Street Faire Success!

After a month of preparations, our Street Faire experience was a success. (Please excuse my shoddy photography skills - it was busy and I was a little stressed. Really, the table looked lovely.) We sold glitter snowflakes, puzzle piece gingerbread men and knitted gnomes.

I'm quite pleased with how all our ornaments turned out. I think the kids were happy that all the work we did resulted in a nice table with lots of sales. Our knitted gnomes were $2 each and the other ornaments were $1 each. The kids insisted on this pricing as I was wanted to charge $.50 for the snowflakes and gingerbread men. It turns out that this pricing strategy was perfect. I'm glad I listened to the kids.

We sold cider for $.50 a cup. The Boy Child was in charge of this and he did a really good job. Before the sale, the class in the hall ran late cutting severely into set-up time for the vendors. The Boy had to do all the prep and set-up for cider on his own as The Girl Child and I were frantically busy with getting the table ready.

We had a little helper all day. She is very cute and very fond of my big kids. She was responsible for hanging all the ornaments and helping with pouring the cider.

As far as the business end of things went, we spent a little over $30 in supplies. Our profit was a little over $40 after we covered our supply cost. We sold about $80 worth of ornaments and cider. There was a little deal-making and bartering that went on which accounts for our difference.

 

Sales were good, but I prepared many ornaments and now have all that I need as gift toppers and for family. Amazingly, that means I planned ahead and got a Christmas project out of the way in November. I love it when I surprise myself with being organized!

 

♥Mrs. A.

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In 2012 I Resolve To Knit

Being so easily influenced, it's no surprise I succumbed to the pressure and found myself scrambling for a knitting related New Year's Resolution. I briefly thought about not having a resolution, but then I thought that a little focus never hurt anyone.

Of course I started by aiming high into the stratosphere by considering taking on a new-to-me venture like the Rockin' Sock Club. As a new personal expense is not in the budget for 2012, that was a short lived consideration. I started to think more realistically. I thought about what I had resolved last year and how successful I was. I thought about what I found I actually wanted to be knitting throughout 2011. There was something about committing to a "12 Pair of Socks in 2012" that was appealing. Many such groups crop up this time of year on Ravelry. After browsing for a while, nothing seemed to be a perfect fit. And that's a lot of sock knitting for me.

I was reading that many people resolve to knit from the stash and not buy any yarn. That was appealing and right in line with our family resolution to curtail much of our discretionary spending for 2012. But could I do this and still have fun and enjoy my knitting year? Stephanie made it fun in 2010. I'm sure I could at least make a go it...for part of the year. If only I had enough sock yarn. And zippy bags. (Please forgive the vernacular. It's one of the few leftovers from when I had cute toddlers running about.)

So off I went to my yarn hide-y holes collecting all my yarn and I dumped it all onto the couch. Now, understand that we have a small house. It's full of all kinds of stuff but not an abundance of any one particular kind of stuff. Including yarn. At least I was not in danger of being overwhelmed. I definitely didn't have enough sock yarn to knit a pair per month, and I quickly decided I didn't want to buy more yarn. But I was pleasantly surprised.

After the first few minutes of delegating each yarn to its own zippy bag, I had 6 solid projects. Half a year of dedicated knitting. Then I collected the bits and bobs of sock yarn balls. Definitely more than a month's worth of knitting - probably enough to make a couple of pair of patchwork socks...or a Sock Yarn Blanket! Into another bag went all my dishcloth cotton. A couple of WIPs were granted the privilege of their own bags. And a final bag was made after a somewhat panicked search-and-rescue mission that I conducted once I confirmed with The Girl Child the actual - not imaginary - purchase of a skein of Alpaca Silk Lace. At final count there are 15 project bags. Definitely more than enough to keep my busy all year!

I spent the morning tracking down the patterns I needed for each of the projects I had in mind. There were a few hairy moments when I was convinced that I needed to buy a couple of patterns. But I rallied, taking on the challenge of making this an entirely 'free' year of knitting. I'm now fairly convinced that if one takes the time and has a creative moment or two, one can find a free pattern for just about anything. Now all my yarn has a pattern friend.

Leftover is an additional canvas tote of odds and ends: yarn and needles. I set The Girl Child off on a mission to come up with a charity project we could use some of it for. Hopefully that will work out.

I suppose the best fit for my New Year of Knitting finally turned out to be a Surmount The Stash resolution. It's a small stash, but very much a full year of knitting goodness that I'm quite motivated to get to. Lots of variety: easy mindless things, things to finish, new skills to learn, long term things.

