• Apr. 20, 2006
The Final Day of the Baby Countdown
Today is our last day of baby preparation. She will be here tomorrow, ready or not! I had my OB appt this morning. All looks good - still not dilated (did not dilate with either of my girls but went into labor early with both boys, hmmm...). I am measuring BIG! I am at the end of 38 weeks and measuring 41. I have never measured that big not even with my 9 1/2 pound baby. Makes me wonder if this is a big girl. Blood pressure and all was good. A little swelling in the ankles but it is hot here so that's not unusual for me and the warm weather. I have to be at the hospital at 5:30 for my 7:30 surgery. Yikes! Good thing the hospital is 10 minutes down the road! They are using disolvable staples this time as opposed to metallic staples. He said the scar would be prettier. Ok, with my c-section overhang, I can't really see it anyway so whatever!
Older son took the last belly shot of me. He wanted to know why I'd want a picture of my belly, anyway. I told him that I'd like to be able to remember what it looked like. His reply was that if I had another baby, I'd get to see it again anyway. Good point.
Some things that we will try to accomplish this morning. Oh wait, this afternoon...
1. Mop floors & vacuum rugs.
2. Make menu and grocery list for tonight's trip to the store.
3. General pickup of the house.
4. Wash ANOTHER load of clothes. (How do we do that? I just washed everything yesterday!)
I think that is it. We did math this morning and that was it. I may try to squeeze in a little more school or I may just forget about it. We are taking the kids out to eat tonight before the grocery store. My parents will be here 8ish and are taking the kids to a hotel so they will be in town for the morning. (Our house is not big enough to have guests - we hardly have room for us!) Then Dave's Mom will be here so she can be here early in the morn. I'm not sure if I'll check in tomorrow before I leave. I should be home Sunday evening if all goes well. I like to get home to heal so I try to get home ASAP. I may not feel like checking in but I'll try to post a picture of our new baby girl.
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• Apr. 19, 2006
All of This Posting about the baby's arrival...
and I've neglected to post about our schooling. We have been doing schooling this week. Since the baby will arrive on Friday, the kids will be going to the farm with my Mom & Dad for a week. (My parents are not farmers. They are missionaries and rent a house on a farm and get total access to the entire 260 acres. It's a cool situation.) So we will take a spring break or a babymoon for a week. After that, my husband will teach them for the next few days that he is home and I will pick up after that...I hope.
If all goes well, we will officially finish our schooling on May 24th. I sat down on Monday and planned out the rest of our school year. Though we will finish our 180 days that are required by the state on the 24th, we won't actually be finished with school or some of the curriculum that I want to cover.
For the most part, we will have covered most of our curriculum but we are lagging behind in Math. So we will do one Math lesson per day. We also didn't cover much ground in SOTW. Since my kids love SOTW, we will work on that during the summer also. If I recall, my older son still will have one more week of his reading curriculum to finish up. I also plan on playing learning games with my younger son to help him retain the letter sounds that he has learned and make the letter names a little more concrete than they are at this time. Older son needs to work on times tables. I've taught him all of the tricks that I know for certain numbers and now he is down to the memorizing of the others.
I'm not sure how to approach this with the state, though. Do I document it and send it in to them as days we did school or just let it go? We do have one year round school here in our city, so they wouldn't be totally thrown by someone doing school year round. I don't know. I guess I'll keep up with it and see if I feel like sending it in. Maybe I will, just to let them know how hard we worked this year!
Ok, I'm off. I'm tired and rambling. I have an early doctor's appointment and lots to do tomorrow on our last day as a family of five. Off to bed...
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• Apr. 19, 2006
The Baby Countdown - 2 Days!!!!
I’m not sure how much is going to get done today! Man, I wanted to finish it up as much as possible! But, I was up from
So here’s today’s to do list for the baby countdown:
1. Homeschool
~Done~ Though some subjects were not exactly finished. But we can be flexible with the homeschooling…right? I hate to admit it but being flexible is not my best trait.
