So I was informed last night by my Mom that I need to stop writing things on my blog like, "...reminding myself..." and "...trying to convince myself..." that what I am doing is right. She said that she gets very upset when she reads those words when it comes to me homeschooling. And yes, I agree.
I need to be totally and utterly comfortable in what I am doing and most importantly HOW I am doing what I'm doing.
I keep waiting for that to happen - to be completely sure and not have those twinges of doubt. It doesn't happen every day or even once a week or once a month. Very seldom do I doubt what I am doing is right but it shouldn't happen AT ALL.
Do I love homeschooling Brenna? Absolutely.
Is it the best thing for our family? Without a doubt.
Would I change anything right now? Not on my life.
I guess I don't necessarily question the whole homeschooling thing itself. I totally feel at ease about not sending my daughter to school and I do not hesitate one bit. I could not fathom her going to school. I am passionate about the entire idea of homeschooling and I love the lifestyle that we have that it gives us. We are not tied down to strict school schedules and homework. Our time together doesn't just consist of weekends and evenings during the week when everyone is tired from a long day, trying to get dinner made and homework done and bath and bed before a certain time. Oh that stresses me out just thinking about it! LOL I really don't know how some people do it. Our evenings are so relaxing and we don't feel pressure at all. So I guess to sum it all up, yes I am totally in love with homeschooling and have no uncertainty about it.
To be honest, I guess the thing that I question sometimes is HOW we homeschool. I don't know why I do because I have so much proof everyday that what I am doing is right for Brenna. Everyone who frequents my blog knows that I have a very relaxed approach to homeschooling and that we do not use any type of curriculum at all (been there, tried that, not good for my child). It has been a struggle and a roller coaster ride these last two years to get to this point and to feel (somewhat) at peace with it. It is hard to put so much trust in your child that they will learn without you pushing them. It is hard to feel comfortable in the fact that you are not sitting your child at the table everyday, drilling facts into their head and making them perfect their writing or learning math by writing it down repetitively on paper as proof of what they learned that day. It's not for the child's benefit that these things get done. It's for the teacher's (or in my case, the parent) to have a hard copy of what the child has supposedly learned that day. It's not natural for children to learn that way.
Do people force their children to walk? Do they send them to a school that teaches them to walk or even talk? Sounds ridiculous doesn't it? So is forced learning - it's the same thing. Children are natural learners. They were born to learn and they were born with the instinct to learn. Look at how much children learn before school age. They learn because they WANT to and because they crave it. A child gets sent to school (or even structured homeschooling) at the age of 5, forced to sit at a desk and learn things that they have absolutely no interest in and pretty soon it becomes boring and they begin to hate anything to do with learning.
Yes, I have tried sitting Brenna at the table and "doing school". You know what happened? She shut down. Learning stopped being fun and became a struggle. She started to pick up reading at age 5 and I forced her to sit and read to me everyday whether she liked it or not - and believe me, she didn't like it one bit! She hated it. There were tears and it just seemed so forceful and unenjoyable and unnatural so I stopped. (Yes, many of you have heard this story but bear with me.) Six months after I stopped forcing her to learn how to read she acquired a passion for it and now at 6 she's reading at a 3rd grade level and reading for pleasure.
Spelling was the same struggle. We started a curriculum, she resisted and stopped learning "on her own", we stopped and now she is learning to spell everyday just by making books and IM'ing her Dad on the computer and making cards for people.
You want to hear a conversation Brenna and I had just last night? We were talking about brushing teeth and I told her that you have to brush for about two minutes. She has a little hourglass timer that is for 30 seconds.
Brenna: "So if I got my timer then it would have to go four times for that to be two minutes because it is for half a minute."
Mom: "Yes, you are completely right Brenna. Good job!"
Brenna: "So if my timer was only a quarter of a minute then it would have to go eight times for that to make two minutes."
We continued the conversation and I asked her more complicated questions, which she got right.
My 6 year old is doing fractions....in her head.
And we don't use a math curriculum which teaches her this. She learns this because she wants to and because it's interesting to her. Amazing concept. Don't we do that as adults?
Oh how I wish I could just go on and on and about how many math conversations we have like this and how much she can do in her head. It is a part of our everyday life. Why do I need textbooks to teach her things that she will naturally learn by using it in everyday life?
