I was wondering if you've heard of the relatively new company called Teacher's Book Bag?  They sell items on CurrClick, and I also get emails from them periodically.

Today's email was telling of a Labor Day Sale, and five new freebies on their website.  The freebies are hyperlinked, and below is the content of the sale, for those of you who might be interested. 

Each month's "Book Bag" is actually three books to pick and choose from, at three different learning levels.  The sale items in the brochure below are for the August Book Bag, the Preschool File Folder Game Kits Collection One, and  the Kindergarten through First Game Kit Collection One.

I already purchased one of the August "Book Bag"s myself, and it is absolutely amazing!  It is called "The Sun, Seasons, and our Solar System", and it came available at just the perfect time because it came out right when my son was expressing an interest in the solar system.  If you follow the hyperlink, there is even a FULL PREVIEW of the product, which really sold me and helped me know I wanted it. The preview, for me, is smaller than my full screen, therefore hard to read, is not printable, and I can't find a way to hyperlink it (which are all great product security features for a preview...), so just go there and take a look.  [The other two sale items don't persoanally interest me, because at this point I am homeschooling one, and my student is 4th grade.]

So, here's the sale info:

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Time for me to get back to legit bloging here. Sorry I've been so neglectful to anyone who is still subscribed here... I'll try to make reading my blog worth your while.

To start, today there was an excellent blog entry over at Heart of the Matter -- gave wonderful learning game ideas that I wanted to post here so I won't lose them:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Looking for some fresh ideas to teach geography to your kids? Try one of these activities and sneak a little learning fun into your day:

• Bingo ~ Put together a list of 9-12 geography terms {land features, continents and oceans, countries within a continents, etc}. Provide your kids with 3×3 bingo boards and have them fill the squares with the different geography terms that you are learning. To play, read the definition of the term, specifics about the continent {largest continent, this continent is an island}, or name the capitals of the countries. They have to mark off the matching answer ~ you can make it as easy or difficult as you like!
• ABC’s of the World ~ Our kids love to play this game. We take turns pointing to places on our world map that start with the letters of the alphabet. A ~ Albania, B ~ Belize, C ~ Canada, D ~ Denmark, until we work our way through the alphabet.
• Destination Jar ~ Fill an old jar with strips of paper listing different destinations. We use famous landmarks we’ve studied, latitude/longitude coordinates or just country names. You can also list famous people: kings, queens, explorers or missionaries. Have your child pick a slip from the jar and find the place that matches on a map or a globe.
• Geography Sleuth ~ Give your child a few hints about a location and then let them discover where it is. For example 1) four of the first five presidents were born in this state; 2) the state bird is the cardinal; 3) the Potomac River runs through this state…Virginia!
• Toss the Globe ~ We recently bought an inflatable globe and play a game of catch with it. Whoever catches it has to name where either of their thumbs have landed. Depending on the kid’s ages, they have to tell me capitals, a famous landmark in the area, important features of that country, etc. This is great for learning map features such as mountain ranges, rivers, and borders as well as identifying the continents and oceans for younger children.

Try out a few of the games and have fun together with your kids. You’ll be surprised at how much they {and you} learn through fun and simple games!

Today's entry will be a review of a fantastic product created by the makers of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine (TOS). 

The Schoolhouse Planner is a digital planning book of 247 pages, chock-full of helpful, useful information, forms, and inspiration.  It is such a large document, and so full of so many wonderful things, that I will have a hard time telling you about all of them... Your eyes will start to gloss over dreamily...  And best of all, it is a PDF document, but you can type in it and SAVE the changes you have typed into it!  You will see why this is so wonderful as I tell you about it.

