no one said it would be easy...

i never thought it was going to be easy...homeschooling my children that is. in fact i know it is going to be quite a challenge. especially the transition to such a schedule after so many months of free-for-all.

though we aren't going to begin using our curriculum for a couple of weeks i have begun to prep the boys and myself for the structure to come. we woke up early this morning and took our dog on a 3+ mile run/bike ride. then came home and did some math placement testing. getting the boys out of their routine of free play time was not so easy. they did put up a bit of grouchy foot stamping, especially R. but they settled into their desks and put their thinking caps on and really got into the challenges they were presented with. yes, once i got them working it all went quite smoothly. we have more testing tomorrow. and another bike ride to come in the morning down to town hall to sign up for all of their extracurriculars. archery! karate! football...robots!!!!

oh! and as it works out, saturdays are going to be the boys cooking lessons with daddy! every saturday morning i will head up to portland to my cherished kickboxing class so i can box my demons, sweat my ass off and release my stress and J will be with the three kids teaching them cooking skills. and kitchen cleaning skills! soooo excited for that. not only do i get to maintain my favorite and only activity that i do alone, but my kids will be able to witness their daddy in the kitchen (he virtually never cooks...or cleans up for that matter. work work work is his agenda). hope it inspires them.

eeee.

a little shrine for mama...

i just wanted to share the sweet little thing that Little J and R did for me...right in front of the place i do dishes, i have my speakers and a beautiful antiqued buddha staring me in the face. the boys decided to decorate my little space as a surprise for me...and it has been nothing but pleasure doing the dishes since. so sweet...so nicely arranged! notice the little vine rainbow in front...R's touch. i love my boys.

the desk!

so...we have both of our school desks ready to roll! painted with several smooth velvety black layers of blackboard paint on top for fun calculations, doodling and generally to just make the desks irresistible to their owners. the crafty trick worked! school is weeks away and the boys have spent several hours at their desks today! writing, figuring, drawing, designing some comics...they love them.

i highly recommend this easy upgrade to a tired desk or a table. the kids just love it.

Honest Pretzels

for the past couple of weeks we've had a daily guest, my niece, M. it's been a lot of fun having her everyday when her mom shoves off to work. an added element of zip and zest.

she is here today and forgot her bathing suit! egad... :) so i am trying to plan something fun for us to do to pass the time. we went bike riding yesterday...so today i thought perhaps we'd bake something yummy and eat it out in our little teahouse in the backyard. have a boy-friendly teaparty. lately i have been feeling like i need to instill some more chivalry in my sons anyway. they have been kind of anti-girl. and that is just not okay. :)

so i plan on searching through one of my favorite kid friendly cookbooks Honest Pretzels...and cooking away with three kids. but first i need to do the dishes from last nights' supper (i stayed up late being an artist and posting new work online and sacrificed a clean kitchen to do it, but i didn't even get it all up yet!!!...no rest for the motivated. you can check out the fruits of my labor at www.tangiblesbysf.etsy.com or in person at PICNIC the craft fair i am gearing up for in September.).

Honest Pretzels...here we come!!!!!

intention

so, the looming letters of intent are going out in the mail today. they are sitting in the box with their breast cancer awareness stamps on them ready to be picked up by our mailman.

i have emails to write to the principals of the boys' respective would-be schools to let them know they will not be full time students and officially request that the kids take music and band still. both have agreed to this already, but i haven't confirmed it on our end.

it feels pretty wild knowing we will endeavor to do this. trying to organize this world to accommodate this dream is going to be the biggest challenge including making the boys' two distinctly different personalities and learning styles mesh together, and entertaining baby D (or ensuring he naps at a certain time anyway.) while it all goes on.

but i am feeling brave, although i have a kink in my back from sleeping with a fan on for the first time all summer last evening...i am ready for the challenge. intent on success. success for our whole family. :)

wish us luck.

yoga...with the kids and all...

we do yoga.

we LOVE yoga.

i do yoga most days, my own little practice. i don't have the time alone without kids, or the funds to actually take steady classes with someone at the present time. and anyway, i find myself feeling pretty satisfied with my peaceful time on my own in the mornings before the kids get up, or in the evening when everyone has quieted down. i would love to take a class...but i actually really like leading others in yoga. so when the kids join in my sessions i am the happiest.

because we will have such a structured first part of every day once our schooling adventure begins, i have decided that i am incorporating yoga into our routine. J. has asked that i make it happen early early in the day so that he can be a part of it, too. i love that. family yoga every single morning first thing. and then breakfast together...what a way to start the day and feel connected as a family and grounded as an individual.

