The Great Outdoors (and a bit of gaming)

With the arrival of warm weather, I have been spending a lot of time outside- and I love it.  Even though just looking at my June calendar exhausts me, I am excited for the adventures we have in store. 

 

When Mark and I were on our way home from Tae Kwon Do, we saw this amazing double rainbow.  It spanned from the east side of the valley to the west side.  We gathered the family outside to see the rainbow.  It was fading, but Daniel was still able to catch a taste of it!    

 

 

I realized as Mark got older that having a birthday around Memorial Day weekend is difficult for planning parties with friends.  We had to wait a few weeks to get everyone together, but it was worth the wait!  On Saturday Mark had Dungeons and Dragons birthday party with Daniel as the Dungeon Master.  They played for a long time- 5 hours!  They had a lot of fun with the game. I like how much interaction with each other that the pen and paper version allows. 

 While the boys were playing D&D, David (Daniel's brother) was working on replacing our windows.  It has been a big job, but he was able to get about 1/2 way through last weekend.  He will be coming out again soon to finish (he lives in Vernal).  We've already noticed that the new windows have better sound insulation.  We have a neighbor who has taken up the drums (ug...drums) and we were able to hear the practice sessions in our house with our windows shut (their windows are open).  We can still hear the drums now, but it is muted.  Let's play the glad game and say that I am glad that they aren't playing the bagpipe! 

 Sunday morning we went for a walk around Daybreak Lake.  Mark was sleeping in, so we left him behind in a quiet house.  Seth brought his skateboard and got a lot of practice in with it.  He was pretty tired after the long walk around the lake, but I am proud of him for working on his skateboarding skills.  It isn't easy! 

 Wednesday morning Madeleine and I got together for a much needed get-together.  Sometimes we go too long between our outings and then I miss her.  The great thing about my friendship with Madeleine is the calm and peace I feel when I am with her.  We never seem to run out of things to talk about- and she has some amazing stories to tell me about the people she meets on her trips.  She just came back from a trip to Iceland.  When she goes on trips she will often bring back a few things for the boys (and Jane).  Usually she brings a newspaper or map, some coins and a treat.  She brought back some sand from Iceland- it was black volcanic rock that was ground very fine.  It is always a great day when I spend time with her. 

We went for a walk along the Jordan River that is just behind her house.  Jane was an adorable addition to our outing.  Since Jane has been keeping her panties dry every day, she earned her Pink Princess dress.  She loves to wear it!  I'm super happy that she earned it! 

 Madeleine and Jane walking to the park.

 Jane loves to hold hands as we walk.  As I was walking as saw our shadow of us holding hands I was struck by two things: first, how lucky I am to be Jane's mom-she is such a delightful little girl.  And second- she is growing up so fast.  I know that it won't be long before we aren't holding hands while walking around the park, so I soaked in as much of this as I could. 

 Madeleine was explaining a few things about the plants on the side of the path.

 Thursday night we went up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Storm Mountain with some ladies I know through a MeetUp group.  Seth was going to come, but he was having a tired melt down and I was being very impatient with him.  I was really nervous about going up with this group just because I'm new to the group and I've only met a few of the people one time.  I didn't realize how much anxiety I had toward it until after we decided to have Seth stay home with Daniel.  It was good for him to get to bed on time, but I missed having him with us. 

 Jane has no fear.  It was tricky to keep my eye on her- she moves a lot and she moves fast!  She climbed up this rock with the boys and they were a bit amazed that she did it because it was tricky for them to climb up!  She holds her own, that's for sure!  We had to force her to stop climbing because it was getting too steep! 

 A big black bird came over by our fire pit. Jane had some chocolate and she tried offering it to the bird!  There was a duck that was in our area for a while, too.  Jane had a lot of fun following it around. 

 Isn't Paul a handsome kid?  I love to be with him as he discovers things around him.  He is amazed by different colors in the rocks, by cloud formations, by where trees grow, by the color of leaves as they shimmer in the breeze, by the depth of cracks in the rocks, by the mist of the waterfall- just everything.  I love that he appreciates nature. 

