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Heartfelt Homeschool
I'm clearing out my bookshelves!!!
Are you gearing up for next school year? Check out my eBay listings! I have 75 items listed, all starting at .99 cents. Lots of books and used curriculum in good condition! Whatever I sell helps me pay for our new curriculum, so I appreciate you looking! Thanks!
~LISA |
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California Court against Home Schooling
LEGISLATIVE NEWSFLASH -- March 7, 2008
From: Roy Hanson's Private and Home Educators of California
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As you probably know, on Thursday, February 28th, The Second Appellate District in Los Angeles County ruled that a homeschooling family from Southern California (not a member of HSLDA) did not have a right to "homeschool" under the California Constitution unless the parent is a credentialed tutor.
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Current Situation
Nothing has changed in California regarding your homeschool. HSLDA maintains that the advice they have given home school families for some twenty-five years is still accurate and that filing a private school affidavit, or enrolling in a private school independent study program (I.S.P) are valid options under the law in California.
In summary, homeschoolers should not panic but continue to home school as in the past. The leaders of the statewide homeschool groups and HSLDA are coordinating with each other on this issue on a regular basis. Pray for a positive outcome. The attorneys at HSLDA are working very hard during this time to prepare for additional legal action to reverse this decision. Seeking legislation at this time is unnecessary and likely dangerous.
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Governor's office press release Friday, March 7, 2008
Gov. Schwarzenegger Issues Statement Regarding Court of Appeals Home Schooling Ruling
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement regarding the recent Second District Court of Appeals ruling on home schooling:
"Every California child deserves a quality education and parents should have the right to decide what's best for their children. Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children's education. This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts and if the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will."
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Background
This ruling resulted from a Juvenile Court case on allegations of abuse or neglect, which originally had nothing to do with homeschooling. When the Juvenile Court judge would not prohibit the parents from home schooling their children, the court-appointed attorneys for the children went to the California Court of Appeals. The Appellate Court went further than they needed to, and essentially ruled that State law does not provide any options that allow parents to teach their own children at home.
Future court action on this Appellate Court ruling cannot occur until after March 29th. This ruling is a very serious matter but not a cause for panic. There are legal options still open to pursue in the Courts. HSLDA is working to overturn this decision in the courts. In other words, this Appellate Court ruling is not the final say.
It is important to realize that no laws have changed that affect private schools whether in one's home or on a campus. California is still one of twelve states where homeschoolers can operate legally under the private school provision. See our Legal Fact Sheet. The Court does not have the power to change the law but only to interpret it, and this court has made critical errors in their interpretation of private school laws as they apply to private home education.
No court has the authority to universally order every homeschooler into a public or private campus school. Under due process the court can only issue orders directed to the parties before the court. Any attempts of enforcement would have to be one family at a time. As in the past, a family could be charged with truancy and then go to a SARB hearing even before any court hearing. This should not be a dread for anyone who is a member of HSLDA. If you are not a member of HSLDA you should join now!
If a public official comes to your door and tells you that home schooling is illegal and that you must put your kids in a public school or a private campus school, do not let them in your house, call HSLDA if you are a member, and let the HSLDA attorney talk to the person at the door. HSLDA attorneys are available to their members 24 hours a day seven days a week.
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What can homeschoolers do right now to help?
(1) This court's ruling could provoke well-meaning individuals to seek a legislative remedy. Legislation at this time would be detrimental to our current freedom to home school privately in California. If you become aware through first hand knowledge of any such attempt to have a legislator introduce legislation addressing or dealing with home schooling, please contact us at contat@pheofca.org immediately!
(2) Please encourage your home schooling friends to join HSLDA now for two reasons! (a) Membership in and contributions to HSLDA will help provide the financial resources needed to carry on this complex and lengthy court process for judicial relief from this current ruling. This will benefit all homeschoolers. (b) HSLDA membership will protect your family should you be contacted as a result of this Appellate Court ruling. This will also give you the piece of mind that, whenever you might need it, you have immediate support from the only experienced highly successful team of attorneys specialized in defending private home schoolers in California and our Nation.
