Sheer Will

Will decided he wanted to ride his bike without training wheels today. So he did. In typical Will fashion he just picked up his bike and started riding. We took him to the park a couple times this spring to practice (where it's nice and grassy and makes for a softer landing) and he always did fairly well, but never wanted to try it 'off the grass'.  Enter our hot, humid, don't want to leave the house, summer weather and the bikes get put away until October when we can venture outside again without melting. Today was an exception, it was a nice and cool 87 degrees, time to go outside to do something other than submerge ourselves in water. Out come the bikes! And Will says he wants to ride without training wheels. Cool, but first we (as in Jon and myself) NEED to clean out the car. We were seriously in some form of health violation driving the kids around in that hazmat vehicle. So Will, sorry buddy, you will have to wait a little bit. We'll go to the park when we are done. Will, in pure Will fashion, decides he's not going to wait, he's just going to do it himself. And he does.

And that's how Will operates. He has more determination and focus than I know what to do with. But it does come in handy at times, like you know, when you need to disinfect your motor vehicle. Way to go Will. I am so proud of you. Surprised, no. But still proud.

August ???

Seriously? It's August? When did that happen?

My last post was three months ago ... and in that time let's see what has happened? Well first I got a job with Bank of America, then school got out and Ben and Katie said goodbye to Charlotte Latin, then Camryn (my baby turned 3), then Ben turned 9!!, then Grandma Baba and Papa came to visit, then we went to Maine for two weeks, then my second best friend in Charlotte moved ... and well you get the picture.

So here's the latest and greatest:

Viola!! It's our homeschooling room!! Otherwise known as The Death of a Dining Room. That large empty wall space will hold the white board. There are a lot more books and "stuff" in general in this room already, but it's not quite finished. I will be sure to take a picture on our first official day. Once I figure out when that's going to be.

In other news. Check out this little fish:

Isn't she the cutest little fish you've ever seen?? Today was her first day of swimming without 'armies' and she did great!!

So now that it's August and summer vacation is winding down I will try to make a better attempt at keeping up with this blog thing ... because I mean, really, what else do I have to do with all my time. HA!

Life's Calling

Homeschooling isn't for everyone. It's not something everyone can do. It takes a certain type of person. As an example take this typical day in our backyard. See that black 'thing' in the bottom of the pool? That is a bull frog.

Now I could have just caught this bull frog and let him go. And that would have been the end of it. But no, as a homeschooler at heart, I took this opportunity to teach and share the joy and awe of nature to my youngest children.

We noted the frog's sheer size. That's Will's crock that frog is next too. We also talked about how the chlorine in the pool probably had the frog feeling pretty sick at this point. Their skin is much more porous than ours ya know.

Here's the fella up close and personal. Will noted that the frog looked like he had two sets of eyes. Being the nature genius that I am I pointed out those 'other eyes' are how the frog hears. Not exactly ears per se, but hearing devices. I believe this is what scientists call them ~ hearing devices.
Yup almost certain that's what they are called. 

Imagine all we were learning at this point! It was such a fantastic lesson. Will and Camryn were eating it up. They love observing nature. Here is Camryn's hand. Notice this frog would be too large for Camryn to hold in one hand. Now I'm a nature nut, but this frog was a little too big and a little too gross for my liking, but as a future homeschooler I kept my emotions to myself as we continued to observe and learn about this strange looking animal.

And here in this video is where you can really witness me in my glory and see first hand why I consider homeschooling my life's calling. I was born to do this. Just listen to the awe and amazement in my voice.  The kids are going to learn so much from me.

Seven on the Seventh!

Katie-Kat turned seven on April seventh. And now that I have high speed internet I can share the pictures with you. Yeah for seven. Yeah for modern technology! We all joined Katie for lunch and a treat at school for her birthday.

 Will adores his big sister and spent his morning making this hat and door hanger for her. He wrapped it and presented it to her like it was the best thing he had ever done. She, being the fantastic big sister she is, totally made a big deal of it. Thank you Katie, you made Will's day making him think that he made yours.

 And below she is waiting for her cake. Just look at that face. Cake makes me feel the same exact way!

 Katie wanted to have a mock sleep over party with all the girls from her class. Add my other three, the neighbors two kids, a major storm with wind, rain and hail and you've got one exciting party! (And 15 screaming kids.)

 The party was lots of fun. Katie had a blast. And now she's seven. SEVEN.

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby girl. The best thing about my seven year old? The notes she leaves me to find while she's at school. Everyone one ends in "P.S. I love you." 

Farm Fun

 We spent Saturday afternoon at a farm in Shelby, NC. Katie's friend Lily Grace's grandparents own a beautiful sprawling horse farm up there. Every spring they throw a spring fling for their two granddaughters and all their classmates and families. It was spectacular!

 We pet and fed alpaca.

