Quarantine

   
     So that second week in November as we were just getting started with our new school initiatives, I got sick. I take care of myself and eat well so I figured that this would be over and done in a few days. I had horrible chills and high fevers initially and then the sore throat hit. Wednesday night, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday...no end in sight. I went to the doctor and was put on an antibiotic for strep throat and was also being treated for what we believed was a kidney infection. Broke out in itching from the top of my head to my feet (including the palms of my hands), my eyes were puffy and itchy, too. My doctor told me to stop the antibiotic and was waiting to put me on a new one until she could see me again. I ended up in urgent care because my throat was swollen shut and I could hardly breath. I received a new antibiotic and went back home to bed. The most fun was the huge canker sore under my tongue and the split in the tip of my tongue from breathing through my mouth while sleeping. I couldn't eat, couldn't talk, and continued to have fevers (low grade at this point). I was back at the doctor for my test results and it turned out it wasn't my kidneys, but actually my liver that was affected. My liver enzymes were extremely elevated. I went back in for more blood tests and found out that I had infectious mono. In the first 14 days, I lost 12 lbs. For a month, I could not hug, kiss, read to, play with, or tend to my daughter. Once a day, right before she laid down to sleep, I would change my shirt and we would go through this elaborate routine so that I could give her one hug before bed. There was no way that I was going to infect my child and have her experience even a moment of the hell that I was living in. The seminar didn't address what to do when you can't read to your child, or anything else for that matter. My husband either made her a plate for lunch, before he left for work that morning, that she could get out of the refrigerator herself, or would come home at lunch time and fix her something. He came home once a day to take her outside to ride her bike around the block or take a quick walk. Otherwise, she spent the day playing, listening to books on CD, and watching TV. Yep, nothing like an illness like this to make the TV come on. Yeah, mono was definitely not addressed during the seminar. The mouth sores eventually cleared up, the fevers stopped, the liver pain has all but gone away, and we are slowly getting ourselves back on track. I started out with a lot of outings because I owed her big time for hanging in there with me (without me is more like it). Her first outing she wanted was the library. That made me smile! I'm so glad that out of everything she could have chosen the library was what she desired the most. We got a stack of books and 5 or 6 audio CD's. I brought a stroller since I knew I wouldn't be able to lift so she could load up. We started taking walks again. I have been able to read to her again which is a huge gift to me. Whether you homeschool or not, an illness in the family makes you have to rethink your priorities. I learned in this past month that it's ok to let go of  some things in order to take care of other things. My husband and I did the very best we could. Molly still had Thanksgiving with my family, she got to go to a fun Christmas festival, got outside every day, got her bedtime stories, filled her day with art and playdoh, and had a month with lots of movies. When I dragged myself to the bathroom in the early days of the illness and saw paint all over the towels, I just smiled and thought, "Thank God it's washable." I put out piles of markers, crayons, paint, brushes of every size and style, paper, etc. and went back to bed. She had a prolific month and I got my rest. I'd say we did a pretty good job!

By the way, she took those leaves she painted and taped them all over the room I was living in during the days. She said that she wanted to, "make it feel like you are in an art museum." She also sounded out (with very little help) "Mom I hope you feel better" on her giant dry erase board in "my" room. What a sweet, little girl. I am very blessed:)

Matisse

    The other thing that I wanted to implement after attending the seminar was daily outside time. Molly and I go out most days, but I found that going to and from the car is often the only actual outside time. I had purchased a pair of rain boots for myself this past summer so I was looking forward to putting them to use. On that Wednesday, we put our rain gear on and went outside. We were just strolling along the sidewalk when I looked down and saw the leaves plastered onto the wet sidewalk. She and I read a lot about artists so I said, "Which artist would have liked to paint this?" She looked at me blankly so I said, "Cezanne probably would have because he painted still-life." Then I said, "What do you think Matisse would have thought of this? Maybe he would have used the leaves as inspiration for his stained glass or his paintings? What would he have thought of the colors?" Molly passionately said, "He would not have liked these colors. He liked bright colors!" So as we walked along she would run to grab certain leaves and would shout, "Matisse would have loved this one!" She then collected about 6 huge maple leaves and brought them home. We decided to paint them. We called it, "If Matisse had his way." It was Molly's interpretation of what Autumn would look like if Matisse had his way. She painted each of the leaves a bright, beautiful color and we set them aside to dry. As I was sitting there, she said, "I have a poem." Now when Molly says those words I have to jump to find a video camera because it could be gone as quickly as it comes and I can't write fast enough to keep up. I grabbed my phone and turned on the video camera and she made up a poem right there on the spot. Here it is...

