Carnival of Homeschooling- Logistics of a Homeschooling Family

As the mother of 6 children, my life is complicated already. Just getting all the children up, dressed, teeth brushed, and fed before noon is a major accomplishment. Add homeschooling 5 of the children to the mix, ferrying them all to various extracurricular activities, and fitting enough time to keep the house tidy and at least one cooked meal on the table each day keeps me moving at a frantic pace.  

We have never put our children in "away school" so this will be our 9th year sitting at the table learning phonics, arithmetic, spelling, science, history, English, and religion. If our family continues to homeschool all the children, we could conceivably still be sitting at the table each day reading and working out math problems for the next 15 years since Julia Ellen won't even be starting Kindergarten for another 3 years.    

Logistical management is what every homeschooling mom spends much of her time doing: planning days so learning occurs in whatever form that takes, while also fitting in housework, cooking, shopping, bill paying, doctor's appointments, errands, volunteer work, exercise, children's activities, and squeezing in a tiny bit of alone time to renew her spirits. Some families also sign up for extras for the kids such as music, sports, arts, and/or scouts outside the home. Making the schedule "work" is sometimes a difficult task, but sometimes it all clicks, such as me signing all the kids up for this fall's swimming classes on Saturday afternoon. Let us learn how others homeschoolers cope with "trying to fit it all in."

Summer is a great time to try out all those extra classes and projects. Neo at The Tiger Chronicle shares her son's summer vacation in Summer: Part 1 and Summer: Part 2.  

Denise presents More Than One Way to Solve It posted at Let's Play Math!.

Kim shares some great ideas to learn art, poetry, and science outside in A Child's Garden: How We Conduct Nature Study posted at A Child's Garden. 

Read Aloud Dad shares one of my favorite children's authors, Robert McCloskey, with his kids in Burt Dow, Deep Water Man. The setting for many of Mr. McCloskey's books is just across the Penobscot Bay from us and my kids love getting out the Maine Gazetteer (page 14 and 15) and tracking the rainstorm in Time of Wonder as it goes across from the Camden Hills to Little Deer Isle. 

M.O.B. Mothers of Boys shares some ideas to get those creative juices flowing in Storytelling Games for Boys. 

Annette at A Net in Time share her upcoming year's routine for her son at Organization of my school year. 
 
Amy at Hope is The Word has already started her school year and shares a typical day in School Day Snapshot.  

Linda and Arby of The Homeschool Apologist share the difference in their homeschooling methods and styles since they started teaching their kids years ago in He Said/She Said #2: How Has Your Teaching Changed?.  

Christina at Home Spun Juggling shares some great advice in What I've Learned This Summer.
Alejandra at A Guide to Raising Great Kids shares some tips on making sure our kids are having fun and learning to be good hosts in The Perfect Play-Day. 

Linda Dobson presents Just One of the Many Reasons to Choose Homeschooling for Your Family posted at PARENT AT THE HELM.

Gidget shares a resource to help kids learn those multiplication tables in Favorite Math Resource - EVER! posted at Homeschooling Unscripted.

Mrs. Gaddy gives us some tips on Using Life Experiences to Teach practical living skills to our kids at momSchool. 

Jamie at Homeschool Online Blog reminds us that we homeschooling moms need to care of ourselves and exercise to maintain a positive attitude and stay healthy in Too Busy for Exercise?

Miss Nirvana shares an easy and recognizable craft in Eric Carle Style Art posted at Nirvana Homeschooling (we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar just last night to the little ones).

Kelli presents September as Chicken Month (!) in Monthly Unit Study posted at 3 Boys and a Dog Deals.
 

Victoria reviews Lesson Planning via Bento posted at Teaching Mommy. 

Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers shares A Typical Homeschool Day at her house.  

Pamela at Blah, Blah, Blog writes about her method of trying to logically fit in all her children's activities in I Guess It's Fall.  

Merit K gives us some ideas about higher level classes in Back to School with AP | Your Mission, should you choose to accept it posted at Mission Possible!.

Janice at Why Homeschool shares some of the challenges of having a homeschooler apply to college in Homeschool to College- Part 2.

I had some logistical challenges hosting the carnival this week with my computer performing the "black screen of death" early in the week and a planned 2 day trip with the big girls to go down to our new home (with no internet access) to clean and receive delivery of our new washer and dryer. Luckily the Auburn, Maine library is WiFi capable. But these are just the sort of little time-consuming glitches that we homeschoolers have to deal with every day.

Thank you for coming to the Carnival of Homeschooling and hope to see you next week at The Common Room. 
 

death and destruction

Well, the little baby mice didn't make it, but that was expected. Mice need mouse mommy milk, not cow milk and they need the warm nest of mommy mouse fur to stay warm and thrive. The children were sad, but the excitement of Hurricane Irene gave them something else to focus on. The winds were pretty strong and the bands of rain explained how this type of storm moves better than any book could. Of course we pulled out a book about hurricanes as well as of course reading Time of Wonder aloud, since the story features a hurricane hitting Maine.

This morning I went out at dawn to haul downed branches out of the road and fields, but mostly the damage was confined to my garden. The once tall corn stalks are now bent over to a 45 degree angle. I don't know if we will be able to harvest much past the two dinners of wonderful white sweet corn we had this past week. The sunflowers took a beating as well as the squash (no big loss since none of us like it much), and the tomatoes got knocked down. 

The girls and I are heading out this morning for the 2 hour trip down south to clean and organize the other house. Tim starts work Thursday and needs ice cream in the fridge, a coffee pot on the counter, and towels in the bathrooms. My job is to provide all those things, receive the delivery of the washer and dryer from Sears, and clean the place of all the crumbs and slime that the previous owners so rudely left for me to deal with. It amazes me that if you rent a house it has to be pristine at move-out, but when you pony up hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy a place, the house looks grungy and gross. Since the western part of the state got hit harder by rain and wind than we did, I'm not sure what we shall encounter on the drive down, but I'm sure we will be able to handle whatever comes our way.

feeding with an eyedropper

On Monday or Tuesday evening Will went out to the barn and accidentally scared a mother mouse who was nesting on the deck of the riding mower. Her two babies were still there the next morning so Tim and Will carried them into the house and set to work feeding and attempting to rescue the little guys. So, for several days they have been fed around the clock tiny drops of milk and have miraculously stayed alive. 

They don't have any hair, their eyes are still shut, and they don't even squeak. It seems very strange to be expending so much effort trying to keep field mice alive while trying to decide between poison and traps to keep the barn rodent-free. My job in the next week or so is to find if there are humane traps to set up in the barn so we aren't inadvertently killing the babies' mother or father.   

we escaped Virginia just in time

Last night's Drudge headline:

5.8 MAG QUAKE ROCKS DC-NYC
HURRICANE NEXT?

I did attempt to call my grandmother at her assisted living place outside of DC right after the earthquake, but couldn't get through due to everyone else calling their friends and relations for the same reason. Later I talked to her and she related her experience of being evacuated from the doctor's office, "Everyone ran out! Well, I didn't run." Since Grandmother hasn't been able to walk without assistance for many years, the ground shaking didn't help.

