Monday, November 18, 2013
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Good Day Thanks to Broken Glasses
I was sad that we didn't get to visit the Botanical Gardens while my parents were here. When Allie's glasses broke a week ago requiring us to go into DC to Ft. Myer to fix them, we seized the opportunity to make it a day trip to sight see.
The mums were beautiful!
I bet this 1000 chrysanthemum display is gorgeous now that it's had another week or so to fully open.
The Botanical Gardens is on the end of the National Mall near the Capital. We didn't go in it, but we did pose for a picture out front ;).
I love all the birds hanging out on top of Grant's statue.
I've developed a love of sculpture gardens. This one was outside the Hirshon Museum. There's another garden next to the Natural History Museum, but we were to tired to visit it on this day. Next time.
The kids also seem to really enjoy looking at the sculptures. They do, however, have issues with all the naked people :o.
And last but not least, we finished up our afternoon at the Natural History museum.
I'm glad Dan was able to take off a Saturday to have fun with us. It's exactly what we needed!!!
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Friday, November 1, 2013
Randomness
Dan worked last weekend and I had to get out of the house with the kids. We went to Leesylvania State Park to collect fall leaves for a leaf man project. It was chilly and super windy, but we had a wonderful time. The park is really pretty. We'll have to go back. There were miles of hiking trails.
The kids volunteered to pose for this shot. It's not quite as cute was when they were 2, 3, and 4, but still sweet.
I don't think I ever shared this picture. My mom is clumsy and tends to trip and fall when walking in a straight line on smooth surfaces. We have a step down into our living room, and I was worried about her falling. Jaelyn made a sign to hang from the ceiling at eye level, and I left a message on the floor in painter's tape. It worked because she always watched her step.
Today is day 44 of homeschooling and officially the end of the 1st quarter. I am so glad to be 1/4 of the way through. It has been rough and tough, but we've done it.
Friday, October 25, 2013
The Grandparents Are Gone
My parents left yesterday morning {Insert pause and long, sad sigh}. We actually didn't do a lot. DC was closed the weekend they got ... (I sat down to blog on Wednesday - that's as far as I got. The story of my life these days.)
Anyway, to back up, we spent most of our time hanging out at the house and a little bit of time shopping. Okay, a lot bit. My mom has been looking forward to the shopper's paradise we live in. It was so good to have someone here visiting. Our household feels very stressful all the time. Part of it is the drama that engulfs school every morning and part is me just not having the time (or the energy) to get things done like I like to. I felt like I could slow down and breathe for the first time in a while. I cut back Jaelyn's school work to the big 3 (reading, writing and arithmetic). My mom helped with school leaving me free to get some house work done. I even cooked real meals since I had people other than kids who are happy with chicken nuggets or scrambled eggs to feed. Dan even gave up his free day (which isn't really free. He has no class, but he still spends 12-16 hours at school doing work) to see a movie with me. It was a good visit.
On the school front, moving and kids is just hard. Caden has been saying he doesn't like school. I've talked to his teacher. She says he's doing fine with his work and seems to have friends. We just don't have the good friends that only time can bring. Allie also seems to be struggling. Hers is school related. I've seen more Ds and Fs than I care to admit (although her averages are As and Bs, I don't get it). I was so involved at her last school, but I don't know anyone at this one. It's hard to feel like I'm on the outside here. I keep telling myself "it's only a year, it's only a year, it's only a year."
I keep telling myself that with Jaelyn too. I am all over the map with her. On bad days, I want to send her to school and never ever ever consider homeschooling again. On good days, I want to bring Allie and Caden home and teach them all. I'm insane, I know that. This week has been a really good homeschooling week. I think last week's break and different teacher helped us both. She's been calm and polite. It's been a real joy to work with her. And she's learning. One night, while reading, she pointed out a word that didn't end in -ly (an easy give away) and said "that's an adverb." We spent 3 days on adverbs....it finally sunk in :). Last night, she said something with "either/or" in it and said "hey, either/or are conjunctions" (yesterday's lesson). It's these little nuggets that I need to hold on to.
In order to make our day more peaceful, I'm continuing to tweak our schedule and try different things. I've been cramming a lot into each week. I'm backing off. I've decided to only do social studies or science, not both in each week. We've also gone to a very structured day. If it were me, I'd start with the hardest subjects and move to the easiest and get my work done, boom, boom boom, but that's not Jaelyn. She needs a written schedule (Spelling 9:40, Reading 10:15, snack 11:00) and she sticks to it exactly. If she finishes one subject with 7 minutes left, she plays for 7 minutes instead of starting on her next subject and I am learning to be okay with that. She's already asking me to homeschool her next year. She is adamant that she doesn't want to go back to school. We shall see.
Anyway, to back up, we spent most of our time hanging out at the house and a little bit of time shopping. Okay, a lot bit. My mom has been looking forward to the shopper's paradise we live in. It was so good to have someone here visiting. Our household feels very stressful all the time. Part of it is the drama that engulfs school every morning and part is me just not having the time (or the energy) to get things done like I like to. I felt like I could slow down and breathe for the first time in a while. I cut back Jaelyn's school work to the big 3 (reading, writing and arithmetic). My mom helped with school leaving me free to get some house work done. I even cooked real meals since I had people other than kids who are happy with chicken nuggets or scrambled eggs to feed. Dan even gave up his free day (which isn't really free. He has no class, but he still spends 12-16 hours at school doing work) to see a movie with me. It was a good visit.
On the school front, moving and kids is just hard. Caden has been saying he doesn't like school. I've talked to his teacher. She says he's doing fine with his work and seems to have friends. We just don't have the good friends that only time can bring. Allie also seems to be struggling. Hers is school related. I've seen more Ds and Fs than I care to admit (although her averages are As and Bs, I don't get it). I was so involved at her last school, but I don't know anyone at this one. It's hard to feel like I'm on the outside here. I keep telling myself "it's only a year, it's only a year, it's only a year."
