Homeschool – Page 4 – Jewish and Homeschooling in an Amazing World

Glancing Back at Summer

It is so refreshing to take a walk with my 5 year old. He is still young enough that he has a sharp eye for the things us bigger people just do not see. He did not want to come for a walk with me, but I dragged him along (literally had to do it for the first few steps, after that he was fine. 🙂 ) I needed out of the house and didn’t want to go by myself. We chatted for a while, found worms and slugs (a first for him). When we finally turned back around to go home, he hit the jackpot! No, not any chairs this time for it had been garbage day. (Baruch Hashem!) It was another amazing treasure for boys. They might call it “Gold Dust,” but without the gold.

“Mommy, can I bring home some dust!?!?!?” (As if I need anymore dust in my house!) “It stays outside and does not come into the house.” “Ok. I need a bucket.” “Does it look like I have a bucket?” as I stand arms apart. I then precede to hand him an imaginary bucket. He laughs. I tell him to use his hands and carry it home.

He gathers some dust and we start to walk back home. He is careful, like a 5 year old, with his gold mine when I felt pity on him and started to wonder if he would have any gold dust left by the time we made it 15 minutes to the house. I offered to stop at a friend’s house on the way and ask if they might have a plastic cup or something we could have. Our friend found a paper towel and our gold was safe. Now, we had to make the trek BACK to the mine to fetch more dust.

We finally started walking back and found more worms and slugs. As we passed a worm, I bent down and gathered it up with a leaf to take it off the rough sidewalk and put it on the grass. He then told me to stop and he took out his dust and needed to put some beside the slug. I told him not to put it on the slug for that would not be nice, and he knew that, he just wanted to be nice and put it next to the slug. We then preceded to find more slugs so he could be nice to them as well. Not sure how that was being nice, but he felt it was the right thing to do. Cannot argue with a 5 year old!

It has been an interesting summer. I am still trying to figure out how it went. There is always stuff we do not do during the year and I have been trying to make it up in the summer times. I think last year was the most successful year. I decided to work on that and have an even better summer with regards to things that needed to be done. I listed all the things we were going to work on this summer and made a schedule. It seemed like for a week or so things were going per my schedule, however, I did not like it. Something was missing. It finally dawned on me – I was not able to do my summer cleaning! For me, it was still like school. So, I decided to just keep the parsha, chitas,mishnayos, along with the new Gemara learning the boys are doing with their father (Makkos,) and one special project, everything else was ditched. I spent several days not doing much and feeling guilty about it (but not giving in to my guilt!) and by the end of the week I had a much nicer kitchen. I seemed to just have more time.

As some of you know by now, where we live we can recycle items by putting them out by the road. Last week my oldest came home:

“Mom, I need to get the wagon, I found a huge fish tank – with a stand, heater, light, filter, food and everything! Except the fish.” “We already have a fish tank.” (Not in use, but we have a nice 10 gallon tank.) “But Mom, this is a really HUGE one!” 😐 I try to explain to him that I am trying to get RID of things, not acquire more stuff. He was persistent.

“But someone let me put it on their lawn until I came back with the wagon!” Now he is making me feel guilty for he now has to fulfill a promise he made to someone.

I finally told him that he had to get rid of that amount of volume of stuff and he had to find a place for it. I even helped. I had him get rid of a broken 2 drawer cupboard for starters from the living room and he put the tank there. It is a 55 gallon tank. I made them check the seals of the tank in the tub before they were allowed to fill it up. In the end, the tank was filled in the living room and the filter turned on. After a few days the oldest took his hard earned money and bought 20lbs of rocks, a decoration, a backdrop and of course, two fish. The next morning we woke up to a nice surprise – a baby fish! We all learned something new – I thought all fish laid eggs, but there are also live bearers. So, off to the pet store we went to get a net to separate the little ones from the big ones, and we also got 4 more fish. It turns out we caught 7 babies in total, with 4 still alive. (Now is is an awesome time for the benefits of homeschooling! Love how we can learn, and in the middle of the day as well!)

