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)

nervous

I'm taking a HUGE leap of faith here at the moment. I have completed a year and a half of credits online through University of Phoenix before Jordan was born, and keep saying that I'll finish but never get around to it. Well, lately I've been feeling a prompting from God to change schools and programs completely, so I've been looking around at different options. I settled on the decision to attend a Christian college instead of going back to Ohio State or finishing at Phoenix, so I started looking for local-ish options and online-only programs. Well, I found what I'm looking for. Ohio Christian University is in Circleville, Ohio (about an hour to and hour and a half away from my home, so driving distance) AND they offer their programs online for us busy adults. I submitted an application today after a lot of prayer about this, and feel really good about it. Phoenix never felt like the "right" school for me, but I kept pushing ahead anyway because it was the first one that I found with a decent looking program. This time I have spent a great deal of time searching and praying, and I feel 100% comfortable with the choice of this school. I will still continue to look at Christian schools that offer online program options for me, but at this point I just feel so amazingly comfortable and right about this.

I've also been praying about schooling the kids, and am still confident that I am meant to continue homeschooling the girls while I finish my education. As a result of this, I am working on creating a schedule that will allow us to manage everything, and I will be perfecting my crockpot cooking skills. Times will be very lean here for the next few years I think while I pursue this huge leap of faith, but I know that if we just stay strong and work together on this, Scott and I can make this work. We'll be pulling as much as we can from Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover to make the financial end work, we'll have to work together with the housework and teaching the kids, but I know that we can make it work.

Pray for my family please as we undertake this huge change. I'm very nervous about this decision, as it is something I've fought for close to 15 years now, but I know that it is the right decision for me. I am finaly answering God's calling in my life.

drat!

That 15 passenger van I posted about over the weekend, well it is officially SOLD and gone. Scott drove by this morning on his way to work, and at lunchtime when I drove by it was gone. I didn't think it would last............. Oh well, just a sign that it wasn't the one for us. I guess we shall continue to search for the perfect full van, eventually we'll find it.

sometimes waiting pays off with academics

Melissa has been struggling the last several weeks with 2 digit addition and subtraction, so we just kinda skipped that unit for now and went on with non-related skills. We've been touching it every day, and had NO success with it at all. Well, today we took the dry-erase board and pens out onto the back porch and spent about 20 minutes playing with addition and subtraction facts on the board. We started just reviewing basic facts, and then I decided to try doing adding tens. So I wrote 10+10 on the board, and talked to her about going from right to left instead of left to right (I think THIS is what's messing her up, we've spent so much time reinforcing left-right with phonics lol) and then we worked together on that problem (which we always did with pencil/crayon/marker/whatever on paper) to solve it, then did a few more together, and then she told me to write one and let her try it on her own. Stinker got it! So I wrote 3 on her board and told her it was a test, and she told me to go away while she did them and got them right (couple numbers backward but WHO CARES!) So I tried subtraction with tens, and I no sooner than wrote 40-10 then she grabbed the board from me and solved it with no issues. *sigh* Waiting and relaxing really paid off with her! I made her stop after we did a half dozen subtraction problems, and she got mad at me. Tomorrow we'll try 23+31 and similar addition/ subtraction problems that don't involve carrying and borrowing, but HOLY COW she hit it dead-on today. I wonder if it was just waiting a bit or the change from paper to dry-erase board that did it................... maybe both? Heck who cares, she got it!

so excited!

I found the Holy Grail today just around the corner from my home!

Now what could get me this excited? Well, allow me to describe it to you............

It is white.
It is Ford.
It has only 82,000 miles on it
It seats 15!!!!!

Yep, I found my 15 passenger van that I've been looking for the last few years today. It is at the auction lot by my home, and I plan to trade in my 8 passenger van for it (I can probably get some money back on it too)

Now, I know. You are wonder what on EARTH a mom with only 4 kids needs a 15 passenger van for. Well, first we aren't done having kids. We want more. Plain and simple. Also, when we go somewhere as a family, our van is a bit tight feeling for us when we get the double stroller, diaper bag, small bag with extra outfits, and all our other necessities in it. Grocery shopping for us is a total pain, I have to take out the 3rd row just to fit all our food in it when I really go for a stockup. And, if I want to buy something large, I have to see if they can hold it there for me until I can get home and get a sitter so that I can take the truck to get it.

For us, a 15 passenger van is a luxury, but at the price they are asking it is a totally affordable one. If the van runs, that is............. lol I need to ask a friend of mine to go check it out for me before I put in an offer for the thing, it is almost too good to be true. And since I have a completely paid-for minivan (paid almost $10,000 cash for it 3 1/2 years ago so its always been free and clear) I won't have to worry about getting enough in trade to cover the van and what is left that I owe on the minivan. Ahhhhh the joys of being smart with our money!

Of course, I am not going to put in an offer until one friend of mine tells me that she's not going to. She's pregnant with their 6th child and they NEED the seating of that van, while for us it is more of a luxury for a couple more years. So I want to be sure that I'm not snapping it out from under her family before I snap that puppy up for myself.

