Monday, December 30, 2013

End of the semester and getting ready to move

This semester overall has been pretty good. It is such a relief when your teenagers turn out to be nice people, and they start to really develop their talents and interests. We had he final performances for the Middle school girls. #1 accompanied the women's chorus and was then asked last minute 1 week before the performance if she could also accompany a couple of the other songs for some of the other groups. She did great. I am really appreciative of her choir teacher who took the time to work with her and help her get the songs the way needed to be for the performance. I was very impressed with the choir teacher overall, the kids looked like they were having a good time, they sang very well, the music they sang was really nice and the whole performance was just great to watch. I was a very proud parent, and very relieved since I have been #1's sole piano teacher all this time, the past 3 yrs. though I have just been more of a coach, making sure she practices, she is very talented and has done well, and I am glad I didn't ruin her! She is doing great and has definitely surpassed me on the piano. She also played the piano for jazz band. They did great too, and she had some snazzy, jazzy solos. Very fun, I'm glad she made some good friends there too. For math, I think she is finally getting it. She's much better at focusing and figuring things out, that is a relief too! So far teen years are pretty good! #2 started playing the trumpet this year. She loved her band teachers, they had really funny jokes we would hear about everyday. Her teacher also recommended that she be moved up to the next band class because she really did well on the trumpet, well actually a cornet. Anyway, it was a great experience. She also took art at the school and did well in that class because she loves to draw, a couple of her drawings even got selected to be put on display in the lunch room. She has done well with her at home school work too, academics is definitely a strong point for her. She is definitely growing up too, which is of course as always, good and bad. #3 did so much better with his school work without his little brother around. I taught Greek to the girls together and I was doing my boys together too, but it looks like for them the time I spend with them is more effective with one on one instruction for math and Greek. Having his little brother at school gave him some time to get ahead and gave me some good one on one time with him. It was great! #4 enjoyed school a lot. He made a lot of friends and his teacher really liked him. He really got tired of getting up everyday though. I think that was enough school for him to satisfy his curiosity and know that he could do it. I will be glad to have him home again, we missed him. #5 has been my easiest student so far. Reading has come the easiest to him, I'm sure a lot of it is because I'm more experienced, but this little guy is a quiet smart. He's not loud nor is he a show off, but he just does things and asks questions and reads. It's a little hard being the 3rd boy and always trying to keep up with older brothers, but he does alright. I tell him he's lucky to be in the middle cause he can choose to go with the bigger boys or the little boys, he liked that. For the 4 little boys, I have held singing time and story time so I can make sure to read to them. It is pretty fun. The toddler really likes books. I love having time with them. Not that it's not hard or demanding but it is very fulfilling, and they are sooooo cute! We are packing this week and hoping to get out of here as early as Thursday for New Hampshire. There will be all sorts of new adventures waiting there for us. I am really excited to explore and learn about a new place. I am excited to see what sorts of homeschool groups there are out there. It's looking like #1 will do full time school, the high school has 4 yrs. of Latin and about 15-20 AP classes. Those were 2 big reasons for us to homeschool high school, so we'll see how it goes. I hope she will also be able to participate in sports at least cross country and track. I am so looking forward to this! Oh and the trip out will be awesome too, everybody got a scratch magic book in their stocking and a travel journal. We are going to be on the road for 10 days because we're taking a detour through Memphis and Virginia to visit family. So much to observe along the way, I am just so excited!

Friday, December 6, 2013

Singing Time

I hold singing time for my littles about 3 times a week. What I found with my twins which was not the case with any of the other kids is that whenever we have singing time or recite a scripture or poem, they don't even try to participate. All the other kids would try to sing or say the verse and would demand a turn, not these guys. So I started singing time just for them. One of the twins would sing along, but the other would have nothing to do with it. So then I bought some new stickers, wrote out which songs we would sing and told them they'd get a sticker for every song they sang. It has worked like a champ and they both look forward to singing time. The one twin sings all the songs and he will sing with me and the older brother, but the other twin, the more stubborn and somewhat shy one will only sing by himself or repeating the song after me. This makes singing time take a very LNG time and it ceases to be much fun, but he is singing! Although yesterday he refused, one other time he just cried and ruined it for the other 2 who were really excited so, I learned to just go ahead without him when he doesn't want to, but I told him he couldn't cry and he fell asleep instead. So I think it is working, I think he will eventually join us in singing together instead of a solo all the time. Some of these kids come very very stubborn!