Jan. 20, 2007 - So I've been away from his site

First it got busy and then it got crazy
and then we realized it just wasn't working :( We decided to have the boy tested for ADHD
The DR gave us two forms to fill out, one for the parent and one for the teacher. We filled them out but we just didn't turn the papers in, we felt like there was something we were missing
My DH though to try public school, and maybe the boy will benefit from an organized schedule.

WE put Devin into school
it's hard but it is going better than expected, which means we expected it to be hard.
The boy is doing better than the mom :) he still struggles, I never taught him cursive writing, it's hard when the rest of the class already knows it, and it is hard for the teacher, I think she is great and I am confident she wont be taking out her frustrations on him. I know the boy is hard to teach. She is pretty strict about handwriting it's her issue the boy has messy handwriting what can you do?

I've since sent in the ADHD papers, and got another form for his teacher to fill out when she feels like she knows him enough, she agrees that he has attention issues but thinks it's a maturity thing, she believes he should be in the 2nd grade

I'm still homeschooling Jessica and it is going well except she misses her brother, I guess I can't draw
Pinky-Dinky-Do like he can  :)               

I don't know if I will continue this blog :(   doesn't seem like too many people read it         

here is a picture of my cuties from Christmas Morning

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Sep. 28, 2006 - the bunk bed

The bunk bed LOL This is the bunk bed I've been working on, we got it unfinished at Ikea and decided to decorate it to be a castle great idea huh?  Well not if you do something silly like forget to put the cover tightly on the paint can. So Jessica wanted to help! she got paint all over her clothes and her shoes You can see right here that she really was trying to help!  Look at her cute castle blocks. on the ladder and the slats how can you get mad at that? I should have taken a picture of her covered in paint, but I didn't have the camera handy

please pray with me for this homeschool family

Jeff, and Elizebeth
Coulter, and Alice

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Sep. 26, 2006 - I'm going to try something new

can you believe it's the end of September already

I am still struggling to get things in swing  *sigh*

sometimes homeschooling is  hard.

at our support meeting last night someone mentioned an idea
look at the family right after your family in the directory and pray for them, then the next day pray for the next family every day pray for the next family in the directory, that way every family will be covered in prayer every day!

FABULOUS!!!!!

will you pray for this homeschooling family with me?

Matt, and Roxann and their kids Liz, Catherine, Chris, and Ben

I'm only using first names because this is after all the internet :)
I'm going to try and do this every day, when I finish posting it here I am going to hit the random blog button and pray for whatever family I get there :)

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Sep. 1, 2006 - we start

Swpt 5th

I'm not ready
busy busy

will blog later :)

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Jul. 28, 2006 - Amazing

Amazing

 

It was hot today,  no way I was staying home, we went to the mall but it was not nice, my kids were not well behaved :(  I was so stressed out, I never used to get stressed out about it, but now I worry, I am always worried about how other people see me. will they think I am a bad mother? If I yell I am bad for yelling, if i don't say anything I'm bad for not saying anything, Heck Devin likes to push the stroller and I'm worried that some people will think I am mean for making him do that, I want to tell everyone "he asked to push it" 

 

So it seems to me that I get more stressed out trying to make it appear that I am a good mother to the world, and in doing so I become a not so good mom KWIM?

I was thinking this as I loaded the kids in the van, How did i get stuck in this catch 22?  and I really don't see how I can continue like this, and I can't see how I can get out of it? :( How do you stop yourself from stressing?  I started  up the van and drove out of the parking garage, around the  street that circles the mall, and I was greeted with this site.

 

 

I stopped the van, we got out, we showed Jessica the rainbow, it was the first one she has ever seen, we talked about what a rainbow means to us as Christians, and we talked about the science of rainbows, and I even took some pictures which do not do this rainbow justice, I had the wrong lens on the thing, and believe me when I tell you that the rainbow was so big I could not fit it in a picture. it was huge and went from one side of us over the sky like a huge umbrella, over our heads to the other side. It was truly amazing. I'm not sure exactly what it means but one thing for sure, I'm not stressed out right now :)

 

 

I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth

Genesis 9:13

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Jul. 25, 2006 - I have been doing a lot of thinking

I have been trying to get more organized  this week while the two oldest kids were in VBS seemed like a good idea but so far I have not yet gotten to that...I will say I did take a nice long shower this morning without interruptions

 

So I am using MOTH and I am really havign trouble getting started wiht it, I know its good but it's so organized it's a tad bit scary :)

 

I need to be more organized if I want to homeschool  so I need to do it no matter how hard it is :)

 

here I go :)

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Jul. 12, 2006 - taking a break

I wont be aroudn much for a week or so

 

not that I have been keepingup here but...

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Jun. 27, 2006 - busy busy

today was very busy 

tomorrow we pick strawberries :)

 

then I'm making freezer jam :)

 

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Jun. 23, 2006 - any ideas?

any ideas?

---

I think I have the whole school year planned out, but I am missing a couple things

Art, Music, and physical education.

I think I can make do with art myself.

Music I am clueless on is piano once a week enough? I don't think so, how does one teach music?

