Nice Christmas Gift

All I asked for this year for Christmas was family pictures. We hadn't had any done in about 6 years. Too long! Here is a sampling.

Mikayla got me a big set of frames, too, that's supposed to help me put pictures up in some semblance of order. We hope.  So, as soon as these are processed, they will go up on the very blank wall above my living room couch.

Now We Are Six

When I turned six years old, my father read to me out of a book of poems by A.A. Milne. All I remember from the poem is, "But now I am six, I'm as clever as clever, so I think I'll be six now forever and ever." Being six was a big deal. It seemed like the best age. I had waited and waited to be six.
When I was six, I wanted a big wheel. I borrowed the neighbor boy's big wheel whenever he let me. There was nothing more fun than riding a big wheel down the hill and into my driveway. It was low to the ground, and I was still sort of afraid of my bike.
When I was six, I still loved my Fisher Price Little People schoolhouse set.
When I was six, I wanted to go everywhere my big brothers went, and bugged them to ride me around on the handlebars of their bikes.
When I was six, I loved my teacher even though I thought she was a really old lady and told her so once. But then, it felt like I had said something wrong even though it was just the truth because everyone laughed ,and she didn't look that happy.
When I was six, I wanted to please my teacher. I wanted her to smile at me and love me back.
When I was six, it didn't seem strange to play with the little girl who seemed different because my Mom told me that she didn't have the same kind of family as me. Being six meant that you were big enough to understand differences, accept them, and then play nicely with her.
When I was six, I still loved to watch Sesame Street every afternoon.
When I was six, I was old enough to understand what a bully was.
When I was six, I hated to see other kids get picked on by bigger kids, and I hated being the little kid that was being picked on. I remember wishing for the courage to smack the bully, or kick them in the shins.
When I was six, my teacher wouldn't let other kids pick on me or my classmates, and we were safe in her classroom. She scolded them and made them sit on the circle rug all by themselves.
When I was six, I understood what evil was.
When I was six, I understood that there were bad things in the world, and I understood that bad things sometimes happen even when you've been good. I knew this because I had seen my best friend have an accident that put him in the hospital with a broken neck. He was only little like me.
When I was six, even though I had this awareness, I felt blissfully safe because I had big brothers AND a Dad AND a Mom who was a teacher, AND I was beginning to be aware of my Heavenly Father.
When I was six, I was beginning to be aware that not every little girl got to have all of that, and I wondered why God let me be born into MY family instead of the other ones where the Dad smelled like beer all the time.
When I was six, I knew that sometimes I did naughty things.
When I was six, I understood consequences. I understood that God wanted Heaven to be perfect, so He couldn't let bad stuff in.
When I was six, I asked Jesus to forgive me of all my naughty things so I could live in Heaven with Him when I died.
These are things that I remember from when I was six. Then I grew up and became a teacher. I taught older kids at first, but it really wasn't my thing. I very much enjoyed teaching kindergarten, so when a K classroom position opened up at the school where I was teaching, I applied immediately. The children were mostly five years old in the beginning of the school year. They were all waiting and waiting to be six. They would say, 'Well, when I turn six...." and fill in the blank with all the special things that they would FINALLY be old enough to do.  Day after day, we would celebrate another birthday. The birthday boy or girl got to wear a special crown all that day. I would watch them mature, learn, and grow. I loved it.

My six year olds would hug me on their way by before they raced off to the playground.
My six year olds would shyly ask me to tie their shoes because it stayed tied better when I did it.
My six year olds still wanted someone to hold their hands when they walked across the parking lot to the buses.
My six year olds wanted me to look at every single one of their colored papers and smile at them and say they had done a good job.
My six years olds loved it when I sang a song to them while they were in line in the hallway.
My six year olds were still a little scared of fire drills.
My six year olds brought me their teeth that had fallen out to oh and ah over before they put them under their pillows.
My six year olds tattled on each other because they really didn't like bullies.
My six year olds were sometimes naughty, but when I scolded them, they were still sweet enough to be sad over it. They were still little enough to sniff an "I'm sorry" and want a hug.
My six year olds were old enough to understand that there were bad people around.
My six year olds understood that some children are different, but that doesn't mean that we treat them mean.
The sweetness of this age passes never to return in quite the same way. To this day, six year olds are my very favorites. They are easily taught, they are sponges ready to soak up anything you want to teach them, and some things that you don't. They are old enough to know some things and do some things on their own. They are little and innocent enough to say the truth without bothering with what others think.

