Jun. 22, 2006 - Classical Homeschool Resource - New Website
I've been so busy recently I haven't taken the time to write. I'm working on putting together my new website, which has taken me many hours! I didn't know the first thing about putting together a website, so I'm really starting from scratch and learning a lot. It's a site for homeschoolers that will eventually provide just about all the necessary resources you could need. It's main focus is on the Christian and Classical approaches, but of course, it will include many items relevant to all homeschoolers. It's been a tremendous learning opportunity for me and I'm really enjoying it. Check out my site at www.ClassicalHomeschoolResource.com and let me know what you think.
I'm also working on several different blogs and would love some input if you get an opportunity. Check under my links for the different sites and keep checking back as I try to build and improve them! Thanks to all who take the time to give me some feedback.
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Jun. 13, 2006 - Homeschooling Moms
Have you ever wondered what you could do to earn a little cash and still be an effective stay at home, homeschooling mom? I've tried several little "businesses", some I even enjoyed quite a bit. The problem with most opportunities for "working at home" is that at some point you have to LEAVE the home in order to compete in your chosen business.
We sold Usborne books for a long time and even moved up to Supervisor, but all the work of lugging the books around and spending our weekends setting up for different events became too time consuming and too difficult with 5 small children.
I tried Creative Memories, but the competition was so fierce and the pay off so small that it just didn't seem worth the effort. The other problem with both companies is that you have to at some point be out of the home without the kids.
Don't get me wrong. Spending an evening out with friends and no kids isn't all bad. It just didn't work for me. I don't have babysitters and my husband is fequently out of town on business. I was looking for something that I could do strictly from home, in my own time (and for me that meant in the middle of the night sometimes 
).
I am now having a blast doing different types of affiliate marketing all while sitting at my computer. This is NOT a sales pitch. I'm NOT selling anything. I just wanted to share what a wonderful opportunity this is and how much fun it can be. (and did I mention FREE?) I just love being able to work around my own schedule and NEVER having to make business calls, meet with customers or leave my home. It's truly the only home based business that I've found where you can have total freedom and flexibility and still have fun. Check it out if you're looking for a little extra income!
As for our homeschooling, we're taking things easy for a few weeks and then will be back to our lessons! Jacob turned 5 and will be starting Kindergarten with us and Sarah just turned 4 and will be doing a little more PreK work. Should be an interesting school year. I'm sure we won't keep Nicholas and Allena from pitching in as well.
God has truly blessed our family and homeschool!
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Jun. 12, 2006 - Tropical Storm Alberto
We have our first tropical storm of the season. Alberto is currently making it's way through the Gulf of Mexico and is projected to make landfall sometime tomorrow afternoon. We have lots of rain here in the Tampa Bay area with several tornadoes. We are keeping an eye on the weather channel and praying that we stay clear of any tornadoes and that we are all protected from any wind or flood damage.
We're planning on making it a lazy day, but I do have a few errands I have to run.
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Jun. 7, 2006 - Prayers Needed
Our family is currently suffering a personal tragedy. Please keep us in your prayers. We know that God will see us through and we pray that He shows us His will and gives us the strength and determination to follow the path that He directs for our lives. Lord help us to keep focused on your will and not be swayed by the way of the world. Help us to act in a Christ like manner and to be patient, kind and forgiving as we struggle with the difficulties of this life.
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May. 22, 2006 - Homeschooling News
It's been a long time since I've posted to my blog! Our days are hectic and filled constantly with motion. It's time I sat down and regrouped. So much has been happening and we have so many things to look forward to this summer.
I'm preparing for the coming school year and working on some new Unit Studies. We can't wait to dive in to the great stuff I've put together! We will be doing a 2 part Unit Study on Hurricanes and Hurricane Preparedness. National Hurricane Preparedness week started yesterday and the official Hurricane Season starts June 1. We will be preparing a Family Disaster/Hurricane Plan and putting together a Disaster Supplies Kit. We will calculate the amount of food and water we need to store as well as all the other essential items to gather...batteries, flashlights, radio, emergency first aid kit, etc. The rule of thumb is to keep enough supplies in your home for at least 3 days. I think this is a true minimum and would feel much better if we could be prepared for 7 - 10 days. Look at what happened in New Orleans!
