I'm back at blogging! Been gone for awhile. Hopefully, I will get a chance to meet others sharing a similar journey. I've been homeschooling for about 4 years now and have 5 daughters...13, 11, 8, 4 and 17 months. We live in central Indiana and I'm a (hopefully) reformed curriculum junkie. (No, seriously!) http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Wed, 6 Feb 2008 18:56:00 -0600 Wed, 6 Feb 2008 18:56:00 -0600 I walked by my dresser this morning and tried to set down my coffee cup.  I couldn't.  There was too much junk.  It was all really random stuff, too.  I had crumpled paper from a dry cleaned shirt, a book, some of my husband's business cards, a lint brush, gum, and various other meaningless items.  So I walked over to the bookshelf looking for some free space.  There was none to be found there either.  I'm such a clutter bug! I began thinking about how whenever I see something cute at an art fair (or Target ) that I want to buy, I always tell myself I don't have room for it.  At my parents' house, the Madame Alexander doll collection my grandmother left me sits, unenjoyed by me, because I have yet to figure out where I'd put it.  If I could just get off my fanny and de-junk the house, I'd actually have room for all the things I'd really like to have around me.  I don't quite recall the exact moment I decided to decorate my house with lint brushes, business cards and gum.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't a conscious decision on my part.  But it's there nonetheless and has to be dealt with. I finally realized the same is true of my homeschool.  I have unconsiously filled my homeschool with so much junk, that I don't have time for the things I'd love to be doing with my children.  That art appreciation lapbook...nope, no time.  The Leonardo DaVinci unit study....please, where would I fit that in?  The Corps of Discovery activities to go along with our Lewis and Clark study....I'm lucky to find time to actually teach my kids about the Louisiana Purchase!  Dictation and narration....yeah, I want to use those but we never have time after the kids have finished their Language Arts workbook pages. So I've decided to "de-junk" my homeschool.  Some of the junk going I'm glad to see go.  The dry workbooks and textbooks are gone in favor of whole, living books and dictation and copywork.  The worksheets are to be replaced with notebooking and lapbooking.  These are the easy things to toss.  But what about the junk that's hard to let go?  There's junk in my house that I'll have a hard time parting with out of  guilt (that resin trout figurine my neice gave me 12 years ago).  And there's junk that's hard to part with because I'm just SURE I'll use it someday (the electric ice cream maker, my skinny jeans).  It's the same with my homeschool.  How can I part with curriculum that I paid $___ for!  I just have to use it!  And I can't get rid of the science textbook I bought when I thought I was going to have the kids take a science class at co-op.  And maybe I should keep the spelling and vocab books just in case.  We might use them someday. The hardest one of all to let go, however, is going to be our Tuesday co-op.  I guess I can file that one under the "guilt" column.  Guilt because the kids love going, and also because I love the lady who runs it.  BUT.....I do not answer to this lady or even my children for my homeschool.  I answer to God.  And He's been telling me to de-junk our schedule lately.  Not only are my kids gone for basically an entire day to attend classes, but the work they are required to do at home is pushing out the stuff I'd actually like to be accomplishing with my girls.  So just like I have to de-junk my shelves to be able to display all the lovely things in my house I'd like to, I guess I'm going to have to make some tough choices about what to toss in my homeschool.  As hard as it will be, I'm looking forward to doing all the lovely things in my homeschool I've dreamed of doing all this time. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/475996/ Wed, 6 Feb 2008 18:56:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/475996/ Do any of you have comments on homeschooling you get that absolutely make you CRINGE?!?!  I sure do.  Had one just the other day from a mom of one of my daughter's friends.  So I thought I'd share a few.  Feel free to post some of your favorites as well.  1. "Wow, that's great that you homeschool.  I could never do that." Ok, here's why I hate this comment.  I'm left with two possible answers to this.  I either say, "Oh sure you could," which inevitably sounds like I'm trying to recruit her into homeschooling and making her feel bad for not doing so.  Or I could answer, "Yeah, you're right.  You couldn't."  Guess which one I feel like saying most often. 2. "I can see why some people want to homeschool.  But I'm so glad we don't need to because most of the teachers in our school are Christians and the schools don't teach anything 'objectionable'."  Where do I start???  Well, I'm glad the teachers are saved, but too bad they can't even mention their faith in a public school.  And I find it pretty "objectionable" that I was told by my oldest daughter's 1st grade teacher that she was probably ADD and wouldn't go to college (yes, that was 1st grade).  I also want to ask those moms how they know there is nothing objectionable being taught?  Are they there?  Hmmmmm....Hang out at the playground some afternoon and still be able to say that! 3. "You have 5 kids and you homeschool?  