2. Wash towels. Pack some in suitcase.~Done~ Finished all of the loads of laundry, actually!
3. Mop floors for the entire house.Did not get to this. This is my least favorite job. If I have energy tonight, I will do it. If not, it will wait until tomorrow
4. Pack the kids’ bags.My sweet hubby did this for me.
5. Finish decluttering main bathroom which may have to wait until later.
Did this to a meager extent. Will have to get serious about it later. But it’s only for our viewing since it holds toiletries and cleaning supplies. The linens are actually in another place. I did, however, declutter the kids’ room. Again, it needs to be better but I’m short on time & energy.
6. Plan menu and grocery list for next 2 weeks.
This will get done tomorrow since we won’t go to the store until later in the evening.
I squeezed in a little nap during quiet time too. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.
Right now, I’m off to clean the kitchen since we just finished breakfast and get 2yodd dressed for the day! Need to start school SOON because the kiddos seem to be feeding off of my blahness today. Fights have been abounding all morning!
Praying for energy to get this done. Tomorrow will be too busy. Praying for peace for my household today.
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• Apr. 18, 2006
Only 3 Days Left!
We have only three days until the arrival of our newest family member. Actually, less if she decides to come early but I don't see that happening. I guess it's possible though.
I have gotten much done but still have much to do. So I'm going to post it here. I'm not sure if anyone reads this but having it out there will make me more accountable, I think! 
I get so tired in the afternoons which is my main time to clean, that makes it hard to get things done.
Here's what's on the slate for today.
1. Homeschooling, of course!
~Done~
2. Wipe down laundry room appliances & sweep (Usually do on Monday but it's in the garage and it was over 90 degrees yesterday!)
~Done~
3. Wash 8ds sheets & sheets for Dave's mom (in the process right now)
~Done~
4. Wash quilts (Do some mending on one quilt tonight - if time allows)~Done~ with the exception of the mending
5. Declutter main bathroom linen closet
About half way done. Taking a little break right now.
6. Declutter kids' room (a little today & a little tomorrow)
7. Clean fans in Master bedroom & kids' room
~Done~
8. Clean bathrooms & possibly mop/scrub floors (floors may wait until tomorrow)
~Done~ Floors will wait until tomorrow with the rest of the house’s floors.
9. Make bread for tonight's dinner (with my friend, the bread maker!)
Waiting for bread to finish rising. Then I will make breadsticks. I used the recipe on Laine’s Letters. I love her site!
Here’s the recipe link. Sorry no pretty link. I lost the link to the directions on making pretty links. ~heehee~
http://www.lainesletters.com/recipe/softfastbread2.html
As soon as I get the breadsticks ready to rise, everyone is going down for quiet time and I may try to get in a little nap.
10. Make some oatmeal raisin cookies which I've really been craving!
Ok, that's a lot! I may have too much on my plate today but I'm definitely in the nesting mode!
Oh yeah - forgot one thing - write thank you notes. The ladies that I play Bunco with had a surprise shower for me last Tuesday. I'd like the notes written so I can pass them out at church tomorrow night.
Ok, it's all out there. Let's see if I get this done. I'll edit and mark what I finish as the day goes along! I'm always up for a challenge!
All ready needing to edit - forgot a big one! I need to pack my and the baby's bags. Nope, haven't done that yet either! Man, I'm behind on the game!
Edit at end of the day:
Well, I didn’t finish it all but having it on here sure did keep me motivated. Tomorrow I will finish decluttering the linen closet. The boys’ room may not get decluttered. Oh well! I didn’t get my cookies made either. Rats! 
However, the breadsticks were yummy! I made some honey butter to go on them. Yum! Thank you notes will have to wait until tomorrow also. We did get bags packed for Mommy, Daddy & baby. A good day! I hope I have the energy tomorrow to get more done! I think I’ll come back and post another list to keep me motivated!
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• Apr. 17, 2006
What I Love About Homeschooling
So after lamenting and indecisiveness about homeschooling in my previous posts, I am really coming to love it. It has truly grown on me. People said that the first year was the hardest and I’ve found that to be true! But it’s been a year of many ups and downs for me. One thing that I’ve learned through ALL of this and I do mean everything is that God is faithful and He is my strength. He is my strength in stepping out and doing something that very few do in my neighborhood (homeschooling) and loss of a loved one (my brother’s death) as well as severe morning sickness and fear of another c-section. I think I’ve learned more this year than my children. But the things that I’ve learned are not related to book knowledge. No, I’ve learned about myself (good & bad) and I’ve learned about God. It has been a significant year of growth for us all!
