Dressing

Check out Hannah Montana.  Liv chose her outfit this morning because she thought she looked like Miley Cyrus.  Granted, she's never seen the show.  And when I told her that Miley Cyrus wasn't doing Hannah Montana anymore, she was quite confused.  I suppose it was her first dose of "rerun" and hey, they are just tv shows.

She did change after about 10 minutes.  I suppose that being Hannah Montana wasn't so comfortable.

Also, today I just discovered that I've been wearing my shirt inside out for the last 9 hours.  I guess I can be comforted by the fact that I dropped into two different neighbors' homes today, went to Schofield Barracks and sat in the waiting room at child psych for 2 hours, and looked in the mirror a couple of times--and no one noticed.  Or maybe they just figured I was a mom.

V Day, Hawaii style

Last night, as we were doing the supper dishes, my husband says to me "I didn't get you a Valentine's Day present."

And I said, "Me either."  And as an afterthought, I said "This in now way is a reflection of my love for you."

He concurred.

Done.  My husband makes a point of telling me every day how much he loves me.  He lets me buy the things I really want (mostly because I'm not a shopaholic and he can trust me--except for Target, which I'm looking into forming a recovery group for others and myself.  We could totally meet at the little Starbucks right inside the store).  In fact, I ordered myself some new stuff from Sephora, and I'm completely content with that.

I did however purchase a little gift for the kids--Scentsy Buddies from Scentsy.  I really love their products, and I have found that having my home smell nice is an instant lift for me.  Sunday night, my husband asked if he smelled bad.  Huh?  He pointed out that I have a Scentsy burner in the bedroom, living room, and kitchen, and generally when people have lots of smell good, they are trying to cover up some smell bad.  No, it just makes me happy.

This afternoon after we had been "schooled", we had gymnastics class and then went to pottery to complete our final project, painting a tray we had made.  It was a nice way to spend Valentine's Day, followed by some impromptu playmates for the kids (and the moms)  and leftovers for supper.  It was a good day.

2012 Goals...Not too late, is it?

I am so tired of hearing the word "Mom!" or rather "Moooommmmmm!" that I am considering training the kids to call me Petunia.  Maybe Daisy Mae.  Anyway.

With 6 weeks just about down for 2012, I've decided to put my ideas for this year down in writing.  IN PUBLIC.  On the internet = accountability.

1.  Accept the extra 4 pounds that I've been carrying since 2008.  They want to stay, and life will be easier if I just let them.  You probably didn't notice them anyway.

2.  Run a 5K with my husband.

3.  Write a book.

4.  Take at least one artsy class by myself.

5.  Get crafty again and reopen or reinvent my pendant making business.

6.  Begin working in a volunteer capacity as a virtual assistant for a new business that just opened.  Yes, it's my sister's business, and yes, you do get what you pay for.  Who knows though?  It will be a plug in on the dusty old resume, will hopefully help her, and when she's got a booming dance studio going, perhaps she'll salary me.  Or perhaps I'll gain enough experience to do this for someone else.

7.  Blog at least three times a week.  And use more pictures.

Goals 1-7 are strictly for "Mom".  Then come the goals that I have which happen to include my children, but are still achievements that count for myself.

8.  Complete first grade homeschool for Olivia.  Allow my son to live long enough to make it to kindergarten.  (insert weak laughter)

9.  Hire more babysitting time and "date" my husband more often.

10.  Never let a day go by when I don't pause to appreciate the roof over my head, the health of my children, the food on my table, and the fact that I can go to sleep unafraid at night.

Do you see what all those goals have in common?  They are pretty much what I like to call healthy worries.  I want to run a 5K, but not to lose weight (see goal 1).  It's just something I've always wanted to do.  And writing a book is something I've always wanted to do but could never quite find my niche.  I'm aware that there are only 24 hours in a day, and yes, I do spend a large amount of that time focused on my homemaking/childrearing duties---I'm just going to make sure I fit in my own goals this year.  It's about time.