How do you get it all done?" Are you kidding me?  Have you seen my house?  Did you notice last month's Chicken McNuggets falling out of the mini van into the parking lot?  How about my 4yo wearing shorts in the middle of January because we didn't get laundry done.  Don't even get me started on the home equity loan I need to take out because of my overdue library fines! 4. "How do you know you're teaching them enough?"  Well, thanks for feeding my insecurities.  I didn't get asked to junior prom, can we talk about that instead? 5. "I couldn't be around my kids for that long."  Just makes me sad. 6. "What about socialization?"  Need I say anything? 7. "I'd love to homeschool, but there is no way my child would listen to me."  Hmmm, isn't that the best argument as to why you should homeschool? I'm sure I could think of more.  But that's it for now.  I'd love to hear about some of your fave's! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/474392/ Mon, 4 Feb 2008 15:12:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/474392/ After a very long hiatus (even longer that LOST's!), I am back to blogging. I am hoping I'm able to stick with it better this time around.  I think the big problem was I hadn't made blogging a habit.  Also, it seemed the site was really s l o w every time I tried to do an entry.  The last time I attempted to do an entry, I think I lost it about 3 times before I gave up. So now it's been a loooong time since I've written anything.  I'm out of practice.  I guess I'll just share what's on my mind. I've been re-re-rethinking my homeschooling methods.  This is our 4th year homeschooling and I've gone from Sonlight to Alpha Omega Lifepacs, to everything in between.  Over the years, I've really been drawn to the Charlotte Mason approach.  However, when I've tried to implement her techniques (copywork, dictation, narration), I give up pretty quickly.  I think my biggest fear is that they will miss something.  Or maybe, it's not hard enough, so I must be doing it wrong.  Well, God's just really been putting it on my heart to keep moving in this direction.  So starting tomorrow morning, I'm revamping. Of course, as soon as I decide to do a huge overhaul, my oldest develops a 103 degree fever.  I'm thinking the big overhaul will be slower in coming than I originally anticipated. Something that really struck me, as I was listening to a CM seminar by Cindy Rushton on my trusty, dusty iPod, was that I had so many materials and ideas that I hadn't used because I "never had the time."  I sat down today and made a list of all the books and materials and activities I most wanted to do.  Out of everything on my list, I'm actually doing only ONE thing.  And that's math!  Yikes!  What am I about anyway??? So tomorrow is a new day (I actually hate that cliche) and I'm starting fresh.  My only goal is for the girls to get Bible, Math and read aloud done.  I'm going to start reading "Little Women".  It's been sitting on my shelf for a year now. I'd love to hear from any of you out there using CM methods.  I'm curious how you make it work in your school day.  Bye for now (and I promise it won't be for another 10 months!). http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/473925/ Sun, 3 Feb 2008 21:26:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/473925/ So I'm going to try and do this new-fangled "linking" thing .  (Thanks JoAnn!) I am nominating the following blogs for the Thinking Blogger Award: jenn4him, picketfencemom, CountryMomof4 and homeschoolhighlites! Congratulations, you won a !    The Thinking Blog Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging. The participation rules are simple: 1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think, 2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme, 3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/316525/ Wed, 18 Apr 2007 21:04:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/316525/ First, I'd like  to thank Vicki (MOMflippedisWOW) for my Thinking Blogger Award.  I feel so special! Second, I'd like to make a confession.  I have no idea how to put links into my posts.  I've gotten as far as cutting and pasting into my template, but that was pretty much trial and error. So, if anyone would like to give me instructions on how to insert a link into my post, I would greatly appreciate it!  Because I'd really like to continue the award! Goodness, I can't believe I'm so technologically ignorant!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/315968/ Tue, 17 Apr 2007 20:29:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/315968/ It is actually snowing here in Indiana today.  How very hard it is to get into a Springy mood when there is snow on my back porch! So here's  fun activity if you get really bored:  Go to www.google.com and click on maps. Click on "Get Directions". In the first box type "New York" and in the second box type "London" and hit enter. Scroll down to #23.  It's good for a laugh! Also, look at the estimated time, pretty funny! On another note, today we had an adventure in Floam.  We're trying to make it homemade from a recipe I found online.   So far....not a huge success.  And the main ingredient, polystyrene microbeads, are all over my house.  These things are alive I think.  I'm pretty sure I saw them roll out of my kitchen, thru the living room and into the bathroom.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/314542/ Sat, 14 Apr 2007 18:49:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/314542/ Wierd title?  