So we have decided that we will do this again next year – the homeschooling, that is. Now to only figure out the curriculum. There will be some changes there, for sure!
Back to what I love about homeschooling. It is so neat the opportunities that arise during the day for learning or those teachable moments. Some deal with character development, God’s love, etc and some deal with the everyday kind of things.
Today we had some visitors of the reptilian persuasion. At first, we saw one little lizard hanging on the screen door.
Then we spotted the second one seated right beside the door. They began dancing – maybe a mating ritual?
But the kids were all about these lizards and that has opened avenues of learning for us! That kind of thing is so awesome!
*Please excuse the remodeling going on. (The white boards in the background.)
A few months back, we had this same opportunity arise when a bird of prey captured a poor little pigeon in our front yard. We had the (unfortunate) chance of seeing this in action. I know, I know, it’s nature but it was still sad. The boys really got into birds of prey and began researching them. Again, all kinds of learning occasions were happening.
Anyway, these two instances as well as others that have happened are just some of the things that I love about homeschooling. I’m glad that we’re going down this road again next year!
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• Apr. 13, 2006
Our School Today
The OB appointments have made it so hard to get school done on those particular days. We spend the morning getting ready and then when we get home, I'm tired! So today, we took a different approach to school.
I took some plastic Easter eggs and loaded them with words and candy. Some of the words were geared toward my younger son and some towards my older son. I knew that they would probably not get all of the words that were intended for them so I made modifications based upon who got the egg. Older son can read the words for younger son so he had to give adjectives to describe the words in a sentence. This is what he is working on in English. Younger son is a very early reader so if he got an older son word, I focused on letters and sounds. Then I helped him decode it and use it in a sentence. My daughter just had to help count the candy in the eggs or the letters in the word. If they got a word intended for them, then we just read the word, discussed its meaning and used it in a sentence.
That sounds confusing but it really wasn't!
The kids loved it. "This is so much fun, Mommy!" Here's our day in pictures.
Getting ready for the egg hunt.
Looking for eggs.
Reading words, making sentences and eating candy.
"Mommy, I want the camera."
We still need to do some math and older son needs to take a spelling pre-test. The day was really a lot of fun!
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• Apr. 13, 2006
The Single Digit Countdown - Eight Days and Counting!
Today was my 37 week OB appointment. We are scheduled to go in for a section next Friday, April 21st, if she doesn't come early. I was down one pound but measuring a week ahead (which I have done the past three visits). Blood pressure was good.
We are excited but I still have so much to get ready around here!
Forgot to get the boys to take a picture of my belly and I'm not looking picture quality right now!
Oh yeah, they checked me for dialation and nothing going on yet. They try to catch me before I go into to labor because when I start, I go fast (as with my second son.)
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• Apr. 8, 2006
Saturday Fun
Change of plans for today… We thought that the Easter Eggstravaganza was today but when Dave and the kids got to the riverfront, it was not there. That’s because it’s next weekend! So Dave did some impromptu change of plans. Man, he’s good.
The kids explored the Boardwalk. It is new to our area and is an outlet mall set up in a really neat fashion. The boys thought that it looked like
They ended up at the Bass Pro Shop which is the boys’ all time favorite place! Here is yds sitting on something there. I think this picture is so cute! Err…handsome. He doesn’t like to be called cute.
Dave then took the kids to the Air Force Base Museum. He is a former reservist and loves planes. He and I have been here and to other air plane graveyards many times. Here are the kiddos in front of a plane.
We met up at home and have spent the rest of our Saturday outside. The boys did some yardwork and car cleaning with Dave. Then time was spent on the trampoline and a little bit of gardening. Now, they are all on a bike ride which is one of their favorite things to do.
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• Apr. 7, 2006
Week in Review
I haven't blogged this week due to being so tired. I've checked in but my 9 month pregnant body & brain just couldn't put words here. We've had a busy week though we got little school done this week.
