the last concert of the year

The last concert of the year was a big hit!!

Above is a photo of his teacher, and below is a photo of his best "girl" friend. He says that's all they are, but it was fun to watch them flirt in between songs and during warmup.

The group did an amazing job, it was such a noticable improvement from the previous concert!!

Big E and I registered for next years classes, and it includes advanced Orchestra. He wants to put flames on his violin!

Winter Concert - 2009

Big E has been playing the violin this school year, and this past week we attended the winter concert for the orchestra. They played 4 different music pieces, and I was able to record audio on two of them. I didn't take my 'big nasty' camera in, we took our point and shoot only. So... here's a picture of big E getting ready to perform, and here's "Dreidel" performed by the 6th grade orchestra!

Badongo.com is where I uploaded the mp3, it made it sound like it had some static... but it was the only audio hosting site I knew of!

Click this link to hear the audio recorded, hosted by badongo.com

wacky week wrap-up

There's been alot of fluff postin lately... so here's my cliff notes version of the week at our house:

• Big J threw his back out... makes him sound old. Funny thing is he doesn't even know what he did for it to happen. Just stepped a certain way then off to the doctor he went because he could barely move.



• Big E found himself suspended from school for one day, and out of our good graces. I'm not posting all about my kids being perfect angels on here - so there, my kid made SAD choices and as a result, suspended. The deed was dirty, and he's been in serious denial about it. I'm not going to disrespect his privacy totally - so the deed will not be blogged. However, instead of letting him have his suspension day at home - we chose to have him go to an alternative school where part of the day was spent with a life skills/anger management course that was/is intended to discourage this type of deed. We hope it helped. It was an experience for sure! Live and learn, right?

• I went to the doc for a follow up visit, found out more about my "abnormal labwork" and got referred to a rheumatologist because my ANA titer rate was 1:640 and should be 1:40 or less. I'll post more about that too... later. This isn't all brand new to me, but the reality of it is settling in because my problems are internal right now. They've scheduled a hyda scan to determine if I have a diseased gall bladder, ultrasound shows no stones, but thats only one test they do, and after that they'll know what direction to go in - I hope.

• Little J has been chilling out at home alot, homeschool has been really play and learn all week this week and last week - and I've not been camera savvy to take photos, and I've had no real lesson plans this past week because of all these doctors appointments. Next week I hope to be back on track. We have been using Lego's in all sorts of ways to teach and play. Sorting, shapes, counting, building, creating etc. We have created a Lego lovin kid for sure!!

• We went to the pet store with little J one day this week and bought a Crowntail Betta fish that looks just like THIS ONE. I have named him poopface.... well, because that fish poops alot - AND because I have a sick and immature sense of humor I suppose. Not sure what he'll name that fish. At the petstore we had fun looking and learning names of all of the different kinds of fish, and other pets they had! Snakes, lizards, hamsters, cats, etc.

• The highlight of the week for little J was the Day out with Thomas. I'll post all about that in a separate entry...

• One of my neice's is having a birthday Sunday, as is our 7 year wedding anniversary - and next week big E turns ELEVEN and on that same day that he turns ELEVEN, my step-mom turns another year older (ladies never tell - right)!! Then the hubs has a birthday ON Halloween! Lots of celebrations in October...

another new addition brought to us by IKEA

Did I mention I'm and IKEA freak? I just wish that everything at IKEA was made in the USA...Either way, I go there whenever I can... I love to look, and dream about all the snazzy possibilities there - there's so many ways to simplify and organize at IKEA! I think if I were the type to spend money frivolously for our home and kids, I'd do it at IKEA and on Etsy.com.... (Etsy has also won my heart over).

BUT, our budget isn't so frivolous with one laid off and one working for a small income from home, so we only really replace things if they're broken or if we sell something on craigslist or Ebay in order to replace it. That's why we like IKEA, everything seems to be reasonably priced for a budget like ours when it comes to stuff we can "use" in everyday life.