 

We walked to the amphitheater that is in the picnic area we were in.  I tried to get Paul to dance for me and Jane, but he wasn't too thrilled about that.  When it was time to walk back to our fire area, Jane sat down on the very top bench and wouldn't get off. She told me that it was my turn to dance, so I got onto center stage and did a little tap dance routine.  When I finished with an enthusiastic "Ta da!" (with Jazz hands and everything!)  Jane started to clap and yelled out "Yea Mom!"  It was so cute!  She wanted a turn to dance and Paul and I cheered her on.  It was just a fun and relaxing evening. 

 

Today is Paul and Seth's last day of school.  Paul is done with elementary school and is rather excited to go to middle school.  Mark finished the 7th grade on Tuesday.  I am very proud of Mark.  This year has been difficult for him with getting things turned in on time and his grades have suffered because of missing assignments.  He earned a 4.0 this term!  I am so happy for him.  It isn't really the GPA that I am proud of, but it is the fact that he took responsibility for his work and he figured out how to do what is required of him.  I really am enjoying watching his progression.  Now I need to go and order his Kindle!  Yea! 

Spending time outside is physically exhausting for me, but it is worth it because it rejuvenates my soul.  There is a peace, a beauty and feeling of love that I get when I am in nature (even if it is a man-made lake!)  I really want to take advantage of the nice weather and spend as much time in nature as I can. 

Our Homeschooling Adventure

I haven't written out my feelings and experiences with homeschooling Mark.  It seems a bit pointless now, though, because today was his first day back in public school- at his request.  The 'honeymoon' phase of homeschooling was over fast- in fact I'd dare say that it was a terrible honeymoon. 

We talked with Mark about what we would require of him if he were to homeschool.  We wrote down our goals for him and had him read them.  He agreed to our terms.  BUT, he didn't figure that we would follow through with them.  He figured that homeschooling would be easier than public school, that he could fly through his assignments within 2-3 hours a day, and that he could spend the rest of the day playing computer games.  Ummmm, do you want to take a look at that paper that we had you read?  It didn't allow for more than 2-3 hours of computer time and required 5-7 hours of study and volunteer time.  I didn't have all of the curriculum in place when we started, so I told him that he could do more of his computer programming and art each day until we got other things lined up.  He did the bare minimum of anything that he agreed to do. 

We had weekly meetings with me, Daniel and Mark.  Mark cried during all but two of the eight meetings that we had (not because we yelled at him or were mean, but because we told him that we would be adding more responsibility each week).  I cried after many of them.  The benefits of homeschooling (working at your own pace, spending time with family, field trips, setting your own schedule, etc.) are wonderful, but we couldn't allow Mark to homeschool without taking advantage of the academic benefits (learning more in depth about subjects, moving through textbooks more quickly,working on more subjects that aren't included in public school, etc). 

I have invested a lot of time into homeschooling.  The first half of my day is spent with Mark.  I enjoy his companionship (mostly), but I do not feel adequate to be his teacher in math and science.  I got a Bachelors of Arts, not a Bachelors of science for a good reason! I took algebra and I remember most of it, but I am not proficient in it.  He needed a better teacher.  Daniel is a great teacher and great at math, but he is really busy with work (two jobs/contracts right now plus cello and Tae Kwon Do) I did find a math resource that had instructional videos that we felt would help.  If I wasn't sitting down with Mark, he wouldn't work, but he figured that the hour that he just spent messing around while his math book was open counted as an hour of math being done.  I needed him to be more self-driven and show more effort (both issues were discussed in the afore mentioned paper)

We gave Mark an assignment to write two persuasive essays.  One on why he should homeschool and the other on why he should attend public school.  He had all day on Wednesday to do it, and we would discuss it at our weekly meeting on Sunday. Thursday was Thanksgiving so the day before and the day of I was super busy in the kitchen and shopping for groceries that I didn't check up on him.  On Friday I asked him if he had the essays done, and he threw a fit.  No, they weren't done- not even started- and he was mad that he had to do it.  We told him that he couldn't use the computer for anything until the essays were completed and turned in.  He sulked.  He was sour and mean to everyone.  A few hours later, Daniel was resting and Paul, Seth, Jane and I decided to go outside to play (the weather has been amazingly warm for November!) I decided to go and check on Mark and  I discovered that he had snuck onto the computer!  He retreated to his bedroom.  As I went upstairs, I realized that his journey  to homeschool was over. 

