Awesome Days

    When I homeschooled my oldest, she was 9 at the time. We used IXL and it wasn't what she needed. I'm sure it works wonders for some kids, but it just stressed mine out and made her cry.
    I personally worked out a curriculum for science, history, we threw in yoga, emotional recognition, recess/organized sports play. That half hour of IXL math and half hour of IXL reading completely ruined the rest of the fun we'd had all day. Eventually, I felt like I was failing her even more than public school, so she went back to public school.
   Ever since then I've been quietly, and waaaaay too slowly, developing a fun online curriculum that hopefully won't stress her out. It's hard to code websites when you have helpers pawing at your legs all day.

    ALL DAY! EVEN WHEN I TRY TO PEE! They're always there. They're always watching... They're always calling "Momma!" 

    My little ones are too little for school. I mean, I suppose we could pay for Preschool, but it just feels like sacrificing my precious mommy-babies time. I suppose maybe two 15 minute blocks of Preschool would be nice, ya know, so I can go potty.

    Anyway. I've been trying to teach them at home. Basically Preschool Homeschool.

    When I homeschooled, I had a schedule I tried to follow. For the first four months it worked out, but mostly, in reality, most of the day seemed to slip chaotically through my fingers.

    Today, though. Today has been one of those elusive "good days" where everything falls into place without a hitch and you feel confident. Today I feel like I could homeschool all my kids, all the time.

Ruthless Kid's Clothes Apocolypse

    We have way, way, way too many clothes.


    Granted, I have a family of 6. However, if I assume each of us has 40 articles of clothes (this is more generous than the standard 37 I see online) there should only be 240 articles of clothes in the house.

    . . . There is probably 20 garbage bags FILLED with clothes, and two very large boxes full.


    So, I went through and pared my own wardrobe down to 40 about this time last year. Mischief and Mayhem, my two middle girls, have minimal clothes. Most of those are up here, not in bags. Teeny Tiny Baby just got a huge box of clothes that I need to pick through, but she has about 30 clothes currently.
    This means that majority of the clothes and clothes and clothes down stairs in those bags and bags and bags are . . . (drum roll please) My husband's and my oldest daughter's!

    Oh, my, dear, god. OMDG.

    It does make sense. I have most of my clothes up here. I have the smallest threes' up here. That leaves Hubby and Oldest.

    20is bags, of two people's clothes.


   GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Slackin Redefined

   Holy crap I've been slacking. Well, slacking on blogging.

    It's probably because we moved into our new house about a month and a quarter ago, and I have a baby who turned 6 months old, three days ago, and my oldest daughter just started a whole lot of counseling and OT for her recent Aspie diagnoses, oh, and my husband is working the night shift now so I've been toting all four of my girls around in the day alone.
    Boy, I need to figure out a way to blog more!

    So here is how my beloved bipolars are doing:
      Sweet husband and I miss each other terribly! He comes home about a half hour before I have to take my oldest to school. Team Tiny wakes up after that and they wind down for bed as he is showering and getting his work clothes on.
    I see him Friday and Saturday. It's kind of lame, but this house is amazing, my husband is already in line for a huge promotion, and this is the first time since about pre-school that my oldest hasn't been complaining about school weekly.


    Overall, I think life is improving for us and it's on an uphill climb!

woo!

Still super tired though.

Considering Gameschooling

    Next year, my oldest daughter is destined for middle school.

    I have honestly never met anyone who was like, "Yeah, middle school was fine."

    Everyone I know had an awful time in middle school. After her diagnoses as gifted and Aspie, she's gotten a lot of help and this is the first year she's been enjoying school.

    I'm so lost. I really don't know whether I should homeschool her again, now that I know more about her and how she learns, or potentially fight with a new school.

    I've been fighting her school for six years. This is the first year they are listening to me and it's the last year she's there.

    Ug. It's a gamble either way.

    I'm not a gambler. I hate gambling.