Absence, Craziness...

It's been a while since I've written anything.  What can I say?  I've been a little crazy.  We had a couple weeks of homeschooling failures.  I just didn't have the time, so we voted on having a bit of a vacation from homeschooling.  I think we all needed it.

The past couple of days we've kind of gotten back into the swing of things.  My daughter has been reading again, even though she spent a whole day fighting us on it.  She read three books on her own the first day.  Yesterday she read none.  Today she read one more.  We've been trying to get her to go off on her own, work on reading.  If I sit over her she doesn't actually do it, so we send her off to read in her room and then have her come back and read the story to us.  It's actually worked wonderfully!  She does so much better with reading if we leave her to do it on her own.  She mixes up a few words and needs help now and again, but for the most part, she gets it!

I think in the beginning of the school year we're going to put her into an online learning program, since Texas offers one for free after 3rd grade.  Perhaps having a little more ability for independent work will help her gain confidence in her own abilities in her problem areas.

Household Craziness

It's been a long couple of weeks.  There's been a lot going on, which hasn't made finding time to write any easier.  It seems like I'm not doing enough that actually relates to this blog, and that almost makes me sad.

The whole situation with my baby, he's decided to wean after all.  We got a couple good attempts at nursing back, but my milk supply was just too low and it seemed like we couldn't recover from it.  He would get upset, frustrated, and angry, and eventually he stopped coming back to me all together.  I think he just gave up.  I have to admit, I'm really sad about that.  I'd promised myself that I would keep on with nursing until he was at least two, since that's when doctors site the maximum benefit ends.  I also wanted him to choose to self-wean instead of forcing him to quit.  Well, it seems like my body made it more ideal for him to quit.  He decided he just wasn't going to do it anymore, so he was done.  My older son kind of did the same when he weaned, and with my daughter we had to quit because she and I were both starting to loose too much weight.  I have to admit, it kind of makes me feel that I failed when my friends are all enjoying far more success than I had.  In many cases, they talk about how I'm lucky to have lost the baby weight so quickly.  In my case, I honestly think losing the baby weight was what lead to my inability to continue nursing.

In other news, the littlest one has also decided that staying up all night sounds like fun.  He sleeps perfectly peacefully if he's in a room alone, but if we're in there, he wants to be awake.  He rarely is able to get comfortable sleeping on the bed with us these days.  He tosses and turns all night.  When we put him down by himself, he cries for a moment, then he pulls up his blanket and snuggles in.  I feel horrible about that too.  I'm such a big person on attachment parenting that it kills me to know he won't sleep unless I let him cry for maybe a minute.  Otherwise he just fusses, rolls around, and just seems miserable and tired.  It seems like it takes on average an hour for him to fall asleep with me, but then the slightest movement will make him wake up.  It's frustrating that he's such a light sleeper, but it's becoming more often that he sleeps more heavily on his own.  Honestly, I wish we had the space to give him his own bedroom, since he likes to sleep in the dark and his brother wants to have light.  I'm also really afraid they'll wake each other up all night.  It may just be time to transition him into sharing a room with his brother.  What can I say?  It's a really sad time of year for me.  My baby is growing up way too fast!

Trying to Make the Best of a Sick Day

It's no fun being sick.  It means sleeping, staying in bed, and in general, not doing much at all.  I've been forcing myself to function as much as possible, but I haven't been able to do too much.  I honestly think I need to look at my diet again.  For the most part I only get an upset stomach when I've been eating too much of something I shouldn't have on a regular basis.  I wouldn't be surprised if the culprit is dairy in this case.  Dairy is usually to blame for the majority of my upset stomachs...

Today has been kind of a wasted day.  We haven't done much of anything.  My daughter is currently playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii with our neighbor.  I just wish she could play the game a bit more quietly!  My head hurts!  Still, she's at least doing something that will keep her busy.

