There's No Place Like Home: From the Diaries of a Fruity Homeschool Momma

This week I'm sharing some Real Life Homeschooling. At least, what happened during one week of our homeschool. These posts are not meant to educate. I can't tell you how to do it "right." So I am not even going to begin to try. This is just life. 

Dear Diary,

They say the best laid plans of Mice and Men…

At least that’s an old poet said. 

John Steinbeck took it from him.

I frequently repeat it to remind myself that sometimes it just doesn't matter what is written on "The List."  This isn't Tuesday, after all. 

The Muffin is off today.

It’s Thursday. Thursday finds Josiah and me at our little Reading Club. I’ve been teaching this little class for a few years now. They are pretty stinkin' cute.

This is us making butter. 

But who can resist staying home with this?

I decided that Josiah didn’t need to get off that easily. Tomorrow is Good Friday and I might consider letting him take the day off to do boy things.

I made breakfast for my crew and Josiah and I sat down with a few projects and assignments. 

This is my journal entry of the day. Our subject was "Rainy Days." I will have to back and read Josiah's, but I will be surprised if there isn't a reference to football or tornadoes. He tends to ride the same track for a while. 

Help! My table needs an intervention. I need an intervention.

Nothing makes perks up a tired body better than a glass of tea. I think there might have been a book being read. I know I always feel that I'm not doing enough, Dearest Diary.

Am I ruining my child for life because of this decision to homeschool? I happen to know that there are those close to me who believe exactly that. They can never know how much I doubt myself.

Wow! So serious. Maybe I need to go visit the Cupcake Shop again! Sugar and lard always perks me up...that is until I slip into that sugar induced coma.

I can't believe that this boy is even reading close to grade level. It's tougher for him than most. Dyslexia is not an easy cross to bear. He has worked so hard. I have to believe that we made the best choice for him. For all of us.

I was staring at this picture of my beautiful boy when I realized that it looks as if his thumb is rotting off. That is chalk pastel!

Education can be messy, Dearest Diary. Just look back up at my table.

The Muffin and Josiah ran and got tacos for late lunch. I had a nice soak in the tub (my table was just exhausting me) and starting getting ready for our evening at the Theatre!

Now is not the time for me to wax eternal about my love for musical theatre.

I am not the only one in my family who enjoys a little song and dance. Some of The Muffin's favorite movies of all time include Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Yankee Doodle Dandy and Beauty and the Beast.

I married well.

When we got to the theatre someone from a local magazine asked if they could take a picture of The Muffin and Josiah in front of the sign.

My camera was doing weird things once we were inside.

This little glitch didn't prevent me (oh so casually) from taking a picture of someone reading right before the curtains opened. Is this woman related to me?

I always carry a book in my purse. I usually keep my Kindle in there too, but I always forget to charge it. At least I don't have to find a charger for a paperback.

There are just somethings you can't admit to even a diary. One of those things is what kinds of things can be found in your purse.

Let's just say that I was at the gym last week digging around for my earbuds and managed to fling a dirty spoon at an old fella coming over to visit.

In my defense I had just used it to eat some yogurt.

What can I say about the show? It was fantastic. I obviously couldn't take pictures.

Our little community theatre did such a beautiful job. The music was flawless. The costumes were vibrant. It was perfect.

I kept glancing over at my guys. They both grinned from ear to ear through much of the performance.

When we walked out of the theatre hours later it was a beautiful night. Downtown was lit up. We walked back to our car and rehashed all of our favorite parts.

I can't but feel blessed. What a gift this evening was.

We never get to go on vacation. In fact, if we manage to get to Indiana once a year to see The Muffin's folks we are doing good. We don't get season passes to theme parks. We don't have amazing adventures in the mountains or at the beach. We don't have fancy possessions. Our cars are one good breakdown from the scrap heap. We shop sales and Thrift Stores or make do with what we have.

Some don't understand this life we have chosen. They wonder how we can be content with the little bit we have left.

Dearest Diary. It's these people that I live with. They are my contentment. My decision to be home schooling my son has not come with sacrifice.

But it is the best one I could have made.

There really is no place like home.

