Wordless Wednesday

Ready or not...

My baby is going to grow up. Sigh...

And there's not a whole lot I can do about it, huh?

The removal of the tooth was kinda funny. It had been loose for weeks. But we don't pull them around here, on advice from the dentist. We just let them come out naturally.

Well... two kids on a trampoline playing tag sort of negated all of that this evening after supper. She comes in with eyes as big as saucers, and then she starts crying because she "wasn't ready". And then Tooter starts crying because he didn't mean to bump into her and make her tooth fall out. (And he probably thought he was in trouble, since he really doesn't understand the baby tooth/adult tooth thing!) And I ask him why he's crying and he cries even louder saying "I don't know!". (lol...) Bless both their hearts. After Jmk gave her the we-all-did-it-wet paper towel for her to bite up against the hole, and the bleeding ceased, she was fine and only slightly weirded out.

Anyway, the lisp is super cute, and I guess she's going to get more grown up teeth, now, huh? Sigh Again. It's just.... it's adult teeth. And I know that it's going to take away from the baby'ness of her face, because it's on top. And, just,.... pffllbbttt. Blugh blugh blugh. I better get my stuff together and start being happy in front of her about the tooth thing so she can be excited without me sucking all the fun out of the room! :-)

Oh No She DIDN'T

Sister girl got caught trying to stand up whilst I was transferring clothes from the washer to the dryer this morning.  Good gravy!

Seven Months

Happy Seven Months my sweet baby!!!

Let's see... what wondermous things have you been up to in the past month.  Well, I guess the big thing is that you have started trying "real" baby food.  Rice cereal was easy, of course, as was applesauce.  (Although your crazy mommy forgot and did applesauce first instead of rice cereal.)  At first you weren't crazy about sweet potatoes or squash.  (Oddly enough, yellow squash was a total fail!)  Although just yesterday (your actual 7 month birthday), you ate almost a whole cube of sweet potatoes without grimacing.  I guess your MooMoo was right.  I just needed to back off of everything but applesauce until you were ready!  And, I'm making your baby food like I did with Poodle and Tooter.  It's been fun reminiscing about those early baby food days with them.

You've started "talking"!  All kinds of babbling.  Dah-dah-dah-dah's all over the place.  Lot's of ba-ba-ba-ba's.  And you make this sweet, funny gargling sound.  We get that one a lot when you're super tired and you are trying to be in a good mood.  It's sort of the warning shot for us.  We know we've got about 5-10 minutes after you start making that noise before you begin the meltdown into being over-tired.

You are sitting up like a champ now!  You've already been rolling over and over everywhere, so the sitting up is a cool new trick for you.  You haven't tried to truly crawl yet.  But you will occasionally push yourself backwards when you're on your tummy.  Ha!

I do believe you are pretty close to cutting those first two bottom teeth.  You are definitely uncomfortable at times, and late afternoon/early evening (when you're tired) is the hardest time for you.  We're doing all the regular things to help you, but experience reminds us that the only real fix is having the teeth actually come in.  And they will.  Teething is such a short time comparatively.

You still light up like a lightning bug when Daddy gets home from work.  Your eyes actually get more sparkly when you see him.

You still think driving in the dark is the equivalent of having your fingernails pulled out, apparently.  Do NOT care for it at all.  But, in your usual sweet-tempered manner, you can almost always be consoled if Mommy sits in the back with you.  It's when I can't be back there that driving home when it's dark outside is super hard to do.

Your naps are getting more of a pattern to them, but there are still days that they can be super short and somewhat varied.  You are still pretty understanding when your naps get interrupted by life, and I'm so grateful to have your easy-going attitude.  I just hope I can remember to give you the grace and mercy you give me when I have prevented you from sleeping because of others' schedules.

Oh, my sweet heart.  Have I told you how good you smell when you get out of the bathtub?  And how glorious your smile is in the morning?  And how lucky you are to have a brother and sister who love you so, so much?  Have I told you how you melt your MooMoo's heart into a puddle, and how you make your GaGa laugh with joy?  How you smile so big when PopPop grins at you?  And how you love getting all your kisses from SueSue?

You are our lovebug, Lollypop!!!  Happy Seven Months!!!

If you have a problem with the video, let me know!

6 Month photo session for Lollypop

Yes - I took these!  Noooo - I'm not trying to get a photography business started.  (Wait.  That WAS going to be your next question, right?  You were thinking that these were such brilliant photos that surely I was about to hang up a shingle and snap pics for moolah, huh?  Weren't you?  Huh?)

The Money Shot

What good is doing your own portraits if you can't get one of your baby giggling, I ask you?

Ah, my love.  :-)

Yes, a baby in a tutu.  Yes, it's been done.  I know.

But it's a tutu, people!  I mean...  it's so cute!

Okay.  Now, normally, I'm really not the biggest fan of the over-propped portraits.  Like this one.

But I had to do it.  I don't know what came over me!  I just had to make a little flower garden out of my little flower.

Anybody hungry?  Delicious fat baby legs right here!

More squishy deliciousness.

