familySo my hubby surprised me with a trip to the lasik surgen in Reton (lomas eyecare), and in a couple days (Friday morning to be exact) I'm going to be under the doctors care to fix my eyes. They are pretty confident I should have 20/20 vision after the surgery which would be fantastic concidering I have 20/60 farsightedness in one eye now and a severe astigmatism plus nearsightedness in the other. there are two operations, first one is a lazer proceedure to slice open my cornea, then I am moved to the next room where another lazer operated on the inside tissue. It all sounds a bit complicated but each operation will take less then a half of a minute total. I can't even fathom 20/20 since I have two totally different eyes and absolutely no depth perception, can't wear glasses because of the space between the lense and the face is enough to give me huge headaches. Car rides have been like a death ride each trip when I don't have contacts on.
And bonus points to hubby for booking a night at a hotel since I have to see the doc early the next morning as well. His parents are watching the children YAAAAAY!
And in other news I am waiting final say with a newspaper as to whether I will be blogging for them as well. I will let you all know how that goes, suffice it to say I am very excited at the prospect.
And of course with the new school and school year, I am going to be very busy writing out T's study plans for each subject she will be taking. And she got to pick five different classes to take in the new center as well; Latin, Art, Written and illustrated by me, and two classes of sewing. She wanted to take a keyboarding class as well but its being held at a different place and well I don't want to be going all over town for classes. I can teach her that at home and am working on fitting that into the schedule.
So today, I'm a bit miffed and have been up way before the sun emailing the superintendant of our district. I don't know if you recall but I was all excited about a new program in the district that partners the public school system with homeschooling. The program benefits and structure really looked like a great match for our youngest daughter's educational needs. I was very excited when I attended their openhouse informational night, and followed all the steps they outlined that night to get her enrolled in homeschooling and this new project right away.
A funny thing happened that I didn't mention and now I am wondering if it is affecting her future in this program. The night that we met the manager's of the program, alot of their conversation involved christian ideas and how even though they are a public school and can not have a certain religion they were continually referring back to their good christian philosophies and that this was a great place for like minds. When they continued this step as we were walking through Tiara's enrollment proceedures, I informed them politely, that we were Wiccan and still upstanding (it was in reference to some comment made about the christian philosophy and homeschooling).
I didn't think anything of it at the time of course, but then after we met all the steps all of a sudden the door was closed on her getting into the school at that very time.It was cited that they had all of a sudden reached their maximum student allowed (apparently 20 was the magic number for the school) but that I was assured if I wanted to place her in the fall, she would be number 15 on their list and that preference was always given to those in the district. (I asked at that time was it even worth placing her on this list if they were full and that's when I was told that preference was given to those in the same district). So naturally I shrugged off the incident at the information night. I complied with their proceedures, and even emailed the superintendent how I felt this project was an outstanding idea and the right step in the direction of better education for our children's future and that I was very excited to get Tiara into the program as soon as possible.
On Tueday, however, a couple of the homeschool parents from a different district who are enrolled in this district's program, informed me that the school had set out their new registration and class list for the fall and opened it to the parents already enrolled. And of course I waited at home to hear word of whether T was enrolled for the fall etc, and surprise, surprise nothing was set, no phone call was made.
So, I have sent the superintendant another email on this with a little more frustration in my tone:
Here is a copy of that email for your entertainment:
I am writing a follow up to you though I would like to also extend this letter to Steinar (forgot last name) of the Skagit Family Center. A few months ago at an open information night, we learned of the skagit valley family center and were told of the proceedures to register with the newly formed program. We followed those proceedures, but were told that the school had been closed off due to reaching their maximum student level. I was then given the option to place Tiara Harvey on a list, and I did so with Steinar, I was told at that time she was 15th on the list for the new school year, that preference WOULD be given to those from the district (of which we certainly are) and that we would hear back in June. I expressed my desire to have her placed in the fall as well.
