First Day of 3rd Grade!!

Wednesday was the first day of public school for Rachel and Samantha. They chose to wear their new gauchos because Samantha knew she had gym.

They are growing up so fast. On the day Abby went to Kindergarten that tree was a small sapling!

Back to Work!

After a week of vacation from the daycare, I go back to work this morning. I am glad I enjoy my job, but I sure am looking forward to when I can be a stay-at-home mom again. Sixteen more months!
The older girls started home school in earnest last week and seem to have settled into their new curriculum. We have changed how we do things to accommodate everyone's schedules, mostly mine! More of their work is being done on the computer with automatic grading and time keeping. There are still a few subjects that they must be self disciplined about. I think learning to stay on task even when the "teacher" isn't standing over your shoulder is a good thing.
Rachel and Samantha start public school on Wednesday. The "paperwork" (also known as "homework for parents") has started to trickle in. The deluge will come within the first two days of school. This is when I fill out in triplicate, for each child, emergency contact info, emergency dismissal orders, and all sorts of other information. I am thinking this year I'll fill out one form and photocopy it...
I took this week of vacation to sew Rachel and Samantha's back-to-school outfits. They each have: one dress, two gauchos, and three shirts. Of course, all matching. I have three more shirts on the cutting table; we'll see if they get finished before Wednesday.
I know I'll be out there with my camera on the first day of school!

Updates

Well, I survived the interrogation by the school psychologist. She was very nice. She was surprised at some of my answers, which is a little unsettling. I know I am different, but I certainly didn't think I was that abnormal! Apparently my methods of discipline and my life goals for my kids are unusual?

We also got through our Parent/Teacher conferences. Both girls are doing fine. Samantha is interacting more with the other kids and not clinging quite so much to Rachel. She is giving her teacher less attitude (apparently saving it all up for me!). Rachel is being Rachel and everyone loves her sweetness and innocence. She is enjoying her role as "mother hen" in the classroom.

We have our PPT for Rachel scheduled for next Tuesday. This is the one where we learn the results of all the testing that has been done in the last month. At least this time I am prepared for the results; not like when they gave the OT/PT results at the end of the last school year.

Today is our church's missionary dinner banquet. I'm making cranberry sauce, peach trifle, and baked beans. Tomorrow is another church dinner after the morning service. For that I am making stuffing and Nathalie and Abby made chocolate chip cookies. They had to triple the recipe so it counts as math class!

Also today the van is picking up the FFA kids from the airport. Unfortunately this means we'll be missing out on cousin Olivia's birthday party. I didn't learn of the party until 2 days ago and had already promised the van by then.

Yesterday Sam and Rachel finished the chicken coop to replace the temporary rooster shelter. Now the roosters will have a warm house and we can free up some of the fencing for the laying hens which need more space.

Sam and Rachel also replaced all the fire bricks in our woodstove. The old ones were very cracked and crumbling. Rachel was trying to figure out how old the woodstove was. My parents gave it to us about 9 years ago and I know it was in their house for about 12 years. So let's just say it is over 20 years old. Hopefully with the new fire bricks, it will last another 5-10 years.

The next project is the shelves in my mud room. We were able to purchase the sheet of plywood we needed yesterday, so Sam will start on it when he is home on Monday.

The older girls and I sorted through all the winter things and thankfully, only Abby needs snowpants. Rachel and Samantha are the only ones who need snowboots. Everyone has a "good" winter coat and a "barn" winter coat. My mother-in-law keeps us well stocked in hats and mittens. So, that project is done.

Thursday a group of homeschoolers came to tour our farm. We had a fun visit and almost sold some goats! I did sell a lot of my honey and discussed "goat shares" with one couple. If the chickens had been laying, I could have sold several dozen eggs too.

Two goats will be going to auction on Monday. Abby has decided to pay for her goat's feed every month, rather than send it to auction. She is hoping to sell it in the spring to a family.

I think that is all that's news here...

