A New School Year Begins

The big kids started school on a Wednesday, and so we took the rest of that week at home to finish getting ready for school at home to begin.  The first day of our homeschool was on the following Monday and we finished by 1pm so we went down to our neighborhood pool for an hour in the afternoon to celebrate the first day of school.

The first week went well minus the regular stuff like just getting back into the swing of things and forgetting basic multiplication facts that they haven't used in a while.  The second week, however, we hit a little hiccup with Drew's Composition work.  Nothing that couldn't be fixed with a lot of extra copywork assigned.  By Wednesday of the that week he was saying Composition was better than the copywork.

This is a random picture of Bobby and his new found "muscles."

Genevieve is still teaching Bobby how to play the piano at a very slow pace.  He is now playing Old
MacDonald daily.

Our newest godson was born and we had his baptism after church one Sunday.  More pictures should be coming soon, but I took this one during the reception.

Genna holding our newest godson

The second week of school Genevieve's DPS appointment finally arrived and she was able to get her permit.  Now we have two drivers in the house!  That exclamation point implies more fear than joy.

Genna and her permit!!!

 

May is here already!

What!  It's May already?

Even my most enthusiastic learner is over this whole school thing and ready for summer.  He used to be the first one with his school work out each morning and now he's saying he doesn't want to do it anymore.  I hope it's just spring burn out and a summer break will renew his excitement.  

Birthday Dinner at Gold Feather
She wanted chicken and waffles, and, boy, did she get it!  She got Red Velvet Waffles and Chicken with gravy.  

 Genevieve turned 15 at the beginning of this month.  She is dying to get started on Driver's Ed and get her permit, but she wants to finish up finals before adding that to her schedule.  The weekend before her birthday I took her shopping and we got her some make-up which is the 15 year old privilege.  She wants to go to Fiesta Texas with a couple friends after school is over in lieu of a birthday party.

For Mother's Day I was blessed to be able to see some long-time friends from college (two from out of town) for dinner the night before.  

Before Mass on Mother's Day, I was showered with home-made cards and some flowers and a card from my husband.

You might not be able to tell, but he drew me Thor.  

And Thor's hammer!

My Mother's Day card from Isaac.  He loves to make pop up cards for me.  He said this card took him more than two hours. ❤❤❤

The next week it was talent show time!  My three home-schoolers got to perform in the talent show.  All three played the piano (Bob's been learning from Genevieve.) and Bobby even did a stand up comedy routine with cat jokes he read and memorized from a book.

Judah was so focused during his piece.  After he bowed, he got a "deer in the headlights' look and didn't know what to do.  I had to whisper-yell for him to get his book and wave him off stage.  :) 

What a tiny peanut!

The cat jokes were a huge hit mainly because he was so adorable I think!  I was very proud of him for being so brave.  When we first took our seats before the talent show began, he whispered to me that he didn't want to do it anymore.  I told him that I'd walk him up there, and he agreed pretty easily.

I got a video of Drew and he was too fast to get off stage and I didn't get a picture of him playing.

The very small group of kids this year that were able to come and participate

Charmed, I'm Sure!

 Bobby is already using his youngest child charm to get things done around here, but I'm onto him.  After being told he needed to get ready for his bath.  He says, with his voice dripping with sugar, "Mommy, you are so good at picking out my clothes and always pick the coziest pajamas.  So can you go upstairs and get my clothes for me?"  I was charmed, but not fooled this time.  What a sweetie though!

Another funny story about Bob happened when he was learning place value in Math.  I was explaining how to tell how many tens and ones there are in a two digit number.  After explaining it once, the next number in his lesson was 11.  I laid out the manipulatives.  When I asked how many tens there are in the number 11 he said, "None."  I told him there was one ten in the number 11.  Then I asked how many ones were in the same number.  He answers two and it took me a second to see where the problem was.  There are two "1's" in the number 11!  I don't know how that's never happened before.  This is the sixth time I've explained this.  Maybe we never chose the number 11 as an example early on.  

This is where we frequently do our Morning Time for school.  Brian is still working from home; he came downstairs for lunch and caught this scene on camera.

Second Semester School Updates *edited with a few more pictures*

We started back to school the week following New Year’s Day. We had a slow start because they had been on a light schedule during December. They are all ahead in their work, so we took the opportunity to do art projects and read books together about Advent and Christmas. They did a little bit of Grammar and math flash cards so they weren’t completely off track. The long “break” has made it harder to get back into the swing of things.

Judah (2^nd grade) is getting so distracted by everything from his pencil to his brothers, and he is getting work done at a snail’s pace.  