So after all this, I STILL doubt sometimes that what I am doing is right. Why?? Can't I see the proof right in front of me?
Every once in a while I will have the urge to sit her at the table and drill spelling words into her head and prove to me that she can spell this word and that. But I don't. Every once in a while I will have the urge to make her perform math problems on paper just so that I can see what I know she already knows. But I don't.
Believe me, it's hard. It's hard not conforming to what school should be like and what people say a child should learn at a certain age. It's hard not having that "proof" written down on paper. It's hard trusting her and trusting that she will learn things. She may not grasp certain things at the same age that school children do but her learning experiences are much richer I think because it's things that SHE is interested in that she will remember better. She is also learning certain things that are way beyond her grade level, like fractions. It kinda evens out.
But I have a philosophy on that whole thing.....
Who's to say what they should learn at what age? Really, who comes up with that stuff???
What difference will it make if my kid learns how to tie her shoes when she's 4 or when she's 6? She's still going to learn right? She's not going to be 15 and not know how to tie her shoes.
I think that applies for a lot of things. Reading, spelling, writing, ect.... Why not let them learn it when they are ready and when it is easier for them to grasp the concept instead of when "so-and-so" (books, government, teachers,ect...) says that they should? Is there any difference at all between a 7 year old learning to write cursive and a 10 year old learning to write cursive??
I'm sure that I have written similar arguments on here before and I apologize for being repetitive.
I need to listen to my Mother (don't we all??) and stop doubting what I am doing with Brenna because I SEE it. I see that she IS learning and that she is so smart. I see how much she loves learning new things and how many questions she asks everyday (that I have to find answers to!! LOL). I also have seen how much she resists when it comes to any kind of structured learning and how she just completely shuts down. Maybe I just worry too much about what other people think? I really do I guess. As my brother always tells me , I worry too much about what other people think and I need to just be myself. Oh how I wish I were more of a "free spirit" like he is. (I love you PJ!!) How different a brother and sister can be....
I need to realize that Brenna is MY child and that as her mother, I know her best and know the way that she learns best as well. I am not harming her in any way by not being a sit-at-the-table-and-do-your-work type parent. I actually have her best interest at heart and I have come to realize what kind of learner she is. She thrives on natural learning.
That, right there, is the absolute beauty of homeschooling.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Good Story
I love this story. I found it while doing my quarterly search of reasons to make myself feel better about choosing to unschool Brenna. LOL
It is a little long but the writer does such a great job at keeping it interesting, at least for me. Some might find it interesting, some not so much.... I just copied and pasted it here instead of posting a link.
Home Education Magazine
March-April 1998 - Articles
Unschooling or School-At-Home?
by Chris Sims
I didn't start out to be a home schooler. Nope, I was going to "give up" seven years of my career for the sake of my children, then jump straight back into the workforce and lead "my own" fulfilling life as soon as both kids hit school age. The change crept upon me slowly, from having a homeschooling friend whose enthusiasm was virulently infectious to finally interviewing the principal of my daughter's would-be elementary school and asking him how the school would deal with a child who was still quite hyperactive and destructive, even at the ripe old age of four and a half.
"No problem," the principal told me with a smile. "We'll just put her in a class for behavior-disordered kids and get her on medication and she'll be fine."
"Not my daughter, you won't," I announced, and at that very moment, I became a home schooler.
The principal shouted, "Well, I have to protect my teachers, you know," just added fuel to my newly stoked fire.
So I went home to see if we could do it.
I hang my head in sheepish bemusement to recall how I sat my preschoolers down on child-sized chairs while I knelt beside a child-sized blackboard and even (gulp) used a pointer to begin their first week of lessons. That week was a dismal failure. Somehow, I just couldn't seem to get either child to sit still!
At that point, I didn't know that school could be anything other than the classroom type of experience my husband and I had endured all of our schooled lives. I'll always be grateful to a friend who gently directed me to the John Holt section of the library. She also introduced me to confident, homeschooled teenagers who happily answered all my questions. It's a good thing I was blessed with resilient children, too. They were the ones who ultimately had to teach their parents what education is really all about.
So, armed at last with a headful of unschooling book-learning, my family relaxed and just hung around together. We hiked, we read, we went to museums and art galleries. We cooked, sang and painted. While my husband and I worked on home remodeling projects, the children handled real tools and learned what they were for. Unschooling was the way to go!
