I know I'm loooooong overdue for an update. I'll try to get on soon, but there has been alot going on around here. Please pray for us as we deal with some situations in our life that are less than pleasant!

   In the meantime here is a sale that is going on at Currclick starting today! If you pop over please us the affiliate link box in the right hand sidebar as we get a small commision your your purchase at no cost to you - Thank you! - Deedee

Well, I am writing this before I fillin for a nanny. Daddy has been "taking charge" of homeschooling now that I am at the ministry office on normal office hours, more or less. So, in reality, that means that not a whole lot is being done.

Should that bother me? should it not? my kids are home almost all day with their daddy.....something that many kids don't have the priviledge of (and having 3 boys, that is great they have their daddy around all day).........daddy has been teaching them their Chinese lessons and occasional math. Well, for "work" wise, that is about it....so are then called unschoolers? That bugs me for some reason.....I am a textbook person, not trying to keep up to par with peers ,but I like to know where I have been and where I need to go.

I do have a question for my 3 readers out there:-).....history.....this bugs me....we live in Taiwan and only go to the USA once every 4 years.....should I not bother too much with history and just use our time in the USA to "catch up " on it? they do take the IOWA tests, does history matter that much?

Also, I am thinking of just working out something with dh that they do mostly Chinese now, and after dinner (whether they like it or not), I do spelling and reading/grammar so I know they are getting it.......oh....this bilingual stuff is hard.....I am not going to give up on it though, they need it and I KNOW one day they will appreciate it!!!!

suggestions?

   Today is the international 'Pregnancy and infant loss awareness day' 2009. This isn't to say that we need a special day in order to remember.......there is never a day that we forget! But it is good to have a special day where others can remember with us.

   This day is always a bit close to my heart since I have five little ones residing in Heaven's nursery. Also the fact that my little BJ's sixth birthday into Heaven was just yesterday makes it a bit tender and bittersweet of a day.

   Yesterday my DH brought me home a beautiful bouquet of long stem pink stargazer lilies. I always loved these lilies but they seem even more special now that my little ones reside in Heaven.

   Any mother who has lost a child is not ever going to actually forget that child. For me there are reminders everywhere! So many things that remind me of the pregnancies that never ended in a child in my arms. One reminder I wear on purpose and had special made a few years ago.

   This ring has five stones and each is the birthstone of when one of my babies was born into Heaven. I wear it everday and in a way feel like I then have all my children with me. Two in my arms and five represented with these beautiful gems.

   There is now a British organization for infant loss awareness too.

   The main event for the special day is a 'Wave of light' that circles the world this evening. The idea is to light a candle at 7pm in whatever time zone you are in. Light a candle for the children you have lost or for the child lost to someone you know and love in support of them today.

   You then leave the candle burning for an hour. The idea is that there will be a continual wave of light across the world tonight as each timezone reaches 7-8pm.

   Please join in if you know or love anyone who has lost a child through miscarriage, stillbirth or in early infancy. And.....let them know that you have done this to remember with them. Trust me when I say that it will mean the world to them!

   It is hard to believe that McGee is going to be TEN in one short week! Not sure where that decade went.

   But tonight he had me laughing at dinner. We went to Costco to do some shopping and had dinner/supper/tea there as well. Just before we went the boys had their swimming lesson so I was asking how it went over dinner since Daddy had taken them.

   McGee was saying how he was frustrated because when he is trying to float on his back his body sinks, but then the teacher asked them to sit on the bottom of the pool and he couldn't do that either as he simply floated back to the top.

   Then he said 'I'm frustrated with my body right now! It floats when I want it to sink and sinks when I want it to float! I'm rather dissapointed in my body today!' and then he sighed a big sigh.

   I'm not sure how I managed to keep a straight face (but I did). I just wanted to laugh like crazy, but he was soooooo serious that I didn't dare. He is just growing up so fast and then he comes out with a little kid 'funny' like this and I'm thankful that he is still a little boy really.

   I've been asked lately for pictures to go with my blog. I will try to start posting some again soon. I have simply had so little time to post at all that taking even more time to upload pictures probably would have meant no posting at all! But I will work on this one.

   We are slowing getting back to our routine now. Summer has been a busy/crazy time. We had nearly seven weeks of Miss Giggles home this summer and it made for some hectic times.

   The fire in our other house right before school broke for the summer didn't help keep things sane around here either! LOL!

   Now Miss Giggles is back to school, my childminding kids are back to their usual routines (as 'usual' as they get anyway since every week is different), church activities, Cubs, Beavers and College schedules are all back in place. It is busy, but at least I know where I'm supposed to be when rather than the summer where I felt like I was running around every day like a headless chicken and trying to fit in some fun stuff for the kids along the way.

   We have never totally stopped our homeschooling over the summer as we tend to go all year around, however it proved more difficult to do very much with Miss Giggles home from school. She didn't want to join in and just caused disruption and since she was here all the time it meant alot of things getting pushed till 'later'.

   We will start up with our whole week again starting this Monday. We will still be using Story of the world for our main curriculum as we are enjoying it so much. We will be still doing our timeline notebooks along side of it and I'm sure running off down a few rabbit trails along the way.

   Maths will of course be MUS and Mcgee is coming close to finishing Gamma while Monkey is working his way through Beta. We are redoing First Language Lessons of the Well Trained Mind for grammar as we did it when Monkey was very young (like two!) and we planned to do it again last year but it never quite happened.

   McGee is now reading quite independently and doesen't need too much more help with phonics and reading, so my efforts will be concentrated on getting Monkey up to scratch with reading this year. I think he is ready to really fly through the Hooked on Phonics books now since he actually started reading some the early reader books in the library this summer!

   They are both working on learning cursive in handwriting in the Christian liberty press books and McGee is still working through spelling in his Building spelling skills books.

   We started our new science book in the spring and we are going to really get our teeth into it now. Considering God's Creation is a great book and we like the worksheets and nature study and research side of it alot. We have also started over the summer using our nature journals at the local parks and will continue to do some more nature study with our Nature detectives membership and our Enid Blyton's Nature Lover's book.

   The boys are also enjoying their spanish lessons with one of the ladies in our church. Every other week they go off to her house and so 1 1/2 hours of spanish while I run the toddler group at church. She does this for a living and has offered us a special rate for our boys lessons as a blessing to us! We appreciate it alot as spanish seemed to be one of the subjects that we 'never got around to' each year! The boys are enjoying it alot.

   They are also doing weekly swimming lessons - so I guess you count that as PE. They did a crash course in the summer and now do lessons each week to improve their skills. They are in a class with children a bit younger than them, but they are learning quickly!

   Mr Wiggles will be learning a few preschool lessons this year too and mainly working his way through Slow and steady, get me ready with the aim to get him up to working at his own age level instead of two years below.  

   So, like I said we are back in the swing now and looking forward to a good year in our little school. That gives you a little idea of what we are up to in our homeschool! Hope your year is off to a great start.