Filed under: Uncategorized
Hello and happy new year! We have already had quite a year and it has only just begun! We had an extended stay back home for Christmas due to the fact that my sister-in-law and family; went to Ethiopia to retrieve there newly adopted 3 children. I offered to stay on and take care of the kids that didn’t go along for the ride. It was a GREAT experience. We did so much, I learned so much and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I was a little intimidated about being in charge of 5 kids (two being mine) but it was really a lot of fun. And the best part besides getting to know my nieces and nephews better…I got to meet the new nieces and nephew all the way from Ethiopia. What a blessing. They came with really nothing but now they have so so much and to see them smile and just be happy to be part of a family, really gave me an overhaul on what is truly important.
So last year seemed to be the year of doing things I said I would never do. I have a feeling that 2012 will be the year that the Funks decide to trust our crazy ideas…and believe me we have some crazy ideas already. That is all I will say for now. Stay tuned.
Filed under: Uncategorized
What a year it has been! It has indeed been a year do doing so many things that I said I would never do. And the photo above is just one of those things. I took the kids to Macy’s to visit Santa. Commercialism be damned! I did it and honestly it was awesome. Yea, we had to wait in line…not too bad it was a rain weekday. We waited maybe 20 minutes. In the beginning it was everything I didn’t want it to be. Loud and kind of for lack of a better word cheesy…but the further you got in through the line the better the experience got. Then you are there at the gates that lead to “the North Pole Villiage” and “Santa’s helpers” take you down some darker quieter hallways to a little alcove and in the corner of the alcove…the best damn Santa I have ever, EVER seen. It was so sweet. I don’t think he said Ho, Ho, Ho once. Alice skipped over to him arms open! He picked Alice up, bounced her up and down a couple of times and placed her on his knee. He spoke to her quietly, they laughed she was clearly having a really good time. It was so so sweet. Then it was Fin’s turn…he wasn’t as comfortable with the whole sitting on the lap thing but he came around. He asked for a BB gun and a Nerf gun…neither of which he will get and Alice asked for a yellow dress and a doll.
Just a few of the other things that I said I wouldn’t do…train for a marathon ( I ran two half-marathons this year) and we went to see the Thanksgiving day parade, we had a great time.
This year has been a year of never say never.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Seriously…it is just SO easy on facebook so that is where I have been but I know it is just a cheap version of my real blog. So here I am again with my tail between my legs hoping to be in this place more than that other. Its been a good year. And maybe I am just feeling optimistic because it is my 13th wedding anniversary (i know!) but it has been a very good year. We are full on, recognized by the state homeschoolers now. Fin is doing well and while I started out the year nervous, anxious and way way way overly ambitious. We are now in a nice little groove. Hope to share much much more very very soon
Filed under: Uncategorized
That is what we are doing right now.
I have been writing blog entries in my head for months just need to get to the keyboard.
Filed under: teach
Last Friday was the best day of homeschooling I think we have ever had. It could not have come at a better time, as I was starting to have real doubts about what we were doing. I was beyond frustrated. But just like that—it all turned around.
It started with a Komodo Dragon. Fin casually asked me how big a Komodo dragon was, I blew it off at first and told him we could find out later but then I though…HEY! that is something he could just look it up on his deck of animal cards so we broke out the cards and found that a Komodo Dragon on average is about 13 ft long. Well that doesn’t mean anything to a 5 year old—so we got out the tape measure, some masking tape, and a marker…and measured the length out in our living room.
O yea…now the fun starts…all of a sudden I have a VERY excited and a VERY interested student. I mean hyper excited…HE wants to measure more animals, HE wants to write the names on the masking tape, HE wants to pick the next animal we measure…Did you catch that? I said he WANTED to write…I didn’t have to make him he WANTED to write.
