In the home stretch. Emmanuel is going to be here soon!

Don't lose focus! Christmas is only 4 days away! Advent is almost over. ALMOST! We still have time to prepare for His arrival. We must, as Christians, stay the course. These may be the toughest 4 days to stay focused on Jesus coming to be with us, but we must. The next 4 days will be full of last minute Christmas shopping, wrapping gifts, cleaning houses for family visits, grocery shopping, etc. I mean you name it, and it has to be done before the 25th. Well, during all of this earthly stuff that we need to take care of it will be very difficult to stay focused on the arrival of our salvation. It is in the spiritual realm that we really must prepare for Jesus' coming. 1 way to do this is through song. For my family, we went to a worship concert last night in Slidell, LA. it was the Adore 2097 (paragraph 2097 n the Catechism of the Catholic Church)concert series. More information on this ministry can be found at www.adoreworship.com it is a ministry based out of Houma LA and the concert was headlined by Matt Maher along with Kelly Pease and Josh Blakesley. Their version of O come O come Emmanuel at the beginning of the show was terrific. It really set the tone for the rest of the show, which included not only praise and worship, it also included Adoration. It was something that I wish we could have done as a family at the beginning of Advent, not the end. However, the timing for us was that we were able to go see it towards the end of Advent, and it was well worth it.

Home School is on an official Break for about 2 weeks. when we get back to school on January 5, 2009 my plan is for us to hit the ground running.
But more on that later...

God be with us during this advent. We look forward to the arrival of Jesus. His example of love, peace and justice are examples we strive to achieve in our daily lives, help us to keep reaching for them and to one day achieve them in this world according to your will

Amen.

O' Christmas tree!

12/15/08 is the latest date that we have ever put up our Christmas tree(although, by waitng the tree only cost 19 dollars compared to the 60 or 70 that we usually spend). Usually as I've said in a previous post we have it up a day or two after advent starts we have the tree up. Well this year has been a different story. The "busy-ness" of our lives and actvities has had the month of December flying by with no tree in the house. Yesterday, me and the girls, as part of our homeschoolng, decorated the house and put up the tree. We wanted to Surprise Mary and we did. You can read about her surprise in her blog at www.aliveandcatholic.blogspot.com
Now, the house and hopefully our hearts are open and welcome to the comng of the Messiah, Jesus.

This video is of Elani singing while playing her new baritone ukelele. She has been practing everyday this week, so this is after only 3 days of practice.

'Tis the Season (Jesus is the reason for the season!)

Around here the holidays are a terrific time. Thanksgiving is just the beginning and for us it signals that the Advent season is just a few days away. We do have a few Advent traditions that we have yet to prepare for, but we will, I am sure. Of course it starts with our advent wreath. We make a new one every year. The kids and Mary seem to enjoy making a new one, although I'd prefer to just buy a nice one and use it every year. Along with the wreath the girls make an activity chain for everyday of advent, our version of the advent calendar. Each person in the family gets to determine activities for the chain, so everyone is involved. We also set up our nativity scenes without the baby Jesus in them in order to get prepared for His arrival on Christmas. The girls also enjoy putting the 3 wise men in another room from the nativity and as each day gets closer to Christmas, the wise men are moved a little closer to the nativity scene. And on Christmas morning the wise men get to meet the baby Jesus and the Holy Family! This event on Christmas also gives us the chance to once again "meet" the Holy Family.

The Holidays are always filled with family fun, travel and Church. It is the travel part that is most difficult for us. We want to be with everyone we know and love at this special time of year. However, we have not figured out our travel plans for the Christmas season. But, like the advent traditions, we will get our plans ready, soon.

All of this preparation starts on Thursday with Thanksgiving.

I took a few impromptu shots of the girls this morning during our daily lessons. Emma can be seen here working on her Math. She was in the middle of converting units. Like how many eggs are in 2.5 dozen? And then harder things like what is 8lbs minus 14 ounces? Fun stuff like that. She understands it and sees the practical applications of it, but she stills prefers not to do the work. She also walked the dog and played touch football in the yard with her sisters today, I guess that was he P.E. for the day.

Elani did a spelling activity where she spelled her words on a dry erase board. Her idea of school days where the kids had a slate and did their work then erased it for lack of paper. anyway, since it wasn't on paper we took a picture to help remember we did the lesson.

