Blessed Day Homeschool

Nick's English assignment

2009-09-03T15:13:00.000-04:00

In his English lessons this week, Nick had to write a paper based on a recent event. He chose the youth kick off party for church. I am so proud of this paper, it's here for everyone to see:

Not bad for an 8 year old 4th grader - first paper of the year!

As always, have a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

Back to school...

2009-08-31T10:32:00.002-04:00

Well, another school year has started, and this year's going to be a little different from the past years. First of all - the work is harder. Just ask my kids! As they grow up, school work is getting a little more in depth and not as easy as it used to be. Secondly, I'm working Tuesday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. I don't get home until after 2:00, so any help they need has to wait until then. That's also when we review their day's work. Monday's are normal. I am home to help with their work, if they need it, and I try to encourage them to get their work done quickly, so it doesn't take up the whole day. Friday's we have off. That's our favorite!

We've already taken a great field trip - we went to the Florida Museum of Natural History last Friday and camped at Ginny Springs - which was a blast. We saw Mastadon and Mammoth skeletons, giant shark jaws (with teeth!), a chickee (where the indians lived), a shell midden (basically their landfill), lots of things made and used by the Calusa and Tequesta indians.

We love field trips - still! That's definitely the best part of school, for us.

The campground was fun. There are seven different springs there and we played around in 3 of them. We went out into the Santa Fe river and tubed down a ways and then had to fight the current back into another spring to get out. We did that three different times. We rode our bikes - Nick rode his almost non-stop when he wasn't in the springs. They saw lots of fish in the springs and a cave down under the water. It was perfectly clear and freezing cold! One of the scuba divers had a thermometer on his watch and said it was 73 degrees. That's twenty-five degrees colder than our body temperature, for those who think that doesn't sound too bad.

Can't wait for our next field trip!

As always, have a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

Today...

2009-08-10T21:00:00.002-04:00

I am thinking… that I'd like to have this week off of work...

From the school room... it was our first day back to school and it was a success!

I am thankful for… everyone I love

From the kitchen… it was hot open-faced turkey sandwiches and all the fixin's

I am wearing… denim shorts and a colorful top

I am reading… just finished reading "So You're Thinking About Homeschooling" by Lisa Welchel.

I am hoping… that my husband feels better soon

I am creating… nothing at the time being... waiting on a new CM album to come in for my daughter's wedding reception photos to go into

Around the house… I wish I would have gotten the laundry all done today

One of my favorite things… to be able to spend a quiet evening home

A few plans for the rest of the week… I'm off to work, Randy and the kids get to go to the beach on Thursday (I'm jealous!) and then Friday, I'm off but the kids will have to do school to make up for Thursday.

As always, have a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

2009 Youth Mission Trip

2009-07-01T19:10:00.004-04:00

Randy and Ciara went on our church's Youth Mission Trip a couple of weeks ago, to New Orleans, and had an amazing time. I wish Nick and I could have joined them, but there's always next year.

They started off with a 30 minute delay, waiting for the Youth Leader and his family (who I heard had to drive back to their house for someone's missing pillow??!!) Anyway, they soon found out why they got a late start. On I-10, a pickup truck in front of them blew out a tire and our group stopped to help them change it. Not one of them were able to get the spare tire released from underneath the truck. It should have just come loose after releasing the latch, but it wouldn't budge. Randy and Tate (one of our Youth leaders) began praying, and so did at least one of the kids in the van. As soon as they were finished, literally-as soon as they said aloud, "In Jesus' name we pray, amen!", the tire dropped to the ground! This was with no one touching it right then, by the way! How exciting! The family they helped were on their way to Mexico to help build a church! Praise God!

While in New Orleans, 4 of our youth were saved during the course of the week! One of them accepted Jesus after a very emotional and spirit-let foot-washing ceremony.

One of the other kids asked to pray over an injured man who the paramedics were helping. One of them ( a very tiny, petite young lady) fell THROUGH the roof of a house they were working on and landed ON HER FEET - with no injuries!!! Praise God!

(if you can't read this - the headline says "through the roof!"

The kids and adults connected on a level that gave them a bond that will last a lifetime. I really would have loved to be a part of that, but am so glad that Randy and Ciara got to experience it! I have a new love and appreciation for all those who went, just from the stories I've heard about the trip.

I'm looking forward to next summer, already, so that we might be able to go on a "Family Mission Trip" and all experience God working in our midst to the degree that this fortunate group from The Connection got to be a part of.

Thank you to all of you who supported Randy and Ciara to make this trip happen for them. You made a difference in both their lives because of it, and mine, as well.

Till next time,

The End is in sight!

2009-04-14T17:33:00.002-04:00

We are nearing the end of our school year and we can see it coming! We only have a couple of weeks worth of math lessons (the truest and most welcome sign of the end of the year!) and everything seems to be winding down. We've scheduled the CAT tests for the first week in May and we'll finish the last of our lessons on May 15th. We are all ready for another year to be behind us.

Those of you who know me best will not be surprised that I am already planning out the next academic year. I've actually already started buying books that we'll need.

Now that I'm working part-time, we're changing some of the curriculum we've been using to some that are more student led. I think it's going to be a great fit for our family. We're looking forward to this year being finished, but I'm always looking forward to next year!

We enjoyed Spring Break this past week. We didn't do too much, but we did get to go to the beach for the day with some treasured friends. That was really nice! I can't believe we don't make the hour long drive a little more often and enjoy that beauty!

We also went camping for the weekend with some good friends. That was fun - the kids road their bikes endlessly, and we ate too much, talked too much and enjoyed seeing some wildlife. Randy brought the jet-ski and those that rode had a good time. We celebrated Easter out there by having dinner on Sunday afternoon. It was a great weekend!

I hope you are enjoying your Spring as much as we are!

As always, have a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

Stonehenge

2009-01-20T08:58:00.010-05:00

We've been studying Europe the last couple of weeks and the kids learned about Stonehenge on Thursday. We read about this amazing rock formation and the many theories behind it. Then, the kids made their own Stonehenge formations with graham crackers and frosting. They had a good time, until the structures started to fall down! Hands-on learning is fun!

As always, have a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

Getting ready to begin, again!

2008-12-29T16:27:00.002-05:00

We are mid-way through our Chrismtas Break and I've been able to revise all our lesson plans for the next semester and got all that printed out. I've got a list of items that need to be purchased for the first couple of weeks worth of projects and now I get to just enjoy the last of our vacation.

