Wow! We have been BUSY! As I posted last time, we had 3 very good days of school after Christmas break, and then my father in law died. My husband's uncle also died, so we had 2 back to back funerals, tons of out of state family in town, and tons of running around to do. I managed to have the girls do one or two subjects a day last week, but definitely NOT full school days. We were finally able to manage to get to the grocery store this Monday, and we got back to school Tuesday.
However, my bathtub faucet has been leaking. For months. But by last week it was running constantly, almost full force. The hot water, which caused my bathroom to be steamy, water to literally be condensing on the ceiling, and me having to squeegie off my ceiling twice a day when it bagan to drip on us. For real. Last week, tiny little spots of MOLD began appearing on my ceiling and walls in the bathroom. Leaking faucets and high water bills are one thing. Mold is another. The appearance of the mold motivated me to finally call a plumber. He spent almost 2 hours here Tuesday, and came back to finish for another hour Wednesday, and for the first time in months we have faucets that actually shut the water OFF when we turn them. How novel! I'm not sure how to get the little mold spots off my ceiling, though. I have 9 foot ceilings, and the squeegie just doesn't scrub mold. Any one reading this have any ideas?
Also on Tuesday April called to tell me she is moving. Her husband was laid off a few weeks ago, and there aren't many jobs to be had around here. He found a job, but it's an hour away. They also found a trailer to rent, much cheaper than their current apartment, and much closer to his new job. They are moving this weekend! While it's not as bad as when she lived in Wyoming, I was quite shocked, and sad, because I wasn't expecting this. She knew how busy I was all last week with the funerals, and didn't want to bother me, so she didn't tell me until it was a sure thing. So I have 2 more days to adjust to the fact my daughter, son in law, and new grandson won't be living in the same town anymore. They won't be just dropping by anymore, and we won't be able to just run over there when she needs us anymore.
The girls and I DID manage to get a really good school day in Tuesday, and a sort of good one in yesterday. Yesterday we got all the subjects done, but not well, with interuptions from April and her family stopping by in the morning for an hour, and the plumber at 1 for another hour.
Colleen has gotten a good start into her new algebra, geography, government, and we just this week began "Windows to the World" literature. I'll try to post about these soon. Emily has been having difficulty with math for the first time ever the past few weeks, but we have made it through this difficult chapter on double digit long division, and she has a chapter review today, and test tomorrow. She has also begun some new subjects for 5th grade, and is doing exceedingly well with them. Again, I'll try to get around to a good school-only update in the very near future.
Hopefully, things can get back to normal around here, and we can get some good, quality, school time in for awhile. And I hope everyone else's back to schooling is going much smoother than ours.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
My Father in Law
Thursday, my husband walked in his dad's house to find him laying on the floor. He had passed away sometime the day before. Now, my father in law was 92, so it shouldn't be completely unexpected, but it WAS. He just didn't SEEM 92.
Herb still drove, still ran most of his own errands, walked without a cane or walker, and had only had 2 hospitalizations in his entire life....both minor. Last spring was one of those hospitalizations, and for 2 months, Herb needed a little home health care. I went down there (his house is only 5 houses down the street from mine) twice a day till he recovered. During that time, I grew to know the man fairly well.
He was one of the funniest guys I've ever known. He was awesome to spend time talking to, whether we talked about his days in WWII, his marriage, his sons, his work, or things in my life. He cared deeply about his wife, who passed away last June, and was married to her for 71 years. I would call him, or visit him, from time to time, just to get his advice. He never failed to make me feel better, and cheer me up, and usually I could call him sad, and hang up laughing. He was very intelligent, and just 2 months ago wrote a letter to President Obama, detailing his idea to fix our mational debt. (We haven't heard back yet....)He was very proud of his 30 years as a credit manager, and even prouder of his years in Europe during WWII. His answering machine message finishes with him saying, "God bless America". He made me promise to him that whenever he passed away, that I would make SURE he was wearing his WWII Veteran's cap. And he is.
