Homeschool

Are you wondering how homeschool is going?

People have been asking and this is what I've been saying, "It's good and bad."

Some days have been amazing, like when we did our scripture study together and said she wanted to keep reading. We read her favorite Book of Mormon story about Nephi cutting off Laban's head (plus our previous lesson) for a total of 30 mins, each taking turns reading a verse. Precious, precious moments.

Other times she has been so defiant that I've threatened to put her in school and told her, "I don't want to homeschool you anymore." (which I'm not proud of, but I want to be real on the blog) to which she responded with, "I knew you hated me!" Ugh.

We've also had a lot of fun together. Part of her daily assignment is to read for 15 mins by herself. She usually picks books from the library that she wants to read or sometimes she likes to reread her own favorites like The Cat in the Hat. I love to see her curled up on the couch reading and I especially love to watch her read books to Vince. Except for when he can't see the picture and grabs it out of her hand and she gets mad and then they start fighting. Life is full of bliss and hell every 5 mins. I never noticed that so much as I do now as a mother.

She tends to give up easily, so we talked about determination and what it meant to keep trying even if you make mistakes. After our talk I found this written on her notebook and was really touched. I need this advice as much as she does.

Charles has done a number of science projects with her since he's the science guru. She loves them!

 This post was critical in helping to change my perspective about homeschooling. As bad as it gets some days I can't deny that this is what we are supposed to be doing this year. I have learned so much about myself. I also know that when we decide to homeschool our children again in middle school that it will be a little less intimidating now that I've at least done it once.

Right now we feel good about putting her into public school next year so, I will try to enjoy this last year at home with her, even on bad days.

End of Summer

The last week of July Azure had theater camp. She loved it! The last day they performed some choreographed skits and it was TOO cute. Azure had a blast doing it. You have to be 7 to audition for their plays so we're waiting...

 After doing a counting activity with dried beans she made this masterpiece all on her own! Pretty original alien esp since we don't even have any pics of anything like this in our home. Maybe she's an ET :)

As Charles was about to leave for work one morning he noticed a cookie with a bite taken out and wrote this note to me. I read it to Azure and she confessed and then wrote this note back.

We took the kids bowling for the first time on a kids bowl free day. They loved it!

Other than me being deathly ill for all of May and June, this summer was a fun one! Much better than last summer and all the emotional turmoil I went through.

Family Vacation Part 3

On our last day in DC we went to the DC temple's visitors center (the temple was closed for cleaning) and ate at Cafe Rio one last time. We drove through downtown and stopped at IKEA. Temple, IKEA, AND Cafe Rio makes for one giddy girl :)

We had dinner with the Hoveys and Michelle and her husband. No pics :(

Then we headed to Outer Banks, NC for our camping adventure. It turned out to be quite the adventure due to a huge rainstorm. It rained most of the night and luckily our tarp did us well and we didn't get too wet. The next morning it had cleared up, so we headed to the beach for some fun.

His excited face again :)

We only enjoyed it for about 45 mins until another storm came in. The temperature dropped and the kids were cold and crying and all our towels were wet. So, I had to go buy some new ones. We were all ready to pack up and leave at that point :)

Ominous clouds

We ended our trip with a visit to Mike and Ev's in Raleigh, NC. Always a good time with them. But, yet again no pics :(

Family vacations (esp road trips) with young children is always bittersweet. I think we're getting better at rolling with the punches. I hope so anyway. We are glad for the memories.

Family Vacation Part 2

Tuesday morning we ate at Noodles & Co. before getting on the subway and again lamented the fact that Savannah is lacking in upscale fast food restaurants. Is there a term for places like that- where you don't have to tip?

Once we got back into DC, Azure and I returned to the Natural History Museum so we could go into the butterfly garden. This was my favorite part of the trip. For Easter 2011 I bought her a Fancy Nancy book about Nancy visiting a butterfly garden and having an azure butterfly land on her. Since then we have wanted to see one ourselves and go to a butterfly garden. Now was our chance.

We had to reserve tickets and then wait for our time slot. Luckily the entomologists were around the corner with live samples. Azure got to hold a Madagascar beetle (fancy name for HUGE cockroach), a caterpillar, and a grasshopper.

This is not Azure's hand. Unfortunately Charles had the camera, thus no pics of our own.

I was impressed she wanted to hold this guy. I certainly didn't want to!

We had a great experience inside the butterfly garden. Azure really wanted a butterfly to land on her, especially an azure butterfly.  A couple landed on me and I was just as excited as Azure because I had never seen a butterfly so close up before. I could see their long, spirally tongue so clearly. God's creations are so magnificent. It was humbling to remember how attentive to detail God is. If He cares so much about the anatomy of a butterfly, surely He cares about us. And not only our anatomy!

We were about to exit the garden and still not one butterfly had landed on Azure. I could see the disappointment in her eyes. Having just felt that wave of love and truth, I suggested that we pray together to ask Heavenly Father to let a butterfly land on her. So, we waited and waited. I began to get a little anxious whether or not this prayer would be answered and trying to decide how I was going to explain that sometimes we pray for things that aren't God's will. But, finally one did land on her. Thank goodness!

Afterwards we headed over to the American History Museum, which I wish we had had more time at. I really enjoyed it but, only got to see less than half of it. My favorite was the display of the original flag that inspired the song, "The Star-Spangled Banner." They had the music playing as part of the moving display and it was really well done. Definitely played on my emotions and I was sobbing reading about it. I do have a patriotic heart. God bless America! (Please bless us with a life supporting president tomorrow ;)

They had one of the original sunstones from the Nauvoo temple there! I was so surprised! Yay for our church history getting recognized as a big part of American history, because it clearly was!

We ended the night with some yummy Thai food with Cath. It started to rain as we were walking back to our car and we all got soaked.