I look forward to starting in January almost as much as I do to starting in the Fall. It's like we got our refreshing and can now tackle the next half of the year with renewed energy. I'm looking forward to digging back in to our Geography study the most. I'm enjoying learning about parts of the world I've never learned much about before.

I'm also thinking of taking the kids to a new P.E. class that I just found out about. It's on Tuesdays and Thursdays and, unlike the previous class that we were going to, it's offered in the afternoon, which is do-able for our family. The class we used to go to changed to a morning class this past fall and we just couldn't make it. I'd love to have them involved in a regular, weekly physical education class again.

I hope you are all enjoying your Christmas Break and that you have a safe and healthy New Year!

As always, have a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

2008-11-08T20:35:00.010-05:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted here... almost a month. I've missed several of the Homeschool Blog Awards weekly blog posts, but felt like I should put something current on here! We took a week long break from school and took a cruise to Grand Cayman and Cozumel the end of October. We kind of called this a "Field Trip" since we are studying North American and specifically Mexico the week we came back. We had a great time! Here's some pictures from the ship:

Getting Foo Foo Drinks for the Sail Away Party!

Nick and Dad with their Foo Foo Drinks...

Ciara with her Foo Foo drink!

Sailing Away from Tampa......

Mom's favorite spot on the ship!

Nick celebrated his 8th birthday in Mexico! Here are some photos from that day:

We had some great beach time in the Cayman Islands - here are some of those pictures:

We had a great time together on this vacation, and were refreshed to get back to school for our second quarter of the school year.

As always, have a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

Fall Swap Goodies!!!

2008-10-12T20:44:00.004-04:00

I received the most wonderful package of goodies from my Swap Sister, Lori, and it was as if she was my best friend, she chose such great gifts to include in my package! Thanks for letting me take part in this swap! It was fun!

Here's a photo of all my goodies:

The pumpkin spice coffee is so good! It makes even the hottest Florida October days feel like a crisp fall day up north! You can visit my Swap Sister, Lori at her blog site http://allyouhavetogive.blogspot.com

As always, have a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

Snack Attack!!!

2008-10-03T12:27:00.004-04:00

"Awhile back Mother Dear received a question on what snack foods to buy for homeschooling families, on the go or at home, and she inspired this week’s theme. There are so many different kinds of snack foods, store-bought and homemade, and I would like to invite you to share what snack foods your family usually snacks on throughout the week. You’re welcome to make season lists too. I know there are different meals we eat during the colder seasons than we do in the warmer ones, and I imagine there are also seasonal snack foods as well."

We do, unfortunately, like to snack around here... a little too much, I think! Here are some of our favorites:

Fruit - mostly fresh, but sometimes applesauce with cinnamon

Yogurt - Nick loves yogurt, and would eat it every day if it's in the fridge, but Ciara, not so much. I like it, but it's got to be adult yogurt, not the kid stuff that Nick likes. They will both eat Gogurt, if they are frozen!

Granola and Cereal bars - these are a favorite... mostly because they are so sweet, it's almost like dessert.

Apples & Peanut butter

Cheese sticks

Goldfish or other crackers

Cookies - but usually only if they are homemade or specialty kinds

Chips and salsa

Popcorn

Homemade trail mix

Vegi's and dip (usually Ranch, but I've seen them eat other dressings, too.)

Ice Cream or Popsicles

Ok, now I'm hungry....rats....

As always, have a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

What did you do this summer?

2008-09-25T08:34:00.012-04:00

"This week I want to invite you to take a moment and post a Summer Photo Essay memoir. Starting from around the official date of Summer to this past week - just give a basic summary of your summer as I know someone of you are photoholics! Haha! Make sure you jot down your memoirs about each photo so everyone can read about your summer."

Now that it's officially over, it sure doesn't seem like we did a lot this past summer! I guess we did, by looking back over the photos I've chosen to represent our last couple of months, but it sure went by fast!

We started off by going to a surprise 40th birthday party for one of our closest friends, and it was done with an 80's theme - we had to wear 80's clothing, hair styles, listen to the 80's music, etc. It was a blast!

Then, we enjoyed hosting a graduation party (or what we call, an Open House) for our daughter and her boyfriend, who had both graduated high school in May. It was a great party and they really appreciated everyone who came out to wish them a bright future. Now, if she'd just get those "Thank-You" cards out in the mail!

We went to Michigan in June for a Family Reunion on my dad's side and really got to enjoy some time with our kids - everyone but our newest graduate... she couldn't make the trip due to work. We went to Cedar Point in Ohio and had a great time on the roller coasters while we were up there! We also visited my mother-in-law's grave, which we hadn't been to in far too long.

We spent a day at the beach with our friends - we found out that "Water-resistant" does not mean "water-proof" when it comes to sunscreen. Even though we applied it more than one time, we all got burnt! Especially mom... I couldn't move comfortably for a week! OW!

We had some feathered friends visit our front yard one afternoon. These sandhill cranes just walked right up like they live here too. They weren't too afraid of us, which I'm not sure I'm happy with!

The kids had an end of summer youth group gathering at the youth leader's house and had a blast playing "manhunt" and having a flour war.

I co-hosted a surprise bridal shower luncheon for one of our friends and it came off just great... she had no idea and neither did her groom-to-be. They showed up at our friend's home thinking they were coming for lunch, but really there were a group of women waiting for the bride-to-be to shower her with love and the guys all took the groom-to-be out for lunch. It was a lot of fun!

We love our summers, but we're always excited to get back into our school routine. Thanks for asking us to post this, and sorry the post is so late....we've been out of town on a field trip!

As always, have a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

My Favorite Things... er, Sites...

2008-09-18T10:12:00.008-04:00

"Since I’ve been making you work really hard on the previous Memoir themes I decided to take a little break, and do something fun! This week I want to invite you to share a few of your favourite things - er - sites. I know the list of favourite things could be never-ending, but I’ve made a list for you to do regarding your favourite homeschool things."

We've been asked to share our favorite sites in the following categories... here are mine:

Magazines/Carnivals - in print or online: I love cooking magazines, and Taste of Home and Simple & Delicious are two of my very favorites. I subscribe to online recipe magazines, too, like the one at MyRecipes.com.

Freebie sites - any sites that offer freebies or often have giveaways: I like the weekly homeschool free downloads offered at CurrClick.com.

