Rainbow Turtle

Grace joined Mia for art class this week. It was a trial class for her and she came home covered head to toe in pastels. She even had some in her hair. You'll have to use your imagination as I missed the photo op.

They have a few more weeks of pastels before moving on to water colors. Below are the creations they brought home yesterday.

Exhibit One

Sarah the Bear by Grace

Exhibit Two

Rainbow Turtle by Mia

I love this picture. It is so happy and so Mia. Makes me want to step--or swim--into her world.

Adventures in Reading

So, reading is obviously an important subject for the students enrolled in The Doyle Home School. Interestingly, although this is our sixth year of homeschooling, I haven't exclusively taught any of our girls to read. Both Madeleine and Mia attended kindergarten so by the time they came home to learn, they were already reading at least a little. I remember thinking that Madeleine's kindergarten reading program was very strange. After spotting the alphabet cards displayed in her classroom, I went home and asked Chris exactly how much we were paying the school to teach our daughter that "cat" starts with "F" and "tire" with "S". As it turned out, the hissing cat was supposed to represent the F sound and the tire losing air, S. Still, we spent many interesting evenings trying to figure out what the pictures were supposed to be. Chris had us rolling with his unique take on it.

These days, I am teaching Grace and Sophie to read. With Sophie, I'm using the 100 easy lessons book. Grace and I are working our way through a variety of readers including Bob Books, Modern Curriculum Press' books and Hooked on Phonics.

Yesterday, Grace and I were working in our reading corner under the friendly eye of Hugh Laurie (very inspiring). The reader we were using was called Fog. If you've ever worked with readers, you know how silly some of the sentences and "stories" are. This one was like that. It talked about going for a jog in the fog. After that, I think the two characters ended up running into a dog they thought was a log. I had Grace reread quite a few words and even sentences so by the time we'd finished, she had read the little book a handful of times. In the middle of it all, Sophie, who was coloring quietly at her desk, piped up with, "Why do you guys have to jog in the fog?" Her tone indicated how ridiculous she thought we were. Grace and I just laughed which made Sophie mad because her question had in fact been a serious one. Hopefully she'll find it funnier by the time she is able to read well enough to read this post.

our reading corner

Chris, trying out sit-upons for our reading corner.

I ended up using things we already had.

Have you tried a bean bag lately? Not comfortable at all.

Spittin' Image

So, as you might imagine, home schooling a high schooler has added a bit of a twist to our lives. I admit to many moments of trepidation wondering whether we are really doing the best by our oldest. We have encountered resistance by well-meaning people who have wondered how I can give Madeleine all she needs. And rightly so. Madeleine is an incredibly bright and talented young lady. A star really. She deserves the best. And of course, there are a variety of opinions as to what that means.

As for me, I have stuck to my guns about keeping her at home. Between the experience of a tough year last year and the fact that we still have our house on the market, I have felt that the best for her academically and otherwise was to stay closer to home this year. And so we enrolled her in a very challenging Catholic homeschool program in which she will read books I have never laid eyes on and somehow complete classes like Biology and Geometry, hopefully without the expense of a tutor.

I have worried. Will she be bored and wanting to enroll in the local high school after day five? Will she be lazy and not learn what she should? Will we drive each other crazy after a week?

The thing is though, despite the doubts and the fact that I know that this, like everything in my life, will be done imperfectly, I am so grateful to have this time with her. She is wonderful. Despite what you might have heard about teens in general, our teen is 100% delightful. Well, okay, maybe 95%. We all have our moments. Today, she went on a quick outing with her Grandma and came back with a treat for the rest of us bought with her own money. That is Madeleine. How on earth did I end up with the privilege of being her Mama? All I can say is that of all our daughters, she is the one I look at and see myself--except maybe a sweeter version. She and I are very alike. Sometimes that's hard. Mostly though, I remember that I come from a long line of very smart and strong women and Madeleine is the spittin' image of all of them. A credit to them. What a proud Mama that makes me.

God in a Box

As I mentioned yesterday, we just completed our second official week of homeschooling. And, so far, so good. Chris has said several times how impressed he is with what the girls are doing as well as their enthusiasm for everything. Those comments definitely fill my sail.

I spend a lot of time at my "desk" in our little classroom and I've noticed that, even when our official school day is over, Sophie will often be in here with me sitting quietly at her desk. Sometimes she colors, draws or looks at a book but often she just wants to be with me--which warms my heart. She likes to take the Good Shepherd statue I have on my desk and put it on hers where she can look it. Yesterday, she came into the room to announce to me that it is not at all fair that Mia has two statues and she has none. She wanted me to give her the statue of Jesus. I told her she could put it on her desk and look at it anytime. Apparently that wasn't good enough because the next time I went into the homeschool room, she brought in a small statue of Mary to show me. I asked her if she was going to look at Mary while she practiced her "Lovely Lady" poem and she said, "Yes and Mama, I have God in the box too". What? I started to laugh and she said, "No, Mama, Look! He fits. He's not too big". Sure enough, the Good Shepherd statue was resting neatly in her supply box. Interesting that she calls Him "God" instead of Jesus. And does she really think she has God in her supply box? Four year olds are so interesting.

