What a BUSY school year!!!
Andy’s school year included:
Entering school as a Sophomore by association & was a Junior by credits shortly after. He could have done cool things like open campus lunch and asking somebody to prom and other perks of being considered an upperclassman, however, instead, he ate lunch at school every day and decided to run the lights for prom instead of taking someone to the dance. 🤓 Try as I might, he wanted to hear none of it 😂
He continues to be driven in academics and will dual enroll college classes next year. 📚
He joined YLT, Youth Leadership Team, which organized some neat things such as a mock accident, ER, courtroom, probation, etc that would show the consequences of drinking and driving, they also showed eighth graders around and let them experience lunch at the high school which was voted one of their biggest concerns and fears. He did not get his brother in his group. 😉
He was Class President (a title that was attempted to be overthrown) & was accepted into the National Honor Society. 🕯🏆📚
He varsity lettered for the 1st time in football,
the 3rd time in wrestling and the 1st time in track. This gave him a Varsity letter in all 3 sports seasons this school year, which earned him a special honor of the GOLDEN ‘B’ (a second varsity letter which is gold in color instead of white & earned only by triple varsity letter earning in a single school year). VERY COOL.
Andy starts his first job that requires a W-2 on Tuesday (6/1/21) as a summer maintenance worker for the school. He has been pet sitting for the past couple years, of which he has some great stories 🎶 🐓 🐔 🐓 🐔 🎶
He also has experience with construction from last year’s summer job helping his grandfather build a house for his great grandmother 🏠
& some yard work, house moving & hay throwing 🚜 for friends.
The W-2 job is a whole new level of busy though. A set schedule with set hours & asking for days off to go places your family or coaches require....a whole new level & new territory for us as parents. 🗓 ❌ 🗺
He had an amazing year!
Zach’s 8th grade year:
Zach started the school year with Cross Country (XC), where he earned his 1st Varsity Letter!
He placed in many middle school and JV races and won the JV regionals race in the snow, earning him a spot as the Varsity alternate for the State meet (also in the snow). 🏃🏼♂️
He wrestled middle school again after taking a year off in 7th grade. He then moved up to High School wrestling where he showed some good ankle picking skills (still in play around this weekend's campfire)
& had a good time. 🤼♂️
In spring he ran middle school track with some great races, many first places, overtaking rivals & again being asked to move up to High School by the end of season. His 800 meter time earned him a spot on the 3200 & medley relays. He will be running at the SD State High School Track Meet tomorrow (5-28-21) on the 4x800 relay team. He earned his 1st varsity letter in High School Track for the season as well (he too almost earned the Golden B this year & is now his goal for next year). 🏅
After track season the distance crew celebrated end of season with a fun day of games & their first annual chocolate milk 🥛 mile!! (5/31/21) There were pukers 🤮 & it was awesome!!!
A quick turnaround, Sunday (6/6/21) they will run the Mickelson Marathon Relay. Zach is the 4th leg, which is just short of 5 miles up in the hills. 🏔 Guess what will be served at the finish line??? 🥛 😆 (chocolate milk is good muscle recovery FYI & renowned in the running scene)
This is on my own bucketlist & I can’t wait to watch him & the team!! 🏃 (Our ‘Better Said than Run {yellow cowboys jerseys} got 1st, Zach’s ‘the agony of de feet’ {blue retro shirts} got 2nd & our ladies were 4th overall, 2nd female team over the line 💪🏼)
Zach also earned some academic awards!
He earned recognition for his Veterans Day poster & had a quote from his essay featured in the program the middle school puts on for the public on Veterans Day. 🪖🇺🇸
He also won 3rd 🥉overall for BFMS 8th graders on his Science Fair project on perceiving art under various colors of light. He then went on to present it for the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology where he placed 1st! 🥇 He got a nice plaque & prize money from both winnings. 🧑🏼🔬 🧪🔬
Zach also got his learners permit, and should have had his driver’s license as well, but due to some consequences for some ornery stunts, we have decided to hold off on it until summer. He will get it by the end of this month, then we will have 2 driving on their own! 🚖
He is still working on his amazing art and broadening his skill set to additional mediums beyond sketches. He enjoys neon gel pen work with LED & black lights & is really great at crosshatching. He will have his first formal art class next year & is looking forward to it. 🧑🏼🎨
At the end of the school year there was an “8th grade promotion ceremony” that local moms put on followed by a dance. We had to divide & conquer that night as we ended up quadruple booked. Or rather whatever 8 different directions would be called 🤷🏻♀️ Andy was at a function, Zach left the dance early to go to state track practice as it was 2 days before state, Luke was running around somewhere at something & I had the younger 3 at their end of the year programs with a Walmart pickup for camping food after to boot. It’s not going to slow down any 🤷🏻♀️ nor do I want it too, been there, done that, no thank you to another lockdown. Here’s a couple pics Wayne or you in the village got…
It was an amazing year for Zach as well.
