Homefree Academy

Prayer Request Update

2011-12-20T06:21:00.002-06:00

Two days ago I asked for prayers for our 8 week old kitten, Moses. He steadily worsened, and by that evening I feared he wouldn't make it through the night. I syringe-fed him bits of water, and tucked him in my jacket to keep warm, because he was so listless and lethargic he just kept going off alone to huddle miserably.

Yesterday morning I took him to the vet. The vet said his intestines felt "enlarged", and he thought Mo had a bowel obstruction. The only way to find out for sure was an x-ray, which cost $135, which I simply could not afford. And even if I COULD afford the x-ray, I couldn't afford the $1000-$1500 the vet said surgery would cost. He prescribed antibiotics "just in case" Mo's intestines were enlarged simply due to his enteritis, and told me if there was no improvement we might have to "put him down". I am adamantly opposed to euthenasia, especially for a tiny kitten whose only fault was coming into a family who doesn't have bill and grocery money, let alone such a large expense as surgery.

Moses had his first dose of antibiotic at 10 a.m. By 1p.m. he was eating a tiny bit of soft cat food. At 3:30 he came mewing into the kitchen, so I offered him more, which he again ate. At 8:30 last night he AGAIN ate a small bit of food. At 10:30, instead of huddling alone somewhere, he jumped into bed with my husband and I, and happily lay purring between us. I awoke this morning to him SCREECHING for food, and he ate 3/4 of a can!

He SEEMS to be well on the road to recovery. Thank you to all who prayed for our special kitten, and thank you to God for healing him. I can't think of a better Christmas gift for my daughters : )

Christmas Break and a Prayer Request for our Kitten

2011-12-18T06:51:00.005-06:00

The girls finished their first half of the school year Thursday.

E completed:
>3 out of 5 units of English.
>101 out of 176 lessons in Math
>19 out of 34 lessons in Spelling
>a lot of handwriting practice sheets (not sure how many; I didn't count)
>6 out of 8 units in Health
>2 out of 24 lessons in History (I'd planned it that way. We'll concentrate on History second semester.)
>science intermittantly

C completed:
>1 semester plus 3 more weeks' worth of Hewitt's Lightning Literature/Writing
>8 out of 14 chapters of Math
>um....over half of Social Studies...I forgot where we left off before thanksgiving, but we will be moving on to a year long study of American history and the Constitution in January
>9 out of 16 modules in Science
>has only 5 pages left in her second (intermediate level) book of violin in only 6 months of lessons. She loves playing, but detests the exercises. She wants only to play SONGS.

After over 3 weeks of trying to get a straight answer out of their dad on whether or not he was going to have them for a visit over christmas break, his wife finally called at 10:00 a.m. Thursday morning to get them Thursday afternoon. We put a rush on E's last 3 review lessons in English, took her unit exam (she got an 88% ) while C took her Module 9 science test for science, and managed to pack and get them off for an 8 day visit. They will be back Friday, just in time for Christmas Eve and Christmas. The timing works out perfectly for a home schooling mother who usually never has a moment to organize and wrap gifts without children around.

One last thing...our 8 week old kitten, Moses, is VERY sick. He has a severe case of roundworms, which has resulted in him getting enteritis, an infection in his digestive tract that is fatal to young kittens. He can not keep ANYTHING (food, water, medicines) down, and is hovering between life and death. The girls and I LOVE Moses very much, although C is especially fond of him. C has requested that instead of Christmas gifts, I use the money for Moses' vet care, and to also take all of HER money to help pay. The vet and I are doing all we can, but it is very serious. We would appreciate any prayers for Moses to get well soon and live a long and healthy life. This kitten is very loved and special to us.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

School Update

2011-11-18T05:51:00.002-06:00

This is, so far, the best school year we've had. Both girls are progressing well.

In 3rd grade, E has completed 95 out of 176 lessons/tests in her math. She continues to learn math quickly, and just breeze through. She has completed 16 out of 34 Spelling lessons. She is still working on becoming quicker with her handwriting, but her neatness and spelling have grown by leaps and bounds now that she writes the majority of her work in cursive. E is consistently reading longer chapter books; her favorites are currently the "Boxcar Children" series. She isn't doing science as a formal subject right now. We are almost finished with her Health book, and we dropped her McRuffy science, due to it's lack of explanation, and she and I's lack of interest in the boring way it was written. We will be doing Abeka science when we finish Health. E is also loving her Abeka 3rd grade History and Geography when we get to it, but we will concentrate more on that the second half of her school year.

The subject I am most impressed with this year is Rod and Staff English. For years I have heard all the rave reviews from other home school parents about this program. Yet through 2nd grade I went the "gentle, "Charlotte Mason" style of learning for E's language arts due to her handwriting issues. I thought Rod and Staff might be too "hard" or too vigorous for E jumping in at the 3rd grade level, but I was wrong. Rod and Staff is PERFECT for her! She just completed the second unit (out of 5) and she has done exceedingly well so far. Our gentle, yet repetitive, approach to English the last 2 years prepared E perfectly for R&S's textbook. She and I do much of the textbook orally, doing only 1 or 2 of the written assignments per day, plus the extra worksheets for extra written practice. These first 2 units have been mostly review of what she already knew well...nouns, pronouns, and the 4 types of sentences, so we will see how she fares with Unit 3, which is on verbs.

C is progressing through her books well, also, although we've had a few minor setbacks. She is doing well with Apologia's General Science. She loves the experiments, and the book is written in a very interesting, and easy-to-understand fashion. She is just finishing the 7th module. She is also doing well with BJU World Studies, but MAN is this the most boring book we have ever read! Both C and i agree we will not be using BJU for History or Social Studies again, simply because it is such a struggle to read and stay awake. LOL However, it IS a good overview of our World, both past and present...just very dry.

C and I are both liking Lightning Literature. The reading selections are good, except for "Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland", which we just finished. We did this book as a read-aloud, since I had never managed to read it as a child. Although we both could barely stand the book, it IS a good example of creative writing. About the only thing I liked about it were the puns. The rest of their selections, even the poetry, have been excellent, and C has done well, and even (though she won't admit it) like the written assignments.

Our major hurdle this year for 7th grade is Math. Last spring and summer she had done the first 5 chapters of BJU Fundamentals of math. It was taking her an hour, to 2 hours, per day. She detested it. I loved it, and thought it was a wonderful math program. I decided, though, to keep her interest in math, to try "Life of Fred" math. I thought maybe, since C loves reading, and hates doing lots of math problems, that the humorous storyline, and the greatly reduced written problems, would appeal to c, and math wouldn't be such a struggle for her. Well....she loved the humorous story line, but she proved (by her slipping grades) that she NEEDS the repetition and drill work of a standard math textbook. So after wasting the first 6 weeks of school this year on "Life of fred" we have gone back to finish BJU's math. We are currently in the middle of chapter 7. Not only does C need the repetition of 30 or so problems a day, she needs MORE practice, and we are doing EVERY problem...doing the odds on day 1, and the evens on day 2, and the quizzes on day 3. So it is going to take us until high school graduation to finish 7th grade math! LOL

In other news....we are still working one day a week at the no-kill animal shelter, although some weeks we go in twice a week. All 3 of us love the work, although we are always sore and exhausted (even the girls) on the days we work there. Next week we will be working both Wednesday and Thursday, as they are very short of help on Holidays. That's fine with us; we will just have Thanksgiving dinner Friday, a day after the actual holiday. It matters not to me which day we actually eat our big dinner, but it matters to the 300 plus cats that there are people to feed, water, and clean their cages, let them out to exercise and give them love and attention.

My oldest daughter, 20, (technically an ex-step-daughter, but both she and I consider ourselves true mother and daughter) lives back in the area, and we have been seeing lots of her. She will be joining us, of course, for Thanksgiving. She is in the process of moving this weekend, to an apartment only a few miles from our house.

And a week ago C came rushing in the house out of the freezing rain and brief snow we got exclaiming, "Look what I found!" In her hand was a tiny 3 or 4 week old kitten, so we have a new addition to our already over-populated feline population. To be truthful, the next morning I took him in the to shelter we work at, but after 3 hours of work the girls and I went back to check on him, and just couldn't bear to leave such a tiny creature in a cage all his life, so...we took him back home.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We plan to take most of the week off of school, and concentrate on animal shelter work, and prepping for a huge meal with family.

Brief Update

2011-10-18T18:59:00.002-05:00

Well, I never thought I'd survive without a computer, but it has been 6 weeks since mine died for good, and I'm actually making it just fine. I can check e-mails, and get on google from my phone, but that's about it, so I apologize for being unable to post anything here for awhile. And most likely it will be several months before I am able to get back to posting regularly on here, as my finances are in no shape to be buying a new computer anytime soon. I'll try to pop in from time to time, though.

In a nutshell....we have:

-been doing VERY well with school
-lost our dear dog, due to diabetes, very suddenly
-begun working one to two days a week at a local no-kill animal shelter, both girls and I...it is very hard work, but we all 3 love it!

AND....

-celebrated C's 13th birthday! We had a wonderful time doing special things for a very special, hard-working girl, for a very special birthday...after all, you only turn into a TEENAGER once!

We are all doing fine. Hope anyone reading this is, too.

: )

She Had to Wait 8 Years, but E had a Dream Come True Today....

2011-09-05T18:16:00.004-05:00

She got to ride a CAMEL! This girl LOVES camels, and in fact up until recently she wanted to BE a camel when she grew up. LOL

Don't worry, C got to have fun, too. Here she is jumping around on the bungee cords.

The girls and I enjoyed some beautiful weather, for a change, and went to a Labor Day Festival/Fair about 30 miles away. We rode rides. played games, ate fair food, fed animals, and wasted too much money, but it was worth it to see them have so much fun.

Hope you all enjoyed your holiday weekend, too!

We Had A Wonderful Day Yesterday

2011-08-30T06:10:00.002-05:00

As I said in yesterday's post, I wasn't much in the mood to begin school this year. But, thankfully, I had already had our day planned for over 3 weeks, and sometimes you just have to MAKE yourself do what needs to be done.

Our day began a little later than I like, about 10 before we started, which was fine, since I didn't have much actual WORK planned. Since C's school year usually starts in late winter/early spring, she was already partially through 3 of her subjects. She had 1 new set of books....Hewitt Lightning Literature for 7th grade, which I introduced to her, and we did the first day's assignment. I have also TEMPORARILY switched C's math from BJU Fundamentals of Math (which she had finished 35% of) to Life of Fred math. We are going to try Life of Fred on a trial basis, and I am keeping the BJU Math in reserve to go back to at any time. Life of Fred Math is COMPLETELY different than any other math program I've ever seen or heard of, but both C and I liked it---she did the first 2 lessons. C also did the next lesson in her World Studies. We didn't do formal science yesterday.

E had also already been working in some of her books, so there were 3 we didn't even go through....Horizon's math 3, McRuffy science 3, and her Cursive writing book. As you know, she finished learning all her cursive letters, and now will simply have 1 copywork sentence daily. New to E was Abeka Health 3, Abeka social studies 3, R&S Spelling 3, and R&S English 3. We went through all of these, and she did the first lesson in English. I doubt you have ever SEEN anyone so thrilled to have a "real" textbook" and her own spiral notebook as my little E. She is used to workbook-type materials, and has never had a textbook that she can not write in, and must use separate paper, and she couldn't be more excited about it! LOL

Together the girls and I are reading aloud Joy Hakim's "History of US", which is a 10 volume set, so I doubt we are able to get through it in only one year, but we began it yesterday. We are hoping within the next year to begin being able to do some extensive traveling around the country, so we decided we wanted to read United states History together to learn more about WHERE we will be going.

After school, I gave the girls their "First Day of School" giftbags, which they, of course, were surprised by, and loved. In the afternoon we went to the park for a couple of hours. God blessed us with such BEAUTIFUL weather to be outside and enjoy, and we only left because we were all extremely hungry. LOL

I had several more BIG blessings throughout the day yesterday, some good news for my family and our future. When we got home and were waiting for hot water for C's bath, the girls and I played 2 games of "Spell Up Count Down", so we ended up just having a wonderful day from start to finish.

I pray such an auspicious first day is an harbinger of how this whole school year will go. If only ALL days could go so well, have such beautiful weather, and be so fun for the 3 of us...Thank you, Lord, for such a perfect day yesterday. : )

First Day of School 2011-2012

2011-08-29T07:16:00.002-05:00

I normally start school the first Monday in August, so we're a bit late this year. The girls visit to their dad for 2 weeks, and we took last week off so they could get back into a routine, with bedtime and chores, and to unwind from summer.

So we start today. I have all the books and materials. I've done all my major chores and the house is clean, top to bottom, so for at least THIS week I won't have to concentrate on anything but school.

But....the teacher (me) has had a stressful week, and even more stressful weekend, and the last thing I feel like doing is school. I'm not at all ready. I haven't been feeling well, and yesterday was the anniversary of my Dad's death. It's been 22 years, but I never forget getting the phone call, frantically trying to convince my mom he was really sick and we needed to GO, hearing the news... every minute of that day I relive over and over on the 28th of August. : ( My oldest daughter, April is also having some issues, and calling me constantly. And I've barely seen or spoken to my husband for over a week now. So....I'm not at ALL in teacher mode.

I'll let everyone know how it goes when I can. We're not doing much today, just going over books, and if all goes as planned, a few hours at the park for the girls. I also have a gift bag for each of them.

TV...

2011-08-27T07:26:00.006-05:00

I have always been bored with TV. There were very few shows I could even tolerate as a child (Gilligan's Island, Brady Bunch, and Little House on the Prairie.....now don't THOSE date me? LOL) My mom and dad had the TV on every evening from after supper until bedtime. Us kids could have it from when we got home from school until supper, so about 2 hours a day. If it was raining, or I ran out of books to read, I would sometimes watch it, but certainly not every day, and most DEFINITELY not if I had a book, or could go outside.

Back then we didn't HAVE video games...not till I was about 10 anyway, and we didn't HAVE computers, so TV was the only screen time I was exposed to. So what did I do instead? Well, in the summer time, I got up and watched the sun come up from my bedroom window and waited for Mom to wake up. When she was up and gave me permission I could come out of my room. I'd eat breakfast (cereal or a pop-tart) and away I would go. I'd swing in one of our 5 swings. I'd ride my Big Wheel up and down the block. Once I could ride a bike, I rode it all OVER. I'd climb trees. In other words...I got exercise and fresh air. I'd build tree houses and forts with my friends. We would walk 2 blocks to "Sherwood Forest" which was a very tiny little wooded area that we thought was huge, and a secret place from the grown-ups. As I got older I would sometimes jump rope for hours, ride my bike for hours, and not just around the block, but all OVER town and the countryside. My best friend and I would walk to the library and check out as many books as we could carry. If we were "rich" we'd stop at my dad's store on the way home and buy pop and candy. We happily took old, used textbooks home from school at the end of the year, and would "play school" for hours and hours. We were "home schooling" ourselves, and didn't even KNOW it. LOL The only rule back then was "be home before dark." In other words, I had adventure, time with friends, and all kinds of learning experiences....you don't learn safety any better way than going a mile out to the creek with your best friend and realizing how thin that ice really IS. And those electric fences around fields to keep cows in the pasture? Those really ARE electric. Ask me how I know....LOL

What brought this post on is that my new husband (and the ex-husband, to some extent, although if there were better things to do, he, at least, could shut the TV off, and if there weren't, the girls and I could, at least, go in another room and do our own things) thinks TV is a NECESSITY of life. This man LITERALLY never shuts it off. NEVER. We go to bed and all he does is turn the volume down a little. We eat dinner, it's on. We are talking, it's on. 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, that TV is constantly on, noisy and intrusive. I'm peacefully sitting in the living room drinking my coffee, and mentally going over what I need to do for the day, and hubby wakes up, and within 30 seconds he turns the volume up loudly blaring to his favorite cable news channel. Now, I am all for keeping up with the local, the national, and the global news. I, too, think it is important. The difference is that I can watch 30 minutes of our local news, or check online for 5 minutes, and get all the bullet points. If something piques my interest, I can do my OWN research into it, and form my OWN thoughts about it. At M's house I go from "peace and quiet" to "migraine" in less than 30 seconds. I can't get away from it, like in my own house, because his house is too small, and there isn't a room the girls and I can go to to play games, or read or do puzzles or school together.

When I was in college, I didn't OWN a TV. Never even thought about buying one. I had my books, and I had my music,, and I had my car. When I lived in Nevada for 3 months in 2004 with the girls, I didn't own a TV, and, again....it never even crossed my mind. The girls didn't care, and it was just not something I thought about getting. I spent my summers as a child and teen living in Michigan, and we didn't own a TV there, either. The funny thing was that my mother thought we watched too much of it...and back then we only watched maybe a total of 2 hours a day and only when we couldn't go outside for some reason. TV was a last resort for us kids, only in the most dire of boredom circumstances. We much preferred learning math by playing Monopoly or card games, or spelling and dictionary usage by playing Scrabble or Boggle, or logic and problem solving by playing Checkers, Chess, Clue, or any number of other games out there designed to use our brains to think and strategize and reason.

Technically I own a TV now...I own a huge 5 foot big-screen TV, and the stupid thing takes up my half my living room. I have even turned my TV ON a few times since the girls dad left us 2 years ago. Last night, I counted up the number of times I turned it on, and I came up with 4 times. Once, when E was sick she watched "The Price is Right." I, myself, watched the Royal Wedding a few months ago. 2 or 3 nights ago we had a storm, and I turned the TV on for about 60 seconds to check the local radar. And one night about a year ago the girls and I watched an episode of "America's Funniest Home Videos". Not one time have the girls EVER asked to turn it on or to watch something! They, too, have better things to do with their time, and ways to have more fun.

**WARNING...THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH HAS SOME MINOR LANGUAGE SOME READERS MIGHT OBJECT TO THEIR CHILDREN READING**

I can assure you...if I couldn't stand TV BEFORE...I REALLY DETEST it now that I can't get away from it. And to make things worse....the GIRLS have a TV in the room they sleep in. C, my oldest, could really care less about TV. She watches it only out of boredom, and at least she watches half-way educational shows. Forensic Files, the Weather Channel, animal rescue documentary type shows, and CMT when they have music videos on. E, on the other hand watches what I refer to as "CRAP" . Cartoons with subtle sexual innuendos, shows on 2 certain networks specifically called "Children's Programming", with the little teenagers all dressed like street walkers, and nothing but materialistic mind-sets. On every one of these shows my littlest girl is viewing episode after episode of "how to get away with something without your parents or teachers knowing", "how to trick someone into doing your work for you", in other words...how to be dishonest and disrespect your parents and teachers. The ------ Channel...a channel supposedly for children...is nothing but disrespectful, materialistic, overly-made-up irresponsible teenagers. And for some reason, ------ makes a lot of money promoting teeny-bopper singers that have no talent and CAN'T sing, so they just dress them up like whores, and play them over and over and over, brainwashing my child that that is somehow TALENT or musical ability! They have a FEW shows that don't involve talentless singers making money for the network, and they even have one or two shows where the kids dress like normal kids, and are respectful, and by the end of their 30 minute sit-com they have "learned a lesson". But those are few and far between, and apparently they only made about 5 episodes of each, because I'VE seen them enough that *I* have them memorized, let alone my poor girls who are stuck with the TV on...again...24 hours a day, 365 days a year. (I went back and edited out the specific network names, but I'm guessing any of you who have TV know EXACTLY which networks I was referring to.)

UGH!

C complains constantly about having the TV on. But...she wants a light that "isn't right in her face" and though she has a lamp for when the ceiling lights are turned off, E wants the TV on. C says she can't sleep with that flashing, changing light in her face all night. And no matter how low we turn the volume, she can still hear it. I know that's true, because that all bothers ME, too. We thought we had found a solution by hanging Christmas lights all around...but the cat chewed the cords the first night, and we can't afford to buy strings of lights daily. LOL

So...what's my point? Other than, obviously I can't stand TV. My point is that I think it is fine to watch the news, or check the weather. I think it is even fine to watch educational shows where I can actually LEARN something, or see far away places I will never in a zillion years be able to travel to. I think it is even fine to watch OCCASIONALLY for simply the entertainment value, and share some laughs together as a family, or watch quiz shows where, at least, we learn and test our knowledge. But I think news can be gotten in 30 minutes or less, and it's not necessary too see it over and over and over all day long. I prefer to just hear the news and form my own opinions, not listen to grown-ups arguing politics all day long, rudely yelling and interrupting each other to get THEIR viewpoint across in the time segment allotted. I don't want THEIR opinion; I'd like to form my OWN. I prefer a good, well written BOOK any day to watching a show on TV. With a BOOK I am subtly learning spelling, grammar, how to construct well written sentences and paragraphs, and using my mind to think, "what happens next?", picturing the setting, picturing the characters, cementing in my mind historical dates and figures that would be bypassed completely staring mindlessly at a TV.

I am not completely opposed to TV, not at all. I know there are some really good shows. But I AM opposed to having the durn thing running all day and night. I am opposed to children not using their minds to THINK and their bodies to get off the couch and MOVE. I feel TV wastes a lot of time that could be better spent getting our work done, or finding things to make, games to play, or talking, having conversations, not staring at the TV watching OTHER people talk and live their little made-up lives.

I will now step down off my soap-box. I have to get ready for our school year to start Monday. I would love to hear YOUR opinions on the issue of TV, so comments are welcome.

Pictures

2011-08-22T06:52:00.004-05:00

I think I've figured out how to get pictures up on my blog again. I haven't done so, since my computer went kaput, and I lost 7 years worth of photos. Since then, I've been afraid to keep any pictures on my computer, therefore, this blog has been photo-less for way too long. IF I can make this work, the following photo is one I took yesterday. The girls and I went out to the river, and because of the drought our area of the country is experiencing they were able to play in water that was no more than ankle-deep all the way across.

All right! Lookie there, it worked. Sorry about the poor photo quality; that was taken with my cell phone, but poor quality pictures are better than NO pictures! Now that I've figured it out, I'll be posting more photos in the near future. : )

There's No Better Feeling...

2011-08-20T08:04:00.003-05:00

....than having my daughters safely back home. I missed them so much. I worried about them so much. It was almost unbearable to hear them crying on the phone, knowing they were 200 miles away, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Their dad said they'd be home LAST Friday, but then he QUIT his job (more likely got fired for calling in 6 days in the 6 weeks he actually HAD a job) so he could "spend more time with the kids". Then he said they'd be home Thursday.....but he was so plastered Wednesday night he and new-wife couldn't be bothered to get up in the morning. And of course no one bothered to return my calls and texts until AFTER they were supposed to already BE here, and I was worried sick. Turns out they BOTH had their phones turned off!

But they finally arrived yesterday morning, only 15 minutes late. (Dad got another speeding ticket on the way here.)

These 2 girls followed me every step I made all day and evening yesterday. THEY are happy. I am happy, and all is right with the world again! Thank you so much, Lord, for bringing my girls safely back home where life is safe, consistent, and all children are treated equally, and THEIR needs and concerns come first!

Would You Send Your Children Here?

2011-08-15T05:00:00.003-05:00

Would you send your children to a home where they go 3 days straight with no bath or shower? Where they come home and burst into tears WANTING a bath? Where they are so tired they BEG to go to bed as soon as they can get bathed? (and this was at 3 in the afternoon!)

And yet, although the CHILD doesn't get a bath or shower, the adult taking her to the doctor for her 104.2 temperature had to get HER shower before taking this child TO the doctor.

Would you send your children to a place where they call you in tears, in fact, crying so hysterically that I thought someone had DIED, and when I finally get this particular child (the one that's almost 13) to speak coherently, I hear how the entire DAY was spent with nothing but yelling, arguing, and crying? And THIS is my child that I've only SEEN cry WHEN someone dies!

The OTHER child, my 8 year old, was crying, too, when she finally got her turn on the phone, but she was so exhausted, yawning, and almost falling asleep on the phone, that I reassured her the next day would be better, and to go get a good night's sleep.

Would you send your child to a place where, when you call them, they are hiding in the car, because their dad is in a drunken fight with 4 neighbors, and his wife is still new enough that she plays the role I, and the first wife, played for so many years, of trying to stop him, trying to appease him, calm him down, get him in the car to go home? The drunken fight is so loud, I can hear all the words out of all the parties involved, and when he finally gets in the car he begins cussing out his new wife, turns to the backseat and cusses out my little girls, yanks the phone out of their hands and hangs up, while I frantically text and leave voice mails on both he and new-wife's phones to make sure my girls even get home safely. A nice little touch their dad added, AFTER he yelled at C, "Give me that f--- phone you f---- little b----!" was when he called me back, and tried to sound sober as he said, "Would you like to talk to the girls?" 15 minutes later.

No...I would not WILLINGLY send my children to a place like this, and I doubt any other mother worth a grain of salt would, either. But the law says I have to. The law says there's nothing wrong with this. They have food (plenty of it, and GOOD food, too, not just Ramen noodles day after day.) They have shelter, (again, very GOOD shelter....a beautiful house on a lake in a gated community.) They have medical care. (C DID get to the doctor, right?) And they have clothing. (in fact, new-wife has been so kind as to buy my eldest daughter more clothes than she's had in 2 years this past week...and I thank her for it, too.)

So, according to the law, their needs are being met, and I have to keep sending the most precious things in my life to this place every so often for good, quality time with their other parent.

So....I would appreciate my readers prayers, for my girls, for their safety, and for their father to be sober, loving, and responsible. They still have a few more days to go on this particular visit.

How Have We Done on Meeting Our Summer Goals?

2011-08-08T10:13:00.002-05:00

Back in May, I posted about my goals for this summer. We met almost all of them.

First, my goals for this blog. I said 3 months ago that I wanted to "re-introduce" who we are, and how we began homeschooling. I accomplished that goal. I'd also said I wanted to talk more about our particular situation, how I came to be divorced, and being a single, stay-at-home-home-schooling-mom. I haven't gotten around to writing about all that, but give me time.

Goals for the girls this summer? We met ALL of them!

> Both girls successfully finished another season of softball.
> E has successfully learned to read music, and her piano playing is improving daily. She has set a personal goal for herself to memorize every piece she plays, and so far, she has done so.
>C....well, C has FAR surpassed my expectations with her violin lessons! She has completed her "beginner" book. Her teacher said she is the best student he has ever had, and that most of his students take a year just to get through HALF of this book. C has completed the ENTIRE book in only 11 lessons.

Academic goals? I hadn't set many for C, and in fact, said that if she did NO school over the summer, it would be okay. However...

>C completed chapter 5 of her math, and is therefore 35% of the way done with 7th grade math.
> C also completed module 1 of General Science.

And E also met and surpassed the academic goals I'd set for her...

>After reading through her 3rd grade R&S English, I scrapped our Language Arts goals for the summer. R&S is very comprehensive, and there was no need to finish FLL.
>E completed the first 20 lessons of her science. (out of 66 total lessons)
>E completed the first 30 lessons (and 3 tests) of her 3rd grade math.
>And....drum roll, please...FINALLY E has learned, every letter of the alphabet, lowercase, and upper-case, in CURSIVE! She loves cursive. And while she still writes slower than most children her age, her cursive is beautiful (unlike her printing) and it is marginally quicker for her. She JUST learned "Z" Friday morning, before leaving to go visit her dad for 2 weeks, but we DID it! She is very excited to begin her R&S English and Spelling, and I told her we couldn't begin Spelling until she could write in cursive, because we intend to do all her spelling in cursive. She will also have 1 copywork sentence each day to help her practice.

So, although it seemed most days this summer I had no time to do HALF of what I wanted to...the girls and I did manage to get all our academic goals met. They also had time for softball, music lessons/practice, and tons of daily play-time with friends.

Why We Began Home Schooling...part 4....final chapter

2011-08-03T11:19:00.003-05:00

During Christmas break of C's 3rd grade year I noticed something strange. Her night terrors stopped. Completely. And then it dawned on me that she NEVER had night terrors during the summer, or any other times school was on break. She didn't wake up screaming, yelling, thrashing around, crying, throwing up, or crawl into bed with me when there was no school!

Coincidentally...or maybe NOT coincidentally, I tend to believe God sends us SIGNS we can either choose to follow or ignore....I happened to read an article in "Parents" magazine during Christmas break profiling a family in new York City that home schooled. I thought to myself, "Well THAT'S a cool idea, too bad it isn't legal." And then....another sign....I happened to see something on TV about home schooling...perhaps an episode of the Duggar family, if I'm recalling correctly. And I thought again, "Wow, I wish *I* could do that. I wonder what the laws are about this home schooling stuff. Maybe it's NOT illegal, since I keep hearing about it."

So you add C's boredom with being held back academically, the bullying and verbal abuse, the tyrannical lunch-lady, along with the fact that I'd suddenly realized during breaks from school C wasn't suffering ANY of her night time terrors and sickness, AND add in the fact I kept "coincidentally" seeing things about home schooling, and I decided one morning to do a little google search online to see what I could find out about this home schooling stuff.

Much to my surprise, I found out home schooling is not only perfectly legal in all 50 states, it is growing exponentially every year because LOTS of parents were having the exact same issues I was worrying about with my daughter. I began researching obsessively. I couldn't STOP reading websites. I couldn't get enough books from the library on the topic. I found home school blogs. I found home school forums. I asked questions. I made up my mind, and decided that this is what I wanted to do...that homeschooling was a completely natural extension of parenting, and that no one would be able to teach my individual child as well as i could, that no one could invest the time, the love, the energy into her well-being better than I. I decided that I would make C finish out her 3rd grade year in public school, but that for 4th grade she would stay home safely with her mother teaching her. I even, after MORE research, chose and ordered her 4th grade math curriculum. (Saxon 54)

Then I decided maybe I should broach the subject with my then-husband. LOL

I was scared to talk to him about it. I thought he would think I was nuts. I thought he would be against the idea. I excitedly opened the Saxon math box, and then hid it so he wouldn't find out. And then I just couldn't keep it from him any longer, because I wanted to tell C about home schooling, and I couldn't tell my 9 year old without first at least NOTIFYING her dad of my plan. LOL I printed off pages of information off the internet, and marked places in books to show him. I went into this discussion fully prepared to defend my stance, argue till I wore him down, and no matter what he said to home school anyway.

One evening I finally brought it up. And he said, "Yes! Yes! That is PERFECT! Yes! You HAVE to do this! We have to do ANYTHING to keep her out of these schools. They are ruining A and B, and I can't see another child of mine go through this. YES! That is a GREAT idea!" I didn't even have to say anything other than, "I have been thinking about C's problems in school, and I've done some research, and I'd like to try homeschooling her." And then I said, "Oh, good, because I've already ordered her math, and I know what else I want to buy." LOL

When I talked to C about it, she began crying. Crying because she was so happy to know she had an "out". Happy because her mommy had figured out a solution to her problem and was going to help her, save her. And sad because she didn't want to go back. Ever. It took a lot of coaxing to get her to agree to go back. I made a bargain with her that I would call her in sick every Wednesday; that way she never had to go to school more than 2 days in a row. And reminded her that Mondays were ok because she had that 30 minutes of violin. And Fridays weren't bad because when she got through the day she had a whole weekend. Of course, she tried to get me to call her in sick EVERY day, and since I was already doing "school" with her every night at home, it was hard for me to adhere to making her stick the rest of the year out.

