• E-Book: Teaching Jeremiah--a complete curriculum for teaching special needs children in preschool and early elementary grades.
• E-Book: Someplace Called Special--A Look at Homeschooling Special Needs Children
• Special Words for Special Needs--Blog posts by a mom homeschooling several special needs children.
  

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Here is a review of the year 2009.

    We started off the new year welcoming in Lauren to our family.  The adjustment was overall rather easy, it was just the 'new baby' chores to do again.  We also switched Swim Team for the kids from the Marlins to Four Seasons.  There are remarkable differences between the teams, and it took a while for Caleb especially to adjust.  But overall, I think this was a great move as we get along withe the coach and other members wonderfully.  Caleb and Jessica both played Upwards Basketball as well.  They even both made baskets in the game!  We were also able to witness the Baptism of the newest addition to the Hall Family, dear friends from high school.

    In the spring, Caleb recieved his First Communion.  And later, we were able to visit our dear friends, the Woolvertons, and witness the baptism of their daughter Francesca.  Unfortunately, the stormy weather nut out a day to spend with them as we tried to get home with the storms following. 

    Summer made way for summer Swim Team, in which both kids swam in the finals at Conference in their age brackets.  Summer also means lots of family birthdays!  Caleb turned 8 in May, Jessica turned 6 in August, and Heather turned 3 (but she says she is 8 when asked).   All three were able to participate in VBS this year, which made Heather so very very happy!  We were also able to celebrate the joys of marriage as I was aksed to be the Matron of Honor in Anjali and Aaron's wedding.  We had grown up together and were best friends for many years.  Jessica was asked to be the flower girls and she loved everything to do with the wedding.  Congratulations to the newlywed couple and my wish for them was that they could look back on their wedding as the day they loved each other the least (Meaning that they would continue to grow in love for each other)

    Fall brough a renewed start to our homeschooling journey.  Caleb started 3rd grade and Jessica 1st grade.  Caleb is studying the hostory of the world through navigation (Sea & Sky by WinterPromise) while Jessica is loving learning about different habitats and the animals that live in them.  Both are doing very wonderfully and are also engaged in many outside activities, inlcuding 4H, Co-ops, CCD, Little Flowers and Blue Knights as well as swimming, basketball and dance lessons.  I have also re-affiliated and started teaching Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth (r) classes again.  I just love being able to help other couples enjoy the joy of welcoming their child into the world.

   And the end of the year brought the joy and pain.  It turned out that I had a kidney stone, and the day we went into the hospital, it started to descend and begame stuck.  So surgery was in order to laser the 6mm stone and pull it out.  Minor complications followed, and even as I write this, I am 95% better, but still not all the way.  We were also able to celebrate Lauren's first birthday!!  It is amazing how fast a year goes.  Also, my wonderful husband, has finished (hopefully) school!!  YAY!!  But becuase he missed the deadline to apply for graduation, he is looking forwrd to graduating in May. 

   As we look upon the start of the next year, I am just so excited to see how the kids will grow, what new interests they will pursue and the joys next year holds.  I pray that you have a very Merry Christmas and may God bless you and your family, this season and always.

As a homeschooling activity, I had my son look for a penpal via a website called "Students of the World."  He found a fellow homeschooled student, and they are now emailing each other daily, via the Students of the World safe emailing site.  It took a while for my son to find a penpal who didn't want to email via a private email address, but he finally did.   He's delighted and so am I.

I found some penpals too, mainly because I've always been interested in how others live in distant lands.  One of my penpals is a 17-year-old boy who lives in Kasese, Uganda.  Both of his parents died when he was 6 years old, and he is living on his own.  He has no money for food or clothing, and I believe he is living on the street, although he didn't say this.  A women's organization that he does occasional work for allows him to use their computer.

After I inquired about how he survives, he told me about the lack of food and clothing--he has never begged or asked me to help him.  Yet, I feel compelled to help in whatever way I can; isn't this what God would have me to do as a Christian?  My heart cried, as he shared with me that he sleeps a lot to avoid hunger pangs and that he eats extremely stale bread out of a bakery's dumpster which usually makes him sick.

He was living with his grandfather and step grandmother, but his grandfather passed away in December 2007.  His step grandmother took ill and is now living with relatives.  This young boy has no one to help him now.  He also has a younger brother who is being "taken care of" by his late grandfather's best friend, but the caretaker cannot adequately meet the needs of the younger brother.  This, I believe, concerns this caring young man more than his own needs not being met.