Physical? I am just at a loss here, we do Yoga together every morning, and he does a few exercises for his PT and twice a month the HS group has a fitness class. But we need more, any ideas?

still it kind of irks me that the public schools in my town have done away with music class due to budget cuts yet I still have to do it....not that I wouldn't have wanted to do it anyway but that is annoying.

thanks for any help

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Jun. 7, 2006 - Mentos and Diet Soda

I don't have any pictures

we did this and it was so much fun we did it again, and we are planning on doing it again.

 

i hope we don't use us the worlds supply of Mentos :

 

 

 

 

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Jun. 4, 2006 - trying to get settled back in our routine

we have been busy and we went on a trip to Washington DC

we had a good time

 

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May. 6, 2006 - science fair

we are working on the science fair project

I have not updated in awhile

 

I went to the convention, and got Shiller Math  I like it Devin likes it of course we haven't used it yet.

 

We are going with CLASS this year. I've heard a lot of not very good things about CLASS but we used them for Kindergarten and while I thought I didnt like it, I liked it better than Sonlight LOL DH likes that they test the kids and form the curriculum to the test results.  So DH will be happy because right now DH is not very happy in the homeschooling department :(

 

 

 

 

 

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Apr. 12, 2006 - Jessica

 

should I put her hair up for easter?  I tried the hat thing and it just makes her hair messier KWIM?

 

 

This one shows her dress. you know I can't possible have a picture that shows both her face and her dress, I need photography lessons LOL

 

well shortly after this she pulled down the backdrop and I decided to wait til tomorrow to get the other kids LOL

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Apr. 10, 2006 - I've been slacking off in the blogging department :)

we have been doing pretty good staying on track as of late :)

 

Jessica is really doing well she really likes getting "goo work"

 

We are really catching up in Devin's school but kind of hard getting back up in science  since the science fair is coming up I may take a break and just really get to work on his project. 

 

not much else about school.

 

DH has really been having trouble with his diabetes  all of the sudden he can't keep his blood sugar under control, it's been really hard on us please pray for him he is really struggling with this.

 

My men cut a hole into a wall and created a huge amount of storage space for me, so I have been busy filling it up :)

 

My boy has a blog and he can read mine, maybe that was a mistake.

 

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Mar. 29, 2006 - too good to be true?

After last months HS support meeting and talking to the other homeschool moms I really started talking to Devin about how we need to work as a team, we are calling ourselves "The Outside Insiders"    but what really worked for us was the show "16 children and moving in"  I played it for him as an example of a family that works together as a team, it must have really made an impression.

 

Last night when we were leaving Awana I was struggling trying to get Jessica to walk with me while carrying the diaperbag and Megan's car carrier. Devin took Jessica's hand and said "I'll take care of Jessie..we make a good team mommy"  *sniff*  on the drive home he talked about how he would like the house they built but "our family is too small it would take us a gazillion years to build a house"

Tonight I was feeding Megan and he took Jessica in to help her brush her teeth, and then walked her up to her room, read her a story and did the whole goodnight routine LOL  ah it does my heart good...please remind me of this the next time he tries to take apart the toaster oven.

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Mar. 24, 2006 - How much time do you spend?

How much time do you spend on each subject? 

do you do the same subjects every day? or split it up by days?

 

I try to do the same every day but I am thinking of changing it because it seems like we never have enough time to really just get into things KWIM?

 

Kids are all sick today :(

 

 

 

 

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Mar. 23, 2006 - never take the kids shopping at night

So today was a bit of a bad day.  two bad days in a row make it tough.

Devin was not feeling well I try not to push too much schoolwork on him if he is sick.  and it was clear to me by bedtime that Jessie is coming down with it too.

 

 

here is a pic of her from a couple of weeks ago  someone had given her a chocolate covered pretzel

 

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Mar. 23, 2006 - Spring cleaning

ok it's time to clean up  Here is my list of things to do, and I'm giving myself the season of spring to do it.

1.  Organize the school closet, clear out the books we are nto goign to use, sort things we will use for the girls
2.  throw  the rug from the dining room sand and poly. floors
3.  Get landscapers here to estimate cost of fixing the drainage
4.  Paint living room wall
5.  put up the picture wall
6. put up a privacy fence

I wanted to have a garden this year but the more I think about it, the more I am thinking that I jsut wont have the time to do it, and since we are already in a water bann I doubt we will be allowed to water come the heat os summer. I'll jsut be happy if the kids can play in the yard.

 

 

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Mar. 22, 2006 - some days just go well

and some days we jsut spend the whole day on bible study and handwriting

 

 

I'm trying to get a sitter to watch my kids for the homeschool convention, but it doesn't look like I am going to make it :(

 

 

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Mar. 6, 2006 - Math

the kids after they ate birthday cake, well not the smallest kid but the other two...you know the ones with the dirty faces.

 

I need a new Math curriculum for next year  Singapore just doesn't cut it for us   Devin used to like math a lot. So I am looking for something that will bring that spark back.

I am thinking of Shiller.  We have homeschooling convention every year in April and I have been looking forward to getting my hands on Shiller math but, I just read the vendor list and they are not going to be there  

I wish I lived in one of those more homeschool friendly areas.

I wonder how Ohio is. 

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