I was able to purchase MFW Exp1850. I'm so glad, now I can figure out what to do next year.

I am going to read Building a City on the Hill & Trial and Triumph with Josh.

An idea would be to have Josh read; The Last 500 Years, Exploring American History, In God We Trust & George Washington's World on his own. We have the audio cd for Story of the World so we can listen to that. He can also read the read aloud selection from MFW on his own too. I can read all the 2nd/3rd grade supplements along with the two books I mentioned above. About twice a week we can do all the timeline, notebooking, mapping etc. All of us would do Bible together.

We can start our morning with Bible and I  can read anything else that the teacher manual, like notes and such. Then we can all split up. Josh & Annette finish their studies on their own. I can do Phonics with the youngers.

I'm still studying MFW TM but I think I can make it work. Now I need to figure out when to do The Phonics Road, The Bridge & Spell to Write & Read :)

I have some ideas for those also.

• Josh & Annette: Spell to Write & Read do 20 minutes a day. Once the timer goes off, just stop :)
• Caleb & Brent: Phonics Road Level 2 is broken down into three sections; Spelling/Phonics, Grammar & Reading. Each section takes about 20 minutes. Again, I'll set a timer and stop. Whether done with a lesson or not. We can always pick-up where we left off the next day.
• Ethan & Lance: Phonics instruction 20 minutes a day.

If I can stick to the 'times' and not worry about completing a whole lesson I think I'll be okay.

Just recording my thoughts :)

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The room is done!   There is even some furniture moved in already.  It came out great, a little bit smaller than we had hoped for, but GREAT none the less...  The whole experience was great!  The contractor was super GREAT!   The workers were great! The project came in $600 under the proposal so we had some additional work done.  Our contractor went out of his way to get us deals.  He went two counties away to get us bamboo floors that were sitting in a barn~the leftovers of a business that had gone under.  We got them for $1 a linear foot...  They retailed for over $5 a linear foot.  They are perfect!!  He also looked our house over and found a few things that were in desperate need of repair and fixed them for almost no cost.  Lets put it this way.  Part of our home had to be jacked up because of a failing support beam.  He did the job for $76~the cost of the beam and a little extra to pay for his helper.  The mess was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be...  So, you all want me to stop carrying on about how great it was and let you see the results for yourselves!?!?

Yeah! Well, this is all you are getting right now.  The big reveal will be just after Christmas.  This year we are giving no toys (except stocking stuffers) so that we can decorate the childrens bedrooms.  I show you all the rooms once we have curtains and such.

In the meantime we will be painting the rest of this room.  We decided to paint the floor insted of refinishing the wood becuase it is so costly if you have a professional do it.  My dh has refinished two floors in our home, but it was a really grueling project and they have not held up as well as we would have expected.  So for now we will paint this floor instead.  We will need to do all of the trim work and no furniture can go on it for a week. 

That is all for now!  

Blessings,

Dawn

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I'm doing some research and I could use your help. 

If you are a single, homeschooling parent and you are a part of a church that is supporting you in this, would you share how they do it?  What does the local body of believers around you do to help you remain at home training up your children?

If you are a church leader (pastor, elder, deacon) and your church is actively supporting one or more single moms to homeschool their children how do you do it?  What are you doing to help them?  How does it work?

Several years ago, I shared Defending the Fatherless with our pastor at the time, and one of the things that stood out in my mind was that he thought it was a good idea, but didn't know how it would work and was there some example to follow. 

I wonder if more churches aren't doing more to help single moms be keepers at home, because they simply don't know how to and they'd like to have ideas of how it works in churches where it is being done.


Please share here or email me directly.

Blessings, MaggieRaye

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Friday's almost over - hope you had a chance to take advantage of the Extreme $5 Friday sale! One of the most popular items today - my workshop on Understanding Unit Studies. Orders will start shipping tomorrow, and thanks for your orders!

So glad it's Friday (doing the happy dance) LOL. Before I write about our day I wanted you all to check out my sisters blog. She has lots of notebooking pages that she creates. She is way more organized then I  am and creative. Her blog is so nice, clean and organized. She is very talented.

As for our homeschooling day. Today I had Caleb & Brent do copy lesson two from Wheeler's Elementary Speller. Tomorrow I'll have the spell the words orally and write them from dictation.

They also did a lesson from The Phonics Road. We are on week 11. They are doing very well with this program.

