How important is math, really??

I get that all the time from my oldest.  He does very well with homeschooling.  He is completing the 5th grade.  Reads at about an 8th grade level.  Enjoys all aspects of science and history.  Does well in language arts.  Hates math.  HATES math.  In his defense, he comes by it naturally.  The hubs also hated math, and still does.

Of course, I can point all the useful ways that math will be used in his life, both growing up and as an adult.  But that really doesn't make him like it any more, nor does it make it any easier for him.  Trying to find something, ANYTHING for him to do to reinforce certain areas in math can be a chore, for sure.  Since it's no secret that all of us prefer our reinforcement to come across our interwebs, rather than out of a book, we turn to websites and try to find an interactive math program to help us out.   

Flash cards are, and have always been, a great source of reinforcement, whether it's with math, language arts, or any other subject.  Surprisingly, it was easier than we thought to find some math flash cards online.  We don't have to go buy some, or make some with index cards (although that's not a bad idea...just...not computer-y enough for us, lol).

Hopefully all of the online help we find will help him improve his confidence. Not just in math, but in all of his subjects.  If his confidence improves and he starts breezing through his work, then that's just proof that I'm not failing.  Erm...I mean...that HE'S not failing...  ;)

Contrac...huh?

Yes, we love homeschooling.  No, we can't imagine our lives being any different than what they are.  Yes, it's very rewarding.  No, it's not always easy.

Those are some of my most used responses to questions we get from those who don't homeschool.  The one most often used is "No, it's not always easy."  When you live in a rural community, homeschooling can be looked at in many ways. Sometimes people think we are religious zealots. Sometimes people think we are hippie freaks.  Sometimes...well sometimes, we're just labeled "diff'urnt" (yes I misspelled on purpose. You really gotta know the accent around here, lol).  I don't mind those assumptions, not really.  What really bugs me is when people assume that it's easier for my kids because they aren't in a "normal" school.  

We use Time4learning as our homeschool curriculum and we are very happy with it.  Even so, we struggle with certain subjects and concepts (just as many kids do in their school setting), and we need a little help making those concepts stick. It's even more aggravating when it's something that, as adults, we take for granted.  One of those concepts for us was contractions.

How many of you had to pause and think of the definition of a contraction? ;)

Bailey understands the definition of "don't" and "I'm" and "aren't" and the like.  But it can be difficult to teach contractions. While I just know how to make a contraction out of "you will" and "does not," the rules of where to put the apostrophe and which letters to omit have to be learned.  You can forget that when it's something you've known for a while. 

If I keep drumming something into his head by way of only writing it down or only reading about it, I think he rejects it out of spite, lol.  But, he has a weakness...he loves to play games.  More importantly he loves to WIN games!  If there is no "win" or "lose" option, then simply getting everything right suits him.  So one of things that helped reinforce what he was learning was playing contraction games. Even at an older age, playing a game didn't equate to "studying" something. When the concept finally clicked for him, it was funny to see him realize just how many contractions he used in his everyday vocabulary without consciously thinking about it!

Am I ashamed that I would take a weakness of my child's and exploit that weakness to suit my teaching needs?  NOPE. I got over stuff like that a long time ago, lol.  It didn't take long for me to realize that I needed to grab on to whatever worked, even if whatever worked for me wasn't what others would do!

Happy 4th of July!!

I know, I'm late with my well wishes.  But better late than never, yeah?

I hope everyone did enjoy their festivities with family and friends.  We had a great weekend.  Had dinner - yummy pizza buffet - and did the fireworks thing with the The B's and 2/3 of the O's Friday night.  Rather than go the lake where the celebration and fireworks show was being held, we went to a pasture BEHIND the lake to watch.  Do we know how to party or what?  I always love the sounds of the 4 boys enjoying themselves, and they really did that night.  I don't know if they had more fun watching the fireworks or playing with the glowy stick thingys that Tracy bought them...

Seriously.  Aren't they awesome? ;)

Trying to take pics of the fireworks with my iPhone.  I don't think they turned out horribly, considering...

I love this one.  You can see Zman exuberantly swinging his glow sticks. Wish you coulda heard all the "WOOOOO!!!'s" that he and the other boys were yelling, lol.













Sunday we went to see Toy Story 3 with the B's and an O.  The movie was fantastic!  Very surprised at how much I enjoyed it.  We laughed and we cried.  Then we laughed some more.  While I know the boys enjoyed the movie, I think the adults (if you dare to refer to us that way) had more fun than they did!!