I'm in heaven! Hopefully all goes to plan, and I'll have my very own "get outta my way!" van for my family. I bet the nasty neighbor behind us will LOOOOOOOOVE that when I park this big white sucker right in the front of my house. *snicker* Yet another plus about that van, it will make him mad because it'll be obvious as heck that we're not done having kids (he can't stand the 4 we have now LOL)

I am way too flakey

LOL Yes I admitted to being a total flake. I flip-flop on everything, can't keep my mind made up for too long, and it pretty much runs my life. I thought I had this whole schooling thing figured out for next school year. Then I really spent some time this week looking at what I had lined up. I no longer feel so great about unschooling for the most part, however I do want to be relaxed about schooling for a while. So I started looking at my Sonlight plan to do core K and P4/5, along with science K, this year. I went and got out the books for the core and science, only to hear Lydia protesting about listening to those books AGAIN. So, looks like I'm back to buying that used guide for core 1+2 from a friend of mine to do instead. The kids both want to do world history, especially Melissa. She wants to spend more time on ancients than what we spent this year, and is looking forward to really digging in deep. So, I guess I'm going to piece together 1+2 using the library and a $100 amazon gift certificate.

Another thing that I'm hoping to change is in math. As you know, my kids are really good with math. We are just at a rough spot for 2 digit addition and subtraction with Melissa. So, I was going to run through Miquon math with the girls this fall and just go their speed through it (3 school years of math, 6 workbooks total, I figure they'd both finish it in 2 years likely, maybe less) Its a fairly affordable option, and then I could choose just about any program starting at 4th or 5th grade level. Well, then I discovered that Teaching Textbooks has a 3rd grade level program. I started looking it over, and printed off the placement test. I have discovered that once Melissa masters 2 digit addition and subtraction, and we brush up her money skills, she'll be able to go into Teaching Textbooks 3. I think I'll be going that route with the girls instead, we'll spend time putting together a foundation of basics to give the foundation for them to start TT 3. The program itself is $120 or so, but it is computer-based with a workbook (that I plan to take apart and put into a 3 ring binder as a non-consumable workbook until my last child uses the level, which is when the workbook will be written in) so it is pretty much self-taught and reusable (except for the workbook as its made, but we can make some minor modifications to allow it to be reused) Scott and I are still discussing this option for math, but I have a feeling that once he gets a look at the samples online that he'll like it.

Other than that, I literally have NO clue what we'll end up doing with the kids. I'm just too flakey to stick with anything for too long until we get going. I'm going to keep changing my mind up until the day we start, and then I'll probably second-guess myself regularly once we've gotten started.

a new approach for next year

Well, I've done a LOT of thinking and praying, and feel confident with this decision I think. We are indeed continuing to homeschool, but our homeschool will look much different from how it has ever looked before in our home. We had plans to use Sonlight for our curriculum this year (in fact I have all the stuff for core K, science K, LA K, and LA 1) but as I started preparing all my instructor guides for this I felt like it was just wrong for us at this time. At least, wrong in a FORMAL sense. So, I'm mixing it up a lot. Yes we are going to use Sonlight for core and some science, however we are doing it much differently than anyone would have seen. We are going to fall more toward the category of unschoolers for a while. Melissa's reading is just starting to take off, and Lydia's starting to get there as well, so we will have them do Explode The Code workbooks at their pace along with having a TON of readers handy for them. For math I'm planning on just going with the flow and letting them do Miquon at their own pace, we'll work together one on one as they are interested but I'm not going to stress over it. We're going to get involved in a garden, and study the night sky. We'll read the books in core K casually, as the kids are interested in them.

Now here's the thing. I really REALLY dislike the term "unschoolers". To me, it implies that I'm not teaching my kids anything and that I'm not allowing them to learn and develop skills they have and want to learn and develop. In my opinion, a MUCH better term would be "lifeschoolers". We are using our everyday life to learn and grow, and taking opportunities to learn in ways that many other kids wouldn't get to because they are at school. The kids will have a couple of workbooks that I'd like them to use, but I'm not going to force the matter. If they don't want to do a page of Explode The Code one day, that's fine. I know that eventually they will decide to do a dozen or more pages because they think its fun at that particular moment. Same with Miquon math and Handwriting Without Tears, if they want to do it then they can but if not then no biggie.

Talk about the total polar opposite of OHVA and the k12 curriculum............. lol And yes, I still plan on us doing art projects and such, just that I plan to let THEM choose what and when on stuff. Hopefully this doesn't completely backfire. And if they want to do a lapbook or two (we've done some in the past) then I'll go through the work so they can do it as long as there is a lapbook unit available free at homeschool share. I refuse to pay for materials so they can do a lapbook.

my smart little cookie

I have a 2 year old. Her name is Jordan, and I have literally ZERO expectations from her on schoolwork. I don't even really do anything but read with her and play dolls on occassion and stuff like that. We don't spend much time going over shapes or colors, or trying to teach her to do anything except keep her clothes on.

But despite this lack of working with her, Jordan has managed to learn her colors, shapes, can tell left from right, sings her ABC's, and can recognize a few of her letters by sight. And she can count to 10 on occassion if she's in the right mood.

So, you don't actually need to spend time daily dedicated to teaching skills to preschoolers. I have spent a few minutes a couple times checking to see what she knows, but really we've not done anything. I think Melissa has been teaching her this stuff instead, when they "play school" once in a while.

Isn't it amazing what a child can learn through osmosis?

Sonlight, FedEx, and my hormones

So, I love Sonlight. Its pretty obvious I think. LOL However, I do *not* like their shipping through FedEx.