Everyone is back home now from visitng Grandparents in various places in the US. I missed my ys who went to Georgia. He's my normally very stoic child but being away from us let us see that he does get very emotional. He really missed us. Os and dd enjoyed their time on the farm and got a kick out of riding the 4 wheeler through the mud! I'm just so glad to have everyone back home!
We did not do much school this week. Allergies are raging here due to the unbelievably high pollen count right now. This caused all of the children to have fevers at various times. My os gets so droopy when he has fever. He's rarely sick but when he is sick, he is really sick. We did get some math done but that's about it.
My best friend and former college room mate is in town visiting from overseas. I have missed her and her children. We met them at the park yesterday and the kids had a blast. We got to talk and catch up. She homeschools also and it was so nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of and talk about homeschooling with. This is both of our first years and the feedback was invaluable.
I had my 36 week OB appt yesterday. They have begun checking me for dilation because I've had 3 previous sections and we have to be careful. I am not dilated but they were a little worried about my swelling and that I had higher than normal blood pressure. (I'm usually on the low end with blood pressure.) They rechecked my pressure and it was normal and all other tests came back normal. I'll go back next week. Can't believe we're almost there. Still so much to do...
We went shopping today and the kids were awesome! Usually, I avoid shopping with all of my kids at the same time but today, it was unavoidable. They were so well behaved! We got them some Easter outfits and some baby stuff. The baby now has a bouncy seat should I ever need free hands! I also got some Mother's Milk Tea and fenugreek to help out the milk supply. Oh, and I got a sling the other day from another homeschool mom that I met at co-op. I'm excited to use it!
This weekend will be pretty busy for us. I have choir practice in the morning for our musical on Sunday. I believe this will be my last singing venture in choir and praise team for the next few months. I'm just too worn out and I have a hard time breathing with this baby on my lungs! Dave will take the kids to our neighboring city for an Easter Extravaganza on the river front. It is sponsored by a local church that some of our friends go to. They (Dave & kids) are going to pick up our new baby's diaper bag that we bought at a local boutique and had monogramed. Sure hope the OB got the gender right... I have to finish grocery shopping after practice tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll get to till up our backyard garden tomorrow evening so we can get some seeds in the ground. Maybe I'll have some time and energy left for some nesting that I need to take care of. So that's our Saturday in a nutshell.
Need to check for spelling and such but got to get supper on to cook! I'm off!
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• Mar. 30, 2006
A Weird Day for Us
It is amazing that having one child gone from the house can change the total dynamics of the household. Our younger son is gone today. He left early this morning to go to Georgia with Dave's parents to visit Dave's brother and his family. Our older son opted to wait until tomorrow to go my parents' house with his little sister since his dad and I will be at a retreat this weekend.
Back to the missing child...it is just weird what it has done to us today. We've not been able to accomplish much as far as school or housework. It's like our right arm is missing. Now, my children have spent time away from me before but this time is just...different...
I was crying before he left this morning because I told him that I would miss him and he said in such a sweet voice, "I will miss you too, Mommy." He's not very open with his feelings and him saying this sent tears streaming down my face.
His big brother has spent the day doing different activities for short periods of time to only come back to me and say, "Everything I do today reminds me of Grant." He couldn't even concentrate on his schoolwork so we just decided to forgo that.
I know letting go is part of the growing process but, man, it's so hard to let go and let them grow. It's hard to know that he's a little bit closer to not needing me. Selfish, I know...but I know that he will have a good time. He will enjoy being an "only" child for a few short days which is something that he has never experienced before. But I'm so ready for Monday to be here - soon.
I miss you Grant. Have fun. I'm thinking about you lots...and praying for you. Love, Mommy
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• Mar. 27, 2006
Birthday Celebration in Pictures
Saturday was our big birthday celebration for both of the boys. After a week of rain, it was a beautiful, sunny day! We had family over and had a cook out of hamburgers and hot dogs. We had an awesome day!
Bryce helping Daddy put together the trampoline which was the birthday present from Mommy & Daddy that morning.
Grant helping Daddy also.
Little Sister, Emma in her gown, getting in on the helping too.
The boys with their cakes at the party.
Opening presents.
Jumping on the trampoline with Daddy.
Playing popcorn with Daddy. They love this game!
They had such a good day and are really enjoying the trampoline. Sunday was another beautiful day and they spent the afternoon on the trampoline again. Needless to say, their Daddy is very sore from the workout he is getting.
