Shaque D'Amour

I am one of those terrible parents that lets my children stand and peer over my shoulder as I watch youtube. Where else can you get those great music videos from the songs I grew up with?
In this way, the children came to see the music video for one of my old favorites, "The Love Shack". (You gotta love the B-52's!)
"You see a painted sign at the side of the road that says, 15 miles to the love..........shack!"
At one point in the video, you get a glimpse of the sign in front of said shack. The letters spell out "Shaque D'Amour". I don't know if this is really "the love shack" in french (I didn't pay that much attention in French class.), but whatever the origin, "Shaque D'Amour" became a buzz word at our house. When we finally moved to our artsy downtown apartment, it was instantly dubbed the "Shaque D'Amour". And a great little shack of love it is, too! The Rivendell homeschool has officially relocated. The children have never lived anywhere except in our "little house in the suburbs", so the shaque d'amour was a whole new world. We can now walk short distances to all sorts of delights. Parks with great playgrounds, groovy shops and coffee houses, the corner drugstore, and more are only a brief walk away. The street is lined with lovely old trees. Gluten free and organic groceries can be purchased from two different natural grocery stores mere blocks from the shaque. The fall has brought new things for all of us and we are meeting the new challenges with love. I can't think of any better name for our new home. The circumstances of the past year have been very trying, but I am hugely blessed with my loving husband and children. The shaque d'amour is living up to its name and life is good.

Spiderman or No Spiderman, That Is the Question...

The children don't watch TV (only DVD's that we own), we don't have any spiderman books, he has never seen the movie, so, how did this superhero swing into our home?
Despite our best efforts to encourage wholesome toys and quality resources, the web slinger somehow crept in. My son sees him at the store and somehow, instinctively knows his name. He shoots webs from his wrist and runs around pretending to swing from buildings. I held out at first, steering him to wooden toys, swearing off Toys R'Us, and trying to avoid the merchandising as best we could. Finally, I succumbed to the t-shirt. I don't want to be remembered as the Mom who would NEVER buy the shirt he wanted. So, spiderman has come home to roost - or should I say come home to crawl? While I still avoid the plastic toys and refuse to let my son watch the violent movies or cartoons, he has the t-shirt.
Have I sold out?
I prefer to think of it as choosing my battles. A little superhero play is good for the ego and spiderman is probably the lesser of superhero evils. I still am very frustrated by the marketing of violent movies and their merchandise to little kids. But, I am trying to find my balance in this, as in everything else.
In the meantime, I hope that indulging the urge to sling webs may let the fascination run its natural course, and dare I hope, die a natural death? I see how he loves nature, wooden blocks, and books, so hopefully a little superhero action is just a piece of the puzzle.

Addie at her 1940's Mystery Party

In the middle of chaos...

The last year has been a crazy time of trying to get the house on the market. And then, after much work and anticipation, the house went on the market and ...
nothing.
So, here we sit waiting with the house staged and everything perfect for showing. It makes for a pristine home and is very trying when you like cozy clutter and homeschool.
So, we are back to the books, even though I had packed them up and hoped we'd be moved out by now.
I think I should write a book about homeschooling in chaos. Suprisingly, the children are doing very well. They take it all in stride and keep learning - even when my idea of organized is challenged by selling a house.
Whit is starting his kindergarten year and is all excited about learning to read. He has memorized, The Spooky Old Tree, and reads it to us. I really need to get that on camera. It is adorable.
Addie is in 4th grade this year and has taken off with a bang. She is reading books so quickly, still writing a lot, working on her piano skills, and loving the math.
While I can't wait to be more settled - I am trying to enjoy the moments as they come and go.
It is still a great journey, even with the curves and hills!

Our Published Author

"Kids In Print" is the yearly publication from our local library that celebrates young artists and writers. My daughter had a short story accepted this year for publication. Here she is at the library's celebration and book signing when the book came out. The young writers and artists signed copies of their work. Her story was entitled, "A Girl's Tears and What Became of Them". It is charming tale of how fairies are born. She has been very into the little folk this year. She hopes to have more stories published and become a famous author. She is off to a good start!

The Littlest Storyteller

My son has faced a lot of struggle in his very young life. He started having health issues at the introduction of solid foods and after months of hospitals, doctors and the like, he was diagnosed with celiac disease and food allergies. Later he was also diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. He is touch sensitive to wheat and breaks out in hives from touching things like playdough. He is anaphylactic to nuts (peanuts). He had some dev. delay from his months of living with intestinal issues that prohibited nutrition to the brain. The dev. delay was only in speech. He has been slow to communicate and make the sounds for his words. He had speech therapy in our home for his two year old year. This past school year, he went to speech at the local elementary school. While he still struggles with some sounds and being understood by those who aren't always around him, he has improved greatly. There has never been any doubt that his imagination was in fine working order. He is in turns, Peter Pan, a pirate, a dog, a super hero, and any other character that takes his fancy. He plays elaborate scenarios with his sister, who, has always seemed to know exactly what he was saying, even when the rest of us didn't. Their imagination is fueled by the stacks of books we read weekly. My son will sit for long periods of time listening to stories. He took an interest in the creation of stories after his sister wrote a short story that was published in a local yearly children's publication, "Kids In Print". On the way home from that event he told us a story, "Once upon a time there was a boy named Whit. He had a Mommy and a Dad". That was it, his first attempt to create a story. We were delighted that he had made the connection. This past Friday was his last speech session of this school year. He amazed his speech teacher and his watching Father when he came out with this story:

"Once upon a time there was a boy named Whit and he had a Mommy and a Dad. There was a bear coming out of a deep hole. He saw us. We climbed a tree so he wouldn't get us. He was big. He was this tall, as tall as your arm. He was big. There was a little dragon. We ran to the car. The dragon followed us so he could drive. He got in the car and Whit held him. The bear was coming and he was jumping on the road and that's how he was getting us. Doodeet came in a blue car. He was magic. He came to rescue us. We never that big bear in that scary woods again. The bear climbed a tree so he could hide from Doodeet. Doodeet climbed the tree to get him. The End. "

I think we can safely put our concerns about his speech to rest!

We haven't made a call yet as to whether we will use speech services again next year. For his sake, we want to make sure he can be understood. He has so much to share with the world, even his own stories!

Snapshots

My daughter has an interest in photography as well as architecture. We all went downtown for her to photograph architecture in the city. My son wanted to get in on the action. Here he is taking a picture of his sister while she is taking a picture of him. All of us had a great time walking the streets and taking in the sunny day. She took a series of photos and made a scrapbook with the results. This project included learning about photography, writing skills, spelling, layout and design, and studying architecture. We all enjoyed the project!