Dec. 30, 2007 Holiday Cheer and Schoolwork too!
As I reflect back over the last few months I think about how wonderful this school year has been so far. I gave the boys the week off last week but it was not really needed, given the fact that they really have had no problems. I knew with the holiday excitement they would need some time to play, visit with family and hang out with their friends. I did not want school work hanging over their heads.
This year we have been using Time4learning and it has been the saving grace that our family needed. We have been thrilled with the Math, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies lesson studies. The boys reflect back to lessons often and we are thrilled that they are retaining so much!
Time4Learning is the greatest online program that we have found.
I am looking forward to this years tax season because I know that the boys will be able to keep up on their lessons while I am at work, no matter where they are spending the day. Spring will be here before I know it and with the rate they are going they will hopefully be on track with everything and with some extra stuff in the summer they will be ahead next year! The boys love Time4Learning almost as much as their father and I do!
Our holiday time is almost past and we have enjoyed the relaxed nature of it. I really think that they might not have even complained if I had asked them to do a day of school here and there but everything has been going so well I figured they deserved a break! |
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Dec. 14, 2007 Prayers Needed for my Friend
This is my friend, please take a moment to think about her today and keep her in your prayers. Thank an officer of the Law today for keeping you safe.
ATHENS, Ga. --
An Athens-Clarke County police officer working off-duty at a Kroger was viciously attacked by a man with a butcher knife, police say.
Officials say Sgt. Courtney Gale was working off-duty in uniform at a Kroger grocery store on Alps Road in Athens Tuesday night when someone told her about a suspicious man who was opening meat in one of the store?s aisles.
Gale approached the man and authorities said he ?wantonly and viciously? attacked her with a butcher knife they believe he stole from the store.
Officials said Gale received numerous stab wounds and hospital officials said her injuries are serious.
Other citizens in the store were able to help the officer and subdue the suspect. Athens-Clarke County officials said after a brief foot chase, they arrested Steven Anthony Eberhart, 44. He has been charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault, felony obstruction and misdemeanor obstruction.
Channel 2 has learned the officer?s family is coming from out of town to be with her at the hospital.
An account has been set up for the officer at SunTrust Bank. Anyone interested in making a donation to this account may do so at any SunTrust branch or mail to SunTrust Bank, Attention: Heidi Spratlin, 1022 Prince Ave, Athens, Georgia, 30606. |
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Dec. 4, 2007 Back from Florida
We are back from sunny Florida and a little sad but very glad to be home. Did not get to see the grandparents while we were there because of a heart thing that my grandfather is having but we were able to get all our work done on the tile floor!
The boys were able to pull off a couple days of schooling online even though it was dial up and tough to do. Thanks to dad we brought the laptop with us and I got assignments done! It was nice to stay in touch via email, blogging, etc....
I was thrilled with our field trip to Kennedy Space Center and we all learned a lot. The boys enjoyed every aspect of the trip and even though we did not have enough time, we got to see a lot!
Enjoying home even though it is cold and chilly up here... Now maybe my legs can heal up after all the no-seeum bites that I have all over! |
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Nov. 22, 2007 Happy Thanksgiving!
"Thanksgiving puts steel into our patriotic veins.
It reminds us or our great heritage.
It carries us back with numbing nostalgia
to that first dreadful winter at Plymouth where
less than half the handful of people survived.
It speaks in clear, crisp tones of forgotten terms, like: integrity...bravery...respect...faith...vigilance...
dignity...honor...freedom...discipline...sacrifice...godliness."
[Charles R. Swindoll] |
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Nov. 17, 2007 Always teaching, Always learning
The truly neat thing about home schooling is that everything is a learning lesson of some kind. I knew this but once in a while someone who I am talking to points out to me that everything we do is used as some kind of lesson somehow.
For example, The boys and I went to visit a friend who broke her leg and will be in rehab for 5 weeks. This is not a fun place to go, people are sick, old, or hurt and young children don't exactly enjoy to be around for to long. The boys were polite and were excited to see our elderly friend. On the way out we stopped by the rec room because we heard chirping and they wanted to see what it was. To our surprise there were 3 big cages of birds in there and the boys had a great time talking to the birds and enjoying them. About the time that we were ready to go a dog walked into the rec room and the boys took a minute to say hello to the very mellow dog.
