Happy Birthday Kaleb!

On December 11th, this little punk turned 9 years old. It's hard to imagine that he can be that old. Where does the time go.

My Christmas Story

I have been a slow motion circus this year getting our Christmas tree up. We usually put up our Nativity scene Thanksgiving weekend, but we didn't even think about it this year. Then we went on vacation from December 1-6. We came home and had a zillion things going on. Finally, on Sunday the 13th Kalen and I braved the 2 degree weather and picked a tree up at Home Depot. We quickly went thru the store half frozen and got two boxes of lights and came home. Mark was working and I refused to go outside and saw the end of the tree so on Monday night Kaleb and Mark manned up and cut the bottom off the tree and put it in the stand. On Tuesday, after school work was done the kids and we went to decorated it. I pulled the lights out of the box and I knew something wasn't right with them. I took a good look at the box and realized I had bought the 'net lights' that go over a bush. That was the end of the tree decorating. So yesterday, we headed back to Home Depot to exchange the lights. Of course they didn't have anymore lights for trees, so we ended up going to Kmart to get lights. Finally..............we decorated the tree and this is the beginning of 'my Christmas story'.
I put the lights and ribbon on the tree and the kids were putting ornaments on it. I quietly listened as they rummaged through the box of ornaments and talked about when they made this ornament or that ornament or where an ornament came from. It was pretty cool. It was a good feeling to know that these ornaments mean something to them and that they aren't just something to put on the tree. In the discussion about this ornament and that ornament the kids started arguing over a "First Christmas" ornament that had a baby picture in it. Kaleb thought it was him, Kalen thought it was her and so on. I settled the argument by explaining that it was Kalen. Kaleb asked "how come I don't have an ornament that says 'First Christmas' on it?"
I told him that since he was born two weeks before Christmas and was a total surprise to us and everyone that no one bought him one. He wanted to know what I meant by him being a 'surprise'. He knows his birth story to some extent but hasn't ever thought much about it. So now was a good time to tell the story all over again. This is the story I told him................
On December 12, I had taken Kalen to town for her 'KinderMuzic' class. We had come home about 1:00 p.m and there was a message on our answering machine from Ellen at Wyoming Childrens Society she wanted us to call her ASAP. I called Ellen and she told me that there was a baby boy that had been born the night before in Sheridan. His birth family had not made an adoption plan prior to his birth and they wanted to put him up for adoption. She explained that he had been born an emergency c-section and had not been breathing when he was born. He had been checked out thoroughly and everything looked good. The family did not want to pick the adoptive family, they had asked the agency to place him with a family. Ellen said they had been through their family profiles and we had been waiting the longest (20 months) and they wanted to know if we were interested in him. YES!!!!
Ellen wanted us to wait to go to Sheridan until the papers were signed by the birth parents terminating their rights. It would be the next morning before their case worker from Buffalo could get to Sheridan and talk with the family and get the papers signed. We talked back and forth thru the evening and the next morning with the ladies from WCS. Finally about noon they called us and told us that the papers were not signed, they were waiting on a notary, but there was no doubt the birth parents were going to sign. It was time for us to get on the road. So off we went to Sheridan and the rest is history.
Kaleb asked a few questions about things and then he said "why did Wyoming Children Society pick you to be my parents?" I told him again that they looked through all their profiles of families and we had been waiting the longest and thought we would be a good match. This was his response "well, it's sure worked out good for me." I didn't cry, but there were tears in my eyes.
What a wonderful experience I shared with my children over our Christmas tree. I'm only sad that Mark had to work late and didn't get to share the time with us. Christmas cannot get any better than that for me.

Multiplication

A couple weeks ago, it was time for Kaleb to start multiplication in math. We finished up a unit on Friday and come Monday morning we started on 'times'. As I was getting things ready for the lesson I decided I would take Kalen along with us.
Kalen has basically been at the same place in math since her 4th grade year. Repetition is good for a child with learning disabilities, but at what point is she just not going to get it? For instance, telling time on a clock with hands is not going to happen at this point in Kalens life. It has to do with her visual spacial issues so why keep pushing it. Kalen knows her base 10 addition and subtract and anything passed that she knows how to use her calculator to figure it out. She understands money, but telling nickels, dimes and quarters apart is difficult for her. Once again, the visual spacial problems. At what point should you move on? I guess that's up to whoever is teaching.
I decided that my teaching had to be hands on for Kalen. So I cut up a bunch of 2" squares of fabric in different colors that we could put on my flannel board. Amazingly, Kalen caught on fairly well. The hands on approach was very good for her. We are up to facts of 5 and are doing a lot of repetition. Kalen has done very well.
The second day of multiplication Kalen said to me "mom, I was really tired of doing the same stuff in math." Hmmmmm!!!!!
So I thought about how I would feel if I was being taught the same thing day after day and I didn't get it? How much effort would I put into it? Not much. I don't know where we are going with Math and Kalen, but I look at it one day at a time. I hope to get her to know her math facts to 10. If she gets there, it will be time to celebrate. We will probably go back and review some of the stuff she hasn't gotten at this point from time to time and see if any of it clicks. However, I don't have a problem saying 'she doesn't get it'.
As for Kaleb, he has taken to multiplication like a duck to water. He has great reasoning skills and can figure out a lot of things out on his own. I end every math session with the bonus question. He is getting pretty good at that. It takes a lot to stump him.

The horse world......

A boy and his horse.

On Sunday Mark and Kaleb went to a horsemanship clinic that the WRCHA (Wyoming Reined Cow Horse Assn.) was having. The WRCHA is basically a group of people that live here in Gillette. There are several of them that put on clinics in the fall as a fund raiser for their organization it also gets more people interested in the WRCHA. Mark thought it would be good for Kaleb to get instruction from someone else. Which is true. Mark said that Kaleb was pretty shy there. Which isn't surprising, he tends to be shy when he is around people he doesn't know. Anyway, one of the clinicians is a lady. Kaleb told me that she said she liked his horse. He thought she was all right.

