2010-11 homeschool pictures

We went yesterday to Sears to get some homeschool pictures done. We had to keep it short, as I'm still not feeling that great from the mono, but we got some great shots in. I have a lot of cutely edited ones, but I'm just going to share the basic shots for now of my girls.

Missa's 2nd grade picture

Liddy's 1st grade picture


Kimi's K4 picture


JoJo's 3-year-old preschool picture


our official class picture for this school year



I also got a great outtake shot that we are considering for our Christmas card picture this year, but I am keeping it under wraps for now until we print the cards. Although if you are on my FaceBook friends list you have already seen that picture.

changing things up

Yep, I know I do this a lot. I do this in a lot of areas of my life, and if you've known me any length of time you know I change my mind like some people change hair colors. Anyway, things just aren't working for us educationally. I am sure you have read my frustrations within my posts about this school year with Missa, particularly when it comes to her and math. We have spent the school year fighting and struggling to get lessons done at a decent pace with her, spending three or four times as long as our curriculum "says" we should be spending to teach a concept only to have her not retain it. All this extra time we spent with her on her lessons had to come from somewhere, and unfortunately that time was taken away from Liddy. As a result, I have 2 children who are very behind in hours and not making the progress in their materials that they should be making. Something had to change.

So I spent some time typing and filling out a couple forms, and on Friday I mailed these papers to my local school district's attendance and homeschool department to get approval to homeschool independently the remainder of the school year. Then as soon as I put that into the mail, I started the process of withdrawing the girls from Ohio Virtual Academy. This was a very hard decision for me to make, as I don't feel quite confident enough to have the discipline that I'm going to need to do this on my own without having to answer to OHVA and their teachers. However, with the needs of all the girls and of the work involved with my college, I need to find a way to make this all easier on us. Part of doing that is simplifying things in our lives. I have decided that now is the time for our family to return to Sonlight for our history and science, and to use a more individual approach for math with the girls. Our current plan is to do Miquon math with Missa for the first two workbooks, and then we will move into Math-U-See beta (I believe that she'll be at that level after finishing Miquon orange and red). Lydia will finish the k12 math program that she is working in currently, and then will most likely move into Horizons math. Two completely different programs and approaches, which is appropriate with the girls having such different learning styles. Missa learns and thinks like Scott, needing to just DO it and experiment with it to figure out how to do things, while Liddy thinks like me, just needing instruction on how to do what she's working on and then someone available to assist when she needs help.

Am I nervous about leaving OHVA? You bet I am. Am I confident in my plans to finish up Sonlight core K with my girls and then go into core 1 with them? Not entirely just quite yet. I am taking on a LOT of responsibility with this decision. With OHVA I at least had the fallback of the teachers and the curriculum not being right, whereas on my own the blame falls entirely on me. I hope that I am making the right decision for us, but I also know that it will be all right if I just get into a groove and go for it. I am going to rely more on my compuslive scheduling than ever I believe, making doubly sure that I allow myself enough time daily for everything to get done.

The only thing that is holding us up now with the official withdrawal from OHVA is the approval of my notification to our school district. I hope it gets here this week so that I can get it all finished. Since I've been sick all week like this, I'm not able to get up and do a lot of my regular household stuff and I've run out of paperwork and other things to do. I am BORED and out of things to do while lying down in bed.

Another month, new goals

Here we are, at the start of another month. I am going to try this month with setting a monthly goal for each girl in their academics, and see what happens. I start my next class on October 26th after taking the past few weeks off because of paperwork issues with my enrollment, so I need to try and get ahead. So here are my goals for each girl in schooling.

MELISSA SECOND GRADE

4 units phonics 1
28 lessons lang. arts 1
2 units math
3 units science
3 units history
8 lessons one on one with music theory and piano
4 hours structured PE

LYDIA FIRST GRADE

finish phonics K
4 units math (would prefer 6 though)
3 units science
3 units history
8 lessons one on one with piano
4 hours structured PE

KIMBERLY JUNIOR KINDERGARDEN

4 weeks of core P4/5 and Sonlight lang. art K
learn to print her first name without a model reference

JORDAN PRE-SCHOOL

learn to use scissors
keep her from destroying the house

ME COLLEGE

read syllabus for first course
get as much of this course's work done before the course starts
turn in high-quality papers and assignments

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Yep, lots of big goals. Now, I don't anticipate us having too much trouble meeting these goals if I can just get us to focus and stay on track with things, but if we end up falling short in a couple areas that is ok. I am not going to stress over it, we are going to work daily on things and just see where it takes us in the end. Working daily is more important for us than making a specific amount of progress. If we do math daily and Missa doesn't reach the goal of 2 units this month, at least I know that we worked daily on it and that is what matters most. If Lydia does phonics daily but doesn't finish her phonics level like I'm wanting, it is ok because she will get there. I am not going to stress. The science and history units are fairly short, with the first of each of those 3 in my goals being halfway completed already. If we hit those goals that is great, but if we only get 2 units finished then I'm fine with that as well.

doing lessons with a sensory-sensitive child

You may or may not know this, but Missa has some sensory stuff. Loud music, lots of lights, and many textures bother her. This is just one of the quirks that make her special and unique, but this is the most difficult one that we have to work with here. Anyway, I thought I'd share how WE handle sensory sensitivity with her in schooling.

She does most of her written work on a dry-erase board. So, here are a few pictures to show what I mean. A simple math lesson usually looks something like this:




While a writing assignment may look like this with her:




As you can tell, she has a slight aversion to paper at times. I can get her to work in her workbooks and do writing on a sheet of paper, but honestly sometimes it is just such a struggle that I don't fight her and hey, she enjoys doing her work on the board so why not? I find it interesting how she can be so different from her younger sisters some days, especially when she's having a rough day with her processing.