Our homeschool group is doing their yearly curriculum share tonight. I offered to bring my Sonlight preschool cores, as well as lang. arts K and the Fun Tales readers that go with it. There are a lot of families who have kids starting preschool and I find Sonlight to be a fun way to do preschool. So, I volunteered almost 2 weeks ago for this, and then the same day ordered a new copy of my instructor guide for core P 4/5 since mine is all marked up and well-used (and its a couple years old and missing a few books that are in the core now) I get a 50% repurchase discount since I originally bought a new P 4/5 instructor guide through them (a cool little perk of theirs for people who buy a program new) so instead of costing me $25 the guide cost me $12.50. Then, I did some quick calculations on how long it would take to arrive by media mail from Colorado to Ohio, and opted to pay $10 for 3-5 day FedEx shipping instead of risking the $5 media shipping since I wanted it by a certain date. Cool, when my order shipped the tracking said that FedEx would deliver it to me on Saturday (giving me a couple days to go through it before I take it to the curriculum share so I'm semi-familiar with it) Well, Saturday we were all sick, so I chose to keep us home from soccer (just colds, the big kids could have gone to their games but still, you know what I mean) and figured that I'd be able to get my guide that way straight from the delivery truck. Deliveries in my part of town happen by 10am normally, so when it was 2:30PM and still no truck showed up I decided to track my order online and see what was up. Imagine my surprise when I saw that it was still in Cambridge for some reason, and that it would be here on Tuesday.

YES I called FedEx and pitched a fit. I've been dealing with 4 sick kids all week so I'm a bit grouchy myself lately. The lady I spoke with on Saturday said that she couldn't do anything because that distribution center wasn't answering (she called 3 times) and that I'd have to call on Monday to find out what's up. So I seethed through all of Sunday, and as soon as I was awake enough to see straight this morning I called back. I yelled LOUDLY into the phone about it, to two different support reps. Then I pitched a fit at the distribution center's top guy. They have no clue why it got routed as it did (its marked as a home delivery but somehow got routed through the business deliveries *sigh*) So, as a result of my pitching a fit over this and going off on all the bad service I've gotten from FedEx the past 3 years that I've been ordering from Sonlight (out of 10 deliveries I've gotten ONE on time and not damaged, usually I have a damaged order or it is 3-4 days late and it was always delivered to the wrong house before we moved, but that one I understood because of our address being a 1/2 one) they are having one of their business delivery trucks that is going to Columbus swing through Newark today to specifically drop off my order.

I also have been pitching a fit about this at the Sonlight forums, and got a personal call from one of their people about the matter. Karla personally looked into the matter while I was dealing with it also, to see if she could get it cleared up as well. I was also told that while they do ship through FedEx, if I refuse to ever use FedEx again after this to just request UPS in the comments box on future orders and they will take care of it for me. They do truly care about the satisfaction of their customers, and they've proven this to me a few times in the past (missing item in one purchase, they automatically sent me the item as soon as I mentioned it, and then there is this today along with being very fast to answer questions when I have them about their products and service) I've said it before in my blog, and I'm going to say it again. This company knows how to take care of their customers, and they have definitely secured a permanent customer in my family with their service for as long as we homeschool. I love Sonlight so much, and the curriculum they carry is top-notch as well.

But I pity the people at FedEx that had to deal with me the last couple days while I yelled at them repeatedly over this matter, and I wonder if their driver that they tracked the mix-up down to will still have a job after this..............

icky sickies!

Allergy season is in full swing here. I've been to the doctor already for my allergies, and am now loaded up with my annual allergy prescription along with a long-lasting inhaler and a fast-acting inhaler both for my breathing problems (the long-acting is just a temporary measure that we do every spring when allergy season starts because that's the only time I get really bad off, normally just the fast-acting is all I need and it is rarely used) In the morning (oh wait it IS morning lol I just can't sleep) I need to call the kids' doctor to see if I can get three of them in for allergy meds, the stuff we were told to use last year just isn't working this year and those 3 are absolutely MISERABLE now. I have crying, whining, sniffling children ages 7, 4, and 2 right now who have snotty faces, watery eyes, low-grade fevers, and sore throats from coughing and sneezing and the sniffling. I am going through at least 2 boxes of Kleenex a day (well there's a company that loves me right now) and we're hoping that it doesn't get *too* much worse for them because the oldest one has a soccer game at 9am on Saturday, complete with team pictures being taken just before the game. *sigh*

I am going to need a LOT of Lysol and Clorox wipes to get rid of all the germs in this house when we finally get over the hay fever part of our allergies (usually at least one of the 4 of us with allergies will get seriously ill from all the allergy issues, and that's NORMALLY me with my breathing problems which is why I'm on the 2 different inhalers and a stronger dose of my allergy pills than usual). Dang I hope this part of the year goes by fast so that we can just relax and enjoy the dust allergies that summer brings before the corn pollen of fall and harvesting. LOL Its going to be a long allergy season for us I think.................. lol

But on a positive note, Melissa read an entire chapter of a Magic Treehouse book to me Thursday afternoon with only a little help with some of the trickier words. She really has progressed a lot with her reading, since I figured out how to best teach the child and help her with it. Phonics and sight words as a combination along with magnetic letter tiles that she can move around really are just what she needed to get grounded in her reading. Oh, and she can now officially ride a bike without training wheels, as long as she doesn't have to turn LOL Turning still gives her a bit of trouble, but she'll get it in time.

so not everyone likes us, big deal

Well, my girls learned a valuable lesson today that not everyone is kind, and in the most obvious way possible.