Homeschool news/informative: I don't really follow any news sites, although I probably should.

Forums/book clubs: I am a lurker at HS Lounge and Vegsource. I would love to be part of a book club, and I have been considering asking my friends if they'd be interested in attending one if I start it.

Networking, Blog “About” (sites that offer tech-support or tutorials for computer/internet) & Quick Links: I don't use any of these, yet, but am glad to know I'll have a list of them to check out after this week's assignment!

Mom site - a sites just for moms: I like Lisa Whelchel's and Cindy Rushton's sites.

Inspirational/encouraging/motivational: I enjoy the daily devotional e-mails I receive from Proverbs 31 Ministries. You can find them at www.proverbs31.org

Youth/kid - sites geared towards youth/kids or owned by them: I don't visit any, other than the ones I use for obtaining homeschool lessons, games, etc.

Memes: This is the only meme I participate in, although, I'm thinking of taking part in Wordless Wednesday, since photography is one of my FAVORITE things!

Organizing/crafts - sites that you look to for organizing tips or crafts: I like two blogs for organizing helps: www.declutterit.com and www.orgjunkie.com

Homemaking/Homesteading: I don't have any "favorites" here, but I sure am enjoying reading every blog from the Mr. Linky on the weekly Homeschool Memoirs meme. I'm sure I'll find some new favorites after this week's assignment, though!

Bible-focused - sites mainly about God’s Word: Crosswalk.com

Homeschool Method - sites that offer a lot of info on a certain method: I don't have a certain method of homeschooling, therefore, I don't have any favorite sites for this one.

Family blog - sites that give you a glimpse into another family’s life, run by a family: Again, no favorites here, but hoping to be introduced to some new ones!

Businesses, particularly homebased: I don't have any in this category, either. I bet I will soon!

Thanks for the opportunity to share my favorite sites with others. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone else's favorites and probably coming up with some new fav's myself!

As always, have a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

What's new, they want to know...

2008-09-10T09:53:00.020-04:00

"Planning your homeschool is a lot of fun, especially if you’re going to be trying something new. Just like finding a shiny new penny you’re excited to use it. This week I hope you’ll share something new you’re using, why you’ve decided to use it, and if you have used it how you like it. Make sure to include the publishing information and where you got it from so others can look into if they like."

I love this week's theme over at Home School Blog Awards... I'm using a few new items this year, and we're loving them, so I'm glad I've been asked to share them. Plus, I'm going to enjoy reading other HS mom's posts on their new finds. That will probably give me new ideas for upcoming year's curricula.

Anyway, to begin, we are using a vocabulary program called Wordly Wise 3000 this year for both kids. They seem to be enjoying it, so far. It can be seen here: WordlyWise3000.com — Vocabulary Reinforcement for All . I had found a copy of it at our local used homeschool sale earlier in the summer and picked it up. Unfortunately, I assumed the 6 on the book meant Grade 6 and found that it was an older edition of the program and the number did not coincide with the grade. I liked the look of it, so I ordered the appropriate grade level for both my kids and they are doing well with it.

We are also using a new science curriculum this year. It's The Complete Book of Science by School Specialty Publishing. You can see them here: Complete Book of Science, Grades 5-6 workbook . Nick is using the Grades 3-4 workbook. I went through them and aligned their units so they are both working on the same topic at the same time (if possible), so that we could do all the experiments together. We are really enjoying this science curriculum, even though it is not from a Christian perspective. I am just making sure we discuss anything that sounds like it's contradicting Creation. It's got enough workbook pages for them to do that it makes me happy and enough easy, hands-on experiments to keep them happy.

We are using Handwriting Without Tears - Cursive 3 for my son. He learned printing using the D'Nealian style and it's incredibly hard to read his writing. His HWT cursive is beautiful - granted, he's taking his time in the workbook and that's probably why all the letters look so nice, but I can't wait for him to be through the book and start writing his work in cursive (so I might actually be able to read it!). You can find Handwriting Without Tears here: Why It Works Handwriting Without Tears

My son also struggled on his end of the year test with spelling. This really surprised me, since we did a 2nd grade workbook for spelling and he got one word wrong out of the entire year! When we got his scores back from the CAT test, his spelling was pretty low. I saw the mistakes he made and they were all phonetically explainable choices. For example, for the word "neat", one of the ways to spell it was "nete" and to a phonetic reader, that could be right, since we all know that an "e" followed by a consonant and a silent or sneaky "e" will make that first "e" long. Anyway, he made many, many mistakes like this, so I realized I needed to find him a spelling program that would cause him to learn to spell without relying on phonics. I did a few searches on the internet and found AVKO's Sequential Spelling program. It sounded like just what he needed. We're on the 16th day and so far, so good. He's really learning how to spell, as opposed to just memorizing a list of random words for a week and then forgetting them. Their program is found here: Sequential Spelling

My final, and favorite new find is our Geography resource. We've done history in many fashions during the year's we've been homeschooling and never enjoyed it very much. I guess an exception to that was fourth grade, when we studied Florida history, and we liked it a lot because we did a LOT of field trips! Anyway, I never remember learning about Geography when I was in school - although that was a very long time ago, so maybe I did... and I'm terribly challenged in that area. I found Geography Matter's program called "Trail Guide to World Geography" and it sounded like something we would all enjoy. Even with the difference in ages, we could do it together, which was a huge plus. We are having so much fun with it and really learning a lot, too! You can find the program here: Trail Guide to World Geography by Cindy Wiggers . We are using these recommended resources along with it:

All of these resources can be found at the Geography Matters website - linked above.

I'm glad I was asked to share our new resources with you, it was fun and I love promoting products that I'm truly happy with.

As always, have a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

Routine... we have one, but do we use it???

2008-09-03T08:26:00.015-04:00

"I am sure some of you are still getting into your homeschool routines. I know some people are very routine oriented while others may be more “day-by-day”, and it all depends on your family and what works best for your life-style. This week please post what your planned homeschool routine is. The theme banner should give you some ideas on how to do that. I had fun making that and adding in real info (except for the times! lol).
When you’re done posting your routines please share your prayers for this school year."

