Happy Thanksgiving!!!  It has been a great day. 

I am looking for ideas for a fun month of school before Christmas break.  I'm thinking something to do with Advent.  Coming up with ideas has been a bit difficult though.  I guess I'm not to creative.  I have been looking on the web for some ideas and I've gathered so far, names of Jesus and prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah.  I want it to really fun and really productive as well.  Something to pick up some speed to carry us through the hum drum of the beginning of the year.

We are finally getting back our flow with homeschooling.  I suppose this is why I should not take summer breaks.  We just had so much stuff going on that we needed to take the time off.  We wouldn't have accomplished much anyway.  But the groove is back (borrowing from a fellow hser).  I actually had some free time the past couple days.  I know I should have used it to catch up on some house work, but ... I couldn't resist just enjoying the fact that we finished school with time left before supper had to be started.  I used it to catch up on all those e-mails that have been sitting in my box.    I hope I didn't jinx it by talking about it.

Things have been pretty hectic here, to say the least.  I didn't think we were ever going to get through this part of math.  We have been going over the same stuff for what seems like an eternity!  And then one of the dds failed an English test.  I give the test more for my own purpose, I want to see how much of the text book stuff they got and she didn't get much.  I don't know how to teach complements any differently than the book did.  So I guess we will just move on and periodically review the material so the repetition will get it to stick.  Attitude had to have a check lately too.  I'm about ready for a long winters nap  I believe we will start working on some cooking projects.

I'll try not to be so long between posts next time.

Repeat after me: “I don’t have to finish the book; I don’t have to finish the book.”  Okay, Now I feel better.  Today was one of those days where I have to remind myself that the point of schooling my child is not to finish the book, in this case it is math, but to be able to do the concept.  We are struggling through ratios and percentage problems.  A lot of the trouble is with word problems.  I have a math text by a different publisher that a friend gave me so we are going to work on some problems in it.  Some days I think we have to move on; we must finish this book by the end of the year.  It is hard to convince myself that it is okay to spend longer on a topic than the text we are using does.  I’m afraid that we will get behind or that we won’t be showing progress to the evaluator.  I know the public schools don’t always get through the text books but that seems of little comfort to me.  I just have it in my head that we are not doing it right, well, or something if we don’t finish that book.  So I will spend the rest of the night saying to myself “I don’t have to finish the book!”

Maybe I should write it 200 times like they do in school for “I will not talk during class.”

The power has been going off for a few seconds daily.  Not only it is frustrating, but I loose what is on my computer.  I don't mean the things I was working on, I'm talking about the websites I was looking at.  I found some blogs that I liked to read but the power goes out and they disappear.  The thing I found odd was that when the power thing happens I loose what is in my history file too.  I have NO history for yesterday or this morning.  Of course that is how I go back and visit the blogs I liked.  To solve my problem I added the couple I found tonight to my friends list.  Hope no one minds.

It's been a while since I have had time to sit at the computer and do more than empty my e-mail.  The flu/cold thing went all through the house.  All is better now.  I had several thoughts on what to write about and now that I'm sitting here I can't rememeber a single one of them.  The fall tv shows are starting and again it doesn't look like anything much worth watching.  We don't have the tv on much but it is nice to have when dh works late nights and after everyone else is in bed for the night.  I can't sleep until he gets home so I like to watch something.  Somtimes it ends up being the Weather Channel.

Anyone else not do the whole halloween thing, what do you do instead?  I had to laugh when my dd was asked by her aunt what we do since we don't trick or treat, she casually  states "We hide."  That came from the year that trick or treat in our neighbor hood was at night and you were suppose to turn your porch light on if you wanted trick or treaters, since we didn't turn our light on and usually don't have many lights on anyway one child said to the other that we were hiding from the trick or treaters.

What other cute things have the children said???? I'll have to think on that one.  I wish I would have written them down as they said them.

I always have an hour each week where I am just sitting waiting and I like to have a good book on hand to read.  I don't read only in that hour, I read before bed if I have trouble falling asleep (which is most of the time) and at other times through the day but there are some days I don't have a chance to.  I love to see what everyone else is reading and I have picked up a book here and there that I chose because of someone recommending it or a write up somebody posted.  My trouble comes with remembering all the good recommendations.  I need to have a small note book that I can write them down in and put in my purse so when I go out I have a running list of books I would like to buy/borrow.  That sounds easy enough but unfortunately it isn't as easy as it sounds.  Why?  It isn't easy because I would then have to remember to put it on my desk before I sat at the computer again and remember to put it in my purse before I leave the house.  For me that is asking a lot.  My dh has asked me quite often why I cannot remember some of the simple things.  I have borrowed my response from a friend of mine.  I simply say "when something new goes in the brain, something has to fall out to make room." 