I'd better get back to work today which is always my busiest day of the week. The boys are watching a movie that they got from a friend at church. The movie is from the Answers in Genesis series by Ken Ham. It's called Dinosaurs - Genesis and the Gospel. They are really enjoying the movie and it's very interesting. It even helps them with defending their faith.
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• Mar. 25, 2006
B's Birthday
One of our family traditions for birthdays is to celebrate the child's birthday on his or her birthday with just the five of us. Our families live over an hour away so not everyone can get together easily. So on birthdays, the child wakes up to a decorated room with donuts and a present. They get to choose where or what they want for dinner that night. Then we do cake and open that present. We then celebrate again on a day with the whole family which we are doing today. In March, we have two birthdays so it seems like we do birthday parties all month long!
Yesterday was Bryce's birthday and he choose McDonald's as his dinner of choice. When we got home, we had military decorated birthday cake.
Then Bryce got the first whack on his homemade pinata which he made to look like a horse.
After his present was opened which was a gift of new camo bedding, he snuggled on the couch for a movie of The Jungle Book while Dave and I tried to work on the house for today's birthday party.
We will have family show up in a few hours for our big birthday party. The boys will get a new birthday present of a trampoline which they are outside helping their dad put together right now!
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• Mar. 24, 2006
Happy 8th Birthday!
Today is the 8th birthday of my older son, Bryce. I can not believe that I have a child that age.
I'd like to share more but we will soon head out to co-op and I don't feel well at all. But I'll leave with a picture of my oldest child.
Bryce and his buddy Max.
Happy Birthday Bryce!
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• Mar. 23, 2006
TV Free Day - Part 2
Ok, I'm hanging my head in shame. We didn't make it today. They didn't watch as much TV as usual but we didn't go all day without it.
So my excuses - I only got two good hours of sleep last night and I had a doctor's appointment today and one of my children woke up at the crack of dawn with me and...
We did turn it off for quite a while this morning and they did some other activities. However, due to the before mentioned appointment, we did not get much "school" done. The boys did Math in the van on the short trip to the doctor's office where we met their dad on his lunch break and he drove them back home while I waited.
Now while we got little done that was in my official homeschooling lesson plans, we did have some learning going on. The boys have been studying insects to kick off the first of spring. (Even though it's colder here now than it has been all winter!) So today they made insect puppets, wrote a play and performed it for us during lunch. They plan on doing this for everyone who is coming to their big birthday party on Saturday.
Making the puppets while still in pjs.
Making the scenery. We did not have a big piece of paper so it is computer paper taped together. They were problem solving to figure all of this out. We even had math going on during this! Again - in pjs...still! (Of course, it is only 8:30ish in this pic.)
The puppets during the play. It was a one man show during this one which is why the puppets are not on hands. You may notice B's head between the puppets. The other puppeteer was eating lunch! Please meet: Bee Boy, Flutterby and Praying Manty.
The boys really had a blast doing this and we covered many areas of schooling. So even though I didn't do the plans, they did meet many of the objectives today anyway!
*Just a note - I don't really have any problems with TV watching. I've just been convicted that my children watch too much. We did cut cable down to the most basic channels so the only children's channel that we have is PBS. We didn't like what we were picking up on some of the other children's channels so we got rid of them. They also have movies and we go to the library on the weekends to get movies to watch for the weekend. So I don't completely plan on getting rid of the TV, just trying to cut back. I did remember that I have the book 365 TV-Free Activities You Can Do With Your Child by Steve and Ruth Bennett. It has some really neat activities in it!
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• Mar. 23, 2006
Today's Doctor Appointment
I know that I have this blog slated as a homeschooling blog and my OB appointment has little to do with that! But it does affect our homeschooling in a BIG way so I'm going to blog it!
Today was my 34 week appointment. Things looked good. Good blood pressure and such. Lost one pound but tummy was measuring 35. Baby kept moving away from the doppler so still plenty of room in there to move.
My c-section was set for April 21st. So less than a month now!
Younger son wanted to take a picture so he snapped this one of me. This is my first time in 4 pregnancies to have a belly shot.
