Wow! It has been a busy month. We've started school. It's going well. Isaac and Julia are loving it :) I have been fairly relaxed with the two of them about "school". During their pre-school/kindergarten years, learning took place throughout the day when life would lend itself to teachable moments.
"Life" is the most effective curriculum parents can use to teach! (at any age)
This year, my little first graders have also begun more directed learning. They actually recognize "school" and enjoy it immensely. It gives them tangible evidence of their accomplishment when they complete an assignment - something we all love.
We're using:
Leading Little Ones to God Schoolland
Veritas Phonics
First Language Lessons Jessie Wise
Singapore Math
Story of the World Susan Wise Bauer
Handwriting Without Tears
Veritas Time-Line
Science and art are incorporated weekly with nature walks and projects using what we find.
And many, many books from Five in a Row and Sonlight reading lists as well as others we have accumulated throughout the years.
My big boys, Luke and Levi, are using Sonlight Alt 7. They are studying World History this year with the living books Sonlight recommends. They are also using:
Science topics from Classical Conversations (Levi)- Apologia Physical Science (Luke)
And a few supplemental materials for Latin and logic.
It is such a blessing to be able to have a direct role in training my children. There are many times throughout the day when acedemic lessons cease and life lessons are discussed. Praise God for leading me in this direction!
In other news... I am taking a class from our local technical college and working part-time. More about those topics another day.
Noah is THREE! My friend Kate at Our Quiverfull and her family (and friends!) are celebrating the birthday of this sweet boy today. He has many health issues and unfortunately his birthday party will take place in the hospital (nothing new for the Estes Family ). I have had the joy of spending time visiting with Kate and Noah during his hospital stays over the past few months. Noah is a beautiful child and although he is very sick, he is an active, polite, affectionate toddler. You can read more about this amazing "young man" at Kate's blog.
We now live in this pool. No, this is the only picture of the outside of the apartments on the web-site. I'm too lazy to go out and take a picture myself.
OK! OK! I'll go take a picture. This isn't actually our unit though. Due to sun and space issues, I took a picture of my neighbor's apartment, but they are all basically the same.
So far, we love it!
Living on the farm for a year was a great experience, but these city mice needed to get back to our comfort zone . So, we'll try this for a while. Stay tuned, you never know where we may end up next!
- My baby girl turned 5 today! My, how quickly time passes. She is such a girly girl. As I'm writing, she is sitting beside me in her birthday dress with her make-up in hand. She just gave me a good coat of lip gloss .
- She is such a sweetie. When I need to leave the house to run errands, she must give me a hug, then we each kiss our hands and place them on the others forehead, then a pop kiss on the lips, followed by one on each cheek. Then she says, "I love you Mom. Have a good day at the grocery store." (or where ever I'm headed) If we miss the order or mess up, we have to begin again. Our bedtime routine is about the same.
- She is consumed by the thought of marriage. Just a moment ago she asked me if I remembered the very first time I married daddy. Too funny. She wants me to pick out a good boy for her to marry. I love the idea of picking someone for her, but can we at least wait until she's 18! She says, "He has to look good and know about God and have a good voice and be nice and only if I like him, then I'll marry him." Believe me, I'm not encouraging the girl and it does worry me that she seems to be so "boy crazy", but I hope it's just because she see how happy Daddy and Mommy are and wants that for herself.
- She has already named her children too. They will be Farimere, Vorimere, and Elliot. Oh Boy! You would think having three older brothers, she'd be more of a tom boy - Oh No - All girl! After having three sons though, I wouldn't have it any other way!
- Speaking of sons, today is also my oldest son Luke's birthday. He turned 13 today. He just told me I may have to lock Julia in a closet because of the way she is talking about boys. I think he's right.
- He is such a responsible young man and a great help. He has worked diligently beside Paul (and Levi) this week cleaning out Paul's shop. He was hot and sweaty and smelly, but kept on working. Even today when unsupervised, he and Levi went out to work without having to be asked. Came in and fixed their own lunch and went back out to finish the job.
