I know, strange title, but that word has been going through my head lately. Those of you who have been reading my blog for any length of time knows that Sarah has been having issues with Saxon math. Well, actually math in general. It's never been her strong subject, and usually by the end of the year we are both crying and struggling to finish the lessons. I use to always read blogs where moms are saying, "My kids were asking to do their school work, so I let them start early." What?!? Asking to do their work. Not my kids, and I never imagined they would ever ask for their work. Hmmmm
Well at the end of school in the spring we decided to go ahead and get the more expensive, but computer based math curriculum, Teaching Textbooks. She tested in her grade level, 7th grade, and we got the curriculum early last spring. We had her finish up her Saxon math, then we've been having a summer break, so she hasn't started yet. She actually has been asking to be able to start her math, and summer break isn't even over yet!!! Yep, I couldn't believe it, she's been asking to do her math. So much so, she even asked to do a lesson over the weekend, which of course I said yes to. I'm still in shock, and I think she is too. She is so enjoying it and is learning things too. I pray that this attitude continues and rubs off on her brother.
But I can't end it like that, because truly her brother has been shocking me too. We have a computer based reading program that we haven't used in a while. But we weren't getting the bookwork done like I wanted to this summer, so I told him to start up that program again. At least that way he would be learning something. Lately, he has been asking me if he can do his program too. YEA!!!
I'm so blessed at this time right now the kids are enjoying their work. And even if it doesn't last, which if they are like their mom, it might not, , I am still blessed right now that it's happening. And now I have this entry to come back and read and encourage myself with later.
We had a great time at the kids graduation/swim party. Though I wasn't fully thinking, and I have no pictures to share. All the pictures had lots of other people in them and I never asked if I could put their pictures on the internet. So no pictures, sorry.
But it was a great time. The food was awesome, though I think I've gone into a dairy overload from this past weekend and all the pasta dishes at the potlucks. For those of you who don't know, we have drastically cut out dairy. It was causing Paul to get ear infections, and as I cut it out of my cooking for him, I found I was feeling a lot better too. I never realized how congested and stuffy I was until I didn't eat that much dairy. Well this past weekend was loaded with dairy. Now I'm congested, stuffy and my ears feel funny. Hopefully this week we can get the dairy out of our system, I won't be cooking with it at all.
Anyway, the graduation was so sweet. They brought each class up there and gave them the certificates and all us parents took our pictures. Truly, though, I wish I had my video camera. In Paulie's grade he was the only one up there, so like for every other group all the parents are clapping and such. So Paulie starts to take bows, raises his hands up with this 'thank you' type wave, bows again. He was just hamming it up, it was so cute. Sarah and her friend were in the same class, and neither of them wanted to go up in front of everyone. They were a bit . But they went up and I got some good pictures. Of course now Sarah has to keep walking around saying she's in Junior High since she's starting 7th grade. Junior high, ugh. Then the kids swam for the last hour or so. They had so much fun, and I'm surprised all of us parents aren't deaf. It was too cold outside to use the outdoor pool, so all the kids swam in the indoor pools. Lets just say it was hard to carry on conversations with other moms. Everyone had fun, the kids enjoyed getting their first graduation certificate and it was great fellowship. I guess summer break is fully underway now.
Homeschool play group has been moved to mornings now, 10:30am. We moved it so the kids weren't playing outside in the heat of the day. Of course you would never know we are in summer right now. We won't get out of the 60's today and we'll only be in the 50's tomorrow. I guess our week of 80's about a month ago was our summer.
Also, if you think about it, could you please keep the kids in prayer today. They have their first eye doctor appointments at 3:40pm MT today. I'm sure Sarah will be fine with the appointments, and I'm sure her eyes are fine too, we just want to get them checked. Paulie is the one I'm nervous about. I'm not sure how well he'll do during the appointment, but mostly, I pray if there is an issue with him that they would find it. I don't want the doctor to miss something, or that they do such a routine exam, they don't catch something small that might be affecting his reading and close up work. So please, if you think about it could you say a prayer for us. I am blessed, Paul is able to come with us this afternoon which will help out a lot. I'll try and update tonight, if I can, on how the appointment went. Thanks.