And credit on that math lesson goes to Math-U-See. Their demo DVD that you can get free has a place-value lesson on it, and I got the idea for place value "houses" from there. It totally works with her, after a few weeks of trying to help her understand place value and it not sinking in I did the houses and it stuck almost immediately.

new school year, REAL schooling area

I am so happy to really be into the swing of our new school year finally. It was definitely a rough start for us with Missa, but we got into it finally. Along with our having a second grader and a first grader this year, I have two preschoolers and me carrying a full time college courseload in Christian Ministry. This school year is a big one for us obviously, so we felt a need to get more organized.

So, how does a family get more organized to cover all these needs? Well, we started by creating a dedicated schooling area. Now, if you've ever been in our home you know it is a decent size (almost 1800 sq. ft) but the floor plan isn't one that allows a dedicated schooling area easily. The kids share the only bedroom (20x24 with three closets before you start judging, its more than big enough for them right now) and we sleep in the bonus room. Well, our room is L shaped, so we rearranged things slightly to put our bed in the nook of the room and now the main area is our homeschool/ preschool/ college area. On Labor Day, Scott tore out the carpet to expose the white tile floor under it (with some help from a friend of mine for one section, and from me and the girls for the remainder of it), then we spent that week rearranging and organizing it to allow us to put in the kids' desks, a bookshelf, a desk for my laptop, and our necessary supplies for the older girls' schooling. Since we got this set up, we've managed to pull full days of lessons each school day. Then today, we installed a couple shelves on the wall as the first step in expanding the shelf space in here, so that I could set up our preschool materials. And yes, I have lots of pictures to show where our schooling will take place this school year (and for the next few years while we take care of some financial things and I finish college).







It is far from finished, but it sure does feel good to have this setup going on here. I have a feeling that with all our materials readily handy like they are here, we will have a great year. The only thing that these pictures don't show is our portable large dry-erase board, which is what Missa does a large amount of her schoolwork on right now.

The support of a husband

I was over at one of the chat forums I go to, reading and responding as usual instead of working on my college assignments. Anyway, one of the discussions was about how our husbands support us as homeschooling parents, asking us to tell how they are involved. Many of the responses were typical ones such as him earning the money and being that support person when it gets tough. I posted my own reply to it, and felt that it was good enough that I wanted to share it here as well. Scott, this one is for you!

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My husband helps and supports in many ways. First, he works all the ungodly overtime he does so that we can afford for me to stay home with the kids. He isn't too fond of where he works, but he's still there after 15 years because it pays well enough that we are able to be a single-income family.

Secondly, he comepletely takes over bedtime at nights for me. He does baths, brushing teeth, tuck-ins, and their bedtime story time (which is when our lang. arts books are read to the kids, he reads anywhere from 2-4 books and 3-6 poems each night to the kids). Now this is more of a need so that I can do my college class work at night (thank goodness for online college programs) but it is a HUGE help for me.

Thirdly, after the kids are in bed at night he'll go around and do whatever chores I didn't get to during the day without my asking him normally. This takes the pressure off me to do more than just teach and cook meals during the day, so I can focus on the tasks at hand. I don't have to worry about getting all that laundry folded while I'm schooling because he'll fold it. The toys scattered about he picks up if I don't get to them during the day. He does the dishes and runs the dishwasher so Missa can unload it in the mornings.

Fourth, on weekends he helps out with catch-up lessons we do and takes over so that I can spend a day really buckling down on my college work and I can prep for the upcoming week of homeschool. In fact, he's making breakfast now for them and I'm supposed to be finishing a paper for my class (taking a break) as I type this.

He also is my support person and knows that I need him to not make the local public school an option. That was something that I requested from him when we started this at the start of last school year, if I start talking about wanting to put the kids in school mid-year he is to push me back on that and demand that I'm not allowed to do it until summer break (we don't want to do a mid-year transition into public school, we'd rather do it at the start of the year). He also makes sure that I don't try to flake out on the schooling, we love the program we teach the kids with but its intense for me to teach at times. I have tendency to talk about telling the program that we're done and wanting to not stick with it, but we know that this is the first thing that has worked and if it ain't broke then we shouldn't try to fix it. I'm in that spot right now, adjusting to a new school year, and so he's working overtime to keep me on track and help me come up with ways to juggle it all.

And he handles the snide remarks from family and friends too. He feels that I'm busy enough with it all that he can take on the idiots in life, and besides nobody wants to say something snide to the man that can lift the front end of his car barehanded without struggling............... lol He only allows the positive to filter to me whenever possible because he knows that I can get discouraged when things are tough (like now) and just give up on it all when really I just need a little more time to work out things and get a groove that works for our family.

While we may have a lot of issues in our personal relationship, we do fully agree on teaching the girls at home and we will do whatever it takes to work together so that it can continue to happen for as long as possible. This is literally the only thing holding us together right now, the fact that we are working together to make this happen. I truly appreciate all that he does, and he appreciates the sacrifices that I make to teach them myself (including having to take higher doses of a few of my meds so that I can focus and not flake out on them, and to handle the stress better). its a very delicate balance and I hope it continues to work out for a very long time.

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And that my friends is exactly HOW I manage to pull off all that we do here on a daily basis. Isn't it amazing what a supportive husband will do for you when you need help? I wouldn't be able to do it all without him, that's for sure.

teacher assignments

Well, I got the assignments for the girls' teachers overseeing us this school year. Lydia will stay with the same teacher she had last year, while this year Melissa gets a new teacher. I knew that she'd have a new teacher this year since our teacher last year only does K and 1st grade, and I made sure to tell her that she was going to have a different teacher. She didn't believe me at all apparently until I told her the name of her new teacher a couple hours ago. Now she's all worked up and upset over the new teacher assignment. She does NOT handle change well normally, and this is just another example of that difficulty with handling change. She's that kid that will seat herself under the table at a restaurant so that she doesn't have to interact with the server because its someone new. Social situations for her are fairly structured and consistent because she melts down in situations with new people most of the time.