By March, the ONLY thing keeping her in school was those 30 minutes of violin once a week. I began calling her in sick more and more often, but not too many days in a row, because we didn't want to get in trouble for truancy. By mid-March it was time for Spring break. And once again, for 2 weeks, I had my happy child back. The one who LIKED to get up in the mornings, and the one who slept the nights through peacefully.

April 1st, 2008, was C's first day back to school after spring break. It was also her LAST day of public school. As always, she walked out of the building at 2:15, crying, miserable, mad because her class was so boring, and the teacher wouldn't let her work on multiplication because "it would make the other kids feel bad since they are still working an addition and subtraction." She had to go to the bathroom, because she refused to go at school because that's where some of the girls cussed at her and pushed her around if she went in. She was hungry, because she never ate lunch unless they served something with rolls or mashed potatoes. Three girls had called her a "white b***h" and poked her with pencils waiting in line on the staircase. That night she woke up screaming, crying, and yelling again.

Early the morning of April 2nd, as her dad watched the news, and got ready to go to work, and I sat drinking my coffee, I said to him, "Enough is enough. I can't take this for another 6 weeks, and I'm not putting her through this anymore. (as we listened to her crying in her sleep in her bedroom) I'm not sending her back. I'm writing a letter of intent to the school, and I'm taking it up there in person this morning, and I'm never making her go back to that hell-hole." And he said, "Good!Thank God!"

So I let C sleep in late that morning, and when she woke up, I told her she didn't have to go back, but that she and I had to drive up to the school and take her principal the letter of intent. C said, "Really? You MEAN it, Mommy? I don't have to go back?!?" And began bawling her head of out of relief. I showed her the letter. We delivered it. We thanked her teacher, her music teacher, and picked up her school supplies. As we walked out of the classroom, the teacher's aide followed us into the hall, and whispered to me that she, herself, had been home schooled, and that she intended to home school her own children, and that she was SO happy for C, but not to tell anyone she had said that to us because she had been instructed not to ever tell anyone at the school she worked at about home schooling.

I have SO much more to say about home schooling. It is truly my passion....educating my daughters, spending time with them, finding curriculum that matches their own individual learning styles and personalities, their strengths and weaknesses. I'd love to talk about all the things *I* have learned through teaching my daughters. I'd love to ramble on and on about this whole new lifestyle. Because it is NOT just "school at home", it is our whole way of life. I'd love to talk about some of the wonderful people I've met through home schooling, or tell you about all the people who are positive about it. (and in fact, I've not had any negative reactions to it at all.) But I've rambled on enough for right now, and the only thing I'd like to add to THIS post is that from that night on, C has not spent ONE NIGHT in my bed. She has not woken up crying or screaming or yelling or puking ONE TIME since I pulled her out of public school.

My daughter left public school on April 2, 2008, and I have NO regrets. I KNOW I am doing the right thing, the best thing for her, and also for little E, who I've home schooled from the beginning and is now in 3rd grade. I have so many thoughts, so many ideas, so many opinions, but at least now I have finally gotten down in writing the story of WHO we are, and what led us to home schooling.

New Post Below...Why We Began Home Schooling

2011-08-01T10:14:00.002-05:00

I started to write the post below a week ago, but wasn't able to finish writing until today, and for some reason it is not showing up as a new post...so if you want to read the next post in my "Why we began Home Schooling" series, read the one below dated July 25th, even though I just posted it a few minutes ago.

Why We Began Home Schooling...part 3....Final Year of Public School

2011-07-25T10:50:00.004-05:00

Ok, sorry about the delay. C is well, and I am well, and we've both finished antibiotics. Nothing to do with my topic, but softball is also finished for this year. C's team just wasn't a good team this year, and they finished in last place for A league. E's team finished 2nd in C league.

Now, back to home schooling. I left off at the end of C's 2nd grade year, where she continued to do well academically, but was bullied almost daily. C began her 3rd grade school year a little better off. Not only was she still earning the top grades in the entire SCHOOL (not just her grade level), but she was also one of only 2 children in 3rd grade selected to play in her school's violin program, something usually reserved only for the 4th and 5th graders. So, every Monday, for 30 minutes, she got to leave class, and have a violin lesson, and perform in their concerts.

However, as the year progressed, not only did bullying begin anew, we also began having lunch and recess issues. The children are allowed 15 minutes to go through the lunch line, sit down, eat, and dispose of their garbage. They are not allowed to speak a word during this time. So....barely enough time to gulp down anything, and NO time to relax or talk with friends. IF there was ONE WORD spoken in the lunchroom, the lunch ladies punished the children by making them stand still and silently against the wall for the remaining 15 minutes of their lunch "hour". (actually only 30 minutes.) As it was nearly impossible for several classes of elementary children to be able to get through lunch without one, single word spoken by several classes of elementary students, C spent most of her lunch time standing still, facing a wall, with every other child in her class.

I called the principal. She told me, "It might not seem fair, but kids can be pretty LOUD if given the chance, and Mrs. T keeps them in line." So, I wrote a letter to the administration, expressing that I felt the few minutes break each day was IMPORTANT for the children to relax, eat, socialize, and get a few minutes of fresh air and exercise to break up the monotony of sitting still at a desk for 6 hours. I never received any answers, and apparently I was the only parent who thought it weird to force children to not move, and not speak, let alone, PLAY and EXERCISE for 30 minutes each day. The only minor satisfaction I got for C on THAT issue was during Thanksgiving week, when parents are allowed to come eat lunch at the school with their children, and I, and several other mothers, ALL thought the silence rule was ridiculous....so we mothers happily engaged the children in conversations, even daring to make them giggle and laugh, while we ate with them. Mrs. T came out and glared at us, and one time even tried to shush us MOMS! However, *I* am not a subservient person, and no lunch lady would have controlled me when *I* was an elementary student, let alone now that this woman was making the love of my life, my CHILD, miserable, along with hundreds of other children. Children are full of LIFE, and who in the world has their child sit silently at a desk all day, with no break, not even allowed to speak during the 30 minutes they are supposed to eat, play, exercise, and get at least a few minutes of fresh air?

I don't conduct my HOME that way, why in the world was I sending my little girl off 5 days a week to let OTHERS treat her that way?!?

Meanwhile, aside from the half hour every Monday that C got to participate in violin class, she was dreading school more and more. Every morning was a daily battle...she cried, hid under her pillow, begged me to let her stay home. On good days I was able to coax her out of bed 10 minutes before the bell rang, get her to get dressed and go to the bathroom, (she refused to use the school bathrooms, if she didn't go before we left, she wouldn't go until 2:30, when I picked her up.)and actually get in the car. Every morning I watched her walk in those big double doors, and feel guiltier and guiltier. I didn't know what other option I HAD....parents HAVE to send their children to school, don't they? It's illegal NOT to. EVERY child goes to school, and we all survive, right? But I just felt horrible, sometimes crying, myself, at how mean I felt abandoning my girl, forcing her to go somewhere she was afraid of, was bored at, was abused at.

Every night, C woke us up. She suffered from night terrors....screaming, crying, yelling. I would go in her room, attempt to wake her up, sometimes i was able to, sometimes she was so sound asleep she just kept crying and yelling. Sometimes she would become so upset in her sleep she would vomit all over in the bed. Many nights, I would say at least 3 or 4 out of every 7, C would crawl into my bed beside me. I was never one for having my babies co-sleep, but nor was I one to tell a scared, crying child that they had to deal with it alone and to go away, so when she felt the need to get in bed with me, I didn't push her away or discourage her. I would put my arm around her and hold her. And apparently sometimes engage in a sleep-talking conversation with her that I never remembered, but would make her laugh the next day as she told me about it. But that's beside the point...

The point is that my child was growing older and older, yet becoming more and more afraid to even GO to school. She fared far above average academically, yet detested doing the same things over and over. She begged me to teach her multiplication in 3rd grade because she was so TIRED of adding and subtracting. She begged me to buy her books she would like because the ones she was allowed to read at school were too easy, and she finished several of them a day, yet the school said she wasn't "old enough" to read chapter books. The only thing she liked about school was violin 30 minutes a week, and the rare occasions the children were silent enough during lunch to actually get to PLAY on the new play equipment in the school yard. In the evenings, at home, I read her chapter after chapter of the "Little House on the Prairie" series, let her read any books she wanted to, and bought her math workbooks, flashcards, and map workbooks because she ASKED me to teach her. She became fascinated with the presidents of our country, beginning with George Washington, so we read books about presidents, bought biographies, and every night we were doing school....it's just that NEITHER of us realized that's what we were doing.

In December school went on WINTER break....not to be confused with Christmas vacation, because Christmas is offensive to some people, and even though there were only about 3 students in her entire school who celebrated anything else (these 3 celebrated Kwanzaa) we were no longer allowed to have a CHRISTMAS program or CHRISTMAS break, we now had a WINTER program and WINTER break. Either way, C went on break for 2 1/2 weeks, and THAT is when our entire future changed.

To be continued....

C and I are Sick

2011-07-21T10:31:00.003-05:00

C and I are both sick. She has been on antibiotics since Saturday, and I am going to the doctor later today. We are also one of the 32 states included in this excessive heat warning, and my air conditioner is not working, which isn't helping us feel any better.

Hopefully, within a few days we will feel better, and I will return to my "Why we Began Home Schooling" series of posts. I have at least 2, and possibly a third, planned. Sorry for the delay.

Why We Began Home schooling...part 2....more public school

2011-07-19T06:07:00.002-05:00

Last post I left off while C was finishing her Kindergarten year. This same year, her oldest sister was in middle school. When April was 11, and in 6th grade, she came home asking questions such as "Mom? What's a bl** j*b?" because she had heard other kids talking about that, and a boy on her field trip had asked her to give him one. She was also telling me about girls in the 7th and 8th grade who were pregnant. Apparently, bj's were reserved for a "just friends" status, and quite common, but "all the way" was for the more "serious" of the middle school couples, and getting pregnant was a badge of honor. While this was all quite shocking to me, I tried to give as honest answers as I could, not show COMPLETE revulsion, and keep the lines of communication with my daughter open, so she could feel comfortable bringing these topics home to at least have someone to discuss these things with.

Meanwhile, C sailed through first grade with no major problems, and a wonderful teacher. C made "high honor roll" every quarter in first and second grade. She was one of only 2 students in the entire school to receive that honor. I continued being actively involved in helping out with classroom activities and field trips. The only trouble C had during these years was a few of her classmates made fun of her for always being on high honor roll, and for having a mother who cared enough to come in and help out in the classroom. She was still being called vulgar names, but this time the name-calling stemmed mainly from GIRLS in her class, one in particular. C began to refuse to go to the bathroom at school because these girls would gang up on her during restroom break.

C also began, during these years, to suffer night terrors.....virtually every night I would awaken to her screaming, yelling, crying. I could not get her to wake up during these episodes, and she claimed to not remember them at all in the mornings. She became very tired and difficult to wake up for school in the mornings. Every time I tried to talk to her, find out what was bothering her, she claimed to have no memory of bad dreams, or of screaming and crying for a good half hour at LEAST every night.

One day C came home with a note stating she had a detention after school the next day for "disrupting" class. Of course, I asked her what happened. She said one of the girls who always taunted her had been walking up the aisle between desks. The teacher had been writing something on the blackboard. This girl whispered "white b**ch!" at my daughter, and shoved her desk into C so hard that C had bruises on her chest, and knocked her over backwards out of her chair. C cried out, " Mrs W!" to her teacher, and THAT was how C managed to disrupt the class. Mrs. W claims that since she didn't SEE what happened, and since C was always complaining and "tattling" on this other girl that her only recourse was to give both girls detention the next day. The teacher said since she didn't personally see the incident, only heard C call out her name, that she had to punish both girls equally. Mrs. W told me then, as on other occasions, that C really needed to learn to "handle" things, and not be such a tattle tale all the time. I told Mrs. W that maybe SHE needed to learn to handle her class and not allow girls to push and shove other little girls and call them b**ches and leave bruises on them, and then punish C for merely calling out to her teacher for help. I then called the principal, who said she had to stand by the teacher.

So...the next day at 2 : 15, I showed up in the school office, and served detention with my daughter. I felt it was unfair that she should even be punished at ALL, let alone that the girl who made a racist, profane comment to her and knocked her clear out of her chair backwards was receiving the SAME punishment as my daughter was for calling to the teacher for help. Of course, the principal came out and told me I couldn't be there in the detention room, and i told her, "You already know I feel this is wrong. Our school district claims to have a "zero tolerance" policy for bullying and violence, yet you have issued C a detention which goes on her permanent record for asking for help. While I disagree with her being punished, I also raise my daughter to respect her authority figures, which, at school are her teachers and YOU. Therefore, since you have decided she has to serve this detention, I want her to know we have to respect that decision, but I'm not making her sit here alone when she did nothing wrong!" The principal didn't quite know what to do with me, so there C and I sat and served our half hour detention. I then went home with her, and called the district superintendent.

The next day, the principal called me at home, and asked me to meet with her. When I arrived, she had C, C's teacher, and 4 other children in her office. Apparently, after I served detention in support of my daughter, the principal decided to further investigate the matter of what had occurred in class 2 days earlier. She had called each and every child in the class down to her office, and these 4 who sat near C all told the exact same story as C had tried to tell. That C had been working at her desk, that the other girl had said, "whit b**ch" and shoved the desk into C, knocking her over backwards, and that all C had done was call out her teacher's name for help.

The teacher continued trying to say that since she hadn't sen it happen, she had no recourse but to punish both girls equally for causing a disturbance. The principal, however, apologized, and said she would have C's detention cleared from her record, and informed me that because of their "zero tolerance" policy they had to adhere to district guidelines and suspend the other girl for 3 days from school. I asked why had they not talked to other children BEFORE C and I served our detention? Why had I had to call the district administration office and talk to the superintendent to get anything looked into? Why had C had to serve the detention in the first place, when she should have been HELPED when she was hurt and bruised, instead of being punished fro being 8 years old and asking for help in vain? The principal and teacher both tried to say that some of the other children were against C because she always won high honor awards at assembly, and therefore they felt she was getting "special treatment".

Well....DUH! I guess any child who was one of only two in the whole school who consistently made the high honor roll SHOULD get to feel a little special, walking up every quarterly assembly and receiving their certificate award. That's a pretty big deal. It is not something a child should be made to feel ashamed of, or that a child should feel he/she has to NOT get in order to be SAFE! The girl who shoved her desk into C was in her second grade class. However, this girl had been in trouble numerous times for bullying other children for whatever reason, and she was 10 years old and SUPPOSED to be in 4th grade, but had been held back twice. She was older, about a foot taller (really, this girl was TALL), and had a long school record of trouble. Yes, they cleared C's school record of the detention, but she still had had to serve it, and she had still had to go 2 days being a victim not only of the girl who hurt her, but of a teacher who wouldn't listen or get the facts!

Sadly, all this was not enough to make me think of pulling C out of public school. I STILL hadn't heard of homeschooling, other than the Duggar family on TV. I didn't think it was LEGAL. I didn't think normal people did it. It certainly never crossed MY mind that it was an option. By this time I HAD looked into private Christian schools in our area, but they were WAY beyond our financial means. However, I made the comment to my husband one night that due to what C was experiencing, and due to the graphic sexual behaviors at April's middle school, that, "Come hell or high water, I will NOT allow C to continue in this school district. I will save every penny I can so that by the time SHE reaches middle school I can put her in a private school!"

To be continued....next post...third grade, the year that changed everything.

Why We Began Home Schooling...part 1...public school

2011-07-17T05:59:00.003-05:00

My daughter, C, always had a love of learning. I spent her baby months teaching her colors, ABCs and counting. By the time she was 18 months old she not only could recite the alphabet, she could recognize and find each letter. Through her toddler years we spent hours each day working puzzles, playing games, reading, and learning songs, shapes, and all the other typical "toddler stuff". When she was 3, I felt she needed to have a few hours each day to be around little children her age, and to learn more. So I sent her off to preschool, where I discovered she already knew all the things they were teaching. I still felt it was "good" for her to be with other kids, though, and I was very actively involved with her classroom, coming in and helping the teachers a couple times a week, going on all field trips, and daily helping the other little ones with pick up and drop off at the bus area.

Everyone praised me for such a smart daughter, but I really didn't think THEN, and I STILL don't think that she was really any SMARTER; she just had a mother who spent her days working with her from infancy onward, teaching her things. When I couldn't think of any more to teach her I bought C workbooks for math and spelling and reading and writing, and worked with her more. At that time I had never HEARD of home schooling, and I wouldn't have considered it if I HAD heard of it. Little did I know that I WAS home schooling.

C turned 5, and off she went to Kindergarten. And that's where it all fell apart. She spent the first semester crying and begging not to go to school. There were a couple of boys in her class who taunted her, poking her with pencils as she tried to do her worksheets, calling her very vulgar names (fat c*nt, and dumb b**ch the 2 most frequently used). These boys caused her to be afraid of going to school, and because of her fears I felt like a horrible mother forcing her to go every day to a place that was "good" for her. I spoke with her teacher, and her teacher said, " I know, these boys are horrible, but there is nothing we can do about it. They come from troubled homes, and we are supposed to give them leniency. They call ME those same names." Well, I couldn't believe THAT. There is no way a teacher is going to be told to ALLOW that kind of language and bullying, and I was horrified this was going on in KINDERGARTEN! So, I took my issues to the principal, and lo and behold, the teacher had not been misinformed, the principal ALSO told me these boys come from troubled homes, and need encouragement, not discipline. Well, I'm all for encouraging children, but not in negative behaviors that involve verbal and physical abuse! I wondered if these children were so abusive and vulgar at the age of FIVE, what would they be like in HIGH SCHOOL?!? What kind of men would they be? How would they treat their wives or girlfriends when they were older?

Well, I guess the teacher and principal got tired of me being a pest and not shutting up about what my daughter had to endure every day, because one day in January, they called and informed me that they were having a little problem with C. Since she was so unhappy in Mrs. C's class, they switched her into Mr. D's class. They didn't let either of us know they were going to switch her, they didn't prepare C, they just pulled her out of class one day and told her she had to go be in Mr. D's class. Mr. D was a brand new teacher. He had never taught before, until this semester. They gave him a class of 12 children. C had LOVED her "old" teacher, and while she had to endure abuses no ADULT should put up with, let alone a child, she was, quite naturally, scared and didn't know anyone in this new class other than....the 2 boys who had spent the first semester tormenting her. Yes, THEY were switched into Mr D.'s class too!!!! The principal told me C was having a little problem. I asked, "What do you mean?" And the principal said, "Well Mr. D can't get her to lift her head off the desk. She has been crying since this morning when we put her in his class. She wouldn't even get out of her seat to have lunch. " Mind you, this was at 2:00, just minutes before I was walking out the door to go pick her up.

After meeting Mr. D, and talking with him about a half hour with C included in the conversation, I decided to give his class a try. As this was his first semester teaching, they had only given him a small class. They gave him a few of the kids who caused problems. And C was deemed a problem causer for 2 reasons: 1.) because the other children picked on her, and 2.) because she already knew everything they were trying to teach the rest of her class, and so spent much of her time reading books because she finished her work so early, and they didn't know what to do with her. We agreed to have C be in his class for 2 weeks only. If, after 2 weeks, she still wanted to go back to Mrs. C's class she could.

Mr. D personally called me every day letting me know how she was doing. The first few days she refused to do anything but cry, and refused to eat lunch or go outside for recess. She, literally, would not leave her desk. However, by the end of 2 weeks, C began joyfully running to meet me when I picked her up, telling me all about new things she was learning, cool things the class was doing, and best of all....the 2 little boys who had been so mean to her all along and yet had been transferred into Mr. D's class...well Mr. D didn't tolerate their language, their bullying, and their disruptiveness. Somehow HE managed to run a class, teach the children, and keep the children under control. Mr. D felt so bad for C; he felt personally responsible for her being moved into his classroom, and being so sad, scared, and miserable. So, he made it a personal goal to make her LIKE school, make her ENJOY coming, and show her that no one would be allowed to hurt her in his class.

By the end of the school year, C had learned tons. She was reading fluently, waking up smiling, excited to go to school, and was only sad when she realized that finishing kindergarten meant leaving her beloved Mr. D behind. ALL the children put in his class loved that man, even the 2 little boys who had been so out of control. Well, heck, *I* loved that man...he gave me back my happy little girl who LIKED school. I thought so highly of his teaching and classroom abilities I wrote a letter to the administration and the school board on his behalf because they weren't sure they wanted to keep him on in our district,, because he was so new. Funny, how a tenured teacher and a principal couldn't figure out how to manage troubled kids, and one accelerated child, but a 23 year old fresh out of college not only managed just fine, he fostered respect, kindness, and a love of learning.

To be continued.....

Who We Are...A Reintroduction

2011-07-14T06:44:00.002-05:00

I began this blog over 3 years ago, shortly after I began home schooling full time. In the past 3 years I have gained new readers, many of which don't personally know our family. Our familial circumstances have also drastically changed, so I feel that it's time to explain a little about who we are, an "introduction" to my newer readers, and a "reintroduction" for those of you who have known me all along.

As it says in my sidebar, my name is Rebecca. I am a stay-at-home-home-schooling-mom. I've raised/am raising 4 daughters. April is 20, B is 17, and neither of them live at home anymore, but both live nearby so that we see them somewhat frequently. Technically, April and B are "step"-daughters, but as I raised them full-time from the ages of 3 and 6, I consider them my own. I guess if we want to be TECHNICAL, they are no longer my actual step-daughters, as I was divorced a year and a half ago from their dad, but again....family isn't simply blood, or marital ties, and these 2 girls will always be daughters to me.

At home with me are my 2 biological daughters. C is 12 1/2 and in 7th grade. E is 8 and in 3rd grade. Both are active in softball. C loves cats to the point of obsession, playing the violin, and reading. E loves ALL animals, playing the piano, listening to music, reading, and helping others. E is the kindest, most generous person I've ever known. C has an attitude just like her mother, yet is a little shy. Both girls love to play outside, BE outside in nature, and being with friends.

I am recently remarried (6 weeks ago) to Mark. Mark is very private, and so am I, so I try not to write about him too often, or say too much when I do.

C and E's dad is Danny, to whom I was married for 12 years. He happens to be getting married (tomorrow) so the girls will have a step-mother, Brandi. As I don't know her, I won't say much about her, either.

That is basically WHO the main members of our family are. As I said, I've been a stay-at-home-mother since I met Danny, and April and B. I was a nurse prior to that, but my priority and Danny's has always been to BE home with our children, to raise them ourselves, to be the primary people they spend time with. No matter how poor we have been at times, we both considered it imperative to put parenting and time with the girls first. It never crossed either of our minds that I work outside the home, leaving my children with someone else, and when we divorced, we both agreed C and E shall remain home schooled.

Now that you know the basics of who is our family, in my next post I will address the main aspect of our life, which is home schooling. Everything I do, every day, from my schedule to my finances ( or lack thereof ) , from the girls visiting their dad to when I am able to do chores and yard work, my life is dictated by putting my daughters first, educating them, spending time with them, giving them the best possible life I can, being the best possible mother I can.

Cursive vs Printing vs Keyboarding

2011-07-11T06:50:00.004-05:00

E has been steadily learning and practicing her cursive writing. She actually does quite well. While she still labors with anything hand-written, cursive not only speeds her along a LITTLE bit, it is also much more legible...pretty actually. It has been all over the news lately that public schools in 41 states are doing away with cursive, and children will no longer be required to learn it. While I have only recently started seeing news stories about this issue, it has been a topic of debate among home schoolers for at least the past 3 or 4 years. If they can not WRITE cursive,how will they ever learn to READ cursive? Remember, most Americans use cursive as their primary form of writing, and even if they have phased cursive out of the public schools, I feel children should still learn it; if nothing else they need to be able to READ what other people write. And how will they sign their names?

All 3 of my older daughters prefer to print. However, they CAN read and write cursive, and did so for several years until they were of middle school age and allowed to choose. The public schools now feel that cursive is becoming obsolete due to computers and e-mail, cell phones and texts. While I feel it IS important to learn to type, I don't feel children should rely on typing until they can write by hand well, in EITHER form....printing or cursive. My children all learned cursive in 2nd grade...E is a few months behind, as she is going into 3rd grade, but that is due to her possible dysgraphia issues. C is going into 7th grade, and thus far I only allow her to type e-mails (of course) and final drafts of reports or major writing assignments. She is learning to type as she goes, although I will hopefully be able to afford to get her a formal "keyboard" curriculum by the time she is in 9th grade. By 9th grade she will have been printing for 10 years, and writing in cursive for 6. She will have no trouble reverting to whichever form of handwriting she prefers by then, and by 9th grade she will have a true NEED to learn to get around proficiently on the keyboard for lengthier and more frequent writing assignments. For now, though, I prefer to let the computer be used only for "special" assignments, and final drafts. Sort of like I allow the internet to be used only for research on those same types of assignments, and things such as real books and encyclopedias for most of her research.

So while I am all for children learning to type and be proficient on a keyboard, my opinion is that they should FIRST be proficient at good old-fashioned printing and cursive, and have several years of both under their belts before taking the "easy" way out and typing everything.

Indepence Day/Thank You A and B/and a Disclaimer

2011-07-04T06:24:00.004-05:00

DISCLAIMER: For this post I would first like to mention that awhile back I said there were a few private issues in my life that affect our home school, and our life in general. For the past 3 years of writing this blog, I have left personal details out, and kept our names, locations, and identifications private. However, I have been feeling lately that, while still keeping identities private and not betraying TOO much information, I would like to delve a little bit more into aspects of our life that make our family unique, especially among the home schooling crowd. Not that I'm a very inspiring person, but there were many years in my life that I would have been inspired, or at least not quite so ALONE, if I had realized I was not the only one on this planet dealing with such things as alcoholism, abuse, and yes, home schooling as a single parent with no family to help me, watch the kids, or offer financial help, or moral support. I am blessed in that the girls dad(up until the past month) has always been very supportive of home schooling, and that the girls step-dad is also supportive of it. However little I reveal in the ensuing post, it is still a lot more than I have ever PUBLICLY revealed, but I feel it important for others to read the truth, not just some pretty picture of the good things in our life. I hope to soon find time to elaborate more on our particular situation, and yet retain privacy and be respectful of all parties in our family. Ok...on to the main topic...

This is my least favorite holiday. My ex-husband used to make quite a drunken production of The Fourth of July and several days leading up to it. The first time he ever beat me *badly* (requiring medical treatment) was during, and because of, fireworks, when I was 5 months pregnant with my now 12 year old. So, needless to say, for years I dreaded and barely endured this time every year.

But THIS year, I actually ENJOYED it. In our town, for some strange reason, everyone always puts on their big fireworks shows on the 3rd. Both my older 2 daughters live within an hour of me, and they stopped by Saturday night to ask if I'd like them to take C and E to the show last night. After giving it some thought, I called them yesterday and said if they wanted to we could ALL go, and I would drive. Just because *I* don't have any fond memories of the 4th, doesn't mean I shouldn't let C and E have fun and get to see what every American child SHOULD see. We're American, it's our tradition, and sometimes Moms do things they don't want to do for their children.

My oldest daughter (technically they are ex-step-daughters, but as I raised them, spent their whole lives with them, they consider me mom, and I consider them my own)was a bit shocked, "But MOM, you HATE the 4th!", but she and B were both happy with letting me do the driving and come along. They both brought their boyfriends, so there were 7 of us altogether.

Much to my surprise, I had a REALLY GOOD time! We all did. We talked, and laughed, and ate very overpriced cheeseburgers and fries, and a few times remembered some of the humiliating, stupid things the kids' dad used to do, and were simply able to laugh about it, and be thankful none of us have to deal with his abuse any more. Well, MOST of us....E got off the phone crying from his nightly phone call while we were there, and said he was "really mad" that we were all there together, and when C got off her turn on the phone she just rolled her eyes, and said he was being stupid and mad again. (He's been having a few "issues" since my remarriage, and the entire reason we got divorced was because of his abuse of A and his drinking, so naturally he doesn't like that she and I have remained in close contact. )Other than THAT, though, the night was wonderful, and the fireworks actually lasted about 45 minutes, which for around here is a pretty good show. It took us about that long to get out of the parking lot, and then we came home, the girls visited with my husband for a few minutes, and went on their way.

So, not only did we celebrate the anniversary of our NATION'S independence, my 4 daughters and I were able to enjoy and celebrate OUR independence, freedom from abuse and alcoholism, and just have fun, and ENJOY the night, which is the way it should have ALWAYS been. I think it was very good for all of us. Thank you so much A and B for thinking of your little sisters, and for the nice night we had last night.

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

A Reminder That No Matter How Tight Times Are, God DOES Provide even the Little Things

2011-07-01T09:53:00.003-05:00

I received a complimentary issue of "Homeschool Enrichment" Magazine a few days ago, as I'm sure many of you also have. I've never heard of, let alone read, this particular home school magazine before, but so far I've enjoyed every article in it. But one, in particular, really struck me, because it reminded me of something miraculous in my life that I'd forgotten about.

Back in October, 1998, I was a brand new wife, and a brand new mother. I had 2 step kids that I considered my own and raised their entire lives who were, at that time, 4 and 7 years old. I had a baby less than 3 weeks old, and we were, to say the least, poor as church mice. Our bills weren't much...rent, power, and that as about it. We had propane heat because we lived in the country, and we had well water for the same reason, and we burned our trash, so no garbage or sewer bill. We didn't have a computer, so no internet, and we didn't even have TV, so no cable TV bill. But we also had no income....neither of us worked. We had very little food, because it's hard to buy food with no income. We had a clean house, happy kids, and when my then husband found an odd job here and there, or my mother sent us a little cash, we bought several weeks worth of cheap groceries for the kids, and he and I rationed our food to one meal every 3 or 4 days. By cheap, I mean our kids LIVED on Ramen noodles and bologna sandwiches. On a good day we had grilled cheese and tomato soup.

One morning, I noticed my 2 week old baby girl, C, had thrush. She was screaming in agony, and wouldn't nurse. I called the doctor, and he prescribed some medicine for me to go pick up for her. However, when I called the pharmacy to see how much it was, they said it would be almost $9.00. Now, $9.00 certainly isn't much, but it was about $8.00 more than we had when we scraped out change together.

I couldn't bear seeing my baby girl crying, in pain and hungry, but unable to nurse because of the pain. I was sure she was going to starve to death. I was crying, and, though I had no faith at that time, I didn't know what else to do, so I said, "God, please help me help my baby. Help me find a way to make her better." As I sat there trying to rock her, and both of us crying, D went out to get the mail. One of the envelopes was addressed to my baby, and was obviously a card congratulating us on her birth. I opened it up, and....enclosed was a 5 dollar bill and 4 ones. $9.00.

Now....who in the world sends $9 for a baby gift? NO one sends such an odd amount. People would either send a an even $10 or $20, or just a card and gift, but not a 5 and 4 ones. So here i am, not a Christian yet, having NO faith, but in my desperation to calm my baby and help her get well I cried to God without even thinking. And less than 15 minutes later not only did he provide, he very clearly provided the EXACT odd amount I needed to go buy C her thrush medication. Maybe back then I didn't yet have faith, but He sure wanted me to know he listens!