The other Unit Studies we've been anxiously waiting to start are Food and Nutrition and Weather. Ryan has been asking for a very long time to do a Unit on Food and Nutrition. It's a topic that he's really interested in, so I'm glad that I've put together some really fun and interesting stuff for this. He's going to love it! We'll be covering everything from what is a protein to how to read food labels. Our Unit on weather will be much broader than what we cover in the one on Hurricanes. It will cover such topics as temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, cloud formations, predicting the weather, etc. We'll take readings and record rainfall, temperature, and air pressure and plot the results on graphs. We'll also be making our own thermometer, wind vane and barometer. This will be another fantastic Study...we can't wait!
The kids all made really nice notebooks for Lent/Easter and the little ones were so proud of themselves. Ryan and Jacob really enjoy not only the process of making their notebooks, but also the sense of accomplishment that comes from being able to sit back and see the completed project. They love to show their books to people or even browse through them on their own. It's really nice to have all of their work pulled together into one place and give them the opportunity to see the whole picture.
We do have one little thing to finish up on the Easter books. One of the projects the kids did was to make a live Easter basket. We made the basket, filled it with potting soil, planted different flowering plants for each child and then surrounded their plant with grass seed. Over the weeks of Lent the kids watched not only their flowers grow, but also the grass sprout from seed and grow. At the end of Lent we picked flowers from each of their plants and put them in a press to dry. When the flowers are completely dried we will add them to their notebook with a photo of them holding their live basket.
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Feb. 14, 2006 - Happy Valentine's Day
We had a beautiful day today. The weather is great and the sun is shining, I love days like this. We took the kids over to St. Pete to see the exhibit called "Ink & Blood" that's showing at the Florida International Museum. I've been wanting to see this exhibit since it arrived in January.
It was a homeschool "Field Trip", so Ryan had school work to do there. He learned a lot and seemed really interested. Here is a brief intro on the exhibit from their website:
A dramatic exhibition of authentic Dead Sea Scroll fragments, manuscripts and rare Bibles gathered from around the world to tell the story of the most printed book in historythe Bible in English. http://inkandblood.com/exhibit/overview/index.php
It was fascinating to see all those original documents. I only wish we could have done it without having to take all the little ones with us. They were too much of a distraction. I think we might try to go back before the exhibit ends.
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Feb. 12, 2006 - Ready for the New Week
It's been a quiet weekend around here. My husband arrived home early yesterday morning, (he travels frequently for business). We were going to go to the State Fair, but the weather seemed cool and damp. We ended up taking the kids to see the movie Curious George. 
It was really cute. It was the first movie we've been to in about 5 years....considering that 4 of our kids are 4 and under, it was their first movie. They all had a great time, but I think their favorite part was the snacking! Next time we'll limit the junk food. Ryan had so much fun that we had to set up a movie theatre at home last night. He lined up chairs from the dining room and we showed videos of the kids when they were babies. He even sold tickets to the "movie" and we all had reserved seats with our names on them. 
Today we went to church and then out for brunch. The boys are off to their bowling league and us girls are at home for our tea party. Other than that, not much happening today. I need to do a lot of preparation for our school week and of course, dozens of other little chores around the house. The laundry never stops and it's a constant battle to keep up with everything. I also need to put the final touches on our plans for Valentine's Day and make sure I have everything we'll need for our crafts and baking.
