Tropical Storm Isaac Update

Evidently Isaac decided to follow the European model and not hit much of FL (besides the Keys) at all. Good for us, potentially devastating for Louisiana if it does land there. The up side is that Tampa is pretty much unaffected so I plan to skate on Thursday.

The boys are making great strides on their piano lessons! They are working on Fur Elise and some Christmas songs (thinking ahead) and have nearly mastered Ode to Joy as you can see in the video.

Divagirl has completed her Reading Lesson textbook with flying colors which puts her at a 3rd grade reading level. I am so proud of her! She's just picked up the first of the Boxcar Children books and will hardly put it down. Unless its to play Presidents vs Aliens on the ipad... its pretty addicting. I feel confident in saying that she no longer has any reading issues.

I figured out the ordering issues I had with Am@zon and I do have to commend them, if the books ship from KY we get the shipment the very next day. Amazing! I found some delightful books I plan to use for history with Divagirl (now that she's a reader) entitled "...If You Lived With_____". Its a whole series and I got several on Native American life in different regions as well as Colonial times and Revolutionary life. They are very informative and will hopefully bring American history to life for her.

Let the Homeschooling Begin

After way too much electronic freedom, its time to detox the kids' minds and get back to learning. We are using August as a fill in the gaps month and get a head start on some subjects that need some brushing up. Its a fairly light schedule to ease back into lessons. They will all start their music lessons: piano for Mr. S and Divagirl and guitar for Mr. T.  Divagirl should be able to finish her Reading Lesson book and refresh her memory on All About Spelling. The boys will also work through the All About Spelling program albeit at a much faster pace. They can probably get through the first 2 books in a week. We will start reading The Wind in the Willows aloud each night as a family round robin. The boys will also start their first assignment with Teacher-Grammy reading The Outsiders. Lastly, everyone will work on Cursive First since Divagirl is still learning to write and the boys need some maintenance on their established handwriting. We also started some art lessons. I bought the Kindle edition of this Art Lab book and the lessons are really delightful. 

All remaining subjects will start around the 1st of September.

Passing The Time

Sundog on the way home from Tampa.

So what have we been up to? It has been so ridiculously hot and humid with enormous mosquitoes that we typically spend most days indoors. Captain has been busy with work, the boys have been amusing themselves with unlimited electronics time, Divagirl has been bouncing off the walls and shadowing any person or animal who moves, and I have just been trying to cope. Some evenings, when it doesn't thunderstorm, the kids are able to go with dad or grandpa to the neighbor's pool. Here are some of the other activities we managed to get photos of...

Divagirl is learning some animal husbandry skills when she's not amusing herself in the rv.

We had a BBQ and marshmallow roast planned but the weather had other plans. Not to be dismayed by the torrential downpour, the marshmallows were roasted anyways and the s'more assembling occurred indoors.

One nice thing about having an ex-sheriff as a grandpa, free target lessons. When the boys aren't learning how to be deadly assassins, they enjoy cheating at boards games. (Not really...well, maybe a little)

We Made It!

Happy Independence Day!

We made it to Florida :) It only took 6 hours and 4 gullywashers. No more major problems with the truck, although we will be complaining to Uhaul about the seatbelts. They would continually get tighter and lock when we'd go over bumps (and there were lots of bumps!). Then the seatbelt wouldn't release so we'd get squeezed. Not the most comfortable situation when you are drinking lots of fluids. Sometimes it would release, mostly it would not. Very frustrating. Then, during the storms we sprung a leak right over my shoulder. Temporary inconvenience.

It is so hot and humid here--much more than any other place we stopped along the way. At least my parents have a/c.

Our dog was ecstatic to see us!

The car is unloaded from the tow dolly and we're waiting until tomorrow to unload the truck. Now for some real food and rest!

Second Verse, Same as the First

One advantage to the kids spending another night with us is that Divagirl (far right) got to spend one last fun-filled evening with 2 of her best friends. They went to the movies and out to dinner and had a blast. She was so happy!

After the airline mishap yesterday I did not have high hopes for today. The kids were automatically re-booked on a new flight leaving at 6:41am and connecting through Chicago. Anyone who has connected through O'hare knows that this is bad news. More bad news is that due to the cancellation the rest of the week's flights are completely full. Nonetheless, Captain woke up at 4am and took the kids back to the airport to do an instant replay of yesterday. Only it was not to be. Turns out the level of incompetence was higher than I thought. United does not allow a six year old to fly without an adult 18 or older, even if she's flying with someone who is allowed to fly alone. They basically told him that they have no idea how they made it through yesterday. Or why no one knew on the phone. So Captain needed to pay an unaccompanied minor fee for her, but not for Mr.T, although they both received wristbands since they were flying together. Then all sorts of fun kicked in. They oversold a direct flight and bumped 2 people. Captain had to stay with them until the plane took off. Thankfully, the flight was on time. But the new flight was at 10. After packing all day and night, getting up at 4 and then having to wait at the airport for 5 hours, coming home to pack afterwards was not fun.