I was terribly impressed with myself. My finishing point was eons more economically viable than my starting point. (However my Sock Club research has only been shelved for a later date, not abandoned, by any means!) I was quick to point out to Mr. A. all the time and angst I had saved myself this year by planning ahead. I described a year of calmly grabbing my on-the-needles pre-planned project and perhaps another zippy as I head out the door to knitting group. No more frantic reprinting of a misplaced pattern 5 minutes after I was supposed to leave for where ever I needed to be so that I could have some knitting to occupy me. And FREE! That's glossing over the fact that of course the yarn was bought at some point and that January's project contains a purchased pattern...but since I bought it last October, 2012 is all set up to be the Year I Knit For Free. Somewhat sobering was packing all 15 zippy bags into one overflowing canvas tote bag. But I suppose pre-knitted mittens and socks don't really take up that much room.

My resolution was set and my knitting organized. The last thing I did was check Ravelry one last time for the day. I had set two projects aside to which I will add patterns later - one will be socks and one will be two small table runners. (Clever planning on my part so that I have a good reason to be trawling through the Rav database rather than the not-so-good reason of 'coveting patterns'.) And I found the new pattern Rams and Yowes. (Rav pattern page)

And quicker than I created it, my focus wavered and I found myself so easily influenced by the draw of a beautiful project. Typical. I will stick to my Resolution to Surmount My Stash in 2012...but I will also take on the challenge of somehow getting Rams and Yowes on my needles in 2012...for free.

~Mrs. A.

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Mondays...

This Fall, Mondays are particularly busy. I think today was fairly typical in scheduling, but it was better than many of my typical Mondays of late. I think I might be getting my Monday-act together...

After everyone has been fed and watered and we shovel up the weekend clutter it's usually around 9a.m. Monday mornings give us only an hour or so for any bookwork we want to accomplish. It's not too difficult to get the kids to hit the books on Mondays. I have them start with their journals. The Girl Child writes copious amounts - her biographer is going to have lots to sift through! The Boy Child, not so much. He's more matter of fact. 'Required' journal writing for The Boy amounts to a sentence per 'grade' so he's up to 6 sentences per journal entry. And that's a very loose definition of 'sentence' I'm using.

At 11a.m. I start getting the afternoon set up. The kids are sent to grab themselves a snack and then they pack another for later. I prepare lunch for Mr. A and myself and set it aside. French books and skating things are gathered and packed into the car. Today I dressed for a run and dug out my iPod. We left the house at 11:45.

My very good friend has taken it upon herself to teach a group of homeschoolers - her two included - French this school year. She's gone to a huge amount of work to plan weekly lessons for 5 families of kids, ages 8 through 15. The kids spend an hour and a half doing games and activities, vocab and dialogue. The focus is on spending time speaking the language which is awesome for my two-kid crew. The Boy and The Girl are quite well versed in their vocab, writing and reading skills. The speaking-out-loud has been a bone of contention in our past school years.

Today was the first Monday I snuck away from the other moms at French. I went for a miserable little run. I haven't run since the summer, really, so I was speaking fairly sternly with myself about the degree of laziness and depression that was taking over. I went for half an hour, 'running' for 3 minutes then walking for 1. Once I was done, I was glad I had done it. It's amazing how long improved cardiovascular fitness can hang on. I never thought I'd get 6 intervals completed today. I zipped home to change my muddy, wet running pants. While there, I constructed lunch for Mr. A and delivered it to his basement office (he's programming today and tends to focus in on his work and forgets altogether about regular bodily routines like caloric intake) before heading back to pick up the kids.

After French, we trek over to the local rink and spend an hour skating. The local homeschoolers have sort of dominated the 'Parent & Tot' time slot for the past few years. It was a quiet takeover...beginning years ago when the children blended in with those every-other-day kindergartners. Today there were 15 homeschoolers plus a bunch of moms on the ice.

Once we're home things depend on The Boy Child's hockey schedule. If he plays early, at 4:30p.m., we usually relax and snack before heading out the door at 4:15p.m. There are beefits to living in the rink's backyard! Today he played late, at 5:30p.m., so we had time to focus on some geography for a half hour before snacking and re-packing the hockey bag. I cleaned the kitchen and The Girl made pizza crust which we left in the warm oven to rise while we were at the rink.

At home, after hockey, I focus on getting some sort of food on the table fairly immediately. The low blood sugar is pretty apparent by this time on Monday. It's nice when we sit down to eat. Everyone knows that their responsibilities have been taken care of for the day. Relax mode starts to kick in. I like hearing about the kids' day - even though I've been there for most of it. I find it terribly interesting how different our experiences are even though we share the same space and activities.

We had a nice family evening culminating in apple crisp before bedtime. I'm watching the results of the local election and will head off to bed shortly. Hopefully next Monday will go as smoothly as today. Methinks if I keep up with weekend laundry and regular meal planning like a good, responsible grown up, I shouldn't have any problems.

