Am I Doing a Good Job?

This happened a few days ago, but I've been so busy lately that I have not been able to blog:

I woke up one day wondering if homeschooling really was for our family.  I was wondering if the words I've heard so many times from the nay sayers were true about harming my dc socially.  That day we decided to go the Museum of History.  They were having a huge display on our Native Indians.  We had the whole museum to ourselves.  My dc decided to take clip boards and paper just in case they saw something interesting.  For some reason when we walked in my two older children gravitated to either side of the museum.  There was no one else there so I let them thinking we are here to have fun.  I wanted them to enjoy themselves and not think about "school".  I stayed with my little one who surprised me with his interest and hunger for knowledge.  I had to read every plaque that described what was in the different displays.  If he did not understand what a word meant he would stop me and ask me to explain.  My 11 yr old ds was sitting on the floor in the middle of some displays drawing everything he saw.  He would then read the plaques and in his own words write a small discription underneath his drawing.  When he finished with one section, he would get up and find another spot and do the same thing.  My 15 yr old was also reading every plaque and taking notes of what she read. 

Then a field trip arrived of High Schoolers.  They were very loud and rumbustious.  You could see my dc getting real upset.  Especially my dd.  She could not believe how they were acting.  Not listening to anyone.  My dc asked if we could leave as they could no longer concentrate and were feeling uncomfortable.  I mean these kids were cursing and being nasty.  We started to walk out and at that moment the Museum director came up to me and asked if I homeschooled my dc.  When I stated "Yes", he told me what a great job I was doing.  He stated he was watching them and was really impressed how they handled themselves and how they took the initiative to learn by themselves.  He stated how rare that is in this day and age (he was an older man).

When we got home, my dc took it upon themselves to take their notes and each did a paper on what they learned and put it in their history notebooks.  All of this without me even asking!  I was impressed to state the least.  My dd then told me how thankful she was that I pulled her out of PS.  She stated she had forgoten how kids act when they are all bunched up together like that.  She stated she would not have learned anything if she was on that field trip.

When dh got home my little one gave him a play by play of everything he saw.  How did he remember all that?!?  He even used the words he did not know when we were there and then explained to daddy what they meant incase daddy did not know...LOL .  The other dc then read daddy their papers.  They were so excited about the things they learned.  My dh had a smile from ear to ear.  You could tell he was proud.

I went to bed thanking God once again for reminding me why I homeschool and reassuring me that I am doing a good job.  We serve such an Awesome God!

BTW.....I have an appt tomorrow and another one on Saturday with two different doctors who will be checking my medical records to see if they can approve me for a VBAC.  Please keep us in your prayers!  This is something dh and I really want.  It is very important to us.

Looking into Having a VBAC

Hello everyone!  I am so sorry, I know I have been neglecting my blog lately.  There are a few things going on over here which have left me with very little time to myself let alone anytime at all to blog.

I am trying to think of a way of getting Wizdom's portfolio together for evaluation.  I have received a lot of help from our dear sisters at the Homeschool Lounge.  I think I have enough and being that the evaluation is being done by another homeschool mom I feel a little more comfortable.

The big thing going on is the fact that I am going for a VBAC.  I had all three of my dc by C-Section.  My first was when I was 18 and the reason was because I did not dialate (not sure of spelling).  When I had my second I was not comfortable at all.  I was in a lot of pain and no one was helping me with the breathing or anything.  My family and the nurses were engaged in a shouting match not paying much attention to me.  My family wanted them to do another C-Section as they believe once a C-Sect always a C-Sect (I believed it too).  The nurses on the other hand were trying to explain to my family that this was not so and insisted I have a natural birth.  Well my family won.  My third baby was scheduled as soon as we found out I was pregnant.

With all three of my births I have always felt like I left something behind in the hospital.  Always an incomplete feeling.  I was letting my feelings about this out for the first time on the Homeschool Lounge, when another mother advised me that the nurses were right and my family was wrong.  She explained VBAC to me while another mother referred me to ICAN (a website all about VBACs).  I have also checked out some materials from my local library to help educate myself on the subject.  My dh and I are so excited to state the least!  After so much prayer, could the Lord really be answering my prayers?  Don't get me wrong if the Lord is still answering "NO", I will also be prepared for that, but well educated.  Knowing my rights as a mother and a person.  This time I can actually go through the labor in a more productive and meaningfull way.  I've found out that going through the labor, even if you end up having another C-Sect, is good for the baby's health and also for the mother's health and mental state.  Maybe this is the reason my ds has so many breathing problems?  Who knows?  The Lord made Labor for a reason as everything else in this earth and up above.

Anyhoo, this is the reason I have been lost for so long.  I have been spending a lot of time learning from the mothers at the Homeschool Lounge, while at the same time reading and studying as much as possible about VBAC so that I am well prepared for the journey the Lord has placed in front of me.

Blessings to everyone and please keep us in your prayers!

Changed Doctors Today!