I keep telling myself that with Jaelyn too. I am all over the map with her. On bad days, I want to send her to school and never ever ever consider homeschooling again. On good days, I want to bring Allie and Caden home and teach them all. I'm insane, I know that. This week has been a really good homeschooling week. I think last week's break and different teacher helped us both. She's been calm and polite. It's been a real joy to work with her. And she's learning. One night, while reading, she pointed out a word that didn't end in -ly (an easy give away) and said "that's an adverb." We spent 3 days on adverbs....it finally sunk in :). Last night, she said something with "either/or" in it and said "hey, either/or are conjunctions" (yesterday's lesson). It's these little nuggets that I need to hold on to.
In order to make our day more peaceful, I'm continuing to tweak our schedule and try different things. I've been cramming a lot into each week. I'm backing off. I've decided to only do social studies or science, not both in each week. We've also gone to a very structured day. If it were me, I'd start with the hardest subjects and move to the easiest and get my work done, boom, boom boom, but that's not Jaelyn. She needs a written schedule (Spelling 9:40, Reading 10:15, snack 11:00) and she sticks to it exactly. If she finishes one subject with 7 minutes left, she plays for 7 minutes instead of starting on her next subject and I am learning to be okay with that. She's already asking me to homeschool her next year. She is adamant that she doesn't want to go back to school. We shall see.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
The Grandparents are Here
My parents came last week for a visit. It's so good to have them here. We don't get to see family enough. Travelling home is hard with school in general, but this year, it's going to be especially tough. I'm not sure when we'll get to go home next. Anyway, we haven't done too much with Jaelyn home during the day. I did plan an easier school week so we could get out a little and do some shopping. It's just really nice to have extra people here. I half joke that it feels like Dan is deployed only I have to do his laundry and we don't get family separation pay. He's never had a job that kept him at work from early morning to late, late evening six to seven days a week before. I know he's exhausted, but he's doing great. He's gotten As on all of his papers and assignments so far. His first quarter is wrapping up. 3 more and ILE to go...keep praying, because I think it's only going to get worse.
I haven't had my camera out much this week, but I did take it when we fed the fish one afternoon. I love that this bridge and the lake is literally 100 footsteps from my back gate.
I haven't had my camera out much this week, but I did take it when we fed the fish one afternoon. I love that this bridge and the lake is literally 100 footsteps from my back gate.
My mom dropped the bread bag in the lake...oh, Mom! And I can't believe I'm sharing this picture, but it is kind of funny.
90 Degrees of Fall
It's October so it's fall, right? That means cooler days and hot chocolate in the evenings, right? Wrong! Dan had a free Saturday a few weeks ago; so we took advantage. I'm learning I have to pack fun into his free time or there will be no fun this year. Anyway, we googled Corn Mazes and settled on a visit to Cox Farm which had a little festival with it's corn maze. The kids had fun before we'd even bought the tickets.
It was a hot, miserable day. I don't know how the kids managed to play, but play, they did!
They had these little scenes set up everywhere. Jaelyn loved the Wizard of Oz scene since we had just finished reading the book.
The corn maze was at least taller than last year (remember those pictures, waist high and thin), but they should have been honest and called it a corn path. It wasn't a maze. You went in the in, followed the fenced path, and came out the out. That was a disappointment.
At least they had fun pit-stops along the path. This spinning drum was the coolest illusion. I felt like we were flipping upside down and kept hold of one of the hand rails so I wouldn't fall off. The walkway, of course, wasn't moving at all. I must have looked really stupid. LOL.
There were also all kind of statues. This one was my personal favorite.
Pull!
Who can help? Is this lavender? It sure was pretty.
The hay ride was bumpy and hot. I bet it's really fun now that it's getting into the 50s and 60s and people are wearing pants. Hay itches!
While it was a fun day and I'm glad we got out and did something, it wasn't exactly the best fall, cool weather festival. I'm hoping we can find another weekend and a real corn maze to race through soon.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Schooling Byrd
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I had a lot of issues with adding emails for Jaelyn's blog. For now, it's open for anyone who follows the link. At some point in the future, I might have to make it invitation only...we'll see. I'm sure she'd love to hear comments :).
Here's the link:
There's also a link in the right hand corner of my sidebar.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Another Day in the City
Today was Potted Potter...a 70 minute parody on all 7 Harry Potter books. I can describe it in one word - hilarious. It was ridiculously expensive, but worth every penny. The kids will be talking about it for months and hopefully years to come.
We got to DC early; so we went in the National Portrait Gallery. Some of the modern art was out there and the older art work had way too many naked people in it, but it was enjoyable to walk through. The kids tried to give us several heart attacks by repeatedly pointing with their fingers inches from the art work. Next time we are in the area, we'll have to go to the outdoor sculpture garden. We passed it and I think we'd enjoy wandering through it. Bring your walking shoes, mom and dad. We have the botanical gardens and smithsonian castle on our list of things to do when you are here!!!
Sent from my iPhone
We got to DC early; so we went in the National Portrait Gallery. Some of the modern art was out there and the older art work had way too many naked people in it, but it was enjoyable to walk through. The kids tried to give us several heart attacks by repeatedly pointing with their fingers inches from the art work. Next time we are in the area, we'll have to go to the outdoor sculpture garden. We passed it and I think we'd enjoy wandering through it. Bring your walking shoes, mom and dad. We have the botanical gardens and smithsonian castle on our list of things to do when you are here!!!
Sent from my iPhone
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