We are a homeschooling family with one son age 10. We are entering our 4th year of the journey. Pack your bags and join us as we travel through the United States, up into space, and down the road of Easy Grammar. As we travel, "The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace." http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Sat, 29 Dec 2007 09:10:00 -0600 Sat, 29 Dec 2007 09:10:00 -0600 Not us, just my blog.  I am reverting all of my homeschool blogger info over to blogspot.  Our new address is  http://wakefieldacademy.blogspot.com/.   I am in the process of transferring all my entries over to that blog.  I have put the original date of the entry into the title.  Thanks... http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/451921/ Sat, 29 Dec 2007 09:10:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/451921/ They have set in, my husband is back at work, my son's friends aren't home and I'm sitting on my new exercise ball.  Perhaps it's just because the chocolate has nearly run out, perhaps it's because my pile of laundry is almost as tall as the house.  Perhaps it's because I'm ready to do more school and my blessed son is enjoying his time off.    We did get out last night and roamed around Target trying to figure out how to spend my gift card.  We're probably going back tonight.  I suffer from SI (Shopping indecision).  I can never make a choice while there.  I thought I had it all planned out,  I made a list from my online decision, but they didn't have my online items in the store.  Normally they do, but the threadbare racks just showed that they hadn't restocked yet.  I've already done one order from Target and it's supposed to arrive today.  I hear the UPS truck in the neighborhood or perhaps it's just wishful thinking.    So I shopped online again today and discovered the items I want cost 8.00 in shipping. These are items I did see in the store last night, so no thanks, I'll go back to the store.    We did get in a few items today, a couple of logic pages.  Those are fun.  My son is naturally logical, he might have vulcan blood.   Now he has asked to go play with the dog.  So off we go, PE time.    http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/451035/ Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:57:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/451035/ May you all have a blessed Christmas and enjoy the holiday. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/449495/ Sun, 23 Dec 2007 15:02:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/449495/ 1.     How many children do you have / homeschool?  one fabulous 10 year old son   2.     How long have you been homeschooling?   We are in the middle of our 4th year, and 4th grade.     3.     Have they always been homeschooled, or did they ever go to public/private school?   We started in 1st grade so it would be easier for me to count how long we've been homeschooling  :)  He was in private Christian school for prek and K.   4.     Do you plan on homeschooling until graduation?   Yes, unless God has anything else to say on the matter.   5.     Do you belong to a co-op?   No.   6.     Do you school all year long, or use some other schedule?  We follow a traditional school schedule for the most part.  We do a light schedule part of the summer to keep things fresh.   7.     Do you use textbooks only, or do you like to supplement with other materials?  We use a very eclectic mix.  We use a lot of living books.   8.      Are field trips included in your school plans, or are they just family time?   Field trips are done as a family.    9.       Do you and your kids do crafty stuff together for school time?  We are a very artistic family.  While we don't do a lot of crafts, we do a lot of art, make up silly songs to go with our studies, and our history program often takes the form of a news report.   10.     Would you consider everyday household life stuff ‘home ec’? Absolutely!  For a while we did "health" class before school.  That meant picking up and getting the morning chores done, it is good for our mental health.   11.      Do you have any advice for new homeschoolers?  Don't get overwhelemed!!!  There is so much diversity in homeschooling that every homeschool family looks different.  Approaching it like everything else in parenting, utilize what will work for your family.  Yes, you can school your children!   12.      Do you have advice for homeschoolers with little ones under foot?  Well, the cat sometimes sit on the table with us for school and we put the dog outside.  Aside from that we have no little ones.    If you are interested in entering the 12 blogs of Christmas you can find information at this blog. http://tnmomwith3kids.wordpress.com/   May God bless you and have  a Merry Christmas.     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/445592/ Sun, 16 Dec 2007 08:45:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/445592/ I'm such a nerd, I still love the play on words.  My son didn't quite get it when I told him we were done with grammar and math for the rest of the year. After I explained it he laughed.  