By Saturday morning, Mark hadn't started his essays.  Daniel gave him a deadline of noon.  If they weren't done, then he would definitely go to public school.  At noon he handed in two pages with bullet points on them.  It wasn't an essay and it was done very sloppily.  His objections to public school mounted to not wanting to stand at the bus stop in the cold weather and not being able to pick his schedule.  He said that reasons to not do homeschooling is because he has to work harder to be social (a requirement on our paper!) and he had to work harder with his school work.  He put "I'd have to put more effort into my studies.  It's not that I don't mind, but I really enjoy being lazy."

Homeschooling has to work for the family. Daniel was ready to call it quits after the first month.  Paul chided Mark a few weeks into our adventure saying, "You are ruining my chances to homeschool".  I wanted to work things through and over time get things to be how we wanted them to be. Right now I can't put the work and effort into his learning if he is going to be lazy.  I didn't realize exactly how much work it would be for me.  I really hoped that Mark would be a better independent learner.  We have no immediate plans for homeschooling any of our other children (except for Jane for preschool). I love that each family has the option for doing things to work for their family.

After 8 weeks of homeschooling, I am done.  I have mixed emotions about how things went.  I didn't expect this to make me feel so stupid- and teaching algebra made me feel that way (it has been nearly 16 years since I took algebra).  I didn't expect that I would cry so much over all of this (perhaps I would have cried over other things anyway- it has been a rough patch for me). 

Could we have made this work?  Maybe.  I'm positive that it would take a big toll on Mark and Daniel's relationship- it already had. Things may have worked out over the next year.  I was dedicated to doing it for a year, but Mark wasn't dedicated to doing it the way we had outlined at all.  I wonder if we had been doing homeschooling all along if it would have gone differently.  We  could have done things differently. We could have given this more time and perhaps had things turn around.  We struggled with knowing when to keep going and knowing when it was time to call it a day. 

Public school is going to be a lot of work for Mark.  He will be bored in class.  He will spend just under an hour walking through the hallways to change classes.  He will be subject to foul language and possibly bullying.  He will be surround by (gulp) girls (yes, he notices girls!).  He will learn to adhere to the rules set before him or reap the consequences.  He will struggle with deadlines. These are things that he will adapt to.  He will need to make choices as to what kind of person he wants to be and who he wants to associate with.  I am excited for him to make these choices- to watch him progress and become a young man.  He has been armed with the ability to make good choices.  It is up to him.  That is hard to accept as a parent.  I have to allow him to fail. 

I mentioned that he cried at all but two of our meetings.  The last meeting we had, I expected him to cry and throw a fit at us when we discussed the idea of him going back to public school, but he didn't.  He was very calm, easy to talk with, and almost relieved.  If he wasn't relieved, he was resigned.  He didn't want to do homeschooling OR public school, so he had to decide between the two.  He decided to go to public school (with a bit of persuasion on our part!).

I am at peace with our decision (but the house sure seems quiet today!)

September and October in a Blur

I am so far behind on my blogging.  Lately I have just felt 'off'.  Nothing horrible, but I've just been unable to get into a rhythm since the summer.  It is messing with me more than I'd like to admit. I'm going to do a quick catch up and then hopefully get things back together. 

This post is huge- lots of pictures.  It is my 300th post, so I might as well make it a 'special' one right?!

Here is a round-up of what we did in September:

Labor Day: Shelley and her boys joined me and the boys on an adventure to Red Butte Gardens, Ensign Peak and a tour of the Utah State Capitol building. 

It was hot and Mark was feeling very photogenic! 

 

 

Paul created a ninja comic strip.  I love his little ninja!

Jane loves to help the boys empty the dishwasher in the mornings.  I just noticed that Paul is giving Jane rabbit ears.

We went to City Creek Mall in SLC for my birthday dinner.

Paul left me a birthday message in the bathroom after he cleaned it.

