Fundraiser for SOphie

http://teespring.com/runfeetrun if you read this please go and look at the tshirts we are selling for sophie to raise enough money to take her to a conference for people with her condition. She really deserves to go. SHe has worked so hard and been through so much pain. She needs to be with people who understand that this isnt like your brothers friends cousins neighbors milk man who had a broken leg once. People who understand this is a lifelong issue and a lifelong battle. She needs to see people with her condition who have jobs, have children, and husbands and live the American dream. http://www.gofundme.com/2bpy20 is also a fundraiser for the same conference. We have to have all reservations in by May 28 for July conference. I am a very giving person. I give everywhere I can. I help anyone who needs it. This time, not for me, but for my daughter, I am asking for help. So far we have had 3 donations and 2 commitments to buy shirts if we reach our goal. If we do not reach our goal no shirts will be printed. we do not even have enough for ONE plane ticket, much less hotel costs conference fees meals and a ticket for Me to take her.

be careful what you wish for, it might come true

Maia is so smart. and she is my baby. Even though she is not the youngest, she is very much my baby. and I dont want to send her to school. She loves to work on schoolwork and do lapbooks. and I dont think the new kids are going to get much out of public school when they arent yet fully speaking the language. My big kids go to high school and refuse to homeschool anymore. thats fine. but I dont want to send my littles to school. Ethan is there and seems to thrive and he doesnt want to come home either. isnt this what I wished for? to send them to school? be careful what you wish for! I dont want to send Maia to school. I would have a hard time pulling Ethan out but I miss thee carefree days we used to have. things like camping memorial day weekend. The band HAS to play at a local cemetary on memorial day. required. my objection to that is another story. but they have school still on thursday friday before and then have to play on monday. Eric is on call saturday. so we cant even go camping. we can go down and swim for the day on sunday. thats it. remember when we could go on Thurs and stay till tues. and love every minute of it. soon it will be summer break and we wont have all that scheduling but I just truly can not stand the thought of sending my dear sweet loving lap sitting dreamy dancerella to school. my husband doesnt understand. Maybe I will work on schooling everyone this summer once I get home with the girls to show him I can do it. but still we would be bound by the high schoolers schedules. grr. why cant I enjoy life with my kids? arent they MY kids? why do I have to send them to someone else 270 days a year? why do I only get the leftover exhausted from school with homework to do and mouthy remarks they learned? This does not make me feel like a good Mom.

I guess its been decided

we will no longer be dancing on water. off they go to school.

daily I struggle to decide

keep them home or send them to school. Eric really wants them to stay home. I really do too but I am running out of energy to deal with it all. There are few good secular curriculums out there. There are online schools for the older ones and maybe thats a possibility. but they tried that once and didnt like it. As for Ethan getting him to do anything is difficult. he is distractible and onery. Maybe he needs a med increase. wonder if that would help anything. I just go back and forth daily. ten times a day. keep them or send them. send them or keep them? Once we get the H1N1 out of the way I can send Sophie and Ben to preschool with Maia. I could put Ben in K but he is nowhere near ready for that. and he would end up missing a lot of school anyways due to upcoming appointments and healthcare for his AMC. I want them to stay home. but I waant them to learn. and the way things are going. they are home but not a lot of learning and I am only one person and can not entertain little ones while simultaneously teaching older ones. I just dont know. I might send them and they hate it. I might send them and they love it. I might keep them and they hate it. In asking the kids what THEY want ethan doesnt want to go to school on some days and some days he does. but he doesnt want to go to K he wants to go to PreK. no. that wont work. Chrysta wants to but doesnt want to go. cody absolutely doesnt want to go. so that leaves us one nay, one yay, and one possible yay or nay. not helpful in deciding!

second verse ...SAME AS THE FIRST!

I had an entire page of words about whether or not to send the kids to school and it all disappeared. so I will just post the reasons I came up with NOT to send them

lice
flu bugs
stupid rules for the sake of rules
learning bad behavior from other kids
less than brilliant teachers.
sophie and ben would miss a lot of school as we deal with their problems.
school will acommodate them to the bare minimium.
drill drill drill
kids are governed by constant rules, rules for everything
work is at level, not above or below
fashion divas
drama llamas
added stresses
miss out on beautiful days

reasons to send
break
stress
be with other kids
allow me to focus more on the two little ones
allows more for trips to shriners
I just dont really want to do it anymore
Im tired

bookit from pizza hut

http://www.bookitprogram.com/enrollment_online/homeschoolform.asp
you can sign up your homeschool family and get free pizza reward coupons when they read enough books. You can request up to 5 kits(like if you have more than one child)

to school or not to school

I am once again looking to next year. As much as I liked the oak meadow I think I liked doing our own thing better. I have also been working with the little ones. They love the workbooks I got from the dollar store for them. They are doing math(addition and subtraction) phonics, learning to read, and time and money workbooks. Eric is so funny about hs. in one breath he is saying I dont think they are learning enough. they arent doing enough. and then when I mention school he says no, I dont think thats a great idea because_______. I suppose I ought to get them a standardized test but I dont really believe that is the best evaluator of what they know. Eric however believes in them wholeheartedly. I think Cody especially wouldnt do great on a standardized test. chrysta could probably do fine on it. It isnt that cody doesnt know anything but rather he doesnt pay attention to details like if it says which one is NOT the correct answer or if he misses one answer row and then the rest of the test is off because he is answering question 23 on line 24 or 25. makes a difference. I considered public school. but the randomness of their rules really irk me. like you cant play on the slides when its wet or snowy. umm yeah thats like 3/4 of the year here! so they have this big playground just taunting them but they arent allowed to play on it? yeah THAT makes sense. and I know there is a lot of bullying that goes on and I know one girl in particular that tends to thrive on drama and who knows what she would come up with. add to that the fact that when I went to kindergarten round up last year to consider it the teacher said boughten. as in if you have already boughten this or that. Doesn't say a lot about the caliber of the teaching. And since they are already learning reading and addition and all that they do in K they might as well not go to K. So I am looking towards next year while trying to focus enough on this year to keep working. Spring fever tends to set in for me about now. I want to be done with school and I am scheduled out. I KNOW I am so tired of the scouts schedule. and 4H and gym class and museums and keeping up with the schooling too. If we moved I might consider them going to school. but it doesnt look like we are moving any time soon. so I better find a way to continue.