Year 5, August 17th-20th, 2020: Abishai's First Week of Kindergarten!

 Happy 1st day of Homeschool Year Number 14! 2020-2021 School year! The first day is in the books and it was one of the best first days we have EVER had! The kids seemed ready and willing. Abishai was over the top hyper all day so we ran off his energy. Despite watching a TV show until 2 am and then not being able to sleep until 3:30 am because I took my noon pills instead of my nighttime pills AND I had restless legs, we were all up by 8 am. I sent Keturah on her walk with Socks around 8:15, but she didn't return for another hour. Oops. We adjusted and I didn't let the boys scatter but puttered around until she got back so we could do our Morning Basket. The kids didn't goof off hardly at all, and I was able to keep my cool. Abishai bossed us on how to count by each one saying "1" one at a time and then "2" kind of like an echo. We ran with it and it was hilarious! We just ran through some memory work with them repeating after me, which was way less stressful than testing them on it. Abishai was so cute trying to say "Mesopatamia" and "Myceneans." I sent the middles off to do math and science and Justin promptly forgot that he had to do science. Oh boy. He was slow today, per usual from last year. He said the medication helped a bit but thinks we should up the dose. We'll see what he thinks in a few weeks. 

Abishai was pretty excited and I had to redirect him away from his play box of educational things from last year to the task at hand, making direct eye contact with me as I spoke. He barely put up a fuss about some finger plays and learning exercises. He did however take several hours to complete a coloring page because we aren't used to that, but in the end, he took his time and did a much better job than any of his siblings ever have. I knew that he has the ability but we never practice it. But he also wasn't allowed screen time until he was done with it, so, he had motivation. Justin had to finish his work, too, or rather he did the last bit of it after supper. We have a lot of work to do with Justin and adjusting and learning what he needs in order to learn. It's going to still be very frustrating for awhile. But I did hear back from our other counselors on some contacts that might help us with the process. They are way up on the northside of Indy of course, but telehealth will be helpful I'm sure. We got through, and even did a some piano lessons!

Keturah got done quickly and easily. I didn't want to delve into any one on one stuff with her today, so she was able to do electronics in the early afternoon. The boys had their time as well. We had supper and went for a walk, returning the carpet cleaner and we met Lauren and her family who we are going to spend some time with on Thursday to talk about homeschooling. Our neighborhood community is something I've always dreamed of having. It's only a block worth but man, it feels good to know at least half of the people by name and the other half by sight! She's a talker, so we'll see what comes on Thursday. 

It's been a good day. But I've used all my thinking power. Oh, I spent the afternoon fighting my computer and my internet browser to find first day of school printables. So, we didn't get those pictures done, however, it's ready for tomorrow.  Now two kids are asleep and the third is eating another meal. Fun times! Jared opened the windows a little bit too soon and it's raining so now it's damp in there. My legs are starting to have fits again, not good at all. I upped my gabapentin dose today. I don't know what's up with them. Lack of exercise? Humidity? Something else? Who knows. I just want to sleep tonight. At least I didn't crash this afternoon like I thought I would. But then again, I didn't sit down much either. I bet I would have fallen asleep if I had. Tomorrow's a new day and hopefully little guy's excitement and story telling will carry us through this year and give us the energy to do all the fun things again. Speaking of fun, I have some grand ideas for photos, so I can't wait to see if we can pull them off. AND it seems like a lot of homeschoolers started today because my groups and social media feeds were FULL of 1st day of homeschool photos. Yeah! I really haven't seen that before where we started on the same day as a bunch of other people. That just brings a sense of unity to our homeschooling community. 

Our audience for Morning Basket time! It's almost like having a small classroom of friends!

She was awake at least! I could just imagine her friends being ready to get out the door but the bus was late or something or they were ready too early.

Take a picture of me eating and drinking at the same time, Mom! He wanted eggy toast but seemed full after the cereal. He did have a snack later. Note the other "friends" he has with him, too.

Teacher's favorite breakfast: gluten free avocado toast with non dairy "butter," hemp seed, and everything but the bagel seasoning. And any kind of caffeinated tea.