But then we moved to a new school district and my daughter absolutely begged to go to kindergarten. Having come full circle, my husband and I truly believed in the unschooling philosophy and couldn't imagine why our daughter wanted the prison-like atmosphere of school. On the other hand, we had to admit that Emily thrived on structure, while the rest of us simply don't live that way. Figuring school might fill that gap in her life, we let her go. While Emily did enjoy the predictability of her day, she didn't like being told what to learn and when to use the bathroom. She especially didn't like being set aside with a pile of busywork while the teacher taught the other kids their colors, letters and numbers-things that Emily had already known almost half her life. (When she was two, she had me read Dr. Suess' ABC so often that I could recite it in my sleep. At two-and-a-half, she started sounding out words on her cereal boxes at breakfast. I'm all for delaying academics, but I believe it's even more important to listen to nature!)
After five weeks of kindergarten, we discovered that Emily was learning that "I am different and different is not okay." The teacher, principal and school psychologist agreed that she would be better off homeschooled. They offered all the resources and support we could ever have asked for.
Back home, Emily insisted on maintaining a school-like routine. Balking a little, I went along with it. She loved it! So did our son, who was almost four at the time. It didn't take long, though, to slip into a pattern of interruptions, field trips and "special situations" that precluded getting our routine done. Thus, we began a years-long yo-yo ride: chaos was fine until I succumbed to peer pressure within the homeschooling community and decided the kids needed to be able to write as neatly or recite history as well as their agemates. We'd return to a structured approach only to sink back to merely living life. Whining and bickering would then besiege our un-"school" and the kids would once again insist on doing school at the table like we used to. Even when fights and tears ensued, we'd stubbornly hold our course until everybody was so miserable that we had to step back and re-evaluate. Deciding to pitch the schedule and just keep to a loose requirement that something academic be accomplished every day usually led to a great, collective sigh of relief.
And guilt. "Oh, so you don't really do anything," a librarian once observed. "You just keep your kids home." But since the compromise between total unschooling and rigid school-at-home seemed to be working, we stuck to it, convinced that we had finally found our family's best method.
Wrong!
My son made his view of the situation perfectly clear when it was his turn to find out for himself what went on in that big, brick building up the street. One of his first assignments in second grade was to write about his previous education. "In homeschooling," he wrote, "I do math and stuff and mostly just try to keep from getting bored." He got a check-plus on top of the paper. I felt as though I'd gotten a D-minus.
After a year of school, Reed and I were dissatisfied with the quality of our son's education and made the decision to continue homeschooling. How was another question. What, I asked myself in the middle of many nights (the only time when many a homeschooling mom can complete a thought) is the correct method of homeschooling for our particular children? I could see all kinds of benefits to the unschooling philosophy. Why, then, did my children yearn so for classroom education and demand structure at home, even to the point of wanting spelling tests and, even worse, having them graded? "No, mom," my daughter once told me, "I don't get to try again, you just mark it wrong and put minus whatever at the top." Note that I said, "once." The notion that mistakes were permanent and uncorrectable rather than helpful tools for learning just didn't go over too well with ol' Mom.
Experiential learning is the kind that sticks. It also lends itself to extrapolation into other fields of knowledge, according to numerous studies on how both adults and children learn. The self-taught tend to be more creative, innovative and motivated, better organized, and happier with themselves and their world. How could I not want those benefits for our children?
On the other hand, I can see plenty of advantages to the school-at-home style. Some things, for instance, can only be learned and improved upon with practice. Take piano, tae kwon-do and sign language for instance. Even long division is a skill that gets rusty without regular use. Foreign languages are still most easily acquired by the young, so it makes me nervous to wait until the children develop their own desire to learn one. Memorization is thought to stimulate the growth of gray matter-the usable stuff-in the brain. That, too, is a feature most true of a brain that is still young and developing. Memorization of rhythmic, rhyming poetry instills an innate math sense, something especially important to my daughter, who has an awfully hard time understanding the relationship between numbers. She's not too keen on memorizing, however. Brushing her teeth doesn't thrill her either, but what kind of a parent would I be if I didn't insist on brushing now to ensure better health later? Then there are the studies of schooled children that have shown that gifted students who are not intellectually challenged tend to actually lose IQ points over time.
