I am at a strange place in my life. I am content, but not really happy. I love my family, my life and my kids. I am grateful beyond words at the blessings that are mine, but I feel I am missing something. I need a hobby. I need something that is totally mine and not an offshoot of my family. I want to find something that excites me and fills me with joy, but I am not sure what that is going to look like.
I know that it can't be something overly expensive because I have a hard time justifying spending money on myself and would use that as an excuse not to continue or explore an idea. I have sedentary loves already; reading and writing, so I want something that isn't exactly rigorous, but requires movement and interaction with the world.
I am thinking about photography. Perhaps taking a class and learning more about composition and different styles. Digital camera's have made it less expensive and I already own a great camera. I also haven't explored all of it's options and possibilities.
Another thought is art....I would love to be artistic in a way that is creative and also creates something, but I am not not artistic in the traditional sense. I am drawn to art, but I don't know that I would actually like trying to create it. I don't want to just be busy, but filled with joy at the idea of it.
I keep trying to think of the times in my life or the places where I am the happiest. I am happy coaching the kids, but that isn't a hobby, and is still a reflection of my family and not me. I like education and curiosity, but even that feels more like a family extension. Other than the things I love with my family, I am most joyous and peaceful on the water. I love being out on the boat, but I can't rely on that since we don't own a boat anymore, and I don't want to use others. Although I could learn how to sail. But I am guessing that isn't inexpensive. We could get a boat or jet ski but that is only an option for the summer.
I like being outside, but I am not athletic, so I don't want to join team sports or anything competitive. I like instant gratification, like almost everyone and I am not detailed oriented. I thought about gardening, but that produces results by the season, and easily could become a chore instead of a joy.
I have discovered that I like the knitting I am doing with hoops, but I couldn't figure out how to knit by reading about it, so perhaps I should take a class. That meets most of my criteria but seems more like busy work than a hobby. Does anyone actually get excited to get out of bed in the morning by knitting? I doubt it.
So that is where I am right now. I want to find something that is mine and is fun, and I am not sure where this journey will lead. But I am curious to find out.
Random things for the year
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and of course GroundHogs Day!
I have not kept up with our progress and so much has happened. I could go back and write about our Cruise, Christmas, and the New Year, but that would bore even me.
Homeschooling is still going wonderful although we were sidelined by a nasty case of the flu. It took almost 3 weeks out of our schedule as we took turns feeling like death warmed over. It was hard getting back into the swing of things and All boy was a nightmare getting back into routine.
But life is back to normal. As normal as it gets on Misfit Island.
Homeschooling is still going wonderful although we were sidelined by a nasty case of the flu. It took almost 3 weeks out of our schedule as we took turns feeling like death warmed over. It was hard getting back into the swing of things and All boy was a nightmare getting back into routine.
But life is back to normal. As normal as it gets on Misfit Island.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Not blogging
I had hoped to keep up with our weekly progress, but sadly that isn't working out as well as I hoped. I thought about trying to backtrack our progress but I am not that organized so I am just going to start where we are or as I often tell myself while educating the kids....meet them where they are, or in this care, meet you where I am.
Allboy finished his All About Spelling Level 1 book and we are both excited. 24 lessons complete. We didn't spend a lot of time on it because quite a bit were things he knew, but the review was worth it just to go over all the phonics rules and make sure that he knew why words are spelled certain ways. I even learned things I never knew before. I didn't know that there are zero words in english that have enk in them, so that when you hear the enk sound it is always spelled ink. There are only 5 words in the English language that group eng together to make the ing sound, so it is almost always ing. Or that C makes the [s] sound when the vowel is i, e, or y, and the [k] sound when followed by any other letter. See I am smarter already.
Gbaby Supreme has worked his way through 2 books of Get Ready for the Code. Somehow the switch triggered and he just gets the letter sounds in a way that wasn't there in the beginning. He now recognizes all of his numbers, 1-20, and is learning greater and less than. His writing is slow to improve but it is getting better.
Grinmaster is doing a superior job in school and learning to take responsibility for his own work. He has an agenda and is learning to pace himself, and keep track of all of his work. I think he is going to make the honor roll and seems to be making friends. His teachers are impressed with his attitude and abilities.