Times for me right now are just about as tough as they were back then. I have no babies, my youngest daughter is now 8. I have no rent, as I own my home, but I have way more bills, and again, no income, and haven't had child support in over 6 months. I AM a Christian now, and I have a very STRONG faith, a faith that actually began the very day I am writing about, and 15 months later was fully planted. But I think God sending me the particular free issue of a home school magazine in the mail at this particular time in my life was meant as a reminder....the similarities to the story in the magazine, and to my OWN story are just too eerily similar to be a coincidence. And I sure needed that reminder at this time in my life that no matter how tight my financial situation happens to be right now, He WILL always provide for us.

Bragging on E a Little : )

2011-06-15T07:37:00.002-05:00

E is 8, and in her second year of softball. Last year she did well at practices, but froze up during games. She spent much of her time at homeplate turning around searching for me to make sure I was watching, waving at me, and striking out. Last night E had her first game of THIS year. Much to my surprise she did not have one, single out. She was up to bat 6 times, and she hit the ball each and every time. Not only did she HIT the ball, she WHACKED the ball into the outfield! She had 5 singles, and a double. She COULD have had 2 doubles, but on one of them, she didn't realize she had plenty of time to keep running, and stopped on first base. E came home on all of her at-bats, so was responsible for 6 of the 18 runs total her team scored to win their opening game. I don't know how many RBI's she had; I wasn't paying attention.

When it wasn't her teams turn at bat, she stood in for the pitcher. On the first game with each new team of the year, the coaches pitch, so E wasn't actually pitching, but she stood there and fielded all 6 innings. And picking her nose. Constantly. LOL I called her over at one point and whispered to her that everyone could SEE her picking her nose. She said, "Okay." and went right back to it. LOL! Maybe all those boogers helped the ball stick , because she stopped many balls, and threw a couple girls out at first, and tagged another girl out.

I have never seen E play softball so well. I have seen her improve this year during practice, but she really SHINED last night, and I'm very proud of her, and of ALL the girls on the team. They all played well, and deserved their 18-8 win.

Very Busy

2011-06-13T06:12:00.004-05:00

The girls and I have had a busy couple of weeks.

I'll begin by adding a little more information to my last post about getting married. I have known Mark for 3 1/2 years. I was there for him when his daughter died, and he was there for me when my ex-husband left the girls and I. What began as a good friendship gradually developed into more, and ten days ago we became husband and wife.

Softball season is now in full-swing. (no pun intended, lol) C had her first A-league game yesterday. They lost, but C got home to score 4 of the 8 runs her team had. She hit 2 singles, a triple, and got a lucky run on a dropped strike. She pitched 2 innings. E's first game will be tomorrow evening.

E and I managed to get in some good days of school in last week. As I said previously, we won't be doing a full-time school schedule, but I hope to work through E's Science, and finish teaching her cursive writing, and also keep up with working on her English. We didn't get to any English, but we DID complete 3 lessons in her science, which both of us are enjoying, and she learned FOUR new cursive letters, both capitol and lowercase. Her handwriting is still very labored, but her cursive is SO much prettier and neater than her printing.

C has now had 5 violin lessons. She has advanced very quickly though her beginner book; she is now half way through it. ( Lesson 100 out of 195 ) She is dedicated in practicing, and working very hard. Her teacher has notified us that this is his final year of teaching, and that when the summer is over, he won't be doing it anymore. As we both like him, and he appears to be doing a very good job instructing her, we are disappointed that after so many years of waiting to be able to get her a violin and a teacher, she will now be losing him so soon after beginning lessons. Please pray C can find another good music teacher with no lapses in her lessons.

My older 2 daughters, A and B, came to visit us yesterday. They both live within a couple hours drive of us, but it is rare we get to have all 4 of the girls together. I see A every few months, and B seems to just randomly drop in, but it isn't often they both are here together. They will be coming back in 2 weeks to see their little sisters play softball.

Another busy week is in store. I have 6 softball games in the next 6 days, plus violin lessons, and every spare minute we have the girls are playing with their friends (because they are unsocialized home-schoolers) working on small bits of school, and trying to keep up with house and yard work.

I'll write when I can.....blessings to all! : )

Summer Plans

2011-05-30T05:21:00.003-05:00

I said that I was going to post our summer plans. I have several goals for this summer, some academically, some personally, and I also have some plans for this blog.

I think I will start with the plans I have for this blog. The major change I plan to undertake is to write a little bit of our background, our history. Judging by my "stats" page, I am gaining a few more readers, and for those new to my blog I feel I should "re-introduce" myself. I began writing three years ago, and just about every aspect of my life EXCEPT home schooling has changed since then. I also plan to talk a little bit more about our particular situation. If homeschooling is still an "eccentric" way of life, then how much MORE odd is it to have a single, divorced, stay at home mom doing it all on her own? No husband, no income, no baby sitters, and no family other than my daughters? Hopefully, over the next few weeks/months I can address the girls and I's own unique, personal situation in a little more depth. I'd also like to try to address WHY I am divorced, when divorce goes against everything I believe in, both as a Christian, and as a wife and mother. This part I am still having a few issues in how to approach. I have so much to tell, but I'd like to do it without "invading" too much of my girls and my ex-husband, and my own privacy. And yet, I feel it is important to write down, not only for my daughters, but for any of you moms that may be reading this.

As for academic goals....those are so much more concrete, and therefore so much easier to write about. For C, my 7th grader...our goals are relatively simple. She will be spending 4-5 days a week or more either playing softball, practicing softball, or watching her little sister's softball games. This is C's 6th year in softball. I also plan to have C continue with her violin lessons. She has only had 3 lessons, but I am actually quite amazed at how well she is doing, how hard she is practicing, and how fast her teacher is advancing her. She has passionately wanted to take violin lessons for 4 years, and so far she is exceeding my expectations. (To be quite honest, she is under threat....she knows I have NO income, and those $15 a week lessons REALLY hurt. She knows if she DOESN'T advance quickly I will consider it a waste of not only time, but much needed money, and the lessons will stop.) As for school work...C and I usually do very intermittent school over the summer break. She is already a month into HER break, and we haven't done one thing, which is fine. My goals for her school work are to maybe get one more whole chapter of Math done, and maybe one chapter of Science. And if not....well, then she and I can both enjoy a first....a summer with NO school. At least for her.

E's goals for the summer? Well, E is also in softball....her second year. She will be at the ball park on all the same days as her sister. E will also be continuing piano lessons. I am her piano teacher, and our lessons are very sporadic. I may do 3 lessons in one week, and then go a month doing NO lessons. Anyone who reads this blog knows E is just as much or more passionate about the piano as her sister is with violin. E still plays at a beginner level, but that is mostly due to my busy days and not being consistent enough as her teacher. She memorizes everything, she plays every day, hours a day, and would advance MUCH quicker if I spent more time being able to teach the "extras", like piano. I am hoping with less school work, I can do better at teaching E more.

I also have quite a few school work plans for E. As I said in my last post I hope to have her complete Level 2 of First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind, and in addition, have her finish the second half of her Harcourt Learning Language Arts workbook. I also plan to begin and hopefully, complete several of her McRuffy Science 3 lessons while we have time. Science is one of those FUN, but TIME-CONSUMING, classes, and this will be the first year I have home schooled and had the 2 girls in 2 separate science classes. They have always done the Apologia science books together till now. Because of these 2 reasons, I think summer would be a good chance to get ahead with E's science, when we can spend more time since I am not working much with C for a few months.

My MAJOR goal is to have E writing completely in cursive by August. Um....for those of you that are long-time readers....yeah, I know that I may have mentioned this goal of E writing in cursive one or two times in the past. THIS time I MEAN it! LOL E has severe handwriting issues----to the extent that I believe she may have a form of dysgraphia, and I have had to spend far more time just helping her better her PRINTING, than introducing her to CURSIVE.

This isn't necessarily a GOAL, but I have it in the back of my mind to get E through at least the first 20 or so lessons in Horizons Math 3. Math is her favorite subject, and Horizons has so many lessons that it would be NICE to get part of them done, but because she does so well with it, I don't consider it IMPERATIVE.

So...in a nutshell...our summer plans are to carry on with music lessons, get through the hot, humid days of softball, spend quite a bit of time on E's schoolwork, but not every day, and not too MUCH time that she can't be a kid and enjoy playing and being with her friends. And ideally, I will find a way to go into some rather personal things writing here on this blog, without getting TOO personal.There is, literally, TONS in my brain, just itching to get out in print, yet I have to be careful what and how I say things. And if you know me, I am NOT a censor-my-words kind of gal. So...we'll see if I am able to meet this goal.

Blessings to all of you, and Happy Memorial Day. : )

Ok, E is FINALLY Finished With 2nd Grade

2011-05-28T07:53:00.002-05:00

It took a little longer than I had planned, due to every one of us in the house getting sick...first her, then me, then C. We have had sore throats and fevers, sinus issues, and earaches. So, while my intentions were to be completely finished 2 weeks ago, we just finally finished yesterday. We spent many days the past 2 weeks doing NO school, but this week we finally were able to pick up the pace and get through a few loose ends.

E's main unfinished business was her English. We completed Level 1 of First Language Lessons, and half the workbook pages in our Harcourt Press language book, that I've used to give her more seatwork and extra practice for English skills. We plan to keep right on working through the summer in Level 2 of FLL and the rest of her workbook pages in her Harcourt Language Arts book, in time to begin R&S 3rd grade English by August. This is the only subject E is a little behind in. She excels with the grammar portions, but is having some handwriting delays which is causing me to move her through a little slower than I normally would.

E has also been working very hard on learning and practicing her cursive handwriting. This is not really a specific grade level subject, although my goal is to have her be able to read and write cursive fluently by the time she begins 3rd grade. Most children seem to learn cursive during their 2nd or 3rd grade school year. E has had so many issues printing, that I'd wanted her to become more proficient with THAT before learning cursive, but I finally came to the conclusion that it might be easier for her to write using cursive. There have recently been many public debates at the national level on even TEACHING children cursive at ALL anymore, but I think every child should know both printing and cursive, and they can then choose which they prefer to use for their own writing. Many public schools have done away with cursive writing altogether. E really enjoys this "new" way of writing, and although she still labors, it seems to be a little easier for her, and she definitely writes MUCH neater in cursive than printing.

Those two things are the only things we were really working on for E to finish 2nd grade. Both of those we will CONTINUE to work on through the summer, if all goes as planned, but she has worked hard, done lots, and is easily able to be considered a 3rd grader now.

E and I actually have lots planned for the summer, because while C is "on break" I just have so much more time to really concentrate working with E. She is still young enough she LIKES school, and she gets bored and still ASKS to do school, so this won't be any problem at all THIS year, at least.

I will try to get a post written in the next few days about our summer schedule. But for now, I wanted everyone to know E has worked very hard this year, and done VERY well. I am so proud of her, and when I look at all she has learned, and can do, I am very proud of her. E is the only child who has NEVER been to public school at ALL, and I can really see a huge difference between her and my other 3 daughters at that age.

E's grades:

Math------A (almost A + for the entire year)
English---A
Spelling--A (again, almost A +, but spelling LESSONS and TESTS are not transferring into any of her other writing.)
Reading---A
Handwriting----not sure what grade to give her, LOL. A for effort, C or D in actual results.
Science---B. she participated well, understood almost everything, but has not retained as much as I would have liked.
Social Studies--B. same as science, participated, did her work well, understood it, but isn't retaining as much as I'd like.
Piano--A+ for sure. E loves the piano....I can't keep her from practicing, she drives us nuts playing constantly, she works and works and works on what she learns. I couldn't ask for anything more, and in fact, she EXCEEDS any expectations with this.
Health/P.E.---A+ too. She not only knows and retains anything to do with health, she sometimes scolds ME. LOL

Wonderful job E! I couldn't ask for a better "student" or daughter. You work so very hard, and are never a problem. You are a joy to work with and teach, and I love you more than you will ever imagine. Congratulations on completing 2nd grade!

C is Officially DONE with 6th Grade

2011-05-12T13:23:00.000-05:00

C is officially done with her school year. She completed Saxon math 67, and the first 4 chapters, 28%, of BJU Math 7 (Fundamentals of Math). She will work once or twice a week in this book from June through August, and then we will get back to full time school. She, E, and I completed Apologia's Anatomy and Physiology. She completed BJU English 6, actually she finished that first about 2 months ago. She completed the first third of HOD RTR in the fall, and then we switched to BJU 7 World Studies in January. She will continue with that next school year.

She earned:

Math---B
English A-
Science A
Social Studies/ History A
Reading/Literature A-
Art A

Congratulations, C, on a good year...even though you some days didn't feel you were doing well, and on completing 6th grade. You worked hard, and I am especially proud of your improvement in writing, and how hard you have worked in Math when we switched curriculum. : ) We have had a lot of schedule upheavals, unexpected missed days, and 2 major curriculum switches, but you have done very well.

AND....we just found out today she will be beginning her VIOLIN LESSONS in 2 days.

E is ALMOST done with her "official" school year, but we have hopes to do lots of extras through the summer, so I will post her update in a separate post.

Mother's Day

2011-05-08T12:48:00.002-05:00

Just a short, little, sentimental, feeling-sorry-for-myself post today.

Mother's Day growing up was always spent going to church, going out to brunch with our entire extended family, and then my parents and I would usually just drive around for awhile. I have never had a Mother's Day with my mother while being a mother. My mom died when C was only 2 1/2 months old, so MY first Mother's Day as a mom was the first Mother's Day without my OWN mom.

The next 12 years I spent Mother's Day usually the same way. It was always my pick of what to do, what to eat, and where to go, of course, and usually my choice went like this: go to Hometown Buffet for breakfast, go to Barnes and Noble to buy books, go to Best Buy to buy a CD or video game, drive around for awhile, come home, open my gifts from everybody, and then fishing. I haven't fished for almost 2 years, but it is so peaceful, relaxing, and who wouldn't love to just spend time enjoying nature surrounded by their whole family?

This year....well....my daughters both made me beautiful hand-beaded bracelets, colored me pictures, and made me cards. I went to Wal-Mart and spent $167 on groceries. Anyone who knows me knows I DETEST Wal-Mart, and it is the LAST place I would choose to go ANY day, let alone Mother's Day, but home schooling kind of puts a damper on errands during the week, and I guess at least I don't have to go back to Wal-Mart for 2 weeks now. Too bad I couldn't afford a fishing license while I was there, and at least I could go fishing! LOL If the grass ever dries out enough I'll go mow instead...oh yippee! LOL

Hope the rest of you all have a wonderful Mother's Day!

Curriculum Review: Horizons Math 2

2011-05-04T12:24:00.002-05:00

For my younger daughter, E we needed something that moved faster and could hold her interest...something that would challenge her, yet not frustrate her. Something where she was able to learn new things, yet remained fun for her.

Horizons, by Alpha Omega Homeschool, is widely known for use with children that are "gifted" or "accelerated" in math. I began E in grade 2 when she was 7, and she just completed it a week ago, at age 8 yrs. 2 mos. We completed every lesson, every test, and every speed drill. Horizons math lived up to its reputation.

E and I both LOVED using Horizons. We both want to continue with it. E says, "I LOVE math. It's my favorite subject. It's FUN. " As a teacher, and mother of a child who excels in math, I also loved it.

Horizons begins with a speed drill 4 out of 5 days of the week. Then we move on to the lesson of a new concept daily, with an oral lesson, board work for examples, although E never needed these, as she catches right on, so we skipped examples and we would go straight to her assignments. Each lesson took me about 5 minutes to teach, and then took E anywhere from 15 minutes to maybe 45 minutes tops to complete. She got 2 B's on her work (160 lessons, 16 tests) and straight A's the entire rest of the year.

The program covered basic addition and subtraction, and by the middle of the year she was doing 3 and 4 digit addition and subtraction with borrowing and carrying, and "columns" of adding. She began learning her multiplication facts by mid year, also, and has them all down pat by now, a full year earlier than most math programs used in home school, public school, or private schools. Horizons math 2 also covered money, fractions, different kinds of graphs, decimals, thermometers, and basic geometry concepts such as area and volume, and 3-D shapes. One major thing that helped tremendously when she began learning her multiplication facts was the first half of the year the child learns by rote "skip-counting" by every single digit number. The 2 workbook set for students was in full color, which captured my child's interest with the pictures, while each assignment had her doing anywhere from 60-100 separate math problems. EVERY assignment had at least 1, and usually 2 or 3 story problems in which E had to figure out which operation to use (add, subtract, or multiply.)

As each concept is introduced, it is practiced in-depth for the next 5 lessons, while still daily introducing another new concept. Once a concept is learned, it is never forgotten, but touched upon again and again throughout the daily assignments and on tests, and built upon.

Horizons is not for everyone. If your child needs more time with new things, I would not recommend Horizons. I would also not recommend it for children who are distracted by colorful worksheets, or by constantly switching topics in one lesson. But for a child who likes math, who excels at it, or who is considered accelerated, Horizons definitely has been the best math program we have tried, and we will definitely be sticking with it.

Week in Review......one more OFFICIAL week of school left

2011-04-17T17:21:00.002-05:00

We are ALMOST done with our full-time year. As you all know we school year-round, but May, June, and July are reserved only for one or two subjects, and only twice a week or so. Our main thing in the summer is softball. This will be C's SIXTH year of softball, and E's SECOND.

Quick school update. E finished her Spelling Friday. She has only 5 lessons left in math and she and C have just one chapter left in science. C also has only 5 lessons left in math, including her chapter 4 test, at which time she will be exactly 28% of the way done with her 7th grade book, which she doesn't technically begin until next August.....make sense? C also still has approximately 4 weeks left of Social Studies, but again, this will get her 25% of the way through her 7th grade book, so she will be ahead in that also. This works out very well as many days as they now seem to miss during the typical public school schedule due to having to go so far away to visit their dad.

That is about it for school that we HAVE to do. My intentions for the summer are to have C work through at LEAST 1 more chapter of math very sporadically, and do a module or two in her science. E needs to continue working with English and spelling, so she will be doing "fun" review workbooks to keep her on target to begin 3rd grade. Besides....it just might be that the teacher ordered a ton of books a year or two ago, and forgot about some of them until I cleaned through all our home school materials a few months ago and found things I completely forgot about. Oops! So.....what was bought as curriculum is now going to called "fun" review books. LOL

Now....what I am just SO excited about, and can't wait to finally have a moment to tell....is......I FINALLY bought C a violin! The poor child is 12 years old, and has been wanting a violin since she was 8. She played when she went to public school, and that was, in fact, the one and only reason I kept her IN school for an extra 5 months....because she loved the violin so. I have periodically looked at student violins online, and a couple of weeks ago I decided to do so because it had been awhile. And lo and behold there was a student, full sized, brand new violin with horse-hair bow on sale for 70% off retail price! That's not a typo, it was 70% off! I called C to come see it, and we studied it for about half an hour, and she had just the hugest smile on her face, and I just could not pass this up. I have NO income, and not even child support anymore, and the little I have I need to live off of, but I just simply could not pass this opportunity up. So we called and ordered it, and it arrived last Tuesday.

I have to thank fellow homeschool blogger, Michelle, for inspiring C and I with her regular postings of her own daughter's violin progress beginning also at age 12.

Anyway....I have NO knowledge of violins whatsoever. I never even actually saw one in person until C's arrived last week. So.....I have lined up an instructor for her that knows what he is doing. He will begin lessons with C in the middle of May. I don't know who is more happy about it, me, or C. This has been her ONLY musical passion for YEARS, and God blessed us and led us to one we can afford.

The girls are gone right now. This is day 2 out of 5 they are spending at their dads. I HATE this visitation stuff, I HATE it. We used to be such a strong, happy family. : (

My Favorite Teacher

2011-04-09T16:26:00.004-05:00

I was not homeschooled. I might as well have been, as many days as I was either sick for real, or got my mom to call in and SAY I was sick. She pretty much didn't care if I went to school or not as long as I kept getting A's, so I had a lot of freedom as a kid.

I liked school all the way up until high school when I got too busy with a social life to care about wasting hours in school sleeping through things I already knew. But I have to say that 3rd grade was probably one of my favorite years, and it was due to the teacher. Her name was Mrs. Rigsby....I can say that because she is no longer living, and because very few people read this that actually know where I'm from. LOL

Mrs. Rigsby liked me too. I was "teacher's pet". She called on me all the time, thus allowing me to shine in front of an audience of other 8 year olds. She let me progress at my own pace, which meant that I finished all my books for the entire year by October, and was allowed to go outside with the other smart girl (my best friend, Laura) and play on the playground all by ourselves while the rest of the class had to sit and do lessons. Hmm....now that I think about it, maybe she just let us do that so I would stop "shining" and give other kids a chance to answer, LOL! But for real...how many public schools today would allow a kids to work through all her books in one month NOW? To be fair, I doubt the school knew she let us do that, but still....we sure thought we were cool back then.

In addition to one month of schooling and 8 months of playing outside....Mrs. Rigsby invited Laura and I to her house. For home made popcorn balls. Which no one even makes anymore because they might spike them with razor blades or something. And she introduced us to her husband as her "star pupils", which made Laura and I just about bust with pride. Laura and I used to have free reign to walk all over town. (I was the youngest of 5 kids, and my mom simply didn't care too much what I did...the older 4 tired her out. Laura was the OLDEST of 5, and her mom probably never even noticed she was missing. LOL) We went to our public library almost daily, seeing which one of us could read more books. Once we tasted Mrs. Rigsby's home made popcorn balls we began making a point to always walk past HER house on the way to the library. (Yes, I was a geek...I might have mentioned that on this blog a time or two before.)

I was always so excited to go to school in 3rd grade. I just KNEW I would have a good day (playing on the playground) and get A +'s on the rare occasions I had to take a test or something else I couldn't work ahead on. Mrs. Rigsby was not only a teacher, she was the BEST teacher I had. She knew to make a child love learning meant letting them go at their own pace,letting them be themselves. She became a friend, all the way up until she was no longer living, 20 years later.

Maybe that's why I like home schooling my daughters so much. I can let them learn at their own pace. I can let them be themselves, and not have to worry about them being homogenized versions of every other girl their age. And so far they both still consider me their friend, and there is nothing my girls and I don't share or talk about.

Anyway, here it is 2011, and I've raised 4 daughters. My YOUNGEST is now going to be entering 3rd grade. So, I've been thinking about 3rd grade, and I just wanted to put into writing how much I loved Mrs. Rigsby.

My Daughter Said the Sweetest Thing : )

2011-03-26T11:40:00.003-05:00

We just had our mother cat and her 2 female kittens spayed. Minnie (the mother) had a rough surgery and recovery, but through it all she has been VERY concerned about her daughters. Even when she wasn't able to stand up she meows, "calling" her babies to locate them. After she regained her ability to walk she runs constantly between Abby and Ashley. She keeps licking them, and cuddling up to them. Even though they really aren't kittens anymore, they are 19 months old, Minnie is being very protective, loving, and concerned.

I made the comment last night that, "Minnie is the best Mommy in the whole world."

8 year old E said, "No. She's the best CAT mommy. YOU are the best Mommy in the whole world."

Awwwww!

6 Days Until Jury Duty, and Here's Where Our School Year is At

2011-03-22T18:06:00.002-05:00

Ooooh, we're soooo close to finishing up this year, and I'm so disappointed to have jury duty for the next 2 weeks, which will set us behind when we're so close to the end.

C finished her 6th grade English last week, and no more English for awhile. Actually, no more English at all, as for 7th grade she will be focusing on Literature and writing.

She has her chapter 3 review in math tomorrow, and her test for that chapter the next day, and then a math break till after jury duty. But she will be 21% of the way done with her 7th grade math in less than 48 hours.

We will also be finished with her current chapter of science in 2 days, leaving us with only 2 chapters left for the year.

And ALSO in 2 days C will complete chapter 2 in her 7th grade social studies....so a very easy week for her this week. And me, too, as far as that goes, as I won't have much to do but grade a few things.

E is still chugging along to finish her 2nd grade math...I think we're down to 18 lessons left for the year. Still all A's, of course.

E has 5 lessons left in Spelling....I didn't think she would EVER complete an entire year's worth of spelling, but by golly, we've (almost) done it!

She finished Reading; I don't remember if I mentioned that here or not last time I posted.

We finally began working on her Cursive writing, and so far she writes Cursive far prettier than printing. But then again, she only knows how to write her name, and the letters A and E. LOL I'm hoping to have her writing completely in cursive by the end of the summer.

We're still also working through FLL (First Language Lessons). E does well with it, although she tires quickly of the repetition to learn the parts of speech.

For anyone who actually cares, my brother and his family had a wonderful time in Hawaii, and made it safely back home.

The weather finally started getting warm a week or so ago, and this is the nicest time of year to me. I LOVE being outside, and have been truly thrilled to be able to be outside doing such fun things as shoveling dog poop, weeding, raking, throwing trash away that always seems to blow into our yard....really...I am just so happy to be outdoors, that these have all been fun for me. Soon I can start mowing again, and at least get some little bit of physical activity, too.

The big news of the week is that I am getting 3, yes THREE of our cats spayed. We take them in tomorrow, and they will be back home to us Thursday, God willing. I found a local animal shelter that will do all 3 for less than the cost our vet charges for ONE cat.

That's about it for the official update. LOL

Take care everyone! : )

I Rarelly Get an Entire Evening Alone With My Daughters, so....

2011-03-11T21:24:00.003-06:00

What a nice evening it has been!

Aside from worrying about my brother and sister-in-law, and niece and nephew who, as I mentioned in my last post, were going to Hawaii, it has been a lovely night. There was an 8.9 earthquake in Japan earlier today, which caused tsunamis all around the Pacific, and Honolulu was one of the areas evacuated. I last heard from my brother eleven hours ago, but all the news reports online I have seen show little damage in Hawaii, so I'm hoping he is fine, just unable to contact us due to power outages and over-worked cell lines, as the news reports say.

Other than that I have done more work tonight than I usually am able to do in a week. E and I did 8 lessons in Language, read a story, and she requested doing another reading comprehension exercise. She got an A + and only has one lesson to go in 2nd grade Reading. Actually, she got A +'s in all her subjects today; the ones tonight were just extra ones we did "for fun".

C and I did History about an hour ago.

E picked up their room, and then C vacuumed it, and now they are playing a board game.

And me? I have gotten one load of clothes washed and in the dryer, and I have a load of curtains in the washer right now. I also washed the clothes hamper...definitely not something I do on a regular basis. LOL And I did all my morning chores for tomorrow, so I'm not sure what I'll do in the morning. And took the garbage out. I also have my coffeepot soaking in the sink, and will be scrubbing it when I finish writing here...I can't use it until I clean it, and I spent this morning and all day caffeine-less. I think that is probably the first time I have spent in 15 or 20 years without coffee, and I do NOT want to make THAT a habit!

I seem to be on a pretty good cleaning roll tonight, even without caffeine, so....back to work.

Praying for the people in Japan tonight.

Likes and Dislikes

2011-03-09T10:43:00.004-06:00

I like that it is closing in on the end of our academic year, and instead of posting about what we have DONE, I can let everyone know what we have LEFT. : )

I'll start with C, as she has already finished much of her sixth grade work. She is on chapter 3 of her 7th grade math. While this curriculum is much more challenging for her, we ARE making it through. She struggles through many of the lessons and assignments, but manages to "get" the material enough to earn B's on the chapter review and tests. I like this math. She does not.

She is actually beginning her very last chapter of 6th grade English today. I like that.

We are still just trudging through history. We seem to never stop doing history, and never cease to find "side-trails" to research and read about, so while sometimes it seems we aren't making much progress, we actually learn far more than just what's in her books. I like history.

As for science...we are almost done with our current chapter, leaving only 3 remaining chapters in Anatomy and Physiology. We have spent the past three weeks on the nervous system, and actually, all 3 of us (Mom, C, and E) have had a lot of fun with these units. We ALL liked that.

E has 8 units left in 2nd grade Spelling, and only 26 lessons and 3 tests left in her Math. She just began her new Language and Map Skills books. She has only 4 lessons left in her 2nd grade Reading. I like that.

E has also been making amazing progress in her piano lessons this past month or so. Even more amazing is the fact that *I* am the piano teacher. LOL E just can't seem to get enough playing time each day. First thing in the morning she is playing the piano. Every spare second through the day she is playing the piano. She gets up in the middle of her schoolwork to play the piano. She leaves lunch sitting on the table and plays the piano. I certainly never thought I would have to scold a child and repeatedly tell her NOT to practice. LOL I have to admit, I not only like, but I LOVE E's enthusiasm for the piano.

C is still pining away for a violin, and I still keep praying I will find a way to be able to afford not only a violin, but also lessons for her before she is too old. This is her ONLY musical interest, and I feel horrible that I can't provide for her. : ( I do NOT like this at ALL!

I WAS able to afford getting the girls signed up for softball 2 weeks ago, which is always the sign that snow and cold days are almost over, and spring and summer will soon be here. Note...I said ALMOST over, as we have snow forecast for today. I like this. The softball, not the snow.

Another thing I like is a new acquisition-----"C" got a Kindle as a gift. I put her in quotes, because I have fallen in love with the darn thing, and use it every chance I get. Anyone that knows me, knows that my vision of heaven involves a Barnes and Noble, and the Kindle is a bookstore in the palm of my hand, any time I think of a book I'd like. I mean, that C would like. Or that we can use for school. It is cheaper, too, and they even have many FREE BOOKS (Now THAT is Heaven!)I could write an entire page just on how much I like this new little piece of technology, and how amazing it is, but I'm cutting into my reading time as it is to post on here. LOL

Before I go...HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to my brother and his wife. Twenty years ago today they were married, and I had to endure wearing a PINK, PUFF-SLEEVED bridesmaid dress. Even though that's not the point, I would think the least my brother could do would be to invite me along on his anniversary gift to his wife to HAWAII, but nooooo....apparently THEY go to HAWAII, and I will sit here homeschooling, watching rain and snow fall, and reading my, I mean C's, Kindle. Although I'd prefer the trip to HAWAII, I will stop complaining, because I LOVE home schooling.

New Grade, New Books, Time for an Update

2011-01-21T09:39:00.002-06:00

I didn't realize until yesterday that I haven't posted anything for almost two months. As a lot has changed in regards to school, I'd better quit slacking on the blogging.

I'll start with E first, as her work hasn't changed much. Her school year begins later in the year than C's, so all I will mention about E is that she is still excelling with all her 2nd grade work. She is on lesson 104 (out of 160) in Horizons Math, lesson 18 in R&S spelling, and doing A work daily. She has a new reading comprehension book, which she enjoys. All her other subjects remain the same, and she is still doing Anatomy and Physiology with C until we finish the book.

C, however began doing 7th grade work just this week. Her most major change is that we entirely switched curriculum for math. She has done Saxon for 3 years, and was doing fine with it, but I felt the incremental approach was just not cementing some important concepts in her mind. I felt a more mastery style might help cement these concepts, and also give her an "extra" year of "review" before beginning Pre-Algebra. She tested well into Saxon's Pre-Algebra, but I am not concerned making her wait until 8th grade for that. C and I spent weeks researching different curriculum, and both of us chose BJU "Fundamentals of Math" as our favorite. A bit pricey, but after only 4 lessons this week I am more than happy with it. In just the first chapter it is showing where Saxon left "gaps" in her learning, and it is proving quite a challenge for C, although not a huge one. Just what I wanted, and SHE is simply relieved not to have a year of more tedious, repetitious Saxon.

