I Went To A Soccer Party, Everyone Was There

Last Friday we hosted a get-to-know-you party for Alyssa's soccer team.  It was our first garden party in our yard, and I love it!  We worked so hard making our yard pretty in the Spring, but then we spent the hot summer days swimming at my parents' house, plus we thought we had more work to do until we had a party, so we didn't really enjoy all that hard work as well as we could have.  So when I was thinking that someone should have a party so the girls could get to become friends, I then thought, "Why not us?"

Brian's mom came over on Friday while Brian was at work to help us clear some extra weeds and dead head the rose bushes, and Alyssa and I strung white lights on the pergola.  It actually didn't take a whole lot of work, and it turned out so pretty.

The girls played Do You Love Your Teammate? and did a team building hula hoop activity, then they filled their plates with food and answered get-to-know-you questions while sitting under the twinkle lights.  After a while the twinkle lights were getting to me, because they were twinkling so fast, so I fiddled around with them, trying to find a slower setting.  The girls took advantage of this to start dancing under the crazy lights, and we ended up taking them inside for an impromptu dance party.  They danced for 40 minutes!  No breaks, just dancing.  It was so fun to watch, and it looked like everyone had a great time.

In other news:
1. Soccer is going great.

2. We celebrated Oktoberfest on Saturday.  Lots of brats and root beer, with some German red cabbage and German chocolate cake.

3. Becca broke her arm yesterday.  I gave her a graham cracker in her high chair booster seat, but I didn't strap her in, because she can climb up and down out of it.  Then I went upstairs to switch the laundry to the dryer, heard her crying, and came downstairs to find her waiting for me, still crying.  When she didn't settle down, and even kept whimpering when I tried nursing her, I knew something was wrong.  I called my mom, and she was luckily in the neighborhood on her way to my sister's house, so she came over and we isolated the pain to Becca's left arm.  I called the orthopedic office (I've learned to bypass the emergency room and just head straight to them - much faster and cheaper) and took her in that afternoon.  She has a splint on it now, and then they'll put a cast on it next week.  It's so sad, but she is feeling better now that it's immobilized.  And I've learned my lesson; we'll be strapping her into her high chair for a long while yet.

First Day of Mid Columbia Partnership

Did you notice how much Ethan loves him new backpack?  Last year I did the most brilliant thing ever: I ordered their backpacks online during the middle of the school year, without telling the kids.  This was great, because 1) They were super cheap - I think about $7.00 each, and 2) I got to pick cute backpacks that I thought they would like, instead of taking them to the store and waiting for an hour while they went through all the options.  I got the backpacks out last night while Brian gave us all father's blessings, and they were so excited.  Marcus isn't in the picture, but he has a super cool Batman back pack.

Holy cow, the kids were so excited to go to MCP this morning.  Alyssa's classes are Archery, Magic Tree House History, Diggin' Dirt, Big Messy Art, and Type to Learn.  Ethan's are Tomie de Paolo Books, Wonderful World of Weather, Big Messy Art, Sensory Investigations, and P.E.  The Big Messy Art classes apparently get better with each trimester, because the second trimester's class is called Bigger Messier Art, and the third's is Biggest Messiest Art.  The Tomie de Peolo class turns into Seussology during the second trimester, and If You Give a Child a Book for the third. I think the kids will have a great year!

In other news:

1. Alyssa and Ethan both had their first soccer games on Saturday, and they both played great.  At least that's what Brian tells me.  I was at a stake Activity Days activity all day, so I missed the games.  I'm looking forward to watching them both play next Saturday!

2. Alyssa and I went to the stake Activity Day Girls Activity, which was so fun.  We had a couple of Orton girls (Brian's second or third cousins or cousins once removed or something like that) in our group that we've gotten to know from various family activities, and they were excited to see Alyssa, and Alyssa was excited to see them.  We also had a girl from Alyssa's soccer team in our group, and she was so excited to be with her. 

We went to a few classes on modesty and manners and health, then had lunch, and then the girls got to shoot bows and arrows and bb guns, make a friendship bracelet and a necklace, then do a service project.  Alyssa made a lot of comments in the manners class, and I was very proud of the things that she said.  She's growing up!  Alyssa and I had to leave before the service project, so we missed it and I don't even know what it was.

3. Alyssa tried out for the Nutcracker for the first time.  I was so proud of her!  Up until Saturday morning she kept saying that she didn't want to do it, but then on Saturday morning she gathered up her leotard, tights, and slippers, and sounded excited to try out.  Fast forward to 3:15, when we were waiting for her group to be called - I have never seen her so excited.  Take Alyssa's normal happy, bouncy self and multiply it by 100, and you will get the Alyssa before her Nutcracker auditions.  She was literally (and I do mean literally) bouncing off the walls.  We went to Baskin Robbins afterward to congratulate her on her bravery, then headed home so Brian could go fishing with his dad. It was a busy Saturday.

