2011-12 School Plan (Updated)

~ erica

Is it okay to plan/ start a new school year before you finish the paperwork for the year before? Maybe I'd better work on the kids' assessments today... I sat down last spring and wrote out a preliminary plan for curriculum this year. I still think its a sound plan but I think I need to add a few more things. This morning I started clearing books and homeschool stuff that we are never going to use off the shelves and found a couple of things that I think we should use such as Greenleaf's Old Testament History and the Learning Language Arts Through Literature Orange Book on doing research and a report (I've got the old set and can't find a link to it). Tovah found an Origami book and is busy using up the paper I've had on the shelf for 23 years, I guess its time to let it go!

Jonah: 6th Grade

Bible/ History: Greenleaf Old Testament History, Breakout: How to Share Christ

Reading: Pathways Readers & workbooks New Friends and More New Friends

Math: Math-U-See Delta

Language: Word Roots, LLATL Orange

History: WA State History

Science: Geology MB, Scout stuff

Building Thinking Skills

Health: Baseball, Swim lessons, Scout Stuff

Isaac: 8th Grade

Bible/ History: Greenleaf Old Testament History

Language: A Beka Language B, LLATL Orange/ Research project, Vocabulary

History: WA State History Our Northwest Heritage

Science: Geology A Beka Science of the Physical Creation

Math: Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra

Building Thinking Skills

Arin: 9th Grade

Bible/ History: Greenleaf Old Testament History

Language: IEW Structure and Style, LLATL Orange/ Research project, Vocabulary

History: WA State History Our Northwest Heritage

Science: Geology Apologia Biology
Math: Teaching Textbooks Math 7
Building Thinking Skills

I need to have them do some placement tests for Teaching Textbooks. Also I need to go through their Scout books and current Merit Badge Blue Cards to see what they need to finish up and start to stay on track (this has been on my To Do list since Spring Break). We haven't met with Isaac and Arin's supervising teacher yet and haven't ordered any curriculum but I think we'll get started after Labor Day with what we have on hand- finishing last year's Thinking Skills books, Merit Badge work, LLATL, and Greenleaf. I did a review for Timberdoodle on the Word Roots and Building Thinking Skills and liked them so much we plan to continue using them. I'll probably have Jonah do the literature sections of LLATL while the other 2 only do the research and report units. Wednesday nights start on the 14th and Jonah will get his Breakout book then. We plan on getting another gym membership so we'll swim once a week and they'll go to the gym at least once a week. Jonah is old enough now to go through the training and use the treadmills and exercise bikes. They like to climb the rock so we may try and add that a couple times of month. Of course, it all might change after our meeting with their teacher...



The Fair

~erica

The last hurrah of summer before we change gears to Back To School/ Fall mode

Linking up to the L.E.N.S. Photo Challenge: Summer {End}

So Much Yarn!

~erica

This is what I got for my birthday (as well as a new Bible in New Kings James to replace my NIV that the cover is falling off). Ryan sold a bunch of his nursing books and knew I wanted some yarn for my birthday (okay, the catalog with the shawl has had a prominent place on our desk for weeks). He let me pick out the extra sock yarn to get to $50 for free shipping.

This yarn will make this shawl.



photo source



I don't usually wear shawls but I love the colors of the Seasons shawl and the look. I'm thinking in the gray days of February and March it will keep me warm and make me feel like spring.

 

3 sets of sock yarn. The darker red is Gypsy Tonal and it'll be fun to knit a pair of socks with an intricate stitch pattern (I'm hoping its not too dark to see the stitch definition).

The multicolored is called Juice Box and it makes me happy just to look at it.

The plain yarn is a silk merino blend that I plan on dying with Kool Aid. I'm tending towards the blue or a dark green but I have a feeling Tovah will have a say in the color choice. I ran across this chart by Tried & True and it was my first ever pin to Pinterest



photo source



This should be enough yarn to keep me busy all winter especially since I have 3 projects I am currently working on: a cardigan that Ryan ordered me from Knit Picks for Mother's Day, a pair of herringbone socks that I am knitting out of the possum yarn a friend brought back from New Zealand for me, and an R2D2 hat for a guy I went to high school with. I thought it would be easy to whip up and I'd get his done and then make them for the boys.... the beanie was quick and easy but the details are going to be the death of me.

Our Oregon Trip

~erica

Monday the kids and I headed down to Portland for 3 days of being tourists. With our Pacic Science Center membership and staying at my aunt's it didn't cost much more than gas and fun food.

We went to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. They had 2 featured exhibits that we wanted to see; Narnia and Game On. Narnia cost us $2 each to get in. They had costumes from the first 2 movies and sets and props. There were some hands on exhibits warning against global warming (I think the link was the big thaw in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe- never mind that was caused by magic). There was a wall of ice that you could try to climb and some chain mail and armor to try and lift. The second exhibit was about the development of video games. They had everything from pinball machines and arcade games to Wii, Kinect, and a Virtual Reality game. They had Pong set up a big screen, it just seemed wrong. The boys could have stayed in there for hours but it was so noisy! I looked for PacMan but couldn't get near it if it was there.