We also opted to use BJU for her 7th grade social studies. She is doing "World Studies", which I was able to buy used at a MUCH discounted price. I didn't think she would like it, as this is the first year she will be doing any sort of social studies almost entirely independently. Much to my surprise she LOVES it, and is doing very well. This is the first time I have ever offered "extra credit" in any subject for her, but she now has the option of each day doing a bonus question. After I explained WHAT "extra credit" meant, she has so far decided to answer our bonus question each day. Best yet, she really IS doing this virtually on her own. I give a short lesson, she reads the material herself, and finds the answers to the text questions and worksheets by herself. I have heard many say that this course is too difficult for 7th grade, but neither she nor I think so.

C still has 3 1/2 chapters left of her 6th grade English, and then I intend to order her new books. So far I have chosen Hewitt's "Lightning Literature", which focuses more on literature (obviously)and writing, with only a little grammar review. As I haven't ordered this program yet, this choice is subject to change based on my mood, finances, and further research. : )

C will also be doing a NEW subject this year...."Introduction to Logic." This will NOT be independent, as I intend to do the lessons and study right along with her. This book is TOUGH for a just-turned-twelve-year-old. Well, actually so far it's tough for ME. This will be a 2 or 3 day a week only subject, as time allows, and I intend to spread the book over a 2 year schedule.

And lastly....science. We are not quite finished with Anatomy and Physiology, and as this is ALL of our favorite subject, we intend to do every last page. Science was also the subject I had the most trouble deciding which program to use for 7th grade, but after over a month of research and dithering back and forth in my mind, I finally opted to do Apologia's General Science. I thought this book might be too difficult for C's reading comprehension, but once again I underestimated her. She had NO trouble doing the online sample module, and actually LIKED it. I KNEW I'd made the right decision when I went to e-mail my friend that we'd finally made up our minds, and there was an e-mail from that friend already waiting in my inbox, offering HER copy of the textbook to us for FREE. THANK YOU AGAIN D! : )

So....there's the line-up for C's 7th grade school year, and she has already begun 3 of the 5 subjects. We've pretty much changed EVERYTHING for this school year, so God willing, we made the right decisions, and it will be a good year.

Giving Thanks (and hurray for E!)

2010-11-24T05:30:00.003-06:00

First, I'd like to congratulate my daughter, E, age 7. Yesterday she completed test 8, and lesson 80 of her second grade Horizons Math, which means she is exactly half way done with second grade math. She also took her test for week 10 in Spelling. She earned an A+ on both tests.

Last night C, age 12, told me a disturbing comment her dad made to her on his nightly phone call. He told her he "probably wouldn't be calling on Thanksgiving because he had nothing to be thankful for." Now, after 13 years of knowing her dad I am used to his negative thinking, but I was a bit appalled that he told his own daughter that!

As tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and his comment was on my mind, I've been sitting here this morning thinking of all I am thankful for. I have always tended to be on the more positive end of the spectrum, and I USUALLY try to live my life with "an attitude of gratitude", as a good friend says. I thank God every day, sometimes several times a day, for the least little things in my life, and I KNOW how blessed I am. Sometimes I tend to forget, though, that not every one has such an attitude, so I thought it appropriate to take this blog and use the opportunity to just list a few of the most important things I thank God for in my life.

First and foremost I am thankful for knowing God in my life. Without Him I would have none of the following blessings.

I am thankful for my daughters, C and E, They are the loves of my life, my reason for living, and I consider it a privilege to have been entrusted by God to raise them. I am thankful for their health. I am thankful for their unique personalities and abilities. I am thankful for each day I spend with them, and I know full well how quickly I could be gone from this earth, or THEY could be gone, and I never let a day go by without telling them how special they are, and letting them hear me pray to God thanking Him for allowing me to be their mom.

I am thankful that I have the opportunity to home school my girls. I am thankful for each and every book I am able to provide for them, and each day that they are home, learning at their own pace, and not sitting a third of their day in a classroom away from me.

I am thankful for the good family life I had growing up, my childhood seems almost idyllic...all the traveling and vacations, memories, my parents, my brothers, my beautiful house and yard, and a mother who let me be me! I am thankful God gave me a dad on this earth for 17 years, and a mother that doubled as my best friend for 26.

I am thankful for all the good years I had with my ex husband, all the good times, and even for the bad times. Without the bad times we would never appreciate the good. And I'm thankful that he and I still maintain a friendship, and that he kept his promise to the girls of a year ago and calls them every night, sees them every other weekend, (sometimes more), and when the alcohol doesn't get in his way for him being a good dad.

I am thankful for a few GOOD friends, M in particular. M also accepts me for me, puts up with me, and has been there no matter what time of day or night this past year. He provides stability, consistency, food, advice, a listening ear, laughter, and moral support for the girls and I.

I am thankful for my house and yard. They are both a bit ramshackle lately, as I am not the carpenter D was, and don't have the energy or time most days to do yard work, but they are mine, and they are paid for, and they are HOME. I could be living in a card board box in Kenya, or a garbage dump in India, but God blessed me with a beautiful house and yard here in the United States, where at least we still have a FEW of our freedoms.

I am thankful for our pets....my 5 dogs, 6 cats (plus a few strays I feed outside), and the 2 dogs that D was able to take. They are expensive, and sometimes we choose between paying the bills or buying dog food, but they bring us all joy and unconditional love, and on some of the days when I'm NOT feeling so thankful there is nothing more comforting than a cat or two purring on the couch next to me.

I am thankful for so many little, material things that make my life easier or more comfortable....my couch, my computer, my books, my piano, the hot water heater, the washer and dryer, and microwave and my coffee maker. I could go on and on, but there's too many to name. Rest assured I'm thankful for everything I own materially.

I'm thankful for a working vehicle, albeit the windshield is cracked, the headlight is out, and most months I can't pay the insurance. LOL It's better than trying to walk or borrow someone else's car, or take the city buses. I don't think I've had more than a quarter tank of gas in it in over a year, but God always provides enough to get me where we need to go.

I could go on and on, but everything I mentioned above are things I am thankful for, and my girls hear me say each one of those things every night when we say prayers together.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! And if you're reading this, be thankful you have a computer, and electricity to run it.

Been Awhile Since I've Updated About School

2010-11-11T09:28:00.002-06:00

For anyone who reads this with any regularity, I apologize for not posting any school updates for so long. The past 6 weeks have been nothing but doctor appointments, vet appointments, and trying to just catch up on chores and the bare minimum of school work. At least that's the way it has seemed, although as I think about what we've accomplished with school, we've done more than I thought. Somehow, no matter what life throws at us, school for my daughters is always my #1 priority.

E is doing wonderfully in all her second grade work. She loves math, and is currently completing lesson 73 as I type this. She has vastly improved her speed on her addition and subtraction drills, has learned about half of her multiplication tables, and no matter how difficult the assignment she always gets As, and many days begs to do another lesson.

E's handwriting has also vastly improved, and I would even call it "pretty" some days. She is reading chapter books fluently now, both out loud to me, and to herself for enjoyment. She and I are working slowly through Phonics and Spelling. She does well remembering spelling rules and applying them to her assignments, but tends to forget when writing stories, cards, or in other assignments that spelling correctly is meant to be done ALL the time, with ALL writing, not just in a workbook.

E and I have begun reading, "Little House in the Big Woods" each day for History. We usually read about 20 pages a day, and she reads roughly a third of those pages aloud.

As for C.....she is still doing fine with math. She is becoming a little less lazy on her first go-round, which is earning her higher grades (A's) and less time spent re-doing problems she already well knows how to do. She is on lesson 77 today. She is working through her 7th unit for English, and this week through Thanksgiving week is researching and writing a Research Paper on an Historical Place of her choosing. C chose to write about Pompeii.

I have to really hand it to C. We have had so many unexpected interuptions in our schedule since the beginning of October, and without complaint she often doubles up on lessons to make up for days lost, so she isn't behind at all.

Both girls and I are still enjoying our Anatomy and Physiology course this year. We have completed the units on cells, reproduction, the skeletal system, muscles, the digestive system, and the renal system. This week we began a Health and Nutrition unit.

Coinciding with our anatomy study, C has been plagued by unexplained wrist pain intermittantly for the past few years. The past few months the pain has increased, in severity, duration, and instances. I took C to her regular pediatrition, and was able to get a referral to an orthopedic sports injury specialist. C has had X-rays, and yesterday, and MRI, and we await the doctor's verdict next week. I pray she won't need surgery, but the pain has increased to the point she often times refuses to play, and wakes up at night from a sound sleep needing ice packs. E and I were present for all of C's appointments, and I think the radiologist was pretty impressed by 7 year-old E exclaiming upon viewing the X-rays, "I see C------'s phalanges! And there's her ulna and radius! Wow! I can see her metacarpals, too!" If the radiologist wasn't impressed, she sure got a big chuckle at least. LOL

As for C's social studies...I have altered a bit from HOD's curriculum. I will still employ several of their books, and use their art, poetry, literature, and Bible, but I have incorporated more of our own "living" books, along with Story of the World Volume 2, and Mystery of History Volume III. The biggest change is that I decided to scrap the notebooking work, as C and I were both dreading the tedium and repetitiveness of it, and the hour and a half every day it was sucking up of our time.

That's about it for an update for now.....long story short...both girls are not only doing well....they are ahead, and we'll keep plugging away. Please pray for C and her wrist, and that she may be healed without surgery, but that if surgery is required, that it will all go safely and well, and as painlessly as possible.

In Memory of...

2010-10-28T05:54:00.002-05:00

...my daughter's grandma.

The girls dad lost his mother this week. I have had a VERY busy month and haven't had time to write anything here, but I wanted to at least pop on here and extend my sympathy to my ex husband and his sister.

I have very mixed feelings about this woman, but let's concentrate on the positive. B was a great cook. She was sensitive. She never failed to frustrate me, but she also never failed to make me laugh. I will never forget the fun times we DID share with her playing games, listening to music, talking, and eating her wonderful food.

I regret my daughters never really were able to know her and have a grandma. C has some memories of her, but E remembers only 2 times meeting her, and both times were mere minutes.

My sympathy goes out to Danny, his sister, and his father. (His parents were divorced, but his mom and dad still loved each other, talked several times a day, and did everything in the world to help each other out.) I'm sorry guys! While she and I had major differences, I know B was a bright light in your lives, and I feel for all of you.

Just an Update

2010-09-22T06:34:00.002-05:00

Well, the girls are still doing well with school. C is still not doing as well as normal with her math, although when made to redo any problems she misses, she gets them all correct, so it's still a laziness factor. She will be doing Lesson 65 today.

She is taking an English test today for her 4th unit. This unit was on "Writing a Persuasive Editorial." As it was an editorial, and therefore she could write on anything she wanted to give an opinion on, she, of course, chose to write about animals. To be precise, she wrote about why people should buy pets from animal shelters, as opposed to pet stores. She worked very hard at it, and even looked up numbers for the local shelters in our area, called them herself, stated her reason for calling (My name is-----. I am a sixth grade student writing an English paper, and I would like to ask a few questions, if I could have a few minutes of your time...."), and did brief phone interviews to get solid facts and quotes for her paper.Her final paper was very well-written, although she got her first B (a 91%) on anything she has written in over 2 years. The reason for the B was not her writing, it was the technical stuff, such as not capitalizing her title, leaving out a few commas, and....for the first time I can recall....a spelling error. (She spelled neutered wrong.)

C and I are muddling through HOD's studies. Go figure...a literature based program has (you guessed it!) tons of reading. *I* actually enjoy it. C tolerates it. We read excerpts from several different sources, research further online, and she follows the instructions to complete the entries in her student notebook. The other day she said something to me that sums this program up: "Mom, I thought all these books would be fun because I like reading. But they're boring, and the only time i like them is when YOU read them out loud to me and explain them. Then they're fun." Well, I'm flattered that I am able to make them FUN for her, but the point is that SHE should be reading most of the things independently, and not only understanding the material, but retaining what she reads. I'm reserving judgment until we finish out the year, but I doubt I use a lit-based program for C again. I think, in the future, I'll go back to a strictly textbook based program for history and related subjects.

Both girls are still LOVING Anatomy and Physiology. We finished our 3rd unit on the Skeletal System. E loves sitting in class, listening, answering questions, while C does the accompanying notebook work. Last week, I began to teach that days section, and C just began RAMBLING off the names of EVERY bone in our body. EVERY SINGLE BONE. I noticed the previous night she had spent about 3 hours with the science book and a piece of paper, and she had been looking them all up and listing them in order. On her own she memorized all 206 bones. Now...while I was not only flabbergasted that C had taken this initiative, and thrilled that the skeletal system interested her so much, little E was not quite so happy. With each bone C said, E's eyes began filling with tears, and soon she was just sobbing. E was upset because she didn't know all these bones. I told C, "Stop for right now.." C kept going. I said, "Honey, E doesn't know these, and she feels bad." C kept going. I said, "C! PLEASE stop for a minute. I am VERY impressed you know all this, and you may tell me later, but for right now please just stop." C kept going. She would NOT stop until she proved to me she knew all the bones. E cried harder. I felt so bad for her, because E loves being able to answer questions, and yet there was no way she could have read or pronounced all these scientific names on her own. Finally C finished. I tried to comfort E. I began asking about 20 questions in a row that I knew E could answer, glaring at C all the while. E slowly calmed down. C got mad that I was letting E answer all the questions. Ahhh......the joy of homeschooling. LOL

E has finished the printing section in her handwriting book. We will soon be starting cursive writing. For the next few weeks, though, the girls and I are doing "light" school work, so cursive will have to wait about a month.

E and I are both still loving R&S phonics and spelling. Well, ok, we both love Phonics. We haven't started the actual spelling book, because the phonics books are so wonderful that she is learning the spelling rules just from doing phonics. E is SO proud that she gets A+'s every lesson, and can remember when to use which spelling for words, and I am just proud of her period, for working so hard this year. : )

E's abilities in math never cease to amaze me. Every time we start on a new concept that *I* think will be difficult to teach, and difficult for E to grasp, she catches on after only one example by me, and she continues to Ace every lesson, every assignment, every test. She is currently on lesson 54. Horizons Math does NOT go lightly on the assignments. Each lesson takes E about an hour to complete, yet she never complains, never asks to skip a problem, and she figures each and every one out on her own.

E's reading is becoming more fluent, although I would like her to be able to be reading chapter books on her own to herself, and she isn't quite there yet. I don't know what's normal for a child of 7; I merely go by my own reading abilities, and her sister's. She has EXCELLENT comprehension skills, though, and I think one of these days she will take off reading on her own very soon.

In social studies, E has cemented her 7 continents, and is working on the 4 oceans. She, occasionally, still thinks Alaska is a continent, but now she giggles as soon as she says it, so I think she just says Alaska to get a rise out of me. LOL She and I have also been studying farming. (Oh, how utterly exciting....no offense to any farmers reading this. LOL) We are talking about the differences in farming today vs. farming in the Colonial days. E was completely awestruck that I have actually been to a real farm. I think I need a farmer friend to let us visit one of these days, so E can experience the thrill of a real, live farm for herself.

Well, this is long enough for today's update. There's so much more I wanted to write about too. Maybe if I tried to be more consistent in my blog-writing, I'd get it all said. Till next time....

One month into the school year...

2010-09-08T07:01:00.002-05:00

Both girls (and I) are doing well with school. I am actually very pleased with their progress already, and I am much more motivated to get school done this year, as opposed to last year.

I THINK I have FINALLY found something that I not only like, but that is working for E's spelling confusion. After much research, I opted to order Rod & Staff's "Spelling by Sound and Structure" for grade 2, and Rod and Staff's Phonics for grade 2. We have had the Phonics for 2 weeks, and E just LOVES it. She asks to do it every day, and most days she asks to do more than one lesson. This is the FIRST program she and I have used that teaches the RULES of spelling, such as "the long a sound can be spelled 'a_e, ai, or ay'. We only use 'ay' when we hear the long a sound at the end of a word." Or...if a word begins with the /k/ sound, has a short vowel sound in the middle, and the vowel is a,o,or u, the first letter has to be "c". If the vowel is e or i the first letter has to be k." No other program I've used sets forth the rules of HOW to spell like this, and now E has something concrete to memorize and fall back on when unsure of how to spell a word. I had hesitated on buying the Phonics....almost only bought the Spelling, but it is the Phonics lessons that are teaching her how to spell. Ironically, this is the least expensive program I have ever used, and it is the best. (so far, check back at the end of the year, and we'll see if E's spelling has improved as much as I hope it to. LOL)

In other 2nd grade news, E is also still doing fabulously with her Horizons Math. She is on lesson 47, as of today, and still maintaining all A's. She, for some reason, really likes doing Handwriting every day, too, and if try to skip it, she asks for it. And I must admit, her handwriting IS improving. Within a couple of months she will begin learning cursive. In Social Studies E is still learning about communities, but we will soon be moving on to a very simple history of the U.S. She and I have also been reviewing the globe, the continents, and the oceans.

E and C are still doing science together. We are on the 3rd unit in Anatomy and Physiology. We all 3 still love it, although C tries to complain and get out of doing her note-booking activities. I've never seen a child who detests writing more than C. Yesterday we did a demonstration to show how cerebral-spinal fluid makes a huge difference protecting our brains. Each girl put an egg in a container full of water, and ran around my house shaking the container. The eggs remained unbroken. (The egg was our brain, the water was our cerebral spinal fluid, and the container was our skull.) Then we poured the water out of the container, and they again ran around shaking the egg in the container. Much to their delight, the eggs shattered, and suffered extreme "brain damage". LOL This experiment was so much fun they got more eggs out and damaged some more "brains". LOL

C is on lesson 58 in Math. She is not doing as well in math this year, as in years past. She is consistently getting about a C average on her assignments, but this is completely due to her rushing through, not reading directions thoroughly, and making careless mathematical errors without double checking her work. After I grade her work, hand it back to her to correct, she easily finds her mistakes, and corrects them, so it is not a lack of understanding causing her lower grades; it is simply laziness.

C is so far getting all A's in English again this year, and she is just finishing her 3rd unit in that, too. She wrote a BEAUTIFUL "personal narrative" a few weeks ago....definitely her best writing yet, and she did it all on her own, with NO assistance from me at all, from choosing the topic to the final draft, it was completely her own doing.

I FINALLY received her HOD unit study on "Resurrection to Reformation" 2 weeks ago, so we have only completed 1 week's worth of work in that so far. It adds a ton of time to our school day; there are several different books, projects, and activities each day, but overall she and I like it. I will reserve judgement on this for awhile, until we have gotten further into the program. I like the books HOD has chosen for this unit, and I love that one course incorporates History, Geography, Bible, Literature, and art, along with the optional Shakespeare study I ordered with it. I don't like the amount of time this is taking to complete each day, or how disorganized some of the lessons seem to be, but when I look at the entire week's worth of lessons altogether it all flows together at the end.

Every afternoon I see some of C's friends walk home from the bus stop at 3:40, home from their days as 6th graders at the WORST school in our district, and I just Thank God that C is able to be home another year with me. She is learning more, expected to be accountable for her learning and mistakes, and away from a HORRID environment that my older 2 step-daughters spent 3 years of their life in. I dealt with the appalling attitudes and behaviors reigning in that school for a total of 6 years, and I remember vowing NEVER to expose C or E to that way back when April attended that school. Again...Thank GOD I found home-schooling, and that I have the patience, time, and ability to do this for my daughters.

2 Weeks Down; 34 to Go

2010-08-13T06:13:00.002-05:00

The girls and I have now completed our first two weeks of school this year. (With the exception of C's social studies unit studies, which NOW won't be in till after the 18th).

C finished her first unit in English, and got a 90% (B) on her 1st test yesterday. She will be doing Lesson 50 in Math today. As we got so far ahead with math this summer she only has to do math 3 days a week. C and I also finished her first unit in science (Anatomy and Physiology). She LOVES this subject, and I have to admit, so do I. She learned about the history of the study of anatomy, and about cells, parts of cells, and how they function. I wish we had a microscope!

E has been working VERY hard. Some days I wonder what I was thinking when I chose to get her advanced curriculum. She isn't having any trouble with math, though....straight A's. She now can count by multiples of 2,3,4,5,6,and 9. (and of course 1, 5, and 10, but she's known those for 2 years.)She has learned to "carry" in double, triple, and quadruple digit addition problems. She is reading very fluently, and she is earning A's in language and reading.

E's struggles still seem to lie in Spelling. I, and my older daughter are "natural" spellers,which means we instinctively know how to spell. E has not inherited this ability, and I have yet to find a spelling program that suits her, and that she actually learns from. She has so far gotten all A's on her spelling lessons and tests, but it is purely memorization, and she doesn't "get" the phonics rules or how to apply them.

I bought E the book, "How to Draw 50 Animals" as she has quite a creative, artistic streak, and I am pleased with the beautiful drawings she has been producing.

As for non-school life....the girls have been bored to tears with softball over, all their friends have been busy the past 2 weeks, and the weather here has been one heat advisory after another. So...the majority of our daytime is taken up with school. I've even skipped mowing for this entire past week. Mind you, I'm not complaining. This is the life I enjoy...spending my days with my girls, doing school, NOT mowing. I miss going places, though, and I'm hoping when the weather cools down I can take them out to some parks, at least.

So, school is off to a fine start. I know when our Heart of Dakota curriculum arrives, C's (and my) days will be lengthened considerably, so we're getting ahead in other subjects, and enjoying adjusting to a 5 day a week schedule while we can.

This Year's Curriculum (2nd and 6th grade)

2010-07-31T06:18:00.002-05:00

This is the latest in the year I've ever posted about our curriculum choices. It is also the latest in the year that I've ever decided on, and then ordered our books. In fact, I am actually still awaiting one more box that was back-ordered until the first week of August. Any other year I had my decisions made and the girls' school books ordered in January and February. This year, on such a limited budget, I was unable to order it all at once, and had to order it piece by piece.

You will notice I have a much shorter list this year. This is partly due to financial restraints, and partly because a few of the girls' subjects are complete programs, with several subjects wrapped up into one particular program.

So....without further ado, the girls and I will be doing:

MATH: 6th grade-Saxon 76. C has already completed 1/3 of the book. She will be "beginning" 6th grade on Lesson 41. As seems to be the case every year, she has completed so much of the book already she will only need to do math 3 days a week.

2nd grade: Horizons 2 for E. I can not say enough wonderful things about this math program. E has already completed 25 lessons and 2 tests, and this is just the BEST math program for advanced children I've ever seen. Horizons Math is promoted as the most advanced math available for elementary students, and I have to agree that it is certainly advanced. This math program is very challenging, very fast faced, and it actually is a ton of work. (for both teacher and student)I think so highly of this math that I intend to do a full review of it soon.

ENGLISH: C chose (and I happily agreed) to do another year of BJUP English 6. 5th grade went so smoothly, and she learned so much, that neither of us saw any reason to change a good thing.

E will be doing McGruffy's full Language Arts program. This program actually consists of 5 subjects all tied together: SPELLING, PHONICS, READING, LANGUAGE, (grammar and writing), and HANDWRITING

SCIENCE / HEALTH: We are still reading through Apologia's Zoology series, and I ordered Apologia's ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY the second it was published. Being a nurse, I am impressed with this program for elementary students. It looks awesome, and I splurged and actually bought the accompanying student notebook, instead of being cheap and trying to run all the pages off in black and white. (ok, so my printer is broken and I CAN'T print pages off the internet, LOL) It looks to be a worthwhile expenditure. I've had these books now for 2 months, and I am as excited as a child on Christmas to actually begin this with C, and as always, E may sit in as she wishes.

SOCIAL STUDIES: C is reading "Story of the World" Volume 1 aloud to E this year. As some of you may recall, C liked this overview of Ancient History so much we actually did it twice...once for a grade, and once for fun, and if I have to read this book in it's entirety one more time I may just puke. I will be supervising the readings, and I will, of course, be doing most of the geographical aspects of this program, but I just can't sit and read it myself again this soon. LOL I also bought BJUP Heritage Studies 2, with the intention of working through it with E, but she fell in love with the textbook, absconded with it, and reads it herself.

C will be doing Heart of Dakota's "Resurrection to Reformation" with the optional Shakespeare literary study. This program is technically a "history and geography" study, but as Heart of Dakota is basically a Charlotte Mason style/ literature style unit study, it covers history, geography, cultures, art, Bible, and literature / writing. There is a TON of reading involved, a TON of notebooking, writing, mapwork, and hands-on activities. I am anticipating this to be the most time-consuming portion of C's day. This also happens to be the program in which a few books are on back-order, so I must wait to start it. I have all the other portions of the program; however I do NOT have the Teacher's Guide, the Student notebook, or the Student's Shakespeare notebook. In other words, I have all the reading, the main text, the CD's, but not the actual "workbooks" or Teacher's Manual, so it is impossible to begin until I have those.

Both girls will also be doing Thinking Skills daily. I bought "Building Critical Thinking Skills" at the age-appropriate level for each girl. E also has a Learning to Draw Animals book for Art.

That's it. A much shorter list than previous years, but very comprehensive, and I think they will both actually have to work a lot harder than in years past. C, for sure, will have much more "homework", and E's math alone take 60-90 minutes per day.I'll let you know how it goes.....

Where Have I Been?

2010-07-29T06:55:00.003-05:00

My posts have really slipped this past year. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I have been working hard this past year, but for several months I've let my schooling slide to the way side. I think I may have been going through a bout of depression, and for awhile I was being very self-centered. I spent more time worrying about money (I don't have to worry about THAT anymore, because I don't have any to worry about! LOL) and feeling sorry for myself for having to do "man" jobs, (don't have to worry about THOSE anymore either, because I'm getting proficient at figuring things out or, GASP! asking for help.) I also spent much of my time helping out my dear friend, and I don't have to worry about THAT anymore, because he and I seem to have gotten this scheduling thing down pat, for the most part.

So, where have I been for 2 months? Well, I've been mainly getting my daughters and I lives back on track. C completed her 5th year of softball, alternating between the positions of pitcher and first-base, and contributing to her team finishing 2nd place for the season, and 2nd place in the tournament. This year, I had the added fun of simultaneously watching TWO softball games on TWO different fields, as E completed her 1st year of softball. Her team ended up in 3rd place for season, and 3rd in tournaments, which was much better than I expected at the beginning of the season. Five years into this softball stuff, and all 3 of us still love it, still haven't missed a single game.

Ex-husband, D, is now living with his girlfriend, and that has helped with him seeing the girls more often. He now gets them for entire weekends, and the girls really enjoy getting to spend more time with him. He coached C's softball team this year, had them for many weekends this summer, and so far, things are working out pretty well.

I have also spent the last couple of months FINALLY not only deciding on curriculum for both girls, but ordering it, organizing it, and preparing for C's 6th grade year, and E's 2nd grade year. I normally begin back to full-time home-schooling the first week of August. With 2 yards to mow, being a single mother, and all the extra work that entails, I'm not sure if I will get the year off to as productive a start as normal, but I can't do any worse than LAST school year! LOL

I have everything planned out. I have everything ordered. I am only awaiting one last shipment that was back-ordered to arrive next week. The girls have intermittently been doing math through the summer, but other than that, we will start all other subjects fresh on the first day of school. All 3 of us have been very busy this summer, but it's really been a great few months, and I am actually excited (for the first time in a year) to start school. I hope to post once more before our actual start-date with the list of curriculum and plans for this upcoming year.

Hope everyone is doing well. We are!

Making It

2010-05-28T07:14:00.003-05:00

The time flies by...one minute it is November, all of a sudden it is the end of May. What happened to this lost year? I don't think I've ever been so busy in my life...not even when I was single, working 3 jobs, taking care of my dying mother 3 states away. And yet I haven't been busy doing the IMPORTANT things. Every day seems like just another day of chores to get through. The bare minimum of schoolwork for the girls because I just couldn't bear to sit still, to slow down and study, do lessons, assignments, grade papers and tests. Slowing down meant thinking, and for the past 6 months slowing down was perilously close to just stopping altogether.

I do all these mundane chores because SOMEONE has to, and yet....the next morning they are all waiting to be done again. The dogs need fed, the cat boxes need changed, the dishes need washed, garbage needs out, floors need vacuumed, grass gets mowed, only to grow right back again. E needs to learn to spell, C needs to learn...EVERYTHING it seems. There's so little time to teach it all, so little inclination to teach ANY of it. The girls grow, they need fed, and that entails stores, and cooking, and more dishes, and new shoes, and bigger clothes. And ironically, I need smaller clothes that don't fall off. And I can afford neither bigger clothes for the girls, or smaller clothes for myself. And Mom doesn't like this....this seeming waste of time on the things that don't matter as I look back on my life. And I don't like the girls growing, because soon this 6 months that has gone by in what seems to be only a few weeks will turn into 6 years, and then 12 years and they will be gone too.

Softball games begin in 6 days. For the first year in 5 years I don't care. I don't want to go. Softball used to be so much fun. But this year I don't WANT to talk to people. I don't want to watch the man coaching that is somehow no longer my husband...he's just "the girls dad" who sees them maybe once a week. I don't WANT to enter the summer months knowing C will be staying home all day every day because I can't afford to let her take the kids' enrichment classes at the local community college. We will ALL stay home all day because I can't afford to just waste the days going to bookstores, shopping, out to lunch, and I can not BEAR to go hiking, playing at the parks, searching for rocks and shells at the river because...half the people who should be out at the rivers and parks with us are gone. Half a family is gone. 6 divided by 2 is 3. 6 divided by 2 = just me, and C and E. Anywhere I go, anywhere I could take the girls seems empty. I see the ghosts of April, and Brittany, and Danny in all these places, and it's not right that it should be only 3.And who suffers for this? The girls, of course....begging to go here or there, and hearing "No" so often they don't even ask anymore.

It's not ALL darkness, though. Every once in a while the sun actually shines through. I think this week I set a record for "number of good days in a row" within the past 6-7 months. I managed to do school every single day. I managed to get PAST the never-ending daily chores, and wash windows, wash curtains, scrub things that haven't been scrubbed since LAST spring. I actually walked into my kitchen this morning and SMILED at how bright and pretty and CLEAN it looked. I actually have tons of completed work in E's math folder, and I feel proud that she has worked so hard, done so well. C has helped me with housework, she has giggled, we have had happy moments, and we have actually been productive this week.

Thank you, God, for protecting my daughters, for giving me strength, and for this week.

Wow! Hard to Believe, but....

2010-05-23T07:13:00.002-05:00

....today is April and Lance's first anniversary! What a year of changes in this family! It has been a very sad year, but the newly-weds have made it through their first year.

Congratulations, and Happy Anniversary! We love and miss you guys!

So much catching up to Do

2010-04-15T06:30:00.002-05:00

If anyone still reads this, I haven't forgotten. I just have not been in much mood to write, and I also haven't had a lot of time lately, either.

In a nutshell....D and I's divorce was final a month ago. E finished first grade, and I've begun working with her on 2nd grade. C finished 5th grade, and we are on an extended break. Both girls are signed up for softball again this year. It will be E's first year playing, and C's 5th year. D will be coaching C's team again. The weather has turned warm and beautiful here, so girls have been spending every day outside playing with their many friends on the street from the minute the other kids get out of school until dark, if I let them. LOL

I've been busy trying to take care of the house, the 12 pets, 2 daughters, home schooling, and helping my friend. As the only "adult" (I use that term loosely, LOL) in the house all winter, I learned how to light our boiler in less than 5 minutes, without crying, panicing, or blowing up the house. I figured out how to install a new screen for my front door. There was some crying with that task, but I managed. And I have added mowing the lawn, and scooping dog poop to my list of chores. Oh, and I had to kill a spider all by myself....ALL my "spider-killers" have moved out.