We have lived here almost 2 years now. We are literally the ONLY family that is under 65 years old. As you can imagine, that makes life rather difficult at times for us as a homeschooling family. There are no other kids for my girls to play with on our street, and we don't have much in common with our neighbors in general.

However, there is one couple in particular that we don't get along with. I have maybe spoken two words with them in the time we've lived here, and my husband has had maybe two briefs chats with them. The majority of our contact has been in the form of letters from the city to notify us that we are in violation of codes for this or that and to fix these things within 30 days or be fined. At least, that was the extent of our contact until today.

This afternoon, I decided while we were out walking to stop and ask them if they had any objections to us putting up a fence out back (merely a formality since we don't really CARE what they think) Well, first off he was fairly hostile to me and kept glaring at my girls (who were standing quietly behind me, except Jordan who was sitting on my hip smiling cutely) The conversation was fairly brief and VERY uncomfortable for me. I said to him "We're hoping to get to it this year, but if not then definitely next year, but would you have an issue with us putting up a fence...." which he promptly interrupted with "we're ROOTING for one, preferably the privacy variety."

OK first off, I don't disrespect my elders. It is NOT something that I do normally. Secondly, my children were there and I pride myself on setting a good example for them on how to interact with all kinds of people of all ages in a respectful manner. So I pretended to not notice the blatent RUDENESS and disrespectful manner in which he spoke down at me, along with his body language and how he presented himself (as we approached his home, he stepped outside and to the edge of the poch so that I couldn't take the step up, placing him higher above me than he already was because he's tall and I'm a little on the short side) I chose to use this as a perfect example of teaching by example when confronted by disrespectful and rude people.

So I gave him a sweet smile and replied, "oh yes, we have been looking at this lovely white 6ft privacy fence that has a sort of trellis style at the top. We were thinking that a white fence would be a perfect backdrop for the roses we would like to plant on the street side of the fence. I hope my children haven't been wandering into your yard at all, we have spent a lot of time trying to teach them to respect other peoples' property." To which he replied "oh if they were you'd know in a New York minute" in a condescending tone.

Then he proceeded to question my parenting by allowing my children to ride their bikes on the dead-end side street that rund by my home (the little road they live on). Now, granted we do live on a busy main road in a small city, however the road I lived on as a child had more traffic than this little dead-end side street with 4 houses on it. In the hour and a half that my girls were riding their bikes on the street, we saw a total of ONE vehicle that they had to get in the grass for. They are well aware of the dangers of riding the street, and we have gone over the rules of safe street riding very carefully and I have checked to be sure they had them memorized before I allowed ANYONE to set a bike on the street. So, yes, I am comfortable with letting them ride on a small portion of this side street (from the end of the tree line in my yard to the driveway of the neighbors behind us to be more precise) as long as there is a responsible adult supervising them.

I think it is safe to say this neighbor hates us, particularly because we are young and have children. Of course, I'm certain that it didn't help any when my father told the wife that if they ever spoke to us or caused us any more trouble that he'd burn their house down. *smacking forehead* I'm thinking that it may be time for the girls to have a short cooking lesson to make some cookies to take the neighbors this week, and perhaps we'll invite them over for a cookout this summer. I am going to make an attempt to be neighborly and show them that we have good kids and are good people. If they decide to not give us an opportunity, then that is their choice. We will have made a fair attempt, and that is all that matters. To hell with them if they decide to judge us by my father and how he was, and the fact that we are young and have children.

first day of co-op

You know its a big day when you send your child off for the first time to their first class without you there. Well, that day for Lydia was today.

Recently, a lady in our homeschool group posted about a montessori-style co-op. It is 1 1/2 hours every Monday for 7 weeks, and kids as young as Kindy age can take the class. So, I signed up my girls for the co-op, just Melissa and Lydia. The lady teaching has a rule of parents can help but not if they have younger children to care for at the same time (those parents, which I fall in that group, drop their kids off for the class) It is an outdoor survival-type co-op, and today was the first class.

We signed up to do the 12:30-2:00pm classes because it just works better with my schedule. We had a list of things we needed for them: a water bottle, notebook, pencil, sweatshirt, hat, and hair tied back with supplies in a backpack for easy carrying. So I prepared two backpacks this morning with the big kids' help to be sure they had everything (they searched for their item that I said to go get and then they put it in their individual backpack) and right after our lunch we headed out. This is the first time we've ever participated in a co-op, so this is a totally new experience for us. I signed them up because I'm not too good at this kind of stuff, and I knew that they would enjoy it.

When we got there, Lydia hesitated at first, but once we got her to sit down on the blanket with the other 6 kids (big class huh? lol) and she started participating, I knew she was sucked in and would do great. So, I took the little kids with me to run a couple errands that we needed to do (library trip, gas for van, just piddly stuff I never get to with all 4 kids normally) while they were in co-op. The little girls both fell asleep while we were running errands, so I was really limited to just doing the errands that I didn't have to get anyone out for (yes, our library is awesome and has a drive-up window to check out reserved books with drop slots for returning books and movies right next to it so that makes library runs AMAZINGLY simple if I remember to log on and reserve books a few days ahead of time) But I got everything done before we had to be back to pick up the kids, so I even had a chance to call my mom and chat for about 20 minutes.

When I went to pick the big girls up, I got there about 10 minutes early like I always do for stuff (I'm either 10 minutes early or 20 minutes late for everything LOL) I chatted with the host mom for this week (first week only is being done at her home, the other 6 weeks will be at the nature preserve) and the little kids wandered off to play with her 3 1/2 year old girl. When the kids were done with class (about 20 minutes AFTER she said it would be over lol but I don't mind) they were just chattering up a storm about all the neat stuff they learned in co-op.

