A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Ryvre made his dramatic debut as King Arthur.  Nana, Papa, Granny, and Aunt Nancy all came to see him.  We're very proud!

New Hair, New Glasses

Ryvre's 10th Birthday

Due to the loss of our beloved Great-Great-Granny, Ryvre's birthday was pushed back a week.  We had a small party with my parents and Dale's mom.

Ember's 6th Birthday

Parent-Teacher Conferences

I'll be honest: i was really worried how this would go.  But it was fine.  All of the kids are making As and Bs, none of them has any behavior problems, and all of their teachers think they're adjusting well to school and making friends.

*whew*

Glasses

Figured out Ember's headaches: she needed glasses!  Her vision is 20/30 in one eye and 20/70-80 in the other.  Doh!

Here she is at the bus stop

Day 5 of Public School.

Yesterday we had a bad case of the Mondays: our first major 5th grade homework and impossible project list was received, one damaged lunchbox was brought home, one concussion was narrowly avoided (i hope!) after a nasty collision on the playground, and one kid came home sick.

I'm hoping today is better. But we have already missed the bus, so i'm not too sure.  Willow is staying home to rest and hopefully get over the headache she's had since yesterday and the minor fever she woke up with.

First Day of School!

Dale and i stayed out of the house and ran errands most of the day. It was too weird being home without the kids.

The kids' day went without major incident. Ryvre just failed to hear me when i told him to ride the bus home, so i had to go get him. *sigh*

Back to School Crafts

For those of us that ARE sending kids to school, here are a couple of ideas:

First off, nametags for backpacks (because let's be honest, some of us live in places where all of the kids probably have to shop at the same wal-mart)

All we did was trace around cookie cutters and cut out the shape, then decorate with colored sharpies and glitter glue.

Then i punched a hole, and attached it to the zipper of the backpack with a mini ziptie.

The next project was my attempt at providing a place for the kids to keep notes to and from their teachers, so that my life is a bit easier.  Again, we used foam sheets, markers, and glitter glue.  I insisted they put their names on them somewhere; it's a habit they're going to have to develop!

Then i hot-glued the sheets to empty, cleaned (and goo-goned) Lays Stax cans

Ta-dah!  Easy.  And they fit nicely into the side pockets meant for bottled water.

Changes

I've thought a lot about what to do with this blog now that the kids will be attending public school.  Shut it down?  Stop posting and let it fade away into memory?  Change it?  But really, sending the kids to school won't change much at home.  We'll still be learning together.  So the title is still relevant.  I've simply added a description: "Learning at home, school, and the world."  Because that's what we do here.

Ready for School?

I keep telling myself i'm ready to send the kids to school, but let's be honest: this is going to be a huge change! I've been home with them, full time, for almost a decade now. Can I really let go and trust the bulk of their daily education time to a stranger? I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Of course, most of my anxiety is no different from the anxiety of every parent when it comes to sending a child (or three) out into the world, but I really am doing it the hard way by sending them all off at once instead of staggering them by age like most people do! It's going to take awhile to adjust.

Visiting the School

Today we visited the local public school and spoke to the elementary principal. I kept asking questions and expecting him to say something we wouldn't agree with, but that never happened. Instead, it seems that we have a lot of the same philosophies about education that he does, and we've decided as a family that the kids probably would benefit by being there. There are of course a few technicalities we need to deal with to get them enrolled, but unless something really outrageous happens between now and August 17, I think it's a done deal.

There are pros and cons to attending a small, rural school, and most of them were things we anticipated, but maybe not quite to the degree that we're going to face them (both for better and worse).

First is perhaps the one that will effect us the most directly: class size. There are 180 kids between the elementary and middle schools (the buildings are connected). Each grade is divided into two classrooms, with about 15 kids in each. During the course of the year, between 60 and 80 students will probably move out of the district (most of which will return the following year) due to their transient status (the parents are migrant workers, there are complicated custody arrangements, etc.)! That was something I expected to see a little of, but certainly not up to 44%!

