I definantly spent a lt less time on the comp this week.  I got every room of my house clean, at least once,  lol.  The main floor is a little messy again, but I bet I could have every room looking great with 45 minutes of work.  I'm caught up on laundry.  Gone through summer clothes.  I feel better too.  I'll do better this week coming up.  I still ended up going on line a bit during the day.  I need to stay focused on being a mom and wife instead of being idle on line. 

Hello, my name is Mumkins and I have an internet addiction and I'm tearing down my house with my own hands.

I've been battling this out for years now, years.  It's stolen my children's childhood.  I've been on-line, while they've amussed themselves.  I've over come it a couple times and some how get dragged back in.  It's time it stops.  I have no excuse.  I know what I'm teaching in the fall.  I do not need to research it.  I keep flipping between 'grace based' parenting and 'raising Godly tomato' style.  I've been paying attention to the fruits of each.  I need to tomato stake my kids.  I need to build relationships with them, love them and correct them. I need to get off line. I need to put God first in my life, intentionally.  I want to purposely get up early, to read my bible and pray.  Not sure how that'll work as the baby is in our bed and the dog will yap and wake everyone up anyway if I go down stairs.  But I'm done with excuses.  Me and DH have begun fighting again. I love him and I'm picking on him and being overly sensitive and bringing out the worst in him.  It's time to stop.  I'm taking a week off school to get the house in tip-top shape, while keeping the kids by my side and helping.  I will have one half hour in the evening, after the kids are in bed to be on-line, providing the children are in bed, the house is clean and I've read my bible that day.

If anyone reads this, please pray for me and my family.

My DD is just about done saxon 2 and it wants her to make up a survey.  They question my animal loving daughter came up with is-

Which do you like better- Horses, Tigers, Snow Lepords or Gekos?

We need 20 people, so if you can spare a moment to answer, it would be appreciated.  Thanks so much!

So I did some thinking and I'm leaning towards Heart of Dakota. Still gotta do more research and thinking though....

Anyone have some comments about it?

You know, where you stress out over what cirriculm to buy for the next year.  Spend countless hours researching the perfect cirriculum and reading reviews, second, third and fourth guessing your choice.  Dicussing it with your DH.  Posting on every forum foradvice.  And if you don't know what I'm talking about, well you're lucky, lol.

I'm pretty sure I'm goiong to go with Sonlight again.  I have a few things I don't like.  I don't like how I have to wade through all the Old Earth junk in Usborne books in history and science.  I also feel the science was kind of boring.  BUT I love having an instructor's guide, telling me what to teach each day and what to talk about.  I love that there's a lot of reading that I can do with the baby on my lap.  I LOVE that they ship free to Canada.  That helps offset the cost of Sonlight right there as compared to buying a bunch of different programs from the US and paying fo shipping heavy books.

This year we'll be buying Core 1, with science 2 for the oldest 2.  DS will do readers 2 and DD1 will do readers 2 intermediate.  We'll also be buying Core P4/5 for DD2  who will be 4 in late fall.  She's really anxious to start doing school now.

The biggest problem is math!  I've been stressing on it for the last week.  With my oldest, we've strugled so hard to find the right program.  I bought Horizon's first cause a good friend of mine and her DH were both math teacher's and that's what they were using.  Within a few weeks, we were both in tears everyday with it.  So we tried MUS.  Which was OK, she got it and no more tears.  But 1/2 a year on just basic adding?  It seemed there wasn't enough depth to the program.  So we went with saxon.  Which was fine at first.  I liked how much she was learning.  But now 80+ lessons in, I'm just not sure it's really sinking in.  When we come back to the review, she's forgot it already.  Some things I've thought were so ridiculous I just scrapped their lesson and taught it myself.  And the meeting is just too much.  COunt to 400 by 10's and back, 200 by 5's and back, count by even's and odd's and weather and grapds, and time, and money and, and, and everyday!  It just takes so long.  I'm thinking about Teaching Textbooks for her, but I've read a lot of reviews saying it's sub par.  But maybe it will truly reach her.  I think she'll love doing on the computer and I think the visual asspect and hearing it will help.  I think she may be a bit dyslexic.  I just want her to enjoy math, but I also want her to excell at it. 

