Lifelines

I was lucky enough to catch this moment between my oldest and youngest.
It wasn’t staged–she really is just loved all the time and by everyone.

Lucky, lucky Luxie.

Well, not only has Luxe settled into a routine(ish) lifestyle, so have the rest of us!
All of my kids are busy here doing some form of schoolwork during the live-long day.
The Littles have done so many cute crafts lately–I just don’t have the time to share them.

Chas is doing wonderfully–making eighth grade seem like fifth.
I’m not terribly impressed with this year’s curriculum as either it’s too simple or else he’s brilliant.
He’s flies through the coursework in a mere two hours and it’s supposed to take him at least five.
Right now we’re working ahead a little bit, doing more than one day’s worth as our co-op begins next week and we’ll lose our Thursdays at Home.
Not only that but we’ll pick up homeschool gym, math tutoring, an art class and several scheduled field trips so it’s probably a good thing that’s it’s easy for him right now.

I am, however, interested in pushing him a bit to wrap up some of his courses quickly so I can test drive OHVA’s high school classes.
(Once he completes the 8th grade stuff, they ship out the next level.)
I’ve heard that the flexibility that I love so much goes right out the window and I’m not too keen on that.
(Therefore I am as yet undecided where Chas will charter “school” from next year.)

I’ve also heard that “learning coaches” (that’s me) are pretty well removed from the picture at the 9th grade level, as they don’t even receive teacher handbooks (with lesson plans and workbook keys). They want the kids to turn to their online teachers for questions and assignments which is just sort of silly to me.
We’re here, why not use us???
(Carla? When you come over, I need to pick your brain on this matter. Remind me. Because my brain has already been picked clean and I tend to forget everything right now. Like emailing you back and firming up a date. Just come over. Say, “You took forever getting back to me so here I am!” I’ll be delighted, I swear.)

On the flip side, I am very pleased with the bump up in Rhyse’s third grade stuff.
There seems to be a big change from the K-2 curriculums and 3rd.
Rhyse struggles a bit with schoolwork so this is a hard adjustment for him but it’s what he needs.
I sat with him today during a 28 question math checkpoint and watched him snap his fingers and wiggle in his seat and make monkey sounds, all while calculating (correctly) math problems, mentally borrowing digits here and carrying over digits there.

This makes me crazy, by the way.

I do not learn this way personally and neither does Chas so it’s a bit strange to watch all of the energy that Rhyse has play itself out in the chair at the computer, while he’s figuring out the perimeter of a football field.
I watch him jump and scoot and boogie all over the place and though he’s doing all of this, he is intent on the question on the screen and eventually he’ll pick up the mouse, move it over the page and click the right answer, then resume snapping his fingers and wiggling to the music that only he hears.

W-E-I-R-D.
Yet strangely productive.
Who knew?

Third grade is a bit more online which is actually quite nice. We were in a class connect today with three teachers and 138 students, able to use the online whiteboard and microphone.
Up until this point, Rhyse has largely been doing mostly offline bookwork so this is a nice change of pace.
He likes the graphics and the games and they do a really wonderful job of making learning “fun.”
However, if he has to spell “difficult” or “presidents” again, I think he will combust.
And I think I will, too.

So here’s a glimpse of a regular old school day over here (minus the chaos–I take photos when things are under control mostly :))

His first class connect of the year:

Third grade? YIKES! Last I checked, we were wrapping up kindy for him.

(And don’t even get me started on Chas. You know what I’ll say..”Where did it all go? Time is a THIEF! I blinked and he turned into a man-child. WAAAAAAH!”)

I think Rhyse thinks the teachers can also see him because I can’t otherwise explain why he’s writing sentences after they asked him to.
He should be rolling around on the floor and whining like he does when I ask him to do it.
Harumph!

Look who else attended the third grade yesterday!

She wasn’t exactly bowled over with excitement, was she?