A few years ago, I bought and read Steven & Teri Maxwell's book, "Managers of Their Homes" and worked up a schedule for us. I update it yearly, when I'm working on the next year's lesson plans. It looks fantastic on paper... but, do we follow it? Honestly, for the school hours, we do, well at least, we follow the order of it. The times might not always coincide with the schedule. Once school is done, I usually forget that I even have a schedule and don't give it another thought. I bet life would run better if I used it, though, so, thanks to this week's theme... I'm going to give it a solid try next week when we resume school. We've taken this week off.

Here is a copy of our schedule for this year. I tried to post it last week when we were talking about Agenda's, but I couldn't get it legible, so I gave up. I took it over to paint and saved it as a .jpg file, so let's see if it can be read in this post:

Yay! It's legible! I'm learning! In real life, it's colorful, each of us have our own colored font, but that wasn't showing up well as a picture on this post, so I edited it.

I also have a written routine for keeping up with the house. I haven't actually been faithful to that, either, but have high hopes that beginning next week, I'll start being more diligent. We had company stay over on Sunday night, so our house is in pretty good shape. It will be easier to start a weekly cleaning routine when I'm beginning with a house in relatively good state of cleanliness. That weekly routine is here:

If I could just stick to them, my life would be so organized that I wouldn't recognize it. I guess that's one of my prayers for this school year. That I would be more disciplined about using these schedules and routines and that I can get the things that have to be done accomplished so that we have time to have fun. Another prayer is that we are able to enjoy learning more this year than any other. I don't wanat it to be all about what we get accomplished during the year as much as memories of how we got there. I want my kids to enjoy school, and not feel it's just a required part of our day and we need to hurry up and get through. I'm thankful God is my principal, so I can bring my troubles, fears and frustrations to him for guidance. I'm also thankful that I have the opportunity to teach my children at home.

Thanks for letting me share these with you, and as always, I hope you have a Blessed Day in your homeschool.

Lisa

This week's theme...

2008-08-27T09:53:00.022-04:00

"This week’s theme is about sharing your 2008-09 homeschool agendas and plans. So this week I hope you will share what you’re doing this year for your homeschool agenda. Share the different curriculum you’re using. You can also include what age/grade you’re using it for, how long you’ve been using it, and why you like it. Please share a Bible verse that has encouraged you or inspired you during this planning-process, and how."

My favorite part of homeschooling (other than the field trips!) is the planning! I usually get started in the spring for the following year. I love to plan out what is to come. I use a program called Homeschool Tracker and it really helps me with getting everything laid out. I even printed my kids their own Agendas this year, with personalized covers and bound them. They love them. Each day's assignments are on a separate page and they check off each subject when it's done. There is also a place to put scores if they've taken a test or done something else that I need to keep track of the grade. Then, I can just pull their agendas every couple of weeks and enter their grades into the computer.

I decided to use several curricula that were new to us this year. Of course, we stayed with some tried and true favorites, as well. We kept the Saxon math and the Bob Jones English and then added almost everything else new.

For Bible, we are using Character Building for Families - which we actually began last year, but I didn't follow through too well with it. I switched early in the year to everyone reading their own Day to Day Bible. The Character Building for Families is working out better this time... I think we were all ready for it this year.

Both kids struggled with vocabulary on their end-of-the-year tests, so I figured I'd try Wordly Wise 3000 with both of them this year. It is going well, both kids enjoy it so far. The second week, several of the words from my daughter's list were in a book she's reading for pleasure! I explained how that was God showing her how useful doing vocabulary as a school subject is!

Nick also had a hard time with spelling on his testing, but did fantastic with his spelling all throughout the year. That told me he could memorize words for a week, but he really wasn't learning how to spell. The choices he made on the test acutally sounded out correctly, phonetically, but we needed a new type of learning because most of them were wrong! I checked around and found AVKO Sequential Spelling 1 to be what it seemed like would help him. We are a couple weeks into it and he's doing great!

I'm also using Handwriting Without Tears 3rd Grade Cursive program with him. I should have done this instead of teaching him D'Nealian printing from the beginning. His printing is so hard to read, but so far with HWT, his cursive is beautiful! And, he's writing it when he isn't asked to...that's a plus!

We are using GeoMatter's Trail Guide to World Geography instead of a history program. I never learned Geography in school and wanted my kids to have a better grasp on where places are in this beautiful world of ours, so I decided we'd use that as our base and learn some history of the countries we're studying. We're having a good time with that curriculum, as well. I can teach to both of them, and then they do individualized work based on their grade. They are able to do some projects together, which is fun. Here is a picture of the Terra Cotta Soldiers that they made, representing the 8099 life size terra cotta soldiers buried in China:

For science - a subject that I lack interest in - I decided to go with The Complete Book of Science for each of them, based on their grades. There are a lot of worksheet pages, but a lot of hands on learning and experiments, too. I think that was a great choice as well. I planned out the year lining their units up so they would be working on the same topics at the same time. They seem to like it and they really look forward to whatever experiments we're doing each week. Here they are with their snails, which Ciara has to observe for 2 weeks:

I'm assigning reading to both of them, and if the book is on the Book Adventure site, they are taking the quiz after reading. They are also both reading for pleasure this year, a lot more than in the past. We finally found a series of books that Ciara enjoys and she's reading more than doing any other free time activity right now (I'm a reader too, so this warms my heart!)

I've used the Manager's of Their Homes guide to set up a schedule several years ago, and we're trying to stick as close to it as we can, at least during school hours. I'm still having trouble fitting in the housecleaning, but I think that's a defect in my brain - I just can't seem to make it a top priority! I tried to post a copy of our daily schedule here, but it's so small you can't read it. (Can anyone explain to me how to put a picture in a post that can be clicked on to enlarge???)

I hope I haven't droned on and on and bored you to death. This is the first year I've felt entirely comfortable with my curriculum choices, and we're having a great start to the year.

Edited to include our verse for this year: "I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you." Psalm 32:8

Hope you are having a Blessed Day in your homeschool,

Lisa

All About Me...

2008-08-23T10:33:00.010-04:00

"This week, we want to hear about YOU. The author behind the words. The Momma behind all the homeschooling kiddos. Just write up something about you, your family, and your home. How long you’ve been homeschooling and why you decided to homeschool."

This is the first weekly theme from Homeschool Blog Awards. I've decided to participate in this meme, mostly because it will give me an incentive to update my Blog more than once every 9 or 10 months! I've wanted to post more regularly, but I've just not made time for it. Now, I've got a goal, and a motivator - thank you Homeschool Blog Awards!