Luke’s school year:
Luke was recognized at his end of year awards ceremony for the greatest score jump in reading 📖 on his standardized test (something I despise on principle, but when you rock at it, I won’t complain much), he has always kept teachers on their toes with his reading capabilities. In kindergarten his teacher borrowed books from the second grade for him to read in reading group. Keeping Luke busy has always been the biggest challenge.
He also was awarded for straight As in social studies, Knowledge Bowl (a trivia like competitive team), Band, Choir, track & field day events, and participation in the school play, Butler, as a costume shop owner. 🎎 🎭 🎬 He was great on stage!
Luke had a NERF war 12th birthday in the backyard this year, it was really fun, but 20 preteens about drove me crazy 🤪
He also learned how to butcher & process this year with us , got his 1st deer & has become quite the fisherman!
Luke played his last year of rec league tackle football, he ran across the field with 4 kids hanging from him & wasn’t brought down one practice 😂
He was the XC team manager & cheered on his brother & all his friends.
He wrestled his first season of middle school wrestling through the school with many wins, then in AAU, barely anyone showed up for him in Districts & Regionals, but he had a full bracket at State of kids who were bigger and older. It reminded him he won’t always win by brute strength, but to keep working different moves & skills.
To end the school year, Luke had his first ever season of track. 6th graders aren’t able to throw shotput & discus but are able to run, so Luke ran a 100 meter dash & a 4x100 relay with some friends. He had a good time & great coaches. He can run a mile faster than me right now for sure! 🏃🏼♂️
Zach & Luke also worked our home event concession stands quite a bit with the track & XC teams.
Luke is hoping to keep busy this summer by doing some cleaning & yard pickups to earn a little cash for spending. He offers services in tree droppings such as branches 🪵 blown down after wind & storms, leaf raking, and dog droppings 💩 picked up for yard owners. He can do a mean detailing on car cleanig too! 🧹🧽🪣 If anyone is interested in these services, please let us know!
Luke is ready for summer! 🌞
Jake's School Year:
Jakers’ school year was jam packed. We had stopped last spring a couple weeks after the older 3 had hit Lockdown Crisis School and their due dates and demands monopolized our time.
In the end we decided the homeschoolers would be done & pick up again when everyone else went back in fall. So Thankful for this flexibility...
We typically ease in in September & October around sports and field trips and co-ops, then November- March we hit schooling hard then ease back out in April around sports, activities, field trips & co-ops, and wrap up by Mother’s Day.
In that amount of time, Jake wrapped up (Easy Peasy) EP Level 1 Language Arts, Words their Way Level C, Kahn Math 2, EP Math 1 & 2 & half of 3, EP zoology, various extracurriculars in EP such as Art, Music, PE & Safety and he learned The Lord’s Prayer & mastered his Bible for Kids App.
We did many book 📚 studies & unit studies as well. We read Fever 1793 and compared the yellow fever to covid 🦠, we read The Tale of Jolly Robin with the EP curriculum, & our first unit study was on 🚢 Early Explorers, followed by Native American tribes of the US alongside the American Girl Kaya books.
This summer we are headed to Colorado for a family wedding & will be hanging out in the Colorado Springs/ Manitou Springs area & will visit the Manitou Cliff dwellings & museum there as a nice field trip. We loved our unit studies & have decided on Gather Round curriculum next year (Charolette Mason style for those following our homeschool journey). The first mini unit we ordered was Indiginous Peoples & we can't wait to revisit this topic. 🗿
Jake also participated in 2 co-ops in fall where he took; Faces of Mount Rushmore, Fun with Reading & Holidays Around the World at one, and Music, PE, STEM, Art & Drama at another between fall & spring.
We went on field trips to the pumpkin patch, jump craze homeschool day, swimming days, canyon lake picnic group days, and many other fun days. 🪁
Jakers can still be a stubborn turd 💩 & has been known to take up to two hours to complete an assignment that involves handwriting. ✍️
He can complete an entire learning app in a day though (I question retention on digital 📱 learning at least for someone who masters it in a day, and primarily use it as suplementation).