Rachel

Rachel's second PPT is scheduled for October 28th. Supposedly, they will be discussing the results of the testing they did in the last 30 days. I have to go up to the school this morning. The school psychologist wants to see me. You have no idea how much this bugs me.

When I was in high school, my sister passed away from leukemia. The school psychologist and school social worker took that as an opportunity to bug us. The social worker in particular was trying to justify her job, I think. She was concerned about my level of maturity (I was too mature for my age, in her opinion) and felt that I had a lot of worries and responsibilities. She drove my mother, my sisters, and me, nuts for six months in my junior year. She sort of backed off in my senior year, but would, "checked in" on us every other month.

So going to visit the school psychologist gives me the heebee jeebees!

It is pretty obvious to people how Rachel's speech is very much delayed. An example:
Monday night we went to my mom's for a dinner with my brother and his new bride. Andrew was speaking and purposely leaving off the final 'g' in an 'ing' verb. Rachel corrected him. Andrew responded with, "So says Yoda." Now, she has no idea who Yoda is, so it went over her head. But, it is an accurate description of how she speaks.

Crazy Day

Today is going to be crazy. Not that it makes it any different from any other day here. Just that today, I can just look at my calendar and know before the day begins that it will be crazy.

8AM 2 Kids on bus
1 van picked up by FFA to drive 14 FFA teens to airport.

8:30AM Start 3 girls on schoolwork.
Fold Laundry
Clean bathrooms since it was Samantha's job yesterday and well, she's not exactly great at the job yet and dysentery isn't in my schedule.

9AM Sam arrives home from work
I leave for grocery store, bank, post office, and wherever else.

11:30 Back home, unload car.
Check that girls are actually doing schoolwork.

Noon Lunch
Sam leaves for work

12:30 When van gets back take out 2 back seats.

2PM Drive Abby and 3 goats to friend's house. She is making a nativity scene Christmas card and wants to borrow some goats for it.

2:30 Put 2 back seats back in the van
Drive to Lebanon Community center to pick up 13 girl scouts and drive them to field trip.

5PM Drive home. Take 2 seats back out of van. Go and pick up Abby and goats.

6PM Make and eat dinner (most likely sandwiches)

7PM check schoolwork and plan tomorrow's schedule.

7:30 Rachel and Samantha to bed

8PM fall asleep on couch waiting for Sam to get home.

Stuff that won't get done:
Tea with missionaries at church
Ledyard Fair Wrap-up Meeting
4-H Leaders meeting

Second Day of School

First day of school pictures:

Only a few hitches in our first day of school morning. Rachel didn't want to wear her glasses, and definitely didn't want to wear the "safety string" on them. She did her "I want to be homeschooled" crying fit, but we settled her before the bus came.

They both came home with gobs of redundant paperwork for me to go through. At least they only gave the school handbook to the youngest child! They only asked for my pediatrician's name and phone number a gazillion times. Do they know something I don't know??

Today they go off with their "Second Day of School" dresses, the hem of Samantha's I just finished this morning! All of their paperwork is filled out to be returned, plus the letter requesting a PPT for Rachel. (I warned them I wasn't going to dilly-dally!)

First Day of School!!

Today is the first day of school! The two public schooled kids will be getting on that big yellow bus this morning! The three homeschooled kids will be sitting down with their books! I may actually get some laundry, housework, and sewing done!

Yesterday the Rodger's kids came to play. Hannah was supposed to show Grace how to show a chicken, but we forgot about in the excitement of meeting new friends. Heather had called me on Monday. Her daughter Kaylie is going into first grade. Kaylie had been homeschooled for kindergarten and it had been decided that this year she should go to the public school.

Kaylie's mom admitted to being neurotic and someone had suggested my name to her as a person to talk to about public school and homeschool. It turns out that Kaylie will be in Mrs. Provost's class with Samantha and Dianna. So we arranged a play date so all three girls will know each other. With Grace and Rachel also being in the multiage program, all five girls will now be able to play as a pack at recess time. Poor Mrs. Provost. She has no idea what is hitting her this week!