It's a line from my 7yo's story she's writing.  It's about an African girl named Judy.  She's supposed to take care of a buffalo for a couple days and then her family is planning on having it for dinner.  I was sitting listening to her tell the story.  It's supposed to be a story about not "doing your responsibility."  In the first part of the story, Judy is taking care of the buffalo, playing with it, feeding it, washing it, brushing its fur and putting it down for a nap.  Then the day they are supposed to eat the buffalo, she's out in a field with it.  So you see, I of course had in mind that Judy now cares so much for the buffalo that she doesn't want her family to eat it.  So she lets it escape or something and that's her "not doing her responsibility" moment.  This is what I have going thru my head when my darling daughter says "So Judy was playing with her buffalo in the field.  She got really hungry so she killed the buffalo and ate half of it."  LOL!  I laughed out loud!  Can you just imagine Fern out at the barn getting hungry and killing Wilbur and makin' some bacon?  In the end, Judy has to go to her family (who is sitting around a fire looking foward to having their "yummy, cooked-up, fried, killed buffalo) and explain she ate their food and now there isn't enough for everyone.  Oh my goodness.   The really funny thing is that my 3yo was sitting on the couch with us listening to the story.  She was so enthralled!  She kept asking questions and trying to figure out what was happening and why.  It was so cute!  I'll let everyone know when it hits the publisher's!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/313133/ Wed, 11 Apr 2007 22:40:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/313133/ So is was "the first week of the rest of our homeschooling lives."    Overall things are going much more smoothly than I thought. The no TV is working out great!  I can't believe how much calmer the house is.  My dh just commented how nice it is just to have quiet in the evenings.  The girls haven't minded much.  I think they are realizing how much more there is to do. The funniest thing happened this morning.  Part of our "no distractions" week is not playing on the Webkinz website.  Have you seen these things?  They are like the new beanie babies.  They are almost impossible to find over here.  We lucked into buying them, not realizing that people were going crazy for them.  They are little stuffed animals that come with a code that you use to adopt them on their website.  Then once you are on their site, you build them "rooms" and buy them stuff with "Kinzcash" that you earn by playing little games.  They also have quizzes that are actually pretty good!  They ask all sorts of math, history and geography questions.  Anyway, my kids looooove this site!  But we cut it out this week to regroup.  Well, my 3yo has a webkinz that we haven't registered yet.  It's a little puppy she named "Scruffy".  This morning I had a conversation with her that went like this: 3yo: Mom, can I go on Webkinz dot com? Me: No honey, we're not doing Webkinz this week. 3yo: Please, I have to feed Scruffy, he's hungry. Me: No, he'll be fine.  You can feed him next week. 3yo: But Mommy, Scruffy is dery, dery hungry! (dery = very) Me: No honey, wait until next week. 3yo: (Loong pause, look of unbelief on face) Mom, you are freaking me out. LOL!  I'm still laughing!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/312458/ Tue, 10 Apr 2007 21:41:01 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/312458/ This day is definately not going to be remembered as one of our best days ever.  First of all, we've been dealing with tummy troubles.  I thought we were pretty much over everything on Saturday but then dh started feeling badly again.  We decided to cancel our Easter dinner.  Luckily, my bil and sil offered to have the family up to their house.  Pretty nice for it being last minute and all.   So at least we didn't leave our families "dinnerless" on Easter.  We figured we'd just take the day easy and make sure everyone was on the mend. Then after everyone enjoyed their baskets this morning, the baby threw up all over the place again!  She had been ok for almost 24 hours.  And then dh said he kept feeling worse and worse.  And then my 12yo started up with the nausea again!  We ended up skipping church this morning :(.  There were just too many of us feeling sick.  So we watched an Easter dvd about the resurrection from the eyes of a Roman soldier stationed to watch over Jesus' tomb.  I think it was based on a Max Lucado short story. We decided we were still going to attempt dinner for just us.  I had ham to fix (which I do pretty well if I do say so myself....I have a fake HoneyBaked Ham recipe that tastes just like the real thing).  Also, my dd had made blondies for dessert on Saturday so we had that covered.  I had fresh green beans and also was planning on making sweet potato with a streusel topping (yum).  Well....things sort of went downhill quickly. I was not very patient, first of all, with anyone today.  We are entering day 6 of sickies that mommy  has had to stay up with every night, so I'm a bit sleep deprived.  Starbuck's can only do so much :).  So I was just kind of cranky all morning, especially once I realized we were starting a second round of sickness.  