My littlest has decided today is a block day.  He's got one of those little wagons with the blocks in them, which has been the toy of the day.  He likes dragging the wagon around, but he hasn't been too thrilled about the blocks until recently.  I was also given some more wooden blocks to throw into the mix.  They're still sitting in the punch bowl they arrived in, which seems to make them all the more interesting.  My older son has been keeping himself pretty busy with reading one of the Batman books my aunt sent.  He's decided books, which were pretty cool before, are even more interesting now that they include super heroes too!

I have to say, it's really nice not to have to take my kids to school first thing in the morning when I'm not feeling well.  It's nice to know that they can keep after themselves for a while.  I really love their ability to keep themselves occupied.  It's meant I can curl up on the couch and kind of veg while they're happily keeping themselves busy!  The older two enjoy making their own breakfasts and sandwiches for lunch, so it means I only have one to worry about feeding.  My partner decided to make dinner, so that means one less meal I have to worry about.  I wouldn't have had that if we were a normal family that sends their kids to school!  Well, maybe today because schools had a snow day, but we don't need to count on snow as an excuse!

Crafts for Kids

In the last box of goodies my aunt sent us I found a wonderful book.  It's called Pioneer Crafts, and as you can imagine, that's just what you'll find inside!  It couldn't have come at a better time!  With the weather being so cold and miserable, the kids and I haven't had much time for outdoor fun.  Instead this might give us some new projects to work on.

Some of these projects are a little familiar.  There's wood working, mostly whittling sticks.  There's also a piece on carving soap, something I did when I first learned to use a Swiss Army knife in Girl Scouts.  It gave me a real respect for those little tools to this date.  Until recently I had one everywhere I went.  There's also candle making, basket weaving, and doll making too!  These were all things I got to do in Girl Scouts and really enjoyed.  I guess I didn't really stop to think how much my kids are missing out by not having exposure to these things!  I was so spoiled with a great Girl Scout troop!  I was also disappointed with my daughter's Girl Scout troop.  They seemed to lack any kind of ambition in comparison to the things my troop did by their age!  I hate to say it, but that's part of the reason I didn't bring her back for another year.  It seemed like she wasn't doing anything at Girl Scouts but getting into trouble.

Other crafts in the book include things I wouldn't have thought of on my own, but really probably should have.  There's a tutorial on making tin lanterns, something that might be especially fun to do with preparing for the possibility of power outages in the future.  It never hurts to be prepared.  There's a project for making a balancing acrobat that looks pretty fun.  There's a tutorial on making your own moccasins, something I think my daughter would love!  They have instructions for silhouette portraits, making a loom, loom weaving, and dying.  My favorite project, the one I'm most looking forward to doing with my daughter, is the crazy quilt.

When I'd first heard about crazy quilts and all these random scraps of fabric I had a very different idea in  my head.  I'd thought they meant making a quilt that's just random scraps of fabric put together at random, fitting the pieces wherever they'd manage.  I thought we were talking crazy angles and legitimate wackiness.  I had no idea they were anything like what the book describes them to be!  I always thought those were just called "patchwork quilts".  Who knew?  I'm looking forward to buying random fat quarters and things so we can have a variety of fabrics to work with.  I'd feel a little silly using fabrics that don't have a story behind them, since that was part of the tradition, so we're going to use the fabric for things like doll clothes and use the leftover hunks of fabric for the quilt.  There's a lot of fabric left over when you make fashion doll clothes!

I'm really loving that book and I can't wait to work on some of the projects in it!  I might just be inspired to cut up some cereal boxes so we have materials to weave some baskets!  Maybe we can get all kinds of crazy and use cases of soda to add some variety and even more color to the mix!  Who says you need fancy craft supplies!  We've got some great stuff that can be recycled in our own home!

Texas Weather, an Inspiration for Crafts

Everyone seems to think Texas doesn't get cold.  They think it doesn't get snow.  Texas is supposed to be warm all winter and brutally hot all summer.  This is what I keep seeing pop up all over Facebook as friends talk about the weather here.  It seems their friends from out of town think this kind of weather is shocking and impossible.

