Homeschooling Alexey

Ever since coming to Houston I have been very unimpressed with the schools. Unimpressed is a mild way of putting. I have to suppress the rage I feel whenever I step foot in the girls school.   I have wanted to pull lexey out of school since about day 3 but I thought I'd give her a little time to adjust, which she did, and also give the other two time to get into their school routine, which they did.

I met with Lexey's teacher a couple of times before pulling her out trying to get a feel for the classroom and how things were going, plus voicing my concerns about they way things are done at school. While her teacher was very sweet and not at all offended even when offense was intended, I got the impression that she wasn't very organized and not moving  along in class like they should be. The homework she sent home was super disorganized and waaaaayyyyy boring, easy and there was too much of it. After 8 hours of school I see no reason to have 25 pages of homework sent home in a week.

I could write a 10 page essay about my complaints with the school but suffice it to say, we have been very unimpressed.

The first week of November I unenrolled Lexey from 1st grade.  She was very excited to do home school this year. She has a very easy going personality, and she is obedient and sweet. She doesn't talk back or argue when I ask her to do something so it isn't hard having her home.

We planned out what we will study this year.
math - 1st grade math (I ordered from Singapore math)
handwriting. zaner bloser - 1 worksheet a day
writing - daily - journal, story or letter
piano- daily
science - Lexey wanted to study lots of animals, starting with mammals and then moving to other classes of animals such as birds, fish, reptiles. We'll also do basic human anatomy and physiology.
reading - chapter books I read and Lexey individual reading time or reading to Jo
Field trips- zoo, museums, parks
Art- weekly at home, monthly at the art museum
exercise - ride bikes or walk + homeschool gymnastics
misc - possibly doing classical conversations for memory work once a week starting in Jan

I think with this curriculum Lexey will be ready to go back to second grade as a great reader and proficient in math, ready for second grade with her peers


As luck would have it, we had lots of sick kids in November so we couldn't do as many field trips as we wanted to, but last week we did finally make it to the zoo and to the health museum.

at the zoo

at the health museum. They have a great human body exhibit showing all the body parts and what they do. When we showed this picture to Dave when he got home he told Lexey this was his brain.

The only con with homeschooling is that I lose a little bit of my freedom. Where I used to get up and exercise and then go to the store or run errands after the kids went to school, now I have to get Lexey's work done before we go out.  I try to go to the gym 2 days a week and then Lexey will ride her bike while I go out walking a couple of days a week. It is also harder to find time to clean. And I miss my quiet time when Jo naps ....often Lex and I use nap time for our reading time.  Overall it is a good experience and having Lexey home makes Jo easier -- lex is a great big sister!

Bikes

When we moved to Houston we only brought one kids bike with us. It is our 6 year old bike, "the vaporizer", from years ago when Calvin got it for his 5th birthday. The other bikes we had were either total junk so we gave them away or broken.  We live on an amazing flat and quiet street and were noticing Clare loved to ride the bike even though it was way to small for her. So one day Dave went out and bought Clare a new bike and a helmet. It was on sale about 25% off and brand new he paid about $180 for it.. It is her big b-day and Christmas gift and in our minds worth every penny.  With Clare on her own bike, Lexey could re-learn to ride a bike and take over the  once we had a nice bike that was a little bigger Calvin loved riding too and of course he was taking turns on Clare's bike so next Dave got Calvin a bike.  He found a great diamondback bike on Amazon clearance for $100, normally $325. I'm not sure why it was so on sale but it came in the mail a couple of days later and the boys had fun assembling it (luckly dave was home around 7pm the day it arrived so they didn't have to wait long.

The kids are really good about grabbing helmets before they head out and the girls are good at staying in the boundaries. Calvin has been better about staying in the boundaries since he got lost!

Halloween

We had a super fun Halloween here! We missed our tradition of going to Bob and Kari's house for pizza and trick or treating but we really loved being in a neighborhood where we could trick or treat amongst our neighbors and friends.  It was a great evening.

We had a couple of neighbors who got really into decorating for Halloween. The guy across the street made a super spooky house. It was fortunate that we could see him put things together piece by piece so that the kids weren't terrified by it on Halloween night (well, Jo still was, but everyone else thoroughly enjoyed it). 

Jo was a monkey. She wanted her face painted since her sisters got their faces painted too.  Our neighbor across the street gave loaned us face paint.

Lexey and Clare were dead brides. More than once when they were getting candy they would get accused of coming to the door twice, but it is just because they looked just alike and if they weren't standing next to each other they looked exactly the same. This is Lexey!

And Clare!

Jo with our next door neighbor Madelyn and baby Soren (who slept through most of Halloween in our stroller)!

Isn't maddie a doll?!

At home to sort through the stash!

I paid Calvin a $10 google play gift card to wear his Karate gi so I wouldn't have to buy a new costume for him. We both felt it was a good deal.

