First Day of School 2019

We started school up again shortly after we returned from Alaska.  The summer seemed to go by so quickly!  I wasn't ready to start and feel like school shouldn't start until after Labor day, but the public school was starting and the kids wanted to go ahead and start.

The first week was rough!  Bob was on a weird noon to midnight schedule so he got to be home during our homeschool time.  It was great having his help, but it was really hard to get back into the swing of homeschool.  I also got a bad cold, so that didn't help.

We did manage to take first day of school pictures.

Now that it has been a few weeks we have settled into a routine and things have gotten much easier.  I wasn't sure at first how we were going to work in a new History curriculum but so far we have manage to have time every week to get it done.  Next week I'm going to start Leon on harder and more time consuming language arts material, which I'm sure he is ready for.  My concern is that it will add about 30 minutes of one on one time he will need each day.

The only way I've been able to fit everything in is to extend our homeschool day.  The kids now start about 30 minutes earlier and sometimes we have some work to still do after lunch, whereas before we were able to get it all done by lunch (not counting quiet reading and individual work they do on their own).

It is exhausting, but fun at the same time.  I love that I get to spend the day working with the kids.  It is so cool to see their growth everyday and to be a part of it.  The fact that they get to go at their own pace and aren't compared to others is a nice bonus.  One of the biggest benefits of homeschooling is the family bonding it builds.  I love that my children play together for hours everyday.  There are days when I'm tired and think that it would be nice to just send the kids off to school, but when I really think about it feel that homeschooling is best option for us.

Mori Digital Art Museum

We took advantage of Bob not working on Veterans day and went to the Mori Digital Art Museum in Tokyo.  It was amazing!  Seriously, I heard really good things about it, but it was expensive for our whole family to go and I wasn't sure how cool projections on the wall could be.  I am so glad we went.  It totally lived up to the hype and did not disappoint.

We got there a few minutes before opening and still had to wait in line for about 20 minutes.  I also bought our tickets about a month in advance because they do sell out and I had previously went to get tickets about a week early for a different day and they were sold out.  We were a little stressed going through the gate because the tickets said, "Only two children per adult."  That is not unheard of here in Japan.  But thankfully no one said anything to us.  We were hoping they would count Calista as a baby because she didn't require a ticket.  In the end I'm not sure they saw her, Bob had her on his back in the carrier and I was the one to give the tickets.

In the above picture of Scarlett we were on this huge net thing and the images were projecting and moving on the walls all around us.  We laid down for the show part and took some pictures as we tried to walk out.  I think they called it the nest room.

This whole place was all about ambiance.  Everything was all black except for the projections, making it dark inside, with just enough light that you don't feel weird about their being no lights on.  Then there was this mystic music playing the whole time.  One unsettling thing we were warned about was that the floor wasn't flat, just one more thing to throw us off.  And we were told that there were no maps or directions.  We were meant to wander throughout the museum everyone going different ways at different times.  The art in the rooms were also changing so the same room could look different at different times.  I thought that would mean we would get lost for sure, but we didn't have a problem.  I hope we saw everything there, but I really can't be sure of that.

Calista absolutely loved it!  She had so much fun walking around and touching the walls.  I think it is probably her favorite place in the world right now.

 The lantern room was pretty amazing.

 The last area was more interactive.

 The kids had a blast running through these hot air balloon things.

 This last picture is of the kids on a huge trampoline.

I think it would be great to go here again someday before we leave Japan.

1st Day of School

Yesterday was our official first day of school!  With homeschooling I don't feel nearly the same hype about it and I can tell the kids don't either.  We tried to make it special by taking pictures and it was the first day we've don't school in a while, so it was different.

Tucker wanted to start band so he is taking one class at the middle school.  The only problem is we live about 4 miles away from school and because it is just the one class the bus isn't available in the middle of the day.  I could normally drive him, but I want to prepare him for when I can't drive him.  So we made the 4 mile bike ride to his school, then hung around while he went to class then rode back.  It was hot!  My phone said it feels like 102 degrees!  Tucker said all they really did was take roll, I'm not sure that was worth the 50 minute bike ride each way in the heat, but hopefully it will get better.

Penelope is really happy to be once again homeschooling.  Out of everyone I think she is the most glad that she doesn't actually have to go to school.  Last year was her first year of homeschooling and I think after a little bit she got the hang of it and did really well.  I love teacher her at this age, she is old enough to read pretty well, and that makes it sooooo much easier.  It is really nice when she can read the directions, and have a little longer attention span.

Scarlett has a bit of a harder time doing what I ask when it is time for school, but we are going to try it again this year.  I can see she is making progress and the grades are a bit unfair to her.  It seems like she is just one year behind Penelope but she is almost two years younger.  I can tell they are more closer to two years apart school wise.  That is one great thing about homeschooling, she can go at her own pace.

Leon is officially in kindergarten.  He actually started doing math and reading about halfway though last year so not much will change this year for him.  He really loves that he gets to do school like all of his big siblings.

First day of school at the Woestman Academy.

Shakespeare in May

The kids have been working hard over that past month and a half on the play "Pericles."  A homeschool mom put this together for the kids and I'm so glad we participated.  All of their hard work paid off during their Friday night performance.  I originally thought the only people who were coming to the performance that hadn't been to all the practices were the dads.  Most people here don't have Grandparents or extended family to come support but I think everyone knows that and really helps support each other.  Three families from our ward came to watch the kids and I know there were others who had friends come to watch as well.  I think one of my favorite parts was just as Tucker walked out someone from the audience shouted, "That's my friend!"  It was cute.

The kids were nervous, especially Tucker, but it went really well.  Tucker was two different characters and had several speaking parts so he was understandable nervous, but he seemed to thrive on the nervous excitement.  He was the oldest child there by a couple months, so it was a pretty young cast.  Penelope was scared during the first couple practices but once she knew what to do she was totally fine.  It also helped that she didn't have an speaking rolls.  Scarlett did great during the play, but it was hard to get her to cooperate during the practices.  It took several different practices to get her to even say her part.  She wouldn't even attempt it until everything was perfect.  She had to be confident in her part and have the exact right baby doll.  I one time brought the wrong doll and she refused to do her part.  We also had lots of disagreements about getting her to wear her costume.  Leon did well with his storm part, his biggest struggle was to hold still and be quiet during the rest of the play.  All the kids acted just exactly according to their personalities and I wasn't surprised one bit by how the behaved during the process.

We took videos!