With DS I tried saxon K in the summer and he was so bored.  So I just jumped him ahead to grade 1.  He's doing excellent.  Most often he already knows before I teach him.  I'll just go through the flash cards ahead of time with him before I bog him down with the lesson.  This boy just knows math.  At 3 years old, he said while demonstrating on his hand "Mommy, if I have 3 fingers and I add 1 more finger, I have 4 fingers mommy."  Before I even taught him sounds of letters he came up and told me "Book starts with B mommy".  He isn't really intrested in doing his math.  But he's so good at it!  I want to give him something that will keep him advanced and develop strong math skills.  Trouble is, I don't know what problem that is.  I know he'd like Teaching Textbooks as he loves the computer.  If you can jump ahead one grade as most say, then he could start grade 3 in the fall before he's even 6 years old!  That kind of freaks me out.  If a 5 year old can do grade 3 work, maybe it really is a weak course.    I've been advised to check out BJU and Singapore.  I know nothing about BJU.  I know for Singapore, it's suppose to be a stronger course, but the teachers guide is weak and I like scripted text, which it doesn't have. 

So what do I chose?  Right now I'm leaning towards buying Teaching Textbooks for the fall and do MUS Beta during the summer to solidify everything she learned this year.  With my son, I have no idea.  I'm leaning towards Singapore.

If anyone out in blog land has advice, I'm all ears...or I guess it's all eyes isn't it?

So I'm really bad at keeping up with this.  My lil baby is 8 months old today!  He's such a joy.  He's got a blond, fuzzy little head, nearly bald on top and super thick at the back.  He's still a big boy, he was 20lbs 13oz  and 27 1/2" at 6 1/2 months, that's 2lbs and same height my other son was at month older.  He's up rocking on his hands and knees.  He can't quite crawl, but he can creep really fast.  He's so cute, he makes all the crawling moves, he just can't get his belly off the ground! He never took to baby food, but he's enjoying soft foodds he can feed himself, like peas.  He has 8 teeth.  He's fully of smiles and absolutly adores his big siblings.

My oldest daughter has over come a lot of her struggles.  She's doing great in math now and her reading is really coming along.  I still think she may be a bit dyslexic, but the progress is really great.  She has beautiful long blond hair and she wants to cut it to donate it.  I'm a little nervous about that.  She really likes practising cartwheels and dancing.  I think we'll sign her up for gymnastics or dance classes soon.  She's always writing me little notes about how much she loves me.  She really loves horses too.

My oldest son is doing great.  We skipped him a grade.  He's just 5, but doing saxon 1 and reading Sonlight's grade 1 readers.  He's lost two teeth now.  He's 100% boy and will make a sword out of anything, lol.  I'm constantly reminding him NOT to jump off he furniture.  Can't wait til he can be outside more.  It was -25C (-13F) today!   He's always drawing pictures for me.  Sometimes he cuts out little letters and glues them on a piece of paper with a message like "I (heart)  you mom".  He's got a sweet heart and likes to help his mommy. 

My othe little girl is sweet.  She can't wait to do school.  So far we're singing our ABC's and counting to 5.  She likes to dance and is the biggest snuggler ever.  She wants to be on my lap always.  She colours me lots of pictures and loves stickers.  She says such cut things like yesterday when I was putting her to bed.  I told her I had to go see her sister now.  She wrapped her arms around my neck and whispered "Just a few more minutes mommy".  I said ok and she was like "Oh thank you mommy! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"  In the sweetest, most enthusiastic voice you could imagine coming from a 3 year old little girl.  She's very funny too.  I just love her!

DH has finally graduated college! I'm so proud of him.  I'll brag on him, cause it's my right   I'd venture to say he was in the top 3 of his class if not the top.  Rarely did I see a paper come home without an A on it.  He went to school and worked up to 4 jobs at once at some points.  He did breakfast shift in the cafe, maitence, gym desk and lock up the campus.  As well as doing this, he also lead the homeless ministry in Rochester.  He gave 110% of himself.  I'm so proud of him!!!

We've been using Sonlight this year.  I've really enjoyed it. I loved having everything planned out for me.   It's been good to read a lot while I've been holding the baby.  We do the hands on stuff when he naps.  It's been tricky and we skip a bit.  We've also been taking 5 days to do the 4 day schedule.

