Busy, busy!

I was so good, for so long, at posting on a regular basis! It hasn't been too long I guess but I broke my writing streak. Brenna and I have been pretty busy though and I hardly have time to sit at the computer and check my email, much less write. Brendon and Brenna are watching a Spurs basketball game right now so I have bought a few minutes. LOL
The week before Halloween I was busy decorating for our Halloween costume party that we had. Brendon and I went all out and had a bunch of our friends over for a big Halloween bash. I decorated the whole house (cobwebs, red light bulbs, ect...) as well as the backyard and made tons of food. We had a wonderful time. Brenna went with Nan that evening to the Fall Festival at the church and then ended up going to my Mom's house early because she was not feeling well. We had planned on her spending the night at my Mom's house but not as a sick little girl! She started running a fever that night and I felt absolutely terrible leaving her there. She has always been very comfortable at my Mom's though, so if she wasn't home then that was the next best place. She ended up running a pretty high fever all weekend, along with a stuffy nose, but was better by Monday. She did miss her basketball scrimmage game on Saturday, as well as practice on Monday, but she was back to practice on Thursday. She has really been enjoying it so far. Her very first game is tomorrow morning so we are all looking forward to that. I will try to remember my camera so I can take pictures to post. She's a little nervous and I have been trying to make her feel better and telling her not to be and to just do her best. I think her Dad gave her the best advise tonight and was very straight forward - "You should be nervous and that's okay. That just means that you will try your best! Tim Duncan is probably nervous before all of his games too!" She seemed to take that better then what I was telling her. Maybe I should just leave all the sports things up to Brendon. LOL

We've still been doing co-ops with the home school group, as well, on Wednesday's. Next week is the last week. We'll do it again in February, I think. Brenna enjoys it. Me, not so much. I have come to realize that I really don't get much out of the group we are in. I guess I just don't have much in common with the other women - personality wise as well as teaching style. It makes me feel very out-of-place sometimes. We've been involved with this group for two years now and it has not gotten much better.
During the last Mom's Chat at co-ops we discussed curriculum. One of the Mom's has a daughter the same age as Brenna and they are very similar in personality as well and she has been having a lot of problems with her. She's been very stubborn and giving her such grief over the school work that they are doing -- reminded me a lot of Brenna and all of the times that I attempted to do formal curriculum with her. All of the other Mom's were telling her about the different curriculum's they use and finally I spoke up (after much debate with myself). I told her that I am very relaxed when it comes to our schooling right now and that I have tried doing the formal school stuff but that for some kids it just does not work when they are this young. I told her about trying to teach Brenna how to read when she was 5 and teaching her phonics and how she just refused and that it became such a struggle. I told her how I completely backed off and just kept reading to her and not forcing the issue and that within six months of doing that Brenna was reading on her own because she WANTED to and not because she was forced. One of the mom's spoke up and said to me that I have to have used some kind of curriculum to teach her how to read. I said no and that Brenna learned how to read because she wasn't pushed. Period. Apparently that it pretty hard for some people to understand. That is the one thing that convinced Brendon that what I was doing was right for her though. I think I am the only one in the group that is as relaxed as we are but it works for us. I happen to have a child that does worse when she's pushed and thrives on doing things at her own pace. I guess you could say that we are doing more of an unschooling method right now - which is child-led learning. I have written about it on here before. I think I was considering it last time I posted about it but now, that is what we are doing. In fact, the same person that questioned my teaching Brenna how to read made a comment last year when I was considering the unschooling method. She said, "I don't know about those unschooling people. They just don't do anything!". Well if you knew anything about it you would know that is a totally false statement.
I know people have different ways of teaching their kids at home and I respect that. But don't go putting me down because I do something that is different from you. That would be the same thing as me saying that I think it is terrible that people use structured curriculum and sit for hours a day at a table with a six or seven year old, forcing them to learn out of textbooks. No, I don't agree with that but I would never say that to a large group of people when I don't know who's doing what.
Okay, so I totally went off on one of my little tangents. I didn't mean to get that carried away. Not even sure if I made much sense or made any points at all. Just venting I guess. LOL

Well this post has taken me about 3 hours to write (taking lots of breaks here and there). It's my bed time now -- have to wake up and cook Brenna a good breakfast before her first game!!
I'll post about that sometime this weekend.....