We have been using the last three days to play catch up on a few subjects.  We have been behind in art, geography, music, and history.  So have we touched history since then? NO!  We've been having too much fun with art, music and geography.  I feel the American Revolution will still be waging over Christmas if we don't study it most of Monday and Tuesday. We also started reading "The Magician's Nephew" from the Chronicles of Narnia.  We opted to save it until the 2nd to last book.  I read the many different thought patterns on which order to read the books in, and decided to jumble the numbers written on the spine.  I have to say I'm glad we did.  I had never read the books before and we are having a blast discovering all the.... well, let's just say we're enjoying this book the most so far.  We have been using "Drawing Basic with Thomas Kinkade" for art this year.  We have been getting behind, but we enjoy the lessons.  Thomas Kinkade is wonderful at teaching.  Having never used lifepacs before I've been a little confused, but I get out my sketch pad and work right along with my son, it's been great.  This week he was jumping up and down asking to do more art so we spent most of Thursday and Friday on it.  I love art, and it is nice to see some of those genes got passed down as well.  We've also enjoyed catching up on some composers.  This week we looked at Beethoven. My son also made a quite profound statement while reading about Beethoven's appearance and confidence. It was something like, "your confidence has nothing to do with the way you look". Amazed! I love his wisdome. Of course, I think he is fiendishly cute, and handsome just like his daddy. But it is so nice that he know that is not where his confidence should lie. May you all have a blessed and joyous Christmas.       http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/445114/ Sat, 15 Dec 2007 06:48:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/445114/ Homeschoolestore.com is having a Christmas contest.  The below 12 Days of homeschool song is part of that.  Please check their website for the opportunity to win a $50.00 gift certificate from homeschoolestore.com.   Have a Merry Christmas! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/442420/ Mon, 10 Dec 2007 21:01:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/442420/ Sing to the tune of 12 days of Christmas.   On the first day of  homeschool, my mother gave to me, a cartridge of  new black ink On the second day of homeschool, my mother gave to me, two #2's, and a cartridge of new black ink. On the third day of  homeschool,  my mother gave to me, 3A Singapore Math, two #2's and a cartridge of new black ink. On the fourth day of  homeschool, my mother gave to me, four years of history, 3A Singapore Math, two #2's, and a cartridge of new black ink. On the fifth day of homeschool, my mother gave to me, five books to read, four years of history, 3A Singapore Math, two #2's, and cartridge of new black ink. On the sixth day of homeschool, my mother gave to me, six dvd's playing, five books to read, four years of history, 3A Singapore Math, two #2's and a cartridge of new black ink. On the seventh day of homeschool, my mother gave to me, seven volumes of Narnia, six dvd's playing, five books to read, four years of history, 3A Singapore Math, two #2's, and a cartridge of new black ink. On the eighth day of homeschool, my mother  gave to me,  eight vocabulary words, seven volumes of Narnia, six dvd's playing, five books to read, four years of history, 3A Singapore Math, two #2's, and a cartridge of new black ink. On the ninth day of homeschool, my mother gave to me, nine planets (or is it), eight vocabulary words, seven volumes of Narnia, six dvd's playing, five books to read, four years of history 3A Singapore, two #2's, and a cartridge of new black ink. On the tenth day of homeschool, my mother gave to me, ten 3 ring binders, nine planets (or is it), eight vocabulary words, seven volumes of Narnia, six dvd's playing, five books to read, four years of history, 3A Singapore Math, two #2's, and a cartridge of new black ink On the eleventh day of homeschool, my mother gave to me, eleven dry erase markers, ten 3 ring binders, nine planets (or is it), eight vocabulary words, seven volumes of Narnia, six dvd's playing, five books to read, four years of history, 3A Singapore Math, two #2's, and a cartridge of new black ink   On the twelfth day of homeschool, my mother gave to me, twelve years of learning, eleven dry erase markers, ten 3 ring binders, nine planets (or is it), eight vocabulary words, seven volumes of Narnia, six dvd's playing, five books to read, four years of history, 3A Singapore Math, two #2's, and a cartridge of new black ink http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/442401/ Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:45:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/442401/ We finished this book as a read aloud a few weeks ago.  I can truly say that this is one of my favorite books ever.  