In history we have covered the Age of Exploration. We learned about Erik the Red, Leif the Lucky, and Columbus the clueless. How did he in reality come to be called "The Great Navigator"? He never even realized he never reached the Indies. I can't wait until we get to see some of the ruins in South America. The fact that the civilizations were so advanced is surprising compared to how we all believed they were savage heathens. Right now we are covering Roanoke, The lost colony mystery, and the settlement in Jamestown. We already covered some of Jamestown during the Native American unit, but this will look at it all from a different direction.
Science we are plugging along with an emphasis in the Scientific method. We just finished the Earth's crust, and types of rock. We still have more rock studies and hope to classify and collect quite a few specimens. Mom gave us some fossils and different rocks found in the west and we are measuring the hardness scale.
I am not doing as much as I would like with Art. In fact we aren't doing anything. I need to change that. So far we have only done crafts as they relate to History. That isn't enough. I want to explore different mediums, and styles of art, but my motivation isn't there. I am thinking of contacting Bay Art's after the first of the year and getting the boys into a few of their classes.
Allboy finished his All About Spelling Level 1 book and we are both excited. 24 lessons complete. We didn't spend a lot of time on it because quite a bit were things he knew, but the review was worth it just to go over all the phonics rules and make sure that he knew why words are spelled certain ways. I even learned things I never knew before. I didn't know that there are zero words in english that have enk in them, so that when you hear the enk sound it is always spelled ink. There are only 5 words in the English language that group eng together to make the ing sound, so it is almost always ing. Or that C makes the [s] sound when the vowel is i, e, or y, and the [k] sound when followed by any other letter. See I am smarter already.
Gbaby Supreme has worked his way through 2 books of Get Ready for the Code. Somehow the switch triggered and he just gets the letter sounds in a way that wasn't there in the beginning. He now recognizes all of his numbers, 1-20, and is learning greater and less than. His writing is slow to improve but it is getting better.
Grinmaster is doing a superior job in school and learning to take responsibility for his own work. He has an agenda and is learning to pace himself, and keep track of all of his work. I think he is going to make the honor roll and seems to be making friends. His teachers are impressed with his attitude and abilities.
In history we have covered the Age of Exploration. We learned about Erik the Red, Leif the Lucky, and Columbus the clueless. How did he in reality come to be called "The Great Navigator"? He never even realized he never reached the Indies. I can't wait until we get to see some of the ruins in South America. The fact that the civilizations were so advanced is surprising compared to how we all believed they were savage heathens. Right now we are covering Roanoke, The lost colony mystery, and the settlement in Jamestown. We already covered some of Jamestown during the Native American unit, but this will look at it all from a different direction.
Science we are plugging along with an emphasis in the Scientific method. We just finished the Earth's crust, and types of rock. We still have more rock studies and hope to classify and collect quite a few specimens. Mom gave us some fossils and different rocks found in the west and we are measuring the hardness scale.
I am not doing as much as I would like with Art. In fact we aren't doing anything. I need to change that. So far we have only done crafts as they relate to History. That isn't enough. I want to explore different mediums, and styles of art, but my motivation isn't there. I am thinking of contacting Bay Art's after the first of the year and getting the boys into a few of their classes.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Discover Intensive Phonics
I have already worked with Phonic Pathways, and Ordinary Parent's guide to teaching Reading, and both are solid programs. But Allboy wasn't retaining the phonic rules. He could read, but would encounter a word out of context that he should know and it was a crap shoot if he would remember how to sound it out. English is a hard language because our words are such a mish mash of other languages, but it does follow certain rules. Once those rules are learned the process of reading becomes easier. I also like that this is one area of his learning where there is another voice giving a set of directions. Allboy is a perfectionist but like most 7 year old boys, doesn't always listen. If he doesn't listen to the instructions in each lesson, he can not follow it. There is immediate feedback when he is off task, and it allows him to police himself. I also love that I can see any areas that he is having problems with, yet enjoy the best part of reading instruction with him. ACTUAL READING.
