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

Sort and Sell

This is a process of minimizing. The first step is to sell any belongings that you don't love, need or use on Craigslist. Wait for people to call and inquiry. Arrange time for pickup. Wait for said pickup time and wait and wait and wait...Yes, that's usually how it works for us and C*list. Although we have managed to sell 2 tables and the patio furniture.

I've been going through knick knacks and home decorations and deciding which I want to reuse and lovingly pack and catalog them away and which ones I'm really tired of looking at. My stumbling block at the moment is the box of old photos and the box of last year's art work (for 3 kids), both of which need scanned or photographed so that the originals can be tossed. This type of project overwhelms me!

The goal is to get most or all of the big stuff sold first then have a yard sale for the remaining little things, donating whatever doesn't sell after that.

I've packed up several more boxes to go into storage. Doesn't it always seem that things get messier before they get tidier? The garage is on my list for this weekend. Although, the kids may win out and we may just hang at the pool and wait for Captain to return from his business meeting. It is supposed to be in the 80s and 90s this weekend.

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.

Roadschooling Curriculum

I've only managed to pack 3 boxes to keep in storage, cleaned out the outgrown clothes in Divagirl's closet (4 paper bags full!), and start on the boys' closet. But I've made progress on next year's curriculum!

I must admit, I'm a planner. I get a thrill planning, organizing and researching.

Mr T will be in 9th grade, albeit an advanced Freshman. He'll be studying...
Core Subjects:
Math-Geometry and Trigonometry via khanacademy.com
Language Arts-Most of this will be correspondence through a private tutor
Science-Biology
Social Studies-US History & Biographies, US Geography, Current Events
Electives:
Foreign Language-French
Music-Acoustic Guitar
Art-Great Artists, Design Principles, Nature Study
Computers-Maya programming
Life Skills-Teen studies, finding oneself, Compassion
PE-This will be more of a daily activity including options such as circuit training, body weight exercises, hiking, swimming, biking, etc. depending on where we are and what's available to us.

Mr. S will be starting 6th grade and he'll be studying...
Core Subjects:
Math-Pre-Algebra via khanacademy.com
Language Arts-Some of this will be correspondence through a private tutor the rest will be First Language Lessons 3+, All About Spelling, and Wordly Wise 3000
Science-Biology
Social Studies-US History, US Geography, American Presidents
Electives:
Foreign Language-French
Music-Piano/Keyboard & Theory
Art-Great Artists, Design Principles, Nature Study
Computers-Keyboarding
Life Skills-Public speaking, Patience, Tolerance
PE-Same as above only he'll also be doing parkour and hip hop dancing.

Divagirl will technically be going into 1st grade however we are currently homeschooling Kindergarten and its been a lot of 2 steps forward one step back so we will be taking it slow and moving at a pace that she's comfortable with.
Core Subjects:
Math-Addition, Subtraction, Skip counting, Fractions, Time to quarter hour
Language Arts-First Language Lessons 1, All About Spelling, Cursive First, The Reading Lesson
Science-Animals, Nature, Anatomy, Sensory (similar to the biology subjects the boys will study but more hands on depending on what's around us)
Social Studies-US History, US Geography, American Presidents
Electives:
Foreign Language-French
Music-Piano/Keyboard & Theory
Art-Great Artists, Design Principles, Nature Study
Life Skills-Patience, Resourcefulness, Caring, Perseverance, Truthfulness, Organization, Helpfulness (I'm currently the leader of her Daisy Troop and we plan on staying a Daisy while we travel, which will help with the character study and life skills)
PE-Hiking, Running, Swimming, Biking, Jump Rope, Ballet...again, dependent on where we are.

There was some discussion about the foreign language. Mr. T wanted Japanese, Mr. S wanted French and Divagirl wanted Chinese. Later Mr. T denied wanting Japanese and Divagirl refused to learn Chinese so it was agreed that we'd learn French. I took 3 years of HS French and was fluent, *ahem* 25 years ago, so it would much easier for me if we all learned something I had a prayer at teaching. Perhaps the following year I'll be brave and offer another language. I am excited though, I ordered some resources that two-thirds of them can work through. Easy French Reader and Le Petit Prince (en francais) will be introduced when they are ready to decipher written word. For Divagirl I got Let's Learn French Coloring Book because she loves to color. She also loves Fancy Nancy so she knows a few French words already.

There's an art lesson book that looks promising called Art Lab for Kids but I'd like to see it in real life first before I commit. I am an artist by education but sometimes its much nicer to just turn your brain off and follow the directions, provided its a quality lesson. And considering I'll be home schooling 3 kids at 3 levels, a little brain "off" time would be nice.

The boys will be doing some of their Language Arts lessons via a private tutor. They happen to have a grandmother who has a Masters in English and Reading and she retired from teaching Junior High kids. Perfect!

I'm also planning a bunch of reading material but I haven't finalized my lists yet, partly due to format issues. Space will be a premium and I'd rather not have all of their books in print, so I'm trying to whittle the list down to include a multitude of eBooks. Basically their literature will consist of several classics, myths and books about the US or written by American authors. I'm sure that will be another post.

Initial Plan

We don't really have a complete plan, but we have a tentative plan or rather a sketchy outline for our new lifestyle. We currently live in California and the highly-regulated-extremely-safe-family-friendly city in which we live does not allow one to keep a motorhome so we plan on having hubby and eldest take a cross-country road trip to Florida and keep the rig with relatives until the kids are out of school next June. At that time we'll all be ready to join our new home and have time to do renovations on it and chart our course. This first trip will happen at the end of the November.

Currently the rig is still at the mechanics getting inspected and road ready. We still need to make a trip to the DMV to transfer the title and pay the (absolutely exorbitant) sales tax within the next week.

What about the kids' education you ask?

All three kids are currently in public school and it takes everything in my power not to pull them out early and finish out the year homeschooling. But. I. Won't. I'm not new to homeschooling. Historically I've used it when I felt the schools were failing my kids. I taught eldest, Mr. T, who is very bright, for Pre-K, 1st and 2nd grades so he could work at a challenging pace. I taught Mr. S 3/4 of 4th grade because he was slipping through the cracks of WA schools. I enrolled him for a few months in CA school after we moved so he could make new friends. I haven't formally taught Divagirl yet but she's only just started Kindergarten, that's not to say we haven't done tons of informal teaching.

I plan on "road-schooling" all three year round with generous breaks when needed. I think that works out better in the long run so their brains don't turn to mush over the 3 month summer break.