Life As I See It - Homeschool Blogger

Happy New Year!

Sat, 3 Jan 2009 18:32:00 -0600

Wow....another year. The older you get, the faster they go. So true...

I haven't posted here since school started in August. But, I have been posting.

Since our family has changed so much, I decided back in the fall to post primarily on one blog. I was finding it difficult to separate our homeschooling entries from our family entries anyway. I mean, when you homeschool, home is school. Home is everything!

Now that we are a split family, and by split I mean part homeschool, part public school, I've decided to continue to post on my Blogger account.

You can read about our family, our homeschool, how public school is going, Autism therapies, and all the nitty gritty of our lives at All That And A Box Of Rocks.

Happy, Wonderful New Year to You!

Lisa

It's Time To Fall Back.......

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:40:00 -0500

Or should I say, it's getting close to that time! It feels like 100 degrees here today, so it's a little difficult to think that Fall is right around the corner. But, it really is.

So, in honor of Fall and the thoughts of a new school year, HsKubes is having a great giveaway. Her blog is very soothing and gentle, with or without a giveaway. You should definitely check it out!

A New Year With Many Changes...

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:58:00 -0500

This summer has flown past. It really is true that the older you get, the faster time goes!

This new year comes with several new commitments and some big changes.

We have been homeschooling since 1998. We started when our oldest daughter entered the second grade. We lived in Mississippi at the time. We have fond memories of those early years-just the two of us, my only daughter and I-living and learning together. Of course, the boys were in the background. Never a dull moment.

After we moved to Tennessee, it just felt natural to continue schooling at home.

We added another student to the mix. Despite having a speech/language delay, he was a good little student, learning to read was fun for him and exciting for me.

When it was time to add the next student, he threw a kink into our plans. He wanted to go to school. He begged and expected to go to school! So, he did. He went to Kindergarten and even though he was sick for much of the first semester, he managed to do very well. He came home to school for first grade.

When it was time to add the next student, I paused. He wasn't ready. I knew it in my heart that he was still too much of a baby for school-at home or away. You see, he was the baby. Or so we thought...for nearly five years! The decision was made to move forward with Kindergarten at home. We knew we could move at his pace and even repeat it, if necessary.

And then the baby came along. The REAL baby. He came in like an unexpected storm, a surprise, with his medical issues and now probable Autism diagnosis. He changed us in more ways than you could ever imagine: our faith, our trust, our sense of family, our strength, our joy. And just as big as all that, he changed the way we lived and schooled.

So, after a very difficult two years, we felt God urging us to grow and change once again. Change is hard, though. I fought this change for eight months. Last month, I embraced it. HIS will commanded it and I found the courage to follow.

My middle boys are now in school. I have peace. I know they will be fine. It has been just one week, but the routine has been set in place. Both boys seem to enjoy it, although it does take a lot of hours away from home. Our house feels quiet and empty during the day...and clean. (Yes, even with the rambunctous two-year-old!)

If that isn't enough change...

I applied and have been accepted into a local LPN night/evening program. There are still a few details I have to work through, like money (!) before I can say I'm a part-time student. We'll see.

See, lots and lots of changes!

Together, my husband and I will run our home business, provide time for my possible schooling, school our older two kids, manage our middle two and their schooling outside our home, and deal with the little one's many therapies, doctor appointments and upcoming surgeries.

It seems like a lot, but we have the Lord and each other. We're a team and a family.

18 "Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.

19 See, I am doing a new thing!
       Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
       I am making a way in the desert
       and streams in the wasteland.

Isaiah 43:18-19

Lazy Summer Days.......NOT!

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:32:00 -0500

I really don't think the words "lazy summer days" have ever been spoken by a SAHM.

This week alone, I:

1. Spent time at the dentist, hoping to save a tooth (mine). I didn't. :o( Ouch! Tooth extraction is painful.

2. Spent time at the dentist, hoping to save a tooth (my daughter's). Thankfully, no root canal needed. Just a filling. Whew!

3. Hit a deer. Well, the deer hit us. It happened so fast that absolutely nothing could be done. Now there's a major dent in the driver side door, the front corner panel-bad, and the headlight is broken. Poor deer. Thankfully, we weren't in a tiny little car and the deer wasn't doing an antelope impression. And the traffic was very light-amazing. Oh, and I was not driving (PTL).

4. Liability only. *sigh* (see above.)

5. IFSP review for my little one. Setting up evaluations with an OT for sensory issues, a behavioral analysis and a psyche evaluation with an early intervention/austism center about 45 minutes away. Also adding him to the waiting list for the classroom therapies, although we haven't really decided which therapies he will receive and which ones we will decide to participate in at the different options we've been given. Always good to get on the waiting lists, I'm told.

6. It's only Wednesday morning.

But, in the face of all this.......life is good! I am always amazed at the way God works. He is good-all the time!

Nature

Wed, 28 May 2008 13:39:00 -0500

It's funny how living in town, even if it is a tiny town, influences your views of nature.

I didn't realize this until we moved last year. After spending most of my life in large cities or the suburbs, our family lived right in town for 7 years. We could walk to the park/pool, the grocery store, the beauty shop, the high school football field, etc.

Then we moved. Now we live in a two street neighborhood in the middle of a cow pasture in a very, very tiny town.

We hear cows mooing. Some days it feels like one of those "Happy Cows" commercials. There are geese that fly over our house every day. You can see horses from our front yard and occasionally, a few people will ride their horses down our street.

It's dark here at night. I mean, really dark! You can see the stars twinkling.

We all are so much more aware of the nature around us. We watch the birds. I even have a hummingbird feeder. (!?!) Yeah, I know!