And a few more of these photos will be uploaded to Kodak later for family who might want to order some.  Or just to look at all of them.  I've put the best ones here, though.  Except for the one of her monogrammed tushy!

How's It Going - RRR

How's homeschooling going? What is Poodle actually doing in school?

A lot of times, this is the question people want to know. Does she do what others her age are doing in "regular" school?

(Side Bar: from time to time, you may catch me saying "outside" school, instead of "regular" school. I got that phraseology from my church friend, Karen, who used that with her kids when they were younger. I didn't want to say normal school or regular school to Poodle, because who wants to think that their education is somehow odd or not normal, you know?)

Back to the original question - I can tell you what she's doing, but I can't tell you if it's the same thing as what she would get at ABC Elementary School. I mean, I know she's not doing what she would be doing if she were in the regular school system, because she would have been in Kindergarten this year due to her late birthday. And, obviously, she's doing work that is past the Kindergarten level. But is she doing full on first grade work? That's what I don't really know. Because I don't know what qualifies as first grade work!

We read a Bible story every day. We read a poem every day. (Currently reading from A.A. Milne's When We Were Very Young). Our history involves reading good living books. We're currently reading Pocahontas by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire. But I'm beginning to see that history, at this age, needs to really be more of a broad stroke of a subject. I think I've spent too much of this year thinking we needed to be more detailed than we were being. And spent too much time stressing about it, as usual!

Geography is also being handled by a living book. Paddle-To-The-Sea by Holling C. Holling. Science is supposed to be handled by Nature Study right now. Here is where I'm lacking, because I have not been getting her out every week with Nature Study as our focus. The weather and the baby have thrown us for a loop there. While I totally agree with the Charlotte Mason approach to learning about the scientific/natural world through this method when the children are young, I have decided that we also need some actual science books to help jumpstart us (read: jumpstart me). I'm looking into Apologia, but I need to know that they will pass the "living books" test well enough to go along with what we already do.

We do Math every day (here's a pic of the test that she had today, so that gives you an idea of what she's doing for math). She practices handwriting every day. She reads aloud to me every day. (We're currently reading a Junie B. Jones book, but the cutsie, and incorrect, 5-year-old grammar in it is driving me crazy).

Yeah, she actually missed #14. I graded that in a big hurry with a sleepy, fussy baby in my arms. Whoops! She figured out the correct answer quickly once I caught this.

Is she doing first grade work? Again, I have no idea. I think that she's probably average with her spelling and average with her word recognition as she reads aloud, but I genuinely am not sure. I know her comprehension is good, because she narrates to me when I read to her. (Not every time, but we do at least one narration a day so that she gets practice with not just comprehension but also with communicating that comprehension).

There is a very active part of me that wants to KNOW that she is on par with her first grade counterparts. Via some sort of test or evaluation or something-or-other. But, that's one of those hang-ups that I try to not to indulge. I will likely have her take the the Stanford Achievement Test eventually, just to satisfy my and Jmk's curiosity. In a year or two. Maybe. (Nothing like having a solid plan, eh?)

This is genuinely one of the harder things for me about a home education. Except for Math, nothing else can really be "graded" in the traditional sense. Add to that, the general course of curriculum that I use with her tends to not have a lot of worksheet "busy work" that might otherwise give me something concrete to hold in my hands. Plus, again, I don't have someone else telling me how she's doing. I have to trust that I'm doing the right things with her.

It's a pickle. And I know that I've only sort of answered that original question. Hey - if you're a first grade teacher and want to come to my house and reassure me that she's just doing swimmingly, come on ov-ah! :-)

Lasternight

This is more for Jmk and me; this is one of Tooter's "Tooterisms" he has developed lately.  Every time he and I bring it up to each other, we never can remember if it's "lasterday" or "lasternight".

He just said it, and I knew I had to get it down quickly before I up and forgot it again!

How's It Going - Oh, baby!

"So, how's Homeschooling going?  How are you handling having a new baby?"

Hold on...  I just need to answer this one other question about how long a piece of string is...  one sec....
okay.  Done.

Now, how are handling it with a new baby?  Yeah, you probably see where I'm going with this one.  There are countless blog entries, website suggestions, probably even books with information about how to handle a home education situation when you have a newborn and/or smaller children.  Which goes to show that there is genuinely no one-size-fits-all solution to the challenges.

For example, today, since Lollypop woke up early when the other kids did, she's still playing.  And, within the next 30 minutes or so (from this minute that I'm typing this - it may not get finished and posted for awhile!), she'll likely want to go down for a nap.  That's when Poodle and I will get started on our lessons. Whether or not we get to finish "in peace" depends on:
~~how long Lollypop sleeps
~~how interested Tooter is in being a part of it
~~how quickly I can get Poodle to quit playing Alice in Wonderland and focus
~~whether or not we find ourselves chasing a rabbit trail because of something we read

And that's just today.  Everyone is in a pretty decent mood today.  There are days when one or more of us are tired and/or cranky.  There are days when I'm trying to read to Poodle while Lollypop fidgets on my lap and Tooter crashes his dinosaurs into each other; my brain is so full of distraction and noise that I quite literally feel my blood pressure rising as I sit.  Then there are days where Lollypop will take a brilliant two hour nap and Poodle and I get everything finished while Tooter quietly does his "lessons" at the same time.  (He likes to practice drawing letters on a dry-erase booklet that I found at Walmart.  He is SO not doing real "school stuff").