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Feb. 10, 2006 - Finding the Gifted Child and Homeschooling
When Ryan was born, we had no idea what lay ahead for us. We had all of the normal dreams and aspirations for our son. We nurtured his growing curiosity and his insatiable love of books. We indulged him with our undivided attention and guided him in his exploration of the world around him. What we didn't do was push him. We erred on the side of being too lenient as opposed to "expecting" too much from him. We were very AP (Attachement Parenting). Basically, for those who aren't familiar with AP, it consists of a style of parenting that is quite controversial to some. Attachment parenting usually consists of extended breastfeeding (breastfeeding beyond the first year), feeding on demand, co-sleeping, cloth diapers, the use of a baby sling to keep the baby close at all times, and gentle distraction/diversion as opposed to spanking or other forms of discipline.
Ryan was a precocious child. We knew he was bright, but never really thought much about it. Like many parents of profoundly gifted children, we didn't know what was normal for his age. I just never realized that it might be unusual for a toddler to do the things he was doing. I never had to teach Ryan any of the things other parents were working on...numbers, colors, letters, etc. He just seemed to know these things. In retrospect, I can see the obvious signs, but at the time I didn't realize that he was "different". He started reading when he was 2 years old without any instruction from us. We never worked on phonics, etc. He just picked up a book and started reading. At the time we just figured he was an early reader and we assumed it was just the natural result of all the books we had read to him. I've come to learn that this "spontaneous" reading is one of the indicators of a profoundly gifted child.
The summer Ryan turned 3 we started searching for the best preschool for him. Our standards were high and price and distance were secondary in our criteria. We looked at probably a dozen or more preschools, finally leaning towards Montessori. We visited several Montessori schools and the one we thought we would feel the most comfortable with was close to an hour away. We went to visit this school and everything seemed fine until the director made the comment "...some of our 4 year olds even know their alphabet". We were shocked! Ryan had been reading for the past year and we were looking at a school that thought it was good when kids a year older than him knew their alphabet. We knew this wasn't going to work, we needed something different. It was on the drive home from that visit that we realized we needed to homeschool!
Homeschooling has been a wonderful blessing for us. It gives us the freedom and flexibility to school around our sometimes hectic and irratic schedule. It also allows us to pursue courses of study that would otherwise not be available for young children. I've watched Ryan do amazing things and have marvelled at his understanding of concepts we haven't even touched on. I know God has led us on this path and I've been given the awesome responsibility of not only raising, but educating these beautiful children of His.
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Feb. 7, 2006 - Praise The Lord!
Yesterday, could easily have been the worst day of our lives, but God is so good to us! I found our little Nicholas (3 years old) in our swimming pool. He was in the deep end hanging on to the edge of the pool. He was too weighed down with wet jeans and his heavy shirt to be able to pull himself out. We're going to have to teach him to inch his way around the pool until he gets to the steps or the swim out. I had to unlock the child safety fence and run around to the far side of the pool in order to reach him. His little cowboy boots were floating on the surface of the water and his hot wheels cars were at the bottom of the pool, it was erie. That scene will haunt me for the rest of my life! Who knows what he was up to, but he tells me "the turtle pushed me in"! He kept telling me that he went in the water and wanted mommy - broke my heart. Nicholas loves the pool and has spent countless hours playing with his brothers in the water. However, he always wears a float and mommy or daddy are always there to catch him when he jumps into the water. I wouldn't say he could "swim", especially weighed down with his clothes and boots.
When I pulled Nicholas out of the water, he didn't cry or anything. He wasn't coughing up water or distressed in any way. He just said he wanted mommy. It's been pretty chilly here so I'm sure the water was in the 60's or so. We have solar heat, but I wouldn't imagine that the pool is very warm right now. I striped off all his wet clothes and wraped him in blankets, but he immediately started to nod off. I called a friend because I was a little panicked and didn't know what I should do. She advised me to call his pediatrician. Good advice Gaye! 
His doctor wanted me to bring him in for xrays and a check-up. I skipped the hospital and brought him to After Hours Pediatrics - I love that place...they're so good with the kids. With 5 kids we seem to visit them frequently. They checked his blood oxygen, temperature, blood pressure, xrays, etc. He checked out fine and I brought him home. The only thing I noticed was he seemed to have frequent nightmares that night. He woke up several times screaming for me, which is unusual for him. Usually he wakes up and just comes looking for me, no crying. A couple of times he woke up and went to the garage to look for the toys that I keep out there. I've found him hiding in the utility room playing with the "forbidden" toys when I got up in the morning.
