• Nov. 15, 2007
NOt creative
I know people cannot believe you have 5 kids and are not creative I am NOT I do not enjoy crafts and so that part of our curriculum is difficult for me
I want to skip it I just get overwhelmed doing it
So today I BIT the bullet and did it
we are studying Africa so they had to go outside and find things (leaves pine cones ect) and come inside and make an animal
ME I had NO idea what to do My kids made wonderful animals
Bryson a butterfly Hudson a dinosaur madison and Moriah birds but both different one
So creative they used Acorns for eyes they really did a great job I will have to take picts and figure out how to post it
And as a Treat Scooby Do was in Africa so they are watching it now
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• Nov. 6, 2007
he did it
Bryson read a book
Not a step one book an actual book
At first he cried and said I cannot do it It has too many pages but then he did it
After about halfway through I told him he could stop but he kept reading and read the whole book
It was a thomas the Train book of course I do Not care he is READING
I swear I thought this day would never come
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• Oct. 11, 2007
trucking along
Moriah was TOTALLY bored with preschool so what the hey I ordered kindergarden she is doing so great
She gets so proud of herself
The older kids get proud of her too
I LOVE HOMESCHOOLING -well most days
Hudson is learning math leaps and bounds
yesterday he said mom did you know 3 rows of 4 equals 12
so smart learning how it all goes together i LOVE THAT
Boys are reading step 1 and two books they are doing great
Madison well she is madison doing everything she can to do the least amount of work possible
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• Oct. 3, 2007
finding a balance
So we have been deligent in school this week and it shows
I cannot get a handle on the laundry and the cleaning as usual
The exhaustion takes over The gym the tap the ballet takes over then Soul patrol
Dominic is working overtime it seems and is going out of town this week
I have errands to run things that need to be done
Will I ever learn how to do it all in one day???
Will I find a balance
I know ppl who school and keep a clean house maybe I am too selfish for it. I enjoy small breaks for me whether it is computer time or sneaking in my bed a sec
I dunno
everyone is alive and learning the house is not taken over by critters everyone has food and clean clothes maybe that is enough???
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• Aug. 30, 2007
HE IS GETTING IT!!!
I am so pumped FINALLY Bryson is getting it
I bought a new workbook thing and tried it thinking it could NOT hurt right??? well it is helping SOOO much
today he was changing the short vowels to long vowels by adding E and he TOTALLY got it. It was like a light bulb went off
I am THRILLED
I knew we were missing something but could NOT figure out where!!! He was so proud too. I cannot wait till as we move through this book more and more light bulbs TURN ON!!!!
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• Aug. 20, 2007
Will he ever
Bryson will he ever read??? and at what point do I need intervention
I successfully taught one child to read why am I struggling so hard with this one
I once again bought new phonic stuff. I learned today that at 8 he cannot do rhyming words so I am working on that. I bought some site word cards thinking phonics has not helped what can it hurt he knew more than half the ones we did today so that is promising I guess. He just does not try sometimes I think he could care less.
I could just scream/ I am not sure If I am past the point where he just cannot read or he has no desire to learn to read and when do I intervene. I have read many ppl boys do not read until 8-10 I have one friend whose son is in school and has been "tested" and is repeating a grade who reads just like Bryson at the same age. SO it is common or is Bryson missing something? Am I failing him or is he just really not ready???
Why is this so hard!
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• Jul. 31, 2007
teaching so many
Most days my school room is anything but quiet it is loud kids vivying for my attention and attaboys
Teaching Bryson handwritting and Hudson Math sometimes I just wanna scream
BUT not today
I was helping Bryson write his scripture He can get overwhelmed with it so we break it down word by word and it helps. He still gets bogged down in making it "perfect" (too much of his momma in him)
And Hudson is still not great at writting his numbers but his math skills are higher so he answers the questions and I write them sometimes
Well both boys were getting annoyed waiting on me and So I assigned Madison to help Hudson
Now for those who know Madison know this can go either way
She helped him to finish his sheet and my heart just smiled
SHe rejoiced in his accomplishments just as I would and it he was proud.
Just another reason I love teaching my kids at home!!!
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• Jul. 24, 2007
Sometimes I forget why I love it
So we started back to school today after a few weeks off for VBS and camp
The kids were so excited to get back to it all
So this morning we got started and got everything done but science by 12!
I love this new thing I ordered from Highlights we are studying MFW countries and cultures. And Highlights has a Top secret Challenge. I ordered it and it has been fun
We are studying Mexico so I got the mexico one.
It has a puzzle and we put it together then it has a book of adventures and each adventure gives a clue. It came with 6 villians to figure out who did it and you solve the clues. It has true/false and multiple choice questions to answer and came with a small resource book about Mexico for the kids to look up the answers in. What a great way to get through Mexico.
