Well, last week we went to Bird City and had a wonderful time there, well until Sunday morning when Conner came down with the stomach flu bug. We stayed for the morning meeting and then took Conner, a bucket, lots of clorox wipes and headed home. We made it after only about 4 or 5 stops for sickness (and this mama doesn't do well with the whole vomiting thing!) and he slept it off, felt fine by Monday morning. So far, no one else is sick...

They are doing fine with school, making good progress. The goal is 3% a week on the curriculum. So far we have not had any trouble keeping up with that. We have started blocking by week, so an example of our week would be:
Monday: 5 math lessons and 1 history
Tuesday: 5 reading lessons and 1 history
Wednesday: 3 science lessons and 2 history
Thursday: 7 language arts lessons (includes grammar, composition and vocabulary)
Friday: 2 art, 1 music (for Keenan) and 2-3 Spanish (for Conner and that number depends on how many he fit in other days of the week).

Sometimes the kids don't block the same thing on the same day so that my attention can be one kid while the other does something more independent.

And now, just to be fair....a narrative essay by Conner. This one has been about 3 weeks in the writing as Conner absolutely does not like to be rushed!

My First Companion

As Dan Greenberg said, “Cats are dangerous companions for writers because cat watching is a near perfect method of writing avoidance”. I have been cat watching my whole life. This is the story of Forrest Gump, my first companion, and the many interesting things we did together. And yes, in case you were wondering, cat watching is a real distraction, from all kinds of important things. But it is such a fun activity.

Some children have an older brother or sister meet them when they come home from the hospital, but Forest Gump was waiting for me when I came home from the hospital. You may be wondering who Forest Gump is. Well, he was a Siamese cat that my parents got when they first got married. I suppose you wonder how he got the name Forest Gump. My parents got this cat about the same time they saw the movie Forest Gump. Our cat had lots of enthusiasm about everything he did but he was still petty slow about some things, like learning not to jump on the toilet seat when it was open and trying to get out from under the table when all the chairs were pushed in, since he was cross-eyed you see. When Forest was about 4 years old, everything in his world changed because my mom and dad brought home a baby.

A big brother might be disappointed to have a baby that couldn’t do anything come home from the hospital but Forest Gump and I loved to watch each other from the very beginning. My first day home I had to be under these ultraviolet lights for jaundice, or something wrong with my blood. The lights came in a little suitcase thing and my eyes had to be covered up with little glasses because the bright light would hurt my eyes. Forest was very curious and kept jumping up on the stand where I was laying in the lights but mom and dad were worried he would hurt his eyes so they had to keep chasing him away. Some cats are scared of noises but Forest was never scared about my crying. If I ever started crying, mom told me that he would come right in to check on me. One time my dad was gone for work for a few days and my mom was really tired and she didn’t hear me crying. Not to worry though, Forest was looking out for me! He jumped on my mom’s bed and kept pushing on her head until she woke up! As soon as I started moving around, Forest was always there, just a few steps behind me.

What a strange sight that must have been! A little boy and his cat sized shadow, traipsing around like they were two brothers who could not be separated. What was common between playtime and quiet time? My constant companion Forrest Gump. Whatever I did when I was playing he was always right there but unfortunately many of the things I did, he couldn’t really participate in. Well, except for messing up my Lincoln Log Houses, knocking my wooden trains off the track and mixing up piles of Legos. One time though, we had a toy we both agreed was the best, a cardboard box. You probably wonder why a cat and a 3 year old had so much fun with a box. This was a special box. For starters it was huge and my dad helped me make a 3 sided square hole for a door and another for a window. As soon as I left my little box house, Forrest would go inside and then poke his nose out the window to spy on all of us. We had the greatest time with me putting a string through the window so he could attack it. We shared quiet time too. Whenever I sat down on the couch to look at picture books, the next thing I knew, Forrest would be sitting next to me with his chin on my leg. It was almost as if he were reading along. I am sure I read a few stories out loud to him too, since cats are such great listeners!

The next stage in life was when I had to leave Forrest to go to school. We still stayed best friends though and he would sit on the fence and watch for my bus to come home, kind of like Lassie. When I raced up the hill his scratchy “meow” would greet me every day. He often wondered around the neighborhood during the day but somehow he always knew what time to be watching for me because every day, there he was, balanced on the top rail of the wooden fence around our small back yard. He loved that perch, like a hawk on an old oak branch, he could watch everything that went on in the park across the street and in our own back yard. He loved to sit there and watch my brother and I dig trenches and build construction sites in the back yard. He was probably the most patient cat that ever lived. Sometimes little boys can be pretty ornery. They get crazy ideas that there is just no explanation for. One day my brother and I thought it would be a good idea to use the orange hairspray my mom had gotten for crazy hair day at school and spray paint Forrest Gump. I am not sure what we were pretending but we were in Make Believe World. Even though Forrest got a bath out of the whole deal, he didn’t seem to have any hard feelings towards us, since he still waited for us after school, from his spot on the fence, and greeted us with a smile and “hello” in his own language. He had been there every day of my life, I just never thought of life without Forrest Gump.