Ok, about me... I'm a 42 year old, child of God, stay-at-home, homeschooling mom. I also handle the office end of my hubby's contracting business and am active in our church. I have been married to my Jr. High Sweetheart for over 24 years! We have four wonderful, beautiful children, two of which are already adults. We did not homeschool them... by the time I'd considered homeschooling, they were in upper Middle School and High School and they were WAY smarter than me, so I just let them finish out their Advanced Placement and Honors classes in the public school system and they turned out just fine... both are in college and working and terrific people.

My hubby and I met the summer before I started 9th grade and we've been together ever since. We married a month after I graduated High School. We lived in Michigan. Right after we married, my parents retired to Florida. We stayed in Michigan about another 2 1/2 years and then decided to move down to Florida, too. I've always been very close to my parents, and couldn't live 1200 miles away from them any longer! We ended up just a mile away from them, and we've been so blessed because of it.

We lived in a mobile home when we first moved down here, that my dad had arranged for us to buy, sight unseen. It was very, very old, and pretty small, and in an All-Adult park of about 10 trailers. It was cheap enough that we could afford it no matter what jobs we were able to get. About 6 months after we moved in, it was destroyed by a tornado and we had to find a new place to live. God's grace was upon us, even though we weren't aware of it, even back then. We found a new trailer to buy, with the insurance money from the old one, and continued making small monthly payments to the owner of the first trailer - which he had agreed to, for us. Right after moving into that new trailer, we found out we were pregnant with our first child. Amazingly, God had already gotten us out of that "Adult-Only" trailer park, which was a huge blessing, since we would have never been able to sell that old trailer and get into something else, somewhere else.

Anyway, we got pregnant with our second child about 8 months after the first one was born and I knew we wouldn't be comfortable raising two children in a tiny mobile home, so we started looking for a home to buy. We found one getting ready to be forclosed on (which back then, the realtor couldn't tell us, he just advised us to "bid low"). We bought our home, moved in before baby number 2 was born and we are still living here 19 years later! We have added on to our home so many times that we've actually doubled the square footage of it.

We were both working full time and raising our children when my hubby decided he wanted to try starting a business of his own. He'd been in construction since he was 17 years old, so we took a leap of faith and he began his own drywall contracting business. After about 3 years of him being in business, I was finally able to quit working and stay at home.

At this time, our third child was about 1 1/2 years old. I did preschool with her when she was 4 and she just shined! We both really enjoyed that year! When it was time to put her in Kindergarten, our local school's principal (who had been the elementary principal when my two oldest went to that school) decided to take a new job at a charter school and about 17 of the teachers from our elementary went with him. I panicked! It was summer and all I could think was that we were going to have nothing but substitute teachers teaching and with my daughter being so smart and so social, she would be nothing but trouble to those inexperienced teachers. (I have to edit this to add I don't think all substitute teachers are inexperienced...but in our county, they only have to have graduated High School or obtained their G.E.D. and pass a test to be a sutstitute - the test is at about an 8th grader's level - they'll let anyone basically be a substitute here and we have many, many subs who have never gone to school to be teachers.) I checked out Christian schools in our area, but they were so expensive, and she knew almost everything that they would be teaching her in Kindergarten already, except how to tie her shoes!, I didn't want to pay $300+ a month for that! Two of my good friends (who had both gone to school to become teachers and actually had teaching degrees!) talked me into trying homeschooling, as that's what they were going to do with their children who were also ready to start school. I resigned to homeschool "just kindergarten" as it was easy... she knew almost everything anyway, and I couldn't mess it up, much. We jumped in, loved it, and we've been going strong for 6 years now. Our fourth child was born in 2000 and I began Kindergarten with him when he was just 4 years old. We've had a two student classroom for four years now (three students if you count me, as I am learning a lot right along with them!)

Well, I'm sure I've typed and told way more than anyone wanted to read, and I'm sorry if I've bored you. If you're still reading this far in, thank you for your patience! I'm hoping to get to know some more Homeschooling mom's through this meme! I'd love to hear any comments you have about my post.

Until next time... I hope you have a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

Lisa

Easing back into the routine.

2008-08-18T20:05:00.004-04:00

Well, after a long, hot, rainy summer, we are back to school. We are using a lot of new curriculum this year, and we've completed a week and a day at this point and all's well! The kids even told their friends that we had a "great" first week back to school. That warmed my heart.

Nick got sick midway through the first week, and after giving him some medicine, I found him asleep on the couch with his science book open across his chest. I felt so bad for him. You know what I did? I took his picture! Then, when he woke up, reminded him that he still needed to finish his science. He's got a tough teacher this year!

Ciara is struggling through a Heroes of the Faith biography and it's got me wondering if I need to require these later in her homeschool journey. She is just now really loving reading for fun, and I certainly don't want to bog her down with books she doesn't care for. Especially when there is so much good literature out there for her to choose from. I think after she finishes this one, I'll put the rest of the series on hold until high school. Maybe I'll have her read the Around the World in Eighty Mysteries books that I bought to go along with our Geography Trail Guide studies. They seem like much more fun for a 6th grader!

We're having a hard time getting up on time in the mornings, especially with us having caught a bug of some sort. We're still getting started earlier than we were at the end of last year, but I'd like to start earlier so we can be completely done with school by lunchtime.

I just joined the Blogger Class Mates 2008-2009 group tonight and am anxiously awaiting my first assignment. If you are interested in getting to know more Homeschool Moms and like to write, check it out. The information is here: The Homeschool Blog Awards » Blog Archive » Blogger Class Mates 2008-2009 It sounds like it's going to be fun!

Schooling on the road...

2008-04-18T11:53:00.016-04:00

We had a great trip to North Carolina recently, and got some schooling in on our trip! We had cold, windy, rainy weather most of the days, but we were fortunate to have a couple of days where the sun was out and the temperature wasn't frigid, so we ventured outside!

We started off the trip visiting with good friends of ours who recently moved up there. The day we arrived was exceptionally chilly and grey and we were welcomed into their home by a roaring fire in their fireplace. I could have stayed in their living room, in front of a fire for the whole week! We enjoyed hanging out with our friends very much .