- He reads his Bible and prays without prompting from us. He can be trusted to give proper instruction to the younger children and not lord his authority as oldest over them. I am so blessed to have this young man call me Mom.
-- I don't mean this to sound flippant, but do you ever wish you could e-mail God with your Questions? I know the ultimate book of answers is the Bible. Sometimes though, it would be nice for a more specific question to be answered - maybe written on a blog .
-- If the behavior I've witnessed over the past week is "normal" for the majority of young men and women being raised in America, the future of our country is more bleak than I thought. On two seperate accounts, my family was on the front lines of teenagers in action. Their language was foul. Their intentions were dishonorable. Their temperament was disgusting. They had no respect for authority, elders, women and children, each other or themselves. Common courtesy appears to be an obsolete practice.
-- I guess I shouldn't limit the finger pointing to youth. I am from South Carolina, and we all know what the governor has been up to. Is this why young people act the way they do? Maybe their fathers have been more concerned with the mistress? How do you teach what you do not live?
-- Our country needs prayer. We need God's hand to reach down and touch the lives of Americans. We need fathers to pick up God's Word and be the spiritual leaders in the home. We need a solid moral foundation. We need our hearts to be turned back to the Creator.
-- Next year will be our tenth year homeschooling. When this journey began, I didn't know if it would last through the first year. It was a week by week, day by day decision. There were many frustrating times and many unknowns. I didn't feel qualified to teach my children. I didn't know where to buy curriculum. I didn't know of any support groups.
-- Throughout the years I have been involved with co-ops and tutoring programs. I've learned about various teaching methods and used several curriculum providers. I feel like I know a little about everything.
-- Yesterday I went to Children's Books to pick up next year's curriculum. I love browsing through the aisle's, pointing out all the books we have read, all the materials we have at home, all the new stuff I want and what we actually need. I love the feeling of leaving the store with a box of goodies ready to be explored. I am eagerly anticipating the arrival of the Fed-Ex truck later this week. The rest of the goodies had to be ordered. Makes me want to write lesson plans!
-- While I still have questions and am by no means an expert, I can confidently say that there is no where I'd rather be and no where I'd rather my children be than "at home".
-- Paul and I found this cool float at Sam's Club. We were in awe when we first saw it, yet decided it was best to wait and think about it before shelling out the dough. (Not our normal response. Usually the attitude is buy now and regret later. But we've been getting better lately.)
-- Several days pass and we head back to the store. As we're pulling into the parking lot, we're listening to the last laps of the NASCAR race. What an exciting finish! Then we walk toward the store and notice that it closed less than five minutes before... while we were sitting in the car!
-- The next day I call Sam's and ask about the price of the float and am informed that they are sold out. The gentleman said they sell quickly, but more are on order and will be there within the next two weeks. The first week I call daily fearful that I'll miss the shipment. By the weekend, still no floats.
-- I begin to look online at other Sam's stores. There are not any floats of this style within 100 miles and there are NONE in SC. The closest store with this float in stock is two hours away. But, not to worry, we love to drive. So, we made a day of it. We drove to Charlotte, bought our float, ate lunch and drove home.
-- What kind of float could possibly be worth all this trouble?
-- We had a professional take this picture of us. That's me in the front with blonde hair. LOL Just kidding of course. This is the ad. I couldn't get good pictures when we used it because I was afraid of getting my camera wet. And no one really looks good in the water!
-- It is soooooo worth the trouble. Paul and I took our four and three of their cousins to the lake on Thursday and had a blast. We went again today (Saturday) with just our kids and really enjoyed the day. We look forward to spending the summer in the middle of the lake on our own little island!
Julia: Mom, we didn't like the chicken and Chihuahuas.
Me: [puzzled look??] What Chihuahuas? (I know we have chickens, and she loves them - so I'm wondering why she didn't like the chickens and where did they see a dog?)
Julia: You know, that Luke made.
