Anne: Now and Then (comparing how she has changed in the past six months)

I'm amazed to watch my children grow and change. Anne certainly has had a transformation in the past 6 months. Not only is she growing taller into a young woman, but she's slowly leaving girlhood behind. In late November 2007 some major changes were made in her extra-curricular activities. I pulled her out of competitive gymnastics. She had been doing gymnastics since she was about 3 and was in her second season of competition. I made the decision with a lot of prayer and for reasons which boiled down to the negative things (like the stress on her emotionally and physically) were out weighing the benefits. It was a very difficult decision because Anne kept saying that wanted to stay on the team (and I really didn't want to be the bad guy!), but I knew that it was the right thing to do. Interestingly enough, when the decision was made and she knew it was final, she was the happiest I had ever seen her! God is so good! As it turns out, she really only wanted to be on the team because of her friends. She enjoyed gymnastics, but she had a lot of fears (hence the stress!).

Within days of quitting gymnastics, she expressed an interest in doing Kung Fu. She was exposed to it through Peter who began Kung Fu 5 months earlier. I would have never, ever thought that she would would want to be involved in martial arts...never in my wildest dreams! Probably because of her petiteness, I saw her as a "girly" girl. One thing I've realized about Anne in the last 6 months is that though she is very feminine, she is not a "girly" girl and this is a good thing. She has gained more and more confidence and is no longer timid. Sometimes her brother and I would like her to be less assertive! LOL I've also realize that in general Anne is as comfortable or even more comfortable hanging out with boys as girls. I'm so proud of Anne. Whatever she does, she does with her whole heart. She has worked so hard in Kung Fu and she earned her orange belt with a purple stripe yesterday. This is the 6th belt out of 15 belts (to earn a youth black belt).

Just 17 Days...

...until the "Prince Caspian" movie comes out. Peter is literally counting down the days. I hope the movie is as good as the anticipation of it has been. I'm just glad that it is only 17 days now because I've been hearing "I can't wait until Prince Caspian comes out" since last summer! Needless to say, we are going the day it comes out unless some calamity happens!

Images from the Weekend

Both Peter and Anne are involved in Kung Fu. They absolutely love it. This past weekend they had the opportunity to support their Kung Fu school by participating at a local Festival. Here are some pictures of them breaking boards in a demonstration at the event. My timing of taking the pictures wasn't very good, but you get the basic idea:

He broke these boards with an open palm strike (there were two of them).

Anne was determined to break a red board...she did it with her foot!

Confession Time

I am not a "Homeschool Superwoman". I was actually called that (accused of it?) by a friend and it really, really hurt my feelings. I should have told her how I felt, but maybe it was meant as a compliment (I hope it was). Homeschooling my children is a priority and I firmly believe "anything worth doing is worth doing well". In all honesty, I cannot imagine any parent not striving for the best possible education for their child/children in whatever form God calls them to (public school, Charter school, Christian school or homeschool). However, if I am a "Homeschool Superwoman" because I spend time, energy and focus on homeschooling Peter and Anne, then I am guilty. I have to "confess" that I am far (very, very far) from perfect and neither are my kids. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. I pray that God can use both for His glory.

My worst fault is that I can be very over-sensitive. I know those of you that know me are in total shock! In addition, when I feel over-whelmed I can be very oblivious to others feelings and can be very "harsh". In short, I can do to others what I don't like done to me. Ouch!

Peter is a gifted and deep thinker with strong leadership skills. He tends to not only understand concepts, but has an incredible way of finding and applying the truths and lessons they contain. He can have incredible focus on things that interest him (history, the Bible and martial arts). However, he has the annoying (to me) habit of not allowing information in his brain if he does not *see* a need for it. As a parent and his teacher, this drives me batty! There are things children just need to know so they can apply it later. An example of this occurred the other evening: Anne was writing a story and wanted a more interesting word for a character she was describing. She commented that she need to go get the Thesaurus. Peter looked up and said "What's a Thesaurus?" with a look of slight panic on his face (?because Anne knew something that he didn't?). Sometimes I wonder how their knowledge base can be so different since they've been in school together with the same teacher their entire school career!!!

