mayans and tigers and bears.

did anybody else know that the one scene in the road to el dorado where they play the game with the golden hoop is actually the ancient mayan ballgame where the loser team's captain gets his head cut off?



yay for homeschool allowing us to do awesome things like adding this clip into our unit on the ancient mayan civilization and counting transformers: the revenge of the fallen as part of the ancient egypt study.  you know.  because of the pyramids.

we also began our introduction to energy unit, which was pretty fun because we got to make one of those old fashioned play phones made out of cups and string (which taught us about sound waves).  it's fun when bella yells out, "when i sing like this, la la la la LAAAA, it's energy, right momma?" and she's all excited and cute.

also, BREAKING NEWS.  beau did his math-u-see worksheets.  and was like, "hey, this is fun!"

i was secretly like, "YESSSSSSSSSS!" complete with corny nineties fist pump.  outwardly, i was all, "that's great, beau!  we can move on to the next lesson on wednesday!"  he also did the neatest copywork i've yet to see him do, and he's started correcting his letters when he sees he's done them incorrectly.  and today was the first day he wrote his name on all his worksheets by himself, all the while saying, "hey, writing my name is really fun!"  lol.  he'll be charging five dollars for autographs any day now.

xander traced all the letters on his first two worksheets all. by. himself.  which unfortunately tired him out mentally and he totally told me writing made his tummy hurt.  so i helped him with the rest and he happily scampered off to play even more lego star wars.  oh, the joy. 

oh, and i will leave you with moar bella funness...we were looking at a book the other day and she saw a picture of the statue of liberty.  she pointed at it and shouted, in this really excited voice, "momma!  it's the collosus of rhodes!"

close enough.

i'm drowning.

in worksheets.

i swear, the amount of paper we go through in this house has increased exponentially in the past week alone.

at least i'm keeping my husband in business.

but yeah.  yesterday was one of those days from hell where we aren't home at ALL insanely busy, so i didn't get to do my customary weekly gathering of papers and lesson planning.  so i'm doing that THIS MORNING.  and there are a LOT of worksheets.

i'm making copies as we speak.

it's nine o'clock and we still haven't started.  also, i have to go to town in a bit to take a test for a class i haven't even looked at...way to go mom for being an excellent academic role model!  i'll do fine.  no worries.

no, what i'm worried about is tackling mount worksheet-more when i get back home. 

oh &also, the accompanying whining that will go along with it.

i mean, the shining, smiling faces of my little hooligans angels.

please ignore this post.

you. guys.  i need a moment.

math-u-see came yesterday.  i was so STOKED.  i waited until it got here before we left to go to the library.  that's how much of a dork/loser/crazy-person i am.  i think i scared the UPS man a little with my enthusiasm.  i wonder what he thought was in that little brown box.  i'm pretty sure he wasn't thinking, "i bet it's a math curriculum!"

i waited until today to break it out.  i was supposed to wait until monday, but yeah.

i watched the video by myself first.  okay, so i watched the first lesson.  then i called all my beautiful darlings back into the living room and sat them down in a row in front of the television set.  i gave them each a few of the green "one" blocks, and pressed play. 

they liked the video.  all of them participated and yelled out answers and all of that fun stuff.  meanwhile, i sat smugly on the couch, congratulating myself on finding a way to make math fun for all my children at the same time, with little to no stress on my part because i. am. not. the. teacher.  the man on the screen is the teacher.  and he has an EXCELLENT attitude about teaching.  i haven't seen him yell YET.  i was impressed.

anywho, the video went off, and i broke out the workbook, just to show them the ridiculously easy problems they'd be starting with, and how big the pictures were and how there were only THREE problems per worksheet and isn't that AWESOME? 

apparently, no, it was not awesome.

here are beau's exact words.