So, I decided to take charge on this change to minimize the drama. I sent off a k-mail to her teacher letting her know how Melissa handles changes and asked if there was a way she could contact us prior to school officially starting so that Melissa can get to know her teacher a little and start getting comfortable with her before we have regular interaction during the school year. I already got a response, she'll be calling us in the next few days and will speak with Melissa during that time to help ease her into the transition to a new teacher. Hopefully this goes well and she adjusts to the teacher change quickly. If you are the praying type, please keep Melissa in your prayers for the next few weeks while she adjusts to the new school year with a new teacher.

busy busy times

Well, its been almost a month since I've updated here. I guess I should give some background on all that has happened.

As I said in my last post, I hit my head pretty hard and had a pretty decent concussion from it. Well, It took me a couple weeks before the headaches became manageable, I'm still having some headaches from it and even after this long I have tenderness and some swelling where I hit my head.

Also, I started meds back in June for my severe ADHD. Now, if you know me really well, you probably know that I'm pretty close to non-functional because of my ADHD. So, I started meds and it really helps a lot. I am able to focus for a couple minutes now, and I can actually hold a coherent conversation. Another plus of the medicating is that I don't have as much of a problem with getting words out when I'm talking. I think a small part of my problem with this has been that my brain worked faster than my mouth can, so then it gets into overload and I just start saying "uh uh uh" until I get frustrated and just throw out a really obscene word or phrase.

Another fun thing that has happened here is that I started college classes almost 2 weeks ago. I am VERY proud of my 97.77% grade and have worked hard to keep it in that range. Hopefully I can continue to keep my grades up like this for the rest of my classes. However, it was a very difficult transition for me. I am not used to having assigned devotional studies to do each week. I was raised in an athiest home and attended secular schools for my entire life. I have always been a free studier when it comes to my daily devotionals, I just pray a bit then I grab my bible and flip until something catches my eye and I read it and journal how it applies to my life and what I can take from it to apply to current and/or past events and possible future events. I've never been much of one to sit and read a specific passage and then think about how it applies to specific questions I'm asked by the instructor. This has been quite possibly the hardest thing for me, next to being able to get the time I need to seriously think and work on my assignments without being interrupted by constant phone calls or by kids wanting/needing me.

As far as the homeschool front goes for the kids, we are still on summer break here. According to OHVA, our OLS will be updated with our new course materials on the 16th so we've been just hanging out and enjoying our time off. I have a full round of dentist cleanings scheduled for all 4 kids in Columbus on the 25th, and Kimberly starts Head Start in September 4 mornings a week. Also, we are required to start logging attendance on August 25th for OHVA with the 2 oldest kids, and I'm considering signing up Jordan for Head Start in September if they have any openings for a 3 year old when she turns 3 on September 3rd, purely for the sake of being able to spend 4 mornings a week really focusing on homeschool with the oldest 2 kids. But then, we've also considered withdrawing Kimberly and just letting her start on some K work at home instead of sending her off to preschool. She has learned all her letter sounds this summer, and we are starting to blend and work on beginning to read simple words. I have a copy of "Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons" and she's been doing it. Right now we're just taking it slow, I did lesson 1 in the reading this week and now we're working on the sounds writing part. I'm thinking I may end up having to just do the reading portion and ignore the written work, just working on individual letters as she learns them for printing. After all, she is only 4 1/2 so we have time.

For Scott, we got exciting news that will completely change the dynamic of our home. The optical lab he works at got contracts for Medicaid from 2 additional states this month, so starting in the very near future (I think on Monday) there will be a lot more mandatory overtime. This means that we get all our income back, and then some, so we can start working at paying off our debts again to get back on track like we should be. I know that isn't a big deal to some, but for us it is a big deal considering his hours got cut back so badly that we ended up having to go down and get food stamps just so that we could feed our family for a while. I am REALLY looking forward to being able to tell them that we no longer qualify, because this will mean that we've done something good for ourselves. We want to make our financial situation so that we never have to apply again, even when we DO qualify for the aid. We want to be completely NOT dependent on the government for anything, and having to take the food stamps has really been painful especially for me. But it has given me a valuable lesson in not being so quick to judge others who are on assistance because you truly don't always know the whole story. I know that many people who look at my family would think that we manipulate the system because we are well-dressed, own a house, and have decent vehicles instead of renting a dump apartment in the ghetto, wearing ratty raggedy clothes, and having a beat up ugly car that doesn't run half the time. Having this lesson has really helped me to understand better about others and showing a little more grace to those in need. I just wish I didn't have to learn it sitting in the welfare office, by having a caseworker who was rude to me while I did the interview for food stamps because I was wearing my favorite red heels and dressed nicely and I'm a stay-at-home mom who homeschools instead of putting them in daycare and school so I can work. It really is an eye-opening experience, and I'm hoping that I can carry it with me as a valuable lesson learned for the rest of my life, as a reminder that we don't always know the full situation around something.

But that's pretty much it. We've been enjoying summer break, I've been recovering nicely from my head injury, and I started college. Hopefully I can update more after school starts for the kids with a great report on how our homeschool days go for us with me in college fulle time and Scott working what may as well be a second job with all the overtime he's going to be getting.

UPS deliveries, street fairs, and head trauma

Oh what a combination THAT is huh? Yet, that all has happened within a 2 week period at this house.

At the beginning of July, our materials from k12 arrived at our home via UPS. We got our stuff, and all is well. I had to contact k12 about getting lang. arts 1 for Melissa because it wasn't in our shipment, so it came about 5 days later in another delivery (which they also picked up 3 boxes I was shipping BACK to k12 at the same time, so I really got to multi-task that day). We are all really pumped about the upcoming school year for the kids that starts in August, as well as my own school year for college starting up this month.

