The Year LIFE Happened

Forgive me Reader, for I have failed.  It has been 13 months since my last posting.  13 months and SOOOOOO much has happened this year.

This past year has been the year where LIFE happened.  Believe it or not, my lovely blog hostess has had a very similar year as us, just in a different order.

Since my last posting I have……

1.  Traveled across the continent with 5 kids alone

2.  Traveled alone to San Diego to fulfill the mitzvah of Bikur Cholim (Visiting the Sick)

3.  Traveled across the ocean (for the first time) to fulfill the 231st Commandment of Burying the dead

4. Sustained a knee injury

5. Had myself and 3 kiddos do black belt testing

6.  Moved to a new community

7.  Had knee surgery

8.  Made a beach trip

9.  Attended the yearly Homeschool Expo

10.  1 finally beach trip of the summer.

So here is where life continues.  I will try to sum up everything here but I apologize if its long.  A lot happens in 13 months!

Our first adventure was to Vancouver Canada for a family wedding.  I am always worried about the kids when I travel with them, especially when I travel alone.  While we had some ear issues from the plane rides, the rest of the trip was full of excitement.  I think we managed to travel on all forms of transportation available to us.  Trains (in the airport), Planes, Automobile (ok, an SUV that my wonderful Aunt lent me for the trip), Boat (aka the Ferry!!!) and Bus (best way to travel once on Vancouver Island).    While on this week long adventure, we compared the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean (Oceanography class) got to visit and meet with MANY family members, and once on the island I fulfilled my promise to that the kids to the BUG ZOO (insectology??).  With all of that, I think the bugs were the biggest hit of all.

Now I know what you are all thinking “Is she NUTS???  Travelling ALONE with 5 kids across the continent????”  First off, YES!!!!  Unfortunately, Dad couldn’t make the trip because of work.  But what better way to educate your kids but to take them on the ultimate field trip?  After all, Canada is MY homeland and I LOVE taking my kids to where I am from (I didn’t grow up in Vancouver or the Island, but my extended family has always been out there).  While travelling, each child was given a responsibility to help make things go smoothly.  Yes, I had to make it all happen, but everyone felt needed and “big”.  For the most part, all 5 kiddos were amazing.  No mater what hiccup we had, everyone just went with it and behaved.  This allowed for a very enjoyable trip.  Needless to say, my kids did more learning in that 1 week away from home than they would have AT home!!!

 

11350_10152813552141257_3744648860344536632_n With the BEAUTIFUL bride 🙂

 

154520_10152808061511257_7576370260646031577_nFrom the Atlantic to the PACIFIC!!

 

From here I will combine the next 2 events as they are related….

Unfortunately, right at the time of our grand adventure our west, my dear Grandfather was nearing the end of his fight with cancer.  My father had disappeared just after the wedding to go and be with him and thus, we finished our trip with me dropping him off at the airport before we left a couple days later.  During the last 3 weeks or so of his life, my father was out in San Diego, alone to be with his father.  In the middle of those 3 weeks, I went out to not only to say my good byes, but to help my father out, and fulfill the mitzvah of Bikur Cholim (visiting the sick).  It was a short yet emotional trip for me, as well as the kids, since they knew that I MIGHT not come home as planned but perhaps a little later.  Fortunately, my grandfather was strong enough to hold on just a little longer to fulfill the 613th Commandment of Writing a Sefer Torah.  A man, who lived a long hard life, was able to, on his deathbed, to still amaze us all.  Just a few days after seeing this all happen (Thanks to modern technology, he was able to watch it all on skype), and a week after I went home, he was finally at peace and back with our creator.  At this time, I was able fly to Israel, for my very first time to follow through with commandment 231, Burying the Dead.   While the purpose of the trip was not for a happy event, I was blessed to make this trip with my parents and 2 siblings.

