Earthami Knits

Thankful Thursdays....

2012-01-26T08:29:00.001-07:00

This is my first, and likely last, foray into the Thankful Thursdays blog thing. Mainly because I am never going to remember to do this every Thursday, but hey I might and it might happen again, but don't hold your breath, I would hate to be responsible for you fainting and causing undue stress on your family and friends. (I don't always like to use periods you might notice (I also don't like to have periods but that my friends is a different post))

I am thankful for my friends. I don't have many IRL and I like it that way. I occasionally wish I had friends that lived here in my neighborhood so I could hang out with them, but I'm such an odd duck (every time I scan those two words I read "dork", still works) the times I've tried to make friends near me I've messed it up so I stick with my old friends and happily they stick with me.

My Dad is retiring after nearly 50 years in the printing industry and as part of getting ready for the party we are going to throw him we have been going through family pictures, I found the pictures of my 16th birthday party. We are all in the basement and my BFF is in them. We had met the first day of 10th grade, and by that afternoon were forced to sit on opposite sides of the Ancient History classroom for being disruptive. Most people at the school thought we had know each other forever, and I admit it felt like we did. Now 29.5 years later it still does, the difference now is we have know each other forever and not just since 1st period.

Here is one of the pictures, that would be me in the purple top. I liked rainbows, a lot and what else can you see, a Unicorn.

Now you can know who is who and where the unicorn is. I leave it up to you to find the rainbow.

Oh yeah, this is why I homeschool...

2012-01-25T08:48:00.000-07:00

Homeschool has its ups and downs, when it is down I question every moment, why I'm doing this, am I going to fail in a huge, huge way on this 'project', this project that happens to be a human, a human I love more than any other in the universe. Shouldn't I just trust the local school district to teach my child so I can have a life other than this one I'm living? (I get kind of pessimistic when we are having a bad day)

Most days are not that down, most days are just kind of chugging along we get through the lessons, we don't really have discussions but we do the work that has to be done and we move on.

Then we have the up days, the days were I am reminded, this, THIS right here is why we homeschool. A day where he hits the ground running and all I can do is try to keep up. Where everything he touches becomes new insights into the world. Where he can't get enough of the new information. Where learning is a fun game and can we just do a bit more. Where learning to read is understood to be the gateway to more information. Oh, those days make my heart soar. They fill my psyche with happiness and joy and allow me to face the down days with some resilience.

We had such a day recently. One where he woke up and was ready to take on the world, and he did. It started with him playing with the dog and me. Some freeish information came in on the Lunar New Year celebration (freeish as in it was from Panda Express and so it ended up costing me lunch at Panda) and he dove right in, found the DVD, watched it while I finished making breakfast and my coffee. We talked about it, we talked about the Chinese zodiac and what the meaning of the different animals was. We moved on to computer programming and worked on that for a bit. We went searching for fortune cookies at World Market (they didn't disappoint) We came home and worked on the reading and he is just getting so much more fluent in his reading, the halting and struggle over every single word is gone. The beating himself up over reading a word is, while not gone, diminished. He jumped into the new math program and we had discussions about why the designers of the program would choose certain settings for the lessons. We talked, we discussed, we learned. It was wonderful and chaotic and exhausting. What it wasn't was draining. While I was ready for bed I did not feel the overwhelming need to have a beer or mental down

I'm back again...

2012-01-25T08:12:00.000-07:00

So how many blog posts are out in the world that say that same thing? How many have I personally put up?

What has happened in the month that I've been ignoring my blog? Let's see shall we?..

The holidays happened and were lovely (I got a new coffee maker and a new coffee mug)
We had a very quiet week between Christmas & New Year. DH took off much time from work then we all had to adjust to him leaving the house 5 days a week rather than the 3 it had been for most of December.
We went to Behind the Myths to watch Adam Savage & Jamie Hyneman explain science and why they do what they do. It was the best science class we've had yet.
The boy built his pinewood derby car for this years race
DH got the track ready for said race.
The boy & I have gotten back into the swing of the school thing. (He is starting to read on his own!)
We found a new math program that he loves and I think helps me get the ideas across better. We had kind of out grown Singapore math. So for now it is Elevated Math (it will get its own blog post soon)
I've drank lots of coffee, I ate lots of food, and decided to try to get in better shape (again).
I did not make any resolutions at the new year.

So yeah, there you have it. Life happened and I didn't stop to blog about it. I did take some pictures and maybe I'll post some of them.

Remember that medical thing from last summer?

2011-12-15T13:10:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I'm gonna talk about that so if you don't want to hear about female reproductive organs it is best to move on now.

Back at the end of July my doctor scraped the insides of my uterus and removed a 'lesion' (which, btw, just means something odd in shape, does not mean an open wound as I had always thought it meant) and it was all clear. The endometrial hyperplasia was gone and while she wanted to do another endometrial biopsy in 3 to 6 months we breath a bit easier and get the Merida IUD.

So I got an the IUD the first part of September and life has just gotten easier since. I'm no longer bleeding like I might die each 3 weeks, in fact the bleeding is effectively gone. Everything else is easier as well, PMS is much less intense, cramping doesn't exist really all in all good times.

My doctor sent me a reminder email last week that I need to come in and have the follow up test done. I figured if I just ignored it I wouldn't have to go back in. Apparently pre-cancerous conditions warrant careful followup. Sigh. I keep trying to act like it was/is nothing extraordinary but apparently it is and when I got the results from the test this week, they are normal with no hyperplasia or anything else out of the ordinary but we will need to do follow up in 6 months. What this means is that I'm not out of the woods. This has been scarier and more worrisome than I thought it would be when I got the first diagnosis in May. I'm coming to terms with it. I'm so happy that everything keeps coming back clear but the fact that I have to come back means it isn't really done yet. Sigh. So I'll put it out of my mind for the next 6 months try to forget about it until the doc sends me another reminder email.

So much time so little posting....

2011-11-22T07:42:00.000-07:00

So September took it all out of me, and October ended up being a try to get control of the house and school time and some how I'm now nearly to Thanksgiving and it has been 2 months since I posted anything. I have a couple of posts in my head that I want to get out so I finally decided to just work on one at a time and get them out of me.

My child turned 9 a few weeks ago. My boy child, my heart that walks around the world, that happened 9 years ago. He decided to have a LEGO party and you would have thought that a party had never been planned before and the world was going to end if everything wasn't just perfect, and this time it wasn't me projecting the doom and gloom. It is interesting to see my child have the same anxieties that I have. I don't get worked up about parties anymore so I don't think he has ever seen me act like that you would have thought I did it every time we think of having a party. It was fun to plan it with him this time, he had definite ideas about what they should play and do.

The cake he wanted was not the cake he got, he wanted a LEGO minifig to be standing 1 foot tall. We tried to make it happen and ended up with a collapsed cake and a drowned Mac Book. It was not a happy night. What we ended up with was this...

He is missing one of his arms in this picture .

We used the bag that we got from the LEGO store and the minifig is rice krispie treats and marshmallow fondant. The fondant was easy but getting red and not pink was hard, this ended up being more of an orange color than red but the boy liked it and we were all happy.

The party ended up being fun, it had snowed a couple of days before hand but most of the snow was gone and they played out front for awhile then we did a pin the head on the minifig game and I had them build something with bricks that they could bring home. It was fun and the birthday boy had such a wonderful time.

2 weeks school done and How we give back.

2011-10-14T08:53:00.000-06:00

I did my lesson plans, sometimes the morning of classes but I did them. I put them into the computer made them assignments and guess what happened? Things went smoother. I am so very glad I did because we started a new level of the Barton Reading and Spelling program and new levels are always a challenge. New things get added and The Boy does not like change.

Something I love about my boy is that although he is change adverse his self talk is that he loves to try new things. I work hard to accept the self talk and encourage the actual behavior. I know what it's like to want to try new things and be too anxious to actually try them. It isn't fun for anyone at that point.

So reading was a challenge and he has taken 3 hours plus likely another 15 minutes on Monday to finish one lesson, I know it will get better once he is used to the procedures and we have done them for awhile he will settle in and do well. I really like that there isn't a lot of repetition in this, or maybe that the repetition is hidden well enough that he doesn't see it as such. She also works on introducing small enough bites that he can be successful with it about 95% of the time.

Now to the fun thing we did, the really fun thing. We have been members of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science since 1988 when DH gave me a membership as my Christmas present the first year we dated (I knew we were meant to be together forever). Over the years we have increased our membership level when we can and it is one of the 'untouchable' expenses in our budget. It is a place I have taken The Boy since he was born, a place that is as comfortable to him as home. Last night the museum had a behind the scenes event for curator level members. They offered a Halloween themed buffet, and we got to see behind the scenes of Expedition Health where they do testing on the genetics of taste. I found out anytime the lab is open you can go back and participate in their testing, they are looking at if you can taste bitter flavors. Here go to their website and Dr. Nicole can explain it much better. It was so cool and I didn't think to ask if I could take pictures there, we were able to touch a goat brain, and a cow eye. Observe some differences between a goat brain and the pictures of brains we have looked at for my sister's surgery.

Then we went to the big bone room which is some of the old halls of life that are now filled with shelves housing all of their bones. Including some from the Snowmastodon dig they are doing in Snowmass where they have found over 4500 fossils. Here go to that site as well. They also had a T-Rex leg bone and a Triceratops leg bone out to look at and the scientist brought out a T-rex tooth and let us touch the serrations on it. This was the actual fossil not a cast of it that they usually have out for the public to touch. Again no pictures because I didn't think to ask and well really I was loving seeing all of this stuff. If The Boy had been a bit older when they found the Snowmass site I would totally have volunteered us to go to the dig. We talked to one of the women who was on the dig and her eyes just lit up when she talked about what they were discovering, and finding a mastadon femur and carrying it over your shoulder to the examination area. There was plenty of talk about how we can become involved as volunteers and citizen scientists at the museum.

Then we went to the zoology department. The museum has 1.5 million specimens and about 1 million of those belong to the zoology department. They have the largest dung beetle collection in the US. I finally remembered to ask if I can take photos when I saw something that reminded me of the Bloggess and HAD too get a picture of it.

I will get you, No I will get you!

It made me laugh so much and also I now have some pictures of the last of our night and I will let the pictures tell that story, you know so you don't have to hear another 3,000 words from me.

Look it's Perry, no he did not make noise
although that would have been kinda funny.

Scorpions in jars, there are 2 Rowland heads looking intently at them.
The third felt it was better to just take a picture

Beetles, just below writing on the board that said
"Dead Beetle Society, Meets at Midnight"

I did not get a picture of the next area, it was the room where they prep the specimens and clean the bones with flesh eating beetles and was warned that it stinks. As soon as the curator said "flesh eating beetle" The Boy lunged forward and said "Where!" So he and his father went into the room and saw the beetles crawling all over the bones. Of course his father had done some volunteer work back in the 80's cleaning specimens and getting them ready for the flesh eating beetles so had already seen this.

As we left I made sure to let the woman who organized it know that we had a wonderful time and she said they plan to do something like this every year opening different back rooms to viewing. I said that if it could be the gem & mineral area next year I would be ever so grateful. She at least acted like she would remember it. Heh.

I love our museum and I will always support it but it was really nice to get to enjoy more of it last night. I know this was a value added experience to try to get new members at the curator's level and to encourage them to stay at that level. I know the economy is hard right now and it is a tough time to be in a sector that depends on the good graces of the public to support it. I am glad that my husband 23 years ago started us down a path that shows our son now that giving to support the community is just something we do. We support our local public radio station, we support our local science museum and our local zoo, we support efforts to help people in other areas that are in need through Doctor's without Borders. We don't belong to a church, we don't give in that way, but we do have a tradition of giving and helping others. I hadn't thought about it but we really are teaching our boy that we help where and how we can.

The boy is saving some of his money to give to The Cat Care Society, and I'll probably encourage him to give it soon during their fall pledge drive. Also this week we were listening to CPR and they are doing their fall pledge drive and on this morning if they could get 1,000 pledges they would receive $10,000. They boy was encouraging me to call in to help. I would have too, with a pledge of $25 or so just to help if they needed it. He was so happy to hear they made their goal and would get the extra money. I'm glad it has become just something we do.

September is done, the celebration may begin

2011-10-02T20:36:00.000-06:00

You know September has always been a kind of low time of year for me. I've often blamed it on a choice I made in September 24 years ago. Then this year I saw this post by Dooce, and I know have something else to blame. The sun.

Now this September felt like a random gathering of bits and pieces that made something close to a crazy quilt on top of just the normal seasonal, personal baggage things I have dealt with. That and it ended with such a cluster of good and bad that I'm beginning to wonder if September doesn't just need to take its bipolar meds.

The last week went something like this....
Sunday bad thing happens to cat, great family time.
Monday Cat needs surgery, DH's car explodes, School goes great, I get house cleaned and dinner made. Overall crazy day.
Tuesday DH has my car, boy finished boat, cub scouts Overall good day.
Weds Boy wakes at 4AM puking all over the carpet, then toilet overflows, then boy gets the other end of stomach problems, DH gets toilet cleared, boy sleeps in bathroom, take cat for surgery, I do a million loads of laundry. DH gets cat from vet(he is doing well) We pick up DH's car late Overall crazy day.
Thursday We finish Barton level 2, Boy wants to go to library to get "something to read", I get sushi & cookies for lunch, boy & I eat them and nothing else for the day. I get library books returned, sold books shipped out and dinner made. Dog pukes her dinner. Overall good day
Friday Boy puked all night long, doesn't want to go to library, doesn't want to sell popcorn, isn't feeling well, dog pukes everything she eats or drinks and starts to get dehydrated, Overall I am D.O.N.E. day.
Saturday, quiet, we hang around the house, cook food, relax, go to dinner with my folks and sister & bil, celebrate The Boy's accomplishments Celebrate the first day of October.

Somewhere towards the beginning of the week, as in Monday, I bought a 6 pack of beer for me and a 6 pack of hard cider for DH, we have each drank 3 of them. Everyone who knows us understands that this is not typical it was necessary.

I'm refusing to talk about what happened today because I makes me think October may be off its meds too and I just can't cope with that knowledge quite yet, but here is a picture from the day.

This is why we tried a practice cake.

Things I want to remember...

2011-09-28T13:43:00.000-06:00

That my boy is MY boy right now. He loves his daddy and is starting to want to do things with just dad, but I'm still the one he wants with him. Although this morning when he was sick at 4 in the morning it was his dad that he called out for, that may have been because the toilet was backing up. I'm not sure if he was just puking he would have called for either of us.

So the second thing is this: I love watching him figure out how to be his own person and stand on his own. In the middle of the night when he was sick he tried (and I wish he hadn't because I would have pulled out the trash can instead of having the clean the carpets but I digress). Last night at scouts we saw it also. 2 years ago, heck even 1 year, he would come up and need us to be with him, last night he played with his friends and raced his boat and only needed us to hold it after his race.

Third thing I want to remember is the way he uses language. I worry so much about his reading ability I lose sight of his verbal skills. He has an amazing vocabulary and really, really is starting to understand how to use it to effect. Last night after scouts I said I was wanting something sweet for a snack. I asked if anyone else wanted something and The Boy said "I think you should tell us what you want and I believe I will concur with you."

All this said today he is laying on the couch under his Nemo blanket he has had since preschool speaking in mono syllables and trying hard not to throw up again.

I'm gonna miss that blanket when he takes it to college with him.

How Homeschool Friendly is your town?

2011-09-25T16:35:00.000-06:00

I have become used to the fact that The Boy and I will wander around Brighton and have not a single person bat an eye at us. He is obviously school age and when people ask him if he is enjoying school and his response of I'm homeschooled, is greeted with them again asking if he is enjoying school. Not a batted eye, no looking to me to see if I've suddenly grown a 2nd head, just acceptance and moving on to other conversations we were already having.

This last week we were confronted with 2 different, but both surprised points of view. Neither of these were here in our town. The first was Friday when we were packing my sister up at the hospital so she could go home (Oh, Hey, my sister came home from the hospital again, hopefully for the last time in a very long time) A volunteer came by the room to give everyone a free cup of coffee if they wanted one. (You know I ALWAYS accept free coffee) She sees The Boy in the room and says to him "Why aren't you in school!" He said, "I'm homeschooled" as he always does. She then looked at me as though I had grown not just 1 extra head but maybe 2, or maybe I had grown horns or was a meth addict too lazy to take my child to school, but strong enough to take him to the hospital where I might be able to steal some drugs from my poor defenseless sister. (I might be exaggerating a bit, just a bit, I don't think she felt I had horns)

The second was at a friend's birthday party, I was talking to another parent and he asked where The Boy goes to school. When I replied we homeschool his response was "Wow, you must be really patient" Ummm, no I'm really not. I am so far from patient it isn't even funny. I will say I am learning to be patient but I did not have it coming in to this. I wonder about parents who say things like that. Do they say it to explain to themselves why they could never homeschool? I have to admit I don't feel like a real homeschooler. I love my boy I love teaching him but damn I wish I could have some down time. For some reason I have my own misconceptions about this. I think that all other homeschool parents love being with their children all the time, and never have a moment of wishing for something else. In my rational mind I know that isn't true and I know that I can't be the only homeschool mom who is at times driven crazy by the all encompassingness of it all.

All that to say, I'm lucky with the town we live in. I don't always appreciate it, I often wish I lived somewhere nearer to my family, closer to the city, just somewhere else. This town, though, is very understanding of homeschooling, it takes leaving the comfort of it to understand better the balm that acceptance is.

Two weeks of school

2011-09-17T10:39:00.000-06:00

I started school in a good place, a bit intimidated by the things I was going to teach this year, but ready for it. I had planned 2 weeks out, and the first 2 weeks went by really smoothly. Then we had my sister's surgery and all the appts to get ready for that so the 3rd week of school was actually not much in the way of school. The following week (the week we just finished) went something like this:

I didn't have my lesson plans done so while I definitely know what I'm doing with our reading system and math always just seems to fall out I didn't have things planned for History or Science and so those things fell to the way side, as they always seem to. Sigh. I need to find time this weekend to prep for Barton, and plan 2 weeks out with science and history again. It goes so much more smoothly when I do.

The Boy is still HATING the Barton system but I have begun to use bribes and they are working. If he will do the hour of tutoring without arguing and complaining then he will get a small reward. I don't even remember what it was last week but it worked and we got through a lesson without my having to stop the timer or screaming at him. The funny/not so funny thing was when we were talking about this he pantomimed our normal exchange exactly. From his complaining about not wanting to do something to my fists clenched explanation of why he must.do.this.thing. Heh.

All that said he read something out loud to me, voluntarily, with no tears over words he couldn't read, just asked me to fill them in. It was wonderful and made up for the horrible feeling I felt in the grocery store where I saw a book on George Washington that was obviously for his age level and the reading level was 3.2 and while he SHOULD be able to read that he is no where near able to read at that level. He will get there it will be fine. Someday I'll look back on this and laugh at my worries. Right? Right? Please tell me I'm right.

In news of my sister she is feeling better in some ways but is on her way back to the hospital because she is leaking spinal fluid. Please keep her in your thoughts as they work on getting her better.

Thank you.

The advantage of Homeschool

2011-09-02T10:51:00.000-06:00

This week, oh my, this week. We have done nothing that is part of our curriculum. Learning has happened but it has been an education of brain anatomy, surgery procedures, hospital procedures,improvised games, and empathy.

One week ago my sister was given Thursday Sept 1st as an appt for brain surgery. Monday we took her to an appt with her General Practitioner and The Boy learned about the anatomy of the stomach and what a stomach with an ulcer looked like, not because his Auntie has anything like this but because they had models of this in the room.

