Titus Academy & Wiggins Family of Youngsville,NC - Homeschool Blogger

Exciting Endeavor- HomeschoolLikeUS Website Membership and Business Advertising

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:48:00 -0600

I am so excited about things that are falling into place lately. The newest thing to come my way is this opportunity to help promote HomeschoolslikeUS website and advertising opportunites for local businesses to market to homeschoolers.

This nextwork has been very exciting to connect with other homeschoolers, it gives you a web page where you can put photos, a blog, files, ect.. Some of the families have really great pages that are very full of information. My is kind of bare, but is under development.

Check out the site at this link: http://www.homeschoolslikeus.com/home.php

If you have a business and would like to advertise on the site, contact me by email or comment here for more information.

First Report Card!!! Almost Made Honor Roll

Thu, 6 Nov 2008 18:06:00 -0600

Today we received our First, Franklin County Report Card and it was good!.

Linguistic 88 = B

Art 100= A

Lang Arts. 80=C

Math 87=B

Science 93=A

Soc. Stud. 83=C

He has perfect attendance! 0 days missed, and no tardies. When we have to get up, dressed, breakfast and out the door and drive to school. Yet when we homeschooled he missed 2 days and had several tardies. What is up with that ????? oh, well. Success is sweet.

All of his teachers gave good reports, that is his very sweet, hardworking and diligent with his work. He had a little difficulty learning to do all of the assignments on time, as late work is not accepted and any work not turned in complete is given a 0. But, it only took him a few times to see how they affected his grade and he got better about completing his work.

Please, keep us in your prayers for continued success and academic achievement.

Week 3 of our Public School Journey

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 12:04:00 -0500

Well the skies are blue with hope and promise. This past week marks the third week, and we received our first progress reports. And whoa!!!! Charles is doing wonderful, the teachers are estatic, pleasantly surprised and yet we are all breathing a huge sigh of relief that the path has changed and Charles is motivated, well behaved, respectful, diligent and even neat. What???? all of that without a tear, a raised voice, a bribe (well technically they do give the kids tickets for doing things and being helpful, coming to open house, so that counts as a bribe; but we did points and treasure box but did not always succeed) I must admit I was a little jealous but, was really happy that he is enjoying school, doing what is expected and asked of him and is finally achieving success. His reading is not the worst in his class, he has room for improvement but our fears of him being so, so far behind are not founded. I told his teachers, "I am used to being wrong but this is one time I am so thrilled to have been wrong". All of his teachers are Christians and they have been great. He is still going to the Dyslexia/visual therapiest/Reading tutor and although it is not easy driving there and squeezing the money out of the budget it has been worth it to have him reading; it is worth every dime, to watch him do his homework and see him learning and being excited is worth every tear, every meeting and discussion I had. And we all attribute this transformation and the success we have seen and are looking forward to seeing throughout the year to all the prayers and all the obedient decisions we have made through this last year. And many, many of those prayers have been from you all, our friends and family and so this success is yours too.

A few weeks ago, I was asked if I regretted not continuing to Homeschool. I paused trying to make sure I answered in a good tone and in a clear way as not to sound whiny or complainy. I answered "Not really" we were not really enjoying the experience and I do not think, for us it was a good thing anymore. The person was very curious and asked what I meant, I said, God brought us to homeschooling and it was the best thing at the time, but He had been showing us that our path was becoming broken and splintered and that we have a few options but one way we were going to have to remove some obstructions another route we needed to build a bridge over a deep puddle and that left this last path which we prayed over and eventually the other options became less available and everything lead us to, going and getting tested and returning to public school. We have received several "confirmations" have come to reassure us that this is what is best. So I can't really regret following God's leading and allowing Him to take something away, that although it is good and for some it is Great, for us it was not the best thing right now. Next year or the year after, God may bring us back to homeschooling but we will wait and see.

Thank you for your emails and prayers. We will keep you posted on Charles progress and the developments of his art skills which he is loving and you can see a huge difference in him in all areas. He is making friends at school, his artwork is developing, he is finally becoming responsible and he only has to clean his room once a day :) WHOA!!!!

Charles's First Day of Public Middle School

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 07:11:00 -0500

Well it is here, the first day of Middle School year 2008-2009, August 25, 2008!

This morning was a really good morning in the Wiggins home. A miracle occurred, Charles got up on his own alarm clock and began getting dressed without any "encouraging" he continued completing his morning routine and the morning went well!!! YEAH!!!

He was very excited this morning and was very eager to get to school!

see more info and pictures on the facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2002578&l=b0279&id=1428706520

Thank you for all the encouragement, support and prayers this summer.

