A young Aussie mum with three children plans to homeschool right through the school years. My potential guinea pigs... uh I mean students, include Jasmine (5), Savannah (3), and Jaidyn (1). http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:20:00 -0600 Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:20:00 -0600 Southwards, in Victoria, are devastating bushfires.  The confirmed dead so far are 189.  Northwards is devastating flood.  Most of the rest of Queensland are in drought.  We're all facing economic recession.  And now there are more floods in NSW... Dare I ask, 'What next?' http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/659330/ Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:20:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/659330/ Well - I did!  And I came home with... Wait for it... 100 classic books! How does that work, you wonder?  Well, I bought '100 Classic Book Collection' for the Nintendo DS. It is 100 classic, and therefore out of copyright, books for my handheld nintendo ds.  Now I know I can get the same books from gutenberg for free.  But: - Then I have to either print them out or sit at my computer and read - I have to include their stupid disclaimer - the formatting is often terrible - you have no say over the font size etc., etc. Now I can take my ds with me anywhere I go - I can read in bed :)  I can change the font size.  I can apparently log online and download new books to my ds cartridge (I want to check that out tomorrow).  I can even choose background music - including airport and beach sounds :)  I thought that was pretty funny.  And you can have three virtual bookmarks in each book.  And you simply use the touch screen to turn a page.  Very intuitive. When you load it up, you get a warning message which I think is hilarious: "These classic books of the past are presented in their original versions, and the texts may include words and expressions that could be considered inappropriate in a modern context." Now that in itself is both a ROFL moment, and a very sad indication of the world in which we live... So anyway tonight before the kids went to bed I opened it up and thought I'd read a little.  But Jasmine came up and was interested in it.  I told her there'd be no books she was interested in - but I was wrong!  It includes, Little Women, Alice in Wonderland, Alice through the looking glass, Little Lord Fauntleroy, and The Secret Garden.  So I read her a chapter of Little Women and I was surprised by how much she liked it. I mean I liked it when I was a kid, but I think I was a little older than six.  Oh well. She said tomorrow she's going to read 'Alice's adventures through the looking glass', and was pleased when I told her it was based on the idea of a game of chess.  I don't know how well she'll go with it but I'm pleased she's interested in the idea of classic children's books. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to change and feed Jacob so I can curl up in bed with a coffee and a good book... I mean a handheld computer game!  LOL! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/659107/ Tue, 17 Feb 2009 05:13:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/659107/ Today I am feeling deeply discouraged.  I feel that I am in a mess.  At the same time though I feel as though there is a battle being fought over me.  I am deeply convicted over some of my failures, but don't know if I have the strength to change. Then I remember that I do NOT have the strength to change, Christ does, and it is he who strengthens me. It is a strange feeling.  At the same time that I feel remorse over wasted time and neglected responsibilities, I feel great hope for the future.  If I trust and obey God then he will be with me, and His way is greater than anything I could forge for myself. I am behind... oh so behind!  Yet, I do far more work every day now than when I was first married!  I have so much more on my plate.  And it's so much harder to laugh and excuse myself for my laziness :) I find it is hard to spend the time with the Lord that I must when I am so busy!  When I get up I have to tube-feed Jacob, feed the older three kids, change the younger three kids' nappies (Savvy is day trained but not night trained) and then the day begins. One of the things I am convicted of is my need to awaken early to have that time with God then... but right now Savannah is staying awake until 10pm at night - how can I get up early when I am already too tired to cope with the day?  I must pray that the Lord will find a way for me. This post doesn't really have much of a point to it.  There is no message to it.  I am struggling, and I desire to change.  I know that God can and will strengthen me.  I want to record this day, these thoughts today - and this is my only diary.  I'm not used to having private thoughts! God is good, all the time.  All the time - GOD IS GOOD! Goodnight. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/658065/ Sat, 14 Feb 2009 06:19:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/658065/ Well there's a new social networking group - like facebook - for large families, or those who are supportive of large families. Large Family Network I've joined up under the username Tiarali.  So... if you join, add me :)  It's kind of interesting because I'm on the low end of the large family spectrum, but I'm hoping to learn a lot.  I've learned that if you want to learn about parenting, you don't ask your peers (ie with kids the same age as yours) because you can't see the results of their actions yet.  You don't ask veteran small family parents, because with just one or two kids they might have fluked it.  