Reading over my (very few) entries, I'm a little embarrassed at the fickleness of my homeschooling choices. I suppose, to make myself feel better, I'll say that at least all of my choices are along the same vein - literature-rich approaches to education.

We finally settled on Heart of Dakota for this year, and I could not be more thrilled. Here is the plan:

Caleb: Bigger Hearts For His Glory with Expansion Pack (American History!)
             Drawn Into the Heart of Reading 2/3
             Horizons Math 3
             Rod and Staff English 3
             Cheerful Cursive (even though he already covered cursive in CLE this year)

Millie: Little Hearts For His Glory
           Singapore Math Earlybird 2A & 2B
           Reading Made Easy 
           A Reason For Handwriting K

I think that about covers it. And this is all purchased, so there are no more changes. ;) I was happy to try to work out a SL/WP mixture, but my heart kept returning to HOD. The more I searched and prayed, I realized it was all laid out for me. Since I'm still working (from home, mind you), time is so precious. Putting together my own hybrid program would be extremely time-consuming... And HOD looks like such great fun! :)

So there it is, our 2008/2009 plan! :)

Let's talk about puppies, want to? Presenting Caroline Louise and Jillian Belle.......

And since a picture is worth a thousand words, 'nuff said. :)

So, the reason for my newest entry (aside from the idea that I want to get into the habit of blogging our homeschool adventure this year) is the fact that I joined Blogger Class Mates. Someone pointed me in that direction (my apologies for not remembering who!), and when I read that it's about getting to know other homeschooling moms throughout the year, I jumped on it. I'm very excited to make new online friends! :) I even figured out how to put a button on my sidebar! How cool is that?!? ;)

More soon!

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The sun has been strangely absent here in Sunny(?) Florida. I've never been diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder, but there is no doubt in my mind, I suffer from it. The sun started to peek out a bit tonight, so maybe tomorrow it will be back. If so, we're schooling outside tomorrow. And NOT in the shade. What is it with all of this rain anyway? It's not time for that yet!

I received a used copy of Sonlight Core 3 in the mail today. I'm hoping to be able to read through it to get ideas to add in to our WinterPromise journey when we start that. Just skimming through it, I realize that I have a lot to learn along with Caleb. LOL! It will be fun. I'm looking forward to it.

Not much going on here today. Trying to stay healthy and not suffocate from the allergens in the air. We're all a bit snotty right now. Millie's neck is better (did I mention she slept on it wrong the night before last and cried just about all day yesterday?). Caleb seems to feel slightly better - good enough to go to dance, anyway.

Thursday is weigh in, and I don't feel I've done as well this week as I did last week. I've not done HORRIBLY, but I was 100% last week, and it makes it hard not to be. This is a lifestyle for me now though, and the times I picked up celery sticks and apple slices are making it worth it, regardless of what the scale says. At least that's what I'm trying to tell myself.  12.4 pounds gone so far. A drop in the bucket compared to what I want to lose..........

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It has been a crazy, whirl-wind of a year. Somewhere in the middle, I decided being overwhelmed wasn't fun. ;) I totally redid our homeschooling schedule, and things have turned out beautifully!

I temporarilty shelved what we were doing (except Horizons Math) and ordered Christian Light Education Light Units for Caleb. This was a God-inspired move, and Caleb is absolutely thriving.

Now, I know some of my close friends (if you ever get around to reading this) are probably passed out in shock if this is news to you. Me? A workbook curriculum? Oh yes, and it gets better - I LOVE IT! And so does Caleb. He is getting a fantastic education where he has to actually think critically and learn this stuff. That, combined with our discussions of the material, is more than I could have asked for this year.

Now that I seem to have figured out how all of this works (not to say that I'm not still entirely too overscheduled  ----- I am), I plan to use Light Units next year too. However, I will be adding in WinterPromise's American Story 1 for Caleb. I have had my eye on this for two years now and am incredibly excited to finally do it! They have a new craft kit that looks amazing, and I have a few tricks up my sleeve to enhance the program as well (not that it needs it, mind you).

I also plan to do Animals and Their Worlds with Millie along with CLE's ABC Readiness Series and Five in A Row. The only bad thing about Five in A Row is that all 4 volumes, the Bible supplement, Holiday supplement AND my books were lost when we moved. (How does that happen, anyway?) So now I have to repurchase everything.... I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to start Reading Made Easy with her. If she starts showing more signs of learning to read, then I will. She's a completely different child than Caleb though, and it will take a different kind of teaching for her. She's not as academically motivated as Caleb. However, give the girl a set of paints or a sketch pad, and watch out! She's on fire! :)

This year has been a big one extra-curricularly as well. Caleb played baseball and both kids take dance lessons- ballet and tap. Caleb attended a Hip Hop Workshop as well which he thought was "cool". I know they'll both continue with their dancing next year, but I'm not sure which forms of dance they'll choose. Millie is quite the princess, and Caleb excels at tap. We'll see how it goes. We also had a lot going on with our church. Oh, and Caleb started guitar lessons. When I consider I have a full-time job as well, it's a wonder I can even write this blog at all! LOL!

We're going to be schooling year-round, so I hope to start updating more. Sorry for the lack of (more current) pictures this time. I'll do more next time.

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Well, folks, we are officially over scheduled for this school year. It was a fun day. First, we got the kids up at the crack of dawn (ok, 9:00 - but that was after they stayed up until 1:30!) to go to the Lowe's Build & Grow Workshop. They made herb planters, and afterward we went into the store to get them some flowers to plant in them. I didn't think they'd be too excited about herbs, so I let each of them pick out their own flowers. Millie chose carnations and Caleb chose Chinese lanterns. How fun is that?! Since we're in Florida, you know these babies will grow for a long time, so if it ever stops storming, we're going to go outside to get the soil and start them.