"why did you give us these blocks?  we don't even have to use them this time.  this is stupid. (side note: okay, so he didn't SAY it was stupid, but he IMPLIED it) *rolls eyes*  i KNOW what a number six looks like, mom.  MOMMA.  i DON'T want to do this!  *heavy sigh*"

yes, i know it's a bit slow for beau right now.  but it picks up SO fast and it will be fun for him in just a few lessons.  he'll live while his brother and sister go a bit slower through this part.  plus, i think it was more of a, "MORE worksheets?!" sort of thing.

if he only saw the amount of worksheets they do in first grade public school, he'd thank me.

also, i grounded him from video games for the rest of the day because he threw little green blocks at his sister in his grouchy attitude.  seriously, son?  did it make you feel better?  was it worth having to watch your little brother play lego star wars all by himself while you sit sadly by and complain in a REALLY loud voice how it isn't fair and he's just rubbing it in?  hmm? 

exhaustion.

yeah.  that's how i feel.  BUT, i still have a bit of energy left over to be excited about a few homeschool-related things.

first.  MATH-U-SEE SHOULD GET HERE TOMORROW.  this is important.  i have been looking forward to this all summer long, and now i don't know what to do with myself now that it's finally almost here!  i've been tracking our order like an uber dork yesterday and today on the UPS website, and they've estimated that it will be here tomorrow.  which is extremely exciting.  and also a bit daunting, because it means that we're going to have to figure out how to incorporate another subject into our already-too-busy lives...

second.  we're almost through with week three (even though in my gradebook, it's technically week four, which never fails to throw me off JUST a bit) of my little trial period.  see, a few weeks ago (you may recall), there was a MEGA breakdown in my family in which a couple of the homeschool nay-sayers were saying that i couldn't POSSIBLY do everything we had planned for this fall AND homeschool at the same time.  hubby was worried as well, and he gave me sort of a "trial month" to see if i could handle it.  at the end of the month, if i couldn't, i'd have to drop something or other.  little did they all realize that i am sooper homeskool mom!  with amazing powers to multitask and get stuff done!  sort of.

anyway, the point is that the trial period is almost up, and i've been record-keeping like a crazy woman and we have TONS of work that i can just pull out at any time to show anyone who'd care to see it EXACTLY what we're doing.  i know i sound like a broken record on that point, but it's very crucial to me.

third.  bella starts ballet next week.  which is going to throw us into yet ANOTHER loop since we're going to be starting math-u-see that week as well.  we'll figure it out.  meanwhile, she is more excited than any three year old little girl has ever been before about starting ballet.  it's really quite funny.

fourth (man this is a long list).  i'm putting this off until the week after next, unless something else happens and we need to wait yet another week, but i have these really cute little sight word books i bought for beau a couple of years back (which we never used because he didn't really like).  i saved them because, hey, i have two other children, and sure enough, xander found them the other day and he wants to start doing them.  so we'll start them in another week.

finally (what?  i got tired of numbering), tomorrow at the library, THE FIRE TRUCK IS GOING TO BE THERE.  i think i'm more excited than the kids.  i've heard that the kids get to climb all up inside the truck and all of that awesomely fun stuff.  i wonder if they let the mommies do that, because that sounds REALLY FUN...

i. am. so. tired.  but i can handle this.  i totally can.  i'm going to stay positive.  sure, there's a lot going on, but that doesn't mean that i can't do it.  but if i hear one. more. thing. about lego star wars, i'm going to shoot myself  scream  throw the video game out the window  give myself a time out. 

well, i'd probably sit here and procrastinate cleaning for a while longer, but i've got to start getting the kids ready to go to beau's football practice.  today is picture day and we have to be there fifteen minutes earlier than usual.  yay.

worksheet adventures.