On the street fairs front, we went to the Granville parade for July 4th. We didn't stay for the festival, but its ok. We also watched the fireworks at the college down the street on the 3rd, which was a TOTAL let-down for us. Next year we are thinking of getting to ajoined hotel rooms in Columbus and seeing Red, White, and Boom instead. And as I type, Scott has the girls all in Johnstown at the fireman's festival. He took them up to see the parade with his mom and a bunch of cousins, and they stayed for festival food and maybe a few rides if he felt like it. I, unfortunately, had the joy of not being able to go.

Now, I know you are asking why I had to stay home from the parade and festival. Well, that one is simple. I have a concussion following a fall that resulted in my hitting my head on the wall in our bedroom on Wednesday night. I had a CT scan done on Thursday at the hospital when Scott realized at lunch break that I didn't know who he was when he called, and there is no bleeding, no contusions, no lesions, and no breaks in my skull. Just a nice bump from where I hit my head and a MASSIVE headache. And before you ask, YES it was an accident. He didn't hit me or shove me, in fact he was about 10 feet away when I fell and hit my head and he felt the floor shake when I hit the wall. I should be back to normal hopefully in a week or so, maybe sooner.

Yep, life is never dull at this house! I'm just thankful yesterday was payday so we can buy a bunch of yucky convenience foods for meals the next several days while I finish recovering since I can't be up too much at a time without getting dizzy. I swear, I am one of the most accident-prone people I know.............. The only one worse than me would be my oldest kid, that kid has it worse than I do!

But on a positive note, at least Scott is getting to spend more time with the kids when he's at home right now. See, there's a positive to every negative if you look long enough at it.

a new year

Well, on Wednesday I got an e-mail. Four, to be more exact. UPS sent me 4 e-mails with tracking numbers for 4 packages from k12, all our school supplies for the upcoming fall. Those packages arrived today while I was sleeping, Scott handled the UPS delivery for me.

Now, I haven't even packed up our stuff from this past school year with OHVA, so I'm terribly unprepared for this new delivery. So, the first thing I had to do today was get ALL our materials out that we've been using and go through them. I threw away a bunch of finished workbooks and activity sheets, stacked up a bunch of books to ship back, and got all the manipulatives together to sort before sending most of them back. I have one box of books and one of manipulatives sitting on the living room floor, I'll go through them later and send back what I need to.

Then I started unpacking what we were sent, and getting it organized for the upcoming school year to start next month. I leafed through the books briefly as I put the stuff away, and I had Scott carry two boxes full of art supplies (paints, oil pastels, modeling clay, and brushes all times 2) into our bedroom for safe-keeping (ok more to keep them from painting my walls and furniture LOL we learned this one this past school year when Kimmy painted half my kitchen with tempra paints). I also noticed that this year, we have a lot less in terms of books than we did last school year. Lydia's 1st grade materials are the same as what Melissa did last school year, but Melissa has about half as many books for 2nd grade compared to 1st. Or maybe that's just because we haven't gotten her language arts materials yet (I had to contact k12 about the mixup on that one, the materials should be shipping hopefully next week sometime).

One thing I did want to comment on though is the new math. This year, k12 has a new math program. The old program had a BUNCH of manipulatives and a workbook, plus a HUGE book of student pages (this thing is at least 5" thick). Most of the instruction is done with me using the lesson plans on the online school pulled up on the computer as reference. However, the new math program has one workbook and a teacher's book, plus there aren't as many manipulatives from what I'm seeing. I haven't seen what all the OLS will have for math there, but it appears that it is going to be a more independent program. I know there will be practice games and the assessments will problably be online after looking at the new math materials, but other than that I don't know what it will have going on.

I'm starting to see the beginning of Melissa becoming more independent, and this is going to be a GOOD thing I think. Especially if I can get her through phonics and lang arts 1 at a faster pace than scheduled so that she can move up to grade 2 there, I'm really hoping that she'll be a more independent learner in 3rd grade for sure. I am really starting to see advantages to a more independent program, especially as the kids are getting older and I'm having to do more daily with schooling them and taking care of everything else (plus my own college for the next 2+ years)

no more TV at this house for a while

This could get just downright scary............

At some point this evening, one of our kids (we still don't know which one) decided to pick up something hard and whack our tv screen with it. Now if you've seen our living room, you know that we love television. We have a nice LCD HDTV that we got on a Black Friday sale dirt cheap (compared to the original price). It has a 32" widescreen and TONS of input ports in the back for all sorts of stuff to hook up (even a computer can hook up to it because it has one of those ports on it). We also have a dish hooked to it and the smaller version of this tv that is in our bedroom. My 2 year old knows how to work the remote and what buttons to push to watch her favorite channels. Yes, television is a favorite pastime in this house.

Sooooooo................

On of the kids broke the tv tonight. Scott threw a fit over it, I threw a fit over it, and the oldest kids tried to demand that we go out right this second and buy a new one. Yeah, right. I'm not a magician; I can not make money appear out of thin air. So, that means no more tv in the living room. And since they aren't allowed anywhere NEAR the one in our bedroom (its not even 6 months old yet, we'd like to keep it in good shape thank you) this means there is no more television for them until we save up the money to buy a new one.

Now there is the interesting thing. See, we live in an older home (built in the early 1950's) and it needs a lot of work still. We need to replace the water heater at some point in the near future (we've rigged it so that the problem is fixed for now but it has to be dealt with) and that is going to cost us a pretty penny. We also have to replace all the flooring, paint inside and out, and do some window replacements (to name a few repairs). Obviously, replacing a tv is not very high on our priority list as homeowners. The kids are going to hate us for this one....................