The thing is, no matter how much we love them, animals get older. Somehow, I guess I didn’t understand what it meant when he started dragging his legs in the winter and couldn’t jump on things as well. My mom said things about arthritis but I didn’t have any idea what that meant. He seemed to sleep more but we could still get him to chase a string or a ball sometimes. Then he started to get ear infections all the time and didn’t feel well enough to even sit on the fence and wait for us, but when we were sitting on the couch or playing games on the floor he was always right there. Then one day when I was happily sitting at my desk at school, my mom and dad came to the door of my classroom. By the looks on their faces, I knew that it was bad news. They asked me to come with them and my brother Keenan to the car, but didn’t tell me why. Once we were in the car, they explained that we had to go to the vet’s office. Mom had taken Forrest into the vet that day for another ear infection but his ear had started to bleed. The vet couldn’t get it to stop and the only treatment was a really serious surgery that would make him deaf. Mom and dad explained that it didn’t make sense to put him through the surgery when he was almost 14 years old and he probably wouldn’t be happy if he were deaf, if he did live through the surgery. Besides that, the surgery cost way more money that we had right then. I still didn’t understand where they were going with this but then they explained that the best way to take care of an animal who was this sick would be to give him medicine to make him sleep forever. I felt sad and mad and a little sick to my stomach to think about that.

Forrest had been my best friend since I was born and to think of life without him didn’t make much sense. Who would I talk to? Who would meet me after school? Who would listen to me when I was mad or sad? Who would listen to my crazy ideas that other people laughed at? But what mom and dad said did make sense. Forrest couldn’t live with a bleeding ear and I couldn’t imagine him not being able to hear. He loved to sit on the fence but that wouldn’t be safe if he could not hear dogs or other dangerous animals coming close. He would have to be locked inside all the time and that wouldn’t make him happy. Besides, the surgery would be very dangerous and painful for him. I realized I would have to say goodbye to Forrest forever. Mom and dad took us into the room where the vet was with Forrest and they explained that they would put a needle in his leg and put some medicine in and he would just go to sleep. Mom and dad wanted us to say goodbye and then go out and let the vet take care of them. But I said “No way!” I wouldn’t let Forrest go through that alone. So we stayed in the room and hugged and kissed him while he left us. Then we cried all the way home. When we got home I just stood outside the door, by his spot on the fence, and remembered. I don’t know how long I stood there, but I couldn’t seem to move away.

After 10 years of cat watching, suddenly I found myself without any distractions. I guess I should have become the best writer around but somehow things didn’t turn out that way. It seems that easily distracted people can always find something to be distracted by. It probably wasn’t my cat that was distracting me, but something inside my own head, or maybe my little brother! It has been 3 years now and while I still miss Forrest, now I have 3 other distractions to my learning, Dexter and Ginger, our new kittens, and Keenan, my younger brother. It seems like as good of excuse as any to quote Dan Greenberg and say, “Cats are dangerous companions for writers because cat watching is a near perfect method of writing avoidance.”

Keenan had to write an essay today, and I thought it was worth sharing! I still don't necessarily agree with the whole "format" writing thing that is taught these days, but I understand that when they are tested on it they have to all write the same. We sort of deviate from that a bit. He obviously has some things to learn about paragraphing and things like that, but he has come a long way from his first essay this year.

Enjoy his personal narrative paragraph.

Barr Trail

“Ahhhhhhgggg! Stupid game! Just when I almost win, something happens!” My mom said it sounded like we needed to plan a day tomorrow that didn’t have anything to do with computers! “We need to do something for exercise tomorrow, how about swimming?”, nagged my mom, again with that exercise thing! “All the pools are too expensive and the YMCA is a letdown”, explained Conner. “I know! Hiking!” I exclaimed. “Great idea, how about Barr Trail?” suggested mom. “Sure”, we all agreed. The next morning, after my dad left to slave away at work all day, we got our water, lunch, and snacks ready to go. We all piled in the car and took off. When we finally drove into Manitou, the place was packed with people, all kinds of people! It took forever to arrive at the trail head through all the traffic and people walking every which way. Finally, we started up the trail, up, and up, and UP! I kept stopping to rest and whine, because I thought I couldn’t do it. Then we saw a poor bedraggled little 6 year old boy who had wiped out and torn up his knee and his face after climbing all the way up the incline. He was being so tough that I started to feel a little stupid about the way I was acting! I took off and got way ahead of mom and Conner, and wouldn’t you know, I got in trouble for breaking that safety rule about staying where mom could see me. But I have to admit, it just felt great to take off and do it! It took us 2 ½ hours to arrive at the 4 mile point but it only took 40 minutes to walk and run back down. It was almost 2:30 when we got to the car and Manitou was almost deserted! We stopped and Sonic and purchased ice cream to help us cool down before we went home. We had an amazing day after all, even though I complained a lot at the beginning. I cannot wait to try it again, and this time I won’t have a negative attitude at the beginning, just focus on having fun!

August! Back to school!

We had a great back to school the 2nd week of August and got a good early start on things.

