• Feb. 5, 2008
Worms, bugs, and other assorted illnesses...

Well, it has been a wild and wooly week.  Last Thursday I hopped on the computer to find we had our SECOND worm!  We are a magnet for computer grief!!  It was time for a new computer.  My dear husband went to take care of the purchase and, I love him, but I should have known better because he came back with two!!  He went ahead and macked us out for homeschooling next year.  Now I have a pretty laptop to run household details and manage school and girls have a good protected desktop as well.  Yes, I did get the best protection I could, parent controls, all that.  It is good to be online  AAAHHHHHH...One homeschool purchase down, how many more to go???? 

As well, our oldest has been sick with a cough that has been getting progressively worse.  Now, 8 weeks and 2 pediatric practices later we find out she has reactive airway disease, too early to tell if it could be asthma.  After her appointment I took her out for a nice relaxed lunch and we had a great time.  She appears to love history and wanted to talk all about slavery and the underground railroad.  Once I helped her understand that the UR was not an actually "under the ground" she had even more questions!!

On an exciting note, our family won a contest to have a professional family manager come to our house and help us organize it!!!  We entered a contest through HomeLife Magazine (one of our favorites) and we won!!!  I can't wait.  Having someone come and help me understand how to organize our home ranks right up there with going to the spa!!  We should be hearing from our "organizer" in a few days.  I'll keep you posted on how it goes.  I'll definitely post some pictures of the experience. 

Everyone have an awesome day tomorrow!!

Kim

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• Jan. 24, 2008
Didn't mean to stay gone for so long!!!

Wow!  That was a longer break from my blog than I anticipated.  It's funny how quickly you can fall out of a routine. 

We are on the final push to the end of the school year- 4 months!  At the same time we are trying to get everything organized for homeschooling, which starts for us on July 7th!  At least that's the plan I'm going with now!

I went to visit the local homeschool support group in my area last week.  I really enjoyed seeing who is homeschooling in my area and talking to them.  I was suprised how many of us were former teachers.  I was also pleasantly surprised to see some people I had not seen in years and that I had no idea were homeschooling! 

 

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• Dec. 14, 2007
Playing With Pictures

Okay, This is my first official attempt to insert a picture into my blog.  Let's hope it works!

This is me, my darling hubby, and 2 gorgeous girls-beach trip.

 

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• Dec. 14, 2007
Schedules

We've decided to homeschool on a year round schedule beginning in July.  We'll go 3 weeks on and 1 week off with the exception of 3 weeks at Christmas.  We'll take the entire month of June off.  Toward the end of the 180 day term we'll have a 4 week run and a 5 week run.  The doctor and counselor for our youngest think that will be a better fit for her ADHD issues (which we are hoping to turn into strengths once we get her home!). She has been reverting back to her old scissor happy days back before we started treating her ADHD.  She gets overstimulated so easy and has to let it out and if we don't watch her like a hawk she'll cut stuff up.  We are going back to the Dr. next week to rework her treatment.  My prayer is that once we get her home we will be able to transition to a non-medicated treatment.  We are not going to do a formal curriculum with her, I'm going to make sure her skills are covered, but in a way that is more fun than work.  Maybe she won't notice she is actually doing school. 

I hope our oldest will be able to do well with this schedule as well.  I think it would be pretty tough this first year to try and run each child on a different school schedule.  She will be doing BJU 4th grade ELA/Math and a spelling curriculum, we'll cover writing across all of her subject areas, and I'll have both girls on the same science and social studies topics, just at different levels-inquiry based stuff.  I think it will be a great year once we get everything going smoothly.  Grandma is retiring so they'll be able to see her more as well. 

Are you ready for Christmas?  We are just about.  Can't wait until Christmas break so I can start baking!

Blessings to you!

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• Dec. 10, 2007
Great Links!!