Next, we surprised Caleb by taking him to the Eustis Little League field and signed him up for Little League. He's super excited about that, of course.

Then, we surprised Millie by taking her to *** name deleted *** for their open house. Unfortunately, the lady scared me. ;) She's a SERIOUS ballerina - studied in all the best schools in New York, Paris, etc. and they ONLY teach classical ballet there. I wasn't sure that was best for Millie (serious? nope. recreational? most definitely.), so we went to Umatilla to another dance school open house, The Dance Depot, where they teach ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, etc. This was a much better fit for us, and we signed her up for the Little Princess class! :) Mark your calendars and get your airline tickets because on June 13 and 14 your little Millie will be in her first ever recital. :D

While we were there, Caleb decided that he, too, wanted to dance. SO....... We signed him up as well. He's taking the tap/ballet class also, although he will be with kids his own age. He's quite excited (actually shows more enthusiasm about that than the baseball...?). He'll be in the recital as well, so it's sure to be a great show. ;) Tickets will be $8. :p

Dance doesn't start until October, and baseball starts the week of our vacation. I'm not sure what day his practice will be on. Hopefully it will be before the vacay. Otherwise, I suppose he'll miss his first day of practice. That's not the worst though since it's just day one. His first game is in October.

So, that's what we did today. Oh, and I didn't go to ballroom dancing tonight because last week I strained my back again, and it's been hurting. And, I mean HURTING. There is no way I could dance for two hours. :( I'm sad about that, but it is what it is, ya know?

ACK! I'm officially a mom of school-aged kids!

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The kids and I returned from Indy last night, and both of our WinterPromise boxes were here!  Hooray!  We couldn't rip the tape off fast enough.  Caleb was especially excited about all the "awesome" things we're studying this year.  (His adjective!)  Millie was beside herself with the book about animals and their babies.

There are still quite a lot of items on backorder though which has me a bit concerned.  Three of them are very major to the curriculum, and until they come in, what am I supposed to do?  I mean, Caleb wants to start NOW.  How do I tell him that we can't because we have to wait for more books?  :(

I need to get a couple of 3-ring binders, then I'll get organized and see if I can figure out a way to make it happen sooner than later.

I will say that the books look awesome!  The entire curriculum is very impressive, much more so than I anticipated.

It's going to be a good year.  :)

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Finally!  We've finally figured out why Caleb used to love Sonlight but no longer does.  It's too slow for him.  We missed a couple of days last week, so I've been doubling up on our work, and he's much more enthusiastic about it.  I guess we'll be working on it double-time until we finish.

I found out today that WinterPromise is going to have a 2nd grade LA that goes with her AW program.  I am very excited about this!  Of course, now Caleb is interested in doing AS1.  ;)

I weighed over the weekend for the first time in, well, a LONG time.  Let me back up.  Saturday night I had a dream.  A horrible, frightening, wake-me-up dream.  I stepped on a scale and saw a number that actually woke me from my sleep.  Our scale is in storage right now, and while we were there on Sunday, I stepped on it just to reassure myself.

My nightmare came true.  Of course, as is my tendancy, I beat myself up over it and want to eat even more of the wrong things.  This was after we picked strawberries and oranges and bought fresh veggies at the flea market on Saturday, too.  I don't know what I'm going to do.  I can't do another diet.  I can't follow man's rules once more.  I've done it, and yes, it works for me.  It works WELL for me.  But it doesn't solve my heart issues, and that's the source of my weight problem.  Yet I don't know what to do from here.  All I can do is stay on my face before the Lord and see where He leads me.

I only pray I don't do myself even more harm in the meantime.  :(

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I so wish we were further in our Sonlight CoreK.  I'm ready to move on to Winter Promise.  I keep reading about it, anticipating the new catalog, chatting about it with others, and I'm having to force myself to be patient and wait for when we NEED it.

I'm trying to figure out of we should do AW or AS1.  Caleb would probably enjoy AW, but he'll be 7 in the fall.  AND he's been  schooling for awhile, so I don't want to repeat what would normally be considered K.  However, he does love studying animals.  And they do have the expansion pack.  Thankfully, I have time to pray about it.

Time to get Amelia out of the bathtub so we can do our schooling.  It's so nice being in Florida where we can school outside.  :)

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Copied from my 360.Yahoo.com/barefootbookworm blog.  Posted yesterday.

Oh my gosh, what an incredible day!  We went to Emerelda Marsh, a wildlife marsh, and saw real, honest-to-goodness alligators!  There were lots of other wildlife as well, but the alligators were amazing.  The kids were beside themselves.  Of course, when Amelia saw the baby gator, she turned all maternal on us.  Ack!  ;)  There were people there fishing, having picnics, etc.  Um, thanks but not us.  Can you imagine?!  Eating your pb&j and looking up into a gator's eyes?  They're really incredible animals.  Fascinating.

We also found the next place we're going to move.  It's an amazing RV park in Lake County.  Love it.  It's got a pool, mini-golf, dog run with complimentary tennis balls and poop-scoop bags ;), shuffleboard, tennis, bocci ball, swings, several laundry facilities, etc.  It's a gorgeous place, and I would be thrilled to live there in any capacity.  Of course, I didn't get pictures of it.  Durh!

That's it for now.

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I'm not sure how to make this happen.  I have a blog on Yahoo! 360 - http://360.yahoo.com/barefootbookworm - that I update regularly.  However, most of my friends use homeschoolblogger.com, so I'd like to link to them here.  Maybe I will put a link on my Yahoo! 360 pointing my family to homeschool blogger.  I really don't think I can find the time to do two blogs.  I barely have time to do one.

Does anyone have any advice for me?  I'll figure this out.  :)

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