And Em was here helping me with the Littles.
I didn’t have a formal craft for them so I rummaged up some stickers (from a safari unit study that I never got around to this summer) and some printables.

All was well in this house.
All was QUIET!!!

At the ripe young age of thirteen and a half, my eldest son has suddenly dwarfed me.
It wasn’t like this a few weeks ago.
I remember thinking, “Man, he’s CLOSE to my height!” during a conversation we had recently where we were standing together in the kitchen talking.
But here at Jenny’s on Sunday…it’s obviously happened.
He changes over-night, I’m telling you.

He was so tiny–only five pounds and 11 ounces when he was born.
I thought I would break him if I touched him too hard.

And just look at him now…

Before you know it, we’re going to have a half-pipe in our backyard.
Sigh…

Chas went to his first concert last night and you will NEVER guess who he saw!
Black Eyed Peas?
Nope.
Someone Else Really Boyishly Cool?
Nope.
JUSTIN BIEBER?
YEP!

His good friend Adrienne really, really, REALLY wanted to go see this boy (along with every other pre-teenish girl in world) and she invited him along.
To my surprise, he actually went and honestly didn’t even seem all that bothered by it!

(Though he said this morning that he and Colin were truly the only male beings in attendance.
He also said he thought he’d suffered permanent hearing loss.
Despite this, he still had a good time!)

I managed to corner him before he left because he looked so handsome and grown-up.

Mamas of little boys, listen good.
This happens before you know it, I swear.
One minute you’re playing Buzz to his Woody and breaking your feet on Lego pieces strewn all over the stairs and the next minute, you’re eyeball to eyeball with him, wondering where in the hell time went.

Time is a thief.
Remember that.

Here’s my gorgeous, half-grown, previous Buzz and Woody fan, heading for fourteen this winter.
Good. Grief.
Someone make it STOP!

***And thanks to Jenny and Adrienne for taking him along! He had a great time and it was definitely an eye-opening experience for him. He never knew girls could scream like that!

In an effort to beat this heat AND to just keep these guys busy without using the television for 27 hours of these SUPER RIDICULOUSLY HOT DAYS, we’ve been digging through some of our old stuff and slowly opening some new things.

These floor puzzles (old stuff) sucked up a good whole hour on Thursday and amazingly, no fistfights broke out over pieces of the northern hemisphere :)

(The one shown is “Our World.”)

Because Chas helps out so much and because he’s just really, really good with his siblings, I’ve hired him for “babysitting” during the days here and there.

For a small fee, I’m able to get some things done–like a load of laundry and a round of dishes and the kids are kept happily and busily learning-while-playing.
(That’s is what I consider to be a productive morning right now, by the way. Anything more than that and I feel like superwoman.)

Super awesomely sturdy massively gigantic puzzle pieces and the cuties who worked them:

PS–we have three of these and my kids love them all! They’re great Creux-proof puzzles and I remember taking a set to a cabin a few years back to keep them busy while we holed up for days and days.

PPS–”Creux-proof” should be branded. Like “teflon” tough. People world-wide should just KNOW what that means. (And it means LITERALLY undestructable. Dropped, kicked, bitten, bent to the max and it remains unharmed.)

PPPS–This is significantly different from “child-proof.”
I watched in awe as Creux opened a “child-proof” bottle of gummie vitamins today right in front of me.
“Here, let me help you,” I said. “You can’t get that open.”
“Yes, I tan,” he replied, turning and turning the lid.
“No, you can’t,” I said. “It’s child-proof–it has a special top that only mommies can open.”
And then he promptly handed me that lid with a smile.
“See, Mommy? I told you I tould do it!”
GAH!

Creux-proof.
I’m going to market this boy, make millions, and hope that that’s a balm to my bruised and battered ego from having survived his twos.
Only two months left in my sentence…:)

After they swam (and splashed and squealed and sometimes tried to drown one another), we had dinner and then I herded my small pile of people plus one outside for some bike/trike/scooter play.

