Week 2

While last week had it's ups and downs, I would still call it a complete win.

We got so much work done and I felt like the boys were learning so much. We even hit the dairy farm! In the middle of all that, the Doodle Bop was back and forth to Boston twice

filming another commercial ... to which I will just say Tom Brady ... Uggs ... Awesomeness! And that baby still got his schoolwork done, as did his brothers at work with Daddy for the day.

Today was the start of week two and I was ready to go. Little did I know that just about everything we tried to do today would end up being a disaster - complete with downloading a virus onto my laptop while trying to print out work for the kids, and Captain America charging out the front door at the speed of light when the boys tried to come in the house. How we still have a dog is nothing short of a miracle the way he crisscrossed across traffic as the boys melted down. I am beyond grateful for our neighbor who noticed him on his sprint for Freedom and brought him back to us in her car.

It was that kind of afternoon where I threw in the towel, ate entirely too many peanut butter cookies (that I made for the boys) and thought about opening a bottle of wine.

The twins were unimpressed with dinner and instead of eating, both accidentally dumped their bowls onto the floor rather than continue eating. Seconds apart. Tears and early bedtimes all around.  Just when I thought I couldn't take any more today, I looked at the Big Guy and told him to throw on swishies or shorts.

I told him he was going to be my workout buddy and that I was going to start running again but I needed someone to push me. We stretched out and went to the track. I started over on C25K after quitting without finishing many months ago.

That kid turned my whole day around. I watched his red shirt fly past me and I kept my eyes on him as I tried to catch up. My eight year old can outrun me. Outrun me AND shout at me to speed it up. He thought he was hilarious out on that track. And it was just what I needed.

I did manage to beat him in a planking contest at the end though, so there's that.

Here's to a smoother day tomorrow.

Hello homeschool - party of 4

Each week is different around here lately. Not to mention insanely busy.

Part of me feels like I have become a taxi driver. While I used to be the mom who walked her kids around the block, took them to the playground on nice days ... well, lets just say we don't get much time to do those things anymore. Part of it is the boys getting older, but the other part is that we have just become so busy that there isn't any time.

Between school, shuttling back and forth to Boston, nights at the pool and the gym ... we have been playing catch up lately. Catching up on the work the boys missed ... catching up on ... everything some days.

For months now I have gone back and forth over what to do about school. Keep them in the place where they are, or homeschool them. Several factors over the last few weeks helped me finally make that decision and take the plunge. We started homeschooling the boys this week. It's not in the plans forever, but it is the plan for the rest of this school year.

How I feel about the school we were at aside (which I will not get into on this blog), the boys have been missing more school lately than they were attending with all of their auditions. It's amazing they are getting so many calls from their agent right now, but a piece of me was worrying the boys would start to fall behind in their school work and I did not want that to happen.

I have spent months talking to some of my mom friends who homeschool as I sat on the fence with my own decision. Last week Al and I went out and bought lots of school things in preparation. Journals, math workbooks, handwriting workbooks, new chapter books to read ...

And Monday we took the plunge with Day 1.

We started by reading a book about space. In their journals, the boys wrote about what they would like to do if they could go to space. We did math, practiced handwriting (print for the twins, cursive for the Big Guy), reading ... a little bit of history. And for music? Well, Monday was Billie Holiday's birthday so we read about her and listened to some of her music and talked about it.

I took the boys out into the yard and we did our very first science experiment. Thank you Pinterest.
Ziplock Time Bomb. It was so cool we did it 3 times - with a tissue, a napkin and then a paper towel to compare how long it would take.

And we ended our day with a trip to Johnston War Memorial Park. We stopped and read the stones, checked out the tanks, talked about the military and why the park honors people and went on a nature walk (which they will be writing about in their next journal entry).

When we were all done, I let them play on the playground for a little while.

And I realized what we have been missing.

Homeschooling the boys is both scary and awesome at the same time. (Although I'm sure if you ask me by September, I will be ready to push those babies I love right back into a new public school.)

Trust.

Right now though? I'm going to try and enjoy the next few months in between all of our trips to Boston and back. I know I won't get this time with them back again.