out on a date with the boys last week, i found "Yoga Pretzels." and i bought it. :)

it's a card game similar to "Dinner Games" which my children already love. we've played a few times, and it's fun, practical and gives everyone a chance to lead the little group's yoga session...i plan on using it along with my own favorite poses to fill the little 45 minute morning sessions.

we chose our path...and have begun whacking the weeds on it down!!!

so...we have made our decision to go ahead with our homeschooling plan. it is done. we have settled it in our hearts.

the final thread hanging to the normalcy of school as most people know it was cut when Big J. and i, in a discussion about life, basically came to the conclusion that life is short, and that there is nothing more important to us than our children. we want to spend as much healthy time and energy with them as possible and give them all we can. our two chosen occupations allow us to do this, so why not take advantage of that and live the way we want to??? neither he nor i have ever taken the worn down path in life. living by our guts, our instincts, works for our family...and i believe teaching our children that they don't have to be like everyone else, that they don't need to squish themselves into some box, is going to benefit them and help them keep their unique sparkle in the long run.

so we have begun the configuring of our school room...refinished an old desk and painted the top with chalkboard paint for endless figuring out of stuff. we still need to find one more desk to do this to!!!

we bought all of the basic school supplies we'll need, like pencils, chalk, pens, paper, notebooks, rulers, etc...the acquisition of these materials was way too much fun. we felt like supply addicts. Little J, who generally shies away from writing has already filled pages in one of the journals we bought him. :) handwriting can be fun when it isn't work. his teachers at school found getting him to write to be like trying to get a pig to fly...

the kids are almost finished completing the placement tests for the Calvert School...once that is done and the kids' grade levels and math levels are determined we will order their curriculums. i think we have found our japanese program which is the language we have chosen to learn as a family. we are all so excited about this and hope to travel to japan when baby D is a little older. it makes sense as a perfect excursion and foreign language choice since we have family that speaks mostly japanese...and we have family and friends we can visit in japan.

on the arts fronts we have designed our program which will combine all of the arts into a giant project for the first half of the year. the program is basically a puppet show production that will involve the design and creation of puppets, a set, a play with musical accompaniment and then the actual performance. we are hoping to get other folks involved in this because we imagine it to be way better way bigger. :)

we got our piano tuned. still trying to figure out if we will continue on with our regular piano lessons or venture out into something new. R is showing a strong interest in the guitar and he will attend music class at the public school. we have sent the old saxophone in to get restored for Little J to take sax and band at the middle school, too.

i found a really cool robotics workshop at the local library for each of the boys in november. they screamed with joy when i told them about it. R has mentioned that when he grows up he wants to design robots, specifically for the purpose of helping moms. :) i'll help foster that dream!

we have two september adventures planned...both the blue hill fair (which is the fair charlotte's web was written about...big sis K will actually be singing there this year!) and MOFGA's common ground country fair. hoping to camp out for each! nothing like overnight field trips!

and lastly we have outlined our physical extracurriculars. Little J chose archery and R chose flag football to start the year. they will both play their beloved soccer as well. they both will take karate as a constant throughout the year and we are joining the YMCA as a family so we can all swim together (and so i can undeniably have a chance to shake my groove thing as well).

so we sit in the middle of august, poised and ready for this coming challenging adventure! so thrilled for all that lies ahead.

pups...

in april we lost my big honey, Puck. a 115 pound 14 year old mutt whom i adopted from the pound in new haven Ct when i was hardly more than a pup myself. he was so tiny back then...i carried him home from the pound in my palm. he grew to be giant buddy with an even bigger heart. the best dog that ever was as far as i was concerned.

i can still taste the feeling of burying him. i can still hear my wailing as i dug his grave all by myself. the day i said goodbye to that sweet boy was harder than i ever imagined it would be. the warm wind whipped around and blew my dirty hair into my tear streaked face...like pucky's spirit had been set free, finally. he had wallowed in a corner for years, aging aging aging...slowly deteriorating...

shudder.

it was so hard.

we have a new dog, Rontu. well, we've had him going on three years this fall. he's a little wiry, high strung rat terrier. the kids all love him and he loves them. he is very loyal and bright. he guards me constantly, sitting at my feet protecting me and the baby. he's a sweet sweet little dog. when i adopted him i thought it would help Pucky have some energy, but alas it didn't. Puck was too old to kick it with such a young spritely dog.

lately i have been pining for more canine love. i have been wandering through the pet rescue websites and thinking of adopting a dog that needs a home. a lot of families have had to give up their beloved pets in this crummy economy...but my husband is not really into animals and has put a serious hold on the idea of more pets. :(

that is...until today. one of the people who works for my husband has to give up his dog because of issues with his living arrangements. Willy. and, Willy just happens to be our dog Rontu's litter mate. they are full brothers and love each other already. In fact, when i adopted Rontu, Willy was the only other pup left in the litter and i wished i could take him as well...

the idea is a little daunting...another being to take care of...but in my experience, having dogs together, loving each other and playing together and learning together is a really good thing. and we as a family have plenty of love to give. and Willy is a good boy, handsome as all get out and he is Rontu's brother for goodness sake...how could we say no?

the decisions left to be made are whether he will be our dog, and join our family permanently or whether he will be here in a sort of foster care until our friends have a different living situation...

i would hate for the kids or the dogs to be broken hearted because willy would have to leave, however, i also don't want to live in avoidance of pain that may or may not come. for all the pain i felt when Puck pass away, I would not have traded it for the joy he and i experienced together. no way no how.