Once Josh completes Phonics Tutor. I am looking into Spell to Write and Read for him and Annette.  I actually wanted to get SWR for this year but have always been intimidated by it, but now that I have used The Phonics Road to Spelling & Reading I think I handle SWR  I would like to add Annette. She can read very well but I still feel like she needs to go over the spelling rules. Annette started reading in 1st grade and has always been above grade level. Because of this I didn't do a 2nd year of phonics with her. She spells okay and usually misses about one word or less from Spelling Wisdom. I still feel like she should be a bit more grounded in spelling patterns and such. I'm not sure if she came across a difficult word if she would be able to decode it. Also how do I make sure she continues to progress in her reading? I think SWR would help in both areas.

 Nap time is over. Gotta go.

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I'm usually excited about Thanksgiving each year. Family, friends, fun and fabulous food is something to look forward to.  This year it's not the same. It may be because I haven't focused on the what to do's and what to makes.  The only thing we've done around here is started Thanksgiving journals. Maybe over the weekend I'll get more excited about the whole thing. I could make some pumpkin bars and some eggnog bread.. that might help my mood.

I think we'll do a family craft together. We've done one when my eldest two where younger. Now that I have five children it will be more fun.

We'll make a Thanksgiving tree.
I'll cut out a tree base out of construction paper and then all my children, my hubbs and I can cut out a bunch of our traced hands in fall colors, and then glue them to the tree.
I think it'll look real neat this year with all the different sized hands.

What about you? Do you do any family crafts together?

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Yesterday we didn't get home until past three o'clock from the doctors office. We were all whooped from shots. Lupe, decided that we should all get the regular flu shot, plus each of us had some other shot we needed. Mine was the flu & Hepatitis shot. Everybody has sore arms or legs today.

I found out I have allergies . I told the doctor that my throat gets a tingly, itchy feeling when I sing at church (hymns) or read to the children. He checked my nose and throat, sure enough I have allergies same as the kids. I took my medicine that he prescribed and it's all ready helping. Who would have thought I had allergies. Bummer!

Ethan, has allergies too. His skin is really dry and around his eyes it's VERY dry. Skin peeling. The doctor said those are all signs of allergies, he is on med too.

I told him I think that Brent might have allergies because he sneezes so much and has had a runny nose for weeks. Sure enough; allergies.

Annette & Caleb has had allergies and are asthma since they were toddlers, so nothing new there. I was surprised about the rest of us.

On the way home we stopped at the flying chicken A.k.a Chicken Express.Now that flying chicken doesn't look too appetizing but the food is actually good

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Welcome and soon to be Happy Thanksgiving!  Are you like me and still in need of that last minute run to the grocery store? I have a list that is huge but I hesitate to get it. Why? After all the big day is just days away!

This year has been rough on me physically. I am spending most of my day in a wheelchair now due to possible MS. I am use to being up and cooking for hours on Thanksgiving day. I wake up early and cook through the day making all sorts of special side dishes, baked goods and of course the big turkey. This year I physically can't do it.

How many of you also deal with these restraints? Maybe not a mobility issues but a fatigue issue. How do we accomplish this grand plan without leaving us useless or not able to finish? For me Thanksgiving has highlighted a problem that I have been ignoring for a couple weeks now.

I need to realize my weaknesses and plan accordingly. I tend to plan with high hopes and higher expectations of myself. If I don't reach those I can get discouraged and guilty feeling. This is not how the Lord wishes me to be. Paul exhorts believers to be strong and run the good race.

I now realize that my race may be slower than others. I chose to keep running. I chose to not stop. I need to learn to pace myself. This Thanksgiving may not be like we have had in the past. I believe it will be better!

If you are dealing with physical problems stop blaming yourself for the differences between your family and the "normal" family. You are normal, for you!

So join me in being thankful to the Lord for where we are right now! Blessings to you and your family! Happy Thanksgiving

Heather lives in West Virginia. She and her husband have been homeschooling their 5 children for 8 years.  Due to a genetic disorder their children have multiple special needs. Living life to the fullest for the glory of God is their goal!  Visit Heather's page at  www.homeschoolblogger.com/gfcfmomofmany/ or at Special Needs Homeschooling.

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Guess what's already in motion in a BIG way? EXTREME $5 Friday! And I can't wait to see what you think of it all:
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