The forecasters have been predicting that Hurricane Irene might be a cross between Hurricanes Gloria and Floyd, both of which I witnessed. Our hearts are with those in the path of this storm. While exciting to see, the aftermath of power outages, long lines at the few functioning gas stations, property damage, and flooding are expensive and frustrating to live through.   

 In the meantime, Our Curious Home is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling. I'm hosting next week, so if you are a regular reader and have posted anything about homeschooling this summer, especially pertaining to planning for this rapidly approaching school year, email me your blog title, name, and URL of post to me (the official carnival submission form has not been functional the past few weeks) at katherinecollins2000 at yahoo.com (insert @ for at, I don't want tons of spam in my inbox to wade through).

only 9 days of summer break?

I don't know exactly how it happened, even after very few field trips this year, not many days of Christmas or Easter break, and no sick days, but Will, our 7th grader and oldest child, is finally finished with school for the year. Actually, he has 1 last section of the CAT left to take today before he is officially finished. All the other children did school on the same days, Charlie didn't even get his 1st grade books until January, but they all completed their assignments by early summer and could enjoy their days in Maine without anything hanging over their heads. Of course Will wasn't exactly tethered to his seat all day watching everyone else play outside, he got to go to summer camp, spend 2 weeks at sailing camps, go to various lakes and ponds, take swimming lessons, and become proficient enough to be designated our family's grill master. 

This week I will order the upcoming school year's curriculum, with an official start date of September 1. We will jump right into our lessons and get a running start before the majority of extra curricular activities begin so when we move down to southern Maine for the winter we will actually be ahead of schedule. I seriously doubt this will happen, but it is always better to have a positive attitude (at least the appearance of one in front of the children).

packed away

When the packers arrived down in Virginia I walked around the house and as we passed the children's bedrooms, I told them, "Do not pack the items on the kid's beds or the box fans, everything else is fair game." Unfortunately, Timmy's stuffed giraffe, Geraldine, the one he has slept with for 5 years, the animal we have had to retrieve from the car, the barn, the next door neighbor before he could go to sleep, must have rolled off his bed and onto the floor. Last Monday night we could not find Geraldine and after opening a few newly sealed boxes to search, managed to put him to bed with promises of asking the packers to retrieve her in the morning. Well, even after intense grilling (though not quite to the level of involving water boarding), the crew could not recall seeing a tan giraffe among the myriad of other stuffed animals, dolls, and toys we own. After all, they wouldn't know how precious that particular item is to our little boy and in turn, our whole family.

But Timmy has shown maturity beyond what I expected and patiently waited for almost 2 weeks to find his precious companion. I dread the thought of Timmy possibly having outgrown needing a lovey, a precious toy to snuggle against his soft little neck every time he goes to sleep, a comfort he can see and touch. When our boxes of dishes and blocks, books and toys are moved down to southern Maine this upcoming Monday I will ask all the children to assist me on the urgent mission to "rescue Geraldine." I just hope it isn't too late for her to resume being his faithful sidekick once more.  

not summer people anymore

After several days of driving a van full of crabby children up the East Coast, we pulled into our own driveway where I jumped out of the car and let Tim handle our youngest who had been screaming for the last several hours (she wasn't hungry, thirsty, or in need of a new nappie, she just wanted out). Every mile we traveled I kept reminding myself, "This is the last time I have to sit in traffic, go through a toll booth, or see the state of New Jersey." After all, we have done the annual family migration north to Maine and south to whatever urban duty station Tim was assigned to for a dozen years so it might take until October for the reality of his retirement to fully sink in.

For the first time I don't have to use up the 15 pounds of blueberries I bought a few weeks ago (they are safely in the freezer) or the green beans the children are currently picking (I blanched and froze the first of many batches this morning). Maggie proudly collected 2 quarts of cherry tomatoes, over a dozen cucumbers, and many yellow squash before I had even finished unpacking the car yesterday. I think a chest freezer and a pressure canner are on our list of necessary new purchases to handle the excess from our garden, but I'm still planning on taking a box full of produce to the food pantry on Wednesday to share.

We will still enjoy the lovely, but short Maine summers, but now we can take full advantage of the opportunity to work in the woods this fall, play in the inevitable winter weather, and plant fruit trees and delicious raspberries in the spring.

It has been a long difficult slog getting to this point, we have been bounced around every 2-3 years by the military, career low spots, and long separations, but we always have had our summers in Maine to rejuvenate and restore our spirits. I thank the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, and St. Benedict for their assistance and prayers. 

We are now full-time Maine residents!!  

long ride

2 days in a van with 6 children, one of them a fussy toddler, is enough to make anyone wish for a little break away. A good choice is perhaps a week at a luxurious spa with unlimited massages and gourmet food. Instead I got to return to a house that hadn't seen a dustcloth in 8 weeks and the packers arriving the next day. In the next 3 days I have to supervise everything getting boxed up and put on the truck, clean the entire house, and make sure no one wanders away or goes hungry. 

The drive itself was uneventful except for heavy traffic, rain, and many, many bathroom stops. If you want to know how many times a 7 and 8 year old need to go potty: every 90 minutes on average. By the end I made Charlie utilize the little blue potty in the car so we didn't have to stop on the side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel to get an up close view of the bay. It took a total of 17 hours in the car and about $35 in tolls to arrive in Virginia. It dawned on me this morning as I slogged through the steamy heat just to get a bag of ice at the store that I can't recall the last time I was here in August since we don't usually return form Maine until mid-October. I'm acclimatized to Maine summers where you might need a jacket in the evening, even in July. The positive is that this is my last trip south, the negative is that we have to pile back in the van on Thursday to make our way slowly back up the East Coast.

preparing for snow

No, Maine weather is not so frigid that it snows in August, but since this will be our first winter in New England, I'm trying to get ready now. Down in Virginia if it snows once during the winter then it is a hard one, so I've been stocking up on gloves and turtlenecks.

You can find some great deals at Goodwill during the summer such as LL Bean gloves for $2, thick socks for $1, and I found a pair of classic duck boots for $25 (normally retailing for $89). Every year I pair up all our outerwear in a big basket, but by February many of the mittens are orphans and there aren't enough hats to go around. I figure that phenomenon is going to happen at twice the rate with actual snow and below zero temps so I better have many more than the usual number of each to start the season.   

don't need to decide now

This morning Will and I drove 2 hours down to the southern part of Maine to the only Catholic high school in the state. The house we are buying just happens to be nearby and we have seriously contemplated sending the oldest 2 children there this year or next.

Homeschooling has become more complicated and sometimes exasperating with more children "doing school" and the oldest one's work taking longer and longer to complete. Seton's program is intense, some days there are 3 day's worth of work crammed into 1 day on the lesson plans, but Will tends to drag out any complicated assignment, his 4th quarter reading test took him almost 4 hours to finish. One of our options in Maine is a good, academically rigorous, wholesome Catholic school so today he and I toured the building, looked at some of the textbooks, and read some of the syllabi crafted by the 8th grade teachers.

