Sunday a friend of mine who also happens to be my youngest son's Sunday School teacher pulled me aside and told me "Your son is a math wiz.  We were talking about the story today and he said 'that means that he was 20 years old.'  I thought about it a minute and he was right."

I'm not bragging when I say that he is doing well but I think that has more to do with his math program than with me.  We have been using Professor B math with him from the beginning.  It was difficult for me in the beginning because it's not a traditional method, but it works.  Right now he is working on problems like      4,568,251,903  x 8    and doing well.

He works on 4 or 5 problems a day plus we work on reviewing his times tables so that he can get faster.   And yes I bribe him a little.  We use an award system to keep him motivated.  He get a penny a day if he finishes his math problems in 20 minutes, two if he has two or more minutes remaining when he's done.  He also gets a penny if he is faster of his times tables than he was the day before, two if he cuts off two or more minutes.  He gets to use the pennys to buy prizes, (candy, small toys, etc) after which the pennies are put back in the jar for next time.

I was sold on Professor B Math after attending a class at our local convention.  She used an actual lesson out of the book to show us how it worked.  It went like this; You would write a line of three digit number on a board or paper like this:

            123    456     789     102    345

 In a number like 123  you would point to the first digit and ask what number it was.  When the child say one you would tell him that is correct but inform him that there was a secret word that went with it and that that word was Hundred.  Then you would explain that secret word goes with the first digit in each of the three diget numbers.  You then make a game out of trying to trip him up.  You probablly won't be able to but he or she will think it is fun.

Next you introduce the second digit and it's secret word ty (tee).  And do the game again with the second digit.  After that you explain that the last digit is easy because it has no secret word and go through the same process.  Finally you mix it up with all the digits making a game of trying to trip him or her up.

Now comes the amazing part.  you take the above numbers and put commas between them so that it looks like this:

                        123 , 456 , 789 , 102 , 345

At this point you teach your child that the commas have name and show him or her which is named what; thousand, million, billion, trillion.  Suddenly they are reading one hundred  twenty-three trillion, four hundred fifty-six billion, seven hundred eighty-nine million, one hundred two thousand, three hundred forty five.  At that point a light went on in my head and I said this is so simple.   They say it takes 15 minutes to teach this.  I don't remeber how long it took me to get through it with my son but even if it was twice or three times that, that's better than the years it took me to teach it to my other sons.

The way things are taught is different from the way I was taught and the way I taught my other sons so there was a learning curve for me but my youngest ran with it from day one.  Some days I stand back and think Wow howed he learn to do that.  I love this program.

It has been an interesting few weeks for me.  My brother has had surgery.  I broke a tooth on a pitted prune, of all things. (It wasn't as pitted as they clamed.)  My cat had kittens and it didn't go well.  My sister-in-law has gotten news that her mother may not live through the holidays.  My husbands oxygen level is only at 80% when he isn't taking his medication, which is normally.  Whew, is that everything?  I think so.

My bother had to have surgery on his neck.  He had to have cadaver bone inserted into his spin.  It went very well and the pain in his arm is now gone.  As a side note he is now at least 14 mm taller than he was before.  Two other interesting thing I found out from the experience is that:

    1.  Cadaver bone can be treated so that you body will not reject it, so there is no need of medication to prevent rejection.

    2.  Moriphine make people very silly.  While he was on moraphine my brother went into a whole tirade on how we needed to sue Dole and get rich because I had broken my tooth on one of their pits.  I tried to explain that it was only a filling which was easily replaced.  I went on to explain that because I had a twenty dollor credit at dentist and between the credit and our insurance I didn't even have a bill from the thing and I still had a $6.00 credit left.  At that he said "No, no, no!   Your not thinking about this propperly.  There's pain and suffering.  You'll never be able to eat prunes again.  We'll get rich!"  If he ever remembers our conversation he's going to be so embarrased.

That brings us to my tooth.  Of all thing I broke it on a small piece of pit that hadn't been removed.  I was worried to begin with that it was the tooth itself and might need capped but it just turned out to be a white filling.  I guess they aren't as hard as a silver one.  No I am not about to get a wind fall from Dole.  Stuff just happens.