Success.... Graduation Ceremony went well

Sun, 8 Jun 2008 10:31:00 -0500

Yesterday capped off our Homeschool Journey which has been a very interesting adventure. I am not sure who learned more and who has more change and growth on their evaluation sheets, Charles or myself. This was a "Transition marker" and celebration of this year, which has many bright spots along with the major struggles and emotion turmoil, but through every experience we learned more about God and His wisdom and power, more about our selves, and most important more about the TRUTH-- all of these events were important and the results were going to make a significant impact on our lives (as we know it) but it is just a blip and God is in control of even the blips, Romans 8:28 tells us "And We know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his prupose. So over the last few months I have found comfort in that and have sssslllloooowlllllyyyy began resting and trusting God to lead. Much prayer has been over me and my pulling it together, stiffling the feelings and making this year end positively and making this transition really speak of and give glory to God as that is my purpose, as He has so plainly made it clear to me over the last year. Still have a million questions and wrestle with the what if's and how is this going to work, but He is merciful and patience and gently guides my wayward thoughts and fears and takes me to my green pasture and makes me sit and allow Him to work.

Okay enough about the prep on me, onto the Graduation preparation and ceremony.

I got really motivated and tried to pull the Five years of homeschooling together in a memorable way and tried to really show our philosophy and our faith as the major influence in our lives and homeschool. I also wanted it to be personal and pleasurable for our family and friends and most importantly give God the praise and glory as we tried to do in all our activities and throughout the homeschool experience. I also wanted this to be a memorable keepsake for Charles and I to look back on and really look at how God was with us through this whole experience.

I think in themes and imagery. I went through our pictures and made a slide show (see the post prior to this for the link to the show) and picked three songs that are very much the soundtrack for our experience. I thought about the whole homeschool purpose, for us our Mission statement was Titus 2:1-15 and we talked alot about the "battle" over sin and satan, about being in the word to protect our minds and hearts and about being diligent and consistent in the things that will glorify God, so I made our "theme" the Armor of God. I went through my school files for the five years and pulled together samples of his work and put them together in a binder "scrapbook" divided the years and added a section for the notes and cards from family and friends for the Graduation and Going to public school in August.

Wanting to show there is more than just academics to homeschooling I explained the book and talked a minute about how our main focus in our school was the instruction and direction of Charles heart as it would not matter if he was academically successful but lack the heart for Christ, the world could snatch him away from us and we tried to grow his faith during our academic instruction and stopped and worked on eternal matters sometimes. The public school can give him the academics, but they cannot and do not attempt to give the spiritual instruction and although we are official closing our school and enrolling him in public school the spirtual and character training will continue in our home for his lifetime.

Charles marched in wearing his dad's, college cap and gown. We talked to charles about the work that went into his dad earning the priviledge to graduate with Honors from highschool and later college and because he had not earned that award of diligence yet, we turned the stoll around to cover the words honor but encouraged him to work hard and when he graduates from Highschool he may earn that priviledge and we would be very honored to let him wear his dad's stoll for graduation. He seemed to be very motivated and actuall appreciated the cap and gown and got dressed very respectfully.

Charles gave a short speech he wrote himself about homeschool: "Homeschool was fun we did alot of stuff together like co-op, reading and typing. My mom is very nervous and scared but it will be fine. We went to museums and Blue Jay Point Park. I loved home school so much I don't want to leave but it will be very fun to go to public school. The school system would only give me 45 minutes a month of reading help but we chose to put me back in public school for now. I will get more time. We were going to go from genesis to revelations but we did not have enough time to do it we were too busy with school we could not do it all in 5 years." ( I was so proud of him, he worked really hard on this all by himself as my gift. I did not think he really understood what I was telling him when we discussed it, but he got every word, and he did care.)

Wanting this to be fun for Charles and something unexpected I really tried to get creative and a bit silly (which is very hard for me, but with prayer and a little diligence) I came up with a Knighting ceremony using the Armor of God playset and I even wore a crown and officiated the ceremony as The Queen of Titus Academy. As I read Ephesians 6:13-23 I had Charles put on the piece of Armor mentioned by the end of the reading he was fully dressed, he bowed before me and I took the sword of the spirit in my left hand, holding the bible in my right, I touched him with it, declaring him "knighted" I charged him with the respect of this responsibility and told him 'When you do your devotions in the morning you are essential "suiting up your heart" and this is very important for you to be able to carry out your tasks as an honorable knight and ambassador and then we had a chuckle at how silly he looked in the plastic playset designed for toddlers, (he is 12 with very long arms and a big head which the helmet barely capped.