Time to Rock

First, hop over to the husband's blog to see his description of the Hawaii 4-0 weekend.  A few more pictures have been released.

Now that I've shared what we're doing in "homeschool", I also thought it was important to talk about ME.  

Seriously, I think my readers knowing what they know about me also need to know just how I'm coping with being with my children 24/7.  Because you just can't imagine this happening.  I can hardly believe it myself.

I've found that there was one huge thing that I do for myself.  Exercise.  Not only does it make me healthier physically, it is also a major component of my emotional well being.  And before I couldn't successfully fit it in.  And when I couldn't get to it, I felt like a failure.  I just can't do lunges while explaining to a child that "I'll be right there".  I lack the coordination skills.  So I get up at 5 a.m.  I do a workout video Monday through Friday.  When I'm done, I get myself dressed.  And then--my reward.  I get to lay back down with a fuzzy blanket and wait for the kids to wake up.  Sometimes I doze, sometimes I meditate (what I choose to call the inability to fall back asleep).  But when I finally get up, which is usually about 6:45, I have the biggest sense of accomplishment.  If nothing else goes right that day, I did my thing.  

I can't believe how it sets the tone for everything.  As for all my other household chores, I do find that I can fit them in pretty seamlessly with the kids around.  On Saturday mornings, Kris gets them out of the house for a few hours so I can clean thoroughly, run an errand or two, and chillax.  I would love to have a regular sitter for a few hours one morning a week, but it hasn't worked out yet.  And honestly, I'm doing well with what we're doing.

I do not underestimate the situation though---a very big part of the success of this plan is that we have pretty much always lovely weather, and the kids get to play outside in a large grassy area that I can see while I drink cook from the kitchen.  We would definitely not be doing so well if they didn't get to play so much.

Also, Olivia has made leaps and bounds in her reading lately.  She is actually wanting to read, so much so that last week I found her huddled under her comforter after lights out.  She begged me to keep reading.  And I let her.  A little later, I found she had turned out the light and had the book laying beside her.  Sweet.

And she's also discovered how to pull up www.pbskids.org and play games. This is entering a scary new world for us--we haven't had to worry about the internet yet.  That day has ARRIVED.  And this morning I found that she had put this little gem in my iPhone calendar.  Imagine my surprise when an appointment reminder dinged and I saw this--

"We. Wil. Rock.  You. Wil. Love. It."

Apparently, 9 a.m. is time to rock, and I will love it.

Hawaii 4-0

So we have had guests this week, and we are having a time.  This is the husband's buddy from high school and his lovely lady friend.  You may remember him from here.  He also visited Labor Day of 2010, but when I look back on the old blog, it is noticeably absent.  Probably because he mixed my drink so strong that I blacked out for a week.  It's become almost an annual thing for him to visit us, and this month happens to be a big month for both him and the husband--it's the Hawaii 4-0 celebration.  As in 40th birthdays for them both.  We've been talking about it for months.  One of the things we had mentioned was renting a Ferrari for the guys (you know, like Magnum P.I.).

Would you believe that our friend managed to get the official Magnum shirt, the hat, the sunglasses, and real hair mustaches?  This was our Friday night.

This is the one of the few pictures that shall be made public.  

It was awesome.  No, not awesome.  EPIC.  This was the conversation after the guys had donned their outfits and had one beer.
Me: "You know, I'm going to check with Jane to see if she could come sit with the kids tomorrow night. I know it's last minute, but we could have dinner out in Waikiki."
Kris: "Who's Jane? Does she like to party?"
Me: "She's the 12 year old babysitter."
And you can imagine how it went from there.  Shall we say that the ladies were fine the next morning, but our gentlemen were a bit under the weather.  All have recovered.  The men are off to a great 40th year, and we are all having so much fun.  As my husband began looking up 1977 red Ferraris and discovering that hey, you can get one for $20,000 (motor optional--details, details), I pointed out that 40 was way better than 16.