Naturally I want the kids to be in a more social environment, after moving 4 times in 6 years, it would be nice for them to make long-term friends and be able to play sports, be in clubs, etc. On the other hand, after looking at Seton's high school curriculum again after supper it was so apparent how superior academically and Catholic homeschooling truly can be. The choice of novels, the rigorous textbooks, the lesson plans all contribute to a sublime education which only a very few private schools could boast. In contrast, modern secular textbooks tend to be visually jarring with lots of color and boxes on every page, the novels selected tend to be more modern works with less literary value, and the lessons are a mystery. We could be paying $13,000 a year for a pig in a poke or a wonderful experience that allows the older children to expand their minds and world, leaving me more time to focus on the younger children's academics.

But we decided that this is not something we are going to jump into in the next 3 weeks so for the upcoming year our decision is to continue on our 9th year of homeschooling. Homeschooling has been our one constant and being in a new house, having new teachers/leaders for music and scouts, attending a new church, and transitioning to a new civilian lifestyle is certainly enough change for the children.    

carnival of homeschooling

This week's carnival is being hosted by Home Spun Juggling with lots of pictures of art her kids have made.

Speaking of homeschooling, I filled out our enrollment form for Seton yesterday and have been stocking up on cheap, cheap school supplies from Walgreens and Staples like $0.10 index cards and highlighters, $0.39 notebooks, free pens, $0.25 reams of copy paper, and free Crayola markers.

Before we start school in a few weeks we have to drive down to Virginia, supervise the packers and movers, visit the aunties in Maryland, have our household goods delivered, attend the closing of our new house, and move some of our stuff again. I think I'll wait until the last minute to send off for our books, if I piled up the huge stack of lesson plans I think it might send me over the edge.  

eating out of the garden

Well, the tomatoes haven't ripened yet, except for the cherry ones and the corn is just approaching the height of my shoulders, but we are starting to be inundated with produce. Julia Ellen and I sit on the front porch every afternoon shelling peas and throwing the empty pods onto the front lawn. Tim and I are eating salad every day because I planted whole packets of Buttercrunch and Romaine. I'm contemplating taking some heads to the pool and Mass this week just so I don't feel pressured to eat it all ourselves. Today I wanted to see how the carrots were doing, so I pulled up a few and marveled at how big they were. I planted 2 rows so we could treat the horses after riding lessons, but they looked so juicy I declared that we would have some ourselves.

After perusing Joy of Cooking and Fannie Farmer, I decided to make carrot cake, but the recipe I found was too difficult with no mixer so I improvised with one of my favorite recipes Applesauce Cake and substituted grated carrot for the applesauce. Even though the kids knew it contained a vegetable they scarfed down the entire pan, asked for thirds, and begged me to make it again soon. Since the labor in this recipe is the prep, Timmy and I went out after the supper dishes were cleaned up and harvested a few dozen carrots, washed them, cut off the tops, and grated them by hand. I put them in a freezer bag so that in a few days I can whip up a delicious dessert using veggies we grew ourselves.  

another cool, humid race day

This morning I headed over to Bucksport for a 8am 5K race. I'm beginning to see the same faces and have some other ladies to hang out with afterwards. I didn't come home with a prize, but I did get a pretty good time: 23:06. Right now my running seems to be all mental, my body can run faster, but my mind keeps saying, "Stop! You are too old, have too many kids to do this. Just stop and walk." But I don't want to be a back-of-the pack runner, at least not until I'm pushing 65. Perhaps when we get back from Virginia and all our household goods are settled and I can resume a good running schedule I will get my mojo back, but I haven't felt that flying feeling that occurs when I'm in perfect form.  

am I a sadist?

My pathetic orchard consists of 6 fruit trees that were neglected almost to the point of death when we bought our land. I have weeded, mulched, and fed the little trees, pruned their branches, and been rewarded with a harvest of exactly 2 Golden Delicious apples in 3 years. Only 2 of the trees have set any fruit, I am hopeful that the others will bear once they have another variety to help pollinate the blossoms and will give me some peaches and pears.

In the meantime I attempt every summer to keep the Japanese Beetles from devouring the leaves with traps and manually dropping each bug into a jar filled with oily water. This method has its flaws as many of the beetles fly away in the day and fall to the grass during the evening round if the branches are jostled. Last night at dusk the baby and I ambled down past the swingset with our jar and a new weapon: a flat white bed sheet. I spread it under the tree and shook the trunk a bit to see over 30 beetles fall onto the fabric. Julia Ellen and I picked them up and plopped them into the jar with more than an appropriate amount of glee. "Yucky bugs!" the baby chirped as she scooped them up. By the time we shook each tree, our little container was full of dozens and dozens of dead beetles. I don't know if our efforts violate the 5th Commandment, but I do know with certainty that no one will consider me the next St. Francis.

all together again

Last week Tim wore his uniform for the last time so yesterday we picked him up from the airport. The years of being separated for months at a time are over. Technically he is on leave and we must all drive down to Virginia in 2 weeks to supervise the packing and moving of all our household goods one last time. I'm not looking forward to the 14 hour drive, having to camp out in a hotel with 6 kids, feeding movers for 3 days, driving back to Maine, and having to organize our boxes and furniture into 3 destinations: farm house, house in southern Maine, and farm apartment, organize yet another move for our stuff going to the new house, and begin stocking our home with all the pets (2 mice for Mary and 2 kitty cats for the little boys) the children have been promised for several years now.

However,  once this logistical nightmare is completed then I can sit back and take a long sip of lemonade on the porch and enjoy the rest of my summer. Until then my life is going to be a little frantic so I need to keep my mind focused on the end result: our family all in Maine, the beautiful and now much cooler Vacationland.

first harvest

The garden is coming along very nicely, as I like to go out in the evening when it is a bit cooler and weed, water, and check on the status of the plants. We haven't had any animals come to nibble except the ravens eating melon in the compost bin, in the morning I find the rinds stripped of any fruit and flung about on the grass. Julia Ellen is more damaging, yesterday she ripped up one basil plant, knocked over 3 corn stalks, and stomped on 2 onion plants.

With some of the pumpkins not sprouting, we had lots of empty ground so I let the kids loose with all the leftover seeds and they have been hoeing out the weeds, planting, and labeling markers. Who knows if any of their efforts will bear, I have the feeling that everything is planted on top of each other and they might forget in a few days to keep watering. I think next year I will give each child their own plot to do as they like, buying veggies that they might find interesting such as purple carrots, pole beans grown in a teepee (I did start these a little late, but you see, they are mine and it is NOT the same for the kids as ones they planted in their own patch), miniature corn, tiny white pumpkins. Who knows? We might discover some great new veggies and gardening techniques in the process. 