As a family we have been quite busy this semester. With home school for all of the kids, Mom has started a new position at work, a new dog, Hurricane Gustav, my Religious Studies Institute classes, soccer, swimming, ballet, etc. We have decided to take a stress break this coming Saturday and will be going to the Third Day concert in Lafayette Saturday evening. This should be an awesome event where we can have a great time and worship God with other Christians. With my renewed interest in ecumenism this will be a great opportunity to praise God with other Christian brothers and sisters who do not profess the Catholic faith.

scatter thoughts

Well, you might have noticed that I haven't posted anything in several days. My mind has been "scattered". It is not scattered in a way that I can't have rational thought, it's scattered in a way that it has been difficult to pick a topic to type about.

I can share that the home schooling is still going full speed ahead, but seemingly at half-speed most days. I am finding that with 3 girls in "school" and a 2 year old to boot that my best intentions often are put aside in order to keep the peace around here or put out the "fires" that seem to pop up on an hourly basis.

Remember the 9th grade Catechism class that I spoke about a month ago or so? well, that class has been giving me fits the last 2 sessions. That 9th grade age, 14 or 15, is a tough age. Their behavior has been more like that of a 7 or 8 year old. But I am not gonna let that get me down, I do enjoy teaching the catholic Catechism to the youth of our Parish. I just need to find a new way to present the information to this group of students in a way that will make them comfortable.

I also have a lot of studying and paper writing to do for my Religious Studies classes. I pray that the Lord gives me the strength to home school, study, write papers, and be the father my girls deserve and the husband that my wife deserves.

Amen

another crazy week

The week from October 29 - November 5 has been "nutso" to quote the Fonz, from Happy Days. From the moment I was told that Mr B was probably not going to make it through the night, his funeral, Halloween plans, Soccer matches(which frustrate me to no end, I am the coach), driving all over southeast LA, trying to get some home schooling done, the national elections(which did not go my way), chasing after a new dog and chasing a 2 year old that apparently has a tape recorder for a voice box has been pretty rough. However, through it all there has been 1 constant for me. The love of God manifest through the bonds of my marriage to Mary.

I do have a few random things to talk about. And these are not ordered based on importance, just as I think about them I will type them.

1. Having now officially rescued an abandoned Golden Retriever has its rewards. I can tell that "Jennie" likes to be around all of us. She is getting used to the way her new family does things.

2. The girls loved meeting our "step" family in Slidell, Metairie and the general New Orleans area. I say "step" family only to identify that group of family members. I have always thought of step family as part of my family just like an adopted person is now a part of the family, so is a step person.

3.  The National elections. I am disappointed that John McCain lost the election. I truly believed that he was the best candidate for the country. I judge that the citizens of America that voted for President-elect Obama got wrapped up in the celebrity, rock star appeal of Barack Obama. In my opinion the country voted, not on issues, but on looks. The features and benefits, to use sales terms, were not truly considered. We Americans now have a pretty, shiny big screen high definition TV, I just will pray, like my old customers, that we don't have to use the extended warranty to fix the TV when it breaks. (we do have a 4 year warranty, don't we?)

I am also concerned about the make up of our senate and house of representatives, which are both now overwhelmingly Liberal. I think that our forefathers in the beginning of our great nation never conceived of a political party having this much power. I judge that 3 fairly balanced branches of government would be better for our country. But now with all 3 branches leaning significantly to the "left", I am a bit worried that our government may end up throwing out the baby with the bath water. I just hope that President-Elect Obama will make good, sound decisions and truly reach across the aisle and have a balanced administration.

well, that's all I really have time to type for now. I will post some more soon but right now I am going to try to get my student, daughters back into the mode of learning and doing school work.

Oh yeah, 1 last thing! LSU plays host to the University of Alabama this weekend. LSU has has reduced itself to the role of "spoiler". I know that at the beginning of the season I didn't expect LSU to go to the BCS championship game, however once the season started I still had hope. I also did not expect this to be a super year for the Crimson Tide. It will all come to a head this Saturday at 230pm in Death Valley, I'll be watching on TV. I just hope it is not a blow out like the UF and UGA games.