But ask veteran parents with large families who have mature offspring, and you're likely to find the answer to ANY question you might ask, cause they've been there done that! So yeah.  If you have a large family, or support large families, come by and say hello! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/655839/ Sun, 8 Feb 2009 05:07:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/655839/ Well I'm ashamed to say I've neglected this blog since I joined facebook, mainly because I know my real life family and friends don't read my blog, but are on facebook.  So I can write general stuff there to keep up to date with everyone (none of my family live near us) BUT every now and then I want to write and share with people who actually have similar views to us... so I come here. Anyway I can't write for long today because Sunday is our busiest day, and I'm due for a big nap between church services :) Ken has a new job!  He now works one day a week at the church's private christian school as the phys ed teacher.  Anyone else think that is hilarious?  He still works casual at his night shift job, of course, since one day a weeks' work doesn't pay the bills!  I think we're going to end up with having my husband around a lot more, while only being a little poorer off financially (both jobs pay better per hour now than he was on) AND he's using the extra time to finish up his university degree.  Since that is in human movement science, his teaching will actually count towards the degree (he has to do prac) and he's thinking of doing an education diploma next year so he can work full-time. PLUS now he has two days a week off... Sunday and Wednesday.  The two days we have church services.  Isn't God good? We are convinced that right now we are right where we are supposed to be, although it's driving me mad having to sit here and wait - I want to fly!  I want to go and do things!  I want to do great things for God!  And God says I have to learn patience first :D Honestly, me learning patience may well be a great thing in itself... hehe! Our van got stolen on Wednesday night.  When we found out the next morning we called the cops and then got everyone we could praying for us.  We got the van back just hours later.  The thieves had thrown out all our carseats so we had to replace them ($350) which wasn't nice BUT it happened on a day when we just happened to have the money in the bank.  That's not what we wanted the money for, but God definitely provided. The more weird experiences like this I have, the more I feel that I can trust God.  And the more I realise I've changed so much in the last ten years! I am learning about child training.  I have moaned about my kids long enough.  Time to admit I am failing as a parent and have to learn how to do it better.  I have read 'To train up a child' and while I know I have much to learn, at least I know where the problem lies now. OH on Friday night Ken worked until midnight.  We said we wanted to go Soul Winning on Saturday.  And decided to set the alarm for 7.30.  The only problem was our alarm was broken.  It does still make a slight whine, but I didn't think we could trust it.  Anyway, I set the alarm and went to bed. Well God must have wanted us to go - at 7.30 exactly, Jacob woke up.  He was happy and didn't need anything straight away, but he made enough happy noise to wake us up.  I joked that he was God's alarm clock.  Ten minutes later EXACTLY Jaidyn woke up.  Ken joked that that was the snooze button activating. We went to soul winning and there wasn't enough demand for a creche so we took the kids tract dropping and they whined at first but then loved it and are looking forward to doing it next week.  It certainly wasn't what our plans were, but what an opportunity to train the kids! School is actually going well.  We finished The Apple and the Arrow last night.  Yes we do school on weekends.  Jasmine begs for it (but not math, funnily enough).  She learned to tie her shoelaces yesterday.  Yes, in one day.  She also learned how to do long addition with regrouping.  Savannah is continuing with her reading lessons and enjoying them.  Jaidyn can now count to five, and has learned how to tell how many objects there are, so he's applying the knowledge. Jacob is smiling at people, and trying to keep his balance when sitting up on my lap.  He is just plain gorgeous. Well, I think so, and I'm entitled to, so I'm biased!  Hah! I'm not as consistent as I would like to be with my bible reading.  But I am learning things.  I am blessed to go to a church which has amazing teaching. This month is missions month at church, and I am very excited about it.  That used to worry my husband a lot :)  Now he knows that at least for now we have to stay here - and that God would never call me to the field without calling him too - so he just smiles.  He knows I want to do a short term mission with the kids when they are older, but he's in agreement with me as to the value of that. Actually, when I think back to how we both were just three years ago, we've changed so much.  I admire and respect my husband more and more every day. So yes.  Life is an adventure.  It's happening to us whether we're ready or not!  God is good - all the time. And I should start updating more regularly cause otherwise I'm going to have some very long, confusing updates!  Too much is happening! Now - to bed :D http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/655798/ Sat, 7 Feb 2009 22:18:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/655798/ Well last night our van was stolen.  We do have a sedan but we don't all fit in it, not since Jakie was born. We called the police.  And then we called everyone we knew and asked them to pray.  