Our New Love

     The Tuesday after the seminar, Molly and I went to the library and checked out a lot of books...including audio books. It was so exciting to add audio books to our repertoire! I found it especially useful when she was tired after a long day and wanted to watch tv. I could put on a CD and she would lay in her bed or on the couch and listen to a story. TV zones kids out...the audio books allowed her to keep her brain engaged and active while she relaxed. Her favorites have been Beverly Cleary books (she has checked out 4 different ones), Judy Blume's "Superfudge," and "Charlotte's Web." We own most of these books already, but for her to be able to listen whenever she wants and not have to wait for someone to read to her has been so nice for her. She will sometimes listen for two hours of her day. She has a CD player in her room and we have one in the living room that I showed her how to use. It is so nice for her to have this bit of independence and not have to ask for permission or help. I often find her sitting on her bed looking at piles of picture books as she is listening to a book being read.

Computer Crash

    Back in the first weekend of November I went to a day-long seminar to hear a woman named Carol Joy Seid speak about using literature in homeschooling. I came out of that seminar with renewed focus and renewed passion. I couldn't wait to jump in on that Monday morning and implement the changes I had resolved to make. First I would drastically reduce her television watching. She never watched that much, but I was going to try to get it to an hour or two a week total. The second thing was to get her off the computer. Reducing the computer time goes against almost everything I was taught to believe and actually almost every parent and teacher believe...that computers help kids learn. What I learned in the seminar is that computer use actually damages childrens eyes, and it also takes them away from the way they learn best...by exploring their environment, listening to books, life experience. It turned out that Molly had an appointment on that Monday with a pediactric opthamologist. I had made the appointment back in September after her pediatrician recommended she see a specialist. The timing could not have been more perfect, it turns out! I was able to talk to the specialist about what I had heard at the conference. The specialist agreed 100% with Ms. Seid. The doctor said that they now see so many young children whose eyes have been damaged and who need glasses at 4, 5, and 6 years old. All of the parents said that the child played hand-held video games, and spent time on the computer. She recommends drastically reducing computer and video game time for all children because it affects the growth of the eyes and causes permanent damage. The doctor also said that she rarely saw it before...it is becoming more common as more games and websites are being marketed to young children. I was so grateful to have heard this message at the seminar, but then to be able to speak to an expert and have the message confirmed really made me rethink the path we were on. Just because other parents are doing it, and just because marketing people are telling you that it will make your child smarter doesn't mean it is healthy for your child. Do the research yourself and make a decision that is best for your family.

Mary Poppins

    Yesterday, Molly and I took the train downtown to have lunch at the French Market and then went to see the musical "Mary Poppins" at the Cadillac Theater. We had a great time and both of us loved the musical. She has a great attention span being able to focus for almost a three hour show! During intermission, Molly asked the coat check girl how they made Mary Poppins fly. The woman told her it was magic, but Molly was having none of that. The woman looked at me and said, "She doesn't really want to know, does she? It will ruin it for her!" After we assured her that it was ok to give her the technical details, the woman laid it all out for her. It made the second half of the show even more interesting for her because she was able to watch for certain things (like the wire). She seemed fascinated by the creativity and technology that went into that part of the show. Her desire to ask questions and dig deeper than the surface is a trait that I see in her that I rarely see in kids in traditional school settings. There is no embarrassment, no shame, a thirst for knowledge, and most importantly the belief that everyone has something to teach us...not just the one person appointed with that role. I would not have thought to ask the coat check girl inside information about the show, but she knew so much! I am so glad that Molly realized that she was more than her job, because I didn't. So often I witnessed in my own childhood, as well as with the kids I have known since, that kids in school tend to want the learning to be over as soon as the school day ends. I never want Molly to see learning as a chore or as something to just endure. She has such a passion to absorb as much as she can about the world around us, and it brings me such pleasure to be able to share in that:)

    When we went to collect our belongings at the coat check after the show was over, Molly asked the woman why the room she was working in only had white walls. The woman looked stunned like she had never noticed or thought about it before. Molly decided that she should paint it pink with white stripes. Who knows maybe when we go back the next time we will see a fancy new coat check room:) We walked back to the train station and got there as the train was boarding...we were so happy to find out it was an express train! She wanted to get home to watch the movie of Mary Poppins so that she could compare the two versions while it was fresh in her head. I wasn't thrilled with her watching tv after watching a play for almost three hours, but she was dissecting it the whole way home...analyzing each character, comparing and contrasting every scene...I couldn't say "no" and I think it really helped her to get the most out of the experience.

Uranus! LOL!

    We have a busy week but yesterday we managed to slow it down a bit. Molly and I stayed home except for a necessary trip to Costco. Looking back at the day, Molly ended up doing about four hours of school overall. She did great with her reading program "Play and Read", worked on identifying the fifty states, did games online for spelling and parts of speech...adjectives used to be her strongest area, but now she is struggling with those as she is focusing on her nouns and verbs. The madlibs help and we will be using those today on our train ride downtown.
    Molly got a placemat at the Indianapolis Children's Museum featuring the U.S. Presidents. We studied that yesterday, too. It has fascinating facts on it! She thought that Abraham Lincoln was the Notre Dame "Fighting Irish" mascot:) http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2008/10/05/notre-dames-fighting-irish-mascot/. She even ran and got her camera to take of picture of him to show Grandpa! We also worked on sign language, and the solar system. I turn into an eight-year-old boy whenever Uranus is discussed...she suffers through my immaturity;) School for us is never boring, that's for sure!!