• Articles:  So far I have read inspirational articles on teaching math, the importance of teaching foreign languages, and how to use unit studies.  Articles I am still looking forward to reading on teaching Geography, Solving Science Struggles, communication, "Hands-on" History, Chore Training Tips, how art enriches our lives, and Homeschooling through High School.
• Recipes:  The Planner is divided into months of the school year, with a two-page-spread calendar for each month which can be printed (pages back-to-back) and put into your 3-ring Planning Notebook.  Between each month there are, among other things, yummy recipes for you to try out.
• There are information pages on famous composers and artists, countries and capitals, the Periodic Table, United States and state capitals, U.S. Presidents and their wives, a history timeline, 7 Wonders of the Ancient World and of the Modern World, important U.S. documents (such as the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, etc.). 
•  Forms:  This is where the type and save feature is really wonderful!  The Planner has in it so many, many wonderful forms.  There are forms for annual plans, yearly goals, curriculum planning, courses of study, a twelve-year planning page, recording sheets for curriculum recording, yearly grades, daily grades, progress reports, crafts completed, and on and on.  For the 12 year planning pages, you can add to it/adjust it each year.  The other forms can be filled in and saved, and reused each year, enterring the changed information for each new year.
• There are pages for descipleship records, Bible reading and memorization records, audio/video re and book reading logs, field trip planning, nature journal pages, Science lab sheet pages, and website and vendor information pages.  There are actually also resource recommendation pages in each month's section throughtout the entire Planner.
• There are pages to comple important personal information such as phone number and addresses of contacts, information for babysitters, family health records, schedules and reminders of homekeeping chores for mom and for kids, daily and family chore charts, many different formats for chore charts. There are pages for budgeting, financial inventory, gift budget, prayer journal, Bible reading, important dates to remember, garden plans and checklist, inventory of major appliances and electronics.  There are pages for keeping track of things borrowed or loaned, vacation plans, pet health visits, agift wish lists, and on and on. 
  

Improvements I would suggest for the creators to make to The Schoolhouse Planner:

• Table of Contents:  I would like to see the Table of Contents linked to the rest of the document so that when the reader points the cursor to an item in the TOC, one point and click would take the person immediately to the desired page.
• Table of Contents, again: The contents is listed by order, but page numbers are not given, so I have to scroll through the entire document to find out where something is and I can't just enter the page number into the top of the form where there is a nice little feature to do just that to get to the page you want...
• Two-page calendar spread: It would be very helpful if page two of each spread said somewhere, even in very faint print, what month it went to.  Repeatedly I am second guessing if my printer has messed me up, as I try to make sure that page one of November is on the back of page two of October, etc.
• Calendar (again): I would like to see the calendar pages presented in a changeable format, so that this resource can truly be used year after year. In other words, the place where it indicates on a calendar that August 14th, for instance, is a Thursday, should be typeable so that next year it could be changed and used to have the dates for August of 2009.

Overall, while this was a long, yet brief, overview, I just want to say what an awesome resource this is.  For it's price, I personally would have appreciated having a hard copy given to me with a compact disk included, which would have the pdf document on it.  I'm not a super computer whiz, so I don't know if a document that size would fit on a disk in pdf format, but it was just a thought.

So, everyone, go to The Schoolhouse E-Store and download the free sample pages to peruse, and think about investing in the wonderful resource for your homeschool (link below):

http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=145&products_id=2629

Diana

Greetings friends, family, and other readers!  I am gearing up for a brand new school year and a fresh, more thorough year of blogging.

I am going to begin my new year of blogging by reviewing a product which I was recently given the opportunity to review, The Old Schoolhouse Digital Magazine.

I have been a subscriber to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine for years; it is my favorite magazine.  In 2007, when The Old Schoolhouse launched their digital magazine, they offered (and still do) a free sample download for people to use to look over the magazine.  I downloaded the magazine and looked it over, but did not give it a thorough perusal, because most of my magazine reading occurs where my laptop cannot/does not go. I often find time to read in a short, warm bath, or when I sneak away to a basement bathroom where I might steal a few moments of respite before returning to my responsibilities.

However, recently TOS asked me to review their digital magazine, and to write up my review for others to see.  So, receiving a current copy, I immediately looked it over, and this my review.

First, obviously, it is still true that I will not be taking my laptop with me when I take a bath, and it is not with me when I sneak away to that powder room for a few minutes break.  The digital copy does not come WITH the hard copy, so if I only subscribe to the digital copy, I do not have that wonderful glossy magazine to enjoy, to touch, to smell, ...you know what I mean...

That being said, here are the things I liked.

