This is my family's journey through homeschooling, using My Father's World curriculum. We spent the majority of last school year reviewing curriculum for TOS Homeschool Crew so that's why many of my blog entries are product reviews. We're now back on track and diving into MFW once again. My children are Ninja- 15: teenage black belt extrordinaire. Using MFW's Ancient History and LIterature; Tink- 11: sweet girl schooling with ADHD symptoms and dysgraphia (?). Using MFW's Exploring Countries and Cultures; The Dude-5: handsome little man with language delays/probably on the autism spectrum. He's no longer in preschool for speech therapy and special ed. Now using MFW K; and Baby Princess- 18 months: beautiful busy baby girl, possibly on the autism spectrum as well. Tagging along with The Dude and whatever else I think might interest her. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:29:00 -0500 Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:29:00 -0500 Copyright 2008-2009 Sweetpetunia. So we're taking it a bit easier with our school schedule lately. Dude doesn't like Leaf so i just stopped using MFW K at all for a bit. I'm just focusing on finishing up 100 Easy Lessons and he's doing great. The only thing I think he's really missing out on is the math in MFW K. It's just so stressfull to pull everything out, drag it all to the table, keep Dude's attention and keep baby Princess and grandma entertained all at the same time while keeping the house clean as required. So, for this season in our lives, we'll have to fall behind again, but I don't know what else to do. We did have a fun but severly stressfull week last week.lol. It all started with a field trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. That part actually went well... a little too well perhaps and the kiddos didn't want to leave. My plan was to meet Daddy-O in the town he was in on business and spend the night with him since we weren't going to see him for a few days. For some reason the kiddos didn't like that idea and I think Ninja was tired out from the concert she'd attended the night before. We hit several snags. There was traffic on the way out of Monterey that was backed up very badly, then I got lost in Santa Cruz, I kept stopping to look for extinct pay phones to update Daddy-O on our slow progress and then the fog rolled in. I don't think I've been that stressed out driving in a long time. It was pea-soup thick and my wipers weren't working which lead us to breathe heavily which fogged up the inside of the windshield and I couldn't get the defroster to work properly! Thanfully we made it out of the fog but since I wasn't smart enough to print out a map or even write down directions first, I got lost again in San Franciso. But at least the kiddos got to ride across the Golden Gat Bridge. LOL! Needless to say we all did a lot of praying on that trip and we found Daddy-O at Peir 39 and had some lovely clam chowder. Next time though, I'll let Daddy-O enjoy his business trip alone.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/741128/ Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:29:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/741128/ Copyright 2008-2009 Sweetpetunia. I've been so unbelievably tired lately. We're really struggling to get all our school work done these days. It's a huge blessing that Ninja is loving and doing her own curriculum but I'm battling to get Tink and the Dude's work done. Little Princess is still extremely demanding and it's taxing to work around my extended family's schedules as well as our own. I've been trying to "socialize" the Dude. I know, I know that's a bad word to homeschoolers, but I think my boy needs it. He seems in a much nicer mood when he's been out and about interacting for short periods of time with others. My plan is to take him to tot class at the zoo and an art for youg learners class with our homeschool group every other week. I was really stressing about that. I couldn't see getting in those classes and getting all our other school work done for the day but I realized that for him, interaction and spech therapy will be more important and useful than academics so I'm simply going to do a reading lesson from 100 Easy Lessons on those days. While it may take us a bit longer to finish his kindergarten curriculum it'll be well worth it if he can pick up some skills that are more useful in the long run. Now the trick is to make it through the long waiting lists for speech and occupational therapies.  We've been waiting for speech therapy since May 14th and occupational therapy since the middle of June. I called the local university because I heard they do speech therapy for their graduate speech pathology program at a greatly reduced price but that's also a 6 month wait.  I'll turn in the paperwork soon so we can at least get our names on the list. Pray for shorter waits for us!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/730831/ Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:35:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/730831/ Copyright 2008-2009 Sweetpetunia. Day one of Dude's homeschooling went well despite a rocky start. Instead of sleeping in this morning as Grandma and I went off to the gym, Princess woke up and was very upset that I was leaving and she let the whole house and half the neighborhood know it. So of course all the littles woke up and I had to drag Ninja out of bed to watch them. When I came back, Dude and Tink were playing their own spin-off of Bolt they've titled "Bolt and Storm" and Dude did not want to come do school. I think he may have thought I wanted to send him off to preschool again because he made some hand motions indicating he was thinking about traveling to his last preschool and I tried to explain to him that we're homeschooling now but it took several tries at it before he understood what I was saying. He finally started to get it when I told him that Ms. Falcon was not his teacher anymore, but I am. He then spied the box I keep the MFW K worksheets in and he briefly stopped protesting. He remembered that box from last year when we'd begun including him in with Tink as she finally finished up her turn through MFW K. Dude begged to open the box. I finally let him after we were done covering his ABC cards with contact paper. He happily pulled out the ABC flash cards and began naming everything on them. Yay! He remembered them. :) We still had a few kinks to work out but we got through it. I read the scripture reading to Dude out of the teacher's manual, but he wasn't following.  