Craft Fail

I thought I remembered reading about a cool craft project that involved turning crayon stubs into "new" crayons, so the boys and I gave it a try recently. I didn't look up the instructions because I was confident that I had the basic idea down: gather up all the crayon stubs, put them in a bowl, microwave them a little bit at a time until they start to liquefy, stir them a little to get a neat marbled effect, pour into molds, and cool. I even decided to get fancy and sprinkle crayon shavings over the melty crayon mixture to get a rainbow effect.

Well, our crayon creations didn't turn out exactly how I had imagined they would:

Instead of beautiful, marbled crayons, we got crayonivore droppings!

Oh well! I guess our crapft (sorry, I had to, Mom!) became an art lesson after all -- red+green+yellow+orange+purple+blue really does make black!

Updated allergy test

Jack had his second allergy skin test today. The first one was 3 years ago (I can't believe it's been that long!), so his allergy doc suggested a retest just to see if he was still testing positive to nuts and such. He did indeed test strongly positive to peanuts, walnuts, and pecans again, but nothing else. I had him tested for fish (not shellfish, which we already know he can eat safely, but regular fish since he's gotten sick to his stomach several times after eating it, and I thought it there might be a connection), but he didn't react to fish at all.

So, he definitely still has to carry around the epi-pen and avoid peanuts, walnuts, and pecans, however his allergy doctor here was very confident that Jack should be able to eat other nuts, like cashews, almonds, brazil nuts, etc. with no problems at all (he was tested for those today, and they came up totally negative). Jack's doctor actually encouraged us to let him try those nuts, as long as the package doesn't say that it might also contain traces of the "forbidden" ones. Jack was excited about it and asked if we had any safe nuts at home that we could try right away, but David is in VA for business for a couple of days and I think I'd rather wait until he's home just in case Jack does have some sort of reaction!

So, we'll keep on doing what we've done since we found out Jack was allergic to nuts. Thankfully he's never had any kind of nut reaction since the very first one, so whatever we're doing seems to be working. If he can eat almonds and cashews safely, that would be an added bonus for snacking or desserts at home, but for all intents and purposes I would still tell people he's allergic to all nuts, just to avoid any confusion in case someone accidentally forgets and gives him the wrong kind.

Other than that, we're all doing well! Homeschooling is progressing well so far. Jack is more eager and a little less stubborn about it than last year, which makes it much more pleasant. :). Thomas is doing very well with pre-K stuff like reading lessons, math, and handwriting skills. Peter sits and colors for about 15 minutes, and then wanders off to cause some sort of mayhem or another, but is generally pretty manageable. I'm more tired at the end of the day, but I'm enjoying it much more than last year (so far)because I'm using the curriculum I picked, and I'm a bit more organized and relaxed at the same time, if that makes sense.

Fossil Quarry

Today's adventure was a trip up to Florrisant, CO to visit a fossil quarry where you can dig your own fossils! On the way up, we planned to stop at the Donut Mill, which we have heard has phenomenal (and very large) donuts.

On the way to the Donut Mill, we ran into a motorcycle parade that was just starting. The roads were all blocked off while the motorcycles passed, so we parked and watched as motorcycles sped by for about 15 minutes straight -- I don't think I've ever seen so many in one place before! The boys enjoyed watching it at first, but they were pretty eager to get to the donut shop so they got a little impatient as the motorcycles kept coming, and coming, and coming.

Once the parade ended, we headed over the donut shop and were rewarded with some excellent donuts. The boys each ordered a chocolate-frosted donut with sprinkles, and David and I split a pretty large raspberry fritter. They were definitely heartier than the average donut, and very tasty. The donut shop did sell "Cinnamon rolls larger than your head" which were, indeed. that big. As much as I love cinnamon rolls, I think you'd need like 8 people to eat one of those!

After we had fueled up on sugar, we had a lovely drive up to Florrisant and found the fossil quarry. We paid an admission fee and then were given tools like chisels, hammers, brushes, etc. and were able to sort through huge piles of shale to find fossils. The boys had a great time -- all of their favorite things rolled into one: digging, hammering, playing with rocks, and fossils. We ended up finding quite a few nice leaf fossils that we brought home. We were hoping to find a bug fossil, but apparently those are a bit more rare (and larger animals, like fish or birds are super rare). It was a cool experience, and a bit addictive -- it was pretty exciting to crack open layers of shale to see what treasures might be inside.

"Just passing through"

I think one of my biggest adjustments to our 2-year rotation program is that we're always in the state of "just passing through". Six months is really just enough time to start to get comfortable somewhere, and then it's time to pack up and move on. It's a little unnerving!

I definitely felt the awkwardness of our situation at the boys' first homeschool co-op meeting today. I had originally e-mailed the organizer of the co-op to make sure it was OK for us to participate, since we'll be missing about 4 or 5 of the meetings toward the end. (And this is a big deal, because each parent is expected to actively help during the co-op -- if they're not teaching a class then they need to be a teacher's aide). The organizer never got back to me, so I went ahead and registered the kids, and then e-mailed and left a phone message with the organizer lady again last week to doubly make sure it was OK for us to participate. She didn't get back to me again, so I showed up today and asked the another co-organizer lady, and she kind of sighed and basically said in a put-out way, "Well, it's too late now to ask you to not participate, since we're already all filled up and we've been turning people away. So, it has to be OK, I suppose". That wasn't exactly the type of welcome I expected to receive at a Catholic homeschooling group, but oh well. (I mean, it seems like it would be more charitable to welcome the crazy moving family who is trying to homeschool in a strange place than to make me feel guilty for taking someone else's potential spot).