Late Monday night into Tuesday morning we got a brutal ice storm.  You could hear the ice bouncing off the windows at rapid speeds.  The wind was whipping and howling.  It had all started as a nice winter rain, but the weather change caused all the moisture to freeze.  By Tuesday morning it was a soft flurry of snow.  The sun came out in the afternoon, melting some of what had frozen, but it was still rather cold.  I heard plenty of jokes about cold being mid-30s where I'm living.  If only they'd known.  We were down to 15 degrees by 10pm with a strong, brutal wind.  Yes, it gets cold in Texas.

All over the city they're having "rolling black outs".  This isn't really something I'm used to back home.  New England does have black outs in the winter due to storms, sure, but not like this.  The lights go out, come back, go out again.  We've been lucky enough to only have it that first night, but it makes me wonder.  Places are closed down all around the city.  Kids are getting sent home from school.  There's even at least one Walmart that's closed.  I'm wondering if I'm even going to have work tonight.

It's days like these that I'm glad we have so many candles around the house!  It would be easier if we had one of those 100 count tea light packages.  That would be enough to last us a good long while.  I know they make emergency candles as well, but I've never tried them.  At least we know that we'll have light if the power goes out.  Unfortunately, heat in Texas is all electric, so if the power is out for long we'll be bundling up to our eyes!

Days like these make me think how wonderful it would be if we started making our own candles.  There are plenty of candle making kits on the market.  We used to make our own candles when I was a kid with juice box with the top cut off, some candle wick tied to a stick, a big block of candle wax, and some crayons for color.  We would pour in a layer with the wick dangling in the center, then wait for it to cool.  Once it was pretty solid, the next layer would go on.  We'd repeat for as many layers as we chose to use.  It was so easy to do!  We made dip candles too.  We would have to wait in the back of the line for the color we wanted to dip our candles in, shaping and molding them between dips as they cooled.  That was one of my favorite projects in Girl Scouts.  Unfortunately, I heard the candle shed burned down.

I would love to make some candles with my own kids.  Now there are all sorts of products on the market.  Instead of having to use crayons there are tons of wax dyes on the market.  Instead of having to use juice boxes, there are a large variety of candle molds.  There's options for making soy candles, beeswax candles, and so much more. You can buy additives for scented candles as well!  There are pour pots designed specifically for candle making too!

Candle making is a traditional craft that's been a part of our culture for ages!  Kids especially love doing it.  There are plenty of adults out there that love doing it too!  They make great gifts, if you're so inclined to be a candle gift giver, but they're also very practical for days like today!  Just to be prepared, I think we might just have to make some for next year...

Reading and Science

This whole reading quest, it's got to go further than just reading and math.  I mean, reading and math is all well and good, but there are so many topics that can be explored here!  Reading can open up so many doors, though my daughter only seems to want to stick with the doors of fictional stories, and the easiest ones humanly possible.  She doesn't want to do anything challenging.

I know why she does it.  If she were to pick a topic that would truly challenge her mind then she would have so much more expected of her.  She prefers books with very little substance to them.  The less substance, the less work she will have to do in the long run.  I can't ask her details about the story, or I'll have very little to work from.  As long as she plays that she doesn't know what she's doing, she'll have to put in minimum effort.

Unfortunately for her, I'm once more catching on that she just doesn't care.  She's showing this in sounding the word out, reading it right five or six times in a row, and then suddenly "forgetting" what the word is.  I'm starting to think she's deliberately adding in letters that aren't there.  I know part of it is her staring all around the room.  I would say it's because it's too easy for her, but in truth, I think it's because she's bored and doesn't want to do the work.  Reading isn't fun for her and she'll rebel at any cost.  I just wish I could find some things she was interested in reading about to get her to do it.  Maybe then she'd stop playing around and just do it already!

Today's subject matters is Rockets and Spaceships in the form of an early reader my aunt sent at some point or another.  I think it may have been in the box we just got.  The kids took off with the books before I could really get a good look, once again.  My older son really has a thing with books and has wanted nothing more than to look at books for the past two weeks.  We've got a number of subjects to last through the week.  I'm hoping this will inspire her to take more interest in reading since reading can expose her to so much that she hasn't had a chance to experience before.

We're gong to see where this goes, but hopefully science will help open the door to reading for her.