But as for my established vegetables, the cherry tomatoes are ripening and Julia Ellen and I are eating salad twice a day. My routine is to take a basket and paring knife out, thinning the romaine and buttercrunch by cutting off the tops where the plants are too closely planted, washing them off, spinning the leaves, and ripping them up before tossing them with a little Marzetti salad dressing. Time from harvest to savoring the tender leaves? Less than 10 minutes.  

going 90 mph all the time

Summer is supposed to be fun right? Picnicking with friends by the pond, reading a book on the porch, canoeing on the lake are typical Maine summer activities. I am squeezing in those things, but my typical day looks more like this:

awaken at 5am with a toddler kicking my fanny because she crawled in at 2am and likes to sleep sideways

go out to the garden to dump the compost bucket and enjoy the quiet and the birds

sneak down to the furnace room for a little time reading email and my favorite blogs

fix 7 breakfasts, empty dishwasher, fill dishwasher, clean up counters and table

direct older children to practice the piano and finish up those last stubborn school subjects (Mary is down to spelling, Charlie has 3 stories left, and Will has vocabulary, spelling, and reading left)

wash, dry, and fold 3 loads of laundry

make lunch and clean up

run 7 miles

recharge the riding mower after some little kid drained the battery, direct Will to mow the grass

get on the big tractor and mow around the edges of the fields

sweep all the floors in the house except the kid's bedrooms and bathrooms

mop the entire 1st floor after Julia Ellen spills red Koolaid

• sit on the front porch with a cold bottle of beer, enjoying the view

• decide what to have for supper and make it, clean up afterwards and run another load of dishes
• go out into the garden to escape the children, only to have the little ones follow to help and peer into the compost bin
• trudge inside at dusk to bathe the 3 younger children, brush teeth, and harass the older ones into showering make sure all the garage and barn doors are shut
•  read aloud on the sofa
• put the baby and little boys to bed
• crawl into bed and read until my eyelids droop shut
• turn off the downstairs lights so the big kids will go to bed
• fall asleep at about 10:30pm

rise and shine ready for a slight variation the next day , and the next, and the next...

I do realize that my life is a bit easier now than it was with a newborn or infant, but I know that lazing around eating bon-bons on the sofa while watching TV is not going to be a major part of my daily routine for many, many years to come.  

parenting as a spectator sport

I don't think the suggestion of taking fat kids out of their homes and putting them in foster care is what Hillary Clinton had in mind when she declared that "it takes a village to raise a child."
It seems, judging from the recent news stories I have come across and their accompanying comments that the parents are simply doing the best they can and "the village" is a mob of critics standing around screaming "Unfit! Incompetent! Should be made sterile!" every time the parents does something not deemed perfect.

Take the horrific story of the 8 year old Hasidic Jewish boy who walked home last week and was kidnapped and found dismembered. "See, you should never let your child out of your sight until they are 43," the critics scream. Who knows what they would think of me for letting my 3 oldest children ride their bikes to piano lessons, a whole 4 miles away.  

Also last week up here in Maine a mom of 2 was arrested for leaving her kids in the car when she ran inside the grocery store. Instead of standing by the car and patiently waiting for the obviously frazzled mom to arrive, keeping an eye on the kids, some busy-body decided to call the police pronto. Now that 30 year old mom could have her kids taken away, will be hounded by the social service Nazis for the rest of her life, and has to admit on every job application that she was arrested. She will never be able to care for a foster child, never be able to adopt, and likely never be able to teach in a public school. But the 200+ comments following the article rant on and on about how it is so dangerous to leave a child in a car because the brakes might spontaneously fail or the engine might explode, in addition to all the premonitions of death due to heat and child molesters prowling the parking lots in small towns in coastal Maine. Today when I left 4 of my kids in the car while I ran into the gas station minimart to go potty, I was almost expecting when I emerged from the building to see a cruiser with flashing lights parked behind my van. This is the way I felt when we lived in Washington, DC, with cameras on every stoplight, a lawyer with a cellphone in every car, and police on almost every corner.

Another local incident this past week was a 911 call after a 2 year old fell down a shallow open well. The dad quickly rescued the child and followed directions from the dispatcher over the phone to revive her. But the commentors on the Bangor Daily News website started pointing fingers as soon as the story was posted, "No fit parent should let their child fall down a well, why were they not watching her..." Do these folks not eat, shower, read, look at the internet, cook, take care of another child, or even sleep until their offspring is 18? Obviously the adults were watching as they quickly hauled her out.  

Whatever did happen to the genteel habits of minding your own business and saving judgement until you know all the facts? It is as if real life is some form of reality TV where viewers have 20/20 hindsight and criticise, slander, or call the police as a fun game of gotcha. When was the last time any of these people offered to help a struggling mom and actually followed through? My bet is never, because actually watching a child for an hour so an overwhelmed mom could grocery shop alone doesn't give them the same jollies as seeing their name in print condemning another human being.   

busting through the wall

Charlie only has 6 stories left in his last Faith and Freedom reader to finish up the 1st grade. The stories began with very simple tales in very large print, but have progressed in difficulty over the 3 book set. As recent as last week it was taking 20 minutes per 5 page story to slowly sound out each word, including ones that he has read hundreds of times such as "said" and "the." The whole experience was painful to him, leading to his constant wriggling and sliding down the pillows of my bed until he was almost lying flat, unable to see the book. I also dreaded "reading time" because I knew that inevitably the other children would act up and I would be trapped with my finger stuck under each word, waiting for him to put together the sounds.

But in the past few days Charlie has been reading faster, speeding up so my finger is darting forward rather than resting still until I have to almost restrain myself from reading it aloud. I know that his reading skills will only improve even faster now and soon he will be picking up picture books to test his reading independence and before I know it, he will be reading all 13 books in the Lemony Snickett series, much to his mother's dismay over fluff books.       

no vocations?

About 3 weeks ago during the announcements during Mass the priest asked parents to fill out a survey as to why in the past 10 years the CCD programs has gone from 1000+ children to under 450 children participating. I didn't bother to fill out the survey since we aren't members of the parish, but even if we were I know that I wouldn't send my children to CCD. Why? Because after the dumbing-down of the curriculum and contrary-to-the-Faith teaching I have seen and heard about over the years, I don't trust the instructors. My kids have only attended CCD at St. Benedict's in Chesapeake, VA because I know how pious the teachers are, know that they use the Baltimore Catechism, and know that the other students are kids who come from good Catholic homes. When we go to the Novus Ordo Mass in Maine I am usually the only woman wearing a hat, my kids are the only ones not wearing shorts and flip flops, and we are certainly the only ones who receive Communion on the tongue. I know that these outward signs are not a indicator of holiness because I certainly sin more than I should, and the lack of these things are not a direct correlation to sinfulness, some of the parish families could be praying the rosary every night. But in general, those who take their religion seriously tend to be a bit more orthodox in their Mass attire and attitude toward the Blessed Sacrament.

That said, it didn't surprise me too much when just before the recessional yesterday morning, the priest at St. John's in Bangor made an announcement, "Father Tony (the Indian priest on loan to the diocese) will not be returning. With only 2 priests then covering 5 churches in the cluster parish, we cannot have 12 masses per weekend so some things are going to have to change."  

