I recently received TWO wonderful bloggy awards!  Shanna from Learning at His Feet has passed on the Smile Award to me.  Life is so much happier with smiles, and I'm very glad to know that I've made at least one person smile through this blog!  :o)  And just for the record, Shanna's blog makes me smile, too! 

(The award was created by The Babblings of Mere and you can find the rules and such for the award here.)

And Michele of My Blessings From Above passed on the I Love Your Blog Award.  Well, who doesn't like hearing that??  I think she already knows that I love her blog just as much!

Thanks so much both of you sweet gals!  For both awards, I'm supposed to pass them on to others.  I may find the time to do that very soon, but for the time being, I'm - um - swamped (again!)  Imagine, me being overloaded!  Farm life, a toddler, homeschooling, a toddler, a couple of speaking engagements, a toddler, church responsibilities and.... a toddler are keeping me busy.  Farming is slowing down (thank you, Lord!), so hubby will hopefully be around more to help out with things like....the toddler!  :o)

THEME

I hope last week’s theme helped you get a bigger view and maybe some ideas about different ways to homeschool or curriculum. There is so much to share and so I hope this helped, especially the new homeschoolers, narrow things down a bit. I am sure some of you are still getting into your homeschool routines. I know some people are very routine oriented while others may be more “day-by-day”, and it all depends on your family and what works best for your life-style. This week please post what your planned homeschool routine is. The theme banner should give you some ideas on how to do that.

Our routine is fairly simple, I do not have set times, as I love to sleep in and if I ever wake and they are not up, I certianly do not wake them!  We all usually appear about the same time in the morning though.  Our routine is pretty much the same.  I fix my caffeine (Dr. Pepper) and unload the dishwasher while the kiddos eat breakfast.  MWF are my laundry days. TT are theirs - one is one day, one is the other - don't get me to fibbing about which is which though!  After breakfast, whoever needs to start laundry gets that started and then we head to the school room.  Most days, we start off with the things they do together (go ahead and throw tomatoes - I will be ducking ~ my kids are at the same grade level, so most of it we do together). The things we do together are History, Science, FIAR, Grammar and watch the MUS video.  Once we make our way thru all of that, they are on their own to do their math, handwriting, spelling and reading.  While they are working on their independant work, that is  my computer time - check emails, blog, check in with my groups, deal with Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Homeschool Support group stuff.  MOST DAYS (if they don't play around) they are finished with their work about time for lunch or soon after.  Once they finsih their work and we have lunch, it is chore time.  Finish up the laundry, make sure kitchen is picked up and their rooms straight.  From there, we have FREE time!!  YAY!  This is where they ususally head outside - unless there is a hurricane sitting above us - then they bring out more hot wheels and barbies than mattel has.  Or, sometimes they chose to watch a movie or TV (yes, ducking more tomatoes - we have tv's and we watch them - they know what they can and can't watch - and there are some really cool things on discovery and the history channel during the day sometime!)

At 4:30, I start dinner. Usually by this time, Roger is home. We have dinner early because most of our evenings are out of the house - between church, fire department, scouts and such - so it has worked out to eat that early!

Bedtimes are fairly lax around here - we start telling them bedtime about 8:30, but if they are busy doing something, then we do not push the issue.  Once they go to bed, they are allowed to read as loang as they would like to.  I rarely go to bed and to sleep before they are out, but as they get older (and I get older) I am sure that will be changing in the next few years.

My Uncle Robby made the long drive out from Minnesota to visit with us while we are in the states this go round. It has been nice to have time to visit with him, for the kids to get  to know him and to hear all about his grandkids. We had not seen Uncle Robby since he came out in ’94. So it has been a treat!

We enjoyed a delightful evening hosting him and Grandma for dinner and a swim… I grabbed a few snaps of Grandma but missed out on pictures of Uncle Robbie! What was I thinking?? I’ll have to make up for that over the next coupla weeks  Ü

My Grandma Jody ....  Who just turned 84 years old!

Trey, Bella, Ian & Addi chowing down after a swim.

Proof that there can be too much of a good thing. We wore grandma out!

We enjoyed our relaxing Memorial Day weekend with a visit from Frank and his family!  They made the trek over to spend the weekend playing in the pool, chatting it up, playing games, riding bikes, night swims, hitting the mall, chowing down, forcing them to look at scrapbooks… you know all the normal good stuff that happens when you spend the weekend with friends! (who just happen to be family Ü)

I’ll have to get the pictures off Frank’s camera sometime…. those mall pictures are gonna be worth some hush money one day! Giggle giggle. It was a delightful weekend!

Thanks for making the trek over guys! See ya at your place next go round!

There is a store in the mall called Libby Lu’s. While Frank and his family were over visiting us this past weekend we hit the mall where Addi, Annie, Ally & Sierra were able to go in and get all girly’d-up.

Those ladies are FAST at the hairstyles and makeup—not to mention the fingernail painting. The girls didn’t know what hit ‘em… but they sure did look adorable when they came out!

… Of course, they were already adorable before they started… but you know what I mean.

Addi before

Addi after

Annie before

Annie all glamed up

Allie before

Allie after

Sierra before

During the makeover ....

All dolled up!

(I am having trouble with the tag this morning)

Assignment: Take time this week to write about YOU and your feelings of trials and triumphs with homeschooling.  Touch on when you first heard about the concept of home schooling and whether you tip-toed into the idea or just jumped in and never looked back.  Share your schooling as a child and how you compare it to what your goals are for your children.

Our homeschooling adventure began when they were 3.  I was the owner of a child care center and had being dealing with the local school, the parents that were at the school, as well as the children who were products of the local school and we decided that it wasn't for us. I began researching and we had decided that once they got to K age, I would quit work and this is the route we would go.  Well, that got changed a little due to my health and I quit working when they were 3 instead of 5.  We spent the first year just hanging out and getting used to being home together, then we started some preK playing and it went from there.

The school that they are supposed to go to is considered open air - meaning there are no walls, which to me sounds very distracting - especailly to a son of mine who would be labeled ADHD if he was in the system. Roger went there and his mom stands behind us and our homeschooling decision 100%. My goals for my children are to make them love to learn new things and always be wanting to find out a little more about anything and everything.

Here is a photo from last year -minor things have changed - such as the computer that does not work is not out and the map on the wall is about where the bulletin board is now and there is a bigger wold map on the wall.  I am having camera issues, as well as messy school room issues, so the current picture will have to come later.

Blogger Friend School has started back up!  Classes start TODAY!  Tuesday the 2nd!  The teachers have a new web page devoted entirely to BFS, so go check it out, sign up and do your homework!