Tuesday he learned what the Arachnoid Mater looks like at the neurosurgeon's office. He learned where the brain stem is, what some of the side effects of surgery were. Why it was better to have the surgery than not. What the expected benefits of the surgery would be. Why you want a surgeon who doesn't choose surgery as the first option. He also learned the first bit of the hospital, where the cafeteria is, where the bathrooms are, that it is easy to forget your dog when you have so much else on your mind. (Oh wait that was my lesson not his)

On Wednesday he learned that sometimes you have to let plans go when others can't keep up. That a headache can't always be made to go away with Mama's hug (although she will try)

On Thursday he learned that you can wait for long hours for information when you love someone and they are in surgery. He learned that it helps to have family around you while you wait and to have family greet you when you get out of surgery.

On Friday he is learning that it is better to have to wait to see a nurse in ICU because you are doing so well rather than have the nurses hovering. He is learning that ICU is not a place with a lot of joy but there is hope and again having family and friends around helps to ease the pain.

If he had been in a public school he would not have seen this, I would not have been able to just be here for my sister, my brother in law, and my parents. It has been crazy and worrying and busy, but it has also been wonderful to have family together and seeing that my sister is less than 24 hours out of surgery and already her symptoms that have ruled her life for the last 16 years are gone. Modern medicine is an amazing and wonderful thing.

Week 2 down...

2011-08-26T21:12:00.000-06:00

Yeah, the joy of the first week was gone. The acceptance of the Barton system was GONE. There were tears and melt downs, and no they weren't mine.(pththtth) At one point The Boy cried that he just wanted to be NORMAL and be able to read without the 'stupid' Barton system. Sigh. I wish I could find the magic wand that would make it all easier.

We finished up the papyrus this week and I'll post pictures of it next week. I think he has figured out what he wants to write on it. The names of each of us and our last name in hieroglyphs. That should be really fun.

We finished up Level one of Barton in 2 weeks (4 lessons), and now I have to study up to start Level 2. We'll start up next Monday and it may be just about the only lessons we do next week. We have a lot of things coming up next week and I'm think school is going to be pretty light. I want to get something knit for my sister in that time also.

I guess that means next week there will be actual knitting content on my knitting blog. Who would have thought.

The First Week is done...

2011-08-21T17:49:00.000-06:00

and we survived.

Actually, we more than survived we soared. It was so much fun. Also, so much harder.

The Barton System is great, and I can see exactly where he is having problems processing sounds. It is interesting to see it broken down. (the following explanation will make more sense if you know now that C is consonants and V is vowel, I only mention it because I didn't get it at first) He can easily hear CV or VC combos, also VCC or CCV. Where he can't seem to decode is VCV, that middle vowel sound loses him every time. It is interesting to watch because we will fly through some lessons and then once we hit that it takes forever. He makes up the most interesting stories about the non-sense words and they get more and more detailed the more VCV words I make him try to compare or decode. Tomorrow I will be giving Barton a call and see if they can give me an idea of more VCV practice for him.

I also received The Dyslexia Advantage yesterday, so now I have a new book to read. It is fascinating reading. Helps keep me balanced on what I'm seeing in him. There is an advantage to this challenge and I really want to help him see it. Our hardest moment this week was during the second Barton lesson when he broke down crying that he is dyslexic and he CAN'T read, and will never be able to. It broke my heart, but I know it is partly because he has never had to work this hard before. I have tried to teach him reading before but it felt like flailing about for both of us where this I can see clearly where he is having problems and we can work on building his ear up to hear the sounds and breaking them down slowly.

Something I never noticed that both F & I do and I know The Boy's previous teachers did was add the 'uhhh' sound to the end of the B, D, V sounds, actually and short hard consonant sound. It really impedes the ability to sound out a word if you are trying to sound out bit and you are saying buh-i-t. It also makes it hard to spell a word like 'but' if you sound it out and you hear buh and t sound, after all the word should then be spelled bt right? He HATES being corrected on the letter sounds. We are working through our issues though. ;)

Science was a JOY this week. We went to the stinky, dirty, trashy pond by our house and took samples of the water. Saw frogs, minnows, dragonflies, duckweed, algae, and so many other things. We also came home and looked under the microscope at the samples. So much fun.

Gathering samples of duckweed, algae, tadpoles, and snails.

We have decided that Fridays will be our field trip days and this week we went to Barr Lake with my lovely sister. It was so nice to spend the day with her. We were eaten by mosquitoes, saw a bunny, lots of insects, tracks of many animals and had so much fun. We will be going back to the Fall Birding Festival out there. I took my Canon Rebel film camera, need to get the pics developed, gave Sis my digi camera and The Boy had his own. It is fun to see the different pictures taken from different perspectives.


Very nice gentleman asked if we wanted him to take our picture so we did.

Bunny picture taken by The Boy

Picture of me I don't hate, also by The Boy.

Another bunny picture by The Boy.

Oriole nest by The Boy.

Grasshopper by The Boy

The Boy, by Mama.


Milkweed seed pod, by The Boy.

So apparently I don't have any pictures taken by my Sis loaded up. I'll have to put them in another post.

We are studying Egypt again this year. He choose Egypt and Rome to study this year, I think mainly because we have been reading the Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan and he wants to study the history of the stories we are seeing in that. Hey whatever it takes. He is a little annoyed that he already knows much of the Egyptian history since we studied it 2 years ago but he is liking some of the extra stuff I've added in. We are making papyrus paper this year, it is a multi-day process but he isn't annoyed with it and still wants to work on it.

It has to soak, then be pressed, then soaked again, then pressed again, then soaked again, etc...

I think he will be happier with the history portion once we move on to Roman history. I want to try to make an arch when we get to that point. We'll see. We still need to make a mummified chicken for the Egypt portion this year. Dreading/excited about it. I'm thinking the shed is going to be a very good mummification chamber. Also have 3 sarcophagi to make.

Math is fine, it is the easy portion of our day. I keep trying to find ways to get him to memorize his times tables but I'm just not sure how much I'm going to press it. It is one of the weaknesses that come hand in hand with dyslexia and I really do see the benefit of learning them by rote but I'm not sure that this is the year to fight that battle. I will have him work on Rocket Math on the iPad and Timez Attack on the PC each day but I think I want the hard mental work to go towards reading this year and maybe next year we will work on times tables. I also want to see if I can find a narrative way to introduce them so he will have a personal memory to tie to the numbers. See, using a strength of dyslexia to overcome a weakness. Still I need to find the time to locate such a thing or try to create it myself.

I find it really satisfying to pull his curriculum from lots of sources but I will say it is a lot of work. This year I'm trying to get a bit more focused on what we are doing, I think in part because this is the year we will be giving him the standardized test for the state. Plus he is getting older and is now in 'upper elementary' he is no where near ready to 'read to learn' as opposed to 'learn to read' that is suppose to take place in this year of school but we are working on it and we will get there, I know it.

My dream right now is to get the loft area of our house pulled together to hold our school stuff. All the books, a special place for the library books we borrow. A desk for me to work on my lesson plans as well as the work I do for a friend. I don't see us actually doing school work in the space often but I see it being a place for me to plan for the week and a place to store all the 'stuff' that comes with school that right now resides on the dining room table and the living room couch. It is making me antsy and plus I'm certain I'm going to forget some FABULOUS resource I've found at some point and forgotten about because it is buried.

The Winner announced

2011-08-14T09:12:00.000-06:00

So I ended up getting distracted by first the insurance adjuster on Friday then IKEA on Saturday. Luckily Sunday seems to be for relaxing, while The Boy makes pancakes for the 'whole family' this means he made special pancakes for Honey, the dog. ;)

Anyway I did get around to having the Boy pick the winner and that would be V.S. I'm glad it will help with the kiddos schooling this year.

Tomorrow starts school and this weekend I started knitting The Boy wooly socks for this winter/camping, meaning I should have more fodder for the blog and actually won't be whining about 'female issues' anymore. Yippee. (I do however have one more blog post about that in me so don't feel safe yet David.)

Getting ready for school plus a Music Giveaway

2011-08-10T20:40:00.000-06:00

The give away info is at the end and has nothing to do with the homeschool portion of the post.

I spent most of the day getting our extensive book collection into my tracking program. I use the free version of Homeschool Tracker to keep the records I need for the State of Colorado. It offers much more than I need right now but we can grow into it and there is a paid version if we ever out grow it. It is simple to use and while I wish it would let me have a bit more flexibility in bulk entry it works great for the price. ;)

Now the iPad apps that I have download so far. I'll start with the ones that The Boy is willing to play with before we even 'start school' they are all created by Dan Russell-Pinson and he LOVES them.

Rocket Math It covers everything from counting, money, time, patterns, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. But in doing that you get to build rockets and use the 'money' you earn to buy different parts. He loves experimenting with his rockets and building new ones. I'm going to use this to help him get his basic math facts into his head.
Stack the States I downloaded this tonight and The Boy and DH are playing it right now as I type this up. He is learning interesting things about the states and it will tie in with my geography lessons for this year. I'm so happy he is engaged with it enough to learn the facts as well as trying to stack the states up high enough to cross the 'finish line'
Presidents vs Aliens You take out the Aliens with the Presidents. How freaking cool is that! Really cool that is how much. He was not as interested in the President facts, but he did love shooting aliens with the president heads. ;)

The great thing about all 3 of those is they have a free version to try it out and even if you want to buy the full version they are less than $2. I can't beat that with anything else I can get my hands on right now.

In the productivity category I have loaded Evernote on my laptop, my Android phone and the iPad. Right now I'm using it to put my lesson plans in including websites I want to use during specific lessons. It doesn't matter what platform I'm on I can access all of it and I can update it from any of them as well. I will say that it is easiest to update lots of type.

Science I have found an app called Science 360 it has many videos on lots of different science subjects. Good content and even better it is free.

That's enough of that, I need to wrap this up now, so now on to the giveaway.

I love music, it lifts my soul up and makes me happy. I can't play it, I can't discuss it technically, and I certainly can't sing but I love listening to it. That said one of my favorite artists is Suzy Bogguss. We saw her in concert last fall with some friends and I bought her CD called Wildwood Flower that is her singing traditional American Folk songs. I love it, I knew she was going to try to get it sold in Cracker Barrel restaurants. I forgot I bought it, it is called something else now, and well I bought it again. So I have a brand new never opened copyt of Suzy Bogguss American Folk Songbook to give away.

The cover with bonus cleavage.

To get it leave a comment by noon on Friday August 12 and I'll pick a random person to get it.

Also, trust me none of this is sponsored by anyone, well the iPad was sponsored by my Parents but the apps and the CD are all me.

Found Joy

2011-06-29T13:44:00.000-06:00

I convinced my husband that we needed to have a trip away. We were able to get away this weekend, to do this we had to miss a family reunion with my Mom's family, miss a bbq with DH's family, pawn the boy and the dog off on my Mom & Dad who had out of town company for the reunion. I can't explain how very grateful I am that my parent's did that for us.

We had such a wonderful time together. We had dinner at an Indian restaurant we used to go to prior to having the Boy. We talked, we joked, we remembered how much fun we have together. How much we like each other and enjoy having conversations. It was relaxing, wonderful and exactly what we needed.

A lovely adult drink

Mushroom, sheep cheese, arugula, grilled thingy, huge and yummy.

My pretty new dress.

The Beef Tenderloin the waiter suggested my husband get that I ordered.

A different fish than what the waiter suggested I get, the waiter didn't get us. ;)

It is fun to watch waiters and others try to figure us out when we go out to dinner. Usually they will offer DH a beer if he can't seem to choose a drink, (DH does not drink beer, the kindest thing he has every said about beer involved donkey piss). This waiter also kept calling us studious, we enjoy our silence, actually we relish the silence when we can find it (although The Silence scares me). This weekend, even at dinner we allowed the silence to wash over us. The waiter didn't quite get it, I wonder if he worried that we were fighting, heh.

I was able to release the worries I've been holding onto over the last few months and face this week with DH out of town, again.

Joy, bliss, happiness, peace. These are things that I'm carrying closer to myself again. Ahhhhhh.

I'm trying to find happy, I really am...

2011-06-21T17:58:00.000-06:00

Today started sucky and even though nothing monumentally bad has happened I'm just not feeling any happiness.

So here goes trying to purge the shit so I can release it and move on. I have made 17 phone calls/emails to the insurance company's financial 'planning' office, my doctor's office, the hospital when the procedures are going to take place and the pathologist's office who will, maybe, be doing the biopsy analysis after the procedures. I need to get the information in writing because we have been SCREWED in the past by not getting medical estimates in writing. As in I was quoted $1,100 for the surgeon's time and he charged us $10,000. While this time is different because we at least have a max out of pocket we will have to spend, and we are basically going to just get to that point, it still feels perilous.

I am questioning if the procedure is really necessary. Do we really have to pay $4200 to make sure they didn't miss something with the first test. If I'm responding to the meds doesn't that mean it really is the hormonal version and not the cancer version? This sucks.

I'm tired, and worn out about this and I have no idea what to do but wait.

I was thinking that I have recieved a lot of information this week and was waiting for answers but realized while I have answers for the dyslexia, I don't actually have any answers to the medical issues, I'm fighting for information that isn't actuallly informational. What do you call data that doesn't inform and is just to cover your ass? I mean each and every person I talked to and each piece of paper has said that this is an estimate and if the procedure takes longer or there are complications the amount will change. So data but not real data yet. I can't pay anything on it yet, I can't use it to learn anything. Ugh.

All that said, I'm feeling better for having written it up. For putting into words that this feeling of being on a hamster wheel really is being on a hamster wheel with no progress.

Test Results

2011-06-20T07:49:00.000-06:00

Friday ended up being crazy, crazy, crazy. Oh and a little bit more crazy on top.

I did a business meeting, kind of, way, way down South.(30 miles south is too, way south) Then drove back north to make the meeting with the tester and hope that the crazy, heavy rain/thunder storm was not at our house where Honey was hanging out in the back yard. It wasn't hadn't rained at all yet at home but then Honey was not in the back yard. The short of a long emotional story is she was back in our yard Saturday morning. Maybe someday I'll write it up but I feel like it stole so much of my energy that I can't do it again right now.

Plus I really want to digest the information Joni, our tester, gave me yesterday. DH couldn't meet with us because he was flying home as we met and then had to go directly into the office upon landing in town. I don't think either Joni or I was in the best shape to be delivering or asking for information. Her mom is in the midst of a serious illness and I sat down with her after spending an hour walking all over our neighborhood talking to people and looking for my dog. Yeah, neither of us at our best but I got the basics of the info and I'll email her for clarification as time goes on.

The tests confirm what I thought was going on he is moderate to severely dyslexic and moderately disgraphic. The Boy has asked that I not discuss the specifics here so I will honor that. It was hard to hear the specifics of the results even though none of it was surprising. To hear that he really is struggling and not just blowing me off is good to know but now I have to figure out how to help him.

To that end I want some help with ideas. I am going to be helping him improve his working memory and want ideas of fun sentences to read to him and have him repeat back to me. I have used an oath of one of the lantern leagues or whatever they are called. A friend suggested Shel Silverstein, any other ideas? I'm looking for 6-15 word sentences. Thanks for any ideas.

I'm also looking at iPad aps that may help. If you know any iPad aps that help with dylexic children, working memory, reading, or fine motor skills let me know.

Thank you all.

Optimism you name is Summer

2011-06-17T07:32:00.000-06:00

Now don't get me wrong, I don't love summer for the sun and the warmth, I would still rather have a lovely fall/spring day or even a below freezing winter day than the 90+ degree days that are facing me. That said, I'm back in the lovely imagining of what next school year could be. I'm looking through my 1350+ page Rainbow Resource Center catalog. Talking to the boy about what he would like to study for history, science. I'm excited about the possibilities.

I have to remember that the boy does not actually like doing crafty things very much, but I'm trying to convince myself that the cool sarcophagi set that is punch out and slot & tab construction isn't REALLY crafty and you end up with three sarcophagi that fit into each other. Come on how cool is that?!?

Yea, see optimistic that is me right now. I'm meeting with the tester today to go over the results of the dyslexia testing we had done a month ago. I'm glad we did it. I'm looking forward to hearing what she has to say and then seeing how best I can implement it.

The thing I do love about summer is that we are going camping again. We had not really gone camping for years but we have all of our stuff and are going again. It is lovely gets us out of town and I'm really looking forward to August when everyone else around here has gone back to school but we are able to camp still. yippee.

Ok now to clean the dining room so I can have a meeting on it then I'll wake the boy and see what we can do this morning.

Information gathering...

2011-05-26T09:35:00.001-06:00

Right now I'm trying to breath and feel my breath in my body. I am in an information gather phase. I don't have answers to anything right now or I have partial answers but not enough to make decisions.

On the dyslexia testing front, Everett completed his 2 days of testing and proved to the tester that having a large vocabulary does not preclude one from having dyslexia. ;) She was surprised that he knew the word sabotage. I'm guessing she didn't use the word I'm guessing he told her in his lovely way that he had chosen not to sabotage the test results. By choosing to not sabotage the results he earned a stop watch from the tester and a $50 gift card to Target from his mother. Which translates to $12.50/hr pay rate I realize but I felt it really was hard work and he did earn it. So specifically how to help him read is not going to happen yet.

The Boy telling me how something works.

On the medical front, I have to get out patient surgery scheduled for a D&C. It will be done under anesthesia (side note the boy heard amnesia and wanted to know how much I was going to forget, yeah his vocabulary is rather large for an 8 year old.) but I should be fine the next day. Probably don't want to plan a camping trip that leaves the next day but I should be fine to putter in the garden and yell at the boy. ;) I have no idea how much this is going to cost me and won't get to know until it is actually scheduled since it depends on where the procedure will take place as to how much it will cost. I'm also very glad I didn't look at Kaiser's information on Endometrial Hyperplasia first. The info I found through Googlefu said that what I'm looking at is not pre-cancerous but instead kind of pre-pre-cancerous and can be treated with hormones and may never progress to cancer. What Kaiser's site says is it is endometrial cancer and what to expect after cancer treatment. The D&C will rule out that there is any of the pre-cancerous cells or cancerous cells. I will continue to believe that this is going to rule it out and not find something worse.

ETA: I now have a date for the procedure July 21st, so forever in the future. Heh.

So I'm practicing breathing, I'm looking forward to camping this weekend and getting to see the Sand Dunes with my boy. I'm going to prepare food and pack food for our weekend today. I going to be much happier once the 'haze' has burned off today and the sun makes its appearance (which it will damn it!) I'm going to enjoy my iris that have now bloomed

My Iris, they make me so happy, even if I am only getting 3 stems this year due to thinning.

Here is another picture of The Boy, my heart, and why my life is truly wonderful.

Exhaustion, in many forms

2011-05-17T17:29:00.000-06:00

I'm feeling worn to a nub, as though I have nothing left to give or contribute in so many places in my life.

First I'm so worried about my boy and reading. Partly because I really want him to enjoy the worlds that are opened to one with fiction, be it graphic novels, science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, or literature. I saw this poster by Mary GrandPre (Artist for the American Harry Potter books) and it just reminds me so much of how books take me away, let me live another life. Partly because I really do get that it is really, really hard to get around the world without the ability to read. Partly also because my husband keeps reminding me that he is 'functionally illiterate' and I feel like a complete failure every time I hear him say it out loud.

Second, I'm dealing with 'female problems' (David this is the paragraph to skip) I have 'endometrial hyperplasia w/o atypia' Basically my endometrium grows too much but it isn't pre-cancerous just a hormone imbalance that needs to be put back into balance. I went to have an ultrasound today and it was emotionally exhausting. The last time I had an ultrasound was when I found out my last pregnancy was no longer viable. Add to it that this stuff is all perimenopause stuff and it just points out that my baby days are well and truly behind me. It ~~hurt more than I thought it would~~ hurts more than I thought it would.