Bobby (Kindergarten) is adding numbers up to twenty in his head like a boss now and he is reading very well too. He’s read over 20 early readers to me since finishing his 100 Easy Lesson book. I’m adding in word searches and extra math books to slow him down a little and keep him busy.

Bob is perfecting his reading with massive quantities of comic books: Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, and Zita.

The other day around 4pm, I found him reading comic books for the fourth time and asked him if that's all he'd done all day.  His response, "Well, I did my school too."  At that point I shooed him outside until dinner.  Only in our house do you have to force kids to stop reading and go play outside.

Drew (3^rd grade) is getting the hang of long division and still working on his cursive being natural. He and Judah are starting Latin this semester and we are trying a new program, Classical Academic Press’s Latin for Children. So far the grammar has proved challenging, but I’m not concerned that they fully grasp that yet since they are starting young. I mainly want the exposure and vocabulary so they can see it again and again and it be easier in the upper school years.

The big kids are back in school for only about a week now.  Hannah had grown quite accustomed to distance learning, but the other two were sick of the computer, missing the social interaction, and losing focus and determination in their schoolwork.  They had an independent study project that they all completed just before going back to school.  We are still adjusting to the new norms of traveling to school and back everyday.

Basketball season is wrapping up here in a week.  The girls are both on Varsity together, but they lost a lot of girls this year .  Their team is mostly ninth graders playing against juniors and seniors.  It has been a humbling and challenging experience.  It is fun to see my two daughters playing together again.  I am team mom and I have been running the books/clock this season for all home games so that I can attend the games.  My sister and I played on the same team in high school and my dad used to do the books for my games in high school.  It brings back memories.

This is what this year's support of their sisters looked like...

All Saint's Day: 2020 Corona-style

Our All Saint's party was moved to the First Friday to follow Mass and have a picnic, share desserts and dress up like your favorite saint.    We had it outside the church under the pavilion.  It was not the same caliber as our normal party with games and prizes, but it was something during a time when "something" isn't even always possible.

Drew wanted to be St. Andrew AGAIN for at least the third year in a row.  Judah was St. John of the Cross, utilizing St. Helen's cross from years back, a t-shirt as a cowl, a cape from year's past, and an old brown tunic (that may have been way too short).  Bobby was St. Michael the Archangel.  Check out those wings!  Isaac was St. Michael years and years ago, so we had that whole costume ready to go.  

They got very shy when it was time to announce their costumes.

 It was a beautiful day and it was nice for the kids to see their friends and make some new ones.

Our One Month Homeschool from the Beach Trip

Breaking up the Quarantine Blues

I rented this beach condo back when my trip to Europe was cancelled in May.  My mom always rents one for a month and we typically spend every weekend down there visiting and enjoying the beach.  This year it seemed possible that the virus might still be causing trouble with schools reopening, so I took a chance and decided if the big kids weren't able to go the whole month, it would at least be easier to come and go without dragging our stuff back and forth.  Plus, the one month rate is pretty much cheaper than renting for just all of the weekends.  

Well, September rolls around and we have the chance to keep them home for the whole first quarter and we took it.  We packed up our 3 laptops and a printer/scanner, all their textbooks (not to mention all the three youngest's school books), and a card table and headed to the beach.  Praying the whole time that the wifi could handle the three of them online at the same time from 8am to 2:40pm every weekday.  (Yes, it's too much screen time, but that's a topic for another time.)  Brian wasn't able to stay during the weekdays, but he came down most of the weekends.

On the ferry to the island to hunt for shells.

So, it was cramped during school time, but it totally worked.  We did it, and it was great!  Most weekdays, I would get the little ones started on their independent work and then go on a walk alone on the beach.  Then I'd come back and do schoolwork all morning with the littles.  After lunch together with the bigger three, we'd head out to the beach or pool for the afternoon.  The older kids would join us if they could after school was out.  

Listening for the ocean in some of the shells on the island.

One day we went with my brother and his family to an island that was supposed to have good shells and fishing.  My brother went fishing, and my sister-in-law and the kids went shell hunting.  The big kids had to stay back at the condo to do school. There had been a tropical storm in the gulf that had brought up so many amazing whole shells. We picked the exact right day because my mom went after us and there were no more shells.

A pelican close by the boys.

Snack time on the island

Waiting for the ferry to go back after a long day

Judah, Turner, and Hannah watching a movie

By the pool

Out at dinner with their cousin

Once we returned home, the kids were eager to take their rock painting and apply it to the buckets of shells we brought back.  They are planning to sell them at the Children's Christmas Bazaar.

Genevieve's Painted Shells

Isaac's Painted Shells

Drew's Painted Shells

Hannah's Painted Shells

Hannah's Work, as well