This is Mike and Annie scratching each others backs. Annie has been on hiatus since early August. She turned up lame right before Mark was going to show her at the state fair. Reining in hard on the joints and especially the hocks. Annie is 6 years old. At this point in her career, for her to go on she is going to have to be on joint therapy meds. We have resisted doing that. We had an equine vet check her out and her hocks are sore along with the suspensory (not sure how it spelled ) tendon in her left front leg. We put her on rest and have thought through the options. Annie is one point away from earning her Register of Merit in Open Reining. So the question is whether we want to put her back in the show pen knowing it could make her lame for the one point. It would be cool if she got her ROM, but definitely not the end of the world if she doesn't get it.

Annie seems to be sound again and we have decided to put her on meds for her joints to help aid in wellness. We also decided that I would start riding her to exercise her. I rode her for the first time the other day. She is totally awesome and fun to ride. Mark may not get her back.

This is Mark's latest project Will. Or Wilbur or Wilford, just depends on the day. When he first came here I thought we should change his name to Wild Eye. He would stand across the pen from you and he had a huge eye like he was scared of you. Mark spent a lot of time taking the spook out of him and earning his trust. Now Will reminds me of a puppy dog. He follows us around like a big goofy puppy. He gets in my personal space. Will has his days when he has 'spook' issues, he will probably always be like that, but he is definitely a different horse than when he came here.

It has been two years since we had a vacation and that was to Florida to Disney. Last year Mark's vacation was painting and laying flooring on the main level of the house. We took some long weekends for horse shows but other than that we haven't been anywhere. The thought of going away seemed to be a good idea. The budget is tight though. We have talked off and on about going to the NRHA (National Reining Horse Assn.) Futurity (its like the super bowl in reining) in Oklahoma City and driving it. I knew we had points on our credit card that could go to plane tickets so I looked into it and found we had enough points to get cheap tickets from Gillette to OKC. We will leave here on December 1 and come home on the 7th. We will be there to see the finals on the night of the 6th.
We are all looking forward to the trip, but especially Mark. Mark has only had 10 days off since August 1. On the weekends he didn't actually have to be in the field unless there was a problem, but he is on call which means he is on the phone and blackberry and sending reports. They have had a lot of projects going on and the hours and stress are starting to wear him down. He had worked his vacation so he won't have to go to the office from Thanksgiving until December 8. He has to fly to southeast Texas next week for work. They are moving a piece of equipment that goes on a gas well from here to one of their fields in Sweeney Texas. This is new territory for the Texans so Mark gets to go down and help with the installation and show them how it runs.

Abraham Lincoln

This picture was taken last summer in Keystone, SD outside of Mount Rushmore.

Last night the kids and Mark (I actually think he was asleep) were watching a documentary on the assassin of Abraham Lincoln before supper. We sat down to supper and Kaleb started talking about Lincoln and asking questions. This was a teaching moment. Several weeks ago Kaleb read a book about Lincoln for language arts. So, I brought up what we had learned about him. Kaleb remembered that Lincoln was the president professed that slavery was wrong and put a stop to it and that started the Civil War.

Kalen is studying the colonization of America in history. In the last week she has learned about how the settlers discovered they could make big money off of tobacco (which Kaleb has confused with Tabasco) and how they didn't like doing all the work themselves. So they brought ships of slaves from Africa to work on their large plantations. So the conversation went on about slavery and Lincoln.

It was pretty cool that since I know what the kids are learning in school that we could have a discussion about it in our everyday life. It's just another advantage of homeschooling. When the kids were in public school I never knew that much about what they were learning. I would ask everyday what they learned, but by the time the got home they were done for the day.

The Ghost of Halloween Past

We did our usual Halloween thing and went to Grandma house. We had pizza and Mark took the kids down the street to Trick or Treat. The weather was beautiful. It was 50 degrees.

Kalen is growing up. She did not have a costume this year. She opted for a shirt that had 'angel' written on it with wings painted on the back and it came with a halo that she wore.

Kaleb is totally into 'army', cops, military......... He wanted an 'army' costume this year. Knowing him and his history with costumes, I decided that it would be best to buy him the real 'camo' vs. a costume. I ended up having to go back and buy another camo shirt and pants because he loves them so much.

Kalen always liked to wear her costumes after Halloween as dress up. For many years she was a 'bride' or some kind of Disney princess. So they were always worth the money. Now Kaleb, he 'did' his Halloween costumes. When he was two he was Bob the Builder. He wear his Bob the Builder everywhere, including bed. Then he 'did' the red Power Ranger two years in a row and he lived in those costumes day and night. Kalen and I were telling him this and he just laughed and didn't believe us. I pretty sure he went a couple years that he couldn't watch Power Rangers with out being dressed in his costume. I finally had to hide them because they were getting to small for him.

The end of the first quarter

I remember when Mark and I had been married about eight years and we were having one of those 'someday when we have kids conversations', I said to him "why do we say 'when we have kids', we are never going to have kids." I had no interested in kids. A year later we were filling out adoption forms. And Mark said "I always knew we would adopt children."

Then it came time for Kalen to start school and off and on over the years the subject of 'homeschooling' would come up. Mark was always interested in it. I would say I could never homeschool our kids. I have learned that when I say 'I'm never going to do something' I better prepare myself because "I will" be doing it.

Anyway, today was the end of the first quarter of school. We did it!!! I can't believe we are a quarter of the way through the school year. It's been a ride. It's been frustrating, it's been exciting and it's been exhausting. It was a good decision.

