High School Transcripts, YIKES

I have been a little spoiled up until this point. The only kind of records I have kept have been tests scores and my Time4Learning homeschool portfolio. This year is the year that all that changes, I have been busying researching high school transcripts samples, programs and anything else high school related. I know with my attention span I have to maintain a class/subject list as we go through each one, including grade, hours spent and credit received. So that when it is time for Alex to go to college, trade school or whatever he decides to do it will be ready! I am very, very lucky that I have a lot of local homeschooling friends and some online friends who are already doing this so I can ask them any questions I might have! (Cuz if you know me I am going to have some questions!)

I am both excited and nervous with this new year's requirements for Alex especially but I know that I can get this accomplished!! It is not always easy to homeschool your teenagers, I mean my mom was ever so happy for school to start;) (right mom?!) As a family we have decided that this is the best thing for our boys and they NEVER want to go back to regular school. They could change their minds and if they do we will jump that hurdle when the time comes. For now I am trying not to stress too much and enjoy this thing called high school (the first time around I can't say that I enjoyed or retained anything! hoping that changes this time) with my baby boy Alex! (OK,OK so he is taller than me, probably stronger, has a mustache and his voice is deeper than before! BUT he is still my baby!)

Dealing with a loss of a beloved pet

Boys with Schultz, 2009

Something that happens in everyone's life is dealing with the realization that no one lives forever, we all die. The subject is never an easy one, when it comes to our children. Losing a loved family member or friend is one of the worse things that can happen in anyone's life. Especially so, for a child, whether they are 2 or 18 it brings all kinds of questions and emotions into their minds.

August 26, 2011 is one of those days for our family. We didn't lose a human family member but a family member all the same. Our beloved dog, Schultz, passed away, and was discovered by my kind-hearted, animal-loving son.  The emotions that the boys are feeling are ones that I as a mother wish I could take away and put them inside me instead of them. This loss is very traumatic for my boys and for us as a family. We are a family that moves around, or at least in the past we have, and one of the constant beings in their lives have been Schultz. Our family doesn't live right down the road from grandma's house or have cousins, aunt and uncles that come for xmas dinner. The boys haven't been able to grow up with weekly, monthly or even yearly visits from relatives or to relatives' houses. We had one constant in the past 15 years(besides each other of course), our dog Schultz. He ran and played with Alex since he was 1-1/2 years old, grew older and welcomed Anthony into the family. Schultz played with the boys when friends were not there, listened to their stories, gave them comfort by just placing his head on their lap and letting them pet his head. He ran along side them when they were mad at the world or just mom and dad, and was always happy to see them. How do you explain to them that yes yesterday he was there and today he just isn't there? And the question of why, even though we all know that he was an old dog, it still doesn't make the pain any less in our family's hearts. It is a part of life, this thing called death! Another lesson even though a painful one that everyone learns about sooner or later in life.

I loved that old dog too and now I have to show them that life does go on.  Sometimes one painful step at a time!

FINALLY, We Started;)

Well we really started the full course school work this past Monday! I was meaning for us to “go back to school” about four times this summer, but it seemed like for one reason or another I just couldn’t commit to it. I think that I was having problems with knowing that I was going to have a high schooler and a fourth grader this year. I was spending more time looking for spelling lists by grade or trying to find that perfect writing program that is going to get us up to where “I” think we need to be at. Plus the added “stress” of knowing that Alex is in ninth grade, going to be getting his driver’s permit, and basically that he is about three years from being EIGHTEEN!

I mean where the hell did the time go? Seems like yesterday I was bringing home my first little baby boy and then just a few seconds later I had my second little boy. (with his big brother saying” If I would have known you were going to have that baby I would have stayed!! Yes, he wasn’t at the hospital when Anthony was born, he had gotten to stay the whole day with his Aunt Kellye and Uncle Brieee being spoiled rotten).

So I guess that you figured it out, mama was having issues! The boys were enjoying a much longer time off from school. It didn’t even faze them when I would say “ We will start on this date” then the date would come and go with no school in sight! If you are homeschooling you probably know what I am talking about, we are with them 24/7 but it still isn’t enough time to be with them. The things that they say, do and experience~ we are there with them!

