Posted in weekly class log

I ended up overdoing by getting up to early Saturday morning (to watch hot air balloons at 4:30) and was down in bed from Saturday afternoon through most of Tuesday.  God did provide the strength for me to still record the radio program for National Chronic Invisible Illness Awareness Week on Tuesday afternoon, but otherwise school was mostly on hold until Wednesday.  So we are finishing up the last of week two this week, getting ready for our homeschool co-op's fall kick off today, and should have one fairly normal school day tomorrow.

An interesting delemia came when our DVD player broke last week.  Both our math and music appreciation DVDs are stuck in there and we have no way to play the other DVD we checked out from the library.  Hubby's going to have to take it apart to retreive the missing teaching supplies and I guess we better find a way to budget for a new DVD player!

Posted in weekly class log

We have done most of "week 2" so far - not bad considereing Monday was a holiday and we were still playing catch up from last week's tummy flu.  I just had an amazing conversation with my 8-year-old about the "sons of God" and "daughters of men" (Gen. 6:1-4) this morning. We never did get to our Noah's ark notebook page, but we'll catch it tomorrow or Monday.

I've shared over and over just how thankful I am for My Father's World.  Looks like there's a possibility we might get to meet the founders/author next month.  Please pray with me that God will work out all the possibilities if this is something He has planned for us.  Two big hurdles (one being the cost of airline tickets from Nevada to Missouri) currently stand in our way.  I'm hopeful though...

Posted in weekly class log

I am happy to report that all 3 kids are much improved and we never had to take that run to the doctor's office! :)

To conclude our first week of Creation to the Greeks, we are celebrating Shabbot (Sabath) today.  We started at sunset last night with a traditional Shabbot dinner.  R's (dd5) favorite part was drinking the "wine" (grape juice) out of fancy glasses.  The most touching part for me was watching my husband go around the table, placing his hands upon the head of each child, and saying a pray of blessing over each of them.

Posted in weekly class log

R (dd5) and Little J (ds2) both woke up still feverish, but cooler this morning.  Big J (ds8) was able to get quite a bit of school done, the started running a fever again too.  The little ones starting in with tummy trouble and higher fevers again and we pulled out the throw up pans, then Big J started crying (pretty unusual) because his head hurt so much and he is nausious tonight too.  All three slept for large chunks of the afternoon, but never more than one or two of them asleep at the same time.  Since we've been messing with pretty impressive and definately persistant fevers since early Monday morning, I'll probably be calling their ped in the morning to get them all in before we hit the weekend.  Probably won't be going out of town this weekend as we had hoped.

Big J has surprisingly managed to stay caught up with school this week.  We have changed a couple of written assignments to oral ones, but he's actually even done with a lot of tomorrow's school work too.  (I guess that's a good think if we spend part of the day at the doctor's tomorrow.)  If they are up to it, we need to get to the library by Friday to turn in their summer reading charts and we hope to celebrate our first "Sabbath supper" Friday evening.  I'm really excited about this school year even if we are getting off to a strange start.

Posted in weekly class log

Day two was surprisingly productive.  Big J has already read through half of the dinosaur book that was supposed to last most of the school year.  We also both had a blast starting to look at Greek and Latin roots with Language from the Roots Up - that book has probably been our biggest surprise for just how much fun it looks like it will be.  I think the whole family will also really appreciate the Jewish holidays we will be studying (and living out) this year!

R is doing a second year of K, or at least still doing K right now, possibly moving on into 1st about half way through the year.  She's been so excited to get started again and I feel sad that she's been so sick these first couple of days.  She is definately showing a readiness she wasn't showing even last spring so I think she will take to reading pretty quickly now.  Don't know how much we will stick to her weekly units because she often studies history and the rest right along with her big brother, so basically I'm just going to focus on helping her get letters, numbers and reading skills down and let her school right along with the 4th grade stuff Big J is doing.