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Piece of Cake: From the Diaries of a Fruity Homeschool Mama

This week I'm sharing some Real Life Homeschooling. At least, what happened during one week of our homeschool. These posts are not meant to educate. I can't tell you how to do it "right." So I am not even going to begin to try. This is just life. 

Dear Diary,

Thank goodness we only have 3 more weeks of PE this semester. I’m beginning to lose track of my days. I can’t even remember what I did this morning. It obviously wasn’t productive. I didn’t even have my usual cup of tea and Quiet Time.

That never bodes well for the rest of the day.

Wednesday usually look a lot like Mondays…without the mad rush about town for groceries for these people to eat. At least once a week, a well-meaning individual asks Josiah why he isn't in school? I always politely respond. The responses I get in return are always mixed. One time we were at the Y in the morning and a older lady started telling me of some niece who was abusing her children because they weren't in public school. 

Hmm. Listing all of the perceived evils of homeschooling is not the best way to strike up a friendly conversation with someone who just told you they are homeschoolers. I am used to disapproval from a variety sources. Generally, I explain that I do have an education (though it is not necessary) and I know what I'm doing. I try and do it in a light-hearted way so as not to offend. Though why I am worried about offending someone who has been offensive...

A little rant here. I wouldn't dream of walking up to a total stranger and telling them that their educational (or life) choices are ridiculous. It is bad enough when a family member disapproves. Give me a little credit. I didn't just fall off the turnip truck! 

Rant over. At least until next week. 

You know when you are a homeschool parent when even a few words drawn in the dust on the back of a truck is a teachable moment.

Are those complete sentences? Who is the subject? How would you change this sentence?

Bet the Dude who did this little bit of writing in the dirt doesn’t know he provided a little “car schooling” experience.

There was dancing to be done at PE again today. I know the picture is blurry. This is an example of "I know my momma is taking my picture so I am going to casually look at my fingernail and pretend I'm not dancing." 

This. Is the Cha Cha Cha. 

So they tell me.

This might be a good time, Dearest Diary, to record this bit of information into history. I occasionally catch Josiah dancing to New Direction on the Just Dance video game. Maybe he's in training for next year's Dance Unit at PE. 

After PE I drove Josiah home and ran to Hobby Lobby.

Or as I like to call it. “The Happiest Place on Earth.”

Feel the calming breezes of the craft supplies wafting through the sweet fabric scented air.

I went to get some sort of art eraser. I think Josiah has been using ours as chewing gum.

I also picked up a small pad of scrapbook paper for a project for Easter. So many plans. So little time!

I need more Tuesdays. 

Our school day was relatively smooth. Thank goodness for that! 

There was oddness going on with his math program on the computer. Josiah was THRILLED!

“Yay! It’s not working! I guess this means more time for Xbox!”

Oh to be young and so delusional. 

Wednesday Evenings include Diving Practice at the Y. 

We loaded up about an hour early and stopped by the Library that is also just a few minutes from my house. Not to be confused with the library I visited on Monday.

I will tell you, Dear Diary, that I could probably do homeschool for absolutely no cost with the exception of an internet connect and a constant supply of printer ink.

Why is it that the Printer Ink runs out at the most inopportune times? 

So I had to stop by the Library. Make a few copies, pick up a book and check out these seed packets.

Isn’t this the coolest? Our library had an heirloom seed program this year. All patrons got to check out seeds to plant. I, of course, will not be planting anything. I got them for my Dad. He will get a kick out them. And I got things I was interested in eating.

When we left the Library we still had a good 45 minutes before Swim Team Practice. I decided to stop by a cupcake store. Isn’t it just madness to stop at a cupcake shop before going the Y?

Why, yes. It is. I can’t explain myself.

This is a Coconut Dream Cupcake. It did have little jelly beans on top of it (just in time for Easter). It was heavenly. 

Anyhoo. Something wonderful happened at the cupcake store. Josiah and I won tickets to see a Theatrical performance of The Wizard of Oz! 

The best part is that I only one 2 tickets. When they found out I needed 3 they gave me another one!

So I won tickets to see a musical and I got to enjoy 1,000 calorie cupcake.And I got to share a minute with this guy. 

When I called The Muffin to tell him about the tickets I made no mention of the Cupcake. I figured that was on a need to know basis.