Big E has been doing his assignments either on his bed, or at the dining room table, so we cleared a spot in his room for a simple small desk, and for under $50.00 we were able to get a desk, a chair, and a cushion for the chair to match his room colors. Was it a necessity, nope - but does he totally dig it - YES! All he wants now is a really cool desk lamp because I walked out and forgot it like a dummy, we'll prob. get him this one since he seems to dig it (and it's only $5!), and he'll be a happy kid doing homework or reading, writing, or drawing at freewill!

patience is a virtue...

.... and thankfully one that I have. {{most of the time}}

I arrive to pick up the boy at 330-340ish, last bell rings at 345pm. THIS is 1/2 of the traffic for carpool, what you can't see is that there's just as much behind my car, and up there at the school, there is a maze of traffic that twists and turns in 5 loops to pick up kids....

using my 200mm zoom, I can not even tell where my kid is, because I'm still not close enough... and it makes me wish I had a bigger lens for fun moments like this....

finally I find him, and this is a photo zoomed in at 200mm... so I'm still pretty darn far away from him!!

The package (a.k.a. the boy, or Big E) is finally sitting in the car TWENTY minutes after the bell has rang, and we finally made our way to the front of the line.... I suppose these carpool moms/dads must have arrived at 3pm!!!! EEK!! Well, that's my new every afternoon commute and carpool routine.... thank goodness for books, music, and oh yeah, UberTwitter, Facebook BBerry apps and great friends who humor me along the way because they're doing the same thing!!

my hand hurts... wahhhhh

argh!!! the forms seemed endless today!! This is just a few of the forms we had to fill out tonight... and several included opting to join this or that club....

1. School behavior policy agreement. (which explained In School Suspension, OSS, etc)
2. Gym class Tee-shirt order order form - to be ordered by Friday ($10.00 cash only)
3. Gym bag order form ($5.00 for solid color, $10.00 for both school colors)
4. Team Spirit school tee's/pullovers/jackets/long-sleeve tee's order form (varied from $19.00-$30.00) - to be ordered before mid-September
5. Sports Booster Club membership form - $35.00 annual fee - due this week if you wish to join
6. Fine Arts Booster Club membership form - $25.00 annual fee - due this week if you wish to join
7. PTSA membership and directory form - $4.50 per person membership, additional $4.00 for directory.
8. Yearbook order form (to be ordered BEFORE 08.31.09) $18.00 each
9. Read & Sign Student/Teacher handbook and rules - wow, some stuff in there is interesting!
10. Student Insurance (accidental insurance) - depending on coverage choice, $10.00-$72.00
11. Emergency Contact form
12. Orchestra form - Use of School Instruments / Rules
13. Permission to video/record your child. (or opt out)
14. Medical info form (allergies, doctors name, dentists name, etc)

skool daze for little J

We're going with a play and learn pre-school approach for little J this school year. He's 3.5 and is really eager to learn! I love the Montessori style of teaching, and hope to adapt alot of that in his learning activities this school year. In general, we do alot of learn by play with everyday activities. The general plan for this pre-school homeschool year is to incorporate some sit down time several times through the day for specific activities. Nothing rigid or scheduled - just fun and learning!! Lots of reading, music, art, outdoor activities, and library visits are in our future this school year.

We have a project in my dining room and hope to have it finished by next weekend - it will include removing half of the furniture in there, leaving only the dining table and chairs and adding a new book case system to house the supplies we'll be using for arts and crafts along with the books and music we'll incorporate with some of the creative play activities we hope to include with play and learn time.

I have found a couple of toddler groups locally for homeschoolers, and hope to connect with one close by for scheduled and routine play and learn gatherings either weekly or bi-weekly. We're talking about Romp n Roll for a gym class again, and we've also discussed The Little Gym which is close to big E's school. That all depends on pricing (some of those places are just crazy expensive!!), given our current economic situation at home...

We started today with A is for Airplane, and he had fun helping me fold and tape together handmade airplanes then decorate them with stickers. We made two, one big airplane and one little airplane. On the big airplane I wrote an "A" and on the small airplane I wrote an "a" and we just played and talked about the big airplane and the big A, v/s the small one and the tiny "a". Then we had some fun throwing them in the house!