I had been thinking that the summer was just not as nice as I was hoping, but if I look back and remember all the neat stuff that happened, and most were not planned, I realize that it did not turn out all that bad. Yes, there were things that I did not care for, but if things were to be different, all the nice things would have to change as well, and I am not willing to give up any of those. It is nice and comforting to sit and look at the fish. I enjoy peeking at the little babies every day.

In the meantime, I have done a little bit of cleaning in the basement and decluttering. I have a little bit more that I would like to do before school starts. I have decided on books for the boys and just have to put it into a schedule now, and before I get too worried, my not-even-14-year-old is starting college in just 4 more days! AHHHH! I’m fine, really, and I am so glad I am finished my schooling. I think it is time to look at the fish. 🙂

Wishing everyone the best in their new school year!

Life Goes On For He’s Fully 5!

These last several weeks have been hard to do the things that I need to do. I wake up, do our breakfast routine and then the computer gets opened. Facebook news read with all the news from the morning hours in Israel. Muqata’s Facebook page gets scanned for those unfortunate brave souls that are no longer physically with us along with any other links. I do my morning routine with the boys and try not to look until around lunch time and then the news article reading starts again. And again in the afternoon and evening. It is like an addiction. And then it hits me. Looking at the what my friends and family are doing in Israel I see one thing in common (besides all the comments about the mamads (bomb shelters,) They are still going to museums, still going to the beach, still going out for dinner, etc. Still. Yes, there multiple sirens in the day that do interrupt things, however they do not let it stop their living. They work, they play, they learn, they live.

I might be physically away from what is happening, but emotionally and spiritually we are close, we all are. We have our soldier, our chayal, that we daven for and learn for, along with the rest of the soldiers. But just like my friends and family in Israel, we too have to keep on living. We alter our day a little bit and we think about different things now but we continue. Life does not stand still.

I was reminded about this need to remember to live life for my little one, who is not so little anymore, turned fully 5 last week (after having both his English and then his Hebrew birthday.) It is not my constant worrying that will make a difference, it is the mitzvos that we do is what is going to really make a difference. I hope that this week will be easier for me to get motiviated and do more of the many things I need to do; organizing for next school year, getting my oldest ready for college, trying to just clean, etc. In other words, I need to remember to live.

As we are closing in on the saddest day of the year, Tisha B’Av (9th of Av), which starts tonight, I have been trying to do some self introspection (a second Rosh Hashanah maybe, or perhaps for once just a really good head start to Rosh Hashanah?) Wishing everyone an easy fast and may we all instill in ourselves baseless love for everyone so we can have the final redemption.

Yes, the 3 Weeks Have Arrived

Just in case anyone was wondering what time of the year it was. Each month has its own mazal, its own special properties and forces which surround it, and the 3 Weeks, which started this past Tuesday (17th of Tammuz) and ends with the climatic Tisha B’Av (9th of Av) is the time where sad things happen more often. Although this year, the 3 Weeks came several weeks early with the kidnapping and murder of the 3 boys in Israel, and continues with the continued firing of missiles into Israel. My list of names to daven (pray) for has more than doubled this past week, and I am talking about people that I personally know. Last night I had to actually write down all the names so I would not forget any of them. I know that I am slowly getting older, but I am not that old so as to say “this is life.”

Israel had its first casualty from the missile attacks this week. Dror Chanin was volutneering and delivering food, chocolate and happiness to the IDF soldiers when he was hit and killed. A beautiful boy looked at me and comment, “I thought Hashem protected you when doing a mitzvah.” A person learns from his rabbi, learns more from his chavrusah (learning partner,) but a person learns the most from his students. I did not really have an answer for him and told him so. My boys sure keep me on my toes! However, I did bring out some of their learning in Makkos where the Gemara talks about different people who were learning Torah and their time in this world was up, however, the Malach haMais (Angel of Death) was unable to take their neshama for they were learning Torah. The malach had to create a diversion so that for a split second the person was distracted from learning and the malach could do its job.