I officially changed my dc doctor's office today.  I changed AnaMaria and Wizdom a few months ago and waited to change Xander because of his health issues.  I wanted to make sure it was the right choice first.  Well I have fallen in love with this Doctor and I love the way she runs her practice.  Where I was before was great at first when my older children were younger, but as time has passed and they grew more and more popular it has become really hard to get an appointment.  There have been times where I have been there with Xander wheezing and have had to wait for 1/2 an hour to an hour to see a doctor.  They have taken on way to many patients and even when you are in with a doctor it seems they are rushing to get you out so that they can see another patient.  This new doctor really takes her time with you, bonds with the children (love that) and answers any and every question you may have.  She respects how I feel about medication and takes the time to see if there is any alternative before prescribing something.  If she does prescribe something, she takes the time to explain why and still gives me room and time to weigh my options.  I am really happy with her.

For those of you who invited me to join The Homeschool Lounge  thank you so much.  I really love that site.  For those of you who have not checked it out, you might want to go and see what all the hoopla is about.  Really amazing people, great chats, and a lot of really good information from woman who really believe in family, family values the way the Lord intended us to, and homeschooling.  I am placing a Button for you to Link from on this page, but you may also click on the words The Homeschool Lounge.

What a Busy Time This is for Me!

Between the homeschooling, packing, taking care of my home and family while trying to take care of myself and my belly, I can say I am truly exhausted.  At the same time I am so happy and feel so fulfilled.  I am not stating everything is running perfect in my home because it truly is not, but somehow the Lord has given me such awesome peace, amazing strength, and real knowledge of who my kids are.  Something I would never have figured out on my own.  Today is one of those days where I look at my children and realize how much I love homeschooling and spending this time with them.  I just keep thinking this time will pass away so fast and I want to make sure we have something really fullfilling to remember them by.

I have been struggling so much with Wizdom and today I can say we had one of those days where he really got it.  The look on his face was truly priceless.  I decided today (something I should have done along time ago) to truly cater "school" to Wizdom.  Isn't that what homeschooling is all about anyways.  When will I truly let go of "public school methods".  I try and try and alway end up going back to what I am used to and feel safe with.  The only problem with that is that my ds was not only not learning, but really hating "school".  It was getting to the point that he dreaded coming into the family room in the morning.  I'm not even sure when this started.  It has been for a few months now.  It started off this morning like always where he just was not getting it and was ready to cry.  I said a low prayer and felt led by the Lord to take everything away from in front of him.  I looked around the room ready to cry myself and saw my Dry Erase board.  I grabbed it and decided to do something different with it.  Instead of me just showing him how to do the Math problems on the board while he tried to figure them out on paper, we each got a different color marker.  I used the same problems that were in the book, but I would do one problem in my color and he would do a similar one in his.  He really liked the idea of using the Dry Erase board and markers instead of paper and pencil.  We just made it fun! and he learned (I mean really got it) what we have been struggling with in Math for months.  Go figure!  It seemed that as soon as he let go of the stress of "school work" and was just playing with markers he let his gaurd down and actually learned.  Before I knew it he was doing all the problems on his own while having fun with it.  When we took out his reading book which we also have been struggling with, he had that I can conquer the world attitude and just read like a pro.  I was so happy, but of course did not let on because I was scared the gaurd would come back up.  I did praise him when he was done on how well he read and he just gave me an amazing smile from ear to ear.  The greatest part is that he not only read like a pro, he actually remembers what he read.  That was something else we were struggling with.  WOW!  Now these moments are the true moments that show me why I homeschool!  It's funny how everytime I feel like nothing is going right and they are not learing enough, the Lord shows me He is truly in control.  I guess what set me off was the fact that we are getting so close to evaluation and I still can't figure out how to make my portfolio for Wizdom.  This will be our first time doing this and I really do not want to mess up.  AnaMaria has evreything really neat in the same notebook and I know she is more than ready to take the SAT test, but Wizdom has used so many curriculums and hands on learning that I don't know what to do for his portfolio.  I know for a fact he is not ready to test yet and I will probably keep him doing "6th grade" work through the summer.  I am more interested in him actually learning something than just having him memorize facts for a test.  I have decided to make a portfolio of all the work he has done.  I'm sure it will not look as perfect and complete as most moms probably have by this time, but I'm still learning this part myself.  I am just glad we had a whole day with no tears and real learning.  That was the true icing on my cake today!

I'm Back Home!

It feels so good to be home!  I miss my mom, sister, niece and nephew, but I am so glad to be home with my husband.  A friend of his allowed us to borrow his video camera for the trip and we watched the video for the first time last night.  We had such a nice laugh.  It was so neat to see Xander's face again everytime he saw a Disney Character.  He was so happy and excited.  I promise to post more pictures soon, but here is one for now:

We have been so busy trying to get back to a normal (whatever that means) schedule and catch up on school work.  My husband also decided he was going to start pulling things out for packing to help me out.  Oh Boy,  What a mess!  Bless his heart for trying to help, but ....Wow!  I am not even half way done. 

Well I need to get back to work.  Just wanted to let everyone know I am back home.