I had to go to a day of training so that I would recognize child abuse, and in order to understand the policies of the school where non-custodial parents were concerned. We were trained to protect the children. It could have just as easily been me, shoving little children into bathrooms, closets, or cupboards, telling them I loved them or singing to them to keep them calm. A school shooting is never good, but this one is so much worse for me. Who would shoot six year olds?! I am very burdened for the families of the children of Sandy Hook Elementary, and for the surviving teachers. I know that if I had been one of the teachers trying to protect those children, that I would wish that I hadn't survived this horrible tragedy. Being a teacher is hard enough without having to go on teaching after such horror.
These little ones were six, they were as clever as clever, so God let them stay six forever and ever.

Hearing Voices Continued

So, Terry ended up taking two voice lessons with our fabulous music teacher. I can hear a change in his voice with just that amount of instruction. Here's one piece that he worked on to sing in church. Pay no attention to the awful pianist. She tries, but then she gets nervous. haha.

I had to embed it. I guess I have some homework to do to figure out how to upload videos to the blog again. 

Fall Recital

We only had two participating in the fall recital this year. Both kids did great. As you probably already realize, Alana takes lessons not so much to become a great pianist, but for the therapy. Working the brain to read the notes, process the information, stay focused on where she is in the music, and get it all out to her fingers has been quite a challenge for her. She is doing very well with it. Beyond what I expected. We're proud of her hard work. Nate continues to do well even with so much on his plate. High School is a busy time in a young person's life. We are glad that he is still sticking with it. My videos won't upload here. Not sure why. I will put them on Facebook. :)

 Waiting to begin

 Certificates.

The Trouble with Multiplication

Recently, Alana's multiplication problems have been getting harder and longer. She seems to get lost somewhere in the middle and forget to multiply by some of the digits.  The understanding is there, though. So, taking my knowledge about dyslexic learners and my research involving the Orton Gillingham methods, this is what I came up with.
A hands on multiplication center.

 Taking some old number cards that I still had laying around and then adding some more made of 4/6 cards cut in half, I set up a problem. Alana uses the cards to solve the problem, renaming etc. as she goes. I also cut some strips of black construction paper and some smaller pieces for her to use to make her symbols and lines.

 Once she is finished multiplying in the ones place, she turns over that card and follows the same procedure once she is done with the tens place, and the hundreds place.

 This seems to help her focus on where she is within the problem and what she needs to do next.

The final addition line may not be added until the number of digits being multiplied matches the number of rows to be added. After several problems this way, I switched to doing a few problems on graph paper and WAALAA, she is now able to get her multiplication problems correct. This method apparently worked to help her process the whole thing. Interesting the way different kid's brains work, isn't it?

Hearing Voices

Our family has enjoyed, in years past , taking music lessons from our friend Mike Drinkwater. Mikayla and Nathanael starting taking piano from him way back when they were 8 and 10 years old. A few years later, Mikayla started flute lessons with him and Nathanael started trumpet. Then, Alana started taking piano from him. She was more of a challenge to teach, and we weren't sure that it would be possible. But he worked so well with her, that she has been able to make it through several beginning piano books. In more recent years, he noticed that Alana had/has a very strong voice and encouraged her to take voice from him. She was horribly embarrassed to sing in front of him and take direction from him at first, but now it's old hat, and she loves it. We love hearing her voice from her upstairs bedroom as she practices with the tapes that he records for her to sing with.  Mikayla also added voice and learned enough from him in the brief time that she took from him to be recognized at school and given private lessons whenever they could fit one in. We loved hearing how far see she had come when she landed the lead in the operetta, The Mikado, while attending Dublin.   Now, she has made voice performance her major in college. We have thought of having Nathanael add some voice lessons to his already busy schedule, too, because lately, his voice has finished it's adolescent squawking, and we have heard a clear, strong bass coming from him during the singing at church. THRILLING to this Mama!