I have learned so much about my children. I have watched awesome things happen. I have come to realize some important things I want my kids to learn and some things I don't think they need to learn. Homeschooling may not be for everyone, but every parent should try it for just one year, they'll never regret it.

I have watched Kalen blossom. She has become more confident and more mature. I have watched the anxiety that she lived with going to school disappear. I have watched her enjoy learning. I have come to realize more of who she real is and who she can be.

Kaleb........the kid can figure out amazing math facts laying over a the top of a bean bag flopping like a fish. His reading was low and his spelling stunk when we started the school year. I have watched him gain in reading and I have watched his spelling get better and better. It's cool!

The history in the k12 curriculum for third grade stinks. It is about the Middle Ages/Greek/Rome. It's hard for me to teach because it's BORING and Kaleb has ZERO interest in it. The light bulb went on about two weeks ago. My third grader needs to learn American History and he needs to read. So I went to the library and got him books that he could read about American Explorers. He loves them. When he is done with silent reading he will say 'mom, did you know..........' and off he goes telling me what he learned. He is excited about it. We will force our way through the k12 curriculum, but it's not for us.

The Campbell County Virtual School has been under scrutiny this year because of low PAWS (standardize testing) scores last year in writing. (That's a whole other story). So the VS is putting the pressure on the parents and kids about writing. Every other week the teacher that monitors Kaleb has an online 'writers workshop' with her students. It is done live with her and probably 9 other kids.

As I listened yesterday to the 'writers workshop', I realized what was going on was not what I wanted for my child. To start with Mrs. B lectures about how they are going to be doing 'tons and tons' of writing this year to prepare for PAWS. She wants the kids to be more creative with their words. She was giving them words like 'good', 'really', 'happy'......and wanted them to come up with different words for them. At one point she got down right mean about how they over use words like 'good' and 'really' and they need to be more 'creative'. In the previous session Mrs. B had taught the kids how to write a 'friendly letter' and had given this strict format on how it should be written. Sure, there needs to be some basics for the 'friendly letter' but a strict format? Get real. Mrs. B put a 'friendly letter' form up on the white board and started ragging on them about how they were not doing them right (they had to write her one). So she goes over how it's to be done and it how it has to be done blah blah blah blah and then she says "this is the way it is on the PAWS test and you need to learn it."

Let me sum that up.............The kids need to be creative thinkers but they can only do it 'one way.' Is the PAWS test the absolutely know all on how a 'friendly letter' is to be written? NO!!!

I do not want my kids to be educated on info that is only important to pass a standardize test. I do not want a teacher ragging on my kids like that. And you know what, I can make that choice. More to come on that....................

People say the stupidest things.......

These pictures were taken last Christmas morning.

Their are people out there that just say stupid things. We keep our own hours as homeschoolers. We work 4-5 hrs. a day on school. We usually start at 8:30, but that can also vary because we HOMESCHOOL!!! It's been one of those weeks with denist appts. and orthodontist appts. It's one thing if you have the child with you that is having the appt. but its another thing when you have the child with you that isn't having that appt. People find it necessary to ask "why aren't you in school?" Like its any of their business. Maybe I need to come up with the responds "are you the worlds hall monitor?" Oh, well.

So today, Kaleb and I needed medical attention. The swine flu is running wild here. There was no way we were getting into our regular doctors so we went to the walk in clinic at about 10:00 a.m. Kalen went with us. When we finally got back to the exam room, the nurse proceeded to asked why the kids weren't in school. We explained. Then the doctor comes in. He asked the same thing. Then he asked if the kids were in sports. So Kalen said she danced and Kaleb played soccer. Then he said "well, at least you get some socialization." It's interesting to see how the world perceives homeschooling. I wish I was quick witted enough to respond, but it takes me several hours to formulate a reply. Then again I probably didn't want to be quick witted to the guy that stuck a needle in me.

I was tested for the flu, but it was negative. Of course the test is only 60% acturate. My oxygen level was down to 93% (at 90% you go to the hospital). Since I have asthma the doctor treated me agressively. I got a steroid shot in my vein and an antibiotic shot. He wants me to take the tamaflu even though the test was negative, along with oral steriods. He didn 't bother testing Kaleb for the flu. He isn't real sick but starting to wheeze so he gave him a prescription for oral steroids and tamaflu. He thought it was best not to risk it with both of us having asthma. I don't feel all that bad, just run down and tire.

What I do with my life.................

Once in a while I do something with my spare time that doesn't involve horses. I quilt a little, but I haven't done much the last year and a half. Below is a paper pieced table runner that I finished over a year ago and never quilted. Then this summer our friends daughter got married and I decided I wanted to give her a keepsake wedding gift, so I quilted this and gave it to her.

This is a baby quilt that I made for our pastor and his wife that had a baby on 9/11. I made this quilt design a couple years ago. The orginal piece I made I have not quilted, but I need to get it done for a silent auction the library is having. I couldn't find a pattern I liked for a quick baby quilt (that's what I'm into QUICK) so I decided to use this one again. (I also like to make my own designs because I don't read directions well. So if I make up my own I get along better.) I decided that I would not buy any fabric. I forced myself to use scraps for this. I love bright colors for babies. As it turns out, the quilt is the same colors as the nursery. Who would have thought!

But this is my true passion. Some people call it fiber arts, some people call it portrait quilts or it might be called studio art quilts. Anyway, I spent 7 months making this. Part of the length of time has to do with my spare time and I also like to work a little at a time and ponder my color choices. This is made from a photo I took of our mare Tari and her first colt Whit. The quilt is called "The Kiss". I have joined a studio arts group and have entered this quilt is a show they are having this fall. (I mix my horses and quilts.)