With numbers like that, I wasn't at all surprised with the next figure: 65% of the students receive free or reduced-rate lunches. Obviously the district is poor; that's evident by the mis-matched construction of the buildings and the 40-year-old linoleum and fixtures within. But everything appears to be clean and in good repair, so I can recognize and appreciate frugality at work. The school I went to routinely wasted money on prettying the place up in ways that even as a kid I thought were completely unnecessary. It looks like every dime here is being spent on the kids.

Electives are few and far-between. There are only three: art, music, and PE. There are even fewer extracurriculars (baseball and softball are offered in 7^th grade. That's it.), and the principal admitted that field trips are rare and unlikely. This is, of course, a huge disadvantage to other districts, but that's life. And due to the rural nature of the school's location, it's unlikely that many parents would be able to afford to attend any sports or other events anyway—and that's assuming they could find enough participants in the first place. So,all things considered, they're not very practical anyway!

Technological Wasteland

After checking into several options, it has come to our attention that we are completely unable to obtain internet service in our home until the phone company decides to put DSL lines in our neighborhood, or one of the cell companies strengthens their signal or places another tower in the area.  This leaves us in a pretty difficult position in regards to both communicating with our friends and relatives, and continuing to homeschool our children.

I will of course continue to update whenever possible, though it may mean postdating entries (fortunately, Blogger makes that easy and painless).  And we will continue to give our kids the best education we can, even if the technology is sparse, and even if it eventually means we turn to the local public school district (it is small, and the longer we live here, the more wonderful things we hear about it, so this may well be a very good thing).

The point is, things are changing here, and we're still progressing, but it may be a bit harder to see it from a distance.

Willow's 8th Birthday Party

Finally had Willow's friend-party yesterday

She once again decorated the cakes







I decorated a little, but didn't go too nuts (the pinwheels went home with the kids along with hibiscus-print tote bags, leis and hair clips, and shell necklaces)



Hubby printed off some coloring/activity sheets





Only two guests came (of the dozen invited), but they had a great time!

Does the Tooth Fairy Take Returns?

Ember lost her first tooth on Monday (7/4). She put it under her pillow despite her siblings rolling their eyes and reminding her that she already knew the tooth fairy wasn't real.

The next morning, she woke up to find a quarter in its place. She was very excited about it, showing it off to everyone. But near the end of the day, she grew somber. She missed her tooth and worried about what bizarre purposes that weird little fairy might have collected it for. She wanted it back. I told her that she could try putting the quarter under her pillow, but a refund wasn't guaranteed.

She woke up very disappointed to see that the quarter was still there and the tooth was not. I suggested that perhaps the Tooth Fairy didn't understand her request. It should be submitted in writing. She took this very seriously, going as far as asking her dad to help her spell out each and every letter of every word she wanted the letter to say. Major points to my husband for demonstrating epic patience.

Last night the letter was folded around the quarter like an envelope and placed under the pillow with a great deal of hope.

This morning, her tooth was returned. The quarter was left too. We are speculating that change is too heavy for a fairy to fly around with, and that is why they leave them under the pillows of children—teeth are of course lighter than coins, and fairies love gifts, so mystery solved.

Berry Farm

Summer Hairstyles

Ryvre's Blog

My baby boy (ok, he's nine...) started his very own blog yesterday.  It's his own creation entirely; all i did was help set up the account (and screen the comments).  You can find it here: http://ryvresblog.blogspot.com/

Flooding

We haven't been directly effected by this spring's local flooding, but we did do a bit of exploring.

This is the road leading to the bridge into town

That same bridge from the other side of the lake

The park near our old house

A pavilion, for scale

 

Then we played in the creek behind our old place

Easter

Coloring eggs



Messy hands



Finished (i especially like the brown eggs in the right rear group)



Aww





Some of the Easter loot (both sets of grandparents brought gifts too)



Indoor egg hunting (it was hard to get pics between the quick movement, small spaces, and poor rainy-day lighting)

Mr. Frog

Silver Dollar City

Waiting to see their brother, dad, and grandpa ride Wildfire

Trip to Springfield