From their house, we traveled to Kill Devil Hill and Kitty Hawk. On the way there, we stopped at Digger's Dungeon, which for those of you who don't follow "Monster Truck's", is the home of Grave Digger, my son's favorite Monster Truck and it's driver, Dennis Anderson. They have a store there that sells Grave Digger merchandise, and the shop is there where they work on the truck. There were trucks outside, and giant wheels, too, as they had just had an Easter Egg Hunt on their property the week before and apparently needed somewhere to hide eggs. While we were there, my hubby recognized the voice of the owner of Grave Digger, speaking to some people who were apparently putting up a diner on the property, soon to be opened as "Digger's Diner"! He went over and asked if we could take a picture of him with our son and he was more than happy to oblige. What a nice guy! He talked to us for a while and then we went on our way, deciding that was the highlight of our trip! Above are a few photos of that fun stop!

We also got to see (and play on) the largest sand dunes in Eastern North America at Jockey's Ridge State Park. Our pictures don't do it justice, but it was awesome! We climbed huge dunes and then the kids and dad rolled down them... they loved it, although dad was dizzy and couldn't get his balance for a few seconds after the rolling stopped.

We visited the Wright Brother Memorial and saw where those amazing first flights took place. We saw replicas of the first planes and where the gliders took off from, as well as where the first successful powered flights lifted off from, and how far (or not-so-far) they flew! We learned a lot about the Wright Brothers and already knew some of it, from our previous study on them.

We got to see the world famous lighthouse at Cape Hattaras. It was beautiful! I'm hoping to be able to frame one of my shots of this scene and hang it in our home!

I'll try and post soon about the rest of our trip!

Have a Blessed Day in your Homeschool!

Springtime....Planning time!!!

2008-03-26T08:44:00.002-04:00

This is officially my favorite time of the school year... Springtime! Even though we're all looking forward to the current school year to be finished, I can't help getting into the planning-for-next- year mood! I love to plan the upcoming school year. I love looking through the curriculum catalogs and websites and trying to imagine what would be best for us to use in the coming year. I keep a few tried-and-true basics... Saxon Math, Bob Jones Writing and Grammer, but the rest usually changes from year to year.

I had been considering a local co-op for next year, but after a lot of praying and talking to a few friends, decided against it. My kids are doing amazingly well with what we're doing here at home, and I don't need to add anything more structured to it right now.

I'm planning on doing a Geography study this year, in place of history, and I'll use the same text for both kids. I found what appears to be a great book, Trail Guide to World Geography, which looks really interesting. I think it will be a fun study for all of us (especially me, as I am terribly geographically challenged!). I'm looking forward to studying not only the geographic location of different parts of this world God created, but the people, culture, history, etc. of the world. I hope my excitement is matched by my children's in this area!

For science, since I feel I've been a little lax as a teacher in that subject, I'm going to use The Complete Book of Science for each of the kids, in their grade level. I hope this will give them a well rounded year's worth of science, so that next year, I can begin the Apologia Science series with them. That series teaches a specific type of science in each book, so I'll feel better if they get a little of all areas of science this coming year, before honing in on specific branches in the following years.

I'm still not sure what I'm going to use for spelling for my youngest. Right now, he's using a 2nd grade workbook from Scholastic and he's doing great with it. I don't know if I'll just purchase the 3rd grade book in that series, or if I'll switch to something else. I haven't found anything that I love the looks of yet, so I'm still looking.

I think I'm going to have my oldest start Rosetta Stone's Spanish this coming year. I'd like to commit to studying it with her, but we'll see! LOL!!! I feel like one of those old dogs that just can't learn any new tricks!

We're studying the Civil War this week, and going to see the re-enacters at a local battle site this Friday. Unfortunately, we'll miss the re-enactment of the battle, but we will get to tour the grounds, and learn all about how the soldiers and their families lived during that period of history. We will be leaving for a week's vacation to North Carolina on Saturday, and will be visiting some great historical areas of the Civil War, which will add a little more hands-on learning to our studies. We're looking forward to the trip. Especially because we're getting to visit some wonderful friends who recently moved up there, that we miss very much!

I hope you all have a Blessed Day in your Homeschool,

Considering a Co-Op

2008-02-29T08:53:00.002-05:00

I've been invited to enroll my children in a local Homeschool Co-Op and I'm actually really considering it. A couple of my friends have their children in this particular group and from some of the things I've heard, it sounds like a great experience. I've asked some of the ladies for more information, and I'm going to go visit and check it out later this month. My daughter was completely against it until she found out that one of the kids at church that she really likes is in it. Now, she's totally up for it. You can tell where her priorities are!

I'd love to hear about any experiences that any of you readers have had with homeschool co-ops. I've been doing this at home, alone for so long, that it's a little intimidating to think someone else will be teaching my children, and finding out how much they already know.

The parents are required to either teach a class, or assist in 3 classes, if I have understood that correctly. I don't know that I'll feel confident enough to teach anything right off the bat, so I'm sure I'll be assisting and learning from 3 other teachers. Although, maybe they'd let me teach cooking. I might be able to handle that!

As we're getting close to spring, I'm getting the FEVER! I'm ready for school to be wrapping up. I've ordered the kid's testing materials for the end of the year, and I'm happy to see us have fewer and fewer lessons left in their books to cover.

We took a day off last week and went to Sea World. We took my dad along with us and even my hubby was able to join us in the afternoon. It was a great day. We hadn't been there in a long time, so it was fun to see some of our favorite shows. I want to hit the beach soon, too, before it gets too hot and too crowded. Maybe we can take some of our school work with us and go on a week day. The kids probably won't mind doing their daily reading out on the beach! I know I wouldn't!

Remember, if you've had experience with a Homeschool Co-Op, share it with me. I'd love to hear about it!

Until next time,

Have a Blessed Day in your Homeschool!

Six months have passed...

2008-02-05T08:23:00.000-05:00

Since we lost my mom, and I keep feeling like she's coming back. Like I've gone long enough without having her around and God's going to just give her back. Sounds crazy... doesn't it? I feel crazy sometimes. I miss her more than I ever knew would be possible. I'm glad for her that she's in heaven, in the presence of our Lord, but selfishly, I really wish she was still here, with me.

There are restaurants that we "always" used to go to, and when I drive by them, I feel so sad that we won't ever get to go there again, together. I used to take her to the doctor about every other week, and even driving down that road, I get sad. She hated having to go to the doctor so much, and get her blood count checked, but we always enjoyed our time together, so I even miss those doctor appointments.