Herb could be stubborn, and so can I. I will never forget one day last summer, when he and I clashed about his health care. Next thing you know, this 91(at the time) year old man is yelling at me, and I'm yelling at him. I stalked out of his house, only to have him call me in tears an hour later, telling me he loved me, and was afraid I wasn't going to come back. I felt so bad that I ran right back down there.
My dad died when I was 17. Herb is over 50 years older than me. But I always told him I felt like he WAS a dad to me, and a grandpa to my girls. His best friend in the world was his wife, and his second best friend in the world was my husband. Those 2 talked every day, usually several times a day. My girls, especially Emily, adored him. He was always giving them little trinkets, but he always had to make a game of it. On his last birthday, he told the 4 of us to pick a number between 1 and 4. Then he disappeared into his room, and reappeared with one of his wife's old purses. My 14 year old picked the winning number, and "won" a free purse.
Only three weeks ago, I had his house professionally cleaned for him, as a Christmas gift. He had been wanting this done forever. Before the cleaning company does their work, they do a home visit so we could get an estimate. Herb wasn't concerned with price. He wasn't concerned about credidentials or quality of work. No, Herb was asking what the ladies who would be doing the cleaning LOOKED like. He requested pretty ones. LOL The man doing the home inspection and estimate, was quite a solemn, dour man to begin with, but, like most people who met Herb, he left laughing.
I only knew my father in law 3 years. I've only been his daughter for not even 2 years. But that man was special to me. I love him. He left a good impression on anyone who met him even briefly, and I'm going to miss him sooooo much. Here he is last summer. This isn't the BEST picture of him, but it captures that great, big grin of his. I love ya, "Grandpa Herb"
Herb still drove, still ran most of his own errands, walked without a cane or walker, and had only had 2 hospitalizations in his entire life....both minor. Last spring was one of those hospitalizations, and for 2 months, Herb needed a little home health care. I went down there (his house is only 5 houses down the street from mine) twice a day till he recovered. During that time, I grew to know the man fairly well.
He was one of the funniest guys I've ever known. He was awesome to spend time talking to, whether we talked about his days in WWII, his marriage, his sons, his work, or things in my life. He cared deeply about his wife, who passed away last June, and was married to her for 71 years. I would call him, or visit him, from time to time, just to get his advice. He never failed to make me feel better, and cheer me up, and usually I could call him sad, and hang up laughing. He was very intelligent, and just 2 months ago wrote a letter to President Obama, detailing his idea to fix our mational debt. (We haven't heard back yet....)He was very proud of his 30 years as a credit manager, and even prouder of his years in Europe during WWII. His answering machine message finishes with him saying, "God bless America". He made me promise to him that whenever he passed away, that I would make SURE he was wearing his WWII Veteran's cap. And he is.
Herb could be stubborn, and so can I. I will never forget one day last summer, when he and I clashed about his health care. Next thing you know, this 91(at the time) year old man is yelling at me, and I'm yelling at him. I stalked out of his house, only to have him call me in tears an hour later, telling me he loved me, and was afraid I wasn't going to come back. I felt so bad that I ran right back down there.
My dad died when I was 17. Herb is over 50 years older than me. But I always told him I felt like he WAS a dad to me, and a grandpa to my girls. His best friend in the world was his wife, and his second best friend in the world was my husband. Those 2 talked every day, usually several times a day. My girls, especially Emily, adored him. He was always giving them little trinkets, but he always had to make a game of it. On his last birthday, he told the 4 of us to pick a number between 1 and 4. Then he disappeared into his room, and reappeared with one of his wife's old purses. My 14 year old picked the winning number, and "won" a free purse.
Only three weeks ago, I had his house professionally cleaned for him, as a Christmas gift. He had been wanting this done forever. Before the cleaning company does their work, they do a home visit so we could get an estimate. Herb wasn't concerned with price. He wasn't concerned about credidentials or quality of work. No, Herb was asking what the ladies who would be doing the cleaning LOOKED like. He requested pretty ones. LOL The man doing the home inspection and estimate, was quite a solemn, dour man to begin with, but, like most people who met Herb, he left laughing.