Indy

    We had a great trip to Indiana over the weekend. Madlibs came in handy for the car ride. Netflix on the i-phone was another beautiful thing! We spent Saturday at the amazing Indianapolis Children's Museum...five-stories of fun:) They managed to cram a planetarium, science museum, and history museum into it which is mind-boggling. We saw a great frog exhibit, she walked the runway in the Barbie exhibit (but suffered a wardrobe malfunction when her skirt fell down around her ankles...she decided that modeling is not her life calling), saw a show at the planetarium...it was a great time:) There were eleven Garfield statues in the various small towns we went through...we found four of them along with James Dean's birthplace.

Fitting School In

   We had friends come in from out of town this week. They have an 8-year-old boy and a boy who was born just a few weeks after Molly. I had cleaning and shopping to do...when exactly does school fit in when there is a huge shift in the routine? Well, we ran around most of the day but there was a lull in the late afternoon while we were waiting for them to arrive. Molly and I managed to get a good hour of her reading program done. She earned six stars!  She had so much fun with her reading program that it turned out to be a perfect distraction from the torture of waiting for her friends to show up.

    She had a ball with the boys! They see each other once or twice a year and it seems as if no time has passed when they are all together. Molly was thrilled to discover that Miles loves to play dress up...he even brought his Harry Potter costume with him! So cute! FYI...he doesn't wear glasses...that's part of the costume:) Earlier in the day we had also discovered the joy of Madlibs on my iphone. We laughed our butts off! We can't wait to do some more...they feed right into her love of language as well as her love of anything silly:)
     We took the day off of school today because she was so exhausted from her time with Miles and Finn that she slept 3 1/2 hours this afternoon. Back to it tomorrow and then a children's museum outing on Saturday.

Play and Learn

    We spent Saturday morning volunteering to help assemble hundreds of bundles of cards for a reading program. We were rewarded for our efforts with a set to take home. Molly loves it! We have been having a great time working on it together. She earned six stars in the first two days. We took today off. She had a class at the library called, "Folk, Fairy, and Favorite Tales"...tomorrow her science class starts and she can't wait! I love that we have access to these free classes at the library. They are taught by wonderful women who clearly love what they do. It is a great addition to what we are doing.
    Molly did about five hours of school between Saturday and Sunday. I love the flexibility that homeschooling offers! I don't stress out when there are days we don't seem to do much and Molly sees school as a wonderful part of her life that has no time limit. It is such a natural part of our family and our life. She would be devastated if I ever told her she needed to take a break. It is so refreshing to see that passion for school and for learning in a child. It is a gift to her, not a chore. I will be forever grateful that I live in a state that is so supportive of our choice. I found out recently that most museums in our area offer free or discounted admission to homeschooling families. The Metra train offers student passes for homeschooled kids. Every day it seems that I find support for my choice to educate my child differently. We are very blessed, indeed.

The Waiting Game

    Molly has been busy the past week continuing her writing practice, reading aloud, and being read to.  She is really focusing a lot of attention on mastering reading. It is so hard to balance her developmental age with her intellectual age. I know that once she masters her reading, nothing will get in the way of her learning...right now she is limited to what I can work with her on. Her other struggle is that there are many things she wants to be able to learn that she can't physically do yet...like knitting, for example. I am hoping to find some alternatives that she can do now that will help her learn the skills she will need for those types of activities.
    We discovered www.sheppardsoftware.com this week, as well! What an amazing site!!! She has been working on the US map...identifying all of the states. She also loves the animal section where she has tons of animal info and facts at her fingertips. I imagine that this site will be our go-to from now on for so many activities. The best part is that the entire site is free!
    Joining the Museum of Science and Industry was another bright point of our week:) We are going twice in the next few weeks. We are looking forward to the Dr. Seuss exhibit!! Molly explores every one of our animation reference books (we have about a dozen) and loves to look at the early drawings of the characters, etc. The Dr. Seuss exhibit shows some of his early drawings and sculptures so she is really excited to get to see where some of the characters began.

Mr. Fox

   Molly and I just finished reading Roald Dahl's, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, last week. It gave us so many opportunities for learning. I asked her who the protagonist and antagonists were and she said, "Mr. Fox is the protagonist and the three farmers are the antagonists." Then she said to me, "If Mr. Fox is the protagonist, why did he steal?" I did a search for some study questions online. I found a site that had a quiz. Molly got 15/16 on the first try! She got the other one right on the second guess. One of the questions asked what part of speech fantastic is and I started to read her the multiple choice answers starting with "verb" and she said, "It's not a verb, it's an adjective!" Here is a link to the quiz...http://www.mce.k12tn.net/reading48/fox1.html.
    I also found a philosophy site that had great questions regarding the ethics in the story...here is the link for that...http://www.teachingchildrenphilosophy.org/wiki/Fantastic_Mr._Fox. I am going to a conference to hear a woman talk about using literature as a focus in homeschooling. I can't wait to get some more ideas and fill in some of the gaps in my approach. Molly responds so well to books and I would love to be able to explore them to their fullest:)
     I am so glad that we have the option and ability to stretch her far past her years...she's only four after all!...and allow her to move past a grade label to see that her potential is limitless.