Chas was super sweet by offering to take them all for a ride in the big bike thingy and Rhyse suggested that they do it with popsicles!

What could I say other than, “YES!”

(And let me tell you, William was not waiting for me to figure out my camera settings.

Nor was he happy when I finally did.

He just wanted his popsicle.
IN PEACE.)

And so, Chas hauled the three of these guys around the neighborhood.
(Thank you, Chasie!)

They came back exhilarated.
And STICKY :)

One of the biggest benefits to being a baby in a large family is this: someone always wants to hold you.
Remember last night, when I was blogging and said she was sitting in her bouncy seat and maybe if my profile was interesting enough then I’d get five to fifteen minutes of blog time?

Well, THIS happened before I even hit “post” on that piece:

And this morning, I laid her on the couch so that I could do a super quick kitchen tidy and within seconds, she was scooped up.

He held her for an hour and a half while I cleaned and then schooled the Littles for a bit.
Clearly he has the right touch–he put her to sleep.

It’s good to be a baby around here.

(If you can deal with the insanity, that is!)

We found this staged photo “moment” and Chas was cracking us up with his antics!

When I came home from the hospital on July 5th, having delivered and dashed, I was informed that I had “some packages” waiting for me.

Those packages were the K12 shipments for both boys for the upcoming school year.

IT’S JULY!!!

What in the hell do I want with this stuff IN JULY???

Those boxes have been sitting for two weeks in Charlie’s very orange and very unfinished (and now starting to grate on my nerves) office.
Just. Like. This.

(Although Chas asked me right after the delivery if he could open his science box.
I said he could.
And then I asked, “What is it?” thinking it would be something…I don’t know…interesting.
And easy.
“Chemistry!” he answered.
“PUT IT AWAY!” I bellowed from the kitchen.
Friggin’ chemistry.
I was hoping for dinosaurs.)

Yesterday I had precisely seven minutes of “free time”.
I decided to pick a boy and unload his stuff.
Looking at the schooling spaces, Chas’s was much emptier so I grabbed a knife and slit open his boxes.

There were some good things.
Like this:

I was really excited to see that book and I know Chas will like it.
Somehow this escaped my required reading in my schooling years but I read it on my own a few years back and am so glad that I did.

This one will not go over well:

We’ve dabbled only briefly in Shakespeare and I know he doesn’t like it.
I don’t either.
(Ugh, the LANGUAGE barriers! I find it such cumbersome reading, I really do. And yes, I know it’s a classic and that it’s a tragic love story, and I do love a good tragic-y tale, and it’s probably totally lame to insult Wills and all but there you have it. I’m lame. It’s official.
Chas, despite this, because I know you’re reading this post, my hands are tied in the matter. You shall read this annoyingly written book. Who knows, you may even like it! I doubt it but stranger things have happened :)

And THIS is our history reading?

Are they DELUSIONAL???
From pre-history to the Civil War–talk about hitting the high notes!
What’s the rush, anyway?
I mean do we really have to cover like over 200 years worth of “Here’s What Happened” in nine months of schooling?

Needless to say, we’re not super anxious to hit the books just yet though we will get started when the OLS opens up (well before the actual school year begins). I like starting early because we usually miss quite a bit of time throughout the year doing fun family things.

But still, it’s just July!
I’m already fielding catalogs filled with Halloween costumes and even heading into Michaels right now is annoying as they’re filling the aisles with pumpkins.
PUMPKINS!

Can’t we just enjoy the darn season?
At least until August?

I’m excited to see Rhyse’s stuff but dreading the unhaul.
I still haven’t boxed up LAST year’s curriculum for return so I’m running behind on these things.
Not like I don’t have a good excuse (I do! I do!) but still.

Am now suddenly dreaming of a Schooling Room Phase II project.

Oh, Grit List Workers…I’m baaaaaaack :)