Heather was concerned about how she was going to balance her homeschooling ideals and philosophy with having a child in the public school system. I was honest with her and told her it wasn't easy. I also gave her some of the hints and tricks of the trade in dealing with the administration. Phyliss and I both told her she really needed to go into it with the idea that no matter what, she shouldn't pull Kaylie out until at least December vacation. Thankfully, Mrs. Provost is a seasoned teacher and has been dealing with me and my idiosyncrasies for many years now. Heather won't scare her a bit.

Dianna, Kaylie and Samantha, together as a pack, now that's another story!

Busy, Busy

We have managed to squeak in a few school lessons in between, visits to Meme's house, fixing the broken van (twice!), clipping a cow (still one more left to clip!), working on fair exhibits, catching a bee swarm, and visiting other 4H fairs to get ideas.

Rachel is enjoying her math curriculum. She likes watching the instructor on the DVD's. Then the lessons are gone over again by me. She spends the next few days doing the worksheets and working with the manipulatives. There is a lot of review and repitition with this curriculum. Just goes to show how her brain works, since she has yet to realize that the work isn't anything new each day.

Samantha is doing the Math lessons too. On the same level as Rachel but since the levels are called Greek alphabet letters, neither realizes that they are both doing grade 2 work.

Abby's new science and algebra curriculum have arrived. Her history and Latin should be here shortly. She is finishing up her science textbook from 8th grade this summer before we start on the Biology.

Nathalie is devouring all books put in front of her and has recently discovered my old Nancy Drews. She loved the Boxcar Children books and says the Nancy Drew books are just a more grown up version. I think she has read nearly 50 of them so far.

Hannah is spending her summer researching things to teach Rachel and Samantha. She just finished learning all about frogs. Her frog exhibit at the 4H fair took two blue ribbons and one red ribbon. Rachel and Samantha love following her around at the library helping her find books to read to them.

Fair season is quickly gearing up. Starting with the Chester Fair (Aug 22-24) we will have 6 fairs in 6 weekends! We then get a week off before we go to Portland Fair. Of course, just to make things interesting that weekend, my brother has decided to get married on that Sunday!

Staying Back

Rachel will be held back in second grade for next year. She struggled through first grade, and struggled horribly through second grade this past year. We finally got some results from screenings and found that there are some actual issues with language, OT, and PT.

I told Rachel yesterday morning while she was the only one awake and we could talk uninterrupted. Sam and I figured that telling her a few days before the last day of school would giver her an opportunity to talk it over with her friends and her teacher. Rachel, as I expected, was less than thrilled with the idea of doing second grade again.

Her biggest concern was not being with her best friend, Grace. Thankfully Rachel and Grace are in the multiage classroom. So, while Grace will be in third grade, she and Rachel will still have recess and lunch together. They will have country studies and other activities together. On top of that they are in the same girl scout troop and the same 4H club. Plus, we love the Rodgers family so we will be seeing a lot of them. Rachel seemed okay with it after our talk, but being that she is Rachel and is the opposite of a "Pollyanna", she was still quite negative.

Hannah heard Rachel fussing about the decision later in the morning. After Rachel and Samantha were on the bus, she came to me. She asked if she could give Rachel a tea party and talk to Rachel about it, since she stayed back in second grade too. I thought it was a great idea and I'm pretty proud of Hannah to think of it. Hannah took the time to bring the little table out to the living room, cleaned up the tea set, and set the table special for Rachel.

Two pounds of honey, 3 quarts of milk and 2 pots of hot water later, Rachel was feeling better about the whole issue. Rachel informed me that Hannah told her that when she gets to be homeschooled in 5th grade, if she does well, I will skip her back up to the grade she would have been at. While not exactly accurate, if it makes Rachel feel better about it, I'll let her believe it, at least until fifth grade...