They got to Florida 13 min. early and their grandparents met them at the gate. I actually got to talk to the flight attendant and she said they were absolutely wonderful (of course they were) even though they couldn't sit together. Divagirl sat between two gentlemen and had them wrapped around her little finger within minutes. They waited on her like a princess and she talked their ears off the entire trip. I wouldn't recommend United if you had minors flying alone.

 

6/27

Who Needs Summer Camp?

On Monday we called Comcast to schedule internet shut off for Thursday. As soon as Captain hung up we lost our wireless connection. Coincidence? He called back to see if it was a glitch and we had already been terminated and removed from the system. Really?? Meanwhile he was still supposed to be working online. The kids were using the wireless for the ipad and their ipods so they weren't pleased either. Therefore, I haven't been able to stay connected or update the blog until now. I've been totally relying on my phone to stay connected and using tons of data. I'll do my best to catch up...

I really don't see why all our friends stress out about finding summer camps for their kids all day. Just do what we do, drop them off at the airport and come back for them 7 hours later! Okay, before you call CPS, that's not really the entire story. We had planned on Mr. T and Divagirl flying early to their grandparents and we booked them on United months ago. I even called the airline to clarify their somewhat beguiling policies. We got there an hour and a half before the flight and its already delayed 45 min. We find the Special Services desk and ask for a gate pass. Because Mr. T was allowed to travel as his sister's guardian only one parent can get a gate pass. Hmm, ok, Mr. S and I waited until Captain got them through security and settled comfortably at the gate. Then we bid them farewell and went home to pack. We'd been following the flight info through notifications and the flight kept getting delayed. Long story short, after many hours at the gate and 2 hours on the plane the flight was cancelled. Stop packing, return to airport, pick up kids and carry on. (to be continued...)

6/26

Locks of Love and Ballet Wrap Up

Divagirl (on the left) is our little ballerina. She takes 2 classes a week, but during the month leading up to the Spring performance she can take up to 4 classes a week. And she still wants more! That means that up to 4x per week her slick, slippery Chinese hair is wrangled into a sleek bun. There has been a considerable amount of breakage over the year, so back in February we started talking to her about donating her hair to a child that needs a hairpiece due to medical conditions. She loved the idea as long as it went to a girl "because its girl hair".
The day after the performance we went to the salon and had nearly 11" cut off. She was a little concerned initially, but after it was dried and she got to swish and swing it, she was sold. Since we are heading to FL in a week, she will be much more comfortable in the heat and humidity. She even made a little card to send in with her donation. I don't know if anyone will ever receive it, but its the thought that counts.

I think she looks adorable, but I might be a little biased. ;)

6/22

My Baby is So Grown Up!

Sometimes its hard to believe I'm the mom to 3 awesome kids, and then I remember my oldest is turning 14. And then its extremely difficult to believe that I'm old enough to have a teenager! (One look in the mirror usually brings me back to reality pretty quick)

Yes, my baby boy who made me a mom for the first time, is turning 14 today. (*sniff*)

Happy Birthday Mr. T!

Last night I booked the flight to Florida for Mr. T and DivaGirl at the end of June. We thought it would be easier to send them to grammy's house ahead of time and let Mr. S, who was a little bent out of joint that big brother got to travel across country in November, travel with us in the moving van. Can I just say that airfare is getting ridiculous?! Last night I was logged in to the airline and figured I'd just book round trip tickets since we will need to get back to CA in the near future for ortho appts. While I was logged in, my first search brought up $439 pp rt. A little high, but okay, book...alas, in the time it took me to decide to click 'book now' I get an alert that says "This fare has gone up. The lowest fare is now $480 pp rt." Well, crap. Let's do a little more research...da da dah...okay, still the best deal, let's book it. What??? Another alert: "The lowest fare is now $509 per person..." Are you kidding me?! The price hiked twice in the 2 hours I spent making reservations. So I changed my strategy and booked a one-way for each and total for 2 passengers my total came to $509. Blarg.

A little note about unaccompanied minors traveling by plane, it can be easy-peasy or it can be very challenging depending on the airline. Obviously you will be limited by the airlines that fly into your closest airport. For us we had a decent selection as we fly San Francisco to Orlando. We also have the equally close options of San Jose or Oakland. So here's a breakdown of policies by airline with the best, IMO, at the top.

1. Alaska  ages 5-12 pay $25 fee, non-stop flights only; age 13-17 service fee is optional (Flights are generally on time and crew members are pleasant)
2. Virgin  ages 5-14 traveling without an adult who is at least 15 years old, $75-125 fee; ages 15-17 service is optional, non-stop flights only, includes a complimentary snack. Children under 4 years old are not allowed to travel unless accompanied by an adult who is at least 15 years old. (Awesome flying experience)
3. United  ages 5-11 pay $99 service fee, non-stop flights; 12-17 service optional or can travel as an adult. (Not my favorite carrier, flights are often late)
4. Southwest  ages 5-11 pay $50 service fee each way, non-stop flights only. (Would be ranked higher, but never fly to where we want to go)
5. Delta  ages 5-7 non-stop flights only, $100 service fee each way; ages 8-14 non-stop or connecting flights, $100 service fee each way; ages 15-18 service is optional.
6. American Airlines  ages 5-7 non-stop flights only, $100 service fee each way; ages 8-11 non-stop or connecting flights, $100 service fee each way; ages 12-18 service is optional.