We're looking at a year or more without a tv in the living room right now, and quite honestly the thought of this THRILLS me. I don't want a tv out here, it is constantly on and it messes with my ADHD something fierce when I'm trying to do chores and other stuff. In fact, I've been trying to convince Scott to take the tv out of this room period so that we don't have to deal with it droning on and on all the time when the kids are awake. Looks like I got my way tonight, what a way for it to happen though.

And already I noticed a major change in my home. Melissa sat down and was reading a book to Kimmy and Jordan (Jordan fell asleep listening to the story in fact) and Lydia sat down and was looking through her new bible that she got today at vacation bible school. The only noises that weren't Melissa's reading out loud were from Scott and I clicking away on computers, the washer and dryer, and our air conditioning. The phone wasn't ringing, the tv wasn't blasting away, and nobody was fighting (which as you probably already know, the fighting is a pretty common thing here, I'm breaking up fights several times a day) Yep, I think we can do this. I'll allow them an hour a day that they can watch shows on Scott's computer since he has the best screen of any of the 4 that we regularly run, and on Saturday mornings they can pile on our bed to watch cartoons while we try to get a little more sleep.

But it is rather strange to look around my living room and NOT see a tv in here. I now have to move around a few things and get the tv cabinet out of this house (it will go into the garage while we decide what to do about the tv situation once we deal with the house issues that are left). Pretty soon, I am going to have reclaimed my girls and their minds. We are hopefully going to start being more creative and get more into books and playing games. And hey, no tv means more time that they can spend doing their chores...............

Yes, this could get interesting around here for a while as the girls adjust to not having free tv access any more.

Melissa's interesting learning style

Well, this summer I had decided to just relax and work on reading and math with the kids, and Scott is going to do an astronomy study with the girls. So, we got the books and I got things set up and cut out to do the lapbooks for the astronomy study, and we have some readers from the library. Well, I wasn't really too sure how its been going with reading and Melissa until today.

Today, the kids were watching a Donald Duck short on Disney, and Melissa read the label of a bottle in the cartoon. It said "rubber cement" and she didn't hesitate on it. So, I had her go get one of the readers that we haven't worked with yet from the library. She read the entire thing with only a handful of "mom what is this word" and not too many missed words either. It was a beginner's chapter book, around a 2nd grade level (I'm guessing mid 2nd grade, which is slightly above grade level for her as she's going to start 2nd grade in August but is only in 1st grade phonics). She enjoyed reading the entire book to me, and admitted to sneaking books into their bedroom at night to read after everyone is asleep (she has been hiding in the closet with her books)

Now, this child learned to walk completely on her own by practicing in her crib at naptimes and bedtime every day until she had it down, and then she just stood up one day before Christmas at 8 months old and took off across the room. She does EVERYTHING like this, she hates people seeing her struggle and make mistakes while she's learning to do it. I really shouldn't be surprised by her doing this with her reading, considering that she's done this a lot with major developmental milestones. Heck she even did this in a way with learning to ride without training wheels. She would sneak outside to practice in the driveway in the mornings after Scott left for work before anyone else was up (and believe me, EVERY time I caught her doing it she got in a lot of trouble because that is just flat out dangerous) and then after a couple weeks she had it down and showed off happily what her new skill was.

I think I need to try and figure out a way to embrace this interesting way she learns to help her with her money skills and telling time. If you've got any ideas to help encourage this organic way she learns, please let me know so I can work with it better.

set up for summer!

Well, here it is 2:30am and I'm wide awake with Jordan. She woke up about two hours ago with a bad dream or something, so I'm sitting up with her until she falls back to sleep. After an hour awake, I decided to go through and get my file box set up for summer with the kids. (background if you don't know it: we use k12 through a virtual academy and I keep all our papers to do in a hanging file box, one hanging folder for each kid and then a file folder in that folder for each subject, within the subject folders I keep the current unit we're in for that subject so that we can go 100% their pace without worrying about pulling more materials in the middle of a lesson) So here's what I have going on.

Melissa and Lydia both will continue to work on math this summer, as well as phonics. Melissa just has a couple units from phonics K that I want to go over one last time before she starts phonics 1 (and the grammer parts of lang arts 1) and we need to work on a few skills in math over the summer with her, while Lydia will continue to do phonics K to finish it and will continue forward with math 1. That alone is the bulk of my formal work with the girls. I'm adding in Explode The Code for some extra practice this summer, and we'll also add some math workbooks for Melissa to work on her struggling skills (time and money) and both girls will start Spanish if they are interested in it.

For science, this summer we are going to do something really fun. I found a lapbook for the song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" over at Homeschool Share in the preschool stuff, and after looking it over I decided to beef it up a little for my oldest two girls and turn it into a study to introduce some astronomy. So, Jordan and Kimmy will do the unit pretty much as written, modified slightly for their abilities, while Melissa and Lydia are going to do every piece of it along with some other stuff that I'm creating to make a nice fun astronomy study. The local library is putting together some books for me to use, and I have a list of several books to add that they may not pull but I know I'd like. We are going to learn the planets in order, talk about the different kinds of stars and their life cycle, learn some of the common constellations in the sky (along with the zodiac ones), and talk about other things like nebulas, black holes, meteors, and the different galaxies (among other things, we're just going to see where this takes us over the summer). Our theme for this summer is "shoot for the stars!" and we will be decorating our living/dining/school area with stars, the planets, and other things that we'll make. I ordered a free DVD about the life cycle of stars that I found through my homeschool group, I think it was made by Discovery with NASA or something like that. Oh yeah, and we will talk about space exploration including telescopes, satellites, astronauts, and space shuttles. I have a full blueprint of the Challenger straight from NASA that a relative got me as a kid, and I plan to dig it out to show the girls all the stuff it takes to make one shuttle. Maybe I'll even see if I can get hold of some of that freeze-dried "astronaut food" for the kids to try out, I know Rainbow Resource sells it and I'm sure there's a store in Columbus (or 20 LOL) that does also. I've even seen some at the gift shop at the Columbus Zoo if I remember correctly.