1403591_10152952223563487_4129584786640458281_o Post Shabbos outing.1600983_10152902223656257_6106181700101201774_n The holiest place on earth that you can touch and be close to Hashem

10372526_10152902173376257_7665764851256197501_nJust 3 gals, adventuring across the world together.  The 2 gals got me through the entire trip in 1 piece!   (In order l-r, Me, Older Sis, and our MAGNIFICENT Mom 🙂  )

 

Ok, I will jump ahead a little now, the day after my knee injury, from training, Myself and 3 boys tested for new belts in TKD.  At this point, I am going to stop to tell you HOW proud I am of #2.  He has come a long way in life and during this 45 min testing he not only worked hard, but was cheering on his younger brother like there is no tomorrow.  #3 had to retest on his board breaking a month later but the love and compassion out of #2 when he didn’t get it was AMAZING.  He was right there, sitting beside him, hugging him and telling me how “It’s OK!!” and that he will get it next time. While some people look to me for advice on Sensory issues, I love to take the time to point out how these kiddos are so special in their own way:)

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#3 After retesting and getting his belt!!

 

Ok, let’s pause here.  I forgot something on my list that happened a couple weeks after belt testing.  My Sensory Kid TRIED NEW FOODS!!!!!!!  Yes, you read that right, he tried new foods, and LIKED it!!!   At this point, we ran away to Texas to visit my Sister and her family for the end days of Pesach.  The holiday ended nicely and the next day we celebrated eating “regular” foods again by trying INDIAN Cuisine.  Everyone found something they liked but most of all, #2 Ate and devoured his plates!

11109427_10153208675131257_4206287345034986250_n#2 is the one in the middle, enjoying his new foods 🙂  Nothing is better than trying new things when you are surrounded by cousins!!

 

Ok, back to our list.  The move.  We moved 20 minutes down the street 🙂  Actually the 20 minutes is correct, but its not literally down the street.  We moved to a new community.  This move has given all the kids a chance to make new friends, and more friends.  3 months later, everyone is still happy!

11196277_10153256335976257_2089060311334885554_nWhat our new classroom LOOKED like before the rest of the house was populated!  Here, the kids are enjoying their first meal in the new house.  LUNCH!

 

Let’s see, knee surgery was next.  Yes, I had knee surgery to fix my knee injury.  The recovery is long but I am being good about it!   In the mean time, #2 is probably the most helpful of all the kids.  He is always double checking to make sure I have what I need, and that I am not doing too much (even though I am able to start running again in a few weeks!).  You gotta love the love that comes from him  (and yes, the others too 🙂  )

To finish up quickly (and if you’ve made it this far, Thanks for reading!!!), We have completed our summer fun with a few camps, 2 beach trips and 1 homeschool expo.  The highlight (besides the beach of course), was seeing my kid, who can’t sit still, play 5 chess games over a 2.5 hour period at his first chess tournament.  While he didn’t get a big trophy, he walked away with a Pawn piece, and to him, it was the biggest thing in the world at the time.

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Both #1 and #2 showing off their prizes at the chess tournament

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All 5 kiddos working on Architecture class while at the beach (Where we also had Marine biology class, Oceanography class, as well as ended with History class on the way home)

 

While most of this posting has little to do with how I’ve dealt with a “special” soul in our home, I will end with this.  This past year has presented MANY MANY changes in our life.  We have also had many life lessons that could send children in many directions.  Seeing how changes have effected all of them has opened my eyes up.  They have ALL grown by leaps and bounds, but to see that I can uproot the trickier one and still keep going on means 1 thing to me, We are starting to learn with life.  Where a change would have ended up with tantrums and fits, we are learn to see that life is full of changes and yes, it still keeps going and the world has yet to end.

 

A child who chooses to shine

As parents we are always proud of our children’s accomplishments no matter how small are.  But when it comes to children with challenges, those small accomplishments are actually the big things.

This last week marked a HUGE accomplishment for my special boy.  You see, our family got involved in martial arts pretty much because of him.  Our OT recommended that we enroll him to step up what was needed for strength and other sensory issues (loud noises, touch – pads, gear etc).  So off we went in search of a school.  We decided that whatever we found we needed english speaking teachers, family oriented (warm) and people who would be willing to work with us on specific issues.  (Side benefit was allowing our kids to socialize with their age group as well as a PE class)

In March 2011, #1 and #2 started Taekwondo at a school that fit what we were looking for.  #2 started in a program for the younger aged kids (3-6) and #1 went right into the regular belt program with the other kids  (6-12).