Both extremes of educational style have merit, though I have to admit I still lean toward the unschooling style. It seemed most logical to sit down with each of the kids, talk about all of the options and hear what they had to say. Both of them wanted structure. School at home.
All right. If structure was what the children wanted to "try to keep from getting bored," structure they'd get. I, being the one to stay home most of the time, really tried.
The trouble is that in life, interruptions happen. If the chickens get out in the middle of a math lesson, they need to be put back in the pasture before we can give much attention to what three eights make. If a friend needs emergency babysitting, then loving service to others takes precedence over a page of grammar exercises. If the snow is going to fly tomorrow, the garden gets taken in today. If the kids have been involved since dawn in building a complicated series of cardboard stables, who am I to suggest that they adjorn to the table to do measuring exercises on paper?
Eventually, the books lay forgotten in the dining room under piles of other, more immediate projects and concerns. Once again, guilt struck. They wanted structure. They said so. They begged for it! Why, oh, why couldn't I be a good mom and provide it?
Then again, they didn't look unhappy.
My son asked me one day when he accidentally caught sight of a semi-buried math book, "Shouldn't we do some schoolwork today?"
"Yeah," chorused his sister. "We haven't done any for days and weeks!"
"Well, I'm not so sure about that," I said. "Remember when we were out walking the dogs and had that big discussion about space habitats?" They nodded. "Science," I said. "And you know all those space ships you've been building out of Legoes? That's math."
The kids thought about that for a minute and liked what they heard. For the next week or so, they assured me they were doing Lego math and didn't need to do anything else. Just when I thought I had them convinced that they could unschool, they wanted lessons at the kitchen table again.
A great light of realization finally broke through my barriers of guilt and set us all free. The homeschooling method that works best for us is to bounce back and forth: Unschooling until creativity wanes and boredom sets in. School at home until that has satisfied the moment's need and created a desire to relax and do something else. Balancing chores, information, service, art, household projects and work so that everybody's needs get met at least some of the time. "A change is as good as a holiday," someone once said.
How very true!
© 1998 Chris Sims
Chris Sims has been homeschooling for five years, officially. Ten, if you consider that her children began learning the day they were born! She lives with her husband, two children and two dogs on a miniature farm in Vermont where they raise goats, chickens, herbs, vegetables and perpetual chaos.
It is a little long but the writer does such a great job at keeping it interesting, at least for me. Some might find it interesting, some not so much.... I just copied and pasted it here instead of posting a link.
Home Education Magazine
March-April 1998 - Articles
Unschooling or School-At-Home?
by Chris Sims
I didn't start out to be a home schooler. Nope, I was going to "give up" seven years of my career for the sake of my children, then jump straight back into the workforce and lead "my own" fulfilling life as soon as both kids hit school age. The change crept upon me slowly, from having a homeschooling friend whose enthusiasm was virulently infectious to finally interviewing the principal of my daughter's would-be elementary school and asking him how the school would deal with a child who was still quite hyperactive and destructive, even at the ripe old age of four and a half.
"No problem," the principal told me with a smile. "We'll just put her in a class for behavior-disordered kids and get her on medication and she'll be fine."
"Not my daughter, you won't," I announced, and at that very moment, I became a home schooler.
The principal shouted, "Well, I have to protect my teachers, you know," just added fuel to my newly stoked fire.
So I went home to see if we could do it.
I hang my head in sheepish bemusement to recall how I sat my preschoolers down on child-sized chairs while I knelt beside a child-sized blackboard and even (gulp) used a pointer to begin their first week of lessons. That week was a dismal failure. Somehow, I just couldn't seem to get either child to sit still!
At that point, I didn't know that school could be anything other than the classroom type of experience my husband and I had endured all of our schooled lives. I'll always be grateful to a friend who gently directed me to the John Holt section of the library. She also introduced me to confident, homeschooled teenagers who happily answered all my questions. It's a good thing I was blessed with resilient children, too. They were the ones who ultimately had to teach their parents what education is really all about.
So, armed at last with a headful of unschooling book-learning, my family relaxed and just hung around together. We hiked, we read, we went to museums and art galleries. We cooked, sang and painted. While my husband and I worked on home remodeling projects, the children handled real tools and learned what they were for. Unschooling was the way to go!