One of these days I will try to get on here and update our curriculum lists, and plans for next school year. God Bless anyone who still reads this.

Happy Birthday E

2010-02-09T04:36:00.002-06:00

E is 7 today. From the time I was 13 weeks pregnant, she hasn't stopped moving. Her personality hasn't swayed since birth. Labor with E was 46 hours...it was time to be born, but she just didn't want to leave her Mama. LOL

She was born with a gorgeous head of dark hair, and had dark eyes. She's looked just like me all her life, but her personality is all her own. She is slow to warm up to new adults, but once she approves of someone, she gives her heart to them fully. This child is SMART! If it seems impossible, E will work and work to figure a solution out. She gets things on the first try, and is ready to move on to more new things.

E is imaginative. She's talked to herself her entire life, spinning stories, conversations, and making up songs. We have stood outside many a public bathroom, laughing because we can hear her clear outside the door talking, and taking on both imaginary parties conversations. She loves music, and will compose her own songs on the piano. When she is sad or thoughtful, she makes up the most beautiful, sad-sounding songs. When she is happy and excited, I have to tell her to quit banging on my piano keys. When she isn't singing, or playing the piano, she is "drumming" on everything in the house...or whistling...or playing the recorder. She loves to dance, spin in circles, and exercise with Mommy. (Shhh...I don't do that! LOL)

School with E is interesting, to say the least. She learns quickly, and on first try, so thankfully, it doesn't take long. Thankfully, because she is constantly making up stories about the illustrations in her book instead of writing answwers. She rarely has her pencil on the paper; instead it is being poked through her socks, her shirt, my comforter, and occasionally her own skin.

E is the only child I've met who can be sitting perfectly still and fall off a bed or out of a chair. She loses EVERYTHING. We have a place for things like coats, shoes, pencils, etc....but E's things are mysteriously never where they belong. How do you lose a coat??? LOL

She feels things very deeply. She cries tears of joy and amazement, and she cries when she feels life is unfair. She is the child who, if Mommy or someone else is upset, will not say a word, just quietly make a picture to cheer me up, or bring me her own blanket, even if she is cold. E's nickname is "Cuddlebug"....she's my hugger, my lap-sitter, the one who for the first 3 years of life couldn't fall asleep without clutching Mommy's ear. When she's sick, she will still reach up and hang on to my ear for comfort.

When we say nightly prayers, E is the one who remembers to pray for people or situations C and I forget to mention. E is the one who, not one night of her life, has ever forgotten to ask God to tell her litany of pets and people who have died, that she loves and missed them. (Bandit, Sonny, Goldie, Kristi, and Thumper...every night!)

E is the most active of my children, the smartest in figuring out new things and grasping new concepts. E is the most, by far, imaginative, and the most sensitive, empathetic little girl. She is caring, loving, and considerate without a single reminder.

E was quite a surprise to me when I found out I was pregnant, and she has been a challenge to mother, and yet she is the biggest blessing, the example we all should follow. I ADORE my E, and am so thankful God blessed me with her. I just can't think of one thing about my little E that I don't love and appreciate. HAPPY BIRTHDAY my dear, little one.

School Update

2010-01-16T18:44:00.003-06:00

E, in first grade, is flying right along. She has completed 200 pages in her math book, 12 of which she did this week. She continues to learn a concept immediately, which I'm thankful for. Her handwriting is still a bit sloppy, but I have been correcting her more, and she can write beautifully when she takes her time. She also completed 8 pages in her English this week, and LOVES finding word opposites, and counting syllables. She is still reading well, but her spelling is not doing as well as I would hope. She spells more phonetically, than correctly, but for being only 6 she is normal in that area.

C, in 5th, has now completed 99 out of 120 lessons in math, and still earns A's with each assignment. If she would consistantly double check her work she would get A+'s. We finished her unit on pronouns this week. Somehow they had 2 extra lessons, so Monday and Wednesday she did 2 English assignments. Again, all A's. A+ in Spelling, as always, and a very imaginative journal entry for her this week. Not the best writing she has ever done, but I love her imagination. C also did 4 lessons in Bible, and 2 pages in geography.

She and E completed chapter 9 in Zoology. I'm amazed at how fascinated E is with science. It is the only class she is never bored in, and actually sits still to listen, and answers comprehension questions.

As for myself, I learned what antecedents and reflexive pronouns are. I'm not really sure why they are important, and have never heard of them before, but always nice to learn new things. LOL

D and I have come to an agreement with the attorney, and signed all the papers Friday. We both must attend mandatory parenting-of-children-going-through-a-divorce classes next month, and then it will be final. Still waiting on child support. For the first time in my 38 years of life I've had to get my home phone disconnected, and cable TV is next on my list of cutting back on expenses. I have also had to apply for assistance with my power bill, so we still have power for another month or two. Thanks to my friend, M, the girls and I have been eating very well, though. So, even though I am having to make adjustments, and dont like things such as applying for assistance, God is, as He always does, providing, and the girls and I are very blessed.

A Few More Small Life Changes

2010-01-08T05:42:00.004-06:00

Since our seperation D has been living in a motel room. He has now found a place to rent, with 2 bedrooms so the girls can visit, and has permission from the landlord to take 2 of our dogs. We have 8 dogs, and he will be taking the 2 largest ones, Lucky, his 9 year old yellow lab, and Shadow, MY 2 year old black lab. These are 2 of the best, smartest dogs I've ever known. In fact, Lucky is the dog that made me begin liking dogs. I will miss her, but she belongs with D, as she is crazy about him, and miserable here with him gone. Shadow, on the other hand...I'm REALLY going to miss him. He really IS my shadow, following me from room to room, laying beside me wherever I am. Shadow knows and obeys all commands, worries about me when I'm sick, or upset, and is fiercly protective of me, and our home. I have posted about him before, check my May and June 2008 archives on this blog, when I nursed him through near-death. He is the largest dog we have, at 95 pounds, so I suppose the bright side to this move is that those 50 pound bags of dog food I buy every week might last a little longer, but I AM GOING TO MISS HIM SO MUCH! This dog, even though huge, is MY baby, and the only reason he is going to live with D is that Shadow is a little OVERprotective sometimes, and D and I feel he would be better off without 5 other male dogs in such close proximity.

Below is Lucky, tucked in with her stuffed animal. (Yes, she's spolied, LOL) and Shadow, who grew tired of waiting for dinner time, and brought us the dog bowl, and the water jug. He feels it is HIS responsibility to let us knw when food or water needs refilled.

Often, people dont think about pets when they hear the word "divorce", but each and every one of our pets are special and very dear to us, they are ALL definitely members of our family. I can't just get rid of them; they have been part of our family for years, and we intentionally kept each of them. I will still have plenty of animals here, 6 dogs, and 6 cats, plus D's one remaining fish (maybe he can take that...I'm not too into fish, LOL, but there's going to be yet another hole in this family, with the 2 labs moving. At least I will still be able to see them when I drop the girls off for visits with their dad.

First Day Back After Christmas Break

2010-01-04T15:47:00.002-06:00

Since this is technically supposed to be a blog about homeschooling, I thought I'd post about our first day back after a 2 week break. We had a very productive day.I know I haven't been very good about keeping on topic lately, but personal life affects homeschooling, too.

C spent more time than usual on math today, almost an hour, but she only missed one problem. She got an A+ on Spelling, and 2 A+'s in English. (We did 2 lessons, a cumulative review, and the first lesson on her pronoun chapter.) She didn't do as well with Bible as she normally does....missed 3 questions, but understood better after we went over the assignment again. C also did some "social studies", ironically through her English text. Each unit has a theme, and this unit's theme is Australia/New Zealand. We looked New Zealand up on the globe, talked about Sydney, the "outback", Aborigines, how English prisoners were the original white settlers of a continent now predominantly white, the differences between seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres, the awesome, and unusual animal life in Australia (kangoroos, koalas, Tasmanian devils, and platypusses [platypii???lol]). I wonder if we could take a field trip to The Outback Steakhouse....? LOL

E did 2 pages in math, 1 page in English, read me a book, and practiced skip-counting by 5's. As of this writing, she still needs to do her Bible lesson.

Both girls together did science, an introduction to pterosaurs. Almost every child is fascinated by dinosaurs, and pterosaurs are similar, but NOT (as the science book informed us) dinosaurs. The 3 of us ended up spending 45 minutes to get through 4 pages. We always tend to get into long discussions when doing science and social studies.

While it was nice to have a break, and I dreaded getting back to school every day, it went well, and we accompished lots. It was kind of nice to be back doing something productive, and while C may complain about doing school, I think she secretly likes it. I know it sure helps her attitude, which has been sorely lacking in repect and kindness lately, part of that due to boredom. E is always happy to do school, just not too much at a time.

New Year's Realizations

2009-12-31T07:06:00.003-06:00

I don't make resolutions for New Years'. Never have. It's always just another date on the calendar to me. The only noteworthy thing about the years changing is that for the next 6 months I write the wrong year on my checks. As a teen it meant major spending money earned from babysitting, for a few years it meant drinking and partying with my friends. For the next dozen years after I began raising children it meant nothing, other than going to bed early enough to get up and keep the routine of housewife and mother like any other day. One year (10 years ago tonight) it almost meant the end of my life.

This year, all the cliches about New Year's Eve are seeming to actually have meaning to me. Out with the old, in with the new. New begininnings. What a year 2009 has been! I'm not making any resolutions, but I'll share some of my realizations.

I can't recall any year in my past that has had more major changes than 2009. Beginning in March, I realized my husband suffered more than an alcohol abuse problem, and that there would be no saving this marriage. From March on, my ONLY priority became protecting my daughters. There are limits even to MY loyalty. I never thought I would ever seek a divorce, but then again, I never thought I would discover the things I did on March 4th, 2009. I thank God for showing me what I needed to do.

In May, 2009 April got married. I have realized from this event, that I did pretty darn well as a mother/step-mother. Although young, she and Lance are far surpassing everyone's expectations, and are thriving. April has shown SO MUCH maturity, and responsibility, and I thank God I was given the challenge of raising her as my daughter.

July 2009 brought loss of a friend. Kristi died far too young, and suffered far too much. I feel tremendous guilt for not seeing what I should have seen, and not helping and stepping in when I should have. I wasn't there, as I should have been, but Kristi's death, above any other event this year changed me so much. It brought back to me what I used to know so well, that we are only here for a brief time, that we never know when we, or someone we care about will be gone, and that this time we are given should not be wasted. Through Kristi's death I gained the courage and strength to do what I needed to do in my own life for my own children. Through her death, I have also come to know her father. So, I thank God, not only for reminding me of the impermanance of life, but also for blessing me with an amazing new friendship.

October-December 2009 brought the actual breakdown of a marriage that has been breaking down for years. This was not the emotional breakdown; that happened gradually, and years ago. This was the actual physical act of D and I seperating, convincing him I meant it, staying strong for what I knew had to be, and filing for divorce. Of course, it involves much more than that, it is realizing I am now a single mother, I, alone, am responsible for raising and providing for 2 young girls, simple things like I can go to bed when I want to, I can set a schedule more convenient to the 3 of us left in this house, I can eat what I want. I save tons of money on food and groceries, and my water and heat bills have been the lowest they have ever been in 12 years, and yet I have no income, so I must decide major things like a job and if I will be able to continue homeschooling.I am thankful, though, for the strength God has given me to persevere, for the wisdom to make the right decisions, for leading me with clear signs of the path I should take, MUST take. I thank God for blessing me beyond measure with friends and neighbors who care, for returning to me my strength, my brains, and my happiness, and for always providing for us.

2009 has been a year of more changes than most. As Newton's law states: "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction", and that has proven true this year. For every loss, every negative, there has been a gain, and a positive. After the year I've had, I am looking foward to putting an end to 2009, and beginning anew with a fresh page on a fresh calendar. I welcome 2010 as a new start, and I wish you all a blessed New Year.

Christmas, In Memory of my Mother

2009-12-23T05:36:00.003-06:00

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. I love the decorations, the music, getting gifts for people, the positive spirit it induces in most people...all of it. I've had a couple of not-so-good Christmases in my life, but the reason for the season, and the spirit of the holiday always lifts me up. When I was a child I think I loved the music more than anything. I LOVED to sing Christmas carols and hymns. I knew all the words to all the songs by the time I was 3 or 4, and I STILL love the music. On any random day at my house you can walk in and catch me singing Christmas carols, or playing them on the piano, and it doesn't have to be December. When I was a teenager I used to start decorating my room in August, and buying gifts for everyone I knew. My mother was very musically talented, and performed many Christmas programs...you name it, if it involved singing and a keyboard, she was more than happy to share her talents with anyone who would listen at Christmas time.

In 1998 my mother passed away on Christmas. She was my best friend. She had lived 19 months with ovarian cancer, after being told she had 3 weeks at the most. The last time she was able to talk was on December 23rd, and she called me specifically to say good-bye, and tell me how much she loved me. She was VERY worried that she would die on Christmas Day, and therefore "ruin" all future Christmases for her loved ones. Depending what time zone we were in she died either the 25th or the 26th of December. In her time zone she made until 12:56 am on Dec. 26th. In MY time zone she died at 4 minutes before midnight, Christmas Day. She tried to hold out so the date wouldn't be, as she termed it, ruined for us. A further example of Mom alwayas thinking of others besides herself was that she had a cake for me on my birthday, which is a few days after Christmas. She knew she wouldn't last THAT long, and had told my step-dad to "make sure you don't forget her birthday with all that will be going on when I die. Make sure she has a cake." Little did she know her funeral would be on my birthday, and I'm sure she would have been upset, had she thought about it....probably would have held on to life a few more days, just so THAT wouldn't be in my mind every birthday I've had since.

However, losing my mom and best friend, hasn't ruined Christmas or my birthday at all. I never remember her sadly at this time of year. I don't think too much of the one year at the end of her life. I can't think of Christmas without thinking of the 26 other years I had with her. I hear her voice singing. I remember she and I always decorating our house to the hilt. I remember baking cookies with her. I remember the big, red bow she tied on her studio door, with a sign saying, "Do Not Open 'Till Christmas", and I always opened that door and spied through the presents hidden in there anyway. I remember caroling with her and others, I remember buying presents for people we'd never met before because she had heard of a family in need. I remember every year she and I would hand-make intricate, delicate egg-shell ornaments, spending hours together, seeing who could make the prettiest one of that particular year. I remember, from the time I was a very young girl, she and I were ALWAYS the "present wrappers" for the entire family. I remember her huge list of over 400 people I helped her mail out cards and personal letters to every year. Even in 1998, when she was too sick to write she made sure I completed the entire list for her.

This year, is a year of huge change. This year is probably the oddest Christmas I've ever had. I have not put up one single decoration, not even a tree. I have not sent out one, single card. I have not even bought my presents yet. I have some, that I bought, but not nearly like I usually do, and intend to at least get more bought later today. I have not made Christmas cookies, although I hope to get at least one kind made today. The few present I DO have didn't get wrapped until yesterday.

I haven't been setting very good Christmas memories this year for my daughters. I hope, though, that like my Christmas in 1998, this one won't be one they remember negatively. My girls have had wonderful Christmases in the past, and I pray my daughters and I have many more in the future. I have been feeling pretty badly about not doing things like usual this year, but I have come to realize that "different" deosn't mean it won't be "special" in it's own way.

I pray you ALL have a blessed Christmas.

Finally Able to do an Update (very long post)

2009-12-17T06:25:00.003-06:00

Wow. I just realized I have not done an update for over 2 months. I suppose, as tomorrow is our last day of school until after the new year, I should. First, though, Let me explain WHY I have not been posting. D and I are in the process of getting a divorce. We officially seperated Oct. 23, and he moved out of our home Nov 13. For a few of you that read this blog, this was not a surprise, as you have known D and I the entire length of our marriage. For those of you that I've met through the homeschooling community, I imagine this is quite a shock, as I keep my private life just that...PRIVATE, and this is the first time I have brought it up. I will not go into the reasons on a public blog, but this is for the best. D and I just have too many problems that could not ever be resolved. He and I both are in agreeance that we would like me to be able to continue homeschooling the girls, therefore I am trying to make plans to find an at-home job that will allow me to keep the girls here at home, and yet earn some income to survive. D is NOT contributing at this time in any way financiallly. Thankfully, the Lord has been providing, and we are making it.

Now for the update on school-related topics.

C, in 5th grade, is doing WONDERFULLY. She has completed Saxon 65 math through lesson 93, earning A's in all her tests and assignments, She will be finished with the book within 3 months. We are wrapping up Unit 8 in BJU English tomorrow, which is exactly half-way. I STILL can not say enough good things about this english program, as she is finally getting straight A's in English, too, and has actually written several good pieces this year, in addition to cementing her grammar skills, and learning to diagram sentences. She's even written some poetry, and is currently working on a play for her sister, and their friend to perform. C has also finished book 3 out of 5 in her Bible for this year, and is loving this subject. She is on unit 24 (out of 36)in Spelling. All this adds up to my daughter will be done with her 5th grade work within 3 more months.

E is doing wonderfully with her first grade material. There was quite a long period that we did not do any formal schooling....for almost 4 weeks. E is so active and high strung, and I was feeling unable to cope well with all that is going on in my life that we took an extended break. It's easy to do this, when we school year-round, and she is still ahead for her year. When we finally got back to school for her I was afraid she would have forgotten everything. To the contrary...the break was the best thing I've ever done for her! Not only did she remember everything, she has been doing a far better job in her schoolwork than before. Instead of math boring her, she whizzes thorugh her math facts, and is into adding 3 numbers at a time, and double-digit addition. Instead of whining about having to write a few words, she is now writing several sentences per day, and up to doing 2 pages a day in English, as opposed to 1/2 or 1 page a few months ago. Her had-writing has improved TREMENDOUSLY, and she is reading fairly fluently, although her spelling is still more phonetic, than correct on many words. She has only 6 lessons left in Bible, and will be done with the entire first grade Bible curriculum. As I've mentioned before, E does school on no set schedue, other than when she asks to, so I anticipate accomplishing a lot with her over the Christmas "break". As long as she keeps progressing well, and enjoying her work, I see no reason to change what we've done and has worked for 2 years now.

Both girls have still been doing science together. I had hoped to have finished Zoology 1 by Christmas, but science was laid by the way-side for awhile, while I was feeling overwhelmed just trying to get the basics, reading, writing, and 'rithmatic done, so we are only half way through the book. Science, is one subject we will probably continue with through our "break", also, as both girls ask for it frequently, and usually during the hour or so before bedtime, which actually works out very well.

C and E have both also been working in their map skills/geography books, but we have not done any FORMAL history since September. We have done quite a bit of INformal history through reading "living" books, documentaries on TV (C just loves the show, "Cities of the Underworld" on the History Channel), and looking up places and events online.

My hopes are to be able to still somehow afford Sonlight's Core 5, Eastern Hemisphere for her upcoming school year, along with SL's core 5 science. Both are reportedly THE BEST in Sonlight's line-up, and cover very extensively areas of study I feel imperative for her to learn. However, you get what you pay for, and for these 2 programs alone, the cost will be a little over $800. Add in her English and Math, and I will need to come up with $1000 for her full 6th grade year. That is my dream for her next year, but time and finances will tell the reality. Paying for a divorce from a father that does not contribute, trying to find some work that will still allow me to be home, and still keep up with normal bills and groceries, does not leave me with money for the EXCELLENT programs I've had planned for over a year now.

Thankfully, E's 2nd grade curriculum won't be nearly as expensive. No Sonlight for her, and although I have not researched enough on all her subjects, I am tentatively planning to at least use R&S English for her 2nd grade year, which is thorough, rigorous, and yet, very inexpensive. I will not decide on her math until she is closer to finishing her first grade book, and as she is such a whiz in math, it is a difficult choice among all the many good math programs out there. All I know for certain regarding math for E is that it is time to move away from Abeka, and she is too young to start Saxon; I won't begin her in Saxon until 4th grade. She does not need repetition, as she grasps concepts very quickly, although a small amount of review would be good for her. I have not even had the inclination this year to even look ahead for her other subjects.

Another quick thing to update on, we were able to have a week-long visit with April and Lance the first week of December. Lance's father suffered 2 heart attacks, and underwent cardiac surgery. Lance obtained emergency leave, and he and April stayed here at out house. Although they spent much of their time at the hospital and with his father, we were still able to see a lot of each other, and had a nice visit. They even worked in a special afternoon with just C and E, going out to lunch and bowling, which meant a lot to the 2 little sisters, who have missed them greatly. I am impressed with how mature April has become in just 6 months of being a married young woman. (Although her housekeeping skills need work!!!! LOL) We are so thankful Lance's dad is recovering well, and even though the reason for the visit was scary, we are thankful for April and Lance making it safely here and back home, and for the nice times we had.

One last thing I'd like to mention, a HUGE thank you to two of my friends. Denise, thank you for being tolerant of my going days/weeks without e-mailing, you, only to barrage you with my problems and moods. Thank you for listening to me, and being there for me, and for your many kind invitations. You are awesome! And M...I can't begin to list the things I have to thank YOU for. You are one super-special friend to all 3 of us.

My apologies for such a long post, but there's been a ton of changes in my life the past few months, and I haven't felt like writing until now. Wishing everyone who read this far a great Christmas and New Year.

What's New With Our Kittens?

2009-12-12T12:50:00.004-06:00

Abby, Ashley, and Little Spot are now almost 4 months old. Abby has discovered the joy of paper towels. Please note the shredded kitchen stool on the left... And here is the boy kitten, Little Spot, and a new game he and C like to play:

Stressed, but Blessed

2009-11-03T05:06:00.003-06:00

That just about sums up my life recently. LOL

I have been very preoccupied with personal issues, and will be taking a break from blogging for awhile. The girls and I are fine, but the house is a mess, school is just down to the basics, and I think my stomach is in a perpetual knot. I am SO thankful to my friends and family for supporting me and helping me during this time. I especially am thankful for my daughter, April, and son-in-law, Lance. You guys rock! C....age 11...you have become SUCH a help to me doing the extra work around here, and being understanding.

Most of all I am thankful to God for leading me and giving me wisdom, guidance, strength, and courage. He is definitely the one in control of my life right now.

~Proverbs 16:9 In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.~

A (Cold) Week in Review

2009-10-17T05:43:00.002-05:00

Schoolwise we had a much more productive week this week than last. We accomplished most of our school-work huddled in my bed under comforters, and wearing robes, jackets, and in the case of my daughters, multiple layers of socks. The reason for all the layers of clothing is that it has been extremely cold all week, and we have yet to turn the heat on. We live in a 70 year old house, with the original boiler and radiator heat. I detest turning the boiler on for 3 reasons:
*I'm terrified of it, and am so afraid we will one day be the victims of a boiler explosion
*Once it is on, the heat in here is atrocious, and the humidity levels drop to near zero. This results in several months of the girls and I being miserable with dry, itchy, painful skin. My hands become bloody nubs, from doing dishes, laundry, and all the other assorted household tasks that involve me putting my hands in water. This doesn't bother my husband in the least, and he lives by the "warmer is better" theory. It is often 75° in our home. The first thing I do when he leaves for work is shut the heat completely off, and by 6 or 7 hours later it cools down to a more survivable temperature...just in time to finallly stop sweating, and have hubby arrive back home from work. and crank the heat back up.
*The main reason our heat isn't on yet, is that our power bill goes from a managable $150-$200/month to well over $500/month, and in the REALLY cold months of January and February it has been known to be over $600 for one month. That's 2 full weeks of pay from my husband, and we obviously can't afford to spend literally half his monthly earnings on a mere luxury such as heat.

So, with a little extra clothing on, we made it just fine through school this week. We had such a boring weekend last week that we did 2 full days of first grade, and caught up on what I neglected to do for fifth grade the week prior. We continued on every weekday this week.

C began her literature last Saturday, and she LOVES it! I intentionally chose a book she would like for her first book study, "Laura Ingalls Wilder", a biography of the author of the Little House books. I had to read the book first, before assigning it, and I felt it was dry, and poorly written, and probably a little above my daughters reading level due simply to the dryness of it. Much to my surprise, she is an avid "Laura" fan, and begs for more and more pages to be assigned. She doesn't like being limited to certain pages/chapters. She is doing very well with the written assignments, and only has one minor difficulty applying the difference between describing someone's PHYSICAL traits as compared to describing what makes the person unique.

C finished chapter 4 of her BJU English. Her final assignment was to write a persuasive business letter...not an easy task for a 5th grader. Not really an easy task for ME...I can't think of a single time in 37 years I've ever had to write a persuasive business letter, but I do think for someone hoping to eventually run her own no-kill animal shelter it's a skill she will use over and over. If you're going to run a non-profit business, you'd better be good at writing letters asking people to give you money. On her own she came up with an idea for writing her own letter. She chose to write to the local pet stores and ask them to donate any expired or damaged goods and supplies from their inventory that she could then donate to our own local no-kill shelter. We actually mailed the letters, so I'm praying at least one of the pet stores contacts her.

She then moved on to Chapter 5 in English....VERBS. Oh, how she and I hate verbs. If it was simply a matter of recognizing a verb we'd be fine. It's all this other nonsense....linking verbs, state-of-being verbs (which are both the same thing), helping verbs, participles, predicate adjectives, predicate nouns, objects of the verbs. ACK! Who cares?!?! I never learned this stuff. Not once. I think I am able to write fairly well. I've never gotten anything lower than an A in anything English related. This is the point C and I were both in tears last December, and finally gave up on Abeka's English. I still see absolutely NO use for all this in-depth study of a verb. But I am remaining calm. We patiently did day 1 of this chapter. She did much better than I expected, but not as well as I'd hoped. I ran off copies of extra-practice worksheets, and we worked yesterday on the extra practice for the first days lesson. (Thank you, M, for letting me use your printer!)She did better, but still not 100% on the extra worksheet. It'd be nice if there was more than 1 extra worksheet per lesson. I've never needed them before, but with this chapter I need 10 or 12 per lesson. Please pray for C and I to make it successfully through this chapter.

C also did 4 or 5 lessons in math, and took 2 math tests yesterday. She only needed to take 1 math test, but she wasn't paying attention, and did test #12, which she had already done the week before, so she had to then take test #13, which is what she was supposed to take. LOL She got an A on it. She is really flying through her math this year.

We're finishing up with chapter 5 (I think...it's too dark to go double check) in science, and in history we read about Islam. Her history book devoted a mere 22 pages to Islam, most of it a fictional story about Sinbad. Unlike many Christians, I feel it is imperative to learn about other religions, and other beliefs, so we are now taking a break from her history book, and spending a good month or two studying in-depth the middle east, Islam, and the Muslim culture in general. I have 3 AWESOME books for her age on this, and conveniently, have a Muslim neighbor who adores the girls, and isn't offended by any questions we come to him with. He has even been so kind as to loan us his Q'raan to see and compare it to our Bible, and Christianity's teachings.

C bagan her 2nd light unit in Bible, and this one is MUCH better than the first one. Each lesson is one of the parable's of Jesus, and she and I are both LOVING the lessons.

We had a review week in spelling, and next week is week 7 of our official school year, which means we get to skip spelling. C is also still working on one page a day of Daily Grams.

As far as first grade is going...E is currently flying through her math, too. Danny hasn't done math with her for a good 4 or 5 weeks, but she's been working almost daily in it with me, in addition to timing her on her flash cards. I would like to take this moment to say to my husband, "I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!" Yes, I know that is not a proper, humble Christian attitude, but I really did tell him so. LOL The way I see it, I had 2 options. I could have nagged him every day, and angered him, or I could have just quietly noticed he was not doing math like he promised, and done it myself. E's handwriting has also improved by leaps and bounds. It is so pretty (if she has lined paper) I wanted to actually scan some of her work to post here, but my printer/copier/scanner has died, and I no longer have a way to get photos on here. Oh, wait...I have a digital camera, so I guess I could. We'll see if I actually get around to it. LOL

Anyway, E has had a wonderful week. She has worked VERY hard, and done tons in all her books. It's hard to break it down, but I am definitely seeing a big improvement in her attention-span, and her willingness to sit still and write. Thank you, God!

Still going through some personal strife and issues, but I'm used to that, and my main priority is the girls' education, happiness, and well-being. We had an excellent week. Blessings to you all!

Week in Review

2009-10-10T06:40:00.002-05:00

This has been a horrible week for school. C had such a busy weekend last week with her best friend. She had fun, but virtually no sleep, and tons of sugar. By the time Sunday night rolled around the poor thing could barely hold her eyes open, so I let her sleep in Monday till 10:00! That gave me time to really do a good cleaning on the house, but because it was such a late start I skipped science and history. We're also having finanical and family issues here at our house, and I've not been in much of a mood to be cheerful and do much school. E only did 2 days this week, and C slid by with just math, spelling, grammar, english, and Bible. Both girls finished a light unit in CLE Bible. C finished the 1st one of the year, E finished #4 for 1st grade, so only has one left for the whole year. We only did 1 day of science, and 2 days of history. I did finally begin C's lit program. I intended to only do 4 book studies this year, and this is an extra class, so we aren't behind. She is loving it, as I knew she would.

Not much else to blog about. I'll return to my normal, cheerful, overly-wordy self soon. Blessings to all!

Happy Birthday, Wee One!

2009-10-02T05:38:00.002-05:00

I maybe shouldn't call you, "Wee One" anymore; you're almost as tall as me. You're ELEVEN years old today. Happy Birthday, sweetie!

A friend calls you an "old soul". I don't think so, at all, although I can see where your personality would lead others to think that. You've been the same since labor. You took your time getting out into this world, but when you decided to finally show up, the "pushing" stage of labor lasted all of one minute. I see myself in you every day. You may look almost exactly like your Daddy, but your personality is just, ME.

An old soul is someone who has maybe seen more than they should have, lived through more than they should have at a young age. You come across as much more mature than girls your age. Well, you HAVE seen more and been through way more than I would ever have liked for you to see. I suppose to someone who doesn't live with you day in and day out you seem mature, because you have learned to patiently wait while others go through their problems, you have learned empathy and compassion. I remember when you were a baby, one of the most important things I wanted to instill in you were these qualities, and I can at last see that I did succeed. I've worked hard to raise a daughter that cares about others, cares about even the littlest animals, and you do. I see my mother in you every day, but when I'm really thinking about it, like now, I realize how similar you are to me. When I was a child, people always said *I* was an old soul, and it made me so mad. LOL No, I wasn't...I just had a lot to deal with and a lot of maturity pushed onto me ...just like you, sweet C.

You are the helper around the house. You are the comforter to others. You're slow to warm up to people...but once you decide they're safe you're all love. This is exactly how I wanted you to be. I didn't neccesarily want you to have to see many of the things you've had to see, but I'm glad you're not sheltered from reality. Life is hard, some people are not good, and much better to learn how to deal with that while still young and the person who loves you (and your sister!) more than anything else in this world can help you properly deal with issues. Just because life is tough doesn't mean it isn't great. Just because people are mean doesn't mean ALL people are. You've learned daily that promises are meant to be kept, honesty is the only way to go, and loved ones are meant to be cherished.

