Homeschooling

As I indicated in our "Christmas card," we made the tough decision to take Livvi out of her 2nd grade public school situation mid-term and would finish out the year homeschooling her. Heather and I are big proponents of public schools and this was in no way a bad reflection on our schools. In fact, we moved to this area BECAUSE of the great schools. However, due to limited resources at this grade level, Livvi wasn't getting the extra work she wanted or we thought she deserved. She was pretty much bored most of the day.

On January 5, Heather began teaching Liv at home. She did extensive research and chose the Ohio Virtual Academy. Unlike the stereotypical home school experience, OHVA provides pretty much everything you need (curriculum, books, workbooks, art supplies, computer, printer, etc.). It is pretty fantastic (at least what we've seen so far)! It is technically a public school where Livvi has to check in with a teacher periodically (online), but Heather is the one teaching her. She has control of the spin placed on the curriculum. They go at a pace that is comfortable for Liv. She can go as fast or as slow as she wants. In addition to the assigned curriculum, Tae Kwon Do, Wii Fit, etc. counts as gym time, reading before bed counts as reading time, watching things like our DVD of Schoolhouse Rock counts as learning, etc.

The challenge in all this is Heather NEVER gets a break! She is either teaching Livvi or she is entertaining Joie. We've had offers of help and we may start to accept. It is a very difficult thing for a mom to give 100% of her attention to BOTH kids all the time. However, being a good mom, that is exactly what Heather wants to do. Livvi is learning a LOT. In fact, I would venture a guess that she's learned more in the last 8+ days than she has over the last 6 months-to-a-year. Please keep Heather in your prayers as she definitely has the harder job in our family. She would like to post an update on this from her perspective, but finding the time is the problem. Stay tuned!!

Wii Are Family

With some of the Christmas money we received, we decided to go ahead and get something we've wanted for a while that might also help us get a little more active. We purchased a hard-to-find Nintendo Wii system last weekend and are having fun with it. It came with the sports package (Tennis, Golf, Baseball, Bowling, and Boxing) and that is pretty much all we've done. We got Wii Music a couple of days ago, but we really haven't gotten to use that one much (yet).

There is one part I don't like: Isn't a father supposed to be better in sports than his 7 year-old daughter? It is somewhat humbling to know Livvi has beaten me on more than one occasion in bowling, baseball, tennis, and, yes, boxing. I just have to keep telling myself that it is just an electronic game and that in really life, it would be different. Right?!

I'm currently sitting here watching Heather beat the holy crap out of Livvi in boxing. There is something about seeing a mother beat her child in the ring. Nice, Heather, nice! In fact, I just boxed Heather, too, and there was a similar result: me face down on the mat.

Joie has also gotten into it a little as well (as best as she can). Boxing is about the only thing she can do. She can punch and put a hurtin' on some of the computer opponents. In fact she won at least two matches. Here is a clip of her with a virtual punching bag.

By the way, at the end of the video, after Heather asked if she could play, Jo's response was cut off. Any guesses? You got it. She said "No!"