the flexibility!

Ben has every other Friday off, so yesterday I told the girls that as soon as they finished school, we would go to the park and they could play in the river- something they LOVE to do, but we haven't had time to do all summer. They did work hard and were done with their work by 11:30. We packed a lunch and headed out.

 The park has a train, where we take an annual picture:

 They also have a petting zoo:

 We are reading Charlotte's Web for school, and this petting zoo had a tribute to the book which was pretty neat:

 Then they got to go play in the river. Pretty cool recess, huh?

It was fun to think that while her former classmates were still in school,  Audra got to be playing in the river with her sisters.

But, of course, that isn't to say that this week was all kicks and giggles. The girls are expected to do work, and there were a few tears this week. This is a complete lifestyle change, and this will take us weeks, months, and possibly even years to figure out as we tweak and decide what works best for us. Even in just this week, I can see the pros of homeschool and can easily see why so many choose to do it. But, I can also see the cons and why so many people quit homeschooling after a year or two. It's a balancing act.

Soon, the co-op classes will start, as will ballet and piano and all that life has to offer. Once we get in our full schedule and figure out our routines, I think things will run more smoothly.  Until then, we will keep working hard and trying our best. It will all work out, I am sure.