Another cold and raining day, ugh. I am quite ready for our summer weather to come back. We were in the mid 80's for almost a week, and now for the past two days we've been in the 40's with rain. I liked the mid 80's better. Though sleeping at night is a bit better now, I sleep better in cooler weather.
I'm seriously thinking of ending school tomorrow. I am thinking about what few things I want to keep the kids working on through the summer. Yes, we are a worksheet kind of family, and I will have my kids doing some worksheets through the summer. We finished Paulie's math about a week ago. I was printing up some math worksheets for him and realized that only in a week's time he had forgotten some of the basic math concepts. So I think I will have a sheet or two of math concepts a day and continue to work with him on memorizing his multiplication facts over the summer. Plus we are going to continue with his phonics and reading through the summer. And to keep his penmanship up so I will probably have him copy some spelling words. I know it sounds like a lot, but it wouldn't take him more than 1 hour a day to finish those things. Plus, just to get to the point of sleeping in again, not have an schedule we have to follow, will be nice. We will probably just get in a routine of after breakfast and morning chores are done he'll do his lessons, then he'll be done for the day. I think for me personally, not having to have it done at a certain time will be a great relief.
I haven't decided yet what Sarah will be keeping up with during the summer. She has about 20 pages left in her Daily Grams book so I'll have her finish that up. But she doesn't usually forget to many math concepts or things through the summer, so I don't know that I need to keep her going on lesson type stuff. She reads a lot, to the point that sometimes we are telling her to put the book down and do some crafts or play outside. So what I'll probably have her do is some sort of craft through the summer. I've been wanting to have her start a cross-stitch sampler, so maybe we'll get that started. She enjoys doing crafts, but books just call out to her. Actually I'm going to be doing some searching about being a librarian. She is really interested in working in a library and I thought it would be great to start to work that into her lessons, especially in a few years when she starts high school. So I'll be searching around to see what's needed to be a librarian. How fun.
I've also been thinking about what to do with all the papers, art projects and such that we accumulate throughout the year. I actually have two big rubbermaid bins that I have all, yes all, their paperwork from the past few years. I know, ridiculous, but I just always have a hard time throwing out their work. It always made me feel like I was being a horrible mom. But I read today on a blog about different things people do with end of year things. And I liked some of what they did. One mom makes a mini scrapbook album, making a list of books they read, putting in some of their work, things like that. Then another mom takes a picture at the end of the school year, so the mom on the blog I read is going to put those things together. I think I'm going to do something similar. I think I'm going to get one of those pocket folders that has 3 paper hole clips in them. I will probably take some of their work and put it there, I took pictures at the beginning of the school year, and I will take pictures of their graduation at the homeschool group for their end of school year pictures. Making a bit of a scrapbook page with those. Maybe even write something out as to what we did all year. And then after putting that together, I'll throw out everything else. That will be a hard thing to do, but truly, I can't keep every piece of work they do. It's getting out of hand, and I'm running out of space. And when I think about it, I don't have any class work from when I was younger, and I'm ok with that. Truly, I wouldn't want to carry all that around anyway. Now I'm just trying to decide what I want to do with all the papers I've saved through the years. I might just get rid of them all and start with this year keeping these kinds of thing. I know that might be shocking to some, but I truly can be such a pack rat, and I'm trying to learn to get rid of things. So those are my thoughts right now. I'll let you know what actually gets done.
I think maybe I've found a time for me to blog. It seems like between 3:00 and 5:00 my time I have time to be on the computer. Not always two whole hours, but the kids usually go outside around this time, and Paul doesn't get home until after 5:00pm. So we'll see how this works. And the new schooling schedule helps out a lot too.