Paul gave me a frowny face during his least-favorite exercise in Tae Kwon Do

Paul made a pyramid with the blocks at Lowe's.

 Sorry, this next picture is gross. 

We had a piece of plastic fall into the dishwasher, so I had to take it apart to get it out.  This is only some of the disgusting mess that I found (note- our dishwasher was working fine- or so I thought!) once I removed the blades and such.  I already cleaned out a lot of the junk before I took a picture.  So gross.  So gross.  I got the parts soaked and scrubbed, put it back together and smiled!  I did it!  Then the door handle broke the next week, so I ordered the part, removed the front panel and replaced the door handle mechanism!  I saved us a couple hundred dollars!  I am so proud of myself! 
 

 

 

October

Paul and Seth were off-track from school for the first 3 weeks of October.  We went to Kennecott Copper Mines with my sister Kim and her kids

Me and Kim

Seth and Nathan

Afterward, we went to the park and had a picnic lunch.  Jane climbed this play structure and loved it, but it had me scared.  She climbed to the top and was about 12 feet up in the air! She had no fear!

 

 

At least I know that she was concentrating- she had her tongue out most of the time!

The boys had a Tae Kwon Do demonstration at their old elementary school in West Jordan. Paul was picked to do a flying side kick that was pretty impressive.  He jumped over 6 boys and broke the board that Master Hong was holding!  I was a bit emotional watching him because it was a tricky move and he was a little bit nervous! 

Seth and Paul took archery lessons.  The instructor was really impressed with Paul.  Paul was able to hit the small target most of the time (usually kids are given the large target like the one that Seth is using)

We picked pumpkins at the farm next to our house. Jane was pushing the wheelbarrow without picking it up, so she quickly abandoned the wheelbarrow because it wouldn't move far!

Paul and Seth

Right after this picture was taken, the wind picked up and a huge dust storm blew over us.  We ran as fast as we could to the van to escape!  I didn't notice the huge clouds until it was too late!  They moved in fast!

We spent an afternoon at the Living Planet Aquarium.  We had season passes that expired at the end of October, so we decided to get one more visit in.  The aquarium will be moving to a new building soon, so it will be fun to visit the new exhibits.

I didn't even have to ask them to pose!

Daniel's family came into town again.  This time it was to get together with Nathan (Daniel's brother) to say good-bye to him before he was deployed again (Afghanistan?  I don't remember where he is going.) We had a lunch planned over at our house at noon.  We had about 30 people over for lunch.  We sat and talked and joked and played.  Around 5 o'clock I realized that no one was showing a sign of leaving, so we made up a huge batch of rice and a chicken stir-fry and we licked all of the bowls clean!  I spent a lot of time in the kitchen that day, but it was worth it.  We all had a great time.  We had family in from Arizona, California, Colorado and Illinois.  Of the 14 living children, 12 of them were able to be there!  It was great to see family, to meet new babies and to visit. People started to leave around 9 at night and the house was 'empty' by 10:30.  (A big thank you to Andrea for the photos!)

Chad, Deb and Jaxon

Daniel and Jane

Most of the grandchildren

Nathan photo-bombing.  He wasn't feeling well and went to the hospital that night because he had strep throat.  When I found that out the next morning, Daniel and I disinfected every surface in the house that we could.  Thankfully none of us got sick too.  We felt badly that Nathan spent part of his leave being sick.   

Janet

Mark and Alys

Most of the group

Me

Jane

We received a surprise package a few days later from Daniel's parents.  The note said: "We can't thank you enough".  The flowers came on a very dreary day, so they helped lift my spirits! I didn't get a great picture of the flowers, but they were beautiful.  Each day the lilies opened a bit more and it was fun to watch them!   

 

We went to Scheels to see what it was all about.  We are now homeschooling Mark, so he was able to join us on our adventure with Madeleine!

Madeleine showed Jane some jewlery and she got very excited!

Jane patiently waited for the boys to finish their ride on the ferris wheel.

Seth at the school Halloween party

Carving pumpkins

Halloween night.  Mark stayed home and handed out the candy in exchange for a bag of Butterfingers and a box of cereal! 

So there you have it! I'm all caught up (well, at least for those months!)