And as always, we will incorporate lots of creative play, crafts, and other activities to our homeschool. I'm still finishing off the details on my astronomy study for this summer, but once I get it all done I will be sure to put up my plans for you all to see, and as we do the unit I'll get lots of pictures as well as making a few videos to show off the girls' completed lapbooks. I just have to remember to go to the library on Saturday morning so that I can pick up the books that the children's librarians are gathering for me.............

how do they come up with this stuff?

I'm sitting here in bed with my laptop as 2 year old Jordan sleeps next to me. She woke up a bit ago and climbed into my bed with me. I don't mind it really, she's a cuddly little thing and snores so cutely (although it won't be so cute when she's a teenager and snoring louder than her daddy) So anyway, we were cuddled up and I felt something funny on her back. I asked her about it, and she told me real sleepy "Missy and Liddy glued my clothes on me." So I double-checked this one to be sure its not a half-asleep rambling. Well, her outfit from yesterday does indeed have glue all over inside it, I have an empty glue stick on the floor in their bedroom, and she's got patches of glue all over her little body.

I guess they got tired of her stripping naked and streaking through the house.......... *snicker*

amazing where God leads a person sometimes

I've blogged on this in the past here, about God leading us in places we don't expect sometimes. So far, this year God has led me to transfer to a new college and pursue a degree in ministry, which totally freaks me out. He has also strengthened my desire to continue homeschooling, so now my need to homeschool and pursue this degree both are so strong that I am unable to fight either one. Sometimes I don't like where God is leading me, but I know it is the right thing to just follow Him and His guidance until I get to wherever it is I am headed.

Well, now God is leading me again. Scott and I had decided that this upcoming year we'd be leaving OHVA, and going back to Sonlight full time instead of just supplementing. We had a plan in place, and I started gathering materials to do starting next month. Well, God led me into a completely different direction this week, completely different from our plans. I ended up changing our status for OHVA to reflect us being enrolled in the fall. It will be a very difficult juggle, but I have a great support system with a friend and my husband both willing to step in as needed to do lessons with the kids.

Now, I know you are asking. How did I go from planning to go independent as a homeschooler to staying with OHVA for the kids and doing that much juggling again? Well, its a long story. You see, this past month I've been sick, and have been in and out of the doctor's office and on all kinds of different medications. Through all that, I've managed to finish up our school year with OHVA because I was kept accountable. I had to meet requirements on attendance because OHVA is a public school and they are required to meet certain regulations. Just like sending the kids to Newark schools, I have truancy laws to follow. If we don't log a certain number hours halfway through the year and at the end of the year both, then we could get in trouble. I have always kissed the reporting rules for hours with Melissa, sometimes we're a little ahead and sometimes we're behind. But as a general rule, we do pretty well with it all.

This strict accountability with logging hours and lessons is going to be VERY important for me come fall. With my own full time college courseload, I will need to be organized to get everything done since my husband works such long hours he is unable to help much sometimes. I know that my own college work will push aside homeschooling if I don't have this kind of accountability to get it done daily. I will be spending a lot of time daily working on schooling for both the kids and myself, so chores won't be at the top of my list. This is where the majority of Scott's helping and supporting me will come in.

Also, this school year coming up k12 has some changes that I'm looking forward to. Math will be more online than before, which will help a lot. There are some other things too, but they aren't as important in my opinion. Mostly they are administrative stuff for me as the learning coach. But I'm going to be seeing some more independent learning for Melissa starting up soon. She's becoming slightly more solid with her reading, and this will lead to her being able to do her math more herself and some of her phonics and lang. arts on her own as well. And who knows, she may even be able to do some history and science herself. This will be a big change from last school year when she struggled to do any worksheets at all without my help.

But if I can make it through this upcoming school year, the next year when I add Kimmy to the mix as well Melissa will be doing more independent work for sure. Our teacher this year for the girls has already told me that starting in 3rd grade the kids start doing more work themselves in a noticeable fashion, so I just have to survive that. And then I can decide if we're holding Jordan back a year so that she's 6 when school starts instead of 5 because of her September birthday (we're leaning toward holding her back, I'm planning on letting her join in on math and phonics with Kimmy though as she desires to get a better idea of her readiness)

But isn't it amazing how God can lead us in a completely different direction than we ever imagined at times? I literally had NO intentions of staying with OHVA after this school year, and now I'm planning to stick with them and supplement with Sonlight like I did this school year.

officially FINISHED our school year!

Well this month was the one that I was looking forward to the most. This month is when I was going to complete all our schoolwork in general so that I can pack up materials to ship back as soon as I get shipping labels. So, this weekend I shall be doing a bit of packing up of OHVA and k12 supplies. Of course, the only things we didn't finish are Lydia's math and phonics, however she is a grade ahead in math so I am NOT concerned about this. Phonics, well we'll get it finished up in our own time. Her trouble is with the sight words. So, our finished list is..........

math K
language arts K (times 2!)
history K
science 1
history 1
art 1
math 1
phonics K

And we have officially met all our hours requirements as well. Melissa needs 920 hours by May 28th, and as of May 21st she is at 945 hours. Lydia needs 460 hours by May 28th, and as of May 21st she's at 654 hours. Yeah, you can tell which kid REALLY likes school................