This is a full list of what they talked about in co-op this afternoon:

first aid in the woods without a traditional kit (using a safety pin and bandana)
edible flowers
ticks and Lyme Disease
venomous spiders in our area (black widow and brown recluse)

Yep, major topics for kids their ages, but man they got a KICK out of it. They can't wait to go back to class next week, and they've already done today's part of their homework (spend 20min daily outside observing nature, taking notes or drawing pictures or gluing plants and such into their notebook, also they need to create a small basic first-aid kit that is the right size for their backpacks for the next class and we're supposed to talk about different ways we can use a bandana and/or safety pin for emergency first aid) They truly LOVED co-op today, and I feel great about choosing to sign them up for it.

Future topics that I'm aware of right this moment for the co-op (I have a very basic syllabus the teacher e-mailed me, she said she'll add more in class and see where it leads but will for sure cover these topics) include building a shelter, starting a fire without matches (emphasizing the need for an adult at ALL times when trying to do a fire), further instruction on first aid, basic knots (Lydia won't do too well at that one with her motor delays), and animal tracking and behavior. Hopefully, this co-op series will give the girls a love of nature and maybe I'll get little girls who want to spend their free weekends camping and hiking as they get older.

And to top it all off, I'm getting some badly-needed recharging time each week while they get the chance to learn to interact with authority figures other than their parents, and they are getting around other kids as well. Oh, and they are telling and showing me all the stuff they are learning, and I have a feeling that I'm going to learn a LOT from them over the course of this class as they tell me all about what they are learning.

should homeschooling be considered a "real job"?

I was reading at the Sonlight forums this morning, and a mom posted about this very topic trying to work it out in her own mind (I think, I didn't really read all the replies) She compared her homeschooling to her husband giong to work every day. A lot of things she said really made me stop and think, and I thought it may be an interesting thing to discuss here.

My husband works 10-15 hours a day, depending on the time of year. Some weeks he even works on Saturdays. He's been at his job for 15 years, and he's not entirely thrilled with it. He likes the work itself, but HATES the people he works for. However, he started at the ground level and worked himself up into a position that normally requires an engineering degree, so getting a job elsewhere is not an option at this point in time for him. He spends all week looking forward to friday night when he clocks out, and then Sunday he spends moping around because he has to go back Monday morning. When he has a vacation week coming up, he starts counting down 4 weeks beforehand and is in heaven the last week before his week off. Then the last 2 days of his vacation he starts moping because he has to go back.

His work record is pretty good. He doesn't call off normally unless he is seriously ill, and he has a strong work record at his job for low breakage and high quality output (he cuts eyeglass lenses) He is good at what he does, and everyone there knows it. Management also knows that he is the sole source of income for our family with 4 children, and they use that to their advantage. Mandatory overtime, treating him badly, and holding him to different rules from other employees are just a few things he goes through.

If he were to call off every time he didn't want to go to work, he'd have been unemployed YEARS ago. If he didn't do as much as he was supposed to at work daily, he would be fired. So why is it that when I don't feel like sitting down and doing lessons with the girls, I just take the day off?

Homeschooling is just as demanding as most jobs out there. I'm juggling multiple tasks, managing others to be sure they stay on task, training people in skills they don't know, and trying to maintain high standards with what we do all on top of keeping things fairly neat and tidy at the same time. I am officially teaching 2 children, while casually working with 2 little ones at the same time. I don't WANT to do lessons at this time of year, it is so beautiful outside and we want to spend that time in the yard, playing and doing yardwork. I find myself giving in to this desire too much lately, playing instead of working. We spend our time playing in the yard and tearing out old nasty garden stuff and cleaning up debris from the people who owned this house before us (yes I'm STILL finding broken pieces of clay pots all over the yard) but we neglect history and science on occassion.

What kind of example am I giving my children by doing this? I have no excuse for allowing this, other than a lack of self-control. Its that simple. I like doing what I LIKE instead of what I need to do. This is one area that I've always struggled with. I lack motivation when it is something that I'm not in the mood to do right then. If I don't feel like getting up when the kids do, I turn on the tv and go back to sleep. If I don't want to clean up the living room when its messy (which is a constant) then I don't. I find other stuff to do instead of the tasks that I need to do. This includes sitting down and doing lessons with my girls. If I am frustrated and not feeling like continuing to try and explain 2 digit addition to Melissa (the current struggle for her) then I will find other stuff to do instead so I can avoid the frustration.

I admit it. I am a lazy person. I don't like doing some things, and I do whatever possible to avoid doing them. Here I am, a homeschooling mom, and I don't want to do lessons at some times of the year. When it gets too hot for me (June-ish most likely) then I'll be more motivated to do lessons because I don't like to sweat. I like sitting in air conditioning in the summer, looking out the window and seeing the pretty world around me. This is one of the times that I'm most likely to read to my girls and spend time doing activities and experiments with them. Then in late September when it cools off again we spend time outside until late October or so instead of doing schoolwork. I'm a seasonal schooler, which allows me the chance to enjoy the beautiful temperatures that I like without worrying about formal lessons. I don't know if that's really FAIR for the kids, but it works for us.