Read this to me, Mom! So eager, but no, we aren't reading that right now.

Maybe I'll sneak off to Daddy's work instead. And yes, he loves getting his picture taken.

But Dad, I wanted to do the wipers!

Pinchy waves good bye.

I spy my 12 yr old who said she only played for a little bit because she doesn't like water balloons. One of her friends got her with one that night when she slipped.

I had a couple of people who wanted to share my words, yes MY EXACT WORDS, with their friends about what education is really supposed to be about, which is not just how to get a great career but how to understand and appreciate the whole world around us. Education for knowledge's sake, not just immediate application. It was well written, in my opinion, I was on a roll. And proves that I can write something that people appreciate, relate to, and is not judgmental. If only my sisters could understand that. I did not get much of a reaction from them or my other relatives when I shared the whole content of it. Sigh. Hard to get accolades from your kin.

Second breakfast.

Abishai quite naturally added 3 plus 1 equals four. He's going to be so easy to teach! And a challenge to keep him challenged or rather, keep him busy all day.

When your kid asks you to read a book from the '90's. Back then, 2014 seemed like a long ways off. Now, it's 6 years in the past, say what?!

He has no clue what these mean but we read it anyway.

2020 Football Teams

This is Abishai and us every single morning! Typically around 7 am! No alarm clocks needed!

Remember VHS tapes? And Blockbuster Video?

I'm still not ready for this reality.

Always proactive in the researching.

Easy to apply to today's teens when we can use their phones to track them.

Been there done that when my hair blow dryer got left at the office for over a year!

He thinks it's hilarious to mess up photos.

Keep Calm and Homeschool on. 13 more years with this one.

Lego Minifigure Keychain flashlight found an interesting place to hang out. Sorry Superman.

We counted 80 marbles!

Abishai is a hot mess today. Toys everywhere, bouncing up and down, in and out of a stormtrooper costume. He's a piece of joy filled work!

Yes! We attempted piano lessons on Music Monday! And the kids were actually further than I thought. I guess I had tried to do more with them in the condo than I first thought. So we backtracked and reviewed. Yeah!

Now he's exciting about his coloring.

He's quite proud of himself. Sidenote, I'm pretty sure this page used to be I in Indian.Hm...

So proud!

What a great end to his first day in Kindergarten!

Abishai's name plate at his "desk."

The clouds look ominous.

Keep your abs tucked in or something is going to get hurt. There's a bit hole in the middle of this furniture dolly. But he loved having Daddy pull him on it!

Flying!

If you've ever wondered what the ground under the pavement looked like.

Indiana clay soil.

Ongoing bridge construction.

Homeschool Day #2 is in the books and it was still very pleasant! A little rowdy at times, but we managed to accomplish more than I thought I would. And then afterwards I remembered why I needed my afternoon time. I need to organize a few things for the rest of history and do some reading. Whoops! I'll try to tackle that tomorrow. I let Abishai play a bit while we were going over some letter sounds, so I hope he was listening. I'm trying to be full of grace as he gets used to not having his time be all his own anymore. All his schooling takes 30 minutes tops. We kept Morning Basket a little shorter, too. So far so good on Justin's medication and being able to get work done. He's still fairly slow. I'm not sure how I need to adjust for that. Quality over quantity of materials I think. But I have so much to go over with him! Sigh. I'll think more about that tomorrow. I did call one therapist's office and they don't take insurance. It's almost $400 just for the consult. Nope. And then got descriptions of a couple of counselors in an office we've used before and it doesn't sound like they would have enough expertise that I need. Sigh. I have two more phone numbers to try. Why do mental health practitioners cost so much and are not covered by insurance? I mean, who doesn't see a therapist these days? It's frustrating. Maybe my own counselor will have some ideas. And why do they have to be so far away from us, too?  It doesn't make sense. Everybody needs a counselor from time to time. But if it's too expensive, no wonder people stay messed up for longer.

