Speaking of Swimming

This week at school, the older kids are working on letters and pictures to send to President Obama. One of the questions Charlie asked him was what his favorite ocean animal was. Charlie told him that his favorite ocean animal is the shark and drew him two pictures of sharks replete with pirate ships ramming British vessels. My 3-year old, Lucy said that she wanted to draw President Obama a shark. I thought it was pretty good. Here is Lucy's shark:











Next Time: 10 40 window.

Swimming Lessons

My children are excellent artists. I don't where they get it but each of them have an excellent gift for art. I will post some of their creations at a later time. When it comes to athletics, well, they are excellent artists.

At this time, none of them have really shown the ability, desire or drive to enjoy, let alone excel, at the sports we have introduced to them. Amy and I are neither what you would call gifted athletes, but we both enjoy playing a variety of sports. (Truth be told, Amy aspires to be the first 40 year old Wimbledon champion, but since she has yet to beat me, not gonna happen sister.) The children have yet to follow in our example. Which is why I love Swimming Lessons

Every summer we spend quite a bit of time as a family at the local pool. During the school year the children enroll in swimming lessons about 1 month on and 1 month off. Today marks our youngest's first foray into swimming lessons as the minimum age is 3.

The lessons run 2 days a week for four weeks. It would seem these lessons add to an already busy schedule. However, swimming lessons work for us because:

• They all take lessons at the same time. If each child was involved in different activities then the 2 hour a week commitment of swimming could easily triple to 6 or more.


• Our kids love swimming. It is the one athletic endeavor that has been much more hit than miss.


• It gives me a time to just be a sideline parent rather than a teacher. I love to watch their lessons.

So swimming lessons work for me. To see what works for others click here to be brought to the Works for me Wednesday page at Rocks in my Dryer.

Next Time: Speaking of Swimming

A "Typical" Week

People often want to know what a "typical" week of home schooling looks like. The answer I hear most often is that there is no such thing as a typical week. Home schooling families are like snowflakes in that respect, no two are exactly the same.

No, I am not saying that home school families are flakes! Focus, people, focus!

Here is what my typical week looks like at the Izola Becker Home School and Grill.

Monday, we have co-op. It is called Christian Workshops of the Fox Valley or CWF for short. Our family just calls it Monday School. I will write an entire post on CWF at another time. This is my first semester at CWF. Amy and the kids were involved previously, so far I really enjoy it.

Tuesday we are involved in a program called G.I.F.T (Godly Influenced Fine-arts training) it is similar to a co-op. Emma and Charlie take 1 class each and work on school with me while the other is in their class. Emma is taking a drawing class and Charlie is taking Chess. On Tuesday afternoons we have our regular library day.

Wednesday through Friday resemble a more typical home school environment. Between 7 and 8:00 kids wake up have breakfast and do their morning routine. At 8:30 we start school by watching the daily episode of Jelly Telly. Jelly Telly is the latest innovation from Phil Vischer the creator of veggie tales. It is a cross between Sesame Street and Sunday School. Here are a few clips from the show:

The Bentley Brothers

God's Amazing Animals

Michael's Ten Best Films of All Time

You can see the daily shows at http://www.jellytelly.com/.

After Jelly Telly we come to the table and work on Awana verses. Emma then begins working on her classes through her Switched-On School House program. Lucy, Charlie and I work at the table until about 10:30 and then take a morning break. After break I finish up with Charlie and Emma continues to work independently. School ends between 12 and 1 when lunch time begins. After School we do chores, run errands, play games, or translate the Bible into Pig Latin. We have not gotten past the en-tay amandments-kay yet.

So that's what a typical week is supposed to look like. This doesn't include things like swimming lessons, field trips and what we do with Emma when her computer breaks like it did at the beginning of this year. For example, today is our CWF day, but the church that allows CWF to use their building, is cleaning up after a Super Bowl party and thus CWF was cancelled making the typical week atypical before it ever began.

To see more home school blogs go to the home school carnival hosted this week at Dewey's Treehouse by clicking here.

Next Time: Swimming Lessons

I Want to try National Blog Posting Month.

One month into my blogging experiment, I am officially a posting fool. Following the lead of a college friend of mine I have decided to try my hand at NaBloPloMO (National Blog Posting Month). Click here to for more info. Each month you agree to post on your blog at least one time a day. February is the shortest month, so a perfect month for me to start.

They have a theme for each month which is optional. The theme this month is want. I want to try to incorporate that in my posts but I might come up wanting.

Next Time: A "typical" week

Skiing, Swimming, Super Bowl, or Sox Fest.

Have you ever noticed that if you want to do 4 things in one month, they will often occur on or near the same day? This happened to me this week and helped me remember what things are truly important to me.

Today, of course, is Super Bowl Sunday. I love football, commercials, parties and food so I generally enjoy watching the Super Bowl. The thing is that by choice our t.v. works only to watch d.v.d's and videos. So, if I watch the big game I have to go somewhere else to watch it.

This weekend is also Sox Fest, a three day convention in downtown Chicago that celebrates all things White Sox. Plenty of opportunities to meet current and former players and see interesting seminars and talk baseball 2 weeks before pitchers and catchers report.

Also, my cousin offered to treat me to skiing this weekend and I would have been able to take 1 0r 2 of my kids and teach them how to ski as well.

Finally, I had the opportunity to take my kids swimming this weekend at the local indoor pool, which I can do any weekend.

I ended up deciding on swimming. The main reason is because Sox Fest and the Super Bowl are things that really, I am the only one in our family of five who enjoys them. I would have gone skiing, but if we did that, I would have had to cancel dinner plans I made with my sister to celebrate her birthday. She's only got one a year, so I'd better not mess with that!











So, I chose the simplest, and most family-friendly things because I love my family. Next year, maybe I'll get back to a Super Bowl Party while skiing on a Wii while checking in at WhiteSox.com. You never know!

Next Time: I Want to try National Blog Posting Month.