Next came the cat.  She is doing well now but it was touch and go for a while.  I ended up bottle feeding kittens for 24 hours untill the vet said that we could bring them up to their mama.  Then we had an added problem of one of the kittens getting pushed aside.  It was in pretty sad shape before anyone noticed what was happening. 

The vet told us that she didn't think he would make it.  No one else thought he would either but I couldn't just give up.  So we brought him home and I started bottle feeding him again.  He wouldn't eat very much at a time so I feed him every hour.  At 11 I had planned to go to a two hour schedual and even set the alarm clock; but at Midnight he was actually asking to be fed.  It was like a light went on with him and he just couldn't get enough to eat.  He was wanting to be fed every 15 minutes after that.  Finally at 3:40 AM I was so tired and he was crying something awful, so I took him to his mother in the hope that he would rest for an hour after which I would feed him again. 

When I took him I removed all the other kittens and placed him with her.  She wouldn't pay any attention to him though.  She got up and went to where I had put the other kittens, picked one up, and brought it back to her bed.  At that point she settled down and started licking both kittens.  They started nursing and I hung around for a while to make sure that it would be OK. 

When I came back an hour later he still seemed to be doing Ok, but I took him out and gave him a bottle just to be sure.  I added two more kittens and left for another hour.  I continued in that path until 6:00 at which point I woke my husband and asked him if he could take over so that I could sleep.  That was two days ago and now the kitten is doing great. 

I have been trying to get in touch with my sister-in-law to see how her mother is with no success.  Her mother is suffering from dementia and diabetes, along with a number of other problems.  She isn't listening to her doctor and she's not taking her medication.  The diabetes is really taking a tole on her.  Remember the family in your prays.  My sister-in-law has a lot on her plate between my brother and now her mother.  She is a nurse but this is hard.

I love this curriculum.  I researched it for a couple of years before we bought it.  We had been using Saxon before we bought this and I was somewhat frustrated because it was a typical textbook.  It had been so long since I had taken Algebra that I was never sure of myself.  I had the whole package but it didn't tell how the problems where worked so at times all I could tell the boys was "Your answer is wrong and this is what the right answer should be."  Don't get me wrong, the oldest two did fine with Saxon, they both are in college studying to be engineers.  But it was very frustrating at times for both me and them. 

Now shift to the Teaching Textbook.  It is so clearly written that it pretty much teaches itself.  Secondly, there are the CDs.  I really weighed whether we should get them or not.  I didn't know if my third son would need them and it seemed that it would be a waste if he didn't.  My husband said "Get them anyway.  You don't know but that his brother may need them," so we did.  Has my son used them?  Very rarely; as a matter of fact only twice so far.  On the other hand on those occasions I have been glad that we had them.  Each time a light has gone on in his head and he has said "Oooooh I get it now!"

We never have any hassles.  There is no arguing that the answer key could be wrong.  Well one time he did but I sent him to the CD and there it was proof that he had made a mistake.  This is one of those things that truly is better than advertised and in this world those things are few and far between.  As a matter of fact I am so satisfied that I plan to get rid of all my Saxon and go strictly with Teaching Textbooks. 

My eldest is sick, as a consequence he blew a test in one of his classes.  This is a really tough class; to score an A you have to score a 75%.  It's not a class that you want to be under the weather in.  I asked him how bad it was and was told that it counted for 1/5 of his grade, but that he thought he could still pull an A for his final grade.  As he reviewed the test in his mind though he began to beat himself up.  He tends to be a perfectionest to he took this pretty hard.  He began to talk about not being good enough and that maybe he should just quit.

I stopped him and said "Wait a minute son.  You just said that you thought you could still pull an A out of the class and now you want to quit.  Don't you see a little inconsitancy here?"  He bowed up and didn't say anything at that.  I had to get his brothers through the school day so I continued on with my youngest's science class as he listened in. 

We are using the Among the People series; right now we are on Among the Medow People.  I really like it because it give a light touch of science, which is probably good enough at his age, and also gives a moral lesson.  When we finish the story we always go on to do a light further study of the featured topic.  We listen to bird songs, check out squirles, whatever. 