Little J had a rough day, "I not feel good!" with lots of clinging and crying.  I'm giving his fever one more day unless he's obviously getting even worse tomorrow, and then I'm calling his doctor first thing Thursday morning if this thing continues.  He's just so miserable and my heart hurts to see him like this.  It was so wonderful to be able to snuggle down in bed and hold him while continuing to move the others along in their studies today.  Certainly not something that could be done in a traditional school setting.  Thanking the Lord, once again, for the joys and flexability of homeschooling!

Posted in weekly class log

...so week one is off to a slow start!  But we are still getting the school room organized, setting up notebooks and supply boxes, and doing our traditional day one box decorating (the boxes the each put their school papers in over the course of the year) and picture taking.  Will do a bit of reading together this afternoon in bed.

Posted in weekly class log

Homeschooling with a chronic illness means I don't blog nearly as often as I would like.  But a new school year calls for a new attempt at blogging.  I can't believe my oldest is starting 4th grade (Creation to the Greeks) Monday morning! We will be continuing on with K for our 5yo daughter. And with 2 1/2yo in toe, it should be an exciting year! Got all (I think!) of my photocopying done yesterday.

Would greatly appreciate prayers that I can stay on task and have my heart excited to learn with these kids all year - not just as we start, because I am excited right now, but as the year wears on and my physical limitations become mentally and emotionally draining. I tend to loose focus by the holidays and am just praying that the Lord will keep this fire ignighted for me all year, to make this a memorable and wonderful year for us all.

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Our Exploring Countries and Cultures year has progressed more slowly than planned, but it is turning out to be a good year none the less.  We spent all fall on North America, all of January on South America and are now heading into Europe this week.  I would have to say that the missionary biographies have been the highlight of our studies, with Joshua taking to Cameron Townsend and Nate Saint with amazing interest.

Rick and I watched "At the End of the Spear" in December late one night after putting the kids to bed.  We hadn't planned to let any of them watch it, feeling that at not quite 8 even our mature little man was much too tender for such a visual encounter with missionary marterdom.  But by what we now see as God's ordinace, Big J. wandered into our bedroom late that night, about 20 minutes into the movie.  He couldn't sleep, something very unusual for him, and the two little ones were both sound asleep, also somewhat of a rare occurance at that hour for both to be out cold.  He ask if he could stay and watch, and with a quick silent prayer for wisdom, Rick and I exchanged glances and knew the answer should be yes, though up until that moment we would have never dreamed of allowing it.  He watched with intensity then fell asleep just before some of the most brutal sceens.  He slept soundly and had no emotional trauma, though the story has stuck with him in a profound and positive manner. 

When we began reading Nate Saint's biography we only got part way through before J. asked to stop, not wanting to relive the story again.  But after a couple more days to reflect, he came to me asking to watch the entire movie again, watched it, then was ready to finish the book.  I think both of us have been deeply challenged by this story and it made our studies of South America all the more profound.  As we start ci-op back up this week, he will be taking an international cooking class along with fencing and writing at co-op. I'm headed out in a few minutes to take him to his violin lesson. How can he already be 8 years old? Time just flies this side of infertility...

R. is also growing up. She's spent more of her 5 year old year away from us than with us so far, turning around from her time at my parents (see next two paragraphs), to go spend 5 more days with Rick's mom on their farm about an hour away. It is so wonderful having everyone back home together, though she had a delightful time haing one-on-one Grandma attention for tea parties and dress up and lots of great outside play! Our homeschool co-op starts up again this week and she doesn't know it yet, but will be taking ballet again. I can't wait to see how excited she is when she finds out on Thursday! :)

It's amazing to think our baby is already 2.  Little J's learning new words on a daily basis. The kids all stayed with my parents for about 5 days after Rick's surgery (next paragraph).  I was just too physically done in to be an effective parent.  I was shocked at how his vocabulary had jumped in those short days.

