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Well, it's officially the first day of summer!! I have done something today and yesterday as a matter of fact, that I haven't done in over a year!! I went swimming!!! We have an above ground pool. The girls have been getting in there since May or the end of April. Last year I didn't even get in one time because when I did, I was a living, breathing "pool toy", if you know what I mean. Anyway, a year older and the girls are more independent in the pool, although there was some little girlie things hanging off my neck and shoulders ( those would be my girls). It was a lot of fun and the water was great!! I was able to walk right in!! And what happens when you swim for any amount of time????? You get really HUNGRY!! A bologna and cheese sandwich with a little mayo seems to hit the spot everytime for me!!! Who knows, maybe a I"ll be sportin' a little tan before it's all over with...don't worry I'm using sunscreen!!! |
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The summer just keeps on pluggin' away!! It's starting to get really hot, in the low 90's!! Yuk!! I would much rather be cold than hot.... My oldest daughter celebrated her 12th birthday a few days ago. I can't believe it how time flies by. She's a lovely girl and we are so proud of her!! She'll be spending two weeks with her Grandparents in Ohio this summer. Her first trip away from us. I hope we manage. It'll be tough.... I asked Gena if she would just GIVE me a box of See's candies, do you think she will?? Go over to her blog if you get a chance and ask for me okay?? Oh, for a great read, check out Coie's blog. Once you get passed the tragic story of her cat Penguin, you'll be glad you checked it out; the pics. are great too. Check in and say HI when you can.....
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It's been a few days since I've wrote something new. Here we are in June already...wowza!! The girls have one day left. Monday June 5th!! I can't believe it. Here we are about to begin a new journey in our lives!! It's exciting!! A little scary too. I don't want to mess this up. It's not just about educating my girls. I want the main focus to be our Lord and Saviour Jesus. I want them to have such a knowledge in His word, so when they're questioned about their faith, relationship and trust in Christ, they will be prepared to answer. The ladies bible study that I have been attending with Annemarie, Jen, Gena, Vicky, Letitia is sooo indepth. It's going to be and already has been soooo helpful. We can't go by what others tell us about God's Word, we need to know for ourselves. That is what this Bible Study is going to do for me!! I'm excited about all the changes im my life that are coming my way!! |
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Six more days in the public school and we're outta there!! It's hard to believe it's almost over. I can already feel a big sense of relief knowing that we are moving into a whole new lifestyle of homeschooling. Just knowing they're going to be home safe and sound, what a wonderful peace!! Thank you sweet Jesus. I am really looking forward to becoming a part of our local homeschooling group. There is a wonderful network in this area! From what I have been reading on other's blogs, things are winding down, but then again, I'm realizing that quite a few people are year round homeschooling. My friend Annemarie mentioned that she might continue some through the summer because it's so hot and humid, no one wants to do much outside anyway, so while they're inside, it's a perfect time for learning... Pray for Jen as she travels home from the big FPEA convention. Sounds like she has had a really good time!! Keep her sis Gena in your prayers too as she has been moving into a new place. Thanks ladies for HSB and TOS mag....you and your families are true blessings sent from the Lord to so many of us!! |
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I went back and read my curriculum entry. I sure did leave some stuff out that I also wanted to tell you about. I was rushin' to write about it due to the amazing stress that my beautiful friend Annemarie was putting me under (ha ha) that I left some stuff out... First, I've got quite a bit more curriculum that I've got stored away that was given to me from a very sweet homeschool mom(and friend) that I will put to good use one day. I've got American History, Chemistry, Biology, wonderful wonderful curriculum. The Narnia study is going to cover a lot of the things I mentioned above and with it being my first year and pulling two of my three children out of public school, I thought the easier the transition the better, that's why I plan on focusing on the three 'R's more than anything the first year. But the Narnia "twist" will make it fun and definitely different from public school. Oh, one more thing, I am very grateful for HSB! What a wonderful way to get to know people, share stories, encourage one another and help each other along the way. Thanks ladies! |
