Our Homeschool Christmas Recital

We had our homeschool Christmas recital today. Here's some music performed by Connor, McKenzie, and Tyler. Try to ignore the background "music". Bekah was not happy, not being the center of attention with all those other people around. And, btw, I've been a Youtube lurker for a while now. These are my first video uploads.

Melody, played by Connor:	Rhythm Machine, played by Connor:
Deck the Halls, played by Connor:	Joy to the World, played by Kenzie:
What Child is This, played by Kenzie:	Jolly Old St. Nick, played by Tyler:
Jingle Bells, played by Tyler:

It Was Happy Screaming

I was wrong. The screaming was from the back yard. And it was happy screaming. Several kids are in a tree, the rest are running around. It looks like the Indians have the Settlers trapped. All but one, even have their coats on, and I think they all have shoes on, if not socks. December 22, officially Winter, and I still can't get them to dress properly for the season, without constant nagging. Even when they leave the house in proper attire, it doesn't last long once they get outside.

Well, the good news is that the days are now getting longer and Summer is on its way.

Calm Before the Storm

We cleaned the house, wrapped the presents, finished school for the year, did the laundry. Wow. What are we going to do today? There's still three days before Christmas and most preparations are done. I guess I could go to the grocery store. Vicki needs butter for making more cookies.

This is like the calm before the storm. The kids are antsy, when they're not bored, which is when they irritate each other just to have something to do. I definitely don't want to go to any stores today, with all the last minute frenzy-shopping. I usually go to the mall with my FIL on Christmas Eve, just so we can laugh at all the folks looking for that last, last minute gift. I don't think I'll go this year, with Christmas Eve being on a Sunday.

I looked out the window this morning and saw Alex and Kenzie, sitting with the chickens, in the chicken run. They seemed to be having a serious conversation. No arguing. No yelling. Just talking. In the drizzle. Very cool. With all the craziness that goes on around here, moments like that are precious. Older brother, younger sister, having a talk, enjoying their backyard barnyard.

I'm out in the classroom, which used to be our garage. Above me is the kids' portion of the house (bedrooms, playroom, etc). I mention this only because I fear the peace has been broken, as evidenced by the screaming I hear from above. I can't tell if it's happy screaming, or not, so I'd better go check on things.

All Went Well

We finished our review with the school board in record time. There were two ladies working today, and one finished up with her family early, so she helped get us done, too. This being our fourth year doing this, the kids mostly took care of themselves, even my first graders. Last year I could barely get Tay to talk at all. This year, he did the whole review by himself. To me, this aspect of homeschooling is as important as anything else. At a very young age, my kids have all been able to talk to adults in this kind of situation. Well anyway, our Christmas vacation has officially begun!

Our piano teacher has challenged Connor, Kenzie, and Tyler to perform a recital over the Holiday. Ray will give them extra credit if they bring him a program from their recital. Kenzie and I, with some input from Connor, just finished making it. Here's the front and inside pages.

Off To Our Review

This state is not the best when it comes to being homeschool-friendly, but there are worse. The one big pain in the binder is that we have to go to the county Board of Education office twice a year to get "monitored". It's like a reverse parent-teacher conference where, instead of the teacher showing the parent what they've done in school for the past semester, the parent has to show the county representative what they've done at home. Technically, all I have to do is show them a portfolio (no grades or tests are required) of representative work in each subject the government schools would have attempted to teach in their school. In reality, we pack up almost everything we did for the past 4 months (plus the work we did over the summer) and lug it all down to Centreville. The monitors are usually former government school teachers turned homeschooler, so they are very easy to deal with; they know exactly what we homeschoolers are going through. Rather than being a difficult ordeal, it's fun for me to talk about and compare homeschool curricula with them. There are other options available that would get me out of having to cart the troops to the county office, but I kinda look forward to the feedback I get. Also, the kids' grandfather (Vicki's dad) is HR Director for the Board of Education and, as he works in the building we'll be going to, we get to go cause a bit chaos in his office (whether he's in or not, the ladies that work in his office love to see the kids on their semi-annual visit). Plus, today is Poppop's birthday, so hopefully he'll be there when we arrive.

The really really nice thing about today is that we'll be done school until January 2. Government schools are open all week, so this is the kids' treat, being off for an extra few days before Christmas.