TOS Digital Magazine is internally linked.  From the moment I saw the front cover, I was amazed.  Where the magazine cover tells you some of the articles within the magazine, they are linked! I point my mouse to the topic, I click, and it takes me to the article! Whereas in the hard copy, if I am interested in an article on Charlotte Mason mentioned on the front cover, I then have to flip to the Table of Contents, find the page number of the article, and then find that page. I must be somewhat ADHD when it comes to this, but frequently I never get to the article I was interested in. I'll start flipping pages, but get distracted by a different article or advertisement, and suddenly my time to look at the magazine is gone and I never got to the initial article I was interested in!  ::sigh:: So the Digital Magazine helps me because I can quick click to the article and read it.

To save friends time looking, I am going to list links of free paper models you can download, print out and construct.  Here we go (in no particular order):

7 Wonders of the World, The Great Pyramid:

http://www.delta7studios.com/pyramid.htm

Model: http://www.delta7studios.com/images/Great%20Pyramid.pdf

7 Wonders of the World, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon:

http://www.delta7studios.com/garden.htm

Model: http://www.delta7studios.com/images/garden.pdf

7 Wonders of the World: Temple of Artimis:

http://www.delta7studios.com/artemisian.htm

Model: http://www.delta7studios.com/images/tempartemisA.pdf

7 Wonders of the World: Tomb of King Maussolus

http://www.delta7studios.com/tomb.htm

Model: http://www.delta7studios.com/images/TOMB.pdf

7 Wonders: The Pharos (lighthouse) of Alexandria

http://www.delta7studios.com/pharos.htm

model:  http://www.delta7studios.com/images/pharos%20model.pdf

The other 2 of the 7 Wonders do not have models or pages yet:

The Great Statue of Zeus and The Colossus at Rhodes

The general 7 Wonders page is: http://www.delta7studios.com/wonders.htm

My friend Karen Solomon, Support for Homeschool Yahoo Group, just posted these great teacher appreciation offers. I thought I'd put them here for others to also see, and so I can delete the other email and not lose the information.  Here it is:

OFFICE DEPOT®
> Office Depot® is hosting the 13th Annual Teacher Appreciation
> Breakfast. Stop in for free breakfast, a free tote bag
> (while supplies last) and 10%* off everything all day. Visit
> www.school.com and click on "Star Teacher Program" to find the
> breakfast near you. Not a Star Teacher yet? Visit your local
> Office Depot® store to sign up today!
> Note:*10% instant discount is not valid for purchases from
> www.techdepot.com, purchases of Gift Cards, computers, wireless,
> satellite, Internet or shipping and mailing services. Quantities
> limited. While supplies last.
>
> MICHAELS®
> Michaels thanks teachers for inspiring creative young minds every
> day. Come to Michaels August 20th through 26th and receive a
> teachers-only 10% discount off of everything in the store, including
> sale items! (School ID may be required.) Also, enter online for a
> chance to win a $1,000 Michaels gift card, a classroom full of cool
> Crayola products, or other great prizes! Enter at Michaels.com between
> August 19th and 26th. For more information about the Michaels teacher
> appreciation event, visit www.michaels.com
>
> WAL*MART®
> Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. will be hosting Teacher Appreciation Events
> throughout the country from July 21 to July 31, 2006 at more than
> 3,000 locations. The Wal*Mart Teacher Appreciation program, now in its
> 9th year, is designed to help kick off the school year by showing
> appreciation to America's teachers.
>
> Each teacher who attends the event will receive a gift package
> containing samples from Crayola and other manufacturers of
> school-related supplies (while supplies last). For more information,
> contact your local store or visit www.wal-mart.com
>
> STAPLES®
> Teachers are invited to celebrate the new school year at Teacher
> Appreciation Day events in Staples stores nationwide. The first 200
> teachers at each event will receive a free canvas goody bag, teacher
> planner, and valuable coupons. Find the event near you at
> www.staples.com/teacherday (Teachers may be asked to
> present school ID.)
>
> OFFICEMAX®
> OfficeMax is hosting Teacher Appreciation Events in the last week
> of July and mid-August, depending on when school starts in your area.
> Teachers can call their local OfficeMax store or 1-877-OFFICEMAX, to
> find local dates and locations. Visit OfficeMax.com to find a
> store near you.

Boy, who'd a thunk March would be so busy for me?  And when I'm so busy and don't take notes, the end of the month comes and I'm left asking myself, "Where did the month go? What did I spend my time doing?"  And since I didn't blog through it, I really don't remember... (Signs of aging!...)