Paul decided last night that we needed a Starbucks decaf. Now, me being the submissive wife (sometimes), didn't argue one bit. I don't know if I mentioned, Paul has stopped drinking regular coffee too. It was a huge thing when he decided to do it. He's been drinking coffee for almost 20 years. But he didn't like how he had been feeling so he decided to quit. The first week or so was a little difficult. He never really got the lack of caffeine headache, but he just didn't feel well. Now, wow, he has so much more energy, he's more upbeat and in lighter, funnier moods. It's been a sweet change and he likes how he feels now too. We are a strictly decaf house now. Barnes & Noble's is at the local mall (that's where Starbucks is), and Sarah had saved up her money to buy a CD. So we loaded up in the Jeep and headed out after dinner. It was a fun time. We didn't do much but get the coffees and CD, but just to be out as a family was good. But my body definitely can not handle a Cafe Mocha Decaf with extra whip that late in the evening. I woke up at 4:00am with a stomach ache. No more evening coffee for me, though I wouldn't have traded the fun we had.
Today was good, with lots of baking. I had to make my pan chocolate chip cookies for woman's bible study tonight. All I do is make my normal chocolate chip cookie recipe and put it in a 9x13 pan and bake them like brownies. It's a bit quicker, and they are more chocolaty. I also tried making cinnamon rolls again. I think they turned out much better this time. I have photos to share, and I'm going to try a photobucket slide show, but I'm going to save this entry as a draft first, just in case. Yea, it worked.
Tonight I have Woman's Bible Study, and I always look forward to that. I'm really getting to know the ladies, and it's always an encouraging time. I hope that everyone is having a blessed day. Here are my cinnamon rolls.
I'm realizing that I put most of my blog entries out in the evening, so if I have plans in the evening, I don't get any entries out. Hmmm, I'm going to have to re-think that. Because last night we were at our homeschool group's monthly meeting, and I never had time to blog. Oh well, here is what I've been up to the past couple of days.
Yesterday was a pretty good day, though I felt like I was dragging myself through the whole day. With the time change this past weekend, I was so tired. So I got my cleaning started late, which got school started late, and I was dragging myself through both of them. But they both got finished, so all is well. Our lessons went well. I really feel like we are getting into a good flow with them. We are still mainly in the basics. I do have them read history books Mon, Wed, and Friday, and Science books Tues, and Thurs. But other than that, we do basics. For Sarah that's math and language arts, which includes the spelling, grammar, writing etc... For Paulie that's math, reading, writing and phonics. Plus they both do some copywork and Sarah practices her reading by reading a story to Paulie everyday. I've realized and accepted the fact that I'm not much more than a 'basics' kind of homeschooler. We have the art supplies available, keyboards too, but neither have a huge interest in them. We are blessed that they love the Lord, which is the most important lesson we can think of. And the academics are coming along nicely. So all and all, things are going well.
We had our monthly homeschool meeting last night, and it was fun, as usual. They had three homeschool graduates speak and take questions. It was really good. It was nice hearing what these three young adults felt about being homeschooled. What were the positives and negatives, and how they feel about it now. It was all positive, and they were all very happy that they were homeschooled. It was really good.
The only 'thing' last night was Paulie's sore throat. He had no fever or bad cough, just a scratchy, sore throat. But by the time he was done playing with the kids at the meeting last night, he could barely talk. He hadn't drank any water for over an hour, and between that and playing, his throat was so dry. So we got him home, got a little bit of IB in him (which is very rare) and put him to bed early (which is even more rare). He woke up today much better. Just lightly scratchy again.
Sarah started her lessons early this morning, right after breakfast, the kids had a goal today, homeschool playgroup. They worked great, got their lessons done properly before lunch and we got to go to playgroup this afternoon. It was our first time there, and it was great. We've been trying to go for the past 3 weeks, and something has always come up. But today we made it, and we all had a great time. It's at the recreation center downtown, so it's a big gymnasium, and all the kids were running around and playing basketball. Starting in the spring, we'll be meeting at a park, so the kids can play outside. Us moms got to sit and chat with each other. Homeschool shop talk, it was great. The little over an hour we were there went by very fast. We will be going every week, or at least trying to go every week. It does cost $2.00 for the kids, but since its only a few months out of the year, it shouldn't be too bad. I think the kids will sleep great tonight.