Then I read about day 1 of creation from the Read With Me Bible and the illustrations caught his eye. Immediately after, we watched the segment on creation from Volume 1 of the Read and Share DVD Bible. I got it at a really good price at CBD, knowing I might need it to introduce the Dude to Bible stories since my reading them to him doesn't seem to hold his attention. Tomorrow I'm going to follow directions and read about day 2 of creation directly from the Bible. That might help the Dude understand he needs to listen up. If not, he's still getting the gist of the story from the Read with me Bible and the DVD Bible. I really like the set-up of MFW K's creation lessons. Since we covered the story of day 1 of creation several times, the Dude appears to be getting the concept. By the time we were on to our last project, the creation book, Dude was saying, "Light and dark!". I think this is going to work. Princess had fallen asleep while Grandma and I were gone and she woke up in the middle of our school session so we included her in our crafts. She liked using the glue sticks and wanted to cut things out.lol. I'll have to find her some safety scissors so she can do just that. I know I have a children's CD of songs and hymns but it must be packed away so I had to play This Is My Father's World online. This version was pretty so we listened to it. Hopefully the Dude will learn it. Right now he's watching the rest of his DVD Bible. Tink starts back up next week. I think my schedule is going to work well. If my mom and I can get to the gym and back home a bit earlier, Tink can get dressed and start on her individual school work while I do K with Princess and the Dude. Since we'll be done by 10 or 11 a.m., Tink and I can then finish off her school work and probably be done by 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Once Tink and I get done with ECC, we're going to use Sonlight Core 3+4. This should go better without Ninja and we'll take it nice and easy. It's shaping up to be a good year this year. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/720244/ Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:25:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/720244/ Copyright 2008-2009 Sweetpetunia. The Dude starts homeschool tomorrow. I really hope he likes it. I'm thinking that after my mom and I get home from the gym, I'll get The Dude and Princess ready for the day, leaving Tink on her own to laze about for another week since she only got a short summer break and Ninja starts her second week of school, this time all on her own, checking in with me at the end of the day to make sure she got it all done. I still can't believe it when I hear Ninja say she's excited about school. She surprised me again with those words tonight. She also thanked me for continuing to homeschool her and her siblings despite all the discouraging words from her grandparents. That was so sweet. I really appreciated her saying that and I told her so. Her comments were really nice to hear after a bit of negativity from MIL tonight. MIL thinks homeschooling will be bad for the Dude and she's sure to tell me so approximately every other week. I'm slightly nervous about how well the Dude is going to handle school and having to sit and listen to me for a couple of hours. This is going to be a bit different from when I taught Tink. Since we started so late teaching Tink, (she was 7) she and I had already completed 100 Easy Lessons so the MFW K reading instruction was all review and I think it really helped to reinforce her reading skills. The Dude is still only on lesson 66 because of all the public preschool (and Princess and other) interruptions but I do have to say he has a pretty good grasp on the idea of reading. He's constantly sounding out words on his own. Perhaps it won't be a problem if I do Dude's Kindergarten instruction in the morning and try teaching him reading with 100 Easy Lessons in the evenings after dinner. The plan is do start off with Princess, reading a Bible story book to her and listening to some Bible songs, then maybe some other preschool songs or nursery rhymes, then I might include her in the Dude's learning, having her participate in the crafts or using Tink's leftover worksheets or a preschool workbook. Then I'll work with Tink while the babies play. I may ask them if they want to participate in any of Tinks activities like coloring flags or John 3:16 coloring pages since she's not quite through with ECC. After looking at the Dude's curriculum for tomorrow, it looks like I should be reading about each day of creation for the first week or so of school, then we'll jump into the weekly lessons covering the topics laid out by MFW. I was a little worried about whether or not he would understand the language presented since it can be a bit lengthy for him and it's directly from the NIV translation of the Bible. I remembered a small purple children's Bible we've had since perhaps