I also got in a social media spat on a couple of posts today over education. I basically ignored social media the rest of the day so I wouldn't dig myself further into a hole. Otherwise, we kept the house picked up, piano lessons were had, a short (but totally dumb) art video was watched, we played a little bit outside while Daddy was at small group, and watched other silly schoolish videos called School House Rock from the '90's that a lot of parents and teachers like. They were pretty lame. And not very informative. But all three kids sat there and watched them because it's a screen. Abishai kept whispering for me to play the next one because he knew it would annoy the others. He got a good laugh out of it. Then I laughed listening to the dialogue between him and Jared while playing Minecraft. "Hey, Dad, can you put it on survival mode? I want to kill bad guys." "No, I won't. How about you put your guy in his bed, it's bedtime." "But dad, just this one more thing!" "No, the sky is dark (on Minecraft) and you can't fight when it's nighttime. (and it's dark outside."  For  5 yr old, Abishai totally acts and talks like a teenager. Lol

Abishi did cry alot when Jared left for Bible study though. He's super attached to him. But he also nearly beat Justin on the skateboard tonight! He was running ,without shoes, on pavement and nearly over took him. In front of our friends who had stopped on their way around the block on roller blades. Abishai wanted to talk their ears off of course. They might come by tomorrow to play, at least the daughter might. She started school but is also doing a hybrid program. We'll see. We're flexible. It was a gorgeous day outside.

Oh, and Keturah decided she wanted to take a look around the attic. Um, ok, I guess. But she was responsible for cleaning herself up and anything she found. She found a few things, like old tins, (one is from England!), some US citizenship course material from 2008, a package of plastic spoons, some new wrapping paper from kmart, and a whole lot of dust. Thankfully it wasn't too stuffy up there. It was a good little discussion though about angles of roofs and what makes up insulation and where things connect with the downstairs, etc. It does open up across the whole house and there's super old insulation blown in. I wouldn't let her touch the insulation bits. She did have sneakers and long pants on thank goodness. Abishai went up the ladder and I only let him sit at the top because he had no shoes on and was in shorts. Too dangerous. They did find a lose nail. So, adventures at home, eh? Ok.

That's it. Windows open at night again. A little progress made on education and phone calls. Calm day. Same for tomorrow.

 

 

Lots of random things happening, but we are embracing them all! Keturah wanted to take Abishai out to puddle jump. I said, "Yes! Go!" They didn't get too wet, but they did get in ditch, too.

Ketuah thought there would be more puddles out back, but the water had all absorbed back into the ground from the down pour this morning.

Always a construction zone. I loved how he set them up!

Batman and friends in a swimming pool? Or in a ball pit?

I decided to come hang with the boys for a little bit. Snuggle time!

Awww....

She wanted to see what the attic was like, so why not? Go explore!

We didn't go get ice cream last night, so the kids had a little treat this afternoon of ice cream and cosmic brownies. Abishai put his brownies in an ice cream cone!

She tried to eat those super spicy "fries" all day with lots of milk and finally had to throw the bag away. Yes, she drank milk. No, she didn't really yucky. Her stomach is still a mystery to me. Just as long as it doesn't interfere with her life, I'm ok not doing anything about it right now.

Recess

Wait, what?! 2026? Oh, that's their high school graduation year! Man, that's so soon! The girls now have a group me chat group going but I have to have it on my phone and the tablet. It's my email but Keturah's name.

It's a great night to climb a tree by yourself!

I remember when we first moved here and he barely wanted to sit on the limb. He's so big!

There was a whole line of these cicada casings on the undersides of the branches. Like they all molted at once. Crazy!

This one looks like the bug is still in there! Abishai's leg is more than a foot away from it.

Bouncing on the tree limb makes the end of it look like a bushy dancing dog! Keturah and he had a great time laughing about it!

It takes a lot of energy to shake a whole tree branch!

George of the Jungle!

I'm certain he could scale this tree if he wanted too, especially with the limbs so close together. But then he realized the sticky sap of the pine tree and didn't like it.

Randomly hanging out in the grass with the dog together on this beautiful night. They didn't even complain about being outside.

So many RANDOM things to play with!