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The much anticpated blog...the curriculum I have chosen..just kidding. I did say I would blog about it. I've had some computer problems (still do), but at this very moment, it's cooperating so I thought I better go ahead and do this...here goes. With much much help from one of my bestest friend, the following is what I have chosen for this Fall... MathUSee- I was a little apprehensive at first about ordering this because the workbooks weren't colorful, "eye-catching", but I went ahead and ordered if because of all the great things I had read about plus the blocks are what brings the "color" to the program. I love that DVD's come with the program to help you teach the math. Learning Language Arts Through Literature - What a great program. I can't wait to start using this. It covers everything; spelling, reading, the whole nine yards. The workbooks are great, the teacher books are going to be so easy to use. And great readers with each level. Bible Study Guide for All Ages - I chose this mainly because my wonderful friend uses it and highly recommended it. The Lord has changed my heart to homeschool. I believe without a doubt that He should be the main focus. It will be for me. I want my girls to be so rooted in their faith, so they will be ready for whatever comes their way. This curriculum will help me do that. Last, I chose the Narnia Study by Cadron Creek. My girls and I have gotten really interested in the Narnia Chronicles, especially with the movie coming out. So, to make things really different from public school, I decided to go with this. You read each book in the series and you will cover history science, everything!! There's even recipes. This will be a lot of fun!! I had got to the point where I was soooo overwhelmed with all the choices out there for curriculum. I'm glad I narrowed it down. I think these choices will be great for my first year. I'm also glad there are so many things to choose from. Thanks Annemarie for helping me with my first curriculum order!! Be sure and checkout The Old Schoolhouse Magazine's store with some great curriculum and homeschooling books. Shipping is FREE!! |
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Hi everyone!! I just heard some really good news about a great contest with some great prizes....
Spunky is giving away a Benz Microscope and a Apologia Biology Set this week!! Click here and get the details!!
Check out the websites for these great prizes!! Or just click above on one of the hyperlinks!!
Good luck and I'll be writing about my Curriculum in the next day or so...I ordered and it's HERE!! |
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Okay, it's the time of year at school for two of my girls...the dreaded State Testing. My second grader broke down in tears and a bellyache over them. I keep telling them to "enjoy" this week. This is the week that the kids are treated the nicest. What I mean by that is they won't bog them down with any homework this week. They'll have snacks sitting out for them and whatever else to make them comfortable. I keep telling the girls to let this week be a breeze. Go in, shade some circles in with a #2 pencil and be done with a great feeling that they know they did their best. I know a lot of this stress is brought on by the teachers. They(the teachers)are graded on this test. Anyways, this is the last year for the dreaded T-Cap week. We have about 5 weeks of public school left and we are DONE!! Please if I happen to come to your mind, pray for my girls and the transition that it will be for them. They're struggling a bit with the fact that they won't see some of their friends on a daily basis. I think the summer will help with that. Letitia has given me some advice on this and I will be praying for them too. I'm assuring them that new friends will be coming their way, in fact some new friends have already been made!! We are going to become members of our local homeschooling group and go on the field trips and stuff ..I know they will be okay. I have made my decision on my curriculum and will be ordering it all within the next week. I'll blog about that next.... |
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Our Spring Break just flew by. We had a great time just being home with the girls. We played games like Sorry and Life. The girls were able to go swimming in the pool for the first time this Spring. Our best day would have to be Thursday when we went to Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountains. My battery on the digital camera was dead, something I realized after we had been up there, but my friend Letitia also was up there (not the same day as us though)and she has some great pics. on her post so you can have a look there and say Hi too. We had a picnic where there was a small creek and the girls played in it a little collecting rocks and just getting their feet wet. Then we drove around the 11 mile loop. It was such a perfect day. Not much traffic at all. The old cabins and churches are such a great place to look at history in those mountains. Old cemetaries too. There are chances to see some great wildlife as well. We saw deer and wild turkeys. No bears though, but it could happen on another trip. It was a beautiful day...I hope we can go back soon....with a camera with a fully charged battery.... |
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A few weeks ago, I posted a blog labeled "Don't Worry About Me". I was feeling all confident with our decision to homeschool our girls. Well, here lately I'm been a little overwhelmed. I have looked at waaaay too much curriculum and am "psyching myself out". I started thinking, "maybe I really can't do this". I'm not organized enough, patient enough, smart enough, all those feelings. I spent the afternoon with my buddy Annemarie and she helped me get a wish list of curriculum, narrow it down and made me promise (well she didn't make me promise)to stop looking at curriculum. I've taken her advice, except I have two or three Math programs I need to make a final decision on and we will be ready to go.. So, all in all, don't worry about me..from reading your blogs, talking to hs moms, I sense that you have felt just like me in the beginning and everything works out and "it's all good". We are going to the mountains tommorrow. Just our sweet little family. It's forecasted to be a beautiful day. It'll be great...