I remember reading it as a child and having visions in my head of colonial Boston and the sympathy I felt for Johnny throughout the book.  As I read it aloud to my son I pictured some of those same sentiments rolling through his head.  We had detailed conversations about the characters in the book.  We brought out some of my silver collection as we discussed the art of silversmithing.  We pulled out a tourism map of Massachusetts that we had just received.  We compared the current town of Boston with the colonial maps.  It was a wonderful study.  Reading it as a child I never knew how much historical information was packed into that volume.  As we have gotten further into our American Revolution study I find myself continually referring him back to Johnny Tremain.  It truly is a plethora of history.  I am enjoying rediscovering the books of my youth with my son.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/441428/ Sun, 9 Dec 2007 08:18:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/441428/ I haven't posted much this month.  We are kind in that lull of our school year.  You know the one where you have the groove figured out and you feel as if you are moving along, but nothing real exciting.  We've had some great moments of hilarity and spontanaiety (sp?)  this month as well.  Those are sometimes hard to describe and sometimes best kept between mother and son.   I mean do you really want to know that to avoid going over the edge I break into song?  The other day my ds(that's darling with a smirk, today) told me he hates math. He was basically stating that he refused to do math.  Instead of my usual reaction I broke into song.  I came up with an "I hate math" song in several genres, tied it into our composer study, sang about the marriage of music and math and kept going until we were both laughing so hard it hurt.  Seriously, how would I know a waltz was a waltz without math?  What about a 1/2 note? Would it be a partial note? Would a whole note be a circle note or a pie note?  It just wouldn't be right.  Okay, okay back to my little reality.  What is a nanowrimo?  It is a yearly contest where writers and would be writers compete with themselves.  We strive to reach 50k words in some form of a story between Nov 1 and Nov 30.  I'm currently close to 32k words and going strong.  I've been sucked into this alternate reality I've created with story.  My story has bits of my life throughout it.  Some of the characters and events are based upon real life, just not any of it is real, except the three legged cat (you'll have to wait to see what I mean).  So if you are interested to see what  it's all about, check out nanowrimo.org.  The only real prize is a certificate with your name on it, oh and you get to print it yourself.  You also get the deep satisfaction that goes with delving into undiscovered portions of your brain. You also get a glimpse of what carpal tunnel syndrome might feel like after typing over 3k words in one sitting.  So I'll be back after November, before if I can slam out the remaining 28k words in the next ten days.  Or if my brain liquifies while trying to type as fast as my thoughts, or if I have to make up songs about anything besides math and music.  Oh, please, I need more coffee.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/428257/ Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:10:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/428257/ Where we live it has just cooled off.  I'm sure it won't stay that way for long, but the humidity is down, the windows are open and the a/c is off.  It's the middle of October and I'm just now starting to think about long pants.  I think I'm starting to like winter. My hubby and I both grew up in a state where ice, snow, and freezing temps were just a part of the norm.  While I liked snow as a kid, as an adult I could so do without it.  I take no pleasure in being cold.  My hubby hates to wear too many layers of clothes and getting my son to wear a shirt to school is a major feat.  Last year,  our first in the south, my mind kept waiting for that day to come.  You know the one where you pack up the flip flops, you resign yourself to no longer wear capris because your ankles are freezing.  It never really happened.  While I did move onto jeans, I proudly wore my flip flops while Christmas shopping.  I even wore them in February! Today we woke up with the windows open.  But instead of dreading the impending cold, I know I won't have to pack away the flip flops anytime soon.  That's great because besides boots and workout tennies I have one pair of closed toe shoes.  Some people may enjoy the beauty of snow the briskness of the cool air, not us.  Yes,  the summers are hot, but not anymore than where we used to live.  So now my years feel complete.  There is no longer a winter in which I prefer to hibernate.  By moving south we've added an extra three to four months of life to each year for our family.  Gotta go, I'm going to open more windows!       http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/407340/ Fri, 12 Oct 2007 08:26:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/arewethereyet/407340/