The boys spent the morning learning how to use a smudger to make their pencil lines disappear when drawing. I thought it was cool. They tolerated it until they could get outside. Outside, in the backyard of other homeschoolers. Outside, where there were chickens to chase, trees to climb, and cornbread fights to be had. Outside with four other twitchy boys who had never spent a day of their lives in a classroom. Where was this, you ask? Did we... Read more
My baby got baptized today. Stood in front of our church in a little purple robe, read his testimony, renounced evil, and got dunked by his daddy. We gave him a Bible as a gift, and he went to bed clutching it with one hand while clutching his tattered, dirty blanket with the other. “Now I can go to sleep every night with ‘sweetie’ AND the word of God.” I stayed in his room and patted him for awhile, wondering... Read more
Well, if you’ve been paying attention, you won’t be surprised. We met with a neuropsychologist yesterday and found out that Zach has a host of diagnosable issues. I decided not to name them all here, but like I said, if you’ve been paying attention you can probably make some good guesses. We’ve known for some time that he probably had some issues. And then when we started homeschooling, they were unmistakable. Still, I kept hoping that it was just his... Read more
I really hoped I wouldn’t do this, but I did. I skipped homeschool today. Not like when I bring a few things to Starbucks and call it homeschool. I skipped it completely. Thursday is field trip day. And one or two Thursdays a month, Jeff or the au pair take the boys on the field trip so that I can write. But I forgot that today was my day to write. I write with two other women and I didn’t... Read more
I’ve been thinking a lot about Joey Pigza these days. If you don’t know who is, you are missing out on perhaps the most endearing character in all of modern children’s literature. Joey’s desire to do the right thing despite his inability to do so is all too familiar. His sympathetic understanding of his parents’ alcoholism and grandmother’s cruelty can break your heart. It’s hard to read Joey. His life is hard, his little ADD body won’t get with the... Read more
Donuts, Arthur, and a car showroom. How could that be bad, right? It wasn’t. It was a great day of homeschool at the Honda dealer. Where they serve free donuts, have a flatscreen TV, and let you use a small table and whiteboard in a playroom for kids. Sweet. We got more done in three hours this morning than we did all last week: Handwriting, which turned into a math lesson on place value; phonics instruction for each boy while... Read more
You may have noticed that I posted my first pictures last week. Now that I know how to do it, it’s no big deal, right? Why is technology like that – for me anyway? I didn’t use a breast milk pump for six months because just staring at the machine made me feel anxious. Then I had to do it, and found out that a 5th grader could set it up. I was overwhelmed at the thought of starting a... Read more
Yesterday, Zach peed on the floor in his room. That’s right. He peed on the floor. Apparently, Ezra and a friend were pretending to pee on the floor and everyone was laughing. So Zach thought it would be especially funny if he actually peed. Have I mentioned that he is working really hard to figure out how to be funny? Have I mentioned that it’s not going well? I wasn’t going to write about this because, well, who admits that... Read more
Just got home from my second homeschool study group of the week. Tonight was for people using Charlotte Mason’s principles. Monday was for people who wanted to learn how to teach writing. (And by people, of course, I mean mothers. Jeff is homeschooling the boys for 9 hours a week, but you won’t catch him at one of the study groups.) I just love study groups. They have two things I really love: study, and groups. Unlike when I was... Read more
“Kevin, you are so debonaire.” This was Zach’s response to a joke that Kevin told at dinner last night. Kevin, who works as an Americorps volunteer at our church, is very, very funny and not what I would immediately call debonaire. So I described what debonaire was and asked, “Does that sound like Kevin?” “No.” (My belated apology to Kevin, but I was in teacher mode and I chose to sacrifice you to the cause.) “Where did you hear the... Read more
The Homeschool Chronicles
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