Dive Practice. There is not much more entertaining than seeing children hurl themselves off a diving block. 

I’m easily entertained.

I did read a book. Sometime of the time.

I didn’t even workout…It seems that I walked out of the house with my flip flops on! Which are not great exercising footwear.

Here is what I have to tell myself.

Did my son get to his activity on time?  Yes. Does he have the appropriate equipment (swim trunks, googles)? Yes. Did he learn? Yes. Did he enjoy myself? Is tomorrow another day? Why, yes,…Miss Scarlett…It is.

Good enough.

I did put in some “Office Hours” when we got home that evening. I worked efficiently and quickly. I rocked it.

If I do say so myself.

That Right!

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Only 24 Hours in a Day? From the Diaries of a Fruity Homeschool Momma

This week I'm sharing some Real Life Homeschooling. At least, what happened during one week of our homeschool. These posts are not meant to educate. I can't tell you how to do it "right." So I am not even going to begin to try. This is just life. 

Dear Diary,

It’s Tuesday. Tuesday. I really love Tuesdays. On Tuesdays we have no place we have to be. On Tuesdays I can get finish unfinished projects. I can tackle the laundry pile. The chances of needing to serve my family cold cereal and Ramen is greatly diminished.

Our School Day becomes "let's do everything that I have pinned on pinterest last week" (within reason).  We create a page for the State Notebook. We do art. We discuss lofty and important things. Such as; world peace, limited government and the cool battle scenes in the newest Hobbit movie.  

I can rest in the fact I won’t have to step my Big Toe out of front door unless we (a) choose to see a cheap movie at the Dollar Movie or (b) we have an alien invasion from outer space (which in that case I’m getting out of the neighborhood ASAP. I think there has to be a few in my neighborhood anyway.

This morning started with breakfast. As it does every morning. I also grabbed something out of the freezer for supper and made up an assignment sheet.

Don’t remind me that I had neglected doing that the night before. I was too busy living it up with the Duggars and recovering from my crazy day out.

http://chargeforwhining.blogspot.com/2015/04/are-we-there-yet-from-diaries-of-fruity.html

I meant to scrub my kitchen down a little bit this morning, but wound up lounging in my bed with The Muffin and Josiah. We had a devotion and then guys looked up Michael Phelps doing The Butterfly on Youtube.  Josiah is struggling to keep his form across the pool. I told him that perhaps laying off a Peanut Butter Cup before practice might help. He looked at me like I had lost my mind. I guess athletes need carbs? I even look at said Peanut Cup and start gaining weight.

Today we had fun working with Pastels. Our Cartoon Cats were waaay cute. 

If I do say so myself. This cat actually resembles one we had when I was a teenager. I recognize that look.

Math was a little more frustrating today. Why is that the boy can only remember his math facts if they are connected to a NFL football game? We just keep plugging along. One of these days he's going to appreciate I made him do math (though I can't even believe I am saying that!)

Every Spring Josiah wants to study storms. I suppose it’s natural. We do live in Tornado Alley and he has become quite our young weatherman. Some of his library books this week dealt with storms. He also watched some of one of his favorite storm documentaries on Netflix. This year I am requiring him to do a presentation on what he has learned. I think he can do it. If it’s more than “these storms are dangerous” I’ll be satisfied. Today he came up with the brilliant plan of doing a bit of weather chasing this spring. Huh. Not on my watch. 

Last week he had to complete a report on the North American Bison. He wound up writing his favorite football teams around the border of the report. I'm saving all of these precious bits and pieces to torment him when he becomes a father, himself.

Josiah also made a pan of brownies this afternoon. Every so often I try and buy a mix to keep under the cabinet. It is not my favorite form of nutrition, but Josiah can create them all on his own. He also could eat it all on his own if I let him.  I tried to ignore them. Don't tell anybody, Dearest Diary, but I think I might actually could have snuck just a little piece. Maybe. Kinda. Sorta. 

Dear Diary. It is now time for me to admit my big “OOPSie.” This week the author, Lois Lowry, is visiting our fair city for a book signing. I was sure it was tonight. I even laid out my “book signing outfit” as opposed to the stretchy pants I was sporting.

I’m sure glad I rechecked the time. The book signing is actually Thursday night.