Santa's Here!

Since we don't get much snow here, before Christmas, Santa always recruits the help of our volunteer fire department to visit all the neighborhoods in his annual pre-Christmas rounds. They just load his sleigh on a trailer, sign up some temporary reindeer (it's too warm for the real ones, I reckon), and add a few elves for candy cane distribution. I figure he uses this opportunity to map out the most efficient route to all the houses he'll stop at on Christmas Eve. Who better to know the fastest way around town than our volunteers, eh? I was so excited about Santa being here, I forgot to take a picture of the rest of his entourage, including the monster fire engine that led the way, sirens blaring, and several other EMS vehicles, with lights a-flashin'.

No Sunrise Today

We had lots of fog, though. I love walking in the fog. Everything is so still and peaceful, unless you have a little girl with you who is complaining about her leg hurting. I almost went by myself this morning, but I couldn't sneak out of the house fast enough: darn, noisy garage door opener! This picture, when I first loaded it on the computer was completely black. Thankfully, there was something there for the software to pick up and enhance, so I could show you our foggy morning.

Low Tide

After a brief hiatus due to frigid temperatures, Kenzie and I got back to our sunrise walk this morning. It was still a little chilly (about 39 F), but the wind was calm. Hmm, how can wind be calm? By definition, calm means no wind. I hate when weathermen(people) say the wind is calm, and then I go and say it. It's like saying my Tyler is calm. If he is ever anything but hyper, he wouldn't be Tyler anymore. Start again: There was no wind. So, it didn't feel very cold, and we could go for our walk. The sun is still coming up later and later, so we arrived at our sunrise observation post many minutes before the actual sunrise, but we were treated to an exceptionally low tide. We could walk out to our little island (which was now a peninsula) and Kenzie thought that was really cool. The pictures I post here are very much enhanced since it was much darker than it appears, but I figure you'd rather see enhanced pictures than big black blotchy things. Below are some of those Canadian geese that visit us this time of year.

Chorale

Vicki already updated our weekend chaos so I won't re-iterate. But I can add a picture of the kids' chorale, from Sunday evening. I also noticed she was gracious enough to omit my speeding ticket (I was framed!). Just another revenue generator for the State. I'm just doing my patriotic duty by giving them another reason to collect more money that the politicians can waste. That's why they build those perfectly smooth, level, and straight stretches of freeway through a completely rural area, then camouflage their cars that very lovely olive green and park with the setting sun at their backs, while our urban areas are deteriorating from crime and drugs. I don't blame our law enforcement personnel. I, too, would rather spend my Sunday afternoon aiming a radar gun at a family going to church than somewhere my services are truly needed.

Bumble Bee

Bekah found this old bumble bee costume last night and has been wearing everywhere. Here's her in the classroom this morning, before we went to church. I made her take off the bee suit for Mass.

Website Update

Andy and Vicki's Place is now updated with the new family and kid pictures. I'm really late on getting the photo albums updated, but I'm going to try to do that before 2007 gets here. I might also add bigger calendar pictures for each month so you can see more than the little thing I posted here yesterday.

Wish us luck tonight. Kearsyn got 5 shots and one oral vaccine today. I think it's crazy, giving kids all those shots. When Alex had his done at that age, I think he got two shots. Poor Keary, who's sleeping now, has been absolutely miserable today. She never screams during the day like she has today, so we know she's feeling awful. Even Alex couldn't calm her down!

Family Calendar

Next year's calendar is finished. It costs us a fortune in ink and supplies (especially when you factor in the mistakes and do-overs), but our family really likes to get the collection of pictures, taken throughout the previous year, of all the kids. Since I only use a digital camera, I tend to have very few photographs to hand out throughout the year, and my family, especially my mother, is pretty computer illiterate, so they don't see many pictures of the kids (not that I update my website very often, even if they did go online to look at it). The calendar is the answer. We started this calendar thing in 1997 by sending our pictures to a company that made them. I started making my own in 1999. Here are the front and back pages of the 2007 version. The front cover is a picture I took of McKenzie early this year on a trail that runs across the island. It's one of my favorite pictures of 2006 (and all time). Usually, I try to get creative with my front cover, but I didn't have the heart to mess up that beautiful shot with my photo editing program.