 

First of class!!!

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Now, to get back to that HUGE accomplishment I was talking about.  The last 3 years, I have watched #2 go through 2 full belt programs.  That means he has gone through 22 different belts, 3 different class levels and countless hours on the mats at the school.  Don’t forget the countless tears, tantrums and yelling matches over lost belts (yes, Mommy got yelled at at home because someone couldn’t find a belt).

For the last 2 months, #2 has been the highest COLOUR belt student in the ENTIRE school.  He has started to really blossom as a person and I have seen a lot less tears and tantrums (Lost belts happen daily unfortunately).  While all of that sounds impressive the most impressive thing that he has accomplished through all of this was last night.   Last night, both Mommy and Daddy got to watch our very special boy graduate from colour belt to BLACK BELT classes.  While his belt is now black on top and red on the bottom, he is considered a recommended black belt  (A student who has proven themselves in knowledge and skill).  This step is huge.  My Special 9 year old boy is showing us that as long as we don’t give up on him, he wont give up on himself  (his goal is to be Grand Master one day).

 

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Who would have thought that when we started this particular journey 3 years ago that I would see such a change for the better?  We are VERY proud parents!

 

I can’t forget about the other kiddos right now though.  We had 1 black belt midtermer, 1 advance to 1st red, 1 advance to 1st brown and 1 advance to tiny tiger brown (the program for the younger groups).  Congrats to all my Ninjas!!!!

 

The Minions protecting their Leader (aka, MOM)

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But Mom, there is SOOOOOO much reading!!!!

Oh the wonderful thing called Standardized Testing.

I have been dreading this time of year ALL year.  On one hand I know it has to be done, and on the other hand why does it have to be so complicated?  Ok, so it’s really not THAT complicated.  That is, it’s not for the average person.  For #2, the world has officially ended.

Our choice of test is the PASS test.  Its specifically designed for home school students.  I don’t need a fancy degree or need to find someone to administer the test.  The best part?  I can assign a time limit or question count to do in one sitting and then we can break till later.  We have 4 weeks to do 3 different tests.  That’s our only time limit!

Before you give the test you need to give your child a placement test.  This test is 12 questions and will determine which level of test paper to give to your child.  Your child is tested at THEIR level.  This concept is GREAT.  The work isn’t above your childs abilities and will allow them to get a pretty good idea of where they REALLY are.

As I sit here writing this, I have #2 sitting beside me working on his Language Test.  There is A LOT of reading on all 3 test papers and I am seeing my precious boy lose his mind.  We have already had a complete melt down and that was after the FIRST question!!!  Only 59 more to go!  Today’s goal?  10 questions.  He did AMAZING on his placement test which is good but, it also poses the issue of causing grief on the real test.  My solution to this was to assign him 1 test level below.  I prefer to see him jump with joy with an AWESOME test score than cry and melt down because he worked soooo hard and just couldn’t handle it all.

(As a side note, I am challenging him to finish his 10 questions as I write this.  7 down, 3 more to go!!!!)

I know the first time with something different is always the hardest.  I am hoping that by seeing the layout of the tests this year will help us out next year.

*deep breath*

Well 9 questions down, 1 more to go….  for now.   Time to get the troops ready for the promised book store trip!

I wonder if I can talk him into more of his math test after we get back…..

 

 

 

Sadness during a time of Happiness, The loss of a friend.

I realize that I have been quiet for almost a year, and for that, I apologize.  You see, I am not a blogger in the sense that I write daily or anything, but one that will post when the right post comes about.

As we approach the holiday of Purim, my family readies themselves with all the preparations that go with any holiday.  We learn about the holiday and then act upon what we have learned.  We hunted for costumes for the children and got our Purim baskets organized (we order through our synaguage).  The hubby and I made sure we had a babysitter for the adult party in the evening and we readied our souls (and kids) to sit through the melgillah reading, twice.