The program is a bit pricey compared to other paperback reading instruction like those I used before, but this will follow him until he is done needing phonic instructions, comes with readers to practice the skills, and can be used for more than one child. I am going to use it with Gbaby Supreme when he is ready, and the value increases since it is also a writing and typing program as well as reading instruction. I think the cost will average out to be less than I would spend on everything if I bought it individually for each year. I also appreciate the fact that it streamlines Language Arts and instead of needing 4 different spines this takes care of everything but writing and grammar. But the most important thing is that it is working and Allboy is growing mentally. I can't help if the fact that he is doing something else independently is just icing on the cake!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Space Weather and Astronauts
We went to the Air and Space museum and were able to experience some hands on weather experiments. It is great when we can follow up book learning with interesting field trips. Both Allboy and Gbay Supreme made clouds and labeled each one. They were also able to create weather inside of the museum and understand how it effects radiation on Earth. But the best part of the day were the space exploration exhibits. We went on a simulated Mars exploration and the kids got an idea of just how far away it is and the difference between Earth and Mars, both in climate and landforms. Allboy remotely controlled a model of the Mars Rover and allowed it to examine rock and look for signs of life. Gbaby Supreme enjoyed the planets and recognized some of them that we had learned about the week before. We increased the pressure inside of a container so that they could force a star to explode. The most interesting things for me were the examinations of our galaxy. I never realized that we know about hundreds of Planets beside the 8 we all learn. I wonder why we haven't named them or collected more information. I also wonder at the chances of life on one of them. We have recovered pictures from our probes but I really don't know much besides that. There was also an exhibit where they showed us all the effects of 400 degrees below zero by using Nitrogen to freeze common items and what happens when they are exposed the extreme temperatures. I didn't know that Oxygen turns to liquid, and never thought about all the material choices that need to be decided before building anything that is sent into space. We also met an Astronaut who signed pictures of herself and gave a talk about life on the space shuttle. The kids giggled at the idea that they had to wear diapers and that their favorite foods were pizza. They also learned about mass and how gravity effects the astronauts bodies long term. It puts a lot of stress on their bodies. We talked again about mass and density when looking at models of the planets. Even though Saturn is much larger than Earth, Earth actually weighs more. I don't know that either boy understands density yet, but hopefully it built a future peg so that when they are older and more ready to learn about it, they will have some kind of reference for it.
After the Science exhibits, we watched the Imax movie Legend of the Guardians in 3D. I am not a fan of 3D, but this movie and that theater were very cool. We could actually see each individual feather on the owls. I didn't know that Owls could look both cuddly and scary at the same time. We also went to dinner at the Crab Shack and Allboy finally got his steamed crabs. It was a long day but a good one.
After the Science exhibits, we watched the Imax movie Legend of the Guardians in 3D. I am not a fan of 3D, but this movie and that theater were very cool. We could actually see each individual feather on the owls. I didn't know that Owls could look both cuddly and scary at the same time. We also went to dinner at the Crab Shack and Allboy finally got his steamed crabs. It was a long day but a good one.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Strong Carrying and Borrowing skills
We just had a huge math week. Learning to carry a ten while adding can be a confusing concept and Allboy is comfortable after doing a couple of page this week. I am really proud of him. Grandbaby Supreme is working on number recognition to 20 and is practicing counting. It is funny how when he counts something he tends to forget where he starts or ends so I have taught him to follow left to right and top to bottom like when reading. He is also continuing review of his letters. So far he learned F, B, M, K, T, R, P and S. We love Get Ready for the Code, and The Letter People. His writing is getting better, but still is shaky.
We said goodbye to the Native Americans in our History studies, and started the Explorers and Discovers. This week we are learning all about the Vikings and Leif Ericksson. Today we read all about Eric the Red, Leif's father. Tomorrow we build a Viking ship and recreate the map of the Vikings voyages between Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland (New Foundland).
Science is all about the Earth's crust this week. We learned about the Water Cycle, the Air and Atmosphere, and of course the weather. We are reading Magic School bus inside the Earth and inside a volcano. Our hands on activity for the week is making an Earth Pizza.
Our read aloud was My Father's Dragon, a really cute book about a boy being very clever and rescuing a dragon. There are 3 in the series so I see another trip to the library within the next day or so. We also have an audio copy of Bunnicula, but the audio's aren't going as well as I thought they would. We don't spend a ton of time in the car, and the one time we went anywhere long enough the CD player in the car decided to screw up.
Co-op is going great. I don't like being out of the house on Monday mornings but the kids are getting a lot out of the classes. Today G-Baby Supreme learned about Space, the Earth, and the Planets. They did a space craft, made a revolving earth around the sun, read a book about earth, and played a game of Alien and Astronaut somewhat like Duck Duck Goose. Allboys class was about maps and they went over the compass rose and worked on map symbols and puzzles.