Anyway, last night was our homeschool co-op end-of-unit Sock Hop (Tapestry of Grace, Year 4, Unit 3, approximately 1950-1975, included 1950's and we made the '50's the theme for our end-of-unit celebration!).  My daughter and I each made poodle skirts for the occasion, shopped at thrift stores to find genre-appropriate sweaters to wear with the skirts, raided my jewelry left me by my grandmother and my husband's aunt and grandmother, and dressed up in penny loafers and bobby socks, pony tails and poodle skirts...  I don't have any photos of myself, but I can post a photo of my skirt and a photo of my daughter in hers, as soon as I get them downloaded to my computer. 

My other daughter came for the event from college (25 or so miles away) and brought a friend, and my 6 year old went as a 50's 6-year-old, in a cowboy outfit with the hat and a vest, stick horse and popgut (provided by college-sis).  Dad went as dad.  Jeans always look like jeans, right?  A fun time was had by all.

6 yo has a cold, though, so I'm home from church with him right now.  Well, guess I should get off the computer for a bit and do motherly things for a few.  Blessings!

D

Sorry I am short on entries right now. My state requires annual reviews of the homeschool program, and my review is tomorrow night. I haven't kept my records very up to date, so I am getting things ready for my review.

I'll try to write after that.

D

Today, while another busy day, was a good school day with my six year old.  We started the day at 7:00 (not the school day, just the day).  I start my day by making coffee, emptying the dishwasher, getting hot cocoa (sugar free) for my 6 yos, and getting breakfast for he and I. I check email while I eat.

At 8:15 I had to take my 16 year old to Spanish 2 (2 miles from home). (Hubby often does this on the way to work, but he had to go in early today.)  Home again, and wrapped up a book to mail. Had to pick 16 yod up again at 9:30.  Haven't even showered by this time, so I beg off to shower while 16 yo watches 6 yo.

Showered, bed made, dressed, hair styled, finally ready to start.  I got my 6 yo started on the computer with phonics on a great free program called Study Dog (check it out, if you haven't: http://www.studydog.com/levels.asp ).  He had such a good day today! He finished level 1! I had to download and launch level 2 on our computer.

Lunch, and time to take 16 yo to another activity (again, 2 miles away).  Dropped her off, went to post office to mail package, went to bank to close an account, did another task, then home to another school subject, Math.  6 yos is advanced (according to the state, he is in K, but he's working his way through MCP Math, Level A (for 1st Grade: http://www.pearsonlearning.com/mcp/math.cfm).  He is beginning subtraction, and he wasn't getting it just from the pictures, but when I pulled out the counting bears and placed a bear on each picture, he finally understood what they were asking him for.

Picked daughter up from her activity at 3:10, and on the way home she began telling me she's going to read tomorrow's literature assignment as soon as we get home.  "...You mean the one that I haven't gotten yet? The one that all the library's copies are currently unavailable for?"  So, we make a u-turn and head to the book store.  "Lilies of the Field, by William Barrett?  I'm sorry, that is currently out of print.  You can order it, if you like..."  No, of course not. I need it right now.  Back in the car and head to the used book store. (So glad we have a used book store!)  Out of the car and up to the counter and explain what I need.  "That'll be in fiction."  They had a copy! What was the damage? $1 !!!!!  Now that's a good day!  Headed home and sat down and read to the six yos from Olga da Polga, this week's book that we're reading (http://tinyurl.com/pm386).  A chapter away, and then I check email and I've sold another book, this one for $18.  It's a good day!

So, thought I'd share some sunshine, smiles and cheer.  Blessings!

Good school day yesterday.  Trying to figure out what I'm doing with K/1 all year. Have reverted to workbooks, for now, just to have paper trail for my reviewer, since I haven't done a good job on the daily lesson planner. (It has things in it I never did; it doesn't have things I did in it...)

JD was so beyond the materials in K math.  What he likes to do in his spare time is fill up blank sheets of paper with solved addition problems.  So I am supposed to pull out the counting bears and have him create an AB pattern with two colors? He has been doing that for two years! Now he even knows the terminology! "Mom, I -made an A-B-B-C pattern with these beads!"