One thing NO ONE was prepared for was to end up being sad.  You see, the real backbone of our community, Our Rebbetzin, passed away suddenly on the 10th of Adar II.  She was 37 years old.  She left a husband and 8 children behind (ages 2-14).  While the family went to New York for the Levaya (funeral) and for Shiva (the 7 day mourning period), most of the community is still at home, in shock.  A few people were able to fly out and be there with the family but the stories we hear back are unbelievable.  There are no real words to describe what we are all feeling, never mind the family! (although we are one big family really).

I spent the entire night Tuesday/Wednesday morning awake in bed not able to sleep.  My brain in total shock and not shutting down.  In the morning I had to tell OUR kids what had happened.  How do you tell your children that their close friends don’t have a mother any more?  That someone THEY know well is gone forever?  I knew I had to be strong but I also knew that they had to know it was ok to be sad.  Through tears I sat them all down and told them how much I loved them all.  I went on to tell them what had happened (Their friends Mom got really sick last night and Hashem decided it was her time to go).  At first, no one reacted.  As I continued to talk I had my special boy start to giggle and say “Nice story Mommy”.  I took a minute for him to realize I wasn’t telling a story but telling them something true.  We then discussed how When they get back from NY, they will truly needs friends.  And yes, even though they are already friends, good friends will be there no matter what happens.  “Even if they are mean to me Mommy??” (asked by the giggle boy) “Especially then.  They have a right to be angry, sad and feel lost.  They wont know when things will hit them and make them upset.”

I have had a couple days to let things sink in some now.  And even as I write this, tears are streaming down my face.  I didn’t know how much I had learned from my dear friend until it was too late to thank her.  I am going to work hard at channeling some of her “super powers” into my every day life.  Patience with my children is one of them.  Homeschooling can make a parent SNAP very easily (especially when dealing with a special child in the mix).  I am going to work on talking quietly and calmly with my children.  I want only happy memories for them.

While finishing up our Purim lessons today (dedicated in my friends memory), We talked about the mitzvah of being happy, when my oldest asked “HOW do we be happy with the sadness that happened?”

What a tough question to answer. I responded with “Its a mitzvah, and we will work hard to fulfill it.”

I have spoken to my 10 year old about a lot of things over the last few days. He understands but I didn’t know how he really felt (he’s just asked questions). Kids understand more than we give them credit for, they just don’t always express feelings with statements. Sometimes we need to “read between the lines” and realize that the questions are a way to trying to tell us.

My eyes have been opened the last couple of days. I intend to look at the world in a whole different way and try to learn from it.

 

Rashi, we will miss you being with us in the physical world but you left your imprint on all of us.  THANK YOU for teaching me so much and just being you.

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( from collive.com)

The sentiment of continuing Rashi Minkowicz’s work was echoed in an email her 14-year-old son sent to COLlive on Thursday evening, in which he had a personal request for the community.

“In honor of my mother, I want to ask all of you to help my father with the campaign for our new Shul,” wrote Mendel Minkowicz. “My mother would be very happy if she saw this. Please help, and it will be in my mother’s honor.”

As a young Shliach, Mendel said while he cleared his public message with his father, “I want this to be a surprise so he will be so happy.”

Chabad of North Fulton has already begun their capital campaign to build on a property that has been purchased. The Mikvah has been built, and they have been raising money to build an adjacent center.

The building will be built to house the ongoing Chabad activities, with a large multi-purpose room which will be used as a Synagogue, assembly room and social hall. There will also be a teen lounge, two kitchens (meat and dairy), classroom wing (for the camp, Sunday school, preschool), and outdoor play area.

To help with the building campaign and continue Rashi Minkowicz’s legacy visit Chabadnf.org.

To another successful Passover!

After a great passover, we are all glad to get our lives back to “normal”.  I had many helpers in the kitchen this year.  All the kids enjoyed getting their fingers going with peelers and many arms were used to stir delicious desserts.  Passover is the one time of year that ALL the kids get completely involved with things.  I was glad to have no grated fingers to kiss and patch up and grateful for all the help I did get (no matter how crazy it got!!).