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I was checking out our Homeschool Nations - TN and Betsy has posted a great little reading program that Pizza Hut does. I also want to thank Betsy for all she does on Homeschool Nation to keep us up on what's going on here in our great state. If you can, click on over and tell Betsy Hi!!
I'm also trying to think of a name for our homeschool. I thought of "Tri-Perkins Academy", kinda cute with the "tri" and there are three chickies....anybody have any comments on that name or another name idea?? |
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It's past due for me to make an entry...since I don't "officially" start homeschooling till Fall, I've been struggling to find something to blog about.. So, I decided to let you all in on what's been going on this week in our life. First, our Spring Break starts next week! I'm soooo glad! We need a break. We aren't planning a trip, we're just going to "break" right here around the house. It's nice to do that. Just think, this time next year, we can Spring Break whenever we want to!! We live in a tourist town, about 10 minutes from the world famous Dollywood and lots of people take their vacation here. In fact, the schools are closing one hour earlier in anticipation of the traffic we'll be having this evening because of the Dollywood Parade. My oldest is going to be a flag bearer in the parade. If it doesn't rain that is, the forecast isn't looking to good. We went to Katie's softball game last night. It was pretty bad. Just a few nights before, they were good enough to be in a World Series. Oh well, it's fun to watch and good exercise for the girls. I'm waitin' for her to slam it to the fence, just once would be awesome! Still researching curriculum and still haven't decided what I'm going to do. According to Cathy Duffy's test in her latest book, I'm leaning towards an "eclectic" or "classical" approach in my method of homschooling. I've been told that there is a used curriculum sale going on nearby, so I might have to go and check that out.. And of course, we've been watching Narnia. Twice so far this week, I just love that movie, love it love it love it... Ya'll have a great day.... |
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Can you believe it's already April!! Where is the time going? You know the old saying....time flies when you're having fun. And we've been having some fun. Meeting new friends, setting up blog pages...take a look see at my Katie and Kellie's pages. They've got background music, fancy cursors, all kinds of cool stuff!! My best buddy Annemarie has got me thinkin' about doing some Spring Cleaning. I want to do a major "purge" of stuff. I'm tired of all the stuff. Too many dishes, bedding, clothes that don't fit anymore (waaaa), knick knacks, the list goes on and on. I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about. Oh, I am such a pack rat. Little piles of papers here and there. UGH.. My goal is to have it straightened before we begin homeschool this Fall. I'm looking forward to fixing up our schoolroom. I've already told my 3 chickies they can each fix up a space in there to call their own. The more I have been researching curriculum, the more I'm convinced that we will be doing unit studies. There are some great ones out there. Endless possibilities of the things we will learn and how we will learn them.. One thing for sure, our Lord and Saviour will be in the center of it all!!
Have a blessed day..
