the post that isn't remotely funny.

1.  i pretty much stink as a friend because i can't ever find a babysitter for my hooligans so i can enjoy a grown-up lunch with any of them (my friends, not the kids), and most of my friends who are single don't really want to come hang out with us at the burger king play place and have our conversation interrupted every three seconds for me to yell at a kid for something.

2.  i know i came into this semester wanting to live up to the name sooperhomeskoolmom and be and do everything and do it WELL, darn it, but i am now seriously contemplating taking next semester OFF from college.  maybe i'm just tired right now and it's the exhaustion talking.  but right now, being less busy sounds EXCELLENT.

3.  something has gotten into the hooligans this week and they have been SUPREMELY naughty and grumpy every. day.  or maybe they're picking up on the fact that my sleep has not been great this week and i'm not winning any mommy-of-the-year awards with my own attitude. 

i think it has to do with we all have stinkin' runny noses and runny noses give people headaches.  headaches make people grumpy.  grumpy people make anyone else who did NOT have a headache develop headaches of their own and then the cycle begins again.

4.  there are only FOUR MORE FOOTBALL PRACTICES LEFT.  i hope.  i'm holding on to that like a drowning woman to a life preserver because if i can hold on to my sanity for TWO MORE WEEKS we will be out of two nights a week of getting home at eight thirty and still having to do our entire bedtime routine so that no one really gets to bed until like ten o'clock. 

that COULD have something to do with my sleep-deprivation.  hmm....

oh?  what's that?  this is a home education blog and you'd like to know how my lovely little ones are coming along in school? 

beau has zoomed through the first nine lessons in the math-u-see book.  he finally hit one yesterday that he had a smidge of trouble with.  so we'll do a couple more of the worksheets until he's got it down pat. 

why am i excited about that?  because i am.  i think it's because i know that NOW the real learning is happening.  all of that other stuff, he already knew.  now i can see those little cogs in his brain turning away and he's CHALLENGED.

i really like to see him challenged.  not struggling, mind you.  just STIMULATED to the point where he's really learning.

AND I GET TO WATCH THAT HAPPEN.

i love that part.

he's enjoying geography, and i've cut back a leetle bit on the worksheets...shut up.  i should say, i've cut back on the amount of UNNECESSARY handwriting work that he has to do.  if he's already doing spelling words that day, no copywork.  cuts down on the amount of time we spend at the table and the amount of time he complains about doing worksheets.  everybody's happy. 

and i know he's still getting enough practice because his handwriting is SO much better than it was just a few weeks ago.  i also love that part.

xander?  zooming through worksheets, tracing letters all by himself, fine tuning those fine motor skills like CRAZY.  i can already tell that this is going to help next year (or next semester) when i start him in the HWT book. 

bella just likes coloring.  she stays between the lines tons more than she used to.  her stick figure people are starting to have eyes and noses and things like that.  oh, and she's getting better at tracing, too, which is AWESOME.  all of this means that her (and xander's, naturally) first grade year won't be as much of a shock into writing that beau's was. 

poor beau.  he's our homeschooling guinea pig.  if something isn't going to work out for us, he's the first one to find that out.