Jake tried out flag football this year & wasn’t thrilled about it. He had fun with friends at practice though & got a jersey with 66 like Andy, still haven’t seen it since his first game, but at least I got the pic before it went missing 🙄
He still participates in Ninjas (American Ninja Warrior style) 🧗🏼♂️ & has impressed his coach and us with his developing skills. He can sure shimmy up a 2 story fire pole in no time. I'm hoping to add to our indoor recess area next school year to help maintain his upper body strength. 💪🏼
His running is coming along & we are hoping for more youth races next year. 🏃🏼♂️ maybe in crocs, sliders, or snow boots, possibly even tennis shoes 🤷🏻♀️ whatever strikes him on the day 🤨
He also asked for a BASKETBALL 🏀 for Easter “to practice his dribbling”. WHAAAAT?!?!?! Those would be yet another set of bleachers, but one I kind of miss, I won’t lie. And why not sit through every sport there ever was? What’s one more? 🤪
Jakers had a FNAF (Five Nights at Freddy’s) birthday at Watiki this year. His BFF Rose got him a Foxy plush & a skateboard!
I'm very happy with where he is at at the end of this school year. 👩🏻🏫
Lizzy's Year:
Lizzy Beth started KINDERGARTEN this fall!
She completed EP K, Words Their Way K, EP Math K & EP Math 1, started reading emergent readers & finished up a bunch of TeachersPayTeachers supplemental work. She learned most of The Lord's Prayer & a few other Bible Stories this year. She enjoyed our book studies & unit studies as well. 📖
As a tradition we get her an "American Girl" doll & books every year for her birthday (by that I mean, I find 18" dolls that resemble original AG dolls at thrift sores or on Black Friday sales & order their original AG outfits & books off eBay, which is still expensive enough 🤑).
This year she got Kaya, a Nez Perce Native American girl & we worked our way across the USA learning about various tribes in the Woodlands of the East Coast, the Plains, the Southwest, the Rockies and finally the Pacific Northwest where the Nez Perce lived. We have learned so many cool things. 🤓
She also got Falicity & Elizabeth AG dolls who we will learn about next fall as we work from Native Americans into Colonial Times then the American Revolution and on into each state as a unit study. 👩🏻🏫
She also enjoyed a Kindergarten skills class & other same classes as Jake at co-op & was a lioness 🦁 & a caterpillar 🐛 in the spring drama performance. Jake was a child of God in his & even memorized his lines. They were pretty cute! 🎭
Lizzy got to participate in her beloved gymnastics 🤸♀️ in the fall and spring, minus her hiatis through winter for brothers' wrestling seasons & her broken arm (darn those socks on hard kitchen floors- if you recall our other broken bone was Jake at 2 years old from a mystery kitchen floor issue, still unsure if it was socks, fleece pants, a small water puddle or what, nothing else was on the floor, it was cleaner back then🤪, but darn those kitchen floors)!
She wants to try out wrestling 🤼♀️ next winter as well (we wait until 1st grade for our kiddos).
She's also talked about trying out dance, but it's either dance OR gymnastics for our pocketbook, and we all know what that choice will continue to be. 😉
She enjoys coming with to my women's volleyball league & watching it & playing with the other kids. The poor girl got her dad's hips, bow legs & pigeon toes & a runner that does not usually make, so volleyball 🏐 I will encourage 😆😁
I underestimated just how determined, independent and acomplished she is until seeing her next to other girls her age or seeing Joe trying things she had mastered well before his age. Her large motor skills and know-how are top notch.... growing up with 5 brothers has its advantages 😉😉
Lizzy turned 6 this school year. She had a Vampirina Birthday with friends, and on her birthday we did a photo shoot in Mom’s wedding dress for fun, ate at Los Agaves where she was sung Happy Birthday in a sombrero & we went swimming at the rec center in town. She was quite the princess.
She had a great year full of adventure & earning!
Joe's year:
He's still mainly JOE, but has picked up Joey John, Joe Joe, Joey & Beautiful Boy (as in John Lennon, “his song” we play him- yes I appointed them each a song 😎) as well.
