Kindergarten

Ezra started Kindergarten this year and I don't miss him or even make him get dressed. If he's late for school, no big deal. And if he just isn't in the mood, we skip... Okay, not exactly, but real life is in those words somewhere.

We are homeschooling.

For this year at least. Every other morning I second guess my decision and waiver on whether this is the right thing for my child, but I am trying my best to stick to it and make it work. I decided awhile ago that I was going to homeschool Ezra. I have a fairly long list of reasons (which I won't list, but if you are really interested then I might consider sharing..) I'll just share this one: I received an impression that this is what we need to be doing and I'm taking a leap of faith holding on to that main reason.

It is tough. It is the hardest thing I have had to do as a mommy so far mainly because there are so many insecurities and doubts I have, but every now and then I am blessed with a moment or two that reminds me why I truly want to be homeschooling right now. We are still figuring it out and I am trying to be patient with Ezra and with myself while we figure it out and make it work.

I was terrified that I was messing him up, but then I figured that since he is on the younger side of the Kindergarten class this year, worst case scenario is that we act like he never had Kindergarten and then send him next year. (Not going to happen, but it for some reason gives me a little peace of mind to have that thought). I also have a very long list of doubts and fears that sit next to my list of reasons to homeschool, but I'm trying not to focus on those.

So, here's how school works (and sometimes doesn't) for us:

We have goals. We are working on Memorizing, Reading, Writing, Spelling, Math, Science, Geography and Cooking ;) I hope to squeeze a little Spanish in there every now and then too, but I don't want to overload him, so we are taking it slow.

Our goal is to complete 3 lessons from 2-3 different subjects each day. This takes anywhere from 2-5 hours per day(not including my prep time oi!)
We always do reading and then we normally do math and then our 3rd lesson is what varies the most.
We are doing reading lessons from a book called, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. So far so good. It is several steps back from the reading level he was at, but the complications it promises to solve are complications we have encountered, so we're giving it a try. I am trying to take this year slow and mostly use it as a time to teach him to learn (and teach me to teach).

Our goal is to memorize the 13 Articles of Faith. He has the 1st one down, we are still working on the 2nd. When we are done with these we will move on to simple scripture mastery (ex. key words or phrases)

Our goal is to have 5 spelling words a week and a spelling test each Friday. (These include site words like, "you", "the", "like", "have" and other easier phonics words like "cat", "dog", etc.

For science we are learning about the body right now (Ezra's request). He wants to know everything about how our bodies work, so I am doing my best to roll with this one. I am trying to come up with a new body topic for each week. Some seem harder to spend a week on. Like the 5 senses. I had a week planned, but that really doesn't seem like a week long lesson. We did it in a day and moved on. That's a great perk to homeschooling :)

We just got some amazing helpers from Grandma that has him extra excited about learning! Thanks Grandma! One of the things she sent was a Magic School Bus Chemistry kit. I'm considering joining their monthly science club to get monthly packages because it is so cute.

So this is all trial and error right now. It is stressful and confusing. It is overwhelming and intimidating, but we are doing it. I just hope I don't screw up our babies. It's kind of a scary place to be in when you realize that homeschooling means you can't blame anything on things he learned at school. You are school and what he learns will be your fault, like it or not! ;)

Our Dekle Bug

Don't pay any attention to the fact that this was taken the beginning of June. I am horrible at uploading pictures to my comp. He looks pretty much the same, just a little bigger now :)

Deklan is 8 months old. He is the wiggliest baby I have ever seen in my life. Seriously. He has always been that way since I first started feeling movement in my womb and he just hasn't slowed down. He wiggles the entire time I nurse him. Sometimes even in the middle of the night. I swear he burns more calories while he eats than he is actually taking in. He is impossible to change too. Every time I lay him down he rolls over and starts crawling away. I have learned to diaper him on the move, upside down, backwards, any way I can to get him dressed. It's insane, really.