Me: [huge grin and slight giggle ] Oh! You mean the chicken enchiladas that Luke made for supper?!
Kellie at The Pirate Mom Dot Com is having a contest and giving away a copy of the book Crazy Love. Visit her web site for a review of the book and to enter. http://networkedblogs.com/p6174392
-- For all of my thousands of loyal blog readers who are tired of clicking on here to find the title "Mondays", this entry is for you!! (Mom)
-- Many new (to us) and exciting things are happening here on our little farm. We planted a small garden using the "by the foot" method. We used chicken poo for fertilizer. This being our first attempt at growing anything edible, the results have been pleasant, but not magnificent.
The layout - the kids have been a great help!
The first edible evidence
-- We also have little watermelon and canteloupe starting to grow and the butterbeans should do well. The tomatoes are not doing as well as I'd hoped, and the chickens ate the corn. - More on those little buggars later!
-- I don't have a current picture of the garden, mostly because I'm embarrassed of how weedy it looks. I'll work on that and show you soon.
-- The chickens.... well, what do I say about the chickens? These gals have access to over 100 acres of pasture, yet choose to peck and dig and poo in the yard instead. "Watch your step" is a common phrase around here. They took care of my strawberry plants one afternoon and only left the stems.
-- We have a designated hen house with nesting boxes that the nice girls use, but have found several chicken-made nests around the house. One of them had EIGHT eggs in it. It's an egg hunt around here daily! Again, "Watch your step!"
-- However, I can't complain too much because these ladies have been giving us around two dozen eggs a day lately.
-- I love the variation of shapes, sizes and colors. It's diffucult to see in these pics, but the lighter color eggs are actually blue and green!
-- On a sad note, we had to get rid of Breaker. He was our rooster and pet. The problem was, he was starting to chase Julia - or anyone under four feet tall. It was cute the first time, but when our little niece and nephew came to visit it was quite scary. He would fly up and put his feet in front of himself trying to spur them. The young man that picked him up said he would "let 'em out on tha farm". But, for all I know Breaker was dinner :(
-- Really sad that Julia cried and still says she wants to go get him back.
Breaker
-- Ok, stop crying. I've got some better news. The pasture has some new guests. A mommy and daughter set of donkeys. They are really sweet and even come to the fence and allow us to pet them. The cows don't do that, they run away if you look at them!
-- Lastly, a picture of Julia and my niece Trinity. They caught a couple of chickens!
-- I promise all my fans (Mom), that I will try to blog more often and keep you informed of what's happening at our humble abode.
I love Mondays. WHAT?!?! I know some of you love Mondays too! To me, it's a day to start all over, a fresh start to a new week. A day I can wake up and say, "I'm going to get it right this time." The little resolutions you made the week before can be put into practice.
I am going to eat breakfast instead of having only a cup of coffee/hot cocoa
You know the drill... I've only listed some of my weekly goals to tone up. If I were to write all of my personal goals, you'd be reading a book. I use Mondays to begin again. It's not a day to dread, it's a day to celebrate - like having New Years Day, but weekly. New Weeks Day - LOL - and Sunday night is New Weeks Eve.
My baby Julia will be 5 this summer and she is growing like a weed! She has always seemed older than her years. I don't think she was ever a toddler. That may be the reason I am having a diffucult time with this new transition -- little girlhood. It seems like yesterday I was asking the doctor if she was really a GIRL??? Now... we had our favorite hair dresser (Nana) give her a "trim".
Before
During
After
I think she likes it!
It will be so much easier to shampoo and brush :)
Check out that well in the background. This is on the back screened porch, right outside my kitchen. I'm glad I don't have to use the well, but it sure is cool to look at :)
There were several TEA parties in our area this week. The first was during the day on Wednesday, not the best time for a working man, and I didn't want to go without Paul. Thursday, we made the final minutes of a rally in Anderson. An estimated 200 attendees were present. Friday, however, was the biggie! In Greenville, SC, over 3000 concerned citizens gathered to let the government know that we are unhappy with the direction our country is taking.
