sometimes we cave

 

 

Toby made the baseball AllStar team this year.

 

 

Actually, he’s been on an AllStar team every year since he was 8.  That first year we were practically forced to let him join.  Up to that point we had not mentioned to anyone in our community that we had a child with catastrophic epilepsy.  Though Trevy was at most of the games, because his seizures are not grand mal most people never even knew he was seizing through whole games.  No one but our family.  It was heart-breaking but we were committed to trying to live as “normally” as possible.  We knew there would be times when loving Trevy would interfere with normal, but baseball was something that Toby passionately wanted.  So we did the regular season.  But there was NO way we were going to do post season play.  That was where we had to draw our special needs family line.  The coach persisted, though.  He practically begged us until we finally had to tell him why we were insisting no.  He was not to be deterred – and so he offered rides and whatever support we needed for Toby to be on the team.  Coach Bob will always be one of our favorites.

 

 

Once your child tastes the awesome-ness of wearing a jersey with his name on the back…

 

 

Well, how could we ever say no again?

 

 

Oh, sure, every year we’ll tell him this is the last year.  That’s it.  We can’t do this anymore.  It’s too much money.  It’s too much time.  Too much to ask of our family.  Trevy isn’t getting any easier to care for.

 

 

And every Spring we cave.

 

 

The thing is…we’ve never even taken him to try-outs because we really mean it.  We really believe that the last year was the last year.

 

 

And then whoever happens to be the AllStar coach of the season will find us on the sidelines and tell us when practices start.  We’ll look at each other, sigh and know that we’re caving when we say he’ll be there.

 

 

I guess in a way it’s our one thing for Toby.  The one thing we sacrifice to give him.  For Bristel, it’s letting her paint my nails crazy glitter colors even though I have an IEP meeting later in the day.  Glitter nails don’t give the “I’m serious” vibe I’m looking for.  But it’s her thing.  She loves to glitter me up.  So I give that to her.  For Trevy, it’s therapy and doctors appointments and researching meds and everything else (which is a lot) that goes into loving a special needs child.

 

 

For Toby…it’s Sports.

 

 

Part of the reason we cave is that the competition isn’t getting any less fierce.  Even though Tobin has never been to a try-out, he’s not what you would call a top tier player.  He’s solid but he’s not flashy.  And at any point, he could lose his spot on the team.  So we keep caving to yes because we’re thinking it will naturally end for him soon enough.

 

 

It hasn’t ended yet.

 

 

His first AllStar game is tonight.  He’s a mess.  He’s the kid that had canker soars when he was 2!  Anxiety is his Achilles heel and he doesn’t handle it well.

 

 

Already this morning we’ve had fighting, tears, attitude.  Like I said, he’s a mess.

 

 

He came to me, tears in eyes, saying he was just so stressed out about tonight.  How he doesn’t want to be the one to make the mistake that loses the game.  And so on.

 

 

He learned how to stay in his own ugly head from the best.  I know that turmoil all too well.  And I know what flows out of me when I let myself fester on the “what ifs”.  So in a desire to help him reject the poison and dwell on the promises…I searched out Scripture on anxiety. 

 

 

I found a WONDERFUL site with some really great tools!  They have premade index box sized memory cards.  How great is that?! 

 

 

I printed them up for him and told him every time he felt himself getting anxious he should read through them.  To try his best to push out the ugly and let the beautiful saturate his heart and mind instead.

 

 

He’ll be using them a lot today.

 

 

But guess who else will?

 

 

Hopefully, it’ll help my frame of mind for this afternoon’s IEP.

 

 

…danielle

our day in pictures

 

Thanks to a tip from another homeschool mom we’ve been starting our mornings each day with CNN’s Student News.  Bristel didn’t want her picture taken because she still had bedhead.

Today’s episode covered the weather in OK.  The kids and I took some time to pray together.  It’s always precious praying with them…

This (above) is my Morning Meeting Basket. Our morning meetings are a time to connect & review before the day begins. Some things I have in my basket are: mini-white boards for Scripture review or just review games in general; colored whiteboard markers; American Flag for the Pledge; Brain Quest cards for fun; Binder with odds n’ ends; Index card binder with hand written things to review; Random other review-ish things.  I like to have a theme for each day of the week…but now that summer is closing in we’re all ready to just be done.  So I’ve just been flying by the seat of my pants.

Even though summer is comin’…I finally got my hands on a copy of Sue Patrick’s book this week.  I LOVE the workbox system on so many levels and reading through the book re-energized me again.