Too Much

    Last week was a whirlwind. I try really hard not to over-schedule us, but there are some weeks that it just can't be avoided. Our friend's mom died. He, his wife, and three children were in town all week leading up to the funeral. We wanted to be sure that we were available to them as a distraction. They came over one afternoon and the kids had a ball! They are also homeschooling so it was fun to compare notes and share ideas. Friday was the funeral and it was so emotionally draining. We loved Marianne and will miss her terribly.
    My brother and his wife had a little baby girl, Maddie. We wanted to get out to see her and take her two-year-old brother to the zoo. Last Thursday was set aside for this excursion. The weather turned out to be absolutely perfect! We adored the baby, of course, and had a great time at the zoo! Later that same day, Molly's Auntie Kathy came in from Vancouver. We were off to my parent's for dinner and some quality time for Molly and Kathy!
    Between swimming lessons, playdates, and out-of-town guests, it was quite exhausting! I'm hoping not to have another week packed quite that full...glad to see everyone and grateful for all of the memories, but a bit too chaotic for me.

Southgate School

    When Naomi was staying with us I decided to go about Molly's school day like normal. I figured I'd try it and see what happened. We started out with Molly writing her two letters and her number for the day and then I had them draw pictures while I read out loud to them. Rob had just bought us the new Shel Silverstein book so I read them poems. They drew really elaborate pictures of animals and Naomi looked over at me and said, "I drew a three." It was Molly's number of the day. She drew a really good three and I could see that she wanted to be included in the process. I gathered our new magnets that we had gotten at a hobby store as well as some various items to try to attract. The girls had so much fun trying to see what they could pick up! They also loved trying to get two magnets to connect when they were repelling each other. When we were finished, we packed a lunch and went to Spring Valley Nature Center. The girls enjoyed running along the path and through the woods! They had me taking pictures of various flowers, bugs, and butterflies so that we could look them up when we got home and try to identify them. Once we reached the farm, we had a picnic lunch. The girls ate lunch on top of the table because they weren't too sure they liked the roosters under our table. They looked for fairies in the hole in the tree, petted horses and cows, and obsessed over all of the various fungi they found on the trees on the path. We went out on a dock and were surrounded by lily pads. When we thought we couldn't go any further we got in the car and I took them to Oberweis for ice cream. I realized that day  how fun it was to incorporate a friend into our school day...hopefully Naomi will be a visitor to our little school a few times a month so we can plan some fun lesson plans the girls can do together.

Success!

    Molly had swimming lessons again today. We missed last week so I didn't know what to expect. We got halfway there when I realized that I had forgotten her bathing suit and towel at home. I didn't want to miss the lesson again, but I also didn't want to be 30 minutes late. I decided to hurry home and then take a different route to see if I could get there faster. She ended up only being 10 minutes late. She came up to me after the class was over and said, "They were nice to me for the first time!" I decided to have her stay for free swim even though we had friends coming over for a playdate and it would cut it close. I wanted to see what would happen. Molly played by herself and left the girls alone. They ended up coming over to her and playing with her! I think that they probably felt as bad as we did after that horrible day. Maybe us missing last week also helped break the cycle. She said that they learned to be nice because she showed them how to be a good friend. All I know is that she had a good time, the girls got along, and Molly ended up feeling very good that she persevered:)

Girl Talk

The first night with our little houseguest, we heard them talking when they were in bed.

Molly...I want to be a princess.
Naomi...I want to be a prince.
Molly in shock...Why would you want to be a prince?!
Naomi calmly replies...So that I can marry you.

Now as Rob and I are listening on the monitor, I think "Uh oh, look out Naomi. Molly is already betrothed;)"

Molly...Naomi, you need to make another choice. I am already marrying Anthony. We will live in a house full of toys and have a boy that is nice to me.
Naomi unfazed...Oh, ok.
Naomi...Why do you like the color pink so much?
Molly...It's my favorite!
Naomi...I like all the colors. I like yellow, red, purple, green, blue...
Molly...I like a lot of colors, but I like pink the best.
Naomi...Do you know God?
Molly...Yes.
Naomi...God loves us when we are sad and when we are mad...
Molly...God loves us when we are eating, sleeping, playing...
Naomi...He loves us when we are awake...
Molly...Which fairies do you like?
Naomi...I like Rosetta.
Molly...Do you like Vidia?
Naomi...No.
Molly...Why not?
Naomi...I like that she wears purple, but that's it.
Molly...Is it because you don't like her attitude?
Naomi...Yes. I like her purple dress, but not her attitude.