Know of a good book?  Tell me all about it.  It's time to make a list again.

I'll start with bells.  Our ss class ordered a set of children's bells to try out and to teach the children how to play.  Their ultimate goal is to raise enough money to buy a large set of bells.  They are pretty expensive and very fragile.  The thoughts are to try to start some kind of ministry playing these bells.  I wasn't present for all of the discussion so I'm not sure what they actually want to call this.  I am suppose to come up with a way to teach some of them to get this started.  I guess I'll have to do some thinking and then play with them a little   I admit it, it will be fun to play with the bells.

Canning.  I canned spaghetti sauce yesterday.  I forgot how much time that took.  I think I have enough tomatoes to do 3 more batches.  Some of the tomatoes aren't ripe yet so later this week I guess I will do more.  I am thinking that I will prepare everything and do it all in one day.  I'm hoping to enlist the help of other members of my family. 

Log sheet sorrows.  I cannot find a planner or log sheet that fits what I need and want it to do.  I don't have a program that I can create one that I like either.  So my search continues even though this weekend has been busy with other things.  Any body know where I can find one?  I may have spare time tomorrow to look around a bit for one.

Bible study.  Next week starts a nine month intense Bible study.  This is my last year for it, and that is both a relief and a sorrow.  I have gotten to know some very nice and interesting people through this couse and will miss those that I don't get to see.  I have learned a lot but feel I have so much more to learn.

The girls played at church today.  The youngest was very nervous even though they played  a couple weeks ago.  They did very well and I think the nervousness will pass after she plays in front of people more.     She plays the violin which I think is a hard thing to play.  Her sister doesn't seem to mind playing in front of people.  She is a very out-going person and once she gets comfortable around people she has no trouble with shyness.  Not like her mother.

I watched 20/20 last night and it was on how the public school system in America is failing our children.  Our country falls at the bottom of the list when comparing the scores of a world test with the scores of the other countries.  How sad.  I guess I should stop being surprised when I call a company and my call is answered by a person who barely speaks English because my call has been sent to another country to be answered.  They called government schools a monopoly and since there is no competition they don't have to be better than anyone else.  In areas where there are charter schools, the charters schools have better student grades and the surrounding schools have better grades.  They said some good things but I was a little disappointed that homeschooling wasn't mentioned as an option.  Cyber charter schools had a brief mention when they were listing the different types of charter schools.  Some of this program was aired before last night but they had added some things.  One of the last things the reporter said was he hoped the program would get people discussing the issue, well, I have to agree that I hope it does too.  I'm not sure it will.  Not all public school teachers are bad but I know of many who are.  One lady has been a teacher for a long time and I constantly hear her say that a child (2nd grade mind you) acted up in class today so she is going to call the childs mother and tell her to get the child medicated.  I am disgusted every single time she says it and she says it often.  That is the thinking of some of the teachers in our schools and parents want to trust them when they say the school system isn't failing.  Now remember I said NOT ALL PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS ARE BAD.  I don't want anyone yelling at me thinking I am lumping them all in one big group.  There are some very good teachers out there.  Anyway, this is my vent on 20/20, all in all it wasn't a show that made me want to scream at the T.V. 

"Wake up America!"  Earl Pitts signing off every morning from the radio.

I was in Wal-Mart and saw all these mothers with their children buying school supplies.  I though about how times have changed.  They all had lists with things on them like crayons, notebooks, filler paper, markers, pencils, three-ring binders, and so on.  These were elementary children too.  We never had lists of things we had to bring to school when I was young, they gave us crayons and a new pencil and tablet every six weeks.  I wondered when they started giving parents this kind of list and why.  I miss the good ol' days.  I'm too young to have live in the Andy era but I wouldn't mind living in Mayberry.

We recieved our copy of Exploring Creation with Astronomy 2 weeks ago.  We have science books for the next couple years...But...Now that the Internation Astronomical Union General Assembly in Prague decided Pluto doesn't fit the criteria to be a planet and we have only 8 planets in our solar system, what will this do to our science texts?  What will all the major text book suppliers do?  Will they change all the text books?  Will the ones we have that we like and want to reuse for our up coming children, some who may not even be school age yet, be obsolete?  Do we need to purchase new text books next year because of this change?  What about selling our used text books, will anyone want to buy them since they call Pluto a planet?  I asked a lot of questions of which only one of them I really want an answer.  The question I am interested in is the one about the curriculum companies and if they are going to edit their text books.  I don't want to get sucked into the "this is a new and improved text" when in reality the only change is the Pluto issue.  I have seen some companies only change the front cover then market the new edition and people think they have to have it because we think new automatically means improved.  The truth for me is, if they only change the Pluto thing I will continue to use my used-not-new editions because I can tell my children of the Pluto change myself. 