One this day the featured topic was the Harvestman spider (Daddy Long Legs).  In the story it talked about how good the Harvestmen were.  How they always had a kind word for their fellow medow neighbors.  How they never gossiped, were always cheerful and so on. 

At the end one particulare Harvestman had lost a leg due to a naughty little boy.  One of his neighbors asked what he would do.  The reply was this:

"Do?" answered the biggest Harvestman, and it was then one could see how [49] truly brave and cheerful he was. "Do? I'll walk on those seven. If I lose one of them I'll walk on six, and if I lose one of them I'll walk on five. Haven't I my mouth and my stomach and my eyes and my two feelers, and my two food-pincers? I may not be so good-looking, but I am a Harvestman, and I shall enjoy the grass and the sunshine and my kind neighbors as long as I live. I must leave you now. Good-day."   (T h e   B a l d w i n  P r o j e c t   "Among the Medow People"  The cheerfull Harvestman)

Around the middle of the story my eldest stopped me and rather indignantly asked "Did you pick this story because of me?"  I hadn't it was the next one he was supposed to do.  After I read the portions above my ninth grader, who had finished his class andcome to sit by us and listen, whispered "Mom did you pick that story because of happened?"  I again said no that it was what was schedualed.  I actually showed everyone the lesson plan just to prove it.  I told them some times the Lord just does that. 

My eldest took the sentament to heart and cheered up.  I told him that all his dad and I expected was his best.  That is all that anyone can expect of anyone else.  Given the fact that he was as sick as he was there was noway we could expect more than he did.  He just needed to dig in and do the best he could to make up for it.  Even though he is a perfectionest, he is basicly a practical young man and I am sure he will.  As a matter of fact he is already working on it.  All because of a second grade science story and a God who could see into the future and cared enough to make sure that it was scheduled at the right time

Sixteen years ago, when I first started homeschooling, no one I knew was naming their homeschool.  We were to busy trying to stay under the radar so that the local school district or county social worker didn't show up at our door.  Now it's the popular thing to do and after having to come up with a transcript for my second son, (my eldest was required to get a GED before they would admit him to college and so didn't need a transcript from me,) I've decided that maybe naming our school would be expedient.  I've weighed a number of names and finally decided on Grace Heights Academy.  My eldest son still homeschooling even came up with a solgan;  "Grace Heights Academy -- Where All Your Dreams Take Flight."  No sign there that he would like to be a pilot some day, is there?

I think that sounds much better than Hassett Homeschool which is what I used for the transcript that I made for my now college Freshman.  It says something about our faith and our objectives for homeschooling.  It even sounds rather proffesional, especially when you add the slogan.  Not that we are any more or less strict about their academics now than we ever were.  Sadly enough though, in this present world perception is everything.  So, we now have an official name.  My two eldest think it's rather silly; my ninth grader thinks it was kind of fun; my youngest was frunstrated that we didn't pick something like Sponge Bob U.  As for me, I guess it's a sign of my age but for some reason I'm rather ambivalent.  It seems rather strange to go from your biggest worry being how to deal with social workers, to what to name your school.  I don't know, maybe it will get me a few discounts.

Seventeen years ago the Lord impressed upon me that we were not to put our children in public school.  My first thought was OK no public school, I'll just have to find a christian school that we can aford.  I went forward sure that since this is what the Lord wanted that he would provide the School.  Imagine my frustration when He closed the door on every Christian schoo we came across.  Finally I came to the point where I had to do something and with no other school available to us I went down to sign my child up at the local public school.

I knew I was doing wrong and so as I filled out the paper work I cried and pleaded with the Lord to understand.  Little did I know that He wasn't through yet or that he would use the first Gulf War to point me in the right direction.  During that time a number of wives on post had gotten together to help support one another while their husbands were gone.  It was there that I met a woman who was homeschooling her children.  As I listened while the other women questioned her the first though my mind was "Listen, this is important."  The next thought was "Is this even legal?"