So like I said he was excited but he got even more excited when we had to measure the Anaconda, because this required us to to open our apartment door and go into the hallway and up the wall right out of our apartment. He just thought that was the coolest, funniest thing ever. But he was absolutely giddy about going into the hallway and having to use the entire hallway for the measurement of the Blue Whale.
So you might be thinking big deal your kid measured some stuff. Here is the big deal this one singular exercise covered all our learning bases not for just the day but for the week…
He was reading
He was writing
He was doing math and comparing
He was learning scientific facts about animals
and most importantly he was HAPPY to do it and didn’t want to stop. We finally had to stop because we had to change out of our pajamas, otherwise I really think he could have gone on measuring all day. I am so so so happy this happened. Not only because he learned a good amount but I learned a huge amount. So here is my take away form Friday:
1. Real learning should be hard to stop. In other words the lesson shouldn’t be dictated by time or place or a checklist. I want to have to say to Fin we HAVE to stop so we can eat lunch or go to the bathroom because we need to move on with our day…and even then he should want to keep going…asking about those things we discussed throughout the day, then I can see and know he is digesting and really gnawing on the lesson.
2. Fin learns best in these circumstances. These are the situations where he learns and is happy to learn. There is no whining about having to sit and write now, arguing about TV…what we are doing has his full attention.
3. Sometimes going out of the box is best and by box I mean our apartment. We didn’t have to go far…just opened the door and in the hall and he was loving it…Turning things on there heads seems to speak to Fin in a real way.
4. We can do this. We really can do this homeschooling thing and do it in a successful way where we are both happy. I have had my doubts over the last couple of weeks. Real, real doubts but I do believe now, that we can make it work…I just have to learn to follow the leader…and that leader is Fin.
Filed under: Uncategorized
http://thepioneerwoman.com/homeschooling/2010/09/when-to-call-it-a-day/
Filed under: Uncategorized
Not that today was all that bad but the beginning of the week even when you don’t work a 9-5 job just is tough, at least for me. Is it the impending doom of having to do the laundry, having to admit I have no clue what our days will end up looking like. Especially if like today they are filled with down pouring rain? Or is it knowing that most of my and Fins friends will be busy all day and we will not have the comforting interruption of a impromptu play date? Whatever it is, Mondays usually blow pretty hard.
Anyway in homeschooling developments Finley had his first Montessori Math class last Friday and it was AWESOME! I think it is going to be just what the terrible at math homeschooling mom ordered. He seemed really engaged and plugged in and I was kind of amazed at how all the kids seemed naturally interested in math and numbers. I was so impressed I wondered why I had abandoned Montessori as our primary teaching style and after some research I was reminded of the Montessori no creative play/imaginary play rule. That’s just not going to fly with two creatives as parents. So its Reggio Emilia all the way. Not that I was unhappy with Reggio I just was so impressed with how well Finley responded to the Montessori methods. When I was talking with Tobias he made a good point though, he said “He doesn’t really like to do that stuff anyway…” Good point. Fin isn’t much for the imaginary play and while he is happy to draw a picture every once and again if I never made him do another craft he would be just as happy…which again takes me around in the circle of, is Montessori a BETTER fit for him…all this thinking…so stressful, so tired.
Here is something completely unrelated and random…I was looking at farm property today. I don’t know why. Well actually I do, I am completely and utterly jealous of soulemama. She and her family just bought a beautiful farmhouse and I want it or at least my version of it. Then I think, could I really live on a farm with animals and do all that farm living stuff? I think at this point in my life the answer is YES! I would be thrilled to do it. But a farm? Not a country home like a farm where we would live and have to work and clean.
Anyway I am allowing myself to over romanticize what it would be like to live on a farm and this is the property I want:
http://www.franklumiarealestate.com/listings.php?lid=00077103
Okay go look I will wait…
Okay did you see the swimming pond? And the kitchen? The fireplace(s) …It has SEVEN bedrooms. And all the glorious space, trees and water and grass, O MY! How cute would A and F look sitting on those little white stairs?