Thoughts from the homeschooling week

I've done some thinking this week about Language Arts. Kaleb is learning subjects and predicates, Kalen is learning direct objects, indirect objects and compound indirect objects. So far this year Kalen has reviewed verbs, nouns, pronouns, proper pronouns and adjectives. Yeah, its been a walk though the past for me.

I pondered this thought the other day as Kaleb and I are going over subjects and predicates........... why do you need to go any further in life picking a sentence apart than knowing what the subject and the action is in a sentence? Does a sentence really need to have all these word labels? It makes you wonder. I'm not sure that it makes you a better person for knowing them. I guess on need to mark "english teacher" off the list of what I want to be when I grow up.

Will

Back in July we brought home a horse when we went to the Torrington horse show that Mark got from a trainer in Nebraska. The mare was two and had never been started. She is the one that we had a struggle with naming her (Mark wanted to call her Tommy, but she ended up being Mo).

The first week that Mark spent with Mo she seemed o.k. But he never gained anything with her after that. After about a month, he still hadn't ridden her, because she never progressed. (Usually in 7-10 days he is riding them). It finally seemed like maybe she was getting it and then one day he was working with her and she acted like she didn't know anything. We both decided it was a waste of time and he quit her. Some pal of Marks that messes with horses around here has her. I guess we still own her, but thankfully she doesn't live here anymore. She was a knot head.

Mark has a buddy that lives west of Gillette that is into cutting horses. They breed their own horses and always have a bunch of young horses around. So he called him and asked if he had anything he would sell. The guy told him to come by and he would see what he had. The guy ran a two year old mare and a 3 year old gelding in from the pasture. Both of them green broke. He rode them for Mark and told him he could have his pick. Mark chose the gelding and brought him home. His buddy told him to try him out and if he didn't like him, bring him back. Well, he liked him and bought him. Thankfully, he has a name and it was workable (one syllable) so we didn't have to go thru the name game again. This is Will............................

In this picture Mark is petting Will on the right side. When he came here you couldn't do that. The guy that owned this horse is a real cowboy and could ride anything. Gently a horse isn't something he does. He does enough to get a saddle on them and get on their back. When Will first came here three weeks ago, he would stand across the pen from you with a wild eye and look at you. He didn't want anyone close to him. He was kind of hard to catch. Once Mark was on his back, he was fine, but he had some serious "don't touch me" issues. Mark has spend some time on ground work to get past that. Now Will will follow you around the corral like a dog. Mark likes to ride him and thinks he has potential. He is a half brother to our little Tara. They are from the same stud.

What I learned in homeschool today

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See this child? I learned that she can write in cursive today. It may not seem like a big deal to you. But let me tell you the story.

When Kalen was 5 and started to pre K her fine motor skills and her vision hindered her from being able to draw a circle or make a cross and the alphabet was not legible what so ever. Kalen spent a year in vision therapy with a wonderful optometrist here. She went through several sets of lenses in her glasses dealing with different prisms to jiggle her visual spacial issues. By the time she went to kindergarten she could draw a circle, make a cross and her letters were better, but not very good. Toward the end of kindergarten, once more she had a change on her glasses with a different prism and overnight her alphabet was legible, not great but legible.

It has been a long road getting her penmanship visible. She went to occupational therapy twice a week at school. Her printing is very legible now. Last fall we did one last try with the prisms in her glasses and that brought on some drastic changes once again for the good.

I don't remember if Kalen was suppose to learn to write cursive in third or fourth grade, but I was told she couldn't do it. The OT worked with her and said she got her as far as being able to do her name. I never questioned it, I was happy that you could read her printing the way it was. Last fall when she was going into fifth grade it was brought up at her IEP meeting that at some point during the year the kids were going to be made to write everything in cursive. I was told once again that Kalen couldn't do it. I never questioned it. It was written in her IEP that she didn't have to write in cursive.

At her IEP meeting again this fall I was told Kalen can't write in cursive. It is starting to be an issue because she has so much writing to do that it is very cumbersome for her to print everything. I asked about her keyboarding skills and the OT told me that she had worked with her, but it was very difficult for her.

Yesterday afternoon Kalen was doodling and she wrote someones name in cursive. I was pretty impressed. I asked her if she knew how to write cursive. She said 'yes'. We talked about it and I told her that I was going to have her write a paragraph for me to see what she knew. She told me that when her 5th grade class was told that they had to write everything in cursive, she was told she could print so she never wrote in cursive. This is where the asperger comes in, she thought she was told not to write in cursive and that they wanted her to print. Oh, boy.

This morning I ask Kalen to write a paragraph about herself. I didn't care what it said, I just wanted to see her handwriting in cursive. I was absolutely shocked. Not only did this kid write in cursive, it was good. I asked her if it was easier for her to write in cursive and faster and she said it was. I told her to do it then. This is such a huge leap from where she started.

So, I'm going to load a keyboarding program on the computer and find out what she can do!

Another week down

It was a trying week in the homeschooling world. But that is to be expected. We have received all of our curriculum, so that is good. We had a few days of students working against the teacher. So I had to take away some privileges and that worked really well.

Last Saturday we went to Mark's company picnic. In social occasions like this Kalen tends to stay right by my side. We hadn't been to the picnic very long and I was talking to someone and realized that Kalen was nowhere around. I looked for her and she had found a girl about her age and they buddied up and stayed together the whole time.

Monday was Kalen's first dance day for the year. It is nice that she can get dressed at home now since she doesn't have dance until 5:45 p.m. We got to the dance center and I asked if she wanted me to go in with her. She said 'no', she was fine on her own. I ended up going in anyway to pay her tuition. When I left I heard Kalen striking up a conversation with another girl that she has danced with in the past about what classes she was taking this year. She is usually pretty aloof to the girls that she dances with.