Third my husband was gone for 9 days and he will have more travel this summer for work. It is so exhausting to be the only parent and teacher for that long. He does not travel much and so when he does it throws us all off. So there was more fighting and arguing between me and my boy, we did finally find a balance for the last couple of days but it was a hard won peace.

Fourth I now have a dog, a dog that is defacto mine, and I never, ever in my life wanted a dog. She is sweet but she is still a puppy and has decided that the house training she knew is gone. I HATE that my house now smells like dog pee and that I find dog poop around the house, cause that smells even worse.

I know my life is good, I know that we are working on finding ways to teach my boy to read, and that I will be able to slow the bleeding and have a more normal life without having to have a hysterectomy. I'm going to get alone time. I'm going to find a balance in my life again I just need to work on it.

If you would like to see the rest of the posters made for the Scholastic Read Every Day Lead a Better Life campaign you can see it here...Scholastic: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Now for the things I ignored in yesterday's post....

2011-04-26T09:06:00.000-06:00

First the test mentioned that ADHD is often co-morbid with Dyslexia and we might want to look at that. She showed us an ADHD 'symptom' list and he has about half the items on the list, and not just the messy room type which I really think is fairly age typical. I've thought about it for awhile but I'm not sure it is something I need to worry about. I mean other than when I'm PMSing and the boy can.not. shut up. At that point I'm ready to try any drug, anything that will get him to shut up and just be for a bit. Then I think about how addictive stimulants are and what a crazy hard thing it is to get this boy to take medication. I really don't know that I have a reason to get him tested/diagnosed or medicated. He is learning (if we ignore the reading thing and he is getting better just very, very slowly) and able to show what he knows. So I have some thinking to do, some more thinking to do.

The other thing is the boy keeps mentioning how he wants a sibling. How happy he would be if I were to get pregnant. This is such a hard thing for me. I wish on so many levels that I could have given him a sibling. I never imagined having an only child, that was not part of my 'plan', I wanted more than one child for selfish reasons, I wanted him to have a sibling because I know how important my siblings are in my life. I had hoped to have a daughter to share girly things. The thing is it did not happen, we lost the only other pregnancy I had very early and have never gotten pregnant again. I'm actually ok with having an only child at this point, it has taken me years to get here but I'm comfortable here. It no longer makes me cry every month when I'm yet again not pregnant. I think this time of year is harder since this is when I lost my pregnancy 6 years ago, but I'm doing really well now. My family is good we are able to do fun things as a family of 3 that we would not have been able to do if we were a family of 4 or 5. The boy and I are going to try some blacksmithing today that if I had younger kiddos around I'm not sure I'd feel safe doing (yes I will try to blog the blacksmith experiment). Life is good.

The weekend, the week, the tests to come...

2011-04-25T11:50:00.000-06:00

Shall we start with the homeschool/dyslexia bit and then move on to other things? Or should I start with our newest family member and then move on to other things?

New family member it is, it works chronologically better anyway. ;) So when we lost Sweetie DH & talked about getting a dog for the boy next. He was very broken up that his pets had all died so early, his toad died early, his triops died early (what you don't know what a triops is or if you do know question it being considered a pet well first for those of you who don't know what a triops is here is a picture...

Now for those of you who would not consider this a pet, well let me introduce you to my boy, the one who loves all his stuffies, all animals and feels they are all his friends, until his is close and they are larger than he is) his hamster died early. He was feeling like he had bad luck with pets. We wanted to get something that was longer lived that meant bigger. He is also old enough and active enough that a dog is a really good idea for him, they could run off a lot of energy together. So we then found a doggie on Petfinder and well...

There she is, she is a little brown doggie. I've decided from now on when anyone asks me what kind of dog she is I will say "Brown" Her name is Honey and while she is a bit nervous meeting new people for the first time she did really well on Sunday at Easter dinner we had 13 people and 7 dogs. We are so happy with her. Last night she and the Boy were both falling asleep on the couch.

They love each other but somehow I've become her person in the house. Sigh, I don't know how that happened, I keep telling everyone that I'm a cat person not a dog person but she does not seem to care.

Now to the dyslexia testing front, we met with the tester on Friday, just DH & I. She wanted to see if it sounded like there might be another diagnosis that would mean we should to see a neuro psych rather than someone who is only qualified to test for dyslexia. She is an elementary teacher who works with the Barton System to teach dyslexics to read. I nearly told her to leave at one point in the conversation but she quickly redeemed herself at least partly. One of the assessments I sent her was his WPPSI-III results showing he was being considered for the G/T school and her first thought was a kid who is being considered for GT can't be dyslexic. So not true and I feel like every time I see those results they are SCREAMING at me that there was evidence of a problem 3.5 years ago and I've been letting is slide. Anyway, she then said as she was looking at the results she saw how much lower his processing speed score was than the verbal and performance scores and that dyslexia is a processing disorder. So we are testing in mid May and will have the report by the second week in June. It will give me time over the summer to read and digest it, figure out what I need to do for next year and get the things I will need.

On Saturday we went to the Save the Children in Japan Concert and Benefit. I helped with one of the booths and brought some of my knitting, most of it sold if I had not had crazy, crazy, crazy weeks I would have had more little chicks to sell. Sigh. It was fun and DH & Honey wondered around the campus and the open space behind it. The boy helped me at the booth. It was fun, there was great food and a good band. We made 1,485 cranes to take to Osh Gosh, for each crane made Osh Gosh is sending a piece of children's clothing to Japan. They also raised over $5,000 to send to Save the Children. Not bad for 2.5 hours.

Learning, not knitting.

2011-04-17T13:16:00.000-06:00

I'm slow, I have to learn something many, many times before it sinks in. And sometimes more than that. Let me give an example.

When we first started homeschooling I knew my boy thinks better when he moves. I bought him a bouncy ball to sit on while we worked. He loved it. When we started with COVA it didn't seem to fit the way we were working so it got put to the side. He is now really to big for it. I have slowly moved to more sitting still and learning style, it is how I learn and haven't been able to figure out, or tried to figure out really, how to incorporate movement into the boy's learning. We have fought more and more with each passing month.

Friday the Boy announced that he was going to do school while walking on the treadmill. Ok I thought, we would likely have a fight when it came to the spelling test but we'll work on everything else while he walks.

I ended up giving him the spelling test orally and he did great. It was much faster than when he has to write it down.

I'm thinking I need to get him a typing/keyboarding program. That or check out something like Dragon Naturally Speaking for him. The problem with the voice recognition programs is I've heard they are not good at recognizing young voices. We'll see.

So yet again I have forgotten something I knew worked in the past, the boy's brain is connected to his feet/legs, and find life is much easier when I don't ignore that. Sigh.

Anyone have ideas about teaching a kid that needs to move to think? It really does seem to short circuit his brain to have to be still.

I'm back, or what the heck have I been doing?

2011-04-05T16:47:00.000-06:00

Where I've been is digesting the wonderful information you all shared with me. Thank you. This has been crazy and scary and we aren't even that far into it.

We are going to have him tested, with a qualifier thrown in. We are meeting with the tester first and if what we tell her and show her with his work doesn't make her feel 85% certain that he is dyslexic then she won't test. That is fine with me. I have no desire to put him through testing if it isn't going to give us good info. Plus then really the money can be spent on more expensive testing. That will give us info on what else it could be.

We are looking at some different programs to use with him. I purchased one today through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op called Reading Assistant. (The link will take you to the page describing it.) I'm hoping it will help him increase his fluency. I will continue to use the Phonics Pathways for now. It seems to help a bit and he is getting better at reading. I'm feeling better that we are doing something positive.

Of course now that I've admitted that it might be dyslexia I'm seeing everything as that. Isn't that the way it always is? He has this habit of repeating the first part of his sentences before getting to the main idea. An example from today he was talking to his Aunty and said "He wanted to... he wanted to.... he wanted to try something more positive." Then continued the conversation. This is something he always does. Come to find out this behavior is called Cluttering as opposed to stuttering. When reading the list of symptoms I never bothered to look and see what that meant since he doesn't stutter, or do what I think of as stuttering so I figured he didn't do whatever was associated with it. Heh.

So DH & I have a meeting with the tester in a couple of weeks, she will go over all the test results we have, look at some of his writing samples, and talk to us about our history.

On another front my brother-in-law and sister-in-law are putting on a charity event with the proceeds going to Save the Children specifically for children in Japan effected by the earthquake and tsunami from March 11, 2011. If you live in the Denver metro area please consider coming out and listen to bands, buy some books for your kids or maybe some of my stuffed animals. I'm working on some chicks and maybe some bunnies to sell. They will look like these,

kind of, in the way that they are based on the same pattern but, well they are handmade and so each is an individual. ;) So the Deets on the event...

Front Range Community College
3645 West 112th Avenue
Westminster, CO 80031

from 2:30PM to 5:00PM

Requesting opinions

2011-03-03T07:59:00.000-07:00

So I know that requesting opinions can be dangerous, we may not agree on how I'm dealing with this thing in my life, we may not agree that what I'm thinking is a problem is a problem. That said, I sent an email out to a list serve I'm on and I realized I have a fountain of information in my friends that I use to dip into all the time when my boy was a baby and don't go to as much as he has gotten older. So with that in mind here is the email I sent out this morning and if you have some thoughts or ideas on it (or if you just want to say hi and let me know you are reading) please do.

With Love,
Ami

Hi Everyone,

I'm mostly a lurker, we have been at home for 2 years with DS 8 and the little worry at the back of my mind has become a screaming 1,000 lb gorilla at the front of my mind regarding his reading difficulties.

I've decided to try the Barton Reading and Spelling system to help him and we are now trying to decide if getting him tested and an official diagnosis of dyslexia. When I look at the symptoms listed of dyslexia he has 90% of them and all of the spelling. He does not seem to be dysgraphic, but is very reluctant to write unless I first write the script for him and he has a letter guide in front of him to form the letters. Let me give you some of our thoughts on the reasons to and not to test and let me know if there is something we are missing, another road that may help.

Reasons to test:

He could get accommodations on the Standardized tests we have to give him every other year starting next year for our State (CO)
Same for if/when he wants to take the ACT/SAT for college acceptance.
If we put him back in school we will have a starting point to talk about what he needs without so many hoops to jump through.
It will give me information on his strengths and weaknesses that I might be able to use to help him learn

Reasons not to test:

I can just start using the Barton system without having any info and it sounds like it will work.
We don't know that we will send him back to public school so why would he need to face this now.
College is a long way off (I keep telling myself that let's ignore the fact that I still think of him as 5)
He may not want to go to college and have no need to take the ACT/SAT (yes that rips my heart to write but it could be true)

Reasons I'm afraid to wait to test:

What happens if we decide to just work with what we have and down the road we feel like he will need the official dx to help with something and when we test at that point he doesn't show as severe and so can get no accommodations on things like the ACT/SAT.

So that is most of it, I'm sure there is more rattling around my head but after 2 cups of coffee this is what I can think of.

The worry, the stress, the Guilt!

2011-03-02T08:41:00.000-07:00

I have now spoken to 3 of the 4 Certified Dyslexia Testing Specialists from the list I received from Susan Barton.

The first was a lovely, understanding, woman. In other words she did not call me an idiot who just hadn't read to her child enough and didn't know how to teach. (I have no issues with self doubt, no really, well maybe a little)

She asked me a series of questions about the boy, we talked about where his IQ test put him, where he is in math and where he is in reading. Huge disparity. She asked about gross motor skills, she asked if he was on the spectrum, can he tie his shoes, does he know our address. Gross motor skills great, not on spectrum as far as we know, he can tie his shoes (it took awhile but he is great at it now), he does not know our address, but knows my mobile number.

The second tester called, she asked many fewer questions, wanted to know why I was worried about it, luckily the conversation with the first tester really pulled my thoughts on it together so I was able to, fairly, clearly explain what I was seeing in the Boy. She kind of explained the difference between an IEP and a 504 and that we would likely get a 504 for accommodations rather than a full IEP. She then spent a good bit of time telling me which charter schools in my area are the most receptive to and responsive to the needs of dyslexic kids. COVA being one, they have the Barton System that they will loan out to parents to use. The other being one of the charters in our district, but I have a complicated relationship with all of them (in my head). It really felt like she was pushing for us to put him back in public school. Her report was priced as a report only to parents for 1 price and if we wanted a report for the schools for another $100. The thing is even if we don't put him back in school I am going to need something worded that we can use to get accommodations for standardized tests. All that to say I did not leave talking to her with warm fuzzies and I'm pretty sure we won't be using her.

Third tester called a bit later and left a message, was able to get back with her quickly. She was also lovely. She let me know when she does the intake interview some of the things she will check on are things from early childhood and birth to make sure there was nothing that might interfere with a clean dyslexia dx. She talked to me about the benefits of testing now and not testing now. She feels that using the Barton System we could help the Boy right now and he is at a good age to start it, we don't need the testing to start that. What the testing will give us is the ability to get him accommodations on any standardized testing and as a CO homeschooler, that is something we will have to do every other year starting next year. Plus when/if he takes the ACT/SAT for college he will get accommodations on that as well. If we wait to test him until after we get him tutored the results may not show the severity and we may not be able to get the accommodations he really will still need.

I'm kicking myself, I was wondering about this when we started COVA a year and a half ago. I had the conversation with the teacher then. I feel like I didn't advocate enough at that point. He is crazy smart and it gets hidden in this fight with the written word. he is so curious about different things but he can't get it for himself right now he has to use me and I'm ending up being a gatekeeper to his knowledge. I slow him down I can't read to him everything he wants to learn, he can't stand one of the most prominent astrophysicists out there making videos so most of the video lectures I find he won't watch. Ugh.

I look at the reading symptoms and he has every single one of them, same with the spelling. I had not gone back to the list for a year and a half because I thought maybe he wasn't ready yet, maybe he was being 'stubborn' maybe I was giving him too much leeway.

All that be as it may, we're doing something now. I will figure out how to get him tested, I will get to work learning the Barton System. I will see if I can become a Barton Tutor and maybe make up the cost of the system. We'll see, there are answers, there will be help, he will be able to open the world up to his very curious mind with books soon.

How did the month of creativity go?

2011-02-28T14:56:00.000-07:00

Well let's see, I seemed to run out of steam about half way through the month. As it is though I'm pleased with what I did get done. I feel like I proved to myself that I can make things from my brain become real and concrete.

I also got off my duff and actually finished 2 projects I had let slip by me, and actually took steps to figuring out what is really happening with my son.

I got back to working on the books for a business I'm trying to help/work for. (Which reminds me I have more to work on this afternoon) It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but it did take some concentrated time. Which is hard to come by. The Boy and I made a deal and I would work for 1 hour then play with him for one hour, and so on. It worked ok. I used my ear buds and listened to music so I wouldn't have to listen to the TV while I was working.

The Blue & Gold Banquet went off beautifully and we have a date for summer camp reserved. Life is good.

I purchased an assessment test from Homeschool Buyer's Group and gave it to the Boy. It gave me the info I was looking for. I gave him the reading portion first which caused complete melt down and then he really melted down for the math portion. The thing is even with the math melt down he was able to do really well on the math, much higher than 2nd grade, and the reading showed him well below 2nd grade level. It is frustrating and I just need to find the help with this.

One of our 'beliefs' coming into homeschooling him for Elementary school is that there is nothing in the Elementary curriculum that either DH or I could not teach him. The thing is that was based on the idea that reading would come easily to him. That he would learn to read and nothing would cause a problem with that. The thing is he doesn't and can't. He aced the grammar portion, he understands the rules of grammar, he understands that different words in our language came from other languages, and can explain which they came from. He recognizes the patterns that indicate a word comes from Greek or Germanic, but has a problem sounding out the words pen and pin, big and dig, and din and den. I need to document where I am seeing consistent problems to relate to the tester.

Ugh, so much to think about. I've called 4 different testers and left messages for each of them. We'll see if anyone calls me back.

By the way, have I mentioned a really cool book I found and we loved reading/listening to?

Ox, House, Stick The History of Our Alphabet, it is really interesting to learn where our alphabet came from and how/when they changed from sounds that mean something to symbols for sound alone. If you or you have someone at home interested in how our language became what it is this is interesting easy to understand book.

The Changes I'm seeing

2011-02-17T08:01:00.000-07:00

So I'm half way through the month of creativity. I'm not sure how well I'm doing at it, but I am branching out, and trying new things. I have sketched, baked, embroidered, crocheted, sewn, and colored. I haven't really knit yet but I will before the end of the project. Weekends are harder for me to sit and just make something for a time, but I will try to do something each day this weekend.

I'm seeing changes in the Boy as well. He is so excited to have finished his 3rd grade math books and moved onto the 4th grade, we spend about 36 hours straight listening to him repeat that he had finished 3rd grade math and was moving on to 4th grade. Let's see if this will keep him on task with it to finish 4th grade math before we finish 2nd grade in the spring. hmmmm.

Besides that though, he has started doing science experiments on his own, without me leading him or guiding him. He is thinking them through and executing them with little help from me. Hoo rah!!!!!! He also insisted I load Crazy Machines on the laptop (that link is to a commercial site to buy and download the game). We've had it for a couple of years and he has played with it in the past but always with DH or I giving him much help in the problem solving area. He has just taken off with his understanding of the concepts and is problem solving on his own. He takes great pride in coming up with solutions that are different than the 'official' version. Can I tell you how much this makes me happy?

On a somewhat related note, I belong to Homeschool Buyers Co-op and if you are considering homeschool it is a great way to get curriculum and assessment tests at a discounted price. (That is not relevant to this story but I realized I had never mentioned them before and I do <3 them so, spread the love.) They are offering something that the teaser shot seemed to say to me was an Unschooling curriculum for high school. Now I think we all know that I am a snarky, judgey woman and could not let that go without a comment to DH. I mean come on and unschooling curriculum? REALLY? No, not really, when I went to look at it, it is actually resources to find different things to learn, so it is a way to allow your teen to decide what they want to learn and then be able to find the resources to actually learn it. I'm certain there are those in the unschooling community who would still scoff at this but I could see it being very helpful. Then again I'm not wired to unschool really so what do I know. ANYWAY, back to the point, if there is one, of this story. The Boy heard me mention it to DH and wanted to know what unschooling was. My explanation went something like this:

Me: Well, with unschooling I wouldn't tell you what to study or when to study an subjects
Boy: Face lights up like I just told him we are going to Disney World
Me: Instead, you are responsible for what you are learning, you have to decide what you will learn and how to get the information. It is completely your responsibility.
Boy: Face falls as if I have told him he has to make is own bean & cheese burritos for the rest of his life (I know this because I have told him this before & saw the exact same face)

Let me be honest here, had I thought that unschooling was a way DH & I wanted to go with the Boy's education I would not have put so much emphasis on his responsibility, and I would have put more on his ability to choose his own adventure (sorry loved those books, they are back in publication btw)

Here is a picture of something I've made this month, this is the bread pudding I made on Valentines Day, it is all gone now, but wow did I love it. Yummy!

Thing-a-Day 1

2011-02-01T18:50:00.001-07:00

So today was my first day of Thing-a-Day, henceforth to be know as TAD. I want to prove to myself that I'm creative, and I don't want to spend any money on it. I have an embarrassment crafting supplies. I do not need to go out and spend money on this. I have fabric, yarn, thread, needles (of many sorts). So the goal is to make things that I can enjoy, or others will enjoy, without making us poorer in the endeavor.

I wanted to embroider another cephalopod for the bathroom. Today's self imposed critter was a squid. First I will say that the internets will lead you astray and show you pictures of cuttlefish and call them squid. I decided on a giant squid, they are simply shaped and well I felt like I could do it.