Rick's had a SLAP repair (muscle that connects upper part of arm to shoulder was ripped away) a week ago Thursday.  He was several hours delayed, not going into the ER until after 8pm (had IV and was read at 3) and heading home from the hospital after midnight.  But the surgery seems to be sucessful and his range of motion is impressing both his surgeon and PT. Little J will tell anyone who will listen, "Daddy Ow-nie!" and it is obviously of great concern to our littlest that Daddy hurts.

I'm hopefully going to be seeing Dr. Peterson (one of the world's leading experts in CFIDS) in the very near future. We've been working on this since last June and it is sounding more imminent now, so I'll try to keep you posted. I'll be teaching a class on writing for publication at our co-op and I'll be speaking on "Harvesting Hope from Heartache" at an informal ladies' tea for our church this Sunday. I'm also excited to have been named "Consultant of the Month" with Affordable Mineral Makeup for the month of January. Please drop by and visit my Inner Beauty Blog for affordable beauty tricks, healthy makeup tips, book and product reviews, inspirational articles, and give-aways all focused on letting your inner beauty shine!

Posted in weekly class log

Well, so much for having mastered running 2 programs at once! LOL  Several of you left comments on my last post asking me for tips and advice and all I can say is that I'm learning to take each day as it comes and not be a slave to any program.  I still love MFW just as much as ever, but reality for our family is that I just can't keep up with 2 full programs and a potty-training toddler and my own health and sanity needs!  I've talked to many more experienced homeschool moms and have decided to take a much more relaxed approach, now using our curriculum as a resource and possibly a guideline, but no longer try to follow it to a tee.  There may come a day when we are "back on track" and more closely following the lessons as planned, especially as my health (hopefully) improves down the line.  But for now I feel we are right where God has us for this season and it is a relief to just take each day as it comes, not worrying about tomorrow and letting God guide us step by step.

I can't really post curriculum-week reports because we aren't doing the "weeks" as such, but may spend a week or two focusing just or primarily on one subject/secition, then move on and focus on another subject for a while, then have a week where we mix it all up again.  It isn't pretty or precise, but it's working and as long as they are moving forward, learning and we are all less stressed and enjoying the process together, I'm satisfied that they are being educated well.  Just wanted to share where we are now and will continue to drop by and share special joys along the joureny. :) If you want to know more details about our family, I've just updated our family blog at http://www.saakefamily.blogspot.com

While you are reading here, please drop by and visit Noah's Blog.  I don't know Kate and Jeff personally, but their journey with baby Noah has touched my heart deeply and this family needs all the prayers we can offer!  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ourquiverfull

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It's taken us 4 weeks, but we have a clean, organized school room and have finished 2 weeks worth of ECC for 3rd grade and 3 weeks worth of MFW K, and have survived a family-wide round of the tummy flu!  I think I'm getting the hang of how to ballance it all finally and give both kids their fair share of one-on-one teaching time.  The only thing I haven't consitently gotten added in yet is our Spelling Power program because I'm still reading and trying to figure out how it all works!  I think this coming week we should be able to accomplish a full week's program for each of the kids.

Big J is loving learning cursive handwriting and R is doing really well in starting to print her letters as well.  A few weeks ago she brought me a card addressed to "NUM".  We talked it out, sounded out the letters and talked about what sounds she was trying to make.  A few minutes later, without any assistance, she came back and poundly presented me a card addressed to "MOM"!  (I need a happy tears picture here!)

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My blogging fizzled out last year, so I'm not going to make promises for this year.  It is my desire to blog fairly consistantly, but we shall see...

Health-wise it's been a very, very hard summer.  I am almost totally housebound at this season.  It is seeming that God is opening doors for me to begin working with a new research facility called the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease .  We are hopeful that this is the Lord's provision for rebuilding my stamina and easing my daily pain.

As we start our fifth officialy year of homeschooling, we are just about to finish our second week of My Father's World Exploring Countires and Cultures Big J. (Dear Son, Age 7 1/2)'s 3rd grade year!  R. (Dear Daughter, Age 4 1/2) is THRILLED to be doing "real school" as she jumps into MFW K!  Little J (Dear Son, 18 months) continues to keep us all on our toes. :D

Here are an assortment of links I want to post.  Hopefully you will enjoy or find some of them useful, but if nothing else, I will have them posted somewhere when I need to refer back to them myself!