We are going to be renting our first house soon.  I'm so excited!  We prayed to get a house with a back yard for the kid's to run around in.  We've found a house for cheaper than most townhouses.  The back yard is 200' deep, with a 30X30 garden and a swingset for the kids.  I'm going to set up the basement as our school room.  I'm really excited about having a special place for it.  God is so good!  I'm so pleased I can't wait to move in!

Well, I'd like to start blogging more.  We'll see how it goes!  I'm going to have intenet, so hopefully!

Well here's me at almost 30 weeks.  We had just got back from the senior banquet.  I'm scarred, very scarred of just how big I'm going to get, lol.

Semester is almost OVER!  DH has decided to stay on summer crew.  So we'll be staying here instead of going back home for the summer.  I'll be going home at 38 at weeks, around the end of May.  I'm going to miss my MIL, SIL and her kids and all the stuff we'd do all summer.  SIL is due the end of Aug.  I miss being PG with her.  These babies are due 7 weeks apart, our last 2 are 7 weeks apart, our boys are 4 weeks apart.  Our oldest aren't quite so close, the girls are a little less than 2 years apart.  There's one other grandkid in there, from my other SIL who comes between my oldest and SIL's oldest boy.  So grandbabies 8 and 9 are coming this summer for my IL's.

Did I mention on here MIL is my MW?  I love that!  I wouldn't want to labour with out her. She was so awesome last time!  She was still in school at that point.  Her teacher was my MW.  But MIL stayed in the bathroom, while I relaxed in the jacuzzi tub and poured water over my belly.  It was awesome!  We'll be having the baby at her house.  I'm real excited about it!  But that's a whole post for another time.

Speaking, well, typing of the baby, lol...Only 8 weeks to go!  8 more weeks til I snuggle another beautiful blessing from the Lord.  Ooooh I can hardley wait!  The kids are getting anxious too.  I've gained 14" of belly!  I'm nearly 50% larger around my waist. I've never been this big before.  None of my clothes fit really.  I have so little I can leave the house in.  DS was 9lbs 15oz.  I'm afraid this one may reach 13lbs!  I'm just praying for under 9lbs.  Just like I did with DD2 and God blessed me with a sweetie just 2oz shy of 9lbs.

My oldest actually enjoys math now.  Praise God, it's a miracle!  She gets it.  It's not a struggle anymore.  I'm so thrilled we switched to MUS.  She's really coming along with her reading too.  She use to cry when I asked her to read something.  Now she's reading boxes, signs, papers, anything she sees.  I'm just so happy for her!  The majority of the year, she really struggled, but now she's really getting everything.  And she enjoys learning again.  That's the best part!

DS, who's just 4 picks up on EVERYTHING.  We're doing Get Ready for the Code with him.  We aren't finished, but he already knows all his sounds of the letters.  He's starting to read basic books just a little.  He's doing Primer of MUS.  But seems to already know everything I'm teaching him.  I started schooling him cause he was coming up to me and telling me what letter words started with and addition questions with the correct number that he just made up in his head.  The other day I asked my oldest "What plus 8 equals 10"  DD was still thinking when DS shouts out "2!" after only a few seconds.  I'm probably going to move him onto Alpha pretty soon.

As for the youngest, she's just a sweet heart!  She's 2, no doubt about that.  But for the most part, she's just a joy to have around and has such a sense of humor.  Much like her older sister.  I tell ya, between my 3 kids, I could just laugh all day.  They are so funny.  Anyway, we're still working on potty training with her.  When I was 28 weeks, I realized my plans for having her trained by baby was slowly closing.  Now I'm leaving tomorrow for 2 weeks and at the end for 2 weeks.  IDK about leaving her in underware while visting someone.  Seems like a bad idea.  Pull-ups really set her back.  We'll have to see what happens.