Squid sketch #1

This was my first sketch. Rough, his eyes were in the wrong place to begin with and I didn't like the pencil I was using, so onto....

Squid sketch #2

This was my second sketch, and the one I used to make the final embroidery. I darkened up the lines and then copied it onto the muslin fabric.

I left off some of his legs and his legs keep getting shorter cause I wanted to finish him before the sun set. Heh. I'm pleased with him and learned some more about the process.

One thing I've discovered is that I need to scale down what I'm making each day. This took a lot of time to complete. I may break the next one down into smaller pieces. I will also need to figure out some things I can make quickly or on the road for our busy weekends. This coming Saturday I think I might have an hour to make anything at all. Maybe I'll sketch out an octopus for the next cephalopod project.

The weekend I had

2011-01-31T09:21:00.000-07:00

I had such a wonderful, busy, filled with people I love, weekend. We have been busier since the new year started than we were all through the 'holiday season'. For some reason I balk at the thought of all the things I 'have' to do during that time of year. I really would rather just hang at home. January see me ready to get things done.

Friday night we, finally, after many attempts and rescheduleings, went to Euclid Hall with my BFF & her hubby. I 'did' my hair and face, something that very rarely happens. Look at what I can look like if I try.

So I cleaned up good. The food was amazing and the company was even better. The restaurant is kind of Americanized German food. They had sausages (made on site), mustards (same deal) schnitzel, spatzel (did I spell that right Angie/Ray), but not traditional. Plus they had the Canadian national dish poutines but with wild mushroom gravy (Dave feel free to correct me on this, you know let me know what the REAL Canadian national dish is) Oh and tons of beers and whiskey. Much of the food is locally sourced, including some of the whiskey. Yum! Wonderful night, thank you so much Michal & Rich for taking us to such a wonderful place.

Saturday included DH fixing the car, it has needed new struts for, well years actually, but they had gone out completely so it was time. Have I mentioned here how much I love that my husband is not afraid to work on a car. He will go in pull it apart, fix it and it will run at the end of it. He fixed my alternator a couple of months ago, he fixed his struts this Saturday.

My Dad came over with his air compressor and they fixed the car. It helped so much that the temp on Saturday was in the 50's. (Unlike today where our high was sometime this morning before the sun rose and the temp is going to be dropping steadily until sometime on Weds.) While they were fixing that my Mom & I made lasagna, 7 dishes of lasagna.

This was the last 2 waiting for their turn in the oven. I felt like we were all productive. The Boy just kept running from one group to the next, helping at times, making random noises at others, but basically seeming like a happy child surrounded by the people that love him. This is when I really wish we lived closer to my folks. My Mom & I could do this bulk cooking thing together more often. The Boy would see them more often, and so would I. Ah well maybe someday.

On Saturday I had my girlfriends over for circle, I made, kinda, Chinese food in honor of the New Year coming up this Thursday (Year of the Rabbit). It was wonderful to cap off the weekend with friends I share everything with.

Next weekend is looking to shape up to almost the same level of busyness. I'm so happy with it.

Reading, mine not his...

2011-01-25T08:21:00.000-07:00

My BFF gave me a book to read, one of those books you were suppose to read in high school but being the stubborn, you can't make me read that shit, honors student who ended up taking 'contemporary lit' (aka read paperback books and we'll give you an english credit) I was I never read most of them.

The book is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.

I'm only on the second chapter and I already love the writing, I can feel myself being pulled into this world of poverty, and family. So I will spend the morning teaching my son and hopefully the afternoon losing myself in a book that I 'should' have read 20 years ago but am only meeting now. I wonder what else is out there for me to discover?

We are reading A Cricket in Times Square with the Boy.

It is another book I never read back in the day and I'm glad I remembered it to share with the Boy. He loves these kinds of books, the books with little anthropomorphized animals. I will need to find some more.

Next up for me I think I'm going to read the Anna Quindlen book Rise and Shine. Another book from my BFF's library. Which reminds me I need to gather all my borrowed books and give them back. They end up stacked around the house and they need to go back out into the world to be enjoyed by others. If I gather them this week I can give them all back on Sunday when I see her again. Yippee!

Do you think I can get 2 books read in one week. Wow what a luxury, I'm not sure but I think I'm going to try.

Questioning schooling...

2011-01-24T08:43:00.000-07:00

The Boy has been having difficulties with school lately. He is getting morning stomach aches. He just feels bad in the morning. He is miraculously 'cured' by noon when we have either called off school because he is 'ill' or because we have finished any lessons we had for the day. This has happened nearly every day since we started back in at the beginning of the month. I know this feeling, I've had this feeling. As a 43 year old adult I can name it as anxiety. Watching my 8 year old son live with it just makes me want to cry, and fix it.

Some history, in case you don't know it. When I pulled him from the brick and mortar school in Kindy we took maybe a week break from 'schooling' while we waited for our school books to arrive than we dived right in. The next year we started the virtual charter, which is lovely in many ways but not what worked for my kiddo. Very much schooling in the traditional sense with the exception you do it at home. This year, we went back to the math program he loved so much during Kindy and I have struggled to find a reading program he will like and learn from.

So now I'm questioning my adherence to schooling in such a traditional way (don't laugh it is kind of traditional, we do reading, math, history, and science) I think he is feeling like there is just no way he can do well. He is starting to think he is bad at school work and that it is too hard. Lately he has said he is better at history, and that is what he enjoys. Which is fine, and we can study that but I'm thinking we need a dramatic break...

So with that in mind, what I'm thinking of doing is something I've heard called 'deschooling' We don't do school work at all. We visit places, we read things but just for pleasure. There is no sitting down and working on decoding words, or working on the next math problem. There is just time to hang out. Now this is where I put the rules on it. It can't involve sitting in front of the TV or video screen spending the time being sucked into the boob tube.

Everything I've heard about deschooling involves taking months off, I'm not sure either DH or I can commit to taking that much time off of formal education. My thought is to combine it with February's Thing-a-Day project. We will not be working on any of our regular lessons, but we will not be watching TV. We will be reading, making things, playing games, and other fun things. If it works well and he seems to be thriving with the less structure maybe we will continue it into March, if it feels like we are floundering in a sea of 'nothing to do, can't I watch TV' then back to lessons it will be.

This is gonna be hard for me. This is going to mean I can't turn the computer on until 4 in the afternoon, since that in my mind is when he can watch TV again each day. That means no Facebook, no computer games, no tv shows. It will give us time to find creativity, and the fun in doing things, rather than watching things.

DH & I are thinking about it. Who knows, it may not be the right track. I may be grasping at straws but what I will say is what we are doing right now is not working, it is not making him a enthusiastic learner, it is making him an apathetic learner. Isn't this one of the advantages to homeschooling, changing things mid course to find something that will work?

I'm not sure it is creative, plus not Feb. yet but....

2011-01-21T14:53:00.000-07:00

So first, today is the day to sign up for Thing-a-Day you need a posterous.com account but come on and join me. In a surprise move (or not) I'm earthami over there.

I have nearly finished my curtains for the dining room. All that they need is to be hemmed, but I'm not sure when that is actually going to happen since I have already put up the curtain rod and hung them. The idea was to hang them and then hem them to the same length. The problem is I can't see the hem from here and I'm tired of messing with my sewing machine so it maybe quite awhile before they come back down and I finish them. Ah well, eventually they will need to be washed so I'll do it then, you know in 10 years or so. ;)

I have been collecting things to use during my month of creativity. I've pulled out my embroidery thread, I know where my (damned) sewing machine is, I need to wash my fabric stash so it is ready to go, look at my pantry and see if there is any food type things I will need to make things. I have a knitting project ready to get started and the spinning wheel is ready to be worked on again.

I'm dreading trying to sew anything because my machine is such a PITA. The bobbin seems to randomly change tension. I think I have figured out the best way to use it but it involves being barefooted and sewing at about 1/4 the speed that would be full speed to be used on you know straight seams on medium weight fabric. I will say the curtains are made from upholstery fabric and so are a bit on the heavy side, but not as heavy as say denim. So I should be able to go faster. Moving on, I need to be happy that I have a machine, that I can get it to work and how lucky I am to have it. I really do feel that way even with the careful handling it needed to sew 8 straight seams over 3 days.

We'll see how I do. What are some ideas of things you are going to be making?

I did it, I made something!

2011-01-17T22:04:00.000-07:00

Well something other than a demanding 8 year old boy, that has been the hardest and sometimes rewarding work I've ever done. ;)

No I mean I decided to embroider something. I started with some sketches.


First attempts at cephalopods

I liked them but they weren't quite right, I kept playing to see what else I could come up with. I finally came up with a better sketch of a cuttlefish.

It was much better but needed a little cleaning up.

Better, much better. So off I went to find my embroidery thread, fabric and needles. Yes I have all of these things in my house. Haven't I mentioned before I 'collect' things? Then times like this make me worse that before because I was able to get everything I needed without spending a penny or leaving my house. (Let's act like it was the money and not be such a homebody kay?)

The outline done! This was such a fun project. I'm so pleased that it is looking like a cuttlefish still.

Look it is done. I can't get over that I finished this in one day. Well mostly, I still need to find a way to frame it to hang it on a wall.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to try to get curtains made for the dinning room. I will have to buy a curtain rod, but I have the fabric already.

Creativity, I need to find you...

2011-01-15T10:39:00.000-07:00

I'm looking to find my creativity. I have spent many years feeling like I am not a creative person. I no longer want to accept that, for a couple of reasons.

First, I have the need to make things, I feel it deep inside and become unhappy when I ignore it. I enjoy seeing new things come from my mind and become real in the world.

Second, I don't want my son to grow up thinking that creativity has to be perfect, that if it isn't exactly what you wanted you can't do it.

So with that in mind and the serendipity of Craft Magazine posting on their blog about the Thing-a-Day I'm going to do this both for myself and with my son.

On Thursday this last week we went to the Zoo and he took pictures of things that he found interesting, cute, or fun. The only direction I gave him was to frame his pictures, make sure what he sees in the ~~viewfinder~~ screen is what he wants to see in the final picture, to look for the others things that will show up, the trashcans, the people tying their shoes with their butts towards you, you know that kind of thing. I also wanted to let him know that some pictures don't come out the way you wanted and they can be deleted easy peasy. He did really well and he deleted many that didn't come out the way he wanted.

So I'm thinking his will likely take the shape of photos and mine will be knitting/sewing/cooking. His might be drawing, or lego building. The thing it it doesn't matter, it will just matter that each day we devote some time to making new creative things.

Wish us luck and let me know if you are going to join in. I'd love to see what others make in the month of February to push away the darkness and call to the light of spring sooner.

I'm not crazy!

2011-01-09T18:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm not imagining things, there really is a vast conspiracy to keep me from my preferred tampon. Ok, maybe not a vast conspiracy against me per say, but against women.

A few months ago I noticed I couldn't buy OB tampons in size Ultra. I bleed a lot, a lot, a lot and need the added protection the up to 18 grams of liquid containment gives me. After a month of fruitless looking on shelves I took my search online and found that at that time Johnson & Johnson was saying they were having manufacturing 'difficulties' and the Ultra would be back on the shelves 'eventually'. Well I sobbed and horded my precious purple bullets like gold, I would only go out of the house and have to use the ultra if there was a HUGE pressing need. So one or two days out of every 25 would be me housebound. Sad story.

Now for the past month or so I have noticed that all the other OBs are gone off the shelves, again I waited (I'm a stock piler I can last a few months without having to buy) I'm getting to the end of my stash and I find there are no more OBs coming lately. According to some other people's research OB is now saying that Ultras have been discontinued but the rest of their line is just having manufacturing problems. I just heard that line 8 months ago.

I am a sad, sad woman here. I have no idea what I'm going to use instead. I'm mad, and frustrated with Johnson & Johnson. I guess I should call them and let them know how I feel. I'm going to be on the phone tomorrow talking to J&J letting them know.

Good thing this is a Drama Free household

2011-01-04T08:15:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try to be more purposeful in my interactions with my son and my husband. I find myself getting caught up in a game and ignoring the flesh and blood people in my house that I love so very, very much.

Like I said Drama Free Household.Speaking of that love, last night, whew. Well lets just say that the Boys sensitivities and the Husbands sensibilities clashed and caused my title to be laughable. It ended with them having a grand old time but there was a bit in the middle where I was in the middle and was so grateful for my ability to be diplomatic. Oh wait I'm not know for being diplomatic. Well I tried on the hat and while it didn't fit perfectly we did make it through it. It ended with the boy coming downstairs with his blankie over his head calling it his shame curtain. I swear I'm going to get that boy into acting one of these days.

We are going to get back into the swing of school today. Yesterday was a bust because I had to give the Boy benadryl Sunday night and it knocked him out for the next 18 hours. I guess he outgrew the crazy wildchild phase with it.

We are about to start a painful, frustrating portion of our schooling. I'm picking up Phonic Pathways again and we are going to work our way through it. So today will be getting a feel for where he is it and where we can start again. Wish me luck, lots and lots of luck, oh and maybe send some extra serenity my way. (I can always use some Captain Mal in my life)

On the knitting front, well there is nothing new on the knitting front. I'm still trying to get the edging done on the shawl so I can have it for my own. Then I think I'm going to try for a sweater for myself. Then, well I may start on socks again after a year hiatus. I need some for my own draws. Wow that all sounds horrible selfish, but I almost never seem to keep my knitting so I'm gonna be a bit selfish for a while I think.

Results and knitting

2010-12-30T10:41:00.003-07:00

The results were nothing, normal, no problem. So they saw nothing unusual in his brain wave. Good news over all. The doc thought the hospital would let me know results but he responded quickly when I asked about them. So we can put the fainting/seizure spell behind us and move on. (Oh and I have been told that it is not a spell or an episode, I'm not certain what I'm suppose to call it in front of the Boy, but I have been told what not to call it, I'm ignoring the directive)

I'm still working on the shawl, I'm nearly done. I have only the trim left but I screwed it up and am in the process of ripping it all back so I can try again to read direction that are clearly spelled out for me. (There is that word again, spell, do you think this is forshadowing for the year to come?) The good part of the frogging is the Boy slept in this morning and I was given a tea pot for Christmas so I have spent the morning enjoying the falling snow, tea and ignoring the headache I'm getting from pulling out 3 rows of 672 stitches each. I have put on Pandora on my Suzy Bogguss station, love me some 80's/90's country music, it really seems to fit my mood today.I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year, my goal for the end of the year is to get our holiday cards out this week. Wish me luck.

This is the 'No results yet' post.

2010-12-16T09:28:00.002-07:00

The testing itself went fine. The Boy did not have a seizure when they did all the seizure inducing things at the beginning of the test. (Bright quickly flashing lights, blowing repeatedly for 3 minutes) He fell asleep quickly when we got to that portion of the test and when I woke him after 10 minutes his first words to me were "See I told you I wouldn't fall asleep" Ha, he was exhausted and slept quickly. He woke horribly as he always does when woken too soon from desperately needed sleep. He also developed a fever after we got home, actually probably had it while there, but it wasn't too high at that point.

He was down with it all day yesterday, but woke this morning feeling much, much better. He apparently was on the hairy edge of a cold and weakening his immune system like that just pushed him over the edge, luckily he is pretty strong and getting to sleep lots over the last 2 days has made all right in his body again.

He did so well Tuesday when we were having to keep him awake. He kept his sense of humor and didn't have a melt down, he struggled a little bit prior to the actual testing but that was less than 2 minutes and trust me he has the endurance to fight for much, much longer than that if he decides to.

He just seemed so grown up all of a sudden. He is all legs and arms at the moment and getting so tall. How in the world did this happen? I'm so proud of how well he handled it. Now I hope we don't have to do it again.

Knitting, testing, and stuff...

2010-12-09T09:59:00.003-07:00

I finished the Boy's sweater. It took me less than a month and it turned out pretty nicely if I say so myself.

The funny thing is the whole time I was worried that it would be too small, it isn't. It fits him fairly well, the neck opening is wide enough but the bind off on the collar is a bit too tight. I'll have to fix that next time.

This is the collar, not too bad, I'm still pretty awful at ribbing and so it didn't turn out that great but it's OK. The bit of 'braiding' at the back is the tag so the Boy knows where the back of the sweater is.
I decided to try hemming it instead of ribbing, since as I said before I don't do so well at ribbing. I think the hemming turned out very nicely.

The Boy is going in tomorrow for an EEG to make sure his brain waves are normal. Or what passes for normal around here. heh. We have to keep him awake until midnight tonight, and then wake him at 4 AM. DH & I are tag teaming him during this. I'm going to bed around 8:30 or 9 and DH will stay up with him, I will then wake him at 4 and have the fun of the morning with him.

We had a horrible time this morning because he was so worried about it but didn't want to tell me so it became all about school. He kept fighting me over every single thing we did. Division was too hard, grammar too hard, reading too hard. If I were a better mother I might have clued into the fact that he was worried about tomorrow's test. Not so much that better mother here. So it took me finally breaking down and giving him a swat (I think this was the 3rd time in his life I have raised my hand to him) He was actually dancing around saying I couldn't hit him and acting like it was a game. This was after he had pushed me 3 other times this morning to near tears. Yeah, it was not the best of times around here this morning. I threatened to register him for public school since he was not showing me any respect maybe he would respect a stranger teaching him. Like I said it was ugly. It finally came out and we talked and cried and cuddled. I had never told him I had an EEG when I was his age. That calmed him down. I'm sure we will see more emotion about this as we go through the day tomorrow but for now things have calmed down.

He read to me about black holes and the afternoon has gone much better. Whew.

Ugh, today is not the day I thought it would be...

2010-12-03T16:18:00.002-07:00

Well we did not go in for the testing. The Boy was in tears about it, kept telling me, through the tears, that I WAS teaching him to read. I also woke with a killer migraine, and so we canceled the testing and avoided that.

So no info on that front. I'm still struggling with it, he is still struggling with it, but we are moving forward. He is making some progress, I think. He has days when he does great and reads with some semblance of fluency and with inflection, and there are days when he can't concentrate to read the word 'crossing' twice in the space of 3 sentences. (That would be today) It is starting to feel like it might be concentration problems.

I don't know what to think, it doesn't help that today is one of those days where thinking is actually physically painful.

I a book that is a history of the alphabet Ox, House, Stick The History of Our Alphabet The Boy is loving it, and so am I. I am reading a page or 2 each day. I think it helps that we studied ancient history last year, and this year we are reading Vacation Under the Volcano, and learning about word origins from Latin. It all ties in and it all is interesting to the boy. Win, win, win. Yippee.

Vacation Under the Volcano is the book I'm forcing him to read to earn his Lego Mindstorms set. Of course I'm now questioning that logic. The programming language that they use is actually a visual language, all icons and no words. So reading is not a skill that is directly needed to program the robot. Also as DH pointed out if we say it is a family item then no one person will have complete control and anyone will be able to program it. Otherwise we will have problems with my son and his possessiveness. So, since the set came in last night and because I really want to play with it too, and ummm it is educational, and ummm, I want to play with it, I am now trying to think of a reason we can start using it. How about it is educational? Ummm, it will be a great thing to work on over the winter 'holiday'? Ummm, it will be fun?

Anyway, that is life in our school, tonight we are heading out to Bubba Gump's to celebrate the end of the boy's Birthmonth. ;) heh. Actually we just haven't had time to go and he really, really, really wants to go. Not enough to go 'spur of the moment' a couple of weeks ago, but enough that when we mentioned going tonight, he was fine with it. We are so not spontaneous people here.

Lovely bits...

2010-11-25T06:40:00.003-07:00

Today is Thanksgiving, at least it is in the USA, so I'm going to list some things that have made me happy and thankful this last week.