He is crawling and pulling himself up. It's crazy how fast everything seems to happen after they figure out how to move. He has a harder time falling asleep now though because he likes to stand up in his crib. Speaking of sleeping... we don't. I am just no good at sleep training I guess because my last two babies have been horrible sleepers. Makai only started sleeping through the night after I stopped nursing him, so I am counting on that. I follow the guidance that the recommended books give and it just doesn't seem to work. Still trying my best to fight through it.

He is little. I just don't get chunky babies. People always like to comment on how skinny and little my babies are. I take offense to it sometimes because I have a crazy obsession with squishy infants. Though my children are of course still very lovable. He eats a ton, so I know he is healthy. His favorites are our smoothies. He does not care for bananas or avocados, but he will eat either mixed with something else. He has a dairy allergy. I may have already mentioned this; can't remember. He gets hives and they only get worse each time I test the allergy, so I think we are putting a hold on testing it for now. Ezra had a dairy allergy and grew out of it before he was 2, so I am hoping for the same with Dekles.

He still doesn't have any teeth which is perfectly fine with me. All his curls fell out WAY early. I think I was too in love with his hair that Heavenly Father took it away so I would focus more on the sweet spirit in my arms. (I'm kidding, but I was really obsessed with his curls.) Sad part is, I think it's my fault. He had cradle cap and that grosses me out, so I would scrub his head every day until I started noticing his curls were drastically thinning. Oh well, it's just hair. At least that's what I keep trying to tell myself.

He has the best raspy laugh and when he smiles he scrunches his nose. He loves to watch his brothers and be with them. He is a mommy's boy which makes James sad, but James was gone for 5 out of the 8 months of his life, so I'm sure that will change as he gets to know daddy better. For now I am soaking it up.

He's a sweetheart. He loves to snuggle and give hugs. He actually really loves to give me kisses which leaves mega slobber smears on my cheeks, but I adore every little kiss. He is fascinated by water. He loves the swing at the playground. He is always sporting at least one self-inflicted scratch on his face and has now added random bumps and bruises due to his wiggles. He is very interested in our blender. He hates to be left alone. He especially hates to be put down when he is expecting to be fed.

I love my little baby love to itty bitty pieces and I think he loves me too.

Our Move to Texas

We are together again! What a long 5 months that was.
James got back to Maryland August 14th and we loaded the truck the very next day.
We stayed at his parents house until the morning of the 17th and then we started our drive to our new home. Well, we stopped off in Pennsylvania to visit DutchWonderland first. The boys had a great time there! James mom and step-dad, Ilene and Duane, were able to make the drive in James' car with us, so they were able to enjoy watching the boys at the amusement park too. We were also able to stop and see one of Duane's sons in Tennessee along our way.

We got to our new home in Texas around 4pm on Wednesday the 21st. 4 days, some throw up and 7 sore bums later we had arrived! The apartment we are staying in is nice which is great considering the town we are living in. My first thoughts of the town were nervous thoughts, but the more I am here the more I realize it is not so bad. This could be home. Sure there are bugs all over and it's hot and there is no mall, but we have a pool and the church is true, so life will work out just fine :)

James is enjoying the official start up of his career and the boys and I are enjoying putting our home together, visiting the aquarium and the pool, and getting things ready to start school.

It was so terribly sad to leave our home in Maryland. We had made some wonderful friends and had really become comfortable with the area, but this is an exciting new step for our family, so we will do our best to be positive and make it home here quickly. But what a bummer... people don't have accents here. I think I'll still start saying y'all anyways. I did get hugged by a random lady in the grocery store the other day because she liked my kids and was happy to hear me say I wasn't done. That was a pleasant change from what I heard in Maryland :) All in all, Texas is not as bad as I was expecting it to be so far, so I'm feeling good.

We're all doing well and getting adjusted. I'll keep you posted on our little crawler, our crazy Mak and our big Kindergartener!