I have to get better organized with activities, since I'm totally green at this... Below are a couple of pictures from today's activity.

big E's school days

Big E started middle school today, and he was so proud to walk through those doors this morning! We all rode together to take him, and he was super excited. Little J was a little sad to see him go. I had a pit in my stomach watching him walk in this gigantic building and head off to class....

We're so on the fence about what to do with big E for education, we're really trying to balance out what fits his learning needs best. I've found a forum for homeschool co-op groups, and am talking with a few moms on there who's children have some of the same kind of "learning" with their children. It's uncharted territory for me, and I'm not 100% confident in how things would go, but we'll never know until we try... Out of respect to big E, as I wrote HERE, we're going with a green light with public school for this quarter to see how things go. WE are the ones who put him IN public school, and for now (last year and entering this year) HE loves it. So, we're kindof in a strange situation...

I wonder if there are any families out there with one kid in public and one in private, or one at homeschool and one not - because of similar circumstances?? Probably not, we're a freak show of our own in many respects... ARGH!! What to do??? We've both been going OVER AND OVER this for just under 2 years!!! The summer proved very productive with some book studies, lots of reading and reviews, and math concept review with big E...

Can't wait to see how things went today!!! Will post more later....

Orientation

Thursday of last week, big E and I hopped in the car for a drive out to the Middle School he will attend. While we've tossed the idea around of homeschooling him, we've kept it open for discussion and he really seems interested in experiencing middle school so we're going to give it a go for now. We both agree that in order to give him everything he needs with education, and life skills, we would need to find a really great homeschool co-op group - so we're still researching homeschool groups and how best to deal with that once we come to a complete decision on how this middle school atmosphere works out...with having had him in public school for going on 7 years - we're trying to figure out how 'unlearning' would go??? Oh man it's tough!! Mainly because he WANTS to be with his peers now!! We do plan to homeschool little J for at least pre-K and Kindergarten and see how things go from there. But, we're trying to respect big E's wishes but yesterday when we pulled into the parking lot at the school I'll admit - I almost wanted to vomit. (too much info?? sorry)

The school is 2 stories high, and looks to be larger then the highschool I attended. Immediately I had a pit in my stomach, thinking of our young man walking the halls of this gigantic place with other kids. I'm not sure why I think it's such a scary place, but society today is NOT what it was when I was a tweenager... it looked like a bit of a fashion show at times as we walked the halls - even among the parents.

His classroom is nice, and small. The program he is in is one that creates a smaller group atmosphere for him, so he'll be in classes most of the day with 6-12 kids only, and parts of the day with much larger groups. He seems really excited, and his teachers seemed like genuinely nice people who are eager to educate our big E. Selfishly I dont like the idea of him being there!! Why am I changing so much these days? Drawing my mind closer to how society really does impress it's ways upon our children, and how in the 'old days' the village was not at all like society today is. Values changed along the way, and what was important then, is not at all important now. Why do two police officers need to be assigned to almost all schools in the district? I'm not a hippie flyin my freak flag over here, but what's wrong with this picture??? Soda machines when you walk in the front door, police cars, and 'lock down' drills for the potential threat of school shootings or worse.

Maybe I need a reality dose, and maybe I am a hippie - who knows. I enjoy relaxed days, where my kids learn by playing or observing or reading. Summer has been filled with learning, more then I thought and big J and I both have started to see that just a few little things we did this summer have stuck with both of our boys for learning.... oh - I'm so lost. I've been battling this for 2 years in my head. What's kept us from stopping public schooling for our oldest is that he suddenly began to WANT to go to school (whereas he used to cry when we went and when he came home) and he began to ENJOY the learning program that is set up for his individual needs. We're giving it 1 semester and then we're going to discuss it with him again...

Lesson I'm learning = An educational system isn't worth a great deal if it teaches young people how to make a living but doesn't teach them how to make a life. ~Author Unknown