My boy did one of the word problems on a restaurant placemat*/menu. It was a secret code type and he had to figure out what the words were. He did it, wrote each letter down then sounded out the word, without help from me! I know that many of you may be wondering why this is a lovely thing. This is a first for us. He has always done the mazes on them, but never anything that involved writing or reading.

He also used the word complement to describe what my wine was doing with my food, or what the waitress said it would do with my food. (She was correct by the way) Now we have been working on the difference between complement (as in a subject complement) and compliment (as in My your pumpkin pie is delicious) this semester. It actually has come up a couple of times in different places. This episode just shows he is understanding what we are talking about in class and can use the information in other places.

These two episodes also highlight why I'm so worried about his reading. An eight year old boy who struggles that hard to read but can use the word complement correctly in conversation needs help. So onto the third thing I'm thankful for this week. We are going to get testing done at the school district on Friday Dec 3rd. We are getting the full battery of language arts subtests for the Woodcock Johnson Achievement test. This includes oral expression, and listening comprehension. So we will see if there is the discrepancy I believe there to be.

Knitting, I'm thankful for knitting. I am about half way done with the Boy's winter sweater. I might be able to finish it this weekend if I just sit and do it. Which I might do to try to force this cold to go away. My shawl is sitting there wondering why I have abandoned it. I will get back to it soon. I just feel the need to finish the sweater before he grows much more. heh.

As always I'm thankful for my DH who complements me perfectly. ;)

*The spell check is saying this should be either place mat or place-mat, I don't agree so apparently I do at time go back to spelling like I live in the 18th century (FB joke please forgive if you don't know me there)

The Review Post...

2010-11-19T07:49:00.005-07:00

I’ve been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion is entirely my own. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

We have been using Time 4 Learning for a month now. It was easy to get started with it. Sign up and everything is right there. You choose the grade level to have your child start with, each subject can be set to different levels. When the grade level is chosen you and your child will have the grade before and the grade after to choose lessons from.

My son would be in 2nd grade in public school and so I started us there with everything. He tried a lesson from each one and then I adjusted the levels for him. Math is the easy one, changed that to 3rd grade and while some of it was review most of it is new and he enjoyed it. Science I raised him a level and this was where I could see that in 3rd grade you are expected to "read to learn" rather than "learn to read" The concepts were at the right level, but since his reading is not there yet I was reading each passage to him. In the 3rd grade math there is the option to have the computer read the text to you, this was not offered in the science lessons.

As we moved on through the month I noticed we had stopped using the Language Arts portion entirely (we had a reading melt down during this month), the math we used regularly and he really seemed to enjoyed it. I used it to supplement what was in our purchased curriulum for math. We also did either a Science or Social Studies lesson or two each day.

The Social Studies lessons were easy for him and enjoyable. They started conversations on what is the difference between wants and needs. Last summer we took a family vacation to Washington, D.C. so much of the national monument and presidential lessons were review for him. He doesn't tolerate repeated lessons well but these had enough new information that while he went quickly through them he didn't dismiss them out of hand.

Overall I think the curriculum is interesting and varied enough that there were plenty of ways for my boy to learn the subjects.

There is a 'playground' area that has many different games to play. One of the things you can do is go to Brain Pop Jr and have full access. This is a site that usually costs an additional subscription fee. It was nice to get to use some of it. They also have action, puzzle, and 2 player

games. As well as links to other educational sites. The playground is set up so I can put an amount of time he must work on lessons before he can go there, as well as how long he can be in the playground.

I was confused by a button that said "This means you have an assignment", which seemed to indicate I should be able to assign lessons for him to go to, but that function doesn't work with Time 4 Learning. It was easy to find the information out in the FAQ. Their FAQ was thorough enough for the information I was looking for. I did not have to send an email in to ask for help.

The one 'problem' I ran into was the only internet browser I could get the site to work with was Internet Explorer. I don't use IE much anymore, so it was kind of a pain to switch to a different browser when we may have been using another site for other information.

Overall I thought it was a good supplement to what I'm doing. I don't think we could use it as a stand alone curriculum. We are too eclectic and I like pulling from many sources. I do think this would work really well as an 'after school' review kind of thing also.

The Boy doesn't want to give a review right now. All he will say at the moment is "It is boring because it is boring". I explained that isn't a review, it isn't helpful information. I will say he did learn and I have seen the melt downs that happen when he is really bored with something, or frustrated with it. I did see it with the reading portions. He was frustrated and did not want to continue. I also saw it when the math was not at the right level and the lessons were about things he already knew. We did not see that with the Math, Science, or Social Studies portions once we found the right level. Reading is our trouble subject and I don't think it would matter what level we were on. The reading program seems to be a phonics based program and repeating sounds it sure to bring on a fit.

My guess is next week or the week after I'm going to face a sad boy again because he will want to do something with "Ed Mouse" and he won't be available.

Does it say something about knitting in the title of this blog?

2010-11-15T08:01:00.003-07:00

The bunny is done, it took maybe 2 days total to start and complete. Easiest stuffy I've ever had to make.

The shawl is taking longer, somehow there doesn't seem to be much progress on it when I don't pick it up for weeks at a time. I have picked it back up. We have settled into an easier time with school and I get moments to sit and knit rather than sit and argue with the Boy. ;)

It is getting huge and may end up being too big really, but I'm stubbornly sticking to my plan to use all the yarn I have balled. I really want to see all the colors that I've chosen together is part of the reason, another is I don't know what else I will do with what is left. ;)

I have the yarn to make another sweater for the boy. He choose red and yellow again this year. Much easier to stripe that way. I need to figure out a better way to make it. top down raglan doesn't really work well on him. His head is so much bigger than his neck that using a neck measurement doesn't work well, then he is so thin the rest of it is really, really baggy. I'm going to try to adjust it this time and see how well I can do that. The snow is falling and we already have about an inch on the ground this morning so I feel like I really need to get it going so he has it for this winter. ;)

Wow this has been a hard week

2010-11-10T08:18:00.003-07:00

I'm usually pretty immune to the 'weekly grind', school is pretty laid back, we do our thing in the morning, then do something fun in the afternoon. (That may or may not involve Sponge Bob.) Things flow around here.

This week has been hard. I made a call to our home school to see what kinds of help we might be able to get from the district to help the Boy learn to read. I am feeling like I need some more tools to help him. That my bag of tricks is empty. Getting help from the district is going to be hard. So I'm looking at other sources of help and I'm going to see what I can dig up on my own. It looks like we will go in and have the Boy's reading level tested with the Woodcock-Johnson achievement test for reading. They will not offer a diagnosis, they will not offer any remediation unless we enroll him in school. I'm not sure I'm willing to do that yet. Definitely not at our home school since they have now moved the teacher I didn't like in K to 2nd grade where he would be at. So we'll do the testing. We'll see what the Psych says in the email she is going to send me. We'll see what the results of the testing are. I have a feeling that they are going to come back close to normal for an 8 year old boy. If we had the full WJ battery, including oral expression, and listening comprehension and compared that with what will come back for the reading portion we would see a huge discrepancy, by just doing the reading portion I'm gonna look like a crazy woman. Sigh.

I purchased about $50 in books on teaching reading from Amazon (this was the day before the interwebz blew up about the "How to be a Pedophile" e-book still not sure about boycotting but I haven't officially purchased after hearing about it, still thinking). I'm hoping there will be some other ideas that the boy will take to.

We did have a bit of a break through yesterday. Boy decided he wanted to study weather, our snowy weather, yesterday. Really he wanted an excuse to go play in the snow. So we went out he wrote notes on the date, time, and conditions we were observing. Then we observed that the snow was really wet and packed very well into snowballs, as the back of my head found out. ;) (really this is going someplace with reading I promise) When we came in we looked up what kind of clouds we were seeing at this site, and we start looking at all the different types of clouds and when we see them and we ran across

Cumulonimbus Capillatus

and I struggled a bit to sound out cah-pih-lah-tuhs, at which point he says "Mom it is Capillatus, see I can say things better than you do" (if I sounded that out wrong and you actually know how to pronounce this please let me know) At which point I tell him, of course he can say it better, I was sounding out a word I have never had to pronounce before. That I use the same techniques I'm trying to teach him to learn how to say new words. It was as if a light bulb was switched on in brain, "Mom has to sound out words! OMG!!!1!!!!!" Our reading session that happened a bit later went much easier, he still got frustrated but he slowed down and read. He just gets so distracted by anything and everything as we work on reading. Ugh!

The time change is playing havoc with all of us. I'm waking at 4:30 in the morning, when the alarm doesn't go off until 5:30. The boy is catching up on sleep after waking at 5:30 on Saturday morning so he could make me breakfast in bed. His allergies also started acting up this weekend and we started him on Claritin again. I don't know if it is the sleep change, the allergies, the claritin, the worry about reading or something else, but he has been having mood swings that give me whip lash. One minute fine the next crying. He spent all day Tuesday hitting a piece of matting with a bat on and off. I guess I should be happy he is getting his anger and frustration out on an unbreakable inanimate object and not me or the cats. Tuesday ended with him in tears about how frustrating reading is, how his allergies are bothering him and how his allergy med makes him feel frustrated. We took a break on Wednesday from school and just hung out, he stopped his allergy meds and things really do seem to be smoothing out.

We'll need to challenge the allergy med at some point, just not the same week as a time change again. ;)

He is now cutting a tooth and for some reason this one is hurting worse than any of the others he has cut. It could be that it is pushing too hard on his front teeth. Braces are not gonna be fun for him. He did agree to take Tylenol and that did eventually seem to help.

So very glad it is Friday. Somehow the week did pass, with lots of emotional stuff but it did pass. Whew!

Carnitas a love story

2010-11-05T09:47:00.002-06:00

I tried to make green chile for the Boy's birthday party. It is a staple food when we have burritos for others, when we have it for just ourselves we tend to have just bean and cheese. The green chile did not become so much green chile as carnitas, and luckily found a moment before they became charcoal. So a friend has asked for the recipe. So here it is in all it's ugliness, maybe I'll be able to copy it because they really were yummy.

First you need to hunt through your freezer and see what kind of pork might be lurnking the in the bottom. In our case it was pork chops with bones. They weren't that old, from Sept of this year even.

Boil them with chopped onion (maybe a 1/4 med one), a couple of cloves of garlic, a bay leaf and some salt. I think I used about 6 qts of water and kept the lid on. Let them boil for an hour or until done. Have hubby bone the meat while you work on something very important like sculpting zombies. Strain the liquid from the pot to get rid of the solids.

Add the boned meat and half the liquid from the pot along with a pound of roasted green chiles, 2 cloves of garlic minced, 1 t of salt and a 15 oz can of diced tomatoes. Put on the stove at med low with lid on and ignore for 2 hours.

Basically I left it on to boil/simmer until all the liquid was gone. It really was very good. I'll try it again meaning to do it and see if I can repeat the recipe.

Sadly I don't think there is a picture of them anywhere. Ah well.

Doctor Visits and things...

2010-11-04T18:15:00.002-06:00

So today was the well child visit with no shots. My son has my fear of needles and even watching me get my flu shot the day before did not convince him to get his shot.

He ended up having an EKG done that I had put off from this summer. The doc wanted to make sure the fainting spell wasn't due to a heart condition we hadn't seen prior. That came back looking good apparently. 12 leads coming off his body. They offered to give him a print out but he didn't want it. Sigh. I wanted it. heh. We also will be going in to have an EEG done at some point, hopefully before this plan year is done (hint, hint universe). The EEG is to see if there is something odd looking from the seizures and because of the migraines he has been getting.

I also talked to the doctor about the fact that he isn't really reading yet. It is getting better, but if you have ever talked to my son you too would be amazed at what comes out of his mouth and the language he uses and has used since he was 2 and the fact that he does not read. I know he does things at his own pace, I know he has been known to hide the knowledge that he has acquired until he find it advantageous. The thing is, this is absolutely a situation that is advantageous to him. He knows and really wants to get the Mindstorms set, he is trying really hard to read. He still can't seem to figure out some really basic words. His vocabulary is such that he can guess all the big words he runs across but the little words that we have worked on for a couple of years he still can't remember. One example is o-f is of not for. It sounds like I need to find a way to test him. He is really good at bluffing his way through a book. I don't want to short change him by not getting this looked at sooner. So I'm gonna call the school district and see if they will test him.

I'm annoyed that I didn't push harder last year when we were with the virtual charter. They used the Barton system to teach reading to dyslexics and I didn't push, figured we would see if he got it during that year. He didn't. He still isn't and I'm more worried now that I was last year. Unfortunately the Barton system is expensive and I don't think I'm going to be able to get it as a homeschooler. Ugh.

All that aside, my boy, the one that has insisted that I be the one to make him food, and will only take food from his father if I insist that I am too busy, just made himself a piece of toast with jelly on it. WOW!

How has it been 8 years? Hasn't it been 800 years?

2010-11-03T07:32:00.002-06:00

8 years ago I went into labor with what would end up being my first and apparently last child. I can't believe he is already 8 years old. He is has changed so much again this year. He is already getting embarrassed by me. On Halloween I have a time honored tradition of bugging the teens about what their costumes are. I will always give out candy but you may end up with a pop quiz on what your costume is and why you choose it if you look to be 13 or old. So when 2 boys show up one dressed as a knight, and the second looking like a Mormon missionary with a NE Patriots tie I had to ask what the boy in white shirt was. His response "Whatever you think I am" My response back "A teenager looking to get candy" At which point the Boy stepped in told me to go away this was HIS job and then apologized to the boys that "That's my mom sometimes she gets like that" Heh, just wait, I just get better with age.

He has taken on his role of keeper of the hamster completely. It has been a month and he still takes care of her and doesn't complain. I can see how he takes our personalities and makes them his own. He talked to each of the kids as they came to the door, commented on their costumes. Then made fun of the kids who just stared at him. "Their parents told them not to talk to strangers but to ask them all for candy"

He has started to read, on his own, sounding out words and everything. He is like this brick wall that I pounded my head against over and over and over. Then one day down in a corner where I haven't been looking I notice there is a door and it has instructions next to it they just happen to be in a language I had forgotten I knew. So I sit and stop banging my head and I can start to understand them and the door starts to open a little. That is what it feels like when teaching this one. The more I fight and insist the tighter the door closes. The more I sit and try to figure out what he is looking for the door starts to open.

How can it be only 8 years since I became a mother. It feels like I have had this role forever. Was there ever anything before this? I can tell there will never be anything after this. I will never be a person with only herself to worry about ever again.

All this to say Happy Birthday to my 8 year old son. He is no longer a little boy, or a big boy, he is a boy.

The Birthday Party

2010-11-01T07:41:00.006-06:00

We did a Plants vs Zombies party for the Boy's 8th birthday.

This was more fun, and more work that I thought it would be when we first came up with the idea. The Boy at nearly 8 has definite ideas about what would happen for his party. DH had ideas about what was needed to plan out 2 hours of party. I had ideas of what would be fun for 8 year old boys. Let me tell you the one who knew what would be fun and take up 2 hours of time for 8 year old boys was the 8 year old boy. Need to remember to trust him in what is fun.

My mom baked him a marble cake and then frosted it with the backyard from the game. I had originally wanted to have blue jello for the pool portion but that didn't happen and I think this looks great.

I made the modeling chocolate (easy) and the sculpted the characters

Here is Repeater without his face on yet, well and my old wrinkled hands. ;)

Here is the cake decorated. I let the Boy decide where to put the characters. You will notice that there is only one body of a zombie. Yeah that was much harder to make than I thought it would be. So I decided that a rubber ducky zombie would work the best.
Torchwood is one of my favorite, I love the way it turned out.

Here is the Boy looking so happy with his cake. I'm so happy we did it, I'm so glad I had the luxury of the time to put this together. DH was amazing, he took Friday off work and helped get the house cleaned, the games ready, and let me do the bits I love to do, which included sewing these....

Wallnuts that look a bit more like Tallnuts but still. We used the to play Wallnut Bowling with Zombies.

It looks like I may have loaded all the pictures that Blogger will let me. The Wallnut Bowling game was fun. The boys quickly got bored with throwing Wallnuts at cutouts of Zombies and soon decided that it would be more fun to throw them at each other.

Ok now to do school work for the day.

Anxiety, high and low.

2010-10-25T08:46:00.006-06:00

I have put myself into a tizzy twice this morning, both times because I didn't read closely enough what was right in front of me. Sigh, and I wonder why getting my son to slow down enough to read all the words is a problem. ;) I think this week needs to be a reminder to slow down and make sure I'm taking in everything I need to. It is going to be a busy one, between a pack meeting tomorrow night and getting the awards the boys have earned so far today. Seeing if I can convince the boy to try the online curriculum.

I shouldn't have started with one of the literacy pieces at Time 4 Learning.* They use a phonic approach and the Boy HATES phonics. I don't know how to help this. He does not like to slow down enough to sound out the words and is great at anticipating what the words will be next. So I don't know how well their literacy approach will work with him. Today we'll try the math and maybe social studies to see how he likes that. I also think I'll have him try one of the Language Arts extensions to see how he does with that.

We had so much fun over the weekend, one of the Boy's best buddies has his birthday party at a A-1 Scuba to have a snorkeling party. The Boy has been practicing swimming and DH has shown him how to use his snorkel and mask so he was aware of what was going to happen. He was still a bit afraid of the newness of the situation and the fact that he is not a very confident swimmer yet. He can swim across the pool in 3.5' water but get the water deeper and he is afraid that he can't. He did eventually swim across the deep end with one of the adults holding his hand and then back across on his own, but only once.

This is my son. He is anxious about trying new skills, he will watch, he will observe, he will wait. He will then amaze you with what he can do, but will still have high levels of anxiety about it. In this I can see myself so clearly. I can remember things I passed up on because of my anxiety as a child and young adult that I would have enjoyed had I only found a way to try a new thing. I want to try to find a way to help him move beyond the anxiety to the enjoyment. We'll see how well I can do at this.

* I am receiving one month trial of Time4Learning in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Announcment of a Review

2010-10-22T08:17:00.003-06:00

I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as an online homeschooling curriculum, a web based afterschool tutorial or an online summer program. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

So we'll see how well the Boy likes it, how well I like it. I've looked at their site many times, but have never taken the plunge. Now looks like the time.

I have been concentrating on math facts and not really covering new material. I'm trying to come up with new and fun ways to get the math facts in his head. I think they are actually there but he freezes when asked on the spot to say how much money he has left if he started with $18 and is spending $9.04. Or how much change he should expect when the item added up to $9.92 and he is giving the checker a $10 bill. He will figure it out if he thinks to try on his own, and is very proud to tell you. I have no idea how he will do on standardized tests next year. Well I have some idea, last year with K12 he had a couple of Scantron tests for math that he did really well on. Somehow, sitting with it in front of him as a test he does ok, standing in the store with other adults watching he freezes. Sigh.

So right now I'm working on how to drill the basic math facts into his head, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We'll move on when those are in his head.

How is school going you ask?

2010-10-19T12:16:00.003-06:00

Well maybe you didn't ask, but I'm gonna pretend you did.

Last week was nearly a complete loss as far as reading and math are concerned, actually as far as nearly anything is concerned. There was a lot of watching TV and playing video games but very little in the way of something that could be considered educational.

This week has been different. Last year I had a standing rule that the TV could not be turned on nor could there be any video games until school was finished for the day. I have been much more lax this year, as in, the TV was going on as soon as he woke up in the morning, then reluctantly turned off to do some school work then right back on. Last week was just the culmination of really, really bad habits on both our parts.

So this week we are doing things like last year, no TV until we finish schoolwork. I am allowing video games but only specific ones that have something educational in them. We have a math game for the DS (it is awful but the boy is liking it at the moment) and we have Scriblenauts, also for the DS that is forcing him to look up the spelling of words in his personal dictionary.