But then we moved to a new school district and my daughter absolutely begged to go to kindergarten. Having come full circle, my husband and I truly believed in the unschooling philosophy and couldn't imagine why our daughter wanted the prison-like atmosphere of school. On the other hand, we had to admit that Emily thrived on structure, while the rest of us simply don't live that way. Figuring school might fill that gap in her life, we let her go. While Emily did enjoy the predictability of her day, she didn't like being told what to learn and when to use the bathroom. She especially didn't like being set aside with a pile of busywork while the teacher taught the other kids their colors, letters and numbers-things that Emily had already known almost half her life. (When she was two, she had me read Dr. Suess' ABC so often that I could recite it in my sleep. At two-and-a-half, she started sounding out words on her cereal boxes at breakfast. I'm all for delaying academics, but I believe it's even more important to listen to nature!)
After five weeks of kindergarten, we discovered that Emily was learning that "I am different and different is not okay." The teacher, principal and school psychologist agreed that she would be better off homeschooled. They offered all the resources and support we could ever have asked for.
Back home, Emily insisted on maintaining a school-like routine. Balking a little, I went along with it. She loved it! So did our son, who was almost four at the time. It didn't take long, though, to slip into a pattern of interruptions, field trips and "special situations" that precluded getting our routine done. Thus, we began a years-long yo-yo ride: chaos was fine until I succumbed to peer pressure within the homeschooling community and decided the kids needed to be able to write as neatly or recite history as well as their agemates. We'd return to a structured approach only to sink back to merely living life. Whining and bickering would then besiege our un-"school" and the kids would once again insist on doing school at the table like we used to. Even when fights and tears ensued, we'd stubbornly hold our course until everybody was so miserable that we had to step back and re-evaluate. Deciding to pitch the schedule and just keep to a loose requirement that something academic be accomplished every day usually led to a great, collective sigh of relief.
And guilt. "Oh, so you don't really do anything," a librarian once observed. "You just keep your kids home." But since the compromise between total unschooling and rigid school-at-home seemed to be working, we stuck to it, convinced that we had finally found our family's best method.
Wrong!
My son made his view of the situation perfectly clear when it was his turn to find out for himself what went on in that big, brick building up the street. One of his first assignments in second grade was to write about his previous education. "In homeschooling," he wrote, "I do math and stuff and mostly just try to keep from getting bored." He got a check-plus on top of the paper. I felt as though I'd gotten a D-minus.
After a year of school, Reed and I were dissatisfied with the quality of our son's education and made the decision to continue homeschooling. How was another question. What, I asked myself in the middle of many nights (the only time when many a homeschooling mom can complete a thought) is the correct method of homeschooling for our particular children? I could see all kinds of benefits to the unschooling philosophy. Why, then, did my children yearn so for classroom education and demand structure at home, even to the point of wanting spelling tests and, even worse, having them graded? "No, mom," my daughter once told me, "I don't get to try again, you just mark it wrong and put minus whatever at the top." Note that I said, "once." The notion that mistakes were permanent and uncorrectable rather than helpful tools for learning just didn't go over too well with ol' Mom.
Experiential learning is the kind that sticks. It also lends itself to extrapolation into other fields of knowledge, according to numerous studies on how both adults and children learn. The self-taught tend to be more creative, innovative and motivated, better organized, and happier with themselves and their world. How could I not want those benefits for our children?
On the other hand, I can see plenty of advantages to the school-at-home style. Some things, for instance, can only be learned and improved upon with practice. Take piano, tae kwon-do and sign language for instance. Even long division is a skill that gets rusty without regular use. Foreign languages are still most easily acquired by the young, so it makes me nervous to wait until the children develop their own desire to learn one. Memorization is thought to stimulate the growth of gray matter-the usable stuff-in the brain. That, too, is a feature most true of a brain that is still young and developing. Memorization of rhythmic, rhyming poetry instills an innate math sense, something especially important to my daughter, who has an awfully hard time understanding the relationship between numbers. She's not too keen on memorizing, however. Brushing her teeth doesn't thrill her either, but what kind of a parent would I be if I didn't insist on brushing now to ensure better health later? Then there are the studies of schooled children that have shown that gifted students who are not intellectually challenged tend to actually lose IQ points over time.