I had to go to Meijer to pick up some more Gatorade for dh and a few other things, and I told the kids to dry the dishes I had just washed, put dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and start preparing the beans (snapping the ends off and tossing the yucky ones and place in the colander).  I was gone about 50 minutes.  When I returned home, I found my darling children in front of the TV, my clean dishes still sitting by the sink and dirty dishes still on the counter and the beans still in their bag.  When I walked in they jumped up and said "Oh, we didn't know you'd be home so soon!"  Uh huh. So lots of hollering ensued from my part.  That was just sort of my breaking point.  I had no idea how I was going to get dinner done, my house was still a mess and I felt like I  had made zero progress on the whole day.  After everything calmed down, we ended up having a really good talk.  I've decided that this week, we are doing no TV.  This isn't as a punishment.  We all need to realign our priorities I think.  With the new baby, I've been very inconsistent with discipline.  If I'm in a good mood, or if I can't be bothered, I let things go.  Then on other days, the same behavior will cause me to flip my lid.  The kids are confused and I'm a basket case.  So after having a quiet time today (in my car.....at Meijer...no kidding!) I decided that this week, I'm going to not focus on academics, but on building character.  Not that we're not doing school, it's just that I'm going to be willing to put down the books and deal with attitude if need be.  Even if that means we hardly cover academics because of it. I have those charts from Doorposts....the "Go to the Ant" and "Blessings" ones.  I bought them at our convention a couple years ago.  They are still in their plastic.  Hmmm....wonder why I  am having problems?  My goal tonight is to go over them and come up with set consequences for behaviors and then implement them this week.  Let me just say....I have terrific daughters.  They have really great hearts and are for the most part really well behaved.  I think our problem is that they are not making wise choices with their time and efforts unless I'm on top of them.  They haven't developed that discipline.  And I haven't really helped.  I need to help them develop that because it's a killer not to have it when you are an adult.  I should know, I struggle with it so much!  I shared with my girls that when I was a teenager, I would spend up to 4 hours a day on the phone just chatting with friends.  My mom never really said much to me about it because in her mind I was a good kid and I made good grades.  So I guess she never really felt like she had an excuse to limit my phone time.  The problem is, the consequence of me being on the phone all the time wasn't the grades, it was the habit of wasting time.  I had a hard time being productive.  I was (am) easily distracted from tasks at hand.  I also developed a "taste" for being entertained.  This is what my mom didn't have the foresight to understand.  She figured that since I made good grades, talking on the phone couldn't be that destructive.  But it was. I think they really understood what I was talking about (at least the 12 and 10yos).  If anyone thinks of it, please pray for me this week.  We just really need to turn things around before it's too late.  I think all of this is still redeemable.  I just pray I can stick to it!  Oh, I also promised the girls that I was going to cut out my tv this week too.  I pray for the strength of character to keep that promise.  It could be really hard when they are asleep and no one is watching.....:) Happy Easter to everyone!  I think we're going to do a "do over" Easter next weekend.  The dinner at least.  No extra baskets! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/311293/ Sun, 8 Apr 2007 20:14:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/311293/ I guess we won't be having our big Easter dinner over here after all.  I talked to my sil today and concensus is no one wants to risk getting others (especially the cousins) sick.  I'm just not sure we're decontaminated over here.  I think my parents might still be coming over, but I'm not sure. So now I'm sitting here with 2 spiral hams.  Goodness.  We're not even huge ham fans.  I suppose I'll see if I can freeze one.  Not sure if that will turn out well or not.  It will probably turn into one of those things I find in freezer next year trying to figure out what it is and why I bought it. The baby made it through the night without throwing up.  She's having "diaper" issues today though.  She's having a hard time napping.  Her tummy pains keep waking her up and so far I've changed 4 dirty diapers (this from a baby who usually only has 1 in a whole day!). As of right now, my 3yo and I still having succumbed to the illness.  I am feeling a bit queasy but I think it's a mind game at this point.  I figure if coffee still sounds good to me, I can't be doing too bad. I took the 12, 10, 7 and 3yos to an egg hunt in Westfield today.  We had registered for it a month ago.  It was soooooo cold!  I'm so glad dh stayed home with the baby.  I saw people there with little babies and they were so miserable!  The wind was about 20 mph and it felt like it was around 5 degrees.  I got my 3yo and 7yo pictured with the Easter Bunny .  My oldest 2 wouldn't even stand in line with us.  Too embarassing! I'm hoping we're all well enough to go to church together tomorrow. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/310756/ Sat, 7 Apr 2007 11:14:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DelphFamily/310756/