On Wednesday, Kalens teacher Mr. Schliske (its easier to call him Greg) called for their bi-weekly conference. I had warned him that Kalen may not talk on the phone. Talking on the phone is something that she truly hates to do. Anyway, Kalen got on the phone with Greg (he is a super nice man) and they talked for over ten minutes. I was quite impressed.

I went to Kalen's IEP meeting on Thursday. When Mrs. K called me to set up the meeting and tell me that the people that had provided her 'services' at Conestoga were to be there, I cringed a little. I cringed because I'm 'so done' with the resource teacher Miss S. I have nothing good to say to the woman. Mrs. K told me that I could request that Miss S. not be there and I did. I knew that Kalen's speech and OT teachers would be there along with the district autism specialist Mrs. L.

Now, Kalen's speech therapist Mrs. W and her OT, Miss E have been with her since kindergarten. I know they have made a HUGE difference in Kalen's life. Mrs W has been a rock over the years for Kalen and I both.

The meeting went very well. The principle from k12 showed them that Kalen was ahead on her work and Mr. Schliske talked about their conference and that she was retaining her info and thought she was doing well. The speech and OT teacher talked about where Kalen was at the end of last year. When they asked what I wanted to do about services I decided it was time to explain why we made the decision to homeschool. I left out my issues with Miss S. It wasn't appropriate not to invite her and then talk about her. I talked about bullying issues and our concerns for Kalens self esteem. I also told Mrs. W and Miss E what a difference I thought they had made in Kalens life. When I was done talking, much to my surprise Mrs. W spoke up and said "don't think that you have offended us with pulling Kalen from Conestoga. I miss her, but I also commend you for doing what you think it right for her." They all spoke up and basically said that same thing. They knew it was hard to step out of the box, but commended us for looking out for Kalen's best interest. The IEP was written to give us services as needed, which we may need. After the meeting Miss. E told me to call her for any kind of help, it didn't matter what the IEP said, she would do whatever she could. Mrs. W held back and let the rest of them leave reinforced what she said about doing the best for Kalen and thought we had done the right thing.

It was good to have the support, especially from people that have been a big part of Kalen's life. When you say you are a homeschooler, people look at you a little cross eyed. You must be convicted. At this point, the difference that it has made in Kalen's life is worth all the cross eyed looks!!

Mike and Kaleb

Mike and Annie scratching each others back. These two really get into that.

Kaleb and Mike the other night.


I was expermenting with my camera the other night, so the picture is a little blurry.

Trotting along.

Pronouns, Nouns, Antecedents

We have made it two weeks in the homeschooling world and are all alive and well. We have had some trying times, some frustrating moment and times when I've felt so overwhelmed I could scream. But, all in all it has been good.

One of our frustrations has been getting all of our curriculum. All of Kalen's curriculum arrived before school started. However, the virtual school ordered all her materials at grade level so we have had to reorder her math, which finally came yesterday. It has been really frustrating getting Kaleb's materials. We finally received his language arts today and the rest will come on Monday. The kids do some of their work on the computer but most of it is from books. The teachers at the virtual school scraped together some of the materials for us to use. However, we have not been able to do math, language arts or music. We have been able to do science and history and have just been reading for language arts.

The k12 curriculum is more advanced than what the kids have been doing in public school. I asked both Kalen's teacher and Kaleb's teacher and they told me it was. We went to an ice cream social that Kalen's teacher had and I had an opportunity to asked other parents who's kids were in public school before k12 and they told me the same thing. The k12 program covers all subjects where as the public school concentrates on math, reading and writing. From what we could get out of the language arts without Kaleb's actual materials it was obvious that the level three was to advanced for him. Last year I volunteered in his class during language arts one day every week. None of his second grade class would have been ready to move on to the grade 3 k12 material.

So we are all on a learning curve. The kids have a lot of work to do. We start at 8:30 a.m. and end about 2:30-3:00 p.m. I have a full time teaching job. I'm struggling to get the my housework done. It's been a trial to even change the laundry during the day. Thankfully, Mark did most of the laundry last weekend so that was one less thing I had to worry about.

Kalen is a totally different kid. There is no more anxiety and meanness before she goes off to school in the morning and she isn't in a 'tear your head off' mood when she comes home from school. She would struggle on the weekends with the let down of not going to school and the lack of a schedule, which would make her difficult to get along with. In the beginning I tried to put her on a schedule, but we haven't stuck to it. Instead of setting exact times that we work on something, we work on it until its done. I also ask her what subject we wants to start with and let her make choices. We take breaks but not a set time and the same with lunch. I usually send the kids to lunch at different times so I can work individually with the other kid. Kalen is becoming less rigid with out having a 'set in stone' schedule.

I will have an IEP meeting next week for Kalen to make accommodations for her learning disability. She is still eligible for the same special services that she received in public school, such as occupational therapy and speech therapy. I was told that the people that handled her services at her elementary school will be at the IEP meeting. I asked that Miss S. not be invited to the meeting. It's going to be a difficult meeting. I'm not really sure what to do about her services, are they something that she still really needs or not. I will definitely put some prayer into it before I go to the meeting.

So I will keep studying my lessons so I can get my rusty brain to remember common nouns, proper nouns, demonstrative pronouns, indefinite pronouns, antecedents..............................

Sun down on the prairie

I was messing around with the settings on my camera tonight at sundown.

Plague of the locust

I have NEVER in my life seen the infectation of grasshoppers like we have this year. It is unreal. You walk through the yard and they are jumping all around you. This is what it has looked like everyday for the last two months. The house and building are covered with them. You crunch as you walk along the sidewalk.

Unfornately along with the grasshoppers we are starting to see blister beetles. Blister beetles eat grasshoppers. A good hard freeze would help with all of this.