The hardest part of the holiday was the eating part.  As much as #2 wanted to help make food, he wouldnt eat anything!!!  We had delicious foods that everyone else enjoyed but unless I made chicken, food was lacking in one person’s belly.  All of his favourite foods – rice, corn, pickles and pasta – were off limits the whole week.  Carrots and apples were the choice for this munchkin when he did get hungry (we only eat peeled fruits and veggies so he got awesome at peeling things!).    I think our breakthrough meal was when I pulled some meat out of the soup the last day at lunch time.  I basically told him he needs to eat a little of the meat (left over brisket that ended up in the soup) and then I fished out some cooked carrots to go with it.  Surprise!!!!!  Not only did he eat the entire piece of meat and carrots but he ENJOYED them!  He claims to know how something tastes by its looks but every so often he is surprised and enjoys the delicious foods that everyone else is eating.

So besides our kitchen and eating adventures we had a nice week and a half with everyone at home, catching up on play time, as well as finding a 2 year old wanting to grow up.  I spent all week working hard with #5 and we are finally potty trained.  She is sooooo pleased with herself!  She even managed to convince Daddy that she is big enough for earrings.  So yah, its been a big week here.

The one thing I found calming and fun today was having the boys help with challah baking.  #2 is GREAT in the kitchen and helped put the dough together with me.  Once ready to shape, all 3 boys made their own version of a “Shlissel Key”.   (The Sabbath after passover is considered a special day where we thank G-d for “opening the doors” to all the wonderful foods that the land of Israel provided for us after entering the land after 40 years of wondering.  Today challah is made into the shape of a key, baked with one inside it, or braided with a small dough shaped key placed on top.  It is considered a blessing for parnasa (wealth) ).  I definitely have some creative minds over here!

Its nice to have life back to “normal” and I am looking forward to working on our school work again.  We are very ready to finish up all our work (we are almost there!!) and enjoy some summer fun.  The weather is beautiful now and many moments are spent with fresh air.  I am sure it will make for some great learning moments.

Good Shabbos!!!

 

 

One day at a time

When people find out how many children I have and then find out I home school as well the first question they ask is “How do you do it???”.  They aren’t asking HOW I home school or HOW I have 5 kids, but How do I manage to stay sane and have 5 kids and home school AND get it all done.

My simple response for them is “I take it one day at a time.”

Like many large families you can’t plan too far in advance for most activities.  There are too many “little” factors that can rapidly change anything (by little I mean children).  I do have schedules set up for some things (like karate classes), but the rest of the time I plan in bed before I get up and tackle the day.

Today I had to run preschool drop off along with grocery shopping.  I gave instructions right at wake up time and had everyone dressed, fed, lunches made for girls and we were out the door in 45 minutes.  Then off to school for drop off and then grocery store with the boys.  Before we got there, I reminded them we were there for just a few items and no playing around today.  We were back at home by 10:30am.  That’s just 2 hours after wake up!  On the way home I told the boys we are going to challenge ourselves and have the house pretty much cleaned up by Noon.  We had groceries to put away, toys to clean up, vacuuming up and down, and some laundry to fold.  Ready, Set, GO!!!  By 12pm we were DONE!!!!!

Now, as I sit here at 12:45 the boys are munching on lunch while learning Parsha (thanks to Chabad.org).  We still have the kitchen to tackle and  most of the cooking to finish but I can atleast look around and see a floor, know laundry is partially done for the day and I wont have to scramble later.

Now you may wonder what all this has to do with dealing with a challenging child.  Nothing!   After what I went through earlier this week, it’s just nice to know that I can have a day where things get done, everyone cooperates and there is laughter.  We had fun scrambling and trying to beat our time challenge.

And now we tackle the afternoon……

Good Shabbos!!!!

 

If you could see my hair it would be messy from being yanked out!

There are days that you want to frame and remember forever, and then there are days you want to throw out and pray you are just sleeping and having a nightmare.  I think we’ve had more of the second type of days lately then the first.   But what can you do?  All you can do is to keep moving forward and hope that tomorrow brings you better memories.