The memory is a selective thing

As a kid my parents divorced when I was 10 years old. I didn't quite understand how such a thing could happen. But, my positive outlook helped me to make the best out of a bad situation. After a year or two both of my parents had remarried and then began to settle in, at least for my 12 year old mind. (I may be off on ages by a year or so, but you get the picture, I was a pre-teen). Anyway one of the best parts of the whole situation was that my brother and I had a 3rd set of grandparents; we did not know exactly what to call them so we took our dads lead and called them Mr and Mrs B. They were wonderful! I can remember only good times with them, probably because we only saw them every 2 or 3 weeks. Most of the time we saw them was on Friday nights for seafood. Mr B was an old time catholic who still didn't eat meat on Friday's. Even though the church stopped teaching that we had to abstain from meat on Friday. So, we'd go over to Dads for the weekend and it always started with Shrimp stew and boiled crabs or crawfish at Mr and Mrs B's house. My memory of these nights is how Mr B would always spend the whole night at his end of the table enjoying a cold beer and the seafood with his wife, daughter, son in law and his grand-children. Even after the meal he would stay at the table and watch TV from there.

I remember after a couple of years Mrs B started getting sick and the times where we would go eat over on Friday's seemed to get less frequent. Mrs B finally succumbed to Cancer. That was the first funeral I remember going to. I remember seeing Mr B and wondering how he was holding it all together. Then I remembered that he was the first person who truly evangelized me. He gave me a couple of books that got me thinking how important Jesus was in my life. He gave me a book written by an Irish priest about his conversion from a playboy to a priest and then he gave me a couple of books by Og Mandino that showed me examples of how Christ can work in our lives. These made an impression on me a few years later.

Yesterday October 29, 2008 at about 5:30am Mr B passed away in Tulsa Oklahoma. He will be brought back to New Orleans this weekend for his burial. I take great comfort in knowing that he is reunited with Mrs B in heaven. I also take comfort in that I now have another advocate in heaven right before all saints/all souls days.

Rest In Peace Mr B.

Today was a good day (spiritually)!

I don't have any pictures to post. But take it from me, today was a good day(to paraphrase Ice Cube). Even though Mary was out of town, I had a full yet relaxing day. It started with the girls being ready to get ready for church all on their own(wow!). Then it was off to tell their cousin from Houston goodbye, then to Mass where Elizabeth and Emma sang in the youth choir, with angelic voices I must say(gushing dad syndrome). The was our parishes church fair for a couple of hours. It was like living the McDonald's slogan; "food, folks and fun". After that I helped chaperon the youth group on our trip to the Diocesan World Youth Day in Donaldsonville LA. The priest at the church is the same priest that married me and Mary. There were an estimated 1700 people there today. They said it was the largest crowd ever for our diocese. The Mass was standing room only, I was one of the couple of hundred that stood. after mass we walked as a community to two different venues for youth activities. then had a terrific spaghetti and meatball supper prepared by the citizens of D,ville. Then a final blessing in the church and the ride back home.

It was a good and busy day. I didn't even complain that I had to miss the Saints game today(which they won, Praise God).

Do I need an "employee review"?

This is a picture of our new dog, Jenny. She is a Golden Retriever that was abandoned near a friends house. The gilrs love her, my wife loves her, and I, the new caretaker of the dog, love her too.

On the home schooling front, it seems as if we are marching in mud, barely making progress. The last few days have been spent focusing more on 4H, new dog, swim team and any other extracurricular activity we can find. We will have to go the show back on the road. And by saying "we", I mean "me"... I guess that being used to giving and receiving employee evaluations for so long has me longing for the days of a good, honest employee review. While in the workforce getting a review from my boss always meant that I would find out if I've done a good job over the past year or not.

Being the teacher at home school is not that clear cut. If my wife gives me a review I will get defensive because we are partners not subordinates. If the kids review my work, that is just INSANE!!!

So, what I try to do is review or grade myself. That's kind of what I used to do at work. That way I'd have an idea of what my boss was about to tell me during my review. Currently I grade myself at a "C". I never get done all of the things I hope to get done in a week. I don't have "down time", so I know that I am doing stuff.

Anyway, me and the girls have a busy weekend ahead of us. It includes Soccer, LSU football(on TV of course), Church Fair and World Youth Day. I will miss the Saints game on Sunday from London because I am chaperoning the World Youth Day with our youth group.

is that right?

Normally my blog is about me or my family, but this morning I am compelled to talk about other things, Gas prices and right versus wrong.