We were heading out and another dog walked up the hallway and a cat was not far behind. The boys visit turned from being discouraged to very pleasant. On our drive home they asked why there were animals in a hospital. I talked about the healing powers of pets and how having pets around sometimes really helps to brighten spirits of older people who are all alone at the rehab center for most of the day and night. Visitors are always so nice but having the animals around really help people heal. They thought that it was so cool that they would allow the animals to be there and they talked about the next time they went to visit that they would make their elderly friend go down and see the birds!
Just one more life lesson that was interesting and exciting for them.... Every time we come across something new it is an adventure for them but is fun for me to see them learning. |
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Nov. 7, 2007 My Dear Qbot.....
Here is my note to my son..... It is just amazing this year since we switched curriculum over to Time4Learning. He has always been ahead. We knew that we were going to home school him way back when he was just 3 years old.
He was adding double numbers before he got out of the pre-k program that we put him in. When he was in the 1st grade he would struggle with reading and writing. I would give him a math sheet to do and he would come back minutes later with it done.
Last year we stopped everything except reading to get him where he needed to be to take his 3rd grade ITBS test. He passed but we knew that he was not where we wanted him to be. He really has been struggling but now everything seems so much better.
Dear Son,
I am so proud of you. You have been doing Time4Learning now for 3 months and you have come so far. Your reading is so much better with the help of science and social studies holding your interest. All that hard work that your doing is really helping! I am proud of you and know that you will continue to excel.
I know that you enjoy your math and hope that you keep pushing forward to learn and grow. I am proud of you for helping your younger brother do some of his 2nd grade science and social studies lessons. I know that you you don't realize how much that helps you with reviewing and with reading but it does.
This has really been a good year for you so far and I know that you will continue to do well now. Keep your eye on the goal and you will achieve something so great!
Love, Mom
Eventually he will go back and read the blogs that I have wrote. He will know how proud I am of him and how much we stood behind him..... I wish great things of both my boys and I think that this year we are all more comfortable and relaxed. Things are going along so smoothly and we are grateful for the Time4Learning program and the people there! |
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Nov. 6, 2007 Keeping up, Staying on the learning path.....
This year is so nice. Other than the fact that I hate Sept, Oct, and Nov because we are so busy. Things are starting to slow down a bit. Soccer is over but we are still busy every weekend through December.
I like my boys to get through normal school work in the morning; they are more focused and they seem less apt to wonder all over the place. This leaves the afternoon for projects, free time and whatever we had planned. One night is cub scouts, one night is Karate, one night is family night.
Time is slipping by so fast. It seems as if it was just July and August and we were swimming every day! Now it is almost Thanksgiving and then it will be Christmas. Everything moves so fast... I miss the days when they were small but am enjoying them now at this age.....
As a family we are looking at a program for learning Spanish. I think that I have one that we might use. It is a free program that gives "real time" speech and helps you at least learn how to speak a bit, understanding things like "hello, how are you?" and "I am fine, thank you." I want it to be able to communicate a bit with some of our clients and the boys have been making up language so I thought it was time to get them learning something new. |
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Oct. 23, 2007 How is it......
How is it that one minute you are fine and dandy and then next you want to strangle the two little beings that you are watching? My kids chugging away at their schoolwork today and for some reason decided that doing their science together would be so much more fun......
It started out fine but in the old cliche "boys will be boys", they start wrestling while sitting in the same chair.... A favorite mug gets tossed in the scuffle and breaks and while I'm on my hands and knees looking for the pieces and trying to wade through the mess around their desks (that got picked up rather quickly by them when I was done cleaning up the mug...) I go through the whole "you have to take this serious" type discussion that they hate......
Some days its cute... Today was not one of those days and I just needed them to be cute.... Oh well. there is always tomorrow.... Cute will again come. it always does.....