With the Washington State unit finished, here are some of the sites and highlights of the Unit study:
Studyguides:
Dear America Discussion Guides
First Americans- Native Americans
HIstorical Eras Careful of the popups
Lewis and Clark- PBS online activities
Milestones in Washington State History
PDF for second grade oregon Trail studyguide
National Geographic for kids, Lewis and Clark online activities
Art of totems in the pacific northwest
Traditional Native American Legends
Projects and crafts:
Indian Leatherpainting Project
Grade Three Lessonplans and activities for Oregon Trail
Totempole activities worksheets
Lessonplans for teaching Native American themes
Books Used:
Landmark-Westward Ho! The story of the pioneers
American Doll Quilts
Don't know much about the 50 states
Don't know much about American History
Little Hands Celebrate America
Geography for fun Projects
There were several more and I broke everything down into three mini study units, first week we learned about the pioneers and the pioneer life.. this included the oregon Trail information, and a discussion on who all went west and why. The next week we did on Native American history specifically those in the pacific northwest, the final week was devoted to explorers of the northwest. We started this unit with a look at the world map following with our fingers the trips made by various country representatives of the time. Then we talked in depth about Lewis and Clark.
The sties I did not list here included information on the donner party, that some might not find appropriate to talk with their children on. I have a completed list on our Unit and can provide that to anyone who wishes. I am thinking about setting up these units as study packets of what you can learn on the internet for free. Our new unit is on Electronics and Electricity, I am sure we will find some shocking discoveries. Our detailed study plan is broken down for Washington State requirements, but as you can see from the various study plans we have found online, different state requirements are addressed on some of these sites as well.
I highly recommend joining an online book club like Bookplanet.com they have children specific books and the prices are relatively reasonable if you can do it!
So I went and reinstalled WoW and reactivated my account so I can play the game with hubby again during the nights. For those who don't know WoW is world of warcraft, and I used to play it until I was in the hospital awaiting the birth of our twins. They had me on Magnesium during the entire two months so, even though hubby brought in my other baby (my computer) and set it up at my bed, concentration on anything was extremely limited and games were practically out of the question. Now that things are settled down here finally, I can enjoy a little me time at nights too.
Our walks still continue, though I had to stop for a couple of days when we started power walking I got a horrible case of shinsplints.. and let me tell you, that sucks! And now we have had a week of raining so we will have to wait until the sun shines again. In the meantime, T's Unit on washington state concluded with us making a trip to Tacoma to visit the state museum. We spent almost 4 hours in there and worth every minute. Although, we will probably not be going back for a while, the hour and a half trip down and then back home was a bit long with three toddlers, and I was not impresssed having to structure a change time in the bathroom. I can't wait until they are too old to go with mommy and have to go with daddy hehehe. It was not that bad though, especially with help from big sister. I started this blog about a week ago when we had some hot weather come our way. I am so glad we installed all the ceiling fans last year! Hubby has one more on his hunny do list today though. It's in the garage, he is putting in an exhaust fan to hopefully blow all the cigarette smoke out of the garage instead of up to the bedroom.
This week I go to a very exciting appointment, checking to see if I can have lasic (spell check) surgery. Crossing fingers and positive thoughts for that it will be so nice to have depth perception for one. I have pretty bad vision, one is far sighted and the other is near, but the scope is so different they don't even work together. And glasses just give me headaches because of the perepherial vision. The world is going to be a whole different place if this works.
I will post the list of sites and stuff we did for Washington state study on next blog, it will take to long. One note though, you can get a free guide to lewis and clark expedition from the Washington state museum if you ask online. I am guessing most state museums have some sort of treat you can ask for, so check them out!
What a wonderful morning it is. I was woken up to fresh coffee, followed by an entourage of a glass of milk a glass of fresh orange juice, sausage, bacon, french toast and scrambled eggs and of course a very tall, very cute waiter slash husband deliveringit. Ah mother's day.. you got to love it! It was soo good I think they ought to have mothers day three times a year.
Then off to window shop at Joann's with mom. I don't think she realized how expensive material has gotten for the most part. We walked out of there with a few sewing books for her to practice with at least. I'm waiting for Guy to finish building the exhaust fan for the garage so that we can head out to the river with the children. It's an absolutely beauitful sunny day. And the best part is .. I don't have to cook tonight YAAAY for mother's day.
Happy mother's day!!!!