We are set up on track to begin our new school year on June 1st still. I have all our basic curriculum that I need; all that is left for me to get is the stuff to set up our workboxes for the girls so they can be more independent with their work.

box day again

Well all my books from Amazon are in. The first package (with just 2 books in it) arrived on Friday or so, and the second one with the other 9 books I bought came in today. So, now I have my side table FILLED with books stacked up on it, books that I need to label and find a shelf to put them on. I have a lot of work to do, and we're all set now to start in June with our new school year for the kids. Just looking at the stacks of books on my table though, its a little scary and panic-inducing. lol It is just *slightly* overwhelming to know know that I am going to read ALL of these books to my kids this school year (and a bunch of others that aren't on the table since I'm doing 2 cores this year). But I know it will go great, just like OHVA did for us this school year. I'm really looking forward to getting to spend this time with them, reading all these great books and learning as a family.

And on a side note, I got word from college that my transcript has arrived so they can start working at what will transfer and how to schedule my remaining classes. I also finished and submitted my FAFSA last night, so they should be getting that report soon as well. Then I'll be told I need to submit verification as usual (apparently the government doesn't believe that a family of 6 can survive successfully on just $35K-40K a year, I've had to do this every year that I have filled out a FAFSA for school) I am really looking forward to finishing school and taking the steps I need to take so that I can get down to business with this. And yet, at the same time I am flat out scared of what I'm about to do, and I don't know what on earth God is thinking when he chose me to do this but hey, I'll just keep doing what I'm told and eventually the answer will be revealed to me. Right? I mean, that's how it has always worked in the past.............

yet another reason to be happy that my kids are homeschooled

I had a doctor appointment this morning. That meant that i had to find a sitter willing to take all 4 kids (thanks Tristan!) and I needed to be organized to get them ready and to that sitter and then hit the ATM so I could make my copay for my appointment. Now, if I had my children doing the public school thing, the 3 oldest ones would have been off already (two at the local elementary school and one at preschool) so I wouldn't have needed a sitter because a lone 2 year old is MUCH simpler to take to the doctor than 4 kids is. So yeah, sometimes sending my kids to public school would be easier.

But then I have to stop and think. I have some mobility problems from last spring's illness. With this, some days are better than others. I also have problems with my heart and lungs, and am prone to certain illnesses because of these problems. I pretty much live on antibiotics, allergy meds, and asthma medications (both quick-acting inhaler and a long-acting medication to try and maintain) along with rounds on and off other stuff as needed. Currently, I am dealing with pleurisy (infection of the pleural membranes, it can be fairly painful and this is not the first time in my life I've had this particular issue) and am having a hard time with my allergies and asthma acting up because of all the pollen. So, I am having trouble catching my breath and doing much of anything. Just making lunch for my kids is difficult, standing tires me and making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (the kids' favorite, we have it at least twice a week at their request) leaves me short of breath. As a result, we've been eating a lot of takeout the last couple weeks, my house is badly in need of a good cleaning, and I'm so behind in my laundry that it will take a month to catch up again. Oh well, we'll get things back in order again.

I manage to keep up with schooling and am meeting everyone's basic needs. That is my sole goal during times like these. And so far, I've been able to do exactly that on a daily basis. My husband is completely supportive of me during these difficult times, and helps whenever he can by picking up the slack with the housework and taking care of the kids. He is truly a godsend for me, a true blessing. I honestly don't know what I'd do without him right now.

Anyway, today was a doctor appointment for me. I dropped off my girls at my friend's house to play so that I could discuss all this stuff with her about what is going on lately. Now, my doctor that I see has been my doctor for almost 15 years. She knows all the stupid things I have done in my life, and is able to make connections to my current health that some doctors wouldn't make because she knows things about me (mostly because my grandmother was also a patient of hers and that woman would rant like a mad woman at me about her ungrateful grandchild and all the stuff I did) I like not having to explain everything I did from 16-21 to a new doctor, as my doctor doesn't have a lot of these things in my chart. But, my doctor has been known to try and put me on anxiety medication regularly because she is convinced that I have panic attacks from "having too many kids" and "not being sensible and putting the kids in a real school like normal parents do." We obviously have our differences on this thinking, and sometimes I wonder if it is clouding her judgement when treating me. However, today I didn't hear any of this opinion she has. She asked how the kids were doing and a couple general questions about how life in general is (probably to see if stress and anxiety could be a factor) and then we got down to business.

After a thorough exam, we came to the conclusion that I have pleurisy, and I got antibiotics and stronger asthma medications. She did, however, suggest that I take a school year or two off homeschooling, to focus on my physical health so that I can be a better mom. I told her I would consider that angle, as it wasn't one that I considered in the past.

Well, I have considered it. Sending them to school for a couple years may help give me time during the day to rest and recover. However, the work of making lunches and getting them to and from school on time (even if its just dealing with the bus stop if I can get the district to assign one at my street corner) would be so much work that it would completely undo the recovering I do while they are at school, especially since I have to take preschoolers to Head Start because they don't offer bussing and they'd only be there half the day. And then I have to deal with homework at night, making sure they have appropriate clothes clean to wear to school, and all the other little things like dealing with fundraisers, field trips, class things, parent-teacher conferences, and only goodness knows what else that pops up.

But with homeschooling, I can easily lay on the sofa and do all our lessons, taking frequent breaks to catch my breath as needed. I don't have to worry if the kids are dressed properly to go out in public, and if we decide to spend the day in our pajamas we can. I can have Melissa sit on the floor in front of the sofa with her dry erase board, and we can do her math lesson together before she does her workbook page for it at the coffee table. She can put a stack of blank paper and the crayon bucket in the middle of the coffee table and they can draw pictures while I read their history lesson to them. I can take a day off on Tuesday and do lessons through educational tv programming, movies, and computer games if I want or need to. I am not bound by a traditional school schedule. If I am having trouble moving to get out of bed one morning, we can curl up with snacks in my bed and watch tv until I can get out of bed better.