I went home that day with all the thing she had said about homeschooling flittering through my head and yet thinking "Oh I could never do that."  But it wouldn't go away.  Finally, to get the Lord to leave me alone, I went down to the local Christian Book Store and asked if they had anything on homeschooling.  She reached under the counter and pulled out a magazine.  It was kind of an introduction to homeschooling issue.  I took it home and read every article in it.  I also ordered every free cataloge that was advertised in it as well. 

After reading through the magazine and all the catalogues and checking out what was required by the state for kindergarten  I finally said "OK Lord if this is what you want then I'll talk it over with my husband when he comes home.  But you're going to have to pursuade him."  I still wasn't sure I could do it but my thinking was that it was only Kindergarten and he already most of what was required.  If I couldn't do it then I could send him to school then next year.

On the other hand I wanted to wait to talk it over with my husband until he came home.  That didn't work out too well though.  One day my husband called and while he was talking to our son he asked if he was getting excited about going to school.  It was then that our son anounced that he wasn't going to school, he was going to do homeschool.  It took a while to get my husband to understand that I was only thinking about it and that it needed to be something that we both agreed to.

He wasn't real sure what to make of it but let it go until the day he came home.  To his credit he sat down and went through all the material that I had gathered.  When he saw that there were real textbooks and that I had a real plan he was much more agreeable.  He helped me decide on what we wanted for his education and the type of education style that we should use.

As I said that was Seventeen years ago.  Now here we sit seventeen years and four boys later and we have never turned back.  We thought we were doing what the Lord wanted.  What we never realized was the blessing that the Lord would bring in return.  They are too many to list in this  article, maybe I can do it over the next few day.

My three oldest sons all belong to Civil Air Patrol.  The two younger members are still cadets, the oldest has moved up to a senior member.  The two youngest are what they call Ground Team Qualified.  That means that they can be called out on search and rescue missions.  

About a week and a half ago the youngest of the three was called out on a mission to search for an 85 year old man.  He had disapeard out in the woods a couple of days earlier and they needed bodies to look for him.  The people from my sons squadron went out to help along with some National Guard troops.  Our guys were out there two days.  Because of their age they are allowed to be out three but could only stay two as school has already started around here. 

When my son came home he was tired, bug eaten, and a little disapointed that they had to leave before the man had been found.  To be honest he still hasn't been found.  They had worked so hard, pulling 10 hour days in the field searching and couldn't find him. 

The people at the campground were so nice though.  The search teams are required to keep a 72 hour kit ready to go.  I contains food, water clothes, and camping gear for 72 hours, as well as their search and rescue gear.  But the people ate the campgrounds put them up and fed them the whole time they were there.  As a matter of fact my son told me that when ever they came in the staff was always trying to feed them.  "Do you want soup?  How about a sandwich?  Do you need something to drink?  Can make you something?  It's no trouble."  I was very impressed with them, they weren't required to do any of that.

On the other hand I think they were equally impressed with our kids because they called the national head quarters to tell them what a good job the cadets had done and to thank them for coming.  National then got in touch with Regional who passed the message on to state who forwarded it down to our squadron.  My son was walking on cloud nine today when he told me about it. 

We have a good squadron.  The kids would tell you it's the best in the state.  From all the awards they get they could be right.  On the other hand it's so good because we have good kids who belong to it.  They work hard for the squadron and their community.  They are required to keep their grades up or they can't belong.  They are incouraged to do community service not just through CAP but on their own as well and they do.  They put in thousands of community service hours last year.  They are just an awsome group of kids.  I hear people talk about kids today and yes there is reason to worry.  On the other had these kids give me hope.

This coming week I have to get the minutes and financial report ready for the business meeting at church.  Also the women's retreat is coming up and I'm being encouraged to go.  Then there is the Fact that I am supposed to leave next Sunday to go with my husband for three days to celebrate our aniversery.  Finally we have to get our son out to renew his military dependents ID card so that he can be on the DEERs progame and qualify for Tricare, the military health insurance.  His short days at the university are Mondays and Fridays.  His classes are over by 9:30 AM.  It's not making things easy for me.  Something has to give somewhere.