The diocese of Portland, Maine has been headed by 2 very liberal bishops in the past 15 years. The leadership of liberal bishops leads to an increase in happy-clappy liturgy and a suppression of orthodoxy, such as the Traditional Latin Mass. Vocations do not occur in an environment where it is evident from all outward signs that the lay people do not take their faith seriously. Only when the liturgy, preaching, and the priest's attitude all convey a sense of love for God, a deep meaning of Him in our daily lives, and a cause for sacrifice are there genuine vocations to the priesthood and religious life. That is why our little parish in Virginia with all of 175 families has 4 men currently studying for the priesthood and the diocese of Portland, Maine has 69 priests stretched to the limit serving 139 parishes. My suggestion to increase vocations? Turn the priest around to face the Tabernacle, restrict servers to boys only, start preaching some serious homilies about sin and the need for holiness, ask the FSSP to send priests to say the TLM, and throw away all the fluff books used in CCD. Start from the ground up and teach people the Catholic Faith, encourage them to love Our Lord in recognizable Catholic practices, and challenge them to be more holy and I promise that Maine will see an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

where do they all go?

The children's shoes, that is? When I packed clothing and toiletries for the children back in May, I laid out 1 pair of tennies, 1 pair of church shoes, and all the complete pairs of Crocs I could in a duffel bag and put it in the back of the van. Along the edge of our new porch was decreed "Croc, rubber boot, and boat shoe zone" while tennies went in the mud room. Since then we have misplaced at least 5 pairs of rubber shoes, even after replacing 3-4 pairs from Goodwill. My lone pair of light blue Crocs that I bought 2 years ago are sitting on the porch, damp from an early morning walk around the garden, but I could only count 4 pairs of children's shoes. Timmy had to wear his sister's pink shoes to dinner last night after searching the car and not being able to find the mate to the ones he swore were in the van. When we pulled back in the driveway I spotted the missing shoe where it had fallen out in the mad scramble to pick up Will and Mary from sailing, drop off Will, Mary, and Maggie at swimming, and go to Dysarts, our favorite truck stop restaurant for supper.

This mystery of the missing shoes is perplexing. The kids don't come home with only 1 shoe most days, I don't find them in the grass when we mow, and I don't think the wild animals eat them. But perhaps I am mistaken, just maybe there is a critter stalking around the house at night, waiting for his chance to snatch a brightly colored Croc and drag it back to his den. There is the slightest possibility that my children are not to be blamed for misplacing their shoes on an almost-daily basis, but that we will spy a nest in the trees constructed of rubber strips of their footwear.

Yeah right.

a 34 year old in a 40 year old body

Monday morning I dressed the kids all in patriotic red shirts for Independence Day. Will had changed his mind about running 2 miles, so we negotiated that he stay home with the little ones and play with them. The rest of us headed up to Brewer for "Maine's fastest road race," a 3K 4th of July run. The course actually is really fun, as the pre-parade entertainment, thousands of folks line the route to cheer us on. I told the kids that the fastest child of mine to finish would get a special treat from the candy aisle at the grocery and that I would see them at the finish. I ran across the bridge and spiraled around downtown Bangor in a time of 12:19, Mary crossed the finish line soon after, followed by Charlie, and then Maggie. Due to a fluke in age brackets (Charlie was competing against 10 year old boys and the girl that won Mary's age group was at least 12" taller), Maggie was the only children's medal winner with a 2nd place finish. Yet again, I won my age group, even though I felt sort of off the whole race, likely due to the fact that I didn't know I was going to run until that morning.
We stayed to watch the parade and then hiked the 2 miles back uphill back to the car. A cool frosty drink in hand helped mitigate the cranky whining from my hot and sweaty crew. The runners rightly didn't receive as much applause as the veterans who marched and rode down Main Street, but the kids liked being able to celebrate our nation's birthday by both being "in" the parade and being able to watch it as well.   

my longest day of the summer

Yesterday I actually retrieved the alarm clock from the barn and set it for 6am so I would be sure not to oversleep on the first day of sailing lessons. I probably needed it more this morning to recover from the day's scheduling and activities. Needless to say, I did not get a long slow run in to clear my head.

7am: get children up, pack gear, slather up Maggie and Charlie with sunscreen. Make list of schoolwork for Will and Mary to complete at home.
8am: leave house to drive 15 miles to harbor and fill out umpteen forms.
9am: drive 2o miles to Julia Ellen's "Mom and Tot" swimming lesson.
10:30am: swing by grocery store for nappies, milk, and fruit.
11am: pull in driveway at farm to unload groceries, feed 4 children, pack another bag of sailing gear, slather up Will and Mary with sunscreen, explain to my husband that now is not a good time to chat.
11:30am: strap tired toddler back in her car seat for the 15 mile trip back to the harbor.
12 noon: sign out 2 younger children, drop off 2 older children, head home to feed Maggie and Charlie lunch and do school with him. Throw a load or 4 of wet towels and bathing suits in the wash and call Tim back. Negotiate offer on 2nd choice house with realtor.   
3:30pm: drive 15 miles back to harbor to pick up Will and Mary with the idea of dinner out, but Will begged to stay for racing until 7pm.
4pm: attempt to drive like a fiend back to pool for Charlie and Timmy's swimming lessons, but get stuck behind jerk who drives under the speed limit on the 2 lane portions, while speeding up to 70 where the road widens to allow for a passing lane. 10 minutes late to swimming.
5:30pm: back to grocery store to pick up items for potluck supper after sailboat races.
6:30pm: after a quick stop at home to make salad, put items in cooler, and grab jackets, the final trip back to the harbor (a check of my gas gauge shows a fillup is needed soon) to sit down, relax, chat with friends, and watch the children race around playing.
9pm: finally lie down after baths and turning off all the lights.

My reward?

10 hours of uninterrupted sleep. 

thanks Obama

You know those tacky shirts that say, "My grandma went to Jamaica and all I got was this lousy t-shirt"? Well, I feel the same way right now. Our president and the Democrats have spent trillions of dollars on bailouts for public sector union jobs, cash for clunkers, bank bailouts, shovel ready projects that weren't quite so shovel ready, dozens of exotic vacations for themselves on corporate jets, an illegal campaign ad, and thousands of other sleazy things. 

Last week I researched internet options for our farm. I was tired of hoofing it to the library to check my email and with no TV either, I was completely clueless about what was going on in the world. Our phone company only offers dial-up for us country folk and when I called the cable company, they sent someone to estimate our hookup cost. "Due to the distance of 950 feet from the nearest road and with only 2 residences on the property, you do not qualify for a subdivision rate. The cost for running the cable to your home will cost approximately $3200. Please call us if you would like to proceed with service installation." Uh, no, thank you. Then I pulled out a year-old postcard from the satellite company and called them. "Due to the federal stimulus and reinvestment act, you are eligible to receive free installation and dish for internet access." 

So, 3+ trillion dollars later, I got a little gray dish stuck on the back of my house and am surfing the net in my furnace room. Apparently the big bucks from Obama only cover the modem coming in to one location and the cord is only 12 inches long. So until the electrician comes to connect a splitter and install a special plug upstairs, I'm the epitome of a basement-dwelling blogger typing away in her jammies.      

grow, veggies, grow!