Okay, I know I'm a newbie, and you may already know about these great sites, but just in case I've stumbled across something truly great- I wanted to share:

www.easyfunschool.com  (free!!)

www.theteacherscafe.com  (free!!)

www.starfall.com  (free!!)

www.primarygames.com  (free!!)

Have a Blessed Day!

Kim

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• Dec. 9, 2007
Small Groups Are Wonderful

We have small groups at our church instead of Sunday School classes.  We have a group of 3-5 families that commit to each other for about a year and we meet weekly in each others homes.  We study the bible, get to know each other VERY WELL, EAT, and just "do" life together.  Tonight we had a "Not So Small Group" event~got all the groups together for a night of fun.  We've all been so busy "rushing", it was nice to get together to just laugh and catch up with some of our other friends that we don't always get to talk to on a busy Sunday morning at church.  I've got great pictures but apparently am not "blog savvy" enough to put them in my entry!  Some Day! 

This is the recipe I took our event tonight~It was a big hit~It is soooo not healthy!!

Peanutty Candy Bar Cookies

1 (2-layer)package yellow cake mix                                                                    

1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup melted butter or margarine, divided

1 egg

3 cups mini marshmallows

2/3 C light corn syrup

1 C pnut butter chips

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 C. Rice Krispies

2 C. salted pnuts

Preheat oven to 350.  Beat cake mix, 1/3 C butter and egg in a medium bowl with an electric mixer set at medium speed until well blended.  Press mixture into a large baking pan. 

Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.  Sprinkle marshmallows over hot cake.  Return to oven.  Bake until marshmallows are puffy, about 10 minutes. 

Combine corn syrup, remaining butter, pnut butter chips and vanilla in large saucepan.  Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until chips melt, about 5 minutes.  Stir in cereal and pnuts. 

Spread cereal mixture over marshmallows.  Cool completely.  Cut into large bars. 

Enjoy!!!                                              

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• Dec. 9, 2007
AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

I am slowly going blind on curriculum!  I really like the Horizons Math so I'm wondering if I should just go with all Horizons stuff for my kids, but they only have math and reading for my 4th grader.  I think I can get pretty much everything for my 1st grader.  I feel pretty good about Spelling Power for my 4th grader.  I have no clue for history-I want something with literature and hands on activities.  I am a science teacher so I think I can handle the science part.  Any ideas anyone?  What do you guys love to use?  What works well with children who have more energy to burn than a locomotive(and I have girls!)?  I guess this is my unfortunate perfectionist quality rearing its head.  I want just the right combination of curriculum.  Should I just choose one curriculum pack and be done with it this first year or is it better to piece curriculum together?  Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.  Also, anyone have experience with HomeSchool Tracker Plus software?  I was thinking of using it for recordkeeping. 

Thanks In Advance~ Kim

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• Dec. 7, 2007
Here we go...

Well, here we are.  We have made the decision to homeschool...but not until next school year.  Is it okay for me to be on here yet even though I haven't "officially" started?  You could say I have already started as I am currently researching curriculum, trying to find appropriate teaching strategies for my ADHD daughter, and reading all sorts of books about why we are doing this thing we are sure will save our family.  Anyway, I went ahead and joined because I have been looking at everyone's pages for days now and I could really use you guys...now, as well as when we begin our new adventure.  I would be interested in any information you guys have on home schooling on a year round schedule, good curriculum(am thinking about Spelling Power, and Horizon Math so far), homeschooling an ADHD child, and homeschooling a gifted child.  I have a 6 year old daughter and an 8 year old daughter, and I am currently under contract until the end of the year as a public school teacher.  We've decided to homeschool because our 6 year old is unable to learn to her potential in a classroom setting and our 8 year old is coming home having learned more about things taught on the school yard than in the classroom.  We are also very tired of what this crazy schedule we keep is doing to our family.  We never see our children or each other and we are tired of being tired and short tempered with our children and each other.  We've overcome a lot, we've lost two sons and multiple pregnancies.  We believe homeschooling is the answer for our family and our children's education.  I look forward to getting to know you guys. 

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