Homeschooling may be difficult in the eyes of people who don't do it, but for me it is a lot simpler than sending them off to school. I spent half a school year fighting my health with one in school, and I have to say that this is much easier for me than sending them. It may be difficult and stressful at times when one of the kids just isn't getting a concept in math or phonics, but in the end it just doesn't compare to the crazy hectic chaos that I'd have if I did send them to school. If you have kids and health problems, you probably know what I mean about getting around and doing things at times.

now THAT is how you do some shopping

I admit it: I have a major shopping problem. I spend a lot of time daily at amazon and other sites, browsing and looking at various things. My favorite thing to look at happens to be books.

I love books. With a book, you can go back in time to the Revolutionary War, you can explore the Lost City of Atlantis, you can go anywhere and do anything. All from the comfort of your bed, sofa, or a big cozy chair (or wherever you end up reading your book at) A book is the PERFECT thing for a person with an incredibly visual mind and an overactive imagination. A person like myself can spend hours in a good book, held by a plot far more complex than any television show. Yes, books are a beautiful thing to me. If you want to excite me, you give me a book that I don't have yet. For me, books are serious business.

No wonder I'm drawn to a literature-based curriculum like Sonlight. I love books just that much, and so far my children seem to have inhereted my unending thirst for a good book. So, we are constantly buying new books. I don't particularly care for used books; there is just something about the smell and feel of a new book as you open it to read for the first time. Some people get off on new car scent, I get off on new book scent. (don't ask, I'm just strange like this)

Now back on topic now that you have a general idea of the importance of books in my home................

A couple weeks ago, my husband cashed in the reward points on his debit card to get a $100 gift certificate for Amazon. Now, Amazon is a book-lover's dream. You can get ANY book there, in any language. And, most of the time you can get the books you want with free super saver shipping. Yes, Amazon is amazing.

I knew I needed to purchase some books to finish off my curriculum for this upcoming school year, so my first thought was to use the gift certificate to buy some of them. I went to Amazon and started searching out the books I need for core K, as I had purchased a used 4 day package missing 3 books. I had decided also to fill it out to the full 5 day schedule, since Sonlight is so genius as to print both the 4 day and 5 day schedules on all their guides. I love this about Sonlight by the way, I wish more companies did something like this. It is just one more of those little details about Sonlight that makes them so awesome.

Anyway, I got to Amazon and loaded up the books I need to finish off my core into my cart. OK, I was at $70-something with just those, so I started poking around at other books that may interest me. I played with my cart for 4 days before I got it how I did tonight. I knew I wanted to get as close to that $100 amount in one shot without going too far over it so that I don't have to play around like this again later with buying a bunch of books. This is my main shop for the school year and I was being as careful as possible. I ended up with a total of 11 books, all with free super saver shipping, and a total of EXACTLY $100. So I clicked on checkout.

Yes, I aimed to hit a certain amount, and I knew I could afford to go a couple dollars over right now but kept tinkering until I hit it exactly. I ended up with all 8 books that I needed for core K, one of the newer books from core P 4/5, a new copy of Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons, and a book that was written just for the ADD homeschooling mom. That last book is obviously for me.

Now for the amusing tidbits. When I clicked to checkout, I discovered that I had gotten a 4 for 3 deal in there and my order was $3.99 LESS than my $100. No big deal, it can sit for my next purchase in a couple weeks. Then once I submitted my order, I realized it. My mailman is like 70 years old, and he has to deliver a box with 10 books in it (one of the books, Hero Tales, will be available to ship in 1-3 weeks and will ship separately when it comes in). LOL I can just picture him grumbling over that package, he gave me the stinkface glare when he had to deliver a box with just THREE books in it a couple months ago.

Now I can place a $25-30 purchase every payday or two so that I can get the rest of our materials since I have the necessary books for the upcoming school year.

Happy Mother's Day

I love Mother's Day. For me, it has a very special meaning. I went into labor with Lydia on Mother's Day 6 years ago, and just after midnight she was born (yes just after mother's day ended)a full month early. My little Lydia Grace is a special girl, and has a very special place in my life. By the grace of God, when she was born all was well and she was healthy, and my cancer was cured so I was able to have more children. It is a beautiful day for me, one that I will always hold close to my heart. Tomorrow my sweet angel will be 6 years old, and we celebrated her birthday today so that her grandma Peggy could have birthday cake with us. She chose her cake at the bakery, a white one with pink flowers on it and pink candles and "Happy Birthday Lydia" written on it in pink (do you see a theme here yet?). We gave her birthday present to her today as well, she got a brand new lavendar Disney Princess bike. She was ready for the next size up so we chose to go with a special one for her as a birthday gift. This bike should last her at least a couple years before she outgrows it, and she happily passed her 12" bike down to Kimmy. She was so excited to get this new bike, and we even allowed her the opportunity to take it for a ride on the side street with her sisters while we walked the street.

Yes, Mother's Day is a special day indeed for me and my family. This is the day we celebrate new beginnings, of God's touch directly in the lives of all of us. This is the day that started everything for us with our journey. I will never look at Mother's Day like most moms do, as a day to be pampered and shown how much we are appreciated. I will always look at it as the gift that it was to us, as that miracle that we experienced 6 years ago when I went into preterm labor with our second child. Mother's Day is a day of victory for us, one that will ALWAYS ring pure and clear in our hearts.

I pray that all moms had a blessed day today, and that they have many more blessed days ahead of them. May God bless all of us moms as we work endlessly to raise these gifts from God, our children.

~Children are a gift from God, and a sign of his blessing. Like arrows are to the powerful hunter, so are the children born of one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is filled.~ Psalm 127:3-5

I think that sums it up perfectly right there. God bless us all: moms, dads, aunts, uncles, and future parents alike. I hope you took a moment to thank your mother for giving you life, and for being your rock when you didn't think you needed her as a stubborn and rebellious teenager. *smile* I know I called my mom today, even if I did have to leave the message on voice mail because her phone wasn't on when I called (probably not out of bed yet lol)