Soccer Reprise

Just when you think you are all done for the season, soccer is over, time to relax, the day arrives for the dreaded SOCCER PARTY. With four teams, soccer parties can drag on for a long time, trying to squeeze them all in, between everything else that's going on this time of year. Usually, all parties are over by now, but we've had so much rain this year, the season was way into November, thus delaying thoughts of end-of-season celebrations until December. We've decided to cram three events into one weekend. It just happens to be this one, the return of WINTER at hand. brrr. I can't complain, though; it's been incredibly nice, way longer than it should have been this year. Today, we have Connor's and McKenzie's teams combined into one party. Alex's is tomorrow. I'm not doing one for the twins' team; time just got away from us.

We have our parties at the soccer field because the main event for all of our soccer parties is the kids vs. parents game. The kids love to dream about beating their parents in a game of soccer. Once the game is done, we'll give out trophies and have some pizza.

Since I didn't get to my rant on Black Friday, I'll take some time now for my trophy rant. I am a believer that a trophy, or any kind of reward, should be earned, not paid for. Everyone who pays for registration, gets a trophy. I think a complete uniform is enough, but our soccer league hands out trophies like candy. Everybody who gets a uniform, gets a trophy. It's a racket, on the same order as those photographers who charge a fortune to photograph the kids in their soccer uniforms when everyone already has a camera of their own (if you don't, you get a disposable one for ten bucks at the Dollar store; add a few bucks for developing film, and you've still spent tens of dollars less than those 'professional' pic) . Then, at the end of the year, when we have tournaments, the winners get, yes, another trophy (or a medallion). I think all those trophies floating around, de-value the awards for those who excel at what they do.

I used to display all of those things on one big bookshelf like the one on the left. Now, they are in the box on the right. And with five kids in sports, that was a lot of filled shelves. Even things like 'game balls' are meaningless, because everyone gets a game ball, regardless of whether or not they actually deserve one. I've been told by some parents that I do a really good job "manufacturing" a reason to hand out game balls (in baseball). I always have a reason for handing one out to every kid throughout the season, regardless of how far-fetched the justification. As you can see on the bookshelf above, I whittled the kids' trophies down to one shelf. Every one of these trophies was EARNED. They had to work for them. Without the effort, where's the value? These trophies will always have real meaning to the kids. Some kids don't have any on this shelf, yet. They have something to aspire to. As an aside, one of those trophies is for chess. This is my personal favorite because Connor won it in a chess tournament when he was 6 years old. He didn't win it because I let him beat me in chess. He studies the game. He practices all the time (well, not much lately), and, to my shame, he now beats me on a regular basis. He hasn't been in any tournaments for a couple years, but that's going to change in the Spring.

If I don't stop now, this'll get really long. Rant over.

Other news. After the soccer parties, I'll go over and pick up our professional pictures that were taken two weeks ago. I know, what about that rant about 'professional' pictures? Um, well, I have a few excuses. Number one is that it's a fundraiser for the volunteer fire company on Kent Island. They get a cut. Second, it's the onlydecent picture of Vicki and/or me you'll see all year long. Third, it's our annual school picture thing. Fourth, the grandparents expect to get these pictures for Christmas. Finally, I'm saving a couple of months in my annual family calendar for these pictures.

After that, it's off to see Santa. Most of the kids claim they no longer believe in Santa. I have a chart on our white board. It lists the 'Believers', 'non-Believers', and 'wafflers'. The B's and n-B's were evenly split a few weeks ago (with one waffler), but I've noticed a gradual shift as Christmas approaches. As of this morning, all wafflers, and all but one n-B are firmly in the Believer column. Kenzie is the only holdout; everyone else is at least pretending to believe in order to assure stuffed stockings on Christmas morning. Kenzie doesn't care if she just gets a rock. The only reason I want to go see Santa is that he'll be at the 4H Park where they also have model trains running. I love model trains. Not the little, whimpy N or HO scale, but the monster G-scale trains like this one that I had set up a few Christmases ago. We have a large collection these trains but we don't get them out because the kids tend to think they are toys. I had one running around, and over, our pond outside a few years ago, but the kids wouldn't leave it alone and most of the track got all bent up. The bridge is still there, though.