And now tonight, Paul and I are going to curl up on the couch, and just relax. I won't be on the computer much, I want to spend some time with my man. So I hope everyone has a great night, and maybe I'll try to put an entry out tomorrow afternoon, since we are going to try to go to church tomorrow night. We'll see if I get it done.
I made my first animated signature graphic with Paint Shop Pro. Goodness, it wasn't as quick and easy as I thought it would be. But, once I got the hang of what I was suppose to do, it went pretty quick. It's a little sloppy, and I will probably try another one sometime, but I am so excited with this one. I'm done for the night, but eventually I will make some more graphics, and put watermarks on my pictures. I'm having so much fun with my new software.
Today was a nice lazy day. We actually got a little snow today, but it turned into a rain/snow mix, and it's done now, nothing stuck. A friend commented how funny it was that we were out grilling, saying it was a beautiful day when it wasn't even 40 and there were piles of snow in the background. She's from the north, so she understands. I guess it is funny to others who live in warmer states.
Well, I have been on the computer way too long, and I'm going to check a few blogs, then sign off and do some crafts. I hope everyone has a blessed night.
We've had another smooth day. We did start our lessons a little late. When I got up this morning I realized our internet was out. So I played with that a little longer than I should have. Only to call the tech support to find out they knew all about it and were working on getting it up and running soon. Thankfully by the time I was done with our bible time, it was up and running. Sarah and Paulie both are doing quite well with their lessons. Paulie is reading much better and Sarah's math is going much better. I'm almost thinking of staying with Saxon, now that I've seen an improvement. But I will still probably get Teaching Textbooks for her. I do want her to learn how to read and listen to things on the computer and just listening to others speak to learn. I don't know if she'll be going to college or not, but I do think regardless, she needs to work on her listening skills. I've been having Paul explain things to her and I like her hearing other things. She's getting a little to hooked on how I explain things, and for a while there, was having a hard time learning from anyone else. So I think the Teaching Textbooks will not only help her with her math, but learning skills too. I still haven't found an English program I like. I have found one that sounded interesting. Has anyone heard or used Character Quality Language Arts, CQLA? I read about it in the Old Schoolhouse magazine. They had an interview with her, and I thought it sounded interesting. They have partial curriculum you can download to try, so I'll probably do that. I just thought I would see if anyone else has heard or used it.
I was thinking about getting Paulie a more interactive math program next year, but I can't decide. I don't mind Sarah having it. She's going into 7th grade, and I want her to do more independent learning. I want Paulie to also, but he also needs lots practice with his handwriting. So I don't want to get a program where most of the answers will just be typed into a computer. So I'll probably stick with what I have for him for one more year, and then go from there.
I know it probably seems like I'm a bit wishy washy with my decisions, but it's how I think. I go from 'here' to 'there' and then back to 'here'. Looking, praying, thinking, then I make my decision (of course all of this includes talking with Paul). I didn't start blogging until after I had already bought our curriculum last year, so you were spared my back and forth chatter about it. This year I am including you all in it. So, just to let you know, this won't be the last time I talk about possibly going with this curriculum or that curriculum. Just to give you a warning.
I'm looking outside, and we are getting pounded with snow again. They've been saying for days we were to get snow, but thankfully it kept missing us. Then today, when they said maybe a couple of inches, we've gotten a good 5 or 6 inches already, and it's still snowing. Our neighbor is plowing his driveway, but the snow keeps blowing back on. I've decided that we are either going to have our neighbor or our other friend plow the driveway. It's getting to deep, and the wind is blowing nasty. I don't want the kids out in it as long as it would take for them to do the driveway. So we'll have that done by someone else, then the kids will just do the sidewalks. They are quite excited about not having to do the driveway.