Day 2

I think all my posts for the next little while need to be titled, "Adventures in Homeschooling, Trying to Figure Things Out, and Getting a Lot of Practice but Not Always Succeeding at Using Patience."  I guess this is where my blog truly is journaling, because I'm sure a lot of people don't care to hear about all our day to day craziness of homeschooling.

Yesterday was busy.  Between school, sewing patches on Brian's Scout uniform, making a visit with the Primary president for Activity Days, making phone calls for Activity Days, running to Target to get plastic tubs, and setting up our work boxes for today...it was just packed.  I was actually quite impressed that we got as much done as we did, even if the laundry didn't get folded.

 I'm really excited for today.  Each night I need to go through the kids' work boxes and set them up for the next day.  On Tuesday we didn't do work boxes, because I didn't know the order to set them up in, then Tuesday night I took what I learned through the day and put the boxes together, then yesterday I made notes of what needed to be changed, then I made those changes last night.  One of the changes I needed to make was to have a few bigger tubs for the hardback books to go in.  The little plastic shoe tubs weren't big enough for that. 

I also wanted to make some cards to go in the work boxes so that I know which subject to prepare for and which books are needed, and so Alyssa knows which course to open on the k12 website when she's doing her lessons, which should put her in charge of her education a little bit more.  K12 has changed the formatting for their courses a little this year, and it means that I've been checking the computer, trying to find the right books for each lesson.  For instance, there's three or four Literature books with student pages, a few Literature books with lesson guides, and they all look the same, and then there's other books that go along with the Literature courses.  I was going crazy trying to keep them all straight on the book shelf.  Now they can just live in the work boxes.  My sister also gave me the tip to not rip out the student pages, and I'm really excited to not have to keep track of loose pages.  (That was kind of a DUH moment for me.) 

I don't know why it's sideways.

I'm really curious to see how today goes with the way I have things set up.  Alyssa will have more control over her lessons, and I think it will help her to see that she doesn't need me to sit beside her and tell her what to do.  I think that right now she's scared to do it on her own, but once she sees that it actually gives her freedom and power, instead of leaving her lost and confused, then she'll be a lot better student.  Yesterday she spent the entire morning crying over one page of Math that was review!  She wants me to sit beside her and walk her through each problem, but I just can't do that.  I need to remember to give her the confidence she needs to be able to do it on her own, instead of getting frustrated at the work she's not getting done.  (That's where learning patience comes in.)  Last night as I was doing the work boxes, I went through and graded everything she had done through the day.  It was so fun to see what she had done, and I really was impressed with the quality of her work.  I made sure to put in lots of positive notes with my red pen, so she knows that she's doing a good job.

First Day of School

 We started school yesterday, and it was crazy.  We didn't use our work boxes, because I didn't quite know what order to put the kids' assignments in with them sharing the computer.  So we spent the morning with me running around like a crazy lady, back and forth from the computer to the bookshelves, trying to get the kids sorted out.  Today has gone a lot smoother, since I put the work boxes together this morning before we started.

Ethan is all about school and learning.  It's still new to him, and he's excited to do it.  I say. "Do a worksheet," and he says, "Okay!"  He's also very excited to do K12 on the computer.  It's 11:15, and he has finished everything for the day, except for Math, which he needs the computer for.  The K12 website seems to have frozen, though, so he's waiting while I blog while I wait for it to connect.

Alyssa, on the other hand - wow!  Over the summer she was doing great at the work boxes, and she would do all her work happily, without much help, then be out the door, playing.  But now she's spent the past two mornings flailed across the couch, moaning, "I need help!  I just can't do this!  I don't know what to do!" and I'm like:  "Alyssa, you did this in second grade!  You're fine!"  Actually, yesterday she did pretty good.  It's more this morning that she's having problems.  Mostly, she's having a huge problem staying focused on her work, and every time I redirect her to it, she starts the moaning and the wailing.  Oh, and she's also spending most of her working time singing songs, which isn't very conducive to Math.  I think she's going to be a little surprised when Ethan and Marcus get to play after lunch, and I go fold laundry, and she'll be stuck in the school room, finishing her work.  I hope if she takes all day long to get things done today, that tomorrow morning will go better.

Alyssa doing her Math lesson

Marcus working in his activity workbook

Becca, being carried around

Ethan working on his Math lesson