(3) In all situations, it is the Lord Jesus Christ Who is our refuge, provider, and protector (Psalm 50:10-15). He is sovereign over all. Our Lord reigns! We are asking that you pray daily and also consider some kind of periodic fasting during this protracted battle that is shaping up. Pray for:
* those in authority, especially the judges involved in this case,
* the Long family involved in this case,
every fellow private homeschooling family
* HSLDA as they prepare to not only handle this situation but as they respond to all future legal contacts,
* for us here at Family Protection Ministries that God would sustain us and that we will be able to intercept every legislative proposal that could further erode our freedoms,
* CHEA and every other home school organization in California, and
* all other individuals and groups supporting this effort to defend home education.
(4) Continue on with a peaceful heart in your homeschooling and family life.
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Permission is given to reprint this document or distribute it by email in its entirety without alteration. You are encouraged to link to this document on our website www.pheofca.org
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Roy Hanson's HELP Tree
Private and Home Educators of California
P.O. Box 730
Lincoln, CA 95648-0730
Fax: (916) 415-9470
contact@pheofca.org
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The purpose of this communication is to present information and express our position on the issues addressed. We encourage you to research this for yourself and come to your own conclusions. Regardless of your position, we strongly urge you to exercise your constitutional right to express your position to your elected representatives. We have included an example of how we have expressed our position.
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DISCLAIMER: We are not responsible for the accuracy of copies printed, forwarded, or sent by any party other than directly from Private and Home Educators of California.
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CHEA of California
(562)864-2432
info@cheaofca.org |
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Tidepooling Field Trip
Today our co-op homeschool group did a field trip down at the tidepools. We had a wonderful time!
Here are my boys as we were walking to get to the tidepools. See the pier off in the distance? We had to walk past that to get to the tidepools.
My daughter with a friend underneat the pier:
My boys learning about a sea anemone that spreads itself out on the rock! You think when you go to touch the shells that it will be hard, but it's actually squishy, because there is a sea anenome underneath the shells!
There is a baby sting ray near my son's foot:
My daughter's favorite creature that she found was the hermit crab:
A fun family day!
My husband and daughter walking back the other way once our time at the tidepools was over:
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Remembering the Blessing of Homeschooling
Well, I think this is the first year I've ever "done" anything for Valentine's day!! Seriously! And Ryan is eleven years old!
A few weeks ago, I was all stressed out about school and "fitting it all in" and God led me to read a few articles from someone in the homeschool world that I respect, etc., and it all just "hit home"... I need those reminders.
I mean... yes, we need to do the academic part of school. But that's not the BLESSING of homeschooling. The blessing of homeschooling comes when I cultivate our relationships with one another. And if I'm all stressed out and irritated and barking orders at them to "hurry up and get their school done" then what kind of relationships am I building? What kind of example am I being? ugh.
I was thinking about all of this during the weekend that I was supposed to go to a mom's conference a couple weeks ago, and instead I stayed home because my daughter had to have stitches. Anyway, I prayed about it and I wrote down what was on my heart about what I felt we SHOULD be doing everyday in our school. What are the bottom line basics?
What ALWAYS happens when I start getting us all on curriculum overload is our Bible time falls by the wayside. And that is SUCH a bad example to my kids. If I do anything, it should be Bible!
So, I sat down and wrote down the following: Bible, read literature aloud to my kids, math, basic language arts. That's it. Everything else is extra. It's fun, and most days we do fit in science, geography/history, and the likes. But, I was reminded that I don't have to teach EVERYTHING this year. So much of school is repetitive. As I looked through the kids' English curriculum, even though they are three different grade levels, they are basically teaching the same thing! Nouns, pronouns, verbs... over and over and over... just maybe have longer sentences, etc. It's so repetitive! I don't have to stress over them not learning it all this year. If they don't learn something this year, they will have the material again next year! And what in the world will they remember if they are crying about all of the busy work that they are doing? They certainly aren't going to remember the academic part of it.
