How's that for a title? On the first topic, our computer crashed recently. It was only a bit of a disappointment. Honestly, it was really nice to walk by the desk and not hear the hum of the computer and feel the draw of needing to check e-mails or look up more organizing tips or doing anything else that sucks time. There were some things that I needed the computer for, but somehow it all worked out. And even though I had already cut waaay down on computer time, I seemed to get more done during the day without it completely -- imagine that! Now I'm going to leave the computer shut-down until late afternoon or after dinner.

On the latter topic, I ordered a new Language Arts program this year. This was something new (to me anyway) I read about and it sounded really great. I can't begin to tell you how wrong I was! Ugh! This is the first time I've gotten something and have convinced myself to scrap it despite the money it cost and considering it's March and school *should* be ending in a couple of months. It's a consumable, so no turning around and selling it. None of us like it. You know, for the past two years I have used Christian Light Education and my children loved it! I was thinking that maybe they were getting bored with workbooks and needed more writing to do. Hello, McFly! If your children tell you they love something, provided it's godly, listen to them! And this new LA is still a workbook format, so I don't know what I was thinking. For the rest of the year I'm having the children do copywork from their reading books and I have these sweet Macmillan English Series books from the 1960's that I really love. My mother-in-law had used them at one point and we somehow inherited them. Great stuff with all the fundamentals they need and then some. The only drawback is that they need to be taught as opposed to being able to work on their own. With a preschooler and a toddler that can be a tough challenge at times when there are other subjects that also require that one-on-one time. But I'll be optimistic and do what I can. Check back for my next post entitled "Language Arts: who needs it anyway?". Oh, wait, I said I would be optimistic.

Jennifer :)