I also see the other side of you...you get silly, but not as silly as me yet. (Took me 23 years to get to where *I* could be silly around others.) You get mad and pouty when you're tired or embarrassed. You are NOT good at sharing, and while you've learned to cherish just about everyone else in our world, you have far to go on that with your younger sister. Unfortunately, this is also me. LOL You're sarcastic, which I love. You have an attitude big-time, and I don't think that's because you're approaching adolesence...considering you've always had it, and your mother may have just a tiny bit of an attitude,too. LOL I don't mind sarcasm and an attitude, as long as you can control them, and not abuse these qualities to harm people.

C....you're real, and honest, and have a big heart, and those are the most important things to have. I'm SO proud of you, and I love you SO much. Even though you're only eleven, you really are my best friend. I hope you have a wonderful birthday, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend. May God continue blessing you as you enter another year on this world.

Feeling Nostalgic

2009-10-01T06:21:00.005-05:00

These pictures were taken within the first month my husband and I knew each other. The one of the girls and I dancing, I was 25, April (in front) was 6, and B was 3. This is just one of my all-time favorite pictures. Those 2 step-daughters of mine and I used to have SO much fun!

Anyone recognize THIS handsome guy? Yep, that's how D looked when I met him. (Excuse my finger in the picture...I had a tendency to always do that. LOL) Easy to see the attraction. Well, that and the fact he would NOT leave me alone once he met me, so I finally agreed to go on one date with him just to shut him up. LOL

Seriously, How Cute is This?

2009-09-27T07:03:00.003-05:00

Upon checking the girls last night before going to bed myself, I found all 3 kittens snuggling with E, age 6. Even with the flash on the camera going off, none of them awoke. Ashley, the runt, is curled in E's arm. Spot, the boy is next to her, and Abby is closest to the wall.

When I got up this morning at 4:30 I saw C climbing out of bed with her flashlight. She kept getting up throughout the night to check on the kittens, and make sure E didn't roll over on them. I can't get her out of bed at 8:30 for school, but she gets up several times in the night to check on kittens. Go figure. LOL

Favorite Time of Day

2009-09-25T06:33:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, C had a journal writing assignment on her favorite time of day. She chose, "Bedtime", because she enjoys her sister and I saying prayers together with her, talking, singing, and being allowed to stay up reading afterwards with her flashlight.

I like bedtime, too, but it's not my favorite part of the day. Bedtime isn't long enough to be enjoyed by me. It goes something like this...lay down, zzzzzzz. I'm so exhausted by the end of my day that many times I don't even remember going to bed.

My favorite time of day is right now. From whenever I get up in the morning (anywhere between 4:00 and 6:00, normally right around 5:30ish)until the girls wake up. E is usually up by 8 or 8:30. C tries to stay in there as long as possible, but I don't allow her to sleep past 9. On weekdays my husband leaves for work about 10 minutes after he crawls from bed. On weekends he sleeps at least until the girls get up, many times it is far later. So these few hours early in the morning, just my coffee and I, are my alone time.

I am NOT a cheeful person unless I have had a minimum of 2 cups of coffee. I don't even speak coherently the first 2 hours I am awake.If you can call it "awake". The first hour is usually a total blur to me. Who knows what I do? I have to check the history on the computer, if I want to know what I did.LOL

Prior to having a computer I would read, study, pay bills, do quiet housework, or write in a journal. Now I read blogs and e-mails, prepare homeschool lessons, pay bills, do quiet housework, and write in my blog. I don't go anywhere in the house without a cup of coffee in one hand, and a cigarette in the other. In other words...I don't do anything exciting during this time, but I enjoy it simply because it is my most productive time of day, and it is QUIET! All I can hear right now is the air filter in the aquarium bubbling. I have spent the past 12 years raising children and living with a very noisy husband. He can not stand quiet. He actually will complain if it's quiet, and go make noise. He can not stand being alone. I, on the other hand, love simple peace and quiet, and a couple of hours each day just to be by myself. I'm not REALLY alone...the girls are sleeping just around the corner, and there are several cats and dogs wandering around here, but they don't demand me to talk to them or keep them company.

So, my favorite time of day is the time when I know everyone is safe and sound, but I am by myself. I've had my night's sleep, I have my French Vanilla coffee, I get to do what I want to do, and life is good.

Kittens

2009-09-22T06:03:00.007-05:00

The kittens are 5 weeks old today. They are, of course, adorable. They are also very smart. The little boy kitty is named Spot III (His father would be Spot II, and his grandmother is a feral cat we only catch glimpses of out our back windows, named, obviously, Original Spot.) Had I known we would end up keeping these kittens I would have better names for them. However, my intentions had been to find them all good homes, and I let my daughters name them.

Spot understands English, because as soon as my husband told me it was up to me, this cat can not leave me alone. He cries at the gate until I come pet him. If I step over the gate to go in the girls' room, he climbs up my legs. If I sit down for a minute, I'm stuck for half an hour because he climbs in my lap and cuddles with me. Here's how he helps me do History with the girls. We've been doing History as a bedtime story, so please excuse the raggedy, old nightgown. That's Spot on my back.

Because Spot was smart enough to worm his little way into my heart, I began feeling guilty about the 2 little girl kitties. After all, it's not fair to keep one, and send the other 2 off to someone who might not love them as much as we do. Now I know why I made it 37 years with never having kittens around me. I'd have 37 cats if I'd been around kittens all my life. Look how much C loves them:

The 2 female kittens each have their own personality, too. Ashley is the runt, and hard to get a picture of because she thinks she's a might lioness. This little girl is FAST, and she loves to pounce and attack anything that catches her eye. I took this picture a few days ago. She WAS sitting still in the center of the photo, but in the split second between the flash going off, and the picture actually being taken she was off!

Abby is timid. She doesn't like to be picked up, but she will ease her way over to cuddle on her own time. The least little thing scares her, and she likes to hide under the bed, or behind the door. At least I don't have to worry about Abby tearing up my house like her sister. LOL As you can see she is a GORGEOUS long-haired calico:

They just began eating solid food a few days ago. (kitten chow softened with water)

So it looks as if we may be keeping all three. My next door neighbor might possibly take one, but I'm not going to look much farther for any homes. Next door is okay, because we can visit.

For any of you who read my blog and have a daughter that is in daily e-mail contact with C tell your daughter not to mention this little post because my girls still think we won't be keeping any kittens. C's birthday is next week. One of the things she asked for was to keep the kittens. I'd like it to be a surprise.

Next post: taking up a collection to pay for neutering/spaying fees. LOL I called the vet yesterday, and it's a bit more expensive than I recall from years ago. $285!!!! EACH!

Week 4 Review

2009-09-19T06:23:00.003-05:00

Both girls did very well this week.

In first grade E completed 2 more lessons (in addition to the 2 posted below), and got an A+ on test #11 in Saxon. Her dad also did a few pages one night in her Abeka 1 math, and I might have done 1 page in there yesterday, but I won't admit that.

She also did 3 lessons in her Queens Language Lessons, and 2 pages in Abeka Language 1.

She read me 3 stories aloud. E also completed a chapter in her Reading Comprehension workbook.

She did 2 pages in geography, which she loves, and is up to lesson 9 in CLE Bible LU 104, which she also loves. I, however, and getting tired of stories written to 6 year olds about all the evil kings, and torturous punishments going on in the Old Testament. I'm hoping they soon move to the more peaceful, and pertinent to Modern-day Christianity, New Testament soon.

We did not do any spelling this week, although I hope to get back to that over the weekend.

As usual, E also hung around listening to her sister's science lessons. We are all still loving the Zoology, which is good, since we are in book 1 out of 3. This week we completed chapter 4, which centered on migratory birds. *I* even learned a ton, and it was fascinating. We went out in our backyard one day, and pretended to "migrate", which all 3 of us enjoyed.

In 5th grade C completed 1 test (A+), and 2 lessons in math. It's hard for me to get used to doing math only 3 days/week. C won't admit it, but she ASKED to do math Thursday, so maybe it seems strange to her, too.

We flew through English 5. C did the review of Chapter 2, got an A on the test (only missed 1 this time), and has completed 6 lessons of Chapter 3. She also did a daily gram each day, and is up to #50 in the book.

She also completed chapter 14 in spelling, getting an A+ as always. She doesn't really NEED spelling, but it's good vocabulary practice.

In history we learned about "Illumination" writing, and mosaics. I have intended for the past 3 days to make our own mosaics using paper, but haven't gotten around to cutting up millions of tiny pieces of paper for the "tiles". This week has been a good one to be able to have internet for, as we found some gorgeous examples of both the illumination writing, and mosaics online. C also did 1 page in her weekly geography book.

We haven't begun Literature yet. I still have to read the first book I plan to assign, and I've been reading a series of books my brother sent me, and can't get motivated to read a biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder at the moment. Not a big deal, as I only plan to study 4 books in depth this year.

C also completed 3 lessons in her Bible, not to mention daily reminders on how God wants us to treat others....especially little sisters. LOL

I am missing a subject, but can't for the life of me remember which one at the moment. Anyway, it's been a very productive week, and I hope to tie up loose ends over this weekend. (Reading that biography, and making the mosaics.)

In non-school life we have been watching the kittens grow and falling more in love with them every day. They are now a month old. We took our pool down, as the nights have been so cold we haven't swam for 4 weeks now. We have been dealing with more spiders than I've ever seen in years past, including one at 11:00 last night that ran under E's bed. (Thank you, hubby!!!!!)

This week has also been full of step-daughter-15 issues. I don't want to say too much here, but I've been in frequent e-mail contact with her caseworkers, frequent phone contact with her biological mother, (always a joy) and dealt with B running away and missing for 3 nights in a row last weekend, a court hearing Wednesday, another one scheduled for Oct., a probation appointment next week, and a very important meeting scheduled for the 29th, at which something might actually get done to get help for this wayward child. I think I spent more time on this child's issues this week, than school, and she doesn't even live here anymore!

~May God bless you all~

Just a thought...

2009-09-17T11:22:00.002-05:00

WHY do they have answers in the back of all first grade school books? Or the Kindergarten ones, for that matter?

Do they REALLY think if I need an answer key that I should be TEACHING my child?

First grade Math

2009-09-15T07:08:00.002-05:00

Remember how my husband was going to take over teaching math for first grade? Weeellll....to put it nicely, he isn't very consistant with it. He did 2 nights of math the first 2 days. A week later he did 3 pages with her, which is 1 1/2 lessons in Abeka's first grade math. That was 9 days ago, and he hasn't done any since. He is quite possesive of doing math with her, and doesn't want me working in the book with her at all because HE can handle it.

Thankfully, there's a solution to this problem. In addition (puns intended LOL) to me orally working on her skip counting and math facts through the day, I also happen to own Saxon 1, which we had completed almost 1/2 of the book in before buying Abeka. I had left off at Lesson 56 out of 130 lessons. Over the weekend I picked it back up, and E and I did lessons 57, and 58. My husband suspiciously asked what we were doing. I just innocently replied we were doing Saxon. He said, "It looks like math." I replied, "This isn't the book you guys do math in, is it?" LOL

Now watch...this will be the semi-annual time he reads my blog....LOL!

Week 3 Review

2009-09-12T05:25:00.004-05:00

We had a very productive week, even though it was shortened by Labor Day.

In Math, C completed Lessons 52, 53, and 54. She missed one problem each day, and every time it was a problem on using the distributive property of multiplication. She obviously isn't getting it, but since she can multiply those numbers in her head, I don't really care. Yesterday she was so tired of missing the same type of problem she actually voluntarily took notes on my explanation to refer to.

E did 3 pages of math with her dad. He's not being very consistent, so I've started orally drilling her on facts and skip counting, so she doesn't forget. She does fine; it's just that they will never get through the book at this rate, even though I had her 1/3 of the way through it before he took over.

C completed the next 4 pages of Daily Grams, and wrote a compare/contrast essay all by herself. She earned an A. This is a huge accomplishment for her...an A on writing, with no help from me. She has completed 19 lessons in her 5th grade English book now. E did 7 lessons in her Queens Language Lessons, and 2 pages in her Abeka Language.

Both girls finished lesson 3 in Zoology 1. I hadn't intended for E to participate in C's science, but she loves it, and is having no trouble retaining the information, so we've been doing science together. C is notebooking through this course, and writing lab reports on all experiments. E just listens, and helps out with the experiments.

Both girls also completed a few pages in their respective mapwork books.

C did Chapter 13 in BJU Spelling 5. She got A+ on it, as always. E completed Step 4, and half of Step 5 in her All About Spelling.

Both girls completed 4 lessons in their Bible workbooks.

C and I began the first 2 chapters in history. They are all still pretty much review of the fall of the Roman Empire, which we just finished studying a few weeks ago. She did get to read an abbreviated version of "Beowolf", which was pretty cool. She liked the poetry style of story writing.

We have not started literature yet. I will next week. It has a ton of time-consuming work, so thought it better to hold off until she wasn't on a writing chpater in English.

E read me 3 stories. She actually asked to. She doesn't like the stories in her graded reader, but she begs to read to me from real books.

Both girls have sinus infections, but not severe ones. They've been well enough to play outside with friends every day this week. I think it is interesting that this is the first time either one of them has gotten sick since I pulled them out of public school a year and a half ago. I'm almost positive they caught their bugs from a little boy they play with who was over here, and didn't mention he'd been out sick from school until my girls had been playing with him for over an hour.

This week was a very good week school-wise for all of us. It has also been a very busy week with step-daughter, B. She is having more issues, and has a court hearing next Wednesday. This was an unscheduled hearing, but due to her extreme problems, it was requested.

Stealing a Quote

2009-09-10T06:11:00.006-05:00

I have no idea where this quote originated. I recently saw it on a friend's blog, and like it well enough to "steal" it for my own. Remember Hillary Clinton's famous, "It takes a village to raise a child..."? (when the U.S. was reforming education to the No Child Left Behind mind-set? the one that leaves more children behind now?)

Well:

No truer statement was ever said!

Yesterday...(5th grade)

2009-09-10T05:56:00.002-05:00

...was just one of those days where school flowed smoothly. C was up at 8:30, ate breakfast, and began her independant work by 9. (Bible, Spelling, and Grammar.)By 10, I'd given her math lesson and assignment, and her English assignment. She and I spent last week writing a Compare/Contrast Essay together. This week she is doing one entirely on her own. While she did those assignments, I finished cleaning the kitchen, and switching laundries around. By 11, all we had left was science. (We alternate science and history/geography.) By lunchtime we were done.

After lunch I made the suggestion that, even though she did very well all day, and had her work done, she might want to consider working ahead, since she had 2 writing assignments today. Her choices were to do her journal writing a day early, or go ahead and begin her rough draft of her essay. I let her know she didn't HAVE to do either, but it would make her day easier today. Shockingly...she chose the essay. Even MORE shocking...she wrote it fairly well. She didn't ask for help one time. She wrote it in the correct format, and had zero punctuation or spelling errors. I only saw one thing she could add, and I'm trying to make her figure it out on her own, without pointing it out.

So...here's my reminder to myself in black and white (okay, technically GREEN and white, LOL) that C CAN write, and she can even do well at it. And some days we can do 6 subjects in just 2 1/2 hours.

Every Child Should Have the Right to a Loving Mother

2009-09-04T05:52:00.002-05:00

Why are there so many children in our country that are unloved and unwanted by their mothers? I just can't understand this. I was loved very much by my own mother, and had a great, idyllic even, childhood.

From the age of 4 I informed everyone that I was going to be a nurse until I got married, and then I was going to be a mommy. That was all I ever really wanted. (I even told mom when I was about 12 or 13 that I was going to marry a man named the same name as my husband, and that I was going to have 2 girls in a row...right again.)

From the moment my first daughter was born I've been in love with her. The very first thought I had, when the cord wasn't even cut, but I could feel her tiny movements, was, "WHOA! I have NEVER felt like this before. There is no man on earth that I've even come close to loving like this little girl, and I will do anything, anytime for her." Almost 11 years later, that hasn't changed. I believe this is how it should be.

I know there are other women just like me when it comes to mothering. They adore their children. They protect them, watch them, do their best to guide them, listen to them, talk to them, help them, and most of all, love them. The thought of them leaving one day for college, or marriage, or work is almost unbearable. Who will protect them then? Yet we know that day is coming, so we do our best to at least prepare them to make it successfully on their own.

Lately, though, I've noticed more and more children seemingly longing for the love and guidance of an adult. The little 8 year old boy down the street who comes to play with my girls, but sits talking to me, instead. A 10 year old girl who comes to our house, and after playing a few minutes with C, comes to sit on the bed with me, and talk for an hour. A 3 year old behind us who wanders the streets day and night with no one even calling him home or noticing he's not there. A 13 year old across the street whose mother leaves him home alone night after night, in a house with no electricity, but she has the money to pay her cell phone bill and nightly booze. My own step-daughters, whose mother literally abandoned them when they were age 3 and 6. (Dropped the 3 year old at the police station while Daddy was at work, and 6 year old was at school.) I just can't figure out how it is that some women don't see what treasures their children are!

This morning on the news I watched the saddest story that happened right here in my hometown this week. A 10 year old girl was found riding her bike down the busiest street in town, NAKED and soaking wet. She was crying, and trying to find someone to help her. A man finally stopped to give her a blanket, and call the police. Turns out her mom had just tried to drown her in the bathtub, but relented when the girl promised she would leave and never come back home.

These are little people! They crave love and need nurturing. They have feelings. Honestly, if someone doesn't want children these days, there are so many options for birth control. If that's too difficult there are tens of thousands of parents willing, and anxiously waiting to adopt. I realize most of the people who read this are followers of the Bible, and don't believe in birth control, but you must look at all the people who don't follow the Bible, and for whatever reason choose to bring children into this world, only to neglect them or abuse them. A trip to the local pharmacy or free clinic would be better than a suffering child.

I hear so many moms say, " I need ME time." I can empathize with that, but I haven't had ME time in almost 11 years. I didn't have children to neglect them. I didn't have children to let someone else raise them most of the day. I didn't have children to gain ME time. I don't have a weekly date night. I don't have a weekly, "go-out-with-my-girlfriends" time. These growing-up years are my daughters' time to be with me. I'll have plenty of my own time (too much) when they are grown up.

Every child deserves to at least have love. I can't understand "mothers" who have children, but don't care for them and love them. I am, by no means, a great mother. I lose my temper. I try not to cook, if any other means of providing a meal is available. I can't teach English well. (LOL...see post below.) Some days I'm just so tired, or sad about other things in my life, I go hide out in my room with the pillow over my head for half an hour. But always I listen to my girls, talk to them, play with them, read with them, teach them, and above all CHERISH, LOVE, and TREASURE them. Don't all children deserve at least that much?

What is it About English?

2009-09-02T05:43:00.002-05:00

I love teaching my daughters. Some days it's hard to find time, and some days I get incredibly bored, but the teaching itself, is usually actually fun. I loved that my daughters aren't wasting hours waiting for other students to catch up, and I love that when they "get it", we can keep moving on to new material. My daughter used to literally cry over math in public school. They spent almost 2 hours a day on it, and C was done in 1/4 of that time. She still won't admit to liking it, but we do the entire lesson, and homework assignment in under half an hour most days. Science is more of a fun activity than boring. I couldn't stand science in school, but my daughters and I love it now. Rocks, birds, clouds, it doesn't matter, it's fun. History is apparently my strong point. I'm a history buff, anyway, so teaching it is easy, and I always have a flair for turning some boring old war into a funny story. (If I do say so, myself. LOL) I get so into history that I've caught my husband eavesdropping in the hall, and laughing out loud. Whatever it takes for her to remember the stuff.

Then...there is English. Growing up, English was one of those subjects I called a "blow off" subject. An easy A. No work involved. I never really got into poetry, but I could spout something off if I was assigned to. I could write volumes of stories, essays, persuasive arguments...you name it, I could take 10 minutes, and have an "A" paper. We didn't do a whole lot of grammar, but that was easy, too. Noun, verb, adjective...guess the rest. Essay question that I didn't know the answer to?..no problem. Just baffle 'em with B.S. I could cover half a page in answer to said question, and say absolutely nothing, and get one of those little "Excellent" comments written in red pen next to it from the teacher. Another A. Spelling...no problem for someone that taught herself to read AND write at age 4 during naptime. Literature...easy....just read a book, something I did non-stop back then, and still do now. I didn't have to take English classes of any sort in college, because I was allowed to "test out" of them. (I did the same with college math.) I did, however, take some just for fun. Yes, I'm a nerd.

So......WHY IN THE WORLD CAN'T I TEACH IT?!? It is my daughter's weakest area. She's not really bad at English, but she certainly isn't good, either. She loves to read, and thankfully seems to be a natural speller, like me. We do a spelling curriculum, but only because it has really good vocabulary exercises, and there are some thinking skills involved. Up until yesterday I would even have said she's good at the grammar portion of English. Her weak area is writing. She can not stand to write, and will always take the easiest (read...laziest) way out of a written assignment. I KNOW part of it is that I expect too much from a ten year old. I expect that because she excels in other areas that I excelled at, she should go above and beyond in writing. (If anyone has ever noticed that I occasionally let her type "guest posts" here in my blog, that is why. If she manages a decent paragraph, she feels very special to be able to type it up on the computer and put it on Mommy's blog.) I rarely yell at my children, but poor C gets frequent rants from me about English.

We just started the year. I have it planned that, although we will do grammar, we are going to concentrate on writing this year. Her book is set up so that every other chapter is grammar, alternating with a writing chapter. It is written very well. I had high hopes for this English program, after going through 2 last year. (And the second half of last year I wussed out, and did only grammar. My excuse being, that some children need a little more time for their brains to grasp the abstract thinking involved with writing.) C has never (until yesterday) had any problems with grammar. She has a good, solid background in grammar. The first chapter we doubled up on lessons, and did 2 each day. She did the chapter review Monday, and took the test yesterday. She didn't miss a single thing the entire chapter. I didn't expect her to, as it was mainly review of things she has done for 2 years now. She missed SIX test questions yesterday, earning her an 82%. That's a C. On things she's never had a problem with, and should have easily aced. For those of you that know me, C's are completely unacceptable. B's are barely tolerable, but C's?!? I figure if you know the stuff you will get an A. Anything less means 1.) I didn't do my job as a teacher, and 2.) the child is a borderline idiot, and needs more work. (Sorry to offend. If you don't like it, don't read my blog.)

Remember, this C was on a test of things she KNEW. She's done hundreds of times. She had no issues whatsoever on the entire chapter, but when she did the test apparently the word "are" became a preposition, and interrogative sentences suddenly became confused with imperative sentences. (Cute side note.....during my rant after grading the test I asked C, "Why do you think they call it an interrogation when the police question their suspect after arresting them???" Poor C said, "I don't know, Mom. I've never been to jail." LOL!)

So, on day 7 of our official start of 5th grade, I am already having issues with English. I would like to call in a substitute, but as the only legal substitutes for homeschooling are other, immediate family members, that won't be happening. My choices are limited to a 6 year old, and a man that skated through school with D's, dropping out at age 16, and has read a total of two books in twelve years that I've known him. (both having to do with snipers in Iraq killing the enemy.)

I'm not sure who dreads English more, me or my daughter. Yes, I realize she zooms in on the "subtle" little clues I give her, and that my attitude affects hers. My attitude reguarding English has not been subtle at all. I have not been patient or humble. I have a mental block when it comes to people that don't understand concepts quickly. I am, basically, a horrible English teacher. I have no qualms about admitting that. I am not helping my daughter out. If I could afford to hire a private tutor, I most likely would, for this one subject. If it was legal to do so, I would skip English entirely until I get her into high school.

However, the moral of this story/rant is that I, at least care. In school a C is perfectly acceptable, and they move on. In homeschool we CAN work through this, and if we have to do it in baby steps we will. If I feel myself getting angry we should stop for the day. If I see C becoming frustrated we should stop for the day. We school year round, and we are far ahead in every other subject. We have plenty of time. I love this girl with everything in me. I want her to learn, to do well, and to enjoy learning. We CAN make it through 5th grade English.

Today we begin her first writing chapter, and I promise to remain calm. In the event I feel my blood pressure rising, we will stop.

Week 1 Review

2009-08-29T06:30:00.003-05:00

C began her first official week of 5th grade this week. We are only doing half days, until after Labor Day.

She finished her 3rd grade Bible program. The curriculum we use runs one year behind in publishing their new, revised versions, so she will do 4th grade for her 5th grade year. I'm not concerned about grade levels for Bible, as it's not something like English or Math.

C completed 6 more lessons in Math, and got a 90% on test #9. I wasn't too thrilled with the 90%, because her mistakes were, as always, careless ones that should have been caught by checking her work before turning it in.

She has done the first 9 lessons in her 5th grade English. We were able to do 2 lessons each day thanks to Easy Grammar last year. It was all review, although she and I are both learning a new technique for grammar...diagramming. I don't see the point of diagramming sentences, but others swear by it, and BJU English uses it, so we're seeing how it goes. She got A+'s on every assignment.

For Science, C completed unit 2 in her Zoology 1 book, and began unit 3.

I hadn't intended to start History for 2 more weeks, as we JUST finished a summer of reviewing Ancient History, but C asked if we could please start it, so we've done the first chapter of the Middle Ages. I have an entire box of "living" books to go along with our History, but if anyone has any really good recommendations for books pertinent to the Middle ages, please post them in my comments. C and I are both voracious readers, and we can never have too many books.

E is continuing on with her 1st grade work. We completed 2 lessons in her spelling/phonics program. She finished LU 103 in Bible. We began a new geography book, and she completed 2 pages. She has been reading aloud to both her Daddy and I, and particiapting in C's Zoology lessons for science.

The big news with E is that Daddy has agreed to finish teaching her math this year. She is already 1/3 through her book. He managed to do 3 pages in her book 1 evening this week. I was looking foward to getting a break from at least one class, freeing up a little more time each day, but Daddy isn't too consistent, and I'm not sure how long this arrangement will last. LOL

My Girls Have Fallen in Love....

2009-08-19T05:56:00.008-05:00

....with these:

I think I've mentioned in a prior post that our kitty, Minnie, was expecting. She gave birth yesterday morning to these 3 adorable kittens. Two females, and one we aren't sure if it's a male or female. I think it's male. My husband thinks it's female. That means it's male because I'm always right. LOL!!!

Unfortunately, Minnie chose to have her babies in my 6 year old's bed. E was thrilled to have that honor. I was not quite as thrilled, as I had to spend the day doing umpteen extra loads of laundry. I was already going on only 4 hours of sleep yesterday, so 7 or 8 extra trips down the basement stairs and back up again didn't help my mood or my knee. LOL

E could not stop crying when she first saw the newborn kittens. I asked her if she was okay, and she clasped her hands and replied, "I'm fine! These are tears of JOY!" She was just completely enthralled at the new lives. (And yes, that is her bed. E keeps everything but the kitchen sink in there...including, it seems, mother cats and newborn kittens. LOL)

All seem to be doing well. Minnie is used to the girls, and will be staying in the girls' room. I have moved her from E's bed, though, and we bought a baby gate to keep the dogs out of their bedroom. Here they are just five minutes ago:

What is Homeschooling?

2009-08-13T06:24:00.002-05:00

Two years ago I didn't know a thing about homeschooling. I had no idea exactly how one went about homeschooling, where one obtained books and materials, or even that it is perfectly legal in all 50 states. Different states have different criteria to meet. I live in a state where it is very simple and easy to stay within legal boundaries, but even the most rigid states aren't that complicated. It is such a part of my life now, that I forget the "average" person doesn't know what it might entail. Recently, I was asked a question by someone, and this is the thought that popped into my head to write about this morning.

Everyone chooses to school their children in different ways. One of the greatest advantages of homeschooling is that we parents have a HUGE variety of materials and curriculum to choose from. We can choose which math program works best for each individual child. We can choose whether to use textbooks or "living" books, or just life. We can choose secular or Christian content. We can choose whether to spend the next year concentrating more on grammar or more on writing depending upon each child's needs. In other words, we are free to choose what works best for each child, AND what works best for us, as teachers. Some mothers (I will use mothers as teachers, because they are most often the ones staying home and educating the children. I know of a few fathers who homeschool, but they are in the minority.) find a program they like that includes all the subjects, and stick with it for each and every one of their kids. Some mothers always second guess their choices, and try something for 6 weeks, only to drop it, and try another program. Some use textbooks only. Some are die-hard unschoolers, and never once do their children see a book or workbook. Virtually everyone begins the same way...reading a myriad of books written by homoeschoolers and researching the topic. Most of us nowadays find our way to a website or two devoted to homeschooling where we can "talk" to other homeschooling parents, and gain insight and knowledge from others' previous experiences.

I've been fairly blessed with my curriculum choices. Of course, I'm the type of woman who can't ever make a serious decision without researching it to death first, but I've only had one issue with one of my daughters. Everything else I've bought has worked well for the child I bought it for, and exceeded my expectations. With the exception of C's English last year, I've stuck to all of my original choices. I don't use one program for all subjects; I mix-and-match with whatever works for each child in each subject area.

More about curriculum choices in a later post....for now I'll get back on topic. Homeschooling is basically educating your children at home (or in the car, or out in the park, or waiting in a doctor's office...)in the way that works best for your particular family. For my family, this means I use textbooks for Math, English, and Science. My daughters are definitely allowed to state their likes/dislikes with each book, and they have input in decisions when choosing a textbook, but we DO use textbooks. I feel that not using a textbook in the basic subjects leaves a good chance for "gaps" in their education. On the other hand I detest textbooks for History and Geography. I don't remember one single thing I learned in 13 years of school, and 3 years of college that had to do with history. Do you? I learned more about the Civil War from trashy romance novels I read in high shcool, and anyone that knows me knows I have a fetish for anything related to WWII. I will read ANYthing having to do with the 1930's-40's. I have a series of books I use to keep myself going in the right direction, but mainly I use living books. Living books are just your normal book read for pleasure. Of course, I choose these books carefully, picking ones that have to do with the time frame in history we are studying. Last year, for US History I used a text for our spine to ensure I didn't skip any major historical events, but C was saturated with living books that she read to herself, or that I read aloud with her. I found the textbook was very boring, and very innaccurate, and left tons of history completely out. We read biographies of Helen Keller, Louis Braille, George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, and Thomas Edison. We read the entire "Little House on the Prairie" series aloud. We read books by Mark Twain. I almost ommitted the Mark Twain books, because I thought they were boring, but C adored them, and found them hilarious.We read "The Witch of Blackbird Pond", and we read others that I can't even recall now. C really enjoys biographies. (just like her mother LOL)

Not only did we read tons of enjoyable books having to do with our history, we utilized the TV. I hadn't even intended the story of our country and its' foundations to coincide with the presidential elections last year, but it did. C watched the national debates with me. She attentively listened to my opinions on Barack Obama and John McCain. She helped me research their respective voting records, and political history. We compared the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and The Articles of Confederation and what our founding fathers had in mind with the state of our union in current times. We watched the election and innauguration speech. Although I completely was against Obama (don't even start with me about him!) his election worked perfectly into not only our study of what our country was founded on, but also went along with slavery, the Civil War, and the civil rights movement of the 1960's. Enough said on that before I get myself in trouble with the blog police.....