I have a friend in Israel who was woken up at 2 am last night from a siren. Despite everything, her posting this morning helped put things into perspective:

“Good morning world! It was a quiet night after the 2:15 am siren. In Israel we are celebrating – not death and destruction, but the reality that God is protecting us day and night with miraculous technology created here in Israel, as well as a stellar military. My heart is split, I cry for the victims of war in Gaza, yet I am high on the knowledge that God is showing his presence in our life as he has during every hardship… Remember wherever you are, God loves you too!! “

When I read that, it put a smile on my face. She is correct. We do not know why things happen, but everything He does is good. Even when things are tough, He is kind. Despite all the missiles that have come into Israel (I am not sure the exact number, but I believe it is nearing 2000), Baruch Hashem we have only had one casualty. Though even one casualty is one too many. We learn that every single person is special and life is to be valued.

We Jews seem to do best when under pressure. Despite everything going on, there has been a lot of unity among all Jews. I read somewhere in the past few days (sorry, I forget where,) if sinas chinum (baseless hatred) destroyed the Bais Hamikdash, then imagine what baseless love can do.

It is hard to know how one can help. Sometimes (often times?) one can feel small and insignificant, but there is something that can be done. Baseless love. I have been encouraging my boys (as well as myself,) to open their eyes and see others more. Do you see anyone who needs any helping hands, are you talking to your brother in a nicer way, and let us go say some tehillim. It is hard for them for they are still young (will I ever stop thinking of them as young?) and are still at the point in life where they think only about themselves, but I am hoping that each time they do do something it is making a difference.

Last night I asked my almost-5-year-old to bring me an orange. I got small ones, they are only about 2 inches in diameter. He came into the room and had even peeled it for me, and as he was finishing peeling he asked, “It’s a big orange Mom, can I share it with you?” I turned to look at him and the small peeled orange and for no other reason than the fact that at that moment I was able to feel for someone else and know that at that moment, to share my orange (that all of a sudden seemed so big) with him meant so much to him that I said, “Of course!”

May we all have baseless love for one another and thus merit the final redemption.

We Live and We Learn

This has definitely been a mixed feelings kind of week. I have had an extremely quiet online presence when it has come to the kidnapping and murder of the 3 Israeli boys. Everyone handles things in their own way. I davened for them, I cried for them, and no, I did not think it would have ended up the way it did. I told my boys about them, but we did not dwell on it. I have mixed feelings about dwelling on very sad events with boys. Even though my oldest is 13, they are all still my babies. I guess they always will be. I do not want to scare them, but yet they do need to know about the world around them. They will, G-d willing, have many years ahead of them where they have the opportunity to learn about all the sad things in life, but right now, let them be fairly happy with few cares. They will grow up very soon. Every morning we dedicated our morning parsha learning to the safe and quick return of the 3 boys. We talked about all Jews – no matter the backgrounds – and how these three boys have created a tremendous amount of achdus (unity) just by being Jews. They have brought Jews of various backgrounds from all around the world together. And then came the time when I had to tell them the sad news.

This week’s parsha is Balak and on Sunday I read a wonderful article on the parsha that talked about anti-semitism by Rabbi Stephen Baars. It is hard to explain why this happened. We do not know why. These boys did not do anything, they were not even soldiers. They were just boys coming home from yeshiva for Shabbos. I asked my boys why they thought these boys were targeted. It took a bit but it was my oldest who finally said, “They were Jews?” Bingo. My boys can be ones who do not say much. That is not usual, but in times like this, they just sit there. I talked a lot, not sure what I really talked about but I did relate some of what we talked about before regarding achdus and then what I learned from the article on anti-semitism. I know they were paying attention. I did ask questions directed to individual boys to keep their interest. I just knew I was trying to get to a point, have one of those heart-to-heart conversations that went one direction because they did not talk. No, I was not going above their maturity level. They just do not talk much when it comes to sad situations. The only thing I really remember is that the very last thing I wanted to say was too hard to say. I just was unable to voice it with the tears forming in my eyes. All I wanted to say was that these 3 boys have a very special place beside Hashem and that we need to remember what they taught us. They taught us to love each other.