Both extremes of educational style have merit, though I have to admit I still lean toward the unschooling style. It seemed most logical to sit down with each of the kids, talk about all of the options and hear what they had to say. Both of them wanted structure. School at home.
All right. If structure was what the children wanted to "try to keep from getting bored," structure they'd get. I, being the one to stay home most of the time, really tried.
The trouble is that in life, interruptions happen. If the chickens get out in the middle of a math lesson, they need to be put back in the pasture before we can give much attention to what three eights make. If a friend needs emergency babysitting, then loving service to others takes precedence over a page of grammar exercises. If the snow is going to fly tomorrow, the garden gets taken in today. If the kids have been involved since dawn in building a complicated series of cardboard stables, who am I to suggest that they adjorn to the table to do measuring exercises on paper?
Eventually, the books lay forgotten in the dining room under piles of other, more immediate projects and concerns. Once again, guilt struck. They wanted structure. They said so. They begged for it! Why, oh, why couldn't I be a good mom and provide it?
Then again, they didn't look unhappy.
My son asked me one day when he accidentally caught sight of a semi-buried math book, "Shouldn't we do some schoolwork today?"
"Yeah," chorused his sister. "We haven't done any for days and weeks!"
"Well, I'm not so sure about that," I said. "Remember when we were out walking the dogs and had that big discussion about space habitats?" They nodded. "Science," I said. "And you know all those space ships you've been building out of Legoes? That's math."
The kids thought about that for a minute and liked what they heard. For the next week or so, they assured me they were doing Lego math and didn't need to do anything else. Just when I thought I had them convinced that they could unschool, they wanted lessons at the kitchen table again.
A great light of realization finally broke through my barriers of guilt and set us all free. The homeschooling method that works best for us is to bounce back and forth: Unschooling until creativity wanes and boredom sets in. School at home until that has satisfied the moment's need and created a desire to relax and do something else. Balancing chores, information, service, art, household projects and work so that everybody's needs get met at least some of the time. "A change is as good as a holiday," someone once said.
How very true!
© 1998 Chris Sims
Chris Sims has been homeschooling for five years, officially. Ten, if you consider that her children began learning the day they were born! She lives with her husband, two children and two dogs on a miniature farm in Vermont where they raise goats, chickens, herbs, vegetables and perpetual chaos.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
I'm sitting here missing my sweet husband who is in Hartford, CT right now for work. Lucky duck gets to experience actual winter weather in January! He just called me from the airport after he landed and said that there is snow on the ground outside. And I just went outside to feed my cats in shorts! Yes, I do love my warm Texas weather but come on! It's supposed to be winter right now, not feel like Spring!
I am waiting impatiently for him to email me with his hotel phone number so that I can call him. His cell phone does not work up there and he used Jason's (the guy he's traveling with) phone to call when he landed. It's after eleven and I am getting tired so hopefully he will email soon. I do not like this one bit. Brendon and I have been married for almost 9 years and I love him more than the day I married him. I don't like him being gone. It really, really sucks. He'll be back Thursday though so that's not too long I guess.
Brenna went to bed earlier then normal tonight because she's just been so darn grumpy and emotional lately. I think it's because she's been going to bed a little later then she used to - about 9:30. Back to 8 - 8:30 for that girl! She's just one who really needs her sleep I guess. It doesn't really matter what time she goes to bed, she wakes up around the same time every morning. She does NOT sleep in and sometimes she could really use it. If the sun is up then so is she. She's camping out in our bed while Dad's gone and I have our thick curtains drawn back so maybe she'll get a really good nights sleep tonight and not wake up at the crack of dawn. :)
I've been on the computer for the last couple hours. I like to get on and read my boards that I belong too. They are all about homeschooling of course. It's nice being able to connect with other Mom's who homeschool and read about things that they are going through and questions that they have. There are posts pretty much about everything from curriculum to relationships. I don't read them as much as I used to just because I don't spend as much time on the computer. So when I do get on there's lots to catch up on. Sometimes it's bad though because I guess you tend to compare yourself with other Mom's who homeschool. I've got to learn to NOT do that. My child is completely unique and I'm not going to do 4 hours of school work with her just because some other mom of a six year old is doing that - that just does not fit her. Holy cow, she would FREAK OUT! LOL :) I just need to remind myself that she is learning plenty and is doing very well right now.