Cleaning the School Room

We cleaned the school room yesterday. A REAL cleaning! Not the girls' version of cleaning. We moved furniture, hauled everything off the shelves, sorted, organized, and eliminated. I even found a library book with a due date of March 24! That went something like this:

Me: Guys! This book was due 3 MONTHS ago!
Nathalie: What's the due date? (Like I can't count months?)
Me: March 24
Abby: It must say May 24th, Mom. (said in that 14 year old Mom-you-overreact-to-everything tone)
Me: Ahem! Look!
Abby: Oh, it does say March.
Me: $400 dollars in fines..... I should just give the librarians a check every month...

We found a lot more stuff for the tag sale. Mostly crafts, and some games and puzzles that we no longer use. I had the girls sort through all of our computer cd's. We culled the ones they no longer play with and the ones that don't work on our Windows 95 computer.
We have realized that we will have to paint the school room before Hannah moves into it. There are just too many holes in the walls from thumb tacks. Hannah is thinking about sage greens, to match her quilt.

Busy Week

We cleaned the schoolroom yesterday. It only took 3 HOURS!!! Apparently when mom says, "Pick up the schoolroom," the children hear, "Throw everything that is on the floor into the closet and everything that is on your desk, shove onto your shelf." We even washed the window, the screen and the curtains!

Gordon came over yesterday afternoon with Grace. He helped Sam replace the tie rod end on his car and then helped Sam to check to see if his truck is repairable. The jury is still out on the truck. Grace and the girls had a blast playing until the sun set. We have had the BEST weather for our vacation week. The kids have been outside from dawn to dusk nearly every night.

This morning I am going over to disbud Bridget's goat. Then Sam and I are heading to Lowes to price the shelving we are looking at for the mudroom. Later today I need to light my smoker and check on my bees. Hannah has a girl scout sleepover tonight at the campground. Then tomorrow is the 4H Camp Clean-up project.

It has been a busy week.

School

Last night I went to school: Bee School. My friends, Donna and Kelly, went too. We were there to learn about how to raise bees for honey. I have been raising bees for going on 5 years, Kelly just finished her first year and Donna is being sucked into the vortex. I tend to have that effect on Donna: the 4H vortex, the fair vortex, and this summer she was finally sucked into the homeschool vortex. Well last night she paid me back: she tried to kill me. Twice.

The first incident involved an ambulance which was trying to pull out from a side street. We had to stop suddenly to allow him to enter the main road. I didn't think it was an attempt on my life until I saw her accomplice in the rearview mirror coming in too fast. He/She did manage to stop before causing Kelly (in the seat behind me) to become intimately knowledgable with my head.

Donna and are a fun loving group. I think Sam's words when he was told that she and I would be carpooling were: "You and Donna, in a car, together, for an hour? Oh boy!" Kelly is a bit more quiet and reserved. We'll pull her in to our vortex soon enough. It is a 4 week course. We have time.

I digress. We arrived at UCONN for our class. Donna and I joke, tease and have a good time introducing ourselves to the people around us. The woman behind us, we discover, is also a homeschoooler. The guy next to her has 3 Kiko goats in Florida. (??? that is another story in itself!) The guy in front of us has 4 and 6 year old children and is looking into homeschooling. Kelly actually has the homeschool group business cards to hand out! The woman is scary with how organized she is.

During the mid lesson break, they have coffee and cookies for us. I am happily drinking my coffee when Donna made her second attempt on my life. She waited until I had just taken a sip and then she said something funny. I was trying so hard to NOT spray the guy in front of me and yet remain breathing. So Donna suggests to guy he might want a raincoat. He doesn't even crack a smile. This causes me to laugh harder, still with coffee in my mouth! I finally manage to swallow but in the process also inhaled enough coffee into my lungs to cause me to choke, gasp sputter, cough, and yes, even drool. All the meanwhile long, DONNA is laughing at me! But her planned failed, I didn't die laughing!

Of course there are 3 more Thursdays of class... maybe next week, I'll drive...