 Rode a miniature horse. (I didn't get a picture of Ben on the little guy, but he said it was his favorite part of the day. He had never ridden 'bare back' before and he thought that was pretty cool.)

 Camryn wanted to take the miniature home with us.

Held very soft and very sweet baby bunnies. (Katie was convinced this bunny wanted her to bring him home.)

Snuggled baby chicks.  This is Will asking "Can I keep this one?" (I must admit the chicks were beyond adorable. And we were just talking about the life cycle of chickens. It would be really neat to have a laying hen, and collect our own eggs. But the HOA here in Ballantyne Country Club has a hard time with children's playsets in the backyard, I'm gonna guess that they would say No to livestock.  Maybe we could convince Ma to get some baby chicks. Here that Ma? Haven't you always wanted chickens???)

And even got to pet a tortoise. I even found this tortoise to be quite cute. Will wanted to ride him.

This is my favorite picture. This is Kate with a couple of her friends in one of the million fields. Every time you turned around you saw another sight like this ~ fields and fences as far as you could see. It was beautiful!  Thank you to Lily Grace and family for hosting, it was a great day!

Spring Break

Sigh. Spring break is over. It has ended on a very cold and wet Sunday. We didn't go anywhere for the first time ever over Spring Break. I thought the kids might be sad or disappointed to have to stay home for a week, but that wasn't the case at all. We had a fun filled week of playing and learning and being with people we love, including each other. Now, don't get my wrong, I could have used a week on the beach with a fancy drink in hand, room service and hotel staff, but the kids didn't miss a thing. Here are some shots from the week.

 Kate at our neighborhood park. She likes to spin that tire swing as fast as possible. It makes me sick to my stomach just to watch her, but that's my Kate ~ full speed ahead!

 The youngest rascals. Camyrn trying to get some love from her big brother.

 But Will just wants to climb trees.

 All four munchkins enjoying a warm day.

In an attempt to see the 'super-moon' we headed to the airport to try to catch sunset and moonrise. The cloudy weather kept us from viewing the moon at it's closest to earth in 20 years. But we did get to see lots of planes take off. Ben and Kate enjoyed the view from the top of Jon's truck. Will and Cam were a little freaked out by all the noise and opted to stay inside the truck. Will even insisted I hold him on my lap. Never in a million years would I peg Will to be scared of airplanes taking off. You learn something new everyday.

We spent one day at Reed Gold Mine in Midland, NC. If you've never been you must go. It was a great tour and we learned so much about gold mining and geology. Reed was the first documented discovery of gold in the US. Take that California! We'll be back soon to try our own hand at panning in the river (they hadn't started panning yet this spring when we were there.) The picture above is of the 'exit' from one of the tunnels.

And here is Cam in one of the tunnels. She held up well through the tour, but towards the end she had seen enough quartz veins and had heard enough gold history for the day.

Here's Ma with the kiddos outside the mine at Reed's. We were so glad she spent the day with us.

And here are the youngest Palmer girls. Camryn is obsessed with her cousin Ella. We were lucky to spend time with them at the playground and then at the Carolina Raptor Center the next day. I was hoping that spending some time with Ella would result in Camryn not asking about her a million times a day ... but nope, it has just made her ask even more. Poor Ella, she's never going to be able to shake the Camryn shadow. Sorry sweet girl. Overall it was a great week. I am so sad to see it end. Sigh. Time to set the alarm. Back to the grind we go!

Our Decision to Homeschool

This is a big one. It may seem like an impulsive and hasty decision, but it has been years in the making. I started questioning traditional education when Ben was a baby and I witnessed first hand how amazing a growing brain is. Ben was using sign language to communicate when he was just a few month old. He was speaking clearly by the time he was a year old. But it wasn't only his verbal skills that impressed us. Everything we did, saw, touched, tasted, smelled, talked or read about stayed with him. This child wasn't just growing, he was learning. As every parent knows, children are full of awe and wonder, they drink in the world around them, they never stop learning. As their moms and dads we are their first teachers. They learn to walk, talk, count, categorize, write, paint, add and subtract before they ever step foot into a school setting. It was around the time Ben started preschool that I started questioning traditional schooling.
Who came up with the idea of putting 20 some odd kids of the same age into a classroom with two (and in public school only one) teachers for them to sit and listen to what it is they need to know? How did we come to the understanding that this was the way kids learn? In what way does this stimulate the learning? How does this situation reflect life after school and how is it giving them any life skills? Where else in the world (or when) are we put in a room with 20 people our exact same age and talked to? And why doesn't this seem odd to anyone else??
These are questions I had before we even started exploring elementary schools. I tried selling Jon on the Montessori method, but he wasn't buying it. And even I myself wasn't 100 percent sure. We had many reasons for wanting to keep our kids out of public schools, moving being the number one reason. We move a lot in case you haven't noticed. And around here the school zoning changes as often as we change our own address ~ meaning that our kids would be changing schools  ALL THE TIME. Of course there were other reasons for choosing a private school, the same reason everyone who sends their kids to private school chooses to do so, but those don't really matter here.
Latin was our first choice after exploring, touring, visiting, all the private schools in Charlotte. I fell in love with the people, the campus, their philosophy and passion for teaching. I was impressed by their understanding of children's needs ... two recesses every day, PE three times a week, no homework in Kindergarten, very little homework beyond that etc etc. And we have been happy. The kids have been happy. They are learning. They have friends. They enjoy school. So what's the problem?
Well that's the kicker. There is no 'problem'. And as far as traditional school go, I think Latin is the best in Charlotte. I just think there is a better way. A different way.

