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| She may look like Duncan but there are some things she does get from me. A messy eater! |
I talked to Linda on Friday and told her I was under a time crunch because I have to have this filed with the county by the anniversary date of when I filed my paperwork to home school which was August 19. She was very nice and said I could come on Monday and that I should expect it to take an hour to an hour and a half. Holy cow! I was expecting a review to take maybe 20 - 30 minutes at the most. I wasn't very excited about the prospect of trying to keep the other three kids quiet in a stranger's house while all this is going on. I had Elaine lined up to come but in the end, I just went for it. Last night I spent about an hour organizing all of Calleigh's stuff into binders, printed off all the library books we had checked out over the year (fortunately the library keeps a list for you and you can print it off - - over 450 books since November when I turned on the feature on my account), and got everything in order.
Everything went well. I tried to listen with one ear while keeping Colby entertained (Brady and Aubree had some electronic devices). I did hear her answering questions but also she would just talk and talk about various other things. Something about some bling Grandma had and the whole saga of Ricky and Ana moving to Montana, etc. She definitely doesn't have a problem warming up to strangers.
As we were leaving, Linda asked me about vacation and I said we were going to Nova Scotia but flying to Boston first and driving from there. She asked if I was from there and I said yes and she said she was as well and asked my maiden name. When I told her she said "Oh, are you related to Wanda Brace Hopkins?" Indeed I am, I said, and that is who I had wanted to do the evaluation in the first place. "I went walking with her every day for 13 years!" I knew that name sounded familiar. Now I know I heard it from Aunt Wanda. That's the Adventist world for you.
So, everything ended up well with this whole evaluation thing but I've decided to do things differently next year. She had Calleigh read out of a book and Calleigh's reader which Calleigh did fine with but I was thinking, "What if Calleigh wasn't really able to read yet?" I know people whose kids haven't started reading until seven, eight, or even later. These are perfectly smart and normal kids but the parents haven't pushed them (the better late than early approach which I support) if they aren't ready. Does it mean that we didn't have a successful school year if she wasn't reading yet? Does it mean that Linda wouldn't have signed off on the evaluation? I would much prefer to go at my own pace but how do you do that if someone is going to be evaluating where they think she should be at the end of the year based on public school standards? Fortunately there is another option. You can use an umbrella school. By doing so, you become part of a private school and are no longer required to have an evaluation (or any of the other four criteria you could choose to do to meet the home school requirement). To be clear, she wouldn't actually be going to the school. Nothing would change except I will have to submit her medical records to this school (it's completely on-line) and then once a quarter I have to send an attendance report. The name of the school is Florida Unschoolers and every day is a day of learning so the attendance keeping will be easy. It's also all free (as opposed to several hundred dollars at other umbrella schools). I'm really excited about this option as the lady who runs it seems really nice. It's all completely virtual and she has about 2,400 "students." No more worries about having to file all our work just so and finding someone to review it at year end.
Summer has been a really good thing as far as school goes. It's amazing how about six or seven weeks away from the whole school thing can really recharge you. I'm feeling really excited about the upcoming school year and I think the girls are too by their reactions to the packages coming in the mail. Last year all of our books were from one place but this year since we've added other curriculum, we've had about four or five different packages of school stuff coming and it's almost been like Christmas morning opening them all up. Calleigh has been excited but nobody has been more excited than Aubree especially when she opened the package with her own books. I had to let her get started right away on doing some. Even today she was asking to do some of it but I told her we needed to save it for the school year. She has also talked to me about the seating. We have a rectangular table with two seats on each side. This past year, I sat on one side with Calleigh beside me since this made it easier to help her with her work. Aubree sat across from me. A few days ago, Aubree came over to me and made sure Calleigh couldn't hear her, and said "I'm going to sit on the same side as you this year, right Mom? Since I'm a real student this year. Calleigh can sit where I was sitting." I didn't have the heart to tell her that I didn't consider Kindergarten to be quite a "real" student yet (considering that Florida doesn't require me to do something unless they turn six before February of the school year). We will see how things go on the first day of school!
This week I'm back to wishing I could just put my kids in a bubble until they are no longer in danger of injuring themselves (which I guess would be never!). This time it was all Colby - - we haven't had any Brady problems for awhile...knock on wood. First off was one afternoon when he was just crawling around downstairs and was playing with something on the Time Out chair. I was a short distance away but wasn't watching him intently. I look over and just catch the tail end of him hitting his head on the floor. I have no idea how it happened. I grabbed him up and he let out a little cry but then was silent as if he was catching his breath to make one of those giant cries. But the cry never came and his face started getting strange looking and it looked like his eyes were starting to roll back into his head. I was getting a little freaked out for about 10 or 20 seconds. But then, it all went back to normal and he never did let out another cry. A little bump on the head and all was well. Of course, during this incident, Calleigh was hanging on my leg crying "Is he okay? Is he okay?" I had to have a little talk with her that as the big sister, she needed to be calm and help me if I needed it. So we had to have a little review on calling 911. We have done that before but it's been a few months.