These are the top 6 that I would consider. If you have had experience flying unaccompanied minors I'd love to hear about it.

In our case they kids won't technically be considered unaccompanied minors since Mr. T is 14.  I actually had to call the airline to figure out how to book him and they told me to check him in as an adult. That means that DivaGirl, being 6 at travel time, is accompanied by a guardian. Either way, we can still approach the counter and pick up gate check passes for the rest of us to see them to the gate and through security. Being well flown kids, they will not need grammy to do the same when they arrive, they will just follow the signs to baggage claim and be met at the end of security.  Mr. T has flown unaccompanied before and has been at this airport before so navigation shouldn't be very difficult.

One Homeschooler

Well, there was this time when I said I had to try very hard not to pull the kiddos out of public school now. One escaped. That is, Divagirl is now being homeschooled. Hehe. The school curriculum and processes were failing her and it was painful to watch her try to keep up and learn to hate school. There were aspects that she loved (teacher, friends, playing) but most of it she didn't love. Although she was ever the trooper and went to school with a smile and told everyone how much she loved school. Which was why it was with great trepidation that I suggested to her that I might homeschool her instead of going to school everyday. It was with great relief that I heard her say "Yes mom!" And when I took her to her class the next Monday so she could say goodbye to her teacher, I felt a little guilty when she bounded up to her teacher with a huge smile and said "My mom's going to teach me at home!!" as tears rolled down her teacher's cheek. (Oops, oh well)

But really, it was inevitable. The only reason it hadn't happened sooner was that I was heavily invested in that class. I was Room Parent, classroom volunteer and website manager. And, selfishly, I liked my alone time, brief as it was. Trouble is, I never did anything productive with it. I did talk to the teacher, but she was teaching at an accelerated rate that the top 10% of the class could keep up with and her methods included vast amounts of worksheets. Divagirl loathes worksheets. She's a kinetic learner and most school settings aren't the best place for kinetic learner to thrive. One thing that clinched it for me was that I followed a hunch that Divagirl might be left-handed so I had her write her alphabet with her "wrong" hand and then her right hand. Aside from it being awkward because she didn't know how to hold the pencil and floated it across the paper, all of her letters looked as good or better than the letters she wrote with her right hand that she's been practicing for 3 months! When I showed it to the teacher and told her I suspected she was a lefty the teacher basically responded with I don't really care what you do with her at home and implied she wasn't going to change anything at school. Really? I then asked her how many lefties she has had in the last 10 years. None. Yup, that explains it. Teach by demonstrating the right hand. Unless the child comes in fully grounded in left-handedness, they will be a right-hander by default.

I also have a hunch that she may have some form of dyslexia. Its not the kind where you transpose letters, but the one where you can't remember whole words, but can spell and sounds them out. She also has difficulty reading the word on the next page after successfully reading the same word on the previous page. The type that I'm watching for in her is called Dyseidetic. Perhaps also mild Dysgraphia since she hasn't chosen a dominant hand yet. At least now I can keep an eye on her progress.

Doing the best for your child is what its all about. So homeschooling here we come!

Road Schooling

As I've mentioned before we'll be roadschooling the kiddos, which is really just a very mobile form of homeschooling.

The biggest challenge will be having enough room for all our materials and still keeping it simple (oh, and not exceeding our gross allowable weight).

This affords us an amazing opportunity to live, walk, and see historical sites and make our American history lessons come alive!

I've been sorting through the materials I have already and trying to simplify things due to the space constraints we will have imposed on us. I have lists on my phone and the computer that detail my ideas and the kids ideas on what they want to study. That's one of my favorite aspects of home schooling, letting the kids have input on things they want to learn. Our methods tend to fall into a classical, eclectic, secular, unschool approach with an emphasis on real-world experience. We teach everything that's mandated by the state we are registered in, but in addition to that we develop our kids minds so that they learn how to learn and can think for themselves while being resourceful and productive members of society.

I plan on posting individual curriculum lists for each kid (first grade, 6th grade and 9th grade).

The kids waffle between being excited about homeschooling again and being sad that they'll miss their friends. I won't miss the colds, bullying, drop-offs and pick-ups, early mornings, packed lunches, acquired bad habits, classroom volunteering, PTA meetings, expensive field trips, state mandated testing, and the peer pressure. I might miss the hour or two of free time I had that really only went to keeping the house clean. With only 200ish square feet of living space, I don't think I'll need 2 hours a day to keep our home clean.