Well, I really am lousy at daily blogging eh?  Ah well, I do try  

We drove to a small church about an hour and a half away for DH to preach at on Sunday.  What was really cool is we drove up Saturday night and stayed at the parents of a very good friend of DH's.  They we really nice and so hospitible.  DH preached an amazing message on prayer and how we need to pray for people, situations, government issues and everything else instead of complaining about it.  It was DH's 2nd time preaching to a congregation.  It was his first time in front of a congregation he's never met or been to before.  I was so proud!  He has an amazing gift.  I just sat there smiling at him.  I really love him.  Even when he's just encouraging a friend, or debating a topic (don't get him started on evolution, lol) or just discussing theological things.  He just presents himself so well and seems so knowledgable.  I just love listening to him.  We had our senior prophecy a couple weeks ago.  Where the heads of the school and fellowship prophecy over senior students and their families if married.  It was prophecied that he'd be a pastor.  He'll make a great one.  There were some things prophecied over me too.  But that's another post for another time.  Anyway, I know DH will make a great pastor one day and I'll be proud to start behind him.

I'm so excited!  It's so beautiful.  DD1 was asking about it all day as we knew to day was the expected arrival.  We egarly opened the box and pulled out everything.  It's beautiful and soft and just perfect. Now this is my favorite for this baby's gender.  I know if we have more, I will use it again now.  It's always been in my head, now it's in my home.  DD1 wanted to set up the nursery today, but I said we'll wait another 10 weeks.  We'll wash it in baby wash first.  Plus, 15 weeks of sitting around would leave it dusty probably.  But I can't wait anymore than at 35 weeks.  I suppose sometime soon, I'll have to make a trip back home.  My grandfather has been kind enough to let us store our kid's outgrown clothes in his basement.  I can't wait to go through it all.  I'll have to plan a week.  I did this with DD2, i went through all the clothes, sorted out gender and then boxed it up by season for as long as I had clothes available til. 

So the nursery was this months purchase.  Next month is cloth diapers.  Oh I can't wait!  Lots of snuggly little diapers.   The next month after that, I plan to buy everything I need for the homebirth, which will be our first water birth:)  And other stuff I'll need for the new baby.

15 weeks from today our baby is due:)

I went ahead and ordered Explode the Code.  I'm also planning on buying Math-U-See.  Boy I hope these work.  I like that they don't have grade levels attatched.  It feels a little freer to go at whatever pace neccessary.

I've also decided to get Mystery of History for the fall and either Answers in Genesis or Apologia.  We'd also like to do French.  But history, science and French are minors for us.  I'd ratehr just have fun with the kids, ensuring we get reading and math done and do the others when we have time.  We'll see how it goes:)

So these are the things running through my mind.  My oldest, 6 1/2, can only read phonetically correct words.  I tried Learning language arts through literature, but it was too slow.  I tried Horizon's, but it was too fast.  So now what do I buy my lil' Goldie Locks that is just right?  It looks like to really get most programs, you should start at K and follow through 2. But I think we're a little late for that.  She'll be doing grade 2 in the fall.  Can I really jump her into a grade 2 program with none of the background?  Can I really put my then 7 year old in a K program?

I have Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons, but never even started lesson 1.  I've heard Teaching reading at home.   Not sure if it's any good.  I've also heard recommendations for explode the code. I like that Explode the Code isn't a grade number, so I can just put her where she needs to be. 

As for Math...we bought Horizon's at the recommendation of a friend who was a PS teacher before kids and who's DH is a teacher too.  They gotta know what they're doing right?  It moves way too fast.  The whole spiral approach isn't working for us.  I think we need mastery.  She's not mastered addition.  She's getting everything else, but still needs her fingers or a number line to get a lot of it.  With MUS, I think she'd do better with the blocks, feeling and touching the math.   Plus I can order Canadian.  You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find Candian homeschool material! (Unless you are Canadian too).  But then there's saxon, good ol' reliable saxon.  It's what my SIL uses.  I know it's thorough, it's scripted.  I really want scripted.  We want are kids to take accredited homeschool in highschool so they get a diploma.  Would MUS have them smart enough to be able to jump into a grade 9 program when they get there?

And then there's Abeka.  Part of me just wants to say, forget it.  I'm sick of searching.  Let's just buy Abeka, the whole package and be done with it!  No more searching.  They must be good as they've been around so long.  But I heard it's too much work and moves too fast.  It's desgined for a school, so there's too much busy work.

I don't know.  How do I make a decision? How do I know what's right without trying it first?  And how do I get through this without spend several hundreds of dollars?