I mean, now he could buy that Ferrari if he wanted to rather than just thinking that his first job at 22 with an annual salary of $26,000 could pay for a sweet condo, a Ferrari, and a hot girlfriend.  Now he has base housing, a Honda Pilot, and a hot wife.  But he could buy that Ferrari if he really wanted to.  And if I let him.

2012 First Grade

I've realized that all our home curriculum has one thing in common--all workbooks.  What I've found to be wonderful about this is that if we are having a good day, we do the front and back page of the lesson.  If we're not, we might skip the back.  If it's math, we might skip a section and then let her try again with Daddy that night.  We can do a page more, we can do a page less.  It's flexible.  I also think the visual layout helps her.  She sees what we have to do, she gets to choose the order, and then as we complete it, that book disappears so we can see the progress.

I can't stress enough that it took trial and error to find our own system.  I mean, our first attempt last summer was an absolute fail.  We made a lot of adjustments, and now it's great.  

• We use Handwriting Without Tears on days she doesn't have tutoring because on tutor days, they often do a lot of handwriting (not Liv's favorite activity).  So she often gets to use a glitter pen to do the writing.  Who cares?  
• We do Explode the Code every day.  I like this because it has spelling, a bit of writing, reasoning, and phonics.  If it's a tough day, I feel like two pages of this book covers a little of everything.  She can often complete this alone or with just a little prompt.  
• We are using Horizons math daily, and although I initially thought it would include too much religion, it doesn't.  Please note--we're a Christian family, but for us we keep church and school separate.  Also, I don't like ketchup on my hamburgers or use salad dressing on my salads.  We're all different.
• We generally do some sort of language arts worksheet every day too, mostly that I've pulled from online.
• We also do a page or two from Hooked on Phonics 1st grade.  (I think we are using a slightly different older version as ours was a steal on clearance, but it must be similar!)  Again, love it because we can do 1 page or 3 pages.  It also has supplemental books.
• One of the items I kept from Sonlight was the I Can Read set.  We do at least one story a day, and if she has an audience, she might just keep rolling along. (And obviously, we have story time at night when we read aloud, but lately she's been reading to Colin or to us.  Last night, she actually read him three stories---it was amazing, and I got to fold laundry!)
• As for history, this year we are just checking out books from the library about stuff she has an interest or we pick a few pages from The Time Traveler.  Next year, it will be a more formal program.
• For geography, I bought a world and U.S. placemats that we pull out, as well as an inflatable globe--the idea was if they didn't use it for geography then I could get my $5 out of it as a ball.
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• For science, we have an experiment kit that we do with Colin about once a week.  We also get the Weekly Reader science supplement, and we have a whole slew of fun science books.  I often pull one out, and we read it aloud--if it's a long one, she'll just pick a few pages she's interested in.
• For art, we're doing a pottery class.  We also have the Come Look With Me series--again I just toss the book in the pile and we go over a few pages.  We will probably do some other painting lessons too.
• For music, we try to hit one composer a week.  I found a really great website with a one page biography on composers.  We've done Beethoven, Mozart, and even have a page for John Williams.  After we read it, we listen to a few songs on you tube.  Also, we are currently studying the 80s---this is essential musical knowledge to me, and I just love catching Olivia up in her room bouncing on her bed, holding my iPhone in her hand, and singing the Go Gos.  Today Colin learned White Lion's "Little Fighter".  So choice.
• We're holding off on spelling right now, although her Explode the Code does cover spelling, and part of her reading program with her teacher includes basic phonics rules.  Rules I didn't even know.  She frequently tells me all the sounds like "a" makes, etc, and I'm always amazed that she can put that into words.  Yeah, I hear them, but if you had asked me to tell you, I couldn't off the top of my head.  Spelling was such a bad experience earlier this year that I don't want to return to it until she's really getting into the swing of things.