Anne is a gifted learner that has an incredible recall, capacity for learning and a thirst for knowledge (with the exception of math...she could be an excellent math student, but has decided that she doesn't like it). Lately, I see this tendency developing into a "know it all" attitude. She is often correct, but sometimes she misunderstands something and will argue that she's right. Even if she is right, she needs to be humble about it. She is also hitting pre-puberty and can sometimes be so moody. Girls just seem to be more emotionally complicated. I'll admit that a "know it all" is one of my pet peeves. I'm hoping this is just a temporary stage...believe me, she gets called on it every time I hear/see it!

As far as homeschooling goes, I am not "perfect" as a teacher. Sometimes:
-my ideas are way too grand
-our projects do not get completed (I confess that we've never actually finished a lapbook or a
History Pocket)
-we start school late (and I created the schedule to begin with!)
-I feel like pulling my hair out when I have to go over things again and again and again
-Anne cries when she does math
-Peter wants to cry because he is not a natural speller (and it's just plain hard work for him)
-our science experiments flop
-I drop (as in stop reading) a Sonlight book because we don't like it (I know you're shocked)
-I'd like to scream when the kids ask to "take a break" 15 minutes into school! (it happened
today...no joke)
-my children are not always "into" school
-I am not always "into" school

There is no doubt that I am not a Superwoman, Supermom or Superhomeschooler!

Second Chance for a Co-op

I posted recently about our struggles with doing a science co-op. We discovered through it that in depth science just wasn't our "thing". We are, however, going to try a history co-op starting in the fall. This is a source of great excitement for my children who love history. Call me crazy for even thinking about this, but we are even going to be doing two separate history programs at the same time in the fall. We'll be continuing (and hopefully finishing up) American history this year while beginning Ancient history with the co-op. Because the co-op is using "Story of the World vol. 1" and this program comes on audio cd, we can do two programs at the same time because we'll listen to the cd's in the car. Because this is our family's 3rd journey through Ancient history and SOTW is on cd, we can manage it. I'm looking forward to it also because there is just three other families involved (who I enjoy spending time with) with a total of six school aged children. I enjoy smaller group a lot more than larger ones because I tend to get overwhelmed when lots of little ones are running amuck and acting their age. LOL

I sometimes wonder...

1. ...if having a blog is a good thing. I seem to sit down and wonder what on earth I should write about.

2. ...why "spring fever" and "hay fever" coincides. Anne and I would love to spend more time outdoors especially since the weather has become so nice, but we both pay for it dearly. My eyes have been itching and burning so badly that I'd like to pop them out a rinse them off! LOL

3. ...why people that you believed to be good and true friends drop out of your life because it's inconvenient...even when you've tried and tried to keep in touch. Sigh...friendship is a two way street.

4. ...why I see so many parents believing the lies our society feeds them. It saddens me that parents are so quick to let daycares and schools raise their children. I hear parents saying "my kids are on spring break next week...I don't know what I'm going to do with them." Why do people not want to be around their kids? Why did they have them in the first place?

5. ...how my "babies" have become so grown up! Where did the time go and why did I mentally roll my eyes at people who told me that my kids would "grow up before I knew it" when they were little?

You Know it's a Great Read Aloud when...

...everyone is sad that it's over (and I'm crying at the end)!

The book I was reading aloud to Peter and Anne this week was "The Year of Miss Agnes" by Kirkpatrick Hill. This was not the officially scheduled Sonlight book for Core 4, week 2, but it was my officially scheduled substitution for several reasons. For one "Moccasin Trail" (the official book) just didn't click with us. However, the main reason was this book is set in Alaska and we are going there in less then two months on a cruise! Also, this was a book that we missed out on reading because we choose to do Sonlight's core 1 & 2 One Year World History program.

I've read numerous books to my children over the years, but "The Year of Miss Agnes" one is one that I won't soon forget. Miss Agnes's teaching style was so sweet and thoughtful. She's the kind of teacher that I strive to be for my children and those I teach at church. Miss Agnes
opened the world up to her little class of children that lived in a small Alaskan village and taught them to love learning and to see the opportunities it creates. This is what teaching is all about to me. I was sobbing so hard at the end that Anne had to read the last few paragraphs. I can get so emotional when I read a book aloud (I don't seem to do this when I'm reading to myself). I sometimes wonder if I'm alone in this tendency and if I'm the only one who hears "Mooommm!" when I pause to try and hold back my tears.