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  xander actually WANTED to do his worksheets today.  AND.  he traced the number "1" all. by. himself. 

that may not sound like much to you, but considering that yesterday we had a worksheet meltdown that came perilously close to not ending well, i'd say that's pretty dern awesome.

so.  updates.  we finished up the seven wonders of the ancient world on saturday!  beau did AWESOME.  he totally remembered all the names and locations of the seven wonders when we did our little "quiz" at the end of the section.  i was sooper proud. 

in science, we're going through the different states of matter.  hopefully we can finish up this week's science quickly so we'll be finishing our science units at the same time as we finish our history units (a gal can dream, can't she?).  it would just make the lesson plans look SO much neater. 

i know.  i caught the organization bug from rachel.  i'm going to unschooler heck.  go ahead and say it.  but really, i like this so much better even though i SWORE TO MYSELF I'D NEVER DO IT THIS WAY. 

the reason i like it better, you may ask?

it's so embarrassing for me to admit this, but this way, it actually LOOKS like we're doing something besides watching spongebob all day.  i have WRITTEN PROOF.  and GRADES.  *gasp*

 myeh.  it's kind of cool.  it doesn't take oodles of time yet.  i'm hoping it sticks, cause it sure makes hubby happy.  you know the old axiom "if momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy?"  well, it's the reverse in our house.  if daddy ain't happy, you all had better run and hide until he's out of his funk.  because it's. going. to. get. ugly.

i joke.  but really, it's SO much smoother when he's on my side with this whole homeschooling thing.  and i agree with him that it's easier for him to defend it when he has more to say than "well, the kid can read," when people ask him how beau is doing in school.  and now he's got to answer all those same question with xander thrown into the mix.  so yeah, it makes it easier on him.  and for me as well, when i really think about it.  i don't look so disorganized and out of control like i am in every other aspect of my life like i did before. 

plus, i LOVE my little folder system.  rachel is right, everything goes TONS quicker when mom doesn't have to run around trying to gather materials and print copies of worksheets at the last second.  because everything is planned out for at LEAST a week in advance (for now at least), all i have to do is pull it out and we're ready to go. 

i still can't get over xander's positive attitude this afternoon with the worksheets.  he called it his "homework."  i know there are going to be bad days and there are going to be good days, but today i'm going to sit back and just be uber happy that today was a good day.  that's all i need.

week one, finished.

so i'm not sure how i got myself into this mess, but apparently there are a few people in my life who feel that i've taken too much on my plate.  the main segment of them the very ones who are extremely anti-homeschool for reasons that haven't fully been made clear.  it's almost as if they hate it, but even they don't know why.

so i've been walking around for the past two weeks, glancing nervously over my shoulder, preparing to be ambushed at any moment, hog-tied, and forced to watch as they ship my children off on yellow buses to the nearest public school.  any public school, apparently.

and while my logical mind knows that this is impossible, that no one can make the decision regarding my children's education except for hubby (who's only concern is that they are "keeping up" with the kids in public school) and myself, it's STRESSING ME OUT, PEOPLE.

so i am decidedly relieved that week one is OVER.  and i have lovely documentation of all the work we did, a copy of my lesson plan from last week on my hard drive and also printed out (to be placed in a manila envelope and filed away neatly (along with all the paperwork we did and possibly copies of the pictures of crafts we've done), and an actual gradebook with actual GRADES (which i HATE HATE HATE).

all of this is MEGA new to me, as i would, if left to my own devices, NEVER touch ANY of this stuff.  but the nay-sayers are really starting to get to me, and in the end, having a bit more structure isn't so bad.  i'm not going to go so far as to say that it's GOOD, especially since my hand has been forced with all of this, but it's all right.

it helps hubby sleep at night.  and if i were ever educationally audited by the anti-homeschoolers in my life, i could simply pull out a file and a report card and rub their noses in it show them exactly what we've been doing.

/end rant.

today we finished up our nature detective science study and started on part two of the seven wonders of the ancient world unit.  i also tweaked our weekly school schedule a bit, since last week was basically a test-run of the new schedule and i pretty much knew it wouldn't be permanent anyway.  it looks and feels a lot better and more laid-back now.

mondays we do hardcore school.  history and science, condensing two days of lessons into one, since we're basically home all day.  even though we cover a lot of material, it still only takes about two hours.  copywork and then we're done.

tuesdays, mommy has school from 8-2 and beau has football from 6-8pm.  so, accounting for travel time, we are home for about two hours in the middle.  BAM handwriting worksheets and copywork.  and then i had the bright idea of sending a worksheet or two along to mimi's and whoosh!  even yesser.