Big stink.

Maybe I need to pay a little more attention to my calendar.

I always have so much hope for Tuesdays. I didn’t even crack the surface of my Tuesday list.  Every Tuesday I am reminded that I really need a few more Tuesdays in my week. 

Until tomorrow.

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Are We There Yet? From the Diaries of a Fruity Homeschool Momma

This week I'm sharing some Real Life Homeschooling. At least, what happened during one week of our homeschool. These posts are not meant to educate. I can't tell you how to do it "right." So I am not even going to begin to try. This is just life. 

Dear Diary,

It’s Monday. I’ve been trying to pretend it’s not Monday all day, but so far all of my pretending is for naught.  All the errands and activities still continue whether I try and convince myself it is a day like, for example, Thursday. Thursday is a harmless day. There is no expectation for Thursday.  

My morning started with a trip to my brother’s house. I had left my phone charger there the day before. No matter that we have at least 4 cords that can charge my phone. I couldn’t find any of them. I think we must have a phone cord monster in the house. Along with a sock monster and a spoon monster.

I had to move back my usual grocery shopping routine before running Josiah to his PE class. I tried to switch grocery shopping to another day but it was impossible. Generally, the only things in the fridge about Sunday evening are homemade jellies and an odd assortment of salad dressings.

Aldi’s was crazy! We usually shop at a different Aldi across town. This one was on the way to PE. I try and make our grocery shopping trips educational, but I wasn’t having any of that today. “Get those Poptarts out of the cart” was all I could manage.

We were 10 minutes late to PE class. I managed to hit every red light in town. Thank goodness for books on CD. We listened to Diary of the Wimpy Kid twice last week. This week I have The Enchanted Castle by Edith Nesbitt in the car. I figured out that Josiah wasn’t listening too closely when he asked me if it was normal to be able to see the sides of your nose.

We have been attending this particular PE class for 4 years now. I wish I could have had a class like this when I was studying to be a teacher. Basically, Josiah is a guinea pig. Physical Education majors try out lesson plans and test their teaching chops every semester on a group of willing homeschoolers.

This week, by far, is my favorite week ever. It’s Dance. It is the most entertainment I have had in a while. I really think they should have a Dance class just for the parents. We could show these kids how it’s done. None of this “I can only shuffle my feet because I’m too cool to really have fun.”

After PE, I dropped Josiah off at home so I could run to the pharmacy. I told Josiah he could have a few minutes on the X-Box while I ran my errand. We were starting our homeschool lessons at 1:00p. On. The. Dot.  In truth what I really wanted was about 30 minutes to myself. I didn’t care if it was spent standing in line at the Wal-mart pharmacy counter. It was bliss.

I realize that a good portion of the civilized world think that homeschoolers either (a) sit around and play video games all day or (b) win National Spelling Bees and grow, harvest and mill their own wheat.

Does it count that we have made our own butter?

Thank goodness School Days on Mondays are light. It took me years to figure out that I could lighten our load on busy days.

About 3:45 I sat down on the couch and contemplated taking a nap. Instead I surfed Facebook and poked a little around Pinterest. About 4:30 I realized I needed to get my act together and rushed Josiah around for Swim Team practice and our weekly trip to the Library. Not necessarily in that order.

I have found that I have had to give Josiah an assignment at the library. Otherwise he checks out unlimited Scooby Doo movies. That, Dearest Diary, is a waste of a good library trip.

It was on my way out of library that I realized that I had neglected to pack our preswim/preworkout snack. What? It was now 5:30 and my blood sugar was bottoming out.

This does not excuse the caramel Sundae I ordered. The apples, oranges and turkey I had intended to bring was much healthier. I shoved half a burger down my son and shewed him into the Y. I sat in the car and ate my sundae.

I literally brought the visors down on both sides and tried to nonchalantly eat the sundae while healthy people came in and out of the Y.

Eventually, I decided I needed to face the music and went inside. If I do say so myself I had a really good workout. Even though I frequently forget parts of the necessary wardrobe. 

After my workout, I went down to the pool and watched Josiah complete his practice. Would you believe that he came out of the pool starving? Note to self: This is why I always pack food when we go to the Y.  Josiah also reminded me that I had neglected to pick up bread.

