Emma's soccer

So, Emma has now entered the world of organized sports that her siblings have been in for years. A couple of weeks ago she started practices, and this past Saturday, she had her first "game".

Game is in quotes because I think that's a generous use of the word. They have 9 girls on a team - they play on half of a micro sized field, so they space they play in is probably 15yd x 15yd. They don't keep score and the minute the ball goes out, they just throw another one in and keep going



Because it was the first week, they had professional trainers come up and work with the kids on some drills and then they started up the game. They were working on dribbling with a variety of games. My favorite was a variation on Freeze Tag - but every time the trainer said "freeze" and there was even ONE girl still moving, all of the girls had to DANCE. I think this was my favorite part because Emma certainly has the biggest smile on her face.








But, they finally got to it. I had forgotten that girls play so different than boys. Here's what happens when GIRLS collide!


But things finally settled down, made a few good kicks, and she had a good time - which was the most important thing.



On the diabetes front, this was a new experience for us. She unfortunately was going low when we got to the field, and probably ran harder than I've seen her run in her entire life - so we spent a good bit of time having her drink Gatorade to not go low, and her post-game snack was "insulin free". We'll figure out how to manage her blood sugars probably just in time for puberty

I apologize in advance

I don't usually opine here about things I view in society (I reserve those for Facebook and my mutually snarky friends) ...

... but I will NEVER think its right to see a 4-year-old child standing in a restaurant playing a Nintendo DS.

I absolutely believe these types of things ROT THE BRAINS of kids.

My kids were around 9 when they got their Nintendo DS. Their computer time is limited and they are automatically disconnected when their time is up. "Screen time" is one of the first things to go when they can't behave. My 13-year-old still doesn't have a cell phone (*gasp*) and she's not on Facebook like all the younger kids.

I firmly believe the development of a child's brain is dependent on interaction. Interaction that involves all of their senses, their creative side, their imagination. They can't develop enough "educational games" to offset what I believe is lost when a child spends hours a day staring at a little screen.

So there, I've said it. Probably lost 4 of my 6 followers with my "narrow minded" view of parenting but, boy, I just can't stand to walk in somewhere and see what I consider a "baby" playing a video game so that Mama doesn't have to pay attention to him.

Happy "not" back-to-school day

So, it was back-to-school day for most of the Northern Virginia area, including my very tall 13-year-old 8th grader. For Michael and Emma, its "not" back to school at home with me.

Lesson plans were ready to go and the kids were ready to start this morning. I knew our morning would be interrupted by a trip to the orthopedic doctor to get Emma's cast off. But, that trip took a lot longer than necessary and really threw a wrench in our morning - and the rest of Michael's day was just not the same.

I could tell that Michael just wasn't as excited to be starting up school again. I'm thinking he's not liking the fact that the other student in the house is finishing her work quickly (Emma's lessons for today took a whopping 45 minutes total) and he's going well into the afternoon, but I keep reminding him that he's still finishing before the 5th graders at Little River. And he's studying some of the same subjects.

I did push a few of Michael's things to tomorrow since our appointment took so much longer than it should have. I think that made him feel a lot better

But, I'm going to have to find a lot more reading material for Emma. Her reading assignment for today was 7 pages in our Bible storybook. I read it with her today, but will leave her to her own devices in the next days. But, she wanted to keep reading, and reading. What started as an assignment to read about the 7 days of creation has turned into reading through into Egypt, the Pharaohs, Moses and the Exodus. I think it was supposed to take her 2 weeks to get to that point. Its like the wild horse that you just hold on tight for the ride - there is no doubt with her!

So, our schoolyear has started - exciting for Emma, a bit skeptical for Michael and I'll know more about how Samantha feels about her school year when she gets home at 4, but if she puts as much thought into her studies as she did into her outfit for today, we should be fine!

The End of an Era, ... or is it the beginning?

What do you call it when your last baby loses her first tooth - is it the end, or the beginning.

Well, Emma lost her first tooth this weekend. She was so excited in June when the dentist told her she had some wiggly teeth. For the last week or so, it had been pretty wiggly and on Thursday she started complaining that it made it tough for her to eat. I knew it was coming out soon - and it did on Friday at of all places, the baseball field.

So, we tucked it away and left it for the tooth fairy who left her shiny gifts in exchange!

Lesson Planning

Anyone who has met me for, oh, more than 30 seconds knows that I'm a planner. Really, I am NOT a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of person. Perhaps that's why I was given a child with multiple special medical needs - because a non-planner would be much more stressed with the needds of a Type 1 diabetic with celic (but I digress)

Anyway, I'd been thinking for a little while about the upcoming school year but for a while, hadn't done much. I finally got around to ordering the few remaining major curriculum items I needed (I tend to purchase little things throughout the year as I find them) and thought maybe I could get started with planning. But things kept coming up. And coming up.

Finally, yesterday, I realized I needed to get moving. Since I don't always start with new curriculums for the new year, I needed to go through all of the topics Michael had been working on to figure out where he was in each subject, what kind of review I wanted to do, and try to lay it out. I then needed to factor in new subjects into the game plan.

So, it took most of yesterday and today, but I have 4 weeks of lesson plans for both Michael and Emma planned out, written on their assignment sheets, in sheet protectors ready for them.

In the past, I haven't always been good at keeping with the lesson plans if there was a day I just didn't feel like doing a subject (one that involved me, he always has to do the ones he can do independently). But, we're getting into the more important years and I need to make sure things get covered. So, I've laid out 4 weeks of lesson plans and a daily schedule of subject and extra-curricular activities, and Michael will have "homework" if he doesn't finish his work in the time I've allotted. Typically, if we didn't finish in time for something in the past, I'd just shove it a day but I'm gonna try really hard to stay with the plan this year.

Here's what the kids are studying:

Michael:

• Saxon 6/5 Math
• First Language Lessons / Grammar Ace
• Worldy Wise 5 Vocabulary
• Sequential Spelling 1
• IEW writing workshop
• Lively Latin 1 (2nd half)
• Real Life Science
• Virginia History

Emma:

• Horizons K Math
• Kindergarten Sight Words
• Sonlight Core K: Introduction to the World
• Sonlight Level 2 Readers
• Literature Pockets: Folktales and Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes

Emma's pretty excited about starting school and getting school supplies. I've brought up one of the smaller tables from the basement and a chair for her to have her own workspace, and I've been getting her materials together into her crate.

But, we're starting our year with a "Not back to school" ice cream social with the homeschool group this coming Friday!