Homeschooling just becomes a way of life. I probably annoy my children to no end. We frequently enjoy studying nature. Not for school, but just because nature is cool, and I enjoy being in solitude out in a forest or down by a lake than being around other people. Lately, though, my poor children can't find something neat in the woods without me researching it online or in books when we get home. Find a bone? Let's look it up and compare it to animals native to our area. Find a cool rock? Let's find out what kind it is, and how it was formed. Poor kids. Yesterday C and I had an hour-and-a-half long discussion about labor, delivery, and the female reproductive tract just because our cat is soon expecting kittens. Who needs a health book, when it worked so well into the natural conversation? (An added bonus that she loved...she learned all about her own personal labor/delivery story, and how pitocin works. LOL)Final exam will be watching (hopefully) the cat actually give birth. C loves animals, and has seen many surgeries and 1 birth (of a Panda) on TV. I know birth won't bother her a bit in person. E, on the other hand will probably gag, and go to a room as far away as possible. C even got to hear the stintilating stories of my high-school boyfriend who was a hog farmer, and the deliveries of piglets he and I assisted at many times. (Well, okay, not me. I just watched him assist. If you've ever seen someone have to assist a pig having trouble giving birth you will know what I'm talking about. It ain't pretty.)

Homeschooling takes more time than any full-time job. It takes time away from your housework (not neccessarily a bad thing), your husband, your friends, and your own personal time. Actually....I think I've forgotten what my own personal time is. I literally have both my daughters with me 24/7, but that's the way I like it. It makes it a little difficult to shop for birthday or Christmas gifts, but other than that I feel it's what I am meant to do, and SHOULD do. It's not something we do only from 9:00 to 3:00. We are learning all the time, and just because we complete assignments in school-books, we aren't done. I'm completely involved in all aspects of my daughters' lives. I never have to ask, "How was school today?" or "What have you learned in Math this week?" The worst problem my girls have with school is they do a lot more work than in public school, and they have one of those teachers that has a tendency to ramble on too long. : )

C and E's Fist Catches

2009-08-03T20:47:00.007-05:00

We haven't really fished much the past 5 years, so C and E are a little late in learning. We went last week, but I was the only one who caught anything. Tonight they each caught small Bluegills. I did, too, but for some reason no one thought it momentous enough to photograph me. LOL

C did very well. She fished for 3 hours non-stop, and was determined to catch more.

I love E's face in the second picture. : ) She's so delighted, yet scared to get the fish too close to her.

Whew!

2009-07-31T08:49:00.003-05:00

Just a quick update for now. C is finished with her 4th softball season. Her team won the first game of the tournaments, and lost the next two, so her team finished in 4th place for the season and the tournament. In the very last inning of the very last game she was injured. C is the pitcher for our team, and was hit in the ankle bone by a line-drive grounder. Although it is bruised and swollen, she refused to sit out, and finished pitching the game. Our team pizza party is this Sunday, and the entire softball league's annual potluck/coach softball game is the following week.

C was also busy with Bible school, and her enrichment classes at the college. Those are finished now, too. E participated in Bible school again, too.

My husband's transmission went out in his truck, so he has spent the last 2 weeks riding his bike to work. It will be quite awhile before we have enough spare money to work on getting a new transmission, or fixing this one.

We're close to meeting our goals for the summer with our schoolwork, and have even exceeded our plans in some areas. I'll try to make that a separate post.

The girls have learned a few extra "life-lessons" this summer, too. They are still grieving over the loss of their friend across the street. At the same time they (and me) are anxiously awaiting the arrival of kittens. Minnie, an abused stray, has decided she likes being fed and loved enough to stay here. One of our outside cats decided he liked her, too, so sometime in the next month we will be caring for newborn kittens. I've had cats all my life, but always had them spayed/neitered, so this will be a new experience for me, too.

And what would an update be without letting everyone know how the newlyweds are doing? They seem to be enjoying life, spending money like it grows on trees, and behaving just like any other newly married teen couple. I've had some interesting phone calls...."How do you make green beans?" "Mom, Lance is at the store, and he called me to ask you where the instant mashed potoatoes might be?" "What does it mean when the directions says to grease a cookie sheet? And what IS a cookie sheet? All I have is those big, flat pans you bake cookies on." (ROFL!!!) You get the point. This child stood in the kitchen myriad times talking to me while I was making dinner or baking, and obviously didn't notice a single thing. She's catching on, though, and at least she calls. : ) I'll be nice, and not even post in public the checking account drama....

As for myself, I'm fine, just glad to have some down-time finally, to prepare and organize for the new school year. Both girls are already ahead for their grades, but there are still boxes of books I need to put in order, and figure out some semblance of lesson plans for 5th grade. I might even stick to them for 2 weeks this year....

Feeling a Little Better Today

2009-07-24T08:26:00.003-05:00

My apologies for the long-winded, depressing post of yesterday. I thought about deleting it, but decided I will leave it up for now, and not even go edit the typos. : ) We will soon return to the regularly scheduled homeschooling topics.

In Loving Memory

2009-07-19T14:40:00.003-05:00

Immediately after my post yesterday my neighbor yelled across the street for me to come over RIGHT NOW. Entering his house I found his daughter, and our dear friend, had died in her sleep. Kristi was only 33 years old, and leaves behind her 12 year old daughter, and her father, Mark. (also a dear friend)

Kristi was such a dear to my girls. They spent many happy hours with her at her house, not only playing with her daughter, but with Kristi, too. We'll never forget the night C kept her up until 2 a.m. making homemade Mother's Day gifts for me. The picture above was taken that night. From the top is Kristi's daughter, Kristi, and my 2 daughters. As always, no matter how badly she was feeling, she has a smile on her face. We will miss her, and all our visits so much.

The Best Kind of Day

2009-07-18T07:47:00.011-05:00

See that picture above in my header? The girls and I went out there yesterday for a few hours between C's Astronomy class at another session of College for Kids Enrichment classes, and her softball game last night. We:

fed the geese,

looked at pretty scenery,

played in the river,

and found lots of interesting rocks.

We also found tons of tadpoles and baby frogs, but those were a little difficult to get a picture of. My favorite picture of all, though, is this one. That's my right hand in the photo, and I was afraid it wouldn't turn out well, but I love it! : )

I hope you all can have great days like this sometimes! : )

Schooling Year-Round

2009-06-25T08:32:00.002-05:00

This is our second summer of schooling year-round. I've had several people ask us why we don't take a break in the summer like public schools. There's really only two simple reasons.

First, we get bored. Summer is our busiest season with softball, swimming, and other "outside" activities, and it's my time to catch up on all that housework that barely gets done when we are schooling full-time. However, these things don't take up every second of our time, and both my daughters actually ask to do school some days. (C will never publicly admit that, though. LOL)

My other main reason for summer-schooling is because it allows me to fit in the extra subjects we do, and actually gets our work ahead enough that we can school 4 full days, and one short day each week during the typical 9 months of the school year.

What does our summer schedule look like? Well, it is certainly not the same as our main part of the year schedule. We only do "light" days, and only a few days each week.

For C, who is in 5th grade, we do one Math test each week. The way Saxon Math is set up, there is a test every 5 lessons. I allow her 1 missed problem on a test. (out of 20 problems) If she misses more than 1 we will stop the tests, back up 5 lessons, and that is where we will begin doing lessons and assignments. Yesterday, she took test #7, and got 100% on it. Therefore, currently, she has "tested through" 35 lessons in her math. Adding the 7 tests and 3 investigations to the 35 lessons she won't need to do equals 45 days of math we won't have to do through the school year. So, once again, she will be able to have a 4 day week in Math, as she did last year. Technically, she could even do a 3 day week at this point, (M-W-F) and still finish by next May. I'd prefer to finish a little earlier, though, so I won't do a 3 day week unless she passes at least 3 or 4 more tests.

Public and private schooled children don't have the option of testing through parts of the book they already know. Even the more advanced children will have to slog through wasted lessons with 20 or more other kids who have forgotten over the 3 months of summer break.

C also is still working through her Bible lessons. Normally we only do formal Bible 2 or 3 days a week, no matter what time of year it is. C also is working through Grammar 5. Our goal is to complete 40 pages in her Daily Gram book. She has already completed several chapters in Easy Grammar, and 19 lessons in Daily Grams. Again, I set this goal with a 4 day week in mind.

For history, we are re-reading Story of the World, Volume 1, Ancient History. We did an in-depth study of the Ancients last spring and summer, then skipped to a full year of American History for the school year. As I plan to stick to a chronological approach to history and do an in-depth study of the Middle Ages for 5th grade, C and I both thought we should do a quick review study of the Ancients over this summer. This is her favorite subject, and doesn't even seem like school work to us. (She never says it is her favorite, yet it is the one subject she asks most frequently to do.)

We haven't done any formal science since April. This week, we finally began our first book in C's Zoology series. She will be working much harder in science this year, keeping a notebook and writing reports, and also writing up formal experiments. As she chose Zoology, she has 3 full-length textbooks to finish in only 2 years, so we HAVE to work on science through the summer. I want her to take the usual 7th grade General Science, 8th grade Physical Science, and be right on track for the high school sciences. I'm somehow also hoping to add a 4th science in the next 2 years: Exploring Anatomy, which won't be released until this August. So, in order to cover what she wants, and what I want, we have to do science full-time for the next 2 years. We don't have the luxury of taking summers off.

Summer school for E, 1st grade, looks exactly like her schedule any other time, except that E gets a little MORE school in the summer, as I have more time, doing so little with her older sister. We try to do 2 pages of math a few days a week, practice reading, (which is coming along wonderfully, btw!) and work on E's, Moving Beyond the Page concepts. MBTP is aimed towards gifted children, and is a complete program that works in every area of study, except math and phonics. (social studies, science, reading, thinking skills, handwriting, etc...) It's a combination of lit/unit studies, and has wonderful hands-on for "active" learners like E. And no, I'm unsure as to whether E is truly a "gifted" child. She comes from a highly gifted family, and has the advantage of one-on-one tailored-to-her-needs learning. So, maybe she is, maybe she isn't, but I really don't care. She seems so, but I refuse to push my children more than a few months ahead of their peers, and don't receive any government funding for having such a labeled child in our school, so it's irrevelant.

So, that's why and how we school year-round. Summers are much lighter than the main school year for my 10 year old, and the same for my 6 year old. We do it because we enjoy it, and because it gives us 1 day a week through the school year to concentrate on only 3 or 4 subjects, instead of 7. Mom's gotta do housework and get bills paid sometime, right?

C's artwork

2009-06-23T06:32:00.009-05:00

Ok, I think April's wedding pictures have been on top long enough. She dominated all my posts in May, and since then I have been way too busy to get on my blog and update anything. Last week C had the opportunity to attend college. No, she's not one of *those* homeschooled kids; the local community college has several summer enrichment classes, and she chose to take one on watercolor paintings. Her teacher was awesome, and C completed 12 different paintings over the course of a week. I will post my favorites. Please forgive the blurriness. I had to zoom in a little too much on a couple that have her full name on them to get it "out of the picture". (ha ha)

Her first one is still one of my favorites: When it's not zoomed in it looks very realistic, and the tree is beautiful:

I chose the next one because I love the double border:

This one is my husband's favorite. I never knew he had a thing for still lifes.

My final choice for posting is a tribute C drew, then painted, of our late kitty, Goldie:

I would like to mention "Happy 1 Month Anniversary" to April and Lance today. We all really miss you, and appreciate all the phone calls, e-mails, pictures, videos, and e-cards you send us. It seems to have hit E the worst. She REALLY misses big sis!

The Wedding

2009-05-26T06:18:00.012-05:00

Saturday was my daughter's wedding. C was a junior bridesmaid. E was the flower girl. Dad walked her down the aisle. As of right now I have no pictures of Dad walking her down the aisle, because he had the cameras in his pocket when he did! LOL

Here are my 3 girls shortly before the wedding: E took her job as flower girl very seriously. She behaved perfectly, and went so far as to stop and try to pick the flower petals BACK UP after the wedding.

The bride and bridesmaids. April chose the colors; they chose their own dresses.

Dad with his oldest daughter just prior to ceremony.

Ring on her finger:

Praying before lighting their unity candle....

JUST married!

The entire wedding party:

The obligatory photo of the newlyweds "shoving" a pice of cake into each other's mouth. They did it very carefully and neatly because Lance was worried about getting so much as a crumb on his Air Force dress blues.

My daughter, April, and my new son-in-law, Lance:

I pray that God will bless them both in this new life together.

It runs in the family....

2009-05-18T06:12:00.002-05:00

First my mother. Then me. Now C. Too many people don't value animals, but not in our family!

Here is C with our 2 indoor-only cats: Mitsy, the grey and white kitty, is 16. Pepper, on C's lap, is 4 1/2.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY APRIL!

2009-05-14T07:10:00.003-05:00

A is 18 today! (So I can use her name now.)

I met April when she was 6. She's not my daughter in the true sense, in that I didn't give birth to her. When I met her she was pretty messed up over her mother leaving her Dad, her sister, and her. She was fiercly loyal to her biological mother, and I was fine with that. I wasn't going to try to be her "new mommy" or something like that. After several years of her loyalty to someone who never showed up for visits, never remembered to call or even send a card on birthdays, and never even called on Christmas I started to get tired of it. I understood she loved her mother, but after years of raising her, teaching her, trying to do the best I could at parenting her, I did grow tired of it. I thought April would never see that I loved her.

When she was 12 her mother kidnapped her and her sister. We didn't hear from them for over 2 weeks. We had no idea where they were. I could barely sleep for worrying about her that time. I wasn't worried about her sister, because her sister always had tons of attention from her mother, but I was frantic about April. When we finally found them, and went to pick them up I was furious. Not at the girls, but at the situation. I started crying in the car, and told April how worried we'd been, and how much I loved her. She said she'd tried to call me, but her mother had caught her, and she'd gotten in trouble. From then on April and I became the best of friends.

Four months after the kidnapping, I left my husband for awhile. I begged him to let me take April with me, but he wouldn't allow it. When I left, April climbed in the back of the U-Haul, and bawled the entire time I packed my things. I was bawling the entire time, too, but I couldn't stay due to marital issues that were pretty bad at the time.

I moved across the country. It was like I'd never left. EVERY morning at 5, as soon as I woke up, I'd turn on my computer. I wouldn't even have coffee poured, and April was "buzzing" me on instant messenger. She would talk to me all day. We had web-cams, so we could just sit and talk like we were right there. I told her she drove me nuts that summer, but in reality it was sweet. She called me once in a panic. Her dad was at work, she was home alone, and there was a tornado warning. I had to calm her down, talk her through it till her dad got home. I tried to get her to go to the basement, but she was too scared. I think I was more frantic than she was...from 1.000 miles away all I could do was talk to her, worry, and then REALLY worry when they lost power for 3 days, and I didn't know if she was all right!

After 2 months, I missed my husband too much to stay gone, so I came home. I will never forget pulling into our driveway. April was on the phone, watching for me. She saw me, THREW the phone across the yard, and LEAPED a good 15 feet from the porch steps to my arms as I stepped out of the van. LOL She jumped into my arms like a little kid, screaming. "Mom's home! Mom's home!"

As I write this I want to cry. I have so many memories of April growing up. I remember I thought she'd NEVER get over her first boyfriend. I remember her struggles in school. I remember her heartache over her real mother. I remember when she was 14 she and I had an "unofficial" adoption ceremony. I remember spending hours playing "Guitar Hero" with her. I remember all the movies we watched together, because we were the only 2 in the house wanting to see them. I remember all the books we've shared. All the videos I've made of her dancing; she's a complete goofball. : ) I remember the bad times, too...but won't mention them here. SHE knows.

April took her sweet time to warm up to me, but 12 years later I can't ask for a better friend or daughter. I think she's an idiot for getting married in 9!!!! days, but I'm happy she has a good guy who loves her, and will be good to her. I'm sad she isn't going to college, but she never was cut out for school. I'm happy she has found a church, and is interested in the Bible. I'm SO proud of her for being the first one ever in her entire family (biological parents, not me) to graduate high school.

She's 18 now. Free to do anything. She will soon be 1,000 miles away from me. : ( I'm going to be the typical mother, and bawl my head off through her wedding. I will bawl even more, as this time SHE is the one driving away, and I know she won't be back.

April...pookie...I love you. You are just as much a daughter to me as C and E, even though I missed the first 6 years of your life. Happy birthday.

Please excuse Rebecca from her blog for a few weeks....

2009-05-11T09:43:00.002-05:00

She has:

1.) Spent the past week helping her husband clean out over 3,000 pounds of garbage/junk/things-hubby-brought-home-from-jobsites-that-he-thought-were-useful, and-then-never-used from the garage. After living here 8 years I realize we actually have a 2 car garage. Who knew?

2.) Also spent the past week weeding, breaking up ground, planting seeds and flowers on the south side of our house. I do NOT have a green thumb, but the girls wanted flowers, and I decided we could try. It actually looks quite pretty, and will look more so in a few months. I might take a picture and post it, but then...you all know how I am with actually posting photos. : )

3.) Finalizing wedding plans for my eldest daughter. She is only 18, but has been engaged over a year now. The wedding has been planned for June 6th, and suddenly 2 weeks ago was moved to the 23rd of May due to her fiance's leave from the Air Force. In addition to the date change, dear daughter has somehow gone from a simple, family only, wedding, to tons of people, a fancy wedding dress (after changing her mind 4 times she found a beautiful one on loan from a friend for free.) bridesmaids, millions of flowers and candles, and the whole she-bang. Always lovely to have less than 2 weeks to get all that together. I WILL post pictures of that!

4.) My husband and I are now coaches for softball. This will be C's 4th year in softball, but we have never coached before. For anything. We kind of had no choice....there are 2 teams who had no coaches, and we (I) volunteered. D is more of a coach than I am....he actually does softball stuff with the team. So far, I just print out schedules, plan to keep the stats book, and provide whatever might be needed that does not include athletic ability. : ) That's probably (definitely) for the best. I'm the least athletic person in this family, not to mention legally blind. My normal outfield mode is to duck when someone warns me a ball is headed for me.

So...I've been busy. I haven't had time for much school at all, although C 10 is plugging away at English and Grammar.

D has an MRI this evening for his back. He's already had X-rays, and been going to the doctor 3 times/week for 2 months. Hopefully they can find and fix whatever's wrong before the end of the month or we won't be able to. With A getting married, we won't qualify for health insurance anymore, and can't afford private insurance.

Almost Done....

2009-04-24T07:07:00.001-05:00

Look how short the "4th grade curriculum" list is over on my sidebar. That's all we have left!

Guest Post by my Daughter, C. age 10.

2009-04-22T10:18:00.002-05:00

10 year old C writes a weekly journal entry for her spelling class. Her assigned topic this week was to tell about a time someone she knows did something wrong. She was to write about how she reacted, how she could have responded, and what she would do differently, if anything. C chose to write about a certain girl who made her life pretty miserable 2 years ago in public school. As this is her final weekly journal entry for 4th grade, and as I thought she did a fairly decent job free writing, we decided she could type it here for all to see a sample of her writing.

The following is written and typed by C:

People were always mean to me when I went to public schools. They called me names. Once T shoved her desk into my desk and hurt me. When I hurt my foot, T made fun of me.

If I could go back to second grade, I would try to be nicer to T, by inviting her to my house and birthday party, and trying to play with her on the playground. When T called me a name I could have told told her the Bible says to treat others as you would want them to treat you. I was not ever mean to T, but I could have been nicer.

A Typical Day Teaching 4th and K/1st

2009-04-21T07:04:00.002-05:00

I just read a typical day in the life of Susan Wise Bauer from fall of 2000. At the time she had 4 children, ages 9,7,4, and newborn. I got a headache just reading it. I do not know how this woman has time to author so many books! For any non-homeschooling parents reading this, SWB was homeschooled, and now homeschools her children. She also teaches college part-time, and has written/co-written with her mother several books about the "Classical" method of teaching, and various textbooks. We use her "Story of the World" series as a history spine, and once E is old enough (next year) I plan to use her "First Language Lessons" and "Writing with Ease" books. C is, sadly, too old for the levels of grammar/writing that SWB has published thus far. I also just ordered the infamous, "Well Trained Mind" book for myself. I have been wanting this book for a year, and finally decided to splurge for myself for once, and buy it. My teaching doesn't fall into one, specific category, but I'm somewhere in the middle of "classical" and "Charlotte Mason". Much more classical, than CM. If you'd like more information on schooling methods, you'll have to google these terms. There are oodles of sites to find who can explain it much better than I, and I want to get on to my typical day. : )

After reading Ms. Bauer's day with her 4 young children I first want to remind myself to NEVER complain, or think I have it hard, again. She didn't complain, but, her day was just so hectic, and I could commisserate with her on the issue of her constatnly hungry, crying baby. My little E was like that, for what seemed like forever. She is still constantly hungry, but, thankfully, somewhere in the past 5 years or so she has outgrown the crying, and whining she did the first year, and turned into a sweet, gentle, intelligent, yet intense, little lady.

Our day is something like this:

I wake up anywhere from 5:00-6:30. This is my favorite time of day. I drink my coffee, as I read and reply to any e-mails, check out a couple of forums, blogs, and news sites. When it is light enough to see I pay bills, read the Bible, and begin laundry. I clean cat-boxes, start dishwater, make our bed if D's working, (otherwise he sleeps in), and deal with letting dogs in and out, giving all dogs water, feeding the inside cats and sometimes the outside cats. Most days C(10) takes care of the outside cats' food and water, and the dishes. If D works, I also try to practice my guitar for 20-30 minutes before the girls wake up.

I wake the girls up between 8-8:30. E eats breakfast, cereal, and C almost never does. We try to begin school around 9 every day, but this isn't set in stone. The glory of homeschooling is doing what works for *us*, and I can't understand people who act like their home should be run like a miltary schedule, with mom and kids fully dressed, mandatory breakfast, and sitting at a desk like a bell is going to ring and make them tardy. We are at home, and we like to be comfortable. I never shower until our basic school day is over, and chores are done. I certainly don't waste time putting on clean clothes, when I haven't showered yet, so I'm in my p.j.'s. The girls usually dress, but not first thing, and usually only when the weather is nice enough they will be going outside.

C's school takes much longer than E's. Even a full day with E takes only 60-90 minutes, and rarely do I do a full, complete day with her. C starts off doing her spelling, grammar, and Bible. She can do all these herself, except Monday's, when we do a spelling "pretest". She also does her English alone most days, but that's only because the book we're using to finish this year is really, really simple, and alll review for her. When she runs out of work she can do on her own we do math. (When she isn't done with it for the year.) Most days I run over the lesson with her, ask her the mental math problems, and sit with her while she does the practice problems to make sure she understands the new concept. Sometimes the concept requires her to write the problems, and most days she just does it orally, and I wonder why they think someone needs to practice something so simple. I do not make her write out every problem of every lesson. Saxon has 30 problems/day, and most can be done mentally. I have never skipped a single problem, but I just don't make her write them all. That's just busy-work, and a waste of time. If she *can* do them in her head, why write every, single one? I couldn't stand that when I was in school, and until she reaches Algebra I see no point in it. We can do half the problems orally in under 5 minutes, or add another 20 minutes to our day to write them all down. One day a week I make her write all the problem. I'm not sure why, but I think it's because I want to make it look like she actually did something. LOL *I* know she does them all, but if the homeschool secret police show up they'd want proof. For C we only do math 4 days/week, Wednesday's being our light day, with no math or English. As long as she continues excelling in math, and being ahead, she can keep doing it that way. If she ever slips down to a "B" , or gets behind, she will have to do it 5 days a week because I'm just mean like that.

While C does her written work, I do school with E. You must understand, though, that E is a free-spirit, and learns things the first time we discuss them, so we do NOT do school every day, and we do NOT do it on a set schedule. I try to at least have her do phonics, reading, and math 3 days a week, but those days might be on the weekend, they might be in the evening, or they might actually be in the morning when most people do school. She may also go a month between any written schoolwork. If E is happily playing or doing puzzles, or (gasp) watching TV, I'm not going to bother her. If she is bored, and wanting some school we do 2 pages of phonics, and at least 2 pages of math. If she still wants more we do Bible, more phonics, flashcards, Language Lessons, map work, or read some science or health. E is SO easily bored that I vary her schoolwork quite a bit. This is why she has so many different books. Many times I just let her pick which phonics or math book she wants to do, or we do them both. I let her pick what she wants to read aloud to me. I let her pick if she wants to write in pencil or varying shades of green colored pencils. : ) She just turned 6, and technically would still be in Kindergarten. She's been doing 1st grade work with no problems, and if we did it daily, and with only one book per subject, she'd be done with that now too. I don't WANT her to get too far ahead, and I don't WANT her to dread sitting in a chair doing busy work. So, as long as she remains 6 months to a year ahead, she can take it easy in these early years.

Another thing with E, is that she is extremely kinsthetic. That means she is a "hands-on" learner. She cannot stand being read to, but if I give her something to DO while I'm reading she is happy. She cannot stand writing, but if we break it up into short increments she does well. One day she might complete 2 pages of math and 2 pages of phonics in under 5 minutes, with perfect handwriting, and the next she might take half an hour because she is busy making up stories about the pictures, or drawing pictures because there aren't any, or somehow falling out of her chair or poking holes in her clothes with her pencil that is supposed to be on her paper. She may go along just fine, and then jump up to go run and play a self-composed song on the piano. She likes "sad" songs, and will play the most beautiful things. Then she will turn to me, and ask, "Did you like my sad song, Mommy?" and tell me an entire story to go along with the song she just played. Then, like nothing happened, she will return to her little chair and finish whatever worksheet she was doing.

I really can't tell about a typical day with E, because every day is different, but I assure you, she learns and progresses no matter how it gets done.

By this time, C will be finished with math, and most likely she has done the dishes for me, and fed the outside cats. If I'm still busy with other things, C will read a book or occassionally watch TV, although most of the time I discourage TV until school work is done. Lately, C likes to get on the computer and write e-mails to her e-pal. Our longest subjects are science and history, and I learned early on to leave these till the end of our school day. We get carried away talking or looking things up, and if I began our day with science or history we'd probably never do the 3 R's. Whenever we get to them, we sit on my bed and read together science and history. We read the textbooks, and about half the time I have her do the review questions, or make a list of vocab terms for science for her to look up. If she has any experiments we do them. For history we either take turns reading aloud, or I assign her a section to go to her room and read, and then have her narrate back to me what she studied. Once a week or so I have her do mapwork, which she loves. If History seems to be in one of the chapters the publisher just skims, and leaves most of the interesting, or important stuff out, she just gets to listen to me ramble on and on until I notice her stomach is growling, and it's almost noon, which is lunchtime. : )We add many read-alouds to history. I choose appropriate books to coincide with the time period we're learning in her textbook. If the book seems a little "difficult", or has things in the story I want to discuss with her we read it aloud. If it's just a fictional story or biography she reads them on her own. C loves biographies, and they are excellent learning aids.

I always try to finish C's schoolwork by lunchtime. In 3 hours we have no problems completing grammar, spelling, english, Bible, math, and at least one of science or history, and usually both. The girls eat at noon, and when they finsish I take a shower or bath. (I'm paranoid about one of them choking on food while I'm in the shower, so I won't go in the bathroom until they finish lunch.) While they eat I check my e-mails, and talk to D on the phone if he's working. After lunch and shower time we either have "quiet time" or the girls can go out to play in nice weather, or sometimes visit the neighbors across the street. If it was up to them they would go visiting everyday, but I don't want them to be pests. : ) C enjoys talking to her friends on the phone, but only one of them is homeschooled too, so usually C has to wait till after 3 to get her phone time. Now that E has a girl her age on the block she usually runs down to this girls house to get her to come over here to play for the afternoon. When we have quiet time one of the girls goes to their room for an hour, and the other one can play at the kitchen table or watch TV. After an hour they switch area's. C likes to play "Guitar Hero", which I allow because it REALLY helps her learn to read notes and learn basic music topics such as rythym, melody, and timing. C is awesome at this game, and the only one in our house that can beat her is me...because I'm even more awesome at it. LOL D and I have even discussed letting her compete, but most people that play it are teenage boys, not little girls or middle aged housewives.

One of the reasons I bought my own guitar is because I intend to teach C how to play after I get better. Real guitars are far different than plastic video game ones. I also have recorders for both girls, but I don't want to start them on those until I teach E such basics as time, counting, and reading notes on a staff. She knows a little from piano, but I'm sort of lazy on giving piano lessons. E makes such pretty songs without me interferring, and C has no interest in the piano at all.

I'm sure many people reading this (if many people actually do read this, which I doubt.) are by now probably thinking what a horrid mother I am letting my children watch TV or play video games. D and I both think all the people who carry on about how dangerous video games are ridiculous. If someone thinks a video game corrupts the mind of a child into a serial killer then they probably should spend more time with their children, playing WITH them, and teaching them the difference between cartoony images for entertainment, and real life. I don't let my girls play any games with killing, or violence, or sex. (And yes, there are tons of those, but seriously parents...pay attention to each game, and if you think it's bad don't let them play those. ) They play the Wii games, and C will play GH. Wii is about as tame and innocent as they come, and gives great physical exercise, in addition to one of our favorite games, "Big Brain Academy". BBA is basically critical thinking skills, and problem solving skills on a TV that the whole family can compete in for better scores. As for TV...the girls are limited in WHAT they watch, but I don't limit amounts of time they spend watching. If it's raining, or cold, and school is done, chores are done...they can watch. C adores the "Animal Planet" channel, and learns tons from watching real life surgeries, animal rescues by the A.S.P.C.A, and specials on different breeds of animals. Why in the world would I NOT want her to watch that? I could never in a million years teach her all that. C also likes game shows, in particular, "The Price is Right". I don't see any harm in that. They also watch plenty of junk, but I hope I've raised them to see how stupid most of the junk is, and even to argue the discrepencies on certain shows. C enjoys watching the "History Channel" with D and I too, and seeing the places is much better than reading about them in a book with maybe one or two photos. We've actually gotten her up out of bed before to see a show on the Roman aqueducts, Great Wall of China, or the Pyramids of Egypt. Our family has had great discussion and Bible study over a certain show that airs disputing Biblical prophecy. There's nothing like pulling out the Bible, and laughing at how the government sponsored show only tells 1/3 of the story.

So...there you have it. My long-winded account of a typical day in our home. Summer is far different, because we spend so much time outside. We swim daily, C does softball for 3 months 4-5 evenings a week, and we only work on school very lightly...2 or 3 subjects, 2 or 3 days a week. E's schedule doesn't change...in summer we still do school when she asks, or when I feel it's been a while, and we should do some. They watch far less TV in the summer than during the cold months, and in fact, we sometimes go days only watching the news or weather channel.

If anyone read all this you deserve an award. : ) I began this blog as a journal and a place to write my own personal opinions, mainly on homeschooling,. although sometimes I digress. It remains that way, but I imagine it is only interesting to myself, and even then, it will only be interesting years down the road. *I* don't even want to go back and read what I just spent an hour writing, so as usual, please excuse the typonese, and have a great day!!

Why am I writing on a Sunday Evening?

2009-04-19T21:40:00.003-05:00

I doubt anyone has noticed, but normally I write in the early morning hours. The hours before the kids wake up, and before the coffee kicks in. Well, the official reason I'm writing at approximately 10p.m. is....I'm bored. Yep. I think I can honestly say this has been the laziest, most boring weekend I've spent since my pre-motherhood days.