A way to teach kids the way kids learn, not teach them to learn the way we teach.

I (we) have been happy at Latin. But not blown away. When you spend a lot of money on your children's education you kind of expect to be blown away. At least I did. We have already poured 100,000 (yes, one hundred thousand dollars) into Latin. And I'm thinking I can do better. When Ben started going through novels at school ~ reading them while the other's kids finished up their work. And Katie came home stressing about not being able to do something that all the other kids can do ~ like spell a certain word or read chapter books. I really started to question our education system yet again. Private and public.
I also took at look at our life, our daily life. It consisted of waking Ben & Katie up before they were ready (6:50am ... not that that is that early. How many times can you say that in a sentence??), shoving more food down their throat then they felt like eating (I'm crazy about getting my kids a good breakfast), hustling them to eat, brush teeth, get socks, get shoes, get lunch, get out the door. As soon as they would leave (Jon takes them to school) Will, Camryn and I would breathe a sigh of relief. Mornings are crazy. After school is not really much better. On a good day it's 3:30 by the time we are home. They play for a bit, then it's time to make dinner, set the table, eat, do homework, take showers, read and go to bed. 7:00 bedtime may seem early. But you try waking my sleepy kids up in the morning and then have to deal with them the rest of the day. Kids need sleep. My kids need sleep. If they are getting up at 7am, they should be in bed by 7.  I was (am) feeling like we spend the best part of our days away from each other. I was missing the best Ben and the best Katie and I was getting the left overs. And they were getting stressed drill Sargent mom. Go, go, go ... do, do do. I feel like I bark orders at them all the time. And these are days when we don't have anything else going on. Throw in Faith Formation, or soccer or gymnastics and it adds an whole other level of 'rush' to our house. And get this. That's with only half the kids in our house going to school. I started to wonder what our life was going to be like with four kids in school. That if it's this crazy now when I have two little kids, what on earth was it going to be like 5 years from now? Would we even see each other? Would we even know each other? This is not the way I want our family life to be. I want to know my kids.  I want to see them at their best (I already get the worst) and I want them to see me at my best too. I don't want the school's left overs.
It has also become pretty obvious to us this year that Ben is pretty far ahead of most of his classmates. In everything. He likes school, but he is bored most days. He reads novel after novel while kids finish their work. If the best school in Charlotte can't keep him interested and learning, well then who can? I know ~ he can. He can choose when he's done learning something, or how in depth he wants to learn it. He can surround himself with as much information, activities, experiments that he wants. I can help him do this. He can be the captain of his own domain, and I can navigate. He's not ready to be let loose to do as he chooses but he's certainly capable of testing his own limits and exploring his own mind. And together we can feed his need to learn and grow ... and not ask him to sit quietly and read if he wants to do more and learn more. He does not have to be limited by the others around him. He is free to learn all his mind wants to learn.
When I put all these factors together. I knew I had to try homeschooling. I knew that I wouldn't be satisfied that my kids were getting the best education until I did. When Jon asked "If Latin were free what would you want to do next year." I would still want to homeschool. It was at that point that we knew it would be our next step. Since then I have been up to my elbows in research, theory, psychology, learning styles,  and curricula. The journey has begun. Ben and Katie will finish out the year at Latin and we will begin our homeschooling adventure later this summer. There are days I question my ability to teach them. There are days I question my sanity. There are days I question everything. But I know as long as I continue to put Ben and Katie (and Will and Camryn) first, that it will be the best thing, not only for them, but for our family.
I knew going into this that it wasn't going to be easy. I expected a lot of things: the kids to be upset at first, and they were; for some people to question it, and they have; for others to be supportive and excited, and they have to. But the one thing I didn't expect was how it would change Katie. There are days that Katie gets in the car after school and is mean. Just downright mean. To everyone. She is usually in tears by the time we get home. She never blames school. And honestly, I just chalked it up to 'Katie being Katie' ... having a rough time with something and taking it out on all of us. BUT since we've talked about homeschooling Katie hasn't had one break down. She hasn't had one 'mean' day. There is a sense of relief in her eyes. She is calmer and happier. Katie tells me every day that she can't wait to start homeschooling. School has been stressing her out. She is six years old and stressed about school. And I didn't even realize it. That right there is more than enough reason for me to homeschool.