After his grandfather died, this child had to quit school, as he had no one to help him pay fees, get school supplies, or anything else every human being needs to survive.  He wants more than anything to finish his education, take care of his brother, and help others; he strongly believes completing his education will elevate him out of poverty.  I'm deterimined to find help for him  through whatever source I can, including my own, once I begin receiving payment for my contract work via LiveOps.  (I just began working for them a few days ago.)

Please help this young man by making donations via this blog, and I assure you that I will get every penny to him and keep you updated on his progress.  In the near future, I will build a website, and use it to raise money for him.  The boy's name is "Jemba."

Thank you for reading this, and thank you for your contribution to elevate "Jemba."

Ms. Phyllis

Got up at about 2 this morning.  Did schoolwork that included posting to Discussion Forums and answering questions online.  Talked on the phone to my best friend who lives in Ohio.  My boy made his own breakfast while I took a short nap around 10:30.  It's early afternoon and I'm about to make lunch.

Yesterday, my son attended a kid's fitness class.  Only he and one other girl showed up, so the instructor let the two moms who were there use the equipment too.  My legs were hurting a bit afterwards, but I felt highly energized.  Starting in January, I'm going to start some kind of exercise program--probably conditioning and power walking.  Okay, when am I going to fit that in?

This homeschooling, training for work, going to school is a lot, but you know, it's kind of energizing too.

I know where there's a will, God will make the way!

Ms. Phyllis

LiveOps contacted me!  I am now finishing courses so I can certify with them as an Independent Contractor.  Once I finish the courses and get my second, dedicated phone line installed, I can begin taking customer service calls and making money.  I am grateful for this opportunity, and have to keep diligently working toward the goal.  I also finished two of my classes via Grand Canyon University and two more classes started on November 30.  All of this along with homeschooling.  Hmmmmm . . . there's definitely a lot of stuff going on.

I'm still homeschooling my son.  Right now, we are using Time4Learning.  I had the frustration of not being able to access it for about a month.  I discovered this was because my new computer was running a 64-bit browser instead of a 32-bit browser.  Once I accessed the 32-bit browser, which was also available on the computer, and started using it, the problem was solved.  Too bad it took me slightly over a month to figure this out.  Time4Learning's support people offered some suggestions, but they didn't work.  It's not their fault though, Windows 7 is so new, and of course, there are always glitches and bugs with new operating systems.  The people at Time4Learning were nice enough to give me a free month to make up for the lost time--a great blessing to me.

My boy is still doing a lot of reading, Time4Learning, projects, etc.  His capacity for knowledge and application of that knowledge amazes me.  Yesterday, he hooked up my printer with ease, and he's not quite 10.  He definitely has the gift for figuring out how things work and putting them together.  Me, I have to read the directions and am lost without them.  Him, he looks at the picture and goes to work.  He is a blessing and God blessed me to be his mom.

Just wanted to stay in touch, and thanks for reading my blog.

Ms. Phyllis

Here are the pictures as promised.

Caleb made a piratship porthole:

From Atelier:

Heather:

Jessica:

Caleb:

Cute pictures of Lauren:

And todays fiasco - Heather cutting her hair:

and after a fix at the local hair cut place:

I have been meaning to update my blog the last few weeks, but it kept escaping me.  Probably because Lauren is at that age when she has a hard time falling and staying asleep on her own - she is almost 1 year old! 

But what a week - I have no been feeling well for a while, and  symptoms started on the 20th anniversary of my mothers death.  Then on Wednesday, we went in to the ER.  The pain was like transition in labor x 10.  They gave me lots of pain meds (which made me sleepy) and it was awful.  A 6mm kidney stone had started descending and got stuck in the tube connecting the kidney with the bladder.  The doctor performed surgery, using a laser to break it up.  Luckily I was under general anesthesia for that part!!  3 days later, I am still sore, but not in major pain.   The doctor put a stint (?) in between the kidney and bladder that will be removed Monday (boy am I NOT looking forward to THAT process!!).  The CAT scan showed another stone forming in my other kidney :(  I really hope to never go through that again though!!

So that is a short update.  I really hope to put up pictures of the kids work they have done the last few weeks.  But not tonight.