So, knowing what a wonderful teacher he is, I had an idea. It struck spur of the moment. Alana had caught one of her hacking colds and couldn't make it to her regularly scheduled lesson. Nathanael also had something else that interfered, so he couldn't take the time slot either. We like to take our scheduled time because we pay for a full month. If someone can't make it, we switch around so we don't lose that time. Ok, so, not wanting to lose the time slot that we paid for...I suggested to my husband that he and I go and get Mike to practice with us for our upcoming special music for church. Mike, a member of our church, could then accompany us on Sunday. Perfect idea. Terry was all for it. So, I started looking through music, picked one for us to sing together, but also found one that I would like to work on for the future. I was playing it and trying to sing it. It took me a minute to figure out why I was having a bit of trouble with it. It was written for a tenor. A guy's piece. HMMMM. Well, people really don't realize what an awesome voice my husband has. He has never had the opportunity to hone his gift, however, so he doesn't sing a lot. He has a beautiful voice.
Well, I conjolled and begged and  finally he agreed to give it a try with me plunking out the melody. Then, it was time to head out to Mike's for our "lesson". I conveniently included the music that we had just tried, convinced that Mike would be able to get him to sing it. We went over our duet and in no time had it ready to go. Soooo, what shall we do with the rest of our lesson time? Oh, look I just found this music. Think you could teach Terry a thing or two about singing this? Haha. Mike got right into it and Terry had a wonderful voice lesson then and there. Our favorite music teacher declared at the end that Terry needed regular voice lessons since he had a gift. Mike says that he has long heard his voice, and has wanted to give him lessons for a long time now. So, who knows. I might be hearing Terry's voice practicing warm ups and pieces soon. I, for one, am excited about the possibility!

School

Our first day of school, for those of us still enrolled at the Upcott Homeschool anyway, was spent in D.C.

 I can count educational field trips as days of school. 

D.C. has been all chopped up , fences put in ,and extra walkways added since we were there last. So, it seemed that we had to walk forever to get from monument to monument. We went to all of them that we could walk to. I didn't remember that the Jefferson Memorial was across the river, so just took a picture of it from the bridge.

 This was the first time that Terry and I had seen the WWII memorial.

 I thought this was so cool the way we were all reflected in the wall where the Navy men were memorialized at the Korean War Memorial.

Mikayla's first day at the university. Classes didn't start for another few days.

I believe I can fly! Spread your wings, my precious girl!

Mikayla  madly shopped for textbooks online in the hall of her dorm. The hallway has the best wifi signal. haha.

 I only cried twice. Once, because Terry reminded me of something Mikayla had done as a little one, and once because we all gathered in a family group hug while Terry prayed right before we left to head North. I would've been fine, but he prayed too long!  So, you see, both times were all his fault.

Our second day of homeschool was spent at Cowpens, S.C., a Revolutionary War battlefield and museum. I had left the camera in the car during that tour. Our third day of school was at Gettysburg, which had my son, the Civil War buff, in his glory.

 He especially loved hiking up Little Round Top to find the 20th Maine memorial.

 If you look closely, you will notice that Terry really enjoyed this field trip as well.

Alana enjoyed the museums at Gettysburg. She remembered reading about the little girl who wrote to Mr. Lincoln to ask him to grow whiskers, and we found a display about this in the museum.

Our fourth day of school was spent at a living history museum, Old Sturbridge Village. This is so much fun to see people in period dress acting the parts of the villagers. We met a tinsmith, a farmer, a hunter, the minister's wife ( she was awesome! lol.),and the stagecoach driver, and a few random villagers. We even got to take in a Punch and Judy show.

Alana's first day of the 6th grade. I asked her what her favorite subjects are so far this year. She said Reading and Science. This amazed me, because Reading has always been her hardest subject. She seems to be doing so much better in this area. To use her words, "It isn't as much work to read as it used to be, and the stories are better in sixth grade." Well, HALLELUJAH! Hopefully, this continues.

Nathanael's first day of Tech school dawned wet and dreary, so I took a picture of him in the car before he went in.  He has enjoyed his first week of Building Trades. He is still doing his regular high school subjects at home, and he says his favorite subjects so far are Biology and Literature. Both of these subjects are completely mom taught this year. Meaning, without the help of dvd's with prepared lectures.  Hopefully, I can keep just enough ahead of him (his brain amazes and challenges me everyday!) to make Biology work out well for him. I have very good material, but I have to study more than he does, and I dread the dissection lab work. Thankfully, we bought him Geometry done with a tutor on the computer, and online World History. That's not all he's doing, but you get the picture.