The next morning...
Naomi...Do you want to go to Heaven with me?
Molly...Yes.
Naomi...You can't take anything with you.
Molly starting to sadly weep...I can't leave Piggy behind.
Naomi...Ok you can take Piggy. We should also probably take a Bible.
Molly...Ok we'll take Piggy and a Bible. I would also like to take Anthony...oh, and Matthew.
Naomi...Ok.
Molly...They have a great ice cream parlor in Heaven. It's called Malley's. We can go there with my Uncle Denny.
Naomi...Ok.
Molly...I can't wait for you to meet him. He's so great! He's really nice and he loves ice cream.
Naomi...Ok.

My Uncle Denny died in May. What an impact he had on my daughter:)

House Guest

   I have a friend who just had a new baby...she also has a two-year-old and a little girl who is about 12 days older than Molly. Her four-year-old, Naomi,  and Molly are the best of friends. We met when the girls were babies while sitting in the parent's room at church. While the girls were over on Thursday, their mom said, "Maybe I should just leave Naomi here and you can just bring her to church with you on Saturday." She was half joking and never expected me to take her up on her it. Well, I jumped at the chance to give my friend a break and for the girls to have some bonding time. Luckily they are about the same size because she had no clothes or pajamas with her. Molly had just been to the dentist so we had a new toothbrush that Naomi could use. I am a big fan of spontaneity so this was all quite fun for me:) We decided to take it one night at a time. Naomi had never been away from her parent's overnight...what if she freaks out? They live about 40 minutes away. We would meet halfway if we needed to. Well, the girls did amazingly well:) They talked quietly for an hour the first night. I will describe some of their conversations in a different post. Very philosophical for 4-year-olds, but then again, these are not your typical kids.

Geography Project

    I am so excited! Our homeschool group is doing a geography event...each family takes a different country. Molly and I are doing France. Ireland was the first choice...ummm, actually Miami was Molly's first choice;) Our friends that live there always say that it is like a different country! Ireland was taken, so we moved on to our next favorite...France...the home of Madeline and Degas, Cezanne, Monet... The country also shares Molly's love for bread, Nutella, and cheese:) We have 6 weeks to study the country and put together a fun representation of the culture. Let the games begin!

Busy, Busy

    Wow, what a whirlwind weekend and beginning of the week! On Saturday, we went to the farmer's market to see our favorite farmers. At the one fruit/vegetable stand Molly earned a free plum by reciting a poem by William Carlos Williams:) After the market we were off to a scarecrow fest with friends. The fest was kind of a bust with the lightening sirens going off, not much for the kids to do, and no concessions available. A break in the weather and a great magician saved the event. Molly got called up to be one of the magicians helpers and she proceeded to call him out on his trick...oops! She said matter-of-factly, "You just put it up your sleeve." The audience about died laughing! He made a joke to distract from her comment but she just looked at him and said, "You really did just put it up your sleeve." She had a great time and thought he was hilariously funny...we thought so too!
    Saturday night at church we happened upon a friend of hers from her short stint in preschool last year. It was great to reconnect because Molly has been asking about her since last October and I didn't have any contact info.
    Sunday was yardwork and then we went to see Kung Fu Panda 2. Very fun! Well, not the yardwork...
    On Monday, Molly and I went to the gym and after I worked out we swam for an hour together. After that we came home and I started reading Roald Dahl's The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Very engaging! Other than that, that day was all about playing. She painted pottery ornaments, she acted out stories, and read a lot.
    Yesterday we had an ugly start to our morning. Molly pretended to not know the number one. I talked to a fellow homeschooling friend who said her daughter wasn't getting past only having five fingers. It must have been something in the air. Molly ended up reading me eight Bob books. She wrote her numbers to 15 and wrote the alphabet. We played with her Melissa and Doug wooden clock and she was soon able to move the hands to any time I threw out...before yesterday she could only do any that were simple like 3 o'clock or 4:30. Now she can do 3:20, etc. She did a lot of puzzles...I only had to help her with the 100 piece one. Molly did a computer spelling game towards the end of the afternoon. It was a very full day of school...from about 10am until almost dinnertime! Despite our rocky start and my string of frustrations (like dropping a glass jar of pizza sauce, and having a pizza drop into my oven which created a huge mess) the day turned out pretty well:)
    I ordered Molly a light panel...we are so excited for it to come!

Here's the William Carlos Williams poem...

This is just to say...

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Halloween Fun

    Today Molly has a little cold so we canceled our playdate and stayed home. We got in our warmest, softest jammies and worked for two hours on a Halloween gingerbread house. It was a huge mess but a lot of fun!