Yea. I want it, like yesterday I want it. Ah! A girl can dream.
Filed under: teach
Today was not a great day in homeschooling. I decided what we would work on writing today. I decide we would sit we would listen to Bach and write. That is where everything went wrong. I was making too many decisions. So Fin doesn’t like to write. He says “I am not very good at it…and I don’t like to do things that I am not good at.” A trait that he has unfortunately inherited from me. But that is another blog entry entirely. So after an hour (much too long) I gave up in a huff. I should also add that Alice was running around screaming her head off and demanding both attention and a nursing. Okay not great conditions for learning. But after my pity party and after getting Alice down for a nap I decided that it really didn’t matter. He didn’t need to sit at the damn table and neatly write what I had “assigned” for him. IT IS KINDERGARTEN! I was being such a buzz-kill. So I tried to think about what would be fun…where would it be fun to write. THE PARK…it would be empty and there is plenty of black top and lines to use…so that is what we did. Set off to the park with our lined wipe board and wipe board pens. And two boxes of chalk.
What a difference some fresh air and a change of scenery made. We laughed…we wrote, we talked. We didn’t hate each other. It was great and he did do the damn writing lesson. Not the one I thought he would do but he did enough. It was 30 minutes tops he transcribed I think 3 maybe 4 words and then we packed it in and headed to the library. Now this is hardly worthy of mentioning right and at first it appears as a failure. But it isn’t it is what we could do and what he could do today and that should be enough.
I have to keep reminding myself that our days don’t have to look like the traditional school days. They can be whatever we want them to be. They can be whatever we need them to be. Today we needed less writing. Tomorrow we might need even less…but one day we will need more and I need to be patient and wait for the more. I need to breathe and most of all I need to remember that if it isn’t happening after 30 minutes we need to move on, pack it up and maybe get some air.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Today was an I love NY kind of day. We went to church had a delicious lunch with friends at La Dinastia on the Upper Westside and then walked the city like we did before kids…except we did it with the kids. We ended the day at one of my favorite places, Lincoln Center. I don’t know why I love Lincoln Center. Maybe its because there always seems to be music playing or maybe it is all the young college kids. I just have always loved Lincoln Center and I think it is a really romantic place especially at night. Anyway we had a great day. But tomorrow is back to school…this year I am having a hard time getting my groove…I don’t know exactly what it is just seems rusty. but I am going to give the school journaling another go this time using a program called EverNote to help me capture info and stay organized. I will report back on who it goes…hoping it will work and help us learn about learning.
Filed under: Uncategorized
It is the end of summer and I have to say that it wasn’t that great. Too much heat, too small an apartment, no real vacation and then there is the fact that we had to put the dog down…not a great summer. We did have some good times got to the beach, hung out with friends, went to Ohio all really good stuff . But honestly there wasn’t enough of any of it and being strapped with financial concerns can really be a buzz kill.
But onward and upward we are gearing up for Fall. I hope to run a 10k in October, time is against me but I am going to try my best to be in shape enough to run it. Lots of counting is going on at the Funks as we are devoting this school year to math. Whoa. MATH! I hate math, in fact I can think of nothing I like less (school wise) than math but I am putting on my positive MATH IS AWESOME!!! face and trying to sell it to Fin so he isn’t burdened with being math challenged like Tobias and I.
So far so good…he likes counting, I think he likes the fact that there is a definite answer and he likes being right..so we will see how it goes. Upon a recommendation from a friend I ordered this book:
Which is supposed to be really good. Here is hoping it helps both of us. Since our summer was lacking a real vacation, I am determined to McGuyver a fall getaway for us…maybe to Maine? Finley woke up one morning and said that he wanted to drive to Maine. I thought “Me too!” so we will see if I can make it happen on a very very very small budget. In any case I am looking forward to Fall. To knitting, pies, comfort food and weather that doesn’t make me sweat so much.