Life goes on. We will remember these boys for a very long time and hopefully we will remember what they have taught us. Baruch Hashem this finally has a closure. The boys have been found, and all of us can now mourn in our own way and move on.

School is officially over for the year, although we did not do anything to celebrate except not do any school work. It is a time to clean and try to organize since it is hard to do all that when we are learning. I went around with a paint can yesterday to touch up places that needed it. I did not do everything but it did make the house look a bit nicer and cleaner. And then there was the placement exam my 13 year-old-little-boy-who-is-many-inches-taller-than-me took to place into college classes! Yikes. Did I mention that they will grow up fast? Yes, I think he has already grown up so much this year. So, it is official, I have one boy who is registered in English 101 and Spanish 101! 8-| Wow. Both of these classes are online, which is a requirement for us right now. He might be able to place into college courses but he is definitely not ready to take in-person classes. I won’t let him and that is not just because his mother is not wanting to let him go. He really is not ready for what that entails. Now, I spend the summer prepping him for what it really means to take a class. Really, I am not worried about him, he’ll get it, deep inside I honestly know he will be fine. I am his mother. I am worried. But I know he will do fine.

I do not like to give my boys standardized tests mainly because I do not necessarily teach things at the same time as they do in schools. However, the state regulations here require testing to be done in certain years and it is good to have the boys get used to tests so they are not too much at a disadvantage when it needs to be done, so we try to do them every year. We have done the CAT test, but for one of my boys, I have found the PASS test to be the best one. The PASS test tests reading and comprehension, language and math. The test’s idea is to get each child to a certain point at the end of 8th grade. It is also not timed which is good for some children. There are many children who know the answers but are slower at getting all the information out. Each child goes up in all the grades at different rates, sometimes slowly and sometimes jumping leaps and bounds, but by 8th grade they are hopefully all around the same area. My late blooming boy surprised me a lot for he did amazing on his test. There was so much improvement over the last test. There are still areas to improve on but I am very confident that he will catch up really easily now.

In scouts, my Cub Scout boy crossed over into Boy Scouts while my oldest became the Senior Patrol Leader of the Troop! (In other words, the leader of the Troop!) Two boys were counselors at the evening Cub Scout camp last week. The theme was “Knights of the Round Table.” The boys loved that theme! Only one boy is going to camp this summer, and that is the Almost-5-year-old. Unfortunately, we do not have money for the others this year, G-d willing, next year. In the meantime, there is always more schoolwork to do, it is never ending. Math and special project for the secular, and Rambam, Mishnat Yomit, Parsha and Dik Duk for the Judaics. Two boys have decided their special project is to write poems/short stories over the summer and I hope to be able to print it out into books for them. The other boy is going to hone up on his essay writing for school and write a nice essay on the history of radios. Oh, and don’t forget they will be doing several merit badges for scouts as well but that does not necessarily have to be worked on every day. Enough to keep them busy, but still have a little bit of play time.

I think I will go down and get some popsicle sticks for the boys. I bought a watermelon and I think we will cut up pieces and stick them on the sticks to freeze for tomorrow. Yummy nutritious snack! Wishing those in the United States a Happy 4th of July!