Where we are working at K level is on the proper way to form letters and numbers when writing them down.  He sometimes resists this, but I tell him how important it is. He sometimes says, "I'm never going to be able to do it that way!" But then I remind him about the pencil grip issue, which is a huge success.  In two months he went from fighting me to picking a pencil (or anything) up the right way and using it properly without even thinking about it.  And then when he realizes it he still loves to call my attention to it: "Hey mom! Look at how I'm holding my pencil!"

Current books:

MCP 1st grade math (Level A)

A Reason for Writing, K

A Beka Letters and Sounds 1 (1st grade level)

Since these are the areas I consider of primary importance right now, these are the ones I focus on during our "school time".  We also try to work in reading from the 365 Day Bible storybook. Don't know its exact title. We also get lots of unrecorded science and history. I need to get intentional about these two areas.

In my state, the law requires regular instruction in eight basic subject areas, even in K. Isn't that crazy?  Let's see:

Language Arts

Mathematics

Science

Social Studies

Art

Music

Physical Education

....uh, that's only seven....   I'm not sure if I am missing something, or if I have two grouped together in either Language Arts or Social Studies...  Anyway, I need to do a better job next year of documentation and filing.  I'm getting there this year on the filing of school papers, but I am not doing the lesson planner right now. Need to try to get the 2nd half of the year up to speed anyway.

I hope to do further reading on different schooling methods to figure out where we are going.  Here are the methods I want to read up on and decide between or learn more about and pick and choose:

The Well Trained Mind

Charlotte Mason

The Trivium/Classical Education

No matter which/what I choose, I know it will include living history.  Sometime I'll get back into Tapestry of Grace, but for now I really believe in the importance of focusing on the basics (Reading, 'Riting and 'Rithmatic), and I let the history/literature/geography-type topics be more interest driven. 

Well, I guess it is time to go work w/JD and stop talking about it!

Well, not as much homeschooling today.  Got up this morning and did other stuff all morning figuring I'd homeschool in the afternoon.  Gave dd#2 a ride to co-op, then came home and ate breakfast, cleaned up the sink, made the bed, spent some time on the computer.  DD got a ride home from co-op with someone else (yea!) so I didn't have to go out to get her.  Had lunch, did some wiping down of furniture made dusty by our renovations (power sander on spackled walls). Cleaned out the tadpole's habitat. Cleaned up and spent time on the computer again.  Trying to do HTML programming on another other blog. 

1:00 came and it was time to take DD#2 to her job. Went out the the van.  Remembered that the tire pressure warning light has been coming on, so I walked the perimeter of the van and found a basically flat tire!  Was probably quite low when I went out this morning, too, but that was only a 1 mile round trip.

Called my daughter's employer (a friend), and she came and picked daughter up.  I asked her to follow me so I could drive up to the gas station (3/4 mile away), but after 50 feet or so I decided the tire was too low now to do it.  She left. I kept trying unsuccessfully to get ahold of hubby, figuring he might want to come and help me during daylight rather than put it off until tonight. (He works 3 miles away.)

Noticed my neighbor outside, so I called over to him. "Hey, Jimmy... Do you by any chance have an air compressor?"  Turns out he does!  It's a small one; he bought it for inflating bicycle tires, but it did the trick!  He inflated my tire sufficiently, and also was able to determine that I had gotten a screw embedded in my tire!  So now I was able to drive up to my local service station.  They were able to take me right in. They inflated the tire the rest of the way, pulled the screw, plugged the hole, and re-inflated (as air had escaped when the screw came out).  All this while my son, JD watched.

Then after they were done, JD was able to get some questions answered about what is this hole here for? (disposing of oil after an oil change) How about those over there? (That's where the gasoline tank trucks pump the gas that comes up to the gas pumps to fill the car.)

So can I count that as school for today?  Between that and the time we will read to him tonight, that is fairly substantial... I have him the A Beka phonics worksheet for the day, but he isn't quite grasping the concept of marking the vowel with the mark to indicate it is making the long vowel sound... :(

Have a great day!

D

Amidst being a taxi for dd#2, I managed to have a great homeschooling with ds!

8:30 dd was taken to Spanish by her wonderful dad.