Anyway!!!! I'm on a roll, huh? LOL So, I scratched just about everything that I had planned for the month of February... all of the busy work (seatwork) and decided to do something else at least for the remainder of February. First of all, I am setting all of our alarms for 8am instead of 7am. And everyone has been sleeping in that late. I think that the kids are tired, which lends to crankiness and whining and lack of focus during school time. Between the three of them, they are busy every night of the week with baseball, basketball, softball, CYT. So getting up later has been a good thing.
I'm telling myself to SLOW DOWN.. to enjoy our day... so we have breakfast, do music practice, chores... then we all sit down on the couch together and we do a bible lesson and then I read to them FIRST. And I'm not timing it! If it takes us an hour to do bible and reading, then so be it! Those are the most important things anyway! Then we do math and just a little bit of language arts... it takes about an hour to get the math and LA done. I purchased "The Shelter" copywork book that is made by Jeannie Fulbright, and that is what we are all using for language arts right now. So simple... and yet so full of teaching and learning possibilities. Best of all, they will be memorizing God's precious Word.
And then this week we've been doing the Valentine's study, and we are having so much fun. Learning the history of Valentine's day, learning about what the Bible says about love (eros, phileo, and agape), how we should love one another, making candy to give out to our neighbors and family, and creating our own poems of friendship to attach to the candies we've made. We were in the kitchen today making these candies and we made such a HUGE mess, but we were all laughing and just having the best time. THIS is the blessing of homeschooling, and much too often I lose sight of that.
The Scripture in Mark 8:36 says, "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?" Yes, academics are important. But we must remember that it is also part of this world. When we stand before God, He isn't going to ask us what our SAT scores are or how many A+ papers we got or what a pronoun is. He's going to ask us what we did with His word in our lives... how did we show His love to others...
So, if you're feeling discouraged and overwhelmed in your homeschool journey today, take a few steps back and ask the Lord to show you how to simplify a bit... and remember the blessing of homeschooling.
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Studying Valentine's Day
Are you doing anything special for Valentine's Day in your homeschool?
I just purchased and downloaded a mini-unit study e-book titled, "A Christ-Perspective Valentine's Day Unit." You can find out more and/or purchase it yourself by clicking the link on the title.
It looks simple enough to follow and includes notebooking, craft, and activity ideas. After I sit down and peruse what I just printed out, then I will sit down and order some books online from the library that correspond with what we will be learning this month. What a fun, educational way to learn about Valentine's Day... and better yet, about the One True Love we have in Jesus!
If you're doing anything special in your homeschool related to Valentine's Day, leave me a comment and share. I love to see what other homeschoolers are doing.
~LISA |
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First Day of December Schedule
For science today, the kids started learning about the skeletal system. They cut out bones and glued them into their appropriate place.
I got up with my alarm and got right to work... cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed, dusted, laundry... however, the kids didn't want to get out of bed this morning. I didn't make a big deal about it; however, I did point out to them that we weren't able to go for our walk. They were bummed, so I think that will serve as incentive for tomorrow. I hope! :)
Skipping our 1/2-hour walk put us right on schedule, and it went really well. As I told the kids of my plans for science, creating a Christmas Around the World Notebook, and what we were going to do for history, they were really excited about it.
So, while everything went well, I am TIRED! It was a busy day for me! And, I have work to do this evening... so I better get going. Hopefully tomorrow will be another smooth day. :)
~ Lisa |
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December School Schedule & Plans
We have taken the last two weeks off from school. The time has just flown by. We've enjoyed our time off so much! The first week, we hung around the house, went to the Science Center downtown, played games, just enjoyed one another's company. The second week, we went to Disneyland for three days, celebrated Thanksgiving with our family, and went down to the bay to ride our bikes and play touch football for a few hours.
Ah... but tomorrow, it is back to reality. Eddie goes back to work tomorrow, and we will get back to school.
However, I have decided that we are going to change things up a little bit in our school days, starting tomorrow and going to the end of the year. I'm really looking forward to it and I think the kiddos will enjoy the change of pace as well.