Well Brendon just emailed me and I got to talk to him for a few minutes. It's almost 1am there and he has to get up at 6am. He's sounds so exhausted. He's been traveling since 10 this morning so I guess I would be too.
Brenna and I will be keeping ourselves busy while he is gone. We have a zoo trip planned (I love having a membership!), a beach clean-up and a couple of "girl nights" with manicures, movies and popcorn so I am really looking forward to that. She's a lot of fun to hang out with. :)
Till fingers and keyboard meet again......
I am waiting impatiently for him to email me with his hotel phone number so that I can call him. His cell phone does not work up there and he used Jason's (the guy he's traveling with) phone to call when he landed. It's after eleven and I am getting tired so hopefully he will email soon. I do not like this one bit. Brendon and I have been married for almost 9 years and I love him more than the day I married him. I don't like him being gone. It really, really sucks. He'll be back Thursday though so that's not too long I guess.
Brenna went to bed earlier then normal tonight because she's just been so darn grumpy and emotional lately. I think it's because she's been going to bed a little later then she used to - about 9:30. Back to 8 - 8:30 for that girl! She's just one who really needs her sleep I guess. It doesn't really matter what time she goes to bed, she wakes up around the same time every morning. She does NOT sleep in and sometimes she could really use it. If the sun is up then so is she. She's camping out in our bed while Dad's gone and I have our thick curtains drawn back so maybe she'll get a really good nights sleep tonight and not wake up at the crack of dawn. :)
I've been on the computer for the last couple hours. I like to get on and read my boards that I belong too. They are all about homeschooling of course. It's nice being able to connect with other Mom's who homeschool and read about things that they are going through and questions that they have. There are posts pretty much about everything from curriculum to relationships. I don't read them as much as I used to just because I don't spend as much time on the computer. So when I do get on there's lots to catch up on. Sometimes it's bad though because I guess you tend to compare yourself with other Mom's who homeschool. I've got to learn to NOT do that. My child is completely unique and I'm not going to do 4 hours of school work with her just because some other mom of a six year old is doing that - that just does not fit her. Holy cow, she would FREAK OUT! LOL :) I just need to remind myself that she is learning plenty and is doing very well right now.
Well Brendon just emailed me and I got to talk to him for a few minutes. It's almost 1am there and he has to get up at 6am. He's sounds so exhausted. He's been traveling since 10 this morning so I guess I would be too.
Brenna and I will be keeping ourselves busy while he is gone. We have a zoo trip planned (I love having a membership!), a beach clean-up and a couple of "girl nights" with manicures, movies and popcorn so I am really looking forward to that. She's a lot of fun to hang out with. :)
Till fingers and keyboard meet again......
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Zoo Time
Brendon, Brenna and I went to the zoo last Friday. It is very nice going during the week because it's not crowded at all. Another perk of going during that time is that Brenna is usually the only kid around and she gets to do really cool stuff, like feed a baby camel! I posted a while back about her feeding Noel, the last one they had there, but I did not have my camera at the time. I was so bummed out about that but I got another chance last week. :) The baby camel, Merry, was born right before Christmas and was a lot smaller then the last one. She was not even a month old yet. We knew that feeding time was at noon so last week we made sure to get there right in time and crossed our fingers that Brenna would be able to do it again.
Sure enough the zoo lady came out with three HUGE bottles and looked around and nonchalantly asked if there were any short people who would be willing to feed a camel it's lunch. Brenna's little eyes lit up and she got soooo excited. Here's a couple good pictures I got....
Sure enough the zoo lady came out with three HUGE bottles and looked around and nonchalantly asked if there were any short people who would be willing to feed a camel it's lunch. Brenna's little eyes lit up and she got soooo excited. Here's a couple good pictures I got....
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Great Weekend
Brendon, Brenna and I went to my Dad's hunting lease this past weekend. We hadn't been there since Brenna was two and we had a blast! They have a really great set up with a nice cabin that sleeps about 7, an outdoor kitchen, a bathroom with a shower and hot water and a nice big covered deck to hang out on. Brenna had a really great time and did not even play with all the games I brought or her Nintendo DS - which was great! She was out climbing trees, taking Mazzy for walks, talking to cows (LOL) and just exploring. She's a very outdoorsy little girl. We got very spoiled too by my Aunt RuthAnn - that woman can cook!! :)
I'm hoping that we will be going back very soon. We will definitely NOT wait another 4 years like we did last time.