Joe too, did some play school at home & at the 2 co ops. His still has an insane amount of separation anxiety, but by the end of Spring Co-Op he would walk into the toddler room and say “Bye Mom”! So bittersweet, and I’m sure we will be back at square one come fall. He did do some fun games & crafts & it’s hard to believe he turns 3 at the end of summer 😭
He spent his year sitting under blankets in dark cold bleachers, sitting in crowded indoor bleachers, sitting on sunny outdoor bleachers; bleachers, bleachers, bleachers! 🏟
He also spent a fair amount of time in an overpiled stroller or wagon being pushed & pulled across golf courses, trails, tracks, parks and parking lots.
By Spring, I felt bad he had to sit and watch so many sports & decided to throw him into the last 2 sessions of parent-tot gymnastics called Tumble Bears. HE LOVED IT! Every single second. It took him a couple times to master some of the big stuff and he never would fly in the harness swing, or go down the fire pole (Lizzy’s favorites at a bit younger) but preferred the slides, the runway & jumping on anything that bounced. He made friends with the girls in his group & didn’t like when it was time to go.
His mane of white tangled, curly, gorgeous locks blowing wildly in the wind. A cross between a toehead Maui & Einstein is a good description.
He stands out & is easy to find. He refuses a man bun or ponytail & prefers the breeze blown beach babe look with his tan skin & bright blue eyes.
To all who ask when I will cut it, NEVER!!!!!!!! 💇
He'll be bald when he's 50, he (I) can enjoy it now. 👨🦲
Joe's terrible 2s were in full swing this school year & he allowed for the opportunity to downsize many items that lasted through his 5 older siblings. It's bittersweet being done with things that have been around so long, but him demolishing them makes it easier 😉🤯
Below is Andy holding Joe who is wearing the Scooby outfit Andy has on in his 1 year picture on the wall next to him❣️
About every single thing in our house needs replaced at this point and we are very slowly contimplating it, but most things will look ashamble until he is older. By then I'd prefer to RV full time & hop between grandkids anyway 🚍😉
Joe seems to be the most accident prone of the bunch, likely due to all go, never rest, keep up with evryone Go Joe Go. He added a chipped front tooth 🦷 & broken cheeck blood vessels to his repwatar last March at the start of 'lockdown' when he climbed up, tipped over & rode down to the concrete garage floor in the double jogging stroller. The ER doc told me it should lighten, however, I feel it is darker a year later 😔 He knocked down the key holder onto his face & missed his eyeball BARELY &
You all will recall his busted lip 👄 & stitches he pulled out, this left him with an inner lip scar & a pebble sized (& nearly as hard) lump in his lip we constantly massage in hopes that some day his resulting constant drool 🤤 will lesson.
He WILL NOT keep shoes on his THICK & WIDE feet as I'm sure they are uncomfortable. We have tried every shoe 👟 known to man. Rain boots & moccasins stay on the longest, most shoes won't even begin to round his ankle unless 2 sizes too big and then he trips, so when you see shoeless Joe, leave him alone, he & I are going to join a barefoot Hippie clan with long wild hair & shunned social norms in our later years & live our best lives. 🦶
Joe is a miniture version of Zach, to those who know him best. Finally a sibling who looks like Zach!! He was, in fact, not the mailman's son as his dad claimed (he now claims that is Lizzy, as she is the only girl 🙄 ).
Zach & Joe have an amazing bond that is precious to watch. Zach is my saving grace anytime I need to escape to an appointment or elsewhere Joe cannot go. He is one of the few Joe will go to willingly & he is amazing with him. (Except that time he fell up the steps and busted his lip on Zach & Andy's watch). Don’t get me wrong, he loves all his siblings, But seriously, Zach is Joe's idol & I love it. 👦 👨
Look out for Joe guys, he's running around like White Lightning somewhere behind the rest! ⚡️
🏕 🛶 We finshed this year as we started it, with our biannual week long camping trips at Stormin' Orman! It is one of our Happy Places & always fun with friends.
Labor Day 2020:
Memorial Day 2021:
We were hardly there this time with school, sports, State Track, awards ceremonies, gardens to water, the first annual CHOCOLATE MILK MILE!!! 🥛 & last but definitely not least, laying flags & flowers at Black Hills National Cemetary for Great Grandpa Tonsager. 🪖 🇺🇸
No matter how busy we are, waking up each morning to that lake view after an amazing night’s sleep in the camper is always first rate (& in any weather).
We hope you all had as amazing of a school year as we feel we did!
🌞 HAPPY SUMMER!!!!!!! 🌞