I only knew my father in law 3 years. I've only been his daughter for not even 2 years. But that man was special to me. I love him. He left a good impression on anyone who met him even briefly, and I'm going to miss him sooooo much. Here he is last summer. This isn't the BEST picture of him, but it captures that great, big grin of his. I love ya, "Grandpa Herb"
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
First Day Back to School 2013
It's a good thing I said yesterday that I didn't plan to do much, because.....we didn't do much. : )
The first thing we did was dig into Jacob's Algebra. I explained the basics, let her look through the book, and we did the introduction, which was a series of number puzzles that I had her do on our whiteboard. Both girls enjoyed the puzzles, and we actually spent over an hour doing them. Mr. Jacob's did well using these for his intro to algebra. After doing several of them, he showed how to use symbols to figure them out, no matter what the number. So Colleen was doing algebra, and not even realizing it. She enjoyed them so much, she wrote down the steps so she can amaze and stump her friends with these little puzzles.
Emily then proceeded to take over the whiteboard, and drew, "a ship with a bottel in it" [sic], and a castle.
When I was able to get the whiteboard and markers away from Emma, I showed her her new spelling book. (MCP's "Spelling Workout"). I "pre-tested" her on her first list of words, which she got all right. She always aces all the words IN the spelling book. It is transferring them into real life application where she goes horribly wrong. She was sad, because I didn't get her the 5th grade book, or even the 4th grade. She is in level B, which technically would be second grade words. I anticipate breezing through level B, though, before summer is over, and moving on.
Emily then asked if she could use one of her new spiral notebooks I'd bought for school, for writing in. I'm all for writing, so I said she could have it. Now I am short one notebook for school, but that's ok. She then decided the cover was too "plain", and drew, colored, and cut out a rainbow to tape on the cover so that it would be "beautiful". If left to her own devices, this child would do nothing but art all day long. I am guessing the stuff between the rainbow and the grass is rain.
We then went on to U.S. History. Prior to our break we had left off at the conclusion of the Revolutionary War. We began talking about the writing of the Constitution. We will finish this chapter, and then my daughters will branch off in their history studies. Colleen has a 9 week course in nothing BUT the Constitution, and Emma will be doing Abeka's, "Old World History and Geography." I went ahead and went through the first-day-introducing-new-books of Emma's OWHG, and we got sidetracked looking at pictures, and discussing places.
That's it. Somehow that took us about 3 hours total, and we didn't really DO much, but it was a nice ease-back-into-school-day. I kind of like those days, where they can take their time, and not be rushed through several subjects. Unfortunately, most days aren't as relaxing.
The first thing we did was dig into Jacob's Algebra. I explained the basics, let her look through the book, and we did the introduction, which was a series of number puzzles that I had her do on our whiteboard. Both girls enjoyed the puzzles, and we actually spent over an hour doing them. Mr. Jacob's did well using these for his intro to algebra. After doing several of them, he showed how to use symbols to figure them out, no matter what the number. So Colleen was doing algebra, and not even realizing it. She enjoyed them so much, she wrote down the steps so she can amaze and stump her friends with these little puzzles.
Emily then proceeded to take over the whiteboard, and drew, "a ship with a bottel in it" [sic], and a castle.
When I was able to get the whiteboard and markers away from Emma, I showed her her new spelling book. (MCP's "Spelling Workout"). I "pre-tested" her on her first list of words, which she got all right. She always aces all the words IN the spelling book. It is transferring them into real life application where she goes horribly wrong. She was sad, because I didn't get her the 5th grade book, or even the 4th grade. She is in level B, which technically would be second grade words. I anticipate breezing through level B, though, before summer is over, and moving on.
