Kindergarten Star!

I had the privilege of spending a morning in class with JPD in May.



JPD, I am so proud of all your hard work this year in Kindergarten! You did it, my sweet little lover boy! And as you discovered early in the year, "Mom, I'm smart in school!" Yes you are, sweetie boy, for sure!

My Second Favorite Thing About Catholic School

Their darling Christmas pageant!
It was adorable and everyone did such a great job!




P.S. My first favorite thing about our Catholic school...the kids go to Mass twice a week, one of which is a special Mass just for them where they participate as readers, gift-bearers, etc. I like lots of things about the kids' school--Mass and celebrating real-live Christian holidays top my list!

Mommy, I CAN READ!

One of those unforgettable Mommy moments...lately we've broken out our phonics readers from Sing Spell Read & Write--again--and this time is definitely the ticket. One night this week (instead of getting in the bath, but what can you do), JPD was in the hallway by himself with the short-i reader, jumping up and down in triumph as the words jumped off the page and into his mouth.

"Mommy, I'm reading! I can read! I can really read!"

And he really can. Go JPD go!

Kindergarten is going great; in fact, it's wildly exceeding my expectations. JPD is really having fun and doing well. After a few rocky spots during the first couple of weeks--"Mom, I just can't do Kindergarten. Too many RULES"--he is settled in and doing great. His teacher is wonderful. His reading and writing have just exploded. They have spelling tests (!!) each Friday (top, can, cat, hat, ox) and he has made 100% on every one so far (the written ones--they also do oral ones and he missed a word on one of those). He is so proud of himself; last night he told me "Mom, I'm really smart in school, you know."

Yes, you are, JPD! I'm so proud of you, my sweet little lover boy!

First Day of Middle School

Now everyone is back to school!
(Don't you just love school uniforms?!)

And now, please pass the bon bons...

Ready Or Not...

First day of school!!
JPD and his new teacher...did I mention he's in KINDERGARTEN?!

The 5th Graders raising the flag...

Meanwhile, back at home, MPD was lonely and sad...NOT!

WWD, your turn will come next week!

Learning Fair!

When it comes to over-analyzing and second-guessing my decisions about the kids' school, I am the worst. But tonight we went to the end-of-year Learning Fair at their sweet little Catholic school, and I am thrilled with how this year has gone. We toured their classrooms, saw lots of their work on display, and enjoyed a lively concert by all the students.







And the best thing I've heard in a while? KLD--for the first time ever--said this: "Mom, I love school!" How can I argue with that? :)

KLD's First Holy Communion, Take 2!!

Not one to do anything halfway, this past weekend KLD celebrated her second First Holy Communion. See, she couldn't decide whether to have it at our home parish, or with her friends at school. When they suggested we do both, we thought it was a great idea, because after all she loves both and couldn't imagine missing either.


KLD especially liked the idea--who could argue with two days of wearing the dress, two cakes, two celebrations, right?
Also, the two parishes organized the sacrament a bit differently, which was interesting. At our parish, the first communicants sat up in the first three rows together, and received Holy Communion all together, prior to everyone else. Parents were on their own. At our school parish, the first communicants had assigned pews up front with their parents, who received Our Lord together with their first communicant. Some people have strong opinions about which way is better; I like them both, actually. It was pretty fun to get to sit in the very front row with Bill--alphabetical order, I think--because I kept imagining it was her wedding! :)
Don't grow up too fast, KLD!

And do you recognize anyone up in the choir balcony? :)
How about here?
Ah, yes, family pictures.
"My forehead! It's so huge!" said dad.
"Eeek! I look like my mother!" said mom.
Sigh....at least the kids still look cute! :)

And last but not least, I had to get this sweet one of KLD, St. Bernadette-like, with the beautiful Our Lady of Lourdes grotto.
God bless our sweet KLD! Again! :)

I Miss Homeschooling!

The kids went back to school today. I missed them. Well, not all the sibling bickering that filled our holidays, I have to say...but in spite of that, I had that homeschooler-wanna-be feeling that I always have when I have to give them up after vacation.

So this morning, JPD and I did a bit of homeschooling, which I've been planning to get to all year for the days of the week that he's not at preschool. Now that our move is pretty much all wrapped up (we're into just normal messy-house organization now, more or less) it's time to reclaim my life, and spending more time with JPD is part of that. So we did a bit of math, some Sing, Spell, Read, & Write, some sight word flash cards, and a cool science read-aloud about sharks. JPD LOVED it. MPD climbed in our laps and joined right in.

I miss homeschooling. I do. I also cannot imagine how I ever actually did homeschooling, since now, without it, I can still barely figure out what's for dinner around here while keeping everyone's clothes clean and making sure that our house remains recognizable as a house (and not, say, a cross between a mad scientist's lab and a junky locker room, which was the general appearance of things back when full-fledged homeschooling was going on around here).

Anyway, I miss homeschooling. Especially the following Top Ten Things I Miss About Homeschooling:

10) Sleeping in whenever we (I) want. Of course. Not that we did it that often, but still.

9) Field trips with Grandma to cool places. Like apple picking and going to see the whooping cranes and scouting for bald eagles.

8) Nutritous, home-cooked family lunches, complete with Mom reading aloud from our literature selection du jour. We really did do this, more than once, even.

7) My amazing and talented homeschool mom friends, most of whom I haven't seen anywhere near as often this fall.