We went to stay at my aunt Ann's house. My cousin Paul's family came over for dinner and my cousin Fae came in with her new baby. We gladly held the baby all evening, the kids fought over who got to hold her. Noah is as blond as most of the cousins in my generation (I was the exception- I always had brown hair).

(Turns out no flash, night time pictures are better when they are black & white.)

Tuesday Ann & Kaitlyn went with us to McMinnville to the Evergreen Air & Space Museum. Kaitlyn had been to the museum before but it was new for the rest of us. My membership got in 2 adults and all the kids in the party, we had wanted to go when we had a membership to the Boeing Air Museum but because Evergreen has an IMAX it is actually a science museum and not an air museum.  I'll be writing a post on the value of memberships to places, but I'll just say here that these 2 visits would have cost more than we paid for our Science Center membership, even at the Platinum level.

My friend, Mauri, met us the parking lot for a 5 minute hug and catch up; I hadn't seen her since she moved down there 2-3 years ago. She had to get to a class but it was nice to see her even for just a few minutes.

They had old airline seats all over the museum instead of benches. Every time the kids sat down they buckled their seat belts. Every single time! Towards the end of the second section of the museum I sat down and figured out how to recline the seats then I didn't want to get up and drive the hour back to Ann's.

The highlight of the museum is Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose. You can go into the fuselage and look both ways. They filled the wings with beach balls for flotation- remember that the next time the flight attendant tells you to use your seat cushion.... It's a huge airplane but they have so many airplanes around it and the building is so big that it's hard to get a real sense of its size.

Rounds of ammunition in the wing | I finally got a picture of the Berlin Wall (I didn't have any film when I was there in 1988) | 24 kills

Sig Sauer (why does the name seem familiar?) | This banner says "Pacific Theater" | Time Magazine cover with "Race for the Moon"

 

Arin with his head up the exhaust vent of a Saturn rocket | Isaac inside the bigger exhaust vent of the rocket | Boy Scout sash is a "typical" boys room of the 1950s (but I think those are all modern badges)

In the hands on area they had an infared camera and you could see yourself on the screen. We were easily amused and stood there for quite a while rubbing our hands together to heat them up. The lighter areas are the warmer areas. Arin and Rush's noses were black and Rush's curls were jet black, he looked like Bernard from The Santa Claus. The display of guns was of special interest to the boys and they all liked playing outside on the playground. Tovah got to push the button that started the Saturn rocket countdown so she was happy. The boys want to go back with Ryan (and he'd like to go too), maybe we'll go if we go down to Homeschool Day at Oregon Gardens on Sept. 13.

There's a Sonic around the corner from my aunt's so we made sure we were back in Hillsboro in time for Sonic Happy Hour. Everyone got a 32-oz. drink and was happy.

Wednesday we were going to go hiking at Multnomah Falls but it was too hot and we were ready to be home. We headed across town to stop at Ikea for a shower curtain for the boys' bathroom and swedish meatballs. We're having them for dinner tonight as soon as Ryan gets home (we could bring them home frozen since we had the coolers with us).

Safeco Field Tour

~erica

For our anniversary Ryan got tickets to Mary Poppins for me then let me plan the rest of the day in Seattle. He did ask that, if we had time, could we please go tour Safeco Field.

There were only 3 of us on the 2 o'clock tour. The visiting Clubhouse was the first place we went in, we were encouraged to take pictures and ask questions, the guide had been with the club forever. It was overwhelming to even know where to start taking pictures.

We went out on the field and could sit in the dugouts and take pictures from behind home plate. Ryan standing where Eric Wedge (is that the current manager?) stands during the games.  

We watched the grounds crew replace the sod around home plate while we waited for an earlier group to clear the visitors dugout. Ryan could talk team players and stats all he wanted with the guide.

See, I was there too.

Media room being interviewed.

Press box- we're in the open window under the "Wel" of Welcome to Safeco Field in the picture of Ryan in the dugout.

We got to see the Diamond Club and a couple of the suites including the owner's suite. It was a lot of fun even if you aren't a diehard baseball nut. You can book online and set up group tours. We just bought our tickets at the Mariner's store when we arrived (Ryan had checked out the times and costs before we went). Tickets are $9 for adults and $7 for kids. Group tour discounts are available. The website said be prepared to walk 1 mile and climb stairs but its wheelchair accessible. I think we used the wheelchair route since the only stairs we climbed were at the home plate entrance.

Why Are You Crying?