The biggest hurdle with the boys lately is they refuse to go to sleep at bedtime and then rebel when its time to do school work.  It makes for a vicious cycle.  No one sleeps well and no one learns.

This morning my “special” monkey went back to speech therapy after over a month off.  This meant early wake up this morning.  All I can say is he did better than Daddy did (who takes him each week)!!  We started our school day earlier today and got the talking part of our assignment finished.  Sure you are thinking “So how can that be bad?  Its all moving nicely over there!”  I wish your thoughts were correct.  The problem is he has to Copy over his assignment now from the whiteboard to the paper!!!!  It took 45 minutes for the date and 2 words to be written.  At this rate it will be DAYS before we finish.  We have already figured out where Mommy will finish the copying over (our tag teaming) but we are FAR from that point in the assignment.  Needless to say that I have started to lose my patience that I try to recharge over night.  We have wiggling, whining, complaining, laying on the floor (we started by being comfy on the floor this morning) and now, playing with the kitty (who belongs to Mommy but somehow has been taken over by this particular monkey).

So how do I get through days and weeks like this (especially with 4 other monkeys jumping on the bed)???  Today I look forward to my weekly visit to the chiropractor.  I drag which ever kids are at home with me and we all get adjusted.  She works my nerves and calms me back down.  This monkey has his own treatment that he gets.  Along with his regular spinal adjustment, our chiro works on his brain.  I can’t tell you exactly what she does but all I know is the few minutes he is laying on the table I see him go from crazy, restless and out of control, to sudden calmness.  Its those few minutes each week that I look forward too.  Our drive home is painless and usually it goes into the afternoons.

So here is where I leave you.  Ready to take the 3 boys to visit our favourite chiropractor (who is also from the great white north like Me) and a chance for us to have a better, more peaceful afternoon.  (Oh and to hoping our last writing assignment for this set of test papers gets finished!!!)

 

Museums, Camp and more…..

We’ve definitely had an interesting last couple weeks.  Daddy was home from work for the end of the year shut down and the girls were also home from school for winter break.  Somehow we still managed to run “Mommy’s School” part time as well as enjoy some great activities as a family  (and yes, they were educational too!!).

 

  A fun Family trip to Fry’s Electronics.  This is how we let Daddy “roam” for a few minutes alone 🙂

One trip we all really enjoyed was the Fernbank Museum of Natural History.  The exhibit there right now is Genghis Khan.  Even though our oldest is learning about him in history right now (it was perfect timing!!) I was amazed to see how the other kids loved looking at all the artifacts on display.  I have to say that the Dinosaur Bones were a HUGE hit with the younger ones though 🙂

Another activity we did was TaeKwonDo camp.  2 full days of intense training to earn a new belt.  Since I was taking the camp as well (did I mention we are a full TaeKwonDo family??), I was able to watch 4 of the kids while they worked.  Our 9 year old had no troubles working hard.  He LOVES the sport and is working hard to get to his black belt.  #3 worked real hard and managed to do full curriculum training.  Being his first time learning so much he did great!  #4 worked hard.  She is 4 years old and is kind of in limbo between the beginner level and the first Jr level.  Her belt is Jr level but her age and size is the lower level.  She loves going and did really well despite getting sick on day 2.   But what about #2???  How did he fair having to focus for so long?  AMAZING!!!!  I’m not sure if it was because I was there or if it was the threat of not getting the new belt that did it, but he worked hard.  So the question is, Why can’t he work like that at home on his school work?  (Actually he does work hard when I get him to work!)

 

Our 5 little Ninjas.  They all enjoy classes and work hard to earn their belts!  This was taken before belt testing in December 2012 and is already 2 belt colours wrong for 4 kids!