Skater girl, who fell in the kitchen and then refused to keep the skates on.

This was fun for about a minute. Hard to keep your abs engaged and your "no no square" protected.

Ursula with Flotsam and Jestsom from "The Little Mermaid."  Nice! I've had other Disney characters in this game as well. Oh, and I bought a nice upgrade for the kitty's box. She now has a rocket and space helmet! Silly games, I know.

Aw, poor Abishai. We told him some new friends are coming to play tomorrow and he dissolved in tears. I don't think he wants people to invade his space or relational bubble. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm hoping it's just a fluke, but he tends to remember things the next day, too. Jared is going to the chiropractor and the post office super early and then going to be home until he leaves with Jim at 2pm for their overnight camping trip. So, school probably won't happen for Abishai. But that's ok. There's nothing going on on Friday. Park Day is way up north and so is Mom's Night Out. We did finish all our school work by 1pm though. The kids seem to be getting up ok. We tend to not do our morning basket until 9:15 or so, and that's mostly my fault. I had to pull Abishai along this morning because he didn't want to work. Eventually he did. I might need to give him more breaks. So far so good though on school work. Justin had small group tonight. Keturah could have played with Quinn today but she wasn't bold enough to go up and knock on the trailer door or the front door of their house, even when she brought Socks back from their walk. Sigh. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink! Instead, she wandered aimlessly at home bored out of her mind and bothering her brothers. I finally got out the history books. I'm a bit overwhelmed about figuring it all out, but at the same time, it's very important to me. So, I just have to dig in and give it my best. I'm super tired today. I didn't take an excedrin migraine but just ibuprofen. I'm getting a lot of rebound headaches and I'm trying to wean myself down off of the meds again. I did read 20-30 minutes in each of my books though. And that's it. We probably should have found ways to spend more time outside. It's just hard when I have other things to do inside. Sigh.

This is insane! I've never heard of curriculum selling out!

Especially around our neighborhood this summer.

I'm going to turn these two boxes of books (plus library ones I 'm sure) into World History, American History and American Government. And it's only 1750-1830. Yikes!

This is all our American stuff that isn't tied directly to a time period, like a book about ALL the presidents or how government is set up.

I'm guessing this will take two years this time. I want Justin to be thoroughly grounded in true history.

This is our World History main book. They only spend two lessons (3 lessons per week) on the American Revolution (and the American Civil War) and just hit the highlights. So we will hit pause, and go digging deep into The American Revolution and the American government. This one quarter will definitely take all semester.

That's Smitty for ya!

This guy does NOT dream very often. So I took a video because you never know when you'll have your last whatever with an animal or person.

Not sure if I agree with what he did or not. I guess he needed to put the creature out of it's misery.

It's a hoax. The Onion is all about fake news.

I sorted the first book into the individual lessons. Some books have the lesson numbers in them from last time, and some I just have to guess according to topic. I have book lists from the curriculum and what we borrowed from the library with notes on who's read what already. Should be interesting.

School isn't taking her very long right now so she's still bored out of our mind. She needs to pick up a real hobby. Sigh.

Wow. What a day! Jared left early for the chiropractor and post office, and then was home for the morning. He took Abishai to a couple of stores to find heavy duty bug spray, yes, with DEET in it. Well, no luck on that, but Abishai brought home a new Hot Wheels car. Gah! He's so spoiled by Daddy! As Jared was getting things ready to go, our new neighborhood friends came over right after lunch. They live just down the street from us and have been apparently going to the Creek forever! Leah knows them well and has had the kids in her class and the nursery. They are new homeschoolers so we talked and talked and could talk for hours but I had given her a heads up that I had an online appointment. That's the only thing that stopped the conversation! It's a good thing that they are a 2 minute walk away! There's a 5 yr old boy and I'm hoping that he and Abishai can grow up together. They probably already go to class together. BUT, when we told Abishai about them coming over, Abishai had a fit that some random new person would invade our space and play with his special toys. So we took a box and hid the ones he was specifically talking about. He was very nervous up until they were in our yard. He insisted we play outside first, and within a few minutes, they were all getting along just fine. I was juggling saying good bye to Jared and having a conversation with the mom, but it all worked out. Then Abishia suggested that we go inside to play. I guess he just needed to know that these kids were ok. He wasn't ok with the almost 2 yr old following him around and "ruining" everything. Uh, kid, you used to do that to your siblings and you still do! But I think it was fun time had by all. Leah said the dad plays on the worship band. Alrighty then! I'm just glad to have a homeschooling friend in the neighborhood for Abishai. The 9 yr old daughter (they have 4 kids) played with Keturah just fine. I don't expect them to be best buds, but they didn't seem to mind each other.