First, I am very moved by the journey of one of our fellow homeschoolblogger families at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ourquiverfull/351155/ - please join me in prayer for baby Noah and God's emotional and physcial promisions for this entire family.  Beyond prayer, here is a very rewarding way that you can help! http://www.chirotoons.com/benefit/

Next, our cuddos to Math U See!  We have been having fun with their blog (see my sidebar links) and wrote to tell them about it.  They sent our kids their adorable "Choco-8" and "Can You Tell Me How To Get To Decimal Street?" tee-shirts as a gift.  The kids are so excited and absolutely love the shirts.  What a great company! :D

As a recap of my first post last year, here are the yahoo groups we regularly use, however we are saying goodbye to our Adventures group to join two related to ECC instead: 

My Father's World Curriculum

MFW Message Boards

 

 

Homeschool Tracker

 

Homeschooling Moms With Chronic Illnesses

 

Norther Nevada Home Schools

Nevada Homeschool Network

Home Educators of Faith

Eagle Home School Co-op

 

Home School Legal Defense Association

 

My Personal Website

My Book: Hannah's Hope: Seeking God's Heart in the Midst of Infertility, Miscarriage, and Adoption Loss (NavPress, 2005)

I have become a daily participate in the facinating Chritian online community, ShoutLife.  Please feel free to visit me there at http://www.shoutlife.com/InfertilityMom

God is blessing both my writing and my online mineral makeup business.  In the writing world I am thrilled to finally have found a local Christian writing critique group after years of discouragement that there seemed to be no such resource.  I am writing a regular column on beauty (both inward and outward) for TeenAge magazine, and for a slightly younger group of girls (8-12) am keeping up with my Inner Beauty Blog. 

For others in homebased businesses, you may be interested in this free home business management software I found.  You will need to read through a big sale's push page to get to the link to accept the free offer, but there really is no obligation to buy anything either now or later.  I actually did purchase the upgrade package because it was filled with helpful resources at a great discount.  No matter what your interest level in the upgrades, the free basic software is great!

Hmmm...  I know there were more links I wanted to pin here, but now that I'm typing, I'm drawing a total blank!

Hopefully this school year will allow me to rekindle relationships with old friends here and establish new friendships as well.  Looking forward to this journey together with you and with all of our amazing kids!

Posted in weekly class log

Hard to believe.  We will be heading to Chuck E. Cheezes tomorrow to celebrate.  We have a few last projects to follow up on over the summer, but for all intensive purposes, 2nd grade is already behind us.  Where does time go?  Third grade sounds so old!

We've loved MFW and I'm currently sitting next to a pile of books for our Exploring Countries and Cultures year that we'll jump into probably mid-July.  I also just got done ordering our Math U See books for next year.  Be sure to check the new link to the MUS blog on my sidebar!   Hearing other families struggle, I'm so thankful that we started out with MUS from the start and are getting a great foundation in the working of math from an early age. As a dyslexic mom, I find myself relearning math right along with our kids and wishing someone had taught me this way from the start! Numbers and their relationship to one another make sence to me for the very first time!

We found Times Tales to be an incredible supplement to our math too. I wouldn't want to use TT alone, because MUS gives us more than just memorization, but the "why" of how equasions work, and I want my kids to have that foundation before rote memory. But after understanding how we get our answers, TT was great for filling in the memorization with instant recall of 6-9 multiplication facts.

Have a great summer!  If I don't see you sooner, I should be checking back in with a 3rd grader (and a Kindergartener too) in July!

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We only have a few weeks or school left now and here I've left this poor blog neglected for quiet some time.  Between filing taxes, keeping up with co-op classes, doing a lot with my businesses, and - oh yeah, keeping up with school too, I'm afraid our homeschool blog has gotten pushed aside.  