Now I can tell you that the price of filling up our minivan and 4 cylinder SUV has gotten to be about $140.00 a week. This is not good when you have 4 kids who all want stuff and now there isn't really extra funds to spend on frivolous items. While this is going on in society I have been teaching Emma about energy in her Science curriculum. We have discussed oil, coal, solar, wind and other forms of energy. WE have also been discussing alternative energies or fuels. She wants to invent a solar powered car or water fueled car, good luck Emma!
In our discussions about the earth and the ways we human beings make fuel we have also discussed the fact that God has created everything we use, and gave the Human race dominion over it all(Genesis 1:26, I think).

Elizabeth, our 8th grader has been interested in our lessons and usually listens in but doesn't say much. Well, yesterday we were driving in our gas guzzling van and listening to a nationally broadcast Christian radio station that presented their news as good news. The news they reported was about a gas station that thought it was selling gas for 3.49 a gallon and had a line of cars going into the street. They told how the stores owner and employees all thought they were doing some good business. Well, the jist of the story was that the employee that fixed the price on the pumps had made a mistake and misplaced his decimal and the gas station was actually selling gas for .349 a gallon. Thirty-Four Cents!!! So, on a 25 gallon tank you would spend $8.72 to fill your tank. Elizabeth, listening to the story said to me that this would be cool. At first I agreed. Then after thinking about it for a few seconds I told her that this was not a positive story. That I didn't think the Christian music station had the right perspective. Even though oil companies have been raking in billions of dollars a year on gasoline, I am fairly certain that the local gas stations don't rake in that same money. In fact, they struggle to break even I am sure. Just look at how many gas stations go out of business, do you think if they were real money makers they would go out of business so regularly?
Anyway, I told Liz that I thought that a true Christian, even though they didn't like the price of gas being $3.49/gallon, would let the station attendant know that there is a problem at the pump. I know this would be difficult to do. It would be easier to go along with the rest of the crowd and in effect "steal" some gas without the station being able to legally do anything about it. But as a true Christian we are taught that honesty and integrity are some very important ideals, and the action of taking advantage of the gas station to save money is not honest and in my opinion kind of "sneaky"!
I am mostly disappointed in the radio station for reporting this as a positive story rather than using it as a chance to teach some Christian morality and honesty. I'll still listen to the station, after all they are the best option when it comes to music around here, I'd rather the kids sing along with Christian songs that with the local hip-hop station. I just pray that they will actually take heed to what they profess to do, spread the gospel message with their broadcast. Unfortunately, they didn't this time.

Battle of the "bulge"

For those of you who have known me for more than a couple of years you know that I have struggled with my weight since Kindergarten. A couple of years ago, after my illness, which I am sure had something to do with being overweight, I actually went on the Atkins diet and went from 270 lbs to 200 lbs. This was an achievement I was very proud of. I thought I will never get back above 210 again. well, it has been a couple of years since then and I have crept back in the 240 range. This is quite depressing. I did not want to go back on Atkins because there are so many people that have told me that while Atkins will help drop weight in a hurry that the long term effects of a high fat, protein laden diet will have serious long term effects, I am willing to "risk it". I want to be able to fit in my "skinny" jeans, yes ladies, men do have "skinny" clothes. But we will never admit that fact face to face. Anyway, my new goal is to drop 60 pounds and be at 180 pounds by Mardi Gras.

I will then be able to avoid pictures like the one I have posted, where I think I look a little bit like Jabba the Hut!

It's been a long time...

It's been over a week since I have blogged about our home schooling or anything else. The title of this blog is in reference to the Led Zeppelin song "rock and roll". Hopefully you know the lyrics, and if you don't you can look them up.

Anyway, many things have happened over the last 10 days. We have had swim meets, soccer matches, Vice-presidential debates(yes I had the kids watch the debate), it was our current events lesson for the week. We visited the home school group's "park day" on Friday, it was alot of fun, just wish I had been warned about the amount of sand I'd be bringing home.

My main thought today is, the weekends and how they lead into the week. Our weekends like many other families weekends are super busy. All of the children are involved in some sort of activity that usually culminates in a weekend activity. This is fine, and I enjoy the motion and energy required to do things such as swim meets, soccer games, youth group, etc. I don't like the fact that I don't get enough rest on the weekends, which leads into an unenergetic Monday morning. In fact, I am hoping that this posting is making sense. So far, this morning the kids are doing better than me, which is a good thing. This is keeping me going.