I thought I'd share our new planned school day schedule and some of the things we will be doing. Feel free to use any of the ideas you think would fit into your school day. Also, feel free to post a comment if you have other suggestions that you think would enrich our December school time studies. :)
Though the following schedule does have times listed, please know that those times are merely a tool to help me stay on track. Rarely do we stick to the exact times on a schedule. We might be a little ahead or a little behind. The key is just to keep moving and do the next thing. So without further explanation, here is our planned schedule for December:
7am - 8:30am ~ (Same as before) Kids up, dress, chores, breakfast, brush teeth and hair, etc., music practice.
8:30-9am ~ Walk (my way of getting some needed exercise in; the kids usually ride their scooters and I walk quickly in order to keep up with them)
9-9:45am ~ Bible and Read Aloud Time. For our Bible time, we are going through The Narrow Way. During this time, I will sometimes read a chapter out of the Pearables Kingdom Stories. We are in Volume One right now. If we have time left, I will read to them from various literature stories. If we are all cozy and enjoying reading time, then we may go over our planned stopping time here. Flexibity. :)
9:45-10:15am ~ Math for everyone. Can't leave this out or they will all forget what they've learned so far! :)
10:15-10:30am ~ Break..... get a drink, run around outside; I can change the laundry; I can check my email.... it's a break. :)
10:30-noon ~ Science and/or Christmas Unit Study. We are finishing up studying the human body for science using Considering God's Creation, so we can start Apologia in the new year. See below for details on our Christmas Unit Study. :) I'm guessing we will probably finish this part of our school day before noon; however, in case we have a fun project or something for our Christmas Unit Study, I wanted to have that time.
12-12:45pm ~ Lunch / outside play
12:45-1:00pm ~ Vocabulary books and/or English review (my daughter will do some of her English PACES during this time; the boys will be given review English pages and/or use Wordly Wise)
1:00-1:15pm ~ Creative Writing journal/prompts. I give a topic or start a sentence, and they write....
1:15-2:00pm ~ U.S. History / Geography. They are learning the names of the states, their capitals, and abbreviations. They will be creating their very own State Notebook. For history, I will be reading aloud to them from True Stories of Great Americans for Young Americans which is from Lamplighter. This particular book was originally published and printed in 1898!! I *love* Lamplighter books!
That will officially be the end of our school day. If we have a particular science project to do or if the kids want to continue creating pages for one of their notebooks, then we will do that. We shall see!
To give a little bit more detail about my plans for our Christmas Unit Study:
Each child will create his or her own notebook. They have always enjoyed notebooking. I enjoy seeing what they create to add to their "book."
Some things that we are going to study are:
- Names of Christ ~ since Christmas IS about Him!
- Christmas Around the World ~ How do other countries celebrate Christmas?
- Caribou, deer, reindeer ~ Are they the same thing? What's different about them? Why are reindeer associated with Christmas?
- Symbols of Christmas ~ Candy cane, holly, mistletoe, etc.
I've checked out lots of books from the library related to Christmas. Many of them are just fun fictional literature books. Some will be nonfiction, like when we learn about deer, etc.
One of my HK sisters shared this great website called Jesse Tree Calendar. I'm don't know yet if I will do everything suggested on that site, but it's a helpful starting point. This site also has a suggestion for books to read related to Christmas, and many of them I found at our local library!
For ideas on learning about how Christmas is celebrated around the world, I have Galloping the Globe to help get me started. I also did a quick Google search and found all kinds of websites. I've listed them below. Please know that I have not yet searched many of these websites, so use with a watchful eye.
http://northpole.net/world.htm
http://www.theholidayspot.com/christmas/worldxmas/
www.the-north-pole.com/around/index.htm
http://www.santas.net
http://holidays.kaboose.com/xmas-around.html
So there you have it! Our December school schedule and plans. I'll check in regularly and let you know how it is going here. I'm hopeful that it is going to be a fun month of learning together.
