Mar. 2, 2007 - Update!
Hey everyone! Wow! I feel like I fell off the planet! Well, I have an update for all of you. We placed Emily back in public school a month ago. She loves it but we are not very happy with the decision. It is not what is in my heart to do and I feel I am going against what God led me to do. But the unfortuante reality is that I have to work 3-4 days a week on top of everything else that I have to do. I was having great difficulty making the social connections because there just wasn't enough time or energy left to make those connections or nurture them. Emily is a social butterfly and would do well in any surrounding, she is very independent and loves to learn and discover. She loves being back at school and having that rigid schedule, she just thrives in that type of environment! So we are happy that she is happy, but again it's not what I wish for my children in my heart. Eric is in preschool as he has been all year. We still supplement his education at home (along with Emily). We have decided to buckle down and work our butts off for the next year, sell this big old house and then start over fresh and new somewhere in the country. We want to homestead and homeschool and we just cannot do it where we live, because we are so bogged down financially. So the plan is to hang in there for another year and pray that the Lord will give us the strength we need to survive another year and survive placing her in public school. I still don't know about Eric and Kindergarten. He needs a private school setting. If I was to homeschool him it would have to be classical as he needs a strict schedule, but we will cross that bridge later! For now we will just pray and continue to stick it out. I hope all of you are doing well and I look forward to hearing from Y'all again!
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Dec. 21, 2006 - MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
From our family to yours, we wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! We hope everyone has a beautiful day!! Happy birthday to our Lord and saviour!! The Carpenter Family
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Dec. 21, 2006 - Eric's therapy appointment
Everything went really well with the therapist today. She does not feel there is any type of disorder present. This means everything to us because she is a therapist who specializes in pediatric development disorders and delay. She said we have a beautiful happy, healthy boy who just needs some fine tuning with his fine motor! She has no idea where the teacher is coming from as far as pervasive issues. Sometimes Eric will throw his hands back or tighten his body and shake for a few seconds when he is very happily excited and she thinks that possibly the teacher is thinking this is abnormal. It is different, but not abnormal, and he has done it since he was a baby. I guess it is the same as someone who jumps up and down when they are excited. He only does it when he is happy or very intrigued with something. It is never a negative thing. So we are going to see her once a week for six visits to strengthen his upper body and that is it! She also gave me an enormous questionaire to fill out and the data was calculated and it showed him as being a very normal child. She said she has only had three "normal" children walk through her door in 20 years and he was one of them!! So we are soooo happy, it truly is a blessing and we are so thankful for the great news!!
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Dec. 14, 2006 - Eric update
Well.......The pediatrician feels that we should take the middle ground and have him evaluated by an OT/PT specialist, so we were referred to a very well known pediatric specialist. The deal is to only focus on his fine motor and go from there, if she picks up on anything pervasive the pediatrician says she will tell him because they are friends. We agreed only because she is very holistic and we are not going through insurance so there will be no paper trail or formal diagnosis made available to the teachers or insurance company. This way we will do with the info what we will and be in full control. Even if there is a diagnosis made such as autism or PDD, it doesn't matter because our plans will not change. We still plan to homeschool. We thank God for his beautiful gift to us and we wouldn't change the way Eric is for anything in this world! I'll keep everyone updated on how the therapy session goes.
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Dec. 7, 2006 - KABOOM!
O.K. So the reason I have been so quiet is because Eric's preschool teacher dropped a bomb on us last week!! She thinks he has some "pervasive" issues, meaning she feels that in her "opinion" that he may have a form of autism!! First of all, since when do preschool teachers diagnose children? Second of all just because he is different does not mean he has a disorder!! And last but certainly not least, why am I sending him to preschool? Geez, I tell ya, what made me think that the preschool would not have the same issues as the elementary school? So my child thinks "outside of the box", well God bless his little soul!! We love him because he is quirky and eccentric and it's certainly not affecting his education because he is one sharp little man!! BUT......According to his teacher his "ways" are affecting his ability to learn within the confines of the institution that I pay 150 bucks a month for. So needless to say, we have another conference tomorrow with the teacher, to discuss our "plan" to get our son "help" for his disorder. ( Man, why did I pay tuition this month?) She wants to contact Child Development Services and get him screened. We say no way! I refuse to have a goverment agency assess my child and start a file on him and label him accordingly. We told her we will handle it privately, which means nothing at all because we don't think there is an issue, but it will keep her nose out of our life. So I guess all that is left to do is clean out his cubby! The only problem is that he loves school and has no clue this issue is going on behind his back. Any advice on how to ease him out of school without crushing his poor little heart? I'm so thankful Emily is home and loving it!! I'll keep everyone updated.
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Nov. 25, 2006 - EPA site for kids
I just spent over an hour on the EPA"s site, if you go there and click on the kid's section and then "teachers", it will bring you to a ton of info. I downloaded a zillion pdf files for future use and they even divide them by grade level. I also ordered a free poster and booklets. I can't wait to begin our "Environmental science" class!!