I also teach 9th grade Catechism on Sunday mornings. This has been a great ministry for me. I enjoy teaching our Catholic faith to kids who I judge don't get catechized at home. I wish they did and our Sunday morning lessons were more of a review, but that is not the case. It is difficult to get 9th grade students to focus at 9 am on Sunday mornings, But now that I have students at home all week and go through the same thing with my own kids on a daily basis, it is a little easier to deal with it on Sunday mornings.

This weeks lesson was on The Trinity. Most of the kids had a fairly good understanding of the Trinity. By that I mean they knew the three persons of the Trinity. I guided them to understand that what separates the Christian religions from other monotheistic religions such as Judaism and Islam is the belief in one God, but as three separate person. And that we recall this belief every time we pray or enter Church for mass by doing the Sign of the Cross. When we are praying or recalling our baptism by dipping our hands in the holy water at church upon entering the church and signing ourselves in the name of the father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit", we acknowledge the presence and importance of all 3 of these person in our one God. I am certain that the kids understood this, and if they take one thing away from class yesterday it was that they have 3 people in one God who have their back when times are good and when times get tough.

The home school has a busy week ahead of it. So, I pray that we can actually be steadfast in our work, and that everything we do can glorify our awesome creator(God), redeemer(Jesus), and sanctifier(Holy Spirit),

Amen

Multi-tasking is not for me! But it will be

I have pictures posted here to show how the kids like to do work in their own space. Elizabeth likes to do her school work on the sofa or her bed, Elani likes to work at the desk in her room. Emma likes to work at the desk in the kitchen or the kitchen table. I am glad they have a work space that they feel comfortable in, these places are great for independent work. However, there are times when all of the kids need my expertise at the same time. I haven't quite figured out a way to divide myself so that we can all be as efficient as possible. The first couple weeks of this school year I was running from room to room, student to student trying to make them happy and do some teaching. The kids all seemed to be happy with this arrangement, but I wasn't. It felt too hectic, and with my back pain at an almost intolerable level something had to change. I need to move less and still teach the kids all they need to know. So any suggestions will be gratefully considered.

What I have done is illustrated in this picture how I have started setting up my own work station at the kitchen table, the chairs are not all that comfortable on my back, but it beats running around the house all day. In this picture I was actually tracking my bank statement, giving a spelling test to Emma and reviewing Elani's Catechism lesson all at the same time. It was true multi-tasking. The date stamp on the picture says 6/24 but the actual date was 9/24. I guess that this is one more task to do, teach someone camera maintenance and set up. Since my injury I have pretty much lost my multi-tasking abilities. I was taught in rehabilitation techniques to still get tasks done more efficiently. The technique that I am using here is to have everything I want to accomplish in front of me. I may not be doing true multi-tasking, i.e. more than 1 thing at the same time, but I am able to get several things done in a short time period without being distracted when I go to get the next thing.

This arrangement, used when the kids all have a lot of oral instruction that is needed, has worked better for me. The kids don't always like it. They want to have more privacy, But hey, in a public school there is no privacy. They do still get to do some things at school that they can be comfortable doing, however sometimes they need to be where I am most comfortable.

The weekend is over, already.

Yep, It's Sunday night at 8:34pm and I am thinking about school tomorrow. I really should be going over lesson plans right now, that way I have a game plan for the week. The only, well, not only problem is that I also have other things to do. The main thing being Reading for this years first RSI classes at the diocese. Religious Studies Institute is an adult catechism, college level program, that is used in Baton Rouge as a prerequisite for the deaconite program. I am in my 2nd year, and hopefully will be eligible to start taking, be in the deaconate starting next fall, that is if the diocese starts a new class next fall. I know there is a discernment process before you actually start, but right now I feel totally lead to this vocation in everything I do. I must admit that during Mass I watch our Deacon intently and want to do what I see him doing on the altar and to be of greater service to God and my community.

I have about 9 chapters to read before Saturday for Church History, and a few Chapters that I really should re-read for Catholic Morality. A tall order when I spend most of the day teaching home school lessons and running my kids to their extra curricular activities including coaching Elani's soccer team. My prime reading/study time is late night when the kids are in bed. That is also the best time for me to prepare lesson plans for home school. There are not enough hours in the night! My days have enough hours to do what I need with the children, it is the night time that I need to lay the ground work for everything I do, and believe it or not, I do get tired. I try not to show it but I do.