Preschool and 2nd grade are almost finished and we are already thinking about K and 3rd to start back in July.  We plan to continue on with My Father's World and are quite excited (but ready for a little break first).  We are going to Disneyland with grandparents to celebrate our year end then taking a few weeks without structure just to refresh.  Next year will bring Exploring Countries and Cultures and sounds like a great way to continue our homeschooling adventure.

If you haven't had a chance to visit yet, please drop by my Shoutlife page.  It's a great online community, like a Christian answer to MySpace.  You'll find a little bit of everything there and make great connections and friends while maintaining a healthy place. :)  I'm amazed at all the wonderful people I've met there!

Posted in weekly class log

We've made it to the early 1800s now, studying Thomas Jefferson's presidency, the Louisiana Purchase and briefly touching on the War of 1812.  I never remember history being so facinating as a kid, but Joshua and I are both finding it to be so.  In fact, this week he could hardly wait to get through other subjects each day so that we could read more "stories" (a.k.a. "history"). :)

Last week we made a cell model out of jello.  My husband says it's always interesting to come home from work when your kids are homeschooled.  You open the refridgerator only to hear, "Wait Dad!  Please don't eat my science experiment!" LOL  This week we are trying to grow popcorn, but nothing is happening, so far.

Everyone but Joshua's been down with some kind of bug or another this week.  For me, it's the Chicken Pox, believe it or not, for my 5th time!!!  (I had a horrid case as a kid, and now, because of issues with my immue system, I am currently facing my 4th mild case as an adult because of issues with my immune system.  Thankfully I only have 5 pox and they are all small, but the other things like fever, swollen glands and general yuckies are all here in force.)  For Rick it's a nasty flu bug that's had him out of work and sleeping away most of the week.  Jeremiah and Ruthi have had assorted sniffles and rounds of tummy troubles.  Hopefully we will all be on the mend soon.

Do you have a daughter who is starting to show an interest in makeup?  You don't want her taking on worldly values, nor ruining her skin with destructive "beauty products".  Consider investigating Mineral Girlz, a budget-friendly, skin-friendly light and natural-looking tool to help her blosom into a young lady while maintaing the values you desire for her.  My goal with this business is to help young ladies shine from the inside to the out, focusing on 1 Peter, chapter 3.

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We ended up extending our "week 10" into 3 weeks because there was just way too much fun to explore!  Keeping up with weekly math, spelling and language, we enjoyed lots of extra reading and exploration of the Revolutionary War period, along with specific people like Ben Franklin and experimentation with electricity and more. 

 

Making our own berry ink (we tried cranberries because that's what we had on hand and the pink-dried-to-purple ink was fantastic) and quill pens has certainly been one of our favorite crafts yet!  Both Joshua and Ruthi had as much fun turning the feathers around and "painting" with them dipped in ink as they had actually writing with the quill tips. :)

 

And yes, I've added yet one more addition to our homebased-business ventures.  I really think this is the last one I'm going to take on, but so compatible with what we are already doing with Stuff A Friend.  If you haven't heard of Blessed Toys yet, this is a really neat company!  We offer "Messengers of Faith" talking Bible character action figures, Proverbs 31 dolls (a Christian answer to "American Girls" without supporting organizations that support abortion), and Veggie Tales!

 

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Somehow I've gotten behind by a few weeks of blogging, but we are now in MFW week 10.  The last couple weeks have focused on the 1700s, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, the American Revolution, and Jesus as the Rock.  We are now looking at the Declaration of Independance and surrounding historical figures, along with Jesus as the Living Water. 

 

Too tired to post more right now, but hopefully back on track by next week.   By then I will be able to share about making quill pens and berry ink.  My Father's World is everything I ever hoped for in homeshooling and more.  Praise God for the Hazels and their creativity and wisdom in creating such an amazing program!

