you might be wondering...

...what happened with bella's ballet class yesterday?

oh, it was fun.

she was MEGA excited when we pulled up in the parking lot.

"is this where my class is gonna be?  huh, momma, is it?  is this where i will dance?  what's my teacher's name?"

she wore her tiny little ballet slippers - and this little pink tutu that came with a set of pajamas she got last winter - into the building.  we walked in, and there was already another little girl there with her mother. 

and suddenly, my talkative, bubbly, always-making-friends all over the place little girl became painfully shy.

which is, of course, her custom.

other little girls piled in.  there were about fifteen or so in all.  i lost count, but i do know that i probably wouldn't have wanted to be the girl in charge of this class.  that was a LOT of little black leotards.

anyway, so i take my boys and we leave to go to the park, waving as bella happily runs off into the studio with all the other bright-eyed little darlings stepping into dance for the first time.

exactly eleven minutes later, i receive a phone call.

something had happened in just over ten minutes that turned my little ballerina from this:

before.

to this:

after.  (disclaimer:  not actually bella)

no idea what that something was.

i'm thinking that somebody's little girl had to be the one to cry on the first day.  i just got lucky this time.

so, we're going to try again next week. 

i'll let you know how that goes.

and we just. keep. adding. more.

today we were overachievers.

i totally didn't mean for us to be, but we skipped football practice this afternoon because mommy feels like she's going to throw up everywhere and didn't really feel like spreading that kind of love around.

so we started on worksheets.  we all sat at the kitchen table, which hasn't happened in a little while because there's always been something on the table (side note: you should know that we very rarely eat at the table.  all of that is about to change.  but for the past couple of weeks, it's become a catch-all for anything and everything that doesn't have another place, and hasn't been available to us for schoolwork), but mommy got fierce this afternoon and cleared everything and my point is they were all sitting there like little darlings, EXCITED to do worksheets.

yeah.

so i forgot it wasn't wednesday decided to carpe diem and start a new math lesson.  which then led to doing a science worksheet that was meant for tomorrow.  that part was an accident, but oh well.  that's what happens when you skip football  get your days mixed up  decide to be an overachiever.

all the worksheets were done WITHOUT tears, even xander's.  he's started tracing all the letters by himself; in fact, it's become his favorite part of the worksheets.  i'm stinkin' proud of that kid.

anyway, i got back to the computer to do grades, and beau came up behind me and was all like, "what are we learning today, mom?" all excited and junk.  i was like, "we aren't doing anything new today on the computer."  and he was like, "aww, not even a science experiment?"

so i logged into lessonpathways and looked around a bit.  and i got stuck on the language arts section.  i like it.  i maybe want to do it.  i know i'm nuts.  we're already doing enough.  but i think the kids would enjoy it.  as long as we have time.  i may do the crafts and things as sort of a reward system: if you do your history and science without whining, we can do the lessonpathways language arts lesson.  something like that.

math is no longer a problem.  i flipping LOVE math-u-see.  it's fun and the kids like doing it.  so far.

anyway, just wanted to write this down before i fell into an exhausted stupor in front of the television set  forgot it.

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.