The first day back was rough, I thought that Alex would have a melt down because besides the World Literature and History that he is taking with his group from last year, he has a FULL schedule. It was actually Anthony who was like I HAVE TO DO THIS IN ONE DAY! He melted down about four times, over things he “couldn’t” do. Guess what turns out he CAN do them he just didn’t think he could. How refreshing to see him figure out things and really enjoy OUR time together with our new and old curricula this year. Even Alex is all about the Owl Study that I put together for him. Sure when we went over their work on Tuesday of everything that they had done the first day, there were things that need to be improved. I thought that over all they did a wonderful, amazing, fantastic job of learning about a little self awareness, time management and challenges that lay ahead of them for this year.

Well, we are on our way to another year of learning and experiencing all our life has to offer.  I, for one, am looking forward to seeing this year be our best year yet, only time will tell;)

Taking a little Spanish 101, here!

jpg from http://www.123teachme.com/learn_spanish/hello_in_spanish

It's amazing to me that the same ways I have taught the boys to figure how to spell words in English, is the same way our Spanish tutor, Noelia, is teaching the three of us to speak Spanish! She is teaching us by using syllable or segmenting activities, especially important for me, LOL. My Spanish is not so good, well you probably noticed my English is not so good either! hehe, but I am working on both of them!

I know, I know there are tons of freebie sites for teaching Spanish, more still that have foreign language games, and even more videos on YouTube. "But this is serious", (yes just like those lovable "Wonder Pets" use to sing when things got serious on the show), Alex is beginning 9th grade and it is important for him to learn his foreign language choice from every possible way we can find and afford! My visual learner needs all kinds of different media to learn something new, and Noelia is doing a wonderful job with us.  I have always wanted to learn to speak Spanish and now is my chance! I did take Spanish in high school as well, but do you know I don't remember a thing about it? I guess because growing up in Missouri you didn't hear too many others speaking Spanish too much. Also, the fact that I was well.... not the best student! (let's leave it at that shall we;)

Both the boys are enjoying the classes, as am I, and we started as you would teach a child (like Pre-K aged) with songs and the basics. Alex especially loved the song about "The San Jose Flea Market" or "La Pulga de San Jose" (well I tried to find the song for you all to listen to but of course I couldn't find any ones with someone else singing it;) Anyways, it talked about all the instruments that you can buy at the San Jose Flea Market, it was fun to say all the instruments and Alex really got into the song. We are still practicing about four or five songs that we were assigned along with other things. This week it is conversations, hello, how are you?, that sort of thing. This assignment scared me most of all because we were supposed to find a stranger that speaks Spanish and go up and say Hello, etc.! Later she revised it and said just to practice on someone that knows Spanish and US, so that they didn't start going into a long conversation with us left scratching our heads wondering what they were saying!

All and all, I love homeschooling the boys, not only for all I can teach them (with lots of help) BUT also the wonderful and interesting things that I learn everyday! It's amazing what you appreciate when you are older and learning something new is most definitively first on my list!

It's that time again!"NOT" Back to School

End of science fun

End of week of animal fun

So raise your hands if you are NOT going back to school or not taking out a loan against your home to pay for everything that you HAVE to buy for your kids? NOT rushing around with one of those lists of a million school supplies that your kid probably will not use? NOT having a melt down with back to school shopping in general? Don't you remember doing all those things before you pulled your kiddos out of school? OR if you were lucky enough to be homeschooling since the beginning, then when you were going to school and your parents running around getting all your supplies for school? Well this is just another thing I am so happy that we don't have a set time that we need to run out and get anything! I am not losing my mind trying to make sure that the boys have the latest, coolest fashions, just letting them pick what THEY think is cool to wear.

SO what do you have planned to do for your "NOT" back to school party or get together? We have a Kick Off with our local homeschool groups at the park that everyone brings a dish (AKA potluck) and the kids have fun games to play.The moms can sit back and relax, and we mostly talk about things like the coolest new site for learning compound words, spelling games, our new curricula, or even something fun we are doing like planning field trips. Meanwhile the kiddos are running around playing with friends (getting stinky and sweaty) or playing card games. After this day is over we all retreat back to the AC and I relax, yes again. It's hard chatting about school and life for 4 hours, LOL.