And so, the Upcott Homeschool has already logged 8 days of school for the 2012-2013 school year, Mikayla is happily enrolled in the University of her choice, and Terry and I are holding on for dear life. Because these years with our "big" kids are just flying by. praying every hour for God's power in each of their lives.
"...He that hath begun a good work in you, shall perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."

Wings

As I sit here typing, suitcases, boxes, bins, and bedding surrounds me, ready to be packed into the car for our trip south. Bob Jones University awaits. God has a plan to continue.  I've been told not to cry. Even though I understand the embarrassment and angst of the person who asked this of me, it's almost laughable. My answer was, "Moms cry. I wouldn't be normal if I didn't. Be prepared to see me cry before, during, and after this milestone. Because, after all, I cried during almost every other milestone in your life, like learning to walk, so of course I will cry during this much more momentous occasion." Before having children, I never would have thought that I would be such an emotional Mother.  It's all good, though.
So, we've taught learning to walk and run. We've taught reading, riting, and 'rithmetic. We've taught life skills (although, I think I failed at teaching cooking. sigh.), We've taught independence. We've tried to teach faith, trust, and dependence on God. We've taught her to use her gifts in His service, and many other things too numerous to list.  All of this while pleading with God to fill in the gaps left by our humanness. Yes, I know that I'm really not completely done teaching her. But this is a transition to adulthood. So now it's time to give flying lessons.  She has had a few lessons in this, as you know. Out of the nest she goes. Praise God for His work in our family's lives! And please pray for Mikayla as she tries out her new wings.

The Posted Note

 Here's how we knew that Mikayla had given it over to God. You can tell that my memory got a bit fuzzy. I'm glad that I went and found her actual note.

God knew what He was doing

by Mikayla Upcott on Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 3:32pm ·

       I am a meticulous planner. I have a plan A, B, C, D, ect under plan A alone. And if all those plans under plan A fail, there are 25 more letters in the alphabet. Before doing anything, I think through every scenario that could possibly happen so that I will be prepared. But God has a sense of humor, and His plans are not mine. He seems to delight in bringing something into my life that I haven't thought of, and whatever it is is generally something that should have been obvious from the beginning. I never enjoy switching from my plan to God's, but by now I should know that He knows what He's doing. Here are some examples of things that God did that show me how much He knows compared to me.
      1) God gave me a pastor for a dad so that there would be someone to get me back on track when I start throwing temper tantrums at God.
      2) God gave me a teacher for a mom so that I would be pushed to learn.
      3) God gave me a brother just 18 months younger than me so that I would have someone I could always count on to listen.
     4) God gave me a sister five years younger that would show me what miracles are and make me learn to relate to younger kids.
     5) God put my family in Lincoln, Maine, so that I would have a safe small town to grow up in.
     6) God gave my dad the pastorate at a small church filled with older people so that I would have lots of grandparents and know how to relate to adults.
     7) God had my parents homeschool me so I would get the best education I could have in Lincoln.
     8) God made it possible for me to go to Dublin Christian Academy so that I could continue to have a good education, broaden my horizons, meet amazing people, and be part of some pretty amazing ministries.
     9) God gave me awesome teachers.
   10) God gave me friends to challenge me.
   11) God gave me a best friend (Jess) who thinks on the same crazy brain wave I do. It's kinda sacry sometimes, lol!
   These are all kinds of things God has done for me, and that's not even close to everything! So why don't I trust Him? Why am I having such a hard time submitting to His will?
   It comes down to pride. I am proud of my well-thought-out plans, and I don't want anyone messing them up, even God. And that is the worst possible attitude I could have toward the One who saved me and holds me in the palm of His hand.

More Summer and The Sequel

Once Mikayla and Nate started working this summer, we were out straight, and I began to seriously reconsider our choice to wait on having our teenagers take Driver's Ed because I became a taxi driver. We had to fit in Mikayla's music lessons this summer, too, so that she could prepare for auditions at college. The audition thing surprised me, since I don't remember them requiring that before, but I guess things do change over a span of nineteen years. We were glad that her teacher could do it on Tuesdays before she headed up to camp. Then, she wanted to take CLEP exams to test out of certain freshman classes( Have I mentioned before that she is a driven kid, and that I can't figure out how I got a kid like her? Because this is so NOT me! or Terry!). We scheduled one for any Monday that they would take her, and she was successful in passing the English Composition test. Which means she won't have to take freshman English. BIG YAHOOOOO! She wanted to do the World History one, but we just could not get that scheduled.  Besides the exams, we needed to get her in to have a complete physical, and a complete dental check. So, every Monday and Tuesday, we were running to appointments, tests, odd jobs with Nate,or music lessons, and teaching piano lessons. Then, she would go up to camp to nanny the rest of the week. Also, Terry has been trying to pick up extra hours at Sears, while I prepared for VBS.
Speaking of VBS...