If you want more information on the IAU's decision visit (no www)  spaceweather.com.  They have a write up and links to other sites with information.

I have a child entering 8th grade this year.  Not a problem, I had better get thinking right quick about how we are going to proceed with high school requirements, dipolma programs, and college (or trade school or none).  I want to be prepared for next year.  Okay, things are not too bad at this point we can go slow with math and get reading comprehension to a better level and while we are at it lets try getting the retention there.  Well, the 8th grader comes to me after we have started school (working on 21/2 week) and anounces the desire to be a science teacher .  I smile and as "are you sure?"  We have a small discussion on this possibility and I wait a couple days and ask again.  Why did this cause a "WHAT!" reaction ~ this student has not shown the least interest in learning at all.  We have spent countless hours reteaching and relearning the same math concepts.  Reading subject information just to immediately forget it, let alone try passing a test.  Missed problem after missed problem in math and English.  History, science, reading, etc. not paying attention so answering questions is Out of the Question and not really caring to learn the stuff.  Never having the desire to read a book...until...younger sibling learns to read and likes to read just for fun.  Math has actually been going well and English is not going too bad either.  We did have a bit of trouble with history for the first couple days so the jury is still out on this subject.  But the questions at the end of the section for science have gone well too.  So maybe this child is doing some maturing and is serious about being a science teacher. Maybe we had a break through of sorts and school will go well this year.  Younger sibling has been a strong academic student while this particular one has always been the sensitive-take-care-of-people one, very good at helping out.... Hmmm... Okay, now we rethink what we are doing and plan for college and be strong in math and science.  No problem.  I sorta feel like someone from Mission Impossible ~get this child ready for college as a science major, this is your mission if you chose to accept it~dum da da dum.  Okay, I will accept it, happily.  Maybe next month we will be preparing to be an accountant, one never knows where childhood fantasies may lead. 

I have been glued to the news channels the past few days keeping up with the Israel fighting situation and the UN vote then the London terrorist plot then the terrorists in Italy (although I didn't get a lot of information about this one).  Beside wondering how many other people where glued to the new, I was thinking about Humming bird's history suggesting that they keep current events logs and about all the things going on in the world right now and what that would mean for a current events log.  This isn't something that I am going to be able to be a spectator on, it is going to require active participation on my part.  There are so many things that a young person (I want to say child so bad) will not quite be able to understand.  I remember some things from my teenage years and it was a little scary because I didn't know all of what was going on and no one talked to me about it. I don't want my children to be scared, just aware; but when does that awareness need to start?  Is 7th and 8th grade too early? is 12th grade too late? is it better to bring awareness to them in 9th grade, 10th grade, or 11th grade?  Maybe a slow awareness to the events around them is better.  It was only a week or two ago I was wondering what a good magazine would be for this current events log, now I'm re-thinking the whole idea.  Not of doing the current events project, just of making it what is going on in the world.  I believe we will start small and more local by doing our current events on what is going on in our area.  We may expand it to say, the homeschooling community in the U.S.  But since Humming bird is only entering 8th grade, we have time to work our way up to what is happening in the whole world.

How I miss the days of Mayberry and Andy Griffith when every thing seemed so simple. 

I need to redo my planning, some things aren't working out quite how I would like so I am going to try sitting down the next couple days and over the weekend to tweek our schedule.  A goal I have set for myself is to be more organized with our daily log and the way we have our school papers so at the end of the year pulling everthing together for the evaluations is a breeze.  So I don't mind spending the time now at the beginning of the school year so I won't be crazy at the end.  Humming bird is getting to the age where she needs to start being responsible for getting her assignments for the week done and it wouldn't be fair for me to expect her to do that if she doesn't even know what is expected and when it is expected to be done.  I am working on a system that will allow both of us to look at it and know what is to be done and when it should be completed.  Some of my scheduling problems I think are from too much time allotted to some subjects and not enough to others.

I must say, it was a horrible first day.

  Humming bird didn't get off the first subject!!     We've moved up a level and now the questions aren't fill in the blank type, we actually have to read the material even if we find it boring   and formulate an answer from what we read.  Better luck tomorrow. 

  Night Owl moved along pretty well until it came time to a project in history in which drawing and coloring were involved.  Then the trip with dad to the Rx was needed.  At least we managed to cut the snacking down to a minimum.

 Busy beaver chewed and slept a lot today, not too exciting.

This is why I want to start early and hate Mondays.  Okay, I also want to take a long break at Christmas.