 

We are getting ready to hold a Stuff a Friend party with other homeschooling families soon and are really excited about it!  Here's how you might have one too:

 

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..."I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty."

- John 6:35

Want to read a really cute poem?  I would post it here if it weren't in violation of copyright, but you can hopefully read it following this link (you might have to type ("secret" into the search window there - I believe it pulls up on page 5).  Joshua memorized "A Secret" from his Primary Language Lessons book (lesson 7) last week and we always end up in giggles by the end.  Great memory work, son! :)

With Labor Day and our desire to spend some extra time on reading great stories, we've spreads weeks 6 and 7 out over these past 3 weeks. We still did 3 weeks of spelling and language lessons and actually worked in 4 weeks worth of math in addition to hour and hours of extra read-aloud. (Joshua's still trying to understand why you take a day off from work and school to celebrate labor?)

Our theme these past two weeks has been "Bread" and we have learned about all kinds of breads from different counties and periods of history, about various forms of leavening, wheat and other oats. We've done cool experiments with yeast (if I ever figure out how to post pictures, I'll have to show you our yeast-blown balloon) and will be eating fresh homemade bread, with fresh home-churned butter, with tonight's dinner. Ruthi has some lovely soft pink play dough she made today and Joshua has already baked his into a sculpture for display.

Historically we've moved our focus on into the 1700s and colonial settlements. Skippack School by Marguerite de Angeli was an especially fun reading book. We've watched immigrants from Germany, Holland and other European countries continue to spread out over the east coast. We hope to take a field trip to a local farm soon to help us understand more about the cultures of settlers such as the Pennsylvanian Dutch. And Joshua can now name all five of the Great Lakes near Michigan.

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..."I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."  John 8:12 (NIV)

 

We spent last week talking about light and darnkenss in many aspects, both literal and spiritual.  Our fun crafts reminded us that Jesus is the light of the world - a candle rolled in salt (sparkles when lit), switchplate covers for the bedrooms, sun catchers and more.  (In case I haven't said so before, I thank God continually for all the effort Marie Hazell has put into this program to make our school days such a blessing!)

 

We also explored the stars and sun and learned to find a few constellations.  I think I may be ordering a couple of the star studies from Sequoia Ministry to continue this theme as Joshua is really interested in stars at the moment.  This guy is a local forest ranger who teaches kids from a creationist world view.  I haven't used any of his materials yet, but the sure look interesting.  Any experience?

 

While we continued our study of American Indians, we didn't get our wigwam or tepee modeles made yet.  We'll do that this week.  But we did learn about the many different styles of homes and cultures of American Indians in different parts of the country and learned a few basic Indian signs of the Great Plains. 

 

Since we got ahead of ourselves with the Squanto book last week, we picked a fun chapter story from the library and have giggled our way through The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks this week.  In fact, we are reading it for a second time so that Mommy and Daddy can catch up on the chapters we each missed the first time.  Great humor for a second grade boy!

 

On Friday we took the day off from American history of the 1600s and instead learned a bit about another famous person of that era, attending a Young Shakespeare program at a local park.  We tried to visit this historic one room schoolhouse while we were at the park, but it was closed for a meeting that day - we'll have to give it a try another time.

 

This week (Adventures in My Father's World, week 5) we continue on the above themes and begin exploring more about the Pilgrims and the Mayflower as well.  I think making an oiled window will be an interesting craft.  I don't know if I will post a week 5 update since I'm already touching on most of the plans here, but if anything really exciting comes up, I'll be sure to pass it along.

 

Joshua still hold his perfect spelling record for the year and has now mastered his 9s times tables up to 9x11.  Ruthi is getting better and better at identifying her letters.  These kids amaze me daily.

 

Rick and I celebrate 14 years of marriage this week.  I am so thankful for a godly, loving man who is 100% supportive of our family's venture in homeschooling.

Posted in weekly class log

A big part of our week has been the reading of Squanto: Friend of the Pilgrims. (In looking at lesson plans for next week, I just realized this book was intended to be spread out over 3 weeks, but we had too many questions as we got into the story and just kept reading until we found satisfactory answers!)