As I mentioned in the last post, we also use National Geographic and Weekly Readers.  And we use a Bible DVD series from the makers of Veggie Tales, as well as Veggie Tales and Adventures in Virtues (many of which are on Netflex to watch instantly!).

Super simple.  I should point out that it has occurred to me that part of our success is our climate--I mean, if we were in Michigan right now, I couldn't let her go do schoolwork on the back porch where it's 78 degrees with a balmy breeze.  Nor could I lock her brother out nudge her brother out in the backyard to play when he's distracting her.  And she's motivated and medicated.  Things are good.

What do we do all day?

I just have to share the love note I got this weekend.

Can you believe that just two months ago I got hate notes all day long?  I got abusive, hateful, mean feedback all day.

It's all changed, and I never want to go back!

I really wanted to talk about the homeschool curriculum we're using for first grade.  I started with Sonlight. I loved the concept.  For me, this would have worked really well.  But I'm not the student.  DUH.  And it didn't work with my child, and I was hopelessly frustrated with the schedule that I so desperately thought I must have.

So, you know the story--put her in public school for 7 weeks, moved again locally, and then decided to attempt homeschool again by outsourcing.  I've personally found that workbooks work really well for us.    And knowing that Olivia's teacher is covering reading three mornings a week for 90 minutes is such a huge relief for me.  I had no idea how much that effort was weighing on me.  I mean, seriously, if you don't get reading, you can't progress in any subject.  No pressure.

Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays look like this--

• Tutoring (mostly reading) with the teacher
• Come home or hit a playground, go for a scooter ride, run around a bit, eat a snack, ask one hundred times if neighbor children can come out and play only to hear for the 101th time that they are at school
• Spread out workbooks covering more reading, phonics, language arts, math along with some read aloud books for history, art, and/or science and maybe some worksheets
• Ask child to pick what she'd like to do first (this is pretty much her only choice in the matter, but it seems to make a difference for her that she has control over what we do when)
• Redirect child.
• Do school work.
• Redirect child.
• Eat lunch, do a few chores.
• Remind child to complete schoolwork.
• Threaten child.
• And then...we're usually done!
• Mom races around doing a few chores, watches kids play outside, cooks supper, drinks heavily.

Thursdays and Fridays differ only in the tutoring--instead we do a little extra school work, go to the library, or perhaps make another field trip up.  We also have occupational therapy, a pottery class, gymnastics for Colin, and a Zumba class for both kids once a week.

Now that we are on base, we generally spend about 3 hours every afternoon playing outside.  There are plenty of days we don't have television on during the week, and when we do it's generally PBS or some Netflix shows like Veggie Tales or Adventures in Virtues.  Occasionally, I throw Colin a Batman or The Avengers when I'm desperate for him to leave us alone for a few minutes.  And if it's been a tough day, I'll "motivate" Olivia with the reward of a Netflix movie or show that generally involves someone like Selena Gomez.

To kill time when necessary we use a few online games, all of which are free--
Starfall
ABC Mouse (both kids love this one--this is the only site I pay for because it is awesome and $8 a month covers both kids)
Abcya.com
PBSKids.org

Other PBS shows that totally count as homeschool include The Electric Company, Martha Speaks, Side the Science Kid, Super Why, and Wordgirl.

We're currently subscribing to Weekly Readers, which I had as a child and loved, loved, loved.  Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be a genetic predisposition.  It was pretty cheap, but I won't be doing it again next year because I'm the only one excited about it.  Sigh.  And we get the National Geographic Kids magazine, which again was bought on a super great deal, and guess who likes it?  Not the students.


Tomorrow I'll finally tell you exactly what books we're using.  I want to point out that although it sounds like it's a a challenging day, it's really not.  She's happy, and I'm so less stressed that people barely recognize me.  I'm confident that we're coming along well, and I know what areas we need to concentrate on--but I'm also feeling positive that if we work all the way through the summer we'll be fine or very close to where I want her to be.