I also purchased 2 journals for him that have the dotted line paper so he has an easier time writing in. So this week we are working on writing a story. Each day his is adding another detail to the story.

I didn't have the argument I would have had last year, and I'm noticing he is getting more independent as a learner each day. It is a lovely thing to see, since I wasn't certain it was ever actually going to happen.

My knitting project is going very slowly. Mainly because I'm not actually knitting on it. I'm still very happy with it, I just haven't taken the time to work on it. I'm also reading "The Girl Who Played With Fire" and I really want to like it but I'm having such a hard time finishing it. I read the first book in the series really quickly and this one is just taking forever. I'm not taken by all the characters in it and while I'm curious what is going to happen to Lisbeth I don't care about the rest of it enough to read it quickly. Sigh.

The newest family member...

2010-10-07T08:22:00.007-06:00

I'm a grandma, kind of. The boy has been wanting a hamster since sometime this summer when he went to Petsmart with his dad to get cat supplies and he saw the dwarf hamsters. I knew nothing, and I mean nothing, about rodents except the odd factoid or two. Factoid the first: Rodents teeth continue to grow throughout their lives and if they don't wear them down by chewing on things they can die. Factoid the second: the capybara is the largest rodent in the world and is my sister's favorite. Uniformed opinion: They are small, smelly and can escape if not watched carefully, I didn't want one in my house.

Why then did I buy a magazine on hamsters? It had articles on how to pick the right hamster for you, what to feed your new hamster, what diseases to look for. We read that magazine cover to cover. We debated the relative merits of the different types, Syrian are not dwarf hamsters and tend to be a bit, ummm, more odoriferous, than the dwarfs, Campbell's (aka Fancy Russian) are the largest of the dwarfs are pretty good about being handled but have a high incident of diabetes, Chinese are a bit smaller, and don't like to be handled, Robos are the smallest of them all and simply won't be handled, they also need the largest cage of all because they need to move.

We sat with this information for a month or so. Talked about it, talked about where the cage would go. Talked about using Sparky's aquarium as the new hamster home, talked like we were going to be getting a hamster.

On Tuesday the Boy decided he really, really was ready to get a hamster. So I said we need to clean his room and get it ready for a hamster cage, and clean the aquarium, then if we still had time before scouts we could go pick one up. We took 3 HUGE bags of stuff out of his room, one of trash and 2 of clothes and toys to give away, plus a bunch of cardboard for recycling. His room looks better than it has in years. In the mail that day we also received a coupon for $10 off $50 or more purchase at where else but PetsMart. I tell you, it was destined.

We headed off and went through the store getting the things you need for a hamster, minus the cage. So we get bedding, we get food, we get a food dish, and a water bottle, salt blocks, and treats (Disney Ratatouille treats, of course), a wheel, a hidey home, and last but certainly not least a ball. Then we pick out our Campbell's (aka Fancy Russian) dwarf hamster. There were 2 in the cage and he picked the dark gray one.

We carry her carefully home, set up the aquarium and head out to scouts. She needs time to get used to her new surroundings and so the boy is going to 'interact with her' only through the glass for the first night.

The next morning he is up and watching her again. She is very awake and active, he gets her new food and water and then we see how she reacts to her ball. She crawls right in and runs around the room. She allows him to pet her and hold her. She is, all in all, a very sweet thing. I had no idea how cute or sweet hamsters could be. She has nipped him a couple of times but it doesn't hurt much and he understands why she did it, once when he surprised her while she was eating her treat stick and once when we brought in her fresh veg and he tried to hand feed her spinach, she REALLY likes spinach.

He toyed with naming her Sparky, like our toad, because she too is a pretty fast little one. He toyed with Little One, since that is kind of the house pet name for all small things. He settled onto Sweetie, because simply, she is one. He feels so proud to be given the privilege of taking care of her. He told me yesterday "Mom, by letting me have a pet that is mine to take care of I have such a feeling of pride and accomplishment, thank you." He really has just taken the responsibility to heart and she is his completely.

Field Trip time...

2010-09-29T08:17:00.005-06:00

This has been the week of spur of the moment field trips.

On Monday I found out that the King Tut exhibit here in town had a deal for the month of September you got a free kids ticket with the purchase of an adult ticket, but only until Sept 30th, aka Friday. So I asked the Boy and sure enough he really, really wanted to go. So I bought the tickets, added the audio tour as a lark and we got ready to go on Tuesday. It was not the most 'kid friendly' exhibit I have seen in town there were no touch stations and interactive exhibits, my kid was still enthralled. He had his audio tour and listened to each station, he let me read some of the exhibits to him that we not part of the audio tour. He shared some of the tidbits he learned with me. All in all we had a lovely time.I ended up buying him this mouse pad. It was $2 and by far one of the most affordable bits of tchotchke available there. ;)

Then yesterday morning before we were able to leave for the Art Museum I received an email from my Mom letting me know that the LAS Pathfinder portion of the Orion space craft was going to be at the DMNS on Tuesday and Weds this week. The Orion spacecraft is what is slated to replace the Space Shuttle for missions to the International Space Station. The LAS Pathfinder is the Launch Abort System to be used to help protect the astronauts from problems at launch.I again asked the Boy if he wanted to see this and again a VERY enthusiastic YES. So today we are off to see the LAS Pathfinder at the museum.

Then last night at scouts we had an amazing storyteller come and share with the boys. She was wonderful. She kept the boys enchanted for 45 minutes telling them stories, teaching them songs and dances. It was wonderful to see. She has a beautiful voice and writes amazing songs. If you want to see what she does please go to her website.

So while we aren't getting much in the way of practicing times tables and sitting at the table talking about verbs and adverbs, we are learning lots of interesting things and enjoying our life. Ahhhh, I love this gig. (please don't come over and see the mess that is my house because of these fun trips)

Knitting, learning, and letting go...

2010-09-17T17:01:00.002-06:00

I'm still working on the big old lady lace project for myself. ;) I am loving it but am finding I am not spending that much time on it. I have also started knitting a 9 inch square in orange angora to make a bunny for the Boy. He picked the yarn out last year and has decided since it is bunny yarn it should be knit into a bunny. Here is the pattern, it is very, very, very easy and turns out cute. I have made one before but I don't remember who ended up with it.

The Boy has decided to learn to read since he really wants to get Lego Mindstorms and make robot minions. Whatever works to motivate him I will use. Also just have to put in another plug for Timez Attack he gladly spent another 40 minutes playing it today and has nearly memorized all his 2's facts. If only I could find something as engaging for addition and subtraction. Sigh.

I freecycled away the rest of my maternity clothes. The pants I loved so much and basically lived in for the last month of my pregnancy and the first month of the Boy's life are gone. I am ready to move on. I started a diet and I'm working out. I won't be getting pregnant again and I think I have really accepted that. My life is busy enough right now with my one boyo and while I go through moments of mourning not having a daughter to share things with, my son is pretty darn fabulous and teaches me new things and I am having to stretch beyond my comfort zone to encourage his interests.

Tearing things apart to learn

2010-09-09T07:28:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I was introduced to the MAKEcation Family Challenge this really is perfect for us. We love MAKE magazine. We have lots of dead electronics lying around the house, no really, I think DH may have gotten rid of the VCR that he moved, broken, from his Mom's house to our first apartment, to our second apartment, to our first house and then to the house we now live in, but only maybe. We have 3 dead computers sitting in our garage, one in the office that is actually waiting to be converted to the Boy's new computer, and the Boy's old computer sitting around here somewhere. We also have various other bits hanging around.
When we got a new cable remote the boy tore into the old one to see what was in there. Now we have a pretty good excuse to tear into something catalog everything (this is where I get excited) and maybe win something. Plus it really will be teaching the boy something new.
I read about it at 4, I told DH & the Boy about it at 6 and by 6:30 there was a computer on the living room floor waiting for its time under the screwgun. There is no before picture to this because they were too excited to get going to stop and take a pic. There are some pictures of the middle bits, and there are a couple of very long videos, that if anyone can tell me what I need to edit them on the PC I will edit and work on making them more viewable to others beyond myself and my family. ;)
So is anyone else thinking of doing this with their kids? Or you know by yourself, or with a friend? Let me know.

Times Tables, Boo Boos and knitting....

2010-09-04T20:34:00.002-06:00

In case you couldn't tell by the title this is gonna be random, very, very random. "enjoy"

I had heard for a while about a game called Timez Attack was a great way to get kids to learn their times tables. I wasn't sure if it was the things for us but since it is free to try I thought I would download it. I played it the other day and it seemed ok, not perfect but ok. I was a little annoyed with the interface but it did have an interesting way to do the repetition on the times tables. So I left it on the desktop of my computer and waited until the Boy saw it. He did, the icon is a little green alien looking thing, and wanted to watch me play it, he then wanted to try it for himself. He asked me to stay next to him and give him the answers in case he didn't know them. The game shows you the answer and he figured it out quickly. He picked up the facts quickly and only had a problem when he miss-keyed something and got flustered. (In case you didn't know, no one has ever offered to give me anything free for any kind of review, let alone Big Brainz)

There was a time in my life when I had a hard time finding a band-aid and first-aid cream in my house. It was there, I just didn't know exactly where, and the first-aid cream was most likely well out of date. Those days are long gone. Having an almost 8 year old in the house has necessitated my knowing where these are and actually buying new first-aid cream. He had a boo boo on his toe this evening. So I got the first aid kit out and bandaged him. Do Moms of little girls have this intimate knowledge of their first-aid kit? I can remember when the Boy was 3 and he fell at the zoo. He skinned his knees really bad and was in tears. Another mom came up to me and said "I have 5 kids I always have band-aids in my purse" I thought at the time she must have really clumsy kiddos. I now know she just had kids, and enough of them to warrant constant band-aid need.

As for knitting, I'm driving myself crazy with this shawl. I have started it 3 times now, simply because I can't read a pattern. It is a very simple pattern and I kept ignoring vitally important bits. I have gotten past the worse and hope that I will be able to continue on with this now that I've got the pattern set. My next challenge will be to decide where I'm going to change the colors.

School and knitting

2010-09-03T09:18:00.003-06:00

We have survived the first week of school, ok most of the first week of school. We still need to get today behind us and then we will be done, done, done.

Yesterday we took a slightly different route to school. I decided I HAD to have a swift. I had 5 skiens of yarn that needed to be balled up, (more on this project in a bit.) Using the back of my chairs was a pain in the neck and my son and husband are not patient enough to sit for the hour or so it would take to do it by hand. I have been wanting a swift for years now, but at $50-$70 I was not willing to shell out the money, not even my birthday/holiday gift card money. I would rather have more yarn or knitting books than to spend the bulk of my money on a piece of hardware, no matter how useful. So I found instructions online to make one, went to the hardware store and the Boy and I made it yesterday. He worked with tools, did math, and had fun. I love this homeschool stuff.

I'm starting a new knitting project that is just for me. I'm knitting a circular shawl the Super-Spiral Shawl from A Gathering of Lace. Here is the Ravelry Link , I'm hoping it will turn out pretty. I'm using 5 different colors of yarn to make it. I was given a sampler of Knitpicks Shadow lace yarn a few years ago. I don't know why it has taken me this long to realize I can made a multi colored shawl but it has. So I'm going to start it soon, as in as soon as I can find a set of size 10 dpns.

Last thing is I am entering a contest to win a picture on canvas from Freely Educate, here is the link if you are interested in it. It ends this afternoon at 6 so hurry.

We did it....

2010-08-30T15:13:00.002-06:00

The first day of school is done, mostly. We did math, counting to 10,000 and recognizing thousands place. He even did the worksheets without too much gnashing of teeth.

We read the first 13 pages of Grammar Island, there was a bit of eye rolling and holding of the bridge of ones nose during it, but we made it through it and I even got a question about what something meant that was answered in the next page. It is as thought the author might know what the heck he is doing. ;)

We read Three Billy Goats Gruff together and then had a discussion that covered level 1 and 2 of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. (Doesn't that make it sound like I know what the heck I'm doing?) Really we talked about the basic facts of the story and the Boy's comprehension and memory of the basic facts. Tomorrow we will discuss some application questions and then do a bit of analysis, with Weds having us moving deeper into the story with Synthesis and Evaluation.

I then forced the boy to sit and read on his own. There was much gnashing of teeth and crying about having to actually sit with a book on his lap for any amount of time. He ended up sitting for 6 minutes with his How Things Work book, turning pages quickly, luckily it is a big book so he finished turning pages as the timer went off. Tomorrow he will have to sit with a different book for 10 minutes. This is going to be the hardest part of the school year. At least I'm not surprised.

We will be doing some Astronomy tonight. Good times.

The school year is looming...

2010-08-22T19:33:00.002-06:00

Last year when ever someone asked the boy what grade or where he went to school he would happily say he was home schooled. He was proud of it and happy about it.

This year he is more excited about it, but when people ask about school he is more hesitant. He knows that nearly everyone else has started school already and that we haven't is different. He knows that although nearly everyone speak about it as if it is the wonderful thing it is, some people will change their tone and start asking me about how he is socializing. (The ones that kind of drive me craziest are the other scout moms who know him and know that he is great playing with their kids)

I think his reactions proves that he does understand how to act socially. He understands that not everyone will approve and so will start the answer with the simple (I'm in 2nd grade) and then if they press about what school he goes to he will say I'm home schooled. Just a fact, not an exciting fact, just one of many about him. Next subject.

We have one week until the first day of real school. This last week of summer break is going to be a crazy one. I'm helping my sister on Monday, we have Join Night for Scouts on Tuesday, and there are things to get ready for that, and therapy during the day. I have a popcorn meeting on Weds night to figure out how much we are going to order. Thursday is open right now (this is not an invitation to fill it) Friday I am going to pick my BIL up at the airport and then hang out with them. I have a feeling scouts will end up filling in all the time I haven't allotted to something else this coming week.

I'm still trying to get the last of the knitting done for the baby set, I'm annoyed with the booties since they don't match but I need to get over it and finish the project.

Oh the fun of a science kiddo...

2010-08-13T21:16:00.002-06:00

The boy was so excited to start school last night. He has been asking for weeks when the Perseids were and when we are going to watch them. It was as though asking over and over and over again might make time go faster. It finally arrived and I was exhausted.

My Dad is in the hospital with an ailment and I had stayed late Weds hoping to hear from the admitting doctor what the course would look like and how long he would be there. She didn't show up until 3am, 11 hours after he had been taken to the ward. I then spent the day on Thursday at the hospital waiting with Dad for the specialist to come in and explain what tests might be needed and what the cause of the problem might be. He showed up around 3 in the afternoon (there is a pattern here) to talk to us. He was very nice and explained what was going to happen. I left then and boy & I went home again. I tried to nap, but didn't get to much.

My plans for a picnic dinner to be taken out on the plains didn't happen. The drive out to the plains (ok farther out onto the plains) didn't happen, but....

We did go out and look at Mercury with the telescope, and the new moon. We saw Mars and Saturn. Found Vega, Altair and Deneb and the boy recognized the 'Summer Triangle' Then to the back yard with blankets and a star map and the boy came up with his own constellations, the canoe, the square, and the little triangle. He found the big dipper on his own.

We saw a few meteors, and 2 satellites, and many airplanes. I wish we could have been out away from town. I want to go camping and stargazing with my guys one of these weekends.

Then today the boy played with dry ice thanks to his Grammy (thanks Mom!) Loads of fun and we still had some red cabbage acid/base indicator left from some experiments last week. So he saw that carbon dioxide creates an acid when it dissolves in water.

One of these days I'll remember to take pictures of what we are doing so this can have some colors as well as words.

We might be planners.....

2010-08-05T13:30:00.002-06:00

The boy wants to have a Plants vs Zombies theme for his birthday party this year. We can blame this cake to start us on this path. By the way you will want to skip the rest of this entry if you don't know the game, or well go play it and then get as sucked in as we are around here and then read on because this is a single idea post.

He has an idea to play a live action Plants vs Zombies game with his friends. I'm trying to come up with a way to do it without hurting anyone and making the game a bit more balanced than just letting the plants throw things at the Zombies. I'm thinking I will either hire teens to play the part of Zombies or well I don't know. Anyone have ideas they want to share on how to do this? The plants I am planning on making little canvas balls and filling them with powdered chalk to make a mark on the Zombies. Is that a horrible idea with at least 2 of the boys pretty good at playing baseball and hopefully not going to bean anyone too hard?

Any other ideas for games that would work in this theme? Maybe pin the plant on the yard? I'm lost on any other ideas.

I'm going to start practicing making little models of the pea shooters and the zombies.

Acid/Base fun...

2010-08-02T19:53:00.002-06:00

I made some red cabbage liquid to do some acid base experiments with the boy this afternoon. Cabbage was cheap at the store this week and I felt like it would be a fun quiet day activity. It was. If I was a better blogger there would be pictures of the fun. I'm not. So we will all have to use our imagination. Or go look at the pretty picures on the link I just gave you.

This was so much fun, and so very easy. We would pour some vinegar in first then add some ammonia, then some baking soda, then some more vinegar and lots of foaming and fun. I then let him have a glass of water with baking soda mixed in, a glass of vinegar, and a glass of water and some litmus paper and he had his milk. He discovered that milk will curdle with vinegar and that you can bring the solution back to neutral. Good times.

His only question at the beginning was that this isn't school right? HA! of course not, it is simply fun with acid and bases. heh heh.

The excitment is building...

2010-08-01T20:16:00.003-06:00

Our first day of classes for this school year is going to be August 12th. I had been planning on not really starting until August 30th, or maybe even Sept 7th right after Labor Day. I figured we don't have CSAP, I don't have to worry about getting enough 'teacher/student contact hours' before the test in, and in my mind school should start after it starts to get more fall like, and that is Sept for me.

What is moving that date up a bit is the combination of my son's desire to study astronomy for science this year and the Perseid meteor show that is going to be brighter, due to the moon being at 3 days new and in the western sky, and at a really great time of the night for us to view it (right after sunset) Here is an article in Scientifics Sky Talk * about it. If you are on the east coast it will be even better for you.

The great thing is the boy just came into my office and said "Yippee school is about to start!" He is so excited. That we are going to get to study astronomy like this and that it will be his only subject for a while.

I'm still not going to start with the grammar and math until August 30th, music who knows when, I'm pretty sure I've convinced my DH that I am sufficiently horrible at music that he will take it over in the evening. Art is going to be photography, and I'll probably start that soonish as well. Have him start taking pictures and figuring out how he wants to compose them in the camera. Then we'll move onto how to use cropping to change the feel of the picture. This is stuff I know how to do, and again he loves using a camera, he is also not too bad at it either.

* ETA I have fixed the link, as someone (thanks David) pointed out I had linked to an old article on the Perseids, they come around every year at this time of year, but really this year is suppose to be a really good one.

Changes in attitude...

2010-07-29T08:13:00.002-06:00

I am spending too much time on this machine and not enough time on the things that are important in my life. (Which sadly includes housekeeping) I have become sucked into this world of a shiny new toy that I can use anywhere. (meaning the couch) The house is chaotic, my office is chaotic, and my attention span has come to rival a small gnat. Not a good thing in there.

I think I need to set some ground rules for using the computer. Give myself some time limits as I give my son. When I first thought of this I was thinking I would take a weeks vacation from all things electronic. I quickly realized that wasn't realistic. I have obligations that require me to use the computer on a nearly daily basis. Cub Scouts is just getting ready to start and I'm the Committee Chair, I can't be incommunicado for a week the week before Back to School Night. I also do bookkeeping work for a friends new law office and I can't ignore that either.