Last year we had a fabulous garden. We harvested green beans, tomatoes, carrots, enough pumpkins to make pies and bread all winter, more squash than a family of 8 could possibly eat (especially since only 2 of us actually eat squash), lettuce, a few melons, and at least one bushel of corn. This spring we arrived in Maine and got the garden tilled and planted earlier than before, but the weather and seeds haven't been as cooperative. A few days have been hot and sunny, but I'm still wearing my jacket over a tshirt most mornings and perhaps buying $1 packets last year out of Johnny's bargain bins wasn't such a great idea. I've replanted the pumpkin after the crows ripped out the seedlings and only 1/2 the corn and peas sprouted at all. On the other hand, the potatoes I bought on a whim at the local hardware store are a lush dark green and Maggie and I have hilled them several times. If I can keep the wild turkeys out of the lettuce then I will have a bumper crop (they took a dust bath in my leaf lettuce last year) and the broccoli is growing like gangbusters. Here is a view of the patch from the boy's bedroom window a few weeks back and today:

a tale of 2 races

A few weeks ago the kids and I got super-early and headed to Bangor for the Garelick Milk Run, a one mile downhill race. I convinced Will a few days beforehand to watch the little kids during the race, “It’s only for about 6 minutes,” while Mary, Maggie, Charlie, and I ran. I only found out after we arrived that the race was not in a loop, but ended downtown, making me change my promise to, “I’ll run, turn around and run back to the start and collect y ‘all.” I also soothed a nervous Tim on the phone the evening before, “I will finish and go back to run next to Charlie,” but apparently that promise wasn’t necessary to keep.

I decided to run the family race as opposed to the competitive one that started 20 minutes later (I guess this was so little kids wouldn’t be trampled in the fast start) and with no men, I quickly took 2^nd place and almost beat the 20-something girl in front. Finishing with a time of 6:19, I grabbed a bottle of water and headed back up to find Charlie. But he surprised me by flying through the chute in 7:30, followed by Maggie at 8:00, and Mary at 8:30. After getting them all situated with chocolate milk, I sprinted back to the start and drove them down in time for the door prize giveaway and awards ceremony. While we didn’t collect one of the Styrofoam coolers of dairy products, I did receive 1^st place in my age group, a $25 gift certificate to the local sports store.  

This past Saturday a huge thunderstorm woke me up at 4:30am and woke a very scared Timmy up at 5:00am. He climbed in bed with me while I debated whether the Tour de Lac 10 miler in Bucksport I had signed up for weeks before was going to be cancelled. I changed my mind several times about going, but by 7am the rain abated as I pulled into the town pool parking lot wearing several layers for warmth. The kids had been left at home in the care of their older siblings with strict instructions to change the baby’s nappie as well as to please not burn down the house. I have been paying Willand Mary to babysit for the past 9-10 months while I have gone running, but this was the longest I had left them alone, so I promised Tim I would call home as soon as the race was over. I strapped on my IPod shuffle, cranked it up and punched my stopwatch as soon as the signal was given. After only training on hills for about 4 weeks, I was a little nervous, but quickly settled in a 7:30/mile pace, dropping down to 7 minute miles on the more downhill sections. I finished strong at 1hr, 15 min and was told that I was the 3^rd female, so I quickly changed into dry and warm clothes (by now it was misting and very chilly) and called the kids. They were fine, promised to immediately change Julia Ellen’s nappie, and checked in with Tim to reassure him of the children’s safety. After the awards ceremony, in which I received a jar of raspberry jam for finishing 1^st in my age group, I made it home to put the dirty breakfast dishes in the dishwasher and fix myself some toast smeared with my newly gotten gains.

Will was jealous of his little brother’s racing success that he convinced me to let him run in the 4^th of July 2 mile race in Bangor while I watch the little ones, so I will be in the strange position of cheering on my children, rather than them standing on the sidelines shouting, “Go Mommy!”    

soon to be a Navy retiree wife

It is now official that Tim will be retiring from the Navy in just a few weeks and starting a new job here in Maine. The family went house-hunting for a new winter home, the farm will continue to be our “summer place,” though it will certainly be easier to take long weekends and holidays here, but as the job is a couple of hours away, we need to consult a realtor. After the kids and I went back to re-look at several houses, we put an offer on one, but were unsuccessful (the owners don’t seem to grasp the reality of the current economic conditions, to be polite about it).

So back we go with another set of listings and the bribe of Friendly’s for dinner to keep all the children on their best behavior. I insisted on Wednesday because with $1.99 kid’s meals that day, I can walk in with 6 hungry kiddos and walk out without too much of a dent in my wallet. None of the houses compare to the one we are sitting in, built with our family’s needs and wants as the top priority, but it shouldn’t be too hard to find a nice home with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths on at least an acre. We aren’t asking for that size lot in Manhattan, Maine has plenty of room plus millions of acres with not a soul in residence. After all we have been through the past few years career-wise, it has been such a pleasant surprise to have the job and the retirement with all the thousands of logistical pieces fit together like a beautifully made jig-saw puzzle. Here is to finding a “winter home” that fits our needs and has plenty of room for the kids to play in the predictable Maine snow this winter.        

Maine is certainly wild

While I have never seen a moose, the emblematic animal of Maine, there is plenty of wildlife to be seen every day here. In just two weeks I have been woken up to the gobbling of a tom turkey, strutting and fanning his tail feathers in the middle of the driveway, let the kids out of the car to chase a woodchuck, and almost stepped on giant earthworms in a copious embrace while on an early morning stroll around the fields.

Julia Ellen apparently has an inclination toward entomology; she finds a shiny green beetle wandering in the dirt, a moth flitting among the tops of the grass stems, and a lowly ant carrying a crumb equally fascinating. While doing an outdoor chore I have found the best way to keep the toddler out of trouble is to point out a small bug to her, leaving her to crouch down staring intently at its actions. 

Our first excursion to a local pond resulted in captured (and released) frogs, minnows, long black leeches, and a tiny red salamander. Even while running on back country roads I have stopped to turn a red eared slider turtle back towards the safety of the grass and jumped over a grass snake no thicker than a pencil. I didn’t touch the alligator snapping turtle possibly laying eggs in the gravel bank on the other end of our road, but watched for a while before resuming my run home.  Last summer the coyote den at the bottom of a field was abandoned, leaving us to believe that now there were humans in residence so close by, they had retreated to the safety of the deep woods, but we found out the other night that another family has moved in and is raising pups, evidenced by the sight of fresh dirt. I don’t mind most of the other animals that we share our land with, but coyotes give me terrible premonitions of them attacking the children.