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• Mar. 22, 2006
TV Free Day
Today we are having a TV free day. I've been wanting to wean my children from the TV for quite some time now but due to certain circumstances (see previous post on the mud pit...) we have started our TV free time today.
We don't watch A LOT of TV but we watch more than I am comfortable with. Dave and I actually don't watch it. Maybe 3 hours a week. But the kids watch it in the morning as they wake up and then at lunch and again after quiet time. Too much for me. But I'll admit it - it's just easier when I need them entertained. So today, we jumped off our no TV day. And really, it was good but hard. Right off the bat, I noticed that the kids were better behaved. Go figure...But they wanted to do a lot of activities when finished with school. That led to lessons about picking up before we go on to another activity. In order to get things picked up, we had to be creative and do timed racing against the clock. Anyway, they were really well behaved but they were just really BUSY.
Here's some of today's events...
Little Bit and Gman playing with beans in the little kitchen.
B building with the place value blocks after they were used for Math. Notice the goggles which are a most necessary safety precaution when building.
They also put together a wooden train set that I don't think they've played with in a long, long time.
And so as not to make my children feel like they are the only ones. Here's how I've spent part of my day.
I am WAY behind on clothes. I usually have all of this done by Tuesday evening.
Speaking of which, I need to get back to folding all the rest before we head out to church tonight.
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• Mar. 22, 2006
The Mud Pit
Spring has made to Louisiana and has brought cold weather and rain, rain, and more rain. Now, I'm not complaining about the rain because we did suffer through a drought this summer. But you should see my backyard!
You see, I let the boys dig a hole in my garden this winter. That hole has become a mini pond in our backyard. Also that hole has been an issue with the boys and us this week. Here's the series of events...
Sunday - We are getting ready to leave to go back to the evening services at church. The boys have been inside since Saturday morning because of rain. At this time, there is no rain so they go out to wait for us in the van. You can probably see what's coming...We go outside to get in the van ourselves and the boys are no where to be found. Seems they think that the van is now in the back yard by the garden though it is right in your face as you walk out of the house. They have to change clothes before we leave and we are late for children's choir.
Monday - Day 2 of mud fiasco - It has rained again for most of the day but has stopped by the afternoon. The boys ask to go outside and I reply that I'm not in the mood for mud today because I'm all ready up to my eyeballs in dirty clothes. (My washer and dryer are out in the detached garage making washing clothes difficult on cold, rainy days.) I am answered with, "Mommy, we just want to ride our bikes out front. We'll stay out of the mud." Guess where they ended up? Yep, you guessed it. In the mud...again...and back to washing more clothes. By the way, they got to wash that load of clothes.
Tuesday - Day 3 of yet more mud - By this point, you are wondering if I'm dim or what. Maybe I am...However, I am trying to teach my kids that I need to be able to trust them and hold them to their word. So the boys ask to go outside and before I say anything this is what they say, "We PROMISE that we will not get in the mud." The really did a lot better this time. They had been outside playing for quite a while before I noticed that they were back in the mud hole.
Today, nobody is going outside. We are going to wait until the evil mud pit dries up.
Picture of the evil mud pit!
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• Mar. 21, 2006
Homeschooling Today
A while back, I posted some problems that I was having with homeschooling and I was given a lot of advice. By the way, thank you to those who did leave me some advice. I meant to come back and address it after pondering over it but a few days after that post, my brother passed away and things got put on hold. Actually, we didn't homeschool for the rest of December. We tried but we didn't succeed for various reasons.
At that point, we were still tottering on the ledge of doing/not doing homeschool for another year. We haven't actually made the decision to do it next year but we are looking into curriculum for next year. When we decided to homeschool, we did it with the mindset that we would take one year at a time. Right now, it's more like one day at a time. But anyway, I'm still planning for next year as if we are going to be doing this again.
Today, homeschooling is going a lot better. I mean A LOT. We get things done without complaining anymore which is so helpful! I haven't changed a whole lot. I don't want to change curriculum midstream so we're still doing that. I've changed the approach to some things but not much.
