Realization

I have come to the unavoidable conclusion that my house would be, and remain, a lot cleaner if my kids went to school every day.

School for Me!

My kids aren't the only ones doing school this year. When they started learning Latin, I said "Me too!". When Sierra brought home a typing program, I said "Me too!" again. Oh, and I've also started teaching myself the clarinet (I played the oboe for 6 years, but I don't have an oboe. I have my husband's old clarinet instead, so I figured, why not make use of it?)

So now, while my kids are doing their school work, I happily busy myself for 10-15 minutes learning to type correctly. I never actually learned before, and while I can easily type 20+ words per minute, I'm not very efficient and have to continually look at my hands.

After typing, I go off to my room and practice the clarinet while the girls continue their school work. (They come and find me if they need me, but this way I don't distract them.) Since I have prior band experience, I'm flying through the lessons. It's somewhat nostalgic to see those old songs that I used to have problems with in junior high. I can easily whip through them now on a new instrument because all I'm really learning are the different fingerings and ambusher (mouth positioning). I don't have to learn all of the mechanics over again. Makes me want to try other instruments once I have the clarinet down. (I'm seriously looking at relearning the piano-I only played it for 2 years-and eventually want to learn at least the trumpet and flute).

Later, typically toward the end of morning school or while the girls are having down time, I get back on the computer and do Rosetta Stone Latin. So far, so good. It's interesting how many English words are Latin based, making it easier on me in the long run. Feline, canine, elephant, aquatics, ambulatory, etc are all very similar to the Latin root.

It's kinda' fun learning along with my kids. Now, hopefully, I keep it up.

1st Day Success

The girls got to go to their first day of Options (a once a week public school for home schoolers) yesterday.

Sierra set her alarm clock to go off at 7 am just to make sure they wouldn't be late, and when the girls got up, they quickly ate breakfast, got dressed, helped put their lunches together, double checked to make sure they had everything (Bailey's water bottle was missing so she borrowed mine), and declared themselves ready to go ten minutes early. Needless to say, the girls were excited.

As for the last ten minutes before leaving, I took out Sierra's class schedule, drew a map on the bottom half with room numbers, etc., and went over her room changes a few times before we packed up into the car (we had also gone over the rooms in order during orientation a couple weeks ago, so I hoped it would be enough).

This year, instead of driving all the way up to Loveland (a 20 minute drive), we only had to travel about a mile (3 minutes) to get to school. Nice!

We showed up at about 8:10. School assembly starts at 8:15, so everything was going well. We sat on the bleachers in the gym, taking pictures and saying "Hi" to friends until we had announcements. Then the girls were off to their classes. Bailey lined up with her kindergarden class and teacher to go up stairs, and I took Blake and Sierra up stairs to Sierra's first classroom (math). I once again reminded her to follow the map and schedule that she had and to ask an adult if she needed any help.

Honestly, I found it amusing/interesting that I was making such a fuss about Sierra when it was Bailey's first time ever going to school. Really, it's because Bailey is so easygoing, and Sierra, who still has anxiety attacks and freaks out about things on occasion, had such a terrible first day last year. It's not hard to understand, but I had to wonder what Bailey's Kindergarden teacher thought as she watched me simply smile and wave goodbye at Bailey while acting like an overly protective, anxious mother toward my 3rd grader.

After dropping Sierra off, Blake and I headed back down the stairs to drop supplies off and pick up the Latin curriculum that we had checked out for the year. Then we were off.

Mondays are typically cleaning and grocery days, and yesterday was no exception. Blake happily played by himself putting together and pulling apart his new Toy Story puzzle while I cleaned the house. I guess I'm odd, but I had forgotten how much I liked cleaning by myself. I'm such a "fairness fairy" that I can't stand cleaning up while others sit around and do nothing, but it's so annoying having to ride herd on my kids to keep cleaning until they're done. Anyway, after cleaning, showering, going to the library, and three stores, I ended up with only about an hour to chill before heading out to pick up the girls.

I got there a few minutes early and was able to talk to some friends before the kids got out. Bailey had a huge grin on her face and promptly showed me the picture she had made during art, told me that she had three teachers (Kindergarden, Art and PE), and pranced around as we waited for Sierra who had to come all the way from the other side of the building to meet us.

To my relief, when Sierra found us she was smiling, though she looked a little uncertain. She found all of her classes and had fun, but she was still a bit tense. I think she'll be more relaxed next week now that she knows exactly what to expect.

And when we got home, we all chilled.

All in all, a very good day.