    Late this afternoon, we went to the park. We found a caterpiller on the path who has become a new member of the family. She wanted to play at the school playground next to the park so we were there with a lot of older kids who were there for an after school program. She showed all the kids "Gary" her new caterpillar friend and let them hold him. I was a little worried that one of the kids would kill him or that they would take him away from her, but I just bit my tongue and watched it play out. There was one panicky moment where one of the girls pretended to throw him, but she came over and gave it to Molly Thank God!!! Molly would have been devastated if her desire to share had resulted in her losing Gary. It was fun to see the other kids react to him! The boys were all afraid to hold him which really surprised me. Most of the kids had never seen a caterpillar before, much less held one, so it was especially cool that she could share that with them:)

Trouble in Paradise

    We had a great start to our day today. Molly and I made it through the whole sign language alphabet. We only get tripped up on one or two as we work our way through it now, but usually one of us remembers. We are a good team:) She finished a workbook today, too. She managed to accomplish the whole book in only two sittings so I was quite impressed. Today was all about telling time, completing words by putting in the missing letters, and reading sentences to find which one fits the picture. It gave her a lot of practice writing her letters and numbers. When we were finished, I put on some music and she had an art explosion! She did watercolors and also used cotton balls and glue.
   Today was swimming lessons and it did not go well. This is her third week of being excluded by the three girls that she is in class with (there are only the four girls total in the class). It is very hard to watch. Molly is one of the most social kids I've ever known and I was in child care for 28 years before I had her...I know a lot of kids. She makes friends everywhere she goes so this experience has been especially hard for her to understand. She was injured during class by another girl (an accident, though...definitely not on purpose) which didn't help make this a positive experience, but she pulled it together and cheerfully went back to class. After class ended and it was time for free swim the meanness kicked in. She came up to me so sad and started sobbing that "they are hurting my feelings so bad." Even after that she was able to get it together and go back into the water. She was injured a second time, however, by the same girl and by then we were both done. I'm at war between my desire to protect her and my desire to help her fight her way through this. The other girls are completely unsupervised during the free swim. Molly says, "They are only nice to me when the teacher is there." Without a parent there to witness and address the behavior, I'm afraid it is a losing battle. I know that kids are often mean, but she's four. Does she really need to experience this yet?

Crazy Week

    I can't remember the last time we had such a busy week! Molly had a doctor appointment, swimming lessons, a dentist appointment, we went bowling, a grandparent's playdate, friend playdate, a doctor appointment for me, endless errands, shopping, and two dinner's out with our niece. I feel like I haven't even sat down all week. Today we are cleaning the house, making bread, and going to a party at a farm later today. Next week we are calming down. I need to sit down and create some kind of routine now that I have added in a health club workout that needs to happen three times a week.
    Luckily, in the middle of all of this chaos, Molly has been working hard. She has been in full-on creative mode. Between making music, writing songs, making up stories, acting out elaborate stories with her stuffed animals, and doing endless artwork she has kept herself quite busy. We did a lot of math while we were out and about, and managed to fit in a ton of reading time. I hope to not have another week quite this busy, but it's good to know that the learning continues even when we are running from thing to thing.

Great Day

    We had a really good school day today! Molly worked on her reading quite a bit. I said sentences out loud and she told me which words were verbs and which words were adjectives. On the computer she was given words with letters missing and she filled in the letters. She also identified short and long vowel sounds in words. She worked on opposites, rhyming, and using positional words to describe where things were in pictures. Molly read sentences and then matched the sentence to the picture that it described. She really enjoyed it all and worked really hard!
    In math, she worked on greater than/less than, patterns, and writing her numbers. After we finished her math, we played up in her room and got ready for a ball. She was playing with  stuffed "Ren and Stimpy" dolls and said that Ren needed to put on his "cloak"...she cracks me up!
   Molly had her swimming lesson today. She actually put her face in the water and blew bubbles! She is making huge progress considering she hates to get her face wet. She is in class with three other girls and they are all older. I think it is good for her to see how comfortable they are in the water. Her teacher is great, too, which helps so much! We went to Oberweis after swimming for a treat and then went to Whole Foods to do some shopping. Now she has a beach scene set up (a blanket with an open umbrella on top) and is watching Lilo and Stitch. It's time for dinner and a lot of reading time with Daddy. A great end to a great day:)

Overall

     Molly and I started reading "The Secret Garden." Well, technically, I am reading "The Secret Garden" to her...she is actively listening. I have it on my Kindle and I read it aloud to her while she sits on the floor and plays. We read the first three chapters in one sitting. I make sure that I stop while she is still interested so that she anticipates the next reading time. This book is going to branch us off into so many other topics...cholera, moors, India,and England are just some of the things we are now discussing. Reading is such a love for both of us, and being able to jump around to various topics as they come up in our different books just makes it that much more exciting.
     She worked on her reading a lot this week. She is so close. She read me her sunscreen tube the other day in the car. It got a bit confusing when she was sounding out SPF;) I had to explain abbreviations. She is also really picking up verbs and adjectives when she hears them in a sentence. Math is going really well and science remains her most favorite part of school. I found a great science book called, "Super Fun Science" by Heno Head, Jr. It is full of activities that are easy to do and you don't need a lot of supplies on hand. We need to work on our sign language this week, we are both getting rusty. She also wants to add in studying constellations so we will be dabbling in that this week. I have to fit it in around her doctor and dentist appts., swimming lesson, and some playdates. We can usually carve out time in the mornings. Tomorrow we don't have anywhere to be until swimming at 1:00 so we will get a good school day in in the morning:)