~ Lisa |
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School Days
A New Schedule
So, we are heading towards the end of week three of school. So far, things have been going really well. I've struggled with a bit of adjustment time... Bob Jones English and Reading is much more teacher intensive than any other curriculum I've used before for those subjects. I really like the student lessons, but I had to juggle our schedule/routine a bit to figure out what worked best for everyone.
I'm happy to say that we have stuck to the same schedule for a week now, and it's gone really well. The kids have even told me that they like the new schedule and want to keep doing things this way. Yah!! Love to hear that!
I thought I'd post our new schedule in case you're curious. I know that when I was first starting our homeschooling, peeking at others' schedules really helped to give me a starting place. If you have any questions, please post a comment!
~ Lisa 
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School Review #1
We are only into our second week of school, and from time to time I like to review what we are doing and evaluate what is working and what isn't.
So far...
What's Working:
- Getting up on time!
- Chores before breakfast
- The Sunshine Jar
- Bible Time
- Our English and Reading curriculum (BJU)
- Our Math curriculum (Math-U-See)
- Using WizardsSpell for Spelling
- Earning "Screen Time"
- Reading incentives
What's not working:
- Our schedule. I hope it doesn't take me half the year to figure out a routine that works for all of us.
- Weekly planning ~ First of all, I need something more condensed where I can see all three of my children's lessons all at once. Secondly, I need something that I can give to my children at the beginning of each week, so they can see what they are supposed to be doing and not have to ask me for help every time we switch subjects.
If you have any ideas or suggestions for me regarding what's not working for us right now, please be sure to leave me a comment!
~LISA |
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Bye Homeschool Blogger
Well.... I hate to do it, but I have just gotten so frustrated the few times that I've come on here to post lately. I love this community so much, but my time is precious and I can't spend time rewriting posts when it doesn't want to work the first time, etc., etc.
Be sure to come visit me at my new blog: http://heartfelthomeschool.blogspot.com/
I hope to be able to get back to posting regularly very soon! :) |
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Alexis is with Jesus...
My heart hurts for this family that I've never met. I wrote a few months ago about Alexis and added a link about Alexis' story to my sidebar. My stepmom shared her story with me. Alexis was her great niece.
On Wednesday, while I celebrated 14 years of marriage, my stepmom called me in tears to let me know that Alexis had gone to be with Jesus. I had no words. All I could think is that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. I do not understand His plan at times like this. I don't understand why the Lord takes a child away from a loving family. But, I don't have to understand. God is still on His throne. The Lord is still gracious and compassionate. (Psalms 145:8) His word doesn't change. His promises never change. His lovingkindness and mercy towards us never changes. He is still worthy to be praised.
It makes me think of my daughter's favorite song..
BLESSED BE YOUR NAME
Blessed be Your name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name
And blessed be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be Your name
Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
And when the darkness closes in Lord
Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's all as it should be
Blessed be Your name
And blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name
You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord blessed be Your name
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be Your name
Please join me in praying for this precious family and love the ones in your life well... our time here on this earth is so short.
In His grip,
Lisa |
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BLOG BREAK
We just have too much fun stuff to do this summer to for me to try and write regularly! So, I'm going to just plan to take a summer blog break!
I'll be back sometime towards the end of August when we start school back up again!
Hope you have a wonderful summer!
~LISA |
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DAY FOUR
Well, here is my son four days after his injury. He goes in tomorrow for a follow-up appointment. I'm praying that it doesn't need to be reset. I don't know if this mommy heart of mine can handle that. It looks pretty good in this picture. There is still a large swollen area on the right side of his nose that can't really be seen in this picture. If you are passing by my blog tonight, will you say a prayer for him?
~LISA |
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Quite the Shiner!
Well, here's my son three days after the injury to his nose. The swelling has gone down quite a bit, but his sweet face is turning all sorts of colors! Pray for my very active boy to think creatively and be able to play in a not-so-active way for this next week. He's having a hard time being still and careful! ;)
~LISA |
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Not a Great Day
Okay... this has not been a good week for my sweet Nathan. First, his glove was stolen earlier this week, and today he was out in the backyard playing catch with his older brother and he completely missed the ball. It hit his nose and after two-and-a-half hours in the ER with x-rays included, the diagnosis is his nose is broken. 