We had our annual SuperBowl party Sunday evening, and it's the first time in as long as I can remember that she wasn't over here pigging out with the rest of us on more food than we could possibly eat in one evening.

Three of my children have had birthday's since she passed, and my hubby's was yesterday. I don't like that we have to go on without her here to celebrate with us. I cried a lot yesterday. My sweet 7 year old, (even though I had yelled at him just about all morning because for some reason, he can't remember any of his addition facts) - came into my room while I was sobbing, looked at me, and said "I miss her, too." I know he does, and he's going to miss out on her the most, as he's the youngest. My oldest kids will be able to look back at so many years of memories with her, but my little guy only got 6 years with her. It's hard to remember stuff that happened when you were that young. I don't want him to not have memories of her when he's older. It just makes me so sad for him.

I know that God has our days numbered, and that he has a plan for each one of us, and I really believe that He took her home when it was her time, but I have so many thoughts in my head, all the "what if's" that I have such a hard time with. "What if I hadn't told her she needed to have the surgery?" "What if I'd insisted they keep her in the hospital another day after the surgery was done?" "What if I'd been with her when she said she felt she was going to die?" I have to force myself to remember God's in charge and it was His decision, not mine, that brought her home to Him.

I wish I could dream about her. At least I'd feel like I got to spend a little more time with her. There are days when I feel really sorry for myself, as I'm the baby of the family and I think things like "my brother got to have her for 58 years", "my sister got to have her for 51 years" and "I only got to have her for 41 years, and it's not enough!". Man, I'm a mess!

I am so thankful that I treasured the time I did get to spend with her. Living only a mile a way from my parents was the blessing to all of us that I knew it would be when we bought this house 19 years ago. We DID spend a lot of time together. I DID make her a priority. She DID know how much I loved her. My kids DID share their life with her. She WAS the best mom I could have had, and I told her that time and again. I believe she's in heaven cheering us on, loving us from above and patiently waiting for us to join her. That is the blessing... I will see her again. And, she's enjoying this time with the family that preceeded her to heaven. Her baby sister that she never got to see grow up, her parents that she lost before I was ever born, her three brothers that she just adored. And our Jesus, that cared for her and about her since God first thought her into being. If I could just stay focused on everything I just wrote in this paragraph, maybe I wouldn't be such a mess!

Well, it's time to get started with our school day. I'm grateful that I had a place to express all that I've been feeling, here on this blog. I'm sure it will be something I'll come back to and read occasionally. Thanks for letting me share my heart about my mom.

Have a Blessed Day in your Homeschool!

Well, it went better than expected...

2008-01-29T08:42:00.001-05:00

I introduced History and Science books to the kids yesterday and had them both read a certain amount in each subject. My 11 year old had to also answer the review questions after her history chapter. There was no complaining... I couldn't believe it. The 7 year old actually said he enjoyed the history and was looking forward to what he had to read today! The 11 year old enjoyed her science the most, but that doesn't surprise me. She doesn't care much for history, but I never did either, up until the last few years.

We had a great day yesterday. It was the 11 year old's birthday and we went out for lunch and did a little shopping after school. She got to pick out some pants and a pair of shoes. She had asked for gift cards to the stores we went to so she could shop, but I thought it would be more fun to actually let her shop on her birthday, instead of just giving her the gift cards. She also got her own Wii controller and green sleeve to put on it.

We had all the kids and their significant other's here, along with my dad and his sister and her husband, who come down each January for a couple of months. We ate dinner and then had a great cake - Cookies and Cream - from Target. She had a good day and I was enjoying having all my kids here for the evening.

The kids stayed up late last night, so they are still asleep at 8:45 this morning. You'd think I'd have gotten more done with the extra quiet time this morning, but all I've done is read my bible and get on here to update my blog, looked at a few coffee maker's (I want a thermal one... dh gets up much earlier than I do and by the time I get up, the coffee tastes terrible!), and read my mail.

Well, I'm off to try and find us another Field Trip to enjoy. That's the best part of homeschooling, in my opinion, and I'm wanting to be sure we have something planned for February.

Thanks for checking in with me, and until next time,

Have a Blessed Day in your Homeschool!

Over the half-way mark...

2008-01-27T21:04:00.000-05:00

Anyone else nervous about how much schooling we still have left to do before this school year is up? I am... we have been doing school since early August, but since we started a week after my mom passed away, I wasn't exactly in the right frame of mind for school. Thank goodness that I had already planned my beginning lessons out back in early summer, as I do every year. If I hadn't done that... I doubt we would have started school much before now. Anyway, most of us, who go by a more traditional school calendar, are now a little over half way done with our school year. This is the point in the year that I always wonder if I'm doing enough, if my kids are far enough along in their subjects, if I've chosen the right curriculum...

We're getting ready to add some more traditional work to our schedule. I've been using the Beyond Five in a Row curriculum, and all though we have absoultely LOVED this style of learning, in addition to Bible, English, Math, Spelling and independent reading... I feel my kids are lacking in the history and science areas, again. These were the two subjects my kids didn't excel at during last year's testing. So... after looking through my bookshelves to see what I already own... I've decided to add some History and Science into our schedule.

I have a few great Christian Liberty Press books that I bought last year when friend from church had a "Going out of Business Sale" at the Christian Book store he owned. I'll be starting "A Child's Story of America" with my 2nd grader and "Exploring American History" with my 5th grader. We'll actually be adding them in beginning tomorrow.

I had some Harcourt Science books on the shelves, too, so we'll be starting those as well. I'm expecting that I'll feel a little more comfortable with the amount they've covered in these two subjects the closer we get to testing day, although, I'm sure my kids won't think the extra work is necessary.

We love Beyond Five in a Row, though, so we'll also be reading our last book for the year, "Betsy Ross", from the Childhood of Famous American's series and keeping up with some of the FIAR lessons from the manual.

Anyway, I just wanted to write a bit about the aprehension that I feel every year at this time. You see the end of the year in the near future, and know that you don't have the WHOLE year ahead of you anymore to get in all that you intended. You might make adjustments and that's the blessing of homeschool... you aren't bound to any specific path... you get to make your own.

Thank God for the ability to homeschool our children!

If you, too, are struggling with the "mid-year anxiety"... I'd love to hear from you with how you're dealing with it.

Until next time....

Have a Blessed Day in your Homeschool!

Don't ya just love a good Field Trip???

