Mommy To Do It
Gideon says that all the time - "Mommy to do it", but honestly, that is the theme of our life right now. From haircuts and piano lessons to book reading and science lessons, everyone wants Mommy to do it. If only there were 3 of me sometimes! Especially with Rob in grad school and working full time.
We are almost at the end of the first quarter (for public school; Carolyn already finished quarter 1). We are managing. We have bit off more than we can chew this year, and as much as I tried to arrange the calendar to make it all go smoothly, we've already needed to adjust some things.
Carolyn signed up for ballroom dance (Monday evening class), but dropped that after the 6 week session ended. She still has USC string project (for orchestra/private lesson violin), and then she has church youth activities, so she had something every evening Monday through Thursday. The last few years she's only had church. The violin lesson/orchestra class is stuck until December, but next semester, we will consolidate the two parts to one day/week if we want to continue.
The three younger girls only have dance and school (plus church), but they are in different dance classes. Kaitlyn has ballet on Wednesday afternoon, and Natalie and Alee have baton on Thursday afternoon. The twins want to participate in other after school activities, and we had to turn down the first offer for one. (It was only 2 weeks, but it was intense scheduling.) We will evaluate the other things they want to do as they come up.
Seth has little going on after school until tennis season, but his classes are sufficiently demanding. He has AP calculus and a few other classes that keep him working, but we are so glad to be done with foreign language (Chinese!) and classes like computer programming and engineering. His electives are music, art, and psychology. He enjoys them all. (Can you guess what college his major might be in?) :)
His new thing this year is an instrument change. He has had the same music teacher three years in a row at the high school, and is on his third instrument with her. (Freshman year: guitar. Sophomore year: cello.) He's still in orchestra, but is switching from the cello to....well, I guess you'll have to wait for pictures from the concert in December to find out!
Alee both enjoys the school, and is sometimes frustrated as she adjusts back to public school. Her demeanor seems different this year, but I'm not sure if it's age, school, or lack of sleep. Overall, we like the school. I'm still deciding what the best choice is for her education for middle and high school.
Carolyn enjoys homeschool. I do too, and wish I had tried it earlier and with more children. Having mixed education among the children is time consuming. (Besides having both public and homeschool, we have 3 levels of public school, and of course the toddler in the mix.) We go to a co-op once a week, and I'm trying to decide if some of the things in our weekly routine are worth the time they take. I have definitely formed an opinion about different curriculum choices.
Science is our most demanding subject (and English is right next to it).
The fungi unit wasn't much better...here is one of several mushrooms we used:
We preferred the yeast part of the fungi unit because baking yeast smells like homemade bread.
Rob is overloaded with full time work and 7 hours of classes. One of the classes hasn't even given grades back yet, so he has no idea if he's handling the main 2 classes enough to keep them. I hope he finishes them both this semester with good grades; he has put in so much work into the one with no graded assignments and much frustration. He's built himself a "desk attachment" for his chair. I call it his adult high chair. :)
Gideon is being introduced to social time. Besides nursery at church, we have a preschool at the co-op and park time once a week, and this week we tried a library storytime for his age group. We will continue to evaluate whether this is a good idea for him. His storytime and preschool behavior are embarrassing and frustrating.
September begins and our calendar begins to fill up....
Primary Presentation Sunday
Playing at Memere's playground:
We are almost at the end of the first quarter (for public school; Carolyn already finished quarter 1). We are managing. We have bit off more than we can chew this year, and as much as I tried to arrange the calendar to make it all go smoothly, we've already needed to adjust some things.
Carolyn signed up for ballroom dance (Monday evening class), but dropped that after the 6 week session ended. She still has USC string project (for orchestra/private lesson violin), and then she has church youth activities, so she had something every evening Monday through Thursday. The last few years she's only had church. The violin lesson/orchestra class is stuck until December, but next semester, we will consolidate the two parts to one day/week if we want to continue.
The three younger girls only have dance and school (plus church), but they are in different dance classes. Kaitlyn has ballet on Wednesday afternoon, and Natalie and Alee have baton on Thursday afternoon. The twins want to participate in other after school activities, and we had to turn down the first offer for one. (It was only 2 weeks, but it was intense scheduling.) We will evaluate the other things they want to do as they come up.
new glasses
Seth has little going on after school until tennis season, but his classes are sufficiently demanding. He has AP calculus and a few other classes that keep him working, but we are so glad to be done with foreign language (Chinese!) and classes like computer programming and engineering. His electives are music, art, and psychology. He enjoys them all. (Can you guess what college his major might be in?) :)
His new thing this year is an instrument change. He has had the same music teacher three years in a row at the high school, and is on his third instrument with her. (Freshman year: guitar. Sophomore year: cello.) He's still in orchestra, but is switching from the cello to....well, I guess you'll have to wait for pictures from the concert in December to find out!
Alee both enjoys the school, and is sometimes frustrated as she adjusts back to public school. Her demeanor seems different this year, but I'm not sure if it's age, school, or lack of sleep. Overall, we like the school. I'm still deciding what the best choice is for her education for middle and high school.
Science is our most demanding subject (and English is right next to it).
We did this experiment on the back porch because the pond water samples smelled so bad! We think this is some bacteria called a euglena, but honestly we don't know if we're right. What we do know is a lot of useless information about Kingdom Monera!
The fungi unit wasn't much better...here is one of several mushrooms we used:
We preferred the yeast part of the fungi unit because baking yeast smells like homemade bread.
Funny Quotes:
Kaitlyn: does my saliva look cool?
(She meant cheek cells, in Carolyn's introductory microscope experiments.)
Seth offered to get a sample off of his friends Chromebook case for Carolyn to study during the fungi unit.
(She meant cheek cells, in Carolyn's introductory microscope experiments.)
Seth offered to get a sample off of his friends Chromebook case for Carolyn to study during the fungi unit.
Gideon is being introduced to social time. Besides nursery at church, we have a preschool at the co-op and park time once a week, and this week we tried a library storytime for his age group. We will continue to evaluate whether this is a good idea for him. His storytime and preschool behavior are embarrassing and frustrating.
I have been trying to rearrange the house to "make it work", but nothing seems to work. Still trying...
But that's for another post!
Here's a screenshot of our typical week.
(The Sunday and Saturday are not typical - those are usually filled with meetings or family, but always different.)
(The very last few days on this calendar are the end of August.)
Here are some picture highlights from September.
We had a "hurricane" (potential high winds from a hurricane off the coast), but really we just had no school. So, after Carolyn did some of her school work, we went to my aunt's house to visit my grandparents; three of them were there.
Primary Presentation Sunday
Playing at Memere's playground:
Here's October at a glance:
The last 3 weekends of the month aren't totally correct anymore. They've had edits. (Second weekend was an all afternoon 2-stake youth activity, third was a study day for Rob and temple day for Beth, and the last is a ward youth activity.) The youth are going on a beach trip this coming weekend with their youth group.
Here are some picture highlights from October (so far, it's not over yet).
We have a new nephew (kids have a new cousin).
Planetarium show
I always take on too much, but I’m not stressed as I have been at times in the past about what's on my list. (Most of what I do, I have the power to change or make easier or harder, and I’m letting things go here and there…like my chair re-upholstery that has a new goal of next August.) 😊
My only stress is trying to make the house work...read the next post for more information on that!
My only stress is trying to make the house work...read the next post for more information on that!
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