This year was our first year of Swim Team and we had so much fun. I was really unsure that I wanted to spend 2 hours a day at the pool, but the kids enjoyed the structure that swim team added to our day, and they had a great time with all the social events. I was able to enjoy my mornings having coffee and chatting with other moms, as well as reading (can you believe that!) while the kids swam. Savannah didn't get a space on the developmental program until 3 weeks from the end of our season, but she was such a trooper about going everyday, which was made easier by the fact that "her friend" Anna was there. I remember being little and thinking that older kids were just the coolest people ever, so I'm actually so thankful for Anna and her entire family who were such great sports about my children attaching themselves to them and are really great role models for my kids, too!
Savannah and her BFF from this summer's activities, hanging out at a meet and after the end of the season awards ceremony with their medals.
For Logan, swim team was more of a stretch. Early Saturday morning meets and daily practice just didn't have the draw that hockey has for him, but he didn't' want to sit on the side and watch, either. Logan's also never been a "racer" and so it was hard for him to come in (nearly) dead last every meet. His strokes improved, though, and if he wants to, I bed next year he can kick some butt. or, keep dogging it, but enjoy the water every day, whatever. We're not raising 10 year old olympians over here.
Logan's lane coach was awesome. She kept him happy during meets and encourages him every step of the way. We were way thankful for her happy demeanor and constant patience.
So then we had Captain Competitive. Riley really likes competing with people and he likes to win. He wasn't the fastest out there, he finished 10th in our division in freestyle and 11th in backstroke, but he's not a year round competitive swimmer, which most of the faster kids allegedly were, and they give out heat winner ribbons, so I think he really came out feeling like he was way cooler than he actually is ;) We're still very proud of him (as well as his siblings) because they all did great in different ways. Savannah was patient waiting while her brothers swam and she couldn't touch the water, Logan really learned a lot about positive attitude, and Riley really did try hard to win every heat.
When Savannah finally got on the developmental team, the season was almost over, but they did a really cute competition for them with just the kids on our team, and they even did an Olympic Torch walk as they entered the pool. Swim team was a really positive experience for us, and we're looking forward to next year, more head-sized donuts on Wednesdays, and even more time sitting at the pool as we'll have kids in either 2 or 3 time slots. (I'm taking book recommendations now!)
Hockey involves getting up wicked early for practices and games, and being cold. However, hockey has made Logan so much more self-assured, and it is worth every lost moment of sleep :)
Last weekend we were able to travel (Logan, grammy, papa, and I) to Pennsylvania for Logan's first ever hockey tournament!! He had such a blast getting alone time, and getting to play hockey!
Driving up to PA, Logan colored almost the entire way! I brought a read-aloud for him, too, but he was much more interested in coloring and chatting to a captive audience with no siblings to interrupt.
Having fun in the hotel with our friends, our PW Panthers did their trophies and the boys had a fantastic time swimming in the pool together. Logan was so proud of the fact that he could swim faster than most of his friends (way to go private swim lessons!) and had fun with some dive sticks grandma bought.
This is at breakfast in our hotel. They apparently had a disconnect between their brains and their service, because despite the fact that an entire hockey club was coming, they were out of almost everything at their breakfast (because the "truck don't come 'till Monday") and pool towels were being traded on the black market. Logan was happy anyway, because he got to have hot chocolate and a pastry for breakfast instead of anything remotely healthy.
Playing with Grammy and Papa at a little diner next to the hotel (we learned our breakfast lesson quickly!). We actually visited PA this summer for vacation and everywhere we ate was horrendous, so we've decided that from now on, we will not eat in Pennsylvania.
Logan's team got medals!! They came in 3rd place out of the mini mite teams!! (There were 3 mini mite teams. This was convenient)
Logan being Momma's boy. He actually went and sat with some friends for about 10 minutes (this is huge for his introverted personality) but then he came back because they were being too loud.
Eating a cantaloupe. He was rather disappointed that he didn't get the whole thing. "Just a HALF mom??"
The games at the tournament were great for Logan. They were only 30 minutes (although we played several each day) and fast-paced. He really started to get aggressive and go after the puck by day 2, and he left feeling really great about playing. He's super bummed that he has to take a week off, but then spring hockey starts again!
Savannah just finished her first set of ice skating lessons thanks to Grammy and Papa!! The first time we put her on the ice to practice, she absolutely amazed us because she took right to it!!
Classes, however....well....that was a different story. Savannah has such a compassionate heart that she would have rather spent her time holding hands with another girl who was always at the back of the class than concentrating on the teacher. I have to admit, I am a bit of a "stage mom", so this drove me absolutely BONKERS.
Savannah had a great time, though!! I think I'm going to keep her out of the next session and skate with her myself through SAM 4 or 5 and then we'll test her out and do lessons again. She's so cute on the ice, though, and most weeks (this week she was sick, again, so I made her wear pants) she insisted on a leotard and skirt. Love.