One change that we've just made is we've started a notebook. During what I guess would be our "circle time" we do some copy work which is a short memory verse for now and we color a Bible story picture to put in the notebook. We also put things of interest in the notebook. This week, we are studying insects and we have put information about insects in the book. The boys also put their assignment sheets in there. I started these a while back. At first I made a homemade one and it was mainly for my older son so he would work independently while I worked with my younger son who is doing Kindergarten work and in more need of my assistance. My younger son decided that he also wanted one to keep up with his work. Then I stumbled upon these pretty ones that I found at this website.
http://forms.donnayoung.org/planners/1wk.htm (Sorry no pretty links - I'm still learning.) We use the one week planner and the boys love it. She's got some other neat stuff there too! The notebook is not my idea either. I'm really not that creative. Much better at executing the tasks! I actually found it on this blog http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Rene/ (Again - very deficient in the computer area - very, very sorry!) She has a couple of entries on notebooking.
It's amazing that a few changes like that make so much difference!
We recently started going to a homeschool co-op also. It has been every Friday in March and there will be another in April that we will have to miss, unfortunately! My boys LOVE co-op! They are taking a class on the five senses. This was not their first choice but they are pleased with it. Then they have a PE class. I am helping out with the Prarie Primer class. At first, I was in the 11 - 18 year old PE class as a helper. Let me add to this that I am 8 months pregnant! I didn't mind but felt a little less than helpful. So they switched me to the Prarie Primer class which I am enjoying because I love the Little House series. I wish that the boys could go to the next session but I am scheduled for a c-section on the day it starts and won't be able to drive for two weeks. Not to mention that the boys will be on the farm with my parents for a week. Then I would be trying to nurse a little baby at this thing and I always have problems with that at first. Anyway, we hope to go in the fall. Oh, one other thing is that I help out for half of the time and the other half, I get to socialize. I have mentioned before that I don't know many homeschool families IRL and this has been such a help to me!
Right now I am searching for new curriculum for next year. I really wanted to do Sonlight but I can not part with that kind of $$$. I'm looking into Learning Language Arts Through Literature. I wish I could hold one in my hands and look at it but from what I've heard it's pretty good. I'm also thinking about Math-U-Can-See. I've got the demo DVD here, I just need to view it but it sounds really amazing. As far as Science/Social Studies - I don't know. We have The Story of the World which we've not really been able to do this year so I'm thinking about that. We focused a lot on geography this year but I'm also considering doing a geopgraphy something. I had a link and can't find it now. Rats! I don't know what we'll do for science at all yet! I know I could easily pull together the science/social studies myself but the state of Louisiana wants a curriculum comparable to what is used in the school because I am in the home study program. Now, if we decide to go the private school option then it's no big deal. (By the way, I happen to know for a fact that the 1st and 2nd grade teachers use no set curriculum for these areas. They just pull together this and that to teach the standards. Those were the grades that I taught. But I know the state also and I will make sure that I have my store bought curriculum written down on that paper that I send in! 
)
Ok, this has turned into a super huge book that I'm sure no one will read but that's all right! Not to mention, I need to go get supper going!
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• Mar. 21, 2006
Birthday pics from March 15th
Gman taking a swing at his homemade pinata. You can't see the front but it looked like a tiki man so the little pictures that you see on and beside the door frame are tiki type decorations that the boys made. We found directions for this on enchanted learning dot com. Sorry - just figured out the picture thing but haven't figured out the neat links thing yet.
Grabbing the loot! Love the fun going on in this picture!
Talking to MawMaw on the phone while everyone else is eyeing the cake and waiting to dive in. Not a very fancy cake, mind you, but made with love by a birthday boy and his mommy.
We are preparing now for the birthday of older brother which is this Friday. Saturday, we will be having a family celebration for both boys with all of the grandparents and other family over. Then, we'll bring out the fancy cake!
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• Mar. 18, 2006
Happy Late Birthday, G-Man!
This past Wednesday, March 15th was the birthday of my younger son. This post is a little late (typical Adriane fashion...) but I wanted to post a picture of my son. We had a great day on his birthday. We made a birthday pinata and a scrapbook over the week. We also made a cake that day. After church, we came home and they smashed the pinata, ate cake and opened presents. I didn't upload any pics of him on his birthday because we were just trying to figure this picture thing out. But this is Grant or G-man last fall in what remained of our drought stricken garden.
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