End of the summer camping

We decided to take off last Sunday for a trip to the Big Horn Mountains and to camp overnight. We also decided to find a different spot to camp so we could explore places in the mountains that we had never seen. We headed up the mountains above Buffalo and about 15 miles up we turned off the highway and headed to Hazelton. It was beautiful. There were a lot of open parks that had cow camps on them. We ended up at Doyle Creek Campground, which is right along Doyle Creek. We were the only ones there except the campground host. The picture below is what the view looked like to the west of our camping spot. It looked out at Hazelton Peak. After dark there was a thunderstorm west of the peak and the lightning lit it up. It was pretty awesome.

You can't believe how much this kid has grown over the summer.

And our good dog Roo!

This was taken in Crazy Women Canyon.

And this kid has also grown by leaps and bounds this summer.

We had decided that we were going to take a ride down Crazy Woman Canyon. It was a extremely rough and bumping ride, but it was one truly beautiful. The canyon comes out south of Buffalo and so does Crazy woman creek.

So we had a good time and came home and got started back to school.

The road less traveled.....

It's that time of year again for school to start. It's time for the kids to get their minds occupied again. We are taking a different route to school this year. The school with out brick and mortar walls. Yes, we are going to home school this year. It has been a tough decision and not one made in haste. The kids were involved in the decision and were totally for it. After looking at all the options this seemed to be the best.

We have had a good run at public school and may very well go back next year, but we had to do something different this year. The program that we have chosen is actually through the school district called the Wyoming Virtual School. The district hosts the K12 virtual school program. All the curriculum is chosen for us and they give us a basic lay out of scheduling. The kids can work at own pace to some extent. After each unit of study they are required to take an assessment test which they have to pass with an 80% or they have to go over the material and take the test again. They call it a 'mastery' program.

So what has brought us to this point? A long list of things. Our first issue is busing. It is not just the fact that the kids are 2 1/2 hrs a day on the bus, but it's what happens on the bus. We could have worked around that, but Kalen is having a load of issues at school. Inadequate help with her learning disabilities, bullying and other social issues. Did I mention bullying? What was the reason corporal punishment was taken out of the school system? Yeah, I'm pretty hard about it. It's pretty heart breaking when your kid comes home from school and she has spent the day having two kids in the class tell everyone she pooped her pants. Or when she asked questions like 'why are the kids so mean to me' or 'why do the kids think I'm so weird'. She also got called a 'retard' because went to special ed for math. My last call to the school went something like 'you need to take care of it or I will.' I wish I would have used that line in the beginning because it was pretty effective.

Then there was the group of girls that Kalen was involved with. She was friends with them just to have someone. They were not top quality friends. Some days they liked her and some days they didn't. Or there was the girl on the bus that was her friend on the bus, but at school Kalen wasn't allowed to talk to her.

We are scared for Kalen. What other kids think of you and how they treat you can stay with you all your life. Along with Kalens self esteem being trashed we feel like we are running out of time on teaching her math skills that are life skills.

We will see where this year takes us. This was Kalens last year in elementary school. We thought if we could pull her out for the year and possible put her back in 7th when she would go to jr. high where there would be more kids that didn't like her it might work. But we will take it one day at a time.

If your wondering, we have not joined a cult, we are not getting ready for a revolution, we aren't growing all our own food or growing our hair long. I know that homeschoolers are stereotyped. I've stereotyped them myself. I said I would never homeschool, but then again I said I would never have children. I need to stop saying 'never' about things. It's amazing the number of people that homeschool. Of all the guys that Mark works with five of them have school age children and now there is only one that does not homeschool.

I guess everyday is a new adventure.

Cat Boy

This is a Kaleb Chance story. Some days that child............. Kaleb loves cats. We had several litter of kittens at the barn last spring. For the most part the barn cats are wild. Ferrel cats. I like to keep it that way, but cat boy Kaleb has his own idea's about it. Kaleb loves feeding the cats and I have noticed that he has been trying to make a pet out of a little black and white kitten.

This morning Kaleb wanted to go do the chores at the barn with me. I needed to take the tractor to put a bale of hay out, so Kaleb got on the 4 wheeler (which I usually take) and eased it down to the barn. We went in and fed grain and Kaleb was in the granary feeding the cats and said he was going to stay for a few minutes. I have a 2.5 gallon bucket that I carry grain in to the horses in the paddock south of the house on the 4 wheeler. So I had put the grain in it and on the way out of the barn I strapped it down to the front rack on the 4 wheeler (that is where I always carry it). I went about putting out hay with the tractor and I saw Kaleb head for home on the 4 wheeler. He is only allowed to drive it in first gear, so he was creeping pretty slow going home. I thought he was going to wait for me at the gate to the horse paddock or at least leave my bucket of feed by the game for me, but he didn't, he went on home. I drove home in the tractor and got on the 4 wheeler and went back to the paddock and put out grain. When I got home I walked into the garage and the kids were in there. Kalen is in a panic because 'the kitten' has went behind the freezer and they can't get it out. I said "what kitten?" I should have guessed, but I will admit I'm a little slow.

Yes, Kaleb had brought his little black and white kitten home. I asked "how did the kitten get to the house?" He tried telling me that the kitten followed him home. I'm not that stupid. Then Kalen informs me that the kitten jumped in the grain bucket and came home with Kaleb. O.k. she might buy that story, I did not. Sometimes that boy can tell some 'big stories' or he should I say he can lie with the best of 'em. I told him to give it up, I wasn't buying any of his stories. Believe it or not he put that kitten in the grain bucket and it rode home on the 4 wheeler in it. He then took the kitten into the garage.

The story ends with the kitten coming out from behind the freezer. I made Kaleb caught it and we put it in a basket and cover it and carried back to the barn. And then the punishment began.