I took quite a few great pictures and posted some of them.
If you click on them they should get bigger. 
I'm hoping that we will be going back very soon. We will definitely NOT wait another 4 years like we did last time.
I took quite a few great pictures and posted some of them.
If you click on them they should get bigger. 
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
I sure hope everyone had a great Christmas - we sure did! Brendon's whole family came down and we had a wonderful time. It had been a while since we had seen some of them.
Christmas Eve was spent at my parent's house and we had dinner and opened gifts. Christmas morning Brendon, Brenna and I opened our gifts here at the house. Brenna was ecstatic about her Nintendo DS! I was worried about her playing on it too much but so far it has not been a problem at all. She regulates herself pretty well so I have not had to step in as of yet. She got a lot of other really cool stuff this year too. She now has her own pink acoustic guitar and loves to play around with it. She wants to take guitar lessons but she won't be able to until she's 7 - which is actually right around the corner! She also got a digital camera and was very excited about that. Now she can quit using mine! LOL We went to Lisa's house Christmas Day and spent pretty much all day there with Brendon's family and had a wonderful traditional turkey and ham lunch.
I am very glad that it is a new year. Last year kinda stunk. I'm ready for new stuff and new goals. My best friend, Mieree, and I are going to come up with a a weekly schedule for the girls and us. Park days, field trip days, ect... I have to find some sort of structure or I'm afraid that we will just spend too much time at home. We have still been going to see my Grandma - not every day like I had anticipated, but about 3-4 times a week. She really likes that because I think she is starting to get a little lonely.
Brenna is still doing basketball and loves it. She is getting much better and wants to continue it next season. Her last game this season is in February. I'm not sure when the next one starts. I finally got a call yesterday about the Musical Theatre class that we looked into last year and after a very long waiting period, they will be starting next week! YEA! I really, really think that this will be something that Brenna will be VERY good at and really enjoy. I am already planning to sign her up for the theatre class they do here every summer. It is quite extensive and lasts pretty much the whole summer and is Monday thru Friday. I think Mieree is going to sign Rhiannon up too, so we can take turns taking the girls, which will make it easier. I wanted to do it last summer but it just wasn't possible with me taking care of my Grandpa.
Well that's pretty much it for an update. I will post again soon. :)
Christmas Eve was spent at my parent's house and we had dinner and opened gifts. Christmas morning Brendon, Brenna and I opened our gifts here at the house. Brenna was ecstatic about her Nintendo DS! I was worried about her playing on it too much but so far it has not been a problem at all. She regulates herself pretty well so I have not had to step in as of yet. She got a lot of other really cool stuff this year too. She now has her own pink acoustic guitar and loves to play around with it. She wants to take guitar lessons but she won't be able to until she's 7 - which is actually right around the corner! She also got a digital camera and was very excited about that. Now she can quit using mine! LOL We went to Lisa's house Christmas Day and spent pretty much all day there with Brendon's family and had a wonderful traditional turkey and ham lunch.
I am very glad that it is a new year. Last year kinda stunk. I'm ready for new stuff and new goals. My best friend, Mieree, and I are going to come up with a a weekly schedule for the girls and us. Park days, field trip days, ect... I have to find some sort of structure or I'm afraid that we will just spend too much time at home. We have still been going to see my Grandma - not every day like I had anticipated, but about 3-4 times a week. She really likes that because I think she is starting to get a little lonely.
Brenna is still doing basketball and loves it. She is getting much better and wants to continue it next season. Her last game this season is in February. I'm not sure when the next one starts. I finally got a call yesterday about the Musical Theatre class that we looked into last year and after a very long waiting period, they will be starting next week! YEA! I really, really think that this will be something that Brenna will be VERY good at and really enjoy. I am already planning to sign her up for the theatre class they do here every summer. It is quite extensive and lasts pretty much the whole summer and is Monday thru Friday. I think Mieree is going to sign Rhiannon up too, so we can take turns taking the girls, which will make it easier. I wanted to do it last summer but it just wasn't possible with me taking care of my Grandpa.
Well that's pretty much it for an update. I will post again soon. :)
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