No internet and Funny kids and school update

We went over 2 weeks without internet as we tried to find someone who could get a signal with all of the trees that surround our house. We ended up with DSL and wires. It was amazing in some ways how peaceful and how inconvenient it was. When my only option for checking email was an unsecured connection while the kids did track, and I had no printer, people just had to wait. There were lots of things that got put on hold, some of which probably won't make it back off hold. :) It was interesting how often at first, I would think, oh, I'll just go check that, look up that recipe, whatever, and not be able to. But usually I could find a similar recipe in a cookbook or find the number in the phone books that rarely get used. After the first week, it actually started to feel kind of nice. :) We've had internet for about a week now and I'm still working on getting all caught up. I didn't realize how much I relied on the internet for things like paying bills and school. It's so easy to just print off a worksheet on a topic that needs more review, but it's also easy to waste a lot of time browsing.

During that time, the kids made a couple of funny comments that I jotted down to record.

I was making peanut butter and honey sandwiches for lunch, and Adam pipes up, "I know where honey comes from." Me: "Really, where?" Adam: "Bees." Me: "And how do the bees get it?" Adam: "From the store."

Another day, Tyler had been outside working on sanding his pinewood derby car. He came into the kitchen where I was grinding wheat, making bread, and making pizza dough while spelling words for Jeanisha, helping Eli with math, answering Melynda's questions, and trying to keep Adam and Lincoln out of trouble as they "helped." He stood there watching for a minute or two and then he said, "Mom, since you are not doing anything right now, do you want a turn sanding my car." I can't imagine what my day would be like I was "doing something."

I also wanted to copy some of Jeanisha's kindergarten writing. I love when they are at the stage where they write with the phonetic spelling. Especially Jeanisha who writes much more than the boys did at her age. Today she was supposed to describe what she could see from the desk she was sitting in. She chose to describe the window.

it has scwirs. it is sefoor. it is rit in frunt of mi sid uv the desk.

Translated: It has squares. It is see through. It is right in front of my side of the desk.

She is still my workbook loving child and is determined that she will catch up to Tyler by the end of summer on math and writing. She sits and listens when I am teaching him and often surprises me by what she picks up. She's figured out multiplication and is starting to catch on to the two digit multiplication that Tyler is learning. It's nice to have one kid who is so easy to teach! She often has to be told to put the school books away on Sunday!

Ryan finishes 5th grade in public school on Wed. and is very excited to start homeschooling again. I was planning to let him start again after Memorial Day (we do light school all summer), but he was insistent that he should get to start on Thursday, the day after he gets out. He's been so excited about his algebra book that he's already done the first 10-15 lessons, for fun. (We use Life of Fred, and it really is a fun way to learn math.)He's enjoyed public school, but has missed being challenged and is excited to "learn something new again." He's helped pick out the books and topics for next year and is excited about being home. I think the main thing he will miss is choir and I'll be checking with the middle school about dual enrollment options for that for next year. Hopefully his enthusiasm will last for awhile!

Tyler is finishing 3rd grade and finally reached the point where he doesn't hate writing. It's still not his favorite, but it's not the battle it was. He is enjoying math for the most part, but generally just wants to get it done so he can go play outside or dig in the hole. Over spring break the kids dug a 6 foot deep hole what has continued to grow and get filled in and grow again. We've decided to bury the trampoline, so now they have a much bigger hole marked out and permission to expand their hole. Right now, it's about 8 feet in diameter, 4-6 feet deep. And if it takes all summer, that's fine. It is such a good project for them to learn to work together and to stick with it and just have fun. Every time friends come over, they go straight to the hole and spend a good bit of time digging.

Eli (1st grade) has made huge progress with school. In the fall, he didn't know all his letter sounds and couldn't count to 15. He's now up to grade level on math and reading phonics readers pretty well. He struggles with fluency and sight words and is still well below grade level with that, but his progress is really amazing. He's working on an animal book where he draws a picture of the animal, colors it, then copies 4-5 sentences below the picture. He is very proud of his book and how many pages he is getting in it.

Melynda is finishing up her junior year and has also done well. It's been a hard year for her academically as she's worked to fill in gaps from the past, especially with math. She is also learning to have higher expectations for herself and learning that she is smart enough to get good grades. She, like most high schoolers, is ready for a break and the fun activities coming this summer.