I am not going to be able to get to the women's retreat.  I know that they would like me to go.  Many don't see why I can't shuffle things to make the time.  It's like when you're in the middle of the school day and everyone thinks that since your at home you should be at their beck and call.  It's just not that easy.  Yes the retreat would be fun, and yes I could use the lessons and bonding with friends.  Still, my husband and family have to come first. 

My husband wanted to do something special for me and planned this trip a year ago.  Second we're talking about my son's health insurance.  If anything serious were to happen I don't know how we would pay for it on our own.  He needs this taken care of.  It's not that I don't want to go with the ladies to the retreat, But these things have to take priority.  I know I'm not wrong.  Why don't they see it the same way I do?

For the past fewe years I've used one of the Easy Grammar books for the oldest of the two sons I am still homeschooling. We have been through the 3/4, the 5/6 and are now on Easy Grammar Plus.   I really like them; enough so that this year I purchased the second grade book for my youngest.  I wanted something quick, easy, and fairly painless for our son to teach him capitalization, punctuation, and maybe some easy sentence structure.  This has more than met my expectations.  It is supposed to be consumable but I also use it to practice penmanship as I don't allow him to write in his book.  (Bummer, mom sure can be mean.)

So far there are only 4 exersizes per lesson with one lesson per day..  About mid way through the year it will change to 5 and continue with that many through to the end of the year.  It always starts with an exersize in capitalization.  The next concerns punctuation.  It always finishes with an exersize in sentence combinning.  This was rather difficult for my son in the first few lessons but now after two weeks, he's an old pro.  Finally, exersize three (and later four as well) rotate through things like alphabetizing, sentence parts(subject, prepositions, nouns, verbs,etc.), prefixes/roots/suffixes, synonyms/antonyms/homonyms, and much more. 

When possible I like curriculum that is quick, easy and gets the job done.  This program deffinately meets that goal.  In a world in which not everything is as advertised, the Easy Grammar system is.  I very much appriciate that.  It is one of my curriculum purchases that I have been able to use not only thoughout the year without having to tweek it, but that I keep coming back to year after year.

Things are going well in these parts.  My youngest is well again.  He is coming along nicely on his times tables.  We are using Professor B Math with him and I'm pleased with the out come I have experienced over the last two years.  This is year three with the program.  It's a different way of thinking and doing for me so it's a little more difficult again for me.  My son on the other hand is doing wonderfully.  He doesn't know that he is doing thing that people his age and grade aren't supposed to be doing yet.  He is able to add and subtract into the trillions and is now multiplying 10 digit numbers by 2 and 3.  He understands that multiplying any number by 1 gives you the number that you started with and that no matter how many times you give someone nothing you still get nothing.  Not bad for a second grader in his second week of school.

My ninth grader is using Teaching Textbook's Algebra I course.  He is doing well.  Granted some of it is review of last years work but in two weeks of school I've only had to have him correct two problems.  I really like this curriculum.  It is clear and thorough in it’s instruction to the point that, while we bought the CDs as well as the books, our son has only used the book and is doing fine.  With the exception of my grading his work, I just hand him the book and he runs with it.  I haven't had to explain anything.  This is important to me because he only has four years left before college.  He needs to learn to be self directed if he is going to make it. 

My two college boys are doing well also.  My eldest, who always had a little trouble fitting in when he was younger because he is such a geek, is a "little" less geeky and amazingly enough it's OK because he is surrounded by people just as nerdy as he is so he fits in just fine.  He is doing well in his classes.  I am a little troubled by his Calculus II class though.  When he was at the local community college his math classes ran pretty much the way we did them at home.  He would work on a lesson, bring his finished work to class where it would be discussed and any difficulties explained and corrected.  The only thing handed in for grades were tests.  At OSU his work has to be e-mailed to his instructor to be graded.  This means that he may not understand that his is doing his work incorrectly until the paper is handed back.  Then he doesn't necessarily know why it was wrong and how to do it correctly.  If he doesn't know any of this before a test he could be in real trouble.