Well, I should be starting dinner instead of sitting here typing on the computer. I hope you all have a great evening.
We had a pretty good day. It was mellow, and not exciting, but nice. Our lessons went smoothly, and we even got some errands done. I wasn't sure if I wanted to head out or not, but they were saying we were in for a big storm. It was suppose to start today at 11:00am. Well it's after 9:00pm and we've barely had a dusting. I don't mind, I think we still have enough snow from before. It would be nice if we got up into the 50's and 60's like our friends in the Midwest states. But alas, we live in the north around the mountains. But I'm thankful that we get a bit warmer here that the town we use to live in. It really isn't all that bad, and the kids really enjoy themselves in it. They were out playing today after our lessons were over. They are both doing better with their lessons. Less complaining and grumbling, and their finished work is better. I am blessed by that. I have been reading some homeschool articles and blogs that are meant to be encouraging, but I feel like we are lacking in so many areas after reading them. I know I need to keep my focus on the Lord and how He is leading us and not compare with other families or what I read. And I need to learn to take what I read, as the Lord leads me, as an encouragement to try new things, if that's what the Lord wants. The funny thing is, right now things are running smoothly with our lessons, so I'm not quite sure why I feel I need to change things. Maybe because I keep reading about how people have changed their homeschooling a bit to keep it exciting. I don't always think of doing that. I guess because life itself isn't always exciting. I mean, we have to do things even when it's not exciting, and lots of times we can't make it exciting. All we can do is work on our attitudes while we are doing the work. I do pray that in some ways I am teaching my kids that. That even though it's not always fun and exciting and what we want to do, if its something we have to do, we can do it for the Lord.
Well, that was a bit of rambling I wasn't planning on. I do have a quick prayer request. Paul hurt is back shoveling snow on Christmas Eve. Nothing too bad, but enough to be a nagging pain that just didn't want to go away. Then every time it was just getting better, he would have to shovel again. Let me explain just a bit what happened. On Christmas Eve he was helping the kids shovel snow here at home. It was deep and a heavy snow. That's when he pulled it. But at work, they have given him some extra work so he could make some extra money. But the extra work is shoveling snow. So every time his back started feeling better he would have to go to work and shovel again, and hurt it again (our kids and friends take care of our house). But he really didn't want to give up the extra work and extra pay, but thankfully today he told them he couldn't do the extra work for at least a week or more. It doesn't effect his normal job, and he can do his work just fine, it was the extra work he was having trouble with. So I'm thankful that he is taking a break from the extra work, and giving his back time to heal. But I do ask for prayers, first and foremost for his back to heal. But also that he would be encouraged through this time as he is really bummed he can't do the extra work. It's his need to provide and take care of his family. He knows the extra money is needed and hates to give it up, but he needed to, for now anyway. The Lord is constantly watching over us, and with the OT this week, it will help a lot. Plus, he will start up again, as soon as his back feels better. Thanks for the prayers.
Well, we were back into school full force today. It went good. A little grumbling, but then again, there is that every day. I changed around the schedule a bit, and I think it's going to work good. I have intensified my time with Paulie and his reading. He is doing so much better, but is still so far behind. So that is a main focus of mine for the rest of this school year. I think that there is a bit of him who likes having things read to him, so he's gotten a little lazy, which is our fault. Isn't it just so much easier sometimes to read things for the kids? Well, for me it is. I get distracted or whatever, and it's easier just to read it for him, but of course that doesn't teach him anything. So we have stopped that, and we are doing more intensive work with his reading. I am praying and believing that he'll be doing great by June. Other than that, not much of the schedule changed.