The kids aren’t scared of all the critters out there, with the possible exception of coyotes and the blackflies that like to take bites out of their necks. Julia Ellen’s cooing over a fat black and yellow spotted salamander (or is it a newt?) makes me smile and grateful for the opportunity to show all the children the wonders of the world in which we live. 

more freedom for me

Every summer my daily life gets a little easier. For the past 13 summers I have had an infant to nurse or a baby who has to be protected against falling down the stairs, drowning in a pond, or running out into traffic. I have had to haul around one of those huge infant car seats or lug around a 20 pound baby who is too active to stay in one place, but too mobile to play without constant supervision and assistance. This summer however, every one is a year older, including Julia Ellen. She doesn't require a highchair or baby food, she listens to directions most of the time, and even when we forgot our life jackets on the latest trip to the pond she only had to be hauled out from the deep once. Here is a little montage of her past few weeks....    

welts, sore back, and a trip to the dentist

After 16 hours driving the truck following Tim at the wheel of the van (after last year's jack-knifing incident, I was too chicken to pull the trailer), we hit the gravel of our Maine driveway. No traffic, no accidents, very few potty breaks all contributed to our speedy arrival. However, the house is not quite as finished as I thought, the schoolroom floor is not installed and there seems to be several weeks worth of work left before we can move in. So, instead of hoofing furniture across the pavement from the garage apartment, we have spent the past few days mowing, tilling, and planting.

In just 24 hours Tim rototilled my garden and I discovered the lovely Maine phenomenon of blackflies. Yes, I've heard the warnings and the songs, seen the bumper stickers, but it is very disconcerting to see your children covered in bloody welts behind their ears and on the back of their necks. I got hit many times as well, realizing once their season ends in a week or so, it will be just in time for the deer flies and mosquitoes to hatch.

But I have pushed onward and put in tomato and cucumber seedlings and planted corn, onions, pumpkin, lettuce, peas, beans, and various flowers. The kids raked cartloads of grass clippings to mulch the garden. While I was hammering in stakes for the tomato cages, I swung poorly and hit my mouth, busting my lip and chipping one of my teeth. A quick visit to the local dentist made my tooth as good as new and Tim took over stake pounding duties (note: next time buy the shorter stakes). We have all been collapsing into bed by 9pm with no one, save myself, emerging from their room before 8am. Julia Ellen is getting so much fresh air and exercise (especially attempting to swipe away the blackflies) that the previous 2 hour nightly effort to get her to go to sleep has disappeared. 

At this rate I will have our garden put in by Saturday, the children's school finished by next Wednesday, and be volunteering to help the builder lay floor by Thursday. Perhaps not. I'll be glad to take a break from my current frantic pace and relax long enough to enjoy our summer in Maine.       

one last hurrah

Saturday morning the big girls and I woke at dark o'thirty and headed downtown to the Elizabeth River 10K Run. The lovely course goes through Olde Towne, the historic residential area of Portsmouth where I grew up, along the seawall with views of navy ships in drydock, and around Hospital Point with the oldest Navy hospital in the US (where both myself and my oldest child were born). It would have been more pleasant if the weather hadn't been quite so hot and steamy at 8:00am, but after watching the girls run their 1 mile run, I started out strong for the first 2 miles and slowed down for the next 2. But after I hit the 5 mile marker I knew that I could finish and despite having been passed all through the course, managed to place 2nd in my age group. All my running buddies assured me that placing in this race was a real accomplishment as it is one of the bigger 10Ks in the area.

I'm proud of myself not only for my speed, but for doing it while squeezing in packing, company for the weekend, and mentally prepping for the 14 hour drive we will undertake within the next 18 hours.

our last day homeschooling in Virginia

Tomorrow I have a morning doctor's appointment and Tim informed the family last night at supper that we will be leaving for Maine at 0500 on Monday morning so we can escape at least some of the Memorial Day traffic. So today after we learn a little bit more, I am packing up the last of our schoolbooks, taking down the alphabet  and vowel posters, and steam cleaning the carpet. I'm leaving the vast majority of our supplies and books behind for the packers.

Tim was offered a position up in Maine and we are patiently awaiting his final set of orders. The bad news is that the job is just out of commuting distance from our farm, so we are going house-hunting next week. The good news is that the job is in Maine and we can adjust our flexible schooling schedule to accommodate short trips up to the farm every week, allowing us to be back on Sunday in time to attend one of the only 2 Traditional Latin Masses in the diocese. To say that I'm excited about being real full-time Mainers and not just "summer people" would be a gross understatement. To be able to have most of my furniture be able to stay in one place, and not have to make that long 14-15 hour drive twice a year is just a dream come true.     

So, farewell Virginia with your byzantine homeschooling laws, with your homeschool liason in the public school administration who doesn't know the law, with your selfish policies that take tax dollars and don't allow homeschoolers to participate in classes or sports. Hello to Maine with simple homeschooling requirements and an inclusion that will allow my children to run track and play soccer on the local school teams. Hello to a much more live-and-let-live attitude among most of the population. My roots will always be in Virginia, the first of my ancestors came to the state in 1618, but it has grown and become too crowded and too much of a nanny-state for my taste. I'm sure some of those long-dead relatives must be rolling in their graves, but my heart is in way up north in Maine.    

we survived the jam-packed weekend

There are many times in my life that if I had been given a heads-up, I would have done things differently. I wouldn't have dated until I met my husband, wouldn't have picked such an obscure major in college, and would have continued running competitively in college and afterwards. Luckily, I'm sure that I would have picked the same man to marry and would gladly welcome the children God has blessed me with.
But one thing I would have changed recently is I wouldn't have signed the girls up for dance this year. The teachers were fine and perhaps they learned something, but the hassle of parking a block away 3 afternoons a week, having the girls in a messy unprofessional studio, not being happy with one costume and dance selection, as well as having to sit through two 4 hour recitals (as well as the prior day's dress rehearsals) was not worth it.

The girls did fine in their numbers, but I think we will take a break from dance and focus on some other activities as well as exploring some new ones such as track and horseback riding. After all, I like watching kids run and horses don't care for hip-hop any more than I do.

all homeschoolers are "green-ribbon" schools

(CNSNews.com) – Next year on Earth Day, the Obama administration plans to announce which U.S. schools have been selected as “Green Ribbon Schools,” a designation that will “honor” schools for “creating healthy and sustainable learning environments” and for “teaching environmental literacy.”The Green Ribbon Schools program was announced in late April, but details on how schools will be picked or what the honor entails have not been released.

Jo Ann Webb, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education, told CNSNews.com that the program is still under development.

[...]

Webb said the program would recognize schools for “engaging students on environmental issues and producing environmentally literate students; increasing energy efficiency and using renewable energy technologies; and creating healthy learning environments by addressing environmental issues in the schools.”

As soon as I heard about this while on my daily run listening to Rush, I thought that homeschoolers could inundate the Dept of Ed with applications. After all, homeschoolers use less carbon because they don't ride the bus or require mom to drive them to school, recycle their books and clothes, don't waste food at lunch, don't require massive buildings to house one aspect of their lives, and shut off the lights when they leave the classroom (plus school only takes 1/2 the time it does in public school). The savings in electricity and temperature control alone make every homeschooling family so environmentally friendly that the standard tree-hugger is "green" with envy.

whoops!