It's actually fun to watch the flowers bloom and see the excitement in the little boys over things like bugs and birds. They are always picking dandelions and other weeds with flowers for me to save. <sweet>

This is a bird we've been watching and hearing:

The Mourning Dove

You can click "listen" to hear the call.

Soon it will be too hot, so for now, we are really enjoying the sights and sounds of nature.

Garden Pictures, As Promised!

Mon, 26 May 2008 15:56:00 -0500

The lilies are really beautiful this year! Here are the pictures I wanted to share:

This is to the left of the front door. When we moved in, this entire area was a flower bed and there was no bed to the right of the door. For Mother's Day last year, we moved the pavers to create a waved bed all the way across the front and down the right side of the house. My gift was the mini rosebush in the left of the picture and the $39.00 worth of sod remnants used to sod the remainder. Notice the grass is still not fully green. We haven't been watering enough-our water here is crazy high!

This is the same bed, but from the front porch. The only thing I added here is the monkey grass. It is really getting thick. Time to spread it out. Later in the summer, a thick ground cover comes up that looks a little like phlox, but has bigger flowers in all different colors-white, pink, orange, yellow and red.

This is on the right side of the house, taken from the front porch. Very pretty burgundy lilies.

These are a yellow, orange and pink combination. Very pretty. I prefer the burgundy, but these are beautiful, especially in the photos.

There are still quite a few bare spots, but I think it looks pretty good. I look forward to adding to the work the previous home owners did. I would love to add some white azalea bushes, more hostas and a crepe myrtle. Down the right side, I'd like to add a couple of boxwoods and some hostas.

Next year I'll have to separate the lilies and spread them out. I also have orange daylilies at the mail box. No pictures since they haven't bloomed yet. They need to be thinned out badly. I will add those down the left side of the house. That side is nearly full sun, and has no flower bed yet. That's the plan for next spring! For right now, I have planters with tomato plants, pepper plants and a couple of watermelon plants on that side.

It's really funny to look at this and think about how 'not green' my thumb is! It looks like I'm a garden slave! NOT!

Now that the school year is coming to a close....

Tue, 20 May 2008 10:24:00 -0500

I am torn.

I want to just sit and do nothing.

This probably explains my lack of blog entries of late.

I want to declutter and clean the house. Really clean the house. I want to sit outside and sip tea. I want to make school plans for next year. I want to dig a little in the garden. Wait.... did I just type that? I am not the outdoorsy, dig in the garden type. Hmmmm......

Maybe I want to sit outside and watch someone else dig in the garden.

I am truly torn! Here is my list of musts:

I must clean the house. Today.

I must declutter. Really.

I must make plans for the new school year. Hmm..Later.

I must sip tea and enjoy the garden.

The garden was planted by the wonderful previous owners of our home. I am so thankful for all of the perennials they planted! It's the garden that just keeps on giving. All I did was ask for $20.00 worth of black mulch for Mother's Day.

Maybe I'll come back and add a picture after the lilies bloom.

I must stop lurking around the WWW!

I have emails to answer and blog entries to post. I just don't want to do it for some reason.

I think I just need a break.

Wordless Wednesday-Geocaching!

Wed, 14 May 2008 17:08:00 -0500

Fun School!

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:41:00 -0500

The past couple of weeks have been history weeks in our house. I do have science-crazy kids, but the history-crazy kids overrule! Funny how that works out since I have always been more of a science-minded person myself...

My boys love, love, love history.

I have a war nut. He loves anything about the World Wars and the Civil War. His favorite right now is WW2. He's older so he mostly reads good historical novels with some great nonfiction titles, including a good illustrated encyclopedia with a timeline if we can find one for the time period of interest.

I also have an Ancient History buff. His favorite is Ancient Egypt. He's deep into the pyramids and making his own paper right now. A little more about that later...

Then I have the American History buff. He is young, so he is really loving the basic stories from our nation's history. This week we are concentrating on the Native Americans.

We use a lot of real, living books from the library and any books we can find in the Five In A Row lineup, along with anything from Homeschool Share.

In addition, we are really utilizing the information on Time4Learning. The Social Studies lessons are indepth, informative and downright interesting! We have used these lessons to kick off discussions, websearches and online video viewing (think YouTube).

We've also found lessons to go along with the social studies lessons in the Language Arts lessons on T4L. These are great animated lessons that ask questions and really add that little extra you sometimes need to get a child's attention.

We have seen images of totem poles and beautiful handmade jewelry, videos of Native American powwows, and even found go-along books we can read-fiction and nonfiction.

Right in the T4L lessons on Ancient Egypt, we found a recipe for making paper. How cool is that?!?!

And all of those tough-to-prounounce words that turn kids away from reading? They are clickable in T4L. When you click on the word, a sound file pops up and gives you the correct pronunciation. In some cases you also get the definition. (You can check out demo lessons here.)

History is exciting in our house this spring! Just what we needed to take the dull out of the last few weeks of the year.

It's That Time Of The Year....

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:32:00 -0500

You see it everywhere in the homeschool world...

Planning for next year!

I can barely concentrate on finishing up this school year! And I am not the only one. You can go to any active homeschooling forum and see posts about next year.

Ladies are posting about curriculum fairs, conventions, recommendations and reviews. Everybody gets caught up in it.

Every year I tell myself that I will finish this year before I start planning for next year. Well, you guessed it. I'm already thinking about it. However, my notebook remains empty. I am trying my best not to write anything down until the end of May.

I sure hope I can remember all of these good ideas that are flying around inside my head!

Don't be surprised if I post "notes to self" as a cheatsheet...