~Mrs. A.

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Week #6 Approaches...

Schoolwork has started. But obviously, there are kinks to be worked out. Somehow, we've managed to have March Break already and there have been 2 4-day weeks out of only 5.

I think I was excited to get this school year scheduled and going. Mr. A. feels infinitely better about homeschooling when things are a bit structured and scheduled. Now, if only I could get the schedule to fit what the people are up to...

So here I am, sniffling away with a thick head, annoyed with many things and nearly everyone outside my door, not to mention myself and the current dynamic I've let grow up around me, wondering how much self-discipline I can conjure up in order to pull things together around here.

~Mrs. A.

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Schedule Woes

Mrs. A doing her best to keep her stick on the ice.

Why oh why do routine and the regular scheduling of daily events elude me?!

Seriously! How hard can it be to do the same things every day without stress and disaster?!

Monday was great - but I had three weeks of holiday time to psych myself up for it. I guess I forgot to include the rest of the week in my visualization exercises.

Tuesday morning was when things started to fall apart. Things stayed relatively dismal until Thursday morning when I felt a glimmer of hope that the weekend was coming. By Friday morning I was dragging again, trying to catch up with my week. Then I recalled the "More"bucks Tall Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha Non-Fat No-Whip I was going to get on my way to the library. Some perking up happened. Things were looking up until The Boy Child and The Girl Child had an ugly sibling moment while playing outside at the end of the day.

Mr. A rescued my sorry self from the depths of The Pit of Parenting Despair by means of a last-minute babysitter and a date at a fancy restaurant. We proceeded to blow all $110 we had in gift certificates in one meal. I had wine, appetizers, an amazing pasta concoction (truffle and cheese and mushroom sauce) and cappuccino. I even brought a dessert home for the babysitter. It was lovely. Somehow though, I don't think Mr. A's employer would reward an unproductive week - including many Must-Do's left undone - by sending him out to dinner to drown his sorrows in a bottle of Dienhard Reisling.

So, what is the problem here? Priorities? Standards? Motivation? Adult ADD?

I need a plan. The plan cannot include the implementation of any new 'tools'. Anything requiring more of my attention or more organization or more list making is banned. I don't need a household management binder or an email every twenty minutes or cue cards in a box. I need a good kick in the a$$. Perhaps regular performance evaluations would be a good idea. Don't tell Mr. A I said that.

Wish me luck with the upcoming week. I will do better to keep my stick on the ice. I will strive to keep people fed, clothed, cleaned, educated and safe from piles of clutter. I will strive to do so in a complaint-free, drama-free, un-martyr-ish fashion. Perhaps the first of my 12-in-12 should be A Peaceful Routine At Home.

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I'm Going To Have To Make Another Chart. Damn.

If I could get someone around here to pitch in and contribute a little to their feeding and clothing and learnin', then perhaps I'd have a little more time to blog. Not everyone all at once now...let's not send me into culture shock or anything.

I had a brilliant brainwave this past summer: let's get rid of the chore chart we've been using for years with varying degrees of success. Just for the summer. The kids need a holiday, too, you know. Well. I'm trying to remember if I've ever come up with a dumber plan.

I'm on it though. Once I'm done reading this book, I'll have all the answers. The Boys Child was particularly concerned that I not skip the chapter called "Bribing Your Kids To Work".

One problem with this book, though. While reading it, I have come to realize that not only did I enter into this whole parenting game with inadequate tools, but I have developed bad habits along the way! My poor kids!

Hat tip to Lenore Skenazy over at Free Range Kids for the book suggestion.

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First Week Blues

Well. That was a disaster.

Perhaps there is something to these "Fly By The Seat Of Your Pants", No Planning Required", "Let's See What Tomorrow Brings" homeschooling philosophies. Because this week I proved that the "Mom Looks Forward 6 Months By Buying Next Year's Books At This Year's Conference" and the "Take A Month Of Your Summer To Plan" methods can make one feel woefully inadequate in just three short days! (Really, short days. We didn't even attempt a full course load yet, people.)

But we all know a very relaxed way of approaching things simply doesn't work for me. Relaxed, even 'slightly scheduled', quickly slides down into lagging which spirals to a tepid intermittent which makes those nasty adjectives like 'procrastinating' pop up in conversation between Mr. B. and I. It's a dirty, slippery, self-loathing slope with two backward, lazy and unfortunate children waiting at the bottom. Ahem.

Thankfully, the weekend is here. These two days will give me time to recollect my enthusiasm, my encouragement, my creativity and, perhaps most importantly, my indoor voice. I will also run errands, get a few groceries, plant late grass in the backyard, help Mr. B. rebuild the carbs in the outboard, take a load to Goodwill and wean the dog off her meds. But I digress.