Emily then asked if she could use one of her new spiral notebooks I'd bought for school, for writing in. I'm all for writing, so I said she could have it. Now I am short one notebook for school, but that's ok. She then decided the cover was too "plain", and drew, colored, and cut out a rainbow to tape on the cover so that it would be "beautiful". If left to her own devices, this child would do nothing but art all day long. I am guessing the stuff between the rainbow and the grass is rain.
We then went on to U.S. History. Prior to our break we had left off at the conclusion of the Revolutionary War. We began talking about the writing of the Constitution. We will finish this chapter, and then my daughters will branch off in their history studies. Colleen has a 9 week course in nothing BUT the Constitution, and Emma will be doing Abeka's, "Old World History and Geography." I went ahead and went through the first-day-introducing-new-books of Emma's OWHG, and we got sidetracked looking at pictures, and discussing places.
That's it. Somehow that took us about 3 hours total, and we didn't really DO much, but it was a nice ease-back-into-school-day. I kind of like those days, where they can take their time, and not be rushed through several subjects. Unfortunately, most days aren't as relaxing.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Homeschool Math Curriculum
Today the girls and I go back to school after an almost 3 week long Christmas break. As I posted last month, for Colleen's high school years, we are deviating from Saxon Math. It was great for her elementary years, but she was slowly losing ground with it in the middle school years. High school is important. Everything we do counts towards credits and transcripts. And everything she learns helps her that much more.
Many people are of the belief that Algebra isn't used in "real life". I beg to differ. I use math and algebra all the time here at home, and coming from a medical profession I couldn't have made it one DAY in work without higher math. Seeing that Colleen hopes to enter the medical profession in a mere 4 or 5 years, treating animals, she is going to NEED to know how to do algebra. It is impossible to do chemistry without a solid knowledge of algebra. It is impossible to figure out dosages and treatments, or even program IV pumps, if you can not figure out WHAT equations to use and how to operate them. Colleen hopes to one day run her own no-kill animal shelter, similar to the one she currently works at. Even if she fulfills that dream, it will be helpful to her to have a basic animal medicine background, and running a non-profit organization takes quite a bit of math skills in and of itself. Being a vet tech OR running a shelter, (or both) will require that she master higher levels of math.
That being said, today we begin 9th grade math, aka Algebra I. I'm a math geek. (and history geek, and geography geek, and literature geek, and writing geek....apparently I'm just a geek period. ) Colleen, on the other hand, has grown frustrated and bored with math. She doesn't understand it. She can DO it, but she doesn't know WHY she must do it, and she is so bored with it that she doesn't CARE about doing her best, most careful work.
I have now had Jacob's Elementary Algebra in my hands for 3 weeks.
I have purused it fairly thoroughly. I have today set aside to simply go through the introduction together. Mr. Jacobs has some really cool algebra puzzles to introduce his book, and all 3 of us will be working through them. Yes, Emily can, and in fact, is needed, to help do these puzzles. They are fun. They are interesting. I THINK even normal people that AREN'T math geeks would agree with that. Spending an hour or two doing these puzzles is important, not only to catch Colleen's interest, but so that she can see how differently Jacob's Algebra is written, and how it is a complete change from Saxon Math. She might be lost if I just hand her the book, and say, "Ok, do Lesson 1." And I really like that he begins every, single lesson with a "real life" example of algebra being used.
I have a few other things I'd LIKE to get to today. We have just a few lessons left in a couple of subjects that we need to finish before each girl is "officially" promoted to their next grade. We have another few subjects I would, ideally, like to also begin today. And I have a LOT of curriculum to still order, and would like to at least get started on getting to that. But if we do nothing today but begin Algebra I, that is fine by me. That is all I have scheduled for SURE today. I don't want algebra to be just another thing to cross off for the day. My girls are fine on their required number of school days, and they are both basically ahead of where they would be if they were in public school, and we are all 3 having trouble getting out of our nice break mode, and back into school mode.