It is SO swollen, that they didn't want to do anything to it. They put in a referral to the ENT/Head & Neck department and they are supposed to call me on Monday to come in next week after the swelling has subsided to see if it needs to be reset or not.  PLEASE PRAY THAT IT WON'T NEED TO BE RESET.
I do not handle this stuff well AT ALL. He came running into the house screaming, blood was everywhere. I took one look at his face and knew we needed to go to ER. My husband was napping and I just started yelling his name as I grabbed the nearest kitchen towel and ice pack. I was really concerned that he broke more than his nose, because the area under his right eye was/is extremely swollen. I mean, it swelled right away. The lady at emergency took one look at him and took him in right away -- and there was a room full of people waiting, too.
Wanna add in a little comedy? I had parked my van right in front of the ER because there wasn't any other nearby parking. It was a loading/unloading zone. So, after I got him settled a bit and the doctor came and looked at it and determined he wanted x-rays, I went to go move my van. Well, I could not find any parking in the parking lot. At this point, I finally let myself cry. I was not showing my son my concern, etc., ya know, as I was driving him to the ER and in there with him, but once I couldn't find parking, I just started bawling. So, after what felt like forever (and was probably just five minutes), I went out of the parking lot to see if I could find parking on the street. I had to park across the street near residential housing. I get out of my van and turn around to click the alarm thingy to make the doors lock and out of a nearby bush a BIRD flew right at me and started attacking my head!!!!!!!!! 
I kind of ran off and the bird CHASED ME, attacking my head twice more!! I was screaming like a loonatic!!!!!!!  Right now, the image of myself and what I probably looked like makes me laugh, but at the time I was so scared and freaked out and didn't know why this bird was doing this!! I finally got far enough or something and I was running with my purse over my head, and the bird left me alone finally.
So, NOW I was really a blubbering mess, running across the street to get back over the hospital. Some lady saw me and said, "Are you okay?" I have no idea if she saw the bird attacking me or not, but as I ran by her, I said I was okay. My son was scared and I hated leaving him alone and I was trying to hurry up and get back to him! I was SO out of breath when I got back to his bedside!!
When we left and walked back to my van... guess what? That bird flew out of the bushes and onto the top of my van! Nathan said, "Mom, my ice pack isn't cold anymore; I'll throw it at him."  I said, "Just wait a minute..." and then the bird flew back into the bushes and my son and I raced to the van and got in!!!!!!!! What I think is that the bird must have been a momma bird protecting her nest or something. I don't know why else it would attack me like that! 
So now... back to my son. Something sweet... as we were in the ER and he was lying on the bed with an ice pack on his face, he said to me, "I hope Ryan isn't worrying about me because I'm okay." Bless his heart. He felt bad that his brother was feeling bad about hitting him with the ball. He is one tough kid, my Nathan! Bless his heart. Oh, and when we were leaving he said to me, "Too bad my friends from school won't see this!" (Today was his last day at school).
When we were leaving the hospital, my son wanted to go watch his team play. When I first told him I was taking him to the ER, that was his first question, "You mean I can't play tonight?!?" Uh..........  NO! His team is undefeated so far and in the playoffs, and he was so upset that he was going to miss his game. So, when we were leaving he wanted to go watch the rest of the game. I called my dh and he said to go ahead and take him because it'd be no different sitting there with an ice pack than it'd be sitting on our couch with an ice pack. So, we went to the game. It was so neat... normally before the game, the kids huddle up and put their hands together and say, "Go Team!" or "Get some hits!" Or whatever. But tonight, my husband said that they did that and said, "Nathan!"  My son got a kick out of that. So, he sat in the dugout with his team for the last hour of their game. And they won. 