9:30 I picked her her up, and of course ds was with us.  DD had had a bad class, not doing well on two quizzes on some new material that had been introduced while she was in Cal.  Now, having missed two weeks of classes, she's going to have to really hussle to get back up to speed with the rest of the class.

Home again, dd studied in her room and ds watched a bit of tele while I got some things done. (It started because I needed a heater in the classroom, and I remembered there should be one around here, so I was looking in the attic.)  (I know... ::gasp!  she let's her son watch the tele right in the middle of the school day?...::  Well, I'm working on it, okay?)  After a bit, time for lunch, then dd to her afternoon class at 1:50.  I thought we were going to do some schooling while she was there, but ds got caught up in some other activity, and I remembered I a book sell on the interent that I needed to pack up and get to the post office.

3:10, picked dd up from her class.  Post Office, then home again.  This time ds and I really got busy.  First, he (on his own initiative) began doing several pages from his math book!  Now, it is a 1st Grade math book and he is only supposed to be in K, but I'm starting to find he's ready for 1st in many of the schoolwork...  After quite a bit of Math, I had him do some work from our English book, and then he did some pages from our Phonics book. 

I still would like to get serious and disciplined about daily Bible, as well as make sure I am not short changing him in Science, History, Art, Music and PE, but we really do get those, just not as often as I would like, nor in as organized a fashion as I would like.

Well, we played Uno tonight, just he and I, as dad and dd were at a 4-H meeting.  It was a great day through and through.  I read some about early North America and the conquistadors after Uno, and last night I was reading about the five senses, so that is an example that these are getting covered. I just think he'd retain it more and we'd both enjoy it more if I dove-tailed the subject material with hands on stuff.  I'd elaborate, but I'm afraid this computer is going to lock up before I can transmit this post, so I am going to quit for now. 

Blessings toyou all!

Diana

Well, dd2 is back! She's been gone since 12/31.  She had a great time. I had some respite from driving her here and there!

While she was gone I took advantage of not needing to drive as much, and we worked on some wall-paper stripping and painting of two bathrooms, hallway, stairwell, and overflowing into the livingroom.  The wallpaper was on ALL of this except the livingroom.  Everything has been stripped, scraped, spackled, sanded, primed, and painted except the stairwell, which we are still working on.  It is stripped but not scraped, spackled, or etc.  The livingroom only needed priming and painting, and one wall is primed.

Isn't it amazing the way it seems that when you work so hard to make something clean or fresh, sometimes it makes the things around it that are not done yet just stand out like a sore thumb!  Well, that's the way the edging and the ceiling look right now, because they both need the freshening coats, too, and inspite of how nice the walls look, the edges are just glaringly dirty and need their coat too!

********************************************

So, right now we have the whole family here.  DD1 is about to leave for work. Tomorrow she has off, and Sunday she's going back to the college dorm for the next semester.  It's been so nice having her here, and she helped SO MUCH on the stripping/painting stuff!

Now, with DD2 back I'll be returning to the taxi business with two to four trips out of the house daily!  But, at least for today I can leave JD with B while I take T to the metro to get to work...

********************************************

Weather nice today for the last day in awhile.  Was sunny and 62 degrees yesterday.  Today it was in the 60's, but not sunny.  Cold front supposed to roll in tonight with rain and making the temperatures go down to highs in the 40's for awhile.  I'm so ready for spring... And for this school year's busyness to be at its close...  ::sigh::

**********************************************

When I get back from my taxi trip I need to do some schoolwork with JD before I start making dinner...

Have a great day!

~Diana in MD

Monday was a good school day.  We started the day Charlotte Mason style, taking a nature walk.  We took along two empty bags to collect trash--J's great idea!  While we were on our walk we observed cardinals, mourning doves, a blue jay, chickadees (or sparrows, I need to look them up to check), and some birds with black and white stripes on their back that were either woodpeckers or flickers. Need to look them up too.

J also found a heap of rolly polly's, which he tried to bring home. But he had nothing to keep them in but his hand, and they crawled away.  We walked along the creek, and he enjoyed discovering the footbridge and crossing it. As we did so a squirrel in the tree began scolding us without mercy!

On the walk we did fill the bags with trash to the point where we had to stop long before the visible trash was gone. I promised J we will go back with bags again in the future to get rid of more of the neighborhood trash on another walk on another day.