Ninja was a tot and after looking at it, I think I may either substitue reading from it or read it in addition to the scheduled scriptures. The stories are much shorter, sometimes only a short sentence about each day of creation and the illustrations look like they may catch the Dude's attention. Of course the visual help is probably exactly what he'll need. I'm not quite sure, but it looks like this little Bible is out of print or has possibly been revised because every time I searched for the exact title, something slightly different came up. Not that it matters so much to me. I think all the pages are intact so I won't need a replacement. It's called the Read With Me Bible: An NIV Story Bible for Children. If the littles can follow it well enough, I may continue reading it to them as a sort of devotional every morning. Or I could start off with a simpler Bible story book set I have so they can get familiar with the stories, then read through the Read With Me Bible once we're done. So it's late and DH is telling me it's time for bed, he's done watching the Princess. Gotta run. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/720092/ Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:02:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/720092/ Copyright 2008-2009 Sweetpetunia. So which is it? Am I loving homeschooling or losing my mind in frustration over it? Sometimes the choice is not so clear. If you'd have asked me a few years ago, I probably would have gushed forth with why I love homeschooling and that I wouldn't have it any other way. Today, I would still say I wouldn't have it any other way, but sometimes life gets hard, confidence wanes and in those times, you find out who your true supporters are. Unfortunately, those who never supported you may be sure to rub your face in it as well. I know that last week, there would have been no doubt in anyone's mind. I was definitely losing mine. Pulling my hair out at the thought that I would have to not only find but implement four different curricula, I was snapping at people and feeling extremely beaten down. I kept trying to tell myself that it would all get better once I started in and I just needed to calm down, but self wasn't listening.  So, Monday rolled around and Ninja and I started school. It was amazing. She loved it, I loved it. God spoke to us through His word in Ninja's assigned Bible reading and we were both giggling the whole afternoon over it all. We really dug into the Bible questions and had so much fun searching for answers using our Bibles, a Greek interlinear New Testament, and several different versions of the Bible. The lessons were so personal. Ninja shared with me how cool it was that she was being directed to study the Old Testament just like Jesus did, especially after our pastor's sermon Sunday was on being more like Christ. I shared with her how I'd been feeling so unbelievably discouraged about homeschooling and had nearly given up, but after reading about Satan waiting to come back and pester even Jesus at a more opportune time, I didn't feel so alone anymore. I felt strengthened for the battle and ready to hang on till all my children have graduated from our homeschool. Satan tempts everyone to do the wrong thing and all I need to do is use my sword (of truth) to defend not only my position on homeschooling but defend my children and their walk with God. Monday was a good day. There's even more good news. The Dude's language seems to be improving. He's slowing down at times and really trying to speak clearly. Yesterday, he said, "[Tink] said, 'The batteries are getting low.'" What a beautiful sentence. He's been trying to speak to his cousin this morning and everything makes sense. Right at the moment he's scripting, but at least it's in context. I've been giving him probiotic powder in his applesauce and rice milk, even on ice cream. That seems to help his mood. I was also instructed by Dianne Craft and more recently a commenter on my blog to supplement with omega oils to improve language skills. I tried giving Dude a wonderful supplement from Nordic Naturals  however, even though Princess loves them and begs for them daily, I couldn't get him to swallow the little soft gels so I got some Coromega packets. For some reason he wouldn't take those either, even after I tried stirring them into his smoothies. Finally I figured out if I pour his smoothies and the Coromega packet contents into a shaker cup with one of those ingenious little inserts to help break up the product being shaken, he drinks them down in seconds. As long as he can't see "the green stuff" he's absolutely fine with it. Oh, and speaking of Dianne Craft I really need to review the lovely products she sent me but I loaned the reading program to my sister before I got the chance to look at it. I hope she didn't lose it. The Dude also willingly ate one of his therapy foods today! I was so excited I had to call DH at work to share the good news. I guess I should explain: The Dude has serious texture issues and self-limits his food a lot. We got him in to Children's Hospital Outpatient services for an Occupational Therapy assessment in order to get him past it. Obviously I want him to eat fruits and vegetables, right? So Dude's therapist instructed me to introduce one new food per day and present that food to him 5-6 times a day in different ways, encouraging him to taste, touch, and lick them. Today's food was zucchini. I shredded it, stirred it into his gluten-free pancake batter and also sliced a piece for him to handle and talk about.  