Nicholas is our mischievous child, the one who will get into and out of everything. I called 911 one night because I thought someone was trying to break in....just Nicholas trying to break OUT in the middle of the night! He has this amazing spirit, he is so full of fun and life it's absolutely contagious. Everyone who knows him will be nodding their heads in realization that it would be Nicholas who would pull off an escapade like this.
I pray everyday that God watches over my little ones, that He protects them and keeps them safe. Yesterday was an answer to that prayer. The fact that he was found safe in the pool is truly a blessing from God. Here in Florida it is so common to hear of little ones drowning in family pools, it seems to happen all the time. This summer all 3 of my 3 year olds are taking swimming lessons until they are completely confident and capable swimmers! Ryan and Jacob swim like fish so we don't really need to worry about them.
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Feb. 5, 2006 - Our Homeschool Day
My oldest son, Ryan, had his first standardized test evaluation last week. Although we were a little concerned about how he would handle the pressure/stress of a "formal" test, he came through with flying colors. Ryan is 8 years old and received a GRADE equivalent of 10.9 in Reading/Vocabulary and 7.6 in Reading/Comprehension (99th percentile and 98th percentile, respectively). He scored in the 91st and 92nd pecentile for Math Computation and Math Concepts/Applications, with a total math percentile of 93%.
We knew his reading was well above grade level because he absolutely LOVES to read and won't leave the house without a book in his hands. We read all the time and have enjoyed many, many wonderful books. We still read out loud to the kids as well as providing plenty of books for their free reading. Visits to the library and the bookstore are a must for our family!
Although Ryan tested well on the standardized tests, which was our way of complying with our state homeschooling law, it unfortunately cannot be used as a fair assessment of his true intelligence or academic ability. Testing has ceilings and other issues that must be taken into consideration when dealing with gifted children. I'm working on my next post which will cover more of this in detail.
We are so fortunate to be able to homeschool and address the special needs of our children. We use an eclectic approach to our classical education. We incorporate the philosophy of Charlotte Mason as well as The Well Trained Mind. Here is a list of some of the resources and curriculum that we use: 
Sonlight - Core & Language Arts
Sonlight Science
A Beka Bible Curriculum
A Beka Art Projects
Math-U-See (currently using Gamma)
Gotta Have God - Cool Devotions for Boys
Explode the Code
Wordly Wise
Story of the World
Mystery of History
Spelling Power
Draw with your Kids
A Reason for Handwriting
Rosetta Stone - Spanish
Prima Latina - Latin
Lapbooking
Flat Travelers
Evan-Moor - History Pockets
(Ancient civilizations)
Evan-Moor - A Unit About Weather
Evan-Moor - Art for All Seasons
Daily Required Reading -
Usually something that ties
into our current History lesson
Daily Free Reading -
A good book (not twaddle!)
Daily Read Aloud -
A book we're reading as a family
Bright Minds - Critical Thinking Skills
Violin Practice 
Karate (usually 4 days a week)
Bowling league (weekly)
Many resources from the internet,
including about.com and edhelper.com
Many hands on activities
Lots and Lots and Lots of great books
Plenty of outdoor play
For the youngest 4:
Five in a Row
A Beka PreK
A Beka Bible Curriculum
Calvert PreK
Bright Minds - for critical thinking
coloring, cutting and arts & crafts activities
singing & music
Beginner's Bible
Plenty of read alouds
Free time to look at books
manipulatives - nuts & bolts, beads, lacing, etc.
outdoor play
Each child is assigned 1 day of the week that is their designated day to be "helper". They help with different chores, help prepare meals, lead grace and prayers, etc. This is a favorite day for each of them and they anxiously wait for their turn.
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