- What an exciting day!! We have beautiful weather as we celebrate the Risen Savior, and praise God for His perfect plan.
- Noah was able to return home to be with all of his family on this Easter Sunday - praise the Lord for a "less eventful" hospital stay for this young man. I enjoyed the days visiting with him and his mom and continue to pray for strength and peace for the family. What began as a fairly uncomfortable introduction (as I entered the hospital room of a complete stranger - totally out of my comfort zone - and something I've never done before) became a friendship that I pray will last a lifetime.
- While I was at the hospital, I received a call from Paul saying our niece was having a scare with her pregnancy. She was 34 weeks along and the babies heartrate was dropping dangerously. The doctors had to take the baby this morning at 3am. The mother and baby are doing fine! The baby is right at five pounds and breathing on its own. This new little family still needs your prayers for continued recovery and especially for salvation.
- Here are some pictures of the Easter dress that I made for Julia. I'm really happy with the results.
Looking for an egg...
This one is plastic... they look for real eggs everyday
Julia and her sweet brothers playing quietly as instructed so Mom and Dad can get some much needed rest after spending the wee hours of the morning at the hospital.
When I began blogging a little over a year ago, I stumbled upon Our Quiverfull. I'm sure some of you have seen the picture of Noah and his baby sister with a call for prayer on friends' sidebars. This young man and his family have been on my heart for the past year, and he is in the hospital again. I'll let you read the full story on Kate's blog, it's too "medical" for me to understand except that this precious boy is very very sick.
I had the privilege of visiting with them for a short while yesterday. As large as this blog-universe is, I live less than 15 minutes from the hospital where Noah is admitted. Noah is a sweetheart. He has the most beautiful eyes. I enjoyed talking with Kate. She was very welcoming to this stranger. I walked into the room and said, "Hi, I'm Corey, a blog reader."
Noah isn't allowed to leave the hospital room because he has the flu and is contagious. Kate cannot leave the room because Noah doesn't want her to. So she asked me to get her a coffee from Starbucks. I have never been so glad to help! While we visited, we talked about family and a little about their MAW trip to Disney. Noah looked for Easter eggs and played with stuffed animals. I was truly blessed to meet them.
Please keep this beautiful family in your prayers.
Our area has been suffering a drought for a while now and the lakes near our home are terribly low. The docks are sitting on dry land and grass is growing up around them. We need the rain. But.... ugh! I shouldn't complain, but I am so ready for nice warm weather. We have had some "teaser" days that were wonderful - highs in the 70s or 80s, sunny. I love having supper on the screened porch and opening the doors to let the breeze blow through the house. The days of walking around in two pairs of socks must come to an end!
Cathy asked if the house on my avatar is ours and if I had any other thoughts on things we contract to others....
Yes, that's where we live, but it's not our house. The owner is our realtor that sold our last house and she and her husband needed a renter they could trust not to destroy it so they asked us to live here for practically nothing! We are so blessed to be able to live in such a neat place.
As far as your question about things we sub-contract to others, I was definately thinking about education and childcare (not us in that instance), but examining other areas as well. My duties as a mom are changing now as I no longer have a toddler in the house and I have a bit more time on my hands than I'm used to. I want to make sure I'm using that time in a way that is pleasing to the Lord.
So here is a question for all who read this: What do you think are some areas that we need to stop sub-contracting? Things that may be obvious to you may be easily overlooked by me, so please share your thoughts.
My husband Paul and I have been married for 14 years and have sons 13, 11, 6, and daughter 5. This is our 10th year homeschooling -14th if you believe like I do that homeschooling begins at birth.
). I have had the joy of spending time visiting with Kate and Noah during his hospital stays over the past few months. Noah is a beautiful child and although he is very sick, he is an active, polite, affectionate toddler. You can read more about this amazing "young man" at 
. 
. 
U-S-A!!!
I would love to be at 1 or 2, even 3, but I can't seem to get there and stay there. It is so frustrating! 
