Homeschool

The number one question I am asked when people find out I homeschool is: "What about socialization?" My answer, unfortunately, does not always match my opinion on this matter. My answer would normally be something like, "Oh, we are members of a homeschool association, and participate in field trips, holiday gatherings, park days, etc. Not to mention ballet, scouts, blah, blah, blah." 

I should be honest with people. "Socialization" is not synonymous with "social skills." Learning to interact with others of all ages is a primary reason I do homeschool. There is no reason they can't learn that at home. A room full of 8 year olds won't really teach my son good social skills. We have a long way to go, if you ask me... and I can pinpoint most of the problems to lack of guidance early on. That's on me. :( But in spite of my shortcomings, God gave these precious little ones to me and it's up to me to see to it that they act in a way that's pleasing to Him. "Train up a child..." means what it says. You can't tell them and not follow through. That's not training. It is my prayer that we can do this and love doing it! 

My heart has been heavy lately, as the kids have been at odds with each other. I feel downright exhausted when I "attempt" to spend good quality time with them. I know that Satan is so happy when this occurs. Mom is too tired for me. How sad. So knowing where the battle lies, I am equipped, and he has not won! :) Any prayers for me in that area are much appreciated!

As for what they are learning academically, I am very satisfied with that. We may not do hours of work, but what they know is astounding to me at times. Korbin, although is technically "3rd grade" is learning math in a very wonderful way. He has learned addition & subtraction. YET... he is learning precept upon precept. The foundations are there for multiplication and algebra. For example: pretend the parenthesis are a circle. A coin, if you will. He understands that 3(10)+6(5)+7(1)=67  3 dimes, 6 nickles, and 7 pennies is 67 cents.  But he doesn't just count the coins, he knows the formula because he understands the why. That was on his unit test this morning. He's been reading since he was 5, loves to read, although not necessarily out loud... and has pretty neat handwriting when he does his manuscript assignments. If it were up to him, we might actually do more school that we currently do, but all in due time. Kailyn, on the other hand, is fully capable of her work, but is quite resistant to do anything other than play. I'm pleased with her math progress. She is really coming a long way in reading and writing as well. It can be hard, at times, to get started with her work on any given day, but once she is going, she does great.

Even Lacey is learning. She dabbles in reading... the book I have to teach is so wonderful. She isn't there yet, but when the time is right I feel confident I'll recognize it. She has known her colors for awhile now, and we are working on counting. Musically she is quite gifted. She amazes me with her recollection of songs she has barely heard. (All the more reason to monitor what goes in.) She loves to help with cooking and cleaning. That's something I wish I had learned early on! (Jeff would agree wholeheartedly with that statement!!)

Medals and Babysteps

Back in February Kailyn saved Lacey from drowning in the koi pond in our front yard. Had it not been for her quick thinking and fast action, Lacey would not be with us today. I'm very proud of her! Because of her heroic actions that day, she was awarded the Girl Scout Medal of Honor. It is awarded to Girl Scouts who go above their expected maturity level and save a life without endangering their own. It is a rare award, and can be worn on any Girl Scout uniform she ever wears. It brought tears to my eyes to read the letter from Girl Scouts of America congratulating Kailyn for being a hero.

Maddox is almost walking. On Monday he took one step and then fell down. He enjoys walking while holding to hands. That's really later than anyone else... he never was really into that. I'm not in any big hurry to see him walk. So far Kailyn was the latest walker, her first stroll across the room being on her 1st birthday. All in good time. 

The thing where I took the girls' clothes away is working out great. Laundry is not all-consuming, one outfit almost always gets worn all day long, and if Lacey's clothes do come off, they are easy to track and take care of (for her, that is.) Kailyn is at an age of modesty, and so her clothes remain in one place. :) With about one week of doing so well with that, I have now gone back to the Flylady website and printed off 3 routines to start working on getting in the habit of following. They are: evening (before bed), morning, and afternoon. They are pretty straight-forward, and I've posted one copy on the fridge and one on my bathroom mirror in my favorite font. As flylady would say, "Babysteps!"