My Quiet, Lazy Week

Summer is about here and it feels good! My oldest is having his turn for a vacation with Grandpa right now and it is awfully quiet around here. This was supposed to be the last week of school, but since one boy would still officially have school next week, I decided it was a good time to take the week off. We will finish up school next week. (Ah, the joys of homeschooling and having the flexibility of just taking off!) I have to admit, this week I have been quiet lazy. As in not really doing much lazy. I took the time to clean and organize the house just a little bit. I am getting caught up in the kitchen, I have taken several bags and boxes out to the van to give away, one boy did a very good start in cleaning the garage (it is part of one of his merit badges for Scouts,) and we spent most of the day today cleaning the boys’ room.

Actually, the boys did all the work! I give them full credit and they deserve it. They sure surprised me today. As part of my book removal this week, I bumped into a book that I bought at the library book sale several years ago called, ‘What to Do When Your Mom or Dad Says “Clean Your Room!” ‘ It is a good book for kids and tells them exactly what to do when and how to organize any bedroom no matter how messy it is. The first thing the boys said when I opened the book to read to them is, “Boy, that room [in the book] is messier than ours!” Which was a good thing for then they did not feel so bad and I think it gave them chizuk (encouragement.) They spent at least 4 hours – two in the morning and two after lunch – cleaning their room all by themselves. I think they enjoyed going back to the book to read it and figure out what to do next; after all, it was not Mommy telling them. 😉 It is not perfect, and we forgot to mop the floor, but it sure is acceptable and it looks “nice.” Even the beautiful boy who has trouble cleaning did an amazing job! He was the one who cleaned the garage as well the other day. I did not have to say much, he just went and did it. Obviously it needs more than the hour or so of work he spent on it, but it sure is a wonderful start. I wonder if it is the lack of his older brother around that is helping him this week or perhaps, just perhaps, he might be growing up. Maybe a little bit? Maybe? I won’t hold my breath too much at the moment, but it is good to dream. 😉 The trick is, can they keep their room clean tomorrow?

Mr. Big comes home on Friday, Bli Nedre, and I am sure looking forward to his return. Aside from realizing how much of a help he really is to me, I miss talking to him. I have spent the week sending boys outside and taking the quiet to just let my mind go and think. I have been thinking about decluttering/organizing (though not getting too far, but started,) thinking about how the school year has gone this year and how I want to change things for the next year and trying to think about the summer (well, got started but that is about it.) I do want to do some work over the summer, I find that some sort of schedule works well for us. We have not been doing Rambam for a little while for they are staying where their father is and he has been busy with other learning at the moment. Gum Ze L’Tova; this too is for the best – I have replaced that with Dik Duk (Lashon HaTorah series,) something that I have tried to do for a couple of years but was never able to figure out how to fit it into the schedule.

I have some thoughts on how to improve for next year. I know that I have been trying to do too much with my oldest for Ambleside Online. It is just that everything looked so good that I tried to cram it all in. Unfortunately, it did not work out. So, I will have to thin out the workload for next year just a little bit. That is not too bad for that is the idea anyways; they put a lot into each year to give the parents a nice selection to choose from.

For the summer, I was thinking of finding something for each one of the boys to do that is a little different than what we usually do. For one boy, he would like to write books (but hates to write,) so I have been thinking of The Creative Writer. I am wondering if I can have him spend the summer writing a book and then at the end of the summer we can print it off on Lulu.com. That should definitely make himself proud of himself.

It is almost 10:30 pm but my little one is still up and about and just cannot sleep. Even so, it is still awfully quiet around here. Did I mention the I cannot wait for my oldest to come back home? Just 2 more days! This is the third year now that Grandpa has taken one boy with him on a vacation. It does not seem to matter which boy is gone, the house is quiet without him. It is even more quiet this time for said boy is very talkative with his Mommy and Daddy (Baruch Hashem!!!!) and that is missing along with the bickering with his younger brothers. I am treasuring the quiet but am looking forward to his return.

I had some nice long walks with my DH this week, and that really helped make the week nice and serene. Hainge time to talk alone is something we like to do, but the past many months we have not had that pleasure and it sure has made a big impact over the last week. We have been able to talk about the boys and other needed stuff. It just puts a productive end to the day.