Together we learned of Squanto's voluntary trip to England with Captain George Weymouth, his extended stay in Charles Robbins' mother's home in London as he learned the language and customs of the white men, his trip back to America with Captain John Smith (who we also studdied in context of the founding of Jamestown and in relation to Pocahontas, whom we will study more tomorrow).

We grieved as Squanto landed on the shores of his beloved homeland, only to be abducted into slavery by Thomas Hunt without ever being reunited with the family and tribe he had been longing to see for years. After a long and terrible journey aboard the slave ship, we thanked God for His provision of the Spanish monks who saved Squanto from slavery and cared for him until he could return to London where he found shelter in the house of John Slain.

We pined with him in the three years it took before he could sail back across the Atlantic once again, then tried to grasp the shock and horror that he must have experienced upon learning that his entire village had died from illness two years earlier (as he was seeking passage home). We tried to imagine his loneliness and sense of displacement as he tried to fit back into Indian life with Massasoit's tribe and his thankfulness for Samoset who understood some of the White Man's ways.

Then we marveled at God's provision to ultimately bring him back to Patuxets lands (today known as Cape Cod) as he aided Miles Standish, John Carver, John Alden and the rest of the Pilgrims from the May Flower, helping them learn survival skills in their New World.

 

 

Mom's Week

While homeschooling is a huge, important part of our lives, it is not the only thing we do.  To help keep myself from feeling overwhelmed with living, eating and breathing school, I'm going to try to add brief tidbits about my week outside of school in some of our weekly class logs.  This week, my big goal has been trying to get the house back in shape (I've really let stuff stack up again since announcing last week that housework was staying under control) and a very early morning on Tuesday when I had to be up for an east coast morning radio interview (via telephone).  Since we are west coast, that means I was up at 5am.  I know this isn't an uncommon hour for some homeschool moms, but living with a chronic illness, this is not a schedule I am physical able to keep on a regular basis!  If you would like to listen to the interview, the link is here.  We had a 3-year-old with insomnia last night (up wandering the house from midnight until 4am) and a gassy, craying baby at the same time.  Mommy's really tired today!

On the fun side, Rick bought me 20 rose bushes for my birthday (they were on clearance at WalMart for $3 each!) and he's been planting several each night after work.  I know he is exhausted too, and this is a labor of love.  I am thrilled to finally have the rose garden I have always dreamed of. :D  What a guy!

Posted in weekly class log

We are finishing up our Christopher Columbus week and preparing to learn about Pocahontas and Jamestown next week. I feel like I've gotten a better handle on world geography than I've had in years, and we've learned a lot about ship constructions and styles through the centuries and cultures (Viking 700-1000 A.D., Spanish 1400 and 1500s, and a bit about Native American boats too).

I am so thankful for God's provision of our house with a dedicated school room. (I look back in awe at all my mom accomplished with such limited space and resources when we were kids growing up on the mission field!) We've built a huge timeline taking up one entire wall and it is fun to see our dates already starting to fill in. Maybe I can figure out how to post classroom pictures one of these days.

Joshua just finished reading all 117 pages of "Viking Adventure" yesterday, having read a vast majority of the book for himself! He's earned two free books at our local public library's summer reading program and hopes to turn in one final reading log by the deadline tomorrow afternoon for a third book! Joshua's gotten 100% on his spelling pre-tests (thus been able to bypass the Friday tests) both weeks so far, commenting this week about how much fun his spelling pages are. Is this really my son (since I hated reading as a kid and still can't spell)???

I think we have found our rhythm for 2nd grade, preschool and infant care all together. Even laundry and housework are staying pretty caught up most of the time. I'm just starting the process of writing a new book dealing with motherhood after infertility and Joshua and I are together investigating children's publishing in hopes of seeing a couple children's stories in print...

Now if only I could find the time to get my checkbook balanced!