Anyway, most of the lesson plans are done for tomorrow, my thing is that I was thinking today that maybe I should plan for the week and have a one on one session with each child/student on Monday mornings to kind of map out the week. I will try this and then keep up with the kids to make sure they get the weekly work done every week. I am thinking that this may allow me to spend more time focusing on what the girls need me to focus on and less time reviewing stuff that they are pretty good at. I'll try this for a week or two and then reevaluate. I'll keep the progress of this technique posted.

One last thing that is on my mind. I enjoy teaching 9th grade catechism at Church. This is my 5th year of teaching 9th grade. We had our first class of the year and the kids listened to nearly every word I said. I Was glad the students paid attention. I pray for each of them to find and know God every day. I truly believe that they know that I want that for each of them.

May God bless each person that reads my blog. My screen saver is a quote from Psalm 27 "the Lord is my light and my salvation". I pray that everyone that I come into contact can say these words with conviction. A.M.D.G (for the greater glory of God)

It's like Christmas, but no garland!

The remainder of Elani's 2nd grade curriculum came in today. Elani now has math, science, social studies and a home catechism course available at her disposal. She was excited, she tore into the Catholic Heritage Curriculum box like it was a Christmas gift on Christmas morning. We got started with the first math lesson right away. The math was easy to jump right into, the others will require me to at least have some sort of plan of action, which I must do tonight. The first 2 pictures here of Elani are of her working on her math.

I also took a few pictures of Elizabeth doing her Social Studies which is a survey course on World History, with an emphasis on the Catholic viewpoint on history. She did an American History last year from a Catholic perspective, that was very good.

















Emma scored an "A" on her 1st big science test today. I was very excited for her. Science has been a struggle for her in the past, probably because there was a kind of incongruence between what she learned at public school and what she learns at home, her parents different twists on some topics. She was left with a "who do I believe ?" feeling. Now that she is learning science from a true Catholic Christian perspective and is free to learn in this way, she is much more comfortable in Science. Also, she told me today that the one on one aspect of studying her lessons with me actively during the lesson enables her to be interested and to follow along with the materials. That was cool for me to hear. I know that I am having a positive effect on my children and their education!!!!

Finally Elie has to be involved in some way. So, today during Elie's math lesson we let her draw on the dry erase board after we were done using it for learning her lesson. So, during her Elani's independent math work, the dry erase board was free for Elie to use.













I was able to get alot of teaching done in what seemed like a short time today, which has me wondering if I actually taught as much as I think I did. Of course, the girls all tell me I did, they love to finish "early" and would not presume to tell me that I didn't teach as well as they needed. That would set them up for another round of Mr. Wallace's teaching.

I pray that I taught them as well as they needed today. In fact, my prayer every school day is to be a great Father for them, like St. Joseph was for Jesus, and to be a great teacher for them like countless saints have been through the ages. It is times I get an inkling that this prayer is working when one of the kids thanks me like Emma did today and tells me "thanks for spending one on one time with me". What parent would not want to hear that from one of their kids? no matter what the subject or reason.

I also gotta say that I love my wife. I try to love her with an Ephesians kind of love. She has been working hard, and I have not been as patient with her as I should be. I promise to try harder to be the support that she needs.

back for more

Well, the home school, The Wallace Academy, or as the girls call it, The International House of Wallace, is back in full swing. I, the teacher, am having a difficult time getting my head back in the game after all of the hurricane hoopla. But I am feeling better about it as the days go on. Here is a picture of me grading one of Emma's Science tests. I have also been grading spelling tests, teaching multiple lessons on verbs, nouns, addition, subtraction, and exponents. It really is as exhausting as it sounds.

The kids are all happy to be getting back to a routine. Emma and Liz have decided that doing their school work in their room is a quieter atmosphere than the kitchen where they hear Elie whining the whole time they school. I, the teacher, am keeping a close eye on this situation, for I know that what looks like the best of intentions to be in a quiet learning environment can also turn into a little talking hideaway. And yes, there is a TV in that room that is supposed to be off during the day...

Elani is doing well too. she is enjoying doing her school work under my watchful eye. She is still a little bit defiant, but is getting better at following directions. we'll see how she does when the 2nd half of her curriculum comes in at the end of the week. Both Elani an I are looking forward to her new Math and Science books to come in as soon as possible.