Logan was obviously very proud :)
Ahh, that's more representative of our skating outfits of choice :)
Oh my gosh! We've made it 6 weeks! I was worried about my sanity, but I am really enjoying homeschooling and feel like God is really working on my heart and my patience for the process. We're settling into a routine with our school that has allowed me to add in extra activities for each of the kids. This was a process, and kind of an explosive one, since Austin's chief concern is the kids getting "socialized" enough and my chief concern is me not having a nervous breakdown. He's been working pretty much non-stop for the last month and a half, including long nights (well past midnight) and weekends, so it's been all-mama-all-the-time. I know my military friends do this for months on end, but I didn't sign up for single parenting because I know my limits :)
Anyhow, as I'm becoming more confident with our schedule we've added in Football and Art and Scouts (for Riley), Ice Hockey (for Logan, who will start a kid's science class this week and is asking for art lessons also), and Gymnastics and Preschool (for Savannah Lynn). The picture below is one of Riley's pictures from art class. I've included the "before" the lesson picture, too. His art teacher is an awesome Christian lady and she does fantastic work. I know it's hard setting up a business in this economy, but I hope she succeeds because we love her!
This week we really enjoyed our lessons- I think we've finally got the hang of the memory work. Leigh Bortins says you have to "train to retain" and I think it's finally taking for everyone. One change that I made this week that finally made Latin click was that I added in the (real) sign language for the Bible Memory verses (John 1:1-7).
You wouldn't think that making something MORE complicated would make it easier- but this really did. Since our Latin words are all being learned with the intention of translating John 1:1-7 into Latin from English, learning the sign for each word has helped with cuing the kids, and for some reason, helped them realize the connection, even though I'd told it to them 100 times.
For our history this week, we've been working on the Louisiana Purchase. In addition to reading from our What Your Child Needs to Know books, we also used several websites, including this one which has an interactive trail map with excerpts of journals from Lewis and Clark and this one which has a kind of "follow the adventure" game. We also got to go meet up with some of our Classical Conversations friends for a history craft day. We made trail journals by coloring a picture of Lewis and Clark (actually Sacagewea and Charbonneau with Lewis and Clark in the background) and then bound several pieces of paper inside with string. Most of the kids were much younger than Riley, but he loves to draw and we added some difficulty to the activity together by having him copy pictures of actual discoveries Lewis and Clark made along their trek rather than just drawing random objects like the younger kids were doing. We found a great list on Wikipedia here.
Math is still skip counting for CC, we're on 11 and 12 and Riley is kicking butt at it, finally! In our Singapore math, Riley blew through intro fractions and intro time (he's done them before with me) and did a review chapter today, which he was great at. His approach to some word problems cracks me up because he sets them up like algebra problems __ +9 = 15 and then fills in the blank. Logan is still struggling with ordering numbers in sequences that don't start with 1. Counting should start with 1. It's just that he needs the natural order of things to be followed. We're getting there.
For English we're trucking along with our Insitute for Writing Excellence, Teach Your Child to Read, and All About Spelling. Riley has finally hit a point in his reading where he's excited to do it. Yesterday we ended a chapter of his current Magic Treehouse book in a particularly exciting place and he looked ahead at how many pages the next chapter was- it was 8- and trucked ahead anyway. Usually 8 pages would elicit a groan, but he was finally hitting a good stride and was too excited to see what happened to care about the length of the page. He also read a book to me about the growth of apples since we're going to pick apples on Friday after preschool. I couldn't let fall go by without some of my favorites. Also, Logan has some great, meticulous handwriting going. It's very exciting since Riley writes like a doctor.
Science this week was the digestive system. We enjoyed a Bill Nye as well as using this website. Logan drew a most excellent picture of the digestive system, including a butt. I am so scared to leave him alone in his class tomorrow for fear he'll end his memory work "small intestine, large intestine AND THEN YOU POOP!!!!!!!"
Sigh. He can't be the only one with a mastery of that component of digestion, right?
Geography was more states and capitals. We're to the middle of the US now, which is exciting!
I think that's it...oh, we finally got our history timeline cards. For next week I'm going to get some banner paper and make a giant timeline on our wall for us to add events to as we've memorized them in order. They've got the first 16 down cold, and the 8 we're on this week. The middle, well, it's a little fuzzy- they can do it with the pictures on the cards, but not just from memory. I blame that on my inability to get the flashcards in until now.
I also splurged and purchased the rest of History of the World on CD. We still love it and the kids love finding the week's history (and then the timeline history) on the CDs during lunch. They're retaining the information and I get to STOP TALKING for half an hour....well worth every penny.
For Logan, swim team was more of a stretch. Early Saturday morning meets and daily practice just didn't have the draw that hockey has for him, but he didn't' want to sit on the side and watch, either. Logan's also never been a "racer" and so it was hard for him to come in (nearly) dead last every meet. His strokes improved, though, and if he wants to, I bed next year he can kick some butt. or, keep dogging it, but enjoy the water every day, whatever. We're not raising 10 year old olympians over here. 
So then we had Captain Competitive. Riley really likes competing with people and he likes to win. He wasn't the fastest out there, he finished 10th in our division in freestyle and 11th in backstroke, but he's not a year round competitive swimmer, which most of the faster kids allegedly were, and they give out heat winner ribbons, so I think he really came out feeling like he was way cooler than he actually is ;) We're still very proud of him (as well as his siblings) because they all did great in different ways. Savannah was patient waiting while her brothers swam and she couldn't touch the water, Logan really learned a lot about positive attitude, and Riley really did try hard to win every heat.