And we prayed ourselves. Several hours later the police came knocking.  Ken was at work by this stage so I was quite stressed over what they were going to say.  Minutes earlier I had been calm, not knowing where the van was, but now the police were at the door I got frightened! Anyway they had found the van, not far away.  It was in ok condition but was out of petrol and the battery had been run flat.  The fingerprinted it, and found some cigarette butts in the van (YUCK!) that they took for evidence. I wish they'd taken them all, poor Kenny ended up cleaning the mess. Oh yes, and the thieves had turfed out our carseats along the way. So we now have a (working) van again.  We have the carseats we need, at the lovely tune of $380.  Thankfully Kenny had gotten a bonus today but this isn't what we'd planned to spend it on (bills...) Today has been a whirlwind day.  It is by the grace of God that we got through it.  We got our van back and on the same day that we lost it.  Isn't God amazing? Today we also had issues with Jacob's nasal-gastric tube.  For some reason it kept coming undone and spilling the contents of his stomach everywhere.  I rang the hospital and they said to tape it up. High tech solutions :) I've got an early day tomorrow.  Ken starts his new job at 8.30.  I have to get my kids to their swimming lessons at 8am.  It's with the local homeschool group.  That lasts an hour.  Then we're going to a park across the road so that the parents can plan activities for the year.  The older kids will help keep an eye on the younger ones so the mums can fellowship.  It will be a nightmare to get everyone organised for it but I think I will enjoy it once I'm there.  In fact, it might be rest that God is sending in my direction. You know when you hear a missionary talk about all the amazing trials they have endured, and how everything turns out all right cause they trust in God?  There have been some times like that this year for me.  I still feel frightened and emotionally exhausted through it, but I'm learning to trust God.  I also feel excited that I am going through these hard times so that I can grow.  Maybe I will be mature enough to do some real work for God one day.  I must be worth something to him for him to spend this amount of time moulding me. But - I still feel tired. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/654756/ Thu, 5 Feb 2009 05:59:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/654756/ Well my kids have been ill for the past week.  You know how it goes, ONE child gets sick, but by the time they're better their sibling has started getting sick, and it goes on.  I think I had five nights of severely broken sleep in a row.  I THINK because my brain was severely messed with by the end of it, and couldn't remember when it all started! Yesterday I prayed and begged God for a night's sleep.  I was worried by that point that I'd had so much caffeine to get through the day that even if the kids slept I wouldn't! God was faithful.  I went to bed and could feel the heaviness of a deep sleep falling over me.  I barely stirred when Ken came home at midnight.  I was woken at 5.30 by Jacob but managed to spend the next hour in bed cuddling him before I gave up and got up. I feel MUCH BETTER today!  Thank you God! I do not know if we can go to church tomorrow.  My middle two are still coughing all over the place and I am worried about spreading it.  Also Jasmine just started getting sick yesterday but she seems to have only gotten a mild dose.  I mean SOMEONE would go to church tomorrow, but I want the whole family to go.  Besides needing that nourishment, it is the first week of Sunday School for the year, and Savannah gets to go up into a new class.  SO... I want to go :D Plus it seems stupid to miss church when I'm feeling so thankful to God for my night's sleep! Jacob probably got it the worst, but that was because his formula, being dairy (or imitation, anyway), was causing him to vomit and have diarrhoea.  Of course I spent four hours up at the hospital before they got a doctor who knew what was going on. So Jaidyn was on electrolytes all day yesterday instead of formula and he was much better.  Hence my sleep at night :D  I gave him a formula feed just then, he was crying and he'd had a nappy change, and he'd had electrolytes just two hours before so I reckon'd he was hungry.  I gave him half his normal feed and he's sleeping happily.  He might have more frequent smaller feeds today, just to see how he goes. For those who don't know, Jacob is being fed via nasal gastric tube.  This means that he can't just refuse the bottle when he's full.  So I have to be careful in how much I give him!  That's why I only offered him half his formula feed.  We'll see how it goes. I actually took Jacob up to the hospital three times this week.  Once was because he was sick, of course.  Once was because he pulled his nasal gastric tube out and it needed to be replaced.  And once was because he needed some blood taken for testing. You see, when Jacob was just born and in the neonatal special care unit, one of the nurses fed him another woman's breast milk.  Now that woman has been tested for all the nasties and it came back negative, but apparently at three months Jacob was to be tested too. SO I'm glad they've already tested the mother so I'm expecting negative results.  I don't think I could sleep at night knowing that my baby is undergoing testing for HIV and other nasties and I didn't know the results yet! We ended up taking the week off school.  With everyone sick it was just a nightmare.  This was actually the first week of school for everyone else in Queensland, but we'd started school during the holidays anyway so I'm not too worried.  