The second incident was on Sabbath morning. Calleigh was in the shower and I was in the bathroom ironing. Colby was playing in my room but then I noticed it had gotten kind of quiet so I went out to see what was going on. I knew Duncan and Brady were out there somewhere and the gate for the stairs was closed so I wasn't concerned about Colby leaving the room. As I came out, I noticed it was very silent - - no boys to be seen anywhere - - and the gate was NOT closed. Duncan was in the office doing something and I let out a little scream because I knew that Colby must be on those stairs. Sure enough, as I walk over, I hear a loud noise...Colby falling down the stairs. Fortunately he stopped at the landing but seeing your baby boy landing on his head at the bottom of some stairs, albeit the carpet part, is still a VERY dramatic experience. I ran up to grab him and there was Brady about 2/3 of the way up the top so I'm assuming that Colby was in a similar position. This time Colby was screaming the the whole time and there were no eyes rolling back or blood or anything but I was shaking really badly and I started crying which then caused Aubree to cry (Calleigh was still in the shower and completely oblivious to it all). He then had another lump and scrape just above the one from falling on the floor so that was all looking really good. I just can't get the image out of my head and your brain starts going into bad place like "What if he had fallen on the first part of the stairs which meant he would have landed on the tile?" Ugh. I can't even think about it now.
After it was all over, I had a talk with Brady.
Me:"Brady, why didn't you say that Colby was going up the stairs? You need to tell us if Colby is climbing up the stairs so we can come and get him. That's very dangerous for him to be up there."
Brady: Silence
Me:"Brady, do you understand? Colby can NOT climb the stairs. I don't want him falling like that. You have to tell me if something like this happens again."
Brady:"Okay, I'll tell you if Colby falls down the stairs again."
Me: Ahhhhh!!!
Not to add to all the negative things happening here but on Thursday I went to the memorial service for me friend Treva. It was at 11:00 am and Duncan had a big meeting he couldn't miss at noon so Grandma had to be called into service. I was a little nervous about that since Colby has been a pill for her at times in the past. But I knew there was no way I could take him. Thankfully it all went fine. Hopefully he's over the hump. The service was great although a little different than an SDA service, of course, since there was emphasis on how Treva was now joined with Jesus in heaven. I'm thinking "Boy, she must be thrilled to see us all down here weeping for her. I know that would really make heaven happy for me." I was so happy to see her daughter and her husband whom I don't believe I had met in person. I had a chance to talk to her daughter for a few minutes and tell her how much I had loved her mother and share a few anecdotes and that felt really good to be able to do. As sad as it is, it's often at funerals (and weddings) that you see people you haven't seen in a long time and so it was in the case. I saw so many former co-workers and friends and it was so good to see them all and reminisce about the good times working in Accounting "back in the day."
Last week I mentioned that Colby was having serious problems falling asleep without me in the room and that I had been staying with him in the room to get him to just go to sleep. This week I vowed that would end and it has mostly been positive. At times he won't cry at all or sometimes it will be about ten minutes. But there have still been a few times where he has gone more than 40 or 50 minutes (I will go up about every 15 or 20 minutes to give him his binky and lay him down). He'll eventually go to sleep but it has resulted in some funny positions as you can see below. And yes, we moved him to a more comfortable position after snapping the pictures!
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Colby has been making strides, so to speak, with his walking. He's taking one or two steps if you put him down and have him come towards you. But even more so, when nobody is even looking at him, or so he thinks, he'll stand himself up from a sitting position with no help, and take some steps. I think it will be happening in the very near future. Is it possibly true that I will have a kid walking BEFORE his first birthday? What an overachiever!
I will close here since it's late but here are a couple of conversations with the kids.
We were stopped at a light and there was a homeless guy with a sign that caught the girls' attention (for the record, in some situations I will give money or food to these people but I don't feel comfortable rolling down my window for a strange man when there aren't a lot of other people around and even then, sometimes not)
Calleigh:"What is that guy doing?"
Me: "I think he's homeless and he's asking for some money for food."
The girls start talking to each other about this in the backseat.
Calleigh:"Well, how did he even get a marker and paper to make a sign if he's homeless and doesn't have money?
Aubree: "I don't know. Maybe he went over a friend's house who let him use a marker?"
At yard sales on Friday, Brady scored a free toy that is an animal head on a stick. He called it a lion and would carry it around and say "ROOAARRR" in people's faces.
Duncan:"Brady, that isn't a lion. It's a cheetah.
Brady:"No, it's a lion.
Duncan: "See all the spots. It's definitely not a lion."
Brady:"It's a LION!"
An hour or two goes by and Brady comes over to Duncan. As if they never had the previous conversation.
Brady (sticking the toy in Duncan's face):"I'm thinking this is a cheetah."
A few other pictures:
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| Costco without the girls. Allen had them come over his place to do water play in the backyard. There were a few samples Colby could eat but if we were eating one and he wasn't, he would get SO mad. I actually had to give him some of my lettuce with sweet vidalia onion dressing on it and he ate it right up! |
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| Got this new water table at a yard sale for $5. The guy had a $10 price tag on it but it was the end of the day and was practically begging me to take it and said to take it for $5 without my asking. |
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| Calleigh in Sabbath School. I thought she just looked so grown up with the way she was sitting. |