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Nov. 24, 2006 - An Inconvenient Truth
Wow!! What a powerful movie! Please watch it and pass the message on to your friends and family, heck, even strangers!! For all of you who don't know me or know me that well, I am a treehuggin mama all the way! I drive my husband nuts recycling everything from toilet paper rolls to peanut butter jars! But I am not even remotely close to where I can be and I am working on that. The kids and I will be making recycled paper this week, it should be alot of fun, as I have never done it before. We are also going to invest in energy saver Christmas lights too and I will be switching to a green energy source from the electric company. I had no idea I had a choice and now that I know, well, I simply can't help myself! I have also asked family to not buy us gifts this year and to keep it simple for the kids, I.E. no battery operated plastic stuff., We are trying to reduce packaging, etc and focus on the real meaning of Christmas. We shall see how that goes, some honor it and some don't. My kids really do understand quality and I am proud to say they would rather pick up a book any day over a toy!!
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Nov. 24, 2006 - HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Happy Thanksgiving to all of my family and friends! I hope and pray that this message finds everyone happy and healthy! Everyone near and far will be in our hearts today! From our family to yours may you all have a joyous celebration!!
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Nov. 17, 2006 - This land is our land.........
Today we attended Eric's preschool for a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner! The children performed a short play and sang songs, it was so adorable! My handsome son was a bit shy but did a great job! I'm so proud of him, I had all I could do not to cry. His teacher sang a Native American prayer song before we had our meal, she is truly a remarkable woman. Eric is so lucky to have her influence! We enjoyed a full course turkey dinner with all of the fixings and dessert, it was very yummy! We also discovered that one of Eric's classmates is his cousin! How awesome is that! He thinks that is pretty cool and we think it's great to have another family connection. Todd was lucky enough to attend and Eric was so proud to have all of us there!!
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Nov. 16, 2006 - Gymnastics
Today marked the last day of gymnastics for us! We will begin our serious devotion to a more formatted academic schedule throughout the winter. When spring arrives, we will choose the outside activities the children wish to attend and take it from there. So far they want to go back to gymnastics, but Emily has voiced interest in drama, so I will be looking into a club or group for her to try out.
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Nov. 13, 2006 - Dad takes the wheel!
I had to work and Todd got to do his share of the homeschooling duties. Eric had a 3D shape and maze project which focused on numerical order and geometry. He even wrote his name for the first time without prompting! It was so beautiful! On top of that I could actually make out the numbers he wrote. He is having some issues with fine motor, maybe it's not as I had feared, maybe it is just delay? I'll keep you all posted, I have great confidence in my son!! Thank God we are able to give him the one on one he deserves! Nana came over for a short visit and as always brought books to give to the kids. They each received a Thanksgiving keepsake book, which we hope and pray they will pass down to their children someday! Praise Nana for her homeschool support!!
Emily had an environmental project to do which was to name all of the ways we use water. It is part of a series we are working on, the next will be water conservation. She also had to do her regular math work (addition, subtraction, time and money) along with Spelling and Reading. Eric went to preschool in the afternoon. They are focusing on Thanksgiving and Native Americans, which we reinforce at home with both of the children. Todd's grandmother was a Mohawk Indian so it is very near to our heart to teach them the old ways.
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Nov. 12, 2006 - Bubo the mythological owl
On our hunt for famous owls, I had a distant memory of an owl in Clash of the Titans. Em and Eric had never seen the movie before, so we cuddled together on the couch and watched it. They loved it! It was the perfect introduction to mythology I had been searching for (I'ts very hard for my little scientist to use her imagination sometimes). I whipped out my giant Mythology encyclopedia and we sat for over an hour looking at the pictures and talking about all of the Gods, Goddesses and Creatures of myth. Emily especially loved Medusa and Pegasus. I of course loved Harry Hamlin...LOL.!
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Nov. 11, 2006 - HOOT!
We just finished watching the movie "HOOT"! MY dd Emily (age 8) is a budding naturalist and she adores all animals. This movie fueled a wonderful discussion about standing up for yourself and what you believe in. It also fueled her desire to become a professional naturalist. She absolutely cannot wait to move to the country (and neither can I ) so that we can have a certified backyard habitat endorsed by the National Wildlife Foundation! What an awesome goal for us to work on together as a homeschooling / homesteading family! My ds Eric (age 5) attends preschool three days a week at a local church and they just finished a great unit on owls. They dissected owl pellets too! We have some pellets on order to do at home as a fun project. Emily fell in love with the burrowing owls in the movie and she is going to write an entry about them in her new wildlife journal she created with my dh Todd.
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Nov. 10, 2006 - Field trip to Mackworth Island
When I get better at this I'll learn to include photos, but for now......Today we went to Mackworth Island to celebrate what seems to be the coming end of fall. It was beautiful and sunny but a bit windy. The salty ocean air was intense and invigorating! We walked through the muddy trails, hiked in the woods and went down to the shore. Eric picked up the biggest rocks he could hold and threw them in the water to see the effect. (he got soaked) Emily and I lifted rocks and seaweed and found a lonely baby crab who played dead when we picked him up. Todd chased the kids through the fields and they all giggled and rolled on the grass. We all ended up on the swings at the island playground and went as high as we could and then jumped off, it was great fun!
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Nov. 10, 2006 - Why Firstlight?
Our homeschool is officially called "The Firstlight Homeschool Academy" for two
reasons: #1 We are the first state in the country to see the light as the sun comes up
each day! and #2 that is how early my children get up! UGH!! 
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Nov. 10, 2006 - Hello!
This is my first blog entry! We are so excited to have a place where friends and family can stop by to drop us a line or see what we are up to! Please feel free to say hello and chat with us! Please stop by often for updates! 