October is almost over and that means soccer is almost done and we can get on with being not so rushed and busy.. Thankfully...... On a great note.. My youngest son, who has issues with his confidence, scored his first goal ever! YAY for us!! |
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Oct. 23, 2007 I am myself first, then I'm a Teacher.
Yes, I am a teacher; I home school my children. I have realized that I don't define myself first as a teacher because as a parent it is my responsibility to teach my children. Funny how this thought just entered my mind this morning. It might be the decaff coffee rather than the regular coffee.... My brain just not waking up. I only get a couple cups of caffeine anything and I did not go to the store to buy coffee.
If I was to describe myself, I would not start with "I am a teacher".... It is not first in who I am or what I do with my life. I wonder if it is bad not to first think of myself as a teacher?
I am myself first. I don't look at myself as anything more than who I am. I am a wife and a mom. I am who I am and who I always have been but now with the addition of kids.
My kids have got to be better off with someone who is strong and defined rather than someone who is trying to figure out who they are... I would think....
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Oct. 19, 2007 Our Wonderful Life!
We do have a wonderful life! We live on a very tight budget, We don't often see movies or go out to dinner, we shop at the goodwill for pants that will fit and we often pay bills "to get by".... We live on (basically) one income and have tremendous family support! But our life is wonderful and this year homeschooling is even better!
Last spring we met two young boys and a mom who was kind of like us.... A while later we met the dad.... Our two families were so much alike it was eerie! They used Time4Learning and she talked about it all the time. I was so not interested in an online program but by the time fall rolled around and we started school we were met with disgruntled children.
I tried the lLesson Demos and the boys begged for more! They are now using Time4Learning every day and there is never an argument about school work. They love the science and social studies lessons and both of them HATE math, even though they are pretty good at it and they get through it!
Our house is calmer, we have more time for other stuff, family and field trips and my life is so much easier not having to "hunt" materials.
Our wonderful life has been made so much better... We are happy, healthy and now have a great curriculum!
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Oct. 17, 2007 Welcome to my Homeschool Blog
Welcome to Home school 101..... I am not an expert but I have learned a thing or two over the last several years. My eldest son is 9 and ultimately we have been home schooling him since he was born. My youngest son is 6 and there was never a question that he changed our lives and was very different from his older brother.
Home schooling at first was a necessity but has now become a passion and a love of ours. We have all had to adapt and grow through the years.
I was originally totally against online schooling and my husband and I stuck tight to a book curriculum, being kind of eclectic in that we stuck with mostly Modern Curriculum Press and then using a wide assortment of all other kinds of material that I could find.
Our lives took a drastic turn last year when my youngest officially started school and he moved so quickly through his kindergarten work that we had to pull out the first grade work to keep him mildly interested. We soon figured out that he was breezing through that and we began to slip in second grade work that was left over from his brother. I would not call him "gifted" for several reasons but he is pretty smart. The problem became when his fine motor skills could not keep up with where he wanted to take his brain and he was just frustrated by not being able to write and ultimately learn.
My eldest son was a late reader and even when he turned 9 he was struggling, forcing us to give up every other concentration and only focusing on reading. We used every possible thing we could think of to get him reading and it just did not happen for him. He finally wanted to do something in an on-line game so badly that it forced him to "learn" to read. (my youngest son was 5 at the time and learned to read on his own without our knowledge so he could also play the on-line game with his brother)
I must say we were happier with his reading but it was still not where it needed to be. He passed his 3rd grade IBTS testing but I was not satisfied and we needed something. Time4learning had been passed around the table at our homeschool group and I never did pay attention for two reasons. 1. We as a family spent a great deal of time on the computer and I could not imagine the boys doing their school work on line also and 2. It cost money and on our limited budget we could not imagine having one more expense.
I was so very wrong. Time4learning has not only saved us but we have developed such a rapport with the company that I could honestly invite them to Christmas dinner without even thinking about it. Our house is calmer, my boys are driving their own studies at their own pace. My 6 year old is thrilled to learn and both boys enjoy their assignments and lessons.
And that is your history lesson for the day.... Stay tuned for updates on how it is going this year. I really wish I had a record of last year so I could compare. People would not belive the difference in my children, my home and our life!
TTFN
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