Next week will be better. On Monday, we will be motivated to finish up our work early in order to meet up with the local homeschoolers for a special library date. The kids will get a kick out of having the run of the place. It's usually closed on Mondays. Next week will be better. They'll be expecting a schoolish schedule. Maybe they'll be less shocked when I wake them up at 7:45am. Next week will be better. By then the initial shock of writing a paragraph/doing math each day/pick your poison will surely have worn off. Next week will be better.

Next week will be better.

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The Obligatory 'First Day of School' Blog

Like any good Canadian, I must begin by remarking on the weather: What a gorgeous day we had today! It started out thick with fog, then cloudy with sun, then sunny and warm. We seem to be having some threatening thundershowers to finish things up.

It was a perfect day to spend outside with friends. We had our 4th annual homeschoolers picnic today. I'd add capitals and title the event, however there seems to be some local haphazardness to the naming of our get-together. To some it's the Not-Going-Back-To-School picnic. To others it's the Home Learner's Picnic. To me, meh, it's a day in the park.

As so with sun, sand and socialization, we mark the beginning of our 7th (7th!!!) year of homeschooling. Did I mention I still have rookie jitters and second-guessing stress about homeschooling? Crazy.

For a couple of weeks now, I've been getting together our books and papers. I camped in the local Staples store last weekend and photocopied a ream+ of paper. Really. 613 pages. I have to go back this weekend and do more. But not a lot more. Thankfully. And, no, the copyright police are not out to get me.

Not only did I map out our year in worksheets and student pages, but I built a weekly timetable. It is mostly for the kids' benefit - they who like to check things off and ask 'when are we done?' - however I do admit to an inkling of perfectionist satisfaction when I see our days all perfectly planned. With time allotments. Because if I see The Boy Child spending more than 15 minutes on Handwriting Without Tears, I know it's going to be a bad day. I don't want bad days. I want Happy Homeschool days. Please refrain from sending helpful emails detailing how over-planning sets up unrealistic expectations and dooms the planner to ultimate failure and disappointment. I know. Still...I plan.

Today the timetable said 'Picnic' and 'Library'. We stayed too long at the picnic and therefore missed the library. See, I'm behind already. But that's ok. The timetable (and the calender{s} and the lessons plans and the subject guides) is more of a guideline anyway. Thank you Donna Young.

So, a lovely back-to-school...or not...day. Good food, good company, good times. I'm looking forward to the change of season. For the most part, the kids are as well. I'm excited about some of the plans we have with the local homeschoolers. I'm stoked about our bookwork. I'm so glad the local kids will be out of my tree and in a classroom. The kids are looking froward to getting back to hockey and soccer and library days and new notebooks and bike rides. (I know. Bike rides? But that's what they said.)

Happy September, All

♥Mrs. A.

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Organizing Our Homeschool - Motivation

If you asked me what kind of homeschooler I was, or which homeshcooling philosophy I most identified with, up until last summer I would have answered "Relaxed Eclectic with Unschoolish Tendencies".

Then, last summer, we made some changes to our homeschool. Mr. B and I had some discussions and got on the same page about expectations, style, outcomes, methods and content. Armed with this new information, I went ahead and planned - really planned - our current homeschooling year.

I can't tell you how encouraging and motivating it's been to have Mr. B's input. I always thought I was one of those 'lucky' homeschooling moms whose husband didn't really care what I did with the kids, as long as I was doing something. As it turns out, with Mr. B's input and opinion on hand, I feel more confident making homeschooling decisions for our kids. I feel more direction and structure within myself - which is very helpful when it comes to planning and organizing our homeschool.

(The secondary benefit is that now I'm feeling very prepared with answers to those age-old stereotypical homeschooling questions. The 'How do you know they're learning?" and "How do you know what to teach?" and "The government lets you do that?!" kind of questions.)

I think everyone's motivation to plan has to come from within themselves for their own special reason. Just because I got all excited when Mr. B and I ended up on the same page doesn't mean anyone else is. Maybe you're motivated to get something in place because your own Mr. B isn't on any homeschooling page. Maybe you're motivated to plan because you're a planner by nature. Maybe your homeschooler now has aspirations of greatness requiring some fairly specific prerequisites and those plans are what gets you moving. I know I'm feeling some anticipation to get into the new materials I have waiting for our next school year - maybe New Book Fever motivates you. Whatever it is, it's going to be personal for you.

So, what motivates you? Why do you want to plan out your school year? What's making you get your self organized?

Next up, my thoughts on curriculum, scope and sequence and building a framework to organize from.

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