Now... here is the difficult part... this is my most active child. And doctor's instructions are that he is not to do anything active for 10-14 days! No sports (we have a basketball hoop in our backyard). His next playoff game is in nine days. I've already told him that he is going to miss that game... but my goodness... I don't know how I am going to keep him not-so-active in the next couple of weeks!! He's not a "sit-down" child, KWIM?
So, anyway..... that was my afternoon/evening. I'm tired.
And since I'm a avid scrapbooker... you know that I took a picture, right? You can see the imprint of the baseball seam on his nose. Bless his sweet heart. Please pray for him if you think of it over the next few weeks.
~LISA
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Becoming frustrated...
I just spent a really long time on a post and I can't seem to post it... I really don't want to leave HSB, but this is getting really frustrating...................... |
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Answering a Question :)
I recently received an email from a fellow homeschooler and I thought I'd share her question and my answer here in case anyone else who stumbles upon my blog has similar questions. :)
QUESTION:
I know you are a busy mom but I have a question for you! I read your blog every so often but haven't done so in awhile. My question is, have you ever used Sonlight for your curriculum. You see, I too, have a boy with ADD and I'm hoping this curriculum will be a right "fit" for us. Did he enjoy "Considering God's Creation"? I've looked into that one but still not sure what to do for Science next year, still praying about it. I have three boys ages 9 (10 in July), 6, and 4.
Thank you!
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ANSWER:
I have not tried Sonlight for a few reasons. I just don't think it would fit my family. I've heard of many people who really like it, though. So, I can't help you with that. We have used Considering God's Creation for two years now and plan to finish it up this next school year. We love it. My boys love it. There isn't a lot of teacher prep, it's hands on, and they really learn with it. If there is a topic that my children are especially interested in, we just slow down and dig deeper. For example, last year we studied the animal kingdom and my children were really interested in birds. We used the lessons in CGC as a starting place and then checked out lots of library books on various types of birds, went to our local zoo and brought notebooks as we walked through all the different bird avaries. They STILL talk about how much fun that was and they really soaked that information in.
On my sidebar, you can click on "Homeschool Highlights" and scroll down to see some of the things we did with our bird unit last year. Or here are a few quick links:
Hmmmmmmm.... I know I posted about the Bird Books that each of my children made last year, but I can't seem to find it on my blog. If I find it, I will edit this. To make a long explanation short, what I did was use the lessons in Considering God's Creation as a starting place and then everyday we would read out of books that we had checked out from the library and I'd have my children make a notebook page. Sometimes it was a picture of their favorite bird. Sometimes they labeled the parts of the bird. Sometimes they told a story about a bird. They would write something new they learned about birds, etc. I saved all of their notebook pages they made and at the end of the month, we took them to Staples and had them comb-bound. So, each of my children had created their own bird book. It was a great way to combine many aspects of schooling (writing, grammar, science, etc).
FOUND THEM! :) Here are the links:
Another suggestion, I don't know if you've heard of it or not, but I found a helpful book titled, "How to Get Your Child Off the Refrigerator and Onto Learning." It deals with homeschooling ADD/ADHD children. It has lots of great, helpful ideas. :)
Anyway, hopefully that is helpful. :)
Blessings to you!
~ Lisa
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Pictures Just Cuz
Over on HK, we were issued a challenge to get over being self conscious and get on the other side of the camera! One of my HK sisters recently lost her 18-month-old son due to a tragic accident and she has shared how grateful she is for the many pictures she has of him. Hence, this challenge to get out from behind the camera. So, here are my pictures that we did for this challenge:
Here I am with all three of my precious ones! And below are ones with each individual child and some with my hubbyman.
Now it's YOUR turn!! Get out from behind that camera and get some pictures of you with your family! You won't regret it!
~LISA |
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eBay Listings!!
I just took some time to list some things on eBay. I haven't done that for a while. So, if you are looking for some readers for your K-2nd grade, a craft book, or some educational animal videos, head on over to my eBay listings and take a peek.  Here's the link: My eBay. Thanks for looking! |
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And he gave our boys a hands-on lesson on how to change a tire. 
Since I had brought my camera with me to Class Day today, I had it for the flat tire, too. 