We did get our electronic keyboards in the house now. They were stored out in the very cold, unheated, uninsulated garage. But thankfully, there was no damage done. Sarah played it very nicely today. Well, I only heard a little bit, since she put the headphones on because I was in the next room trying to teach Paulie his math lesson. But she was on there playing away for a bit, when I walked out and realized I never got the books out of the boxes in the garage! The poor girl had nothing to play, and was just playing what she remembered. But she did well. And, no, I still haven't gotten the books out of the garage, I'll get them tomorrow.
I'm also having fun starting to go through our curriculum and deciding what to buy for our next school year. Yes, I buy things at the beginning of the year. That's when we usually have the money for it. And I have learned, if I don't buy a good portion of curriculum they need when I have the money, I tend to find bills or something that need to be paid, and use the curriculum money. So now I start my lists at the beginning of the year, and since I don't go to homeschool conventions (I've just never been interested in them), I start buying right away. The only difference is last year I waited until August to buy our math curriculum. Now, I have gone back and forth on this so much, you're probably getting tired of reading it. But I think we have made a decision on Sarah's math. I have been vacillating between Saxon math, which she uses now, and switching to Teaching Textbooks. She is a auditory learning, and truly needs to hear things spoken out to really understand them. And yet, I want her to grow in her independent learning. Saxon has been o.k. for us, but she has struggled quite a bit. I was thinking of getting the D.I.V.E. CD's that go with Saxon, but I don't really have the money for it right now, especially with this school year coming to an end in a few months. And since I'm starting to look at curriculum for next year, I'm thinking of switching to Teaching Textbooks. The only thing that has held me back is the price. I'm just not sure if Paulie will use it when he gets to that stage, though I think he will, and as she gets higher up in grade, it gets more expensive. And with her starting 7th grade work next fall, I want to find a math program that works for her and stick with it since high school transcripts are right around the corner. So if we start this, and like it (which I think we will), I don't want to have to stop it because we can't afford it the next year. So I talked with Paul about it tonight, and he said to get the Teaching Textbooks. He likes what I've told him (and we will watch the demo together later), and he said that if they work for her, we will make sure we can afford them every year. This year, affording it, I don't think will be a problem. We are pretty set with Paulie's things, we only need to get math for him. And all Sarah needs is math and an English program, so I think I'm set on which math I'll get, we'll see. But now I'm on the search for a good English program. OK, I know they call it Language Arts now, but when I went to school it was called English. And that's what I want, a simple English program. We tried Abeka's Language C this year, it's o.k., but I should have known better. We tried Abkea before, and it truly isn't a good fit with our family. But I liked the fact that it was one book, that didn't have lot's of 'extra' stuff, it just taught the facts. But the pace and the way it was taught, isn't a good fit for us. So now that's my next search. Please let me know if you have any ideas for a good English program for a 6th/7th grader.
It feels good to get back in the swing of school. I do wish the kids looked forward to their lessons a bit more, but alas, it's just not going to happen right now. At least the complaining about it is going away, so that's good. But like most kids, they would rather play with their toys, then have to stop what they are doing and do lessons.
I am having trouble with my email today. Everyone else's in the family works fine, except for mine. So just know if you've sent me an email today, and I haven't responded, that's because I haven't gotten it yet. Hopefully it will be fixed soon.
First, I want to thank every who left me such sweet comments on my last, long rambling post. It was very encouraging to me to hear how the Lord used what I've been dealing with to encourage others. Again, thank you for your kind words.
We started school today. We only did 1/2 our lessons, keeping it light. Mainly reading and worksheets, the kids enjoyed that. Not learning anything 'new', just refreshing from being off for two weeks. There was some grumbling, but not much, and we got past that quickly. They did well, and finished quite early. I could have had them do more, but decided against it. I was quite tired today myself, so we all just had a light day. They helped with laundry and helped me re-arrange some things in the kitchen, so that was good too. I have some pictures I'll show too.