Today was our first full day back to normal.  The girls went to school after almost 2 weeks off and the boys had to open up their books with no one to complain about bugging them.  We also had our first tantrum of they day during school time.  Who would have thought copying off the whiteboard would cause so much heartache!  One of the things we are doing differently with #2 is how we get our writing assignments done.  With the help of the education counselor from Calvert (where we get our school work from), we’ve come up with the plan where after I take dictation on the whiteboard, he copies half the work out himself and I finish the last half (for now anyway).  He takes a really long time to copy things out that a simple 8 sentence  assignment can take up to 3 days to copy out.  The process of actually remembering the words and how they are spelled is very hard for him.  He has to copy letter for letter, hence the time it can take him!  Today, we broke our assignment up and he had 17 words to copy over (yes, I counted!!!).  17 whole words.  We had a tantrum over those 17 words.  15 minutes later, the tantrum was forgotten and his work was started.  I have to say that breaking the work up between the two of us actually worked wonders for him today.  Not only were the 17 words done quickly, it was also done neatly.  It was a record for us.  Who would have thought tag-teaming on work would actually make a difference?

So now that we are getting back to our normal routine, so are the normal tantrums and frustrations along with the awesome smiles and excitement that comes with finishing up test papers and hard projects  (Oh, after finishing up our writing assignment today, we also marked the completion of out test papers we have been working on!!).

 

 

Part 1, complete. Part 2, here we come!

While we have celebrated many holidays since the summer, we lost many days of “school”.  I know, I know, a homeschool family never stops learning, but we didn’t have much time for anything but going to synagogue, or preparing for the next holiday.  But somehow,  my precious boy finished grade 2 math, in 4 months.  I have to admit, I did very little teaching and just let him have at it with all the math test papers.  He is so excited that he has completed something so quickly and so well.  Yes, He is a math prodigy  🙂

With math behind us, we are now going to focus on reading and writing skills.  Reading seems to be a tough subject for him.  He knows the rules but just can’t seem to retain words he learns by sight (he has to sound out every word each time…).  Now if he was the only beginner reader in the family I wouldn’t see this as a problem.  I know boys can take longer to catch on to reading.  The problem I do have is #3 is 2 grade levels behind  and is reading better than #2.  For now I have decided to have them read the same books and hope that nothing is noticed.

As we approach Channukah time, we have lots of learning going on in the house along with arts and crafts and baking (Mommy loves to bake cookies!!).  While #1 is learning Halacha and Rambam with his Rabbi online, I am teaching the younger 2 boys the story of Channukah along with some basic laws and traditions.   I love having children who are excited to learn and help prepare for such a wonderful time of year.  I have eager beavers to make all the candles, worksheets coloured and filled out, and some reminding me, daily, that we need to check all the Menorahs to make sure they are all ready to be used in a few days.  But while all the kids are into the fun, #2 is taking everything to heart.  If there is something he excels in, besides math, its anything to do with Judaism.  He soaks up everything I have told him like a sponge.  Remember, this is my little rabbi-in-training we are taking about.  While his Hebrew reading is going at the same pace as his English reading, the knowledge is there.

While all this talk of Education and Learning interesting, I am reminded of something I was told by a friend the other day……

I went to drop off a Bar Mitzvah rsvp at a friends house when she asked if I had a minute to talk.  She wanted to tell me something.  My boys were at her place for Shabbos afternoon the weekend before and were playing with her kids and anyone else that was over.  While my son is 7.5 years old, he tends to end up playing with the younger kids, even though he originally goes to play with the older kids.  Well, the boys were starting to get loud and too crazy for him so he walked away to get away from it all (he has sensory issues so he was looking for a “time out”).  While walking back towards the house (they were in the backyard) he saw my friend’s 1 year old looking out the window.  My son stopped, and started to play with him.  My friend went on to tell me that they played through the window for over 20 minutes.  She had never seen any child like that before, and said that he was TRULY in his element.

So why tell you story like this?  Well even though we are having troubles with school and other things, there is something, deep down, that he does excel in.  Knowing that my son has a passion for children, and making other people happy in general, I know that while we struggle with the “must learn subjects” we have an idea of what we can aim towards doing in life – Helping Others.  Whether he gets to become the Rabbi he wants to be, or a counsler, or other profession where helping others is the goal….

Until next time, Happy Channukah!