Are you joining any fun Co-ops for this year that you are excited about?  We have one that Alex did last year that is Now going to be on Fridays for World Literature and history with a great friend. He really enjoys the history class not so much with the literature class! (only because he is writing a lot;)  Discover a new planner that makes your life of scheduling a breeze? Still haven't found one that I am in love with OR that my ADD tendencies allow me to do for more than a month. Just my standard pen and paper so I can cross the HELL out of each thing as I get it done!

Maybe you are starting to blog about your homeschooling experiences? I have great inexpensive resource for anyone looking to start blogging, it is a blogging writing course that I took before I started blogging. Some of the stuff I already knew but there was tons I didn't even think about.   Make sure to share your blog in the comments, it is always fun to see what others are doing! (and inquiring minds want to know)

A Week for Summer Camps

Anthony's Camp through Wake Co. Libraries~ Science in the Summer

Alex's Camp is at Noah's Landing in Coats, NC~ Teen Junior Zookeeper

As you can see even Anthony was able to say hi to some of the unique animals at Alex's camp! This week has required A LOT of running around for all of us but the rewards are well worth it! We are only two days into the camps right now and all Alex can talk about are the animals and experiences that he has done each day! Anthony as you can tell from the pics is smiling and learning as well but once he saw and heard Alex talk about his day he was a little jealous!  You can't please everyone all the time right??

I am taking the little time that I have to myself this week (after all the running back and forth) and getting ahead on things that I have been putting off. I know you don't believe it?? I pretty much have our secular homeschool curriculum taken care of for the first six months of school but there are always something to add to it! Or even after getting it together realizing that I missed something fun to add to the lessons! Fun activities, like these camps or crafts projects even field trips are a part of what we do every year and make the boys ready to jump into the lessons!

Have you done any fun camps for your kiddos this summer? I know that with our school system that they have kids on different tracks so the Wake Co. has programs throughout the year for kids to do when they track out. I will be looking more closely at these programs for fun camps for the boys to participate in!

Another First For Us;)

     Did I ever tell you that I am a wee bit over protective of my boys? Since finding my great secular homeschooling group, my boys and I have made some great friends! We have had a lot of great experiences with all our new friends. We are going on our 4th year in this group and I have to say that we have made some great new discoveries along the way. One being that I now have people I can trust around my boys enough to let them spend the night with friends. Yes, I have trust issues I know but they come from a very real place in my childhood. Something that I am always aware of with my boys, and have had some real dilemmas come up over the past that just didn't allow me to "trust" every many people alone with my boys.
   
 Ever since finding a great local support group both boys have had some fun activities that yes didn't include me;)  Alex has been invited to several over night sleep over parties with lots of teens from the group. He really has a great time with them, and it helps my shut in get out and be a teenager with other teens. He has even started going to a great teen night at "gasp" a modern church, that is open to everyone 13 and up. It is chaperoned safe place he can go and hang out with other homeschoolers and kids that go to private and public schools, as well. (disclosure here: it is not at an old fashion type church they are in a commercial building with fun things for the kids to do and NO preaching to the kids!)
   
 Anthony has had his first sleep over as well, first at the neighbors house across the street and yes I was there at 8 am the next morning! Pathetic right? Then he was invited to a friend's house for his FIRST ever camp-out birthday party, and he is having a blast! How do I know? Well his mom is a great friend so she has been putting up pics on Facebook. He has all the friends there,getting to eat hot dogs and make smores, playing Pokemon until the wee hours and oh yes I have called him a time or two, or is it five times?

     Well, maybe I have a bit further to go with the "letting go" a bit, but the boys are loving it and I am loving the fact that they are having fun with their friends. So we are on the right track, heck I even have them signed up for camps this week. Alex gets to finish his camp by sleeping over night at the zoo! So yes I am beginning to find ways to let go a bit and trust thanks to my new secular homeschool group!