Homeschooling Lesson #1: How to copy paper

I'm really no stranger to homeschooling.  After only 3 months of middle school, my parents pulled us all out of public school and began the journey of de-socializing us.

Oh I jest.  That didn't happen until our second year of homeschooling.

We began homeschooling for the sole purpose of avoiding the evil that was our local middle school, fully intent on returning back to society come 9th grade.  But strange things happened and we made friends.  Like, good friends.  Friends that went on to lead normal lives and that I still frequently talk to.

I managed to graduate high school, attend and graduate college with honors, and build a little family of my own in the process.  And now I'm in my second "official" year of homeschooling my little champs.   And that's no small feat!  I have a kindergartner, firsts grader, and second grader this year!

When my kids are in kindergarten, I do very little as far as official schoolwork.  I buy about a thousand glue sticks and round-tip scissors at the beginning of the year, and a couple workbooks (strongly recommend Explode the Code!).  I teach math by also teaching cooking and we read Roald Dahl.  Now that I have a first grader and a second grader, we use a lot more curriculum and worksheets, and last week I learned that I was lacking a fundamental albeit crucial and necessary skill for any homeschooling parent:  I didn't know how to copy paper.  

I started out optimistic.  I had my coffee (all aspects of homeschooling require coffee), and my two piles of paper going: to copy and already copied.

Such beauty.

I learned right away not to lift the copy lid too fast, or else the paper would fly out the back and land behind the 200lb filing cabinet.  However, despite the immediacy of my lesson, I managed to do this 5 more times.  So then I learned a new lesson:  don't keep sliding the filing cabinet back against the wall. 

This is a top view of the paper having fallen behind the cabinet.

No copy job is complete without the fear of God 

being put in you by these three words:

I had to copy about 100 pages and I have no clue how to change the cartridge on this machine.  So I did what any normal woman would do - I copied my pages anyway. 

 (P.S. I totally won that challenge.)   

After doing half of my copying, 

I had to flip the pages over and copy the backside.  

I analyzed that machine over and over, picked up printed pages and simulated them going through the machine, and deduced the correct direction my papers needed to face to print correctly. 

Guess who printed them wrong?

So here's to all you new homeschooling mommies out there 

(or the veterans who failed to learn the art of the copy machine):

1. Put your printer in the center of the room, where a fallen paper does not equal a workout.

2. Have your husband put in a new cartridge before you begin your job.  Or don't.  ;)

3. Stock up on glue sticks and scissors - you're about to make yourself a huge pile of scratch paper.

Happy New Year!

Am I late to the party??  ;)

Of course I am.  I can't say my life has been terribly busy; it's more that this blog has taken a much lower priority than homeschooling, menu-planning, reading other people's blogs...haha.   Here's a rather lengthy catch-up post to bring this blog up to date.  Expect another one of these in about two months.

I helped throw a shower for a friend of mine expecting a little girl (who has since been born and is unbelievably adorable). Here's the Pooh cake I made.  

Thanksgiving:  

I made my husband's employees cinnamon rolls for Thanksgiving.
They do such a fantastic job, I wish we could do more sometimes.  

This was Fall 2011.  But....our whole family got together this past Thanksgiving and took pictures,
so we got to recreate it....

Here is our family, Thanksgiving 2012.

My middle daughter turned 6 on Thanksgiving. I have a twin sister, and every seven years or so, our birthday falls on Thanksgiving.  Honestly, it's really no fun, so I feel bad to have handed that down to my daughter.
But we made a cake and sang and I don't think she really cared!

Birthday Party:

My two daughters were born a week apart, so they get the joy of sharing birthday parties every year....just like Mommy and Aunt Jenny.  ;)  This year they wanted a Princess theme.  It was a TON OF FUN!  We had their friends come dressed up in fancy dresses then painted nails and did updos (complete with little tiaras) on all of them.  Then we took them to Corvette Diner for some dinner and fun!

A princess has to get used to picture-taking.
They were all pros at this!

Here is one of the birthday girls and some friends. We had a blast! 

More pictures.  See, told you they were pros with the camera! 

They all got some straws stuck in there hair by our lovely waitress. 

We came back to the house and ate princess cupcakes!

 Disneyland - one last hurrah!  

We were watching my son ride a roller coaster, and my daughter suddenly decided she wanted Minnie Mouse hair. This was the best I could do, even after breaking one of her plastic hair bands.  

I love this picture of my youngest daughter's face.  =)

A little hard to see, but here are my older two on the Thunder Mountain Railroad. This ride is a hoot! Goes WAY too fast for the limited restraints they offer, so you fly all over your seat.  I can't stop laughing when I'm on it.

Here's my youngest and I on the ride.

 ER visit:

During a Christmas Cookie Exchange, my daughter was playing with a friend and got pushed over in a chair.
The result = six stitches! This was a first for Mommy and I had to call in reinforcements (thanks Mom!) to stay calm during the ordeal.  But what a joke that was.  My daughter took the whole thing like a champ and never even cried.  We showed the nurse pictures of our Disneyland adventures, which kept my daughter distracted while she received the shots.  

While the awesome doctor was stitching her up, we took some pictures to show her.
She loved seeing what was going on.  Thank goodness for brave children!!

Christmas:

Here are my girls wearing there pretty Christmas dresses from Great Grandma!  

On Christmas Day, we went to the home of my twin sister and her husband, up in the Bay Area. My sister is an incredible hostess and amazing cook.  For Christmas appetizers, she served pears wrapped in arugula, blue cheese and prosciutto (WOW) and puff pastry topped with creme fraiche, shallots and thinly-sliced apple.  Siiigh.

She also let my daughter put together his veggie tree. How cute is that!  

Here's a quick glimpse at the spread.  We started with a pear/blue cheese/candied walnut salad. The main course was turkey, baconed brussel sprouts, parsnip hash, cheesy potato pizza, crescent rolls from scratch (courtesy of moi), and cranberry sauce.  It was very drool-worthy.

Growing up, my grandma always gave us granddaughters new pajamas for Christmas. My mom has carried on the tradition, and this year she had them personalized (since my sister and I tend to name our children with names that will NEVER be found in a souvenir shop).  They loved them!  

  

Thought I'd end this post with a cute pic of my son and Flounder, one of the dogs we watch occasionally.
She loves the kids and always manages to sneak into their rooms at bedtime.

Hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year!
And January.  Hope you had a good January, too.  =)