**her e-book is half priced right now**

So I spent the weekend cleaning out my school closet and creating new workbox tags for the kids.

Including a Question Mark Flag which they can pop into play-doh whenever they have a question for me rather than just leaving their seats all.the.time.

I have promised to check-in frequently.

And so far it’s working WONDERFULLY!

Other than Toby whistling and/or loudly drumming on the table for my attention.  That’s plucking me nerves…I may have to limit the number of questions allowed per day like Sue Patrick recommends!

Bristel thought her popsicle stick was too boring so she added some bling using left-over gold pieces from a mosaic kit.  Her girly girl styles makes me smile!

Toby wasn’t thrilled that she be-dazzled his too and made us remove them all!  LOL

My new love – repositionable spray glue!  I found mine at Michael’s for around eight bucks.

I sprayed it on poster board to make a Latin vocab review game.  I’ll be using it for LOTS of review games since we can just keep sticking and unsticking!

I also used it instead of velcro to make the kids workbox cards.  I’m hoping it works out because I’m a fan of LESS bulk!

The kids have both been daily doing Xtra Math, a free math fact practice website, for the past week and I’m definitely seeing improvement.

All my online reading program memberships have expired, so I have Bristel reviewing phonics with this nifty McGuffey app.  I’m using the lite version right now but I’m really REALLY liking this app for her AND for Trevy!  I may just have to purchase the full thing…

I couldn’t resist sharing my fan set-up.  It was stinkin’ hot yesterday…and we have these really weird shaped windows that are too small for regular window fans but too big for smaller fans.  Enter Duct Tape: the everything fixer!

On a super personal note, Life has been really stressful lately. 

Trevor’s seizures have been crazy.  He’s been having drug interactions that could KILL him and HAVE caused some really scary episodes of balance and consciousness loss.  So we’ve been fiddling with meds…never fun.  I hate the med-merry-go-round.  But it’s a necessary evil when your child has a form of catastrophic epilepsy.  We almost had an admission…also never fun.  Even when it’s canceled.  We were packed and ready to head out the door when the neuro called to change plans on us…for a valid reason.  But we were already so emotionally invested that we still had to deal with a touch of “hospital hangover”.  And it’s just been chewing up our hearts.  The way life with a chronically sick child does.

This has caused me to actively search for ways to add more PEACE.

Some days that means “unschooling”.  Because I can’t gather my wits about me.

Some days it means staying in my favorite pink sweat pants from dawn til’ dusk.  Don’t you teach better in sweats?!

Some days it means spending awhile in the Word and prayer.  My Mother’s Day zero gravity chair is a great place for that! 

Today it was the Instrumental Praise station on Pandora.  The kids feel like the music is too sad.  But for me…it’s peaceful!  And I need more PEACE!  I let them change the station on breaks…Toby is a huge fan of the Newsboys station.

On the subject of Peace.  And the lack thereof.  It seems like the kids attitudes go to pot at exactly the wrong time.  I’m sure it’s partly because they feel the stress oozing from their parents.  And that’s how they deal.  But they’ve been at each other’s throats for weeks…and I’ve done more yelling and crying and well, just bad parenting moments than I care to confess.  And it’s just been not working on any level.

So another peace-chasing thing I’m trying is having a “Scripture Station” at the kitchen island every morning.

My goal is less yelling and more (penmanship, grammar &) character building.  When I feel my blood pressure elevating…I (mostly) send them to copy pre-chosen verses.

Both of my kids are really LOVING FreePianoLessons4Kids.  They think Mr. Hoffman is a great teacher and he must be because he’s keeping them engaged!

They also take lessons with Grams.  But it’s been hard to fit them in lately so I’ve been supplementing with this program.

Bristel’s Language is Abeka this year.  I’ve been letting her say some things out loud to me.  If she makes a mistake she’ll have to write it out for extra practice.  It’s been a great motivator for her to try and remember her phonics rules!  Oh and I’ve black board painted just about every school surface in our house too!  It’s SO handy.  See the bank she and I worked on before she wrote her paragraph?  I highly recommend going a little blackboard paint crazy every now and then.  It’ll make you feel so “teacher-y”.

 

 

…danielle

a day in the life (homeschool picture marathon style)

 

 

I thought it would be fun to take pictures randomly through one of our days this week.  These pictures don’t reflect everything that happened during our day.  Just the stuff that made me smile.

 

Bristel with her “Abeka Academy” class for Math and Language Arts.

Toby sweatin’ to Saxon 7/6.

