April In The Burbs

Since we have decided to homeschool, I've been doing a lot of research on different types of homeschooling and what might work best for our family.  I'm also coming to understand that what might work best for one child might be something that doesn't resonate for the other child. That's one aspect that I am excited about, being able to tailor their learning experiences to what works best for them, but also being able to focus in on their "problem" learning areas.  For John, his handwriting and essay writing skills need a ton of work. Dot made it through virtual kindergarten, but still needs work on reading - it's an on-going process, of course.  As I was looking around on the net for classes that the kids could take here and there, I found OutSchool . OutSchool is a site where you can find all types of virtual classes for your kiddos. The best part for me is that they're live classes, meaning she gets 1 on 1 interaction with not only the teacher but wi...

  As of this month, we are officially homeschoolers. Our kids will start on their homeschooling ad venture with us this August. I'm leaning more towards unschooling at the moment, but what may work for one might not work for the other. I think this will be a wonderful year to learn new things together and hopefully identify what type of learners both of my kids are.  It’s been a really arduous decision for us to make, honestly. Until Covid hit, their dad (my coparent) and I planned on both of them attending the local public school - even taking Dot’s panhypopituitarism into account. I feel a little pushed into this arrangement due to our particular circumstances, but I’m still idealistic and seeing this as a short-term solution for our family until an age appropriate Covid vaccine is available.  Folks all over the world reach their children at home, we’re doing it for medical reasons. There’s a million valid reasons for every family who decide to go this route. Who knows ...

  Dottie's NICU room door at Dell Children's - our home for 3 months.  I talk a lot on here about Dorothy being medically fragile and special needs, but it occurs to me that some of my followers are fairly new. Not all of y’all have been following me for seven years, so I’d like to give you a little backstory on what’s going on with Dot. When Dorothy was born, she was a repeat C-section. I have never gone into labor with either of my children and I was perfectly happy to have a repeat C-section.  I noticed after she was born that she was having some trouble breathing, so the nurses took her back from my mom who was sitting right beside my head holding Dorothy, and started working on her. Seeing Dot before they transferred her to Dell Children's without me.  Within about 8 hours she was transferred to a hospital with a higher NICU level that could handle her specific needs. At the time, they just thought that because she was a C-section baby, she still had fluid on he...

  Good morning from my wild clean hair and my daily iced coffee.  I’m trying to cut back on caffeine. Not because of sleep, but these iced coffees and sodas have become sort of an unhealthy habit over the last few weeks. Don’t ask me to drink diet soda, I’d rather drink water - which I drink plenty of & seriously push onto my kids daily. That, and I eat out too much.  It’s a mental health thing - the fast food and deliveries. Meals are at the bottom of my Giving A Fuck list. I know we need to do better eating healthier as a family and have made small steps with the kids already. Do you ever feel like you need to “reign yourself in”, so to speak? I don’t believe in dieting. I do believe in treating my body better when I come to this point. More water. More fruits. More veggies. More neighborhood walks. What (small) steps do you take to feel physically better when you’re feeling sluggish and kinda lazy?