 Our old parachute is still alive and well and a huge favorite with the kids. They ask for it at every event we have for them. I think it's older than me. :)

 The stage was decorated with old west things and an old mine.

 This game was an interesting spin on an old favorite...Tag.

 Well, howdy there, Cowboy.

 Miner Mike helped us find a nugget from scripture every night.

 It rained candy every time the penny offering went over a set amount.

This game was called Balloon Ring Toss.

The storytellers had the kids come up and help by acting out the stories.

We had lots of fun games.

Mom told an exciting, continuing story every night.
The week of VBS was tiring, but well worth the hard work as we were able to lead three children to Christ. That's why we do what we do. We are praying that we will have opportunities to reach the families of these kids, as well.
Which brings us to this week just beginning. I purposely left off planning anything this week. I knew I would be exhausted. So, tomorrow we are taking Mikayla to the Wild's of New England and on the way back, Terry and I plan to celebrate our nineteenth anniversary. I insisted that we get away this year, because last year I didn't get my yearly lobster. Unacceptable!! haha. The other two Upcotts will spend some time with Grandma out at Madagasgal Pond, where we will join them and where I will not be pried away from for the rest of the week. I plan on a main course of swimming, laying in the hammock, and reading with a side of loving on my family.
The sequel to yesterday's story begins the day after the phone counseling session with our daughter. I went about my usual school day with my other two, after just quickly mentioning to Terry that there may be a scholarship to check on just to see if we could get it the next year. I was NOT thinking that maybe if we could get it this year, she could go. He decided to check it out and made a phone call to ask a question or two. A few minutes later, the phone began to ring with news of scholarship after scholarship after forgotten funds. I had no time to process what was happening. Terry and I just looked at each other throughout the day, after talking on the phone with BJU people, and just shrugged. We were confused at what God seemed to be doing. He seemed to be taking it all out of our hands, and we just couldn't understand it. I remember actually saying, "Sweetie, what in the world?" I finally was able to pray a little prayer. I just said," God, I guess you have a reason for allowing all this to come about in the way that it has. Please, we want to make wise choices, and we thought You were directing us in the opposite direction." Terry, at one point, said that he thought that the Lord must be at work on our daughter. OK. So,  I watched the clock, because I knew that Mikayla had to work in the snack shop right after school and would probably hit Facebook during a lull. Sure enough, she got online and posted a note. Not just a status. She gave testimony about how the Lord had really worked in her heart the night before and all that day, and though she felt hugely disappointed at not being able to go to college as she had meticulously planned out, she gave it over to Him, and even mentioned being thankful for many things, one of which was parents who were put there to make these kinds of hard decisions. I cried happy tears. And then fought back the sad tears. I wasn't very successful at that, but I think we were still answering emails, faxing paperwork, and talking on the phone, so I didn't really have the time to go bawl my eyes out. You see, I had begun to plan for another year with my daughter. I felt I had been given more time with her before she left me for good. I felt just a wee bit jipped, what with boarding school taking her away and all. So another year sounded great to me. She could work, take correspondence courses, learn to cook... Because, I knew that once they hit college, even though they come home now and then and for the summer, for the most part, they have begun to live independently of their parents. I just wasn't ready for this. God's plan did not jive with mine. My sweet husband and I spent some time in prayer and decided that the decision had been taken from us, and so we did what we have learned to do. We accepted these miraculous happenings as straight from God. This was God telling us to let her go. But we were still questioning why? We decided that we should talk right to Mikayla before reversing our decision, to see if our thoughts about the reason this all came about as it did, were indeed true. Why would He allow it to come about this way after we had made what we felt was a wise, prayed over, carefully considered decision, unless He was working on her? She had indeed tearfully given it over to Him. And so, we feel that He just wanted her to let her plans for her life go and let Him work His plan for her. When she did, the blessings flooded in, over and above all that we could ever ask or think. There's a scripture verse like that.
The story continues from this point, but this post is already massive. To be continued.