2008-01-24T20:52:00.000-05:00

It started with a chapter of "Homer Price" where a dress was described as "Robin's egg blue" and developed into a field trip to see bird eggs and their respective birds! That's how we homeschoolers think! And any thing I can relate a field trip to, all the better!

We spent a few hours at our local Audubon Center for Birds of Prey and had a great time! We originally thought that only a few of us would be going, but I asked around and everyone wanted to go. We had 5 mom's and 12 kids! We did a self guided tour, but the employees (or possibly volunteers) at the center took some time out of their day to show our kids some wonderful bird related goodies and even bring some birds out on their arm and talk to the kids about each one. We got up close and personal with a bald eagle, a barred owl, a caracara (my favorite),

and a beautiful hawk, although I'm not sure what kind.The kids asked some great questions, and we really enjoyed the outing. Homeschooling is awesome! We get to get out of the house, go somewhere new, spend time with friends, learning about the fantastic things that God made for his Glory and our enjoyment, and call it "school"!

The kids got to hold feathers, entire wings, beaks, talons, all kinds of cool things! There's just nothing better than "hands-on" learning!

The kids even got to sit in a lifesize Eagle's nest!

What a blessing!

School's back in session!

2008-01-08T10:34:00.000-05:00

We started back to school yesterday and had a good first day back. When my dad came over for dinner last night, he asked my seven year old how school went, and the reply was "It was fun!". I'm not sure what made it fun, but I am thrilled he perceived it that way!

We have started the Beyond Five in a Row study for the book Homer Price by Robert McCloskey. I don't recall ever reading this book as a student, but I'm enjoying it as a teacher. We are expecting to enjoy this book, based on the first chapter.

My fifth grader is reading "Island of the Blue Dolphins", by Scott O'Dell. I don't believe I ever read that book, either, but my eighteen year old daughter keeps insisting her siblings need to read that book in 5th grade, because she did in Public School! So, I caved. Actually, it wasn't because she said we needed to read it, it's because it's one of the books on Scholastic's site that they have BookFiles on. Here they are, in case you are curious about what a BookFile is: Scholastic.com Homework Hub: Scholastic BookFiles.

I'm looking for a good book to read right now, as I just finished Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon and after that, I read "The Choice" by Nicholas Sparks. They are both great books, but now that I've finished them both, I'm not sure what to read next. We're off to the library today, so maybe I'll find something interesting.

I hope you are having a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

Happy New Year!

2008-01-03T20:43:00.000-05:00

Welcome to 2008! What a great start to a new year...we have had beautiful, cold weather, which in Florida, we don't get much of and I'm loving every minute of it! We spent the day today bundled up and walking around a shopping center, taking advantage of the after-Christmas sales. I had almost forgotten what it was like to bundle up, walk into a shop, take off my coat, look around, bundle back up and go back out into the cold, stop at another shop and do it all over again. As much as I enjoyed it, I'm glad it only happens a few days throughout the year down here!

We're getting ready to start a new semester of school on Monday. I'm looking forward to it, in a strange sort of way. I'm really planning to do a much better job this semester than I did last. We're going to read more, explore more, and enjoy our time together more.

We have also started daily bibles and plan to read through them this year. I'm reading the Daily Bible in Chronoligical Order shown here: The NIV Daily Bible: In Chronological Order, Softcover - By: F. LaGard Smith - Christianbook.com. My 10 year old is reading the One Year Bible for Kids shown here: Amazon.com: The One Year Bible for Kids NLT: Books and my 7 year old is reading the Day by Day Kids bible shown here: Amazon.com: Day by Day Kid's Bible: The Bible for Young Readers (Tyndale Kids): Books: Karyn Henley. By the end of the year, we will have all read through the bible, which has never happened before. How exciting!

I have also started a new, healthier way of cooking for this year. Each night for dinner, I've used a new recipe out of Cooking Light's SuperFast Suppers cookbooks, shown here:
Amazon.com: Cooking Light Superfast Suppers: Speedy Solutions for Dinner Dilemmas (Cooking Light): Books: Anne C. Cain,Anne C... all of the meals so far have been winners - my hubby, my kids and even my father have all enjoyed them. We even had friends over last night with their 7 year old boy and everyone enjoyed the meal. I highly recommend this cookbook for anyone who is looking for easy, lighter recipes.

Well, it's getting late, so I'm going to close this post.

As always,

Have a blessed day!

Trying this again!

2007-12-29T21:22:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm going to give this blog a try, again! I'd really like to have a blog like the others I've seen, so I'm going to take it one day, or week, at a time and see if I can try and keep this one current.

We've survived the wonderful Christmas season and are pushing on towards the New Year with me being very expectant of a complete change of heart and attitude where my teaching is concerned. Ever since my mom passed back in August, I just haven't had the heart that I used to to dig into school with the kids. I've only been doing the bare essentials and believe me... the kids haven't been complaining, but I'm disappointed with how it's been going. I have resolved to do better when we start back up on January 7, 2008. I'm going to get us back onto the schedule that was working so well last year, and make school more of a priority. Anyone care to hold me accountable???

We are using Beyond Five in a Row and getting ready to begin Homer Price. This should be fun. For a 10 year old girl and a 7 year old boy, I think this book is going to be one of our favorites. I'm even goaling to do some lapbooks or at least notebooks for documentation of our learning.

I want this blog to be a documentary of our homeschool journey, so I'm really going to try to keep it updated with what we're studying, what we're learning and how we're learning it.

I hope you'll come back and join us on the journey.....

until then.....

Have a Blessed Day!

Lisa

A New Day!

2007-04-30T10:48:00.000-04:00

I'm new to blogging - I had a blog over at another site, only posted a couple of times and have trouble accessing it most of the time, so I thought I'd try life out over here! I am a homeschooling mom with four children. Our oldest two have gone through the Public School system and are doing great, the oldest being in his Sophomore year at college and my next oldest doing wonderful in her Junior year at High School. Our two youngest are home with me, and we're loving it! I've been homeschooling for 6 years now, and we really do enjoy this way of life. I'm hoping to be able to keep up with this blog, to record some of our learning online for others to share with us. We're getting read to go back to Five in a Row this fall, we haven't used that curriculum since my 4th grader was in Kindergarten, but, I think we'll really enjoy going back to it. I'll be schooling a 5th and 2nd grader this fall and we're all looking forward to FIAR.

Have a blessed day!