~Dawn~
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My cousin sent me a website and it has this link with a Top 20 Reasons to Homeschool.. it's really cute. Have a great day!! ~Dawn |
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I know without a doubt that I have some friends and family that are "worried" about me since I have decided to follow the Lord in homeschooling my three girls. Not worried about my mental state (well, maybe), but just this "task I have taken on". I was sharing my feelings about this with my husband and he responded in this manner, "There is one teacher with a group of 20-25 students all day long in public school and no one ever worries or doubts that, so I don't see what the big worry is." Trust me, we know that this is going to be a lifestyle change every way around and my husband is not taking the responsiblity of mine (his too) lightly. He is just letting me know that he has 100% confidence in me and knows that I can do this!! I need to know that. Because not to long ago I was one of those people that thought I wasn't smart enough to homeschool. So, that might creep up on me every now and again.. In the meantime, I've noticed that hs moms are starting to purchase their curriculum for the next school year...so I better get busy deciding what I am going to go with!!! |
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Hi my sweet bloggin' buddies!! It made my day when I first started blogging and Annemarie asked you all to come over and say hello. Well, we have a new blogger and she happens to be an East Tennessee girl too!!!! I haven't figured out the fancy way to just type a name and shoot you right over to her blog, but here's her address::www.homeschoolblogger.com/his4life....
Have a great day!!! |
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The lucky girl is Mileshouse... Congratulations Melanie in Louisiana....I look forward to sharing notes about this wonderful reading program!!!! |
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First of all, thanks ladies for visiting my blog, even though you might have been "bribed" to do it by the lovely Jen I thought I would let everyone know my plans on picking the winner. Everyone who enters, I will put your name in the "hat". You only have to enter once. I'm going to let my 5 yr. old chickie draw the name out of the hat some time around the deadline of 10pm Eastern and I'll have it posted by then!! Good Luck.... You can enter on this comment or the one below (Lifestyle). The ones who have already entered on the "Lifestyle" blog, you're already entered, so you don't have to come back and post a comment here!!! But you can if you WANT to... Have a great day!! Wow is my friends list gonna grow!!
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That's what my new friend Maria stated in a comment she recently sent me. It's not just about our children's education, it's our Lifestyle...I love having my kids around, don't get me wrong, I need a breather every now and again, but I love having them here with me and my husband. You've heard the mom's that make comments like "I can't wait till summer's over and school starts again" and they send them off to school. Granted, I still have two in PS, but I NEVER wished the summer away. I dreaded it when they had to go back. I love for our family to be together because, well, we're a FAMILY! Statements like "I couldn't homeschool my kids, I would go crazy" or "Why do you want to homeschool" or "my kids would never listen to me".. you've all heard them before. Well, now I'm hearing that and more since people are finding out about our news to homeschool. They just don't get it...and I was one of those people at one time, but God has changed my heart, He really has. My daughters are precious gifts from the Lord and I have an obligation to prepare them to do the Lord's work and to be steadfast and firm in their beliefs!! As we start this new lifestyle of ours, I'm looking forward to this journey of discovering new and wonderful things about my girls, about myself and my husband and especially our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.. |
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It's been a few days since I have blogged. Thanks everyone for all the great advice. Did any of you ladies from TN know that there's an official Tennessee homeschool website?? It's in blog form too. I was able to get very familiar with our state laws on homeschooling. Thanks Betsy for sending that to me. There's another site that some of you might be interested in that was sent from another former blogger called ambersideonline.org. It's a free Charlotte Mason curriculum site. Sorry I haven't figured out how to put the websites and stuff in where you can just click on them and they'll take you there (Help AmyBeth) We told my mother-in-law of our plans to homeschool our girls this Fall. She's a retired public school teacher, so I was a little apprehensive of sharing the news with her. She took it very well actually. Her two concerns were socialization (no surprise) and worrying about me taking on this large task..I assured you that there will be no problem with my girls socializin'. With all the Smoky Mtn girls around here with kids, that is totally covered. Plus, the field trips and stuff. No problem. And, I'm not worried about me. Sure, I know there's gonna be some difficult days ahead, but I have seen the payoff with some of the wonderful children I know that are homeschooled!! It's worth it all!! My best buddy CAgirlwithasoutherndrawl (Annemarie) will be home in about five more days!!! We've got a lot of catching up to to do.. And finally, I've been so blessed since I've started blogging and meeting everyone. Thank you everyone.....Have a great day.
`Dawn |