I’m off to bed now. Have a good night!

Getting There!

Where we live, if you do not want something, you can put it on the side of the road for others to take, or let the garbage men pick it up for you. When on a walk with my 4-almost-5 year old and Daddy this past Shabbos, he spotted it. The Treasure! It was a chair with the fabric on the arms of the chair all torn up. “LOOK AT THAT CHAIR, MOMMY! ” “No, you are not taking it. It is broken, see?” “But Mommy, I have PLANS!” Oh, I’m sure he does! Three of my boys have brought home all sorts of treasures this year. Wood. Ski poles. Kayak oars. Wood. Huge art folders. Wood. A BRAND NEW printer still sealed in the original packaging. Okay, can’t get too upset at that one. Oh, did I say wood? I have finally put my foot down and said that if they want to bring anything else onto our property, they need to get rid of the same volume of their other stuff. The only exception are the cans they collect to bring in for money, but they do have to stay in the breezeway.

I took the little one out for a walk yesterday and we saw a pair of Adirondack chairs out for garbage – “MOMMY! Look!” “No, it is broken.” “But I have PLANS for it! I have plans for ALL chairs!” 😐 Oy, it is a good thing he was not out when I went for another walk and a few feet away from those chairs was a pair of bar stool chairs.

I have been busy, but not too busy, but just busy enough and not organized enough to get things done that I would like. It is almost the end of the school year and I have spent several weeks thinking about the past year, especially the past 4 months or so. Why is it that I cannot find 1 hour to blog a week, or at least every 2 weeks? No real good reason other than I have just not been organized to get things done like I should. How that happened, I am not quite sure, but once it started it was hard to find the time to sit down and organize properly to fix it. Now, I am trying not to let it worry me too much and just trying to finish off the year. Anything that should have gotten done can always be done during summer school.

My husband and I had a much long overdo walk and conversation this week. We spent an hour walking and talking about the boys and how things were going (or not going.) We talked about issues we were having with various beautiful boys and how we could deal with things. We have known about the issues for a while, but we have not been able to take the time to have a good hearty talk about it. It took a while, but then time is great and we finally came across something to try. One boy is very needy emotionally and takes up a lot of time. I do not mind giving time, but I feel better and will do it more happily if the time was actually productive. So, I decided to totally scrap our schedule two weeks before the end of the school year. And I mean totally.

After breakfast jobs, davening and parsha, I spend either the entire morning or the entire afternoon with the one needy boy. He gets ALL my attention. The other older boys each need to find 2-3 things that they can do by themselves to do from the weekly list, and the little one has to entertain himself with the occasional help from a brother. This one boy has to do basically all his schoolwork in the 2.5 hours before lunch with no break (with the exception of Mishnayos and daily memorizing). And then… here comes the best part… he gets the rest of the day OFF! That’s right, he gets to basically do whatever he pleases as long as he stays on the property. The only catch is that if he does not finish all that he is supposed to do, then he has to work ALL afternoon. In the time that I am not with said boy, I can devote my time to the other boys. There is one subject a day where we share the time with one other brother so I do get 2 birds with one stone there.

I have now completed day 2 of the new schedule. Yesterday went off amazingly. Today, not quite a nice, but still pretty good. Said boy was told before he went to bed tonight that as long as he works well in the morning with me, the entire afternoon is free. He was pretty excited about it. I am wondering if we should do just mornings together for then he does get a longer stretch in the afternoons and he does seem to work better in the mornings I think.

Other than that, it is just trying to finish up the books that we have not quite finished yet and trying to decide upon a summer schedule. We will be working on school stuff, though hopefully they will have some free time which will, in turn, hopefully give me some free time. 🙂

In the meantime, I need to make my way to the b-e-d. Boys have been sent to bed, but they are still rather loud. I think I’ll remember to shut my door completely. 🙂

Pleasant dreams!