He ate half a pancake befor he realized there was zucchini in it. I'm not sure if I should have warned him about it or not, but it turned out okay. Once Dude realized there was (horror of horrors) something unauthorized in his food, he was a bit grossed out and began picking the tiny pieces of green out of his pancakes. I thought they smelled delicious, and to show him, I began munching on the shreds of zucchini he'd picked out. I don't know what got into him but I heard him say behind me, "Oh, I ate it." At first I didn't understand, but then realization dawned. He took two large bites out of the next pancake without first extracting the zucchini. Joy! Here he is in his Teddy Roosevelt/Buzz Lightyear get-up enjoying his pancakes. It seems he can't help remaining a tad suspicious. Oops, mom got distracted and overcooked a couple of pancakes, but Dude doesn't appear to mind much at all. So, I've had a very encouraging week so far and my mom and I even joined the gym to boot. Yes, a very good week so far indeed. Loving it. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/718832/ Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:00:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/718832/ Copyright 2008-2009 Sweetpetunia. Yes, I'm shamelessly blogging to win curriculum again.lol. My Four Monkeys is giving away Itty Bitty Bookworm curriculum and this time it's I have a shot at the Bailey curriculum, perfect for Princess. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/716612/ Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:02:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/716612/ Copyright 2008-2009 Sweetpetunia. Looks like Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations     is having quite the giveaway. She's clearing off her shelves. Check it out. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/716492/ Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:47:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/716492/ Copyright 2008-2009 Sweetpetunia. We finally broke down and are taking a short summer break. A month total. We'll pick back up August 17. I think Tink really appreciates just getting up and being able to play and read. So far the children have not complained too much of being bored. I think they are well aware that if they do, I'll find some nice school work to keep them occupied with.lol. I've actually been enjoying the mini vacation as well. I'm trying to catch up on some reading: Mother Warriors and Engaging Autism are the two books I'm currently working on, but I'm still having trouble tracking the lines on the page so I have to keep my reading sessions short or it doesn't sink in. I really need to try out those tracking exercises Dianne Craft recommends. If they can help children, I don't see why they couldn't help adults. I'm managing to read aloud, mostly to Tink, with no problems though. She doesn't seem to mind it when I mix up my words when my eyes jump. In fact I think she quite likes it. She and Ninja used to have a notebook with the funny things I would say while reading aloud to them. We all get quite a laugh out of it sometimes. I picked up some classics from the library and right now we're reading through Peter Pan and Pinocchio. Since we stopped in the middle of our study of Japan, I'd checked out Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun but Tink prefers fairy tales to history and it sits on the shelf. I checked out Shipwrecked! by the same author as Commodore Perry. It's also set in Japan (partially) so maybe we'll get a little reading in about Japan after all. I'm very excited about starting a new school year. I just ordered Dude's MFW K worksheets and a replacement Classical music CD so he can start his kindergarten year. I also ordered Ninja's curriculum. I hope I can eek out the time to read her books after her. They look so interesting. I don't recall much about the Illiad and the Oddesy if I read them in high school but I really don't think I read any of the other literature books she's going to be studying. DH and I discussed it and I think we're going to sign Ninja up for ALEKS online math. I'm hoping it'll fill in the big gaps in her math skills and hopefully help her catch up there. She loves Math U See and refuses to give it up so I'm going to let her continue on with it, however ALEKS will have to be her main priority. The only downside is she'll have to be online to do her work, so I'll have to have her do it while I can be in the room watching her to make sure she doesn't wander off to check her email or the Skillet website. One of the reasons we're going to try to use ALEKS is that she's very behind in math and our parents have been really discouraging us in the homeschool department lately. I wish they would realize how very important it is to me to homeschool my children, that they get a Christian education and that they are not exposed to so many sinful temptations that are out there. If all those temptations were so blatant when I was a teen, I know they're a thousand times worse now. I want to do everything I can to help my children resist and be victorious in their walk. I also want to give them every advantage of being raised in a Christian home. I want them to know God better than I ever did when I was their age. Our parents are worried about college and careers, I'm worried about their relationship with God and whether or not they'll be equipped to live their lives for God. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/715925/ Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:31:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/715925/ Copyright 2008-2009 Sweetpetunia. Well, we've altered our summer school schedule again.lol. Big surprise. Tink is simply too interested in China, Japan and Russia to spend only a week on each of them. She asked to spend the full two weeks scheduled in the ECC manual and since I'm very interested in these countries as well I thought she was right. We're currently in the second week of China and we're reading Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze. We also checked out the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, but we may not get to that one quite in time and that's okay since we own that book. It's in storage right now though, so it's a bit of a pain to get to. Now for the Aloo Gobi: We bought the ingredients last week  and were finally able to cook the Aloo Gobi this week instead of two weeks ago when we were studying India. I got the recipe from the DVD extras on the Bend It Like Beckham movie.lol. I'm not saying this is a good movie for your children to watch, so please do your own movie screening. My children did not watch the movie but I did let them watch the director cooking Aloo Gobi in the DVD. It was pretty funny watching her aunt and her mother correct her. Again, please do your own screening first. The director let a word slip out that I missed until the girls were watching it. So here is the Aloo Gobi in the first stages. Tink wanted to take these first two pics so I let her do it. I wanted her to take a picture at this stage because of the pretty color the Turmeric gave it. Unfortunately under the fluorescent lights, it doesn't quite look true to life. This is a shot of an interesting little spice mixture I had a bit of a time finding. Luckily DH remembered there was an Indian store in our old neighborhood in Fresno and since we happened to be in the area at that time, he was able to find it for me. It's called Garam Masala. This is what the package looks like. And here is our finished dish. I think it looks very pretty with the chopped cilantro on it. Or coriander. From what I've read, they're the same thing? It wasn't bad. I didn't know what else to serve with it so I steamed some green beans and we heated up some tortillas with it. I figured they were close enough to chipattis.lol. Hmmm, wonder what we're going to make on Friday for our study of China? http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/708283/ Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:59:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/708283/ Copyright 2008-2009 Sweetpetunia. Checking in here from my in-laws' computer. They graciously let us hang out at their house for 10 days while they dog-sit at my sister-in-law's. They literally saved us in more ways than they know. I'm sooo grateful to be here where there's air-conditioning and the only bickering is from my stubborn little Dude and equally stubborn little Princess. :) Our summer school schedule has been progressing nicely. I asked Tink if she would mind doubling up scheduled days so we can attempt to get the year finished in 7 weeks instead of 14. So far it's going really well. We're now half-way through India.  I don't think we're taking any more time to finish than we normally do but that's probably because we've been skipping the art portions and the experiments. We'd already been doing that anyway because of our lack of funds so Tink doesn't seem to feel too slighted. I'd really like to add the art back in now because I know how much she likes it but we're still trying to save up for a rental deposit and the "new" van is a serious gas guzzler so that makes it hard to get out. I don't think I mentioned earlier that Ninja is no longer doing the majority of her schoolwork with us. She does not work well with us we'd all come to dread school time so I finally decided she should work on her own. She's only been doing math, science, language, remedial spelling and the extra reading for MFW ECC 7th & 8th graders. She's zipping through it pretty quickly. It seems once these girls decided to put it in gear, they stopped messing around! Ninja has finished one Apologia Science book and is ready for the next. She's finished 1 1/2 math books, the first year's worth of language workbooks and one remedial spelling book. We purchased new language and spelling books for her and she immediately dug right in. Tink finished one year's worth of Singapore math and is ready for the next one. She has also finished her first language book and is about to wrap up her spelling book too. I've decided to stick with Queen Homeschool for Tink's Language but I'm still undecided about which spelling program to use. Tink loves Rod & Staff spelling but I already have 4 entire levels of All About Spelling (AAS) that I reviewed last year with the Crew. It would make the most sense financially to switch to AAS but Tink didn't like it. Maybe we could give it another try and if she hates it, we'll return to Rod & Staff. Thankfully R&S is very affordable. Since DH has a new job, I'm hoping to save up enough for Ninja's curriculum. I had to spend some of it while he was away in order to keep from being overdrawn on our bank account. It's going to be a tough choice we'll have to make: either stick it out at my mom's and save up for school and rent, or take a blind leap now and hope we make it. Of course, we have no money for a security deposit, so I guess that means we have no choice but to stay. I really hate to do that. The girls and I have noticed that the Dude has relaxed and is using longer sentences again since we've been staying at the In-laws. It's painful to think that he'll probably regress again once we go back to grandma's. If anyone's reading this, I'd really appreciate some prayers. I've been getting migraines which is completely out of the ordinary for me. I don't normally get headaches at all much less migraines. We'll need lots of prayer to get us through this stressfull season at grandma's.     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/704535/ Thu, 2 Jul 2009 15:42:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetpetunia/704535/