6) Our crazy, messy, hands-on projects, like building a model of the Nile delta in a foil lasagna pan, making a pizza model of the Earth's layers, or modeling the seasonal rotation of the Earth in the dark basement with a light bulb and an orange. My beloved, ever-patient, traditionally schooled Bill, on the other hand, does not miss these projects at all.

5) Working one-on-one with each child, enough to know precisely how their brains learn new stuff. SO cool. I do so miss that--helping with homework doesn't even come close.

4) Getting to decide exactly how we will focus our academic efforts, including what to include (a little Latin, some practical life, chronological history from the Creation of mankind) and what to leave out (bunches of politically correct blahbiddyblah about Native Americans and conserving Wisconsin's forests--NOT, of course, that I have anything against Native Americans or Wisconsin's beautiful forests--just the Political Correctness part!).

3) Selecting our curriculum (traditional math, grammar and spelling, history and literature synched up and taught with lots of read-alouds, picture books, dictation and narration).

2) Being so busy I don't do anything but live in the moment, at all times.

And the very number one thing that I miss the most:

1) Getting to be with my sweeties all day, when they wake up, when they stumble down to breakfast, when I nag them about their chores, working, playing, fighting, relaxing, learning, loving, crying, laughing, growing, running in the house (no!), jumping on the couch (NO!), loading up in the van, playing in the yard, more chores, dinnertime, bathtime and pajamas, crazy bedtime and reading, and finally sleep. When I like them best! Just kidding, of course.

I do hate letting them go away all day, during the best, sunshiny parts of the day when we are neither just waking up nor already worn out. School is great, for now, but I just miss them and I want to teach them all this cool stuff myself! If only I could find a way to make a couple of clones of myself, so I could do everything I want to do in this life.

Coming soon...the top 10 things I DON'T miss about homeschooling!!

Second First Day of School!

Hooray for JPD! He loved his first day!!
I hope his teacher did too. :) Why do I always feel like I should pay extra tuition when JPD is involved?! Combat pay for the teacher, no doubt!
JPD how I love you, my curious, independent, energetic, precious boy!

First Day(s) of School

Off they go!!
Last Friday, we stopped by to drop off school supplies. JPD's first day is tomorrow, since he doesn't go every day. I'm missing homeschooling, but I'm also not sure how I ever fit that in, since my schedule is (unfortunately, ridiculously) totally full without it. :(

Homeschooling: Here's the Scoop

It took me a long time to finally decide to homeschool.  Back in about 2006, I spent a whole year reading everything I could get my hands on about day-in-a-life stories, homeschooling approaches, learning styles, various curricula, and on and on.  That was a year of intense analysis, not to mention the years leading up to that year, during which I thought about it from time to time, talked to my close friends who homeschooled, etc., etc.  So it was hardly a spur-of-the-moment decision. 

When I was doing all that research, I remember wishing that I could read the story of a family for whom homeschooling didn't work, and why not.  I didn't find any of those.  Maybe now we are one of those families?  Not really, which is, in a way, why it was a hard decision.

I love homeschooling, and I hope I'm not done with it yet.  I felt called to homeschool, I really do believe that it's been God's will for our family, and I know for sure that our past two years together have enriched each of our lives beyond measure.  Of course, there's a lot more to it than the academics; it's a whole way of life, of being "family-centered" and working together to make our home--well, a home.  To me it's a big deal to spend all those prime waking hours together, and not to just see the kids quickly as they dump out their backpacks before rushing off to soccer, then quickly again as I hurry them off to bed.  I wouldn't trade our year of all being together when MPD was born and Grandma moved up from Texas; I can't begin to imagine how much all the kids must have learned--in their hearts, not just their brains--from all that stuff we did together.

I remember thinking, a year or so ago, that I couldn't imagine anyone not being called to homeschool; I honestly thought that to choose otherwise would be, for me anyway, choosing not to give my family my best efforts.  But you know what?   Now, really and truly, I'm sure that I am being called to not homeschool. 

Believe me, I tried not to like the kids' school; I just couldn't help it.  The school is hardly perfect--it's good, not perfect--but God has given me such peace about this decision that I'm just sure it is right for each of us, in so many ways.  Each of the kids is thriving so much, in the ways they each specifically need to.  WWD is working hard, with deadlines and specific expectations that he can't negotiate away, and he's building his organizational skills more than he could at home.  MRD is getting the order, and structure, and variety, and the social butterfly garden that she needs.  KLD's tantrums and tummy aches have gone away, and now that she's not constantly comparing herself to her quite-a-bit-older siblings, she's feeling pretty good.  I think JPD will love going to school with the big kids next year--two days of school per week will be just right for him.  And I don't think it will be a bad thing at all for MPD to have his mommy all to himself for a bit of time next year.

Speaking of "mommy," here's the thing:  I am being called to Do Less.  Less, less, less.  Peace.  Order.  Quiet.  Margin.  Focus.  You know--less.  It is totally against my nature--I always do way too much--but I suspect that that's part of the point.  Perhaps God is doing that pruning thing, so I can bear more fruit? :) (John 15:1-8)

It's been hard for me to reconcile in my head that homeschooling was right last year, and not homeschooling is right for now, but I think that is exactly what's going on.  Things are just sort of unfolding, and my challenge is to discern the path, and stay on it.  It's like we're on this roller-coaster adventure, and I have no idea what God has planned for us next.  But it's all good, and I can't wait to see what happens next.