If I am to consider homeschooling to be my JOB though, just as Scott goes off to the optical lab every day, then I need to suck it up and do lessons with the girls even during those times that we would rather be out in the world. We need to do our math and science instead of being on the swingset in the mornings, and doing phonics and history in the afternoons instead of digging in the gardens. Every bit of my being fights that though, and when we attempt to do this kind of schooling we don't learn anything and we are miserable. So while homeschooling is my JOB, I still get vacation times like everyone else. Teachers get the summer off, so I take an equivilant time off at different times of the year that tend to work better for us. We don't take off inservice days and any holidays where Scott is at work anyway, so it allows us more flexibility than traditional schooling. If I want to take from Thanksgiving until a week after Christmas off lessons, I can do that because we don't take the smaller holidays (like the day before thanksgiving, the second week after christmas for break, spring break, etc) But I don't follow a formal schedule.

This may buck the system as far as what others think a homeschool family schedule should look like, but then I don't keep a daily schedule either. LOL I only insist that lunch be around noon and that bedtime is around 8-9pm depending on how the kids are acting and if there's something on tv that they want to watch and have earned the priviledge of watching by good behavior, attitudes, and getting chores and any schoolwork done. I don't have anything set in stone, although I do have a schedule posted on the wall in my home for anyone who is watching the kids so they can take over if needed (the kids do well with schedules if I'm not the one caring for them)

I consider my homeschooling to be my real job, even if it doesn't even REMOTELY resemble what others would consider a job. And I do darn well with it too I think, even if there are times that we take off that others think we should be doing lessons LOL So I guess I have my own particularly interesting view of what a "real job" entails. And if you ask Scott, I have a feeling he'd agree with how I do our schooling because he has seen how much the kids have grown over this school year.

finishing up with OHVA

Well, I have figured out what to do when we finish OHVA, thank goodness. Now I just have to actually FINISH with OHVA so that we can get started. This week I'm working with the girls on their writing samples that we need to submit to our teacher for their portfolios, and I'll mail them out as soon as we get them finished. Since we took last week off for Spring Break, I have to spend a day or two reviewing 2 digit addition and subtraction with Melissa before we can keep going forward in that unit. She's been really struggling with this particular math unit, so I figure that a few days of extra practicing before we move forward again won't hurt her any.

As we finish a subject in k12, I'm going to pick it up in our materials that we'll be using this upcoming school year. So, here in a couple weeks when Melissa finishes k12 phonics K, we'll start Sonlight LA 1. When they both finish their k12 history we'll start core K. I'm getting all our materials ready now since we are so close to starting our new materials (which I already have on hand thankfully for the most part) and I can tell the girls are starting to get excited by the change as well.

This year with OHVA has been great, and it has taught me a lot about how each kid learns best so that I can accomodate their individual learning needs better. But I'm ready to move on now.

next school year- SOLVED

Well, I think we have decided officially what to do for schooling finally. I told Scott to man up and TELL me what he thinks, to have a freaking opinion already on the schooling. I started with the simple question of public school or homeschool. He didn't hesitate. He said homeschooling, so that was set. Then I said to weigh his opinion on curriculum, and he and I spent a couple hours discussing the programs I'm considering and looking at them on their web sites. He said to stick with Sonlight, it is a better program from what he's able to see and we have experience with it. THEN he threw me for a big loop. He said that he's prefer that we do core K before we go into world history. Now, I already have a used core K, minus a couple books (part of why I got it for only $50, besides it being a 2002 edition) so that gives me a while to figure out how to afford history. So, we're looking at doing core K with the girls for 2nd grade and 1st grade.

Now next school year is a different story. Thanks to a wonderful friend who reads my blog, I got the opportunity to get the instructor guide for core 1+2 PLUS the guides to languages arts 2 regular and 2 intermediate. I'm going to be purchasing them from her this weekend, and then I'm going to spend the upcoming school year picking up the books for the core and lang. arts levels to do the following year. I plan to go into 1+2 as soon as we finish core K, and will stretch it as needed to last the next school year (and possibly the next school year as well)

figuring out some things

Well, its officially getting close to the end of the school year, so we're planning for next school year officially. We are leaving OHVA once the school year is up, which is the biggest change for us. I posted all about our decision before, so if you don't know why then try reading my earlier posts from this month. Now, here is what we're *considering* for next school year.

Melissa will be in 2nd grade, Lydia in 1st grade, and Kimmy and Jordan in preschool. Melissa is still struggling with her reading, but is coming along nicely. Lydia is taking off as well with reading, and is above grade-level in math. Lydia will do k12 math 1 until its finished, then move into Miquon with Melissa. For language arts, I plan on doing Sonlight lang. arts 1 with Melissa and going through lang. arts K with Lydia for the writing portion. So, that covers the basics of math nd reading.

History is a completely different matter. This year, Melissa studied ancient world history and has really enjoyed it. So, Scott and I are considering studying world history next school year. I've narrowed it down to either Sonlight or Winter Promise for world history.

Sonlight has cores 1 and 2, or core 1+2. Cores 1 and 2 are a 2 year world history program, with 1+2 being the condensed one-year version. It is a literature-based program with all kinds of goodies such as mapreading and working on a timeline. There isn't much hands-on material for crafts and such, so I'll have to come up with that on my own. I have experience with Sonlight after doing P3/4, P4/5, core K, science K, and lang. arts K. We went with k12 originally to give us another year to allow Melissa to really catch up with us for core 1, based on my experience with the program. You can learn more about it at http://www.sonlight.com if you want to.