Fall stuff

Two princesses, a knight and "Mutt" from Indiana Jones. They were just so cute! I did have fun with the decorating. We have so much candy. I think we have gotten more in years past, but the amount was perfect... enough that they were excited about it and I won't throw most of it away after a few days. 
After the decorations came down, I made a wreath out of things I already had. Go me! We have been really budget-conscious lately. It has been really pressing on me the way I spend money. It's a little here, a little there, until it gets out of control. I reason that a $2 thing won't break the budget, maybe $7, and before I know it, there goes $100! (Or more.) Anyway, I promised Harby I'd post a photo of the wreath I made. It came about because first of all, I've had the Southern Living door bucket on my door -  empty for months. It has bothered me, but I don't have anything to fill it with. So I took it down for Halloween, and wanted to replace the Halloween thing with something for the Fall. My neighbor had such a cute one. I mentioned to Jeff I "needed" one. He said, "Take hers." (That is so Jeff.) The neighbor said, "You can get one for like $5 at such-and-such store." But I knew I shouldn't, so I made one that night from things I had used in the past. Why didn't I do it sooner?? I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out! I think I got the pieces from like 4 different projects.

The past couple of days I have been doing some "not spring" cleaning. Since I pulled out winter clothes (for Jeff and me) I realized I don't have enough hangers. So I have decided to change the way I do some things. I folded my sweaters. Probably better anyway. I also took all the girls clothes away from them. They constantly have their clean clothes mixed with dirty and almost dirty clothes all over the floor of the bathroom, closet, bedroom and hall. It makes for tons of laundry, so I confiscated the clothing, put them in one of Maddox's closets, then took the hanging canvas cubbies and laid out clothes for the week in Maddox's other closet. So now I choose the clothes and give them clothes for one day at a time. My hope is to train them how to care for their clothes and gradually return responsibilities to them. I have been completely supervising/managing bath time for the last few nights, and that is working well. They have a clean bathroom for the first time since we've lived here. Not just once, but all the time! It's amazing how much more time I have when I invest in supervising certain activities. You live an learn. So without access to a plethora of clothing, the girls actually wear the same thing all day. If it gets a little wet, they wear it anyway. It also helps that I am using plastic bibs on the babies, as their clothes stay clean during meals. Imagine a bib doing that. Seriously... you'd think I'd be smarter than that. So we've been establishing baby-steps to routines. 

This photo was taken a few days ago when we went to Katy for a Tae Kwon Do tournament. This is probably one of the last times the older kids will fit into one of these things. Maddox is almost as big as Lacey!

I voted!

I had been putting it off, but I went ahead and voted on the last day of early voting! When I got to the community center, the line was from the community center all the way past the doors to the library. (It was very long!) So the first thing we did was to clean out the car! That mess was driving me crazy. How does that happen?? I think it stems from getting 4 kids into the house and trying not to let Lacey out of my sight long enough to run into the road. I digress... Next we HAD to go to the library and get some books. Afterward, we just got in line and waited. I have no idea how long we were in line. The older 2 just read. Kailyn read out loud to me, and Korbin would show me things here and there from his book. Lacey fell asleep in the library and didn't wake up until we reached the car. Maddox was a happy baby until he fell asleep for quite some time and then woke up scared as we were voting. (I let the kids push the buttons, and had left the stroller a few feet away since we were in a crowded room.)

 The first thing I noticed about this picture is that the boys and girls seem to match. Actually, that wasn't planned. Too funny. I am so glad it went so well. I'm sure it won't always be like that, but every now and then when things go so smoothly, I feel really great about it.

We had a fun Halloween. We didn't do all we had planned, but it turned out simple and that was okay. I had prepared 60 bags of candy. (Small individual bags for trick-or-treaters) We have 6 left over. I'm sure we would have zero if we had not turned out the lights just after 9 o'clock. There were people out late. We got tons of comments on our decorations. I was kinda proud of that. Now to tell the truth...I really hate halloween. I don't like scary things one bit. When the kids pick costumes I don't let them get scary stuff. (Dad is there to balance me out, though.) If I had it my way, they would all be themed, but I don't want Korbin to be embarrassed. So I let them choose. I usually don't decorate, and the decor we have is from my mother-in-law since I'm just too boring to buy anything scary. This year the kids talked me into the spider web stuff. So I stretched it out over our koi pond. Then I changed the lights inside it to red. There were lit skulls lighting the path to the door, and webbing and a spider on the door. Maybe next year we'll add a strobe.

We got to trick-or-treat with some neighbors, and our old neighbors came to trick-or-treat with us too! Becky took a cute picture of the girls all together. 2 cave-girls and 2 princesses. They were so precious! I love that the girls always want to match. I remember never wanting the same thing as my sister. I guess we were just too close in age. But Hannah and Audrey are the same way as far as costumes go... they always match too!