First..my husband got this brainy idea that he would enjoy all his video games even MORE than the endless hours he already does if he bought a router to hook his PS3 to the internet. He bought the router, hooked everything up, and, of course, nothing worked. Well, the router worked, the modem worked, the computer worked, the PS3 worked. There was just the slight issue of the PS3 didn't work WITH the router, so he had no internet connection. SEVEN AND A HALF HOURS LATER (3 of which he spent on the phone with various tech support people in various countries around the world) he discovered that our wireless security cameras cause interference with the wireless router. Go figure. Seven and a half hours to find out that him taking 30 seconds to unplug the security camera will unblock the wireless internet interference.

That pretty much sums up yesterday. I did do a science experiment with C, which took up at least a whopping 5 minutes. We added food coloring to a cup of hot water, and a cup of cold water, to show that molecules in hot water move faster and farther apart than in cold water. I took a shower somewhere in there, read a lot, ate a lot, and that was about it.

Today. Well, right off the bat I noticed the adorable, dead, baby bunny on my front porch. One of our outside cats was quite proud of himself. We went out for brunch. We came home and buried the cute, little bunny. (Yes. We ate first, and left it on our porch. )I did dishes. I read some Bible to the girls. I read some "Farmer Boy" to the girls. I read some of my book to myself. I tried in vain to find new interesting posts on my homeschool forums to read. (That's always a lost cause on Sundays because everyone else has churches to go to and families to visit on Sundays, so why would they be posting on forums?!?)We ate supper. We watched one of the 4 shows on TV I actually can tolerate. ("Amazing Race", if you must know.)I read some more. I played with E and her Mini-Luk thingy. (an amazing educational product. If I was a better blogger I'd review it one of these days.)I watched E and C play Checkers. I put E and C to bed. And THAT is where things got interesting.

Whilst in the middle of prayers I hear A, 17, hollering for a flashlight, and my hubby actually (gasp) PAUSED HIS GAME. At 9:00 on a Sunday evening, in the middle of a span of rain reaching across our entire state, our sub-pump broke. I can't figure out why, after 50 years of the original machine working fine, it decided to rust through now. Luckily for us we have another, equally as old pump, and my husband is currently working on somehow splicing parts of one old pump to the engine of the other old pump. He's sitting in the water-filled (okay, not filled yet...just filling) basement jury-rigging ancient electrical equipment. I'm up here, because someone has to be around to call 911, right?

Week in Review

2009-04-18T06:43:00.003-05:00

C is almost finished with 4th grade. She completed her math book 2 weeks ago, so our school days are shorter. I feel like we should be doing math. Then I try to remember how often I ever completed a whole textbook when I was growing up. Never. I can not recall one year, or even one subject, that we made it through an entire book. I didn't consider that when we began our year, and it's never been an issue here. I bought the books; we will finish the books. We are even finishing a month before public schools end their year, so we have a month of lovely weather to enjoy before softball season starts. : )

This week C finished all but the final test for her 3rd "Light Unit" in Bible. We are about 1/2-way through the last unit of science. She is on Lesson 121 of 180 in Language, and should easily finish the book by the end of May. The lessons are short, simple, review for her. We are around page 80 in Grammar, and will continue working on that next year. This coming week she will complete Unit 12 (out of 36) in her 5th grade spelling, and that was my goal for this year. We may or may not complete the book when 5th grade resumes. She doesn't really need spelling help, but I can tell she is learning some valuable skills from the book. (Dictionary skills, figuring out word problems skills.) We possibly have one unit left of U.S. History. I say, "possibly" because the unit skims over WWI and WWII, and I don't like skimming. I'm not sure how I could begin to cover not one, but both World Wars in roughly 20 pages.

Anyone who knows me knows I love History, and my "specialty" is WWII. I am fascinated by anything in that era, the people here at home, the soldiers, the European theater, the Pacific theater, but above all the Holocaust. I began my interest working with elderly in my pre-mom days. My step-father, and others I was close friends with fought in WWII. I've spent hours looking at pictures, reading letters, listening to stories, and as interesting as I find it all, it all boils down to the years 1933-1945. Hitler's years. And what our men and women went through serving our country pales in comparison to the Jewish people in Europe. How can I begin to teach my daughters about this in half of one chapter of a 4th grade History text? I had planned to spend a minimum of 1 semester, maybe at least one full year, on the World Wars when my daughter reach 8th or 9th grade. A friend of mine lives an hour from here. She was ten years old when her entire family was taken to Auschwitz. Only she, and her twin sister survived the war, out of a family of 6. They survived only by being twins. The infamous Dr. Mengele intentionally sought out twins for his "medical" human experimentation in the camps. I can assure you, virtually any other 10 year old would not have survived a concentration camp, because only the strongest, healthiest, adults were kept alive for their work value. What saved her life was Dr. Mengele's obscene fascination with twins. This lady now lives in the U.S., not far from me, and has a Holocaust museum. I hope one day to take my daughters there to meet her first hand. I have the book she authored, and hope to let them read it, along with at least 50 other books I own on the Holocaust. And even though my C is the same age as Eva was when she was taken, I'm not sure I'm ready for C to know the full extent of WWII. I've studied it extensively for 14 years now, and even I am still deeply affected by new information, new biographies. Conversely, I don't want to just skim an overview of dates, either. I don't want WWII, or any other war, to be "just another power/land struggle" between selfish rulers. So...while we have this one chapter left in C's history book, I'm still undecided as to how we will go about doing this chapter, or even IF we will do this chapter. My family knows my passion with WWII, and C probably already knows more than I give her credit for by living in the same house as me.

Back to the Week in Review. E had a productive week. She hasn't had much interest in school since about the beginning of March, so I was pleasantly surprised when she bagan asking for it again this week. She did quite a bit over 4 days. 12 pages of Math, her second-to-the-last unit in phonics. (ETC 2), 5 or 6 lessons in her Bible book, 2 pages in her other phonics book, 4 lessons in her language book, and reading practice. She worked on 3 stories in her Reading Primer. She is becoming quite fluent. I STILL can't get over the fact that I've taught a child to read. In fact, having never been to public school, I can take credit, or accept blame, (whichever may be applicable) for all my youngest knows.

E and C also made me some spring artwork. They cut and pasted their own designs to make me some beautiful, (and in E's case, very colorful) flowers. A few weeks ago we planted apple seeds, from apples they ate, and saved the seeds from in the fall. Somehow, out of 20 seeds, all but 3 disappeared by planting time. I wasn't expecting much in the way of results. However...all 3 seeds have sprouted, and we are eagerly hoping we can keep them alive. We haven't had much luck with things we've grown in the past, but I'm hoping apple trees will be hardy enough to survive our "brown thumbs".

The last major happening here has been that my husband has returned to work. Finally, after 5 months, he worked Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. We are so blessed that he has this job. So many in the country are being laid off, and losing not only jobs, but homes. It actually felt kind of weird this week without him here.

B called us last weekend twice. It was hard to find things to make "small talk" about, and no one here really wants to talk to her. Well, the 6 and 10 year old do, but none of us that understands what's going on. Hubby has to go to court again Thursday. I won't be going. No one wishes to hear what a step-mother who raised her for 11 years has to say, and frankly, I have better things to do than waste time sitting in a court room trying to refrain from opening my big mouth. Step-parents in my state have no legal rights what-so-ever. Hubby plans to officially tell the judge he gives up, and B can have her way. I'm sure they'll say that after fifteen years he is a horrible father for giving up. They don't take into consideration the other 5 people this well benefit and protect.

Have a great week, anyone who reads this! Since my posts are fairly sporadic, I'll be back in a day, or a week, or a month....

Tired....

2009-04-04T07:30:00.002-05:00

I'm getting tired. It's nearing the end of the school year, and my first thought upon waking this morning was, "Thank God it's Saturday!" Our goals for the academic year are almost met. Only 4 days in math, 1 chapter of science, 1 in history, 3 spelling units, and that's about it. We'll finish every book we are doing, with the exception of Spelling and Grammar. Both of those subjects are intended to last through next year, so technically I can say we're just working ahead in them.

I haven't been doing much for 1st grade this whole past month. My only goals for her are to finish her current phonics level, (ETC 2), complete our Habit unit in her MBTP concept, practice math facts, and read more.

I'm tired of school. I want to begin all the new books, but we need a break first.

I'm tired of worrying about my step-daughter. At our request, she has been in foster care the past 6 weeks, which is a step up from jail the previous 5 months. After 3 years of daily therapy, counseling, medication, psychiatric hospitals, juvenile detention, and her violence, arson, and other extreme mental health disorders,it was the only thing her counselors and the court could figure out to get her help.Because of DCFS being involved we feel like we're bad parents. They talk to us for an hour, and write 40 page reports on our entire lives as if they really know us. Because B (15 now) is LOVING all this attention she is refusing to come home, visit, or even speak to us. She now wants to go back to the biological mother who terminated her parental rights, and contributed greatly to the way B is now. My husband and I are tired of it all. DCFS feels he needs to attend mandatory counseling to gain "empathy" for B. I guess no one needs to empathize with the danger and fear we live in while she is here. I guess no one empathizes with the hours of time my husband has spent dragging her around the state to different doctors, hospitals, couseling centers, etc....all while missing work, supper, time with his other 3 kids, and in many cases, sleep. No one empathizes with a 3 year getting hit, or a 17 year old (30 pounds smaller than B) getting held down on the floor, choked, punched, and being told she was going to be killed, because B got caught stealing. No one empathizes with my upstairs being literally DESTROYED....carpet set on fire, every piece of furniture broken beyond repair, windows, door frames, walls, and ceiling panels ruined. No one cares.

We're all just tired. We haven't missed B a bit the past 6 months. We know going back to her mother will only harm her, yet...we give up. For the best of 5 people in the house, we will sacrifice one. Again. The only thought I gave her on Christmas and her birthday was, "What a blessing I don't have to waste money buying nice things that always are torn up or broken within 4 or 5 days of being given to her." The only regret I have is asking for help from an agency that now feels my husband must be a horrible person for B to not want to even speak to us. Of course she doesn't. We actually have rules, and are consistent, and we care about every child doing their best. We don't fall for theatrics and violence and threats and lying. In our opinion, the child support we will have to pay to a woman who shouldn't even have the right to speak to this child will be more than worth the peace and happiness we've all had this year.

Congratulations, B. You got your way again. Don't call us crying like you did when we let you live with her before. For one, we won't believe you after the lies you told about your dad. For two, we're not into playing games. And for three...if you call us I will likely call the phone company and have our number changed, since I can't afford to move. When I was 15 I worked, excelled in school, and helped support my mom and dad. You are plenty old enough to know right from wrong, and your behavior is chosen and puposeful. It's all a big mind game to you, but guess what? You lose. I hope you think from time to time what a happy family we are, and all the fun we had. (when we weren't leaving restaurants due to your temper tantrums, or having people in Wal-Mart laugh at us upon hearing you and saying, "Look...THAT's what happens when parents don't spank their chidlren.")

And on top of all this I'm tired of my husband being laid off "temporarily" for almost 5 months now. As much as we enjoy each other, and as fun as it is to have him home all day...it's nice to have money to pay bills, food, and other neccessities, too. And, admittedly, it would be nice to have a TV free day once in a while, too.

I'm ready for a school break. I'm ready for hubby to go back to work. And I'm ready to stop taking away from our other children. They don't deserve being treated the way their own sister treated them. They don't deserve going hungry because you ate ALL the food in the house, and pay day is a week away. They don't deserve having to be sent to their room to keep them safe or for us to spend 6, 10, and in 2 instances, 14 hours straight, with crisis workers called to our home to deal with a child WE couldn't deal with. They shouldn't have to see you punch our dog, or kick our sweet cat across an entire room. My 6 and 10 year old should NOT recognize police officers by first name because of all the times they've been called to our house, and they should not look upon Norma (dear as she is) as a surrogate grandmother. She's not. She's a crisis intervention worker, who feels exactly the same about B as we do. A 6 and 10 year old should not know their way around the high school from all the time we've been called there because the schools couldn't deal with B either.

My apologies for any typos. I'm also tired of writing. : )

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T11:56:00.003-05:00

Little E's favorite color is, was, and always will be any shade of green. This is her favorite day of the year. She was quite upset we had no green pants or skirts to wear with her lovely, green ensemble. She does have 3 green dresses, but couldn't wear those with the shirt. Please excuse the bright, green Christmas socks. If it was green she put it on this morning. C had nothing other than the old softball shirt from a team she was on 3 years ago, but green just isn't the big deal to her as it is to her younger sister. : )

And YES....E has green underwear on too!

I hope everyone else enjoys this day as much as my 6 year old. : )

How about a Week in Review?

2009-03-07T06:42:00.002-06:00

I've had this blog almost a year, and never done a Week in Review.I see them all the time on other hs blogs; I'm just too inconsistant to do our own.

E, grade 1, actually did 5 full days of school this week. Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

In Math she worked through Lesson 52 of Saxon 1, and had a test. She also completed 4 pages in Abeka's grade 1 math. She got A+ on all of it, with the exception of side 1 of a worksheet yesterday. She wrote in colored pencil, so sloppily that I couldn't tell what she wrote. She decided she couldn't count by 10's anymore (after having been able to do so for over a year.)and counted by 5's instead. Apparently she can't even count to 10 anymore, as directions dictated she color 10 of an item, and in one picture she colored 11, and the other she colored 13. After me blowing my top she completed the other side with no problem.

E also did 4 lessons in her Language Lessons book. She completed a unit (chapter 6) in ETC 2. I believe that's 10 pages.

In Bible she finished Light Unit 102, and learning about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, (Israel), and was introduced to Joseph.

She read aloud 2 stories in her CLE Primer.

We didn't do any formal science or social studies this week for E. We did some, just not formal, out of a book, and it was a family venture, so I'll get to that in a moment.

E's most memorable moment this week was yesterday. E FINALLY HAS A FRIEND!!!!

We noticed a little girl about E's age had moved in 2 houses down from ours. We decided to let E walk down to introduce herself, but before she could, the little girl came over here. This little girl was very polite, and invited E to her house. They played together there for an hour and a half, playing dress up and enjoying a "tea" party that the girls mother set up for them. This was all on their front porch, so she was within sight of us the entire time. They then moved playtime to our house, as it was getting dark. What well behaved children! They were so quiet, so polite, and so well-behaved. The new girl moved here because her family had a house fire. C and E picked 2 books to give her, as she lost most of hers in the fire. I offered clothing (with 4 girls we have plenty), but the mother assured me between her family, and the Red Cross they were fine. The only issue was when it was time for her to go home. The little girl sat quietly playing in my girls' room, and said, "I like it here. I don't want to go home, thank you." She was fine after I assured her we loved having her, and she could come back again. : )

I have been praying for someone E's age. She loves to be with other children, but all the ones we know or have over are older than her by 4 or 5 years. E has tons of friends, but no one her own age. She's always been the little tag-along. Finally, another child just her age, who doesn't boss her around, or leave her out of "big-girl" things.

As for C's week: In math she completed 4 lessons. She is now up to Lesson 105. A+ all week!

She completed 10 pages in Easy Grammar.

She did Unit 5 in Spelling.

We completed our chapter on the Civil War, and checked out 2 more books at the library pertaining to that war.

In Science we began our unit on Weather. I never knew clouds, humidity, and winds were so technical. We did an experiment, making our own wind with heat.

In English she did several lessons. I'm not sure how many. She does 2 or 3 per day to finish the book this year, so 10-15. We are on Lesson 65, I think.

C read 4 books on her own, and we finished reading, "These Happy Golden Years" in the "Little House on the Prairie" series aloud.

C finished light unit 302 in Bible Monday, and we took the rest of the week off in that subject, other than some reading the actual Bible aloud and discussing.

For both girls: We took a drive Thursday to enjoy our lovely weather after 3 months of below freezing temps. We ended up at one of our county parks. I hadn't been there for years, and last time we went to this particular one they had nothing of interest. This time we were able to visit a replica of a pioneer homestead. We also, by chance, got a lesson in the making of maple syrup. There was no one at the park during a weekday. We noticed they had trees tapped for sap everywhere. Asking a ranger about this, he directed us to an out-of-the-way syrup making building. The ranger there was so sweet and helpful. Not only did he take a half hour to completely explain and demonstrate to the girls (and us) how it comes from the trees, and ends up in jars to pour on pancakes, he let the girls taste samples from each step. Free, unplanned field trip! And what timing...after 8 years of not bothering with this park we end up there on one of only a few days out of the year the sap runs to make syrup. We then asked another ranger if they might have any informational pamplets for us. He led us to the ranger station, and gave us a ton! The girls'favorite is a 3 page worksheet to fill in about animals native to our area.

Both girls also accomplished some art. E painted several pictures, and both girls made their own purse out of nothing other than 2 bandanas and some scissors. I have intended to post pictures since they made these last Sunday, but peruse through my blog and see how I am about actually posting pictures. E also cut and pasted a beautiful picture of a wetland habitat...which I, again, did not photograph yet, although I can see it hanging on my wall right now. : )

There's our week. It was a fairly average one, with the exception of the field trip, and E's new friend. I hope yours was just as great!

: )

Decision for 5th grade Social Studies

2009-03-06T06:15:00.003-06:00

I have been in a quandry over social studies for C next year. I ordered Abeka's Old World History/Geography. I have all the components for it sitting on the bookshelf. I wanted to look something up, so referred to this text. Nothing was in the book at all about this country. (Afghanistan) Puzzled, I randomly selected other middle eastern, and SW Asian countries in the index. Many were not mentioned, and of the ones that were, the mention was only a tiny blurb, lumping such-and-such a country in with other countries in that region.

I don't care whether you are Christian, Jewish, or secular; I haven't heard of one person that disagrees where civilization began, and it began in the middle eastern regions, and spread to northern Africa, and SW Asia. Out of curiousity I checked out all the maps in the book's atlas. Believe it or not I found at least 3 countries missing on these maps. Right smack-dab in the middle of one map was a big, green space, unlabeled...again...Afghanistan. I wonder if this changed after 9-11-01? Even so, I would think that would make this country even more important to learn about, as opposed to pretending it doesn't exist.

This---in a reputable private and homeschooling curriculum---a company among the tops in hundreds of companies producing schoolbooks! In a book specializing in a continent by continent study comparing Ancient History to Modern history of same regions. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that region pretty important both in the past, and currently?

I've read several fictional and nonfiction books that take place in this area. I have a fondness for biographies and "documentary-type" books. I feel, especially with the current world climate, that the middle east, and the SW Asian countries are important to learn about, and educate our children about.

I don't want to bad-mouth this company (as if this blog has so many readers I wcould single-handedly shut it down), but I just feel, after spending $100 on their History alone, that they don't do justice to the time period and areas this text was supposed to cover. (Just so anyone reading this knows...Abeka has the greatest science texts ever. Amazing, meaty, and very accurate.) But their history is another story. I spent much of this year supplementing American History. I realize you can't cover in detail every, single aspect of history in one elementary book, but I felt they could have added much more to the text this year, too. We didn't start U.S. History/Geography until a month after our school year began, and here it is March, and we are almost finished with it. This is WITH all my add-ons of assigned reading, read-alouds, and additional research online, and we still have the book almost finished in a total of less than 6 months. I had to add on extra reading, or my daughter wouldn't have much of an idea about U.S. History. She would have a very basic sketch, but nothing in-depth.

So...considering all of the above, I opted to find something else for 5th grade social studies. Check in at a later time to find out my solution. (Gotcha on the edge of your seats, now, haven't I?)

: )

Six year old Quote:

2009-03-03T07:17:00.002-06:00

While reading to me the other evening E said, "I like learning. The more I learn, the more I know. And the more I know, the more I can learn." : )

Update on Past Month/Brief Reviews of New Curriculum

2009-03-01T06:54:00.004-06:00

I suppose I'll start with school updates first, since this is a blog about homeschooling.

C is doing well still. We are on Lesson 100 of 120 in Math. This is currently her worst subject...worst meaning that she has been getting more B's than A's. Her tests are 20 questions, so it only takes 2 missed problems to get a B, and 3 wrong to get a C. So this past week we spent on review....mostly of multiplying 2-3 digit numbers by other 2-3 digit numbers. She knows how to do the steps, but she makes the same mistake every single time. As she multiplies the "tens" place, she continuously adds the numbers she "carried" when multiplying the "ones" place. She knows she does this...yet still keeps doing it.

We finally returned to English a month ago. She is now working through Queens Language Lessons and Easy Grammar grade 5. We do 1-2 pages/day in the EG, and the title says it all. It is easy. This program teaches prepostitions before anything else. Once you learn prepostions, you can cross out half a sentence; thus, making it much simpler to identify the other parts of speech. She loves it. I love it. This book is over 300 pages long, so we will continue working 1-2 pages/day through 5th grade. The Queens LL (for the elementary child 2) is perfect for finishing up 4th grade. Each lesson is roughly 1/3-1/2 a page long, and can easily be done in 5 minutes. C usually does anywhere from 2-5 lessons/day, 4 days/week. We got this book a month ago, and she is somewhere in the 50's for her lessons. (out of 180)It is very simple. I would not use it as a stand-alone LA curriculum, but as a supplement it is perfect. Queens LL has a nice variety of LA concepts, from grammar to poetry and writing. The lessons are short enough to not discourage a LA challenged child, but complete enough to give a thorough review of all topics she needs to be familiar with before moving on to her main LA course for 5th grade.

C also began BJU Spelling 5 a month ago. This is in lieu of her Wordly Wise 3000vocabulary she finished earlier in the year. She couldn't bear the thought of doing more WW, and I couldn't bear the thought of her possibly missing out on some sort of spelling/vocab. We both like the BJU Spelling. The words are not at all difiicult for her...she's a "natural" speller. The exercises in the book are fun for her, and incorporate the Bible. BJU Spelling 5 also has a weekly "journal writing" assignement, which she readily writes each week. Apparently when you have to write on an assigned topic for spelling it is easier than doing the same thing for LA. : )

We have not done much History or Science the past 2 weeks. We have only 2 1/2 chapters left in Abeka's 5th grade science. I could not reccommend any better science text. C and I both will miss it, and have learned TONS! (Yes, I learned tons, too...even though both times through college I centered in science related fields.)It is tempting to start in on our brand new series of Apologia science books....Zoology 1,2,and 3 (at C's request.), but so far I'm being good and keeping them on the shelf for when we finish the current science. Ok...I read the entire first book in the series, and bought all the materials for the experiments....but I put it back. : )We have also been doing an independant Anatomy study. Kind of unintentional, but she is interested right now, and I told her any Human Anatomy she learns will help her out in her future vet career with Animal Anatomy.

As for History, we are up to the Civil War. We read a biography on Harriet Tubman (fascinating woman). We read the first section of the chapter in her text. That's about it for the month. We are far ahead in history, too, so no worries about falling behind. And if you count the "Little House on the Prairie" series, we've done lots more. We finished 2 books, and are almost done with another. We only have 2 more books left in the series. They are historical, and cover the expansion of the U.S. So they fit right in with our history this year. She also read 2 other books on Pioneers and the U.S expansion: "Trouble for Lucy" and "Sarah, Plain and Tall."

That covers our main subjects for 4th grade. Now for first...

E continues to whiz through math. I switched her to Abeka's grade 1 Arithmetic. She adores this. So do I. But we couldn't completely give up Saxon 1, either. She enjoys that, too, although the tedium and repetitiveness is enough to drive me insane. So...since she technically shouldn't be in first grade until next August....we do them both. We alternate days, or some days we work in both texts. I took a loooooong break with the Saxon (for my own sanity), and we recently began again. I am not one of these mothers who wants to continually brag about how advanced her child is, and am in no hurry to push E ahead a grade or two. If I push her ahead NOW, she will finish school and go off to college even sooner. Nope....not thinking about that. : )We continue along a few days a week, and plan to finish first grade roughly around the time she would finish in public school. (14 months from now).

E is reading well. Her current favorites are the "Biscuit" books, "Amelia Bedelia", and the "Frog and Toad" books. I can't stand the Frog and Toad books, but she likes them, and she's reading, so I'll grin and bear it till this, too, shall pass.

E also is loving writing. She does so in dozens of notes to family members and pictures with stories. A page or two in a Phonics book will bring her to tears, but she can write a page long note with no trouble. Her current thing is notes to Mommy while Mommy is on the phone. Examples of this include: "Mommy, C turned the channel on TV and I was not done watching a show." or..."Mommy, Can I have a marshmello {sic}? I love you. Love, E" or...."Mommy, Daddy let the dogs out. Can I let them back in?" : ) I guess it's better than interupting my phone call... Usually these notes are accompanied by a detailed drawing illustrating what she wants. Such as a stick figure and a giant marshmallow. Or 8 dogs surrounding a stick figure and a house.

Both girls' favorite subject is, by far, Bible. I bought the rest of the CLE light units (mini-worktexts)for them, and they love them. If it were up to E should would do an entire light unit each day. In addition to their Bible curriculum, I have been trying to include C in some of my own Bible readings. Nothing major...just when I run across an interesting story, later in the day C and I re-read it together. I'm pretty new to this Bible reading, so I will probably screw it up somehow. Well, not new to it...I grew up going to church, but I didn't pay attention or truly GET the Bible until the past few years. Since we haven't found a church here I'm satisfied with I'm on my own.

On my own I am up to 2Kings. I would probably be several chapters into it right now if I weren't sitting here writing a blog entry that's already 10 pages long....

I hope this posts. Some message just popped up saying. "Cannot connect with Blogger. Post may fail." That's always good to see after spending half an hour typing. Please excuse any typos....with that message I'd better just click "publish post", instead of proofreading. : )

How many of these have you done?

2009-02-15T06:43:00.003-06:00

I'm not sure where this list originated from, but saw it on another blog, and thought it interesting enough to post on mine. Marked items are ones I have done:

~1. Started your own blog~ (kind of obvious)
~2. Slept under the stars~
~3. Played in a band~ (I'm counting school band. And Guitar hero)
4. Visited Hawaii
~5. Watched a meteor shower~
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
~7. Been to Disneyland/world~
8. Climbed a mountain.
~9. Held a praying mantis~
~10. Sang a solo~
11. Bungee jumped (uh....never happen!)
12. Visited Paris
~13. Watched a lightning storm at sea~
~14. Taught yourself an art from scratch~
15. Adopted a child
~16. Had food poisoning~
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
~18. Grown your own vegetables~ (as a child, and hoping to try on my own this year.)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
~21. Had a pillow fight~
~22. Hitchhiked~ (Only twice, and out of neccessity))
~23. Taken a sick day when you weren’t ill.~
~24. Built a snow fort~
25. Held a lamb
~26. Gone skinny dipping~
27. Run a marathon.
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
~29. Seen a total eclipse~
~30. Watched a sunrise or sunset~
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
~35. Seen an Amish community~
~36. Taught yourself a new language~(unsure whether or not to mark this one...I began learning one, and finished in high school the usual route...with a teacher)
~37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied~
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
~39. Gone rock climbing~
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
~41. Sung Karaoke~
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
~43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant~
44. Visited Africa
~45. Walked on a beach by moonlight~
~46. Been transported in an ambulance~
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain....(sad thing is...I don't remember if I have or not)
53. Played in the mud
~54. Gone to a drive-in theater~
~55. Been in a movie~ (when I was 12...very bit part...got cut out of final movie)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
~61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies~
62. Gone whale watching
~63. Gotten flowers for no reason~
~64. Donated blood, platelets, or plasma~
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp.
67. Bounced a check
~68. Flown in a helicopter~
~69. Saved a favorite childhood toy ~
~70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial~
~71. Eaten Caviar ~
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the changing of the guards in London
~77. Broken a bone ~
~78. Been on a speeding motorcycle~
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (article)
81. Visited the Vatican
~82. Bought a brand new car~
83. Walked in Jerusalem
~84. Had your picture in the paper.~
~85. Read the entire Bible~
~86. Visited the White House~
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
~89. Saved someone’s life~ (I was in nursing 9 years...of course I have...not outside of work, though. Oh, wait...yes, I did. CPR on ex-boyfriend's father)
~90. Sat on a jury~
~91. Met someone famous~
92. Joined a book club
~93. Lost a loved one~
~94. Had a baby~
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake (been there; just didn't swim in it)
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
~98. Owned a cell phone~
~99. Been stung by a bee ~

ETA: These looked all neat and tidy on the page I write on. As soon as they posted the left margin is "squiggly". My apologies for the difficulty in reading the list; I don't know how to fix it in bloggonese. : )

Happy Birthday E

2009-02-09T06:30:00.004-06:00

My little sweetie's growing so fast. Just 16 months old in this picture; now she's 6 years old! Love you sweet E....

Happy Birthday!

Wow! Someone actually reads this; aren't I special?

2009-01-31T09:36:00.003-06:00

Ok...I actually had a request to update this, so....

I don't have a lot of time to post much now, but in a nutshell here's what I've been up to. We had a great Christmas. Except for the rotten ham I didn't find out about until I was ready to cook it for Christmas dinner. And all the stores were closed on Christmas day. (Where are all the people who are offended by Christmas? Don't any of them work in a grocery store?!?)So we had cheese and crackers and lots of cookies.

The whole two of you that read this know about our troubles with step-daughter B, age 14. She's been keeping us very busy this month, although she isn't even living at our house right now. A few court appearances, a visit from DCFS, and about 100 phone calls and e-mails.

I've also been busy the past two weeks getting caught up on finances and schoolbooks. Hubby's been laid off since before Thanksgiving, and money was very tight. I guess the economy's hit us, even though I thought we were too poor to notice. : ) We managed to get caught up. I had a lot of debt to pay off...the power company, the water company, the phone company, car insurance, father-in-law (Thank you for helping us out for food throughout!)and sadly, even our daughters savings was dipped into, but I repaid them double what I had to borrow.

After paying off bills and debts I had to get ordering schoolbooks. Little E, 5, was sorely in need of 1st grade materials. She's been doing nothing but phonics, math, and health for 2 months. C is moving through her 4th grade much faster than I thought, and was needing 5th grade books for next year. She only has 30 lessons left in math. I also finally was able to order her more appropriate Language Arts/English books to finish out this year, as we gave up on her Abeka sometime in December.

I intend to write a post and maybe some curriculum reviews on both old and new books soon. Note....I said intend so don't stone me if it takes awhile to truly get around to doing so. : )

Another thing I've been trying to spend time doing daily is reading the Bible. I happened to start January 1st, but it wasn't even something I planned or made a resolution for. Prior to 1-1-09 I tried to make time each morning (and some evenings) to read a bit in Proverbs and the NT. I began on New Years Day at the beginning...Genesis 1:1, and have found it fascinating reading this time through. I just finished Deuteronomy this morning, and will be moving on to Joshua. I am gaining much more perspective on the history leading up to the New Testament. Many have said only the NT is important in these times to Christians, but as I read more and more I have to disagree. Read Numbers 22-24...the story of Balak and Balaam. Read carefully Balaam's fourth oracle. Clearly prophetic, and very interesting. (to me, at least). In all my life I'd never come across that story before, or if I had, I'd never noticed the prophecy in it.

Please excuse any typos in the above. : ) No time to proofread....

Happy Birthday to my Husband!

2008-12-20T07:10:00.004-06:00

D's birthday is today. I won't say how old he is, but it's younger than I am. : )

Basically, what this means is we will be having meatloaf and scalloped potatoes for dinner, and a big pan of brownies in lieu of cake.

There, honey, you made it into my blog. I'm sure you're thrilled. LOL

I love you!