We presented Charles a teddy bear dressed in the armor with a booklet outlining the verses and practical ways to "suit up" and a declaration of his knighting and proclamation that he is now known in our land as Sir Charles Wiggins the honorable knight and ambassador for Christ. Our gift to him was a leather wallet with a cross carver into it, a shield key chain with the verse on the back, a watch, and a ribbon that said "Very Special Son".

Our families were here and our closest friends, some of which changed prior plans to join us for this special day for Charles. We truly appreciate everyone who attended and those who sent notes of encouragement and blessings that were unable to attend the ceremony and party. Everyone invited was involved in some way with our school over the 5 years. We ended the ceremony and cooked out and fellowshipped with each other and Sir Charles, it was a great day.. and all the praise and glory goes to God, the main attendee that really made this experience and He will be with Charles "in the land to the East, Cedar Creek Middle School.

Now we begin the new adventure, but one thing will remain constant.. our dependence on God to guide us and teach us the way to go.

Thank you for all your prayers and encouraging words.

Queen Dot

The Big Day is tomorrow, Graduation from Elementary School

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 19:15:00 -0500

Well it is finally here. Graduation day, I really tried to focus and make this time a very positive and memorable time for Charles. He is so excited and looking forward to going to public school and getting the help with his reading so that he can achieve academic success and not have to struggle so much. It is going to be very different but we are approaching it like a new adventure and with the mind set that this is temporary and that he is going to public school for the academic stuff but we will still have the primary influence and control in his life and we will continue to teach him the spiritual and morality and we will do our bible study and nature study on the weekends. A transition of venue but not a complete break of our relationship.

We are really focusing on the preparation and emphasis on him "suiting up" so I made the theme of tomorrows ceremony the Armor of God. His "diploma" is a decree from the Queen and King of Titus Academy that Charles is to now be known as Sir Charles L. Wiggins. We got a suit of armor and will use it in the ceremony to knight him. We got him gifts that emphasis the protection and encourage him to pray when he is feeling frustrated or overwhelmed.

I make slideshow DVD's for special occassions so I made one of our Homeschool journey and included a sound track of 3 of my favorite songs that really speak to my heart about our journey.

Here is a link to it: http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewshow.html?fl=2983954&alb=0

Check back for a report on the graduation and to see the pictures and video.

Thank you for your prayers, emails and calls. It is finalized

Thu, 15 May 2008 20:32:00 -0500

Today I met with the IEP Team and received the determination of the team. It went well we were able to work together, use all the documentation I had in my yearly files and notes from consultants to devise a plan to help Charles transition into public school and middle school in August. He is excited to be able to get more help with his reading and writing. After talking with the team and hearing the plan and services they will provide him in school I am feeling more confident that we can overcome these problems. Charles should be able to get up to grade level in his reading and writing and achieving academic success with some hardwork and the available resources. We are working to make his transition as smooth as possible and make this a positive experience and embracing the teaching moments of maintaining faith and diligence even when things are difficult or scarry and the importance of teamwork.

We are planning our Homeschool graduation for June 7, 2008. I will post more information about it a little later. Post a message and I will print it out and included it in Charles Scrapbook that we are making him.

We will continue our blog and chronicle his adventures in Middleschool. He is going to help write some posts, they will be much shorter and much more entertaining :)

Please keep us in your prayers.

Prayer Needed we are about to change tracks

Fri, 9 May 2008 12:53:00 -0500

Well, Life is certainly never short of curves and steep hills. We have just rounded a long and windy curve that has made an abrupt climb up a very steep and rocky hill. But we do trust that God is still leading this adventure and is going before us, (as I was reminded by my favorite devotional blog byhisgrace.blogspot.com) and we are suiting up with our full armor of God to fight the good fight.

We finalize things Thursday May 15, to enroll Charles in Middleschool next year with an IEP to get him the specialized teaching and assistance he needs. I have strong emotions and feelings, thoughts and boxes of research to argue til the cows come home that this is a bad idea, I see no signs of this being a good thing, without guarentees that all this talk (and paperwork) is going to materialize into diligent, caring action. But faith is believing in what we do not see, and grace is not holding the past against someone (or system) no matter how soon the past was and that they are currently doing things contrary to what they are saying, but God is in control of it and He will work all to the good of those who love Him, and My Husband, Charles and I do, that is the grace in this whole "experience" I guess. I will be working as an advocate to change this process and laws that have lead to this decision but, for now I must humble my pride that I know best and trust God to handle this new adventure and guide us in the way would should go.