We still have science to do today but right now we are playing outside
I LOVE HOMESCHOOLING
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• Jul. 13, 2007
Homeschool snobs
That is what my kids are
I do NOT think my kids are well behaved MOST the time of my day is spend reeling them in to behave. They are polite. To most ppl and they enjoy VBS
SO this week was vbs at our church which was so much fun they loved it! The songs the games ect they had a blast
Well I guess around day 3 my kids were telling me how kids in the crew did not listen ran away from teachers said bad things to ppl ( i have no idea probably said shut up which is not used in our house)
So Hudson (6) said these kids must go to public schools. I said WHY?? he said b/c public school kids are bad and disrespectful I said that is not true I have not taught you that. And Bryson said well from our experience in life it is true 
All I could do was laugh I mean I do not want them to think all public school kids and Homeschoolers are bad !!! I just thought it was funny b/c Bryson acted like he had done a scientific experiment
Sunday my older two are leaving for camp. I am a nervous WRECK whole nother blog but after that we are starting school again the kids are begging and so after camp we are free so school will begin
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• Jul. 1, 2007
Cleaning the school room
For some reason my school room is the messiest unorganized room in my house
So finally toay WHILE I am PMSING I might add decided to clean it out. I do this two or three times a year. But today I did it.
As usually I threw away TWO trash bags full of trash!! TWO How do I let it get filled with trash papers that are not needed old books that expired ect
On a good note I listed some stuff on ebay so Maybe I can make some $$ out of my mess
I have three curriculums I discovered while cleaning that I am not using
THREE who knew I had been through so many
Seeing that made me feel accomplished some days I feel like we accomplish nothing but today seeing three completed curricculms to sell I felt quite accomplished
SO good news is that my school room is all cleaned and ready for school tom
Bad news tornado Graphia hit the rest of the house and it will take it weeks to recover
I have called in reinforcments since my DH is off on a 24 hour job!! So for my 10.00 an hour a GREAT teenager is coming corral children and the reinforcement will be worth every penny and my sanity!!!
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• Jun. 22, 2007
we made it to Mexico
Ok well even if it is just in books we are there
we started Mexico today we prayed for Cuba and we looked at what they have in possessions in mexico. I am excited to be diving into the curriculum and out of the introduction
Our memory verse is Matt 4:4 A person cannot live on bread alone but every word that God speaks
We wrote it on the board and Madison made sure I put NLT after it
I thought it was funny apparantly she deemed it important
So tonight I am browsing other Homeschool blogs to gain wisdome SOmetimes I seem so far away from wisdom!!
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• Jun. 21, 2007
Homeschooling vs schooling at home
This is an issue I struggle with personally. I homeschool for so many reasons and it is hard to not get caught up in the whole which one is better mode. Just as other parenting decisions like breastfeeding/ formula feeding. homebirth/hospitalbirth. This is one of those "touchy" topics
I love homeschooling. Learning at home through play and interaction. I want learning to be fun. I do NOT want my children to repeat verbation boring facts. I want them to be free thinkers I want them to think outside the box I want them to question things and look things up. The mission statement of public school is to make you employable when you graduate that is not what I want for my kids. I want them world changers. I want them to think of different things other than the norm. To me this is what is important for My family. I am sure ppl will be offended by this but it is my blog so I can say what I want
Schooling at home is just that. It looks like school and feels like school except it is done at home. And this works great for many families just as formula feeding works great for many families but it does not fit in our family. For our family it is boring repetitive and just does not fit in our mission statement. which is love learning learn what you are interested in and have fun. Workbooks and dvd teachers is just not what we want to do so if this makes us an unschooler even though we do follow a curriculum that is a label I will wear proudly I just ahd to put this out there so if you are reading my blog and expect it too look like school it will not. We do math standing on our head we read on the trampoline we take nature walks to learn about science and God. We are spending the entire year learning about cultures and not caring about much ellse this year. we go off on tangets that my kids ask about. B/c at this age I think learning to love learning is way more important that what you learn. If you watch that show "are you smarter than a 5th grader" one will see some of the info that is deemed so important is lost as we age so lets have fun learn fun stuff and love learning so when we need to learn the stuff that we do not forget we are excited about diving in!
Ok that is us in a nutshell take us or leave us
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• Jun. 21, 2007
SO another thing to keep up with
Well I guess I should join the group and start another blog b/c I guess I have so much time on my hands!!
I like the idea of all school stuff in one place
We are using My Fathers world - Exploring Countries and cultures this year
we have only done one weeks worth but so far we are loving it!
I cannot wait to dig deep in it
The kids are thrilled with it and i have not had any troubles getting them to do it and the intro part is not really that fun.
Bryson started spelling this year which is great he is really good at it and his reading is improving. He is still not on grade (whatever that mean 
But he is improving which is way good enough for me.
Madison is enjoying this so much it has lots of art and fun projects to keep her interest. If it was up to her we would do art all day everyday
As hard as this homeschooling stuff is I LOVE IT! And I get sad for ppl who send their kids to school. I know homeschooling is not for everyone I get that. I just cannot imagine being away from my kids 8 + hours a day and having someone else experience the joy of watching my children learn. I love when their faces light up when that lightbulb goes off and they get something! I just love it
nerd I know!! I just cannot imagine anything else
