I know it's been forever and a day since I've contributed to this blog.  It has never been far from my mind, and I have been hoping to find time to update, but that time never came.  I just decided this morning to forgo my chores to get this done.  It will clear such a load from my mind.

Our family is now settled in our new home.  It is absolutely beautiful, even though it is a tad bit smaller than our last one.  The kids have really enjoyed the beautiful weather down here in Florida.  One of the nicer amenities is the fact that we have a pool in our community, and we can swim pretty much every day of the year if we like.

This is a photo of the house, taken from the street.  Our lot is much smaller than we had in Ohio, but we do have a lovely view of a pond in the rear.

One of the benefits of living in such a warm climate, is we have a wealth of critters to catch around here.  That pleases the kids to no end.  So far, we caught many lizards, hatched out our tapole, and have even had a snake come visiting.

Sorry 'bout the fuzzy photo.  I really don't care for snakes in the least.  I decided this guy is a black racer snake.  He was very unhappy to be removed from our lanai.  He was coiled up and hissing at my husband, while he tried to extricate the snake from the premises.  Racers may be aggressive, but at least this little fellow wasn't poisonous like the cottonmouth that was killed in between our neighbor's house and our own!

This is one of the many little lizards that have been caught by the kids.  This fellow, unfortunately, lost his tail tip.  I think he's the only fellow so far to have that happen to him.  The kids typically let the lizards stay over for a couple of days, and then they release them back out into the wild.

And here's a photo of our little toad?  Or is it a frog?  The jury is still out.  This little guy hatched from a tadpole, and we quickly converted our aquarium into a terrarium.  So far, he's only been eating blood worms, because he is just so tiny!

With all these critters around, the kids have been doing a ton of reading on reptiles and amphibians.  We've pretty much exhausted the library's juvenile literature, and have invaded the adult books now.  They are becoming quite the little herpetologists!

This is a photo of Castillo de San Marcos, which is about a 20 minute drive from the house.  Believe it or not, we still haven't been able to manage to visit it!  I actually took this photo as the kids and I drove by it on the way to try out a Tae Kwon Do school.  It is gigantic, and I'm hoping that we'll visit it at some point in the near future.

 Life has been challenging for me.  I realize it is not easy to move at any time in one's life.  This time, has been particularly difficult for me for a number of different reasons.  This is the first time I've ever moved with children, which has had its own challenges.  Also, I am a shy person, who takes a long time to "warm up" to other people.  I also greatly miss my friends back in Ohio.  We have yet to find a church that I love, although we have found one that I think will work.  Also, our homeschooling has been further challenged by this unforseen move.

I can say, though, that with much work and sacrifice on all our parts, that we will be able to finish by the end of this month, and that is what I originally scheduled way back a year ago.  We are down to our last couple of weeks of history, and Oliver has already started on next year's math, while Jacob is on the last lesson for this year.  The things that I had to abandon were Latin, and I slowed way down on science.  I plan to just pick up the threads and continue with both this next year.

Challenges for the future include Emma's reading instruction.  She is not a natural reader, and struggles every step of the way.  I am contemplating purchasing either the Wilson method or Barton's reading program in the hopes that a focused, intense, O.G. method will succeed where other more traditional methods have failed.  She is a very bright girl who is frustrated that she just can't "get" it, but she is valliantly still trying, and I am doing everything I can to support her.  We may end up needing to test her for potential dyslexia, but before we even go that route, I am planning on just treating it that way.

Successes for this past year's curriculum included...

Biblioplan III:  This was an awesome, easy-to-implement program that all the kids enjoyed (Mom included)

Rod and Staff IV Grammar:  This is such a thorough grammar/writing program.  Jacob really knows his grammar with it!

The Fallacy Detective:  Wow!  I am so impressed at how Jacob has implemented the information in this small book to analyze his arguements, as well as the arguements of others to determine if there is a fallacy in them.  I can't wait to get the next book!

All About Spelling:  Oliver and I have hit upon a spelling program that is actually working for him!

Our failures, although not necessarily due to a "poor" curriculum would be

Latina Christiana:  We just couldn't keep up with it.  Still, it's a good curriculum, and I will pick it up again probably this next year.

Spelling Power:  It didn't work at all for Oliver, although Jacob continues to use it with success.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons:  It just didn't work for Emma.

Now that I'm back on the page for blogging, I pray that I'll be able to keep it up more or less regularly, now.