We also did math and copy work today. J copied "God is love."  I have decided that copy work will be a good way to reinforce for him the correct directions for the letters to go, which is something he is struggling with.

Well, I'm off to prime the hallway. After that I will be off to swap cars w/hubby, since I am getting his oil changed for him today but he forgot to leave his car with me!

Blessings,

Diana

Well, merry Christmas to all!  Whew, that was a busy season!  I love the Lord dearly, but I still find it hard to enjoy December. I need to have a less busy year next year, if at all possible.

I hope all is going well for anyone who reads this blog entry.  I am over Christmas; tomorrow is my birthday. Then I turn to those "What am I working on improving in 2006?" thoughts.

My schedule this year has been:

Monday: homeschool, clean in the a.m.  Run dd#2 (11th grader) to work in the afternoon.  More homeschool, cleaning, computer stuff, and dinner planning/making or errands.

Tuesday: Dad takes dd#2 to 8:30 class; I pick her up at 9:30 a.m. She works independently while I do errands or homeschool ds or do cleaning or computer stuff. I take dd#2 to a class at 3:10; I later pick her up at 4:30, come home, clean up and make dinner. Tues. night is either our care group or her care group, depending on the week; once/month I go to her caregroup, so that's like 3 Tuesdays/month that I am out in the evening.

Weds: Take dd to history co-op at 9:00; later pick her up at 11:00. Later, take dd to work at 3:00; hope she can find a ride home at 5:00. In between, same thing: homeschool ds or do computer stuff or cleaning or errands.

Thurs: Dad takes dd to 8:30 class; I pick her up at 9:30. She works independently on homeschool stuff while I do the same thing as other days. Later I take her to outside class at 1:50. Later I pick her up from class, at 3:10.

Fridays: I take dd to literature co-op at 9:00. I pick her up at 11:00. She comes home, eats lunch, and I take her to work at 12:30 to 1:00, and she is gone til dinner or later.

**********************

I've been married 26 years. I am buried under clutter. I am trying to dig my way out. I am spending more time working on my house than I am on homeschooling my son or my daughter. I see progress, but easily get discouraged.  I get encouragement from www.Flylady.net, and daily emails. 

I live in a house full of books. I am a bookseller on www.Alibris.com, and am also an Usborne Consultant (www.ubah.com/A2601), although I am not really doing much (anything) with that right now.  My latest exciting thing is that I just found out about www.paperbackswap.com, a place where I can list books I don't want to keep but that are not worth enough to sell on Alibris. When I get someone who wants a book, I send it to them media mail at my own expense, but then I get one credit, which means I can request a book available there for free to add a book that I really want or need for our homeschool or personal reading pleasure.  Books and things that I don't want, but that I don't want to give away on the swap because postage would cost too much, I am able to get rid of by listing on http://www.freecycle.org/ (find the group closest to you and check it out).  I listed a box of books Tuesday, and it was picked up Wednesday!

So, I need to pull out my Managers of their Home and try to get more systematic in 2006 so I am not neglecting my son's homeschooling anymore, even though he is only K.

Well, this was long, but I better end before this computer locks up and loses the entire entry.  Will check back again soon.

dmalament@yahoo.com

Okay, so I'm not so diligent with this blogging stuff so far.  I'll try to do better.

So an update since August.  Our fair queen daughter has moved out and is attending college, living on campus.  Our 16-year-old is very diligently working on her junior year. She is in Year 4 of Tapestry of Grace (studying the 20th Century in history and literature), and is also taking her 2nd year of Spanish.  We are struggling to finish Algebra I from last year. We also want to accomplish Geometry this year, and another high school level science, although we just can't seem to get started.  We can't even decide on the science to do...

My son turned 6 the day after Thanksgiving.  He seems to be learning by osmosis, since I don't spend as much time schooling him as I wish I did.  I seem to spend my time running the home and playing taxi. (16 year old has outside activities most days, twice-a-day most days.)

Today, in addition to whittling away at Mt. Washmore, I should find a way to get a few things at the grocery store, take my van to the dealership to find out why the heating fan makes such a head-ache inducing vibrating noise, and shuttle my daughter to and from two activities.  Speaking of...  I need to go get her now from her co-op class!  Bye now!

D