We have not only restarted the schoolwork but have also begun swim team at the YMCA, soccer league, dance lessons and Catechism. So, we are now in full swing. Please pray that I can do all of the home school stuff as well as the extra curricular's and keep my sanity all at the same time.
I have also started my own personal reading for my Religious Studies Institute classes. So, late nights have been and will continue to be my routine.

Lights, Camera, Action!!!!

Alleluia! We have electricity!!!! Maybe it's how Dr Frankenstein felt when his experiment came to life. I don't know about all of that, but I do know that this home school is "fully operational" much like the Death Star in Return of the Jedi. W actually got started back to our program yesterday without electricity, well, we did have a generator that gave us the ability to have a couple of fans a lamp and a small window unit A/c in our kitchen, that tried its best to cool us off, but didn't quite achieve it's destiny...  That being said we are now a little over a week behind me and Mary's lesson plans. The girls have agreed to do a little bit more each day and are gonna push to be back on par by sometime in October. That shouldn't be too hard to do. I don't think.

The girls are magnificent troopers through all of this adversity. Thank you God, for giving the girls the ability to cope with difficulties! Their lives have been filled with adversity, and they pulled trough this tough spot that Hurricane Gustav gave us with flying colors. In the last 2 days they have completed a days work. So, starting tomorrow is our re-start of our newer faster paced schooling.

Evacuated

We are at Granny's house in Slidell. Because our home/school is without power. I forgot our school books at home, so for now, schools out.... Unless I can find some work for them to do online!

No electricity means no school

Hurricane Gustav has messed up our home school. We have no electricity at our house. A few shingles have blown off the roof, so our roof is probably leaking now. But we are not home tonight. We are sleeping in momma Mary's office tonight, she has a/c and electricity and all of the wonderful things that go along with that. As I learn more about getting back to our house, I will post it. But for now we have no power and actually very little food at the house, this storms really gave us a "black eye"...


Steve

Another week in the books

Well we had quite a busy week of schooling. As you can see in these pictures the kids were busy all week, and therefore, so was I. I did not post pictures of all the "after school" activities, such as ballet, hip hop, and jazz dance as well as soccer, swim team, and eventually they will start Catechism... although they get quite a bit of that at home, they want to go to class to be with the other kids they know from church.

Home school with the girls has been much more "manageable" than I thought. We do have our rough spots. But 95% of the time it runs very smoothly. And the kids do get alot out of the 1 on 1 time with their teacher, me.

Some highlights of the week have been: Emma built her Terrarium, and has been observing it daily. She thinks of the toads in the tank as her "pets" and even Elani has been writing down her observations of the tank... future scientists!! Then there is Elani, she has done well with everything she has been assigned, and she is quite creative when it comes to her learning. In one of the pictures of her she is sitting at the table writing her spelling words in a pan of flour. she had fun, and after that got a 100% on her spelling test. ( maybe the sensory part of her task helped), oh BTW it was her idea to study the words with flour. I should have taken a picture of her trying to clean it up, she somehow got flour everywhere. But that was OK. And then Elizabeth did a science experiment this week wit TUMS and water and vinegar. She was bummed we did not see some sort of explosion with the tums. We'll have to do the Mentos in diet coke thing I guess, she'll be happy with that!

8th grade work has been tough on her, so we take our time, I told her today that at our current pace, her school year will go through the summer. Maybe that will help to pick up her pace.

Elie managed to get a hold of the new macbook laptop and soon after I took this picture of her playing "webkinz", she managed to somehow mess up the computer, so momma Mary had to get the computer guy at work to fix it. I think he just had to change 1 command, but we couldn't figure it out.

The upcoming week is kind of up in the air. I was planning to give them a very light Labor Day, but Hurricane Gustav may have plans to lighten their days for a few days. We'll see how that goes.

As for me, I start my Religious Studies Institute (RSI) classes on Saturday 9/6, so I need to start getting my reading done for the first classes. i am taking Morality, Church History, and A study on the Catechism! this should be fun stuff for me!! Bring on the Theology!!!!