                                                              Aren't the 3D glasses super-fly??

                                              This trailer looked SO funny...can't wait to see the movie!

Shiny New Gadgets...

Ok, so those who know and love me know that I am a gadget junkie. Full on, "Hi my name is Kat and I'm addict" kinda junkie. We all have our own computers (youngest had his own before he could hold a crayon) and we even have a little netbook that floats around as well. I have a 160GB iPod that travels with me and is constantly loaded with music, audiobooks, podcasts and even movies. For Valentine's Day my wonderful hubby got me the Nook e-reader which right now has about 200 books on there (of which I'm usually in the middle of no less than 3 at a time) and also usually travels with me wherever I go. All 4 members of my family (and even my Grandma) received a new DSi XL when it was released this year. Blu-Ray players, WiFi enabled TVs (Instant watching of Netflix FTW!), an Xbox, 2 Wii systems and Nigel, our trusty GPS, all reside here in my little Dork-dom. If it's new tech-y type stuffs, you can be sure it's on a wish list.

As much as I love all of those things, there is the one gadget that I can't go without and that's my cell phone. If it's not with me, expect whimpering and anxiety attacks. This little electronic piece of joy has a special place in my heart. I can't imagine life before cell phones, nor would I like to return to the days of yore. There are those people who could care less about having one and generally only have one in case of emergencies. There are those who do chat quite a bit on them, but that's all they do on them. Then there are those who text like fiends but rarely have anything to actually SAY on them.

Then there's me. I am definitely of the "smartphone" persuasion. I have my calendar which I heavily rely on. All of my contact information (what do you mean they still make paper address books?) stays on there. Couldn't tell you a single phone number, but I know if hit "Tracy" then it's going to call Tracy, lol. I can never remember to carry a camera anywhere, but fortunately I can whip out my phone (which usually...there's never any "whipping out" involved as it's normally in my hand to begin with) and snap a photo if need be. Facebook and Twitter? I only check them about every 10 minutes. I surf the web, play games, check on the weather and even pay bills with my phone. All of this, and I still manage to find myself talking on the thing a few times a day!

I am always on the lookout for "the next big thing" in cell phones. I usually keep a phone about 9-10 months before I need (NEED!) a new one. My last BlackBerry lasted a year, but that was only because I had used all of the available upgrades on our family plan and was really waiting to see what was coming out. I wouldn't say that I have a brand preference, but there are those that I like more than others. Don't really dig the Windows phones. Really think BlackBerry is like an old reliable friend...if all else fails, BB is there to back me up. WebOS and Palm are pretty good (WebOS is easily one of THE best operating systems out there IMO) but seem to be struggling right now. Then there is Apple.

What do you say about Apple? I'm a PC girl myself, but I know and understand the popularity of Apple. You won't find me ensnared in the great Mac Vs. PC debate. They each have points in their favor. I greatly dislike the proprietary aspects of Apple and can think of several media players that I prefer over iTunes. But no one can argue the ingenuity that is the iPhone. I even had a first generation iPhone when they came out a few years ago. Sure, it was a new technology that was incredibly cool. But unfortunately, after about 8 months I couldn’t wait to get rid of the thing and go to my BlackBerry.

There were just so many things I thought were wrong about it. Many simple features that were standard on other smartphones were missing on the iPhone. Things like MMS messaging, copying and pasting, a camera flash and push email for users other than those who have a Yahoo email address (seriously, who doesn’t have a Gmail address and why isn’t Gmail push on the thing??). So, I got rid of it and said I would never go back to Apple. I’m not a gadget noob. Engadget and Gizmodo are bookmarked in my favorite sites and I check them daily. I do know that the iPhone has come a long way since the first gen device I had. But I held onto my complaints, justifying myself by saying that the phone really should have had all of the features at launch that were later implemented in subsequent releases. I never recommended the iPhone to friends and stayed firm to the fact that I said I would never go back to Apple for a cell phone. Well, three BlackBerries (an 8320, 8900 and 9000) and a Palm Pre Plus later, I’m eating those words.

The iPhone 4 has supposedly addressed all of the issues I had with the previous versions of the iPhone. Every complaint I had (with the exception of the whole proprietary thing, but that’s never gonna change) seems to have been addressed and improved upon. Even the low/poor ringer volume problem I had before is a lot better. There’s a snazzier camera – finally with a flash! HD video recording. Better email capabilities with the ability to add more Exchange accounts. Multitasking. That’s a biggie. So much so in fact, I’m going to list it again. Multitasking. Supposedly better batter life, super quick processor speed and better reception thanks to the metal band that surrounds the phone being the antennae.