That kid............................

Wylie and the Wild West

Over the last few years Mark has become a fan of 'Cowboy Music'. Cowboy music is not to be confused with country music. Cowboy music is about cowboys, horses and the western way of life. You won't hear it on the radio. Slowly I got drug along and I'm a fan of Cowboy Music too.

One night last winter we were watching "The Ride With Aaron Ralston" on RFD TV (I actually think Mark was asleep on the couch with me). There is always a music video at the end of his show of some 'Cowboy Music' singer and that night it was Wylie and the Wild West. After the show was over I 'googled' Wylie and found he had some youtube video's and a website. So, over several days Mark and I watched youtubes and got hooked. On his website www.wylieww.com we noticed that he would be performing in Sheridan and knew we had to go. We took off yesterday afternoon and went to the Wylie and The Wild West show in Sheridan. It was great. He played for an hour and took a twenty minute break to sign autographs and came back and entertained for another hour. It was a heck of a good time.

If you have any interested in watching youtube to see what kind of music we are into, the first video you should watch is "The Yodeling Fool" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPaoJv-NrEU&feature=PlayList&p=B38F05EEB553C24E&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=5. (Or just go to youtube.com and do a search for Wylie and the Wild West). He tells a little bit about himself and its pretty funny. You knew the commercial for "Yahoo", Wylie made that up 'Yahoo' yodel for them. Other favorites are "Whoop Up Trail", Kaleb and I like that. Marks favoritive is "A Good One", Wylie also shows cutting horses and this song is about his favorite horse. I also like "The Gather", its about the fall gather of cows and calves. There are quite a few songs about Montana. Wylie grew up close to Glacier Park in MT on a ranch.

Hope you enjoy it!!!

Chicken Spagetti and Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Chicken spagetti, it sounds 'ick' doesn't it. That's what I thought when I read the name of it. I thought about changing it's name, but couldn't think of anything. The first time I made it and the kids asked "what's for supper" and I said 'chicken spagetti', they were really unsure. Then Mark calls on his way home from work, he asked "what's for supper" and I said "chicken spagetti" and the phone when dead. Not real. I told him to trust me, he would like it. The skeptical bunch loves 'chicken spagetti' and they asked for it. Well, Kaleb asked for 'chicken pasgetti'. I knew they would love it, they need to learn to trust me. I motified the original recipe, it called for cream of mushroom soup. I don't even buy it, my family would protest. I changed it to cream of chicken soup.

So heres the recipe for it. It's a two meal casserole for our family, so you may want to cut it in half.

Chicken Spagetti

2 c. cooked chicken (chopped or shredded)
2 cans cream of chicken soup
3 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 c. onion (optional)
3 c. dry spagetti (broken into 2 inch pieces)
2 c. chicken broth
1 t. Lawry's seasoning
1/8 - 1/4 t. cayenne pepper (optional)

If you boil the chicken in water, save the broth to cook the noodles in, or use chicken broth or just water to cook spagetti until al dente (don't overcook). Combine 2 c. cheese, soup, onion, lawry's and cayenne pepper together in bowl and mix. Add chicken and spagetti when it is cooked, add enough chicken broth until the mixture is a little soup. I personally think 1 cup is enough. Place in 9x13 baking dish, place remaining cheese on top, cover and bake for 45 minutes at 350.

While I'm on a roll I will give you a cookie recipe I have also. Kaleb came home from school one day and told me that one of the kids moms have made them peanut butter oatmeal cookies. He wanted to know if I could make some. I surfed the net and found a recipe that I thought would be all right. Of course as the story of my life goes, I went to make them and I didn't have all the flour required, so I substituted the missing flour with more oatmeal. They turned out so good, I changed the recipe to the way I made them.

This recipe makes 6 dozen cookies.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

2 c. shortening (I like butter flavored crisco)
2 c. brown sugar
1 1/2 c. white sugar
4 eggs
2 c. peanut butter
4 t. soda
1 t. salt
1 c. flour
5 c. oatmeal
1/2 - 1 c. heath chips (0ptional)

Cream shortening and sugars, add eggs, sift flour and soda and gradually add along with salt, once mixed gradually add oatmeal.

Bake for 8 minutes at 350.

I have never tried chocolate chips with them, but I bet they would be good.

I guess you know what's for supper at my house tonight and what I'm taking along as a snack to the horse show in Douglas tomorrow.

Mo and Yellow Cat

First off, the horse Tom, that is the mare Tom, got a name change. I couldn't do "Tom" for a mare, it didn't fit, it didn't work. So I begged, pleaded and bribed Mark to change it. Of course he changed it because he knew I would call her whatever I wanted anyway. So "Tom" is now "Mo". It wouldn't be my pick, but I can live with it.

Yellow Cat (from the pictures below, you will see we didn't spend as much time with his name as we did Mo's) is one of the barn cats. He isn't really tame, but he isn't wild either. You could probably pet him, but that's the extent of his relationship with people. Yellow Cat will convince you that cats have nine lives because he does things around the horses that should have gotten him killed a long time ago. He likes to eat grain with the horses. He walks the manager and will rub on the horses necks and get in their feed box and eat with them.

Yellow Cat has started hanging out at the arena and round pen. The other night Mark was working with Mo in the round pen and I guess Yellow Cat thought he needed help, so he joined in the fun. Mo didn't seem to mind.

Yellow Cat at a safe distance.
Yellow Cat testing his luck.

Yellow Cat with a death wish.

Off to the races

You might wonder what kind of entertainment you can find in our little part of the world on a Saturday in the summer. It would surprise you. Today was the Annual Dachshund Derby. This happens every year at the end of county fair and its a fund raiser for the Humane's Society. So we made it a date with our 'wiener friends' as we like to call them and attended the derby. They had a 'hot dog' feed and for $2.00 a bottle you could buy Dachshund Root Beer. I bet you had no idea that Gillette could be that exciting.