So I think what I will do is reframe how I think about what the computer is used for. I will get on for an hour in the morning before the boy wakes and check email, update anything that needs to be updated and avoid FB. At lunch I will allow myself between a half hour and an hour depending on what HAS to be done to check email and update anything. Then another hour in the late afternoon to check once more. I am taking my gmail account off my phone and not worrying about it on a constant basis. It will have a couple of positive effects I will no longer be getting made because it forgets my password weekly and I will stop checking it every 5 minutes to see what new email has come in.

OK, I'm off to check emails, update a database and then join the real world. See you later. (You will notice I have not forbidden myself from updating here)

More preping for the new year...

2010-07-26T20:08:00.002-06:00

I spent most of the day letting my boy and his buddy run wild around the house while I did data entry for the Pack. I think we are up and running with the new system. I want the den leaders to look it over before I add the parents as users. It will make things much easier we are hoping. I need to get with our treasurer and set up that side of it as well. One stop for pretty much everything we want to do. We are super excited.

Now I'm getting ready to put all of our books into Homeschool Tracker and see how I like that for tracking what we are doing and when. I'm still working out how to get assignments into it and if I really think that is going to work. One of the things the boy did not like last year was how regimented the schedule was with COVA. I don't want to replicate that here, but I do want an idea of what we need to do to get everything covered in a school year.

Oh in the knitting front I have the jumper done except for the sewing in of the ends and blocking. Now to make the pair of socks and Mama, Papi, and Baby can have the gift set.

Camping, again.

2010-07-24T21:48:00.002-06:00

We spent the last 3 day camping with a million other cub scouts. Well maybe slightly less than that, it may have just felt like that when the WEBELOS descended to eat. We participated in a flag ceremony, baked in an open pit fire, shot paint balls from sling shots, ate lunch, canoed, archery, shot bb guns, didn't go swimming, ate dinner, participated in another flag ceremony, slept, ate breakfast (without caffeine), participated in yet another flag ceremony, made a lizard, learned to use a compass, went though an obstacle course, ate lunch and went on a nature hike.

We had fun, this does not include all the free time to throw pine cones, find caterpillars, and hang out with your best buddies.

Things we will bring next year:
Chairs
emergency caffeine
lantern
fewer clothes
not my phone
a watch

Things to remember for next year:
If you wear your class A uniform you will get to actually participate in the flag ceremony. (The boy was chosen each time they did it)
While they may run out of real coffee on the last day, the last weekend isn't too bad a time to come.
Drink your pizza, and lots of it!

I will post pictures soon. We had a wonderful time and I think this may have been the best thing we have done as a family in a long time. So wonderful!

Busy Week...

2010-07-21T16:46:00.003-06:00

This week is crazy busy and isn't going to slow down until Monday, and then next week is actually crazy in the evening 3 out of 5 night so next week isn't looking all that quiet either.

I'm trying to pack and make sure we have everything we need for Magness Adventure Camp this weekend. The only thing I can't find is a child size rain poncho, I may end up at the Evil Walmart tonight to see if they have one. I have tried Kmart, Target, and Dick's Sporting Goods. At Dick's they said they had a church youth group come in and buy everything they had. Ugh, so Walmart may not be any better if they cleaned out all the stores in town. Sigh.
I am working like a mad woman on my knitting project since the recipient decided today would be a good day to be born. I'm writing this here because I'm fairly sure her Mami & Papi are going to be a bit too busy to be reading my blog anytime in the next, oh year or so. ;) And as such I'm gonna post some really poor pictures of it here. It is Anouk from Knitty 6 years ago. I have been wanting to knit it for someone ever since I saw it and I finally had a chance! Hooray!

So I have front, back and one pocket finished. I have second pocket half knit then I need to embroider the flower on it, and knit 2 little side straps, find buttons, graft the shoulder, knit the neckline and wash it. Nothing much right? Then I have a pair of socks I want to make to go with it. I can do this I know I can. Let's ignore the fact that I'm away at camp for the next 3 days, then have a busy day Sunday planned and am out with friends/work for 3 of the 5 nights of the next week.

Oh btw if you are in Denver and want to see a fun band Sunday Girl is playing at the Larimer Lounge on Tuesday the 27th. Come on it will be fun!

Ok I am needed to help with a video game, and I know that won't last much longer. ;)

Camping fun...

2010-07-19T17:13:00.002-06:00

We spent the weekend at Pueblo Reservoir. It was so much fun. Hot, but fun. The kids had a blast finding toads, fossils, beetles and lizards. We had fun hanging out with friends and just chilling. It was crazy hot, and the wind was trying to drive us crazy at moments, but overall a win.

I reminded DH and I that we need to get out of the house and go camping more often. We live in CO after all. We have beautiful mountains that are only 1 hour from our front door. Why are we spending so much time in our hot, non air conditioned house? Crazy people that is what we are.

So we are going to try to get out of the house at least a couple times a month. We are going to get to go camping again this next weekend. We are going to Cub Scout camp this weekend. The boy and DH are both very excited at the idea of the bb gun range and the archery range that they will get to play at. There is just so many things we will get to do, and we will get to enjoy it all as a family. So happy and excited.

This year is turning out to be pretty fabulous all said. We have visited both coasts, the Capitol of our Nation, spent time as a family. It has been really great.

Dang Missed a day

2010-07-16T08:32:00.005-06:00

Oh well, yesterday was a fun day and I ended up not having lots of time online so there you have it.

All of the curriculum I ordered has come in. I'm very, very excited.

I ordered Suppose the Wolf Were an Octopus for K-2 and 3-4 grades. The boy was excited to see that since there was a picture of an octopus on the front. It is "A Guide to Creative Questioning for Primary Grade Literature" The Classics in the Classroom is another book to give me ideas on questions and analysis for literature. It is meant to be used across the K 12 spectrum of books, and has a list of 1300 Classic book in the back, including things from Archimedes to Angelou. It will hopefully give me some ideas to work on with him. Then there is the Michael Clay Thompson Grammar and Language set. It includes thing on grammar, poetry, vocabulary, and writing.

Then we have our math and logic books. Oh and the all important Geometric Shapes. I decided to go with 2 years all at once on the Math program. If we don't get through it all in one year I can use them the next year, if we find that they are no longer working for him we can sell them easily. Either way we are good. I am gather a nice collection of Singapore Math books right now. We have 1-4 all text and work books at this point. The Venn Perplexors are kind of fun, they use nursery rhymes to then work out the logic of how many of each type you have. So fun language and fun math. I think this is right up the boy's alley. The geometric shapes are just cool. He was the most excited to see those come in and made up a game kind of like skeeball with the different sized boxes we now how EVERYWHERE and tossing the blocks, also calling out what the shape was as you threw it. The thing I'm excited about is the slices taken on some of them that can help us understand 2-d projections of 3-d shapes.
So that was the bulk of yesterday's fun. I also had a meeting to learn how/when we will be doing our packs join night festivities. Fun. Lots of interesting information there. Need to get together with our Cub Master to talk about it and update the rest of our leaders on what we are doing. Fun, fun, fun. I'm really excited about this next year and the fun things we are going to get to do with the boys.

Now to go shopping for the camping trip this weekend, oh and get a new wireless router. So excited at the thought of having access to internet in places other than this little room. (Why hello there 21st century it looks like we might be joining you after all)

Wow, how long do you think I can keep this up?

2010-07-14T18:07:00.002-06:00

So as I said on my facebook status I managed to get a whole bunch of Cub Scout duties taken care of. I turned in my application to hold the position I'm holding. I turned in an application for one of our boys who joined last February (I will not go into why that took so long) I bought my son's hat, belt and book for Wolf Cubs. He is so excited about Cub Scouts. It actually makes all the phone calls and nagging my position requires worth it. Or well mostly it does, the other thing that makes it worth it is one of the people I'm nagging is a good friend so I get to talk to her often.

I also talked with our Cubmaster for an hour and we hashed out some dates for the coming year. Pinewood Derby February 5th, Blue & Gold Banquet February 24th. I need to call the Rec Center we used last year and see if we can use it again this year. I need to talk to my husband about the Pinewood Derby since he is in charge of that.

I'm trying not to stress over the fact that it looks like we will be camping in 100 degree weather this weekend and then camping in 70 degree rainy weather the next weekend. Guess which weekend I will enjoy more?

I received the Astronomy book I ordered for us and it looks like it will be great. The book is called Astronomy for All Ages. It has 51 different activities that are a nice mix of both indoor and outdoor. My only complaint is that all the appendix has lists of the moon phases and the position of the planets for an 11 year period that go from 2000 to 2010. So I need to go online and find these, not that I think that is going to be difficult at all.

I'm also writing this blog entry to procrastinate packing up the computer and monitor to send back to K12. I don't know why I've waited on this. I have no doubts about our choice to not use COVA next year and have no love for that particular computer. It was slow and drove me batty with the babysitter program on it. Really it just need to go back. I think I'm afraid it will break in transport and I will have to pay for a truly crappy computer. I just need to take a deep breath and do it.

Ok off to find boxes that I can pack it all in and then figure out where I can buy packing peanuts. Anyone know?

Summer is here...

2010-07-13T15:22:00.002-06:00

We are lazing around the house. Cherries to deal with, camping equipment to check, and a year of lessons to 'plan'.

I have about 10 pounds of pie cherries from our tree this year. A cold hit just as we brought in the majority of them so I am going to freeze them and can them later. Don't need to be coughing and sneezing into the canned cherries, but I don't want to have them in such large containers in the freezer so will get them canned in a couple of weeks. Maybe once tomatoes start coming in and I can just have a crazy canning weekend. Or peaches, yummm peaches.

We are going camping this weekend with my BIL & SIL. It should be loads of fun with loads of kids and fishing, and food, and well fun. I can't wait, but before we can go I have to make sure all our camping equipment is ok and pull it all together. Need to get DH to help me with it. Then I also need to get a food list together and make sure we have everything we need food wise. What do you like to take camping?

I placed orders for our homeschool curriculum with 3 different companies last Thurs & Friday. The one on Thurs packed and shipped it on Friday the one on Friday packed and shipped it on Tuesday. The happy news is they should both be here on Thursday! Happy Birthday/Christmas to me. Yea!!!!

Well we are going to complete a game we found today on Kongregate called CellCraft. Go play it, it is on cellular biology and from my earth science background looks pretty accurate. (That is to say I think it looks good but I could be completely wrong. heh)

Ack Moths!!!!!

2010-07-12T06:34:00.002-06:00

The boy told me 2 days ago, with a gleeful voice, that we had 'silk moths' downstairs. I looked confused and then realized he meant cloth (wool) moths. (He knew it was a moth that ate the stuff I knit with and he had heard of silk moths and knows I knit with silk so, yeah anyway not silk moths in my basement) Yesterday he caught one.

Now here is where I tell you I am sorry, very, very sorry that I ever taught him to respect all life and that you don't kill any living thing just willy nilly. I told him to kill it and he looked at me like I had grown a 2nd head and wanted him to sacrifice the moth to the evil goddesses of knitting or something. So I told him to take it outside and release it. (Hoping in my heart that it will starve to death with no wool out there to eat.)

So, what the heck am I going to do???? They are in the basement with the majority of my stash. I could get moth balls. But they stink and are poisonous to us and the moths. I could throw away all the yarn down there, fumigate and never knit again. (dramatic much) I actually have no idea how I'm going to deal with this. Wish me luck.

Ideas, they keep coming

2010-07-09T20:13:00.002-06:00

I ordered our math books today and the astronomy book I had been looking at. If I hate it when it comes I'll just return it.

I 'participated' in the #gtchat on twitter this evening and the discussion was on role models for gifted children and using biographies to give them some role models. I was very interested since the boy has been watching too much Suite Life of Zack & Cody. He commented the other day that he didn't want to be a 'brainiac' like Cody when he was a teenager because he didn't want a girlfriend like Barbara. So many reasons that comment sent me to the edge. First I was alot like Barbara and don't think that was a bad thing, second seeing it as a bad thing to be smart is not ok, and third he is basing how he wants to be in the future off a tv show. OMG I have failed as a parent. Well maybe not yet but it looks like I'm on my way to it. Ugh!

So back to the biographies idea. I think I'm going to add a biography or two to our outline for the year. I need to think about it and who I think he will enjoy learning about and seeing the similarities with himself. There were many good ideas in the chat and I will now be going to the library and seeing what I can find.

What will I teach, what will he learn....

2010-07-08T21:08:00.002-06:00

I'm deep in the middle of figuring out and then purchasing what we are going to use for next year.

Math is easy, Singapore Primary Math US Edition. The boy loves it and so do I. He loves it for the pictures and the word problems (he loves word problems) and I love it because it is really inexpensive. A very important fact at this juncture in our schooling. I switched us back to Singapore mid year last year when he finished K12's 1st grade math and we saw that 2nd grade was exactly the same thing with slightly larger numbers. It wasn't pretty.

Language Arts I'm going to use Michael Clay Thompson Grammar Island, Music of the Hemispheres, and Building Language. I have heard really good things about it and am excited to share it with the boy. He loves language and using it to create specific effects (yes this means he uses it to drive me crazy) so I think he will love learning how to get more power out of his words. We'll see, if anything is going to send me crashing it will likely be this.

Reading, ah reading. He has decided that there are things that would be much easier if he could read and is willing to work on it this summer. I found some reading comprehension worksheets for free online so will be using those. Google is my friend. Books to read I'm thinking I will be checking out books from the library at his reading level through out the year and we will read together 4 to 6 novels for discussion and analysis. The books I've picked for that are James and the Giant Peach, The Cricket in Times Square, Stuart Little, Mouse and the Motorcycle, Frog & Toad are Friends, and Little House in the Big Woods.

I just read James and the Giant Peach yesterday for the first time. I don't know how I missed that book when I was a child. Maybe it wasn't presented to me because I was a girl, maybe I ignored it because I thought it was a 'boy' book. I don't know but I'm sad that it took me so long to find it, but happy I finally have. I also read The Cricket in Times Square today. Another lovely little book that I had never read. I remember my sister reading, of course I think my sister read every book in our school and public library at least twice. Next I'll read Little House in the Big Woods, then I will need to find copies of the others so I can read them prior to school starting.

History, he was/is excited to learn about the American Revolution and the Civil War. This is in large part due to our lovely visit to Washington DC & Gettysburg earlier this summer. I am getting the History Channel show America:The Story of US sent sometime this summer so I'll use that and see what else I can find to fill in. Historic Williamsburg has virtual tours that we can do. I need to do more specific research on this to find things to use.

Science, he has decided he wants to study astronomy. His reason is "That way I can use my telescope and call it school" Well yes he can. I'm looking for a book to use as the spine for that. I found this one Astronomy for All Ages but I will keep looking and make sure that is the one that will work for us. He was very excited to learn about it after he had his space camp this summer. I also have a Teaching Company lecture series My Favorite Universe that we will use for part of it as well.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, you know music, art, etc. Music I'm not really sure what to do. I think I'm going to go to the local music stores and see what they have for music theory books and maybe we can swing violin or guitar lessons for him this fall. Art, well we can go to the art museum and yea I don't know.

Oh and the knitting thing, I am still knitting. I finished a robot for the boy and I'm working on a something for a friend of mine. Once it is finished and gifted I will post pictures of it. Well it and the robot. The boy loves his robot which makes me very happy. Worth it really.

Maybe I should call it Earthami's Lame Blog...

2009-11-24T12:20:00.002-07:00

So months, do you think it has been months since my last post? I think it has been months. Sorry about that.

On the homeschool front things are going well. We are considering going it alone next year without the virtual academy and without K12. I'm going to be talking to my friend who has written K-5 curriculum before and see if she can help me pull it together. That has to wait for her to finish with her Law School finals and then the Barbri in February then I will bug her about it. Until then I will pull ideas together of things I'd like to include and have a somewhat organized idea of what I'm thinking of for next year.

Part of the decision to change from K12 is the boy HATES it. He will cry that he hates it and not be happy. I did change things up a bit for 2 weeks there and brought in a guest teacher (my sis) to teach him about animal classification, adaptations and habitat. (She was a bio major in school) We did most everything around that topic and he had a wonderful time. I did not hear once in those 2 weeks about how he HATES COVA. I'm thinking unit studies approach may be what we want to do. I may see if I can do that for the rest of this year. I'll see what we are suppose to cover with History and Science and then tailor the rest to that.

Knitting, since this is still officially a knitting blog. I finished the sweater for the boy and he loves it. The sleeves are too short and the body too wide and I am the most critical of my own knitting. I'm working on a baby sweater set for my bff to give as a shower gift. Need to complete knitting on one bootie and sew both up then sew on buttons and it will be done. I will give it to her on Friday. Then I have 5 pairs of socks to knit up as gifts and my holiday knitting will be as complete as it is going to get.

Maybe next time I'll include pictures but not this time.

Hmmm should the blog name change?

2009-08-22T18:24:00.003-06:00

I am still knitting. Just not much right now since I'm fighting with the boy about phonics. Phonics sucks, there is nothing interesting about phonics. It is just practicing saying words over and over and over again. The boy doesn't actually seem to hate everything about phonics, it is decidedly his least favorite subject but what he seems to actually hate is writing sentences. I don't know why. He will write the 6 or so words I dictate to him just fine but if I give him a 6 word sentence you would think I had asked him to read Hamlet and write a 30 page paper explaining how it is relevant to the modern world. Not 'The bug was on his leg.'

Later that day as we are snuggled up on the couch reading silly poems for Language Arts I get him to read one, it only had words he either knows or can easily decode. Then the next one is a little harder but I wanted us to read it together. He was done. Wanted only to have to fight to read words during phonics. LA is suppose to be fun where we read fun stories and poems and then maybe talk about them some. This is when I discovered just how passionate I am about reading. (If you know me in real life you know that for most of my life I have always, always had a book with me)

I started telling him that the whole reason we work on phonics is so that we can learn to read things like these poems. To read things that make us laugh, or cry, to get angry or happy. We read so we can experience the joys of the world no matter where we are in the moment or what is happening in the moment.

He looked at me as though I was speaking another language and looked very, ummm, let's just call it firm. (I have never enjoyed the word stubborn) I read the rest of the poems but it has me thinking about this approach and if it is the right one for my boy.

Knitting, what am I working on? Well here is a picture of the sweater I'm making for my boy.

I have started on the stripes, can't you tell? Yeah me either. Actually neither can the boy. Well no matter it is his sweater for the year and maybe next year he will pick colors that contrast a bit more.

Yeah, hi there!

2009-08-16T12:15:00.005-06:00

So the summer is officially over and school has started. We survived the first week of school at home (since I'm not an official homeschooler, we use a virtual charter school that is a public school). It got easier as the week went on but Monday I thought I was going to collapse by the time we finished all the lessons (4 of them) The worst was Art. The boy might be a perfectionist, maybe. He did not want to make a piece of art that was an animal because it would never look right. I understand his angst, I had it myself. I never took Art classes in Middle School & High School because I felt like I didn't know enough going in to be able to do them. (Yes I see that makes no sense now but at the time I really and truly believed it.

Here are some pictures of him working...

First 2 are during math. He is very happy during math. Easy Peasy and doesn't take too long to do.

This is during Phonics and it was during one of the few times he was somewhat happy, or at least not completely pissed to be working at this.

I'm working on a sweater for the boy. The Tidewater has been put to bed for awhile. It was too complicated for me to do during vacation. We didn't just sit and hang much. So a top down raglan for the boy was started. He is pleased. I can't tell the difference in the colors he picked but he likes them so I don't really care.

Also have a spinning wheel that a friend gave me to use. I'm very excited and can't wait to get started playing with it. I'm sure my first yarn will look like shit but I don't care. I will have made it with my own hands!!!! So excited.

Sigh...