T.H.E Conference Plug and My Boy Who Fits in The Box

The weather is finally a nice spring weather. I have been enjoying my bike rides outside. The 6th Annual Torah Home Education Conference is almost upon us. For those who have not attended, it is such an amazing experience! Aside from the wonderful lectures and chizuk (inspiration) from the various speakers, I there are no words to describe finally meeting various people we meet through the internet. If you have not yet signed up, please do so now! (And below also find my little blurb on The Box.)

The 6th Annual Torah Home Education Conference will take place, G-d willing, on Sunday, May 25 2014. The conference opens with check-in at 8:15 AM with complimentary morning refreshments and concludes at 6:00 PM.

A kosher catered lunch will be served. The cost is $15 per meal and can be purchased along with your registration. .

Vendors will be on hand to display and sell the materials they’ve created to enhance your Torah homeschooling experience. It will be possible to visit these vendors from the lunch period through the end of the day.

Our confirmed speakers are Avivah Werner, Nechama Cox, Leah Fine, Dena Schweitzer, Chai Gross, and many, many others. We will have sessions on Hebrew for the Homeschooling Parent , High School/College/Yeshiva/Seminary preparation, Home with a Pre-schooler?, Homeschooling your Child with Special Needs, Schedules and your Homeschool, a Teen Panel and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: What Happens When It Doesn’t Go as Planned!?, as well as talks by homeschooling fathers and communal rabbis.

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We know how different each child is, even children from the same family. I have recently talked about putting (or not putting) children in Boxes, especially for their schooling, but what do you do with a child who actually does fit in The Box? You let him sleep in it of course! He told me he had a really good sleep. 😀

My Worm Blog, Pesach, etc.

I hope everyone had a good Pesach. Ours was good, weather was beautiful (finally!) and as usual, we were sad to see it go. I know many people can’t wait for the last days to finish, but all of us really like the entire Yom Tov and we savor every minute. We had a trip to the zoo as well as a hike putting Egypt behind us. (Yes, Egypt, NY!) (And yes, Daddy had a second surgery on his ankle erev Pesach to clear away scar tissue and loose stuff from the accident, which we found out 45 minutes before the surgery that he was going to have it for Worker’s Comp. finally approved it. Bonus – he was home the entire Pesach!) Just a few short weeks left until the next Yom Tov! 😀

My little one and I had a good walk to shul one morning. I told him it would make a good story for my blog and he reminded me that I needed to write it up. It had rained the night before and therefore we saw all sorts worms on the sidewalk- big worms, small worms, large worms, thin worms, moving worms, stationary worms, etc. We talked about why the worms were not in their homes in the dirt. He was so fascinated about it all (as he should be for he is a boy!) Half way to shul we crossed the street. Boy, was he so not happy with me! “There won’t be any worms on the other side of the street!!!!” Of course there will be I said, why not? It rained on that side of the street as well! Boy, was I wrong and I had a very disappointed little boy. We looked and looked but could not a single worm! Who would have thought? I figured there must be a good reason why just a few feet away there were worms on the other side of the street and about a block from shul we started seeing worms again. After thinking and looking around me a bit, I think we figured it out. Anyone want to take a guess why the worms on one side did not want to come out of the ground after the rain? 🙂 Hint: the side with no worms had huge trees all over. Why would that affect the worms?

I finally figured it out – not the worms, but our other problem. It finally dawned on me why the past 4 or 5 months have been so busy that I have had a hard time keeping my head above water (and hence why I have not blogged much either during this time.) This year 3 boys were going to learning at shul, at 2 different times, twice a week. This severely cut down on the evening times where we could catch up on any missed school work, or work that their father wanted to do with all the boys for as soon as he would get home, 2 boys were ready to leave and once they returned, the third went out learning. I was feeling like I was always trying to tread water and was not able to start swimming to shore. It just took me 4 months to figure this out. I was finding that I was going from school to making supper to coordinating boys’ learning outside the home and then bed. No time to relax, laundry nor other cleanup. Well, the truth is, if I was a robot, I would have had the time, but since I am not, as a human I need to have some down time to re-organize my mind so I can be efficient.