Winter Promise is also a literature-based program. Its early world history program, Hideaways In History, is designed for K and 1st grades. It is a one-year run from the beginning of written history to pretty near current day. There are hands-on activities incorporated into the program, which makes it easier for me since I don't need to come up with ideas myself. I have never used this program, but it is appealing to me. You can see more about it at http://www.winterpromise.com if you want.

Now, both programs appeal to me for a lot of reasons. They both are literature-based, which means they use real books instead of stupid boring textbooks (sorry, remnants of my hatred for my own substandard public school education coming through) Instead of reading a passage in a textbook about lower and upper Egypt becoming one nation after years of war, they can listen to me reading a book about the war and its resolve from a child's point of view (ok really bad example, I highly doubt such a book exists, but you get the general idea) Both come with well laid-out instructor guides, complete with schedules on what to read and when, comprehension questions, timeline assignments (this stuff is really cool too), and other goodies.

Winter Promise is about half the price of Sonlight (that's assuming ONE core by the way, its approximately 20% the cost when you look at the 2 year program for comparison) and is scheduled as a 4 day program. Sonlight, however, goes deeper into history by spending 2 years on the subject if I don't choose the 1 year condensed core. Sonlight also includes both the 4 day and 5 day schedules for their program, so I can buy the 5 day and do the 4 day program instead if the 5 day is too much (which in reality I would just take longer to complete the material)

FInancially speaking, Winter Promise is the better option for our family immediately. However, Sonlight has much more potential for us in the long-term. It is more expensive, so it will hurt our budget a bit to purchase their program, however there is so much more material with Sonlight that I could more than easily stretch out each part of the program to last 12-18 months instead of just 9 months. But on the flip side, with Sonlight I would have to find hands-on activities to help make the literature come alive more, especially with Melissa, while Winter Promise has the hands-on already added in. With Winter Promise I would have to heavily supplement to make it stretch out to 2 to 2 1/2 years, while Sonlight I can easily do that with little to no work at all.

I can NOT decide which route to go. There are so many pros and cons for both programs. They are running pretty equal to me. Please feel free to comment on this situation if you want, I'm more than willing to consider all views on this decision. Scott has pretty much NO input, just "whatever you want dear" whenever I ask his opinion.

Science, well I'm thinking that if we go with Sonlight for history, then I'll use their science 1 program. If not, then we'll study astronomy and plants (Sonlight science 1 covers these subjects as well as a couple others, and yes I do feel that it is worth the money to not have to put together my own program LOL) The only reason I will not purchase Sonlight science 1 if we go with Winter Promise is because buying a complete core package with Sonlight gives me the perk of having a 10% discount and free shipping for 12 months. I have received this discount twice now with the purchase of their preschool-leveled cores in the past few years, and it has come in very handy as we needed more materials that Sonlight carries. Hmmmmmmmm another perk to choosing the Sonlight history program over Winter Promise......... ACK!!!!!!

looking ahead to next school year

Well, it has come to be that time of year. Scott and I are discussing next school year in detail, trying to decide if we want to remain with OHVA or if we want to break loose and go off on our own. This year has been REALLY good for us, the kids are really learning a lot of great stuff and they have definitely grown with k12. I also have experienced a great amount of growth this year, my confidence has skyrocketed by having the accountability to a school for our lessons. I have done amazing things with my time management and ability to actually do something by pretty much being forced to all school year.

When we first chose to use OHVA to teach this school year, we saw it as a transition for us from traditional public school to homeschool. We needed the support for our own lack of confidence in this area, although we knew flat out that this was the right choice for our family. I can't imagine having my girls in public school now after 3/4 of a school year with OHVA, and I'm seeing myself learning more about their learning styles and needs and my own teaching needs every day that goes by. We weren't sure a few months ago what we would end up doing, specifically because we were doing so well with ohva up to that point.

As the school year progressed, I started getting antsy about how ohva requires us to teach all subjects a certain amount. I understand why they dictate this, and fully agree that the girls need history and science; however, Scott and I both feel that at this stage in their learning, we need to be focusing more on laying a solid foundation in reading and math. Melissa is dyslexic, and struggles every day with her reading still. She's made amazing strides in her reading this school year, and I know that continuing to work with her daily we will continue to see these improvements. We aren't at all concerned about her not learning to read well; we know that this will come in time. We also know that for her to suceed at reading, she needs the freedom to be able to explore it more than she can right now because our curriculum dictates that she does x, y, and z for each subject and these things take valuable hours from our day. These hours we could spend sitting together and reading books together, building her fluency, confidence, and improving her skills. I want to be able to focus on this area with her, and provide her with a wide variety of materials in multiple areas that she can sit and read to us. Same with Lydia, her own reading has stalled because I am unable to really sit and spend time working with her on it just like I am unable to do with Melissa. OHVA won't allow me to combine the girls into the same history, science, and art programs even though they are only a grade level apart, and I can't teach 2 full day programs completely separately like that. It is hard enough for me to teach a full day and a half day program within the time that I have outside of doing chores, soccer practices and games, cooking, and all the other aspects of my life. I am stretched at my limit with the program as it is currently, and I am failing to provide the girls with all the time they should be given as it is with their lesson materials.