<3

facing our demons...the real life kind.

my kids love karate...
in our little maine town however, there isn't much in the way of good martial arts schools. two and a half years ago the boys began taking karate at a school that was 40 minutes north of us, twice a week...and the grand tally for classes was just under $200 per month. ouch.
to us, in this economy, that's a big expense. plus the gas and the time spent antsy in the car right after school...
there is a place in our town that has reasonably priced, supposedly really good karate classess for kids aged 7 and up. in the past we haven't been able to take them because my middle son wasn't 7 until this past june...but now he is...and the cost would only be about 35 a month...total...and they are only about a mile and a half away.
the one major issue is that back then, when my oldest son was 5 and 6 we had a crisis involving this very disturbed child who was 10 at the time...he targeted my oldest son and bullied him, cruelly. (it's a long, long story that i get vehemently angry when telling involving a way too idealistic, parent run school and an abused kid without supervision...just glad i trusted my gut on the issue is all i have to say). we have avoided this twisted child and his dark family for years.
but now as we find ourselves yearning for martial arts again, with funds, gas and other things in mind, that in-town class seems really appealing. and i have a hunch this bully is still in the class...one more year.
i have been mulling it over and over. my kids have grown tremendously in the past few years. they have developed into responsible people who call it like they see it...they stand for no injustice done to anyone, or anything...and i have to trust that they can handle themselves in a karate class with this...this...other child. that they will not let each other take abuse. of course, i will be there to oversee things, but being in the same room with this older kid is a big deal for us...
point...i think we are ready as a little collective to take on our past demons. to face him. and do it with our heads held high.

i can't deny it gives me a twinge in my belly, though.

refurbishing the old...

the old typewriter that is.

for my oldest son's special birthday coming up. he is going to be 9 on 9/9/09 and it just feels so incredible, numerically speaking!

i had begun shopping for an old typewriter, but lucky me, my mom had one that she was just keeping in storage! a smith-corona, which looks to be from the 1940s that was passed down to her from my Great Aunt Shash. it's a big heavy beautiful old beast with lots of wear, but in super good condition. it's a reporter's typewriter if ever i saw one. but the keys stick and it needs a new ribbon. i am on a quest to refurbish this work of art writer's tool for my little creative writer that can't stand writing by hand! he loves old things with history, too.

i am so excited about it...

home's cool

the kids and i are gathering up bunches of our things to have a big yard sale in two weeks. all of the money we earn is going to our homeschooling fund. the curriculums j and i have decided to use cost a total of 1600 for the year and there are a bunch of extracurricular activities that the kids are wanting to do that cost money, too. continuing with piano and adding karate, soccer, and the YMCA...museum trips. plus jett is beginning to learn the saxophone in september through school, so we need to find a way to get him one of those, too. we needs a big pot of money to draw from so nothing inhibits our learning...

we are getting so excited. but we do have a lot of organizing and work to do and money to earn.

we decided that our arts project is going to involve all of the arts. puppetry (no big surprise here!) the creation of puppets, a theatre...the writing and performance of a play with the puppets and then a big production that can also involve music. we have even talked about involving other homeschoolers and having the production include a bake sale to be another fund raiser. my kids are little entrepeneurs. guess that happens when your parents are self employed...and also when we have these lofty ideas that cost lots of money it helps to have creative ideas on how to manifest that dough!

i have been thinking about having a homeschooling art group that meets for a couple of hours twice a week. i am just mad about the idea of making puppets. marionettes... and also having some regular social interaction for jett and ronin. not sure if our big farmers' table will quite work for this though...so i am thinking we may find a space to rent for this project. maybe we'll even hold it after school so kids who go to school could join in. it is definitely something to think about...and begin to research. in fact i am falling in love with this idea as i type. it is a great little way for the kids to get their art in, some social time and for me to flex my desire to work with kids in an artistic forum and maybe even make a little money doing it??? hmmmmm. more on this to come.

so first things first...the simultaneous organize and sell of a yard sale. downsizing is always good. i love a good purge!