Tim thought it humorous that I wrote this response to this education article on American Thinker and used the wrong article, 'a' instead of 'an'. No one seemed to catch my grammatical error and since I only get about 30 minutes on the computer each day to check my mail, write a post, skim blogs, and read the news, I give myself a little slack.




"There are certain things that every person should know: basic arithmetic, reading comprehension, basic science and history, practical economics, and how to write a understandable paragraph. Most of these things can be accomplished by about age 12. What needs to happen is letting the floodgates open for innovation such as charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling; all without the double whammy of paying for the broken public system (75% of property taxes in our town go to the public school, it boggles my mind to think of how many more activities and lessons we could afford with that money) on top of paying for your own child's education. Some children won't go to college and don't need a college prep program, but they still need to be able to function and have enough learning so they can move up from dead-end service jobs if they become motivated past age 18.

Homeschooling is the best option right now, we have been doing it for 8 years and have seen much more acceptance among strangers than in years past, but it takes dedication and sacrifice, not something found among the vast majority of parents."                                                                                                   

                                                                           

chugging along

I'm amazed at how quickly the children's schoolwork is progressing. Maggie finished up English and religion yesterday and only has about a week left in math. Charlie, despite officially beginning 1st grade in January, starts the 3rd Faith and Family reader today and has about 8 days left in phonics and math, and finished religion, science, and history weeks ago. Mary has been down to spelling and Latin for at least a month, and Timmy only has about 3 pages left of his last preschool workbook. Will finished science and art for the year and is currently studying for his final religion and history tests.
That only leaves spelling to continue for everyone for many weeks to come, at least 3/4 of the Algebra 1/2 text for Will, and since he is now on the 3rd quarter book report, that leaves a whole quarter worth of work and yet another book report before he finishes up 7th grade. We will persevere and utilize our brand-new schoolroom on the farm, doing about an hour of school each morning before releasing them for fun and lessons. I'm in the process of scheduling summer activities and the list makes me a little dizzy: 6 children swimming, 4 sailing, 3 continuing piano lessons, 2 in riding lessons, 3 going to camp, and at least 1, perhaps 2 in the Hershey Track and Field meet in June.  Ideally all the activities would mesh so I don't have to drive 10 miles to swimming lessons on 5 different days, but I'm grateful we have the opportunity to get them involved, the resources to afford it, and the beautiful Maine scenery to enjoy while doing it.

4 miler results

This morning I had the easier job of getting out the door at 6:30am and driving up to Hampton to run, while Tim had to get all the kids up, dressed, fed, and out the door to have Will serve Mass at 9am. By the time I returned home he had 1/2 the laundry washed and folded, lunch in preparation, and the children's bed's made. He certainly isn't like some husbands I have heard wives complain about, either in his or my homemaking skills. I recall another Navy wife saying that every evening her husband would 'inspect' the apartment and if he found anything out of place or not clean would pitch a fit. I thought she had enough on her plate living overseas with 3 children under the age of 5, but he couldn't manage 2 for more than a day while she was in the hospital giving birth without calling on the neighbors for help. So, I'm grateful that I have such a giving husband who volunteers to haul children hither and yon for their activities as well as some of the household duties. 
So, while Tim was managing the kids, I ran 29:33, for a per mile pace of about 7:30. I placed 3rd overall and brought home a useful beer glass as my prize. My next race is the Elizabeth River Run 10K and then we have a bunch of short races in Maine to look forward to as well as a 10 miler that offers homemade jelly as prizes.        

clarification on the Traditional Latin Mass

Today the Instruction Universae Ecclesiae (UE) has been released. Father Z has a synopsis and discussion over what this means to those Catholics who are faithful to the TLM. I still don't know what would happen if I asked our local priest in Bangor, ME to offer the older form of the Mass, but am so grateful that the idea of female altar servers at the TLM has been put to rest (it happened last week in England), by this portion:

… Furthermore, by virtue of its character of special law, within its own area, the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum derogates from those provisions of law, connected with the sacred Rites, promulgated from 1962 onwards and incompatible with the rubrics of the liturgical books in effect in 1962.

So, no altar girls, no communion in the hand, no extraordinary ministers at the Traditional Latin Mass. The Mass that has nourished thousands, perhaps millions of Saints, sustained those who brought Christ to heathen continents, encouraged those who brought loving care and education to those who needed it, and by its graces saved many more millions from hell will hopefully be more free than at any time in the past 40 years and will expand and bring many more souls to Our Lord's feast in Heaven.  

carnival of homeschooling

Dewey's Treehouse is hosting this week's carnival. Go check it out!

What happens when public schools run out of money

Public schools spend approximately $10,000 per pupil for staff salaries and retirement, books, food, gas money, equipment, supplies, etc. This does not include the money for the building  or the buses used to drive them to school. Parents pay private schools anywhere between $4000-$12,000 per child in addition to already paying property taxes for the public school system (Our town in Maine states that 75% of the annual tax we pay on our home goes to the local education budget). In contrast, homeschooling costs between almost nothing and $1000 per child (for a full enrollment school-in-a-box enrollment).

There is obviously a great deal of waste that can be cut from any public school budget, but what is the first idea suggested in Michigan (with 41% of the residents of Detroit now considered functionally illiterate) and California? Cut the school year with the result that children are not receiving even the basic 180 days of schooling.   It is increasingly obvious that the public school model is not functioning. Children are not being educated, the teachers unions are growing richer and more powerful, and the financial dam is about to break. What will it take for large numbers of parents to break free from the warehousing that is going on now? If they were offered freedom with their pocketbooks to choose their children's education enviroment then things would change in a big, fat hurry. Those in charge of the current system know it and are holding on for dear life for their own benefit. 

Teachers and parents throughout the region and state have grown accustomed to significant cutbacks in their public schools, increased demands for fundraising and threats to layoff faculty as California copes with its relentless fiscal crisis.

But schools could face a financial hit so severe in the coming school year that many may be shut down as many as six weeks early, under an extreme cost-cutting measure that was first suggested in January with little fanfare and has been gaining traction ever since.
That means children could be cut lose (sic) from school in April next year, just after Easter. Sign On San Diego

an utter whirlwind

The next few weeks seem to be just a list of to-be-checked-off items: piano guild, ballet pictures, Scout crossover, a hospital procedure, a race, fundraisers, recitals, parties, the priest over for supper, and Will's confirmation. Even today, in which I put aside most of the schoolwork, I managed to fill my morning rushing downtown with a moaning Mary in the backseat. Luckily all I had to do was pass her off to Tim at the front door of the hospital, trusting that he can get her some meds for her apparent ear infection before her piano guild audition this afternoon. 

I'm almost glad to be able to take my mind off some of the big issues going on right now in our lives (I'll spill once I hear good or bad news for sure, right now it is just waiting), knowing that Mary's pain is not serious and she will quickly be put to rights with some antibiotics. When I look at the headlines I know that my problems are small potatoes compared with millions of others, so I shall thank God for the blessings I have and not be so upset about what I can not control.