I do have a couple of curriculum type questions. Plainjane had talked about what art and music they do. And that went right along with a blog entry jenn4Him did, in where she talked about bringing her electronic keyboards inside. As I was commenting on Jenn's that I didn't know where we could put ours, but I'll pray about it. The Lord showed me exactly where we could put it. So our keyboards are inside too. But my question is I'm trying to find an easy book or cd/dvd that Sarah could learn keyboards on her own. She took lessons a couple of years about for about 6 months, so she has the basics. And I think we found a teacher out here, but right now we want her to practice and learn things on her own. So I'm looking for some good teaching tools for that. Not real expensive though. The other question I have is regarding Saxon math, specifically. We are using Saxon math, and I do like it. Sarah is an auditory learner, and does better hearing lessons read to her than just reading them on her own. So I'm thinking of getting her the CD's that go along with Saxon math. Has anyone ever used them, if you have what did you think of them and do you know where I can get them used and cheap? I know it would be even cheaper with me reading them to her, but that's not an option right now, for lots of reasons I don't feel like going into right now. I have thought of teaching textbooks, but I just can't get past the price of them. I'm not sure Paulie would use them when he gets to that point, so I just can't justify the expense. And I do like Saxon and how it teaches, I just would like to try the audio CD and see how that works. Thanks.
OK, now some pictures of what we did in the kitchen today. Mary, aka Canadagirl and I were chatting once about how hard it is for me to get back into the swing of cooking and just being in the kitchen again. When we were talking, I told her I have lots of kitchen gadgets, but I had them stored in the garage, because I didn't really have room for them in the kitchen. But with me having a hard enough time trying to get back into the kitchen again, having all my gadgets in the garage just gave me one more reason to not use them. So I took her advice, and I re-arranged the kitchen, just small things, and brought them in. Here are the before and after pictures of the kitchen. Thanks for the encouragement Mary.
This is the tall kitchen cart that had all my cookbooks on it, and now has my crockpot and mixer.
This is the microwave cart that had teas on top, and crockpot and plastic ware, now it holds my cookbooks, and the plastic ware is on top with just a few teas.
This is a cabinet on our wall that really was just a catch all. I put the extra teas I have on top.
This is the area above our kitchen cabinets. I had just some knick knack type of things up there, now I have more of my small kitchen appliances up there.
So that's it. That was our day. I hope to get back into school full swing tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.
This blog is so I can share my journey with the Lord, my journey as a wife and mother, and my journey as a homeschool mom. I pray that you will see the Lord in my life through happy and sad times, and that this blog glorifies the Lord.
This is an award and tag free zone, thank you.
I use to always read blogs where moms are saying, "My kids were asking to do their school work, so I let them start early." 
What?!? Asking to do their work. Not my kids, and I never imagined they would ever ask for their work. Hmmmm
I'm still in shock, and I think she is too. She is so enjoying it and is learning things too. I pray that this attitude continues and rubs off on her brother. 
. But they went up and I got some good pictures. Of course now Sarah has to keep walking around saying she's in Junior High since she's starting 7th grade. Junior high, ugh. 
Then the kids swam for the last hour or so. They had so much fun, and I'm surprised all of us parents aren't deaf. It was too cold outside to use the outdoor pool, so all the kids swam in the indoor pools. Lets just say it was hard to carry on conversations with other moms. 
I guess our week of 80's about a month ago was our summer.
That will be a hard thing to do, but truly, I can't keep every piece of work they do. It's getting out of hand, and I'm running out of space. And when I think about it, I don't have any class work from when I was younger, and I'm ok with that. Truly, I wouldn't want to carry all that around anyway. Now I'm just trying to decide what I want to do with all the papers I've saved through the years. I might just get rid of them all and start with this year keeping these kinds of thing. I know that might be shocking to some, but I truly can be such a pack rat, and I'm trying to learn to get rid of things. So those are my thoughts right now. I'll let you know what actually gets done.
So I hope everyone has a great night, and maybe I'll try to put an entry out tomorrow afternoon, since we are going to try to go to church tomorrow night. We'll see if I get it done. 