Then I had my appointment, leftovers for supper, and then Bible study. Oh, we did have time for morning basket and the middles got their work done. I didn't do work with Abishai because he was gone with Daddy. We'll do 1 or 2 lessons tomorrow. We have nothing on the schedule for tomorrow except to get groceries. I planned that on purpose because I knew we had a break before spending all day with homeschoolers on Saturday. Abishai wanted to go with me to Bible study and I let him because we really hadn't connected much throughout the day. And with Daddy being gone overnight, Abishai's routine was really off. We brought the wagon and he brought some of this cars. He sat mostly quietly and played while we did our study. He even prayed for us at the end! He behaved very well. He even went to bed without a fuss. He's growing up! Oh, and he wanted to sleep in my arms during our study. He just needed the reassurance of his mom because dad wasn't there. So, I let him. No big deal. And it worked like a charm. The other two kids stayed home. Justin worked on his pokemon cards and Keturah did some more tablet time and reading time. Benaiah was at Shelby St. campus playing drums I think to be prerecorded for 9 days from now. Dan did share a video that he will be preaching live from the stage for the first time in 5 months THIS Sunday. It's going to be interesting what parts of service will be live and what won't be. We'll just wait and see.

I wasn't going to open the windows, but it was so stuffy when I got home. I might close them before I got to bed though. Jared's doing an overnight camp with his guy friends. He'll be back before dinner tomorrow. I'm sure he needed this little escape. And then Saturday I get to spend hours and hours with my IAHE peeps. I'm SO looking foward to being with people who have the same passion as I do. I can't wait to put some names and faces together. I want my kids to know these kids and make them their "IAHE" family. We are going to picnic and the kids get to roam somebody's huge property about an hour away. I just need my people who get me and to stay out of conversations that don't pertain to me. (Like school pick up lines or elearning woes). Stay in my lane, hanging with my homeschool peeps, dragging my family with me. But it IS my thing and I should be able to introduce my family to it. I'm surprised that Gary and Leah haven't asked much about it. And no one at Bible study asked how our first week went. But my homeschool buds will and they do care. And I hope to ask other homeschoolers how it's going, when are they starting, what are they using for curriculum, and listen to their woes about children with disabilities Or teens who don't want to work. Yup, my stuff. And my family gets to join me in my "hobby" for awhile. I'm pumped! I just hope Jared doesn't find it too cringe worthy. I know that most of the spouses aren't involved in the IAHE stuff, so he's in good company.

Anyway, there's that to look forward, too. I hope Abishai's people basket is full because mine is empty. I'm done, don't talk to me, don't look at me, leave me a lone to enjoy my TV shows. Good night!

If I wanted to wake up to camping temps, I would have gone camping. Shut the windows!

We keep it at 74 in the winter, so, no, you  don't have to cool the house down this low every night by opening the windows and turning on the house fan. Brrr!

Evidence of my late night snacking. It was warmer in the bathroom than the kitchen.

A little playtime before Daddy leaves for his trip.

Took a picture of his train track in case the new kids messed it up.

Pinchies to Daddy! And lots of signs of life, from bikes in the yard that belong to the new family, to Jim, Greg, and Jared getting in the truck and RV trailer. Busy, busy!

Ready to play cars on the way home from Bible Study. #spoiled

Who's ready to hear a live preacher fro the first time in 5 months? Eh, it doesn't matter to me. But I know it matters to most. So yeah!

The End