Bristel is such a SLOB with her desk during our school day!  This is how she left it during her break time.

 

My grading bin is there because I sit beside her and look over their turned in work.  She pays better attention to the videos if I’m sitting with her.

Oh the irony that his space is neater!

Toby is looooooving Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool for his English.  In fact, next year we’ll be using EP a lot more. 

I had these set out to laminate.  Um.  Yeah…they’re still sitting on the table where I left them a few days ago.

Bristel was kind enough to warn everyone that there was a hornet in the mudroom.

I was astonished to find her bike neatly propped up!  She loooooves riding her bike during her break times but usually just drops it any ol’ place in the yard.

I didn’t catch a picture but Toby is often found working on his pitching finesse or shooting hoops during his break times.

She also decided to start a garden.  I’m guessing she must have been inspired by peeking at some of my recent pinning?

 

Notice the browning de-seeded apple below.  I couldn’t help but notice where she found the seeds.  She thinks she’s growing me some apple trees in the backyard. 

We discovered that Trevy got into her school work.

I guess he’s not a fan of Math. 

She had a sweet spirit about it though and laughed while she erased his scribbles.

Probably because she knew I was going to find her hidden message on our chore chalkboard. 

 

…danielle

how homeschoolers do teacher appreciation

 

 

Unexpected letters left on the teacher’s desk…

 

 

Love notes hidden in Math Tests…

 

 

Offering to entertain the littlest so mom can relax in her early Mother’s Day zero gravity chair.

 

 

 

Okay…so maybe I had to FORCE him to entertain the little guy for me.  But at least I got to grab some Vit D for a few minutes! 

 

 

…danielle

our MOH timeline notebook

 

 

 

A homeschool mommy friend saw this picture (above)  in my Homeschool FaceBook album and asked if I’d ever done a post on our notebooking timeline.

 

 

Turns out I can’t remember!

 

 

 

So just in case…here we goooooo…

 

 

Side Note:  I posted the pictures above as evidence that we don’t always do school in our jammies!

 

 

But it is a homeschooling perk of which we take full advantage.

 

:: smile ::

 

 

So History is one of our Togethers. Meaning both kiddos and mommy (ie. me) and sometimes even Trevy meet together three times a week (ideally) to explore the history of the woooooorld.

 

We’ve used a variety of curriculums in the past.  ACE.  Abeka.  Little Pilgrims.  And we’ve enjoyed them all and still explore history outside of our formal curriculum.  But I really wanted something that starts at the beginning and would work for us to do together.  Through my online researching I fell in loooooove with Mystery of History.

 

 

We’ve been working our way through Volume I this year.

 

 

 

In true Chronic Complicator form, I’d started our timeline notebooking by previewing the lessons and writing in questions and such to help expand learning.

 

 

Totally UNnecessary.

 

 

The MOH book has EVERYTHING you need! Seriously. Well, except for those cutsie timeline cut outs. I bought those on the side from their store.

 

Also, the 1” inch binders.  I provided those separately too.

 

But cross my heart, the MOH book has everything else!

 

 

The point of our timeline notebook is for an easy hands-on project to reinforce our learning.

 

It gives the kids a little art and we always have fun talking about whatever we’re learning.

 

 

We typically do our notebooking pages on Fridays as a review of the lessons we completed that particular week.

 

 

I have the kids cut out the appropriate timeline figure and paste it into the page. I then have them label which lesson number it goes with. We can usually fit two timeline peeps on one page.

 

We then fill in the empty space around the timeline figure with stuff we’d like to remember about that lesson.  It’s kinda like a memory cards and timeline Mash-up.

 

 

Sometimes I’ll get creative (see my MOH Pinterest board) and have more crafty stuff for them.  They do love the crafting thing.  But I’ve promised myself no Mommy Guilt if I can’t squeeze it in!

 

Plus, it’s always really fun to watch them think up creative ideas on their own!

 

 

The Timeline lives in the front of the book.

 

 

Behind the divider we store any extra printables I’ve found.

 

 

And last comes their mapwork.  We haven’t done a ton of mapping.  But they do love it whenever we work on them.  More mapwork is on my to-improve list!

 

 

We did start the year with a wall timeline.  But I wanted something more hands on so we switched to the notebooking.  I think it’s working great.  I totally see us continuing with it in the Fall.  Of course, Bristel asked me today why we aren’t doing the wall timeline anymore and how we really should.  I encouraged her to go for it on her free time!  She wasn’t impressed!   :: haha :: 

 

 

…danielle