I do not handle change, deceitfulness and double talk well and that is the majority of this whole process. Legal and political jargon, "interpretations and translations" and processes and procedures that are so misguided and impersonal that it is just sad. But, I am not going to allow my well documented and well informed opinions cost my son. I have learned alot in the last 5 years and I will play by the rules and I will find a "legal and logical" way to get my son the help he needs and make all this heartache mean something and my goal is to save one person from this crazy process. But, I am not going to let this whole experience go, it is part of a bigger experience God has for us and it too will be used for good, maybe not right now but someday this will all be a positive thing.

We have the next 2 months or so to prepare, review and seal any doubt in Charles faith and in our family values. He is a bright boy and He will be well covered with prayer so I am going to trust and work to make sure this becomes a positive and benefical change. We will just do our teaching at the dinner table and on weekends.

Your prayers would be greatly appreciated. For our family, as homeschooling is a lifestyle change and it is going to be a big adjustment. For Charles, to make the transition and become diligient and self sufficient, For me to be proactive and not back down, to become peaceful and joyful and patient with this new adventure we are embarking on and remember it is hopefully only for a season.

We toured the Solar System today

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:20:00 -0500

The Sun

The View from Mars

Today we took a "field trip" to a local neighborhood with a long street that was not in traffic and that had a sidewalk to get an idea what 3/4 of a mile looked like (.7 mile) on the odometer in the truck. We also set the trip odometer while we were driving around to get an idea how far a mile was, and what it looked like. We parked the truck at the end of the road, made the mark for the Sun and then paced off to mark the other planets. Our scale had it worked out that Mercury was 11 giant steps (each step should be 3ft (1 M) long. When we read the instructions we only paced off 3 ft, but did not see that until we had gotten tired at Neptune and was going to calculate the next two planets positions by doing the math and driving the distance in the truck. So we are going to do our math and redo this exercise, but Charles got an idea of the distance and was able to see that the solar system is a big place, more so than the pictures in books are able to show. He also made the connection that God is omnipresent and omniscient and in control of EVERYTHING IN THE Universe and that He is dependent on God, and should consult God about everything since God knows all and can see all, but we are limited in knowing many things and full understanding things like all the galaxies in the universe and if we have even discovered all the planets in our solar system.

The rest of the model is as follows:

10 giant steps for Venus

9 giant steps for Earth

15 giant steps for Mars

110 giant steps for Jupiter

131 giant steps for Saturn

291 giant steps for Uranus

This is where Charles got tired and we were going to calculate the distance to the next two planets and caught our mistake. Try to do the math and see what you come up with. how many steps = .1 mile?

328 giant steps for Neptune

282 giant steps for Pluto (which Charles, reminded me is no longer considered a planet)

You are now at the edge of the solar system standing beside the farthest known planet from the Sun. You have walked nearly 3,750 million miles (6 billion kilometers). This is just a model that's on the scale of 1 to 5 for every distance of 1 (ft) you measure on your walk, would measure 5 billion in space!.

Tomorrow we are going to try to figure out the math and adjust the scale to fit it in our neighborhood.

(This was taken from the Genesis For Kids Science experiments that show God's power in Creation!)

Plants of the Bible Study

Mon, 7 Apr 2008 10:40:00 -0500

We are going throught the Bible and learning and finding "proof" the Bible is right, and that the timeline is right and that evolution information does not make sense. We are learning about the sources of alot of confusion about the Bible comes from problems with the translation from the different languages and even within the local uses of words. Also, we do not have the knowledge about our world like they had back in Bible times. We are learning about the Animal Kingdom classification system that was developed by Linneaus and relating it back to the week of Creation, so Charles is crystal clear and really know what the Bible is telling him, and then he will be better able to process the information and understand it and hopefully take it to heart and live by it, be encouraged by it and really see God as the awesome creator, and artist that he is, and better than that, He is his personal savior and friend.

We are digging into this academically, with vocabulary, writing, history, Latin, we are learning about the parts of plants, characteristics, how they get classified, some plant families and we are touring the J. C. Raulston Arborteum in Raleigh regularly to see some of the actual species discussed in the Bible, but some we are seeing "cousins" which helps us learn about the family traits. And we are relating the plants to people, and to the scriptures in which they appear in the bible. The plants we are using in our study as just of few of the "major" ones with alot of symbolism and use today. Many are herbs that we use as "spices" and do not even think about, like garlic, onion, cilantro, coriander, cumin, and endives but these were very important in the Children of Israels lives and are symbolic not to mention very much a part of our lives today.

The list of plants and a summary of information, containing the common names, binomial (Genus, species) {Latin name if applicable} description of the plant, flower and fruit, web resources used to get the information, georgpahical origin/sources, historical significance, biblical references and significance is on my webpage, Titled Things to find in the "Garden", click here to go to it. Dot's Creative Expressions

If you have any problems with the file, or have any questions feel free to email me, or comment here and it sends me an email with your question.