wednesdays, mommy has an hour-long class from 9-10.  before nine, you can forget about getting my angels to concentrate on anything that isn't lego star wars or cereal.  after school, we might go to the store OR the park.  when we get home, we're all completely wiped and all we want to do is relax for some reason.  so we do some handwriting worksheets and copywork, no pressure.

thursdays look EXACTLY like tuesdays.

fridays are library days.  in the afternoon, if that ever comes, we MAY do a few worksheets.  MAYBE.

saturdays are another hardcore school day.  finish up history and science from earlier in the week.  we try to review on the days in between so we don't forget.  there's also a sheet of copywork in there somewhere.

in other news, I GET TO ORDER MATH-U-SEE THIS WEEK!!! 

i am far too excited about that, as you can see.  i have been looking forward to this practically all summer.  although it's going to throw a bit of a wrench in our schedule, we'll adjust and i will feel SO much better knowing that math is being learned in this house from someone who isn't dora the explorer.  i'm actually considering starting them all off on the primer, even little bella, all at the same time.  we shall see when it gets here, though.

that's it for today!  the best i can promise is weekly updates, if that!

i can't believe i thought i used to be busy.

new year!  today was our first day back since, well, since my english class TOOK OVER MY LIFE.  no, seriously.  it got crazy.  we are just settling into our new routine of football practice and new college courses for mommy.  and actually, starting mid-september, we'll be throwing ballet classes for bella into the mix as well.  oh, and we recently acquired a new member to our family...a nine-week-old german shepherd puppy named alice.  we are house-training her as i'm typing this.

whew.  can we do it?  YES, WE CAN!

i hope.

recent circumstances have caused me to need to be more record-take-y, so i completely hijacked my friend rachel's organization system, turned it upside down, tweaked it A LOT, and basically it only barely resembles her method anymore.  i thought it was such a good idea, though, and i figured it would help me out a BUNCH to have written lesson plans.

it's already imploding.

but i am going to keep plugging away at it!  here's a screenshot of our plans for this week (since i am not sooperwoman like some people i know who plan the entire semester at once).  baby steps, people.

still looks kinda impressive, though, right?

 today, we have done everything on our schedule except for the copywork (another gem i stole from rachel...here's hoping she remembers that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!) and the second handwriting without tears (HWT) worksheet for today. 

there are two handwriting worksheets per page in the workbook because i take the HWT pages and basically go into paint and create extra practice pages for us.  beau needs extra practice because his handwriting is still mostly illegible at this point.  i know.  i fail.  in my defense, though, most of his education up till this point has been through time4learning.com and TONS of reading.  we did practice handwriting now and then, when he asked, but i'd never made it a major priority until now. 

now it is most DEFINITELY a priority, partially because i am beginning to feel uncomfortable that his handwriting isn't better, and partially because he is starting to become really interested in writing.  the point is, he's ready now to sit at the kitchen table and practice printing for extended periods of time, whereas before, i couldn't PAY him to do worksheets.

something i noticed today: xander has to be tricked into doing schoolwork.  i honestly have no idea how i'm going to manage him this year, especially with everyone harping at me that he's in kindergarten and he needs to be doing work, too, and blah blah blah.  he HATES worksheets.  hates coloring on demand.  he WILL listen to read-aloud stuff, and he particularly enjoys charlie and the chocolate factory at bedtime.  he'll even answer questions about what happened in the previous chapter and be correct about 89% of the time.  so i guess it isn't such a big deal that he isn't into worksheets right now.  he's five.  

it's just hard to document those sorts of things.  and documentation is what the people want.

anywho!  today we learned about two of the seven wonders of the ancient world: the statue of zeus at olympia and the pyramids of giza.  i leave you with a picture of the play dough models we made of the statue of zeus:

mine on the left (which still managed to look crazy even though i took a ridiculous amount of time and trouble trying to make it "authentic"), beau's in the middle (looking quite a bit like alf), and xander's on the end.  bella told me hers "wasn't ready" at the time of this photograph.