Meleah's Pet Shop

Meleah has started collecting Littlest Pet Shop animals. It is one of the "girly" things she likes. The boys even enjoy setting up the little animals.

This scene is at the beach.

Meleah says, "I like playing with the little mouse."

This is the Veterinary Shop. She really enjoys giving the shots, bandaging them up and giving them the "cone of shame".

"I like to play with this one. Cody loves to play with this Panda." Meleah says.

Homeschool Track

With reluctance, I signed the kids up for Track. After the last Homeschool Field Trip, I was disappointed with what I saw and even Cody pointed out how poorly behaved some of the kids were. Some of the 10 year old kids were running through this Museum like it was a playground. Yelling, climbing over stuff. It just left a bad taste in my mouth. We even apologized to the Museum personnel, I felt so bad.
Track was coming up and I do feel it is important for the kids to stay active. Track is a two month activity, they have the kids practice through March and April with a Track Meet at the end of April(everyone complains about how hot it is then...70-80?) Monday was sign-up day and was beautiful and 60 something. The boys enjoyed an informal game of football with some of the other guys. Many of them weren't at the other Field Trip.
They were very excited about meeting other kids, it didn't start that way. Travis never wants to do anything that is new or he doesn't know what to expect. As he is telling me, "No! I am NOT going to do it!", a little boy his size runs up to him and says, "You wanna race?" Before I knew it Travis was gone. He ran around the track 3 times. Needless to say he isn't worried about it anymore and wants to run.
Meleah technically isn't old enough but she wanted to do it so much they said it was fine. She will just have to be in 1st grade two years. (Haha. Not really.)
The first practice was Friday. It didn't look good when I got up, it had rained over night. Well the kids were ready with their shorts. As we were doing our school work, they would look out and say, "Look! It is raining." Or, "snow, ugh!" They still had the practice. It was very windy and the last 30 minutes it started snowing lightly. Crazy weather. I used to complain about gym class in Arizona when it was 50 something outside. Try 30 something, brr.
Cody is going for the 50 meter dash. Meleah and Travis are trying out everything. Meleah is very sad that she can't jump the hurdles. She could run under them but I don't think that is what they are looking for.
It was nice for me to go as well and visit with some of the other moms. I found out that my pre-teen son is going through what others his age are also experiencing. They have a Homeschool Mom Support Group that meets once a month.  It was a good experience that I am sure we will all benefit from.
That is the latest from the Hedrick family.

The Rebelution

I have heard of their book, Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris, brothers of Joshua Harris. He is the one that Kissed Dating Goodbye.
After reading their blog, I am ready to read more. My son is starting down this path and seeing the "twine" that other kids his age enjoy wearing. You have to read their blog to understand.
Myth of Adolescence (Part 1)

School, school, and more school.

Travis is doing some reading about the Wright Brothers in the 5th story window of The Brown Palace Hotel in downtown Denver. My mom was doing some training and we joined her and spent some evenings with her. This window made me so nervous, just the kids sitting next to glass five stories up and traffic below.
We were having some difficulty with school in February. The kids didn't want to do their work and were doing poorly in Math. I was getting frustrated and was fervently praying to know what to do. Our trip to Salt Lake City helped me to remember my priorities as well as plan some changes. We got back and started making the changes and the school day improved. What changed? I was praying about it but had let slip our daily prayer together as a family. Bob stepped in to do some Math with the boys. That has been just two weeks and Travis went back to his Math book on Tuesday and did FOUR lessons. His confidence had improved and he was able to do well.
Cody continues to have his moments but he is also going through a lot of changes right now. Growing taller, braces and trying to be more independent. He knows my buttons well and I have to remember that I am the adult.


Meleah's reading has taken off. After spending a few weeks one-on-one, she has really increased in word recognition and what was difficult is becoming easier. Now she is trying to sound everything out and even picks words out of the books I am reading aloud to all of them.

We have let writing go for too long with the remodelling. Now we are doing a bunch to get back in the hang of doing it. We are reviewing a lot that they should know and surprisingly they do seem to more than I think they do.

After seeing Cody's drawing Travis did some of his own. It turned out really neat as well. He has the memory like Bob. If he hears or reads something he knows it.

It is hard work to get those letters to stay between the lines. Wednesday night she was writing all the titles of her favorite hymns on her church notebook cover. Songs like; Don't Step There, 100, Silent Night, In The Garden.

We have the boys registered to take their first standardized tests. They are in the end of April. In Colorado you have to take them in every odd year and pass by 13% I think. I am having them take them this year as practice and I am just curious how they are doing. I know what they are capable of and what we have studied but not necessarily what they have retained. I could just ask them and know that, but this will be a good experience for them.

I was thinking about homeschooling and how it waxes and wanes. Good weeks and bad weeks. Funny, the bad weeks are some how related to them feeling bad or the weather. We are doing well now but it is good to know that those difficult weeks don't last forever, thankfully.

I was worried about their hours. In Colorado it is recommended that elementary/middle school have 720 hours of instruction for the school year, an average of 4 hours a day. Well we didn't meet the semester amount but if we continue doing just 5 hours a day we will be done by the end of May, no problem. Not as bad as I thought.