We had a very nice break, accomplished a lot of extra cleaning, sorting, relaxing, game-playing, shopping, and Colleen worked many extra hours/days at the shelter the past 3 weeks. Winter still has a few months to go, before they can be back outside enjoying play time and softball, and this is the best time for us to get lots of schooling done. We don't have to do it all at once, though. We are very blessed to have plenty of time to TAKE our time. I am excited to begin our new school year! : )
Many people are of the belief that Algebra isn't used in "real life". I beg to differ. I use math and algebra all the time here at home, and coming from a medical profession I couldn't have made it one DAY in work without higher math. Seeing that Colleen hopes to enter the medical profession in a mere 4 or 5 years, treating animals, she is going to NEED to know how to do algebra. It is impossible to do chemistry without a solid knowledge of algebra. It is impossible to figure out dosages and treatments, or even program IV pumps, if you can not figure out WHAT equations to use and how to operate them. Colleen hopes to one day run her own no-kill animal shelter, similar to the one she currently works at. Even if she fulfills that dream, it will be helpful to her to have a basic animal medicine background, and running a non-profit organization takes quite a bit of math skills in and of itself. Being a vet tech OR running a shelter, (or both) will require that she master higher levels of math.
That being said, today we begin 9th grade math, aka Algebra I. I'm a math geek. (and history geek, and geography geek, and literature geek, and writing geek....apparently I'm just a geek period. ) Colleen, on the other hand, has grown frustrated and bored with math. She doesn't understand it. She can DO it, but she doesn't know WHY she must do it, and she is so bored with it that she doesn't CARE about doing her best, most careful work.
I have now had Jacob's Elementary Algebra in my hands for 3 weeks.
I have purused it fairly thoroughly. I have today set aside to simply go through the introduction together. Mr. Jacobs has some really cool algebra puzzles to introduce his book, and all 3 of us will be working through them. Yes, Emily can, and in fact, is needed, to help do these puzzles. They are fun. They are interesting. I THINK even normal people that AREN'T math geeks would agree with that. Spending an hour or two doing these puzzles is important, not only to catch Colleen's interest, but so that she can see how differently Jacob's Algebra is written, and how it is a complete change from Saxon Math. She might be lost if I just hand her the book, and say, "Ok, do Lesson 1." And I really like that he begins every, single lesson with a "real life" example of algebra being used.
I have a few other things I'd LIKE to get to today. We have just a few lessons left in a couple of subjects that we need to finish before each girl is "officially" promoted to their next grade. We have another few subjects I would, ideally, like to also begin today. And I have a LOT of curriculum to still order, and would like to at least get started on getting to that. But if we do nothing today but begin Algebra I, that is fine by me. That is all I have scheduled for SURE today. I don't want algebra to be just another thing to cross off for the day. My girls are fine on their required number of school days, and they are both basically ahead of where they would be if they were in public school, and we are all 3 having trouble getting out of our nice break mode, and back into school mode.
We had a very nice break, accomplished a lot of extra cleaning, sorting, relaxing, game-playing, shopping, and Colleen worked many extra hours/days at the shelter the past 3 weeks. Winter still has a few months to go, before they can be back outside enjoying play time and softball, and this is the best time for us to get lots of schooling done. We don't have to do it all at once, though. We are very blessed to have plenty of time to TAKE our time. I am excited to begin our new school year! : )
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
New Year, New Look
As everyone can plainly see, I've finally decided to change the look of my blog a little bit. Don't worry, I'm not done. Well, I might be. I'll probably be too lazy to change it again for another 5 years. I'm not 100% sure about this font, and I don't like the big, blank space on the upper right side. My picture should go all the way across the top. Or I should be able to put a few smaller pictures in that spot. (Like of my kids, but that's too sensible.) But with this template I can't. But I like the template. Or maybe I'm just too technologically inept. Which is, most likely, the case.
So for now, this is the new look. I hope everyone's new year goes better than my blog-altering abilities...Happy 2013!
So for now, this is the new look. I hope everyone's new year goes better than my blog-altering abilities...Happy 2013!
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