A New Trend

   We were at Costco today where we met a mom and her two young kids. We were chatting about ages, etc. when she asked Molly if she goes to school. We get this several times a day so I knew what was about to happen. Molly said, "Yes, I'm homeschooled". The woman lit up and said, "I want to homeschool!" We talked about it while the kids ran up and down the peanut butter aisle (much to the delight of the other customers, I'm sure).
   There are so many parents who see that the system that is in place doesn't necessarily work for their child. There is not a day that goes by where I don't meet someone who is either homeschooling already or wishes to. I cannot express enough how rewarding it is for me, much less Molly! It may not be the easier route, but it is so exciting to be there to witness her learning. There are tremendous resources out there to help with any issue or need along the way and she is getting so much more than she would be able to get in a traditional school setting. I wouldn't trade one day of this...even the worst day is better than anything else I would be doing instead.

Studying Butterflies

    On Wednesday, Molly and I went on a field trip with our homeschooling group to Peck Farm. We had a class on metamorphasis that focused on the butterfly. It was so much fun! The teacher was great and she made it very interactive:)  The kids identified all of the body parts of a butterfly, put an egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly in sequential order, and heard a great story about the migration of the Monarch butterfly (which Molly is still reciting days later!). After that, we went outside with large nets and small, plastic specimen jars and went on a bug hunt. We found lots of crickets, grasshoppers, and milkweed bugs, but it was too windy for the butterflies that day. Peck Farm has a butterfly house, though, so the kids got to go in there and be surrounded by them. We had large laminated cards so that we could try to find all of the different varieties. It was an amazing afternoon and a reminder of how lucky I am to be able to be there to experience these things with my daughter. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I am grateful to live in a state that embraces homeschooling and that so many organizations are supporting us in our efforts to educate our daughter:)

Swimming Lesson

    Molly had her first swimming lesson yesterday. We are involved in a great homeschooling group that has over 100 families.  A local park district offered us group lessons during school hours. She had so much fun and started to get a little braver as the class went on. Molly hates getting her face wet, but by the time the class was over she was sticking her head under a huge downspout of water! What a fun way to spend our afternoon:)

Sticky Box

      Ok, I cheated. Big time. I officially hate the game Clue Jr. and cheated out of sheer frustration that I could not get to the white circles to identify the person who committed the crime. After what felt like around 4 hours of torture, I caved.  I am a stickler for rules and I am not a person who lets kids win, but I am competitive (some might think that this is an understatement) and it was driving me crazy! I think that's one game where making up my own rules before playing again will be a good thing. I cannot imagine subjecting myself to that one again otherwise.

    On a more positive note, that same day Molly and I created a sticky box. I got the idea off of www.playathomemom.com. She decided to turn it into a tv so that she and her cat, Puddy, could watch The Three Stooges. She's never actually watched The Three Stooges so I'm seeing her Daddy's influence here.

Fantasy World

    So I am on day two of hiding out in the house from the heat. Next week is supposed to be cooler and we have a lot of outings planned so I'm not too worried about our lost two days. I'm not sure if other homeschooling parents find themselves getting sucked into the "I haven't showered in two days and the house looks like a tornado went through it" vortex. I am fully ensconced. I felt pretty good that I changed my shirt last night. When I first decided to homeschool, I had a lovely vision of us showered, dressed, sitting in a perfect house, working on activities that stayed perfectly contained, and experiencing non-stop learning. Umm, the reality is that it would only look like that if Good Morning America was here filming....and no learning would have existed during the entire time it would take me to actually get it to that point. Instead, my house is a disaster about 60% of the time (some weeks the percentage is much higher!) and I often can't remember the last time I gave her a bath.
    As far as the learning, today we worked on her Highlights magazine which is always fun. We then moved on to a workbook and she did quite a bit of writing, matching, and sequencing. Molly has days, luckily not too often, where she pretends to not know something. Today it was what letter comes after E. She knows the answer and had the alphabet spelled out in front of her. It takes an inordinate amount of time to get her to answer which then takes us away from all of the other things we would rather be doing. I know she is testing boundaries and that if I let her get away with it she would lose all respect for me and herself. We got through it, but it takes so much of the wind out of my sails. It makes me question if I am doing the right thing. Am I pushing too hard, am I not pushing hard enough? She always seems so happy afterwards and seems to make a huge leap following one of these episodes that it makes me think that it's just a test to see what I will accept. We ended up doing a fun CD-ROM game on the computer that allowed us to incorporate adding and subtracting into our day. There was a lot of art today and a bit of chocolate ice cream which is a very rare treat....so rare, in fact, that I spent quite a bit of time scraping off the freezer burn on top. She is signed up for swimming lessons that start next week (her first ever!) and she and I are joining our fancy, park district health club. Slowly but surely we are finding our way through this new territory. Will my initial fantasy ever come true? I hope not:)