As for his younger brother, He has gotten a substantial raise at work.  He was able to get all his classes scheduled for two days a week.  This means that he can work three days a week.  This made his boss a little happier.  He was hinting hard and heavy that he didn't want him to go part time again this year.  I know that he can use the help and that my son is reliable but this isn't what he wants to do with the rest of his life.  His boss knew this when he hired him; he really can't expect our son to set aside his goals.  This year our son is taking Film Arts to meet his Fine Arts requirement, New Student Orientation (yes it's his second semester but it will fill his Psyc, requirement without messing with his head,) Eng. Comp II, and Photograph (just because he has inherited his fathers love of photograph.)  The math courses were all filled so he will have to catch that next semester.

My youngest is sick today so he won't be doing school.  I’m not really sure what is wrong with him.  He is running a fever, has chills and isn’t eating of course, but that’s it.  That just leaves his brother.  As a ninth grader he is pretty independent.  I guess I’ll get some much needed house work done.

We are safely back from OSU.  My son is safely installed in his dorm, classes start today.  He managed to get all his books but one used so it only cost $350 dollars.  His Calculus II book is about to be fazed out so it only cost $20.00.  Can you believe that.  He wont be able to sell it back but that's ok.  If he really wants money for it he can sell it on E-bay or something.  Surely he can get his $20 back. 

The one book he couldn't get used is one they ran out of.  It's for an intro to engineering class that he is required by OSU to take but that they didn't offer at the communtity college.  They ran out of the text at the book store and are ordering it so he will have to buy a new one.  On the other hand it's only going to cost $20.00 so if he had to buy a new book, that was the one to get.

It would appear that almost everyone on his floor is an engineering major.  One of the few exceptions is his roommate.  He is a history ed major.  I'm not too sure how happy he is to be stuck on a floor where he is surrounded by so many geeks but so far he is tredding water.  My son had me put skype on our computer so that he could talk to us without spending minutes on his phone.  That means that his roommate gets to listen in on our conversations though.  He got a real laugh out of my telling our son that he needed to be nice to him since he was all alone on a floor full of engineers.

As for the other boys, my second eldest, (I really need to work on a better way to refer to the boys,) is buying books today after work.  He managed to get all his class schedule for Tuesday and Thursday.  That is a mixed blessing.  It allows him more hours at work, but it piles all his classes into two days.  He can be rather prideful, I hope he reaches out for help if he needs it. 

The other boys are doing we so far too.  The older of the two participated in a mass casualty exersize with his CAP squadron.  He had to give up his shoes so that they and he could be decontaminated.  They sent him home with a pair of those treaded socks that they give patients.  Oh they also fed him which is very important to a teenage boy.

My youngest has started doing multiplacation.  He became sick today.  I'm not sure what is going on.  He had a feaver of 104.  But that and a head ach is the only thing I can see wrong.  I think that he will need the day off tomorrow.

Yeeeeeaaaaaa!!!  It's what I have been working for all this week.  We use Professor B Math for my youngest.  He uses a certain amount of humor and frustration to get them to want to take the next step.  The problem that pushed him over the edge today was If one table costs $678.00 how much would 4 cost? 

The author builds up to bigger and bigger numbers until the student wants to know if there is a short cut.  With the table problem it wasn't big enough yet to frustrate him until he wanted to know if he got the ones added together correctly.  When I started writing the problem down to check it, it became a race for him.  He was sure I would never be able with my late start to finish before him.  Of course he was adding and I was multiplying.  When I finished first he was shocked.  Then he knew that I had a secret.  Now he's begging for tomorrows lesson today.  Some days are golden.

I guess the best place to start would be with our family.  My husband and I are the parents of 4 boys ranging in age from 21 - 7.  This is our 16th year of homeschooling.  I had to count that one up.  I can't believe we've been at it that long.  We have 2 in college now, one who is just transferring to OSU and one who is still in the local community college.  Of the other two we have one in the 9th grade and one in the second. 

We homeschool rather eclectically though we rely mostly on Ambleside Online and tend to follow a mostly Charlotte Mason style.  We are just starting the new school year and, so far, things are going relatively smoothly and the work is being done in a timely manner.  Of course smooth is not an adjective that last very long in a house with 4 boys. 

Still it’s better than the alternative.  Our years of homeschooling are winding down and soon it will be just my husband and I.  It will be different.  I don’t know how well we will deal with the quiet.