So, now that I figured that out, what the problem was, the question is what can we do about it? The boys really like their learning. The two middle boys has their own personal chavrusa and the oldest has a nice group and they had made a siyum on Gemara Esther right after Purim. I hated to think about cancelling any learning, especially since we could see they all really enjoy it. Hashem has a nice way of making things happen on their own when need be. It turns out that the chavrusa for the middle boys is moving to just once a week, and on a Sunday evening at that, so that just leaves the oldest going to minyan and learning afterwards. I can handle that! I am hoping that gives me just a few extra minutes to re-organize my mind at supper time for the rest of the evening so we can get all we want done done and I hope I will feel a bit more relaxed at that time as well. (And maybe even be able to blog more often again!)

In the meantime a few days ago, we went to Michaels to see if we can find a certain sized container to help organize our napkins so that they don’t go flying all over the floor when someone goes to take one. We did not find what we were looking for, but of course, I could not leave without buying something for each boy. I limited them to one of the $1 items each. Walked out with paying $15, and I am still trying to figure out how that happened. The little one insisted on me getting him a $1 sewing kit. He has since sewed up a hole in his sock and has made himself a little stuffed bear and is biting at the bullet to make more things. 🙂

Anyways, I’m off, need to check on work (supposedly) in progress and then with Daddy still home and ready to work with older boys, I am going to take a younger boy for a nap. ‘Night!

The 6th Annual Torah Home Education Conference 2014

Signup for the 2014 Torah Home Education Conference is now open!

http://2014theconference.eventbee.com

The 5th Annual Torah Home Education Conference will take place, G-d willing, on Sunday, May 25 2014. The conference opens with check-in at 8:15 AM with complimentary morning refreshments and concludes at 6:00 PM.

A kosher catered lunch will be served. The cost is $15 per meal and can be purchased along with your registration.

Our confirmed speakers are Avivah Werner, Nechama Cox, Leah Fine, Dalia Shulman, Dena Schweitzer, Chai Gross, and many, many others. We will have sessions on Hebrew for the Homeschooling Parent , High School/College/Yeshiva/Seminary preparation, Home with a Pre-schooler?, Homeschooling your Child with Special Needs, Schedules and your Homeschool, a Teen Panel and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: What Happens When It Doesn’t Go as Planned!?, as well as talks by homeschooling fathers and communal rabbis.

To My Boys…I Love You With All My Heart ♥

To the boy who painted a heart on my bathroom mirror – with toothpaste…
I love you with all my heart.

To the boy who has a high pitched voice that makes me cringe…
I love you with all my heart.

To the boy who used shoe polish on his shoes and then painted it on my mirror…
I love you with all my heart.

To the boy who needs to be the parent…
I love you with all my heart.

To the boy who I have to fetch for every single class for his nose is always in a book (not for school!)…
I love you with all my heart.

To the boy who just can’t seem to put anything away…
I love you with all my heart.

To the boy who knows best…
I love you with all my heart.

To the boys who throw tantrums…
I love you with all my heart.

To the boys who like to make food and bring a tornado into the kitchen…
I love you with all my heart.

To the boy who goes out every cold winter morning to start the car…
I love you with all my heart.

To the boy who comes up behind me in the mornings to give me a hug…
I love you with all my heart.

To the boy who makes me a cookie when I am not well…
I love you with all my heart.

To the boy who feels the pain of others…
I love you with all my heart.

To the boy who comes up to me to tell me he loves me more (a billion googolplex to be exact!)…
I love you 2 billion googolplex!

To the boys who just like to talk to me…
I love you with all my heart.

To the boys who have made me grow and become a better person… Thank you,
I love each and every one of you… with all my heart. ♥