Sooooo big!

Cort is cute

Look at all Cort's teeth. His look is really messy at a birthday party after eating cake and chips....fourth child gets chips before he turns one. Billie didn't have french fries until she was over two. When he was like 7 months old the kids would just hand him half of their balogna sandwich with mustard. Cort has been witness to more bad behavior now than Billie at age 4. Crazy how you can grow up in the same family and have such drastically different lives. Sloane and Cort (set #2) are like a whole new franchise.

And now we are six

Jackson spent his birthday being a pest. Apparently the rush of a waterslide is nothing in comparison with tormenting bikini clad women. He was giggling and hiding behind bushes all day, like a watergun ninja, squirting innocent park attendents and gleefully stirring up smokin' hot girls. I didn't feel too bad about his pesky behavior because the Turkish girls are not the kind to react with mere squealling and peevish looks. They were always up for his game and instantly swiping off their boyfriends hats: makeshift buckets to soak Jackson with.

I love it that the Turks are so friendly and playful...the whole country adores kids and their misbehaviors. It's little brother heaven. PLUS Nanna was here with us to celebrate the big day which makes everything more fun...even waking up in the morning is exciting. We got sunburns and then made cake.

family visits

It's addictive

We got the results from the standardized test Billie took a few months back- the official first grade test. I have to say that, apart from moments of sheer panic every once in a while, I get more and more addicted to homeschooling the more we do it. (Now that I can breath a sigh of relief and say that Billie is not, by a long shot, falling behind her peers in any subject.)

When you first consider homeschooling it sounds so out there because it's not what normal people do and you have this idea that homeschoolers are making a strange choice. But then we had homeschooling mecca with our groups and we got to be exposed to so many families and you could see that the older kids were kids who loved books, kids who played well with their friends, kids who weren't intimidated to speak with adults, kids who did what worked for them and not the crowd and it didn't seem at all like homeschooling was ruining their lives. Eventually it felt normal to be homeschoolers. And then we became official- it wasn't just Kiddiegarden anymore...now we were in the big time...SCHOOL age. Now we have come to the dark side
we're so enmeshed in following our interests and learning all the time...that conventional school seems so ODD. Like, who are these kids that actually sit at their desk?! Kids can do that?!
-waking up early in the morning...EVERY morning?
following a schedule?
getting homework done there's other kids outside at the park?
do your kids survive from 9-11:25am without a snack (because mine swear they would perish)?


Put Jackson who is academically ahead, refuses to sit still, CAN NOT contain himself from interrupting other kids, and resists authority with every atom of his being...put Jackson in a room with 20 other 5 and 6 year olds? That just seems like asking for trouble. Send Jackson into a group of his peers to learn manners, respect for others, proper speech patterns, math, spelling, don't do drugs, and State history? Um...Billie, yes...I can see that she might overcome the influence of others to memorize some facts; she LIKES following directions...but Jackson?!!!! I just don't see how it could possibly work.
With Billie I worry more about the opposite happening...she'd follow directions so well- those of the kids as well as the teacher, she picks up on trends instantly, she'd stop raising her hand if it wasn't 'cool'.
When I started homeschooling I thought it was something I could do for a while and just switch over to conventional school if I wanted to in the future. I think we'll still always give our kids the option of attending a school...and I'm not making commitments for high school at the moment. Lately, I've just been noticing that the further we get away from school...the gap grows wider. I didn't mean this to be preachy- just prepare yourselves for having some of those 'homeschooler' friends/cousins/grandkids for now and the future.

Earth Science

Yesterday we met up with friends and went exploring in the pond. We caught tadpoles. Sloane really got into it. Let's hope they don't go the way of the hermit crabs we used to catch at Oura-Wan.

it turns me upside down

The kids finished up their soccer season.

Billie is totally hopeless with skateboarding...as with most things that involve balance or athletic skill- that is just not her strength. Jackson is actually pretty good at skat boarding- which is scary.

Here's a day at the park.

Sloane has turned into this super-great kid and when in a group of her peers (playgroup of 2 year olds) she is actually sharing, polite, gentle, thoughtful and happy. Her responses to me still frequently begin with the words "No! Because..." but it's nice to see she has the capacity for something other than world domination outside of our home.

blame it on six

I've been busy. For a while I felt like I had my life pretty well under control- there were a few years there where I was feeling all giddy about getting to 'be grown up' having our kids and a home was fun and the livin was easy. Along came six. Not the number of people- the age SIX. Which, now that we're on to seven with Billie, I can see was just like a mood swing that lasted a year. But guess who's birthday is coming up soon? My kind, helpful son who has just happened to turn AWFUL in the last few months. Here we go again....
yikes.
Why didn't anyone tell me that six was the year from emotional hell?!!
And then we had to figure out a strategy...because our non-yelling-time-outs didn't seem to be making anything better. If only there were some kind of time out that lasted a year...that might have been useful.
I decide to go with the 'no punishment' option. Bill thinks I'm insane. We really NEEDED time outs when there were 2 and 3 very little kids around and that worked well for us for many years. But, I don't see that working forever. I think now they can start taking on the idea that you do the right thing because you respect others and because it is the right thing to do, not just to avoid punishment. So...that's what we've been working on here. That, and having family visits, attending an absurd number of bbqs and birthday parties before people leave for the summer, Bill getting moved right up to a higher position at work which involves busier days during work hours, taking Turkish lessons, keeping Cort from darting off to the bathroom when no one is looking, weekly field trips to augment homeschooling, Billie and Jackson being 'official' 2nd and 1st graders- continuing our 'lesson's through the summer, reading reading reading, pool time and playing outside. Then there's Bill who wanted to climb Mt. Ercyie with some friends and then he came up with a work-out plan and then he had the gall to actually STICK to his new plan, he's running five miles for 'fun' (??!!) and doing all this other excercise-y stuff with those fit-type people like running races and Saturday morning bike rides all over the hills of Turkey. I remain committed to a nightly snacking pattern and my yoga class is on hiatus for the summer so I am alone in my couch-potato status in the family. phew. i think that's it.
But I'm going to start blogging again, with renewed commitment- so that there's some record of all the life that's happening here at the speed of light.