One of the best parts of Halloween is when the kids go home and dump out all the candy and do the trading. Clare is the most greedy and also loves the most candy so she always ends up with a  HUGE stash. Lex is the most generous and most picky about candy so she went from a big pile to a small bag full.  Dave was willing to take all the kids' candy they didn't want so he got a pretty big stash. Jo and Calvin don't trade much but give away what they don't like.  

And then there is the style of eating candy.

Jo - hides it and eats 3 pieces after every meal 'til it's gone and then goes looking for everyone elses .
Lex- eats all of hers (she didn't have much) in a couple of days
Calvin - eats a bunch in the first few days and then forgets about it and I eat the rest!
Clare - hides her stash, sorted into plastic bags by type of candy and eats a piece a day for months (apparently this is exactly how Dave was). I'm fine with this as long as she doesn't eat in bed after brushing teeth.

Fun to be a mom with the stage of life we're in. The kids love all these special occasions.

Red family

One of the things we love about Houston is our "RED family", which includes us and the other LDS families who go to our elementary school. Can't say that we particularly love our elementary school but we love our friends there.  This picture has Clare and Lexey + Claire (navy blue shirt) and James Francis + the 3 Hatch Girls. Not pictured are the Mealeys and Lotts.

A couple of times this year we've had RED family FHE which has been really great and we'll continue to do that throughout the year. We also can help each other out with rides home or even watching kids if someone is in a bind, sick, stuck in traffic, stuck at work, etc. etc. It is so nice to have such amazing families to go to school with!  We all walk in and pick up our kids at the same spot so we have a few minutes to chat each day and the kids can talk and play after school a little bit. Lately they have been meeting on the bench to play "mean teacher". Hmmm, wonder where they get all their ideas about how to be the mean teacher?

Red families:

Gondas - Dave and Denise, Calvin (11 yrs), Clare (3rd), Lexey (1st), Jo (3 yrs)
Lotts - Sarah and Mark, Christian (K) and Caden (pre -k)  and baby Annelise (preemie baby)
Mealeys- Christian and Mel, Jaden (4th), Kyler (1st), Beckham (3 yrs), Taegen (6 months)
Francis - David and Christy - Claire (K), James (2  yrs), Carter (6 months)
Hatch - Seth and Shari - Kelly (5th), Megan (3rd), Brielle (1st)


For the first few weeks of school everyone thought Megan Hatch and Clare Gonda were twin sisters. They look pretty similar with blonde hair, blue eyes and fair skin (which at our school of 90% blacks and Mexicans makes them stick out)!

Tuesday morning adventures with my sweetheart Jo

For the past couple of months I've had a pretty consistent schedule if there were no conflicts. M,W,F I go to the YMCA to exercise and T,Th I either walk at home or elsewhere in with Jo in the stroller. Jo much prefers the stroller to having to go to the kid area at the YMCA.  Some Tuesdays I don't have time to go somewhere interesting but I we can we'll go to another neighborhood or someplace scenic in Houston. We've gone to Memorial park and Hermann Park a couple of times. They are both just lovely. 

A couple of weeks ago I had my good camera, which was great so I could capture some fun moments. As we were wandering around we came to some sprinklers on and Jo asked if she could run around in them and I said yes. She asked if she could get her jammies wet and I said yes and that we had extra clothes with us.  She asked if I wanted to join her and I said no, so she said she would just go alone. She is very sweet to always ask permission to do things and says thank you.

She is an angel. I really enjoy our time together.

This place is called Miller outdoor theater. I hope sometime we have the chance to see something there.

In dry clothes and ready to go wander around the park.

feeding the "ducks" - they are actually pigeons but we call them ducks since we are used to ducks

It's November

With every month that comes and goes  I can't help but count down to the end of fellowship. The medical calendar year (july 1st to july 1st) has been our calendar for the last 12 years! Each year brings changes in rotations or big milestones such as graduation.  It is hard to believe we've already finished 4 months of fellowship year. The time is flying by. I think everyone is anxious #1 to know where we will be next year and #2 to get back home if we are lucky enough to end up at UCSD.  That being said, with each passing week we grow more fond of our home in Houston and make connections, traditions and bonds that will make us very sad to leave when we are done here. There is no chance of us staying in Houston following fellowship. Texas Children's is not hiring so we know we'll be either back home in SD or someplace unfamiliar to us, or Ohio State where we did med school. Time will tell. Believe it or not, I think some big decisions will be made in the next two weeks.  The pressure is on!  Exciting, fun, exhausting and stressful all at the same time. I'm so proud of where Dave is and how he's put himself in a position to be able to seek out the best pediatric neurosurgery jobs in the country.

playing in the mud

We got lots of great rain over the summer and early fall here in Houston. It would cool down a little bit when it rained but still be in the 80's so as long as there was not lightning it was fun to go out and play in the rain and mud. Lexey was especially excited about the mud and on more than one occasion would go put her swim suit on to play in the mud. We have one spot in our yard that gets really muddy!