Wonder Works

    Yesterday we had a fun field trip with one of our parent's groups,  my sister-in-law, and nephew, Drew. We went to a kids museum in Oak Park. It was pretty small so I wasn't convinced it would keep the attention of the kids for long, but they were entertained for hours! The highlight was a stage with sliding scenery and an area for a "director" to control lighting and music. It even had a tv screen built in so you could see the kids performing (and I use that term loosely! It was more like fighting, and running around, and yelling...) on screen. Very clever idea!  The kids loved the costumes and prepping to put a show on.  There was also a huge treehouse area that was decorated to look like a willow tree. Very cool! We will definitely go back again.
    Today was a lost day. We stayed home and watched way too much tv. I was happy that it was the Scholastic videos based on books and other semi-educational shows without any commercials. It also sparked her to go sit in her room and pull out all of the Kevin Henkes books she owns and read to herself. We made homemade chicken soup, played a game, read, and tried our best to stay out of the oppressive heat and humidity. I'm so ready for summer to be over. Hopefully tomorrow we will have the energy to actually function. We homeschool year round so I try not to be hard on myself when we have a lazy day. I know that we will make it up on one of her power-learning days.

Passing it on...

     I had a huge power point presentation due tonight which made for a stressful day today. I did manage to take some time to work with Molly on school, despite my deadline. It turned out to be one of the more life-changing homeschooling moments for me. I needed her to work on her writing, but she is planning a huge art show and was having trouble focusing. We incorporated her art show with her writing.  She made signs and then drew a corresponding picture. She wrote the word "zipper" and then drew a picture of a rather huge zipper. She taped them all to my dining room wall. It was great fun and it was the first time that I could understand how homeschoolers incorporate what their kids were interested in with their school work. I used to try to force it thinking that maybe I was just doing it wrong or not trying hard enough. I did not see how naturally it happens!

     I then got out a small pitcher, a 2-cup measuring cup, and different size glasses. I had her pouring, measuring, estimating, and playing with the different musical notes the glasses made as we adjusted the water. The look on her face when she realized that two very different sized glasses held the same amount of water was priceless. There is not much that she cannot figure out so stumping her was a big deal! Water was everywhere! I had to excuse myself at one point and go text my husband about the mess rather than say it to Molly. It cleaned up in a moment and was only water, after all. With all of the stress my learning team's assignment was causing, stopping to enjoy some positive schooling with Molly was absolutely the brightest point in my day. Finally finding out what all those parents mean by incorporating what the child is working on with school work is a huge gift!! I had to pass it on:)

The Beginning

      I had 28 years of childcare experience before my daughter was born. I knew what to expect and how to handle most situations that would arise. I was not prepared, however, for a child who rarely cried, was exceptionally well-behaved, and seemed far older than her age. We knew by the time she was two-years-old that she would have a difficult time in school. Her Grandma had been a first grade teacher for thirty six years and would say, "I do that with my first graders" about whatever Molly was doing at the time. First grade was a very distant 4 years away...what would she be doing then?!
     We decided to try preschool when Molly was three. I dropped her off and she was excited to get to experience school. When I picked her up she told me, "I let them teach me how to put my coat on" in a rather dejected voice. It was not the challenge she was hoping for. Every time I took her, she happily went in but came out frustrated each time. She would tell me, "The teachers don't know about authors" (yes they do, they just don't think you should). She was hoping to get into a lively conversation about the illustrator and what other books he worked on. Instead she was told to sit down and be quiet. Three weeks into her class and she still was not allowed to hold her little pitcher to pour water even though she bakes with me almost daily and can pour quite well. She would come home from school and cry for two hours because she was so frustrated. This is a child who rarely cried so it was very hard to witness.
     My husband finally said to me one day, "Go get her out of there!" so I picked her up and took her for ice cream. I looked at her as she was devouring her mint chip ice cream and said, "You never have to go back." It was one of the greatest, and most frightening, moments in my life. Now I am solely responsible for making sure that she learns everything she needs to learn. I cannot express how exhausting her desire to take in everything in the world is. She often wakes up in the morning with an agenda like, "I need to know what the inside of a bee looks like." In one sitting she may tell me that she needs to know how to knit, needs to learn Spanish, sign language, ballet, and the violin. It makes it quite daunting to facilitate learning for a child like Molly. What if I choose the wrong ones to focus on? What if I am not challenging her enough? How will we fit it all in? How will we afford it all? I decided that my husband and I are her best bet. We want nothing more than for her to have the best foundation and have only her best interest at heart. I figured that I would find resources and support to help me. I would just take it one day at a time and see how it goes. That was in October of 2010. This blog is a loose account of what happens after that point.