Thankfully, the other moms there made up for it -- they were much nicer and more welcoming. They were so friendly that I got a little stab of sadness thinking about our "just passing through" status. Many of these moms would be make awesome mom-friends -- they're Catholic, homeschooling, and our personalities seemed to click. There's just not much time between now and October to really cultivate a good friendship, and for some reason I feel like a shadow-family, one foot here and one foot in our next location.

One very positive side effect of participating in the co-op, however, is that I've discovered how very well behaved my boys truly are. I was working in the preschool room for 2 hours (oh my -- that's exhausting!), and let me tell you -- I came out of there thanking God that my boys are as well-behaved as they are! I know sometimes they can be a handful at home, but there were some *very* crazy kids in that class -- mean, disruptive, and outright disobedient for *other, strange moms*, and that flabbergasted me. Peter was with me (I opted to keep him with me instead of putting him in the babysitting room), and he was 50 times better behaved than some of the 3 and 4 year old kids in there.

Tomorrow we start back on our regular homeschooling curriculum here -- math, reading, phonics, the works, so we'll see how that goes. This Saturday, we're planning to head out to the Florissant fossil quarry (and giant donut shop on the way up), and the boys are super excited about that.

Goodbye, summer

Tomorrow we start back into school again. It was on the short side, for a summer vacation, but I wanted to get a head start because we'll be taking some days off of school for our trip to CA, moving to our next location, etc. If we start a little early, we can take off some days here and there and still end reasonably early next June.

I'm excited about Jack's first grade material, and for Thomas's continued work on preschool reading and writing skills. But I'm also bracing myself a little for some of the "battles of the wills" that I'm sure Jack and I will face (although hopefully fewer than last year!). I'm trying to approach homeschooling from a different, and healthier perspective this time. My personality is very much achievement/goal-oriented, and I really, really like crossing things off my to-do list. I think last year I approached Jack's Kindergarten the same way, because it comes naturally to me. My thoughts are something like: "Knows how to read? Check! Has good handwriting? ...(hand hovers over paper, a little too eager to check off the box...) Uh, well, he hates handwriting and it's pretty wobbly still. I really can't check off that box, although I really want to. Well, better get back to the grindstone so we can check off that box!!". I'm trying hard to remember that the road to accomplishing some goal might be more important than checking off the box itself, and some things may need be left unchecked a little longer than others. It's difficult for me, but I've realized that it's another way that I need to die to myself and my set ways a little bit, and it's for the best.

I'll keep you posted on how homeschooling and the co-op are going. In the meantime, here are a couple of videos of the boys playing and being silly last week.

Swim lesson excitement

Today was the third day of our second round of swim lessons, and I wanted to share my excitement over their progress. I've been eager for the boys to learn how to swim -- not expertly, but well enough that they can go to a pool, have fun, and I don't have to be holding on to them (which is pretty much impossible with 3 at once!). In my mind, teaching them to swim is simply one of those parental must-dos, and with Jack at 6 years old, I don't want to wait too much longer for him to learn this life skill.

The boys learned some valuable skills, and became much more comfortable in the water, during their first swim lessons, but at the end they couldn't actually swim on their own. I had hoped to help them practice at our neighborhood pool, but we still haven't made it over there yet! So, they really needed another round of lessons to continue building their skills.

I was so thrilled today when Jack's swim teacher had him leaping off the side of the pool, into the water, all by himself! Jack, by nature, a cautious and wary little guy (with an occasional bout of "I can't!" pessimism thrown in), so to see him jump in deep enough to get his head soaked was pretty exciting. He's also pretty close to being able to swim on his own -- I'm thinking he'll be there by the end of lessons next week. And, best of all, he kept saying "Today was SO fun!" after the lessons, so he's really enjoying it.

Thomas is also doing very well, SO much less afraid of getting in the water, getting his ears and face wet, etc. than last time. And, I haven't had to go in the water and help encourage him (he's much more willing to listen to his teacher this time), so that has been awesome. He's more wary of the water than Jack is, but he's also 2 years younger and not as physically agile.

Two weeks from today, we're starting back on home schooling. I'm a little sad about the end of summer (it seemed so short!), and a little wary of battling wills with Jack when he doesn't feel like learning, but I think getting back into the routine of schooling will be a good thing.

Still, I'm trying to think of fun things we can do these next couple of weeks off -- I think we'll make a bunch of Kool-Aid playdough one day. I'd also like to take them on an interesting hike -- an easy one, but somewhere with interesting things to see. Maybe a picnic lunch or two at a park. I'll have to see what else I can come up with!

A couple days after we start school again, Jack has an appointment with an allergist out here to see how his allergies are doing. They'll retest him for the nut allergies. I'm not really expecting him to have outgrown them, but it has been about 3 years since his last allergy test, so it's possible, and it will be good to know either way.

Other than that, we're all staying healthy and enjoying the fun weather (thunderstorms just about every afternoon!). We're not sure where we're going next, but we'll be sure to keep everyone posted as soon as we do!