2009-05-15T16:13:00.002-06:00

I got all cocky and decided I was knitting to loose and needed to tighten things up a bit so it wouldn't look all loosey goosey and guess what happened? Yeah the thing was puckering and looking like crap, and while I've been know to accept crap in my knitting I didn't want this project to be crap so I frogged. I'm now back to the 4th row in the large diamond pattern and will see if I can keep things loose. I'm a fairly tight knitter though so who knows how that is going to turn out.

I'm very, very tempted now to cast on the Cable Down Raglan, but I know if I do I will drop the Tidewater like a hot potato and not pick it back up for 2 years. So I'm keep the sweater off the needles so I will finish this project.

The garden is not looking much better I have not gotten the raised beds made and so things are languishing in their pots. Must do that tomorrow.

Tidewater is my life....

2009-05-12T14:54:00.005-06:00

So I homeschool my son, not in knitting yet, and there is so much to do around the house in any given day. Am I doing any of it? Well schooling is still happening, but the laundry, not so much. I did take some time out today to put in the rest of the flowers for my back flower bed. Now I need to work on the front flower bed and making the raised bed for my veggies.

The thing is all I want to do is knit on the Tidewater. I'm a bit itchy to start the Cable Down Raglan as well but I want to get a bit farther on the Tidewater first. See I can even put off the itchy of a new fabulous project because of this one. (Ha! That makes it sound like I have tons of projects on the needles at once, I don't cause you know socks don't count)

That's how far I am, not very, but I'm very happy with it. Think I can have it done in time to wear to the Washington Coast for our summer vacation? It's cool on the coast in June right? I can wear it and not die of a heat stroke right? Eh I'm taking it anyway.

Yarn Crawl

2009-05-10T20:42:00.007-06:00

A friend asked if I was going to buy yarn at every yarn store we stopped at. The answer was yes apparently I was. Well with the exception of one store. It was very, very small and the owner/employee was very interested in her own project and not helping me with mine. There was a lovely French pastry shop next door though and we did get something there. :D

Wanna see the lovely yarn I bought? Well your going to anyway...

Bought this at the first shop, Posh, A Yarn Boutique, it is a lovely shop with a wonderful selection. Unfortunately I was being picky about the yarn I wanted for the Tidewater Wrap (a Ravelry link) She had a fabulous merino/cashmere blend that would Divine. It was also not in colors I wanted to put together. The Tidewater calls for 6 colors and I really wanted them to be mostly in the same family. So I had to walk away without it, but I did find that lovely yarn. It was like foreshadowing or something.

We then made our way to the Lamb Shoppe I think this was my favorite shop. (Well each was my favorite as we were there.) The great thing about the Lamb Shoppe is it has a HUGE selection of yarn, and better yet, it has a coffee bar right there in the shop. So very nice. I had moved on to looking for yarn for the Cable Down Raglan(Ravelry link). I was not happy with what I was finding for the Tidewater. I looked at Brown Sheep Lambs Pride but started thinking that would really limit when I could wear the sweater. It just does not get that cold here most of the time in winter. So I looked at the their Cotton Fleece talked with one of the wonderful women there and decided that would be what I would get.

The color is called peridot and it is a bit greener than the picture, but fairly close. Very happy with it.

Then because the theme had become I get sock yarn everywhere because it doesn't count, I picked this up. I'm not sure when I changed to blues from greens but the color of the day seemed to be blue.

I'm not naming the next shop since I don't have anything nice to say and I didn't even buy sock yarn there.

Finally we drove out to Shower of Flowers which is actually a favorite shop of mine. I love going there, friendly, knowledgeable staff and a ginormous selection of yarn. I finally found the yarn for the Tidewater. We sat on the floor of the shop and looked at all the colors available and decided what to get.

Isn't it pretty. I'm so happy with it. The pattern calls for purple but the purple they had were decidedly blue in hue and I wanted something that would pop. I think the salmon is it. I also bought Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Guide to Yarn Requirements a US size 1 40inch circ needles, and the coolest button to go with the wrap ever. That picture will have to be for another day though.

All in all a wonderful day of yarn fun.

It's been 2 months so time for an update.

2009-05-04T14:00:00.002-06:00

I have been knitting, and gardening, and teaching and well lots of stuff I just haven't been recording it here or really anywhere.

So let's talk about the knitting and then maybe some of the other things. I finished a hat for a friend and she loved it. I used the Harvard Square Cap (ravelry link) pattern from the Fall 2008 Interweave Knits. I added to i-cord strings to the ears and a sc crochet loop to the top of the hat so she could tie it on as a night cap or tie them up inside the hat to wear during the day. She loved it so I'm happy with what I did.

Also finished the Thorn & Thistle (ravelry again) twinset from Interweave Knits Spring 2006. Well except it wasn't the whole twinset only the tank. I didn't buy enough yarn to knit both. Kind of regret that now, but didn't have the money to buy yarn for both and figured I'd get more wear out the tank than the cardigan. Still true actually. I think I need to knit this again in another color so I have more than one. Thing is I knit it in worsted weight yarn and the pattern calls for DK weight and I'm not sure what to do for the second one I knit. Stick with the same yarn and just pick a different color (used Knit Picks Shine Worsted) or if I should try to find a dk weight yarn and knit it in the 'correct' size for me.

Need to find a new project. I'm going on a yarn crawl for my birthday next Saturday. Very excited, figure I can definately find a new project then. I really need to go through all the yarn in the garage, we have had a mouse infestation this winter/spring and I need to see what is still usable and what needs to be thrown far away for fear of mouse pee. *shudder*

The business of knitting or something like that...

2009-03-06T14:06:00.006-07:00

So I really am going to set up a Etsy shop and I'm looking for the logo. Some of you have seen some of these before, (well if you came over here when I asked you to) but I want to explain a bit more.

What I'm really asking is which of the sheep you like the most. The plan is to have earthami knits coming off whichever sheep wins the beauty contest. (Yes Heather, the plan is to have it in green, you are absolutely right about that)

The poll is off to the right.

I have no other instructions, although if you have more to say please post in the comments or email me directly.

ETA: The final choice will be re-painted so the fine details will be better and it is good to know if you liked the face on one and the body of another. (thanks Sis)

Sheep 1

Sheep 2

Sheep 3

A Wordle for my blog

2008-11-24T12:48:00.001-07:00

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Sweaters, and Socks...

2008-11-17T09:25:00.002-07:00

I've started on E's new Griffyndor sweater. It is going to drive me crazy and I don't like the yarn, but I'm trying to get over myself and just knit it. I'm using some of the acrylic yarn I recived from our friends grandma. Yuck to acrylic, but I'm reminding myself that this is for a 6 year old boy who will wear it for one winter and out grow it. Plus doesn't really need it to last that long. I'm trying very hard to make it large enough it can go over another shirt, since last years model was too tight in the arms to be anything but a primary layer. Sigh. I'm still learning this shit though.

It is burgandy and gold, as are the movie colors rather than scarlet and gold, simply because I didn't have any scarlet yarn, well not any I was willing to use, the reds she had were more like Ronald McDonald hair red, than anything I would put in a sweater for my son to wear. (See I'm still picky)

The fabric is really dense because the yarn is a heavy worsted and I'm using size 7 needles, and I do not knit loosely ;) 4.5 sts/inch. I figure that will work since it is going to be an outer sweater to help keep him warm, and it isn't wool which has real insulating properties. (yes I'm still confllicted about knitting this in acrylic why do you ask?) Eh, we'll see, it shouldn't take too long to knit up and then we'll see what we see. He wanted it to be the exact same colors as last year but when i told him I would have to buy the yarn he looked sternly at me and told me, yet again, that I am not allowed to buy yarn while I still have a garage full of yarn. ;) (he takes after his father in many ways)

Socks, what am I doing wrong? I don't think hand knit socks are all that cofortable. I think it is partly because I'm getting the fit all wrong. the last pair I knit E are really too tight to pull on his feet. How to you make the heel so you have extra room to get them over your heel/arch? He has skinny legs so to keep them up they need to be pretty small at the top but then they are a bit too tight to get over his heel. Also I think I'm running into problems because I tend to knit tight and so they don't have much stretch. Hmmm maybe if I knit them in a k1p1 all over pattern (well except for the sole) they would give enough stretch? Anyone have an idea?

No really I am still knitting.

2008-11-15T18:55:00.003-07:00

This is not going to be a post about the baby sweaters or the craft show I didn't go to. Instead this is going to be a post about a really fun quick knit I just did. My son E has a love of cephalopods, yeah I have no idea where it comes from but there it is. I knit him a cuttlefish earlier this year. He loves it. At the time I got that pattern I also bought a squid, octopus, and dumbo octopus pattern. He wanted the squid next and I had him pick out the yarn and I've been promising to make it for months now. Well on Thursday morning I decided this was the day and I started on the arms. I finished all 8 arms and both tentacles by that night. Yesterday I started on the rest and by 6 last night it was done. So I present to you Squid Squid and Cuttie...

As you can see they have become fast friends and both enjoy sleeping with a 6 year old boy. Who knew that nearly alien sea creatures could be so darn cuddly?

2008-09-16T06:32:00.002-06:00

So I'm going to take some of my knitted things to a craft sale the 1st of November. Towards that end I've started knitting somethings to actually, you know TAKE to the craft show on November 1st.

First out of the pipeline is a little purse. I figured it would serve a dual puporse. It would knit up quickly, and it did, and it would kill some of my stash, which it did. I used Patton Merino Wool, in black, and Noro Kureyon in colorway 170. I have no idea why I had 2 skeins of the Patton's in black but one is gone know. the Kureyon was a left over bit from a purse I made myself awhile ago. My Brother-in-Law brought it back from Japan when he was visiting his then fiance.

This shows the color work I did on it, very little, and the lovely pre-felting floppiness of it. I was pretty pleased with the color work. It turned out a little too tight but not bad.

Here is a close up of the color work, very basic but since it was at a light color point in the Noro I think it showed up well and show the gradation that I love about Noro yarn.
Here it is in the post-felted state. I need to figure out a strap and a button for the closure. Anyone want to give a suggestion for the strap? A leather strap from the fabric store? A felted i-cord strap? Something else entirely?

I'm now working on a baby sweater using Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Suprise Jacket pattern. So far it is lots of garter stitch. We'll see how it looks in the end. It isn't my favorite shape but I have always wanted to try it for the novelty of how it is constructed.

So does anyone know?

2008-08-14T09:36:00.002-06:00

As I mentioned we have inherited a 'bit' of yarn. We also seem to have inherited some moth cocoons and I'm guessing some wool moths as well.

So dear Internets anyone know if all the acrylic yarn needs to be treated for moth infestation the same as the natural fibers? There were little cocoons on some of the acrylics but only the ones in boxes that also had natural fibers in them. I don't think there is anything in them since even if there was eggs they would have nothing to eat at this point in the game.

I'm going to go buy some dry ice today and gas the buggers on the wool and like. Well that and I will likely make dry ice bubbles with the boy. No dry ice rockets though.

I have more pictures to share but I have a feeling I'm going to run out of disk space before I can get pictures of all this yarn online. Not that anyone really needs to see what 100 lbs of off white acrylic yarn looks like.

What's 2 months between friends?

2008-08-12T12:02:00.000-06:00

Hmmm so maybe I'm not keeping up with this as well as I had hoped to.

That said I have some exciting news. First I am now a stay at home mom. For this month anyway. I'm staying home with my son E to help him transistion to Kindy. We'll see what I can find starting in Sept.

What does that have to do with knitting you might ask. Well a little. It isn't like I'm getting a ton of knitting done staying at home with a 5 year old I have to admit. I did finish his cuttle fish. It turned out ok. Drove me a bit batty, but all in all, ok.

See isn't he a cutie? Dh thinks with a couple of wings, and something about longer tentacles I could make a Cuthulu plushie. I may have to. E loves him and that is what I wanted the most.

I also have started on a pair of socks for the boy made from Schoeller & Stahl Fortissima Socka Teddy, in blue. It is fuzzy and cushy, should make for some comfy socks for this winter.

All that said, the really, really big news is that my sister and I inherited a lot of yarn. A friend of ours grandma passed away and no one in her family did any crafts. She had a room full of yarn, material, embroidery projects, hook rag projects, and the like. I have 4.5 13 gal trash bags filled with wool, wool blend, mohair, angora, and camel hair yarns. The sadest things so far is that the camel hair has been eaten by moths. I have to treat all of the natural fibre as though there is moths in it. There are 3 bags full of cotton and cotton blend yarns, and we have more bags and boxes that I have counted yet full of acrylic yarn. This yarn runs from the mundane to the sublime and everywhere in between. We are sorting now.

Since we had to start somewhere, the first sort was by fiber content, and in the case of the acrylic by color also. The next for the acrylic will be to sort by weight.

Much of this yarn is going to have to find a new home and for that I'm going to be looking at the charity knitting groups here in Colorado and seeing if any of them would like to have it. Yesterday afternoon I was drowning in it. I'm starting to feel a bit better about our chances of passing it on.

Estes Park Wool Festival

2008-06-16T14:18:00.000-06:00

Oh, so much yarn and roving, and fleeces and well all things fibery. It was fun. Lots of fun. I went with a co-worker and had lots of fun.

It meant driving up to the mountains a second day in a row, but it was worth it. I bought a Maggie spindle and I am in LOVE! It is a 35 ounce, medium, midwhorl, maple spindle. I spun up what I was given that was already preped. I was given some locks that I will attempt to prep and continue spinning. I think I'm going to take what I've made so far off and then ply the two together. My production with this spindle is so much smoother for a couple of reasons. First there was a wonderful woman in the 'children's tent' who sat and showed me how you card the wool, start it on the spindle and where to hold it to draft it. Second was because this is a much light and well balanced spindle. My other one is a pine one that was not well constructed.

Happy, happy, E spun a bit of yarn himself, and I think I'm going to get an inkle loom from my coworker I was there with on Saturday. Yippee!!!!

World Wide Knit in Public Day....

2008-06-14T20:54:00.000-06:00

So we went into the mountains to a lake at about 10,500 feet and fished, well my Dad & my son fished. I knit. While there were not many people there were about 50 up there and I did get the webbing on the left side tentacle done. The right side (which is what I thought I was knitting earlier) is not going as well. I can't figure out the picking up of the stitches. I feel like I'm learning to knit all over. Of course this may be due to the fact that I did not drink any water today, only Pepsi. I might be dehydrated and stupid from having a shrunken brain.

I am done with that baby sweater I was making for a co-worker. Woo Hoo!!!! I can't tell you how happy I was to have that damn thing off my needles. Teach me to knit the same basic thing 3 times in a row. She said she would talk to me the next time she knew someone having a baby & I told her that I have lots of baby sweater patterns to choose from. To which she said, yea I really liked the one you made for K. Ummm yeah see that was the same pattern just different yarn, not different enough for my brain. Thank you very much.

Oh so what I'm knitting right now is a cuttlefish for the boy. He is very exctied about it. I'm actually pretty excited about it as well.

Blah

2008-03-31T09:08:00.000-06:00

I had a lovely weekend but it did not involve knitting. I wanted it to. Oh well. I'm still working on the Clapotis for a friend, I had forgotten how long that sucker is. I still have a baby sweater that needs to be knit up by the first of May and the kilt hose that while I don't have a deadline I would like to get them done in April as well.

I want to take the cuttlefish pattern with me to Disney World so I can get started on that for my son. I also want to see if I can knit up a better snake pattern for him. One that would involve stranded knitting. I think the markings on a boa or anaconda would be lovely in stranded knitting. I need to think on that.

Happiness on a gray day

2008-03-27T10:10:00.000-06:00

One of my co-workers found a bunch of circular needles at a local 2nd hand store for 50 cents each. She bought the lot of them and just brought me what she doesn't want.

I've been wanting to try the magic loop method and really want to use it for the kilt hose I'm going to knit up. This has given me the needles I need to do it.

Hurray!!!!

Ideas and thoughts...

2008-03-26T09:00:00.000-06:00

I'm trying to figure out how to parlay my love of knitting into something that helps bring home some cash to offset the cost of yarn, and the ubiquitous needles that I *always* need more of.

I'm considering different options. I don't spin, yet. I have had some turns of dyeing but I'm not sure I want to sell dyed yarn, although that isn't a horrible idea.

I've knitted up some items for people as gifts and I apparently can knit evenly enough that they think they are well made. Ok they are well made, I knit well, not quickly but well. I could knit up some items of my own creation and sell them.

I could work in a yarn store, but I'm sure everyone wants to do that, well everyone who is fiber obsessed, and I'm not sure how much I would actually make after I spent my earnings on new yarn. ;)

Oh well I'm still working it out.

ACK...

2008-03-25T13:52:00.001-06:00

What have I got my self into? I have a co-worker that wants me to make a pair of kilt hose for her. She gave me what she has now, complete with holes in the heel and toes and still dirty for the last wearing. LOL

I know how to make socks, I know how to knit cables. This shouldn't be too hard right? Right? Ummm I guess I'll see. She wants it to be machine washable, and mentioned making it acrylic but wanted to make sure it wouldn't strech out too much. Yeah I think I'm going to see if I can make it with either a superwasher wool or else with a wool acrylic blend.

Wish me luck. At least it isn't another baby sweater right?

Baby Sweater #3 Done....

2008-03-11T09:57:00.000-06:00

So I finished knitting and blocking the latest baby sweater. It is done but for the buttons and those will be added at lunch today. The bottom trim I put embossed hearts on. I found that stitch pattern in Nicky Epstein's Knitting on the Edge. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Hurray. Now I can move on to the Clapotis, I started it last night and will work on it at lunch after the buttons get attached.

That said someone at work has asked me to make a sweater for her. I will work one more up. Really people need to let me move on to other things, ummm maybe I need to let myself move on to other things. HA!

I'm going to order the Cuttlefish by Hansi Singh and start that for Everett soon. He saw the Knit Picks Essential sock yarn in Gulfstream that I bought planning on making socks for him and he said it wants to be made into a cuttlefish instead. Who can argue with that?

My Yarn is HERE!!!

2008-03-05T14:16:00.000-07:00

I was afraid the Post Office was going to wait until I finished the sweater to deliver my yarn and I would be yarnless (well kind of) over the weekend. I see myself finishing the sweater this weekend btw.

Nope it is here. 9 balls of Knit Picks Andean Silk in Lettuce to be used in a Clapotis as a prayer shawl for a co-worker with uterine cancer. She is fine and they belive they got all of it early and completely. The sentinal lymph node was clear so she is now just recovering from the surgery.

So this weekend will be the start of a new project that has nothing to do with babies and I did not have to worry about the washability of the yarn while picking it.

Unfinished Symphony...

2008-03-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

Yeah, this is so not a symphony. Anyway, the baby shower it today at 3:45 and the sweater is NOT even kind of finished. Well unless you consider mid-knitting weaving in ends kind of finishing? Yeah me neither. I did that to make it look a little neater in the bag. Sigh.

Still I'm going to let her know it is for her little one and that way I can knit it in front of her at lunch. That has been a HUGE kill of my time on it.Well that and the stomach flu that knocked me out over the weekend.

Baby Sweater #3...

2008-03-03T16:23:00.000-07:00

I will never knit this sweater again. Ok that is a lie. It is easy and cute and knits up quick. I am not knitting this sweater again for a long time. There that is better.

I'm working on #3, I have the hood finished and will pick-up the stiches for the body tonight. I need to knit like a fiend so I can hopefully have it near compleation on Weds for the baby shower. Last weekend was nearly devoid of knitting time. Friday and half of Saturday I was sick and unable to to knit. The other half of Saturday I actually played with my son, which sadly does not involve knitting since he does not consider knitting 'playing'

I've ordered yarn to make a Clapatois as a prayer shawl for a co-worker. The yarn should have been here today I'll give it until tomorrow's delivery and then call Knit Picks to see if they can find it.