I have been reading blogs and posts on various homeschool message boards and one of the things I noticed was a lot of us vent about the questions we get asked about homeschooling.  The questions like "why", "how can you do it" (instead of how DO you do it), and the favorite "what about sociallization?".  The thing that gets people all up in harms are the answers we give.

Like:  Why ~ Because God tell us in the Bible we are to teach our children.

How can you do it ~ Oh, it's not that hard, there are a lot of support groups etc. If you think about it you teach your children from the day they are born.

What about sociallization ~ List of activites and groups the children are in.

What is bothering me is the fact that they ask me the questions and make ME feel like I have to defend myself.  So I am wondering what would happen if we started the questions and made the comments about their decision to send their children off to public school?  Or, I suppose a better way would be to answer politely with a happy positive attitude and after each of their questions we answer and ask them the same question in a tone of disbelief and curiousity but not an offending tone.

PS Mom: "What ever made you decide to homeschool?"

Happy HS Mom: "I feel the Lord has lead me to and (list verses that point it out).  Why would you send your children to public school and have them be influenced by all those non-Christians?"

PS Mom:  "How are your children going to learn to interact with people if they are home all day and not with kids there own age?"

Happy HS Mom:  "My children have plenty of time to interact with people besides our immediate family.  Since they are young and being trained in the way they should go, I like their interactions to be in a controlled environment.  How are your children going to learn to interact with adults and younger people if they are stuck in class rooms with only children their own age to interact with?"

You get the idea.  I don't think that everyone that asks questions means to offend but I do wonder what would happen if hsers were the ones asking the questions in stead of being the ones asked. 

Important:  I am not criticizing anyone.  Like I said, I have been reading and I also notice that some people have been taking peoples comments as 'your a bad person for not thinking my way' and that is not what this is about.  I am not the judge.  I also know people who should not hs. 

I was able to get a little time on the computer today, one dd found a game on-line  ,  so I decided to read some blog entries and try to learn something about this new interest of mine.  I found some good blogs, some short blogs, and some that had great graphics.  Since we are on the subject of learning, the computer using dd has been getting impatient waiting for school to start.  I heard a "can you order my math and science books today?!?"  And "How long will they take to get here? Maybe two weeks! NO!"  So now I'm off to make sure my plan for the year is in place.

Now to learn how to add all that stuff to my blog. 

To start off our school year I asked the Happy Learners to list the three foreign languages they would like to learn and then to number them in the order of the one they are most interested in first through third.  I was surprise by what I got.  They all wanted to learn Greek along with me and they are doing Latin, then they decided that they should learn Spanish since there are a lot of Spanish speaking people in the United States.  I also have Hebrew, French, Italian, and German on the list now. Only one child wants Hebrew and that was first on the list and only one wants German and is first on that list also, Italian is second on a couple lists and French is third on a couple lists.  So to try and get my mind wrapped around all these different languages and see what is the best way to proceed, I looked through the catalogs and did a little checking on the internet.  I am no wiser than when I started.  I know it will be an expensive venture to try and do all of that.  I know that there are many programs for a few languages and there are few programs for most languages.  I still don't know what the best program is and I don't know how to do so many languages.  I also don't know how many languges I should let them attempt to do.  I have a feeling that the Greek phase will pass as soon as we get finished with the first part of the program.  We are using Elementary Greek and it is a great program so far.  I really like it.  I have been wanting to learn Greek for some time so I figured I would take the time off this summer to start it and although it has only been a month since I have had any time off, I am enjoying it and will continue as they have 3 levels.  I am hoping to be able to read the Greek New Testement.  Okay, off to the dentist now and to ponder my foreign language delema. 

I am entering the world of blogging.  Something new to me but something that has captured my interest as well.  Who knows, I may stink at this .  It is a homeschool blog so I guess I will start there.  We have been homeschooling for several years now and I can never decide on curriculum from one year to the next.  I always think I will like something and either I don't like it or it doesn't fit the learning style of one of the little scholars.  Of course there is the issue of finances in the decision making process.  Recently I stumbled on Classic Education; so now I am trying that method for the most part.  I have been reading over the last couple weeks about self-education (in other homeschool bloggers blogs) and that has my curiousity radar bleeping.  I guess that is something I never gave much thought to but it does sound enjoyable.  Along with over-whelming, not enough time in the day, and how can I keep up with that and everything else!  We'll have to wait and see how that pans out.  Something else I was reading about is Latin Centered Curriculum.  That sounds great too, dump a load of subjects and focus on a few which will eventually get you what you need.  Then I remember that I live in a state that requires you teach a list of subjects every year!  I haven't figured out yet how that would work for us or anyone living in the states that mandate certain subjects but I am working on it. 

Have a blessed day.