Terrarium ( said like Metallica's Sanatarium)

Well, today started like a usual Monday, until Emma realized that it was "terrarium day". She sprung out of bed, brushed her teeth and was ready to get "dirty". We started with the 10 gallon tank from wal mart. and some gravel and potting soil from there too.
Here she is adding a layer of soil over her layer of gravel. We forgot the sand that we meant to use between the gravel and soil.
Emma planted a fern, and another plant we bought at the nursery at wal mart. We also dug up a few things from our yard.
This is what the terrarium looked like when it was done being set up. The science experiment that we are using said that we could put a small animal or two in the terrarium, to give it the true "ecosystem" feel. So, Emma and I went frog hunting. (sorry no pictures of that). We ended up with two toads. At least I think they are toads. So they now live in our "new world".
And finally, here is a shot of Emma standing next to her terrarium.(notice her Bull Frog swim team shirt) It was a fun experiment and I am hoping that Emma does some good observations as prescribed in her science book. I am looking for some "Darwinian" observations from Emma. I'll keep you posted.

Elizabeth also did a science experiment today, but it was on a much smaller scale, at least in my eyes. But she is not as impressed with the scientific method as Emma is so I do not know that she is getting all that much from Science as Emma.

In action!

Here is a photo of me and Emma going over her lesson plan for science. I was explaining that on Monday 8/25 we would be doing a science experiment/activity! She got really excited about the prospect of doing some hands on projects. I went on to explain that the project was that we were going to build a terrarium for her science lesson. We are studying the balance of nature, and that God created everything in nature. So, we went today, Saturday, to the local "wal-marts" to buy the things that we need for the terrarium. I remember when I was a kid, we had a terrarium in our living room, it was real 1970's, a white and clear bubble type thing with plants in it. I didn't realize that we had a science experiment growing in our living room.

Anyway, we bought a 10 gallon aquarium, potting soil, gravel, and a couple of small plants. Now, I need to figure out a way to cover the aquarium....... I mean Terrarium, so that the frog or Lizard that Emma wants to put in it can't escape. Momma Mary and Liz say they wont be able to sleep with the thought of a wild animal in the house. We'll see.

On another note, Mary (the wife) was unaware that I started a blog. Her job has been extremely busy this week, and she has worked late every night. She was quite surprised tonight when I said that my blogging was going well. So, now the lady of my dreams, and love of my life is going to be a regular reader of my blog as I am of hers.

I will keep posted how the terrarium turns out, and possibly share pictures of us making it.

Cold Coffee??

Well, I am on day 3 of home school and it's going relatively smooth. The girls are all getting all of their assigned work done. I was worried that they wouldn't, but they have... Although Emma had homework last night because she was tired yesterday afternoon and wanted to do her History last night. But today, all the girls were finished their work by 230pm... wow! We even did a science experiment for Liz's Science Physical Science curriculum that was fairly successful. It involved a 9 volt battery (the square kind) 2 pieces of copper wire and a glass of water with baking soda dissolved in it. Liz put the wires in the water while they were connected to the battery and they started bubbling up. Watching the fascinated look on the faces of my young students was wonderful. Even Elie (2 yr old) thought it was cool. I took a few pictures of it for our yearly home school scrapbook, I would post them here if I could figure out how.

That reminds me, the title of this post is cold coffee. I drink 4 or 5 cups a day of coffee. I like my coffee to be somewhere between hot and really warm, call me crazy. Anyway, every time I have poured myself a fresh cup of java this week, I get called for help from another "student". So, I have not finished a cup of warm coffee this whole week. Not really a funny story, but hey this is non-fiction, it is hit or miss.

Now, I have to do the really important stuff of the day, answer the question that Elani just asked me, "what are we eating tonight dad?". Let me go look in the freezer, then the checkbook to see if we have money to eat out, then in the freezer again, then the wallet, etc....

well, I hope that I give a good impression of my experience the last few days. It really has been great.

Home School?

Well, Today was our first full day of schooling, just me and my girls. I taught them alot. They were genuinely enthusiastic about the day. I must admit that I was nervous as hell, when I woke up at 5am. The lesson plans were completed lats night, around 1030pm, so that was covered. Now, I actually had to hold the kids attention and be somewhat interesting with them and the subject matter being covered.

We did it though.. I am starting this blog to kind of keep up with my feelings about our not so new radical lifestyle that has been enhanced by home schooling all of the gilrs. For the last 2 years I have home schooled our oldest daughter. So, it only seemed natural to bring them all home. Besides I am fairly certain that I heard God whispering "bring them home and educate them", all summer long. So, it made sense to do it, and after 1 day, I am pleased with the decision.

Now, sllep and then day 2!!!