Maybe I'll send Chris on a covert mission to rescue God. I wonder where Sophie will hide Him next.

Flashback Friday

It's Friday, the end of our second week of home schooling. More on that later but I have decided that for now, Fridays will be dedicated to flashbacks to our time in VA. We did so much this year that I wasn't able to capture it all while we were there. Today's post is about the day we went to throw rocks in the river, a trip that turned into an exciting swimming and jumping adventure.

There is nothing like swimming in the great outdoors (ie something other than a chlorinated pool) so I was happy to say yes when the kids asked if they could jump off the bridge and swim around a bit. We had a blast. I wished I had come prepared to swim but enjoyed playing photographer and paying for the ice cream at Katie's afterward.

Rachel and Zack were our guests for a couple of days at CK

impressive stunt

What do you think? Gonna do it Grace?

One, two, three.....

Sophie was the stealth jumper.

No ceremony, no announcement.

Proud Mama.

Gramma

Always with the Xs

Hooky

So, for a long, long time, Mia has been asking Chris to take her to work with him. Last Friday, she got up early, started the day at 6:00 AM in the adoration chapel and then headed downtown to One Shell Plaza. They had a great day and she came home, face shining from all of the one-on-one time with Daddy.

Yesterday, Chris granted a long time wish of Grace's--to go to an Astros game, just the two of them (with all this wish fulfillment going on I'm starting to get excited.) Grace stood on the stool in the kitchen and packed a tremendous lunch for them--Daddy got the Hello Kitty lunch box. She asked what time it was every ten minutes until noon when she skipped out to the car. This time, I made sure a camera went with them and when I uploaded the photos later, was very impressed with Chris' shots. There's no doubt that their afternoon playing hooky was well worth it.

Chris didn't quite catch this ball but did snag it.

It was hit by Carlos Lee.

I think Grace was more impressed with her pink ice cream helmet.

Our favorite number nine

Can an Average "Dave" Write a Poem?

One day this summer while we were back east and staying at the yellow house with the wide front porch, David and I got onto the topic of poetry. He told me that anyone can write a poem with just a little bit of effort. I looked at him skeptically. I mean, really, a Double E write a poem? No way. To prove his point, he showed up at Grace's birthday celebration with the following collaborative effort.

Ode to Grace

by Uncle Dave and Aunt Jes

with a little help from Rachel

Happy Birthday from the Kreitzers

To our niece and cousin Grace

She's quite a little dynamo

And here we'll make our case

This year our family missed

The traditional fourth of July race

But we heard about her spectacular run

Where she set a wicked pace

Leading all the other kids

on a merry chase

And earned herself a special trophy

For coming in first place

We enjoyed all her plays this summer

Especially at our place

Where her noises in "The Sleepover"

Showed she could replace

Wilbur or Petunia Pig (not that they need a replacement)

But just in case

If she played cards

She'd have quite a poker face

If she played World of Warcraft

She'd probably wield a mace

When she married Mr. Zack

We think she dressed in lace

If it were a real wedding

We would have given her a vase

Out at Grandma and Paka's pool

She's a backflipping ace

And in our beach kickball game

She played a mean second base

When it comes time to say goodbye

It's clear she needs her space

She always tries to get away

From Uncle Dave's embrace

Hopefully we'll see her soon

Christmas at worst case

We'll surely miss her sparkling presence

Happy Birthday Grace!!

Wow--I never knew there were so many words that rhymed with Grace. However, despite the laughs this effort gave us, I can't credit David with completely proving his point. First, he is pretty far above average so the fact that he was able to complete the task does not in any way prove that your "average Joe" could do it. Second, he enlisted the help of both Jes and his daughter Rachel who definitely has a bit of the poet in her. No wonder he got the job done.

In an honest aside though, I have to admit that I agree with David (still, being his big sis' it is my forever job to heckle him). I do believe that anyone can write a poem. Of course, the definition is so broad, you can write almost anything and call it a poem. The question is who can write good poetry. For that, I think there are the necessary ingredients of natural talent, discipline and of course, a poet's heart. Does David have what it takes? Only time will tell. I am waiting for his next work entitled, "Ode to Big Sisters".

And, speaking of big sisters--my "big sister" charm may have been the first one I chose for my charm bracelet. It is a role I love and have always taken seriously. I am fortunate to have the siblings I do. They are all great in their own way.

The page above with the photos of little David and Alice is from the book Jes made me for my fortieth. It went with a very cool video she and David put together.