Memorization is my largest surprise. I am amazed at how much kids this age can remember. Allboy has about 7 poems memorized and a bunch of facts. G-baby Supreme is memorizing different rhymes.
The Grinmaster is doing well in traditional school. I am concerned because I figured out why they needed the 21 glue sticks. They are not allowed to bring school books out of the class so they are recreating them in notebooks. They get printouts and glue them into the notebooks for test reviews. His grades are fine but I am getting a bit concerned that he isn't really doing much in Language Arts. So far they seem to read 30 minutes a night, but I am not too sure what they are doing in class. When I ask Grinmaster he says they read, and they finished the time capsule. Science is his most productive subject and in Math he is working on decimals and fractions. History is about Western expansion in US History 2.
Overall everything is going okay. Allboy is continuing to have whining problems and we are working on character connections. This week is talking gently to each other. They like to speak meanly and it is unacceptable. There is a definite difference when you are home with a child all the time. Their behavior problems get old fast. I can see where I fail as a mother and the areas we have to work on. But I am blessed that our boys are loving, smart human beings.
We said goodbye to the Native Americans in our History studies, and started the Explorers and Discovers. This week we are learning all about the Vikings and Leif Ericksson. Today we read all about Eric the Red, Leif's father. Tomorrow we build a Viking ship and recreate the map of the Vikings voyages between Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland (New Foundland).
Science is all about the Earth's crust this week. We learned about the Water Cycle, the Air and Atmosphere, and of course the weather. We are reading Magic School bus inside the Earth and inside a volcano. Our hands on activity for the week is making an Earth Pizza.
Our read aloud was My Father's Dragon, a really cute book about a boy being very clever and rescuing a dragon. There are 3 in the series so I see another trip to the library within the next day or so. We also have an audio copy of Bunnicula, but the audio's aren't going as well as I thought they would. We don't spend a ton of time in the car, and the one time we went anywhere long enough the CD player in the car decided to screw up.
Co-op is going great. I don't like being out of the house on Monday mornings but the kids are getting a lot out of the classes. Today G-Baby Supreme learned about Space, the Earth, and the Planets. They did a space craft, made a revolving earth around the sun, read a book about earth, and played a game of Alien and Astronaut somewhat like Duck Duck Goose. Allboys class was about maps and they went over the compass rose and worked on map symbols and puzzles.
Memorization is my largest surprise. I am amazed at how much kids this age can remember. Allboy has about 7 poems memorized and a bunch of facts. G-baby Supreme is memorizing different rhymes.
The Grinmaster is doing well in traditional school. I am concerned because I figured out why they needed the 21 glue sticks. They are not allowed to bring school books out of the class so they are recreating them in notebooks. They get printouts and glue them into the notebooks for test reviews. His grades are fine but I am getting a bit concerned that he isn't really doing much in Language Arts. So far they seem to read 30 minutes a night, but I am not too sure what they are doing in class. When I ask Grinmaster he says they read, and they finished the time capsule. Science is his most productive subject and in Math he is working on decimals and fractions. History is about Western expansion in US History 2.
Overall everything is going okay. Allboy is continuing to have whining problems and we are working on character connections. This week is talking gently to each other. They like to speak meanly and it is unacceptable. There is a definite difference when you are home with a child all the time. Their behavior problems get old fast. I can see where I fail as a mother and the areas we have to work on. But I am blessed that our boys are loving, smart human beings.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
The kids are sick
Today is our first day home schooling, or rather barely homeschooling with sick kids. All 3 boys have the virus that is going around. Yesterday Grinmaster barely moved off the couch, and even though his much better I decided to keep him home from school to keep from spreading the virus through the school. Last night Allboy and G-baby Supreme came down with it, and Mama Ruff is wiped out. On top of that it is raining, so it is the perfect day for me to take a nap.
Yet all three boys are behaving out of boredom. Running through the house, playing hide and seek and screaming. Usually a normal day on the Island. Today I don't have the patience. I either need to get my butt in gear and get school going, or I need to give them a project that will keep them busy without all the activity.
Either way, a nap is not going to happen.
Yet all three boys are behaving out of boredom. Running through the house, playing hide and seek and screaming. Usually a normal day on the Island. Today I don't have the patience. I either need to get my butt in gear and get school going, or I need to give them a project that will keep them busy without all the activity.
Either way, a nap is not going to happen.
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