One trip to the Dollar Tree later and we finally limped home. No really. I was limping by this time.

It was 8:00pm. I usually give myself some time for “office hours” in the evening. Blog posts, writing jobs, lesson planning and Pinterest surfing. Tonight, well, after taking a bath I shut off the lights and watched the latest 19 Kids and Counting Episode on Youtube.

Dear Diary. I’m Such a Slacker! If Michelle Duggar can manage 19 kids surely I can manage grocery and errand day with 1!

I will say that I am even proud I made it anywhere today without breaking down in Bertha the Buick.

 Remember these faces? These were the faces of a momma and her boy who broke down during Errand Monday. And then managed to break down again the following Errand Monday. Maybe Bertha just doesn't like Mondays. She's in good company.

Tomorrow is a new day!

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A TOS Review: It's NOT Greek to Me!

I just had an opportunity to review Greek Morphemes Lessons (It’s NOT Greek to Me!) from Ready to Teach.

Don’t let “Greek” in the title scare you off. This is a fun vocabulary program intended to help all of us study our sometimes confusing language. In reading up on this program I discovered that 40%of English words involve Greek Morphemes. 90% of Science terms involve Greek and/or Latin Morphemes.

You can imagine the study of morphemes would give any learner a leg up in their vocabulary studies.

For my review I received a Student Book, an Instructor’s Manual and a CD that contained lessons via PowerPoint. I also received a handy dandy flash drive with the same PowerPoint lessons. As of this month, the Ready to Teach will be sending the flash drive out in lieu of the CD.

The program is divided into 12 lessons. Each lesson is intended to take a week.

There is a suggested schedule located in Instructor’s Manual. It is set up for 5 days.  Most weeks we do 4 days of heavy schoolwork with 1 light day. It was easy to modify.

Now here is the thing. Josiah is dyslexic. I didn’t want to pile a bunch of word work on him. But (and this is a biggie) I know that the study of words will help him immensely in decoding words. Josiah and I worked through the program together. I did the majority of the writing (and the heavy lifting), but Josiah did learn quite a bit.

I want to walk you through how it all works. Lesson 1!

Day 1: We watched the PowerPoint presentation.  

I will tell you that when I first glanced over the presentation I was a little worried. There is a lot of information scattered on the page. I was worried that he would have difficulty knowning where to look and miss a lot. However, my worries were for naught. Each portion reveals itself after a click. You can also see that this slide is for bibl;biblio. The words above the definition in gray (anthrop) was on the previous slide. I love how all the words were included on each slide. It was a good review. there are 16 morphemes in each lesson.  

The Student Book gives the student a place to make notes as the lessons progress.

Day 1 also included “working” the first half of the words. We wrote the word, wrote the Greek morpheme and then wrote down a “possible” meaning of the word. Then we looked up the definition in the dictionary and wrote that down.

Day 2 involved working the remaining words assigned. If you have an eager student I don’t see any reason why this cannot be done on Day 1.

Day 3 taught us to write the four types of context clues. This included making up sentences. You can see that Josiah might have had a hand in constructing sentence #2.

We also created new words using the morphemes we had just learned.

This section had us identifying the morphemes in each word and then attaching them to a possible scenario.

 Day 4 had us making Study Cards and completing the review exercises. The rest of the Lessons encouraging you to make Study Cards all along. I like that idea. 

Day 5 is a test! I’m pretty sure we passed! How does one grade her own test anyway? 

Just a few thoughts: 

There are two ways to prepare the study cards. There are those the student can create themselves or those that are premade. We used both, but I am thinking of making up a set using traditional index cards.

This program is really a lot of fun! And so easy to use! My husband is interested in using it for his own studies and has been interested in my experiencing using it. I think that adults and teens alike will benefit immensely just by working through it.

I really love that it uses a couple different of ways to learn. We got to see, write and talk about what we were learning. It made the lessons stick!

If you do have a student who struggles with any aspects of reading or writing I recommend that you work through it with them. The program is set up that it can be used as an independent study or with a larger class. Or you can use it as I did...one on one. Work at your own pace or modify (as we did) the lessons to fit your specific needs.

This isn't primarily a homeschool product. I think English teachers would love this program!

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