~erica

Halloween weekend 1993 at Fred Hutchison- Swedish Hospital, Seattle

Today I helped at the church for the service for a 5 year old who died of a mitochondrial disorder. I didn't plan on actually attending, just hanging out in the reception area during the service to make sure everything was ready. I watched about 2 minutes of the slide show and their pictures of central lines, hospitals, and normal kid stuff with medical equipment was too close to our pictures of life with Taryn; I just couldn't watch anymore and went into the office to call my friend Mary Linda. You see, she's been there done that too.

I grew up knowing that children die, I remember hoping I died before my 12th birthday because I thought that grown-ups wouldn't have as much fun in heaven. My mom's baby sister died in about 1963 of a Wilm's Tumor (now one of the most curable childhood cancers). When I was little my grandma always seemed sad, recently I realized that it had only been about 10 years since Terri died. Taryn died 17 years ago and there are days that it seems like yesterday. When I was 7 or 8 my aunt's baby boy died from a birth accident (I still don't know exactly what happened). 3 boys from my class died our Senior year. I knew people who knew people that lost babies to SIDS but it never personally touched me. When I was pregnant with Nathan a couple from our Bible Study lost their baby boy, Matthew, from placenta abruptio. At his funeral it devastated me to think that they were going to have to leave their little boy on Guam when they transferred back stateside.

When Taryn was diagnosed with leukemia at 6 months, they told us she probably would die that night or that first week. We had 18 months more months as a precious gift. That first night I held her in my arms, rocking and nursing her and mourning all the things she'd never be able to do and all the firsts I'd never get to see. I got to see her crawl, walk, talk, potty-train herself, I got to see her personality develop and learn her likes and dislikes. When she relapsed and died it was hard but it wasn't devastating- I knew that day was coming and I knew that I was letting her go to be healed perfectly.

2 years ago when Ahvri died the hardest part was that we didn't have any good memories to balance out the sadness. We never got to know her, she never became "real."

A week after Taryn died I got a phone call that another little girl had died at Children's. Nathan came in to the kitchen where I was crying at the table, overwhelmed by sadness. He asked me, "Why are you crying, mom? Don't you know Quinn is in Heaven with Taryn and Scotty?" He wasn't even 5 yet, but already understood, this world is not our home we're just passing through. We're not promised a perfect life, we're promised a Perfect Saviour and our job is to live our life to his glory. Just because we are Christians doesn't mean that we are sheltered from the results of our fallen world- we live in a world of sin and death and decay.

I guess maybe what I am trying to remind myself is that every day is precious. I get caught up in the everydayness of life and forget to be thankful for the little things, like the 5 boys and the little girl that God gave us because He has a sense of humor, for the healthiness of the kids, for the individuality of each of the kids, for the chance to be their mom. They are who they are because they were each especially chosen for me. When children are little and cute its easy to celebrate the firsts, everything they do is new and wonderful, it's just as important to mark and celebrate the firsts as they enter their teen years.

2008- just before Nathan left for the Army

So, tomorrow I'm sending Jonah off to his first Boy Scout camp, his first week away from me other than with grandparents, his first "big" boy event. Isaac is going as the big brother and the one responsible for the spending money and seeing that Jonah's okay. Monday I'm letting Rush drive us to Eastern WA and I'll try not to freak out too much. I'm letting Arin grow his hair out for Locks of Love even though its in his eyes and driving me nuts (Ryan's having a harder time- long, greasy hair reminds him of working at the prison).

Catching Up

~erica

I feel bad that the only blogging I've done lately is Saturday Confessions with Melissa at A Familiar Path, I've been taking pictures and we've been doing stuff but it hasn't made it on here. I've got our homeschool plan just about put together, Tovah and I have molded hard boiled eggs, I promised Ryan a Safeco Field post, but I just haven't gotten to them yet...

Arin had an orthodontist appointment just up the street from the spray fountain. It was one of the few really hot days we've had but only he and Tovah were interested in going and playing. I took them out for ice cream afterwards at Dairy Dans (their junior cones are about 8" high)

We went to hear a Mariachi band at the library on Tuesday, it sprinkled a bit but not enough to be a problem. They were really good and I guess several of them are big names in the music scene (my dad knows of the fiddle player and said if he'd known who was going to be there he would have come with us). Rush's friend has been staying with us this week, his family moved to New Mexico last fall.

Monday we went on the Steam Train. It's always a fun trip. I set up a late field trip for the local homeschoolers, I would have needed 60 to meet the minimum riders for the train but we were on with 2 other groups and didn't need a minimum. We had 122! I spent most of the hour plus trip catching up with people I haven't seen in several years and also putting faces to email addresses from the loop.

This is Arin's lightsaber in the dark. I ran upstairs and read a quick tutorial on taking fireworks pictures while Ryan and the kids set them up on the 4th. My dad found his tripod for me, I took a lot of shots pointed in the wrong direction as I couldn't see through my view finder exactly where I was pointed.

The neighbor's mortars above the field behind us.

Ryan bought a ton of sparklers but only Tovah wanted to do them. We have the leftovers for New Year's.