They ran two heats of 'Little Sizzlers' and a brown dapple named Charlie won. Then they ran the Oscar Meyer bunch and a big 'ol dachshund that weighed 25 lbs. won. Then they had the 'Old Brautwerst' bunch go. There were long hairs, short hairs, black & tan, pi colored, tans, browns, dapples, one funky color I had never seen before there. There were a lot more wieners there than actually raced. The surprising thing about the Dachshund Derby is the number of people that show up, There had to be 300-400 people there.

Our 'wiener friends' dachs is 13 and wouldn't handle the crowd so she stayed home. We took Daisy Dachs and she was not happy about it. When we left home without Roo Dog in the pickup she was uneasy. There is a reason why we call Daisy, "freaky chic", she can be a timid and fussy little thing and for the most part does not like people other than her family. So she sat on my lap and Kalebs lap thru the races and acted like the whole thing was beneath her. She was happy to leave.

This is Roo. Doesn't she just look like a good dog? Well she is. She is obedient, kind and loyal and rarely causes problems. There aren't many like her.

Mark and Daisy have a weird relationship. I don't even know what to say about this picture other than this is not an unusual position for the two of them.

I would not call Daisy a good dog, but she is totally devoted to me. I took this last winter as she was sunning herself on the top of Mark's computer case on the fireplace. It takes a lot to get a dachs to hot.

This is an example

Kalen went off to Social Skills Camp today. Several posts ago I talked about this and I also talked about some issues with Kalen's resource teacher Miss S. (special education teacher, resource teacher is politically correct). Well, today I picked Kalen up from camp and witnessed another episode of Miss S. not 'gettin it' about ASD kids.

First I will tell you what I saw today and then explain it. Miss S. is working social skills camp this summer. She came out of the school with her group of kids to put them on the bus. It looks like she has 2nd and 3rd graders. She got all but one little girl on there appropriate buses. As I watched the little girl that she had was going into melt down mode. She did not want to get on the bus, she wanted to wait for her sister and get on the bus with her. Miss S. asked her "is your sister younger or older than you are?" There was no response from the child so Miss S. asked her again "is your sister younger or older than you are?" The little girl said "my sister is 13". Miss S. finally took the little girl back to the building to wait for her sister to come out.

ASD life is very concrete. They do not get abstract thinking. Abstract thinking is a learned behavior for them (if they can). To ask a child with ASD if their sibling is older or younger is not a concept they can understand. If you asked them if they are bigger or littler they could understand that by looking at their siblings size. Just like this little girl she could tell Miss S. what her sisters age is or she could have told her that she is bigger (if she is) but she isn't old enough to understand younger or older.

Kalen understands that Kaleb is her 'little' brother because he is littler than her. When we talk about him being taller than her someday she can't understand it. She should always be bigger because she is the 'big sister'. Kaleb's feet are about the same size as Kalen's, this has totally freaked her. She struggles to make sense of it.

This is another example of Miss S. not getting it. Kalen went to Miss S.'s room in the mornings for math with several other 5th graders, their names being Kenna, Kata, Kristine and Rhett. One day last spring Kalen came home totally puzzled. She told me that Miss S. had made the comment that next year she was going to have to change Rhett's name to Kaw Kaw, so she would have Kalen, Kenna, Kata, Kristine and Kaw Kaw. I got the 'K' thing, Kalen did not. When she pronounced Kaw Kaw she said the words seperately and I didn't get that. Kalen was just baffled by the fact that Miss S. would change Rhett's name. That's just another concept of ASD thinking. A couple days later Kalen brought this up again. Then I realized that she was saying 'kawkaw'. Kalen said to me "why would she want to call Rhett bird poop." So we sat down and had a talk about the 'k' thing. However, I could not tell her why the choice of 'kawkaw' over a reasonable 'k' name.

More horse pics

I took these pictures when we walked to the barn last night. Beau was watching us from behind the windbreak. He looks like trouble and he is trouble.

Beau came out from behind the wall with the hope he was going to be fed grain.

Kaleb is now training wheel free on this dirt bike so he rides it everywhere. Tara thought she would help him out.

This is 'Ol' Whats Her Name'. We brought this two year old mare home with us from Torrington last weekend. She has went all week without a name because we couldn't get Mark to make a decision about it, so I have been calling her Whats Her Name. He finally decided to call her Tom, I've adjusted it to Tommie. Yes, I know its odd. This is the story about ol Whats Her Name. There is a guy by the last name of Thomas that is a horse trainer from Nebraska (just across the state line from Torrington) and Mark has gotten to know him over the years because they show together. When the guy was here in June was the Cowboy States Reining Horse show Mark was telling him about our two year old that is lame. The guy told Mark he had a two year old filly out of his stud that he could have, he has some geldings that he is riding and he doesn't like to ride mares so if Mark wanted her he could have her. So we brought her home from Torrington. Tommie has had very little done with her, but she seems to be smart and a quick learner. Mark has been working with her in the round pen this week.

Torrington horse show

Last Friday morning we headed to Torrington for a three day AQHA show. All in all we had a good time. It didn't get extremely hot as it can in Torrington until Sunday afternoon. We parked under the shade tree's and hung out for the most part. We got up on Sunday morning and went to Scottsbluff for breakfast.

Mark did fairly well showing. On Friday he placed 2nd and he placed 4th the other two days. Annies on hiatus for a couple weeks. Mark may take her to state fair in Douglas for just one day. She ready for a break.

Kaleb made his debut in the horse show world. He got into the walk-trot class on Saturday and Sunday. He placed 3rd out of three each day. He was really proud of himself and we were proud of him too.