There are days where I get half-way through with things, realize that Poodle and I are totally at odds with each other, and I just stop.  Just plain stop.

You can see that every day is different and has its own "routine".  That original question up top there gets a different answer every day.

I'm one of those people who actually finds database entry a calming thing.  Seriously.  I like predictability and the status quo.  (Maybe not ALL the time, but I do find comfort in the same ole-same ole).  So, having to approach each day with a "here's what we have to do, but I don't have a actual method to complete it, because I don't know exactly what the day will bring" mentality is really hard for me.  Some folks bloom in that environment.  Me - I'm having to learn about flexibility and creativity.  I'm not that great at it, that's for sure!  And, it's probably a cause of stress for me that I don't quickly realize at times.  Eh - who knows.

It's a trade-off.  I'm not having to get kids dressed, fed, and out the door to the school bus by 7:15am.  (I think that's when the elementary kids get picked up around here.  It may be earlier).  That, just like what we do, takes flexibility and creativity also!

Yeah, things are crazy over here most of the time.  How do we handle it with the new baby?  We just go with the crazy flow and try not to drown!

How's It Going - Friends

A couple of months ago, I was asked by an acquaintence, "So, how's homeschooling going?"

Hmmm.

This person meant nothing more than the very question she was asking.  She wasn't trying to express her opinion.  She simply wanted to know how it was going.  How nice!  So what was my answer?

"Good!"  And it was said with a big smile.

Because deep down, I knew she was actually seeking someThing, but I doubt she knew any more than I did what that elusive information was.  Most people who ask me that question these days really would rather say "So, how's homeschooling going?  How are you handling _______?"  And it's that blank line that they actually want filled with a response.  But everyone wants to know something different.

So, because I'm sure you are all spending your very busy days thinking about ME and MY family, I will offer some thoughts on how homeschooling is actually going in certain areas.  Thoughts, feelings, new ideas, etc.  That sort of thing.  I'm not going to promise anything on a regular schedule - just as "things" come to me.

Today's thoughts are trending towards the social aspect of homeschooling.  I was discussing this very thing with the editor of our county newspaper after our Junior Miss program for which I still do Production.  He was plainly confused as to why I, someone who genuinely enjoyed "regular" school when I was in it and who lives in such a good public school district with top-notch teachers from kindergarten all the way through high school, would be homeschooling my kids for now.  He was quite disturbed that HS'd kids would miss out on the necessary social interactions that help them learn how to be people-in-the-world.  I mean, homeschoolers never get out of the house except to go to church.

:-)  I know.  Believe me, I thought the same thing barely 3 years ago.  Since that time, I have had discussions with Jmk about how hard it is to NOT do some of the school activities that are available, because I feel like we ought to do everything.  But it's hard to get lessons done when we're always on the go.  Besides, getting the baby and the 4yo boy out and occupied while the eldest does her thing....  and blah blah blah...  Point being - there's all kinds of "social" going on.  Seriously, you'd be surprised how busy HS support groups are these days!  And, it's a blessing.  It really is.

And, yes, these kids also get "playground politics" time as well.  Poodle even has her very own BFF who I just adore (and whose mom has become a precious friend as well).  But these playground politics are what were on my mind when I was talking with the aforementioned newspaper editor.

We'll set playdates at playgrounds.  And the kids will run amok and do the things that kids do.  They will argue and play and invent and get sad and jump for joy and get hurt feelings and sometimes get mean and often make new friends.  They will learn to navigate the in's and out's of social interaction the same way all children do.  However, the biggest difference is...

...we have to watch most of it happen.

Now, when our dear, precious offspring are playing nicely and being sweet and acting in a way that would make a White Gloves and Party Manners instructor smile in approval, well, we moms go home happy and elated and full of sunshine in our hearts.  But there are Those Days, when the same dear, precious offspring seem to have swallowed a cranky and bossy pill.  And then we get to watch them leave someone out of a "girls meeting" at the top of the climby thing at the far end of the playground.  That makes us go home without that heart-sunshine, to say the very least.  Oh, the disappointment we feel.

Equally bad are the days where we have to watch our little ones BE the ones getting left out or being told that they can't play something-or-other.

But we know that all of these things are a part of social life.  The good and the bad.  We know they are a part of learning empathy and learning about themselves.  It's difficult to watch sometimes, and sometimes it's elevating.  Mountains and valleys.  Just for a playdate.  It's emotionally tough, but that's one of the prices that need to be paid when one chooses to homeschool.

So, if you're wondering how homeschooling is going with regard to the social aspect of the whole thing...
I can honestly say that we're busy.  And the rest of my answer changes from playdate to playdate.  :-)  I'll let you know after our next outing to the playground.