All these things have led us to make a very difficult decision. We do truly love the k12 materials, they are wonderful. We enjoy working with ohva also. The school has been a wonderful experience for us, and our teacher for the girls is amazing as well. We have truly enjoyed this school year, and have learned a lot. It has given us something that we never thought we'd get either: our happy little girl back in Melissa. The public school here in our city completely killed that light in her eyes last school year. She went from an active happy child to a scared, withdrawn, shy child who was rude, mean, and disrespectful to everyone she came in contact with. This in itself was reward enough for us, and has sealed our fate to homeschooling for the rest of our girls' schooling until they enter college (if they choose to go)

So, we decided that we just can not continue to work with k12 and the program as written to make it work for our family at this time. We need to go more independent in our lessons to provide the kids each with the individual time they each deserve for reading and math. So, come June I will be figuring out my notification letter for our district to homeschool the girls next fall independently. We will continue to work on reading and math at their individual paces, and will "lifeschool" for history, science, art, and other subjects. We are planning to get the garden up here soon to provide us with opportunities for science and health lessons, and will read great literature and go on field trips to areas around the state for history/ geography. I don't know how it will work out for us, but I have faith that it will work beautifully in the end.

As the girls get older and their needs change, our homeschool will also change. But at this point, this is what we need to be doing for our family.

bike riding and spring yardwork

Yes I know, its technically still too early to start on the gardening. HOWEVER, it is NOT too early to start clearing out the stuff I don't want any more and start making plans for how we're going to change it up. So, I started doing just that today. We're removing a BUNCH of shrubs, some are prickley and some are just ugly and those two types are being thrown away while the ones we ARE keeping will be transplanted out front. I also am removing one garden, tearing out my current concrete walkway, putting down a new brick front walkway, changing the layout of one garden completely, and putting in 2 new front gardens. LOL Yes, I am doing all that this year, along with having to reseed at least 2/3 of my property because of that water main break and a few other little issues with some shrubs that we tore out last year (they blocked the sun perfectly so that grass didn't grow at all in half my back yard) Oh, and we're removing 2 old trees from our front yard (one is diseased and the other is a climbing hazard because it isn't sturdy enough and the kids won't stay out of it) and we'll be planting some new trees in their place (I'm thinking cherry trees) All this will be part of our science lessons for next school year, so it will work out perfectly for us.

And on a TOTALLY kid-related note, today we dusted off the bikes and bike helmets for the kids, and Melissa decided that it is finally time to take off the training wheels. She's been at it for aobut an hour now (I love having a laptop and wireless home network) and has *almost* figured out how to ride without falling on her face. I am grateful of the bike helmet though, she's landed on her head a few times already. I have a feeling that if the weather holds out, by the end of this weekend she'll be zipping up and down the side street by our home. And YES, I was smart enough to take pictures of her attempts.



As you can see, it went pretty well with grandpa giving her pointers. If you are on my FaceBook list, I'll have all the pictures from her riding lessons available there, and will try to remember to add another post here when she's mastered the two-wheeler to share some more pictures.

science 1 joys

Well, since I totally missed a BIG thing in our science unit on plants, I decided to skip that unit and move on to the next one for now. So, we are going to be studying habitats while we wait on our grass to grow LOL Chances are, Lydia will be joining in with us for the science unit like she always does since OHVA doesn't do science in K. K for them is a half-day program so we only do math, phonics, lang. arts, and history. We are encouraged, but not required, to do health and technology in K yet we get a lot of hours with those subjects since my 1st grader has to do them.

When I finish the unit on habitats, we'll go back to plant life. I seriously doubt the kids will be damaged by my moving around a unit like that to allow time for a total stupid slip on my part.

watching grass grow and Girl Scouts

No, I am NOT kidding. LOL We are about to start a new unit in science for Melissa, one on plants. One of the labs involves me having to grow a patch of grass in a container so that we can examine the root structure. Soooooo, we will be literally watching grass grow this week. I just thought that was funny.

But on a more serious note, we are planning on starting Girl Scouts this week. I tried to get them signed up at the start of the school year, but due to some major changes with the local office combining with 2 other regional offices, our paperwork got lost and it didn't happen. So, on Monday Lydia has her first Daisy meeting, and Tuesday Melissa has her first Brownie meeting. Yes, I know. They could both be Daisies, but if you have EVER spent time with those two in a group setting you understand why I am not going to go there. They are terrible together in a group with other kids, they band together and gang up on the others and just torment people. However, get one without the other and you have a child that is dedicated, serious, and a joy to have in a group setting. The troop leaders will thank me if I can pull off keeping those two split up for a couple more years....................

randomness

I was looking through pictures on my computer, and thought I'd share a few that I found.

Melissa hard at schoolwork






Homemade hopscotch in the entry



Scott reading to the girls from Sonlight core P4/5 at bedtime at our old house



There are more, but these are just a few of my favorites from schooling lately...............

revisiting Horizons Health K

I told you that once we got into it a bit that I'd review it based on uage. Well, we are finishing up unit 1 of Horizons Health K and I thought I'd give some insight on how we like it.

We've been talking about how we are all unique and special, feelings, and responding to feelings appropriately in this unit. I added a little to it for them as far as other feelings that are beyond the four they teach, and we did a lot of role playing with it for practice. The activities in the unit were perfect for my K daughter, she had a LOT of fun doing the lessons. Lessons didn't take as long really as the guide suggests they do, although I didn't do everything listed in them either. We've really had fun with it. The lessons are laid out very well for me to teach, and it was really easy for me to go with it even though it wasn't scripted like I'm used to with our k12 materials. We truly are enjoying this program, I am very happy that we decided to add it to our schoolwork.

Our next unit is about living in a family. We'll be starting it next week, if all goes according to plan.