It’s so shiny and pretty…I’ve had it a couple of days and I find myself having a hard time putting it down! I can’t really give an in depth review just yet (don’t worry, it will come!) because it’s going to take a little while to see how the phone actually works. Don’t really have a good idea yet about reception and battery life and the like, but once I have more of an opportunity to give the thing a good workout, I will post back! :)

So...it's been a while. Again.

Yeah, yeah...I know that when you look at my posts you'll see that it's been quite a while since I've posted anything. Wanna know what happened??

Social Networking.

That's right. Facebook and Twitter swooped in and took over my life. I was spending so much time on those sites that I just didn't have a moment to come by and let folks know what I had been up to. I naively assumed that those who were interested would check on me in Facebook, lol. Would you believe that I recently discovered that not everyone tweets or has a Facebook account?? *GASP*

So I've decided to try and be a little more social to those that aren't quite so social. :)

Stay tuned ...

Soccer time, soccer time ...

I cannot believe it's once again soccer time! Since this is Bailey's 10th (no that's not a typo, lol!) season, this is not new to us. However, we do have a "first" this time around. Braeden finally gets to play!! He has been watching Boo play his whole life, so I'm sure all of you can imagine his excitement. :)

He had his first practice the other day and even though we forgot our camera (yeah, yeah - stellar parenting, I know), I was able to snap a few shots with my phone. So enjoy these shots of Braeden on the soccer field for the first time!

Oh...I will post some pics from both of their first games as soon as they play!

So being a grown-up sucks....

When I was little, I would always think about what it would be like when I was a grown-up. I may not have known what I was going to do, but I always thought I knew what I was NOT going to do. I was not going to have rules that I had to follow (because afterall, grown-ups get to do whatever they want), I was not going to have to worry about not being able to buy stuff (because apparently when you grow up, money just falls in your lap) and I was not going to tell my kids "because I said so."

Not surprisingly, finally being a "grown-up" isn't all it's cracked up to be. I have done, many times over, all the things I said I wouldn't do. Besides having to hold a job, pay bills, make huge life decisions and try to raise a family, being a grown-up means you have to deal with things in life that you may not have dealt with as a child. Or if you did have to deal with it, it was just different.

I lost my grandmother when I was 8 or 9. It was sad, but as a child, I was not expected to handle it a certain way. I could cry if I wanted to, or I could simply act like it didn't affect me at all. I was also not expected to realize the finality of death. As a child, I was told that I would see my grandmother again one day and that she would be there watching over us. It wasn't until I was much older and enough time had passed that it didn't hurt as bad anymore, that I was able to really grasp what it meant to have to let a loved one go.

As I continued to get older, I lost some more people in my life. To be perfectly honest, while those other losses were sad, I wasn't as close to any of those people as I would have liked to have been. Until recently, I think the hardest loss in my life was the lost of my sister in law.

That changed on March 13, 2009. That night I lost my grandfather. Not only did I lose him, but I was with him when he breathed for the last time. I have always been close to my grandparents and have even lived right next door to them for the last 8 years. He had been sick, but it doesn't make that loss any easier. If I were still 9 years old, I could just kinda go about things and not really have to act or feel a certain way. I'm not 9 though and that sucks. Now, instead of worrying how I'm handling this loss, I have to worry about how my kids are handling it. It's a weird feeling to sit and tell my 9 year old all those things that were said to me so long ago when I was 9. I tell him that he will see his Papa again one day and that he will watch over us. I tell him that it's ok to cry and it's ok not to cry. I tell him that it's better that he's not suffering or sick anymore.

I tell Bailey all of those things and yet inside, I'm not listening to any of that. Inside, I'm numb. I'm so, so sad. I'm angry. I'm regretful. And I'm even a little thankful. I'm all of those things and I don't know what to do with any of that. I haven't started grieving yet. I can't. Right now, I have to be strong for my boys and for my grandmother. Right now, I have to make sure everyone else is alright and right now, that little selfish part of me that longs to be 9 again hates that.

I guess that's why I'm typing this now. Maybe I'm just trying to let it out. I don't know if it will help me, but I don't suppose it will hurt me, huh?

My grandfather was a man who was loved by many and he was a man who was not loved by some. Through no fault of my own, he was the only grandfather I ever really knew. So regardless of how anyone else felt about him, I loved him. I know that my kids and I will miss him greatly.

Goodbye, Papa.