We'll start back up again on Monday. Jasmine is highly motivated to learn how to tell time.  This is because I promised her a watch when she can tell analogue time.  I meant a cheap kids' watch but she saw a beautiful (to her) girls watch at the jewellers yesterday.  Should have left her outside with Dad, lol.  Oh well.  It's under forty dollars and it will last a lot longer than a cheapo watch.  It has nice big numbers for children to read too.  And it does have her motivated. Of course my sneakiness is in the fact that the 'reward' is actually continued practice in the skill being learned.  Which is the only reason I offered a reward, really.  Normally learning is its own reward, in this house. We are enjoying Sonlight.  WOW are we enjoying Sonlight.  We're in week four in some areas, more behind in others.  We've finished the first read aloud, we couldn't slow down to the schedule SL provided, oh well.  It was the first book in 'The Boxcar Children' series, and it was just too exciting for Jasmine!  The next Read Aloud was 'the Apple and the Arrow' which is the story of William Tell.  During the first chapter Jasmine was complaining of being bored, but now we're halfway through the second and she cries when I'm too busy with sick little ones to read any that day!  We'll finish it this week, I'm thinking.  She's read some of the read alouds already, so I'll read those ones as bedtime stories just so we can still share them and discuss them, and go ahead in the daytime with the unread stories.  I am hoping to finish earlier in the year and read some Australian children's books at the end of the year. She doesn't mind the history, bible, or quiet reading components either.  This will take a little more organisation than last year, but it does seem a good fit for us.  A little organisation never killed anyone. Unfortunately we will have to purchase the next two levels of our math books right away.  Prof B died, and the company is in new hands.  They will not be printing any more hard cover copies of their books, they will be charging monthly for online access to lessons.  This means that we would have to pay for each child as they got to school age, not just buying the set of books and using them for each child.  So we have to buy level two and three now.  I'm hoping we'll be up to level two by Easter. Oh well better get Kenny up. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/652622/ Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:48:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/652622/ earlier today I posted how hard it was to keep up with the house when everything else was happening.  God is certainly good!  We had an incident where Savannah snuck into my bedroom and had some fun with glue and craft supplies, making a big mess with things that were not her own.  I was not impressed. I didn't know what to do with her (besides disciplining her) so I put on a christian dvd and said she could sit on the couch and watch it or she could play in her bedroom, and that was it! I remembered about tomato staking and started thinking that perhaps we needed to do this; I obviously needed to keep her closer to me through the day. Later in the day I decided that I was sick of feeling useless, and I decided to change all four children's sheets.  WELL!  Not only was I changing the sheets but I was putting brand new ones on!  It wasn't long before Jaidyn was following me around chatting with me about what I was doing, and even trying to help.  Soon, Savannah had joined him and was really helping too.  By the time I'd gotten tea on the table, all three kids had worked together happily to help Jasmine clean her bedroom. Wow. Like I said, God is good.  I need to increase my faith :) Maybe tomorrow won't be so hard after all. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/650820/ Tue, 27 Jan 2009 02:50:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/650820/ Well seasons come and go.  Some seasons are harder than others.  Right now I have four kids under seven, my husband works night shift, my youngest is one unfolding medical drama, and now we have illness hitting the family. And at the same time I am feeling challenged to take control of my house. I do not think any of the above are valid excuses really, but they are things that will pass.  The illness will pass quickly, Jakie will be through the worst by the time he hits school age (that's only five years away :) ) and children grow up. In the meantime I will continue to tackle each day and do the best that I can.  Some days I will do better than others.  I know this. Funnily enough, no matter how sleep deprived I am, I do better when I've had my quiet time with God.  There's something in that.  It's easy to forget and put aside... but a part of my day that I need to master if I'm going to succeed this year, not just survive. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/650795/ Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:15:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/650795/ I have discovered a new search engine that I think is worth checking out.  It's called Good Search, and can be found at www.goodsearch.com Funnily enough :) The important difference with this search engine is that it donates a small amount of money to YOUR favourite charity every time you do a search.  I now have it set to my homepage, and my current charity is Smile Train, a charity that seeks to provide cleft surgery for babies like Jacob in poor countries. Who will YOU goodsearch for? http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/649670/ Sat, 24 Jan 2009 00:09:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ttt/649670/