First day!! Our classroom looks a little different than most but it works for us! The kids have desks in their rooms, but they seem to prefer to work in the kitchen/dining room because that is where I am most of the time.

And no, they don't do school in their jammies, at least not most days!





We have already changed our schedule a bit! Have to find what works right? Anyway, when we first started I was trying to get up and work from about 3-7am and then be available to get the boys up, feed them breakfast and start school. But with that model I was just too tired when they needed me to be on target for teaching so that wasn't working. Especially because I have a household full of night owls who didn't like for mom to go to bed at 8pm! So now we start our day around 6:30 with breakfast, bible reading and showers and are ready to start classes by 7:30. They each get a weekly schedule with all the lessons they have to accomplish on the schedule for the whole week, and they get to choose the order they do them in. This seems to work well for us and they seem to like to hit it really hard on Monday and Tuesday and have lighter days on Thursday and Friday. We finish school around 2:00 or so and then they have an hour or so of free time and then they have to help mom with chores, cleaning and fixing dinner. After dinner we all clean up and then dad gets them ready for bed while I go work until my work is done. I usually get done around midnight or so.

Our time seems to fill up really quickly! I laugh at these folks who question me about whether or not we are worried about the socialization that the kids do or don't get...I really don't think socialization is going to be a problem for them! Let's just look ahead at next week's schedule! Friday Keenan has a friend coming over. Saturday they are going hiking with dad and some other kids. Sunday we have 2 meetings. Monday we only have school, all day! Tuesday we have a library meetup with some kids from their old school. Wednesday we have meeting. Thursday they have Lego Robotics club and they have the booster buddies meeting (Moms work on planning field trips and kids play). Friday morning we have a field trip to the Olympic Training Center and in the afternoon they have a middle school meetup at the Penny Arcade in Manitou. And that doesn't even include the 3 live class sessions that each of them will be attending next week!

I may find that we are more busy doing home schooling than we were with public school! But at least I know who they are socializing with and what they are doing!

So far they are both progressing really well with classes. Conner really zipped through the first 5 units of math since it was all review and now he is getting into some new stuff. The great thing about COVA is that he has that option. As long as he passes the assessments he can go on to the next lesson. Keenan is flying through Vocabulary, which I am sure is a surprise to everyone who knows him! Of course that would be HIS favorite class! Neither of them just love history but we are working on making that more interesting.

And I am developing a much more profound sense of AWE for those teachers in my elementary country school who taught more than one grade at a time! This is HARD! Keeping track of everything, covering all this material! It would certainly be much easier if we had them sharing ANY of their classes! But nothing overlaps this year!

Oh, and Conner had his birthday August 26. We had a friend over for the weekend and they made slime...a way too much fun science experiment! The made about 400 paper airplanes and then they went swimming all day Saturday. I made his cake, and it is obvious it is an amateur job but they liked the flavor and that is what matters!





PS....when you put a straw into the center of a ball of slime and blow air into it...it makes a sound that only boys can appreciate!

July!

Dad took the kids to the waterfalls, their favorite place to hike and play, to give mom a bit of a break one day.


And Keenan said that "nature was a great place to practice yoga"!



My kids proving that even big kids can have fun with Lincoln logs! Actually I told them that they had to get away from their computers and do something creative...and there was much laughing going on downstairs. When I went down there, this is what I found, with the question "Is this creative?"


Keenan wanted to learn to make meatloaf, then decided it was gross!


But he ate it anyway!



Then the school supplies arrived! They were both excited on that day...because now they are both home schooled!




Then back to Nebraska for a little break before school starts!

Cousin H had her first birthday...


Conner was educating cousin H about the gameboy..because all boys need to know how to operate one of those!

The kids found a big caterpillar and saw it make a cocoon. Apparently it was big enough that it made Uncle G nervous when he put it in the jar!


Grandpa got a new grain cart and the size was impressive to these city kids!

And then there was harvest!



We stayed long enough to pick lots of currants for jam and help can lots of peaches and pears, go swimming at the pool in Scottsbluff, see lots of friends but not for long enough! And then we had to head back home! Almost time for school to start!

Um....catching up?

Since I am so far behind...here is a brief "catching up" of the past few months!

We had mother's day in NE again and everyone was home for a lovely lunch prepared by the men, with lots of good food! (oh and cousin E's first birthday that week too!)

















Keenan and cousin K got a little silly and had a lot of fun!



Conner made a distiller for science class, and there was much concentration involved! The greatest thing about home school science is that instead of a bunch of kids watching one kid do the experiment, he has to do the WHOLE experiment himself!


Keenan finished 4th grade at the public school and he finished it in grand style with a "Hawaii day".



He had a field trip to Garden of the Gods



Conner stayed at Dean's house for calving and then went to preps at Antioch for a few days but I don't have pictures of that.

Laura came to visit and we hiked the Manitou Incline





We went to Antioch and had wonderful days there! Keenan made a big choice!

We went to Chugwater..and lived to tell the story! And only found 2 hail dents on the car and the windshield was still intact. We were very lucky compared to others!



We had a beautiful day to hike up Barr Trail about 4 miles each way





Coming up next? Harvest and a visit to Grandma's house!